In this YouTube episode, Nathan Payne recounts a early‑career wholesaling experience from 2018 when he and his partner Corey were "driving for dollars" in West Valley, Salt Lake City. They approach an older homeowner on a rundown street who is under contract with another cash buyer for about $60,000. Intrigued, Nathan asks to see the property, which is boarded up and officially condemned. Despite his partner’s refusal, Nathan enters the house through a window, discovers a hazardous, trash‑filled interior with no utilities, and realizes the property is far riskier than the price suggests. The competing buyer closes the deal before Nathan can make an offer, teaching him that entering condemned homes is unnecessary and dangerous. Nathan uses the story to illustrate a broader lesson for new investors: rely on reasonable offers and avoid risky on‑site inspections of condemned properties. He closes with promotional calls to his free newsletter, deal‑analysis calculator, and the painlessflipping.com brand, positioning himself as a guide who has learned painful lessons to help others flip painlessly.
Chapters
Hmm, okay. What's going on, my Wholesaling Storytime friends, my real estate investors, my people all across the world? I got a story to tell you guys. I'm a little embarrassed to tell it to you now, thinking back of what the heck I was doing. It's a little embarrassing, but hey, I gotta give you guys the raw truth. That's why I'm doing Wholesaling Storytime, Wholesaling Real Estate Storytime. So you guys can see exactly what it's like when you're starting, getting started as a real estate investor and the lengths and what you're willing to do to get them deals. So, hey, look, if it's a little embarrassing, that's okay. That's why we're sharing these stories together. So if you haven't been to Nathan Payne's Wholesaling Real Estate Storytime Tales from the Trenches, here's another episode. We're pretty deep into the story of how I got started, how I went from zero knowledge, zero deals, no money to get started in this business. To doing over $2 million in assignment fees, doing hundreds of deals. I'm here to break down the good, the bad, the ugly, the fun, the painful, the painless. Let's dive in. All right, everybody. And if you're watching this live, let me know where you're watching from. It's always cool to network. It's always cool to check in where everybody's watching from. But today's story, by the way, if you're not subscribed to the weekly newsletter where I drop stories and tell you guys what's happened in my journey and what to avoid, what not to do and what mistakes not to make like I made, go to painlessflipping.com. It's absolutely free. You get a free calculator on how to analyze deals, and we send you more stories and more resources every week for free. Why not? Because I wanted to do this. I thought it'd be good to tell engaging stories, fun stories, and also give you guys stuff. So check it out, painlessflipping.com. Subscribe if you haven't. So let's dive into the story. So I'm about 6, 7 months into my journey in 2018. Okay. And by the way, got it all documented. So I'm not just making this stuff up. Me and Corey are driving for dollars. Okay. That's something that we did. We would go 2 or 3 hours a day, drive for dollars. That by the end of the day, our necks would be hurt so bad. We have big headaches because we'd be driving, me and him, and I'd be turning my neck, looking around for deals and, uh, just writing down properties, marking it with our batch leads, with our apps that we were using at the time. And yeah, so we were just looking for property. So we're in West Valley, which is on the west side of Salt Lake City of Utah and the west side. And it's the part where we're at. It was a little rundown and there was this one street, I think it's called Linton Street or Lixon Street. I can't remember off the top of my head, but the road was just jacked up. It was— the pavement was bad. It just— when you drove, there were potholes everywhere and this just had really bad houses on it. So me and him are driving for dollars. We're picking, we're marking houses, almost every house on the street we're marking. And I'm like, hey, look at that house. That house is terrible condition. And as we're driving, we see a man just walking on the street. And this goes back to my mission days where I talked to everybody about Jesus. I would just go to people and say, hey, would you like to hear about Jesus? Would you like to hear about what happens after you die? And like, you know, the plan that God has for you. So I was used to going up to people, and whether I'm in a car or if they're just walking on the street, to go talk to them. So I saw an older gentleman walking, and I, uh, Corey, I get out of the car, say, hey sir, I'm sorry to bother you, but, uh, we're looking to buy houses in the area. We're cash buyers. Are you selling a house by chance? And he says, yeah, that house right there, the one that I just told Corey that it looked terrible. He's like, that's my house. And I was like, for real? Wow. Okay. Are you open to selling it, sir? And he's like, yeah, I just signed a contract with Joe Homebuyer. I don't think it was Joe Homebuyer. I think it was Speedy Homebuyer or something. He says, I just signed a contract with those guys the other day to sell it. And I was like, well, what were they going to buy it for? And he's like, I think like $60,000. And I'm like, what? I think I can pay more than that, sir. Would you sell to me if I could give you more money? And he's like, yeah, of course. So he pulls out the contract. I'm talking, this is a real estate contract that's assignable. He pulls it out of his pockets, all dirty. And he's like, this is what I signed. And at that time, I didn't really know much about like if someone had signed with another investor, like if what, what could you do? Could you beat them? Was, but then I know later realized that there was a notice of default that they could file. Like you didn't. And we also didn't want to like go behind the other guy's back and steal it. But like, we were also brand new and we were like, oh man, we want deals, we want deals. So we were trying to figure out ways that we could just make it happen. Like maybe we could buy if they fell through. We're like, hey, well, when is he going to close? Because if he's not going to close, you know, and he asked for extension, we can just go with you. We— you can go with us. And he was like, yeah, they're supposed to close like in 2 days. So if they don't, I'll work with you guys. So I'm looking at the house. It's all boarded up. It's literally condemned. It says on the door, like, condemned, like, do not go inside. So I'm like, wow, so that's your house? He's like, yeah. Yeah, I'm like, do you live in there right now? He's like, yeah, I live in there, me and my girlfriend. And I'm like, oh really? Like, how are you living in there? It's condemned. It's all boarded up. He's like, ah man, they boarded it up and I just took the boards off the back window and now I'm living in there. And I was like, wow, okay. Well, in my thought process was like, well, let me— I felt like I needed to go see the house, like the condition, in case the other guys dipped. I would need to know like what we're getting into. I don't know what I was thinking. The house is condemned. There's really no, absolutely no reason to look inside. It's condemned. It's not in good shape. The house is falling apart. But I was like, why not? Let's go give it a shot. Let's go see what this house is like. So Corey pulls the car over. I'm like, you coming in, Corey? He's like, I ain't going into that house. Corey's like, I'm not going anywhere near that thing. So I go around back because I feel like the guy's going to like open the door or there's a door back there. He took the board off. The guy climbs in through a window. And his— it's pitch black in there, guys. It's condemned, dude. There's no electricity. There's no running water. There's nothing in this house. It's just black. And he's like, you can climb through the window if you want to see. And I'm like, whoa, I don't know if I want to see it that bad. I'm sure it's bad. I don't need to go through the window, sir. It's okay. And he's like, no, no, no, it's okay. Let me open up the door. Let me get the board off the door. So I'm like, uh, this is getting kind of weird now, but I've already committed. I'm already in. So he, he goes and gets a drill from inside his house. His girlfriend, I don't see her, but she's like, what's going on? I can hear from inside the, the house after he climbed in the window. And he comes back out with a drill and starts drill— undrill— like undrilling or unscrewing, that's the word, unscrewing all the boards on the back door. And he's like looking around like like, obviously he's not supposed to be in this condemned house. It's condemned. He's not supposed to live there. But he's just undrilling. He's like, yeah, unscrewing the boards. And he takes the board off. He's like, come inside, young man. And at this point, I don't know what I'm thinking, but I've already— like I said, I'm already in. I'm already knee-deep in. So I'm like, okay. And Corey, look back at Corey. He's like, I'm not going in there. So I go in there. I got to turn on— there's no lights in there. The roof's caved, like falling in. I could have probably died. Um, but I turn on my phone, I turn on the flashlight, and I start looking around. And guys, what do you think I saw? Absolute nothing but trash. Like, there was trash everywhere. It was— the roof, like, was, like I said, caving in. There was mattresses and crap everywhere. The bathroom just had nasty— there's no plumbing, there's no toilets, so they were just pooping in buckets. It was, it was terrible. What was I thinking? There were needles everywhere. And, uh, I was climbing over stuff and I said, I thought I might've like, if I got cut, I was definitely going to get tetanus or something. But, uh, after I would say being polite and not judging and just looking through and saying, oh, okay. I leave and I say, sir, I've seen enough. I'm definitely interested in buying your house. If these guys don't come through, what's your number? And, you know, he ended up giving us his number and we ended up following up with him and The other guys ended up closing on it. Okay. But I think they beat him up, like they beat him up on price and they actually got it for a lot less than like $80,000 or $60,000. And we were just late. We were late to the, I guess, late to the party. You know, they beat us. They got, they beat our offer. Not even beat our offer. They, they won the offer, the head of the contract. And we didn't feel right, obviously, like we're not stealing deals from anybody, but we didn't feel right about trying to get in there middle. So we were just there in case they didn't close and they did. So. You know, just a crazy story of something I would never do now. If I see a guy on the street, say hi, you want to say, are you selling? And he says, yeah, that's my condemned house. Would you like to crawl through a window and look at it? And that's an absolute no for me. Even if he unscrews the boards on the door and says, come on in. I'm not going in there. Not even close. But back in the day when I first started, I really wanted a deal and I was willing to do whatever it took to learn. So What you can learn from this story is you do not have to go into a condemned house to see the condition of the property. That's all I got to tell you guys. I was going there because I was, oh, I got to see what kind of condition this is in. Not even important. Don't do it. If it's got boards on it, if it's condemned, if the city isn't allowing anyone to live in it, no need to walk it. Anybody just freaking just make your, your offer that makes sense and get out of there. There's no reason. So if any of you are in a situation like that, I hope this video helps you out. I know this is a no-brainer, but it was not for me when I first started, but I've been doing this for a while and now I know. You know, unfortunately you got to learn the painful way, even though I tell people I can make it painless. I think I can make it painless for people because I've done the painful things and I've learned. And maybe you guys are like, that's— you're dumb, man. I didn't— I don't need to do that to learn. Well, hey, I'm just giving you the story I went through. Didn't get the deal, but hey, it was an interesting story, interesting experience of meeting a guy who just happened to pull out a real estate contract from another wholesaler that was selling 2 days later. What are the chances? I don't know, but it was fun. And guys, I hope you enjoy your weekend. This has been another episode of the Wholesaling Real Estate Storytime with Nathan Payne. Pain and tales from the trenches. And literally, I was in the trenches on this house. I feel like my foot got stuck in a trench while I was walking this condemned house. Don't do what I did. Be smart, be savvy. Don't— you do not have to go see a condemned home. Subscribe to the newsletter, painlessflipping.com, so you can learn a little bit more about my stories and the resources we're giving you for free. Hope you enjoyed this one. We'll see on the next one. Peace out.
