How I got my first wholesale deal: Talk to People

Introduction: 

Hi BiggerPockets Peeps- 

Since it is my first blog post, I would like to start with a brief introduction of myself and how I got into the real estate field and then take you through the process of getting my first deal! 

Across your lifetime you will have many dreams and visions of your life. When I was 15 I knew that my life would never be to go to college, get a job, get married, buy a house, have kids, and work until I can retire. That was never going to be in my cards. I had a burning desire to help people while traveling the world! I did, however, get an associates degree and even tried out university for a couple of years where I did a study abroad in China. When I came back I found that taking classes I didn't want to take for a piece of paper and a boat load of student loans was never going to make me feel fulfilled. So, against my parents advice, I dropped out. 

And that's when the magic happened. That next week I joined a CrossFit Gym down the street and saw my future lay out in front of me. Since that day, I have become one of only a couple hundred Level 3 CrossFit coaches worldwide but more significantly I fulfilled my dream of traveling the world and helping others. I just spent the last 3 years of my life living in China and Thailand teaching hundreds of people how to move safely, and live healthier lives. I went to Korea, Japan, Cambodia, Laos, Phillipines, Thailand, China, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Panama, Argentina, Australia, Mexico, Canada...and a few more.

My boyfriend and I saved up quite a bit of money during that time, but the only problem was, when we stopped working....the money stopped coming in. That is why I am in real estate today. Our goal now is to make $10,000 in passive income through real estate and stock investments over the next 3.5 years so that we can travel the world without being shackled by money. So I started May 1st, 2017 doing wholesaling. 

Why Wholesaling? 

There were so many routes that I could go but I knew I needed to make fast cash to buy more investment properties. Also, It seemed like a low risk, high opportunity way of getting into the game. It so happened that my mom had a good friend here in Arizona who has been in the business for quite a while. He and his wife tasked me with the goal of getting my first wholesale deal in 30 days. They wanted me to start with a buyers list and from there try and find houses to match with the buyers -  but I will save how I found buyers for another blog post. 

The problem was, it took me 3 weeks to get 100 buyers on my list and I had not talked to a single seller or homeowner. I still didn't know how to find deals, how to talk with sellers, how to get them under contract- let alone what contract to use, or how to assign it to one of my investors. I basically had a lot of hungry investors and no food to give them. I began to feel frustrated. 

I ended up joining Brent Daniels and Dustin Monger's team at Offer Arizona, not because I didn't like my other team, but after I had been to their team meeting, I felt like a puzzle piece fell into place. Their motto is "talk to people" and they are known for doing a ridiculous amount of cold calls every year. I learned there that the more conversations we have directly translates into how many deals we do. 

Direct Mail

This is where my first deal comes from. There are essentially three parts to wholesaling -  finding the leads, seller interactions, and the assignment of the purchase contract. I will not dive into the details on each of these steps, I just want to say that there is a learning curve for each step and because I am still fairly new, I am super thankful to my team for allowing me to focus solely on speaking with sellers while feeling confident in my teams ability to provide good leads and have reliable buyers to assign the contract to. 

Anyway, I began with a direct mail campaign, sending 15k pieces of mail to homeowners each week. My only task was to answer the phone when it rings. So, I did! What happened next was incredible. In that first week starting the mailer campaign, I answered the phone and took down some information about the house condition and seller situation. The house was currently vacant and needed some work. The homeowner explained that he had another house his family was living in and wanted to pay the mortgage off so he could be free and clear and not pay any more interest to the bank. After getting some information on the general condition of the home, I sent it over to Dustin who runs the numbers on all of the properties. That same day I gave an offer on the home, went to the sellers property, took photos, negotiated price and within two weeks had closed and been paid for my first deal. 

It all happened so fast, I thought to myself - I hope every transaction is this smooth! In the following two months, I have learned that it is very rarely that quick and simple. It typically takes 30 days to close and not every seller is always ready to sell on the first call. I now have had hundreds of conversations and 5 deals under my belt and I am only 2 months in from starting the mailer campaign.

Patience, Passion, Perserverance and Talk to People

I learned from my high school tennis coach that to be great at anything, you need to have three things: patience, passion, and perseverance. We all need to allow ourselves the time it takes to learn. It took me 3 years to develop a muscle up in CrossFit. Was it because I didn't have the desire or persistence to keep practicing? No! It was because I had to wait for my muscles and ligaments to become strong enough to pull my body weight up and over the rings. Once I was strong enough, I then had to figure out the timing to transition from under to on top. But without a burning desire to succeed, you will be waiting a long time for success. Everyday we must take a step towards our goals, even if the path proves more difficult than expected.  I talk to hundreds of people each month, and believe it or not - a lot of them aren't happy that we send them mail looking to buy their houses. You wouldn't believe how many times people call just to yell at me over a piece of mail. But I keep pushing forward. Why? Because I know that I'm just one conversation away from financial freedom. 

The next conversation could be the one! Get out there and Talk to People (TTP). 

Allie