I have been reluctant to post my story but, what the heck, here it is.
The Original adventure:
in 2013 I went to a seminar, won't mention who's, this seminar was very informative, when you weren't being sold on something, and I was so pumped on wholesaling from this that I couldn't contain myself. I immediately went out and bought signs, I put up ads on craigslist, I made a Facebook page, I did everything I could think of to start getting leads. and IT PAID OFF, or so I thought. I found a couple of houses, I went on the appointments, I made a couple of offers, and i got one accepted.
The Property:
This house was an amazing looking 2 story 3500 SQFT house in a great area. 4 bed 3 bath with 2 masters, one down stairs and one up stairs. But, this is where my inexperience hurt me, I over valued the house at 450K, I under valued the repairs, and I put the house under contract MUCH higher than I should.
The Quest for a buyer:
Naturally, the people I was trying to sell this to were not buying the property, at what i had the property listed at, nobody was calling, the people that were calling were telling me that they couldn't offer more than 15K less than I had it under contract for. So, I went back to the sellers and tried to negotiate it lower, no dice, The amount i got it for was exactly what they owed on it and they couldn't afford to bring money to closing in order to pay the note off. At this point, I only had a week left on the contract, I told them I needed some more time to try and fund the deal, they agreed and gave me a 15 day extension on the contract. I thought, in my inexperienced brain, that this time extension would fix the price problem. I kept looking and looking and couldn't find anyone to even make a couple hundred on this deal.
The Dismal realization:
After 45 days under contract and nobody even coming close, I came to the realization that, this deal was not going to go through. I called the sellers, informed them and apologized for not being able to get the deal to go through. I let them know what my problems had been and let them know that if anyone contacted me about the property and I knew the deal would go through, I would contact them back.
The Aftermath:
Needless to say, this was a huge hit to my Ego, motivation and enthusiasm. With all my preparation, I failed to prepare myself to not have immediate success and possibly fail. After this, I stopped consistently marketing, I stopped really looking for deals and I really just stopped. Not wanting to have that happen again, I just sunk back into my full time job and told myself i tried and failed and that I was too busy at my job to continue.
The Fire Reignites
I have a tradition. Each year on my birthday, I reflect on what I have done that year and figure out what I did to better myself and how I am different from the previous year. Well in 2014 I realized that I had not bettered myself financially. I had a small promotion at my job but, that wasn't going to help me reach my goals. I looked back and I said, I have to start wholesaling again. I was still monitoring Facebook and seeing people with success stories. I knew it was possible. I just needed to kick myself in the butt and make myself do it.
The Second Act
This time I was on fire. I created my LLC in June "A home above properties LLC" (give me a like on Facebook =)) I ordered 50 signs, I paid someone to put them out for me, I sent out a mailer, to a very good list. And I started to get calls. i mean the phone was ringing off the hook. I was still working my full time job and, simply did not have time to answer all of these calls. Or go on the appointments. Then my phone rang, and on the other end was @JPaul Mills . Jpaul had seen one of my signs in Navarre and he wanted to get started wholesaling. Well, since i knew about the business and the technical side and he knew about sales and talking to people, we decided to work together as JV partners. Both having our own company names and keeping our finances separate but, we split everything 50/50.
The realization of SUCCESS
not log after we met, we got our first couple of house under contract. In August we closed our first deal for a combined profit of $10,000. I was ecstatic. a week after that, we closed our next deal for another $10,000 in combined profit, man was I pumped. And even though none of the deals were easy, there was always a hangup in something, clouded titles, closing appointment delays, and of course, your third party objectors that sellers think are trying to help them, we ended 2014 doing 9 deals and making roughly $62,000 in combined profit.
The Now
Now we are both full time. I moved into a great 3 bed 2 bath rental that I am loving and have much more time to spend with my girlfriend of 3.5 years. Jpaul is getting to spend more time with his kids and his wife.
This business has created more opportunities for us and faster than anything I could have ever expected. We are working on a rehab deal and are constantly answering the phone and getting new leads for wholesales.
In case you couldn't find it or, you just didn't feel like reading the whole thing ( I know I am long winded) the moral of this story is that if at first you don't succeed, Try, try, try again. Do not get discouraged if you have a deal fall through just put your head down and plow through it.
