All Forum Posts by: Charlie MacPherson

I hate to rain on your parade, but wholesaling is illegal in most places as it's considered brokering real estate without a license.

Wholesaling generally involves putting a property under contract.  That's a property for which you have neither the money nor intent to close on.  That's "Fraud in the Inducement" and you can be sued for it.

Wholesalers have to acquire a property (or more precisely, the rights to a property) at well below market value.  You do that by:

1. Finding property owners that are completely ignorant of the true value of their property and are not sharp enough to call a Realtor to see if your lowball offer is as bad as it has to be.  You sneak a garbage offer by them because they're not smart enough to realize that it's garbage.  Or,

2. Finding property owners who are in a desperate situation.  Maybe facing medical, drug or gambling debts.  Maybe they're staring down the barrel of foreclosure.  Maybe they lost their job and can no longer pay their bills.  Maybe they're at end of life and are trying to sell the property to provide for their loved ones after they die. 

You need them to be so desperate to get out of their situation that they'll take your garbage offer.

You then try to sell your position in the contract to someone else at a higher price.  (Unlicensed brokering in many states)

When you fail to find that someone else, you default on the contract and the property owner is still stuck in whatever situation they were in before - except that maybe a few months have gone by while you search for the next buyer.  That means that the owner's financial position is probably worse, thanks to you.  You will actually end up hurting people.

No matter how you cut it and no matter the lame excuses that wholesalers will give in response to this post, you can only make money by stealing equity from a seller.

So my advice is to walk away.  Don't buy courses or guru seminars.  Every single one is garbage and they'll suck your wallet dry with promises of easy money.  It's all lies.

Honestly, good welders are in very high demand and command strong salaries, good benefits and a work schedule that will leave you time to enjoy life.  If I were your age (I wish...), I'd focus on welding.  Learn and hone your trade.  You will be in high demand when you hit the job market.

As to firefighting, I have nothing but the highest respect for the profession.  People who choose to run into burning buildings to save others are genuine heroes.  If you're ok with long shifts that include nights, weekends and holidays, that's also a good choice.

Good luck - and please don't choose wholesaling.

I run the Augusta, Maine office of Inbar Group, Inc - Business Brokers and M&A Services. Our HQ is in NYC with other offices in Upstate NY, NJ, PA (2), MA, DC and CT.

I'm looking to semi-retire as I'm closing in on 69 years old, so I'm looking for a new person or two to come on board to service some (negotiable) parts of New England - preferably NH and VT. We are also looking for a second broker in downstate NY / LI.

Normally, a new broker should expect about 9 months to the first commission check, but my plan for the NH / VT broker is to hand them about some of my active listings to give them a jump start in the business. The same *might* be available in NY.

The successful candidate will have meaningful business experience. You should be able to read at least the highlights of a tax return, P&L and Balance Sheet. You should be mid-level proficient with Word & Excel.

Business owners, managers and entrepreneurs are all good candidates. Realtors *might* be, but while business brokering looks like real estate brokering from 1,000 feet away, it's a very different practice.

However, I don't expect any candidate to have business brokering experience, so we will train you from the ground up.

The position is 100% commission, so you'll need a plan to get you through start up.

However, unlike being a Realtor, Inbar Group pays all marketing expenses. That includes thousands of postcards mailed to prospects each month, an outbound telemarketer whose job it is to fill your calendar with appointments and an admin person that is shared by our office.

BTW, the telemarketer is incentivized with a bonus whenever we close a sale, so she's motivated to send you on good, qualified appointments. Again, that costs you nothing.

If you're relatively close to Augusta, you can use my office there (12 Shuman Ave, #10). We also have an available office in Portsmouth, NH. We will consider opening another office for you as well. Otherwise you can work from home - and we'll provide a company cell phone too. There is already an office in NYC with support staff there as well.

The only expense you have to cover is your vehicle and related expenses.

One key to success is to go out to meet the seller face-to-face, so plan on driving quite a bit. But if your trip results in a $1,000,000 listing and a $50,000 commission, is that worth driving for a few hours?

We charge sellers 10% of the sale price at closing and you'll make about 50% of that.

A big advantage for business sellers in dealing with us is that we charge sellers nothing up front and no other fees aside of the 10% commission. I have heard of one competitor charging a $7,000 listing fee and another that sells the seller on a flashy analysis and PDF book - for $30,000 up front. We have no fee unless we're successful and then it's only the 10% commission.

We sell almost any kind of business. Examples include local convenience stores, restaurants, trash haulers, motels, precast concrete companies, medical facilities, etc. We especially like distribution and manufacturing.

We avoid adult-related and marijuana-related businesses. Jewelry stores can be tricky when it comes to inventory.

We've sold some really unique businesses too. For example, a company that makes elevator counter-weights. One that is a reptile wholesaler. A machine shop that makes caps for perfume bottles and one that makes furniture-leveling devices. I've even sold the company (FBO) that operates the Maine State Airport in Augusta!

Take a look at our website and you'll see what we have on the market right now. www.InbarGroup.com.

This is a very good time to get into the business as there is a glut of retiring baby boomers. They've spent decades building their businesses and many have never really thought about an exit plan. When we show them the way to retire with a pile of money, many are all too happy to sign a 12-month exclusive listing agreement with us. Not to mention that lending rates are coming down as Prime Rate is finally coming down.

This can be a very, very lucrative opportunity with real life earnings in the mid to high 6-figures.

Interested? Give me a call on my business cell at 207-352-1000 or email [email protected] and let's chat.

I've only done one, so I'm not the world's foremost expert.  Starting out, I'd suggest keeping it simple.  Look for a solid house that's in need of nothing more than updating.

Major structural, utilities and foundation repairs might be a big bite for your first one.  They're also harder to budget.  When you get a few under your belt, you'll be ready for more of that kind of work.

Work with a local Realtor to come up with ARV. You need to be very confident in that sale price. Allow 10% - 20% for a fudge factor. Ask the agent to do comps manually. The automated systems do not account for the interior condition of properties, so they're not especially reliable. (Unless something has changed in the 5 years since I turned my real estate licenses in!)

Know how you'll finance.  And know what your cost of lending is on a daily basis.  A $300,000 hard money loan will cost you about $100/day to carry.  Every single day $100 gets lopped off your profit.  That means that speed = cash, so identify the slowest moving parts of the project and do whatever you can to speed them up.

Do your research on the neighborhood.  Make sure it's desirable and that there are no upcoming events that would make it less so.

If it's a family-style house (3+ beds), make sure that the local schools are very good.

Work with a local Realtor to answer a lot of these questions.  If you're not buying through that agent, pay him for his time and expertise.  And consider listing the house with that same agent when you sell.

Watch out for school zones, flood zones, local noise sources like heavy manufacturing and airports.  

That should get you started.  Good luck!

When I used to be a Realtor, I ran comps manually using a simple spreadsheet I built.  I compared other properties in terms of age, sq ft, acres, beds, baths, basement, garage and a subjective measure of interior condition.

I have a huge problem with the automated comps (Zillow, RPR, etc) because they could not account for the interior condition.  Two identical homes located next to each other would come up with the same value, even though House #1 was just renovated to a very high standard and House #2 hadn't ever been renovated since it was built in 1949.

I always tried for an identical (or nearly so) beds, baths, sq ft of living area, garage and acres.  Ideally, I wanted within 1 mile and sold within 6 months.  Then I'd push those factors out if there were no good comps.  2 miles, 6 months.  2 miles 12 months , etc.

It takes some local knowledge to know when you're pushing those parameters out too far to be useful.  If you find your comps are 10 miles away in a different town, you've probably gone too far.

To do automated comps is easy.  Push the button and hit "print".  To do them right takes a lot of work.

Good luck!

I don't mean to be pessimistic, just realistic. 

Step 1 is to demonstrate real expertise in what you're teaching through verifiable results.

Step 2 is to figure out what other courses are failing to deliver and target that.

I'm not at all enthusiastic about another real estate guru.  I've seen too many that prey on newbies and set them loose on the world, begging for "no money down" deals. 

I have even seen it in selling businesses.  Some knucklehead watched a YouTube video, where they "teach you to be rich by buying businesses with 100% seller financing."  This, of course, is absolute bullcrap.

Good luck!

Many of the businesses I sell as a Business Broker lease the real estate.  Those that own it can be harder to sell as the cash flow from the business will cover the debt service for the business, but not for the real estate.

Example: I had a very high-end assisted living facility on the market.  Net earnings were about $400,000/year, so the business component of the sale was valued at about 3X, or $1.2M.  Simple enough - except that he built a million dollar home in a $300,000 market.  The real estate appraised at $3.5M.  Add that to the $1.2M and we get a total ask of $4.7M.

The $400,000 in earnings could not support that debt service and he was unwilling to lease the real estate to the new buyer.  He wanted it all sold as a single package with no owner financing.  The sale failed and he still owns it.

One of the potential solutions is to use an SBA 504 loan for the real estate.  Where the SBA 7A can be used for all parts of the purchase and is generally Prime+ 2%, 10 years, the 504 (bricks & mortar only) is generally Prime -2%, 25 years.  However, many lenders offer only the 7A, so you'll have to shop around.

As to the real estate earning more than the business, that's not something I often see in the current market.  In the last two days, I met with two business sellers who have net profits of $580,000 and $600,000 per year respectively.  Just as an aside, both plan to keep their owned real estate and lease it to the business buyer.

I like that because it makes the business much easier to sell.

I run the Augusta, Maine office of Inbar Group, Inc - Business Brokers and M&A Services. Our HQ is in NYC with other offices in Upstate NY, NJ, PA (2), MA and CT.

I'm looking to semi-retire as I'm closing in on 69 years old, so I'm looking for a new person or two to come on board to service some (negotiable) parts of New England.  We are also looking for a second broker in downstate NY / LI.

Normally, a new broker should expect about 9 months to the first commission check, but my plan for the Maine / NH / VT broker is to hand them about some of my active listings to give them a jump start in the business.   The same *might* be available in NY.

The successful candidate will have meaningful business experience. You should be able to read at least the highlights of a tax return, P&L and Balance Sheet. You should be mid-level proficient with Word & Excel.

Business owners, managers and entrepreneurs are all good candidates. Realtors *might* be, but while business brokering looks like real estate brokering from 1,000 feet away, it's a very different practice.

However, I don't expect any candidate to have business brokering experience, so we will train you from the ground up.

As a former Realtor, I spent a lot of time un-learning real estate as terms, processes, duties and procedures are all quite different.

The position is 100% commission, so you'll need a plan to get you through start up.

However, unlike being a Realtor, Inbar Group pays all marketing expenses. That includes thousands of postcards mailed to prospects each month, an outbound telemarketer whose job it is to fill your calendar with appointments and an admin person that is shared by our office.

BTW, the telemarketer is incentivized with a bonus whenever we close a sale, so she's motivated to send you on good, qualified appointments. Again, that costs you nothing.

If you're relatively close to Augusta, you can use my office there (12 Shuman Ave, #10). We also have an available office in Portsmouth, NH. We will consider opening another office for you as well. Otherwise you can work from home - and we'll provide a company cell phone too.  There is already an office in NYC wih support staff there as well.

The only expense you have to cover is your vehicle and related expenses.

One key to success is to go out to meet the seller face-to-face, so plan on driving quite a bit. But if your trip results in a $1,000,000 listing and a $50,000 commission, is that worth driving for a few hours?

We charge sellers 10% of the sale price at closing and you'll make about 50% of that.

A big advantage for business sellers in dealing with us is that we charge sellers nothing up front and no other fees aside of the 10% commission. I have heard of one competitor charging a $7,000 listing fee and another that sells the seller on a flashy analysis and PDF book - for $30,000 up front. We have no fee unless we're successful.

We sell almost any kind of business. Examples include local convenience stores, restaurants, trash haulers, motels, precast concrete companies, medical facilities, etc. We especially like distribution and manufacturing.

We avoid adult-related and marijuana-related businesses.  Jewelry stores can be tricky when it comes to inventory.

We've sold some really unique businesses too. For example, a company that makes elevator counter-weights. One that is a reptile wholesaler. A machine shop that makes caps for perfume bottles and one that makes furniture-leveling devices. I've even sold the company (FBO) that operates the Maine State Airport in Augusta!

Take a look at our website and you'll see what we have on the market right now. www.InbarGroup.com.

This is a very good time to get into the business as there is a glut of retiring baby boomers. They've spent decades building their businesses and many have never really thought about an exit plan. When we show them the way to retire with a pile of money, many are all too happy to sign a 12-month exclusive listing agreement with us. Not to mention that lending rates are coming down as Prime Rate is finally coming down.

This can be a very, very lucrative opportunity with real life earnings in the mid to high 6-figures.

Interested? Give me a call on my business cell at 207-352-1000 or email [email protected] and let's chat.

Quote from @Andre Lemberg:

I've been using  Smarter Contact for over two years as a real estate wholesaler. I have a team of two who do texting campaigns and one who does cold calls. We’ve tried other platforms on the market, but the message delivery rates were very low compared to the 85%+ I get here. So usually, it's around 10-12 decent leads weekly from 3000-4000k of contacts we run. Plus, I use it as my CRM to keep all the info about clients, properties, and conversations in one place.

May God have mercy upon your soul.  Tell the FTC I said "hi".

Hi Nathan.  To clarify, I'm not selling anything.  I'm offering the opportunity to work as a business broker with me at Inbar Group, Inc.

The main obstacle for anybody considering this is that they have to have the means to get through the startup phase.  It's a lot like being a new real estate agent, except that we pay all of the expenses, except auto costs.

The conventional wisdom is that it takes 9 months until a new business broker gets paid on his first deal.  I'm looking to semi-retire, so I will hand this new person a bunch of my listings.  I expect someone to get a deal across the finish line a LOT faster than 9 months.

Right now, I have 19 businesses listed totaling over $32M and $1.6M in commission to me.  That is *IF* they all sell.  They won't.  But several will and for those that are actually under contract, I have $1.365M in commissions, as some of those are multi-million dollar sales.

So the opportunity is lucrative beyond anything I ever dreamed of.  It does take work though - and persistence.  I've been at this almost 5 years now.  I'll be 69 in March and I'm looking to slow down.

I hope that explains this better.

I run the Augusta, Maine office of Inbar Group, Inc - Business Brokers and M&A Services. Our HQ is in NYC with other offices in Upstate NY, NJ, PA (2), MA and CT.

I'm looking to semi-retire as I'm closing in on 69 years old, so I'm looking for a new person or two to come on board to service some (negotiable) parts of New England.

Normally, a new broker should expect about 9 months to the first commission check, but my plan is to hand this new person about 10 or so of my active listings to give them a jump start in the business.

You get a nice boost, I get to throttle back and relax a bit.

The successful candidate will have meaningful business experience. You should be able to read a tax return, P&L and Balance Sheet. You should be mid-level proficient with MSOffice.

Business owners, managers and entrepreneurs are all good candidates. Realtors *might* be, but while business brokering looks like real estate brokering from 1,000 feet away, it's a very different practice.  However, I don't expect any candidate to have business brokering experience, so we will train you from the ground up.

As a former Realtor, I spent a lot of time un-learning real estate as terms, processes, duties and procedures are all quite different.

The position is 100% commission, so you'll need a plan to get you through start up.

However, unlike being a Realtor, Inbar Group pays all marketing expenses. That includes thousands of postcards mailed to prospects each month, an outbound telemarketer whose job it is to fill your calendar with appointments and an admin person that is shared by our office.

BTW, the telemarketer is incentivized with a bonus whenever we close a sale, so she's motivated to send you on good, qualified appointments.  Again, that costs you nothing.

If you're relatively close to Augusta, you can use my office there (12 Shuman Ave, #10). We also have an available office in Portsmouth, NH. We will consider opening another office for you as well.  Otherwise you can work from home - and we'll provide a company cell phone too.

The only expense you have to cover is your vehicle and related expenses.

One key to success is to go out to meet the seller face-to-face, so plan on driving quite a bit. But if your trip results in a $1,000,000 listing and a $50,000 commission, is that worth driving for a few hours?

We charge sellers 10% of the sale price at closing and you'll make almost 50% of that.

A big advantage for business sellers in dealing with us is that we charge sellers nothing up front and no other fees aside of the 10% commission. I have heard of one competitor charging a $7,000 listing fee and another that sells the seller on a flashy analysis and PDF book - for $30,000 up front. We have no fee unless we're successful.

We sell almost any kind of business. Examples include local convenience stores, restaurants, trash haulers, motels, precast concrete companies, medical facilities, etc. We especially like distribution and manufacturing.

We avoid adult-related and marijuana-related businesses.

We've sold some really unique businesses too. For example, a company that makes elevator counter-weights. One that is a reptile wholesaler. A machine shop that makes caps for perfume bottles and one that makes furniture-leveling devices. I've even sold the company (FBO) that operates the Maine State Airport in Augusta!

Take a look at our website and you'll see what we have on the market right now. www.InbarGroup.com.

This is a very good time to get into the business as there is a glut of retiring baby boomers. They've spent decades building their businesses and many have never really thought about an exit plan. When we show them the way to retire with a pile of money, many are all too happy to sign a 12-month exclusive listing agreement with us.  Not to mention that lending rates are coming down as Prime Rate is finally coming down.

This can be a very, very lucrative opportunity with real life earnings in the mid to high 6-figures.

Interested? Give me a call on my business cell at 207-352-1000 or email [email protected] and let's chat.