All Forum Posts by: Brandon C.

@Shaun Reilly

In response to your great question "what other things does your VA do during the day".

This might be a bit strange but my VA conducts market research for ideas I come up with but don't have time to verify. To clarify, I want to build a piece of software (aka hire a low cost developer to do the work) that solves a real problem for people in the real estate industry. The VA data mines and emails about 100 people in the industry per day and asks them what the biggest problem is in their business. Then follows up and asks them probing questions. Basically, when my VA isn't on the phone he is validating all the crazy ideas swirling around in my head.

@Jerry Puckett

You're idea for outsourcing calls is absolutely genius! Absolute genius. The only question I have is, how do you know they aren't going behind your back and stealing deals? I ask because a VA wouldn't know how to steal a deal but a hungry investor might be another story. Can't wait to hear this.

@Travis Daggett that's exactly what I do. Do it once, document it (to some degree) then pass it off to the VA. Glad to hear it works for you. Congrats!

@Derek M. I have a decent list of cash buyers in Delaware if you get a property under contract in New Castle County.

@Lamar Cannon and @Jerry Puckett

Spreading out the mailings throughout the week is a great idea that I will definitely implement.

Getting rid of the VA and reinvesting in the business is sound advice. That being said, I'm going to keep the guy around because I have a dream. The dream that a I don't need to be involved in the business to make it successful.

Again, I appreciate your advice. The concept of having someone with minimal real estate knowledge with minimal direction and oversight is too appealing/interesting an experiment for me to give up (in all honestly).

I'm a dreamer (stupid or ignorant), I suppose.

The name of your Wholesaling business isn't important if you're just starting out. The only thing that matters is finding motivated sellers. Someone that needs to sell their house doesn't care about your business name. If you're concerned with SEO then include your city name and the words 'Buy' and 'Houses'. I suggest you stop "playing business" and start getting the phone to ring.

@John Horner

Pros:

1. Patlive does a good job of answering the phone when you can't.

2. They sound very professional and do an excellent job of asking your questions.

3. They are able to politely deflect questions they can't answer and continue gathering information.

Cons:

1. Their knowledge of using Google Voice is surprisingly limited.

2. If you don't specifically layout each step in the process along with exceptions they will make the same stupid mistake over and over again. For example, whenever someone called they were instructed to input the call information into a form on my website, which is helpful. What is not helpful is when they enter 'Hangup' into my website form which is useless to me. Basically they used much more time than they should have (you pay by the minute).

Result: I dropped PatLive and hired a full-time VA with good English to answer the phones in addition to other work for $700/month. This definitely works better but I still haven't completed a Wholesale transaction, so what do I know.

Link to my PatLive script - https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0vzoLINYuSRcENwb3VlcmpEWVU/edit?usp=sharing

Good luck

@David Ramos You should join the Facebook group I created for local Delaware people interested in meeting up (informally). Might be a good way to stay connected.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/383887118411361/

@Ben Reiss appreciate the honest feedback

Distance - Although it's on the other side of the tracks it's next to the UD farm but point taken, it's not prime real estate for a student who walks to class. Just as you mentioned, a professor might be interested and that's actually who is currently looking at the property.....but that comes with other issues such as loans instead of cash to acquire the property.

Rental permit - The property doesn't have a rental permit and I wasn't aware of the difficulty associated with obtaining a new permit. Is there a way to verify where on not the property is subject to the stringent licensing process you mentioned? (fingers crossed)

Thanks for all of your info, you brought up some great points I never thought of.

All BiggerPockets members located in New Castle County, Delaware are invited to an informal gathering at Dead President's Bar in Wilmington, DE tonight at 6pm. Join our BP DE Investors group on Facebook for updates and info on future meetings. https://www.facebook.com/events/677451652267264/ Looking forward to meeting a couple fellow investors. Brandon

@Eric Nguyen Maybe I misunderstood you. I use Zillow.com and 'NCC Parcel Search' website to see the values of recently sold homes. Is that what you were looking for? Maybe I don't understand what you mean by 'free MLS'.

@Marcus Isaac