Wholesaling In Florida: How He Got His FIRST Wholesale & Rental Property

What does it really take to close your first real estate deals while working a full-time night shift and supporting a family?

In this exclusive interview, our student, John, shares the real story behind his first-ever wholesale real estate deal in Florida. AND how he turned it into a CASH-FLOWING rental property (in the same week)!

 John's wholesaling real estate journey began in the Florida warehouse industry, where he worked night shifts to support his family. "I'm more of a hands-on type of guy," he shares, highlighting his commitment to being present for his son’s sports activities and family time. Despite the challenges of a demanding schedule.

While working nights, John discovered a passion for real estate through our videos and podcasts. "I was listening to just about every podcast," he recalls, which helped him transition smoothly into the real estate world. However, he initially struggled to navigate the industry's complexities.

After months of research and self-education, he decided to reach out for help and joined the Real Estate Skills Program led by Alex Martinez!

John shares his real, unfiltered journey from working overnight warehouse shifts to becoming a real estate investor in Florida, including:

• How he landed his first wholesale deal with $0 out of pocket
• Why did integrity and honesty help him build trust with cash buyers
• How he purchased a cash-flowing rental for just $7,000
• Turning a small buy-and-hold into monthly passive income
• Balancing real estate, family, and a demanding night schedule
• The mindset shift required to succeed in real estate investing
• Why consistency beats “get rich quick” thinking every time

This interview is packed with real numbers, real lessons, and real mistakes, making it a must-watch for anyone interested in:

• Real estate wholesaling
• Buy and hold investing
• Passive income through rental properties
• Beginner real estate investing
• Building long-term wealth for your family

John’s story proves that you don’t need perfect timing, unlimited capital, or years of experience — just the right education, mindset, and follow-through.

--- VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION ---

Peter Soros:
Hey everybody, Peter Soros here with RealEstateSkills.com. Today, we've got a great interview lined up with one of our students, John, who's in the Florida area. He not only closed his first wholesale deal, but he also picked up his first buy-and-hold property in the same week. This is an amazing story. I can't wait to share this with you all, so let's jump right into it.
Hey, John. It's Peter here. Great to have you here. How are you doing today?

John:
Good. How are you doing, Peter?

Peter Soros:
I'm doing great, man. I'm excited about your recent wins. I mean, this was something... I knew this was going to happen from how hard you've been working, but I wasn't expecting so many things to happen all at once. I was pretty excited. I was almost beside myself, like, oh my gosh, look what he just did like that. So, this is a very, very unique case, and I love what you've done. Before we really start getting into the deals that you've done, first, let everybody know a little bit about you. What were you doing before you got into real estate? We want to know a bit about you before we start moving forward.

John:
Sounds good. I've always been in the warehouse industry. I'm more of a hands-on type of guy. I'm not the type that sit behind the office, I'll tell you that much. But I've been working overnight schedules since my son was born, so it's a little tough on my end. But that also allowed me to be there for all his sports after school and allowed me to be with my wife afterwards. You know what I mean? She works from 8:00 to 5:00. So, while I'm home taking my little nap, she's working, he's in school, I'm good. So, I have a routine. It's crazy, but I have a routine. At 4:30, we start getting up. They come home around 5:00, and then it's that family time, whether we go out to dinner or we just play some UNO.

Some love playing UNO. Why not? I've always had a passion for those dates. I just never knew how to approach it. I lived most of my life in Jersey. I tried it out there. My trying out there was nothing like I did out here.

Peter Soros:
And you're in Florida, right? Just everyone knows.

John:
In Florida, yes. I'm in Groveland, Florida, which is like 20 minutes outside of Orlando. I started simply as I was watching YouTube videos, listening to music while I was at work, trying to kill time in the overnight schedule. And then a commercial from Alex popped up, and that caught my attention. And for literally, I want to say about a good six to eight months, I sat there and watched all his recordings before I even signed up. And I said, "Let me see if I could try to do this on my own." I tried, wasn't getting enough. I was new at it, so I didn't know what to do.
I downloaded the resources, and I tried to do it my way, but I couldn't do it. So, eventually I just ended up reaching out to you guys and signing up.

Peter Soros:
What made you decide to go with Real Estate Skills over any of the other places out there?

John:
Well, when I think of real estate, a lot of people just think, even my wife included, she thinks real estate is just buying houses and selling houses. A lot of people don't realize that real estate is a much bigger market. The investment side, buying houses. I've always wanted to have property myself and just kind of buy mold. I just never knew the approach. To me was a peace of mind. And even when I reached out, great team, well put together. So, I'm thankful for that.

Peter Soros:
Yeah. No, that's great to hear because I mean, as you've seen, it's hard work. I mean, it's not easy, but there's a way to simplify it. So, that's one of the great things that Alex did. That's why when I joined, it was like it simplified things. And that's what I think most people trying to get into this need. They need something simple that they can go from A to Z and then have some support. Yeah, we're definitely glad you made the decision. I'm sure you and your family are glad you made the decision, too. How's that been with the family with the recent success with these deals?

John:
My wife was a little skeptical and still is here and there. She hears rental, she hears how they're going to destroy the property. And I'm just, let's just play it day by day, and let's just go from there, because you know what? At the end of the day, it's an investment long term, and that's what I told her. I'm not looking now, like everybody says, get rich quick now. I'm looking long term. I'm thinking of my son's future. When he has kids, he has something todo before, and whatever I have goes on to him and his kids. That's what I'm looking at.

Peter Soros:
Yeah, yeah. No, it's a long-term game. We like to say this is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It's a get rich for sure. If you do things right and you make the plan, if you do everything right, it's almost impossible not to eventually become wealthy because that's just the nature of real estate. As long as you're doing things right and you're consistent and you don't give up, you're going to get there at some point. If there's a will, there's a way. And you're a prime example of that. There's a prime example of that, John. And your why is very strong. You just mentioned you're thinking about your kids and your kids' kids, like your grandkids.
This is something you can teach to them that they'll always have that they can decide to do either full-time or part-time, as just build up the family like a business of investments, each property that you own and buy and hold, it's a business. That is a business. So, if you start looking at it that way, everything shifts in the way you look at things.

John:
Even the mindset, even though it goes a long way, a lot of people don't have that strong mindset, and they give up quickly, or it's not working, or my schedule doesn't allow it. Listen, I'm going to be honest with you, I sometimes go to school with my headphones on in case any realtor calls me or my buyer calls me, and I'm up like, "Hey, okay, this property, and okay, we're going with that." And like I said to you, my schedule's tough up at midnight, getting home around 10:30, 11:00 in the morning, and in the midst of taking that and trying to do the business. It's something that I said to myself, "I'm going to do it. I'm going to do it. And until I don't see any results, I'm not going to stop."

Peter Soros:
Right.

John:
And I did.

Peter Soros:
Yeah, that's important. Yeah. That's a reason why mindset is like number one on our training. And you embrace that because you realize that. We realized that a long time ago. So, many people can have the tools, the training, talent, whatever, a network. But if you don't actually have the mindset to push through, the person who pushes through is going to beat out the person with all the network and the talent and whatever. So, what part of the, would you say the training, the program really kind of stood out to you? Was it the mindset part? Was it the support? Was there anything specific that really just like, "Okay, wow, this changed the way I see things, the way I'm going to approach things"?
Or was there just anything about the training itself or the program or the support that really stood out to you that made a difference in your life?

John:
So, to answer that, the training, the support behind the training, and the fact that what I went through my first deal was everything that was literally lined up with the classes. And like I shared with you before, you guys did an awesome job putting this together, and I can relate to, okay, this happened, okay, but Alex said this on this video, and this happened. And I took literally pieces to the puzzle from the training, and the fact that I can go back to the training while I was going through the first deal was a huge, huge part of that success.

And there are times you're going to forget little details on the training, but I honestly got to say the training, the support, the support of the training overall and how knowledgeable it was, was what gave me that. That's the best part that I liked about it.

Peter Soros:
Yeah, yeah. We say it all the time. It's not over until it's over. Until you completely hit a brick wall, we can get creative, try to make deals happen and it's happened time and time and time again. And that kind of determines who's going to be someone who's going to be successful in this or not. Are you constantly trying to be a problem solver or are you just going to give up with any little bit of resistance? Because if you're going to be the one who gives up with any little bit of resistance, you're not going to have much success in real estate. But this is what's fun about real estate too. It's like you actually get to be kind of creative. It's not the same thing all the time.
Obviously, you're still working within certain goalposts and as long as you're still working within those goalposts, you can make something happen. Anything that's out of there, okay, that's out of bounds, no go with that. But I love how much you've embraced this so quickly too. I mean, how long were you in the program for till you got these deals done?

John:
So, my first, I want to say I was maybe going into my third month. I was coming across a lot of properties and trying to understand that the cash buyer was my biggest focus. It wasn't until I sat down with a couple of them, had a cup of coffee and just get to know them, get to know their criteria and exactly what they're looking for that allowed me to be more productive with them and any property that came across, because I had that conversation with my cash buyers one-on-one, "Hey, this is what I like. This is what I don't like. Hey, this is not going to work because of this." And the fact that they shared that with meant a lot. And I was real honest with my cash buyer.
I'm new at it. I'm trying to bring you business. I'm not going to sit here and say I did 20 deals when I didn't do one yet, but that I want to say that about three months in before I got my first deal, but I'm always leaving on my way to work. Even though it's midnight on my way home, I'm always looking, driving around the property to see if I see anything that catches my attention. So, yeah, I would say like three months into my training.

Peter Soros:
Awesome. Awesome. All right. So, I don't even think I mentioned it so far on this interview with you, but you did two deals. One, your first wholesale and your first buy-and-hold. So, let's talk about the first wholesale deal first. I definitely want you to tell your story once how you came across the buy and hold, but for the first wholesale deal, did you have to put up any money to get that deal or to close on that deal or was it basically it was just submitting the offer, bringing the deal together and getting paid? What was that like for that deal?

John:
So, first and foremost, not at all that I put any kind of money towards the deal. I had a real estate agent that was working with me. He kept sending me properties. He reached out to me, and we went to one property near where I live, like literally on my way to work and he drove about 45 minutes just to meet up with me for that one deal. And from that conversation on, I stayed extra. That particular property didn't work. We stayed extra about the extra 30 minutes talking. We got to know him, he got to know me, what I was trying to do, and how I can help him as well in incentivizing him.

So, this particular real estate agent kept sending me properties, but I noticed he was sending me properties that he would have to reach to another agent. So, I said, "Let me talk to you for a second. I know you bring these properties, but I'd rather just come from you than me trying to reach to you to another agent and go back and forth." So, once he understood that, he got it. So, he came across some properties and started sending it to me. He goes, "Hey, I have this one in Orlando. I'm going to send you all the details I think is a great deal." I said, "Okay, no problem." So, I'm never going to forget that address just because it's my first deal. So, we looked at it, my cash buyer went and looked at it.

He's the kind of cash buyer that just goes in and looks, zero-day inspection, we could do it right now. So, I called him up, I looked at it, I took additional pictures for himself, then he went and checked it out. We put it under contract. They were asking 242,000. So, I put my contract at 252,000. We locked the deal in, I talked to my cash buyer. Then, when he went and looked at it, he was like, "Hey, there's some little bit of foundation issues that's going to be hard to work with that number." So, originally, I made a record mistake. I had confidence in my realtor, so I literally gave him all 10,000 of my assignments.

"Hey, I can give it to you for 242,000, and I'll just go back to my real estate agent and see if we can lower that down, and I just get the difference there. "But then the real estate agent was just like, "No, that's the number. That's the number." I was straight-up honest. I told you we agreed on this price, but I kind of shot myself in the foot. I pretty much gave you my assignment fee completely, so is there something we can work out? I would like to get the deal done. Do you want the property? I want the deal done. So, it was like, not many people would say something like that and be honest with us.

So, what I can do, I'll take the $4,000 hit, but I would rather you have the 4,000 assignment fee versus 10 and walk away with something versus nothing. And we closed. It was supposed to be 21 days, but we ended up closing in 17 days. And then, as I said, I came home from work, I was sleeping, I had my headphones on like I usually do. I don't miss any phone calls. I get a phone call from a title company, "Hey, is this Mr. Rocha?" I said, "Yes, ma'am." He said, "I have a check for $4,000 would you like to come pick it up or mail it out to you?" And I'm not going to lie, I wanted to really bad, but my body was so tired. So, I said, "You can go ahead and mail it out to me. I mean, I'm okay with that."

And because it was only 25 minutes away, it was there the next day. So, that phone call itself right there just pretty much said, "Man, this is real. This happened. I got the deal. I wanted to hear that confirmation from the title company and get my $4,000 sign this week and I'm not going to forget that. I don't know. I'm just not going to forget the address, that phone call and my first deal. You're never going to pay me. Now, did I make a lot of mistakes?" Yes, but I gave up a whole lot, but it goes to show you if you trust your realtor and you have that great communication and relationship with them and also your cash buyer, something is always going to work out.

It may not be the 10,000, but guess what? I got it at 4,000 and I'm okay with it. They got the deal, really took out the deal and I got my assignment.

Peter Soros:
Yeah, yeah. And like I had told you, by you being honest to a cash buyer, because that's the person who pays you, they see that, you know what, you're just a good person. I'm not going to leave you out in the cold. And by approaching it this way that you just want to get deals done, you want to be helpful, you want to be a person that creates value for other people, they're going to remember that moving forward and instead of trying to fight for an extra couple thousand dollars, that person's going to trust you more and could lead to tens of thousands of dollars, if not more. So, building the relationship and that network is going to be worth so much more than an extra couple of thousand dollars.

In this case, it could have been maybe six extra thousand dollars, but at the same time, if there were some foundation issues and they had to be a bit lower, it is what it is. Agent wasn't going to budge on their commission. Maybe the seller wouldn't have budged anymore on their price, but you still made something happen because the cash buyer knew who you were at that point. It says, "You know what? I'm not going to leave this guy high and dry." So, that's a great story of being just a professional and being honest and having integrity in your work because that is going to speak volumes going forward. So, really commend you for doing that. I've done it myself.

There have been times when I just told my cash buyers, "Look, I'm just going to be honest, this is what I got it under contract for. I just want to make this deal happen, whatever I can get for it sometimes because I know it's tight. I just want to make deals happen." And every single time their response is like, "I appreciate that. Not a lot of people will do that and they will be more receptive to your future phone calls." So, that's worth more to me than just a couple thousand bucks sometimes. So, Bravo on you, so you made $4,000, didn't cost you anything except some of your time to get that, right? And then so you said that it was just a single-family house, right? I don't think we touched upon that.

John:
It was a three-two single-family home, 1,100 square feet, and it was cosmetic, but once we found out there was some foundation issues, then obviously it took a turn the other way. But like I said, getting that communication with my cash buyer was incredible, phenomenal, and huge because, even like you said that happened to you, he told me something similar to what you went through. He said, "This deal here determines whether I go forward with you or not because I get phone calls every day from wholesalers, but what you just did show me a whole side of you that I'm going to work with and I'd rather have somebody with a backbone like you than somebody that was trying to burn my bag and trying to get more money from whatever deal."
So, that to me meant a lot because, like you said, I lost 6,000, but guess what? I'm going to gain a couple thousand later on down the road. And he made that very clear. Every deal you come across, I want to be the first one you let know. And if I can do the deal, then I'll let you know, but I want to be the first one that you call for any property. I said, "Okay, done."

Peter Soros:
Super proud of you for doing that and making that happen. And then I'm super proud of you for buying hold. So, tell us the story about how you came across that.

John:
So, crazy, man, crazy. As I said, shared with you, every time I'm on my way home, I'm always looking, looking, and there's this community that I drop by every day and I'm like, I see that they're building, they're bringing in new mobile homes, and there's still existing funds. And gentlemen was just sitting out there rocking a chair, and I'm like, okay. So, I talked to him, I said, I didn't even know who he was. I just simply stopped by, "Hey, how's the community? Do you guys have any Fixer Upper type deal?" And he said, "Yeah, we have some." And again, not knowing who he was, so he's like, "Here, here's a number, call this number." He pulled out the business card. So, his name was Thomas.

I said, "Thomas, do you live here?" He said, "I live here. I'm the maintenance guy from the community." So, we find out later on that he was the maintenance guy. They gave me a call, and they said, "Hey, we have a couple fixer uppers. Some of them are in bad shape. We're waiting on some title. We also have some renters that don't need a lot of work just cosmetic. Would you be interested in looking at them?" I said, "My eyes got big, fast." I said, "I'm ready. I'm ready." And keep in mind, I did not tell my wife about this at all until it was done. So, I said, "Oh man, I'm going to be sleeping on the couch." I knew once we got it done that she'll be like, "Okay, I see why you did it and I see the long term."

So, I was like, "Okay." Now with the lady, she showed me the first property, and I'm like, "Okay." So, she was like, "Oh, we need this 500 now and then 6,500, so it's 7,000 altogether." I'm like, "My eyes like this?" And she was just like, "Yes, but it has to be cash owned." I said, "Okay, no problem, man. I will take care of that. What do I need to do?" And mind you, this is on the same weekend that I just got my assignment fee. So, I'm like, "This can't be happening. I just closed the dea,l and this fast, here you go." So, I put a $500 deposit that Friday. It was closer to 5:00, so they were getting ready to head out. So, we kind of put that on hold.

So, while in the midst, they also run backgrounds on people who called for rentals, and I said, "Okay, so I'm okay with them doing the paperwork and all that, less for me to do." So, long story short, I came in Monday, I came in with the 6,500 and got my first buy and hold. Now, it needed cosmetic work, but there was no greater feeling than her handing me those keys. Peter, when I tell you in Jersey, I tried for years to buy a house or a rental property or something, I couldn't do it. What I've been able to do here in a short amount of time, I was here, I mean, I thank God first, but it's just been a blessing. And when she gave me those keys, I'm like, "I did it." You know what I mean? I did it.

And I did a two-for-one. I closed out a deal and I got the keys to a buy-and-hold. So, right away, I went in there and started... It was like I said, click stuff. Certain baseboards were broken, fixed those up, the floor needed a good, probably good wax because it was just trash everywhere, knobs on the kitchen, put a new door on it, and some other trimmings for the doors. I don't think I spent more than 500 bucks, if that, to be honest.

Peter Soros:
Wow.

John:
So, I was like, "Okay." I got in, then she calls me, "Hey, I have a rental for you." I'm like, "It's only been three days." So, she goes, "They can move in as January 15th." I was like, "Oh, okay. That's like two days from now." I said, "Okay." She's like, "We already did the background check. He's good to go. He's ready. He's got the income to show for it." So, I said, "Okay, no problem." She said, "We're going to rent it out for 1200." And I didn't think, because again, it's 698 square footage. It's not big, you know what I mean? With the market here, the rentals market, it's a coin toss because they go for square footage. So, I said, "Okay, I'll do 1,200. They do have a lot fee, 769."

So, I said, "Okay." I did the math. I said, "Okay, I got 7,000." I put 500 in. I said, "He's coming in on the 1st of February, we'll be paying 1,200." Well, they probably he's 550 and then 1,200 going forward. The beauty of it is, because I purchased it in January, they gave me two months free of lot rent. So, I said, "Okay, 550 and the 1200 is literally coming all back from my pocket. And then going forward after that, it'll be 431 every month coming in myself." So, I said, "Oh, that's a good return." You know what I mean? The price I got it for, the rental loan, and it's going to take... I think I calculated it at a year, like four months or five months to where I see all 7,000 back.

I said, "Okay, at that point, I'm already at the winning side, you know what I mean?" Lot rent, I can't do nothing about it. But as of two days ago, a guy actually wants to buy the mobile home off of me, so I'm undecided there.

Peter Soros:
That same one or a different one?

John:
That same one.

Peter Soros:
That same on.

John:
So, I talked to my wife and I'm like, "I kind of want to establish the rental portfolio." So, I haven't really talked much about that and we kind of left it in air. In fact, today at 8:14 in the morning, I got a phone call from the same community that they got titles for two more properties that if I can go on Wednesday and look at them and see if I'm interested in it, whether it's a fix and flip or a buy and hold. So, I said, "Right on it, jumped away, yeah, come on it." You know what I mean? I was telling my wife, I'm like, "It's all happening so fast that I'm just going to still grasp it in, take it in, process everything from the first deal to the first buy and hold to now two more potentials."

So, it just depends on how much work the property needs. I won't go there if it's going to be a buy and hold or if it's going to be a flip or however we decided to take that approach, but definitely exciting. And then like I told you, I didn't tell my wife and did the deal, but once she got it and she was upset about it at first, but once she saw like, okay, he did this, he showed me he can do it, it works. It's not no YouTube video that he just saw and with it. And then he did this or ran with it. It's not no YouTube video and her biggest thing was you just saw something off of YouTube and you want to do it.
And I'm like, "No, you don't understand. I've been watching these videos for six to eight months trying to educate myself and then once I came on board, it just made it so much easier." Now, did it take some time? Yes. It's not going to be all in the first week or two, but I wanted to take myself the time to learn the classes, learn them message and also get to know my buyers, agents, the conversations, and you'd be surprised as the results you get.

Peter Soros:
Yeah, we say it all the time. It's this momentum thing is it's a real thing that as soon as you get your first one, it seems like you finally got the rock over to that threshold. And now if you keep pushing, it's just going to start like a waterfall. The momentum is a very real thing and you don't want that to slow down because right now everything is kind of flowing at you in your favor. Take those opportunities, try to do everything you can to make something work with those opportunities because you went an extra mile to just talk to a random person you drove by from. And not a lot of people are willing to do that. And you've created this opportunity for yourself.

So, you deserve a lot of accolades just for what you've done to get this stuff to happen. And it's something that just keeps coming and keeps coming until you own the whole place probably pretty soon. We'll see, right?

John:
We laugh and joke about it, but me and my wife said the same thing. I said it'd be nice if I could just stay in the same community, because it's literally 1.8 miles from where I live. So, if something was to ever happen, I could just sit there and be in two minutes versus trying to drive to Orlando 45 minutes or somewhere else further out. I wanted to stay where I live just as my first one.

Peter Soros:
Very smart from when you first start off because you can be a bit more hands-on with it, understand how it works. Eventually, you can always get property managers, have someone else handle that for you. So, then you can start to kind of spread your wings a bit more, maybe go to other markets or just other areas once you have other equity that you can do maybe some bigger deals, but we can overlook what's in our backyard sometimes. And I say it all the time, anything can be a deal if the numbers are right.

You found something that people, honestly, they dream about, I'm not going to lie, to be able to go pick up a rental property for seven grand and it be cash flowing basically instantly is like, this is what people hear and they're like, "It can't happen because most people are in other kind of markets where it's hard to just pick stuff up like that." But because just you put yourself out there and you saw something that there might be an opportunity, something just blossoms from that. And I'm so excited for you. So, definitely see this through. I like the idea of keeping it as a buy and hold for yourself and for your family.

There's no rush to sell it, I would say.

John:
Yeah, yeah. And I agree. Like I said, we left it in the air, but I want to develop that portfolio of just renting.

Peter Soros:
Yeah. Get some more experience with that. Yeah, maybe build some more equity in it. So, awesome. That's super exciting. So, you're bringing in after these first couple months with no lot rent, obviously you bid a little bit more for these next couple months, but then after that, you'll be pocketing a little over $400 for as long as you want, basically, until you can raise rents at some point or whatever. So, this is fantastic. I'm super excited for you. We all are. When I mentioned it to Alex and Ryan, their faces were melting, I'm like, "Are you kidding me? This is amazing."

John:
Yeah, I was super excited that whole weekend. And then to see it happen, I've always said, "I got to do something before my birthday." Today is my birthday and my Patriots won.

Peter Soros:
Are you serious?

John:
Yes, and my Patriots won.

Peter Soros:
Oh my gosh.

John:
So, I got a three for one again. So, yeah, I was able to do it before my birthday. That was my biggest challenge, trying to get a deal done before my birthday. And the fact that I was able to accomplish just not one, but two, that I couldn't ask for more.

Peter Soros:
Well, happy birthday. Didn't know that, but happy birthday, John. I mean, everything's coming your way, man. You're just like a good luck charm now.

John:
I'm trying, man. I'm trying.

Peter Soros:
We already know what the future is right now for you, because that's my usually my next question. What are your plans moving forward? I mean, you've already got maybe some more fix and flips and buy and holds in the pipeline, which is great. Is there anything else you're kind of looking to do? I mean, with those price points, you're probably able to go right into fix and flips or buy and holds, which typically can be a little bit harder sometimes because of the higher price points.
But in this case, you might be able to go right, you've already got went right into it because the buy and hold, but now with the fix and flip, is that something you're looking to do more of is fix and flips or is really this buy and hold really the goal? Because I always wonder when people are trying to replace their income, like, "Hey, I have a job, it takes care of me and the family, but is that what you want to be doing forever? Because I know you're a family man, got a night shift." Is the goal maybe to try to replace that income so that then you don't have to do that night shift anymore?

John:
So, I'm going to answer your question and you might laugh at this.

Peter Soros:
Okay.

John:
I've always told my wife, I'm 38 as of today, and I always told her at 45, I'm a retired. She laughs and she laughs and I said, "You can laugh all you want." I said, "50 would probably be the ideal." My son, he's a senior this year, so he'll be heading off to college after this year. It's just me and my wife. So, with that said, I want to get into the fix and flip, but I want to have a couple properties under me as rentals first and still do a little bit of wholesaling deals, but I want to get to that point where I don't want to work overnights anymore. Them days is over. I want to be able to just be home and enjoy life.

Peter Soros:
It's tough on the body. Yeah.

John:
Yes, yes. And this body got a lot of wear and tear over the years. So, I just want to be able to just replace my income and I have to worry about working as hard. Even if I work somewhere else for just part-time or whatever, because knowing that my income is placed on what I have established, if that makes sense.

Peter Soros:
Yeah. I mean, then it really sounds to really focus on those buy and holds. I mean, you stack those up. I mean, you have those businesses bringing you money every month for the rest of your life and even into your kids' lives and grandkids' life. It literally can just not stop. That I think is definitely where the goal... I mean, then you could definitely retire by 45 or if not sooner, because you just have to think, how much do I need? How much do I make right now that I need to replace my income?

John:
That's I am right now. That's where I'm at.

Peter Soros:
So, how many properties is that? Now you know how much you got with one property. How many more properties at $400 a month is going to replace that? So, then it's just math. It's just numbers. And if you eventually have to get loans for certain properties as you pay that down with the rental income, then the numbers go up and then you can do fix and flips here and there. But it's pretty simple to figure out what your number has to be at. So, when you know where you want to go, that makes it so much easier because now you know exactly what steps you need to take. Instead of, do I do this? Do I do that? Do I do this? So, you're on the path really, really quickly and don't veer from this path.
If it's working, don't fix it. Don't have to fix something that's not broken, right? Keep doing what you're doing. I think you're doing everything right and things will come up that we have to kind of tweak and refine, but a lot of times that's when we start doing things a little bit more higher level and all that. But hey, you always got us the support. We're always here for you. So, we're super excited for you, man. And I want you to prove your wife wrong and say like, "I'm going to retire by 45 or earlier." So, I'm rooting for you.

John:
Listen, trust me, like you said, it's a number game. So, I'm trying to put the numbers together to see how many properties do I actually need for what I currently make and try to swing that and see where I need to be at. And that's why I say I want to keep wholesaling just to be able to keep up with the cash coming in and wanting to use that for my whole type. I have a number in my head, but I'm not quite there.

I just want to make sure everything just runs smooth going forward. I know, like I said, they'll let me do Wednesday, so I will share with the community as well, see what those opportunities are. Just really excited for this new chapter of my life.

I mean, it's been a blessing. It's been a blessing. And the fact that I've always had a passion for real estate, I'm blessed that it's here and it's happened here.

Peter Soros:
You're an investor. You're an investor already. That is part of your identity now. That's amazing. So, all right, John, so I always like to ask at the end, what kind of advice would you give to people who are either thinking of getting into real estate, maybe wondering if they should join Real Estate Skills? Just what kind of advice based on your experience up to this point would you give to someone who's either on the fence of doing real estate or joining the community and being part of the community and the support that we give?

John:
Oh man, there's so much to say. I don't know where to start, to be honest with you, but what I will say, if the people are hesitant, take that leap of faith and take that step to join the team, because you're going to have a hundred percent full support and the fact that we can reach out to the team or the community or to you guys at any time and you guys are right for us, that's also huge for somebody new that wants that comfort zone. And okay, I tried it. I'm not by myself. I have a team behind me. I have a community behind me. I know if I have any questions up, I can just go to the community and everybody just chime in. So, that I can share personal experience.

And also if you've always had that passion and just scared, I was, but now if I didn't take that step, that leap of faith, I wouldn't be where I'm at now. I would just be that guy thinking of always having fashion for it, never did anything about it. You know what I mean? So, for the people that want to join in, just get in, get in and you'll see their results. So, there's some might come quick, you know what I mean? So, others might take long, but this program here is going to change your mindset, the way you think in life, how real estate really works, and the fact that it's just so many different levels of real estate, starting from wholesaling, fixing fit, buy and hold.

It's just so much more that you can open up doors for yourself and your family long time, you know what I mean? Do it and you'll see the results if you put your... My three words are always going to be mission, mindset, and control. If you have all three of those, there's no reason why you can blow this thing away.

Peter Soros:
That's great advice. I mean, it's a lot of the things that we say like, why has to be very important. Why are you doing this? Because I mean, you can call that maybe that's your mission or your purpose is your why. Why are you doing this to begin with? Is this just something for fun or is this like, "I need to do this." If it's a need-to-have, it's very powerful. Why are we doing this? And then I tell the story all the time. I know I've mentioned it to you. Once I started, I didn't start from real estate. I didn't get started in real estate until my late 30s. So, it was very like, "Is this the right place for me? I feel like an imposter syndrome issue and all that kind of stuff."

Once I started meeting all these multimillionaire real estate investors, you started to realize, you know what, they're not any different than anybody else. They're not more special. They're not more talented. They're not smarter. It's nothing like that. It's those other two things. It's like they took the risks that most people are not willing to take and they were just disciplined or they didn't give up. It's those two things plus the why, like the mission and the purpose like you mentioned. Those are the things that really you need to have. And then of course it's all the ancillary things we add on top of it, your mindset, the tools, the network, the support, all those things.

Those are just your tool belt, but without the driving force behind it doesn't matter what tools you have, what support systems, if you don't use them, if you don't ask questions, if you don't show up, if you don't take advantage and actually put to use the things that you're learning, what's the point, right? You're not going to get anywhere, but you're like a prime example of like, this is what we teach for a reason. Just do what we say because it's going to work this way. And I, along with all the other students who've had success, say the same thing. If I just would have listened to exactly what you guys said, I would have closed the deal sooner.

But it didn't take you long because you were smart enough to just say, "I'm just going to do what they say and go for it."

John:
Exactly.

Peter Soros:
So, it's exciting to see people put it into action and see it change their lives because that is literally why we do this. Saw how it changed my life, it changed Alex's life. This is why he even started this to begin with. It's something we literally say every day, let's go change some lives today because we know how powerful this is and how it can be in your lives. So, we're all super excited for not just what you've done, John, but we can see where you're going. And if you just keep this up, you're the man.

John:
I'm trying, man. I'm trying. And just goes back to just hopping what you said on your why. Your why should be your most powerful tool on your success. That should be that drive, like I got to get there. I haven't shared this, but I'm going to share it now. One of my biggest why is to retire my dad within the next two years. He's 63, turning 64 this year. Still working for just as many hours as me. I would like for him to just enjoy life and be able to pay his house offhand and him not have any type of stress or anything. So, two years from now, mark my word, I'll be having this conversation and say, "Hey, Peter, I did it."

Peter Soros:
January 26, it's your birthday. Well, two years from now.

John:
That's right.

Peter Soros:
That's another strong why. It's obvious what drives you. It's family. It's the love you have for your family and the loyalty you have for your family. That is one of the most powerful things that exists. You obviously have faith as well too. That can drive people to do amazing things for not just themselves, but for the people around them and their community. I think you have the right recipe. You got the right recipe. And I like what you're cooking. You're cooking some good stuff.

John:
I appreciate it. And again, I couldn't do this without you guys, the support, the deal reviews, and everything you guys have done for me as myself. And just, I appreciate everything you guys do, from Alex down to everybody on the team. Everything that you guys literally preach and do is what you guys actually do in the training. And once you join the team is what you actually get as well. So, thank you for that.

Peter Soros:
Yeah. We know that we have a role to play, and we know you have a role to play. The more you give, the more you get kind of thing. When we see that someone's really serious, really pushing, it fires us up more to see if there's anything more we can do because we're here to help, but we can't help you if you don't show up. If you don't raise your hand, we don't know you need help. And that's why we make it pretty darn easy for you to let us know that you need help. And you were there on the calls all the time, sharing what you're doing, sharing what you're looking at. You did everything that we tell you to do if you want to be successful.

And I said, when I first started years and years and years ago with this program, we didn't have the support that we have now. We didn't have all the resources that we had back then. So, you took advantage of everything we've put together to make it as easy as possible, to give you as much support as possible. And you took advantage of it like you should, and you can now reap the benefits of it. So, yes, we've done work really hard to help you guys out, but I don't want to ever take away from all of the work you put into it because you pushed and made this happen, but we were just there to kind of help nudge you so you stay within the lane kind of thing, and help you keep pushing forward.

So, we're just kind of like your pit crew, the way I like to see it. You're getting in the car, and you're racing and you just come in when you need a little new tires or something, need some fuel and all that. You're the one on the track making it happen. So, I've been looking forward to this day, John. I actually have, just because following you since you joined the community and seeing you be so committed and everything that you pushed through. So, I'm super excited to finally do this with you. And I'm sure we'll do it again soon, because you're going to have some more deals for us too to celebrate.

But yeah, unless there's anything else you want to leave us with, I think we had a great, great conversation and a great story to share with everyone. Great to go back and see where we came from. Keeps us humble, but also shows us, like, "Wow, I did that." And it'll be something your son and everyone else and your family will be proud of to say like, "He did that. He did that. Yeah. All right, John. Well, it's been a pleasure. Happy birthday again, and I'm sure we'll be talking again soon. Take care.

And there you have it. John is a perfect example of someone who commits to doing something, sees it through, and achieves success, and the results start to come together. Since the day he joined, I saw that he was being consistent even with all of his nighttime schedule for work, family obligations, all those kind of things. He still made it to as many calls as he could, constantly in the community asking for questions, always bringing up good points for everyone to discuss, and just doing the work and trusting the process. And as you can see, the success happens, the results all come together and it starts to build up on top of each other. So, we couldn't be happier for John.

He's a prime example of someone who commits to following the program and the process that we lay out. We worked very hard putting this system together through lots of blood, sweat, tears, and money, just getting the right system down. And as he said, and so many other students have said, even myself, having gone through the program and closing deals, if you just stick to what is laid out in front of you, get the support that is available to you. Raise your hand when you have questions and just follow through and be consistent; things will start to happen.

So, we're really proud of John and we know there's more coming down the line for him because of all of the things he set up by having a proper foundation with proper education and proper just making it happen, executing on everything that he needed to execute on and going above and beyond. And we're all super excited and stoked for John and the future ahead. So, if you're interested in learning more about the Real Estate Skills community, head on over to RealEstateSkills.com, drop us a line, and we'll be in touch. Take care.

*Disclosure: Real Estate Skills is not a law firm, and the information contained here does not constitute legal advice. You should consult with an attorney before making any legal conclusions. The information presented here is educational in nature. All investments involve risks, and the past performance of an investment, industry, sector, and/or market does not guarantee future returns or results. Investors are responsible for any investment decision they make. Such decisions should be based on an evaluation of their financial situation, investment objectives, risk tolerance, and liquidity needs.