All Forum Posts by: Chris Piper

ZIllow is never accurate, just like the assessed value from the county is never an accurate value of a property. The only true way to get an accurate value of a property is by having your realtor pull comps and put together a CMA(comparative market analysis) or by getting an appraisal.

Referrals from friends, craigslist, yellow pages, Angie's List.

Check out http://legalwiz.com/landtrusts/

You can google the subject to learn about it, or you can pay for good info. Bill Bronchick is a lawyer and real estate investor in Chicago who sells tons of great information. Here is a link if you want to check it out: http://legalwiz.com/landtrusts/

Click on my name and see if you can get to the files I have uploaded on this site. If not, click on the "resources" tab, click on "FilePlace", click on "Forms", then the first 3 files that show up are the 3 land trust docs I uploaded for you and anyone else who needs them.

First of all @Namon Thorn never go by the assessed value. That means nothing. Get comps from a realtor, and get them to send you a CMA(comparative market analysis). This will tell you what the house is really worth.

Second, you need to know what the cost of the repairs will be. Get a couple of reputable contractors out there and have a real estate agent let you and them in to give you some estimates. Here is my formula for knowing how much I can offer:

***EXAMPLE OFFER***

ASKING $25,000

$50,000 ARV

$35,000 *70%

$20,000 -Repairs

$3,000 -$3K Closing Costs and Points for Borrowing Funds

$5,000 -Profit(=10% of ARV)

$1,500 -Counter Offer Margin(=3% of ARV)

$5,500 = Max Purchase Price

$4,400 *I Make my initial offer at 80% of Max Purchase Price

Shouldn't be a problem to wholesale a deal no matter what phase of Repo it's in.

I wouldn't say it's a necessity to have something like that in your domain name, but it will definitely make it clear to people exactly what you do, and possibly make it easier to remember than "johnsmithrealestate.com" as an example. Our sites are michiana bargain houses.com and michiana buys houses.com.

Below is my voicemail message. I have a google voice number set to forward to my cell phone. I also make sure that my phone displays my google voice number on my phone's caller ID so I know it's Real Estate related. We have bandit signs out around town to attract cash buyers and motivated sellers which is why my message reads the way it does.

My voicemail message:

"Hi, you've reached Chris with XXXXXXXXXX Realty. I'm not available right now. If you're calling about the 3 bedroom 2 bath property for sale, it has already been sold. We do currently have a 4 bedroom 1 bath in XXXXXXXXX, IN located at XXXXXXXXXX and the price is $XXXXX. If you are a cash buyer and would like to be added to our buyer's list and be notified of new properties, please visit our website at blah blah blah.com. If you are looking to sell your home, please visit our website at blah blah blah.com. For all other questions, please leave your name, number, and purpose of your call and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Thanks."

I X'd out the specific because the mods are so picky on this website. Good luck.

I have heard recently that the average wholesale fee is $15,000. Obviously that will vary by market. In my area(Northern Indiana), entry level houses go for $50,000-$75,000. This makes $15,000 difficult in most cases for me. I always charge 10% of the ARV of each property as my wholesale fee. If I can get more out of a deal and still sell a property for no more than 70 cents on the dollar, I will. Sometimes you have to accept less than you expected just to get a deal finished and move on. Basically, it's up to you to decide how much you want to make on each deal. I like using a percentage, so I can factor that into my formula I use which in turn let's me know what my maximum purchase price is.