Real Estate Investor · Tacoma, WA · Member since 2013 · 87 posts · 55 votes
Where are all these wholesalers with all these deals? I've been contacted by several wholesalers, but when I ask for deals, crickets chirp. Sounds like big talk, no action.
Investor · Willow Spring, NC · Member since 2009 · 5k+ posts · 3k+ votes
10y
They haven't finished the course yet. Marketing and hype are in the first half, along with web sites, etc. The second half is pitching and negotiating. Then they have to 'buy up' with the upsell seminar to get to the point of actually having a property under contract. ;)
Rental Property Investor · Decatur, GA · Member since 2016 · 155 posts · 57 votes
10y
Wow,
This post was exhausting and I was debating if I'd even respond, as the temperature of the conversation is condescending and argumentative which eliminates any chance of a resourceful conversation... Though, Against my better judgement, I will...
First off, you can't judge every wholesaler by the ones you've encountered. I pride myself and my company on doing it the right way (i.e.. Informing the seller of my intent, sending contract to my closing Attorney immediately to pull title, water, solid waste, property taxes, outstanding liens, etc). Oh, and not to mention have made a descent amount of money as well.
As with every profession, there are good and bad seeds. For example... I've dealt with some RE agents that didn't have a clue and would say/do anything for a commission. I've dealt with closing attorneys that made me wonder if they'd ever done a closing. I've met some Investors whose methods I felt were *** backwards. I've dealt with contractors that couldn't give an accurate SOW if their life depended on it. The list goes on. That being said, there are also many individuals in each of those realms, that I count on everyday that are my closest acquaintances and biggest assets in my "Wholesaling" business.
It is true, when first starting out it is market one of the most attainable ways to get into the the REI field, which makes it appeal to the masses, and some do jump the gun. It's definitely HARD/Dirty work. But I challenge you to, instead of criticizing someone that may be green and trying to enter into this field that most of us love and enjoy, to take a second to point them in the right direction. I can assure you most would be appreciative and who knows, they may end up be one your biggest resources.
BTW @John Thedford there are many fix and flippers, Buy and Holders, Property Managers, etc., that also wholesale. Are they also searching for an identity? Or just the ones that wholesale exclusively?
Thanks @Carl Brown@Chris Piper @Account Closed personally an can vouch for his professionalism and standards of how he operates his business!
Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
10y
@Carl Brown I think the start of all this was the blog last sept by marcus something were he pretty much chapter and verse laid out all that is totally wrong and unethical about the way many are taught to wholesale.
1. NO EM trade taking the trash to the dump for EM or 10 dollar EM .. what a joke.
2. use your Due diligence 10 days and try to extend as far as reasonable to find a buyer.. knowing you can always get out if you don't find a buyer.
3. use small EM so if you want to keep marketing the house past your due diligence when you don't close you only lost 10 bucks..
4. Use the all to famous partner or investment partners approval who may or may not exist..
NOT one thing in his blog post about be ethical honest and helping the seller it was all about how you can tie up property with no money no intent to close personally and the heck with the seller.. that was one crummy piece of advice in my opinion and I am shocked that BP management let it be on their site.. no wonder there are legions of these folks out there.. they think BP is some endorsement of all these individuals that make these posts.. IE its on BP it must be right. Then they just go and talk to others like a mina bird repeating the junk this guy posted.
If your licensed in GA Carl you should put your license number at the bottom of your signature.
AS for not buying deals from MLS or realtors this is just total hog Wash I personally buy well over 100 homes a year and probably closer to 200.. and the vast majority are bought
1. through the real estate community.
2. Auction .com really like this site it keeps rift raft no money wholesalers away from our great deals.
3. Hubzu
4. connections with local banks.
5. wholesalers who send product to those that I fund..
To give the idea you can't get deals on MLS is just not true... But there are deals from wholesalers but its Caveat Emptor to the extreme.. some of those boys in TEXAS are just horrid..
Any way... please post your license number for all since you said you have one... that right there moves you up in my book.. most of the wholesalers we do buy from are licensed especially the Florida one's were its mandatory to have a license if you going to be selling RE.. again many break the law but that's the case in a lot of states.
Investor · Orlando, FL · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 780 votes
10y
FYI. Good wholesalers help each other out because we both have different buyers with different tastes. Carl Brown brought me a buyer from Canada for a property I was marketing in Orlando. And the closing went smoothly. So the good ones do help each other.
Rental Property Investor · Decatur, GA · Member since 2016 · 155 posts · 57 votes
10y
@John Thedford are you referring to MY post? If so, please point out in MY post anywhere that either "Libel or Defamation of Character" would come into play?
I mentioned your name once, it was in a question format, and respectfully... Might I add!
Atlanta, GA · Member since 2016 · 41 posts · 19 votes
10y
Hey y'all, hope all is well!
I'm a 19 year old "Wholesaler", & I got started by attending a "Get rich quick seminar" that turned out to be a huge sales pitch, but as I was doing research on some topics they were talking about... I found out that you could actually make it work, but not with the get rich quick mentality.
Most people are introduced to wholesaling as a get quick rich/ little risk way to get started in Real Estate, & these gurus feed on the emotions and gullibility of people. I was one of those people! But what separates winners from people who fail is; Motivation, hard work, and action. That very next day I was calling myself a wholesaler, and I wonder how many others were as well. You can give people the steps but not everyone has the drive. If that seminar would've told me I would have to get up everyday at 6AM, market on the internet, doorknock for 6 hours a day, post fliers, pass out business cards, put out bandit signs, learn contracts, learn ARV/Repair costs/ how to analyze a deal, etc... then I probably wouldn't have been too excited, but I love doing what I do and progressing.
A year after starting this journey I've learned a lot, but still so little. I've closed a handful of Wholesale deals and I'm taking my Exam to get licensed tomorrow (just so my foundation is stronger), all of this while being in school.
I've found that getting a pay check is nice, but when a seller looks at you at closing and says.. "Thank you, you've taken a huge burden off of me and have helped me a lot"... that's an even better reward.
If more wholesalers looked at themselves as a problem solver & a marketer then I think there will be a better reputation... ofcorse it would help if Gurus didn't pitch wholesaling as a get rich quick scheme.
But after reading this thread, I pray that y'all will take into consideration other people's circumstances. You have to start somewhere, you have to learn somewhere... you have to make mistakes and fail somewhere to progress. If I waited until I was the "perfect" wholesaler, I would've never started.
With that being said: There are a lot of tire kickers and bs people in the industry, but that's every industry.
Today I've closed 4 wholesale deals in 2 months, which isn't much, but it's a lot for me & im taking my Real Estate exam tomorrow at 5:00 PM, to get licensed and have an even better foundation(:
Everyone is so quick to want to change their reality, but no one wants to work on themselves.
Everything that's worth it won't come easy. So, if you want a rockstar wholesaler just keep looking, weed out the ones you dont want to work with & keep close the ones you do... That's the effort you have to put in on your part, deals won't just fall into you lap.
It's hard to come across off market deals where a seller has both motivation, equity, and etc.
if it wasn't hard, there wouldn't be a need for wholesalers... There's two sides on REI •Investing as a business & •Investing when you have money.
I went to a REIA a few weeks ago, and they were just stressing how wholesalers present them horrible deals or deals that aren't in their criteria... but in retrospect... Real Estate Investing is subjective. Not everyone the same needs (because of risk tolerance, goals, etc). What might be a killer deal for John, may not be a deal for Billy. & A wholesaler (unless youre a bird dog), doesn't work for you.. It's either a deal for you, or it's not a deal for you... but maybe they'll bring something that fits your criteria if they hang in the biz long enough.
So, I just wanted to say... cut wholesalers some slack. People are trying, & we are all in this together. Unless you have burned me in a deal then there shouldn't be any hostility, especially on bigger pockets... where we're a community of colleagues, a resource for learning, and a shoulder to lean on. But then again, I'm still a novice.. so what do I know? lol
I wish you all the best of success, Trey.
Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
10y
@Trey Brooks@Account Closed I been thinking about this stuff when I was driving to Costco only to find out it was closed today :)
The main issue at least for me who is someone who has been licensed since 1975.. and got licenses in states I needed them over the years.. IE Oregon Mississippi etc.
It really boils down to selling RE without a licesne and disguising it as some kind of equitable interest etc etc.. now we know some states are cracking down, Like Ohio FLA CA and others.
But it dawned on me when I started my career in 1975.. I specialized in land that was dog tough to sell.... and the market was tough then.... Just like most wholesalers are specializing in tough to sell hoarder houses or houses that need a bunch of rehab.. or low price points were charging a customary RE brokerage commission just makes it a non starter I totally get that and agree with that no one wants to make 6% of a 20k deal.
So for me it was the same... a lot of my land listing took a year or more to sell. were 10 to 50 miles back into the national forest north of San Fran and it was half a day to show it.. there was no way I could make money charging a normal commission. and one thing that we must remember commissions are negotiable.. So my commissions went from a minimum of 15% to 25% were they higher than the 10% of the day for sure.. Did I get the job done YOU BET I would encourage sellers to try the other agents and after a year come to me.. I would get them more for the property and get paid at the same time..
with these low value assets I do see realtors charging a fixed fee 2k to 2500 is common even on a 10k deal..
I also looked back to 2004 when I had the Jay Hinrichs team and was doing fly buy program with SF bay area investors flying to Oregon to buy income properties. There was one developer of duplex's that the locals were having a hard time selling.. I negotiated a 12% commission on 300k sale prices.. Explaining to the developer I will sell them and probably net them more than 6% just sitting on MLS. I spent 55K of my own money for one weekend presentation where I had 100 investors come to listen to me present Portland income property. and I sold all 22 duplex's in that one weekend.. and made 36k a piece in commissions paid to me on the HUD just like any other real estate broker. would make I paid my team members out of that.. and still made about 500k on that deal by spending 55k up front and being the Real Estate professional I am or think I am .
So as I brainstorm here is there a way you guys could run your wholesale business by being brokers like the buys I work with in Orlando.. and on these hard to sell homes that really can only be sold to investors because they are not financeable ( ore the majority are not) if you just took a flat fee listing say you want to make 10k a deal.. you simply get a listing agreement that calls for 10k instead of a % and its up to the seller if they want to accept the offer.. you need not do any of this .. contract stuff tying it up.. double escrow all that... would this not be workable.. Since your saying your 100% transparent to the seller and they know your going to make money and not buy the asset your self.
???? what do you think.. or do you think?? Also do each and every seller know EXACTLY how much you make on each deal.. are you that transparent.. or would you be worried that the sellers would think your making too much and balk.
Could be a new twist on wholesaling or for that matter selling real estate legally... I know you can't take net listings but commissions as stated are negotiable.. down ( like we see in our uber hot expensive markets) and UP in markets like yours that have beat up houses that need cash buyers etc.
Rental Property Investor · Decatur, GA · Member since 2016 · 155 posts · 57 votes
10y
@Jay Hinrichs If there is an assignment then, yes, the seller know's exactly what you are making. It's listed on the HUD and paid through that as well. I can't speak for everyone else but in my contract I make it a point that the seller pay close attention that "I plan to make money on the deal, by purchasing myself, as I have done in the past, or by assignment for a fee..."
Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
10y
@Account Closed correct John.. I am only active in CA and OR.. and my NMLS mortgage banker state of Oregon license is inactive as well.. My drivers license is good.. My pilots license is good but I need a biannual for my "IFR " rating and am working on that currently. although my plane's MFD ( multi function display went TU) and that's 20k to replace..
I got the brokers license in MS when I had a bunch of OREO that I wanted to auction off.. I advertised this auction. and even though I owned all the houses.. in MS you MUST be a broker to legally run an auction.. and I had no less than three auctioneers call me on it and threaten to turn me in if I did not use them.
So I had reciprocal to state of MS>. it was a whopping 14 questions test of which I got 12 right .. more like taking a drivers exam.. I then became a out of state MS broker for the purposes of doing the auction.. I was also contemplating some other brokerage activities but decided against it and did not want to take the CRE so its inactive I can activate anytime I need to.
Since my company Buys and Closes on each and every home we contract for I don't need a license in the 12 states I work in.. as I am the principal and our companies pay cash and close and then rehab and resell. either to turn key buyers or retail clients depending on my vendor.. I used to do this as a HML but with the regs the way they are its too much brain drain and overhead easier for me to simply buy the asset for my teams in situ.
Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
10y
@Account Closed since your in the trenches what do you think your sellers would do.. if you simply brought them a listing agreement ( subject to you being a licensed agent of course) and simply charged a flat fee that was worth your while... do you think they would balk..
Can you not see the benefits here.. you get 90 to 180 day listings NO EM no opening escrow until you have an actual buyer.. you get paid just like your doing now... and no one can make a claim that your selling RE without a license like can be made in many states the way wholesalers assign contracts.
what do you think do you think your sellers would go for that ?
Rental Property Investor · Decatur, GA · Member since 2016 · 155 posts · 57 votes
10y
@Jay Hinrichs I definitely see your point. But to be blunt, why should I care what others think or claim. As long as I operate lawfully and ethically in the markets that I target and MY sellers and end buyer are happy and feel that they have gotten a fair deal I can sleep at night. If I decide to extend my efforts to FLA or any other market where it is required by law to be licensed, I'll be the first in line to do so!
You make some great points and I agree, there are benefits to being licensed... I have and still am considering doing so, but I'll never let the need for approval by naysayers be my motivation.
Rental Property Investor · Decatur, GA · Member since 2016 · 155 posts · 57 votes
10y
@John Thedford I agree on both ends. I appreciate the input from @Jay Hinrichs. I'm always open to different views and ways of doing things. I jump at any opportunity to engage in healthy conversation! Just because we have different opinions on a subject doesn't mean there's any disrespect!
I appreciate everyone who's added constructive insight to this discussion!
Real Estate Broker · Naples, FL · Member since 2013 · 9k+ posts · 6k+ votes
10y
anyone know carl brown's middle name? Unless I overlooked it I did not see any license # on either his profile or FB page. I see Victoria Stevenson as the registered agent and the company appears to have been first registered in 7/2016. I will reach out to her next week regarding my previous post.
Some people are certainly not what they claim to be on BP or the internet for that matter.
Real Estate Broker · Naples, FL · Member since 2013 · 9k+ posts · 6k+ votes
10y
re: carl brown
I found two carl brown's listed by the state of GA as RE licensees. One is inactive and the other hangs their license with Jon Kohler and associates. The top name is also a carl brown that is inactive. My name and license number ARE posted in my profile and also show on www.myfloridalicense.com. Maybe he is not really a licensee OR...the state made a horrible mistake:) We will find out soon!
Residential Real Estate Investor · Kansas City, MO · Member since 2014 · 10k+ posts · 5k+ votes
10y
There are a good number of wholesalers who don't really know what they're doing. It's a business that's really easy to enter after all. But there are good one's. The best place to meet them is, in my opinion, at your local REIA.
Investor · Marietta, GA · Member since 2016 · 131 posts · 84 votes
10y
@Account Closed dude you are hilarious! lol I got a kick out of your comments. You should really take your meds man. I've noticed several of your post attempting to knock down wholesalers as if you are some RE God. Post a picture Lee so we can see what you look like. If you don't like wholesalers so much you should go back to selling firearms. Happy Labor day everyone!! Back to the grill I go!! Enjoy!
Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
10y
@Account Closed if your back from the grill ( I am going to fire up my green egg here shortly ) what do you think of my idea of simply flat fee listings and for those really hard to sell houses you price it accordingly.. No having to go into contract... no EM sell to end buyer like your doing now.. Plus you eliminate the end buyer going around you as you have a listing agreement. What do you think?
Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
10y
@Account Closed Do NOT wait another minute go Green Egg and no imitators once you have one you will wonder why it took you so long I know it did me.. I use mine virtually every day I am home and not on the road..
Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes
10y
@Account Closed go ahead and get the extra large one.. you will need that if you like to cook multiple slabs of ribs at the same time I have a regular and its OK for the two of us.. but grill gets crowded if I need to cook for a whole bunch... enjoy its a super BBQ Weaponj.