All Forum Posts by: Chris Piper

The question is, can it be made into a 3 bedroom easily? If not, then make sure you pull comps for 2 bedrooms. Also, like@Tom Sylvester said, I wouldn't get too caught up on any one deal. Yeah, when you're just starting out, you may think that this is an amazing deal, and it may be, but there are many more just like it every day.

Did you have a question? You would be better off sending regular white letters or postcards to everyone. People see a lot of yellow letters and assume you are trying to sell them something. I would stick to plain white letters or postcards, and mail to the LLC's, Trust's, etc. just like you would to an individual.

I don't have any specific info on Minnesota law, but if you are referring to paying someone for bringing you a deal, you would be better off paying them upfront as a bird dog. You might be able to put the referral fee on the closing docs, but NEVER refer to it as a "referral fee." Call it a marketing fee. Anytime you are in the vicinity of anyone "Acting" like an agent, you are getting into a very grey area. Better to be safe than sorry. I think you should be able to get business cards made up with a finders fee on them without getting in trouble, but you may want to consult with an attorney, or the real estate board in your state.

If you buy it and sell it for a profit, if you sell to an owner occupant, then they may get a reduction on taxes for being an owner occupant. That would definitely help you make a decision. The asking price looks very good, but the assessed and last sale numbers are out dated, so you can't use them. You need to get some comps quickly, and if the comps are considerably higher than the asking price of $20K that they are asking for, then I would say it would be a great deal for you.

There really is no way to calculate to the penny. The closing costs vary by property, and the holding and insurance costs will change daily depending on how long you hold the property. The best you can do is estimate, and plan on holding for a pre-determined length of time. Check with the title company or lawyer who is handling the closing to figure out the closing costs.

If it doesn't have a closet, then it is definitely NOT a bedroom, regaardless of what they tell you.

Are you looking for wholesalers in order to purchase properties from them or what? Try calling a lot of the "We Buy Houses" guys you see with bandit signs up. A lot of times they are wholesalers. If you need properties, we buy and sell properties throughout the U.S. Message me, or go to our website listed in my signature to sign up and be added to our cash buyer list.

Like @Terry Portier said, I would get 3 or 4 contractors out there and get bids. Bids are free, so you have nothing to lose. Make sure you check their reputation and or reviews online if possible. Then decide who will provide the best service and price based on what you need.

My first suggestion Kenneth, would be to not use the yellow letters. They are getting over used, therefore people just discard them since they assume you are trying to sell them something.

There are a few ways to find properties, and I will give a list of some of them:

1. Bandit Signs

Check with the building department in your county to find out what the laws are regarding putting them up. In my area, it is not legal in my county or city. What I do is put them out after 5pm on Friday(after city/county officials are done for the week), then go pick them back up Sunday night. This way your message gets out there for the entire weekend, and you don't get your signs taken down by code enforcement.

2. Car magnets

Kind of do a "We Buy Houses" car magnet. You're driving around anyway, so you might as well get some free advertising out of it. We are in the process of using car magnets to attract cash buyers in the same way.

3. Craigslist and other free sites

Post the "We Buy Houses" type of ads, and if you don't get any responses, at least it didn't cost you anything.

4. Bird Dogs

In case you don't know what Bird Dogs are, they are people you hire to find you vacant houses. You pay them $5 or $10 per house to bring you leads.

5. Driving for Dollars

This is essentially what you would pay Bird Dogs to do for you, only you are doing it yourself. You're looking for vacant houses. Look for really tall grass, a lockbox on the door but no realtor sign in the yard, mail piling up at the mailbox, piles of newspapers, no blinds or curtains, etc. Then you can either look up the owner through the county assessor's office in your area, or mail a postcard or letter to the address of the property you are interested in. If you mail to the address of the property you are interested in, and want to make sure the owner gets your mailing wherever they live, write "Address Service Requested." This way the post office will get it to the owner even if they don't live at the address of the property you're interested in. Alternatively, you can send out a mass mailing by area, neighborhood, or zip code in order to find all of the vacant houses within that specific area. You send out your mailers to the area you decide on, and write "Return Service Requested." Then, the post office will let you know which houses they know are vacant within the area that you mailed to.

6. Realtors

Realtors can be a very valuable asset as far as finding regular listings, REO's, etc. You just need to tell them what you are looking for, and they can usually set-up a search in the MLS system so that anything that falls within your requirements will automatically be emailed to you.

7. Pay for or Rent a List

There are services that will rent you a list or give you access to a list of motivated sellers for a one-time fee, or a monthly charge. I purchased a list from Kent Clothier of motivated Sellers. There are 1,000's of listings I get from him, and they are always updating the list. It cost about $1,000, but it saves me from looking for properties all day.

I hope this will get you started in the right direction. Good luck.

Just a side note in response to @Tyrus Shivers I would not recommend getting a real estate license simply to gain MLS access if you are looking to wholesale or rehab. You should be focused on buying/selling properties, building your business, and marketing. Not on research, pulling comps, and digging through the MLS. Let your realtor(s) do that for you, that's what they get paid to do. Plus, that frees up a lot of your time that would be wasted on mundane tasks that realtors typically handle.

As far as education goes, you can get advice and knowledge on here, but that is basically for questions and/or problems. You can learn a lot on here, but there is no substitute for good training and knowledge. Read over the last post I made on here, and see what is a good fit for you. If you are tight on money, then stick to the free stuff. If you have some money, just like the old saying goes "it takes money to make money." And the other saying is typically true as well that "You get what you pay for." If you spend $20, you'll get $20 worth of education. If you spend $1,000, you'll get $1,000 worth of training. Not saying that every real estate product out there is worth it's price, but by researching and checking reviews first, you'll find out what you want. That is why I suggested the gurus and products that I did in the last post. I've used the majority of them, and they are good products. Granted, the Cameron Dunlap and Kent Clothier products ran me just under $3,000, but it was well worth it.

Anytime someone has the desire to succeed in something, they typically spend money on training or education to become great at whatever it is their doing. Most business people don't just up and start a business one day without training or education. Chances are they paid good money to go to college to get that knowledge.