All Forum Posts by: RIchard Roop

@Bradley Heath,  Reach out to Cortney Jones, here on BP.  She lives in AZ now, but she lived in and invested in Knoxville, TN for 15+ years. She still has a rental portfolio there and she does real estate coaching.  She would be a great resource for you.

@Connor Williams, when you say your father will be going in on the flip with you and he's a contractor, does that mean that he's going to be providing the materials and labor as his end of the deal?

In other words, you're bringing to the table $100k (HML + own money) and finding the deal and he's providing repairs, labor and material and you'll be splitting deal?

The 70% of value minus repairs rule is there to protect you in the event of something being wrong with the house that you didn't see or catch which happens a lot. 

We've found that about 1 out of 20 sellers will accept an offer that low which essentially means you're going to have 19 people tell you that it doesn't work for them.  That's ok.  Move on to the next one. 

If you're targeting the right markets - divorces, late mortgages, probates, vacant houses, etc. then you'll be finding more people who HAVE to sell, not just WANT to sell.  That's the market you want to go after.

@Barry Smith, Thank you for the shout out!

@Hal Cranmer, TheDiscountPrinter.com – Is who I recommend my students use for Post it notes. They have good prices and service.  

The idea, as Barry mentioned, is that people come home and it looks like they have a package, which tends to get the endorphins excited.  This puts them in a good state of mind to be receptive to your offer.  Particularly if they have a house problem that you can solve.  

They work great.  Particularly for wholesaling business model and delivered to prime wholesaling n'hoods, like median to lower price range with good amount of blue collar workers and older houses. 

Best of luck with them.  Let me know how they work for you. 

P.S. Make sure when you hire someone to put them out for you that you're very specific about the fact that you want them on the front door.  Then, I recommend that you spot check some of the neighborhoods to make sure they're doing it correctly.

Good job!  The yellow letter campaign can be very effective.  

Way to take action.  It's been about 6 months since that post - how are your calls going now?

@Derrick Strope, Congratulations on taking action and how well you handled your first call.  Sounds like it was a success.  

Follow up is the key now, give him a call in a couple days and just see if he's had a chance to consider your offer and then help uncover any concerns he has so you can address them.  It's a matter of asking the right questions.  

Great job!

It is a federal offense to attach anything or put anything into a mailbox without proper postage. 

Having flyers, door hangers or post-it notes delivered and placed on the front door can be VERY effective, but is considered geographic marketing.  

You can target good geographic areas that match your business model and have some great success with it.  Most often people will use this option in median to slightly lower value areas where there may be a good amount of homes that you would be interested in wholesaling to a rehabber. 

If you're interested in doing more targeted marketing, to specific groups, such as divorces, probate, expired listings, free & clear houses, etc. then I would recommend a good, cheap postcard being mailed through usps.com.  

The postcard would have to have a compelling headline and you would want to hit the same list 4+ times in order for it to be most effective.  Depending on the list, I would recommend probably quarterly or even monthly for some of the lists.  Depends on the business model you're intending to work.

Welcome to BP @Caressa T.   Wholesaling is a great choice for a newbie to start.  Wholesaling will help you generate some cash to use for marketing, as you progress into other business models.  Plus it will help you to . . . 

1. 1. Get to know your local market
2. 2. Make great REI contacts
3. 3. Learn about estimating rehab repairs & costs

It's a simple business model to start with.  Best of luck on your start!

Richard

@Decorium Johnson, I work with several partners in the CA area and have been coaching and training investors there and across the U.S. for over 10 years.  

Here's what I can share with you on the California market:

1) Our national average for marketing costs are about $1500 in marketing costs to purchase a deal - whether it be a wholesale, rehab or buy & hold.  In California, our clients find that to be closer to $2500 - $3000 per deal.  We typically use cheap, postcards for mailing so you can assume those into your costs.

The costs to market and find a deal are much higher, however, their profit margins are much higher.  Mostly because of the aforementioned higher prices.

2) The competition level is much higher than in other areas.  Depending on how you're planning to generate leads, you'll need to be very responsive to those calls and take action quickly.

3) In many areas, it is very difficult to cash flow a property unless you're able to buy with owner financing and negotiate lower monthly payments that the house can afford. 

It's a great market for wholesaling and rehabbing, if you have that experience.  Also, for holding if you've negotiated good monthly payments.  Best of luck to you!

Richard

@Account Closed - Here is a link to a good article written by a real estate attorney and overall good guy, William Bronchik. 

On occasion we will get asked by a student if “wholesaling is illegal?” oftentimes it is after a Realtor or Realtor board has told a wholesaler that it is. Please see the following article for an attorney’s opinion on this question:
http://www.legalwiz.com/license-to-wholesale-properties/

Hope this helps!

Richard