BiggerPockets

Hi Shi'Mere,

I have a few wholesale deals under my belt, so here are my suggestions:

1) finding buyers - try places other than your REI club, post ads on craigslist, backpage, kijiji, postlets, OLX (all free), go to your yellow pages and call all of the "we buy houses" ads

2) refer to #1, and contact your real estate agent friends, if you don't have any, make some

3) in my opinion, this is the BEST time for wholesaling, all the inventory is what will make this year so much better

Just don't give up. You've already tasted success with that first check. Persistence is the key here. Good luck!

Agree with advice already given, would like to add this to it. Being in Cali does make it difficult, because of the market still adjusting, many of the properties are still way overpriced. There really isn't any cash flow.

You have to tap into other markets and link buyers and sellers together. You must become creative and if nothing else you must learn the real estate game completely. You have to sell yourself and no one can do that better than you can.

Originally posted by Shi'mere Andrus

I've called a couple of the We Buy Houses ad. I've been hung up on and told "not interested".

We buy houses signs are put up by wholesalers, not investors. Those people are trying to do the same thing that you are. You are their competition, that's why they aren't interested.

:cool:

Originally posted by Shi'mere Andrus

1. I can't find buyers.

Get great deals under contract and buyers will literally line up. Use the mls to look up owners that have sold completely remodeled homes, REI club, advertisements.

2. I have no money to advertise.

This is the time to stick with it, wanting to get somewhere with no money is hard, very hard. Get creative, follow obituaries, divorces, high equity homes with withering people inside(sorry, not funny). There is plenty of low cost advertisements that you can employ, just don't stop hacking towards another deal.

3. I live in the Los Angeles, CA area. I'm not sure if homes are really selling over here like they did a couple of years ago.

May have to try another, smaller, more cost effective market to play in.

3. Lastly, and think most importantly I feel like I've gotten in this at the wrong time. There's so much inventory out there that an investor may not need a wholesaler. And sellers are just letting the bank have thier home. And can investors and potential homebuyers get credit in this recession?

Inventory, yes. Great deals in the inventory, not likely. The best deals still come directly from homeowners and investors still need deals, they are just paying less for them now. Investors can still get financing but now with more restrictions, guidelines, and hightened FICO scores. Homebuyers are still out there, a few come out of the brush everyday. I expect that more will follow as income tax is dispersed and the economy plays out.

I'm almost to the point of giving up. I haven't been on this site for a couple of months because I'm not getting the success others here are getting.

Success will never come to those who give up, keep plugging away. Others that work around me have since given up on themselves and their own visions. I have yet to succumb, never will. The blood, sweat, and tears from this business is awesome, nothing quite matches having a deal go through after tearing your heart out. You must find your big why - why am I doing this. Monetary gain is not a big why

Out of curiosity, what is on your investor profile forms that you leave at the local REI meetings? You may be lacking the results that you desire with this method due to the lack of great deals. If you have truly great deals then they will basically sell themselves. And yes, a great deal is considered a rare gem; hard to find but well worth the effort.

When you are a newbie to the business the deals are harder to find and you usually realize softer profits. As you progress, though, deals will come easier and you learn how to control the profits in a way that you never thought possible. Experience is pricy; with a lack of funds I wouldn't jump on the wrong deal without a few solid backups if needed.
"It's better to pass on a good deal than to buy a bad deal."

As for the follow-ups,
1. Great deals sell themselves. For all those other minimal deals (which you will find a lot of), advertise in local paper, in the thrifty-nickel ads, your own website, other investors' websites, wholesalers, rehabbers, landlords, mls, FSBO ads, signs, local REI meetings, craigslist, and so on. Any place that you could advertise that may draw a buyer out.

2. On our local mls, their is a searchable parameter called private remarks and public remarks. You can then enter a list of words pertinent to your search such as: remodeled, updated, everything new, etc. Any word typed in by the listing realtor is searchable and it comes in quite handy. Creativity is key to finding anything of value, use your time wisely. Also, this information cannot be found an any public real estate site.

Actually, a lot of times the listing agent will put something about being remodeled into the general information section for the house, if so, then you can pick these buyers out of the paper or any other listing service. You then may cross reference these names with your local tax assessors office or the county clerk to find out if they have a history of buying and selling homes. Wham, got a buyer.

Good luck