All Forum Posts by: Trent Ellingford

@Jason Gurvitz the county assessor is one way, or there are a lot of different software programs that can help, like Property Radar or Propstream. They give you the owner of the property's name, and if it's not their primary address it'll give you their primary address so you can mail them directly if you choose. If you have the address and owners name you can also pull phone numbers. Of course there are a lot of skip tracing websites that are relatively inexpensive that you can use as well.

@Jared Lomker if your goal is long term cash flow you can accomplish it with either, but there are a lot of variables. You said you've narrowed your markets so I'm guessing that means you have an understanding of the individual housing market, demographics, rental rates etc. If you purchase MF are you intending on buying A, B or C class, for CF I'm guessing B or C? Multifamily has gotten more competitive in many markets so properties have exchanged hands multiple times diminishing the margins. If you can find a non performing, or underperforming asset and aren't afraid to do the heavy lifting the value ad's could create a nice upside especially if you're looking to BRRRR. Hands down the quickest way would be to find a MF property with below market rents. Ultimately what ever direction you choose make the decision based off of your end goals. You can be farming the areas for both and take advantage of the best opportunity that presents itself.

@Kevin Ramsey I agree with @Darius Ogloza. I should have asked if it was a distressed homeowner. It could be viewed as predatory. 

@Kevin Ramsey you could go after him legally, but the question is, is it worth it? If you want the property you could point out that he is contractually bound and that if he doesn't honor the contract you'll be forced to take legal action. He may at that point still sell, but if not, in my opinion it's probably not worth the fight. Take the $500 and EM and move on to the next deal. 

@Andrew Rosenbaum your margins on this are already small. If your repairs truly are $10K instead of $15K and you sell for $220K instead of $200K that changes things, but if that's a hope or assumption that's when you get burned. On F&F's I suggest to focus on deals that you can get in and out of quick. At the beginning of the year when the moratorium on foreclosures is lifted along with the moratorium on evictions and rent and mortgage deference coming to an end there will of course be an effect to the market and pricing. This will create opportunity, but the last thing you want is to be mid flip with no other exits on a property that had a projected profit of $20K-$30K and it's just lost that in value. You could do things to mitigate the risk like a debt equity blend with an equity partner, or find a deal you can turn faster.

@Andy Mavencamp

Hi Andy! If your goal is wholesaling and then eventually F&F's and rentals your success is going to come down to finding a property below retail. There are several ways to do this from off-market distressed properties or distressed sellers, but also just consistently putting in offers on the MLS. So many times people get stuck in the weeds researching, studying, reading etc. and never actually get started. If you are going to educate yourself, learn how to run your numbers and look at different ways to find off market properties. If you're going to wholesale, start building a buyers list. Bottomline though, you can start putting in offers on the MLS NOW! I think the fear is sometimes, "What if it get's accepted?". If that happens, great! You can always get out of a deal, but you can't get into one that somebody tied up before you.

Hope that helps.

@Joe S.

I have an agreement I used for a lease option that has the non exclusivity clause in it. With the caveat that I am not an attorney and can't offer legal advice or contract advice I can share it with you and you could add something similar to your agreement with the wholesaler.

@Joe S. you could have them sign an agreement giving them the option to buy or assign but make it "Non-exclusive" meaning it can be canceled by either party at any time. If they bring you a buyer great, if not, or if you find a buyer cancel the agreement. 

With that said, with only $25 down and the request for a long close my guess is they don't have a bunch of buyers they work with, but instead want to tie up your property and then attempt to market it and find one.

@Ari Hadar I agree with @Jerryll Noorden that there is a lot of fluff and hype with self proclaimed "Gurus" pitching their system. If we could all do deals virtually from the beach on our phone spending just 4 minutes a day we would, but until someone can really show me how to do it we need to focus on works. It doesn't mean there isn't good information out there, free and paid, whether it's videos, programs or communities. The difficulty, especially if you're a beginner, is differentiating the good from the bad. You're intelligent so follow your gut. If someone is tying to sell their program by just sharing testimonials and talking about their "System", you know if it sounds too good to be true it probably is. Also, what is good for one person may not be good for the other. I know some Investors who have invested big money in training and mentorship programs that some people would say is a waste and you can learn yourself. If you ask them, it was more than worth it because it sped up the process of getting deals done and helped them avoid mistakes. Ultimately you need to do what is best for you. I would suggest two things. 

1. Learn how to analyze your market. You're not investing in a national index and each market is different, so learn how to do a niche market analysis so you can you can pick the right strategies and invest safely. 

2. Get hyper focused on one strategy. You don't have to know everything to start, but you have to start. The more I learn about REI the more I realize I don't know. There are so many different ways to invest, and if you try and tackle it all, it can be overwhelming. If you get hyper focused on one strategy and start putting in offers you're moving forward. As you start to get deals done your capacity will grow and you can take on more.

Lastly, if you are considering learning from someone else, ask them what are they currently working on right now. It doesn't matter what they did ten years ago, what are they doing today? Make sure they are doing the business and not teaching conceptually. Ask them to run a market analysis on your market and make them "Show you the work". And ask them to analyze a deal for you. Before telling you if it's good or bad, they should ask you questions about your goals, resources, time etc. What is a good deal for one person may not be for another based off of a lot of different variables. 

You 100% can do this. Best of luck!

Hey @Mike Neubauer my business partner and I are actively investing in the greater Phoenix area in both residential and commercial. There's a lot of opportunity and I'd be more than happy to make some introductions to tradesmen, wholesalers, Realtors etc. Also, we have deals come across our desk that we don't pull the trigger on that depending on your criteria might be a fit.