All Forum Posts by: Jeremy Beland

In the world of real estate wholesaling, there’s always a lesson to be learned. One of the most important is knowing when to stand firm and not let a buyer dictate the terms of your deal—especially when you know you have a good one on your hands. Let me share a recent experience from the fall of 2023 that proves this point.

We had an off-market single-family property under contract in Massachusetts. Everything was moving smoothly as we marketed the deal to our buyer list. After some negotiation, we assigned the property to a buyer for a $35,000 assignment fee—about average for our business. It was set to be a great deal.

But, as often happens in real estate, complications arose. There was an issue with probate that needed to be resolved, which caused a significant delay. What was supposed to be a relatively quick process ended up stretching throughout the entire winter. Meanwhile, the buyer remained patient, saying he was willing to wait. We were hopeful everything would resolve itself.

Finally, in March of 2024, we got the green light. The probate was cleared, and we were ready to close. Excited to move forward, we reached out to the buyer to let him know the good news.

Here’s where things got tricky.

The buyer came back to us with a curveball. He claimed that the market had changed since the fall of 2023 and that he could no longer go through with the original deal unless we reduced the assignment fee by $15,000. His argument? The market wasn’t as strong as it had been when we first agreed to terms, and he needed the discount to make it work.

Now, I know my market. His claim was simply untrue. In fact, the market had improved by the spring of 2024. But he was trying to pull a classic move—waiting until the last moment to pressure us into lowering our fee, thinking that we’d be desperate to close and agree to his terms.

But here’s the thing: We weren’t.

Instead of giving in to his renegotiation tactics, we told him no. We canceled the contract, returned his earnest money deposit, and put the property back on the market. We listed it on the MLS and marketed it to our cash buyers again.

The results? Massive interest. In just a week, we had multiple offers, all well over the original buyer’s price. To put it in perspective, we initially had the property under contract for around $145,000 and planned to assign it for $35,000. After canceling, we received offers above $200,000.The winning offer? $240,000, with a close in just 10 days.

In the end, we went from a potential $20,000 assignment (after the buyer’s renegotiation) to a whopping $90,000 assignment fee. That’s an extra $70,000, all because we didn’t settle for less and allowed the buyer to dictate the terms.

Key Takeaways:

• Don’t settle for less: Just because a buyer tries to leverage you into a lower fee doesn’t mean you have to accept. If you know you have a good deal, stand your ground.
• There are always more buyers: Don’t feel like you’re at the mercy of one buyer. Buyers are a dime a dozen, especially when you’re marketing a great deal. If one buyer doesn’t want to pay what it’s worth, someone else will.
• Know your market: If the market truly shifts and a buyer’s concerns are valid, it’s reasonable to adjust. But if a buyer is simply trying to squeeze you, trust your knowledge and move forward with confidence.

This deal turned out to be a home run for us. It’s a great reminder that staying firm on your terms can pay off big. Always keep in mind the value of your hard-earned contracts, and don’t let a buyer push you into a corner. It’s your deal—don’t let anyone else control it!

Hey @Nicholas Foutz,

I'm sorry it took so long to reply. It's best to get connected so I can better explain and help you. There's a few things. 7 cash buyers isn't enough. You want 150+ just on your first deal. You'll find deals off market. Not on Redfin or the mls. You need to set up marketing to find these leads which takes time and money. As far as evaluating. It starts with knowing the ARV. From there, if you can find the house that needs basic rehab and lock it up for around 50-60% of that ARV, then you'll do just fine most the time. Join my Facebook group "off market REI freedom fighters" and we can connect there. I'll provide you more help.

Thanks so much @Drago Stanimirovic.  I most certainly will. 

I’m not just talking about good deals. I mean TRULY great Off-Market deals. The kind of deals that make other investors wonder how you’re always one step ahead. The kind of deals that build your reputation for consistently unearthing the cream of the crop.

You might think it takes insider connections or secret strategies. But the truth is, you only need two things:𝗣𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 and 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲

Persistence to follow up for 1, 3, even 10 years if necessary. You’ve got to be willing to stay in touch with sellers who aren’t ready today but might be down the road. Great deals don’t always happen overnight—they require consistent, strategic outreach.

And patience to know that some of those follow-ups won’t turn into deals for 1, 3, or 10 years. It’s easy to get discouraged if your efforts don’t pay off right away, but staying the course is what separates the good from the great.

This is exactly what Shelly and I did in New Hampshire. We stayed in touch with sellers, following up with them even when they weren’t ready to sell.

We listened to their concerns, stayed present, and maintained relationships for years. Eventually, we found ourselves being the first call when they were ready to make a move.

We didn’t rush them, we didn’t push for the sale, we stayed patient and persistent—and when the time was right, those long-standing relationships turned into deals that no one else in the market knew about.

This approach not only led to deals but also built our reputation. In time, people started coming to us, trusting that we were the ones who would handle their property with care, respect, and expertise.

The result?

We established NH Home Buyers as the go-to deal makers in New Hampshire, known for consistently finding off-market gems. It’s about playing the long game, building relationships, and becoming a trusted resource in your market.

If you stay persistent and patient, you can do the same.

Back in 2022, we tackled a property we affectionately called the "Scary House," and trust me, it lived up to the name. The home was in rough shape—think mold, a hole in the roof, and years of water damage. The owner, a family member of one of our buyers, inherited the property through probate, but they weren’t equipped to handle the renovation.

The house had been left in disrepair for quite some time, with the previous owner struggling with mental health issues. It was one of the toughest properties we've encountered. But after working with the family, we purchased it for $42,000 and got to work.

We had some unique challenges, like dealing with one of the heirs who wasn’t very cooperative and required a payoff to sign the paperwork we needed for clear title. We learned a lot from this project.

Looking back, if I knew then what I know now, I would have handled it differently. Instead of flipping the house, I should have wholesaled it—cleaning it out and listing it for another investor to take on the renovation. The project took 6-7 months, and while we made $143,585 when we sold the house for $560,000, we could have made close to the same amount in a few weeks with less hassle.

The big takeaway? Not every house is meant to be flipped by us. For bigger, more complex projects, it’s better for our business to wholesale them to other investors. We’re focusing more on quick flips that match our strengths and allow us to continue delivering value to the community.

This post is a reminder that every project teaches us something, and we’re always learning to better serve our buyers and sellers. If you’re dealing with a tough property, let’s talk. We’ve got the experience and empathy to help navigate even the trickiest situations. 

@Max Ferguson I know it’s crazy!  We are almost in the 4th quarter of our 8th year and my 5th year leaving my W2. Time certainly flies by. 

Here is a picture of some shirts hanging up at a gym. They have always motivated me. Why?

Back in the early days of starting my wholesaling business in 2017 and 2018, I would see these shirts every morning at the gym. My company was only a couple of years old at that time, and I was still working a full-time job (working two full-time jobs, really).These are the shirts of men who have to get dressed for work for the day, going into the office from 9 to 5, so to speak.

At that time, I was one of those men putting on a shirt and tie. I had been doing it for almost 20 years, and I didn’t want to do it anymore. Seeing these shirts every morning was a huge motivating factor for me to continue to work hard to build our real estate investing business and pursue our dream. I printed and hung up that picture as motivation to keep pushing toward the dream of breaking free from that reality. 

Less than a year after I took this picture (which I printed out and hung up on my bathroom mirror so I could see it every night before bed, and then see the real thing at the gym every morning), I quit my job and have never worn a shirt and tie since. I have never gone into an office for a challenging boss again.

Seeing this picture now, years later, after reaching that milestone still incredibly motivates me to keep going and striving for even greater heights—not just for me, but for my entire team. I want the same for all of us.

So, yeah, just a picture of shirts hanging up at the gym. But to me, it's not just a picture of shirts. Find your motivation for your goals and use it as fuel to work toward them every single day until you reach them and surpass them.

Thanks for your comment @Michael K Gallagher

We all have leads like this in our database and they are usually lost by not having a good follow up system. I wanted to share that some of the best deals take a long time to come to fruition. 

In early 2020, we received a lead that quickly turned into one of the craziest situations we've ever encountered. A husband and wife were caught in a volatile situation—he ended up in jail, then came back out, and their home became a battleground of chaos. But we saw potential in the deal and kept this lead in our follow-up database for nearly FOUR YEARS.

Fast forward to December 2023, the wife, now with a restraining order in place and court approval to sell, decided to let go of the house she could no longer afford. She sold it to us at a significant discount due to years of deferred maintenance—broken doors, heaps of junk, and more. Here’s where it gets wild: right before the holidays, we not only closed on the house but also helped her move into an extended stay hotel. We fronted the money for her stay, which she later repaid at closing.

Our team sprang into action immediately. We cleared out mountains of clutter, pressure washed the exterior, and tackled endless repairs. We replaced floors, repainted every inch of the interior, and fixed everything that needed attention. Our total investment? Around $45,000 in repairs.

By late January to early February, we had the property back on the market. The response was overwhelming—within 48 hours, we received a cash offer well over asking price with no inspection and no contingencies. We closed the deal within 60 to 75 days, walking away with just under $100,000 in net profit after all expenses. This wild ride underscores the power of relentless follow-up and the hidden gold in every lead. It took almost four years and navigating through a rollercoaster of events, but the payoff was massive.

There’s more money sitting in your database than you realize.

**Stage 1 - Beginner Wholesaler**

From 2017 to 2018, I was just getting used to the ropes. Although I had a background in sales, speaking with distressed sellers was a completely different experience—one that requires a lot of patience and empathy. Through coaching with Tom Krol, I learned how to get a deal under contract and sell to a cash buyer. I kept repeating the process and slowly but surely started seeing some traction. By the end of my first year, I'd completed 10 deals and earned $73k.

In 2018, I stumbled upon Todd Toback and his acquisition skills models. That was a pivotal moment in my journey, allowing me to achieve better conversions at my appointments and helping me reach 24 deals and over $250k in my second year. By the end of my third year, I had a legitimate business and a team. I was able to quit my 9-to-5 job and focus on this full-time. I was all in!

**Stage 2 - Advanced Wholesaler**

In early 2019, I learned a hard lesson that made me pivot the business. I realized that I was slowly turning into a "Cash Buyer Employee," relying on a few cash buyers to take my deals—mostly due to speed and the certainty of them closing. Unfortunately, this often came at a big discount. As a result, my profit decreased as buyers began negotiating for lower assignment fees, using the leverage they had developed. I became the motivated seller, selling my contracts at a discount. I knew I had to make a change.

In early 2019, I transitioned to leveraging the MLS instead of only relying on the cash buyers list. This allowed us to get many eyes on the property, which was a game-changer. My assignment fees nearly doubled overnight, going from $20k per deal to $35k on average.

Shortly after that, in April 2019, I learned about private lending through Chris Naugle’s Private Lending Masterclass and started implementing it. We did our first flip in 2018, but we completed several more in 2019, and the pace really picked up. We hired our first acquisition sales rep, Eddie, in July 2019.

Going into 2020, we expanded into new markets, including Western New York, Wichita, KS, and Las Vegas. While Kansas and Las Vegas had mixed success, Western New York experienced great success. 

From 2020 to 2022, we continued leveraging the MLS, added private lending, and expanded our exit strategies to include wholetails, novations, and double closes, along with flips and BRRRs. These strategies faced little competition and made us stronger in acquisitions, allowing us to commit to sellers and contracts with more certainty than ever before.

**Stage 3 - Off-Market Acquisition Specialist**

The new business model really exploded our sales, and we continued growing into 2023 and beyond. We went from making an average of $7.3k per deal in 2017 to $35k per deal in 2019, sometimes hitting home runs of $70k, $80k, and $90k in profits—more often than we could have imagined.

We also started building a team, hiring Acquisition Managers to meet with distressed seller leads. We expanded to new markets, bringing on Dan Toback to lead a new division in Florida.

At the beginning of 2023, we ended our successful journey in Western New York, replaced it with Florida, and despite the challenging times with record-high interest rates, we were still able to complete 78 deals between our Florida and NH markets. 

2024 continues to bring its own challenges, forcing us to grow and improve. As we wrap up our eighth year in this business and have seen many people come and go during that time, I can’t help but feel thankful for the success we have achieved and the fact that we are still here, with a rock star team working to get better every day. 

We plan to finish 2024 strong and head into 2025 (our ninth year) with hopes of achieving even bigger and better success.

Consistency and perseverance are key to success in this business. Don’t quit—keep pushing.