Wholesale in scary neighborhoods

Bird Dogs, Wholesaling
1

Should I take a chance to wholesale ugly houses in rough looking neighborhoods? When I say rough, I mean really hardcore thuggish neighborhood. These look like places I would be too scared to live in myself they look that scary. I doubt anyone would want to invest any money buying property in such a area. I have not contacted any owner of these vacant uglies. Mainly just because of the location of these areas. The city I live in is pretty high crime.

The houses look like they could go for dirt cheap too. I know there is such as a thing as We Buy Houses bandit signs. I would want to try something different like posting a I Sell Houses bandit signs. Yeah it sounds odd, but would it get a response much like those We Buy Houses signs?

2

You’ll have to get them embarrasingly cheap and your exit strategy will be wholesaling to landlords. Homeowners who can qualify for loans won’t want to live in a war zone.

Don’t advertise that you sell houses unless you’re a licensed agent.

3

Thanks for asking this question. It is another great one that should be addressed so I appreciate the opportunity to be able to share.

First, I will let you know that my answer does change if you are talking about anything other than wholesaling/bird dogging, but since you are specifically addressing wholesaling here is how I see it.

You will want to go back and look at the number of cash transactions and other investor transactions in that neighborhood over the last 3 to 6 months to see what type of buying (and selling) activity there is. If you plan to wholesale, one of the most important factors is are there buyers for the properties that you will be controlling and wholesaling for fee.

With many title companies you can go to them and ask for them for a list of the closed transactions in that market with all the extra data. For example, the extra data includes stuff like the type of transaction, lender information (another good way to find hard money and private lenders by the way), who bought it and was it an owner occupant transaction or absentee owner transaction.

This is some really useful data to have.

As you compare this data to other neighborhoods you are considering buying in, you can quickly see how many people are buying (and who they are). If you’re cautious, you may want to reach out using the phone company’s 411 service to the buyers and find out if they are buying more or why they are buying. These are potential wholesale buyers for your list anyway and it would be well worth the time to talk to bona fide buyers that will ultimately be buying your wholesale properties to find out their buying criteria.

A little time and effort invested here can prevent you from some awkward moments with sellers on properties that you’re not able to wholesale like you imagined without having talked to buyers.

If you are finding a bunch of properties for sale in that neighborhood and few actual investors buying and/or few actual investor transactions buying in that market as compared to other neighborhoods you are considering, I’d look at the other neighborhoods to go were I am likely to have the highest probability of success.

You can fight the trend and market, but if it will be much easier in another neighborhood, why not go where it is easier?

I really hope that helps. Please do let me know if it does not or if there is anything else I can do to help.

4

Oh well there goes that idea. The homes look like very beat up homes that needs so much work done that they could go for embarrassingly cheap.

5

Is netronline.com a good site to get all that useful information about buyers and sellers, transaction type, etc? The only setback about them is they you have to pay a non-refundable $35 fee to use to professional upgrade service and still not be promised to become accepted once you fill out their application. They claim there service is a one stop place to find all your sellers from netronline. I have an account with them but haven’t bought anything yet.

6

I know of netronline.com because an investor friend of mine recommended it for me to check out, but I have never used them and beyond knowing of them, I really do not know what they offer.

I would normally get the information you are referring to from a title company or real estate agent. Depending on the title company and the real estate agent you can often get the data for free from either.

If I can help in any way, please do let me know.

7

Thanks. How would I go about asking to get this information from real estate agents or title company? I don’t have any money on me if and only if I am to pay to get the information.

8

Thanks for the reply tbodley74.

If you need to get it for free, then you will need to invest the time required to call many of them to find them. I did a very long post recently that talked about title companies and the services they can provide and another separate long post about how to find and interview real estate agents. If you want to look at my posts you will find that extremely helpful.

To supplement what I have on those posts though, you will want to explain what it is you’re trying to do and ask them if they will work with you and provide that type of data. Usually I would offer them something of value in exchange. In the case of the title company, it is usually having them do my title work. In the case of a real estate agent, it may be referring the sellers that I do not buy from to them (and that can be 9 out of 10 that I talk to).

I hope that this helps, but please let me know if you need more help.

9

There are so many posts I lost which one to find all that information. I’m sure I will find it again somewhere. Check my other post about the RE attornies posted in the Beginners, Carlton sheets forum. That’s if you haven’t seen it yet. If you have seen it don’t worry.

10

Yes, I recently replied to your post about your attorney question.