How I Closed My First Wholesale Deal With $250 In Leads

And right now we're going to be diving into your journey, brother, where you just did $40,000, man, and you spent $250 in leads, which is absolutely unheard of.

The first lead that I got, first lead turned into a deal, and then lead number 5 also turned into a deal the very next week, a week or two later. Amazing. So we got 2 deals under contract in the first, um, Oh, the first 2 or 3 weeks.

All right, Caden, how you doing, man?

Doing awesome, man.

Good to have you on here.

Good.

We're live right now. This is the Painless Podcast, and we get people on here talking about their success, their journey in real estate. And right now we're going to be diving into your journey, brother, where you just did $40,000, man, and you spent $250 in leads, which is absolutely unheard of. I know.

Yeah, man. Yeah, man, because of Painless Flipping.

Hey, hey, man, it was all you too, right? Like, you, you had to take the process that we gave you to convert those leads and make money, right? Because honestly, without the right process, it doesn't matter how many leads you have, right?

That's it. That's it.

So before we dive too deep into, um your journey. Well, I guess like these deals specifically. Let's talk about your journey, man. Let's talk about how you got started in real estate and wholesaling and what it looked like, and kind of like up to the point where we met, and then we can talk about that.

Yeah, for sure. So I've been aware and interested in real estate for a while now. I mean, I started seeing YouTube videos about wholesaling and learning about what that was probably 5 5 years ago or longer. And it was always in the back of my mind, like, I'm— I really think this is cool. I'd love to, to really start getting into this and learning about it. And so I spent a lot of time on YouTube just, just learning, never taking action, um, for a few years. And then, um, I finally kind of took the, the initiative to really go all in on it a couple years ago. It's been probably 2 years now. And I joined a coaching program, um, did everything they told me to do, went all out with it. I spent a ton of money. And, um, I didn't spend on that, by the way.

Do you remember?

I mean, I spent a lot of money. We'll keep it at that.

We'll keep it at that.

All right. Yeah, I mean, I spent a ton on a coaching program. I spent a ton on marketing. I probably spent like, I don't know, over $7,000, $8,000. In a few months on marketing. Um, didn't get any deals from that. So I was, uh, living out east, actually living in Maryland at the time when I did this. So I was working the Maryland market around Baltimore. And, um, yeah, I was doing everything they told me to do, um, didn't have any success. And then I kind of ran out of a budget, and I was like, well, shoot, I don't know what to do now. So I kind of Got stagnant at that point after the first, I don't know, 4 or 5 months of doing what I was doing. And I didn't really know what the next step was going to look like. I'm like, I can't just keep throwing money at something that's not going to give me a return the way it hasn't given me a return so far. And the way that I've been doing this, like, I've been cranking through a ton of leads, like, and I was— I even had like a VA. I was paying someone because I didn't have the time to get through all these leads myself. I I had a job, full-time job, and I had a new baby and all these things. And I'm like, if I was paying someone to do all these things and I was getting through this much volume and didn't— still didn't have success, like, how am I gonna just go do this without a marketing budget and call these people I need to call without the time? Like, this is gonna take forever. I don't know how I'm ever gonna get there, right? So I was kind of feeling stuck. Um, and then I think the next step was really— I mean, we got connected You know, I met you. I said, hey, um, I, I'm trying to remember how we got connected.

Oh yeah, you just hit me up on Facebook.

I just had some questions for you, and you're like, man, I would love to, you know, show you a few things that maybe your other mentor didn't kind of, kind of show you, some different strategies that we have that, that might help you. And that's kind of how I got introduced to Painless Flipping, and That's when really things started to take off. Um, it started working kind of cold leads for a while, and that was the best experience I ever had with working cold marketing, was doing the things that they were telling me to do. It was working a lot more effectively than what I was doing before. Um, I still didn't get a deal for a while, but I was having quality conversations. I had— I was so close on multiple deals.

Oh yeah, do you remember that one that we were working with? That one guy that you're like, he said, he's like, "Oh, I signed. I think I signed with someone else," but he wasn't sure. Like, that was for sure a deal.

Yep. Yeah, there was 2 or 3 that were like so close to signing, so close to becoming deals. And so it was just telling me that, "Hey, we're doing the right things. Stay patient, stay consistent, and let's get to it." So did that for a while. Then I started, I came up with the budget to start doing some inbound leads again. And then what was it? What is it? It's October now. I started the inbound marketing in August. So I started the inbound marketing in August. The very first lead that I got had the best conversation I ever had with somebody. I was like, man, this was awesome. That was such a sweet conversation. And then the next few days that lead ghosted me. They ghosted me for like 2 weeks and I was like, what is happening? Like I thought I just had the best conversation ever. And just ghosted me. And then finally after just consistently following up, they hit me back and they're like, hey, my mom wants to talk to you. She's interested in doing X, Y, and Z. So we got, got back on the phone. Um, it turned into a deal. I love it, man. First deal, got under contract. Um, and then keep working the new leads that are coming in. Um, leads. So that was the first lead that I got. First lead turned into a deal. And then lead number 5 also turned into a deal the very next week, a week or two later. Amazing. So we got 2 deals under contract in the first, um, what was it, first 2 or 3 weeks of starting the inbound marketing. And so I was sold at that point, obviously, like inbound marketing is the way to go compared to everything that I'd been trying.

Yeah.

But what's nice about it too is like, had I started the inbound marketing day one I probably wouldn't have got those deals because I didn't have the skill set yet to actually get that done. Yeah, I mean, I put a lot of time in at this point, you know. I've been doing this for 2 years of consistently really trying to take action and having tons of conversations with sellers and cold calling and getting cussed out and all the things, you know, and learning from these guys of what a real sales process looks like. And that's really the biggest difference. You know, these guys really helped me learn how to, um, how to have that effective sales process. It's not traditional wholesaling. It's not just a numbers game. It's not just throw out offers and just cross your fingers. You know, there's a very specific model that, um, Painless Flipping teaches, and it works. I've seen it work so far for me.

Let's go.

And so it's, it's been a great experience.

I love it, man. And I like what you're saying because I think it's humble. I think it's true. Like, if you would have gotten those leads when you first started with your first coaching program, maybe you didn't have the tools or like the skill set to monetize those leads, right? And if we went back to some of the leads that you had with when you started with them, maybe with the skill set you have now, you would have been able to convert some of those instead of giving them to a VA. Because you know that the process of Hiring a VA, like, it's going to dilute it, right? It's going to dilute your opportunities. But now you know what a motivated seller sounds like. You know who it's— who's work— because you had that conversation, you're like, dang, this is good, and you kept following up, you know what I'm saying? So, right, yep, very, very important. So let's, let's go back because I think a lot of people were in your situ— have been in your situation or, um, or will be in your situation. They try something, it doesn't work, they run out of funds and they're like, dang, what do I do now? Right now, option 1 is you gotta grind. You don't have any more money, so you gotta grind, and you gotta go hit up pre-foreclosures. You gotta hit up those leads that are more motivated on lists, but still it's a grind. As you tried, like, you got close, but it's a grind. Or it's double down, and this is what you did. You asked me like, hey, how do I get money? Or maybe I should ask someone for a loan and pay them back with interest. And then remember what I told you? I was like, 'Nah bro, you don't need that,' right? Um, so anybody that's watching, do you want to explain what you did or what I told you to do in order to get some money?

Yeah, basically I just leveraged, um, 0% credit cards to where, you know, I can use these funds where I'm not paying a huge interest rate every single month. It's 0% for 12 to 18 months or so. Yep, to where I can leverage that credit to get some marketing, and you don't have to spend a ton of money. Like, just get some marketing going, figure out what your— what your budget is, what makes sense, and then you can start getting some leads coming in. Um, and if you're— if you have the skill set to where you can capitalize on those leads, you can, you know, you can bet on yourself and say, hey, if I spend $1,000 in a month, I feel pretty confident that, you know, I have the skill set to close one of those— one of those leads. Right, and make $10,000, $20,000 on my $1,000 investment, you know.

Yeah. And then you pay it off, right? So it's like, you know, you could have kept going the route of going for pre-foreclosures for lists and doing the free activities, right, or hitting up agents. But it's— that's what I did when I was in your situation. I was like, let me get some interest-free credit cards, 8, 12, 18, 24 months. The minimum payment is like $99 a month or $150 or something, right? Whatever you're spending. You pay that until you get your deal. You pay off the whole credit card, then you're playing with no debt, right? You have nothing, but you just got the money that you did from the deal. So you did that and it worked out. There you go. And for me, like, the cool thing about that, I'm like, I'm not telling everyone to go get debt and stuff. You obviously have to have the skill set. But the cool thing is, like, let's say 18 months from now, like, you still haven't closed the deal, but you believe in yourself and you're going to keep trying. You can transfer that debt of the $10K or the $5K that you put on that card to another 0% interest credit card. You can just do it forever and just pay 0%. So again, not saying everyone should do this, but it— you're gonna get better leads if you're paying for inbound leads. And as you've seen, I mean, 5, you got 5, $250, 5 leads, and you've already made $40K, and it's just going to keep going, right? And you're now— you're talking like, man, Man, when, when, how can I turn this up and when can I quit my job, right? That's kind of like the thought process now is, right? Like, how can I, um, you know, scale this? And you know how to scale it. How to scale it is turn up leads, and then if you get too busy, right, and you, you don't want to handle the leads yourself, or eventually like there's too many, you can get a leads manager. Leads manager qualifies, kind of like what, how we do in the paint and figure printing Flipping Apprenticeship, you qualify leads and we'll help you. But now you, you've jumped into the role where you're like, oh, I can close it myself.

So, right. Yeah.

It's pretty, pretty basic process. Right?

Exactly. And just like you were saying, like, if you're getting started, those options you were laying out, you can either just grind for cold leads, cold outreach, which, I mean, there's a lot of people that have success with that. And a lot of people that have had success with that. I did not have, I felt like I worked pretty hard. And I wasn't able to pull it off. And I feel like that partly has to do with the way real estate investing has changed over the last 5 years. Like 5, 10 years ago, it probably would have been a lot easier for me to have success doing what I was doing. I agree. But it's a different— it's a different game today. Like, you got to have enough volume with how competitive it is. Yeah. To find that deal, first of all. And you also have to be skilled enough to overcome the competition because you're not the only person they're talking to once you do find that person.

Yeah, definitely not. Yeah. The difficult part about going after lists is, like you said, like a lot of people have those lists, right? It's not like you're the only one. A lot of competition. People don't answer their phones. So you're like calling over and over and over again trying to get a hold of them. They— if they're on a pre-foreclosure list, they don't want to talk to you. They're in pre-foreclosure. They probably got tons of people calling them outside of you, like the banks. Bills. So it's just, it's hard. It's a hard thing to, uh, do outbound. And, uh, I've gotten deals from driving for dollars, knocking, doing every outbound you can think of, and it's just too much, in my opinion, of a grind to consistently want to do it for me to even enjoy the business. I'd rather pay for leads to come in. That's easy. You turn them on, turn them off, you close them, you get a refund if they suck or they're not legit. And, um, You know, right? And you go through that route. And obviously, yeah, and you can obviously, like, as you get more and more money, you can try mailers and you can try other things that don't really require your— you, like, you could get a cold caller. But my thing is, again, inbound. You want people coming into you because the conversation's different, right? Like, you notice that?

Completely different. Yeah, because most people answering the phone when you and we're doing outbound stuff, they're answering the phone angry every time. If they're not angry, I'm like, this is the wrong person. This has got to be the wrong person because they're too happy to talk to me. And more times than not, that's the case. They're like, oh yeah, wrong number. Yeah, sorry, see ya.

Yeah, anyone that cold calls themselves consistently and just doesn't give up, like, that person's built different, bro. Like, I'm a hard worker, you're a hard worker, but to continuously do it for years. Oh, I don't know, it's, it's intense, you know, to be able to want to do that. So a lot. Let's talk about, uh, I know you said you got, uh, you got a couple, what, 10 more minutes? Because you got— okay, so let's talk about the situation that you— on that first lead, your follow-up. Like, how did it happen where you think, like, if you got that lead earlier without the skill set, let's talk about like the difference of what do you think would have happened. Because I am curious to see like how you approached it now versus like how you might have approached it in the past.

Yeah, I mean, that initial conversation I think was just, um, was just handled a lot more carefully, a lot more strategically, the way that I spoke with the seller. Uh, I mean, the traditional wholesale method is just like, hey, do you want to sell your house? How much do you want for it? Um, okay, here's my offer, exactly this number, take it or leave it type thing, right? And This new method is more so just like, how can I understand your problem? How can I understand how I can really help you? I don't even know if I can help you. Maybe this is a better option. Maybe you should, maybe you should list it. Have you ever considered that? Um, you know, it's, it's a very different approach to just, here's my offer, lowballing people.

Yeah, and we don't even really— with this approach, you really are reluctant to give your offer because you don't want to lose your leverage. You know, once you give that offer then they want to just talk to other people and see if they can get a better offer than you, right? That's just how people are. They're like, oh, I already got offer at $150,000. Can you beat that? Yeah. So in this process, you attacked it more of like, all right, what's going on with this situation? Here are your other options. Let's explore which ones are best for you. And then by doing that, you're able to build that trust, and they trusted you to work with you.

Yeah. And painless flipping— these guys, you know, Nathan talks about how you don't even want to make that offer until you feel pretty confident they're going to say yes. Just like if you're going to propose to your girlfriend, you know, you don't want to just ask someone to marry you unless you know they're probably going to say yes right now. You don't want to get—

yeah, you don't want to get that to happen. Honestly, I don't even know who proposes without knowing it's a yes. Like, I wouldn't even bring that up unless I knew, you know.

Exactly, exactly. So that's exactly how both of these, these deals felt, you know. That first one, um, it felt like, you know, they had decided that they wanted to work with me before the offer even came up, before we even got to that point. It felt like, yeah, I think I want to go the cash offer route and go with the convenience that you're able to provide. I don't think I want to go through listing with a realtor. I don't think I want to go through all this.

Yeah.

And so they were kind of sold on working with me because it addressed the problem that they were going through.

And, um, and yeah, you know, the good thing about the way we approach that too is it's like, hey, if my cash— like, I can do cash, right? And they don't know our offer yet, but we say like, hey, we're going to get you the best option for cash, whether I— you work with me or I bring in someone else, my partner, another partner in. You're going to get the best option. So it's not just like you placing yourself versus them and who wins, like, as a negotiation, right? It's like, hey, let me see the best option even for cash. Because, you know, if you would have made your cash offer and they would have denied it because they wanted too much, you would have still been like, again, "Hey, well, let me see if I can work and find something that would meet your needs," right? I have some cash partners that I wholesale to, I flip with. So, it's never like you make an offer and it's over. You gain the trust and then you can get the sale done.

Right. Right. Yep. You leave that— you always leave the conversation open. Yeah, you don't give up all your leverage, you keep it open. But most importantly, really, there's a lot of strategic ways that I've been taught to— on how— on what this actually looks like. But at the end of the day, it's really just a matter of identifying the true needs of that seller and, and helping them understand that we're, we're trying to help them find the solution to that need. Yeah. Um, whether that's with us or somebody else. And once that happens, I feel like that, that level of trust and connection that you're able to create with the seller, um, usually results in, hey, I want to work with you.

Exactly. Yeah, it's such an interesting thing. A lot of people get in this business thinking it's about real estate, and obviously real estate is involved, but really it's a— you're solving problems. Like, this is a sales and a marketing business. You're generating leads and you're good at sales or having the right conversation to get people to trust you so you can work with them in a real— their home is involved, right? But it's not so much just about the house, because if it was just about the house, we wouldn't really need to dive into their, their needs and their situation. But yeah, if people don't have any desire to sell or a problem, they're just going to list it because there's no need, right? Like, why did this person, right, the first one or the second one, why did they— and what was their problem? Like, why did they end up selling for cash? Why didn't they just list it?

Yeah, so the first one, um, his father— or no, his mother passed away, and so his father was living alone. They were going to move in with him and eventually just buy that house when he passes as well. And they were wanting to fix up their own house, wanted to do some different things, but they're like, you know what, due to our own health concerns, we don't want to deal with it. We just want to move on from this house and get moved in with my dad as quickly as we can, and we just want to get that done. And so they had a tragedy happen to where they just wanted to switch their life, their lifestyle really quickly. Didn't want to go through all the hoops and hassle that it takes to list your house and go through all that. They just wanted to get that done.

You know, it's interesting is a lot of people think that like money is the most important thing to people, right? Not people. People want convenience, speed, and ease. They don't want to have to deal with it, right? Because it can be stressful. And, you know, if people— and even if they put on the MLS, doesn't always guarantee them, um, the highest price, right? Like, sometimes they might not get the right offer at the right time. Um, and also, bro, putting stuff on the MLS is so stressful, bro. It is. Like, I have a deal on the MLS right now in Atlanta. It's It's been on there for months and I've gone in and out of deals. Like, it's possible that if they did that, it would be months before they had anything. People could come in, make offers, back out. It is not a done deal on the MLS. It is very stressful.

That's for sure. I mean, this seller, this first deal, they— I didn't realize this until after the fact, they didn't either, but apparently they had forgotten about a second mortgage that they had on the house. Wow. Not only was he willing to sell the house and lose equity, um, he was willing to write a check at closing that we didn't even know about, which blew my mind. I actually didn't find out about it until the day before closing. Yeah, I spoke with the title company. I'm like, hey, want to make sure everything's good for tomorrow? And she's like, um, we just found a second mortgage with a $40,000 balance. We're like, she's like, do you want me to tell the seller? Do you want to tell him? I'm like, oh my gosh, this deal is dead. Like 100%, this is not happening. Um, and we didn't find out till the day before. So I had remembered he had told me briefly a couple weeks back before that happened, he's like, we, uh, we, we realized there was a loan that we forgot about, but it's all good. It's kind of a pain in the butt, but It's not a problem. So he told me that and I was just like, okay, cool. It's not a problem. And then I find this out that it's a $40,000 problem. And so I call the seller and I say, hey, remember when you told me about that loan you forgot about? Like, what ended up coming of that? And he's like, yeah, that one's really gonna hurt, but good thing we have the savings to take care of it. And I was like, they said that it's gonna be like, like around $40,000. Like, yeah, does that sound right? He's like, yeah.

I'm like, Oh my goodness, I can't believe this dude's just sitting on a bunch of cash, bro. He just hasn't told you.

I thought for sure that deal was dead, but he— wow, he came to closing with $40,000.

That's insane. That's insane, dude. Wow, that's incredible. And you know what's interesting, man? It's like, it's what you said, like, this is probably a relief. It's a relief to get this thing to— I don't know much about this house or the situation or this, like, the situation of the house, if it was bad or not, or condition. But the guy's probably— a weight is lifted off because he's just like, I don't have to worry about it anymore, you know?

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

So interesting. So, man, that's so cool that you had these experiences with this one and then the, the, the fifth one. And you're gonna have many more, but you're gonna realize it's gonna be a pattern of there's an issue, there's a problem, you offer to solve it, not just with cash offer, but you offer to solve it with every situation. And then you let them decide. And if they want to list it, then we can do a novation. If they want cash, you know how to do that. If they want to keep it, just tell them, "All right, keep it." Right? Like there's so many different situations, but you always approach the conversation with like win-win, right? Like, "I win if you win. So what works for you?" And having that mindset mentality makes this job fun and not stressful when you're talking to sellers. Because when it's the other way, where you're like, "Man, I got to get this deal." I hope they accept my offer. It's like, bro, we don't have those stressful situations because we already kind of know they're going to go with us after the process we take them through.

Right. Yep. And if they don't, then they're not the right candidate for a cash offer or whatever else it is. Yeah.

And if they don't, then they're probably— yeah, yeah. They're not motivated, right? They're going to list it and they have a friend that's an agent and it's like, good luck getting that one anyway, right? If they were going to list it with them anyway.

Yep.

So going forward, all right, let's talk about goals. So you want— you would like to do this full-time, right? You'd like to be a full-time real estate investor. Um, so what's your pathway forward? What do you think is going to get you there?

Well, my first two deals under my belt, um, I upped the marketing budget a little bit. I want to get more consistent deal flow so that I can ultimately be doing deals every month, hopefully multiple deals. Yes, every month. Um, I want to get to a place where, you know, I, I don't have to worry about, you know, paying the bills next month. I want to have enough deals done to where I have enough, uh, income and savings, but also enough operating expenses to where I can keep this machine going and, and just really just keep rolling, man.

I love it. Well, two things I know you need to do: get a CRM Get good at using, putting things in the pipeline, uh, in the pipelines with automation and the follow-up, because that's, that's going to enable you to, uh, do multiple deals in a month as you build up a pipeline. It just comes down with time in a pipeline, right? And, uh, you got the leads coming in and eventually you're going to get a leads manager and then it goes from there. Then you're eventually going to replace yourself as a closer. Like, that's the process of this business. But yeah, you're going the right way, man.

I think those are the next steps for sure. Up to this point it's been, you know, just grinding myself. And now I think it's going to be transitioning into how can I become more entrepreneurial minded and come up with processes and systems that I can set up that can expedite and, you know, just create more efficiency for an actual business rather than just grinding myself, you know.

I love it, man. Well, you know, we got your back, and I know you got to go back to that— your, your gig, your job, but You know, you have anything you want to say before we wrap up? You want to tell the world?

I just want to tell the world Painless Flipping is the real deal. And, uh, I can't thank you enough for, you know, giving me this opportunity to work with you and, uh, and Nathan, Nathan and Nathan at Painless Flipping. Um, it's, it's gotten me to the situation I am today to where I've got a couple deals under my belt and we got more coming. And, uh, Yeah, I'm excited for the future and I'm, like I said, thank you, man.

Dude, I got your back and I knew when you reached out, I was like, dude, this, you got it. I knew you had it, you just needed the right process, the right system behind you. So I'm glad to work with you and I'm glad to see your success. You're going to keep going and I'm here for you. So we'll see everybody on the next episode. All right, later everybody.

Love it. See ya.