S1 E13 - The WORST Deal I've Ever Done

Welcome to the Broke to Woke Podcast. Our mission for this podcast is to help each and every person out there in the world not only become a force for good, but also uncover those micro magical mental moments that help you become an absolute cerebral pyromaniac. Welcome back, friends and family, fans and followers from around the entire world. This is the Broke to Woke podcast where we are breaking down, talking about and delivering those mental barriers, those hurdles, those blockades that are keeping you from your financial dreams, from your freedom. We're talking about how we have achieved those things that you can copy us. Do not do what we did. Learn from our mistakes. We're talking about a mistake right now with Brittany Turner. You have been working for free. You've been putting in your time, tons of time. You were working with these real estate experts for nine months. Let's go into the first deal that you do by yourself. How does this work out? What does it look like? Give me the details.

Well, I would love to say that it's easy. You know, I did learn so much. One of the greatest, smartest things I ever did was work for free and learn in a safe environment. Because a lot of people get knocked out of the game in real estate thinking something's a good deal when it's not. And I had contracted this house for $47,000 on Arthur Avenue.

Now, what does contract mean?

Just to make sure, went and got it under contract.

Got it.

So I now have the rights to buy this from a wholesaler. A wholesaler is somebody who contracts it for a certain amount and then sells it to somebody else. Sells the contract to somebody else for a higher price.

Yep. Do you remember how you found that wholesaler?

I don't.

Okay.

Probably one of my we buy houses signs.

Sure.

I was out there.

Those are classic.

I know, I know. I. I had some crazy signs back in the day. So this Guy had a $27,000 contract on it and was selling it to me for $47,000. So I got it, but I didn't have any money to buy that. I didn't have $47,000. And so I asked the original person to owner finance it. So there's like a triple stack here. And she said yes. And as I'm renovating it, this couple walks in and said, we want to buy this house when you're done. And I was like, look at this. Oh, my gosh. And I made up a number real quick. I was like, 120,000. And they're like, okay, well, we'll buy it, but we want Another bathroom. So I didn't have the money to buy it. I didn't have the money to renovate it, and I didn't really have the skills myself to do it. So I had the woman owner finance it. I borrowed my. My friend's credit cards, $5,000 at a time to stretch it as far as humanly possible to get enough money to clean this house up, to be able to sell it to this couple. I'm like, dying. I'm stretching this so hard. The crew that I had asked to help, which again, was a nightmare, ended up walking off with the tiny little bit of cash that I did have. It was just this horrible experience. And I was like at the end. I'm so blessed. I've got these people who have pre contracted it. This is going to be awesome. Well, right near the end.

This woman says, nope, it's mine now. And I'm like, no, no, I have rights to this. She's like, no, thanks for the improvements. It's mine now. And I'm like, what are you talking about? So I end up battling her. Battling her. And then the house is. We finally get through it. The house is about to close. Buyers lose their financing.

Oh.

And we're like, no. And so I'm trying to find somebody else. Trying to find somebody else, get a contract with somebody El. And the day before closing, we get robbed.

What do you mean you get robbed?

I get robbed. The house gets broken into.

What?

Yeah. And these guys had drug the oven. If the hardwood floors are going one way, they drug the oven the opposite way. So there's this giant cut all through the entire house where you have to like, rip out the floors. All the doorways, the entire door frames were kicked in. And they stole, like, my lights. They cut all the copper out from underneath the house, and they had stolen the oven and the dishwasher. And there was a local crackhead that I would hire from time to time to like, clean up the yard and try to. I like the story on his life was that he was running from the cops and he had like, all this. I don't know anything about drugs, but he had so much acid, like, taped to his body that when he was sweat, it all went into his pores. And then he's never been right.

Yeah.

So anyway, I feel bad for the guy. He came up and he was like, they're coming back for the refrigerator tonight. And I was like, no, they're not. And so the house had, you know, no doorways.

It was a blizzard that night. It was like the last big Snowstorm in Nashville, January 2011. And I slept in that house with guns. I had my. I forced my friend to sleep there. There's no power for some reason, because they had cut so many things up.

This is incredible.

And I'm waiting for these guys to come back because, again, this.

Did you have a bed? Like, where were you sleeping in?

I was in a sleeping bag because.

It'S cold out there.

Oh, it was freezing. Yeah, it was freezing. But literally, I risked my life because I didn't have $500 to replace that refrigerator.

Right.

Because that's just where I was. I was completely out of money.

Yeah, you were out.

And so we set up these little booby traps and stuff outside the house so that we'd at least know. I mean, they're like, $20, maybe at home Depot, there's, like, a little alarm system. If you walk past it, it'll, like, make a mess.

I got you.

So they did come back.

They set off the alarm, and we were freaking out. And then I hear this bang. And I was like, oh, my gosh. I saw a bright flash of a light. I was like, my friend freaking shot me. My friend shot me. This is it. This is life. That was it.

Yeah.

Probably not worth it. Probably not worth the fridge Shut off. The fridge. Yeah. It was like this really surreal moment. And then I look up, and he had just dropped the flashlight.

But it was, like this crazy flashlight that had this really loud noise. I did not get shot. But we saw the guys running through the yard, back into the alley, jump into a Suburban, and take off. Called the police. Police came and said, there's a lot of gang activity around here. Just last week, a couple got skinned alive. You shouldn't stay here.

I said, I think it's the same gang. And I was like, they're not gonna get this refrigerator. So I stayed there the rest of the night.

Incredible.

And protected the house. So it took an extra four months. And battling this woman, she kept trying. It was like, the worst.

Why was she. What did she.

She knew what it was worth, okay? She had sold it to somebody else for 27,000 because it was not a good neighborhood and it was not a good house, and. Da, da, da. But then when she realized that I had a buyer and how much I had improved it, she realized how she. She just didn't. She wasn't a rehabber. She didn't know how to create that much value. But I had been working for free. I did a really good job. So it was still the Worst deal I've ever done. Like the most painful, emotionally tough thing. But when it closed, I made $40,000. And I became the biggest rehabber in Nashville over the next year and a half. Because that was the first time I'd actually made money more than like $100 here or there in three years.

Right?

It was the first time. And I didn't go buy anything nice. I didn't like go splurge. I just got in the game.

I mean, this is really the. This is the one.

This was the one.

This is the one that started it.

This was the one. This was it. This was the turning point of being able to actually be in business. And the most interesting thing and how I became the biggest over the next year is I know how to work, to learn, not just to earn. So you'll never beat me. You might be a good company competition because you're so similar, but most people never have a freaking chance beating me because I'm not here for the same reason. I am here to help develop nations. So it's not about the money. You can't take anything away from me. So good luck.

You're in a sleeping bag with a gun to protect a refrigerator, my friend. You're gonna have a hard time beating this woman.

It was a pink gun too.

Yes, it was.

It was a pink gun.

This could absolutely be a film. Yeah, this could be a movie. By the way, you're an amazing storyteller. I need to let you know this.

Thank you.

Yeah. You're a captivating speaker as well.

Wow, man.

So let me. I'm gonna go through a little bit more about this deal. Just so people are really clear. So this, this wholesaler, this whole process you talked about format, how long was the whole thing beginning to end? Six months.

Six months. It was six months. But so most people wouldn't realize because in 2016, we won sixth fastest growing woman owned company in the world. Woman owned or woman led company in the world from Forbes.

What's up?

Thank you. And my first deal by myself was January 2011.

Exactly. That's what this. Look, this one is. This is deal, ladies and gentlemen.

I took three years, three years to just figure this out, learn it. I didn't quit in the process. I really didn't make a time. Nothing substantial. But because I was willing to put in the time.

When I did finally get what looks like luck again, opportunity meets preparedness. I was able to just freaking go.

Yeah. So help me understand, when you had this, how'd you buy that deal with no Money.

So when it's kind of owner financed, I honestly didn't even buy it. I just had a contract. So this woman owned it. I had a contract that said I have the right to buy it by this certain time. I also have the right to improve it. And if I don't close by this certain time, it's yours again.

Yeah.

And that was the danger of when those people lost their contract.

Yeah. I see now that that and trading is called a call option.

Oh, really?

Yeah. So there's the exact same thing exists in the stock market.

Okay, that's cool. So, yeah, I really only had an option to buy it.

Yep.

But there was a lot of risk. Again.

Sure.

Borrowed my friend's money.

Yeah.

It was so scary.

Yeah. So you're maxing out their credit cards as well. So bring me back into this. $40,000. $40,000. Like, is that a. Is that a. That's liquid in your account at this point.

I was ever seen in my life. I mean, I went and bought four more properties immediately.

No, you did not.

Of course I did.

Oh, my.

Of course I did.

But with all this debt you have over here.

Oh, yeah. I paid the minimums on my credit cards. I continue to now, somehow, miraculously, and this is what's interesting, and we'll dive into this in later episodes, is whatever it is that you have to pay for, you normally find a way to pay for it. So even on this three years of suffering, I always paid that mortgage. I never didn't pay that mortgage. On my house I bought at 18, I would not eat, but I never didn't pay it. And I never missed a credit card payment. So I still have perfect credit, but it was like just barely making it. Always only on the minimums.

Yeah.

So it's interesting how even.

It'S so weird how the numbers will grow, but you still find a way to get by. So it's. I want to hear your thoughts on the psychology behind that later.

Later we will. We're going to dive into that in a future episode because again, from here, listeners, what we're going to be doing is we're going to ask at the end, we're going to be going back as well and just talk about all these things, what we're doing now and kind of circling back through this whole process. But this is just the journey. This is the beginning. That's a really, really wild story. And I'm blown away that you take that money and go buy four more properties.

Yeah. I was back to zero immediately.

Immediately.

Immediately.

And how did you find these four? These also wholesales? Are they also flips?

They were. I had gotten my real estate license from working for those guys for free, and I was able to find them online. I think they were from mls. But the interesting fact of that whole time is I learned to be a creator of opportunity versus waiting for things or the economy or whatever to go Right. So it's still a huge recession. And the way that we would run our numbers wasn't like, well, Nashville market's going up, so hopefully it'll be worth more when we're done. We literally knew that by the time we were done flipping this house, which we would do things in like three or four weeks that would now take a year for. For sure. We were just amazing back then. I mean, people were motivated because there was no work for them. We would do things four or five weeks, let's say. And we knew that by the time we were done, if the whole neighborhood was worth 200,000 for this same kind of house, we knew when we were done, it would be worth 180. Because prices were dropping that fast and things were foreclosing that fast, and it didn't faze us. We weren't worried. That's just how you ran your numbers. So you know what? Well, by the time we're done, instead of it being worth more, we were like, It'll be worth 180, so let's price it at 170.

Sure.

And run our numbers that way.

Yeah.

I used to go through three tanks of gas a week in this little Mustang because I would be going around until midnight every night. Flashlights. Da, da. Running numbers on houses and putting in offers. I averaged 64 offers a week.

Boom. The hustle.

And people come to me all the time. They're like, I'm not getting any projects. I'm not getting any projects. I'm like, did you put in 64 offers this week?

Yeah.

No, I put in one two weeks ago.

Yeah, 64. Ladies. I don't want to hear it in a week.

And I would get two a month?

Yeah, that's. I mean, wow.

That's a two a month.

120Ish over two weeks. So 240 in a month. You're closing a 1%.

Yeah.

Incredible.

But that was how tough it was with a market crashing and burning like that. And it's okay. You're okay with those numbers. That's the kind of work it takes to create that much money. $40,000 is a lot of money. That's a ton of money for people. Some people work all year for that. If I worked all month for that, even though it's way more work and I worked 18 to 21 hours a day, people aren't willing to put in the work required to have the lifestyle they desire. Especially when you're new, you're not freaking worth it yet. You don't know what you're talking about. Don't expect to just get paid a lot. You have to earn this ish you do. So I think that's where a lot of people miss it is they feel like they can be successful or go from this level in life to this level in life, which is their vision, without putting in this much extra work consistently to shift their whole life up.

That's the key. Is that word consistent? It can be done, but it's not going to just happen. And in that consistency, that discipline is so hard. It's so hard.

It is. But you have to have a vision of why, understand it. And then you can overcome yourself. So going above and beyond putting in the extra effort to shift where you are to where you want to be, that's definitely the key that most people are just not willing to do. They'd rather Netflix it up. They call it balance. They hide behind the great sound of the word balance.

Right.

So you are working a full time job right now. You're trading, you're hustling friends and family. I can't believe you have the confidence to keep going. But you left me at a cliffhanger. Which it seems like you're about to do it again.

Yeah.

Next episode. Will you tell me about your first lawsuit?

I will. Let's dive into it.

Thank you for listening to the Broke to Woke podcast. You can learn more@geforcemastermind.com or by following us on Instagram @geforcemastermind. If you have any questions for myself or Jeremy, please reach out to us@podcastforcemastermind.com and we will answer your questions in a podcast coming soon.