Epic Real Estate Investing - A Play-by-Play Account of a $26,000 Deal with Jennifer Paullin | Episode 120

Episode Date: September 8, 2014

Jennifer Paullin, Epic Pro Academy Member, shares the details of her first deal that made her $26,000+ Education pays! ----------------- The free course is getting a facelift and the new version will be released soon!  To access to the two fastest and easiest strategies to a paycheck in real estate, go to FreeRealEstateInvestingCourse.com or text “FreeCourse” to 55678. What interests you most?   E ducation P roperties  I ncome C oaching Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

podcasting from Terrio Studios in Glendale, California, it's time for Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio. Yes. Hello. Hello, and welcome to another episode of Epic Real Estate Investing. If this is your first time listening to this show, super happy that you're here. And just so you know, this is the place where I teach people how to escape the rat race by investing in real estate. And, you know, if I were to do it all over again, I do it exactly the same way. and if you've been here before, you've heard me say this before.

You see, I would do it exactly the same way whether I had money and credit to work with or not. You see, while I was finding my way, I stumbled upon 12 different strategies of investing in real estate with little to no money, in fact, zero money. And in hindsight, being forced to invest that way, I think that just made me a better investor. And I want to make you a better investor as well. So what I did is I put the first two strategies, the two of which I believe are the easiest and fastest strategies to a paycheck in real estate. I've put them into a free course just for you. and you can access that free course at free real estate investing course.com or right there on your smartphone, go ahead and text free course to 55678 and you can get the course right there on your phone.

Text free course to 55678. All righty. So on the line, I have an Epic Pro Academy member who just closed their first deal less than 24 hours ago. At least that's when she posted the pictures of her deal inside of the Epic Pro Academy private Facebook group. and it's for a rather large amount, but I want to hear it all about from her because that's about all I know is the result. We've talked a little bit along the way.

I know she's been a student. I know she's been working really hard, and she's been a participant in our coaching calls, but I don't know anything about the specific deal, so I asked her to come on the show and just share it with you, and hopefully you can learn something from her experience. So on the phone, I have Jennifer Palin. Jan, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Max. Glad you're here, and a rather exciting day for you. Yes, yes. Yesterday was a very, very exciting day for me. And even today, it's definitely a game changer for myself and my family. Awesome. That's awesome. It's weird how results do that.

They change everything. So, Jen, before we talk about your deal, can you tell us a little bit about what you're doing before you decided to get involved in real estate? Yeah, sure. I work full-time. I work full-time as a nurse in a specialty. I work as a flight nurse, so I'm on a helicopter in the Philadelphia area and parts of New Jersey. I do that full time, and then I still work as a nurse at the bedside at an emergency room,

and I also work per die-on at one of the specialty children's hospitals, also as a nurse on an ambulance in the transport world. So I'm pretty busy when it comes to health care. Right, that's very exciting. That's many facets of it. How long have you been doing that? Maybe about, I think, six years as a nurse. And then before nursing, I worked also at one point in my life as a paramedic, and I did that for a couple of years.

And also it was in sales in between being a paramedic and nursing and going to nursing school. I also worked in sales for a couple of years. Awesome, awesome. And are you originally from Philly? I'm originally from. Actually, this is a suburb outside of Philadelphia. in the Bucks County is where I live, and I was born and raised in the Bucks County area.

Super, super. So you have a very exciting career. What was it that, I guess, intrigued you about real estate? Well, surprisingly, I've always been interested in real estate. Back in, I guess it's the late 90s Carlton Sheets, I think his name was, or is. I got that program and read it and went through it, but really didn't understand it. didn't really understand the program at that time. I was late, I was in my late teens.

I was like 19 at that time. And didn't really understand it and didn't do anything with it. And then when the book, first that poor dad came out, you know, read that book and completely got the concept. But again, it's kind of crazy. But when you're surrounded us up with people who were, you know, nine to five and nobody really kind of understands that there's a different way to do things. So I was really surrounded at that time with a lot of lake-minded people.

And I was like, okay, well, I guess I just got a good job. And that's not the track that I'm going to be on. But I never really gave up on that. You know? So, and then I just made up four or five years ago, I was like, okay, I know that there's something to this real estate and real estate investing. And I was going to get my real estate license. After the class, never sat for the test.

And then I actually just wound up going into nursing school. and really just kind of extinguished to the light or the fire of it. And then just in April, just something sparked in me again. And I was driving to work. I have an hour and a half commute one way. And I was driving to work, and I was looking through my phone, something to listen to. And I just started, I came across your podcast, and that was it. It just, it clicked.

After years of it not clicking, it clicked. Got it. And I was just started to take action. Mm-hmm. I'm always interested because, you know, there are a lot of people that recognize real estate is, you know, there's a lot of opportunity there and there's a lot of economic, and I guess there's abundance there, which, you know, it's up for grabs. And if you know how to do it, you can get your hands on it. But there is always something that just kind of keeps people from actually doing it. And I know you kind of use the word clicked.

And there's a lot of people, I think, that hover in that area. I don't know if it's called Dead Man's Land or whatever it's called right there, but it's just that I want it, but I can't seem to get up and do it. What do you think was really, I mean, kind of looking back now, what do you think was really holding you back just before you listen to the podcast? Well, I didn't understand until the podcast that you don't need the money up front. You don't need the money unless you have a deal. And I always thought I had to have the money.

And I definitely always thought that I had to understand everything about real estate or real estate investing because of people that I listen to that don't know anything they're like oh there's so much risk there's so much risk you don't know anything you don't have the money and I was

when I looked at real estate I think back in the height of the bubble like of 08 oh 9 I actually went to a rea meeting and everybody in my circle like you know friends and family who are not in real estate I don't know why I listen to them

they're like there's too much risk the bubble this and that the economy. I'm thinking, well, this actually seems like the best time to invest in real estate. So I listened to people that, you know, I took the advice from people that weren't doing anything. And then when I came across your podcast, that's what I mean. It clicked. Like, if you don't have a deal, if you don't need money, so don't worry about the money issue right now. That will come. And education, your education only really do you start to learn as you do it. Right.

You can't read enough books. You can't listen to enough podcasts. You can't watch enough YouTube videos to really understand what's going on until you make the first step. Until you take that first step. Because education comes with the experience. I agree. You know, Jason Hartman was on the show last week, and he believes in education. I mean, he sells education.

He's a coach himself, and we're all in the same industry. But his advice is to spend on your education slowly. and you've got to implement what you learn because the real education comes from when you're actually implementing. Oh, definitely. I learned so much in the last, you know, 90, 120 days that, I mean, there's no value. I mean, what I learned is insane. And actually, after, you know, getting my first deal under contract, I learned a lot, and I learned it quick. And I learned lessons that I will never, you know, I will never, I hope never to make them again.

But, I mean, that's when the education really started to amp up is that when you actually get that first deal under contract and things start to move so quickly, you have no choice but to keep up with the education. Right, right. Awesome. Awesome. So, you found the podcast in April. At what point did you decide to become a member of the Academy? Well, actually, the Academy was down for a while because you were revamping it. That's right.

So that gave me just more time to listen to a podcast. and then when the Academy came back up, I think it was like around, there were some glitches or whatever, but I think like around the 10th or the 15th is when I actually became a member in May. Very good. So from May, and here we are, what is today, we're right at the first week of September, and you've closed your first deal. So I love that. So how much of the education did you participate in before you started implementing?

The only education, oh, my only education before I started implementing was just your podcast. Okay. That was all I went off of was just your podcast, and then I became a member, like I said, somewhere in May. And I remember listening to a podcast, and I forget who was on, but they said that you should write yourself a letter, future dated for one year. And I can honestly say, I think sometimes, you know, we read books or maybe a self-help book or whatever it might be, but we don't really follow those, what seems like, corny steps, like writing yourself a letter. or really writing down your goals. And I'm like, I did that. Like, I really wrote myself a letter future dated.

I wrote down to visualize my goals. And that letter was dated May 15th. So I definitely know my start point was May 15th. Got it. That's awesome. That's awesome. So it sounds like you actually really did move at the speed of instruction then. I did.

Super. Super. I really, really did. I mean, my life and my journey, if I didn't do it today, like, You know, 2014, I was never going to do it. You know, my spouse lost her, you know, lost her job at the end of February. We have a small child.

I work 60, 70 hours a week. I have parents that are aging. They're in great health. Don't get me wrong. And they both work. But they're not ready for retirement. And my father's 61. And they're not ready for retirement.

And it's, you know, crazy to think that, I mean, my parents were awesome parents, and they gave to me and to my sister's 12th. fall. But if I didn't make something happen now and start doing it, in 10 years from now, I was not going to be prepared to help them, let alone, you know, help, you know, my family or my future or my son's future. So I really had to really start to take action. There's no, there's no alternative. I work 60, 70 hours a week for 40 years. It's not a plan. Right. So when you say they're not ready to retire, you mean they're not prepared to retire, they retire they can't right they're going into retirement dead broke got it okay got it okay cool not

that's not cool but i understand now right yeah okay so okay so let's start at the beginning so you went out you understood that uh it clicked for you that you don't need the money before you start looking for deal so you went out to start look for deal so what method or methods did you choose to start looking for deals well i i started yellow letters you know just writing the simple yellow letter right out of, you know, the academy. Hi, my name is Jen. I want to purchase your property. Very simple yellow letter. I didn't have, well, two things. I really didn't want to spend the money on a list. And two, I, because I didn't want to waste that list on practicing. So I was like, well, let me hold off purchasing a list until I work on, you know, practicing and talking to people and

going out and meeting with sellers. And so I was like, well, let me hold off from buying a list. And then FISBOS, calling the FISBOS was great practice, just on the phone practice, and meeting people face to face, and, you know, using the seller sheet in the house and, you know, just learning. So I did, and then also calling for rents. So they were like the three things that I was doing in the beginning. I haven't done the Bandon Sign thing yet, and I'm moving forward to working on an internet. presence, which is going to be the next, like, three to four weeks is working on that, getting a real internet presence there. Got it.

Got it. Okay. So you actually started calling people and making appointments and visiting them and going through the seller information questionnaire. And so how long did you do that? Did you get any deals from that? Did you get anything under contract from those activities? From the FISBOS now, I'm from calling the four rent now.

But my first deal, the deal that I just closed yesterday, was from my yellow letter from my probates. You know, I use my county courthouse. I get my information off the county courthouse. Okay. So that was a probate. Perfect. So you actually, do you just go online to the county courthouse website?

Yeah. I mean, I just went on. And, you know, the first time I went on, I didn't know what I was looking at, and I didn't understand how to navigate through the website because I didn't know how to set the filters. So my first batch of letters were, it was a mess. My first batch that went out.

people were like, it was just a mess. But that's okay. I learned from it, and then I called somebody at the county courthouse, and the woman was very nice, easy to talk to, and she told me exactly how to set my filters for the information that I was looking for. And then from there, again, learning, you know, going as far as you can say, and that's exactly what I did. And now my marketing is a little bit more strategic when I'm sending yellow letters out to probates.

Got it. Okay, so you're marketing to probates? and I know you've been commenting inside the private Facebook group on how you've been working on your script, working on your letters. So what has your strategy been on actually reaching out to probates? Well, my strategy right now is I just send out the yellow letter. Generally, you know, I pull my probate information every other week. And so I have a good file to hand over to.

I actually hired somebody to write my yellow letters because I'm very busy with, you know, work. and I have a son. So I hired somebody to write my probate letters. I send them out, and I'm kind of strategic, and when they get mailed because of my schedule. So if I know that I'm off Wednesday and Thursday, I'll send out my batch on a Tuesday so that I'm available to answer my phone. You know, so I've learned over the last couple of weeks what I need to do to just be more successful and to really, you know, be able to pick up the phone and stuff like that.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Got it. Okay, so I don't have much experience working probates because it's kind of a pain in the butt just the way the laws work here in California. So I've always just kind of avoided that strategy. I can imagine it could be somewhat of a delicate conversation sometimes. Are you just writing the basic yellow letter to your probate leads?

Initially, I was writing the basic yellow letter to my probate lead. And yes, it is a very delicate conversation to have. I think hinging off of health care, it helps. So I think I'm at a little bit of an advantage. Not terribly, but you know, you just have to have some sympathy when you're talking to people. And, you know, I've gotten the angry phone calls, and I apologize, you know, if I've upset them in any way, that's not the purpose of my phone call. I do get a lot of tire kickers. So that's one reason why I did change my letter was to kind of get them to stop calling me.

because, you know, time is important and to be on the phone, trying just to explain yourself somebody who's not motivated to sell is not the best use of my time. So I did change my letter a little bit, and I now really say in my letter, you know, I work with executors of estate. I buy probate property so that people can really connect the dots on what I do a little bit. I still want them to call me, so they can kind of connect the dots on what's going on and why they got this letter. But it is still handwritten because I really do see the positive benefits of having a handwritten letter and the response rate. I'm just trying to eliminate some of those tire tickers.

Sure, sure. Yeah, when you're marketing, it's a lot of testing that's involved and you find out what works for you and what drives with your approach and your strategy. So super for being flexible. I love it. A question I get a lot from new investors or people that are just getting ready to start mailing. They always ask me, how many letters should I start out sending? And that's a big fact.

It depends. But I'm just curious, how many letters did you start sending out? Were you doing it weekly, monthly? Initially, when I started, and I do drive for dollars. I'm sorry. I forgot about that. So I was in the very beginning, like May, June, I was probably sending out maybe like 20, not even, maybe 20 letters a day, maybe like 100 letters a week.

And not a lot of letters. It was kind of interesting. The first batch I sent out, you know, the next day my phone was ringing and ringing and ringing. And I was like, I was kind of like pinching myself that that part actually worked. So I look back on it, kind of funny. But now I'm up to probably about in terms of letters, well, now that as you grow in the business, you have to do like a second touch and a third touch. and, you know, you have to keep on remailing to the same list.

So now I guess I'm about, I don't know, maybe about five or 600 letters a week. Okay. Got it. And, you know, you had a question on the coaching call this week regarding how many calls you're receiving. So out of those five to 600 letters a week, you're receiving how many phone calls? It really does vary. You know, as you say sometimes, it depends. but on average I'm probably receiving about good calls, like motivated sellers, maybe about

six or seven, but I mean, I can receive upwards between 45, 50 calls a week. And I'm just starting to test out now my new letter. And I'm not trying to reduce the phone calls, but I'm just trying to get more of that motivated seller. Sure. You know, and when I'm not strategic, when I'm not strategic to, send the letters out that a lot of my calls do get dumped into voicemail. So it's very important that I know the days that I'm off from work so that I can answer my phone.

Right. Because I missed a lot of, like, as we talked about on the coaching call, I missed a lot of calls one day. And it was, it was upsetting because, I mean, that's marketing money. Sure, sure. Absolutely. You know that I can't capture. I can't capture that now. So.

Right. Okay. So you've got a really high average here. So you're getting about, about an 8 or 9% return as far as phone calls, but you're getting a pretty high quality call as far as your percentage goes. I mean, you're getting 40 calls a week. Six to seven of those are, you know, calls worth having as you kind of, how I'm interpreting that. So that's, yeah, that's 15% of your calls are really strong.

You know, I talk to some people, you know, locally, some other wholesalers, and like for this my one that I just closed today before I even told them about the situation we were talking about mailing the probates and they said oh you should never mail to the same residence or like if the executor

lived in the same residence as the deceased and I said or you should never mail to the spouse and I said well that's kind of funny I said because that's exactly what this deal is so I think sometimes was it a difficult phone call to

have with my seller, it was, and was it a difficult meeting to have? Sure. But I think sometimes people or other wholesalers maybe pre-screen before they even send out their mailing. So, you know, or they, oh, we don't send it a zip code. Well, okay, I do. And yes, I sell, you know, I send letters to the same residence as the deceased. And, you know, sometimes those phone calls are unpleasant, but in this case, it really became like a win-win. So, you know, everybody has their opinion. Yes, they do. There's no shortage of opinions out there.

That's awesome. And, you know, it's just kind of a, regardless of what you're into, it's, if you do what everyone else is doing, you're going to get the same results everyone else is getting. And, you know, if you want typically success, is what most people aren't doing. So congratulations for going. going forward with that because that's definitely an element of a characteristic of a successful person. And I'm not surprised you've got your results. So tell me about this call that you had.

Did you set an appointment to meet with the person at the seller? Yeah, so it was actually Fourth of July weekend, and it was Sunday night. I was at my parents, and we were actually eating dinner. It was dinner time. And my son was finished eating, and he's running around naked. He was to go back in the pool, so it was kind of comical the way the whole phone call went down. and my phone rang and I excuse myself. And we started talking and she was like, oh, I got your letter.

And I said, okay. And she was like, I'm not ready to sell. And I said, okay, well, you know, how come? How come you're not ready to sell? You know, you called me so you're interested. And she was like, it would take me, it's going to take me years to clean out this house. And I'm like, okay. She's like, my late husband, he was a hoarder.

And I'm 61 and not in the best of health. And she was like, it's just going to take me too long. She's like, I can't, and you can just kind of hear it in her voice. And I said, well, listen, you know, Linda, I said, I'm off tomorrow. How about if I come out? And how but if we just talk. You know, we'll just talk things out and see, you know, what you want to do and how fast you want to move. And she was a little hesitant because she was embarrassed to let me in the house.

And I just kind of explained to her that that's not my purpose there to judge her. I said, you know, if you want to sit outside, we can sit outside or we can talk. I said, but it's just no more than me coming out and just, you know, talking about you and what you're looking to get accomplished. And then we set the appointment. I went out the next morning. Awesome. Awesome. So what you noticed or what you heard was a motivated seller that had a problem.

And you thought there might be a potential for you to solve that problem. And so. Oh, definitely. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, that's a pretty easy problem to solve that's going to take me forever to clean out this house, right? It's like, well, perhaps I could help you.

Right? So, okay, so you met with her, and then how did that conversation go? And you don't have to go through line by line, but in general. No, it went really, no, it went really well. Initially, she was a little embarrassed, you know, to let me in the house. You know, we walked around, she showed us around, and every room we went to, she apologized. and then we talked a little bit about hoarding and he explained to me emphatically

she was not the hoarder that it was her husband and I don't want people to think that I was in like you know a TLC where there was garbage it wasn't full of garbage it was just full of stuff I mean a lot of a lot of stuff and you know so I wasn't like sitting

on you know whatever a pizza box or anything like that just sat down and we just talked and she explained to me why she couldn't get the house cleaned out any sooner than six months. It was because of her health and her daughter has some medical issues and stuff like that. And we just said, well, you know, what would you like to have happen? And she was like, and her biggest concern was the oil bill. You know, it starts to get cold here and to fill it off the area. Like come like October and she could not afford the oil bill. So if there was any way to get her out of the house before the oil started, the oil bill started,

that would be a huge weight lifted off her shoulders. Got it. And I said, okay, I said, well, if you want to get out before the oil bill, you know, how does, and I just started talking about solutions, you know, how that if we get a dumpster here, how that if we, you know, help you cherry pick through this stuff and how that if we have an estate sale And she was like, you can do all that. I said, well, I can't physically do all that. But I know people that can help us get that done.

And then from there, she was on board. And then we just started to talk about price. And we negotiated on price. And I controlled the price, and I got the price that I want it. That's awesome. That's awesome. So before you went over there, did you do any sort of research and investigating on what you thought the house was probably worth?

Just a little bit of research. At that time, I didn't have MLS access or anything like that. So I had to use Billow and like Riliter.com and stuff like that. So I kind of, I mean, and I'm from the area. So she was, she's in a very desirable school district. So I knew that was good. I was familiar with the type of house. It's a Levitown.

If anyone's familiar with Levitown or it's a Levitown-style house. So, you know, but I knew that I was going into a good school district. So I was pretty confident with what I was seeing on Zillow to be true and accurate. Got it. So, and then I kind of knew on my head, you know, that part I kind of had figured out. And then when it came to estimating repairs, I was, I had no idea because the house was just complete, you know, I mean, there was weeds, not what, weeds. They were, you know, trees growing and bushes growing into the house, like through the windows of the second floor. that she hasn't been upstairs in eight years.

So I was a little uncomfortable with that part, but I just did my best that I could go at estimating repairs. Okay. Well, your best seems to have done very well. So you came to an agreement on the price. Did you fill out a contract there on the spot, or did you have to go home and do some paperwork? Or how did that work out?

No, I filled a contract. I brought a contract with me. I filled it out on the spot, and she signed it. Cool. Very good. Mm-hmm. All right. And then you just,

started the process. And so in between getting the contract signed and you actually closing, any other discoveries or any challenges that came up? Yeah, that's probably the whole other podcast. Okay. The whole other focus. Well, in my striving for dollars, I leave business cards because that's really the only thing I did in terms of we talk about, or you talk about getting ready to get ready.

Like, I don't have an LLC still, but I did get business cards. So as I drive for dollars, I would leave business cards at construction sites for rehabs that I saw going on. And one gentleman in that calling me, I thought he was an end buyer, and he wasn't an end buyer. He was another wholesaler. So when I got the deal under contract, I called him first thinking he was an end buyer, and it turned up he wasn't an end buyer. So he created some scenes for me that were uncomfortable that, you know, I did get handled. He was bringing, like, other investors in to look at the end buyer. property and not telling me.

Like, I was actually at the property with a true end buyer after I realized this gentleman was a clown, and he sent somebody over to look at the property, and my end buyer was like, who's the guy? And I'm like, I have no idea. And then we were,

I was talking to the gentleman, I'm like, who are you? Why are you here? And he was like, oh, well, XYZ sent me over to look at this property. And I was like, this property is not for sale and it longer. And, you know, I had him leave the property. You know, meanwhile, my seller, you know, was actually home that day.

Mm-hmm. So, you know, it just created a lot of uncomfortableness. Sure. And then I made a mistake. I revealed my price, and I shouldn't have. I didn't know that I shouldn't be revealing my price, what I got the property of the contract for. Mm-hmm.

So that led me having to get a memorandum signed and getting that filed. to protect my interest. Right. But now I learned a lot of long, but I definitely learned a lot along the way. Right. Okay, so let me ask you real quick. That call and that turned out to be

somewhat of an unscrupulous character. Yeah. Knowing what you know now, what would you have done differently to avoid making that mistake again? Well, I don't know if this is the right thing to do, but I think being able to verify funds, having proof of funds,

is big when you go to advertise your deal, especially if you're not, if you have that great of a deal and you're not looking to, you know, JV it or Daisy Chain it or anything like that, and you want a true end buyer and you're doing your advertising, putting in there, cash end buyers,

proof of funds required before you see the property. Awesome. And that's just, I mean, that's important to me now because I don't really want to deal with characters like that. And not saying that I don't want to JV, I'm just saying that when I have a property this great or a deal this great, I really didn't see the need in doing that.

So kind of like to weed out some of that, I think having proof of funds is important and being able to verify that or making sure that your earnest money deposit is there, that people really do have a true earnest money deposit and not, you know, $100. You know what I'm saying? Right, right. To know that you're dealing with a solid, solid buyer. Perfect. Perfect. So one of the parts is, you know, we will get to this part where, you know, you didn't need the money before you put under contract. But also one thing to note that when you have it under contract, you get to call the shots.

This is your game. It's your deal. So if you want to put proof of funds required, you know, you can do that. And if it is a good deal, that's not going to scare anybody away, right? Correct. Yeah, exactly. So you have a lot more power than just that the money is going to find you because you have a good deal. You get, the person that has the thing under contract, they make the rules.

Everyone has to play by your game if they want that deal. So it's a great illustration of how that comes into play. So you started marketing and advertising the property. In what ways did you do that? Well, I already belong to my local Rhea. I've been to a couple of meetings and I've been to a couple of mastermind, like, you know, more like, they call it mastermind, but more specific type of meetings for like Bucks County and Montgomery County. So I've been to a couple of those meetings, and I started networking there, and then, you know, putting ads out on a Craigslist back page and, what is it, Google classified or KG, whatever it used to be called.

And then from there, just really word of mail, just calling people. And I was able to go ahead and get that locked up. And I don't know, maybe about, well, after I waited for the one gentleman who told me he was an envoy or get back from North Carolina. because I did wait for him. Because I called him when I first got the deal, and he said, I'm in North Carolina. There was a family emergency. I'll be back next week.

And I was like, okay, so I wanted to wait because I didn't want to start, I didn't want to create a bidding for myself of promising and then creating like a bidding war. So I really did wait a whole week before he got back. And then I realized within 3 to 40s he was playing games. So I lost about 10 days. with this contract, and then I had to go out and then start marketing and making my phone calls and putting my ads out on, you know, my ad out on Craigslist and stuff like that.

Got it. Okay, so nothing real extraordinary. You just use the basic online free sites and word of mouth, and you found a buyer anyway. So how long did it take you? Once you realize this guy wasn't for real and you had to get serious with your marketing, how long did it take you to find a buyer? You figure, I don't know, maybe about 10 days? 10 days, two weeks.

Because we had a couple of buyers that came through. Like, it was, I think, total of, one, two, three, I guess about four buyers. You know, true cash buyers, I did. I wound up showing the property, too. So, and then to get it all locked up, you know, maybe like, you know, 24 hours later after I met with my last end buyer who I really did like. I got it. No nonsense guy. I mean, just a little too easy to work with.

So I went out going with that gentleman. Super. So, all right, so you're under contract with the buyer. Now, did you do a double escrow, or did you assign the contract? So I actually closed outside of all of that. Got it. Okay. Yeah.

No, that's becoming more and more common. Fewer and fewer title companies are allowing the double escrows. Even here in our business, we're getting, starting to get a little bit of resistance on the assignment of contracts. We're still doing it, but we're finding more and more we're having to use transactional funding to close our wholesale deal. So did you have your own money? Did you use somebody else's money to do that? All right. So the way that this deal actually closed, I told my end buyer the price.

And then when we went to closing, he brought two checks. Uh-huh. Okay. Got it. So one check went to my seller, and then another check went directly to me. That's phenomenal. So how did you get his name into the deal? How did I get his name into the deal?

Did two days before I went to go close the deal. Like last week, I spoke to my closing, the title company, the closing agent, and I spoke to her and I told her that we were going to change the name on the agreement of sale and to my end buyer, and she was fine with that. Perfect. I love it. So you were very resourceful, Jen. I'm very impressed.

I think there's a lot of really gold nuggets in there. And I'm very impressed and very proud of you. So, you bet. So the drum roll please, your final check for this work was... Well, the final check that I received yesterday was for $27,250. But I received a $3,000 earnest money deposit.

So total grand total is $30,000. That's fantastic. That's fantastic. Fantastic. Okay. That is. That is fantastic. Yes.

So during this time, what, did you keep up your marketing looking for new deals? Or did you just like drop everything and focus on this one? Oh, no, no, no. Well, I was really fortunate with my staff being out of work. She handled a lot of the back end stuff because we made a lot of promises. Mm-hmm. And, you know, we made a lot of promises. and my spouse handled all of that for me.

Oh, a majority of that for me. Like, you know, getting labor ready and the dumpsters and the estate people and the clean out and the moving company and orchestrating all of that was already handled. So, no, I could move forward and still do the marketing. And during that time, you know, I found somebody to write my yellow letters. I, you know, understood my marketplace a little bit better. And I still continue to send out yellow letters, take phone calls, meet with sellers. go to RIA meetings and stuff like that.

So I continued in the business as my spouse handled the other part of this transaction for me. I mean, I handled the paperwork part of it because she doesn't understand any of that, but she handled, you know, putting the rest of the promises we made, making sure those things got met. Got it. So I was very fortunate. Super. Absolutely. So you've avoided one of the bigger, probably one of the biggest, I guess,

rookie mistakes. And that would be, you know, you do all this hard work up front and you're doing exactly what you're supposed to be doing and you get that deal under contract. And then you stop all the activities that got you to that point in the first place and you focus on just that one deal. And you did not do that. So what are the, since you continue to do your marketing and continue to work your business, what do you have in the background that's brewing?

Do you have anything in the pipeline? So I have two deals in the pipeline right now that I'm going to get ready to close on in the end of September, beginning of October-ish, you know, single-family residences, you know, not nearly like the property we just closed on in terms of conditions. And then I just met with a seller today that I'm going to go back tomorrow

and get that contract signed tomorrow morning. So. Super, super. So essentially after tomorrow, you'd have three deals in the working. Yes. That's fantastic. Super. You're just the epitome of, you know, consistent action with a little bit persistence and tenacity behind it, a little bit of resourcefulness, gets consistent results.

Definitely. I mean, it really is a life changer. That's awesome. Cool. So, looking back, I have two questions before you now, looking back, you know, when you thought about getting involved in real estate in your teens, and it took you a while to get there until you actually did that. this first deal, what would you tell your 19-year-old self? If you want to be average and you want to be like the 95 or the 99 percenters, then that's who you need to listen to.

You know, you're only going to do the same things that they're doing. You know, but if you want to be somebody different, if you want to be, you know, in that 1% thing, you need to expand your circle. You need to go outside of listening to all the naysayers. You need to find people that are doing it because there's people out there doing it even at the age of 19. And if I would have just stepped outside my circle, I would have found those people. Right, right.

Environment, that's everything. Super advice, super advice. And my last question is, now what do you see for your future? Oh, I mean, it's, I see so much. I just, I don't foresee myself, you know, working 60, 70 hours within the next. next 18 months, which is huge because, you know, I don't know, I don't know, Matt, if you ever actually had to work on Christmas or Christmas Eve or Easter or Mother's Day or Father's Day, and you had to go to work for 12 hours, it's heartbreaking, especially now that I have, you know, a son.

Right. So I see myself now actually being home for holidays and family functions and not declining invitations. You know, so I see myself escaping the rat race, hopefully within the next 18 months. And just starting to, like, grow my business. I really want to start to, I really want to buy and hold, and I just want to set up that cash flow and know that when my parents go into retirement, that I can be there and I can give to them the way they gave to, you know, my family, my sisters, and myself.

So, and I see it. It's really there now. That's awesome. six months ago, I would have been like, yeah, whatever. But it's there. It's possible. I'm doing it. Yes, you are.

That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, thank you so much, Jen, for your time. Thank you for sharing. Thank you for just your grace of sharing how it worked out for you and sharing what you did step by step. I really appreciate that. And I know everybody listening appreciates as well. And the door here is always open for you.

If there's anything that we can do for you, please do not hesitate. to ask and I guess just thanks and the best of luck. No, I mean, really the thanks. It's really, I mean, to you and the academy members and Mercedes and everything, you know, you do and your team does, you have, I'm sure you have a lot of academy members that are maybe just listening and not, you know, on the fence and just take your advice. Just go really as far as you can see. And when you get there, you will see more.

You will see it. Just, you know, get out of your own way. Right. It's crystal clear now that you've done it, isn't it? It's so crystal. I mean, it's so crystal clear. And believe me, I don't have all the answers. I know that I have a ton of education coming before me with even these other transactions.

But, I mean, honestly, the work that you do and your podcasting, you're just so relatable, you know, just anyone listening, just go ahead and just, you know, just go get a yellow piece of paper and just write the letter and put it in the mail. That's it. That's all you have to do right now. Right. And then the rest will come together. So no, thank you. And everyone, I'm just so grateful.

I'm just so grateful for everything you guys have done. Well, we're grateful for you too, Jen. So thanks again for sharing your story with us. And let's do it again. No, definitely. You know, give me a call. Well, I'm sure I'll carry you on the coaching calls. but six months from now, we'll do it again.

Okay, sounds great. Thanks, Jen. You have an awesome day. All right, bye, bye-bye. All righty, so, yeah, that's it for today. I will see you Thursday for another episode of Third Degree Thursday. So, yeah, that's it. I'm signing off on behalf of the Epic Academy and the Epic Family

and Epic Academy of Merger Jennifer Palin. I'm Matt Terrio, Living the Dream. You've been listening to Epic Real Estate Investing, the world's foremost authority on separating the facts from the BS in real estate investing education. If you enjoyed this show, please take a minute to visit iTunes and share your thoughts. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time here at Epic Real Estate Investing with Matt Terrio. This podcast is a part of the C-suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-sweetradio.com.