From 1993 to 1998, from ages 20 to 25,I worked for Prudential Health Care as a Billing Technician. I reconciled accounts all day to determine who’s health insurance needed to be terminated for non-payment.
I got up every morning at 6:00 a.m., dressed myself up in Polyester slacks and silk blouses, panty house (that were required), and high heeled shoes. I can't figure out for the life of me why panty hose are required in an office. I mean, what does it matter if my legs are covered up with a sheer nylon fabric or not? This is the 20th century for Pete's Sake. Can't I just wear what I'm most comfortable in without having to have "control top" underwear too? I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’d rather wear loose fitting Levi jeans and a Mac T-Shirt to express my enthusiasm for the most brilliant company ever created. But in the corporate world, that’s a big NO-NO, even if your don’t deal directly with customers. I guess it’s the dress for success thing? I don't think so.
Anyway, As I rubbed the cob webs out of eyes every day and hurried out the door with my baby on my hip, I made it to work by 7:00 a.m. (most of the time). I worked from 7 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. every day with two 15 minute breaks and a 30 minute lunch. Once a month on Saturday, overtime was REQUIRED, so I had to take time away from my son, find a babysitter, and spend my Saturday mornings printing bills and reconciling health inurance bills. This was not my idea of an ideal Saturday.
In 5 years, I earned myself several “promotions”, which simply meant that they would pay me an extra $.50 per hour for each hour of my time that I spent reconciling their cases,meeting their deadlines, and being handled more difficult and complicated cases to reconcile the longer I stuck around. That means that for an extra 40 hours of my time, they would pay me an extra $20. Something about that just rubbed me the wrong way.
So Dan (my husband) and I decided that it was time for a change. We both agreed that the 9 to 5 life was for the BIRDS and so was having to ask permission to go to lunch. We started reserching everything under the sun that we could do to make money. We did everything from mailing out chain letters hoping the mailman would walk up to the front door dragging a bag full of envelopes that were full of $1.00 bills. We tried processing FHA Reunds for people, and even building hand crafted earrings. We even considered a hot dog cart. We wanted to do something - anything - that would free us from the day to day bullsh*t that comes along with having a job. And even more than that - having a BOSS!
I hate to admit it, but we were watching late night TV one night when we saw the infamous Carlton Sheet commercial. We both knew instantly that real estate is where we had to go if we wanted to live the life that we were then only dreaming of. At that time, we didn’t have two nickels to rub together. We were eating Ramen noodles and macaroni and cheese. So Dan called his mom and told her that we wanted the Carlton Sheets No Money Down Course for Christmas. She bought it for us. We both quit our jobs. The rest is history.
It was quite a challenge at first opening up the No Money Down course and trying to decipher all of the real estate jargon for the first time. I remember listening to the audio cassettes and looking at the chart that was provided in the course and then asking Dan “How does the seller get paid on a second mortgage”? I really didn’t know what a second mortgage was. He didn’t either. But together we fought through the lack of knowledge and lack of money and did whatever it took the learn the business.
There were times when we felt like throwing the towel in, becuase we didn’t have paycheck to live on and we weren’t even close to a deal. We didn’t have a computer or the internet at that time, so we couldnt get on line to get any information. We borrowed money and sold our stuff to pay the bills, and were 100% committed to making money in this business. We kept each other motivated.
Then we met a man named Mark. Mark was a wholesaler. I called him all the time asking him questions about the business, and he was always very helpful and willing to give me tips and advice. He didn’t have scarcity mentiality at all. (Scarcity mentality is something that is quite common amongst real estate investors. It is hen they think they know a trade secret, and if it gets out that the competiation may squash them).
It wasn’t until we met Mark that our destiny in the business began to take form. He explained the marketing techniques that he used, which at the time was postcards to condemned houses. He drove me around neighborhoods and took me with him to seller appointments so that I could witness first hand how to negotiate with motivated sellers. It was quite an eye openeing experience, as I got to see for the first time a direction to take. It was like I could finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Wholesaling was the only type of deals that Mark taught us about, so that is what we focused all of our time and energy on. We didn’t even know of Lease Options or Subject To Deals until we met a wise old gent by the name of Ron LeGrand in 2000. That’s when the circle became round and we now have all the pieces to the puzzle.
Wholesaling is our primary source of income from real estate. We like the quick cash, the easy cash, and the boat loads of motivated sellers there are that are ready to sell us their house at rock bottom prices. It’s just fun to us to buy and sell houses within 30 days and get paid for it without ever picking up a hammer or dealing with a retail buyer.
Over the past 10 years, Dan and I have successfully closed over 250 wholesale deals. Every single one of them were bought and sold without us ever having to go to the bank to borrow money and without us ever spending any of our own money. Our first year of wholesaling only brought us about $14,000.00 in assignment fees. But now we are consistently earning a six figure income strictly from wholesaling. In 2005, when the market was at its peak, we earned $315,000 in assignment fees alone.
