All Forum Posts by: Ryan Webber

I would have to say that there is absolutely specific information/techniques/strategies that can make or save you tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in real estate investing.

Now whether you call this information "secrets" or not, it doesn't really matter in my book. Obviously guru's term them that for specific marketing purposes. Does their decision to glamorize the information they're sharing make it less valuable? No. Does it necessarily mean that what they are sharing is worth even a $1? No.

I think judging a book by its cover is a bad idea, whether you are doing it in a positive way or a negative way.

Obviously the value of information that one guru shares versus another is going to be completely dependent on that particular guru. I've seen some courses that are absolutely worthless, and I've seen some that if followed you could build a thriving real estate business just from following the course.

Now can that information or most of the information be obtained for free or for minimal costs through this and other forums, books, and charity mentoring? Absolutely.

But does that mean that there doesn't remain a need and a market to offer that information and services for a charge that is proportional and in line with the value of the information that is presented? Absolutely not.

Obviously there still remains a very significant need for information and training for new real estate investors. And starting out if I could have paid even $10,000 to have just the information and knowledge about the business that I have now I would have made my money back 10 fold by now by just utilizing the information that I did not have then.

I'm a business man, and I'm not interested at this point in my life with full time volunteer work. If I would be spending my days teaching others and giving information and training to other people, I would expect to make AT LEAST what I make doing what I'm training others to do. And really I would expect to make more. If I have the skills to do it and the ability to train others to do it, why shouldn't I make more training others in those skills than what I would just applying the skills myself?

The only way I see that working is if your buyer is an experienced short sale investor. In which case they would probably just give you some type of referral fee if they end up getting the deal.

Short sales can be an arduous affair, and there is no guarantee of if and for how much you will get the property for. With such uncertainity, even an experienced short sale buyer probably isn't going to be willing to give you much if anything at all for compensation on the front end.

99% of FSBO's are a waste of time to find a wholesale deal. Well let me say FSBO's with a sign in the yard and who are doing marketing. I have gotten some deals that had little tiny FSBO signs in the window, but normally if there's a sign in the yard then its not a deal.

They are good practice, though, for the real deals. Getting comfortable asking sellers questions and listening is something you need to learn to do, and practicing on FSBO's is as good as anyone. Its not as important that you use the exact right words or even ask the right questions necessarily. What's important is that you get the information you need.

The primary information you need is how much equity they have and their motivation level. Equity and motivation. That's what wholesaling is all about.

Try to determine the equity they have by how long they've owned the property and/or what they owe on the property along with the estimated repairs factored in. "How long have you owned the property?" is a simple enough question that many times leads to a rabbit hole of information.

If they bought it last year, then I know its probably a no deal, but if their grandpa owned it for 25 years and left it to them when he died then I know I'm talking to someone with equity. Many times people will freely tell you if they owe anything on the property and how much they owe if they do owe anything.

Repair estimates can be determined by asking "How's the roof? the plumbing? the kitchen?" or "Does the bathroom need any updating or remodeling?" Most of the time they will understate the repairs needed so factor that in. It will be uglier than they portray it as.

As for trying to research IF they have equity without talking to the seller directly, it depends somewhat on your market. In my market, which has been fairly stable with a 3-5% appreciation rate over the last 20+ years, a house that was bought over 10 years ago will normally have enough equity for me to be able to buy it at a low enough price to wholesale it. So when I'm researching a property, if the last deed date was before 2000 then I know I have the potential of equity.

Now determining motivation is garnered from asking "When do you need to sell it?" and/or "How much do you need to get for it?" The answer to these questions gives you a very good idea of what they're motivation level is.

You are looking for MOTIVATED sellers with EQUITY. The best call is from someone who says "Yeah my dad paid it off years ago before he died and I need to sell it as soon as possible."

I have Steve Cook's course and his main strategy for finding deals is the MLS and building a network.

His teachings on the technicals are pretty solid but to be honest its not very complicated. I would expect any wholesaling guru to be able to sufficiently cover the basic technicals of it.

In my opinion, the main factors to look for in a wholesaling course are the techniques for finding deals and for finding buyers. These are the two key factors of wholesaling. Yes, you need to know how to assign and double close and the procedures of each, but those can be easily learned after doing them a time or two and then at that point its all about how to find deals and how to find buyers.

Well have you found buyers for frame/stucco houses? It all depends on what your buyers want.

Most of the houses I wholesale are frame houses. Over half the houses in my city are frame houses. Stucco for my area is a very undesirable trait but I'll still buy them for the right price.

So are you talking about paying them for a desktop appraisal or are you talking they do it to try to build rapport for future business?

Mr. Investor, I don't understand why direct mail strategies would defeat the purpose of "virtual" wholesaling. Every house I've wholesaled I've had to drive out and look at. To me "virtual" would mean I get to sit in my underwear at home if I want to, which from what I understand is exactly what is being offered. Uploading a list and a postcard from my computer to a mailing house's website doesn't seem to invalidate the "virtual" aspect to me.

Some follow up with my free trial fiasco. My post here on Bigger Pockets got a response from one of Cris Chico's representatives. I guess I inputted my email address incorrectly which is why I never received my log in information for my free trial. That part was obviously my own fault.

The rep, however, didn't have much to say about the lack of response from my emails that I sent the company before they charged my credit card. He was very apologetic, though, and seemed sincere in not understanding why he couldn't find them even after going back through to look for them. From looking at the ease that Mr. Investor canceled his trial membership, I will have to give them the benefit of the doubt that my experience probably isn't their normal level of customer service.

The rep ended up offering me a complimentary membership, which I gladly accepted, and now I'm pretty motivated to dig into the information to evaluate the value of its content.

Now I'd like to just take a moment and personally thank Mr. Josh Dorkin for this wonderful community that he has put together here at Bigger Pockets. I'm glad to be a part of it.

Not that networking with an appraiser is a bad thing, but appraisers use the MLS to pull comps just as realtors do. Now an appraiser is much more specific in comparing amenities of the comps when they do an appraisal, but you probably won't have much luck when trying to get an appraiser to help you with comps. That's what a realtor does. Appraisers normally don't work directly with investors or end buyers unless it involves doing an actual appraisal on a property (which they charge for).

Now when you or your buyer is trying to get traditional financing on a property then, yes, you would use an appraiser, but by the time an appraiser walks through your house you should already have a very accurate idea of what the appraisal will come back at. You should have known this weeks or months before when you pulled your comps and did your research before you even made an offer on the house.

Hi Michelle. 10 years with 100 rentals and you don't consider yourself an expert? Hmmmm.

I would guess that with that many house over that long of a time you should know at least a thing or two that someone around here might appreciate you sharing.

Stick around and I'll bet you got a golden nugget or two to throw in the mix.

Good to have you here, Tod. This is definitely the best source of REI knowledge on the web AND you don't have to dig through spam to find it. What a great combination.

Stick around, pull up a chair, and have a cold one on me while you look around some more. :beer: