How Cody Closed His 1st Deal & Made $24K in Wholesaling!

What's up everybody? Have you been wondering how to get started in real estate investing? Well, I have a special treat for you. If you don't know who this guy is, Cody Hoffine, you definitely need to find out. He has been investing and he has an amazing business, an amazing model, and he actually explains to me right here on this video that I want to show you guys how he got started in real estate investing, how he got his first deal, and how he made $24,000. Let's dive right in. Again, thanks for tuning in. I really appreciate your support. And right before we dive into the video, I want to invite you to my free masterclass that I do every Thursday. All you have to do is go to click on the link below. It's also right here, painlessflipping.com. Go there and we'll teach you exactly how to get started in real estate to get your next deal with little to no marketing spend. But without further ado, let's dive into this video.

So let's dive in and find out how you got that first deal. Walk us through it so people can learn from that experience.

Yeah, let me give like a precursor to that. I got into real estate or the chance to try real estate because life wasn't working great for me. I was still struggling to make ends meet as an insurance agent. So I came home early from work and my wife was crying at the table wondering, do we put food on the table tonight, Cody, or do we pay the mortgage that's due? And that was, that was a challenge for me as a dad, as a husband, thinking, man, my soul, my soul job is to provide for his family. And I may not be doing the best right now. And it wasn't lack of working. I want to make sure I'm crystal clear. It was not me sitting at home being a dud. I was working hard. The, the months just didn't add up, right? Or the, the money at the end of the month. What's that?

You have kids at that point?

Yeah, at that point I had 3 kids.

Wow, even tougher situation, right? Like, because you had them as well. Okay, got it.

Absolutely. So again, life happening for me. So if you can look at it that way, 3 days later I go to our local Real Estate Investor Association meeting, and I, uh, I used to go there as an insurance agent to insure investors. That was the whole point. I'd been going for 5 years and I didn't care to listen about wholesaling or fix and flip or any of these things. I didn't care because because I was like, oh, that guy has 6 rentals. Let's go meet them so I can insure all 6 rentals. And finally, I went with a new set of ears after seeing my wife cry that night, and I didn't like seeing that. And I hear this individual that we both know, a local guy that does pretty well, and he talked about how he just did his deal that he found 3 days prior, already assigned it, made $29,000. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what is this? And so that's what got me into it. So that's the precursor. Right after that, that week, I literally was like, if he can do it, I can do it. And I hope, I hope that's the message I can share with every one of your guests today. If Cody Hoffine can do it, anyone can do it. Don't compare though your story with my story because comparison is the thief of all joy. And don't compare your story with Nathan Payne. And don't compare your beginning with Nathan Payne's middle or with Cody Hoffman's middle. They're not gonna, they're not gonna add up. It's an apple and an orange. So just compare yourself with you and how do you get better every day. And I hope this is my message. Uh, for me, that week I got into it and back then you could send out $1,000 worth of, of direct mail and actually get a deal. Pretty hard to do that. So I want to be crystal clear on that too. Times have shifted, but you can also have other ways of not having— you can have a shoestring budget and still get deals today. I sent out some mail and I sent it to a tax delinquent list, and I get on a phone call with an individual and I end up getting a deal. And we had a local guy, that local investor, that I said, hey, if you can show me the ropes and show me how to do some of these things, I'll even split the first deal with you. So there's another part that I also want to bring up is, Nathan, I consider you someone that is an authority. I know we're in the same market, and I'm not here to steal any, any thunder from this podcast. I'm here to say you're doing so good with people and helping them and serving them that if I was listening to this podcast, I would find the local authority like Nathan, and I would say, hey, I really don't know what I'm doing, but if I find a deal, can I partner with you? Because you still get paid, right? I'd rather have 10% of a watermelon than 100% of a grape. Like, at the end of the day, I'm partnering with the authority. So I'd find Nathan Payne and I would say, hey, I think I got a deal, can you help me through it? That's what I did, Nathan Payne. I got with an investor, a wholesome individual that I just like, love, trust, respect, and he walked me through it. The deal ended up being a $48,000 deal and we split it 50/50. We both made $24,000 and I will never ever look back. I will always remember that. Not every deal is that big, so it kind of ruined me for my first deal.

Amazing.

It was absolutely incredible. And that was the to a point where it turned from faith to fact.

Yes. Wow, amazing.

So that experience—

such— so tell me how that works. Like, you go back with the check and you say, hey babe, I'm quitting the insurance. How— what happened after that?

Yeah, after that, it was like, for the next 4 months, let's call it, it was double down. So that first deal, I was so sure in myself because I saw people that could do it, and I, I don't lack confidence, I don't lack drive, I don't lack those things. And so I'm like, well, if this guy can do it, I can do it. I actually— I don't suggest this for everyone. I actually got a credit card with 0% interest and I was putting marketing on a 0% interest credit card to get things going because I had no money. I was broke. We didn't have money to put food on the table.

I don't think a lot of people do that, by the way.

Yeah, I just want to be clear that maybe that's not the smartest thing, but hey, that's what I did. I went to the casino of life and I went all in on Cody Hofhine. And it's been the greatest thing I've ever done was invest in me and no longer corporate America. So within 4 months, I had already lined up to sell my book of business in insurance. And it was full-time from there. So, that's kind of taking you down the road of where I started.

And I love reliving those moments. Isn't it fun sometimes to go back through those memories?

It's absolutely amazing. I'll never forget it because of the gratitude, right? That was a big shift in my life. That was a big change in my life. So, I don't share those stories with arrogance or pride. It's far from it. I share it out of gratitude, again, going back to my maker, God, that He saw it fit for me to go down this path.

I love it, man.

I appreciate the gratitude that you share because I think everyone can feel it.

Because, uh, yeah, I don't think there's any resemblance of like, hey, I'm the man, right?

You'll never see a post of any car. In fact, you'll laugh if you saw the car I drive. You won't see posts about what my house looks like. I just— that doesn't do anything for me. It just feeds the wrong side of people.

No, agreed, agreed. And it's kind of funny the way social media is now. It's the more, you know, I see a lot of these young guys that maybe have done their first deal and they're sitting by a Lambo. Maybe they got on Turo. I don't know how they did it, uh, but they're like, wholesale my to my first car, and then they got millions of likes on TikTok. And it's like, dude, that's not how this— that's just not how it is when you first get started. Like, I don't know, crash and burn, ready to burn, ready to take place. Uh, for sure. So, okay, so that's, that's how you got started. Obviously, the whole journey, it's been, uh, you know, ups and downs. Obviously, like, you're trying to figure it out. I'm sure it's been, it's been great. So tell us, where, where you at right now? What's going on in your life? Because I know you got that, that Joe Homebuyer sign behind you.

So I, I would— you would laugh. I literally was with Jerry Norton, uh, who is a famous name in the YouTube space and coaching space. I was just on a phone call with him, and I take my computer with me, the camera, and I go to my team, and I said, hey team, how long am I in the office working with you? And the, the exact response from my operation manager is like, negative. And I kind of sat there, I'm like, what does that mean? Like, am I in the way? What does that even mean? But I would say now it's to the point where, because me and Mark, my, my business partner— so this is not a solo operation, Mark is a phenomenal, phenomenal business partner and a phenomenal business owner. The guy gets things that I don't get and I get things that he doesn't get. We just really jam together. We have always— we saw through our struggles that when we were hiring like people that it just didn't work out, we finally realized why. It wasn't the people, it was the leaders. It was me and Mark. We had to look in the mirror and realize we weren't being the best leaders ourselves. So we took personal development serious. And Jim Rohn, this quote will resonate instantly, rarely does a man's income exceed their level of personal development. So if we can just become better individuals each and every day, the byproduct is money chases you versus you chasing it. And so me and Mark really grabbed on to that quote and said, let's go full steam on this. And we started developing ourselves. And in doing so, we attracted A talent. The A talent has allowed us to grow a business where my team says I spend negative time with them. It's probably 2 to 5 hours a week that I spend with my team. Mark, the same exact thing, because our bigger focus is Joe Homebuyer. We now— it's a franchise system. So we teach people how to do it. We have about just north of 80 franchise owners throughout the nation.

Had it for, by the way, in operation—

what's that?

How long has it been in operation for, by the way?

Uh, 2019 is like when you get— when we started like talking about it. 2020, like end of 2020, is when we started selling our first franchise.

Can you believe that?

3 years and you got 80 franchises.

And it's partnering with great people like yourself. I'm not saying you're a Joe, but I'm just saying we really protect culture. So For those that are listening to this podcast, you're listening to it because you're attracted to Nathan, and Nathan is very much a cultural fit of what we're looking for. And so that's, that's the reason why it's been such a big, uh, I should say we're not looking for the 255,000 like franchise locations. We're looking to just partner with the greatest people that culturally fit because that's 60% of what we look for and actually value. The skill set and the business-like leadership is 40%, and we can teach that. But what I can't teach is a dishonest person, to be honest. I can't teach a thief to be not a thief. I can't teach someone that's rude to be kind. That just comes from internal. So we have a value system that we really— has really made this grow in a way that's, that's very, very powerful because it's great people like you, Nathan.

I appreciate that, and I love that. What does Joe Homebuyer do to help those people be more profitable and not just make checks and then obviously have tons of expenses and not, and not be as profitable as they want?

I'd love to say it's because we just know how to market to only the people that want to sell, and they're gonna sign a— they're gonna sign a contract the first time that talk to you. That's far from the truth. The reality is this: at the end of the day, a real estate business is built on two things. And if you can just think of these two things— and this is the, this is the most crucial thing that people don't focus on— yes, it's going to be profitable, you can make money, but it comes with marketing. You have to have a lot of leads come in, and then you've got to be fantastic at managing those leads. So this really is a marketing and a sales business. And most people, if they don't understand that, maybe they don't know what they're signing up for. And if a lead comes in and you're waiting more than an hour or for some people that I've heard, like, it's been 3 days and I still got to get back to this lead. I'm like, it's too late, sorry, like, it's, it's gone. And so you can pay for leads like you alluded to and it do nothing, and, and, and there could be a zero profit. So it's not that we have a marketing arm that also like, oh no, it's because we got a marketing channel, it's gonna 10x your marketing. No, right?

But it's—

it doesn't— yeah, we're just really good at, yes, marketing, but we're even better at What do we do when those leads come in? And we have a system, a process, SOPs lined up step by step. When a lead comes in, this is what you do all the way through the end to where you take it to a title company and close on it.

Got it. Okay, so it's the system, uh, behind the leads coming in.

That's correct.

Anyone can get leads, right? But if you're not following the Joe Homebuyer system, you're saying that's probably where you're saying a lot of people fail?

Yeah, well, it's just mismanaged leads. I'd say mismanaged leads, right? You can, you can get leads, but if you don't manage them, it's not going to turn into anything. And I think if you chase the deal, it's very hard to get the deal. Um, if you can change your mindset early in the game and just right out the gate, even though like you're like, no, I need this deal, I need to make next month's rent like I did, next month's mortgage payment— sales world, they call it commission breath. You can't have that. This should really be out of serving people. For example, if someone, if your parents came to you and said, me and your dad are getting divorced, you'd never say, okay, Mom and Dad, how many beds and baths does your home have so I can sell it for you? You would never say that. You'd be like, Mom, Dad, I had no idea you were getting divorced.

Right, right.

You'd be, you'd be so sympathetic. You'd be there to help them, serve them, cry with them, mourn with them. You'd be there to serve them and help them. Why is that any different when it's not your family? If you can get to that same quality of connecting with sellers that are going through those real-time struggles of divorce, losing a job, moving quickly, foreclosure, bankruptcy— these are real-time struggles. They don't need to— they don't If you're making it about the deal, we're missing the picture. It's how do I serve this individual, really understand their struggle, and then really get dialed in on a solution that serves them to get to a better place. You do that, and you'll throw your competition in the garbage.

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