Flip a House in 11 Steps

Intro: 0:01
You're listening to the flip houses like a girl podcast where we educate, empower and celebrate everyday women who are facing their fears, juggling family and business, embracing their awesomeness and wholeheartedly chasing their dream of flipping houses. Each episode delivers honest to goodness tools, tips and strategies you can implement today to get closer to your first or next successful house flip. Here's your spiky-haired breakfast taco loving host house flipping coach, Debbie Deberry,

Debbie DeBerry: 0:37
what's going on you guys? It's Debbie DeBerry here and I hope that whatever you're up to today, you're having an easy one. All right, so real quick update. I am. We're just on the tail end of Thanksgiving week and we are here in December. Can you even freaking believe that? Oh my gosh, and this is the time where I plan like I am planning my 2020 and I have some awesome big scary goals and I'm super excited to chase after them. I hope you're doing the same thing. I hope you're coming up with some big scary goals and some smaller, more achievable goals along the way. We've got to be able to hit some milestones along the way or else we will lose complete faith in ourselves and we'll lose the motivation that we need to keep moving forward. All right , so before we get into it today, I want to do a listener shout out because there's so much fun. Thank you so much for leaving me ratings and reviews for this show. It is the best way to reach more women like you, so thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it very much. All right. This review is from Laurellotti. It says, well, she says, Debbie is a giver. Tons of great information and advice on this podcast because she truly wants you to succeed. Flipping is complicated, but the info here is presented in such a way that it makes you want to dive right in and work alongside Debbie to number one, create an income stream for you and to create a beautiful home for someone to enjoy. Listen to the podcast and check out the show notes for a ton of downloads and additional tips. You won't be disappointed. Thank you so much for your kind words. It means a lot to me, and I can't really put into words what it means, but know that I am deeply touched that you took the time to a listen to my podcast and B, leave such kind feedback. So thank you very much. All right , let's get into today's. So here we are. I have whittled down the 380 plus steps that I have previously written down. I've whittled it down to 11 steps to successfully flip houses. That's it. 11 steps. Now obviously this is a 30,000 foot bird's eye view of the process, but in a nutshell, this is it. So let's jump in here. All right . Number one, you have to decide to commit to doing this. You have to make a decision that you are going to flip houses regardless of any other circumstances, and you've got to be a heck yes, I would say another word, but then I probably have to Mark this as explicit lyrics or something. And I know that little ones are listening because my son listens. So B, a heck yes. What does that mean? So to me that means I'm all in. I'm committed and I'm a heck yes, whatever comes up, I know that it's not going to go the way I plan. It's just not. It's not going to happen as quickly as I want. Some things may even happen faster than I want them to. We are not in control of the timeframe. What we are in control of is our attitude, so when something does go wrong, when things don't go as planned, when a huge hiccup occurs, are you one to freak out or are you one to handle the situation? Maybe I shouldn't say there's an either or an a , but so do you either a freak out, B, handle the situation or C , let yourself freak out for a few minutes and then handle the situation. I think I'm probably C yeah, for the most part. Like I don't freak out in such a way that is super dramatic, but I do let myself feel frustrated or angry or fearful or flustered or stressed or all of the above. At the same time I do let myself feel that and then I get into action and solve the problem. That's what we're doing. We are solving problems in this business 100% of the time. Okay, so be committed and be a heck yes. Okay. That's number one. Number two, educate yourself. You know, I'm a big fan of this place. An emphasis on doing your due diligence in expanding your knowledge in real estate investing in general and specifically in flipping houses. You've got to pursue knowledge in order to mitigate risk. However, learning everything there is to know about flipping houses isn't fully possible. What do I mean by that? Well, I learned something new on each project. You're never ever going to know every single thing. Heck, I had something come up in 2016 that stomped investors who've been in the business 40 years. You will never have IX . You will. It's highly unlikely that you will have experienced every single thing that could possibly come up on a project in your investing time. That's why I love it. There's always something new to learn, so turn to a trusted resource and learn as much as you can about how to mitigate your risk. How to do this in a way that doesn't set you up to potentially lose it all. How to make smart calculated decisions and and how to make smart calculated decisions. All right? Number three, get your support system. So part of that support system is going to be your team because your team is there to support you. That's your realtor, your title company, your lenders, your contractors, your mentors, your coaches, whatever it is you have. Get your support system in place. Now, it will elevate your business quicker and faster if you have a support system in place from the get-go. The fourth thing you want to do and look, this can be interchangeable with three, it's fine. Let's just stick with it being number four. Okay? The fourth thing you want to do is you want to form your business. Yes, form a formal business entity. For the most part, an LLC will serve your needs. However, guess what? I'm not a certified public accountant and I am not a licensed attorney, so seek out professionals who can give you the best advice based on your specific situation. I don't know your situation. I can't for the life of me. Pretend to know what's best for you. Yes, for the most part, an LLC will serve the majority of people's needs. However, again, speak to a professional. Okay, now you've got your support system, your business entity. Now step number five is research the market. I am so proud to say that my students in my coaching program are way ahead of most investors when it comes to understanding their local markets, where they're investing. We go through detailed exercises so that they know their numbers and this is stuff that even seasoned investors aren't doing and guess what? When the market turns, because it will. This is real estate. It's cyclical. That's the beauty of it. But when the market turns, we will know when it's coming because we will have watched certain markers along the way in our local markets. And if people aren't doing that, guess what? They're going to be the ones saying, Oh, where'd that come from? That was a weird correction. I didn't expect that. Well, I saw it coming cause I was watching certain workers . Anyway, I digress. I do like to brag about my students though. Okay? So research the market. Know your local market, know the data so that you know exactly what buyers want and where they want it. And you can watch for certain trends and not be surprised by a market correction. Okay? Number six, know your numbers. Meaning know how to analyze your deals. Know what your lender's going to charge. You know what your insurance is going to run. You know what your project timeline is. Know what your carrying costs are going to be. No your property taxes, no all of your numbers, otherwise there is no way that you can accurately analyze a deal. And when you don't accurately analyze deals, things can go terribly wrong. So know your numbers. Okay? Number seven, find a good deal. All right , and guess what you have to do? Number six, you have to know your numbers in order to know whether number seven is true, so whether it's a good deal or not, know your numbers and then find it deals and analyze them using those numbers. Did you notice how I said find a good deal? I didn't say find a great deal or find the perfect deal because you won't, and if you have it in your mind that you're only looking for great deals or perfect deals, you're going to be waiting a really long time. I encourage you to just get into action. A lot of times we use perfectionism as a crutch. If we don't find the perfect deal, we don't have to move forward. We don't have to get into action. We don't have to risk looking like a fool or making a mistake, right? Stop looking for perfection and stop looking for great. Sometimes good is good enough in in this regard. That's the case. All right? Remember, you only need one. You can make a great profit on one and if it's your first one that you're trying to get through, you just need to get through one good deal and rip off that bandaid. Okay? Step number eight is to make and negotiate an offer. So now that you've found a good deal and part of that finding a good deal was that you walked the property with a contractor and or an inspector and you have a detailed scope of work and you know exactly how much things are going to cost, then it's time to make a negotiate an offer. My biggest piece of advice here would be not to be greedy. Understand what the seller really wants. Sometimes they need money to move. Sometimes they need more time in the house. Who knows? You never know what they need until you ask, so know exactly what they need and try to give it to them. If you can make it a win win, that's the goal. The goal is not to screw people, okay? The goal is to help people to have a positive impact in your community, to build relationships and to have a great reputation so that people seek you with deals. All right? Number nine, manage the rehab. So once you've got the property under contract and closed, you are off to the races and you're managing the rehab or what I like to say, you're managing the problems or solving problems. So be present. Show up, make sure people are showing up, adhere to the payment schedule that you have clearly outlined with your vendors. Have very clear detailed contracts in place, protecting you as well as protecting them over communicate. You're going to want create a payment schedule that works for the vendors. This isn't a dictatorship. You don't want to slow them down. So if they're out of money because you're not paying them, they're going to go elsewhere where they can get paid. So pay people have the materials on site that they need before they need them. Okay? Number 10 you get to market the property. Now here's a big tip I'm going to give you. Don't let potential buyers through the property until it's completed. I know some people think, Oh, but I want to get a jumpstart on marketing it. It will not show like a $400,000 house when it isn't completed. It just won't. I don't care how gorgeous of a kitchen you do, if it is not completed. We are really good at finding faults in places where we are making a big investment. So if we're about to buy a $400,000 house, we are definitely scanning everything and we're keeping a running list in our minds , uh , things that you didn't do right, or maybe you just haven't completed them yet, but the buyer thinks that's not done right. So just trust me on this one, okay? I know this one from experience. Don't let people through the property until it's completed, okay? Okay. Number 11, you get to close on the deal. So you found a buyer, you negotiated a contract, you negotiated repairs, you completed any repairs you said you were going to. And guess what? You show up to the closing company, whether it's the title company or an attorney's office. However your state handles it. You close on the deal and you get a sweet profit . All the while you made that house a home again and you made a positive impact on that neighborhood thereby in your community and you're living your dream. All right . There you have it. Those are the 11 steps that you need to take to successfully flip a house. Simple as that, right? Maybe not so simple. Like I said, that was the 30,000 foot bird's eye view of a process that has 370 something steps that I've written down before. We are almost done with 2019 we are less than a month away from 2020 and it's not just a new year. It's a new freaking decade. What are you going to do? What big plans and goals do you have and how are you aligning yourself with the right players to get you where you want to be? Look, I'm about to close doors down, but if you want to get in now and save $1,000 plus, get 13 instead of 12 months of coaching, go-to first, flip done, right.com and you'll see all of the program details and you'll have a spot where you can clearly click and join our tribe. Like I said, we have big plans for next year. We'd love for you to be part of those plans, so get up the sideline, come join us and let us be a big part of your journey. I hope to see you in there. Join now, right now while you're listening. Well, I mean if you're driving pullover, but join now, bet on you and stop putting this thing off. Okay, first flip done , right.com click to join. Save a thousand dollars and get 13 months of coaching. All right, y'all go out there. Flip houses like a girl. Leave people and places better than you find them and make it a great day. Bye y'all .