All Forum Posts by: Larry Turowski

@Davin Randolph There has been a lot of debate on the legality of wholesaling here on BP lately.  I won't address that.  But yes, you have it right.  You are right, you will fail.  Embrace that.  You failed when you first started to learn to walk, to ride a bike, to spell, to play a sport.  The only way to get better at something is to start doing it while you are not very good at it.  Maybe a mentor would help (don't go with a crazy expensive one, but somebody you could work with locally and who would benefit just by having you look for deals).

We are all afraid to fail.  There are so many aspects to investing and I've only done a few.  I'm afraid when it comes time to try something new.  One of the ways I handle that is by treating it sort of as research and development.  A company has a budget for R&D.  It is money they can afford to lose, but hope over time that it will more than pay for itself.  This is an R&D project for you.  Accept that you may lose the money and time you invest.  It won't kill you and you'll be able to look back and say, at least I tried.  And with a little luck and wisdom--this is a tried and tested business model, after all--you'll succeed.

Welcome @Kaelyn St. Tomas!  Quads are simply less abundant. They’ll work fine. 

Conventional loan, no.  Portfolio loan, yes, but likely only a blanket loan.  The key is in your plural, properties, as opposed to property.  It can be difficult to find lenders, even portfolio lenders (those that keep their loans on their own books rather than selling them--think small local banks and credit unions) who will finance a sub-$50K house.  However, some portfolio lenders offer blanket loans.  A blanket loan is a single loan backed by two or more properties.  So you could buy two $40K houses and get a blanket loan against the $80K combined value.

Call around to local small banks and ask them if they do portfolio loans.  And if they do, ask them if they do blanket loans.

@Kyle Ezell a HELOC is definitely the way to go. There are generally no closing costs, and you don't pay interest while you are not using it. I wouldn't say a HELOC is creative, but creative isn't what you are aiming for. You are aiming for efficient. And there isn't much that is more efficient than a HELOC.

@Jacob Rivera it depends a little on your location and target audience.  But Craigslist and Zillow are great places to advertise. Take great pics. It shouldn’t be too hard to find interested renters, though fall is a bit more difficult a time. 

Rather than sort his message out to fit different audiences, Dave Ramsey stays on message and it is up to his audience to sort themselves out.

Dave Ramsey's message is great for those that have consumer debt, overspend, haven't found a way to control their budget, and are unlikely to become investors or business owners.

I'm quoting your post because my little "@" symbol thing isn't working.

You've got to have your wife on board.  You either need to be happy being on her side, she needs to happy getting on your side, or you both need to be happy meeting in the middle somewhere.  And I think this third option is the most promising.  Explain to her this is really important to you, where can you compromise?   Maybe it is just in getting more educated for now.  Maybe it is envisioning having a side gig, as others have suggested, and being able to invest in a way that won't impact your "regular" finances.  But ask HER to offer something.  Ask her to let you know what you CAN do, not just what you can't do.  If she really is adamantly against it in any way, you're going to have think hard about you're life together and your dreams.

This issue came up for me after marriage.  My wife had no interest in investing.  But we had some extra income and she was willing to let me start very slow, dipping my toe in the water, so to speak, with some money at risk, but nothing we couldn't afford to lose.  I progressed very slowly as an investor according to my wife's comfort and she is now completely on board, though still needing to be consulted on anything bigger or out of the ordinary.

I hope that you can reach some compromise.

Disclosure: I am not a wholesaler.

What gets me about this thread, is the notion that realtors are somehow more ethical than wholesalers. If you work in this business enough you realize that it is completely common for realtors to: do pocket deals, buy listings, not represent the their clients best interest etc.

I’ve worked with great realtors and great wholesalers. But there are a lot of unethical ones of each. too. 

@Lance Queen @J Scott is right. It’s always price.  That doesn’t mean that some other things aren’t true. Selling within the first two weeks is important. Yes, you’ve lost some visibility. People will be thinking there must be something wrong with the house. Your buyer pool may have shrunk. And it’s getting to be end of summer season. Things will slow down. You can’t control any of those factors except price.

If you must sell, drop the price 5% and see I you are getting 3-5 looks in the next week. If not, drop it another 5% and again.  And repeat until you are getting a good number of looks. 

You may consider keeping it as a rental if the numbers make sense and trying again in a few years.

@Gilbert Lugo definitely challenge it with detail as others have said. I once challenged a $50k appraisal here in Rochester and got is raised to $65k. That’s 30% higher than the original!  Neighborhoods change dramatically here in Rochester by just a street away. The appraiser used comps that were close but across a major street and in a neighborhood of a much lower desirability.  I made that argument and showed comps from my neighborhood.