All Forum Posts by: William Rose

William, it is hard to expect to land deals on the first wave of letters. In my experience, after the first mailing, you'll get a lot of "tire-kickers" and "make me an offer, no" kind of people. The key is consistency. As a result, I'd definitely plan on finding a way to send those 500 letters 8-10 times over the course of your 6 month window, which may take some adjusting to your strategy based on your budget. Sounds like you have the right idea! Since your looking for wholesale & owner financing, I have found if you offer the lower cash number first, and they say no, you can follow up with a higher owner financing offer that Is often more appealing. But if they say no to your cash offer (considering it is a reasonable and fair offer), they may not me very motivated either or have a need to sell so keep looking.

Not enough information, not near enough.

I won't address letters and signs, good luck with that.

Wholesaling usually isn't taking title but assigning a contract.

You can't offer seller financing on a property you don't own, there are minimum limits of loans that can be secured by real estate, there are tons of issues and laws dealing with you offering financing, including advertising financing. Financing the sale of a contract may not qualify as a RE secured note.

To obtain passive income, you'd be the lender/note holder and all of that is not simply passive income, some will be capital gains.

My first impression is that you need to learn more before you try hitting the streets, RE and especially financing isn't just shuffling deals and papers around like the gurus suggest.

I think it's back to the drawing board. :)

You sound like you are well on your way to becoming a successful wholesaler.  The key is to get your 1st deal done and then your confidence will soar.  Every deal you do, you will likely learn something new, but it only takes a few of them to begin feeling like a pro.  As a fix/flipper my most valued relationships are with people that can find me deals.  If you are good at it, you will be a rock star in the local RE community.  Best of luck!

William,

I admire your ambition and success at such a young age.  Your persistence and tenacity will take you far in life.  

I have a few comments and suggestions:

1. Before investing money to get your telephone ringing with motivated sellers, you need to make sure you know how to analyze a deal and determine the maximum price you will offer a seller. The general formula (where I am from in N CA) is Maximum Offer = 75% x ARV (after repair value) - construction cost. Determining the ARV and construction budget will take some experience and/or a partner that can help you out. If this is all new to you, I suggest joining your local real estate investors association (REIA) and networking with fix and flip investors. I assure you it will not be hard to find people willing to help you out IF you show them you have a credible plan to find motivated sellers.

2.  You need to have a purchase contract to get the property "locked up".  Other fix and flip investors you meet should be able to help OR try calling a few real estate agents until you find one that will help.  Promise them that you will give them "retail" listing leads if your wholesale deal doesn't work out and I am sure you will find an agent that is willing to help. 

3. You need to create a buyers list ASAP, so that when you get a property in contract you will have people to wholesale the property to. You meet people to put on your buyers list by networking at your local REIA (see above), joining local real estate meetups (www.meetup.com), calling bandit sign numbers, searching Craigslist, and calling real estate agents that specialize in REOs, short sales and distressed properties. Always be adding to your list with every potential cash buyer or buy/hold investor you meet.

4. Bandit signs are a great idea and work well in most markets.  Place them in areas where homes are selling relatively fast and at lower price points.  Place them at major intersections for maximum visibility, BUT spread them out adequately so that you do not attract code enforcement officials that can tell you to remove the signs or face stiff fines.

5.  Yellow letters generally work in most markets, but some like my "hot" market in N CA requires substantial ongoing investment to be successful.  The gurus and direct mail experts will all tell you that you have to "touch" the same people at least 3 times, and it can take as many as 7x for a motivated seller to respond.  IF you can afford to send 1000 letters only, it is better to send 250 letters 4x to the same list than to send 1000 letters to different people.  As far as content or packaging of your letter, anything you can do to stand apart from other direct mail people will help your response.  Just make it appear personal.  It will vary depending on the lists you use, but in general, you should space out the touches every 4-6 weeks

That is probably a lot to digest for now.  The most important thing is to take action (which it sounds like you have no problem doing).  Meet as many people in the business as you can, listen to the relative podcasts from sites like Bigger Pockets and others (just Google real estate podcasts) and read blogs and books.  There is no shortage of information on the subjects that you need help and most RE investors are generous with their time and advice. Best of luck!!!!