I’m confused on how this works. How does an investor buy a property s/he has never seen in person…without visiting it? Without visiting the distressed owner?
How is this done nationally?
I think it’s a little “overblown” phrase to be honest. I wrote a blog post about it some time ago. The basic gist though is that you “outsource” much of the process to other people. This minimizes your margins a bit, but also lets you increase your volume, and frees up your time. It’s about building a system.
In terms of working natinally, you would have partners (e.g. realtor partners) who bring you deals for a % of your profits.
You hear a lot of talk nowadays about all different types of investment techniques. One that is really perking up recently is something called, “Virtual Wholesaling”.
In a nutshell, the idea behind virtual wholesaling is using computers and online information systems to do real estate investing. Short sales in particular are a great companion to virtual real estate investing, and virtual wholesaling / real estate investing allows an investor to expand their reach from a local market to nationwide.
A lot of Virtual Investing proponents will also press to automate as much of their work flow as possible; again leveraging the power of technology to help you find leads, qualify leads, manage a transaction, close the transaction, and cash out at the end. Another part of the appeal of virtual wholesaling is that it can be run from anywhere, it is an “internet business” almost like any other “internet business”.
Virtual investors will use some of the following tools:
* Websites to promote traffic and build awareness of the services they offer
* Connections with Realtors who will bring deals to the investor directly
* Social networks like Twitter and Facebook to network and connect with people
* Sub-out “ground pounding” work like bird dogging and off-line marketing
* Assign out work for a profit split
Being successful in virtual investing requires dedication, especially when getting started – getting yourself setup the right way is a critical component. Once you have a system in place, though, it can be a very efficient way of investing in real estate.
As important as networking is in traditional real estate investment, it becomes even more crucial with virtual wholesaling. From the real estate agents you work with, to your title company, your attorneys, your buyers, rehabbers, and fix-and-flippers, to your transactional lenders and negotiation companies (if any), having resources available to quickly handle your workflow and work in your pipeline is critically important.
Like anything else, education and keeping up with the ever-changing technology world is also important. You need to know how to find deals, how to outsource work on them, and how to manage the process, more than anything else. At the end of the day, virtual wholesaling is about a finely-tuned process.