The Entrepreneur DNA - The New Flip Model: 30-Day Turnarounds Without Contractors | Thomas Lehman | EP 76

Episode Date: June 16, 2025

In this episode of Entrepreneur DNA, I sat down with real estate investor and manufactured housing expert Thomas Lehman to break down how he's flipping homes faster, cheaper, and without contractors. After nearly two decades in real estate, he found a better, more scalable model—and he’s here to walk us through it. We talk about how interest rates, bad contractors, and shifting market conditions pushed him toward modular housing. From tearing down squatter-infested mobile homes to scaling with precision in Central Florida, Thomas shares how he’s helping everyday investors (and students) build profitable new construction deals in under 90 days. If you’re still stuck in the traditional flip model, this episode will change how you think about building wealth in today’s real estate game. Key Topics Covered: Why traditional flipping is broken in today’s market The nightmare of managing contractors (and how to avoid it) How Thomas discovered manufactured homes as a scalable alternative What manufactured housing is—and isn’t How to finance new construction with little to no money out of pocket How to partner with Thomas on your land deals 90-day turnaround strategy from land to closing How to calculate land value and navigate septic, well, and permit costs Why reputation and operations matter more than ever Lessons from coaching, partnerships, and long-term market adaptability -- About Thomas Lehman: Thomas Lehman is a seasoned real estate investor and modular home specialist with nearly two decades of experience in the industry. Starting out flipping traditional homes—complete with acquisition teams, contractors, and rental portfolios—Thomas witnessed the growing inefficiencies and encrusted costs of that model. In 2022, facing high interest rates and underperforming crews, he pivoted to a smarter, faster, and more scalable alternative: brand‑new manufactured and modular housing. By streamlining processes, cutting reliance on contractors, and leveraging volume-based finance deals, Thomas now completes turnkey projects in Florida in under 90 days, specializing in double-wides and ADUs. He also teaches and mentors fellow investors, empowering them to reimagine affordable housing solutions and build profitable exits using his proven systems. 🔗 Connect With Thomas: Website: propertysolutionsteamdealership.com Instagram: @ThomasLehmanRealEstate Facebook: Thomas Lehman Real Estate TikTok: @ThomasLehmanRealEstate LinkedIn: Thomas Lehman -- Thank you to Mando for supporting today's podcast! Stay Fresh, Stay Confident with Mando! Tired of body odor? Mando Whole Body Deodorant keeps you fresh for up to 72 hours—pits, feet, and everywhere in between. Grab the Starter Pack and get $5 off (over 40% off!) with code [COLBY] at ShopMando.com. Smell fresher, stay drier, and boost your confidence. Get yours today! -- About Justin: After investing in real estate for over 18 years and almost 3000 deals done, Justin has created a business that generates 7 figures in active income through wholesaling and fix and flipping as well as accumulating millions of dollars of rental properties including 5 apartment buildings, 50+ single family homes, and 1 storage facility Justins longevity in real estate is due to his ability to look around the corners, adapt to changing markets, perfecting Raising private capital, and focusing on lead generation which allows him to not just wholesale and fix & flip, but also accumulate wealth through long term holds. His success in real estate led him to start The Entrepreneur DNA podcast and The Science Of Flipping podcast and education company, and REI LIVE where he’s actively doing deals with members. He has coached and mentored thousands of aspiring and active investors over the last decade. Connect with Justin: Instagram: @thejustincolby YouTube: Justin Colby TikTok: @justincolbytsof LinkedIn: Justin Colby    

What's up entrepreneur D and a family welcome back to another incredible episode I have a great guest with me here because as a real estate investor for almost two decades This man has found a way to flip differently And that is what we're gonna be talking about For all those out there that are trying to get into the flipping game that are watching the TV shows that are trying to build A business around flipping my man Thomas Lehman is here talking about how we can flip differently. Awesome, and thanks for having me today.

Yeah, man. I appreciate it. You've been around for a very long time. You and I have been in the game for, we would be called the OGs. Well, no, you're the OG. I'm under that a little bit. There you go.

I got less time in. There you go. Well, let's talk about your experience of what we would all see on TV and what happened, and then what changed for you to find a solution for us, the active fix and flippers yourself. What changed? What was that story like where you said there's a better way, there's a better mousetrap to be doing this type of business?

2022 changed all of us, didn't it? Totally. So my business model was like most people, I had the acquisition company. We had people calling texting every day They found our houses for us. We bought them. We either rent renovated and sold Rented them, you know, we buy them at the rental or we wholesale what we didn't use but interest rates Okay, okay that was gonna change everything and it did so that summer I had a mobile home. Yeah Okay, I was gonna renovate it. We had to get rid of squatters and this is a not you living it This is a true fixing flip. Yeah, you bought a mobile home. Yeah. Okay I was gonna renovate it. We had to get rid of squatters. And this is a true, not you living in it, this is a true fix and flip. Yeah. You bought a mobile home. You know normal process. We buy

them, we were going out there, we had to get rid of the squatters. They destroyed it. They took a chainsaw down the center of it. Oh. Now you're, you know, like me a little older. Remember Bugs Bunny cartoon with the fleas jumping around, the sheriff opens the door. They're gonna go in, I'm like nope. See all the fleas jumping. No, no. And they took a chains nope. See all the fleas jumping, no, no. And with the chainsaw, that taught me a process, that house, because an assistant and I in the office virtually knocked it down, put the whole thing in

with the old, remember, calling it three estimates. We had no clue, it took longer. I think we took it for 18 months. We still made 11K. Yeah, but what could you have made, right? If you had a process. That taught us to prostitution. You know what?

My payroll then was 40, 50 grand a week because I had five contracting teams. Okay. And I said, that's all done soon because one, interest rates were gonna change it. Yeah. You know, and two, I saw a simplified process to where, dude, you flipped a hundred homes,

thousand homes, whatever it is, contractors stink. Oh, dude, it is literally why I'm bald. I say this every time. Brett McCollum told me the same thing about you. Yeah, it's why I'm bald. I'm just like, dude, they suck. And even when they're good for a short runway, there's a day that they break and they end up sucking.

And I don't know if you can ever see around the corner when that day comes. But it's inevitable. They break at some point. Anyways, keep going. And so I saw a way to get rid of them because how many setup companies, well companies, septic companies are out there. If I don't like this one, I get rid of them.

We did not need to have contractors, so to speak. So one of our companies, the construction company, now only does construction management on our products. Okay? But everything is a 1099. If this well company doesn't perform, gone. We'll get a new one in there. And what we've learned is for us, there's a sheet. It's 22 lines. It never changes. It's never different. It's always these same items. You can't do that in the flip. Well, you're talking about a product. What does that mean? What do you mean when you say product? Well, so a sheet for a project, okay, it's not gonna be 200 line items.

It's gonna be these 22. How scalable when you know exactly what everything is gonna be. You can't do that on a flip. Very. Because you don't know. Open your walls, everything changes. But you're talking about a manufactured house. Brand new, but brand new, okay? And that's what I was trying to get to is I want people to understand you're talking about a manufacturer. Brand new, but brand new, okay? And that's what I was trying to get to, is I want people to understand, you're talking about, instead of flipping, I'm going to change that game, and I'm going to go into a manufacturer housing. Yes. And it's simpler, it's straightforward, you have the known result, you have the known process, there's very little to no variance ever. That's what we're talking about. Yeah, I mean, you gotta learn land now,

you gotta learn a different terminology. Sure. But everything that we do is learning curves in business. So, but what I saw was simple, easy, scalable, especially in when the economy was slowing down. Think about it, like we had a wholesale company, I was losing 20K a month at that point. That doesn't feel good.

No, no. Yeah. I got to unwind all that. We simplified the whole system, the process, and our business. And then over time, we became a manufactured modular home dealer. Because, okay, we were thinking about what people say, mobile home dealers, they're all shady. Yeah, they are. Okay. You know, I'm Russian Jew. My wife is Indian.

She's much more calmer than me when they were cheating us We went into their office the guy had three fingers and when I showed him hey a mobile home dealer. Yeah He showed me we're talking and I can prove he stole He said yeah, I don't care. That's what he told me in the office with my wife there And I'm like you want to keep those fingers. I have a temper. Yeah, you know my wife said no no come on Let's go and we left and she's like, we're just gonna go get the dealer license and you can compete with him.

Your wife's a smart woman. I like that. That gave me shivers just thinking about that like, bro, here's how you beat him. You don't beat him up. But isn't that how guys do it? You just put him out of business. We took a lot of his business year one.

And we were right around him doing business in his county. I would sell people the home for nothing. I would make no money just to take it out of his pocket. Cause I don't have his overhead. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, well, and he did you wrong, right?

So this is a little bit like, Hey, you stole, you literally stole from me. Yep. So I'd rather make no money, serve the client great impeccably, get good reputation and make no money on that. But just because you did me that bad. I mean, I'm going to take that client. Yep. And now I've like, I moved on from that.

You know, I don't do, we don't do as much in that County anymore because we've moved forward, central Florida a little better, uh, but our reputation because of how we do business and this morning, one of the realtors who's we're closing on a home next week with her on her buyer. She told her buyer, Hey, you don't gotta get an inspection. We know him, we do a lot of business, we can, I trust him. I still told him, go and get the inspection.

Now let's rewind real quick. Let's talk about what you do, what is manufacturer housing, what is the, you know, misconception of it, right? What are maybe the myths of it? Let's talk about manufacturer housing as a whole. because I think there's a lot of people that just have an idea of what it is but they typically I don't think would be accurate. Well people think the old mobile homes and how they look, right?

They're way different today. I mean you could have them, we have one as an Airbnb today, made it so so nice but that's not our typical product but you can go from a base unit to over here. And what you see inside can be changed. You can have drywall, you can have everything you want, all the crazy showers and however you want to build them out. Nowadays it's a fricking home. I mean, you can have drywall.

Like I've remodeled mobile homes before, right? It was always a nightmare. But I don't care if I put it. Put it on the walls though, right? And you put a drywall, yeah, or a bat, yeah. Yeah, but even like the ceiling, like it's not really connected. So if you don't have a construction guy that understands how to connect the, like, you're just like.

Well, there's a scene and you know, some brands have a peak and that's harder, but the really good ones have flat ceilings just like in home, eight or nine feet off, okay? We can get any of them. We prefer the flat ones because then you can do box ceilings. It's easier for your recess lighting and vans. Just makes them simpler for us.

Right. But people today, I think, I think now it's getting more accepted. I know just a few years ago, even me, I was like, oh, mobile homes now. Yeah. Now it's, but that's the affordable. I think we all, all, you and me specifically, cause we grew up in it in a time, specifically me, like, I had friends that lived in mobile homes,

in mobile home parks, right? Like I didn't come from money, right? Me either. That's my claim to fame, right? Is like, I didn't, now I wasn't destitute. Like I don't have the story where my family and I were living on the street. I don't have that. But I didn't come from money. my family and I were living on the street. I don't have that.

But I didn't come from money. Like I had friends living in mobile homes, in mobile home parks, like we would go and play in the park. But the idea and concept is you think you're like, it's less than. You're in a mobile home park, you're a poor family. That is just not the case. And the reason why we're having this episode

is to almost reframe what people think about this. Because I have a piece of property in Pensacola, you and I talked about it before this, right? Like, we're likely gonna tear it down. We're likely gonna subdivide the lot. Do we put two manufactured homes on there? Right, is that now the new option versus rebuilding a full-blown home?

Because what is the price discrepancy? Like, based around your, I know you can't give exact numbers, but if I were gonna rebuild two separate homes, we subdivide a lot, two separate homes, versus putting on two manufacturers, is there a price difference? As many of you know, I'm constantly on the move,

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That is S-H-O-P-M-A-N-D-O.com. Please support our show and tell them we sent you. Smell fresher, stay drier, and boost your confidence from the head to the toe with Mando. So, a county work is different because well for you you're not gonna have impact fees on the first lot but if you subdivide you'll have it on the second lot. What does that cost? For instance Orange County, I was just running numbers today, 25k for impact fees. Mmm a lot. Yeah and they want to

build affordable housing but the average project for us runs anywhere from 140 to 180. Yeah. OK. We just finished one with Alex, right? Cousada. Yeah. We were in for 165. For the whole build out. Sold it for 269. That's incredible.

Right? That is a new way of flipping. Right. But that's his. So what's his expertise? Finding distressed properties. We don't do that anymore. He came to me and said, hey, let's go work on this.

Off we went, right? Put it together. So now I wanna talk about this deal. So if I send you, what would be my process, and I want everyone to understand this, Thomas is very relatable. Like you can reach him. What's your Instagram handle?

ThomasLaymanRealE know, we can post them later Oh, you know, yeah I think we'll give you the link make sure to find them because I'm gonna do what I think you guys all should be Doing is figuring out like hey if I have an asset if I have this opportunity if I have this piece of land This is an option, right? So I gave you this piece of land and what your team kind of looks at what we can do with it and what it Would cost yeah, because my real options here. It's basically a double lot, right, on one. So it's about 25,000 square feet.

We can break it up into two 12,000 square foot lots. As long as the planner says we're good on that, you get the planner to agree that you're subdividable one. They give you the setbacks, which is a distance you have to be. And then we just work from there on what we can do and build out. And then what's going to be affordable at the end of the sale. And we look at what's selling in the area, like what's the price point. So in central Florida

market, we've narrowed ourselves to, we're 270 and under, okay. Because we've took our volume and we negotiated prices. This isn't 21 anymore where you couldn't do that, right? We have a volume that we can bring anywhere and say, hey, we're gonna do 100 units this year. What will you do with us? How can we work better together? On a new scale. Right, yes.

And by doing that, now we've lowered our prices and cost. We pass that on to the buyer today because our buyer pool as we went higher in numbers shrunk. So let's just say your numbers are 250 up there, then we're gonna build a house that's not above that, but it's a better value for the community. We wanna be better priced on market than anybody else. Okay?

So, I mean, this is pretty straightforward. Do I give this to you? Email it over to TeamWorks on it and give us a couple of days, we'll let you know exactly what we can do with the cost. And we would have to just make some assumptions because my team hasn't called the county to say, Hey, can we sub? Why don't you just send it?

And we'll like, we do that really well because we don't ever call. Yeah, we don't, we don't never take a call with them. We want it all in writing because you know, even in writing, it doesn't guarantee anything. Oh bro, you're telling the city, I'm dealing with this. You're telling me about these cities. Yeah, not a problem. That's totally acceptable. We go do it. The inspector comes and says, who told you that was going to be acceptable?

And you're like, we're going to a hearing on Monday. The lawyer is, uh, we were told we could put a replacement manufactured home down. Two days before delivery, they sent an email saying, Hey, we made a mistake and you can't. So it's like, what? Well, that mistake is a costly mistake. Exactly. Now we, lawyer, it's gonna get grandfathered in,

but now it took 10 weeks longer. But I had to go to my lender who lent me everything and show him and he's like, hey, what are you doing? I said, well, I'm taking the unit over here cause we're volume. I'm gonna put it on this one. I'm gonna take the money for the unit. I'm gonna put it back in your account so it's good. He's like, okay, cool. That's all he said, well, I'm taking the unit over here because we're volume. I'm going to put it on this one. I'm going to take the money for the unit. I'm going to put it back in your account.

So it's good. He's like, okay, cool. That's all he said. Done. His lawyer is my lawyer, the same, the same lawyer. So we're good. Yeah. So in my case, I would literally allow you to kind of, and by the way, I'm, I

know you, so I've fatigued you, but you'll call the city, you'll email them. We'll email them, but you guys will actually handle it and figure out what is gonna be our best case scenario. That way it takes that need, because otherwise I have to put that on my team. That might- That's not their expertise. That's right, and it doesn't generate us revenue. So they're gonna go like,

I have to do this operational, right? And they're like, this is some operational thing that I would give to my oper- but you get my point. But your operations manager doesn't do new construction homes like that. So they're just gonna get an answer and be like, what do I do with this? And then I have to go send it to you. And then, so now if you just do that for me, then I don't have to go send it to you to go. And I have, now that we're talking about this, this is a fun episode, guys. I have two properties I'm gonna give you.

Because there's another one that is a fourplex that I think we would need another almost 200 grand to finish out. Well, if I can build a brand new asset for the same dollar amount. I mean, you just said you and Casado did it for 181. No, no, 164, 166, right? Then I just gotta think about maybe there's the same play.

We could subdivide that lot if it's big enough. Yeah, they just sent me... They just sent me... They had a meetup, whatever, last week, and I went out to his office or the floor underneath his office. I haven't seen him in a while, so I show up, and Anthony's like,

Hey, we have this lot and everything, but I'm trying to figure it out. I'm like, Can you just send it to us? Like, you take so turtle long. Let us just... And my assistant reached out and said, Give us the information. He's like, Here you go. We got it? Like, your pegs so turtled long, right? Let us just, and my assistant reached out and said, give us the information.

He's like, here you go. We got it today. It's in the inbox already this morning, because he just gave it over like a day ago. Because he was trying to figure it out. Dude, go do what you do, give us what we do. Because we're trying to subdivide this lot into eight lots. But when you think about affordable housing today,

when you were flipping homes, probably in vast numbers, was that wasn't the sexy play at all. No, not at all. Okay, but in this market it is because people need a home, buy a home. If you have a seven, $800,000 home, maybe you don't buy it right now at 7%. I will, I just connected you with my general manager

right now on this episode. This is why everyone should have a podcast by the way. if I don't my lady's agreement about doing the podcast She's like you got her dude. If we don't do this together I don't know whether I will remember I know what you do, but I don't know with all the things like going on Oh, man, I got to remember to reach out to Thomas, you know what I mean? But now I'm sitting here, but now we'll handle it. That's right Okay Now I just connected you because I don't know your team. I don't look at email, they do.

But no, no, no, I text you. So now add your assistant into that thread. Okay, yep. And then Anthony and your team will take it from there. Yeah, but see, isn't that what we're supposed to do? Like we have to have people handle that for us. 100%. Because if we do, we're not doing what we do,

which is this in revenue. That's right. And there's so many, you know it's funny in talking about being a CEO and entrepreneur. We may not have to be in the trenches doing the smaller things like, hey, let's go do the, but what you and I have to go do have the bigger problems, the bigger issues, the bigger growth,

the bigger trajectory, the bigger. And so a lot of people wanna be the president, the owner, whatever, but you gotta understand, we may remove ourselves from the tactical small things. Yeah, no, it's different. The things that come to us though. Oh yeah. Those are the city actually-

Why we don't have like less hair and stress and insomnia. We talked to- Totally. You know? Not sleeping well and just staying up. I mean, I have an event that I wanted you to be out and unfortunately you couldn't, but like- Easter, yeah.

You, dude, I'm in vent mode. Like I am going. Of course. Dude, my wife is like, why can't. You, dude, I'm in vent mode, like I am going. Of course. Dude, my wife is like, why can't you sleep? Because I'm flipping around all night last night. I'm like, honey, we are gonna crush the next two days. I can't sleep.

Yeah, but your team's handling a lot for you and that's the benefit of it. You know, one thing that, you know, you had my coach on here like a month ago. Jerry. Gary Harper. I love this man. I told him to be at the same event, I'm like, get in the room, dude. More people need what you got.

And unfortunately, they don't know him as much, right? That's what he needs. Let me tell you something. We are 20% or more of Central Florida's market. 50 to 30, okay, 30, 40% in Pasco, Hernando, 50% in Polk County of all the new units going down to Central Florida. Okay. Because of his company.

Because I went to him, I kept hearing Tiffany High and all these other people. It was like 1-800-Call-Gary-Hardy. I was like, I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going

to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I'm going to go to the store and I in Polk County of all the new units going down in central Florida because of his company. Because I went to him, I kept hearing Tiffany High and all these other people, it was like 1-800-Call-Gary. Who the hell's Gary? 1-800-Call-Gary, I love him. I joke about it, but then he came to Florida

and he met me on a Saturday morning because he's a Disney guy, I'm not, but we had coffee. He had all the answers. He looked me up, he said, you're experiencing this. And he's big into that PI. And I took it, his son Jacob couldn't get me to take it until we had an appointment with Gary.

So I took it the night before, but using that, he described the me and what he read in there. Because in our business, we have to be social. People think I'm a social animal. It's not my thing, I don't need to be for me. If you put me in my house for a week, I'm good without talking to anybody. He's like, and he said, you're a cat.

I'm like, okay, what do you mean by that? You know, he's like, you want to get scratched, you'll get scratched, but you don't need it. Yeah. And then I bought into it because that's me. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. And he's never steered me wrong yet.

He was one of those people I was like, bro, get in the room for this exact, his value of what he does is so amazing, but genuinely no one knows about him. And my story's fascinating. Let me let the best of the best show you how to build out this sequence of your content. Yeah. So everyone knows, and then you hand choose who you want to work with. He's the one who got me on TikTok. He challenged me in October to do, do this, right? this sequence of your content. Yeah. So everyone knows, and then you hand choose who you want to work with.

He's the one who got me on TikTok. He challenged me in October to do, do this, right? I got my first viral vid out of it. Nice. Um, like five, 8,000 followers, all organic. Yeah. Okay. Uh, and now we were arguing cause we had a bet. He's like, I'm not doing it anymore.

I'm like, oh, cause you lost. Yeah. Yeah. But his team's amazing. They take care cause you lost. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But his team's amazing. They take care of you. It's great. Yeah. So being that you're now kind of reshaping

how things should go in real estate. Cause I think the thing that has kept me in this business for almost two decades is being adaptable. Yeah. Iterating, right? The reality is I got in this space in 2007 when the economy was going south, right? Like hardcore. I was a victim of that, right? The reality is I got in this space in 2007 when the economy was going south,

right? Like hardcore. I was a victim of that, right? I lost my home. I heard the story. The car different stays with your buddy. But through that trajectory of two decades, things have changed. I was buying homes at auction. The hedge funds came in, bought 110 cents on the dollar. I had to buy 80 cents on those. So how am I going to compete? Well, I have to iterate, I have to change. Same thing we're talking about here and why this is so important. If anyone's gonna be in the space of real estate, they need to understand this can be a new vertical.

I'm literally real time right now, we just put our team together to look at a deal that I already own because I need to be able to iterate. That might be just a better way to go do more deals because the cost of it. Exactly. Everything we do costs money, but that is normally our biggest expense in real estate, isn't it? Going to get the money.

And so you need to be profitable with flips. The problem is you have to wait to list it. You don't know what's going on until you open the walls. With this, it's different. We don't run into those disasters. What is, now it's totally financeable now, right? Because I think again, there's a lot of myths. And not really myths. I think there's just misconceptions, I think. I think there's idiots out there talking crap all the time, excuse me if that's the wrong word, but it's true. Because like on Facebook, people say,

oh, but you can't finance. What are you talking about? We sold 76 last year, right? Two conventional loans. Yeah. The rest FHA, VA, USDA. What are you talking about? And so let's bust the misconception of what isn't financeable, right? So that people are very clear. There is a section of this industry.

Old ones. Correct. Old ones. So let's talk about that. So people are very aware of what we're, what they're thinking is the reality versus what is reality. Let's talk about the old people are very aware of what we're what they're thinking is the reality versus what is reality Let's talk about the old ones what that looks like Let's talk about what we are talking about what you are doing and kind of so people are very clear on the difference

So what we only do is brand new. Okay. Okay. We are license allows us to do use but it Takes away from my core which is new. Okay and different animal so brand new Manufacturers the majority 98% are double wides. Okay. And different animal. So brand new manufacturers, the majority, 98% are double wides, some triple wides, less single wides. What's the biggest side? Like, I don't even know that answer. Like what would be a triple wide? What square footage would that be? Oh man. Over 2000 plus square feet. Cause it's basically just three sections and you can put like, it's,

it's think of Legos, right? You have them two here and you attach one here or over there. We're doing one as an ADU for somebody right now. They want their mom living over that side. Freaking, freaking brilliant, dude. I mean, there's a lot of people that need to consider that. Because you know what? He was doing it with a different company

and they wanted separate. Then you have to put two separate systems for septic and wells. You can't tie them together. If I do it as an ADU and I attach it, guess what? It's one. Saved them a ton of money. Okay, friend of mine, you know, you hold me up I'm like dude. I got this for you. Relax. Yeah, okay. That's brilliant and did it on the um

The transport from the hotel to the Brightline station yesterday for him. Well, it all worked out Okay, I like it's great. By the way, never driving again down never after that right was that right first bright? Oh, no Oh, yeah, no, no. Learned that amazing. And then you work and then you got Uber, right? And no parking, but we'll get back. But brand new, never a problem with any financing. Or insurance. Single wides are a little different. There's less, say 70% of all the financing works on a single wide.

But usually pretty good. People just have to know that- Double wide and triple wide. Not double. Yeah, it's just a- Single wide. Yeah, yeah. Not a problem, but less financers, less banks, less financial institutions.

Yeah, I mean, you can get an FHA VA, but some of the programs, like the down payment system, do not work on them. Got it. But like Hometown Heroes, which was big in Florida, okay, all worked on double wides. We sold a ton that way. And so how big can they go, the new ones? Like what is like, oh no, I mean, we can go 4,000 square feet.

They have two story ones. You can. And you can get all that. I could order it. Yeah. I don't normally, I haven't done a two story or that big because the lane for us with what we do as our bread and butter is affordable.

That wouldn't be affordable. That's right. Would we build it for somebody who came in? Sure. We've gone construction to perm for people. Yeah. Because we can get a finance for that. We can say, okay, how much do you, what are you looking to spend?

Okay, we're going to build it out. This is what it is. We go and get them a construction loan. Yeah. With draws, same way. Yeah. But now I'm using their money and not mine. I don't have to charge them more then

because the interest isn't there for me. That's right. That's incredible. And so now what is, so the new stuff's totally financeable. You can get up to 4,000 feet if you want to, but the reality is most people will get like a double wide. Maybe you get a triple wide. How often do you get the triple wides?

Twice. Okay. So typically double wides, right? Which is what? 1,500 square feet. So, typically double wides, right? Which is what? 1500 square feet? So, the bread and butter, what we're putting down on an acre is about 1800 square feet. But what we've done, we've taken our volume and we went to another manufacturer and negotiated better terms to bring it to them.

And now we're selling more bigger units for less price, which helps our buyers right now. Of course. So So if I'm- This economy, we have to help them. In 100%. So if I'm the buyer, let's work this through. I already own the land. Your team figures out, city says, yes, you can subdivide it.

We need to sign these docs. Great, now you have two parcels. Yep. The financing of said manufactured home, do I need to pay out of pocket? Is there financing to purchase it? How do I finance that from you? We now, because we have the longevity in,

can get people financed for the units through the major lender, which is Triad. Which is essentially a construction loan. Yes, but if you own the land. I deed the land as security to them. And they will, I mean. It's a construction loan, I mean, that's what it is. Yeah, it's so simple, and they will do, mean, it's a construction loan. I mean, it's what it is.

So simple. And they will do, I think it's 135% of the unit value, which gives you a lot of your infrastructure. Right. So your cash in is so much less. I mean, drastically. I mean, to some extent it could be zero. It could be because they, well, you'll have to pay interest payments for

whatever they start 60 days after delivery. Okay. But as long as you're, I mean, so the, if you have a six 50 or above credit score, the numbers are good. They'll work with five 15 above though. Now delivery means put together. No.

So delivery just means it goes from the factory to the lot. Then you have a setup company who puts it all together. How long does that take? Uh, in the olden days for me up to 78 days now that we are operationally efficient, thanks to those other people we talked about and not me doing it. 24 days. Let's round it to 30, whatever. Yeah.

But look at that timeline though, right? I mean, 78 to 24, we were just discussed it this morning. Yeah, there's no, I mean, you can't do that. You can't build a home in 78 days. From the day it was delivered, 24 days later we have now our CO, and we've already had it on the market, now we can close, okay?

That's amazing. So I'm already marketing it, I'm already finding buyers, we can close. Well, you have the dirt, you're listing new construction. As soon as you know what unit you can put down, you can list it. That's it. You can't do that with a flip.

That's right. Ah. And what we- So you can list it. That's it. You can't do that with a flip. That's right. Ah. And what we already finding the buyer, it's like reverse is like Kent Clother's whole reverse wholesale model. But now your reverse flipping model and yes. And what if you put in, you build urgency and say, Hey, look, we're going to build this unit here. But if you want to, if you want to live here and you want something different, if you do

it in this timeline, you let me know, we'll change it. I'll go shopping for you. Yeah. So you build the urgency in the people because then they then they'll just say oh if we don't can't do anything we'll wait till it gets there yep and look in this business we want to have a contract on a home and the story right and that's what our business model is so we have ways to show them the unit 3d walkthroughs we have units all over central Florida down they can go walk and see the same unit okay man this is it just relieves so but there

you said 30 days or 60 days after delivery the right now we're on 20 okay for the financing yeah it could be so if it's for me as the business I'm 30 but I think the customer is 60 okay right so it's different it's already built. It's already built. Yep. We've already been marketing it. Mm-hmm. I mean, in a perfect world, we sell it within 30 days. They close within 30. There might only be two months of interest payments I'm on the hook for.

In a perfect world. I get our life isn't perfect, but I mean, that's reality, right? Yep. It's ordered. They finance it. It gets delivered. It's turned in 30 days, let's call it, 24 technically, but 30. We find the buyer because we're pre-marketing it, they close another 21 days later.

21 days later, yeah. So you know. Am I off on any numbers? No, look, my past conversion cycle is 180 days on a project. Max. Right. Okay. So it's different for if you own the land already, that's from the day we start the

process and finish. Okay. So we should be 90 days back. Okay. It's different if you live in it because now you're an owner's permit versus a builder's permit. It becomes, it's easier, right? Cause it's your land.

You know, we're still doing the work for you. And they just essentially give me a construction loan. I mean, this is somewhat of a no-brainer. But it's the right stuff. Like, I wouldn't buy a 1975 home and then tear it down, per se. What do you mean, I do? That's one of our... We buy a ton of old homes. You don't have impact fees anymore.

So the last three deals in Orlando were all old units. It cost me $5,000 to knock them down. I don't have to pay 25,000 in impact fees. But you just have to buy it at the right price to make that make sense, right? Look, we make our money when we buy. That's right. But we don't market anymore.

I work with people like Alex, with Brandon Schwamm and all them, who that's their business. How do you work with Alex? Is it more of a partnership of sorts, or is it? We partner on it. Here's, let's go, right? You know, put it into the pipeline

because he partnered with, you know, Alex is a real smart person. I've known him for years and I've watched his just trajectory. Sure, he ain't gonna be here by the way. Oh yeah, you'll be great. Because he's on that, like, I need more content when I'm like, bro, get in the dirt.

Yeah, and you know, but he's one of those people who knows that this is my vertical. Oh, call Tom, Tom boom called me up We didn't go he's a hard negotiator, right? Yeah, there's no we made the deal and it worked out Well, so what would a deal like how would you play a piece in this like I already own the property You have the meaning of that like would there be a reason that we would do it I mean you could hire us just to manage it I would suggest that since you already own it right, but if you're buying stuff and we partner it's different

And then every every one is different as we look at it. Okay. Okay. So yeah I think the economics I would have to understand more about like on whether we would other other properties that we don't already own that are to understand like what do we need to buy at so financially it can make sense for us to build these things and we'll look at your back end what's selling in the area. See I don't look at land value. Yeah. Until value until I work backwards. Okay, if my comp say I can get this, what are my costs? And then what do I need to do for the land?

Because there's things we'll overpay for, city water, sewer, every day. Yeah. Okay? Because you don't need permits, septic and well can be $30,000. Easy, easy. So I'll overpay for that lot if it connects to the city

for both of those because I change my timeline and my cost So, you know remember I I buy from a lot of wholesalers and I always want to see their contracts Yeah, I don't like it. I don't care what you're making. I want you to make money. Sure. Okay I just want to make sure you don't have some crazy claws in there that I got I just told the guy but I'm not dancing On the table naked a closing day. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because... Because I'm agreeing to it. So how do you know this? I do, I've done that business. I want you to make money with me,

because guess what, you're gonna bring me more stuff. That's right. Right? But we educated a bunch of people, wholesalers, on how to negotiate the septic cost, the well cost, because there's a map called the B-Map in Florida now. You put in the address, the darker the color gets,

you go from like yellow to purple. You go from a 5,000 system to a $25,000 system. And if you don't have that information, how can you negotiate with the seller? What is, what are you finding on your own deals? Is the right buy price typically? Like is there a range, like if you wanna stay under a hundred grand, you wanna stay under 200 grand? On land? Oh man lands you know

like well when you're buying so with intention to put these things yeah I mean so our we've paid as much as 90 for land okay but it was in the right area I know what the back-end numbers are going to do. So what did Alex contract the deal into it? You know I mean he got it for like 29 grand. Okay, yeah, so you want it, you want to be low. But it was an old unit. Just so you know, lots in the same neighborhood, vacant lots are selling for 39 grand. He got the old unit for 29 grand.

Yeah, but he had a different exit than everyone else would. But we didn't have to pay, what a great deal. See the value of the partnership there? He did his expertise, which is find distressed properties at a discount. Right, and then what did you bring to him to figure it out? No, he did his expertise, which is find distressed properties at a discount. Right. And then what did you bring to him to figure it out?

He brought it to me. I said, perfect, because the land selling for more will save on septic well and impact fees. It's like a $40,000 swing. So let's say we walk away with whatever it is, it just paid for itself to split it up already right there using their expertise. We don't do that anymore. We were never as good as him.

Okay. But why do it then when I can partner with people? Yeah. We don't market anymore. Yeah. Zero. Zero marketing dollars. I mean that's the reason why I do the same thing. The reason why I'll buy from my students. So I've created a ecosystem that you know that I'm helping them get deals. The reason why I want to help them. Well they're your students. You buy it from them. Of course. Right. And by the way they make a full assignment on their side.

So as an example, if they go, if I help them get one to the main street, and we would technically wholesale this out for 20 grand, but I want it, they'll still make their 10 grand as an assignment fee. Because I want them to win and then I'll buy it and then do this, right? They don't have to be a part of it. Right. But that's building the ecosystem. That's right.

And I've learned that from you and others that I've networked so much in my area to where I've trained people, taught them how to go find the land for us. But we're in masterminds together and this is my vertical. Some people who don't play in this just bring me the land now to partner. Okay. That's right.

Um, because I think that as we grow in real estate, we go from being competitors to collaborate, right? We collaborate more because different expertise. Yeah. They mature people still compete. I'd rather collaborate all day. Yeah. I'll make more money with people than

I will without. Yeah and you stay in your lane. You're like I do not do anything that doesn't contribute to my core. And some people want to do wholesaling on scales, you know, whatever eight states plus new construction. It's like dude how can you do it all? You know it's funny and every time I get I don't want to say too big for my bridges but you, I take some big swings sometimes. I suppose so. There's always that like, oh, I am out of my depths, right?

Like this is new. Yeah. But I've also done it a long time that I can recalibrate and I can fix and I have a team. Yeah. But to your point, most entrepreneurs that like, they get a couple bucks in their pocket and now they're doing something else,

they're doing over there and- Shiny object. And you just go, why? Just be really great at the thing. And when you make enough money, then you can go, all right, I'm gonna take a swing at this thing over here. But even, you know, look, everything we're doing now

is adding the other verticals to contribute to our core. That's right. We're going to own our transport company, we're going to own our septic company, because we can shave timelines down. A guy who was gonna lend me money, he has lent me money for both septic and transport. I explained to him the process,

how we would shave this much time off it. And with septics, let's say we're doing 100 deals, we wouldn't use it 50 times. But with the set up company, we'll use it 100 times. He's like, oh, yeah, good. That's all he had to say because he's done business with me before. How much do you need and when? I love people like that, right?

Because he's gonna make money. He can't do with his IRA money or whatever it is, what I can do for him. He doesn't want to either. He's like, good, I'll go see your property, like our deals one time. Do you have a better place for people to kind of check out more?

Cause I think people- Yeah, the website, we can list it all up. What is the website? It's the property solutions team dealership.com. The property solutions team dealership.com. Yeah. Because I know a lot of you watching this and listening to this are like this makes a lot of sense. I just need something to look at right? Because you and I get it we've done this a long time but someone might be like man I have this inherited property I have, and I don't really even know what to do with this. They should be calling Thomas, right? That's what I'm trying to get to for everybody is,

this doesn't have to be a business for you, but all of us, to some extent, have a component of real estate. Whether you inherit a property, you own your own personal property, you are fixin' and flippin', like, this is a vertical that just financially can make sense a lot of the time.

Yes, I see people moving. Like, we teach people how to do this as well. Yeah. We slow down on the coaching because we are adding the verticals, but I also hired new operations managers, and I'll go back to it more in June. I kept some of my students, one who wasn't performing,

we just said, hey, you know what, maybe it's best both of us go separate ways, because you're not doing anything. I don't want to take your money either. Yeah But you know anybody who's gonna build affordable housing. I'm gonna help okay. I had meetings here yesterday with people who do it Yeah, okay this area needs it. I mean, I'm looking affordable here Well, yeah, I looked over their systems and you know the husband wife and the brother came we sat down and they came to one Of my events last year, so I'm here, I met with them, they showed me what they're doing, and I'm like, why?

And I showed them our whole process, I gave it to them. What a thank you, because you're gonna go build affordable housing, you're gonna help people. But if I help you, then you help them, that's me helping them, who are good. Ed Mylett said that at the last board meeting. Dude, I love him, I almost gave all the money to go to his house, but my wife said no.

That's it. That's right. That's right. Well, dude, thank you for coming on. Absolutely. I really appreciate it. I want everyone to start following him on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, LinkedIn.

Tell them, we'll post it. We'll post it all in the show notes, the website in the show notes. I appreciate you coming by and spending time with us. Oh man, thanks for having me. Yeah. All right, if this was pretty cool and you think there's some people that need to know this

and you wanna share it, please do. Share it with at least two of your friends. Make sure you follow Thomas and we'll see you on the next episode. Thank you everybody. Peace.