How Stephanie Started Flipping Houses In Florida!

In this interview, Mike Asher (Real Estate Skills Coach) speaks with Pro Wholesaler VIP Student Stephanie about her success since being in the Pro Wholesaler VIP Program!

Join us in this inspiring interview where Stephanie shares her journey from being a small business owner to successfully starting her first fix and flip project. Hosted by Mike Asher, a coach with RealEstateSkills.com, this conversation dives into Stephanie's experiences, challenges, and triumphs in the world of real estate investing.

Highlights:

✅ Transition from Business Owner to Real Estate Investor: Stephanie recounts her decision to explore real estate investing as a means to transition into retirement, drawing inspiration from her previous experience with short-term rentals and a desire for financial stability.

✅ Discovery of Pro Wholesaler VIP Program: Learn how Stephanie found her way to the Pro Wholesaler VIP Program, seeking an alternative approach to wholesaling that resonated with her preferences and strengths. Discover how the program provided her with a comprehensive understanding of real estate investing, from setting up the business structure to navigating the fix and flip process.

✅ Navigating Challenges and Making Decisions: Hear how Stephanie leveraged her business background to manage contractors, make design decisions, and accurately evaluate repair costs. Learn how she overcame challenges such as contractor delays and budget constraints with a proactive and problem-solving attitude.

✅ Creative Renovations and Design: Explore Stephanie's eye for design and attention to detail as she describes the thoughtful touches and renovations that transformed the property. From opening up the kitchen to adding square footage and selecting stylish finishes, her creativity and vision shine through in every aspect of the project.

✅ Valuable Advice for Aspiring Investors: Gain valuable advice from Stephanie for aspiring real estate investors, including the importance of taking action, staying focused on the fundamentals, and embracing discomfort as part of the learning process. Learn why she believes real estate investing offers unparalleled long-term wealth-building opportunities.

✅ Community Support and Encouragement: Discover how the Real Estate Skills community provided essential support and encouragement along Stephanie's journey. Learn how she found inspiration and guidance from fellow members, coaches, and resources within the community.

If you want to learn EXACTLY how to start flipping houses in Florida visit: Flipping Houses In Florida: The (ULTIMATE) Guide

*For in-depth training on real estate investing, Real Estate Skills offers extensive courses to get you ready to make your first investment! Attend our FREE Webinar Training and gain insider knowledge, expert strategies, and essential skills to make the most of every real estate opportunity that comes your way!

--- VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION ---

Mike Asher (00:00):
Hey everyone, my name is Mike Asher and I am a coach with the RealEstateSkills.com team. And today I'm here with Stephanie with Resourceful Home Solutions, and she has just shared a win with us about a fix and flip that she's recently completed, fully renovated it, listed it on the market, and is already pending, maybe even sold already. We'll catch up with her on that shortly, but it seemed like a very successful project, and so we are very happy to have her with us today. And so how are you doing today, Stephanie?

Stephanie (00:32):
I'm great, I'm great. I'm happy to be on this side of the deal mostly, almost anyway, and happy to share the story with anyone who is looking for a little inspiration, I guess, because it is my first deal crossing any sort of finish line since joining the whole Pro Wholesaler Real Estate Skills group. And so just happy to share.

Mike Asher (00:56):
Awesome. Yeah. Well, thank you for taking time out to do that with us. And just as we get started, if you want to tell us a little bit about what you're doing maybe prior to joining the Real Estate Skills VIP program, what did life look like for you?

Stephanie (01:11):
Well, I actually still currently have an official nine to five job, actually. I'm a small business owner. I'm in the food business, so completely nothing to do with real estate. In my other part of my life, I have been running a, like I said, a small business. It's a meal service delivery company, so basically we cook nutritionally controlled meals for people and there are a dime a dozen out there now, but I've been doing this for 23 years, so it was kind of a thing back in the day. And so I'm looking in the next couple of years to be exiting that business. And so looking at diving into more real estate investing to sort of bridge the gap between now and retirement, which I dunno, maybe 10 years away from or so. Yeah, so I'm still doing that job, but I'm very much headfirst now into real estate investing and I'm loving it. I'm learning all the time, and I think it is a great path for me for the future anyway.

Mike Asher (02:22):
Sure. Yeah, no, my story is similar as far as kind of working a nine to five, it sounds like you already have some experience with being a business owner. So do you feel like that has helped you with the fix and flip process, having that experience?

Stephanie (02:35):
Yeah, I definitely do. And I think even at the beginning of when I went through the Pro Wholesaler training, a lot of that training was how to set up the business, how to set up your LLC and all those kinds of things. So yeah, that part for me was not a big deal. Definitely helped me get moving faster. And I think also to your point, managing the fix and flip a hundred percent was probably, I don't want to say easier for me because it wasn't easy, but I think my business experience definitely helped in the matter.

Mike Asher (03:13):
Sure, yeah, no, I can imagine it does. For someone just starting off running a business, it can be a little bit tricky at times. I think once you get into the fold of it, you realize that it's not this impossible task, but it can be tricky getting started. So the fact that you had that head start probably helped a lot. Well, what made you interested in real estate and getting into the VIP program?

Stephanie (03:35):
Well, a bunch of years ago I purchased a vacation home in Key West Florida, which is where I live now. Not in that home, but in Key West, and I thought it was just going to be my vacation home, but I ended up doing a short-term rental situation, which back then was, see I'm pretty old. There was no Airbnb back then. There was no VRBO, none of that. So the short-term rental game was kind of a new thing, and I ended up running that property as a short-term rental, owned it for a bunch of years, sold it, I don't know, maybe eight years ago now. And ever since then, I'm wondering why did I sell, I'm kicking myself for selling it. So anyway, a couple of years ago when I started to think about what life looks like after my current business is done, I took a masterclass, a real estate investing masterclass that sort of touched on all different areas of investing from wholesaling to short-term rental to the BRRRR method, all those things.

(04:42):
And it got the flame lit under me again to sort of tackle the real estate investing game. I spent a year doing some things that were great. I bought a few rental properties and stuff, but then I ran out of capital and now what do I do? So then I started looking more closely into, okay, I need to generate some cash more quickly. I started looking at wholesaling and I probably researched, I don't know, three, four or five different groups, companies, whatever, that wanted to teach me how to wholesale, and I just didn't want to go do the door knocking and the bandit signs and all that. That's just not me. Plus it's kind of old school. And then I don't know, in my searching, I found you guys and I was like, ding, ding, ding. This is what I need to go after. This type of wholesaling is what makes sense for me. To me, I think I called your rep the very first day I found you online. I talked to the person, I paid for the course, I got the course done in a week, and I dove in and I can't, can't tell you how happy I am that I did. You guys have been awesome. I'm super, super glad I made the investment. Every penny of it was worth it.

Mike Asher (06:07):
Awesome. Yeah, no, I think you can relate to a lot of people because I think a lot of people are, it's not just really who they are to do the door knocking and the bandit signs and to dump a ton of marketing into skip tracing and doing mailers and stuff like that. It can be a real struggle and a challenge for someone just starting off. And one of the nice things about what we teach with MLS getting our leads off the MLS is just the cost to get going. And again, just that I don't think it's for everybody to go up to a stranger's door and knock on it. I know it wasn't for me either, and that was a big thing that attracted me to Real Estate Skills, was kind of not going down that traditional wholesaling route. And so I can definitely relate to what you're saying there, and I think that's awesome. What would you say the biggest thing is that Real Estate Skills was able to help you with in regards to how it related to this fix and flip? Is there anything specific that sticks out as this section of the training was really helpful and what I did, or

Stephanie (07:08):
Honestly, I think for me, Real Estate Skills, your course and your coaching your community online, it really just kind of gave me just a bigger, broader picture and exposed me to more areas of real estate investing other than just wholesaling. And through the course of doing all those things, I got more familiar with how hard money lending works because I kept having to get proof of funds and dealing with all of that. And I thought, well, why don't I just get pre-qualified? Let's see how this looks if I go to one of these lenders. So I did, why not? And so I just started learning bits and pieces that I didn't think I was really going to tap into initially. I just thought I was going to look into wholesaling and then the whole, I don't want to call it a script, but the concept that when speaking with agents and other parties involved, the script is sort of, well, wholesaling is one of my exit strategies if not fixing and flipping or whatever. And so as I continued to be challenged with getting a wholesale deal across the line, I'm like, it's not my only exit strategy. What if I flip this? And so the next property that I got under contract, after I sort of had that revelation, I said, if I really thought I was going to wholesale it, I really thought I had the buyer and everything. I said, if this doesn't make it through, I'm going to do it myself. And I thought it was going to make it through. It didn't make it through, and I did it myself.

Mike Asher (08:57):
Yeah, No, that's awesome.

Stephanie (09:00):
And all of that. I never intended to be a fix and flipper. I mean, I never did, but because of everything I learned just in the process of the wholesaling stuff, it gave me everything I needed.

Mike Asher (09:13):
Awesome. Well, how about you tell us a little bit about the fix and flip. Tell us, we know that you got it with the intentions of wholesaling it, but you had another exit strategy and decided to go ahead and get a hard money loan out and purchase the property and fix and flip it yourself. Maybe just talk a little bit about what that process looked like, maybe some challenges you faced and just the aspect of the renovation and how all that went and what you learned from it.

Stephanie (09:45):
Sure, sure. Well, I will start by saying I really have had no clue what I was doing. I mean, I've done projects on my own personal home before, but never anything to this extent and never really with a timeline and so many parts and pieces to have to track. So I really didn't know what I was doing. I took a big leap of faith per the advice in your group. I joined the local REIA Association and actually to this day have not yet even been to a meeting in person, but their online groups, their Facebook group and everything, I have met a ton of people that are helpful. That's how I found my contractor. Actually found several contractors that were highly recommended on the REIA Facebook page, and I reached out to them and asked if they were interested in bidding, told 'em, this is my timeline, this is the general scope of what I need to get done. Are you interested in bidding and can you meet the timeline? That narrowed down to, I think two, three that said they could, two that actually followed through came, walked the property, gave me a bid then, so I chose one of those two, and it just went from there. It was a complete dump.

(11:13):
The house was built in 1911, and it was the gentleman that had lived there passed away about a year prior. And so the house was just, I mean, it hadn't been touched in probably 50 years. It was just disgusting, fully loaded with all of his junk, everything. It was a full trash out demo down to the studs. It was a full rehab, small house, 1200, nope, under 1100 square feet at the beginning. By the time I was done, it was 1270. So we added some value there, which is great.

Mike Asher (11:50):
Cool.

Stephanie (11:52):
Two beds, one bath, really small kitchen, so small. And I would say I'm super glad that I chose a small home for the first flip because it was a super big challenge. So it took, the contractor when he bid, told me it would be a 10 week job, they could do it in 10 weeks. So in my budget, in my head, I said 12, turned out to be 13, so not too bad, not too far off. The putting it up for sale process was super quick and easy. We went from coming soon on the MLS to two days later going live on the MLS, and that was a Friday. By Sunday I had it under contract for quite a bit over asking price. So yeah, it's not closed yet. That's the unfortunate part. We're not closing until April 30th, so a little bit more carrying costs for me. But the offer was great and I couldn't say no to that.

Mike Asher (12:54):
Awesome. No, that is so cool on how you problem solve some of that stuff and found contractors. I know that's something that a lot of new fix and flippers struggle with is finding someone to come in that can do the work, but also do the work in a timely manner at a reasonable price. That can be one of the bigger challenges. And so I love what you did there with going to joining those REIA groups on Facebook, getting referrals, having 'em bid it out. That sounds like you really knew what you were doing there, and it paid off for you.

Stephanie (13:28):
I didn't really know what I was doing now, that's the thing. I just one step at a time and I just took the plunge and it was nerve wracking, and I was definitely not in my comfort zone, but you get through to the next step, to the next step, and then it all works out.

Mike Asher (13:45):
And I think that's where some of that business experience comes into play too, as far as just learning how to continue moving forward, understanding that it's going to be a process. It's not going to be this super laid back thing, but starting a business is nerve wracking in general. And for you have already done doing that and then coming here, you're a little bit already kind of comfortable with that feeling of being uncomfortable. I tell people that all the time is you need to learn how to be comfortable with being uncomfortable because it's definitely nerve wracking when you first start doing things.

Stephanie (14:21):
Absolutely.

Mike Asher (14:21):
But one thing I definitely wanted to ask you was just the design of the home, some of the finishing touches that were put on there, I really, really liked them, and I was wondering, did you pay someone to design it for you or are those your personal touches?

Stephanie (14:37):
No, those are my personal touches. You guys always joke about you can't just watch HGTV and flip a house, and that's true, but I do watch a lot of HGTV. So I mean, I know, I guess I'm constantly looking for cool designs and whatever, and some of the touches, finishing touches in the house. I would literally be watching TV at night in my living room and have Amazon open at the same time looking for light fixtures or whatever. I just would find things that I thought would look cool. And once you start, because when you, well, for me anyway, once you demo the place and you're watching the new sheet rock go up and the new everything happen, it's just a blank slate and it's really hard to envision what's going to make it cool, what's the cool factor here? But for me anyway, as soon as I thought of one little thing, oh, I think I could do a built-in desk over here or whatever it was, It all started to sort of fall into place. And I don't know, for me, it just worked out one step at a time. Again, I had no idea what I was doing other than I knew I needed to open up the kitchen. That was an old school, closed in kitchen, so I knew we had to get rid of one big wall, and I knew I had to finish a, what was a three season porch? This is in Minnesota, by the way. So it was a three season porch and not considered finished square feet unless everything's insulated and there's a ceiling and floor in all the walls. So did that finished it threw in some baseboard heating and bam, I got an additional 140 finished square feet, which is a big number if you're talking about value of the house. So yeah, like I said, I knew I had to take the kitchen wall and I knew I had to finish that room. But as far as decor and design, it was literally one step at a time and it just kind of, okay, now I did that. Now this other thing over here is a good idea that would look good with that. And then over there I could do this no scientific plan. Yeah,

Mike Asher (16:51):
Yeah, just one step at a time, like you said, and I think you obviously have eye for design and style because I'm being honest when I say I was really impressed with the finishes that you put in, I thought it all really looked well, even a couple of the walls that you painted, a lot of fixed flippers, they just throw white everywhere because they don't want to put in a color that maybe keeps someone from buying. But the colors you picked out I thought really looked good, and I'm sure it helped with the process of getting under contract so quickly and even over list price.

Stephanie (17:23):
And to that end, I noticed, and I started watching obviously the comps in the area really closely from about four weeks before I went on the market until I went on the market and I could see what comps newly renovated ones would come on, and they'd all, like you said, white, gray, no personality or whatever. And then occasionally I would see a comp that had some cool features, and inevitably that property would sell for 10, 20, 30 grand more than the vanilla ones. And so I wanted to have a little bit of a cool factor, but still keep it that it would appeal to the majority of people. And my realtor helped me with that as well. My realtor on the sales side, she actually came in, offered to come in and suggest a few things for finishing touches and stuff. Just From what she knows would sell to the type of buyer that would buy this house.

Mike Asher (18:27):
Sure,

Stephanie (18:28):
Yeah.

Mike Asher (18:29):
Awesome, awesome. Well, during the renovation, did you guys run into any unexpected problems or did everything pretty much go smoothly?

Stephanie (18:40):
It went smoothly. As far as the property itself, there were no really crazy surprises, but definitely challenges with the contractors, with their subs. People didn't show up that said they were supposed to, and it definitely required managing a from that regard. Also, there was a really long delay for some reason at the beginning with the permit, and they weren't being honest with me, they being the contractor. So you do have to manage 'em, even if you think they're great, you to can't just assume that their timeline is really happening, you have to be present at least every few days. I thought anyway, I needed to show up every few days, at least towards the end, I was showing up every day because it was the final details and I just wanted to make sure they were doing it right because they're going to try to do the least amount of work that they can and collect a check. So for me, that was a little bit frustrating, but it's part of the game. Yeah,

Mike Asher (19:54):
Sure. Awesome. Well, I think it's great how you problem solve those situations and as they come up, you just manage it. A lot of people think maybe that you just buy a house, you hire a contractor, and then you just sit and collect the money. But there's definitely a lot of managing involved and a lot of problem solving. And so now I got to ask

Stephanie (20:13):
And there's a lot of decisions to be made. Oh, I'm sorry. I was just going to say there's a lot of decisions to be made along the way as well to make sure that what you're selecting for your finishes are within the budget of what the contractor bid at. So that was a bit of a learning curve for me too, because I told them at the beginning I wanted mid grade finishes, and then when it came down to, okay, tell me what you budgeted for square foot for flooring so I can go pick out some flooring, it was way less than what I would've thought it would. You know what I mean? Their mid grade was much lower than my mid grade. So there's a lot of decisions that have to be made budget wise along the way.

Mike Asher (20:58):
Okay.

Stephanie (20:59):
Yeah,

Mike Asher (21:00):
No, I think that leads into my next question of when you evaluated the property, even though you're kind of looking at as a wholesale, how accurate were you with your ARV estimates and your repair costs?

Stephanie (21:13):
Pretty dang close. I went over a little bit on repair costs, probably by about 10 grand, which is about 10% of the total budget. But I did that on purpose because going back to when we were talking about doing just the plain vanilla white or having a little bit of a cool factor, so I knew I made those choices because I really felt it was going to get me higher sale price and it did. But the original methods that I learned from you guys about determining the repair costs were very spot on, very spot on with what the contractor's bid came in at.

(21:59):
There was a little push and pull here and there, but mostly very spot on. Same with the ARV. I would say that I could have been more less conservative with the ARV, but I just want to make sure I wasn't too optimistic. So I was pretty conservative with the ARV, and as I said, it did go under contract. No, it's not closed yet, so I want to knock on some wood, but it's 30 grand higher is what it's under contract at versus what my sales price was. And to that end as well, the hard money lender that I used, I don't know if this is standard with all these companies, it probably is, but they send out a person, an inspector of sorts at the front end of the deal, and they also calculate what they think is the ARV and his match mine. Exactly. So you guys are teaching exactly what we need to know, and that's perfect.

Mike Asher (23:05):
Sure, yeah. We like to teach the foundation, but it does take time to really learn how to hone those numbers in and get 'em really accurate. And it sounds like you spent a lot of time doing that and became really good at it, and you've now been able to reap the benefits of that work, and so great job with that. I guess my last question would just be what advice would you give somebody else that's maybe thinking about getting into real estate, whether wholesaling or fix and flip, or what would your advice be to 'em?

Stephanie (23:36):
Boy, I mean there's a lot of different aspects and angles, but one thing that I notice and I spend a fair amount of time in your community reading other people's questions and answers and stuff, I've learned a ton from you guys and other members as well. But when I see new people that are just starting maybe just finishing the training and coming on board, I see them getting really stuck on things like the name of their business or their website or whatever. And I guess my advice is just stop over analyzing. Just dive in and try to get some deals done. Just try it.

(24:21):
All those little side things aren't that important. No one really cares what your business card looks like or whatever. You have to have those tools obviously to build a business, but they're not the most important thing. The most important thing is the person and what you're doing with what you've learned. So that's just something I notice a lot that newer students or newer members talk about. But as far as real estate investing itself, I just feel really strongly that you can't invest your money in a better place if you are able to either own and carry hold for a long time, or even if you're great at wholesaling and that's what you can do. Real estate provides such a solid, solid, solid block of potential wealth or long-term wealth income. I don't know how to put it exactly right, but it's just solid. It's solid. And I say everyone that's dabbling in it, keep going, keep trying because it's totally worth it. It's always going to be around, I don't know, a single person, older person in life who's very well off that doesn't own kind of a lot of real estate. So I just think it's a solid place to be.

Mike Asher (25:51):
Yeah, no, real estate has historically been a pretty tried and true method if done correctly, you can definitely lose a lot of money if you kind of go in it willy-nilly or whatever, but if you stick to the skillset and that people have been taught and that have been used for a long time now, usually it can be a pretty good investment for you. Alright, well I just want to, to thank you so much Stephanie again for joining us today. Your story is really inspiring and I think people that are able to watch this video will be encouraged of what's possible and some of the success that you've had being a part of the Real Estate Skills program and being a true example of what is possible. And so really appreciate you joining us today and thank you so much for your time.

Stephanie (26:46):
Yeah, thank you Mike. And thanks to all the coaches. You guys really have helped me through. It's been, I don't know, 10 months or so since I first took the training and I can't tell anyone who's watching this how many times you guys have pulled me out of the gutter or given me an atta girl or whatever. And it's really highly, highly appreciated. You guys are great at what you do and I couldn't be more happy to be part of this group.

Mike Asher (27:16):
Awesome. Well, that means a lot to us. Thank you so much for saying that and I'm glad you felt supported through that whole process. If anybody else is interested in joining the VIP Pro Wholesaler program, you can just go to RealEstateSkills.com and get more information there. Alright, Stephanie, thank you so much. I appreciate your time.

Stephanie (27:34):
Thanks, Mike. Have a great day.

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