Posted by SCook85 on February 01, 2002 at 10:07:04:
Joe,
You can invest in all types of areas. However the type of investing that I do could not be done right in my backyard. I didn’t have to go far to find the deals. I could still do deals where I live, however the volume would be much less, maybe 5 a year. I’ve been doing 50+ per year and in order to do this I have had to get into other neighborhoods that would produce this result. Right now I can drive 10-15 minutes and be in a totally different world then the one that I live in. This is where the opportunities lie for me.
Posted by Smitty(VA) on January 30, 2002 at 23:20:29:
Steve,
I got your course about a month ago. It’s a very good course. It’s clear and understandable and I congratulate you on your success.
I am new to this profession and have yet to do my first deal, and I would like to start wholesaling properties in order to build up my cash reserves before I venture forth to other avenues of creative real estate investing. I live in Northern Virginia (Loudoun County) though and it seems that everywhere I look, I see no signs of properties to wholesale. It seems that all of the houses are in brand new housing developments or they are at least five to ten years old and are in good shape and it seems that the average home price is at least 170,000 and up.
Because where you and I live are only about one hour apart, can the markets/prices be so different that you have more plentiful wholesaling opportunites than I would or am I not digging deep enough ? I have not talked to any realtors but I’ve done searches on realtor web sites for potential wholesale deals and have not had much luck. Where I live is big time high tech/information age industry such as the home to America Online, MCI Worldcom ext. where there are thousands of-at a loss for a better word “yuppies”- around who can afford the big expensive mansions and of course the housing industry is building those expensive homes to cater to those who can afford them. And because of this, I feel the realtors in my area will have nothing to do with my little wholesaling desires where they feel there is more money in selling the expensive new homes.
I guess what I’m asking is wholesaling possible in my area?
Re: Question for Steve Cook - Posted by Todd B(Va)
Posted by Todd B(Va) on February 02, 2002 at 20:54:20:
You can go to PG county in Maryland to find properties to wholesale. I just got outbid on one last week in Hyattsville.You can find them in Hyattsville, District Heights,Capitol Heights, etc. Just don’t try to go anytime near rush hour.
If you can find a property I would be interested in taking it off you hands and rehabbing it. The formula I use is ARV times .6 minus cost of repairs. Anything below that would be your profit.
I’ve heard that PG county has 500 foreclosures per month, so there is plenty of opportunity there. Also, they have lots of the right type of properties, older single family houses of 600 to 1300 square feet.
Posted by Talia (NY) on January 31, 2002 at 11:06:19:
Smitty, I take it you don’t live far from DC…and the wholesale market there is VERY GOOD…plenty for all. I live in DC right now, but will be moving back to NY. The house next to the one whose basement I was renting is just completing a rehab that an investor was doing…they now want 250k for the house…it is beautiful…I was talking to the rehabbers and they let me look inside…there are plenty of vacant houses in DC and the mayor has made it a priority to get people in them…so you might want to look into DC. It should be very lucrative for you.
Posted by SCook85 on January 30, 2002 at 23:33:39:
Smitty,
You are absolutely right. It is hard to do deals right where you live, and it is difficult to find realtors who will even listen to you and what you want to do. But it is not impossible.
I may make it seem like it is easy, and for me it is now. But when I was first getting started I was experiencing the exact same things that you are. I couldn’t find wholesale deals right where I lived, but I eventually discovered that I didn’t have to drive to far to find them, but I did have to get away from my cushy neighborhood. It took a lot of digging before I found the deals but once I found them everything came together and I haven’t looked back since. The best thing you can do is probably start getting close to DC, meet other investors and find out what they are doing and where. When you find the areas that others are experiencing success in, get into those same areas. It will save you a lot of digging.
If you search the archives far enough back you can probably find posts in which I said it doesn’t work where I live, and it may work there but we just don’t have deals like that here. You may see something along the lines of, “the best deals here are about 10% below market value”. Those were all the things going through my head. But I knew that there were other people doing it, I knew that all the stories on the newsgroup weren’t fake, and I believed that if others could do it, so could I.
You can do it, and it can work for you. Keep digging, you will eventually find the opportunities.
What part of DC are you thinking of? - Posted by Gerald-DC
Posted by Gerald-DC on February 02, 2002 at 24:58:32:
TAP:
In all due respect, the DC market is very hot and consequently wholesaling is not easy and there are NOT plenty of GOOD deals for all. There is not a lot of inventory and your fixer uppers are going for a premium in areas that are appreciating. Some SHELLS are going for over 200K. You really have to work very hard to find a property to flip and you have to do a lot more than just make multiple offers through the MLS to generate serious money flipping.
I just don’t want people out there to think that DC is some vast untapped market for flipping cause it is not.
I note that each week I get at least two or three calls from Ron LeGrand cash generators purchasers calling me saying that they are WHOLESALERS but they seldom have any properties or if they do, more often than not, the properties are in Baltimore.
There are several people making a living wholesaling but belive me, they work very hard and they have a system and a network that can’t be replicated overnight.
Sure you can find junkers in certain undesirable neighborhoods by the score but trying to flip a property in a warzone is generally undesirable.
The fact remains that to find a good property where the flipper can make 5K-10K or so and still leave enough room on the table for a rehabber are not just there for the taking.
Finally, I don’t think the Mayor’s program that you referred to is going to be a boom for wholesalers. Maybe for rehabbers, but the way the program is going to be structured, flipping is not going to me an option.
Just the opinion from someone who is out in the DC market on a daily basis.
Steve, I’ve heard nothing but good things about your course and plan on ordering it when i get some birthday money here in a couple weeks.
My question is, You had to go outside your living area to find wholesale deals so how did you decide what area would work best?
I know you probably answer this in your course but like i said funds are a little tight and i was laughed at when i told my family to buy me a REI Course from this great website. ( I think i should keep my mouth shut about this stuff and this site, everyone seems to think im nuts)I said fine then just give me money and I’ll buy it my self. Maybe i shouldn’t have said that either because they might buy me socks and underwear just so i dont buy it.
Thanks, JOE M.