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

[ChrisGav]

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.

Thanks for the kind words. Yes the numbers are usually personal numbers. Technically you can't call people who are on the Do not call list. However, I've never had an issue with it. Most people won't be upset with you because you aren't really calling to sell them something. You're calling to buy something.

 

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[school-student]

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.

Congratulations! It’s an exciting story. Please keep us updated when you reach another milestone