Hello Everyone! I love this forum! So much information here! I have a question to investors… I live in a very bad state for foreclosures/shortsales/abandoned rental properties, etc… My husband is an electrician about to be out of work in about a week. With all this real estate sitting around there has to be some way to make money with it. There are new ones every day. So my question is to the investors, banks, realtors, etc… What would you pay a person like me a nominal fee for? I mean what services could I offer you that wouldhelp make your days more productive and line your pockets with more cash? I am new to real estate so I need some ideas to approach the local investors with. If I could get the banks to call us back about all the code viuolations stacking up on properties they have right now, I could offer them mowing or clean out services, but the banks dont want to pay that and they dont care!
Where are you located?
your husband is a licensed electrician? in your area, do you ever see those bandit signs offering to buy homes, or the ones that say we rent homes? you could start calling them and seeing if they could use your husbands services. you might also consider calling property managers. they need good people. investors might also consider cleanout services and cleaners. calling banks would probably be a dead end.
There maybe some investors in your area that might be looking for whay most call a “Bird Dog”. In its very basic format investors will pay to the “Bird Dog” for finding properties that meet certain requirements. It usually consists of driving, walking or riding around neighborhoods looking for specific properties and then reporting that information back to the investor. It may require some paperwork to be completed and it would help if you owned a digital camera so pictures can be taken.
Some investors pay for each lead you bring them even if they don’t purchase the property and some may simply pay you a higher fee if they end up purchasing the property.
The other benefit if your husbands or yourself decides to do that, he might even be able to put the word out the he is a electrician (registered??) as he is walking round, that might get him some work onte side.
As far as were to look for this work, I would start with Craig’s List messages or simply posting a message there as well.
Might be a Win Win Situation :beer
If you are marketing to investors remember, Cheap, Cheap, Cheap. Especially with us landlords. Licensed contractors are not who we look for for the most part. Cheap is who we look for. Jacklegs that can solve any problem we have are nice. That way we can just call one person, say I have some problems down at this or that address and they will go take care of it in a highly cost effective manor. Or these people moved out and left all of their furniture. I need it out. Whatever I need done, they can do it and they can do it cost effectively. Even if I have a tough job to do like digging up an old sewer line and replacing it, they will do it without crying about it. Those are the people I use.
And you will need to contact the investors and property managers multiple times. Remember that they are already using someone they like. That person has to aggravate them some time and you have to be there when they do.
In looking for more property, like 2desertguys said, bird dogs are useful. Wholesalers are useful as well. If you are actually doing extensive work finding properties, more than driving around but doing it in some of the more conventional ways like finding and contacting vacant home owners and negotiating a deal than you will want to consider wholesaling over bird dogging as there is more money there.
Take it from all angles, not just investors. Tell the investors that your services are catered to them. Advertise on craigslist to investors or just average homeowners. Take whatever you can get at first and down the road when you have built up a nice little business working with investors and property managers, drop the other stuff.
If you jump in with both feet and learn every single thing you can about wholesaling you could make a nice living doing that as well or along with the other specialty services.