Should I view every property?

suggestions or advice?

Thank you masseur07 I'll do that. So like bunch them into say like this one city I do all those Monday, the ones I like have my agent pull CMA's on for comps and then on Tuesday have him make the offers and on Wednesday hit the next city type of order?

HI there, when doing multiple offers you need some rules of thumb and some help.

The first thing to realize is that you have to balance having hard data vs efficiency. Driving to see the properties before getting some feedback is very inneficient, but gives you good detail. If you dont see the properties then you might miss something. So what to do? Use experience, common sense, and rules of thumb.

If its bank owned, there might be some basic notes or the listing agent will know if its in good or poor condition. Lacking that its a decent bet there is damage...people kicked out due to foreclosure are not the most likely to leave respectfully. So kick in 10,000 to 15,000 as a guess for 100-150k properties. If its in a lower income neighborhood, again assume a little high on the rehab, then offer. If its a nicer area and/or person owned, then it has a better chance of being ok..so you can guess a little lower on the rehab.

Often your realtor can get a heads up from their contacts or the listing agent also...saving you time.

Another good one...the contractor on the house. If its in a "contractor" subdivision (ie a certain contractor did most of the homes) them based on the age of the house you can guess up or down. A 10-20 year old home built by a below average contractor needs a higher rehab guess, and vice-versa.

After getting your responses, and when you begin to smell a deal developing, then go see the finalists with your comps in hand to check out at the same time.

Good Luck
Paul

Thx for the info. I went and viewed 8 properties out of 42 today and to be honest I am glad I did. My realtor seems to have missed a lot of details I noticed. Like I always keep my eyes peeled for the foundation and roof. This has helped me many times!

if they accept your verbal offer, then go back and re-negotiate due to unsatisfactory inspection.

Motivation is KEY!

Well one of the ones I just looked at needed some roof repair so your saying make a bid with site unseen with my CMA's ARV I come up with .65 less my fee and say 5-10k (depending on how high end the property) for repairs and see if they bit? If they do go back and re-negotiate due to unsatisfactory inspection?

flooring and paint pricey for higher end stuff I've noticed figuring $4-5 just carpet and not sure for cost of paint seen prices for home depot paint $15 gallon with good ratings figure big house like 2600 sqft 2-3k with labor for painting?

Hey Jeremiah,

I have some advice for you that I definitely think will help you out moving forward.

The first is to definitely change the way you are calculating your repairs. It's very hard to get low offers accepted on properties that don't need much work. The numbers change to about 200-300 to 1. Every market is different, but your best bet is to look through the MLS for properties that truly need a lot of work. Then factor in a $30k repair estimate on those properties. You have to remember investors want to make the properties shine in today's market so they will sell fast unless it's a low end rental area. You usually have to factor in kitchen remodel, bathroom remodel, flooring, paint, windows, roof, heater, water heater, plumbing, electric, etc. You also want to use $10k for your profit instead of $5k just in case so you have wiggle room for any mistakes.

WITH ALL THAT SAID!! My best advice is to not work with the MLS and realtors when trying to wholesale. I know everyone has different opinions of this, but for someone starting out in this market it's very tough to wholesale a property on the MLS. YOU NEED TO FIND PRIVATE SELLERS! This is where I get all of my deals. I don't have to worry about an agent telling me I need to put $1000 down in earnest money or an agent telling me my contract is no good. Most realtors don't even know what an option contract is. When working with a private seller you use your own contracts and you virtually take out all the risk! Working with REO's is also tough for new investors as well. If you do it wrong you can get blacklisted by the banks and **** off a lot of REO agents who get all the bank owned listings and you don't want to do that!

So my best advice is definitely to start working on finding private sellers who are motivated and you will start getting deals done! =)

I know I may have put a blow to your stomach with the MLS & realtor stuff, so don't lose that motivation you have! Keep using that determination and find private sellers so you can start achieving the success you want! =)

If your not sure how to find Private Sellers, one easy way is to use bandit signs that say we buy houses. I talk about that on my blog. Another way is to drive neighborhoods looking for vacant houses and sending them a letter to the mailing address on public record (on my blog too). We get most of our deals off those 2 strategies alone!

Good luck with everything and keep pushing on until you achieve your goals!

To Our Success,

Larry F
The Flip Kid

I've been going over some other threads and found one I liked http://www.deangraziosi.com/node/3975

I will be using this formula from now on and add another 2-5% for my profits on top of the 10% for my assignees. I am not looking at houses that are in top condition on the MLS. If they need cosmetic work I factor that in and leave it be. I also can't go without a realtor as my state Texas is a non-disclosure state (this means I can't find out what the sold comps prices are without a realtors CMA report). I also am not allowed to use bandit signs in my city. I have resorted to something Carol say and that is magnetic signs on my doors when not at my apartment complex as I think that type of advertisement is against their policy...sigh hate that I had to sign a new lease before learning all I have now...o well 10 more months.

This means I am not using .65-.7 less repairs any longer as I can figure in the costs and just ask my cash buyers how much profit they are looking for in each deal and bring that to them with solid costs. I just emailed my offer on a property for tomorrow and it is still going to be .65 of ARV with solid numbers (I always have a general contract double check repairs once in option period before pitching to end cash buyer). They will accept these numbers!

Jeremiah

Nate's offer formula was posted back in 2008, I definitely don't recommend using that now. It really doesn't build in enough profit in today's market for wholesalers in my opinion but you do what you feel will work in your area.

Never say never by the way. Bandit signs are illegal in basically every city, but it all depends on how motivated you are I guess and how you approach it. They are illegal where I am, but I do have good info about this on my blog. I was able to close over 20 deals in 2011 all off of bandit signs for over $120k in profits. So if the city wants to fine me $100 or $200 or whatever every now and then, I'll gladly pay it. I have actually put out well over 3000 signs and only been fined once by an a-hole cop that was friends with another wholesaler who was a snake. The whole point is to not get caught doing it (use untraceable numbers, put them out on weekends, dean talks about this in his new book).

There are other ways to find private sellers too... You can drive around looking for vacant properties, you can call for rent ads, you can mail to expired listings, you can send to foreclosure lists for the properties that have equity, you can even just build your buyers list and bring those buyers to other wholesalers deals in your area and split the assignment fees.

As far as needing a realtor, go to an REI meeting and find a buyer who is also a realtor. Tell him you will bring him all your good deals first and any properties that want retail for listings. In exchange ask him to make you a realtor's assistant so you can get access to the MLS. Just tell him you will pay the fee for it as well. Then BOOM, you have MLS access for yourself, and no realtor needed. I am not a realtor and I have full MLS access with my own account.

If you do have success with wholesaling properties on the MLS, I would love to hear about it, because it isn't often that people are able to do it unless they have thousands of extra dollars sitting around they can use for deposits.

You can also check out most of this info I gave you on my blog, the link is below.

To Our Success,

Larry F
The Flip Kid

Jeremiah
I agree with Larry regarding finding a way to get your signs seen. That may mean putting them out late Friday and picking them up Sunday evening or putting them out and taking your chances of getting a call from Code Compliance. You won't know what happens until you try.

I live in Texas as well and I currently have about 15 bandit signs still sitting out from a small campaign me and a fellow DGer did before Xmas. I have another campaign planned for tomorrow. I originally was putting them out only on the weekends but it got to be tedious so now I leave them out.

I say keep doing what you are doing but consider adding another way to get leads such as bandit signs.

I feel your enthusiasm. Keep it up!
Fish

Just like FLIP_KID is saying. The deals are in the FSBO market.

I dont make MLS offers AT ALL!