May 9, 2024 • 45 mins
In this episode, I sit down with the remarkable Diana, a Chattanooga mom who's flipping the script on her family's financial future.
In just her first 12 months, she accomplished these 3 HUGE things:
- Pocketed $150,000 in profit on 2 flips
- Retired her firefighter husband early
- Tripled her family's income
She will discuss the above and also share with us:
- The pivotal role that coaching and education played in steering clear of the industry's many pitfalls.
- All the
- How she found them
- How she funded them
- The issues, challenges and surprises and how she handled them
- And much more!
Her journey is packed with wisdom on adding value to properties, juggling project timelines with family life, and the financial savvy needed to thrive in this industry.
For those teetering on the edge of starting their own house-flipping venture, let Diana's story be the catalyst you need to make an impact in homes and communities, one property at a time. See how with the right guidance and approach, anyone is capable of crafting a lucrative and fulfilling house flipping business.
GOODIES
1. THE book on women flipping houses is here! Click here to grab the digital download of my new book for just $4.99! Just as everything else we do is different, so is FLIPPED: Lessons and Stories of Women Flipping Houses and Facing Their Fears.
2. Sick of sitting on the sideline watching other people do the thing you want to be doing? Are you FINALLY ready to do what it takes to flip your first house and want incredible step-by-step training and support to get you there faster? Click here to see if we may be a fit to work together.
3. Follow That Flip! Follow this 8-part video series as we flip a house!
4. Our goal is to inspire 1,000 new women each month and we've been achieving it with help from loyal listeners like you! If you are getting value out of this podcast will you kindly leave us a rating and review and help us spread our message?
5. Are you a real estate agent tired of chasing the same potential clients as everyone else? Sick of the roller coaster commission? Get the REI Agent Pro Certification! Click here for info and to join the waitlist.
Debbie DeBerry | The Flipstress®
Leaving people and places better than we find them.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to the Flip Houses Like a Girl
podcast, where we educate,empower and celebrate everyday
women who are facing their fears, juggling family and business,
embracing their awesomeness andwholeheartedly chasing their
dream of flipping houses.
Each episode delivershonest-to-goodness tools, tips
(00:21):
and strategies you can implementtoday to get closer to your
first or next successful houseflip.
Here's your spiky-hairedbreakfast taco-loving host.
House flipping coach DebbieDeVere.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Hey, thanks for hanging out with us today.
In this episode, I'm going tointroduce you to one of our flip
sisters, diana.
She's in Tennessee and herfirst 12 months of flipping
houses it was just amazing.
So three huge highlights One,she made over $150,000.
Two, she retired herfirefighter husband.
(01:03):
And three, she tripled herfamily's income.
What Isn't that amazing?
Yes, it is totally amazing, andshe will let you know.
It is completely doable for youtoo, wherever you are.
She's definitely a bigproponent for coaching and
mentoring and getting educatedso that you can make smart
(01:24):
decisions and you don't wastetime trying to figure it out
yourself.
All right, without furtherdelay, let's get into this
conversation with Diana.
You're going to love it.
You know the thing.
Start with your name who youare, where you are, what you
were up to before you got intoflipping, and are you still
doing that, that sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Yeah, so my name's Diana.
I'm 39 years old.
I live in Chattanooga with myhusband and our two girls.
We have a four and a almostthree-year-old.
So that's been mostly my jobfor the last few years.
I previously have been a teacher.
(02:07):
I have a degree in anthropology, a master's degree in teaching,
and kind of spent my 20s liketraveling around and not knowing
what I wanted to do.
And every couple of years we'rejust like, oh, I'll be here for
a little while, try this, behere for a little while, try
that.
And I've always just like, kindof like kept moving and that's
(02:28):
kind of been my spiel is likeI've been able to pivot, like if
this wasn't the rightrelationship or if this wasn't
the right job.
I've just kind of kept looking.
But meanwhile I felt like at 30,I was like I still don't know
what I want to do.
I don't like teaching.
I know I want to have a family,but my husband and we moved to
Chattanooga and that like was areally steadying force for me
and starting our family here.
But even that I was still likepregnant with my daughter and
(02:51):
like taking online classes atour local community college.
I started a Google projectmanagement certificate and that
was the first time wheresomebody was like have you
thought about project manager?
Cause I was trying to figureout, like I'm not really good at
anything, like I'm not reallygood at like one thing, I'm kind
of more of a generalist, like,uh, I can see big picture type
of things.
(03:12):
So started that and I think itwas maybe I was pregnant or had
the kids and a girlfriend sentme like a rich dad, poor dad
video and my husband and I gotinto that.
You know YouTube rabbit hole,learning about passive income,
and you know our minds are likewhat are we?
doing Like why are we spendingall our time at jobs that we
(03:32):
hate?
And blah, blah, blah.
He has.
So my husband's definitely mypartner in all of this and has
been along this whole train, soI'll talk about him a little bit
.
But he has more of anentrepreneurial background.
He had started a couple likebusinesses with his brothers and
they didn't necessarily weren'tsuper successful, but taught
(03:54):
him different skills.
So he was on board basicallygetting into real estate.
His brother was actually like,oh, we should look at, we're
talking about passive income, weshould really talk about short
term rentals.
So that that's the house thatI'm.
This bedroom I'm in is actually, um, the house that we bought
with his brother and, uh, oursister-in-law, and this is the
house that we got into rightbefore I joined your program.
(04:16):
So I'm like I have two babiesat home.
My husband's working full-timeas a fire fighter.
Uh, he was wrapping up a farmthat they were working on.
We fire fighter.
He was wrapping up a farm thatthey were working on.
We're like let's buy this houseand renovate it ourselves and
do all the work ourselves andall the decor and paint and
everything which we loved.
That part and that's definitelysomething I'm learning was like
I love the buying of the houseand the making it beautiful and
(04:37):
and thinking about like how dowe make this better for this
next person?
But the management aspect of itI don't love.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
There is nothing passive about managing
short-term rental.
No, it is high touch.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Everything.
Yeah, yes, and so, yeah, that'swhat I was like.
We bought it in December and weput it on the market in October
and we still had to refinanceout of it and it's like this
thing doesn't stop.
Then it's now you have allthese people coming and messages
that have to get sent back andforth, and so I was like I
thought this was supposed to bepassive, and my dad was actually
(05:13):
the one that was like you guysshould be flipping houses.
And we're like, no, no, no, dad, you don't know what you're
talking about.
Like we need to be doingshort-term rentals.
And I just remember, oh, so our, our county, our city, uh,
banned like all new short-termrentals in the meantime.
So we had already bought thishouse, we were able to get it to
be a short-term rental, but inthe meantime, like there goes
(05:33):
our pipe dream of like we'lljust buy five short-term rentals
and like retire happily.
And you know that didn't happen.
So we're like, okay, we need topivot.
So, um, I saw an advertisementfor your group and it really,
really resonated with me.
My husband's like very stubborn, I'll do it myself.
And from his background, whathe grew up seeing was like you
(05:56):
have to do it yourself.
You can't afford to hire peopleto do everything.
You're not going to make anymoney if you do it that way.
I'm like, oh yeah, well, I seeother people doing it and
they're not doing it allthemselves.
So like, pretty sure, we couldprobably learn how to do it a
different way, but we'll try ityour way too.
So that's kind of been our, ourspell.
So I joined your program likeright as we were ending up, this
one got this refinanced, wentthrough the whole process of all
(06:20):
the modules and learnings andstuff and then started looking
for our first house to actuallyflip, to sell all the modules
and learnings and stuff and thenstarted looking for our first
house to actually flip to sell.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
You've since done two and you still have your
short-term rental.
Do do I remember something?
You posting something in thegroup that maybe you're selling
it or selling your interest init.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Yeah, we family members and, um, you know,
trying to keep relationships andyou know, yeah, well, even last
summer my husband's like overhere because he doesn't want to
hire someone to do the.
We have a pool and a hot tub.
You know, this is a big place,it's a 10 person place.
(07:03):
So he's over here like cleaningthe hot tub every week and the
pool and a hot tub you know thisis a big place, it's a 10
person place.
So he's over here like cleaningthe hot tub every week and the
pool.
And just like, because wethought we would do it ourselves
and because we have partnerslike to add in, a property
manager just takes away a lot ofthat.
If it was just Mike, mike, myhusband and I and then the
property manager, that wouldmake sense.
But when you keep cutting thatpiece of the pie, it's like is
(07:25):
it really worth it for like thismuch money?
But for right now.
For right now we've gotsomebody you know handling the
hot tub and stuff and so forright now we're keeping it.
But yeah, that could change insix months.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
We'll see.
We'll see.
Okay, so you have since boughtand renovated and sold two flips
.
Yes, take us through your firstpurchase, even though it's your
second sale.
Does that make sense to do itthat way, or how do you think it
makes sense to do?
Speaker 3 (08:02):
um, I would say just like chronologically Perfect,
let's do it.
I joined your program, startedgoing through the modules.
I had a great real estate agentas a friend and she was taking
us.
We started looking at houses onthe MLS and this is still kind
of things.
We're still kind of crazy andgoing over even houses we would
go to.
We went to one house that'slike hadn't been touched since
(08:23):
1950.
And there were like 20 peoplethere with somebody had already
paid an inspector who's likethere with his clipboard.
We're like what is going onhere?
So we're like, okay, did thatfor like a month, put out some,
put some offers on things, andit wasn't getting too much
traction.
But that was just such a goodprocess of getting out there and
(08:44):
looking at houses and puttingan offer.
So then I started looking forwholesalers, got on everybody's
email list.
They started sending me thingsand this house he had sent it to
me.
He followed up with me and Ilooked at it and compared to the
other houses that we had beenlooking at, this house had
already been demoed and the topfloor it had already passed all
(09:06):
its rough ends and the top floorwas drywalled.
It was like very clean, youknow, compared to all these
houses we're walking in that arefull of garbage, that smell
like cat urine, that like are amess, we're like, oh, this house
, we're just going to get in andget out and put some tile on it
, like, yeah, this looks great.
(09:26):
That house we kept for 11months and just that was the
house that we just finished.
So lots of learnings with thatone, but that's OK.
So, biggest things we came intoright away.
It didn't have.
It had an electrical power pole, temporary power pole in the
front yard, and I didn't knowwhat that meant.
But we had to go through thepermitting process.
(09:50):
We had called the city to seelike where we were in the
permitting process before weeven closed on that house, and
they were like they couldn'ttell us or I don't know.
We just kept getting likedifferent answers to things.
And we talked to some peopleand they'd be like, oh yeah, you
know it'd be fine, you justpull your final.
And then other people would say, I don't know, it depends on
your inspector, and then thepeople at the city.
(10:11):
So once we finally, well, wecan get to that.
But, um, we put an offer.
They were asking 195.
We offered 185.
We settled at 190.
The electrical wasn't complete.
They had told us it wascomplete, so we got a five grand
(10:32):
off for that.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
So we ended up paying one 85 for it and this was a
wholesale deal, wholesale Nice.
Did somebody else already startthe flip and they needed out?
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Yeah, yeah, and he was like a local guy and this
kind of you know ran out ofmoney.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah, okay, so you found it through a wholesaler
and that one.
How did you finance that so?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
originally I was going to use a hard money lender
and then we had refinanced outof this house so we had some
cash to bring to it and so wewere going to cover some of it
and use a hard money lender.
I found a lady.
Her terms looked good, she wasrecommended in another group,
but we were going out of townand I was trying to get it to
(11:18):
close before we left and shedidn't close before we left.
We go to town.
And she was like, oh, just,we'll move it back to this day.
And literally I spent all ofthat week like, okay, we're
going to close on this day.
I'm getting on the plane andshe's letting me know like the
last minute, like this is notgoing to close on Friday, it's
going to have to be next week.
And I was like, lady, we'vealready pushed this back once
I'm.
(11:40):
It was really that was my firstlike closings for me have been
stressful.
So I remember I got home and Ilove myself, like got a little
upset.
And then I called, picked upthe phone and I called my dad
and I told him what happened.
I was not expecting anythingfrom him but he was like how
(12:01):
much do you need?
What's the interest rate?
Are we going to do on this?
So, anyways, he ended upbringing, allowing us to bring
cash to close.
What did you pay?
You paid 185.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
And what were you thinking the renovation would be
?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Okay, so we originally had thought around 80
K.
Okay, um, I got back, I wentback and looked at my like
original scope of work and wewere going to put in like
granite countertops and do kindof like a mid range.
Once we had got in and werelooked at okay, our square
footage and our numbers, causeit had a full basement that he
had just.
(12:35):
Oh yeah, this is that one, yeah,yeah, okay, our square footage
and our numbers because it had afull basement that he had just.
Yeah, so both of our flipsactually had full basements.
He had already framed out thebasement of this one and cleaned
it out, and so he was going todo it as like a five bedroom.
We took it down to a fourbedroom, made it into like a
little um apartment,mother-in-law suite kind of
thing in the basement.
So we ended up spending$135,000.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
So okay, Did you borrow purchase and renovation
from your dad?
Everything.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
No, I had a $200,000 loan from him, so that was like
$185,000 plus a little bit.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
And then?
So how did you finance the restof things?
Oh, was it from your cash out?
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yeah From, yeah From us.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
From you.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
From your pocket.
Okay, yeah From us.
Yeah, okay From that one, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And then so that thing took 11 months, so that
thing took 11 months.
What, what happened there?
What what?
Yeah, let's go through that.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
So we get in and we immediately like I have subs
coming in, we're looking at itand we're getting electricians
and and at that point I hadtalked to some what I now know
as key contractors and so I hadboth GCs come in to look at it.
They never really got back tome, they were busy.
They were like you know, it'llbe three months from now.
I'm like I can't wait threemonths.
Probably now they probablycould have done it in three
months and still been donefaster, but that's okay.
(14:07):
So how to keep contractors comein, and at this point my
husband you know it's going tobe like I'll do it, you know
it's, we can do this, we justgot done doing this house, like
we can do this.
So like, okay.
So we had this key contractorcome in.
The permitting was like our,our little wrench.
So we it took us a little whileLike we realized we had to have
(14:29):
a GC to pull, re-pull thebuilder's permit.
So we called in a favor withsomeone that we knew that was
like builder's permit.
So we called in a favor withsomeone that we knew that was
like you know, that's a GC, whoknows my husband, who knows he
does good work, like he can comeand pull the permit for us.
Yeah, so we got through that.
Then it was the electrical andplumbing.
And we found through thepermitting office the person who
(14:52):
pulled the original electricalpermit.
And so because we're bringingin other electricians and they
seemed a little bit unsure aboutthe whole city thing, and I'm
like, okay, I'm like so let'sjust find the original guy that
you know did it, and he came inand he was like, oh yeah, well,
I didn't do the work, but youknow I can do it.
(15:13):
We're like, okay, cool, um, sohe started working on it.
We found a plumber that said hewould come in and they started.
We wanted to change just acouple of things.
So they kind of redid the roughin Meanwhile.
We got started in the outside,redid all the windows, redid all
the siding, um, added a backdeck, um.
(15:33):
So we were trying to like dowhat we could.
And then it was like we justreached a point where we were
trying to pull the permit and itwas.
It was just, I don't even know,debbie, like what happened
between, I would say, our roughin permits finally re-pulled
maybe two or three months to get, because we ended up having a
(15:56):
re-pull and the like.
The electrical inspector didn'tmake us open walls, but the
plumbing inspector did.
So we had to reopen all thewalls to redo the rough and
permitting, yeah, yeah.
And then from that point thenwe started going and, um, we had
to re-pull, we had to put downthe flooring, we had to re-pull,
we had to put down the flooring.
We had to re-pull that upbecause of a pipe that we
(16:19):
changed out of vanity, from adouble, from a single to a
double, and the plumber didn'tput the cap on the pipe and
luckily I walked in.
It had been less than an hour.
But there's like water pouringout of the um wall and down into
the basement we had.
You know it's dry walled, it'slike the flooring was done.
So like I call my husband he'sover at the other house, which
(16:39):
is right across the street comesover, drills a hole in the
floor to like get the water togo down, and like I do know
where the water valve turnoff is, I just it was a weird valve
and I didn't know.
It just didn't look.
(17:00):
It wasn't like you could justturn it.
I didn't know, I don't know.
So that was something that youknow.
We had to redo some drywall downin the basement.
We had a toilet leak from whenthey installed the toilet.
We had to redo that drywall inthe basement.
Um, I think, yeah, our plumber,our electrician, he just didn't
show up.
He just didn't come, like hedid the rough in work, we got
the rough in permit re-polledand then he just like got busy
on other jobs and never showedup.
(17:21):
And my husband and his dad andum, we have a family member who
works for electrical companythat like came and helped us get
it done and I mean he, you know, came back over and looked at
what we had done and but thatwas we were because we were
working with the permittingdepartment and it was taking us
so long.
I didn't want to switchplumbers or electricians again.
(17:44):
Now, I know, now I would have alot sooner, but you just want
to give people the benefit ofthe doubt.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I know, but that's the biggest lesson Like it it's.
It's one of the biggest lessonswe have to learn.
I'm glad you learned it.
You learned it way faster thanI did.
It took me like four or fiveyears.
So, yeah, it's hard.
It's hard because we think,well, at least we know what
we're in here, like, we knowwhat to expect.
They're not going to show up,or they might show up one day,
(18:11):
you know.
And it's like who knows, whenwe start this new relationship
with somebody else, what's goingto happen?
Are they going to just do thesame thing?
Yeah, it's tough.
It's tough, this whole managingpeople thing.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Yeah, yes, and then when you add like not even just
the plumber and the electrician,when you add in the city and
the permitting, like this is a,there are a lot of relationships
and like I felt like maybe theplumber didn't have a great
relationship with them and theywere kind of like messing with
him a little bit.
I don't know, though, and thenI've also heard that the city,
(18:44):
their website, sucks, and so theI would check in with my
plumber and say hey, did youpull the permadeat?
Oh yeah, I pulled it.
Okay, well, they haven't shownup yet, and sometimes they show
up like within a couple days.
So you know, if it goes a weekor two later, you know I finally
had to call the inspectormyself.
He's like well, I really don'tlike, you know we don't like
talking to the homeowners youknow I prefer to talk to the
plumber and I'm like but do youhave our inspection?
(19:06):
Like?
And he's like no, I don't haveit.
It's like okay, well, I need toknow this.
So that was another like.
We literally did not pass.
These people were had theirmoving truck down the street
ready to move into our house andwe had not passed our final
occupancy.
Our final plumbing did not getpassed until literally the night
before and they were undercontract with us for almost two
(19:27):
months.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Like oh my gosh man.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Yeah, so that that house took a while and we going
along, we we decided, you knowthat we could get a certain
price for the house, but weneeded to.
We couldn't do granite like, weneeded to up the level of like
what we did.
So that's really like thedifference between the 80.
80 also didn't have any moneyfor plumbing no plumbing,
because it had passed.
We thought, oh, we passed, likeLike, well, we probably spent,
(19:55):
and the HVAC units were heatingand cooling, not something else,
I don't know the name of it.
We ended up buying two new HVACunits.
So we didn't think that we weregoing to have to buy for that.
You know the electrical, theplumbing, trips to Lowe's and
Home Depot for stuff, you know.
(20:15):
But we just, we just gotthrough, we just got through.
So that house was in February,we got it going and then we sort
of got to a standstill.
And so what are Mike and Idoing when we're at a standstill
?
We're looking at real estateand this wholesaler I had
contacted and contacted me andhe had sent me a house and I was
like, ooh, these numbers lookgood.
(20:37):
And that's always like cause, alot of stuff we see from
wholesalers.
The numbers don't make sense,they seem overpriced, whatever,
and so this guy had sent mesomething I was like, well, that
looks pretty good.
So we went and looked at it and, um, it had a someone, some
family issue.
There was somebody living atthe house that didn't want to
move out of the house and he waslike, well, you could take it
(20:57):
to court or whatever, blah, blah, blah.
And like, I, I don't really wantto deal with that right now.
Um, so he ended up getting outof his contract with this house.
But he was like, but I haveanother house that's going to be
coming up and I was like, ooh,I want to know.
You know what that house?
And we went and looked at itand that was our second flip
(21:19):
that we got into.
That was our mid-century modernbeauty that we bought May, I
think 13th.
Okay, so the first one youbought in February, it was like
March 1st, I think that we endedup closing.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Okay, so during those two months you were getting
permits and trying to get allthat situated.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Yeah, and we did as much as we could on the outside.
So that's why we did thewindows, we did the siding, we
did the deck, like.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
I'm glad y'all did that.
Some people just wait and it'slike no, you want to like, you
want to keep moving, you want totry, you want to try to keep
that momentum.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
And we redid the rough ends.
That's what we did Redid therough ends.
And then it was like then wegot to this point of like okay,
yeah we have to pass, we have torepass all our rough ends and
right, it didn't happen quickly,so we bought another house, but
this house we knew, like weknew when we looked at it, like
(22:16):
this was a special house, thiswas a really beautiful house and
it was in.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
We had great comps and which one was it that you
didn't anticipate?
Um, really finishing out andadding all the square footage
from the basement?
Which which property was that?
Was that the first one or thesecond one?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Um.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
I would say the second.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
the second one both had basements right.
The first one he had alreadyplanned on finishing that
basement out Cause it hadalready gotten like demoed and
he had put in um the framing forbedrooms.
And so that's what we paid one85 for that house, cause he's
selling it as like a fivebedroom house.
Got it, the second house.
(23:00):
The basement was super dark andlike dank and um full of stuff
and I don't think he wasnecessarily selling it as a you
know, 3000 square foot house.
She's selling it more as a yeah, it ended up being a really big
square foot house.
She's selling it more as a yeah, it ended up being a really big
.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
That's.
Yeah, it was a big house.
Okay, yeah, 3000 square feet,okay.
So he, it's so important thatwe add value in every way we can
, but so finishing out thatspace, did it save your numbers?
Like, would you have made moneyif you didn't finish out that
space on both of the houses?
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Um, yes, yes, we.
Our numbers looked good in thebeginning without the basement,
and that's like when we boughtthe house we made sure the
numbers looked good.
Yeah, you know either way.
Yeah, we, just when we redidthe numbers for the second house
because we had bought it at aneven better price, that's when
(24:03):
the like, the spread got reallynice.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Got it Okay.
So the first house ended upgoing on the market after the
second house, so the first houseactually became the second sale
.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
It actually got on the market first became the
second sale.
It actually got on the marketfirst, so the first house got on
the market first.
We finished that house firstbecause I knew it was going to
be a little bit trickier.
The road and the way it wasoriented was going to be a
little bit.
It wasn't going to sell as fastas the second house.
We knew the second house wasgoing to do really well and so I
(24:34):
really wanted to push to getthe first house done, especially
before Thanksgiving, cause wewent on to the market like
November I don't remember whatit was like November 3rd or
something like that and I knewthe holidays were coming up.
So I was like we really need toget this first house done,
because the second house I wasnot as concerned.
I knew the finishes and thingsthat we were doing inside really
pop and really stand out, yeah,and the lot was really cool and
(24:55):
so yeah, but but first housegot on the market first still
sold close.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Okay, okay, yeah, and then.
So what did the first house?
So you were all in for gosharound 320 with the purchase and
the renovation, not includingcarrying costs or interest or
anything like that.
What did you end up selling?
The first house, slash secondsale for.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Yeah, so the first house sold for 405.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Okay, and so what did your profit end up being Like?
35.
Nice Congrats on that, thankyou.
And then the second house.
What were any constructionsurprises there?
How long did that renovationtake?
Speaker 3 (25:44):
It was seven months, like kind of total, from closing
on it in the beginning toclosing on it at the sale.
So it took us seven months.
It was about six months of reno.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Was part of what took longer the fact that the guy
was on working on both projectsat the same time yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
So I would say we were a big hold up because mike
my husband at the same at thesame time, was still a
firefighter and so he works at24-hour shifts.
It's like super weird 24 on, 24off, 24 on, 24 off, 24 on.
We also had two familyvacations planned that summer
and so and he has to be a dadtoo, like you got to show up
(26:21):
sometimes.
So we realized like we areholding this train up also.
So in July, that's when welooked at our finances we he had
some.
He had had a farm with hisbrothers at one time and they
sold off some equipment.
We had a little bit of moneycome in as that and we're
looking at like, okay, what areyou going to make the fire
department for the rest of theyear?
(26:41):
It was like 15 K.
We're like, okay, we werelooking at our numbers for this
woods house and we were likewhat are we going to make when
we sell this house?
We're like a lot of money.
Is this house going to get soldbefore Christmas If you
continue to be a firefighter?
We're like, ooh, maybe not.
So, yeah, for the end of theyear.
I mean, that's it.
It's like one again, like oncewe got our brain into this
(27:04):
situation.
It was like we are going tomake less money if you stay in
this job or you quit and wehustle our little booty tooties
off and we get this sold like ina month and then we're going to
be fine.
So to me, for us in oursituation we are not coming from
like a doctor or a lawyer wherewe're making $100,000 a year I
(27:25):
could see that being a verydifficult decision to like leave
a job like that, like we're nottalking about that kind of
money, you know and the timecommitment for him is a lot.
It's not like he's sitting athome working from home.
He's physically out of thehouse, being woken up in the
middle of the night, not gettingsleep.
So his brain is in too manyplaces For me.
I needed him to focus and so wemade the decision in July and
(27:48):
that's when things startedmoving.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Was it hard for him to make that decision or no,
when he looked at the numbers?
Speaker 3 (27:58):
No, I think we're very much so on a team.
I'm there to support him, he'sthere to support me.
Like his brother had alreadyquit the fire department and
moved out of town and so he sawI think it was just a matter of
time before he was going to quit, cause, like neither one of us
are really good W2 employees, Ithink we were both like this we
want to have control and it'slike this like limit of like
(28:18):
this carrot stick.
We're like why would you staythis, like to maybe make 50 K in
10 years, you know?
Or we could make that this year.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Like yeah On one, flip on most almost one flip, so
okay.
So with your first flip, yourbiggest lessons learned were
around permitting and managingcontractors, like making sure
everything is.
You know, scope of work isdetailed, making sure you're
(28:49):
holding them accountable andreplacing them when they don't
perform.
Yeah, what else on the firstflip?
Or were those the big things?
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Yeah, I mean especially if you're going to
have inspections as a part ofyour process to hold on to that
last payment, to not pay theplumber until he's passed that.
You know that was the problem.
We had already paid ourelectrician and already paid our
plumber, and so they didn'tshow up, you know, and, and they
did to some extent we were ableto like get the plumber back,
but not having that lastpaycheck hurt.
(29:20):
Knowing what we're good at andwhat we want to do, my, like my
husband's not really a peopleperson, like he's really good
when he does his job, like youknow, managing contractors and
and and he got to the point hewas used to like every day going
to work and being with his twinbrother, and now he was like
going to work by himself.
He's like I don't like going towork by myself.
(29:42):
I'm like you don't have to.
I shared a podcast of a woman,one of our flip sisters, who's
like killing it and you knowlike this is her numbers and
she's hiring a GC, you know.
And so it took a little whilefor us that mindset piece, that
that was the big like kind oflearning lesson for us too.
(30:02):
It was like we don't have you.
The investor is a hat Likethat's a job, yeah, and we
didn't.
That didn't click until we hadto go through the process
ourselves.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
And really running this as a business, running it
as a business.
Yeah, and it's hard in yourfirst flip because you're like
this is my first one, is this abusiness?
I don't know.
So it's tough, yeah, yeah, okay.
Second flip what did you end upbuying and putting into that
(30:33):
one for the renovation?
Speaker 3 (30:34):
So we bought that for 140.
Originally we thought maybe 80K.
And again this is like reallybecause we're we didn't we did
have like a scope of work andour details, but because we
didn't have all our contractorslined up with our, our key
contract, you know, our keycontractor wanted to give us a
(30:55):
very big quote and not likedetail it out, so we ended up
spending another 135 on that one.
And this is like we stillaren't sure exactly where all
this money, but like we'vegotten it pretty close, but
there's still a few grand wherewe're, like, you know, not sure.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
So the one that you completely had to finish out the
basement, this one we redidyeah, we completely refinished.
Yeah, okay.
So that's a big reason why thatone, the numbers increased on
that one.
Okay, got it, yes, so next timemaybe just plan on 135K
renovation.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Is that like, yeah, maybe Normal, yes, moving
forward, we are going to be alot more detailed and the big
ticket electrical plumbing, hvac, roof foundation like just put
in 10K for all of them, and then, if you don't need it, okay,
great, okay.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
So you had to finish out that one.
You put it on the market.
That one sold pretty fast Causethat one yeah, that one under
contract like real fast.
So people loved it.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Yeah, so we had a great open house.
I think we had 10 people comein.
We had two full price offers onthat house and we actually had
like three.
This lady had given us kind oftwo options and so we had listed
it for 419 and one I don'tremember now exactly.
(32:26):
We got to 435.
One, I don't remember nowexactly, we got to 435.
So that's what it sold for.
So we had these two kind ofcompeting offers and one was
like I'll go up to this, andthis other lady said I'll just
do this.
It was an FHA loan, but wedidn't have any problems with
that.
They came, they inspected thehouse.
It was fine, the loan was fine,we'd held it long enough.
(32:49):
So that was fine.
Yeah, that house went on themarket like December 3rd.
It closed December 28th.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Oh, dang Nice With an FHA loan.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
I think she had been maybe a backup offer on our
other house, and so she hadstarted the process Got it Okay,
okay, so, okay.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
So your first flip was a 35K profit.
What was this one?
115.
Okay, yeah, so I mean nice.
First year, 150k.
You made $150,000.
Your first year of flippinghouses, my first year.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Yeah, isn't that crazy.
I had in my journal from lastyear January I want to double
our income.
That was my goal last year andwe like tripled it, you know.
So that gives me chills, I know, and that's amazing.
That's huge Congratulations.
It's life changing, especiallywhere we live Like we.
This is not, you know.
(33:45):
This is a an amazing, you knowthis.
This money gives us enoughmoney this year to like breathe
and pick projects that we reallyare excited about and that
things that we want to do andnot just work because we have to
work.
And I think that's been like mytrying to figure out like, okay,
do I want passive income?
It's not just about passiveincome.
I don't want to go sit on abeach Like I want to get excited
, to wake up in the morning andlike do things that I'm excited
(34:07):
about and, um, making thingsbeautiful and more practical and
um, better design is like whatwe're living for right now.
And so, and it's so meaningfulto people.
And you look at these housesand everyone's doing gray on
gray, on gray on gray.
Still, it's like guys, can westop with the, with the gray,
(34:28):
something, you know, just alittle bit of fun, and that was
like what really stood out withour second flip.
You know, we did a colored backsplash, we did colored door
trim and it's these littlethings that stand out, that it's
just paint or it's just alittle bit.
You don't have to like go crazy, but makes a big difference,
personalizes it.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
It's absolutely a huge difference.
People are always like, how dothose houses sell so fast?
And it's like, because we'renot doing the cookie cutter
thing, we're not doing likewe're all creating really cool
places, like spaces for people,so that is huge.
You tripled your family'sincome.
You spearheaded all of that.
(35:07):
That's really cool income.
Yeah, you spearheaded all ofthat.
That's really cool, yeah.
The thing is is when you saidit just lets you breathe, oh, my
God, I get that.
I, I get that.
I totally understand that.
And that's a different kind offreedom, like that freedom of
really just like like this senseof peace and it's okay, we're
(35:29):
okay, like we're better thanokay, and getting to choose what
you want to work on and choosewhat fills your days.
I mean, that's the ultimate.
That's the ultimate thing.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
Yeah, that's like the hierarchy of like life.
Right there is to get up and todo the things that you want to
do.
To me, I feel like you know tohave the ability to do that.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Yeah, so this year has been amazing.
It was very stressful at times,like just to get to the closing
table for both houses, likedealing with private money.
I'm, I would say, like moneyand me have had a very distant
relationship.
I'm like you're cool over there.
As long as we don't, I'm notgoing to worry too much about
(36:11):
you.
You don't worry too much aboutme, like, as long as I don't go
into debt and credit card.
I've never done that, but Ijust never faced it really and
took control of my own financesand that's been something that
I'm working on.
To be the CEO.
It's like, yes, okay, I do wantto have a bookkeeper and an
accountant and people to help me, but first I need to know what
I'm talking about or what thislooks like, or you know.
(36:33):
So that's been huge for me indealing with contracts.
Like makes me veryuncomfortable and but it's the
right thing to do and it's whatwe have to do.
So doing those things that Idon't want to do, you know, some
things like no, I don't want todo it, but nobody else is going
to do it for you, so guess whatyou get to do.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
And it's just like you said, it's important for you
to understand it too.
So it empowers you, like whenyou understand how something,
how what the numbers should looklike, what you know, when you
understand the how and the whybehind something.
That's empowerment.
I feel like that's what we'reall striving for is that kind of
(37:15):
awareness.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
But I wouldn't have done this without joining your
group.
Like women or anybody, you cango online and everything's out
there for you, but you're goingto get overwhelmed.
And what joining this groupdoes is it.
It gives you like this is yourone, two, three.
Do these things first Don'tworry about this quite yet Like
just tunnel vision a little bit.
Put your blinders on, do this,then do that.
(37:40):
Okay, great, next week you cando this, this and this.
And just like taking those tinylittle steps and chunks at a
time and it snowballed.
Like, yes, and it's not magic, Ididn't, like I knew what we
were going to make six monthsago.
You know, this isn't, thiswasn't a huge.
I mean, you kind of don'treally know until the very end
(38:00):
when you go on the market, likeyou know what the exact numbers
are.
But I knew we were going to doreally well and so that's if I
could just tell anybody is likeget a coach, get somebody who's
done it, don't try to doeverything on your own.
Like we did, do it on our ownfor the first time and my, we
almost lost, like our, ourrelationships with our family
members and like it was.
(38:22):
It was a crap show and we'relucky to.
I could have seen us like justgetting done with this and then
never doing this again, but youcan join a group of people
that's going to be there to likehelp you along the way.
All the little things thatmight come up, you know they can
.
They've been there, they'vedone it.
This is what they've done andshow you, like, at the very end
(38:44):
this occupancy, our buildinginspector came and we were so
worried about getting thisbuilding inspection done, right
before the lady was going tomove in and she's like well, I
could have done a temporarybuilding like one for you if you
had had to do that.
It's like that's what peoplewho are in this can tell you,
like, whenever you think there'sthis thing, that's this block,
like there's always a way, kindof in or around.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
So what a testament.
I mean really like you.
I'm so, I'm so happy for youguys.
I'm so happy for you guys.
All right, are you looking forflip number three?
Are you under contract rightnow?
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Just closed on flip three two days ago.
Yes, awesome.
So we had a hat and I'll saythe other thing is I feel like
we've done a pretty good job atsaying no.
I have done a pretty good jobat saying no to things in the
past, like when things didn'twork out, it wasn't the right
time, like that's fine.
So we had this house, this.
My realtor brought us this houseand said, oh, would you be
(39:39):
interested in a house up on um?
One of our local littlemountains is called lookout and
it's a really nice community.
When my husband and I movedhere, like we'd go driving
around and we'd be like, oh, oneday this would be such a nice
area, like every trees are verymature and the landscaping is
beautiful and blah, blah, blah.
And we're like, yeah, we'd beinterested in a house up there.
So this was back in August andshe, finally, she was like, okay
(40:01):
, somebody in my office isworking on a, maybe an off
market house.
And so in September she waslike you want to go look at the
house?
I'm like, yeah, we want to golook at the house.
So she brought us this houseand I loved it.
It's big, like 5,000 squarefoot, and my husband and I were
like, oh, this is.
You could just kind of feel tooI love the feeling when you
walk into places that likethere's been love here, but it
just been has been neglected.
(40:22):
And so we're like, yeah, thisis awesome.
And we we thought about it.
I talked to my dad and this wasalso when we were like in the
process of needing to get thisis September.
Like our houses need to getdone, and I had gotten some good
advice to be careful about thenumber of projects that you get
into.
And so we were like, okay, cool, we're just gonna let it go.
(40:44):
You know, then this is just notthe right time for this and
another house will come along.
And so we let it go.
And a couple of weeks later myrealtor said, well, I think they
would be open to a longer umbeing under contract for a
longer term, or like you meanlike two months.
She's like, yeah, I think so.
So we went under contract um toclose on that the after
(41:04):
Thanksgiving.
She still had her, all, all herstuff there.
She wasn't.
She was like out of state.
She was going to come back instate over the holidays to clean
out.
We're like, let's just go aheadand push her back to the end of
the year.
They're like, okay, but this isit right, yeah.
And then I guess we had onlyclosed on one house by this
point, and we had that in ourcontract that we were going to
close on our first house inorder to get that house, and so
(41:27):
we ended up pushing it back justa little bit longer and so we
were able to just close on thathouse.
That's what CEOing looks like,so congrats, yeah, and I love
that, I love having that CEO hatand I love being the like I can
kind of see this big pictureand I don't love the details of
things, but like I'll get intothem when I have to, and then I
(41:48):
like seeing this big picture.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
And then when people say, oh, there's no houses to
flip, I'm like, have you lookedaround?
Have you looked?
Have you driven down the streetLike I could?
There's 10 houses from here.
You could probably flip at somepoint, you know, but you're
going to find what you look for.
So again, some of this coachingjust get coaches, they're the
best.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
I'm really glad you said that about the.
There are deals everywhere.
Some people just aren't aren'tbuying that, aren't believing
that you're exactly right.
You'll see what you want to see.
You'll see what you want to see.
If you want to see deals,you'll see deals.
If you don't want to see deals,you won't see deals.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
And like everything, even after we've made like a
good chunk of money, likethere's always like a next
hurdle and a next obstacle and,like you know, you really have
to get over that.
Like whatever challenge you'redealing with, like you have to
get through that, because if youcan't get through that, then
there's going to be, anotherthing you have to get through,
so yeah, over and, over and,over and over.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
But that's why.
That's why we do this, becausewe're not nine to fivers, we're
not we're going to sit here inthe cubicle and do the same
thing all day.
Every day, we want, we need thedifferent stimulation, and
that's what these differentprojects bring, cause it's
always something new anddifferent.
Yes, yeah, and there's somethings that are the same, and
sometimes it's it's an easyproject and sometimes it's not
(43:13):
an easy project.
We're still going to keep doingit because of those reasons,
because sometimes it's easy andsometimes it's not.
Speaker 3 (43:17):
Yes, it's just a wonderful, wonderful thing and I
love, like the I don't want anine to five Like I love that
there's a start and an end toprojects and the whole thing.
This, like I was looking, youknow, in my whole thirties and
twenties, like I've been likewhat can give me I can use my
creativity and I can, um, use mymanagement skills and I can uh
(43:39):
have flexibility and get my kidsto and from school and I can,
you know, and provides income.
Like it's important, you know,to say that you don't care, like
I'm sorry, these, you knowfirefighters who are working for
jobs just to make ends meet.
It's like I don't want to livelike that.
So another thing real estate isme and there's so many
different ways to make moneywithin real estate and so many
different hats to wear it.
(43:59):
If you want to GC it yourself,you can.
Or if you want to wholesale ahouse, you can.
Or if you want to be therealtor all these different cool
hats developer, whatever.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
I know I love it.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
So many different lanes to explore.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Yeah, congrats on a killer first year.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Thanks to you and your kids and everybody really
Wow, thank you.
Stand on the shoulders ofgiants and like walk in your
footsteps.
This is like I did not do thisby myself or alone, or without
help.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
So Thank you for letting us be part of your
journey.
All right, girl, I'll see youin the group.
Thanks, debbie, we'll see youBye.
Speaker 3 (44:31):
Bye.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Diana, you are so inspiring and one of the things
I love about you is that you'rea doer.
You don't just talk about it,you just go do, and that's
(44:52):
contagious.
So you're inspiring a lot ofpeople.
Thank you so much again forsharing your story with us.
Now, listener, if you have beensitting on the sideline, if you
are waiting for a sign, this isyour sign.
Stop sitting this out.
If you want to be flippinghouses, if you want to buy,
renovate and sell or keep themas rentals, that is what we do,
(45:13):
that is what we teach, andthere's no reason you can't do
it.
I don't care where you'restarting from.
We have seen it all.
If you are serious aboutstarting and building this
business, go to herfirstflipcom,fill out the application,
schedule a call with us and seehow we can help.
We would love to be part ofyour journey.
(45:35):
Okay, until next time, go outthere, flip houses like a girl,
leave people in places betterthan you find them and make it a
great day.
Bye, y'all.
You're listening to the Flip Houses Like a Girl
podcast, where we educate,empower and celebrate everyday
women who are facing their fears, juggling family and business,
embracing their awesomeness andwholeheartedly chasing their
dream of flipping houses.
Each episode delivershonest-to-goodness tools, tips
(00:21):
and strategies you can implementtoday to get closer to your
first or next successful houseflip.
Here's your spiky-hairedbreakfast taco-loving host.
House flipping coach DebbieDeVere.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Hey, thanks for hanging out with us today.
In this episode, I'm going tointroduce you to one of our flip
sisters, diana.
She's in Tennessee and herfirst 12 months of flipping
houses it was just amazing.
So three huge highlights One,she made over $150,000.
Two, she retired herfirefighter husband.
(01:03):
And three, she tripled herfamily's income.
What Isn't that amazing?
Yes, it is totally amazing, andshe will let you know.
It is completely doable for youtoo, wherever you are.
She's definitely a bigproponent for coaching and
mentoring and getting educatedso that you can make smart
(01:24):
decisions and you don't wastetime trying to figure it out
yourself.
All right, without furtherdelay, let's get into this
conversation with Diana.
You're going to love it.
You know the thing.
Start with your name who youare, where you are, what you
were up to before you got intoflipping, and are you still
doing that, that sort of thing.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Yeah, so my name's Diana.
I'm 39 years old.
I live in Chattanooga with myhusband and our two girls.
We have a four and a almostthree-year-old.
So that's been mostly my jobfor the last few years.
I previously have been a teacher.
(02:07):
I have a degree in anthropology, a master's degree in teaching,
and kind of spent my 20s liketraveling around and not knowing
what I wanted to do.
And every couple of years we'rejust like, oh, I'll be here for
a little while, try this, behere for a little while, try
that.
And I've always just like, kindof like kept moving and that's
(02:28):
kind of been my spiel is likeI've been able to pivot, like if
this wasn't the rightrelationship or if this wasn't
the right job.
I've just kind of kept looking.
But meanwhile I felt like at 30,I was like I still don't know
what I want to do.
I don't like teaching.
I know I want to have a family,but my husband and we moved to
Chattanooga and that like was areally steadying force for me
and starting our family here.
But even that I was still likepregnant with my daughter and
(02:51):
like taking online classes atour local community college.
I started a Google projectmanagement certificate and that
was the first time wheresomebody was like have you
thought about project manager?
Cause I was trying to figureout, like I'm not really good at
anything, like I'm not reallygood at like one thing, I'm kind
of more of a generalist, like,uh, I can see big picture type
of things.
(03:12):
So started that and I think itwas maybe I was pregnant or had
the kids and a girlfriend sentme like a rich dad, poor dad
video and my husband and I gotinto that.
You know YouTube rabbit hole,learning about passive income,
and you know our minds are likewhat are we?
doing Like why are we spendingall our time at jobs that we
(03:32):
hate?
And blah, blah, blah.
He has.
So my husband's definitely mypartner in all of this and has
been along this whole train, soI'll talk about him a little bit
.
But he has more of anentrepreneurial background.
He had started a couple likebusinesses with his brothers and
they didn't necessarily weren'tsuper successful, but taught
(03:54):
him different skills.
So he was on board basicallygetting into real estate.
His brother was actually like,oh, we should look at, we're
talking about passive income, weshould really talk about short
term rentals.
So that that's the house thatI'm.
This bedroom I'm in is actually, um, the house that we bought
with his brother and, uh, oursister-in-law, and this is the
house that we got into rightbefore I joined your program.
(04:16):
So I'm like I have two babiesat home.
My husband's working full-timeas a fire fighter.
Uh, he was wrapping up a farmthat they were working on.
We fire fighter.
He was wrapping up a farm thatthey were working on.
We're like let's buy this houseand renovate it ourselves and
do all the work ourselves andall the decor and paint and
everything which we loved.
That part and that's definitelysomething I'm learning was like
I love the buying of the houseand the making it beautiful and
(04:37):
and thinking about like how dowe make this better for this
next person?
But the management aspect of itI don't love.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
There is nothing passive about managing
short-term rental.
No, it is high touch.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Everything.
Yeah, yes, and so, yeah, that'swhat I was like.
We bought it in December and weput it on the market in October
and we still had to refinanceout of it and it's like this
thing doesn't stop.
Then it's now you have allthese people coming and messages
that have to get sent back andforth, and so I was like I
thought this was supposed to bepassive, and my dad was actually
(05:13):
the one that was like you guysshould be flipping houses.
And we're like, no, no, no, dad, you don't know what you're
talking about.
Like we need to be doingshort-term rentals.
And I just remember, oh, so our, our county, our city, uh,
banned like all new short-termrentals in the meantime.
So we had already bought thishouse, we were able to get it to
be a short-term rental, but inthe meantime, like there goes
(05:33):
our pipe dream of like we'lljust buy five short-term rentals
and like retire happily.
And you know that didn't happen.
So we're like, okay, we need topivot.
So, um, I saw an advertisementfor your group and it really,
really resonated with me.
My husband's like very stubborn, I'll do it myself.
And from his background, whathe grew up seeing was like you
(05:56):
have to do it yourself.
You can't afford to hire peopleto do everything.
You're not going to make anymoney if you do it that way.
I'm like, oh yeah, well, I seeother people doing it and
they're not doing it allthemselves.
So like, pretty sure, we couldprobably learn how to do it a
different way, but we'll try ityour way too.
So that's kind of been our, ourspell.
So I joined your program likeright as we were ending up, this
one got this refinanced, wentthrough the whole process of all
(06:20):
the modules and learnings andstuff and then started looking
for our first house to actuallyflip, to sell all the modules
and learnings and stuff and thenstarted looking for our first
house to actually flip to sell.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
You've since done two and you still have your
short-term rental.
Do do I remember something?
You posting something in thegroup that maybe you're selling
it or selling your interest init.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Yeah, we family members and, um, you know,
trying to keep relationships andyou know, yeah, well, even last
summer my husband's like overhere because he doesn't want to
hire someone to do the.
We have a pool and a hot tub.
You know, this is a big place,it's a 10 person place.
(07:03):
So he's over here like cleaningthe hot tub every week and the
pool and a hot tub you know thisis a big place, it's a 10
person place.
So he's over here like cleaningthe hot tub every week and the
pool.
And just like, because wethought we would do it ourselves
and because we have partnerslike to add in, a property
manager just takes away a lot ofthat.
If it was just Mike, mike, myhusband and I and then the
property manager, that wouldmake sense.
But when you keep cutting thatpiece of the pie, it's like is
(07:25):
it really worth it for like thismuch money?
But for right now.
For right now we've gotsomebody you know handling the
hot tub and stuff and so forright now we're keeping it.
But yeah, that could change insix months.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
We'll see.
We'll see.
Okay, so you have since boughtand renovated and sold two flips
.
Yes, take us through your firstpurchase, even though it's your
second sale.
Does that make sense to do itthat way, or how do you think it
makes sense to do?
Speaker 3 (08:02):
um, I would say just like chronologically Perfect,
let's do it.
I joined your program, startedgoing through the modules.
I had a great real estate agentas a friend and she was taking
us.
We started looking at houses onthe MLS and this is still kind
of things.
We're still kind of crazy andgoing over even houses we would
go to.
We went to one house that'slike hadn't been touched since
(08:23):
1950.
And there were like 20 peoplethere with somebody had already
paid an inspector who's likethere with his clipboard.
We're like what is going onhere?
So we're like, okay, did thatfor like a month, put out some,
put some offers on things, andit wasn't getting too much
traction.
But that was just such a goodprocess of getting out there and
(08:44):
looking at houses and puttingan offer.
So then I started looking forwholesalers, got on everybody's
email list.
They started sending me thingsand this house he had sent it to
me.
He followed up with me and Ilooked at it and compared to the
other houses that we had beenlooking at, this house had
already been demoed and the topfloor it had already passed all
(09:06):
its rough ends and the top floorwas drywalled.
It was like very clean, youknow, compared to all these
houses we're walking in that arefull of garbage, that smell
like cat urine, that like are amess, we're like, oh, this house
, we're just going to get in andget out and put some tile on it
, like, yeah, this looks great.
(09:26):
That house we kept for 11months and just that was the
house that we just finished.
So lots of learnings with thatone, but that's OK.
So, biggest things we came intoright away.
It didn't have.
It had an electrical power pole, temporary power pole in the
front yard, and I didn't knowwhat that meant.
But we had to go through thepermitting process.
(09:50):
We had called the city to seelike where we were in the
permitting process before weeven closed on that house, and
they were like they couldn'ttell us or I don't know.
We just kept getting likedifferent answers to things.
And we talked to some peopleand they'd be like, oh yeah, you
know it'd be fine, you justpull your final.
And then other people would say, I don't know, it depends on
your inspector, and then thepeople at the city.
(10:11):
So once we finally, well, wecan get to that.
But, um, we put an offer.
They were asking 195.
We offered 185.
We settled at 190.
The electrical wasn't complete.
They had told us it wascomplete, so we got a five grand
(10:32):
off for that.
Speaker 2 (10:32):
So we ended up paying one 85 for it and this was a
wholesale deal, wholesale Nice.
Did somebody else already startthe flip and they needed out?
Speaker 3 (10:44):
Yeah, yeah, and he was like a local guy and this
kind of you know ran out ofmoney.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Yeah, okay, so you found it through a wholesaler
and that one.
How did you finance that so?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
originally I was going to use a hard money lender
and then we had refinanced outof this house so we had some
cash to bring to it and so wewere going to cover some of it
and use a hard money lender.
I found a lady.
Her terms looked good, she wasrecommended in another group,
but we were going out of townand I was trying to get it to
(11:18):
close before we left and shedidn't close before we left.
We go to town.
And she was like, oh, just,we'll move it back to this day.
And literally I spent all ofthat week like, okay, we're
going to close on this day.
I'm getting on the plane andshe's letting me know like the
last minute, like this is notgoing to close on Friday, it's
going to have to be next week.
And I was like, lady, we'vealready pushed this back once
I'm.
(11:40):
It was really that was my firstlike closings for me have been
stressful.
So I remember I got home and Ilove myself, like got a little
upset.
And then I called, picked upthe phone and I called my dad
and I told him what happened.
I was not expecting anythingfrom him but he was like how
(12:01):
much do you need?
What's the interest rate?
Are we going to do on this?
So, anyways, he ended upbringing, allowing us to bring
cash to close.
What did you pay?
You paid 185.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
And what were you thinking the renovation would be
?
Speaker 3 (12:15):
Okay, so we originally had thought around 80
K.
Okay, um, I got back, I wentback and looked at my like
original scope of work and wewere going to put in like
granite countertops and do kindof like a mid range.
Once we had got in and werelooked at okay, our square
footage and our numbers, causeit had a full basement that he
had just.
(12:35):
Oh yeah, this is that one, yeah,yeah, okay, our square footage
and our numbers because it had afull basement that he had just.
Yeah, so both of our flipsactually had full basements.
He had already framed out thebasement of this one and cleaned
it out, and so he was going todo it as like a five bedroom.
We took it down to a fourbedroom, made it into like a
little um apartment,mother-in-law suite kind of
thing in the basement.
So we ended up spending$135,000.
Speaker 2 (13:02):
So okay, Did you borrow purchase and renovation
from your dad?
Everything.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
No, I had a $200,000 loan from him, so that was like
$185,000 plus a little bit.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
And then?
So how did you finance the restof things?
Oh, was it from your cash out?
Speaker 3 (13:20):
Yeah From, yeah From us.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
From you.
Speaker 3 (13:24):
From your pocket.
Okay, yeah From us.
Yeah, okay From that one, yeah.
Speaker 2 (13:30):
And then so that thing took 11 months, so that
thing took 11 months.
What, what happened there?
What what?
Yeah, let's go through that.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
So we get in and we immediately like I have subs
coming in, we're looking at itand we're getting electricians
and and at that point I hadtalked to some what I now know
as key contractors and so I hadboth GCs come in to look at it.
They never really got back tome, they were busy.
They were like you know, it'llbe three months from now.
I'm like I can't wait threemonths.
Probably now they probablycould have done it in three
months and still been donefaster, but that's okay.
(14:07):
So how to keep contractors comein, and at this point my
husband you know it's going tobe like I'll do it, you know
it's, we can do this, we justgot done doing this house, like
we can do this.
So like, okay.
So we had this key contractorcome in.
The permitting was like our,our little wrench.
So we it took us a little whileLike we realized we had to have
(14:29):
a GC to pull, re-pull thebuilder's permit.
So we called in a favor withsomeone that we knew that was
like builder's permit.
So we called in a favor withsomeone that we knew that was
like you know, that's a GC, whoknows my husband, who knows he
does good work, like he can comeand pull the permit for us.
Yeah, so we got through that.
Then it was the electrical andplumbing.
And we found through thepermitting office the person who
(14:52):
pulled the original electricalpermit.
And so because we're bringingin other electricians and they
seemed a little bit unsure aboutthe whole city thing, and I'm
like, okay, I'm like so let'sjust find the original guy that
you know did it, and he came inand he was like, oh yeah, well,
I didn't do the work, but youknow I can do it.
(15:13):
We're like, okay, cool, um, sohe started working on it.
We found a plumber that said hewould come in and they started.
We wanted to change just acouple of things.
So they kind of redid the roughin Meanwhile.
We got started in the outside,redid all the windows, redid all
the siding, um, added a backdeck, um.
(15:33):
So we were trying to like dowhat we could.
And then it was like we justreached a point where we were
trying to pull the permit and itwas.
It was just, I don't even know,debbie, like what happened
between, I would say, our roughin permits finally re-pulled
maybe two or three months to get, because we ended up having a
(15:56):
re-pull and the like.
The electrical inspector didn'tmake us open walls, but the
plumbing inspector did.
So we had to reopen all thewalls to redo the rough and
permitting, yeah, yeah.
And then from that point thenwe started going and, um, we had
to re-pull, we had to put downthe flooring, we had to re-pull,
we had to put down the flooring.
We had to re-pull that upbecause of a pipe that we
(16:19):
changed out of vanity, from adouble, from a single to a
double, and the plumber didn'tput the cap on the pipe and
luckily I walked in.
It had been less than an hour.
But there's like water pouringout of the um wall and down into
the basement we had.
You know it's dry walled, it'slike the flooring was done.
So like I call my husband he'sover at the other house, which
(16:39):
is right across the street comesover, drills a hole in the
floor to like get the water togo down, and like I do know
where the water valve turnoff is, I just it was a weird valve
and I didn't know.
It just didn't look.
(17:00):
It wasn't like you could justturn it.
I didn't know, I don't know.
So that was something that youknow.
We had to redo some drywall downin the basement.
We had a toilet leak from whenthey installed the toilet.
We had to redo that drywall inthe basement.
Um, I think, yeah, our plumber,our electrician, he just didn't
show up.
He just didn't come, like hedid the rough in work, we got
the rough in permit re-polledand then he just like got busy
on other jobs and never showedup.
(17:21):
And my husband and his dad andum, we have a family member who
works for electrical companythat like came and helped us get
it done and I mean he, you know, came back over and looked at
what we had done and but thatwas we were because we were
working with the permittingdepartment and it was taking us
so long.
I didn't want to switchplumbers or electricians again.
(17:44):
Now, I know, now I would have alot sooner, but you just want
to give people the benefit ofthe doubt.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
I know, but that's the biggest lesson Like it it's.
It's one of the biggest lessonswe have to learn.
I'm glad you learned it.
You learned it way faster thanI did.
It took me like four or fiveyears.
So, yeah, it's hard.
It's hard because we think,well, at least we know what
we're in here, like, we knowwhat to expect.
They're not going to show up,or they might show up one day,
(18:11):
you know.
And it's like who knows, whenwe start this new relationship
with somebody else, what's goingto happen?
Are they going to just do thesame thing?
Yeah, it's tough.
It's tough, this whole managingpeople thing.
Speaker 3 (18:22):
Yeah, yes, and then when you add like not even just
the plumber and the electrician,when you add in the city and
the permitting, like this is a,there are a lot of relationships
and like I felt like maybe theplumber didn't have a great
relationship with them and theywere kind of like messing with
him a little bit.
I don't know, though, and thenI've also heard that the city,
(18:44):
their website, sucks, and so theI would check in with my
plumber and say hey, did youpull the permadeat?
Oh yeah, I pulled it.
Okay, well, they haven't shownup yet, and sometimes they show
up like within a couple days.
So you know, if it goes a weekor two later, you know I finally
had to call the inspectormyself.
He's like well, I really don'tlike, you know we don't like
talking to the homeowners youknow I prefer to talk to the
plumber and I'm like but do youhave our inspection?
(19:06):
Like?
And he's like no, I don't haveit.
It's like okay, well, I need toknow this.
So that was another like.
We literally did not pass.
These people were had theirmoving truck down the street
ready to move into our house andwe had not passed our final
occupancy.
Our final plumbing did not getpassed until literally the night
before and they were undercontract with us for almost two
(19:27):
months.
Speaker 2 (19:28):
Like oh my gosh man.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
Yeah, so that that house took a while and we going
along, we we decided, you knowthat we could get a certain
price for the house, but weneeded to.
We couldn't do granite like, weneeded to up the level of like
what we did.
So that's really like thedifference between the 80.
80 also didn't have any moneyfor plumbing no plumbing,
because it had passed.
We thought, oh, we passed, likeLike, well, we probably spent,
(19:55):
and the HVAC units were heatingand cooling, not something else,
I don't know the name of it.
We ended up buying two new HVACunits.
So we didn't think that we weregoing to have to buy for that.
You know the electrical, theplumbing, trips to Lowe's and
Home Depot for stuff, you know.
(20:15):
But we just, we just gotthrough, we just got through.
So that house was in February,we got it going and then we sort
of got to a standstill.
And so what are Mike and Idoing when we're at a standstill
?
We're looking at real estateand this wholesaler I had
contacted and contacted me andhe had sent me a house and I was
like, ooh, these numbers lookgood.
(20:37):
And that's always like cause, alot of stuff we see from
wholesalers.
The numbers don't make sense,they seem overpriced, whatever,
and so this guy had sent mesomething I was like, well, that
looks pretty good.
So we went and looked at it and, um, it had a someone, some
family issue.
There was somebody living atthe house that didn't want to
move out of the house and he waslike, well, you could take it
(20:57):
to court or whatever, blah, blah, blah.
And like, I, I don't really wantto deal with that right now.
Um, so he ended up getting outof his contract with this house.
But he was like, but I haveanother house that's going to be
coming up and I was like, ooh,I want to know.
You know what that house?
And we went and looked at itand that was our second flip
(21:19):
that we got into.
That was our mid-century modernbeauty that we bought May, I
think 13th.
Okay, so the first one youbought in February, it was like
March 1st, I think that we endedup closing.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
Okay, so during those two months you were getting
permits and trying to get allthat situated.
Speaker 3 (21:41):
Yeah, and we did as much as we could on the outside.
So that's why we did thewindows, we did the siding, we
did the deck, like.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
I'm glad y'all did that.
Some people just wait and it'slike no, you want to like, you
want to keep moving, you want totry, you want to try to keep
that momentum.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:55):
And we redid the rough ends.
That's what we did Redid therough ends.
And then it was like then wegot to this point of like okay,
yeah we have to pass, we have torepass all our rough ends and
right, it didn't happen quickly,so we bought another house, but
this house we knew, like weknew when we looked at it, like
(22:16):
this was a special house, thiswas a really beautiful house and
it was in.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
We had great comps and which one was it that you
didn't anticipate?
Um, really finishing out andadding all the square footage
from the basement?
Which which property was that?
Was that the first one or thesecond one?
Speaker 3 (22:37):
Um.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
I would say the second.
Speaker 3 (22:39):
the second one both had basements right.
The first one he had alreadyplanned on finishing that
basement out Cause it hadalready gotten like demoed and
he had put in um the framing forbedrooms.
And so that's what we paid one85 for that house, cause he's
selling it as like a fivebedroom house.
Got it, the second house.
(23:00):
The basement was super dark andlike dank and um full of stuff
and I don't think he wasnecessarily selling it as a you
know, 3000 square foot house.
She's selling it more as a yeah, it ended up being a really big
square foot house.
She's selling it more as a yeah, it ended up being a really big
.
Speaker 2 (23:17):
That's.
Yeah, it was a big house.
Okay, yeah, 3000 square feet,okay.
So he, it's so important thatwe add value in every way we can
, but so finishing out thatspace, did it save your numbers?
Like, would you have made moneyif you didn't finish out that
space on both of the houses?
Speaker 3 (23:39):
Um, yes, yes, we.
Our numbers looked good in thebeginning without the basement,
and that's like when we boughtthe house we made sure the
numbers looked good.
Yeah, you know either way.
Yeah, we, just when we redidthe numbers for the second house
because we had bought it at aneven better price, that's when
(24:03):
the like, the spread got reallynice.
Speaker 2 (24:05):
Got it Okay.
So the first house ended upgoing on the market after the
second house, so the first houseactually became the second sale
.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
It actually got on the market first became the
second sale.
It actually got on the marketfirst, so the first house got on
the market first.
We finished that house firstbecause I knew it was going to
be a little bit trickier.
The road and the way it wasoriented was going to be a
little bit.
It wasn't going to sell as fastas the second house.
We knew the second house wasgoing to do really well and so I
(24:34):
really wanted to push to getthe first house done, especially
before Thanksgiving, cause wewent on to the market like
November I don't remember whatit was like November 3rd or
something like that and I knewthe holidays were coming up.
So I was like we really need toget this first house done,
because the second house I wasnot as concerned.
I knew the finishes and thingsthat we were doing inside really
pop and really stand out, yeah,and the lot was really cool and
(24:55):
so yeah, but but first housegot on the market first still
sold close.
Speaker 2 (25:03):
Okay, okay, yeah, and then.
So what did the first house?
So you were all in for gosharound 320 with the purchase and
the renovation, not includingcarrying costs or interest or
anything like that.
What did you end up selling?
The first house, slash secondsale for.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
Yeah, so the first house sold for 405.
Speaker 2 (25:29):
Okay, and so what did your profit end up being Like?
35.
Nice Congrats on that, thankyou.
And then the second house.
What were any constructionsurprises there?
How long did that renovationtake?
Speaker 3 (25:44):
It was seven months, like kind of total, from closing
on it in the beginning toclosing on it at the sale.
So it took us seven months.
It was about six months of reno.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
Was part of what took longer the fact that the guy
was on working on both projectsat the same time yeah.
Speaker 3 (26:00):
So I would say we were a big hold up because mike
my husband at the same at thesame time, was still a
firefighter and so he works at24-hour shifts.
It's like super weird 24 on, 24off, 24 on, 24 off, 24 on.
We also had two familyvacations planned that summer
and so and he has to be a dadtoo, like you got to show up
(26:21):
sometimes.
So we realized like we areholding this train up also.
So in July, that's when welooked at our finances we he had
some.
He had had a farm with hisbrothers at one time and they
sold off some equipment.
We had a little bit of moneycome in as that and we're
looking at like, okay, what areyou going to make the fire
department for the rest of theyear?
(26:41):
It was like 15 K.
We're like, okay, we werelooking at our numbers for this
woods house and we were likewhat are we going to make when
we sell this house?
We're like a lot of money.
Is this house going to get soldbefore Christmas If you
continue to be a firefighter?
We're like, ooh, maybe not.
So, yeah, for the end of theyear.
I mean, that's it.
It's like one again, like oncewe got our brain into this
(27:04):
situation.
It was like we are going tomake less money if you stay in
this job or you quit and wehustle our little booty tooties
off and we get this sold like ina month and then we're going to
be fine.
So to me, for us in oursituation we are not coming from
like a doctor or a lawyer wherewe're making $100,000 a year I
(27:25):
could see that being a verydifficult decision to like leave
a job like that, like we're nottalking about that kind of
money, you know and the timecommitment for him is a lot.
It's not like he's sitting athome working from home.
He's physically out of thehouse, being woken up in the
middle of the night, not gettingsleep.
So his brain is in too manyplaces For me.
I needed him to focus and so wemade the decision in July and
(27:48):
that's when things startedmoving.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Was it hard for him to make that decision or no,
when he looked at the numbers?
Speaker 3 (27:58):
No, I think we're very much so on a team.
I'm there to support him, he'sthere to support me.
Like his brother had alreadyquit the fire department and
moved out of town and so he sawI think it was just a matter of
time before he was going to quit, cause, like neither one of us
are really good W2 employees, Ithink we were both like this we
want to have control and it'slike this like limit of like
(28:18):
this carrot stick.
We're like why would you staythis, like to maybe make 50 K in
10 years, you know?
Or we could make that this year.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Like yeah On one, flip on most almost one flip, so
okay.
So with your first flip, yourbiggest lessons learned were
around permitting and managingcontractors, like making sure
everything is.
You know, scope of work isdetailed, making sure you're
(28:49):
holding them accountable andreplacing them when they don't
perform.
Yeah, what else on the firstflip?
Or were those the big things?
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Yeah, I mean especially if you're going to
have inspections as a part ofyour process to hold on to that
last payment, to not pay theplumber until he's passed that.
You know that was the problem.
We had already paid ourelectrician and already paid our
plumber, and so they didn'tshow up, you know, and, and they
did to some extent we were ableto like get the plumber back,
but not having that lastpaycheck hurt.
(29:20):
Knowing what we're good at andwhat we want to do, my, like my
husband's not really a peopleperson, like he's really good
when he does his job, like youknow, managing contractors and
and and he got to the point hewas used to like every day going
to work and being with his twinbrother, and now he was like
going to work by himself.
He's like I don't like going towork by myself.
(29:42):
I'm like you don't have to.
I shared a podcast of a woman,one of our flip sisters, who's
like killing it and you knowlike this is her numbers and
she's hiring a GC, you know.
And so it took a little whilefor us that mindset piece, that
that was the big like kind oflearning lesson for us too.
(30:02):
It was like we don't have you.
The investor is a hat Likethat's a job, yeah, and we
didn't.
That didn't click until we hadto go through the process
ourselves.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
And really running this as a business, running it
as a business.
Yeah, and it's hard in yourfirst flip because you're like
this is my first one, is this abusiness?
I don't know.
So it's tough, yeah, yeah, okay.
Second flip what did you end upbuying and putting into that
(30:33):
one for the renovation?
Speaker 3 (30:34):
So we bought that for 140.
Originally we thought maybe 80K.
And again this is like reallybecause we're we didn't we did
have like a scope of work andour details, but because we
didn't have all our contractorslined up with our, our key
contract, you know, our keycontractor wanted to give us a
(30:55):
very big quote and not likedetail it out, so we ended up
spending another 135 on that one.
And this is like we stillaren't sure exactly where all
this money, but like we'vegotten it pretty close, but
there's still a few grand wherewe're, like, you know, not sure.
Speaker 2 (31:13):
So the one that you completely had to finish out the
basement, this one we redidyeah, we completely refinished.
Yeah, okay.
So that's a big reason why thatone, the numbers increased on
that one.
Okay, got it, yes, so next timemaybe just plan on 135K
renovation.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Is that like, yeah, maybe Normal, yes, moving
forward, we are going to be alot more detailed and the big
ticket electrical plumbing, hvac, roof foundation like just put
in 10K for all of them, and then, if you don't need it, okay,
great, okay.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
So you had to finish out that one.
You put it on the market.
That one sold pretty fast Causethat one yeah, that one under
contract like real fast.
So people loved it.
Speaker 3 (32:04):
Yeah, so we had a great open house.
I think we had 10 people comein.
We had two full price offers onthat house and we actually had
like three.
This lady had given us kind oftwo options and so we had listed
it for 419 and one I don'tremember now exactly.
(32:26):
We got to 435.
One, I don't remember nowexactly, we got to 435.
So that's what it sold for.
So we had these two kind ofcompeting offers and one was
like I'll go up to this, andthis other lady said I'll just
do this.
It was an FHA loan, but wedidn't have any problems with
that.
They came, they inspected thehouse.
It was fine, the loan was fine,we'd held it long enough.
(32:49):
So that was fine.
Yeah, that house went on themarket like December 3rd.
It closed December 28th.
Speaker 2 (32:55):
Oh, dang Nice With an FHA loan.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
I think she had been maybe a backup offer on our
other house, and so she hadstarted the process Got it Okay,
okay, so, okay.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
So your first flip was a 35K profit.
What was this one?
115.
Okay, yeah, so I mean nice.
First year, 150k.
You made $150,000.
Your first year of flippinghouses, my first year.
Speaker 3 (33:24):
Yeah, isn't that crazy.
I had in my journal from lastyear January I want to double
our income.
That was my goal last year andwe like tripled it, you know.
So that gives me chills, I know, and that's amazing.
That's huge Congratulations.
It's life changing, especiallywhere we live Like we.
This is not, you know.
(33:45):
This is a an amazing, you knowthis.
This money gives us enoughmoney this year to like breathe
and pick projects that we reallyare excited about and that
things that we want to do andnot just work because we have to
work.
And I think that's been like mytrying to figure out like, okay,
do I want passive income?
It's not just about passiveincome.
I don't want to go sit on abeach Like I want to get excited
, to wake up in the morning andlike do things that I'm excited
(34:07):
about and, um, making thingsbeautiful and more practical and
um, better design is like whatwe're living for right now.
And so, and it's so meaningfulto people.
And you look at these housesand everyone's doing gray on
gray, on gray on gray.
Still, it's like guys, can westop with the, with the gray,
(34:28):
something, you know, just alittle bit of fun, and that was
like what really stood out withour second flip.
You know, we did a colored backsplash, we did colored door
trim and it's these littlethings that stand out, that it's
just paint or it's just alittle bit.
You don't have to like go crazy, but makes a big difference,
personalizes it.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
It's absolutely a huge difference.
People are always like, how dothose houses sell so fast?
And it's like, because we'renot doing the cookie cutter
thing, we're not doing likewe're all creating really cool
places, like spaces for people,so that is huge.
You tripled your family'sincome.
You spearheaded all of that.
(35:07):
That's really cool income.
Yeah, you spearheaded all ofthat.
That's really cool, yeah.
The thing is is when you saidit just lets you breathe, oh, my
God, I get that.
I, I get that.
I totally understand that.
And that's a different kind offreedom, like that freedom of
really just like like this senseof peace and it's okay, we're
(35:29):
okay, like we're better thanokay, and getting to choose what
you want to work on and choosewhat fills your days.
I mean, that's the ultimate.
That's the ultimate thing.
Speaker 3 (35:40):
Yeah, that's like the hierarchy of like life.
Right there is to get up and todo the things that you want to
do.
To me, I feel like you know tohave the ability to do that.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
Yeah, so this year has been amazing.
It was very stressful at times,like just to get to the closing
table for both houses, likedealing with private money.
I'm, I would say, like moneyand me have had a very distant
relationship.
I'm like you're cool over there.
As long as we don't, I'm notgoing to worry too much about
(36:11):
you.
You don't worry too much aboutme, like, as long as I don't go
into debt and credit card.
I've never done that, but Ijust never faced it really and
took control of my own financesand that's been something that
I'm working on.
To be the CEO.
It's like, yes, okay, I do wantto have a bookkeeper and an
accountant and people to help me, but first I need to know what
I'm talking about or what thislooks like, or you know.
(36:33):
So that's been huge for me indealing with contracts.
Like makes me veryuncomfortable and but it's the
right thing to do and it's whatwe have to do.
So doing those things that Idon't want to do, you know, some
things like no, I don't want todo it, but nobody else is going
to do it for you, so guess whatyou get to do.
Speaker 2 (36:54):
And it's just like you said, it's important for you
to understand it too.
So it empowers you, like whenyou understand how something,
how what the numbers should looklike, what you know, when you
understand the how and the whybehind something.
That's empowerment.
I feel like that's what we'reall striving for is that kind of
(37:15):
awareness.
Speaker 3 (37:17):
But I wouldn't have done this without joining your
group.
Like women or anybody, you cango online and everything's out
there for you, but you're goingto get overwhelmed.
And what joining this groupdoes is it.
It gives you like this is yourone, two, three.
Do these things first Don'tworry about this quite yet Like
just tunnel vision a little bit.
Put your blinders on, do this,then do that.
(37:40):
Okay, great, next week you cando this, this and this.
And just like taking those tinylittle steps and chunks at a
time and it snowballed.
Like, yes, and it's not magic, Ididn't, like I knew what we
were going to make six monthsago.
You know, this isn't, thiswasn't a huge.
I mean, you kind of don'treally know until the very end
(38:00):
when you go on the market, likeyou know what the exact numbers
are.
But I knew we were going to doreally well and so that's if I
could just tell anybody is likeget a coach, get somebody who's
done it, don't try to doeverything on your own.
Like we did, do it on our ownfor the first time and my, we
almost lost, like our, ourrelationships with our family
members and like it was.
(38:22):
It was a crap show and we'relucky to.
I could have seen us like justgetting done with this and then
never doing this again, but youcan join a group of people
that's going to be there to likehelp you along the way.
All the little things thatmight come up, you know they can
.
They've been there, they'vedone it.
This is what they've done andshow you, like, at the very end
(38:44):
this occupancy, our buildinginspector came and we were so
worried about getting thisbuilding inspection done, right
before the lady was going tomove in and she's like well, I
could have done a temporarybuilding like one for you if you
had had to do that.
It's like that's what peoplewho are in this can tell you,
like, whenever you think there'sthis thing, that's this block,
like there's always a way, kindof in or around.
Speaker 2 (39:06):
So what a testament.
I mean really like you.
I'm so, I'm so happy for youguys.
I'm so happy for you guys.
All right, are you looking forflip number three?
Are you under contract rightnow?
Speaker 3 (39:18):
Just closed on flip three two days ago.
Yes, awesome.
So we had a hat and I'll saythe other thing is I feel like
we've done a pretty good job atsaying no.
I have done a pretty good jobat saying no to things in the
past, like when things didn'twork out, it wasn't the right
time, like that's fine.
So we had this house, this.
My realtor brought us this houseand said, oh, would you be
(39:39):
interested in a house up on um?
One of our local littlemountains is called lookout and
it's a really nice community.
When my husband and I movedhere, like we'd go driving
around and we'd be like, oh, oneday this would be such a nice
area, like every trees are verymature and the landscaping is
beautiful and blah, blah, blah.
And we're like, yeah, we'd beinterested in a house up there.
So this was back in August andshe, finally, she was like, okay
(40:01):
, somebody in my office isworking on a, maybe an off
market house.
And so in September she waslike you want to go look at the
house?
I'm like, yeah, we want to golook at the house.
So she brought us this houseand I loved it.
It's big, like 5,000 squarefoot, and my husband and I were
like, oh, this is.
You could just kind of feel tooI love the feeling when you
walk into places that likethere's been love here, but it
just been has been neglected.
(40:22):
And so we're like, yeah, thisis awesome.
And we we thought about it.
I talked to my dad and this wasalso when we were like in the
process of needing to get thisis September.
Like our houses need to getdone, and I had gotten some good
advice to be careful about thenumber of projects that you get
into.
And so we were like, okay, cool, we're just gonna let it go.
(40:44):
You know, then this is just notthe right time for this and
another house will come along.
And so we let it go.
And a couple of weeks later myrealtor said, well, I think they
would be open to a longer umbeing under contract for a
longer term, or like you meanlike two months.
She's like, yeah, I think so.
So we went under contract um toclose on that the after
(41:04):
Thanksgiving.
She still had her, all, all herstuff there.
She wasn't.
She was like out of state.
She was going to come back instate over the holidays to clean
out.
We're like, let's just go aheadand push her back to the end of
the year.
They're like, okay, but this isit right, yeah.
And then I guess we had onlyclosed on one house by this
point, and we had that in ourcontract that we were going to
close on our first house inorder to get that house, and so
(41:27):
we ended up pushing it back justa little bit longer and so we
were able to just close on thathouse.
That's what CEOing looks like,so congrats, yeah, and I love
that, I love having that CEO hatand I love being the like I can
kind of see this big pictureand I don't love the details of
things, but like I'll get intothem when I have to, and then I
(41:48):
like seeing this big picture.
Speaker 2 (41:50):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (41:51):
And then when people say, oh, there's no houses to
flip, I'm like, have you lookedaround?
Have you looked?
Have you driven down the streetLike I could?
There's 10 houses from here.
You could probably flip at somepoint, you know, but you're
going to find what you look for.
So again, some of this coachingjust get coaches, they're the
best.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
I'm really glad you said that about the.
There are deals everywhere.
Some people just aren't aren'tbuying that, aren't believing
that you're exactly right.
You'll see what you want to see.
You'll see what you want to see.
If you want to see deals,you'll see deals.
If you don't want to see deals,you won't see deals.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
And like everything, even after we've made like a
good chunk of money, likethere's always like a next
hurdle and a next obstacle and,like you know, you really have
to get over that.
Like whatever challenge you'redealing with, like you have to
get through that, because if youcan't get through that, then
there's going to be, anotherthing you have to get through,
so yeah, over and, over and,over and over.
Speaker 2 (42:49):
But that's why.
That's why we do this, becausewe're not nine to fivers, we're
not we're going to sit here inthe cubicle and do the same
thing all day.
Every day, we want, we need thedifferent stimulation, and
that's what these differentprojects bring, cause it's
always something new anddifferent.
Yes, yeah, and there's somethings that are the same, and
sometimes it's it's an easyproject and sometimes it's not
(43:13):
an easy project.
We're still going to keep doingit because of those reasons,
because sometimes it's easy andsometimes it's not.
Speaker 3 (43:17):
Yes, it's just a wonderful, wonderful thing and I
love, like the I don't want anine to five Like I love that
there's a start and an end toprojects and the whole thing.
This, like I was looking, youknow, in my whole thirties and
twenties, like I've been likewhat can give me I can use my
creativity and I can, um, use mymanagement skills and I can uh
(43:39):
have flexibility and get my kidsto and from school and I can,
you know, and provides income.
Like it's important, you know,to say that you don't care, like
I'm sorry, these, you knowfirefighters who are working for
jobs just to make ends meet.
It's like I don't want to livelike that.
So another thing real estate isme and there's so many
different ways to make moneywithin real estate and so many
different hats to wear it.
(43:59):
If you want to GC it yourself,you can.
Or if you want to wholesale ahouse, you can.
Or if you want to be therealtor all these different cool
hats developer, whatever.
Speaker 2 (44:07):
I know I love it.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
So many different lanes to explore.
Speaker 2 (44:10):
Yeah, congrats on a killer first year.
Speaker 3 (44:13):
Thanks to you and your kids and everybody really
Wow, thank you.
Stand on the shoulders ofgiants and like walk in your
footsteps.
This is like I did not do thisby myself or alone, or without
help.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
So Thank you for letting us be part of your
journey.
All right, girl, I'll see youin the group.
Thanks, debbie, we'll see youBye.
Speaker 3 (44:31):
Bye.
Speaker 2 (44:32):
Diana, you are so inspiring and one of the things
I love about you is that you'rea doer.
You don't just talk about it,you just go do, and that's
(44:52):
contagious.
So you're inspiring a lot ofpeople.
Thank you so much again forsharing your story with us.
Now, listener, if you have beensitting on the sideline, if you
are waiting for a sign, this isyour sign.
Stop sitting this out.
If you want to be flippinghouses, if you want to buy,
renovate and sell or keep themas rentals, that is what we do,
(45:13):
that is what we teach, andthere's no reason you can't do
it.
I don't care where you'restarting from.
We have seen it all.
If you are serious aboutstarting and building this
business, go to herfirstflipcom,fill out the application,
schedule a call with us and seehow we can help.
We would love to be part ofyour journey.
(45:35):
Okay, until next time, go outthere, flip houses like a girl,
leave people in places betterthan you find them and make it a
great day.
Bye, y'all.
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