BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast - From a $35K Salary to Owning 3 Rentals (Starting in 2024!)

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

Renovating two rental properties, while working two jobs, all in your twenties. Flo Jacques took it on so she could replace her $35,000/year college admissions salary—and it was so worth it. The first year after graduating college, at age 22, Flo decided she was done being a renter. With just $15,000 down, she bought her first home to live in. But being an investor? That wouldn’t come until 2024—arguably one of the hardest housing markets in recent history. When she saw a panel on investing in real estate (and started having literal dreams about owning rentals), she knew it was time. The first investment property? A $70,000 neglected house in need of a big rehab and in a flood zone. What could go wrong? If that wasn’t enough, Flo then—midway through the rehab—decided to buy another rental to renovate—a duplex. She was managing two rental renovations while working two jobs. But now, Flo has some strong cash flow she created. Flo learned a lot, especially since she’s only in her twenties, but she is already on to the next deal: a flip with six-figure profit potential. In today’s show, Flo shares why she took the leap, the lessons she learned managing two renovations at once, a sure sign to fire your contractor, and why her new goal is one of the biggest we’ve ever heard. In This Episode We Cover How to renovate rental properties the right way (Flo made the mistakes for you) Why you’re not too young or inexperienced to take on your first real estate deal One sign you should fire your contractor (they will start to price gouge you) Hard money loans explained, and whether you should use this financing on your next rental renovation  New rules of thumb Flo always follows when renovating a house  Stuck in analysis paralysis? Why it’s time to take action and start investing  And So Much More! Check out more resources from this show on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BiggerPockets.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.biggerpockets.com/blog/real-estate-1243 Interested in learning more about today’s sponsors or becoming a BiggerPockets partner yourself? Email ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[e-mail]⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From a $35,000 a year salary to owning three investment properties in just two years, that's investor flow Jacques's story. And it started with a simple decision at age 22 to buy a home instead of renting. Most people wait for the perfect time. Flo did not wait at all. Fresh out of college, working as a college admissions counselor, Flo had saved $15,000, and instead of letting it sit in the bank, she used it to buy her first home in North Carolina.

that purchase wasn't her endgame. It was just the beginning. Over the next few years, Flo educated herself about investing and networked relentlessly. When she finally felt ready, she jumped in with a full gut rehab on a roach-infested property in a flood zone. That first deal tested everything. Almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong. But Flo didn't quit. She didn't even slow down. She adapted, problem solved, and a month later, she bought a duplex. then another property shortly after that. Today, Flo is building a portfolio focused on multifamily properties and has their sites set on real estate development.

This episode isn't about waiting for the perfect moment or having a six-figure income. It's about taking action with what you have, learning fast, and refusing to settle for 40 years of a typical 9-to-5 career. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to the Bigger Pockets podcast. I'm Henry Washington. I've been investing in real estate in Arkansas and Missouri since 20, and my co-host, Dave Meyer, is here with me.

It's still weird saying that. My co-host, Dave Meyer, is here with me. What's up, Dave? I love it. You have to do all the reading. I just get to sit here. This is the best. Today's guest is Flo Jacques, an investor from North Carolina who went from a $35,000 a year

job to managing and growing a rental property portfolio in just a few years. Flow story is all about taking action fast, so let's jump right in. Flo, welcome to the show. I'm so psyched. to be here. That's awesome. I'm glad you were here. Sounds like you've got a pretty interesting story. So why don't you start and tell us about your background and what you were doing just before you got into real estate? Just before I got into real estate, I was actually a college admissions counselor. So I was blessed and fortunate to purchase my first home at 22 years old. Oh, wow. I remember being in my senior semester,

like my last semester of college, and I had a good bit of money that I had saved from working multiple jobs. and something clicked and it was like, I wonder if I could buy instead of rent. And I remember at that period in time, I was also considering renovating homes. You know, I wanted to flip homes, build wealth through real estate. What year was this? This was actually 2021. Okay. Okay.

So you were curious about investing, curious about doing renovations. So how long was it between when you purchased home to live in to when you actually decided to buy a investment property? It was another three years. Oh, wow. Yeah. And honestly, during that time period, I was, you know, figuring it out. You were 22. Fair enough.

You don't need an excuse to take three years to buy a property. Well, somebody told me you should probably get your real estate license to start there. And so I said, okay, sure. You know, I'll start with my getting that, learn the ropes of the business and stuff, and then build the funds to be able to buy, you know, because college admissions, education just doesn't really pay. Like, we know that. You weren't making $700,000 a year in college admissions? Actually, I purchased my first home on a $35,000 annual salary. So, yeah, during that period, after I became licensed, I, you know, joined organizations, started building relationships with other

professionals in the real estate industry. And through that, I also, you know, was attending some sessions that were investor focus. And I knew I wanted to build, you know, a portfolio and not work to the day I'd die. Like that. And so it was like some spaces I was in was giving me the information. But like 2024 was really when I, I was having some dreams that I was buying investment properties. Oh, man. When you start having real estate dreams, that's how you know you're in. My real estate dreams are never happy dreams. No, mine aren't either. Mine are always scary dreams. I have this recurrence. I have this recurrentice. dream that I forgot about a property. All the time.

Like someone calls me and they're like, oh, there's a rental that you like haven't been to in three years. I have that recurring dream and I wake up terrified every time. Oh, my God. Sounds like yours were more positive flow at least. Yeah. At that time, they were. At that time.

At that time, it became very clear to me that I was being called to make a move. And a month later, I purchased my first rehab. That's super cool. Because I feel like a lot of people are probably. resonating with this story where it's like education, education, when do I jump off the cliff? And what does that look like? So you bought your first deal. How did you find this deal? It was on the MLS. I mean, I'm a Rolter, so I'm not opposed to the MLS. I know people here off market, off market. But the thing is, just like off market, you can negotiate too.

You can just make offers. Make offer. Exactly. You can just do stuff. It's pretty cool. Yeah. I mean, like, yes, the sellers are often delusional, and yes, you are dealing with a realtor in the way of that. But yeah, so, so the funny thing is I had an investor client at that time who I was helping her purchase some investment properties. And she targeted cheap rehabs in the outer skirts of the Raleigh Durham area like Rocky Mount North Carolina, Henderson, you know, those areas. She was interested about this property and another. So I called the listing agent and the listing agent said, yeah, we just listed like 19 of them. So he had, an investor who's in his 70s letting go of his portfolio, you know? And so I said, oh, can you, where can I find the list of these properties so I can send it to my client? At that time, I wasn't even thinking for myself. I was just like, yeah, I want to send these to her because she wants to browse through and make a decision on maybe a package deal. And so I sent her the options and I thought, flow, make it like make an offer or on one or two of these too. And I was like, oh, okay. I have a whole conversation with yourself in your head.

Literally, you know? And so when I sent her the list, I said, okay, whatever she doesn't offer on, I will offer on one or two of these. Like I had a very selected. So I submitted her package for three properties, right? And then I submitted on two. That's how I found that first deal. On the MLS package deals, same thing with another client I jumped into. And what did you like about these deals? What was different about these than everything else out there on the MLS? Well, number one, One, it was 90,000, 60,000. The price. So you can afford it.

The price. Got it. Yeah. Exactly. So if you've ever heard of Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, people call that area murder city. You know, like, I don't want to say it's a dead town, but it's a very large renter population, you know, but a lot of investors targeted because real estate is cheap there.

What really stood out to me was getting a single family home for under $100,000. And what was the rehab budget for this? Yeah. So the rehab budget for this, we originally had it for 75,000. So you paid 90. Is that what you said? So we went under contract for 90, but we actually ended up closing it at 70,000 because I found out that it was in a flood zone, which the listing agent did not disclose, you know, and I was ballsy enough to still move forward with it, you know. So my first property was in a flood zone. I didn't do my due diligence, nor was it disclosed. And that's a material fact that was supposed to be. For sure. Like disclose, you know. So you bought the single family home. You're working on the renovation. You said you did go a little bit over budget. This was a fix and flip, or were you planning to keep this one as a rental?

Keep because my whole goal was to build a portfolio. So my mindset was buying hold, you know, burr method. So you're working on this project and a renovation. And then I'd like to know what happens next. But we'll talk about that when we come back. As a real estate investor, the last thing I want to do or have time for is to play accountant, banker, and debt collector. But that's what I was doing every weekend, flipping between a bunch of banking apps, bank statements, and receipts trying to sort it all out by property

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That's rentrere.com slash bigger pockets. There are two kinds of real estate investors, those who have reviewed their insurance and those who think that they have. Most don't realize their coverage wasn't built for how they actually invest. Vacancy periods, rehabs, short-term rentals, or LLC-held properties.

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So, you know, I closed on that. I knew that the rehab budget was assigned. That was being worked on. And then I had like another burst of, hmm, this duplex downtown Durham. I'd love to have it, you know? And so I'm like, I have the funds. I can take on another project. That couldn't have been $90,000.

No. Downtown Durham duplex? No, not at all. I saw it, prayed about it. And I took a minute. You know, I took a couple of days. And then everything started feeling right. And so I went and put an offer on it.

That one was I closed it at $287,000. Oh. Whoa, that's way cheaper than I thought you were going to say. Yeah. Where were you getting the money from at this point? Were you working in admissions or were you making money as an agent? I was doing both. I was a college admissions counselor up until early 2025 as well as I did real estate.

I wasn't like the top producer agent killing it with deals, really. But my mortgage on my first home was like $700 a month, you know? So I saved. I was, I mean, just like at 21, I decided to buy a house. house. It's because I had 15K saved. You know, I've just been a saver. I think that that's just a good habit to have the fact that you're a saver because it helps you to be prepared when opportunities arise. And it sounds like you have no problem capitalizing on opportunities when they arise. But still, you had a job. You had to scrounge up the money in order to save up.

So what did the financing look like, both on the first one and then on the duplex? It was these conventional loans, were they construction loans? What I did was hard money. All of my deals actually so far have been hard money. And so from a lot of communication asking who people know, who do you recommend, I landed with this lender, this hard money lender. And their terms were great, 100% financing of the purchase and rehab, up to 75% of the ARV. And so I was like, oh, so you'll fund the rehab and the purchase 100% so long as it meets the 75% or 70% formula. Perfect. So once I found that lender, all I had to do was pay origination fees, closing calls, that sort of stuff. And, you know, so that's really what empowered me to do that multifamily a month after closing on the first one,

because so long as you have liquid cash, you're like, I got to do two at the same time. They're taking care of the purchase and rehab. Well, I love the way that you're approaching this. I am sure there are people listening to this who want to do the exact same thing, get 100% financing on a duplex or reno. How did you approach lenders? With no offense, like you didn't have any experience either. So like, how did you get people to lend to you in that for these deals? I think this lender is a gem, to be honest, because they don't have a experience requirement, actually. But most other lenders did.

They, in order to lend to you at 100%, they need you to show five deals or something like that. They have a loyalty program, though. Your first three deals, you know, you pay, it's like 12.99%, 2.99% of regeneration fee or something like that. after your first three deals with them, then it goes down a 10.99% interest rate and 1.99 origination fee. Good for you for finding that. Honestly, like, just doing that little bit of legwork sounds like enabled you to really start your portfolio quickly. Exactly. Yeah, I just needed the financing and then I was ready to go, you know. Yeah, I have a very similar situation. I found a lender when I first got started that was basically telling me how they could fund all my deals without

me having to spend a ton of money. And so the goal became to figure out how to go. bring in more deals so that I couldn't get them financed. And so I understand going shopping because you're like, hey, I got a checkbook. I'm going to go shopping. But with hard money, it's a short-term loan. And you said these were rental properties. So I'm assuming you had to refinance out of this this short-term loan at some point. Correct. The duplex finished first, which was funny. You know, even though I bought it second, it finished first. That was also a six-figure rehab, too. that was supposed to be 65. I think it came out to like

130,000 or something. That was, I mean... That's a mess. That one's a miss. That's okay. I mean, it happens. Yeah, I mean, maybe it was slightly undergranted. I did account for like I had to furnish it because that one I made it into like an Airbnb midter. Oh, okay.

Yeah. How are you managing this? You were working full time. You said you didn't even have that much time necessarily to be an agent. Then you're managing two construction projects. at the same time. How were you going about that? So I actually had contractors doing the work. And so I will be honest, I was not visiting those properties, which was a mistake I made. You know, when I look back, you know, you know, weeks going by not not paying attention, just trusting. I'm like,

just send me pictures, you know, that sort of stuff. So, you know, whenever I could, I would, but I really wasn't. So yeah, I mean, I went forward with just having them pay for like materials and labor. And so all I'm doing is wiring or whatever the costs. So this, I assume it was a general contractor. They brought in all their own subs. They were sending you pictures communicating each week and you were just wiring money saying, oh yeah, that's great. Yeah, pretty much. So went okay on the first one, went, went slightly over budget on the second one. But with the overages, were you able to go ahead and pull off the refinance? Yes. I was able to pull off both refinance. And, I will say that these stories are, this is a little wonky.

Like, you know, for the first property, I had a contractor. He was licensed and everything. Really sweet guy. He didn't have the crew to handle that scope. We had to like rehab the entire foundation. That was like literally full gut. We tore down the foundation, rebuilt it. That was like, we rebuilt every single thing in that house, like roach infested and everything.

He didn't have the scope to do that level of work. I ended up firing him and having the guy. that was doing my duplex to kind of step in. Then things went off with him where he was a greedy gouger and was insane with his prices. So I got rid of him. And then the third contractors who really finished that job, they weren't licensed, but they had, they worked under licensed people, had their subs and whatnot. So that's for that first house in the flood zone. Before we move on to talking about what came next for you, given the situation with these contractors and given the situation, with how you found these properties and the size of renovations you took on, what advice do you have

for people who are maybe considering buying a property in that same price point that have a heavy renovation? Because I think people often forget that, yes, you can buy cheap houses, but a lot of times they are tied to large renovations. And it's not necessarily a bad thing, but it sounds like you learned a lot of lessons. So what did you learn or what would you do different if you were brand new again looking at properties like this? I would definitely structure the deal a lot more conservatively than I did because I structured it initially at 75%. And in a market where homes are dirty, a highly renter market, which meant there were a lack of sales and comps to justify this new completely renovated

home to be 230,000, which is what it appraised to be. But because there were some, challenges with comp. When I went to refinance, the underwriter asked, hey, can you tell me why you use these comp instead of this? Even though the appraiser was like, well, this is pretty much new construction. You didn't have to replace the roof or the exterior, but you did everything brand new inside, new electrical, new everything, you know? And so that question ended up bringing the appraisal price down 26,000. So that's the lesson that I learned there. Structure deals more conservatively, especially if you're targeting those cheaper housing markets. Those are great lessons.

Thank you, Flo. And lessons we unfortunately all sometimes have to figure out. But now that you're now a year and a half or so into this, where did these two rental properties net you at the end of the day? After you refinancing, are they cash flowing for you? How are they performing? Yes. They're doing pretty good.

So for that first one, we had that one rented out to a group home tenant. There's a lot of interest for some reason in that market for group homes. I had that rented out for 1595. So I was, yeah, I was cash flowing. Very minimal. I'm telling you that that flood zone insurance is really eating into it. But I was just happy that the mortgage was being covered. And, you know, sometimes that's all you can be happy with, you know.

As far as the duplex, both are Airbnb on VRBO, Furnish Finder, that sort of stuff. So, yeah, they've been, that one's cash. going between 800 to $1,000 per month. Wow. On a $200,000 purchase, right? Yeah, $287. That one appraised for $462.5. Oh, wow.

Nice. So that one turned up pretty well. Yeah, that was, that's a lesson I learned for targeting slightly more expensive markets, right? Because then they have more crops. And when you did the refive, just for that example, on the duplex, you built a ton of equity. That's awesome. When you did the refi, did you pull cash out to use for your next deal, like a burr?

Or did you keep cash in to preserve your cash flow? So I actually did pull cash out of that one. I actually pulled cash out of the other one, too, like 2000. That was like 2000. To be honest, I was like, I mean, I know this is something very real out there. I was also drowning in the losses of these going over budget. So I needed cash out to recover a little bit, you know? Yeah. There's no right answer. I'm just curious because I think people say, you know, you can't do a burr, but clearly you created a deal that you could pull substantial amounts of cash out of. It's up to you whether you want to keep money in. That improves your cash flow because you're borrowing less money. But then you have to save up to buy your next deal. So I think it sounds like you're only at the beginning of your career here. So pulling money out and focusing on a next acquisition, doing more burr kind of deals where you can build equity. Make sense to me that you would prior.

prioritize that over cash flow right now. Right. Exactly. So yeah, that one turned out well. Well, flow, it sounds like you became a real life real estate investor. You went through the ropes of buying cheap property. You went through the ropes of $100,000 renovation. You went through the ropes of contractors not doing what you wanted them to do, spending too much of your money. I mean, you got put through the ringer, but at the end of the day, you have a couple of properties. So I'd love to transition and talk to you about what you did next, but I'd like to do that right after this break. The rise of the tech savvy investor is here. You don't need a huge team or tons of overhead to manage rental properties.

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So, Flo, after these two deals, so you've bought a single family and now a duplex. First, do you still own the single family? I still own both, yes. Okay, okay. So you're still on the properties. And have you purchased anything else since then? Yes. So right before the year ended, December 1st, 2025, I closed on a single family, half acre lot in Raleigh, North Carolina. Ah, I love Raleigh. Okay. And is this a home you're going to live in? Is this a rental? Is it a flip? Tell us about it. So actually, I decided I wanted this one to be a flip. Although in my mind initially, when I started this journey, I thought I would just for the rest of my life, you know?

Per my life for me. Literally. But I, you know, I'm like, you know what? I could use some extra capital right now, especially after those two rehab, honestly. So this one I actually found off market. That's my first off market deal. Okay.

Off market. So tell us about that. How did it come to pass? You know, I attended a private money lending conference back in October. After BPCon. So I was at BPCon. And I flew back from Vegas on a red eye and literally headed to Atlantic Beach, North Carolina for this private money lending conference. And that kind of reignited this like, okay, flow, get back on the saddle, you know.

And so I think a month after that conference, I landed, you know, this deal. I found investor lift, you know, that off market platform, wholesalers are on there, you know. And so I was just browsing and working out the deals. You still got to do your own calculations because those people are liars. Yes. And so that one, it seems like a lot of investors were passing on it because the ceiling doesn't meet code. It's under seven feet and Raleigh requires a minimum of seven feet. And so to me, the strategy is when others are not buying it, that's your opportunity to negotiate and win it, you know? That's absolutely true. I think everybody should have a buy box and should have some sort of deal breaker. And it's different for every person and it's different in every market. Like I've heard people like, Laca, who's on this show frequently, who said she will never buy a property to flip that's on a double yellow line road because the houses on busy roads don't sell. I flip those houses

all the time. It's different in different markets, but I pay a lot less for them because I underwrite them extremely conservatively. So everything that you need to fix on a house, no matter how catastrophic, is just a dollar amount. Right. And so it tells you how much you needed to pay in order to fix the problem. So I'm assuming that's the lens you were looking through. Can I fix this problem if I get it cheap enough? Correct. Exactly. So how'd you do it? Yeah. So this time I was much better. At this point, I'm a full-time real estate professional. I know, you might as well get your contractor's license now. Exactly. Well, you know, I've thought about that. You know, I have really thought about that. But yeah, you know, now that I'm like a fully, like full-time real estate professional, I don't work that job anymore. And so I have

more time to take my time and do my due diligence. So I invited the contractor, walked it through with him. He gave me a budget. And so hopefully he doesn't listen to this episode, but the budget I felt the contractor is very different than what I actually borrow from the lender. That's just called being a smart investor, dear. You know, especially after the lessons I learned, right, going over budget and stuff. So, you know, once I was clear on how much he was going to do it for, I budgeted for contingencies a very good bit, also paying myself. I also started budgeting to pay myself for my time and energy for these projects. And so it was, it was, I worked backwards from there. If this is the rehab budget, I actually structured it at 65% ARV. Okay. For this one. So I purchased it for

120 and the ARV on it is 337. And that is actually a conservative appraisal. That's a stellar deal. That's almost a six figure net profit. Yes. That's correct? That's a stellar deal. So did you have to pop the top and raise the roof? We are doing that. We are literally doing that right now. I've been back and forth on the phone with the power company, turn the meter off, install temporary meter pole. Like, we were actively working on this right now. We actually a little two months behind the ball, thanks to that contractor, who I really wanted to fire, you know, but I'm like, you know what? I've worked with him. So just to be clear, it had lower than seven foot ceilings.

And so for you to be able to sell this property, you've got to get to at least seven foot ceilings on your renovation. So you're raising the ceiling height, but all the same level. You're not adding a second story to the literally raising the roof. Literally raising the roof. I love it. Yes. All right. So, Flo, we're 18 months into your investing career, Flo.

Can you just like summarize what your portfolio looks like today? Yeah. So currently, I do include my primary home because I bought it to be an investor property. three months after, but that didn't work out. I'm still here, you know, so I'm, but I am very proud of it because it's hard to find a home in Kerry, North Carolina. It's one of the more expensive places to live in North Carolina. So I consider this condo, as well as the single family in Rocky Mount, the duplex in Durham, and this single family, a half-acre lot in Raleigh. So that is my portfolio two years from 2024 to date. Nice. Good for you. I mean, it's a really,

well diversified first couple of deals, right? Like, you've done a little bit of everything, but it sounds like the goal is still long-term cash flow. Maybe, like, do some flips opportunistically, but still want to be a buy-and-hold kind of investor. Yes, my goal is to continue to build the portfolio. I haven't exactly figured out my freedom number. I think maybe when I figured that,

I don't know exactly how many properties I want to have. But I will tell you this, though, my life as a licensed real estate broker, investor, the goal is to eventually develop. I love that goal. That's awesome. What about development appeals to you? Because I'm terrified of it. So I want to be a developer because I want to build communities. I spoke to somebody this morning about her son is special needs. She wants to build a community for special needs families. You know, it's just thinking about providing solutions to communities and things like that. So I don't have it all figure it out, but I do know I want to build, you know? All right, Flo, well, this is an incredible

story. Before we get out of here, is there anything you want to share with us? Maybe something that real estate allows you to be able to do now? Yeah, I think my life is like full circle, right? Like, I got my background, like my education, you know, social studies teaching license, my master's in school counseling. So this kind of like education thing that I thought I did just to not ever actually do is now fully present in my real estate investing career where I help other people get the information I was desperately seeking when I wanted this information. So I've been teaching real estate investing classes, just free, just like inviting people and that sort of stuff. So it's been phenomenal just bringing that to the community. I love that. I love that you're now able to

provide help to your community through your experiences. And that's something that real estate allows us to do because when we have something that we know is going to bring us income, then it allows us to be able to focus on things, especially like people who want to start businesses, first couple of years in business is hard. You may not make money. And so being able to lean on your real estate and start a business or start a passion project or a nonprofit is super cool. So I'm glad you're able to give back to your community. Totally. And I just love that it's kind of like an intersection marrying like two different parts of your life. Like for you teaching and And real estate, you've found a way to incorporate both of those.

I've done that. I know Henry's done that as well. It's really cool that you don't just have to be a real estate investor. There are ways that you can use this industry to pursue things that you really like as well. It's awesome to hear that you're doing that flow. So early in your real estate investing career, congratulations. Thank you. Thank you.

All right. Well, we'll have to have you back so you can tell us all about the flow estates after you get finished developing those. And then I'm sure you'll be teaching people how to be a real estate developer. Yeah, well, we'll see. Never know, right? All right, I think that was fun. That was a cool story to listen to. I think we often hear the opposite from people where it's, I just researched for years. And then I finally took some action. And Flo was like, I'm just going to go buy something. I'm diving in right now. I'm just going to buy something. I love it. It's a great approach. I think it shows that creativity and just determination still net good. deals in 2024. Like, you know, I was, she started in a difficult time. Twenty-24 is maybe the hardest market in the last seven or eight years, you know, and she just went for it, found great

deals, educated herself, and pulled it off. And think about the confidence she now has. Because if you were able to successfully invest in 2024 and 2025, whether you got beat up along the way or not, she's still here now talking about deals that were, that are positive in a lot of ways. Like, that breeds a lot of confidence. As the market shifts to a more favorable real estate market, like, you got to be feeling good. I hope everyone listening listens to Flow store and realize that deal still can be done. Like, this is someone who started with very little experience, very little capital in a super expensive market and pulled off three deals in 18 months. Like, If flow can do it, everyone out there, if you educate yourself, you can do it as well.

I mean, she did several things that people say you can't do. She went and she got 100% financing on her first deal. That's true. And yeah, yeah, she went over budget on her renovation. She had to fire three contractors. But who hasn't had to go through some of those things? I think we're all going to go through some of those things. What I think is a good part about this story is single family real estate.

Yes, you can have challenges, but no one's going to die if it doesn't go perfectly. right like you're not going to go bankrupt if you feel like you have enough of a financial backing to take a couple of lumps along the way like taking the action and learning the lessons can be far more valuable than trying to learn all the lessons up front and then getting into a deal where you're still going to take some lumps all right folks we're going to get out here but if you enjoyed flow story i recommend that you check out the bigger pockets podcast episode 1105 with d'jadra mcdonald it's another investor story and one of our most popular episodes from the last few years. That's episode 1105 from last April. And we'll link it right here on YouTube as well. Thank you so much for watching.

We'll see you on the next episode of the Bigger Pockets Podcasts podcast. 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.w.w.com. The content of this podcast is for informational purposes only.

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