5 Things I Learned My 1st Year Wholesaling

While 2015 was no stand out year in terms of revenue or volume of deals for my business, it was definitely key in gaining valuable first-hand experience and setting the foundation for my investing career. As a junior in college at the time, my biggest challenge was finding time between classes, exams, and collegiate sports, to run my wholesaling operation. That being said, I feel confident I utilized my time to get the most out of my experience during my first year of entrepreneurship. It has easily been the best learning experience of my life (I wish I would have found BP before applying to college) and I have undoubtedly grown tremendously as a business professional.

Here are five key concepts that I’ve learned one must do to be a truly successful wholesaler:

1. Manage your Time

Without the skill of time management, a wholesaler can really lose out on a lot of business. Not to mention the money they will lose from wasted opportunity. I learned this the hard way. When I started out, I was sending direct mail everywhere across my market. I had no schedule organized so I was not making calls everyday, not following up, and even missing a few appointments because I was so disorganized. Not a good way to run a business. Eventually, I pulled it together and now map out every 15 minutes of every day the night before in preparation.

2. Be Consistent

Consistency ties in with my first point. If you are not consistent as a wholesaler, you will never have lasting success and your business will likely fold (or you will waste a ton of marketing dollars). I also learned this lesson the hard way. I didn't realize the importance of getting back to potential sellers the day of their initial call. I would sometimes even wait a couple of days to contact the sellers back. One time, I had a very hot lead with a spread of roughly 10K in the deal. I didn’t get back to that seller for a couple days for whatever reason and they had sold it to another investor. I was extremely upset with myself. From then on, I made a vow to get back to every seller the same day they call. Without consistency, you’ll never have any momentum to get to the next level.

3. Know Your Numbers

Whether you're determining the After Repair Value, overall cost of repairs, or your max offer, it’s absolutely imperative you know your numbers. When I first started, I was pretty lazy with my numbers. When I went on seller appointments, I presented them with a rough ballpark and in a lot of cases, I got absolutely schooled. I was not prepared for negotiation, I just thought they would accept the offer I presented. I didn’t have any justification for the offers I was making and I looked foolish. Very naive. To be a viewed as professional and credible (especially when you’re younger), you must know all of your numbers better than the seller.

4. Be Confident

Confidence took a while for me to develop, but I learned the fastest way to build confidence is to take action and talk to as many sellers as fast as possible. The faster you fail, the faster you will start saying the right things, asking the right questions, and making deals happen. Without confidence, people will look at you as less of a professional and won’t want to work with you. Why would someone sell you their house if they were skeptical as to whether you could deliver on your promise to purchase their property or not? They wouldn’t. Personally, I read a lot of self-development books on confidence and practiced their exercises as much as I could. Whatever it took to get to the point where I would feel comfortable talking to sellers, I made sure to do.

5. Speak the Language

Speaking the language of real estate ties in with a couple of my previous points. To be considered competent, you need to know the terms of the business. If the seller asks you what happens after you sign the purchase agreement and you cannot explain the process, you’ve killed the deal. Just like in any business, you must have the technical knowledge to be successful. While wholesaling is not exactly rocket science, you should know it inside and out if you want to have a shot at closing deals. Learn the terms and get this stuff branded in your memory as fast as possible. It will pay off. I listened to every BP podcast on wholesaling to gain the knowledge and confidence to close deals.

Conclusion

Hopefully, these key focal points can help you to get started in real estate wholesaling. It’s definitely hard work, but if you put the time in consistently and often, it is well worth it. Once you have put in the time and you have your lead pipeline consistently full, it will be much easier, but you have to start somewhere. By taking action now, you will be on your way to becoming a professional real estate wholesaler with tons of momentum and unwavering confidence. Best of luck!