The Easiest Way to Start in Real Estate

There are a lot of ways to enter into the world of real estate, but I have found that wholesaling seems to be the easiest way, considering the fact that you can purchase houses under property value and flip them for a nice profit. Turning it into a business can take some time and a lot of consistency, because the cash might not come on a regular basis, but if you set a plan of how many houses you wish to close on within the month then you will have a guideline or goal to look to, just in case you get off track. To get started in any business, you need a plan, so sit down and write it out, even if it is a couple of papers just put the objective down and go from there. Putting your name in and registering your business is where you actually want to start,  When all your ducks are in a row, head on to marketing your business. In order for your business to be known, you want to market it twenty-four seven. Create business cards, flyers, signs, or even t-shirts to get your business name out there. If you do print t-shirts for your company, you want to print enough for you to wear throughout the week so that you can represent your business on a daily basis.

On to the good part, to get started with the wholesaling aspect of real estate, you want to find a niche in the business as far as what kind of marketing you would like to do. This may include, probate properties, driving for dollars, door knocks, etc. It is what you will primarily do in order to find motivated sellers.  Many people like to put signs out and bring the people to them, if this is your method, be sure to check with the county or do a google search to see if there would be any restrictions or fines, since sometimes it may be illegal to put signs in certain areas. If you are driving for dollars, all that means is you are driving around looking for potential deals. Meaning distressed properties, vacant, unwanted homes. When you find these homes, be sure to get the address and take a couple of pictures of the property along with the street name. Once you have at least 50 properties listed, take them to your computer and get to work. Visit your county's local tax accessors office and look the property up. When looking up the property you want to get the owners name and actual address, the actual property description and possibly the appraisal price. Then, you will write out letters to send to the owners letting them know that you are interested in their property, you are offering cash, and you close quickly. Leave your call back number or any way they can reach you and send the letter off.

While the letters are heading to your potential sellers, you want to look the property up, run comps, get the numbers right and start to build your buyers list. So that when the potential seller contacts you, or buyer contacts you, you will be ready for both ends. It may seem like a lot at first, but once you get the process going a couple of times, it will be easy as pie. Ok, let's do a rundown of what we have said already.

1. Locate the property.

2. Look up the property.

3. Contact the owner.

4. Do the math.

5. Sign the contract.

6. Build your Buyers list.

7. Close on the property at a title company.

Simple right, well, kinda sorta... there are a lot of things to do in between. Like number 4, you're probably wondering what math? Well, there is a formula that is used to find the highest price that you can offer for the property to get an actual deal. The idea of wholesaling houses is to find a good deal, under market value, so that there is a possibility to make a nice profit, so there are formulas that are set in stone...well not actually, but they are the formulas that are used in the real estate biz. The formula that most investors use is ARV x .70 - repairs - your fee. The ARV or after repair value is what the house is worth after it is fixed up. You will find that by googling the address and looking at the prices that come up on Zillow or other home buying websites, you can also find the comps there. You will need to get with a contractor to check the repair price and your fee is the fee that you wish to make from the deal. By then the owner should have contacted you and you are on your way to locking down your first deal, by signing a contract. Once you get the contract signed you take it to your buyer and assign it to them at a higher price than the one you agreed on with the owner. Once the deal is done, the seller gets their profit and you get yours and the buyer gets the property. There are all kinds of resources to help you get started with wholesaling real estate, and if this is for you I would recommend books like the Real Estate Wholesaling Bible and If You Can't Wholesale After This: I've Got Nothing For You... (Volume 1) These are 2 good books that will help you succeed in the real estate wholesaling business, along with the other wholesalers on youtube and at your local REI groups, there should be nothing holding you back. Let 2019 be the year you get started in real estate, through wholesaling.