The Fix and Flip Blueprint: Start Profiting from Real Estate Today! | Episode 19 - The Real Estate UNLOCKED Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Joseph Marohn (00:12):
What up everyone and welcome back to the Real
Estate Unlocked podcast.
I am your host, Joseph Marohn,and today we're going to be
discussing one of the mostlucrative ways to get into real
estate investing.
I'm talking about a strategicway to turn distressed
properties into profitableassets, one of the most

(00:33):
rewarding paths to buildingwealth while still transforming
communities.
Today, we're finally bringingyou House Flipping, finally
bringing you house flipping.
House flipping, also known asfix and flip, is a real estate
strategy that involves buying aproperty, renovating it, then
selling it for a profit.

(00:53):
This process includesidentifying properties with
potential, those that areundervalued or need significant
repairs, and making improvementsto increase its market value.
It requires thorough planning,constant deal flow, a strong

(01:17):
power team and an access tofunding.
Now, if house flipping is apath in real estate that sounds
appealing to you, then staytuned, because we're going to
give you a step-by-stepblueprint and all the secrets
you need to get started on yourfirst flip today.
Now you know how we do it onthe Real Estate Unlocked podcast
.
If we're going to do it, we gotto do it right.

(01:38):
We can't just bring on anyoneto speak about fix and flips.
We got to bring on Mr Fix andFlip.
Today, our special guest on thepodcast is Brandon Harris.
From a young age, brandon hasalways been passionate about
entrepreneurship.

(01:59):
After finishing school, helaunched a Facebook advertising
company helping small businessesgenerate leads and achieve
growth.
A few years later, hetransitioned into real estate,
starting with wholesaling beforeexpanding into full-time
flipping.
Over the past five years,brandon has successfully

(02:21):
wholesaled more than 100properties and flipped over 20
homes.
In the last two years, he alsofocuses on creative real estate
acquisitions to build out hisrental portfolio.
Currently, brandon is workingon his first RV park deal in
partnership with none other thanPace Morby.

(02:41):
Brandon joins us today todiscuss the fix and flip process
, sharing his knowledge andexpertise that has been the key
to his continued success.
Whether you're new to investingor a seasoned pro, there's a
lot to learn from hisexperiences.
So, without further ado I'vebeen talking long enough,

(03:03):
everyone if you will, pleaseallow me to formally introduce
to you Brandon Harris.
Brandon, what up, brother?
How are you doing today?

Brandon Harris (03:15):
I got to practice that.
Yo, yo yo.
This is Brandon Harris.

Haha What's up, brother?
How's it going?
What's up, man?
Just another day, man, gettingthe day moving.
Mondays is the top of my week,man.
It's one of my favorite days ofthe week, man, get stuff done.
So how's your Monday going?

Same.
I couldn't agree more.
Getting everything rolling,getting everything back.
You never know what the nextweek is going to bring you New
deals, new opportunities.
I love it.

Awesome, awesome.
Well, brandon, welcome to theReal Estate Unlocked podcast, a
place where we bring value tonew and intermediate investors
by bringing on guests who areextremely knowledgeable, as
yourself, to cover real estatetopics on a very basic level.
So I've been wanting to coverfix and flips on the podcast for
a while now and couldn't findthe right guest to do it.
So what better than a personthat I call my good homie,
brandon, who's active in thebusiness and has a ton of

(04:08):
experience with flips?
So we appreciate you, brother,for dropping in to come kick it
with us today.

Yeah, I appreciate that.
That's cool.
We're doing this with you.
Who would have thought we'reboth in the owners club and now
we're here.
We're friends doing podcaststogether and I'm excited to see
you in boston yeah, man, I'msame here, let's go.

Let's go, man.
So what, we were up to yougetting there wednesday, what
day you getting there?
Yeah, wednesday yeah, I got acostume here but my wife, man,
she pushed me to get a costume.
I'm not really big on costumes,but she's like nah, babe, we
gotta, we gotta show up.

So everybody else is gonna be doing it.

People are gonna be dressed up as alligators oh,
I don't think a whole lot man,but that's smart you're coming
in as a gator, or what?

no, I'm not, but I was just thinking like the
themes.
I bet you're gonna see somealligators yeah, that'd be
pretty cool.

I could see that, because some people are gators
in the community, so maybe theycome in as a gator, you know.

That's cool, or just as Pace Morby Thought about
that Kind of look at the beard.

Did you see what he posted on his channel?

He had a costume .

Yeah, that was pretty funny.
But yeah, man, so cool man.
We're going to break down houseflipping here in a second, but
before we do that, I want tohear more of your story, brandon
.
How did you get into realestate, like, why did you choose
to flip houses and what wereyou doing prior to all this?

Yeah, so entrepreneurship, that was
always something that I wasinterested in, to the point
where, even when I was incollege, I decided to change my
major to it, joined the clubs,got everything involved.
Just how I got introduced tothat is I actually.
I just finished.
Uh, you know, I went to collegeto play a sport, to wrestle.
Um, I decided I no longer wantto do that.

(05:52):
I found myself with a lot oftime in my hands, um, and I was
trying to figure out you knowwhat's the next step?
I was used to having all thistime filled with practices,
tournaments, camps, all kind ofstuff.
So I was like you know, I gotall this time on my hands.
What do I do next?
I joined fraternity.
I didn't want to do that, andso, with my brother he was
graduating, he's looking for ajob I was like, okay, that's the
next step here.
I want to learn how to makemoney, and so I got a factory.

(06:17):
With that, I started doing someresearch, looking online.
Long story short, I come acrossthis audio tape called the
strangest secret by earlnightingale, just like one of
the og tapes, um, and he talksabout, like, the whole thought
process behind success and howit starts in the mind.
And you know, one of his famousquotes is the problem with

(06:38):
people today they simply do notthink.
And that's what he wanted totalk about.
And so I started to think and Icame across.
The next book I read was Thinkand Grow Rich, and so slowly.
And this is important, becausewhat started to happen was that
my perspective, my paradigm, itstarted to slowly change and I

(06:59):
started to just get introducedto these new concepts, that kind
of you know.
I started thinking like, hey,you know.
I started thinking like, hey, I, you know, I have the power to
really determine what my life isgoing to look like.
Um, the mind is a very powerfulthing and I can control that
and become aware and consciousof that.
Then I can create thisbeautiful reality.
And when I realized that, I gotreally excited.

(07:21):
I told my roommate, I told myroommate start listening to it.
Like 10 minutes 30.
He said this is boring, turn itoff.
And I told my own dale says hesays this will only hit one out
of 100 people.
Yes, I'm like, okay, cool, um,I must just be one of those
people which you know, I.
I think that's simply becausesome people are so they're so
far gone.
Either they've already beentold things too many times where

(07:43):
when you get introduced tothese concepts they don't
believe it, or they've justsimply settled and they don't
want to go get uncomfortableagain.
And so I was okay with gettinguncomfortable, I was okay with
becoming one of the hardestworkers in the room and all that
kind of stuff, and so I juststarted to study these people
and try to recognize patterns,and so one of the patterns that

(08:04):
I realized is that a lot ofthese people, they went out,
they studied other people, theythey found something they're
passionate about.
They wouldn't create, theyinnovated, um, and they went and
built their own businesses,companies, um, and so that's
kind of the path I started to godown.
Um, I decided, okay, yeah, andthen the whole, you know, not
wanting to work a nine to five,not wanting to work 40 years,

(08:26):
retiring four percent of safety,social security, um, relying on
the government, uh, which isthe last thing I would ever want
to do, right, and uh, you know,just falling into this, the
system, which I was already inthe system.
We're all kind of bored intothe system.
I was in the school system, um,and I didn't want to go just
get a degree, graduate, find ajob and get comfortable with

(08:46):
that, even if some things aren'tgoing right and it's hard.
You know you gotta go foranother job and some people, you
know, do it.
My brother, he's gone that pathand he's ambitious.
He brings that ambitious towhat he does in sales and he's
done really good.
But I wanted to go create formyself and so at that time, um,
you know, I was also studyingmarketing.
I thought marketing was reallyinteresting because all the
things that were going on withsocial media um, this was like

(09:08):
2012, 2014 so even instagram,facebook, all this kind of stuff
was coming new.
Um, basic advertising was brandnew.
No one knew about that.
You were still talking aboutwhen you wanted to, you know,
when you wanted to people tofind your business.
It's websites, websites, radio,ads, you know really additional
forms of marketing, billboards,even TV.
It was still traditional.

(09:29):
This was just 10 years ago.
It's crazy Traditional forms ofmarketing.
And so that's where I thoughtthat there is going to be a huge
room for someone, for people tocome into and, you know, start
helping people generate leadsthrough things like Instagram,
facebook advertising.
And so I chose Facebookadvertising just because I had

(09:49):
met someone at the time.
His name is Paulson ThomasPaulson, if you ever hear this.
Thank you so much.
He was one of my first mentorsand he just really started to
help me see things I hadn't seenbefore and also taught me
technical skills.
So it was, you know, I wasreading those books still and
getting to mind, you know,self-development all that kind

(10:10):
of stuff is great.
Now I found, like a technicalmentor, someone who was teaching
me something within a certainfield, who was already there,
already doing it, already hadclients, already had the systems
and processes down, and so hestarted to teach me how to run
advertisements for companies viafacebook, um, and so that's why
I decided to, and I did that.

(10:30):
I was working withchiropractors, dentists um,
actually, I had a hair salon too.
One thing I learned that hehelped me, he taught me, was to
niche down, um, and so that waslike a huge lesson.
So.
So as I started to narrow itdown, I started working with
chiropractors, and you know someof these doctors, practices
that you know I could actuallytalk to the doctor will be

(10:51):
easier access.
So I started working with them.
I was just helping generateleads, and I had a buddy at the
time and he started working withanother guy who was doing this
thing called wholesaling.
And that time it wasn't.
You know, there wasn't TikTokaround, it was all over the
place.
I had never heard of it.
I thought that in order to getinvolved with real estate, you

(11:11):
had to either have a lot ofmoney, or you could buy
investment properties, or youhad to be a realtor, which I had
no interest in being at anypoint.
And so when I had heard aboutwholesaling, it was a new
concept to me and you know hetold me about it, and then I saw
him do a few deals.
I thought it was extremelyinteresting.
You know, I kind of saw that itwas kind of a merged marketing

(11:35):
with real estate.
Essentially, you're selling acontract, you've got a market to
find people who want to signthis contract, then you've got
to go find a buyer for it, andso it just clicked for me and I
saw a lot of potential there andI just felt this bowl of energy
and so I was like, you know,this is what I want to do and I
transitioned full, full timeinto wholesaling.

Yeah, it's awesome, man, cause you, you
touched on a good point, right,because a lot of people, you
know, they they see real estateads or they they hear about real
estate seminars and they thinklike, oh man, all that stuff's a
scam, like don't go to thoseevents, you know, and there is a
lot of people out there thatare running scams and stuff.
But if you're lucky enough, youcan find the right mentor.
As you just pointed out, youfound a good mentor and it's

(12:19):
really just really excelled youand created this path for you.
Now you're full-time transitionto real estate, right?
Um, you know, we're we'reblessed to find someone like
Pace Morby, right, that's reallykind of taken us under his wing
and showed us a lot of thingsthat you know, a lot of people
aren't really talking about, andand to the point where it's
like when I talk to familymembers about it, they're just
like you know, what kind ofcommunity is this?

(12:41):
Like you guys are just going toBoston to go trick or treating,
like what's going on here, youknow?
But, um, yeah, man.
And then you touched on a lotof good.
You know good books, like youknow, think and grow rich.
That's a classic, you know, andit really just sparks that
interest to get into real estate.
But yeah man, good stuff rightthere, um good point.

One point that you made I got to point it out
is I'm actually glad that atthat point I didn't find Pace
Morby.
Now I say that with you know,let me explain Number one best
mentorship program I've everbeen a part of, by far and large
, and he'll even tell you someself I'm about to touch on.
But when I say that, what Imean is that I found him at that

(13:20):
point, I think that I would.
It would have took me a littlebit longer to get deals done,
just knowing the person that Iwas like I, when I said that
different marketing channelswhere, that's where one thing my
mentor taught me was to findone, you know, work with just
chiropractors instead of workingwith all these different
businesses.
And so that's one thing thatwhen I got into it, I knew that.

(13:41):
I knew this concept already andI was like okay, I know, I've
been able to collect enoughinformation.
I got a buy list, I'm going tojust call, I'm going to get a
dialer, I'm going to get a CRMand that's going to be my
business.
And I just did that, I juststarted doing that.
Versus, when I talk to peoplewho are struggling, it's like
they're doing all these things.
They're learning all thesethings they're doing.
They're wholesaling, they'relearning all these things.

(14:01):
They're doing, they'rewholesaling.
They're doing sub two.
They're doing all thesedifferent things within it.
They're greater lending,they're all this stuff and
they're not, but they're notdoing anything.
And I forgot what they callthat.
It's like shiny shiny objects.
We're just look at that too.
But also, just sitting thereand you feel good, you get your
cup of coffee, you're like, okay, I'm going to go get on the
zoom at this time, this time,this, you know, you just sit

(14:23):
there and you're learning andyou feel like you're being
productive, but you're not doinganything to actually make you
money.
Um, and so what I did was Iwent and took action, and then
the first thing I did when Imade money was I bought a
mentorship program.
Um, but before that it was alljust action.
They're very limited time andlearning it's not too
complicated.

You just got to do it, yeah, and you touched on
a good point, right, becausethere's so much content and so
much different topics and waysyou can get into real estate
that they cover in thementorship that it's real easy
to get sidetracked right whenyou feel like you're doing
something but you're actuallyjust spinning your wheels
instead of just really nichingdown on one thing and sticking
to that and trying it out forlike six months and see if you
can find any traction.
If you don't, then you canalways change to something else.

(15:09):
But you know, like when youtalk about wholesaling, you know
there's just so many differentways you can make money in the
real estate, right, you can.
You know new development, youknow there's fixing flips,
there's all these different ways, but you can't do them all

(15:29):
right, you got to really nichedown on one, and that's a good
point that you bring up.
So which bring us to?
You know why?
What we're talking about hereis fixing flips.
So I know I touched a littlebit on it on the intro, but can
you explain what house flippingis for those who may not be too
familiar with the term?

absolutely.
Um.
So you're taking a house andyou're renovating it, you're
making improvements to the house.
In most cases, actually, a lotof houses where I've just simply
bought the house, put it backin the market and in fact, one
of my favorite flips is when allyou're doing is getting a junk
removal crew made depends ifit's too far gone past or not

(15:58):
lawn care, landscaping andphotographer.
Those are good flips.
It really depends on the house.
But in general a fix and flipis you're buying a house that's
in need of some work.
You're going in, you'reimproving the house, you're
bringing it up to the 2024 HGTVstandards a lot of fix and
flippers like to say but you'reimproving the house, like all

(16:19):
the TV shows.
You're fixing and flipping itand then you're putting it back
on the market for the end buyer,for someone to come purchase
the property.
So you're buying it fromsomeone.
Maybe, whatever the situationis, the house is in need of
repair.
You repair the house, you putit back in the market and you
sell the house.

So where should a beginner start?
If they want to get into fixingand flipping today, what are
the first steps that you wouldsay that they should start
taking?

My first steps were I wholesaled first, and I
thought that was a great way toget into it, because with
wholesaling you're not, there'sa lot less risk, you're not
actually bringing money to thetable in most cases, maybe a
little bit earnest money, youknow, whatever, but there's a
lot less risk involved and thatway you can kind of learn the

(17:04):
ins and the outs, um, you know,learn a little bit more about
how it works and like the basicthings.
Like I didn't know what arv was, I didn't know a single thing
and I still don't know much.
I mean, people ask me.
One of the questions theyalways ask me is like like
always, this is always generalpublic a lot of people they
always ask me like, so do you,like actually do the work
yourself?

(17:25):
Um, and so what I would say isI still can't hammer and a nail
it's a common question, though,yeah yeah, I'm not handy when I
I can't, you know I'm.
I design.
I don't like design, um, I youknow I'm not handy, but I like
business, like buildingbusinesses, and I like numbers,
I like making money, um, and Iand I like negotiations and like

(17:48):
sales, and I think those arethe more important parts.
So, to kind of take a couplesteps back with that, you want
to get into the fix and flipping, start off with wholesaling.
That's a great way.
But if you're going to go intoit either way, the first thing I
would learn is learning how tounderwrite a house.
It's the most important part.
You have to understand what thenumbers look like, because you

(18:11):
can very quickly lose money andyou don't want to do that.
So you're going to have tounderstand what some basic terms
mean, like ARV after repairvalue.
So you're buying a house forwhatever amount of money.
You got to figure out what itcan sell for after you've paired
it.
Then, between that, you got tofactor in things like your loan
costs, your, your actualrenovations, supply and labor,

(18:35):
and then your closing costs,both on the buying side and
selling side, and so you have tobe able to underwrite a deal,
and so there's a lot ofdifferent people and different
ways.
You can go on and learn that,but the first thing I would get
down is okay, what even makes adeal?
And then, number two, you haveto learn how to find the deal

(18:57):
From there.
I truly believe that if youunderstand what makes a good
deal and you have the ability tofind a good deal, the rest is a
little bit easier.
A lot easier because when youhave a good deal partners, bring
on a partner.
That's what I would say.
First off, just bring onsomeone who knows what they're
doing, say, hey, look at thisgreat deal I have, do you want

(19:18):
to partner on it?
And most likely they're goingto say yes, if it's a great deal
.
And that way, what you canlearn from that is you can learn
like so I'm doing a deal withPace.
This is a big RV park deal andit's a deal that you know I'm
excited about.
Numbers are great, and so whatI did since my first RV park
deal is I went and found outsomeone with information and the

(19:40):
knowledge that I don't have,and part of our agreement as we
do this is I want to be in onthose calls with the team, with
the management team.
I want to understand whatthey're looking at, how they
think and how they do things.
And then there's things thatcome with that the softwares
they use, payment, soft, all thestuff that goes into it.
I'm going to write that down,I'm going to keep that

(20:00):
information and they're morethan happy to share it with me
because we're partners and sothey're teaching me the
processes.
I brought a great deal to thetable and we have a partnership
and then going in the future youknow I may use them a few more
times we may have ways toventure out in our partnership,
but usually what happens is thatyou'll come in partner with
someone and then, when you getcomfortable on doing your own,

(20:22):
then you can do it on your own.
Get comfortable on doing yourown, then you can do it on your
own.
So I think that's the best wayto do it Learn how to underwrite
a deal, learn how to find dealsand then find a partner when
you found a deal.

Yeah, you touched on so many great points.
I think a lot of people makethe mistake by coming in this
thing wanting the whole piece ofthe pie, right, like they're
not willing to JV, they're notwilling to partner, and and
you're really holding yourselfback, right, because, like you
said, like you know, you don'thave a whole lot of experience.
You know someone about RV parks, but you don't have the

(20:51):
expertise as someone like PaceMorbier it doesn't even have to
be Pace, right, it could beanybody that's in that space and
you bring the deal with them,you partner up on them, and then
they can really show you how itall unfolds, and then you guys
can work together.
Now you can take that blueprintand go and do it yourself where
you don't have to partner withhim.
And that's how I always tellpeople too when they get into

(21:12):
wholesaling right, like, yeah,you can get into the acquisition
side, you master that.
But then now you still have todispo the deal, right, it's not
a deal until you actually closeon it.
And so one of the good ways is,you know, like you know, link
up JV with someone that's indisposition, and then you could
just split the proceedings andthen he'll show you the process
of how to find that end buyerRight.

(21:35):
And then you know you did talkabout how you know you started
out with wholesaling Right and alot of people you know that's
how a lot of people start inreal estate.
They started in wholesaling andone of the first questions a
lot of people ask me is likewhere do I market at?
Like, where, how do I choosethe market?
Like I hear about Texas, I hearabout California, you know all
these different States.
Like I'm so confused on whereto start.

(21:56):
So, with that being said, like,how did you determine which
market you wanted to focus onfirst for your flips?

Well, um, it's definitely going to differ case
by case, because my market isNorth Carolina.
Everyone wants to be in NorthCarolina.
It's a good market.
It's a strong market, so thatmay impact someone's decision,
but my decision was that Iwanted to be in your backyard, I
wanted to be close, I wanted tobe somewhere where I knew the

(22:28):
areas.
I knew the good areas and thebad areas, and my market just
happened to be really good.
You know, started off.
I grew up in Raleigh.
It's where I started mybusiness, so I was in one of the
best markets, and that actuallywould scare a lot of people too
, though you can look at it bothways.
I might be fortunate enough toknow one of the better markets

(22:49):
is my backyard, but also itscares a lot of people who don't
want to deal with competition.
They don't want to go in andcompete with New Western, these
big companies who just dominate,and what I would say with that
is I think that's a scarcitymindset.
I think that you just got toget better.
But I also understand thatthere are other opportunities

(23:12):
elsewhere.
So you may have your ownreasons.
You may be finding a marketwhere there's less competition.
You can figure it out.
I mean that's great andeverything.
But for me I wasn't going to beafraid of the market because
there's the players in it.
I knew that if I could find adeal in that market it was going
to make my life a lot easier onthe back end when I sold the
house.
So I wanted to go after thatmarket.

(23:34):
So ideally I would tell anyoneokay, I was getting started to
start off in their market,unless if they're in some place
the population is really low,like under 20,000 or whatever,
and there's just something goingon where it's just a hard area.
You know if you can go in andyou can look and you can see and
there's ways to do this and notgoing to go into too much

(23:55):
detail here.
But essentially when youunderstand this concept, you
look at Zillow and you're ableto determine if houses are
moving, if they're selling ontime, how many are for sale, how
many are under contract, howmany have been sold.
You kind of come up with a wayof figuring out if it's a good,
healthy market.
I would always start by lookingin your backyard first, and if
your backyard doesn't work, thenlook at the next closest

(24:16):
location and if that doesn'twork, then pick a market.

Yeah, I used to have that mindset.
I used to be like man, I don'twant to be where everybody else
is at, right, I don't want to benext to the competition.
They're just going to take allthe deals.
But if you really sit back andthink about it, that's where all
the activity is right.
You know, like McDonald's,they're going to go and put
their.
You know our Burger King,they're going to put no, they
want to be next to thecompetition.
That's where all the activityis.
If you go and choose, like howyou just mentioned, like a

(24:43):
market that there's not muchpopulation, not a lot of
activity, chances of you findinga buyer is going to be slim.
So, on top of that, it makesyou elevate your game.
Right, because if somebody iscrushing it, you're like dude,
how do I step my game up?
How do I improve where I canclose deals, just like them.
So you don't do any dealsoutside of your own market.

No, I do, that's how I started.
But yeah, I mean since, yeah,we've done deals all up and down
the East Coast.
I've done some random areas,kind of just came across my
plate, but yeah, we do it allacross North Carolina, south
Carolina, virginia.
We've done some in Florida.

Okay, so like what would you say like the main
factors to consider whendeciding between a local market
versus a virtual one?

Um, well, I think again, if you can go and
you can kind of start to analyzehow many houses I've sold, and
I really it's relative to to themarket.
You know the market is ischanging, like we've had a very
volatile market the past fiveyears, so like there were times
up here where I didn't want tolook more than 90 days past.
Um, you know, like if interestrates massive shift, like that

(25:51):
can impact it.
But general rule of thumb, Ilook at like six months.
I use Zillow.
I look at past six months howmany houses have sold.
Then I go and I look at howmany houses are for sale.
Then I also look at how manyhouses are in their contract
that are for sale.
So those are kind of threethings to look at.
Um, if you look and you see amarket, for instance, that for

(26:14):
instance it's had like, let'ssay, the last 90 days, let's say
it's had two I'm just throwingnumbers out there let's say 200
have sold and you look at itright now and there's 200 for
sale, I would be a major redflag.
I'm right, past 90 days, only200 sold.
Right now you have 200 sale.
And what if, even out those 200, there's only like 500 contract

(26:35):
right now what does?
that tell you that's how that?
Number one, they're moving slow, the same amount of solar are
for sale.
And number two, it tells methere's 200 for sale, only 500
contract.
That means that they're sittingin the market.
So what's going to happen whenyou go get a house and try to
sell it?
it's probably the same thing.
There's a lot of opportunityout there.

(26:57):
There's a lot of other housesthat can be purchased.
So unless you're able to getthe price the property's prices
for really low, for really goodprices, which you may be able to
do, it's probably gonna bepretty hard to sell that house.
So I would go try to find anopportunity where you see not
enough supply in a market.

All right, yeah, and I and I agree with you on
that you know, like choosingyour own, choosing your market
as your own backyard, startingoff there, I think is is going
to be key, especially when itcomes to flips, right Cause then
you can go in and check on yourcontractors.
You got boots on the ground,you can go and see visuals.
So I would say, yeah, I agreewith you on that one.
You know, if you're doingwholesaling, it's it's a little

(27:35):
bit different, right, you canvirtually wholesale.
It's a little bit easier thanit is to flip in your own
backyard.
But, yeah, I agree with you.
So we have our market right.
Let's say we have our market inmind, we're going to choose our
backyard.
Now, what would be someone'snext step?
Are they building a power team?
Do they start looking for deals?
Am I hitting on wholesalers?
What's the next step?

(27:56):
Well, here's one thing about.

Let's say you can't choose your backyard for
whatever reason, it's not a goodmarket.
It let's say you can't chooseyour backyard for whatever
reason, it's not a good market,it's horrible, whatever.
If that's the case, then here'sa tip that I've learned Find
some other partner, in this case, real estate agents are a great
partner here.
Work something out with them,with them.
Now you know I was negotiatinga deal where I don't pay with
something A normal seller wouldpay, and I look for someone who

(28:19):
has experience with flips.
They have to have experiencewith flips.
They have to have flipped theirown houses.
This is one of the bestpartners ever.
Number one you're not having todo like a 50-50 equity.
I mean, it's like you're payingan agent, brokerage agent
usually say 3% for the listingfirm, especially if you work on
a deal with them.
Saying hey, listen, I alreadyknow how to negotiate, you don't

(28:40):
have to do much of that.
Saying hey, listen, I alreadyknow how to negotiate, you don't
have to do much of that.
The paperwork's easy.
This house is going to be brandnew.
I'm going to have multiple ofthese coming and you can be my
guy for all of these.
Let's do half, let's do what Ido, but then what they can bring
to the table is so invaluable.
Number one they can go and theycan do walkthroughs for you.
They can check on the property.
Number two they can share theircontacts contractors that's

(29:05):
going to be the most importantthing here.
So they've already done flips,they already have contractors
and they've already vetted them.
So that's just such a good.
You know you want to find.
One of the best partners youcan find is find a flipping
agent, an agent who has flippedhouses.
So that's number one.
So next, but let's say, forwhatever reason, that's not the

(29:28):
route you go, cause that's notthe route that I went at first.
But let's say so you have yourmarket and we're at the point
where you have a house undercontract or what.

So like, would you say, like building up a team
would be first, or would yousay, just go out and finding a
deal?

Well, yeah, deal , don't waste your team trying
to build time building, findinga team, building a team?
Um, not yet.
I mean definitely not.
I like to have them?
Yeah, definitely not.
And when I?

and when I say let me correct myself when I say
team, I meant like more of apower team.
So, like you mentioned, anagent, you know, maybe finding
title company, maybe startlooking for contractors.
Do you think that's importantto do first, to establish first?
Or would you say just go outand start looking for deals,
then start building out yourpower team?
It?

depends.
If you are like where I was, Iwas a wholesaler that
transitioned into flipping.
I got tired.
I was one of those wholesalersthat would go back and I'd be
like whatever happened to thathouse, let me just look it up
real quick.
What did they sell it for?
I'd see what they sold it forand then a lot of times I was

(30:32):
like no way that mofo gave me somuch trouble for my asking
price and top or down he justmade what Like $100,000 on it.
That happened too many timeswhere I go back and I look at it
and I would see a lot of moneythat was left on the table.
And so that pain point turnedinto motivation, where I was
like you know what?
I'm going to suck this up, I'mgoing to learn this.

(30:54):
Tired of the mindset of thinkinglike, hey, maybe I should just
focus on just doing this and notput time and effort into doing
this, which is the shiny objectsthing you kind of talk about.
But these things integrate sowell like you're already halfway
there with your wholesaling.
You found the deal.
That's the most important part.
You have found the deal.
The numbers make sense,congratulations.

(31:14):
You have a good deal.
No one's going to ever argue,with that being the most
important part, because youfound a killer deal, a lot of
the rest can just fall intoplace.
You can just find a partnerthat has all the experience,
knowledge, and they will partnerwith you.
And if they don't want to do it, someone else who has all the
knowledge, experience, willpartner with you.
So finding the deal isabsolutely the most important
part.
So if you're a wholesaler,cherry pick your deals, um.

(31:37):
But if you're, if we're talkingabout someone who has, like no
experience doing this whatsoever, um, then I would go find
wholesalers and I would just,instead of trying to build a
team and going, I mean, sure,maybe you can find some agents.
I've personally never been theperson that buys on-market
houses.
Some people do great with that.
I just like negotiatingdirectly with a seller and I

(32:00):
probably will do it in thefuture, but I haven't been the
person that buys the on-markethouses.
I do all off-market.
So what I would say is I wouldsay go find wholesalers and
don't just tell them hey, add meto your list and tell me about
the best deals you have and makesure that I'm first, Because
people actually do say that andit's kind of comical.

(32:21):
First of all, half ofwholesalers are lazy, probably
more than half, probably 80 to90% of wholesalers are lazy,
unprofessional, not businessowners.
They don't know how to organizetheir time.
They don't know how to dothings properly, they don't have
systems that are proper, and sohalf the time, or more than
that, when you tell them, hey,here's my email, so great, they

(32:42):
put it into like a note orwhatever on their phone.
They don't actually ever add itto their email system.
Right, that's what happens allthe time.
Why do I know that?
Because I did that a lot oftimes.
First year I got really wellemails.
My email system wasn't workingwhatever.
I didn't do that.
The guy who was the guy who gotmost of my deals, the way he

(33:05):
operated and I learned a lotfrom how he operated was he got
my phone number and he called meand when he knew I was hot, he
knew I was putting out deals.
I heard from him a lot.
He built great rapport with me.
He was cool.
He wasn't just the person who'slike throw me on your list, um,
and then gets upset, you know.
And then on top of that, he wasreally easy to work with.

(33:26):
So to kind of just summarize allthat and kind of how it can be
useful is find wholesalers, gettheir phone numbers, actually
interact with them.
Don't just expect them to throwyou on a buyer's list.
And, by the way, even if theydo throw you on the buyer's list
, you're having to compete witheveryone else that's on their
buyer's list.
So now they're a good enoughwholesaler I think I just went

(33:48):
off for a second Now they're agood enough wholesaler where
they actually are putting you ontheir buyer's list, putting
everyone else on the buyer'slist too, so they're competing
with them.
Get their numbers, no matterwhat.
Get their numbers, interact withthem, contact them, make them
like you and then ask them fordeals, get sent your way and
when they do send them or youfollow up, say hey, do you have
anything?
Or do you like hey, here's agood line.
Hey, do you have anythingavailable to purchase right now?

(34:09):
Oh, no, I don't have anything.
Cool, you got anything in thepipeline?
Oh, you know, I am kind ofworking on this and, by the way,
a lot of wholesalers they wantto feel like they're they're
good at this, so they're gonnatell you like, oh, they're gonna
tell you what they're doing.
They're working on saying okay,when do you think that's gonna
come through, and then follow upon that deal and then be ready.
Be ready to buy.
Don't be difficult.

(34:30):
The last thing a wholesalerwant is someone is hey, can I
see, can I touch, can I feel theproperty?
Can I walk it three times?
Can I make sure you sure thisis good?
Can I talk?
No, the buyer who's get themost deals is going to be the
person that knows what they wantand is ready to close.
So this guy will talk about.
This is what he sounds like onthe phone what you got.
Okay, do you see that to me?

(34:50):
Let me look at it real quickand within two minutes.
Okay, I'll take it how much?
What's the best you can do?
And then he's getting acontract in there before he has
to see the house.
You can be that person which Iknow.
It's hard.
You want to feel it, you wantto touch it, you want to do all
those things.
I understand that.
But if you can be so preparedthat you're ready to close a

(35:10):
deal on the phone, it's going toincrease your odds of getting
that deal.

Yeah, I like the fact that you said build rapport
right, instead of just sendinga text message or an email blast
.
I can't tell you how many timesI get people reaching out like
that and it's I hate it, man.
I really I'm a firm believer ingetting on the phone or getting
in front of somebody and justhaving a real conversation and
building some actual rapportthere, right?

(35:35):
So like, let's say, awholesaler came to you and said
yo, brandon, I want to bringsome opportunities your way.
What's that conversation looklike?
Is there like any specific bedbath count that you're shooting
for, maybe a certain squarefootage?
What are you telling thatwholesaler?

Yeah, so I just have in my notes it's kind of a
template I just send out andkind of give them an idea to
tell you I don't try to be toospecific, but you want to be
specific enough where you're notgetting all the trash deals,
but also you don't want to betoo specific where you may get
passed upon some deals and Idon't want to make it too

(36:09):
complicated for that person.
Like, are they really going togo?
How many wholesalers reallyhave their CRMs built out where
they're like okay, this persononly needs this year, this year,
this county, this year, blah,blah, blah, blah, blah.
It's like they're not.
Not.
Most wholesalers don't actuallyhave a system.
That's good, that is that good.
And so you're trying to explainto them this whole buy box and

(36:30):
you're dealing with a wholesalerwho probably doesn't have the
best systems, just the majority.
Just because some people arefantastic, really organized,
have great teams, I get that.
But best wholesal, those areusually the newer ones that
don't have huge buyers lists, um, so they're probably not gonna
have super built out stuff.
So if you send them this superfine and detailed buyer's box, I

(36:52):
mean, first of all, it'sprobably not gonna even get
inputted like that, um, secondof all, it just may just cancel
you out altogether.
So I just try to be kind ofvague and they like, honestly,
send me any deals you want.
Really, like I can look at adeal and at least in the first
10 seconds know if it's goinginto my trash bin or if I need
to look at it longer, so likehow much, like it takes

(37:13):
literally 10 seconds to do that.
So they can send me whateverthey want and I can tell within
10 seconds if I'm looking to itmore and then if I decide then
then I can do a deeper analysisof that deal.
So, be very vague, I kind ofjust tell them the areas that
I'm looking for, but you canjust send me anything, because
you never know.
I've had someone send me a dealin Newport, ritchie, florida.
That was such a good deal thatI was on my bias box.

(37:37):
I bought it and made a goodamount of money.

Cool.
And then so I know you kind oftouched on, you know, finding
deals from wholesalers but likewhat are some other like
effective strategies someone cando, or like something you've
learned over the years forfinding the right properties to
flip Like, do you mind sharingwhere you typically find your
best deals?

Yeah, I mean, for me, the most consistent,
best deal producing marketingchannel that I've had is the
calling system.
And there's more to you knowcold call is more that goes into
that.
There's different layers to it,but you know it's buying a list
.
We have a VA first.
They call and they just try to.
You know, even one to twopositive conversations a day is

(38:19):
good and they channel that intoour CRM.
And then that's where our leadacquisition, that's where you
know this would be you, thiswould be you, this person.
So, for deals, this is where youthen talk to those leads.
So if you can go on Upwork 5 orwherever you find VAs, pay
someone four to five bucks anhour, have them call through the
list and generate leads.

(38:40):
Or if you really want to savethe money on that, do that
yourself.
If you can pay for a VA, payfor a VA.
But if you can't do thatyourself, generate those leads,
have those conversations.
And then the second half of itis way more important.
So then it's the schedule andthe follow-up.
So that's where the realpipeline starts to get built and

(39:03):
it's about just continuouslyfollowing up, taking notes,
remembering what's going on,because it's very unlikely that
you're going to call someone orthen in there they're ready to
go and it does happen in thebest deals ever but more than
likely you've got to tend tothat.
You gotta you gotta talk tothem.
You gotta follow up on thedates because it could be months
out from when they're actuallyready and a lot of this is about

(39:26):
timing.
So I mean it's the mostimportant thing is timing in
this business is talking to theperson at that specific time
when they've just either hadenough or whatever's going on,
got to the point where they needto sell.
Those were all my best dealshave came from from.
Most of my deals come from this, just like, for whatever reason
, they've had a bunch of peopletalking to them and, sure, maybe
they like me a little bit more,maybe not, um, but the more

(39:49):
important part is that I got intouch with them at that right
time and I closed the deal atthat time.
And so, having those touchpoints, making sure you're
talking to them, and then you'regoing in for the close.

So what list are you pulling?
What kind of criteria?

So for me, I've never really been very like
specific and stack my list Likethe more important thing to me
for cash deals was equity, isthat they have higher equity.
Now, if you have a smaller team, you only have you know,
especially you're doing thecalls yourself.
I think a great place to startwould be pre foreclosureosure
someone with actual, realmotivation for selling your then

(40:26):
and there, a solution that youcan offer to someone who has a
problem.
Um, those are some of the bestlists.
Um, you know all the differentcategories of lists.
You obviously you have divorce,you have the pre-foreclosure,
you have high equity, you haveum tax liens, tax delinquent

(40:47):
liens, and you got thesedifferent ones For me I just
kind of bought them all.

Okay.
So you kind of just bought alarger list and just started
hitting them all with VAs andwhatnot and VAs are great.
I've actually used VAs.
The thing is that you stillhave to train them.
A lot of people don't realizethat they think they're just
going to hire a VA and then theygot this full on badass
assistant.
You got to remember you arepaying these people a lower wage

(41:12):
and there is some traininginvolved and we've actually
covered that in the podcast.
So you know, if you guys wantto learn how to hire VAs and
train them properly, you canlook back on some previous
episodes and I've actuallybrought on the owner of VA Depot
and we've touched on a lot ofgood points on how to properly
train them.

(41:34):
But let's okay.
So how do you evaluate apotential deal and determine if
it's even worth pursuing?
Like, is there a certain levelof wear and tear in the
properties it's got to be at, oryou know maybe a timeline on
when the property was built?
Like, what are those keyfactors where you're like okay,
this is a deal, let's try towork this one out?

Yeah, I really don't like early old houses.
I don't like when I have to goin and change the entire
plumbing systems or if I'mdealing with foundation issues,
like I'm not trying to do thatbecause it's really hard to
estimate, estimate exactly howmuch it's going to cost.
Um, I guess in your perfectworld, um, the perfect flip is
gonna be like 1980 or newerthree bed, two bath brick ranch

(42:13):
house, um, somewhere in thepurchase price of like 100 to
like 250 max.
Um, the reason behind that isthat, and also not too big, not
too much acreage.
So so I really want over 2000square feet and really like not
over half an acre, I mean alittle more of that.
Really like over an acre isideal, just because then you got

(42:38):
landscaping costs and all thatthat kind of goes into it.
That doesn't really like.
Yeah, sure, you may have someniche buyers are like I'm only
buying it if it has two acres ormore, and sure Like, great,
like that.
Um, and sure like, great, likethat, there are some people like
that and they'll pay thosehouses.
But like, that's not who I'mgoing after.
I'm going after the, the largermarket I want where there's
going to be a bigger buyer pool.

(42:58):
So you know you want it to benot too expensive.
You want it to be in that kindof perfect price range where,
like almost like a new homebuyer.
Um, because that's where thebiggest market is and so I want
to be in that market.
Brick, because brick is numberone.
It looks great, it's usually alot less issues.
Go on the outside, clean it up,paint it.

(43:20):
It looks fantastic.
A ranch again, just for thatbuyer pool.
You're going to have a biggerbuyer pool with a ranch and a
little less issues to deal with.
Um, and newer, obviously forthose reasons I touched on.
So if you can find a housethat's 1980 or new, but then it
too new probably is, you know,kind of the point where you
gotta change up your offer, um,because it's gonna depend how

(43:42):
much work needs to be done to it.
Um, you're maybe not be able tofind as many opportunities with
houses that need a lot of work,but like 1980 or newer brick
ranch.
Three bed, two bath.
Two bath is always going to behuge.
It doesn't really matter.
If you like four bed, three bed, I actually prefer three beds.
Probably more space in thehouse, um, more open, uh, uh,

(44:04):
more open plan versus having,like all these extra bedrooms.
Um, but yeah, for fix and flip,that's going to be ideal.
If you're doing like your firstone, I would say, definitely
try to stay like at that 1980 ornewer.
Um, you just don't want to openup a can of worms, right?
But so here's the main thingthat I learned.
So this house that I'm in rightnow actually, um, this was my

(44:27):
first flip.
Actually it wasn't a flip, butit's the first house I renovated
.
It wasn't going to be an Airbnb, it's in Wilmington, got it for
a great deal on creative termsand I spent $140,000 renovating
this 1,700-square-foot house$140,000.
No new HVAC, no new roof.
Frickin' popcorn is still onthe ceiling.

(44:51):
Learning experience for sure.
Knowing what I know now, itwould have cost me probably
about $60,000 and would havebeen a much better job.

So yeah, why was that?
What do you think that was?

Yeah, that's what I'm going to touch base on.
If I had known this one thing,just this one one thing, if I
hadn't been lazy and I knew thisone thing would have changed
everything for me.
Okay, that one thing is getmultiple quotes.
Three to five quotes.
Get five your first time.
Get five, you'll learn a lotmore.
Pick up the phone, don't belazy.
Take a picture of that vangoing by.

(45:26):
I like the vans that aresomething like gonzalez or
whatever, landscaping orpainting, um, those are the type
of vans that I usually try totarget.
I take pictures of those vans,um, and I get multiple quotes.
Because when some freaking jerkcomes and tells you that, hey,
man, we gotta do this, this andthis and this and this and this,

(45:48):
and like, you're like, oh, okay, what's that gonna cost?
He's like, oh, it's only gonnabe like ten thousand dollars.
You're like, okay, is thatthat's normal, right?
Yeah, okay, cool, that's whatwe have to do.
So I bought the house.
What you gotta do?
Instead, you got someone else.
So and it's like oh, man, likeI can just replace one thing.
It's like a five hundred dollarfix.
And you're like what?
So then you go back to thatperson again this person's like.
He's like oh yeah, well, Idon't know if you want to, I

(46:10):
guess you don't have to replaceit.
And you know right away thatthat guy, that that person is
trying to rip you, he's tryingto screw you, and so get
multiple quotes and then pinthem up against each other.
So first weed out the peoplethat are just going to rip you
off and then pin up the otherguys.
I mean, you don't have to dothis part if you're happy to
quote.
But what I would do is I wouldpin the quotes together.

(46:30):
I would say, hey, listen, thisperson said they'll do this,
make them, make sure they giveyou a price sheet, everything
they're going to give.
So this person says they'regoing to do this for this.
This person said they're goingto do this and this.
What can you do?
And then get that price to thepoint where you feel comfortable
.
And then you get another quoteand see it, and if you're at
like five quotes and you're kindof understanding now what

(46:51):
they're doing, what they'regoing to do, that's how you can
kind of do something withouteven having that much knowledge
of what exactly it is.
They'll come into your houseand they'll tell you everything
that needs to be done.
This is what they do, and sothen you get that price and
quote it out.
Now you have a really good ideaof what it's going to cost.
I always pay for the materialmyself.
I do that.

(47:11):
I just use Home Depot.
Some people try to sourcedifferent things and import and
whatever it's too much work.
Where you do multiple flips, Iuse Home Depot.
They got great prices anyways,I use Home Depot and I have a
credit card with them.
You don't have to have a creditcard with them, but you can set
up a profile, a home depot proaccount, where all they do is
text you whenever you approve anorder.
That's what I do.

(47:32):
I text one and I approve it.
So I buy the material.
So there's no funny businessgoing on the material.
Um, I buy the material.
It comes from home depot.
It's not coming from someprevious project they had or who
knows what, where they'refinding this material.
I buy, buy the material andthen from there, I mean you've
you now you know I have yourquotes, you have your people,

(47:52):
you're buying the material.
Then, when they're going towant you to pay for part of it,
pay them.
I give them like let's say likeI just had one thing and the
total project was like $30,000.
So I started off with $10,000.
I trust this guy.
I know them.
You can do less than that.
You can have them start.
It's all what you negotiate.
You don't get what's fair inlife.

(48:12):
You get what you negotiate.
That's a great point you don'tget what's fair.
You get what you negotiate.
A lot of times, if you don'tnegotiate, you're 100% not going
to get what's fair.
So if you want to get gooddeals and you want things to go
right, it's going to be what younegotiate.
So if it were me and I wasstarting off just with that,
like I wish I did with thatfirst crew it was my first flip.

(48:32):
I started with my first crew.
I mean I would give thempennies on the dollar because
I'd be worried about this crew.
I'd always be concerned thatmaybe someone's going to try to
screw you, and so I would startoff with like maybe $1,000,
listen, we haven't workedtogether.
I got jobs for you.
I got a lot of work for you.
Always tell them that becauseyou do and you could be a great
potential client for them.

(48:52):
I got tons of work for youcoming up.
I need to build a trustrelationship with you.
I'm going to give you $1,000and then we can do payments as
you complete work.
That's it.
And then if they need to finishsomething, if they're having
issues with them finishingsomething, say Joseph, look it,
man.
You said you'd do this, do thisjob, and we're all good.

(49:15):
I got tons of houses coming.
I got 200 contracts.
Dude, we're going to get busy.
Man, I'm going to keep yourolling.
You're going to be my guy, ordon't do this, and fine, we're
going to split up.
You're going to have to go findsomeone else get.
Just fix that one thing.
They're going to split up, butthey're going to, they're going
to do it.
And then, once you get to thepoint where you do have enough
work for them, that's the mostbeautiful point ever, because
now they work for you, they'regoing to, you can keep them busy

(49:37):
enough to where they'll be.
You don't have to go find othercrews and do all this stuff.
They start to understanding Iuse the same stuff for all my
flips so they all look the same.
And so this way, everything'slike cookie cutter same crew,
same material, same stuff.
I switch it up maybe by two orthree different varieties.
Um, it's, everything's inshopping folders.

It takes me two to three hours to do a flip man,
I hope, I hope you guys reallywrote that down, because what he
just said right now was a gym.
Right, getting multiple bids,at least three.
You said right and was a gymright.
Getting multiple bids at leastthree, you said right, and that
could have saved you $80,000.
So imagine if you're constantlydoing this business and you're

(50:18):
constantly doing flips.
Look how much that can actuallyadd up.
80 grand is a lot of money.
So I love that you pointed thatout, because you definitely
want to get multiple bids.

And you learn a lot talking to different people,
because you have to go and golike, and you start hearing
different things.
They're saying, they're showingyou stuff.
Just get as many quotes as youcan okay.

So now how do I know I had the right contractor,
like?
How do I know I can even trustthese guys like and they just
don't go running off my money?
I know you said you mentionedabout giving them a thousand
dollars at a time, but is thereany type of like uh agreement we
can have them sign to protectourselves or do?

OK, you can have a contract, but you know, and
that's kind of like just likesome of these agreements you
sign with anything, it's like itmay just be a scare tactic or
you could have some ironcladthat some of these people, you
know, I'm not hiring GCs.
I don't hire GCs unless it'ssomething it's like permits or
need.
I don't hire GCs.
They're more expensive.
I don't hire GCs unless it'ssomething it's like permits are
neat.
I don't hire GCs.
They're more expensive.
I don't.
That's not how I do it.

(51:11):
And so you know, some of thesepeople maybe they could run off
and take my money.
But there's a couple of thingsyou could do to protect that.
Number one you can kind of tellme about their vehicle.
Do they have like a van?
Does it look like they're doingwork?
It's a little like they, youknow they they stay busy.
Or if you call them, are youlike, are they blowing you up

(51:32):
for the next few days?
Because you're like the onlyjob that they have, because they
want to do such terrible work.
And number two they're they'rephony, you know, and they have
their kind, the kind of busy.
That's good, that's a goodthing.
So that's one thing Then.
Number two is that you aregoing to pay them in portions as

(51:53):
well.
So that's one thing is check upon your work.
That's why doing it in yourbackyard is really important, or
that's why having an agent thatknows how to flip properties is
really important, so you cancheck up on it.
And then there's all the otherthings.
You can ask for referrals Maybethey have a website but for but
for you know some you know likecontractors that I hire, you
know gonzalez's painting is oneof those guys.

(52:15):
You know they don't necessarilyhave like a website, kind of
facebook page.
They don't really.
You know they don't.
They're not really good withall the online stuff, which is
fine, they're great crew, um.
So with them, like when I firststarted working with them, they
had a vehicle already.
At least they have it, likethey have all in it.
They have their crew that comemake it, tell they're
knowledgeable, um.
But the biggest thing is like,once they get started, I'm gonna

(52:38):
go monitor that work,especially the first house.
I'm only gonna pay them inportions got it, got it okay.

So let's let's dive a little bit more into,
like, the renovation costs,because I think this is where a
lot of people get lost in thesauce.
Because if you don't have anyexperience with flipping, how
are you, how are you going tohave any idea what should and
what shouldn't be replaced, oreven the cost of labor and
material?
Right, you know, like, how doyou even figure out what the

(53:06):
cost per square foot in yourlocal market is, and is it
priced differently for lipstickwork versus light repair and
full good jobs, or is it allkind of like the standard of the
average cost?

I mean, you know a lot of these guys.
They're going to give you someformula where it's like twenty
dollars per square foot for alipstick job, twenty five
dollars per square foot, youknow, and you you could try to.
That can put you in a rangeLike that's the biggest thing, I
would say.
Is it like?
Gets you into a range at leastwhere you know where you kind of
need to be at and then you canrenegotiate if needed.
Um, so sure, like lipstick job,$20 per square foot.

(53:39):
They say, um, for me, like Ihave each individual thing
priced out now.
So like I know exactly persquare foot.
Like, for instance, lvp, it'sinstalled on per square foot
basis.
Um, the painting I do on persquare foot basis.
Um, popcorn removal per squarefoot.
You know, cabinet stuff, like Ihave that all.

(54:01):
I have a price sheet.
Like I have, I have itliterally in an excel sheet,
google sheet, I have everythingpriced out and I, you know
everything I've paid someone inthe past to all my other
contractors.
I record everything of what Ipaid anyone and how much all
that stuff.
So there's that.
But again, if you're brand newand never done any of this, what

(54:26):
I would say is ideally.
When you go to to, let's sayyou're just going to do a
walkthrough in the house, what Iwould do is I would try to
bring two different contractorswith you so you can get an idea
of the price now afterward.
That's.
That's going to tell you themost it's going to cost because
you have that quote already.
It's not, obviously it could bethings that go wrong, but you

(54:47):
could have at least that quote.
And yes, you can get contractsand we do use contracts too.
Absolutely luckily, I haven'thad to go into issue with that
yet.
Probably should have done thefirst guy, but we worked out
something else.
But, um, but yes, you can havecontracts.
But when you go look at thehouse, say you're looking at
wholesalers, let's say you needto go there in person to look at
it, and you do that first.
Bring the contractors with you,have them two contractors come

(55:11):
with you so you can start to getthat priced out.
I can't like the safest way togo about us because obviously
you want to be careful on,especially in your first flip is
that the best way is going tois going to have actual quotes
coming in from your contractors,people who actually because
you're not going to learn allthis, you're not going to be
able to price out everythingunless you get it.
Just it's partner with someoneagain, that's why I recommend

(55:31):
partnering.
But if you're not going topartner with someone, you refuse
to partner with someone.
You either got to get, havesomeone who's willing to, you
know, find a mastermind whoshares you the price sheet.
That's still going to be kindof hard to really price out
everything.
Trust me, I had that too.
It's still hard, trust me.
The best way to do it is to getmultiple quotes from
contractors.

Okay, and now?
Would you recommend a new fixand flipper, start off with
light rehab?
Or do you think they're good togo to just dive in on a full
gut job for their first flip?

Don't do a full gut job.
Don't do a full gut job.
I have some people tell methere's this one guy who's
writing this story and he wastalking about, you know, doing
historic, a historic house forhis first one.
You get a grant and all thiskind of stuff.
And I'm like, dude, you'recrazy, like you want to go
through all that in your first.
That's, that's insanity.
Oh, you can make this muchmoney.

(56:19):
I'm like I mean sure, I mean gofor it.
Like I'm not gonna tell you no,because, who knows, maybe maybe
he'll be teaching me abouthistoric houses.
I don't, I don't know, but forme I just doesn't.
I don't want anything to dowith that.
Like, for me, especially whenI'm doing my first ones, I want
the easiest, least amount ofwork as possible to learn first.

(56:40):
And so, yeah, if you can get ahouse that minimum like if your
quotes are coming in like over$50,000, then I would say that's
kind of getting into moreextensive renovation.
I don't know the size of thehouse, but the general concept
is do cosmetic.

Yeah, I agree with you there, man, because you
know, if you're going to startwith a flip, I would highly
recommend you start off withlight rehab or some lipstick
work, kind of get a feel for it,right, you know, learn how to
get the blueprint down and then,yeah, sure, Once you start
getting better and better at it,more consistent, then maybe you
tackle on a full gut job I meanonce you have your team in
place, right.

(57:18):
But I just wanted to point thatout because I do see a lot of
people make that mistake and itgives fixing flippers a bad name
because all of a sudden thisguy does this full gut job.
He loses his ass on the dealand then he's like, oh, fix and
flip is terrible now.
So, like, when you'reunderwriting these deals, like,
what other costs are wefactoring in?
Are like, are we adding inholding and and closing costs

(57:39):
too?
Or like, how are you?

yeah, I mean, in a short um format of video like
this, it's gonna be hard toreally get everything you need.
The more important thing that Iwould say again, if you're
gonna take from this, is gettingquotes from people who know
what they're doing, partneringwith people.
But yeah, if you're gonnaunderwrite a deal, those are the

(58:01):
main parts.
Okay, first of all, it's whenyou buy the deal.
Notice these off-market things.
You're promising to pay for theclosing costs, so you gotta and
then there's usually not anagent involved, especially off
market.
So it's really closing costs.
Maybe a transfer tax, theattorney fees, that kind of
stuff be a few thousand dollars.
And then you're going to have Iuse hard money or private money

(58:24):
a lot of times.
So you're going to have yourorigination points like one or
2%.
If you're paying more than 2%and you've lost your mind, I
don't care what the person'strying to tell you.
The hard money is trying totell you hey, you know, but we
have the best customer servicethere is out there and we can
fund 90%.
Dude, you can go to Kiyavi.
Here's Kiyavi.
It took me a while to find them, just from the office.

(58:44):
Kiyavi is the best.
I've talked to a lot of hardmoney lenders.
Kiyavi has it all out.
When I talk to other people,they always just go.
When they hear I'm with Kiyavi,they're oh, we have great
customer service.
I'm like, okay, well, I careabout how much you're going to
charge me for my loan, that'swhat I care about.
Kiyavi's customer service isperfectly fine.
I don't care about the customerservice I do.

(59:05):
Kiyavi's is like if it'shorrible, that's a different
story.
Kiyavi's is great.
How much you're going to chargeme for your money, that's what
I care about.
And so I you factor in that.
You factor in you know theorigination points and this you
know fees.
They charge you up front.
I've heard about people doinglike 4% origination.
I like, how do they make moneyon these deals?
I want to be a lender charging4%, that's crazy.

(59:27):
But I pay like less than 1% now, um and then.
So that's factoring the firstone.
And then in your cost.
It depends if you're going toget.
You can go and get the therenovation costs loan lent to
you too, or in some cases wejust fund our renovation
ourselves.
So it depends on how you dothat.
But then you have your interest.
So these are interest onlyloans.
So either they collect at theend of closing or monthly

(59:50):
payment depends if you want tojust pay it monthly and pay a
little less, whatever.
That's what we do.
So you have that monthlypayment and then.
So now you have closing costs,the hard money, upfront fees.
That's in the beginning.
In the middle you may haverenovation costs if you're
funding it yourself or if youhave that loaned into it.
You don't have any of thosecosts, but you have your loan

(01:00:13):
monthly cost, the interest, theinterest only costs.
And then when you sell thehouse, you got to pay the
closing costs and the sellingside, which is going to be more
expensive because you're goingto want to pay a buyer's agent.
Around me it's 2.4%, so I paymarket price because I want them
to bring their buyers Veryimportant.
You pay that and then, nomatter what they're doing with

(01:00:34):
changing laws pay buyers, agentsand then you're gonna have to
pay off.
Um, there may be some more fees, the loan when you pay it off,
not that much, it's just, likeyou know, servicing fee fifty
dollars, whatever, or whateverthe end is for that month.
Then your closing costs, theother closing costs like the
attorney fees and that stuff,and that's it okay.

Joseph Marohn (01:00:54):
So and then, how are you funding your own deals,
like, how are you getting thelending on this, or do you use
private money lenders, hardmoney lenders?
I do it all um.

Brandon Harris (01:01:03):
So, number one I never fund my an entire deal
unless I have a couple dealsthat I just would sell real
quick.
Because someone told me thisconcept and it just resonated,
just made a lot of sense.
Um, they like told me.
They're like, I'm like so, butyou have so much money, why
aren't you just buying this dealyourself, you don't?
I think I was a wholesalertrying to argue like dude, why

(01:01:23):
would you need a loan for this?
Like you don't have to factorin loan costs, pay me that money
and just you can fund ityourself.
Um, but no logic.
And they're like.
They're like no, I, it's likedoesn't matter, I always use
other people's money becausesure I can go out.
Let's say I have enough money$200,000.
Let's say I can go buy a housefor $150,000 and fund the
renovation $200,000.

(01:01:44):
There it goes.
Well, you can buy that onehouse.
Let's say, from that you'd make$70,000 instead of paying the
lender and all the other costs,$20,000.
So instead of making $50,000,you can make $70,000.
But what if you took that$200,000 and instead you bought
three houses with it, fourhouses with it?
Well, now you're making $50,000on three or four houses.

(01:02:08):
So that's making $150,000compared to $70,000.
So I always use private moneyor hard money, um, and then I'll
sometimes pay my own renovationcosts and that depends how many
deals, how much deal flow Ihave coming in.
If I have the money sittingthere and I could pay for the
renovation, I will, um.
But so I'm only paying that 10because they usually they fund

(01:02:31):
it like loan value or loan cost,and so I'll pay 10% for the
house.

Yeah, I think if you have the money to do it, by
all means right, you can do that.
But if you really want to scaleand get to a higher level where
you're doing multiple deals amonth, you really have to learn
how to start leveraging privatemoney and using lenders right,
because that's just going toallow you to get access to a lot
more funding, a lot more deals,a lot more opportunities and
you can really scale yourbusiness.

(01:02:58):
So you trying to fund your owndeal, it's like, yeah, you could
, but hey, man, we're trying toget to a higher level, let's
start using lenders and privatemoney and all that good stuff.
So, yeah, that's why I justwant to ask you on that, because
I've heard from other flipperswhere they say, no, I just use
my own money and they're like oh, how many deals are you doing?
Like, oh, I did two a year,right, so you know.

(01:03:19):
Like, if you really want toscale it where you're doing like
multiple, you know, I don't, Idon't know how many are you
really doing.
Like, are you doing multipleyear, multiple month?
Like, what's your scalability?

like, yeah, well , I do want to say that's a good
point.
It always depends on who you'retalking to.
I mean, if you're just going todo one flip and you have a lot
of extra cash and you like besafe, and it's like, let's say,
you think the economy can go theopposite way in a few months
and you're like I want to beable to just own this house,
sure, whatever, that's not me,I'm trying to scale it up.

(01:03:51):
But so this year the goal wasto finish off at 24 um.
So about two a month was that.
Because you know, last yearI've only done this for like two
and a half years now.
Last year we did um 14 housesand so this year was to do 24 um
and I'm going to finish offsomewhere, like, hopefully I get

(01:04:14):
it.
We'll see how the end of theyear changes.
We just picked up a good amountof contracts, but most likely
you're not going to sell.
I'll probably land around like22, 21.

Oh, wow, that's impressive, man.
Good for you.
Appreciate it.
Yeah, so, uh, you know, I Ireally want to be, you know,
respectful of your time.
There's so much that we cancover on this.
Like you said, we can't covereverything there is with fixing
flipping in one hour.
So what I like to do is I liketo do a part two with you and
bring you back in and we'llcover it, because I have so many

(01:04:44):
, a lot more questions.
I know a lot of people arethinking right now and if you're
up for that, let's, let's do apart two and let's touch more on
this, if you're up for that,yeah, absolutely, okay, cool, so
you know.
There is one more question Iwant to ask you before we close
it out Now are there any cons tohouse flipping that you can
think of, or maybe some thingsnew investors should consider

(01:05:06):
before doing their first flip?

Yeah, absolutely .
I mean there's always riskinvolved with it.
I mean you understand that it'sthe housing market isn't
guaranteed risk involved with it.
I mean you understand that it'sthe housing market isn't
guaranteed like arv.
Like it's so funny people'sopinions on appraisals, people
who aren't really like, likeinvestors and stuff, but they
think appraisals are what theirhouse is worth.
The appraiser does notdetermine what your house is
worth.
Sorry I told you that the equitything you see on your bank

(01:05:31):
statement is not.
The bank does not determineexactly what your house is worth
.
The market determines what yourhealth is, what your house is
worth, absolutely.
That's the part that's like.
It can be volatile because youknow your house can be worth
this much and then the next daypeople are not willing to pay
that.
A lot more houses enter themarket.
Or, uh, elections your electionsare around.
People are scared of whatdirection it's going to go.

(01:05:53):
Or the interest rates, becauseyou're changing the interest
rates.
So people, you know there'ssome like or covid could hit and
all of a sudden everyone isworking from home and they need
extra space in their house andeveryone decides they need to
move um like.
Or they're working from homeand they don't have to go in the
office anymore, except thatthey decide they could like.
There's all these factors thatcould impact the market and so,

(01:06:18):
luckily for me, you know I'vebeen in a good market the past
few years, but you know,obviously there was that risk of
it the market turning around.
You probably talk, people havebeen in bad markets and it
wasn't that great.
So there's definitely somesafety measures, though you know
, being well funded, having cashready to.
You know, if you need to losemoney in a deal worst case
scenario, if something happensthat you're able to do that,

(01:06:39):
bringing in partners using thatpeople's money there's different
ways to safeguard that, butyeah, it's definitely you know,
having an experience being anunderwrite.
So, going all the way back tothe beginning, what I would say
is, in order to help hedgeagainst these things, is you
have to understand on how tounderwrite these houses.
You have to understand whatyou're buying.

(01:07:01):
You have to understand, likehow okay, you have to be able to
predict, ideally to a closeamount, how much it's going to
cost.
Maybe go tour houses that newwestern has off market and bring
contractors with you and sortof get an idea of how to price
things.
But underwrite, understand howto underwrite the house and then
understand how to buy a housebased on your underwriting.

(01:07:23):
You need, you should your youryour formula.
Like I put this onto an Excelsheet it should tell you what
your max allowable offer is andnever go over that, never become
, never get emotionally attachedto a house.
Um, that's actually animportant thing because it's
like that does happen.
Like you may see, it's in anarea where you're like dude I

(01:07:43):
grew up in this area, my streetis right down there like I just
need this house and you'retrying to force yourself to pay
more than you should be paying.
Um, I've done that before andit's it's not a good thing to do
.
So you got to detach yourselfemotionally from the purchase
and just understand how tonegotiate and be willing to pass
up on houses.
Don't get sucked into the.

(01:08:04):
Well, I have a buyer and he'sgoing to pay this much.
Don't get sucked into that.
That triggers you.
You know it triggers.
You say, oh okay, I'll just dothis.
Don't get sucked into that.
Stick to your numbers that areon your sheet.
If your sheet and you've doneyour due diligence and your
sheet tells you the most you canoffer in the house is 200K,
then start off wherever you'regonna start off.
Let's say you start off with180, whatever.

(01:08:25):
If they say, oh, I got a buyerand he's at 210, I need 215,
sure, and do not go over whatyour sheet is telling you you
can pay.

Man, yeah, that's some good points right there,
and I wanted to point that outbecause I don't want it to make
it seem like, hey, brandon'scrushing it, he's making it look
easy.
I'm going to go out and do aflip right now.
Yeah, take action, but just beaware that there are a lot of
risks involved with fixing flip.
But if you understand the, yeah, take action, but just be aware
that there are a lot of riskinvolved with fix and flip.
But if you understand thebusiness, you understand the

(01:08:59):
blueprint on what to do.
Or, like you mentioned, youknow partnering up with someone
that's already in the businessdoing flips and really learning
it before you just go head first.
That's that I would say.
That's the proper way of doingit.
You know doing proper duediligence and if you do all
these things and you apply allthat, then your success rate is
going to be a lot higher, right,and you're not going to have
that much failure.

(01:09:19):
So I do want to point that out.
So good point on that.
And then you know you did touchon the beginning of the podcast
.
You were talking about how youwere a wholesaler and you were
looking at when you, when youwholesaled it to that, that that
end buyer, which typically is afix and flipper and you got
curious right and you saw thenumber, you know what you got on
the assignment.

(01:09:39):
But then you saw what he madeon the back end and you're like
shit man, like I, that couldhave been me.
And that's pretty much whereI'm currently at right now,
because I run a wholesale teamand you know I, you know I get
the assignment fee or whatnot.
And then I always get curiousmyself and I look at it and I'm
like damn, like this dude made akilling.
So I'm at that point now whereyou were back in when you first

(01:10:02):
got into this transition.
So, with that being said, youknow I have we me and Brandon
have talked about this and Isaid hey, man, I want to partner
with you on a deal.
I'm going to bring a deal yourway.
I want to learn from you, youknow.
So let's partner up, let's do afix and flip together.
I know you're not in my market,but I can bring the deal that's

(01:10:22):
from my market.
We partner up together andlet's collab and and we'll
figure out how we split that.
But that's what I'm currentlydoing.
So we're going to be partneringup on a deal on a fix and flip
here soon and I'll make surethat I share that entire
experience with you guys so youcan learn from what I learned on
my journey, because I'm exactlywhere you were at.
So just wanted to point thatout.

Yeah, can't wait .

Yeah, so well, like I said, we'll do a part two
.
We'll bring you back in becausethere's still a lot more to
touch on this.
But I just want to say, brandon, you're a beast man, you know,
you're taking action, youcontinue to grow and provide
value to people and I'm honoredto have you as a homie in my
circle man.
So I appreciate you and keepdoing what you're doing, and
I'll be seeing you in Boston,here in a few days, dude, I

(01:11:03):
can't wait.
I'm so excited.
So am I man, so cool?
So, brandon, how can people getahold of you if they want to
bring some deals your way?

My cell phone number is 9196.
You have like something you canthrow?

it not?
I'll make sure we throw it upthere, but just go ahead and say
it out 919-621-8431.

It's going to be right there.
If you want to do that, I wasgoing to put it.
Uh, that's my cell phone andthen he's gonna throw my
instagram up to brandon harristhree underscore message text me
whatever you want.
Yeah, what I love about these,these conversations and putting

(01:11:43):
yourself out there and going tothings and joining groups like
owners club is you never knowwho you're going to meet.
You never know who is going tobecome a part of your life and,
luckily for me, joseph has beenone of those guys.
So definitely feel free.
Feel free to contact me, reachout, because I'm excited to see
who I meet in the next stages ofmy life.

Facts man.
I couldn't agree with you morethere, so I appreciate you.
But now, if you guys arefinding value from this podcast,
don't forget to show your boysome love.
If you like what we're bringingyou, don't forget to subscribe.
It helps us continue providingvalue to others by reaching a
broader audience.
We're out here to serve, learntogether and reach as many

(01:12:22):
people as possible, so be muchappreciated.
Make sure to also smash thatlike button and drop a comment
down below where your market isthat you're going to choose for
your next flip.
Appreciate all the continuedsupport and, guys, stay tuned,
because we're pumping theseepisodes out every two weeks.
I got some awesome topics andguests coming up next that will

(01:12:44):
change the entire way you dobusiness.
You definitely don't want tomiss out.
Best believe I'm a key.
Bring you that fire Peace.
Thanks, brandon.
Thanks for watching.

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The Fix and Flip Blueprint: Start Profiting from Real Estate Today! | Episode 19

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}The Fix and Flip Blueprint: Start Profiting from Real Estate Today! | Episode 19