All Forum Posts by: Jon K.

Most wholesalers in my market blast deals out to Facebook groups and don't cold call/message to build their buyer's list. That being said, I'm looking for someone who brings good deals, is easy to work with and communicates well. That's it.

The only pro is that you may get a good deal.

The cons are you are competing with huge institutional buyers, you can't see the inside of the property before you buy it, it can take a very long time for the whole thing to ratify if you are the winning bidder and that entire time (depending on the terms of the auction) you are potentially paying interest on the total bid amount as well as responsible for property taxes. Also if the former owners are still living there then you have to evict them once you own the place.

It sounds like you're talking about bird dogging: Identifying and perhaps even cultivating profitable deals but not getting them under contract. But then selling those leads to investors who will get them under contract.

I think the solution is to keep networking or start wholesaling yourself. I don't know what market you're in but where I'm at there are hundreds of investors who would gladly pay a fee to anyone that brought them a profitable deal. And to find those investors my advice would be to do what it sounds like you're already doing: Join and communicate in local Facebook investor groups and also go to in person meetups.

Congratulations on creating the opportunities! The real answer here is spend a few hundred bucks on a real estate attorney's time. If you're in a state that requires the use of title companies most of them are owned by or have one on staff.

I'd talk to a tax professional on this one as you're asking for financial advice as it pertains to taxes.

Local facebook investor groups and local meetups. There are plenty of both around here.

In my case they are treated as private lenders and I generally pay friends and family on par with less expensive hard money: 2% origination fee and 10% interest secured by a deed of trust in the property.

My personal experience: Facebook ads combined with a website/landing page and a CRM set up with automated drip campaigns for various purposes.

My two cents as a landlord with 15 units. I use apartments.com (formerly cozy.co but apartments bought them). It's free and it works fine.

Most experienced investors I know are willing to share knowledge and help those who are less experienced, but they're also busy running a business. Time is precious and most people who are "getting started" waste it. They don't intend to waste it, or even know that they're wasting it because they fully intend to put your advice into action. But they don't. Things stop them: life, analysis paralysis, fear, whatever.

I don't want to position myself as an expert but I'm not brand new either. I've had people offer to pay me for an hour of my time. But then I felt guilty about taking them up on it because am I really providing enough value to justify charging for that time? Who the hell am I? And if I am providing value, my time is worth far more than what was offered in those few cases. So where does that leave things?

Combine that with the fact that of the dozens of "getting started" people I shared as much knowledge as possible with over the past few years only one or two ever took action. It gets frustrating.

So much of what your asking is subjective. There is no "best" path, or strategy because it's entirely dependent on your goals, abilities, resources and risk tolerance. Online forums are great for fundamentals but experience is the best teacher. Make some decisions, take action, start networking and reciprocate value. Then you'll find people are more willing to take the time.