All Forum Posts by: Thomas Burnett

I would say the most important factor besides your actual mail piece (which can greatly influence your response rate) is your consistency, and if you know what your budget is, understand how often you plan on resenting pieces to the same list and how often.

I run an 8 week cycle where the same list gets mailed 3 times. When I mail a new list, I will mail it again in 3 weeks. As those come around full circle I am sending out more than in the beginning. Depending on if your cash flow is increasing from any deals you're doing, direct mail can get spendy.

Direct mail DOES NOT WORK, if you are not consistent when it doesn't appear to be working right away.

Did you ever find an answer to your question outside of these forums? 

@Jonathan Ortega,

Did you follow a path into wholesaling commercial real estate properties? I've had an opportunity come across my phone and I could use a bit of advice or guidance.

Greeting investors. I've been communicating with an owner and their broker for a very distressed 4plex property in Portland Oregon for a few months. The brokers are not going to re-list the property and the owners motivation is growing with looming deadlines to resolve the code violations.

A brief history and property details:

3500sqft

1 - 2bd/1bath 800sqft

2 - 1/1 700 sqft

1 - 1/1 650 sqft

ARV is between 875/900k.

The property was put under contract once for 500, and after reviewing their projected rehab costs of 250-300k during their diligence period, (broker admitted this was a bit high) they changed their offer to 400 and it was turned down.

I have a strong feeling after discussion with the broker that the owners would agree to sell near 425 with an agreement to cover the cost of their code violations between 10-15k. At that point market the contract @450k.

What are your thoughts, do you see any road blocks besides not actually having anything in writing?

Very specific situation I've got here that I haven't been able to find good information online that fits this unique criteria.

I have a friend that has a property that they own free and clear of mortgage, yet they are paying a HELOC of approx. $300 a month for. They are torn between trying to fix the place up and sell at retail or just unloading the burden(tired landlords). Estimated repair to get it rent ready are between 5-10K.

Because they know that I am trying to get into the real estate game, they want to help me out, but still want it to make sense for them as an exit strategy or partnership.

I don't know what type of transaction would result in a win win. Subject to? Lease option? Wholesale is out, and so is a owner financing because of my lack of capital and cash flow in relation to what they expect for an actual sale as they want top dollar.

I have reached out to a title company and a real estate attorney as well, however, because it is a weekend, responses will be delayed. Any creative contractual suggestions, or transactional guidance is greatly appreciated.

I've got an issue that might turn out to be good for someone willing to help out a newbie. Here's the situation:

Perousing the internet and MLS I found a very distressed property that had only been online for about 6 hrs and I put in an offer; The issue is, I don't know what the heck I'm doing. I got motivated to take action and bit off more than I can chew.

I live in Portland Oregon, and the property was listed for 209k. 3/1 1550 sqft. I sent a message to a realtor offering 120k. They got back to me and asked a bunch of questions and I spoke to them as if I knew what I was doing and told them I would be paying cash. Comps in the area are conservatively 225k. ((*side note* the MLS page had verbiage"All properties are subject to a 5% buyer's premium pursuant to the Event Agreement and Terms & Conditions (minimums will apply)."))

My initial thought and strategy was that I could find an investor to purchase and do a double close type transaction where I would use transactional funding to purchase under an LLC, and then sell the LLC to the investor for my "assignment fee." My hang up is

1) I've never done a deal before and I don't feel confident going through this transaction solo at this time.

2) I'm not sure what I want to do is legal, or if I need to disclose all of this information to the agent, the other investor or if I should try to find someone to JV with me on the deal. ( If I do JV, how do I ensure I get compensated?) [I mostly want the experience and I would be willing to take a smaller cut on the pie]

3) Oddly enough the agent just text me and tells me that this is owned by the bank and there will be an auction for the property this Wednesday 11/22/17. He says he'll call me and bid as I tell him to.

4) Are there other elements to this that I am completely oblivious to? 

In a round-about way, I'm asking for help and looking to see if I should completely back out of this or if there is someone in the Portland area willing to help out a newbie and gain a property along the way while also increasing your network. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

@Orlando Paz did you dig any deeper into Joe's program? Did you ever find a way to get rolling towards your REI goals?

Hello BP Community!

I am a brand new investor with no experience and haven't done any deals yet. I have been doing tons and tons of research along with reaching out to network over the last 6 months or so and have come to the conclusion that becoming successful will take either a substantial amount of time, or money, or both. Currently I have neither as I am working two jobs to pay the bills. Neither pay well and I'm to the point where I've got more ambition than I do time or money and I don't want to keep hitting my head against the wall or continue on a path of mediocrity.

Most of my research has been in wholesaling and the more I dig into it, the more I realize how much I don't know. I live in Portland Oregon and the market is first very expensive, and also highly saturated with investors making it difficult and overwhelming to actually get started.  I would love to work with someone who could become a mentor, and I know how to be of service (I am no stranger to hard work) however time has been a major limiting factor in my development.

I've had what seems like a great idea that I got from reading one of Kiyosaki's works about working to learn. Finding a job that fits my financial needs as well as giving me an opportunity to grow my skillset and grow my network. Both areas being so crucial for traction using real estate as a vehicle for generating wealth.

My query to those of you in the industry is to pick your brains on how you got started, or stories of someone you may know about getting into the industry. Things that you wish you'd known when you were first getting started so that I may make an educated decision. Which area or paid position do you feel could give me the most leverage of time vs experience and knowledge? What you love about the job and what it provides for you, heck even references in my area!

A list of areas which I'd like to develop:

General principles and strategies, financing, deal analysis, rehab and construction estimating, finding and negotiating deals, property management, legal and contracts, and marketing.

Thanks in advance! Looking forward to suggestions with an open mind.