All Forum Posts by: Stephen Barton

Thank you @Sharad M. you are right! It took a great deal of courage to say that I missed something somewhere. I missed my "why" statement I suppose. It sure feels great to be right in the midst of the storm I call real estate. The rush you get when you know something is a deal and it is about to close- is just an amazing feeling. 

I just want to encourage anyone who has ever had failures or setbacks in real estate. I started wholesaling just over two years ago and up until March of this year- things could not have been better. Then, for some reason everything just stopped! I mean, I had some leads but not a single deal for May or June. Not one! Maybe it was my marketing? Maybe it was me?! No matter what the root cause was, I have learned that we are in control of our own destiny.

Just because you fall, it just means that you have to find a way to pick yourself back up. I thankfully have my real estate license which I have started to use. Our market in Indianapolis has really become a seller's market. I mean I have clients wanting to see houses that were just listed that already have accepted offers on them before we even get inside of them. It is great if you have deals but if you are the wholesaler trying to find deals - it is tough. So, other wholesalers in my area are doing just fine. I know two who have not really noticed that much of a change. I watched a couple of others completely drop out altogether. 

I felt sorry for myself for about two weeks and then remembered how I got started - from nothing! I literally started with a couple of hundred dollars and heart full of desire to improve my financial picture. I went back to my roots and started becoming hungry again. I had to shift my focus a little toward the retail side of the business- but I love helping other people find their next home! I kept up my marketing and sure enough I think I might have two deals that may be in my future- God willing! I just want other people to remember when you felt like you were being kicked while you were down. I want you to remember the last time you had failure and what you did to change the outcome. 

Life is all about the choices we make and today I have to say that I am NOT a quitter! This is not an easy statement to write out. It takes a lot of faith and determination, but I am starting to see that the ones who succeed are the ones who never give up! You have to keep sticking to your guns. Do not do what I did and start changing your marketing just because something isn't working like it used to. Just keep doing what has worked in the past and roll with it. I started spending massive amounts of money on stuff that I never used in the past. It got me nowhere! I went back to doing what I did when I was that insecure guy hanging onto a hope that I could provide a better financial future for my family. I went back to that guy who said: "Failure is NOT an option!"

When you look back on your life as I am doing right now, I hope that you can say you gave it all you could give. I am looking back on how I became arrogant, and possibly selfish. I think it is important for us to reflect on our past- so we do not repeat it. Today, I am a much more humble investor. Sometimes we can allow life to get to us in a bad way. Now, I am taking this awful experience I have had in the last two months as a learning lesson. We can change our future by making sure we do not repeat our past!

Welcome @Stevenson Foote to biggerpockets! I have been doing wholesale deals for the last two years and started literally from nothing. I started by getting into the trenches in hopes of finding the best deals so I went into wholesaling. It is certainly NOT for everyone. It is a lot of hard work, and I watch people drop like flies out of this business. For me, I had to get my real estate license for several reasons. I have something to fall back on when things are slow for me- like right now. Plus, you will get access to people and information you would have never had prior to becoming licensed. Truth be told, you may not want to get your license but it has made a "night and day" difference in my business. Just start somewhere. That is my best advice. I had analysis paralysis for the first 6 months of being in real estate and at some point you need to just unplug and make things happen- period end of discussion. Once you start down your own path that you will intuitively discover on your own it will become inherently clear on when or what type of business structure you should form. Just start somewhere. You will learn as you go. Just treat this business with the attitude of: "Failure is NOT an option" and you will be just fine. Good luck to you! 

Hi there @Matt Ellis. Yes, I have actually just used them for my wholesale business in Indiana. I tried it out for 3 months and almost got a deal. We were down to the end and at the last minute the seller decided he wanted to keep the property. So, you could get some good leads out of it but in my humble opinion you would be better off taking that money and putting it towards marketing you are already doing and what is already working in your business. That is my two cents. There are so many "cutting edge" companies out there being endorsed by guru types, but the old tried and true direct mail is the lifeblood of my business. Ask any wholesaler what they are doing that actually works and 10:1 I bet they will say direct mail. 

I had an attorney tell me that the side who has the most paper on their side is the one that wins. Obviously, this is not ALWAYS the case but as others here have stated -just be prepared. Once a judge hears this case they would likely rule in your favor. Trust me when I say I speak from experience. Whether you did exactly everything right or even if you made some mistakes you have a real opportunity to learn. Every mistake I have learned just burns deep in my mind to never allow another similar situation to happen again. I have made some horrible mistakes (not saying you did-fyi) and each time I just gain a little more wisdom. Make sure you have a great attorney and be proactive- by asking your attorney what else you can do to ensure this case ends in your favor. All too often attorneys get busy and neglect little things. Remember what I stated in my first two sentences here? Just get every piece of evidence you can and fight!

In January of this year I had a few marketing campaigns going on where I was trying to find motivated sellers. I sent out some letters and sure enough -I got some phone calls. Funny how that works;-) A seller had a property they wanted to sell and they were very vague about the answers they were giving me to my questions. I thought nothing of it and pressed on toward getting the deal under contract. I worked with a business partner who ended up getting an offer on the deal right away so we were all set -right? Yeah right! It turns out the title company discovered that this property we had under contract had a blanket mortgage for a total of 4 duplexes including the duplex we had under contract. 

So, I started calling the seller to ask about this blanket mortgage and the seller explained they were about to file for bankruptcy and needed to sell their entire portfolio. The bank holding the note was a very small local bank -thank goodness. We assured the bank and the seller we could buy all four duplexes. So, we made a super low offer thinking the bank would be fine with an insanely low offer. The seller did not really care how low it was because they were told the bank would forgive the outstanding debt. That didn't happen. The bank decided at the last minute that they would only forgive a portion of the debt and wanted to do a short sale on the rest of what was owed. 

To make matters worse the bank started shopping our deal to another potential investor to have him assume this outstanding blanket mortgage. You want to talk about being confused. I was dealing with a seller who works for a company who just went through a merger at the same time we put these deals under contract. It took us over a week to get the purchase agreements signed. We had the first property under contract Jan 21st of this year and we just closed out all 4 duplexes March 31st. We had to keep raising our offer until we got the entire amount of the mortgage paid off with the bank. That was still not good enough to get us to the finish line though. We actually made sure the seller who was facing bankruptcy, possibly a short sale to walking away with $1,500 in cash at closing. We were literally a few days from closing and the seller did not want to close. They kept ignoring my phone calls and it was a lot of going back and forth. 

In the end, we made it. We actually managed to do back-to-back closings on all four properties where we bought and sold the deals in the very same closing. Man, I have never had to sign my names so many times since the day I went into the military! Ha! When faced with a difficult situation you just have to keep pushing. I worked that deal for over two months and only closed maybe 2 other deals in that time. Most of my days were spent working this deal. I am so thankful that God gave me the ability to see this one through. I could not have done it all by myself if it wasn't for a good mentor to have my back. If you are asking was it worth it? In the end, yes it was. At the time I was dealing with everything- maybe not, but I knew the end result was going to pay well. It was a win for our end buyers too. They could literally take these deals right now as is and make money by putting these properties on the market. Our seller walked away with cash at closing, and my business partner and I made money. That's when you know you won!

Just breathe @Nickey Ramsey. Do not let emotion drive you or you will regret it. I know from experience. I got emotional about a project and decided not to do the deal and lost money. I also have had experience just like yours. I was doing a flip with a business partner where we did all of our planned work put it on the market and during the final inspection the end buyer found mold. Listen to people like @Daryl Askew- he's right! Never use bleach. I simply paid to have a mold remediation company come in and fix all of the issues we had with the inspection. Just make sure you are doing what @Dante Pirouz is telling you- build the extra costs into your budget. 

I also believe in the rule of 5's. So, when trying to determine your rehab always use this model and you should be ok. You use your method of getting your final numbers and when you tally the numbers up let's us say your rehab estimate comes to 25k then just assume it will be at least 30k. Now, I pretty much just try to add 10k onto my rehab estimates and I get pretty close to experienced flippers who are actually doing the work. 

Just attach the problem head on and fix it! Do not worry about whether someone will end up buying this or not. If you do a good enough job on the rehab and you bought in a good location then you should be fine. Cooler heads always prevail!

Hello @Elena Redmond. You are not alone I can assure you. First off, you have to get rid of the "I want to do this, but" mentality. You are very resourceful and appear very intelligent. Just start trying to learn what a deal is first off. Numbers are just numbers. It is easier said than done, but do not get lost in the money aspect. Just think of the money as simply a number on a piece of paper. (Real Estate) Is simply a numbers game. 

You may need to venture a little out from London to really find some good deals. I bet you that I could go to your city and within a week I could find a decent deal that someone could make money on. You just look at where the prices are in a certain neighborhood. I mean look EXACTLY what the prices are and simply find a property that is in need of repair or one that is vacant. Where there is a will there is a way to find a deal. The question is- how bad do you want it? I do not listen to the naysayers around me to begin with. If I did, I never would have gotten started. I simply focus on what CAN I do, or where CAN I find a deal. 

Human beings are pretty resourceful people when you think about it. You have it seems what it takes to be successful in this business. I know someone about your age who has around 5 houses. The truth is, he had to start somewhere. You just start taking steps towards your goal, and before you know it- you will get there! You have what it takes!

I have a little experience with this @Rocky Verteramo. I still use listsource even to this day to generate my list. I am a licensed broker in Indiana so I could pull my own list but I cannot pull equity with my MLS access. So, this is why I use listsource so I can target 90-100% equity.

I do not care for yellowletters.com. They are a good company and I do not have many bad things to say but I recommend NRI and @Jerry Puckett for your direct mail needs. He is also an investor and really knows how to help guide you since he has been in this business for years. His prices are much better and the speed with which you get your product (letters) will be much faster than yellowletters. Just my two cents. Keep in mind everybody and their brother is already doing the same thing you are wanting to get started doing. You HAVE to be different. You have to separate yourself from the rest -somehow. Just be yourself, and be creative. People see when you are sincere or when you are out to get them. Just do the right thing and good things will come your way:-)