Virtual Wholesaling?

Have you heard about virtual wholesaling? In a nutshell here is how it works...

First of all, wholesaling is wholesaling, nothing changes here. You negotiate a great deal on a property and pass it along to another investor buyer. You know the steps in between (have a buyer lined up, get a deposit, sign papers, blah, blah, blah).

Here is where it is different...you do everything online. That's right, you find a property, research the property and do pretty much as many steps as you can online or use your phone to call someone to do some of the legwork for you.

Here is an example. You, the wholesaler, live in PA. You have gotten a lead on a property in GA. You have investor buyers who you know like the area where the property is located (he either lives there or lives elsewhere, doesn't matter to you). You want to get some pictures of the property, but you are not going to travel to do it.

What can you do?

Contact a contractor in the area to go over for you, take pictures while also checking on possible repair needs and then send you the pics and rehab estimate. Boom!

To get an idea of the property's value and/or rent potential, contact local real estate agents to get their opinion. Another good step is to try to locate a local investor or two who would be willing to offer his opinion.

Happy with what you have learned, you negotiate with the seller and get your offer accepted. You now have a deal to sell!

Thanks to your contractor, agent and investor contact, you have the info your potential buyers will want (and you didn't even leave your house). Heck, you may not have even brushed your hair.

You have a deal, you shoot it out to your buyers and you get one who wants it. Now you are in business (and everything else works the same as any other deal).

Not too bad, right. In case you do not live where the hot deals are, you do not have to miss out on the chance to take part in the deals available there. An internet connection and some time making contacts will get you in the game.

To learn more about this and other topics, please visit FlippingWholesaler.com

How To Do A Wholesale Deal

I just posted a new video.  This one is about the basics of a wholesale deal.

Check it out...






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Where was I? Oh, the wheels falling off.

Ok, now it looks like everything is lined up and ready to go.  Except it was all a mirage.

To get the ball rolling I called the city of Duquesne to ask about the occupancy inspection...is it needed prior to closing or is it something the new owner would need to have done?  After many attempts to get in touch with the inspectors office (apparently one guy who is hardly ever reachable) I contacted the city manager's office.  I was told that the inspection would be required prior to closing and that it is the seller's responsibility to get it done.

Ok, not a big deal.  I had just done a deal where that was the case and it did not cause too much of a problem.  I contacted the seller to let her know so she could get that arranged, it is now Sep 22.  The ball is rolling a little bit faster now.

Wait, it's now slowing down.  The seller was not having any luck getting a hold of the inspector to set this up.  I called Aaron for an update on the progress and mentioned the inspector issue.  He said that guy is notoriously hard to reach.  There is like a 15 second window each morning around 10am and that's it for the day.

I contacted the seller to let her know this.  Since she is in California, she needed to get up a little bit early to call him in his sweet spot.  It took a few days, but on Sep 25 she had reached him and sent him a check.

Uh, yeah, but that call did not actually schedule the inspection.  Apparently he would not schedule anything until after receiving the check.  Awesome.  He got the check Sep 26, but it took until Oct 14 to get a hold of him again and get on his schedule.

Ok, Oct 14 it gets scheduled...and now he had to actually get there and then write up his report.  How long could this take?  The inspection is set for Oct 20 at 3:30pm.

Well, the last red tape hurdle and we are only at what, 5 weeks since the end of the auction?  Well, at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel...or is that a train?

Uh oh.








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Ah, the eBay property saga

Quick refresher from yesterday...

Over the summer I got a cash flowing duplex under contract, then proceeded to have much difficulty getting access to the property, so I rescinded my offer.

I forgot about this yesterday...after rescinding I was contacted by Aaron and he mentioned he could probably move it quickly, but if I had a lower price.  Told him I had just dropped it.

Seller contacted me to see if we could get it back on track.  I offered about $5k less this time ($13k) and then let Aaron know.  We decided to go in as partners on the deal and he worked to get into the property to check it out.  Got in, took a ton of pics, contacted his list...his nearly sure thing buyer did not pan out.

Contacted another wholesaler friend, Rosanne, asked her to send it to her list...nothing. Between the two of us we put it out to our lists at $19,900 and we both got replies asking what is wrong with the property because it was priced so low.  Really?  "You know, that deal is too good, please charge me more."

 We re-grouped and decided to put it up on eBay.

Now, the next part of the story...

So we put the property up on eBay for 14 days (which was too long, will do something shorter next time) and a decent following developed.  Got some inquiries about it, a couple of investors had multiple inquiries, so that was a good sign.

(Oh, and at this point I had made a decently-sized mistake.  I agreed to partner 50-50 w/ Aaron so we would split regardless of who found buyer.  This was fine since he actually did a decent amount of legwork on this.  When his buyers did not pan out, I reached out to Rosanne to see if her list would be better.  Now, if Rosanne gets the buyer we are splitting the take in half.  Then, I am splitting my half w/ Aaron.  Not my best decision, but 25% of something is better than 100% of nothing.)

As expected the action did not really take off until the auction period was just about over (during the last day).  There were two investors who were bidding against each other, the same guys who had been emailing us.

At the end of the auction the winning bid was $22,500.  Contract price was $13,100, so a nice $9,400 payday.  Woo-hoo!  Got in touch with the winning bidder, he is in Australia.  Got the assignment letter to him and sent a $2,000 deposit via PayPal.  Nice.  Seller is in CA, property is near Pittsburgh and the buyer is in Australia.  This should be a piece of cake, right?

Got the deposit no problem.  Got my attorney to quarterback the closing.  Buyer hired a local attorney to be his representation.  Ok, all of the players are in place.  The train is on track and heading out of the station.

Then the wheels fall off...

As promised for more details (aka what a nightmare)

So I had gotten this cash flowing duplex under contract waaay back in the summer (July or August). My first sign that this was probably not going to go smoothly was that I had a very difficult time getting into the property. Actually, the PM was going to get in and take pictures. This was not happening, so after 10 days of trying to get it done I rescinded my offer. If I (or someone I send) can't get in, how can I know what exactly is going on with the property?

Shortly after I rescinded the offer, the seller contacted me and asked if it would be possible to re-visit the deal. I decided I would give it another shot, but I lowered my offer to $13,100, which was accepted. This is a property that was originally be offered for $27k. My first contract was for $18k, then I got it or $5k less...

Crap! How low could I have gone?

Ok, so now I have it again. I hooked up with another wholesaler (Aaron) who knows that area much better than I do AND he said that he has a couple of investors who like that area so long as they can get in @ $10k per unit or less. Sweet. We are going to sell if for $19,900, which would be a decent payday for us.

So, he started trying to get into the property and it was basically the same thing again, so I told the seller I would rescind again unless we got in immediately. She got in touch with the PM and my partner got in...but by this time it was nearly Labor Day.

Unfortunately, the couple of buyers who he had in mind took a pass on the property. Awesome. I was also working with another investor friend of mine in CA (Rosanne) who has a fairly active list of buyers who will buy wherever, and she got some interest, but they turned out to just like to ask a lot of questions. Great.

Here it is just after Labor Day and what looked to be an easy sell has turned out to be anything but.

So, while Aaron continued to push the property to his list, Rosanne and I looked to do something neither of us had done before, put the property on eBay. This went well, much better than we expected, but then it got interesting.

I'll have the interesting eBay part for you tomorrow...

OMG! I last posted when?!?

Umm, ok, so I said I was going to be better at posting. I guess that translated to "I may never post again." It has been MONTHS since I have posted...not good.

So, I have had a bunch of stuff going on, but at the same time it doesn't really feel like it. It's strange.

Here are some highlights (chronological order, will add details soon)

1. Sold a property on eBay to a guy in Australia (Sep 09)
2. Got a fire-damaged triplex under contract for $1 and found a buyer
3. Got some new websites, updated existing sites
4. Finally replaced my PC with a brand spankin' new iMac (this thing is SA-WEEEEEET!)
5. Wife and I had a baby. Awesome!
6. Burned out triplex deal fell apart (thanks, mayor)
7. Had to re-do all of the sites I built myself (see #4)
8. Started getting some traction with affiliate marketing and CPA offers
9. Got shut down by Craigslist
10. 2010 came along
11. May have lost the deal with the Australia buyer...no, it was not a quick close (for MANY reasons)

That is a run down of the big things that have happened since my last post. I'm pretty sure I am missing some things, but they must not have been that big of a deal if I cannot think of them right now.

Here is Ethan

Ok...things are rolling a bit now

First off all, I have to admit blogging is not very high on mt priority list , so I have to work on this.

I spent a lot of time this summer working on websites, some internet marketing education and pushing properties. My priority has been getting upfront work completed AND getting a deal or two done because cash is kind of a priority in my life these days.

So, I have gotten most of the upfront stuff taken care of, so that is really good.

And FINALLY, I have sold 429 Hallett Pl. Cash buyer who is someone I kind of know and is getting into the investing game. Closing is today. Thank God!

The numbers on this deal are great for the flip they want to do, so my fee could have been higher, but I needed to sell this thing. After 3 extensions (one from me, 2 from the seller) payday is finally here. Barring any last minute deal implosions, I will be depositing a much needed check this afternoon.

Now I just need to find a buyer for an occupied duplex I have. It is one I got back in July but let go because we could not get access to check it out. Went back to the seller (who is super motivated) with an offer of $13,100...for an OCCUPIED duplex...and it was accepted immediately. So, I am trying to move it for $19,997, but I am finding that it might be too low. Umm, what?

Anyway, we are currently going through the same access issue, this time from the PM, so who knows, I may end up dropping it again. I do not want to because these sellers have a number of properties available and I would like to take a crack at those as well.

We shall see.