Is it possible to wholesale deals outside of my area?

[Renae Bliss]

Unfortunately, it seems the market in Milwaukee is slow. I am wondering if it is possible to wholesale or do a deal where Im' looking to gain cash flow from a property OUTSIDE of my area?

[Michael Quarles]

Hello,

I all business there are 3 things that must be carried out in order to be successful.

1) Lead Generation
2) Lead Capture
3) Lead Fulfillment

Lead generation is fairly easy to perform outside your market as long as you implement a paid marketing approach. In other words you can’t network, hang bandit signs, and use decals on your vehicle or anyone of the number of ways to market yourself through sweat marketing. You can send direct mail, run classified ads, post craigslist and such.

Lead capture is also easy. The key component here is that the person responding to your advertising thinks that you are local, which is easy to accomplish by buying a local telephone number or various local telephone numbers to track which campaigns are performing over another campaign. You can either have a voicemail or answering service handle the calls. I am not certain I would handle them yourself as your street knowledge or lack thereof may hinder your performance during the original call. Too many references are going to be made to local areas and unless you have a firm grasp on the local market this maybe awkward. The follow up call is less awkward since you’re calling back about a specific property and can dictate the conversation better.

Lead Fulfillment is another story. Fulfillment encompasses both buying and selling of the property. From my perspective the reselling is fairly easy since I dump everything on the MLS and let a Selling agent sell it for me. However if wholesaling then I will need to create a buyers list which absolutely can be done however without a meeting in person with the prospect it may be an obstacle that will interfere with a full resell wholesale value.

As for buying the property. I have found that this is easy as long as you have two systems in place.
1) The ability to manage and locate your core team members from a long distance. Your core team is made up of.
• Realtors or Agents, three being the optimal number.
• Roof Certification Contractor
• Termite Contractor
• Home Inspector
• Handyman and/or General Labor Contractor. (Not a General Building Contractor)
• Closing company/Escrow-Title company
• Lenders (For lenders I would want an Equity Lender, which is different than a Hard-Money Lender, an A paper lender and a Marginal Lender. The reason for the equity lender is that this professional is the most qualified to give you Price Opinions.
2) The ability to communicate and orchestrate obtaining contracts via Fedex, Email, Mail, Fax or Courier. Your communication style must be “this is how it I do it” and not deviate from this model. If you don’t believe neither will the seller.

Also note two things. One, you’ll do less deals per marketing dollar and two, more deals will be from highly motivated sellers. Your seller will probably be absentee which your city absentee model fits. An absentee seller 2 states away isn’t going to want to travel to meet you whereas an owner occupant will want to “Show” you the house.

Lastly this model is absolutely driven by MARKETING. There is little you will have direct influence over. So don’t be afraid to spend the money.