All Forum Posts by: Jordan Solomon

@Daniel Paloscio Thanks for the update, and especially for the tip about Jerry Puckett's service. No, I haven't come up with anything else myself, but to be honest, I haven't really been looking yet, either. Kind of disgusted right now! To reiterate, I just don't know how they (Listsource) could treat their customers this way and expect any loyalty.

@Daniel Paloscio Thanks! Now at least I know they're not just picking on me for some reason! Not that I ever really thought that, but I do think it's strange how little attention it's getting on BiggerPockets, as I consider it pretty significant industry news given its popularity with investors. Anyway, I'm still hoping for some kind of resolution. As I said in my first post, what might annoy me even more than the higher pricing is the fact that along with my old account, they deleted all of my saved searches! What kind of way is that to treat your customers? 

Thanks again for your response.

Hi. Is it just me (not likely), or have there been major changes at Listsource recently? I don't try to log in very often, but when I did few days ago, I was unable to and it said that it was unable to recognize my username. I gave them a call, and spoke to a customer service rep who told me that an account executive would have to get back to me, which happened a few days later. What he told me was something about the company having to reconfigure their accounts and transition to three new account options, but the problems are that (1), the leads are now more expensive (I opened my account through a link that was supposed to give me a discount, which I guess is no longer in effect), and (2), maybe even worse, all of the saved searches I had created wouldn't migrate to the new account.

Is anyone else experiencing this (I haven't been able to find any other discussion of it on BiggerPockets, which surprised me), and if so, has anyone found a good way of dealing with it -- maybe some kind of workaround? Thanks.

@Geoffrey Hoffman Please see my post above. Are you a wholesaler? If so, do you ever advertise that you buy houses? Do you buy them, really? 

My point is, of course, if you take that far enough, you could almost make that translate to "don't wholesale." Which, by the way, is a perfectly valid argument and the way many people feel. Just not me, yet at least. 

First of all, thank you to everyone who responded. 

@Thomas I. That brings up one question, though: do you, in fact, ever do anything other than wholesale it? For me, at least for now, wholesaling would really be my only option, making saying that a bit tough.

@Joel Owens You say "deception gets you nowhere long term in this business." 

No, but there are ways to finesse things. Plus, right or wrong, I have to wonder how many wholesalers are totally explicit about the fact that they're wholesaling the property to another investor, even if it's just something like referring to the buyer they find as a "funding partner." In fact, one could even argue that any wholesaler who says "I buy houses" (which almost all do) is being at least somewhat deceptive. I'm not saying it's good -- I'm just saying it's true. 

I don't know if "want" is the right word -- maybe more like "am potentially willing to." So, again, my question is, if I want to make an offer on a listed property (OR ask a Realtor if they have anything I might be interested in given my criteria), and then they ask me what I'm going to do with it (and the answer is "wholesale it," what should I say? Thanks. 

Let's say you're trying to wholesale. Let's also say you're considering listed properties in addition to non-listed. Finally, let's say that a Realtor asks you what you plan to do with the property -- fixing and selling it or renting it out, etc? How do you answer that question? I'm pretty sure Realtors aren't crazy about wholesalers, making it very difficult to say "I'm going to wholesale it," but I also don't see how it's possible to keep it from them. For those who have faced this issue, any thoughts?

@Fausto Carosella Good question, but I have no idea what the answer is. I just assume that everyone is on the do not call list, even though I know that's not true. But assuming everyone is, again, the question becomes whether or not these calls are exempt. Remember, the list does NOT cover all kinds of calls. Political calls, for example, are not covered by the no-not-call list (as many of us will be reminded of over the next year!). But, obviously, we're not making political calls. I think that business-to-business calls get more leeway as well, and one could argue that when we're trying to market properties to potential buyers, we are, in fact, making business-to-business calls. 

However, I don't know if the law sees it that way. And that's the problem -- I don't know what the law says about this. Honestly, I'm a bit surprised there isn't more discussion about this topic on BiggerPockets, considering how much cold calling some of us do.

First of all, yes, I am aware that I'm replying to a thread started in 2010 and in which the last activity was in 2013, but it's the topic of my question, so I thought I'd just revive it rather than start a new one. 

So, with that out of the way, here's my question. The discussion in this thread, and a few others on BP, is all about contacting potential sellers. But what about contacting potential buyers (this is especially for wholesaling)? That is, either calling them and asking if they would like to be on your buyers list, or even, once you have a property under contract, if they would have any interest in buying the property? This could be current landlords or anyone else you have reason to think has been a cash buyer in the past. I figure that here, you actually kind of ARE selling something, but letting them know of a property for sale isn't exactly like selling a phone plan.

At any rate, contacting potential buyers is a key part of this business, so it has to be done one way or another. I know most of you aren't lawyers, so I guess the way I will put it is this: in your experience, has this ever been a problem? Thanks!