All Forum Posts by: Alison M.

My favorite hostile responder has spent lots of time and some money trying to irk me.

First, she called on the phone and called me a "malicious cow" and and every other name she could think of because I was snooping around in people's public records, and it wasn't anyone's business if she hadn't paid her property taxes! (Neither my letter nor I said a word about property taxes.)

Then she sent me a long, hand-written letter about what scum I was and how she was NEVER going to sell her beautiful house in Washington DC. Straight to the trash can after a dramatic stage reading to my husband, who laughed his a** off.

THEN she sent me a *package* a couple of weeks ago - with several more of my old letters in it! - and it was beautifully hand-addressed with "personal and confidential" on the front. By now I recognized her postmark and handwriting and threw it into recycling without opening (my husband was mad, he wanted to read it).

AND SHE NEVER TOLD ME HER NAME OR PROPERTY ADDRESS. I figured it out from her postmark though ;-).

That's in line with my thinking Tim Delp. I also spoke to a large-scale landlord in DC today who has several thousand rental units here and in other cities. He knows the neighborhoods where the houses are and was leaning toward a 10-cap sales price which gave me a good guideline. Thanks for your response!

Here in the DC area we have a couple of choices. The DC newspapers publish everything needed for DC residents, and you can get it on their web sites if you're willing to sift through.

Outside DC, the major county courthouse records are also available on-line with the required information. Some have free access, others require you pay a subscription fee. Just depends on how much time and money you want to spend to have access from home.

I looked into hiring a courthouse runner to gather probates but at $75 an hour that was a non-starter :-).

Hi all,

I'm working with 2 highly motivated sellers who own single family rental properties in DC with established Section 8 tenants in them. I haven't wholesaled a rental property before but figured this was a good opportunity to figure out how.

My question is this: how much do I offer them for the properties? The prospective buyer would be a buy-and-hold investor, not a rehab/resell buyer which is who I usually wholesale to. The 70% MAO doesn't seem to fit, and the sellers rightly aren't willing to let them go that cheap.

All suggestions welcome, bring it on!

Thanks, Alison

I like that Aaron. "Little clouds of equity." Thanks.

" But until everything signed at the closing table, its still not a done deal."

Truest of all words! Marketing is the lifeblood of this business, for sure.
Thanks for responding

My worst day as a wholesaler was when I found out the day of closing that the seller had a $100k IRS lien going back 12 years. That was not a good day.

Who else? I'm sure if you've been in the business long enough you've got some stories to tell!

Hi all, I'm a little bummed tonight about a deal that has hit a bump and it got me to thinking - on average how many of your wholesale deals don't work out?

I've had 2 in a row since July that have cratered, both from sellers who wanted more than the market would support. Overall all I'd say about 30% of my wholesale contracts never get to close. Anyone else want to share?

Not looking for advice, just thought we could exchange some war stories :-).

Alison

Hey Ivan, welcome. I'm in Northern Virginia also. There is a great real estate investors club that meets the 3rd Thursday of the month at Tyson's Corner that I can recommend highly. Do a query on Traction Real Estate Investors Association and you should find the link easily. I get no benefit from suggesting them, just think it's a great way for investors to meet and learn.

A couple of other ideas:

If you have MRIS access then you can see where the cash buyers are buying in your area, and market in those areas.

It's much easier to figure out what's working if you keep track of results. Try setting up a spreadsheet to track your mailings and responses, or use one of the ones offered here by BP readers. Michael Quarles has one at his yellow letters mail web site you might try.

Maybe they don't want the competition and are trying to scare you off! It's entirely possible.