New member from Washington, DC

[Lenzy Ruffin]

I’m a new investor interested in building a wholesaling business with the ultimate goal of acquiring enough rental properties to be able to live entirely on passive income one day and just enjoy life. My business plan will have me wholesaling until I know marketing well enough to consistently generate the number of quality calls I need to hit my wholesaling revenue targets. The plan is to wholesale into wholetail and, eventually, start cherry-picking deals to rehab myself, either for sale or for holding onto as a rental.

I’m focusing on single-family homes, but after listening to more and more of the Bigger Pockets podcasts, Brandon has gotten me to include “learn the small multi-family rental business” into my business plan. Multi-family units may very well end up comprising either the bulk or the entirety of my rental portfolio once I start collecting rentals. I really am excited about seeing where I ultimately end up relative to where I plan to end up. I know they won’t be the same place because I’m still at the point where I’m learning so much new stuff every day.

And speaking of learning, MAN I wish I’d started out with Bigger Pockets. If I’d read the Ultimate Beginner’s Guide eighteen months ago instead of yesterday, not only would I have more than twenty thousand dollars in my pocket that I spent on training/mentoring programs, I would have the revenue that that twenty grand would have generated if I’d spent it on marketing. I’ve knocked on doors of homeowners in foreclosure until the process didn’t scare me anymore, I’ve driven for dollars and skip-traced vacant property owners, I’ve set my clock for 2am and gone around hanging bandit signs like a mad man…all for naught. None of those things generated leads for me and barely any calls even.

Probably the funniest marketing failure I’ve had was when I bought a few reams of yellow paper and created a yellow letter that would take up only half the page so I could put two letters on each sheet, printed in landscape orientation. My plan was to hand-deliver these yellow letters in my target neighborhoods. By the time I had finished printing yellow letters, putting them in stacks of fifty, then rolling them up with rubber bands, I had enough rolls to fill a gym bag. I deluded myself into visualizing that bag of rolled up yellow letters as a bag full of rolls of money; I just needed to deliver enough of them to make it happen. While I realize that self-delusion is a legitimate strategy used by high achievers, this particular delusion was not to be. After two days of walking the streets and delivering yellow letters, I realized that this was not going to be an effective strategy for me. I’d have to fill that gym bag with cash some other way.

Well now I think I’ve found the way. After reading the Ultimate Direct Mail Guide blog post and listening to the podcasts in it, I got hooked on the Bigger Pockets podcasts in a major way. After having paid a lot of money for training and then hearing the master classes being taught for free on the Bigger Pockets podcasts, I was, and continue to be, blown away. When I succeed in this business, I’m convinced it will be because of what I learned about direct mail marketing on Bigger Pockets. FINALLY I’m getting some traction with my marketing efforts. Nothing else I’d tried worked, but now I’m getting calls from people who have a house they want to sell. That didn’t happen until I started doing direct mail.

I’m not even in the phase of direct mailing where I expected to see results. I know from the podcasts that homeowners don’t seem to get the message until you’ve mailed them a few times, but I’m already getting responses. I’ve gone out and visited two properties and done rehab estimates using what I learned in J. Scott’s book and made offers. Yes, they were embarrassingly low and, no, they didn’t get accepted. But I know if I do this enough times, eventually I’ll find a deal. And then I’ll have more money for marketing and I can find the next deal a little faster. And on. And on.

If you can’t already tell, I’m really glad that Bigger Pockets exists. This site is an incredible resource.