60K net-profit on a $480 investment

[Michael Clay]

As most of us know, a good amount of the day-to-day activities that real estate investors do can feel like you're wasting your time. Unfortunately, there is no specific list of activities or magic pill that is guaranteed to make you money as a RE investor. The only tried-and-true method to become a successful investor is HARD WORK. 

In 2018 I purchased potential buyer-leads to cold call using a website called prospectnow.com. You get unlimited leads, you choose your areas/criteria, for $79.99/month. I called the leads for around an hour a day for the 6 months that I subscribed to the website. After tracking the leads, I estimated that around 1 out of 20 leads were the correct phone #s. I guess you get what you pay for. Looking back now, I understand that this 5% rate is awful, but since it was the first group of leads I'd purchased I called them religiously for 6 months. 

I ended up having 10-15 decent leads/follow ups from the list when I canceled my subscription. I followed up with one of the leads every week or two for around a year. After all of that time, I went under contract on the property a few months ago and got a great deal on it. The woman who owned the property had moved a year before that and wanted nothing to do with the property. I did minimal work/cleaning to the property and sold it almost immediately. After paying 2 sets of CC, commission to the buyer's agent, taxes/insurance and utilities I ended up netting 60K on the transaction. 

I wanted to share this personal experience because it would have been easy for me to get discouraged and stop calling the leads. Especially because the strong-majority of the leads were incorrect phone #s. Continuing to take a small amount of time out of my day to dial away ended up turning that $480 investment into 60K in profit! 

The lesson I learned is that if you work hard every day you'll eventually land some deals that make it all worth the time/money invested. Keep up the hard work!