How long did it take you to find your first deal? and second?

Question

So how long did it take to find that first great deal that you were willing to risk your time, effort and money working on?

It took me around 4 months to find my first deal.  It was hard to keep the doubt out of my mind.  But when that first deal made its presence known, everything changed.  All of a sudden I had full confidence that this stuff works (even though I already knew investors that were doing deals, I wondered if I could ever really find the deals myself).  Once the marketing efforts start building and compounding over time, the deals start coming a lot more frequently (as long as you keep your marketing going).  Sort of a snowball effect.

If people just stick with it and get that first deal under their belt, they set themselves up to really make a go of investing.

So how long did it take you to find your first deal?  It would also be interesting to see how long it took to find the second.  I would bet that 95% of the time it was shorter.

My second took about another month and the third was the same week as the second.

Doug Smith · Answer

About eight months and $5,500 in marketing expenses for my first deal. Got my second deal about two weeks later ... and then four more deals within the next three months. So yes, the first deal is by far the hardest. It seems to be because of fear and/or lack of knowledge on how to spot a good deal and act quickly.

Mark Anderson · Answer

Once I stopped trying to get book knowledge and I actually started looking, it didn't take me long to find my first property. It was a monster rehab in which I got a real, hands on education. It actually went very smoothly, other than breaking even at then end of it.

2nd and 3rd came together immediately after selling the first one.

Danny Johnson · Answer

You are right about the number of offers being very important.  If you don't make offers, you won't buy houses.

It's so important to keep track of number of leads, where they are coming from, the number of offers made per marketing source and the number of deals closed per source.  Focus on what works.

It's amazing how many people don't really keep track of these things.

Danny Johnson · Answer

Could not agree more.

Rob Gillespie · Answer

I found my first one pretty quick, but it was a looser! LOL!

Mike Delprete · Answer

2 months and about $1,000 in expenses

Jason Kosowan · Answer

This was true for me. I spent about 3 months actually going out and seeing properties before purchase of my first rental.  And that's not counting the months I spent doing online research.  And, yes, I put in many offers on places without hearing back.

The next year, I had enough saved up again to do it again.  But by this time, the condo market had tanked compared to SFH, so the numbers on them were much better.  After seeing only a few, I felt like I could mentally sort out the wheat from the chaff and had an offer accepted within one month I think.  Also, because of the low prices, I had enough in the piggy-bank to pick up a second in the same complex, which was done in the next month.

What I don't get, though, is this.  There seems to be a lot of purchase activity here for some people - where does the capital come from to close on a house a month?  (I can't even manage one property a year)  Is everyone here a buyer for a big REIT or something?

Don Hines · Answer

My first deal took about 3 months after a couple of years reading and learning. I paid too much by about $15 grand for it. I lost $7 grand which almost cost me an additional $300k (some wheres abouts) when the Wife wanted to toss me out over the $7k; I have about $One Million$ invested in her. So, I cooled it for a couple of years. 
We are on our second flip together after about a 5 month search. I don't think it is the time involved. I think it should be measured in the number of offers. My magic number this time was 19.
Don

Jimmy C. · Answer

Ours wasn't that long.  Of course I was doing direct mail and telemarketing to pre-foreclosures on a full time schedule.  That being said, I didnt see any profits for nearly 3 months.

Danny Johnson · Answer

Surrie,

I do work with Realtors, but do not get the majority of my deals from them.  The majority come from my 'We Buy Houses' marketing directly to home owners.

I use private lenders (not sure if that was what you meant by the second question).

How did you find the first deal?  If that is no longer working, you should try marketing directly to home owners.

You can search the forums for marketing ideas.  I just posted 5 ways the other day:
http://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/87/topics/61080-5-great-inexpensive-ways-to-get-deals

How long did it take you to find your first deal? and second?

Most Popular Reply