Wholesaling Real Estate In Florida: Mustafa's Interview!

In this interview, Collin (Pro Wholesaler VIP Coach of Real Estate Skills) speaks with Pro Wholesaler VIP Student Mustafa about his success since being in the Pro Wholesaler VIP Program!

Mustafa discusses his transition from the gemstone retail business to real estate wholesaling, emphasizing the successful closure of his first wholesale deal shortly after joining the Pro Wholesaler VIP Program.

He talks about his transition from living in Turkey to living in the sunshine state of Florida.

Mustafa dives into the negotiation process for his first deal, including overcoming challenges such as canceled contracts and competing offers. He emphasizes the significance of persistence and strategic negotiation.

Mustafa praises the Real Estate Skills community, emphasizing the importance of mindset and foundational knowledge. He discusses the value of the Pro Wholesaler VIP Program in providing not just information but also a supportive network for learning.

✅ How he closed his first wholesale deal in Florida using what he learned in the Pro Wholesaler VIP Program!

✅ How he was able to apply our step-by-step blueprint learned in the program to get started in real estate investing!

✅ How he overcame hurdles and negotiated his first wholesale deal!

✅ What Mustafa's advice is for those considering starting in real estate investing!

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

Collin Seaton (00:00):
Hey everyone, it's Collin Seaton, Pro Wholesaler coach with RealEstateSkills.com. Today I'm here with Mustafa, who is the owner of Umbrella United LLC based out of the Miami market. He's been a member of the Pro Wholesaler VIP program for just one month, and recently shared he completed his first wholesale deal. I'm excited to have Mustafa today to share his story and how he's been able to successfully begin his career in real estate investing. So first off, Mustafa, how are you doing today, man?

Mustafa (00:26):
Doing good, Collin. How are you?

Collin Seaton (00:28):
I'm good. Good. Thank you for asking. Awesome man. So can you tell us a little bit about yourself, what you were doing prior to real estate? What made you interested in real estate?

Mustafa (00:39):
Yeah, so my name is Mustafa. I've been living in Miami there almost two years so far. And I am from the Turkey nationally. I was living in Istanbul before I moved to the United States. And then I've been living in United States for seven years and since I moved down here I've been doing retail business. I have the Gemstone retail business. I have the four retail location currently, the two of 'em in Houston, Texas, one of 'em in Philadelphia, and then one of 'em in the Delaware. And it's a shopping mall business and we are not doing the really good nowadays because of the economy. And then I just decided to find another way to make money. That's why I joined the group and I've been doing my own research for the real estate. I bought one, the investment property middle of the last year and then I have been doing Airbnb with that property, but I figured that out the wholesale is the one of the way in the real estate space to make money the quickest way to make money basically.

(02:01):
And then after I seen that, I just watched the one video of the Alex Martinez on the YouTube one night just spontaneously and it was the 12th, the step for the wholesaling, I think the name of the video if I'm not mistaken. And after I watched that, I watched the couple more video of him about the wholesaling and I just decided to schedule a phone call with you guys. And yeah, after two days or three days I talked to the Brendan from the Real Estate Skills team and I just decided to join and I started the online education by 27th of October I think. Yeah, I had the contract with myself, the paperwork on my wall behind my computer, and then there is a date on it, October 27th. Basically that's the date I started. And I knew I had to spend enough time on the education before I start.

(03:18):
And then after I started the education, I seen the Alex break down everything very well, the step by step. And then the first couple section of the education was all about the mindset, nothing about the information of the wholesaling. I like that part because you can have the information, but if you don't have the mindset that you don't apply those, the information in the field, even if you start with, you can have a pump for a couple days and then you can say that I'm going to do that, whatever it takes, whatever. But after a couple days, if you don't have the right mindset, if you didn't set up the right mindset, you give up basically after a couple days or three days or one week, whatever. And I really liked that part as I said. And then I finished all the education that even I watched the two times three, three times the couple section to understand better because I'm from Turkey and then it's not been long time since I moved down here and then my English sometimes that I cannot understand everything very well in a first time.

(04:46):
That's what I go, that's what I went over second time, even third time to understand it in a very deep way. And after I finished the education, so I got my real estate agent license three months ago by the way, and I have access to the MLS and after I finished the online education, I just jumped into the MLS to do research, the new research, the brand new research, older than three months, the listing, whatever to understand the metrics of the listing. And I just started to call the agents. I didn't do anything specific other than what Alex did they say in the education. I just did follow the blueprint and after a month I was able to close my first deal. I closed that deal of the November. Yeah, it was the weird story. I mean I got the listing under contract and then it passed the EMD, the timeframe, and then I had to cancel it after a couple days.

(06:15):
The one of the cash buy one, the agent who has a cash buyer just got back to me and then she asked if the deal is still available, I have a buyer. And I said, I didn't say I canceled it. I didn't say I lost it, I just thought I said to the agent, it's still available. And then just they called the owner of the house and then said the price was the way different than the before. I mean the purchase price was, I don't remember the numbers exactly because I'm looking 10 different deals, but the listing, the asking price was $430,000. And then I called the owner and then I did low ball the price, I offered $330,000 or something because I seen the owners, the current owner bought the deal literally five, six months ago for $300,000. You see the history on the MLS, he literally bought it for five, six months ago for $300,000.

(07:38):
And then he listed for $430,000. And I just call the owner, I'm going little back right now, I'm just, and I called the owner and I offered $335,000 or something. I didn't remember the number, but he said that he has already the way the higher offers right now, it doesn't make sense to accept my offer, whatever. And then I asked him what kind of offer he has, and then he said that his highest offer is the 370, $370,000 right now. I said, okay. And I offered the $378,000 after he said, I have the highest offer for $370,000. I offered $8,000 more than his highest offer. And then he pushed me to go up to the 385,000 and I said, okay, just to get the deal under contract, I just want to get the deal under contract and the lock it and after then after run the numbers, maybe I can negotiate the price later on. And after I get the deal under contract for $385,000 after one day I called him and then I said, I run the numbers with the team members and then based on the renovation cost based, based on the other soft cost carrying cost, so we got to recommend the meant the price. That's how we say right, we don't ask for the price reduction. And then I asked for the price reduction basically for, I don't remember the number, but it was about 340,000 or $45,000 or something. It was close to my first offer.

(09:55):
And he said the same thing again that he said, I have the very higher offer, I'm not going to go with yours. And I just decided to wait couple days until end of my EMD, the period time, the end of the EMD, the due time period. And he just didn't get back to me for my lowered price lowered offer. And I said, it is what it is. Just probably I got to let it go. And we canceled the contract basically. And as I said, the one after the agent I contacted for this deal who has the cash buyer, she just got back to me after we canceled the contract. And then she asked, Hey Mustafa, do you still have the deal? I said, yes, I still have it. And she said, I have a buyer basically. And I said, okay, I'm going to send you all the information one more time. I just hang up on her and call the seller. And my offer was $385,000 for that executed contract, right?

(11:27):
And I called him and then I told him, I'm coming with the better terms. I'm going to increase the EMD for you. I'm going to reduce the inspection period time since I have the already buyer, right? I don't need to wait another seven days for the inspection period for the due diligence time. And I just prepare him to give him the good energy basically. And I asked him the $5,000 discount over $385,000. And so he said, okay, so I'm going to do that for $380,000 and my selling price was $400,000, my asking price. Anyway, so we locked the deal again for the 380 and then I already had the buyer for $400,000. I also tried to push the price up for another $5,000, but the buyer, it was not okay for that the day they wanted to deal for $400,000. Anyway, we locked the deal for 380 and then we sold the deal for $400,000.

Collin Seaton (12:41):
That's awesome, man. That's an amazing first deal to work. So roughly since the beginning, since you've started making offers, how many offers did it take to get to where you are now to where you wholesaled that first deal?

Mustafa (12:59):
I cannot give you the exact number, but it was the eight, I think it was the eighth or 10th offer I made since I started.

Collin Seaton (13:12):
Awesome, man. So sounds like you've definitely been putting in the work, going through finding properties that would be a good wholesale deal in getting that deal worked. So huge kudos to you man for making all that stuff work out.

Mustafa (13:25):
Thank you.

Collin Seaton (13:26):
Definitely sounds like there were some complications inside of that deal, but you managed to overpower all that and come out the other side and something else that's huge that you've done, man, you've gone off and gotten your real estate license, that's going to be an amazing asset to you and I think you're going to be very grateful that you did that in the long run.

Mustafa (13:44):
Yeah, I mean it's totally because of you guys. Without this education, without the help of you guys, I cannot get over to the success. I believe I spend enough enough time on the online education before I start. It helped a lot instead sometimes as a retail business owner, I don't spend too much time at the beginning. I'm just a believer of you learn on the way, but for this wholesaling business you need some, you just need the foundation. The before start. And then as I said, I believe I spend enough time at least two weeks straight, I did not open my MLS. I only had to watch all the training videos as I said, and basically I just did whatever the Alex Martinez said on the education. I didn't do anything special, anything other than what he said. And yeah, we guys, we have a great community and do we get instant answer from the Skool on the Pro Wholesaler VIP group whenever we ask question, whenever we need help, the you and then the Ryan, also the other, the students, other the group member also answering our questions. It's a great community, man. Great to be part of that.

Collin Seaton (15:37):
Yeah, no, I appreciate you saying that a lot, Mustafa. So what would you say about the community and the program itself has helped you the most throughout your adventure into real estate investing?

Mustafa (15:48):
I mean, as I said by itself online, the Real Estate Skills, the Pro Wholesaler, VIP online education, the only by itself, it's the great blueprint and then also the Pro Wholesaler, VIP group on the Skool.com. It's also really helpful that whenever you have a question, you can find the answer of those question on the YouTube or whatever, but instead doing that, the interacting with the people, the one by one on the Skool.com, it's very helpful also, even if you might have a problem with comping the properties that you just send the address, you want to get the deal under contract, you just share the address on the group and two people, three people just giving you advice that they're literally giving you the right exact number for your ARVs. Right. That's great. Basically.

Collin Seaton (16:55):
Yeah, absolutely. So how's everything been going since you've closed on this first deal? Do you have any other deals that you've locked up and you're getting ready to wholesale or anything else completed?

Mustafa (17:09):
Yeah, I had after then I had maybe five, maybe six, the deal under contract. I had the six seven executed contracts since then, but I haven't closed another deal yet. I had a couple on market deal and I have had one off market deal right now that executed basically, and I'm still negotiating with the seller. I just wanted to try the off market deals to that. There is less competition obviously, and then when you share the off-market deal with the buyers, they don't see the asking price or whatever. I just wanted to try that part of the wholesale and instead the on market. I'm still working on the on market deals of the checking. I'm checking the market three times a day in the morning, in the noon and in the evening to see the fresh deals. But yeah, the off-market deals done. I haven't closed any deal yet, as I said since the first deal closed, but I'm close. I think it's the trying game basically. It's a number game basically as long as you make an offer, you get more deal under contract, as long as you have more deal under contract, you closer to the assignment fee basically.

Collin Seaton (18:48):
So what's life been like since you joined the program and you've had this major win?

Mustafa (18:55):
I mean this is not the side hustle definitely Collin. So if anyone watching this and then the trying to spend a couple hours in a day, maybe five, 10 hours in a week, it's not going to work. I think in my opinion, definitely since I started, since the end of the October in November, I spent at least 10 hours on the computer and then on the phone just looking for the deals, calling the agents, trying to find a way to get it under contract, checking the comps, whatever. It takes time. And I spent, I think, let's say it's it, I work seven days a week and I work at least eight to 10 hours a day. The meaning is that let's say I work eight hours a day, literally on the phone and on the computer for seven days, the basically 55 hours, let's say 60 hours. So that's means 60 hours a week. You need to be full-time in this business. It's not a part-time business in my opinion, especially for the beginning. And you got to learn everything and then in order to learn everything, you got to spend enough time. Maybe after six months I'm not going to spend this much time for a week. Maybe I will be able to find the more quality deal, the instate spending this much time. But at the beginning I feel we got to spend enough time in order to learn every specific thing of the wholesaling.

Collin Seaton (20:47):
Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more Mustafa. So how does this compare to what you were doing prior to real estate?

Mustafa (20:57):
What do you mean by that exactly?

Collin Seaton (21:00):
So if you were to compare real estate investing to what you were doing for work prior to real estate, what would you say? Do you enjoy this more? Do you have more free time now that you're doing this?

Mustafa (21:14):
I mean, right now I don't have that much free time because I'm in the learning, the section of this business. That's what I don't mind to working like 10 hours, 12 hours a day because I have enough time. I mean I have a retail business, have some sort of income coming in and I'm not working in that business. I'm managing them. I have a team and then I'm managing those people from home and then I have enough time to learn the wholesaling. But right now I don't have too much time that the while doing this, while learning the wholesaling, I don't have that much free time basically. But I don't mind, as I said, in order to be successful, in order to close enough deal and be pro of the wholesaling, I don't mind working 10 hours every day for six months, for one year, whatever it takes. Right? I'm okay with that, but because I know after six months, after one year, after two year, I don't know what is the timeline, but I know I'm not going to work this much after I feel the confident about the very basic of the wholesaling because I will have enough, I have the way more network with the real estate agents that way more than now that I know I'm going to get a lot of the pocket deals, the off-market deals from them and in-state spending 10 hours on the MLS to finding the fresh deals.

Collin Seaton (23:11):
Yeah, exactly. And what you were just saying is a super key thing whenever it comes to wholesaling real estate, what you're doing with building these relationships with all these realtors and different cash buyers and whatnot, so specifically the relationships with the realtors, that's going to bring a tremendous amount of value to you and that's also going to be an amazing way for you to get off market deals. Literally brought to you. The realtors are going to know that you're able to close deals, you know how to work deals and you're going to get that brought right into your lap. Have you had any experience with that yet? I know we're just a month in, but at the same time, have you had any experience with realtors bringing you any pocket listings yet?

Mustafa (23:55):
Yes, actually, and by the way, I also want to say this, I'm really enjoying using streak the CRM we use, but only that it's very valuable for the following up with the agents, following up for the deals. Otherwise you cannot do it in the regular way. You cannot take it only note and then you cannot follow up with the one month, the previous, one month before the deal. You talk to the agent. It is very valuable. And coming to your question, I sent a merge email last night just to tell the agent in my network so far, there was a 98 receiver, 98, the agent in the list that I talked so far basically since I started and I just sent the basic email, Hey guys, this is Mustafa and I'm still looking for on or off market deal for my fixed and flip project in south Florida. If you guys have anything, just send it to me. And then at least like 10, 12 of them that got back to me, I started getting the deals from them.

Collin Seaton (25:28):
That's awesome, Mustafa. And so exactly like I was saying, that's the number one way for getting off market deals. I'm super proud of you man. It's legitimately barely been one month since you've been here and it definitely sounds like you've gone through, you've learned so much from the training from Alex and then utilizing school, asking us coaches questions and proceeding forward. So you've done all the right steps, Mustafa, you've done it all perfectly, man. And so huge kudos to you for that.

Mustafa (25:57):
Thank you. Collin. Again, it's because of you guys.

Collin Seaton (26:01):
Absolutely. So do you have any advice for somebody that might be thinking about joining the Pro Wholesaler VIP program?

Mustafa (26:07):
It's totally worth it and so you need the accountability, the partner sometimes. So this community has that role. Basically. You can't find all these information maybe on the YouTube or for free, whatever, but you don't, if you're not in the community who is like-minded like you and then who is willing to go on the same path like you, so you'll last within a couple of weeks or within a couple of days. So that's why it is so important. It's so worth it. And my recommendation, my advice, who is willing start with wholesaling and then making the money. They got to spend enough time for sure, at least for a couple months at least. They got to spend more than the six hours, seven hours straight from the very early morning until the evening. I think. I mean again, I don't mind to work nine to five at the beginning and in order to earn my freedom after a couple of years, you know what I mean?

Collin Seaton (27:32):
Absolutely. So now that you've had this huge win and you've got all this success going within real estate, what's next for you? Do you want to keep on expanding on wholesaling or do you plan on getting into fix and flips and buying holds? I know you already have that one Airbnb property. Are you wanting to do more of that kind of stuff?

Mustafa (27:51):
I want to make at least $50,000 by until end of the year, until end of December. So we are getting closer. My short term goal is making $50,000 assignment fee until end of December, end of this year. But after then, this is the fastest way to make money in the real estate. The wholesaling, I'm not saying easiest, but it's a fastest way compared to the buy and hold or the fixed and flip the part of the wholesaling. You got to wait the decent amount of time with those strategies in order to make money. But the wholesaling just to get the deal under contract, find a buyer, assign the contract, make your money. It takes like couple weeks, the 10 days a week or two weeks, whatever. And my goal is the first to make enough money in to spend in order to invest in the real estate.

(28:58):
Again, for sure in the future I want to have more real estate, the properties as an investment, but again, I want to make enough money in order to invest in the real estate. Again, another thing, wholesaling is great because you know are learning the local market. You are learning where to invest, you're learning how much you should spend. You're learning how to negotiate with the sellers, right? It's great. Who is just starting their real estate journey in the near future. They will have enough information, enough skills with the working on the wholesaling in the near future. They can't find the best investment for themselves.

Collin Seaton (29:54):
Absolutely. So it definitely sounds like you're expanding on your wholesaling business to start and then you're going to get into everything else, fix and flips and buying holds and whatnot. And correct me if I'm wrong, Mustafa, you were talking about the community and something you're doing right now is actively getting more deals under contract and you're sharing it inside of the community doing co-wholesales or JV's with other students, right?

Mustafa (30:18):
Yeah, for sure. I mean, I don't see any problem with sharing it because for example, I just shared one of the deal on the group there was the $40,000 assignment fee I think mean as a beginner that you don't have enough amount of the cash buyer sometimes that just sharing those deals and then the sharing the $40,000 assignment fee is better than no assignment fee. Right. So yeah, I'm getting a lot of the text messages, the messages from the Skool.com also from the student of the group and yeah, hopefully we are going to close a deal with the one of 'em hopefully.

Collin Seaton (31:16):
Well, hey, I'm not going to hold up too much more of your time. I do want to take this moment to thank you for your time. We appreciate it greatly. Your story is extremely inspiring, not just to me but to a lot of other people as well. And so we really appreciate you being able to jump on and share just exactly how you're crushing real estate investing and what you're doing inside of your business. I look forward to supporting you more in the community man, and can't wait to get more deals going.

Mustafa (31:42):
Thank you so much, Collin. Thanks for having me and thanks you guys. What are you guys doing for this community. And it's definitely worth it, guys, who's just thinking to start the real estate journey. This is the right time to start that these people are the right people to start with basically. Thanks again, Collin. Thanks for having me. It was a honor with you with being with you.

Collin Seaton (32:10):
Absolutely. I appreciate that a lot, Mustafa. Well guys, you heard it here. That is Mr. Mustafa sharing exactly how he's been getting out and absolutely crushing the Miami market with wholesale deals. So great job. Again, Mustafa and past that, don't forget to like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel guys. Get to see more of our student interviews like Mustafa, hear these success stories and just see how everybody is succeeding in real estate. Also, if you want to learn more about Real Estate Skills, please do not hesitate to go to RealEstateSkills.com to learn more. Thank you for watching and we'll see on the next one.

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