Listen / Watch
Show NotesThis this vlog, Danny takes a drive up to his lake house where the family is spending the weekend, and talks about the importance of knowing when to step away from the computer. Don’t forget, all of the vlog episodes (and more) are available on the FlippingJunkie YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/FlippingJunkie.
Aside from just spending time with his family, it’s important for Danny to get away from the office and clear his head so that he can return to work on Monday ready to tackle the week. It’s important for everyone to do that! Danny spent his weekend with his family at his lake house, but how are you spending yours?
Learning to step away from the computer is something Danny found valuable when he was on BiggerPocket’s show talking with them. This is something that’s just stuck with Danny, and has helped keep him grounded and focused on what needs to be done. Getting out there and talking to people in person, and driving around your city, are great ways to expand your knowledge of your target area. So don’t just sit in front of your computer all day, get out there and start talking to other investors and motivated sellers!
linksBiggerPockets Podcast Episode 18
FlippingJunkie Youtube channel
Please Rate and Review
This is my simple request: If you enjoy the podcast and look forward to hearing a lot more episodes, I would be very grateful, happy, beholden and otherwise indebted to you to rate and review the podcast on iTunes.
It’s your choice and I do not want you to feel at all obligated. But I’d love it if you would subscribe and leave a rating and review.
Ratings and reviews allow the podcast to be seen by more people, which will help me achieve my goal of helping as many others as we can to get started in the house flipping business and change their lives.
Click here to rate and review our podcast! :)
Not sure how to leave a rating and review? Click here to view the instructions (it only takes 2 minutes)
There will be a brand new episode every single week, so be sure to subscribe and receive each episode as it’s released.
Subscribe on iTunes 
Subscribe on Stitcher
Episode TranscriptionDanny Johnson: This is the Flipping Junkie podcast episode 66. [music] Welcome to the Flipping Junkie podcast. My name is Danny Johnson; former software developer turned house flipper, flipping hundreds of houses. Each week, we bring you interviews, strategies, stories, and motivation to help you get started flipping houses and on your way to becoming your own boss and achieving financial freedom. Thanks for spending time with me today. Now, let’s get to it.
Hey, hey, hey! This is Fat Albert! That was horrible. Yeah, I’m so very excited – I’ll get to why I’m saying that. But I’m headed out to the lake house. Wife and kids are already there. I’ve been “hustling”. That’s my word this year 2017, get back to the hustle, working real hard and learning a lot, doing a lot. And it’s exciting. Now, I think the last three weeks including weekends I’ve really worked. We’ve been doing a lot for the software and the flipping business and I’ve just been hustling. I’ve been working, working, working. So, a little bit of R&R time. I’m going to meet the family out there and headed out right now and so I’ve been driving. It’s nice because the place is about an hour from where we live so I feel like I’m getting away from everything but it doesn’t take forever to get there, so it’s super cool.
So I’ve been tasked with picking up some food for tonight and for tomorrow. I’m trying to eat healthier now so, you know, I’m looking for the grass-fed beef and all that kind of stuff. So I get that and it’s good that I kind of choose to go and do the grocery shopping. Actually, I do the grocery shopping every Sunday morning for the family because I like to be picky about what we eat. So I’m trying to be a little bit healthier. I’m not like a hardcore health nut or anything. And of course I’m trying to get the healthy stuff and then I end up with a bag of chips and dip in the cart and these jalapeno with cream cheese wrapped with bacon and all this stuff is in my cart. But anyway, we’re having a good time up here. I’m going to enjoy that while we’re out there.
I wanted to talk a little bit about and – well, first, this if the Flipping Junkie podcast. Welcome back and I’m doing this video sort of Day in the Life podcasting as well. But it’s recorded on video so it’s sort of like a Day in the Life series where I’m doing more of these like what we’re doing, what are days are like, what we’re working on and all that kind of cool stuff behind the scenes and doing the video on it. So if you haven’t subscribed yet, be sure to go to YouTube.com/flippingjunkie and subscribe, see the videos. I’m driving around my car, recording. We’re doing other videos as well. I think Melissa had one of going through a property talking about what we’re going to do to it. And we’ll have a lot more of that kind of stuff, so it’s very cool.
And I was thinking about something yesterday and I wanted to talk about it today while I record this on the way to the lake. But, you know, it’s basically, well, one of the times that I was on the bigger pockets podcast, I had mentioned something about step away from the computer. It seemed to resonate with a lot of people and the more I thought about it, the more I liked it. You know, the fact that I think so much of what everybody does these days is get caught behind the computer, researching and trying to learn everything they can, but not making measurable progress. Even successful real estate investors, guys that have been doing it for a long time kind of stagnate a little bit and I think some of it is because we’re just comfortable and we stay behind the computer. And especially for new people I think it’s very important to learn what you can but after a short amount of time it’s time to get out, step away from the computer, get out into the city, the area that you want to be investing in and drive around. There’s so much to learn, there’s so many things to learn and see and find out, find out what areas are hot, what areas are being rehabbed.
I remember when we first started, Melissa and I were surprised by some of the areas that we drove into. We had never really been to those areas and we didn’t know that much about the city we lived in. And in all fairness Melissa is from Houston so obviously, she wouldn’t know most of the areas, but I I’ve lived in San Antonio all my life pretty much and didn’t know about some of the areas, it was kind of cool. And you get to know the areas, you get to know what a real rough neighborhood it is, not just what you think might be rough. And so your perspective on all of it changes and I think as you get into real estate investing, going around and seeing what the areas are like, seeing what neighborhoods, like seeing where tons of rehabs are going on, where the investors are buying houses and making money and talking to contractors, getting out of your car and when you see a house being completely worked on and you open the dumpster out front and guys are throwing stuff in it, and getting out and talking to them and say, “Hey, you mind if I look at the house and the progress?” And just being out there. I think there’s so much more that can be learned doing that and so many connections can be made and even for introverts like me, by getting out there and doing it just makes your progress go a lot faster.
I’m supposed to turn here but I’m actually go up here, see if maybe on the camera, I don’t know how much you can see out at the windows. We might drive up here so you can get a little view of the lake here. If I could swing the car around, maybe you can see it. I don’t know if it’s going to work. Let me turn around. Actually, I can just pull the camera off. Hold on. Because I don’t know how well you’re going to be able to see that. There’s the lake. Hopefully, you can see it. Anyway. And obviously if you’re listening to the podcast, you won’t be able to. More reason for you to go to the YouTube channel and subscribe.
So anyway, you know, stepping away from the computer, getting outside, driving around and meeting other investors, meeting contractors, seeing the houses, seeing the neighborhoods and doing all that, and I think you’ll progress a lot faster if you do that. And one thing to do is while you’re doing it, you could have even more purpose to it and one thing I’ve always loved doing, I’m sure you’ve probably heard about, this is driving for dollars. It’s like looking for the vacant houses that need a ton of work, writing down the addresses and then looking up. The owners are on the tax assessor’s websites for the county and then mailing them a letter and saying “Hey, I noticed the house looked like it was vacant. I apologize if it’s not. I’d be interested in making you a cash offer to buy that house as is,” and you just never know what might happen. And especially if you’re listening to this and you haven’t taken any action, sometimes that first initial action, just doing that kind of thing is all you need to really get your buttoned gear and to make some progress and make some momentum into the business instead of trying to learn about lease options and owner financing and creating notes and all kinds of just tactics. Just get out there and try to find a deal.
But anyway, pulling up pretty soon here to the house and that’s pretty much all I’ve got for you guys today. But I hope you enjoyed it and again, be sure to subscribe on iTunes to the podcast and head over to YouTube.com/flippingjunkie and you’ll see the videos and stuff. So, enjoy it. Talk to you guys later.
