All Forum Posts by: Chris Piper

You're welcome @Account Closed

1. Go to list source.com

2. Set-up a free account

3.  Mouse over "Investor and foreclosure services" then click on "Absentee Owners."

4. Under Geography, drop down and select by county. Then drop down and select your state, and the same with your county. Once you've clicked on your county, click the "Add" button to the right. Scroll down and click on "Next."

5. Under "Available Property Type", scroll down to Residential: SFR. Next, click the "Add" button to the right. Now scroll down the page to " Last Market Recording Date" and choose a preselected time frame. I usually use 3 months or 1 month. This will give you the freshest numbers, but you can go 6 mos or even 12 mos if you aren't getting enough results. Scroll down the page and click "Next" at the bottom.

6. Scroll down to "Corporate Owned properties" and click on "No Preference." Scroll to the bottom of the page and click "Purchase List." You aren't actually buying anything, you're just acting like you are.

7. Now click on the "Purchase Partial List" tab. Then, click on "Custom Selection." Under "Group Properties By", drop down and select "Zip Code." This will break down the numbers by zip code for you. Now you can export the list to an Excel file, or just use it to see which areas to focus on. Pick the zip codes with the highest number of records. Maybe the top 5-10 zips, and focus on getting deals under contract in those zip codes only. This way, you already know that cash buyers are buying in those zips, which will make it MUCH easier to assign your deal to a cash buyer.

@Chris Azer It's unfortunate that you spent $60K (CAN) for a mentor. He/she must not be very good or you would have had several deals closed by now. I would cut your loses and forget about the mentor.

Once you start fresh, forget about the multi-family units for now. Your market will be much smaller than if you focus on single family homes. Work smarter not harder. Plus, you'd be trying to wholesale to land lords only in this case. Unless you know about cap rates and net operating income, you'll never be able to wholesale a multi-unit to a land lord. Although I do agree with David in some aspects, there are a few things I view differently than he has suggested.

1. FORGET driving for dollars. You have no money, which means you can't afford to mail to everyone you come across. And, you usually need to mail to the same person several times before you even get a response, so forget that. You also want to start closing deals ASAP, and it will take a while to drive for dollars, pull records, mail to them several times, and wait for a response. It's a waste of time and money in the beginning.

2. Knowing how to evaluate, negotiate, and get a deal under contract means nothing if you can't close a deal. Plus, the more deals that fall through for you, the more respect you lose in the real estate community each time.

3. Getting a list of all houses sold in the last 5 years that were paid for with cash is ridiculous. Someone might have bought 1 house with cash 5 years ago, but they might not be an investor. Call a real estate agent, and have them pull a list of all cash sold properties in the last 30 days. That will give you fresh current cash buyers. If you do this AFTER you have a good deal under contract, then you can call the listing agent and say " Hi, my name is Chris. I see that you had the listing for 123 Main St. that recently sold." "I have a great deal that your client might be interested in nearby and I was wondering if I could get their contact info?" If they say no, then tell them you will give them $2,000 if they contact the cash buyer for you and the cash buyer buys your property. You just pay them from the closing and factor that additional $2,000 into your numbers.

Aside from that, the best way to get cash buyers is bandit signs. Hand write them on both sides, and put them out Friday around 5pm, and take them down on Sunday night. Usually most cities have an ordinance banning bandit signs, but the city offices are closed on the weekends. Even if you can only afford a few signs to start, put them up around the busiest intersections in town, and you will get cash buyers calling you. Just google "bandit signs" and look at the image results for ideas of what to write on your signs. Or, write something like: 3/2 1,200SF. $20,000 MUST SELL!!! Call 555-1212 as an example. 

Another great way to get cash buyers is to join LinkedIn. Get a free account, and search for "asset managers." These guys manage hedge funds, and hedge funds are buying up every property they can get their hands on from 1 property at a time, to huge packages of properties. Connect with them, and only focus on the small to medium sized guys. The big guys probably won't even reply so why waste your time with them. Good luck.

@Darrell Phillips That would not be a good wholesale deal. You can wholesale a house with a mortgage, and most of them will have a mortgage. Your numbers need to be pretty accurate to be successful. Here is the formula to use when considering a deal:

First you need to figure out the ARV(after repaired value) which is what the house will be worth when it's fixed up. You figure out the ARV by getting comps(properties recently sold in close proximity to the property you are considering, with similar features - Bedrooms/batrooms/square feet/etc. and sold within the last 30-180 days). Use a realtor to pull comps for you unless you have access to the MLS system. You can also pay for comps by using Real Quest.

Then, you subtract from the ARV 35% right off the top. You do that because that 35% includes the cash buyer's profit on rehabbing it along with holding costs and other things. That is the norm and what a cash buyer will expect from a wholesale deal.

Next you deduct the cost of the repairs that need to be done to the property. If you don't know what the repairs will be or how to figure them, get a couple of contractors to come walk through the property with you and give you estimates until you learn how to figure the repair amount for yourself.

So the formula to use is this: 

ARV-35%-repairs= Your selling price

(This will tell you how much to sell the property for to a cash buy/rehabber)

ARV-35%-repairs-your profit= You maximum purchase price

(This will tell you how much to buy the property for. Also, never offer the maximum amount on your first offer. If your maximum offer is $50,000, I usually offer 15% less. So you would offer $42,500. That will give you wiggle room in case they counter your offer.

@Account Closed Using List Source is simply a free tool to show you where the cash buyers are buying. You can of course use it to find available properties if you have the money to spend on a list. Use List Source to find out where the cash buyers are buying(use the top 5-10 zip codes from the results), and then ONLY look for deals in those zips so they will be much easier to wholesale with having so many cash buyers buying in those zips.

Drving for dollars is fine, but it takes a lot of time. Of course you can find some gems that way, but is it worth your time to do so as opposed to finding deals via MLS, Craigslist, bandit signs, etc.

@Silas Lee If you're strictly looking to do rehabs, then save yourself a lot of time by getting in touch with wholesalers in your area. Get your deals from them. Then, you don't have to spend all that time looking for deals, and you don't have to spend money on marketing.

Use listsource @Elijah Moore. You can get a free account and find out exactly what zip codes cash buyers are buying in. If you need a walkthrough on how to find out where cash buyers are buying in your area, let me know.

I have a purchase agreement that doesn't need to be state specific so it works anywhere and addresses the assignment in it, as well as an assignment contract. Connect with me and I can send them to you.

No problem Jeff!

No problem Daniel. You shouldn't have to, but I'm not from the area so I don't know for sure. It might just take some trial and error on the site to figure it out.