BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast - 422: From W2-Job Single Mom to Flipping Real Estate Rockstar with Amanda Young

Episode Date: December 3, 2020

Amanda Young stumbled into real estate. After being let go from a job, dealing with a family emergency, and homeschooling her son, Amanda knew that she had to find a way to provide for her family, but also allow her to discover her hidden edge. After finding BiggerPockets and joining a local REIA (real estate investors association), she decided to take the jump and buy her first rental. Now, in 2020, she has 7 rental properties and a flourishing flipping business, working with a partner that matches her energy. Amanda found her localized niche by targeting owners of “sinkhole homes” and offering them deals that not only made sense for the buyer, but were a steal for her. She then used creative financing (really creative) to get these homes under contract. Amanda is the definition of someone who has grit, and is willing to work hard to earn their piece. She talks through Section 2 deals, 1031 exchanges, refinancing, and even how to “COVID-Proof” your tenants, so when the next global emergency happens, you’ll be ready. In This Episode We Cover: How to fight your analysis paralysis and get deals done What probate deals are and how to find leads Why owner financing can be a win-win for buyers and sellers How Amanda found a niche in “sinkhole homes” Why it’s important to find a niche that others would run from How to “COVID-Proof” your rental properties Getting ahead as a woman in a male-dominated industry (flipping) Empathizing with the seller so you’ll win negotiations (even with less money) And SO much more! Links from the Show BiggerPockets Forums David's Instagram Brandon's Instagram BiggerPockets Podcast Sinkholes: Swallowed Alive (Discovery Channel) BiggerPockets Podcast 412: Start Investing in Large Multifamily? How to Do it, and Why (or Why Not) with Ashley Wilson Check the full show notes here: https://www.biggerpockets.com/show422 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Bigger Pockets podcast show 422. It's limiting beliefs. You don't have to have a whole lot of money to get into real estate and make money. You really don't. And you can see as my examples, I really did not have a whole lot of money to put into these deals at all. You're listening to Bigger Pockets Radio, simplifying real estate for investors large and small. If you're here looking to learn about real estate investing, without all the hype, you're in the right place. Stay tuned and be sure to join the millions of others

who have benefited from biggerpockets.com. Your home for real estate investing online. What's going on, everyone is Brandon Turner, host of the Bigger Pockets podcast, here with a phenomenal show for you that's going to go down in the history of Bigger Pockets podcast is one of the ones that people remember and come back to over and over and over interviewing an amazing person

in Amanda. You're going to get to know her in a minute. But first, let me introduce you to my friend, my partner in crime, Mr. David Green. David. When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? Well, I went through a phase where I wanted to be what my dad did and he painted houses. Thank God I moved out of that one. And then I think I wanted to be a professional athlete.

And that definitely didn't happen. And then I had no idea what I wanted. I actually went through a lot of anxiety through high school and college because I didn't know what I wanted to do. But I love to just get ahead of everyone else. I'm very competitive. So it was really hard that I couldn't figure out what race I wanted to run. It's hard to win a race when you don't know what you're running. When you don't know which one you're in, yeah, that was my life.

So when I finally found real estate, I had like, you know, 30 years of pent up frustration that I just unleashed on the whole thing. All right. What did you want to be when you grew up? Tall. I want to be a, I want to be a, a teacher was my thought, like a calculus teacher. In high school, I thought I want to do is calculus teacher. And I'm glad I didn't do that. Are you that good at math that you can do calculus?

I mean, I was in calculus in high school. I didn't do it in college much. Well, I did a college class in high school and I liked it. But then I went for a history degree. You don't use calculus in history. So anyway, I'm actually looking forward to teaching Rosie. I'm going to be Rosie because we're probably going to homeschool Rosie since we travel so much. So anyway, I get to be her math teacher.

So starting like now, I get to like go all the way with your math again all the way up and hopefully make Rosie a little. You're one of those weirdos that like it's excited about that. I loved it. I'll never understand you. Yeah, I loved it. I loved it. Thank God you exist. All right.

With that said, let's get to today's quick tip. My quick tip for you is set a number of offers you are going to make in 2021 per week on average. Maybe it's one per week on average. Maybe it's half of one per week on average. Maybe it's one per month on average. But set that number knowing that not all of your offers are going to be accepted. And that scares you. If you're like, well, I don't even know how to make an offer.

Well, guess what? Now you got a really good goal to figure out to make an offer. That's your first, that's the first domino to knock down. Let's figure that one out. So set yourself a goal for the number of offers. going to make in 2021 and let's work backwards to make sure that success is not a surprise for you, listener. And now, let me give a second quick tip.

A quickly quick tip. If you want to become friends with someone that you're having a hard time getting in there or you want like a mentor type of a situation, figure out what their goals are and help them meet their goals. If somebody wants to be Brandon Turner's friend and they bring him a mobile home park or someone to invest in your fund or they invest, that's a very quick way to get into. your inner circle and kind of see the other things you have going on. So change the question from how do I bring value to you, which is very general, to how do I help you accomplish your goals,

which is much more specific. That's so good. And so like, yeah, you just said you want to triple your business. So hey, if you are in the Bay Area and you will know somebody who wants to buy a cell house, talk to David Green because that's how you're going to bring him value. And, man, that's such a good tip. That's exactly right. That's what's going to make me want to bring you into the world that I'm creating and see what I can do to now help you achieve your goals, was probably the reason that you wanted a mentor in the first place, right? It's just a much better approach. Yeah.

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Here's the thing about traveling. If you buy food at the airport, a burrito, salad, bag of peanuts, you start wondering if you should have opened a savings account for snacks. So wouldn't it be great if you could actually earn money while you're traveling? Well, you can. Airbnb has something called the co-host network. While you're away, you can hire a vetted local co-host with hosting experience to help take care of things, communicating with guests, preparing your space,

managing reservations, everything runs smoothly while you're off making memories. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.com slash host. And now I think we're ready to get in today's show. Today's guest is Amanda Young. Amanda is just a firecracker of a woman who just started as a single mom, not knowing what she's doing, having no money, was able to build financial freedom, is able to like doubled her income, crushed it despite a lot of obstacles in her path.

You're going to hear about that today. It's really a great story of just daring greatly, which is a book she mentioned later in the end of the show. But she's such a perfect example of that. You guys are going to love this interview. So I don't even want to fool around. I just want to get right into it. David, you ready?

Yeah, this is a story that somebody could be made into a movie. So this is really cool. I think you guys were going to really like it. And apparently she was on TV. She had a TV show or something. Yes, she was. She was on a TV show. So anyway, you'll hear about that too.

So without further ado, let's get to our interview with Amanda Young. Amanda, welcome to the Bigger Pockets podcast. Good to have you here. Hi, thank you guys so much. It's an absolute honor to be here. with you guys. Well, thank you very much. Thank you. Well, it's an honor to be here with you, because I hear you have a pretty incredible story. So I'm excited to dig in a little bit. Walk us through how you got into real estate. Like, why real estate? What were you doing before that?

And kind of how did you get into that very first deal? Okay. So back in 2012, I just recently got divorced. I was finally able to kind of just sit down and breathe and allow myself to dream. And basically closed that one chapter. And I thought to myself, now what does my next chapter look like? what do I want to do for myself? And Blossom real estate, I went to the library. I didn't have a lot of money. So I went to the library and I read every book, every business book I could get my hands on. I read even stock market books. None of those made sense to me until I landed on rich dad, poor dad. And as soon as I got a hold of rich dad poor dad, it completely changed my life. It completely changed my mindset, put me on a path of a lot of fun and greatness and made a lot of money on the

way. So I'm so grateful for that. Well, can I just, can I pause there? I don't know if I, I never asked this question. People talk about Rich Dad Porta a lot. I talk about Rich Dad Portaed a lot. What, what is it about Rich Dad Porta for those who maybe haven't read it? What is it about that book that gets so many people fired up? You know what it is? It's, it's a, it's a mindset game changer. It teaches you how to look. at money completely differently than what you've always been taught or known. So you want to put your money to work for you, like little soldiers out in the field. So once I realized that and a lot of other lessons that I obtained from the book, I was able to implement that in my life. So it's just,

it's just an absolute game changer. I highly recommend it to everyone. Yeah, 100% agree. So you get this proper. I mean, so you get this book, you read the book, and you're like, oh, this fired me up. So what do you do with that? So that was about in 2012, 2013. I threw myself into research. I happened upon you guys. That was back when Brandon and Josh were doing a podcast. Oh, geez of the bigger podcast podcast. A long time ago. And basically, you guys were my mentors. I was a single mom. There were no Rio groups in my area. So you guys, you guys taught me all the I needed to know, different strategies, different ways to invest. So I'm forever grateful for you guys for that. So everything you guys talked about and did, I basically implemented. One show talked about

going to local RIA meetings. So I got myself plugged in to one that was about an hour away. That was the closest one. I was a single mom. So I would load up my son and I would drive him an hour to Tampa. We would go to these RIA meetings. He hated it. but we did what we had to do. It was just one night a month. So we would go. And from the RIA meetings, I learned a lot more ways to invest in strategies.

And I was also able to get plugged in with other investors like me. And I learned a lot that way as well. So that between 2012, 2013 and my research in 2014, I was finally able to save enough money to buy my first, rental property. It was very excited. It was late 2014. All right. So what was it? I mean, like, what did you buy? It was a three two block home in my town. I was able to purchase that on what they call a home path loan. They'd no longer have that available to investors. However,

back in 2014, it was a special loan where you could only put, you only had to put 10% down. And so I was able to save that money and put the 10% down on a 3-2 home that cost, I think, 78,000. And right now I get $13.50 in rent on that house. That's awesome. That's awesome. And where was that one located? Spring Hill, Florida. Spring Hill, Florida.

All right. You're in the game at that point. You're like, why do you think so many people get stuck at the education phase, the research phase, which you were in? and then don't buy that first property. Like what was that difference for you? Analysis paralysis. They get scared.

What if I lose my money? What if a hurricane comes and blows it away? A lot of what ifs. You kind of have to get past that. You kind of have to get some courage, muster up some courage, and go out there and buy your first property. Now, mind you, when I bought my first property, I was a single mom. I didn't have a lot of money.

I got a lot of backlash. I got a lot of, are you crazy? You don't have a man in your life to help you. You're a single mom. What are you doing? And I said, hey, I have this dream. I'm going to follow. I'm not going to let anything stand in my way.

I'm going to do it. So I did. So I bought my first property. Shortly thereafter, I almost lost my son. He had a facial tumor. He was in the hospital for two weeks. We almost lost him. He had to go through reconstruction surgery.

after he got out of the hospital he wasn't able to go back to school. I had a homeschooling. It was a very traumatic time in our life. And then about a month after that, I lost my job. So now, yeah, now I'm unemployed and I have a son at home who I have to take care of. So more so than, you know, what I normally would have had to. And now I don't have a job. I'm unemployed.

And what did I do? Though I did not let that stop me. I went ahead and I found another property to purchase another rental in my neighborhood. How do you do that, though? How do you purchase? You got no job. You're at home. How do you buy that second property?

A lot of people get stuck here. They buy the first. They can't figure out how to buy the second. They can't figure out the second. Well, that property, I won a list of probate leads at my local RIA. They actually had like a contest and they gave, Well, you put your business card in a bucket or whatever, and they drew my name. I had no idea what probate was.

I didn't know how to work a lead list. So the lady who runs that company, she kind of held my hand. She says, here's some example of letters to send. Just stick them in the mailbox and see what happens. And lo and behold, I got her call back from a lady in Michigan. And she had a home here in Spring Hill. Her father passed. So it was a probate.

I was able to negotiate a subject two deal. She wanted $6,500 cash, and I took over the loan on subject two. Yeah, let's talk about the subject two for a minute because that's something that a lot of people don't know what that is. And it's a powerful strategy. So how would you explain subject two to somebody who has just no idea about this? So subject two is taking an existing loan over that's not in your name. So the loan was in the dead guy's name, right? And I just took it over.

I started making the payments for whomever the person's name is on that loan. But how do you, how do you like, because a lot of times what happens like, you know, when somebody dies or you sell a property, you have to pay back the loan. So the bank's going to want their loan paid back, right? So how do you, how did you not happen? What did you do to prevent that? So through going to some RIA meetings and listening to your podcast, I learned a couple strategies to kind of prevent that loan from being called due. First thing I did was I put it in a

land trust. And so that way, now on public record, it says family trust of who did previously own the house. And then what I also did is I went to the bank and I opened up a checking account and I opened it in a fictitious property management name. So property management of whatever. And then I wrote all the checks out of that account. So when the bank received those checks, it said property management company so that, you know, they wouldn't be flagged like, oh, this is coming from a different person other than who owns the house. And it did.

It never got called due. Thank goodness. I've never heard that. So what do you do if, because this is a danger why I haven't done subject two very much at all, really. I don't think I've ever done a single subject too. So what do you do now? Maybe I did one.

I did one. Sort of. It was like a whole tale. But anyway, what do you do if a subject to loan is called due? What if the bank does say, hey, wait, no, this guy died or this, you bought the property. You got to pay us back. What would you have done? I would have went out and secured a bank loan or a private money lender or I could have just sold the house.

Yeah. Yeah, that's the bottom line. I love that you said that because that's like subject two is, you know, risky in that like the bank could ask for their loan back. They don't necessarily want to just have people buying properties and not refinancing or buying it. But if they do call it, you got some time. You can go sell it. You can refinance it.

You can go into a loan. You can bring in a partner. There's a lot of options. Yeah, the most important thing is to secure the deal. So you can start, you know, getting cash flow from that. And then just be prepared with plan B if the bank does call it due. However, you can take preventative measures so that it doesn't happen. Yeah.

You know, can I bring up an important point here too? Like, this is true in so many areas of real estate. or I mean, really any business, but especially real estate, is how many people out there will say things like you can't do subject to? It doesn't work anymore. Or you can't do this strategy or that strategy. It doesn't work here. People are so quick to be like, this doesn't work or here.

It doesn't work. But you just perfectly illustrated. Like there are back doors and there are avenues and there are other things you can, with almost everything. So just that's just a word of warning to everyone listening is when people tell you, like you can't do something or that something's not a good idea. Be careful who you get your advice from. Yes, very much so.

And to be honest, when somebody tells me I can't do something, it just, it drives me harder to do it to prove them wrong. Yeah, 100%. Yeah. All right. So you gave this lady the $6,500 she wanted, and took over her property. And now you just rent it out and you just make the mortgage payment. And so you get to keep all the difference for cash flow. And you've been doing that ever since, right?

Yes. Yeah, absolutely. And realized the tax benefits as well. So there's that. Yeah, there's a lot of really cool things. you know that you get with that. So, okay, so what came next? Walk us through the rest of your story.

What came next? So I like to utilize creative financing strategies. So driving for dollars, driving around different neighborhoods. I found a for sale by owner sign, wrote and pencil. And I'm like, oh, that's opportunity all over. Yeah, it does. Oh, man. So I was able to make an appointment and went and negotiated at the kitchen table.

So this couple, they were older. It was their second home. And I knew that if they sold that house, they would be subject to capital gains tax. So I explained to them that, hey, you know, if you'll own our finances, you won't have to be hit with so much taxes up front. So what do you say? I'll give you a little cash down. And I'll just make monthly payments to you. And you guys can have a supplemental income and not be hit with taxes so hard. And, And they, they like that idea. So I was able to negotiate at the kitchen table, $5,000 cash down. And I think it was a $62,000 mortgage at 6% over 20 years.

Yeah. That's great. That was a great one. Yeah, it's win-win. They get their money coming in every month. Just like to help them in retirement. You get a property. Don't have to do with a bank.

And only $5,000 down. Sounds pretty awesome to me. Yeah. Yeah. And I still own that house today. and actually that one, I was able to utilize that house. I refied that note this year because interest rates dropped. I was at 6%.

Now I'm at 3.9, I believe it is. On a 30-year note, I pay the same in my monthly payments. However, I was able to pull about $20,000 out and I went and bought another rental without taking any money out of my pocket and boom, I got a free home. I love it. I love it. All right. So what's your like portfolio look like?

Where do you get to? Let's go to the end of your story. Like how many units do you have or how many of you bought? Like what's the last few years look like? And then we'll kind of fill in the holes. Right now, currently I own seven rentals. They pay all my bills. I did own two more, but I sold them.

I got a ridiculous price. So I sold them. So yeah, my seven rentals pay my bills. But I also started in 2016. I started a flipping business. So from, 2016 till current, I am flipping houses. And you don't need a W-2 job to flip houses, right?

No, oh, no, I don't have a W-2 job. I just want to say, I know we're just getting started here, Amanda, but this is so cool that you lost your job and then went and made more money through real estate, when for most people, that would just be, well, I guess I can't do it. Well, I don't want to brag or anything, but I make, I think more than double than what I made in my W-2 income. I make over six figures doing this. Yeah, and all without the ability to get the easy financing. That's really what I was getting at.

You know, I've heard it said, a wise man once said, necessity is the mother of invention. And you've now found some really cool. No, it wasn't me. Did you say that? Is that your quote? Is that your quote? No, I don't have wise quotes.

I just have a good memory. I remember other couples quotes. For me, success was not an option. So I had to be successful. There was no other option for me out there, but to succeed in real estate or go back. to work. And I didn't like that idea because I had a son, like I said, who I had to take care of. So, so yeah, success was not, you know, an option. It had to be done. So I did it. So good.

Yeah, I mean, that's the, that's the mentality. One thing I find difficult, in fact, I had a conversation the other day with a buddy of mine. A buddy of mine's, you know, pretty wealthy. It has a good amount of money. And he was talking about how difficult it is now to start something new because he doesn't need it. He doesn't have the need anymore. And I've been through that as well. Like once you have a lot of, like, you lose a little bit of that fire

when you already have a lot of money and you're already wealthy. And so almost, some people think that having no money and having like limited resources is a detriment. But I would almost argue that that should give you more passion

and fire and excitement. You have a, the fact that you have little money when you get started is a benefit to you, not a disadvantage. It's an advantage to you. And when you shift your thinking from that to that,

I go up to you're like, oh, yeah, it's right. Like, like, I think one of the scariest things when people message me and say,

I've got $200,000 to invest or I've got $500,000 to invest. What do I do? I'm like, hold on. Like, hold on. That is a scary spot to be in. Like, I would much rather be in the spot when getting started of,

I've got $15,000 than if I've got $500, grand because that $500, grand is very easily lost. But the $15,000, you're going to hold on a lot tighter. You're going to be a lot smart. about it. It's limiting beliefs.

You don't have to have a whole lot of money to get into real estate and make money. You really don't. And you can see as my examples, I really did not have a whole lot of money to put into these deals at all. Yeah. Wow. That's great. Yeah,

we got these little clips from the, for the beginning of every show, like to kind of tease what's coming every episode of the podcast. I feel like the last like minute, there's been like 10 things you said that every one of them. I like wrote down, like writing down like, this would be a great tease for the beginning of the show.

I know this would be a great tease for the beginning of the show. Oh, no, this would be a great teaser. No, this is a really good. Like everything you said there, I'm like, oh, this is so good. All right. So, yeah, I mean, financial, basically you pay your bills. You can pay your bills through the income coming from the rental property. So we call that like level one. All my bills are paid through. All my bills are paid through my rental income.

My mortgage, groceries, gas. I do not live an extravagant lifestyle. My house is just a normal house. I drive an old beat up Toyota as a work truck. So, you know, if you're not extravagant, then, you know, you can kind of get to a point where you don't have to have a W-2 income. And what happened for me was the W-2 income was really holding me back in a lot of ways. I did not have time to devote to real estate. Real estate was my passion because between the time I bought my second rental and then started my flipping business, I did have to go out and get another W-2 job.

And that really hindered my business in a lot of ways, but I had to do what I had to do. And the end of 2018 corporate America quit me. And my boss at a time sat me down. And Kristen, I love you. Thank you so much. But she sets me down. And she says, Amanda, this is not your passion. Your passion is real estate.

And you need to follow your passion. I have to let you go because I was in a sales position. I didn't meet my numbers. So she let me go. But she says, this is where you need to be. This is where you excel at. This is what you're passionate about. and one day I'm going to see you on TV.

And she actually, she saw me on TV. I was on the Discovery Channel for doing what I do. Oh, no way. That's awesome. I specialize in sinkhole homes in my area. Think hole home? Think hole. This is a Florida thing.

Tell us about this, Savannah. Brandon's not heard of it. I've seen like on the news once in a while, like sinkholes are a thing in Florida, but I don't know maybe who special. I love them. What is this? What is this? I will tell you that I don't want to your podcast.

long, long time ago, you had somebody on there to say go after the product that nobody else wants and that everybody else is scared of. And for my, for me, that was sinkholes. Nobody in my area invested in single homes. Nobody wanted them at the time. And so I said, that's, that is what I'm going to do. I'm going after the single homes because nobody wanted them. And everyone was this, when everyone was scared of them. Well, I mean, yeah, it's like we always have a run towards hard. Like run towards a thing that's difficult, right? You ran towards hard. But, okay, when I think sinkhole, I think, like, there's this hole that opens up in the ground and the house falls into it.

And now there's no house anymore. Is that not what, like, how do you, how do you, what do you even do with a sinkhole house? Like, how is that a thing? I'm just, my mind is blown right now. I don't know how this happens. Okay. They're great. So if you watch the Discovery Channel show, it's called Syncholes Buried Alive.

very rare does a sinkhole actually open up to where it swallows the entire house. That's kind of sensationalized. So what happened in my area back in the early 2000s, there was a sinkhole scam going around. There's these guys that would walk around and knock on your door and say, hey, you've got a crack in your sidewalk. Got a sinkhole. Fill out this piece of paper. We'll deal with the insurance company.

and you'll get a big fat check. So that's exactly what happened. If you had a crack in your sidewalk, you could declare a sinkhole. What happened was the insurance companies would pay off your mortgage. They would send you like $100,000, $150,000 check to fix the sinkhole. Well, nobody fixed the sinkhole around here. They just took that money and they bought boats and vacations and cars and extra homes or whatever. Well, now fast forward, the county has all.

these houses that are flagged sinkhole. Okay. Well, there's really 90% of the time there's really no sinkhole. But what I do is I take these houses and I buy them 50 cents on the dollar or less and I repair the sinkhole. I have it pinned or I have another engineer come along and retest it and see if, in fact, is there a sinkhole or not? And if there's not, we get a new engineering report, which supersedes the old one from the fraud. And the flag is removed. And the flag is removed. moved and now the house, the house is just like any other house in the neighborhood. If there's an actual sinkhole, I have an engineer come out and they pin it all the way around the whole perimeter.

What does that mean to pin it? What is that? So they take like steel beams and they drive on down into the ground until they hit a certain PSI. And so when they get past all the lime rock and all the sediment and everything, when they get to a certain PSI, they anchor that beam and then they anchor the other end on the house, kind of like, it's kind of like a bracket, right? So they put it under the house. And so now your house is supported by usually about 30 beams on the entire perimeter of the home. And now, once it's repaired and once it's remediated, the house, the ARV is exactly the same as any other

house in my community. In fact, sometimes they're even more desirable. Because in my, In my area, it's almost not, do you have a sinkhole? It's when are you going to get a single? A lot of people would rather have one that's repaired, so they do not have to deal with it in the future. You know, California is like that with earthquakes. That's what it sounds like you're describing, like the retrofitting that they do to make it safer.

Yeah. For earthquakes is what they're doing out there. Wasn't there a case of a sinkhole in, was it Bowling Green, Kentucky, maybe, where they make the Corvettes? I think that was a big thing. Yeah. They did a huge hole in all these like really rare and expensive corvettes fell into that sinkhole. Yeah.

That would be so bad. So this is really interesting that. Here's what I want to ask. How did you find this niche? Did someone tell you about this? Did you just stumble upon it? Oh, so like I said, you guys were the ones that kind of said, you know, go after the things that nobody else wants. And if you live, we're called sinkhole alley.

I mean, there's so many. They're so prevalent here. that if you live here, you just know about it. I mean, it's just how it is. It's like every, you know, it's like hurricanes, single. We have to deal with all that. Yep. What I did was I ran an ad in the newspaper.

So in my community, there's a newspaper called the Senior Voice. And it's for all the older people. And so I ran an ad, I ran a full page ad and said that, I bought sinkhole homes and that I was a sinkhole specialist, but I had never bought a single home. You're a specialist. But that got me a ton of leads. And I was able to purchase quite a few.

I've done quite a few of them. And I was able to purchase those, remediate them and then turn around and sell them. You know, and just so I can, I want to pull out a couple things here. Because a lot of people might be listening to this and they're thinking super specific right now. Like, well, I don't have sink holes in my area. So I'm not going to, you know, this doesn't know. apply to me. Like, it might be a single, it might be asbestos, it might be lead-based paint. It might be bad tenants that need to be evicted. I think right now, one of the biggest opportunities

we have in the next six months to a year is all these tenants like in the U.S. that have just not paid rent for months and months and months and their landlords haven't been able to do anything about it. Like, that's a massive problem. And so like, people, yeah, there's, there's solutions to this. So interesting enough that you bring up about the tenants, my property, manager has effectively COVID-proofed my tenants. How's that? Yeah, I have a phenomenal property manager. She is absolutely amazing.

She is incredibly smart. What she has done is she has put in place tenants who have multiple sources of income. And we're not talking about him and her. We're talking about just, you know, one of them having multiple sources. So if COVID takes one away, we can still pay rent on their other sources of income. That's great. Phenomenal. I have not had an issue, not yet at all.

Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I love it. When I bought my first rental, I thought collecting rent would be the hard part. Nope. The admin crushed me. Every night was receipts, tax forms, and checking who was late on rent. I kept thinking, if this is one unit, how do people run 10? Base lane changed that.

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plants paid rent while you were out of town? I mean, they've got the whole place to themselves. lots of sunlight, zero responsibilities. But no, they just sit there waiting for someone to spray them with some cool mist like a bunch of leafy loafers. But guess what? Your home actually could be earning you money while you're not there. Airbnb has a great feature called the co-host network, which makes hosting your home so easy. If you live far from your property or are away for extended periods, you can hire a local co-host to take care of the hosting for you.

These co-hosts are vetted locals who already have experience hosting on Airbnb. A co-host can handle all the details like messaging guests, creating your host. space and managing reservations. So everything runs smoothly. It's a practical way to earn a little extra money, maybe even some cash toward your next trip. Plus, you get to share your place with someone traveling to your area while you're off making memories somewhere else. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.com slash host. Wouldn't it be great if your houseplants paid rent while you were out of town? I mean, they've got the whole place to themselves, lots of sunlight, zero responsibilities. But no, they just sit there waiting for someone to

spray them with some cool mist like a bunch of leafy loafers. But guess what? Your home actually could be earning you money while you're not there. Airbnb has a great feature called the co-host network, which makes hosting your home so easy. If you live far from your property or are away for extended periods, you can hire a local co-host to take care of the hosting for you. These co-hosts are vetted locals who already have experience hosting on Airbnb. A co-host can handle all the details like messaging guests, creating your host space, and managing reservations.

So everything runs smoothly. It's a practical way to earn a little extra money, maybe even some cash toward your next trip. Plus, you get to share your place with someone traveling to your area while you're off making memories somewhere else. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at Airbnb.com slash host. So what your story really illustrates here, what I love is that you had this passion, this dream. You had a need, a need, you had to figure this thing out. You went out there and you did it.

You got what I call level one financial freedom. You can pay your bills with it, which is great because now that it gives you. That's like if you play cash flow of the game, right? You're outside the little rat race circle. And now you have the ability. Once you achieve level one financial freedom, you can go do other stuff to either make more money. Like now you're flipping houses because you can do that.

You don't have to rely on the fear of, well, what if a month or two goes by without getting a flip? Well, your bills are paid. So you have that freedom to be able to do that. When I was 27, I had enough cash flow, I was making $3 grand a month. It was enough to pay all my bills. And I was like, all right, well, I guess I can go start a podcast.

So that's where the Bigger Pockets podcast. came from me and Josh started that because we're like, I mean, like, I didn't have to worry about like what I was going to do. And so this is so like, so important just this idea of like get that level one financial freedom, like have a reason why. I mean, everything you're talking about it's just so good. So let's let's talk a little bit about the flipping. Like what kind of like volume do you do? I mean, are you doing 20 a month? Are you doing a couple of year? Yeah, not that. I wish I was doing that. Well, you know, for me, I, I see. started in real estate. I did not know the difference between a 20-year roof and a 30-year roof. I didn't

know what a double tap was. I didn't know what a shark bite was. Is it a double tap like when you like kill a zombie and then you hit him a second time? Yeah. Isn't that a thing? A double tap? Anyway, all right. So, you know, all in due time, I would love to do 20 flips a month, but I had to learn from nothing this industry. So I started when I flipped in 2016 and then 2017. You know, every year I do more because I learn more and I understand the process more now. So I would, I'm at a point now where I would love to scale and I can scale because now I have teams in place. I have a lot more education behind under my belt. I'm very confident in what I do now. So probably per year, I might do half a dozen or maybe eight or ten,

but now I'm at a point where I feel confident and comfortable enough to scale to get to 20 or more a year. Well, still half a dozen a year. That's more than I ever did in a year. I'm not like, I'm not a flipper much either. But like, you know, I do a few in a year. And I'm like, all right, well, that was a good year, you know. So you're still, you're still killing it. What have you found, like, what have you found it's like to flip?

And I hate this question because even just asking it comes across kind of weird. But like it's true. Flipping as a woman is different than flipping as a man, right? Like it's largely a quote unquote man's world of dealing with contractors and all that. Have you found that or has it not been an issue at all? No, no, it's an issue. Unfortunately, it is an issue. You know, you can't let it stop you.

I combat that with education. I know what I'm talking about if I don't ask lots of questions. And I speak to a lot of. ladies. A lot of ladies come up to me and say, gosh, I wish I could do what you do. I don't know where to start. I'm not confident. It's such a male dominated industry. And I just want to say, but use it to your advantage. Be the, I love to be the underdog and be underestimated. So there's a lot to be said about being underestimated and going in and beating the boys out. I love doing that.

Sorry. So ladies, it's great, especially with negotiating twice now, twice that I know of. I beat the boys out in negotiations, not because I had more money. The first one, I was the lowest bidder by 10 grand. The second one, I was the lowest bidder by $17,000. And it was only because I went in there, not a heavy hitter. I didn't go in there aggressive. I went in there and I figured out exactly why these ladies needed to sell their home.

It had nothing to do with the money. So if you could just use that to your advantage, ladies, you could really, really make it, you know, in real estate. And I really wish that a lot more women would come and get into the business. You had Ash on a couple episodes ago. Yeah. The only woman in the room. I haven't even read the book, but I have been there.

I know exactly what she's talking about. I would go to Rio meetings. I would not only be the only woman in the room. I would be like the youngest one in the room. And I would be the only one in the room with a small child sitting there at the meeting. You know, so do what you have to do. It's not a bad thing. I'm very passionate about it.

I'm very passionate about helping other ladies. I hope a lot of other ladies where and when I can, but I just can't stress it enough. It is not a bad thing. It's a good thing. Get out there and do it. Yeah, that's so good. Well, that's always when we get on our own way,

when we assume there's something about me that won't let me succeed because I'm not like everyone else and I can't do it. And then you went and found that that thing that made you different than everyone became a competitive advantage in many scenarios. So that's just why Brandon and I were harping so much on mindset now because real estate is really simple. I'm sure you can agree, Amanda. It's not easy,

but it's simple. It is not rocket science. Yes, it's our own self that gets in the way of being successful. Is that similar to what you found? Absolutely. Oh, my goodness. Yes. So I got a question for you about that.

When it comes to what catches your eye in a deal, can you share with the listeners what you see that makes you go, ooh, I want to pursue that one? Oh, goodness. I can walk in. I'm at the point now. I can walk into the house and I can just see it in my head all, all redone, all pre-ed-up, new kids. cabinets, new flooring, new lighting. I look for location. I can't change the location of a house.

Isn't in a good neighborhood? Isn't an upcoming neighborhood? Does it have good bones? If it has a weird layout, I don't really like them. And weird layouts are hard to sell. Is it open, airy, you know, have a good feel about it. I just know immediately. I know immediately when I walk up, I know what my buyers are looking for. I know what's going to sell in the market. Every day I look at what has sold. I look at what finishes were put in. So I know what that neighborhood needs to have as far as a rehab. I think it just comes from experience. When I first started and I still do this, when I first started, I would drive around. I'd pop into other people's rehabs. I did not know these people. I didn't care. I'd just knock on the door. Hey, what are you guys doing? That's awesome. That's one of

the tips. I speak at a lot of local Rias and in this set and the other, a lot of women's groups. and it comes, I give a lot of tips on how to get started and how to build your knowledge base and knocking on other people's rehab stores and seeing what they're doing, where did you get those cabinets, what kind of flooring is that, what contractors do you use and start getting to know that other investors in your community. And they, I have not had one person to turn me down when I was asking questions or inquiring about building supplies or materials or what have you. So that's a really good way to get started.

That is such a good tip. And it's something that people right now are listening and they're nodding going, and that's a really good idea. And then they're never going to do. Like, but like it's so easy, right? You see a rehab. You pull over.

You walk up the front door and talk to the people. Like it's sometimes the simplest things are like the hardest to do. Yeah. Oh, man. All right. So today, like if you could sum up like what are the best ways right now you're finding deals. Like, how are you finding deals today? And then how are you funding deals today? So primarily all my deals are off market. I find them all driving for dollars,

mostly driving for dollars, knocking on doors. I also encourage people to let everybody that you know, know what you do. Let them know what you're passionate about. People are very willing to help you when you're very excited about your business. And I tell all, like my soccer mom friends, I say, listen, you give me a lead. I close on. I will take care of you monetarily. I will, you know, I will make it worth your while. When I'm driving around knocking on doors, I go to the neighbor and say, hey, I got $500. If you can give me, give me their information. And I close on that deal. I will give you some money. So, you know, word amount is a big one. I get a lot of deals that way.

But mostly, it's me out pounding the pavement. Yeah. When you're, I love that you say that driving for dollars thing, too. We've been working at bigger pockets on developing some new stuff that may be out by now. It may not be, so I won't talk too much about it yet. But we got a new product coming out and bigger pocket's going to help with a lot of off-market. Deal-finding stuff and driving for deals is one of those, like driving around looking for those properties.

What do you look for? Like what immediately on the outside of a property, are you like, that's something I want to stop and write down the address and look them up or, you know, email or call or mail letter to. What triggers that? Unkept, tall grass, bad roofs is a big one. We're here in Florida, we get hammered with weather. So bad roofs, tall grass, trash everywhere, unkept. I'll go look in the windows. If it, if it's all old, if it's 1970 or 80 original, I want that house. And I will, I'll mail a letter. I'll knock on neighbors' doors. I'll skip trace them. I'll call them. I'll call their neighbors. I'll call whoever I can get a hold of. And from there, I'll negotiate the deal.

Yeah. It's really, again, it's not rocket science. It's pretty easy. Yeah. What about funding those properties? When you get a flip under contract, you want to go flip a house. What do you do for funding? Right now I'm using my own capital. I am looking at bringing on some private money lenders so I can scale. That's what I hope to do. At first, when I very first started, I did have to use hard money for a couple deals, but after that, I just kind of let my capital snowball with each deal. And I, oh, I also, I also brought on a business partner. So she and I now flip together. It's more, one, you have more capital together, you know, to purchase, you have more purchasing power. two, you have two brains on the deal and two is better than one. And three, it is so much more fun

to do it with somebody, you know, somebody else. So when I first started, it was all by myself. But now I have a business partner and we're just rocking and rolling. I mean, it's great. It's phenomenal. That's cool. How did you know, how did you find your partner and how did you know they are the right one for you? So one of the local RIA meetings, she showed up. She, she is a realtor. She showed up and just said, hey, you know, I'm here. I want to learn. I want to invest myself. So she and I just hit it off. We were out driving for dollars one day just running around. We happen upon a deal and we're like, well, what do you think about doing this one together? Okay, let's try it. So we said, we'll do that one together. We're going to do one. We're going to see how this one goes. And if it goes well, we'll talk about the next one. Well, that has been since 2016. We're still together, still flipping. making a lot of money. It's the best way to find a partner. I really think so.

It's like, do a deal. And they do another one. I do another one. See how it goes. You don't know how somebody's going to be until you work with them a little bit. So just. We have so much fun. We get into so much shenanigans.

It is. I'm living the dream. I mean, I'm working harder than I've ever worked in my life as far as like physically goes. But it is, it is great. It's, I'm living the dream.

I couldn't ask for anything more. That's phenomenal. All right. Well, let's move this along and go to the next segment of the show. It's time for our deal. Deal, deep dive. It's part of the show where we dive deep into one particular deal that you've done. So, Amanda, without further ado, let's jump into the questions here.

Number one, do you have, first of all, do you have a property in mind? You can think of that we can, okay, good. First of one, what is the property? What type of property is it and where is it located? It's a 2-2-block home located in Spring Hill. All right. Two, two block home spring hail. All right, next question.

And how did you find that deal? This is the deal I spoke about earlier. It was a probate lead deal. So it came from a probate list that I mailed a letter and she called me. Perfect. How much was the property that would they want and would you buy it for? Well, they wanted $6,500 cash. Oh, that's right.

That one. Okay. Yeah, I purchased it on the B.OA note for $42,000. Okay. Now, did you negotiate that? How did you come up with that number? That's what she wanted. She wanted that $6,500.

I don't recall why she wanted that, but that's what she wanted. And I didn't even try to negotiate her down because it was such a good deal. I do that a lot. If a seller comes to me and says, this is what I want. And I'm like, you know what? I can make that work. So let's just roll with it. So that's what I did.

All right. So we know that you negotiated that way. You funded it with the, you said earlier, the subject to, right? So you just took it with their mortgage in place. And then you said you rented it earlier, right? So do you still have it today? Did you eventually refinance it? Like, what was a long-term story with that? So this one's very interesting. I moved on a tenant and he was a vet. And he called me about six months, six or eight months later. And he says, Amanda, I love this home. My daughter loves this home. I really don't want to move again. I just don't. Can I purchase it?

And I said, well, Tom, I wasn't. I wasn't. really intending to sell that house. Let me think about this for a minute. And I said, I thought about it. And I went back to him and I said, okay, so if we can agree upon a price, I'll sell you this house, but I won't sell it to you until I have owned it a year and a day. Yep. And he's like, well, okay, that sounds good. So we negotiated an $85,000 purchase price. And I waited and he waited until I owned that property a year and a day. Why did that matter to you a year and a day? Because I wanted to do a 1031 exchange. Okay. Yeah. I wanted to utilize the tax benefit of that 1031. So, well, I didn't have to pay taxes on all my and I wanted to roll that into another property. And you're saying if it's within a year, it's a short term capital gain, so it wouldn't be eligible for a 1031.

So the 1031 exchange has rules. And to be able to utilize that, you have to have to, have owned a property for a year and a day at minimum. Yeah, makes sense. Gotcha. Okay. So what did you end up doing with this deal? Well, I wanted to roll it into one property, but that's not what I actually did. I rolled it into two cash flowing rental properties with very little money out of my pocket.

That's awesome. It's great. So you took one property. And I still own those two today. And they both cash flowing. I love taking one. property and either turning that one property into two or one or more rental properties. And that's what I was able to do. So I utilized my sub two deal with a 1031 exchange and I used all the

proceeds to roll that into two cash flowing houses, two block homes that cash flow crazy with very little money out of my pocket. That's so good. So good. All right. And what did you, what did you learn from this deal? Any lessons you can pull out or you can teach people about it? Oh, goodness. Yes. I learned a lot. I mean, I learned that I didn't need a whole lot of money to invest in real estate. I learned the art of taking one deal and turning it into multiple. I learned the ins and outs of 1031 exchanged. I learned the ins and outs of subject two deals. I had to hire a lawyer for all this and a 1031 custodian. So I was able to get plugged in with people who are much smarter than me in those fields. So I was able to use those in future deals of mine as well. So it's good. It was really

good. That's phenomenal. That's awesome. We should probably mention a few things about a 1031 exchange. The first one that a lot of people get wrong is that they think that they can get the money put in their own account and then they just have the 45 days. Yes, that face you just made. I've had clients make that before. So you cannot have what is called constructive receipt. So you need to set up basically. It's like an escrow company that handles the funds on your 1031 exchange. And then you've got 45 days to identify. Or is it?

Yeah, it's 45 right. It's 45 to identify 180 to close. There you go. And that's not like holidays or business days. Yeah, Brandon's got a good story. He's got some 1031 sweat that he can share with us someday. He had a really good story there. But please, if you're thinking about copying this strategy, don't make the mistake of thinking

you just get the money on a regular sale and then go 1031 because it won't be. No, before you want to utilize 1031, you really do before the sale of the property, you want to go find the custodian or a company that does this and let them handle all the paperwork. The money actually does have to go from closing to them. It doesn't ever actually go to your account or in your hands. It goes to what they call a custodian. and they sit on it until you're you're ready to purchase your next property. Yeah.

In my case, it was two. That's awesome. It was great. Yeah, it also shows like the monopoly strategy of like, you know, houses to hotels. Not that you did a hotel, but you trade it up from one house to two of them and made more money. Yeah. I bought, I 1031 from my 24 unit into another 24 unit and then mobile home park. So I went from 24 units to 75 units like that.

and yeah, you can just do that kind of thing throughout your life. I mean, until they do away with the 1031 Sunday. So the 1031 goes away. I hope that doesn't go. I know, I hope not to. Every election cycle it comes back and they start talking about getting rid of it. And then they never actually do get rid of it because half of Congress owns real estate and they like it. But we'll see.

You know, we'll see. All right. Well, that was a good deal deep dive. And now it's time to conclude today's show with our famous four. All right. The Famous Four. This is the part of the show. We ask the same four questions every week to every guest.

And so I'm sure you've heard them many times before. But now it's your turn. And with that, Amanda, let's get into the famous four. Question number one. Favorite real estate related book. Has to be rich down, poor dad. Hands down. Completely changed my life.

I highly recommend that to anyone who is getting started or if they've just never read it. They really, really do need to sit down and read it. All right. Awesome. What is your favorite business book? So my favorite business book, actually, I chose one that is, I feel a prerequisite to business. And it's called Daring Greatly by Dr. Brunei Brown.

And I know you have the quote behind you. I do. You're the first person to ever notice that I had that quote behind me, I think. I don't think anybody's ever brought that up. I read that quote in that book. And I was like, that's such a good quote. And so I put it behind me. So this book kind of give me the courage.

You know, it taught me to show up, be seen. I'm going to step into a large arena and I might fail. And if I fail, it's going to be okay. So where Rich Dad Poor Dad kind of gave me the dream, this one gave me the courage to go ahead and step out of my comfort zone and do it. All right. All right. When you're not tracking down sinkholes, filming TV shows, making dreams come true,

what are some of your hobbies? I love to be on the water. I have an avid kayaker. I have a setboard. And as often as I can, I like to be out kayaking or on the boat, fishing, something like that. All right. Very cool. Well, my final question, what do you think separate successful real estate investors from those who give up, fail, or just never get started?

Hands down, grit. I read that book and I'm like, that's me. Absolutely grit. I'm not the smartest. I don't have the most money. So I have a lot of determination and grit. So that is what pushed me and got me through to where I am today. That's so cool.

I think you're smarter than you give yourself credit for. You are a rocket ship. It's awesome to see. Absolutely. Congratulations. That's very, very cool. Well, yeah, it's been awesome having you on the show today. But we're not quite done.

David's got one more question for you before we kick you out of here. Last question of the day. Tell us where people can find out more about you. Well, I'll provide my email so they can email. So they can email me if they like. I love talking to people and encouraging other ladies. So please reach out. And you can find me on Instagram.

And I also run my town's local RIA. So you're welcome to come to our free meeting once a month. And what I also do is I do on-site rehab meetings. So when I purchase a property, I'll do an on-site before. I won't touch it. I'll have everyone come through and look at it. And then I'll do a post-on-site meeting where, After I'm done with the rehab and we have the appraisal back, I'll have everyone come walk through

and I'll provide exactly what I spent where and I'll share my contractors and other people that I've used to rehab the house and I'll show them exactly what the numbers shook out to be, what did I make, where I had to spend my money and did the deal go well or didn't it? So you guys are welcome to come to that as well. Awesome. Very cool. Well, man, this has been, it's been fantastic. Really, really good.

Thank you. Yeah, you're just such a, like, such an inspiration and, you know, just a proof of all the stuff we talk about on the show and proof that, like, if you want it bad enough, you can really do anything. And, you know, congratulations, all your success. And I look forward to seeing where you're heading the future. By the way, where are you heading the future? What do you want to do the next five, 10, 20 years?

Where do you see yourself? You know, I like to tell people I'm an opportunist. So I want to keep what I'm doing what I'm doing. I absolutely love it. And I'm excited for what opportunities that might come my way. So I would like to keep flipping and acquiring rental properties until maybe I meet a certain passive income amount. And then maybe I'll take, you know, a little vacation or something.

I do want to take an RV across America eventually. So I'm gearing up for having the ability to do that. My son is going to graduate high school. and I'm hoping to have enough passive income where I can just take off in my RV and travel wherever I want for as long as I want. That's amazing. And finally,

final question I forgot to ask this earlier. How can our audience provide value to you? I am looking for private money lenders so I can scale this business a little bit more than what I have. So right now that's really what I need is some private many lenders. Cool, Amanda. Well, thank you very much. And David Green, want to get us out of here?

Yes, sir. This is David Green for Brandon. A Wise Man Once Said Turner. Signing off. You're listening to Bigger Pockets Radio, simplifying real estate for investors large and small. If you're here looking to learn about real estate investing, without all the hype, you're in the right place. Be sure to join the millions of others who have benefited from BiggerPockets.com. Your home for real estate investing online. Thank you all for listening to the Bigger Pockets Real Estate podcast. Make sure you get all our new episodes by subscribing on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, or any other podcast platform. Our new episodes come out Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

I'm the host and executive producer of the show, Dave Meyer. The show is produced by Ian K, copywriting is by Calico content, and editing is by Exodus Media. If you'd like to learn more about real estate investing or to sign up for our free newsletter, please visit www.biggerpockets.com. The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only. All host and participant opinions are their own. Investment in any asset, real estate included, involves risk. So use your best judgment and consult with qualified advisors before investing.

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