The Accidental House Flipper With Lesli Nodurft

Intro 00:01
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 00:38
Hey, you guys, it's Debbie here. And I hope that whatever you're up to today, it's an easy one. So in case you haven't seen in the Facebook group, or read in your email inbox, we are hard at work planning, the only women's real estate investing retreat where woo woo and house flipping collide. All right, it's called flip your heart out. And it's going to be in September, in beautiful Austin, Texas. And what I promise you is that it is not just another good old boys real estate investing event. All right, get yourself on the waitlist ladies go to flip your heart out.com for all the details, and to put your name on the waitlist because I promise you, this bad boy is going to sell out quickly. And you know me, I keep things small and intimate. So this isn't 100 plus people get to come. It is a smaller group of awesome women. All right. So flip your heart out.com. Get yourself on the waitlist, and I promise it's going to be awesome. All right. I'm excited about today's episode. Well, I'm always excited about these episodes where I get to interview women who are part of the Facebook group that I interact with on the regular every single day. I'm in there. And I love to get to connect with you guys even deeper on these interview episodes. So today's interview is with Leslie notified out of Louisiana. And she's going to share part of her story in I know that you guys are going to get some really great insight out of this and some inspiration to get into action. I've come to think of Leslie as the accidental house flipper. Which is kind of crazy, right? Anyway, you've got to stay tuned to hear why. All right, here we go. Why don't you Why don't we just start with you introducing yourself. Tell us a little bit about you your background, where you are that sort of thing.

Leslie 03:03
Okay, um, I'm Leslie Nodurft. I have been married for about 18 years. I have two boys, this teen and 10 and I'm we kind of just got thrown into the hole flipping and being landlord kind of thing. That's interesting. Yeah, this past year. My husband was offered a job like we live in Louisiana. Okay. And he's been wanting to get out of his industry. He is a civil structural designer. Oh, wow. So he works for the petrochemical industry. Oh, got it. Yeah, and so he he's been looking for a way out for a while. And so he got offered a job up in Evansville, Indiana, I think, or Illinois, one of those places up there where it's cold. So we went up there and we we fell in love with the place, but the price just wasn't right. But we were even looking for houses and we found a house that was actually a triplex like we could live there and then rent out the two other spots. And my husband was like, you know, this is easy money. Like Yeah, kinda?

Yeah, I could see how it could be. You know? So, um, when we decided not to take that job and we came back home, he started looking 

Debbie DeBerry:
Okay, and yeah, It gave him the bug. Yeah. 

Leslie: 
Yeah, it really did. Because he wants to retire early. And he wants to start doing this full time. And so I'm behind him. Yeah. 100%. And I just work as a pharmacy technician just whenever they need me. Now, I take care of my mom and my kids. So I like to say I have a lot of free time to do this, but I don't really, but you know, I'm making it work. Right. Right. Finally admitting, yeah.

Debbie DeBerry 05:41
Okay, so he got the bug, to get into investing. How did you? Okay, so was your first investment? Was it a flip?

Leslie 05:54
Well, it was going, we bought a house, and we were gonna rent it out. But it took forever. Like, we learned so much on this first house that we learned what not to do. Uh huh. And we wound up just selling that house. And we didn't lose any money. Thank goodness, we made about 5000. Yeah, I guess you could kind of say it was a flip. But yeah, not really. But because we really wanted to rent it out. It just never got rented. And we didn't want to sink the money into it that it really needed. Because, yeah, I think we would have been in the hole in the long run on that.

Debbie DeBerry 06:47
Okay. Got it. So you bought it as as a rental. So you did some renovations to it first, before putting it up rent. Okay. And then it wasn't selling. And so you guys were like, okay, we need to sell this. And I mean, I'm sorry, it wasn't renting. Okay.

Leslie 07:07
Right. After paying a mortgage on it for a couple months. We're like, you know what, let's just get out from under it. And we sold it. 

Debbie DeBerry 07:16
So it's interesting. That's interesting. Because, you know, a lot of times people are like, Oh, my gosh, I'm so scared. What if I can't sell it? And I'm like, well, there's always the option to rent it. And so it's interesting to hear the opposite. Like, you would try it and you're like, let's just sell it. But I'm glad it worked. It's always great to have an alternative strategy, or two.

Leslie 07:36
Exactly, exactly. So, um, yeah. So we, we did that. And then my husband, he works so much the same, like I had to be his power of attorney for signing on actual flip house that we've just closed on, and a duplex. So the same day that both of them were closing, I had to be there signing all the papers. So um, he was not able to get away from his job. So we now have a duplex that it's doing really good. We have we gained two tenants and their families. So that's an interesting, because we had decided back before our first one, how we were going to do everything we were going to, you know, credit checks, you know, go by the list and everything. So probably would have never welled up in our life. So far, it's worked out.

Debbie DeBerry 08:54
Yeah, sometimes you inherit tenants. So yeah, that's the reality. I've bought, I've had I've owned one duplex. And, um, I don't know that it's my cup of tea. The The problem is I inherited again, I inherited tenants. The two times that I've inherited tenants, it hasn't gone well. This time it was I kept getting phone calls in the middle of the night from the SWAT team. We're busting down the door again. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, I've got I owned that. The problem like it was a great deal. I bought it owner finance like zero down like it was such a great deal. It ended up being a terrible deal. Like right out of it; sold it within just a few months. I mean, it was years ago, but yeah, within a few months, so I get that sometimes it's not. It's not great to inherit tenants. Okay, so on that first. Okay, so I guess really this flip that you're doing right now is your first kind of true flip like with the intention of going into as a flip?

Leslie 10:12
Well, the, the one that we did the same day as the, the duplex that when we went in with the realtor as a partner, and that went only took two months. And we sold that. Nice, so we didn't do it so low. So, but we gained so much and knowledge from working with him. Yeah. And we actually, you know, we're, we're, like the general contractors, but we have found the most wonderful man on the face of the planet. That is, you know, he can pay he can do whatever. And he knows former he knows electricians, you know, you name it. You know, he knows a cabinet guy. So it's like, I want to keep him forever, like I did.

Debbie DeBerry 11:11
Yeah, I totally get that.

Leslie  11:13
Yep. Yeah. So that one's done. We did good. We made money. And now we're working on. I guess our first solo clip.

Debbie DeBerry 11:23
Good for you guys. Like I love it. Like I just decided to do it. And you're already on your fourth. Fourth property. Yeah. Within a year softening.

Leslie 11:33
Yeah. And my husband's like, you know, I want six more doors this year. And I first I'm like, Oh my word. And now I'm like, okay, I can do this. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I start learning stuff. Right, right.

Debbie DeBerry 11:49
Well, let's see. How did you find that? That first flip the first one you did that it was going to be a rental, but you ended up selling it? How did you find that property?

Leslie 12:00
We found it on the MLS listing.

Debbie DeBerry 12:02
Okay. Mm hmm. Again, another person saying you can find deals on the MLS. This is interesting. This is interesting. Yep. Okay, so it hadn't been listed for a while or what was the story it had?

Leslie 12:16
Yeah. It had it was very dated. It was actually a pre foreclosure. Okay. So, I mean, you look at it and you're like, no way. am I touching that? It was horrible. Because the owners were actually living. Forget where they were out of the country. I forget where they were. I'd be lying if I told you, but they had moved. And so they're the banker had to be their power of attorney. for signing. So. But, I mean, yeah, I mean, you can find great deals on the MLS.

Debbie DeBerry 13:05
Yeah. Yeah. So you guys just put in an offer and you were under contract? How did you finance that? That purchase?

Unknown Speaker  13:17
Yeah, we did with a regular.

Debbie DeBerry 13:22
Yeah. Because it was intended to be a rental. 

Leslie:
Yeah, right. Right. 

Debbie DeBerry:
Okay. Got it. And then. So you did you have, like, cash in a bank account that you could use for the renovations and stuff? Or did you pull out a line of credit or how did you fund the renovations?

Leslie  13:42
Well, on that one, we had cash. Okay, we were able to do that. Um, moving forward. We've done a HELOC. So, we've been using HELOC until we build up everything so well. I

Debbie DeBerry 13:58
Well I think he locks are great. Because otherwise it's just money that you're not. You're not using it and it's money.

Leslie 14:05
Yeah, right. Right. And it’s so low. When we pay it off, so.

Debbie DeBerry 14:13
So now, you alluded to some contract. Some contractor issues on that first one, you want to talk about that?

Leslie 14:28
Yeah, it was horrible. Oh, no. Like one thing I will never forget is he had done something and one of the closets and I'm like, you really need to fix this. People are going to live here. You know, they're going to be calling us and he told me, it's not the White House. And I'm like, Well, I know it's not the White House. But it's the house. That I own and I'm paying you to do a job. Like, really?

Debbie DeBerry 15:11
Like, something like that. It's like, right, what? We're not on the same. We're not on the same path here.

Leslie 15:20
No, they did not take pride in anything and Oh man, I found out later, when we were actually closing on the house for the fleet, little people that bought it. One of their patchworks outside, where they were supposed to replace some of the wood. They put duct tape up and paint it. 

Debbie DeBerry:
No, no, they didn't. No, they didn’t it. Leslie, duct tape?

Leslie 15:52
Duct tape. It was horrible. Oh my god revolting

Debbie DeBerry 15:59
That's really funny. I mean, it's awful. Yeah.

Leslie 16:02
Really late. Anything and everything they could possibly do wrong. They did. Oh, my gosh, it would definitely not the White House.

Debbie DeBerry 16:17
were these, um, was this supposed to be like a GC that you hired? Or was it more like a handyman kind of person?

Leslie 16:25
Well, he said he had a contractor's life. Okay. And, yeah. So and this was when I was so busy, and I wasn't really fully into the whole idea of doing this yet. And I was still, you know, whatever my husband said. And I had told my husband, I think his name's Ryan. I was like, Did you get a contract like that? I told him I wanted to do one I said, did you get a contract? Oh, no. I never got a contract with him. So always, always, always get a contract. Yes.

Debbie DeBerry 17:04
Amen sister. Wow.

Leslie 17:06
Even even the little guy that we love. Yeah. And I think he would never ever do anything wrong. Yeah. Just to cover him and protect him. Right, we are gonna do a contract. 

Debbie DeBerry 17:22
Absolutely. And that's that I love that you said that. Because here's the thing, a great contract to use with your contractor protects both of you. And it gives both of you an out. If it's not right. Like it really good protect both parties. It's not just to it's not a one way street yet. So I'm glad you why. It's important. So aside from finding the pain of duct tape, later on. Were there any surprises like to the budget? Or maybe some surprises behind the wall that came up or anything?

Leslie 18:04
Yeah. Okay, um, that one, um, the AC unit was bad. So we did have to replace part of that, not the entire unit. And that was one of the factors on wanting to go ahead and get out from underneath it. Because how they were changing everything with the air conditioning unit with the Freon. They're changing the Freon this year, right. And that would be a whole new unit. Because it was an older system. So that's, you know, $6,000 that we didn't want to have to put into the house. Yeah, that man. Pretty soon it was gonna need another roof. And it had the old the panel boxes were horrible. And the real estate agent that actually helped the people buy the house, she actually had it replaced for them, because they were a young couple. And they weren't going to be able to afford that on their own. So she paid out of pocket to have the panel boxes fit. Wow. So we didn't have to do it. And I know, it was awesome. But, um, so but that was another huge expense. So it was just, you know, that's why I had been sitting there for a while. Yeah, well, I learned a lot.

Debbie DeBerry 19:35
I hear that. the learning never ends. Honestly, it's one of the reasons why I love flipping houses like there's just right to learn, always. Well, what did you guys end up putting into it for all the renovation and repairs and stuff.

Leslie 19:53
Um, we didn't put more than 10,000 in it. So Before we were just like, okay, you're not gonna keep doing this. And just the experience we had with the person we had found, and
we just, we didn't want to spend more than that.

Debbie DeBerry 20:13
Yeah, that makes sense. All right. So you decided, Okay, we're putting it on the market. And you guys made a profit, which that's great. Like, at the end of the day, you still made a profit. And right, you're out from under it, and you could move on. Right? Right. Exactly. Um, okay, so on the flip? Well, let me ask this. So the three other properties have have those omens from the MLS?

Leslie 20:45
Um, the one that we're actually working on now, we found it off the auction site. Okay. So everything else has been off MLS except for this one that we're working on now.

Debbie DeBerry 21:00
was it auction.com or? 

Leslie 21:04
Yes. 

Debbie DeBerry:
Okay. So it was an auction. And?

Leslie 21:09
And we, and my husband had actually been tracking it for like eight months. So basically, whenever he decided to start doing it, this last past summer, he started looking at this one, and it took forever with the auction. But it was listed at 70. But we wound up getting it for 47. 

Debbie DeBerry 21:39
Nice, okay so how did you go about since you couldn't see the inside? How did you go about estimating repairs?

Leslie 21:46
Well, there were old pictures. Okay. Off the MLS.

Debbie DeBerry 21:54
Right before?

Leslie 21:56
Right, right before went to auction. so yeah, we went with that. And we've kind of knew just by the state of the house, you know, it was something we'd need a lot of repairs. Mm hmm. But so far, there hasn't been a whole lot of surprises. 

Debbie DeBerry:
Nice. That’s nice to be able to see those pictures.

Leslie:
Absolutely. Right. Yeah, it was. It's it feels very scary. Like, I don't know what I'm doing. Yeah. I mean, I like surprises. But not those guys.

Debbie DeBerry 22:38
Yeah, exactly. okay. So you got it off of auction.com And 47,000 was the purchase price? What's your ration budget? You're working with? $80K?

Leslie 22:57
80,000, Yes.

Debbie DeBerry 23:02
Yeah, that's a big one. It doesn't need a lot. Hey, I like the ones that need a lot. There are fewer surprises. If I know I'm replacing everything. There are fewer expense surprises that can bite me in the butt. what will the house be worth?

Leslie 23:21
Um, we're thinking is going to be 190.

Debbie DeBerry  23:29
That's amazing. Because usually you don't see that. Like, for a house, go for that little. It has that white room. Like, that's amazing.

Leslie 23:39
Right? Yeah. So hopefully and like my, my husband's the numbers, man, so he can do this in his sleep. I'm gonna ask for everything. He's like, you need to get on this. And I'm like, Ah, okay, well, can I just pick out the pretty things?

Debbie DeBerry24:00
Is that your favorite part? Is that your favorite part of the flute?

Leslie 24:03
Yeah, it is. Yeah. So but I'm trying to learn everything. I just want to, I want to, you know, I want to be in there and I want to start doing so.

Debbie DeBerry 24:14
So the person who's running or maybe doing the majority of the work is the is the gentleman you mentioned earlier that you have a lot of trust in, is that right?

Leslie 24:24
Right. Yeah. 

Debbie DeBerry:
And how did you find him?

Leslie 24:28
Um, our partner that we used for the flip before he had him he had using before. So we just, we found him. So we've been I told him I'm gonna keep him forever. You're stuck for everything. You're stuck with me.

Debbie DeBerry 24:56
Okay, and then the financing for this. Did you guys use a trinity loan again.

Leslie 25:01
No, we just use the HELOC.

Debbie DeBerry 25:05
Got it. Awesome. Okay, so that's funding the purchase and the renovations. Excellent. Excellent. Great. Yeah. That makes it so much easier to like, it's just very simple and streamlined.

Leslie 25:20
Yeah. makes it so much easier.

Debbie DeBerry 25:24
So this was originally your husband's idea, this whole real estate investing? Did you ever like, Did you ever think about it? Or did you ever have a little lake like he liked? It just wasn't on your radar at all?

Leslie 25:39
Well, one of my dearest and best friends and is Rachel cannon, and she's an interior designer. And my husband actually. We built our house, though, he drew up our house plan. So Rachel helped me with all the interior stuff and taking out the light fixtures and all my, my granite and all the all the pretty stuff, all the fun stuff. So I love doing that. I love picking out the doors and the windows and that kind of stuff. So, and I've watched her business grow, and I've watched everything that she's done. So, and I just I don't know, I just, I love doing that. And I love building my house. Now. I learned a lot from that. I don't know if I would ever build another house from ground up? maybe. In the future? I don't know. But yeah.

Debbie DeBerry 26:49
And yet, you didn’t think you’d be Flipping Houses either.

Leslie 26:53
Yeah, haha. Didn’t think I’d be doing this

Debbie DeBerry 26:58
I meant to ask when we were talking about the auction property. So did you guys going into it? Did you like research the liens on it? Did you have title Poulos search? or What did you guys do to make sure you were you weren't getting any hefty liens or surprises in that regard?

Leslie  27:16
Well, honestly, that all my husband's department, so I don't know, on that part. So gotcha. Yeah. Okay. Also, I just started saying, okay, I want that wall going on. And that has to be painted. You like, yeah, yeah, I like that.

Debbie DeBerry 27:38
What do you - Where do you find a lot of inspiration? Where do you get a lot of inspiration from? Are you a Pinterest person? 

Leslie  27:49
I love Pinterest. I’m on it All the time. And I really love our Facebook site. Seeing what everybody does. Yeah, I know. It's so it's so cool to see. Yeah. love it. Everyone is so talented. 

Debbie DeBerry:
So did you have when you guys first got into investing? Did you have any fears around it? Or were you just like, like, let's like, yeah, we're doing this. It's fine.

Leslie  28:22
Yeah, I thought, like, okay, especially when he mentioned, oh, we're getting a headlock like, Okay. Am I gonna lose my house? lose my clothes, a ballad concert? Yeah. So yeah. All those normal fears, I guess. So. But now, it's exciting, I guess, because we've had good luck with everything. Even the horrible first. Yep. Hi, no first flip, if you want to even call it that. I mean, we didn't lose money. Right. So and that's the first thing my husband said, you know, you got to lose money to make money. So don't be surprised if we lose money or more. And I'm like, Okay, well, that terrifies me. But yeah, yeah, I trust him completely.

Debbie DeBerry 29:19
So it sure does help having a supportive spouse. 

Leslie:
Oh, yeah.

Debbie DeBerry 29:20
And him being the one that's like, yeah, we're doing this like even better. 

Leslie  29:27
Yeah, exactly.

Debbie DeBerry 29:30
That's awesome. Is there any advice that you would give to women out there who are thinking about doing this whole flip house flipping thing?

Leslie 29:46
Don't be afraid to start into get into it. Because there are so many resources out there for us. Yeah. That mean there's really nothing stopping you. Yeah. doing any of this, so don't be intimidated by you know, Oh, I can't do this, but it's all men that do this. No, it's not. Yeah. And yeah, you can do this. Yeah, I'm excited about everything that you're doing. 

Debbie DeBerry 30:21
I appreciate that. I appreciate that.I'm excited. Yeah, it's, you know, carving carving my space. And in in a male dominated world. So as long as I keep doing things my way, and what for me what feels right to me. That's all I can do. It's life is way too short to do it any other way. And I really value my sleep at night. So yeah, I'm gonna do things that feel good. Well, I appreciate you so much for being in the group. And you've been in there a while. And I appreciate you interacting. And thank you for taking the time to share part of your story with us, because I know it inspire others.

Leslie 31:10
Oh, thank you. Yeah.

Debbie DeBerry  31:14
Absolutely. I'm really excited for you guys. I want you to share some before and after photos of this one that you're working on right now. Since Yes, true. First one. And and keep us posted. And I'll probably ask you, I'll probably bug you be like, hey, you want to be on the show again? And then we can talk about it again. And because we all love our knowledge. Thank you so much, Leslie.

Leslie 31:41
Oh, you are welcome. Thanks for having me. You bet.

Debbie DeBerry 31:45
And I'll see you in the group.

Leslie  31:48
Okay, awesome. Take care. Okay. Bye, bye.

Debbie DeBerry 31:53
on there you have it, the accidental investor, who now is just in love with flipping houses. So great story. Thank you again, so much, Leslie, for sharing it with us. All right, you guys. So here's the thing. If you aren't already involved in our Facebook group, you totally should be. It's an awesome group of awesome women. It's such a great resource. All right, women flipping houses, check it out on Facebook. And 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.