All Forum Posts by: Andrew Herrig

@James Edmister I am a wholesaler with a full-time W2 job. It is difficult to balance, because the best leads don't wait for you to go on lunch break or get off work to call them back. I have returned calls within a couple hours and found out I had already lost the deal to someone who moved quicker. I have outsourced some of the acquisition tasks because of that, but you have to treat it like a business to succeed, not a side project.

My end goal is to quit my day job and wholesale full time. If that is not your goal, I would honestly discourage you from going the wholesaler route. Focus on paying off debt and growing your career. Maybe pick up a rental property or two. Don't succumb to shiny object syndrome and go after everything and succeed at nothing.

@Ryan Green's advice is pretty spot on. With a $200k budget you are probably not going to get a duplex and good schools within 20-30 minutes of Dallas. Lewisville and the HEB area (Hurst, Euless, Bedford) may be some other options that would get close to your price range.

@Warren Robinson DFW is a huge area. Can you share some more specifics about what you're looking for? Location/access to city, size of town, price range, etc?

@James Edmister Wholesaling and fix-and-flipping are jobs, not necessarily investing. Both are pretty tough right now in the highly-competitive DFW market. I would think really hard about going that route. It can definitely be profitable, but so can putting your head down and working hard at your W2, especially early in your career.

What is your big "why" for getting into real estate at this point in your life? Unless you have a good answer to that question, you are at risk for getting into it and quickly burning out when difficulties arise (and they will).

If you really want to get into rental properties, I would look into if you could even get a loan on an investment property given your debt to income ratio. Keep in mind for non-owner occupied you will have to put at least 20-25% down on a conventional loan. Do you have that kind of money sitting around? There are a lot of creative ways to acquire property with little or no money, but one of the easiest is house hacking (buying a multifamily, living in one unit and renting out the others). Striking that off the list of possibilities right off the bat makes me question your "why".

At the end of the day, the question of paying off debt first or investing in real estate first is really a question of temperament. If you can find an investment that returns more than the interest on your debt, mathematically that is the best use of your dollar. Personally, I don't think I could sleep at night if I was actively acquiring new debt on rental properties when I had $200k+ in student loan debt hanging over my head.

@James Perez Struggling to get one per month, but I have changed some things up lately so I need another 3 months or so to really tell how I'm doing. 

@James Perez I am mailing about 4000 pieces per month. Mostly postcards. I would say my postcard response rate is 0.25-0.5%, letters not much better. The market is highly saturated here. It is possible to get some listing leads. My wife is an agent as well, and we have a few leads that have come in we are working as listings. It really depends what areas you plan to mail. We generally mail to median value or below, which don't make great listing leads.

Congrats @Account Closed, the house looks great! It's amazing what landscaping can do for curb appeal.

Would you be willing to share some numbers (purchase price, rehab, sales price, etc.)?

@Mike Collier House looks great! I like the paint color you chose for the exterior.

@William Laurent What % of ARV do wholesale deals sell for in your market? If you don't know, find out - talk to other investors (rehabbers and landlords) and other wholesalers.

In my market, I can sell flips at 80% of ARV all day long, and rentals even higher than that. I know that is not the norm everywhere, but there are few markets that strictly follow the 70% rule these days.

In any case, $150k is too high for any investor and the seller is being unrealistic in my opinion. If they want $150k, I would suggest they list it with an agent. I would then follow up with them every 30 days or so until they either sell or become more reasonable. Time tends to increase motivation.

@Tiffany S. There is no way to get conventional financing on an investment property for less than 20% down (that I'm aware of). If you don't have 20-25% for a downpayment, you're going to need to look into some creative options. Would the owner be willing to do seller financing? Can you partner with someone who does have the funds? I would suggest buying it and owner-occupying, but it sounds like you just bought a primary residence.

Is this house listed on the MLS or is it a private seller? Either way, it sounds like you need to do some due diligence on what the property is actually worth. $210k may be a good offer, it may be too low, or it may even be too high. If you're using a realtor, get them to pull comps for you for the property value as well as market rents.