All Forum Posts by: David Bokman

The best thing you can do for yourself and get out of the house and attend some local real estate meets up. There is pretty much 1 every single day in Philly. You can find them all at meetup.com then select your local city and real estate, they all pop up. I would go to a few and start talking with other like-minded individuals. 

Where are you pulling those comps from? I would be careful going as far as .50 miles away. Philly is block by block and most investors including myself only care about what 0.01-0.25 and no further.  If your agent is pulling comps that far away I would suggest you get a new agent to work with. Those numbers won't work.

99.9% of all off-market/wholesale deals are done with either cash or hard/private money only. Very difficult to get a loan for a wholesale deal depending on the condition. 

You have to utilize all strategies, not just one.  It's the age of technology so anyone not using it is missing the boat. There's no secret to wholesaling and how to find sellers. Mail, social media, Google paid adwords, door knocking, etc etc etc. As for mailers the general rule of thumb is about 1-3% response rate. Out of that hopefully, you get some deals depending on the quality and consistency of your campaigns. If you don't plan on mailing for a minimum 3-5 months don't even bother.  Pick one or 2 strategies such as targeting vacant houses and probates and go after them. 

Just like any other business, you would bring everything that is needed such as:

1. Business cards and any other marketing material you may have
2. Contract and comps 100%
3. Checklist of items that need repair in the home so you can calculate potential rehab cost
4. Flashlight
5. Lockbox

Just a few.

There is no "best' method, you gotta do them all in today's world.  If you don't have any money the only thing you can do is hit the streets and door knock, drive for dollars and network.  Most wholesalers in the area are mailing out 5000 + per month if not more. The best thing you can do is try to find a deal and bring it to a more experienced wholesaler in the area that can walk you through the process. 

Do yourself a favor and don't listen to one person with one bad experience. Just like any other profession, there are good and not so good in every field, including agents and brokers.  The best deals will always be off-market and in each market out of 10 wholesalers, there are 1-2 doing all the deals. It's your job to find them.  Most realtors and brokers don't even know what an off-market deal is.  To answer your question, yes there are some agents who bring off-market deals, but where do you think they find them? WHOLESALERS!!!! ;-)

Go to Meetups.com, search Philadelphia and then real estate. You should see about 3-8 groups that meet weekly, monthly, etc. 

@Ryan Bartlett I understand, but on the flip side, you are not becoming a realtor for "free" at all. It's gonna take time and money on your end and then you need to find a place to hang your license. Just because you pass the test doesn't mean you can start being an agent. Also, as an investor having a license can complicate things because as an agent your responsibility is towards the seller/buyer and not yourself. Some people will disagree with me on this but it's just my view on the topic. The only benefit I see to having a license is the fact you get access to MLS. I would start looking at Off-Market deals rather than trying to find something on the MLS. Having a license can def be a plus but certainly not needed at all for what you want to do. They teach you nothing about investing, most agents don't even know what an off-market deal is, if you don't either I would start looking into that.

The sites don't matter, some are a bit better with the way they present the info, but at the end of the day there all the same. 

In order to "bird dog" correctly you have to have some idea of what to look for. Do you know what you're looking for? And who are you gonna send the lead too once you find one? 2 big questions. Most referral fees are only paid if the lead actually turns out to be a deal, so there is no guarantee your gonna start making money right away. 

I would pick an area of town that you are familiar with, preferably one that has some new construction around or parts of town that more favorable. Start looking for vacant houses, boarded up homes, front lawns that look like they haven't been cut in months etc etc etc......then you need to find the owners of those properties which isn't always easy. Who do you know in your network that has a home or property that might be interested in selling? I would start right there.