The Science of Flipping - Real Estate's Best Kept Secret: How the 203K Loan Turns a $9,500 Investment Into $180K of Equity

Episode Date: May 1, 2026

In this episode, I sit down with my guy Matt Porcaro — the founder of The 203K Way — who breaks down one of the most underutilized financing strategies in all of real estate: the FHA 203K renovati...on loan. Matt shares how he turned a $9,500 down payment into over $180,000 in equity in just eight months by purchasing a run-down Long Island duplex, wrapping the renovation costs directly into his mortgage, and living in one unit while the tenant in the other essentially covered his housing costs. We go deep on how this loan works for first-time buyers, existing homeowners who want to renovate without touching their cash, and even real estate agents who need a fresh edge in a slow inventory market. We also get into the exploding world of ADUs — accessory dwelling units — and how new FHA, Fannie Mae, and Freddie Mac guidelines are opening up virtually the entire single-family housing stock to house hackers who know where to look. If you've been sitting on the sidelines waiting for rates to drop or inventory to open up, this episode will completely change how you think about the opportunity in front of you right now. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 I do it, finish it, even through the bumps and bruises, I'll never forget to this day. Renovation, nightmares, and we've all been there, right? I just was smelling the new paint on the walls. I finally got the final inspection. And I'm just like, look at the floors. I like just do a turnaround. I'm like, how the hell do more people not know about this? I researched real estate for four years before I ever took action.
Starting point is 00:00:20 Yeah. Listening to podcasts, reading books and courses and meetups. And no one ever once mentioned the 203K, ever. What is up the Moore show? family, we are back with our third episode ever. Again, transitioning from the science of flipping, now the Moore show, maximizing opportunities in real estate. My guess, each and every week, will bring you the heat when it comes to what kind of opportunities are out there. So this episode is, of course, brought to you by Time for More.com forward slash prelaunch. If you want to be a part
Starting point is 00:01:04 of a club that shows you all the opportunities, whether it be storage or apartments or or 203K or land, whatever it is, get into this club. We are giving it to you for free as we are pre-launching the club. It's typically $3,600. Go to timefor-more.com forward slash pre-launch. Now, my guest here today is another genius, someone who finds opportunities where no one else can see them. My guy, Matt Porcaro, 203K way genius is here.
Starting point is 00:01:36 What's up, dude? What's up, dude? That was a mouthful. I had to get all that out. I love it. And hopefully I got it done in one take. I love it. Yeah. I love it. Well, thank you for coming down to the studio again. This is now your second time on the podcast. This time now is obviously the Moore Show. Matt Procaro 203K loans. Where do people, like, why do people want to look into them? What are they about who benefits from these loans?
Starting point is 00:02:01 Yeah, so it's real estate's best kept secret, right? They're FHA products, right? So it's a government-backed financing program. that allows you to wrap the renovation costs into the mortgage. So I found out about it by accident because there was a ton of, um, there was a lack of inventory in New York. I couldn't, I couldn't really find anything that I could afford.
Starting point is 00:02:22 I was struggling to find a house. I didn't have a lot of money. And I found out by accident from someone in my local, uh, real estate investment association. And she told me, hey, listen, you don't own a house yet.
Starting point is 00:02:34 You can get three and a half percent down by the house. get all the money to purchase, all the money to renovate, wrap in the closing costs, and you can actually wrap up to the first 12 months mortgage payments while you're renovating it. So you're in, hold on, for clarification, you are literally into this for how much? $9,500. It was my first deal. Yeah, percentage basis with 3%. 3.5% of, so the first house I bought was a like a crack house duplex.
Starting point is 00:03:01 Before we dive in, I want to talk to you about L of S capital. If you're looking to build passive income through multifamily real estate, L ofS gives you access to exclusive apartment investments that aren't available to the public. If you want to diversify beyond stocks and create real cash flow, visit L ofScapital.com. To learn more and to get on the investor list, I personally invest with L of S Capital, and they have been incredible to work with. Their team is top-notch. I get passive cash flow distributions to my bank account every month, and I'm always in the loop
Starting point is 00:03:30 with what's happening with the apartments I'm invested in. The best thing is, I don't have to worry about managing tenants or dealing with repairs. The team of L of S handles absolutely everything and my income is 100% passive. And that's just the way I like it. So if you want to build wealth and passive income without all the work and additional risk, visit LVS.com. Now let's get to the show. The only thing I could afford on Long Island.
Starting point is 00:03:57 Actually, I couldn't even afford it on its own. It had an extra unit, which I didn't know about with FHA loans when you're an owner occupant, right? So this is for owner occupants and this is a way to start. But other units, we're allowed to forecast that future rental income. on the property, on your income. So it basically gave me a $2,000 a month raise so I could afford more. I was basically only pre-approved for about like $270,000. But when I added that other unit, which was about $2,500 a month, it boosted me up to $350.
Starting point is 00:04:27 So I purchased the house, $270,000 wrapped $80,000 of renovation costs. Plus I got all the closing costs wrapped in and the first six months of mortgage payments wrapped in while I was renovating. So what's your total loan? $350. Okay. So you take the 270 purchase plus the $80,000 or so, some change. Yep.
Starting point is 00:04:47 And that's your total loan when you're paying it off and whatever. Yeah. So I went into it with the idea that I wanted to be a real estate investor, right? So I looked at it and I'm like, okay, I'll be all in for $350. And at the end, I knew it would be worth somewhere in the fours. So I'm like, okay, if I'm only coming out with this and I do that and I go through all my bumps and bruises on going through a renovated. This is the first time I ever done it. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:05:09 But I always have my eye on the price. on like, this could really set me up. Yeah. And it was the only thing, again, out of desperation, it was the only thing I could do. I didn't have a lot of money. We were, like, there was not a lot of money, not a lot of inventory in New York.
Starting point is 00:05:24 Everything was super expensive. Even like I had a decent job. I was working my W-2 job at the time. And it ended up actually reappraising for 520. No kidding. So I built over $180,000 in equity. At how long? What was the time?
Starting point is 00:05:37 Eight months. And I lived in one unit basically for free. I mean, this is like the ideal. People talk about house hacking, right? Yeah. They're like, oh, okay, buy a duplex or a triplex, and you live in a unit. And great. I mean, I think it's great.
Starting point is 00:05:50 This puts that on steroids. You took the words out of my mouth. That's what I tell people all the time. House hacking, I think, is the best way to get into real estate investing. Right? For people that don't know what house hacking is, to your point, you buy a single, multi-unit property, which we could talk more about that with the new ADU concept and accessory dwelling units because that opened up a full new horizon.
Starting point is 00:06:10 Let's go. In 2025, 2026. But you do that. Let's just say a lot of people, they'll buy a quadplex, right? And they put a little amount of money down. They buy a moving ready quadplex, which is not a lot of them that exist in the first place on the market, right? So they get into it.
Starting point is 00:06:30 It's moving ready. They think they get tenants. Now they're like, they put all their money into the down payment because they're using an FHA product, right? Three and a half percent down. So the little bit they save, that $15, $20, $30,000 is all they really had most of the times.
Starting point is 00:06:44 And they want to be a real estate investor, but they get into this quadplex. And then what happens in a quadplex? What happens in three other units? People break. Yeah, tenants. And like, things break. And now you see it all the time. I mean, I saw it like all the time on bigger pockets.
Starting point is 00:06:58 People like wanted to get into house hacking. I bought a house. And we didn't realize how much work it was going to be. And the tenants and now they're running up all their credit cards. And the whole point of why people do this is because they're They want to invest in real estate. Yeah. You don't want to stop at one.
Starting point is 00:07:14 You don't want it to hamstring you. Right. But I feel like a lot of these like multi-unit move-in-ready house hacks can hamstring you because if you don't have any equity there, you don't have anything left over. Yeah. What's your trajectory to get into the next deal? And that's what was amazing about mine. Once I finished, I built 180,000 in equity, right?
Starting point is 00:07:33 I immediately took that. Got a home equity line of credit on it. Use that for my flips. And then I started flipping. So you could read. So the 203K loan got you to the place of renovation, gaining the equity. Yep. And then you could refy out of that as quick as eight months?
Starting point is 00:07:48 Yeah. Six months. Six months. Yeah. Wow. So I refied into conventional. I built 20-something percent equity. Refied into conventional.
Starting point is 00:07:57 So I remove the mortgage insurance, right? So mortgage insurance for anybody that doesn't know what it is, right? It's, I always say it's your ticket to load down payment loans, right? If you want to be part of the low down payment loan club, you all pay insurance. insurance. FHA doesn't write loans. The bank writes loans. FHA insures the loans. That's right. So you're paying a couple extra hundred bucks a month to be part of that, hey, I don't have to put $150,000 down on the house, right? Which I think is a very good tradeoff. But when you build in that equity, again, contrary to just your regular everyday house hacker that's going and buying a quadplex,
Starting point is 00:08:30 they have to wait for appreciation to happen. With my deals, I don't wait for appreciation to happen. I force the appreciation right away. Yeah. So that I can immediately exit. And it's basically the birth strategy with your own houses, which is what I did. And I love the birth strategy, but this is even better because you get to live in it. So most people that would want to use this, first of all, you want to be an investor, but you also need to be the occupant. That's the only strategy, right? Like, don't you have to actually live in the property? Yeah. So the rule is, you know, it has to be your primary residence for up to a year after closing. So then most people that do this, you could do it on a single family property, but you and I would probably
Starting point is 00:09:09 suggest do a duplex or a triplex or a quadplex. Do anything residential, not five doors or more, but like do a duplex more than a single family home. You can use a single family home. But wouldn't that make more sense? Like if you want to be a real investor, then you want to have longevity in your investments. This is just insane. I want to lean into this because you already got my mind thinking about the whole ADU stuff. This is a big thing in Jersey, San Diego, New York. it's not quite catching up everywhere, but here in Miami, they're called different efficiencies,
Starting point is 00:09:44 but it's the same thing, ADU. Mother-in-L-L-Sweets, yeah. That's right. Talked, how can you use it for that? So, about a year and a half ago, FHA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, all the government sponsors entities that do the home buying programs,
Starting point is 00:10:03 all agreed that housing is an issue in the United States, affordable housing, right? So how, you know, what are ways that we can combat this without the government saying, hey, we have to build houses, right? So ADUs have been around for a while, right? Granny suites, we've heard them called mother-in-law suites, casitas, accessory dwelling units, whatever. And with like the FHA loan, for example, right, I talked to you about we can forecast the future
Starting point is 00:10:29 income of those other units to help you afford more and ultimately subsidize your mortgage payment. So it's a smart financial decision too. If when you're just starting out, you know, you're younger, maybe you don't have kids yet or you're just starting your family, like, hey, it's a great way. Hey, I cover most of my mortgage payment. Or, you know, my first, I was living for $400 a month in New York and Long Island. That's crazy. Living in a $600,000 house.
Starting point is 00:10:52 Like, it's unheard of. So up into that point, it had to be a like legal duplex, triplex or quadplex to include that potential rental income. It's about a year change ago. So this is brand new. FHA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac all said that any accessory separate living unit that's common and customary to the area, which is everywhere, by the way. Yeah. You can also forecast the rental income of an accessory unit just like you would a duplex, triplex, or quadplex.
Starting point is 00:11:32 So what does that actually mean? If you go on Zillow right now and you look for quadplexes in any part of the country, right? Like the first thing people come to me, like, I want a house act. There's no multifamily's in my market. Or they're all crazy. Crazy priced. Yeah, yeah. You virtually, I call my hidden duplexes.
Starting point is 00:11:50 You virtually, there's literally duplexes and triplexes sitting on Zillow right now that you can house hack as a triplex. The bank looks at it as a duplex. Right. And you don't have. the competition anymore because people don't even know it exists. Yeah. So now what we're seeing is now you're opening up. You're like I've done I've done the math. Quadplexes amount for about a quarter of one percent of the entire residential housing market. Okay. Like Pete like nothing. Now with these new ADU laws yeah you're virtually opening up to almost every single family
Starting point is 00:12:33 house. We have a mutual friend in boardroom, Kevin. This is his game in San Diego. Right. This is his entire world as a builder. Yeah. Right. Can you, now out of curiosity is you're directly from Long Island. Does Long Island allow this? Is it like, are people leaning into this, um, mourn out investors? Are they actually taking the time to buy the lot, understanding that the lot could fit in ADU? Are they looking at it that way yet? Because that's how Kevin runs it and he's crushing. Are they looking it in the same way in Long Island or in the greater New York area that you're seeing? So I've been following the ADU narrative for probably a decade. Like I've known about it for a long time. Yeah. And it, it took some time to get some legs. California is
Starting point is 00:13:20 basically ground zero for it. And that's where Kevin's doing a lot of his ADU builds. If you asked me three years ago, if I'd want to invest in California, I'd say you're out of your mind. Yeah. For real estate. Of course. It's just like anything. Yeah. Right. It's just, but the ADU boom out there is crazy. Crazy. California, basically, there's a couple of them. Don't exactly quote me on this, but pretty much the whole statewide, everything's owned to accept an ADU and a junior ADU they call like every single family house.
Starting point is 00:13:52 There's no exception. Like if you could fit it, you can get it. And that you don't have to go through any hoops. It's actually like pretty expedited. But in some cases, you're allowed to put up. up to 10 units on a single family plot. And that's what a lot of these guys and gals in the ADU space are doing in California, heavy.
Starting point is 00:14:13 Now, what I like to spend, like what I like to talk about and specialize in more is what are the houses that already accept an ADU layout, right? While ADU builds are good from an investor standpoint. It's crushing right now in California. Like it's opened a whole new floodgate. And I nerd out about this, but the reason it's happening is because private equity is starting to see the margins on ADUs. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:14:42 So what does this all mean? Local governments don't like, they don't want to overcrow the suburbs. I understand that, right? Like, they don't want to shove tons of people in every house. But on the flip side, they don't have enough housing for people. So what's the answer? Right. What happens to the Amazon worker that's single dude doesn't need an,
Starting point is 00:15:02 a luxury apartment doesn't need a house, right? It seems like everything that's going up is either luxury apartments. Right. Or a big house. Right. But like, but nobody's building like affordable starter homes. If you're a builder,
Starting point is 00:15:14 the profit margins are in mansions. Yeah. That's what we're seeing in New York. So private equity is seeing that there's a real need for it. Seeing the profit margins on these ADUs. Yeah. Right. Like I know you did,
Starting point is 00:15:28 you did podcast with Kevin and like it's great. Like the ADU space is. crazy. But at the end of the day, what do these local governments want? Right? Money. Taxes. So the sooner they're realizing that they can make more money from it. The private equity firms are going to be lobbying the politicians. And we're seeing it happen everywhere. They have ADU laws in Florida. They're lobbying them. Once that starts to happen, it's going to be more widely accepted because from a national level it's being pushed and and it's it's super lucrative but what I was alluding to before with the adUs is the beauty of it is you have if you're just starting out too
Starting point is 00:16:09 right Kevin is doing like brand new builds and across the country like in New York people aren't doing like separate ADU builds but we are doing basement apartments split level home conversions garage conversions like if there's already a space that exists that's the sweet spot because you don't have to reinvent the wheel. It's usually already set up so that you can accommodate it and you actually don't have to spend a lot of money to do. If you already own your home and you want to do a 203K loan. So you already have a whatever is a conventional or FHA or whatever you might have. Can you convert or refinance into a 203K loan?
Starting point is 00:16:48 Yeah. Wow. So that's what we're seeing a lot in California. Okay. Right. Usually when people want to pull out equity from their house. there's banks look at loan to value, right? So banks traditionally, even on your own home, will only lend up to 80% total. So if you have a mortgage at 75%, all that's left is 5%. Even though
Starting point is 00:17:09 you have $300,000 of equity. Right. With a home equity loan or home equity line of credit or something like that, you're only able to access up to 80%, sometimes 90, but then they're going to kill you on rates, right? Paying 8, 10%, and then it's interest only in the balloons and stuff like that. Right. The 203K is a 30-year fixed. You can refinance with those to build ADUs, add dormers, add square foot, whatever you want to do. But the beauty of the 203K is you could leverage up to 110% of the ARV of the property. So you can actually over leverage it by 10%. Now, obviously, us being investors, we wouldn't want to do that.
Starting point is 00:17:45 But people in California are doing it because if you look at the 1% rule, remember the 1% rule that like everyone used to, if you look at the 1% rule, an ADU build is 2,000. $200,000, but they're making $3,000 a month. You get your 1% all that. It crushes your 1% rule. And now that's what everyone's seeing and doing is they're building these quick ADUs. They're renting them for a fortune. They're getting the rent.
Starting point is 00:18:12 It's in demand. And it costs you way less than anything else that any other investors getting in any other asset class right now. I think so if you're sitting here and you're living in a home that you're like, I can't afford a new home. Like this is why this is. So right now, this moment of the world and economy, you and I were talking last night at dinner. Like if me and my wife were to sell, there's no, my next home is double, if not triple the price of my current home. There's no like middle ground between where my home's at and the next one.
Starting point is 00:18:44 So you're like, okay, well, I can't necessarily go to the triple the price. Right. And what do I do? Well, this is the option that you can say, okay, well, I want a new kitchen. Well, now you can get one. I want to add square foot. it now you can. I want a vaulted ceiling versus flat. Like you can do all this. You just refy into this and essentially you can get 105 or 110% of the value. Again, I wouldn't suggest anyone getting
Starting point is 00:19:09 110% right just for basic principles. But it's there. Yeah. It's we're seeing it a lot with because what's like what's like the common the common narrative right now is a lot of people refied during the pandemic to 3% rate. And they're like they don't want to get out of their 3% mortgage. But here we are six years out. Yeah. And people feel like it's like almost became a prison sentence. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:19:35 We talk to a lot of buyers all the time where they don't want to give it up. But they have three kids and they bought a starter home. Right. Right. And I'm like, what's your alternative? Like, and then also like you said, now you got to sell that and go find something else. You know, the market's all over the place in the country. But in most, you know, like main areas in the United States right now,
Starting point is 00:19:56 real estate's still competitive. Real estate's still very, there's a lot of competition and like you're going to get into a bidding war and you're going to overpay for something. Why not make the house you want? Because no house is going to be what you want it to be anyway. Make the house you want. If you want to build an ADU, you can do it.
Starting point is 00:20:15 And then, you know, look at your, look at the economics in your market, right? I tell people this all the time in New York, right? If you're renovating your house, we did it from my own home. So I did, I practice what I preach. did this for my forever home, right? We bought it for 600,000 off market, thanks to you. You convinced me to buy my own house off market, which was really cool. I kind of fell into the trap.
Starting point is 00:20:36 It was, you remember, I fell into the trap of I was a real estate investor flipper. But then when it came time to buy my own house, I fell into like the open house trap and chasing. And I was like, you were like, dude, just go off market. And we picked it up from an old lady, was about to go into a retirement home. They were about to list it for 750. We got it for 615. because they didn't want to, here was the thing. Speed and convenience.
Starting point is 00:20:59 Yeah, they didn't want to, they didn't want to, they didn't want to deal with, you know, with realtors. They didn't, there was repairs that needed to happen to the property. I'm like, listen, I'm buying with a renovation loan. You don't have to do anything with it. Anyway, so aside from that, thank you for that. You're welcome. That would have been in my house without you. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:21:16 And, but the point I'm getting to is we completely redevelop that house. I mean, we gutted it, knocked down most of it pretty much and rebuilt the thing. We added about a thousand. square foot to it. We added a thousand square feet at about 250 a square foot, right? Which is pretty good. Like, it depends on where you're on the market. In New York, that's the price. But in New York, newly renovated houses are selling for 550 a square foot. Right. So you're netting, I call it equity arbitrage, right? Like, you're putting in, it costs you 250 to build square footage. You're using the bank's money to do it. You're not using your own money to do it. And you're getting that equity on the back end,
Starting point is 00:21:55 Plus, you're getting the house you want. Like, me and my wife picked every single thing we wanted. There was no house that we would have ever been able to pick. That would have gotten everything. I could have bought something moving ready. It's not like I didn't. But I'm tainted in the fact that even my own primary residence, I can't look at as not an investment.
Starting point is 00:22:14 Like, it has to be an investment too. We all do that. And we all do it. It makes it, you know, it was like, you know, point of contention sometimes with my wife, you know, understandably. Like, I would call it a deal. I would catch myself like calling it a deal. It's not. It's our house.
Starting point is 00:22:27 But, and she's right, but it's still an asset, right? It's still something that you have to look at. And that's the essence of what I preach with anybody is as a first time home buyer, never, ever, ever, ever buy your forever home as your first home. Get that multi-unit property, build equity, put your, if you do nothing else but buy a duplex, for three and a half percent down, you put $20,000, down. You live in one unit. You rent out the other. You basically barely ever pay the mortgage. Yeah. You renovate it. You build some equity. You accelerate that equity. You live in it for a couple of years. You move out and you rent out both units. And let's just say it breaks even. In a place like New York that's appreciating 5 to 10% a year. If you do nothing else, you have a million dollar asset in 30 years that you never paid into except that initial $20,000. Yep. Find me a 401k. Find me a mutual fund. Find me any type of investment. where you pay into it once and you liquidate in 30 years and a million dollars.
Starting point is 00:23:31 What is, so what are the criteria, right? So whether it be credit score, debt to income ratio, let's just say someone lives in their home as an example. And they're like, I really want a pool. Right? Nowadays, pools are like 100 grand. It's insane. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:23:46 So I want a pool. Yep. So what are the things that they need to consider if they're living in the home, they're like, I want to pool or I want to pop the top and develop up, right? whatever, whatever it is. What are those things? Yes, all these loans, they're 30-year fixed mortgage. They're mortgages.
Starting point is 00:24:01 They're like owner-occupant mortgages. So they base it off your income. Like they base it off. It's like a regular FHA loan. It's, you know, 580 credit score. Yeah. Be in the sixes. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:10 Is lower your credit score, the more you get hit with a rate. Two years of consistent income. Business owners can do it. Like people, oh, I'm not W-2. Yeah. Like we deal with business owners all the time. You just have the- So you can do a stated loan in the whole thing or a bank statement loan or what? Not baked statement, but what you're showing your taxes and everything.
Starting point is 00:24:27 And, you know, we work with the accountants. And like when you're ready to buy a house, usually you let your accountant know. Yeah. They'll show more. Yeah. And, you know, we're not doing it forever. But it's like, hey, if you want a ticket to the best ride in town. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:39 You got to, you got to pay the admission fee. No doubt. Right? Like, you know, we joke about it all the time. Like, you want to not pay taxes plus get the best housing products that the United States has to offer. Like, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:24:53 But anyway, suffice to say, it's, you know, it's two years consistent income, um, 580 credit score, you know, be in the sixes. And, um, and that's it. And it goes off of your DTI, right? 50% DTI, like that to income. Like, that's how they, they look at what your monthly nut is and your gross income needs to be, you know, um, under half of your mortgage payment or whatever. 50% your mortgage payment has to be 50% of your gross.
Starting point is 00:25:18 What do you think that the, the audience as a whole is either, not knowing, most people probably don't know about this. What are some of the things that like, they're not familiar with it? Maybe they would hear it and they say that's not true. What myths might be out there that maybe they heard of a two or three K and they're like, no, you can't really do that.
Starting point is 00:25:38 This used to legitimately, it sounds like, it sounds funny, but it literally would keep me up at night. Like I'll never forget doing that first deal, right? And I, I took my bumps and bruises like, a lot of people don't talk about this and there's like I had to fumble my way through it sure it wasn't
Starting point is 00:25:57 a lot of information on it no I googled it like nobody talks about this yeah but I knew that like I said out of desperation this was the only thing I could do it was like if this wasn't it I was never buying real estate yeah this was my only crack at it I had to buy something that was super undervalued because it was a trash bin yeah and I didn't have a lot of money to do it it's like if this works this is the only thing that I have a chance at but we'll but but but I do it, finish it. Yeah. Even through the bumps and bruises, I'll never forget to this day.
Starting point is 00:26:29 Like renovation, you know, nightmares and we've all been there, right? And I just was smelling the new paint on the walls. I finally got the final inspection. And I'm just like, I look at the floors. I like just do a turnaround. I'm like, how the hell do more people not know about this? Why, I researched real estate for four years before I ever took action on anything. Listening to podcasts, like reading books and courses.
Starting point is 00:26:52 and meetups and no one ever once mentioned the 203K ever. And I, again, I found this lady, Melissa, who when we were in New York, I thought that was a really cool full circle moment. Melissa runs the local Ria and we're at in Long Island. And she brought it up to me. She's like, listen, I've never personally done it. But there's this thing called the 203K loan. And if I can go back in time, that would be the way I started.
Starting point is 00:27:16 And she planted that seed. Fast forward, here we are 10 years later. It's still, it kept me up for years. why do more people not know about this? And I think I have the answer. Real estate agents and lenders, right? Someone wants to buy a house. Who's the first person they go to?
Starting point is 00:27:34 Real estate agent, right? They're getting all their home buying knowledge from a real estate agent, okay? Real estate agents look at, they work on commission. They want the, whether we want to say it or not, you know, they're in their buyer's best interest. They want to get you to the closing table. Yeah, of course. They will sometimes, you know, slither their way through the transaction, make you overpay, make you take concessions you shouldn't take, just because they want you to get to the closing deal. I understand you.
Starting point is 00:28:03 You got to feed your family. Yeah. The 203K obviously adds a couple steps to the process, right? You're bringing on a contractor. You're creating a scope of work, right? This is all part of the buying process. Right. Got it.
Starting point is 00:28:16 So you purchase, like you get a property under contract. Instead of going and getting an inspection, you bring in a 203K consultant. or inspector. Got it. They go in, they inspect the property, but then they build out a scope of work, right? Which every construction project has, but it's funny because the common thing is,
Starting point is 00:28:33 oh, 203Ks are too much paperwork, or they're too much of a pain in the ass, or they're not worth it. Yeah, maybe not worth it to the agent because the agent doesn't make any more money. They make money on the purchase of the sale. Right. Not on the added renovation cost.
Starting point is 00:28:45 But they actually have to do more work in part of the deal. Right. So in their defense, why would they want, So the first thing, oh, they're a pain in the ass. So people, I created the 203K way, which is my online community, right? Where can people go to go find 203Kway? Instagram, the 203K way.
Starting point is 00:29:04 That's where I do everything, the 203Kway.com. But Instagram's my jam. I have a Facebook group. You search up the 203K way anywhere. Have a YouTube channel. But the reason I did this was because people were coming to me and asking me about it, like on bigger pockets and forums and like online groups and stuff. Because anytime, once in a while, 203K.
Starting point is 00:29:21 questions would come up. Yeah. And I'd answer them. And it just, I realized I'm constantly answering the same questions because so many people were going to their agents, going to their lenders, and they found out about it some way they found out about it. Right. And they would just be shot down. And they were in the exact same situation that I was. Yeah. I want to buy a multi-unit property. I want to renovate. I want to get into real estate investing. I'm struggling to find something I can afford in my market. I heard about this thing. I could buy a fixer up. I'm open to it, right? I'm open to doing the work and putting some elbow grease on these deals to make it work. I'm desperate. So they come to me because they're like, I, I, this is so good,
Starting point is 00:30:04 but lenders are telling me it's too much of a pain in the ass. Agents are telling me too much of, it's too much of a pain in the ass. And I'm sitting there and I'm like, number one, agents, the agents that we work with now, like that you implement this into your business, you're a superhero. Yeah. Instead of ignoring the, the obvious need, now you're offering something else that nobody else is. Well, because there's an agent, the challenge for agents right now is people don't want the inventory that's out there. There's not a lot of inventory. And the inventory that is out there is dated and older and not what people really want. So now if you're an agent, it says we need to buy it, but we need to buy it with the 203K because now you can get the new kitchen you want. You can add the pool that's not currently there. You can all these, like every agent who understands this should.
Starting point is 00:30:50 lean into it. I mean, I'm literally after our conversation last night, we talked about like, there's no bridge between my home and the next home. It's crazy. Part of that is like things like pools in Florida are important. Yeah. Like those are expensive to be able to go out and to go buy a home that's like, I don't really love it. Yep. I have the opportunity to say, let me call Matt right now and let's go get this loan. You, it changes the whole conversation when you go to your buyer and the buyer's already frustrated, right? Because they can't find anything that they want. Like they're maybe priced out.
Starting point is 00:31:24 They're usually always priced out of the neighborhood they want to be in. Right. That's right. So if you as an agent could go to them and tell them, hey, listen, what if I told you, like, let's shop the neighborhood? What if I told you, like, let's open it up to fixer uppers? If I can get you all the financing you need to buy the house and do all the renovations you need to it, nothing out of your pocket and your personal.
Starting point is 00:31:48 pretty much going to make the same mortgage payment every month that you would for something moving ready. Would you be open to that? 99% of people are going to say yes. Yeah. Whether they do it or not, now you just won their business because no other agent is saying that. They didn't even know they're thinking they walk into a house. I always tell agents, like, it's not about what they're telling you.
Starting point is 00:32:12 It's the conversation they're having in their head or with each other, right? You, they told you they have 200 grand in the bank, right? they're well off. And you go in there just assuming that they're going to, oh, they got some money. They're going to do renovations. Maybe they don't want to. Maybe that whole thing is they're putting their down payment down. And then that extra cushion is like what they want for their vacation or their kids or
Starting point is 00:32:32 their college or whatever, right? If you have an opportunity where they could do this and not come out of pocket with anything additional. And actually like the beauty of these of these programs too is like it's very easy to wrap in closing costs because you can get sellers concession very easily because you're going off of the after renovated value. Appraisal's never an issue. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:32:52 Because you're not appraising based on the current value. You're appraising based on the future value. So you can wrap in closing costs. You can wrap in, again, up to the first six months mortgage. People are like, what do I do? I don't, you know, if I buy this house, how am I going to afford rent? How am I going to afford to rent and live there? Well, they thought about that.
Starting point is 00:33:08 This is your primary. You can wrap up to the first 12 months payments into the loan. Because I was at, that was my next question, is the person who's about to go buy a home. They're going to renovated. it so they probably can't live there. They can choose to try to. Not ideal. Right. But then they got to go rent somewhere. Yeah. So they get to build up to 12 months. Yeah. Yeah. Now it tax on just like the renovation budget does. Right. So it's like, you know, and it could, you know, yeah, the loan amount's bigger. But again, like, I always tell people, like, your payment's going to go up
Starting point is 00:33:38 a couple hundred bucks a month, but what's the alternative? You're paying two places. Yeah. And you're spending $60,000 out of pocket. Right. Keep that in the deal. Again, you're renovating, use that future equity today, right? You're doing the work. Reward yourself today for the work you're doing, $400 more a month, but keeping $60 grand in your pocket. Put that $60,000 in an investment. Help agents sell this right now.
Starting point is 00:34:03 I think the people, first of all, go find Matt, go the 203K way on Instagram, all over, go to the $203K way. But I think what would be really helpful, not just telling the homeowners that are listening to this, try to help agents have a pitch for this. So what do you tell them to do? It should come up on every first buyer's call,
Starting point is 00:34:31 buyer consult, and every listing console too, right? Again, on the buy side, hey, what are you looking for? Where's the environments? Okay, awesome. So there's a couple different ways we can help you. What have you been struggling with?
Starting point is 00:34:43 Oh, a bunch of things need. Like identify what their wants and needs are, right? It's not for everybody. Right. But if in many cases, again, they're usually trying to get into a neighborhood that's a little bit out of their range or, you know, for the schools or whatever. Listen, you know, what if I told you, you know, if we, if we open it up to potentially looking for fixer uppers, I know some programs where we can get you into the house. We could do all the renovation, wrap in all the renovation costs. You know, I'm connected with the lenders that do it, the contractors that do it, everything. We could set it all up for you. Would you be open to also exploring fixer? or uppers if you didn't have to pay anything out of pocket for the renovation. Again, no one's saying. That's a huge sales pitch. If you don't have to come out of pocket for the renovation, that alone,
Starting point is 00:35:26 homeowners go like, I mean, I can be open to that. If you can make the same payment you would normally, but get all the money you need to renovate it the way you want, would you be open to that? Any agent tells me that I'm going to go house shopping. Game.
Starting point is 00:35:39 The hook line sinker. And we'd say like, you know, Zillow leaves are a thing in the business, right? And like you're calling Zillow and these people are talking to like eight people. They're getting bombarded. Our agents that do it, they bring it up on the first conversation because you're just literally bringing up something that they've never heard of before. Now, the beauty in all of it is probably 95% of them won't even end up doing it. But at least you brought to them something new that won the business, right? Now you got the business.
Starting point is 00:36:06 And even if you buy a normal home with a normal loan, the agent got the business. Yeah. Now, on the flip side, on listings, because every agent wants listings, really, right? Of course. it helps you win listings. Now, you know, move and ready house, $2 million house, like no, is that, but granny's, you know,
Starting point is 00:36:26 granny, the boomer who's been there for 30 years hasn't updated it in 30 years. Maybe she's a little self-conscious about or I always say never call your baby, never call anyone's baby ugly. Yeah. Don't, don't call the house ugly, but, you know, ask like,
Starting point is 00:36:39 hey, is there any repairs and any blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, listen, how about this? Obviously, you might get some flippers giving you cash offers. you know, we're going to get you top dollar. The way we're going to do this is there's actually some programs. We're connected with the lenders. There's a lot of buyers out there that we're connected with that they're just looking for the area.
Starting point is 00:36:56 They really want to be here. And they don't care about the condition of the property because they're using a mortgage where they can buy the property and as is condition. That's the beauty of this. It doesn't matter. There could be violations. It could be a foreclosure, falling down, no windows, no roof, whatever. You could buy it in any condition. So you tell them, you know, we can actually get you top dollar.
Starting point is 00:37:15 for your house because we're going to sell what it's going to be to the to the end user owner occupant family buyers that are just trying to get into this neighborhood so you're afraid that you know the house like oh i got to fix up a couple things before i list it no we've we've had we've had a couple people we have a agent the other day that just won a listing that way the the the seller ghosted him for like two weeks and he hit he's like hey listen i think i know a way i know of a way we can get you top dollar for your property. I know you were concerned about the condition. You'd be getting a lot of like low ball investor offers. And he won the listing that way just by bringing that up. Now again, beauty of it, funny part is it didn't go to it didn't go to a 203K buyer. It didn't. But it got his
Starting point is 00:38:02 foot in the door. So it's an incredible tool to having your arsenal, especially when the competition's only getting more fierce. Yeah. Right. Um, you know, AI is coming into the mix. Like you have to be creative in this game right now because the traditional cookie cutter way of doing real estate is going extinct a little bit, right? Well, there's no inventory. The interest rates are higher than what people want. I mean, there's just the economics of the world right now. Right. And it's simple supply and demand.
Starting point is 00:38:33 Right. And so you're forcing the opportunity to have demand because now you're solving for how it gets the valuation, whether it be ADU, which I love, I love both of these. If I'm an investor or even a homeowner who's coming down on tough times or needs to move their family in, build the ADU. Get the loan to build the ADU. If I'm an agent, I think you need to be screaming from the mountaintops to every agent, right? Again, even getting the listings with Granny's home that's all original built in 65 and all the original stuff, I can go get you top value because I work with the lenders that get after repair value.
Starting point is 00:39:13 So after someone comes in and replaces your pink tile granny, I can get that $800,000. Yeah, I'm not selling to the flipper. I'm selling your house to the end user. That's right. Which no one's going to pay more than the end user. I mean, this is, I think, is something that is huge. Again, this is what this whole shows about.
Starting point is 00:39:31 Where's the opportunity in the marketplace? And that's it. Yeah, it's like you said. Like the fact that homeowners who own a home who aren't, like they do want to upgrade, there's no inventory or like me, it's literally a $6 million home. Yeah. Okay, well, then why don't I make the home I want?
Starting point is 00:39:51 Right. And that's, and that's, we're seeing it. We dealt with some weird times in like, you know, during the pandemic. And everyone still has a recency bias with what the market was doing then. You know, 50 offers on every house and highest and best. And like the market obviously has shifted tremendously. Yeah. Right.
Starting point is 00:40:11 It's not just you get a listing and you're in, immediately printing money. It's going back to, you know, dog-eat-dog times. And this is just another thing to put into the puzzle. But like, you know, something as simple as like you said, if you're building out a unit, if you're renovating your house, if you're a new buyer, hey, rates are high. Buy a multi-unit, right? Like, you don't have to have someone. Like, okay, like, I don't want to live what's your alternative, right? Like, my parents had a basement apartment in their house for years. And it wasn't called house hacking. They didn't want to be investors.
Starting point is 00:40:47 They just couldn't afford to live on Long Island. As many people can't. But they lived and worked there and they had to find out a way. Now, as we got older, me and my brothers got older, obviously, like, people didn't live there anymore. And we had the whole house. Yeah. You grow into it. Like, you can fight.
Starting point is 00:41:01 We could fight what's happening, right? And we could wait for rates to come down, which is, you know, as you know, a loser's game, right? You could wait for markets to self and up. Or you could look at the opportunity and make the best out of it. And I'd argue that it's with these new guidelines, with FHA, Fannie Mae and like the ADU stuff, like, it's more lucrative than ever. Well, you can pay our homebuhras. Yeah. You do Airbnb, the ADU if you need to.
Starting point is 00:41:26 Like, there's just so much opportunity here. Right. Well, dude, this is something we got to keep talking about in the club. Yeah. So the Moore Club, if you are not part of the more club, go at the time, time for more.com forward slash pre-launch. It'll be free for life if you join. right now as you hear this. Matt and I will be talking more about this in the club. You'll hear about all the different opportunities. Again, the 203K way on Instagram. There's a Facebook group
Starting point is 00:41:54 and he will be in the club itself. So go register now. Timeformore.com forward slash pre-launch. You will have it for free. It's usually $3,600 a year once we launch this thing. I appreciate you being on. You're the man. Thank you. This is awesome as always. If you think someone needs to hear from Matt, make sure to reach out to him. Make sure to share this episode. We'll see you on the next episode of The Moore Show. Peace.

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