WEBVTT
00:00:06.320 --> 00:00:28.239
Empower and celebrate everyday women who are facing their fears of going facing their audience and coldheartedly facing their dreams of flipping outfits each episode of where it's honest and goodness, cool tips, and strategies you can implement today to get closer to your first or next successful house flip.
00:00:32.320 --> 00:00:35.600
Welcome back to the Flip Houses Like a Girl podcast.
00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:44.079
This is the show where we highlight real stories of everyday women who are learning to flip houses and create freedom for themselves and their families.
00:00:44.320 --> 00:00:48.000
I'm Blair, one of the coaches here at the Flip Sisters.
00:00:48.159 --> 00:00:53.600
I've been flipping and buying rentals for the last six years and have been coaching here for the last three.
00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:55.280
But enough about me.
00:00:55.520 --> 00:00:58.960
Today we're excited to reintroduce you to Diana.
00:00:59.119 --> 00:01:02.799
She joined the Flip Sisters program in 2022.
00:01:03.039 --> 00:01:08.719
And since then, she has flipped three houses, both in Tennessee and in Georgia.
00:01:08.959 --> 00:01:10.159
A little bit about her.
00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:12.560
Diana is from the Tennessee area.
00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:17.120
She was a teacher and then became a stay-at-home mom to her two adorable kids.
00:01:17.359 --> 00:01:26.000
We can't wait for you to hear her story, the lessons she's learned along the way, and the advice she has for other women who are just getting started.
00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:32.640
Hey Diana, thank you so much for joining us today.
00:01:33.040 --> 00:01:34.079
Thanks, Blair.
00:01:34.319 --> 00:01:36.000
I am so excited to be here.
00:01:36.239 --> 00:01:36.959
Awesome.
00:01:37.120 --> 00:01:48.400
So I know you've had quite a few interesting projects since starting with our group, but I'd really like to hear more about your most recent huge flip in Look Mountain, Georgia.
00:01:48.480 --> 00:01:50.319
And when I say huge, I mean it.
00:01:50.480 --> 00:01:55.280
This baby was close to, it was a little over 5,700 square feet.
00:01:55.680 --> 00:01:57.280
Yeah, it was big.
00:01:57.760 --> 00:01:58.239
Awesome.
00:01:58.400 --> 00:02:09.039
So kind of talk to me about like how you found the property, you know, walking through it, doing your renovation budget, just kind of like the planning, the finding and the planning period.
00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:10.000
Yeah.
00:02:10.639 --> 00:02:20.000
So when we first saw this house, we were still flipping our two other projects, which were more normal-sized homes, I would say.
00:02:20.479 --> 00:02:27.280
And my realtor had, we've done a couple of deals with her and she kind of knows we're looking for things.
00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:33.120
And so she asked us one day, and this was two years ago, August of 2023.
00:02:33.520 --> 00:02:35.439
We were still in the middle of our two other projects.
00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:40.800
So she was like, Oh, I have this house up on Lookout, and it's a pocket listing.
00:02:40.960 --> 00:02:46.879
So one of her other realtors in her group in her office had this listing.
00:02:46.960 --> 00:02:52.639
And we were like, Well, yeah, we want to go see it because Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, we live in Chattanooga.
00:02:52.800 --> 00:02:58.080
Lookout mountain is one of the iconic areas of for Chattanooga.
00:02:58.560 --> 00:03:02.159
It's one of the oldest neighborhoods in our area.
00:03:02.319 --> 00:03:03.919
The houses are big.
00:03:04.080 --> 00:03:06.400
There's a lot of mature landscaping.
00:03:06.479 --> 00:03:07.680
It's a really beautiful area.
00:03:07.840 --> 00:03:16.080
If you ever come to Chattanooga, the things people come to Chattanooga for are like Sea Rock City, see Ruby Falls, all of that's on lookout.
00:03:16.240 --> 00:03:18.560
So we were drawn to look out.
00:03:19.120 --> 00:03:22.240
We went and looked at the house, and it was big.
00:03:22.400 --> 00:03:24.479
And it was she was really pretty from the front.
00:03:24.719 --> 00:03:26.560
On the inside, she needed some work.
00:03:26.800 --> 00:03:30.240
There had been some maintenance issues.
00:03:30.560 --> 00:03:32.479
The house was in pretty rough shape.
00:03:32.800 --> 00:03:36.400
But when I walked in, I felt that there had been love in the home.
00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:40.800
There had been a family that really loved it and then kind of it got neglected.
00:03:41.039 --> 00:03:43.599
But we were still in the middle of these two other flips.
00:03:43.759 --> 00:03:47.039
So we didn't make an offer on it right away.
00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:50.479
They were asking 600K for it.
00:03:51.039 --> 00:04:04.159
And we knew the numbers well enough to know the reason this house was a pocket listing was the owner, I think, didn't want the house to be shown for sale in her community.
00:04:04.319 --> 00:04:06.240
She didn't want her neighbors to know that she was selling.
00:04:06.319 --> 00:04:10.879
She didn't want it to go like officially on the market and for people to be walking in the house.
00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:15.439
So we knew we could have bought it and then just like resold it.
00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:19.120
There was enough we thought juice there that we could have done that.
00:04:19.279 --> 00:04:19.839
But we did it.
00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:21.759
We were like, we're still in these two other projects.
00:04:21.920 --> 00:04:23.759
So we walked away from the house originally.
00:04:23.839 --> 00:04:25.040
We just said, yeah, we love it.
00:04:25.120 --> 00:04:26.879
It's beautiful, but we're we're busy.
00:04:27.120 --> 00:04:32.399
So a few weeks later, I get a call from my realtor and she said, Hey, you know, that house, I'm on lookout.
00:04:32.480 --> 00:04:40.639
I talked to the other realtor, and she had said that she thinks the owner would be open to a longer closing date.
00:04:40.879 --> 00:04:43.920
And we were like, Well, do you mean like three months?
00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:46.079
Because that's kind of how much time we would need.
00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:47.839
And she said, Yeah, I think so.
00:04:48.160 --> 00:04:53.279
So the owner had already moved away and had kept this home.
00:04:53.519 --> 00:04:58.560
She had had a job opportunity, had moved the family, but still had some of her stuff in the house.
00:04:58.800 --> 00:05:04.560
So we were thinking, okay, this was around I think September, August, September, two years ago.
00:05:05.199 --> 00:05:23.600
So we said, Well, if she'll accept a longer closing, we also offered cash for 600, what she was asking, and we would close in three months or when we finished our first flip, because we were in flip one and two at the time.
00:05:24.000 --> 00:05:25.279
And they accepted.
00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:32.240
So we went under contract, were waiting to, you know, working on our got our other projects done.
00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:39.600
But those projects, one of them finished in November, and then the other one, I think we finished it around November, December.
00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:45.920
We still hadn't closed on that first project, and the holidays were coming up, and she still hadn't moved her stuff out.
00:05:46.000 --> 00:05:49.040
So we asked if we could move the closing date back again.
00:05:49.199 --> 00:05:51.759
We pushed it back past Christmas.
00:05:52.240 --> 00:06:03.040
And then we were still, because we thought we were gonna have all this cash from two houses that we were selling, and one house closed in December, and then the next house closed in January.
00:06:03.199 --> 00:06:06.639
So we ended up pushing the closing back one more time into January.
00:06:07.120 --> 00:06:16.720
And so this whole fiasco of like get just getting the house under contract, just getting it to the closing date in the very beginning was a pretty big challenge.
00:06:16.959 --> 00:06:20.560
I ended up having to talk to talking to a hard money lender.
00:06:20.959 --> 00:06:23.759
The house sits on two county lines.
00:06:23.920 --> 00:06:30.079
So the interesting thing about Chattanooga is Chattanooga is right on the border of Tennessee and Georgia.
00:06:30.240 --> 00:06:35.519
And so Lookout Mountain goes from Tennessee down into Georgia.
00:06:35.759 --> 00:06:40.800
And then this house is on the Georgia side and it sits in two counties.
00:06:40.959 --> 00:06:43.759
So it's paying tax to one county.
00:06:43.920 --> 00:06:49.199
The hard money lender had some difficulty, whoever was doing the appraisal, getting the loan done.
00:06:49.439 --> 00:06:59.040
So, anyways, we ended up closing it and paying cash because our other two houses closed, and then we got like a cash out from the hard money lender month or so later.
00:06:59.199 --> 00:07:01.680
So that's kind of how we funded it in the beginning.
00:07:02.000 --> 00:07:10.560
I had had a private money lender from our other projects that we had worked on for, I think around two, maybe 200K.
00:07:11.519 --> 00:07:16.160
And then we had some of our own cash, and then the hard money lender came in.
00:07:16.480 --> 00:07:22.560
So that has kind of been this whole project was like we piecemealed it together, but we made it work.
00:07:22.639 --> 00:07:23.120
We got it.
00:07:23.279 --> 00:07:27.680
So we closed in January 2024.
00:07:28.639 --> 00:07:30.480
Yeah, that's I mean, that's awesome.
00:07:30.639 --> 00:07:36.480
I love the fact that like you weren't afraid to ask the seller for what worked for you.
00:07:36.720 --> 00:07:42.399
You know, I think sometimes we're so afraid to make our offers, whether it's price, whether it's timeline.
00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:46.480
And sometimes I'm like, well, you got to give them a chance to say yes or no.
00:07:46.639 --> 00:07:48.959
You've got to put your hat in the ring, right?
00:07:49.120 --> 00:07:50.959
So like I think that's really cool.
00:07:51.199 --> 00:07:57.519
And it also sounds like it was a win for the seller because, you know, for whatever reason she left her stuff there.
00:07:57.680 --> 00:08:02.160
You know, maybe it was a bit of an emotional thing and she wasn't quite ready to let go.
00:08:02.240 --> 00:08:07.439
And it probably gave her enough time to be like, okay, like it's time to go, time to pack our stuff.
00:08:07.680 --> 00:08:10.079
Like these people are trying to move it.
00:08:10.319 --> 00:08:13.279
You know, they're we I told them that, you know, they they can buy the home.
00:08:13.519 --> 00:08:13.839
Great.
00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:14.560
Absolutely.
00:08:14.879 --> 00:08:23.360
Kind of like at that point, how much like total were you in as far as like the hard money loan, your money?
00:08:23.600 --> 00:08:28.480
You know, kind of like what was your like adding it all together, purchase price and your budget for your reno.
00:08:29.600 --> 00:08:32.720
So we ended up buying it for$579.
00:08:33.120 --> 00:08:43.840
We got around$20K off because there were supposed to be kitchen cabinets, but I told you, so they had had a few issues with the house and they had gutted the kitchen.
00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:46.399
And then I guess they had gotten some insurance money.
00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:49.840
So the in the garage when we bought the house were brand new appliances.
00:08:50.000 --> 00:08:51.440
There were supposed to be kitchen cabinets.
00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:53.440
They weren't there, they never showed up.
00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:56.639
So we got 20k off that price.
00:08:57.120 --> 00:09:02.240
And yes, just to your point, I didn't even know, I didn't know we could even ask for that, that time frame.
00:09:02.480 --> 00:09:06.320
And just like you're saying, like she didn't want to sell the house quick.
00:09:06.399 --> 00:09:09.039
She had been, she didn't want to, she didn't really want to sell the house.
00:09:09.200 --> 00:09:12.879
So, you know, it gave her time to get back in there and get her stuff out.
00:09:13.039 --> 00:09:14.320
So absolutely.
00:09:14.559 --> 00:09:25.279
And then as far as the money goes, and this is gonna be a common theme throughout this project, is money was in and out in all these different ways.
00:09:25.600 --> 00:09:49.200
I could not tell you in January how much of it was hard money because I know that we got a loan for around I know eventually once it's kind of easier for me, like at the end, I can kind of see so we had a hard money loan for 810.
00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:57.200
And then we had another private money for another, I say 600-ish.
00:09:58.320 --> 00:09:58.639
Okay.
00:09:59.279 --> 00:10:08.799
So I think is that like 1.4 ish is what, but then minus you know, the house for around 600.
00:10:09.279 --> 00:10:13.519
So the house, so the reno budget was 800k.
00:10:13.840 --> 00:10:16.960
That's what we spent on the renovation of this house.
00:10:17.919 --> 00:10:19.440
$800,000.
00:10:20.159 --> 00:10:21.120
Like, oh my god.
00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:25.039
Oh my god we will definitely get into that and that rental budget.
00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:30.000
But I kind of want to go a little bit into the private funding there.
00:10:30.080 --> 00:10:32.960
I mean, 600k, that's that's nothing to go off at.
00:10:33.039 --> 00:10:34.320
Like, that's a lot of money.
00:10:34.559 --> 00:10:40.320
Can you kind of, you know, obviously don't need names or anything, but just kind of like how did you source that?
00:10:40.480 --> 00:10:42.399
Did it all come from one person?
00:10:42.559 --> 00:10:45.120
You know, how did you pursue getting those funds?
00:10:45.279 --> 00:10:51.600
I know that you kind of had a great working relationship already because of your two previous ones, which is awesome.
00:10:51.840 --> 00:10:52.480
Yeah.
00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:58.960
I had a loan for around 200K with my parents.
00:10:59.360 --> 00:11:07.120
And then we had another business that I'm involved in with my dad.
00:11:07.279 --> 00:11:08.720
We have some other real estate.
00:11:08.799 --> 00:11:13.759
And so I had another 160 with that.
00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:22.960
Then we had another 200 from I would say like smaller chunks from family members.
00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:27.120
So and some friends, small amount from like friend.
00:11:27.200 --> 00:11:27.519
Yeah.
00:11:27.679 --> 00:11:27.840
Yeah.
00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:30.399
And of course, you know, paying everybody interest.
00:11:30.559 --> 00:11:34.080
Everybody knew, everybody knew, you know, what we were up to.
00:11:34.159 --> 00:11:37.039
And at that point, yeah, we had had a few flips under our belt.
00:11:37.120 --> 00:11:41.519
And so I had started to have people kind of be like, hmm, what are y'all doing?
00:11:41.600 --> 00:11:44.159
You know, could we get in on that, you know, kind of a thing.
00:11:44.399 --> 00:11:46.240
So yeah, absolutely.
00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:50.240
And I tell people, like, I think with private lending, it kind of snowballs.
00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:55.440
And that's why, like, I tell our students, like, share what you're doing, you know, let people know.
00:11:55.679 --> 00:12:03.600
I'm always surprised at people who approaches me and is like, oh, hey, like I have$100,000 in this savings account.
00:12:03.759 --> 00:12:09.679
Or, you know, a lot of people don't know they can tap into their 401k, or like if they have a self-directed IRA.
00:12:09.759 --> 00:12:13.039
Um, and they've been like, yeah, like I've been putting money in here for years.
00:12:13.279 --> 00:12:18.000
And what I think is cool is like you you involved, you know, family and friends.
00:12:18.159 --> 00:12:22.320
And I know sometimes people are all like, oh, don't do like business with your family and friends.
00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:26.000
But I'm like, but who else would I rather make the money?
00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:26.559
Right.
00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:26.960
Yeah.
00:12:27.120 --> 00:12:28.799
Like I want my friends and family.
00:12:28.960 --> 00:12:39.840
Like it's if it if somebody's gonna win here and somebody's gonna get the money, like I would rather it be people I love than, you know, maybe some random bank or, you know, well, I love hard money lenders.
00:12:39.919 --> 00:12:45.840
Like, you know, I'm like, I'd rather my dad or, you know, an aunt get that money back than them.
00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:47.279
Yeah, absolutely.
00:12:47.440 --> 00:12:53.919
And I'd say that's one of the best skills that you kind of learn when flipping a house is how to raise capital.
00:12:54.159 --> 00:12:56.240
It is such a valuable skill.
00:12:56.559 --> 00:12:59.600
And I'd say it's so creative.
00:12:59.679 --> 00:13:02.159
There's such a creative aspect to it.
00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:04.080
It doesn't look the same, you know.
00:13:04.320 --> 00:13:09.519
My interest rate with my dad was really low because he's like, he's investing in me.
00:13:09.759 --> 00:13:18.879
He wants to make a little bit more than whatever he would get in a savings account versus like the hard money lender who doesn't know me, you know, is gonna charge three times that.
00:13:19.120 --> 00:13:42.879
So yeah, it can be very stressful, and especially like with my par my family and my dynamics, my history with him, like it has not been the easiest relationship, especially when it comes to money, because they feel then, at least with my family, my dad in particular, like, oh, you're going on that vacation or you're buying that blah, blah, blah.
00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:44.000
You haven't paid us back yet.
00:13:44.159 --> 00:13:49.120
So we've had to kind of learn, you know, I like projects that have start and end dates.
00:13:50.080 --> 00:13:54.960
And yeah, being very clear on boundary setting when if needed.
00:13:55.039 --> 00:13:58.720
But then other times people are just like, here's my money, like let you know, let me know how it goes.
00:13:58.960 --> 00:13:59.759
So then there's no.
00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:22.480
My dad was one of my first private lenders too.
00:14:22.559 --> 00:14:32.080
And like it meant a lot to me that he supported me enough to basically put his money where his mouth was, even though like he couldn't see the finish line.
00:14:32.879 --> 00:14:34.159
Um, so that was really cool.
00:14:34.320 --> 00:14:41.039
But yeah, it's and it's funny, I have private lenders I do like that I've worked with, and they're like one of them's like, You don't have to tell me.
00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:44.799
Um, because like I plan vacations for myself and my family.
00:14:44.960 --> 00:14:47.039
We plan like six months to a year out, right?
00:14:47.120 --> 00:14:52.559
So like I'm going ahead and I've already paid for those off of like previous flip, you know, sales or weight.
00:14:52.879 --> 00:15:03.519
But yeah, I've had that same thought one time where I like messaged a lender and I was like, Listen, you're gonna like you just dumped like 60 grand in my account like for renovations.
00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:11.120
Um, and and I'm I went to Alaska and I was like, listen, I can send you the receipts of when I paid for this like seven months ago.
00:15:11.279 --> 00:15:14.399
And he's just I appreciate that, but like, no thanks.
00:15:14.559 --> 00:15:25.039
Like, you know, we have a contract, and you know, when yeah, I expect that it to be paid back in that time frame, not you know, before or so, yeah, I totally get that.
00:15:25.360 --> 00:15:27.759
Yes, it can be tricky, but it's doable.
00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:32.879
And like if you have a dream, if you have a goal, you know, you're gonna what are you gonna do to make it happen?
00:15:33.039 --> 00:15:40.080
So you just like you know, suck up some pride a little bit and just you know it's okay.
00:15:40.799 --> 00:15:42.080
Been there, done that.
00:15:42.320 --> 00:15:52.000
So let's jump into this$800,000 innovation budget because my goodness, I I've done some big homes myself.
00:15:52.159 --> 00:15:56.480
Um, I don't think I've hit that level of renovation budget yet.
00:15:56.799 --> 00:16:02.559
So, like talk us through like, I mean, the the planning of that, like how did we get to that number?
00:16:02.960 --> 00:16:11.919
So my reno could have been like somewhere like in the 600s, and then with carrying costs and fees and all that stuff, that was in there.
00:16:12.080 --> 00:16:15.519
I think because I think we were all in at the end around that like 1.4.
00:16:15.679 --> 00:16:17.679
So that would have included other costs in there too.
00:16:18.000 --> 00:16:26.000
This is the thing through that for I am not the most detail oriented when it comes to bookkeeping and accounting.
00:16:26.240 --> 00:16:29.440
So that is one of my biggest challenges.
00:16:29.600 --> 00:16:34.720
I have to tell myself I'm learning because it is not very new to me.
00:16:34.879 --> 00:16:36.080
It stresses me out.
00:16:36.320 --> 00:16:38.720
I'm I feel like I'm terrible.
00:16:38.799 --> 00:16:41.440
I'm a terrible human because I don't know where every dollar goes.
00:16:41.600 --> 00:16:44.879
But I'm just that's it's okay.
00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:50.399
So the thing about this house, the reason we went into it was I'm not doing it with my by myself.
00:16:50.480 --> 00:16:55.519
I have my husband who is basically acting as our GC.
00:16:55.759 --> 00:16:56.080
Okay.
00:16:56.399 --> 00:16:59.279
And he did that with the other two projects that we worked on.
00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:08.960
So he does not have, it's not like he's been a GC in his past life, but he grew up in a working class home and they fixed everything themselves.
00:17:09.119 --> 00:17:10.480
They didn't pay people to do things.
00:17:10.720 --> 00:17:12.480
He built his own house growing up.
00:17:12.559 --> 00:17:24.559
Like he can fix HVAC, he can he can do all the things, yeah, which has been a learning lesson for us and why I loved the flip sisters because it taught us how to analyze a deal.
00:17:24.640 --> 00:17:28.400
And when you get the house at a certain price, then you can pay people to help you.
00:17:28.640 --> 00:17:30.319
So that's a whole other thing.
00:17:30.400 --> 00:17:32.559
But yes, we did GC it ourselves.
00:17:32.880 --> 00:17:39.039
We saw the house, we saw the neighborhood it was in, and these houses were million-dollar homes.
00:17:39.119 --> 00:17:42.319
And you know, there's a little bit of a variety up there.
00:17:42.400 --> 00:17:50.480
It's not like all mega mansions, but the road that that house was on, there were definitely homes that were in the multi-millions.
00:17:50.640 --> 00:17:57.359
The issue we ran into was Georgia homes, there is a state income in Georgia.
00:17:57.440 --> 00:18:04.240
So the I I don't know if this is exactly correct, but the home prices are slightly lower than they are in Tennessee.
00:18:04.400 --> 00:18:06.559
Tennessee home prices are a little bit higher.
00:18:06.799 --> 00:18:16.319
And the city, the way that Lookout Mountain is oriented, you have most of the homes are in Tennessee, and then there's maybe a third of the homes are on the Georgia side.
00:18:16.480 --> 00:18:26.880
So when it came to doing our comps, it was a little bit tricky because we were comping it to other homes that were in Tennessee, which you had to take into account that there's a slight difference in price.
00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:30.640
And so we had sort of comped out maybe a 15% difference.
00:18:30.799 --> 00:18:33.519
And, you know, we had our realtor looking at the number.
00:18:33.680 --> 00:18:36.559
We talked to another realtor that was over there.
00:18:36.720 --> 00:18:45.519
And so we felt pretty good that we could, when we were buying the house, we thought we could get 1.5 for it.
00:18:45.839 --> 00:18:51.839
And so when it came to our renovation budget, originally we had wanted to spend around 400K.
00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:57.839
So if we were buying it around six, put 400, and then we had really good margin wiggle room.
00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:04.799
Once we got into it, my husband and I also just have difficulty sticking to a budget.
00:19:05.039 --> 00:19:15.279
If we see, if we see the margin is there, we want to bring the house to it's like it was like a artwork, you know, to us.
00:19:15.440 --> 00:19:18.799
It was like we see this vision, we see this, we see how beautiful it could be.
00:19:19.039 --> 00:19:21.039
Like, let's take the shot.
00:19:21.279 --> 00:19:22.880
I don't know if I would do this again.
00:19:23.039 --> 00:19:23.519
I don't know.
00:19:23.680 --> 00:19:33.039
I know, I know why people stick to more middle income housing, but um average sales price homes and all of that because of this.
00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:35.440
But you know, sometimes you gotta live and learn.
00:19:35.599 --> 00:19:36.880
And we certainly did that.
00:19:37.039 --> 00:19:38.400
So I know what we're capable.