From W2 Jobs to Real Estate Deals

Who cares if it took you 15 months to get to your first deal? That's going to make him, I don't know, 9, 10 grand. And now he's got the skill set to go do that over and over and over again, as often as he so chooses to do so. That's what this is about. Let's go ahead and let's welcome a couple of people to the stage here.

So we have Mr.

David Albin, come on up. Everyone give him a round of applause. And Mr. Peter Paredes. I gotta say that with like a Spanish roll of the tongue, but I'm not very good at it. Welcome, welcome.

Thanks, sir.

Come on up. I gotta stand on stage to be as tall as you. Love it. Come sit down. Not anymore. Awesome. So we have— well, let's, let's do this. We'll get a little bit of information from you guys and we're going to walk through dealer 2 so we can see this thing on the whiteboard a bit. And I also— David, your coach is who?

Russell.

Russell.

Okay.

El Rusty. So make sure you stick around as well because I want to make sure that as we walk through this deal, like if you have anything additional to add about the deal, Because you guys did the deal together. And then Peter, who is your—

Rick.

Rick. Rick also, please. And then Nick, you obviously helped them both sell their properties as well.

Actually, Peter worked with Rick.

Oh, correct. Yeah. Oh, I don't know who I—

I don't remember who my coach was exactly.

This one?

Yeah. Everyone.

I had everyone.

And then I know, Peter, you're like under contract right now heading towards the sale. So that's awesome. All right. Maybe, David, you start us off. Give us a little bit of background of who you are, where you're located, maybe how you became part of this, this community.

Yeah. My name is Dave Albin. I'm from Columbia, Missouri. I am an accountant, but not a CPA. Okay. Corporate accounting for a real estate developer. I came into the Wicked Smart 2 years ago. at QLS Live. So this is my second anniversary. I saw you guys with Anderson Business Advisors on a, on a podcast or webinar or whatever, one of the weekend deals about a year, maybe 18 months before I actually joined the community. So—

What took you so long?

I was a little slow.

Sometimes that's what happens in the Midwest, you know? Yeah. No, exactly.

Yeah, we're not. No, we're not as smart as you.

Not as we go. I love it. Okay, how about you, Peter? Como imagina. What? You gonna start singing for us? That's amazing. Do it again.

So yeah, I joined in February. I knew about this program for a while, maybe two years before. I was, yeah, that's what I am asking myself. Yeah, but it took me a while to really believe. And also my W-2, I work from 6:00 AM to whatever in the night because we work with Asia and Europe. So different time zones and I need to be available.

All the time.

So I didn't have really time for this until I started seeing the light and, you know, started joining the meetings and I believed.

Yeah. And he believes. I love it. Okay. What did you— because I believe you retired or—

Yeah.

So the company where I actually— I am from Costa Rica. So the company brought me here to US and I stayed working here for 10 years. And then the company is not doing well. It's Intel, the computer company. Well, the stock is coming up now, but anyway, so like the last 5 years they are, how do you call it, firing people, right?

Yeah.

And then last year they offer a good package, a good volunteer package. And I have 27 years with the company, so it was a good package and I took it. Yeah, but now I'm struggling, right? I need to start generating more, more income with, with this, and that's gonna blow up.

Yep.

Well, we're excited for you, for you, Peter. So, and then I want to make sure if you guys got questions for them that you just raise your hand and ask them some questions. So, David, you're currently what, what level for associate? So high 6. In Missouri. Let's talk about the deal that you did, because I know we got some closing numbers here so that way we can pull it up on the whiteboard. Are we able to throw the iPad up, talk about the seller's challenges, anything along those lines?

Yeah. This, this seller was— she had already moved for a job. She was about 3, 3.5 hours away from the house. She had been in it for 20 years. And she couldn't get it sold. She had been on the market when I first talked to her in, I think it was July of '23. She had gone through her first 6 months and we couldn't get her— she wouldn't commit at that point. She was like, I'm going to go put it back on the market for another 6 months. So fast forward to December '23, I guess. She still hadn't sold it. She was tired of it. She didn't even want to have anything to do with it. So we, we took it on. I wanted to do owner financing because she owned it free and clear, but she just couldn't commit to that. So I just, to get the deal done, I went with an AO instead.

Okay.

Probably, you know, in hindsight, could have done some different tactics to maybe get the owner financing, but live and learn. I needed the cash as well.

So got it. So you said it was a free and clear property.

Yes.

Okay, so no debt. What'd you end up buying it for? You know, roughly?

$330,000, I believe.

$330,000. Okay. This is why we do it live. We can work through technical difficulties. All right. Source. Where did you find the lead again?

It was My Plus Leads expired.

Okay, so an expired listing. All right. And then it was an AO. So the term Doesn't necessarily matter. You sold this, you bought it for $330,000. What did we sell it for?

$359,900.

$359,900. Okay. And then what did you end up collecting on that assign out?

The, the first down payment was— it's going to be $30,000 total. So we got $26,000 on the first down payment and then they're going to do $4,000 in March of this '26. Well, to get final $30,000.

And what was the split?

We did 60/40.

Okay. So what did you end up taking home?

I think it was like $16,000 or something like that. I mean, my final with the Wicked Smart Cut was I think I got like $9,000, I think was the end result on this one.

But what was the— So how much did you invest in this deal?

Nothing.

Okay. And then you made how much on the deal?

$9,000.

Okay. Around $69,000. Okay. Very good. Tell us, for those of you that haven't done a deal yet, maybe walk us through like maybe something that was challenging before you did the deal and then walk us through maybe something that like you learned as you went through the deal or felt maybe easier or something along those lines.

Well, the first challenge was mindset for me. Confidence, kind of the imposter syndrome. Since, you know, so it took me a little while. I was at— this one was 15 months from my first deal, you know, to get the first deal was 15 months.

Okay.

Actually, this one is my second deal and it was at 16 months.

Okay.

I did one on— I did 2, 2 takings 3 weeks apart, 15, and then 3 weeks later got another one. And this is the second one.

Well, walk us through that. All right. So it took you a certain amount of time to get to your first deal, but then And you got back to back. So like what sparked, what like changed right within you in order to get that deal done or build some momentum?

Well, I think confidence-wise, 'cause I think I did the bootcamp 3 weeks before my first deal. So it all kind of flowed right in together. I think mindset-wise I was in better places and then I kind of feel like I lucked into some of them too. You know what I'm saying? 'Cause we had been working on them for so long. Like this lady took like 8 months.

Okay.

She signed. So I don't know, it just sparked my confidence from there.

Got it. Okay. Nick, when you were helping them sell this deal, any thoughts, takeaways on the process to get the deals done? Oh, he's laughing.

Apparently.

I was just like, why are you laughing?

Well, I was just thinking I was talking to everybody and I hear everybody's like, oh, this, that. And I'm like, yep, I did that.

I did that. I did this.

So that just made me laugh when you brought that up because I was— how many times, Nick? I don't know if this is going to work.

Yeah, I know. Every, like, other week.

Every other week.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Talk about the— Dave, talk about the— like, once we got to certain pricing points in the pricing plan and making those adjustments in the price, What happened with the buyer activity?

Well, this is the one, Nick, that when we first started the Prime, the rental plan we talked about, we were like, I think we wanted like $1,300 or something. And we were like, what's the rental market? And I said closer to $1,000. And he said, perfect, let's make it $950. And I was like, what? Like, that was my first thing. Like, why? But when we did that, I put it on the market and I mean, I couldn't stop. The inquiries daily was crazy.

Like, it's exactly what I wanted you to say.

I was 20 to 30 people were inquiring, either from Facebook, Craigslist, or once I got the signs out, it even went more phone calls. And so I felt like I couldn't keep up initially, like, oh, you know, but it worked out. And so that made me see the the light of like, okay, it's got to be at the market rent because our other one, the first—

Or starting— let's, let's review what you said. Starting slightly below.

Starting slightly below market rates. Right, exactly.

And it—

my other take in the first one I had was we couldn't get it down to market rent because it was so high. The mortgage was so high. It was night and day. I wasn't getting any activity on that one, but this one just took off like crazy. So Hit me right square in the forehead. Like, it's got to be slightly below market rent and it goes berserk.

Yeah. Associates in the room, how many of you guys have felt the exact same way with dealing with some mindset challenges that Dave just mentioned and getting to your deal? How many of you, like, raise your hand, have, like, had to deal with those types of mindset challenges? Well, we all, we all realize it's part of the business, right? I mean, we've talked about this. Chris did basically 16 lessons this morning. And how many of them were— 10, 12 of them were on mindset. They had nothing to do with the business. It's all, it's all here. Rusty, before I move on to Peter, tell us, you've been working with Dave. What, what are some, maybe some things that you saw in Dave that maybe were challenging at first? Right. There were some challenges you were dealing with and maybe something that's excelling now. that he's made it through some additional deals and things like that.

Yeah, it was great. When we first met today, you know, we said hello, we gave each other hugs and he said, you know, last year you gave me some advice and I took it. I'm being consistent. What kind of advice can you give me now, you know, to move forward? So it was great for him to be thinking that way. And everyone can attest, all the people that I've been coaching, is the mindset Early on, you know, your calls are 15, 20 minutes long. We're telling you guys, keep those things shorter, get in and get it out. And when he started using ACCA, making those corrections and getting those calls, you know, shorter and shorter, and then your confidence started getting— you know, we talked about your confidence. I always talked about during his calls, he would have these inflections in his voice. That lack of confidence. Once his confidence started getting better and better, better, you know, the conversation started getting better.

Love it. Any other additional thoughts? Maybe people in the audience right now, they're trying to get the first deal. Any, any thoughts for them, Dave? Now that you have some hindsight, any thoughts?

And Don't think about it, just do it.

Fair.

I love it.

Well, we'll open it. We'll make sure we have some questions for you guys in a minute. Peter. Peter, Peter, Peter, thank you for coming out to Arizona when I was there, too. I know you're down there, but to come out and support us, I really appreciated that. So talk about— talk about your journey so far. I know that when we did the podcast together, a big thing that you said to me was like, I was really concerned because English is not my first language. And clearly, and you can, you can comment on it, but clearly you haven't let it stop you. So maybe talk to, talk to people that, you know, are believing they have a challenge, right? Because that's, that's a mindset thing. Believe they have a challenge, but, but you're working on overcoming. Maybe talk about that and English not being your first language.

Yeah, definitely. Well, mindset, as everybody or mainly everybody said, you know, We all deal with the mindset, oh, am I really done for this? Do I have the material to be successful on this, right? So that's one thing. But on top of that, English is definitely a barrier in my brain still, right? Am I— do I have all the words that I need? Do I— I'm gonna understand the numbers? Because numbers, I need to translate numbers still into Spanish and So it's a deal in my brain that I need to deal with. But I think my why is I need— I want to have the freedom of time to spend with my daughter and my wife and provide them experiences and opportunities. So, and that's the reason I keep doing it.

Well, you found something.

Exactly.

For sure.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I have some sellers that they have to ask multiple questions because they don't understand my accent probably, but that's okay. I mean, they get used to it. Yeah.

We always say like, it doesn't matter if it's your first deal, your 100th deal, it doesn't matter if you speak Spanish, English, whatever it is, if you can solve their problem, then you'll have a deal, right? So, I mean, finding people that you can solve their problem is a huge opportunity. Remember, we were sitting at the In the Trenches boot camp and Rick was doing— weren't you doing a 3-way phone call with Peter and a seller for like the first deal you put under contract? Maybe talk about that a little bit, Rick, because those of you that aren't in the community, I mean, Rick's literally doing the secondary call with Peter.

Yeah, there's been a few deals we've been working together as far as— well, actually every deal. Peter works with me and always gets me on a three-way call. And as far as his accent, it is not a problem because if you look across the U.S., how many people have accents? I mean, look at people from Boston area.

But it's fine.

I didn't see.

I didn't realize it was a problem.

But yeah, once we had these taken, Peter reached back out to me. And as far as getting the buyer in there, which Peter will go into on the current one that we're working.

Love it. Yeah. Peter, let's, let's talk a little bit further about this particular deal that we're going to talk about. So what, what type of transaction is it?

Yeah, it was, uh, or it is an AO.

Okay.

And I got it from, um, um, how do you call it, um, Expire.

Okay.

Yeah.

Um, it's funny, the lady or the seller, um, she is from South Korea.

Okay.

So she had a, a deep problem with her accent as well.

So you're like, oh look, we're the same.

Yeah, exactly. So it was funny to communicate, but yeah. So the purchase price—

For, yeah.

Yeah, the purchase price is $579,000.

Okay.

And then we are putting that in the market for $619,900.

And I know that you're currently working on this deal right now. You're working through the process with the buyers. What's the projected Payday on this.

Yeah.

So it's an AO, right? So the down payment at the end of the day will be $61,990, right? Yeah. So it's 50/50 with the seller. So for us will be $30,000, almost $31,000.

Almost $31,000.

Yeah. And the buyer is able to break it in 3 payments. So Okay, so first one is like 10, 10, 10-something every time. Yeah.

Okay. Like 10, 3 payments. Okay. You guys see how that can work, right? So even though it is an AO and a sign-out, you only get paid on payday 1, we can show you how to structure it. So as you receive the nonrefundable deposits, we can also participate in each nonrefundable deposit with that particular seller. Nick would always explain it, right? So all the nonrefundable deposits come to us, we disperse All the monthly payments go to the seller because they're the ones who are going to be collecting the rent as well. So that's how you can really extend a payday one to be a pretty significant deal, being $30,000 on this deal as well.

Yeah.

So something— it was an eye-opener and probably many of you already experienced that, but the buyer was Or is really grateful because it's like a dream home for her. It's closer to her hair salon, it's closer to the son's school. So it's a fantastic deal for her and she never had an option until now because of the rent-to-own program.

I love that. Love that. Creating that win-win-win scenario, which is what Dan was talking about earlier. And then you have another property under contract too, I believe. Is that correct?

That one fell through. However, I talked to the seller and I asked him, hey, did you sell already? And he said no. So I asked him, hey, can I keep marketing this? And he said yes. So hopefully that Goes through eventually.

Being stuck out. Uh, love it. See, mindset shift. Um, Peter, I'm really curious, right? Because it could have been really easy for you to take what you talked about, where it's like, I don't know if I'm gonna be able to communicate this properly. And you could have easily just said like, this isn't gonna work for me. And I know it, it took you, I don't know, like 12, 18 months to finally dive in. But Maybe talk about— I mean, because you're an inspiration to all of us. I mean, you doing— being in this, not in your home country, and then using a strategy that most people won't even attempt to use. Maybe talk to everyone about how you've been able to kind of break through that barrier because now you're about to get a $30,000 transaction because you stuck with it.

Yeah.

So it's difficult, but You need to believe that you have a brain and God gave you a brain for a reason, and that brain is not fixed. You have the capacity to keep learning, growing, making more connections in your brain to develop different skills, right? And even when the company brought me here to US, the position I got was totally different from what I was experiencing in the past. So, um, and I was able to do it. So that gave me, you know, also a step in believing that I can do something different, right? So yeah, I think that that's the mindset, is believe that you can grow and learn.

Love it.

Rick, maybe some comments on, uh, Yeah, this journey so far, this one here, uh, we've had some pivots to make, um, and it started off with the buyer. So when she filled out the Next Step form, she didn't qualify, not from the numbers she put on there. And keep in mind, she's self-employed. So like for down payment, she really didn't know what she needed for down payment. So we had to work through that in the Next Step form review, which Peter and I did with her. And then as far as her income, we just put her in for screening with screen attendant Paul Ritter and Paul and Diane Ritter. And they came back and it didn't look like she qualified. And so we went back and we had the discussion with the buyer and she said, well, boy, hello. Yeah, we went back to the buyer and she said, I'm self-employed so I can make that additional income and she can justify that with the lender when she goes to get her mortgage.

Yeah.

So screen attendant Paul Ritter met with her and he said, yeah, she does qualify. So it's really to assume if she felt capable of doing it or not. And it turned out to be she was a very good buyer.

Love it.

And the other thing is, once we had the buyer in place and this was only as recent, we were supposed to close on the property with the, with the buyer. The seller decided she wanted back out. So Peter and I have reached out, back out to the seller. She's just got a lot going on with her ex-husband who owes her money. And there's a lot of side stories there, but it looks like we'll be able to save the deal. It's just working through that. But the buyer was very— we reached out to the buyer just to keep communicating with her. And she said, even if it takes a few months later, I'm good with that. I'm very appreciative of what you guys have enabled me to do.

Love it. So all the pivots that you're working through, and we'll go ahead and keep working through this deal. Curious, Peter, what is something that was hard when you first started and now is easy? Now that you've been working through this, nothing's easy, man.

Easier.

Yeah.

No, definitely. Pick up the phone and make the calls is hard. Definitely, it is getting more comfortable a little bit every time. In the middle of these 6 months, I have to go to Costa Rica and because I have something already planned for like a month or so, so I stopped making calls during that time and that was a big mistake. And because you know you you you you're building a momentum and you break it, right? So don't do that. Keep keep doing the calls.

Got it.

Um, so you're saying it gets easier as you go along. Is that what you're saying, Peter?

Uh, not easier, but more more comfortable.

Yeah, love it. Do you where you get the Spanish? Yeah, I would say yeah. You live in in yeah in Arizona.

Yes, sometimes I I need to speak with Spanish sellers, but yeah, it get easier.

All right, what we got for questions?

Okay, this isn't exactly a question, but this is a mindset thing.

Okay.

Okay, he was talking about difficulties because of the Spanish.

Yeah.

With the number of Spanish people speaking people in this country, that is not a disadvantage.

Fair.

Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah. Great. It's in your heart.

Thank you.

Nothing.

Another question? I want to discuss the share one things.

Yeah. So Peter, you were in boot camp February. That was your first event, I think. Okay, so for both of you guys, you have about half a second to think about this. What would you have done differently back then? Like, in hindsight, Rick always talks about this. What would you have done differently? So speak to the people that are, say, brand new, and what would you have done differently, if anything, back when you both first started? Look back in hindsight now with that benefit.

I'd say do what I said before. Just do it. Don't think about it. That, that would be the first thing because you Get out of your head and just make the dials, even though you don't want to, even though you hate it. But I keep telling myself, you got to— the only way to go is forward, and you got to do the dials to move forward. So sometimes I'll take a break, walk around the room, come back in, sit down and go again. And then if I get frustrated, I would just keep doing it constantly. So I don't, I don't do it as often now as I used to. So the more you do it, The better you'll get at it.

So what you're saying is exercise while you work out and you'll get in shape while you get—

I should have, yes. But I just made my dials and somebody would frustrate me. And so I would get up, walk away and just take 5 minutes and then come back and start over again. And then that helps. I don't know. That's the way I got around it. But don't stop just because somebody yells at you. Just, you know, take a quick break and come back.

Before Peter answers, all right. Can I get raised hands? How many of you guys have a W-2 job? Let's try this again. How many of you, keeping your hands up, would continue to do your W-2 job if it did not pay you?

Not enough.

PSA.

Okay, so how many of you now would do something that felt hard to get financial and time freedom?

Yeah.

So I know that we all sit up here and we say these dials suck. But it probably isn't worse than your W-2 job. Would you guys agree? You get to sit at home, you get the structured deals, you get to solve problems, and you get to make more probably per hour than you do at your W-2 job. It's going to create financial and time freedom. So I know that we all don't want to do calls. Chris even talked about how it's still a challenge sometimes. But at the end of the day, if you can, you now have a skill set that you can now create profits out of thin air? Would it be worth having a little bit of challenge or be able to get out of your own head?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Come on, we all say it together.

Yes.

Okay.

Not sure where to get started? Go to smartrealestatecoach.com/getgoing for free books, strategy calls, and a whole bunch more. We're going to help you get going the wicked smart way. We've been after this for over a decade doing exactly that.

I just don't want these little things to stop you because you're already doing things that you hate to do. And you're getting paid a heck of a lot less than you can do in real estate. And who cares if it took you 15 months to get to your first deal? That's going to make him, I don't know, $9,000, $10,000. And now he's got the skill set to go do that over and over and over again, as often as he so chooses to do so. That's what this is about.