All Forum Posts by: Miller McSwain

Hi Nir. Welcome to the BP Forums. I'm glad you made your first post!

If you are interested in wholesaling, you will definitely need to become an expert in finding off-market deals. Here are some methods you should try out in order of money required.

1. Driving for dollars (free!):
One of the easiest and cheapest way to find off-market deals is by driving around your local market and taking note of properties that look distressed (boarded windows, old cars, uncut grass, etc.) Once you have a list of these properties, you can contact the owner by mail, phone, or door knocking.

2. Ask an agent (free!):
You can ask your real estate agent for expired listings that were on the MLS. It is possible that some of the expired listings did not sell because there was an issue with the property. If you can find a solution for the seller, you can probably find some good wholesale deals.

3. Direct list campaigns (cost depends on size of campaign):
Lastly, you can purchase data on property owners in your area from places like www.listsource.com . People often purchase data like equity lists, probate lists, tax delinquent lists, etc. You can then market to these individuals by mail, phone, SMS, etc in hopes that they are motivated enough to sell at a discount.

There are tons of strategies, but these can get you started!

I agree with @Lynnette E. . If the contractor has bad credit and no money, he likely does not possess great management skills either, although this is not necessarily true.

I do think that giving a contractor a slice of the deal is a great way to motivate them to work hard on your project. But if the contractor doesn't have a completely clean record, I wouldn't take on that risk and give up a large portion of your profits. 

You can still motivate them, however, by giving them bonuses. I would recommend giving bonuses as milestones are completed by a certain date instead of one large bonus at the end. By giving smaller bonuses throughout on a schedule, you have more assurance that work will be completed on schedule for the duration of your project.

Networking at REIA/BP Meetups is likely the most common way to find cash buyers, but if you get creative, there are many other ways. Some alternative strategies are:

1.Check your county assessor website for absentee property owners near the property you have under contract. Absentee owners that own multiple nearby properties will possibly be interested since they have already performed research on the area. If they aren't interested in buying your deal, maybe they will be interested in selling you their current property!

2. Get an absentee list with only 100% equity owners. This indicates that the property owner is an investor and owns their property free and clear. This is an indication that they may have cash available. You can get this data from listsource.com or an alternative.

3. Visit auctions and ask frequent bidders if they buy from wholesalers. Individuals who buy at auctions have to provide a check AT THE AUCTION to purchase a foreclosure. If they are at the auction frequently, then they have lots of cash to purchase deals from you.

It is definitely doable! 

I don't know the specifics about your market, but $10,000 is a great start. I imagine you will need more than this though. So you can either:
1. Continue saving up yourself.
2. Attend REIA/BP Meetups and find other investors to partner with. Perhaps you could shadow a flipper on one of their projects. Then you could both bring money to the next deal, and you could manage the rehab. Many flippers would probably be willing to do something like this if you make an impression and have passion! Also, this could spark a long-term relationship that might greatly benefit you both.

Either approach will allow you to flip; however, option 2 is likely the faster way to building a flipping business.

I've mainly read about buy-and-hold; however, I'm currently becoming very interested in flipping.

Right now, I'm reading J Scott's "The Book on Flipping Houses". J dives deep into the systems and processes he follows when choosing a market/neighborhood, finding team members, planning a rehab, and executing a rehab. Also, I have read David Greene's "Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat" about the BRRRR method. Although this method is ultimately for buy-and-hold, the buy, rent, refinance, and repeat parts are all important for flipping as well. So, I would recommend both of those books.

Good luck with your education!

I'm currently reading J Scott's "The Book on Flipping Houses". He dives deep into many of the systems he has in place. For example, in the chapter I'm reading right now, he outlines the order in which he conducts the stages of rehab. He follows this order for every property he rehabs, ensuring he never misses a step.

If you want to learn about specific systems and checklists used by the pros, I'd recommend checking the book out!

Direct marketing will likely yield the best results. This is where you search for people willing to sell their property. This is the opposite of how homes are typically sold to the average person. Typically, a seller posts their property for sale, and buyers come to them. This causes many people to compete for a property, which is not great for wholesalers. Wholesalers need to get a property under contract for MUCH LOWER than market price.

To find a property under market price, you will likely have to find people who are willing to sell before they list their property. This is done by direct marketing. There are many tactics however, the most common include:
1. Batch texting owners in your town
2. Cold calling owners in your town
3. Mailing owners in your town
4. Driving for dollars
5. Door knocking

If you do any of these consistently, you are likely to find some great deals.

Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions!

I have heard that batchskiptracing is the best, so that is unfortunate that you cannot get it to accept your list.

I've also heard of https://www.reiskip.com/ . That might be another good one to check out.

Best of luck!

If you are brand new, spend a couple of weeks educating yourself to make sure wholesaling is the strategy you are interested in. I haven't found many books on wholesaling specifically. The best one of the few I've found is "The Wholesaling Blueprint" by Luke Weber. Additionally, J Scott's "The Book on Flipping Houses" is also great. He talks about the typical type of flipping, but most of it very similar to wholesaling.

After that, start marketing and networking with others at BP/REIA meetups!

Direct mail is great, but I would also recommend trying text/cold-calling. These tactics may or may not work in your area, so when you are ready, I would recommend giving them a try and comparing the results to your direct mail results.

You can use the same data that you would use for direct mail. The only difference is that you would need to use a "skip-tracing" service to find phone numbers for the owners and attach that to your list.

Good luck!