Dave: Hi, I’m Dave Dinkel. I’m here today with Levi. Levi is one of our newer students. And one of the more spectacular things he did is he lost 40 lbs. I didn’t recognize him the last time I saw him. And it wasn’t hard you said. You spend an hour a day walking?

Levi: An hour a day walking, two hours on the weekend.

Dave: At a one-shot thing.

Levi: One shot.

Dave: And you didn’t change your diet much.

Levi: Not much, no.

Dave: I think we should patent this diet, the simplest thing in the world. But I had Levi come by because he had his first two deals had just been recently completed and they are interesting because they show you the complexity and things that can happen.  Let’s talk about the first deal. Now, these are just straight listed properties.

Levi: Listed properties from REIfax.

Dave: OK. And they don’t have to be from REIfax. You just happen to have looked on there to find them.

Levi: Exactly.

Dave: But you made offers through the system.

Levi: Exactly.

Dave: And on the first one, was it accepted the first time you offered?

Levi: No, it’s was not accepted. He sent me an email back saying that I must see the property first before he would entertain my offer.

Dave: OK. Now, we make blind offers and some of the agents say, “If you make a blind offer like that then I know you’re going to get a price reduction later blah, blah, blah. So if you’re serious, come out and look at it.” And I tell students, “Go out and look at it.” One of the things that you may make a friend as a Realtor® who has another deal or whatever. But you did that.

Levi: Exactly. I went out. I have a Realtor® friend and it was on a super lock box and she opened it up for me. We looked at it. Submitted the exact same offer that I submitted earlier and it was accepted.

Dave: Interesting, isn’t it?

Levi: Yes. Yes.

Dave: So they weren’t willing to accept it unless if you look at it.

Levi: Exactly.

Dave: Were you able to get a further discount on it?

Levi: Yes. After that, I was able to get a $15,000 discount.

Dave: Additional reduction.

Levi: Additional reduction.

Dave: OK. So what you did initially is you probably over offered a bit.

Levi: Yes. Just a tiny bit.

Dave: But you got it under contract and you went to next step.

Levi: Exactly.

Dave: So, the profit on that property was about how much?

Levi: $17,000.

Dave: OK. Was there anything else that came up that was like inconvenient to closing? A lot of stuff comes up with chain of title and stuff like that?

Levi: No, nothing of that nature.

Dave: Pretty simple.

Levi: Pretty simple.

Dave: OK. The second one was a little more complicated.

Levi: Yes. That one, I again made an offer from the MLS® basically. And I was initially turned down for that offer. The deal that he had in place fell through so he called me back and he accepted the offer that I had originally made.

Dave: A ridiculously low offer.

Levi: Ridiculously low offer. I believe it was $225,000 is what the house is worth but I got the offer accepted for $160,000.

Dave: Now, was it listed before?

Levi: It was listed for $225,000.

Dave: Oh, OK. Great. So despite the fact that a lot of agents will say to you, “I sell everything at or about the less price,” it may or may not be true.

Levi: Exactly.

Dave: There’s a really good example.

Levi: Exactly.

Dave: I heard it oftentimes, to sell the listing to a homeowner, they’ll say, “Don’t worry about it’s too high. We can always come down in price,” which really taints the listing.

Levi: Exactly.

Dave: More days on the markets, the worse it is. Now, this Realtor® was very clever. He didn’t want a thousand dollar deposit. He wanted …

Levi: He wanted $25,000 deposit.

Dave: $25,000 deposit on a $160,000 whatever.

Levi: Exactly. Exactly.

Dave: That certainly is discouraging to a lot of people. So you had a Realtor® friend who you kind of brought along and said, “Help me out with this guy.” The guy is getting kinda wild and crazy.

Levi: Exactly. So she began negotiations with him. It was a struggle. But she got the $25,000 deposit reduced to $2,500.

Dave: Now, what’s interesting about this, had the original agent said, “OK, you can have it for $1,000 dollars or $5,000 or whatever,” you would have gotten the entire commission.

Levi: Exactly.

Dave: What it costs him was 3% of the purchase price of the house.

Levi: Exactly.

Dave: Or $4,500 – $5,000 or whatever it was. So he outsmarted himself. I don’t want to say that he outsmarted himself but he did. Guys, you make it easy for us, we’ll make it easy for you. So, what was the gross profit on that property?

Levi: $28,000 was the gross profit on that.

Dave: OK. Now, let’s talk to the people that are looking at the video and thinking about being a real estate investor later. You came into the program and we gave you kind of a business plan about how to do it. And you started but you started and stopped.

Levi: Exactly.

Dave: OK. When you got back on track, I think you said to me, “I got to make this work.”

Levi: Exactly. I came in and speak with you, set up a meeting with Dave and I was kind of wondering what I was doing wrong. And Dave encouraged me and told me I was doing pretty much everything right. I think the only thing that I wasn’t doing was I had to focus a little bit more. And Dave kind of put me on the right track. And right after that meeting, I got those two under contract.

Dave: Oftentimes, things that aren’t working, they’re very small changes that can make a huge difference.

Levi: Exactly.

Dave: So what has been the biggest surprise for you in doing the real estate investing?

Levi: It’s not as – I guess the perception is that it’s easy but it does take focus and it takes patience and it takes – to me, it’s a people business. So you have to become accustomed to deal with a lot of different personalities.

Dave: Yeah, especially when you’re dealing with homeowners and stuff. You have a lot of differences.

Levi: Exactly.

Dave: I would say this to you, as you do more and more deals, it does get very easy.

Levi: OK.

Dave: Initially, most people don’t have a track to go on. And we give them a track. It’s not an easy track but the learning curve is very swift. You either get it or you don’t.

Levi: Exactly.

Dave: Anything else you want to say to the guys?

Levi: Just listen to Dave. You’ll hear this a lot but Dave not only provides support as far as knowledge, he also provides support as far as how you feel. He helps you feel better and he gives you more moral support as well. So I’d say, just listen to Dave and follow exactly what he says to do.

Dave: Yeah. The difference frankly between somebody that makes $35,000 a year and $350,000 a year is mostly their mindset. And guys like Levi for example, I know they can do it. He’s got a great voice. I don’t know if you can tell that but he could be a radio announcer. That’s a first start. If you’re willing to talk to people, that’s huge hurdle to overcome.

So just listen to us. We have vested interest in seeing you being successful. A lot of guys sell books and tapes.  We’re not doing that. So Levi, you’re the man.

Levi: Thank you, Dave.

Dave: Forty pounds. Thanks very much.

To learn more about my real estate investing coaching program and mentoring, click here https://davedinkel.com/mentoring-program/ or click below.