How I Would Start Over In Wholesale Real Estate [FULL BLUEPRINT]

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. 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 is 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. What 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 an 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 major metro, you're in good shape because there's a population that sustains the, 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 to build up 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.. And 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 is 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. I put 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. Obviously, the con is— the pros is you get money. The con is you don't make money, and you got to 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 gonna 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. 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 any money, and I would check out some self-help books. 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 had to 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, like 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, right? 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. 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 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, uh, 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 gonna 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, they want to go with those. And if they do, it's a, 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 much— bunch of different videos on it. And that's exactly what I'd start studying along with what I've told you previously in day one 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. 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're interested, just go check out the link below. So now that I got my foundation set up in 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, 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 paper lead company, every lead that you buy is going to be like, yes, I need to sell and 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 paper lead company now is if you call them and they don't answer their phone or you can't get a hold of them, or if they want to list it and they— when you paid for the lead, they said they wanted to sell for cash. You can get a refund on that. So you're all— 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 a hold of them, you get a refund. So that's exactly what I would do. And we, we talked about starting with $0. Now guys, again, I, I would get the 0% interest credit card and not use any of my own money, right? So I would get the— 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, 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. 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's 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 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? I do deals on the MLS. Should I go get a buyer first, 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 to 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, you're going to get leads that are within the 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 It's 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. And 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, why are you talking to me? You don't have a deal. And 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, 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 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 can get a little bit difficult to, to do it without experience. And I know because I used to specifically focus 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, pay-per-lead did not exist. It was not available. Where you could go and get leads that 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, do you want— 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 and they're in a different state, but they own a 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. They are more likely to want to sell than if you pull the whole absentee owner in this, in Salt Lake City, and try to get a deal that way because you're gonna 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 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 gonna 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 gonna 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 going to close deals with my cell phone and on my laptop. That's pretty much it. Cool. So this business in a nutshell, if you had to start over, is not that difficult if you just got to know exactly what you need to do. Pick a market, get leads, and then work on yourself, be a better person, and consist— be consistent and get leads and qualify them and close them 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.