All Forum Posts by: Todd Shampoe

I am new to this in Houston, Texas but I am working with 2 mentors and 1 turnkey wholesale company and they are getting deals off of MLS. My mentor flips 10-15 houses a year and most of his deals come form realtors he knows and the MLS.

I bought 500 leads for tax delinquent owners from listsource.com and used yellowletters to mail 200 postcards for about 125$ I think it was. They hit the mail 2 days ago an so far 2 calls. T guys cused me out and told me to not send them again, I guy was price shopping, and I have a meeting with one guy that owns his property out right (9 acres with 3 houses on it) but also owes 35K in taxes. I have a meeting with him on Saturday. not bad for a couple of hundred bucks.

I looked at several paid mentor programs that ranged from 14K to 40K. Every time I attended a seminar or webinar I had to hide my checkbook because they got me so pumped up I was ready to sign up.
I ended up finding several local mentors that are actively flipping houses in my area and this is how I did it.

Mentor 1- I talked shop with a guy at work and he said he did real estate on the side. I thought ok, another flipper want to be, but it turns out he flipps 6-7 houses a year part time. He agreed to take all my calls, go to lunch and show me the houses he is currently working on. The information on color selection, staging and fixtures was priceless. He said always use Sherwin Williams Divine White or variations of the same color for the walls.

Mentor 2- I called a marketing sign for 1800-sell-now and put in my zip code and they directed me to the local guy. I took him lunch and talked shop with him. The next week he took me to a house he had just bought and walked me through it and told me all he was going to do to fix in it. Then we went to another house he was looking to buy and we walked through it and he told what he thougt it was worth and what to look for. I found a 9 acre wholsale tax delinquent property that we are meeting with the owner on this Saturday. He is helping me get it under contract and we will split the profits.

Mentor 3- Called a for sale sign on a 4 plex and talked to the realtor who also finds homes for investors. She now sends me deals to look at.

I joined the local REI club and met a lot of people there. Local meetings are very important to attend.

I have met several wholesalers here on BP that have been very helpful.

It is far better to find someone local that will mentor you and you can get help with on deals. I have no problem splitting deals I find with my mentors, by doing it this way you are being paid to learn, and 50% of something is better than 100% of nothing.

I am new to flipping and have been looking at a turnkey wholesale company to get properties. As a ball park I am using the following formula to determine the buy price. (.70 * ARV)- repair cost. So a 100K ARV house that needs 20K in work, I would try to buy it at 50K. The recent list I got from the wholesaler is as follows:
(arv)160K *.70= 112,000-(repairs)30K= 82K buy price. But in this case the wholesaler wants 95K..
it seems that they are selling them to rehabbers for 60 to 70% of ARV is this right?

I recently joined the REI group in my city and went to a 2 day new investor class. At the end of the class the presenters offer a 6 month hands on mentor program that includes goign to the houses with you to write deals or take you to the courhouse to shouw you how to buy properties from tax sales. The price is 12,500. To me it seems like a good deal because you are getting mentors in your city that will hold your hand to get you started. Is anyone else paying for a local mentor? I have not heard good things from out of town national gurus that charge a lot more than 12,500.

I am a new rehabber in Spring, Tomball the Woodlands, Texas looking for the following properties.
3 bed 2 bath, 12-1400 square feet, must be in either Tomball, Klein, or Woodlands school ISD. Fast close all cash, properties 65K or less prefer 45K-55K.

Is there a more accurate way to get lists?

I bought my first to the criteria below

File Name NewList01-14-14a
Count 300 (excludes duplicate mailing addresses)
Database Create Your Own
Created Date 01-14-14,5:31
Purge Date 07-13-14
List of Criteria
ZIP + Radius
77389 (20 mile radius)
(All) Combined Loan To Value
21-30 %
Equity(%)
40 to 100 %
Bedrooms
3-5
ADDRESS-COMPLETENESS
Mailing Address Complete
CORPORATE-OWNED
Exclude
Selected Bundle Elements
Pending Auction Sale
Reports Selection
Only Records 300
Records From 1
Records To 300
Search Output Fields

Owner 1 Label Name
Owner 1 Last Name
Owner 1 First Name
Owner 1 Middle Name
Owner 1 Suffix
Owner 2 Label Name
Owner 2 Last Name
Owner 2 First Name
Owner 2 Middle Name
Owner 2 Suffix
Owner Care Of Name
Mail Address
Mail City
Mail State
Mail ZIP Code
Mail ZIP+4
Mail Zip/Zip+4
Mail Carrier Route
Mail Country
Property Address
Property House Number
Property House Number Prefix
Property House Number Suffix
Property House Number 2
Property Pre Direction
Property Street Name
Property Street Name Suffix
Property Post Direction
Property Unit Number
Property City
Property State
Property ZIP Code
Property ZIP+4
Property Zip/Zip+4
Property Carrier Route
County
Combined LTV Ratio
Zip Code
Equity (%)
Bedrooms

When I looked at one of the properties on the Harris county tax records auction it said no tax due? I thought I ran the list with houses that were up for auction in the next 3 months. MAybe I included the Jan date as well and someone already paid the taxes?

I am just starting out in Spring, TX and looking to see who all might be in the same area flipping houses.

The program breaks down like this. You invest 10K to get a mentor for a year. They guarantee that you will make 75K. Once you make the 75K they take 20% of every deal after that.