As my wife and I set out to start our own family, it made sense for me to get my real estate license and become an agent. The only problem was that I was new to Houston and didn’t have a large social circle. Staring at no guaranteed salary and the thought of a baby who was going to be delivered in a few months, I had to get creative with my lead building techniques.

Not only do I love homes, but also communities—and I thought Houston residents did, too. So I printed a bunch of t-shirts representing various areas in a classic style and put them online for sale, with a portion of the proceeds going to charities based in the neighborhoods.

It was an unusual technique but city blogs, the free alternative weekly, and the major newspaper all wrote about the shirts. In the process, I grew my contacts and ended up listing and selling houses for multiple people who bought shirts. People had effectively paid to get on my mailing list.

Plus, the shirts were super-comfy. Very key.

The following year, I sent out an email to my new list of subscribers telling them that I was selling my own house for $150. Really, it was a $150 application fee, an essay, and then we would decide who the house would be sold to for a dollar.

Immediately, my phone started vibrating every few seconds and thousands of dollars in application fees was coming into my bank account. News vans parked outside of our house, a ridiculous amount of articles were written about the offer, I was trending worldwide on Facebook and Twitter, and people were peaking inside the windows of my baby’s room at all hours of the night.

After thousands of applications, I made the difficult decision to sell our house via MLS at market price. Hundreds of thousands of dollars was refunded to people instantaneously, which turned out to be bit exhilarating.

While the project didn’t end how I envisioned, I learned a million lessons along the way (including that you should smile when being interviewed on TV).