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Carol,
I appreciate your advice and thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to respond to me. I will be more careful with what I offer on these properties. You are a Rock Star!!

CA wholesaling is tricky. I'm here in Southern CA, but are you following the strategy as its layed out? Vacant, with a price drop (at any time), and as is. Other buzz words are 'investor's delight', 'motivated seller', 'handyman special', 'needs TLC'. These are properties that regular retail buyers don't buy. Also, there are a lot of big buyers coming in and purchasing and they don't care if they only make a small profit, so it does make our market pretty tough, BUT NOT IMPOSSIBLE! Also, try your local small banks and see if they have any inventory of SFR that you can look at buying all cash. Carol is the master at this.

And yes, CA is a challenge because there are so many investors and MANY of them overpay. BUT, we can use that to our advantage when wholesaling, especially when we get them under contract at a killer price.

I wholesaled a short sale (if you'd like more info on that its here: http://www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/my-deals/97043/first-shor...) and the buyer just resold the house for $350K. We sold it to him for $180K + our fees (which were $4K). He turned it in a month. But, if you find deals like THAT, you'll have so many buyers contacting you, you will literally be on the phone all day with buyers.

And, that is the first thing you should be doing, is finding the buyers. Use bandit signs as well as Craigslist and get used to talking to buyers. That fear is very intimidating to start with, but its important to just jump in and do it. The more you're on the phone with them, the easier it becomes.

Some people don't like to use ghost ads, so you can try something more general, like 'I find deals at 60-80% of the market value and I need more buyers!' (In Southern CA, 80% of the market value is considered an excellent deal).

Carol, you are awesome! Your story is not only inspirational, but a truth that the American Dream does still exist. Thank you for starting this thread and I thank the Gods and the Universe everyday for all the beautiful people on DG, you, Rina, Andrea & Chip, Matt, Joe, Terry, (and so many many more--all the Superstars and upcoming Superstars), the DG staff, PMI and of course Dean.

A little background:
Raised old world Italian, I grew up working! Self employed at 16, married at 18, divorced at 21.... but blessed with 5 children and my husband of 20 years all very supportive and tolerant of me-- through all my failures, start overs and downturns. I always knew Real Estate was the key to contentment, but days went by so fast working working working-- BAM! I'm 50 something and head down I knew I HAD to get in RE with the opportunities so HUGE right now... I just had to work a little differently, so I got the backing of my family to cut me loose from the business as much as possible and I set out to get started. No money, lots of debt, a business trying to stay afloat at 20% revenue from 3 years ago, credit score down from 780 to 520, one upside down rental, and no fear of failure.
For some 20 yrs, after working 15-17 hours a day, caring for the home and children I would spend the wee hours or the occasional Sunday studying. I did many business plan concepts-- the next widget, the next Disneyland, the next Discovery Channel. I've read many business success, real estate and self-improvement books, done the Tony Robbins programs, read the bios of successful entrepreneurs and then the Greats-- Napoleon Hill, Guy Finley, Dale Carnegie, J Paul Getty and Dean Graziosi.

How I got Started:
My first reading of Profit from RE Right Now was August 2009-- hit and miss, but I would get on DG and search answers to questions. Last year Dean did a St Patrick's Day special deal to go to the Edge and I missed the last chance-- I could not find a credit card that would take the amount... a couple days later he had extended the special and I got a credit card from my daughter and got signed up. OMGoodness! The Edge 2011. Dean is REALLY there, all the DG Superstars are there and everyone is NICE, HELPFUL and not judgemental, there weren't multiple up-sells, just everyday people teaching, telling stories, asking questions and getting answers and the only push was an urgency to push yourself. I have plenty of motivation, but if I was going to do this I needed accountability, so again, I had no money but I had Amex.... and I signed up for PMI... I just had to. Again, I did not do very well; trying wasn't good enough, but part of the program was going to an Inner Circle with Dean and Matt and only about 10 other students. In August I watched and did the whole Rock Bottom Blue Print 30 days program and got VERY excited. Then Sept 22 was Inner Circle... I crammed and studied the whole day before. I had wild goals of doing 33 deals by year end. Matt said be realistic and do 5. Dean said commit to 10 hours a week and set up my team / system and go to it. I told the group I would get off my ____. A week later with my 2 possible agents on call, and a list of 20 some prospective buyers, and my signs ready to put up and my reluctance (actually my scared to pieces!) to call on signs, For Rent ads, and go to RE Club meetings Ryan Hughes (my PMI coach) came to Las Vegas and we did 3 days on the ground. He helped me make some calls (just by being at my side) and he calculated offers and compared them to mine on houses we toured, and I was off on my own. I set out to calculate and place my first offers-- 25 so I could get one. I just did it! I had SOOOO many questions still, but I remembered that everyone said don't worry about the forms (that's what the agent is for)... don't worry if you say something wrong, listen first, be concerned, empathetic and people will tell you their story. I did get stressed out over how to write the offers; in my name or if I needed an LLC, but I just did it. I got an LLC through Nevada online for $75 and did it.
By Oct 26 (a month after I returned from AZ) I had placed 53 offers and had my first accepted offer. By the end of 2011 I completed 5 deals! I was working the RE business over 40 hrs/ wk and made $10,400 in cash on 3 wholesale deals and had 2 rehab deals going with a partner.

Deal 1-
REO
ARV- $222,000
Asking Price: $134,500
Purchase Price: $110,000
Wholesale flip price: $114,400
3,003 sq ft
4 bedrooms X 3 baths (plus 1 at the pool)
Cash profit: $4,400

Deal 2-
REO
Asking Price: $69,500
Purchase Price: $28,000
Retail price w/ tenants in place: $135,000
3,370 sq ft
6 bedrooms X 4 baths
Repairs: $55,000
Gross Profit- $52,000, after marketing and closing costs: $42,000
My half of the profits (projected): $21,000
Purchased at $.20 on the dollar to ARV, total costs will be ~ $.62 on the dollar to ARV

Deal 3-
REO
ARV- $152,000
Asking Price: $129,900
Purchase Price: $65,000
Wholesale flip price: $68,120
2,651 sq ft
3 bedrooms X 2 baths
Cash Profit: $3,120
Purchased at $.43 on the dollar to ARV

Deal 4-
REO
ARV- $125,000
Asking Price: $55,000
Purchase Price: $34,000
Wholesale flip price: $36,880
2,348 sq ft
4 bedrooms X 3 baths
Cash profit: $2,880
Purchased at $.27 on the dollar to ARV

Deal 5-
Asking Price: $39,900
Purchase Price: $25,000
Retail: $72,000
1,080 sq ft
3 bedrooms X 2 baths
Repairs: $18,000
Gross Profits $24,000, after marketing/ closing costs: $18,000

My half of the intended net profit: $9,000
Purchased at $.35 on the dollar to ARV, total costs will be ~ $.60 on the dollar to ARV

Where I am Now:
I spent so much time in Dec closing those deals because I did not have enough QUALIFIED (with fast cash in hand) buyers to have back-ups for the deals, that I did not spend enough time writing offers, so January was zero deals-- I had to catch up and keep building my buyers list, and placing offers, and keep learning, talking to investors, taking calls from my signs, organizing my logs-- all at the same time. It is NOT EASY, but it does work-- we have to work at it and we need to do what Dean and DG-ers advise because it works!

As of today I closed 3 more deals, wholesale fees are up to $17,000 and we just finished one rehab-- it is for sale for $72,000 retail or $66,000 wholesale to a landlord and will bring a rent of $900-$980/mo.
The other rehab is still on going.

I attend RE Club meetings regularly, I speak with investors daily, and I have buyers begging me for product. Organization is moving and getting reworked all the time. I listen to Dean's Weekly Wisdom and do what he teaches every week. I'm learning about Sub to's, Notes and helping other DG-ers here in Las Vegas and teaming up with others.

Thanks to Dean for changing my life and helping me find my direction, my destination and seeing it crystal clear and attainable. Although I am VERY behind, my plan is to hit $100,000 by the Edge this year... I know it's only a little over a month away, but WE CAN DO THIS!

I love you all.
Be well.
Abundance and contentment--
Tina

Everyone--

Geez, I wrote a book! My apologies for my answers to Carol's questions being so long, and thank you!

I forgot to answer her last question.

What would I like other DG-ers to Know:

If we say it won't work, it won't.
If we work it, it works.
Nothing happens until you place an offer.

--Tina

Wow!

Tell us more--- I can't even do that math; I think you're seeing 17% - 145% on your money. Do tell, what type of buyer is paying you those gorgeous returns?

Thanks for sharing.

-Tina

AWESOME!
And the Lord never gives us more than we can handle.

Keep it up, and PM me, there are a few people I know you might like to know in MF REITs.

Keep up the spirit--

Tina
(DG handle: Tina1)

Hey Derek,

One of Dean's recent Weekly Wisdom's (3-4 weeks ago) was What's Working and What's Not Working. It's a great tool for direction. There is another thread on here (so large it has 2 table of contents!)-- RBBP 30 Days to Fast Cash-- you will find a ton of useful info there on the 25:1 strategy and getting a fool-proof proof of funds.

I'm in Vegas and at first everyone I encountered said such things as: "the sharks at the auction will eat you alive", you "can't buy better than the trustee sales- and those guys have it locked up". "You'll never see profits from rehabs in the range of $20-$30,000, those days are gone." ALL UNTRUE.

Even when we think we are doing the right things, if it doesn't seem to be working, we have to change it up a bit. Here is what I can tell you worked for me:
A) I had to call MANY real estate agents to get the right one (if there is the slightest hesitation to place your offers or if they ask you more than once for POF, or if they get "mad"-- move on)

B) Do NOT concern yourself with asking price. Do the comps on the property (learn to do it yourself and have your agent or Tiltle Company do it), then use Matt's formula, COMP X.85 - PROFIT - REPAIRS = OFFER, then go a bit lower. That is your offer. It works for me just fine on REO's and there must be REO's in Sac that are older, ugly or seemingly undesirable homes-- I find that to be the Investors' Choice of types of properties. Here it's houses built 1965-1985, 1200-1800 sq ft in non-violent areas. BUT, find your "sweet spot" by talking to investors; where do THEY want to buy/hold? That's your spot.

C) I like to find listings of REO's in my buyers' areas with their criteria and make offers, offers, offers! AND, my little secret is "it aint't over til it's over"-- I do not cancel my offers, I ask for them to be held as back-up. When they are rejected, I re-submit, maybe a couple hundred dollar increase and voila! I have MANY that come back to me 30-60-90 days later because the deals fell thru and I was on a back-up list. Then I lock it up and THEN I do the due diligence and if I need to amend my offer because of additional repairs I do. I use Short Sales as a trickle in effort. I always have signs out, so I get calls but not many FSBO here to my knowledge, so REO's are my thing for the moment.

btw, the auction prices here are often over asking here as well.

Keep it up--
Keep learning and keep doing!

-Tina

Carol is the bomb! So she's right, you may have to go back to your calculations to get that embarrassing offer to finalize a deal.

Here are a couple of things to consider:
- Re-read the 25:1 formula (RRBP 30 Days to Fast Cash thread, and in the books, and blogs and conference calls), use it, even go back on the deals you offered on and compare.
- Think about answering many of your questions automatically like this, "My buyer's ________ is." What I mean is, Q: What is the best offer for the property? A: My buyer's top price for this type of house is ________. (know ahead of time if your buyer will pay you "X" amount on TOP of that, or if you need to LOWER your offer by the amount you want your fee to be). And, Q: What's the place or type of house to offer on? A: My buyer's type of house in area __ is _____________.
- Work the numbers. Use the FORMULA, use the buyer's criteria and compare, get a feel for it, massage the numbers, and the deals will happen!

Keep up the spirit!

-- Tina

Now that I finally found a place I could post, I have no idea if these are appropriate questions. 1. I want to listen to all the video blogs if I can. How do I find the beginning of them? 2. I bought the book and the stuff that came with it last summer. things didn't go as I had hoped they would. I want to try again. Starting at the beginning of the book and continuing till I have success. Any suggestions or guidance are welcome.

I am evaluating a 4plex that has a gross monthly Income of $2750. The Market value is $263.5K. The cost is $149.9K with Equity of about $113.6K. I can get financing for 75-80% of the cost. How would you go about obtaining this deal if you did not want to fund the down payment yourself?

I am finding all sorts of deals with these types of numbers. Your expertise would be greatly appreciated.

Hello my name is Joshua. When finding a realtor, where should I look? In my town or the town where I want to find my cash buyers? Then there is the area that I want to buy the houses. Where should I start? Thank you in advance.

What do you want to do?

Assign contracts? (wholesale)

All Videos are here: http://www.deangraziosi.com/dean-graziosi-video-blog

What book do you have?

What do you plan on starting out doing?

1) Go to the top left hand corner under "Main Sections". Click on "Dean's Video Blog". This will bring you to the most current. Scroll to the bottom of that page and you will see numbers representing pages. Click on "Last Page". There is the beginning.

2) Alice, you are doing exactly the right thing. Read Dean's books completely. Maybe even more than once. Come on this site and read and read and read some more. If you are looking for something in particular, go to the top left again and type the subject into the white box under Dean's chin. Then hit "enter" on your computer and a search will start. Do not click on the magnifying glass. That will do nothing. It is only there to confuse the new people.

Good luck to you!

Karen

What are you planning to do with it?

If you are going to wholesale it, have your end buyer put up the money. If you are wanting to keep it, maybe you could find a partner who has the down pmt.

Those are two options.

Karen

You want to find a realtor where you are planning to be looking for properties.

Karen

Once you know where the cash buyers are buying, thats where you want to look for properties at.

First off, fill out your bio.
Is the house on the MLS and you are working with an agent or is it FSBO.
Is there a chance for the owner to carry back part of the mortgage
What are your plans for the prop. Buy and hold, Wholsale?????
Have you seen the house yet?

Too many unanswered questions to be able to point you in the right direction...Jan

Hey Jan,
Thanks for the tips. As I was going to sleep last night I was going over what to say to a FSBO. And I like your first ice breaker. And I also forgot about the cell phone. Another great idea. And now I know to never talk price until the seller does first. Thanks for all the tips and reminders.
Annette

How do I get started? I'm really trying to understand the concept.

Welcome to all new DG-ers!

Whether its how / where to post (see below), appropriate questions (see below), evaluating a deal (watch the blogs, read the member's journals and DEALS in RE Forums, and like Karen and Jan said- you need to decide what you will do with the deal), where to come up with a down payment (doing deals without any of your own money doesn't necessarily mean the deal does not need money-- it just means you need to partner up with others, the owner, a lender or a partner with a lender-- OPM, Other People's Money), or where to find a RE Agent at (like Lane and Karen said, you find a RE Agent where you are working, and locate properties your buyers' want), one of my challenges was navigating this site! I use a computer all day long, but blogs and forums are not my specialty. On this site I finally figured out that like with a book, it made sense to begin at the beginning.

On the top left, try going to the bullet-links in this order:
*Website Rules
Then log/sign in and set up your profile on *MY ACCOUNT
then *START HERE- FAQ's (at the top)
then *Glossary of Terms
then *Real Estate Forums
and use the search--- I found that on a MAC you need to just hit enter/return (the little magnifying glass doesn't work), but the search works quite well.
*Dean's Video Blogs (as Karen said) are in the bottom left corner-- VERY GOOD

As you get your feet wet, just cruise the site by searching the key words, then post on the forums /threads that most pertain to your questions or concerns.

Hope this helps--
Tina

AMAZING story, and I was supposed to be at the inner circle but got stuck in a HML and am still struggling to catch up from the extra $24K that loan cost me! You are doing EXCELLENT work! Way to go!

That is awsome! 50k a month wow. Thats where i want to be in the future lol This thread is great. thank you all for the motivation!(:

Robert

TO GREAT OF A READ.....

Great thread.

to all the new people come on let's go 2013 is our year !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great quote, super information. I am just starting out, and will probably contact a lot of you DG friends here. I got the free book, and will start to devour that, and start initially getting my buyer's list together first. I live in the Cleveland, Ohio area. Is there anyone familiar with the wholesaling/flipping laws here? I need help. I spoke to a realty agent, and they said that it can't be done, and you know I don't believe that. Please contact me with more input. Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks again to all the great encouraging post. I am there with you.

Deb

Hi Everyone,

Dean's training materials and website are great. It gives you information to start your real estate business. Also, this website is great, people are very open, ready to help you and give you advise. I'm happy to hear all these great stories of success.

But, since I started on January this year, I haven't be able to do yet a wholesale deal. I'm from Miami, FL so the market here has shift it so I think that's part of the reason. Right now people are crazy looking for properties and over pay them. For example, if a property is listed for $150k, people are offering $220.00 for that property. The low offer is not coming to place.

I follow all Deans strategies with no luck in finding deals I do have my buyers list and I do have a good realtor, but nothing yet.

How can you do wholesale in a Hot market like that?

Thanks,

Wish everyone the best,
IK.

Hi Carol and my fellow Dgers,

I am a proscrastinator big time and have been wanting to do real estate for the longest. But now I can truly say I'm taking action as dean says, although I have not closed a deal yet I have two buyers lined up, just called for a refi bank and found two. And now my next step is to find an agent, contractor, and a closing company, make offers and get it done.

P.S. You can do it if you believe you can A-C-H-I-E-V-E..don't give up!
Thanks
Tyeisha

KEEP IT COMING DGER'S