Min's 250k Profit While Working Full-Time

Unknown Speaker  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  0:39  
Hey, what's going on today, thanks for taking some time out and hanging out with us. And listening to more of mins story, she was on our podcast before debriefing her first flip. And now she's joining us again to debrief flip number two. So her first flip, she made a profit of about $60,000. And then her second flip made an amazing, just jaw dropping $250,000. So within about a year, she made $310,000 Flipping houses on the side of a full time job. So yes, it is possible. And we're gonna get into all of that, how she managed all that, where she found support all the challenges that came up on this flip some weird ones to some unusual ones, I should say, and having to have difficult and uncomfortable conversations with private money investors. We get into some good heart to heart stuff near the end. So you definitely want to stick around for that if you want to be moved and inspired. Which of course you do. You listen to this podcast. Alright, so let's just go ahead and get into this conversation, because we've got a lot to discuss and work through. So let's get into it. Okay, so let's talk about let's talk about your second flip. You just closed on the sale of it. When did you buy it? We

Unknown Speaker  2:27  
we went to look at it in July of 2021. Cut it we had been looking at multiple properties prior I think this was I think this was maybe the fifth house we looked at. We looked at two off market deals. You know, we I had an ad spend some time, you know working towards that and all the strategies that you teach us. And then this one we found on the MLS. So we went and saw it again it was in a brokerage it was a window mirror listing. Got it. And we walked through the property and the property was in really terrible shape. It smelled awful. But it was we had learned that the owners sons had tried to rehab it but rehabbed it in really bad ways. Like Oka DIY is not the way that they did this, it sort of slapped it together and all that a remodel and and so a lot of the work that they did, we knew we had to tear out and start from scratch.

Debbie DeBerry  3:32  
Wow. So to think that you just posted some like before and after pictures yesterday, so I saw a bunch of before pictures. So to think that some of those before pictures were their remodel. Yes. It's terrifying. Yes.

Unknown Speaker  3:47  
It looks terrible. And I you know, I chalk it up to they tried their best and they were trying to remodel a home and they had some plans for it. And I think ultimately time got away from them and they just gave up. Yeah,

Debbie DeBerry  4:00  
yeah. Well, I mean, yeah, it's harder than you think. Once you get into it a lot

Unknown Speaker  4:05  
harder. They didn't do any they didn't. They didn't leverage their new permitting. They didn't go through the permitting process. And so you know, we we had a lot of obstacles ahead of us and so but you know, we knew that because it was inner brokerage my realtor knew the listing broker, or, and we knew that we had we had a little bit of leverage on this deal. So we offered 800 I think we offered 790 The listing broker came back and said hey, if you want to close a deal, you need to offer eight

Debbie DeBerry  4:39  
did it just come on the market? It did we were there.

Unknown Speaker  4:44  
So we I think we were in Nebraska on vacation when it when it came live. Our broker went to see it, walked it with the listing agent at the open house. And then we submitted an offer that Monday when we got back,

Debbie DeBerry  5:01  
this is why you rely on a team. This is not a one person business. We have to rely on our team to let them do their jobs. I love that. Okay, so you got this for 800k were what was it remind me? Because I feel like your first one sold

Unknown Speaker  5:23  
in April what closed on April

Debbie DeBerry  5:25  
in Okay. And what did you buy your first one for? lowboy?

Unknown Speaker  5:30  
We bought that beauty for 585 80.

Debbie DeBerry  5:34  
Okay, so your $220,000 above that? Oh, yeah. Did that when did that feel like anything to you? Or were you just numbers, numbers numbers?

Unknown Speaker  5:45  
You know, we, we knew that the we knew that we had to move our price point up. We were open to it. And the reason why we were open to it was because that was we knew that the net profit opportunity was bigger. We also knew that the original house that we worked at, we worked on earlier in the year that was a 3175. Breakdown. Okay, as a Rambler, and that was a beautiful project. But we knew that the market wanted a four bedroom two and a half bath. That was what was generally wanted to buy. Yeah, especially in the suburbs, and we were working outside of the city of Seattle, north and east. Got it. Got it. And so here's what they want. So we knew in order to purchase a property in our target area, north of the city, it with the right, the you know, bedroom bathroom breakdown, we knew that we had to look at price points above. Got it,

Debbie DeBerry  6:47  
we were you were okay with that you were like this is what they want. We have to look at this like this. If we look at less, it's because we're like, we're we're making the decision of what buyers want. If we decide that we're going to look for lower price points, different room, bathroom configuration. Yeah, I love that you looked at you, you've always been like this, like from day one, like you've just been. So you're so coachable. And you're so like, you want to know the process, you want to understand things you want to do it. So I appreciate that you really harnessed that data part because it really does tell us everything we need to know.

Unknown Speaker  7:24  
And it takes a lot of the guesswork and the emotion out of it.

Debbie DeBerry  7:27  
Exactly, which is what I needed to do. Because I want every house I want every house to work because I love every house.

Unknown Speaker  7:34  
Yep. And you and but the the beauty of this journey is that the emotion comes through the design phase of the process, right, and not only where your hardship is shown, and you can put a lot of those sort of personality, you know, little touches here and there. And so there's a balance, there's a there's a balance, you can't be emotional about the numbers part you cannot be emotional when it comes to inputting and looking at the data that's in the spreadsheet, right. That's the wrong place you that emotion is later. Yes,

Debbie DeBerry  8:07  
yes. Perfectly said I love that. Okay. So you're looking at so you buy a house for $800,000. When you bought it, what were you thinking the repair amount was going to be?

Unknown Speaker  8:20  
Oh, 116. Okay.

Debbie DeBerry  8:22  
And what were you thinking the ARV was going to be

Unknown Speaker  8:27  
1.05.

Debbie DeBerry  8:29  
Okay. Okay. And that was July of 2021. All right, so $160,000 rehab budget, and this was a big house. How much what was the square footage? 2700 square feet. Okay, that feels huge to me. I'm so used to like 1600 1700.

Unknown Speaker  8:47  
Well, it was double the house from our first flip. Okay. Yeah, that's

Debbie DeBerry  8:51  
huge. I mean, that's, that's such a big house. It's a lot of finish out. It's a lot of flooring. Yes, it is. Okay. All right. So you went in thinking 160? What? Tell let's talk about some of the surprises around the rehab part. And what that rehab actually came in at. Let's talk about all those surprises. Well, you

Unknown Speaker  9:17  
always tell us you never know what you're going to find until you get into the house and open the walls up. And it's so true. Yeah. And, you know, I thought I padded our renovation budget, because I made the mistake on flip one. I didn't pad.

Debbie DeBerry  9:35  
I remember that. I remember that conversation. Yeah. Okay.

Unknown Speaker  9:38  
I said okay, I'm gonna learn from that lesson on flip to not make the same mistake. Well, I don't think that I made the mistake. We just uncovered lots of lots of issues and obstacles that we had to overcome. So one was after after we demo there was still odor in the house. My husband grew up on a farm, you know, and he was like that odors not just like, old, old person or old house smell, right? It's not just mom. Yeah, it's coming from somewhere. And just to give you perspective, the house lent the whole exterior landscaping hadn't been trimmed back for probably 10 years.

Debbie DeBerry  10:20  
Oh my gosh.

Unknown Speaker  10:21  
Do you know where this is going? Oh, gosh. So and there were this house was very wooded. It was on an acre lot. There was a creek at the bottom. There was also a giant hole in the roof. Uh huh.

Debbie DeBerry  10:36  
You had some dead critters?

Unknown Speaker  10:38  
Yes. Oh, gosh. So you know my my husband and his sniffer went investigating and drywall section one off and, and and he he he assumed based on the sort of trajectory of where an animal would get in. Uh huh. Figure it out. Okay, it's gotta be over here.

Debbie DeBerry  10:58  
Oh my god, that's so smart.

Unknown Speaker  10:59  
I know. So then you started peeling drywall off and found his you know, found the first victim he ended up finding 12 Victim Wow, very well drywall drywall dry. Oh my gosh. That was one issue it we so that was not the only drywall saga the second drywall saga was connected to electrical the the the sons did some really shoddy electrical work like fire starter electrical.

Debbie DeBerry  11:33  
Of course. I can't stand it when people DIY electrical stuff that's

Unknown Speaker  11:37  
like, you know, electrical taping, you know, circuits together.

Debbie DeBerry  11:42  
i Oh my gosh, that's just so harmful. So awful.

Unknown Speaker  11:46  
And we knew that we couldn't leave that alone. And so not only did our electrical budget double we went from a $15,000 Renault plan to 32,000. But to accommodate the needs of installing a new electrical system threw that out the entire house, we had to remove more drywall. It was

Debbie DeBerry  12:13  
like the electrical slash drywall nightmare house. Dead slash dead animal. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  12:22  
So we learned quite a bit from that. So drywall you know, our original budget budget was I think we said like 7000. And it moved to 17,000. Oh, yeah.

Debbie DeBerry  12:30  
Oh, gosh.

Unknown Speaker  12:34  
So that was one of our problems. Like I said, we had a hole in the roof, I'd never dealt with putting a new roof on a house. So that was a new experience and finding our trustworthy roofer was a new sort of obstacle. We want it to in the front entry, it's a it's a 1969 home, the front entry, everything about the house was very closed in. And we knew that the the wall that enclose the downstairs or the stairs to the downstairs level, we knew that we after investigation, we knew that we can remove the wall. But we needed a structural engineer to help us validate that, that went on for probably longer than we would have like the back and forth. Okay, and just getting structural drawings, etc. To be able to get that approved or added to our building permit took a long time. That was that was a new experience for us.

Debbie DeBerry  13:31  
Yep. Yeah. Okay.

Unknown Speaker  13:35  
The demo costs on this, Debbie. Remember I told you I promised I promised my GC husband that I would, I would get him the additional support that he needed to get right. Right. What a part of that was that sheer amount of demo on this house was

Debbie DeBerry  13:54  
astronomical. How many dumpsters so many dumpsters?

Unknown Speaker  13:58  
I would I think I lost count. I think we have we landed at eight. Yeah.

Debbie DeBerry  14:03  
Oh my gosh, that's, that's a lot.

Unknown Speaker  14:07  
But we had six. The first. We had we did. The demo team came out and demoed for about four days. Oh my gosh. Well, it was remember all the landscaping had overwrite, right? Big exterior property. So between all the interior that we had to demo, and then within the team moved out to the exterior, you know, we hadn't paid for demo demo for us on the first flip was just the cost of dumpsters and where the labor. Got it. And so we paid 15,000 for demo. Oh,

Debbie DeBerry  14:44  
man. It's those big numbers for things that we don't see. It's so hard to stomach those. It's like, obviously, all of this is necessary. Obviously, we have to spend $32,000 to get the electrical properly done, but it's like Yeah, it's all in the walls. It's not even like the pretty stuff that we get to say, right? Nobody sees it. That's how I feel with all the foundation and drain line. Replacement I have to do. It's like $50,000 of work. Nobody sees. Oh, God so painful. Okay, so drywall, electrical, structural engineer, demo.

Unknown Speaker  15:26  
Rodents

Debbie DeBerry  15:28  
road. Okay, so now you're at a higher price point. Let me backtrack a little bit. The 160 K rehab came in out, ended up coming in at what? 232 30? Okay. Okay. So, how did you finance this? How did you finance the purchase? And the renovations?

Unknown Speaker  15:52  
Yeah, so part, it's all about having great partners and surrounding yourself with a strong team. So the original lender on my first flip was, was fine. The actual broker himself was great to work with the, the financial institution that I worked with, not so great. Got it. So, you know, I knew I knew at the end of that transaction that, hey, I needed to identify a new lender. I wanted someone local, not someone that was based in New York, that I needed to call and talk to an analyst. And so, so I started interviewing lenders here, connected with someone that I really enjoy talking to got a good vibe from him. And I think inside of 30 days from our conversation, I submitted my application and wanted to fund the deal. They're interesting, they can fund a transaction in 72 hours.

Debbie DeBerry  16:49  
Awesome. See, that's, that's common for the lenders I work with. And that suite is so important.

Unknown Speaker  16:57  
Yes, it positions your contract to be taken seriously. And it literally rolls you to the top of the list. And absolutely. So, you know, again, off market deals, they it's a little longer of a lead time, it's it's the long play. If you're looking and chopping off the MLS, you've got to have the best contract and the best offer and a part of that is being able to close in five days. Absolutely. Yeah. So found him. So from the time we had closed on our shoreline flip throughout the early summer. And by the time I found this opportunity, I had talked to 15 different investors or people who were interested in investing.

Debbie DeBerry  17:42  
And this is all people just reaching out to you from your posts. Yep. On social media.

Unknown Speaker  17:48  
We were just you know, what, we were just sharing what we were doing. We didn't want it to be super glamorous, super sexy, we didn't want it to, you know, to be produced. We want it to be very direct and very honest, you know, how this is what a flip looks like. Right?

Debbie DeBerry  18:06  
Right. Sometimes at the end of the flip, you're on your knees, caulking the toilet, because nobody else will do it. All the time. Exactly, every single one every.

Unknown Speaker  18:18  
But you know, at the end, I would say hey, if you're ever interested in being part of our journey, you know, please reach out anytime. And so people would just text and call and, you know, we got to about 15. And then it those, you know, those conversations became more serious with about five people. Okay. And the learning from flip one was that I was not going to I was I wasn't going to borrow the Reno through the lender. I wanted it all through private. So much easier. Yeah. So I put the downpayment on down on the house, which you can fund through private money to and you know, I think, I think when you know when it could be anyone, but if you know, when you talk yourself out of hey, well, I don't have that type of money. I was lucky enough to have, you know, funds from lots of different sort of factors and savings. But you can you know, I know lots of women in the program that funded through private money. Absolutely. But I had 160 From my from my investors to fund the Reno they all knew exactly where it was going for. We did the promissory notes. And these are people that I that trusted me and I trusted them. So it was a very, very easy agreement.

Debbie DeBerry  19:35  
And they're all silent. Correct?

Unknown Speaker  19:37  
Nobody 100% silent. Yeah,

Debbie DeBerry  19:40  
yeah. Well, somebody asked that yesterday and I was like, No, we do not give big because too many is too much. Right when too many people are making the decision. Decisions take longer. There's frustrate inevitably there's frustration. Then there's time and then there's money if there's time going by there's money going out. Yeah. Okay, so they're silent private investors. Yeah. So you initially needed 160. All right. And you got that from did you how many lenders did you use? Just one for that one for the 160. used one lender? Oh, no, no, no, the sorry for the for the private money.

Unknown Speaker  20:17  
I'm sorry. Oh, one saw a few were a couple. So I would say that came from four sources. The, the investor that lent us 10,000. On flip one, they were she was an old colleague, both of them, I used to work with them. They were the ones that reached out 60 seconds into my original post a year. I love it. I love it. And, and they up their ante to 50,000 They let me That's crazy to me.

Debbie DeBerry  20:46  
That's amazing, right? Yep.

Unknown Speaker  20:49  
But it gets better, Debbie.

Debbie DeBerry  20:52  
Yes. So let's talk about because that 160 That turned into 230. Like, where the heck is that extra 70 grand gonna come from?

Unknown Speaker  21:02  
Yeah, I would say that. That that was when we hit that milestone in the journey. That was I had a few sleepless nights because I wasn't sure how we were going to get past this and and solve that problem. We knew we had to put drywall up. We had to finish electrical. I knew all of those costs were coming. And I just had to figure out how to how we were going to pay for it. And so I did have someone else actually reach out and they're like, hey, I want to invest. I want to I've I've got 50,000 And I was like, yeah, he gets me closer. And, and he, we had a good conversation. He was ready to go. And he Long story short, he wanted to an agreement that his attorney drew up. And he asked if that was okay. And I said it gave me pause. And and so I put the question out to the tribe. And I said, has anyone dealt with this? Like, it's unfamiliar territory? I'm not a not an attorney. And one of the flip sisters reached out and said, Do you need money? And she, I said yes. And I said, Well, that wasn't what I was asking. Right. It's not legal advice, but was asking for sort of how to sort of walk, you know, dance around the situation. And she goes, Why have I have $50,000? And I was just like, what? I said, so I sent her my spec sheet. Uh, we had a quick phone conversation, you know, and we had, you know, been very friendly and supportive through different parts of our own journey within the within the tribe. And so, you know, she felt like she knew me, I knew her. Yeah, she lives in Texas. I don't live in Texas. So then, before you know it, she just shoot, you know, we did the proper paperwork, and she wired. And I was like, I think all inside of like four days. So check, right? So, you know, I was able to chug along for a couple more days. And as you know, I'm making payments to subs and to different contractors. You know, we need another 20,000. So I went back to the investor who invested 10, up to 250. And I said, I just had a really honest dialogue. And I told her, I told her and her husband where we were, and I said, Are you do you have the capacity to lend another 20,000? And she said, she and her husband said, You know what we think we do? Let us talk about it offline. We'll get back to you. Inside of an hour, she texted back and said, Yep, we're in deposit the money on Monday, and I was able to pay myself.

Debbie DeBerry  23:53  
How hard was that conversation? It was scary. Yeah, it was I've had it. I've had it. And like, it's still

Unknown Speaker  24:00  
hard and scary. I think a lot of it was I was embarrassed. Absolutely. Right.

Debbie DeBerry  24:06  
I should have known better, right? Oh, oh, I do that

Unknown Speaker  24:10  
to ourselves. Yep. And I and I actually opened with that. And you know, we have a really good relationship. There's a lot of trust built there. So important. And again, you know, I'm huge. You pick who you want to partner with? And you, you can absolutely say no to people, even if it's private money. Yes. Because you're, you're in this five month, six month 12 relationship with them. It's already a stressful journey, the work and the problems that you have to solve along the way. The last thing you want is you don't want an investor who's going to chime in and sort of disrupt some of that process. Absolutely. And so she you know, she funded it it in I did tell them, you know, from the start, I said, Hey, this is this is not a conversation I want to have, I'm actually really embarrassed that I have to share this, but these are the obstacles. This is why I need the additional funds. You know, and this was later in the process to this was probably a month, you know, almost at the end of month three, okay. And the entire project was four month construction, five months total holding on,

Debbie DeBerry  25:27  
okay. Okay, so you're over halfway into this, okay?

Unknown Speaker  25:31  
We're in the homestretch. Yeah, right. It's when all the pretty stuff gets installed. Right. Like the best part, we get to put it back together. Yeah. And, and they were fine with it. I think they, you know, and again, I a lot of it is that trust in, you know, relationship and time that we've already built, you know, for years together. And they're like, Okay, yeah, no problem. So it was, you know, it was a relief, after I had the conversation like, hey, I can do this. You know, God forbid, it happens again. But when it does, right, I'm okay to have that conversation.

Debbie DeBerry  26:04  
You had that conversation? First of all, you were open and transparent, that we have to be open and transparent. Because we're people, right? We're human being we're having human experiences, we need to just be vulnerable and be like, Man, I feel I feel super embarrassed. And I even I hate to even have to ask this. But I'm trying to save this project. And, and here are the facts. Right? So it's like, yeah, lead with taking responsibility. And then present the facts present the data, here's what I know and hear, like, here's what we need to fix things. This is what it's going to cost. Are you open to lending that? No. Okay, move on to the next one, or yes, great, fantastic. Let's do this. And using the data makes you sound confident. Right? So if you're coming to a lender, and you're like, Oh, I, you know, messed up on the numbers. I'm feeling dumb. And I need I don't know, probably like 20, more $1,000 dollars should work. I mean, how do you feel about that? Like, that's gonna be a different conversation, then I need 20 More $1,000? Yeah, here's where it's going. Right. There's so much more confidence on the other end, when you hear that?

Unknown Speaker  27:14  
We, we, we had a contingency plan. Also. A lender, you know, we told him from the very beginning, you know, we're gonna use private money to fund renovations. And he said, that's fine. I don't, we don't lend without a renovation budget attached like a second lien. And so he said, you know, he said, Hey, if you're okay with it, we'll set aside 25,000. If you don't use it, no problem. But here's 25,000. If you use it, no problem, if you don't use it, no problem. Got it. And but so, you know, the easy the easy way, or the easy solution, there would have been just the leverage the 25,000 just call it a day. But I went back to the investor and I said, Hey, because one of my, one of my goals, a part of this journey is also to make money for people that I know and love that are my investment community. Yeah. trust and faith in us. Yes. So. And I'd rather make them money then make a bank money, right. Sorry. I said, well, the worst they can say is no. And if they say, well, that's okay. I have this opportunity with the lender to fall back on. Got it. And so I was thrilled when she said yes. Because then I was making another $2,000 for

Debbie DeBerry  28:37  
her. Exactly. So that's easy. Like I love that even more, because you had that hard conversation. You didn't have to you could have done the easy thing. You could couldn't use the lender. I don't know if that would have been easier, right? So you've got drawers and a whole other thing. But it would have been easier. It's right there. It's already done. But no, you had the hard conversation, which in which in the end made that investor even more money, which, in the end, puts more faith in you and trust in you that you really are looking out for them? Yes, yeah. Beautiful. Amazing. Okay. All right. So we went through all the problems. Oh, wait, there's another one. There's one more problem. Oh, boy. There were lots of something about the land. Yeah, we didn't want to talk about that, because that was super unique.

Unknown Speaker  29:30  
So the property the the this property was on an acre, the previous owner had a very tumultuous relationship with the neighbor that owned the two lots adjacent. Oh, gosh, he lives on one lot. We'll just call it lot B. And he bought at some point. Gosh, like 25 Year 26 years ago he bought lots see okay, He bought it from a developer. And as you can imagine, there are property lines that, you know, that overlap or perceived overlap. And, and we had never dealt with this before. And so, you know, I think we, I think, like, on day two, we were on the property, he came and was like, Hey, I have this, I have this property line issue, and you guys need to solve it. And we were like, Whoa, wait,

Debbie DeBerry  30:32  
so you're like, you just bought this place. And this owner, this owner that owns another property rolls up? Oh, my gosh, I had something similar. Whoa. And you're like,

Unknown Speaker  30:43  
Whoa, slow your roll, let's. And he was very aggressive about it. And one story short, this guy's been dealing with this for for 20 plus years and had a very tumultuous relationship with the previous owner and was taking it out on us. Right. And we we informed him that we would, we would address it in a timely manner, we needed to review the documents that he had provided. We knew from closing on the property that there was there was something we just didn't know what to what extent there was a dispute, but we didn't know and we weren't worried about the dispute, because we figured we would just take care of it. But he, he ended up paying to have a survey redone of the property lines, we walk the property multiple times with him. His requests, or his perception of the property line changed from the original walk to the final walk. Oh, of course. Yep. You know, and, you know, my husband's an upstanding, honest, integrity, you know, person and he called him out on it and said, Hey, this, this is not what we agreed upon. And, you know, it became contentious, you know, in that walk, and I, you know, at that point, we just, you know, I just said, Hey, listen, I think cooler heads need to prevail, and let's just reconvene, because nothing good was going to happen, right?

Debbie DeBerry  32:19  
Yeah, dude. Yeah, everyone was escalated. It was challenge. Yeah. So we

Unknown Speaker  32:23  
walked away. And that was that conversation happened. I want to say November. So we were again, we listed the property early December. So we were this close. And the last thing we needed was we didn't need this to drag on beyond closing. Gosh. So ultimately, he agreed to an easement. Because the overlap, the overlap was about 600 square feet. So gosh, he said yes to the 600. Sure. You know, we just, you know, Stu and I had a conversation like, is it really worth isn't worth it? The answer's it's never worth when you're 600 square feet.

Debbie DeBerry  33:08  
Even though the principal.

Unknown Speaker  33:11  
Exactly. Yeah. What we said yes, he the neighbor agree to an easement, because the easement would give us access or the new owner access to a different part of the property of our property. So we said yes to it, we leveraged our attorney. He had an attorney already. And our attorney drip the easements sent it back. He was submitting all of the VLA paperwork, and it all got it all got fixed. It all got done.

Debbie DeBerry  33:45  
Pick your battles, right. That becomes like the older I get, the more true that becomes pick your battles. That oh my gosh, okay. So what I mean really, like, like I say every project presents a new learning opportunity and sometimes new learning opportunities. Okay, you bought it for 800. Closed in July. Your original rehab was 160. It ended up ended up coming in at 230. You list it in December your initial ARV when you bought it was 1.05. You list it in December, and what did you list it for?

Unknown Speaker  34:32  
So we continue to watch the market leading up to this list date. So it was five months. That's right. It was four months from the time we took possession to the actual listing. Got it? That's right. We've closed 30 days after and we slowly saw seven to 11% month over month growth in this zip code month over over month, not year over year, unbelievable over a month. And just to give you an idea of the landscape, the rest of the immediate area, there were parts that did start to slow down. You know, this was one of our target areas we picked area that was beyond booming. And so it was just the perfect storm. Yeah. For this, so we, you know, one Oh, 1 million. Oh, five was our original RV, then we could see it. We started to see it creep, to 1151 to five. We listed the house in December of 1.3 million. And we knew as we were watching the market continued to increase that we we were pretty confident we can get one three. Never in our wildest dreams. Did we ever think that we actually would get the price that we accepted a contract on?

Debbie DeBerry  35:57  
Did you get multiple offers?

Unknown Speaker  36:01  
So we got we accepted an early offer. Okay. Which

Debbie DeBerry  36:05  
because they were trying to prevent you from except getting other offers. So it's a really good offer, I'm guessing. Okay, so what was the offer? They offered

Unknown Speaker  36:15  
us 1.4 4 million. Which, you know, again, we were confident we would get one three. So, you know, it's, it's interesting how sometimes we limit ourselves, I find myself limiting myself too, all the time, where, you know, I'm like, okay, we can get 1.35 Like, that's, that's a huge stretch. We were designed to 1.3 was fantastic. 1.35 it, that's all gravy. But you know, the agent called us, called us Saturday, said, Hey, would you entertain an early offer? And we said, Sure, but just come with your first and best and a, there were no contingencies. We we had done our due diligence we had we had done a home inspection when we took possession of the property, and then it paid for another home inspection. Nice. I do that too. Nice. Yep. Just to show them that this house is squeaky clean. Yeah. Um, so no, no contingencies they had their lender called us and, you know, could, you know, assured us that they would be able to meet the closing day and that they were all there they were in already an underwriting that they're all of their paperwork was was in hand. And so it felt like a really in plus, it was an incredible offer. Right. And so we just kind of looked at each other and my husband wanted to say no, and I wanted to say yes. And you know, we we had a long discussion about kind of what the other prospects were and we said, let's just get it done tonight. So we said yes at 730 that night on Saturday.

Debbie DeBerry  37:53  
The final question? Yes. So what was your profit?

Unknown Speaker  38:00  
So our original net profit based on the deal analyzer at 1.05 our worst case scenario so I sort of play with Hey, Reno goes up, etc. Yeah, same up so it was going to be 65,000 Okay, so

Debbie DeBerry  38:16  
you were you got the 105 where you were a net what the initial ARV when you first looked at it first walk the property you still would have made you still would have made a great profit right like you still would have made a profit so you ended up making

Unknown Speaker  38:34  
so all said and done we ended up walking away with $250,000 I don't even know how to say that without making having an expression on my face because it's still doesn't feel real when I say it

Debbie DeBerry  38:50  
right. Well it I can imagine that it feels ridiculous to say like

Unknown Speaker  38:56  
yes, it's that I'm I'm like I'm in a fog in a dream right now. State and I think that's why I wanted to talk to you so quickly. Yes, yeah. Yeah, I didn't want to lose that magic.

Debbie DeBerry  39:10  
Yes, I love that. I love that.

Unknown Speaker  39:13  
It is it's um you know, when I went to go sign the closing documents you know the the numbers different because obviously I still have to repay all of our investor their amount with their butts off to I have to move money out that I originally invested into the downpayment and so the numbers even inflated even higher and I I remember looking and the notaries like okay, do you want to start signing and I was like, Well, I have to do some quick math. While I'm doing the math, because I'm like this numbers not right. And so I'm doing the math and then I'm like, okay, so obviously, all of your formulas are correct.

Debbie DeBerry  39:55  
Title Company you did,

Unknown Speaker  39:58  
but then I start then I start doing ducting, obviously, all the Reno costs the interest that I'm paying back my investment and so, but still that massive number was just I mean it was jaw dropping and I I called my husband immediately on the drive home and I was like, I just don't even know how to say this number to you.

Debbie DeBerry  40:20  
What was his reaction when you said it was a really

Unknown Speaker  40:23  
nice surprise for him? And I think I think it made him feel really good about the work that he put into it as well. That's awesome.

Debbie DeBerry  40:30  
It's $50,000 a month. Yes. Yeah. That's amazing. Amazing. Wow, it's beyond? Yeah, it is. It is.

Unknown Speaker  40:42  
And, you know, this, you know, this is, this is kind of strange to say, but, you know, again, if we walked away with 135,000, I think I would be just as jazzed about it and excited and, you know, again, like, I'm, I'm working on like, not limiting my dreams or thinking or not thinking small per se, but being able to see things in a bigger way. And dreaming those for myself like that is that's on my journey to come.

Debbie DeBerry  41:14  
I feel that deeply. Because I'm so right there. I am. So right there with you. Wow, I went I have to say when I read that post, I first of all, I cried. I did, I cried. Because like just you, you trusted yourself to do this, you trusted yourself to take on this project in any way. Like, that's huge. Because you trust in the numbers. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  41:40  
I you know, I didn't do this alone, though. You know, and I'm not talking about, you know, having my partner or my husband as a business partner. That's that's not what I'm talking about. Like, I, I like questioned everything about my ability to do this. But, you know, Sharon stepped up, and she told me, you can totally do this while working. Yeah, gave me the confidence and the courage. I love that. And then, you know, Tiffany stepped up and lent me $50,000 as a private money lender and, and got us through this big hump that we that I didn't know that we could get through. And I think you know, one of the best, one of the things that I've gotten much better at is asking for help leaning on other people. Because when you're in it, whether it's here, or whether it's somewhere else in the country, you can feel very isolated and alone. The one thing that is so magical about your the program that you've built, and the women there are part of it is I can be 2000 miles away, and I am not alone.

Debbie DeBerry  43:00  
Oh my gosh. It's huge. That's why it exists. I mean, that alone tells me, okay, we're doing it right. If you can say that, that you don't feel alone, then we're doing it right. i That's that's everything.

Unknown Speaker  43:18  
And it's you know, it's their problems, their problems that someone else has already experienced and can empathize with you and say that happened to me too. You're going to get through it. And this is how I got through it. No one's telling you what to do. No one's no one's telling you how to fix your problem. But they're, they're standing with you in that place. And they're saying me too, I've been there. And they're giving you hope, like that's something that you can never falsely or sort of manufacture. Oh my gosh, that's the magic, the true magic of this, of this program, and all the women that are a part of it.

Debbie DeBerry  44:04  
Oh my gosh, that's huge.

Unknown Speaker  44:11  
But you know, and again, you know, anyone who's out there who is in the middle of their first deal, or they are not sure if they will ever get their first deal. You can do it, trust me, if I can do it, you can do it. And it doesn't have to be an $800,000 purchase. It can be a $200,000 purchase, it can be whatever price point you want to tackle, right. But just know that the support system and the help that the entire group of women that are part of this program will provide someone will be and it'll be someone different every time but someone will come and hold your hand and help you through at every single stage. But you have to you have to extend your hand to you've got to You've got to be the one that says, I need help. I'm stuck. I can't get through this. I'm in a dark place. You've got to be brave enough to communicate that out because we can't help you. If we don't know that you're in that place alone.

Debbie DeBerry  45:15  
Yes. Scream that louder. Those in the back. Yes. And it is the safest place to do it, it's the safest place to ask for help.

Unknown Speaker  45:25  
It is its absolute best, best platform and format that you could ask for. So

Debbie DeBerry  45:33  
that's amazing. That's amazing. That is, that is our work. Women asking for help. Our work is learning how to ask for help, and learning how to accept help and learning how to lean on others, and it not being a weakness. In every business I've ever had, the faster I've gotten to team and build my team and rely on my team and let them do what they do best. Because it's not what I do best, right? The faster I get there, the more enjoyable business is like, the more enjoyable everything is. It's like, it's, we have to battle ourselves so hard around that

Unknown Speaker  46:18  
you take you you have to take that pressure off of having to do and no everything absolutely has, the reality is it doesn't matter if you're flipping houses, it doesn't matter if you're running, you know, hair salon or a bakery, you're just not you're going to have to, you're going to have to ask for help and outsource some of those requirements that are going to make your business successful. And, and so but But it starts with with you It starts with me. Right, right in your hand. And you know, asking, you know, being vulnerable, and that's a tough one.

Debbie DeBerry  46:53  
Yeah, it is a tough one. Nobody signs up for that. Yeah, we're not like, let's go, let's find somewhere we go be vulnerable today. That sounds fine. That but it'd be it's beautiful. The vulnerability is beautiful.

Unknown Speaker  47:11  
Yeah. And it's so it's, you know, it's, you know, people who listen to this podcast and have, you know, listened to other women. They've they've heard this before. I'm not the creator of this. But this is, you know, this is a life changing journey. Yeah, this just happened to flip houses and our ability to grow as women and, you know, shed some skin and be better versions of ourselves. Like that's the that's just such a gift.

Debbie DeBerry  47:36  
It's huge, right? It's, it's such a gift you've given yourself? Yes, absolutely. Oh my gosh, that's it. That's it. We're done. Men, that was just incredible. You know, I mean, from day one, I've been such a huge fan of yours. You showed up immediately giving and like, you always give more than you take. And it's Oh, tell you see. And I have talked about you and loved on you since your start. Because you do it like you're super coachable, you do it. You share you give. And I'm I am genuine when when I say I'm so glad you're here because you make this space. Even better. Like, thank you. Thank you deeply. I'm so deeply thankful that you're here.

Unknown Speaker  48:31  
Well, that makes me I'm getting better at accepting compliments. But that makes me that just warms my heart.

Debbie DeBerry  48:37  
Thank goodness. You're welcome. You're welcome. We see you and we appreciate you.

Unknown Speaker  48:42  
Oh, well. It's only it's only because of you and the incredible women in this group. So thank you so much.

Debbie DeBerry  48:48  
I'm so fortunate that we like it just so I'm so grateful that we keep attracting really good, like just write like just good hearted people, and it's just amazing. It's a really beautiful space. And I truly believe that we, we I might I might have started the party but we all co create this space. Like everyone has a role. Right? So thank you.

Unknown Speaker  49:15  
i And you know, anytime I see a post where you know someone is like living in that sort of paralyzing fear and unable to do I just want to go and I just want to like hug them. I know and just tell them you just go do it. Go do it. Not mess this up. You can do this. You are capable. And I think that's what I try to. I try to convey. You do. You do?

Debbie DeBerry  49:42  
That's totally the messaging I

Unknown Speaker  49:43  
hear. Not I'm not anyone extraordinarily special. I'm just a normal. You know, I'm a normal woman,

Debbie DeBerry  49:51  
but you did it and you do it. I know it's it's just getting people to cross that line to do it's that

Unknown Speaker  49:58  
it's so yeah It's,

Debbie DeBerry  50:00  
it's hard. It is really hard. It's the hardest part of this. It really

Unknown Speaker  50:03  
is. I had lunch a couple weeks ago with a group of women that I used to work with. And, you know, she said she wants to live in this one town. And she said, Well, Dan and I, we want to live here, but we're never going to find a place. And I said, why? And she goes, Oh, it's because it's really expensive. She goes, We're never going to find a place and I go, why? Why do you keep telling yourself, you're never gonna live there? Oh, my gosh, and she just stopped and she's 26 Oh, my gosh, no, no. And she just she looked at me kind of jarred. And I said, Honey, if you're going to continue to tell yourself that story, you're Neo, you're right. You're never gonna live there. And so I said, tell yourself another story.

Debbie DeBerry  50:48  
Oh, my God, I love that you totally changed her in that moment in that you could have just let it go.

Unknown Speaker  50:55  
But why do we do that to ourselves?

Debbie DeBerry  50:58  
Why do why? But I don't know. I don't know why.

Unknown Speaker  51:04  
So it's my mission to pay back in small, little ways.

Debbie DeBerry  51:08  
No, but you know, that's huge. Like, you put that seed in her at 26. That the words that come out of her mouth matter. And they play out into reality. Oh my God, that's huge. Oh my gosh, I try to have that conversation with my son every day. He rolls his eyes and I'm like, wow, I don't care one of these days. You're gonna

Unknown Speaker  51:30  
He's listening. You

Debbie DeBerry  51:32  
know, he totally gets it. He knows his mom's we will, it's fine. But like, if that's so great, that's so great that you planted that seed in her mind. Like, that's amazing thing, because the easiest thing would have just been to take that and been like, Okay, we want because that's easier. Or you're right. Yep. Yeah, I know. It's so expensive, right? Like, it's so expensive. It's just like you can't afford you can't the whole messaging around real estate is just so toxic. It's we have to break down a lot of that with new members because they right they're not in this space and they aren't around women doing it and so they hear what they hear terrible market terrible stupid to do that right now. It's gonna crash all these things. And it's like,

Unknown Speaker  52:18  
it's why you put it on the deal analyzer.

Debbie DeBerry  52:20  
Exactly. let the calculator do its work. That's right. All right, man. I love you. Thank you for taking this time. I'm sorry. I went over. I'm so I'm so happy to have this conversation with you. Thank you for sharing again. And thank you for being you. Thank you for being here.

Unknown Speaker  52:39  
Oh, always thank you. No thank yous not. Nowhere near conveys the gratitude I have for you.

Debbie DeBerry  52:45  
Same. Same, absolutely same. Awesome. Thanks, man. Okay, bye. There you have it. Another awesome conversation with men. Ah, so grateful. So grateful for you, man. Thank you for taking the time out again. I appreciate it. Alright, so here's the here's the drill. If you are sick of sitting on the sideline, and you want to chase this dream of yours, loving old house back to life. And you want to be surrounded by a community of women who are supporting you and encouraging you and empowering you to do bigger things than you ever dreamed possible. Why don't we see if we're a fit to work together? You can go to her first slip.com and schedule a call. And let's see. All right, so our specialty is just that helping women confidently start flipping houses. And we always welcome fellow like minded and light hearted women into our community. Alright, until next time, go out there flip houses like a girl. Leave people in places better than you find them and chase your curiosities. Alright, bye, y'all.