My whole journey on how I made my first million by 23

[ChrisGav]

Upgrade to GOLD, thanks for sharing part of your process.



Any update? How is the high-interest rate market working for you? What adjustments have you made?

Tune into my next post titled "How I went from millionaire by 23 to flat a$$ broke" for updates on how the interest rates are affecting me. Ha, kidding.

It's definitely had an impact. Changes I've made to combat that:
- flips I'm doing are all entry level/affordable housing. Staying at the low priced entry level houses where the demand is still very strong. Average priced home in my market is around 350-400k, I'm flipping houses that will be listed around 200k or less. Not many things on the market competing at that price point and things are still moving.

- For cashflow, I'm buying a lot of houses subject to the existing mortgage now. This means the current mortgage on the property stays in place, I give the seller a check for their equity at closing, I take over the payments on their house. Reason for this is two-fold; I get to take over 3% mortgages that we all know you can't get anymore, and on top of this the debt is not in my name. It stays in the sellers name. I move properties into a trust and keep the seller as a beneficiary within the trust to avoid any due-on-sale issues with the bank.
After buying the property subject-to, I then wrap their mortgage. Meaning, I take the house and I sell it owner financed on 30 year terms. This allows me to become the "bank" for a new buyer and I don't have to worry about tenants, toilets, and termites that come with owning rentals. Here is an example of a real deal I did outlining how this works:
Bought a property for 240k
The seller owed 220k on the house, monthly payment was $1,600/mo. This included taxes, insurance, principle/interest
At closing, I gave the seller 20k (their equity) and took over these payments.

I turned around and sold the property for 280k
Received a 30k down payment
New buyer is paying me $2,200/mo for 30 years.

So I gave the seller 20k, I received 30k down payment from new end buyer. I'm up 10k. Now I've got this new money printer that makes $600/mo. I even got paid 10k profit to take this money printer! I also don't even have any debt in my name. On top of this, I still get to keep the depreciation and tax benefits of owning this house.

This strategy is working extremely well as many sellers are not able to sell their houses as easily as they used to be able to. Many of them are now having to explore creative options like this, where as 2 years ago they would've laughed in my face when I offered to buy their house with anything other than cash. Not to mention, there's so many 3% loans out there that are held by sellers that have little to no equity.

 

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[ChrisGav]

Very great to hear! Now let me ask a question most of us would like to know.

What is some key advice you can give to aspiring new Wholesalers to grow as fast as you did yourself and what is a mentality they should expect to shift?

Never stop chasing the next deal is something I did really well. I always prioritized cold-calling regardless of how much other stuff I had to get done that day. My morning was always blocked off and then I would handle the avalanche of other problems in the afternoon. Most important thing you can do is find the next deal. I'm pretty convinced in real estate there's only 3 things that matter:
1. Finding deals
2. Raising money
3. Building your network (really just to help accomplish 1 and 2)

If you're not doing 1 of these 3 things, you're probably wasting your time. When wholesaling it's slightly different as you aren't actually buying the properties. So your energy only needs to be on finding deals and finding buyers. Mainly finding deals. Your good deals will find the buyers for you, if they are in fact good deals. Finding deals is what gets you paid, it needs to be your sole focus every day

 

[Alexander Mish]

Hey Guys. Long time no talk... I've been on this forum for years and haven't been on in about a year or so and thought I'd share how my life has changed since. I figured I'd make a post outlining where I'm at today and how I arrived here. Some of it will repeat the prior posts I've made, but those were several years ago so I will include some of them anyways. This will be a long post, Excuse the great wall of china like text.

6 Years ago this month in 2017, I got arrested at 19 years old. I got mixed up in the wrong crowds having too much fun in college and got caught with a bunch of drugs I had no business doing. I was hooked and had a pretty bad addiction. It took about a year for me to go to court. In October of 2018 I walked out of court sentenced to 5 years of probation. At the time I was living in Atlanta and my mom lived in South Carolina. She decided to move me up to South Carolina to get me out of that environment. Picture this: 20 years old, living in my mom's basement, dropped out of college, sitting in treatment centers trying to get my life back together. Quite the way to kick off my 20s, huh? I spent the first few months getting my mind back together, sitting in my mom's basement playing video games watching all of my friends continue to have a blast in college while I sat at home and did nothing. All of a sudden something began to click, I really started to get interested in trying to build a business or do something productive.

February of 2019 I got a part-time job working at a hardware store selling nuts and bolts. On my way to work I'd listen to podcasts by Tony Robbins, mindset development podcasts, etc. Had no idea what I was going to do, but I wanted to do something. Then I came up with this audacious goal. I wanted to be a millionaire by 25 and retired by 30. Not that I believed I could actually do it, just give me something to shoot for to occupy my mind. It soon became an obsession, it was all I could talk about. I'd go to the group counseling at these treatment centers and as they'd go around the room asking what people were up to, this is what I would discuss. Imagine the reactions I got, "What makes you think you can do that?" "yeah right, you're sitting in rehab right now at 20 years old in your mom's basement" etc etc. The owner of the counseling facility was also a counselor and would listen in on our group meetings. One day she comes up to me and gives me a book. Of all books... @MJ DeMarco Millionaire fast lane book. I went home and dug in. It got the gears turning, and I quickly wanted to see what I could do next to get started. I began listening to a podcast channel called The sweaty startup by Nick huber. His whole premise of the podcast was to encourage people start low barrier to entry businesses where your competition most likely sucked and they're usually in the blue collar industry. After a little bit of research I decided to try pressure washing. Rented a pressure washer, washed my mom's house to see if I could do it. Next thing you know, game on.

After renting a pressure washer to do my first few jobs I saved up enough cash to buy my own cheap pressure washer. I tried connecting with realtors, dropping flyers in mailboxes, posting on nextdoor, posting in facebook groups, all to try and find some business. I'd take my pressure washer to my part-time job then when I got off at 2pm every day, I'd go knock out a job or two. Began to pick up a little bit of steam (making a whopping 2k/mo) when I decided to quit my part-time job.

January 1st 2020, I quit my part-time job. Who would've thought winter was the best time of year to be a full time pressure washer? First month, made $700. 2nd month, made $1,500. Then, one day I make a post on this very forum asking for advice on how to get more business. Someone reached out named Rich (I don't know his username on here anymore, I believe he found my website and emailed me or something). Rich said he had a marketing company he was starting and wanted to do a case study. Asked if he could do Facebook ads for me for free so long as I pay ad spend. Done. 1st ad we started march 1 2020. Ad spend $300/mo. I got 1 job the month of March. Job paid $300. I broke even.... One day saw an ad from another competitor. Their ad was blowing up on Facebook, everyone asking to get their house washed. The difference, they did a video showing their face and the ad was showing how they wash houses and their process. I thought, you know what I need to do a similar ad and see if my results are any better. I changed my ad, showed how I cleaned driveways, introduced myself (Ok I lied in the ad, I said I was a local college student... I was actually just a local drop-out) We roll out this ad and boom. I can't remember exact numbers but I began making anywhere from 6-9k/mo net. I could smell retirement. It smelled like bleach and felt like cold water splashing in my face from the end of my wand.

I had always been interested in Real estate, so at this time, when the world shut down from covid, I began researching how to get into the investment side of real estate. I met this local realtor who I'd washed houses for and he would invest on the side. He began asking me what my goals are. He quickly informed me that I would have a very difficult time reaching them pressure washing and I should think about getting into real estate. We would ride around, look at his flip houses, show me his numbers, etc. More than anything, he planted the seed. August of 2020 I bought my first house. Little duplex, had twisted my mom's arm to co-sign on the loan (the only help she gave me, so don't even say my parents built what I have). I lived in one side and rented out the other, It covered my mortgage payment every month. Also August of 2020 I go to get my real estate license. Get my license October 2020. Sold 3 houses as a realtor, and HATED it. However, the 1st house I sold was one of my neighbor had a cheap mobile home he wanted to sell. He wanted 50k. This tight wad didn't even want to pay 6% and let me list it, he said go find a buyer and I'll pay you 3%. I posted it on some Facebook groups, this lady says she will buy it. She was also a realtor. A few months later, I asked her what she did with it, she said she wholesaled it and made 20k. I made $1,500 as a realtor on this transaction. I asked her what the hell wholesaling was.

February of 2021, I began working with this lady named Maria and we wholesaled real estate together. For those that don't know what this is, look it up, but it allowed me to make a good profit on real estate without needing any money and without ever buying the property (get property under contract a discount, sell the contract to an investor and keep the difference). I began cold-calling an hour or 2 a day to try to find off-market properties at a discount that we could wholesale. Within 2 weeks, I found our first deal. Went on appointment with Maria. Got it under contract. She found a buyer and we made a total of 5k. 2 weeks after finding the 1st deal I found another, got it under contract, Maria found buyer, we made a total of 18k. After splitting, we both made 14k each. I was hooked. Keep in mind, I'm still pressure washing this whole time on the side. Cold calling in the morning, doing pressure washing jobs in afternoon.

June of 2021, I cold called this guy, Brian. He had a house I wanted to buy and he said Chris, you're good on the phone come by my office and let's talk. I go to his office, and he was a pretty well to-do investor/builder. The house I wanted to buy was a flip house. He was currently renovating it. He said he wanted 90k for the house, and it needed about 40k in work still and he had all of the crews that he would let do the work for us. We made a deal, If I could bring him a check for 40k, he would give that to his crews to do the work and we would just pay him 90k for the house once it sold.
Maria and I flipped the house and we made about 17k each. At this time I began going to real estate meetups. found another young guy there, Clay, whose dad owned a successful business but didn't know how to invest his money. They wanted to flip houses together. I told him I find off market deals and maybe we could partner up. A few months go by, I went back to Brian and asked if he had anything else he would sell me. He didn't have any houses but had some apartments he would be willing to owner finance to me. 16 units, wanted 1.25m for them. Said If I could bring him a check for 250k he would finance the apartments at a 3% interest rate to help me along. I had no idea where to find 250k... then one day Clay calls me. We hadn't talked in a while and he wanted to see what was up. We go get coffee, I mention this apartment deal. He talks with his dad, and they decide to put up 250k. I would manage the buildings and I would get a 30% stake, they would put up all of the cash to do it. Done.

(At this time, Maria and I stopped working together. She had family issues and couldn't dedicate as much as I could to wholesaling.)

October 1 2021, We close on the 16 units. Retirement started to smell different now, more like cat pee that had been sitting in the carpets for a few years.... I felt awesome. Also Started October 1st 2021 I decided I was going to stop pressure washing and do real estate full time. I was going to dive head first into wholesaling and finding deals. I then began cold calling 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. I hated it, hated cold calling, but forced myself to show up and do it. Within my first month, I made 30k and did 4 deals. 2nd month, I did about the same. I felt invincible.

January 2022 I was all in on cold calling and real estate with some new wind in my sails. I joined this mastermind group that taught creative finance strategies in real estate and how to own properties with little money out of pocket/how to sell properties owner finance. I began partnering with the guy who started this group, Travis. He lived in Illinois, but he invested in South Carolina where I was. I found houses to flip, he would bring the cash and he would use his crews to do the work and we would split 50/50. We did a few flips, lost money on some, made ok money on others. But what he taught me in creative finance far exceeded any amount of money I had to pay him. I began buying properties with very little of my own money. (seller financed, borrow money from Clay's dad, met a few hard money lenders, etc)

January 2022-August 2022 my wholesaling business was in full swing. I began making 50k, 100k, 80k, 70k a month some months. Was flipping houses, was picking up rentals etc. July 2022, a few days before my 24th birthday I closed on a property that officially put my networth over $1m.

Fast forward to now, I'm 25. I've been sober for 6 years. I own/part-owner in over 150 rental properties. I'm flipping 9 houses currently, doing 7 new build houses, and doing all sorts of creative finance deals. I can gladly say I had hit my goal and became a millionaire by 25. Although, not so sure I want to retire by 30 anymore........

Quite a long-winded post, if you read it all, hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to reach out if I can help you at all in your journey. Many, many people poured into me during this journey and many still do today. There's a lot more to this journey that was just way too much to include but I did the best I could to include the highlights.

Thank you for sharing!
You are an inspiration for me, as i am starting out right now)
How did you made yourself do things that you didn't want to do? Cold calls and real estate, for example?
Also, what do you enjoy now, whith all those changes?

 

[Goodfella999]

Tune into my next post titled "How I went from millionaire by 23 to flat a$$ broke" for updates on how the interest rates are affecting me. Ha, kidding.

It's definitely had an impact. Changes I've made to combat that:
- flips I'm doing are all entry level/affordable housing. Staying at the low priced entry level houses where the demand is still very strong. Average priced home in my market is around 350-400k, I'm flipping houses that will be listed around 200k or less. Not many things on the market competing at that price point and things are still moving.

- For cashflow, I'm buying a lot of houses subject to the existing mortgage now. This means the current mortgage on the property stays in place, I give the seller a check for their equity at closing, I take over the payments on their house. Reason for this is two-fold; I get to take over 3% mortgages that we all know you can't get anymore, and on top of this the debt is not in my name. It stays in the sellers name. I move properties into a trust and keep the seller as a beneficiary within the trust to avoid any due-on-sale issues with the bank.
After buying the property subject-to, I then wrap their mortgage. Meaning, I take the house and I sell it owner financed on 30 year terms. This allows me to become the "bank" for a new buyer and I don't have to worry about tenants, toilets, and termites that come with owning rentals. Here is an example of a real deal I did outlining how this works:
Bought a property for 240k
The seller owed 220k on the house, monthly payment was $1,600/mo. This included taxes, insurance, principle/interest
At closing, I gave the seller 20k (their equity) and took over these payments.

I turned around and sold the property for 280k
Received a 30k down payment
New buyer is paying me $2,200/mo for 30 years.

So I gave the seller 20k, I received 30k down payment from new end buyer. I'm up 10k. Now I've got this new money printer that makes $600/mo. I even got paid 10k profit to take this money printer! I also don't even have any debt in my name. On top of this, I still get to keep the depreciation and tax benefits of owning this house.

This strategy is working extremely well as many sellers are not able to sell their houses as easily as they used to be able to. Many of them are now having to explore creative options like this, where as 2 years ago they would've laughed in my face when I offered to buy their house with anything other than cash. Not to mention, there's so many 3% loans out there that are held by sellers that have little to no equity.

I never thought of this (I bought a duplex this year and am involved in a large syndication as of this year too). Any issues with placing the property in a trust to avoid the due on sale clause?

 

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[ChrisGav]

Thank you for sharing!
You are an inspiration for me, as i am starting out right now)
How did you made yourself do things that you didn't want to do? Cold calls and real estate, for example?
Also, what do you enjoy now, whith all those changes?

I really got conscious about building my discipline muscle. Simple things really: don't feel like going to the gym today, good then that's how I know I'm for sure going. After I'm done eating and I don't want to go put my plate in the dishwasher I get up and go do it immediately. Train yourself to get in the habit of doing what you should do even when you don't want to do it. It seems so minor about the plate and the dishwasher, but it truly is the small wins like this that build the habits. Every action you take is either a victory or a defeat and the more you can stack these little wins the more of a habit it'll become. You won't win all of the "discipline battles", just win more than you lose. There's no secret to it though, you either showed up and did what you said you were going to that day or you didn't. I made it where I forced myself to call 3 hours a day and wasn't going to stop until I did. Quit bargaining with yourself, once you start doing that you are screwed. "oh I've already done 2 hours of calling that's pretty good for today I'll go ahead and stop" just catch yourself and identify when this is happening and don't allow it.

For your second question, I enjoy the act of putting the deal together and watching the results transpire. I can honestly say though I don't really enjoy the active day to day of chasing deals and following up with people endlessly. Although once I get a deal, it's a pretty good feeling still.

I never thought of this (I bought a duplex this year and am involved in a large syndication as of this year too). Any issues with placing the property in a trust to avoid the due on sale clause?

No issues with putting a property into a trust. It's a federal law that everyone can put their property into a trust for estate planning purposes regardless of if there's a mortgage on it or not. With that said, most banks don't even bat an eye when they see a property moved into a trust as it's pretty normal. However, if they ever wanted to peek under the hood, everything's set up correctly where they can't do anything about calling the loan due.

 

[Alexander Mish]

I really got conscious about building my discipline muscle. Simple things really: don't feel like going to the gym today, good then that's how I know I'm for sure going. After I'm done eating and I don't want to go put my plate in the dishwasher I get up and go do it immediately. Train yourself to get in the habit of doing what you should do even when you don't want to do it. It seems so minor about the plate and the dishwasher, but it truly is the small wins like this that build the habits. Every action you take is either a victory or a defeat and the more you can stack these little wins the more of a habit it'll become. You won't win all of the "discipline battles", just win more than you lose. There's no secret to it though, you either showed up and did what you said you were going to that day or you didn't. I made it where I forced myself to call 3 hours a day and wasn't going to stop until I did. Quit bargaining with yourself, once you start doing that you are screwed. "oh I've already done 2 hours of calling that's pretty good for today I'll go ahead and stop" just catch yourself and identify when this is happening and don't allow it.

For your second question, I enjoy the act of putting the deal together and watching the results transpire. I can honestly say though I don't really enjoy the active day to day of chasing deals and following up with people endlessly. Although once I get a deal, it's a pretty good feeling still.


No issues with putting a property into a trust. It's a federal law that everyone can put their property into a trust for estate planning purposes regardless of if there's a mortgage on it or not. With that said, most banks don't even bat an eye when they see a property moved into a trust as it's pretty normal. However, if they ever wanted to peek under the hood, everything's set up correctly where they can't do anything about calling the loan due.

Thank you for reply!
I will invest more effort into catching myself on thought like "it is good enough" or "i don't feel like it" and the such

 

[Alexander Mish]

I really got conscious about building my discipline muscle. Simple things really: don't feel like going to the gym today, good then that's how I know I'm for sure going. After I'm done eating and I don't want to go put my plate in the dishwasher I get up and go do it immediately. Train yourself to get in the habit of doing what you should do even when you don't want to do it. It seems so minor about the plate and the dishwasher, but it truly is the small wins like this that build the habits. Every action you take is either a victory or a defeat and the more you can stack these little wins the more of a habit it'll become. You won't win all of the "discipline battles", just win more than you lose. There's no secret to it though, you either showed up and did what you said you were going to that day or you didn't. I made it where I forced myself to call 3 hours a day and wasn't going to stop until I did. Quit bargaining with yourself, once you start doing that you are screwed. "oh I've already done 2 hours of calling that's pretty good for today I'll go ahead and stop" just catch yourself and identify when this is happening and don't allow it.

For your second question, I enjoy the act of putting the deal together and watching the results transpire. I can honestly say though I don't really enjoy the active day to day of chasing deals and following up with people endlessly. Although once I get a deal, it's a pretty good feeling still.


No issues with putting a property into a trust. It's a federal law that everyone can put their property into a trust for estate planning purposes regardless of if there's a mortgage on it or not. With that said, most banks don't even bat an eye when they see a property moved into a trust as it's pretty normal. However, if they ever wanted to peek under the hood, everything's set up correctly where they can't do anything about calling the loan due.

Also, can you tell me where did you take the list of contacts for cold calling? What was your method of finding people that suited for your field and proposition?

 

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[ChrisGav]

Also, can you tell me where did you take the list of contacts for cold calling? What was your method of finding people that suited for your field and proposition?

I used propstream to pull the list and then would skiptrace through batchleads.io . I would take the skiptraced list and plug it into my dialer (mojodialer). The dialer would call 3 phone numbers at a time and dial them for me so I didn't have to manually dial them. There's no secret list where everyone on the list wants to sell, it's a bit of a numbers game. But there are some indicators that they may be interested. These lists include:
Absentee owner that's owned the property for more than 7 years
Vacant property
Pre-foreclosure
Probate
Tax lien
Any other liens (hoa, mechanics lien, etc)
bankruptcy
divorce
Utility shut off list (If you're able to get these. My state the utilities are private companies so they won't disclose this info but some states will and I've heard they're good lists)

 

[Goodfella999]

I used propstream to pull the list and then would skiptrace through batchleads.io . I would take the skiptraced list and plug it into my dialer (mojodialer). The dialer would call 3 phone numbers at a time and dial them for me so I didn't have to manually dial them. There's no secret list where everyone on the list wants to sell, it's a bit of a numbers game. But there are some indicators that they may be interested. These lists include:
Absentee owner that's owned the property for more than 7 years
Vacant property
Pre-foreclosure
Probate
Tax lien
Any other liens (hoa, mechanics lien, etc)
bankruptcy
divorce
Utility shut off list (If you're able to get these. My state the utilities are private companies so they won't disclose this info but some states will and I've heard they're good lists)

When the lead answers, how did you dial in your confidence and delivery of what you want to offer them? I cold call all day and I know you typically only have a few seconds to grab someones attention. Id imagine you need to come up with a number for your offer quickly on the phone to entice them after introducing yourself?

 

[ChrisGav]

When the lead answers, how did you dial in your confidence and delivery of what you want to offer them? I cold call all day and I know you typically only have a few seconds to grab someones attention. Id imagine you need to come up with a number for your offer quickly on the phone to entice them after introducing yourself?

Quite the opposite in regards to offer. Typical conversation looks something like this:
Bob the Seller: Hello?
Me: Hey, I was looking for Bob?
Bob: this is him
Me: Hey Bob, my name is Chris, I was calling because I saw a property I believe you own on 123 main st. I was wondering if you would entertain possibly selling that?
Bob: Yeah I think that's something I would probably entertain selling
(while he is saying this i google the address to pull it up on zillow to have an idea of what we are talking about)
Me: Ok great, yeah I'm here locally in the area in was really just looking for another property to buy and thought I would reach out. What can you tell me about the condition of the property?
Bob: Needs full rehab, new roof, hvac still runs etc etc.
Me: Makes sense, If you were to sell it, how soon would you be looking to do something with it?
Bob: Preferably within the next 2 months.
Me: Ok, I think I can work with that. How much were you hoping to get for the property?
Bob: Make me an offer/he gives you his price
(if he says make me an offer)
Me: I'm not too sure yet I usually just call and see if someone's interested in selling before I do a lot of research on it. Where would I need to be for it to even be interesting?
Bob: you called me, look it up and make me an offer
Me: Completely get that, let me do some research and I'll give you a shout back in a day or so about it.

Let's rewind and pretend he gave you a number
Me: Ok, I think I can work with that. How much were you hoping to get for the property?
Bob: I would need to get 100k for the house.
Me: Ok, that seems fair. Do you think if you got 100k it's something that you would be willing to move forward on?
Bob: Yes absolutely.
Me: Ok, let me take a look and I'll call you back in a day or so to see what I can do for it.

A couple things to note:
If he gives me his price, I ask him a 2nd time, hey if you got that number is it something you'd be willing to move forward on? Reason being, it solidifies the price in the sellers mind as he confirmed the number twice and confirms he wasn't just throwing things out there.

You will also notice my whole approach is extremely soft, and my tonality matches it by seeming like I'm just your nice friendly neighbor that's curious if you would sell. In my opening line I say "would you consider possibly selling" It's not a hard driving "hey you going to sell me your property?" It's a non-threatening approach and it doesn't really feel like a sales call.

In every call there's 4 pillars of information you're trying to extract:
1. Condition of property
2. Motivation: I very rarely directly ask why they want to sell as that seems like an interrogating question. It usually just comes out in the conversation. They will say things like: The house just needs too much work for me to mess with, or I've had it as a rental for a while and I'm just tired of dealing with tenants, or I inherited the property, or they may just say they're in a financial bind and need cash. Motivation is the most important factor
3. timeline: how soon are they willing to sell? 6 months? 2 weeks?
4. Price: There's some ninja ways you can get this out of them. You'll notice when he didn't give me an offer I ask it essentially twice in a row in a different way. This goes over a lot of seller's heads and often times the 2nd time I ask they will tell me. Anyone that's serious about selling their property already has a number in mind. Once you really get skilled at valuing properties, the most ninja way to get a number out of them is to give them a low ball offer when they refuse to tell you. It'll look something like this:
Me: How much were you hoping to get for the property?
Bob: What's your offer?
Me: It depends on condition and several factors, but off the top of my head, we would be somewhere around 60-80k for the property. Is that sort of what you had in mind? (It's really worth 150k as is)
At this point 1 of 3 things will happen.
1. Well that sounds pretty good to me (best response ever)
2. That's a bit lower than what I would need to get
3. You're out of your mind no where close

If 2 or 3 happens, my next response is "I completely get that, where would I need to be at for it to be interesting for you?"

and then boom, 99.999% of the time they will respond with the price they really had in mind.
Then I finish out the conversation the same way
Bob: I would really need to be around 100k
Me: Ok, so if you got 100k you think that's something you would be ready move forward on?
Bob: yes
Me: ok let me see what I can do and I'll give you a call back in a day or so about it.

 

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[Eddie239]

Quite the opposite in regards to offer. Typical conversation looks something like this:
Bob the Seller: Hello?
Me: Hey, I was looking for Bob?
Bob: this is him
Me: Hey Bob, my name is Chris, I was calling because I saw a property I believe you own on 123 main st. I was wondering if you would entertain possibly selling that?
Bob: Yeah I think that's something I would probably entertain selling
(while he is saying this i google the address to pull it up on zillow to have an idea of what we are talking about)
Me: Ok great, yeah I'm here locally in the area in was really just looking for another property to buy and thought I would reach out. What can you tell me about the condition of the property?
Bob: Needs full rehab, new roof, hvac still runs etc etc.
Me: Makes sense, If you were to sell it, how soon would you be looking to do something with it?
Bob: Preferably within the next 2 months.
Me: Ok, I think I can work with that. How much were you hoping to get for the property?
Bob: Make me an offer/he gives you his price
(if he says make me an offer)
Me: I'm not too sure yet I usually just call and see if someone's interested in selling before I do a lot of research on it. Where would I need to be for it to even be interesting?
Bob: you called me, look it up and make me an offer
Me: Completely get that, let me do some research and I'll give you a shout back in a day or so about it.

Let's rewind and pretend he gave you a number
Me: Ok, I think I can work with that. How much were you hoping to get for the property?
Bob: I would need to get 100k for the house.
Me: Ok, that seems fair. Do you think if you got 100k it's something that you would be willing to move forward on?
Bob: Yes absolutely.
Me: Ok, let me take a look and I'll call you back in a day or so to see what I can do for it.

A couple things to note:
If he gives me his price, I ask him a 2nd time, hey if you got that number is it something you'd be willing to move forward on? Reason being, it solidifies the price in the sellers mind as he confirmed the number twice and confirms he wasn't just throwing things out there.

You will also notice my whole approach is extremely soft, and my tonality matches it by seeming like I'm just your nice friendly neighbor that's curious if you would sell. In my opening line I say "would you consider possibly selling" It's not a hard driving "hey you going to sell me your property?" It's a non-threatening approach and it doesn't really feel like a sales call.

In every call there's 4 pillars of information you're trying to extract:
1. Condition of property
2. Motivation: I very rarely directly ask why they want to sell as that seems like an interrogating question. It usually just comes out in the conversation. They will say things like: The house just needs too much work for me to mess with, or I've had it as a rental for a while and I'm just tired of dealing with tenants, or I inherited the property, or they may just say they're in a financial bind and need cash. Motivation is the most important factor
3. timeline: how soon are they willing to sell? 6 months? 2 weeks?
4. Price: There's some ninja ways you can get this out of them. You'll notice when he didn't give me an offer I ask it essentially twice in a row in a different way. This goes over a lot of seller's heads and often times the 2nd time I ask they will tell me. Anyone that's serious about selling their property already has a number in mind. Once you really get skilled at valuing properties, the most ninja way to get a number out of them is to give them a low ball offer when they refuse to tell you. It'll look something like this:
Me: How much were you hoping to get for the property?
Bob: What's your offer?
Me: It depends on condition and several factors, but off the top of my head, we would be somewhere around 60-80k for the property. Is that sort of what you had in mind? (It's really worth 150k as is)
At this point 1 of 3 things will happen.
1. Well that sounds pretty good to me (best response ever)
2. That's a bit lower than what I would need to get
3. You're out of your mind no where close

If 2 or 3 happens, my next response is "I completely get that, where would I need to be at for it to be interesting for you?"

and then boom, 99.999% of the time they will respond with the price they really had in mind.
Then I finish out the conversation the same way
Bob: I would really need to be around 100k
Me: Ok, so if you got 100k you think that's something you would be ready move forward on?
Bob: yes
Me: ok let me see what I can do and I'll give you a call back in a day or so about it.

This is so in depth and helps me out sooo much since I’m a new wholesaler. THANK YOU!

Also just curious do you wholesale virtually or local markets?

 

[Lou7]

Hey Guys. Long time no talk... I've been on this forum for years and haven't been on in about a year or so and thought I'd share how my life has changed since. I figured I'd make a post outlining where I'm at today and how I arrived here. Some of it will repeat the prior posts I've made, but those were several years ago so I will include some of them anyways. This will be a long post, Excuse the great wall of china like text.

6 Years ago this month in 2017, I got arrested at 19 years old. I got mixed up in the wrong crowds having too much fun in college and got caught with a bunch of drugs I had no business doing. I was hooked and had a pretty bad addiction. It took about a year for me to go to court. In October of 2018 I walked out of court sentenced to 5 years of probation. At the time I was living in Atlanta and my mom lived in South Carolina. She decided to move me up to South Carolina to get me out of that environment. Picture this: 20 years old, living in my mom's basement, dropped out of college, sitting in treatment centers trying to get my life back together. Quite the way to kick off my 20s, huh? I spent the first few months getting my mind back together, sitting in my mom's basement playing video games watching all of my friends continue to have a blast in college while I sat at home and did nothing. All of a sudden something began to click, I really started to get interested in trying to build a business or do something productive.

February of 2019 I got a part-time job working at a hardware store selling nuts and bolts. On my way to work I'd listen to podcasts by Tony Robbins, mindset development podcasts, etc. Had no idea what I was going to do, but I wanted to do something. Then I came up with this audacious goal. I wanted to be a millionaire by 25 and retired by 30. Not that I believed I could actually do it, just give me something to shoot for to occupy my mind. It soon became an obsession, it was all I could talk about. I'd go to the group counseling at these treatment centers and as they'd go around the room asking what people were up to, this is what I would discuss. Imagine the reactions I got, "What makes you think you can do that?" "yeah right, you're sitting in rehab right now at 20 years old in your mom's basement" etc etc. The owner of the counseling facility was also a counselor and would listen in on our group meetings. One day she comes up to me and gives me a book. Of all books... @MJ DeMarco Millionaire fast lane book. I went home and dug in. It got the gears turning, and I quickly wanted to see what I could do next to get started. I began listening to a podcast channel called The sweaty startup by Nick huber. His whole premise of the podcast was to encourage people start low barrier to entry businesses where your competition most likely sucked and they're usually in the blue collar industry. After a little bit of research I decided to try pressure washing. Rented a pressure washer, washed my mom's house to see if I could do it. Next thing you know, game on.

After renting a pressure washer to do my first few jobs I saved up enough cash to buy my own cheap pressure washer. I tried connecting with realtors, dropping flyers in mailboxes, posting on nextdoor, posting in facebook groups, all to try and find some business. I'd take my pressure washer to my part-time job then when I got off at 2pm every day, I'd go knock out a job or two. Began to pick up a little bit of steam (making a whopping 2k/mo) when I decided to quit my part-time job.

January 1st 2020, I quit my part-time job. Who would've thought winter was the best time of year to be a full time pressure washer? First month, made $700. 2nd month, made $1,500. Then, one day I make a post on this very forum asking for advice on how to get more business. Someone reached out named Rich (I don't know his username on here anymore, I believe he found my website and emailed me or something). Rich said he had a marketing company he was starting and wanted to do a case study. Asked if he could do Facebook ads for me for free so long as I pay ad spend. Done. 1st ad we started march 1 2020. Ad spend $300/mo. I got 1 job the month of March. Job paid $300. I broke even.... One day saw an ad from another competitor. Their ad was blowing up on Facebook, everyone asking to get their house washed. The difference, they did a video showing their face and the ad was showing how they wash houses and their process. I thought, you know what I need to do a similar ad and see if my results are any better. I changed my ad, showed how I cleaned driveways, introduced myself (Ok I lied in the ad, I said I was a local college student... I was actually just a local drop-out) We roll out this ad and boom. I can't remember exact numbers but I began making anywhere from 6-9k/mo net. I could smell retirement. It smelled like bleach and felt like cold water splashing in my face from the end of my wand.

I had always been interested in Real estate, so at this time, when the world shut down from covid, I began researching how to get into the investment side of real estate. I met this local realtor who I'd washed houses for and he would invest on the side. He began asking me what my goals are. He quickly informed me that I would have a very difficult time reaching them pressure washing and I should think about getting into real estate. We would ride around, look at his flip houses, show me his numbers, etc. More than anything, he planted the seed. August of 2020 I bought my first house. Little duplex, had twisted my mom's arm to co-sign on the loan (the only help she gave me, so don't even say my parents built what I have). I lived in one side and rented out the other, It covered my mortgage payment every month. Also August of 2020 I go to get my real estate license. Get my license October 2020. Sold 3 houses as a realtor, and HATED it. However, the 1st house I sold was one of my neighbor had a cheap mobile home he wanted to sell. He wanted 50k. This tight wad didn't even want to pay 6% and let me list it, he said go find a buyer and I'll pay you 3%. I posted it on some Facebook groups, this lady says she will buy it. She was also a realtor. A few months later, I asked her what she did with it, she said she wholesaled it and made 20k. I made $1,500 as a realtor on this transaction. I asked her what the hell wholesaling was.

February of 2021, I began working with this lady named Maria and we wholesaled real estate together. For those that don't know what this is, look it up, but it allowed me to make a good profit on real estate without needing any money and without ever buying the property (get property under contract a discount, sell the contract to an investor and keep the difference). I began cold-calling an hour or 2 a day to try to find off-market properties at a discount that we could wholesale. Within 2 weeks, I found our first deal. Went on appointment with Maria. Got it under contract. She found a buyer and we made a total of 5k. 2 weeks after finding the 1st deal I found another, got it under contract, Maria found buyer, we made a total of 18k. After splitting, we both made 14k each. I was hooked. Keep in mind, I'm still pressure washing this whole time on the side. Cold calling in the morning, doing pressure washing jobs in afternoon.

June of 2021, I cold called this guy, Brian. He had a house I wanted to buy and he said Chris, you're good on the phone come by my office and let's talk. I go to his office, and he was a pretty well to-do investor/builder. The house I wanted to buy was a flip house. He was currently renovating it. He said he wanted 90k for the house, and it needed about 40k in work still and he had all of the crews that he would let do the work for us. We made a deal, If I could bring him a check for 40k, he would give that to his crews to do the work and we would just pay him 90k for the house once it sold.
Maria and I flipped the house and we made about 17k each. At this time I began going to real estate meetups. found another young guy there, Clay, whose dad owned a successful business but didn't know how to invest his money. They wanted to flip houses together. I told him I find off market deals and maybe we could partner up. A few months go by, I went back to Brian and asked if he had anything else he would sell me. He didn't have any houses but had some apartments he would be willing to owner finance to me. 16 units, wanted 1.25m for them. Said If I could bring him a check for 250k he would finance the apartments at a 3% interest rate to help me along. I had no idea where to find 250k... then one day Clay calls me. We hadn't talked in a while and he wanted to see what was up. We go get coffee, I mention this apartment deal. He talks with his dad, and they decide to put up 250k. I would manage the buildings and I would get a 30% stake, they would put up all of the cash to do it. Done.

(At this time, Maria and I stopped working together. She had family issues and couldn't dedicate as much as I could to wholesaling.)

October 1 2021, We close on the 16 units. Retirement started to smell different now, more like cat pee that had been sitting in the carpets for a few years.... I felt awesome. Also Started October 1st 2021 I decided I was going to stop pressure washing and do real estate full time. I was going to dive head first into wholesaling and finding deals. I then began cold calling 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. I hated it, hated cold calling, but forced myself to show up and do it. Within my first month, I made 30k and did 4 deals. 2nd month, I did about the same. I felt invincible.

January 2022 I was all in on cold calling and real estate with some new wind in my sails. I joined this mastermind group that taught creative finance strategies in real estate and how to own properties with little money out of pocket/how to sell properties owner finance. I began partnering with the guy who started this group, Travis. He lived in Illinois, but he invested in South Carolina where I was. I found houses to flip, he would bring the cash and he would use his crews to do the work and we would split 50/50. We did a few flips, lost money on some, made ok money on others. But what he taught me in creative finance far exceeded any amount of money I had to pay him. I began buying properties with very little of my own money. (seller financed, borrow money from Clay's dad, met a few hard money lenders, etc)

January 2022-August 2022 my wholesaling business was in full swing. I began making 50k, 100k, 80k, 70k a month some months. Was flipping houses, was picking up rentals etc. July 2022, a few days before my 24th birthday I closed on a property that officially put my networth over $1m.

Fast forward to now, I'm 25. I've been sober for 6 years. I own/part-owner in over 150 rental properties. I'm flipping 9 houses currently, doing 7 new build houses, and doing all sorts of creative finance deals. I can gladly say I had hit my goal and became a millionaire by 25. Although, not so sure I want to retire by 30 anymore........

Quite a long-winded post, if you read it all, hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to reach out if I can help you at all in your journey. Many, many people poured into me during this journey and many still do today. There's a lot more to this journey that was just way too much to include but I did the best I could to include the highlights.

man, your post hit me hard...

I don't enjoy the actions in this pursuit as well. It also made me question if it was my true calling.

Your actions made me think: "stop whining and just do it"

thanks!!!

 

[turt]

This whole story sounds like a movie plot. I sure hope my life plot will be as inspiring as yours one day.

 

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[Chrisrod2597]

Hey Guys. Long time no talk... I've been on this forum for years and haven't been on in about a year or so and thought I'd share how my life has changed since. I figured I'd make a post outlining where I'm at today and how I arrived here. Some of it will repeat the prior posts I've made, but those were several years ago so I will include some of them anyways. This will be a long post, Excuse the great wall of china like text.

6 Years ago this month in 2017, I got arrested at 19 years old. I got mixed up in the wrong crowds having too much fun in college and got caught with a bunch of drugs I had no business doing. I was hooked and had a pretty bad addiction. It took about a year for me to go to court. In October of 2018 I walked out of court sentenced to 5 years of probation. At the time I was living in Atlanta and my mom lived in South Carolina. She decided to move me up to South Carolina to get me out of that environment. Picture this: 20 years old, living in my mom's basement, dropped out of college, sitting in treatment centers trying to get my life back together. Quite the way to kick off my 20s, huh? I spent the first few months getting my mind back together, sitting in my mom's basement playing video games watching all of my friends continue to have a blast in college while I sat at home and did nothing. All of a sudden something began to click, I really started to get interested in trying to build a business or do something productive.

February of 2019 I got a part-time job working at a hardware store selling nuts and bolts. On my way to work I'd listen to podcasts by Tony Robbins, mindset development podcasts, etc. Had no idea what I was going to do, but I wanted to do something. Then I came up with this audacious goal. I wanted to be a millionaire by 25 and retired by 30. Not that I believed I could actually do it, just give me something to shoot for to occupy my mind. It soon became an obsession, it was all I could talk about. I'd go to the group counseling at these treatment centers and as they'd go around the room asking what people were up to, this is what I would discuss. Imagine the reactions I got, "What makes you think you can do that?" "yeah right, you're sitting in rehab right now at 20 years old in your mom's basement" etc etc. The owner of the counseling facility was also a counselor and would listen in on our group meetings. One day she comes up to me and gives me a book. Of all books... @MJ DeMarco Millionaire fast lane book. I went home and dug in. It got the gears turning, and I quickly wanted to see what I could do next to get started. I began listening to a podcast channel called The sweaty startup by Nick huber. His whole premise of the podcast was to encourage people start low barrier to entry businesses where your competition most likely sucked and they're usually in the blue collar industry. After a little bit of research I decided to try pressure washing. Rented a pressure washer, washed my mom's house to see if I could do it. Next thing you know, game on.

After renting a pressure washer to do my first few jobs I saved up enough cash to buy my own cheap pressure washer. I tried connecting with realtors, dropping flyers in mailboxes, posting on nextdoor, posting in facebook groups, all to try and find some business. I'd take my pressure washer to my part-time job then when I got off at 2pm every day, I'd go knock out a job or two. Began to pick up a little bit of steam (making a whopping 2k/mo) when I decided to quit my part-time job.

January 1st 2020, I quit my part-time job. Who would've thought winter was the best time of year to be a full time pressure washer? First month, made $700. 2nd month, made $1,500. Then, one day I make a post on this very forum asking for advice on how to get more business. Someone reached out named Rich (I don't know his username on here anymore, I believe he found my website and emailed me or something). Rich said he had a marketing company he was starting and wanted to do a case study. Asked if he could do Facebook ads for me for free so long as I pay ad spend. Done. 1st ad we started march 1 2020. Ad spend $300/mo. I got 1 job the month of March. Job paid $300. I broke even.... One day saw an ad from another competitor. Their ad was blowing up on Facebook, everyone asking to get their house washed. The difference, they did a video showing their face and the ad was showing how they wash houses and their process. I thought, you know what I need to do a similar ad and see if my results are any better. I changed my ad, showed how I cleaned driveways, introduced myself (Ok I lied in the ad, I said I was a local college student... I was actually just a local drop-out) We roll out this ad and boom. I can't remember exact numbers but I began making anywhere from 6-9k/mo net. I could smell retirement. It smelled like bleach and felt like cold water splashing in my face from the end of my wand.

I had always been interested in Real estate, so at this time, when the world shut down from covid, I began researching how to get into the investment side of real estate. I met this local realtor who I'd washed houses for and he would invest on the side. He began asking me what my goals are. He quickly informed me that I would have a very difficult time reaching them pressure washing and I should think about getting into real estate. We would ride around, look at his flip houses, show me his numbers, etc. More than anything, he planted the seed. August of 2020 I bought my first house. Little duplex, had twisted my mom's arm to co-sign on the loan (the only help she gave me, so don't even say my parents built what I have). I lived in one side and rented out the other, It covered my mortgage payment every month. Also August of 2020 I go to get my real estate license. Get my license October 2020. Sold 3 houses as a realtor, and HATED it. However, the 1st house I sold was one of my neighbor had a cheap mobile home he wanted to sell. He wanted 50k. This tight wad didn't even want to pay 6% and let me list it, he said go find a buyer and I'll pay you 3%. I posted it on some Facebook groups, this lady says she will buy it. She was also a realtor. A few months later, I asked her what she did with it, she said she wholesaled it and made 20k. I made $1,500 as a realtor on this transaction. I asked her what the hell wholesaling was.

February of 2021, I began working with this lady named Maria and we wholesaled real estate together. For those that don't know what this is, look it up, but it allowed me to make a good profit on real estate without needing any money and without ever buying the property (get property under contract a discount, sell the contract to an investor and keep the difference). I began cold-calling an hour or 2 a day to try to find off-market properties at a discount that we could wholesale. Within 2 weeks, I found our first deal. Went on appointment with Maria. Got it under contract. She found a buyer and we made a total of 5k. 2 weeks after finding the 1st deal I found another, got it under contract, Maria found buyer, we made a total of 18k. After splitting, we both made 14k each. I was hooked. Keep in mind, I'm still pressure washing this whole time on the side. Cold calling in the morning, doing pressure washing jobs in afternoon.

June of 2021, I cold called this guy, Brian. He had a house I wanted to buy and he said Chris, you're good on the phone come by my office and let's talk. I go to his office, and he was a pretty well to-do investor/builder. The house I wanted to buy was a flip house. He was currently renovating it. He said he wanted 90k for the house, and it needed about 40k in work still and he had all of the crews that he would let do the work for us. We made a deal, If I could bring him a check for 40k, he would give that to his crews to do the work and we would just pay him 90k for the house once it sold.
Maria and I flipped the house and we made about 17k each. At this time I began going to real estate meetups. found another young guy there, Clay, whose dad owned a successful business but didn't know how to invest his money. They wanted to flip houses together. I told him I find off market deals and maybe we could partner up. A few months go by, I went back to Brian and asked if he had anything else he would sell me. He didn't have any houses but had some apartments he would be willing to owner finance to me. 16 units, wanted 1.25m for them. Said If I could bring him a check for 250k he would finance the apartments at a 3% interest rate to help me along. I had no idea where to find 250k... then one day Clay calls me. We hadn't talked in a while and he wanted to see what was up. We go get coffee, I mention this apartment deal. He talks with his dad, and they decide to put up 250k. I would manage the buildings and I would get a 30% stake, they would put up all of the cash to do it. Done.

(At this time, Maria and I stopped working together. She had family issues and couldn't dedicate as much as I could to wholesaling.)

October 1 2021, We close on the 16 units. Retirement started to smell different now, more like cat pee that had been sitting in the carpets for a few years.... I felt awesome. Also Started October 1st 2021 I decided I was going to stop pressure washing and do real estate full time. I was going to dive head first into wholesaling and finding deals. I then began cold calling 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. I hated it, hated cold calling, but forced myself to show up and do it. Within my first month, I made 30k and did 4 deals. 2nd month, I did about the same. I felt invincible.

January 2022 I was all in on cold calling and real estate with some new wind in my sails. I joined this mastermind group that taught creative finance strategies in real estate and how to own properties with little money out of pocket/how to sell properties owner finance. I began partnering with the guy who started this group, Travis. He lived in Illinois, but he invested in South Carolina where I was. I found houses to flip, he would bring the cash and he would use his crews to do the work and we would split 50/50. We did a few flips, lost money on some, made ok money on others. But what he taught me in creative finance far exceeded any amount of money I had to pay him. I began buying properties with very little of my own money. (seller financed, borrow money from Clay's dad, met a few hard money lenders, etc)

January 2022-August 2022 my wholesaling business was in full swing. I began making 50k, 100k, 80k, 70k a month some months. Was flipping houses, was picking up rentals etc. July 2022, a few days before my 24th birthday I closed on a property that officially put my networth over $1m.

Fast forward to now, I'm 25. I've been sober for 6 years. I own/part-owner in over 150 rental properties. I'm flipping 9 houses currently, doing 7 new build houses, and doing all sorts of creative finance deals. I can gladly say I had hit my goal and became a millionaire by 25. Although, not so sure I want to retire by 30 anymore........

Quite a long-winded post, if you read it all, hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to reach out if I can help you at all in your journey. Many, many people poured into me during this journey and many still do today. There's a lot more to this journey that was just way too much to include but I did the best I could to include the highlights.

Thank you for this inspiring story Chris. You did not let anything negative from your life hold you back or even your young age. I'm a couple of years older then you and all of I have to say is that I needed to read this post to help push me to keep on going.

 

[nyitdom]

Hey Guys. Long time no talk... I've been on this forum for years and haven't been on in about a year or so and thought I'd share how my life has changed since. I figured I'd make a post outlining where I'm at today and how I arrived here. Some of it will repeat the prior posts I've made, but those were several years ago so I will include some of them anyways. This will be a long post, Excuse the great wall of china like text.

6 Years ago this month in 2017, I got arrested at 19 years old. I got mixed up in the wrong crowds having too much fun in college and got caught with a bunch of drugs I had no business doing. I was hooked and had a pretty bad addiction. It took about a year for me to go to court. In October of 2018 I walked out of court sentenced to 5 years of probation. At the time I was living in Atlanta and my mom lived in South Carolina. She decided to move me up to South Carolina to get me out of that environment. Picture this: 20 years old, living in my mom's basement, dropped out of college, sitting in treatment centers trying to get my life back together. Quite the way to kick off my 20s, huh? I spent the first few months getting my mind back together, sitting in my mom's basement playing video games watching all of my friends continue to have a blast in college while I sat at home and did nothing. All of a sudden something began to click, I really started to get interested in trying to build a business or do something productive.

February of 2019 I got a part-time job working at a hardware store selling nuts and bolts. On my way to work I'd listen to podcasts by Tony Robbins, mindset development podcasts, etc. Had no idea what I was going to do, but I wanted to do something. Then I came up with this audacious goal. I wanted to be a millionaire by 25 and retired by 30. Not that I believed I could actually do it, just give me something to shoot for to occupy my mind. It soon became an obsession, it was all I could talk about. I'd go to the group counseling at these treatment centers and as they'd go around the room asking what people were up to, this is what I would discuss. Imagine the reactions I got, "What makes you think you can do that?" "yeah right, you're sitting in rehab right now at 20 years old in your mom's basement" etc etc. The owner of the counseling facility was also a counselor and would listen in on our group meetings. One day she comes up to me and gives me a book. Of all books... @MJ DeMarco Millionaire fast lane book. I went home and dug in. It got the gears turning, and I quickly wanted to see what I could do next to get started. I began listening to a podcast channel called The sweaty startup by Nick huber. His whole premise of the podcast was to encourage people start low barrier to entry businesses where your competition most likely sucked and they're usually in the blue collar industry. After a little bit of research I decided to try pressure washing. Rented a pressure washer, washed my mom's house to see if I could do it. Next thing you know, game on.

After renting a pressure washer to do my first few jobs I saved up enough cash to buy my own cheap pressure washer. I tried connecting with realtors, dropping flyers in mailboxes, posting on nextdoor, posting in facebook groups, all to try and find some business. I'd take my pressure washer to my part-time job then when I got off at 2pm every day, I'd go knock out a job or two. Began to pick up a little bit of steam (making a whopping 2k/mo) when I decided to quit my part-time job.

January 1st 2020, I quit my part-time job. Who would've thought winter was the best time of year to be a full time pressure washer? First month, made $700. 2nd month, made $1,500. Then, one day I make a post on this very forum asking for advice on how to get more business. Someone reached out named Rich (I don't know his username on here anymore, I believe he found my website and emailed me or something). Rich said he had a marketing company he was starting and wanted to do a case study. Asked if he could do Facebook ads for me for free so long as I pay ad spend. Done. 1st ad we started march 1 2020. Ad spend $300/mo. I got 1 job the month of March. Job paid $300. I broke even.... One day saw an ad from another competitor. Their ad was blowing up on Facebook, everyone asking to get their house washed. The difference, they did a video showing their face and the ad was showing how they wash houses and their process. I thought, you know what I need to do a similar ad and see if my results are any better. I changed my ad, showed how I cleaned driveways, introduced myself (Ok I lied in the ad, I said I was a local college student... I was actually just a local drop-out) We roll out this ad and boom. I can't remember exact numbers but I began making anywhere from 6-9k/mo net. I could smell retirement. It smelled like bleach and felt like cold water splashing in my face from the end of my wand.

I had always been interested in Real estate, so at this time, when the world shut down from covid, I began researching how to get into the investment side of real estate. I met this local realtor who I'd washed houses for and he would invest on the side. He began asking me what my goals are. He quickly informed me that I would have a very difficult time reaching them pressure washing and I should think about getting into real estate. We would ride around, look at his flip houses, show me his numbers, etc. More than anything, he planted the seed. August of 2020 I bought my first house. Little duplex, had twisted my mom's arm to co-sign on the loan (the only help she gave me, so don't even say my parents built what I have). I lived in one side and rented out the other, It covered my mortgage payment every month. Also August of 2020 I go to get my real estate license. Get my license October 2020. Sold 3 houses as a realtor, and HATED it. However, the 1st house I sold was one of my neighbor had a cheap mobile home he wanted to sell. He wanted 50k. This tight wad didn't even want to pay 6% and let me list it, he said go find a buyer and I'll pay you 3%. I posted it on some Facebook groups, this lady says she will buy it. She was also a realtor. A few months later, I asked her what she did with it, she said she wholesaled it and made 20k. I made $1,500 as a realtor on this transaction. I asked her what the hell wholesaling was.

February of 2021, I began working with this lady named Maria and we wholesaled real estate together. For those that don't know what this is, look it up, but it allowed me to make a good profit on real estate without needing any money and without ever buying the property (get property under contract a discount, sell the contract to an investor and keep the difference). I began cold-calling an hour or 2 a day to try to find off-market properties at a discount that we could wholesale. Within 2 weeks, I found our first deal. Went on appointment with Maria. Got it under contract. She found a buyer and we made a total of 5k. 2 weeks after finding the 1st deal I found another, got it under contract, Maria found buyer, we made a total of 18k. After splitting, we both made 14k each. I was hooked. Keep in mind, I'm still pressure washing this whole time on the side. Cold calling in the morning, doing pressure washing jobs in afternoon.

June of 2021, I cold called this guy, Brian. He had a house I wanted to buy and he said Chris, you're good on the phone come by my office and let's talk. I go to his office, and he was a pretty well to-do investor/builder. The house I wanted to buy was a flip house. He was currently renovating it. He said he wanted 90k for the house, and it needed about 40k in work still and he had all of the crews that he would let do the work for us. We made a deal, If I could bring him a check for 40k, he would give that to his crews to do the work and we would just pay him 90k for the house once it sold.
Maria and I flipped the house and we made about 17k each. At this time I began going to real estate meetups. found another young guy there, Clay, whose dad owned a successful business but didn't know how to invest his money. They wanted to flip houses together. I told him I find off market deals and maybe we could partner up. A few months go by, I went back to Brian and asked if he had anything else he would sell me. He didn't have any houses but had some apartments he would be willing to owner finance to me. 16 units, wanted 1.25m for them. Said If I could bring him a check for 250k he would finance the apartments at a 3% interest rate to help me along. I had no idea where to find 250k... then one day Clay calls me. We hadn't talked in a while and he wanted to see what was up. We go get coffee, I mention this apartment deal. He talks with his dad, and they decide to put up 250k. I would manage the buildings and I would get a 30% stake, they would put up all of the cash to do it. Done.

(At this time, Maria and I stopped working together. She had family issues and couldn't dedicate as much as I could to wholesaling.)

October 1 2021, We close on the 16 units. Retirement started to smell different now, more like cat pee that had been sitting in the carpets for a few years.... I felt awesome. Also Started October 1st 2021 I decided I was going to stop pressure washing and do real estate full time. I was going to dive head first into wholesaling and finding deals. I then began cold calling 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. I hated it, hated cold calling, but forced myself to show up and do it. Within my first month, I made 30k and did 4 deals. 2nd month, I did about the same. I felt invincible.

January 2022 I was all in on cold calling and real estate with some new wind in my sails. I joined this mastermind group that taught creative finance strategies in real estate and how to own properties with little money out of pocket/how to sell properties owner finance. I began partnering with the guy who started this group, Travis. He lived in Illinois, but he invested in South Carolina where I was. I found houses to flip, he would bring the cash and he would use his crews to do the work and we would split 50/50. We did a few flips, lost money on some, made ok money on others. But what he taught me in creative finance far exceeded any amount of money I had to pay him. I began buying properties with very little of my own money. (seller financed, borrow money from Clay's dad, met a few hard money lenders, etc)

January 2022-August 2022 my wholesaling business was in full swing. I began making 50k, 100k, 80k, 70k a month some months. Was flipping houses, was picking up rentals etc. July 2022, a few days before my 24th birthday I closed on a property that officially put my networth over $1m.

Fast forward to now, I'm 25. I've been sober for 6 years. I own/part-owner in over 150 rental properties. I'm flipping 9 houses currently, doing 7 new build houses, and doing all sorts of creative finance deals. I can gladly say I had hit my goal and became a millionaire by 25. Although, not so sure I want to retire by 30 anymore........

Quite a long-winded post, if you read it all, hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to reach out if I can help you at all in your journey. Many, many people poured into me during this journey and many still do today. There's a lot more to this journey that was just way too much to include but I did the best I could to include the highlights.

Can I take your advice ?
I have almost read the millionare fastlane and I have decided to finish the last highschool year by correspondence (if thats the right word) and get into a 9 to 5 job to earn money. Now I dont have a home, I live in the dorm and I have no income except for some crypto that I cant wrap my head around. The job will need me to work 12 hours, but is very easy and I can even bring my laptop if I want. My skills are as follows: I understand human behaviour and communication very well, can learn anything very easily, speaking skills are relatively fine (youtube channel content that could get viral), can understand computers very well and can use AI for my advantage. My negatives: basically dont have a family and I can only see my mother for 2 hours at best every month or so, no income, rely on my 50 year old mothers income to survive, no house (cant contract my business as a legal entity), I dont really understand taxes and how they work because reading them trough the official papers is demonic, live in hungary(yes, thats a negative). Now can you give me some advice, altough rereading my own comment makes it clearer.

 

[ChrisGav]

This is so in depth and helps me out sooo much since I’m a new wholesaler. THANK YOU!

Also just curious do you wholesale virtually or local markets?

I've only ever done local. I know some guys that do well virtually. I've just always assumed there's plenty of deals in my backyard so why make it more complicated by doing it virtually.

Can I take your advice ?
I have almost read the millionare fastlane and I have decided to finish the last highschool year by correspondence (if thats the right word) and get into a 9 to 5 job to earn money. Now I dont have a home, I live in the dorm and I have no income except for some crypto that I cant wrap my head around. The job will need me to work 12 hours, but is very easy and I can even bring my laptop if I want. My skills are as follows: I understand human behaviour and communication very well, can learn anything very easily, speaking skills are relatively fine (youtube channel content that could get viral), can understand computers very well and can use AI for my advantage. My negatives: basically dont have a family and I can only see my mother for 2 hours at best every month or so, no income, rely on my 50 year old mothers income to survive, no house (cant contract my business as a legal entity), I dont really understand taxes and how they work because reading them trough the official papers is demonic, live in hungary(yes, thats a negative). Now can you give me some advice, altough rereading my own comment makes it clearer.

What's your question exactly?

 

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[nyitdom]

I've only ever done local. I know some guys that do well virtually. I've just always assumed there's plenty of deals in my backyard so why make it more complicated by doing it virtually.


What's your question exactly?

What would you do in my situation?

 

[EL_00]

Hey Guys. Long time no talk... I've been on this forum for years and haven't been on in about a year or so and thought I'd share how my life has changed since. I figured I'd make a post outlining where I'm at today and how I arrived here. Some of it will repeat the prior posts I've made, but those were several years ago so I will include some of them anyways. This will be a long post, Excuse the great wall of china like text.

6 Years ago this month in 2017, I got arrested at 19 years old. I got mixed up in the wrong crowds having too much fun in college and got caught with a bunch of drugs I had no business doing. I was hooked and had a pretty bad addiction. It took about a year for me to go to court. In October of 2018 I walked out of court sentenced to 5 years of probation. At the time I was living in Atlanta and my mom lived in South Carolina. She decided to move me up to South Carolina to get me out of that environment. Picture this: 20 years old, living in my mom's basement, dropped out of college, sitting in treatment centers trying to get my life back together. Quite the way to kick off my 20s, huh? I spent the first few months getting my mind back together, sitting in my mom's basement playing video games watching all of my friends continue to have a blast in college while I sat at home and did nothing. All of a sudden something began to click, I really started to get interested in trying to build a business or do something productive.

February of 2019 I got a part-time job working at a hardware store selling nuts and bolts. On my way to work I'd listen to podcasts by Tony Robbins, mindset development podcasts, etc. Had no idea what I was going to do, but I wanted to do something. Then I came up with this audacious goal. I wanted to be a millionaire by 25 and retired by 30. Not that I believed I could actually do it, just give me something to shoot for to occupy my mind. It soon became an obsession, it was all I could talk about. I'd go to the group counseling at these treatment centers and as they'd go around the room asking what people were up to, this is what I would discuss. Imagine the reactions I got, "What makes you think you can do that?" "yeah right, you're sitting in rehab right now at 20 years old in your mom's basement" etc etc. The owner of the counseling facility was also a counselor and would listen in on our group meetings. One day she comes up to me and gives me a book. Of all books... @MJ DeMarco Millionaire fast lane book. I went home and dug in. It got the gears turning, and I quickly wanted to see what I could do next to get started. I began listening to a podcast channel called The sweaty startup by Nick huber. His whole premise of the podcast was to encourage people start low barrier to entry businesses where your competition most likely sucked and they're usually in the blue collar industry. After a little bit of research I decided to try pressure washing. Rented a pressure washer, washed my mom's house to see if I could do it. Next thing you know, game on.

After renting a pressure washer to do my first few jobs I saved up enough cash to buy my own cheap pressure washer. I tried connecting with realtors, dropping flyers in mailboxes, posting on nextdoor, posting in facebook groups, all to try and find some business. I'd take my pressure washer to my part-time job then when I got off at 2pm every day, I'd go knock out a job or two. Began to pick up a little bit of steam (making a whopping 2k/mo) when I decided to quit my part-time job.

January 1st 2020, I quit my part-time job. Who would've thought winter was the best time of year to be a full time pressure washer? First month, made $700. 2nd month, made $1,500. Then, one day I make a post on this very forum asking for advice on how to get more business. Someone reached out named Rich (I don't know his username on here anymore, I believe he found my website and emailed me or something). Rich said he had a marketing company he was starting and wanted to do a case study. Asked if he could do Facebook ads for me for free so long as I pay ad spend. Done. 1st ad we started march 1 2020. Ad spend $300/mo. I got 1 job the month of March. Job paid $300. I broke even.... One day saw an ad from another competitor. Their ad was blowing up on Facebook, everyone asking to get their house washed. The difference, they did a video showing their face and the ad was showing how they wash houses and their process. I thought, you know what I need to do a similar ad and see if my results are any better. I changed my ad, showed how I cleaned driveways, introduced myself (Ok I lied in the ad, I said I was a local college student... I was actually just a local drop-out) We roll out this ad and boom. I can't remember exact numbers but I began making anywhere from 6-9k/mo net. I could smell retirement. It smelled like bleach and felt like cold water splashing in my face from the end of my wand.

I had always been interested in Real estate, so at this time, when the world shut down from covid, I began researching how to get into the investment side of real estate. I met this local realtor who I'd washed houses for and he would invest on the side. He began asking me what my goals are. He quickly informed me that I would have a very difficult time reaching them pressure washing and I should think about getting into real estate. We would ride around, look at his flip houses, show me his numbers, etc. More than anything, he planted the seed. August of 2020 I bought my first house. Little duplex, had twisted my mom's arm to co-sign on the loan (the only help she gave me, so don't even say my parents built what I have). I lived in one side and rented out the other, It covered my mortgage payment every month. Also August of 2020 I go to get my real estate license. Get my license October 2020. Sold 3 houses as a realtor, and HATED it. However, the 1st house I sold was one of my neighbor had a cheap mobile home he wanted to sell. He wanted 50k. This tight wad didn't even want to pay 6% and let me list it, he said go find a buyer and I'll pay you 3%. I posted it on some Facebook groups, this lady says she will buy it. She was also a realtor. A few months later, I asked her what she did with it, she said she wholesaled it and made 20k. I made $1,500 as a realtor on this transaction. I asked her what the hell wholesaling was.

February of 2021, I began working with this lady named Maria and we wholesaled real estate together. For those that don't know what this is, look it up, but it allowed me to make a good profit on real estate without needing any money and without ever buying the property (get property under contract a discount, sell the contract to an investor and keep the difference). I began cold-calling an hour or 2 a day to try to find off-market properties at a discount that we could wholesale. Within 2 weeks, I found our first deal. Went on appointment with Maria. Got it under contract. She found a buyer and we made a total of 5k. 2 weeks after finding the 1st deal I found another, got it under contract, Maria found buyer, we made a total of 18k. After splitting, we both made 14k each. I was hooked. Keep in mind, I'm still pressure washing this whole time on the side. Cold calling in the morning, doing pressure washing jobs in afternoon.

June of 2021, I cold called this guy, Brian. He had a house I wanted to buy and he said Chris, you're good on the phone come by my office and let's talk. I go to his office, and he was a pretty well to-do investor/builder. The house I wanted to buy was a flip house. He was currently renovating it. He said he wanted 90k for the house, and it needed about 40k in work still and he had all of the crews that he would let do the work for us. We made a deal, If I could bring him a check for 40k, he would give that to his crews to do the work and we would just pay him 90k for the house once it sold.
Maria and I flipped the house and we made about 17k each. At this time I began going to real estate meetups. found another young guy there, Clay, whose dad owned a successful business but didn't know how to invest his money. They wanted to flip houses together. I told him I find off market deals and maybe we could partner up. A few months go by, I went back to Brian and asked if he had anything else he would sell me. He didn't have any houses but had some apartments he would be willing to owner finance to me. 16 units, wanted 1.25m for them. Said If I could bring him a check for 250k he would finance the apartments at a 3% interest rate to help me along. I had no idea where to find 250k... then one day Clay calls me. We hadn't talked in a while and he wanted to see what was up. We go get coffee, I mention this apartment deal. He talks with his dad, and they decide to put up 250k. I would manage the buildings and I would get a 30% stake, they would put up all of the cash to do it. Done.

(At this time, Maria and I stopped working together. She had family issues and couldn't dedicate as much as I could to wholesaling.)

October 1 2021, We close on the 16 units. Retirement started to smell different now, more like cat pee that had been sitting in the carpets for a few years.... I felt awesome. Also Started October 1st 2021 I decided I was going to stop pressure washing and do real estate full time. I was going to dive head first into wholesaling and finding deals. I then began cold calling 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. I hated it, hated cold calling, but forced myself to show up and do it. Within my first month, I made 30k and did 4 deals. 2nd month, I did about the same. I felt invincible.

January 2022 I was all in on cold calling and real estate with some new wind in my sails. I joined this mastermind group that taught creative finance strategies in real estate and how to own properties with little money out of pocket/how to sell properties owner finance. I began partnering with the guy who started this group, Travis. He lived in Illinois, but he invested in South Carolina where I was. I found houses to flip, he would bring the cash and he would use his crews to do the work and we would split 50/50. We did a few flips, lost money on some, made ok money on others. But what he taught me in creative finance far exceeded any amount of money I had to pay him. I began buying properties with very little of my own money. (seller financed, borrow money from Clay's dad, met a few hard money lenders, etc)

January 2022-August 2022 my wholesaling business was in full swing. I began making 50k, 100k, 80k, 70k a month some months. Was flipping houses, was picking up rentals etc. July 2022, a few days before my 24th birthday I closed on a property that officially put my networth over $1m.

Fast forward to now, I'm 25. I've been sober for 6 years. I own/part-owner in over 150 rental properties. I'm flipping 9 houses currently, doing 7 new build houses, and doing all sorts of creative finance deals. I can gladly say I had hit my goal and became a millionaire by 25. Although, not so sure I want to retire by 30 anymore........

Quite a long-winded post, if you read it all, hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to reach out if I can help you at all in your journey. Many, many people poured into me during this journey and many still do today. There's a lot more to this journey that was just way too much to include but I did the best I could to include the highlights.

Wow, I love how you could talk with these people without feeling intimidated. How you do that?

 

[PetitBourgeoisie]

Fast forward to now, I'm 25. I've been sober for 6 years. I own/part-owner in over 150 rental properties. I'm flipping 9 houses currently, doing 7 new build houses, and doing all sorts of creative finance deals. I can gladly say I had hit my goal and became a millionaire by 25. Although, not so sure I want to retire by 30 anymore.

Just left it with a like at first but reading all the way through this really deserves the gold. Inspirational story, Chris, great stuff.

 

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[msissoko]

Hey Guys. Long time no talk... I've been on this forum for years and haven't been on in about a year or so and thought I'd share how my life has changed since. I figured I'd make a post outlining where I'm at today and how I arrived here. Some of it will repeat the prior posts I've made, but those were several years ago so I will include some of them anyways. This will be a long post, Excuse the great wall of china like text.

6 Years ago this month in 2017, I got arrested at 19 years old. I got mixed up in the wrong crowds having too much fun in college and got caught with a bunch of drugs I had no business doing. I was hooked and had a pretty bad addiction. It took about a year for me to go to court. In October of 2018 I walked out of court sentenced to 5 years of probation. At the time I was living in Atlanta and my mom lived in South Carolina. She decided to move me up to South Carolina to get me out of that environment. Picture this: 20 years old, living in my mom's basement, dropped out of college, sitting in treatment centers trying to get my life back together. Quite the way to kick off my 20s, huh? I spent the first few months getting my mind back together, sitting in my mom's basement playing video games watching all of my friends continue to have a blast in college while I sat at home and did nothing. All of a sudden something began to click, I really started to get interested in trying to build a business or do something productive.

February of 2019 I got a part-time job working at a hardware store selling nuts and bolts. On my way to work I'd listen to podcasts by Tony Robbins, mindset development podcasts, etc. Had no idea what I was going to do, but I wanted to do something. Then I came up with this audacious goal. I wanted to be a millionaire by 25 and retired by 30. Not that I believed I could actually do it, just give me something to shoot for to occupy my mind. It soon became an obsession, it was all I could talk about. I'd go to the group counseling at these treatment centers and as they'd go around the room asking what people were up to, this is what I would discuss. Imagine the reactions I got, "What makes you think you can do that?" "yeah right, you're sitting in rehab right now at 20 years old in your mom's basement" etc etc. The owner of the counseling facility was also a counselor and would listen in on our group meetings. One day she comes up to me and gives me a book. Of all books... @MJ DeMarco Millionaire fast lane book. I went home and dug in. It got the gears turning, and I quickly wanted to see what I could do next to get started. I began listening to a podcast channel called The sweaty startup by Nick huber. His whole premise of the podcast was to encourage people start low barrier to entry businesses where your competition most likely sucked and they're usually in the blue collar industry. After a little bit of research I decided to try pressure washing. Rented a pressure washer, washed my mom's house to see if I could do it. Next thing you know, game on.

After renting a pressure washer to do my first few jobs I saved up enough cash to buy my own cheap pressure washer. I tried connecting with realtors, dropping flyers in mailboxes, posting on nextdoor, posting in facebook groups, all to try and find some business. I'd take my pressure washer to my part-time job then when I got off at 2pm every day, I'd go knock out a job or two. Began to pick up a little bit of steam (making a whopping 2k/mo) when I decided to quit my part-time job.

January 1st 2020, I quit my part-time job. Who would've thought winter was the best time of year to be a full time pressure washer? First month, made $700. 2nd month, made $1,500. Then, one day I make a post on this very forum asking for advice on how to get more business. Someone reached out named Rich (I don't know his username on here anymore, I believe he found my website and emailed me or something). Rich said he had a marketing company he was starting and wanted to do a case study. Asked if he could do Facebook ads for me for free so long as I pay ad spend. Done. 1st ad we started march 1 2020. Ad spend $300/mo. I got 1 job the month of March. Job paid $300. I broke even.... One day saw an ad from another competitor. Their ad was blowing up on Facebook, everyone asking to get their house washed. The difference, they did a video showing their face and the ad was showing how they wash houses and their process. I thought, you know what I need to do a similar ad and see if my results are any better. I changed my ad, showed how I cleaned driveways, introduced myself (Ok I lied in the ad, I said I was a local college student... I was actually just a local drop-out) We roll out this ad and boom. I can't remember exact numbers but I began making anywhere from 6-9k/mo net. I could smell retirement. It smelled like bleach and felt like cold water splashing in my face from the end of my wand.

I had always been interested in Real estate, so at this time, when the world shut down from covid, I began researching how to get into the investment side of real estate. I met this local realtor who I'd washed houses for and he would invest on the side. He began asking me what my goals are. He quickly informed me that I would have a very difficult time reaching them pressure washing and I should think about getting into real estate. We would ride around, look at his flip houses, show me his numbers, etc. More than anything, he planted the seed. August of 2020 I bought my first house. Little duplex, had twisted my mom's arm to co-sign on the loan (the only help she gave me, so don't even say my parents built what I have). I lived in one side and rented out the other, It covered my mortgage payment every month. Also August of 2020 I go to get my real estate license. Get my license October 2020. Sold 3 houses as a realtor, and HATED it. However, the 1st house I sold was one of my neighbor had a cheap mobile home he wanted to sell. He wanted 50k. This tight wad didn't even want to pay 6% and let me list it, he said go find a buyer and I'll pay you 3%. I posted it on some Facebook groups, this lady says she will buy it. She was also a realtor. A few months later, I asked her what she did with it, she said she wholesaled it and made 20k. I made $1,500 as a realtor on this transaction. I asked her what the hell wholesaling was.

February of 2021, I began working with this lady named Maria and we wholesaled real estate together. For those that don't know what this is, look it up, but it allowed me to make a good profit on real estate without needing any money and without ever buying the property (get property under contract a discount, sell the contract to an investor and keep the difference). I began cold-calling an hour or 2 a day to try to find off-market properties at a discount that we could wholesale. Within 2 weeks, I found our first deal. Went on appointment with Maria. Got it under contract. She found a buyer and we made a total of 5k. 2 weeks after finding the 1st deal I found another, got it under contract, Maria found buyer, we made a total of 18k. After splitting, we both made 14k each. I was hooked. Keep in mind, I'm still pressure washing this whole time on the side. Cold calling in the morning, doing pressure washing jobs in afternoon.

June of 2021, I cold called this guy, Brian. He had a house I wanted to buy and he said Chris, you're good on the phone come by my office and let's talk. I go to his office, and he was a pretty well to-do investor/builder. The house I wanted to buy was a flip house. He was currently renovating it. He said he wanted 90k for the house, and it needed about 40k in work still and he had all of the crews that he would let do the work for us. We made a deal, If I could bring him a check for 40k, he would give that to his crews to do the work and we would just pay him 90k for the house once it sold.
Maria and I flipped the house and we made about 17k each. At this time I began going to real estate meetups. found another young guy there, Clay, whose dad owned a successful business but didn't know how to invest his money. They wanted to flip houses together. I told him I find off market deals and maybe we could partner up. A few months go by, I went back to Brian and asked if he had anything else he would sell me. He didn't have any houses but had some apartments he would be willing to owner finance to me. 16 units, wanted 1.25m for them. Said If I could bring him a check for 250k he would finance the apartments at a 3% interest rate to help me along. I had no idea where to find 250k... then one day Clay calls me. We hadn't talked in a while and he wanted to see what was up. We go get coffee, I mention this apartment deal. He talks with his dad, and they decide to put up 250k. I would manage the buildings and I would get a 30% stake, they would put up all of the cash to do it. Done.

(At this time, Maria and I stopped working together. She had family issues and couldn't dedicate as much as I could to wholesaling.)

October 1 2021, We close on the 16 units. Retirement started to smell different now, more like cat pee that had been sitting in the carpets for a few years.... I felt awesome. Also Started October 1st 2021 I decided I was going to stop pressure washing and do real estate full time. I was going to dive head first into wholesaling and finding deals. I then began cold calling 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. I hated it, hated cold calling, but forced myself to show up and do it. Within my first month, I made 30k and did 4 deals. 2nd month, I did about the same. I felt invincible.

January 2022 I was all in on cold calling and real estate with some new wind in my sails. I joined this mastermind group that taught creative finance strategies in real estate and how to own properties with little money out of pocket/how to sell properties owner finance. I began partnering with the guy who started this group, Travis. He lived in Illinois, but he invested in South Carolina where I was. I found houses to flip, he would bring the cash and he would use his crews to do the work and we would split 50/50. We did a few flips, lost money on some, made ok money on others. But what he taught me in creative finance far exceeded any amount of money I had to pay him. I began buying properties with very little of my own money. (seller financed, borrow money from Clay's dad, met a few hard money lenders, etc)

January 2022-August 2022 my wholesaling business was in full swing. I began making 50k, 100k, 80k, 70k a month some months. Was flipping houses, was picking up rentals etc. July 2022, a few days before my 24th birthday I closed on a property that officially put my networth over $1m.

Fast forward to now, I'm 25. I've been sober for 6 years. I own/part-owner in over 150 rental properties. I'm flipping 9 houses currently, doing 7 new build houses, and doing all sorts of creative finance deals. I can gladly say I had hit my goal and became a millionaire by 25. Although, not so sure I want to retire by 30 anymore........

Quite a long-winded post, if you read it all, hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to reach out if I can help you at all in your journey. Many, many people poured into me during this journey and many still do today. There's a lot more to this journey that was just way too much to include but I did the best I could to include the highlights.

you're a source of inspiration

 

[simeon_paunov]

Wow man. This just warmed up my heart. Damn. Congratulations on your achievement. I'm 19 currently in a 3rd world country and wanting to move out. I found a job abroad and just submitted my documents to get a visa and move out. I plan to work and start my print on demand business there. I failed in a lot of things but I know I will succeed in becoming a millionaire. I have the same goal as you. Become a millionaire by 25. I will see you up in the ladder boss. Keep up the good work.

 

[andrea532]

Hey Guys. Long time no talk... I've been on this forum for years and haven't been on in about a year or so and thought I'd share how my life has changed since. I figured I'd make a post outlining where I'm at today and how I arrived here. Some of it will repeat the prior posts I've made, but those were several years ago so I will include some of them anyways. This will be a long post, Excuse the great wall of china like text.

6 Years ago this month in 2017, I got arrested at 19 years old. I got mixed up in the wrong crowds having too much fun in college and got caught with a bunch of drugs I had no business doing. I was hooked and had a pretty bad addiction. It took about a year for me to go to court. In October of 2018 I walked out of court sentenced to 5 years of probation. At the time I was living in Atlanta and my mom lived in South Carolina. She decided to move me up to South Carolina to get me out of that environment. Picture this: 20 years old, living in my mom's basement, dropped out of college, sitting in treatment centers trying to get my life back together. Quite the way to kick off my 20s, huh? I spent the first few months getting my mind back together, sitting in my mom's basement playing video games watching all of my friends continue to have a blast in college while I sat at home and did nothing. All of a sudden something began to click, I really started to get interested in trying to build a business or do something productive.

February of 2019 I got a part-time job working at a hardware store selling nuts and bolts. On my way to work I'd listen to podcasts by Tony Robbins, mindset development podcasts, etc. Had no idea what I was going to do, but I wanted to do something. Then I came up with this audacious goal. I wanted to be a millionaire by 25 and retired by 30. Not that I believed I could actually do it, just give me something to shoot for to occupy my mind. It soon became an obsession, it was all I could talk about. I'd go to the group counseling at these treatment centers and as they'd go around the room asking what people were up to, this is what I would discuss. Imagine the reactions I got, "What makes you think you can do that?" "yeah right, you're sitting in rehab right now at 20 years old in your mom's basement" etc etc. The owner of the counseling facility was also a counselor and would listen in on our group meetings. One day she comes up to me and gives me a book. Of all books... @MJ DeMarco Millionaire fast lane book. I went home and dug in. It got the gears turning, and I quickly wanted to see what I could do next to get started. I began listening to a podcast channel called The sweaty startup by Nick huber. His whole premise of the podcast was to encourage people start low barrier to entry businesses where your competition most likely sucked and they're usually in the blue collar industry. After a little bit of research I decided to try pressure washing. Rented a pressure washer, washed my mom's house to see if I could do it. Next thing you know, game on.

After renting a pressure washer to do my first few jobs I saved up enough cash to buy my own cheap pressure washer. I tried connecting with realtors, dropping flyers in mailboxes, posting on nextdoor, posting in facebook groups, all to try and find some business. I'd take my pressure washer to my part-time job then when I got off at 2pm every day, I'd go knock out a job or two. Began to pick up a little bit of steam (making a whopping 2k/mo) when I decided to quit my part-time job.

January 1st 2020, I quit my part-time job. Who would've thought winter was the best time of year to be a full time pressure washer? First month, made $700. 2nd month, made $1,500. Then, one day I make a post on this very forum asking for advice on how to get more business. Someone reached out named Rich (I don't know his username on here anymore, I believe he found my website and emailed me or something). Rich said he had a marketing company he was starting and wanted to do a case study. Asked if he could do Facebook ads for me for free so long as I pay ad spend. Done. 1st ad we started march 1 2020. Ad spend $300/mo. I got 1 job the month of March. Job paid $300. I broke even.... One day saw an ad from another competitor. Their ad was blowing up on Facebook, everyone asking to get their house washed. The difference, they did a video showing their face and the ad was showing how they wash houses and their process. I thought, you know what I need to do a similar ad and see if my results are any better. I changed my ad, showed how I cleaned driveways, introduced myself (Ok I lied in the ad, I said I was a local college student... I was actually just a local drop-out) We roll out this ad and boom. I can't remember exact numbers but I began making anywhere from 6-9k/mo net. I could smell retirement. It smelled like bleach and felt like cold water splashing in my face from the end of my wand.

I had always been interested in Real estate, so at this time, when the world shut down from covid, I began researching how to get into the investment side of real estate. I met this local realtor who I'd washed houses for and he would invest on the side. He began asking me what my goals are. He quickly informed me that I would have a very difficult time reaching them pressure washing and I should think about getting into real estate. We would ride around, look at his flip houses, show me his numbers, etc. More than anything, he planted the seed. August of 2020 I bought my first house. Little duplex, had twisted my mom's arm to co-sign on the loan (the only help she gave me, so don't even say my parents built what I have). I lived in one side and rented out the other, It covered my mortgage payment every month. Also August of 2020 I go to get my real estate license. Get my license October 2020. Sold 3 houses as a realtor, and HATED it. However, the 1st house I sold was one of my neighbor had a cheap mobile home he wanted to sell. He wanted 50k. This tight wad didn't even want to pay 6% and let me list it, he said go find a buyer and I'll pay you 3%. I posted it on some Facebook groups, this lady says she will buy it. She was also a realtor. A few months later, I asked her what she did with it, she said she wholesaled it and made 20k. I made $1,500 as a realtor on this transaction. I asked her what the hell wholesaling was.

February of 2021, I began working with this lady named Maria and we wholesaled real estate together. For those that don't know what this is, look it up, but it allowed me to make a good profit on real estate without needing any money and without ever buying the property (get property under contract a discount, sell the contract to an investor and keep the difference). I began cold-calling an hour or 2 a day to try to find off-market properties at a discount that we could wholesale. Within 2 weeks, I found our first deal. Went on appointment with Maria. Got it under contract. She found a buyer and we made a total of 5k. 2 weeks after finding the 1st deal I found another, got it under contract, Maria found buyer, we made a total of 18k. After splitting, we both made 14k each. I was hooked. Keep in mind, I'm still pressure washing this whole time on the side. Cold calling in the morning, doing pressure washing jobs in afternoon.

June of 2021, I cold called this guy, Brian. He had a house I wanted to buy and he said Chris, you're good on the phone come by my office and let's talk. I go to his office, and he was a pretty well to-do investor/builder. The house I wanted to buy was a flip house. He was currently renovating it. He said he wanted 90k for the house, and it needed about 40k in work still and he had all of the crews that he would let do the work for us. We made a deal, If I could bring him a check for 40k, he would give that to his crews to do the work and we would just pay him 90k for the house once it sold.
Maria and I flipped the house and we made about 17k each. At this time I began going to real estate meetups. found another young guy there, Clay, whose dad owned a successful business but didn't know how to invest his money. They wanted to flip houses together. I told him I find off market deals and maybe we could partner up. A few months go by, I went back to Brian and asked if he had anything else he would sell me. He didn't have any houses but had some apartments he would be willing to owner finance to me. 16 units, wanted 1.25m for them. Said If I could bring him a check for 250k he would finance the apartments at a 3% interest rate to help me along. I had no idea where to find 250k... then one day Clay calls me. We hadn't talked in a while and he wanted to see what was up. We go get coffee, I mention this apartment deal. He talks with his dad, and they decide to put up 250k. I would manage the buildings and I would get a 30% stake, they would put up all of the cash to do it. Done.

(At this time, Maria and I stopped working together. She had family issues and couldn't dedicate as much as I could to wholesaling.)

October 1 2021, We close on the 16 units. Retirement started to smell different now, more like cat pee that had been sitting in the carpets for a few years.... I felt awesome. Also Started October 1st 2021 I decided I was going to stop pressure washing and do real estate full time. I was going to dive head first into wholesaling and finding deals. I then began cold calling 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. I hated it, hated cold calling, but forced myself to show up and do it. Within my first month, I made 30k and did 4 deals. 2nd month, I did about the same. I felt invincible.

January 2022 I was all in on cold calling and real estate with some new wind in my sails. I joined this mastermind group that taught creative finance strategies in real estate and how to own properties with little money out of pocket/how to sell properties owner finance. I began partnering with the guy who started this group, Travis. He lived in Illinois, but he invested in South Carolina where I was. I found houses to flip, he would bring the cash and he would use his crews to do the work and we would split 50/50. We did a few flips, lost money on some, made ok money on others. But what he taught me in creative finance far exceeded any amount of money I had to pay him. I began buying properties with very little of my own money. (seller financed, borrow money from Clay's dad, met a few hard money lenders, etc)

January 2022-August 2022 my wholesaling business was in full swing. I began making 50k, 100k, 80k, 70k a month some months. Was flipping houses, was picking up rentals etc. July 2022, a few days before my 24th birthday I closed on a property that officially put my networth over $1m.

Fast forward to now, I'm 25. I've been sober for 6 years. I own/part-owner in over 150 rental properties. I'm flipping 9 houses currently, doing 7 new build houses, and doing all sorts of creative finance deals. I can gladly say I had hit my goal and became a millionaire by 25. Although, not so sure I want to retire by 30 anymore........

Quite a long-winded post, if you read it all, hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to reach out if I can help you at all in your journey. Many, many people poured into me during this journey and many still do today. There's a lot more to this journey that was just way too much to include but I did the best I could to include the highlights.

Hi, I missed something but where did the wholesale business start from, did you find a specific need or problem?

 

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[jprealestate]

Hey Guys. Long time no talk... I've been on this forum for years and haven't been on in about a year or so and thought I'd share how my life has changed since. I figured I'd make a post outlining where I'm at today and how I arrived here. Some of it will repeat the prior posts I've made, but those were several years ago so I will include some of them anyways. This will be a long post, Excuse the great wall of china like text.

6 Years ago this month in 2017, I got arrested at 19 years old. I got mixed up in the wrong crowds having too much fun in college and got caught with a bunch of drugs I had no business doing. I was hooked and had a pretty bad addiction. It took about a year for me to go to court. In October of 2018 I walked out of court sentenced to 5 years of probation. At the time I was living in Atlanta and my mom lived in South Carolina. She decided to move me up to South Carolina to get me out of that environment. Picture this: 20 years old, living in my mom's basement, dropped out of college, sitting in treatment centers trying to get my life back together. Quite the way to kick off my 20s, huh? I spent the first few months getting my mind back together, sitting in my mom's basement playing video games watching all of my friends continue to have a blast in college while I sat at home and did nothing. All of a sudden something began to click, I really started to get interested in trying to build a business or do something productive.

February of 2019 I got a part-time job working at a hardware store selling nuts and bolts. On my way to work I'd listen to podcasts by Tony Robbins, mindset development podcasts, etc. Had no idea what I was going to do, but I wanted to do something. Then I came up with this audacious goal. I wanted to be a millionaire by 25 and retired by 30. Not that I believed I could actually do it, just give me something to shoot for to occupy my mind. It soon became an obsession, it was all I could talk about. I'd go to the group counseling at these treatment centers and as they'd go around the room asking what people were up to, this is what I would discuss. Imagine the reactions I got, "What makes you think you can do that?" "yeah right, you're sitting in rehab right now at 20 years old in your mom's basement" etc etc. The owner of the counseling facility was also a counselor and would listen in on our group meetings. One day she comes up to me and gives me a book. Of all books... @MJ DeMarco Millionaire fast lane book. I went home and dug in. It got the gears turning, and I quickly wanted to see what I could do next to get started. I began listening to a podcast channel called The sweaty startup by Nick huber. His whole premise of the podcast was to encourage people start low barrier to entry businesses where your competition most likely sucked and they're usually in the blue collar industry. After a little bit of research I decided to try pressure washing. Rented a pressure washer, washed my mom's house to see if I could do it. Next thing you know, game on.

After renting a pressure washer to do my first few jobs I saved up enough cash to buy my own cheap pressure washer. I tried connecting with realtors, dropping flyers in mailboxes, posting on nextdoor, posting in facebook groups, all to try and find some business. I'd take my pressure washer to my part-time job then when I got off at 2pm every day, I'd go knock out a job or two. Began to pick up a little bit of steam (making a whopping 2k/mo) when I decided to quit my part-time job.

January 1st 2020, I quit my part-time job. Who would've thought winter was the best time of year to be a full time pressure washer? First month, made $700. 2nd month, made $1,500. Then, one day I make a post on this very forum asking for advice on how to get more business. Someone reached out named Rich (I don't know his username on here anymore, I believe he found my website and emailed me or something). Rich said he had a marketing company he was starting and wanted to do a case study. Asked if he could do Facebook ads for me for free so long as I pay ad spend. Done. 1st ad we started march 1 2020. Ad spend $300/mo. I got 1 job the month of March. Job paid $300. I broke even.... One day saw an ad from another competitor. Their ad was blowing up on Facebook, everyone asking to get their house washed. The difference, they did a video showing their face and the ad was showing how they wash houses and their process. I thought, you know what I need to do a similar ad and see if my results are any better. I changed my ad, showed how I cleaned driveways, introduced myself (Ok I lied in the ad, I said I was a local college student... I was actually just a local drop-out) We roll out this ad and boom. I can't remember exact numbers but I began making anywhere from 6-9k/mo net. I could smell retirement. It smelled like bleach and felt like cold water splashing in my face from the end of my wand.

I had always been interested in Real estate, so at this time, when the world shut down from covid, I began researching how to get into the investment side of real estate. I met this local realtor who I'd washed houses for and he would invest on the side. He began asking me what my goals are. He quickly informed me that I would have a very difficult time reaching them pressure washing and I should think about getting into real estate. We would ride around, look at his flip houses, show me his numbers, etc. More than anything, he planted the seed. August of 2020 I bought my first house. Little duplex, had twisted my mom's arm to co-sign on the loan (the only help she gave me, so don't even say my parents built what I have). I lived in one side and rented out the other, It covered my mortgage payment every month. Also August of 2020 I go to get my real estate license. Get my license October 2020. Sold 3 houses as a realtor, and HATED it. However, the 1st house I sold was one of my neighbor had a cheap mobile home he wanted to sell. He wanted 50k. This tight wad didn't even want to pay 6% and let me list it, he said go find a buyer and I'll pay you 3%. I posted it on some Facebook groups, this lady says she will buy it. She was also a realtor. A few months later, I asked her what she did with it, she said she wholesaled it and made 20k. I made $1,500 as a realtor on this transaction. I asked her what the hell wholesaling was.

February of 2021, I began working with this lady named Maria and we wholesaled real estate together. For those that don't know what this is, look it up, but it allowed me to make a good profit on real estate without needing any money and without ever buying the property (get property under contract a discount, sell the contract to an investor and keep the difference). I began cold-calling an hour or 2 a day to try to find off-market properties at a discount that we could wholesale. Within 2 weeks, I found our first deal. Went on appointment with Maria. Got it under contract. She found a buyer and we made a total of 5k. 2 weeks after finding the 1st deal I found another, got it under contract, Maria found buyer, we made a total of 18k. After splitting, we both made 14k each. I was hooked. Keep in mind, I'm still pressure washing this whole time on the side. Cold calling in the morning, doing pressure washing jobs in afternoon.

June of 2021, I cold called this guy, Brian. He had a house I wanted to buy and he said Chris, you're good on the phone come by my office and let's talk. I go to his office, and he was a pretty well to-do investor/builder. The house I wanted to buy was a flip house. He was currently renovating it. He said he wanted 90k for the house, and it needed about 40k in work still and he had all of the crews that he would let do the work for us. We made a deal, If I could bring him a check for 40k, he would give that to his crews to do the work and we would just pay him 90k for the house once it sold.
Maria and I flipped the house and we made about 17k each. At this time I began going to real estate meetups. found another young guy there, Clay, whose dad owned a successful business but didn't know how to invest his money. They wanted to flip houses together. I told him I find off market deals and maybe we could partner up. A few months go by, I went back to Brian and asked if he had anything else he would sell me. He didn't have any houses but had some apartments he would be willing to owner finance to me. 16 units, wanted 1.25m for them. Said If I could bring him a check for 250k he would finance the apartments at a 3% interest rate to help me along. I had no idea where to find 250k... then one day Clay calls me. We hadn't talked in a while and he wanted to see what was up. We go get coffee, I mention this apartment deal. He talks with his dad, and they decide to put up 250k. I would manage the buildings and I would get a 30% stake, they would put up all of the cash to do it. Done.

(At this time, Maria and I stopped working together. She had family issues and couldn't dedicate as much as I could to wholesaling.)

October 1 2021, We close on the 16 units. Retirement started to smell different now, more like cat pee that had been sitting in the carpets for a few years.... I felt awesome. Also Started October 1st 2021 I decided I was going to stop pressure washing and do real estate full time. I was going to dive head first into wholesaling and finding deals. I then began cold calling 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. I hated it, hated cold calling, but forced myself to show up and do it. Within my first month, I made 30k and did 4 deals. 2nd month, I did about the same. I felt invincible.

January 2022 I was all in on cold calling and real estate with some new wind in my sails. I joined this mastermind group that taught creative finance strategies in real estate and how to own properties with little money out of pocket/how to sell properties owner finance. I began partnering with the guy who started this group, Travis. He lived in Illinois, but he invested in South Carolina where I was. I found houses to flip, he would bring the cash and he would use his crews to do the work and we would split 50/50. We did a few flips, lost money on some, made ok money on others. But what he taught me in creative finance far exceeded any amount of money I had to pay him. I began buying properties with very little of my own money. (seller financed, borrow money from Clay's dad, met a few hard money lenders, etc)

January 2022-August 2022 my wholesaling business was in full swing. I began making 50k, 100k, 80k, 70k a month some months. Was flipping houses, was picking up rentals etc. July 2022, a few days before my 24th birthday I closed on a property that officially put my networth over $1m.

Fast forward to now, I'm 25. I've been sober for 6 years. I own/part-owner in over 150 rental properties. I'm flipping 9 houses currently, doing 7 new build houses, and doing all sorts of creative finance deals. I can gladly say I had hit my goal and became a millionaire by 25. Although, not so sure I want to retire by 30 anymore........

Quite a long-winded post, if you read it all, hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to reach out if I can help you at all in your journey. Many, many people poured into me during this journey and many still do today. There's a lot more to this journey that was just way too much to include but I did the best I could to include the highlights.

dude first off congrats on all of the success! This was such an inspiring story to hear and it helped me out a ton since I can relate to that first part of your story. It funny because I just joined this site and was about to look up wholesaling advice on here until I randomly stumbled across your post...

What should be my first steps with getting involved in wholesaling RE? I really like the idea of joint venturing deals to make the workload easier at first and also so I can learn from someone who knows what they are doing.

Also, how do you go about finding potential leads? Do you use prop stream, drive-for-dollars, etc?

 

[azizb]

dude first off congrats on all of the success! This was such an inspiring story to hear and it helped me out a ton since I can relate to that first part of your story. It funny because I just joined this site and was about to look up wholesaling advice on here until I randomly stumbled across your post...

What should be my first steps with getting involved in wholesaling RE? I really like the idea of joint venturing deals to make the workload easier at first and also so I can learn from someone who knows what they are doing.

Also, how do you go about finding potential leads? Do you use prop stream, drive-for-dollars, etc?

he already answered that question, pulled lists from propstream skiptace using batchleads.io and cold call with mojo dialer it's that simple

 

[Two Dog]

On top of this, I still get to keep the depreciation and tax benefits of owning this house.

How does that work when you've sold the house? Installment sale?

 

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[ChrisGav]

Wow, I love how you could talk with these people without feeling intimidated. How you do that?

I wouldn't say I did it without feeling intimidated. I think it was just a result of putting myself out there and walking through the doors that opened along the way. Felt like a fraud and an idiot the entire time. One of my best lenders was the guy that did the apartment complex with me. I was 23 years old at the time asking him for 200k before I had even met the guy in person. I had never seen that much money in my life before at that point, and didn't have the slightest clue of what I was doing real estate wise. Talk about feeling intimidated... He ultimately went on to lend me close to $2m across several different deals after he realized how much money he was making with me. The work usually comes before the belief in one's self.

Hi, I missed something but where did the wholesale business start from, did you find a specific need or problem?

Wholesaling real estate is always solving a need and a problem. Investors always need another good deal to buy, sellers are always having a financial problem, emotional problem, or the property itself is having a physical problem. (needs a lot of repairs). I didn't get very hung up on the whole "am I solving a problem" thing. I just took action and let the marketplace decide for me if I was solving a problem.

dude first off congrats on all of the success! This was such an inspiring story to hear and it helped me out a ton since I can relate to that first part of your story. It funny because I just joined this site and was about to look up wholesaling advice on here until I randomly stumbled across your post...

What should be my first steps with getting involved in wholesaling RE? I really like the idea of joint venturing deals to make the workload easier at first and also so I can learn from someone who knows what they are doing.

Also, how do you go about finding potential leads? Do you use prop stream, drive-for-dollars, etc?

Joint venturing is a great way to start, and that's how I started. I did driving for dollars, but most of my deals came from propstream lists which I cold called. All marketing works: mail, mass texting, cold calling, google ads, facebook ads, etc. I just made sure I picked one and only did that until I found success. first steps, if you don't have much money, go get a propstream list/drive for dollars and start calling. It's the cheapest method of marketing. Focus on getting leads in the door. Once you have leads, you can JV with other people that have experience and they can tell you if it's a deal or not. A lot of people come in and out of this business due to the amount of gurus on youtube talking about it. Most people in this business realize this and won't really want to help someone until that person starts bringing leads in. Not out of disrespect, but to preserve their own time due to the large amount of turnover in the business.

How does that work when you've sold the house? Installment sale?

Yes, essentially selling it contract for deed. I hold the deed to the property until they've fully paid me off. In turn, allows me to get the tax benefits as it's still in my name.

 

[simon.s]

Hey Guys. Long time no talk... I've been on this forum for years and haven't been on in about a year or so and thought I'd share how my life has changed since. I figured I'd make a post outlining where I'm at today and how I arrived here. Some of it will repeat the prior posts I've made, but those were several years ago so I will include some of them anyways. This will be a long post, Excuse the great wall of china like text.

6 Years ago this month in 2017, I got arrested at 19 years old. I got mixed up in the wrong crowds having too much fun in college and got caught with a bunch of drugs I had no business doing. I was hooked and had a pretty bad addiction. It took about a year for me to go to court. In October of 2018 I walked out of court sentenced to 5 years of probation. At the time I was living in Atlanta and my mom lived in South Carolina. She decided to move me up to South Carolina to get me out of that environment. Picture this: 20 years old, living in my mom's basement, dropped out of college, sitting in treatment centers trying to get my life back together. Quite the way to kick off my 20s, huh? I spent the first few months getting my mind back together, sitting in my mom's basement playing video games watching all of my friends continue to have a blast in college while I sat at home and did nothing. All of a sudden something began to click, I really started to get interested in trying to build a business or do something productive.

February of 2019 I got a part-time job working at a hardware store selling nuts and bolts. On my way to work I'd listen to podcasts by Tony Robbins, mindset development podcasts, etc. Had no idea what I was going to do, but I wanted to do something. Then I came up with this audacious goal. I wanted to be a millionaire by 25 and retired by 30. Not that I believed I could actually do it, just give me something to shoot for to occupy my mind. It soon became an obsession, it was all I could talk about. I'd go to the group counseling at these treatment centers and as they'd go around the room asking what people were up to, this is what I would discuss. Imagine the reactions I got, "What makes you think you can do that?" "yeah right, you're sitting in rehab right now at 20 years old in your mom's basement" etc etc. The owner of the counseling facility was also a counselor and would listen in on our group meetings. One day she comes up to me and gives me a book. Of all books... @MJ DeMarco Millionaire fast lane book. I went home and dug in. It got the gears turning, and I quickly wanted to see what I could do next to get started. I began listening to a podcast channel called The sweaty startup by Nick huber. His whole premise of the podcast was to encourage people start low barrier to entry businesses where your competition most likely sucked and they're usually in the blue collar industry. After a little bit of research I decided to try pressure washing. Rented a pressure washer, washed my mom's house to see if I could do it. Next thing you know, game on.

After renting a pressure washer to do my first few jobs I saved up enough cash to buy my own cheap pressure washer. I tried connecting with realtors, dropping flyers in mailboxes, posting on nextdoor, posting in facebook groups, all to try and find some business. I'd take my pressure washer to my part-time job then when I got off at 2pm every day, I'd go knock out a job or two. Began to pick up a little bit of steam (making a whopping 2k/mo) when I decided to quit my part-time job.

January 1st 2020, I quit my part-time job. Who would've thought winter was the best time of year to be a full time pressure washer? First month, made $700. 2nd month, made $1,500. Then, one day I make a post on this very forum asking for advice on how to get more business. Someone reached out named Rich (I don't know his username on here anymore, I believe he found my website and emailed me or something). Rich said he had a marketing company he was starting and wanted to do a case study. Asked if he could do Facebook ads for me for free so long as I pay ad spend. Done. 1st ad we started march 1 2020. Ad spend $300/mo. I got 1 job the month of March. Job paid $300. I broke even.... One day saw an ad from another competitor. Their ad was blowing up on Facebook, everyone asking to get their house washed. The difference, they did a video showing their face and the ad was showing how they wash houses and their process. I thought, you know what I need to do a similar ad and see if my results are any better. I changed my ad, showed how I cleaned driveways, introduced myself (Ok I lied in the ad, I said I was a local college student... I was actually just a local drop-out) We roll out this ad and boom. I can't remember exact numbers but I began making anywhere from 6-9k/mo net. I could smell retirement. It smelled like bleach and felt like cold water splashing in my face from the end of my wand.

I had always been interested in Real estate, so at this time, when the world shut down from covid, I began researching how to get into the investment side of real estate. I met this local realtor who I'd washed houses for and he would invest on the side. He began asking me what my goals are. He quickly informed me that I would have a very difficult time reaching them pressure washing and I should think about getting into real estate. We would ride around, look at his flip houses, show me his numbers, etc. More than anything, he planted the seed. August of 2020 I bought my first house. Little duplex, had twisted my mom's arm to co-sign on the loan (the only help she gave me, so don't even say my parents built what I have). I lived in one side and rented out the other, It covered my mortgage payment every month. Also August of 2020 I go to get my real estate license. Get my license October 2020. Sold 3 houses as a realtor, and HATED it. However, the 1st house I sold was one of my neighbor had a cheap mobile home he wanted to sell. He wanted 50k. This tight wad didn't even want to pay 6% and let me list it, he said go find a buyer and I'll pay you 3%. I posted it on some Facebook groups, this lady says she will buy it. She was also a realtor. A few months later, I asked her what she did with it, she said she wholesaled it and made 20k. I made $1,500 as a realtor on this transaction. I asked her what the hell wholesaling was.

February of 2021, I began working with this lady named Maria and we wholesaled real estate together. For those that don't know what this is, look it up, but it allowed me to make a good profit on real estate without needing any money and without ever buying the property (get property under contract a discount, sell the contract to an investor and keep the difference). I began cold-calling an hour or 2 a day to try to find off-market properties at a discount that we could wholesale. Within 2 weeks, I found our first deal. Went on appointment with Maria. Got it under contract. She found a buyer and we made a total of 5k. 2 weeks after finding the 1st deal I found another, got it under contract, Maria found buyer, we made a total of 18k. After splitting, we both made 14k each. I was hooked. Keep in mind, I'm still pressure washing this whole time on the side. Cold calling in the morning, doing pressure washing jobs in afternoon.

June of 2021, I cold called this guy, Brian. He had a house I wanted to buy and he said Chris, you're good on the phone come by my office and let's talk. I go to his office, and he was a pretty well to-do investor/builder. The house I wanted to buy was a flip house. He was currently renovating it. He said he wanted 90k for the house, and it needed about 40k in work still and he had all of the crews that he would let do the work for us. We made a deal, If I could bring him a check for 40k, he would give that to his crews to do the work and we would just pay him 90k for the house once it sold.
Maria and I flipped the house and we made about 17k each. At this time I began going to real estate meetups. found another young guy there, Clay, whose dad owned a successful business but didn't know how to invest his money. They wanted to flip houses together. I told him I find off market deals and maybe we could partner up. A few months go by, I went back to Brian and asked if he had anything else he would sell me. He didn't have any houses but had some apartments he would be willing to owner finance to me. 16 units, wanted 1.25m for them. Said If I could bring him a check for 250k he would finance the apartments at a 3% interest rate to help me along. I had no idea where to find 250k... then one day Clay calls me. We hadn't talked in a while and he wanted to see what was up. We go get coffee, I mention this apartment deal. He talks with his dad, and they decide to put up 250k. I would manage the buildings and I would get a 30% stake, they would put up all of the cash to do it. Done.

(At this time, Maria and I stopped working together. She had family issues and couldn't dedicate as much as I could to wholesaling.)

October 1 2021, We close on the 16 units. Retirement started to smell different now, more like cat pee that had been sitting in the carpets for a few years.... I felt awesome. Also Started October 1st 2021 I decided I was going to stop pressure washing and do real estate full time. I was going to dive head first into wholesaling and finding deals. I then began cold calling 3 hours a day, 5 days a week. I hated it, hated cold calling, but forced myself to show up and do it. Within my first month, I made 30k and did 4 deals. 2nd month, I did about the same. I felt invincible.

January 2022 I was all in on cold calling and real estate with some new wind in my sails. I joined this mastermind group that taught creative finance strategies in real estate and how to own properties with little money out of pocket/how to sell properties owner finance. I began partnering with the guy who started this group, Travis. He lived in Illinois, but he invested in South Carolina where I was. I found houses to flip, he would bring the cash and he would use his crews to do the work and we would split 50/50. We did a few flips, lost money on some, made ok money on others. But what he taught me in creative finance far exceeded any amount of money I had to pay him. I began buying properties with very little of my own money. (seller financed, borrow money from Clay's dad, met a few hard money lenders, etc)

January 2022-August 2022 my wholesaling business was in full swing. I began making 50k, 100k, 80k, 70k a month some months. Was flipping houses, was picking up rentals etc. July 2022, a few days before my 24th birthday I closed on a property that officially put my networth over $1m.

Fast forward to now, I'm 25. I've been sober for 6 years. I own/part-owner in over 150 rental properties. I'm flipping 9 houses currently, doing 7 new build houses, and doing all sorts of creative finance deals. I can gladly say I had hit my goal and became a millionaire by 25. Although, not so sure I want to retire by 30 anymore........

Quite a long-winded post, if you read it all, hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to reach out if I can help you at all in your journey. Many, many people poured into me during this journey and many still do today. There's a lot more to this journey that was just way too much to include but I did the best I could to include the highlights.

it's an intresting journey thank you for sharing it with us it was really inspirational, and congrats for achieving your goals

 

[Marketeri]

History shows that even the worst can be overcome.
Thank for your post!

 

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[Captain Hoodie]

Hey Chris, great to see how far you've come and the turn around you made with your life. I think some of the most successful ppl come from some sort of turbulence often times.

When you get your list of people to call are the phone numbers personal numbers?

How does that work? Is there any rules in the USA about soliciting via phone?

I'm in Canada and I know the rules are different here. I've seen letters in the mail and curb signs where people are offering to buy houses in cash but I've never heard of people here being called.

 

[DonyaSze]

Wow! What a great read!! Man I’m so blown away by the number of big success stories there are on this forum. The power of mindset and action is immense! Awesome.