How I Started Wholesale Real Estate With No Money in 2021
In this video, Nathan Payne walks viewers through a step‑by‑step playbook for launching a wholesale real‑estate business without any personal capital. He begins by emphasizing the importance of selecting a single, well‑understood market—preferably within an hour of a major metro—using data sources like Batch Leads, PropStream, and Zillow. He then advises securing 0%‑interest credit cards to fund pay‑per‑lead marketing, explaining how to manage the credit line, minimum payments, and balance‑transfer extensions. Payne stresses personal development, recommending self‑help books and a consultative sales mindset rooted in honesty and empathy. He outlines a consultative sales process that offers sellers multiple options (list, keep, flip) rather than lowball offers. For lead generation, he advocates buying qualified leads from pay‑per‑lead services over cold‑calling or door‑knocking, noting refund mechanisms and time efficiency. He discusses partnership models, advising against working with MLS agents early on, critiquing reverse‑wholesaling as inefficient for beginners, and favoring joint‑venture (JV) deals with experienced wholesalers when possible. As a fallback when credit isn’t available, he suggests list‑stacking absentee‑owner/vacant‑property lists and using a low‑cost phone solution like Google Voice, or simply taking a job to fund lead purchases. Throughout, he promotes his "Painless Flipping Apprenticeship" as a hands‑on guide and plugs additional videos for deeper case studies. The overarching message is that with a focused market, financed lead buying, a solid sales process, and strategic partnerships, anyone can start wholesaling with zero upfront cash.
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If you had to start a wholesaling real estate business with $0, what exactly would you do? In this video today, I'm going to be breaking down exactly what I would do. I'm going to tell you exactly what I would do on day 1, where I would find leads with no money, and if I would work with real estate agents to get my first deal, would I JV or would I reverse wholesale and go find my buyer first? I'm Nathan Payne and I've done hundreds of deals and made millions of dollars in wholesaling real estate, and I've helped hundreds of other wholesalers do the same. So let's dive right in. Okay, so it's day 1. What exactly would I do to get the ball rolling? So the very first thing that I would do is you got to pick a market. You can't do the whole United States, especially if you're a beginner. You're going to struggle trying to figure out comps. You're going to struggle trying to figure out that specific area because every area is different in the United States, even in cities like within the same city, like one block can be completely different than the other. So you have to focus and hone in on one market. And master that area. So pick one market. Now you're probably like, Nate, how do I pick an area? Now luckily there's tons of data. There's data on Batch Leads, there's data on PropStream, there's data on tons of different platforms. Also Zillow. You can quickly see where most of the activity is and is very easy to understand about wholesaling in real estate is the activity is where the flippers are, like where houses are being sold. That is where flippers want to buy. That's where cash buyers want to buy. If you live in a extremely rural area, it's going to be hard to wholesale your deals because cash buyers aren't going to want to buy a property there and take the risk of flipping it and then hopefully somebody wanting to buy and move into that small town. Now what I tell people is you want to be within 1 hour of a major metro like Salt Lake City. You— I say Salt Lake City because that's where I'm from, but Salt Lake City, Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth, Austin, doesn't matter if it's a major metro and it has a population over a million people. If it's within an hour of that major metro, you're in good shape because there's a population that sustains the flipping and the flippers that want to flip there. So that's what I would do. Pick one area. Now, if you're lucky enough to live in a major metro, great. And if you're not, then you can pick anywhere. Now, you don't even have to actually flip and wholesale where you live. I actually live in Canada, so I can flip anywhere from my laptop. And that's the beautiful thing about wholesaling real estate. But anyway, You want to pick one area, one market, master it. That's the first thing I would do. Now, additional to day one, this is what I would do. I would apply for 0% interest credit cards. Now, if you've never had a credit card, you need— obviously need a bill of credit because credit's important. But all you have to do is type in on Google 0% interest credit cards and you get a credit card. You can apply for the top 3. There's tons of sites that are going to give you options and apply for credit cards and you're going to be able to get maybe $5,000, $10,000, $15,000 of 0% interest credit cards, right? That's balances that you can use where you don't have to pay any interest on them for 18 months, 24 months. So I would apply for that because for me, I would want to use not my money but other people's money. And I would want to bet on myself with those credit cards saying, hey, I have 18 months to pay this completely off. I have given myself 18 months. And in that meantime, if I spend $5,000, my minimum payment's going to be like $50 or $100 a month, which I can float, right? And if you can't float that, then go work at McDonald's or something, which no hate on McDonald's, but I'm just saying you need to get a little bit of cash. But if you want to get in this with no money, I would leverage credit cards and be able to cover the minimum payments on them. That's what I did when I first started is I tried to generate leads all my own. I was cold calling, door knocking, not spending any money. And eventually I was like, hmm, look, I need to get some more leads coming in. So I got a 0% interest credit card that got $10,000 on it. I started generating leads. I started buying leads, and then I got my first deal. It was like a $40,000 deal on those credit cards, paid off their credit card, and then I have to worry about it. Now, obviously the con is the pros is you get money. The con is you don't make money and you gotta pay off that $10,000. Well, look, if it's been 16 months and 18 months is when the interest starts, You did your best and don't give up, but you're going to have to pay off that card. You're giving yourself time. So that's exactly what I would do. The next thing after picking my market, I would get a 0% interest credit card. So the next thing I would do after I apply for my 0% interest credit card is I would set aside that money that I'm going to get to market. And we're going to be diving into exactly what marketing to do in the next step. But that's what I would do. Now, what is extremely important in this business, not only with generating leads, but converting leads and having a great sales process. Now, if I had to start over all over again tomorrow, I would still have the same sales process and I would do well. But if you don't have a sales process, what I would do if you had to start from zero is I would go to the library, doesn't cost you any money, and I would check out some self-help books. And really any self-help book is good. I think the best self-help books are the scriptures like the Bible, other holy scriptures. Those scriptures are going to teach you to be a good person. It's going to teach you to be honest and transparent and loving. One of my favorite quotes is, if I were to teach someone to be a good salesman, I would first teach them to be a good man or woman. So I think in order to really do well in this business, you need to just be a good person. You need to love others because the thing is, when you're talking to someone in this situation of wholesaling, that they're where you can wholesale their property and they're going through a tough time, you want to genuinely help them. You don't want to just take their property and lowball them and make a big check just because you can. You want to help them. Solve their problems, and that's our goal. So I think if you are starting off with day zero, I would definitely dive into self-help. I would dive into mindset and being grateful, keeping a gratitude journal. I do those things, but if I just start over again tomorrow, I would start reading— The Slight Edge is a really good book I like. There's a lot of different books by Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. There's a ton of other ones I read every day, and reading is extremely important because by reading you become what you read. So I would definitely get into that and I recommend if you're not reading and if you're not trying to improve yourself, that you should, because it's going to translate to you having a better character, loving others and helping others succeed more as you try to level up yourself. So again, those are things that I would do along with getting the 0% interest credit card and picking a market is I would get into self-help and improving myself so I could be a better salesman and just a better person. Now, as I'm diving into those things, I would start looking at different YouTube channels on sales. Practicing actually the sales process. Now my YouTube channel has tons of different ways to approach a seller and learn how to qualify and have that conversation. There's a lot of different ones. I, I learned a lot from Stephen Covey, like Franklin Covey, that group on how to have sales conversations. John Martinez did a lot. That was, he was a little back in the day, but I would learn how to have the right conversation. And there's different ways to have conversation with sellers and to qualify them. A lot of people, they just go in, they make a lowball offer. That's not how I teach it, and that's not what I do. I go in there with, like, as a consultant, I go in there with options and let them know, like, hey, have you thought about listing it? You should do that. It's probably going to make you more money. Have you thought about keeping it? You should keep it. Have you thought about flipping it yourself? You're going to make more money. I give people their options and then they let me know if they want to go with those. And if they do, it's a win-win. I help them succeed and I help them get what they want. But if they're like, no, I don't have money to flip it. No, I don't want to keep it. No, I don't want to list it. I don't want to deal with that. Then I'm like, okay, I'm a perfect option for you. So that's how I approach the sales process, and it goes a lot more in depth than that. And I have a bunch of different videos on it. And that's exactly what I would start studying along with what I've told you previously in day 1 is start getting into practicing the sales process and learning how to have conversations that are open and honest. Now, obviously getting leads is key so you can talk to motivated sellers, but I'm going to break that down in a second. And if you want someone to walk you through this process step by step on how to get started, that's exactly what we do in our Painless Flipping Apprenticeship, where we work with people hands-on. If you If you're interested, just go check out the link below. So now that I got my foundation set up on my first day starting over, this is exactly what I would do to start generating leads without using any of my own money. Now, in the past, when I first got started wholesaling, what I did, like I told you previously, is I knocked doors, I cold called, and I just did a lot of the manual labor where I was going out and prospecting myself, which is what you read online. That's what you hear about. Now, that's not bad and you can do that, but I personally think that's too time consuming and I can use my time and leverage my time and the time of others better. So if I had to start over again, I would not do that. It took me 3 months of cold calling nonstop to get my first deal for $5K a couple years ago. Well, many years ago, but still, I would not do that now because there's faster ways to do it. Now, like I explained in the previous step, I would get a 0% interest credit card because I would rather pay for a lead that is interested and has raised their hand than get on a dialer and cold call for hours trying to find that one person. When I could just use my time instead of cold calling. I could go get a job, I could go mow some lawns, I could go do something else to get money so I could put that and reinvest it into paying for leads. Now, back in the day when I first started, there wasn't a lot of pay-per-lead companies that you could pay for a lead and they would give you someone who was interested in selling. Now, that doesn't mean every pay-per-lead company, every lead that you buy is going to be like, yes, I need to sell, I'll give you my house for free or extreme discount. You still have to have an awesome sales process and help those people succeed. And solve their problems. But that didn't really exist. And the benefit of a pay-per-lead company now is if you call them and they don't answer their phone or you can't get ahold of them, or if they want to list it and they, the, when you paid for the lead, they said they wanted to sell for cash, you can get a refund on that. So you're paying for leads, but you're also getting the ability to get a refund. And you're not able to do that on your time when you're knocking doors or cold calling or texting. And there's a lot of systems to figure out, but with pay-per-lead, you just pay and you get the lead. And if you can't get ahold of them, you get a refund. So that's exactly what I would do. And we talked about starting with $0. Now guys, again, I would get the 0% interest credit card and not use any of my own money, right? I'd apply online, get the card, make sure it's 16, 18, 24 months of 0% interest, pay the minimum balance until I get my first deal, pay it all off, and then now you're floating and you're crushing it. And another really cool thing about 0% interest credit cards is in 18 months or 24 months when you have to pay that full balance or the interest starts, you can get another 0% interest credit card and do a balance transfer and buy yourself some more time to get a deal and pay it off. So really there is no con other than having to apply for some credit cards. So that's what I would do is pay per lead, get a 0% interest credit card and get rocking and rolling. Now, if I'm not super confident in my sales process because I just started, I started the self-help reading the books and I still don't know how to have that conversation. There are so many wholesalers out there that would partner with you if you say, hey, I have a qualified lead, I'm paying for leads, I'm qualifying them, I'm making sure that they're interested in selling. Can you help me close these? Because when I first started, there were so many leads that I could have gotten deals with. I just didn't have the right process. I didn't have the experience, and those leads just didn't turn into deals. But now with my experience, I would be able to go back and close those. So if I had to start all over again, I would go get someone that could help me. And that's exactly what we do in our Painless Flipping Apprenticeship. We tell you exactly where to go spend your money. We coach you through the process, and we help you close the lead in case you don't know how to do it, or we tell you exactly what to do and you do it yourself. So if you're interested in that, check out the link below. So if you're just starting, you're probably wondering, should I work with real estate agents? Should I do deals on the MLS? Should I go get a buyer first and reverse wholesale? Should I go JV another wholesaler's deal? Let me tell you exactly what I would do. So to cover agents, I would not do real estate deals with agents. I would not wholesale with agents because I think you need a little bit more experience. And I think it's a little slower to work with agents because they know what wholesalers are doing like 99% of the time. And if you go in there and you're like, hey, you make a lowball offer, you do not know if you have a buyer in line and your process is kind of wonky, it's not going work out and it's a waste of time. And I don't think it's that ethical to work on the MLS and tell like, hey, I can buy this house when you don't know. So I wouldn't do real estate agents. I'm not a big fan of that process. I've done deals on the MLS and it's okay, but it's not something I would recommend if I was just starting. That's not what I would do. Now, when it comes to reverse wholesaling, I personally have taught reverse wholesaling in the past, and although it is good, I do not think it's the best way to go. Reverse wholesaling is when you go get a buyer first And then you go look for deals for that buyer. And the problem with that is if you're going prospecting or if you're paying for leads and you're going to get leads that are within this vicinity of where the buyer wants, but sometimes you'll finally negotiate that deal, you'll find it. And that buyer that you spent all that time working with is like, oh, I don't buy on that street, or, oh, you know, I'm not really interested in that specific bed, like bedroom count. So I think it could be a complete waste of time, and most of the time is if you try to find buyers first and then you find a deal for them, whether you're prospecting, you're trying to go look for it, I think it can be a waste of time. I think what you should do is what I explained earlier is pay per lead and you should go and find a deal. Then I would use the data that you can find on many different platforms to find buyers that are buying specifically in that vicinity, in that area. And also Facebook is extremely easy to find cash buyers if you're in a major metro. So reverse wholesaling, a lot of people think painless flipping is reverse wholesaling. It's not. We do not start with a buyer and then go find a deal. We find deals and then we know what buyers are buying in the area and we get their offers before we even have it under contract half of the time. So that's completely different than what we do. I don't advise reverse wholesaling. Even if you're brand new, I don't think it's the best use of your time. Because a lot of times you'll call buyers and buyers will be like, hey, why are you talking to me? You don't have a deal. Then you're going to be like, well, what's your buy criteria? And they're going to say, look, like I've talked to hundreds of wholesalers and I never hear from them again. They're going to think it's a waste of time because It is a waste of time. You're going to do all this work and you're probably not even going to end up working with that buyer. Start work finding deals first and then use the painless flip, the pre-flip method to find a buyer. That's what I would do. Now, when it comes to JVing, would I do that? I think JVing is probably the best out of the three we've talked about of agents, reverse wholesaling, and JVing. I think JVing is good because there's already an opportunity. The only issue with JVing is a lot of wholesalers that have experience are like, they don't want new investors to touch their deals. Now I have experience, so if I went to a wholesaler and said, hey, look, I have I have a buyer that I think would be interested in your property. I would most likely be able to get that wholesaler to give me that information. And I like JVing. I think it's great, but if you're brand new, it is difficult to reach out to wholesalers and have them give you all the information you need. Because sometimes you need to know their price that they have it. You need to be able to negotiate your fee in there. And it, it can get a little bit difficult to, to do it without experience. And I know because I used to teach specifically focused on teaching JVing to people and It, it's a difficult model to understand if you're brand new. So again, where I would start is with the leads, go focus on getting leads, and then once you have a qualified conversation, take it all the way, partner with someone, work with me, and then we will help you find the buyer and get the deal done. So what's changed in the game since I first started and why would I go pay-per-lead route versus prospecting like I did when I first started to get my first deal of knocking doors or cold calling or texting? What's changed? In the past, paper lead did not exist. It was not available where you could go and get leads of people that were raising their hand saying, yes, I want to sell. So you had to go out and grind. You had to go get a list and list stack. Now, if you don't have any money, I'm talking like you can't even apply for a credit card, your credit's that bad, you can't even get like a $1,000 balance, you can't get anything, then this is what you would do. I would list stack. I would list stack this list: out-of-state absentee owner, vacant property. So They own a house, they're in a different state, but they own a house, typically a rental. It's vacant and they have high equity. I would get that list usually in a big major metro. That list, you can narrow it down to like 200 people. I would call through that list on my cell phone, hand dial and text, and I would talk to those people. If you pull the whole absentee owner in Salt Lake City and try to get a deal that way, because you're going to have to call through so many people. So I would go very, very niche and you can do that with literally no money, you obviously need a cell phone. So if you don't have a cell phone in this business or you can't afford a payment for a cell phone, get Google Voice. It's free. But that's what I would do if you couldn't get a credit card. Now, instead of doing that and prospecting and trying to list stack and do all that yourself, if that was your main source of getting leads and doing it, I would go back. If I had to go back and do it again, I would just get a job. I would just go get a job that pays enough where I could set aside $500 to $1,000 a month. To invest in the marketing to generate leads. That's what I would do. I wouldn't even mess around with prospecting. It's just so time-consuming. You're going to use your time better if you just get a job and reinvest the money you make. So basically, if I had to break it down and I'm going to give you guys a recap, I would not waste my time trying to generate leads on my own. I would go ahead and leverage credit and I would leverage other wholesalers that have experience to help me close deals. That's exactly what I do if I was starting out. And for me, Since I have that experience, I'm just gonna get a 0% interest credit card and then put the paper lead marketing budget on there. And I'm gonna close deals with my cell phone and on my laptop. That's pretty much it. So starting over, if I had to start over again tomorrow, I'm not that nervous. I wouldn't be nervous. It'd just be like, hey, well, that's all good. Just get some leads and close them and find cash buyers. Super easy. You can find them on Facebook. You can find them on different platforms that exist. It's not that difficult. So this business in a nutshell, if you had to start over, is not that difficult if you just gotta know exactly what you need to do. Pick a market, get leads, and then work on yourself. Be a better person, be consistent, and get leads and qualify them and close them. Partner with people that need and partner with people that can help you. So if I had to start over, I would do exactly what I tell people in my apprenticeship to do. And if you're interested in that, check out the link below. By the way, if you want to learn how I made $86,000 on one deal, check out this video on the screen next.
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