Here are the smart plays to make to not only be one of the last standing after this next phase of the real estate market, but to win big while others are freaking out.

Eliminate Exposure To Risk

A lot of players are currently exposed to massive risks. Solo investors, top selling Realtors, banks, and multi billion dollars funds and tech startups won’t be immune to the evolving market. It may take time for the waterfall effect to hit them, but once it does it can be too late to escape bankruptcy.

Holding onto properties, and holding debt are two of the biggest risks.

Eliminate your exposure by liquidating all of your mature investments, and switching to a wholesaling model. Use transactional funding to finance 100% of your deals, so that you are in, out, and paid in hours, without capital at risk.

Expand Your Network

Your network of contacts is what will get you through the next couple of years, and determine your level of success.

If you’ve been neglecting it, revive it now. Expand your database with new connections. Invest in  strengthening your relationships.

They will all be lead sources soon. Including Realtors, attorneys, other investors, bankers, etc. They may not want to sell on your terms right now, but they’ll soon need you too.

Educate Your Sellers

It may be hard to get sellers under contract for 30% of recent asking prices when they keep on hearing about how fast the market is growing. Some just won’t get it. Arguing with them will only turn them off.

Instead, take a consultative and educational approach. They may not sell now, but they will respect you later, and know who to contact to sell when they need to.

Educate them on market changes, how prices are formulated, and their options as they get into uglier situations.

Do this by publishing content online, by mail, email, and text message.

Don’t Let Leads Get Wasted

Investors have been spoiled with leads in recent years. They cost a lot, are hard to land, and easy to burn. Find a way to make money on them. Instead of only cherry picking the one or two out of a hundred you love, find a way to turn them all into dollars. Wholesale, keep them, refer them out, or find a partner for a JV.

Play The Long Game

Shred your five year plan. You’ve got to keep making money now. Yet, to get through this, and stay on top, you’ve got to think long. Think about where the market is likely to be in 7, 14, and 21 years, and how that will impact your liquidity, net worth, and lifestyle.

 

How can real estate investors use inflation to their advantage?

We all know that inflation has been breaking records. Yet, according to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, it could get far more extreme this year. She warns of “enormous” economic impacts from current crises.

This means that we could easily see the most furious rate of inflation in US history by the end of 2022. That is scary for a lot of people. For a lot of people who are not prepared and positioned for it, it should be.

Yet, it is also presenting equally unprecedented opportunities for real estate investors. Both to help others, and scale their own ventures.

Start By Preparing Yourself

Begin by insulating and positioning yourself for what’s coming.

Be sure you have revisited your budgets at home and in your business to account for inflation in your own costs.

Prepare your systems for scale now. Don’t get caught in the weeds, and sabotage this opportunity by being unorganized.

Free up more cash. Use transactional funding to do more wholesale real estate deals. This way you can maximize the number of deals you can do, while staying flush.

Determine who it is that you can help in terms of buyers and sellers this year.

Finding The Motivated Sellers

Property owners are being hit hard with inflation from every angle. Absolutely every expense is going up.

Note that this doesn’t just apply to homeowners, but also commercial property owners and businesses. Many of which have additionally been hit by lockdowns, riots and looting, and disruptions to their business models.

A big part of finding the motivated sellers now, is understanding where they are feeling the inflation pain the most, and how it will show up.

Alternative Leads

Instead of competing for leads based on the same data, consider alternative leads. Instead of REOs and foreclosures, how about leads on people trying to sell their vehicles because they cannot afford them anymore?

What about leads on those with large amounts of revolving debt sensitive to interest rate increases? Or those defaulting on business loans?

Targeting People To Market To

If you are mailing, using social media marketing, content marketing, or outdoor advertising and PPC, who will you target?

It could be owners of properties in HOAs who are raising their dues. Cities with even fiercer rates of inflation in living costs. Groups of the population hit especially hard by taxes. Or those heavily reliant on gas vehicles for work and everyday.

Motivated Buyers

Of course, to complete the cycle and turn deals into dollars you have to sell them too.

This could be targeting retail buyers moving to cheaper areas. Especially those cashing out lots of equity. As well as those now interested in using their equity windfalls to invest in real estate.

 

It is the real estate entrepreneurs who are able to see how markets are changing and are able to creatively step up to meet the curve that enjoy the most consistency in their investment businesses.

So, where are the opportunities now?

Housing For The Unvaccinated

With increasing COVID related restrictions, and now some landlords even using vaccination status as a cause to evict existing tenants, we are facing two different housing markets. Access to housing for the unvaccinated may quickly become very limited.

Providing space for them among rentals and properties to buy in friendly communities could be a great value proposition that carries a nice premium.

Expired Listings

Whether officially listed with a Realtor on the MLS, or an amateur for sale by owner, there are still a large number of properties which are going unsold. Some have been advertised for sale for years. Over ambitious sellers have often asked more than the market would pay. As things change, they could soon be very motivated to strike a deal, and at far less than they were asking for before.

Tracking these properties and providing a solution could be a great source of deals for wholesalers. Especially, when it is often poor marketing, not just pricing that has led to them not selling up until now.

Short Term Rentals

Savvy landlords are coming up with many creative ways to avoid being hit by market changes or anti-landlord crisis policies in the future. While actual performance of traditional rentals is much better than the media may let on, it is wise to get ahead of the curve. Some will turn to running government subsidized housing. Others to memberships or annual leases paid in advance. Though short term rentals will continue to be one of the safest and most profitable ways to operate income properties in the future.

Summary

The rules of the real estate and finance markets have changed in unprecedented ways. These evolving trends haven’t finished morphing either. Yet, it is a fantastic time to be in real estate. Especially for those that can see the next set of changes coming, and position themselves and their inventory to provide value and profit from it.

What will your new niches be as this unfolds?

 

Is it time you went all in on real estate wholesaling?

How do you know when it is the right time to shift your focus from other real estate strategies to wholesaling real estate? Or to go all in on it in place of your other niches, or use it as your lead to get into real estate investing?

There are many ways to invest in real estate. This is one of the greatest and most profitable times to do it. Just make sure you are getting the most out of it; maximizing your upside potential, and stripping away potential risks.

When You Are Making Most Of Your Money Reselling Or In Equity

Perhaps you are already using a variety of methods of investing in real estate. When was the last time you really sat down to evaluate and compare where you are making most of your money and the best ROI?

If you are making a lot more in equity and reselling, than in rents, then it may be time to switch your focus to just wholesaling.

Perhaps you’ve owned rentals over the past couple of years, but have barely been making a couple hundred dollars per unit. Maybe you are net negative after costs, repairs, reinvesting in improvements and the personal time you’ve put in. If you can make more wholesaling the same types of properties in 3 days, than you can make in 3 years of rents, it’s probably time to change it up.

Construction Costs Are Eating Up Your Margins

Hyper-inflation has been adding 30% or more to the cost of construction materials. More hikes are coming in taxes and labor costs, if you can find good help.

This has already led many homeowners to indefinitely put off home improvement projects, and others to cancel plans to build new homes.

You may make more profit just by immediately wholesaling that property as-is, than trying to rehab or improve it. Not to mention you’ll get paid a lot faster, and be able to roll up and compound those returns more times over the year.

Uncertainty In Rents & Future Property Values

If you aren’t certain that your income from rents will be consistent, or you just aren’t 100% sure where values on flips and buy and hold properties will be in a few months or the next 24 months, then it may be better to sell now and make the gain rather than gambling on the future.

You Can Finance Your Deals & Eliminate Risk

Real estate wholesalers can take advantage of transactional funding to finance 100% of their purchases and even closing costs. It’s fast, easy funding, that means you can virtually take all of the risk out of investing.

 

If you are frustrated with or fearful of other types of real estate investment, here are five important reasons that you should try wholesaling before you quit.

Real estate is still the best tool for getting and staying ahead financially. Yet, between recent events and the common nuisances of other forms of real estate, it’s understandable that many are tired or worried about their strategies. Wholesaling could be the cure you’ve been looking for.

Here’s why…

No Tenants Or Guests

Renters and Airbnb guests can really test your patience with the human race. They drive many good landlords with great intentions of helping and making a difference out of the business. With wholesaling you are in and out, and don’t have to deal with them. You can choose properties with no tenants and let someone else deal with leasing if they choose to.

No Repairs Or Contractors

Rehabbing and renovating properties can be an inspiring dream. Completing projects can bring a lot of satisfaction. Yet, every experienced flipper knows that these projects notoriously cost more than expected and take longer than planned. As well as how incredibly challenging it is to find those mythical good contractors. Wholesalers don’t have to deal with any of that. No repairs. No improvements. No juggling construction and maintenance crews.

No Credit Or Acquisition Capital

If you fear putting your personal credit on the line or don’t have good credit and cash to buy properties, then wholesaling offers access to 100% financing, without using your personal credit. Keep your credit free and healthy for other emergencies and optimize your personal finances. Keep your cash in reserve for plugging income gaps and when you face unexpected expenses, like medical bills.

No Captive Equity

Real estate’s ability to appreciate rapidly can be one of its great appeals and benefits. Of course, it can also depreciate just as fast in other phases of the market. It may ultimately bounce back and rise higher again. Though who wants to see their down payment or sweat equity evaporated? With wholesaling you are in and out before the market can change on you. All of your capital can then be used on marketing and scaling, rather than sitting stagnant.

No Financing Hurdles

Wholesalers use transactional funding which doesn’t rely on the usual underwriting hurdles, income verification, personal credit or even appraisal reviews. It’s super fast.

 

Ready to create more effective Craigslist ads for you wholesale real estate deals?

Many real estate wholesalers are using Craigslist to promote their properties. It can be a viable platform for advertising real estate. Yet, how you structure your ads can make a world of a difference in the results you get.

If you aren’t getting the sales you expected, or are bogged down with unqualified leads and time consuming calls that leads nowhere, try out these tips…

Your Contact Info

Make sure your contact information is obvious, and that prospective buyers can get through to you in their preferred medium. Many buyers on Craigslist prefer making email inquiries. They don’t want to be sold or spend time on the phone unless it is a good fit. So, enable email replies, have a phone number, and any other contact details you are using regularly.

Pictures

The more pictures you can include the better. No one really expects all wholesale deals to be beautiful. What they want is to know the real deal to figure out if it is a match. You’ve got to close that gap if you want qualified leads to contact you. So, ugly or not, include as many photos as you can.

Repair Info

Many qualified house buyers may skip your ads if you aren’t clear on what repairs are needed or not. Some will assume the worst, and just move on. You don’t have to include a full inspection report, but if the electrical and plumbing is okay, say it. If the roof is still viable mention that.

Cash or Finance

It’s okay to say you only want cash buyers, if you really must have a cash buyer. That will filter out a lot of inquiries that don’t match. However, if you are willing to finance the property, make sure you say that upfront in your headline, or you’ll be missing buyers too.

Justify the Price

Some real estate ads get skipped because they sound too cheap or too good to be true. Buyers assume there is a bigger problem lurking. If you need to move it fast and are discounting it for speed, or condition, mention that.

If You Repost Ads

Serious buyers are checking Craigslist every day, week in and month out. If your headline was “this won’t last a week!” and then you repost 2 weeks later you lose credibility. Let them know why. Did the last deal fall through? Have you dropped the price? Get all that in your headline.

Lead to Effective Landing Pages

If you are going to try and draw people to your real estate website with your ad, make sure it takes them to an effective landing page. One which is unique, clear about the process, has the ability capture leads but also enables them to graze and find out more about you and your other inventory.

It’s okay not to be so corporate. Sometimes a personal touch and connection can be better than a cheap brand or cold corporate giant. It depends on who you are dealing with and the types of buyers you are trying to attract. Know your customers.

Respond

Don’t waste time posting house ads on Craigslist if you are not going to respond to leads. You are just going to burn potential connections and buyers.

Then if they see your ads again, they will probably report you as spam or a scam. When buyers do reach out, get their direct email address and phone in case you take your ad down or it expires.