All Forum Posts by: Braden C.

@NaDean Bowles Right now we're having really good results with multi-family. Our county has several different zoning classifications for multi so we hit all of them. Some list sources won't include all of them, for example we have a duplex classification, 3 or more houses, multi family, garden apartments, and several others. The list isn't huge and we have a mailing company so we don't put in any criteria other than the zoning.

We've also been doing more owner occupied in specific neighborhoods that we know are transforming in a good way. It's worked well with not only buying properties but also converting some into listings since I have a brokerage. 

@NaDean Bowles Ahhh, got it, my bad. 

Are you seeing more competition from other investors who are sending mail? About 18 months ago we had a huge increase in out of town investors mailing to our market and new investors sending mail too. They all have mostly fizzled out but our cost per acquisition went way up there for a while. 

@NaDean Bowles I've been sending direct mail for nearly a decade and yes, the list is really important, but there's a lot more to it. I just got off the phone with a lead and his exact words were "I get letters all the time but nobody ever answers or calls me back." This is a huge mistake new investors make by either trying to outsource the answering process or simply not having a good system in place before they spend money on mailers. 

How comfortable are you on the phone when it does ring? Most of us were very nervous when we started which is completely natural, sellers hear that in your voice. As you take more calls your confidence will grow. 

Another issue is just timing. Sometimes you just hit the right person on the right day, more frequent mailings to the same list will increase this chance. 

What does your letter or postcard say? Could it need some tweaking to make the phone ring more? Multi family has been a very strong list for us recently, but my market might be different than yours. 

There are several other factors to consider as well. If you'd like, shoot me a PM and I'll try and help you if I can.  

Welcome to BP, be prepared for a lot of mixed opinions/emotions regarding wholesaling. Since I am in Florida, the first thing I would recommend is for you to get your RE license. Although it's rarely enforced, the state does in fact look upon wholesaling as brokering without a license. Just because it's rarely enforced doesn't mean it won't/can't be enforced and you'd hate to be one of the first people to deal with the consequences. Having the license is super beneficial because you can earn additional income from helping friends/family and also convert non wholesale deals to listings if the seller isn't motivated enough. 

The other advice I'll offer is to not try and absorb a ton of information from lots of different people. Wholesaling can be done many different ways and there are many different strategies. If you start trying to do all of them, you're going to get very overwhelmed. 

Lastly, don't let anyone tell you that wholesaling doesn't work or it can't be done. Although I also do flips and rentals, I still wholesale plenty of properties every year. 

Best of luck! Reach out if you need any help. 

I am not sure for every state, but in Florida there are brokerages that allow you to hang your license to keep it active without having to join any boards. You can't get MLS access with these types of brokerages but it does give you the "active" status.

It's not very hard at all to get your RE license and then you don't have to worry about if/when it becomes illegal. You can also earn additional income as an agent, even if you just help family and friends with one or two transactions per year. You could of course earn a lot of extra income by offering to list properties for potential sellers that don't work out as wholesale deals. As an agent, you will need to disclose to all potential sellers that you have a license but in my 10 years and several hundred completed deals, it's never once been an issue and if anything has helped with some credibility. 

One thing I would add to the conversation is, don't be quick to throw in the towel if you aren't getting immediate results. I often see people do one or two mailings and then give up because they didn't get a deal yet, or pause their adwords campaigns, or stop driving for dollars, or stop cold calling, or fire their SEO manager... All of these things work and will help you find deals, you might need to fine tune them as you go but they all work, trust me.

@Derrick E. Why would the opinion of someone on a message board hurt my feelings? We can agree to disagree about something without insulting, calling names and/or accusing people of things that simply aren't true. 

I don't agree with anything you've said, but I respect that it's your opinion about wholesaling. Best of luck to you and your future endeavors!

Do I wholesale? Yes, all the time, it's an excellent strategy. I also rehab (closing on a $400k house today actually), and own several multi-family rentals. Do I have the ability to close on everything I put under contract? Yes, and unless we miss something major we will close. Sometimes we miss something on an initial walk-thru or when we run our preliminary comps and we cancel within our short 7 day inspection period, I would say that's probably one out of every thirty. Will I close if I plan to wholesale the property if I already have a buyer lined up? Heck no! Why on earth would I spend extra money or take time holding a property if the end goal will be the exact same if I just assigned the contract? 

You call doubling up on a property a day after you close unethical, I call it scamming, some might call it criminal. If you are ok with it, like you said you are, then good for you. Scum is in every area of real estate, and it's easy to spot. 

@Derrick E.

So it's not scamming or misleading if you actually buy the property? Only if you wholesale it before closing? Let's say I walk into a 90 year old widows house and convince her to sell to me for $100k and then turn around the day after closing and sell it for $200k, you're ok with that? But it's a total scam if I convince her to sell it for $180k and then assign the contract for $190k without ever closing or using my own money? I hope you realize you basically said you're cool with taking advantage of people as long as you use your own money to do it.