What I learned my first month calling 18,000 people...

Hey fellow wholesale warriors, I wanted to give some light and hope for those that are new here like myself.

Over the last 30 days, as of today, I got started in this wholesale thing and to say the least has been a game changer for my life as a whole, but I want to share my journey as it may help someone else out here.

Some of you have probably read my story about how I got started in real estate with my family company back in NH, own a marketing company, and moved out to Miami last summer. I had a vision to no longer be on call 24/7 being an Agent. I want to be able to work virtually when and where I want and retire with my wife. That is the real flex...

On July 1st, 2025 I got started by watching the course to get an overview and started networking with people here in the group. I found a few people here who wanted to run and had the same vision. I think this was a good help, as there is strength in numbers. I got the Xleads plan and started pulling data, or as much as I could, every day, which amounted to about 18000 leads (17,746 to be exact, but who's counting lol). Every lead I contacted at least 3X by phone and sent them a text on auto follow-up until they either die, block me, or answer me.

How many did I connect with, though you may ask? A whopping 7,231 people, and there were a few things I learned on each and every call. Out of these 7,231 people that I spoke to on the phone, only 9 people were interested in selling or at least getting an offer.

Out of those 9 people, the last person I spoke with had a house that he and his wife bought about 2 years ago, and they wanted to flip the property as it needs about 75K-100K in rehab work out in NC. As of today, I have officially signed the contract signed! Assignment fee is around $20-60K! Absolutely life changing for my wife and I.

Now for my insights:

My first learning curve was realizing that marketing and output is the single-handed most important aspect. I might not be the best person on the phone or a great closer, but let me share something with you. If I sit next to a professional basketball player at the same distance from the hoop at the 3-pointer line, and you give him/her 10 basketballs to shoot and you give me 1000 basketballs to shoot, who do you think is going to make more baskets? Probably me. And this comes down to just plainly being able to take more shots at the hoop. I may not be better by any stretch of the imagination as they are a PRO, but the probability was in my favor. Knowing this I used Xleads as it may not have the best data or probably just as good as others, but I was looking for a system that could do VOLUME. Xleads is that system. This system, along with the triple line dialer from WAVV, is a game changer. Then add in a few VAs and you've got yourself one h3ll of a machine.
My second lesson while hammering the phones was my tone. Most of the time on the phone, you want to become the surveyor. Act as if you are genuinely inquisitive and keep things lighthearted, especially when speaking with type A people. Once you come off as too salesy, you lose the battle. I think at first I was just trying to get through the call for reps, but after some studying, I found that's just being a transactional wholesaler, and you don't want to be that guy or gal. Tonality is key. I also found that making flashcards for rebuttals and the scripts in general helped me so I didn't sound like a robot. No1 wants to listen to a monotone robot. You want to sound genuine and have conviction when you speak.
My third lesson was "God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason." To listen more than you speak. While you need to guide the conversation, ask open-ended questions and dig a few levels deeper by asking why, and zip your lips and let the person speak. Even if it's awkward, and it takes them 5 minutes to respond. Let them think and give the conversation room to go where they want to take it. This is key, especially I found when giving the offer. The last guy I closed the wholesale price was around $100,000 with heavy rehab, etc. If I just said "Okay, we can offer $100,000 for the house" instead of saying "What would you need to get out of the property to move on to ____motivation_____?" I would have never gotten such a big assignment. What he said next was shocking, and I almost fell on the floor. He said, "Well, my wife and I just don't have the time to do the rehab, and we really just want to get what we paid, plus the taxes back that we paid, so maybe like $65,000?" I think I almost died on the call, but kept it cool and just said, "Okay, let me and my partner look over this one and I will get back to you in the next 24 hours or so." When I got off the phone, it took at least a few hours to process what had just happened.
This brings me to my 4th lesson. Timing is everything. Rick said in one of his lives that when talking about vacant property, to pull them every so often, as you will eventually just market to the right person at the right time. Believe me when I tell you I don't have a magic wand, and I went through the same courses everyone else has here. This deal is solely from just hitting the right guy at the right time. The last lead I spoke to was about 180 days out. Great lead, great house, amazing deal, just not the right time.
My 5th lesson was learning that in every call, you should always be honest in your dealings. I almost hung up on this guy that I got the deal with. The house I called about, the guy wanted 150K, and retail it would be around 147K if everything was perfect and listed on the MLS with a realtor. Probably would have also sat for 90+ days as well. I told the guy, "To be honest, I think we may just be too far apart on this deal, and I don't want to low-ball you. My partner is a bit crazy, and if I were to give you an offer, it would be around.... $100K at most... as we are really looking for houses to flip and sell and I don't want to insult you." Then shut my mouth and let him talk. He said, "I appreciate the honesty, but actually, I may have another house that might be up your alley." So I said, "Oh okay, if you don't mind, can you tell me the address? Maybe we could work something out on that one..." He gave me the address over the phone, I typed it into Xleads, and its AI spit out some rough numbers. (Not the best, but something to go off in a pinch) That's when I started asking MCTP, and just like that, I was able to lock in my first big deal.
My 6th lesson from talking to so many vacant property owners is that most people will want retail, but a lot of these people can also be your buyers. If they don't like your offer and they are set on the price and they have no motivation to sell, ask them, "By the way, I see that you have bought a few properties cash and own a few rentals. Would it be okay if I save your contact in case I get any other good fixer-uppers in your area? My job is to find off-market deals all day. Then zip the lips and let them speak. A lot of the time, they will be okay with it, and you can vet them next time you get a deal. Also, it gives you an excuse to check in every few weeks. Not to be annoying, but to stay top of mind. The fortune is in the follow-up!
My 7th takeaway from all this is don't dwell on your last call. Focus on the call you are on. We are the ones with leverage, giving cash offers. If they don't like it, just move to the next one and keep trucking along. Some people just want to complain or go on and on about your "crappy" offer. Politely tell them, "It's okay, we might just be too far off on this one, but we can still be friends lol!" Also, ask them the above questions about being a buyer/referrals. Then hang up and move on to the next one.
My 8th lesson is to take action and trust the process! I went through the marketing course and started focusing on output only. Nothing else. Once I got a lead, I booked it for the next day, so I had time to watch the acquisitions side of the course. When I got the guy to say let's do it, I watched how to fill out the contract and did it alongside Rick step by step. Now that I have the contract, I will watch the Dispo course and start to rock that out next. Believe me when I tell you, you don't need to learn everything at once. Just take baby steps. Learn one thing and implement it immediately. We are so incredibly blessed with this opportunity, and one day, Rick and Zach may not be here to help. This opportunity could very well pass you by. Don't let this one slip away! Pretend like you paid $10,000 to get in here because that is probably on the low side of what this knowledge is worth. Ignorance on fire is better than knowledge on ice.
My 9th lesson is to dig deep and then relate. When I was on the phone with this last lead, I kept asking "why" not to be annoying but to dig deep so that I could find something to relate to. Somehow, by doing this, we got onto the conversation of building JDM cars. I built one a long time ago with my brother, and we probably talked about that for 20 minutes on the phone. It had nothing to do with his house, but now that I have built rapport, this guy has become super open and receptive to whatever I say now. If I need something, I can call or text him and he will help get it done. Facts tell, and stories sell.
My last lesson I learned is that you don't have to be good at everything. I'll give you an example. I noticed the 10DLC registration was a big hurdle for most people in this group. Do I know anything about 10DLC or A2P registration? No, it's like Chinese to me lol I simply went to Fiverr, typed in 10DLC registration and sure enough, someone for like $50 bucks got it done in 3 days. They also put my website together so that was awesome. That saved me light years of headaches. I picked someone with a bunch of good reviews and could show me other accounts live on a Zoom call, that he has done it before. Same goes for if you suck at say Dispo, ask around for people to JV with. If you suck at acquisitions, find someone who is a ninja and offer them a % of the deal at closing, like 15-30%ish. If you suck at Marketing, find someone who is a killer in that field and will work on a small base pay with bonuses and commissions, or even commission only if you have no money. My Dad worked for a car dealer a long time ago, and the owner told him, "there is an @$$ for every seat" lol Not sure I would use those exact words, but you catch my drift.

So, long story short, I've narrowed this whole process down to three major things.

How many shots can you take at the hoop?
Stay consistent with it (and if you can't find someone that can)
Work on your technique once you get someone on the phone. Do flashcards, have a freind help pretend to be a prospect, do a crap ton of cold calls for reps. Everyone there after will be better than the last.

I hope this helps someone out there, just getting started as I am only 30 days in and still learning exponentially. What lessons have you learned along the way? I'm sure your input will also help someone greatly here!

Cheers 🍻

-Vinny

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