0-10 doors in 365 days

[Rick Stevens]

Just wanted to tell my little story, hope it's an encouragement to someone who wants to jump in the pond but hasn't gotten past tipping their toe in yet!

2 years ago I went on a business trip (yes I also work a full time job) to Austin to meet with a company about a software deal.  I took my wife because just up the hwy was Waco TX, the home of my favorite HGTV family Chip and Joanna Gaines.  Is it faux pas to say I dig shiplap? lol  Anyway, were enjoying our day at the siloh's and said "We've talked about this enough, lets just do it!"  That was the culmination moment of kicking the can on doing fix and flips for years after watching HGTV and doing some home reno stuff ourselves.  

So we found an on market dump and the process began in June 2017.  What a job!  It took 5 months of nonstop work, and more that doubling our initial thought of a budget.  We ended up selling to a cash buyer for a deal (carrying costs nearly killed us) and lost a few bucks.  Learned a ton...  So why not.. Round 2

Enter Feb 2018- Bought another dump on the MLS with plenty of margin to make a few bucks. Enter the building inspector from HE double hockey sticks! Man did this guy put us through the paces. Added 1 light switch and 2 fixtures turned into being forced to re-wire the entire house (yes, all of it.. No I couldn't believe it either!) Updating fixtures and removing a showed turned into being forced to replace all of the plumbing in the entire house. (yes, now my budget is dead in the water).. I'm writing this article in December and the house has sat on market since August, still not sold. Any buyers? (yes carrying costs are killing me).

In between all these flips, I found a lipstick flip, also on market, and made some money.  Bought in June and closed in November 2018. 

I said all that to say this.  Fix and flip is no longer my strategy!  I'm not saying you can't make $, but I couldn't make enough money with my approach to get out of the nonstop hard work for very little return, a lot of stress and headache.  

Along the way I hooked up w\ a mentor who does rentals.  He has more money than you can shake a stick at.  Certainly didn't magically appear, he's worked hard for years, but not even close to an expected retirement age, he's basically retired and his main activity is cashing checks (poor guy, I feel bad for him also).   So he helped me find a few small multi families.  VERY DIFFERENT STORY than the fix flips.  

So I'm currently sitting on 6 doors in 1 year, all cash flowing and I'm negotiating a 7 unit that I hope to have locked down before the end of the year.  My goal was 10 doors this year.  Let's see what happens.  Needless to say I have a new strategy and so far, so good! 

Best luck.  If at first you don't succeed, try again.  If you find it won't work for you, adjust your strategy.  There's still $$ to be made and success to be had if your willing to stop, reflect, and adjust where necessary!

Best wishes BP world

Rick