All Forum Posts by: Dev Horn

Jon is right - "non-trivial"... but you can do it if you understand the process and build the right team.  Hard to counsel you on all that in a posting on BP... but Jon has laid out a pretty good start here...

Best of luck to you!

Bandit signs can work, but make sure you know your local ordinances.   I have friends here in my market that have been fined $500 per sign!

They do work, however, the callers may not be qualified - i.e., they owe too much on their house, or it's a mobile home, they are in foreclosure, etc.  Every now and then you'll get a call from a good lead - you just have to weed thru a lot of junk.  This it true for any untargeted marketing method such as signs, billboards, etc.

Man, there are entire books that cover the questions you asked!  =) A couple that I recommend are right here on BP:
http://get.biggerpockets.com/flippingbook/

Get some business cards so you have a way to network with other professionals.

Find a local RE Investor meeting and go to it.

Learn everything you can about wholesaling and MARKETING.

Do a lot of research here on BP.

We have a bunch of free educational videos you can see here.

I am intrigued by your idea! But not sure about the ROI... But WOW that is "out of the box" thinking!

I wonder if I could generate similar interest by giving away my car?  =)

Wow.  I'd like to see the rest of the house - that is a SUPER nice rehab!

Thanks for sharing this Scott!

Krista - the bad news is December just sucks for finding motivated sellers.  The good news is January tends to be the BEST month (we generate more leads in January than any other month).  Now, given that the winter can slow things down in the northeast, maybe the peak might be Feb - Mar there.  The point is, what you do in December is just an investment in awareness, in staying in touch with prospects, etc.  You'll see a lot more activity in the first quarter of 2015.

So, don't get discouraged & enjoy the holidays.  You're about to have a killer year.  ;-)

//

"You never really lose until you stop trying." ~ Mike Ditka

In many markets, i don't think "wholesaling" is viable, because the cost to get leads and the number of leads it takes to get a "deal" result in a very high marketing cost per deal. 

And the gurus routinely come here to Dallas and put up slides showing $40K wholesale deals.  That's beyond hopeful.  You might find that assignment fee in Los Angeles; certainly not here in Dallas (or 1,000 other markets).

So people get started in this business with expectations that were created by hucksters and info-marketers - not at all based in reality.  That's what really fuels the failure rate - and even the major gurus will admit the failure rate is closer to 90% if not higher.

I really think the term "wholesaler" is super limiting.  My profile video here on BP goes into why I think wholesaling is effectively a non-profit strategy in 2014-15, and what I recommend that you should do to re-position yourself as a "solution provider" with more than one way to make $$.

The % is not the big problem (although, it is a problem at 7.3% for this amount of risk). The big problem, as many have mentioned, is the term - expecting people to make a 15-year investment from their IRA. And I don't think it has anything to do with large or small IRAs...

Most IRA investors, I'd guess, might buy 5-year notes or things like that with a short-term back to liquidity. And most IRA investors seek to reduce risk through diversification.

I'd rather buy an S&P Index Fund - which is highly liquid and rides with the S&P - than risk my IRA bucks on a 15 year note held my a single mortgagor and secured by a single piece of real property.

I'm not raining on the parade here - I love creative financing. Just not sure how attractive the deal would be for IRA investors...

@Jerry Puckett is dead on right, as usual!

Truth is, in some counties the Listsource data has big holes in (like no bedroom count).  Add that filter and results go to zero.

I've found LS to be inconsistent on many of the secondary or descriptive filters, I'm assuming because there are no data standards across counties.  You get what they get.

Good news is key filters like property type = SFR and Equity % seem to work in all the markets we're in...

Listing agents rarely show your home - it's usually buyer's agents coming thru.  If the listing broker offers no assistance on the offer/contract, then yeah, you really need to know your state contract and what the gotcha's are in a real property negotiation.

You'll still pay the buy side commission, assume that's 3%, but that's only if you sell.

If you don't sell in the listing period, assume you are out the $600 because it was a simply a service vs. a traditional listing.