All Forum Posts by: Mateusz Prawdzik

@Dan Redd I will have one of my friends take a photo of me next time I go out. I really don't like pictures so I try to stay away from the camera but I guess I will have to get use to it, if I am going to be standing a stage one day giving motivational talks and speeches. hahaha. I usually just have my experience and my Instagram do the talking for my knowledge on the business. I meet most of the people that I talk to or meet on BP in real life, but in your case, I guess that we can't meet as you quite the ways away. I will get on that picture right away.

@Andrew Syrios What you said is 100% right. The best wholesalers are also flippers that know how to calculate true rehab cost, have credibility in the business, are good salesmen and get people to sell their house for CRAZY premiums, and do volume so they get the most deals out there. Lots of people say it's a numbers game, that is true but you have to make sure that you are mailing to quality leads. Finding quality leads takes more than just going online and buying a list. You have to drive around and talk to people EVERY SINGLE DAY. Wholesaling is hard work if you are just focusing on it 100%, but it gets really easy if you just do it as you are doing your flips because you talk to someone new every day. 

@Derek Antonissen I really appreciate the fact that you took the time to read the rant.. Means a lot. If you are just starting in the business or if you have been doing this forever, connect with me with any questions. I am going to help answer any questions that you might have. I am mainly a developer/flipper so my answers will be more thorough on questions on that matter. But I am very well educated on other aspects of REI. Please connect and ask away. That goes for anyone.

@Dan Redd@Joshua D.@Steve Vaughan Hey guys, I just posted a post on one of the most recent threads about my FIRST EVER wholesaling experience and what I am doing currently and how it helped forge me into who I am today. I started wholesaling (just like most people), and now I am developing/flipping full time. Please read the post and let me know what you think. I would like to most more stories and rants from my end, but I want to make sure that the content that I would be putting out would be a value to anyone. Please let me know what you think. Connect with me, I will also answer any questions that you guys might have.

https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/93-wholesalin...

Here is the link to the post. Thank you again, I am looking forward to hearing all your feedback and connecting with everyone to help them out.

@Derek Antonissen Here we go again, another Fing rant of mine.... But I guess since I already started, might as well not complain.. So with that being said, let me tell you what happened on my first wholesale deal.. (Where I got screwed).

So this was like WAYYY back last year September 2016...When 18 year old me was just starting, in the business for maybe 2 weeks and I managed to team up with someone that had a deal. I asked him not to market it or blast it to anyone and let me market it for him. This was like a Co-Wholesale deal, but since i was JUST starting anything was better than nothing, AmIright? Ok, so we agreed to just let me know market it and I found a buyer in 1 hour. Great guy that I met, awesome dude, and really trust worthy, when says "I'll take it" he means it and usually closes fast.

Now as 18 year old me was just new and naive to think that this REI business was filled with trustworthy people, I decided to just do a handshake thing where we agree to something verbally, LIKE MEN and REAL BUSINESSMEN, and then call it a day because I thought it was enough... Little did I know, turns out some of these people in the business are snakes and karma is going to come around and bite them in the *** one day.

Now 1 month goes by and he still didn't close on it but he will be closing. The reason why he didn't close in the quick time frame is because the wholesaler didn't do a oil tank scan and it turns out there was dirty tank with soil in the ground. So it took a while to do some negotiating with the wholesaler (the guy that I THOUGHT was trustworthy enough) and my friend (that was trustworthy and was buying the property). Finally out of no where, the wholesaler throws a hissy fit and decides to back out of the selling to my friend RIGHT BEFORE we were going to close. We were waiting on them to call us back and get a call from the attorney and nothing for like 3-4 days. My friend got frustrated, as did I, because I thought this wholesaler, decided that he didn't want to sell to my friend again. Turns out, I was right. He finally calls back and says that we were dragging our feet and not closing when we SPECIFICALLY SAID, "call us back we are waiting for an agreement to close." And now they turn it around on us. At this point I knew that I was going to get ****ed, but I still wanted to get my friend the deal, so I was up this guys as convincing that they would close.

Lots of days went by and they finally did close... Now they close and I am waiting for a call for the check that we agreed to pay (6.5k)... Keep calling and calling... Nothing... Email... Nothing... Text.... Nothing... I call my friend and ask if he heard from him.. Nothing... Turns out, that they charged my friend an extra 15k for "DRAGGING HIS FEET" and not closing... and then kept me out of it and took what they AGREED TO PAY ME, and walked away. 

From that moment, I learned my lesson, only do business with good people. People that you KNOW FOR 100% you can trust, now my whole network is just 100% trustworthy people that are all handshake agreement guys and that don't go around each other like scumbags. To this day, I still talk to my friend and he supports me 100% to the fullest with my company and the rate I am growing it at. This was one of the best lessons in Real Estate that I learned ESPECIALLY because it was the first 2-3 weeks of my wholesaling career. I am now 10 months into REI and just turned 20... I have collectively done 8 deals with my partner, also a great guy, handshake agreements, no one goes around anyone. I am currently just now starting to grow my company and business to such a level where I can teach others and market/advertise/brand my company and generate my own leads as well. I wholesale still, but mainly build/develop/flip now.

This was the best wholesale experience I have, but there are so many more stories I have that helped forge me into who I am now. Please give me some feed back on what you think about this story, would you like to hear more about the flipping side.. Maybe another one with wholesaling? Maybe just life story in general? I would appreciate the support, great forum thread and would love to hear everyone else's stories. Thanks for reading this long rant/story.

@Karan Nanda Hey Karan, nice to meet you. I have never done any rental business in that area. I have never really even done any flip in that area either, so I can't assist you with the market analysis as far and the potential goes there. Please let me know if you need a contractor or have any other questions. Connect with me for either, (Questions or Contractor) I am always eager to help. 

Getting prices for material and labor if you don't want to deal with it at all. That is the best thing because if you are short on material, then you have to go waste your time and buy it or if you have too much you need to return it. Just let the guy doing it give you a price for everything and MAKE SURE that you get at least 5 estimates for the job there. Pick the lowest price or the guy that you feel most comfortable and talk to him and get his price down even lower.

@Hassiem Cliett Great to see that you are ambitious as I was, that's the first step is making sure you want to dedicate your life to being successful. But the second step is making sure that you are 18, because if you're not 18 you can't have a legally binding contract for purchasing a property. Don't let this stop you from hustling, keep learning and applying the knowledge. To answer your question, I am not sure how it is in PA but in NJ, as long as the person wants to sell and you sign an agreement, then they can sell and you can buy. IF you are an realtor, you have to make sure that you tell them that and that you say that you are doing this for the reasons of buying as an investment but as a realtor making commission. 

Please connect with me if you have any questions, I would be glad to answer any other questions that you might have. I was just in your position couple of months back and I know exactly where you are. 

@Ryan Whitcher Let me inform you what has worked for me in NJ while I was wholesaling primarily. What I found that had a very high response rate was finding your own leads and mailing to them. Driving for dollars and doing door knockers is the best way to get quality leads that probably most people don't know about. IF you think about it, the lists online that you are sending to can be accessed by anyone at anytime, which means that the letter that you send the person, they probably get 10 more just like yours before and after yours. Why would they choose you over them?

The leads that you get from driving for dollars and door knockers, they take a little bit more to research but at the end of the day, the response rate on those leads is x10 better. Lots of people say that mailers is a numbers game which it is don't get me wrong, but at the end of the day you don't want to mail to leads that 20 others are mailing to. 

Since you are just starting, Rehab costs you will not get. No wholesaler I know gets them right because they don't understand it. Unless you build and rehab and have your own crew, the rehab cost will never be right, you give it your best estimate and if an investor relies on your number, chances are they aren't very good investors or new to REI and probably are a waste of time to be around. The only way to get good at estimating costs is by talking to builders and asking about prices for the jobs they get and walking the property and apply scale to it. Reading online or doing stuff like that, will absolutely nothing for you IMO.

Please connect with me if you have any other questions. I am always eager to help out, I am a builder/flipper so my experience is mainly focused on that side of REI, but I can answer your all your questions to the best of my ability.

@Anastasia Frank-Bruggemann Hey, can you please set a reminder to all the forum posters? I will be attending as long as I can be reminded a day or 2 before the event. I am going to write it down and post it on my desktop, but no promises that I won't lose it or forget. 

@Ben Vargas Hey Ben, NYC is not the place to be if you're just starting... I don't even think its the place to be if you're seasoned haha. The prices there are crazy and lots of the market is solely based on appreciating the value of real estate not even cash flow or income from flipping. I think North/Central Jersey would be a good place for you to get rocking and rolling. If you are looking to start flipping look for something more central Jersey, that will be a good place to start with good price points for newbies. I was in your shoes not too long ago and I have managed to get out of the newbie phase. 

If you have any questions about REI or anything in general, I am mainly a builder/flipper, so I will better assist you with questions pertaining to that, but I can also answer any questions about rentals and buy and holds to the best of my knowledge and help you out. Connect with me and PM me, I would love to learn about your ambitions and how you planned to start RE investing.

@Jamarr Lee Everyone is giving their take on it and I will let you know what I do. This pertains to NJ, I don't know if this will help you for GA but you never know. If I do a full gut on a 1500 Sqft house.. Probably 3bed /2 bath you have... With siding and Roof and paving driveway and landscaping.. you're probably looking at 80-90k Rehab. This is what I can get my guys to do it for. I have been doing this for a little bit and I get some good prices on stuff that you can't even imagine what I am getting for. 

How did I come to this number? If I was inexperienced it would be about 60$/sqft... usually rehabs are 50-75$/sqft, this means full gut rehabs or just regular rehabs. My prices are good and I am on the lowers side of that range, and I can even get down to like 45-55$ if i really want to beat my guys down. 

All in all, to answer your question, if you have done jobs with your guys before, you can bargain with them for good prices, always get 4-5 estimates per job and make sure that you are getting a price that makes sense. IF you are just looking for a guideline 50-75$/sqft, usually does it. 

PS. All my advice is based off the fact that you manage your own projects and don't hire a GC, as this will save you a big chunk and will tighten your budget.