All Forum Posts by: Robin Maza

Adreinne - you can build your buyers list with: (1) local REIA - usually can find these with google; (2) BiggerPockets; (3) Craig's List ads; (4) online website; and (5) direct mail to cash buyers. Check the neighborhood rules on bandit signs, you might be able to use "house for sale" signs to find a buyer. As an alternative, take ownership and list on the local MLS to access more cash buyers and real estate agents working with cash buyers.

Don't underestimate local wholesalers - most will help by marketing your property above your sale price, or marketing at your price and requesting a portion of the deal profit.

I would note for you as an aspiring wholesaler, try to work out these details ahead of time.  Spending money on marketing with the inability to execute won't build your business (probably just cause a lost deal and canceled contracts).  Once you have a contract with the seller, you have a short period of time.  Even if you find a buyer, it is not that simple.  You have to arrange to show the property, review the contracts, settle on price.  Absolutely none of that is easy and takes hours.  Figuring out the entire B-C (you selling to the cash buyer) once you locate a deal is not a recipe for success (not impossible, but its going to be a lot of scrambling).

OK.  I note there's two aspects to DIY DMM: building the list and preparing the mailings.  

Re: preparing the mailings, a stamp currently costs .47.  You can bulk mail postcards for postage closer to .30.  Printing cost of postcards, depending your bulk, is also pretty low.  Postcards do tend to lower rates then letters, but we've had good response rates (.5%) on our recent mass postcard campaigns with customized cards.  Although .5% does not sound too impressive, we pay about 1/2 cost of a yellow letter per piece and do no work on the mailing.  It also really comes down to motivated v. non-motivated sellers, and using a yellow letter (which we have used in the past) is a good way to get lots of tire-kickers.  I'm not saying there is a right/wrong - but always good to test multiple approaches for what works for you.

Re: building the list - I'm not sure which leads you are targeting.  We've landed multiple deals with our custom probate list (although volume is somewhat small, landing a few deals to make $40-80k when you are only paying $6k per year is a strong return).

Welcome, Scot!

If you are choosing a mentor, make sure your mentor has recent experience in the real estate advice you seek.  Mentorship is great, and can be critical when learning the ropes.  Being able to execute is just as important as finding a deal, and mentorship really helps there.  However, it can be very expensive (often 50% of deal profit for hands-on deal management) in our geography.  A mentor can have extensive knowledge about real estate contracts, but perhaps not understand modern marketing to motivated sellers.  I highly recommend considering precisely the type of advice you need, and ensuring the mentor has recent experience.  Real estate is fast moving and what worked 5 or 10 years ago, may not work today.

Lisa - what did you mean by doing it manually?

Welcome @Vanessa Santana!   You also might want to familiarize yourself with and connect with hard money lenders, unless you have the capital to fund your own deals.  

Please feel free to message me with any questions you have to get started on your journey. 

Good luck!

Hello @Frank N. Welcome to BP!  You can find some meetings at meetup.com

The meetings I'm most familiar with is BREIA and DREIA and I believe @Account Closed runs a weekly investment meeting.  All of these meetings are a great source to talk with people in the industry and pick their brain about how they operate.  Please feel free to message me with any questions you might have also.  Good luck!

Lisa - congratulations on getting started!  Best of luck!  

Limited budget is very challenging if you have no capital to invest.  Direct-mail and pay-per-click/SEO all have associated costs.  

On a shoe-string budget, the primary solution we have seen in South Florida is working the MLS diligently. For us, this meant around 5 offers a day and consistent follow-up on those offers overtime. To handle the offer volume, we created a detailed follow-up schedule. It is considerable work, but we successfully landed deals this way - however the returns were lower than our other marketing directly to home sellers. Please note we are in South Florida, a competitive market, the experience could be different in Washington.

As @Paul Timmins mentioned, if you find a deal you will need either a cash buyer if you are wholesaling or a money partner/experienced rehabber if you are DIY for the first time.  These resources can be obtained freely at your local REIAs.  Also make contacts with local wholesalers, as they will help market your deals in exchange for profit.

Try to line-up some cash buyers/money partners ahead of time.  I know "a great deal sells itself", but remember once you get a contract it does not last indefinitely while you try to work out financing issues.  Terms are negotiable, but most inspection periods are no more than 15 business days, and we commonly shorten inspection periods - even skip the inspection period - if that is important to the home seller.

@Omar Diaz

Welcome to Bigger Pockets!  You may want to investigate attending an Investors meeting also.  There are plenty of investors willing to give advice to people who are just starting out, myself included!

@Gene Kravets Good luck on your real estate adventures, Gene. If your marketing budget is limited, consider hand-written yellow letters to narrowly targeted motivated seller lists. Consistent MLS offers, and follow-up on those offers, can also net deals with little to no financial resources required. Once you find a strong deal, you can market the deal or find a money partner without any cost to you at the local meet-ups.

Welcome, Jose.  Good Luck!