Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

WITHOUT getting into too a philisophical debate (or in a religious debate - just giving my two cents using an example to illustrate my point) I'd like to take a stab at this one using one of the most popular and glorious book ever created, the Bible:

Book of Genesis 1:19-22 - "And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth."

God says the same thing about the animals and beasts that live on earth, as well as humans who were made in His image in Genesis 1:24-28.

So going by these verses, in the debate of what came first, the chicken or the egg, I believe it is the chicken that came first! Why? If you read the above passage, he created "great whales and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly...and every winged fowl..." , FIRST, THEN gave them reproductive abilities to fill the waters and skies with there beauty and life. So basically, the Lord created a chicken then gave it reproducing abilities to duplicate its self creating offspring. Thus filling the world.

The reason I bring this up is to use it as an analogy of how and why we should build our buyer's list first. I believe the buyers list is the chicken. I do agree on some point that you should be locking up properties at the same time, just for some experience, but on what criteria? Yours or theirs? If you find great deals wiht out knowing who will buy the property, that could make things increasingly difficult and time consuming if you are trying to make some quick cash, don't you think? If you are looking for properties based on what your end buyers are specifically looking for, how much easier is it for you to find deals and then assign those contracts? If you found deals just out there, how much more time will you need to market that specific property just to find a buyer interested in it? Which would be the faster deal to close? In my example, building your buyers list should come first (just like the chicken would) because with the information that you find out from these people, you can do a few things such as grouping. Alot of the times, you will have very motivated buyers that can close fast and have funds readibly available, as well as looking for the same thing such as sfr. Others can't close as fast and maybe looking for duplexes. But when you get their criteria and group them as best you can, you can tailor your searches accordingly, show the house to everyone, and from there you will know which ones are most likely to bite. (I say show them to everyone, because this is a strategy to drive up the price a little with some bidding increasing your profits, generally though you are playing on the criteria of each investors and their interests - a lil power on your end). This will prevent you from blindly going out their and just finding properties and hopeing you'll find a buyer. By gathering the necessary information, you will be able to give birth to a quicker sale and future deals (ie the egg). I feel gathering the information is important because it is like going out and doing research, but not on just the property, but on the needs of the masses (ie your investors/end buyers), and then "targeting" them. Isn't that what you do with your marketing to get qualified leads? So why would it be any different here? You build a chicken, you will produce an egg (with all the necessary information to make another chicken), which will hatch into another chicken. You build your list, you will produce a deal (that has all necessary components, from what your investor wants and match them up), and you will gain profit and knowledge to do it all over again. And you will produce this profit rather quickly than just tossing up a hail mary.

When you play darts, don't you usually aim for the bullseye? I believe that by building your list it is like aiming for the bullseye because you are targeting what you need to look for, where as locking up properties is like just throwing the dart at the board without concentrating on the bullseye.

If you do both, try concentrating more on building a decent list of say 3-5 buyers, then lock up properties accordingly WHILE putting more emphasis on building your list bigger. That way, technically you are "doing" both at the same time, you can earn while you learn, and at the same time building a saftey/attack net to aggressively produce eggs (money). But as you can see, you are still getting a few names and info first!

I hope that this sheds some light into what I think, and I hope I didn't offend anyone!!! Just sharing my opinion. Please share if you disagree!

Kris

I was just getting buyers first,But need to ramp up the offers to get a deal.
I'm do for one.
CBRPower wrote he does 50 offers a week and he's ramping that up to 100 a week soon.
So thats my goal this week.50 offers and stay on top of my ads to get buyers.

Still nervous about the whole process when I get one,But I know I can come to you guy's and I will get through it.

Your qualified buyers list creates the opportunity for a great deal.

How do you know a good deal is a good deal without a qualified buyer?

You don't.

In todays market what you think is a good deal is a risky guess.

I don't like risks.

OK, I’m trying to think from a newbie’s point of view here. I know you have said to walk through 100 houses to get to know your market. And Dean has said practice by making 25 offers in a week at the 30-50% off. Are you saying you should create your buyers list BEFORE doing any of this? Or are you saying that you 1)Learn your market, 2)Create your buyers list, and then 3)Start making offers? I know it is crystal clear to you and seems so simple that people should “get it”, but sometimes the answers in the threads (even from the same person) can get confusing, even for someone who’s used to doing it. Anyway, as always thank you for sharing your wisdom. Just trying to understand it in the right order. (So far, I’ve just done it all, but it would be nice to perfect the system) Remember, I’m trying to look at it from a newbie’s point of view.

Thanks again,

Rina

I think you can do either/both. If you buy at 50% of CURRENT FMV with an inspection contingency and an assignment clause, it's hard to see how you get burned.

I would not be making an offers at 30% of FMV. It's not enough of a discount in this market, especially if the property needs ANY repairs. When in doubt, GO LOWER.

No matter how big your buyer's list is, 0 offers = 0 deals.

Rina, I think that BUYERS LIST is the most important. But it does depend on the circumstances. If you have excellent credit, lots of cash then you may not need a buyer. You may want to buy and rent out your properties. If you are trying to make as much CASH as possible with wholesale deals, then you will need that BUYERS LIST.

The question now is, what is the best automated way to get a RELIABLE BUYERS LIST ASAP??

I can't explain this any better. I don't know how else to word it. But if you do understand what I am saying the opportunities do become endless. Here goes...

It does not matter if you think it is a good deal or not. It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter!

What is a good deal to you may not be a good deal to one of your buyers. And what you think is a good deal may not seem like a good deal to one of your buyers. It all comes down to what your buyers want. Find out what they want and give it to them. That is all I do. I get to know who I am dealing with and I find out exactly what they want. If it doesn't fit what they are looking for I don't waste their time. That is why it only takes me minutes to sell a deal. Because I find out what my buyers want and I give it to them.

Step One: Meet people that want to invest in real estate

Step Two: Find out what they want to buy

Step Three: Find a deal that fits what they are looking for

Step Four: Lock it up far below what they are willing to pay

Step Five: Sell it to them at a good deal and leave room for a profit

Step Six: Cash checks

Get it done!

Thank you. You probably feel like I am trying to frustrate you to no end. I'm really not. I will never, ever ask this question again. lol
I love that you are SO patient, and even when your patience is tested you STILL want to help people. You're the best!
So know now that I got, I got it, I got it! I promise.

I look forward to hearing ALL that you have to teach us in April!

Thanks again, sincerely,

Rina

Man cbr! I, for 1, really appreciate the six step, k.i.s. breakdown! It don't git no better than that! Thanks a million! Literally! I'll keep you posted on my success!

I was wondering how big your market area is in order for you to make 50 offers a week? I'm working right now on building my buyers list but I would like to do what Rina suggests from Dean's book and practice by making 25 offers each week. The challenge I'm facing is even though I've found a couple of agents to work with neither are willing to do that many offers each week due to the paper work involved, so they say, which is one of the reasons I'm getting my real estate license so that I will have direct access to MLS. Checking the local papers for FSBO I'm lucky to find 5 new adds every two weeks. I placed my own add on Craig’s List just today, also one in our two local papers and I'll see what leads those generate, and will be putting up/out flyers and post cards this week. I live in a rural area and the population density of the two closest cities is not all that high. I know the market fairly well in my local area and these two cities. There are two major cites each about 75 miles away that I'm not as familiar with. Dean's book and the coaching recommend that we should focus on target areas that we know but since I'm looking at such a limited by population target area I'm thinking that I should extend out to these cities even though I have less knowledge of them so I can at least reach that target number of 25 offers per week. Any thoughts?

The main city I invest in has a population of 43,000. The first city I started in has a population of 3,700. I own 15 properties in that town. The possibilities are endless. Small rural areas is where all the money is at right now.

I have to agree with that sentiment. I'm from a small town of 1500 people, and currently live in a city of 70,000 people. And I have a lot of contact from another city I used to live in with about 50,000 people. Just those 3 areas, I have enough deals to last me the year. So I have to just smile to myself when I have friends who live in cities with 300,000+ tell me they can't find a single deal.

I wanted to say thank you for your responses to my original question, too. Didn't mean to skip past your answers.
Kris, I appreciate all your thoughtful input and how you've jumped right into the DG family sharing your knowledge and advice.

Thanks again,

Rina

Hey, welcome to the DG family. Good to have you here, sharing your knowledge and experience.

I am curious about your statement "Just those 3 areas, I have enough deals to last me the year". It made me do a little more thinking about that myself. I know I have a goal, and definitely won't mind PASSING it. BUT, do you have any thoughts on HOW a person should set their goal, and should the goal then be to GET to that number or blow that number out of the water? OR should that number be so high that you have all you can do to stretch yourself to get NEAR it?

Rina

If you can't get started off this.... then you just flat out cant get started.

Thanks so much CBR...

I moved this to my own thread. I was afraid of hijacking this thread.

Rina asked that I post a link to my new thread. Thanks Rina.

http://www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/everything-else/15120/gre...

If I semi-hijacked this thread, I apologize. I just wanted to answer Rina's question...my apologies if I got us and this thread off topic. Could a site admin please remove these 2 comments of mine from this thread? I reposted under the "Everything Else" thread.

http://www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/everything-else/15120/gre...

Thanks CBR and Rina! Good to know all those potential deals exist in small towns. I guess I need to figure out how to get all the sales leads you are finding. Will git er done though. Getting back to finding buyers I had the add I posted on craigslist flagged for removal after it was up less than a day. It was similar to the examples I've seen posted in the blogs so not sure what the problem was. I posted a question on the craigslist forum to find out though. At least it generated three good buyer leads for my buyers list before it was flagged and I've already found a property that fits one of the buyers very well. Waiting on feedback from the buyer. This is so much fun. I can feel that first deal just waiting to happen!!