It’s a great time to be wholesaling real estate. Yet, many investors could be doing far more volume, and could be turning deals far faster.

There’s one sticking point where many property wholesalers are getting jammed up. A factor that could lead to more successful house flips, faster turns and much more volume. So, what is it, and how can making one relatively simple adjustment help triple your deal volume and income?

Most wholesalers don’t have a strong stable of cash buyers they can sell multiple deals to each month. If you had just 10 repeat buyers that could pick up 2-10 deals a month from you, you would probably be making more money than you imagined, easier than you ever thought possible.

Unfortunately, most wholesalers are still just trying to build a list and are throwing out ads for their deals in places where very few cash buyers are. As of January, Realtor.com reports just 22% of sales were cash investors. That’s probably even lower now. Yet, wholesalers are blasting endless deals on Craigslist, but insist they will only take “cash or hard money.”

There are some obvious reasons for this. Most often because the property condition may not cut it for conventional mortgage banking underwriting. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t more ways to finance these deals, or for buyers to come up with cash creatively. Yet, most are just dismissed. If you’ve been running ads like this, and have had to deal with dozens of buyers you’ve turned away because of this, it may be time to rethink your strategy.

With the best transaction funding, you can secure all the deals you can find. It’s just a matter of the exit. Why not help connect all of these potential buyers with capital or creative strategies they can use to buy your properties?

You may not want to gamble on them getting a conventional loan. They may not either. Yet, there are still plenty of options. This includes, paying you for the property with a credit card via PayPal, obtaining personal or business lines of credit, private mortgage lenders, rehab lenders, and small local banks and credit unions.

If you can give potential buyers 5 more ways to buy your deals, and connect them with some of these sources, how much more could you grow your deal flow and income?

Remember, it’s not just about this one deal either. If you aren’t following through on your wholesale contracts with your sellers, word is going to get around. That’s going to make it a lot harder to do deals in the future, rather than easier. Now, if you take a few minutes to provide a list of potential lender contacts to your buyers (which will still effectively be cash deals for you), then they may become steady repeat buyers with you. They can use those funds to come back every month to get deals to flip or renovate and rent out. That’s the beginning of a very strong buyers list. Once they do a few deals with you, they should also have enough cash to pay cash for your future properties too.

 

With virtual real estate wholesaling being made increasingly easier, investors can live anywhere they want. Where will you choose to live?

Virtual Wholesaling

Thanks to technology, real estate investors can live in one place, and wholesale houses anywhere in the country. It isn’t just possible, but more accurate than it has ever been before. For many it is an increasing necessity to be able to flip houses in other markets, and to stay diversified in multiple markets in order to keep profits up, business growing, and income consistent.

If you’ve got a laptop, or even just a phone, you can do it.

Driving Factors in Where We Choose to Live

As a mobile business owner, it can seem crazy to hear about people living in the street or out of RVs in high priced San Francisco and other cities. There is just no need to live in super-expensive neighborhoods, when you can work from anywhere. Of course, if those are the places you’d prefer to own your own home, and can afford it comfortably, why not?

Yet, for many others, there is far more profit to be retained, and earlier retirement in more affordable destinations.

Other drivers in this decision of where to have your home base this year may include property tax rates, and limitations on the mortgage interest deduction, and state and local taxes. For others it is being near family. It could be lifestyle. If you love the water, then go live in a top boating, surfing, or diving destination.

Or maybe you still want to optimize where you live for business. That may be in the heart of the most inventory right now. Or where the most investors and capital is located, so that you can build personal relationships.

Destinations

Here are some of the trending destinations this year:

Florida: for the sun, homestead exemptions, and no state income tax

Atlanta, Georgia: for a fast moving property market, fun environment, with all four seasons

Detroit: Still one of the most affordable cities in the US, and a great community of entrepreneurs

Nicaragua: One of the last truly affordable countries left in Central America

Dominican Republic: Proximity to US, easy residency requirements, weather

Thailand: Affordability, weather, culture, and a growing fan base of entrepreneurs

Where will you live?

Peak real estate season is coming up fast. How can investors do more wholesale deals in the months ahead?

Late spring and summer brings the highest volume of real estate transactions for the year. Those who excel during these months gain a great advantage in incoming cash, building a marketing budget for the rest of the year, and in generating ongoing referrals and repeat business. What can property wholesalers do to maximize the number of deals they get done this season?

Build Your Buyers List

In order to flip houses fast and maximize deal volume, build that buyers list in advance. Build your list of lenders too. Have the money and end buyers lined up so that as soon as you get deals you can turn them around and fund the next one. This can be done via direct mail, networking, Facebook, Google Ads, and more.

Market To Sellers Early & Often

Once school is out every Realtor and wannabe investor, along with a new lineup of websites is going to be vying for attention and marketing to these potential sellers hard. Then you have to compete on price and branding. It’s far easier and more profitable if you start connecting and building relationships before the rest of the pack. When they are ready to sell you should already be their first choice to pick up the phone and contact.

Make The Move Easier & More Attractive

Despite the sense in buying, selling, or investing this spring and summer, many will find a variety of excuses to hold back. For some it is the uncertainty of moving into a new neighborhood. For others it is navigating the mechanics of moving. Then there are those who are worried about how their family will handle the move. Teardown these objections in advance. Use your real estate blog to provide clarity on the lifestyle in different neighborhoods and how investments there are likely to perform ahead. Create referral relationships with movers and Realtors to facilitate a smooth process. Team up with new apps that make transferring utilities and forwarding mail a breeze. Build a sales and moving experience clients will rave about to others.

 

Authored by Best Transaction Funding BestTransactionFunding.com is the leading source of transactional funding for real estate wholesalers in the US, where 100% financing, and saying “Yes” is what we love doing all day long.

Where can real estate investors find the money to flip houses this year?

The US real estate market is surging again. Home sales hit a new 10 year record in January 2017 according to NAR and Inman. Yet, it still takes money to make money. So, where can investors find the capital to get started, expand, and make the most of the opportunities?

Lines of Credit & Personal Loans

Despite all of the gurus proclaiming the ability to flip houses with no money and no credit, investors will find they run into expenses. They may find 100% financing for property deals, but there is still due diligence, gas money, and marketing. Personal or small business loans and lines of credit can provide essential working capital, and the flexibility to use it for everything from launching a real estate startup to rehabbing homes. Do expect lenders to demand a reasonable credit score, and normally an existing LLC or business entity to have already been set up for those seeking commercial funding.

Blanket Mortgages

For those who already own portfolios of income properties free and clear, or with significant equity a blanket mortgage can help. These mortgage loans can be used to leverage equity from part or all of a portfolio to bridge out and acquire more property. It provides liquidity to act as a cash buyer, with the simplicity of one set of loan documents.

Commercial Conduit Lenders

A new breed of mortgage brokers and conduits are setting up shop, and are aggressively marketing themselves to investors. They may offer lines of credit, blanket loans, and short-term fixed rate mortgages for rehabbing properties. Many now offer stated income loans. Most still expect significant skin in the game from investors, and often want to see a recent track record of successful acquisitions and exits.

Transactional Funding

Transactional funding lenders provide short-term funding for real estate wholesalers. This is typically 100% financing for back to back house flips. Often no appraisals, credit, or income verification is required. It’s fast and easy to get, and rates can be lower than hard money.

 

Authored by Best Transaction Funding BestTransactionFunding.com is the leading source of transactional funding for real estate wholesalers in the US, where 100% financing, and saying “Yes” is what we love doing all day long.

Are you taking too long to flip properties?

How long should it take to flip houses? And what are the costly perils of taking too long to turn real estate deals around?

BloombergBusiness recently announced that it’s only taking a few years to flip NYC condos for big profits. Most wouldn’t consider that ‘flipping’. That’s more like buy and hold. In fact; you could probably build a few grand spec homes from scratch with that type of timeline.

In the past RealtyTrac has said the average turn time for flipping houses was 106 days. Redfin says that new home listings shot up 12% in February 2015. However, it also describes buyers “coming in like a lion.” A 44% year over year surge in home showings and a 36% year over year increase in signed offers suggests a looming inventory shortage. And the National Association of Realtors says the average Days on Market (DOM) fell to 89 days in March. That’s ahead of peak spring and summer buying season. So this number should fall even further.

Traditional real estate rehabbing is valuable and needed. And it can still be profitable in certain scenarios. But it may not be the fastest way to turn around deals. And clearly once a rehab is done there is no reason it should be taking real estate investors more than 90 days to flip these houses.

Check out these new hard money loans for fixing and flipping real estate

Meanwhile property wholesalers using Best Transaction Funding are flipping properties in just 1-3 days. They are able to do this because of the capital they are able to leverage, their strategy, and perhaps most of all because they focus on building buyer lists and pre-selling their deals. Let’s be honest; every day holding a property, and every contract signed brings some form of risk. If you don’t already have a concrete exit before going in, you are just speculating, versus investing.

With wholesaling you are almost out before you are in. That presents the lowest possible level of risk. Fixing and flipping is still great, but the more flips you do per year the higher your overall profits are. Do you want to flip your money 12 times a year, or less than once? There should be no reason to be flipping the same money less than four times a year.

 

Authored by Best Transaction Funding BestTransactionFunding.com is the leading source of transactional funding and hard money loans for real estate wholesalers in the US, where 100% financing, and saying “Yes” is what we love doing all day long.

Do new market shifts and data signal vacation area properties as next sweet spot for real estate wholesalers?

Multiple factors appear to be merging to give vacation area rental properties a significant boost in profitability. This could present substantial opportunity for flipping houses in these regions over the next couple of months.

According to the National Association of Realtors’ Chief Economist, Lawrence Yun, vacation home sales have been the one consistently improving housing market sector.

New forecasts call for the vacation rental market to become a $25B niche in the coming months. Equity fund giant Blackstone’s new travel-booking company IPO also suggests a sizable boom to come as this market regains steam and blossoms. TripAdvisor claims a recent survey shows 90% of respondents plan to travel this summer.

At the same time Zillow and REIS have reported rental vacancies falling sharply in 2014 to the 4% range. Landlords have been lapping it up, and boosting rents to the tune of 22% year over year in areas like Boston. In parts of SW FL rents are seeing vacation area rents soar by 50%, and during the summer low season. This means growing equity and far healthier cash flow spreads for those investing now, and some extremely wide margins for wholesalers to capitalize on, even without having to dig for distressed property.

There are popular vacation destinations all over the U.S. from San Diego, CA to ski resorts in the mountains to the Jersey Shore and sizzling South Florida. However, many are not in their peak seasons during the summer. Snow birds return north, temporarily depleting markets of local buyers and leaving sellers nervous. That means negotiating power for wholesalers. A few more weeks and these properties could have lines of buyers beating the door down for a shot.

Armed with the best transactional funding wholesalers ought to be able to get in flip houses for big profits to their heart’s delight.

Economists and analysts have been busy announcing the arrival of stagflation but despite some investors leaning towards rentals is flipping houses still the smartest real estate investment strategy?

Stagflation occurs when the economy is seeing incredibly slow or stagnant growth, while inflation and unemployment rise. Clearly there is no arguing that this is the position we are in now. So what does this mean for real estate investors?

Besides the above our current economy is suffering from weak returns on investments for individuals from almost every area. Even tech hasn’t saved anyone, as seen from the recent Facebook debacle.

This has pushed an incredible number of people to investing in real estate for better returns. Many have been swarming to buy and hold rental properties; following the conventional wisdom that real estate outperforms inflation and offers additional tax advantages. They certainly appear to be right as both rents and home prices appear to be rising.

However, most individuals are poorly prepared to become landlords. Most have no idea how time consuming and stressful it can really be as well as the risks that come along with it. Many are even far over paying for their properties as they follow misleading trends in the news. Those who opt for ‘turnkey deals’ frequently end up paying over market value, while others turning to REITs or vehicles with cumbersome management structures find returns eroded by additional costs and higher volatility more prevalent.

Real estate investors also need to keep an ear to the ground as to what the government may do to push a correction in the economy and the fallout effects stagflation is having on other factors.

Normally dropping interest rates is the answer for battling high inflation. Of course we are already at record low rates, without realizing any real growth from the stimulus efforts. Countering slow growth by raising rates dramatically may be the only option, which would in turn encourage deposits and then hopefully more lending.  However, between Europe, the election, weak consumer confidence and a lack of access to mortgages there is still quite a bit of uncertainty in the market to say the least.

All factors are currently lined up for the best opportunities for flipping houses. The continued presence of discounted homes and rising home prices as well as demand means buying low and selling high is a breeze for real estate wholesalers.

However, what many overlook is the advantages of minimizing or eliminating risk through flipping real estate as a primary strategy. Short hold times combined with the availability of 100% financing in the form of transactional funding means investors face a tiny fraction of the risk of other strategies, if any at all, while enjoying fast cash coming in.

With the holidays fast approaching who doesn’t want some extra free time before the New Year hits? Check out the following tips for automating your real estate business so that you can take a few days out without your income suffering...

1. Automate Your Marketing
Cutting out early to join holiday celebrations of even jetting away for a week doesn’t have to slow down your real estate investing business. Put your marketing on autopilot and watch the leads keep flowing in while you are kicking back and recharging your batteries. You can load and schedule everything from PPC advertising to emails to blogs and social media posts to run automatically until the new year.

2. Use Toll Free Forwarding
If you don’t already use a toll free number for your real estate investing business now is a great time to get one. Use it to increase brand recognition and improve marketing results. Plus, harness toll free call forwarding for making and receiving calls while maintaining a professional presence, just as if you were in the office the whole time.

3. Get A Virtual Assistant
You should already be using a virtual assistant of two to help you while flipping houses but if you haven’t hired one yet perhaps this should be the first gift you treat yourself to this year. Let your VAs handle incoming calls, answer email enquiries, process paperwork and screen new deals while you spend quality time with family and friends or watch the ball drop.

If your current structure requires you to be involved on a daily or hourly basis in order to flip houses and pull in profits then your New Year’s resolutions must include making plans to put systems in place so that you won’t be in this position this time next year.

With the holidays fast approaching who doesn’t want some extra free time before the New Year hits? Check out the following tips for automating your real estate business so that you can take a few days out without your income suffering...

1. Automate Your Marketing
Cutting out early to join holiday celebrations of even jetting away for a week doesn’t have to slow down your real estate investing business. Put your marketing on autopilot and watch the leads keep flowing in while you are kicking back and recharging your batteries. You can load and schedule everything from PPC advertising to emails to blogs and social media posts to run automatically until the new year.

2. Use Toll Free Forwarding
If you don’t already use a toll free number for your real estate investing business now is a great time to get one. Use it to increase brand recognition and improve marketing results. Plus, harness toll free call forwarding for making and receiving calls while maintaining a professional presence, just as if you were in the office the whole time.

3. Get A Virtual Assistant
You should already be using a virtual assistant of two to help you while flipping houses but if you haven’t hired one yet perhaps this should be the first gift you treat yourself to this year. Let your VAs handle incoming calls, answer email enquiries, process paperwork and screen new deals while you spend quality time with family and friends or watch the ball drop.

If your current structure requires you to be involved on a daily or hourly basis in order to flip houses and pull in profits then your New Year’s resolutions must include making plans to put systems in place so that you won’t be in this position this time next year.

1. No Qualifying
Transactional funding requires no qualifying like you have experienced when applying for a conventional or even hard money mortgage loan. There is no credit check, so it doesn’t matter if you have had a few bumps and bruises in the last few years or you previously went through a bankruptcy or foreclosure. You won’t have to verify your income, how much money you have in the bank or even if you have a job. You don’t even need an appraisal. All you do need is a qualified end buyer who you will flip the property to.

2. Quick Closings
You can get your transactional funding approved and to the closing table in just a few days, which is why it is often referred to as ‘flash funding’. It is great to have as a back up even if you have plenty of cash just in case something comes up so that you won’t miss your closing. Plus many property wholesalers today will only give you two weeks to close if you want to get the deal. So if you want the best bargains and the biggest profits you really have no option but to pay cash or use transactional funding.

3. Act As A Cash Buyer
The speed that transactional funding provides and the fact that there are no underwriting hoops to jump through means that you can really act as a cash buyer and demand even bigger discounts when making offers on properties. This will give you a decisive edge over your competition and allows for either making a larger spread on each deal or being able to flip houses with a lower retail price tag so they move faster.

4. 100% Financing
Transactional funding provides 100% financing of your purchase price plus closing costs enabling true no money down real estate deals.

5. Lower Risk
Having access to a great transactional lender means being able to flip homes quickly and easily, getting in and out without the risks associated with holding or speculating on appreciation.

6. It’s More Affordable
If you have used conventional mortgage financing or hard money lenders to fund your real estate deals in the past you know that hefty junk fees and paying lots of points can seriously dig into your profits and make or break a transaction. You will find transactional funding a lot cheaper, leaving more money on the table and in your bank account.