A knowledge-thirsty, newbie wholesaler from Pittsburgh, PA

[Nastassja S.]

Hello BP!

My name is Nastassja and I'm a newbie wholesaler-wannabe dwelling within Pittsburgh, PA. The first thing I want to say is that I'm so thankful this community exists. Honestly.

Let me start with my background. Following my parents advice, I went to college...over and over again. I ended up wracking up debts for a degree that would never pay it off. It was stupid - but that was all I knew about how the world worked. You go to college. Get a 9-5 job. You live meagerly paying off debts for 10 years. Then you're able start working towards your retirement. I didn't know anything else back then. $80k later, I've got a degree in culinary. The average rate of pay for food service is $10-14/hr. It wasn't even close to worth it. 

Up until a week ago, I had been planning on how I could get myself out of this mess. I looked up difference positions, higher salaries, the college degrees I would need to obtain those salaries -- and all of a sudden, my mother invited me to a seminar -- a Yancey: Boots on the Ground seminar. I didn't know what this was at the time - she only told me it was a 3-day intensive real estate seminar. She tried to explain that she found a way to help me pay off my debts so I can actually have a financial future. She gave me no names, so I could not look it up (and I did badger her to tell me). It was in those classes that I had found out she had paid $30k to take them and I could not tell you how angry I was when I heard this. 

ANYWAY, regardless of her decision to spend money she didn't have and will now owe, and the questionableness of the price-to-information ratio the seminar held, the seminar actually did provide quite a lot of information I had never known about REI before, and the potential returns did interest me quite a bit. So much so that I happily quit my meager $10/hr job to try this career out. My mother and I started a team including one other person, but if I can close even ONE $500 deal in a month, I would have made my ENTIRE paycheck. But I have much bigger goals than just that...

Although I own no properties, and I don't have any sort of background in real estate investing, I am a non-stop learner. And as long as there is information on the internet, and educated/experienced mentors willing to share their knowledge and experiences, I know I can succeed in this. That expensive seminar still let me with way too many questions that they refused to answer, and even though there is a "mentor-hotline", they often leave me feeling like they are just trying to sell me something... 

So that's what brings me here to the great people of BP. I look forward to learning every detail there is to wholesaling from those of you who have dabbled and mastered it, and gradually reaching a point to flip or hold.

Till next time!