All Forum Posts by: William Allen

@Jeff C., you want me to tell you how much money I make?  

I netted a lot more in 2017 than I did in 2018 due to hiring my COO and having a lot of turnover after he got in place and started holding people accountable. I was around 40% initially but as I grew my team and scaled it was closer to 25%. My COO takes a big salary now, I take a salary, and he runs the entire show. I have about 2-3 hours of meetings a week now with the team and emails / fires to deal with only occasionally. That was what I wanted so I'm happy to get my paycheck every Friday now and NET some more profit at the end of the year but not need to keep it all. What I really love is watching people in the company make more money than me from time to time! Never thought I'd be saying that...

Lessons from 2016:

Don’t quit when you are 2” from gold. It took me almost 4 months to do my first deal and see any money come in. During that time I was paying for marketing, paying my assistant, working hard any time I had off from my Navy job, going on appointments, getting thrown out of houses, etc… but I didn’t quit. I set my budgets and did what I was told to do, it wasn’t easy but I didn’t quit even when I started to doubt myself and the process. I see so many new investors right now say that they are really trying, putting in the effort, spending the money, staying the course but they quit just 2” from gold. They don’t do all the things they are saying they are doing because they are scared. I wasn’t going to fail, I wouldn’t allow it. But if I did, I was going to be able to say that I did everything in my power to build that business and it just wasn’t the right thing for me if I didn’t get there.

Another big lesson is that the difference between 0 deals and 1 deal is MASSIVE! Once I did that first one look at how the flood gates opened. I gained confidence and could really believe in the process. That is what you have to do, take as much time to get that first deal as it takes but after that you are ready for A LOT more!

I saw a ton of challenges at this time of my life. My wife and I had our second son in October of 2016 and he had a heart defect. He had 4 open heart surgeries between Nov 2016 and May 2017 all while I was running a company, flying for the Navy and taking care of my family. Lesson here – turn this into fuel instead of making it an excuse. I could have quit and felt sorry for myself but I used it to focus on my WHY. I used any down time I had in the hospital to figure out how to grow. I also had a great team around me that supported me when I couldn’t be around.

2017 Lessons

I said at a meeting of my peers running other companies in October of 2016 that I would be in a new market by our next meeting in Feb 2017. Come January of 2017 I hadn’t done anything to get that rolling but with that meeting coming up I knew I had to implement like crazy. I wasn’t going to be the guy who showed up and didn’t do what he said he was going to do, that IS NOT ME! So I did it, and mostly from the hospital bed next to my son James! Lesson here is that even perceived accountability is important to all of us. You need someone or a group of people to hold you accountable or you will not make it. It’s human nature! Find your people, put it out there, and watch things explode.

2017 seemed to be the story of the bamboo tree. I focused, did what I needed to do, then once we got going in 2016 we could watch it grow in 2017. But without all that up front work in 2016 it just wouldn’t have happened. Also growing and leading a team. I had 7 people working for me this year and we were all virtual. I had moved away from both of my markets to care for my son so I had to have the right people in place before I could do that. I learned a lot about leadership and management this year. Those lessons are way too long to share here.

2018 Lessons

Hired a COO in December 2017 and he started in January of 2018. I expected this to be a 3 month process and boy was I wrong on that! I wanted to be out of the day to day operations in 3 months because I was going to be working in another company at that time and only leading this team as the visionary. That was the plan! It took 6 months but he's killing it for us now a year and a half after being hired. We were also still trying to double year over year while adding in accountability for the staff who seemed to enjoy not being managed. Biggest lesson, growth and accountability is a tough combination to implement at once!

#1 lesson of running a business. Have the right people and know how to lead them to do more than they think they are capable of. This will get you very far.

Don’t underestimate what you are capable of! I thought I was capable of making a couple hundred thousand dollars a year and that’s where I would land. I also thought I should do it all on my own and frankly I was scared to hire someone. That has all changed drastically!

Surround yourself with the right people. What are you putting into your body and who are you following? Are you following leaders or are you following people who are going in the wrong direction as you? Find that person you need to emulate and attach yourself to them! Figure out how to get in those rooms you don’t belong in, that’s what I did and still do!

Don’t be afraid to get outside of your comfort zone. You may like what you find there and may become more successful than you could have ever thought you would be! And it may not take you as long as you thought. 

I was recently reminded of a post @Arianne L. did on her success in real estate and when I went to that post again I saw how many people had been affected by it, so inspiring! Then I just happened to look at how many times I had posted on BP and I was at 999 posts since I joined. Well, what could be better for my 1,000 post than to tell my story and hopefully inspire some people to think bigger than they are right now and go for it!

4 years ago I decided to really take real estate investing seriously and try and build a real business around it. I had been a weekend warrior landlord for a few years and flipped 1 house the year before when I committed to taking this leap. I had a full time job flying for the Navy at the time and thought it would be a good idea to start building a business. Essentially, it wasn't long before I had 2 full time jobs! I was actually on the BP podcast shortly after I started getting serious about REI that you can check out here if you want some more details. I think it will be funny for me to go back and listen to that episode now to see how far I have come since then, we always look at what the next milestone is and rarely do we take time to look back and appreciate how far we have come.

I think the best way to lay all this out is to outline what the results are and then go back and state the lessons learned from a lot of it year to year.

Original Plan 

December 2015 – Build a business to flip 12 houses a year netting $30k per deal making me $360k a year. Retire from the Navy at 20 years and enjoy both incomes.

2016 Highlights

Hired my first person as an assistant to handle lead intake and admin support

Jan - Apr: $18k spent and no income yet

April 18: Closed my first deal and made $9,825 on a wholesale fee

May: Did another wholesale deal making $9,900

June: Closed 6 wholesale deals for a total of $55,086.21

…….

Dec (biggest month): Closed 14 deals for a total of $111,767.18

The total in 2016 was 67 deals, 12 flips and 55 wholesale deals for a total gross profit of $667k. By the month of December I had scaled up to 4 people working with me and we did $111,767.18 that month. So, we were on track to be a 7 figure business if we could keep that going!

2017 Highlights

Jan: 14 deals for a total of $105,659.66 – second month in a row!

Feb: We were up and running in a second virtual market that I had only been to once

Apr: We closed our first deal in that new market for a $15,100 assignment fee, had 6 people working for the company now and I LEFT MY FULL TIME JOB WITH THE NAVY. More about this later.

Jul: Biggest month we had ever had, closed 28 deals for a total of $190,898.89 in gross profit

The total for the year was 183 deals and $1,315,795.40 in gross profits. About 20% of them were flips and the other 80% wholesale deals.

Hired a COO to run the company in December 2017.

2018 Highlights

Jan: 8 deals closed and $19,493.61 profit (ouch!) We decided to flip a ton more in 2018 and were trying to flip 50 houses this year.

Feb: Up and running in a 3rd market. 11 deals with $57,400 profit – again we bought more of these houses!

Mar: 16 deals for $237,033.88 profit so we were back in business

Apr: Closed our first deal in new market on the 25th of this month

Aug: Best month ever to date, 25 deals for $359,875 profit

Total for the year was 187 deals and $2,351,452.59 in gross profits. Similar 80/20 ratio of wholesales to flips

2019

Goal at the start of this year was $3.5M. This post is already too long so I will do another one toward the end of the year to tell you all how we are doing! 

Image of all month to month over these 3 years (through Sep 18) so you can see the roller coaster it is!  Something happened each time to make that line go up and down, usually people issues.

This post became way too long so I will post my lessons learned below it...

Wow, this post really took off since the last time I saw it.  I'm so proud of you guys @Arianne L.!  Hopefully some others will follow you to that same event this year in San Diego in a few months.  Seeing that I was somehow involved in this journey of yours really is why we put on events like Flip Hacking Live!  See you soon at this years event!

Some more details on the event:

What: Flip Hacking Live 2019 - 6 and 7 Figure Wholesalers and House Flippers opening the doors to their business for 3 days

When: Oct 10-12, 2019

Where: Hilton Bayfront Hotel, Downtown San Diego, CA

Who is this for: Anyone that is on this forum.  You don't have to have done hundreds of deals to attend, it could be that you are just getting started or you are running a big company.  Wholesalers, house flippers, landlords and agents likely make the most sense as for strategy but there is quite a bit of mindset and personal development as well. 

When I started in this business I knew that I needed to surround myself with the right people. I always made every effort to be in rooms with people who are succeeding at a high-level and frankly those who are smarter than me or doing WAY more than me. People who could push me and inspire me to do more and be more than I was at the time.

Everyone speaking at Flip Hacking Live next month will be those who are doing a minimum of $500k in their business per year and the majority are doing at least 7 figures per year in gross profit. And all of them are an open book and happy to share what they are doing and how they are doing it with everyone in the room. Once a year we all get together during the same week to share the insights and experiences that have helped us grow our business into six and seven and now eight figure profit companies.

You really cannot afford to miss this event. Flip Hacking Live is a once a year opportunity to surround yourself with the best, most successful real estate investors in the country. What could that do to your business?  Are you working on your business right now or in it?  Take these 3 days to work on it!

This year we have upped the stakes by inviting some incredible guest presenters to the event as well. I will post an update to this post when we publicly announce next week who will be speaking. When that happens it will sell out quickly. This FHL is going to be phenomenal. I personally know several people whose lives were forever changed by attending this event, and they have posted their success stories here or been on the podcast.

If you haven’t already bought your ticket, what are you waiting for? What will you be doing that week that will impact your business as profoundly as this event? What if, by going to this event, your business doubled or tripled over the next 12 months?

This event doesn't just scratch the surface of what we are all doing, we really go deep into the how and why of what we are doing in our businesses. If you are looking to ramp up your wholesaling and house flipping businesses or turn your hobby into a business then you should make a point to get to this event.

I hope you all check it out, the link to the page to get more information and sign up is https://fliphackinglive.com

@Garrett Pearson, did you come to the event last year?  I didn't see this last year or I would have responded, it's a great event for someone at any level.  I was the MC (emcee?) of the event last year. 

This is the best real estate event of 2019 hands down!  There is an opportunity to network with 1,000 real estate investors from around the country in San Diego of all places.  

This is not a hyped up mindset driven event but rather an event focused on value for the audience.  We are putting 6, 7, and 8 figure income earners on the stage to share what they are doing in their business right now to find leads, negotiate deals, find / hire / train their teams, and lead to win in this marketplace.  

Marketing - Sales - Negotiation - Team Building - Leading - Wholesaling - Flipping - Beginners all the way up to people doing hundreds of deals a year!

Check it out at www.fliphackinglive.com

I hope to see you there and look forward to answering any questions people may have about the event.

P.S. - We have hired Jocko Willink this year to be the keynote speaker.  Anyone know who he is? 

@Arianne L.

Check out the PIG too

I used to use Jill Sport in Pace, FL before I moved. Right by Pensacola if you aren’t familiar with Pace. 

Come network with other real estate investors. Wholesalers, Flippers, Landlords, Contractors, Hard Money Lenders, anyone who wants to get some deals done and network!

My company did just under 200 deals last year so there will be high level, full time real estate investors at this meetup who's brain you can pick for FREE.  We know that the more we work together the more deals we will do together!

We will be doing one event south of Nashville each month (near Spring Hill, TN) and one north of Nashville each month (likely Springfield, TN).  

This will be pure networking, no teaching and presenting.  Share deals, hand out business cards, get to know other investors in the area and let's work together to do more deals!

Can RSVP HERE