Wholesaling has become a lucrative business for countless investors in the real estate industry. Those that have approached it with the right systems and techniques are likely reaping the rewards of past transactions. However, while entrepreneurs of every level have demonstrated an increased propensity for success using the wholesaling exit strategy, it is severely limited by the time you can invest in it. Wholesaling alone can be very taxing and stretch investors thin. Individuals on the precipice of expansion may want to consider the prospects of building a wholesale team, as it has the potential to boost their career to the next level.
Building a wholesale team will allow investors to focus the majority of their attention on more important activities. Accordingly, the more time you have to focus on income-producing activities, the more profitable your business will be.
Ultimately, there are six individual positions you should be willing to fill when building a wholesale team. In the start-up phase of a business, you as the owner, and your first few employees will have a wide variety of job responsibilities. As more people are hired, job responsibilities will become more focused and employees will begin to specialize in the areas of the business where their talents are required. As these responsibilities are narrowed, the volume of work will need to increase to keep each employee’s workload the same or a little greater.
The first addition to your wholesale team should be an office assistant. Their role is to reduce the amount of menial tasks carried out by yourself and other individuals on the team. Their presence will free up time to actively pursue income-producing activities. The assistant’s job responsibilities will include running errands, answering phones, checking the mail, making copies, and marketing fulfillment.
Following the addition of an office assistant, investors building a wholesale team should hire a processor. As the processor, this individual will hold a very key position in your company. They are essentially responsible for taking a property from contract to close to sale. This individual should be the most organized person on your team, great at managing people and good at developing systems.
Next in line is the marketing director. As their name suggests, the marketing director is responsible for implementing and developing particular marketing strategies every month. They will need to assist you in tracking individual campaigns, as to come up with a realistic budget. Since a lot of marketing tasks are time-consuming and do not require skilled labor, your marketing director will also oversee one or more marketing assistants. These tasks include: sign placement, door hangers, social media strategies and direct mail fulfillment.
The fourth team member you need to add is an acquisition specialist. This individual will specialize in exit strategies, financing and be able to put together accurate repair lists. Their abilities also need to include an aptitude for following up on offers made on pending deals. Ideally, the acquisition specialist should be able to handle short sale negotiations.
After you have an acquisition specialist on board, look into hiring a selling specialist. The selling specialist resembles that of a Realtor, as they will spend the majority of their time marketing to find wholesale buyers. This includes building a buyers list and making sure they can be counted on in the event of a deal. Your selling specialist will pre-screen and evaluate buyers, get them pre-qualified with your hard moneylender, mortgage broker, and/or private lender.
Last, but certainly not least, is the runner. The runner will be tasked with helping in marketing-related tasks. This includes: mailing lists, direct mail campaigns, and anything else the marketing director needs help with. While important, there is no need for this individual to have prior real estate experience.
