Melissa's Journey: Learning & Growing on Her First Flip Plus Making 17k!

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.

Hey there, thanks for hanging out with us today. So in this conversation I'm introducing you to one of our super fun flip sisters out of San Antonio, texas, named Melissa. Her story is it's so good I know every time I say it, but they all are, maybe I should say and they all are. So the things that stand out for me in this conversation are how we get to choose our hearts, and her choosing this as her heart has been way more rewarding than her nine to five heart was that she no longer works at. Also, she learned some things that I think are really important lessons that we hear often from our guests. One is she learned how to take calculated risks so that she could follow her dream, this dream of flipping houses. She learned how to ask for help and how that doesn't mean you're weak or failing or not good enough and how to have hard conversations. Another thing we talk about is what she wants her daughter to see and what she wants her daughter to think is possible for herself. We talk about how pride can come into play when we're pricing our properties to sell. We talk about the importance of one of my favorite things, to talk about Buffers. If you're in the program. You know we talk about buffers a lot. She talks about how crucial they are. They aren't just there to be annoying. Buffers are crucial. All right, we talk about all kinds of things. She's walking us through her first flip, how she found it, how she financed it, all the things that came up, all the things she learned, all the things she might do differently and everything else that comes up in the next 45-50-ish minutes. All right, without further delay, let's get into this conversation with Melissa. You know the drill you want to just start with introducing yourself and letting us know who you are, where you are and what you're up to in the world. What are you doing these days besides flipping houses?

Yeah, absolutely so. First off, thank you for having me. When I first started learning about your group and I was listening to the podcast and joined the program, I said this is my goal is to be on a podcast.

You're here, oh my God.

So the fact that it's happening is just such a dream come true. So thank you so much for having me. My name's Melissa and I was in the corporate world for a long time, and my daughter was born during the pandemic. So I worked for a year after that and then I really decided to just kind of shift my priorities a little bit during that time and I've just found myself not being as present as I really wanted to be, and so my dad was actually flipping houses on the side. He had a full-time job and he was just doing it on the side. So I was like you know what? I'm going to just help him a little bit. Then I realized that I really enjoyed it, and my husband came across your podcast and I fell in love with it, and just listening to all of the women's stories inspired me and I was like I can do this. So it just really showed me that I wanted to do this on my own and not have the safety blanket of my dad. I was like I want to jump in on this and my husband was on board, and so we jumped in to do it together and that's how we got through our first flip.

That's awesome. What did your dad have to say after you sold your first one recently?

I think he was really proud. He was like OK, you did it, you did it, and so it was a cool moment to be able to take some of the things that I learned from him and everything I learned from the program and really see it through to the end.

OK, so let's talk about your first flip, because it was a doozy, meaning you learned a lot. I did. Yeah, we all have those learn a lot flips. So let's talk about when did you buy it, when did you close on it. On the purchase yeah, so we closed on it July of 2022. Ok, and how did you find it?

I found this one through the MLS, and so I utilized the GO criteria that we learned through the program and found this one in a really great area. I found that it was like 10, less than 10 minutes from a lot of different landmarks in the area, and so it just felt like a really great location that was desirable, so we went for it. When we saw it on there, Was it a new listing? It actually was. My focus was originally on older listings, but I still had notifications set up for my desired zip codes. So this one popped up, and it hadn't been on the market for very long, and so I jumped on it. It was, you know, at a time when the market was pretty hot and so we had to move really quickly on it, but I fell in love with it the minute I saw it I was like it was a 1922 house and so the but the bones were just so cute, yeah. And then I saw it and I was like, wow, this is a no-brainer for me.

Were there multiple offers or did you beat everybody and they decided quickly?

Yeah, I think we got to the punch and they decided quickly Nice, nice.

Okay, July 2022,. What did you pay for the purchase?

So it was originally listed at 225 and we offered 183.5 and got it up that.

You offered 183.5 because that's what your number said, and they were brand new, fresh on the market, and they accepted your offer. Yes, yeah, well, just make your offer, people.

That's the lesson, exactly, yeah, and you know, I think you you followed along on the group I was hesitant to make offers, and you know we had some realtors that we had to talk to that were like you know, we can't go around making such low offers. And finally, you know, we found the most amazing real estate agent, and she was go-getter, confident, had a lot of knowledge of the market and she went to bat for us always, and so it was. It made me feel more confident in making those offers. And, as you all always say in the group too, it's if you don't make any offers, there's just never going to be a yes, so you might as well just make offers. The worst that happens is a no, and so I'm just so glad that we started to really get more aggressive with making our offers, and that's how this one happened.

That's super impressive. When you initially came up with your renovation budget, what was that initially?

Yeah, so this one shifted quite a bit. So we originally had an estimate from our contractors at about 97,000. And what we ended up spending was about 113,000. And you know this had. There was a lot of factors that led to that and a lot of self-elected things too, because we wanted to make sure that we were really making it the best possible product in that particular neighborhood to match the comps. So, for example, it was originally a 2-1. And in order to really make it competitive with the comps, we needed to make it a 3-2. But it was a small house, so we actually added a whole extension of a little over 200 square feet so that with the comps it was comparable square footage wise, and also for the bedrooms and bathrooms that we needed to make it more appealing to the buyers.

That's amazing. I don't think I realized y'all did an addition on your first. Look, yeah, I don't think anybody else has done that on these interviews. So look at you, girl. Ok, so you so 117,. You added on, you made a, you took a 2-1 and made it a 3-2. Super smart, obviously. And let's see, were there any weird things that came up between going under contract and then?

closing on it. No, there were no surprises. Everything actually was a really smooth transaction. So we didn't have any surprises on the front end. And we didn't. We took it as is. So we really expected to do a full gut on the property, so we didn't have anything that we weren't ready for.

Essentially, how did you finance?

it. Yeah, so we started telling people what we were doing, which I was hesitant to do because I wanted to make sure I did it right. Oh my gosh, I love it. But I was like you know what people love this stuff? They want to hear what we're doing. And so we just, you know, we started telling our friends and I started posting a little bit about the journey and we had a few different friends just come out of nowhere and say that they were interested in investing with us. So that was just amazing and just such a blessing. Through this process it made it made us so much more confident and so they. We had one set of friends invest with us for the purchase of the home, and then another fund some of the renovations, and then we had some money saved up to just supplement whatever was remaining for the renovation. So it was really great, really great terms, and it was just low maintenance, especially for the renovations. It was just such a smooth and they were very silent investors, right. So they were like take our money, do what you need to do and pay us back, and so the best kind of you know it took that part of the process and out of the equation, when you know that sometimes that can create a little extra pressure for sure, and like, honestly, just tell people what you're doing.

Stop trying to do it secretly. I get it. Of course we don't want to fail publicly. We don't like. That does not feel good, it doesn't sound like it would be fine, but had you not been posting about it, you wouldn't have even known that people would be interested in investing and they wouldn't have made money. Right, right, you're giving that money to somebody. Might as well Like it's either a hard money lender, right, or some lender, or it's somebody you know, a private money lender, yeah, just someone you know.

Yeah, it honestly surprises you too how many people have money that they're looking to invest, and oftentimes they don't know how they want to invest. They're just not sure what's going to give them the best return at a lower risk. And so for them to have an opportunity like this is just amazing, because they have a secure asset and they have the opportunity to invest and support their friends, so it's just such a win-win all around Totally.

They cannot get that kind of return secured against real property. Yeah, yeah, okay, I love that. I didn't know that about your journey. I try to ask as few questions as possible until we get to the interview. Then I'm like I have no idea. I know very little about your thing. I have no idea, I have no idea. Okay, we talked about the financing of it. Okay, let's talk about where you're in it. You're in the project and you're doing a 200-square-foot edition From purchase to sale. How long was that From purchase?

to sale. It ended up being a little over a nine-month renovation. It took us some time. There was just a lot of scenarios that popped up in between that excited our time, but also a lot of learning lessons that came with that. That really showed me. Okay, here's how I would do it in the future to avoid that.

Yes, let's talk about some of those things.

Yes, the property had a structure in the backyard. It was actually a pretty large structure and it had plumbing in. It had a toilet in there. Because of the comps in the area, it just didn't make sense to spend the money to renovate it. It was in really bad condition. The concrete was all cracked and it was a big structure. We decided to demolish it and we had planned for that and budgeted for that on the front end, but it ended up being a little bit more complex. For example, there was extra layers of shingles, the foundation that it was on. We needed to do a lot of smoothing over of that to make it just presentable for the buyer and just convert it into a car slab. We had to run on the extension in order to keep the vaulted ceilings. We had to run the air ducts underneath the house. Those parts were actually on back order so we had to wait for those. There was a few cracks in some of the glass. We decided to keep the original windows because it was actually a home that was in a conservation district. It would have been a whole situation to try to order custom windows for it, not just a situation for that. Yeah, the windows in itself were actually in really decent condition. It was just the glass that we had to replace, but we ended up finding additional cracks in glasses that we didn't notice before. That was an additional cost and time suck. There was just a lot of things. I think I posted about this, but we had a big flooring.

Oh my God, that's all I remember.

Is this flooring?

debacle.

Yes, that's all I remember too. No. So yeah, that was fun. I loved the flooring situation.

I learned so much, let's talk about the flooring situation. Yeah.

We were so close to the end and we were walking through the house and we noticed that the vinyl was starting to crack. It wasn't cracking because it was floated. Yeah, it wasn't cracking on the seams. The floor was cracking in the middle of pieces.

Oh gosh.

I was like this doesn't look right, this isn't supposed to happen, that's crazy. I definitely learned a lot about the initial installation, what that should actually look like. But I definitely put trust in the people that were doing it and thought, okay, they're doing the sub-level. The way that they explained it, it made sense to me and this was a good learning opportunity, because when you're not sure, just ask for help, bring in other friends or experts that know and bring them in. And I think that that's something that I learned throughout this entire process is that it's okay to ask for help. It's not failing, it's not embarrassing. People want to help you that are in your life. And then there's plenty of experts out there that would be happy to help. And so in second thought we should have asked for advice on hey, can you stop by and just look at the sub-ploring, make sure everything's going well? That they're doing. And so, anyways, we brought in, we told our contractors we're going to deal with this later, let's finish out all the other finishes, knowing that we would have to do some additional touch-up. But at that point the conversation wasn't going awesome with our contractors. They really didn't want to accept that it was an error on the front end and we made the decision to just move forward with letting them finish all of the other things that need to be finished, because we were so close to the end it was literally just final punch items we decided we're not going to have them continue to touch the floor, let's just finish the other items and then we're going to bring in our own people and we'll figure out everything else that comes along with it afterwards. Anyways, we brought in a few experts to look at the flooring. We pulled up some of the flooring and immediately, through their expert eyes, they were able to say hey, this subflooring was not done. Well, we're going to have to pull up all of the flooring. It cannot be salvaged. We're going to have to redo the subflooring and install all brand new flooring. That was like a $10,000 hit.

I know that one. I know that one. Unfortunately, I know that $10,000 redo the flooring hit. It does not feel good at all.

Yeah, it definitely kept me up.

I literally had multiple dreams about flooring and I was like oh, this is my life now.

This is actually so cool that I get to have dreams about flooring now and not other stuff. I first really enjoyed having those kinds of dreams. I was like, wake me up at night. That is so hilarious. I was like you get to choose your hard. I kept on telling my husband. I was like, if I'm going to choose my hard, this is so much more exciting to me than any other hards I've ever experienced. Totally, I love it. We're going with it. It stinks, but we're going to go with it. I love that my husband's aunt actually came through for us and she's amazing. She's been in the flooring industry forever. We should have just gone with the hard to begin with. We were just trusting that, hey, let's use the sub, just so that there's accountability. When you allow your contractors to utilize their subs, sometimes there's more accountability all around, but I think in retrospect it's definitely always great to just do your checks and balances and figure out what truly is going to be the best option for your project and for your budget. Yeah, totally, we got it all fixed. I was able to find a flooring that matched, because the original flooring that I had purchased was from a liquidation store. Of course they were like we discontinued. Why did you all discontinue? It had nothing to do with the product. Apparently they had been selling that product for four years and the owner even came and took a look and he was like we've never had this issue with this floor. I promise you We've never had this issue. That confirmed to us. It wasn't the flooring, it was the sub flooring. Anyways, I was able to find a flooring that was almost exactly in color and actually ended up being a prettier flooring. It worked out. It worked out and it was solidly done. That's what was super important to me is that I delivered a really great product. I'm not going to deliver something that's broken or half done, especially the flooring. That would come back to fighting in the future, right.

But even if it's something that is six years, it's like, well, yeah, it's probably going to bite somebody in six years. No, I don't want to sleep. I don't want sleepless nights for six years waiting for the person to fix it.

Right, and that's part of what's most rewarding for this is knowing that you're creating a beautiful home for someone that's going to live in it, and that's so rewarding. So why would you want to create something that someone's going to have to have issues with?

Yeah, totally. Were you told what the deal was with the subfloor, what they did wrong, yes and what was happening?

What was the deal? All three experts said the same thing, and so that's what I'm doing. That's always nice. Yes, that helped because I was like, okay, everyone's on the same page, that this was the issue. So the house was interesting because the original owners they did some DIY extensions, I think, in additions, and so there was like major gaps in some of the flooring. There was some flooring that was kind of rotting, and so everything was like at different levels. So when the subfloor was completed, originally I think there was just some money-saving tactics that were trying to be put into place, and so it was like some areas it was feathered, some areas had just wood laid out, right Planks laid out, and so it was just all uneven, I think, and so at the time it made sense what they were saying. But ultimately when you laid the floor on it, you can feel it and it started cracking because there was significant breakpoints throughout the house and the transitions weren't level either. So we had to just bring up the flooring in some areas when it was corrected bring it up and we were able to remove all of the makeshift transitions. So it ended up being so much more beautiful at the end of the day and so much sturdier as sturdy as you can get with a pure and beam 1920s house.

I love pure and beam. I wish all houses were pure and beam Right. It's so easy to fix things so much easier. Everything is so much easier. Yeah, okay, that's really interesting. So did that come up this year or last year?

This year because it was right towards the end.

Okay, okay. So it's flooring debacle of 2023. Yes, yeah, okay, okay. And then what else? Were there some other things? I know that was the big main thing. Were there any other issues?

Not anything super crazy. We had a termite scare because we opened up one of the walls and it was. There was some wood fully damaged by termite and it was actually really cool. I had never seen an inactive termite colony structure before, so that was really cool. But it scared the living out of me. I was like, oh my goodness, is there termite infestation somewhere else? But we had someone come out and check and there wasn't. And actually at the very end there had been so much rain that we spotted two or three termites in the living room like live ones at the very end, after we got the new flooring.

And I was like what is happening? I can't do this, I can't have this conversation with you right now. Termite, I cannot do this with you right now.

Read the room, buddy, I agree. I was like no, this isn't real, this is not real. This is not real. We have the company that does the pest control come out and it was a termite inspector specifically for that. And so he came out and he did a full blown check and he said, hey, I'm not seeing anything active. He's like I think just because of the rain and some of the pure and beamed it, just they came through. He's like I don't see anything. He's like so you're good to go and we're going to remove some of the moisture that is attracting them. So that was really really good news and so we paid for that. But it was worth it because it wasn't a bigger issue like we were expecting. Yeah, and another thing that came up, which was a good learning lesson, is in older houses, you know, there's often the inspectors often request the sewer line cameras to be run. That was really scary. I held my breath for that but I didn't realize it was like $400, maybe more to get them just the camera run through. So there was no major issues with that. So that was a huge relief. But the inspector, you know, just was like oh yeah, we need to do this and I was like I didn't know that this was a thing, so that was another thing. And then there was just, you know, just extra expenses. Like we needed a few extra peers on the foundation that weren't originally accounted for, so it was like an extra $1,000. We needed the you know extra decking for the roof because there was a few rotted beams that we we just wouldn't have seen until we pulled things back.

So that's like an extra almost thousand you know, so it was just everything kind of adds up All those little extra $500, $800,000 things they add up.

yes, and so if it hadn't been for your process of creating several buffers, as we're doing the deal, I mean I don't know where we would have been.

That would have been really scary. I know all about the buffers.

Yeah, yeah, the buffers are so important and there's a reason for them and, honestly, I was so eager to find a property that we didn't even follow the full percentage return at the beginning. And so now, looking forward, I'm like there's a reason for all of these numbers, that I know you can say that to us all of this time.

She's actually trying to save us, yes, from ourselves.

Yes, you actually know what you're doing.

No, because I get it. I just want to be on a project too, but if it's not going to be a profitable one, yeah, yeah.

So there's a reason for all of it and so, honestly, following the buffers at least, even if they can stick to the original percentage on return at the beginning really saved us. And now, moving forward, I know I'm going to follow all of the criteria because there's a reason for it. And so many things come up that are just not expected, and even with a full gut project where we were accounting for all of the things, there was still things that come up that you just don't expect. And so if it hadn't been for the buffers I mean a $10,000 floor repair, oh God, if you don't have a buffer in place that can really really put you in the red. So the fact that we were still in the green after all of those things that came up for us, it was awesome. It was awesome to be able to actually see that in action.

Yes, such good points. So when you initially bought the property, what were you anticipating the ARV to be?

So we were anticipating it to be about 340. The market shifted during that time because it was a weird window, and then we were kind of seeing the ARV drop down to like 320, 325. So I was getting a little nervous about that. But we were hoping for 340, 349 around there and after all of the expenses we were like, okay, we really need it to be 349 at least.

You? When did you list it for sale? Wait, was that all the stuff with the renovation? Did we touch on everything?

I think so, yeah, I mean so, you know, one thing I want to add is that it is so important to have everything in writing and be as detailed as possible with your contractors and subs, and so somehow we missed budgeting the kitchen back splash, which was like one of my showpieces in my kitchen. I was like wait, because so the way that it was budgeted or estimated was kind of in buckets. So it was like, okay, kitchen, this is the amount that it will be about right. And so now I know, hey, we need to like really make sure we take the time, fully itemize every aspect so that nothing can be missed. So I made sure to really look back at the templates and adjust those so that you know, on this next project, I don't miss something like that, because I just assumed that it was back splash is included. Like that seems so standard to me and our contractors like no, we didn't talk about back splash. So, yeah, so that was like an additional $1,400 that you know. So there was just so many learning money, learning experiences we had that I'm really thankful for because it's gonna make me so much better on the next one and it was, I mean, it was worth it that $1,400,. The tile turned out so awesome. I mean I went extra with the tiles.

So so cute that house, so cute. You just you really did. You just knocked it out of the park. It's so freaking cute. Thank you, yeah, it's very charming. You did such an awesome job. That's definitely your lane Doing the design stuff. Yeah, Appreciate that. When did you list it for sale?

So we listed it for sale in April. And we listed it for sale on April 2nd and it went under contract April 5th. So that was really exciting. And when we listed it, so we were going to list it at the 349 and we, a couple of days before, we went and toured some comps of houses for sale in the area just to kind of see you know how much were they selling for what do they look like in person? In person, totally different. Wow, that blew my mind. Yeah, how different some of the pictures could be versus what you see in person. There were some fun surprises and so, after seeing that, I talked to my husband. I was like I really think we can list this for hire, Like I almost wonder if we're not doing ourselves justice. And of course, you know his concern was I don't want it to just fit there, though. We need to like be competitive. And we talked to a realtor, of course, and literally the morning of going live she said I agree, let's go at 360. We can do this. And she was totally right. So that's another you know moment where it was so beneficial to have a really confident and knowledgeable agent and it made me feel comfortable. My husband was like I don't know and so, but it was awesome, we did it and the proof of how quickly it went under contract really showed us that and I really believed in our product. So I wanted to do it justice. Yeah, what did it sell for? It ended up selling for $360. So full, full list price. It was a cash offer, oh nice. And so no appraisal was requested and we closed in two weeks. So we ended up closing on April 21st. So it was a really, really quick turnaround and I didn't even know I would get so attached to my house. That doesn't go away. Yeah, it doesn't. Ok, that's so funny to hear because, yeah, it was like it was a baby to me. And even with the listing conversation I was like you know, you have to check yourself and make sure you mean prideful because it's your product, or is this really what it's worth, Right, so you have to check yourself. And so I really wanted to make sure I did that and that's why I made sure to ask my agent. I was like, hey, where are you thinking we're at with this product, Right? Yeah, so that's important. And I got so attached. And so when we had a two week close. It's funny because my husband was like, yes, this is what we want. And I'm like wait, hold on, I'm not ready, Hold the floor, I need a minute. And so I think those last two weeks I spent so much time there and I literally sat on the couch and just took everything in. And I was like did I get enough pictures? Did I get? I need to take a picture of the faucets? I need to take it. So I was just like doing all this crazy stuff because I was so in love with it.

Oh wait, the door stopped. I didn't get that one. Yeah, the picture. Yeah, the door stopped.

Yeah, so it was good. Oh, I was going to add too that staging is. I mean, it makes such a huge difference. No, brandon, I remember you always saying on podcasts and in your modules just stage, don't question it. Right, question it. And it is easy to question it when you get to the end, especially when you've had so many costs. And even our realtor was like, hey, you still want to spend money on staging. So many people were questioning it. You want to spend money on staging, are you sure? And I mean I had one little moment of hesitation but I was like no, we need to show this house as the home that it is. It's not a house anymore, it's a home. And, wow, it makes an incredible difference. And people commented on it, people gave feedback on that, and so it really. I do 100% believe in staging and I 100% believe that it helped it sell as quickly as it did, for sure.

Absolutely, absolutely. You can look at a property staged or un-staged and you feel different. You place more value If it's the same house. Let's say it's the same house and it's staged and it's not staged. You will put more value on a well-staged property. We just do that Like we do. All of a sudden it's like OK, this, oh, this is cozy, oh my god, I can totally see myself here. But when there's nothing there, it just yeah, I don't care what the market's doing. Like, I've even staged it just for photos. Even when the property sold before I was able to list it Like because the photos for my own use, like I want to see it staged because it looks. My Stager adds 10, at least $10,000 value, at least $10,000 value.

It looks amazing staged.

I believe that I totally believe that.

And I think, if you're not, whether you're staging it yourself or you utilize a Stager, I think it's also important to stage it to the feel of the neighborhood and of the home. I felt like to me. I was very specific on what I wanted and so I chose a Stager that I knew would create the vibe and feel for that specific house, Because I felt like that's so important. When people walk in, they want to feel a certain way and you want the staging to accentuate the features that you put so much money into. So some of the beautiful open shelving that we put and some of the tile work that we did and the flooring I mean all of that like the staging really helped that, bring it to life and accentuate it and make it look even better.

Yeah, I agree, all right, so you paid $183.5. You had $113K in repairs.

OK.

And you sold for $360. So what does that mean? What was your profit?

So at the end of the day, we ended up making around a little over $17,000 in profit and yeah, nice. Yeah, and when we calculated kind of what we would have made had we not hit all the road bumps and had an extended timeline, it would have been probably about $38,000. So it definitely showed it put it into life, the time is money. For me, yes, and it was great to see that for myself. I think for this particular project and I hear a lot of the women saying it for the first flip you just want to make money and so I think that going in with that perspective, or you don't want to lose money, you don't want to lose money. Yeah, right, and I think going into that with that perspective helped a lot. It's like, ok, if we make a dollar, this is a win, and I felt that I was getting paid to learn essentially, which was really cool, and I looked at it also as an investment versus income. So for me it's on this one. So if you look at the average percentage on a stock market, for example, I feel like it's like 6.5% average right and I know that shifts right and on this, when I looked at the money that we put in, we essentially made a 38% return on investment annualized right. You can't get that anywhere else. You can't do that. Our friends that invested with us also made a higher percentage than they would in the stock market, and there's an asset that's protecting right. And so to me, I felt like it was such a win all around for everyone and the learning lessons that I got were so valuable and just the flexibility to do whatever I needed to do with my daughter or whatever it was that was going on in my life. I could do. We had sicknesses, I had tea parties to go with to her at her better school, whatever it is. I got to do it and I got to enjoy it and be fully present because I was the boss.

Yes.

So it was all so worth it at the end of the day and so rewarding to see a 1922 house come back to life. It was so cool to be part of that experience.

Congratulations on that, really congrats. That's huge. We say it over and over and over, but there's so much learning that happens in the doing that can't happen any other way, that you just have to go do. Yeah, in some projects there are more learning lessons than others. And then, when there aren't learning lessons, we're like what's wrong? What did I do wrong? Like well, it shouldn't be this easy. And it's like, no, some kind of are, yeah, yeah. So I'm so glad y'all are here, Y'all are on this side of it, because I know the flooring stuff was super stressful. I know all of the things that happened were super stressful. In the moment, I totally get that.

Yeah, kudos to you for hanging in there and getting to this point and making a profit and making your friends money, all of the things you did it, thank you, and it was an incredible experience, and I would rather have to have some really hard conversations or take some risks and have that fear of failing. I would rather have that than to be someone who just had these dreams and watched people do it on Instagram and never pursued it myself and just always wondered what if? Because it was, it was really scary to quit my job and to just decide I'm going to just jump into this. But if there's something that you really believe in, that you want to do and you feel passionate about it, just do it. Just jump in and do it, and all of the learning lessons make it so unbelievably worth it and you can really sit back and just be proud of yourself. And even if it quote unquote seems like a failure the first time around, I still would have done it again and just learn and try to do it better, because I'm passionate about that and feeling the hard in other ways that I felt the hard through other jobs is, honestly, it was not as fun as these. No, I would do it again a heartbeat, and have the same issues that I had again in a heartbeat, because it's going to make me better in, not just flipping, but just in my personal life. I learned so much about myself. I learned so much about how to have more challenging conversations and I learned how to take risks so that I can follow my dreams and ask for help and ask for help.

Yes, Call in the experts, give second opinions. Yes, yeah, that's awesome. So much learning.

Oh my gosh, what does your husband think he it was funny because when we were getting towards the end, especially when the floor issue came up, I was like do you want to do this again? Right? And he was like I don't know, we need to wait, I need to see how this plays out till the end. But he's so supportive and he's so handy, so he did a ton of work, especially towards the end. But, yeah, he was a little on the edge there and even our realtor was like so you guys think you're going to do a scale?

I was like oh yeah, I'm ready.

I'm ready to start going, let's go. So now he's 100% on board and ready to do this again.

You just have to ask him at the right time.

You take your moment to ask him. Yes exactly Pick the right moment.

Oh man, I love it. Well, your daughter's probably too young to understand any of it. I think my son was finally like 11 when he finally understood anything about what we were doing at these houses and what was happening.

Yeah, yeah, and I can't wait till she does. I know that probably was such a proud moment for you to be able to say hey, here's what I'm doing, and here's what I'm doing for your future. For me to be able to just tell her that I have faced some fears and I've followed some dreams, and you can too. Wow, that's more valuable than anything. So I can't wait for that and to show her that she can be brave and she can do hard things and she can do big things, whatever she wants to do.

I have goosebumps from that, but really that's what she's going to see. That's what you're doing, that's what you're showing her. That's so freaking cool man, so much bigger than just flipping houses.

Absolutely so much bigger than that, and it's so rewarding. I am so thankful for this group of women. Just hearing all of their stories, it just goes to show you can do this in any season of your life. There are women from all different backgrounds, all different seasons of their life, some that have a heck of a lot going on, and so the fact that they can do it, that means anyone can do it, doesn't matter what season you are in your life, and to me that was so empowering and, yeah, it just made it so much more worth to see their stories and now knowing that I can be a part of that too.

Yeah, oh, my gosh. Well, thank you for sharing your story with us.

Thank you for having me. This was such an honor. Thank you.

And I appreciate you being in the group and just engaging and just being a part of it. All right, thanks, tell your husband hi I will All right, bye, be in the group, bye. Such a great story. Thank you again, melissa, for sharing it with us. I know it's going to inspire people to get off the sideline, to stop watching people on Instagram or Facebook flip houses and think man, I wish I could do that. Hello, you can, but you have to take the first step, which is take action. You're the only one in your way. You absolutely can do this. You can do it from where you are, from your age, from your financial picture, from wherever you are in the US, it doesn't matter. Start where you are. Just start and stop comparing yourself to oh, but I'm not this person on HGTV. Well, good, we're glad you're not this person on HGTV, because that person already exists. So just start. You absolutely can do this. We have hundreds of interviews of everyday women doing this thing, chasing this dream, but it all started with one thing they decided to take action. They decided enough is enough. When are you going to decide to take action instead of complaining that you're not doing the thing you want to be doing? All right, if that thing is flipping houses, whether you want to buy them, renovate them and sell them, or maybe even buy, renovate and hold for rentals, maybe some Airbnb properties, what have you? If you want to buy properties and fix them up, that's what we help women do. We do it day in, day out and we love it. And if you want to be on this journey with us, awesome, let's see if we're a fit. Go to herfirstflipcom, fill out an application, book a call and let's see how we can work together. All right, until next time, go out there, flip houses like a girl, leave people and places better than you find them and make it a great day. Bye-bye.