All Forum Posts by: Mark Sewell

You already have a good plan.  Get your RE license and keep plowing forward.  Get that first home listed and sold.  Make that your goal. 

Maybe find some local investors that you can work for in your spare time. They can pay you to run ARV numbers/comps or draft RE contracts for them (no commissions, but just small fees here and there). There will be some that are trying to scale up. You'll find them here on BP or at meetups.

Somewhere along the way, you might need to dump the sandwich shop in favor of another part-time gig that pays a bit more.  Keep your eyes peeled for those opportunities.

@David Hines I would like to add that when I talk to sellers, we ALWAYS talk through why they would not want to list their home on the MLS. They need to have a pretty good reason to give away a bunch of equity to an investor. And I could tell some interesting stories.

But I try to advise them to list if they can.  If there are just minor repairs need to sell it quickly, then what can they do to make that happen?   

So I try to swim in that end of the pool.... just wasting my time and theirs.  List it if you can.  

That still leaves plenty to work with.

@ David Hines I think we hammered this to death in that other thread, didn't we?  We get it, you are a realtor and you think wholesalers are sleaze.  And I will humbly disagree with your position -- it is not a zero-sum game.  

There are lot of distressed run/down properties out there that you just aren't going to sell on MLS. Properties with foundation issues and cracks in the walls. Oh you think you will, I know -- you'll list it as a 'handyman special that just needs a little TLC...' and you'll tell the seller that it is just a function of pricing it to sell. That's a laugher, but nobody is here suggesting that realtors do not add value. Those houses won't pass any kind of inspection and damn sure won't appraise, so they are cash deals from the jump. In the end, maybe you'll sell it to some flipper, or a wholesaler that works with some proven flippers. Let's just agree your target market segment is real slim on these.

Now that is the case with distressed homes, but there are also 'motivated sellers' who just do not have time wait 45 days for your buyers with VA/FHA loans to close. Again, the solution is cash buyers, or some kind of creative financing arrangement that brings then current. And if the cause of the motivation is financial distress, then I would humbly submit to you that those troubles didn't begin last month when they were put on the pre-foreclosure list. It was been gradually snowballing, over months, maybe years, and during this time zero maintenance has been done on that house. So even in these cases, it is pretty rare that a wholesaler rolls up on a perfect, pristine house.

Here is where I will agree with you, David -- unless the wholesaler is willing and able to go through with the transaction, they shouldn't be putting it under contract.  If they are able to assign it to a flipper, fine.  If not, then they should be in a position to run with it themselves.  And my guess is that most aren't.

A wholesaler is somebody that assigns their interest in a pending transaction before it closes.  Nothing wrong with this -- as long as you CAN close, and plan to do so, barring the unexcepted.   I suspect most out there cannot, and I know a few that do this.  In fact, I some folks that actually teach people how to do this.

I also like the idea of doing a wholetail deal that @Michael Quarlesdescribes in one of his posts.  I have heard several podcast interviews where investors use this as a primary strategy (although it is a goofy name for it).  I like the thought of adding at least some value to the project, after having actually closed on it and purchased it, before offloading it.  Might just be foundation work, or roof repair, or a new AC unit, or whatever.  Yes you use up your reserves quick that way, but if you turn them quickly enough, that's OK.  You can still generate cash flow, and you have more time to show it to partners and fellow investors.

Not all of the area was affected by flooding.  The areas closer to Westbury and Braes Bayou were hit, but a lot of it did just fine, particular the areas near Bellaire High.

We have a property down there right now, and so I am a little bit familiar with the comps.  It seems that the properties that sold quickly (10 days or less) are also the ones that sold for full list price, or higher.  This tells me that they are the houses that were fully remodeled.  I think that is what people want -- most buyers are just not interested in a $295,000 old outdated 1959 house that still needs $100K-$150K of work, even if it is a great deal and the schools are great.

I have a couple for you here in Houston.  Shoot me a message.

Vonecia,

The hardest job in the Navy, being a Navy wife.  Huge respect to you, lady.

You are in a great area up there in Everett!  Just go to your local meetups, and find who you can find.  Find a way to help other investors doing what they do, and maybe earn while you learn.  That could be any number of things.  Get your name out there. 

Sometimes they might charge for helping you -- most folks here on BP would council you to avoid those people, but don't totally discount them either.  In one case that I found here in Houston, the cost if low enough and the value is high enough, that it made a LOT of sense.  Your time is valuable also, and you only have so long that you will be stationed there.  But, just be very careful in this space, as I am sure you would be.  

Better if you can partner up with somebody and just split profits for a while.  But it starts with what you can do for them, and not the other way around, since they are already at that place where you want to go.

EDIT:

BTW some of the most helpful and coolest investor folks that I know here in Houston, I have met right here on BP.

Fun thread, I suppose.  People from CA, actually from there, should want to stay -- that is their home.  Sure there are economic drivers for many that would make them want to leave.  I get that.  And you are certainly welcome here in TX.  But damn people, your home is your home -- no, I don't want to live there, but why call them out in a thread like this?

I remember as a kid growing up in SW Washington State, just north of Portland, we had signs and T-shirts that read "Welcome to Oregon/Washington/wherever, now go home."  It was a sarcastic way of recognizing that CA was moving in and staying, and they had the buying power to make themselves right at home.  35-40 years later, this has not apparently changed. 

Now I live in TX and I cannot afford to move back home (yet), if I wanted to. Fortunately for me, I like it where I am and life is good here. Although I would like to, eventually, get a SFR or two back in the homeland.

Sure it's expensive as hell now up there, just like CA, and almost as goofy, but like I said, it is always going to be home.

by flood cert, I think you mean elevation cert, correct?  It is like a 2 page form IIRC.

@Jay Hinrichs, I grew up in one of those little backwater areas about an hour north of you, in Kelso/Longview WA.  I am plenty familiar with the trend.