40 properties in under 4 months on full-time W2s
Two construction managers stacked a $50 county tax delinquent list with Listsource absentee data and wholesaled about 40 properties before ever leaving their W2s.
About
David and Preston run Forefront Investments in Tulsa, Oklahoma while holding full-time construction management jobs. They started wholesaling in October 2019 and covered about 40 properties in four months, including a 30-house package from one cold call.
Operating market
Tulsa, OK
Favorite features
The Challenge
In August 2019 David and Preston were construction managers sharing an office at a Tulsa general contractor. Preston drove 45 minutes each way, and 12-hour days were normal. They wanted to flip a house, so they called realtors, set MLS searches, and shopped Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace. Nothing penciled. They tried door knocking and driving for dollars next and were not seeing much for the effort.
A coworker connected them to a local investor named Armani, and one coaching call reset the whole approach. Until then their system was a printed spreadsheet and two cell phones in a parking lot. Armani pointed them to list stacking, Podio, and Tyler Austin's YouTube channel, all in the same day. Podio was, in their words, "a rough start." They kept the skepticism but funded the build anyway, redirecting the money they usually spent going out on weekends. "Let's do it the right way, let's build a solid foundation."
What They Built
Stacking a $50 county list before the first dial
Their first data buy was about $650: a tax delinquent list from the county for roughly $50 and high equity absentee records from Listsource. Around 15,000 records went into DataSift, and the first campaign was a two-stack of those lists. The vacancy filter surfaced their first deal, a $40,000 ask they contracted at $20,000 for a quick $5,000 assignment. Total cost to launch the business came in under $1,000. The advice they give anyone starting now:
Get a couple lists and stack them to find that, you know, maximize your motivation and just go for it.
Handing off the dials inside two weeks
David and Preston logged 10 to 15 hours of cold calling each, then hired a local caller at $10 an hour. He pulled five to six leads a day from 90 second conversations and locked up their first contracts. Six weeks later they let him go; "his willingness to learn was zero." A Philippines VA at $6 an hour replaced him, about $1,000 a month, calling weekends too. They hired and fired six people in four months and kept dialing through all of it.
Selling 29 houses through property management companies
They had never marketed a portfolio. They posted the 29-house package in the Tulsa real estate investors Facebook group, then David started cold calling property management companies for quotes.
I'm a wholesaler, I'm trying to sell twenty nine properties here, and I have some buyers that are interested.
The best quote came back at 7 percent on an $18,500 monthly rent roll. Two managers sent the package to investor clients, which produced a backup offer at $825,000. They took the $800,000 buyer instead, the one who accepted the seller's no walkthrough clause.
Texting county niche lists for about $200
From mid December they chased foreclosure, probate, eviction, and water shutoff lists at the county, hard lists to get. In January they "started hitting niche lists with Textmagic" on top of the cold calling. About $200 in texts locked up three contracts inside three weeks.
Before and After
Before DataSift
- No Deep Understanding Of His Own Data
- Gave Up Bulk Dialing And Texting Years Ago
- Relying On Inbound Leads And Bought Deals
- A Contract Per 12-13 Qualified Leads
- 10,000-record Niche Lists, Filtered Monthly In Sift
- Focused Down To Indiana And Ohio
- Owns The Operation Now, 50-50 Split
- $300K In Spreads In His First 90 Days
- Almost $600K In Contracts Ghosted Or Backed Out
- Five States At Once, Spread Too Thin
- All The Profit Going To Someone Else
- Running An Agency For 14-16 US Investors
- Homegrown Closer Converts Over 20% Of Offers
- Text Blasts First, Smaller Call Lists After
- Whole Philadelphia Metro Recycled Through Rehash Campaigns
- Sequences And Lists Fully Dialed In
- Over 50 Deals A Year Across Two Companies
- New Construction Plans Stalled By Rates And Costs
- Deep Prospecting Alone, Before Any System
- Two Cheap College Duplexes, Bought With A Partner
- Everything Done By 6pm
- $1,500-1,800 A Month Total Marketing Spend
- 150 Dials A Day, First To Market
- 200 Probates A Month From Weekly Courthouse Runs
- $800K A Year Running Solo
- No Online County Data In His Market
- Long Hours Getting The Business Started
- Years Of Flips And Contractor Headaches
- Tuesday At 2 Hunts Generate His Own Deals
- 4 Deals And $330K Equity In 30 Days
- Sales Leader Owns Leads, Casey Tunes Systems
- 325,000 County Records, Scrubbed Nightly By VAs
- Full Operation: Acquisitions Agents, Sales Leader, VA Data Team
- Team Waiting On Leads To Come In
- Doing Well, But Knew He Could Do More
- Watching Every Lead Himself, Day To Day
- Callers Grinding Through Manual Data
- Two-man Team: Casey Plus One Acquisitions Guy
- Cutting edge 1-1 sales and marketing integration
- Improved accuracy when making offers and estimating rehab costs
- Leak proof communication between clients, buyers and contractors
- Thorough marketing and acquisitions from anywhere in the world
- Real estate companies that want documented communications with contractors, clients and buyers
- Wholesalers who want to enter into new markets
- Investors looking to have leak proof marketing and acquisitions
- Anyone looking to wholesale virtually
- A significant boost in confidence to create a great life for you and your family.
- Tips and tools to maintain a steady flow of income, regardless of external circumstances.
- Knowledge of how to succeed in any market condition.
- An understanding of how to achieve long-term success with solid marketing processes.
- A big boost in confidence to make a great life for you and your family.
- Tips and tools you can use to get a steady flow of money coming in, no matter what's happening out there.
- Learned how to succeed in any market condition.
- Understanding of how to achieve long-term success with solid marketing processes.
- Anyone, regardless of budget, looking for a strong start to avoid common mistakes.
- Business owners who want to have simple processes for their VA's to follow.
- Investors willing to create a steady monthly income to secure the future of their family.
- Those who tried many ways to succeed but still aren't seeing good results.
- Efficient KPI Tracking
- Enhanced Follow Up Process
- Data Driven Decisions
- Fully Integrated With REISift
- Streamlined Sales & Marketing Flow
- Enhanced lead management
- Unorganized Data
- Expensive/Ineffective Tech Stack
- Basic Marketing Approach
- Poor Data Management
- Unorganized Processes
- Refined Direct Mail Strategy
- Clarity In All Business Operations
- Enhanced Team Management
- Strong Lead Management Flow
- Advanced Data Tracking
- Effective Marketing Flow
- Limited Marketing
- Targeting Constraints
- Poor Lead Management
- Difficult Team Management
- Reactive Marketing
- Ineffective Marketing Flow
- Empowered Data Management
- First to Market Strategy
- Automated Processes
- Strategic Focus
- Improved Lead Prioritization
- Enhanced Data Tracking
- Low Level CRM
- Successful But Hitting a Wall
- Missed Opportunities
- Poor Data Management
- Data Driven Decisions
- Full Data Clarity
- Consistent Deal Flow
- Strong Marketing Flow
- Lacked Marketing Clarity
- Difficult Marketing Flow
- Inconsistent Deal Flow
- Strong Lead Management Flow
- Strong Marketing Flow
After DataSift
- A VA Works Every No-Contact Lead in DataSift
- Daily Follow-Ups Run From the Sift Line Tasks
- Nine Deals Under Contract After the Stacked Niche Switch
- Cold Callers Sent KPIs by Hand Outside the System
- Expensive PPC Spend With No Return
- Follow-Up Leads Vanished Into an Abyss in the Old CRM
- 60,000 Records a Quarter Feeding His Bulk Callers
- Four Contracts Signed in 10 Days
- Three Deals a Week, Two Weeks Running
- First Direct to Seller Push in 30 Years of Business
- A $10,000 Mail Campaign That Produced Nothing
- 15 Years Buying Only From the MLS and Wholesalers
- New lender agreed 12 days after the first collapsed
- $105,696 net profit after closing costs
- Nine properties contracted at $360K, sold at $450K
- Hard money lenders would not lend on rural portfolios
- Local title companies refused assignments and passthroughs
- Seller would only sell one house, priced far over appraisal
- Still Runs on a $500 Monthly Budget
- An $85K Deal Off a 50-Name Stacked List
- 13 Contracts in Six Weeks From 250 Prospects
- About $40K Spread Across Six Months, Still Behind
- Five Contracts in a Row Fell Through
- Shotgun Lists Across Too Many Zip Codes
- One Contract Per 25-35 Leads, Half the Typical Ratio
- Each Caller Brings 16-18 Leads a Week
- 50,000 Free County Records Called on a Four-Month Cycle
- Two Partners Dialing Everything Themselves From 2017 to 2019
- VA Cleaned Every County Download by Hand in Excel
- Another Blanket ListSource Pull Whenever the Pipeline Ran Dry
- Same county-data system expanding into Texas and Miami
- $800K in revenue from six or seven deep-research deals
- About 20 people across data, calling, research, and sales
- PropStream tax delinquent lists arrived after owners had already paid
- Two years hunting a golden list that did not exist
- Bandit signs at intersections, cold calling all day from a coffee shop
- Four deals closed faster than his first three
- 8,200 dials and 25 leads in one November
- Four VAs running one calling and texting protocol
- Generic YouTube advice with no sequence to follow
- Back at a sales job four months after going full time
- Spent $35,000 on marketing with zero return
- About 35 Leads Per Deal Across 347 Total Leads
- $253K In Cash And Equity From One Package Deal
- 40 Properties Wholesaled In Under Four Months
- 12-Hour Days And A 45-Minute Commute
- No Deals Found Through Realtors, MLS, Or Craigslist
- Cold Calling From A Printed Spreadsheet In The Parking Lot
- Pulls Nearly All His Data Straight From the County
- Runs Jacksonville Virtually on $1,000 a Month
- Locked a Contract Four Days After His January Restart
- Scattered Across SMS, Facebook Ads, and a Website
- Partner's $2 an Hour Caller Hit a 1% Contact Rate
- Called Lists Three Times Then Trashed Them
- 50,000 sqft warehouses in negotiation, one to two leads daily
- $59,000 spread on his first big wholesale deal
- Every eviction filed in New Jersey, worked daily
- Old CRM buried callers in highlight and right-click drama
- Phenomenal months, then crickets for months
- Overnight pharmacy shifts, 84 hours in a single week
- Knows the playbook works and is replicating it
- First off-market contract four months after starting
- $250,000 assignment fee on deal one
- Weak cash position after funding ground-up projects
- Questioned whether real estate money was even real
- Two years spending on development deals, not making much back
- $40,000 month tracking with fixed costs
- Five first to market deals since April
- Probate filings pulled daily in multiple counties
- Two mail campaigns, response rates he did not like
- Costs fluctuated month to month with list spend
- Custom Podio build, broad absentee and vacant lists
- Owner buried beside her son after two years unclaimed
- Runs every heir search solo now
- Five heirs found, contacted, and signed across Texas
- Needed a specialist for her first deep heir search
- Paper records only, fathers listed by initials
- Probate leads dead-ended with no findable heirs
- Every No Recycled On A Two-Year Rehash Cycle
- Three VAs Clean Data Before A Single Dial
- Three First To Market Niche Filters Worked Daily
- Loose Onboarding And Under-Corrected Bad Hires
- Team Swung From Large To Small To Solo
- Broad Marketing Across Every Niche At Once
- Mornings and evenings back with his family
- 8 person crew handles whole projects in sets of two
- 40+ properties across three portfolios in about six months
- Afraid to take on payroll and a crew
- The bottleneck on his own projects
- Software job eight to five, real estate five to midnight
- 55% Answer Rate On One-By-One Click To Call
- Free County Data Replaced Every Paid List
- $45K Fee Closed One Week After The Callback
- Podio, Slack, And Multiple VAs, No Traction
- 30,000-Record Lists Dialed Two Or Three Times Through
- At Least $40K Wasted On Lists And VAs
- Four Marketing Attempts on a Couple of Lists
- A Three-Person Team at About $1,800 Cost Per Contract
- Almost Two Years Nomadic Across Asia, Europe, and the Middle East
- Behind a Jacksonville Desk 95 Percent of the Time
What changed
December 4, 2019, two months in. Their cold caller reached a Tulsa landlord on the tax delinquent and high equity two-stack, and the note was short: he would sell, he had more properties, he was ready to retire. David called back the same day. "He didn't know how many properties he had when I called him." A search of the seller's name on the county site pulled 31 records. They met in person and worked through the list one address at a time, the seller quoting every rent from memory. Two months of dialing had put a 30-house portfolio in front of two W2 construction managers.
The Results
The December 4 lead became one master contract: 30 properties at $725,000. They sold 29 as a single package for $800,000 and kept the last house. The assignment came to about $73,000 after costs, and Tyler rounds the fee to $75,000 on the call. The house they kept is 1,800 square feet, worth $170,000 to $180,000, renting at $900 with about $1,300 possible after turnover. Add it up and one cold call produced roughly $253,000 in cash and equity.
Four months in, the totals: about 12 contracts covering roughly 40 properties on about $10,000 of total spend, including a house bought for $2,500. They generated 347 leads, about 35 leads per deal, against the 60 Tyler calls typical. A $20,000 assignment from an absentee cold call was set to close the Tuesday after filming. Preston's read: "Literally the last four months have been the most extreme roller coaster I think David and I have ever been on."
It's not rocket science. All it literally is, just do it.
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