All Forum Posts by: Joshua McGinnis

Hi @Aaron Xie You could:

• Lend some money to reputable developers / investors (can be risky if you don't know who you are lending to nor understand the specifics of the deal)
• Invest in a single apartment building with a 10%+ cap rate (risky if this is your first investment)
• Invest in several properties through a reputable turnkey provider with a blended rate of 10%+ return (most diverse and least risky in my opinion for you)
• Invest in a few notes via reputable p2p lending site (the most passive strategy of all, stick with debt vs equity investments)

I suggest looking in the Chicago and Indianapolis areas as both of them offer lucrative returns if you focus on investing in the right micro-markets and have a great property manager in mind.

I'm sure some folks from those areas would be happy to refer you some great contacts.

@Account Closed 

Updated stats so far: 700 letters delivered so far and 22 calls. I have 7 warm leads. That puts the response rate at a little over 3%.

This week will be all about the follow-up where I'll be calling folks back and making offers.

Of all the leads so far, there is only one where the house is a great house worth about $215K and has 100% equity. The owner wants to downsize and is amenable to working with an all-cash investor who does not pay retail. I'll probably make an offer somewhere in the $120-$140K range.

This next stage where I do follow-ups and start making offers is where I'll either fall flat on my face or pull out a deal ... so we'll see how it goes in a week.

@Fred Halimi Let's connect and I'll be happy to share with you my first-hand knowledge of marketing and wholesaling.

The others have all covered it pretty well: don't get tied up on the medium. Focus on building a long-term plan which entails testing more than one type of list, hitting each list multiple times throughout the year, and using online channels (website / seo, PPC, FaceBook, etc) to generate leads.

Once you have leads coming in, then you need to focus on your sales ability to qualify, follow-up, and close them.

It's all very doable. You can do it!

Par for the course.

Just remove her from the list and move on. Not everyone appreciates good marketing! (she did open and read it afterall)

@Account Closed 

It will be difficult to get a conventional mortgage for less than $50K, unless you can find a portfolio lender / bank / credit union that underwrites their own loans.

That said, I'd advise sharing some of the details of the $30K deal with BP so we can help you determine if it is a good deal. $30K is pretty low so you need to really be careful and understand what you are buying.

If you have some cash (25% down), I'd suggest looking at a reputable turnkey company that will also manage it for you after the purchase.

@William Baumann I'm using Google Spreadsheets. I just have a removal list that I use to keep track of who I should remove in my next batch of mailings.

Thanks @Larmon Cummings Jr and @Gary Alford 

@Bob Couture If they're paying all cash, then there's really nothing special about the deal that would need to happen (no seasoning). Foreign transactions happen all of the time.

If they're financing, then whatever money they'll be pulling out of pocket just needs to be here in the states beforehand.

I'd suggest chatting with a CPA re: the LLC and tax advantages, but I will say that having an LLC has an expense associated with it so you'll want to make sure the advantages really do outweigh the cost of setting it up (~$700 /yr) plus the additional tax return.

If you need help finding a property, that is what we do. Connect with me and we'll get the ball rolling.

@Larmon Cummings Jr @Tim Lindstrom @Mike McFadden @Joseph Kraft 

I've made a few of the voicemails I've received available for you to listen to in this post:

http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/93/topics/166758-audio-voicemail-examples-from-real-wholesale-leads

So far, I've got about 3-4 warm leads. There's been no slam-dunk deals yet, but not all of my letters have been sent yet and I know it won't happen overnight.

If you guys are interested, you can track the result of this wholesale campaign here and listen to some actual voicemails I've received here.

A couple of weeks ago, I made a couple of posts about my first try at wholesaling by sending 1200+ yellow letters to probate leads. I also made a post with a link to a Google Spreadsheet where you can track the results of the campaign in real-time.

A few folks expressed interest in hearing some of the calls so I thought I'd make some of the voicemails available for you other budding wholesalers.

Here are a few of the typical kinds of calls I've been getting. It really breaks down to:

• Lookie-loos
• Unmotivated (Not Selling)
• Motivated

Oh - I did get one call from a local police station because an elderly lady thought my letter looked suspicious and the officer wanted to make sure I wasn't scamming the elderly! That was scary, but I've been told it is par for the course.

OK - So here are some of the voicemails (personal info has been bleeped from the audio) There are a lot more but these should give you a pretty good idea:

Lookie-loo 
http://picosong.com/5KnC

Motivated - 1
http://picosong.com/5KnL

Motivated - 2
http://picosong.com/5Knj

Unmotivated - 1
http://picosong.com/5KnH

Unmotivated - 2
http://picosong.com/5KnM

Unmotivated - 3
http://picosong.com/5KFs

Notice how the motivated folks are usually nicer. I've yet to get a "slam dunk" motivated seller who was just like "Hey - I want to sell my house asap. Call me now." - I can tell that most of them are going to require some relationship-building and will take time to convert to a deal.

I hope you find this helpful!