All Forum Posts by: Peter Mac

Hi everyone - I am based out of California but would like to wholesale out of state. As a wholesaler, I would provide the ARV, repair estimate, and purchase price to my cash buyer investors.

In order to get the repair estimate, I will have to send a general contractor (GC) with experience into the property to do the bid (so I don't have to be there). However, I want to make sure my GC benefits in some way - either I pay the GC for each bid they do, or they get the rehab job. If I am just wholesaling, I will not be able to offer them the rehab job for the current property because it is up to the end buyer to decide who to hire for the rehab.

What I can offer to my contractors is money for their time and effort.

For the experienced wholesalers out there, how do you make sure your GCs are taken care of? Do you pay them, if so what's a good price, and how do you determine that?

Or what other ways do you make sure that the contractor benefit in some way? I've heard another person tell me that he would give them a future job in the area.

Thank you for reading.

Pedro - keep up the good work. However, I think if the rehab is easy and will not take much time, then you can definitely do it yourself. If it requires a major rehab, given your situation, I would wholesale it out so that you have some cash to go by so that you can look for your next deal. The only way that you can successfully wholesale it is that you have a *great* deal. Not just any deal, but a *great* deal. If it is a great deal, and then once you start finding cash buyers by posting on Craigslist, or posting on cash buyers group in the Dallas area, then your phone will ring off the hook. Once you start posting your deals and you market it well then you should get calls if it's a great deal. If no one calls you, it may not be a great deal.

Also, if your brother will be your hard money lender, will you need to put in some money? Maybe you'll need a promissory note, and for the scope of work template - try the bigger pockets file place at: https://www.biggerpockets.com/files

As for GCs or good sub contractors, look on Angie's list. . . or call up another investor and see if they'd give you a referral.

Thanks everyone for contributing to this thread. I read every one of the responses and made my decision on whether I should open an account with ETC or uDirectI RA. . . after attending a 3 hour webinar with ETC, I thought they were a pretty good company with fair fees. All they mentioned was the schedule of fees depending on your assets, $30 wire transfer, and set up fee of $50. They did not mention anything else, but after reading **numerous** reviews on yelp on ETC, I found that their services are terrible! Waiting hours after hours to speak to a human being. . . and they don't answer their emails. Glad I checked yelp and on BP!

Thanks for the reply, @Nicholas Cook. For vacancy rates - would a property management company in the area be able to provide that?

I also was thinking of adding the major employer in the area too.  Do you have some sort of sample reports of the mentioned points above to share? Anything helps. As always, thank you for your reply.

I am new to real estate investing - but I've done a lot of reading, listening to those podcasts, and talking with people in the industry. I would like to ask for advice and if you have any pointers on where to look to / what to read when analyzing a rental market. I have a spreadsheet where I collect data on a few select cities. For example, one of the cities that I am looking at in Daytona Beach, FL. The spreadsheet would ask for:

Population: 63,011

Median household income: $28,164

# of households: 24,858

Owner-occupied: 14,123

Owner occupancy rate: 57%

# of people per home: 2.53

This is what I've just done to try to analyze this city to see if it's a good idea to jump on some rentals out here through creative real estate means. From looking at the above, what is your opinion on this city from a rental market perspective?

What would you include in your analysis?

If you have resources (links, books, blogs on BP), please link. Thank you!

Joseph, don't give up. Times are hard. Being an owner is hard - it's a small business in itself. And with every  business, you WILL have headaches dealing with people. It's part of the game. Every mistake or stress you go through while you're out there doing real estate, you either succeed or you learn. It's a win-win situation. If you end up selling the property, that's okay. You can always come back to real estate investing after you're done with your MBA (so that you will only have to deal with your full time job and real estate).

Great job! Property looks very very nice.

Very inspiring. I am at zero and want to get to hero! Let the journey begin.