How I Lost $20,000+ Ignoring My Own Advice

Cody Journell

23h • General discussion 📢

One of the things I always tell my clients is: 👉 Don’t ignore the first offer. It’s usually the best one you’ll get.

And yet… I didn’t follow my own advice on a recent flip.

We listed the property at $205,000. Before it even hit the market, I had an offer at $195,000.

I thought, “Let’s wait. We’ll get something better once it’s live.”WRONG.

Four months later, here’s how it actually turned out:

Final sale price: $189,000
Seller-paid closing costs: $9,000
Realtor commission: 3%
Plus 4 months of interest payments while we sat on it

All in, we're still netting about $50k on this flip. BUT I lost over $20,000 (not including the extra holding costs) because I didn’t listen to my own rule.

The lesson? Trust the fundamentals. The first serious offer is almost always your strongest.

Even after years of doing this, mistakes happen. What matters is owning them, learning from them, and sharing the lesson so others don’t repeat it.

Sometimes the teacher can also be the student.

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