Podcast Transcription
Oscar: Another wholesale.
Melina: She said, “Wholesale. Any chance you can…
Intro: Welcome to “Flippin’ Off” a purpose-driven podcast about flipping houses and making a difference.
Melina: Hey everybody, welcome to “Flippin’ Off” podcast. Melina Boswell here, founder / CEO of New Wealth Advisors Club aka NWAC or some people call us NWAC and the people who really wanna talk crap to us, say NWACkos. Hats off to you, Mr. Steve. You know who you are. Bet you’re listening. So I’m feeling feisty today…welcome.
Oscar: Wow.
Melina: Welcome to the jungle, people.
Oscar: All right.
Melina: So, today in the studio I have with me, my son, David Boswell.
David: Hey, hey.
Melina: Oscar Solares…
Oscar: Hello.
Melina: …COO and the one and only Adriana “Spoon” Uribe.
Adriana: Hey, guys.
Melina: You better eat that mic.
Adriana: What?
Melina: So, today we wanted to have a conversation with you, just have a conversation. I don’t know. I guess we’re gonna talk about rehab. So the conversation was like, “Hey, so Spoon said they tried to send me to rehab.” And then we said, “Maybe we’ll have an intervention.” So, I don’t know. I don’t even know exactly what we’re talking about today. We’re just going to be talking about maybe the woes, the pitfalls, the good, the bad, the ugly, the truth of rehabbing real estate, rehabbing properties.
David: Yeah. You see on TV all the time, different rehabs and people make it look easy, and they make it look fun and it really makes it look enjoyable. And…
Melina: That’s a lie. It’s lies.
David: I won’t lie. It can be enjoyable. It is enjoyable. I love what we do, but, oh my gosh, it’s just as much of a headache as any other job or anything else that you do. So, the goal really for us is to talk about some of the challenges and some of the things that we have experienced through the rehab process. It’s something that we do all the time. We deal with contractors all the time, we deal with rentals and houses that we’re flipping and we deal with tons of different markets. And so our goal really is just to share with you that experience and what, you know, it looks like to successfully rehab a house with as little pain as possible. Right, Oscar?
Oscar: Yeah, pain. I like what you said that it is enjoyable. For me, the enjoyable part is, “Oh, I have a project,” and, “Oh, look how nice it looks.”
Melina: So beginning and the end?
Oscar: The very beginning and the finished product.
Melina: Nobody wants to deal with the process.
Oscar: The process itself has so many ups and downs and it is. It’s funny, but it’s the truth.
Melina: Yeah. For me personally, you know, this last year has been…Well, it’s the days where I wake up and I go, “Dave Boswell knew what he was doing.”
David: Oh, tell me about it.
Melina: “Dave Boswell was no freaking joke, man. He was really, really good.” And I think, you know, I am thankful and grateful that we got to hang out with him for as long as we did and the things that he taught us and he had the most incredible eye for detail. Right? So, I feel like on so many levels he taught us, well, specifically me, David, and Spoon. I’m sure you probably learned stuff…
David: Of course, yes.
Melina: …from him as well. Yeah. But it’s interesting because that was like a natural thing for him, right?
Oscar: Yeah. I think back and you just kind of recall some things for me. When Dave and I were working on things together, we kind of always went… It was weird that we always ended up in the same direction. I know you witnessed this too, Adriana, where he would think of something and I would think about it, then we’d talk and we’re like, “Oh, shit. We thought about the same thing.” But it was because we had worked alongside for so many years that we started aligning our thought processes on how things should look and how they should work and all that. So, even down to the barn doors at the club. Right?
Melina: Yeah, yeah. That’s right.
Oscar: The day we were working on those and hitting each other in the head because it got difficult at some point. But we could do it. Yeah.
Melina: Isn’t that interesting? I feel like we kind of do that now. We all kind of do that now. We’re starting to… There’s something really powerful to creating synergy and you start to get like in the flow with each other, you know, a lot like the podcast even us talking right now, we just start to flow with each other and it’s almost like we can finish each other’s thoughts and we… Like, it’s so funny because I know how much of the time do we…somebody will send a message like on one of our group chats and somebody goes, “Man, I was just thinking about that. I thought that exact thing. I was literally just having that thought.” And that’s something that’s really powerful about, you know, collaboration, and you don’t have to do it alone. And it also makes it easier to blame other people.
Oscar: Yeah. You thought about it first.
Melina: Oh, I thought you were doing that.
David: Yeah. Frank just texted me a little bit ago and, you know, we’re finishing the property in Rialto. And everything is done, the yard is done. And we’re trying to sell it. It’s at the place where we’re just trying to get rid of it. And so it looks really nice, it’s sitting there vacant, and I had it in my head this morning, “Dude, we have to get cameras on that building. We have to. I know something bad is gonna happen if we don’t get cameras up.” And Frank literally sent me a few pictures of it looked like some scratch marks on one of the doors. I forgot to tell you this. But it looks like somebody already freaking tried to break in. And I was like, “Dude, I was thinking this morning.” And so that’s crazy you’re talking about that because it happens a lot.
Melina: It’s very, very true when you have so many properties. I thought we’re in escrow on that one, aren’t we?
David: Mm-hmm.
Melina: Okay, good. Yeah, good. I know I got escrow instructions this morning, so I was really happy about that. So, all right. Well, so maybe… You know what David, you’re the one that had the idea to have this conversation and you decided you wanted “Spoon” to be in this conversation. So, why? Why did you want “Spoon” to be in the conversation?
David: So the goal, like I said, is to paint a picture for you guys so you can kind of get a little bit into our businesses and understand, like, how our lives work and you kind of… I think you have to work with what you have, you know, in any situation. Hey, hold on. Let me keep going.
Oscar: Let him.
David: It’s true though. We have to make stuff work and everybody needs to put their skills and everybody has a different skill set, and so “Spoon” here she’s a crafty, she’s a crafty one. Did you see that? She’s a crafty one, and so, you know, that side of her brain works very similar to mine. We have the same thoughts about how houses should be and so “Spoon” is an integral part of the rehab process with me because obviously, you know, between myself, mom, and “Spoon”, I’m handling the mechanical side and all the things that have to be done. And then when it comes time for finished work, I don’t want to look… You know what I mean? I have…
Melina: Design.
David: Yeah, design stuff, so you need to have, you know, all of those facets, all the different assets to your team. So that’s why “Spoon” is here so we can maybe talk a little bit about, you know, I don’t know, some of this stuff.
Melina: So, we’re all just staring at “Spoon” now looking at her. So, what do you got to say “Spoon”? What are you gonna say about that?
David: What do you feel is, like, your role? What do you think your role has been in the rehab process?
Adriana: My role is picking paint, carpet, cabinet colors, just pretty much staying with the trend on what is selling in the area and then being like, “Yeah, we need to do this and…”
Melina: Yeah. So, the thing about you “Spoon” that’s good that I definitely don’t do is that you…what’s funny we talk about all the time how, you know, whatever social media is freaking listening to us because you get marketed to, right? So she’ll screenshot things to me like, “Hey, look at this.” And literally it’s like a cabinet. We’ve been having a conversation of, “We need a cabinet that looks kind of like this and then all the sudden she’ll send me a screenshot and I’ll say, “Oh, that’s what we were talking about. Where did you find that?” She’s like, “They marketed to me.” Right? So, what are the things… Maybe that’s actually… This is a good question. And I think it could be a helpful tip for people. What would you say… Because you’re on a lot of different sites looking at different trends. Where would you say… What tips would you give to people like where you find a lot of the tips or trends, sorry, in terms of design?
David: And style and design.
Melina: Yeah. Yeah.
Adriana: Honestly, for me, I like look at big houses and then try and find stuff that fits in our budget that people want…
David: Kind of replicate.
Adriana: Yeah. On a smaller scale, but I follow House, like, I follow a bunch of Instagram. I don’t know if they’re realtor accounts, but they’re just like boss homes or whatever you wanna say. So, they are like gangster looking stuff and then I go, “Yeah, but I can do that on a budget and they’ll still look just as good.”
David: There’s multiple sides too, like, there are houses we wanna fix up just to sell, and then there are houses, like, we’re in the Airbnb business. And so people don’t realize, like, if you wanna be good, you know, a good host, if you want your Airbnb to be successful, then you have to set yourself aside from the rest of the competition. And so we’re super hosts because of “Spoon” and there’s… So, when I go in and rehab the house to make it look nice, but “Spoon” is able to handle all of the other side of that. I don’t… It’s like a whole other dark spot for me, you know, this whole other side to our business that if we lost her and we had to replace, it would be extremely frustrating and we would have to replace her somehow. You know what I mean? Because I guess that we could… Any one person I guess could do all of these things, but you would legitimately burn out.
Melina: Did you say “Spoon” is irreplaceable?
David: I did. It’d be really frustrating as hell to try to replace this girl. She does too much good stuff. It drives me nuts.
Oscar: Yeah. When she’s on she’s on, right?
David: OP.
Melina: That is exactly it.
David: OP.
Adriana: I think I’m pretty consistent nowadays.
Melina: Would you say you’re more consistent?
Adriana: I don’t know. Would you?
Melina: We’re getting there. I’d say we are all… I think for all of us this last year, you know, we’re finally… I wanna say in the last 12 months, probably. Let’s see. Whatever you’re in. Maybe not even that. Maybe the last, like, eight months, frankly, we’ve all sort of pulled our heads, like, okay, we’re starting to get our footing, our bearings about each other, we’re becoming more stable in terms of who does what.
David: Yeah. And on the other side, we have Oscar who…. we all pretty much work together on each other’s deals and don’t really expect anything, you know, everybody kind of just dips in and out. But having Oscar to be able to deal with the city and planning…
Melina: Oh, my God.
David: …and… That’s a whole other side there. You know what I mean? When you’re dealing with contractor…
Melina: Nobody else can do it.
David: You just don’t… You have to really deal…
Oscar: This is just water, right? You’re bringing up a sore topic.
Melina: Nobody judges you if there’s some vodka. I always say, it’s just vodka and…
David: You don’t wanna do any one of these… You don’t wanna do all of these things by yourself. You don’t wanna have to take on each one of the… I don’t. You know what I mean? I think it would be…
Melina: I think that’s great. I think it’s such a good point. So, Oscar is the best at dealing with cities, permits, plans, architects.
Oscar: I’m white-knuckling here, guys. And I appreciate that. It’s been a process though. And I think it’s important for people to understand, it’s like, Adriana developed her skill set with time.
David: Exactly.
Oscar: She’s naturally talented and gifted and all these things, but ultimately that skill set of saying, “Hey, I can do that this way.” and still deliver a really cool product. Awesome, right? She’s actually really developed an eye for the design side of things.
Melina: She has. I agree. I agree.
Oscar: And it’s taken time. It’s no different for me. Learning to navigate this… I think… What’s a good word to use? I’ve not done well with cities in the past.
Melina: Right. Right. That’s right. Oh, yeah.
Oscar: But that was okay. I took it as a… At the time it wasn’t okay, but now looking back it’s like, “No, listen. I learned something. I developed another approach and other things.” So, it just takes time to navigate through all that stuff. And then the learning process that happens, your knowledge base expands.
Melina: Right.
Oscar: And it’ll never shrink because knowledge is knowledge. You retain it. Then it’s using it. But every now and then there’s things that show up that you’re like, you know, even dealing with contractors is totally different.
David: I was literally gonna go there next. Yeah.
Melina: I was just gonna say that. I feel like, you know, in the beginning, Oscar, you were the one that dealt with all the contractors and you have now delegated that to David.
Oscar: David definitely has taken on that. And I pop in and out as needed.
David: They all bleed into each other as well, so it’s like… And we all learn something as we go. So, I’m learning things about what’s happening with the city and how that process has to work and “Spoon” is learning things about the construction side and how things have to go in an order of, you know, in a process and I’m learning things about the design and creativity and color schemes and different things like that. Everybody, you know, they all bleed into each other.
Oscar: And it’s nice that they do that now because it used to be that I did it all.
Melina: Right.
Oscar: In my business, I did everything from negotiating the transaction to talking to the banks to dealing with agents to identify the right contractor and then babysitting them and picking the right color schemes and all this. It gets overwhelming.
Melina: What? That almost killed you.
David: Yeah. I mean, when you describe it… When you described that month, you described it as one that almost took you out.
Oscar: It actually took me out, not for years, but, yeah, mentally, you know, it takes a toll on you when you’re doing so much in each project, you have so many projects running. It’s crazy. But now you get to breathe a little bit because you’re bringing people along and that’s the beauty of what we do is that we get to teach people and bring them along and, you know, a mirror is growing.
Melina: I know.
Oscar: Dealing with the city and all that…
David: It’s so true.
Oscar: …and coaching them through it. It’s nice to just have him on site with the city now and just say, “Hey, ask this or do this.”
Melina: So, let’s talk about that because I was just thinking to myself, you know, like, when you’re talking about the plans, permits, you know, I look at the architecture plans and sketch designs. And I can look at them and I can read them, but the truth is, is that I only wanna… I don’t want to look at them for very much time. Like, I wanna be involved in the 30,000 foot up, like, yeah, let’s make it this much bigger because we’re gonna make the master bedroom look like this. Then for me, I’m like out. I don’t wanna get into the details and I don’t wanna… I can’t… For me personally, when there’s like, “Oh, we have to make this one correction. We have to fix this. We have to shift that.” I’m like, “Stab me,” because I can’t stand that. And I’m so thankful for Oscar. Like last night I walk in, I see him in the bubble with plans on the table and I was like, “I’m out of here. I got nothing left.”
Oscar: I’m dragging them out.
Melina: I’m like, “Oh, God, he’s unrolling plans. I gotta go.”
David: Yeah. And imagine if you had to deal with that in that place.
Melina: I couldn’t. It was at 10:00 last night. Are you kidding? I’d been at the office since, you know, the morning. I was like, “Dude, I’m done.”
David: So it all has to get done no matter how we’re all feeling.
Melina: It does have to get done.
David: No matter what.
Melina: Right. He had to do it. So I was thankful for that. But I was thinking, there’s no class that can teach you this.
Oscar: No, no. It goes back to, you know, that 70% thing.
Melina: Talk about that. Yeah, let’s talk about that.
Oscar: That’s 70, 20, 10, right? And 10% comes from the classroom. So, we can say things to you…
Melina: Sure.
Oscar: …but until you actually experience it and walk through it, because I had a ton of conversations with Dave right about dealing with the city and he’s like, “I’m not gonna deal with it. Just let me know what you find out.”
Melina: Right.
Oscar: But at the end of it all, it was, I could never have sat down and read a textbook about it. Right? I could never have sat down. Like, my desire has never been to be an architect. I like to draw, I like to doodle, but I don’t use rulers and measurements and detail… And I’m kind of a detail guy, but when it comes to that, it’s just not my thing, but the experience itself, then that’s 70% of all experience, that’s where the real classroom comes in. That’s why, you know, again, a mirror, right? It’s like, you got to go talk to the city, but I don’t know what to say. I know that. Go to the city, stand in line, and ask me the questions. That way you don’t lose your position in line because LA, in particular, could be a nightmare dealing with line.
Melina: Right. So, that’s great. So, we have a property right now that Amir door-knocked. It was a pre-foreclosure. He door-knocked it and built relationship with the homeowners. He did exactly what he was taught through class. And then it took him… I don’t know. What? Two years almost before he was able to…
Oscar: About, yeah.
Melina: Yeah. Before he was able to close on the property mainly because the sellers weren’t ready to go. So Amir just walked through the process with them. Then they had, I’m going to say, “renters”, right? They weren’t really renters because they never paid a dime. But there were people living in the house, which then David had to step into. And when I think about this property and all that went into it, I was thinking back to the original conversation with the homeowners you and I met with them the first time, Oscar. Started building relationship. Amir kept in contact with them, then we finally closed on it, and then David dealt with the squatters because that’s indeed what they were. And then David started stepping into the construction.
David: Yeah. You got to realize with the mess from the homeless encampment that was there, there were a group of Home Depot laborers that we, you know, brought over just to clean the place out and there was so much stuff there that even the day laborers they walked off. They weren’t even gonna do it. There were syringes all around. There was God knows only what in that house. And so… I mean, I’m sitting here thinking about how the heck we did this and I’m scratching my head, and really, I don’t even know how…
Melina: You kind of forget, don’t you?
David: I do. I do. I mean, we had…
Oscar: It was so much.
David: Dude, we had to enroll these squatters to clean up their own mess. How the hell did we even do that? I don’t…
Melina: You totally did that.
David: Yeah.
Melina: You got them… You paid them to clean up after themselves. Brilliant. That’s brilliant.
David: It worked out amazing, but…
Melina: It wasn’t easy.
David: No, none of it was easy. It took us three months just to get the place cleaned out and the squatters completely out. It’s been really cool to watch Amir go through the process and now actually from the time I started working with him on the project to now he’s like a different person in terms of real estate.
Melina: Isn’t that interesting?
David: He’s an entirely different person when it comes to process of, you know, the order of operations and processes and the way that things have to go. The next project is going to be awesome with Amir. It’s going to be so fun. It’s been so cool to see how that works. So, for potential new club members, you know, maybe wrap your head around what it looks like to walk through a deal. Once you get into one it’s really you definitely don’t learn everything on one deal. And Amir I’m sure can be a testament to the same but he’s really a different person. It’s really awesome.
Melina: It’s really funny that you said that because last night when I saw him, he actually sent me his business plan the other night. I don’t think I told you this, but he sent me his business plan. And said, “Hey, I just wanted to send this to you just for you to look at. You don’t need to respond or anything, but I just want you to see it.” So, I looked at it. And I was like, “Oh, I need to sit with you” because I had some things that I wanted to point out and that I wanted to just give him a little bit of coaching. And mainly because I was really happy that he took the time to write a business plan. And it’s what he’s gonna do. It’s very simple, but it’s very doable. And I thought last night when I saw him, there is a difference in him. There is entirely a difference. And he’s been with the club for a few years now. And maybe there’s something too. I remember when he started getting checks and he came in to me one day and he said, “You know, this is a real business.” I’m like, “Yeah, it is.” So, he’s been making money along the way, but… So, I think he knew that there was…you can make money doing this business, but I think now there’s this deeper belief level. I think that’s what it is. When you talk about how he’s changed, there’s been this different level of belief for him, this confidence, and I think what I’m going to liken it to is, you know, I always make that statement “Let’s just go make more money.”
David: That’s exactly what it is.
Melina: Right?
David: The possibilities and the doors all of a sudden open up because you have this knowledge in your head where it’s like we say all the time “You don’t know what you don’t know.” Until you get to that point, you don’t realize the opportunity that the club opens up for you, you don’t realize once you get, like, to Amir’s position, I mean, dude, the knowledge…
Melina: He’s never gonna be hungry again.
David: No. He’s good.
Melina: He’ll be able to take what he’s learned now and take it anywhere.
David: If he has to go general contract for somebody… Like, the skills you develop going through this is priceless.
Melina: Such a good point. Yeah. Yeah. So, I remember Tim said one time, “I finally came to the realization that I am “Let’s just go make more money.” Like, I really am that person now.” And I do think that that’s like the next level of confidence or, you know, in terms of knowledge experience, knowing what to do that you get to, which is “I’ll just go make more money.” I always say, “I’ll never go hungry. I will never go hungry because I know how to make money.” And there is a point in your business and it just takes everybody a different time set depending on maybe where you’ve been in the past. Right?
David: It’s interesting. What I’m like coming to the conclusion of about the podcast is that there are multiple parts to real estate. And maybe if we identify some of them, we have creative and design and obviously your mechanical in the construction side, city and planning, and then obviously, you have the relationship part, you know, which is the most important part with the homeowner and…
Melina: Acquisitions.
David: Absolutely. And with all those things, I want to… We should be able to be like… I guess other people would say, “You gotta find that team. You gotta build your team.” But it’s just kind of identifying what it is we do at the club and making it, you know, really obvious, like, the whole team is here. There are zero excuses for people not to be a part of our club if they want to do real estate if you ask me.
Melina: That’s what I tell people all the time when they decide they’re gonna quit. So, I always ask this question. I don’t always ask it to every single person, but the question in my mind, and if I get the opportunity, I ask this question, “Oh, so you’ve decided real estate isn’t for you?” And then they’ll say something like, “Well, no, I’m gonna go do real estate.” And I just laugh, “No, you’re not. You’re kidding yourself. If you can’t be successful in real estate at this club, you are not going to have success in real estate.”
David: Give me a break.
Melina: And I know that that is a bold statement to make…
David: It’s so true.
Melina: …but it is true.
David: It’s a million percent true. There’s zero reason.
Melina: The only reason you won’t have success is because you are not doing the work.
David: A 100% true. If you believe what we’re saying, like… I mean, I don’t know. Or we could just be talking out of our ass right now, but…
Melina: It’s true. It could be.
David: Everything is right here. I guess we could be.
Melina: Well, people don’t know.
David: They don’t know.
Melina: They don’t know, but we know.
David: Yeah.
Melina: It was just a funny thing.
David: Where else can you go find a group of people that will literally help you walk through all of these different things that we’re talking about? You know what I mean? And I didn’t even touch on contractors and how… When you’re dealing with contractors, you gotta realize that the people that you’re dealing with and how, like, they’re not in construction because they want to be. Let’s just be upfront about that.
Melina: Wow.
David: Yeah. They’re not in construction because they love it, they’re not there because they want to be there. They’re there because it provides food on the table for their family and they blew most of the opportunities in their life. And this is the last resort to being able to provide a decent living for your families. That’s a contractor. Most of anybody listening to this will say that’s the truth. I’m one myself. I am an example of that. I’ve walked down that part of my life so I can say that with confidence knowing it’s true.
Melina: It is true. It’s just such a powerful statement that you just made and people don’t wanna hear that.
David: I don’t care. I’m sorry.
Melina: I know. I’m with you. I totally agree.
David: It is the truth. And when you’re dealing with those kind of people or people in that frame of mind, it takes… What’s the word? I don’t know. Finesse? It’s…
Melina: Well, I think understanding.
David: You have to empathize, you have to work with them. You have to also give them… So, for me, I always say this is like one of my biggest rules is every… Okay. Here is something for you, guys. Here’s a little nugget. Every job you ever start, every construction job you’re gonna begin on, whoever comes out to do your bid will tell you that they can do every single thing you need done. “I can do that. Oh man, I can do that. I can do that. I can do all that. I can do a lot.”
Melina: That’s a lie.
David: “And I can do it faster than anybody’s ever done it.”
Melina: And cheaper.
David: And cheaper. And literally every single one of them will tell you to do that. So, my golden rule is like if I’m doing a flip, I’m not gonna give one guy everything. It’s just not going to happen. I have people that do this, people that do that, people that do this. And I know because I’m not even going to have an expectation of these people that I know they’re not gonna meet because I’ve been through it enough times now, so I know I’m not even going to put you in a position to fail. But you’re gonna do this for me and I know how long it takes a person who can do it as slow as possible. I know how long that process will take.
Melina: Give an example, David. Like, what do you mean for example?
David: Like, pretty much every single job we gotta do some drywall repair, we need to put a couple of bathrooms in so we gotta do plumbing, we gotta do tile work, we gotta do some electrical work, and probably gotta do some outdoor repair, some stucco repair, things like that. The drywall guys will always wanna do the stucco too. I’m at the point now where I’ll have a stucco guy and a guy for the drywall. We’ll separate it out because they can’t get it done in time. So, now that we’ve got contractors for every… So, you really… There’s so many things. That’s just a little like a glimpse into what it could look like dealing with contractors and they’re never reliable. There’s always a problem. There’s always some family emergency. There is somebody always sick. Their kid always… Something happened with their kid always. Tell me.
Oscar: I’ve had everything that you can imagine come up including the contractor haven’t been paid a draw, and then disappearing, and then you, later on, you find out that he was in jail. Right? And you’re like…
Melina: That could totally happen. What do you do?
Oscar: And then you’re like, “Well, crap, I have to keep moving forward with the project, but I can’t.” And then the city steps in and says some other ridiculous thing and then you’re stuck, right?
Melina: Yeah, yeah.
Oscar: So, yeah, there’s so many different variables with contractors.
Melina: Nobody ever understands that, do they?
Oscar: No. No. And I love what David said about that’s not what they set out to do in life. Right? There’s very few people that are following somebody else’s footsteps as a contractor, very, very few because most people see their parents and you see the struggle dad is going through as a contractor and, like, they don’t wanna deal with that. So they usually end up there because it provided and now I’m stuck because I can’t get away from it because I have to continue to provide. Oops, there’s another kid, now I’m gonna continue to provide more. Oops, there’s another kid. So, it’s the way of the world. But yeah, everything that could possibly ever go wrong I think I’ve… Well, I’m not gonna say…
Melina: Don’t even say it because you never know because once you think you’ve seen it all, mm-mm.
Oscar: Yeah. What I can say is I’m no longer surprised.
Melina: Right. Right. That’s a good point.
Christian: Hi, this is Christian Rios. As many of you know, I have been a member of New Wealth Advisors Club for over seven years and got started when I was 17 years old with absolutely no real estate experience. One of the biggest lessons I have learned from being in the industry is the need for authentic relationships. If you’re looking for an actual team locally in Southern California with all the resources needed to close deals, register for one of our free workshops by visiting www.joinnwac.com. Thanks for listening to the “Flippin’ Off” podcast.
Melina: Some people come to the club all the time and they say, “Oh, do you have contractors?” And I always say, “Yeah. Why? Do you know somebody?” “Yeah, I have a great contractor.” And I always say, we never have too many good contractors. Like, we’ve been working with the same guys for years and we love our guys, right? But at the same time, we also are clear on what their strengths and weaknesses are.
Oscar: And workloads.
Melina: And workloads. That’s the thing. Yeah.
David: The other thing is, the guys that are consistent with us are in their 40s and 50s, and that’s because they’re reliable and have already screwed up that part of their life and they don’t do that anymore. So, you know what I mean? But that also means when they get later in age, they get slow, slow down.
Adriana: Yeah, I’m over here like, “Can we get appliances delivered? Are they ready?”
David: Yeah, yeah. So you want it done at the right price and the right amount of time and you want to trust them. And man, it is a… And you gotta deal with the city and you gotta pick color schemes and you gotta do this, you gotta do that.
Melina: You gotta make sure their appliances are delivered and installed.
Oscar: My favorite with appliances is you can get them delivered, the guys are there to install them and then they call you and they say, “Hey, you know that connector? That’s the wrong one. You know the one for the vent on the dryer? It doesn’t exist it.” And you’re like, “No, no.”
Melina: Isn’t that your job? Isn’t that your whole job in life?
Oscar: That was your mission. Plug it in.
Melina: Well, I was just gonna say, didn’t we just have our appliances delivered and they delivered just the microwave?
David: Yes.
Melina: Or they delivered it and then left and…
Oscar: Just dropped it off.
David: Just the microwave.
Oscar: Yeah.
David: There’s always something.
Melina: It is always something.
Oscar: The cool thing, though, is that as a team, we all get it now and we all kind of help each other through it. But it’s interesting to see new people coming in and even people that think they know what they’re doing. And you’re talking to them and in my head I’m like, “Wow, you haven’t lived yet. You haven’t experienced anything yet.”
David: You don’t get it.
Oscar: You don’t really get it. You wanna do a flip? Got it. Because it’s so sexy on TV and it looks so…
David: Right. You wanna make a bunch of money.
Oscar: And there’s this huge amount of money that’s gonna be made and all that. The reality is that when you start doing it, right? And we lived this not too long ago, right? The Nihi property.
Melina: Yes. Hawaii.
Oscar: Yeah, it’s a great property. A lot of cool things that can be done with it. But when I walked into it, I was like, “Oh my gosh.” Right? Luckily, there’s a good contractor involved in all that, so it’ll be handled but…
David: It sticks.
Oscar: …but it’s a major, major rehab. It’s not… Yeah.
David: Down to sticks.
Oscar: Down to sticks, yeah.
Melina: It’s down to sticks, yeah.
Oscar: And we talk about sticks, it’s like, even the siding has to come off, a new siding has to be put on. And what did Detta say?
Melina: Yeah. So, it’s funny because one of the conversations that, you know, when I’m teaching foundations class, I talk about acquisition strategies and exit strategies. And my training is very practical. I don’t wanna just give you a bunch of information that isn’t useful so you could go on “Jeopardy!” and maybe win. Who cares? At the end of the day you wanna learn how to make money. So, I say things, like, you know, I go through and I hit on all the different types of acquisition strategies. Now, I’ve gotten to a point where we actually highlight the acquisition strategies in yellow, green, and red. And so one of the yellow ones is rehabbing. And, you know, people are like, “But I really wanna rehab.” And I go, “No, you don’t. You really don’t.” What’s in green? Wholesaling. Wholesaling is in green, not because it’s the easiest acquisition strategy, by the way, it’s the best exit strategy. So, a lot of people will teach you how to wholesale as an exit, I’m sorry, as an acquisition strategy, which is fine, but I like it as an exit strategy. I don’t think of wholesaling as an acquisition. I think of wholesaling as an exit. So, we make our money on our buy. You don’t wholesale as acquisition, right? You wholesale as an exit. But I like it because you get to get in get out and get paid. And yes, you’re gonna take less money but you can get a lot more done. And so when we were in Hawaii and somebody said, “Really? You don’t you don’t really like rehabbing?” And so I asked Odetta who is rehabbing the Hawaii, the Nihi property and she’s shaking her head going, “It’s horrible.” And she’s only in… They’ve only acquired and cleaned it out.
David: It’s scary because you get to a…
Melina: Demo.
David: …place with a house especially if it’s down to sticks like that, you can walk into that house and wanna put your head in your hands and cry.
Melina: Yep.
David: It can be so overwhelming if you don’t know.
Melina: Or if you do know.
David: Even if you… Actually, if you do know.
Melina: When you do know, that’s when it gets overwhelming. And so I said, “So, now you hear what I’m saying.” She’s like, “Wholesale, wholesale it out. Don’t even…”
David: It’s true. It’s true.
Melina: It’s gonna be fun when we start looking, you know, putting on finishes and maybe finishes can be fun. For me, finishes can get overwhelming. I get very overwhelmed, which I’m thankful for “Spoon”. So she’ll ask me… She now knows to ask me very specific questions and I’ll say, “Go with this theme. I just want this theme and that’s pretty much it.” You know, what’s interesting is you were talking about everybody’s kind of roles and I was thinking, “What is my role? What do I do here?” And here’s what’s funny. The most hilarious part for me is that I’m like, the one kind of doing the numbers. Oh, my God, the irony. The irony there. Isn’t that funny?
David: You know your home.
Melina: Yeah. It’s…
David: It means. Right?
Melina: Think about that, how ironic that is. Because for years Dave, you know, was always the numbers and I was, you know, all the other things and now it’s the tables have come to a point where I can look at a property and I know what we should buy it for and what it could sell for.
Oscar: It’s because you know what almost everything can sell for.
David: She knows what it’s all worth. That’s why, really.
Melina: Yeah, that’s probably true.
David: For sure. You know every area, like, you know, or have a general… Right?
Oscar: Yeah, yeah. No, you’re right. And it still goes back to the 70%.
Melina: Oh, yeah.
Oscar: It’s that you’ve already experienced all the other things, right? So, now you’re doing the thing that other people… You’ve handed things off to other people that can fill those roles, right? It doesn’t mean that they’re perfect at it. It means that they can do 75% to 80% of it, and then you pass it on, and then you pass it on something else. And now you can focus on the bigger pictures, right? Because like all of our mission in life here for you is what? Free you up so that the creative juices continue to flow and the club moves in the right direction. It’s for the benefit, not necessarily of us, but of all the people that are coming and finding us.
Melina: That’s exactly right.
Oscar: And continue to grow and continue to expand and continue to develop programs and systems and all that. So, that’s the goal, but we can’t keep you in the weeds for that.
Melina: No. I don’t even do well in the weeds anymore.
Oscar: Now it’s a matter of high visibility stuff, it’s looking at numbers, tracking against the bottom line, all those things that we all work on together, but ultimately, you have the visibility too.
David: Yeah. And there’s a lot of weeds too.
Melina: Yeah, it’s funny because I can’t stay on the weeds. And you know it’s interesting because I was thinking back 20 years ago I was all operations, all operations. That’s where I was, was operations, operations, operations and that’s why I flourished. Very, very good at operations and now, you know, like, that’s in the details. And now I literally can’t… Like, I can’t be in the daily operations anymore. It’s too overwhelming to me. And it does stifle me now, which is so interesting.
Oscar: Yeah. You get stuck.
Melina: I do get stuck. I get really, really stuck, which is cool. I did buy a house without seeing it. That was a bad idea. And you know. But it turned out to be just fine. Why are you looking like that? I mean, Oscar came walked to the property and he said, “Do you know that house you bought out there? Did you actually see it?” And I go, “Let me think. No. I didn’t. I never saw it.” And he’s like, “So, you bought it and never saw it?” And I go, “That’s accurate. That’s an accurate statement.” Is that a bad thing? I don’t know. It’s kind of how I do stuff.
David: Yeah. We won’t teach that.
Melina: We won’t?
David: Or repeat it.
Melina: Why?
Oscar: Here’s the thing, though, is that…
Melina: We’re gonna make money. It’s gonna be fine.
David: I know. I wouldn’t teach people to do that.
Melina: No, definitely.
Oscar: No.
David: You should never do that.
Oscar: This goes back to years of experience.
Melina: Yeah.
Oscar: Right?
Melina: Yeah.
Oscar: So I know what you did. I know how you approached it. I know what you looked at. I get all that. For me, it was more of… I don’t think rehabbing makes sense. And that was really the conversation. Right? I had it with David too and I had it with Carlos was like, “Yeah, you need to just get rid of this one.” And you’re gonna make money. It’s good.
Melina: Yeah, yeah, it’s fine.
Oscar: Because your numbers look great and all that, your analysis is good.
Melina: Yeah, yeah.
David: Three dumpsters later, 3 45-yard dumpsters later.
Melina: Three 45 dumpsters later.
David: I think a gym might have come by and dumped all of their old gym equipment in that yard when they were…
Melina: Seriously?
Oscar: Oh, there was so much stuff in that place.
David: Random stuff man, random.
Melina: Really?
David: There was random stuff.
Oscar: There was so much stuff. I was so overwhelmed when I walked in that I went to the backyard like three times, and every time I went to the backyard, I noticed something different.
Melina: You were like there’s a gym?
Oscar: No. I was like, “Holy crap, there’s a shed?” It wasn’t like small things. There was so much stuff.
David: I think there was a Volkswagen there.
Oscar: So, there was a car. There was a camper shell.
Melina: There was really a car?
Oscar: There was a gate.
Melina: There was?
Oscar: There was a gate in the back fence that led to the next lot over.
Melina: That’s not our lot, is it?
Oscar: No. So, anyways, but just a lot of stuff, so it was good.
Melina: All the fun of rehabbing.
David: Yeah. So, yeah, lots of good stuff in rehabbing. And yeah, like I said, there’s multiple parts of it and you can lose your mind, you can find it, you can have a lot of fun, and you can learn a lot of cool stuff. I feel so grateful to be in this position because I don’t know anybody who is. I’ve never met… I don’t know if anybody does it like this. I don’t know another group that really has it on lock the way that we do. I’m…
Melina: Do you mean the team as a team?
David: Yeah. Just the way that… I mean, people wanna do real estate full-time. They wanna flip houses full-time. This is how we do it. This is how it happens. So, wrap your heads around that. If you wanna do one to two deals a year, then do them yourself.
Melina: Totally.
David: If you wanna do a plethora of deals, you wanna do a bunch, then plug in at the club and learn as much as you can and be like Amir, go through the process. I get… doors fling wide open all of a sudden.
Oscar: Yeah. The opportunities are endless.
Melina: They really are.
Oscar: The opportunities are… The limitations that are gonna exist for you, if you’re a part of what we do, and doing it with us, is whatever limitations you set for yourself. Short of that, I mean, we’ve had people walk away and make millions and running different businesses and do what they do and they attribute everything back to, “Hey, the foundation you guys taught us allowed me to think outside of other things and create other possibilities and build things and…” It’s crazy. The impact and the effect on people. I love what Kat said last night, is, when you get to see, you see the surface of the club. That’s one thing. When you start going deeper and deeper and the deeper you get, it’s really the foundation is love. And then it’s sharing knowledge base and helping each other through not leaving anybody behind. It’s just continuing to carry everybody forward. Once you get that, it’s like, “Yeah, this is where I belong.”
Melina: It’s so interesting. That makes me so proud, because don’t you think that most organizations have a facade and outside the surface of the organization looks one way, but you get behind the scenes and it looks entirely different and it’s not as attractive.
Oscar: Dirty.
Melina: It’s dirty and ugly, whereas for us, the behind the scenes is actually where all the power is. And that we invite everybody in who wants to be a part of behind the scenes gets to come behind the scenes. So, I was saying that there’s that movie, you know, the show behind the show. I don’t think it’s a movie. I think it’s a play maybe. I believe it’s a Broadway play and it was the show behind the show. And I feel like that’s who we are, like, that’s where all the power is in the show behind the show, which is really, really cool.
David: I feel like all the stuff that we do is what every other competition just avoids.
Melina: They do avoid it.
David: This is all of the good meat and the power behind the scenes is what every piece of competition, every other organization that would be considered competition avoids. That’s what they don’t wanna do. That’s the real work. That’s the stuff that makes it really applicable for you guys. That’s where the real juice is.
Melina: It’s so funny. It’s true. Most people what they wanna do is get you in, get your money, educate you and get rid of you. They don’t ever wanna take the time to build real relationship. People get burnt out, bored and exhausted by other people.
David: Oh my God.
Melina: That’s the truth.
David: Yep.
Adriana: It’s the saying, “Those who can, do, those who can’t, teach.”
Melina: Mm-hmm. Boom.
David: I can drop some names, but I won’t.
Oscar: Yeah. Not worth it. Not worth it. But, you know, it’s been a long time coming. I was reflecting on that last night on the way home and I can totally understand why their business models are the way they are…
Melina: Of course.
Oscar: …and how they draw that hard line of… Because it can be overwhelming, but when you step back and you look at the effect and the impact that everybody at this table has had on other people, and no one here has worked any less than the other.
Melina: No.
Oscar: But the effect and the impact on other people, that’s priceless. Right? Making money, you touched on it. You can go get a job, you can become a contractor, you can do anything that you want, right?
Melina: Totally.
Oscar: It is what it is. There’s no limits to what you wanna do, but the effect and the impact on people, totally different.
Melina: It’s true. It’s totally true.
Oscar: It just reshapes your mind.
Melina: Yeah. For me, the way I see it is that that’s the stuff that’s eternal, actually, you know, because you can’t take the money with you. You’re not gonna take that show buzz. You’re just not going to take all that with you.
David: So, like, this is a legacy you leave.
Melina: No. This is the real legacy. The real legacy is people and the way that you’ve impacted people, the way that it is not about a dollar, it is really about how you’ve impacted people and how you’ve loved them and how you’ve shown up for them and how you haven’t quit on them even when they quit on you. And that’s ultimately what the club stands for. And most people don’t have the fortitude to hang in there to do it. I am so crystal clear that most people don’t have the… They say they do, right? People use the words, but their actions show something different. And it shows up in everything in your life, so don’t be that person.
Oscar: Since we were talking about contractors originally, right?
Melina: Yeah.
Oscar: Even those contractors that have burned us, that have messed things up and tile lines aren’t right, whatever, right? They’ve all been affected and touched a certain way that changes their dynamics.
David: Also, when you… Yeah, I know. When you have somebody, a contractor like that that, you know, crooked lines and whatever goes on and you’re able to meet them in a place where they can fix that and understand the way to do a job right, like, you don’t realize how much you’re serving them.
Melina: It’s true.
David: You know, how much better of a work, quality of work they’re getting, you know, they’re building and it just all of that moves forward. It’s all paying it forward.
Oscar: That’s why we’ve talked about how rocky the in-between us, right? I have a project. Awesome, excitement. I finished it. It looks great, right?
Melina: Yeah.
Oscar: But in between is where all the heavy-lifting happens for everything.
Melina: It’s the line. It’s the road to success, right? People think the road to success is, you know, you start here and you end up here and they think it’s just a straight line, and it’s not. It’s this crooked, jagged, up and down, all over the place, inside out. That’s the real, you know, journey to success. And then, of course, I’m a believer of, do you really ever arrive?
David: You ever think about something exciting that you’ve accomplished and how your attitude is going into it and you’re just so pumped like, “Yes, I’m gonna get it. I’m gonna get it.” And then you get done with it and people are congratulating you and you are looking for that feeling and you’re like, “Oh, yeah, I did it. I did it.”
Oscar: I survived.
David: It’s the same.
Melina: It’s totally true. It’s totally true. Well, I hope that we have… Our time is coming to an end now and I hope that we have inspired you to never do a rehab again.
Oscar: Alone.
Adriana: Alone.
David: Alone.
Oscar: Alone.
Melina: Oh, that’s it. Alone. That’s the message.
Oscar: You need a team. You need a team.
Melina: Yeah. Don’t try this alone. Don’t try this at home alone.
David: Or do and learn the hard way. It’s up to you.
Melina: Yeah. What’s that?
Adriana: It’s like come see us.
David: Yeah.
Melina: Exactly.
David: Come back and do a podcast when you’re done.
Oscar: So many of those, man, we could talk for hours…
Melina: I know.
Oscar: …on those. Yeah.
Melina: I know. I feel like we should get some wine and beer and then have a conversation. It’ll be really fun. So, maybe we’ll do that someday. So, in the meantime, we are NWAC and we are “Flippin Off.”
Outro: I’m Melina Boswell, your host of the “Flippin’ Off” podcast.” I really hope you enjoyed it. If you did, we’d love for you to subscribe, give us a five-star rating and tell your friends all about us. You can find more episodes of the “Flippin’ Off” podcast” on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever else you like to listen to awesome podcasts like this. If you like what you’ve heard, we’d really appreciate it if you’d follow us on Facebook and Instagram and tell us the stories that you’d like to hear.
Tim Jackson is our senior producer. Luke Jackson is our editor. Brothers. Josh Mauldin is our producer. Sound design by Frequency Factory. Our executive producer is Mind & Mill. This was all created by Dave Boswell for New Wealth Advisors Club.