All Forum Posts by: Elbert D.

There are some interesting points here.....one thing people forgot to mention is its almost never going be equal because if you are looking at a 2 unit and a 4 unit rehabbed and playing close to retail for both.......looking down the road Im sure the rehab cost of the 4 unit would be outrageous depending on the neighbourhood. 4 bathrooms and 4 kitchens.......Therefore it would be harder to sell.  From my experience 2 units perform a little bit better on Cash on Cash return percentage. It depends on the area, I know....but also depending where these two MFHs are.....you also have to add in the garbage and water bill to the maintenance as well......here in Chicago water bills can become extremely expensive and many landlords "forget" to add those cost into their budget of monthly expenses. 

it’s honestly very hard to find and build a relationship with a good hard money lender and private money lender. So many of these guys try to rip you off with the hidden fees and outrageous rates and terms. Some are too good to be try and often times are scams. 

Lol honestly maybe a better question would be how to find a good lender and for the newbies what to look for from a lender. Maybe include a big review section on Biggerpockets where people can submit reviews on lenders. This will highlight the true real gems and expose the fakes. It’s honestly enough scammers in real estate so I think that will help everyone out. 

I have multiple business checking accounts. So far US Bank has done a great job. It’s not much of a big deposit is needed to open the account as well. They have branches all over Illinois. Chase business is good but I mostly use it for flips, US Bank for rent money and wholesale deals. 

I would recommend credit union business account but I’m not sure if every credit union in Illinois has a business checking. 

The only way a person buys a investment property that doesn't cash flow if they are totally new and or don't know what their doing. A person should know all their expenses for this property and know how to calculate their NOI and Cap rate if it's a large MFH but I think cash on cash return is the most important number to pay attention to. In the business and investment side of real estate you HAVE to know your numbers. This isn't just vital to landlords but also fix and flippers(flips) and wholesalers as well. You can't go in blindly wishing and hoping your "deal" is good or not.

The truth about wholesaling.....is its extremely hard work. I have several threads on here talking about my experience wholesaling. I personally believe its just a tool in the toolbox of options within moving around in real estate. Its a BUSINESS! and should be treated as such. It requires a TON of work. Dont let these gurus and other people BS you about working less than 20 hours a week. Unless you have people working for you or helping you. I work more like 90 hours a week doing things in real estate. But I also dont just wholesale either.....for any newbie out there, I advise you to actually learn the business of real estate. 

When wholesalers say they have a "deal" they cant explain hows its a deal. They dont know if it could be a good flip or a good rental. They dont know what the ROI is on this "deal" let alone know what a cash on cash return is. How will you graduate to becoming a landlord if you dont know things such as cash on cash return, NOI, Cap rates? How will you graduate to flipping if you dont know how to calculate ROI? Then there is the no money down.....LMAO really? so how will you get buyers and properties? Your goal is to solve the problem of the seller and whoever your buyer is. Its weird because other wholesalers send each other properties around gathering up a long daisy chain of others hoping to sell a property because its a "deal". I personally wouldnt advise any new person jumping into real estate to do wholesaling first. That was my mistake and I wish I would started off with the buy and hold strategy. Being a landlord is a bit easier than wholesaling and flipping, but overall all three has its learning curves and all three require a lot of work. In real estate, knowledge is power and not many people actually take the time to learn these things. Real estate is all about marketing, sales and customer service. All 3 are important to any business in general.

LOOKING FOR PRIVATE OR HARD MONEY LENDING

We work with investors all over the U.S. and we also work with investors overseas. Many of them are in need of private money or hard money lending, to flip homes. They’re looking to us for help, in finding quality, honest and reasonable lenders. The areas for the flips are the Chicago land area as well as Northwest Indiana.

We prefer to work with lenders directly, not brokers. However, if you’re a broker and have access to reasonable rates and fees, we’d like to talk to you. We’re not interested in doing business with companies like Do Hard Money. We’d prefer private sources but are open to others.

This is a long-term venture and for the right person or company, we can provide you with a substantial amount of business. We also understand that dealing with foreign nationals is different than dealing with state side investors. However, all our foreign nationals have U.S. based corporations and many bank with the large, worldwide banks.

My company has 2 licensed and experienced contractors that will be used for the rehabs. Both have established businesses. These contractors will be used to complete the rehabs, for the investors. So, if you have reasonable rates and fees, please give us a call. We want to talk to you.

Please reach out to me via PM or you can also reach me at: [email protected].

I’m actually glad I came across this thread. First, wholesaling is very very hard and time consuming. I understand why many people who actually do it and do it well and know  what they are doing, say this is actually not something you want to do first by starting out in real estate. Especially given the current market situation. Out of the three strategies Buy and hold, fix and flip and wholesaling I personally think being a landlord is a bit easier than the other two. But neither of the three are easy at all and you HAVE to know what your doing in any of them or you will definitely get burned. All three are different avenues of running a business and should be treated as such. 

As far as wholesaling marketing. I have wanted to know who actually gets good results from list source and doing direct mail???? I just don’t understand how people can get results when everyone is pulling from the same pool and sending out essentially the same thing but written differently. The same goes for bandit signs. It’s actually funny because the people who are secretly finding a decent success rate with new things probably won’t share until it’s pretty much not working for them anymore  lmao. By then it will probably be too late.....

In summary, I think people just have to experiment and try different things. Brand new things, we are in a new age a digital age where most marketing is online. There has to be some untapped potential in social media and internet marketing for marketing in real estate. After all that’s the core of real estate.....marketing which leads to sales. 

@Anya Swanson it sounds like your attempting to wholesale this property and not fix and flip it yourself. Are you going be involved in the rehab? Either managing or fixing it yourself? Regardless....you need a contract to close and send to the title company. 

IMO, wholesaling and flipping are very similar. Well in the sense how I do it. These real estate closings often take awhile regardless if your wholesaling it,fix and flipping or buy and hold. I never seen a real estate deal actually close less than 15 Days. And that’s including a all cash deal on a cheap rental property for someone. The more common is about 25-30 Days. Things just always come up. 

It’s kind of funny scrolling down BP and seeing about 70% of the topics pertaining to LLCs and wholesaling. I thought a sticky note thread was already placed somewhere. 

Anyway, it’s possible to make a lot of money wholesaling(flips too)  but the current market conditions right now don’t call for it. I look at it like this no one should get into any industry or field based on money because you will be disappointed when things don’t go your way or things happen to you not in your control. The focus should definitely be on learning the process of wholesaling and general real estate knowledge. Then focus on actually helping landlords and flippers get deals. The result will be the money coming to you as a reward for actually helping people look for deals they may have not come across. 

There are a TON of wholesalers not making anything right now because of the extremely low inventory all over the United States. And because of the lack of genera Real estate knowledge they have. I look through some wholesalers "deals" and I crunch numbers myself I wonder to myself how is this a deal????? What makes it a deal? Because usually the ROI is too low for any sensible flipper to want. The comps are usually too high and the rehab numbers are all the way off, as in nowhere near the real rehab cost. Not to mention CCRs are too low for someone to add to their portfolio of rentals.

So my honest advice for any wholesalers is that they should learn the business/investor side of real estate. I mean really know it and also understand that wholesaling is a business. A very hard business that requires a lot of time and effort for looking for deals and a ton of marketing. A TON  

Let’s talk about why I say flipping and wholesaling is very similar. Well as I stated before not many wholesalers actually close/sell anything because of the “deals” they present(don’t feel bad because most realtors don’t make anything as well). The only difference between flipping and wholesaling is your involved in the rehab process  managing it and ensuring it goes okay(pick your rehab crew extremely careful, there are so many bad general contractors out there) but how I wholesale properties in chicago and Indiana I’m involved in the process anyway......to ensure the properties are rehabbed to my buyers/investors liking. So the deal closes before the rehab process begins with wholesaling as opposed to the deal won’t close until the property is rehabbed and sold on the market if I flipped it myself. So that’s why wholesaling is very similar to flipping it’s almost no difference the way how I do it. By the way I don’t see why most people say their flips take 3 months or more unless they are counting the period they start the rehab and it’s sold.....but then again that goes back to having your knowledge and knowing your markets and areas  you should be flipping in the hot areas of your market....nothing is guaranteed but that’s the most sensible strategy.

Speaking of closings, So from the time of the start of the closing process it could take 30-45 Days. Even on deals where you want a “quick close” for a variety of reasons(your contract expires or the seller wants to hurry and close) it still takes a long time. There are so many hands in a transaction that, everything can go right to the very end and on the last day it won’t close. Dealing with real estate attorneys and certain title companies and even some realtors can be extremely annoying. Even your own buyer or the seller can delay things as well. So hang in there and keep learning everyday. Real estate is a business and it’s a reason why most people in the world only Buy one house in their life. 

I think the applicable analytical data term your looking for is cash on cash return for a SFH as a rental to determine a good deal.....