All Forum Posts by: Blake Copeland

1B Net worth. Ya it is possible. As a matter of fact, the Forbes 400 is littered with people who started with no money whatsoever. Sam Zell, Kirk Kerkorian, David Murdock, Alex Spanos, Thomas Flatley, Jorge Perez, Sheldon Adelson, George Argyos, Roland Arnall, Ronald Burkle, Wayne Huizenga, and a whole bunch of others.

Someone posted earlier about Sam Zell. I highly admire him as well. He had $35 in his wallet when he was 23 years old. As of right now I think he's worth over $5Billion. Started with a small 3 unit building which he bought for no money down by exchanging management services for a cut of the deal. As of 2000 his companies owned over 220,000 units of apartments, and over 135 Million square feet of commercial real estate, this was all done in less than 40 years. Is it possible?? If you think it is, then it is.

Also look up Kirk Kerkorian and a guy named Philip Ruffin. Kirk dropped out of 8th grade, and now owns half of the casinos on the Las Vegas strip. Ruffin started out flat broke, now owns RE all over the country including 40 acres on Las Vegas Blvd. the list goes on and on.... A guy named Stephen Seigel is on his way, google him he bought his first apartment building in his 30's in 2001, flipped it a year later and made $4Million. Now his companies own 20 hotels, 3 casinos and a bunch of other stuff. Yes, it is possible..... will you have to sacrifice a lot? No doubt.... just depends how far you can go and how bad you want to know what can be accomplished.

But, what do I know. I'm not a billionaire just a 25 year old trying to duplicate what Sam Zell did, and so far I'm ahead of where he was. Hopefully it continues to stay that way.

So, I could pick up my 1/2 in cash up front OR when end buyer closes.... title Co sends me a check as if it were a regular deal w/ no other wholesaler involved right?

Something I have never dealt with but was wondering about when it comes to wholesaling is this......

Let's say I have a great deal under contract and stand to make over $15k or so on it. Let's say it isn't selling in my market so I turn to another wholesaler who has a HUGE buyers list, and I agree to split the deal if he sells it to someone on his list.

How could we do this transaction without him exposing who his buyer is?? I know a lot of people are very guarded and do not want others taking their buyers, because they will be cut out of the next transaction. How would you prevent this form happening? I have had wholesalers refuse to partner up because they were fearful of this happening where i might "steal their buyer"

Great post Douglas. I'm starting to really consider hiring a virtual assistant/ live operator for my toll free number inbound calls. Is there a specific company you recommend?

Have you had any luck outsourcing your leads to Realtors for a profit?

Someone told me something about a "Yellow Letter" they said it was really short just a small paragraph and supposedly it gets great response. Either that or a lot of people got suckered into buying this "yellow letter tempelate" lol

A high volume wholesaler friend of mine in Tampa, FL said to use SalesTeamLive. If you have the budget it may be worth it I guess.

What's a fast way to recruit a bunch of bird dogs? I figure we would need about 100 or so.

It would be cool to have a website where they can login and submit the leads. I wonder if there is a software program that does that?? If so I wanna hear about it! :) Anyone ever heard of such a system out there somewhere?

What are some of the top 3 ways that people on here are FINDING the motivated sellers in the first place? How are you making them call you? What type of marketing is most effective to get the phone ringing?

Thank you Jon! I should do a better job at gauging the sellers motivation level on the first phone call and move on then I guess.

Where does the deed of trust go after recorded? I mean the actual documents. I know in states which use deed of trusts there is the trustee who controls the foreclosure in the event of a default. I would assume they keep those documents??

Reason I ask is because I have a seller in TX who responded to one of my direct mailers. She will NOT discuss the loan and told me to figure it out on my own. Figured if I could get a hold of the prom. note I could see what's owed on the property or at least get a rough idea. Not sure of any other way to go about finding that info out....??

Seems like a lot of people at first just "get into" real estate because I think many (falsely) beleive that you will get fabulously wealthy in a short period of time. In most cases this just isn't true. Many of the individuals that I know who are financially successful in this business almost without exception went through a lot of trial and error and hard times before they really got their business up to speed and ran it like a system.

I agree with an earlier post that college education does not guarantee a successful financial future. I went to college, and I can say I learned A LOT more about finances, business, and economics from the 100+ books I have read at Barnes and Noble. It was also a much more affordable approach to getting educated as well.

I also think you have to enjoy what you are doing and be excited about doing real estate deals and everything that goes along with it or it's probably going to be a pain in the neck for you if you're not. Also, another thing that no school or person can teach you is to have a very strong belief in yourself and your abilities to overcome challenges. Desire and drive I guess you could say. That isn't something that is taught in school, but is really a huge part of acheiving huge goals in life. I have a friend who went and got his MBA and is set to inherit about $500,000 soon. He is lazy as can be though with no ambition. Despite his credentials and even cash reserves, I would bet that money will dissapear very quickly. He has no ambition to create something more, because he has no motivation and that is probably why he will do nothing extraordinary in the business world no matter how much money someone gives him.