How many offers do you write a week?

I offer about 95% REOs and about 5% short sales, and write about 2-3 offers per week, on average. I don't tend to submit too many low-ball offers, and I probably have about 10-15% success rate on my offers (after negotiations, of course...the first offer is rarely accepted).

J Scott, Lish Properties, LLC
Telephone: 770-906-6358
Website: http://www.123flip.com
http://www.123flip.com

Greg P.

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Nov 30 '11, 08:44 PM

J, is there a reason you don't make more offers? Is there any harm in making a ton of low balls as long as you strategically contact one agent per week etc?

J Scott

Real Estate Investor · Atlanta, Georgia

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Dec 01 '11, 06:21 AM

Originally posted by Greg P.

J, is there a reason you don't make more offers? Is there any harm in making a ton of low balls as long as you strategically contact one agent per week etc?

The big reasons are:

1. I don't like to waste time when I'm 99% sure an offer won't be accepted or countered; I've written enough offers to know that (in my area, at least), an asset manager isn't going to accept anything at less than 70% of list price, unless it's been listed for more than 90 days. Even then, 65% of list is about the max discount I've ever seen a property sell for. Of course, if there are major mold/structural issues where I think the asset manager might make an exception, so will I, but these are pretty rare.

2. We have a pretty good relationship with the REO listing agents in our area (my wife is very good at networking). If we're interested in a property, we can generally call the listing agent and get a reasonable idea of how desperate (if at all) the seller is. This will give us an idea of where the offer needs to be, and if we don't think we can get close to that number, we won't bother.

3. We're pretty selective about our projects. Some rehabbers will take any deal that will meet their minimum profit (and I certainly respect that!), but given that we buy mostly with our own cash and don't have unlimited funds, I'd rather focus on deals that we "like," meaning houses that meet our geographic, type, size and condition parameters. These types of houses probably account for 10% of the total number of foreclosures in our area, so our pool of opportunity is relatively small.

J Scott, Lish Properties, LLC
Telephone: 770-906-6358
Website: http://www.123flip.com
http://www.123flip.com

Drew Friestedt

Developer · Chicago, Illinois

25 posts
50 influence

Dec 05 '11, 07:55 PM

Originally posted by Michael G.

I've heard that in order to buy houses at a deep discount you have to write LOTS of offers.

I'm curious how many offers wholesalers are writing on a weekly basis? 10, 30, 50 a week?

Are they REO's or just plain vanilla MLS listings?

PS - Does anyone ever pursue expired listings?

we push out about 1 to 2 offers a day off MLS and look at 100 or so auction properties a day. We buy about 1 a week. The numbers are staggering. Need to look at a lot of properties to buy and make good returns.

Juan Michael

Real Estate Investor · Los Angeles, California

138 posts
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Dec 07 '11, 10:29 PM

I used to write 30 -40 per week based solely on MLS searches. Now I'm down to about 2-5.... I discovered it's important to see and walk the property first. what started to see is that, as i would get accepted offers..... I'd then walk the property and find the repair costs were well out of budget. Then I'd have to keep going back for price reductions or just walking away all together. Poor use of my time. Now the ones that get accepted, i can close and i know what my cost are.