First Wholesale in just 5 days into Real Estate Investing

[Miguel Luna]

Okay, funny story for you guys. If any of you have been following any of my posts, you'll know I'm a 19 year old from Lubbock looking to get into REI. For the past 4 days, I've been researching, reading books, watching webinars, and reading all of your posts! You guys were very helpful and informative and you sure gave me a lot of confidence to get into the business.

So today (December 11, 2015) I tried to make my first wholesale deal. It was a $60,000 property and the it was listed for $7,500. So I thought, "here's my chance, this could be my first deal!" I called up the owner trying to make a deal. Offered him $6,000. Pause... pause... and he hangs up. Bummer. Shot down right there. Didn't give up though. I called a couple more times and left a few text messages and we eventually settled for $6,500. 

AWESOME. Now if I could just get buyer to close it quick at around $25,000-$30,000. I started looking on Craigslist and I found someone buying houses for cash. Okay, let's try this. Called them up. Made him the offer. Gave him info on the house. "How did you come up with $30,000?" 

-Umm, I don't know. I was just wanting to sell the property.

-You're looking to wholesale it? 

-Yes...? (Get it together Miguel.)

-How did you come up with $60,000 

-Um.. zillow? 

-Mistake #1. (I figured that)

We went on to talk about the house and repair costs and how much he could actually offer me.

-$13,000

-$13,000? (Great! I'd still be making $6,500 in profit!)

-Well I'm not going to put it on a contract, but somewhere around there would be where I'm offering

-Great! Umm it's listed at $7,500 and the owner and I made a deal for $6,500

-Oh so you've been in contact with the owner?

-Yeah, he's listed 3 properties up for sale so I assume he's also a local investor

-Let me check this out real quick... Yeah Oscar. He's actually sent an email to all the investors in the local area trying to get rid of the property. He's a seasoned investor and if he's having trouble getting rid of it, that should tell you something. (Damn it!)

-Dang.. so? It's not a good investment

-I wouldn't invest in it.

Not sure how I did. Bad, I'm assuming, but the success here is that I learned something. I also got in touch with the President of the Lubbock REIA and was invited to the meeting in January! Not all successes come in the form of money!

[Toi H.]

Congratulations on taking a big step.  There is so much information and tools on this site to help make you successful. I'd suggest read more about making deals and running numbers before calling a prospective buyer.  There are other sites you can use besides Zillow; like realtor.com, redfin.com, local county tax assessors office and many others. But keep up the great work.

Good luck and best wishes!

Toi