This one's for anyone interested in wholesaling real estate, wanting to know what it's like to make $31,000, how exactly to do that in a short amount of time, and do it 10 times within a year and a half to be able to quit your job. Today I interview Ben Jensen, who just finished closing a $31,000 deal. He's in the car, in the parking lot after closing at the title company when we interview him. He's fresh on his mind, and he's going to focus on beginner tips to help get you there as well. My name is David Leko, and I'm the host of The Deal Machine Podcast, where we talk about replacing your W2 income through wholesaling real estate, a strategy where you can make big finders fees for finding a rundown house and passing it to an investor who will buy a cash and pay you that finders fee. I actually created a process that's helped people close 10,000 deals in all 50 states with the platform called Deal Machine that I created for wholesaling real estate. How much was that wholesale deal that you just closed? So the first one, so it was a two part, I've never done a deal like this, it's crazy, I need to make like a YouTube video or something. The first wholesale feel was like 32, I think, or 31, and then she wanted to pay that next house they're buying cash off, and she's like, "Can you help us do that?" So I found her a house on the market that needed a little, like they wanted this one, they sent it to me, and I called the AJ and got it on her contract for like 22 grand last, so basically we made 22 on one deal, wholesaling it to the seller on the other deal. So it was like 31 and like 22, I think. Yeah, well. Nice. Okay, just to simplify, how did you make the $31,000? You know, for somebody, I was thinking that never going to deal. So we actually had that one from a Google ad, which is definitely a hotter leads whenever you can start paying for that, but got it on her contract at 148, and then we had a buyer that we assigned it to at 177, so I probably do my math wrong, it might not even be, I don't know, 20-something, 30. Got it. Okay, so you put Google ads and you were putting display ads to show up when you, when people search for like how to sell my house fast, you were like an ad that was showing up at the top of the results, right? Those are typically sponsored ads. Yeah, it was BPC, so pay-per-click, so we spent a certain amount every month and then yeah, they inquire on our Google, you know, site. Yeah, how much does it cost per click, would you say? The more, I guess it depends on the area, so we do a lot in Dallas for Worth, Houston, really all of Texas, we do deals, but I think per click is probably like, we're, our conversions like 150-ish for those markets, obviously, if you go into a smaller area, it's going to be more rural with probably less buyers, but it'll be cheaper. Okay. And Houston and Dallas, I think we're seeing like 150. Got it. And how many, yeah, 150 per click and how many of those clicks end up being a deal, would you say? I should probably go look at what the click conversion is, but I know about one in, we've only been doing it for about two months, we had Facebook ads before and we do a lot of G&B deals and everything else, but about one in 13 leads that like forms that come in, we're closing. Okay, got it. Yeah, so you're spending under $2,000 in marketing to get a deal, probably like three, if I had $3,000, okay, and again, we're a little bit new. We've done four deals and again, it helped two of them were out out of the same seller, so that, I don't know if that even counts from the same marketing, but yeah, four deals that we've been doing and it's like 54 leads or 53 that have came in. So it's probably one in 17 or, yeah, so we've gone in two months. Yeah, that's pretty cool, man. So where does the lead, where does it go when they click the link? Do you have a website that just lets them put information in? Yeah, they feel like we had someone, we use like an agency, I didn't have time to really go learn all of it, but they did a landing page or it's an actual website, so they click on it and they fill out the form. Oh, okay. Got it. Yeah. It shows our reviews and, you know, everything else. Okay, cool. Yeah, that's, that's very cool, man. So you've kind of turned $3,000 into $31,000. You did some work as well, going to the appointment, talking with the seller. You know, this is all over the run. Oh, you didn't even go to the house. Interesting. Wow. Now, seeing this house, how we had someone go take pictures. But, okay. Got it. Yeah. So you took somebody, you had somebody go take photos. I mean, that could have probably been a hundred bucks or less, right, to, to go do that. Yes, it was trying to think who we sent over there. I honestly think it was like a bot. We actually got it assigned. I think it was maybe my brother. I don't know. My brother did. Yeah, he did. Yeah. So I guess we did go over to the house. I just, so you, you just finished this closing, right? So did, did the seller come to the closing as well? I know you're sitting in the parking lot. Yeah. So they live in the house in Dallas, and they're moving to the one that we helped them get in Houston. So they did a, a mobile notary. So we had someone go out to their house to sign. Yeah. And we signed that title. The only reason we had to sign was because we did a double closing on the second deal for a whole, so little like, we don't have to sign for the whole so one that buyer came in and sign. Okay. Yeah. So the buyer came to the same place as you are now, right? To go sign. Who was that person? How'd you find them? We have a large like network using, you know, investor lift and all that. Well, yeah, yeah. But how'd you find, you're, you're, you're, you're just starting out, you said, right? So like, how did you get that large thing and a large live for buyers doing? We've been doing a wholesale full time for like a year now. So we got investor lift, which is a software platform, right? That gives you, you're buying access to a buyer's list for like three grand a month or something like that. All right. Yeah. Essentially it depends like what level you want. Yeah. How did you do it back in the day? Like what? How did you start? Yeah. I never had any buyers starting out for probably the first eight months. I just knew how to go find and close deals. And I met a guy at a networking event that's, um, was a nice connection. He's did strictly disposition for the most part. He did, you know, wholesaling starting out, but he has a ton of buyers. So I would partner with him on every deal. So I'd get on our contract, kind of just use him as a part of our team, which is funny because we do this now with other new wholesalers, but I'd send them the pictures, the deal, he would get the highest price and he'd take like 30% of the fee and I would take 70. So, um, we would just split with them. He would find the buyer. Oh, okay. Got any earlier? You get 30%. So it wasn't really 50, 50 JV that's, that's how it's running out humbly. Yeah. I would say that is not very common, but we send them every deal. So that's why we're going to get 30. That's good. How many guys? How many deals are you guys getting now on average per month? Um, probably we dealt with a lot of foreclosures for the most part of that first year before we started like branching out our, our marketing, um, and that's where I could probably get into, you know, how much we use deal machine, but a lot of foreclosures. And I'd say now we get like six to 10 deals on our contract a month, foreclosures fall out almost like half the time, just cause they're kind of crazy. Um, but like this month we close, I closed on probably like seven deals. So that was a pretty big month, but you know, it's just trying to get more consistent. I'd say like six to 10. What, what, uh, how did you, how did you first hear about wholesaling? What drove you to doing wholesaling? Yeah, I, I had probably heard of it, you know, through the rabbit hole of social media three years ago. Um, I got, I was in college, I went to university Oklahoma, my brother and I, these two years older, and I was finishing graduating or about to graduate. So I had a year left and I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I had an internship lined up for like a nine to five job. And last minute I, you know, I found wholesaling online. I found sales. I got recruited. I should go, so I'll door to door my summer before my senior year. So I want to get into real estate. I read, you know, rich dad, poor dad, all that. And that's what led me to find it. But I went and sold security systems for a summer before my senior year to go buy my first round. I was from a guy that recruited me and that was, you know, big in a real estate and killed it. Like finished the summer as one of the top reps and came back and bought an Airbnb, my senior year of college. And then we switched to solar. So I was doing door to door when I graduated selling solar, did really well with that. And I just wanted to dive more into real estate. So I, I found, you know, paste more of me, all these other big dudes joined some of those mentorships and, um, during the off season, I guess you could call it a solar, I just started knocking pre four closure houses. That's when I ran into y'all stuff, uh, nice and knocking pre four closures is how I started. Uh, Ben, you said your brother's in there closing, you know, his own deals. Why is he leaving you out like that? No, I especially, I actually miss, miss said all of that. We, the truth is we were both in their signing and then we left to go drive home and then this notification popped up, I had it set for yesterday, but yesterday was hectic and just popped up on my phone. I was like, Oh, shoot. So I ran back in the car. So he's actually getting lunch and I can, I can, the car do this, but we weren't back at our apartment yet because we had back to back. I thought I was going to be, are you, are you guys business partners? Yeah. Yeah. The first year. So I got him, he was doing a nine to five job. When I finished solar, I was trying to get him into like sales. And I was like, Hey, I think we should look into this wholesale thing because I started getting a couple of deals from knocking. And so I brought him into a community that we're in and Texas and we joined it together and then he quickly got two big deals, driving for dollars from, you know, using stuff like the machine and then cold calling. So he made like 150 grand his first two months because he got $100,000 drive for dollars. Hey. Well, we're that guy. I completely goofed on the timing because I thought I was closing at only 10 30 and we had to be the other one at 11. So I didn't get back in time, but oh, it's all good. It's all good. I'm just, he's ordering me food. Good man. Yeah. Good man. Deal machine listeners. I'm wearing my turtleneck, not because it's Steve Jobs birthday, not because Apple just announced they're integrating AI into their phones. Nope. None of that. It's because we're coming up on deal machine unveiled, which is our special live prison presentation where we're unveiling the latest innovation in real estate technology. Last November, we had an unveiled event and we broke down the house with unlimited skip tracing, which also improved with our private investigator tool, the accuracy of your skip tracing results by 50%, meaning if you don't get data, you can actually see every person with that homeowner's name all in one spot in one place. There's no other place you can get that. So come July 1, reserve your spot, get notified, be among the first to see what's coming next for the real estate industry. The URL, by the way, is dealmachine.com/unveiled. Hey, so well, man, congratulations on all your success. Really inspired, actually, by the story. How has the way you look for properties now changed from when you first started out, right? I guess you guys went driving for dollars when you first started out, which means you look for a rundown house and then you're not going to their door or send a postcard or call them, right? Right. So it's definitely changed. I'd say that that's the best way to get started, you know, things that don't cost any money. I think that's the hardest part. And why guys that was easy to recruit for like your door is you don't have to pay anything you'll get started. So if you're wholesaling, you don't have much of money to market or get lists or pay for ads, you should just be knocking in my opinion, foreclosures are driving for dollars, maybe calling, you know, lists that are easy to get, but driving for dollars, I think is one of the greatest ways it just takes time. And so he, he, we were doing that. So I was knocking. I already, all I ever did was knock to work. So that's what I did. Let's, let's, let's compare it to $3,000 you spent on paid marketing to get your latest deal. Well, how, how, how much did it cost to do that through driving for dollars when you first started out, would you say? Another thing for costs, but obviously just time and mental capacity. But I think driving for, I mean, if you're using deal machine, it's just a cost of, you know, whatever you're paying monthly. So we would drive around and as we did it, as we knocked before closure, so we hit a niche list that we get from the county site. And I know exactly what I'm going to say, you know, these people have a timeline, but while I'm doing that, I'm going to add every distress property on deal machine, either as if I'm with someone knocking, I'll do it on my phone. And in the driver's seat, or if I'm driving, I might just stop and add it to the list. So you can kind of couple both that way you're getting, you know, a deal that has a timeline that's probably more urgent versus like, I'm going to add all of these distress properties and go back. Well, what are you going to do with all the money? From what deal is that this one, or are you just talking about driving for dollars? All of them. We invest back in the business, but also just buying properties. I mean, I probably wish I would have gone about it a little bit differently. I've purchased, I think like 12 units in the last year. We do a lot of subject to and seller finance. So like, for example, that that deal today, we just, we have a flip closing three wholesale deals, but I also bought a house at a 0% interest rate, seller finance. So I'm going to add back, put it back into buying assets as much as I can with, within reason. Okay, that's pretty good. That seems like that'll grow your wealth a lot. When do you think you'll, you'll splurge on yourself and get yourself a Gucci back? Definitely not very materialistic. This is the most materialistic thing I have. That's probably my dumbest purchase. It's just a test. Oh, that seems smart. Yeah, maybe. I guess if you're driving around a lot. But are you? It looks like you drive a lot. I was starting out until I got too busy to only knock doors. Okay. Got it. That's, that's a really cool man. What advice would you give to somebody who is just starting out and they're struggling to get their first deal? I would say biggest thing is like a network. I have, I get these texts all the time and reach out on social media. And so we kind of created our own little community to help people get started. Oh, really? What's it called? So we do, R-E-I closers is what I do with my podcast, our little brand, Real Estate Investing Closures. And then we just started a free like school community just called Wholesale Real Estate. We kept it super basic. So if you look up Wholesale Real Estate on school, you'll see the free community and we kind of show people the most basic way to get started. Okay. Is that S-C-H-O-L? No. It's the one, it's the one that, or Mosey's, you know, advertising like crazy thing he's the owner in. It's S-K-O-O-L. Oh, yeah. Okay. It makes sense because it's a, it's school where you learn stuff, but it's spelled wrong. Yep. Got it. I'll remember that. All right. So, uh, what else do we got to cover here? What would be important to share with people listening again who are just really trying to get their first deal, but, um, you know, they, they're just not sure where to start. They, they go to your, uh, your school Wholesale Real Estate listing, very good job locking that down. And so they should find that pretty easily, right? Yep. I'd say just know that the first deal is going to be the hardest one. I think a lot of people try for two weeks, maybe a week. Um, we saw this all the time recruiting guys knocking doors. It's not going to be easy on the first one unless you have a bunch of capital, but you got to learn how to, you know, underwrite deals. What is a deal? How to negotiate? Um, just putting in the hours to go get that first one, whether it's door knocking or driving for dollars. Yeah. You get 30,000. You got a nice little cushion now to either reinvest it or, um, use that momentum to keep, keep going. Well, let's break down and just quick tips, right? What's a quick, what's your quick tips for underwriting a deal? Um, it depends on the market you're in. So I think one of the biggest tips to go back to people starting is find, like go to a meet up, find a mentor. Everyone talks about that, but you got to find someone that can help. Like I would have never got my first deal if I didn't have someone that could have closed it. I just found the lead and I was confident because I knew I could bring it to someone that would close it. Um, but underwriting, you just figure out the market a little bit. I generally in Texas know if I get a deal at 70% of the retail value and minus repairs, I'm going to find a buyer at 75 to 80% just because that's Texas market, but I'd probably start lower, especially if you're in other areas that, you know, might not be as hot out of the market. So I mean, if you want it the most basic, simple way, you could just take half a Zilla number that you see online. Just don't let people confuse it too much. But I take 70% minus, you know, 70% of ARV minus repairs and what do you start it? Why do you take half of the Zilla number, why only half? Um, I mean, I'd probably go half and then repairs, but I'm just thinking for a lot of people in different areas, Texas. You can't see what houses are, um, it's a non-disclosure state, but a lot of other areas. I think if you have a Zilla number that's not always super accurate, but if you're getting half of the value, you're probably going to be able to find a buyer at a higher price. Gotcha. Okay. Cause generally that's about 70% minus repairs is probably about 50% of the. Great question, Ryan. Yeah. And it helps you be a little more conservative too, right? Which is only going to add to the profit that you could make and protect you from unexpected things, which always seem to happen with these kinds of deals and not over promising to a homeowner. Obviously. All right. Last thing, because you mentioned negotiating, what's your quick tip on negotiating? Um, not being a motivated buyer, like using pullbacks. I think people, everyone acts like they want to buy every house and, you know, that it fits their criteria. If you're immediately pullback and like, Hey, most of the houses that we're buying out, you know, or most of the house that come across to us, like don't fit our criteria. So if it doesn't make sense, we'll just point in another direction. And you know, if it does, we'd love to purchase it. We can do it quickly, but just given the market, like interest rates increasing, like using that pullback and that you're not trying to buy every house using confidence that you buy a lot of houses, gives them like, Hey, this guy's a real deal. The number he gives me is going to be like, Yeah, well, what if you don't buy a lot of houses? Let's say that. Right? I mean, that's lying. Say your, your partners do. I mean, if you're, if you're wholesaling and you have you, you know, you go to a network or your partners are the ones that are, you know, helping you out as like a, like I work with a team that purchases a ton of houses in this area, you know, and when you go get a network, you just mean show up to a meetup and get a business card and I have a network or join our network. We're join a Facebook group or, you know, find someone that's, that's doing deals. Love it. Yes. So, all right, bed, you have social media where people could follow you if they want to learn more negotiating hot tips. Yeah. I do everything is Ben Jensen dot rei. So b-e-n-j-e-n-s-e-n yeah, and then our, we're trying to get bigger out of social media. I have someone that helps me out with it, but YouTube is rei closers. We have an Instagram page for it too. And then we have the school. That's a whole, so real estate, we'll have a, we'll have an Aria closures group here soon. Hey, that's great. Hey, what's your favorite feature of that Tesla, by the way? I'll tell you, I know I like taking off and it's fast, but I think things I take for granted, just like the camera when you're switching lanes. I don't have to ever, you, you put the blinker on and you just see the camera on the screen. Right. That is nice. That lights on. Yeah. It eliminates the blind spot. So yeah, mine is if you bring up deal machine on that giant screen of there that you got, you could actually get every person's phone number in the whole country, including your deal machine plans. So you just open a house, see who the owner is, even the renter, actually their phone numbers and income levels, et cetera. And if you find a house where it doesn't show the owner, there's a magnifying glass. You click that and it'll show you every person with that owner's name in the entire country and their contact info, of course. So basically, there's not a single person you can't get the phone number from if you pull up deal machine on your Tesla screen or any. You need to get your notes out, email, email, Elon and see if you can make stuff pop up while you're driving. That's the biggest problem. Well, here's the thing, I have Elon's phone number, okay? So the way it works, you could, if you pulled up his house, then you'd be able to find it. So it shows you the phone number of based on the house that you pull up. Yeah. Sweet. My, but the $100,000 deal machine man is walking in with barbecue. Oh, yes. Okay. Grilling. Hey, great ending. Tom, we need to do our own podcast episode. Okay. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks, Ben. Really appreciate your time. Yeah. I appreciate y'all having me and congrats to your bro on the, on the 150 K deal, $100,000 deal. Oh, $100,000. Okay. Sorry. I over inflated it. He's correct. I mean, said two. He got one later in the year, I think with four closures. I like it. I would love to do it. Podcast with him, but we'll let you eat barbecue. Now. Thanks guys. I really appreciate it. I appreciate it. See ya. Thanks for listening to the deal machine real estate investing podcast. Please leave us a review and follow along wherever you're listening to your podcast. And if you're listening to the video, please subscribe. And if you're listening to the video, please subscribe. And if you're listening to the video, please subscribe. And if you're listening to the video, please subscribe. And if you're listening to the video, please subscribe. And if you're listening to the video, please subscribe.
Ben Jensen shares his experience with wholesaling real estate and provides tips for beginners. He discusses how he made $31,000 on a wholesale deal and explains his marketing strategies, including using Google ads and driving for dollars. Jensen emphasizes the importance of networking and finding a mentor when starting out in wholesaling. He also offers advice on underwriting deals and negotiating with sellers. Jensen shares his social media handles and mentions a free community for aspiring wholesalers.
Key Talking Points of the Episode
00:00 Introduction
01:01 How did Ben make $31K on a wholesale deal?
02:21 How does PPC marketing work?
05:37 How did Ben find the buyer for this deal?
06:35 What can you do if you’re struggling to find buyers for your deals?
07:47 How did Ben learn about wholesaling real estate?
09:46 Why did Ben decide to be partners with his brother?
11:50 How has Ben’s approach to finding deals changed?
13:30 What does Ben plan to do with the profit from this deal?
14:50 What is Ben’s advice for new investors looking for their first deal?
16:42 What are Ben’s quick tips for underwriting deals?
18:36 How can you negotiate your offers effectively?
19:54 How can you get in touch with Ben?
Links
Event: Deal Machine Unveiled
https://www.dealmachine.com/unveiled
Instagram: Ben Jensen
https://www.instagram.com/benjensen.rei
Youtube: REI Closers
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrJGEJwlCPHvUH2-PA2gpUA
Skool: Wholesale Real Estate
https://www.skool.com/wholesale-real-estate-7984/about
David's Social: @dlecko
https://www.dealmachine.com/pod
Ryan's Social: @heritage_home_investments
https://www.heritagehomeinvestments.com/
