All Forum Posts by: Johnny Kang

@Dave McEvoy

The only thing you can do is a short sale. Hopefully she realizes this, but if she has some notion that she's going to somehow keep the house when she's 18 months behind, then just move on to other deals for now, and follow up in a few months. So this is the 1st thing you need to find out; whether she's open to doing a short sale. (Make sure she doesn't do a deed-in-lieu, because some banks send out letters to homeowners who are in default, and if she does a deed-in-lieu, you've just lost a possible short sale.) If she is open to doing a short sale, keep in touch with her consistently and build rapport. Find out what the ARV is, what condition her property is in now, cost to renovate, what she owes, who the bank is.

Most banks won't allow "and/or" assigns in their purchase agreement, so you'd have to partner up with an investor and get a finder's fee, but tell them you'd like to learn the process. Some people sell the LLC, but most buyers, unless you've already done several deals with them don't like to do that. If you've been wholesaling, you should have some investors you can bring this deal to. Deed restriction period and the rules on not being able to profit X amount applies only to the buyer, which won't be you.

Hope that helped.  

@John Horner

Can you share how you scaled from 0 to 80 deals in 3 years? How your marketing shifted from when you initially started out to what it looks like now; the relationships you had to build intentionally and organically; major lessons learned in each of the strategy you utilized and where you see your business in the next 2~3 yrs. Thank you!

@David Faulkner

Yes, getting sales trend is easy so I was wondering about rent trends. Thank you for the feedback. 

@David Faulkner

I've seen you mention getting long term historical averages on rent increases before; can you share some links you use with us? I tried FRED, the US Census, Fact Finder, but couldn't really come up with a robust platform that has this info categorized by city for any decent length of time... Much appreciated. 

@William Klawitter

Yup, I'm in NY. Yes, that will drastically reduce the # of leads, but the thing is, I don't exclude owner-occupied. My thought is, whether a property is owner-occupied or absentee owned, when a person reaches a certain point in their life, they're going to make changes; some want to down-size, others want to move closer to their grand kids, move to a place with nicer weather (it'll be kinda hard to beat CA weather though lol), etc. In fact, I've done more deals with owner-occupied properties than absentee. (It helps that we have a friend who has a moving company, so we arrange the whole move for the seller so they're not overwhelmed). 

If you want to separate from what everyone is doing, you have to do things differently from others. Keep in mind, "absentee" leads are well known because at some point, someone figured there was a higher probability of motivation to sell. But now it's gotten to the point where that's what everyone is doing, without really thinking about the increased competition. So you have to think outside the box and put together lead sources that translates to "motivation." Just put yourself in their shoes, you'll be amazed at the # of different categories you can come up with.    

@Francene Iaizzo

Yes, be honest about it. It's all about being able to deliver your intentions in a way it makes sense to them; so what you say and how you say it will determine their reaction. You still might get some push-back from the seller or their attorney, which is all part of the process when trying to work out a deal with any owners.  

@Francene Iaizzo

You have to get the cost to renovate & ARV correct; otherwise you won't know if your offer is too high or not. And being that this is a seller's market, you want to make the whole process for the seller as "clean" as possible, with not too much going back & forth. Otherwise they might just go with another buyer. See if you can get a realtor to give you comps on what similar properties, all fixed up, sold for in that area. (to get a rough idea you can also go to Zillow or Realtor, look at the pictures of "sold properties"), and get a contractor to give you an estimate.

I'm not sure what the condition of the property is, but for a beginner, it's easy to mis-calculate the cost to renovate and the duration (especially now that it's getting colder, it'll definitely affect the duration of the project). If it needs major renovation, where you'd pretty much have to do everything new, you might want to consider putting it under contract, and assigning it, and having your buyer let you see the whole process. 

In NY, you need an attorney to close. Seller's attorney will prepare the contract and you'll need an attorney as well. Title company just does the transaction. 

As far as doing a wrap-around mortgage, the transaction becomes more complicated and also, it might trigger the "Due-on-Sale" clause the seller has on their mortgage. There are other things to consider, such as structuring payment to the bank, etc. You'll have to talk to an attorney about that, but honestly I wouldn't recommend this strategy for a beginner. Let me know if you have other questions.   

Hi @Chelsie See, if your main goal is to try to get an estimate on what it'll cost to renovate, you should get a contractor to come out and look at the property. Inspectors are just that; inspectors, so they can point out what needs to be fixed to meet code guidelines, but they are not who you should be asking for to get a renovation estimate. Also, inspectors don't inspect a property unless you're in contract and they'll want to see it. Be sure you call several contractors, ask them if they've handled projects like the one you're thinking about taking on. 

@Rebecca Knox

Yes, I know people who use that; good to know. Thanks! 

@Carl Brown

What site, or sites do you use to skip trace? I know there's no 1 way of finding people. Someone mentioned Lexis Nexis is by far the best.