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Show NotesThis is the first episode of the Flipping Junkie Podcast!!!!
In this introductory episode, I lay out the following:
My wife and I were flipping houses part-time for about 3 years. A lot of people think that is a long time to wait before going full-time, but there was a lot of benefit in working this business part-time for so long.
Namely:
We were forced to focus on the 20% percent of tasks that would produce 80% of results. This is Pareto’s principle that states that 20% of invested input is responsible for 80% of the results obtained.
We really only had evenings and weekends to operate our flipping business as we both worked full-time.
We had to figure out quickly which marketing methods generated great deals. We would take the kids with us and drive for dollars and when they got bored with it, we made games to see who could spot the vacant houses first.
We had to find contractors that had crews that could handle the entire rehab of each house so that I wouldn’t have to be there swinging a hammer.
This was huge.
When I finally went full-time I really didn’t know what to do with myself now that I had all of the extra time. So, if you’re like most people, use the fact that you are starting out part-time to your advantage. There is always a benefit and advantage you can derive in any adversity.
We didn’t start with a bunch of money either so we had to just focus on doing marketing on a shoestring budget and get a deal and then reinvest the profits almost entirely for more marketing.
We’ve now flipped over 200 houses and are still actively fix and flipping and wholesaling. We do have some rentals and do sell houses on owner financing as well. But our main business is rehabbing. That’s where the big profits are.
The story of why I started this podcast shares a lot in common with why I started the FlippingJunkie.com blog back in 2011.
Went on a 3 week trip with the family up the entire west coast and decided that when I got home I was going to work at becoming a private pilot (for recreation).
I did that but my business suffered because I was so wrapped up in flying. It felt like I was starting over again with the house flipping and I decide to start blogging about it on this blog (FlippingJunkie.com).
Fast forward a couple of years and now in addition to flipping houses I’ve been developing software for real estate investors. We currently have LeadPropeller.com which allows you to have your own house buying websites to generate leads online. If you check out the 34 weeks of posts on the blog, you’ll quickly realize that most of my leads and deals come from my website. We also have a CRM system to help house flippers keep track of their leads and basically manage their entire house flipping business. That can be found at REImobile.com (it’s currently in beta and requires an invite).
Obviously flipping houses and running a software company can take a lot of time and that has forced me to up my game. Podcasting allows me to gain insight from other successful house flippers that I interview and help me to relearn lessons I’ve forgotten and new lessons I learn as I improve my business and share the process with you.
What to expect – First and foremost, what will make this podcast different from the other ones out there – I will interview more regular Joe investors and not just highly experienced flippers.
Not just going to give you pie-in-the-sky ideas about house flipping and constant pitches for products. I want for this podcast to be the go-to place for anybody just getting started flipping houses as well as for experienced investors that want to learn how to improve and grow their business. This is the place to get fresh, actionable advice on flipping houses.
If you want dry content without any stories about actual experiences, you should try a different podcast. I love sharing crazy stories about experiences we’ve had in our house flipping adventures and my guests have a lot of great stories to share as well and I’ll do my best to have them delve into detail so that you get answers to questions you have as we talk about each topic.
I plan on implementing some of the strategies recommended on the show in my own business and give follow up reports on later episodes. That way you can see what results I received which will allow you to know what to expect if you try the strategies out yourself.
We do what we preach.
We want to help you learn how to flip houses and avoid costly mistakes so that you can eventually quit your job and have financial freedom for yourself and your family. 🙂
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Comments (6)
Congrats on the new podcasts! I’ve been a fan, now I’m a fan of the podcasts as well.
Orlando,
Thanks! I appreciate the message. I’ve really enjoyed recording these episodes and hope to improve it over time to provide very specific, actionable advice for flipping houses.
Thanks for being a fan!
Danny
nice podcast. quick question. how much money did you employ at first to start your business before you got your first deal?
Steve,
Thanks!
I don’t remember exactly how much was spent before we got our first deal. I do remember that we didn’t have a big war chest of money to throw at marketing and I have seen a lot of people throw away lots of money when they get started because they weren’t strapped for cash.
Started out with less money is actually a good thing because you are forced to make the most out of each dollar.
We started with driving for dollars, sending out letters and mostly postcards. We also used bandit signs. I’m thinking the bandit signs were about $300 (100 18×24 signs) with shipping. A rough guess for what was spent on postcards mailed was probably between $300 and $500. Not to mention gas from driving around getting addresses of vacant houses. We also did flyers in laundry mats. That was minimal cost though. As a safe rough guess, I’d say we spent about $1,000 before we got our first deal.
That cost should go down over time for most people as your marketing builds and compounds. There’s not much of a way to tell if some of the next deals didn’t come from that same marketing or from marketing we did after getting the first deal.
Hey Danny,
Enjoy listening to you on this podcast and look forward to your other shows. I’ve listened to your guest appearances on Bigger Pockets and found those very enlightening.
I’m a part-time W-2 employee and part-time real estate investor and I am working on building up my flipping/ Buy and Hold business so that I can go full-time in real estate. Looking forward to following your shows so I can pick up some tips and make my business better.
Thanks,
Michael
Thanks, Michael.
Glad to hear you are finding value in the podcast. I’m about to start a new direction with the podcast to give it more of a carry over flow from episode to episode, so be sure to subscribe. 🙂