I just Made $5,000 On My First Deal

I just Made $5,000 On My First Deal

Anthony: My name is Anthony Rivas. I’m from Washingtonville, New York. I used to go to Iona College at one point and I dropped out, got my real estate license and been doing that for the past three or four years. And now I’m about to finish college, going to get my International Business degree in Southern New Hampshire University.

Anthony: Yeah, I’m just all real estate. How I found out about the program, you know, everything came to me through YouTube and I found Joe Crump and you know, he, I was listening to all the different aspects and all the different ways of how you can get into real estate and it was real interesting because you know, the lease option never crossed my mind as a realtor. I was really mad because a lot of money could have been made in the past three years doing this. I was like, c’mon. And then, you know, there’s other ways, subject to as well, that’s a huge thing.

Anthony: And that’s definitely long term, that’s a for sure. And I just go into it and really started learning everything about what he’s doing and I was like, you know, I’ve got to get into this program and I’ve got to learn everything that he knows.

Anthony: My best deal, first deal, and how I went about it is, he spoke to me about how he was trying to sell his property and he overpriced it, honestly, I thought he overpriced it. As a realtor I’m just thinking, the comps were just off on this property. And it was in an area that the value was just going down and they’re going to be doing a lot of work to it anyway.

Anthony: So I was like, look, man, how about I just help you do a lease option. And he never really understood what a lease option was, so I explained it to him and he was just like, let’s do it. I’m down. Let me sign the memo. And he signed this one-page thing and let’s move. And so as soon as that happened, it took about thirty, forty-five days. I put an ad on craigslist to gain, you know, lease optioners, buyers that are interested. And there was a few here and there, but soon enough I got this family that literally meshed very well with the area around there.

Anthony: And they’re really nice people, and so they wanted to put a down payment right away. They put a down payment right away, we got them an inspection and everything – they didn’t care. They just needed to just get a place right away so they were very motivated to move. And so we, me and the seller, which was a realtor as well, we split the fee fifth-fifty and so I made $5,000 out of it pretty easy.

Anthony: Getting the seller to sign the memo was the easiest thing, honestly, and then after that I just took photos and did what I had to do. Got the place, advertised it in craigslist, through Zillow, through every aspect you can imagine. And you know, I was getting calls left and right, like, let me know more about it, let me know more about it. People wanted to know more about it. They went through the property, and honestly, not many people were interested in it because of the area and the neighborhood. The block, like, the street was just potholes everywhere. It was like a rollercoaster ride going through that place, you know? So, yeah, it took me like, around fifty days and I finally got someone. It was awesome.

Anthony: So, being consistent with it and getting more deals and getting things done, for me, I believe the main thing is having that, like, whenever you’re speaking with sellers I feel like it’s very important to have that tonality, like, as you speak to them, like, not being a salesman. Because I’m so used to being the realtor in me, you know, that I have to try to like, you know, sell people to want to buy a home. And it’s just like, it doesn’t work. So, like, to be consistent in getting more leads I have to really much follow up a lot more.

Anthony: I would say the top three things, for sure, follow up, your tonality and making sure you’re trustworthy and you let them know and understand exactly what it is that their signing and getting into. And making them understand every aspect of their options. You know, that’s definitely like, huge, because if they, if you can, like, give that type of value to them they’ll want to work with you every time. Every time.

Anthony: As a real estate investor, so, my goals for – well, we’re in October, so, the next three months I would say you know, getting my systems in place because what I want to get into, this is a great thing, lease option. But there’s so many ways of getting into real estate. And right now, for me, what I’m trying to do is expand and partner up with as many people as I can. I really want to mainly just build a business, like, really, like, get it up to where I need to be. Because you know, like, I’m only twenty-four, like, I’ve got so many years ahead of me, you know? So, it’s just going to be really cool for me to, you know, give my mom what she really deserves, you know?

Anthony: Like, this is a story I tell everybody. My mom, she came here from the Dominican Republic. She was an immigrant. She came here like, when she was twenty years old. She’s awesome. And she just got her citizenship. I was born here. Born and raised Bronx, New York, and then I moved up to Orange County and the thing with her is that she’s always worked – her whole life. And now it’s like, all she’s doing is working just to provide for me and my brother.

Anthony: And it’s like, it’s my turn to provide for her, you know? That’s definitely my main goal is just really having her, like, her set. Having her set for sure.

Anthony: Doing this full time is my thing. I want to be a real estate investor all throughout my life. Mom tells me, my friends tell me all the time, like, you know, you’re really good at talking to people, so it’s like, real estate and people. That’s all it is. You know? Just properties and talking to people. We’re meant to talk to people at the end of the day. We’re meant to interact with each other.

Anthony: The most appealing thing about doing this full time, I would have to say, you can schedule your own time. You don’t have to worry about not one person telling you, hey, come and do this. Go do that. Go to the bathroom when you’re done finishing this, like, I’m literally at my house and I’m just calling people, hanging out and like, I could go anywhere, too. All I need is a Wi-Fi, my laptop, my phone and I could go anywhere I want.

Anthony: The way I automate my business and how I’m doing things right now, I have like, a whole system where I’ve got my CRM, I’ve got my own phone database. So, whenever somebody calls they don’t call my actual number. They actually call, like, the software database and it goes straight into my phone. They call straight into my phone like, I’m just picking up a regular phone call.

Anthony: And then I have my CRM up and running on my app, or if I don’t have my laptop, on my phone. And like, right now I have, my cousin, like I said, he lives in Florida, and I have this guy, Gary, he lives in Texas. And so we’re working together and you know, have leads coming to them. They take the calls and if they make something happen, we split it fifty-fifty and we just keep on moving, you know, joint ventures are always good.

Anthony: What I hope to get out of this event is really understanding the system that he has in place as far as the software and really getting a lot more leads coming in. Because you know, New York’s nice and all, but like, imagine, like, I could be in New York and I could have deal going in Florida, Texas, California – all throughout the US.

Anthony: Like, I have my own LLC. I have like, three right now, and I’m going to be divvying up, like, one LLC is mostly for flipping, so, you know, because I’m getting so much cash flow from lease option or from wholesaling. Going to have that. And after that, I’m going to branch that money to my other LLC and get some more long-term investments because you get taxed differently, you know?

Anthony: So, that’s my main focus is just really understanding how he systemizes everything so I can better systemize my own thing. And once I do that, like, I know I’ll be gold.

Anthony: What type of advice I would give to someone who is just starting out in this business, be yourself, one, definitely be yourself. Like, no one can change you, stop acting like you need to be somebody you’re not. Definitely get yourself an LLC, all right? Once you get yourself an LLC you can do a lot of stuff. I mean, that’s just something I didn’t realize when I was young. You know, you could do a lot of tax write offs and all this different stuff, but, definitely the main thing is just be yourself, find your why and like, I know that’s cliché, but, really, like, find your why. Like, once you find your why you could really push yourself to your limits and make sure you have a mentor.

Anthony:
As cliché as that sounds, honestly, find yourself a mentor that’s going to really help you out and make you understand the business.

Anthony: Be yourself, focus on finding a mentor and figure out your why and you know, learn the way. And don’t be afraid of failing. You’re going to learn so much from failing. Make mistakes. It’s all good. You don’t have to be a real estate investor for the rest of your life. Like, you know, you can use this money towards whatever you want to do in your life. Like, if you want to be an event planner, and you don’t have the funds to have your own venue or whatever, then do real estate investing, make some cash, make some money – a lot of money – a lot of cash. Use that cash towards getting yourself a venue. You don’t have to do this forever. You don’t. Like, you can systemize it, you can automate it at some point and then soon enough you could branch out and do whatever the Hell you want to do in your life.

Anthony: You can do all these different things in your own time. You don’t have to worry about trying to get business. You already have business coming in and you could just enjoy yourself. Have fun with it.