10 Proven Investment Strategies for Wholesaling Success

John Harcar (00:02.043)
All right. Excuse me. Hey, guys. Welcome back to our show. I’m your host, John Harcar. And I’m here today with Grant Waters. And what we’re going to talk about, besides his journey in real estate and business, we’re going to talk about how local knowledge is key, right? Having that resource, having that person in the area you’re going to do your business. Remember, guys, at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, I mean, really all real estate entrepreneurs, 2 to 5x their business.

We do that by providing tools and resources to grow the business they want, which in turn helps them live the life they’ve always dreamed of. Grant, welcome to our show.

Grant Waters (00:38.476)
Thanks, John. Happy to be here.

John Harcar (00:40.859)
Yeah, man, I’m excited to talk about it. I do a virtual, I have a virtual business, so I understand the value of having someone in local area. But before we get into that part, right, why don’t you tell our audience kind of a little bit about you, you know, your experience, how you got into business, real estate, and I don’t know what brought you to today.

Grant Waters (00:58.53)
Yeah, man. So I actually grew up, I’m based in South Louisiana, New Orleans area, but growing up, grew up around North Carolina. My dad was a broker. So I kind of grew up in and around the business and anyhow, kind of fast forwarding to a couple of years ago, got into, you know, when I was in college, that’s more than a couple of years ago, but started kind of investing and doing some of the wholesale stuff and getting

Kind of into that and then as that’s grown what I’ve come to do nowadays is really focusing on being that local knowledge piece for folks that are looking to invest in areas and help them connect those dots. Really how do you find what you need to know not only as an investor who’s around the area but like you said, virtually. Who’s that contact? How do I get the right information so that I don’t walk into a bad deal? Number one, because we’ve all been there. And number two, how do I…

John Harcar (01:49.73)
Mm-hmm.

Grant Waters (01:51.551)
how do I dispose of these good acquisitions that I do find? And so that’s in a nutshell kind of what to do best, I think, and what we aim to do here in our local area.

John Harcar (02:01.403)
Okay, cool. If you’ve listened to any of my podcasts, I like to go back. I love the backstory. I think there’s always a learning piece because you don’t know who’s in that same part of their journey now that’s listening to this, right? So you stole my thunder. I usually ask the question, like, how did you get into, know, was there anybody in your past, any influence? And that’s really cool. Your pops was a broker. Did you go on appointments with them? Did you get like that in person kind of, you know, feel for it?

Grant Waters (02:27.874)
Yeah, I did. even then as a young kid, thought that it was just kind of a really cool thing to do to like we were helping people find not only where they need to live, but my dad had a saying which was, man, I didn’t say that I had to live here, but everybody’s got to have somewhere to go. And I think that really shaped when I began wholesaling now as a licensed wheelchair as well. That shapes how I approach every deal. It’s not about us. It’s not about

me and you all the time, right? It’s, look, if I’m, what is that highest and best use for this thing? How do I position myself in the deal so that I can then hand that off to somebody who can do even more than I can? And that’s really kind of that playing it and paying it forward thing that I picked up from him a long time ago.

John Harcar (03:12.219)
100 kind of like the book The Go Giver, right? You one of the laws of stratosphere for that give more in value than you get in return, right? And if you, you don’t make it about you, you make it about them and you really push into that, that just comes back and that’s so awesome. So when you’re in college, you start a wholesaling. When was this? What year was this?

Grant Waters (03:19.138)
Exactly.

Grant Waters (03:31.598)
This would have been 2005, 2006, right before things got a little funny.

John Harcar (03:36.507)
Okay. So relatively, know, yeah, yeah, right. Why didn’t you start doing, going to, or get your license earlier? Like you, you know, like your dad was a broker. Why didn’t you get into that path? Why did you go wholesaling?

Grant Waters (03:51.096)
I think honestly it was something that I kind of picked up and was figuring out and then the plan was sort of, well I may do that when I graduate, whatever. And you know this being over 20 years ago now, right when that happened as parents tend to do, my dad was like, look man, do anything else right now. whatever you do, this isn’t the best time. And so I just kind of delayed it for a while and then once I made my way down here.

really started to feel NASA time and that was a couple years ago.

John Harcar (04:24.731)
Okay, so how did you learn wholesaling? Did you seek out a mentor? Did you join any groups? I mean, what type of learning process did you have?

Grant Waters (04:32.267)
Yeah, I actually had a professor in a business course I took in an economics course that I took in college and told me a little bit about it. he had done a few of these. He owned a bunch of rental properties. And I said, where do you get these? Like, where do you find all of these? Are they on the MLS or whatever? And he was like, no, typically it’s all off market stuff. And I have a guy. And so he connected me with that guy and I was able to learn a lot from him.

John Harcar (05:00.355)
And that was a wholesaler.

Grant Waters (05:01.335)
last year I

Yep. Yep.

John Harcar (05:04.933)
No, can you get me back? Yeah, yeah, that was okay. So what are some of the what were some of the struggles when he first started?

Grant Waters (05:08.491)
Yeah, sorry about that.

Grant Waters (05:12.823)
So when I first started, now granted this is pre-AI innovation and a lot of that stuff, but a lot of it was lead vetting, which I know is a big challenge for any of us. And we’re overwhelmed now through our social media channels and everything else of, hey, I’ve got these leads, I’ve got this, that, and the other. For me, it became much more about how do I find a lead source or a lead referral that that’s as trustworthy as I plan to be representing this thing on the other side of it.

And that was the biggest challenge I think back then and especially in a market that was up and coming because this was Asheville, North Carolina, which now is substantially grown and blown up in the last 15, 20 years. This was at a time where it was kind of in its early stages of that boom. so we were able to work with Jeff. I figured out a lot of those things and did a lot of things wrong.

I mean, I think that’s important for everybody to hear and know. You’re not gonna get it all right and you shouldn’t. And if you think you are, you’ve probably got a blind spot somewhere.

John Harcar (06:19.943)
Right? Yeah. And you know, I like how you, you when you got the wholesaling part, you you sought someone out in a sense and you learned from someone doing it. And I think that’s the biggest thing. So you’re wholesaling. How long did it take you to get your first deal?

Grant Waters (06:34.925)
I would say it probably took a solid two months. had probably four or five of them fall out just because the learning curve of it and maybe not knowing what those blind spots are. But once those first two or three deals got closed, and I learned early on that there were some folks that were kind of…

in the interest of getting a deal done quickly may not always follow all the best steps. And so what I did is I reached out to not only my own dad, but people like him in that area. And I reached out to brokers and said, hey, look, if I brought you this deal, what’s the best way that, if you had a buyer looking for something like this, how could we work together without throwing up a red flag? And from there was able to sort of reverse engineer that process. then I told sellers, I said, hey, look, here’s what’s gonna happen. I’m not.

going to buy your house cash in 14 days. I’m 20 years old. I don’t have that much money. But here’s what I’m going to do. And through doing that and making folks comfortable with that process, some of them said, hey man, this isn’t for me. I’d rather them tell me that than get into any sort of gray area with folks. And from there, we were able to really start scaling that business up. And it’s all about selling the process and as much as selling the property. And so that’s what we focused on.

John Harcar (07:55.899)
Well, it’s the thing that’s tainted the industry a little bit, and that’s the dishonesty that maybe some guys do have coming in saying, I’m going to buy your property. I’m going to buy your property. In the last minute, say, oh, my lender backed out. I mean, it happens. Don’t get me. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen. But when you’re using that as a, you’re kind of giving a farce, right? You’re not being honest. And I love the way you’re coming across. Say, hey, look at.

And I’ve got, hey, look, I might buy it. I probably won’t. I might have to give it to find out someone in my network that that’s looking to do. But that’s why people trust me to find properties for them. So what does your business look like now? mean, you obviously got your broker’s license. Do you have an office? Do you still wholesale? How many deals do you do?

Grant Waters (08:32.322)
Exactly.

Grant Waters (08:40.493)
Sure. Yeah, so I work with a broker who’s great and what we’ve figured out is it’s kind of a combination of that same premise and practice of, how can I move this as quickly as possible for the seller, regardless of what the property is? It may not be something that would typically fall in that wholesale sort of prospectus, but hey, even if it’s a traditional lending, we tend to go on a shorter contract length, maybe that’s 45 or 60 days instead of tying it up for

six months in a listing agreement and using those same principles, the social media, the AI kind of tools and things like that to help market and push that property and get that same speed of sale that we would in a wholesale contract, but traditionally. So now we’ve kind of added the MLS as a tool versus, this is our crutch. We’re just leaning on this and hoping somebody sees it. We’re applying that same sort of hustle to wholesale deals that anybody who’s ever wholesaled one knows exactly what I’m talking about. So I got to get this.

thing off my hands, we’re doing that but in a traditional sense and we’re shooting for 3 and 4 % listing agreements at 45 days, which is a lot more palatable to folks and we work it out. And that’s what’s been the business model since and it’s going really well and we enjoy it because everybody’s on the same page. There’s no surprises. So that’s the key.

John Harcar (09:59.355)
Yeah, so are those kind of essence, novations?

Grant Waters (10:05.325)
Not exactly because we are the listing agent. We are the listing brokerage for it. In the past, I’ve done some innovation agreements where if I, especially if you don’t have a license, that’s a great thing to familiarize yourself with and how to do it really well because agents can be your friend. It’s easy for us to think about from a wholesale mindset. It’s easy for us to think, well, I just got to get this to that buyer.

If I’m Grant, I’m looking for John who’s going to flip this thing, turn it into a rent house. Yeah, maybe. But John may also have 15 things he’s looking at, maybe working with an agent who helps specialize that. If you learn how to speak the same language and those real estate investment groups, a lot of agents are parts of that. Agents love investing in properties as well. These are all things that I think when we look at the broader picture, can be, wholesaling can be not only ethical and on the level, but can be a huge, huge plus to any market.

that needs properties and needs investment opportunities.

John Harcar (11:06.67)
Right.

And that’s kind of how I would position it is like, you we’re going to still have the luxury of these investors that are looking to buy properties, but also going to bring it out to the public who you might find an end buyer who wants to live in a fix, live in and fix it up. So, well, very cool. So let’s talk a little bit about, you know, what kind of our topic was about, you know, that local area knowledge. Explain a little bit to us, like, how did you become or how are you trying to become the expert in your area, your specific area?

Grant Waters (11:39.903)
Yeah, so for me personally, John, a lot of that comes down to, you know, focusing not just on individual properties and sort of the business itself, but what other businesses, what other industries, especially in my area, what other factors come into making what would normally be a great deal, a not so great deal, or vice versa. And a lot of that boils down to in our area, that’s going to be insurance, natural disaster likelihood, things like that where, hey,

Am I going to get offered a job at the National Hurricane Center? Good God, I hope not. But I also am fully aware that, the impact that that’s going to have or what’s going on in Baton Rouge right now in our state capital, hey, when our legislatures are in session and they’re debating these things, what do I need to know that I can then pass on to investors or clients or sellers, buyers, whomever that says, hey, look, man, there’s this great property I’m looking at that, it’s

ARVs through the top, know, they’re not asking much. I’ve got plenty of room to kind of make it my own. Hey, I can then say, hey, look, that’s all fine and good, but look, one thing you may want to be aware of is we’re looking at a potential, hey, with the flood zone or the home insurance kind of realm that that lays in, you may be looking at an undercover expense that could come up between now and then in that in negotiation. Those are the types of things that I would want to know. And it’s really just about, especially if somebody might be even one state over in Mississippi.

is a great example. you’re in Jackson, Mississippi, middle of the state, hey, you’re not dealing with as much of a hurricane threat as maybe New Orleans might be. hey, I work with tons of buyers between those two areas who might say, hey, Grant, I’m looking at this, that, and the other. What do you see wrong with it? One guy that I speak to quite regularly, that’s his question for me. Hey, dude, what’s wrong with this? That becomes a lot of it, whether it’s insurance, cost of goods. It’s not a political discussion at all. It’s hey, that changes.

John Harcar (13:24.794)
Right.

John Harcar (13:37.557)
Mm-hmm.

Grant Waters (13:37.611)
whether that be something from Washington or that be something that, your wholesale lumber guy went out of business or sold his business. Hey, what does that look like now? These are all kinds of things that I think as investors and real estate professionals, we ought to know. Just point blank.

John Harcar (13:53.787)
So let’s maybe make a quick short list of the top five things. OK, let’s say I want to set up a virtual business in New Orleans. What are the top five things when I’m going to look into a market that I need to know?

Grant Waters (14:11.277)
I would say number one is insurance, frankly. Get yourself moderately familiar with it and then hey, it’s never a bad idea to call around and find a few referrals on that front. Like hey, who’s somebody I can call at a moment’s notice and go, hey dude, what would this look like property wise? Property insurance, homeowners insurance for a year. That’s always a great starter. Secondly, are people moving there? New Orleans is a unique city in and of itself. Everybody knows that. Everybody has a great…

perspective in their mind of New Orleans, but hey, if I’m buying one block or two blocks in the wrong direction of something, what does that impact the resale value? Does it make it a flip? Does it make it a buy and hold rental? Those are huge. Neighborhood impact is a big one in that area. Third is population. Like where is it headed? Because certain parts where I live just north of the city, huge population boom.

Whereas 20 minutes to the east or west of me, not as much. You wanna be kind of anticipating that, knowing where they’re going. I’d say the fourth thing would be when are you buying this? Or when are you planning this investment? And I say that because with hurricane season comes a whole lot of wrinkles. It really does. And with it being a six month chunk of the year, hey if I’m getting into a deal in October, November,

and I’m gonna do it as a flip. Everything may look great. By the time I turn around to get that thing done when the flip is ready in May, June of the following year, that insurance thing circles back to you and hey, that timing could be off and you sit on it several months longer than mean to. Those sorts of nuances are there. And then probably fifth, which comes into play more so on flips or building a portfolio is what’s your schooling situation look like? What does that?

John Harcar (15:54.715)
Hmm.

Grant Waters (16:07.447)
personal experience for your end user, be it a renter or a buyer. Hey, what’s that look like? Schools are huge. Education is huge in this area and it can be really touch and go. And so you’ve got to look at that whole holistic view of who am I hoping occupies or uses this product really at the end of this whole process.

John Harcar (16:16.527)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (16:27.245)
Who’s going to be your end user? Is it going to be a single person because it’s close to a college, or is it going to be a family that is in a more traditional neighborhood? You know what I mean? So that makes a ton of sense. So then I guess I can kind of answer the question of what mistakes are investors doing or making when they’re going into virtual markets?

Grant Waters (16:30.689)
Highest and best.

Grant Waters (16:39.979)
Absolutely. Yep.

Grant Waters (16:53.085)
I think sometimes it can be that local knowledge being key, we’re human, right? So if you live in, I don’t know, I’m just using this as an example, suburban Chicago and you know exactly, hey, here’s what might be best in suburban Chicago. I’m looking for a brick on slab, single family, and here’s what I want it to be. That may not translate to every other virtual market that you’re trying to enter into, or maybe you’re already kind of making some inroads.

And I use brick on slab specifically because in this area, you never know. You may get a brick on slab in New Orleans where we’re pretty close to the water table. So you want to make sure, hey, there might be certain areas that for insurance purposes or structurally, you need to be on piers or a hard foundation and raised a little bit, whatever it may be. would say that’s a mistake, not only here, but that I’ve made elsewhere as well. Like, Hey, this would be a great house. If it were something that

John Harcar (17:38.949)
Yeah.

Grant Waters (17:50.693)
I was living in and kind of what we talked about at the top of the program here, it’s not about us, right? We have to think who lives there, who wants to live there, and how do I make this approach to this deal for me and for that end user the most sensible way possible.

John Harcar (18:08.997)
Got it. What are you working on now? Any new, any big deals? you, any type of coaching program? I know you mentioned you’re trying to be the local market expert. mean, what kind of stuff are you doing to maybe generate some more knowledge?

Grant Waters (18:24.833)
Yeah, so there is still some coaching perspective that’s taken a little bit of a backseat. We’ve done some interesting things, especially with a firm here in Covington, Louisiana, where I’m based now. Servio Capital has gotten into some really neat stuff, both passive real estate investment opportunities, as well as stuff they’ve taken on themselves. And I’m really, really proud of some of the stuff I’ve been able to be a part of with them, one of which is it was an old RV part.

And what they’ve done is not only, yeah, they’ve remodeled a lot of the cabins and stuff like that and figured out some creative ways to parcel out ownership there, but it’s also kind of given birth to a side sort of reality show that HGTV’s picked up. called Cabin Wars. Pretty fun thing if you get a chance. I’d highly recommend people taking a look at it. It’s a really neat model. It’s a really neat model, especially if you’re in sort of the land investment or kind of unique usage investment.

John Harcar (19:13.858)
Yeah, I’ll check it out.

Grant Waters (19:24.125)
spectrum looking for stuff like that. It’s really been an eye-opener for me as well as far as, what kind of deals are out there that maybe I wasn’t looking for? Like I’ve dealt with mobile and manufactured home stuff in the past or things that were set up similarly, but this has been a whole new avenue that I think temporary and short-term rental being what it is and blowing up the way it is isn’t just Airbnbs and Verbo stuff anymore. It’s a lot different. And I think that

to me is neat. That’s probably the coolest deal I’ve been a part of in the last year or so.

John Harcar (19:56.015)
Now are you gonna be on the show?

Grant Waters (19:58.919)
I hope not. No, no, So what it was is, yeah, yeah, it would be, it would be. But I actually enjoy seeing what folks are doing because the people that have been featured on the show were ones that kind of little teams, whether they be husband and wife or if you and I took on one and, we’re going to renovate this thing, kind of a contest that then now it’s in its second season and I think maybe looking at a third, but it’s really cool.

John Harcar (20:01.857)
okay, that would be really cool.

Grant Waters (20:27.895)
to see what people do with these cabins and stuff. And they’ve revamped the whole park and now it’s doing really, really well. there’s a lot of avenues for real estate investment and I think that’s a huge one. Local knowledge again, I would have never known this had I not hooked up with those guys.

John Harcar (20:29.083)
That’s so cool.

John Harcar (20:36.827)
That’s awesome.

John Harcar (20:44.941)
Yeah, and I see here a lot of people about like, you know, the unique short term type of rentals, right? You know, the different things people are looking for different experiences and it’s like you just but you got to think outside the box, right? You got to be able to to be creative in a sense. So before we get going here, what do you think have been even you’ve been, around the block, right? You’ve been through a couple of difficult real estate times. What do you feel is like your your keys to success, like the things that got you?

Got to where we are today.

Grant Waters (21:16.343)
think you mentioned thinking outside of the box, John, and that’s a huge piece, man. I’ve never found myself comfortable with being really comfortable. And for folks that have been wholesaling a long time, it may be, look, man, you had a ton of success with single family, fix and flips. That may not be the case anymore. Or what you’re shooting at may not be the right target. In times like this, hey, when rates get a little weird,

Or higher than we want to on that back end. It’s not about what it costs to undertake a flip Hey, is anybody gonna be available to buy it at the end of this thing? So maybe that’s shifting toward a cash a more cash buyer favored thing like land like some of these other short-term Avenues or what have you I think that the key is don’t ever get so far outside of a box that all you’re doing is novelty stuff But at the same time you lean into what you’re good at

which ultimately is going to be your model. But how you take that to market and how that goes into practice really has to evolve with what you see around you. that’s, you know, just basic laws of evolution, not just real estate. And I think for that, I’m eternally grateful. You know, it’s not always going to be, hey, I’m $50,000 licks on every flip I do. It might be, hey, I’m doing a really good job of finding land deals and I’m staying alive. I’m staying in business so that when things come back,

I am still that resource for folks because there is a lot of, you mentioned it and did a very good job of describing, there may have been some less than scrupulous wholesaling activity that went on when things were good and money was cheap to borrow that now those guys may have gone. They may not be doing it anymore now that things are a little more challenging. How do you hang in there long enough as an investor, a wholesaler, an agent, whatever, to position yourself to really serve your community? And that’s what I’m proud to still be able to do.

It’s not always easy, but it’s always a necessary thing.

John Harcar (23:11.813)
I love that.

John Harcar (23:15.321)
I love it, man. Serve its heart. Appreciate you coming on here today, Grant, and sharing all that stuff. If there’s folks that are out here listening, they want to get in touch with you, they want to talk about maybe the Louisiana market, or just shoot the real estate BS. How do they get in touch?

Grant Waters (23:20.461)
Thank you.

Grant Waters (23:32.011)
Yes, so there’s a couple ways they can do that. My direct email address, that’s what you want, grant at servio.com. You can also check out 345.com. That’s three spelled out and then four or five. Those are both great ways to learn about what we’re doing and see some of that models. I’m happy to speak to anybody anytime. Love to actually. I think it’s a great thing to do.

High tides raise all boats.

John Harcar (24:03.451)
Yes, sir. I love it, man. That’s kind of a motto that goes around our mastermind. Well, Grant, thank you so much once again for coming on. Guys, I hope you really learned some good knowledge about if you’re looking to do a virtual market, go into somewhere where you don’t know. Find somebody who does. Be successful. Guys, hope you had a good time on the show. I’ll see you on the next one. Cheers.

Grant Waters (24:19.755)
Absolutely.