Flipping Success: 200 Houses and Counting

Jeffrey embarked on his journey at the age of 21, choosing to dive into the world of real estate instead of pursuing a traditional college education. In 2016, he ventured into house flipping and has successfully flipped over 200 houses since then 🔥

Episode Transcript

Mike (00:00):
All right, everyone.

(00:00):
Welcome to the Real Estate GameChangers show.
I'm your host, Mike McKay, basedin the Jacksonville, Florida
market.
And each and every week we dothis show with people who are
changing the game of real estateall over the country.
And anyone in the Jacksonvillearea we are looking at higher
acquisitions people right now.
So if you have sales experienceor you don't need to have real

(00:21):
estate experience, but as longas you have sales experience,
and this is something you'reinterested in, send me a DM on
Instagram and I can let you knowwhat we have open this week on
the show, we have JeffreyJohnson, Jeffrey, welcome to the
show

Jeffrey (00:35):
Yeah, man.
Thanks for having me.
I only wish I was there inFlorida with you so I could be
experiencing your warm weather.

Mike (00:41):
for sure.
Well, for the people who whodon't know you, do you want to
give a little bit of backgroundabout how you got into real
estate and how that's led you towhere you are today?

Jeffrey (00:50):
Yeah, for sure.
I have been an entrepreneur myentire life ever since I was a
little kid.
My first thing that I did was Iwould flip cell phones on
Craigslist.
Did that for a little while.
I was like the top salesman inmy whole life going through
school.
I would sell coupon books,pizzas, all the things right.
And sales just always kind ofcame naturally to me.

(01:13):
And then I ended up moving intocouches.
I flipped couches for a fewyears and then I went to college
and I literally just hatedschool.
School is like the worst thingever for me.
I, I was just so bored with itand I was not really doing super
well in school.
And I ended up finding a book onmy dad's bookcase called flip

(01:35):
houses with no money down by fanMerrill.
And me and my buddy picked itup.
And we were literally just in mydad's office just screwing
around, like no idea what realestate was.
And we were kind of thumbingthrough this book and we're just
like, man, like we should dothis.
And he's like, yeah, let's dothis.
And we're like, all right.
So we go literally walkdownstairs to my parents and

(01:57):
we're like, Hey, mom and dad,like Steph was my buddy.
I'm like, we're going to, we'regoing to get into real estate.
We're going to flip houses.
And they're like, okay, likesure.
And so, basically we ended upgoing to get our real estate
license from there and he endedup not going all the way
through, but I ended up gettingmy license and started as a real
retail agent for three to fouryears.

(02:17):
I wanted to flip housesoriginally when you're 20 and
you really ignorant on how a lotof things work.
It was hard for me to fliphouses at that point.
There wasn't as much knowledgeand info on YouTube and social
media as there is now.
Nowadays, a 20, 21 year oldabsolutely could with the wealth
of info, but at the time, like Ididn't really have a clue what I
was doing.

(02:38):
So I spent three to four yearskind of just failing, figuring
things out, learning what realestate was, how to comp a
property, how to look at deals,how to talk to people, how to
solve problems, really likebuilt up my base.
And then in 2016, I was an agentfor a wholesaler.
He wholesaled a portfolio toanother client and I made like a

(03:04):
small 3 percent commission like10, 000 on the deal and he made
120, 000 on the wholesale feeand I saw the HUD at the end of
the deal.
And I was like, dude, did youactually make 120, 000 on this
one single deal?
And he was like, yeah, we did.
And I'm like, like, please,whatever I have to do, tell me
how to do this because I've gotto learn.

(03:26):
Like, I've got to learn.
And he was kind enough to mentorme just a little bit.
Enough to kind of get me going.
And then I ended up working asan acquisition rep for a team,
probably similar to how you andI have our team set up now,
worked as an acquisition rep forabout a year, learned a ton,
learned how to really comp aproperty.
If you're buying it, learn whathard money was, learn what

(03:48):
lending was.
Learned how to walk into a homeand assess for repairs.
And then that really set me upfor my first deal where I ended
up knocking on the door of awoman who was going into
foreclosure.
She had no idea she was about tolose the house, and I was able
to help her stop it.
Ended up buying the home,flipped it.
We made 40,000 on it.

(04:09):
And from that moment on, it waslike.
Everything changed for me.
It's my eyes were completelyopen to the whole other side of
real estate that I had nevereven heard or known about.
All I knew was 3%, 3%, 3%.
And to kind of learn that sideof it and see, just the mountain
of possibilities that were outthere.

(04:31):
That was 2016 and 17 and sincethere I've been able to flip
over 200 houses and I've justloved this whole business.
I love doing it and it's justbeen amazing being a part of it.
You

Mike (04:43):
So what made you like a lot of people when they kind of
get into it, they kind ofwholesale first, and then they
kind of move into flipping andrenovating what made you decide
just to kind of go directly?
Well, I guess not directly, butdirectly from being an agent to
flipping the house.
Yeah.

Jeffrey (05:00):
know, honestly, the house, when we got it, it was
pretty bad shape.
Like the carpet was really badand the paint was awful and
there was junk in the house andit was like, it didn't really
occur to me that I could, I knewthat the other guy had whole
sold that one deal, but it justseemed to me like the most
logical thing would be to dosome work to it before I sold it

(05:20):
because being an agent, you'reused to walking into homes that
are kind of show ready.
And hindsight, we probably couldhave wholesale wholesaled it for
sure.
But you know, it just, I waslike, Hey, let's put some carpet
in, let's paint it.
Like now I go into homes and Ihave like a whole plan, a scope
of work.
I know exactly what we're goingto do.
I just walked into that one andwas like, well, it looks like

(05:42):
the carpet's bad.
We should probably do thecarpet.
Well, we're going to have toprobably paint it if we do that.
Well, we might as well putgranite in the kitchen.
Well, this light fixture isugly.
We should probably replace that.
And oh, that cabinet's broken.
It's just we just kind of did itas we saw needed.
It took us about two months todo it.
And then we're like, well, let'sjust put it on the market.
And that's, kind of how it allshook out.

Mike (06:04):
Gotcha.
So once you did that first one,did you jump into like flipping
full time?
Or were you still kind ofplaying around the space?
Gotcha.

Jeffrey (06:13):
I mean, I had some clients as an agent that were
still with me, but like I said,when that final wire came into
my account and my balance wentfrom like 5, 000 to 45, 000, I
was like, what have I been doingfor the last five years?
Because this is obviously waymore lucrative.
And so I finished out my retailbusiness and ended up, just kind

(06:37):
of working with a few peoplefrom there.
But I was really like, like, Iwas like, Hey, like I've got to
figure out how to make this afull time thing and everything
that I do.
And it's just, so it kind ofslowly morphed into it, but,
probably within about a year Iwas completely full time in it.

Mike (06:52):
And what, what have you kind of put in place over?
Over the years to, I mean,obviously flipping 200 homes is
quite a few.
You must've put like some good,like systems processes, things
like that.
Like how did you like grow thatbusiness from just doing that
first one to I'm sure you've gotmultiple going on at a time now.

Jeffrey (07:10):
Yeah, we've had, I think the most we had was in
2021.
We had 30 going at one time,which was in actually too many,
I think.
But, to be honest with you, likesystems and processes is
probably one of my weakest areasas a leader.
And it's.
I've really learned how to setthose things up like completely

(07:32):
by necessity.
It would have been better if Ihad a plan from the beginning
and set it up because it startedjust me.
Then I hired a guy to run andhelp me with acquisitions.
His name was Kyle.
And then we were gosh, we neededan admin help with all this
paperwork that we hate doing.
So then we brought the assistantin, her name was Patty and we

(07:53):
never really like sat down andin the beginning, we never
really sat down and really did agreat job at setting up systems
and processes.
And, I wish that we had, becausepart of my journey is that we
really built up really stronglyup to through 2021.
And then when the market shiftedand the interest rates went up,

(08:14):
I learned quickly that.
My business was, while it wasrunning and it was successful,
it wasn't really able to sustainthat level of, volume because I
hadn't done a good enough jobbuilding up those things from
the very beginning.
And so, I've worked with a guynamed Gary Harper, his team came
to our office and kind of helpedlay some front, some groundwork

(08:37):
for us.
And we've kind of looked atother systems on and it's just,
it's an area that is, it'schallenging because you can,
when you have a team that's, wehad nine people at one point.
And when you have that manypeople, it's you can know what
to do, but you really, like, Ireally wish I had just been
super intentional about it fromthe beginning.
And we have much better systemsin place now, but I think we

(09:00):
would have avoided a lot of thepain and the trial that we went
through if we had been moreintentional from the very
beginning.

Mike (09:07):
What are some examples of maybe like the one or two
biggest things that you wish youhad been more intentional about
from the beginning?

Jeffrey (09:14):
Yeah.
So if anyone is listening andthey would have a desire to own
a lot of flips at once, which ifyou have a bunch of employees,
that's really what you need.
When you own, I would say, morethan three or four houses,
you've got to have a airtightsystem on what happens from the
day that house is bought to theday that it's sold because,

(09:36):
amazingly, we would have houseswhere it's sold.
The power wouldn't get turnedon.
The water wouldn't get turnedon.
The renovation wouldn't start infor three weeks.
Things that you would thinklike, Oh, well you own the
house, of course, you're goingto remember to go turn the power
on and get the locks changed.
This is a 300, 000 asset.
Like how could you forget?
Well, when you've got 20 ofthem.

(09:59):
It's, like if we had that set upfrom the very beginning, it
would have really helped a lotof headaches go away and we
just, I guess you don't reallyknow a lot of things like that
until you go through them andnow that we've gone through it,
I can kind of see how helpfulthat would have been.
But definitely would have wishedwe would have set that up a
little bit better.

(10:19):
And then the other thing that.
We could have done better is inour sales process, we had five
acquisition people at one point.
And if you don't have a plan anda strategy really airtight for
that many people, it's just,it's not going to run as well as
you want.
And we had deals coming in, butI think a lot of it.

(10:40):
It was like the deep, the highvolume we did a lot of it was
because the market was so goodand we were able to sell things
so quick and so easy that, theguys, they were getting deals
cause it was just kind of easy.
But once it became not so easyand we had some adversity,
that's where I'm like, gosh, Iwish we had done a better job at
setting this up to be a reallywell run machine ahead of time.

Mike (11:02):
Yeah.
So what changes have you put inplace to overcome those two
things?

Jeffrey (11:07):
Well, essentially, we, I kind of have come to the
realization that, a lot ofpeople think that when they get
into flipping that they shoulddo more every year, like they
should always be increasing andthere should always be this
substantial amount of like, likeyou always need to be growing

(11:28):
and we kind of experienced that.
And I think what I realized isthat I actually is my, career
progresses and I kind of movealong.
I'm actually more interested indoing larger scale.
Bigger, impact deals, if youwill like land development and
new construction.
So essentially what we have,what I've learned is that we are
going to, we have our system setup now to where we have a really

(11:52):
kind of efficient machine wherewe are going to do about 30
flips this year, and we'reactually now focusing a lot of
our other efforts onto largerdeals like new construction and
develop land development.
One land development deal andone construction deal happening
right now.
And what I'm seeing is that theprofit that we're projecting
from those two deals isessentially about the profit we

(12:15):
would get from 10 flips.
So we average about 30 to 35 Kprofit per flip.
And we have a really clear pathto about 350, 000 on the land
development deal.
And about 120, 000 on theconstruction deal.
And so, to kind of answer yourquestion, I think I've learned
that it's not necessarily aboutalways doing more learning how

(12:39):
to do for me, like higherimpact, bigger profit deals
where I can.
Kind of use my mind more and Ijust, I don't want to have a
team that's just massive andthere's just so many moving
pieces.
I'd rather have it be a littlemore simple but doing like
really, big deals, if you will.

Mike (12:56):
It sounds like you've been a, you've got like to do like 30
a year now, that kind of ispretty easy for you.
Like the way you've set it upcurrently.

Jeffrey (13:05):
Right.
I mean, I don't know if I wouldsay it's very doable without a
ton of like overhead and withouta ton of like oversight.
So it's essentially two to threea month for us.
And like I was telling youearlier, most of our deals come
from the foreclosure list frompeople who are going into
foreclosure.
So we have a really streamlinedprocess where my two acquisition

(13:26):
guys now market to them and itdoesn't require us to have this
major system in place to get allthose deals.
And it allows me to go focus onthese bigger impact deals, which
is what I've really wanted to dofor the last year or two.

Mike (13:41):
So, yeah, I remember we were talking offline.
You said probably about ahundred or more of the deals
that you've done have had beenfrom foreclosure.
So you want to talk a little bitabout kind of like the process
of how you do that and just thenuances that come along with it.

Jeffrey (13:56):
Yeah, absolutely.
So the thing that I love aboutworking with people going into
foreclosure is that I've come tolearn that there is a absolute
genuine need for them to havesomebody like us, like a real
estate investor, help them.
Not all sellers should sell toan investor.
I know that we would like tothink that we shouldn't ever,

(14:19):
people should always accept ourcash offer.
But the reality is that a lot ofpeople should actually sell
their home on the retail marketand get more money for it.
That's just the reality of thesituation.
And if you.
Like I don't want to go topeople's homes to some lady's
home who doesn't really knowwhat she's doing and she has all
the time in the world to selland I tell her that her best

(14:40):
option is to take 50 percent ofmarket value because I just want
to make a bunch of money on thehouse, but when people are in a
foreclosure situation.
They're actually like they'redays away from losing all the
equity in their home potentiallyand having their credit
completely ruined.
And the thing is it's obviouslynot the doing of us or the

(15:01):
investor.
It's their own doing.
They get in that situation andthey think that they have other
options that they're going topursue.
They think something's going tohappen and they end up falling
through and they, they honestlyneed somebody that can like,
sometimes we buy a house.
We'll contract it on Tuesday andbuy it on Friday before the
auction, because that's how fastthey need somebody to be able to

(15:23):
move.
And what I've come to learn isthat the banks that are,
foreclosing on these people,they are extremely difficult to
deal with because They've gotall this red tape.
They've got all these differentdepartments and your average,
little old lady who needs to geta payoff for her mortgage
statement that's in foreclosurehas absolutely no idea how to

(15:45):
push the right buttons to getwhat she needs.
so we really kind of marketourselves as someone that comes
alongside them.
And so the foreclosure processis just what I love about it.
Is that it's just really a wayfor us to provide like a really
genuine value to the sellerwhere we end up making a great
profit on the deal, but at theend, the seller comes up to us

(16:08):
and they're like, Hey, youliterally like saved us, like,
thank you so much.
We're so happy.
And we don't know what we wouldhave done.
Like, well, what we do know, wewould have lost the home.
So, there's a lot of differentnuances to somebody.
Like if you want to go out andget foreclosures, I think in
Georgia, at least they're one ofthe best lead sources because

(16:29):
every month.
There's a list that comes outand you have basically 30 days
before the auction date, right?
So there's obviously tons andtons and tons of people that buy
that list and start texting itcalling it doing all these
different things right and ourteam We like to take a little
bit of a different approachbecause we know that the seller

(16:51):
has already gotten 20 pieces ofmail, 20 calls, 20 texts, like
they're overwhelmed.
So we actually have one of ourguys, he always goes and he
knocks on doors and peopletypically don't want to talk to
him.
They are really like, like, Hey,like, I don't want to talk about
this, but he, and he says, okay,like totally get that, but he
will handwrite all of them aletter.

(17:12):
And he will leave it on theirdoorstep.
And then when they are ready tokind of process the fact that
someone's just coming to theirdoor, they'll pick up the letter
and they'll read it.
And we really try to positionourselves as somebody that wants
to come alongside them, helpthem, we can do everything for
you.
And oftentimes people, afterthey've come down from there,
like, don't knock on my door.

(17:33):
I don't want to talk to you.
Like, get away from me.
They will call us back and say,Hey, I actually would like for
you to kind of look at mysituation and help me and talk
to me.
And then that's when we kind ofstep in, we figure out all the
necessary info, and then wereally work hard to get on the
line with the banks and theattorneys and kind of figure out
how we get the informationthat's needed.

(17:54):
And then oftentimes we're ableto get a super good deal on the
house because.
Of all that work that's neededon the front end.
And then we will usually givethem some time in the home
after.
And it, it just ends up being awin situation for everybody.
And I've just found it to bereally effective.
That's not to say that there'sobviously lots of other ways to
get deals, but I, for us andwhat we're trying to move into,

(18:17):
like it's a really effective wayto do it.

Mike (18:19):
So your acquisitions guys, I think you don't do like, you
don't do the normal traditionalmarketing.
It's really just like kind of onthe ground, going out, knocking
on the door, leaving the letter.
Or do you guys also do kind ofthe, the traditional stuff?

Jeffrey (18:33):
You mean like, texting, calling direct mail kind of

Mike (18:36):
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.

Jeffrey (18:37):
We have done a lot of it in the past, so I've
definitely kind of looked at theROI and the KPIs on that
marketing and, if we wanted todo a hundred deals, we
absolutely would probably add inmore of those marketing
channels, but because our focusis.
A little bit of a lowerquantity, but higher quality.

(18:59):
And then we also are adding onthis layer that I talked to you
about where we're developingland and building homes.
It's just like necessarily haveto add in a bunch of other
stuff.
Plus, I don't know about you,but I've seen a really
diminishing return on texting inthe last year.
And it's been extremely hard toget texts to go through.
The calling is even harder.

(19:21):
Most people just don't answerthe phone.
And, I think the one area that Iprobably will and need to invest
money in is PPC and getting ourwebsite to be it's a good
website right now where peoplecan go online and really read
about us and understand what wedo.
But I think if we were going tospend money, it would be in that

(19:41):
field to really strengthen thateven more and then drive people
to that website.

Mike (19:46):
Yeah, I gotcha.
So your guys are kind of justdoing more of the kind of
marketing you were talking aboutlike the on the ground stuff
then then one up one off callsor

Jeffrey (19:56):
Yeah they'll call people.
Like they'll research people andcall them that are on the list
if they didn't get ahold ofanybody at the door.
So we're still calling, but it'smore of like a individual
approach versus like a bigshotgun dialer approach.

Mike (20:09):
gotcha.

Jeffrey (20:10):
Yep.

Mike (20:11):
And then are you guys Is Georgia, is it a judicial
foreclosure state or

Jeffrey (20:15):
It's nonjudicial.

Mike (20:16):
it's non judicial?
So how quick is the process?
Like once they, the foreclosureprocess starts for a homeowner,
how long is it?

Jeffrey (20:24):
The lender has to give them a 30 day notice to, to
basically bring their mortgagecurrent.
And then once that's notsatisfied, then that's when they
put the home on the, like theyhave to advertise it in the
newspaper for 30 days.
And then whatever the followingfirst Tuesday of a month is,
that's when it goes to theauction.
So it's pretty quick.

Mike (20:45):
Wow.
Okay.
That is pretty quick.

Jeffrey (20:47):
Yeah, so I think that it's up to the lender's
discretion when they want tostart that process.
But they like, I think if youmiss one payment, they can start
the process.
And then within 60 days, yourhome could be up for auction.
So most lenders aren't going todo it in one month.
They're going to wait a fewmonths to try to rectify it, but
it can move pretty quick if thelender wanted it to.

Mike (21:10):
And do you guys go after any of the like stuff that's in
pre foreclosure or you're onlykind of focusing on it once it's
actually hit that list?

Jeffrey (21:18):
Well, in Georgia, it's, there's only a handful, like a
five to 10 percent that willcome out like in advance of 30
days.
So, set up where.
90, 95 percent of them all getbatched on that.
Like one, they come out on oneday, like 30 days or so before
the auction.

(21:39):
And so you, there are some thatlike, if it's February right
now, there are some that arealready being advertised for
maybe May or April, but themajority of what we're going to
see right now is only going tobe for March,

Mike (21:51):
Gotcha.

Jeffrey (21:52):
right?

Mike (21:53):
What are the other like roadblocks that people might run
into if they're focusing onforeclosures?

Jeffrey (21:59):
Well, I mean, you obviously are going to have cash
ready pretty quick because ifsomebody calls you and they want
you to do something, you aregoing to need to be able to
perform.
However, you could also justreinstate the loan and take it
sub two, which is an option thatwe've done before.
But typically it's.
Most sellers are going to wantto see you pay off that
mortgage.

(22:19):
So, it is better to have hardmoney or private money lined up
pretty quick.
The other thing that is aroadblock is you, when I say you
have to move quick, like you,you really have to move quick.
So.
You don't really have a bunch oftime to get all your contractors
and your guys in there to gowalk the house and like assess

(22:39):
all the repairs and all thatyou've really got to be able to
look at those things, eitherthrough pictures or have one of
your guys like go out and do onewalk through and kind of be
like, okay, like, here's ourworst case.
Here's our best case.
And you got to be able to make adecision pretty quick.
And then I would say one otherroadblock is that if you, like,

(23:00):
you've really got to learn theright kind of language and the
right kind of tone to take withthe foreclosure attorneys and
the banks, because as anexample, if a seller was going
to foreclosure this, like theforeclosure auction in Georgia
is in three days on Tuesday, ifsomebody were to have called us
yesterday and said, Hey, I'mabout to lose my home, can you
guys help me?

(23:21):
And you, and we said, okay,sure.
And we got on the phone with themortgage company or the
foreclosure attorney and said,Hey, we need a payoff and we
need a reinstatement so that wecan help this seller, rectify
the situation.
They typically are going to say,okay, sure we can do that, but
it's going to be seven to 10business days until we get that
document to you.

(23:41):
Because that's what, that'sessentially what is required in
the law.
Like that's the amount of timethey have to do it.
So.
One of the guys that used towork for me, his name was Kyle.
He was extremely good at knowinghow to push the buttons of the
attorneys with, essentially kindof threatening lawsuits and kind
of, telling them things like,Hey, like, you really have to
make them feel like it's goingto be a bigger problem for them

(24:04):
to not help you than if theywere to help you.
And that's kind of the approachwe take, like.
He would say things like, do youreally want to have a wrongful
foreclosure suit?
Do you really want to, have thiswoman lose her home and she's
trying to pay and we're tryingto send you money.
And it just can be a little bitof a game.
It's a little frustrating to behonest with you, how much of a
game it can be.

(24:24):
He would sometimes go, he wouldgo on LinkedIn and he would find
like the president of banks andhe would message them on
LinkedIn and say, Hey you're theforeclosure department's not
giving us what we need.
We need you guys to kind of movethis along.
And he would actually look upcell phone numbers of executives
and banks and he would textthem.
I mean, he we would go like,when I say we really have to do

(24:46):
a lot of work, like we would goway above and beyond what you
would think is necessary becausefor us, like we want to get that
deal and we don't want theseller to lose their home.
So you, you've really got to bewilling to push if you want to
get these deals done.

Mike (25:02):
Wow.
Did he ever have success withpeople messaging him back from
LinkedIn texting him back on the

Jeffrey (25:08):
All the time.
Yeah, that's he, that's how hegot multiple payoffs within
like, like a couple hours.
He would just hound them onLinkedIn, social media.
He would, we would skip tracethem and find their cell phone
numbers and just berate themuntil they gave us what we
wanted.
And I mean, it worked to behonest with you.

Mike (25:27):
And like, what type of level of executives are you
reaching out to?
Like, where was he contacting?
Like all the way to the top?
Or like,

Jeffrey (25:34):
I don't know if this guy responded, but he reached
out to Jamie Diamond, the CEO ofchase ones.

Mike (25:39):
he reached out to Jamie Dimon.

Jeffrey (25:41):
I don't think Jamie responded, but I know that he
did find his LinkedIn and said,Hey, like I need this document.
Yeah, I don't think Jamie checkshis LinkedIn inbox, but if he
did, he would see that message.

Mike (25:54):
Only the most famous banker of all time.

Jeffrey (25:56):
Yeah, I mean, I think he actually did it because he
just wanted to say that he likemessaged Jamie Dimon's but I
mean, CEO isn't typically who hewould get the response from.
He would typically find like theVP of the foreclosure
department.
A lot of these banks will havethat title like on LinkedIn or
they'll have like just a VP ofsome department and he, that's

(26:19):
who he would reach out to.
And then he would oftentimesfind their cell phone and reach
out to him.

Mike (26:23):
Got it.
And then they would kind of,push the process along

Jeffrey (26:27):
Yeah.
When they hear wrongfulforeclosure suit, which is a
real thing and it could actuallybe put onto a bank when they
hear those words they jump intoaction a lot quicker than they
were prior.

Mike (26:39):
Got it.
So he's kind of pushing thatbuttons to on the executives of
the bank.
Like, do you and then theyobviously don't want that.

Jeffrey (26:46):
Yeah.
Well, yeah, they definitelydon't want that.
And he would, he, I mean, westill do that now.
So it's just It's just kind ofthe level you have to take it
to.
If you, and we've saved homeslike the day before and the
seller was thrilled and we made,50, 60, 70 grand profit flipping
it.
So we're obviously really happy.
And it's just kind of the levelthat it takes sometimes to get

(27:07):
these deals done.

Mike (27:08):
Yeah what other roadblocks outside of, getting, the banks
delaying the payoffs?
Do you?
Run into with these foreclosuredeals.

Jeffrey (27:15):
With the foreclosure specifically, typically I'd say
the hardest thing is that thehomeowner, Has been contacted by
so many people because the listis public, right?
They're getting a plethora ofpeople reaching out to them.
I mean, they're getting callsand texts and all these people.
So it's really about figuringout how to differentiate

(27:38):
yourselves from everybody else.
So, I talked about the doorknocking and that's one thing
that most people don't do, but.
One of the things that we reallylove to do was we would send TIF
streets and edible arrangementsto people's houses and the
percentage of response on a TIFstreets is a hundred.
It never doesn't get a responseand they're like a box.

Mike (28:00):
Okay.
Outside

Jeffrey (28:02):
It's a box of cookies.
Yeah.
So, you show up from your houseand you got a box of cookies on
your doorstep, like you're ahundred percent going to open up
that package and see who it'sfrom.
And.
So we really, what we like to dois we like to essentially
identify on our list, like theproperties that we feel like
have the best likelihood ofclosing.

(28:22):
Call it like the top 20, if youwill.
And those are the ones where weare like, Hey, okay, we got shut
down on the door, we got shutdown with the calling.
Like, what's the next step wecan take?
What's the next step we cantake?
We will even.
Call the neighbors and say, Hey,like, do you know this person
we'll call relatives?
We will send, tips, treats andcookies and, balloons and

(28:44):
flowers.
Like I'm telling you, we will dowhatever it takes to get
somebody on the phone to tellus, don't call me again.
Or, obviously we want them tosay, Hey, we won't, we want you
to work with us.
Especially when we find one,like when we're at, when our
knocker goes and there's onethat's vacant and it's on the
foreclosure list, it's like a nobrainer.
Like, of course, like why wouldthey not want to sell that?

(29:06):
So those are the ones we reallylike really go deep on.

Mike (29:10):
20 list for you guys?

Jeffrey (29:12):
Obviously equity is a good one.
You can run these lists to seeif there is a deceased
indicator, maybe a, an, a past,an owner has died recently.
That's

Mike (29:22):
you?
Where are you running that?

Jeffrey (29:23):
we run that in lead Sherpa.
Yep.
So lead Sherpa will tell us ifsomebody like one of the owners
has died.
And then to us, that's a reallygood indicator that, Hey, like,
like I said, my very first deal,the woman's husband had passed
away.
And he was the one that handledall of the money stuff.
So she had no idea because shehad this giant stack of mail

(29:47):
sitting on her kitchen counter.
She had no idea that the homewas even going into foreclosure.
And so, cause she wasn't openinganything cause she just was like
in denial and she didn't want todeal with the fact that her
husband had passed away.
And so obviously that's a sadsituation, but the reality is
she needed us to come in andkind of help her in there.
So, I think other than thatthere's not really like, I mean,

(30:11):
I, yeah, I would say probablyvacant equity, the cease flag,
and we can also run, youprobably use prop stream before.
You probably know in PropStream,you can see if there's an open
code violation on it or a lien.
So we'll cross check it onPropStream to see if it has
liens.
And if it has liens, it kind ofgets kicked up our priority
list.
But a lot of it's just thehardest part is finding the

(30:34):
right person to talk to on thephone, finding a decision maker.
Cause there's, so many peopleare reaching out.
Like a lot of times they justshut off their phone.
They're like, we don't want tohear from anybody.

Mike (30:44):
Yeah, interesting.
So got it.
So you guys like, look at allthose things.
And then in Georgia, is therelike, do they post like when
they post the auction, what thejudgment amount was?
So is that how you're figuringout equity?
Or you're kind of taking yourbest guess or

Jeffrey (30:58):
Well, PropStream will give you a relatively close
guess.
Right.
So that's how we start.
And then when we want to add oneto like our very top, like top
20 because I'm an agent, I cango into the back end and look at
the tax record on it, and thenyou can kind of see the mortgage
history.
And then obviously you can lookat something like Zillow or

(31:19):
whatever to ballpark the value.
so that's how we, we get a rangeand, for us, if it's got 50
percent or more equity, likethat's a pretty good start.
It's not always accurate, butyou can't really get super
accurate until you run a titlesearch and kind of get into the
nuances of the house.

Mike (31:35):
Gotcha.
Okay.
and then you kind of, we werekind of talking offline a little
bit, you've obviously done a lotof renovations over the years,
and you said that there's acouple things that you do to
properties that kind of separateyourself from the average
flipper.
You want to talk about a littlebit about that?

Jeffrey (31:52):
Yeah, so I don't know have you've probably been in
your fair share of houses thathave been flipped by not
yourself, but just the averageperson flipping a house, right?
and I've noticed that almostevery house flip I walk into
uses like the same kind of LVPuses the same kind of kitchen
cabinets, the same standardgranite, obviously not always,

(32:14):
but when you look at like thatentry level price point, a lot
of it's just the same kind ofbasic stuff.
And we've really, we've donethat before.
And we've also found a fewthings that are really impactful
for making a buyer.
Like, I've walked through manyhomes with buyers and really
what you want to create when yourenovate a house is for them to

(32:35):
have some kind of wow factorwhen they walk in to where
they're like really becomeemotionally attached to the
house.
And.
One of the ways we do that is wehave we'd like to use really
nice kitchen hoods.
So a lot of people just put likea basic stainless steel or like
a microwave thing above thestove.
And we will spend like an extrathousand dollars to get a really

(32:59):
eye catching hood and kind ofleave.
Some space between the hood andthe other cabinets.
So we're going to kind of runthe backsplash up and it just
creates a really nice visual,even in like entry level homes,
right?
We always bring the cabinets allthe way up to the ceiling.
A lot of people don't reallythink about that, but leave a
gap there.
And in my opinion, getting themflush, when it's like an eight,

(33:21):
nine foot ceiling has a muchnicer visual effect than when.
There's that gap there.
Your typical LVP in our marketis probably runs like 2 a square
foot, give or take, and we gofor a 3 and 25 cent engineered
wood product that looks in myopinion, substantially better.
And we put that in the livingarea and the kitchen typically,

(33:43):
and it, on an average, thousand,2000 square foot house, it's
obviously going to cost us acouple thousand extra when we
choose a really high qualityflooring and the kitchen really
pops to me, like I've seen amuch like those homes typically
are the ones that sell for overasking and they go quicker.
Now, obviously when the marketwas really hot, I mean, you

(34:04):
could basically do nothing to ahouse and just put it on and it
would sell.
But what I've seen 20%, in thepast year, cause the market was
kind of slower last year.
It's picking up now, but I'veseen that the homes that have
that really bare minimum amountof work are the ones that are
kind of sitting on the market.
And so we're really trying to beintentional about making our

(34:26):
flips just a little bit nicerthan the other flips on the
market.
And so we'll always like a lotof flippers will go and they'll
get the same bathroom vanities,like the kitchen guy will do the
bathroom vanities so they match,right?
Well, we like to go on likeWayfair or we'll go to an outlet
supply store and we'll find likea custom vanity that is going to

(34:48):
cost us a couple of hundreddollars extra, but it looks way
nicer than if you just put thatstandard box vanity in there.
And we will.
We typically don't tear out theshowers and retile them.
We sometimes do, but we like tojust, glaze over the existing
shower pan, which, I'm sure alot of people already do that,
but we've noticed that reallyhelps us a lot.

(35:11):
And we like to really beintentional about adding wood
accents into the home.
So a lot of our flips, they kindof had the same design palette
and there'll be a lot of neutralcolors and then it'll have wood
tones throughout.
So we will.
Typically put a really nice woodfront door like a farmhouse
style front door in and thatreally adds a nice visual when

(35:33):
people pull up to the house andthen we'll incorporate wood
tones like in the kitchen hoodand then obviously seeing the
flooring or we'll do a shiplapwall.
And just little things thatpeople don't necessarily think
about, but it's just, it's thatwhole package that really makes
a flip pop.
And I've just noticed it'sreally helped us over the years.

Mike (35:55):
Yeah.
Awesome.
And I guess it's like, go, likehow are you running everything
now?
Like, I mean, at one pointyou're running like 20 at a time
and obviously that was a bitmuch, but like, what's I know
people have different processesfor running flips.
Like some people have a projectmanager in house.
Other people have a couple ofGCs they work with.
Like, what's your kind ofprocess to,

Jeffrey (36:16):
so I have a full time project manager when I first
started, I didn't have one.
I did it all myself.
And I think that.
It's probably necessary to atleast manage a few of them on
your own so that you get anunderstanding of how it's done.
And I would say that I probablymanaged about 30 to 40 of them
until I decided, Hey, like Idefinitely need a full time

(36:37):
project manager.
So ended up hiring a full timeproject manager with, and one of
the things I would tell peopleis find somebody that's really
good and pay them more than youprobably think you need to,
because they can save you somuch money during the process
that you may feel like.
If you find some guy and yourgoal is to pay them 40 to 50K,

(37:00):
like, and that's it for theyear, like, I think you're
really doing yourself adisservice as opposed to going
out and finding a really goodone for, 80, 90, 100K per year.
Who can save you way more moneythroughout the year because
they're really competent andthey know what they're doing.
And so my project manager isawesome at that.
He does a really good job atfinding the best price on

(37:23):
everything.
And he knows construction reallywell.
So when a contractor gives him abid and he knows that it's full
of fluff, he will call him outand he'll say, Hey, this all
needs to come down.
And he'll routinely get bidsdown 5, 10%, just like that,
because he knows the process sowell.
And so, he goes out when,anytime we buy a house, he goes

(37:45):
out, he immediately like createsa scope of work.
And, we have obviously like abunch of contractors that we
work with and he'll bring themin.
We've got our kitchen guy orgranite guy and those kinds of
things, they take time to buildup.
You're not just going to havethis big long list of people
right away, but the more, themore houses you do and the more
work you can give peopleobviously it kind of becomes

(38:07):
easier to build that up.
And.
Yeah, so he kind of runs thewhole thing from start to
finish.
I make the high level decisionson, hey, we're gonna do this
amount of rehab or rehab.
We kind of have like a fullrehab.
A lipstick rehab, if you will.
And then we have like abasically just clean it out and
put it on the market kind ofidea.

(38:27):
And like I mentioned, we havenot really been doing as much of
a lipstick rehab and the justthrow it on the market approach
than the last year.
Cause the buyers have kind ofbeen able to, command the nicer
product.
So that makes his role even morevaluable where he's able to kind
of help us.
Manage that whole renovation.
So, I don't know if you guyshave one on your team, but it's

(38:47):
super helpful having one.
And it's really like, I mean, ifyou're going to scale you, like
you absolutely have to have one.

Mike (38:54):
And like, how did you find this?
No, we don't have one and that'swhy I'm asking the question.
how'd you find

Jeffrey (38:58):
Really?

Mike (38:59):
this guy?

Jeffrey (38:59):
So I was fortunate in the fact that he is actually my
brother in law.
And he, yeah, he is a, he's anengineer by trade, so I got
fortunate with that.
However, I did have a job likeapplication out and I
interviewed a lot of differentpeople and what I found was.
Interview, I interviewedprobably seven people, right?

(39:22):
And all the people that were,that I had a good feeling about
besides him, were all peoplethat I had a prior relationship
with versus people just kind ofcoming in that I didn't know.
So if I were to start over andtry to find one, what I would
personally do is I would look onsocial media for people who were
somehow connected to me or,maybe one connection apart.

(39:45):
Who had some kind of trackrecord of kind of like maybe
find like a contractor who isjust like not quite, savvy
enough to do it all on theirown, but really knows the
construction process well, and,kind of have somebody like that
come in.
But obviously knowing him andhaving that connection was super
helpful because they are.

(40:05):
Essentially managing thousandsand thousands of dollars for
you.
And so if you don't feel reallycomfortable with that
relationship, like it's going tobe, it's going to be tough.
So I admit that it's definitelya hard role to hire for sure.

Mike (40:17):
Yeah, and so he's, did he come in with, like, a lot of the
subcontractor relationships?
So you already had a lot ofthose.

Jeffrey (40:26):
I had a lot and he essentially fired all of them
very quickly.
Yeah, because he was likelooking at our bids and he's
like these are terrible bids.
You're overpaying for everythingand so he would end up like he
went to Home Depot and he likejust found guys.
And the way that he would vetcontractors initially is we
would have houses that hadn'tbeen renovated yet.

(40:48):
And so he would, we would put alockbox on it, just a coded
lockbox, and he would find themand say, Hey, we have this
house.
Here's the address.
I need you to go give me a quotefor this.
And he would basically see whowould actually go and who would
get him a quote within like 24,48 hours.
And you would be shocked at howfew actually could do that.

(41:10):
I mean, it was unbelievable.
Like 80 percent of thecontractors just didn't go.
They'd never sent a quote.
They didn't have an email.
I mean.
So he was able to filter througha lot of them just by doing
something like that.
And then obviously once westarted working with somebody
that kind of helped us see likekind of their work ethic and all
that, as we went and he's justover the last three years, he's

(41:34):
just really kind of whittled itdown to like a really good group
of guys that we give all of ourbusiness to and they, they like
working with us.

Mike (41:41):
Gotcha, but he's still kind of separating out by kind
of trades, right?
He's not handing off a job toolto like kind of one GC and just
manage him.
He's kind of subbing it out to afew different people or.

Jeffrey (41:52):
More, more or less, we actually just did a renovation
where we did kind of follow thatmodel where we had him and then
we had like a main guyunderneath him.
My project manager, his name isDavid.
So David had a guy underneathhim who was subcontracting
everything and it actually wentpretty well.
The renovation came in underbudget and it went, went

(42:12):
quickly.
So we're actually probably goingto try the same guy again on our
next project and see if itcontinues like that.
But in the past we have justkind of hired out the trades and
it is more work doing it likethat.
But, it's typically you're gonnasave money by obviously not
paying another guy.
But if you're gonna have a wholebunch of flips, it does become
tough to do it like that.

Mike (42:33):
Sure.
Yeah.
And, is there like a, do youstructure compensation for your
project manager with like somekind of incentives or how does
it, how does that all work?

Jeffrey (42:42):
Yeah, the way that we have it set up is essentially
the company's profitability.
He is given a bonus based on howit shakes out for the year.

Mike (42:50):
Gotcha.

Jeffrey (42:51):
So, obviously we've tried to tie it to the project
or like say, Hey if we stay onbudget, you get a bonus, or if
we finish quicker than timeline,you get a bonus.
And it just became really hardbecause so much stuff was out of
his control and it didn't seemfair to penalize him if, one of
the contractors ran behind andso.

(43:13):
We just didn't work for us to doit like that.
But obviously it could work forsomebody else, but we just tie
it to our company'sprofitability,

Mike (43:20):
Gotcha.
Are you guys targeting like acertain like renovation timeline
for, let's say like yourstandard full rehab, like not
like the crazy ones, but likejust a standard.

Jeffrey (43:30):
Yep.
A standard full rehab for us hasgot to happen in two months or
less, assuming we're not likepulling major permits.
If we can't do it that quick,then something's wrong.

Mike (43:40):
Gotcha.

Jeffrey (43:41):
Yeah,

Mike (43:42):
What other lessons did you kind of learn along the way?
I mean, from all that volume youwere doing in flips.
What other takeaways?

Jeffrey (43:49):
It's a good question.
I think I think that one of thebiggest things I've learned and
people talk about this in realestate a lot is that shiny
object syndrome is a very realthing.
And the more success you have,the more shiny objects get put
in front of you.
And it's something that Idefinitely fell for, and it cost

(44:10):
me some time and some money.
And that's not to say that youcan't obviously adapt and evolve
and move into new things.
But if you got something that'sgoing well and you feel like,
your mood, like it's a goodprocess.
Like, like for example, while wewere in the process of doing a
lot of flips, I started to moveinto multifamily and I ended up

(44:33):
taking my eye off the ball, ifyou will, on all our flips and
did a 60 unit apartment deal acouple of years ago.
And the deal went okay.
Like we, we ended up makingmoney on the deal and it went
fine.
But I just don't think it wasthe right thing to do at the
time because it ended up costingus on some of our flips and our
people, like I told you from thebeginning, our operating systems

(44:57):
were not as airtight as theyshould have been.
So I should have focused on thatfirst and got that to be
excellent before I tried to moveinto this new thing.
I tried to essentially move intoa new thing while this was like
not fully solidified, like itwas solidified, but it.
It wasn't solidified enough torun 20, 30 flips at one time.

(45:18):
So, one of the guys that Ireally look up to is Ryan
Panetta, I'm not sure if you'refamiliar with him, the reason
why I respect him so much isbecause he's got like eight
businesses that he's runningright now.
At one time that he's the headof, and they all.
And I've talked to him about howhe's able to do that.
And he's really adamant that he,when he goes and sets up a new

(45:41):
business or goes into a newventure, he is hiring from the
top down and he immediately getslike a COO or director of
operations in place that handlesall the day to day stuff and
handles all the decisions.
And he sets the whole thing upwith the systems and the
processes, is And so when hegoes to scale and the business

(46:03):
starts really flowing in he'sready for it and he's able to
shift his focus on to businessnumber two, three, and four, and
that's something that I'm tryingto become better at and it takes
time but, that's kind of why Italked about We're not trying to
do so many flips right nowbecause I'm kind of focusing a

(46:23):
little bit also on constructionand land development.
So in a way I'm kind of breakingmy own advice by doing two
things at the same time, to behonest with you.
But it, gosh, it's so hard tonot like you get a deal put in
front of you.
It's so hard to not like golike, Oh man, we could make 50,
a hundred grand on this deal.
Like, how could I not go do thatthing?
So it's funny to like sit hereand give advice and realize that

(46:45):
I seriously, I'm probablybreaking my own advice at this
very moment.

Mike (46:49):
Sure.
Is that how you kind of gotstarted in like the land
development home building is youjust came across like a deal
that was so good or.

Jeffrey (46:57):
Yeah, the way we got started or the way I got
started, it was, I bought aproperty that is actually where
I'm at this moment.
It's, this is an Airbnb that I'min right now.
And my office is on thisproperty too.
And we bought it for 400, 000and it's got, it's on three
total acres.
And there's two acres that arekind of like by, by themselves,

(47:21):
right?
Like they're separated from the,from these two properties.
And as we were working here andlike, kind of looking at it, I'm
like, gosh, like, I feel like ifI were to subdivide this land,
like I would really have areally valuable piece of two
acres over there that's in thisneighborhood.
So essentially two years ago Istarted on that process and I

(47:41):
had to bring sewer into the lot.
I had to get a variance, I hadto get, like five surveys done.
I had to work with a, like anarchitectural firm.
And so I'm actually at the veryend of the process.
Funny enough today, I actuallygot the email that the split is
actually complete.
And so the land that has the twohomes, we were probably into it

(48:02):
for 600.
Like after we've renovated themand I think they appraised for
like six 5, 700, but the landnow is worth about 300 on its
own.
So I essentially was able tocreate a 300, 000 piece of land
just out of, thin air, if youwill.
So, sorry, go ahead.

Mike (48:22):
Oh, no, I was gonna say.
So are you selling that off?
Are you building on that?
Or what's the.

Jeffrey (48:26):
We we are kind of deciding if we want to build on
it for ourselves.
My wife and I actually build ahouse on it.
Part of me though, is like,gosh, It would be really awesome
to sell that land and, take thatmoney and move it into another
project.
But kind of like the first flipthat I did where it really
opened my eyes up to the wholeprocess.

(48:47):
That's exactly what this hasdone for me is made me realize
this land and this house, thisdeal was sitting here.
For over 20 years, just sittinghere, anybody could have come in
and done what I have now donethat whole time, but nobody did
it.
And what I've realized is thatland, what the kind of like a

(49:10):
lot of it is just waiting forsomebody to come in and use
their creativity and theirskills to make it more valuable.
And they're like the deals areout there, but it's just, it's
so much more complicated thanjust.
Doing a kitchen and a bathroomand putting it back on the
market.
I mean, like I said, I've beenworking on this for two years,
but the return, obviously isgreat and it's required very

(49:34):
little of my actual time andpresence.
It's just all been like emailsand communication on the phone.
So in theory, you could do a, afew of these at a time.
If you kind of understood theprocess and this is just a small
one, I only created one lot.
If I had gone and created 10lots out of one piece of land.
Just, I mean, there's so manymore things you could do with

(49:54):
it.
It's just a totally differentdeal and it just takes way
longer, but I think it's sointeresting the way that it
works.

Mike (50:01):
So, are you chasing more of them?

Jeffrey (50:03):
I, so I am, and the way that we're doing that is by, by
the way that I'm breaking my ownadvice, like I said earlier, I
actually have a.
A second business that westarted, it's a, it's called
Harmony Home Builders and Ibrought a partner in that I'm 50
50 on and he has a lot ofconstruction experience and

(50:24):
we're actually just closed on aproject and started it last week
where we're doing like, we'redoubling the size of a house and
then we're going to, obviouslyput it on the market and sell it
and.
Him and I are very much activelylooking for deals where we can
either build a house, subdividethe land and sell it, or, just
different ways to kind of do itthan just flipping a house.

(50:45):
So, the thing that I'm glad Idid is partner with him because
he's kind of got some of thatexperience and he knows what
he's doing, but I have a lotmore skill in finding deals than
he does.
So he's like more of anoperations guy and I'm really
good on the sales and dealfinding side.
So like I can find, like once Iunderstand what it is that we're

(51:06):
looking for, I can go out andfind it because I'm really good
at finding off market deals whenhe's not.
And so that's where we're ableto kind of marry our skills
together.
And so he's kind of helping meunderstand like, Hey, this is
what we're looking for.
This is not what we're lookingfor.
Cause I don't know about you,but up until like a couple of
years ago, I could have lookedat a hundred pieces of land and

(51:28):
would have had no idea how tounderwrite or evaluate any of
them.
I mean, I'm like, what is, whatis our 20 zoning mean?
Like, like how, what is a sewereasement?
What is a floodplain?
Like, I have no idea about anyof this stuff.

Mike (51:41):
then.
You seem to have been able toget yourself like fully, like,
or maybe not, but it seems likeit fully out of the acquisitions
with your two acquisitions guysthat you have.
At least on the flipping side, Ishould say, at least on that
side,

Jeffrey (51:54):
So fully is probably not the right word, but mostly
it's probably a better word.

Mike (51:58):
mostly.

Jeffrey (51:58):
Yeah.
Yep.
Yeah.

Mike (52:01):
about, sorry, go ahead.

Jeffrey (52:02):
No.
So how do we go about kind ofsetting it up or what we're
going to say?

Mike (52:06):
Hi, hiring the right acquisitions people and getting
that

Jeffrey (52:09):
Right.
The acquisitions people I hiredkind of funny, both actually all
of the ones that I've had thathave been successful have been
people that I was in contactwith and just in my network.
That were, I could just seebased on the way that I talked
to them, like you're going to bea really good salesman and I
want you to come work with me.

(52:29):
One of them was a guy who Iwould always go to my favorite
restaurant and he was always mywaiter and he was just like so
persuasive and so good atcommunicating.
I was like, dude, you've got tocome like, talk to me about real
estate.
Like I'd love to share with you,like how you could work with me.
And he did.
And then another guy actuallycame to my house to like a

(52:51):
party.
He was a ballet guy.
And he was our valet for thenight, but he was super
personable, really goodrelationally, younger guys in
college.
And I'm like, dude, I don't knowwhere you're working right now,
but you're coming to work withme from now on.
And, I've obviously trained themand given them direction, but I

(53:11):
don't like, I don't think youcan take somebody that's like,
they, a lot of people, like, doyou just got to kind of have
that like ability to sell andkind of persuade people
naturally.
And then we kind of crafted itfor what we want to do.
And then, but it's hard to takesomebody that doesn't really
have that and then make them agreat salesperson.

(53:31):
Yep.
So, so, yeah they kind of knowwhat to do.
They run our system, they knowexactly what we're looking for.
And then I kind of come in forthe final underwrite once we're
like ready to lock one up andbuy it, then I bring in our
private money guys and just kindof give it a green light, if you
will.

Mike (53:48):
Nice.
That's awesome, man.

Jeffrey (53:50):
Yeah, so it works pretty well.

Mike (53:52):
we're getting close to the end here, but there's always two
questions I like to ask at theend.
So the first one is what is thecraziest or most uncomfortable
situation that you have everexperienced in a real estate
deal?

Jeffrey (54:05):
Yeah, so there's two that I thought about and wanted
to share.
The first one Was when we weretrying to get a guy who was in
foreclosure to sign a contractwith us And this guy was adamant
that he wanted to go have dinnerwith us at Cracker Barrel to
talk about the deal Had to beCracker Barrel and we're like,

(54:26):
all right, whatever we'll go toCracker Barrel.
So We're at Cracker Barrel andthis guy Pulls out a gigantic
magnet and he proceeds like topull all these weird
contraptions out of his bag,proceeds to tell us how gravity
isn't real.
And like the earth is a giantmagnet and he's got all these

(54:48):
inventions on the table in themiddle of Cracker Barrel, all
these people around us and we'rejust sitting there like, Oh my
gosh, like this is the most.
I have ever heard.
And this guy just goes on andon.
And he ends up signing thecontract and we bought his
house, but we had to sit thereand just get, I mean, it was
just a really weird situation.
And he like brought us down inhis basement and was showing us

(55:09):
all these like weird toys thathe had.
And I was like, man, I don'tknow what's happening down here,
but I really want to just getout of here.
It was strange.
And then we had another guy who.
With I wish I could show you apicture on this podcast because
I have one on my phone, but wewalked into his house and this
will sound like an exaggeration,but it's really not.

(55:29):
The entire home was up to yourknees in beer cans, like you
waiting through a sea of beercans everywhere.
I mean, there must have been ahundred thousand beer cans in
this house, empty and justthrown everywhere.
There was pizza boxes, like thecouch was covered fully in beer

(55:51):
cans and I'm trying to walkthrough this home and like
evaluate the repairs.
And I'm like, what am I supposedto do right now?
It was absolutely like, and themost sad thing is that this guy
who lived there, he was a Lyftdriver.

Mike (56:06):
Oh, my God,

Jeffrey (56:08):
I know, man.
So this guy.
Was probably hammering about 10beers and then going and doing
lift rides.
And I don't know how lift vetstheir guys, but they missed on
that guy big time.
Yeah, it was wild.
And I mean, I've seen so manywild things walking through
homes.
Like you, you kind of just learnto like, just shut your mind

(56:28):
down when you walk through ahouse and just don't ask
questions, don't say anything,just.
Just walk through get yourpictures and get out.

Mike (56:36):
Yeah.
Wow.
Well, the second question Ialways have is if you could go
back in time and give yourselfone piece of advice when you
were looking for that firstdeal, knowing what you know now,
what would you tell yourself?

Jeffrey (56:49):
Well, that's a great question, too.
And My answer is different nowthan it would have been in 2016
when I was looking but if I wereto answer that question today It
would hundred percent without adoubt be to utilize social media
to its fullest extent becausesocial media is Unbelievably
powerful for people in realestate.

(57:11):
And if you were somebody who isjust getting started looking for
that first deal and you startposting about how you're looking
for deals, you start documentingyour journey.
You will be amazed at how dealswill start to be sent to you and
people will start to say, Hey, Iheard you're looking for a deal
or, Hey, I heard you doinvesting.
And once you obviously get adeal and you start documenting

(57:32):
it and talking about it, I'vehad so many deals sent to me
through Facebook.
Like it's unbelievable howpowerful social media is and I
didn't utilize it until like upto a few years ago and I wish
that I had much more earlierbecause I have no doubt it would
have really accelerated mygrowth even quicker.

Mike (57:51):
Yeah, that's a good piece of advice.
So if people want to reach outto you after the show, or maybe
they wanted to send you a deal,

Jeffrey (57:58):
Yeah, that'd be great.

Mike (57:59):
that?

Jeffrey (58:00):
Probably the best way is my Instagram is
jeffreyjohnson22.
I'm pretty, I've been getting alot more intentional putting
stuff of value on there andbeing on there.
So that's a really good way.
I'm on Facebook too.
So both of those are, prettygood ways.

Mike (58:16):
Cool.
Awesome.
Well, this is great, man.
Thanks for being on the show.

Jeffrey (58:19):
Yep.
Thanks for having me.
I appreciate you guys and talksoon.