David: Alright, guys. Welcome back to another episode of the discount property investor podcast. I am your host David Dodge and, today, I am joined with a student of mine, Jack. He's actually here locally in Saint Louis with me, so this is just awesome that I get to meet Jack and I get to work with Jack and we, you know, he did a deal just recently and I'm like, “Hey, let’s play a podcast. Let's tell everybody, you know, what the process looks like because there's a lot of people listening”. I'd imagine Jack that the majority of the people listening here are new, right?

Jack: Yeah.

David: And they're trying to get that first deal so, tell the audience a little bit about yourself first and foremost and then we'll jump on it.

Jack: Sure, yeah. So, previous to getting into wholesaling with self-employed for about 10 years now.

David: How old are you?

Jack: I'm 33.

David: Awesome.

Jack: Just turned 33. Yeah…

David: Can I fix it?

Jack: Thank you.

David: Don't worry about it.

Jack: You know, I was self-employed, was a recruiter in a variety of different industries.

David: Yeah.

Jack: And just wasn’t…

David: 23?

Jack: Yeah.

David: Nice.

Jack: Just wasn't really in love with what I was doing, right? And, it kind of got to the point you're self-employed and not enjoying what you're doing. It's kind of a bad combo, right? And so, really kind of it all started like really kind of around COVID or just kind of going down this YouTube rabbit hole and I had always had a real big interest in real estate getting into real estate it was always once I have some money or enough money I'm gonna start investing and doing some things and, you know, I think that sort of going down those rabbit holes, which one of the ways in which I found you.

David: Yeah, man. I've been down a lot of them. I mean A LOT of them. I’m trying to prevent myself into getting into them still today.

Jack: Yeah.

David: 'Cause it happens a lot.

Jack: Right.

David: It's a big thing.

Jack: Yeah. So yeah, just kind of did that and found wholesaling. I was like, “Hey, this actually sounds like something that's right in my wheelhouse like, right now, the skill sets I already have. And, I got really interested in it. I got really excited about it and, you know, finally this past spring was able to officially pull the trigger on it and, you know, and so one of the big things when I was starting out or making this transition was I kind of had a couple of rules. One, I knew I gotta be really excited about this, right, which, you know, I knew I was and the second thing was I need to get a coach, right? I need to find somebody that is gonna help me like I don't wanna…

David: Just gotta shorten that timeframe…

Jack: Exactly.

David: …from a year to couple months or even weeks in some cases, right?

Jack: Yeah, so that was a huge so those are kind of the two main things that I was, you know, focused on, right? Kind of the two rules my wife and I made. You know, as far as we…

David: Yeah.

Jack: If I'm gonna do it, I’m gonna do it the right way, right? And so yeah. So, kind of April 18th. It was Monday April 18th. It was like the first official day or first full day of me going out driving, you know, driving for dollars is my…

David: Sure.

Jack: …you know, is my marketing.

David: It’s working.

Jack: It’s working.

David: I got a guy, listen this is good. I'm not gonna interrupt you, but I'm gonna just real quick. I got a guy out right now driving for dollars.

Jack: Yeah.

David: How cool is that?

Jack: Yeah.

David: I love it.

Jack: Yep.

David: And, maybe later tonight, I'm gonna go do some [inaudible] to do myself.

David: Right.

David: And, it works.

Jack: Yeah.

David: Sorry.

Jack: No no no no it's alright. Yeah.

David: April 21st?

Jack: April 18.

David: April 18.

Jack: April 18th, yeah. First day driving and then, you know, obviously still early in the process here. You know, right? But, you know, I have done it, you know, I've done a deal and, you know, I have a couple more…

David: Slow down, slow down.

Jack: Alright alright alright.

David: Alright alright so, April 18th you started driving. Did you do this on your own before you, you know, hit me up and was like “Hey, I need some help.”?

Jack: No, it was… I had reached out to you maybe in maybe late Feb probably early March. It's probably when it was… so I was just like “Hey, like, this is happening. I'm gonna be making this transition…”.

David: Got it. So, you’ve only been working together for like…

Jack: It was like end of April, officially.

David: …2 months, man. Maybe 2 and a half max.

Jack: I think like beginning of May. It was one night.

David: ‘Cause usually, you know, I tell people “Hey, I'm pretty confident I'm gonna get you a deal in, you know, four to six months. Right? Hopefully, sooner. And, you were one of the guys that was like I'm counting in the weeks, basically. You did it in like 9 or 10 weeks, basically. Right?

Jack: Yeah, I think I closed…

David: For last season it might have been… 7 weeks.

Jack: I closed in about 8 weeks.

David: 8 weeks, man! 2 months, 8 weeks. Okay, sorry. I didn’t mean to derail you. I just wanna make sure that the audience is following where we're going with this. Right? So, you started…you reached out to me in the beginning or did you do it on your own. It was couple days or weeks or no?

Jack: No, it was I had reached out to you prior to basically pulling the trigger.

David: Love it.

Jack: And, I wanted it all like I wanted it to have the game plan all laid out like…

David: I love it.

Jack: I'm gonna start and this is, you know.

David: I wish that I could have…

Jack: Here’s my coach and here's my, you know, here's my strategy. Here's my coach and when I'm…

David: I wish I did that.

Jack: …pulled the trigger.

David: Because I spun my tires for 3 and a half months before I hired a coach and I did a deal with him in like five or six weeks, maybe less. I think it might have been within three or four but I had struggled for 3 and a half months on my own.

Jack: Right.

David: Right? Yeah, so dude alright this is amazing. So, you come in, we start working together and I love it because what Jack did, he knows maybe he knows, maybe he doesn't but, he prevented himself so much analysis paralysis because he wasn't dabbling with this or that or just learning. He was like, “What is the quickest way to get a deal?” and I laid it out and I'm like “Here's what you're gonna do man. Let's pick one or two or three marketing methods and don't do anything else. Quit watching YouTube videos. Quit getting lost and all this nonsense. Just start doing these two or three or four things and you are the man because you were consistent in every week when we would talk. Multiple times a week we would talk, “Jack, what's up? Report your numbers" and you would give me some statistic or some number and I would be like “Man, I wish everybody was like Jack and they got out there and they hustled” so you definitely had that hustle. And so, then again, pick up from where I'm at from here. So you started driving for dollars…

Jack: Driving for dollars, sending postcards, that's it. It's that…

David: It’s that simple. Wow! Okay, very cool.

Jack: You know…

David: You don't have to over complicate this business.

Jack: Right, yeah. You know, one or a couple of appointments was if, you know, the first couple, you know, first appointment really excited to go on.

David: Of course.

Jack: Of course. “Ah you know what, we're gonna reschedule.” you know ahhh and then it happens.

David: 'Cause you're spending time, you're spending money, and you're excited.

Jack: Yeah and in the first one too, especially. Right?

David: Yeah.

Jack: Like it's just like so exciting out there, “Yeah, let's reschedule.” and then, you know, in a couple of other, you know, I'm interested but, you know, “Let's put something for a couple weeks out.”. “No, let's go” like “I'll be there tomorrow.” like “I'll be there this afternoon.” like let's…

David: Yeah yeah.

Jack: …let’s meet.

David: I’m coming there now. I’m en route.

Jack: I’ll be there in 20. Right, yeah yeah.

David: Yes yes.

Jack: So just and I'm still that way, right?

David: Sure.

Jack: Like it's just you know wanting to…

David: And that’s what makes you…you’re already a good wholesaler, man. You got one done in two months. It's amazing and you got two or three more in the pipeline right now. It's amazing, but the fact that you are in it to win it, you're ready to go...excuse me...you are essentially saying are you there now I'll come I'll come today I come tonight.

Jack: Yeah.

David: That's what's gonna win deals, and that's what you are doing which is awesome. So, driving for dollars, how many are you doing in a day or a week or month? Like just give me some numbers.

Jack: So I break it down, it's 1000 a month. It’s what I'm adding driving for dollars, yeah.

David: But you’re consistent because I see and talk to you for two times a week and it's not like “Oh, I'm just gonna go do a 1,015 hours over the weekend.

Jack: Yeah yeah

David: No, you're doing like 200 here and 100 there and 50 there and 80 there and 200 there.

Jack: 'Cause there's some days and some neighborhoods I'm driving through that I, you know, I could add a hundred and, you know…

David: An hour

Jack: An hour, yeah. An hour and a half.

David: Right.

Jack: And it's like oh I could do that.

David: Others you might drive for an hour and get 6.

Jack: Yeah, right.

David: 60 cents.

Jack: And, you know, there's obviously a mixture like you don't wanna be in two yeah obviously two nights…

David: Two nights where there…

Jack: …where there's just, you know, you're looking now you're starting to nitpick. Right? On something that's, you know, that's slightly off about a house or, you know, on the other side, I mean you wanna be in a neighborhood that you know houses need work and where there's investor activity, right? So I love driving down like neighborhood or driving down streets in neighborhoods where, you know, maybe there is one or two on a block that need work but then I see tons of, you know, trucks out front of, you know, work being done. You know, on other neighboring homes and like so there's a lot of like, you know, there's a lot of investment going into a neighborhood and those are the ones where you might find a lot, you know, a lot of homes. Sure, right? You know, in a short amount of time so, you know, I try to pace myself obviously I don't wanna get to, you know, the last week of the month and be there.

David: Of course.

Jack: I gotta get a thousand, yeah. That’s not fun.

David: Or good all gone in the first week and then you might run out of credits or whatnot.

Jack: Yeah. Exactly.

David: So go slow.

Jack: You know and there yeah so, I don't drive every single day. Some days I'll, you know, most I've ever had I think was 180 in a day.

David: Yes, a lot.

Jack: Which is a lot for driving.

David: That’s a lot. That’s just 2-3 hours probably or more.

Jack: But, you know, but then I'm not driving every single day.

David: Sure.

Jack: Right.

David: Lovely. What are you looking for when you're driving for dollars?

Jack: I mean just your any sort of distress, right? You know, and it could be, you know, there's a tarp on a roof could be, you know, the gutters hanging down could be stuff growing in a gutter, right? We can get into it more but the one that I found from the outside, it looked like a pretty decent house as a brick, you know, single story home but there was just this just, you know, the bushes were just so overgrown right out in front like clearly just hadn't been taken care of. The home wasn't being loved, right? But, you know, so it was just anything that just kind of looks like someone isn't taking care of the home.

David: What do you do next? You find these properties as you're driving…

Jack: Yeah, Deal Machine is the app I use.

David: Love it.

Jack: I just add ‘em. What I'll do is I actually add them.

[inaudible 00:10:06]

Jack: Yeah yeah. Add them and then I'll go back and look at the list, you know, that, you know, after I'm done driving get back and look at my computer and I'll basically any home that was purchased like in the last six months, you know, ideally 'cause like maybe that's like a limiting belief but if they just bought it six months ago, chances of them wanting to get rid of it right now, I don't know if that's the best use of you know ad spend or setting up sending postcards.

David: Absolutely.

Jack: So anyone that, you know, bought it in the last six months, certainly, I'm just gonna delete off of that list and then everyone else just gets a postcard.

David: Hold up. I want you to talk about that more because that is so powerful, alright. Marketing costs time and money. That's it. That's all it is. It’s time and money. It's really ‘and’ not ‘or’, right? Time and money. And, when you are going out and driving for dollars or even if you are pulling a list off of batch or prop stream or whatever service you're using, you wanna make sure that this property wasn't purchased six months ago, guys. That is going to be a pretty unmotivating factor.

Jack: Right.

David: Yeah, so the fact that…

Jack: You’re not tired of it yet.

David: No, the fact that you're scrubbing those out is awesome. It's making your marketing not only more efficient but more effective.

Jack: Yeah.

David: Amazing! Alright, didn't mean to interrupt you. That’s very very good thing that you're doing and I love it.

Jack: Yeah.

David: Keep doing that and if you're pulling the list filter off the on markets and make sure your equity is at a minimum of 30 to 40%.

Jack: Right.

David: …as well.

Jack: Oh and that's the other one. Any like right now, especially, I'm not adding like if I know that if there's like a corporate owned and it's some, you know, big, you know, maybe they've got a hundred units or something like that, it's also someone I'm not gonna send to, you know, right now. If they want to get rid of one, I'm sure they, you know, have a…

David: Yeah. You’re smart. You’re looking at the owners or looking at when they were bought last and you're filtering things in and out of it so you're not gonna waste your time and your money reaching out to these individuals that just bought it or they own 40 properties and they're buying three more at a time and they're not selling anything they're buying. You know the difference.

Jack: Yeah yeah yeah. And yeah, and that's you know it's one thing to send one or two but when you're sending, you know, 50, you know, or 100 a month,

David: A month.

Jack: You know.

David: Yeah.

Jack: Then that adds up, especially 'cause I have it set up where, you know, for six months. Like they'll get one for six months.

David: They keep getting them, yeah.

Jack: So that adds up for sure.

David: Sure sure.

Jack: And that's why I just exclude those.

David: But I love that you aren't going after every one of those leads. You're instead saying “I wanna make sure that I can hit these four or five or six times” because the way that it works is so crazy but people have to see your name and your number and your business sometimes four or five or six times before they will actually pick up that phone. Now, will you get…did you get calls on your very first mail? Probably, I'd assume so.

Jack: Yeah, you know, 'cause my first one I think I had sent out…of course, I sent the first one to myself, right?

David: Yeah, see.

Jack: Just to make sure I didn't even write it…

David: Does this even work? Is this gonna arrive? Absolutely.

Jack: Whatever just to double check just to proofread it or whatever one last time and then I think by then I already had like 5 or 600 homes already tagged by the time I got it in the mail.

David: Right.

Jack: So then I pretty much sent out a huge, basically, huge batch and I think I got a couple calls right off you know in it and…

David: That’s the thing. You're gonna get anywhere from at a minimum typically 1%, right? Sometimes a little less, but I've seen mailers go 4/5/6 percent. I mean it can happen, right?

Jack: Yeah.

David: It just depends. It’s all…

Jack: It all averages out.

David: It's all timing. Yeah, average is probably you know 2 to 3%. No, maybe you’re little higher but not very high but that's the reason that you have to send them multiple times and you gotta send them in general. Here's the thing that I can tell you from being in this business for basically eight years full time at this point. It's crazy to think that, 'cause it feels like I got couple it's just time flies, it's nuts. People will save these postcards. They'll put them in their junk drawers or put them on their refrigerator, Jack, and they will call you five or six or seven years later.

Jack: That is wild.

David: How do I know? Because I get calls some times.

Jack: Yeah.

David: So here's how I know. I don't use my cell phone number on my marketing anymore because, you know, I want to separate business and personal. I recommend everybody do that, as well. But, in the beginning, the first ten months I didn't care. I didn't know that I needed to separate it. I didn't. I just said, “You know what? This is in my pocket all day. There's no better way to answer marketing than answer live”. There’s no better way.

Jack: Oh yeah.

David: So I'm just like “Hey, send it to my phone.” and now we forward it to phones or to people or whatever, right? But back then, we did that so I still get calls from postcards to my cell phone. It doesn't bother me, I'm like “This is amazing!”

Jack: Right yeah yeah

David: “You saved this postcard for six years?”

Jack: Right.

David: And I'll ask him, “Are you calling me from a postcard that was like blue and white, you know”. It'll be like every time. It's wild.

Jack: Yeah.

David: So the point I'm trying to make is people save these postcards. Just because you might not get a high response rate the day they hit mailboxes, as you hit them more and more, you're going to get more and people actually will save these things. It's crazy.

Jack: Yup.

David: So you sent some postcards after driving for dollars. You're doing a ton of driving for dollars. You're sending mail. You're slowing down on the mail. So, instead of sending every lead, you're scraping out leads that you don't think you're gonna be...

Jack: Yeah, and it’s not a huge percentage.

David: And then, are you calling or texting or not? Nothing?

Jack: Nothing.

David: All just inbound lead and that is a great way to approach it if you don't have a ton of time. You can pay for market. You don't have to spend the time calling and texting. It's time and money. And all right, so essentially, you can determine it but I love it.

Jack: Yeah.

David: You know. So you're bringing these in, and then holy cow, tell me about this deal after 8 weeks.

Jack: Yeah.

David: …which is like awesome. The most amazing time frame.

Jack: So, it was sort of funny. So, I actually had gone on another appointment or had another appointment scheduled…

David: Yeah.

Jack: …prior and, you know, 10 minutes before I, you know, I get a call “Hey, I'm running”, you know, from the seller. “Hey, I'm running late”, you know, 10 minutes after the appointment, 20 minutes, now it's 30 minutes after the appointment. Guy’s told me he was on his way, so now I'm calling just very “What the heck is going on?” and he's “Oh I, you know, I can't make it anymore”. I'm just like some and I know, you know, it's like stuff happens.

David: Yeah.

Jack: Mentally…

David: It's hard not to get mad but you gotta be friendly 'cause that's the whole goal. It's like, “Okay. When can we meet?”

Jack: Right, yeah. So, I'm leaving this appointment kind of feeling deflated or just kind of like “Okay, this wasn't it.” I thought it could have been, you know, but, you know, but this wasn't it.

David: Spent the time driving. Spent the time mailing.

Jack: I’m just excited of...I want my first deal.

David: Right.

Jack: You know.

David: Right.

Jack: And so, I'm leaving and I, you know, my phone starts ringing. I know it's the number. They're calling the market number. I'm like, “Okay, snap out of it” like just this could be another seller like…

David: Yes.

Jack: …it's just time like, you know…

David: Yes, love it.

Jack: You can't answer the phone with low energy.

David: Yep.

Jack: And just, you know, feeling sad for yourself. So, I get it, you know, pick up the phone and, you know, this the gentleman gets up he was like “Hey, I got your postcard here”, you know, “You sent this to me. I'm interested in selling, would like to learn more”, you know. So I pull over full, you know, full attention.

David: Yeah. I give you my full attention, “What did you say your name is again, Sir? Alright”

Jack: Yeah. Can I get my, you know, notepad and pen out.

David: Yes.

Jack: You know, “Can I ask you some general questions…” like well, you know what, “…tell me a little bit about the house” and, you know, start asking questions about the condition and, you know, like “Okay, you know, why are you looking to sell?” and kind of long story short this, you know, he had inherited another house further out and, you know, had lived in this house for a long time.

David: So, this was a house he lived in?

Jack: Yeah.

David: Not...at the time, still or no?

Jack: He had moved out already. A couple of months prior.

David: Okay, but he had been there for years?

Jack: He had been there, yeah, for like 40 some odd years something

David: Oh that many years.

Jack: Yeah. So, yeah and I'm like “So, you know, what do, you know, what are you hoping if everything goes perfectly? Like what, you know, what are you hoping happens here?” and he's just like, “You know, I just want this to be as easy as possible. I don't want to do any work.” and, you know, he named a price of what he was looking for and, at the time, I had no idea. It didn't mean anything to me other than…

David: You hadn't seen it. You have no comps.

Jack: I hadn't seen it. I don't know what the comps were. So, I was like “Okay, great” like let's…at least a starting point, right?

David: Sure.

Jack: Clearly motivated. I mean about as textbook as it gets as far as, you know, a wholesale deal goes, right? There's someone that wants you to absolutely no work. Someone that, you know, just wants this to be as easy as possible.

David: Would you say that he knew that he was giving you a good deal?

Jack: Uhm yeah.

David: Yeah.

Jack: I think…

David: I would.

Jack: …what he thought was this is a fair deal but if I don't have to do any work.

David: That's where I'm going next. So, he knew he was giving you a deal…

Jack: Yeah.

David: But, he was asking for convenience in exchange, was it not?

Jack: Yes, exactly.

David: And the convenience that he was asking for was probably cash, quick and as is, was it not?

Jack: Exactly, yeah.

David: Holy cow! Guys, this is all we do. At the end of the day is we find people with problems. We help solve their problems by buying the properties and how do we do that? We find people that have the problems that need the convenience, right? And in exchange, we ask for discounts.

Jack: Yeah.

David: And that's what happened here. That’s so amazing!

Jack: Yes. Speed and convenience, right?

David: What a great deal!

Jack: That's exa…

David: Yeah.

Jack: So, yeah. So, during the next day, you know, he met me out of the property. I know, you know, looking at it and trying to figure out, you know, all the different stuff. I think the furnace…I think I've never never seen a furnace that looked like that.

David: Yeah.

Jack: It was about the size of a bus.

David: Yep. Big old 40-year-old furnace.

Jack: Yeah yeah.

David: Yeah yeah.

Jack: Really old and, you know, it wasn't in bad shape but it hadn't been updated in 40 years, right?

David: Right.

Jack: So it was, you know, it was but everything needed to be…everything, you know, needed work on it. You know, I'm kind of running my numbers and…

David: This is when you went to meet him?

Jack: Yeah, when I went to go meet him. I'm running the numbers…

David: Is he following you around?

Jack: Yeah, we kind of walked the property.

David: Kinda?

Jack: Yeah.

David: That's good though. You want to make a friend.

Jack: Yeah, we walked it together.

David: Build rapport. Awesome awesome.

Jack: Yeah and it’s not a huge challenge. It was a, you know, a thousand square foot two-bedroom house. It's not a, you know, not too many places to hide. And yeah, so you know, I'm kind of running my numbers and kind of doing what I think the…by then, I knew, you know, roughly what ARV, you know, was. You know, I'm kind of doing the math in my head and the number he shot me yesterday

David: From before?

Jack: Excuse me.

David: Yeah, sure sure.

Jack: On the day before, I'm like “This is the exact number that I need to come up"

David: “…that I need to beat”. Yeah.

Jack: Yeah. Oh so like, listen like…

David: Textbook. So here's the thing, you don't always have to try to negotiate somebody way down. If they're motivated, which is what you've found…

Jack: Yeah.

David: And you're gonna find hundreds or more. I'm confident, Jack. This is not that hard.

Jack: Yeah.

David: You know what I'm saying? You guys just have the…you gotta be consistent. And that's the one thing that's going to set the guys in the business that do deals and do them quickly even at that…

Jack: Yeah.

David: …versus those that don't. It’s the consistency. It is the one single thing that is the differentiator. Literally.

Jack: Yeah.

David: But you made a friend with the guy. You're walking around. The number that you needed to be at was the number he was asking he knew that he was going to give you a good deal on it, but he also knew that it needed all this crazy work and the convenience that you offered was what he wanted to solve his problem.

Jack: Right. He showed up…

David: Isn’t it crazy how it comes full circle?

Jack: Yep.

David: This isn't that hard. It's amazing. It's doing…you're doing great. Though, I'm not trying to undermine your efforts.

Jack: Yeah yeah yeah.

David: I'm just saying now that you've got it behind you, you can do a hundred more, for now, no problem.

Jack: Yeah yeah.

David: Cool! So you gave him a number that he asked and then what you're like “Hey, this works?”

Jack: Yeah. I was like “You know, we're at the same number. This is what I'm gonna, you know, I can offer you that, you know, like let's like, you know, had a contract. I'm like let's sign it” goes “Okay, well I've got one other person, you know, that I'm waiting to hear on that, you know, that toured or looked at the place yesterday. “

David: I would have done this. I would have got my phone, had been like “We’ll call him…”

Jack: Yeah.

David: “Let’s see, if you don’t mind, ‘cause I wanna buy it right now”

Jack: Yeah, exactly. Yeah, right. It’s, you know, in retrospect there's a lot of stuff you could, you know, I would, you know, maybe do differently or…

David: So how did it play out though?

Jack: So, I'm like “Okay, like I'm ready to do this now but like I understand like, you know, I get, you know, I wanna respect, you know, respect that”. He called me an hour later, I was like “Okay, yeah. Let's do it.”

David: Amazing. Did you give him a contract or not?

Jack: I did not.

David: Okay.

Jack: I did not leave…

David: Pro tip, leave him one next time.

Jack: Okay, yeah. Right so yeah, even when all those perfectly right.

David: Anything.

Jack: There's still things…

David: Yeah yeah.

Jack: There's still ways to improve.

David: Oh absolutely, no no no, you did great, bro! You made $10,000, man. We're gonna get to that. We gonna get to that.

Jack: Right.

David: Yeah.

Jack: So yeah. So, I got the contract signed. Got it over to…got it over titled and posted just in the local Facebook group.

David: Amazing.

Jack: And uhm…

David: Amazing.

Jack: Within probably about 2 hours of that post going live had someone say “Yeah, I'm interested. Let's meet.”

David: “Let’s meet”

Jack: So, we went over there.

David: Did you put a lock box on it or did you have to meet the seller back there? How did that all play out?

Jack: So, I actually went out.

David: And I meant I know, but I want the audience…

Jack: Right. So I had…it was like, you know, he called me. It was a Friday. He called me and said “Great! Let's like I, you know, that's great like let's do it”

David: This is the seller?

Jack: This is the seller, yes.

David: Okay, perfect.

Jack: To say…

David: Did you e-mail them on the offer or did you drive back over there?

Jack: So I was like…

David: I'm asking 'cause they're asking.

Jack: I saw. I said “What's your e-mail?” and he said “I don't have an e-mail.”

David: Okay, that's…he said that?

Jack: Yeah

David: Oh wow. Old guy?

Jack: And I was like “Okay”. Not that old to not have an e-mail but, anyway.

David: Yeah, he had to have been 50 to 60, right?

Jack: Yes.

David: Even 40 years, roughly.

Jack: Yeah.

David: Yeah yeah, okay.

Jack: So, I drove out to Saint Charles with a contract Friday afternoon. I was like “Let's do it”

David: Consistency, guys. He didn't give up. He said “I'm going to do what it takes”

Jack: I met him in his new house. He signed it, you know, took it to, you know, took the title and…

David: Then you made the post.

Jack: And then, I made the post and by Monday afternoon had an assignment…

David: Signed.

Jack: Assignment signed, yeah.

David: Love it.

Jack: Yep.

David: A to B, B to C, what are the prices?

Jack: 40 is what I got under contract for, 50 is what I signed it for.

David: I love it.

Jack: And I…

David: You made the 10, right?

Jack: Yeah.

[inaudible 00:23:50]

Jack: Yeah.

David: Because when you don't have to go to closing and pay the double close or any of these fees, you get up…that's the great thing about assignments is you get the rounded number $10,000 and zero cents like bam!

Jack: Right, yeah.

David: Those are the best tax, man.

Jack: Yeah, I know.

David: I tell you 9,600 is still pretty cool but 10,000 is just…it's way better.

Jack: Yeah.

David: It’s awesome.

Jack: Yeah. So yeah, anyway, so…

David: And then, closing went relatively…

Jack: Well, yeah. I mean we literally just went in. I got the first appointment they had available and even the end buyer was like “Can we move it up like I loved it”, I'm like “I would love to move it up. It was just, we just were…it was the first appointment available”. I'm calling back “Hey, if there's a cancellation, will come in sooner if that's alright”

David: “’Cause my buyer’s ready to go. I wanna get paid, baby. Let's go”

Jack: And they're like…and then basically just response was like “We’ll let you know”

David: “We’ll let you know” yeah yeah

Jack: Yeah yeah.

David: That's okay.

Jack: Yeah.

David: If you don't ask, the answer is no anyway.

Jack: 100% yeah. So yeah, I mean like I said it was about as textbook I felt like as it gets, right?

David: Yeah.

Jack: As far as a deal goes…

David: Which is the greatest thing though 'cause it doesn't have to be complicated.

Jack: Right, yeah.

David: You know, I mean if you don't have the resources to drive then you can buy your list. I prefer to drive to get my leads because they're good leads and I can even filter in on these apps like deal machine that you and I are both using. I could filter in the vacants. I can filter in the absentees. I can filter in the tax delinquent. So I can see on the map as I'm driving if there's other things that may, you know, list stacking essentially.

Jack: Right, yeah.

David: So to list, you know, to show that there's going to be an elevated level of motivation and that's great. So you did the driving for dollars but guys you can pull list too, right? You don't have to necessarily do that. I prefer the driving for dollars but we do both. And then, you can cold call or cold text these people if you have the time. It's gonna be much cheaper than send a mail. But if you don't have the time, Jack, I know you have three kids and you're busy as hell man, so you're like I'm just gonna buy the market I'm going to pay for it and I'm gonna get my phone ringing and your phones ringing.

Jack: Yeah.

David: And people are motivated on the other end.

Jack: Right, yeah.

David: And there's no magic trick right up my sleeve or yours, is there?

Jack: Right, yeah.

David: But at the end of the day, we did a lot of really cool things, man. A, we got you a first deal. Made you a 10K.

Jack: Yeah.

David: Boom! Love that.

Jack: Yep.

David: That's awesome. B, we hope to sell or sell a property that was looking for convenience and you did that.

Jack: Right.

David: That's a win right there. You want and made ten grand, that's a win. The buyer, who I know is a friend of mine, he's loving the deal 'cause he's gonna turn it into a rental property.

Jack: Right.

David: And he won. And guess who else won? The contractors that are going to get hired by our friend, The title company 'cause they got a transaction out of it. An insurance agent is gonna win 'cause he's going to get a new policy. He or she's gonna get a new policy on it.

Jack: Yep.

David: Right?

Jack: Yep.

David: And then, the hardware store is gonna win 'cause they're gonna sell a bunch of materials. There’s so many wins that are created by helping somebody and that's the best part about this business. Of course we're in this business to make money. In fact, the definition of business is the act of making money. Oddly enough. But, we lead with integrity and we try to find problems and we solve those problems. We don't lead with “Oh I'm trying to get this thing for $4 so I can go make a million bucks on it”, you know, we're trying to solve problems. We're trying to help people and we can get paid, my opinion, really handsomely, you know, for doing good work here.

Jack: Yeah.

David: So, dude, amazing and tell me more about like these other couple deals that you're working right now. And, you've been in the game for what ten weeks now. This is like you got that deal closed about a week and a half two weeks ago…ish.

Jack: Yeah. It was uh…

David: Give or take?

Jack: Yeah about yeah…

[inaudible 00:27:20]

Jack: Yeah, three weeks.

David: Three weeks, there you go.

Jack: Yeah.

David: Yeah, awesome.

Jack: Yeah.

David: So you've been in the game less than three months though. Deal done in two or three more ready to move.

Jack: Yeah so just same deal driving for dollars, you know, just and going to just different neighborhoods and which is kind of a nice thing to just getting to know.

David: You get to learn.

Jack: It's actually like physically being in the neighborhoods.

David: Yeah.

Jack: And different parts and, you know, probably a lot of places but Saint Louis, especially. I mean neighborhood to neighborhood changes so much so that's like helpful just to actually be kind of boots on the ground.

David: After you do that a lot, you're gonna get calls from people and you're gonna be like “Man, I remember that street”

Jack: Yeah.

David: 'Cause you were on it. Yeah.

Jack: Right.

David: It's awesome. Have you pulled any leads yet or is it all driving for dollars?

Jack: All driving for dollars, yeah.

David: I love that because again it doesn't have to be complicated

Jack: Yeah.

David: I mean we get deals from that. We get deals from polling leads. You get deals from both.

Jack: Well, and I think what's really interesting is I know, you know, a lot of people go after, you know, like absentee or, you know, vacant…absentee owner vacant, you know, properties and what's interesting is you know this the property I closed and these other two that are potential or two of the three that…

David: That you’re working now.

Jack: …that I'm working on now are actually vacant but they weren't listed as vacant.

David: Not yet.

Jack: So they could…right. So they weren't quite listed as vacant yet.

David: That’s an interesting...

Jack: So I got there before, you know, 'cause if it had, you know, soon as it turns vacant, they’re gonna be really bombarded.

David: I wanna hit him with the mail or call or a text or something.

Jack: Right. But you could tell…just driving by, you could tell these were vacant.

David: Yeah and it often takes…here's the cool thing…here's a pro tip, it often takes six months. So, by the way, all the vacant data is provided by the United States post office. That's who marks it vacant. We can pull that data from various softwares. I actually can get it direct through USPS through a 501C3 that we own but essentially people are just scraping that data and then they're reselling it. But, at the end of the day, the United States post office is the only people that have the data on if a property is vacant or not. And the point I'm trying to make is, it can take sometimes six months or more to get marked as vacant and if you can drive around and drive for dollars you have a massive advantage over the other people that are just buying lists, they're not getting their own, because you got a 6 to 10 months head start on those properties. And I can tell you something else, Jack, I would say and, I'm not even exaggerating here, that's why I'm gonna take my time on this for a second. I would say that 75, that's actually a conservative number…we're going to go with that, percent of all the properties that I've ever bought in my life which is probably close to 1000 at this point, were vacant. 75%

Jack: Yeah.

David: So there's a reason why people are pulling the vacant data…

Jack: Right.

David: …in the absentee owned data…

Jack: Right.

David: …because it's the low hanging fruit. Doesn't mean that that's going to be everyone, I mean again 1/4 is not, but the majority are and you have a huge leg up on the competition by getting this data essentially with your own eyes versus waiting 6-8 months for the post office to flag it as that as such.

Jack: Right.

David: Very very cool.

Jack: Yeah.

David: Very very cool. So you got two more in the pipeline…

Jack: Yeah.

David: What are you thinking about these. Still negotiating? Still following up? What's going on?

Jack: Yeah. So, I have one under contract right now that I actually just came, you know, was showing it to another investor right before I came here and the other two we've agreed on price, you know. I've sent contracts and I'm just waiting for that, you know. It should be in my inbox but it's not yet so I don't wanna, you know, count my chickens before they hatch. But you know that they would…I think the price I got him at, I'm really excited about.

David: I like both those prices. I looked at those.

Jack: Yeah.

David: They look good.

Jack: So yeah, I mean I think, you know, the same thing. I think they're just good, you know, good deals. You know, where there is pretty…again, there's…you look at, you know, comps in the neighborhood, some are way up here and, you know, somewhere down here. Well, I know the ones that are way down here. You can tell who's bottom. They are, you know, corporations.

David: Yep, which is so easy to find. You just go online and use what’re you using? Batch or prop stream or something?

Jack: Yeah, you have batch, yeah.

David: There you go. And, you just go look at the other houses that are in the comps and you just look at the data.

Jack: Right.

David: You spend time, Jack, that's the thing. A lot of people they wanna try to fast track this business. You know and they want to be able to do it…you know, they don't want to spend time looking at the data and it's like the money is in the data.

Jack: Yeah.

David: Right? It's telling you who bought it…

Jack: Yeah.

David: …who sold it, what they paid for it, how much they owe on it. It's all there.

Jack: Right.

David: Spend some time looking at it.

Jack: Yeah.

David: Absolutely.

Jack: So yeah. So like I said, I like the prices they're at, you know. Like fingers crossed that I get those contracts back, but I think there'll be, you know, more of kind of the classic.

David: I bet you'll get it both back. Just be consistent. But there's a fine line. You can't be calling him every three hours.

Jack: Right, yeah yeah yeah.

David: Then they're gonna be like “You're harassing me. Leave me alone”

Jack: Right, yeah.

David: But, you know, every day or two, you know, like in the great thing is you can follow up in so many different ways. You can call, obviously. You can shoot him a text. You can send him an e-mail. You can drop by. You can throw a contract in the mail and get it delivered to their mailbox and then they're just a business card and a contract, “Hey…”, you know, making me throw a sticky note on the top of it that says “Hey, I haven't forgot about you. So, to make sure you didn't lose the agreement, here's another one”. Like there's so many different ways and you just gotta keep touching these people and I'm confident that you're going to be doing 2-3 deals a month here in no time.

Jack: Yeah. That's, yeah, that's kind of…it’s the next step, that's…get there and then, you know, kind of hit the next…

David: It's awesome

Jack: …you know, the next, you know, the next goal. After that, keep moving the goal post and in a good way.

David: In a good way.

Jack: Yeah.

David: Yeah, loving it. But, guys, this is a perfect example of somebody that has not overcomplicated the business. Jack said “I don't want this whole analysis paralysis. I don’t wanna go watch 600 YouTube channels by 18 different people, you know, and get confused. I just want to pick a couple things that I know work that are proven and I'm going to get very very consistent with them and I'm going to be very very persistent with these activities”. There are two different things, consistency and persistence are two different things. And you got both of them, my friend, and that's what brought you a deal in eight weeks. And that's what's going to bring you ten more in the next couple months.

Jack: Yeah.

David: I'm confident of it. Jack, thank you so much for coming on the show today.

Jack: Thank you so much for having me.

David: Oh my God, thank you for coming in.

Jack: This is really fun.

David: It’s fun, yeah. That's the whole thing.

Jack: Yeah.

David: Nice you had fun here. So, guys, you can do this too, right? Jack is consistent and persistent, so be like Jack. Follow his footsteps. Don't give up. Pick one or two simple marketing methods that are proven and there's hundreds of them, that's the cool thing. There are hundreds of them and just get out there and make friends with people, right? Whenever you're out at the property, just make a friend with that person. It's going to be way better than any trip, trick, or tip that you may have hidden up your sleeve. People don't want to be sold. They want to work with people that they know, like, and trust which is just mean making a friend with them. And then, you simply made a post on Facebook which is amazing because it's free.

Jack: Yeah.

David: You'll have this little device in our pocket that accesses it and you got some people that were interested and you had it sold within…well, how many hours did it take to have the contract and have it sold? Or days? Hours or days? Probably…

Jack: Hours.

David: Hours.

Jack: Less than a day.

David: Less than a day.

Jack: Yeah.

David: $10,000 assignment and everybody won. Amazing. Jack, thanks again for coming on this show. One last question for you before we wrap up, if you are new and you were listening or watching this right now, alright, what advice would you tell them? Because I got a lot of experience sometimes I overlooked a lot of things, right? What would be some advice that you would give the new person to prevent the analysis paralysis and to help them get a deal in as little as you did?

Jack: I get a coach. I mean really…

David: That’s gonna help you a lot.

Jack: Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of awesome content on YouTube and you can definitely get the basics.

David: So much of it, though.

Jack: Yeah, you can definitely get the basics, right?

David: Right.

Jack: But there's like, I mean, just even last week going through one of the deals I have under contract now or the deal I have under contract now is it was, you know, a couple of weird tweaks and it wasn't overcomplicated but having you…being able to reach out to you, you know, directly and say "This is what I'm working on", you know, "What's going on"…

David: I love it.

Jack: …and, you know, for you it’s something really straightforward and easy. For me, it was something I never seen before, done before…

David: It's new. How do you know what you don't know?

Jack: You know, so that's just one example. But yeah, I mean that's something too and even if you know, having that “Can I come to you?” and “What do you think of this?”

David: It really gives much more confidence, yes. If I'm saying yes or that person that has a ton of experience says “I love it, man”

Jack: Yeah and that's…and there's yeah…and that's…that would be 100% my advice…is to do that, figure out a way, you know, to get a coach.

David: I'm so proud of you. I'm not trying to be weird but like I am. But, I'm also just so excited because, dude, you are consistent and you’re persistent and I'm confident that you're gonna lock both of those deals that you're working up now. And you're going to have multiple deals in the next couple of months. And it's just gonna be fun to see you grow from a marketer and a wholesaler to even an investor here soon too. So yeah, Jack, very very cool. Thanks for coming on the show.

Jack: Yeah, thanks again.

David: We appreciate it. Alright, guys. Thanks for listening today and with that, I want you to know you can do this too. This isn't hard. Just don't let analysis paralysis kick in. I've literally talked to a couple students in just the last couple of days. Then, some new people that I'm working with and every one of them has said “Guys…” I, you know, “Dave, I'm facing analysis paralysis. I'm looking for a road map. I'm looking for something that's simple and easy that can take me from where I am today to my first deal or to multiple deals and that's what I love doing. I love helping people and just simplifying this and just saying here “This is how we're gonna do this business”. Jack is a perfect example and I love it, man. This is amazing. Thanks for coming on.

Jack: Absolutely.

David: Guys, and with that, signing off.