When I fell in LOVE with Wholesaling Real Estate

I remember it like yesterday young, green and hungry, full of excitement and enthusiasm. It was your typical Thursday night at a local REIA meeting in Baltimore, MD the year was 2003 ago to be exact. The thing was I had never even heard of wholesaling real estate/houses I did not know it existed being your typical newbie real estate investor the only niches I had heard of and were being glamorized during that time were rehabbing houses, buying foreclosures, real estate auctions and short sales. These were niches that scared and intimidated the heck out of me they all require some level of experience and up front money needed; not to mention you needed to know how to speak the real estate investor language to even play in those arenas. Sitting in the back row at this particular real estate investor association meeting with another young real estate entrepreneur. I was sitting next to Tony who happened to be from Chicago, IL we both were bored to death with the presenter that night and started talking about our future careers in the real estate investing business. The funny thing was we both never closed a deal before but owned a few manuals that we bought with our last dimes. Tony had explained to me that he had recently bought a manual on Wholesaling for Quick Cash but he wasn’t really pleased with the amount of money you could make 3,000 to $15,000 dollars per deal the book explained. Tony was more interested in making 30,000 to $50,000 a deal doing short sales. Now at that particular time I had in my possession a Short Sale manual that I had recently purchased at a real estate investing boot camp where I was sold on how easy it was to make 50k on just one deal; a guy in the crowd that day even stood up and said I just made 500k in the last eight months with that Guru’s manual. When I got home reading that manual was like reading a foreign language I had no idea how to apply the terminology and strategies in the manual. I was totally disgusted with the investment I had made.

However I came up with a GENIUS idea that night at the REIA meeting I told Tony we should swap the manuals since with both were dissatisfied with our investments I had no intentions in putting together any short sales any time soon and 3 to 15k per deal did not motivate Tony. It was a match made in heaven. We decided we were going to meet up at the next local real estate investors meeting and exchange manuals. It was about a week until the next meeting I was on edge those 5 to 6 days on google researching wholesaling it was like love at first site. I came across so many forums talking about how it’s the best way to start if your a newbie in the business there is no risk, no money and no experience needed I thought that was SO SEXY! I called Tony like four times that week to make sure he was coming to the next meeting. That meeting finally happened I didn’t even go into the meeting that night I meet Tony in the parking lot before and we swapped manuals and I speed straight home reading every single page I did not put that book down literally until I had read every single page. I never saw Tony again. Me and that manual were inseparable I took it everywhere I went class, the barbershop everywhere referencing it whenever I was unsure of something and constantly reading and highlighting what I thought were important points. I could not wait to get it on and popping with my first deal.

A few weeks after reading the manual I landed my first deal 12 properties with no money, no credit and I had no experience whatsoever. I ended up finding a cash buyer to purchase these properties and I ended up netting $34,000 dollars on my first deal. I wasn’t a wholesaling real estate virgin anymore! I always wondered if Tony ever closed any of those 30 to $50k deals? Tony if you ever come across this blog reach out to me lets connect!

I”ll See you at the closing table,

Marcel Umphery the “R.E.I. Successmaker”