WIP 1019: #Replay – How One Couple Generated $217k (and Picked Up 10 Rentals) Wholesaling Houses Part-Time!

This is going to be an incredible episode. I’ve got a couple that not only are working full-time and part-time but they’ve got an incredible business that they’ve done over $200,000 in the first half of 2020 and they’re still working. They have a young family. They’re incredible. They’re out of Augusta, Georgia. It is my pleasure to introduce Paul and Rita Grimes to the show. It’s exciting to have you guys on here because you are doing this thing and this isn’t some overnight success that you have had. You have been grinding this thing out since 2017.

Late 2017.

How did you find wholesaling?

We were listening to Clayton Morris’ podcast. We heard Tom Krol’s interview there and that was what got us hooked. We checked on Wholesaling Inc. and started following the show and the rest is history.

What pulled you to even start to listen to real estate investing podcasts? Was it something that you were like, “I would like to own property,” or was it something like, “I read a book and it was incredible?” Did you have some family that was like, “I’m retired now because I own 100 rental units?” What brought you to be a real estate investor?

The number one thing I always attribute it to is the birth of our first daughter. As soon as she was born, it was a major wake-up call to me. It was like, “I’m a biologist. I’m making X, which was not a whole lot.” Rita was a nurse and that’s a great position and everything but I didn’t feel that we were adequately providing for the family and for a future family indefinitely. I was always worried that if something happened to me, there was nothing in place to take care of them. That was the main driver that got me motivated into it. One of our mentors suggested Rich Dad Poor Dad. We read that book and got hooked and that’s when I started listening to podcasts and she started listening as well.

We were surfing Zillow for rental properties but that didn’t get us anywhere. We googled wholesaling and Wholesaling Inc. was the first thing that popped out. We started listening to podcasts.

It’s important too, to clarify originally our interest was getting into owning rental properties. That’s why we started listening to Clayton’s podcast, getting educated on that and that was helpful. We saw wholesaling as a tool to allow us into these deeply discounted properties, off-market deals where we could also fund the acquisition of those deals at the same time. That’s what was so attractive about it and got us in.

There’s a weird misconception on what wholesaling is. To put it simply, wholesaling is finding deals. That’s what it is. Wholesaling is sourcing real estate opportunities if we want to get real fancy with it. Once you learn how to do that, it’s up to you what exit strategy you want whether you want to hold it whether you want to flip it whether you want to wholesale it. There are a few different options that you can do but it all comes down to being able to find the best deals in your market. Once you build that skill, that’s a skill that lasts with you forever. How many properties do you guys own?

We have 10 rentals going on 11 and all of that has been in two and a half years.

A biologist and a registered nurse own, I assume your house and ten others?

That’s right and four of them are totally paid off.

Let’s go back. Paul, you’re working full-time. Is that right?

That’s right.

What kind of biologist are you?

A Quail Biologist. I didn’t even know what quail are. A lot of people don’t. I’m not looking to get out of this position mainly because it’s my passion. It’s what drives me. There are no lies here. Real estate is not my passion. I enjoy it. I have fun doing real estate investing and everything but it’s not my true passion. Wild quail restoration is. By being able to do this and continue working on what I’m doing, I’m happy as I can be.

Wholesaling Business: Wholesaling is sourcing real estate opportunities. Once you learn how to do that, it’s up to you.

Rita, being a nurse, that’s a lot of schooling. That’s a lot of going through the process. You’ve got to start at the bottom, you’ve got to raise your way up. When you started this business, were you a full-time nurse? Were you raising the young ones? What was your schedule like?

I was a full-time nurse. On my days off because it’s 3 days a week, 12 hours and I worked the night shift and I had a baby. She took two naps at the time and I would work my butt off during those two naps. The second she went to sleep, I’d start working frantically and I did everything pretty much at the beginning. On the backend, Paul would go on appointments and I would do all the marketing. It was exhausting but if I could have seen the future years in advance, I’d say, “It worked.”

It’s incredible and it’s continuing to work. How much do you guys have pending right now in closing or what was your month?

We’ve made $48,000.

What was your yearly salary or what do you make as a nurse?

$22,000.

It’s something like that because I work minimally. It could even be less than that.

She’s been able to go part-time too because of wholesaling and that’s allowed us to be able to do that.

Do you still do the lead generation, Rita? Paul, you go on the appointments and convert it? How does the relationship work as a married couple?

We’ve evolved greatly over the year. A large part of what’s enabled us to grow like we have over the last few months is we’ve been able to build a team. We went through Next Level Wholesaling and that was tremendous. We worked our tails off and we were able to build a team and hire a lot out. We work on our business and not so much in it. That’s changed the game for us now. Rita still coordinates a lot of the lead generation and I coordinate more of the acquisitions.

It’s important to understand. Let me ask you this because I want to bring it back because I think a lot of people jump to hiring people too early. I do. They don’t have enough consistency in their business nor do they have leadership skills nor are they ready to be financially responsible for other people. At what point in your business did you start hiring these people and who did you hire? You talk about a team. What does that mean?

At first, we hired a cold-caller and this was before we took the Next Level. We learned that from you and your course. After that, we took the Next Level because we wanted to learn how to build a team further and that’s when we hired an acquisitions specialist next. We then hired another cold caller through Call Motivated Sellers. We also hired a VA. The VA was probably the one I was most scared of because that relinquished a lot of my control. It honestly required some of the most training but it’s been so worth it. She helps me tremendously. She’s in the Philippines.

How did you find her? What are her responsibilities?

I found her through OnlineJobs.ph.

Going through the process, you have to start at the bottom. You’ve got to rise your way up.

It was great. We signed up for the $100 something that allows you to do the background checks and everything on the candidates. We did that. We were patient. Every hire we’ve ever made, we’ve been extremely patient and done the due diligence before. So far, it’s worked well for us.

To answer what she does, she does a lot of the preparing the marketing, scrubbing the list, uploading them into the calling system and sending contracts, stuff like that. It’s backend work.

Did you train her through a Skype video? Did you record videos and send them to her? Did you send little checklists? How do you train somebody that’s in the Philippines? It’s interesting. I hear a lot of podcasts and everybody’s like, “I got a VA and they do all this stuff.” How do they know how to do it? I’ve had one for years so I get it but what do you guys do? Give some tips. If you’re going to hire a VA to take over some of those organizational responsibilities, how do you train them? What do you think is the most effective way?

Rita will describe how she did the training. She handled most of the training but one thing I’ll say right off the bat before you hire is to recalibrate your expectations. Don’t expect a VA, particularly one in the Philippines, to take this thing and run with it and do as good a job as you are doing. It’s not reality. That was one thing that got our mind right and we mainly got it through that. Rita took it and ran with it with the training.

I’m still not the best. I could use some training myself but I screen-recorded and I made a Google Drive folder with everything that she needed to watch. I tried to make it as step by step like what you do in your course, as possible. I still have to tweak it a little bit in case she quits. Video screen and also, we chat a lot on WhatsApp.

Oftentimes it was when we were doing these things. When we were pulling lists, we recorded and took them step-by-step. We narrated what we were doing.

It takes a little extra time. You’re always in a hurry but take the time and record what you’re doing. Write down what you’re doing step-by-step then you don’t have to do it again in the future.

It’s putting together videos. What I did is I was like, “How do I take my computer screen, make a video of it and send it to my VA?” I found something called Screenflow. There are a million other ones that you can do it with. I would record training videos and share them in Google Drive. It was so easy and they caught on. It worked well with Lisa and I’ve had Lisa for many years now and it’s like clockwork. She’s been working away. If we need to adjust something, if she has a question about something, we shoot a video, send it to her and it works out well.

For anybody that’s looking to hire a VA, what Paul and Rita are talking about is first do a background check to make sure that you’re getting somebody that is in line with your values, your ethics, your working patterns and everything. Second, make sure that you train those people up as much as you can through video. Third, communicate with them often. Honestly, be in their lives. Communicate with them. They will respond to you. Get WhatsApp. It’s super easy or whatever else and rock and roll. That’s cool. Rita, this is a question for you. How do you balance your life? You’ve got these beautiful children. You’ve got nursing a couple of days a month or a few days a month. You then have the house. You’ve got Paul running around biologically doing something with quails. How do you balance it?

It’s not easy. It’s still a learning curve, especially since we had our daughter. It’s still a huge learning curve. I’m trying to figure that out but the best thing I can do is drop them off, get a babysitter for at least one day a week. I’ll work during their nap. I’ll work before they wake up or after they go to sleep. I try to train our VA to do as much of that stuff as possible. That way I can focus on them. I don’t feel like I’m stressed all the time or have this long to-do list in the backend. I delegate as much as I can and work whenever they’re sleeping. That’s pretty much what you do.

Wholesaling Business: When hiring, make sure that you train those virtual assistants up as much as you can through video and communicate with them effectively.

 

I’ve got to brag about her real quick. She does a great job. We had to transform our lives when we started doing this. When we got serious about it. It’s not like you can keep doing a lot of the extracurricular things that you were doing beforehand. You’ve got to buckle down and she’s done that. At night, she’s not sitting around watching TV or whatever. She’s on the computer. We’re getting caught up and we’re making the most of it.

Let’s get everybody excited and let’s talk about a deal. Let’s break down an actual deal that you guys found. I want to know everything. I want to know what list it was, how you initially became in contact with them and what their motivation was. You have the floor. Go for it.

I looked back in our system and it had been on multiple lists. I even marked it driving for dollars, absentee and code violation. It’s been on all sorts of them. We got it through texting on Lead Sherpa. He doesn’t answer the phone because I’m sure other people have called him too.

We called him multiple from multiple angles, so to speak.

It’s an older man and for some reason, he chooses texting as his source of communication. Who would have thought? We didn’t even meet him there. We got it under contract by going and looking at it. His daughter let us in.

It was right during COVID.

It was in March 2020 when COVID was getting bad. Believe it or not, we had tons of people show up so don’t let that scare you, the COVID stuff. People are still buying real estate.

They’re serious.

Health-wise, yes, it’s scary but I’m talking about real estate. It still moves forward and people are doing deals and buying all the time. We sent it out and somebody sent in an extremely high offer. It was $26,000 or so was the assignment. We decided to double close. Once we got to do the title work and everything, that’s when all the problems arose. As you know a lot of these wholesale deals, they’ll have crazy title work come back. It was a probate issue. They ended up having to reach out to all four kids and get a quitclaim deed. It was a nightmare and I had to call each and every kid. Each and every kid wouldn’t answer their phone. They wouldn’t send back the mail.

They didn’t have a good relationship with each other.

They didn’t like the dad. It was always something so I had to get four crazy kids to sign these quitclaim deeds.

How do you do that? Did you have to give them money? Did you have to give them part of the deal? Did you have to show up, put it in front of them and say, “I need you to sign this”?

I offered one of them money because I could not get him to send his paperwork but he’s like, “No. I’m doing it.” I’m like, “Okay, fine.” He finally did it and it was mainly me pestering them. I was nice. I wasn’t rude. I made sure I put on my happy face. I was overly nice and made sure I was there for them if they needed any help. I’m like, “Let me know what I can do. I can go out of my way if I need to. I’ll pay for a mobile notary if I need to.” That was another thing because of COVID. They were having trouble finding a notary. It was one thing after another. The seller was in a hospital-type setting that wasn’t allowing anybody in so the attorney couldn’t come in to sign the paperwork. They had to do a Zoom call to close the deal.

Explain to me this. This is to educate anybody that hasn’t gone through this experience before. When you pulled up this property, it said this guy was the owner. You skip traced this guy, got his phone number, tried calling, couldn’t get ahold of him but you texted and he responded to the text. You’re thinking, “I’ve got it. I’ve got the only owner on the title I’m talking to.” You turn it into the title company. The title company goes, “He does own it but we need to clean up some of this title work.” Did his children also own it? Is that what happened?

His wife owned it. She passed away without a will. The way to avoid probate, you have to reach out to all four kids and get a quitclaim deed. I don’t understand it but I do what I’m told.

Don’t let COVID scare you. People are still buying real estate.

We trusted the attorney with that.

I love that you said that, Rita because this is so important. Many times, we feel we need to know all the answers to every single situation that comes up when in fact, the title company or closing attorney, that’s their job. What they do every single day all day is to make sure that when a title transfers from the seller to the buyer that it is clear of all liens and it has no clouds on it. When I say clouds, it means that nobody has an interest in that property that hasn’t fully signed off that they no longer want interest in the property.

Let them do the job. If they say, “Rita, I need you to get these four quitclaim deeds signed by these people. Here are their phone numbers or here’s how you get in contact with them.” That’s when you go to work. That’s when you step in. That’s when you have to get in and have those conversations with the family and work with all the emotions and all the different feelings and everything going on in people’s lives. They don’t care. You’re trying to herd cats so to speak. That’s where you provide the biggest value.

Going back to exactly what you said, “I don’t understand it but that’s the way it is.” Let the title company understand that. We don’t need to understand that. Our job going back to the beginning of this podcast is to find deals. It truly is and sometimes there are some bumps along the road but certainly, once you get them cleared out, there is a path. Typically, most times there is a path that you can take to get the deal done. Let other people show you what the path is and follow it. Don’t try to recreate something. Don’t try to be the end all be all, know everything about real estate. Find opportunities and you’re going to get things done. That’s absolutely incredible. What was the seller’s husband or the older gentleman’s motivation to sell?

I’m trying to remember. Honestly, he was done with it. It had been sitting vacant for a while and he didn’t have anything to do with it. All the kids lived out of town and several of them would come back in town to check that house. A couple of them were gung-ho about selling this house. They were tired of it too. They were my helpers. They helped me out to talk to the other kids but the dad was done with it. He didn’t have anything to do with it anymore.

At the end of it, from start to finish, how long did it take?

Two months or maybe two and a half months.

What did you net on it? What did you make?

$26,000.

In a year that you’ve done it, you closed $217,000 with Paul working part-time, Rita running the show for the most part on the day-to-day running the team, getting everything going. That’s half a year. It’s absolutely incredible. You guys are pushing towards doing almost $500,000 in 2020 in real estate, wholesaling and finding opportunities.

Wholesaling Business: There’s something to be said about peace of mind. It allows you to focus more on your kids and family.

 

Not only that, I guarantee you guys will probably cherry-pick a couple more rentals to keep as well or pay off some of the ones that you have. Is that what you are doing? Are you getting this cash, setting some aside for tithing or taxes and you’re taking the remainder? You’re not getting crazy. You’re not going out there and buying private jet flights, G Wagons and Lamborghinis. You’re putting it into paying off the debt on your rental portfolio. Is that right?

Also, for new acquisitions. That’s right.

Why even pay off your rentals? Aren’t you getting cashflow from the rent that covers the mortgage? Why would you ever pay off a rental?

We’ve got a couple of reasons. Originally, we were thinking, “Let’s get as many as we can and maximize cashflow.” Now, we’re taking more of the approach where we want to be in a safer position should anything else like what’s happened in 2020 happen and a lot of those unknowns. We want to have a good foundation that is cashflowing as we need but we’re not dependent on it. We’ve also figured out where a business line of credit becomes more of an option with more rentals paid off. Owning them outright became more valuable for leveraging more debt in the future. Knowing that, we’re using that technique and we’re in the process of that but that’s a whole other story.

It’s my strategy. Everything that I’m making, I’m putting into properties. We live well but it’s not crazy and we put it into buying and paying off properties. We either buy them cash or we pay them off as soon as we can. You can talk to any finance or economic person or whatever somebody smart and they would tell you that it’s stupid to do or whatever. You can leverage your money so much more. You can have 50 instead of 5 rentals and all this stuff but I sleep so good whether they’re empty, rented whether or getting rehabbed a little bit.

I sleep so good because I know that I don’t owe anything to it. I don’t have a payment on it. There’s something to be said about peace of mind. It allows you to focus more on your kids, your family, on the things that are important, maybe your career or whatever it is that you’re not always thinking about the leverage of the debt that you have in your portfolio. It’s something for people to think about. I love that you guys have that strong mindset of, “We’re going to own these things free and clear. If we need to leverage it at the time, if there’s a crash, if there’s something going on, we’re going to be prepared.” That’s so incredibly smart. Go back in your mind a little bit to 2016 before you started this business. You were looking for some advice but you’re able to give yourself that advice now. Talk to it like you’re getting into this business like you’re brand new. What advice would you give yourself?

First of all, personally, what I would have said to my 2016 self is, “Get out of your head. This whole investing thing is real. You don’t have to work a 9:00 to 5:00 for the rest of your life. You don’t have to do that. You can get out and enjoy this free country and the opportunities that we have.” I’d also say that it’s real. I was extremely skeptical of what we could do and what we could achieve. I was skeptical of the training program. In everything, I was a skeptic but I would say to my past self is, “Lay down your guard and go full steam.”

In 2016, I had the spirit where I wanted to invest in something. I wanted to do something entrepreneurial and I was talking about starting a blueberry farm or something crazy. The biggest thing for me was what Tom Krol was always saying, “Massive imperfect action.” That was the biggest thing. At the end of every video, he’d say, “Go do it. Don’t do something else. Don’t get on Instagram. Don’t get on Facebook.” That’s exactly what I had to keep telling myself over and over.

I have that running in my head of Tom Krol saying, “Progress, not perfection.” It is absolutely the truth because perfectionism will sabotage us. It makes us skeptical in a sense but what I’ve found, honestly, Paul is the people that are the most skeptical but still take action always win the most. I don’t know. Maybe it’s you’re smarter about it or you’re more tactical about it or you follow instruction better. It seems that once you get going, once you start the momentum of taking that action, it takes off. It’s absolutely incredible. If anybody wants to reach out to you to say hello, great job, be your cheerleaders, try to reach out or maybe joint venture with you in Augusta, Georgia, where can they reach you? What’s the best way to contact you?

Real estate business is a huge learning curve and figuring out how to balance work and family life.

Email Rita.

I have Facebook too, Rita Grimes and you can email me. My email is Rita@GrimesHomebuyers.com. My website isn’t beautiful so maybe don’t look at that yet.

You guys talk to people all day so you don’t need a fantastic website. That’s awesome. I appreciate you coming on here and sharing your story and showing that a married couple can do this. Even if they do have a passion for their full-time job, have young kids, have a lot of different things that are in their schedule and that are a priority to them.

Also, coming in over the last couple of years, made real estate a priority and truly changed your financial future. Now you guys are able to buy all these rentals now you’re able to pay off these things and feel good about it and live the life that you want to. Someday own the biggest, best blueberry farm in Georgia. I don’t know but I hope so.

I want to say thank you for being on here. A resource that they did mention is CallMotivatedSellers.com. I’ve used them for years. They’re the absolute best. They are the Rolls Royce of cold callers. You can definitely check them out if you’re interested in hiring somebody, if you’re at that point in your career or in your business.

If you’re interested in joining the most proactive group in real estate, investing with this beautiful couple, that is the TTP program. Go to WholesalingInc.com/ttp. Check it out. If it feels good in your gut, sign up for a call. I look forward to either myself or my right-hand guy talking to you and working with you personally if you do decide to join. Any final thoughts?

I will say that one book that’s good motivation is The Slight Edge. That’s my favorite. I open any page and read it if I’m feeling lazy.

It’s a phenomenal book. That’s it. Thank you out there. If you are reading and you want to watch this, go to Brent Daniel’s YouTube channel to put a face with a voice. Until next time. I encourage you as always to talk to people. See you. Love you.

Important Links:

• Paul and Rita Grimes
• Tom Krol – past episode on Clayton Morris’ podcast
• Rich Dad Poor Dad
• Next Level Wholesaling
• Call Motivated Sellers
• OnlineJobs.ph
• Screenflow
• Lead Sherpa
• Rita Grimes – Facebook
• Rita@GrimesHomebuyers.com
• WholesalingInc.com/ttp
• The Slight Edge
• YouTube – Brent Daniels – Real Estate Coach

About Brent Daniels

Brent Daniels is a multi-million dollar wholesaler in Phoenix, Arizona… and the creator of “Talk To People” — a simple, low cost, and incredibly effective telephone marketing program…

Also known as “TTP”… it helps wholesalers do more, bigger, and more profitable deals by replacing traditional paid advertising (postcards, yellow letters, bandit signs, and PPC) with being proactive and taking action every single day!

Brent has personally coached over 1,000 wholesalers enrolled in his “Cold Calling Mastery” training, and helped 10,000’s of others who listen to him host the Wholesaling Inc. podcast, watch his YouTube channel, and attend his live events…

A natural leader, Brent combines his passion for helping others with his high energy, “don’t-wait-around-for-business” attitude to help you CRUSH your wholesaling goals as quickly and easily as possible!