I did it My 1st deal!!

...on setting AND reaching your goal!

Yeah, $10k + isn't a bad sum of money on ANY deal whether it's your first or 100th (in my opinion).

Here's to your continued success!

Mike

We are very happy for you Eugene. We hope you get your 5 deals done in a year to get your money back from Dean. The success academy is great.

Steve and Veronica

You just made in profits more than what you spent, and 3 more deals and you get a refund!!!! Awesome to hear, keep up the good work.

Cathyb

I am working on a deal where in one week the property dropped $10,000 and the agent called me first. Its a handyman special and I will be viewing the property soon. I hope to find a endbuyer or lease purchase the deal with an assignment.

What a great deal! That is the way to work it! AWESOME job! Keep going and never stop! Best to you!

It is CERTAIN we will SUCCEED!

Great Job Eugene.I am very Happy for you.Now I know you are on fire.Time for number 2!!!!

Good Luck
Curtis Fillers
(Charlotte,NC)

Thanks to Everyone for your support and best wishes.

I'm looking for the next deal. I'm fired up and looking at everything.

Thanks again,
Gene

Gene,

Congratulations! Tell us a little more about it! Where did you find this property? Where did you find your buyer? The more info you have to share with everybody, the more real it becomes for all of the DG family. They see what you did and can say, "Hey, I can do that!"

Vincent

Great. That's encouraging. Just a quick question if you don't mind sharing. What strategy did you use to find this property? I have a buyers list with no properties to offer them. Thanks in advance-Nick

how awesome! congratulations! onward and upward!!

Just keep taking action.

Randy

Congratulations! I wish you continued success!

Lea

Gene,
Give us the details, that's how we learn! I can't wait to be in your shoes!
Barbara

Great Job Eugene so glad to hear your story very great profit to thats incredible Now you can blame Dean and the family for your success I am right behind you trying to close my first deal before new years I have yet to join the academy but I will be soon congrats on your 1st Deal Eugene keep up the good work.

About a mile away from my home I saw this house, which had suffered a fire. I took the address down and found out who the owner was through the property appraisers web site. I then sent her a brief letter letting her know I buy houses. I was interested in buying her home if she was interested in selling as is.

At that time I had 3 (of 15 buyers on my list) other investors, which had told me that they would buy houses in this area regardless of condition.

At first I did not hear from her for about 2 weeks so I sent another letter. Finally about a month after that she called me and we met at the house a few days later and in talking to her I realized that this was going to be a good deal. She did not have any interest in rebuilding because she had to many bad memories associated with the house. I did some quick numbers just to see where she was, at as to how much she was wanting because she would not say what the best cash price was. So I called my realtor (critical to have a good realtor on your side) he did some quick searches for me and gave me a really close ballpark figure as to how much the house would sell quickly for. That was about 129,000.00.

Because it was a burn out and the house would need a major rehab I calculated the rehab cost to be in the range of 60k to 70k being very generous. Being the cautious one that I am I offered her 8,000.00 cash right then and there. She turned me down and then told me that she really wanted 20,000.00. I told her that based on the rehab that it needed as an investor I really was not able to give her that, so I counter offered 10,000.00 she came back with bottom line of 12,500.00, if I agreed to clean it out. All she wanted was a few things. I agreed, with the condition that I would have 5 days to bring in my GC so that he can give me a more accurate figure on what it would cost to rehab. She agreed and we signed a contract and I gave her 100.00 to tie the property up.

That same day I called 2 of my friends who are on my RE team who are GC and had them give me an estimate on what it would cost to rehab. To my surprise they both were with in 5 k of each other and 10k less than my estimate. So for about 55k this property could be rehab and sold for at least 129k very quickly. I know that because I’ve been watching homes in this area for the last 2 years going anywhere from 129,000 to 149,000. I’m talking about home, which need some rehab. In fact there is a modular home directly in front of my home that sold for 121,000.00 just 10 months ago and it needed about 8k in work. A modular home!

I then called my 3 investors and they came out to see it because I was willing to just assign the contract for 5 to 8k. To my surprise they all said too much to handle. So I called a few others and they all said the same thing. I wasn’t going to be beat; I was bound and determined to sell this house with 30 days. I had set the closing for September 30th so I had about 45 days to work it out. I made a bunch of bandit signs and put them all over the area with 2 miles of the house and I put a big sign in front of the house “FOR SALE CASH BUYERS ONLY $29,900.00. Phone number”

I put a bunch of fliers in a plastic box on the fence and my phone started to ring off the hook. I was attracting every possible buyer looking in that area for a home. I put a couple of ads on craigs list and I must have shown the house 50 time in the course of 1 week. Still no takers to much work. 2nd week this young man, a licensed electrician saw the sign and stopped and got a flier. He called me a couple of days later and wanted to see the house. I said NO PROBLEM, WHEN DO YOU WANT TO DO THAT? Tomorrow morning, OK I’ll see you there.

He fell in love with the location, lot and the size of the house, but he didn’t have the money to buy it cash. We spoke for a while and he left but he said I’ll be back. With no money it didn’t think it was possible. But he did come back with his father, who is a retired contractor. His Dad saw the house and told him it was a good deal we’ll find the money. They went back and spoke to Dad’s mother and she agreed to give the grandson the money if he was serious! He then brought her and the grandfather and they agreed to give him the money. She offered me 22,000.00 and I countered for 23,500.00 they accepted. I pulled out a contract right there and filled it out, signed it and got a 500.00 deposit. We closed 4 days later. I had already sent all the first papers to my title company and asked her to have everything ready for a quick closing. Thank GOD she listened and She had everything ready to go. We did a back-to-back closing. I bought for 12,500.00 and sold for 23,500. The same day.

The education I got with this deal is priceless. I’m ready for the next one.

I hope this wasn’t to wordy but I get fired up explaining this.

Thanks,
Gene

Hi E,

Congrats on your first deal keep up the GOOD Work!

TG

"God help Them Who Help Themselves"

What a great story. To everyone, it is a true testament of what can be done when you don't take no for an answer, the first time, the second time, etc. Eventually if you keep at it and don't give up you'll get a yes!

And, it sounds like you listened to what she really needed from the deal (someone to clean it out for her). And, by listening and giving her what she needed, it was a win, win for both of you!

Can't wait to hear about your next deal! I'm sure it will be soon!

Susan

You can follow my progress at: http://www.deangraziosi.com/real-estate-forums/investing-journals/54148/...

that was a rather cool first deal. Good luck on the next 4.

That is a great story for other DG'ers to hear. Your hard work paid off. Thanks for sharing

Thanks For sharing Eugene! looking to hear about your second Deal!

I loved reading your "this is how it happened" post ...

And I just answered your PM too --- so check for my reply !

~ Sherri

GREAT JOB my friend !! feel the excitement of putting your new rei knowledge to ACTION !!!way to go man .you just started a fire that i know anyone will have a hard time trying to put out !! keep the oxygen to that fire coming and the next deal will happen directly .awesome job !!
jay

That's awesome! Good luck with your 2nd, 3rd, and so on!!

Since you did a "back-to-back closing" did you buy it first with your own $$ or did you use transactional funding?

Why - just curious - did you just not assign it for that difference?

Again, congratulations!

You learned, you listened, you took action and you helped two other people and yourself!! Good going I'm looking forward to hearing about your future success stories.

Lea

Congrats Eugene!!
Keep it going. hard work does pay off.

Richie

Hey I love reading your how I did it post. I'm a newbie and have not done a deal yet. Am getting my ducks in a row. I learn from every story I read. Thank you DGFamily..
Greg

Hi Mike,

What I did was I have a friend who has some money and he found out I was wanting to get into Real Estate investing. He told me that if I really learned and new what I was doing that he would put the money up for a % of the profit. So when I found this deal I put up the deposit and all the other stuff like cleaning, maintenance of the yard and such, less than 300.00 but he put up the 12,500.00 for the purchase. I do have transactional funds available but I wanted to show him that I new what I was doing.

When we closed and he saw my check that I deposited into my account after I paid him his money back plus the % we agreed upon he was hooked. Now he has made even more money available to me. That's what I was hoping for. We are going to do a couple more wholesale flip and then we're going to do some rehabs. I've been doing them for a couple of years now for other investors it's time I do them for myself.

Thanks,
Gene.

I have had so many of you sending me all kinds of great notes and such. I have also been asked a lot of question but there is one that seems to ring out and it has to do with the Success Academy. This is what I responded to 2 of the new ones with in the family. I hope this helps everyone following this:

Thanks for the message. I joined the academy because I was having a hard time getting my questions answered by locals. The mix of the coaches and the actual course you get, which is all online and that you can print out, in my opinion it is the best.

I have spent money on other programs and I have been very disappointed. The Success Academy or PMI was the best investment I've made. They are there from 10 AM till 8 PM M-F and 10 to 2 EST. on Saturday. I went thru the online course and as I did I had a ton of questions. I just picked up the phone and got my questions answered. I started to look at properties, started to put my buyers list with 2 weeks of joining.

Look it’s not cheap, I’ll agree to that but, I took the monthly payment program and I pay less than 200.00 per month and I’ve struggled to pay that but I know that if I don’t, nothing else will get me to where I want to be with real estate. But you know what I’ll have it paid for very soon thanks to them because I plan on having my five deals done by end of year and I will get all my money back. Where can you find a deal like that? That’s right you do 5 deals and you get all you money back.

What you have to ask yourself is “do you believe enough in yourself to see yourself as a successful real estate investor 1 to 2 years from now? Listen to Dean’s videos and Blog, he is the real deal he wants for all of us what he’s got. I don’t know that I want all of that but I do want to be free from worries. I want to be able pay my bills and feed my family. With this past deal I was able to pay off a couple of bills that were hounding me. WHAT A RELIEF! I can’t tell you how good I feel about not having those payments on my back anymore.

Believe in yourself and don’t let anyone tell you, you can’t do it. Because if it’s to be it’s up to me (or you in this case) that’s my motto I am the one that decides weather I succeed or I fail and I decided to succeed.

I realize that not everyone can afford to go that extra expense, but one thing you have to realize, when you want something really bad you will stretch yourself to what ever limit you need to get it, I know I do. That is why in real estate, education is the key, you don’t want to go out there with out knowing what your doing, you WILL fail miserably. And then all of those people that are saying don’t do that will be right and you don’t want that, do you?

Thank you,
Gene

Success to everyone!

...to the rest of us newbies. Thanks for sharing your success.
Conrats and good luck in your further endevors!

-Teri