Ben Souchek
Lincoln, NE Active 5 years, 11 months agoForum Replies Created
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Posts
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Hi Don,
As Jackie mentioned, I have a VA that handles all of that for me.
I have recently switched from Salesforce to InvestorFuse (uses Podio as their platform). I am still learning the system (after several months) but it seems to be a good system. Has a number of automation features including auto emails, texts, as well as Sly Broadcast (voicemail broadcast) which I am still in the process of getting completely set up.
My VA also does follow up calls, which I think are important vs. automation.
Be happy to answer any questions I can.
Ben
Hi Ayesha,
Short answer – the seller doesn’t need to know and/or approve that type of arrangement.
What I would do – because this should be a short term deal (not much of a financial reason to stay involved), I wouldn’t wrap the financing. I would find a buyer that could pay me cash for the house and pay off the seller financing when I sell to the rehabber/buyer. In this market, the buyer should be able to have or secure their own funds. I would not want to be caught in the middle of a good seller that was willing to give me financing and a rehabber/buyer that can’t perform.
After 20+ years I am much more conservative on deals than I might have been years ago, so just my 2 cents here.
Hope that helps,
BenHi Ayesha,
How about this scenario?
Buy the house with the seller financing at $64,000 with at least one year before you have to pay it off, then wholesale it.
I’m not sure of your exact market, but if the house is really worth $215,000 and your estimates on rehab are $75,000, I would think you could market this property and net $30,000 to $40,000 without having all the items to worry about that have been discussed in the other messages.
Additional benefits of this would be short time frame of ownership, much lower holding costs, much lower risk of something going wrong with the rehab or selling the property to a retail buyer.
My personal opinion after 20+ years, is that a decent profit now is usually worth more than the hope of a larger profit after a rehab to a retail buyer.
Just my 2 cents.
Ben
Hi Alverties,
I think Jackie has thoughts about Expireds but I will offer my two cents………..
Expired listings “could” be a source of motivated sellers. I think it will depend on some variables, such as time of the year (winter in my areas are slower/harder to sell houses in then summer), is the Expired listing also vacant, etc. Response from this type of list will also greatly depend on how or what you are using to try to get them to respond and contact you.
Ben
Hi Rich,
I used to work with Probates more years ago, before it was easy to get a list of them (in my area). They still may be a good “target” but just depends on your specific area.
Typically I have found the harder it is to get a list of a specific home owner/seller, the better the list.
Hope that helps,
BenHi Don,
The only way that I know of (and practice) to keep things as private as possible is to do an actual double close, where I bring funds to the closing, title company closes with my seller, and then simultaneously closes with my buyer.
Not sure if that’s what you were looking for or not, but hope that helps.
Ben
Hi Rich,
In my case, I only make the multiple offers that I like. No matter which one the seller accepts, I’m happy with it.
One of the biggest perceived negatives of working with an “investor” is the “low ball offer.” By making multiple offers, I can tell and show a seller why and how “the easier it is for me to buy, the more I can pay.”
Hope that helps,
BenHi Kendra,
A couple of the primary things I would do, is to ask what the seller wants to see happen. You also will want to know what caused their financial problems and if they have now solved them or not. I would not recommend allowing anyone to stay in the house (if you can make a deal with them) if they are still having financial problems.
You need to get a payoff figure from the lender to know what the debt is on the house, and as Chris mentioned, have a title company do a title search so you know if other liens are against the house.
Those would be the first steps I would recommend.
Ben
If I could start all over again………. Sounds like a good seminar!
I’ll try to condense my thoughts into a few items here;
1) I’d write my 1, 3, 5, and 10 year goals down on paper and post them in my office where I could see them every day. Be very specific about current income, passive income in the future, etc.
I always had goals “in my head” about making a lot of money flipping houses, but never had a great year or two that it actually happened. Its taken years and hitting a lot of “singles” to get where I am now.
I’d also have looked at the numbers from the beginning instead of 10 years into my “career.” Know how many leads “x” it takes to make the number of offers “y” to actually buy the number of houses “z” to reach my goals.
2) Get serious early about this being a business.
I knew early on that I didn’t want to have to keep flipping houses forever, because it is a J.O.B. But, I did enough business to satisfy my then current financial needs without really accomplishing what I needed to for passive income creation.
Also create a USP (Unique Selling Proposition). There are once again an abundance of “home buyers.” Be unique. Set yourself apart from your competition, otherwise you’re just another commodity in this business.
3) Implement systems as soon as possible. Find others to delegate tasks to. As above, approach this as a business, not a one-man job.
From very early on I had an assistant to help with my marketing, and shortly after incoming calls, but it took something much more serious, the birth of our son, to get serious about not being able to do most of the tasks of this business.
Now, thankfully, I don’t HAVE to spend much time at all “in” my business due to others doing almost all of the tasks needed.
This week I’m sitting in our motorhome in Minneapolis with my wife and son. Bought a house today and will buy another later this week.
I could go on, but hopefully I have hit what I think are the most important items I have learned, and hopefully they can help someone else.
Ben
Hi Erica,
If its been a few months since contacting the landlord, I would contact them again. I would also let the landlord know that she received the notice that payments aren’t being made to the lender. Time has a tendency to change motivation, especially in a case like this.
I’m not sure about Georgia, but when an owner/landlord receives rent payments but doesn’t make the mortgage payments, its called equity skimming (or something similar) which is potentially a felony or at least other legal problem for the owner.
I would do some digging here. Could certainly be a deal. I would not just wait this out, but that’s just my two cents.
Ben
Hi Rafael,
In regards to wholesaling a subject-to deal, short answer is I wouldn’t.
I realize with the right paperwork you may be able to protect yourself, but what happens when the person you wholesale it to then transfers the deed again? You have lost control of the deal and if anything goes wrong, your seller (or a judge) is going to look at your actions, not necessarily someone else’s.
With all the ways a person can make money with real estate, this is just not something I would do.
Ben
Hi Greg,
Generating Leads in “remote” areas is what I’ve worked with for most of the last 20 years. It takes the same steps as generating leads in your “home” market. It starts by deciding what houses you want to target, adding in the motivating factors like Jackie mentioned with hopefully vacant houses, and then using the best methods possible to put your message in front of them like TK mentioned. Website, direct mail, VAs. I would also ad potential local publications that may be a good fit for your target sellers.
I would however also ask, why do you consider your local market not attractive to do business in?
Ben
Hi Rafael,
The 12-15% for “transaction costs” that you mentioned is basically what I do for starters, then subtract the repairs needed, then create multiple offers.
I’m sure there are other ways to come up with the numbers, but those are typically the basics.
The other thing I look at is “quality” of the house (age, functional obsolescence, etc.), and salability of the house/neighborhood, etc.
Hope that helps,
Ben
