7 Levels of Wholesaling

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If you’re new to my channel my name is RJ Bates III. Myself and my partner Cassi DeHaas are the founders of Titanium Investments.

We are nationwide virtual wholesalers and on this channel we share EVERYTHING that we do inside our business. So if you’re looking to close more deals - at higher assignments - anywhere in the country… You’re in the right place.

Who is Titanium Investments and What Have We Accomplished?

Over 10 years in the real estate investing business
Closed deals in all 50 states
​Owned rentals in 12 states
​Flipped houses in 11 states
​Closed on over 2,000 properties
​125 contracts in 50 days (all live on YouTube)
​Back to back Closers Olympics Champion
Trained thousands of wholesalers to close more deals

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Transcript

The Seven Levels Overview

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The seven levels of wholesaling. Level one is the dreamer. Okay. This is the person that has watched YouTube videos just like this, listened to the podcast, knows what wholesaling is, but refuses to take action. And this type of person is extremely dangerous because what I've witnessed over the past decade is that people will get stuck in this level for years and never pick the phone up and try to call sellers. They'll never actually try wholesaling because they don't quite know everything yet. Is it real? Does it is it really work? Do I have to buy the property? Do I have to have funds? They get lost in this fear-based decision-making process. And so they never take that action. But the reason why this level is extremely dangerous is because in reality, it feels like it doesn't cost you anything. You're not spending money on leads, you're not really spending time on taking action on wholesaling, you're just watching endless amount of YouTube videos and consuming that information that exists out there, and you're educating yourself for free. Or maybe you even are spending money on education. Maybe RJ does a Black Friday special for 20 bucks. And so you swipe your card to learn how to talk to sellers, despite the fact that you've never picked the phone up and even failed at talking to a seller. So you're just a dreamer. You're constantly dreaming about potentially wholesaling. I know this because not only the YouTube comments that I see, but also the Titanium University sales calls. There's times where I have my my office door open either one way. I've got two office doors that I can hear either Justin or Garrett when they're talking to different titanium university prospects. And it's amazing how many times I hear them say, So how long have you been wholesaling? Oh, you you haven't you haven't started yet? Oh, but you've been following RJ for two years. How in the world could you follow someone's YouTube channel podcast, social media content on wholesaling content for two years, but yet never take action because it doesn't cost you anything. It's easy to continue working, your W-2, your nine to five, or doing something else. And so you constantly stay in this level of someday I'm going to become a wholesaler once I know everything. But the problem is you're never gonna know enough to get started, and so this is a really scary level for certain people because they will live there forever and never advance out of it. For someone like me, the the dreamer level was like three and a half hours. It was me sitting in a hotel lobby listening to this man say, This is what wholesaling real estate is. And immediately I was in that dreamer level that I want to do this, this is what I want to do in my life. And then the moment that I walked out, I immediately moved to level two. So as we move through these levels, I'm gonna give you kind of what keeps you from moving on to the next level. If you are level one, which I know I said this at the beginning, some of you that commented level one, yeah, Olivia's like, that never mind, I'm not level one. If you stay there, you gotta force yourself out of that fear, you gotta move to the next level because you can stay there forever and feel like it's never hurting you or holding you back or costing you anything, but it absolutely is. Level two is the first caller. This is where you finally pick up the phone. Yeah, you don't know what you're doing, you're nervous, you stumble and you bumble, and you're probably horrible on the phones, but at least now you're in the stage where you're taking action. And this is where some people immediately realize this is not for me. Now, I don't want to be on the phones, I don't want to talk to people in highly distressed situations, I don't want to deal with people that become emotional. And for some of us, we we start dialing the phone and we start talking to sellers, and we realize this is actually a lot better than I anticipated. I was so this is funny because you guys probably aren't going to believe this, but I was so nervous to talk to sellers when I got started into wholesaling. It was not comfortable for me. I didn't feel like I was naturally good at sales because in reality, I hadn't really sold a whole lot in my life, and then embracing being a buyer, I was broke, I didn't have any money, I never had money in my life, and so it was hard to have that mindset, it was hard to look at this and say, This is what I want to do. But what I realized I'm talking to a truly motivated seller, and and they started complimenting me on the solutions that I was bringing to their life, and that far outweighed the negativity that came across someone that was you know emotional or angry when I called, or wanting to know why I would think they would want to sell their house or mad about my low ball offer. The positive side of things was so much more beneficial than anything else that I had ever done in my entrepreneur or career. And so I realized hey, this is something that fuels me. It makes me passionate about finding the next person that is in pre-foreclosure that needs their house saved. This is a solution that now I bring to the table. And as we move forward with transparency about what we were doing, it got even better. And I realized that there is a place in the real estate world for wholesalers. That's when it really became like the nerves of being that first caller and getting over taking action. Now, this is where you can get stuck in level two. You you obtain some knowledge, you start taking some action, and then you either don't like the results of that action, you thought that results were going to be easier, right? Maybe you watch like my YouTube channel, you see me talking to a seller, and you realize, okay, it's a little bit more difficult than the way RJ showed it, which I try to show the negative as much as the positive, but still it can seem like it's easier than it actually is. And so maybe you go back to being that dreamer, you fall back into stop taking that action, or you live in level two by taking very inconsistent action and saying that you're gonna get started. We see this time and time again inside of TU, where someone will say, Now's the time that I'm gonna be a wholesaler. They start taking action for like three, four, five days, and then they stop. Well, what happens when you stop when you're at level two? Well, you don't stay there, you go back to being a dreamer, you fall down a level because you're not in the game anymore. And so this is a really scary level to be in. If this is something that you want to create a career in, because if you allow that initial lack of results to persuade you to want to quit, or hey, this is not what I thought it was going to be, it can end right there, and you just fall back to either never becoming a level of a wholesaler or going back to dreaming about being a wholesaler. And we see people waver between levels one and level two, back and forth, back and forth, and it always comes back to going to what Danny said at the beginning: consistent as a tree. What gets you out of level two is consistency, sticking with it. So let's move on to level three. Level three is the contract killer. Okay, this is the person that can lock up contracts, they can actually get a random stranger to agree to sell their house and sign a contract. But you know, that feels good in the moment, but the coping and underwriting was wrong. They drastically underestimate the amount of repairs that are needed, or maybe even the seller backs out, a buyer backs out, and you have to terminate these contracts. This is a very common level for wholesalers to go through. Now, if you're lucky in your first several contracts, you get one or a couple to make it across the closing line, and that happens. But then maybe you fall into a string of termination, termination, termination, and you start questioning what am I doing wrong? When in reality, you're brand new to the industry, you don't know what you don't know. If you've never comped a property in Birmingham, Alabama, and then you go and you think that you got a deal? Well, guess what? My first five contracts in Birmingham, Alabama ended up in terminations. We didn't stop, it was just that was part of the process. How did we learn that we were underwriting the deals incorrectly? By getting them under contract and getting that feedback from the end buyers. They're saying, Oh, dude, are you new to wholesaling here in Birmingham? Yeah, we're based out of Dallas Fort Worth. Oh, well, welcome to Birmingham. It's completely different than Dallas, Texas. How so? And they educate you, they educate you on the fact that we need more cash flow here. We don't look at deals on the 1%, 2% rule like, dude, we're looking at three, four percent rentals. We want to buy at a steeper discount because we're having to deal with these types of tenants, we're dealing with these types of issues. This is where we can pick deals up on the MLS. Why would we spend more picking up a deal from a wholesaler than we could just getting a deal off the MLS? You need to pay attention to the as-is comps. Well, guess what? I had never paid attention to as-is comps in Dallas, Texas, because that wasn't a thing. We were taught to pay attention to the after-repair value comps, and then you multiply by 70%, minus your repairs, minus your wholesale fee, and that was your maximum allowable offer. Well, we had to very quickly move away from that. We're doing deals in Birmingham, Jackson, St. Louis, Kansas City, Detroit, Indianapolis, and we got our teeth kicked in. And so we were a contract killer. Could we get sellers to agree? Of course. But they weren't making it across the finish line. And this level right here is scary because people want to quit, they feel like it's something that they're doing wrong. Maybe wholesaling doesn't work, maybe it's a dispo problem. Maybe it's because I just can't get a seller to sell me their house for cheap enough. I'm not good enough on the phones. So this is where they fall into side hustles and jobs and doing all these other things to go back to the inconsistency that forces you back into either being a first caller or a dreamer again. So these first three levels are extremely scary because it's like you're constantly being pushed back into giving up on this dream of wholesaling. And the majority of wholesalers go through this. I did a video at the end of 2024, and just by AI Google searches, everything said that 80% of wholesalers quit in their first year. That is a wild astronomical number. But this is the reason why. Because one, you have to overcome the fear of even starting. Then, when you do that, you have to overcome the reality of what it's like to have these conversations with motivated sellers. And then when you actually get to the point where this random stranger is agreeing to sell you the house for a price that you think's good, you end up having to terminate that deal, and it feels hopeless. And so you constantly are being pushed back into that level two, level one mentality, and normally it's the people closest to you that are kind of pushing you back to that level. Not only your own mind, you're probably doubting yourself, but then you got your spouse, your friends, your family going, What are you doing? Is this even real? Is this a scam? Is this even legal? I've read online that wholesaling is illegal and that you can't do it in certain states. And then you start questioning, like, what am I doing? And so those first three levels are extremely scary. But if you make it out of that and you move on to level four, which is the first check. Now, three and four can happen simultaneously, right? You can get your first check and then become a contract killer. But level four is that first check when you finally get paid, right? You get a deal, and real money hits your account. Suddenly there's a proof of concept, and this helps you a lot with that those inner voices, the friends, the family, the spouse, yourself that's doubting whether or not wholesaling is real. That first check is kind of the here you go. I money entered my bank account. How can you replicate that over and over and over again? Now, the the situation with the first check is that sometimes we get lucky. We get that first check, and we think it's always gonna be that way. That was my first ever deal. The first ever property that I ever contracted, 2300 or 2301 Sunset Lane in Arlington, Texas. Locked it up for like 92,000, I think, and ended up assigning it, or actually double closing it for$100,000,$7,500 in her pocket. That was the first ever deal. Well, guess what? Deals two and three were terminations. So I went from level one to level two to level four, and then fell back into level three. Where I went from first caller to first check to contract killer, and that is very common early on when you go from that first check to terminations, and you start wondering like, what is the difference here? The key when you get to the first check is now that you have that proof of concept, you really have to start working on your skills and developing your ability to talk to sellers correctly and repeatedly, the same way, having a process, comping and underwriting, and actually understanding where in buyers are buying and why. The dot process is different because early on, in those first calls, and even those when you're a contract killer, you're just trying to really figure it out. Like, can I get someone to actually sign a contract with me? But now you got that proof of concept, and now you're starting to see results over and over, whether good or bad. And so you have to work on your skills during this level right here. And what happens is if that first check comes and there's not a second and a third quickly after, you start questioning and you fall back into those first three levels. But if you get that first check and you dive into developing those skill sets even more, so like Olivia, you talked about you are level three right now. You did exactly what I did. You went from level one, level two, level four, and fell back into level three. You're a contract killer right now. Makes sense, but in reality, you could stay at level four. You got that first check, you're working on your skills every single day. We just did a call review just a week ago, two weeks ago. The call was fantastic. I was blown away by how you handled the conversation with that seller. Was it perfect? No, it's not meant to be, but it's much further along than most people are, and you're continuing to work on those skill sets every single day. That's what leads me to believe that you're still level four, you're still at that first check level because you're working on that to get to level five. And so when you're there and you've gotten that first check, despite what else is going on, the trap is celebrating that result instead of asking yourself, how do I do that again on purpose? How can I repeat it where I can anticipate that this can happen once every 50 phone calls that I place, once every 100 phone calls that I can place? How can I make sure that one out of every two contracts that I get makes it to the closing table? And that only comes through developing those skills and working on that, staying focused on that, and not thinking about all the other things that you could possibly be thinking about. Is this real? Is this legitimate? Is this meant for me? Concepts that I never thought about, questions that I never asked myself. That's what keeps you at level four. Level five is the feast or famine operator. Now, this is a level that few actually achieve because those first four levels are pretty crippling for most people. Level five is where you start closing multiple deals, you understand the mechanics of wholesaling, but the income is drastically changing. 40,000 one month, zero the next, a hundred thousand, three months with nothing. And this is very, very common. Why? For several different reasons. Sometimes it's purely based off of lack of manpower. I'm I'm working by myself. I went out, I got three, four properties under contract. I had to go dispo them, I had title issues, I had life issues, and so yeah, I made fifty thousand dollars, but then when those clothes abundant, I had nothing. I had no leads coming in, no acquisitions, nothing under contract. So then I had to go work and I had to rebuild my pipeline. And by the time I did that, that$50,000 had dwindled down, and now we're able to do it again. That is a very common occurrence for people that are in level five. It's feast or famine. The other reason why is sometimes people go out and they make more money than they've ever made in a month, and it feels good. And you decide, hey, I'm gonna take some time off. I've earned it, and then you realize the key to wholesaling is all about consistency, it's all about showing up, calling those sellers each and every day, and you fall off the horse. This happens. The majority of us that go out and start our own business, very rarely have we ever had as much money as we can make in a month wholesaling, and so it feels really good, and then you forget what got you there. That's a very common occurrence. The other part of this is sometimes you have success where you make great money, maybe you hit a home run, but then when you actually look at the business, there's no systems, there's no KPIs, there's no daily non negotiables. It was just uh we we bootstrapped this, we meant we pure willpower. Got us to the level on which we we what we achieved in the past month. And now that that has run its course, because let's be honest, it doesn't take a whole lot of deals to make fifty thousand dollars. I mean, that could be one really good deal, two pretty good deals, or three average deals, and you're at that level. That could be more money than you were making a year at your job, and then all of a sudden you look down and it's like, so what sellers have I called? What leads have I called? When have I called them? How many times? Do we have any drip sequences? Who's following up with that lead? No systems, no KPIs, no non-negotiables. So it's very common for people to be once they get past that first check level, the majority of wholesalers live in level five for years, feast or famine, and it's so easy to fall into this category. Even people that I have seen that have quote great operations, I've seen them just in a matter of overnight falling into feast or famine. Because it could be someone quit, something happened on a deal, maybe you took your eye off the ball, the hedgehog concept, and you decided I want to go flip houses, I'm gonna become a landlord. And suddenly the processes that you had inside of your business fall to the wayside. And what happens to the wholesale operation? Famine. So pay attention to that if you get to level five. Level six is the systematized closer. This is someone that understands the business, has systems, has processes that they can actually train to other people. They're tracking everything, they know their numbers, they have a repeatable comp process, a repeatable acquisitions process, dispo process. The follow-up is fantastic. Anything that is closable is getting closed inside of their operation. This is a systematized closer. These operations are few and far between, and it's hard to stay there because wholesale operations have typically have massive turnover turnover. It's hard to keep people in acquisitions roles, dispositions roles. It's even harder to hire someone to come on as an executive, either a general manager or CEO of a wholesale operation. And then the other part is very rarely do wholesale operations have an owner that has the aspirations to grow it to this level. Most people are completely happy living in that feast or famine operator level because the feast will normally outweigh the famine with just a little bit of willpower and muscle from themselves. I know that because I was that guy. Now you can sit there and say, I sat in this seat, I sat in that role, I understand how things work. Now I can train somebody else to sit there. Now I want to manage that. But that's really hard for people to sit in that role. Most entrepreneurs, they're visionaries and they have other ideas and other dreams that they want to do. So to stay at level six takes a lot of discipline, time, effort, training, holding people accountable. Those are all skill sets that require reps, just like talking to a seller. Let's be honest. As a business owner, it is extremely difficult to hold someone accountable for the majority of people. To look at someone that you share an office with, that you probably become friendly in nature to, to hold them accountable and say, you're not doing a good enough job for the business. I have the KPIs, I have the metrics, I've given them to you. So that accountability is difficult. So the systematized closer is extremely difficult to stay in. And that's a consistent theme throughout each one of these levels. Just because you make it to level six doesn't mean you can't fall right back to level five. It falls on your shoulders as the owner to keep your business there. And how are you going to do that? So, in this level right here, most wholesalers, this is where they top out. They'll get to level six, probably fall down to level five at some point in time, maybe touch back to level six. At times, I feel like that's kind of where we're at. Other times I feel like we absolutely have touched level seven, and then it's hard to stay there. And you fall back down to level six, fall down to level five, and it's like, whoa, how did we go from level seven all the way to a famine state and level five? Because just because you get somewhere does not mean you've earned the right to stay there. You have to earn that right each and every day. So level seven is the create your own reality stage. Where suddenly doing deals is not the focus anymore. You have you have the repeatable process, the repeatable systems, you're tracking everything. You know what creates that business. But now you're focused on what does that earn you? That is now your focus. See, the difference between level six is when you get there, the focus is how do I make sure that my team understands the repeatable comp process, the repeatable dismo process? Are all the systems correct? Is our follow-up strong? Level seven is you now have that repeatable process, and your focus is on staying at that level, making sure that the eye is your the eye on the ball is on long term, not on the day-to-day actions. You have somebody inside of your organization that is doing and handling the day-to-day. If you had to ask me where I think we are right now as a business, we are wavering between six and seven. With bringing on Danny Herman as the GM of Titanium Investments, that's a hard move to make. We're trying to get him to the level where the repeatable process to be the systematized closer can stay there and he can manage that. So as the owners, RJ and Cassie can focus on the creating our own reality. What we have worked for for a decade to get to this point, to have someone that has the same vision, the same work ethic, the same core values as us, to hire someone like Danny and bring him on. But now that doesn't mean we get to rest on our laurels just because we've been doing this for a decade. It could all go away just like that. And we could easily be right back into the feast of famine operator. I'm very well aware of that. So no matter where you are in this process, the ability and the opportunity to fall down one or two or three levels always exist. It's about you showing up each and every day, staying focused on what you need to focus on in your business, and making sure that just because you've leveled up doesn't mean you don't think that you can go back down a level. So to reiterate the levels, level one and also let me know in the chat. I don't know if this little chat thing's working or not. Right now we're at 50% level one to level two, 50% level three to four. So let me know as I go through these in the chat. Just type in level whatever number, okay? Level one, you're a dreamer. Never taking action. Just watch consume, learn what wholesaling is. Level two, the first caller. You just started taking action. No success. You're just now starting to pick the phone up and actually call sellers. Level three, the contract killer. You can get somebody to pick the phone up, answer the phone, sign a contract, but you're not successful at getting it to the closing table. Level four, the first check. You've actually gotten to the point where you've got a closing funded deal. Real money has been deposited into your bank account. That's it. Level five, the feast or famine operator. You've closed multiple deals, but your bank account looks like a roller coaster ride.$50,000,$0.100,000, negative$300. Level six, the systematized closer. Everything is repeatable inside of your business from across the board, the systems, the processes, multiple people can step into your organization and know exactly how to operate. And level seven is create your own reality where the business can actually sustain your goals without you being involved each and every day.