Excited to join this community - relationships, growing, giving!

[Gary Corban]

Hey BiggerPocket community, I have been devouring the podcasts for a while now but am new to the site. I'm looking forward to my future as it pertains to the relationships, growth, and giving that is ahead!

I have found myself to be on the path of house flipping. I never in a million years would have seen myself where I am today.

Here is the short version of how I got here. I was an associate pastor for 14 yrs here in Louisiana and have always had a heart for the broken and struggling. In 2016, just before the great flood hit us, I left from a church staff position with nothing but an intense work ethic, a willingness to learn, and a dream....a dream to start ministry homes that will help the broken to not only recover, but to thrive and become successful human beings!

I had no skill set other than pastoring because prior to that I was living a life of addiction and just "surviving". So at 43yrs old, no skill set, and a family of 6, I started out working for different residential subcontractors whom I had built relationships/friendships with through helping them over the yrs with their "life issues". We were restoring the homes that flooded in our area. I did this for a year gaining experience.

Then in October of last year one of my old youth group members who is now an adult real estate entrepreneur, helped me to get private funding to renovate my grandparents' old run down home in the center of town directly across the street from the highschool. Our town has the number one schools in our state 14yrs running. Huge plus!

Though the home was the biggest eyesore in town, it also happens to be in the most prime spot in the entire town.

So I quit my job and began this vast undertaking on my own, with the help of my elderly dad who is a wealth of construction knowledge. We have been living very tightly on my wife's pay for the last year now. 

The 1930's pier and beam house was a wreck. Everything but the actual internal structure has had to be replaced (roof, electrical and fixtures, plumbing and fixtures, HVAC, insulation installed in attic and walls, cabinets, you name it!)

I asked a couple of contractor friends of mine if they thought I was crazy for jumping into this project. They told me basically the same thing: "YOU ARE IN THE BEST CASE SCENARIO TO DO A WORST CASE PROJECT. AND ALL THAT YOU LEARN ON THIS PROJECT WILL BE INVALUABLE FOR YOUR FUTURE IN FLIPPING."

Just over a year later I am finally nearing the end of the remodel and also my budget. I am exhausted and ready to hire subs to finish the last few things. I borrowed 90k and to hire subs to help me finish, the all in end cost will be about 120k. Comps from updated homes put me at sale price of 250k, potentially more since everything but the studs in the home is literally brand new. We renovated and kept the original beautiful wood doors and tongue and groove ceilings in bedrooms & master bath.

So now I'm trying to acquire a bank loan to absorb private loan & rest of Reno. Hope that comes through.

After this my plan is to use the capital from the sale to find homes that I can quickly move with the help of my contractor friends. My WHY is to have the time and financial freedom to do some yrly traveling (vacationing) with my family and to build the dream that still burns in my heart for the ministry transitional homes.

I have much much more I want to do in the area of helping others but I know I must build experience, relationships, and the business side of my life first, and out of those, the other will flow!

If you're still reading, thanks for sticking it out. Haha

I am nervous but hopeful!

I am also grateful for the knowledge, information, and encouragement at Bigger Pockets!