Realtor in Eastern Kansas Excited To Grow

[Matt Lowery]

Hello BP Community!

I am so, so, so excited to have found this website and podcast a couple months ago! I've listed to at least 30 hours of shows while working on a flip house and did the webinar last night.

I am a 3rd year Realtor in Emporia, Kansas, a town USA Today recently declared home of the the best Main Street In The USA. Although house flipping and BRRR have always seemed interesting to me, I've fallen into a couple opportunities to do those, with minimal risk, but also minimal effort.

The first home I purchased was '06 when my son was born that I rehabbed with my father (a retired contractor). Five years later, my (now ex) wife and I purchased a bed and breakfast that came with a second home for the Innkeepers (us) to live in. Post divorce, I purchased our (two grade school kids and I) current home, a HUD foreclosure that has taken a lot of work.

This Summer I partnered with an out of state couple with an inherited home needing work they wanted to sell. They owned the home outright and fronted the money, I swung hammers and paint brushes as much as possible. It's been listed for about 3 weeks and been the runner up for a couple buyers, I expect them to net about $5,000 more than they would have before rehabbing (~$15,000 project), I'll make similar plus commissions for selling. A roofer, foundation guy and HVAC (both furnace and converting from window air to central A/C) all got a profitable job out of it too.

Working on the flip house this Summer is where I found the Bigger Pockets podcast to fill the quiet. I felt like I had finally found a path I'd been looking for my entire adult life! I've very excited to finally have the resource and community (along with rebuttals to every excuse I try to come up with) to build a real plan.

I'm currently looking for my next deal for a flip and studying financing. My single family rental is cash flowing $200/mo the last 5 years on 2% leases and quality, new tenants for single family homes are easy to find. My ex let our old home and bed and breakfast were foreclosed on during my divorce, if I'd had the knowledge two years ago that I do now, I would have taken them from her and converted to 4-plex and a single family residence that would have cash flowed as well (but that goes in the lessons learned file). My current home should have about $45,000 in equity from rehabbing and appreciation the last three years.

My 2017 Goal is to flip three single family homes and add another BRRR to my portfolio. Local real estate market is interesting. A small college town with to many apartments, not enough homes. We're 70% surrounded by flood planes and the land that is build-able is going to be extremely tough to get from the farmers owning it, plus the 2+ years to get the city to build infrastructure to it. As an agent, I see a need for 2+ bed rental homes and an opportunity to rehab some of the older homes here to create quality options for first time home buyers.