Invest in Peace Ed James
It’s not to often you see or read a blog post of one of your fellow house flipping comrades who passed away. I attended a funeral of ED James a.k.a. “The King of Dolfield” (in his early days). During the funeral the pastor asked the attendees if anyone wanted to reflect on the life of Ed. Several people he grew up with, a former girlfriend of 3 years who was almost 20 years younger than him (Ed had Swag) took to the stage and shared their condolences, stories, experiences and how he made an impact in their lives. Ed made a huge impact on my life in a very short time of getting to know him and I shared that with his family and friends.
Some of you may have attended my real estate trainings or real estate investing boot camps when I share a story about a man who had been incarcerated in federal prison for 15 years for flipping kilos of cocaine who turned his life around upon his release and began his journey flipping houses legally while investing in real estate.
See I actually got to know Ed after sending out one of my wholesale deals via email to my cash buyers list. Like clock work when the numbers on my deals make sense and the location is prime my phone starts ringing by the minute. This particular deal received a lot of attention from my cash buyers list because it was located a block from Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore City prime real estate. Up until this deal I had never partnered up with another wholesaler to execute a co-wholesale deal, since my start I had no problem finding cash buyers for my wholesale deals making on average 3 to $10k on each deal. Out of all the calls that I received that day one call stood out from the rest. I remember like it was yesterday I was sitting at my dining room table in my home office when the call came in from a guy named Ed who wanted to purchase my deal. The first thing he asked me though was are you in anyway related to Ricky Umphery this totally was a shocker to me because Ricky Umphery was my dad who had passed away in 1996 many years ago I hadn’t heard anyone mention his nick-name in years. I let Ed know that yes I’m related to him he is my father he went to tell me he grew up in the same neighborhood with him and that the ladies called him “Pretty Ricky” growing up and how well he could dress and how good he could dance.
After sharing those stories with me he went on to tell me he wanted to put my deal under contract and that he wanted to meet to sign the contract and put a deposit down. During that meeting Ed shared with me that he had served time in prison and that during his imprisonment he read books on Real Estate by Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki and Russ Whitney and when he became a free man he was blessed to get a job in a call center where he started saving up his money to attend real estate investing boot camps and seminars that helped lay the foundation for his future real estate investing career and business. Ed eventually invested in himself and enrolled into a real estate investors mentoring program where he learned how to wholesale houses with no cash or credit. While listening to his story and testimony all I was thinking was real estate investing does not discriminate if you have a burning desire you can become successful at it.
After catching up with the small talk Ed took a look at my assignment contract and saw the profit that I was making he chuckled and said that’s all you’re going to charge me for this deal man you should be making a lot more than that on your deals this had never happened to me beforet. Ed went on to tell me he was making 20 to 50K on each of his house flips without a website or email marketing software. He was actually very impressed with my website and internet marketing strategies however he told me I was selling myself short on my wholesale deals. Especially with the amount of value I created online to my potential investors buyers. He then went on to tell me that I was going to make 20k on this deal instead of 7k by partnering up with him on the deal and wholesaling the house to one of his cash buyers from Saudi Arabia.
Now I had never executed joint venture with another wholesaler before because I actually thought I was doing quite well myself and I had heard the horror stories of wholesale deals gone BAD, but after meeting Ed I learned that partnering with other real estate investors on deals if structured correctly can bring in bigger profits for your pockets. And that particular joint venture wholesale deal yielded a 20k pay day for me. That deal opened my eyes and mind up to several things that I started implementing in my real estate investing business.
1. Be open to partnering up with other real estate wholesalers (if structured properly)
2. Never sell yourself short (know your value)
It’s very rare in business especially in our industry that you will do a deal with someone that will actually help you put more money on the table for you to take home. This really spoke to Ed’s character. After that meeting Ed and I became friends and started doing more deals together (make sure you watch the video below). Ed taught me things from an old school perspective but he always seemed to stay up with the new concepts and strategies from constantly educating himself on the craft. One day he called me and asked if I had ever thought about selling my specialized knowledge on the internet like those boys down in Tampa Bay, Florida he went on to drop some names of some guys that I was very familiar with and that I needed to fly down there and connect with them to learn how they sell their information. He was obviously on their email list lol.. So I took his advice and flew down to GURU city and started my journey into sharing my real estate investing knowledge with the masses. Since 2010 I began sharing my information through my blogs, real estate information products, seminars, webinars, newsletters, coaching calls and real estate investing boot camps around the country.
One thing that Ed would talk about all the time once he saw that I took action with his advice to start teaching what I learned over the years to others was getting him involved somehow we had planned to do a conference call and webinar on how he went from being a gangster back in the 60’s and 70’s doing some hard time in the Penitentiary surviving to come out and defeat the odds and actually make a honest living investing in tax sale certificates, wholesaling houses and rehabbing houses for big profits. Due to the procrastination bug and our busy schedules we never got the chance to sit down and knock those projects out. Man I wish we would have made the time so you could have learned some of those Old school secrets he used to build a million dollar real estate investing business with just a cell phone and laptop. Don’t worry he shared them with me and I’ll share them with you one day soon.
Thanks for Sharing, Encouraging and Inspiring ED!
This is one of many blog post you will see from me. Over the last 24 months I have been busy mentoring my student partners get started who were just like you before applying for my coaching program to learn how to become successful real estate investors. This year is going to be a GREAT year for you and me both I can’t wait to share more with you in the days and weeks to come. Make sure you share this post and comment on it below.
Rehabbing Houses, Wholesaling Houses, Short Sales, Lease Options, Rent to Owns, REO’s, Tax Sales and Tax Deeds have been a staple of Real Estate Investing since the beginning of time.
My Freedom & Wealth Real Estate Investing Boot Camp is the ultimate real estate training for learning how to master these Real Estate Investing methods. Discover how to buy and sell houses and turn yourself into a real estate investing machine. Visit our website to register.
I”ll see you at the closing table,
Marcel Umphery the “R.E.I. Successmaker”