I have made a commitment to do this business full time. I was a real estate broker for 10 years and I’m very familiar with assessing property values by looking at comps. I have enough savings to sustain myself for 18 months with no additional income. I’ve taken the following steps in starting my business:
I have joined my local real estate investment club.
I have joined a coaching program.
I run a “Fast Cash For Your House” ad 7 days a week in the local newspaper.
I mail out 2500 postcards a month to absentee owners and 2500 postcards a month to homeowners with low credit scores.
I put up 10 bandit signs per week.
I run an ad in the local Yellow Pages.
Here is my question for the seasoned full time investors out there:
Is it reasonable to expect that I can net $200,000 plus by the end of my second year in business?
$200,000 by the end of year 2 reasonable? ABSOLUTELY!!! My wife and I decided at the end of 2006 that she was quitting her job, getting her real estate license, and joining me full time to flip houses. We have two right now looking for the next two and plan to have 6-10 flips this year. Make $15,000+ per deal… you do the math. As we grow and have more capitol we plan to do more. When we set our goals for 2008 it will probably be more like 20 flips and in higher end houses than what we are doing now, so potentially $20,000+ per deal.
I have an investor friend that has helped me quite a bit this year. He started out a little over two years ago by buying a package of 60 rentals. He was new and not totally prepared and almost lost is a$$. He ended up selling most of them and getting into flipping. In 2006 he flipped 34 houses and made nearly $300,000.
The bottom line is this. If you want it and are willing to do what it takes to make it, YOU CAN DO ANYTHING! It sounds like you have a plan and are ready so GOOD LUCK!!! :beer
Make a detailed plan on how you want to make that amount of money and work it backwards all the way to how much you want to make per deal. hold yourself to it and only be somewhat flexible. Pick your strategy, what ever you are most comfortable with, Sub2, wholesaling, lease options, etc. And focus.
The housing market is very weak right now. The press is saying that it hasn’t been this bad in 18 years. Are you guys feeling it in your business? I’ve heard that as an investor it doesn’t matter if it’s a buyers market or a sellers market. Is this true? Do you make the same money in both markets? :bobble
The market is not the worst it’s been in 18 years, the housing numbers just had the biggest drop in 18 years. It can and will get a lot worse in my estimation.
Im my area, the rental market is really improving. However, houses are not selling and I wouldn’t want to be in the wholesaling business right now. As an example, I just bought two houses from another landlord. She offered the houses to the members of our REIA for $25K each (market value $50K - old market value that is). A few months ago, they would have been immediately snapped up. I wasn’t at the REIA meeting. No-one made an offer, so she called me a couple of days later. I bought them because I’m in the rental business. The rehabbers and flippers aren’t doing anything.
Buenas Dias Deal Maker,
Awesome plan. You have a built in Buyers List from all the years in RE. The other Realtors. Cancel yellow pages, huge waste of money, Too late I’m sure…Add more local papers, like ALL of them. Track which ones do the best and continue there.
If you don’t make 200k by the end of this year it is only because some one slept in every day.
Now that you are an investor you will need a new education which make you much smarter and wealthier than those “other” realtors. No more floor time, open house on over priced homes or grumpy principle Broker with 14 # access code to the fax machine.
You will become your best client.
I’m really excited for you .!!! You will find deals in a up or down market, you will learn to use different strategies in either market. In this market Realtors are exiting the business faster than a speeding bullet. Now is a good time to start as most sellers are past the point of having to be convinced their homes are over priced. Thank you media Dept… There are good deals in every market and your type of adds are going to work. I would add bird dog adds also. I have been selling and buying homes every month since the market crashed. Price solves everything, up or down.
I know you will be shopping new cars before the year is up !
Darin
DealMaker,
Sounds like you have a good plan in place. There is no reason your goals can’t be met except your own focus and motivation. The one thing I noticed is you only use 10 bandit signs a week. In a slow market there are more and more sellers that are motivated. I would use at least 50 signs a week if not more. If you don’t have the time to place them you can hire people to do it for you.
Keep your head up and stay focused.