All Forum Posts by: Jeremy Beland

The holidays are a magical time, full of family gatherings, laughter, and... real estate deals? Yes, even during the festive season, the real estate world doesn’t take a break.

Let me share two stories that drive home the importance of acting quickly in this business.

The $40k Christmas Miracle: 

A few Christmas mornings ago, one of our rockstar team members, was enjoying some holiday downtime with his family. Then his phone rang. Most people would have ignored it—after all, it’s Christmas! But Dylan, knowing how fast-paced the real estate world can be, answered.

It was a distressed seller desperate to sell their home immediately. While many would hesitate to mix business with the holidays, Dylan didn’t skip a beat. The very next morning, he was at the seller’s property with a contract in hand. He locked in a deal that would later bring in a $40,000-$50,000 assignment fee.

Here’s the kicker: as Dylan was leaving, another investor pulled up to meet the seller—just minutes too late. Dylan’s willingness to act fast, even during the holidays, made all the difference.

The One That Got Away: 

More recently, we hired a new team member in the Port St. Lucie area. He was ambitious, eager, and ready to make his mark.

One Sunday evening, a lead came in. A motivated seller wanted to schedule a meeting. Instead of jumping on the opportunity, the rep decided to wait two days so he could bundle the appointment with another one he had nearby. After all, it was just 48 hours—how much could it really matter?
By Monday afternoon, another investor had already swooped in, met with the seller, and closed the deal. That two-day delay cost him a $40,000 payday.

The Lesson: Don’t Let Time Kill Your Deals
Real estate is a fast-paced industry, and time is the one resource you can’t afford to waste. Whether it’s Christmas morning or a regular weekday, acting quickly can be the difference between closing a deal and losing it to someone else.

The holidays often feel like a time to slow down and relax, but in real estate, urgency wins. The truth is, another investor is always just one phone call or email away from taking what could’ve been your deal.

So, as you navigate the season of celebration, keep this in mind:

- Be ready to act, even when it’s inconvenient.
- Every hour counts, especially with motivated sellers.
- Opportunities don’t wait—neither should you.

The holidays are about giving, but they’re also about recognizing opportunities and making the most of them. Dylan’s Christmas success story shows what’s possible when you respond with urgency, while the missed opportunity in Port St. Lucie serves as a cautionary tale.

As you celebrate this season, stay alert and ready. You never know when the next big opportunity will knock on your door—or ring your phone.

Happy holidays, and here’s to seizing every deal that comes your way! 🎄

@Johnny Lynum thanks for recognizing that. We always want to help if people let us. It was frustrating to see but that’s on them. Thanks for your comments and insight 

@Andrew Syrios @Jake Thorpe

We now know we can sell that property and make close to the same, if not more at times. Then keep the speed of money & time moving to make more money in the end. Live and learn.  And share your experiences to help others from the same mistakes. 

@Yixiong Pan something that I’ve had to learn along the way. Usually the harder way lol 

@Johnny Lynum we did offer them an aggressive cash for keys amount to get them out as soon as possible. We also offered to help them find new housing, relocate them for free and help in any other way we could. We would have preferred to work with them within reason to make it a quicker and easier process. However they made it clear that unless we would pay them something unreasonable, they weren’t leaving without a fight. Which is too bad because in the end, they left with nothing. 

@Greg Parker wow that’s crazy!  That may be a little too aggressive but I do enjoy landlord friendly states as opposed to the tenant friendly ones. It’s hard to fathom why they would give people like that 9 months and then force the landlord to pay for them to move and get storage on top of it too. Craziness 

I’m about to tell you about a deal that could have easily fallen apart, but instead turned into a $200k profit after a lengthy eviction process. This one came from Massachusetts, a state where the eviction laws are not in the landlord's favor. When the lead came in, it was from a brother who inherited a house from his mom. The brother and his son had been living in the house, free of charge, for years, and were gaming the system. The brother was fed up and needed to sell, but there was a significant issue. His brother (the squatter) wasn’t going to leave the property without a fight.

I showed up to the house with my acquisition guy, and things quickly got hostile. The nephew, who had been living there, was livid and started yelling at us to leave. This was the kind of situation where most people would turn around and walk away, but not us. We locked the property up for $240k knowing full well that we were in for a lengthy eviction process.

Massachusetts is one of the most tenant-friendly states, meaning that evictions take time—sometimes a lot of time. We figured it would take six months at least. In the end, it took us a full nine months to evict them.

But that’s not all. We also offered the squatter $10,000 for cash-for-keys, but they rejected it. They came back demanding $30,000, but we knew they weren’t going to accept anything. So, we decided to ride it out and go through the legal process. It was a long and expensive journey, but eventually, we won the court battle and were able to move them out.

After they were gone, we cleaned up the house and decided to list it as-is instead of flipping it. It turned out to be the right decision because we got an all-cash offer pretty quickly.

Once all was said and done, we netted $200k in profit. We managed to bring the property down in price, overcome objections, and navigate the eviction battle, and in the end, it paid off.

The key takeaway here is that if you’re a true cash buyer who can work with private lenders, you can survive long, drawn-out processes like this. Not every investor is willing to take on properties with these kinds of challenges, but if you can make it work, the rewards are huge. Many of our competitors would have walked away, leaving us with the upper hand.

If you have the right mindset and the right resources, properties that others shy away from can become some of your best deals.

Have you ever dealt with a property that took months to resolve? What was the longest eviction or difficult situation you’ve had to navigate?

Thanks for the shout out my friend! Your post is spot on. Stay true to the niche you’re currently focused on until you start to master it. Then add other tools (niches) to the tool belt. We all want to learn everything but that comes in time. We don’t want to find ourselves as a Jack of all trades and a master of none. Be patient and stay focused.  

@Jonathan Greene yes! Definitely hard pass on that. And you’re right, those doorknobs probably did end up in the trash. I never even thought of that. Lol 

In real estate, the biggest hurdles are often the ones you least expect—and sometimes, they’re as small as a crystal doorknob.

Back in 2019, a simple set of crystal doorknobs nearly cost us a $25,000 deal on a home on Burgess Street. The seller, who had inherited the home, wanted to sell and move in with her elderly father. But it wasn’t a smooth transaction. Her half-siblings, who felt she didn’t deserve the property, were dead set against the sale and refused to cooperate. Without their signatures, the deal was in jeopardy.

After some negotiation, her older sister agreed to sign, but she had one unusual condition: she wanted to keep the home’s vintage crystal doorknobs. It seemed a minor request, so I agreed without a second thought. But when I brought it up to the seller, she was adamant. “Those doorknobs stay with the house,” she insisted. Just like that, the entire deal was on the line.

I decided to try one more approach. I went back to the older sister and explained how the doorknobs would be part of the home’s charm for the next family, just as they had been for her. This time, she agreed, and the sale finally went through.

This experience reminded me how seemingly minor items can hold enormous sentimental weight. Sometimes, bridging these emotional gaps can be the key to closing a deal. In this case, we saved the transaction by understanding what mattered most to each party and finding a way forward.

What’s the most unique concession a seller has ever asked for in a deal?