My First Major Flip and Success Story

[Derac Shaffer]

I have always been very intrigued with real estate. I grew up with my cousin owning his own contracting business, so throughout my younger years I got to work with him every summer and really learn the trade. I purchased my first home (mobile home) with in a week of graduating high school (2011) for about $2500. I put Around $1000-$1500 into a small rehab, doing all the work myself and sold it for $6000. Long story short this experience at 18 or 19 years old got me hooked on real estate especially flips. Between 2011 and 2015 I purchased one more mobile home and my first house which were both flipped for about a $3000 profit on the mobile home and a $10,000 profit on the house. 

These experiences lead me to what I would consider my first real flip. In 2016 I was in the market for a primary residence for me and my family. I searched realtor.com on a regular basis and got strongly familiar with my area and market. After months of searching I found a 4BD 1.5BA foreclosure in the little town I grew up in. The interior of the home was in pretty rough shape but the exterior looked great with strong bones it just needed some cleaning up. I ended up purchasing the home from HUD for $36,660.

As I said before we were in the market for a primary residence but in my eyes this was also a flip so my strategy was a little bit different than your average fix and flip. I decided to renovate one portion of the house in the first two months of owning it and we moved in. My was to renovate the house room by room while living there. Surprisingly it worked out quite well besides cleaning up the mess every day and my fiancé having to dust everything on a daily basis. We Still had a roof over our heads and it was a flip in the making, in my eyes a win win situation. We lived in the house for about 2 years. I rented it out for around a year to a family member (terrible idea) and we decided to sell after fining another home to do the same strategy with. 

We just closed on this property Jan. 13, 2020 for $91,500 I put around $12,000 into the full rehab doing all the work myself, making the home a 3BD 2BA. Free and clear I made about $38,000. 

I am currently in the process of doing the same thing to another home on a larger scale to flip in the next 5 months and then we plan to move to Central Florida where I want to really dive into flipping. I have just recently discovered the Bigger Pockets community and it has gave me a whole new outlook on real estate. I cant wait to see what the future has to offer with real estate investing!!

[Derac Shaffer]

@Edgar Rodriguez Thank you! It’s a great sense of accomplishment being successful on that first big rehab.

At time I owned the mobile home they were still at their peak in my market. Since then they have steadily declined and to this date are really a thing of the past. You will still see a few around but not like it was even 5 years ago.

I knew this flip was a good deal just from spending so much time studying my market before I decided to jump in that and living in the are my entire life played a big part as well. Median house price comparable to that home is around 80-100k. I knew at $37k and around 10-15k in rehab with me doing the work was going to turn a good profit in the end. I can now say it was all worth it and I’m so ready to dive in.

Iv been really focusing my studying on the market I will be in when we get to Florida. We try to fly down every couple months and just drive around to get to know the neighborhoods. We are actually flying down this weekend to look at a deal that will be the same strategy I have used on my current residence and the one I just closed on. I can’t wait to try and land my first deal there and make the big move to the beautiful sunshine state!