First Atlanta Wholesale Deal Completed!!!

[Morris Lucas]

So after almost 2 years of reading books, asking a millions questions on BP, going to REIA meetings, listening to podcasts....IT"S DONE!!

Closed on my first Wholesale deal in Dekalb County, Ga. It was very surreal looking at the check i received, knowing it came from months and months of learning, setbacks, confusion, patience and hard work!! Best part is i provided a great service to the seller who couldn't WAIT to close and move to live with her children.

I must say, I never would have got to the finish line without Biggerpockets and the resources that are here. It sounds crazy, but as soon as the seller accepted the offer, everything I learned on this site and from books just all "made sense" in that very instance....I immediately saw a million other strategies(hard money, flipping to retail) that I could have applied. It was definitely a difinitive moment, and I kept thinking (ahh, NOW i REALLY get why people spend so much energy and money to get to speak to these sellers directly...)

Important things i can say is 1)marketing does work if it is consistent and 2)to use BP for the potential relationships, tools and knowledge it has to offer to close your deal!

Thanks to all who gave me great advice on this site and who i learned from, Ned Carey, Jerry Puckett, Sharon Vornholt, Danny Johnson, Bruce Duval, Ann Marie Poe and Lisa Phillips to name a few, and everyone else who answered a billion questions i had! You guys rock!

On to the next one!!!

[Larry Turowski]

Originally posted by @Morris Lucas:

 it came from months and months of learning, setbacks, confusion, patience and hard work!! 

 THIS is what sets you and successful investors apart.  Congrats!!!

[Morris Lucas]

Thanks Larry!! you can't climb to the top of a mountain without a few bruises and setbacks!!

[Johnathan Osborne]

Morris that's great, I hope to follow and one day have a similar story thanks for the post.

[Jonathan Avila]

@Morris Lucas , Congrats! It's post like these that inspire myself and others! Keep going hard man!

[Brian Risi]

Hi @Morris Lucas !

Congrats to you on your recent success. As a complete newbie I appreciate stories like yours to keep me motivated and inspired. I was hoping you might share some details from your success. What did you find was the best marketing strategy? How did you go about finding deals? Any other advice you'd like to share would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Paul Timmins]

@Morris Lucas 

Congrats, how long till you do it again?

Paul

[Brian Watkins]

@Morris Lucas  Congrats! Hopefully it is the first of many! Hard work and patience is key. Keep going!! Let's connect and collaborate. 

@Brian Risi 

I found that bandit signs work (even though they are considered bottom of the barrel marketing by some) and Craigslist ads. I did over a dozen deals my first year. Couldn't of done any of them without those two very easy and low priced forms of marketing. Next on my list is direct mail as Atlanta is becoming a sellers market the deals aren't as easy to get anymore. I have to utilize a direct mail campaign to get direct to the source. This way I can get the properties at the cheapest price point. Best advice honestly is, if you haven't yet, JUMP IN and get your feet wet. Learning first hand provides better training than all the reading in the world. Good luck to you!

[Stan Butler]

Great job @Morris Lucas !!

You just validated all of your hard work and determination.

Now put me on your buyers list.....  :-)

[Morris Lucas]

Thanks guys, appreciate the comments!

@Brian Risi I used Tax Lien leads. I started off with Bandit Signs, but they get taken down too fast, and the quality of leads i did get were not all that great. I hired someone to put them out and it got expensive. After 3 tries, i got tired of wasting money, as once they are taken down, that's it. At least with direct mail, the seller may at least put it aside to call you later. 

My advice is to stop worrying about when you will get a deal, and just market, market market...act like it's just another one of your monthly bills. I put it in my head that i didn't care if it took me 30 years i was going to keep sending mail until SOMEBODY sold me their house...i didn't even care about the profit, i just decided i wouldn't stop doing this until i closed...period.

Don't get bogged down by the useless stuff, like getting right contract, website, getting a license. I actually was going to do all 3, but all of that stuff doesn't matter if you can't find deals. One thing that became crystal clear is that once you got a hot deal, everything else will work itself out, title company, contract, ARV, all of it.

Also i would say have a strong motivation for why you want to wholesale....use whatever is your motivation and it will force to to bulldoze through obstacles, i was just plain SICK of what i was(still am) doing everyday. So for me it is 80% mindset change, rest is just grind.

Finally go look at these folks' posts and podcasts.....

Paula Pant, Tim Gordon, Michael Quarles, Aaron Mozzrillo, also;

@Sharon Vornholt 

@Ned Carey 

@Account Closed 

[Frankie Woods]

Congrats @Morris Lucas !  This is great news!

[Gerald K.]

@Morris Lucas 

Thanks for posting. Your perseverance has paid off. Congratulations. Keep going!

@Joshua Dorkin and @Brandon Turner 

Just so you guys can see how BP continues to impact peoples lives.

[Brian Risi]

@Morris Lucas Thank you for taking the time to respond so thoroughly to me. I'll be checking out the podcasts and blogs by all the people you mentioned. I think fear of the unknown is the number one thing that's holding me back...which is why I enjoy reading posts like yours. If you don't mind me asking, what kind of marketing budget did you start off with? 

[Brian Risi]

@Brian Watkins Thanks for the advice. I've never understood how/why bandit signs work, but they must since I've had a number of people suggest that strategy to me. And there's no shortage of them posted around my community.

[Morris Lucas]

@  Br

@Brian Risi  don't be afraid of unknown, what's worse that can happen, you lose a few hundred or thousand dollars....you will probably blow that on beer, starbucks, eating out whatever X 10 in a year.

i started with about $500, testing signs, mailers, etc, all in all, probably spent over a grand in marketing. But, i'm not counting 2 years of driving around using gas, buying books, going to seminars, etc, this is just on mailers, signs. If I could, i would spend 5k-10 a month on marketing, it will come back to you, as long as it is consistent.

[Levon Turner]

Morris, thats great info, special about the marketing budget of $500.

Question: How did you break down that $500 for your market start up...

[Morris Lucas]

Levon;

Please don't get it wrong, i STARTED with $500, but i didn't get any deals. I got phone calls from bandit signs and early mailers. However i had to continue to spend money month after month and tweak my list, mailer content, envelopes, etc. At this point, i have put out ALOT of money on marketing. Point is you CAN start and get the ball rolling...here's some idea..

Lady i pay who put out signs(i don't do this method anymore) $175-300 for like 50-75 signs she supplied them, wrote them, put them out and took pictures of every one.

200-400 letters, stamps are like 50 cents, so that's what, $200

Paper, envelopes(i like the colored ones)

Bought my daughter some "Frozen" toys to help me put on stamps...$15

That's it dude...i mean you can do SEO website stuff too, or pay one of the guys on BP who have postcard services to do it for you, as it gets old QUICK.

I now pay a lady from oDesk $4/hr to do my research for my list and mail merge list to Word, so all i gotta do is print, sign, stuff and mail.

if you do those #$@&** yellow letters by hand you will hate life. And then u get busy doing stuff, at your job, and you don't have calls because you're not writing letters...outsource, do yourself a favor, its not worth it. I'd say do the first round yourself, so you can delegate it later, than move on quick as possible.

[Garth Collins]

great success story. Ive been at it for about 9 months and looking to close my 1st deal 11/11.  They were supposed to close 11/7 but I just heard from my attorney and closing has been pushed to next Tuesday.  Hopefully I have a similar success story soon.

[Brandon Turner]

Hey @Morris Lucas congrats dude!!!!  This is awesome to hear. Keep up the fight and I'm excited to hear about #2 soon! :) 

[Dev Horn]

Originally posted by @Morris Lucas:

My advice is to stop worrying about when you will get a deal, and just market, market market...act like it's just another one of your monthly bills. I put it in my head that i didn't care if it took me 30 years i was going to keep sending mail until SOMEBODY sold me their house...i didn't even care about the profit, i just decided i wouldn't stop doing this until i closed...period.

 As a marketer, I find this to be one of the most encouraging comments I've read on BP.  This is what it's all about.  I want to send Morris' comments to everyone that wants to quit after month 2.  =)

[Cody Alexander]

@Brian Risi 

On top of all the great podcasts and posts @Morris Lucas   mentioned to look up, check out this podcast by @Michael Quarles  Great for everyone but geared towards getting started. 

http://buysellfixflip.com/podcastitem/bsff-podcast-018-becoming-investor-first-steps/

[Morris Lucas]

@Garth Collins LOL you probably can't even sleep, huh? Dude, forget about that deal, start working on the next one now and keep marketing. If it goes through, great, but you wanna have 2 more in the pipe by the time the attorney calls you.

@Brandon Turner Thanks Brandon! Your podcasts with Josh are essential to every new investor. I am grateful for the community of power hitters here you guys have given us to lean on. I hope people understand that the free information and podcasts on this site are worth over $25,000....i will go into where i got that number some other time, lol

@de 

@Dev Horn Quit? What does that mean?? LOL thanks man, i forgot to list your posts as some of the ones that i read over and over in planning my marketing!

[Tavonte Battles]

congratulations man i agree with you it probably felt better knowing u got through your first deal and the profit made it sweeter but how did you come up with arv, what price did u and the seller agree on, did u have to put in any earnest money down im stil trying to understand this part of wholseling

[Morris Lucas]

Tavonte;

I was not strong in evaluating ARV...so i reached out to this site called Biggerpockets and got help.(hint, hint)

Partnered with more experienced agent/investor who walked me through this area and ran comps, etc. I negotiated with the seller for 70k over the phone; to my suprise, at the face to face meeting, the seller went down to 54,000! Signed contract right there, boom, done, closed 2 weeks later. Our buyer paid her earnest check for 1k, but we probably could have gave less, just a formality.

[Sharon Vornholt]

Congrats @Morris Lucas; now rinse and repeat.

[John Hixon]

@Morris Lucas congrats.  That's awesome