This is an article I wrote for Realty411 after the owner reached out to me and asked me to write on Motivation and Mindset. The video interview I did with Propelio.com is also attached which goes a little more in depth on how I went from literally $0 to my first deal.
April 4th, 2017, I closed on my first rehab. Awesome, right? Well, let’s rewind time a bit. December 19th, 2015, I drove to Dallas with my two beautiful daughters, a trailer full of personal belongings, $0 in the bank, and a vision.
I came to Texas, got my Real Estate license and went to work. I had high hopes, just as any new Real Estate Agent does. I was going to just step into an industry in a city I’ve never done business in and crush it. Wrong. In fact, I didn’t close much of anything for quite some time. I was doing everything right. I had the website, the CRM, office time, cold-calling figured out, and I was sending out postcards!
Reality quickly set in: being a realtor ISN’T easy! While I tried to make a footprint as a Realtor®, I got more and more interested in rehabbing and flipping houses. Around that time, I heard about a strategy called Wholesaling. The “get-rich-quick” in Real Estate method, right? The “no experience, no money” method to getting rich! I was hooked. I bought all the right books, I listened to countless hours of podcasts, and I just about googled everything related to Wholesaling. Alright, so I understand the concept now. But, I was asking myself these questions: “How do I set it up?” “How do I find the leads?” “Where do I find the investors to buy it from me?”
The simplest answers to all of these questions fell within my network of people I had stitched together over time. By this time, it was June 2016. I was going to every single Real Estate Networking Meetup and Weekend Guru Event I could find that was free. I listened and took notes, a lot of notes. I was on a mission.
At one of the events I attended, the speaker (who had provided an incredible amount of content up until that point) said to the audience, “9 out of 10 of you won’t take ACTION.” This was fuel to my fire and all the motivation I needed to continue on my mission. I was dead set on not being one of those 9. I went home, bought a domain, paid the extra $15 for the website builder, put in a lead capture form, and went to work. Now I was official. I added my website link to all of my mailers to pre-foreclosures and probates, as well as in my Facebook posts. Facebook? Yes, Facebook works. In fact, my first and largest wholesale came from a Facebook post.
So, now I have the know-how, the website, and I have letters going out. For a few months, I JV'd on a couple wholesales until I landed my first direct to seller lead. I owe a lot of my fine-tuning and knowledge to "The Corey's" in my office at the time. They walked me through my first couple and answered all of my (many) questions.
Fast forward to January 2017 when I got a lead off of Facebook (yep, Facebook again) from a seller who is behind on payments. She paid cash for her house when it was new back in 2006. I ended up contracting the house the same day that the phone call came in. Principle balance was $38k and ink’d it at $63k so that the owner could walk away with a sizeable check to put her life back together. After a couple of phone calls, I had an investor out the next day to take a look and he wanted the property at $105k. My investor buyer gave me the assignment agreement he wanted to use and went on to complete title and close.
I had just seen the biggest payday I had ever had and I was able to get a seller out a bad situation by preventing her foreclosure. I was ecstatic! I needed to do it again. I needed to dedicate my time to stopping foreclosures.
I found a local company named Propelio providing leads to investors and I began to mail to all their lists; Foreclosures, Probates, Affidavits of Heirship and NOD's. I send postcards to my Foreclosures and NOD's, while I send letters to the others. I hired my go-getter daughters to fold, label, stuff and stamp my letters for me. Now, I've got Facebook posts and roughly 100 mailers going out daily. I felt the pieces coming together and I was more thrilled than ever!
Roughly three weeks later, I stopped another and wholesaled it to a Subject-To investor. Another 2-3 weeks later and I have a VA loan on my hands. I was scared; this guy worked his tail off for this and I was 1 of 4 other investors making offers. I knew the payoff, I knew this family needed money, I knew the other investors' strategies, and I had to do something differently. This family was in trouble, no money, losing their house, and had bad credit. So, I offered $2,500 cash after payoff and paid for 6 months of credit repair for them. Ink'd it, closed it, and found hard money within my network of people to fund it. They chose me out of the 4 investors because I built a relationship with them. I talked to them...about life, about money, and about how I wanted to help them.
Now, I’m 2 weeks into my first rehab and I’m on track to finish in under 6 weeks and nearly $10k under budget. I’m not where I ultimately want to be, but I’m on the right path. I came to Texas with a vision, a mission really, to provide for my family and help as many people as I can along the way. I came, I learned, and I took action. Don’t forget: If you aren’t making offers, you will never make a deal! Cheat on your fears, break up with your doubt, and never stop pursuing your dreams with a relentless passion.
This first rehab is actually about to close on Aug. 11th, where I will be making a NET profit of around $30k(final numbers haven't been ran)
2nd flip is underway in which I partnered with a friend on the capital end while I do some labor and managing.
3rd deal is in title and set to close on the 21st, which I will fund with hard money from the proceeds on the first deal.
YouTube link to my Propelio interview: https://youtu.be/Cq29H4_xgJ0
If you've got deals, money, advice, or need guidance, feel free to reach out! I do my best to always be available for questions. Find me on FB at Facebook.com/brandon.richards1212
