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Our FlipSisters Lindsey and Tammy in Pennsylvania are sharing their first flip journey with us!
Not long after joining our coaching program, Tammy was surprisingly laid off from her job. What felt like a stressful situation in the moment, may have been just the push she needed to make things happen.
And make things happen she did! Within a week, they were under contract to buy their first flip, which led to a $23,000 profit in 3.5 months.
Listen in to hear:
...and so much more!
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Debbie DeBerry | The Flipstress®
Leaving people and places better than we find them.
00:01 - Empowering Women Flipping Houses Success
08:51 - Finding Opportunity in Real Estate Investment
14:30 - Property Renovation Challenges and Solutions
22:50 - Home Renovation Challenges and Triumphs
32:30 - Real Estate Renovation Success Stories
39:55 - Real Estate Success and Mindset
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 DeViery.
Speaker 2:Hey there, thanks for hanging out with us today. In this episode I'm introducing you to Tammy and Lindsay, who are a couple of our flip sisters in our coaching program in Pennsylvania. They completed their first flip and actually, since recording this episode, they've completed and sold their second flip as well. So big congrats to them on that. In this episode, we're going to be covering their first flip, how they found it, how they financed it, how they handled the challenges that came up, and we'll also talk about how, shortly after joining our program, tammy actually lost her job and that became a pretty strong catalyst for getting their first flip under contract. I think it was within maybe a week that they went under contract on their first flip. After that happened, and how, in the moment, something stressful happening like losing a job, losing that steady income, actually becomes a blessing and allows us to move forward toward something we really really want, which in her case, it was having this business flipping houses, which led to a $23,000 profit in three and a half months on their first flip, and on their second flip they actually made $22,000 in two weeks Amazing. We're going to get into all of that in so much more. You're going to love them. Let's meet Tammy and Lindsay. So do you want to start out by introducing yourselves we get an awesome two for one today and just letting us know who you are and where you are and what you're up to in the world aside from flipping houses.
Speaker 3:Yeah, sure, so I'll go first. My name is Tammy. I live in Harrisburg, pennsylvania, with my wife, lindsay, who's joined me here today, and with our three young boys, 10 years old and seven year old twins actually almost eight, but seven year old twins. So I actually used to be a P and health teacher for about seven years prior to my twins being born and then, when they were born, I decided we kind of had a conversation about it and decided to take a step away from teaching and take on probably one of the most rewarding but difficult jobs in the world and that's being a stay at home mom. So we start. I started that not long after the twins were born and then we moved from Florida to Pennsylvania in 2017. And it was around that time that I guess the dreamer in me kind of started to develop a little bit, because my mind was thinking like, well, I'm gonna stay at home mom, but what can I do to kind of help support my family? So at that time it was we owned a camper and I decided I was going to start renting it. So a little side hustle job that turned into actually over the next few years are very good successful business. I mean it was. I ended up managing other people's RVs and I had about an inventory of about 20 units nice, which was great but I realized it was just unsustainable for me to be a stay at home mom and to run this type of business. So it was 2020 that I ended up selling off that business, and then this past summer was when well, no, so then I still bought that business and then I stepped into a corporate position as a franchise support manager in the RV rental business and did that for about two years before I unexpectedly, this past summer, was let go of my job. Well, did not see that coming at all, but I think the worst part of it, the hardest part of it, was I couldn't even collect unemployment, so so we were a little little shook up, but but anyway, since then, real estate investing has become my main focus, my job basically. But during our first flip, there was something that sparked a little inspiration in me that I realized that, doing the hands on stuff that I love doing, I could actually use that skill and serve others. And so I started a little small business where you know I'm offering like house cleaning and painting and like little little honeydew list stuff. So I kind of I'm on the ground floor of that, but so we'll see where that takes me. So that's kind of what I've been doing, and I'll let Lindsay introduce herself about what she does.
Speaker 4:Well, I do not have quite a story.
Speaker 2:Oh, the boring one. Okay, here we go. The boring one, yeah.
Speaker 4:I have been, she's not. Yeah, I have been a nurse for almost the last 20 years and I absolutely love it. It's wonderful, it's my passion and I'm a nurse supervisor now. So a lot of the skills that I've learned as supervising people, I'm being a team manager, I'm really, you know, helping Tammy out when she's going through contract or conversations and managing the people in those ways, and I'm like you know. This reminds me of one of my employees and this is what I would do and just I'm being like her sounding board when it comes to that kind of thing. But I didn't have a big career changes that she had.
Speaker 1:Think of her.
Speaker 4:I do all her entrepreneurial things and I'm just here supporting. That's awesome.
Speaker 2:So you recently closed on your first slip, which was literally so freaking cute. That house is so cute, it's so cute I want to squish it. It's just it's really cute and you did an awesome job. So I want to hear all about it. I want to hear how long. Okay, so this is interesting, right? Isn't it interesting in hindsight? Like, yeah, it sucked that you lost your job. That felt pretty bad, Like 10.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm, super punch for real, yeah.
Speaker 2:And didn't it kind of need to happen?
Speaker 3:Yeah, 100% yeah 100% you could have said it better because I was in a position with my job where so many changes had taken place over the course of I don't know a few months, maybe six months, that it had become unenjoyable. It was stressful. It never turned off, but for me it was a job and I was committed to working my job because I was supporting my family. In hindsight, here I was, you know, getting into real estate, investing because it started as like a side hustle. You know we were going to be doing this on the side of both of our full-time jobs. Like most people, do you know it's not something you typically start when you don't have a job Right, you just don't do that. So you know, getting into this, yeah, it was 100% God's way of totally, just, you know, pushing me into the next chapter of my life, whatever that was. I still don't, you know, I'm still kind of figuring that out, but I'm trusting the process and I'm very open-minded to knowing that there's a plan for me and that everything's going to be okay and I'm just going to apply when I'm learning the people that I'm meeting and all of it, and just kind of seeing what happens. You know, I'm not living in fear. I just want to walk in faith and just trust the process. Yeah that's awesome. That's what we're doing, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's those things. They're usually the thing that was most necessary to get us where we're supposed to be next, because we weren't doing it on our own, and so it's like universal or God, whatever anybody calls it. Right, okay, so you didn't. So here you go, I'm just going to flick you off the edge and you're going to be okay, but you're going to kind of feel a little bit out of sorts for a while.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it was the day that I lost my job. I picked up the phone and I called my wholesaler that I had been working with and I said, I said listen, I said I just lost my job. Today I'm super motivated. I got to find a house, you know. So I was like, just keep me on my on your radar, just think of me when you're out there. And he's like, okay, I got you. You know, it was like, you know, he was kind of looking out for me and I felt that we had developed a good relationship and so, you know, I just wanted him to know the position that I was in. And so from there, we, you know, we walked a couple more properties and put in some offers, but nothing yet. And I think it was like three weeks to the day that we losing my job that he called me up and he was like hey, you know, that house that you looked at I think it was about a month and a half ago it was priced at 135, 135,000. I think our offer that we had put it on it was around 95,000. Of course it was too high. It was not something they were willing to go with. He, and actually it was a couple of weeks later, they had come down to 115. Obviously was still too high, right, but anyway, he was calling me to let me know that the it was an estate sale or whatever and it was the attorney that was trying to get rid of the property. I guess the family was having a lot of issues and he and she was like hey, listen, I need to get this household, so we're going to drop it down to a hundred thousand. And so he called me and he's like Listen, I want to give you the first opportunity to purchase this property. You know. He's like I know you're in a position, you are. And I said Okay, I said I tell what Lindsay know. And I said let's go walk the property again, let me get my eyes on it again. And during walking that property I'm thinking in the back of my head Okay, now that I have extra time and I love having my hands on projects that factored into knowing that I could put a little bit of sweat equity into this and I could make these numbers numbers work. So we said, okay, let's put in an offer of a hundred thousand, and we did and the number was accepted. So we were super excited and I think we closed. We would have closed in a couple of weeks, but we we had a big like week long vacation coming up that it would have put it right in that time and we were like you know, can we close in three weeks? And they said, yeah, that's no problem. So we ended up closing in the end of August, august 21st, august 21st, yeah.
Speaker 2:So Okay so a hundred.
Speaker 4:K.
Speaker 2:And what were you thinking?
Speaker 3:the repairs would be so at the time because my my contractor had walked the property with me to give me a rehab estimate. I think we were sitting thinking around 58,000, maybe maybe 58 to 60,000. And then it was more of. I was telling my contractor, hey, these are my numbers, and like we have to make this work in this amount of you know this estimate, he's like, okay, okay, yes, that's, we'll make those numbers work. We got this so. So when we got under contract, we got an inspector in there right away to have an inspection done on the property and when he completed the inspection he called me up afterwards and he said so he was kind of going through the list of things and he said, so you're planning on replacing the roof on this house, right? And I was like, um, no, that was actually one of the out of everything we were doing to this house like completely doing everything, the one thing we kind of were passing on because we thought it, I mean in my contractor said, no, it looks okay, you know, it just needs to be cleaned up so, and he said no, that that roof needs to be replaced. So I said, okay, let me go my contractor. So I called my contractor and I said you know we got to replace the roof and how much is that going to cost us? And he said, oh, you're, you're looking at about $8,000. And I said, hmm, that's not going to work.
Speaker 4:I said we got to figure something else out.
Speaker 3:So I we live in a community with a lot of Amish that do phenomenal work and for good prices to do, and I said you know, I'm going to replace the roof. I called a community with a lot of Amish that do phenomenal work and for good prices too. So I said let me call around. I called a couple people that I'd found in a Facebook group and then her father is works for a building yeah, custom home builder. So he was like you know what, lindsay?
Speaker 4:there was a guy who called me today and he said are you looking for? We have these services, we do roofs, could you use us? And he's like no, we have a guy we use all the time. He passed along his number.
Speaker 3:I said, tammy, this guy sounds great and I'm not because it you know, what I was finding with the other roofers that we were getting in contact with is, even if they could, there was something that couldn't even come out and put an estimate on the house for like a month. Yeah, just an estimate. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, I was like this is not going to work. So he was like, oh, I can be out tomorrow to give you an estimate. So he did and it was what? Like $5,400. I'm like, okay, that's better, this is something we can work. Yeah, that was much better. So yeah. And then he's like, oh, and I can, I can start in a couple of days. And I was like, so he ended up being a wonderful. Some of the contractors that I had had at the house while they were putting on the roof they're like, yeah, he's, he's doing it right. So, cause hell, we were kind of worried, just kind of going with the lowest price and whatnot. So but yeah, so he ended up working out well. So that obviously pushed our rehab up a little bit higher than than we were anticipating, and I would say so with the roof we ended up only going over maybe a couple of thousand more of that initial, because we were right around like 67,000 total with the roof and and everything.
Speaker 2:So there any any other surprise repairs that came up?
Speaker 3:I'm surprised repairs, I don't think so no it wasn't. No, we I mean, we kind of knew what we were getting into with the HVAC, but because we put it in a whole new system Originally, we thought, cause it had a mini split system and again, the things you learn as you go through this we thought that was going to be suffice. And my electrician, or the plumbing electrician guy, was like you know? No, this is. You know, we got to put in a whole new system. So that was initially what we talked about in the beginning, but it wasn't any surprises. Everything seemed to go pretty good as far as everything else we the roof was the main thing we just weren't anticipating yeah.
Speaker 2:And then Okay, so three weeks to close, all right. Oh, how did you finance it?
Speaker 4:So Tammy is like a great relationship builder and did all this due diligence and finding HMLs and had it all lined up. And then we said, you know what? We have a family member who their situation isn't just sold a business, they're looking to invest. Let's see if they're available to be a PML. So we put together a nice little PowerPoint and said guys want to fund the purchase price. And then we went a little bit further and said the second option is would you like to fund the purchase price plus half of the rehab, and then we'll fund the other hand. And they said okay, and we went with them.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:It worked out for everyone, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was just a matter of you know, just asking you know, because you just never know, you don't and what I'm finding out is a lot of people don't know that they can invest like this. You know, and now that you know, I'm learning more about it there's a lot of people, a lot of people, that do this type of investing and private money lending yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, obviously, we didn't know anything about either. So they're out there and they're willing to loan money, which obviously they're getting a great return, absolutely 100%.
Speaker 2:So my first that was one of my first lessons was don't judge somebody like like the amount of money they might have. My first private money lender was a preschool teacher. Had been a preschool teacher for 25 years. Never in a million years did I ever think that she had this statue. No, she did. She had a statue and she's like oh, yeah. And I was just like what are you even talking about, man? Who are you? Yeah, but yeah, you never know. And of course, when I was brand new I didn't know either. I wasn't thinking about it as an investor, but it's my favorite vehicle. Being a private money lender to somebody is awesome. I love that. And on the flip side, like asking, like don't be scared to ask because a lot of people just don't even know, they don't know how they can be protected. You know so, people just don't know. So, yeah, yeah. So you got all your funding well, some of your funding, the purchase price and then half of the repairs from private money lender a family member and then you funded the rest. Okay, from purchase to sale. What was the timeline?
Speaker 3:From purchase, basically clothes to close. Yeah, was three and a half months. Yeah, Very nice, three and a half months from clothes to close. So, yeah, I think it could have, looking back and the little bumps that we went along the way, it could have been a little bit quicker. I mean, we had initially planned on having it done about two weeks. Sooner or later it ended up and it really could have been. It. Just, you know the things that come along and the contractor's not showing up and you know those kind of things that you have to investigate and fix. But now I think I've learned, moving forward, because I've talked to so many people doing the same thing, just locally, and it's a common thing and we're not alone with having that experience. So, because I honestly thought it was like the cloud was over us, you know, and happening to us, but yeah, it really it couldn't happen. And so it's just what I learned from it is, you know, being stern and being organized and having that conversation to find out what's going on, so that you're talking through it. You know, communication basically is the key and with my head contractor we have developed a good relationship to where, even if we do come across some hurdles and some bumps. I can talk to them. We can talk through things and communicate and work things through. So that's been really helpful for me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it doesn't have to be a confrontation, it can just be a conversation, right, right?
Speaker 3:It can just be a conversation, yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, the tone is everything, yeah.
Speaker 3:I don't like confrontation. You know, I don't like to have to get mad at someone or to kind of point out the flaws or something like that. But I'm willing to be like hey, you know, you don't have to handle it that way, Come to me next time. Or you know, like, rather than trying to sneak around or do it your way or whatever, let's just talk about it. We'll figure it out together. You know, because the way I was looking at it I was like you're playing with my emotions right now. You know I'm needing to take this seriously. So you know you're not the only one involved, you know. So.
Speaker 2:But I think the thing is to consider is that most contractors, if something happens, the person that hired them, the person they're working for, it's not a conversation. It becomes a big thing that prevents them from wanting to just have a conversation about it. They don't want to talk about it, so they're going to hide it, or they're going to not show up for a little bit and kind of hope it goes away, or they're going to. Maybe something comes up and they really need to go finish this one other thing over here. Like they just need to go finish this one thing. They'll be back and instead of just communicating that, because the person you know, they assume the person's going to get super mad, yeah, they do it, and so you're left in the. Where are they and are they ever going to come back? All because everyone's scared of communicating. Right.
Speaker 3:Over promising, under delivering. You know the kind of thing. You just talk to me. Let's like just be real with me. You know, and that's which you know, I still have a great relationship with all the contractors I work with and you know I think that we all learned from it. We all did.
Speaker 2:For sure. So it was a great experience. Yeah, it's, I think, one of the things that anytime I work with a new contractor or vendor or something, one of the things that they'll say to me is I've never been able to make a mistake. If I make a mistake, you know it's like a shaming experience versus I screwed up, I'm going to fix it. You know, this is how I'm going to fix it, but I'm just owning up to I screwed up because it's like nope, everybody has to be perfect. We can't make mistakes when in reality, we're making mistakes all the freaking time, like we're just like recovering from the stakes all the time, which is the that's the point but we're also so scared to screw up Like it's like this weird world we live in.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So what kind of things did you do? You said you did some of the work that you like to be hands on. What kind of things did you do?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So let's say, some of the things that I ended up doing were I did the painting. So the house was parceled as a three bedroom, but the third bedroom upstairs you'd have to walk through the master or the primary bedroom to get to it. So it's like either make it in which smaller to create a hallway, and then it would have been a super tiny bedroom. So I was like well, this isn't a work, so it was actually her idea, that's his idea. That was like why don't we turn this into a primary? Let's see like a bath, like it's a great idea, so anyway. So what? We didn't have any. Obviously we didn't. I didn't do the hands on the nap, but what I was getting at was we had to run the plumbing actually down, and so we had to create like a little box and the plumbing that ran down to the kitchen and there was this little awkward kind of corner that I was like, well, we can't do it this space. And so I came up with the idea of doing like a little built-in drop zone. So I built a little bench and put a little coat right in it. It just really fit the space so perfectly and it almost looked like it was meant to be there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it was gorgeous.
Speaker 3:So it was fun, but I did a lot of the exterior stuff, like the landscaping. I pressure washed the towels, I did. What else did I do? Oh no, I didn't do the driveway, but I made a lot of that. But oh the, I don't know if you noticed the cedar post on the outside. Oh yeah, so yeah, my dad actually flew up from Georgia for about a week to help with little odd jobs and so we did that and we built the shutters, we built the shutters.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that's right, the shutters project. Yes, I remember that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the shutters project and then just little knick-knacky stuff like the little number plate that's on the front. I made that from scrap Little things like that and back splash Like the doing the back splash. So it's stuff that I wasn't ever prepared to do. When we started this, I wasn't planning on handling all that. Now do I enjoy doing that stuff? But I was. We were looking at having some other people do this and having maybe a little bit of hands on, but we knew that the time wasn't going to allow for that of having two full-time jobs. So now that I was available, right, I just was all about jumping in and I loved it every day I loved it, I really did, I really did.
Speaker 2:Well, the touches that you did, took it from house to home, like that's what made it charming was the number plate and the bench, and like all of that is what made it charming. Yeah, yeah, ok. So wait, was it a? So was it a 3-1? And you made it into a 2-2?
Speaker 3:2-2. Yeah, it was part of. It was a 3-1, which I was like how Like there was no closet in the third bedroom, so it was it was very strange, it was just a weird layout.
Speaker 2:It was a bedroom wink. Did y'all go into it thinking you were going to make it a 2-2? Was that the plan from the start? Yes, yes, ok, gotcha OK, cool.
Speaker 3:Well, when we initially saw it, when we were walking it, no, but when we decided to put the offering on it and we were coming up with the rehab yes, that's when we were for sure.
Speaker 2:Ok, it seems like it was pretty straightforward, Like you don't have any, you didn't have any issues and problems, and well we had.
Speaker 3:well, we didn't have any problems or issues with what the rehab entailed we did. I did have a little bit of a bumps along the way with some contractors. So so to kind of back up a little bit on how I handled that situation, we went into this with a general contractor, an actual general contractor that we had used on our own renovation of our house what two years prior and you know a really good experience with that. Again, it's a bumps, but we were able to communicate through it. So I felt like we had established a relationship that was trusting and that I would work with you again. So he initially came on as a general contractor and because of the whole roof situation, he came to me prior to getting started and he said hey, he said you know how would you feel about if you work directly with the plumber or electrician contractor to save you a little bit of money there? I feel like if you wanted to deal with him directly, that would help you out, because he knew that you know, our budget had shifted a little bit because of the roof and everything. So I said, yeah, that's not a problem at all. You know, I don't mind working directly with him. So I got together with that contractor and got everything set up and of course he wanted to kind of you know, help out with the situation as well. And he said you know, I have a guy that's a drill waller that could, you know, come in and do it for about half of what you're being quoted and kind of help you out. So of course I was like, ok, that sounds great and everything sounded good. He's like you know, I got a guy and he could be here tomorrow, and the other guy was like you know, we didn't know when they could come in and it was a little bit more costly. So I was like OK, so I kind of let him take the lead on that. And, long story short, it kind of became a little bit of a nightmare. So he said the contractor, drywaller, wasn't showing up when initially we started and I was like what's going on, you know? And he said well, he said he'd be here. I'm not quite sure. So that kind of went on for a little bit and then he finally did show up and he did about half of what he was supposed to do, which was great, he did a good job and, you know, was doing well. But then it wasn't showing up again. So on that, of course I was going to my conch, my stuff that I was working with, because of course at this time I couldn't go back to my general contractor because he's, you know, he's not in it with this part and he's like I don't know. He's telling me he's going to be here. You know that that kind of game. So I just kind of wrote it out for a little bit. So we're finally as like, I got to do some investigating. So I found a way to reach out to the contractor myself to say for myself to be like what's going on? You're halfway through the job, why you're telling my guy you're coming, but then you don't show up, well to find out he hadn't received a penny on anything. And so you know how it is. Yeah, I'm not going to get back up if I'm not getting paid. So you know, again, I don't like confrontation, so I didn't get into going back to my contractor and saying hey, what's going on here? I simply just said hey, you know what, come to me tomorrow, show up, I'll pay you, you know, to deal with me. So then I kind of had him starting to work under me and we all just went about our thing and things got moving again.
Speaker 4:Mm, hmm.
Speaker 3:So things were good, you know, and I just kind of let things ride out, you know, like again I didn't, I didn't create confrontation and stuff, but and everything kept moving and we got delayed because of the drywall or everything else was delayed.
Speaker 4:As you know that.
Speaker 3:Just everything down as a matter of fact, debbie, I don't know if you remember this we were having our countertops measured, oh my gosh, and we did not have in our kitchen, and we did not have insulation or walls up the night before they would come out.
Speaker 4:Oh God.
Speaker 3:And I was like and so he's like he can't promise me he's going to, I'm going to get it done. I'm like you know, walls up right now the kitchen cabinets aren't even in, so it was literally the next day. They were at the last minute getting everything. I don't know how they pulled it off. There was three of them putting it together 7 AM. Yeah, they were there early. The guy did show up to measure the countertops and he said actually our sink had to be in. It was a farmhouse sink, which the contractor, I guess, didn't realize that. So he said that's how you what? I have other jobs I can go do. I'll come back and I'll sink, thank you God. So yeah, that's kind of how we were and I don't like pressure like that to where we're waiting to last minute. I mean fascinating a little bit, but that's just too much extreme, that's extreme. So I don't know. I mean he was my contractor, had to have been just stressing himself out doing that. But yeah, that's the kind of little stuff that we were dealing with which in the end I look back and I'm like OK that was fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let's do that again.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and her roller coaster. Yes, yes, Sure, you were a little stressed out there.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I had some tears in the beginning, for sure, because that first week when we closed we closed on a Monday yeah, that first week I was the only one showing up For a whole week. For a whole week and my contractor was like, don't worry, Everything's getting material ordered, we're measuring for stuff, Like he reassured me that. Well then, Right, I'm like what. I'm the only one showing up Like. This is not how it's supposed to be.
Speaker 4:I wasn't here. I know she was like demoing by herself trying to record herself and the camera was falling off the ladder and she's like watch this video. I took it for the boy and I'm like this is a terrible video.
Speaker 3:I've got just the ceiling, I'm like so fun, yeah, but I came home at night and I definitely had some tears, but I had the support of Lindsay and the support of the group.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Helping us reset our mind that we can do this. We're here for a reason. This didn't happen just by chance. So we're here and yeah. So we just kind of refocused and made it happen. But yeah, that's what made the challenges are what make it fun.
Speaker 2:Honestly, if there were problems to solve along the way, what is it Like, honestly? Would it be rewarding? I don't know, I really don't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it's part of it.
Speaker 2:I think it's part of it. Yeah, I agree If we could pick and choose what our hearts were, though Like maybe some medium hearts, not some super-duper hearts.
Speaker 3:Yeah, or just have that magical ball to know that it's going to work out.
Speaker 2:No, matter what, I can't give you all the challenges you got. I know it's going to work out. I'll be fine. I'll be fine. What would y'all say? Your roles were in the business.
Speaker 3:OK, so for me I did a lot of the late work kind of in the beginning too, because I worked from home when I did have my job, but I was waking up extra early to be able to put it in my work hours so that I could open up my afternoon to be able to walk property. So I basically put in my hours early so if an opportunity came to walk the property and putting in the offer, so I was doing a lot of the. I don't even know that we joke about this, that she hasn't even seen our real estate agent since we first met her months ago, Because I'm the one that meets with her, walks the properties and then we talk about putting in the offers together and stuff like that. But so I kind of took that role on in doing a lot of the late work of that part, and you, I get to do my favorite thing I get to do what I get to find bargains and go shopping.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it is so exciting.
Speaker 3:She'll say you have this much money.
Speaker 4:Try to find better and I will find better.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it, yes On everything, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, don't get me wrong, I love to shop. I love to shop, but I tend to be a little bit well. Yeah, she goes after it, she puts it together and then we like to collaborate on this stuff together. But it's nice that she can present me with stuff rather than me having to go out and find it and find the deals she loves to do that and I just don't Like I'm a painful price for something just because I don't want to have to like sip or something.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, no, I totally get that yeah.
Speaker 3:She loves the bargain, she loves the sale, so go for it.
Speaker 4:Find it and we're like really lucky because we agree on a lot of things. So I can say I found this stuff I know you're going to love. You have A, b or C, which one do you like and tip it's. Usually we agree on that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for the bus ride. Yeah, we agree on stuff. We might have to talk each other through why one is better than the other, but it's not.
Speaker 4:Would you say we're like the yin and yang? Yeah, yin and yang. We definitely complement each other with that kind of thing. What did you label me as? You're the chip to my Joanna, the gains, yeah.
Speaker 2:Love it, so you're the design.
Speaker 4:I am, but she sees the whole picture. She'll look at the kitchen and say I want the refrigerator here and I want the layout like this. And then I'm like but I want the warm wood tones and I'm going to bring in a really cool fan yeah. Really cool light, yeah, all of that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm more of like the layout, the layout of how things are going to feel. She's the designer of what's going to go where and that kind of thing. But what really brought everything together was our stagier, our staging on this house.
Speaker 2:You can't, you cannot skimp on the stagier. Don't like people who are like, oh it's fine, you don't need staging, you know it'll sell. I'm sure it will. But I promise you it will look better and you will get more money if you stage it with a stagier that does a good job. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:That house was amazing, yeah, and it needed it too, because this house was a very exciting Right. What was the square footage? I don't know, maybe just at 1,000. Yeah, just 1,000. But the first floor had a really awkward kind of first room and the kitchen and living and but it was also so I was like a stagier is going to have to bring this together and I kid you not, I came over after she completed it and I think it's in the pictures first.
Speaker 4:I can't remember, I didn't even believe the pictures. I says how.
Speaker 3:I walked in and my jaw just dropped because I was like, wow, it just made it a home and I just couldn't believe it yeah, it was totally gives me chills.
Speaker 2:I know that feeling, I know that exact feeling when you walk in and you're just like in tears because you're like, oh my God, yes, this is exactly the vision. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I told my stagier I'm like you literally brought me to tears. She did a phenomenal job and it was you know little things, it wasn't a ton of staging, it was just the right amount and it just made everything come together and I just like, oh my God, we made this work. Yeah, Believe it. It was so rewarding, it was great.
Speaker 2:So three and a half months, bought it for a hundred K, put about 67 into it. What did y'all list it for? And was that the same ARV you went in thinking it would be?
Speaker 3:Yeah. So we ended up listening it for 215. But it did kind of change a little bit early on because we were playing with, you know, the little things that we were adding in the beginning, before we actually purchased the house, you know, when we weren't going to put the H back in because it had a mini split, and then it was like no, if you want to compete with you, you know you've got to do this. So then by adding that, even though increased our reno amount, it also increased the ARV.
Speaker 1:So then you know.
Speaker 3:so then we changed it then, and then, of course, the bathroom. That changed it a little bit, but by the time we were ready to sell we were, you know, at the beginning of our renovation it was 215. And then because, like I said, that house closed the day we closed on our, our house for 215.
Speaker 4:I was like, okay, because at first we're kind of a little worried about, like you know, is it going to be?
Speaker 3:because the market was shifting a little bit. But then that happened and I was like, okay, I feel pretty darn confident with 215. So, yeah, we listed it at 215.
Speaker 2:And what? What was the reception like when you put it on the market? And then what happened? We put it on the market.
Speaker 4:We did have a coming soon, for like a couple of days, yes, and then put it on the market, on on a Friday and we did have a ton.
Speaker 3:I mean, I don't know the exact numbers, but we had some really good traffic with the house and the. The people were coming through it, but we didn't have any frizz yet. And that was what day two, when we were getting yeah, I know.
Speaker 4:And it felt so vulnerable. We're like putting it out there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's awful, it's so scary.
Speaker 3:It really is. We were getting good feedback. That it was. Everybody was liking the house, loving the house, was great, but it was just a little too small. So we're like, oh, great, so of course me.
Speaker 4:I'm like. They know the size of it, they know how many bedrooms there are. Why? Why are you so surprised that there's two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen? And I don't understand.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Oh my God, that's so funny. Yeah, so, but we were. We were convinced that, you know, it was just going to take that the right person you know just you know we need one buyer Right, so walk through there. So we kind of had to and our real estate agent really helped kind of ground us and just refocus, like hey, it's still early, guys, you know it's okay, and we were like freaking out. But she could kind of tell, like you know, don't get discouraged. Like you guys have a lot of traffic coming through. We still have open house on Sunday, like all these things. So a lot of showings. Yeah, yeah, we had a lot of showing, so the traffic was definitely there. It was good. So it was just kind of like, okay, let's just sit back and wait for that right person to come in, so when did you get your?
Speaker 2:did y'all get multiple offers, or did you get one offer, or how'd that go?
Speaker 3:So we did. We got two offers, and so in what? The third?
Speaker 4:day and then, we decided the next day on day four. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, yeah, I think it had been four days on market when we had had the two offers come in and I don't know, my real estate agent I don't know if she just kind of assumed that they were full price offers, but she's like I'll come over and we'll go through them and in my mind, immediately, like what's wrong?
Speaker 4:They're not. They're not good, they're low off. Why aren't you telling? Us what they are and she's like no, just wait. We're like, why are we waiting?
Speaker 2:We're so human, we're so human. What's wrong so?
Speaker 3:she came over and she said no, no, they're both really great offers. It's just a matter of going through and kind of figuring out which details and which best fits what you guys are looking to do and whatnot. So they were both full price offers, but there was one that had an escalating cause of up to I think it was 222,000. And they also had an appraisal gap coverage of $5,000. So we knew right away that, okay, you know, it wasn't just because of that. There was other things too with the other offer. But the fact that this, these buyers were so invested in it and you could just tell that just by that they were really, really wanting to get it I mean, we've been there before looking for houses ourselves, so you know. But what really put the icing on the cake? And I think we decided to go with them because they even had an inspection on it with the other one didn't. And we decided to go with this one because they were first time home buyers and there was something about that that just really resonated with us. And I looked at my real estate agent and I was like it's a no brainer. I mean, let's go for the inspection. I know that we did everything we could with this house to make it right. I was a little bit worried that something could come up. Sure, but I feel confident and I just feel really good about providing this house to the new home buyers. So it was such a cool good feeling.
Speaker 4:It was a cool feeling yeah. I was on speakerphone at work. I was with the Realtor and then she's like, what do you pick? And I picked it, and then she picked it and it was like a game show.
Speaker 3:We're like you know cool, and because they have that escalating whistle for 216.
Speaker 2:Nice. Did anything come up on the inspection?
Speaker 3:So okay. So nothing to everything actually looked really good. There was one thing they came back at. So in this house in the basement it had the dirt walls and so there's the we put up vapor barrier on the bottom of the floor Floor joists. Well they, I guess, through kind of their initial inspection of other things, of how things kind of looked around in there, they were worried as new home buyers and which can understand that they couldn't see the joists of an almost 100 year old house, you know, because they were all covered up. So they said they came back and they wanted us to give them a $3,000 credit just in case.
Speaker 2:We do, just in case credits.
Speaker 3:I know right, Joys needed to be replaced.
Speaker 4:Just thinking worst case scenario, right so? So what did they have me do?
Speaker 3:She's like so well, yeah. So I had the conversation with my real estate agent and I said I will take that vapor barrier down. You know I had no problem. Yeah, I said you know let's do that. So she said okay, let me present it to them and see if they're willing. If you take it down which I won't be putting it back up, but if I take it down and show them that everything is okay, would they be willing to do that?
Speaker 4:And they agreed and so you rip that hard work down. Yeah, that was not hard, more hours of hard work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, but you know what? I knew that I was doing it for good reason and so, yeah, they came back out with their contractor and expected everything and as as it you know, it was it, everything was fine. And they said, okay, let's, let's move forward. And they're not asking for anything. So we're like, how do you praise God? And we were able to move forward, so everybody was happy closed and got paid the biggest check she's ever held.
Speaker 2:So yeah, okay. So what was the profit?
Speaker 3:drum roll. So our profit obviously the check they handed over was much larger because you know you're paying off everything else, but our profit ended up being just under 23,000.
Speaker 2:Three and a half months 23 grand doing something you absolutely love.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:I mean come on.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 3:Congratulations. It was fun. Yeah, it was fun and challenging, but we loved it and we're ready. We're ready to do it again.
Speaker 4:Yay, for sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm so happy for you guys and I just love your story because, like I mentioned earlier, we sometimes have to have that push that doesn't feel good in the moment. Getting fired didn't feel good, a blow to the ego, a blow to the wallet, a blow to your view of yourself, right, like none of that feels good. Yeah, and three weeks later you were under going under contract on your first slip.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And maybe four-ish months after that, or holding a fat check. So jokes on you old employer Right, thank you.
Speaker 3:And the fact that we got to touch so many people. It's not just about us. Like you, look at all the people that were involved in this scenario our real estate agent, our private money lender, the new home buyers, you know our contractors, just all the vendors. You know that all got something out of this. Yeah, all good things, you know, yeah, and that was one of my things that happened that I didn't realize that the experience that I was going to enjoy part of my favorite part of the flip was obviously the transformation, because, you know, seeing, being able to restore an old home like that, and the private money lender actually walked the property and his thoughts were he seems to be torn down.
Speaker 4:The tear down. I love it. Cannot salvage this. I'm telling more about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so he got me sure that it was going to be okay.
Speaker 4:So he was blown away. It was a great feeling.
Speaker 3:The transformation was cool, but my second one that I wasn't expecting and I don't hear a lot of people talk about this because maybe it doesn't happen for everybody but I got a chance to meet the new home buyers at closing and that was such a cool experience. Just you know, just to talk with him, but for them to get up and shake my hand and look me in the eye and say, thank you, you, this house is awesome. It's just what we were looking for. All the special, special touches we we noticed, you know, and that was just such. It just really was the icing on the cake on everything. I just was like wow, I just doesn't stop. The layers and layers and layers of emotion of this experience was just awesome, yeah.
Speaker 4:I feel like we're. We're very lucky. You were lucky with our first, so I hear that a lot.
Speaker 2:And no, you were prepared and you handled things when they came up and you just kept going. Really, that's it. You just kept going.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean we, like, would look back at every single day and say, look, we've taken three steps forward and they're little but they're significant. Because it was like paving the way. And I journaled every single day. I wrote three actions, I wrote my gratitudes, I wrote my why from March till today I mean I'm still doing it every day. Yeah, that's amazing. And I work and everyone's like Lindsay, I need this. I'm like, hold on, I'm journaling five seconds later and I'm done, but I have it written down. I love it. Oh my God, I pull out my handy dandy notebook and journal myself away. But yeah, I feel like that was just constantly.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 4:I love it, man, that mindset piece, man, that that module, when everyone thinks like I got this, that is so key. You need, you need that module. You need to learn it and revisit it and do it every day, especially if there's a partnership going on here. One person needs you when they're at the 2%, you need to be the 98. You need to lift them up and keep them under control. Everyone moving forward, yeah.
Speaker 2:I love that. Well, you notice, I sneak it in in module two. It really should be module one. But if people come in and see that, straight away they're like oh no, no, no, no, no, what is this? Weird sorcery stuff? Yeah. And so instead I just sneak it in in the second week. I'm like okay, hey girl, let's do this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I definitely get it, it definitely get it now Per 100% Yep For sure.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh y'all. I have loved this conversation. I'm being mindful of the time because I'm sure you have somewhere else to be. We cover everything you wanted to cover. Was there anything that I left out or anything you wanted to add that you haven't said yet? I like to make sure everybody feels comfortable.
Speaker 3:I think for me is, you know, through this whole experience, that you know just to kind of you know, speak out to whoever might be listening is that if God places some thing on your heart that you're passionate about, is to you know, really kind of hone in on that and find out what is what brings you peace and joy. You know Because, like you said, you know me losing my job was something that I would not have planned, but God has a way of kind of pushing us in and the universe of pushing us in the direction that we really need to go. So, you know, I paid attention to that, I focused on that. Oh, sorry about that. Boy's bus is coming. Honestly, this was. This is the book.
Speaker 4:Is this time for me? Yeah.
Speaker 3:When I because we listened to your podcast back in COVID, I think COVID, and I told her about it I was like you got there's. This is awesome. There's women sharing their story get inspired, you know that kind of thing and it was so. It was so fun to just listen to people's stories. But as we're sitting there listening, you don't never think you're going to be in this position. So when we were signing up for your program, I told, was it Amy? I don't remember. But I said you know, just me kind of being like you know, I don't know. I was like I'm going to be on that podcast.
Speaker 2:She did say that.
Speaker 3:I love it you know, I was just kind of like wow, I'm going to be a little overconfident here, but that was. You know, I felt that I was like I want to, I want to do what they're doing. I know there's a real, there's a real people doing real things, and so that was it was a goal, and the fact that we're sitting here right now just completing a podcast with you is amazing.
Speaker 2:It's amazing. It's so cool. It's so freaking cool. I love it. It gives me chills, it really does.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you, I really appreciate it Absolutely.
Speaker 2:You're welcome. Thank you for sharing your story. Thank you for letting us be part of your journey. Thanks for trusting us to be part of your journey. Like it's a, it's a real honor and it's a real gift that we get to be part of your journey. So thanks you guys.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much.
Speaker 4:We are so, so blessed. I'm so thankful. Thank you.
Speaker 2:I'll let y'all go. The boys bus is coming, I hear it actually you have someone lined up to get in, okay, good.
Speaker 4:Go play with your kids.
Speaker 3:Thanks, you guys. Thanks, debbie See y'all in the group All right, bye.
Speaker 2:So great. I love that conversation. Thanks again for sharing your story with us, tammy and Lindsay, because I know it will inspire others to go do the thing. Go chase this dream they have. If you have been wanting to do this, if you've been wanting to flip houses, if you've been sitting on the sideline, if you've been waiting for the right time, now's the right time and we can help you get there. This is what we do. We help women start and grow their house flipping business. Whether you want to buy, renovate and sell houses, or buy, renovate and hold houses as rentals or both, that's what we do. Go to herfirstflipcom to learn how to transform houses and your life. All right, until next time. Go out there, flip houses like a girl, leave people in places better than you find them and make it a great day. Bye, y'all.
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