All Forum Posts by: Brad Woodall

Just focus on getting that first deal, then the 2nd, then the ball will start rolling and you'll get the hang of things. I still consider myself a newbie. Still doing this part-time and working a full-time 9-5 and chasing a 2.5 year old around at home & dealing with a cranky pregnant wife.

They key is steady lead flow. if you have a steady flow of leads and you're making offers, you'll eventually get something. Don't try to knock it out of the park with your first deal, just focus on getting a deal. You don't know what you don't know. You're gonna learn a lot in the process and look at every deal as a learning experience. You might lose some money on a deal in the process so don't let that hold you back just take what you learned from that and keep moving forward.

@Christopher Holcombe just at a year now. Closing on my 5th deal in a couple weeks. I live over off of East Cherokee near hwy20 I guess you could call that "Macedonia" but I have a Ball Ground Address. Moved up to Cherokee county in 2007. Lived off of hwy 5 near lower bethany rd for many years.

Welcome @Christopher Holcombe! I don't live too far away from you. Just down hwy20 east a few miles.

Anyone in the Panama City, Mexico Beach, Port St Joe, Or Apalachicola area? Doesn't look like it's that far from Tallahassee either.

I got a lead in through my website from a motivated seller in Carrabelle, FL. I buy property in the Atlanta GA area, not sure how or why she got to me.

She has a family home that they have owned for 50+ years that needs a lot of work. Wants to sell fast. Seems pretty motivated.

I'd be happy to provide the lead information for you. Send me a PM or call me at the number in my profile and we can work something out.

Jay Hinrichs you read my mind haha. I'm actually taking the final exam for my pre-license course on Tuesday. Then I can sign up for the State exam once that's complete. So hopefully, I'm a couple months out from having my license. I think in this hot market, there's better money in listings than wholesaling stuff. Especially with all the newbies buying "deals" off the MLS. My last deal, I literally just threw a sign in the yard the morning I bought it and had my agent list it on the MLS and resold it for a profit. I have offered to refer a lot of the tire kickers to an agent and told them their best bet is listing with a agent because they want top dollar. All of them have declined so far. I mark them all as followup in my CRM and I'll try back in a couple months.

I too mail to similar list in the same areas you're mailing. I mail Cherokee, Cobb, and North Fulton (6 zip codes). Absentee owners, and Owner Occ 50+% equity & 55+ age with some last market sale date, bedroom/bath criteria, and age of home criteria. I have mailed that list twice now of around 2,000 mailers and got 12-13 calls the first go round and about 15 calls the 2nd round (still getting a few trickle in). Mostly "take me off your list" and the rest just kicking tires and want top dollar for their property. No deals the first round, I might have a deal on this 2nd round of mailers. I'm going to order round 3 next week so it hits the mail after the new year.

when I first started doing direct mail back in May, I mailed a similar small list of around 300 highly targeted absentee owners and I didn't get a deal until the 2nd mailer of that. Only had about 5-6 calls per mailer.

There's just a TON of people doing direct mail right now in the Atlanta Metro area. 

I will keep mailing this list, but I'm starting to work on my web presence with social media posts & blog posts to boost SEO, and about to start an adwords campaign as well. I'm also posting CL ads, networking with wholesalers, and browsing the MLS daily and making offers on properties with certain keywords and high DOM.

I have a lead on a property that is right in the path of a planned highway expansion. GDOT just released their bird's eye video projections of what the new roadway will look like and because this property sits in a curved section of the current highway, the new plan is to straighten out that curve and run the new roadway right where the house currently sits. The parcels surrounding this property are all just timber land and across the highway is a residential neighborhood. This side of the road would be easiest for them to clear out to make room for the highway expansion.

They are just about to break ground about 6-7 miles west of the subject property. According to their plan, this property is in phase 3 of the widening project.

The bought it as a rental property in 2005 (he's actually a broker) and now that the market is back up, he wants to sell it. His asking price is about $30k less than some comps in the area but the comps are in better shape. From a rental perspective it's not really going to be a cash cow by any means. It would basically break even on paper (factoring in 40% off the top for maint, repairs, mgmt, capex). However If I can talk him down a little more and bank on GDOT buying the property from me in the next few years, I might be able to make a little bit of money in the long run.

I was curious if anyone has dealt with GDOT in the past and how far in advance are they buying the properties to clear the way for construction?

Are you a "city person" or a "suburb person"?

There is a lot going on in Alpharetta and the GA400 corridor for that matter. Especially now with the Avalon development on Old Milton pkwy. I have worked in the Alpharetta area for years but live just north in Cherokee county due to lower property taxes and housing is a bit cheaper. Forsyth county is also similar in pricing & Taxes to Cherokee. If you don't care about taxes much then stick with North Fulton county if you want to close to the action.

The Milton (Milton high school) area is going to be more "rural" compared to the rest of the communities in the North Fulton county area. It's mostly large estates & equestrian country and most of the developments/subdivisions are priced in the $600k+ range with the bottom almost creeping into the 700's lately. As you go south down GA400 (roswell & sandy springs) and east of GA400 (headed towards johns creek & gwinnett) of Milton it starts to get more populated and you enter into a broader array of housing prices & amenities. Also, the further south you go, the housing stock starts to get a little older. But there are still new construction developments all over the place if you're looking for new construction. We have a rental property down in Sandy Springs/Roswell/Dunwoody.

Obviously in Atlanta (like major most cities) traffic gets worse and worse as population density increases.

Another town to look at is downtown Woodstock. Their downtown area is really cool and there are some higher end developments right downtown if you like the "city style" of well appointed homes but very close together with courtyards and such. You also have a relatively new outlet mall with all kinds of shopping within a mile or two of downtown Woodstock. Lots of local restaurants and activities in downtown Woodstock (no chains). Plus it's in Cherokee county so your property taxes aren't going to be as expensive as Fulton County.

I would probably make sure you do a full title search like your attorney advised. A QCD is one of the "weakest" forms of title transfer from my understanding.