Wholesaling without physically seeing the property. How?

Question

How would you wholesale a deal if you were in a position where you were not physically able to see the property and get the deal under contract in person? You can wholesale the deal in your area, but the problem is you are not able to travel out and get the house under contract.

Keith Ghion · Answer

Seth Williams are you rolling those out of pocket costs into your wholesaling fee for the end buyer or is that just a cost of doing business?  When do you determine that a property is ready for an inspection, once/if the numbers make sense?

Keith Ghion · Answer

Seth Williams yes absolutely thanks for the clarification!

Seth Williams · Answer

Keith Ghion - the process I'm describing above is generally used for properties that I buy myself, and then re-sell (not the traditional "wholesaling" model, per se) - but yes, when I do use the wholesaling approach, I just bury the cost in my wholesaling fee.

I typically determine that a property is ready for an inspection after I've run the numbers and the seller has accepted my offer (my purchase agreement has an inspection clause that allows me to renegotiate the price after I know what is ACTUALLY going on with the property).

Does that make sense?

Antonio Bodley · Answer

Seth Williams I was looking for something I can buy and flip.

Seth Williams · Answer

Hi Antonio Bodley - depending on the type of property you're looking at, you could approach it a couple of different ways.

With my vacant land parcels, I just call a realtor and ask them to drive by at their earliest convenience, take a few pictures and send them to me. Often times they'll do this for free (because they want me to work with them when it comes time to sell). If they want money, I'm usually willing to pay them $50 or so.

With a house or building, before you make an offer, you can take the same approach by calling a realtor (or even hiring someone on craigslist) to meet the seller or realtor at the property and do a quick video walk through and take some pictures (so you have a good idea of what you're making an offer on). Here is one example of what that could look like:

http://youtu.be/H5VXGyPqyZ4

If/when your offer is accepted, you would want to follow up by ordering a home inspection report (most inspectors will prepare a very large, detailed report with all the information you'd ever want to know), which will tell you pretty much everything you'll need to be aware of before you pull the trigger and purchase. I usually pay a maximum of $400 for these kinds of reports (and often times, even less).

If you're purchasing this property to be a rental, you could also ask a property manager to do a walk through as well. They can cross-check the inspector's work and verify that all of the potential issues are being accounted for. If you plan on hiring this property manager long-term, I would think that they should be willing to do this kind of thing for free.

Does this make sense?

Antonio Bodley · Answer

Seth Williams How much does it cost to get trusted individuals and professionals involved in the inspection process? I know they got to get paid something. How would I go about getting these people to do the inspection process?

Seth Williams · Answer

Antonio Bodley - technically, "going out to the homes" and "getting them under contract" are not dependent on each other (especially if you're wholesaling). They don't necessarily need to go hand-in-hand.

Seeing a property in person is never a bad idea, but the fact is, most of your research and correspondence is going to happen online and via mail anyway. If you can get other trusted individuals and professionals involved in the inspection process (which you probably should be doing anyway), you can rely on other forms of "seeing" the property than YOU physically being there.

Of the last dozen properties I got under contract, I probably only "saw" one or two of them in person. There are definitely ways to get around this issue if you are limited in your ability to travel.

Antonio Bodley · Answer

David  Niles I don't have anything available yet. I was seeing what other option  do I have to wholesale a deal considering my current situation of not being able to go out to the homes to get them under contract.

David Niles · Answer

Wasnt trying to shut you down Antonio, thought maybe some of what you were looking for might already be available.

Antonio Bodley · Answer

David  Niles Just curious. I have plenty of homes that could be potential wholesale deals right here in my own local area, but I have something come up and I am no longer able to travel out to the homes to get them under contract.

Wholesaling without physically seeing the property. How?

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