Episode Transcript
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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 delivers honest togoodness tools, tips and
(00:21):
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 DebbieDeViery.
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Hey there, thanks for
hanging out with us today.
So in this conversation I'mintroducing you to one of our
super fun flip sisters out ofSan Antonio, texas, named
Melissa.
Her story is it's so good Iknow every time I say it, but
they all are, maybe I should sayand they all are.
(01:03):
So the things that stand outfor me in this conversation are
how we get to choose our hearts,and her choosing this as her
heart has been way morerewarding than her nine to five
(01:25):
heart was that she no longerworks at.
Also, she learned some thingsthat I think are really
important lessons that we hearoften from our guests.
One is she learned how to takecalculated risks so that she
could follow her dream, thisdream of flipping houses.
(01:47):
She learned how to ask for helpand how that doesn't mean
you're weak or failing or notgood enough and how to have hard
conversations.
Another thing we talk about iswhat she wants her daughter to
see and what she wants herdaughter to think is possible
for herself.
(02:08):
We talk about how pride cancome into play when we're
pricing our properties to sell.
We talk about the importance ofone of my favorite things, to
talk about Buffers.
If you're in the program.
You know we talk about buffersa lot.
She talks about how crucialthey are.
(02:31):
They aren't just there to beannoying.
Buffers are crucial.
All right, we talk about allkinds of things.
She's walking us through herfirst flip, how she found it,
how she financed it, all thethings that came up, all the
things she learned, all thethings she might do differently
and everything else that comesup in the next 45-50-ish minutes
(02:54):
.
All right, without furtherdelay, let's get into this
conversation with Melissa.
You know the drill you want tojust start with introducing
yourself and letting us know whoyou are, where you are and what
you're up to in the world.
What are you doing these daysbesides flipping houses?
Speaker 2 (03:16):
Yeah, absolutely so.
First off, thank you for havingme.
When I first started learningabout your group and I was
listening to the podcast andjoined the program, I said this
is my goal is to be on a podcast.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
You're here, oh my
God.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So the fact that it's
happening is just such a dream
come true.
So thank you so much for havingme.
My name's Melissa and I was inthe corporate world for a long
time, and my daughter was bornduring the pandemic.
So I worked for a year afterthat and then I really decided
(03:58):
to just kind of shift mypriorities a little bit during
that time and I've just foundmyself not being as present as I
really wanted to be, and so mydad was actually flipping houses
on the side.
He had a full-time job and hewas just doing it on the side.
So I was like you know what?
I'm going to just help him alittle bit.
(04:19):
Then I realized that I reallyenjoyed it, and my husband came
across your podcast and I fellin love with it, and just
listening to all of the women'sstories inspired me and I was
like I can do this.
So it just really showed methat I wanted to do this on my
(04:42):
own and not have the safetyblanket of my dad.
I was like I want to jump in onthis and my husband was on
board, and so we jumped in to doit together and that's how we
got through our first flip.
Speaker 3 (04:56):
That's awesome.
What did your dad have to sayafter you sold your first one
recently?
Speaker 2 (05:02):
I think he was really
proud.
He was like OK, you did it, youdid it, and so it was a cool
moment to be able to take someof the things that I learned
from him and everything Ilearned from the program and
really see it through to the end.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
OK, so let's talk
about your first flip, because
it was a doozy, meaning youlearned a lot.
I did.
Yeah, we all have those learn alot flips.
So let's talk about when didyou buy it, when did you close
on it.
On the purchase yeah, so weclosed on it July of 2022.
Ok, and how did you find it?
Speaker 2 (05:44):
I found this one
through the MLS, and so I
utilized the GO criteria that welearned through the program and
found this one in a reallygreat area.
I found that it was like 10,less than 10 minutes from a lot
of different landmarks in thearea, and so it just felt like a
really great location that wasdesirable, so we went for it.
(06:07):
When we saw it on there, Was ita new listing?
It actually was.
My focus was originally onolder listings, but I still had
notifications set up for mydesired zip codes.
So this one popped up, and ithadn't been on the market for
very long, and so I jumped on it.
It was, you know, at a timewhen the market was pretty hot
(06:29):
and so we had to move reallyquickly on it, but I fell in
love with it the minute I saw itI was like it was a 1922 house
and so the but the bones werejust so cute, yeah.
And then I saw it and I waslike, wow, this is a no-brainer
for me.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Were there multiple
offers or did you beat everybody
and they decided quickly?
Speaker 2 (06:51):
Yeah, I think we got
to the punch and they decided
quickly Nice, nice.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Okay, July 2022,.
What did you pay for thepurchase?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
So it was originally
listed at 225 and we offered
183.5 and got it up that.
Speaker 3 (07:10):
You offered 183.5
because that's what your number
said, and they were brand new,fresh on the market, and they
accepted your offer.
Yes, yeah, well, just make youroffer, people.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
That's the lesson,
exactly, yeah, and you know, I
think you you followed along onthe group I was hesitant to make
offers, and you know we hadsome realtors that we had to
talk to that were like you know,we can't go around making such
low offers.
And finally, you know, we foundthe most amazing real estate
(07:45):
agent, and she was go-getter,confident, had a lot of
knowledge of the market and shewent to bat for us always, and
so it was.
It made me feel more confidentin making those offers.
And, as you all always say inthe group too, it's if you don't
make any offers, there's justnever going to be a yes, so you
might as well just make offers.
(08:07):
The worst that happens is a no,and so I'm just so glad that we
started to really get moreaggressive with making our
offers, and that's how this onehappened.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
That's super
impressive.
When you initially came up withyour renovation budget, what
was that initially?
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Yeah, so this one
shifted quite a bit.
So we originally had an estimatefrom our contractors at about
97,000.
And what we ended up spendingwas about 113,000.
And you know this had.
(08:49):
There was a lot of factors thatled to that and a lot of
self-elected things too, becausewe wanted to make sure that we
were really making it the bestpossible product in that
particular neighborhood to matchthe comps.
So, for example, it wasoriginally a 2-1.
And in order to really make itcompetitive with the comps, we
(09:11):
needed to make it a 3-2.
But it was a small house, so weactually added a whole
extension of a little over 200square feet so that with the
comps it was comparable squarefootage wise, and also for the
bedrooms and bathrooms that weneeded to make it more appealing
(09:33):
to the buyers.
Speaker 3 (09:34):
That's amazing.
I don't think I realized y'alldid an addition on your first.
Look, yeah, I don't thinkanybody else has done that on
these interviews.
So look at you, girl.
Ok, so you so 117,.
You added on, you made a, youtook a 2-1 and made it a 3-2.
Super smart, obviously.
(09:54):
And let's see, were there anyweird things that came up
between going under contract andthen?
Speaker 2 (10:03):
closing on it.
No, there were no surprises.
Everything actually was areally smooth transaction.
So we didn't have any surpriseson the front end.
And we didn't.
We took it as is.
So we really expected to do afull gut on the property, so we
didn't have anything that weweren't ready for.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Essentially, how did
you finance?
Speaker 2 (10:27):
it.
Yeah, so we started tellingpeople what we were doing, which
I was hesitant to do because Iwanted to make sure I did it
right.
Oh my gosh, I love it.
But I was like you know whatpeople love this stuff?
They want to hear what we'redoing.
And so we just, you know, westarted telling our friends and
(10:47):
I started posting a little bitabout the journey and we had a
few different friends just comeout of nowhere and say that they
were interested in investingwith us.
So that was just amazing andjust such a blessing.
Through this process it made itmade us so much more confident
(11:08):
and so they.
We had one set of friendsinvest with us for the purchase
of the home, and then anotherfund some of the renovations,
and then we had some money savedup to just supplement whatever
was remaining for the renovation.
So it was really great, reallygreat terms, and it was just low
(11:32):
maintenance, especially for therenovations.
It was just such a smooth andthey were very silent investors,
right.
So they were like take ourmoney, do what you need to do
and pay us back, and so the bestkind of you know it took that
part of the process and out ofthe equation, when you know that
(11:55):
sometimes that can create alittle extra pressure for sure,
and like, honestly, just tellpeople what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Stop trying to do it
secretly.
I get it.
Of course we don't want to failpublicly.
We don't like.
That does not feel good, itdoesn't sound like it would be
fine, but had you not beenposting about it, you wouldn't
have even known that peoplewould be interested in investing
and they wouldn't have mademoney.
Right, right, you're givingthat money to somebody.
(12:24):
Might as well Like it's eithera hard money lender, right, or
some lender, or it's somebodyyou know, a private money lender
, yeah, just someone you know.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yeah, it honestly
surprises you too how many
people have money that they'relooking to invest, and
oftentimes they don't know howthey want to invest.
They're just not sure what'sgoing to give them the best
return at a lower risk.
And so for them to have anopportunity like this is just
(12:56):
amazing, because they have asecure asset and they have the
opportunity to invest andsupport their friends, so it's
just such a win-win all aroundTotally.
Speaker 3 (13:11):
They cannot get that
kind of return secured against
real property.
Yeah, yeah, okay, I love that.
I didn't know that about yourjourney.
I try to ask as few questionsas possible until we get to the
interview.
Then I'm like I have no idea.
I know very little about yourthing.
I have no idea, I have no idea.
Okay, we talked about thefinancing of it.
(13:32):
Okay, let's talk about whereyou're in it.
You're in the project andyou're doing a 200-square-foot
edition From purchase to sale.
How long was that From purchase?
Speaker 2 (13:46):
to sale.
It ended up being a little overa nine-month renovation.
It took us some time.
There was just a lot ofscenarios that popped up in
between that excited our time,but also a lot of learning
lessons that came with that.
That really showed me.
Okay, here's how I would do itin the future to avoid that.
Speaker 3 (14:12):
Yes, let's talk about
some of those things.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Yes, the property had
a structure in the backyard.
It was actually a pretty largestructure and it had plumbing in
.
It had a toilet in there.
Because of the comps in thearea, it just didn't make sense
to spend the money to renovateit.
(14:36):
It was in really bad condition.
The concrete was all crackedand it was a big structure.
We decided to demolish it and wehad planned for that and
budgeted for that on the frontend, but it ended up being a
little bit more complex.
For example, there was extralayers of shingles, the
(15:01):
foundation that it was on.
We needed to do a lot ofsmoothing over of that to make
it just presentable for thebuyer and just convert it into a
car slab.
We had to run on the extensionin order to keep the vaulted
ceilings.
We had to run the air ductsunderneath the house.
(15:22):
Those parts were actually onback order so we had to wait for
those.
There was a few cracks in someof the glass.
We decided to keep the originalwindows because it was actually
a home that was in aconservation district.
It would have been a wholesituation to try to order custom
windows for it, not just asituation for that.
(15:44):
Yeah, the windows in itselfwere actually in really decent
condition.
It was just the glass that wehad to replace, but we ended up
finding additional cracks inglasses that we didn't notice
before.
That was an additional cost andtime suck.
There was just a lot of things.
(16:06):
I think I posted about this,but we had a big flooring.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
Oh my God, that's all
I remember.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
Is this flooring?
Speaker 3 (16:13):
debacle.
Speaker 2 (16:14):
Yes, that's all I
remember too.
No.
So yeah, that was fun.
I loved the flooring situation.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
I learned so much,
let's talk about the flooring
situation.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
We were so close to
the end and we were walking
through the house and we noticedthat the vinyl was starting to
crack.
It wasn't cracking because itwas floated.
Yeah, it wasn't cracking on theseams.
The floor was cracking in themiddle of pieces.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
Oh gosh.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
I was like this
doesn't look right, this isn't
supposed to happen, that's crazy.
I definitely learned a lotabout the initial installation,
what that should actually looklike.
But I definitely put trust inthe people that were doing it
and thought, okay, they're doingthe sub-level.
(17:17):
The way that they explained it,it made sense to me and this
was a good learning opportunity,because when you're not sure,
just ask for help, bring inother friends or experts that
know and bring them in.
And I think that that'ssomething that I learned
throughout this entire processis that it's okay to ask for
(17:39):
help.
It's not failing, it's notembarrassing.
People want to help you thatare in your life.
And then there's plenty ofexperts out there that would be
happy to help.
And so in second thought weshould have asked for advice on
hey, can you stop by and justlook at the sub-ploring, make
sure everything's going well?
(17:59):
That they're doing.
And so, anyways, we brought in,we told our contractors we're
going to deal with this later,let's finish out all the other
finishes, knowing that we wouldhave to do some additional
touch-up.
But at that point theconversation wasn't going
(18:20):
awesome with our contractors.
They really didn't want toaccept that it was an error on
the front end and we made thedecision to just move forward
with letting them finish all ofthe other things that need to be
(18:41):
finished, because we were soclose to the end it was
literally just final punch itemswe decided we're not going to
have them continue to touch thefloor, let's just finish the
other items and then we're goingto bring in our own people and
we'll figure out everything elsethat comes along with it
afterwards.
(19:03):
Anyways, we brought in a fewexperts to look at the flooring.
We pulled up some of theflooring and immediately,
through their expert eyes, theywere able to say hey, this
subflooring was not done.
Well, we're going to have topull up all of the flooring.
It cannot be salvaged.
We're going to have to redo thesubflooring and install all
(19:27):
brand new flooring.
That was like a $10,000 hit.
Speaker 3 (19:33):
I know that one.
I know that one.
Unfortunately, I know that$10,000 redo the flooring hit.
It does not feel good at all.
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Yeah, it definitely
kept me up.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
I literally had
multiple dreams about flooring
and I was like oh, this is mylife now.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
This is actually so
cool that I get to have dreams
about flooring now and not otherstuff.
I first really enjoyed havingthose kinds of dreams.
I was like, wake me up at night.
That is so hilarious.
I was like you get to chooseyour hard.
I kept on telling my husband.
I was like, if I'm going tochoose my hard, this is so much
(20:13):
more exciting to me than anyother hards I've ever
experienced.
Totally, I love it.
We're going with it.
It stinks, but we're going togo with it.
I love that my husband's auntactually came through for us and
she's amazing.
She's been in the flooringindustry forever.
(20:35):
We should have just gone withthe hard to begin with.
We were just trusting that, hey, let's use the sub, just so
that there's accountability.
When you allow your contractorsto utilize their subs,
sometimes there's moreaccountability all around, but I
think in retrospect it'sdefinitely always great to just
(20:56):
do your checks and balances andfigure out what truly is going
to be the best option for yourproject and for your budget.
Yeah, totally, we got it allfixed.
I was able to find a flooringthat matched, because the
original flooring that I hadpurchased was from a liquidation
store.
Of course they were like wediscontinued.
(21:19):
Why did you all discontinue?
It had nothing to do with theproduct.
Apparently they had beenselling that product for four
years and the owner even cameand took a look and he was like
we've never had this issue withthis floor.
I promise you We've never hadthis issue.
That confirmed to us.
It wasn't the flooring, it wasthe sub flooring.
Anyways, I was able to find aflooring that was almost exactly
(21:43):
in color and actually ended upbeing a prettier flooring.
It worked out.
It worked out and it was solidlydone.
That's what was super importantto me is that I delivered a
really great product.
I'm not going to deliversomething that's broken or half
done, especially the flooring.
(22:04):
That would come back tofighting in the future, right.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
But even if it's
something that is six years,
it's like, well, yeah, it'sprobably going to bite somebody
in six years.
No, I don't want to sleep.
I don't want sleepless nightsfor six years waiting for the
person to fix it.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Right, and that's
part of what's most rewarding
for this is knowing that you'recreating a beautiful home for
someone that's going to live init, and that's so rewarding.
So why would you want to createsomething that someone's going
to have to have issues with?
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Yeah, totally.
Were you told what the deal waswith the subfloor, what they
did wrong, yes and what washappening?
Speaker 2 (22:48):
What was the deal?
All three experts said the samething, and so that's what I'm
doing.
That's always nice.
Yes, that helped because I waslike, okay, everyone's on the
same page, that this was theissue.
So the house was interestingbecause the original owners they
did some DIY extensions, Ithink, in additions, and so
(23:10):
there was like major gaps insome of the flooring.
There was some flooring that waskind of rotting, and so
everything was like at differentlevels.
So when the subfloor wascompleted, originally I think
there was just some money-savingtactics that were trying to be
put into place, and so it waslike some areas it was feathered
(23:33):
, some areas had just wood laidout, right Planks laid out, and
so it was just all uneven, Ithink, and so at the time it
made sense what they were saying.
But ultimately when you laidthe floor on it, you can feel it
(23:54):
and it started cracking becausethere was significant
breakpoints throughout the houseand the transitions weren't
level either.
So we had to just bring up theflooring in some areas when it
was corrected bring it up and wewere able to remove all of the
makeshift transitions.
So it ended up being so muchmore beautiful at the end of the
(24:17):
day and so much sturdier assturdy as you can get with a
pure and beam 1920s house.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
I love pure and beam.
I wish all houses were pure andbeam Right.
It's so easy to fix things somuch easier.
Everything is so much easier.
Yeah, okay, that's reallyinteresting.
So did that come up this yearor last year?
Speaker 2 (24:44):
This year because it
was right towards the end.
Speaker 3 (24:46):
Okay, okay.
So it's flooring debacle of2023.
Yes, yeah, okay, okay.
And then what else?
Were there some other things?
I know that was the big mainthing.
Were there any other issues?
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Not anything super
crazy.
We had a termite scare becausewe opened up one of the walls
and it was.
There was some wood fullydamaged by termite and it was
actually really cool.
I had never seen an inactivetermite colony structure before,
so that was really cool.
But it scared the living out ofme.
(25:25):
I was like, oh my goodness, isthere termite infestation
somewhere else?
But we had someone come out andcheck and there wasn't.
And actually at the very endthere had been so much rain that
we spotted two or threetermites in the living room like
live ones at the very end,after we got the new flooring.
Speaker 3 (25:50):
And I was like what
is happening?
I can't do this, I can't havethis conversation with you right
now.
Termite, I cannot do this withyou right now.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
Read the room, buddy,
I agree.
I was like no, this isn't real,this is not real.
This is not real.
We have the company that doesthe pest control come out and it
was a termite inspectorspecifically for that.
And so he came out and he did afull blown check and he said,
(26:20):
hey, I'm not seeing anythingactive.
He's like I think just becauseof the rain and some of the pure
and beamed it, just they camethrough.
He's like I don't see anything.
He's like so you're good to goand we're going to remove some
of the moisture that isattracting them.
So that was really really goodnews and so we paid for that.
(26:44):
But it was worth it because itwasn't a bigger issue like we
were expecting.
Yeah, and another thing thatcame up, which was a good
learning lesson, is in olderhouses, you know, there's often
the inspectors often request thesewer line cameras to be run.
That was really scary.
I held my breath for that but Ididn't realize it was like $400
(27:08):
, maybe more to get them justthe camera run through.
So there was no major issueswith that.
So that was a huge relief.
But the inspector, you know,just was like oh yeah, we need
to do this and I was like Ididn't know that this was a
thing, so that was another thing.
And then there was just, youknow, just extra expenses.
(27:28):
Like we needed a few extrapeers on the foundation that
weren't originally accounted for, so it was like an extra $1,000
.
We needed the you know extradecking for the roof because
there was a few rotted beamsthat we we just wouldn't have
seen until we pulled things back.
Speaker 3 (27:50):
So that's like an
extra almost thousand you know,
so it was just everything kindof adds up All those little
extra $500, $800,000 things theyadd up.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
yes, and so if it
hadn't been for your process of
creating several buffers, aswe're doing the deal, I mean I
don't know where we would havebeen.
Speaker 3 (28:15):
That would have been
really scary.
I know all about the buffers.
Speaker 2 (28:20):
Yeah, yeah, the
buffers are so important and
there's a reason for them and,honestly, I was so eager to find
a property that we didn't evenfollow the full percentage
return at the beginning.
And so now, looking forward,I'm like there's a reason for
(28:45):
all of these numbers, that Iknow you can say that to us all
of this time.
Speaker 3 (28:52):
She's actually trying
to save us, yes, from ourselves
.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Yes, you actually
know what you're doing.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
No, because I get it.
I just want to be on a projecttoo, but if it's not going to be
a profitable one, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
So there's a reason
for all of it and so, honestly,
following the buffers at least,even if they can stick to the
original percentage on return atthe beginning really saved us.
And now, moving forward, I knowI'm going to follow all of the
criteria because there's areason for it.
And so many things come up thatare just not expected, and even
(29:36):
with a full gut project wherewe were accounting for all of
the things, there was stillthings that come up that you
just don't expect.
And so if it hadn't been forthe buffers I mean a $10,000
floor repair, oh God, if youdon't have a buffer in place
that can really really put youin the red.
(29:56):
So the fact that we were stillin the green after all of those
things that came up for us, itwas awesome.
It was awesome to be able toactually see that in action.
Speaker 3 (30:08):
Yes, such good points
.
So when you initially boughtthe property, what were you
anticipating the ARV to be?
Speaker 2 (30:19):
So we were
anticipating it to be about 340.
The market shifted during thattime because it was a weird
window, and then we were kind ofseeing the ARV drop down to
like 320, 325.
So I was getting a littlenervous about that.
But we were hoping for 340, 349around there and after all of
(30:48):
the expenses we were like, okay,we really need it to be 349 at
least.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
You?
When did you list it for sale?
Wait, was that all the stuffwith the renovation?
Did we touch on everything?
Speaker 2 (31:02):
I think so, yeah, I
mean so, you know, one thing I
want to add is that it is soimportant to have everything in
writing and be as detailed aspossible with your contractors
and subs, and so somehow wemissed budgeting the kitchen
(31:26):
back splash, which was like oneof my showpieces in my kitchen.
I was like wait, because so theway that it was budgeted or
estimated was kind of in buckets.
So it was like, okay, kitchen,this is the amount that it will
be about right.
(31:46):
And so now I know, hey, we needto like really make sure we
take the time, fully itemizeevery aspect so that nothing can
be missed.
So I made sure to really lookback at the templates and adjust
those so that you know, on thisnext project, I don't miss
something like that, because Ijust assumed that it was back
(32:10):
splash is included.
Like that seems so standard tome and our contractors like no,
we didn't talk about back splash.
So, yeah, so that was like anadditional $1,400 that you know.
So there was just so manylearning money, learning
experiences we had that I'mreally thankful for because it's
(32:32):
gonna make me so much better onthe next one and it was, I mean
, it was worth it that $1,400,.
The tile turned out so awesome.
I mean I went extra with thetiles.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
So so cute that house
, so cute.
You just you really did.
You just knocked it out of thepark.
It's so freaking cute.
Thank you, yeah, it's verycharming.
You did such an awesome job.
That's definitely your laneDoing the design stuff.
(33:04):
Yeah, Appreciate that.
When did you list it for sale?
Speaker 2 (33:09):
So we listed it for
sale in April.
And we listed it for sale onApril 2nd and it went under
contract April 5th.
So that was really exciting.
And when we listed it, so wewere going to list it at the 349
and we, a couple of days before, we went and toured some comps
(33:34):
of houses for sale in the areajust to kind of see you know how
much were they selling for whatdo they look like in person?
In person, totally different.
Wow, that blew my mind.
Yeah, how different some of thepictures could be versus what
you see in person.
There were some fun surprisesand so, after seeing that, I
(33:56):
talked to my husband.
I was like I really think wecan list this for hire, Like I
almost wonder if we're not doingourselves justice.
And of course, you know hisconcern was I don't want it to
just fit there, though.
We need to like be competitive.
And we talked to a realtor, ofcourse, and literally the
morning of going live she said Iagree, let's go at 360.
(34:21):
We can do this.
And she was totally right.
So that's another you knowmoment where it was so
beneficial to have a reallyconfident and knowledgeable
agent and it made me feelcomfortable.
My husband was like I don'tknow and so, but it was awesome,
(34:42):
we did it and the proof of howquickly it went under contract
really showed us that and Ireally believed in our product.
So I wanted to do it justice.
Yeah, what did it sell for?
It ended up selling for $360.
So full, full list price.
(35:04):
It was a cash offer, oh nice.
And so no appraisal wasrequested and we closed in two
weeks.
So we ended up closing on April21st.
So it was a really, really quickturnaround and I didn't even
know I would get so attached tomy house.
That doesn't go away.
(35:26):
Yeah, it doesn't.
Ok, that's so funny to hearbecause, yeah, it was like it
was a baby to me.
And even with the listingconversation I was like you know
, you have to check yourself andmake sure you mean prideful
because it's your product, or isthis really what it's worth,
Right, so you have to checkyourself.
(35:48):
And so I really wanted to makesure I did that and that's why I
made sure to ask my agent.
I was like, hey, where are youthinking we're at with this
product, Right?
Yeah, so that's important.
And I got so attached.
And so when we had a two weekclose.
It's funny because my husbandwas like, yes, this is what we
want.
And I'm like wait, hold on, I'mnot ready, Hold the floor, I
(36:10):
need a minute.
And so I think those last twoweeks I spent so much time there
and I literally sat on thecouch and just took everything
in.
And I was like did I get enoughpictures?
Did I get?
I need to take a picture of thefaucets?
I need to take it.
So I was just like doing allthis crazy stuff because I was
so in love with it.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
Oh wait, the door
stopped.
I didn't get that one.
Yeah, the picture.
Yeah, the door stopped.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
Yeah, so it was good.
Oh, I was going to add too thatstaging is.
I mean, it makes such a hugedifference.
No, brandon, I remember youalways saying on podcasts and in
your modules just stage, don'tquestion it.
Right, question it.
And it is easy to question itwhen you get to the end,
(37:03):
especially when you've had somany costs.
And even our realtor was like,hey, you still want to spend
money on staging.
So many people were questioningit.
You want to spend money onstaging, are you sure?
And I mean I had one littlemoment of hesitation but I was
like no, we need to show thishouse as the home that it is.
(37:23):
It's not a house anymore, it'sa home.
And, wow, it makes anincredible difference.
And people commented on it,people gave feedback on that,
and so it really.
I do 100% believe in stagingand I 100% believe that it
helped it sell as quickly as itdid, for sure.
Speaker 3 (37:43):
Absolutely,
absolutely.
You can look at a propertystaged or un-staged and you feel
different.
You place more value If it'sthe same house.
Let's say it's the same houseand it's staged and it's not
staged.
You will put more value on awell-staged property.
We just do that Like we do.
(38:05):
All of a sudden it's like OK,this, oh, this is cozy, oh my
god, I can totally see myselfhere.
But when there's nothing there,it just yeah, I don't care what
the market's doing.
Like, I've even staged it justfor photos.
Even when the property soldbefore I was able to list it
Like because the photos for myown use, like I want to see it
(38:28):
staged because it looks.
My Stager adds 10, at least$10,000 value, at least $10,000
value.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
It looks amazing
staged.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
I believe that I
totally believe that.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
And I think, if
you're not, whether you're
staging it yourself or youutilize a Stager, I think it's
also important to stage it tothe feel of the neighborhood and
of the home.
I felt like to me.
I was very specific on what Iwanted and so I chose a Stager
(39:04):
that I knew would create thevibe and feel for that specific
house, Because I felt likethat's so important.
When people walk in, they wantto feel a certain way and you
want the staging to accentuatethe features that you put so
much money into.
So some of the beautiful openshelving that we put and some of
(39:27):
the tile work that we did andthe flooring I mean all of that
like the staging really helpedthat, bring it to life and
accentuate it and make it lookeven better.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
Yeah, I agree, all
right, so you paid $183.5.
You had $113K in repairs.
Speaker 2 (39:47):
OK.
Speaker 3 (39:49):
And you sold for $360
.
So what does that mean?
What was your profit?
Speaker 2 (39:56):
So at the end of the
day, we ended up making around a
little over $17,000 in profitand yeah, nice.
Yeah, and when we calculatedkind of what we would have made
had we not hit all the roadbumps and had an extended
timeline, it would have beenprobably about $38,000.
(40:16):
So it definitely showed it putit into life, the time is money.
For me, yes, and it was greatto see that for myself.
I think for this particularproject and I hear a lot of the
women saying it for the firstflip you just want to make money
and so I think that going inwith that perspective, or you
(40:39):
don't want to lose money, youdon't want to lose money.
Yeah, right, and I think goinginto that with that perspective
helped a lot.
It's like, ok, if we make adollar, this is a win, and I
felt that I was getting paid tolearn essentially, which was
really cool, and I looked at italso as an investment versus
(41:01):
income.
So for me it's on this one.
So if you look at the averagepercentage on a stock market,
for example, I feel like it'slike 6.5% average right and I
know that shifts right and onthis, when I looked at the money
that we put in, we essentiallymade a 38% return on investment
(41:26):
annualized right.
You can't get that anywhereelse.
You can't do that.
Our friends that invested withus also made a higher percentage
than they would in the stockmarket, and there's an asset
that's protecting right.
And so to me, I felt like itwas such a win all around for
everyone and the learninglessons that I got were so
(41:49):
valuable and just theflexibility to do whatever I
needed to do with my daughter orwhatever it was that was going
on in my life.
I could do.
We had sicknesses, I had teaparties to go with to her at her
better school, whatever it is.
(42:09):
I got to do it and I got toenjoy it and be fully present
because I was the boss.
Speaker 3 (42:16):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
So it was all so
worth it at the end of the day
and so rewarding to see a 1922house come back to life.
It was so cool to be part ofthat experience.
Speaker 3 (42:32):
Congratulations on
that, really congrats.
That's huge.
We say it over and over andover, but there's so much
learning that happens in thedoing that can't happen any
other way, that you just have togo do.
Yeah, in some projects thereare more learning lessons than
others.
And then, when there aren'tlearning lessons, we're like
(42:54):
what's wrong?
What did I do wrong?
Like well, it shouldn't be thiseasy.
And it's like, no, some kind ofare, yeah, yeah.
So I'm so glad y'all are here,Y'all are on this side of it,
because I know the flooringstuff was super stressful.
I know all of the things thathappened were super stressful.
(43:17):
In the moment, I totally getthat.
Speaker 2 (43:20):
Yeah, kudos to you
for hanging in there and getting
to this point and making aprofit and making your friends
money, all of the things you didit, thank you, and it was an
incredible experience, and Iwould rather have to have some
(43:40):
really hard conversations ortake some risks and have that
fear of failing.
I would rather have that thanto be someone who just had these
dreams and watched people do iton Instagram and never pursued
it myself and just alwayswondered what if?
(44:01):
Because it was, it was reallyscary to quit my job and to just
decide I'm going to just jumpinto this.
But if there's something thatyou really believe in, that you
want to do and you feelpassionate about it, just do it.
Just jump in and do it, and allof the learning lessons make it
(44:25):
so unbelievably worth it andyou can really sit back and just
be proud of yourself.
And even if it quote unquoteseems like a failure the first
time around, I still would havedone it again and just learn and
try to do it better, becauseI'm passionate about that and
(44:46):
feeling the hard in other waysthat I felt the hard through
other jobs is, honestly, it wasnot as fun as these.
No, I would do it again aheartbeat, and have the same
issues that I had again in aheartbeat, because it's going to
make me better in, not justflipping, but just in my
(45:06):
personal life.
I learned so much about myself.
I learned so much about how tohave more challenging
conversations and I learned howto take risks so that I can
follow my dreams and ask forhelp and ask for help.
Speaker 3 (45:24):
Yes, Call in the
experts, give second opinions.
Yes, yeah, that's awesome.
So much learning.
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Oh my gosh, what does
your husband think he it was
funny because when we weregetting towards the end,
especially when the floor issuecame up, I was like do you want
to do this again?
Right?
And he was like I don't know,we need to wait, I need to see
how this plays out till the end.
But he's so supportive and he'sso handy, so he did a ton of
(45:59):
work, especially towards the end.
But, yeah, he was a little onthe edge there and even our
realtor was like so you guysthink you're going to do a scale
?
Speaker 3 (46:08):
I was like oh yeah,
I'm ready.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
I'm ready to start
going, let's go.
So now he's 100% on board andready to do this again.
Speaker 3 (46:22):
You just have to ask
him at the right time.
Speaker 2 (46:25):
You take your moment
to ask him.
Yes exactly Pick the rightmoment.
Speaker 3 (46:30):
Oh man, I love it.
Well, your daughter's probablytoo young to understand any of
it.
I think my son was finally like11 when he finally understood
anything about what we weredoing at these houses and what
was happening.
Speaker 2 (46:42):
Yeah, yeah, and I
can't wait till she does.
I know that probably was such aproud moment for you to be able
to say hey, here's what I'mdoing, and here's what I'm doing
for your future.
For me to be able to just tellher that I have faced some fears
and I've followed some dreams,and you can too.
(47:04):
Wow, that's more valuable thananything.
So I can't wait for that and toshow her that she can be brave
and she can do hard things andshe can do big things, whatever
she wants to do.
Speaker 3 (47:17):
I have goosebumps
from that, but really that's
what she's going to see.
That's what you're doing,that's what you're showing her.
That's so freaking cool man, somuch bigger than just flipping
houses.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
Absolutely so much
bigger than that, and it's so
rewarding.
I am so thankful for this groupof women.
Just hearing all of theirstories, it just goes to show
you can do this in any season ofyour life.
There are women from alldifferent backgrounds, all
different seasons of their life,some that have a heck of a lot
(47:52):
going on, and so the fact thatthey can do it, that means
anyone can do it, doesn't matterwhat season you are in your
life, and to me that was soempowering and, yeah, it just
made it so much more worth tosee their stories and now
knowing that I can be a part ofthat too.
Speaker 3 (48:14):
Yeah, oh, my gosh.
Well, thank you for sharingyour story with us.
Speaker 2 (48:19):
Thank you for having
me.
This was such an honor.
Thank you.
Speaker 3 (48:24):
And I appreciate you
being in the group and just
engaging and just being a partof it.
All right, thanks, tell yourhusband hi I will All right, bye
, be in the group, bye.
Such a great story.
Thank you again, melissa, forsharing it with us.
I know it's going to inspirepeople to get off the sideline,
(48:47):
to stop watching people onInstagram or Facebook flip
houses and think man, I wish Icould do that.
Hello, you can, but you have totake the first step, which is
take action.
You're the only one in your way.
You absolutely can do this.
(49:08):
You can do it from where youare, from your age, from your
financial picture, from whereveryou are in the US, it doesn't
matter.
Start where you are.
Just start and stop comparingyourself to oh, but I'm not this
person on HGTV.
Well, good, we're glad you'renot this person on HGTV, because
(49:31):
that person already exists.
So just start.
You absolutely can do this.
We have hundreds of interviewsof everyday women doing this
thing, chasing this dream, butit all started with one thing
they decided to take action.
(49:53):
They decided enough is enough.
When are you going to decide totake action instead of
complaining that you're notdoing the thing you want to be
doing?
All right, if that thing isflipping houses, whether you
want to buy them, renovate themand sell them, or maybe even buy
(50:13):
, renovate and hold for rentals,maybe some Airbnb properties,
what have you?
If you want to buy propertiesand fix them up, that's what we
help women do.
We do it day in, day out and welove it.
And if you want to be on thisjourney with us, awesome, let's
see if we're a fit.
Go to herfirstflipcom, fill outan application, book a call and
(50:39):
let's see how we can worktogether.
All right, until next time, goout there, flip houses like a
girl, leave people and placesbetter than you find them and
make it a great day.
Bye-bye.