The Ultimate Guide To Flipping Houses Successfully

Learn how to really flipping houses really works from real investors.

We hold nothing back! We cover everything we have learned while flipping houses and growing our investment business.

The Ultimate Guide To Flipping Houses SuccessfullyWhat We'll Cover

MINDSET

We like to start by stressing how important mindset is when flipping houses. Many people underestimate the mindset that is required to succeed in flipping houses. This usually leads them to losing a lot of money and failing in their journey.

Who is flipping houses for.

Flipping houses is for someone that loves real estate!

Flipping houses is a FULL-TIME job. This is why you need to love it. You should love everything you do in life. After all we only get one to live. Flipping is not an exception.

This business is very hard and extremely stressful. Please don't think for one moment that this is not a business. You MUST run it like one at all times. As a business, there are a lot of parts of it that are extremely boring but must be done. This is why loving what you do matters.

The musts:

We will break down all of these musts as we go through this guide.

Who is flipping houses NOT for

This is not for people that think this is easy money. We see many people get into flipping because they think they will be rich! If you're getting into this business because of money, trust us, there are easier ways.

This not for people who already have a full-time job. You need to be ready to go put out any fire at any given time of day. We mean metaphorical fires, real fires should be handled by the fire department.

This not for you to live your HGTV fantasies! We get that you watch the shows and they make it seem like it's easy. That even though everything goes wrong they still make money.

Real-life doesn't work like that. Sometimes things go wrong and you can lose tens of thousands of dollars.

GETTING STARTED

There are 3 main parts to every deal.

  1. The experience. Being able to make that deal profitable.
  2. The money. Having the money to fund the deal.
  3. The deal. Finding the property will be perfect for a flip.

The Experience

If you're new to flipping then you MUST get an experienced partner. By experienced we mean someone who has actually flipped houses successfully.

Many people think that all they need is a contractor. This is wrong.

Being that the partner you need has experience in flipping houses you have two things to offer.

  1. Money. Here you have to money to either buy the house, do the rehab, or maybe both.
  2. The Deal. Here you found a great deal to partner with someone that has the experience.

If you can't offer one of the two then no one will want to partner with you.

The difference between a contractor and an investor.

A contractor, even a great one, is only good at being a contractor. This means that they know HOW to fix things.

The investor on the other hand knows WHAT and WHY certain things need to get fixed. We've seen many investors get in trouble for doing what the contractor thought needed to be done.

You should only hire a contractor to do the work. An investor should determine what that work is.

The Money

Once you found the experience to be able to handle a flip you need money.

This does not mean the money needs to be yours.

We built PRYME Homes by partnering with a lot of investors that have money. We would combine our knowledge and resources with their money to get deals done. Now, we have many investors willing to lend to us for any deal we want to do.

Let's go over the different sources of money you may be able to use.

1. Hard Money Loans(HML)

This is a very common and popular route for many first-time investors. HML are usually a business that lends money based on the deal.

This is a great choice when you have very little money and a great deal.

How HML typically works is they will verify that you have a good deal, usually 70% of ARV minus repairs. Then they will lend based on those risks. These are usually short-term loans 6-12 months and the property is used as collateral.

Here is the downside with this, it's expensive. As we have seen the market get hotter, at least here in Texas, we've seen HML drop their fees. But this is only for investors that have done a certain amount of deals with them.

Usually, their fees are 2-4 points and 10%-14% interest.

What does this mean?

2-4 points is 2%-4% of the loan amount. So say you're borrowing $100K you would need to pay $2K-$4K upfront.

10%-14% interest is applied to the rest of the loan. Usually this interest is per annum. So, you would pay $10K-$14K over the course of however long you had the loan.

Using the $100K loan it'll break down like this...

$100K Loan

$2K-$4K (2-4 points upfront)

$833-$1166/month(10%-14% interest) if it takes you 6 months to flip it then it'll be

$4,998- $6,996 ($833 X 6 - $1166 X 6)

So, why is HML so bad? In this example, you're spending 7%-10% of the total loan just on the money costs. This is not including the 6 months of monthly reserves some require as well as other fees that are incurred.

We're not trying to scare you from using HML. We just want to make sure you take into account all of the real costs.

2. Individual Investors

We used to refer to them as Private Money Lenders but HML started using this term too. They justify it by simply saying that they are also PML.

So what's the difference between a HML and an Individual Investor?

An Individual Investor is 100% negotiable. This means you can borrow money at any terms you can negotiate.

When we first started we developed a relationship with someone that had money. He started lending to us at 2 points and 12% interest. Now, we're borrowing money at 8% interest only paid all on the backend.

What does that mean?

All of the monthly payments accrue and once we sell we pay them off! This is great because it leaves more working capital in our pockets for the project. We are essentially paying them using the profit that's generated rather than coming out of pocket.

If the investor wants money payments you can factor that into the loan. So you can actually borrow your monthly payments. Yes, you will be paying interest on that money. But, 8% or even 10% on say $5k in payments is less than $50/mo! Well worth it!

While this option sounds great, you need the credibility for this. People aren't willing to lend to someone they've never met or can't prove experience. All of our Individual Investor have to come to us because of our credibility.

3. Partnership

The last way to get money is through a partnership. Like we said above, our first lender was actually a partner. We had found a great deal. He had already bought a couple wholesale properties from us in the past. This had helped him know that we are very transparent and know what we're doing.

But, this didn't prove flipping experience. But because both of us have extensive construction experience he felt comfortable enough to do 50/50 on it. Now, this is VERY expensive money. We could have gone through the HML route but we really wanted to build a relationship with him.

He was more than happy to split the deal 50/50 when all he had to do was lend money. Of course, his money is 100% protected by the property which we bought for 50% of the value.

After he saw what we're capable of and we negotiated a 2 point and 12% loan for the next one. After this, his friend heard about and he came in at 1 point and 12%. Then another investor found out and so on. Now we borrow money at 8% interest only paid in the back end!

NOTE: When borrowing money we rather do more interest and less points. Here's why, interest payments are spread over 12 months. Points are paid upfront. So when we negotiate with a lender we try to go up on interest and down on points.

The Deal

Finding the deal is the last part to the 3 things needed to flip a property.

You can do this 3 different ways.

1. Through an agent.

This is the most popular way. Which is why it sucks! The reason this typically "sucks" is because everyone does this. When everyone goes after one thing the price goes up!

Trying to buy properties through the MLS is very competitive. Sometimes you end up overpaying for house because so many people are bidding the price up.

You have to be careful with overpaying. We know this may seem common sense but many people have a fear of missing out. This causes them to overpay for properties.

Another downside to buying off the MLS is because it's open to everyone there are investors that move faster. We typically have an offer out to a property the same day it comes on the market! So, unless you know what you're numbers are and can move that fast, we will beat you every time.

All said and done, we're not saying this can't be done. We're simply saying this is harder.

2. Find it yourself.

This option is by far the best one. If you can find the deals yourself through marketing you eliminate a lot of competition. This means you can get much favorable prices and terms

The downside to this is, it takes time and money to execute. Marketing isn't cheap nor is it is to automate.

You also face a large level of competition if you're in a hot market like the one in San Antonio, TX.

3. Wholesalers.

Buying from wholesaler maybe your best bet if you don't have the time and money for marketing. Wholesalers are people that all they do is generate deals. If you can find yourself a few great wholesalers you can generate all the deals you will ever need.

The issue with wholesaler nowadays is that they tend to shop the deals for the highest offer. This like buying of the MLS may cause you to pay too much. If you can show them that you're a dependable buyer they may be more inclined to bring the deals first.

When buying from wholesalers never go off the values and repairs they say a property needs. Always run your own numbers. Get your contractor's out to verify the renovation cost.

Wholesalers have brought us deals where "their contractor" quoted was off by $15K or more. Being this far off can really hurt you when flipping houses.

THE RENOVATION

Now that we have covered the 3 things needed to start a flip let's cover the actual flip.

When flipping houses the biggest most important part is making sure you have a detailed Scope Of Work.

Scope Of Work (SOW)

The SOW is crucial for the following reasons:

  1. Helps get detailed bids from contractors.
  2. Helps keep the project on track.
  3. Helps when paying contractors.
  4. Helps with the budget and time.

Let's break these down further.

1. Helps get detailed bids from contractors.

When hiring a contractor, GC (General Contractor) or a tradesmen, they need to clearly understand what must be done.

Many contractors will give you a low bid and say yes I can do a new kitchen. But then the change orders come when that bid didn't include the installation of the appliances. Or maybe they "forgot" to include the install of the hardware on the doors.

You may think that we're kidding. We're NOT! We're not trying to say that all contractors are terrible people. The problem is that many people claim to be contractors when they're really not. They are simply overpaid handyman.

A detailed bid can help you prevent this headache. This is where having an experienced rehabber can help tremendously. You must go through every room and clearly detail what must be done. You have to almost be redundant. If the blinds need to be removed you need to specifically say "the blinds and any hardware". If not they will only remove the blinds!

2. Helps keep the project on track.

Sometimes these projects can take 6+ months. If you have multiple projects going on it's very easy to forget some details. You may be at the end of a project and realized that you didn't order a shower door that takes 3 weeks to get here! True story.

3. Helps when paying contractors.

A detailed SOW is very useful when determining pay schedules. All of our contractors get paid when a particular scope has been completed. This also helps for to go in an check their work. You never want a contractor to either bounce around or get too ahead of themselves.

It also helps you keep track of what you're paying for certain SOW so you know for next time.

4. Helps with the budget and time.

On every project, you MUST keep a close eye on your budget. It's very easy to lose track of the budget towards the end. Many investors only think about the big-ticket items. But they forget the little things towards the end.

We've spent over $1000 at times buying little finish touches at Home Depot. These little things can add up to $10K very quickly.

With time and experience, if you tracked everything, you will get more efficient at estimating SOW and timelines. This helps tremendously when borrowing money and bidding projects.

NOTE: Don't forget to factor in holding costs. This includes but it's not limited too money cost, insurance, taxes, utilities, and lawn maintenance.

Hiring A Contractor

Now, that you have a very detailed SOW, you can proceed to hiring your contractor(s).

You have two options here.

  1. Hire a GC
  2. Hire individual tradesmen

There are times when you want one over the other. Let's go over that now.

1. Hire a GC

When flipping houses hiring a GC is one the preferred method for many new investors. They believe because it's just one person they need to deal with it'll be easier. We understand why this is appealing but there's a very big issues with this.

When you're hiring a GC you're essentially hiring someone to manage your renovation. This can cost you north of 20% of the rehab budget. To us that's A LOT of money. Especially when you working with tight deals.

Most GC's now-a-days don't actually work. They instead hire the people that do the job and add on their management fee to the price.

Other than being expensive, some GCs tend to jump around the project a lot. They start something in one room then jump and do something else in another room. The issue here is that many times they miss little things because they're jumping everywhere.

We've also seen that many GCs actually rarely go to the projects. When your flipping houses a project must be visited on a daily basis. This keeps the subs from messing something up that will now cost more to fix because they covered it up.

2. Hire individual tradesmen

At PRYME Homes we do this 98% of the time. There are a couple reasons why we like this so much:

When flipping houses speed is everything. For many investors, you have money you've borrowed and are paying interest on. If you hired a GC that has a small crew this can delay your project a lot. In a small crew everyone does everything. This makes it really hard to do more than one scope at a time.

The downside. Hiring individual tradesmen requires more work.

You have to find them. This means calling around, asking for referrals, going to other peoples projects.

Even after you found some "good" tradesmen, you have to keep looking because they may not last. Ever since we have been renovating houses we have needed new tradesmen after each project. Sometimes they only last one project. Other times, we need a different skill level.

There's no "one size fits all" tradesmen. If you have a great worker for high-end tile jobs they may be too expensive for lower-end. We don't use the same workers for a $500K house as we do for $150K house.

Once you find them, now you have to manage them!

Managing Contractors

There are two areas to managing contractors. This is the same for either GC's or tradesmen.

1. Managing Expectations

This is big! Many investors are not clear on what they expect from a contractor when they're flipping houses.

What we mean by this is, being clear on what you expect the finish product to look like. We know, you're probably thinking, "I want the finished product to be finished!".

We get it. But you can't assume that they're interpretation of "finish" is the same as yours.

We're more demanding of our contractors than other people are. We expect the corners of every trim piece to be even. We expect that all flooring go under the door jams. We expect our tubs to be covered so they don't get scratched or dented and much more.

You have to eliminate all guessing from their heads. You want to make sure you both see the same finished product.

2. Managing the SOW

It's not enough to just give them the SOW and "hope" they do it right. We go to our projects daily! This helps us make sure that they're not jumping around.

We also can check on quality this way. If you go daily you can see something that just got done wrong but can be fixed. If you're like so many investors we've met and go once a week, it may cost a lot more to fix things.

Managing the SOW also helps in determining if you're ahead or behind schedule. Again, remember staying on schedule is important because of holding costs.

THE FLIP

Hopefully by now everything went great and you're getting ready to sell this amazing renovation!

This part is NOT the easy part. Many investors overlook this part when flipping houses.

There are a lot of things that must be done in order to sell for the most and the quickest.

Let's start with the right price.

Pricing To Sell

There are two things to consider when pricing a house.

1. Appraised Value

Appraised value is what will the home appraise for when a lender sends an appraiser to your home. This is very important because, if it doesn't appraise it may not sell.

An appraiser will look at similar homes to yours and start comparing apples to apples. They will make adjustments if things don't match up exactly. Like an extra bedroom or bathroom or maybe updated cabinets. Once they have made all of their adjustments they come up with a value to your home.

This is very important. If your house is similar to other renovated homes but you price it $10K higher, it won't appraise. Updated cabinets are updated cabinets. It doesn't matter if theirs is off the shelf from Home Depot and your's are custom. When appraiser looks at other properties he looks at pictures. So they can't tell if the quality is cheap.

2. Perceived Value

This is the value that a new homeowner will put on your house.

If they go to a house and feel like they're getting a deal that's great. If they go and feel like it's overpriced that's bad.

A higher perceived value from your buyers will help sell faster, not necessarily for more. This is why you don't want to over-improve the house.

Typically what we do when deciding finish out materials is look at the COMPS. Here we determine the Appraised Value first. Once we did this we now look closely at all of the SOLDS. Here, we're looking for minor updates we can do to stand out. We know that by doing XYZ we will appraise for max ARV. But, what do we need to do to sell for max ARV and fast? That's where you make little tweaks that a homeowner will love.

The Details That Sell

Appraisers don't look at the details. They look at pictures. If you have new cabinets and the comp appears to have new cabinets then that's it. It doesn't matter if your cabinets are custom.

But, custom cabinets may help sell it faster. You obviously need to keep cost in mind.

Finishing touches

The details that sell are for the homeowner not the appraiser. Now, you need to walk through the house and look at it as a homeowner. Do you need to put blinds on the windows? Do you need nicer landscaping? Should you stage it?

A homeowner will walk in and picture themselves living there. If they see they still need to do more stuff to finish it out they may not like it. The majority of buyers don't know how to install blinds. So now they're thinking they need to hire someone to do it.

Staging is so important when flipping houses. Good staging will make the buyer feel right at home. They can see where the couches go. They can visualize their furniture there.

We stage every house we flip. The reason for this is speed of sell. The house looks completed and therefore sells faster.

The pictures

When you're going to sell you will list it with an agent. Please spend the extra $100 or so to get professional pictures taken. Buyers shop for houses online. If they come across yours and your pictures are from a phone that won't look good.

We seen beautiful rehabs with terrible pictures. The issue with this is it gives the house a bad feel. They usually look darker and smaller.

Professional pictures makes your $50K rehab look like a $100K rehab. I brightens the home up. Makes every room look huge. It really grabs their attention.

If you grab their attention online then when they show up to the house they're more excited. Now, if you don't do this and they see dark pictures they may feel different. Now, they're going to the house curious to see what's wrong with it.

Multiple Offers

Many investors think that when flipping houses you go for the highest offer. This really depends on the offer.

You may get an over asking price offer but it's FHA or VA. This means that if the house doesn't appraise for that extra amount they won't get the loan. This is an issue because by the time they are notified they can't afford it you have lost weeks.

Always look at the terms. Is the offer contingent on anything?

Many times they submit an offer contingent on their home selling. This isn't a big problem if they are already under contract to sell. But, if they haven't even begun to sell their home then it could take months. You don't want to go under contract for months. Also, what if it doesn't sell? Now you have a BOM (Back On Market) on your listing.

A listing that went from ACT (Active) to AO (Active Option) to BOM doesn't look good. To most buyers they're thinking, "what's wrong with the house?". This is terrible for you.

We have sometimes taken a lower offer because the terms were better.

Concessions

When you're flipping houses you will realize that everything is negotiable. Even concessions.

Many time buyers will ask for concessions. This is money from YOU!

Now, this may be because they're an FHA buyer and can't afford the closing costs. In this case what we've done is the following.

Asking $230K

Offer $230K with $4K in concessions

Our Counter $234K with $4K in concessions

So we went up in price so they can get the $4K they need to close. This way the $4K comes from the bank, not us!

Another reason for concessions is, repairs.

We did a quick flip once and the inspector said we need to update the plugs to GFCI. So the buyers got a bid for $3,500 to do this and asked for that amount in concessions. They also threw in a couple of other silly things that brought it to $4,500.

Our counter, NO to the other things and we will get the GFCIs to code. It cost us $500 to do this!

We went from $4,500 down to a $500 fix. But this is something your agent needs to be able to negotiate.

Choosing The Right Agent

Many investors flipping houses try to go for the cheapest agent. This is NOT the time to save money. A good agent can not only sell your house fast but also solve any problems that come up.

There have been so many times when we have had to teach the buyers agent how to close a deal! If not they would have lost their buyer which means we lose too!

Nowadays everyone wants to be a real estate agent. Most agencies will add any new agent to their team. So if you thought that because it's a big name realty you're good, think again.

The best way to find a great agent is to go to local investors and see who they use. Then interview a couple of them to see which one you feel more comfortable with.

You also want to make sure they are familiar with that area of town. In San Antonio, we have many different areas of town. This means that there may be different issues that arise.

You don't want an agent that deals in high-end homes selling a starter home. The commission isn't the same for and sometimes they're not as motivated.

There are really good agents that can adapt to any area, but they're not easy to find.

The Wrap-Up

We hope we've given you enough to succeed with flipping houses.

Keep in mind this is not easy nor is it for anyone. But if done right, it can be very fun and rewarding.

Please keep checking back with us as we continue to add more articles. We will continue to expand on many of these topics even further.

Good luck on your journey and hope you share your success stories with us.

Wholesaling Strategies: The Advance How-To Guide 301

Time to learn the different ways to sell a deal by using different Wholesaling Strategies.

Wholesaling Strategies: The Advance How-To Guide 301THE ROAD SO FAR

In our previous guides, we have covered a lot. Before we get into Wholesaling Strategies: The Advance How-To Guide 301, let’s look back.

In Guide To Wholesaling Real Estate 101 we covered:

In Wholesale Everything: The Intermediate How-to Guide 201 we expanded on many areas. We also added:

In Wholesaling Strategies: The Advance How-To Guide 301 we are going to expand even further.

We will cover:

Before we get into the meat of this guide, we want to share something else with you.

How to do this regardless of your career path

Like we said in Guide To Wholesaling Real Estate 101, wholesaling is like driving for Uber. It won’t replace your day job but, it can supplement your income very nicely.

Learning to wholesale can help you monetize at any time. It will amaze you how many times you come across people in your network that needs to sell their homes. These leads can come from friends, family, or even co-workers.

Even though at PRYME Homes we buy most houses, we do sometimes come across deals that we simply can't buy. Sometimes deals just are not right for us.

So, we turn to wholesaling.

And because of our large network, we can do this very easily and quickly. This typically will put $2K to sometimes $10K+ in our pockets rather quickly (we’ve even made over $50,000! Tell you about this later).

We've worked with investors that have done over 15 deals while having a full-time job. Most of those were houses he kept personally as rentals. But, some of those were wholesales that he did just because he had the right network.

LEARNING THE LINGO

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In Guide To Wholesaling Real Estate 101, we covered some popular terms.

We wanted to expand a little more here.

Financing Terms

In the last two guides, you learned about marketing and generating leads.

The reason we haven't gone deeper into negotiations is that you need to be really good at generating profitable deals first.

Many new investors get caught up on trying to be awesome negotiators without ever getting a lead. If you become awesome at lead-gen, then you will have time to perfect negotiations.

Also, we still strongly recommend partnering with savvy investors at first to learn quickly.

That being said. Let's get into negotiations.

NEVER NEGOTIATE

Q: So, how do you negotiate without negotiating?

A: By not being a salesman!

A salesman doesn't care about the person they're selling too. All they care about is closing the deal. Even though we know that's why your there. You have to be ready to walk away if necessary.

By being prepared to walk away, it's hard to come off like a salesman.

Why be prepared to walk away?

If you're always willing to walk away then you can focus on making sure you not only get a great deal but also give the homeowner the best option.

How to NOT be a salesman

The best way to not be a salesman is to think about the customer (seller) first.

You want to put their needs first. If you do this, they will see it and choose you over your competitor every day of the week.

You have to understand that homeowners have A LOT of options nowadays when it comes to selling their homes. So, high-pressure sales just don't work anymore. They need to feel comfortable with who they're doing business with.

The best negotiators that we've seen are the people that build rapport with the seller.

If you do this, then everything after becomes extremely easy.

Here are the 5 things we recommend you do:

  1. Work together. The reason homeowners typically go with realtors is that they’re not negotiating against them. So you need to provide the same reassurance by NOT negotiating. Instead, work with them on a solution.
  2. Talk numbers last. Investors usually want to get right to the price. Stop! Get to know them. Build rapport. Once you have walked through the whole house and have gotten to know their real needs then you talk price.
  3. Learn what it is they NEED. Every investor thinks that the homeowner needs money. This is so far from the truth. No one EVER has needed money. What everyone NEEDS is what that money can get them. Why do we frame it this way? If you need $100 to get something but I can get it for you for $50. You no longer need $100. It's the same with a homeowner.
  4. Always offer them the best option. There are so many wholesaling strategies. You can afford to offer them the strategy that will help them out. Try to remember that many times this is their livelihood. So don't rob them just so you can make a couple of extra bucks.
  5. Be honest. We tell the homeowners what our strategy is going to be. The reason for this is you don't want to look like a liar later. If you're going to wholesale it simply tell them, "I have a partner of mine that will love to buy your house". This way, when you bring other investors to look at it there aren't any issues.

Other benefits of not negotiating

Many investors, especially when they're new hate filling out contracts. Well, the good news is that when you build awesome rapport and don't just try to negotiate filling out contracts becomes easy. Because we've formed a good relationship and are transparent with the homeowner they’ve come to trust us and are happy to sign a contract.

It's never over 'til it's over

So you think just because it's under contract that the "hard part" with the homeowner is over?

WRONG!

Getting the property under contract is just the beginning. You still have to make sure it clears title and closes.

This again, is why we say build rapport!

Many times the homeowner is very stressed when selling their house. This could be because they are struggling financially or because they have to deal with the move. Either way, they called you because they wanted an easy sale.

The issue is sometimes problems come up and if you didn't build enough rapport then the issues may be harder to resolve. You may need them to gather more documents, or maybe even have to change the terms of the contract. Sometimes we discover things in the title process that forces us to change our wholesaling strategy altogether.

We've seen many investors lose a great deal because they just negotiated a great price but never built rapport. Then, when an unexpected issue came up the homeowner got very upset and decided to go with another investor.

You wouldn't believe how many times we have bought houses where our offer was the lowest. But the homeowners felt much more comfortable with us than they did with the other investor offering more money.

Of course, this is not to say that price doesn't matter at all. Just don't go into a meeting thinking just about the numbers.

Think, problem solver.

That's what we are. We are problem solvers. If the homeowner didn't have any problems 9 out of 10 times they would just call up a local realtor and list it.

But, if they are calling you then they are looking for something a realtor can't offer and that's options!

DIFFERENT WHOLESALING STRATEGIES

Let's cover some of the different wholesaling strategies you can use when wholesaling a house.

These wholesaling strategies break down into two main options.

Option 1: CASH

This is your most typical wholesaling strategy because it's the simplest.

I'm sure you can assume that CASH means exactly what it says. You're buying it CASH. This means no traditional financing.

This doesn't mean a suitcase with $100 bills.

You can by "CASH" by using an investment account, private money, or even hard money. We covered some of these terms in "Financing Terms" under "Learning the Lingo".

Option 2: TERMS

This where it gets fun.

Buying with terms can mean a lot of different things depending on the wholesaling strategy you’re using.

Let's cover the most popular "terms".

Wholesaling with Subject To

Buying a property "subject to" means you're buying it subject to its current financing.

What does this mean?

There are many times when a homeowner can't sell below a certain price because they have a bank loan. But, if the investor was to take over that loan then there might be a deal to be made.

When does this make sense?

Say the homeowner needs to sell fast! They owe $150,000 on the home to the bank.

The house is only worth $220,000 and it needs $15,000 in repairs. Now factor in 15% closing costs. This leaves the investor with a $13,750 profit after they pay for their money fees.

The majority of investors DO NOT use their own money. They borrow money from either private investors or hard money lenders.

In this scenario we're using 10% interest only loan for the $165,000 that they will need to buy it and fix it up.

$220,000 ARV (After Repair Value)

- 15% (closing costs)

- $15,000 (repairs)

- $8,250 (money borrowed at 10%)

- $150,000 (purchase price)

=$13,750 Profit.

This is a lot of risk for very little potential profit.

But if you can shrink that $8250 to say to justify the monthly mortgage payments of $750. Plus only bring the $15,000 in repairs instead of the full $165,000. Now you're investing $19,500 to make $17,500!

That's a much more attractive deal. At least to us.

Of course, keep in mind there are other fees and not all the numbers will be this even. But this is to simply give you an idea.

Wholesaling With Owner Financing

Similar to buying with Subject To but in this scenario the "bank" is the owner.

This works best when they own it free and clear. This way there is no underlying mortgage payment that they can't go below. You can essentially set it up where the buyer will put $5,000 down. They will then pay the remaining $120,000 at a 6% interest over the next 15 years.

Now you open it up for your buyer to come in and essentially buy this house for $5,000. Plus your wholesale fee of course.

This again is very attractive to many buyers.

It is also attractive to many homeowners. This pretty much becomes an investment for them that pays them monthly.

Wholesaling For Wrap

Either of the above scenarios can help a buyer do a wrap.

In Texas, WRAPS are very popular.

This means that you buy a house for either Subject To or Owner Finance. Then you turn around and WRAP it with a bigger loan and sell that to a retail buyer.

This works when you have many buyers that have the money, want a house, but can't qualify for a loan. So the investor steps in and becomes the bank for them. This is just like Owner Financing. The difference here is that the owner is the investor.

Regardless of which of these wholesaling strategies you use to contract it. Your buyer can WRAP it and make it a great deal.

This is very useful when you're dealing with sometimes lower price homes or low equity deals.

Sometimes you get a deal that doesn't have much of a profit spread but the homeowner is paying $600 per month. Then you see the rents are $1,100 per month. An Owner Finance Buyer will want to take those payments over. Then, sell it for a little higher but with financing. Capturing a $500 per month cash flow!

BECOMING A MAD SCIENTIST WITH DIFFERENT WHOLESALING STRATEGIES

As a wholesaler, you need to become a mad scientist by understanding how to use different wholesaling strategies.

As times change and markets change so will the wholesaling strategies you use.

If you only stick to one wholesaling strategy and the market changes you will lose.

Like we said in the Guide To Wholesaling Real Estate 101 you don't become a wholesaler because of the money. You do it because it will lead you to become the best investor you can ever be.

Wholesaling is a gateway into the world of real estate investing. But, you must use it as one and NOT as a destination.

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NEXT STEPS

We hope that you have been taking action while reading these guides.

Don't be afraid to fail.

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. -Winston Churchill

Don't suffer from analysis paralysis. Instead, get out there and take MASSIVE ACTION. This will give you MASSIVE RESULTS. Which, will lead to a stronger belief in yourself and abilities.

We also extremely encourage you to ask for help from all of the investors you have met. While we do understand that this may mean you having to split deals. The experience and knowledge you get will be priceless!

Wholesale Everything: The Intermediate How to Guide 201

Wholesale Everything: The Intermediate How to Guide 201 is an expansion to "Guide To Wholesaling Real Estate 101"

In Wholesale Everything: The Intermediate How to Guide 201 we will dig deeper into:

What is Wholesaling?

In Wholesale Everything: The Intermediate How to Guide 201, we expand on our previous guide. In Guide To Wholesaling Real Estate 101, we covered

THE DIFFICULTIES WITH WHOLESALING

In case you haven't noticed by now, trying to wholesale a deal is not as easy as you thought. If you want to do it right, make money, and really learn real estate, then you will have to put in a lot of work.

You can go full-time as a wholesaler. Understand that it’s very likely that you do NOT get a deal in your first 6 months.

So, you must have enough money put away to take care of your bills for at least a year.

Why a year?

Say you start working really hard by implementing the techniques we are sharing with you. But, it’s been a couple months and you finally get to wholesale a deal.

Say that deal makes you $5,000.

Now, what are you going to do with the money?

  1. Will you spend it on bills?
  2. Payoff bad debt?
  3. Go on vacation?
  4. Go shopping?
  5. Reinvest it so your next deal takes half the time to come to you?

While options 1-4 may seem very appealing. You want to look at this as a business. If you start pulling every dime your business generates from day one it will never grow.

The issue is, people make $3K when they wholesale a deal and immediately go on vacation! Only to come back and realize they’re broke again and have to start back from ZERO.

By reinvesting it you start to cut down the amount of legwork you put in to generate your deals. It won't be by a large amount at first but it will definitely start compounding more and more. Best yet, your business starts to grow.

Dealing with being overwhelmed

Because this business requires personal accountability and responsibility it can leave you feeling OVERWHELMED.

So, why would you feel overwhelmed?

Well, back when we started investing in real estate there really wasn’t too much competition for deals. So you didn’t need to get too creative with trying to generate a deal.

But now, there are so many new people coming and going that it has forced everyone to become a lot more creative and strategic with their marketing in order to stand out from everyone else.

In the MARKETING section, you will learn how to still wholesale a deal and NOT lose your mind.

The biggest way to overcome feelings of being overwhelmed is to stop overthinking and start doing. By doing, you will realize what works and what doesn’t and how to move forward. But, you can’t do this if you’re paralyzed.

HOW TO GET STARTED

In Guide To Wholesaling Real Estate 101, we covered overcoming the "what ifs", as well as being careful with gurus and "mentors". We also went over some of the languages you need to know.

In Wholesale Everything: The Intermediate How to Guide 201 we'll expand more on the networking side.

Step 2: Networking for success (expanded)

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First, let's review the tools you will need.

The ONLY thing you need to get started is business cards. All they need to say is your Name, Email, Phone Number, and the title of Real Estate Investor. The title helps the person that received your card to remember what you do. On this note, you also want to make sure that the back of the card is white and blank. We used this a lot when starting off. This allows for your (or them) to make a note of what you talked about on the back of the card so they can remember why they should reach out to you.

Keep it Simple. You don’t need a business domain so your email looks “cool”, you don’t need a website, or a mailing address.

How to hand out your business cards

We know. You read this and said, "Really?! What's so hard about handing out a business card?"

Let us explain.

When handing out your business card don’t just give them to anyone, that’s just throwing them away.

Instead, make it a point to build up some form of a connection with the person. If you did a good enough job THEY will ask you for your card.

Remember, the goal is not to get rid of your business cards, it’s to build your network.

You want a dependable network when it's time to wholesale a deal.

You do this by building relationships.

Stay away from new wholesalers

One mistake many new investors make is they hang out with other new investors.

This is so WRONG.

Now, we get it. It's easier to connect with someone like you that doesn't know anything and/or hasn't done anything. But this does not help you reach your goals.

You need to level up. So, to do this you must network with people that are where you want to be. When you do this enough you will see that eventually, you start reaching their level.

When you wholesale a deal you want it to take you closer to your goal. You don't want it to just keep you as a wholesaler.

Working the room

Many people go to a networking event, find a chair or corner and never move from there until they leave!

We get it, you’re nervous. GET OVER IT!

Everyone that goes to a networking event, guess what, they are there to network.

Everyone is there to talk to people they don’t know. So, if you don’t know everyone in the room then start talking to everyone.

If you know everyone in the room go to another room.

Stop being shy. This business revolves around networking. The sooner you get used to it the better you will get at it, the more success you will achieve.

Don't talk to people you know

Eventually, when you have attended enough of these events you will have people you know attending the same events. This is great but, don’t spend the whole time you’re there talking to them.

Even if they have something "REALLY" interesting to say simply tell them, "I would love to talk to you further about this, can we get together for coffee or a drink tomorrow?"

If they keep trying to hold you back to talk, which many do, we come out and just say "Hey, I don’t mean to be rude but I have a few people I need to meet tonight. So, is it cool if we catch up later?"

Most investors understand and will want to be doing the same thing.

Who to approach

Why are you in real estate?

Besides money, what is it about real estate that gets you excited?

Is it:

  1. Buying, renovating, and flipping houses?
  2. Buying rentals?
  3. Owning Notes?

The reason these questions are important is that they will help you in determining who to approach.

Say you want to flip a house. The best course of action is to find the most successful flippers in your market. We're talking about flippers that are regularly buying, renovating, and selling houses. This way when you wholesale a deal to them you'll also learn how to determine if it’s a good deal.

When you find the right people, you want to learn from them. But, it’s not that easy. You have to bring them value.

While we are all really nice people, you must understand our time is valuable. If you want it, what will you bring of value?

This is where being able to find great wholesale deals comes in to play. If you can bring a flipper a great deal, they will teach you A TON about flipping. The best part is all of these lessons will be learned while you're making money!

How do we approach possible buyers/partners/lenders?

The best way to start up a conversation with someone you're interested in learning from is by getting them to talk about themselves. This is a great way to get them to share a lot.

The truth is, everyone likes to brag about themselves at these events. Use that to your advantage.

By having people talk about themselves we can determine if they truly know what they’re talking about or they’re pretending. The more you do this the better you will get at asking them questions that will show their expertise.

You essentially become an interviewer. You’re interviewing them to see if they fit in your network of buyers/partners/lenders etc.

Questions to ask:

Now that you are equipped to eliminate the “What ifs” let's build our buyers list.

Which should you do first? Find a deal or build a buyers list? A lot of gurus out there that have a preference depending on what they're selling. But to us, it doesn’t matter. They are both equally important and should be done at the same time. So for the purpose of needing to put them in order, we will start with building a list.

BUYERS LIST

Now that you know how to network, the next thing is to build a list with all of the contacts that you get. After all, these are going to be the people you wholesale too.

Next, we qualify our buyers. The following is how we have built our list along with our belief system.

Pre-qualifying your buyers

We know that if you’re new you may not know how to do this. This will come with time. Many investors ask to be in our buyers' list but we don’t add just anyone.

We add only the people that we know can actually take on a deal.

This is how we qualify our buyers:

Selling the contract to your buyers

Once we gathered this info, we add them to our contacts list along with their information.

We tell each of our buyers the following, “We will never blast a property out to everyone. If it meets your criteria we will bring it directly to you. But, if you don’t buy because you lied to us and can’t actually afford it. We will move you to the bottom of the list for our future properties. If you do this again we will remove you!”

The reason we do this is that we are not like most wholesalers. All they’re looking for is the highest offer and they move on to the next one. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s just not us. We want to actually build relationships and help our investors grow.

We need our investors to be able to buy when we bring them deals that meet all of their criteria.

The investors we work with appreciate this so much that we have never lost a single investor!

Non-refundable deposits

If you don’t know or trust your buyers most wholesalers ask for a non-refundable deposit. This can be whatever amount makes you feel like they wouldn’t walk away. If they did, it would reimburse you for wasted time. Now, you may need to go find another buyer. You may even lose the deal because the seller is upset with you for not delivering.

But, if you qualify your buyers correctly you don’t need to ask for these fees. It makes it easier for buyers to work with you.

We don't like non-refundable deposits. We've never bought from a wholesaler that is asking for a non-refundable deposit. A non-refundable deposit forces us to put money down on a property that we haven’t done enough due diligence on. You should never be pressured into buying a house you haven't done proper due diligence on. Especially if you don’t have the experience. This is why we don’t rush any of our buyers and recommend you don't either.

Another thing we recommend doing is making sure the house is clean of any title issues. We will cover this later on in this guide.

You want to make sure your buyers are not buying a house that has liens or judgments on it.

We know many people claim ignorance but that really should not be your out.

Again, partnering with the right investor for your first couple of deals should make this process easier.

Now that we have covered the basics with language and building a Buyers List. Let's go over how to actually generate a lead.

Direct Mail (DM)

In the Guide To Wholesaling Real Estate 101, we covered some basic DM marketing. We also went over potential List you can mail too.

In Wholesale Everything: The Intermediate How to Guide 201 we'll expand on doing this regardless of your budget.

Working With A Budget

Having a budget that you can stick to for 12-18 months is the most important thing.

Many people spend it all in the first 2-3 months and then their real estate career is over!

So, first thing’s first. Is there a certain amount of money you can count on every month?

You can do this one of two ways.

  1. You know for a fact that every single month you will have $100,$200,$500+ to put into a marketing.
  2. You have $1000, $2000, $5000+ saved for marketing.

Option #1

Say you know you can set aside $100 every month for marketing. That’ll probably get somewhere between 250 postcards or close to 175 letters per month.

Obviously the more you can spend the more homes you can target.

Bulk buying.

You can get better pricing when you buy in bulk. We would suggest your first month’s marketing budget be spent on just buying material. This way one month of marketing capital can get you 3-4 months worth of marketing materials. Now you know that in 4 months you will need another month's budget to buy another 3-4 months worth of materials for the next 3-4 months. Make sure you always project ahead. You NEVER want to stop marketing.

Option #2

If you’re doing $1000 budget then do the same. But, in this case, you can afford to buy your years worth of marketing up front to save money.

Cost break down.

We buy roughly 2000 postcards from Vistaprint for about $0.05 each. They are in full-color front and back.

Then you add $0.35 for postcard stamps or $0.49 for letter stamps.

Now, we add $0.0083 for every 100 address labels which we buy a box of 3000 for roughly $25.

This equals roughly $0.40 per postcard mailed out.

Or

$0.57 for every letter. The extra pennies here are for a pen, paper, and envelopes.

The only thing we don’t buy in bulk are the stamps because it doesn’t really matter.

There's a reason for doing marketing for 12-18 months. This is so you make sure to at least get one deal that you can use to replenish your marketing. This will help to extend from 12 months to indefinite. Of course, this is IF you didn't use the money to vacation!

You should never, ever, ever, ever, ever, stop your marketing. The only time to stop is if you’re throwing in the towel and you’re done with real estate.

There are so many times we have received calls from a marketing campaign we ran over a year ago!

NOTE: Oh, before we move on you have to include the cost of the list you’re using also. This is usually a one time cost and doesn't amount to much.

EXERCISE: Before you keep reading, set your budget. Even if it’s zero go through the process to understand it better. Pick a number like $100/mo and go to different sites like Vistaprint and start seeing how much everything will cost. Stop reading now and set your budget! You better not have read this line until you set your budget!!

DOOR KNOCKING (DK)

There's not much more to add to DK other than what was mentioned in Guide To Wholesaling Real Estate 101

You can go over to our Podcast and listen to the episode on DK. We cover how we do it.

WORKING THE LEADS

In the Guide To Wholesaling Real Estate 101, we talked about getting an appointment.

First, you also want to make sure the homeowner is motivated to sell. Simply ask, "What's your reason for wanting to sell?"

The following reasons usually indicate they have a real need to sell:

What you don't want to hear is, "I’m just looking to see what I could get for my home". Not that these can’t turn out to be deals, but there’s a small chance since they don’t really need to sell their home.

If they mentioned one of the top reasons, then set the appointment. Now you can now reach out to an investor to help you.

CONTRACT THE DEAL

In Texas, you should use the TREC One to Four Family Residential Contract (Resale).

This a very standard contract that is understood by any title company.

If you choose to do this on your own make sure you've reviewed it beforehand. Filling out a contract is easy. You read it and fill out the blanks. It's that simple. Now, the biggest fear people have is, "what if I screw it up?". It’s fine. There are addendums you can use to correct/change anything on a contract. Once you have the contract filled out, you send it to title. At title you will find out of there are any liens or judgments on the property.

But, in Guide To Wholesaling Real Estate 101, we recommended going with someone at first.

SELLING THE DEAL

In Guide To Wholesaling Real Estate 101, we went over tapping into your buyers' list.

When you reach out to a potential buyer make sure you have the deal ready.

You need the following info:

Your wholesale fee

This fee is the difference between what the homeowner is getting and what makes sense for the buyer. If it's $20,000 or $200 then that's what it is.

Do NOT always add a minimum of $5K or $10K just because that's what you want. You will either screw someone over or lose the deal. Neither is a good business model.

Do you want to make more money? Get better deals!

CLOSING THE DEAL

The contract has been reviewed at the title company to make sure everything is fine. Once you have your buyer ready you proceed with closing. The title company will tell you when and where to get everyone will meet to close.

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Now What?

This was the Intermediate Guide to Wholesaling. Next up, will be the Wholesaling Strategies: The Advance How-To Guide 301.

Guide To Wholesaling Real Estate 101

Start Wholesaling Real Estate Today!

Are you looking to start wholesaling real estate?

We will help you go from ZERO to a success by implementing what’s in this guide.Guide To Wholesaling Real Estate 101

What is Wholesaling?

Wholesaling is connecting a homeowner that NEEDS to sell their home at a discounted price to the right buyer. First, you will negotiate a price that is low enough but still gives the seller what they need. Then, you sell those TERMS to a buyer that is looking for that type of property. You are assigning your contract to the buyer. You get paid by selling the contract to that house.

We will cover seller needs, terms, contracts, and sales; everything to execute a deal correctly and profitably. Wholesaling is a great way to start learning real estate while making money.

Why do most people fail?

Wholesaling is a very low barrier to entry in the real estate investment space.

Many “GURUS” and “Facebook Investors” sell the concept of wholesaling as "you can do this with very little to no money and make $20,000 per month!". This makes it very attractive for A LOT of people.

But, is this true?

Allow us to answer this question with another question. If it were true don’t you think EVERYONE that started in real estate investing would be making $20K/mo?

The short answer to this being true is… HELL NO!

When people are telling you this BS always ask yourself what their interest is in you getting into real estate.

It’s usually one of the following:

  1. They’re trying to sell you coaching and/or training
  2. Get you to work for them for FREE (We’ll cover this later)
  3. They were sold on it. Although they have seen it’s not true if they can convince you it’s true then they feel it wasn’t a huge mistake.

So then, what is the purpose of wholesaling if it’s not to get rich quick with no money and little work?

Understanding the purpose of wholesaling

So, the biggest question is WHY wholesaling. Now, we're sure if you’re reading this, it’s because you probably have an idea of what it is and why you think you want to do it. But, allow us to really show you the TRUE purpose of wholesaling.

Wholesaling to us is like driving an Uber. Uber was created to put some extra cash in your pocket but not really for replacing a job or even as a career. Wholesaling to us is the same.

Wholesaling is a way to monetize on leads you come across from motivated sellers. While it does pay a lot better than Uber, it is very volatile and you can’t really depend or count on always making the same amount of money consistently.

We started our company PRYME Homes through wholesaling. If we would have stayed in that space two things would have happened. One, in order to grow or even sustain it, we would have had to take advantage of new investors by selling properties that were NOT deals and taken advantage of homeowners who perhaps really needed that extra $5,000 to move on. Which is what many large wholesaling companies do. Or two, we would have gone out of business. Wholesaling is a great way to get to start learning real estate. Please note that we say LEARN and not MAKE MONEY.

What you will learn by wholesaling

The best thing about wholesaling is that you don’t have to risk tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to figure out the market and the right strategy for you to move forward with.

Wholesaling is like like shopping for a car. While you may test drive a few there’s going to be one car that will suit your needs the best.

In real estate, we always say don’t be a jack of all trades; master of none. Stick to one thing first and become the best at it. Then, you can start dabbling in other strategies.

This is why wholesaling is a great way to get you started in the world of real estate investing.

HOW TO GET STARTED

Now that you’re hopefully clear on what wholesaling is and why people do it, let’s cover the HOW of wholesaling.

Getting started with wholesaling is very challenging for almost everyone so do NOT think it is just you.

Most people struggle because they focus too much on the “what ifs”.

These "what ifs" are the reason many people fall into the Guru traps and end up buying these ridiculous real estate courses for tens of thousands of dollars. These gurus know you’re insecure and scared. They’re offering you knowledge and security in a structured way. Now, we’re not saying there’s anything wrong with this but, we don’t feel it’s necessary if you truly want to learn.

But what about “mentorship/coaching”?

The majority of the gurus out there that offer any type of mentoring/coaching are doing so because they’re not making enough in real estate. Coaching, mentoring, and programs are a very scalable business.

So, it’s easier selling education than doing the work that it takes to become truly successful in real estate alone. The ones that have figured out how to scale their coaching usually have salesmen as their coaches. So, when you call in with an issue all they are doing is regurgitating the training. The worst part is most of the content these gurus are putting out are strategies and tips they may have used decades ago since it has been years since they've done any actual investing. This information won’t work in today's real estate market.

Either way, they can’t really help.

So, if coaching programs that rip you off aren’t the best option then what?

The best way to eliminate all of your “what ifs” is just by jumping in!

Now, if reading this is making you very nervous, relax. We promise you that what we’re going to share with you is going to be things that will always work no matter what economy you’re in or how little you know about real estate and your market.

There are two steps that you must take to eliminate your “What IFs”

Step 1: Learning The language of Wholesaling

The first “What IF” everyone has is "what if I sound like an idiot" or "what if I don't know what to say".

So, the first thing you need to do is learn to speak like a wholesaler, which will set you up for your transition into becoming a full-fledged investor.

How do you do this?

You start listening to every podcast on wholesaling/investing. You need to submerge yourself in real estate. We want you to only read, listen, and watch real estate. This is how you learn a new language. We have journals full of notes we took on everything we learned from reading, watching, and listening to real estate. The reason we say to "only read, listen, and watch real estate" because the goal of this IS NOT to determine now what’s good info or not. The goal is to learn the vocabulary and what everything means. Once you learn the vocabulary then you can start getting the experience to understand whether what you’re consuming is good or not. You do that by going to networking events in your area. Join your local REIA, meet other wholesalers/investors and ask a TON of questions.

That’s it!

We know, you're thinking “what the hell is this?” but the sooner you can get into your head that it is not as hard as you think the sooner you can start actually doing it.

When you go to these events the bulk of the people that you will meet are not doing anything in real estate, even if they say they are. There are usually a handful or real wholesalers that you will want to meet and pick their brains. But, this will take a lot of time on your part and going to as many events as possible(by as possible we mean ALL).

The more events you attend and the more people you meet you will see that your knowledge about real estate grows exponentially. The best part, FOR FREE!

After going to so many events for months you will start realizing who the actual doers are and who isn’t. You will see that from month to month the crowds change a lot. That’s because everyone comes in thinking it’s a get rich quick strategy and when they realize it’s not they stop. This is good for you, less competition.

Like we said before this is not for you to figure out who’s right or who’s full of crap. All you want to do is speak to people, learn the language, and start figuring out who the real players are.

Learning some of the Lingo

So let’s go over the most popular vocabulary you need to learn.

Step 2: Networking for success

We’re sure many have heard the saying Your Network = Your Net Worth if you haven’t, now you have. This is what we believe to be the most important thing you will ever learn.

Learning to network correctly is how you will go higher than you could ever believe. Networking, especially when learning to wholesale, is very important because this is hands down the best way to get rid of all of your What IFs. By growing a strong dependable network you will be able to reach out for help whenever you need it. The key to wholesaling is to find houses that other people actually want to buy. The depth of your network will give you this.

The ONLY thing you need to get started is business cards with your Name, Email, Phone Number, and the title of Real Estate Investor. That's it!

Marketing

Direct Mail (DM)

Direct Mail has to be by far the most popular form of lead generation. The reason for this is in the name DIRECT. This form is very popular because it is a way to reach your target directly by sending them a mail piece to their home.

When we first started doing DM marketing we were sending out yellow letters. We would get a yellow legal pad and a red pen and hand-write something along the lines of “My wife and I would love to buy your house at >>address<< for CASH in As-Is conditions”. You will need to test out different messages and mail pieces depending on the level of competition in your market.

Another thing you will need to also test is the lists you mail too.

What is a list?

If you’re going to send out a DM campaign you need a List of addresses to mail it out too. You can start looking for lists like, late mortgage(these are properties that could fall in to foreclosure soon), probates(these are properties where the owner has passed away and usually the family inherits the property and may want to sell it), code violations(these properties are being sent notifications from the city because they may have a few things wrong with them which could mean neglect), high equity(these are homes that show they have high equity so maybe the homeowner maybe thinking of cashing out) foreclosure(people that are about to lose their homes for lack of payments) and many others.

You can get these lists from different places online. One of the big ones is listsource.com.

Door Knocking (DK)

We know you may have gotten really nervous after reading this.

We completely understand!

It’s very scary to go door to door knocking and asking people if they want to sell their homes. But, this is a very successful strategy because not many people are willing to do it.

Now we know we said Direct Mail is great because the mail goes directly to the homeowner well, imagine how effective it is being, face to face with the homeowner!

The best part is that this strategy is 100% FREE!

Now, this may not be necessary depending on where you live and what the competition level is like.

But if it is, here’s how we do it.

Q: Who to door knock?

A: Everyone!

Seriously, if you bought a list or created a list you should be going and knocking on those doors.

3 Things to keep in mind:

1. Appearance- this is so important. People subconsciously decide whether they like you within 1/10th of a second! Dress casual. No flip-flops and no 3 piece suits.

"all it takes is a tenth of a second to form an impression of a stranger" - Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov

2. Stay positive- Always have a smile on your face. This gets very hard to do when you have been rejected for that last 50 houses. But you have to knock every house like it's your first.

3. Time of day- by far the biggest mistake people make when door knocking is, going when people ARE NOT HOME! Don't go door knocking before 5 pm on weekdays. We don't know if this is because they are scared so subconsciously they don't want anyone home. But, in order to get a deal, you need to speak to someone.

Working The Leads

Your phone finally rings! Now, what??

While your initial reaction is to just stare at the phone until it stops ringing, don't!

We know you're scared, nervous, doubting yourself, and think of a million reasons why you probably shouldn't answer the phone. Guess what? They're all wrong!

When you’re starting off you need experience FAST.

Instead of going through scripts and a bunch of questions. If the homeowner is motivated(really wants to sell their house) then set an appointment.

That’s it!

Don’t know what to do at the appointment?

Reach out to a local savvy investor and partner with them on your first deals until you feel comfortable moving further on your own. No need for guru training!

Contract The Lead

If you went to the house and it’s a deal, you now get it under contract using whatever is accepted by your state, attorney, and/or title office.

Again ask the local investor for assistance.

Selling The Deal

Now you reach into your buyers' list, and/or an investor that’s helping you, buyers list, to offer this great deal to them.

Many of your buyers will do their own due diligence but you still need to give them ballpark numbers for them to see if it’s worth it.

Once they agree to the price, you want to get it in writing using an assignment of contract agreement. (title, an investor, or an attorney can help you with this)

Closing The Deal

You still want to keep constant contact with the attorney/title company you’re using to close it and with your seller and buyer. Sometimes things go wrong and you want to make sure you can reach everyone quickly.

Now What?

This should be more than enough to help get you out there finding deals. If you feel like it's not, you're simply procrastinating.

We know that you want to be able to take a deal from start to finish all by yourself without splitting any profits with anyone else. If you truly feel this way then good luck!

Real estate is a team sport. The sooner you understand this the faster you will reach success.

Keep in mind that while we can't cover every possible scenario we will be releasing an Wholesale Everything: The Intermediate How to Guide 201 and Wholesaling Strategies: The Advance How-To Guide 301.