First Wholesale Deal Story

[Douglas Walker]

I completed my first wholesale deal August 9, 2016. The way it happened is driving my thirst to build a particular kind of freedom using real estate. I facilitated this deal completely via phone and emails while I was in Las Vegas for a "conference", lol. Any reader that is familiar with the Grand Conclave, roo. When I returned, I had a check waiting for me. Awesome end to a vacation, right? Figured I should finally give back to BiggerPockets by writing about the deal since I took so much advice that was given in the forums and blogs in order to complete this deal.

Now, I will admit, I did this wholesale deal backwards in the final stages. I knew the price the owner wanted so I went ahead and marketed the property without a contract with the seller. Yes, I know, that is not how you are supposed to do this, but it worked out in the end and I got my first deal along with a boost of confidence. I would not do it that way again, but cut me some slack, I was worried about putting the deal under contract and not being able to wholesale it. 

I used direct mail to market for the deal which turned out to be 3 vacant lots. How I ended up with vacant lots when I was marketing for SFRs is a mystery to me, but after I ran the numbers and checked out the area, it seemed to be a good deal, so what the heck, I ran with it. Each lot was about a half acre in size and the owner only wanted $5,000 for each lot.

Long story short, I posted the deal on classified sites while building my buyers list by looking for people that I thought specifically would be interested in buying vacant lots. I ended up learning a lot about trying to sell vacant lots, which I thought would be much easier than a vacant home because it is just a vacant lot. Wrong. The only thing easier about it is that you do not have to schedule potential buyers to view the deal, but I digress. 

I listed the lots for $10,000 each and eventually met a buyer that offered me $23,100 for the entire bundle, $7,700 each. I accepted the soft offer. In parallel to me courting buyers, I was going back and forth with the seller's lawyer about the contract terms. I ended up sending my contract for the lots and the assignment for the buyer at the same using email and e-sig while I was on the balcony of my hotel room. Once I received those, I forwarded them both to the real estate attorney to handle the closing. Another flub, I know, because I did not get a non-refundable EMD from the buyer. I was worried he would not want the deal anymore if I asked for an EMD. Learned from my second deal though, ALWAYS get a non-refundable EMD. Anyways, we did not encounter any problems. Title search was smooth, closing was smoother and I picked up a check for $8,100 from the real estate attorney.