Pro Wholesaler VIP Reviews: Mark Made ANOTHER $7000 Wholesaling In Arizona

Peter Soros (Coach at Real Estate Skills) sits down with Mark, a Real Estate Skills student who just closed his SECOND wholesale deal in Arizona—proving that real estate investing works when you follow the right system.

In this interview:

✅ Mark breaks down his second deal, step-by-step—how he found it, structured it, and got it to closing.

✅ The challenges he faced and how he overcame them with the training, coaching, and support of the Real Estate Skills community.

✅ How his confidence has grown, and how he’s now working towards quitting his job and wholesaling full-time!

At Real Estate Skills, we don’t just teach real estate theory—we give you the exact tools, systems, and support to start closing deals in any market, even in competitive areas like Arizona.

If you want to learn EXACTLY how to wholesale real estate in Arizona visit: How To Wholesale Real Estate In Arizona: Step-By-Step

*For in-depth training on real estate investing, Real Estate Skills offers extensive courses to get you ready to make your first investment! Attend our FREE Webinar Training and gain insider knowledge, expert strategies, and essential skills to make the most of every real estate opportunity that comes your way!

--- VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION ---

Peter Soros (00:00):
Hey everyone. Peter Soros here with RealEstateSkills.com. Today I'm joined with a familiar face, Mark Rodriguez from the Phoenix, Arizona area. You might recall he just closed his first deal a few months ago. Guess what? He just closed his second wholesale deal. We're going to dive into the numbers, how he found the deal, how he put the deal together, and also dive into how his confidence has grown, how his mindset has shifted, and what this means to him and his family moving forward. I can't wait to share this story with you, so let's dive right into it. Hey Mark, welcome back. How are you doing today?

Mark (00:34):
I'm Good. How are you doing, sir?

Peter Soros (00:35):
I am doing pretty good. Glad to have you back actually, so soon after your first deal. Obviously anyone who's watching this video, Mark closed the deal a few months ago, his first deal, so you can always go back and check that video out. But for some people, maybe this is their first time hearing about your story. Why don't we just do a quick recap. Mark, what brought you to wanting to do real estate and kind of brought you to Real Estate Skills specifically?

Mark (01:01):
Yeah, for sure. Thanks again for having me on. Basically, it's just one of those timing things in life. My wife has been laid off a few times in the corporate America setting. I've always kind of been an entrepreneurial-minded person and owned a few businesses in the past and you merge us together and me seeing her being laid off and she's kind of what I say, coming over to the dark side now of being an entrepreneur and wanting to be her own boss. So we just had a lot of good talks and basically just said, what are we going to do for our future? What are we going to do for our two new kids that we have or two girls, and what are we going to leave them? And unfortunately, in today's market and today's job market especially, you don't leave that to your kids.

(01:50):
And I think that real estate's always been something that I've always looked into, but I just never knew how or what to do. And I just always kind of said if somebody would just show me. But most people that are out there doing don't have time to show. And this was one thing that we looked at a few programs and we both got gut feelings that this was the one to go to due to just the way it was set up, the way the first phase interview went through with the people that work on getting people to join Real Estate Skills. And the vibe was just good. It felt comfortable, it felt home. And when we got in, we knew we made the right choice.

Peter Soros (02:29):
And just to let everybody know you didn't come from a real estate background, you came from a different industry. Tell us a little bit what industry you kind of came from.

Mark (02:39):
So yeah, I mean, my background was in mostly consulting for restaurants, nightclubs, bars, that kind of thing. If you've ever seen bar rescue, that's kind of what I did for about 15 years. And that lifestyle is definitely not a good one when you've got two small kids at home. So I transitioned out of that and got into more of the corporate side of franchises and helped restaurants open and train new employees, create menus, and basically just open up new stores for a restaurant chain out here in Phoenix, Arizona. My wife has always been in mortgage and that's kind of what she loves to do. It's just unfortunately it's a volatile industry, sometimes just like real estate, but it's something that you can ride the wave and make really good money or you can maneuver in and out as you want to. And yeah, she has the mortgage background and she finally got back into mortgage again with a good company. And so she has that side that I don't know necessarily from real estate, but the funny thing is she now hears me talking to clients and sellers and buyers. She's like, oh, you know what that acronym means and all this stuff. So it's good because it's merging our marriage not only as a couple but also in business.

Peter Soros (03:54):
That leads me to this next question. So from your first deal to now to this one, what kind of changes have you seen or have you felt maybe in your mindset, your confidence levels? Have you noticed anything changing in the way you operate and the way you're thinking even?

Mark (04:11):
Yeah, obviously the more experience and the more you get out there and just do it, the more you're going to stumble over your words. You're going to run into obstacles, but you're going to get life experience about what to say and not to say and what to do and not to do. And so I think you just have to dive into it as fast and as much as possible and just engulf yourself in the experience and not worry whether you fail or not. It's more of just getting the experience because if you don't have a background like I do, you're going to fail. You're just going to mess up. Even if you do have a background, you're still going to hear no a lot and you're going to hear all these obstacles that come up. So it's just better to me just to get going and do it.

(04:49):
And I just think that the map that was laid out and how to do it was a very good sounding board to come off and refer back to. And I think now the confidence level definitely is a little bit up more. My wife wants me to obviously close more teals so she doesn't have to work anymore. But yeah, it gives you a different range of motion in your thought process, in your ability, and I really just want to go out there and just start working full-time at this. And I just want to build it as quickly as I can. I have a full-time job and I work this in and around whatever I can do on days, nights, mornings, weekends, and like I said, it takes a team to do that. So it's just been really nice to have that, especially with two young girls under two years old, so can imagine our household is a little nuts. But yeah, it's just a good way to start. But it doesn't matter how you start, it matters how you finish.

Peter Soros (05:49):
So with that, let's dive into the actual deal. Let's start from the beginning. Where did you find the deal market?

Mark (05:57):
This is an on-market deal, and again, it was one of those ones where when you go through the training, you try to get through it as quickly as possible so you can get out there and do stuff, but then you go back and figure things out too. When you come up to obstacles, things you got to remember. And I did that for at least a month or two after I went through the program. I always refer back and make notes and go back to what my notes were. And this one was a backup offer, and it was one of those things where, yeah, we'll put it in. I mean, the agent I worked with, my buying agent said that we could possibly do a backup. And I said, well, can we get that in writing? Can we get that a first backup offer? And she said, yeah, of course.

(06:48):
And she kind of hesitated at it. She didn't know. She kind of thought it was just going to be go away, and I did too. I didn't think it was going to come back. And she gave me a call on Christmas Eve and just say, Hey, your backup offer is approved. Do you want to go forward with it? Are you ready to buy a house? And I said, yeah, of course. So that's why I put that post on Real Estate Skills. I'm like, who does this? It's just, it's so random, but real estate never sleeps.

Peter Soros (07:14):
Truly doesn't. And this is why we kept, we always say this, this time of year, a lot of people slowed down, but you shouldn't because this is one of the best times of the year of the season to get deals. And that knowing that you could even put a backup offer, some people don't even realize that, but that's something which sometimes it's just one little piece of advice can end up making you thousands and thousands of dollars. So you got that put in it triggered, you said? Yep, absolutely. Let's move forward. So tell us a little bit about the deal itself, where you got it accepted at the price. Tell us a little bit of just how everything unfolded after that.

Mark (08:01):
Well, yeah, it's in north Phoenix, northwest Phoenix, and I went and saw the property, walked through it, and it's a two bed, two bath, two car garage, a thousand square feet basically. And it is just an older house that just needed to be redone. And so I reached out, did the numbers and sent it to a few of my normal cash buyers. And some of 'em said, no, not quite low enough for me. I need a little bit more profit margin on that, which I understand. And so I actually sent this out to somebody that reached out to me on Facebook because I had one of my first deals I put on a Facebook platform that I'm on with other wholesalers and just to wholesale and bounce things off each other and see if we have the same buyers or not. And this guy reached out to me on this deal and asked if it was still available and said he had a buyer for.

(08:57):
And so I got to know the co-wholesaler a little more personally over the next couple of weeks. And we met and did a couple calls and he actually got me to get in contact with his buyer. And so we co-wholesaled this deal together and his buyer was, I don't know who the guy is, but I now have gotten to know him and basically he does a lot of real estate. He's a pretty heavy hitter, and he basically was ready to go from the start. And you kind of get those little weird gut feelings where if you're, if you're saying this easy for you, how is this really going to close on time? And he's so busy doing real estate. I was in contact with him all the time, but when I got to the title work and got to signing things, I had to keep texting him.

(09:47):
I'm like, Hey man, are you still there? Are you still going to do this? And I didn't want to bother him, but it was more just following up and knowing when to push and when not to push, but also we've got dates to set up. And I asked him finally I'm like, Hey, are you going to be able to fund this in three days? And he said, yeah, I can get funding in two days if I need it or I can do it myself. And I was like, okay, you know what you're doing, but somebody being brand new, not knowing him or meeting him ever, just on the phone, you kind of to want to verify your buyers. And I didn't verify this guy. It was from somebody else. And to me, until somebody proves it, it's not really real to me.

Peter Soros (10:27):
And you were talking directly to the buyer at that point? You weren't talking to your jv?

Mark (10:34):
Yes, actually, the JV partner guy I did his deal with had me sign an NDA. He owns a cleaning company business, and he said he had been taken advantage of before. He thought I was going to steal his buyer in a sense. And I'm like, yeah, I don't work that way, but I understand. I've had people sign NDAs, I've signed NDAs before just because there are people out there that are kind of shaky sometimes. And so it was a really good call on him. And then he finally gave me his buyer's information and I just said, Hey, well let's just go forward and see if we can move more deals together. This one went very smoothly. So he gave me his contact information, but I also, I updated the JV partner of mine every step that it was going when I got the title, how many A were left, just making sure that things were going smoothly and he appreciated that a lot.

Peter Soros (11:21):
Yeah, no, that's huge. Even my mentors have always said over-communicating is pretty good. Obviously you don't want to show your cards, but especially when you're under in escrow, you want to make them feel comfortable that you're not going anywhere you're there because if they start to feel that you, maybe you have cold feet, they might not play ball as well. So sometimes you need an extension just to get, having trouble getting the funds or whatever. But being that professional, rolling with the punches, sign this NDA, some people are like, oh my gosh, what do I do? You're like, yeah, sure, okay, no problem. And that's the mentality to have. As long as you're not signing your deal away to someone, then it's just business.

Mark (12:08):
So yeah, we got the property at 2 81. I put a $3,000 EMD down as soon as on Christmas Eve as soon as I got the notice. Well, the day after Christmas, so Christmas day. But it was nice to have a buying agent. I've also gone unrepresented through a transaction before. My first one was unrepresented, this one was with a buying agent and it went really smooth and it was nice to have that confidence in her ability and she was great, and her transaction coordinator was amazing with the whole thing, so it was really nice to have that in with them. So

Peter Soros (12:44):
You got it at 2 81, what were your initial numbers on this? What was your ARV coming at at your repair estimate? That was your initial offer? Did they counter and you had to come up a little bit?

Mark (12:55):
It was 2 75 at first, and then I said I could go up to two 80 because they were negotiating with another person. And what's funny about this property is that I actually sent it to another wholesaler that I know that does buy property pretty quick frequently and has a good cash buyer. And he is like, oh, I've seen this property already. And I'm like, oh, this one probably fell out of escrow, fell out in the inspection period with another wholesaler, and that's exactly what had happened. And then I picked it up as a second or the first backup offer. And so with that, yeah, we just went through that transaction with put an EMD down I think it was. So it was right around the holidays, Christmas and New Years. And so I extended the dates out a little bit. They had to close after 1 1 25 they said. So that was a help. But also we had an eight day inspection just because of the holidays, and we had picked a closing date of January 10th, but then I got amended to January 9th.

Peter Soros (14:04):
How many days was it on market when you got it locked up?

Mark (14:07):
It was on market maybe a week? No, maybe even a couple days.

Peter Soros (14:12):
What was the repairs looking like? Was it a heavily distressed property? What was your repair estimate coming in at?

Mark (14:18):
It was about about 45,000 where my initial estimate 55 if you're going to go all out, but for that area you didn't need to go crazy with the remodel

Peter Soros (14:29):
And the feedback from the cash buyer was like, yeah, this is pretty spot on or

Mark (14:33):
Well, I mean even the two two. And so a lot of my cash buyers don't do that. They only do three twos or more. And so he was okay with making a third bedroom and knew exactly where he was going to put it. He had actually walked the property before I did, and I didn't realize he was quick to do things. And then when you realize you got experienced buyers, that's how they do it. So he knew exactly where the third bedroom was going to go. My idea to put the third bedroom was not where he was going to put it. So when he told me his, I was like, that's why you're in real estate and I'm just learning. But yeah, I didn't need a whole lot, no new roof, no ac, no major things obviously for that price point. And the ARV on that was around 400 I believe, and I'm not a hundred percent sure if he used his own money yet or if he used hard money because the hard money profit was way more obviously, I'm sorry, the cash profit was way more than the hard money profit, but the hard money profit was still in the $40,000 range

Peter Soros (15:35):
In the end. What was the wholesale fee total and then since you jv'd, what was your cut from it?

Mark (15:43):
So the total wholesale fee was 7,500, and then when we jv, we obviously split that 50 50, so 3,500 is what we both got. I signed a co-wholesale agreement with the JV person and then I also signed a independent agreement, the buyer, and we both sent both of those documents to title so that none of us had to worry about the money and they separated everything for us and paid everybody out once it was funded. The cool thing about this was is that my buying agent is a good friend of mine. Well, my friend is a good friend of the buying agent, and we all met up for coffee a couple months ago and I used her to maneuver this transaction and in doing so, she had worked out a deal, like a finder fee kind of thing with me. So I'd actually made more on this deal than the 3,500.

Peter Soros (16:48):
Was there any kind of challenges other than just the NDA kind of thing coming up? Was there anything that was a curve ball at any point of this? Was there anything that was extra difficult about this? Anything that stood out?

Mark (17:01):
Well, I mean one of the main things, same thing happened on my first deal, which was the agent didn't mention anything about it being assignable. We didn't mention anything about it being assignable. My buying agent mentioned that, Hey, I told my buying agents the same thing is I want to do fix and flips. Really, I have JV partners for that and I'm just waiting for the right deal coming through where I can actually take that jump and do a fix and flip. So I go into every wholesale deal talking to agents like, Hey, I'm going to buy this house, whether it's me or whether it's somebody I partner with. And I have that mentality when I go in to talk to people about the house and when it comes down to signing and getting the purchase agreement and we do amend it, these things that did come up in the negotiations and they were saying that they didn't know it had to be assigned. And I'm like, well, it doesn't have to be assigned, but the partner, I mean, same thing you told me on the phone when I asked you about this months ago, and it was just sometimes we do partner together, sometimes we jv, sometimes I know people that keep it as a rental or they'll do something else with it. So I just, you're not letting me use my full network to get this deal done if I can't assign it to somebody that I trust and know that's going to buy the home.

Peter Soros (18:20):
There's multiple ways to approach it too. That's one of the great things you can get creative of how to still get the same outcome that you want to begin with. You basically tell 'em, oh, we're just going to put this in our sister company, so just let us know how you prefer to do that. Sometimes they'll just tear up the contract and write a brand new one. Sometimes they'll say, okay, we'll just do an assignment. Okay, perfect. Sometimes they'll ask you, how do you usually do this? Oh, we usually do assignment like, okay, great, let's move forward. So a lot of times some agents just, it's semantics. They've got some bad memories, bad experiences, and sometimes they just don't know. They just not experienced with that. But again, kudos to you to get that. Anything that's been thrown at you, it hasn't been a problem, which is perfect because again, we don't want to get emotional about, it's always problem solve, problem solve, and that's how we make and that's how we make money. We're solving problems for people. So that's great to hear you closed on it last week. What's going on now? What's next for Mark? I know you got your two deals under, you've closed. I know you guys want to start escalating. Are you looking to just maybe do some fix and flips yourself? Are you looking to start, just get into buy and hold soon? What are you guys as a family looking to do?

Mark (19:46):
Well, I think as a family, we're looking to first consistently close at least three deals a month. Once that's consistent, I think I'll for sure quit my full-time job and just do this full time as it grows. Obviously my wife being the more analytical type of person and in mortgage as well, she definitely wants to be the disposition side of what we do. Once it gets big enough, she can't wait for it. So I mean, it's something where she really believes in what we're doing and the proof has kind of come through. But again, just keep going at it. I've also extended my search a little bit to Michigan. I've got a good friend out there that does probably, I don't know, 15 to 20 homes a year and he does a little more high end sometimes. So him and I have been friends for 20 years and I basically started doing some searches out there.

(20:45):
He is also a real estate agent, so I've got a few agents in Michigan that set up filters for me to receive automatic day zero new listings for distressed properties in Michigan in the zip codes that he really buys in and wants to do, and he's going to buy fix and flips. He wants to buy rentals. He's going to do a lot this year as well. So I've been learning more about the Michigan market and just kind of doing both Arizona and Michigan. The houses are different there, they're cheaper and it's just a different way of looking at it. But both guys that I work with out there are from there and they've navigated me through that part. So hopefully we'll do maybe a virtual wholesale sometime soon in the next 30, 40 days.

Peter Soros (21:32):
Well, I'm sure I'll see you on here again pretty soon then.

Mark (21:36):
I hope so

Peter Soros (21:36):
Any last words you want to leave the listeners with?

Mark (21:41):
I mean, just you kind of said it right there. I appreciate all the help you're there when we need it. The community has been really helpful too as well. So it's definitely nice to have the support and yeah, it's definitely something you've got to build and the more you build it, it seems to come easier. People start then kind of bringing you deals here and there, or they start seeing that you're real and you're not just this fly by night kind of wholesaler and really building those relationships with your buyers and agents and other investors, just knowing that you're going to do things right. And I think that's one of the biggest things I got out of Real Estate Skills was the vibe that my wife and I were feeling when we got initial interview with the enrollment people and then seeing the program was just do the right thing, be a good person and

Peter Soros (22:31):
Go figure, right?

Mark (22:33):
Yeah. And good things will happen and I've always believed that, but in business and things are a little bit different, but it's proven itself to where if you're just looking out for your client's best interest, not just yourself, you're going to more people will see that and more people will follow and help you out along the way too.

Peter Soros (22:51):
Absolutely. Wise, wise words, everybody listen up so well. Mark, it was great having you on. Again. I know we'll be doing this again soon. I can already see it With that, take care. We'll see you on the next one.

Mark (23:05):
I appreciate it. Thanks so much.

Peter Soros (23:07):
And there you have it. We couldn't be more proud of Mark's progress. He came in here determined, committed with a very strong why strong, knew where he wanted to go and went for it. He didn't let anything slow him down. Even when speed bumps would come in, he would find a way to work around them. Momentum is very real. Once you build that machine and you get those gears going, you just got to keep those gears constantly moving, and you'd be surprised at how much progress you make once you just maintain that machine and just keep going. Keep persisting and stay committed, stay disciplined. Thanks so much for stopping by today. If you're interested in learning more about the Real Estate Skills community, head on over to RealEstateSkills.com. Say hello and we'd be happy to chat with you. Until next time, take care everyone.

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