All Forum Posts by: Steven Leigh

Agree totally with others here. The MLS is NOT a place to find investment deals. Every once in a while a good one might come along, but you definitely want to be doing your own marketing and networking with other investors to get better deals.

This is the wholesaling forum, so are you looking for wholesaling deals, or rental properties you can buy and hold?

If you're looking for rental properties I would suggest reaching out to all the wholesalers in your area and ask to be put on their cash buyers lists. Then you will have people sending you deals day in and day out. Treat them well, make decisions FAST, and you'll get some great deals, and the wholesalers will love you. They might even bring you some of their deals FIRST before anyone else.

@Jalecca McNack Welcome to the world of wholesaling! 

The one thing I would note about the article linked above is it seems to have a really negative slant to it, talking way too much about the downsides, legalities, etc. I used to point people to it and I just don't anymore.

If you're just getting started check out some of Sean Terry's videos no Youtube and also his podcast. It's not updated much anymore, but the back episodes have so much great info.

Also check out Tom Krol's podcast Wholesaling, Inc. There used to be about 70 episodes of pure gold, but they took them down and rebranded, so now it's not as good as it used to be, but Tom Krol is a rock star and so is Cody.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions and best of luck to you.

@Patrick Philip You can eventually get to the point where you are doing "virtual wholesaling" but even then you are having contractors, appraisers, or your own foot soldiers going through the houses.

I'm not big on doing hard estimates on repairs, honestly, because I find that my buyers always walk through and do their own estimates. I just do a ballpark number and document what things need to be done, without doing an itemized estimate. Maybe if you're working with out-of-town buyers a lot I suppose, but I haven't run into any problems doing this so far.

Anyway, one thing I picked up from Sean Terry was to do a quick and dirty estimate based on the overall condition and the square footage, so you multiply the square footage by $8 if the house is in great shape, and $20 if it is totally trashed, and then you have degrees in between. You might find over time that you need to adjust these numbers in your market, but it's a good broad estimate.

Here's some more of his system, and he even shares his comp calculator, which I use all the time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cqgz5OpqvNU

I just saw in another thread someone mentioned beenverified.com for finding sellers. They give you email and phone number and it costs $25 a month. I haven't tried it so can't vouch for it, but that seems pretty reasonable if you are looking people up often enough. I might try it myself soon.

Welcome @Grace Sunshine

Glad to have you. Best of luck to you, and make sure and ask lots of questions as you learn.

@Cedric Taylor I wouldn't spend much time on properties that are already listed with a realtor. They are generally not good deals for wholesaling. 95% of houses that sell are listed on MLS and sell for close to market value. You are looking for the other 5%. Motivated sellers who can't or don't want to list on the MLS, and need a fast sale, especially since as a wholesaler you are never going to win on price, just on quick closing, buying as-is condition where they don't have to do repairs, and no realtors fees, etc.

@James David I agree with others here. I wouldn't do a big $1,000 campaign, but instead I would do targeted mailing or door hanging, etc. Drive for dollars in the good neighborhoods where investors like to buy. See if you can find a tax delinquent list for your county. Some counties post it on their website and others you have to make some calls and try to ask for it. But if you can get one, filter it down by tax district to targeted areas, then filter to people who are more than $2,000 behind in taxes and have been delinquent for at least one year. Now you've got a HIGHLY MOTIVATED list and you should get some calls. If you got that down to about 400-500 or so you'd still have some cash for other marketing options.

When you looked on the tax assessor site did you look at the owner address or tax address or mailing address? (depending on how they label it in your county) I know that's a rudimentary question but just wanted to check.

Assuming that address is the same as the property address, then you have to try some other options:

1. whitepages.com and see if you can find another listing or a phone number (they try to get you to pay for just about everything, but you can usually see the listings for free)

2. Facebook: Do a search for the name and see if you can find the owner on Facebook. You can try messaging them. Some people won't trust you, of course, and Facebook sort of "hides" messages from someone you don't know, but it's worth a shot.

3. Ask the neighbors: Tell them you are an investor that helps to get vacant properties back into productive use. If the house has been vacant for a while you will be their HERO! They will likely give you any information they can, because the don't like having an empty house on their street.

4. Search the tax assessors site for the name of the owner. They may have other properties they own. Maybe you can glean some info from there, or you could even just go knock on their door.

5. Skip Tracing: I haven't really done skip tracing myself, but some investors swear by it. I'm sure if you do some searching on the forums here you'll find some good info on how it's done.

Good luck! Remember, the harder it is to find the owner the more likely you will be the ONLY one who is reaching them.

@Brent Hill No problem, man. The reason I didn't blast a big negative post on here is that I did see a lot of value in the program, it just didn't really fit what I was looking for. So no hard feelings toward anyone, and Michael is obviously a rockstar at what he does.

I'm really grateful they let me cancel, as they certainly didn't have to do that, and I give them a lot of credit for that.

@Doug Vigliano that's a great tip. I'm going to have to add that to my letter.

@Doug Price I think it all looks pretty good. Just a grammar thing but I would maybe write "about potentially providing a solution." 

Also, do you have a website? If not, no big deal, but if you do, it's a good idea to put it on the letter so they can check up on you and "see if this guy is for real." :)

Beyond that, it seems pretty professional but a little personal, and will probably do pretty well for you.

The reality is that success with any mailing piece has way more to do with the seller's motivation and the timing that it is received than it does the actual content. Yeah, certain things appeal to certain people, which is why it's good to try several different mailing types (some people like the "professional businessman" style and others like the "individual investor doing handwritten letters" style. You can even mix it up with different names and phone numbers so they think they came from different businesses.

But I was joking with a colleague today that if a seller is actually motivated and your letter arrives at just the right time, you could practically write "You're a stupid jerk! Now sell me your house!" and you'd probably still get a call. :)

One last thing I'd recommend is to try some split testing. Not sure whether to include a company logo? Send 200 with one and 200 without and track the number of calls with two different numbers through RingCentral or another service. Does the post-it note make a difference? Split test and find out. You get the idea.

Good luck! Come back and let us know the results. I'm always looking for new mail combos. I might have to try your post-it idea actually.

I'm okay with making a tentative offer and telling them it may change based on the interior. I generally try really hard to get the seller to give me a number first, so in the future ask them several times in different ways before you give a number. 

20% less than tax assessment seems high to me, but I'm a wholesaler so I need more margin. Are you buying this for a buy and hold or what is your exit strategy? Because I'm a wholesaler I would probably go for about 60% of tax value if I had to put out a number, but I would first try several times to get them to give me a number first.

Either way, now that you're there, my advice would be don't chase her too much. If your dog runs away and you chase it, what happens? It runs away faster. If you turn around and run away yourself, it starts to chase you. My advice is to pull away. Pull away a little when you're talking to her like, "Well, it sounds like you might not be ready to sell right now, do you want me to check back in with you in a few months if I'm still interested in buying in your area?"

Also don't get too eager about calling her back quickly. On the one hand you want to do what you promised, but on the other, if you told her you'd "probably" call on Wednesday and then you haven't called by Friday, she might start to be afraid she's going to miss out on the deal. If you call her up on Friday and tell her you were busy looking at other properties, all of a sudden she doesn't see you as someone who is chasing her around, and maybe she doesn't have as much leverage as she thought she did. Do you see the difference?

Here's a great analogy that came from Tom Krol, the wholesaling coach. When you go to buy a car, you're looking for a great deal. If the salesman starts being pushy or making you come to him, you can just leave, because there are 200 of the exact same car in your immediate area, and several of those are going to be a deal. You have the cash in your pocket ready to buy a car, so why would you waste your time with this salesman who is hassling you? So by the same token, get yourself in your mindset that you have the cash to buy a house and you're looking for a really great deal, and there are houses EVERYWHERE and none of them are all that special. Now when you talk to a seller it's not about you "convincing" them to take your low price. It's about them convincing YOU to give them your money for their house. Why should you be in the position of convincing anybody anything? You're getting ready to give them THOUSANDS of dollars for their house. 

When you get ready to talk to any seller, get yourself in the mindset that you have $500,000 in the bank and you're looking for a GREAT DEAL on a house. If the seller is being cagey, just start pulling away and say, "You know, I think maybe you're looking for the highest price, so your best bet is probably to spend some money, fix it up, and list it with a realtor for several months so you can get the best price. The benefit that I bring is that I pay cash, close quickly, and I don't ask you to do any repairs, but I'm also looking for a deal on a house. If that's not something you can do, I understand, but I need to keep looking." If the seller is really not motivated, or is not ready to admit they are motivated, they may get off the phone, but come back to you later. But if they ARE motivated, all of a sudden they are chasing YOU, and they're trying to convince YOU that you should buy from them.