All Forum Posts by: Tim Bishop

Give them a couple hundred bucks to get out maybe.

I'd love to hear more from a land developer or another land flipper.  Maybe even another one from Seth Williams!  I'm not one so this is not a solicitation. 

Have you listened to Chris Clothier's bp podcast?  His company manages in Memphis and DFW I believe.  Might be a good place to start if you missed that one.

The answer to that would be entirely up to your local market.  If 50% of the equivalent rentals nearby are asking for similar terms, then it might be a good idea.

If your deposit is higher than most of your competition then I would expect a longer vacancy period.

@Jeremy Scott 

Welcome to the site!

Disclaimer: I haven't wholesaled a house yet, but I've gotten some traction and been able to talk to a few sellers and will be looking at the first property this weekend.

Step 1: Use Bigger Pockets.  Listen to all the podcasts especially episode 21 w/ Jerry Puckett since he's out of Irving, read all the threads you can handle, and ask questions when they come up.  You've already started this one.

Step 2: Give driving for dollars a shot.  I would... instead of saving the addresses and mailing to them, google the names and addresses and see if you can find contact info, knock on doors and leave notes when no one answers.  Once you've tried that, save the address and send them some mail.  Research direct mail techniques. 

I've only gotten traction so far from talking to sellers directly without mailers.

 http://www.biggerpockets.com/renewsblog/2013/05/03...

That's as far as I've gotten so I can't really advise you past that.  Good luck!

@Ross Schneider 

It's in a great location, one of the fastest growing areas and where the market is moving quick... it's just an oddball neighborhood.  If I posted the exact location I think you'd agree that it's got acceptable upside, rentals here fill fast too.

Assuming less than 10k repairs to make rent ready, a sale price of 55k and an area that is appreciating at a higher than average rate, would you consider it a good deal for a typical buy and hold investor in our area?

I agree that it would be a solid buy for me, it has the potential to approach 2% depending on condition and seller motivation.  I find 1% in my neighborhood on the mls no problem so I wouldn't touch it if it needs enough work to fall to just above 1%.

@Fabio Carnie 

That makes sense.  If you never find one that's Florida specific you could post a CL ad and ask for a RE law student who can review the documents that you are unsure of for a flat fee of 50 bucks or whatever you can afford.

Just an idea!

The only way to be absolutely sure is to hire a real lawyer.

I'm looking at a very poorly marketed sfr 3/2/1 in a nice Fort Worth TX suburb.  I've got a meeting at the property this saturday morning.  He's asking 75k which if it were on the mls would be the cheapest list price in this zip code by about 50k.  I've done a drive by and it appears to be in good shape and the seller seems to think that I'll like the interior condition (we'll see).  I'm also apparently the only buyer that the seller has talked to at all after 2-3 months of trying to sell.  He bought it in 03 when this area was much more rural and has indicated that he doesn't owe much, it's currently owner occupied.

My issue is that all the comps that are in the same neighborhood have sold for around his asking price.  The leased comps are between 1000 per month and 1200 per month.  This one should be more toward the 1200, the lower comps are 2/2/1's. 

Plan of attack:

1. Owner Finance at a price of 65k or less with less than 10k out of pocket.

2. I would try to get him to sell me a 6 month minus a day (it's a tx thing) option so that I can use traditional financing once I pull cash out of my house in early 2015.

3. Get it under contract at 50-60k with a seller chosen cash close date and try to make some kind of wholesale fee.

Would any buy and hold investors pay the full market value of a house like this as long as the cash flow was ok?  If I were to wholesale this property I know that normally I'd shoot for pricing it at 70-80 percent after repairs.... but typically the rent ratios in this area don't look as good at fmv.  Would I be stupid to try to market a wholesale purely for cashflow and make it clear that it's probably only appropriate for a buy and hold?  He's indicated that he is negotiable so I'm expecting to be able to knock at least 10k off of his asking and hoping for more because he seems motivated.

Special thanks to my realtor for his help with the comps and generating an awesome cma!  PM me if you need an investor friendly realtor.

@Omari Brown 

This isn't a direct answer to your question but more of my experience/view of it in my business.  

I did direct mail myself for a pool company that I started when I was 19 so when I started trying to generate real estate leads I thought I should just do it myself.   You can go over cost vs time all you want but at the end of the day, for me anyways... doing the stamp licking, printing cutting etc... just sucked big time and I'd be a very happy man if I never did it again. 

Like has been already said, if you need to save the cash when starting out, it's not a bad thing to suffer a little for a good cause. 

Check out the biggerpockets fileplace!!