Lender · Yorba Linda, CA · Member since 2014 · 68 posts · 20 votes
Hi Everyone,
Wanted to get anyone and everyone's personal experience or opinion with NWA. I've been receiving some property leads from them and not sure what to make of the company. I know they have acquisition managers who then have another team of people below them that actually solicit the properties they get under contract to cash buyers. They also seem to only prefer doing double escrow transactions rather than assignment fee agreement through escrow. Would love to hear other local wholesalers opinions too
As others have said above, if all of their deals were unprofitable they would go out of business and that doesnt seem to be the case.
That's not necessarily true. There are lots of dumb buyers out there... :-)
I'm certainly not saying all their deals are bad (they might all be good, who knows)...just that wholesalers don't need to have great deals to stay in business when there are so many stupid investors out there.
Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2014 · 378 posts · 82 votes
12y
@Alex Bejenaru - First, for me, it depends on the deal. If NWA, or anyone for that matter, presents a deal to me and makes a good case for it, then I'm willing to give the deal a look.
Second, do not let anyone convince you that a deal is good. Just because they say it is, doesn't mean it is. This goes for agents, brokers, attorneys, wholesalers, etc. And if they insist it is a good deal with great resale value, etc etc, have them guarantee the results in writing. You may just chuckle at the responses you hear.
I've often heard the story of investors trusting others' judgement about a deal instead of doing their own homework. And in all cases, good or bad, the results always fall on the shoulders of the investor(s) who purchase the deal.
My 2-cents.
Let me know if I can be of any further help to you!
Investor · Houston, TX · Member since 2009 · 210 posts · 261 votes
12y
in my experience I see inflated ARVs and rent projections and underestimated rehab costs on everything the larger wholesalers in the Houston market. Add in the double closing costs you pay (the big boys push them all to the end buyer) and you are playing on pretty thin margins.
In the areas I invest I watch them buy them right off the mls and see the email come out a couple days after they tie the house up. When I see this I make note and watch for the closed listing to see what they paid for the property. Gives me an idea of their margins on a small level.
I've been getting emails from NWA and quite a few others and have not been willing to pull the trigger on a single one. That said, someone is buying them and if no one made money on their deals they would eventually go out of business. Maybe the margins are too thin for me, but they must be OK for others.
There are also a couple NWA reps that frequent this site and add quite a bit of value and knowledge. Just do your own diligence and you'll be fine. Problem I see from afar is finding someone to provide diligence on one of their deals will add cost and make it thinner than it already is. Buying from wholesalers can create a less than equal knowledge balance with the wholesaler in tune with the local market and the out of stater on the wrong side of the information highway. I see the wholesaler win this battle all the time in this market.
Rental Property Investor · Arlington, TX · Member since 2012 · 788 posts · 640 votes
12y
I 100% agree with @David J. . I receive many emails from them and the numbers just do not work for me as I am looking for buy/rehab/retail deals. With that said there are investors buying up their properties and I believe if your looking to buy/rent you may consider some of their deals.
Investor · Sarasota, FL · Member since 2008 · 17k+ posts · 17k+ votes
12y
I looked at a few of their deals in Atlanta, and the biggest thing I found is that they didn't account for value differences based micro-markets and school districts. For example, they'd present a deal in the city with comps a couple blocks away, but those couple blocks would make a HUGE difference in desirability due to different schools, etc.
They were new to Atlanta at the time, so it could have been due to their lack of knowledge about the local market... Not necessarily a good excuse, but it may have been the case.
Investor · Decatur Atlanta, GA · Member since 2011 · 610 posts · 232 votes
12y
@Alex Bejenaru They've been very aggessive in one of my target areas and have snatched up a few properties that I had targeted. The price the were selling them were actually good values. The have different agents for different areas and the one I was working with didn't have that area and I didn't get the deal. As has been mentioned here before always do the perform your ARV yourself. The ones I saw were fairly accurate, however, I went back and saw the job that the investor that purchased it did and they both repaired them to below that market area, but priced it to high and it's been sitting there for 3 months in an area where the right product is ususally gone in 60.
Lender · Yorba Linda, CA · Member since 2014 · 68 posts · 20 votes
12y
Thanks @David J. mentioned earlier this week in Burbank, CA. Much of the LA area is very similar to what you described. You can have a small section of street blocks that sell very well, then go into the next block and have a completely different outcome...even though homes are less than a 1/4 mile apart and look very similar to someone unfamiliar with the neighborhood (similar home style, built around the same time, same size, etc).
At the end of the day it is our responsibility to do our due diligence and analysis of each property. I personally prefer working with a smaller wholesaler operation that actually provides good analysis.
Specialist · Las Vegas, NV · Member since 2013 · 639 posts · 176 votes
12y
@Kareem Morad, you sound just like a lot of your colleagues from the larger wholesale operations and sorry to tell, I certainly don't take anything you guys say at face value - based on experience. For a start, you describe yourself here as a "Real Estate Investor" when in actual fact you are a NWA Executive. That's a big difference. You're not the only one misrepresenting themselves here.
So perhaps you might start by declaring your interest with your exact working title and interests and stop trying to fool people.
Investor · Roswell, GA · Member since 2008 · 231 posts · 104 votes
12y
We get several leads from them every month as well. Although we have not done a deal with them, there are 2 that we would have done but got beat out by other investors. Most of their deals are just not in our target market. You should view them no differently than anyone that wants to wholesale you a deal. Do your own due diligence and determine if the numbers make sense for you. If they are doing a double close, then just make sure you factor in those costs.
My only issue is something similar to what @J Scott referenced above. Even when plenty of comps exist in the same neighborhood, they still seem to cherry pick comps from a larger area with high sales price / square foot ratios.
As others have said above, if all of their deals were unprofitable they would go out of business and that doesnt seem to be the case.
As others have said above, if all of their deals were unprofitable they would go out of business and that doesnt seem to be the case.
That's not necessarily true. There are lots of dumb buyers out there... :-)
I'm certainly not saying all their deals are bad (they might all be good, who knows)...just that wholesalers don't need to have great deals to stay in business when there are so many stupid investors out there.
Investor · Cypress, TX · Member since 2013 · 403 posts · 59 votes
12y
Yeah, over inflation is very common with wholesalers. That's why you have to do your own analysis of each property. In my opinion I rarely see a good or great deal from them. They of course always want to make it sound like they have 20 people putting in a bid on the properties.
Lender · Yorba Linda, CA · Member since 2014 · 68 posts · 20 votes
12y
I'm always open to working with new Wholesalers, however, I get very skeptical when I can't even speak to the person who is actually putting the deal together. Their acquisitions managers don't even speak with anyone (that I know of) and leave it all to their account execs to solicit the properties to all potential buyers.
Despite my own apprehension, Their model seems to work considering the volume they do