u/RealEstateLad

Here’s a real, insane, and hilarious story about my first wholesale deal.

So 6 years ago, I’m still learning the ropes, and my partner and I are driving for dollars, putting letters on doors in Tempe AZ.

We actually got very lucky, and within a few days of doing this, I get a call from a 72 year old man named Pete who’s desperate to sell.

We go over to the house, and the first issue is that the house is DISGUSTING - Rotten meat in the fridge, cockroaches literally hanging from spider webs in the kitchen, a hole in the living room where stray cats would come in and pee everywhere, it was one of the worst smells in the world. I had no idea how he was even alive at that house!

Next, we chat with him about a price, he’s drunk (alcoholic), and just signs the contract without even reading it. My partner and I are looking at each other shocked and thinking it’s a slam dunk!

About 4 days later, the title company tells us there’s an existing mortgage that’s higher than our purchase price, AND he’s in foreclosure, so we told another wholesaler we met online for advice, and he told us to negotiate a short sale with the mortgage company (for those who don’t know, short sales are a pain in the ass, take months to complete, and you’re literally negotiating the mortgage down with the lender).

So for about 3 months, we’re going over to Pete’s house weekly, calling the lender, asking what their requirements are, how it even works, etc.

Pete didn’t have his license (in fact, we dug through his ENTIRE trashed house looking for it, just to find it and see it was expired), and his deceased wife was still on the deed. He didn’t know how to get any of these documents, so we took him to the DMV and bought him a license, then we took him to vital records and paid for a death certificate for his wife to prove she was dead!

If that wasn’t enough, his power was shut off, and we’re in AZ heat in the middle of summer. So one day we swing by to get more paperwork signed (mind you, we are winging this ENTIRE process, just following what the lender, title company, and our not-so experienced wholesaler friend is telling us to do) and as we’re talking to a drunk Pete, he literally has a heat stroke and collapses into my partners arms. My partner catches him and drags him into his bed while we fan him off as an ambulance is on the way. What’s even worse is he was wearing nothing but boxers, so my partner was almost throwing up when a sweaty naked 72 year old fell into him. Sometimes he’d even be fully naked under a see through robe…

So fast forward, he gets out of the hospital, and his family (who apparently hates him because of his alcoholism) pays for a motel for him. Now we’re meeting him at a motel weekly, months have passed, we’ve bought him Burger King and liquor numerous times so he doesn’t starve or have withdrawal seizures, it was awful. At the time we were only 21, not knowing this WASNT how a deal was supposed to go down. 😂

Many times when we visited, he would be throwing up, he’d crap the bed in the motel, you name it, we saw it…

FINALLY, about 6 months pass, and we negotiate the short sale down enough to make a profit.

We assign the contract… just to find out ANOTHER wholesaler with more experience locked it up with Pete AFTER we did, and they closed the deal a week before we were “set to close” and we made $0… we expected to only make $2k, but we didn’t even get that 😂.
We didn’t know about memorandums or anything, so we fumbled the deal. What’s worse is that other wholesaler made around $30k on the deal, when we expected to only make a couple grand!

So, to recap, my very first deal as a BRAND NEW wholesaler:

* we negotiated a short sale
* we dug through his nasty hoarder house to find his ID
* we took him to the DMV, vital records, and bought him multiple meals and bottles of vodka
* he had a heat stroke and collapsed on my partner
* we saw him naked, throwing up, shitting the bed, etc.
* it took 6 months
* we made $0

I’ve now done hundreds of deals, and looking back, I can’t believe we even put up with that.

This story is 100% true, and if you’re a new wholesaler, DO NOT GIVE UP. I don’t want to hear the excuses because I’ve been there! If you need help or want some pointers let me know because I’ve gone through it too and I know what it’s like being in the trenches when you’re starting out.

Looking back, I’m happy that was my first deal simply due to the memories, proving to myself I’m disciplined to keep moving, and the hilarious reaction people have when I tell them about this!

Thanks for reading 💪