Take Decisive Action

TLDR
New investors often hesitate until lost deals teach them to move faster. Ross shows where speed matters in buying, contractor bids, and selling. Practice the numbers first so a live choice does not take all night.

Table of Contents

The Cycle Every Buyer Goes Through

I watch this play out through my wife’s real estate brokerage. A buyer starts out loosey-goosey. They like a house and want to think about it for a few days. Then the house is gone. After losing a few houses that way, they finally start moving quickly.

The same cycle hits newer investors. Experience changes it because you learn the numbers, know what you want, and become ready to decide.

Know what you want, practice the numbers, and make the decision while the opportunity is still available.

Speed On The Buy

There are three ways to buy a house. Each one has its own speed game.

MLS Through A Real Estate Agent

On-market deals require speed. Ross said that when a wanted listing appeared, he would call his wife and ask her to write the offer immediately with a contingency that allowed further investigation. If time allowed, he would get inside first; he wanted that walkthrough within the next hour and the offer submitted as he left.

Wholesalers

Wholesalers are trying to move the deal quickly at the highest price. They may like a buyer and treat that person well, but another buyer is available if the first stops investing.

Try to be the first prepared buyer with a real offer. Confirm your numbers, but do not wait overnight on a wholesale deal while another buyer is ready to act.

I have been a wholesaler. I know what it feels like on the other side. Speed matters because the wholesaler has another buyer to call.

Direct To Seller

This is where speed matters most. The moment you walk into a seller’s house, their sales excitement peaks. Every minute after that, it drops. Exponentially.

Ross described seller excitement as peaking during the conversation and then falling quickly. He did not quantify the decline at 30 minutes, 24 hours, or 72 hours.

There are sharks in the water on direct-to-seller deals. Another experienced investor may meet the seller after you and ask for the contract. I will tell sellers, honestly, that when I leave, my offer comes off the table. I am not going to compete later with wholesalers who may lie to win the deal.

Pro Tip
Practice underwriting enough deals to recognize the numbers quickly. Speed comes after learning what a good deal and a realistic construction scope look like.

Speed On Contractors

Commercial bidding has a formal process. Collect bids, run them through a committee, pick a winner. That is not how residential renovation works.

In my world it goes like this. I have a house. I go to Home Depot, find an all arounder, and ask whether he wants to bid the house down the street. I want the bid today, the price that night, and an answer about whether the crew can start tomorrow.

The guys you want to hire are looking for the next job all the time. If they have work ending, they want the next job to start right away. The alternative is the billboard contractor, whose price may be triple because you are paying for that larger business.

Three bids is still smart when you are new. Run the process fast or you lose your best candidates.

Ross’s examples moved quickly: invite the contractor to the nearby property, ask for a price that evening, and see whether the crew could start the next day. He did not turn that story into a 24-hour or 48-to-72-hour mandatory bid schedule.

The value of comparison is real when you do not yet know construction pricing. Ross had seen the same scope draw a $175,000 bid from one contractor and a $100,000 bid from another. He had also seen $15,000 versus $6,000. In his experience, the higher bidder was often the billboard company, and the work was not automatically better.

Those polished companies can also suffer from what Ross calls new-builderitis: they want a cleaned and controlled site before touching the work. The all-arounder may be willing to enter the crawl space, open walls, and handle the rough conditions. That crew can be harder to manage, but a good working relationship is part of the payoff.

Speed On The Sell

Selling a house has the same sales-excitement issue as buying one: momentum can fall after the initial visit.

I will say one thing about selling that is different from buying. A buyer who truly loves the house may carry that drive through the whole process. Another buyer may be settling only because they are tired of losing offers.

When somebody truly wants the house and you truly want to sell it, Ross believes you can negotiate hard and still get both sides what they want.

Building The Decision Muscle

Speed is not an excuse to skip the numbers. Practice underwriting on deals you have no intention of buying until you can recognize a good opportunity quickly. Learn construction costs and learn to build a scope of work. When you know what you want, you can decide without turning every opportunity into a long research project.

Common Mistake
Do not try to create speed by guessing. Practice before the live decision, then confirm the important numbers while the deal is still available.

Speed, speed, speed. Know what you want and make the decision quickly.

FAQ

Isn’t moving fast how people make dumb mistakes?

No. Making uninformed decisions is how people make dumb mistakes. Moving fast with a prepared underwrite is just execution. The prep is where the caution lives.

What if I am scared to pull the trigger?

Ross’s advice was to practice the numbers, know what you want, and use the community for questions. He did not prescribe 20 practice offers.

Why get three contractor bids if speed matters?

When you lack construction experience, different bids expose how wide pricing can be and give you different perspectives on the work. Move the comparison along quickly and use it to learn what the scope should cost.

What if I do not know my max offer yet?

Practice the underwrite until the construction costs and deal threshold are familiar enough to make a prepared decision quickly.

Why does Ross remove his direct-to-seller offer when he leaves?

He expects the seller to meet another investor after him and does not want his offer used in a later competition with wholesalers who may make claims he will not match. That is his direct-to-seller practice, not a universal contract rule.