All Forum Posts by: Martin Scherer

@Shelby Robinson

I am glad to hear your response.  I  reacted to your choice of words not necessarily your true intent.  Most, but certainly not all wholesalers, have no money and little to no experience.  Nothing wrong with being a newbie or not having a boatload of money.  But I  do not like trying to work with time wasters (read people who do not have a buyers list) or worse still not having the proceeds to buy the property if they cannot find a buyer.  You have just tied up someones property for  x number of days while you scramble around trying to find a buyer while they are being foreclosed upon.  

They truly believe they have a sale---and they don't have anything other than a home they cannot sell because it is in contract with someone who cannot close the property and "save" them.  You shouldn't write contracts for property you cannot close on.

Many wholesalers operate as an unlicensed  real estate agent, illegal in most all states.   Even if you are the most ethical person around you are not legal in those states doing what a wholesaler does.

As to it being cheaper than an agent that is a laugh.  Most posts I have read actually charged considerably more than an agent would have charged for their services.  One the other night charged 12.1 %.  You cannot tell me there are agents charging that much.

If an agent doesn't sell the property he doesn't get paid same as you.  If he does sell the property the commission is split with the listing agent and the Brokers involved.

If though you mean that the seller will get a higher price than if sold by an agent that doesn't hold water either.  If you are not discounting from the properties true value than it isn't a deal you will find a buyer for anyway so no you aren't getting them more.

Good luck though.

I have been using property manager out of state for 11 years.  I have had no evictions except prior to using the PM's. In that time I have had some properties rented without a single lost day of rent.  Others less than 5% vacancy in the same time.  My PM's generally find me long term tenants the exception being a building with one bedrooms rented to students.

They send pictures, reports and do not buy sob stories I used to attract when I managed properties myself.  I pay 8% of collected rents for this service plus a flat fee of $295 for renting them out.

I only get calls for tenant change and if repairs are going to exceed a certain amount.    

What kind of condition is the property?  Did you have it inspected?  I found 5 unit property  recently that exceeded the 2% rule in Clarksville TN but had so much hidden damage it was a no go.  That was the best $400 I spent on inspection fees ever.

As to tenant evictions it depends on area and state how easy it is to move problems tenants out.

Some states it is not a problem others a major nightmare. Read an earlier post I wrote about evicting a former professional tenant in CA

So you are looking for people who are unintelligent and "sorta don't know the ropes"?  Why so you can sorta take advantage of them?

This is why I have very little to no regard for wholesalers.  Why not find someone who really wants and needs to sell at a fair price.  I know they are hard to find especially people who know the true value of their house. 

If you find someone who wants to sell their house to be rid of it and don't really care that they are at a disadvantage knock yourself out....go for it.  i wouldn't say anything if all was disclosed as it should be but quoting you it sounds very much like you believe you need to take advantage of a not very sophisticated homeowner.

Water in the sub area is likely a possibility if it only has a crawl space.  If the exterior landscape sheds water under the house instead of away from the house it can get quite deep and sit there for periods of time.  

If you can lift the hatch cover of the crawl space look for evidence of standing water.  Look for water lines on support posts.

As @Jay Hinrichs states @Larmon Cummings Jryour broker is not going to like  your website.  You cannot wholesale and work for a broker at the same time.  If you find a deal and decide to wholesale it you are not living up to the contract you have with your broker and are cutting him out of a commission.  If your contract allows you to wholesale that is different but why would a broker do that?  He is responsible to the State for you and pays E an O for you.  Why would he let you cherry pick deals, he won't.

You talk about "other wholesalers" not being ethical and being time wasters as near as I can tell you did the same,  Yes I read that you had an option where she could sell the house but as you said she was elderly and apparently she trusted you until numbers didn't add up in her mind.  You didn't control the transaction and apparently as many wholesalers didn't have a ready buyer for the property.

Why did she back out, likely she no longer trusted you or someone mentioned to her that the "fee" you were charging was twice the fee a licensed real estate agent would charge. The agent likely would have gotten the deal closed as well.

Do not misunderstand I am not saying you did anything unethical to make her distrust you. Perhaps displaying a lack of skill  you just wore here out and she tired of the transaction.

"Take in laundry before partners".  Not exactly inspirational but it has kept me from making some serious mistakes in buying.

The lack of noise may be simply people shaking their heads in disbelief.  So you purchased  a lot that you have no idea whether you can rezone?  How long will it take to rezone even if you can do it?  My last project took nearly 2 years to rezone.  You are using hard money at what rate?  You do not have financing in place for your project that you don't even know IF you can do yet you make an offer????  You ask vague questions that cannot really be answered with the information provided then you wonder why you got no responses!

I am not trying to beat you up but the time to ask questions is before you write a contract.  You do not have a clue what you are doing and have tied your money up.

There is nothing wrong with being a newbie but try to learn something before you make offers or tie up a sellers property.  Is what you want to do even needed in the area you are trying to do it? Are you just providing more unsalable property ?  Have you bothered to do a feasibility study?  What experience do you have to run this type of project?

You asked for a response.  Maybe this is not what you wanted but do your homework.

Absolutely a Requirement

I pay a very small leasing fee for new leases only, no re-leasing fee.  8 % of collected rents monthly.  They do keep 1 month in reserve for maintenance.  It is rarely used as most maintenance comes out of monthly income.

What they are asking from you is very exorbitant.