All Forum Posts by: Ryan Whitcher

@Arturo Andres Lara

Can't speak for Tom Krol's program - but I do know that there aren't any secrets in Real Estate and every single piece of information you'll ever need is attainable for free via BP, Youtube, Books (library), etc. However, some people will act more if they have 'skin in the game' when they fork out a chunk of money to a course. So just keep that in mind!

If your end goal is rentals, maybe just jump to focusing on that instead of wholesaling? Just a thought!

Thanks,

Ryan

@Jesse Hopcus

Going 2 months without a deal is just part of the business sometimes! Just recently had that happen and then a few deals came the next month - you have to consistently be filling your pipeline with leads. Follow up is the major key here. Not sure how long you've been doing it, but I would just stick to whatever marketing got your first deals and stay consistent with it. You never know which call, mailer, sign, etc is going to be that next 10K deal! I would just advise sticking with it and staying consistent!

@Courtney Warner

Welcome! 

There are numerous ways to find out repair costs - a good book, fantastic really, to read is Estimating Rehab Costs by J Scott. Once you get a good base from either that book, or other forums, blogs, etc - find a good contractor in your area and pay them $100 to accompany you to to a property to go through the necessary repairs and typical costs. You can find a good contractor either through here on BP, using Google and reading reviews, or through FB groups where you just search your city and REIA in the search bar. Almost every city has one of these if not multiple.

Use the same technique to find a good Realtor in your area - they will help you immensely with being able to determine ARV's. Most of this information is available to you already, however, via sites like Realtor.com, Redfin, Zillow, etc. You can pull recently sold (within 3-6 months) properties and filter down to similar bed/bath & sq footage. Obviously, the closer the comparable property, the better. General rule is to not go out more than a mile radius from subject property unless you are very rural.

hope this helps!

Ryan

@Bruce Gibson

Like @Matt Crusinberry said, some contractors will do work for free, but generally $100 (in an average city) would be a good base to pay the contractor for their time. It'll probably be the best $100 you have spent considering the information you'll get and the opportunity to build that relationship.

You can find good recommendations for good contractors through BP, FB groups (Search: '"City" REIA'), or even Google based on the reviews. I would make sure you do this first so you get the most out of your time!

As far as contracts, if you state closes with an attorney (NC does) you can just reach out to a good title company and they will likely send you a purchase agreement for free - which an Attorney has created. 

Hope this helps!

Ryan

@John Loscalzo

Usually just short "Need to sell quick?" "Vacant House?" bullets. Post in Housing Wanted and Housing offered if you'd like. If you put it elsewhere it'll probably get taken down very quickly. I definitely wouldn't rely solely on this to market!

Hope that helps,

Ryan

@Jaxon T Stryker

someone I know put out 100 signs per week for about 4 months and didn't get any solid leads. It's all luck with those - 25 isn't that much to be honest and neither is 3 weeks when trying a new marketing method out. General rule is 4-6 months with a new marketing strategy and staying consistent through those 4-6 months. 

Figure out what your budget can handle and go from there. For example, if you can afford 1000 signs right now - buy 250/month for 4 months (about 60/week) and start from there!

Hope this helps, 

Ryan

@Matt Moore

Welcome to BP! 

Listsource is a very popular place to buy leads, but these are usually fairly saturated for that reason. I'm sure you can find good recommendations for software on here or wholesaling FB groups. If you really want to separate yourself, go D4D and get at least 100 solid leads before you start marketing to them, these will likely be great leads as most don't know about them. 

Hope that helps!

Ryan

@Erich Bradburn

I would almost advise against direct mail when you are starting out with limited funds as it can be very expensive per touch. If you had a list of 100 VERY good leads, then yes, by all means mail them, but I would buy a list, and then mail to them as most people will have already mailed to them and chances of a deal coming out of it diminish. 

Generally the harder it is to find leads, the better off you will be as this deters people from that source. So, your county website option might definitely be worth several hours of your time to knock down that knowledge barrier that many will not spend time to do. 

Craiglist Ads are free, Networking is (almost always) free (think REIA's), business cards are cheap. Be creative!

Hope this helps!

Ryan

@Stratton Nielsen welcome, you are in the right place! I don't own any rentals yet, but it is advised to have a good supply of cash reserves when going into rentals, especially a 4-plex! I would still look hard for one and put in offers, the saying is that a good deal will always find money and that is very true. Once you find a good deal you can hopefully finance it to where you are in with as little money as possible. 

I would consider living in one of the units as this will save you loads of money in rent you can use towards the property if need be. 

Good luck!

@Huso Akaratovic I quit mine about a year ago. Scary, but wonderful decision!

If you are under 26, you can get put on your parents plan for fairly cheap (mine is about $180/mo and I just pay my parents). 

If you are over or just want your own, you can shop around for whichever policy fits you best. Generally it's around $300-400/month for the average person down here in NC. I would say that's good range for most of the nation and most healthy people. 

Just some other general advice I would advise you have several months of living expenses saved up at a minimum. Just in case you have ZERO income for those months, you'll still be able to eat :)

Good luck with everything!