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Ben may be one of the newest real estate investors on the block, but he has one of the best mentors in the business – his brother.
We learned about Ben’s recent transition into real estate investing, what he’s learned in his first few months, and what the future holds for this new venture.
A former teacher and actor finds his calling
When we say Ben’s new to the REI space, we mean really new – just about three months.
“I live in Durham, North Carolina. My wife and I moved here back in the pandemic, but I was in Atlanta for five years. That's where my brother's at, and my brother has a really thriving real estate investing business. Back in July, I had a full-time job, but that came to an end. My contract ended, so I was trying to figure out what to do,” Ben recalls.
Ben already had his real estate license, but hadn’t dipped his toe into investing. His brother, on the other hand, has a thriving REI business.
“I decided to go down to Atlanta for one week to try and absorb all of the knowledge my brother has,” Ben says. “He sent me through his training with his four new hires – acquisition managers that he was bringing on board.”
He got to learn the business from the ground up and brought it back to North Carolina. Three months in, and he’s already built his business and started making deals.
The budding business of Bull City Buyers
“My company is called Bull City Buyers. I started back in July, and it's just me and my business coach – my brother. I get a lot of advice from him. He's been very helpful. I don't think I'd be able to be where I'm at without his advice,” Ben says.
He took most of July to get Bull City Buyers off the ground: getting a website built, getting his business license, getting his real estate license transferred from Georgia to North Carolina – which he doesn’t need to run his business, but he figured it could be a useful tool to have.
Currently, Ben doesn’t have the capital currently to flip houses. That's his end goal, but he’s currently focusing on wholesaling and novations.
The important lesson Ben’s quickly learned
Despite being only a few months in, Ben’s learned a few important lessons.
“As a new investor, it’s easy to research a ton. There are a million different ways to break into the business, especially if you have a lot of time and not a lot of money,” Ben says.
“It's very easy to find a lead source and plug away at that. Cold calling is a huge drain, but I've found some success with it. Half of my leads have come from cold calling, and those leads have turned into appointments.”
He’s quickly learned to diversify his lead sources, and give them decent tries – not just weeks, but months.
“That's the thing that I've learned – continue with different lead sources and see what works. If it’s not working after a few months, then adjust.”
What’s next for Bull City Buyers
After making his first few deals, Ben’s ready to keep scaling Bull City Buyers.
“I really love how my brother's built his business. I keep harping on his business down in Atlanta, but I’d love to lead. I was a teacher for five years. I'm an actor. I like being in front of people and leading and motivating,” says Ben. “So eventually the goal – and I don't know if it's going to be twelve years, or a three or five-year goal – is to build something bigger than just myself. Where I have a team, have acquisition managers, have a lot of systems and processes in place so I can help run and motivate and cast vision versus necessarily being in the trenches.”
Right now, he’s learning how transactions work and what the problems are that he’s facing.
“What I'm learning is what makes a really good investor a successful investor is someone that can problem solve. There are a lot of people out there with a ton of problems, and those problems might be they need to sell their house fast. The problem might be they don't need to sell it fast, but they need the most money,” Ben says. “It’s my job to figure out, all right, how I can help these different people. I can't help everyone, but what can I do to present something that could help people?”
He continues: “The last thing that I want to do is take advantage of anyone. My reputation is everything. I can't offer the most money, but what I can do is offer value. I can try to fix your problems, but that comes at the cost of a little bit of your equity.”
Overall, Ben’s learning that real estate investing is more of a people business than he even realized. In order to scale Bull City Buyers, he’s seeking out the best possible marketing partners, and that has started with Motivated Leads.
Starting off strong with Motivated Leads
Before finding Motivated Leads, Ben was using a different lead source. He spent $2,500 on leads over a month and had a single meeting. “I paid for around ten or twelve leads and got one meeting, and then literally the rest, no one called me back or the phone number was dead,” he says.
At that point, he did his research and found Motivated Leads. He signed up, and immediately noticed the high quality of leads.
“What I really appreciate is that this other lead source would sell each lead to three different investors. So when you call a lead, they're like, ‘My phone's blowing up, everyone's calling me.’”
Ben says, “With Motivated Leads, I found that's not the case. When I call them, sometimes it is hard to get a hold of them, but when I do get in touch with them, they haven’t been contacted by 15 other people. It makes it that much easier to build a rapport with the customer and try to help them. Not every lead turns into an appointment, but the quality of leads is so much better than other lead sources I've used.”
Within the first ten leads he paid for, Ben saw what Motivated Leads can truly do for his business.
“It was my 6th lead that I paid for with Motivated Leads, and it turned into an appointment. I call them and, again, you never know when leads are going to come in. We played phone tag and I sent out some emails. A lot of the emails Motivated Leads sends out are very helpful for investors, especially new ones starting out.”
He continues. “So I sent them an email blast, sent them a text blast, called them, left a voicemail, and then ended up going through my website and filling out a form. Then, I had even more information about the seller and he answered the phone. We set an appointment for the very next day, and I went to it and thought ‘Man, I know this is a deal. I know I can close this.’ I went there, he showed me the property, we talked for 20 minutes and then we agreed on a price and had a contract in hand. I closed two weeks later. I bought the house for $89,000 and I listed it yesterday morning for $175,000. Two hours later, I had a bidding war going and we got it under contract at $185,000 cash, no due diligence. It’s a super deal. We close in a week.”
Try Motivated Leads to find eager prospects for your business
Just months into starting Bull City Buyers, Ben and Motivated Leads have already forged a profitable, formidable partnership.
Are you looking for a lead source you can trust? Click here to learn more about how Motivated Leads delivers better results, higher conversions, and happier customers.
