Rayanne's First Flip Nets $44,000 in 2.5 Months in Maryland

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 hair to breakfast taco loving host house flipping coach Debbie DeBerry?

Debbie DeBerry  0:40  
Hey, thanks for hanging out with us today. So we are chatting with one of our flip sisters raeanne, who lives in Maryland, she just finished her first solo flip. And in two and a half months, she made a $44,000 profit. Ah mazing. This is such a fun conversation. We laughed a lot. We learned a lot. It was just all around. So fun to hang out with her. Anyway. So we're going to get into all the numbers, all the things, how she found it, how she financed it, all of those things that everybody loves to hear. We're also going to talk about the challenges that came up. And her big lessons that she learned, particularly around the ARV, and contract negotiation, and trusting your gut, which is a big theme here. And managing your contractor trusting the numbers being smart, and so on. So let's get into this conversation. You're gonna love her. Here we go. We want to start with just introducing yourself giving us a little bit of background about you and where you are, and what you do in the world other than save old houses.

Unknown Speaker  2:11  
Well, my name is Brianne. I'm located in Maryland, and specifically, more the southern part of Maryland and Waldorf and it's actually called Southern Maryland.

Debbie DeBerry  2:25  
I

Unknown Speaker  2:26  
got married about five years ago, and my husband is a real estate agent. Oh, got it. So before that, when we met, I was a financial planner in another area. And he was real estate agent. So when we decided, you know, we like like, liked each other. I decided that I would move down to Southern Maryland to be with him. And I changed careers. And so just kind of to Prague hop career before that was automotive. So I was in a tire consultant to OEM car manufacturers. So I've always been in kind of like a male dominated industry. Yeah. And so I did that for about eight years, where I was the tire expert from everyone from Mercedes, and Porsche all the way down to Kia Toyota dodge how interesting, almost everybody. So I know way more about tires and braking systems and how the vehicles work than most people should know. But I do. So I went back to that for a year when it got down here because I didn't really know the area. And I was like, well, cars are everywhere. And everywhere. People need to repair and maintain their cars. So I should be able to get into that pretty easily, which I did. I took a job with a tire and repair place, a Mr. Tire retailer. And I was actually the first woman they'd ever executive that they'd ever hired in the history of the company. The company had been around for 60 years. And that was the very first one and they were very nervous about hiring a woman they really did not think that I would be able to do this job.

Debbie DeBerry  4:11  
Oh my gosh, this is like I'm like intrigued and I'm angry and I'm pumped. Like I'm all these things. It was so interesting,

Unknown Speaker  4:22  
because the corporation that I left had plenty of women. I mean, we were still definitely the minority versus men versus women. But this one I was like the one and if the with the first day that I came on, I had a region of like 14 stores, the eight of the stores, the general managers called corporate and were like absolutely not not working for a woman. This is wow. No holy

Debbie DeBerry  4:46  
cow.

Unknown Speaker  4:48  
So anyway, I did that for a year. And it was really interesting because within that year, I raised the market with a call to the market I took it from the red to the black. So I made it profitable again, I did that in about two months. Wow. I raised everybody salaries. And I hired the most women managers, and also minority managers. And I had the youngest managers as well, not all of them were young, obviously. But I had some very young managers that I, you know, taken a chance on, you know, let's see if you can do this. I had the most amount of female managers under me and I had the most amount of minority managers under me. And I raised people's and it was just funny, because if you pay people more, and they're happy to go to work, they do better for you, and they make more money.

Debbie DeBerry  5:37  
The price Wow.

Unknown Speaker  5:39  
So I didn't have a year. Yeah, yeah. So that was really good people. It was interesting, because like mechanics and other end managers would bring their daughters in to meet me. Wow. And it was such an interesting experience. I will never forget this because one of my managers said to his daughter, this is daddy's boss's boss.

Debbie DeBerry  6:00  
Oh, wow, that gave me chills. Holy cow.

Unknown Speaker  6:03  
And her eyes got so big. She's never seen a woman in that rank.

Debbie DeBerry  6:08  
That is so impressive. Like, I'm so curious. So you said there were eight stores that were like absolutely not correct. What? What happened with those? Again, I'm taking the one them over.

Unknown Speaker  6:26  
All To be honest, all except for like, one, maybe two. Were was kind of a fight. Till you know, till I left it was they were just like, you know, I'm gonna do my job. I love this company. I don't like you. And I still don't think you should be here.

Debbie DeBerry  6:44  
Wow, man. Man, man, man. Amazing how ego can so get in the way?

Unknown Speaker  6:50  
Yeah. And we, I disagree with you. I can do this job all day long in my sleep. I can do your job all day long in my sleep. But you know, I'm not here to change your mind. I'm here to make sure that you're profitable. That's what I'm here to

Debbie DeBerry  7:03  
do. That's amazing. How long did you do that with them?

Unknown Speaker  7:06  
So I was I was there for a year. And then my husband, then fiance at that point, was like, man, you're working more hours than I am like, you outwork me and I work a lot. Because to do that, to kind of, you know, I had to put in some, some gritten some time to one first went over that. I know what I'm doing. And I can hang in as long as any man like I, you know. So I was doing six days a week with one day off, and then seven days a week with no day off. And I did that for it, you know, it's happy to do that, to turn it around and show these this company that women can work in automotive that women can no vehicles and tires and braking systems and sales, just like anybody else, right. And it was funny, because their annual conference, it was like this huge auditorium that we were in, and I stood up, they had me stand up and wave as like the first woman ever to be in the eye over. So I was like, Hi. But um, yeah, I mean, when I was when I said I was leaving, you know, the women at corporate, which were still just to kind of like admin roles. I mean, they wrote in they were, you know, there were so upset that I was going, but I was like, You know what, I opened the door for someone else. Oh, wow. So

Debbie DeBerry  8:27  
yeah, that's amazing. I love knowing that about you. Badass.

Unknown Speaker  8:35  
I mean, before that I did financial planning, which is not an easy career for females, either. I mean, it. It is. It's really rough. It's really, really rough. And interesting. And it's good getting started there. I actually had to bring a man with me to my appointments to get me into the door. And once we sat down at the table with finance, they quickly realized that I was the one that had the goods. And he was

Debbie DeBerry  9:04  
the face. He was the sideshow.

Unknown Speaker  9:06  
Yeah. Yeah. Which was to get me started. And I mean, we're still friends. Like, we became partners, Mark and I, but I mean, I just, I was not getting appointments on my own, until they realized that I actually know math, and I know trends and all this stuff. So that's kind of been like my career life is like, getting into the stuff where people are like, I don't know if a woman can do that. And I'm like me when you say yeah, so

Debbie DeBerry  9:33  
let's just see. Yeah. Oh, man, I love it. I love knowing this about you. Super cool. Okay,

Unknown Speaker  9:39  
I joined you know, I went into business with my husband, who was you know, he had been doing real estate and since 2007. So I joined him and I really didn't know real estate at all. So I was like, you know, I don't want to do I don't want to be an agent. They don't know what I'm doing. So let me do something behind the scenes. So I did his contract to close it because his clerical stuff just kind of Learn what was going on. Yep. And so I did that for a while, and I got pretty good at it. And then when he started to take me on listing appointments with him, um, just to see the house and you know, because I would watch him do put in the listings, and I was like, Well, you know, why don't you see this or this, this room has like, a really pretty window. Why didn't you mention that? Or, you know, like that. So he started to take me with him. And then when I was there, I would kind of like move furniture around a little bit, or I would suggest something. And I was like, huh, like, maybe there's something to this, where I kind of have an eye of how the house should look before it gets photographed. And I found out that that is called something called staging. So I, you know, I looked into that, and it was interesting, and somebody posted in the group that their brokerage, like poopoo their idea, and that's what was happened happened to me that the brokers that we were at, I went in and talk with the office manager. And I said, you know, I really think that I want to get some more training or certification go into staging, because I really think that I have, you know, some kind of, you know, I don't know everything, but some kind of talent in home staging, and they said, that was the stupidest idea they've ever heard. There. There's no point there's no money in that. Just get your license and go sell real estate.

Debbie DeBerry  11:22  
What year was this? Oh,

Unknown Speaker  11:24  
this was 2018. This wasn't even like, 1985

Debbie DeBerry  11:29  
Are you kidding me?

Unknown Speaker  11:33  
And I was like, and I was like really excited about it. I found this this teacher in this course. And I was like, I you know, I think you can go into staging and in stage or listings, I think there's a value there. And they're like, That is stupid. Oh, my God. I was like, oh, okay, so luckily, I was like, You know what, I'm gonna do what I do, because I like it. And

Debbie DeBerry  11:56  
wow, people can so be in their own way about things like this is such a theme for you, you can be running the men who are totally in their own way on stuff.

Unknown Speaker  12:09  
Yeah, Cohen's. I mean, in that that was a woman telling me that that was the stupidest thing she'd ever heard. And that I should just get my license and go sell real estate, which, I mean, you can you there's money in real estate, but you know, I don't, they said no to staging. Right? So and I did it anyway, I was like, I really like this, I really think I have some kind of talent that I need, like a mentor or teacher to like, help me along with. So I did that. So I became a certified stager. And, you know, I did that it was an I won the first year in that I won races award for rising star in North America, or a finalist in North America. But then again, you know, how how things kind of just keep evolving and and getting bigger and better. So in my staging, careers and jobs, they go into homes, and I would say, Hmm, you know, if, if this was my home, I would, you know, redo this or take this wall out, or you know what I mean? And I'm like, Okay, so is there something that I can do that where I can go into a home and you know, change it and give it a facelift? And give it the life? I was like, what's that called?

Debbie DeBerry  13:22  
Love this.

Unknown Speaker  13:23  
So I'm like, oh, flipping fixin. Flip there is something Okay, cool.

Unknown Speaker  13:32  
And then we, you know, we would have contractors come in to the listings, and they kind of talked to me and, like, I didn't know what I was talking about are stupid. We now don't work with those those types of contractors anymore. But, um, so I was like, YouTubing, like different things. Because, like, somebody gave me attitude about changing a toilet and like, I YouTubed it and I was like, this is like, not that difficult, dude. Like, you are not Einstein. So and that's actually how I found you. Because I was like, alright, or like women like doing this thing. Or like all dudes, like, is there anybody that like, you know, knows what they're doing? That looks like me. So and then like, I found you like the internet was like yes, ran there is your she is so love it. I joined your program in February. And I was super excited. And then I got like super I don't know. scared and excited and disappointed and all of those those feelings. Because it wasn't you know, it was a little bumpy for me. You know, it's going through some health challenges and then I had that snafu when I created my name like, they'd use somebody else's logo, and it was like that was a whole mass and then And I, you know, I would put in some offers and I would always get outbid, because you know, and so I was like, huh, this sucks. So then finally randomly, I was like, I'm gonna do this, I am a house flipper, I'm gonna find a house and would do this. And then like a week later, not even joking. I was on a investor, a local investor group. And somebody was a wholesaler was like, I have this house. And it needs to close pretty quickly. Like, it's, it's anybody interested. And I looked at the pictures, and it was not horrible. It did need some stuff, but it wasn't like, you know, a bomb went off. So it's like, I DM her. And I was like, Is this still available? And she said, Yes, it is. Because I had seen her posts, like a couple days after. And usually, like when a house was up, especially in like, the May, June area was still hot. So it was like, you know, and she was like, it is I was like, Would I be able to see this? And she was like, yes, like now. So I did. My husband I went over. And it definitely had some other things that the pictures, you know, didn't show. But I was like, you know, I think I can, you know, I just like the energy in this house. And I feel like this house has more to give to a person or family or whoever, you know, it has a second life to it. And I feel like I can work with this. So I put in an offer. Hindsight, you know, because they needed to go I needed to go to close so quickly. I probably could have done a better job negotiating the price. But I was able to do like, I think it was like 5000 Under what they were asking. That's still pretty

Debbie DeBerry  16:38  
good. Given the time. Yeah, yeah.

Unknown Speaker  16:43  
And well, she came back and she was like, you know, she was like, how much time will you need to close? And I was like, probably about 10 days. And she was like, that should be good. And then the next day, she was like, I need you to close it in two days. Oh, they're always like

Debbie DeBerry  16:53  
that. They're always like that. And I was like, oh, gosh, yeah. So what was your problem? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker  17:01  
so we ratified on Wednesday, and I closed it on a Friday. And I was like, What am I even what is going on here? What is even happening right now? Yeah, and I didn't have time to like, look for source materials or anything. It was kind of like close

Debbie DeBerry  17:18  
and then but here's the deal. You also didn't have time to psych yourself out?

Unknown Speaker  17:21  
No, there was no time there was no time to be scared or second guessed yourself or anything.

Debbie DeBerry  17:27  
I don't like long escrow periods, even for myself, because there's too much time to get it all up in your head. Right like, oh, wait, wait, I forgot this. Oh my god, I totally forgot this. Oh. And it's like, no, just go close. Be Done. Yeah, figure it out.

Unknown Speaker  17:42  
You'll be fine. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'm under contract with one now. And it was it's a longer escrow period than what I would have liked. Also with a wholesaler and now I'm like, you know, people like my lender my hard money lenders like are you sure that's all you need to do? And it He's making me stuff and I'm like, I you know, I I know what I need to do. So you know,

Debbie DeBerry  18:05  
anyway, everybody too much time to get all up in their head.

Unknown Speaker  18:09  
It does. It does. But yeah, so we closed on that one. June 24. My first the first flip walnut we so I was looking at hard money lenders, I'd interviewed a bunch there's one that I wanted to go with. My husband suggested that maybe for our first one that we keep it in the family so we actually went to his dad to be the private lender on that one.

Debbie DeBerry  18:37  
Gotcha. Okay, so he funded the whole thing. He funded the whole thing. So

Unknown Speaker  18:41  
he funded the purchase price and then also the repairs so and then we paid him a lump sum out of for you know, the use of his money for borrowing his money, so he was hard money or private money loans there for that.

Debbie DeBerry  18:59  
Okay, what was the purchase price on that?

Unknown Speaker  19:02  
That one was either 290 or 295. Okay.

Debbie DeBerry  19:07  
And going into it, what were you estimating? Estimating the repairs to be?

Unknown Speaker  19:12  
I 's made them to be around like 14 or 15 and I came in at 12 So I came in under budget, which was nice. I wanted to be more under budget, but $1,000

Debbie DeBerry  19:22  
renovation Why does everybody are you

Unknown Speaker  19:28  
Why is that weird?

Debbie DeBerry  19:30  
It's me What did you do? What did you do for 12 grand?

Unknown Speaker  19:37  
Oh my god I guess okay, I don't know now you see now you're making me second guess myself.

Debbie DeBerry  19:48  
Oh, it's amazing. I have never had well wait my my recent wholesale I did was about eight or nine grand and maybe and that was a whole tale where I just like cleaned it up.

Unknown Speaker  20:05  
Yeah, so it wasn't I mean it was like it wasn't a full renovate. It's not like you know, kitchen you know bathrooms. So what we did was we painted the entire house. We had we had some drywall repair there were throughout the house for different reasons. We have here the staircase, it was a raised Rambler, so it's a Rambler and then it had a fully finished basement. Oh, so the stairs downstairs, they'd moved a piano and like ripped the stairs off the wall. So we had to repair that brace that I'm trying to go wrong, we replace all of the lighting updated all the lighting I installed which wasn't there in the main living area, this gorgeous fan was beautiful. It had really it had good windows, we didn't have to mess with that in the kitchen. My actually my contractor my husband thought that we would have to replace the appliances I was like, they're just dirty. And I cleaned the doodoo out of these and they worked fine. The oven the stove was missing knobs I found the knobs on Amazon the direct match and everything fired right up. We did update we replace the kitchen faucet to make that more and then we changed out the fixtures on the cabinets which completely changed the look. It was so cheap,

Debbie DeBerry  21:24  
isn't it amazing? Things like that can have a huge impact. Yes.

Unknown Speaker  21:30  
Yeah. And I think from my staging background is why I can kind of pinpoint like I don't want to say the cheapy stuff because I mean it still costs money but I mean instead of redoing the kitchen out you know if you change out the lighting and the paint and fixtures I mean it will completely change out the look now I'd made that decision because I personally thought the cabinets were really nice so I was like well how can I work with this? It doesn't make sense to pull out perfectly I mean they were really nice cabinets so just how do I make them more updated on trend? Yeah, so that's what I did we changed up the dining room fixture which was gorgeous big glow beautiful light let me say I just cleaned the hall bathroom and actually oh no I changed out the mirror and the lighting to update it but just to make it more on trend the master or primary now as the word there was quite a bit of cleaning that had to be done because it there was some things in there like I mean so there was like I don't want to gross your listeners out but I guess somebody had been there was a poop and pee and had been sitting there for probably six months ah so it was a great learning experience because I got to learn how to how to get that stuff out of there yeah oh my gosh we trashed out all of the carpet obviously in the house so that that went but then we you know we clean and disinfect and then there was actually hardwood under the carpets and if there hadn't been this issue we I probably would have tried to resurface them but I was like we just need to like Oh shut up right and disinfect and get you know get it all clean and then put a nice clean padding and carpet on it I thought that was probably the better like if I was living the house you know that was the better way to go. We did the whole primary bathroom that was all brand new we ripped it all out and did that brand new downstairs we rebuilt the fireplace tiling there's bathroom down there the deck I power wash that on my own I bought a power washer and was like oh, I'm gonna do this I could do this. It was kind of tiring but I power wash the whole thing. So I'll probably source that out next time because it did take a really long time and then we cleaned like I cleaned it like but there's like a huge YouTube every day I was like what's the best way to do this so I found like the best deck and fence cleaner because the fence was kind of drab too. And then I did have my contractor go in and paint repainted so it's all you know Brighton pretty. And then the fence there was like upside and a half of the fence that was like down and just needed to be addressed. And so this is another thing I use. This is probably the YouTube where I was like YouTube, you were not exactly on us on this part as hell. So it's like this one guy and he was like, we're gonna build a fence today this house bill fence. And he you know, built this it was like a 14 minute video. He built this fence this whole fence. I was like, Oh, we can do that because it wasn't we were using the original posts. It was just like the paneling or whatever the big six foot. Alright, so we're just go to Home Depot, buy like 10 panels.

Debbie DeBerry  24:52  
Hammer man. And then we'll go to lunch.

Unknown Speaker  25:02  
So we had some friends come over and I was, you know, I was like, Oh, we just need to put a couple panels up. I totally underestimated this job. So it took like four or five people, five people, about five or six hours. We're all sweating in the heat of July. It's like 100 or so, but, you know, it's it was cheap, because instead of getting a company or somebody to build out this fence, replace what needed to replace paying, I think, total it was like 850 or something. Oh, wow. And then I bought everybody lunch or something. You know, so

Debbie DeBerry  25:46  
I'm impressed, man. I can't believe you did all that. And 12 grand. Yeah. So that's amazing. I'm laughing so hard. To be fine. I really watched the video. I was like, Oh, this whole

Unknown Speaker  26:04  
thing and 14 minutes. Like, I was like, keep it a whole fence. We just have to do like a side and a half will be good. We have five people there were adults. Not a big deal. It was like not a big deal at all. So I liked the way it went out. I mean, and then there was a lot of landscaping because it was a pretty nice sized yard. And it would they let it grow probably up to here like it was really, really tall. And because we had it on market over the summer, which was, you know, so there was that? Well, we added landscaping also we cut in a whole huge bread in the front that wasn't even there. And I added bushes and flowers because it was like, you know, I want it to be pretty. Yeah. So yeah, we did that. That was our budget. And that's amazing.

Debbie DeBerry  26:51  
That is amazing. I'm super impressed. Wow. Okay, so you came in under budget at 12? Grand, which is good. Yeah, that's fantastic. What? What were you thinking? So when you bought it in June? What was the ARB that you were estimating?

Unknown Speaker  27:15  
So this is, this is definitely a learning part of the conversation. So kids tune into this party. So when I put it through the analyzer, and I ran the numbers, the ARV was 400, there was actually a property like one street over that was almost identical, a little bit smaller. That was getting ready to close. And my husband actually called that agent and was like, what did it appraise for and she told me, she said, 400, and really cool. 400 Awesome. So we kind of knew that 400 would read 400 400 400. And then, you know, at the end, like the week before, when I was staging, and it looks so pretty, and I was like, I'm so proud of this, this is beautiful. This is the best house ever. Everybody's gonna love this house, I found a comp that was like six months old. That was same type, it was self ranch with a base in the bed at three bedrooms instead of four bedrooms. And I was like, and it sold it for 25. And I was like, what, and it wasn't even as pretty as mine. Mine's like the prettiest house in the neighborhood, of course. So I was like, Look, I'm gonna shoot it for for 25 Because I really think this house is beautiful. And everybody's gonna love this house. And that was a mistake.

Debbie DeBerry  28:30  
We we have all or will at some point, make this mistake.

Unknown Speaker  28:35  
So the compass old, we had rates change, I think the second time right before we listed it. And another mistake I made is I had pulled my contractor to go work on another job and that lagged repair time a week and a half on Walnut. And I think if maybe we had gotten it on market before the second rate change, maybe things might have been different. But now I know like my projects need to take priority and I can't pull my contractor for something else. But I'm getting back to the pricing. So I listed it at 425 The using the old comp and it did not I think the first week we maybe had one or two showings which just sat there and my heart was breaking. And, but you know, smart enough like, Okay, this is business. This is not personal. Stay in here. So we lowered it to 415 we had more showings but no offers. And then I the next week I list or I lowered it to 405. And we got a bunch more showings and we got an offer and the offer was for 10. So five over a lot but with 10,000 Closing so we would net we come in right at that 400 mark that we had originally projected. So it was you know it's kind of the universe like you know, you said 400 Girl, so you need to stick to right what yeah, what she said So with that with paying the private lender back and attorney, you know, naturally agent fees and transferring recreation costs, so we netted profit 44.

Debbie DeBerry  30:13  
That's amazing. 44 grand in your timeline was two and a half months. Right? Hmm. Yeah. I mean, that's over 17 grand a month. Yeah. And that was your first flip on your own

Unknown Speaker  30:26  
on my own. So I, my father in law had gotten into flips. The previous year, year and a half. So I had done two for him. One was a townhouse that was pretty much a complete gut just had to pull everything out and start so I designed that whole townhouse picked out, you know, the floor plan, everything that went in all the materials, I sourced all of the vendors and the contractors. So that was that was a really that was still when the market was like, so he bought that one for 179. And we sold it for 305. And the like the repair all that budget was like 24. I did like a super awesome job sourcing little

Debbie DeBerry  31:08  
gut job. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker  31:13  
Know, I'm like, Oh, my Can I get the cheaper where can I get the cheaper? Can I get that cheaper? Can I get that? And also, I mean, some of the things like ice super clean. So something that somebody might say, Oh, I gotta replace that. That's horrible. I'm like, I'm going to clean the due to everything. So, but if it's not usable, if it's not workable, then, you know, I don't use it. And then the second one was a Rambler. I like Ramblers for some reason anyway, was a Rambler that was purchased for 300 You're gonna die on this. The rehab budget was I think, like 8000. I mean, it was, you know, people were like, you're not going to be able to turn this without completely gutting out the kitchen. And I'm like, You're wrong. You are. So I guess what I was right. Love it. I was right. i We did like We refinished the floors. We repainted. We cleaned. And we redid one bathroom. That was those were the big things. It was like, yeah, it was like 8000. So he bought that for three. It's sold for for 25. With an 8000. Rehab budget.

Debbie DeBerry  32:30  
Crazy. Crazy. Crazy. Oh, and then now you're doing it for yourself?

Unknown Speaker  32:36  
Yeah. So we finished the first one for myself, which I'm really proud of. What I mean, under contract for sandalwood, I'm really excited about that one, even though you know, people are like, Are you sure about your budget? I'm like, I think so. I

Debbie DeBerry  32:52  
need to prove you. Right about my budget. You handle your budget, and I'm gonna hit my budget. Yes, I'm right about my budget. I love it. I love your budget.

Unknown Speaker  33:05  
I think later on, you know, I think I do a couple more. I want to get into things with bigger budgets. But you know,

Debbie DeBerry  33:15  
but the thing is, like, find your spot, right, like find your slice like maybe this is clearly working for you. Thanks. Yeah, I mean, this is clearly working for you. So why do something with a bigger budget, because it's not like your it's not like your price point is small. Right? So you're still making a great profit. Sometimes when the budget is small, it's because the person is in $120,000. price point. Right. And they have to be small, but their profit is also really small. So you know, 44 grand profit. That's No, that's no joke. Like, that's fantastic. In a two and a half month timeframe on on top of that. So yeah, I mean, I don't think you're like stifling your growth by not doing bigger budgets, because you're still doing renovations, you're still doing bigger renovations, you're just doing them for less expensive, right? So I think it's awesome. I love your niche, you've totally you've totally sliced out like this piece, where you're just like, really, you're really good at this. That's awesome.

Unknown Speaker  34:26  
Yeah. And I do and just for, you know, listeners like there, I go through and I look at deals and houses a lot almost probably every day. And I go out and look at properties at least like two or three times a week. And even if I love the house, if the numbers don't work with what I think needs to be done and and the profit, then I have to say no, even if I really, really, really love the property. So I try to be as careful as possible with that.

Debbie DeBerry  34:55  
Yeah, you're smart. You're smart about it, right? Like yeah, we we want to They've every single house, like trust me, I get that I want to touch every single house that I go into pretty much, except for some more. I'm like, energy's weird. Get me out. But for the most part, I'm like, Oh, I could just make this snow gray. And it's like, sure you're gonna be in, you know, over $100,000 over your ARV, but whatever you like. Right, right. So maybe not every house is stables. Yes, that's a great tip. It's easy to especially for beginners to get in this space of I just want to get a deal. And they start throwing logic out the window. And drill. It's really easy to slip into that. And it's really dangerous to write like, it's one of like, oh, my gosh, don't do that. If you do anything, don't do that. Yeah. Okay, so any other major lessons learned, obviously, the one on pricing that you shared. And sticking with that, you know, that original ARV, you had accounted for any other big lessons on this one.

Unknown Speaker  36:03  
Um, I think going through like once it was under contract, the contract process as far as negotiating with the other side with the buyer was a little bumpier than I would have liked. And I think there were some flags about that. And I think just I think just at the end of the day, just like, kind of life in general, if you get kind of a red flag or something that you're got that says like, hey, maybe this isn't, you know, the right fit. You know, I wish I would have listened to that, you know, it ended up in well, and it closed, but it was I think it was a lot harder than it should have been.

Debbie DeBerry  36:40  
Trust your gut. I mean, that's a big one, right? Yeah. I

Unknown Speaker  36:43  
would say trust your gut,

Debbie DeBerry  36:45  
your gut. God, it's so hard because then our heads get involved. And we're like, is that my guide? Or am I freaking myself out? Yeah. Like, no, if you're questioning it, your heads involved, like step away your heads involved? Was there anything that we didn't talk about as part of the process that you wanted to touch on? We talked about lessons we talked about all the numbers and stuff. Anything else? I always like to make sure people feel complete.

Unknown Speaker  37:12  
Yeah, no, I think I am.

Debbie DeBerry  37:16  
Yeah, I think the big things. Well, this has been super fun.

Unknown Speaker  37:21  
Thank you so much, Debbie. Thanks, Ray. And thanks for hanging out with me. Awesome. Bye. Bye.

Debbie DeBerry  37:28  
So good, right? Isn't she a blast? Don't you just want to come hang out with us in the flip sisters community. They're all like this. Anyway, if you are stuck, sitting on the sidelines, waiting for the right time, waiting for the right interest rates, waiting for the right housing prices waiting for the right market, you will always be waiting. That has nothing to do with what's going on in the outside world. All of that is what's going on in your head. It's your fear. Yep. That's just one of the things we tackle in our program. So if you want to move forward, if you want to take big scary action, and you want to do it in the comfort of an amazing and supportive community, with all the step by step stuff you need to know, then I encourage you to book a call with my team. Let's see if we're a fit to work together. Go to her first flip.com and schedule a call. 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.