All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

If your ultimate goal is buy, rent, and hold, a better start might be bird dogging for a wholesaler.

You'll learn and earn without the startup costs and learning curve in wholesaling, and possibly find something you'll want to own in the process.

Let the market decide what is fair and has value and what doesn't.  That's what a free market does.  

If someone finds value in what the wholesaler has to offer and is willing to pay the price for it, what do you care?  Are you jealous because that wholesaler thought of it, and you didn't?  Or found the deal and you didn't? Why are you begrudging the person a profit?

I have actively wholesaled for over 10 years.  I have rehabbers that come to me repeatedly for properties.  They want to keep their crews busy so they turn and earn, not spend time hunting for deals.  As long as my price works for them, they are delighted to do business.

1 - Think with an abundance mentality.

2- Find good deals, regardless of the source, and build a "book" of rehabbers who will buy them from you.

Then, you won't have to worry about what other people are doing.

@Samantha M.

Your approach seems fair-minded and sound for getting familiar with the work.  You aren't really encroaching on those people's time, taking them away from pay-time activities.  

Asking three contractors (or even one) to give you free estimates as some suggest isn't going to work very long.  Contractors don't get paid for quoting.  It takes them time and money to quote.  You may get quotes out of them once or twice, but the third time, they will stop taking your calls. 

Moreover, asking them to quote with the promise of future business is disingenuous, and unless they fell off the turnip truck yesterday, have heard before.  They aren't going to greet that one with enthusiasm.  Not only that, you sound like a real amateur even saying it and erode your credibility.  Furthermore, if you think about it, you are stealing from them.  Time they spend doing free quoting of a job is stealing time from them that they could use doing a job and making money.

However, you really don't need to take up a contractor's time at all to get a rehab estimate. Figuring rehab costs is something you can do on your own and is very formulamatic. Your REIA should have spreadsheets available for the asking. You pick the work that needs to be done on the spreadsheet, plug in the square footage of the area that needs the work, and chug out a number. If you know how to use a tape to measure a building and a room and how to put numbers in a spreadsheet, you can do this.

If for some strange reason your REIA doesn't have such a sheet, there are plenty available elsewhere. I haven't looked, but I bet there is one available here on BP.

Finally, the AIA (American Institute of Architects) publishes guides you can purchase that give you all kinds of figures for calculating costs.  

It all boils down to a cost per square foot.  Costs per square foot are known.  You know the square footage; you can calculate the rehab costs yourself pretty reliably and pdq.

Alternatively, you can do what I did.  Find a contractor who will generate a quote for you for a fee.  Mine does it for $75 a property.  It depends on how you value your time.  Totally up all the time for the steps involved, it takes me a couple of hours.  I consider my time worth more than $37.50 an hour, but everyone is different.

Not sure your reasons for picking wholesaling and if wholesaling makes sense for you.  

I understand why you picked wholesaling virtually because of your geography, but virtual wholesaling is an advanced strategy of wholesaling.  You've only read books and listened to podcasts but never gotten instruction and are trying to learn it on your own?  You don't know how to wholesale effectively, and you want to virtually wholesale? 

You are between two decent metropolitan areas: Louisville and Lexington.  Rather than trying to be a wholesaler in either of those areas, consider buying a good deal from a wholesaler, and then, fix and rent.

You could build a nice portfolio of cash flow rentals in both those markets, manage it easily from Gravel Switch, and get the brass ring everyone seeks in this business - passive income.

Just something to consider.

@Melissa Kirchhoff

That's good advice, Melissa, and a good take on podcasts and ebooks.

I read a lot of posts from newbies who mistake that media for instruction.  It is education to create awareness.   It is a leap from knowing what something is and knowing how to do it.  

To repeat your point, use that media to figure what appeals to you, what you want to do, commit to it, and devote yourself to learning it. 

Then, find mentors and/or partners when you do.  Going alone, learning by trial and error is the most expensive way in this business. The key is finding the right mentors and/or partners.  

Find a mentor who can demonstrate a history of successful students not just skill at flashy marketing.  

@Steven Paul

Can't render an opinion on tax deeds or liens, Steven. Not an area where I play.  

Tax liens were all the buzz about 10 years ago.  Big funds and institutional buyers dominant the tax lien arena today.

Buying a property auctioned for taxes for $1,000...you have to wonder what kind of property you will get for $1,000,  especially, if you are the high bidder.

You seem to be itching to get into the game, and I don't blame you.  However, to go out and just buy something for $1,000 hoping it works out knowing only what you have read or heard...you might as well spend it on lotto tickets.  You probably will have the same odds of success.  Would you read a book on flying and then jump in the cockpit and attempt to fly a plane without an instructor?

Patience, Grasshopper.

@Dorian Redden

Search "Bird Dog" in MarketPlace

Find an experienced, seasoned wholesaler in your market and offer to bird dog for him or her.

You will learn a lot about how to analyze a deal and get paid while you do it.

Join your local REIA.

Unless you have really good people skills, a letter is probably best.  It is non-threatening, and if the are motivated, they will contact you.  If they aren't, you won't be in their face, especially at a delicate time.

NO.  You would have done something wrong by not 1099-ing him.