Originally posted by @Account Closed:
Hi Seth, welcome to BP.
My advice to new investors is to start wholesaling properties. This does not require any money to start and to get deals closed.
First pick a neighborhood that you are either in or close to. Driver around all the streets and look for vacant houses. (Not by using Google maps because they can easily be outdated pictures) There should be some.
Then look in the county assessors website to find the owners. it should give their name and mailing address. Send them a letter (not yellow letter because they are getting dozens of them) telling them you found their house to be apparently vacant. But if it is obviously abandoned, say so in the letter. Tell them you will pay them cash for a quick close. Write it up as a personal letter.
When you do all that, then contact a local RE Agent to give you a list of all the houses in that neighborhood that have sold in the last 5 years with all cash. That typically is investors. Then again go to the assessors website and find their name and mailing address. Also do a name search on the assessors website to see how many other properties they own. If they own several they are obviously investors.
Once you get a response from the seller of the vacant house, negotiate a deal to buy it for all cash and get it under contract. Then immediately contact all the cash buyers you just found that buy properties in that neighborhood and tell them about the house and would they be interested in buying it. If you negotiate a good enough deal that pays you then complete the transaction with the investor to buy the house you have under contract.
Once you have done all that with that neighborhood, go to the next one and 'rinse and repeat.'
I hope this helps.
Steve Anderson
Steve,
First off, wow. Thank you for taking the time to write this out for me. There are two houses next to each other in my neighborhood that seem to have fallen off the map quite obviously. I'm not too sure of how the houses are as far as structural quality, but they don't seem too terrible from the road either. So the first stages of looking up ownership/investors and writing letters to both parties seems easy enough, but I'm curious what this contract deal seems to look like. Do I promise a price by such-and-such date or something? Am I the one who ends up with the deed of ownership for said house and transfer the title for the investors or am I like a specter that simply puts the property in the investor's hands and disappears? I suppose the investors are the fix'n'flip type. I guess I have a lot of questions on the details. Having never done anything with real estate I suppose I'm overthinking this too. Any guidance would be incredibly appreciated. Thank you again, friend!
