Quit My Job and Plan to Wholesale
Flipper/Rehabber · Baltimore, MD · Member since 2018 · 265 posts · 387 votes
Hi All! I had to share. Against all conventional advice and wisdom, I've just quit my job. My fiance's job brings enough for us to cover are needed expenses and I have about a year's worth of savings built up on top of that. I have not done any deals yet but am planning to get into wholesaling ASAP. Just wanted to share. I'm going all in!
What was your job?
Im always so confused by these, at what point did your job prevent you from doing a deal? Was it not possible to do both?
I guess depending on what the job was then maybe that plays into it some...but curious of the thought process on this..
@Melanie Hartmann good for you. I don’t think you owe anyone a explanation. I’m pretty sure you and your husband thought this out. I can’t see you just quoting your job with children while never really thinking things out. Most people will criticize you for the faith that they don’t possess. I pray all goes well.
God bless you.
Thank you Hasan! I did have a general idea but not a solid plan. However, I would NOT recommend to anyone else that they leave a steady job to do this until they've closed a few deals first and have more in the pipeline.
There are a lot of gurus out there showing off big checks. They often provide just enough information for it to "make sense" but not enough to actually help. It is not fun getting started when your main focus is, "How will the bills get paid after our savings runs out?"
I too would be and am a Naysayer of what I did. That being said, I do NOT regret that decision as its led me to where I am today and where I'll be heading tomorrow.
@Jerryll Noorden - I'll be SEOing straight to the top! Am I right, or am I right?!?
@Melanie Hartmann good for you. I don’t think you owe anyone a explanation. I’m pretty sure you and your husband thought this out. I can’t see you just quoting your job with children while never really thinking things out. Most people will criticize you for the faith that they don’t possess. I pray all goes well.
God bless you.
Thank you Hasan! I did have a general idea but not a solid plan. However, I would NOT recommend to anyone else that they leave a steady job to do this until they've closed a few deals first and have more in the pipeline.
There are a lot of gurus out there showing off big checks. They often provide just enough information for it to "make sense" but not enough to actually help. It is not fun getting started when your main focus is, "How will the bills get paid after our savings runs out?"
I too would be and am a Naysayer of what I did. That being said, I do NOT regret that decision as its led me to where I am today and where I'll be heading tomorrow.
@Jerryll Noorden - I'll be SEOing straight to the top! Am I right, or am I right?!?
Not just SEO'ing. Aren't you closing on several deals soon? Look how far you have come my silly lil greenhopper... or was it grasflocker?!
@Melanie Hartmann good for you. I don’t think you owe anyone a explanation. I’m pretty sure you and your husband thought this out. I can’t see you just quoting your job with children while never really thinking things out. Most people will criticize you for the faith that they don’t possess. I pray all goes well.
God bless you.
Thank you Hasan! I did have a general idea but not a solid plan. However, I would NOT recommend to anyone else that they leave a steady job to do this until they've closed a few deals first and have more in the pipeline.
There are a lot of gurus out there showing off big checks. They often provide just enough information for it to "make sense" but not enough to actually help. It is not fun getting started when your main focus is, "How will the bills get paid after our savings runs out?"
I too would be and am a Naysayer of what I did. That being said, I do NOT regret that decision as its led me to where I am today and where I'll be heading tomorrow.
@Jerryll Noorden - I'll be SEOing straight to the top! Am I right, or am I right?!?
Not just SEO'ing. Aren't you closing on several deals soon? Look how far you have come my silly lil greenhopper... or was it grasflocker?!
haha, true story. 3 closings next month or the month after - just got word one of the title companies is terribly slow... won't be using them again if they ruin this one or make it more difficult. So many people use/prefer them too... such a shame and I don't understand why. Anyway...
I received another signed contract in my inbox today and a few more sellers we are actively in negotiations with, with many more in the pipeline. I think it may be time to invest in a wall board for our deals now!
2 of the deals we are closing - our first contact with those owners was over 10 months ago. So FOLLOW-UP - you may just be closing on their property a year after first contact! And who are they going to trust when they are finally ready to sell? Random Joe Shmo they've only spoken to once, or the lovely person who has met with them and checks-in periodically to see how things are going? You already know the answer to that one
I can't wait to rank #1 on Google next year and dominate our market!
@Melanie Hartmann
Congrats and I say go for the gusto!!! Just Curious tho if you have a year worth of savings and your husband can cover the expenses why not take your money and just get a property try your hands with the brrr strategy???
@Melanie Hartmann
Congrats and I say go for the gusto!!! Just Curious tho if you have a year worth of savings and your husband can cover the expenses why not take your money and just get a property try your hands with the brrr strategy???
Excellent question! I had been actively looking to purchase a rental property for almost a year before I decided to leave my career. However, I never found one that fit my criteria (yes, I was being very picky). Eventually, I discovered the idea of acquiring off-market properties and how to market to sellers who may be interested in selling below market value in exchange for speed and convenience. After that discovery, I decided to jump in full-time. In this most recent fiscal year, I made comparable to the amount I made in the last year of my career (worked way harder though). However, since we've invested most of our profits back into the business we have a lot more growing planned for 2020!
Happy New Year!
As an update, it took me quite a while to know very little about this wholesaling business to close my first deal (almost 6 months to the day) and several more months after that until things became more consistent.
We're now averaging 1 to 2 wholesale deals a month these past few months primarily from cold-calling. Most of these are closing from follow-ups. We're onto our second investment property and I can tell you, it's not going well. I'm having to fire the contractor and essentially start over from scratch. We're right in the middle of trying to correct course and see if that's even possible because in all likelihood the prior contractor provided completely bogus numbers.
Hopefully by this week we'll have a better idea of what reasonable next steps are but flipping is a risk for sure. I'm writing about it in our house-flipping blog. This blog can be found on my profile but it will be further detailing my journey of building a house-buying company and how I've grown along the way.
I can hands down say I am NOT the same person I was when I posted the first post of this forum. It has taken a lot of growing to overcome the fear and obstacles that come with doing something as crazy as leaving a relatively steady career to being self-employed and doing something you've never done before.
Even with the major headache and heartache I currently find myself in, I do not regret it as a whole. It has been the single greatest decision I have ever made. I'm just bracing myself for worst case scenario until I get some real numbers and plans in place.
Thankfully, I've usually been able to quickly weed out the bad and surround myself with good people but occasionally one still slips in, such as the last contractor I hired for my current flip project.
It's not all fun and games, but it's certainly worth the ride!
GO MELANIE!!!
You know it Tony! haha! Closed our first deal together in December 2019! Many more to come in 2020!
Wait, what? Yes, my friends and naysayers, look who's got an article published about her and her journey into building a company that buys houses in Baltimore, MD on Medium.com! This gal right here.
@Jerryll Noorden - thank you for seeing the potential in me over a year ago (when so many others didn't) and encouraging it to grow and grow. Looking forward to watching both of our businesses grow and using those profits to do good in the world. Let's get it!
P.S. Who's website is ranking on Page 1 and 2 of Google for hot keywords in her market? This gal! Don't believe me, go ahead and search the following "We Buy Houses Maryland" (page 1) and "We Buy Houses Baltimore" (page 2). Yes, it bounces, so it might be the top of page 2 or the top of page 3, but we're there! And Once I hit the #1 spot there will be no stopping me!
Wait, what? Yes, my friends and naysayers, look who's got an article published about her and her journey into building a company that buys houses in Baltimore, MD on Medium.com! This gal right here.
@Jerryll Noorden - thank you for seeing the potential in me over a year ago (when so many others didn't) and encouraging it to grow and grow. Looking forward to watching both of our businesses grow and using those profits to do good in the world. Let's get it!
P.S. Who's website is ranking on Page 1 and 2 of Google for hot keywords in her market? This gal! Don't believe me, go ahead and search the following "We Buy Houses Maryland" (page 1) and "We Buy Houses Baltimore" (page 2). Yes, it bounces, so it might be the top of page 2 or the top of page 3, but we're there! And Once I hit the #1 spot there will be no stopping me!
And you deserve it.
You have been following my every instruction to the T. Soon you will be at #1. Then the fun starts happening!
Then you build a solid team. Hire people and watch the money flow in!
Hey @Melanie Hartmann thanks for sharing your story. Was curious about any updates on ur career.
@Melanie Hartmann Congratulations, where are you located ?
@Melanie Hartmann I'm reading this a few years behind, but I absolutely love this. I would have advised against posting originally because, as you saw, most people try to discourage unconventional ideas, but I'm glad you didn't listen to them.
10 years ago, I quit my full-time job immediately after my wife and I got married to build a software company. Her job covered our expenses. EVERYONE besides my wife discouraged me from quitting and thought I was crazy. I sold that company six years later for 7 figures. I would have never had the freedom I have now without taking that leap.
You took a calculated risk, and you're receiving the benefits of doing so.
The other thing that is glaring to me, that many naysayers on this forum don't realize, is that if you're building your wholesale company correctly, you're building a saleable asset. This could give you a far greater return than any real estate investment ever could. Just make sure to focus on building your systems so that the company can run in your absence.
You can also cherry-pick the deals that make sense for your investment strategy and pay way less than other investors that buy on the market or from other wholesalers.
Congratulations on your success! Keep pushing!
@Melanie Hartmann I'm reading this a few years behind, but I absolutely love this. I would have advised against posting originally because, as you saw, most people try to discourage unconventional ideas, but I'm glad you didn't listen to them.
10 years ago, I quit my full-time job immediately after my wife and I got married to build a software company. Her job covered our expenses. EVERYONE besides my wife discouraged me from quitting and thought I was crazy. I sold that company six years later for 7 figures. I would have never had the freedom I have now without taking that leap.
You took a calculated risk, and you're receiving the benefits of doing so.
The other thing that is glaring to me, that many naysayers on this forum don't realize, is that if you're building your wholesale company correctly, you're building a saleable asset. This could give you a far greater return than any real estate investment ever could. Just make sure to focus on building your systems so that the company can run in your absence.
You can also cherry-pick the deals that make sense for your investment strategy and pay way less than other investors that buy on the market or from other wholesalers.
Congratulations on your success! Keep pushing!
Love this! And 100% agree with everything. Thank you for sharing your experience doing something similar.
People succeed and fail at things like this every single day. I've done plenty of "difficult" things in my life. Continue to do so. I've gone through more hardships than most would ever know to simply look at me. As people find out some of these things, they tell me how shocked they are. However, they just see the exterior, what I allow them to see. No one sees what goes on behind the scenes, the self-doubt, the tears, the vulnerability, the rough times. People keep that to themselves for the most part, as they should. The world is pretty cruel.
No one knows what anyone else is truly capable of. Most people don't even know what they, themselves, are truly capable or even what they truly want because they get in their own way and don't allow themselves the opportunity to try. [I'm guilty of this].
Anyway, after a little hiatus for personal/professional reasons (I say little because we did go on to flip a few houses and close many wholesale deals during that time), I am BACK!
I am now living my dream of traveling the country with my family in an RV (not everyone's idea of ideal, but it truly is mine. The pandemic made me realize it was possible, especially because I had to shift so many things in our business because of it and mostly began working virtually anyway because of the kids.) For that I am thankful, I now own and operate a real estate business virtually and have now rehabbed a house from the road. Something I never ever thought I'd be capable of doing.
I let our rankings on Google slip, and am back at it again. Updating, upgrading, and shifting. I left carrot.com because their customer service is poop once you begin working with @Jerryll Noorden and ever since they "updated" their system I and members of Jerryll's team were spending hours just trying to configure the littlest things on their newer website building platform.
Since then, I've taught myself how to build/design websites so I can work on my own and control it entirely. Along with websites for the other businesses we are launching from the road. I tried hiring this out but was never satisfied with the results. No one really knows what they are talking about/doing unless you are dish out 10s of thousands of dollars (and I just couldn't stomach paying that and then to still run the risk of ending up with a subpar product), so I just do it instead and hire out the other aspects that are much more straightforward.
Really, your (anyone reading this) path doesn't have to be neat and pretty and follow a straight line. I've been an entrepreneur since I was little. i.e. making and selling little beaded ribbon animals in elementary school. (I saw someone doing this, found materials at a better price (and didn't reveal where I got them) and found new designs to use, so I could offer a similar/better product for cheaper than "my competitors" and still rake in higher profits. I would have put the others "out of business." However, before that could happen the school shut the whole operation down once parents complained their kids were spending their lunch money buying these things instead of eating, hahaha. So it was on to the next thing...)
My path has been all over the place. I've done the "do what you are supposed to" path for years. It never felt right and never brought me true happiness. Quite the opposite really.
As I get older, I get even bolder, and I love making my own rules to live by. I've really been doing it since I was little, just didn't realize it till recently. I always presumed I was risk averse and afraid of commitments. That's not true at all, I take calculated risks and will willingly commit to anything (until it no longer serves me or is diverting attention from where I want to be). We all change, grow, and shift. That is ok. That is life.
Maybe I'll be like you one day and sell a company for 7 figures! For now, I build businesses slowly, knowing that it won't happen over night or maybe ever. I make enough to be comfortable and live the life I want, not the one I'm "supposed" to have.
That last statement has taken me many more years to figure out than I care to admit
@Melanie Hartmann Congratulations, where are you located ?
Thank you Frank! Our house buying company is based in Baltimore, MD. As of August 2021, we travel about the USA in an RV.
Hey, congrats!
Thank you Jason! How are you?
Hey @Melanie Hartmann thanks for sharing your story. Was curious about any updates on ur career.
Hey John! How are you? Right when you asked, the pandemic hit and I had to shift gears. Since that time, we closed dozens of wholesale deals ourselves and with investor partners, and flipped a couple of houses. Slowed down a bit but am getting back into the swing of things again.
Hi All! I had to share. Against all conventional advice and wisdom, I've just quit my job. My fiance's job brings enough for us to cover are needed expenses and I have about a year's worth of savings built up on top of that. I have not done any deals yet but am planning to get into wholesaling ASAP. Just wanted to share. I'm going all in!
Hi All! I had to share. Against all conventional advice and wisdom, I've just quit my job. My fiance's job brings enough for us to cover are needed expenses and I have about a year's worth of savings built up on top of that. I have not done any deals yet but am planning to get into wholesaling ASAP. Just wanted to share. I'm going all in!
Thank you Steven! It's been a wild journey for sure!
Push it to the limit!!!! Thats all I'll say......I see you like taking risks.....well go hard.......!!
@Melanie Hartmann
I know most will go against the all in approach but I personally love it. Get it!
Congratulations @Melanie Hartmann. this takes a lot of courage. Don't listen to the naysayers. You've already jumped in. They should never underestimate a determined person. Best of luck I am pulling for you.
Life is all about taking chances..Good luck!!