All Forum Posts by: Stephen Morales

Quote from @Jonathan Beehary:

Quote from @Terri Absher:

@Jonathan Beehary So, after they canceled your contract, did you try to put the house up on MLS?

Yes, House was on the market several times after however, due to the lack of funding to complete the renovation, we were unable to sell at that time. I paid for the renovation costs out of pocket over time and finally got it to a point where it passes inspection for FHA/Traditional lenders. We are currently under contract and set to close on March 10th however, Saluda Grade is not agreeing on a reduction in Payoff to help put some money back into my pocket that I lost over time. Worst experience dealing with these people!

I do feel this was all part of their plan smh.

 Wow that is absolutely insane.

Quote from @Terri Absher:

Stephen - I know there have to be more people out there like us! You want to know the best part.... Farraway SG (the company that bought all of STOA's debt) ended up cutting a deal with the trustee in the bankruptcy and buying all the houses back! It's like it was planned all along! It's wild! Im sorry to hear you were a victim of it as well!  Hopefully, one day, enough of us will be able to come together to do something about it.  

Thanks Terri! They definitely screwed a lot of us that were doing deals in Jax! Definitely some shady stuff on their end. Let me know if you want me to send over any docs that I have on deals we did with them if you get a case going. 

Wow...crazy I see this post after they BURNED us 3 years ago. We had 5 active flips with STOA in 2022-2023 and we ended up losing money on 4 out of the 5 deals because of them refusing to purchase our flips. They delayed inspections as much as they could and always wanted us to do more and more and add to the SOW in order for them to close. Once the crap hit the fan on interest rates they were doing everything they could to not buy. They basically told us to kick rocks and then when we lost a bunch of money on opportunity cost they eventually came back trying to buy our last remaining flip back from us. 

Literally, everything you described we experienced as well. 

So a few things you can do. 

You can attend local REIA events in your town. They normally will give out free drinks at these events so it's a win-win!

You can also pull a list of cash buyers on a list building site like Prime Tracers. It's free nationwide data and no subscriptions either. You can make a list of Cash buyers based on a set of filters. 

I like to do minimum portfolio value of $1M, 2-3+ minimum properties owned, a purchase in the last year and either individual owned or Corporate owned. You can download the list and skip trace it to get contact info, multiple phone numbers, mobile only and/or emails as well.

You can also join Facebook groups in the areas you're marketing in for REI.

When you're on the call it goes something like "Hi is this (Buyer's name)?, Hi (Buyer's name), this is (Your Name) with (Your Company name). I frequently come across some great off market opportunities. I see you own several properties in (city) and I was wondering if you had any plans to expand your portfolio further?"

Hope this helps! Good luck!

Quote from @Tristan Kublanov:

How are you guys getting leads? What is the best way to generate a pipeline that is fruitful. I have been filling my pipeline for the past 4 months but everything thus far has fell apart. I have been targeting attorneys to no avail. I have tried Agents and they often mess up the deal. What should I do? This is very disheartening to say the least.

 What is your current approach to lead generation? how are your leads falling apart? If you are new to the business the most common issue is you're either locking up deals too high or you aren't finding attractive deals. A great deal will easily sell itself. 

Also, newer wholesalers only see about half of their contracts get dispo'd and closed (sometimes less) because of the reason just mentioned or a lack of Buyers to dispo to. 

If you can come up with specifics such as how you do your lead gen, an overview of your current pipeline and the reason why your deals are falling through it would be much easier to help out. 

Quote from @Ryan Konen:

You are correct that comping software like Privy, Propwire, and Propstream primarily rely on public records for their data, such as county assessor records, MLS feeds, and sometimes 3rd party aggregators. The differences lie in how they aggregate, update, and present the data. They focus on timeliness, accuracy, and user experience. Paid platforms often offer additional features like market analytics, off-market property leads, and filters for investor-specific criteria, giving them a leg up over free options.

Exactly, most platforms have to offset cost somewhere because of how expensive it is to keep the data up to date. A platform that updates their data daily or weekly is covering a staggering cost in order to provide that to the end user. Most platforms will update their data quarterly some of these other ones may take longer which is where the discrepancies come from.

Been licensed for nearly a decade, I got into wholesaling shortly after because I was tired of losing deals and investors to wholesalers—I couldn’t beat them, so I joined them. Honestly, I think the tightening regulations are a good thing. I’m also glad the FCC is cracking down on robocalls for lead generation; it forces people to commit to real prospecting instead of cutting corners.

Over the years, I’ve run a solid brokerage team, training agents and now I help people get into wholesaling. I also recommend them to get a real estate license once they make money off their first assignment or two. 

One thing I’ve noticed is how many licensed agents don’t fully understand the contracts they’re using or the local real estate laws. On the flip side, some wholesalers know the business better than the agents!

It all comes down to one thing: transparency. This industry thrives when people are upfront and informed—whether they’re agents, wholesalers, or investors.

Being new I would suggest started with existing builds but building small multifamily in a small town with a rental shortage could be a smart move (someone's gotta do it). It’s a great way to meet local demand while creating steady cash flow. Just make sure the town is ok with the land being zoned for multi-units, and look into construction costs, financing options, and permits ahead of time. Like someone else said better to buy land that is already suited for use. 

Another note on construction cost, going vertical is very expensive now and would require have a great connect with a developer and a builder in the area.

See what rents are in the area and run the numbers to ensure the rents will cover your costs and give you a solid return—using the 1% rule can help. Starting small, like with a duplex, is a good way to get your feet wet and minimize risks.

Good luck!

When I had my own PM company here in Jax, we had some properties that lets just say were harder to move. We often would offer concessions such as no security deposit or do half off first months rent or even a discount off the first couple of months. We would normally negotiate this on a case by case basis.

Try out Prime Tracers for skip tracing. Highest accuracy in the business as they actually update their data daily. They are also pay as you go and let you try them out for free with no CC info. The more lead credits you purchase at once the more you save.