Do Investors have psychic powers or just lying?

Bird Dogs, Wholesaling
1

I hear investors say they drive around first when finding deals. That includes mine. What is really going on for an investor to drive around town at random looking at homes in hopes of finding a for sale by owner out of the blue? And then claim they actually find deals this way by simply burning gas across town hunting deals they couldn’t humanly possible know about just by looking at the house from the outside. It is unheard of that they could look at the house and know right off the back how many bedrooms and bathrooms it has. Either they got their information upfront off the web or they are truly psychic. I wonder if my investor is really finding deals just by driving around areas first as he claims. I sent over a lead I found from Craigslist. Every since he found out where the lead came from, I am afraid to use Craigslist again to find deals.

Should I do what he “CLAIM” to do and travel first before knowing anything ahead of time like inside details of the home and asking price? And what specific streets to look for to find these so callled deals?

2

I believe that what they are trying to get you to understand is that investing is not something that you do sitting at home. You need to drive your market(s). Get to know them. (i.e. where are bad neighborhoods, where is majority of population in that city, what are the economic conditions in the various areas) just to name a few. If they want something that is on Craigslist they can probably find it themselves. :rolleyes

You need to find the opportunities before they make it to the general public.

3

All that you talk about would be easier if I was looking for homes in my own part of town as opposed to doing this in another town. At least I am familiar with what I have in my area. I wouldn’t even know what streets to travel to look for deals in some other town. I have plenty of ugly houses in my own area that could sell at huge discounts to rehab and sell for more. This investor wants me looking for specific stuff like 3 beds and 2 baths from 50k-200k. I took a shot at that yesterday on my way home from work just to see if I find anything. I traveled around two nice areas with price range what he wants. I couldn’t find a for sale by owner sign anywhere. Any further traveling and I would have gotten lost in the neighborhood. Looking for those pretty homes with big price tags are not as easy to find compared to ugly fixer upper homes.

What I really want to know is how do I find homes with that matches the specific things the investor wants from the inside of the home without using the realtors, or anything posted on the web? And they must all be for sale by owner homes only.

4

My county’s tax assessment information includes the square footage, beds, baths, etc about houses. You might have similar info where you are. You may have to start calling numbers from signs posted in yards to ask the owners details about the houses to see if they fit your investor’s screening criteria. Or you could advertise that you’re looking for specific types of houses.

5

I was looking for signs and couldn’t find any. I see more signs posted by real estate agents than I do posted by the home owner. For sale by owner are the my main focus right now and they are the hardest to find anywhere. The only for sale by owner sign is the one down the street from where I live, but my investors aren’t looking for homes in my area.

6

What law states you HAVE to jump through a bunch of hoops to cater to that particular investor? You don’t have to go through a life change to cater to some guy way in another town, unless that’s what you want to do.

If you have a bunch of potential deals right there in your own town I suggest you pursue them. Do your OWN deals. Just write down the addresses of the distressed homes, find the owners, and ask them do they want to sell it. If so, get it under contract at the right price/terms and sell. And not homes with signs in the front, I’m referring to abandoned/vacant/ugly houses…these are for sale by owner too, just no sign in the front yard. As Mdhaas said, you need to find the opportunities before they make it to the general public.

Push through till you make it and figure it out as you go.

7

The only reason I was willing to deal with this investor was because we said we would help each other out. I bird dog for him and in return get some mentoring on how to wholesale. And another thing, who is responsible for finding a title company that does closings for wholesale deals? There are not many people who know anything about wholesale and how it works, how would I find a title company and explain to them what I do and that I need their service?

8

Thanks for asking these questions tbodley74. You’re obviously out there DOING stuff and I commend you for that. Great job!

These are some very important questions that you’re asking and there are several things that I’d love to comment on.

First, to answer the question of whether you can find deals driving around neighborhoods? YES!

Finding “For Sale By Owner Signs” is just one of the things you are looking for though. You are also looking for vacant property and properties that have a lot of deferred maintenance. You can often tell a property is vacant by looking in the windows and noticing a large number of newspapers or flyers on the door. They might also have overgrown or poorly cared for landscaping. The properties that have deferred maintenance should be easier to identify… they need work.

Can you tell the details about a property while driving around? Again, YES!

You start getting great at estimating square footage, bedrooms and baths as you drive around and do this enough times. If you have an iPhone or iPad you can also get apps like the free Zillow app that can give you a ton of information about the property. It even uses the GPS in your phone so as you drive around it can tell you were you are so finding the property is pretty easy.

If you’re not driving around looking for properties, at a minimum you should be driving around and looking at what you are using for comparable sales for determining the value of the property you are looking to buy. You’ll often find properties to pursue as you drive around looking at comparable sales.

Can you find deals to wholesale on CraigsList? YES!

You can find deals on CraigsList and not every investor goes through CraigsList… for example some are busy or not computer savvy. Despite how popular we all believe it is, some of the investors that come to my group still don’t even know CraigsList exists to use as investors. Sometimes a property you find on CraigsList was passed over by dozens of other investors because the ad gave no indication of motivation, but when you do your research or talk to the seller you discover it is a great potential deal and worth pursuing.

It is true that I am a fan of marketing to get sellers to call me and there are tremendous advantages to doing that, you can trade your time and energy to find deals (what I call “poor marketing methods”… where you are willing to invest more time than money to find deals as opposed to “lazy marketing methods” where you are willing to pay money to have deals come to you).

Is it different to wholesale in your local market than to wholesale outside your local area? YES!

Few people probably know about this as well as I do having wholesaled in 280 markets simultaneously and being active in my own local market as well. There are things you can and probably should do if you’re local to increase the probability of doing deals. When wholesaling outside your local area you tend to do “the next best thing”. As one example, if you were local, you’d drive the comparable sales and the neighborhood while looking at the property. If you’re doing this remotely, you can’t “drive” the comps and neighborhood so you Google Maps them and do some web based and phone based research with people that would know like a knowledgeable investor and/or agent.

I commend you on wanting to work with a mentor to learn the business. I think I suggested to you in another post, but I do recommend working with more than one wholesaler for a variety of reasons.

As for finding a title company, the best way to find them is to ask for referrals from investors that are closing deals. Contact the buyers on your absentee owner mailing list. Sometimes you will be able to see the title company name that they closed with or you will want to call them and ask them what title company they will want to use to close on your wholesale transaction.

Here are some things to consider when finding a title company:

General Questions About Working With Investors

Do you work with real estate investors and closings they have?
Is there anything special about closings for investors that you offer?

Mailing Lists

If I needed to get a list of Absentee Owners or out of the area owners to do a mailing, could you provide me with that list?
How much would it cost?
What format would you provide it to me in? Labels? Excel File? CSV file? Text file? Something else?
If I needed to get a Free And Clear Mailing List, could you provide me with that list?

Comparable Sales Data

Are you able to give me access to comparable sales data?
What does it cost?
What is the format?
Is it web based or do I need to call?

Preliminary Title Work

If I am considering buying a property, can you pull a preliminary O&E report to tell me the loans that are on and how much is owed? How much would that cost?

Short Sale Services

Do you offer short sale negotiation services?
How much does it cost?
Do you charge on ones that are not approved?
Can we bill it to the seller?

Title Policies On Quick Turned Properties

If I am buying a property and close it with you, then I want to resell it quickly, can I get a discount on the title insurance for the second transaction if I close that with you too? Do I need to tell you that when I close the first time or does it happen automatically?

Foreclosure Lists

Do you have lists of foreclosure filings that you can send me?
How much do you charge for that?

Double closings, Wholesaling and Assignments

If I have a contract on a property and I happen to find a buyer for it before I even close on my purchase, can you close the deal directly between my seller and my buyer and still have me get paid?
What that be paid out direclty on the HUD as an assignment fee if I am assigning my contract?
If I needed to, could we do it on two separate HUDs? One between me and the seller and one with me and the buyer?
If you’re not able to do assignments of my contract as a single closing, do I get a discount on closing fees and title insurance if I am doing back to back closings on the same day? What if it is within a couple of days?

Subject To

Ask these questions if you plan to do Subject To deals:

Will your attorney close Subject To deals?
What special needs to be done for these?

Owner Financing

Ask these questions if you are doing Owner Financing deals:

If I get my seller to agree to accept payments on the sale, do you offer a service where I pay you and you disperse the money to the seller? What does that cost?
Are you able to help with setting up a Contract For Deed or Installment Land Contract agreement?
If I get my seller to agree to “be the bank” for the purchase, will you prepare the Note and Deed Of Trust (or Mortgage)? What is the charge for that?
What if I am bringing in a Private Lender? Will you prepare the Note and Deed Of Trust or Mortgage? What is the cost for you doing that?

I hope that this helps, but let me know if you need anything else. I am looking forward to hearing about your success; we’re here to support you and help you.

9

Thats some great information you provided. I can easily find uglies around my neighborhood as opposed to finding those pretty homes that are FSBO only. That is the tricky part because when I was traveling around different areas in the rich upper class neighborhoods, I could not find FSBO. By the way, I asked my bird dog investor about what title company does wholesale deals. I got the name of the company. I am still using Craigslsit too and backpage.com.

10

That’s awesome. Keep at it. You’re moving in the right direction and learning a ton of stuff as you go. It does take a little time and effort but it will all start clicking soon.

11

Right now I am searching for deals on Craigslist. Along with using Craigslist I am using the Electronic Courthouse along with netronline.com to get some more detailed information about properties before going out looking at them. I really need to find something. I can’t say it works everywhere, but I am getting an idea what buyers prefer just by the information I get from the investor I am bird dogging for. I noticed 3 beds and 2 baths seem pretty popular.

12

Yes, that’s it. Keep at it.

If you are bird dogging or wholesaling, each buyer including wholesale buyers that you talk to you will want to get a very detailed idea of what they want. You will find that many of them have similar wants, but you will also find that some have specialties. For example, one may want duplexes or one may want properties in certain parts of town that they can scrape and rebuild new, some may want cash flow properties, some may want properties they can buy, fix up and resell. They will want different price ranges. The more wholesale buyers you talk to, the more likely you’ll be able to do something with the properties you are finding and the more creatively you can solve seller challenges and add value to the marketplace.

A newer bird dog/wholesaler tends to have limited contacts and a limited buyers list. As your list grows and you grow in both knowledge, experience and creative thought processes you will find yourself becoming more and more effective.

Keep at it. You can do it.

13

I can say this feels like something I want to grow into doing for long term. The more I know about wholesale the more I feel this may be worth my while

14

Yes, you can help a lot of people in this business.

15

Sounds fine to me. I help them they help my wallet. Grow that is.