Flip This Wholesaler

Since my last post, I managed to get another property under contract (still can’t believe it), and now have a buyer. The lead came from a realtor that I made an offer through about a month ago. The buyer is the guy who I assigned my first wholesale deal to sometime in September. I got a lot of action on the property once I started to advertise it, which has cemented the fact in my head that if you get a good deal under contract, it is not hard to find a buyer. As with the last two deals, while I was frantically searching for a buyer, I was able to add some more investors to my buyers list.

I didn’t really get to do much advertising over the weekend because I had to work (only 4 weekends left, then my bartending career is coming to an end)!! Also, I was trying to tie things up with this latest deal.

I got an email today from an investor in California (he got my email from a postcard I sent). He has a lead in a nearby city, and wanted to see if I would help him find a buyer for him (we’ll split the assignment). The seller’s wife just passed away, and he wants out. He’s willing to sell subject-to for what he owes. His mortg. balance is around 170k (haven’t verified), and house was just appraised @ 225k (haven’t checked comps yet, either). Needs some minor repairs. It isn’t a great deal, but I’m having him make up a flier for me to bring to the investor meeting tomorrow night. I figure I might as well try.

Since I already accomplished my goal for the month (getting another house under contract), I’m now going to shoot for getting another. Now that I know this can be done, I am going to go all out. I’ve spent way too much time screwing around, and now I just want to work my butt off and see what I can do. It’s going to be a real struggle to get through this month as far as bills go. Both deals I have aren’t closing until the end of the month/beginning of next month. I’ve somehow made it this far though, and I will figure something out.

This morning I went over to my friend’s house to use the mls (she is an appraiser and has access). I did a search for all listings in the areas I’m interested in (3 counties) that have the word “motivated” in the remarks section. I think there were over 300 of them, maybe more, I’m not sure. I spent the day looking through them, picking out the ones I want to make offers on (the ones that are vacant), and sending out postcards to a bunch (I just dropped about 75 in the mailbox- would have done more but ran out of stamps). I imagine I will get a few calls from those next week.

I got 2 calls today from my advertising. I made offers to both of them, but haven’t heard anything back.

I added a few investors to my buyers list today while I was calling on ads in the paper. I’ve been forcing myself to make as many phone calls as I can and to talk to as many sellers/realtors/investors as possible. I used to dread making phone calls, but now realize how important it is to make as many contacts as possible and to get the word out that I am looking for deals. I give my business card to every listing agent when I go look at a property, and tell them to keep me in mind if they see a deal. So, even if my offers get rejected, I am still making valuable contacts that will hopefully produce some deals sooner or later.

Tomorrow I’m going to look at and make offers on some of the properties I found on the mls today. I also need to spend some time organizing my office, as it is a complete disaster right now.

Well, today turned out to be a great day. I showed the house before I met w/ the realtor, and ended up getting a full price offer ($113k contract price + 5k assignment). I met w/ the realtor to sign the new contract, then went home and faxed the assignment over to the title company. What a relief. It’s nice to know that all my hard work is finally starting to pay off.

I got two calls today. The first was from a postcard I sent out. The seller has a new house that he’s trying to get rid of. There’s only about 20k in equity. The other was from an investor I met a few weeks ago when I went to look at his house for sale. He was supposed to close on a house today, but his financing fell through at the last minute. Probably a blessing in disguise for him, because the numbers were not good at all. His estimated ARV was about 30k too high. He may have been using comps from the beginning of the year.

Friday night I’m putting out bandit signs with another investor. We are going to target the areas near the malls since this weekend will be a busy shopping weekend. I hate putting signs out, but it will be a lot easier if I have someone with me. In the past, I’ve always done it solo, and it prettty much sucks. I hope to get some calls from those next week. The month is almost over, and I would really like to get something under contract so I have some cash coming in next month. This last weekend I gave my notice at work (I’m going to finish the year out), so I really have to hustle from here on out. My buyers list is growing by the day, which I think will make it a lot easier and less stressful next time around.

The call with the realtor went smoothly. We are using my title co. still, but are going to use her contract. Next time around, I will ask for proof from the seller that the listing can be/has been cancelled. I started marketing the property today, and have an investor looking at it Monday. In the process of looking for a buyer, I made some really good contacts, one I ended up meeting w @ Satrbucks to brainstorm.

I realize now how important it is to have a large buyers list. One guy I’ve been talking to has over 400 people on his. I’m going to really work on that from this point forward.

I made 3 offers today, one on a listed property, two on FSBOs. No one was interested in my offer. No phone calls from postcards. I think the postman is throwing them away.

I’m still shooting for getting another one under contract by the end of the month , so I’m going to have to try even harder, make more offers, and be more focused.