Real estate investor and Wholesaling Inc coach Lauren Hardy joins the show to share her story and lessons in changing to a virtual wholesaling model. Lauren is currently in four markets in her real estate business and has coached over 350 students.
Meet Lauren Hardy
Lauren Hardy is a real estate investor with a “People First” approach to business. Investing in hundreds of properties in her career, Lauren has the unique reputation of being a “virtual investor” having not lived in many of the states she’s invested in.
Lauren has been able to persevere in extremely competitive markets by constantly following the market changes, being flexible and willing to move market territories when needed.
She currently lives in southern California with her two daughters but invests in properties all over the country.
Episode Outline
0:30 Intro on Lauren
What does Lauren’s business look like
- Wholesaling Company
- Four different virtual markets
- Lauren lives in Orange County California
- Wholesaling virtually outside of California
- Team
- Director of Operations/ COO that manages her wholesaling team
- Coaching Program
- Virtual wholesaling coach with Wholesaling Inc
- YouTube, Podcasts, Content
- Lauren likes to use her wholesaling company as a test kitchen for all her coaching and ventures
3:00 Why Virtual Wholesaling? What is going on in the real estate market?
Lauren learned early on that Real Estate is Cyclical and is very local. She started off flipping properties in her own neighborhood but went a few months without making a paycheck
She was flipping up to 5-10 properties at a time before her pipeline dried up.
She noticed friends in other markets weren’t having these problems and they were still able to find deals. Lauren tried a new market and has never looked back
9:00 Laurens current Virtual Markets and how she entered those markets
Picking a market is a big deal, she did not get into her ideal market at first.
Don’t make the same mistakes and do this instead:
- Decide what exit strategy you want
- Find a territory where people are doing this successfully, find a place where there is a proof of concept
- Find people to work with
- Your team: Other JV partners like local wholesalers
- Runner: An errand runner
13:00 Market analysis
Lauren likes markets that have multiple exit strategies. In California for example, your exit strategies are more limited.
Lauren likes the purchase price $130k+, nothing too too cheap.
Population: At least 250,000 in the county, maybe some counties next to it that have similar populations, so that you don’t run out of people to market to.
Major metros are pretty saturated, so Lauren is loving the areas outside of major metros.
Recommended tools: Google search, Zillow Home Market Analysis page, Redfin Days on Market Trend
19:00 Local vs. Virtual Wholesaling
Lauren is a big proponent of locking up deals over the phone when you can. When Lauren was local so many people were unmotivated. Lauren’s theory is that she can make more offers over the phone while someone goes on one in-person appointment.
You probably will lose some deals, with sellers that you could have locked up if you met first, built rapport in person but her philosophy is that she can make offers by having more time to follow up and make more of them.
Ryan Pineda in Vegas has one specific role in his company that is driving all day just going to seller appointments. This could be a good option if you’re local or have a local Acquisitions person
23:15 Current Team for the Wholesaling business:
- COO: Biggest game changing hire in her business, Debbie
- Before you can capitalize on other business ventures, you need to have a COO or Operator in place
- Lauren’s wholesale business got hectic before this hire
- Suggested Readings: Traction and RocketFuel
- VA for Lead Generation
- Texting, data, texting campaigns, phone systems, list management
- Distributes Leads to Acquisitions managers
- Two Acquisitions Mangers
- Underwriter/ Dispositions director
- Confirms offer prices
- Does comps instead of the acquisitions comping properties
- Disposition Sales
- Sells properties to buyers
- VA for buyer marketing
- Website posting, social media posting for properties in their inventory
- Transactions Coordinator
30:30 Daily Workflow
When Lauren got started as an Entrepreneur, she didn’t understand the balance of taking care of her whole life.
You need to be able to sleep. All of the balance in your life and your body impacts how well you can be productive in your business.
Lauren tries to work out everyday, 6am boot-camp 10 minutes away from her house.
Everyone has different times of day where they are most productive, you can create your day and week around those times.
40:40 Final Thoughts
Find ways to make things effortless for what you want to accomplish
Make the money generating activities as effortless as possible
Virtual Wholesaling with Lauren Hardy on YouTube
Virtual Wholesaling with Lauren Hardy on our Podcast
About Lauren
Lauren is a graduate of Cal State Fullerton’s Mihaylo College of Business and Finance with over 10 years experience in real estate. After becoming a mother she dreamed of creating a business that would give her personal and professional satisfaction but with the flexibility to make sure she wouldn’t miss the important moments of her family life. She has only ever worked in real estate so launching her own real estate investment company made sense.
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