So we wholesaled our first deal and made $10k, just closed Thursday! I put it under contract and had it assigned in just a few days and it closed 30 days after I got it under contract. I got a call from a mailer we sent out months ago from a nice gentleman that lives out of state. Within a few hours I'd gained access to the house and had a verbal agreement from him to sell at $35k. Huge house (5/2 2400 sq ft) in a rapidly changing area but the house is in really, really rough shape. Holes in the roof and floors, no back door whatsoever, small tree growing out of the brick in the rear on the 3rd floor, etc. Neighbors had gained access through the backyard and were feeding cats out of the house plus storing their stuff in there. From talking to the owner on the phone the place should've been empty. There were boxes of stuff, new-ish appliances, and lots of cat carriers and cat food and bowls. I have to give a shout out to @Mark Redmann because, without his tools and persistence, we never would've gotten into this place. The 6' high stockade fence had dozens of 3" deck screws poking out like barbed wire (both directions, facing in and out, you're not hopping this fence) and holding the boards in place. The back alley was so overgrown we could barely get through and the only spot we could even get to the fence was heavily fortified, again by the neighbors, with copious amounts of deck screws. Nevertheless, Mark busted out his cordless drill, sawzall, and hammer and got us in! 

The backstory is, the owner bought the house 4 years ago to fix up but, due to financial issues, hasn't touched it in that time. The house has deteriorated severely in those 4 years. I emailed him the contract and he signed and returned same day. I then called a realtor we work with quite a bit and gave him the particulars on the property. I think I put it up here on the marketplace and posted on Craigslist as well. I wasn't taking any chances! My realtor was able to put me in touch with a local investor he works with that buys in the area and, after a brief phone call, sight unseen, says "I'll take it". As my partner @David Ross said, it's like he's buying melons at the market. I priced the property right at $45k and he knows the area but I still wasn't comfortable with him purchasing sight unseen. I gave him the lockbox code and told him I wouldn't sell the property to anyone else until I heard from him, but I wanted him to go through it. The place is rough, check out a few choice pictures below! 

He text me the next morning and said, you guessed it..."I'll take it". My realtor set me up with a title company that he uses for assignments of contract and they were awesome. Everything was done via email and docusign and I never left my house for this deal other than to check out the property and put a lockbox on. I didn't even go to closing and the check showed up two days later in my mailbox. 

Can it really be this easy? Yep, except it took almost two years of marketing (off and on and likely poorly done) and a few connections to get to this point so it's not what I would call "easy". For those of you who are just getting started, stick with it! It takes time to learn, make connections and apparently for your marketing to work. This particular mailing went out at least a year ago and it's the only one (from me) this gentleman would've received...because when I got no results I changed my list. Great business plan, huh! 

We've been marketing off and on for roughly two years with no success, probably due to the fact that I never hit the same list twice and never really took wholesaling and direct mail seriously! To date we've spent roughly $4k on mailers and this is our only deal. We are in the middle of a serious campaign now, 5 touches, one every 3 weeks, to the same list. I'll let you all know how it goes! Oh, and we gave the realtor a check for $1k for connecting us with the buyer and the title company that made this process super easy.