Nick Ruiz: The Lessons Learned From Making and Losing Millions

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Nick Ruiz is a twice made real estate entrepreneur that came up from scratch from his late teens, lost it all in the real estate crash of 2008. Then Nick got extremely creative, hustled hard, and climbed back up flipping and wholesaling. He is now back into total financial independence as a real estate entrepreneur and coach.

Favorite Success Quote

“When the winds change, adjust your sails.” – H. Jackson Brown

Key Points

1. If You Want to Get Started in Real Estate Start Wholesaling

The best and fastest way to make money in real estate when you are young, hungry, and broke is wholesaling.

This process might sound complicated but it’s actually rather simple.

As the wholeseller, it is your job to find homes that are selling for a significantly lower price point than the market average.

So let’s say that you find a home for $70,000.

You know that it would normally sell for $120,000 (I will explain how to find these deals in a moment).

Once you have found the home, you need to find a buyer.

So if you find someone who is willing to pay $85,000 for the house, you are in business.

All that you have to do is go to the signing and take your cut of the deal (the difference between the asking price and the buying price… so in our case $15,000)

I know that this might sound too simple but the process is not easy and it takes a lot more effort than most people are willing to put in.

But if you are willing to learn this trade and stick with it, you will be able to make more money than you ever dreamed of at a faster pace than you ever thought possible.

2. Find Motivated Sellers

If you really want to succeed in the world of real estate, particularly in the world of wholesale real estate, then the first step is to find motivated sellers.

Find people who have recently had a divorce, who have inherited properties that they don’t want, or need to move out of town quickly.

The more motivated the seller you can find, the lower the price you will be able to “purchase” the house for and the more money you will make.

3. Find Investors Who Want to Buy

Once you have found motivated sellers, it’s time to find people who are willing to buy these properties.

Typically these buyers will be real estate investors who are looking for new properties at a discount.

If you want to find ways to quickly whole sale properties, then you need to start getting plugged into the local real estate community.

Attend meetups, go to conferences, and start a local group where you can meet buyers who are regularly investing large sums of cash into properties like yours.

Once you have built a solid relationship with one or two of these buyers, your income will become all but automatic.

4. Focus on Rentals and First Home Buyers

Now that you have a clear grasp of what whole selling is and what kind of sellers and buyers to look for, it is important that you are selecting the right kind of properties.

Most homes that will match or criteria are going to be rental or starter homes.

For most real estate investors, these are the most profitable and simplest homes to invest in.

Large luxury homes rarely come with investor friendly price tags, and properties in the mid-range tend to provide too much resistance for successful whole selling.

5. Failure Brings About Wisdom

While this process might sound incredibly simple, it’s not.

It’s challenging, and if you decide to get started in real estate whole selling, then you are going to fail.

Period.

You are going to fall on your face, you are going to get scraped up, and you are going to lose a few battles.

But this is ok.

What is important is that you must learn from your mistakes and realize that failure breeds wisdom.

So fail forward fast and achieve the success you desire.