All Forum Posts by: Justin Williams

Wow! This thing has gone CRAZY! Soo proud of you guys! Also great job on your presentation at Flip Hacking LIVE! My favorite part was seeing everyone else get up and share their high D on their disc profile and have both you and Chris be such a low D an STILL dominating!! Such an incredible journey! Even more inspiring is how much you guys have given back to everyone in the REI community, been able to help your family, get your time and life back and even be able to help organizations like you did with OUR Rescue in the way you did. (I know you didn't intend for anyone to know about this but I think it is inspiring to others and shows what is possible) Keep inspiring and know that you have and continue to make such a huge impact on so many people, and we are all better off for knowing you.

Soo awesome @Arianne L. and @Chris Lemire!  Proud of you guys!  Such an inspiration to soo many!  Can't wait to hear present at Flip Hacking LIVE next month!!!  

haha thanks @Andy M. !  

Back to the arena is right!  

Also @Yonelle Baptiste and @Ronald Perich I just realized I neglected to thank you for your comments as well.  Much appreciated!  

2014 Final Results!  

Houses put under contract - 102 

As mentioned before we didn't reach our goal of 150 houses. Although we ended up buying more "in house" deals this year (especially the 2nd half) we didn't end up buying as many through the MLS or through wholesalers as I had anticipated. Rather than feel disappointed that we didn't reach out goal of 150 I am glad we were shooting for that or we probably wouldn't have focused as much as we did on direct sellers, and thus purchased far less.

We also adapted our buying criteria and increased our margins which I feel really good about.  There were probably 20 or so houses that we declined towards the end of last year that we would have purchase the year before because either the spread wasn't large big enough or it just didn't meet our new criteria.  When you are a home buying addict saying no to some of those houses can be tough, but I'm not much of a gambler and would rather sleep well at night even if it meant buying less houses :-)  

We also brought on 2 new buyers and entered 2 new markets towards the end of last yea which I feel like actually ended up brining our numbers down last year but now that they are more trained and we are more familiar with these new areas I am hoping that we can really hit the ground running in 2015! :-)  

I've had a lot of people ask me about my 2015 goals, and to tell the truth (even though it is not like me) I have haven't made them yet for this year.  As mentioned above there have been a lot of changes in the past couple months and I really want to see what happens in the next 30-45 days because this will help me determine what I think is realistic for us to do this year.  I would absolutely love to hit 150-200 this year but we have been so focused on making sure we are buying right, keeping ourselves out of trouble, going into new areas and new strategies and new buyers etc that honestly just pushing buying as hard as I possibly can hasn't been my #1 focus in the past couple months.  I do still want to buy at least 100 and would love to do more but am going to wait and see what happens here in the next month or two before I determine that.  

All right that's a wrap for this post!  If anyone has any final questions I'm happy to answer them, but other than that, it's time to put this thread to bed!  

HNY everyone! :-)  

11/2/14 - 12/6 Update

We've averaged a deal a week for the past 5 weeks which puts us at 98 so far for the year.  We actually had a couple others that look like they may not pan out so I won't include those.  

So with only a few weeks left to the end of the year obviously we aren't going to reach our goal of 150.  We won't even reach the 125 like I had thought we would a few months ago.  

I don't think anyone likes not reaching their goals especially when you tell them to the world and post it on a forum like this.  However I don't have any regrets.  I have no doubt that if I didn't have the goal of buying 150 houses this year I would not have pushed myself/my business in the way we did and tried to find new ways to buy houses, and we would have inevitably ended up purchasing far less than we did.

In a few weeks I'll do a final accounting of where we ended up and post the final results for the year, give some final words, and lessons learned and we'll put this thread to bed.  

Merry Christmas everyone!   

Wow! This party is just getting good! ;-)

I would second @Chris Clothier comment about if anyone wants to come hang out and BBQ you are more than welcome. You can get to know me, my family, 3 kids, my story, why I started educating, come visit my acquisitions team in my office, head down to San Diego, and visit with my assistant, shoot you can even go visit my mom in Riverside and ask her about the 2 times I have made her cry since she has worked for me. Ask her what it is like working for me, ask her about the transactions she funds, paperwork she signs, and even ask her what it was like giving birth to an 11.6 lb baby breach!

If you stay a few days you might even hear more about my goals and dreams for the future, you might hear about some of my personal and family struggles, (including some pretty serious ones just this year) and probably MUCH more than you would ever want to know bc I can be a gabber. I could tell you about the deal I lost $50,000 on earlier this year and about 3-4 that I just talked to Vanessa (my assistant) about today that we will probably just about break even on or lose a little bit (but are happy to just get out of)

Then if you stay an extra day we can get into even more detail with my education business, and you might learn that the first 9 months I spend about 60 hours a week working on it with a negative monthly profit, and at one point (ok more than one point) considered throwing in the towel and calculated the cost of returning everyone's money to them. If you stay a few days my wife might tell you about some of the therapy sessions she has had to give me as I have continued down this path.

We all have stories, back grounds, reasons why we do things. I don't blame anyone for any of the comments they have made here. I'm sure you have your reasons so even though (as my wife can attest to) I can be overly sensitive I'll try not to take it to heart. I'm sure you are great people just trying to say and do what you think is right. You don't know me or my intentions and there are those who do take advantage of others (especially in this industry), so although I would prefer you actually read the entire thread, listen to my podcast, or talk to anyone who actually knows me personally before making accusations I can see where the assumptions would come from.

I've been investing full time for about 7.5 years now. In my first 2 years I spent over $40,000 on programs that promised the world and delivered very little in return. (I even won a car from one of them but it was never actually sent :-( )I don't regret joining those programs bc I met some great people and learned enough to help me get to the next level, and find great resources like some of the local RE clubs here in So CA, and great forums like this one. However I could/would never recommend them to anyone else bc I know they were mostly hype and their one and only objective was 1) How much money could they get out of my pocket, and 2) How often could they do it.

We all know of people out there who charge you $25,000 to let you come to as many "free" seminars as you can only to bring in 10 pitch masters and up-sell the heck out of you! (on products they often don't even use or believe in themselves) Not to mention then if you REALLY want to learn "the SECRET" you have to up the Annie to the $40,000 program.

Oh and then there's the program where "hey we're on TV" so we will send someone else to your town (they will hit all of them) to sell you on their program of $40,000 and then send you to some guy (college kid in a cubical) to "teach" you out of a manual.

So I totally get it. We have all seen it so we are skeptical. However once again I would hope that we would do just a little more due diligence before being too quick to point the finger bc there really are some great educators out there who although do run a business and want to make a lot of money, really do care about providing value and I am grateful for them bc I would't be where I am today if they weren't willing to figure out how they could create a business out of education and thus allow them to do it often and do it well.

You will be very hard pressed to find anyone (oh I'm sure they are out there) who listens to my podcast, has heard me speak, been to one of my seminars, or knows me personally that would have anything negative to say about me. ok I guess that isn't totally true lol. I'm sure there is plenty to say negative about me, but you can talk to just about anyone in my program and they will tell you (well I hope at least) that I have given (and continue to give) them 1,000% more than they ever paid for.

Also I have to mention that there are some of you on here who are saintly! I am not for one second going to pretend that I would be able or willing to spend even close to the time I spend on here or the time you spend on here if I didn't feel like there was a direct and VERY selfish benefit to me! and if the benefit were only one of the many items I get from sharing with others it just wouldn't be worth it. My hat is off to all of you who give so selfishly. I wish I could say with 100% honesty that I am doing the same thing but it wouldn't be completely true so I won't try to make seem that way.

Like others have mentioned they "would" document more but they have NO benefit so they DON'T do it.

I recall being in that position a few years ago. I would speak at investment clubs when asked. (@Aaron Mazrillo/Ryan Skalla's club being the first many years ago) after a while I kept hearing about this blog called Bigger Pockets. In all honesty at first I thought it was probably full of a bunch of arrogant snobs (I mean just the name itself) but was blown away once I checked it out and all of the amazing things people were sharing.

I tried to get more involved but it was just difficult to do on a regular basis and still run my business. (you can check some of my few previous posts from a few years ago) but would just get too busy to keep it up. I started a blog as well to share my journey but that just didn't last too long either. I would have a lot of people reach out to me who wanted to learn but I just didn't have the time or system to help them all and still take care of my family, grow my business etc. Once again the "selfish" person in me just couldn't justify keeping it going for the little value it gave me in return.

I've always loved sharing/educating. It's been a passion of mine for years, so when I was finally in a position to choose more of how I spent my time I decided to really go for it. But this time I knew I had to set it up the right way and do something that could really last and have an impact. I knew I had to actually create a business out of it. But what would everyone think? Would they hate me? Think I'm a sell out? Taking advantage of people? I mean after all that is what people do in this industry right?

That's what investors do right? Take advantage of people and "steal" their houses..."A bunch of Vultures is what they all are"...(I think we know otherwise...)

After much debate and back and forth, I finally decided to go for it, and see what I could come up with. Could I really come up with a program that offered tremendous value without taking advantage of others and really give more than anyone asked?

I wish I could say I crushed it! They came in droves! My prices were soo good that the word just spread like wild fire and everyone signed up! Not so much! If you think RE investing is hard try starting an education business. Anyone who has either done so or tried will know exactly what I am talking about, just like those of you who who have either had success or are working towards success in your RE business know just how hard it is.

I am happy to say that I have stuck with it and am VERY happy to say the past few months have turned a profit and last month was a GREAT month for my education business! It might be up there with the hardest I have ever worked in a single month, and I really appreciate my family for being so supportive and understanding. It's not easy going to teach a seminar knowing you are missing your son's football and daughter's soccer games, but sure feels great to help others on this crazy path to financial freedom which we are all striving for.

Once again if anyone wants to come meet up with me, get to know me personally, do an "audit" of sorts you are more than welcome to. I'm pretty much an open book, and you'll probably learn a lot more about me than you care to.

@Bill Gulley  For you I will extend a personal challenge if you are up for it.  I would like to fly you down to San Clemente to be a guest in my home.  Come get to know my staff, learn more about my operations, (I might even show you my financials both from my house flipping and my education business.), Learn more about what I am trying to do and why, my past struggles  Even more importantly hopefully you will get to know me and my family a little better, and what we really stand for.  I can tell you are a great guy and really care about people so it would be my honor to have you as a guest.  Let me know if you accept and we'll set a date and book flights.  I really hope you do!  

Have a great Friday everyone!  Keep pushing, and most importantly enjoy the ride! :-)   

Not really sure how to respond to some of the comments in the past couple days.  I'm actually currently in a Starbucks in Humble Texas (suburb of Houston) and was looking forward to hopping on here before heading to the airport and updating some of the exciting events of the past couple days like the house we just put under contract earlier this afternoon (even though I've never been to Houston before) and going into details on how that came about, and all the other crazy adventures I've experienced the past couple days, lessons learned take aways, inspiration of how well my new friends @Hector Perez and @Darren Jennings are doing in such a short period of time etc etc.  

But now I'm feeling like I need to do a live Skype session and interview everyone here and "prove" I'm actually here and what I'm doing since apparently that is what some of the BP community expect from those who are willing to share.

I'm not trying to sound insulting but MANY people run successful businesses with overhead and lots of it!  Just saying if you are really interested in learning you might want to consider the way you go about asking questions instead of insulting those who are trying to help out.  

Just like

@Account Closed mentioned there are MANY investors who buy WAY more properties than I do and they are doing VERY well.  (one of them we met today) You don't see many of them on here and I am starting to see why...

Anyway I started this post to keep myself accountable, share some in sites and hopefully inspire others, (and like @K. Marie Poe mentioned yes to indirectly promote my program, which I try to avoid talking about on here directly but am sometimes forced to since some seem to think I am trying to "hide" something)  

I did not start this post to feel like I am on trial, prove myself, or show my bank statements etc.  

Do you need to watch your overhead? YES!  Can it get you in trouble if left unchecked and unbalanced? YES!  But to say it cannot be done is just plain ignorance.  

Ok time to get back to actually running a business and then gotta catch my flight back to Cali.  Good night Y'all! 

@Kyara G. !

@Ve'Ron Hall 

1) I have done some flipping in other states but very little.  Almost everything I buy has been in So Cal up to this point.  I have purchased a handful of properties in UT and a couple in New Mexico.  The reason I choose those states is bc I knew other investors in those areas with houses to sell and they made sense to me so I bought them.  I am pretty familiar with UT as well so that helped in that decision.  I am currently speaking to a friend of mine and we are going to go travel to several other markets as well in the upcoming weeks and months and I will probably start buying more aggressively in another market or two in the months/years to come.  But I would recommend starting out right where you live :-)  

2) How are you preparing for the next market crash?

By Making LOTS of money! ;-) 

Since the market has softened I have adjusted my margins to include a larger spread.  I have also noticed (at least here in CA) that the higher price point homes for each area are what seem to be struggling the most so I have pretty much stayed away from those.  I also like to buy mostly properties that could make good rentals as a plan B.  I will still buy houses that may not be the best rental properties but I try to have about 75% of my houses be rental properties.  The way I look at it, is if I am buying houses with 15-18% margin and even if the market were to go down 2% per month I should still be ok for the most part.  

At the end of the day there is risk to anything we do, so it is important that we take calculated risks but there will always be that risk.  For new investors who are concerned with the market I highly recommend focusing on wholesaling.  

3) We do direct marketing.  I don't know exactly how many pieces we are mailing but I do know we have spend about 65k in the past 6-7 months.  I would say we are spending about 10k a month but we were spending less 6 months ago and we have been spending more in recent months and will probably get to the point where we are spending about 20-25k a month here pretty shortly.  

4) We have a website as well and have purchased about 3-4 houses from it in the past 5-6 months.   

5) How many flips do we buy each month or how many do we have going on?

I currently own a total of 77 houses.  My personal residence, 10 rentals and 66 houses that are somewhere in the "flip process" 

18 of those are currently in escrow with end buyers

16 of them are listed

25 are being rehabbed

7 are occupied  

And that doesn't include the 9 that we currently have in escrow to purchase.  

Hope that helps!  

Hi @Nathan Brooks  Thanks for reaching out!

I've hired many people in the past 9.5 years since running my own business and a few in my RE business as well in the past 7.5 years, but I will go back 4 years to my first hire since I have been flipping on a large scale.  

That is when I hired my current assistant Vanessa who currently runs my entire house flipping system for me.  I say system bc that is just what it is.  There is no way she would be able to run it if it wasn't for systems and processes.  

Although she is currently on salary and get's bonused based on total company performance, and has a big responsibility, it didn't start out that way...

When I first hired her it was for 10 hours a week for the first few weeks for training and then 20 hours a week for about 6 months then we went up to 30 and eventually full time after about a year. 

Month 1 she got paid $11 an hour

Month 2 $12 an hour

Month 4 $13 an hour

Month 7 $14 an hour

Month 13 $15 an hour.  

As well as small bonuses whenever we closed a deal.  

At first she started out doing the small things like utilities, paperwork, meeting with locksmiths, signs in yards, lock boxes, taking calls, inputting listings etc. I also had her making offers on MLS properties. Now I have her doing literally everything.

Point being is that you don't have to nor should you start having someone do everything all at once.  Start small and grow into it.  

My goal is to have NO responsibilities.  I don't want to give myself a job or job description bc if I am part of "the system" then there is no system.  I guess you could say my responsibility is to continue to think big and see how I can help my team push the limits.  I probably spend about 3-5 hours a week in my house flipping business which consists mainly of talking about once a day to Vanessa, and talking to Kale (my acquisitions manager 2-3 times a week) 

and the rest of my time is focused on growing my education business and working with my community, and doing other things I love.  

Great questions and hope that helps answer them!   

10/26-11/1 Update 

3 new deals last week

2 in house and one from my main agent

Deal # 1) Here is the e-mail I got on Halloween from our main agent.  

I got a call from a guy yesterday that I had negotiated back in June, but he cancelled because his tenant started paying rent again. Landlords. Anyways, he is willing to sell it on the same terms as we had originally agreed to. Since then I would say that the values have firmed up a little bit so I feel a little more confident about our ARV. Here are the terms of this one.

Purchase price - $90,000

*Down payment of $22,500; seller to carry a note of $67,500 at 8% with interest only payments of $450 a month for 12 months.

Rehab - $13,000 

ARV - $132,000

Deal # 2) Another deal we got on Halloween (bring on Halloween!) This was a pretty good one that Kale put under contract.  

Deal # 3) So my father in law (who got his first deal the week before this) went back to Utah to go to a funeral last week and took some calls while he was there, and he was able to speak with a seller and set an appointment which Kale then went on for him and locked up another house.  

So that puts us up to 93 for the year.  

Oh @Shane Woods just saw your comment.  Thanks for the comment.  Yeah it's pretty cool to know you are making a difference in someone's life.  That is what life is all about! 

Have a great week everyone!