5 Lessons Learned from Flipping 50 Houses in 6 Months

I started a real estate investing company back in late 2016 when I bought my first single family property. I was pumped. I couldn’t believe the fact that I was only 22 years old, and I was going to be a real estate investor. I had just graduated college the previous May, worked for a while learning the residential real estate business, and dove right in when I found the right opportunity.

Fast forward 6 months, my company has bought, rehabbed, flipped, and now hold 50 single and small multi-family properties. The journey was not easy. I learned some pretty tough lessons, had many sleepless nights, and doubted myself more than I can remember. People say in real estate you experience very high-highs and very low-lows. Building this portfolio has been the biggest challenge of my life, but also the most gratifying personal development experience I could have imagined this early in my life. I’m grateful that I failed at some small things early on because it helped me to learn quicker and build tons of momentum moving forward. Here are the biggest lessons I’ve learned from my experience thus far.

Lesson 1: Knowing the numbers give you confidence to push forward and create certainty.

Whether buying single family houses or large commercial real estate, you have to understand what your getting into from a financial perspective. Underwriting a single family investment deal is relatively simple. I make sure I know what the asset is worth today, what the repair costs will be, and what I would be able to liquidate the asset for if I needed to sell tomorrow. I use a simple spreadsheet to do my analysis, which generates all the necessary return percentages and amortization schedules to evaluate a deal up front. Pro tip: most people screw up in the repair cost estimate. When starting out, it’s important to get a contractor or inspector to walk the property with you to complete a full due diligence. Not underwriting your investment conservatively enough could end up costing quite a bit. Some people screw up their first investment so bad they never want to get back into real estate investing. Knowing the numbers gives you the confidence to push forward through all of the self-doubt initially.

Lesson 2: Systems make everything a hell of a lot easier.

Especially if you are doing a larger volume of deals, having systems in place will save tons of time and energy. If you want to do more deals, you simply need to automate or outsource more of the time-consuming activities so you can focus on the revenue-generating ones. I stopped doing the $10 activities and focused on deal sourcing and building relationships. I was able to do this because I created systems to help manage the other aspects of my business that are necessary, but which I couldn’t consistently allocate time to. Some necessary systems include having a solid customer relationship management (CRM) system, lead generation systems, deal underwriting systems, and a strong rehab process to complete your deals. Without systems, you will be disorganized and lost, which is a very quick way to lose money.

Lesson 3: Pick up the phone and start dialing.

Yes, I took this straight from the Wolf of Wall Street playbook, but it is absolutely necessary in terms of productivity and effectiveness. This can apply to several things across the business, but if I was afraid to get on the phone and call people, I would have a lot of trouble making deals happen. Being assertive on the phone helps you earn people’s respect and will make getting things done a lot easier. Speaking to people on the phone is a lot more effective than an email or text, and people will get the message the way it’s intended. People won’t have to try and decipher what the hell you meant in an email or text. Be straight-forward and don’t waste time by being lazy or afraid to call someone.

Lesson 4: Only focus on what you can control, and learn how to react to all the other things that happen.

One my college football coaches used to tell me all the time, control the controllables. I guess there are different ways to interpret this, but I see it as taking responsibility for everything in my business and life. Too many people get in to real estate and when they fail, they act like complete victims and blame everybody but themselves. They blame the market, their partner, the bank, contractors, the list is endless. When I focus on only the things in my immediate control, I am cutting out all of the other noise and distractions and I’m in a lot better position to succeed. One thing I can definitely control is attitude. There are going to plenty of things that come up along the way that are completely out of my control. How I have reacted to those obstacles and adversity has been directly related to my success thus far in real estate.

Lesson 5: Work your ass off and never lose your momentum.

To start any type of business, it always takes a great amount of effort to get it off the ground. When I first started, I was working between 80-90 hours per week. I was flipping 10 houses at a time, trying to implement new systems and build my team simultaneously. I worked very hard and there was a huge learning curve. I realized I didn’t know as much as I thought about investing, so I had to work even harder to make sure I was doing the right things. It was definitely a stressful but necessary part of the my life. I could have lessened my workload by buying less properties and going slower, but why would I want to do that? I knew that the quicker and harder I pushed, the faster I would learn and the quicker I could become successful. I have never lost my momentum when building my investment company and it has exploded the growth.

It's Your Turn 

Although these are the most important lessons I’ve learned thus far, I’m learning new things everyday. Real estate investing is such an interesting business because the laws are constantly changing, more people are trying to get into it each day, and it has created more millionaires than any other industry. To stay ahead of the curve and create a truly successful company, I have to always be adapting and overcoming obstacles. If I become complacent with the portfolio I’ve built, I only expose my company to more risk. As we expand our holdings, I know I have a set a strong foundation both personally and in our company to continue to have success. Real estate investing gives you the opportunity to architect the lifestyle you want to live and live life on your own terms. Hopefully, you can apply a few of these points directly to your life or business. Thanks for reading.