A self employed high-end remodeling contractor for over 15 years I had become a service puppet for wealthy home owners. Yeah sure I owned my business, but I was slave to it 80 plus hours a week! I now OWNED a job! The very thing I have always feared had once again come to pass, I was strapped with commitments and "I have to do's! Life was sucking me dry once again!

I had busted my rear-end for 15 of my prime adult years building a profitable business that was supposed to get me "out of the "rat race". Instead I had built a prison and then had locked myself in the damn thing. My business model was fatefully flawed, I was trapped in it, and there was apparently no way out! I had not built it with the "exit strategy" to one day sell the company. The company was 1000% dependant upon me being there to run daily operations, and to kiss customer asses, I should have bought stock in Suzie Chapstick!

There had to be a better way! What was I missing here? I always believed that working really really hard and owning you're own business was the answer to a blissful existence.

I was 39 years old, I lived in a $ 750,000.00 house, had a Porsche Turbo and a BMW M5 parked in my garage, vacationed several time a year in the Caribbean, the Pacific, Mexico, etc. and I was miserable!

Ah-Ha! Maybe, JUST MAYBE, owning a lot of "stuff" was not the answer to a full and meaningful life? Hmmmmmm? Could this be true? Apparently so, I dreaded getting out of bed in the morning.

Having a lot of material things houses, cars, money, etc. is not the answer to happiness, at least not for me. For me, NOT having to be told what to do by ANYONE is the starting point. Doing what I want, when I want to do it and how I want to do it, is the golden ticket! I discovered that freedom of expression and control of my own time is where its at! Making money, becoming wealthy on my own terms with NO interference from ANY outside sources (like customers in the construction service business) is the most fulfilling existence that one can hope for.

It is true that we DO need customers to be actually buying something from us, in order to make the money, the money we ultimately need in order to escape the "rat race". But, that does not mean that you and I have to deal with them! Customer care, customer service (if your business requires it) can all be outsourced to others, and THAT'S THE SECRET TO the age old problem that most business owners face, which is, "how do I get more time for me?"

Ever heard the old "less is more" analogy? Well this is the best example I can think of! "The less I work, the more I make", I had heard this and read this numerous times in my life, and it never registered with me until I realized that my business was sucking my time dry!

There had to be a better way. I was suddenly "aware" that I was imprisoned by the very thing I had always believed would FREE me, namely, owning my own business! BIG DEAL, I now owned a JOB!

Then,I caught a late night infomercial, it was Carleton H. Sheets! Mr. Sheets told me what I had been waiting to hear, that I could quit my job ( my business in my case ), and live financially FREE, on my own terms, on my time! This was the first time that I had seriously considered using real estate as the vehicle of choice to get me out of the "rat race".

Since that pivotal day way back in "2001", I have traveled up and down many investment paths, the same paths all serious real estate investors will travel. I was in search of the best techniques and systems to implement, in order to succeed as a full-time investor.

Some of these paths were absolute dead-end, others were 10,000 foot cliffs that I plunged off, and still others were just detours that took me on wild goose chases making believe at times that I was mildly retarded.

All along still working my 80 hour weeks at the old ball-and-chain, I was gobbling-up so-called "guru's" real estate investing courses that I found on the internet. Like a rat hitting the pellet feeder bar, I was pressing the "Buy it Now" button on the computer screen at a furious pace. I was in mad pursuit of the "magic pill" I could pop that would change my life!

Guru after guru I searched, I read, I watched, I listened. All of the guru's had their own version of the "magic pill" that would make me rich beyond my wildest dreams. Each had the path I needed to take to get me where I needed to go. Each had the best system I needed to follow. Each told me that the other guru's courses and programs were bullshit and gave me a thousand reasons why! My god! Will somebody PLEASE show me the way to REALLY make money in real estate!

Confused from a bad case of "information overload", tired of dead-end techniques and bogus get-rich-quick systems that left me feeling empty and scammed, ready to just quit trying to figure it all out, It happened! I met the "one" who would ultimately prove to be the catalyst, the real turning point for me and my real estate investing future!

My GOD! It's my 23 year old nephew! He's still a baby I thought! I remember bouncing this man on my knee for god sake. Could he really be the one to show me the way? I remember the phone call that I had with my nephew one night in "2000". What he said to me during that call set the stage for the systems of real estate investing that I use today! The systems that had everything that I had been looking to find for a very long time!

He said "Uncle Ed I have this incredible system of investing that I have been implementing for several months now. It's insane just how profitable it is! Look I can't get into all of the logistics with you over phone now because it would take me to long to explain. But I will tell you this, I am going to go and close a deal tomorrow that will make me over $ 15,000.00 and here's the insane part, I am never even going to own the damn thing! I've done about 6 or so other deals just like it and have banked-up about $ 90,000.00 over the last 6 months!" Then he said: " Come over to house tomorrow and I will explain EVERYTHING to you in complete detail!"

I met with my nephew the very next day. He held true on his promise and showed me everything that he was doing to put these deals together. I was floored when he revealed his technique. It was so simple, and brilliant, and virtually unheard of at the time.

As the story goes, we formed a partnership he and I and we proceeded to wholesale (some call this flipping) over 150 houses over the next 18 months! We were the "Flipping Dynamic Duo" of Harrisburg Pa!

Long story short I eased back on the construction company by hiring a few job supervisors to run the daily construction projects in my absence. In time I also stopped selling and estimating jobs and outsourced these tasks as well. I eventually shut-down the construction business all together to concentrate real estate wholesaling "full time".

In 2004 my nephew and I parted ways. each of us starting our own wholesaling businesses. My nephew is still as of this writing, running one of the most successful wholesaling companies in the country, and is making an absolute fortune, working when he wants, where he wants, and apparently making as much as he wants, he just bought a nice Rolls-Royce to park in his garage beside his twin Mercedes-Benzes:) Way to go Nef!

Today my wholesaling company does on average 50-75 deals a year, depending on how much time I want to invest! I work when I want to work, as long as want to work, because that's what the wholesale business model has been designed to do for me! I average $ 7,500.00 a deal and some months the business does upwards of 6 deals.

My entire wholesaling business model, all systems and techniques are explained in complete detail in one of my e-books "Wholesale Smarts" . This book was written for brand new investors with ZERO experience, but experienced wholesalers can benefit from this e-book as well!

So, as the title of this article implies, wholesaling truly was for me, a means to an end! The end of the "rat race"! I could never imagine myself ever wanting to do anything else. Wholesaling is the "Holy grail" of all real estate investing techniques when it come to one's time management and FREEDOM. I guess I should mention, wholesaling is hands-down the FASTEST way to make CASH in real estate and, is also the most RISK-FREE way to invest in real estate EVER!

Also, you can visit:  WholesalerSmarts.com  to "Learn How To Wholesale Houses" For BIG CASH starting Today!

Life's Flipping Great!

Eddie Case