The Spouses Flipping Houses Podcast With Doug & Andrea Van Soest

Doug & Andrea Van Soest | Professional House Flippers & Real Estate Investors
  • 4.9 (117)
  • INVESTING

Want to learn how to invest in Real Estate? Want to work with your spouse but are afraid of driving each other crazy?! Spouses Flipping Houses is all about navigating the world of entrepreneurship together with your spouse or loved one, and taking the necessary steps to make money specifically in the field of Real Estate Investing. Whether you are just beginning to think about getting into the “house flipping” business, or you’re a seasoned entrepreneur with loads of experience, you’ll find the topics, tips, discussions & interviews will provide amazing value to help you take your business to the next level…and to do it all successfully with your spouse or loved one. Oh, and you can learn to do it all without killing each other! In fact, if done properly, we think your relationship will grow stronger in the process. Tune in to listen to Doug and Andrea Van Soest, seasoned Real Estate Investors, entrepreneurs and married parents of 3 who love working together, as they lead you down the path of growing your business and relationship together.

  1. 02/17/2017

    Episode 41: The Secret to Finding Deals

    Episode 41: The Secret to Finding Deals by Doug & Andrea Van Soest | Spouses Flipping Houses http://traffic.libsyn.com/spousesflippinghouses/SFH_041_The_Secret_to_Finding_Deals.mp3 Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS Share: Twitter | Facebook Episode 41: Show Notes In today’s episode we’re talking about the BIG secret to finding deals. You may be a little surprised to hear what it is…but when you think about it — this is the key ingredient to finding deals & being successful. Did You Like this Episode? Subscribe! If you would like to learn more information from our Podcasts, check us out on iTunes & Subscribe. Also consider leaving us a rating (5 stars would be great) and a review would also be helpful so others can learn more about us and get in on our upcoming episodes. For questions or comments please fill out the comments area below and we’ll answer them. Thanks! Subscribe HereSubscribe here to receive instant notifications of new episodes straight to your inbox! Success! Name Email CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED The post Episode 41: The Secret to Finding Deals appeared first on Spouses Flipping Houses.

    16 min

  2. 12/21/2016

    Episode 40: “Whole-Tailing” the Good, the Bad & the Ugly of this Flipping Strategy

    Episode 40: "Whole-Tailing" the Good, the Bad & the Ugly of this Flipping Strategy by Doug & Andrea Van Soest | Spouses Flipping Houses http://traffic.libsyn.com/spousesflippinghouses/SFH_40_Whole_Tailing_Good_Bad_Ugly.mp3 Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS Share: Twitter | Facebook Episode 40: Show Notes Today, we’re talking about the good the bad and the ugly of “Whole-Tailing”. This is basically a blend between ‘Wholesaling’ & ‘Retailing’ – with some subtle differences. In this episode, we’ll be featuring two deals of ours that we’re currently whole-tailing. We explain the good, the bad, the ugly and WHY we chose to whole-tail these deals instead of another strategy. We hope you enjoy this episode! Did You Like this Episode? Subscribe! If you would like to learn more information from our Podcasts, check us out on iTunes & Subscribe. Also consider leaving us a rating (5 stars would be great) and a review would also be helpful so others can learn more about us and get in on our upcoming episodes. For questions or comments please fill out the comments area below and we’ll answer them. Thanks! Subscribe HereSubscribe here to receive instant notifications of new episodes straight to your inbox! Success! Name Email CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED The post Episode 40: “Whole-Tailing” the Good, the Bad & the Ugly of this Flipping Strategy appeared first on Spouses Flipping Houses.

    18 min

  3. 10/20/2016

    Episode 39: How to Travel Without Skipping a Beat in Your Business

    Episode 39: How to Travel Without Skipping a Beat in Your Business! by Doug & Andrea Van Soest | Spouses Flipping Houses http://traffic.libsyn.com/spousesflippinghouses/SFH_39_Travel_Without_Skipping_A_Beat.mp3 Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS Share: Twitter | Facebook Episode 39: Show Notes Today’s episode of Spouses Flipping Houses was inspired by a recent question we received from one of our listeners about traveling and maintaining our business while abroad. Since it’s important to make sure you’re taking some time away from the grind to enjoy yourself, it’s equally important that your business continues to run while you’re gone. We thought it would be fun to share with you 3 essential tips for making sure your business doesn’t miss a beat while you’re away on vacation! Whats in Today’s Episode? How to Avoid Doing the Things You DON’T want to be doing During Vacation How to Enjoy Your Vacation & NOT Have to Worry About What’s Happening in Your Business How to make sure your business continues as normal or grows while you’re gone Resources: Google Docs Dropbox Skype Facetime GoToMeeting Google Hangouts Docusign eNotary Services Near You Did You Like this Episode? Subscribe! If you would like to learn more information from our Podcasts, check us out on iTunes & Subscribe. Also consider leaving us a rating (5 stars would be great) and a review would also be helpful so others can learn more about us and get in on our upcoming episodes. For questions or comments please fill out the comments area below and we’ll answer them. Thanks! Subscribe Here Subscribe here to receive instant notifications of new episodes straight to your inbox! Success! Name Email CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED The post Episode 39: How to Travel Without Skipping a Beat in Your Business appeared first on Spouses Flipping Houses.

    17 min

  4. 09/09/2016

    Episode 38: Creative Ways to Add Value

    Episode 38: 6 Creative Ways to Add Value by Doug & Andrea Van Soest | Spouses Flipping Houses http://traffic.libsyn.com/spousesflippinghouses/SFH_038_6_Creative_ways_to_add_Value.mp3 Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS Share: Twitter | Facebook Episode 38: Show Notes We recently had a wholesale deal several investors passed by when we presented it to them. After finding an investor who wanted it after a quick inspection, we realized he was able to see how to add value to the property that no one else could. Today, we’re going to talk with you about 6 creative ways to add value to a property, that others may not be able to see. Episode 38 Transcript Download Episode 38 Transcript Andrea: Welcome back to Spouses Flipping Houses, Episode 38. Today we are talking about creative ways that you can add value, and I think we have six creative ways that you can add value to any project. Doug: Not talking about adding value in the traditional way of adding new flooring, and new paint, and maybe better countertops or anything like that in terms of design. We’re talking specifically about creative ways to make a deal out of something that just on the surface would not normally be a deal. Andrea: Right, which is great for today’s pretty competitive market. I think a lot of people out there are struggling to find deals, and sometimes you just need to look at it in a different way. Doug: Yeah put on your creative glasses, and we’ll show you some things to look for. Excited about getting into that. Andrea: Yeah so before we talk about that, maybe we should talk about the fact that Doug needs a little more sleep. Doug: The fact that I’m turning 40 and losing my mind. I turned 40, and I’ve lost my marbles. It’s official. Andrea: So we just went to lunch, and we’re coming back from lunch, and we entered the house through our garage. Okay, so first of all I have to tell you that our garage is a little bit crazy. It’s very low on the priority list of things in our life, so the organization and what not you know is just not our priority. It’s filled with staging stuff on one side; the other side is kid’s bicycles, and tricycles, and scooters, and it’s just a big modgepodge. And as long as there’s a walking path in the middle, I’m cool with it. Doug: The garage goes through phases, like it’ll have a few months of the year where we’ve cleaned house, and it’s looking great. Organized, we’re parking in there. Then, you know eventually it’s like where else do we put this? I’ll just put it in the garage temporarily, and then another thing goes in the garage temporarily. Andrea: And really a lot of life takes place in our garage. We do a lot of projects out there, a lot of kid’s craft things. Doug: Bikes and sports equipment. Andrea: It just is what it is. It’s kind of crazy. So anyways, we’re walking through the garage, and Doug says, “Let me mess with the sprinkler timer real quick. I think the grass looks a little too wet.” So it’s a nice day. I’m just kind of standing there, looking at the park across the street while Doug messes with the timer, and I look over to the side, and there’s a stack of mail just randomly sitting on a chair. What is this stack of mail here? There’s rent checks in there. There’s like important documentation. Doug: More than one rent check. I remember bringing that stack of mail into the garage. This was several days ago. It is the beginning of the month, and you know we have, we get mail from a post office box place. And I get it, bring it home, and bring it down to the office where we process all of that stuff. I don’t know; I think I got distracted. Somehow, I got distracted in the garage looking for something, and set the mail down, and a few days later thank the lord Andrea finds it. Andrea: Before it became a child’s craft project or a recyclable. Doug: So I don’t know. I’m losing it, so you know. The lesson here is to take care of your rent checks when they come in. Andrea: Yeah, the lesson here is you know, I feel like we run a really great business, and we do pretty well at this. But you will never have everything perfect, so on the surface it might look like you have a really great business, and you have a really messy garage. Doug: Every once in a while, clean out the garage and keep going. Andrea: My grandma used to always say, “Do what you can do, not what you can’t.” Doug: That’s so simple but so true. Andrea: So sometimes we’re just not going to get to the garage. Doug: So today’s topic was actually inspired by a wholesale deal that we did recently, and on the surface this wholesale deal we actually presented to quite a few different buyers, and everybody was just passing on it for some reason. And I wasn’t sure why because I thought the value seemed pretty strong. It seemed like a solid deal. Well, then I sent it to another guy, and he just wanted to inspect it, so he went out to take a look at the property and said, “Yeah, I’ll take it no problem.” He didn’t try to negotiate price or anything, and so I was just curious. I asked him, “Well, what’s your plan with the property?” This house was a 3-bed/1-bath, and everybody was analyzing it as a 3-bed/1-bath, but he just said, “Oh, I’m going to add a master bathroom.” And those values seem to be a little stronger when it’s a 3-bed/2-bath, and he just wanted to check it out and make sure he could do that. So wow, kind of a light went off that yeah, he saw that value there that nobody else was really seeing. So that kind of inspired today’s topic about finding the hidden value in different ways. Andrea: So the more we’ve been wholesaling properties to other investors, we’re kind of realizing what it is that they’re wanting, and the way that they analyze deals. And we’re realizing that most investors view deals with sort of a one-track mind, and that is they’re planning to go in and upgrade what’s already there. But in this super competitive market, it’s really important that sometimes you try to think outside of the box where you’re going to be very limited on the amount of deals that you can do because you’re only looking at it from one perspective that might not seem like a deal at that moment. Doug: Yeah, and you’re likely missing out on a lot of opportunity by not looking at this deal from different angles. Andrea: So that’s what we’re going to talk about today. Doug: We’ve got six creative ways to look at a property differently and see if there’s a value there that was sort of hidden. Andrea: So the first one that we already kind of touched base on was to add a bathroom. And so there’s some things that you really want to think through before you decide whether or not this a good option for you, and that is can you do it in a cost-effective way that’s not going to break the budget. That’s really important, because if you go and spend $20,000 on adding a bathroom, then that probably didn’t benefit you. Secondly, is it going to raise the value because if the house already has three bathrooms, then you really don’t need a fourth bathroom that’s not going to be a benefit. Doug: Yeah and this again goes back to knowing your comps, knowing how to analyze a deal, knowing the area, what brings value and what doesn’t. But in most areas, going from one bathroom to two bathrooms is pretty significant, especially if it’s a family that’s living in that area. Andrea: Yeah, if you have the opportunity to inspect the property first and check out the layout, there are some ways that you can add a bathroom in a very cost-effective manner that will be a huge benefit to you in the long run. So first of all, you’ve got to make sure that there’s space to add that bathroom. Second of all, you want to make sure that there’s plumbing nearby where you want to add it, because if you’re having to run plumbing across the whole house, then again, not cost-effective. But sometimes, you can actually, depending on the layout, maybe build a bathroom on the other side of the wall from an existing bathroom. So you’re just tying into the existing plumbing, and it tends to be really affordable. We’ve done this a couple of times, and we were able to create a master suite where there wasn’t one and add a second bathroom where there wasn’t one, and just kind of cut into the room next door. And of course it all depends on the layout. The other kind of creative thing that you can do is maybe turn a small laundry area into a bathroom if you’re really in need of a second bathroom, because the plumbing is already there for it. It’d be pretty simple, and then maybe move your laundry room to the garage if you have to. I think a lot of times people would prefer a second bathroom to indoor laundry, so if you get kind of creative, you can find little ways that you can do this and add value. The second thing you want to think about is it a slab foundation or is it a raised foundation. If it’s a slab foundation, you’re definitely not going to be running plumbing across the house. But if it’s a raised foundation, it’s a little bit easier to run plumbing to an area that maybe is conducive to adding a bathroom. Doug: So the second way would be to add a bedroom. Andrea: We’ve done this a lot actually because we buy a lot in first-time homebuyer type neighborhoods, and so generally these families want to fit as many people into the space that they can afford as possible. So even if that means losing a living room sometimes, they prefer it to be an extra bedroom. So we’ll often turn maybe a bonus room or a den into an extra bedroom or try and create a ma

    18 min

  5. 08/25/2016

    Episode 37: 5 Reasons Why Every House Flipper should have Rental Properties!

    Episode 37: 5 Reasons Why Every Flipper Should Have Rental Properties by Doug & Andrea Van Soest | Spouses Flipping Houses http://traffic.libsyn.com/spousesflippinghouses/SFH_037_Why_Every_House_Flipper_Rental_Properties.mp3 Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS Share: Twitter | Facebook Episode 37: Show Notes Today we’re talking about RENTALS & the 5 Main reasons we believe EVERY house flipper should have rental properties in their portfolio.  Tune in to episode 37 to learn why we feel this is such an IMPORTANT & vital investment strategy, to utilize in your own Business! This episode may just change your mind AND your business, if you haven’t been using Rentals as one of your investment strategies. Episode 37 Transcript Download Episode 37 Transcript Doug: Welcome back to the Spouses Flipping Houses Podcast, Episode number 37 today. Welcome back. Andrea: Today we are talking about five reasons why every house flipper should have rental properties. Doug: Yes, but this is a house flipping podcast. It’s about flipping houses, not rentals. Andrea: Yes, but we like rentals. Doug: It is. Actually, it’s more about real estate investing, so we’re going to talk a little about the differences there and why every house flippers should have rental properties (we believe). But before we get into that, if you missed last week’s episode, I would encourage you to go check that out, Episode 36. Our good buddy Dave is doing his first flip in Hawaii, and he had a bunch of good questions from a first time flipper that we addressed in last week’s episode, so go check that one out if you haven’t heard it. What’s been happening in our business this week? Andrea: A lot. I’ve been running around like a chicken with my head cut off getting bids on different projects that we’re starting up. Doug: Where did that phrase, “running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off,” come from? Well, I guess if you cut its head off… Andrea: If you cut its head off it runs around, but it can’t see so I think it’s bumping into things, and that’s… Doug: I’m just picturing this chicken with no head. I don’t now. I usually don’t do that. Andrea: That’s how I feel, like I’m bumping into things and running around like crazy. But anyways, it’s all good stuff though trying to get bids and get rehab projects started. And we had this one that we just bought out in the LA area, and so we don’t have contractors out there that we work with on a regular basis, so we’ve been trying to get referrals and get this project going. Well, the interesting thing is that we bought it from this guy, and his neighbor really wanted to buy the house too actually. So he gave his neighbor a shot, and he couldn’t qualify. It didn’t work out. So the neighbor was mad. So we show up; this guy has already moved out of state, and he says, “Go get the keys from the neighbor. I left the keys with the neighbor.” So we show up saying, “Hi. We bought the house. Can we have the keys?” And he’s refusing to give us the keys. Doug: Yeah, and we had called three or four times. He wouldn’t return messages, and then when we got there he’s claiming that no one has reached out to me. I don’t know who you are. I’m not going to give you keys, so he’s just being difficult. Andrea: Just being tough. And no big deal; obviously we changed the locks, and it’s no big deal. But we still have to run a rehab project next door to this guy who’s kind of being a stinker. So I showed up again to meet another contractor, and they intentionally opened their front door with their pit-bull dogs barking really loud. Just to let me know that they’re there. Doug: We’re here, and we disapprove. Our dogs disapprove of you too. Yeah in this business you deal with all kinds of stuff, and sometimes you don’t know what neighbors you’re getting when you buy a house. You can do the best investigation you can before you buy a home, and you should. But sometimes you might get a difficult neighbor that parties all day long and is super loud, and you just kind of half to work with that and deal with it. Andrea: Yeah, and that’s the thing is that both times that I showed up in the middle of the day, they’re all home, hanging out in the backyard. Doug: Yeah wasn’t there like a horseshoe game going on back there, and lots of beer, and stuff like that? Andrea: Yeah, so that could be a little bit of an issue on resale if the people don’t want to live next door to that. Doug: It could, yeah we hope it won’t, but you have to deal with that sometimes. So enough of that; let’s get into the main topic today. And that is five reasons why we believe every house flipper should also have rental properties. Andrea: Yes, this is 100 percent opinion. Doug: It is opinion. Andrea: This is totally just how we feel. We know some other very successful house flippers that disagree, but we’re going to tell you why we feel like this is really important. Doug: So we were inspired to do this episode recently at one of our investor lunch meetings that we attend. We attend a monthly meeting with a bunch of seasoned investors that have been in the business for a lot of years and have seen market cycles come and go. And one of the guys sitting around at this table recently (there’s about eight of us), looked around the table and said, “You know there’s been a lot of investors that have come and gone from this meeting over the years. Their business does great for a period of time, and then for whatever reason things slow down for them, or they get out of the industry, or just change completely, and they don’t come back.” “But looking around the room, everybody here today is in this business and doing well, and the one thing that we all have in common is we have a significant portfolio of rental properties.” Now everybody around the table flips properties too. But, the point was that we’ve got an investment that is continuing to pay us monthly, so we’re not as impacted by the ups and downs of finding the next deal, and flipping the next house, and depending on that for income. Andrea: It seems like a lot of the people that were crushed in the last downturn maybe did not have a rental portfolio to fall back on as income, so when the market shifted and they don’t have flip income anymore, they had to go back to work somewhere else. Doug; Yeah do something else, because the money dried up for them. So we wanted to talk about the importance of investing and investing versus flipping. So house flippers, I mean we call it real estate investing when you’re flipping houses, but really it’s a business. You’re running a business. It’s sort of a job you’ve created for yourself or a few people around you to make income. And we’re not poo-pooing it at all because we do it, and we love it, and it’s a great business to make good money, so we really enjoy that. Andrea: It’s actually a tool for us to buy rental properties and to eventually get them paid off, and so we wouldn’t have a rental portfolio if we were not house flippers. Doug: Very true. Yeah, it has provided our income and the ability to buy rental properties. But we want to focus today on the true investing side of real estate, which would be picking up cash flow rentals and holding them for the long term. Our friend, Mike Cantu, who’s been on this podcast and who has a great portfolio of rental properties he’s built up over the years, was on a panel at a real estate investing meeting back in 2007/2008 when the market crashed, and everybody was scrambling to find deals to be able to flip properties. And the panelist asked the first investor, “What are you doing today to make money in real estate?” And that investor said, “Well I’m going to the auctions, and I’m bidding everyday, and I’m out checking out ten properties every morning, and I’m working hard to get a deal at the auction steps.” And then the next guy, “What are you doing to make money today?” And he said, “Well I’m going out and meeting every real estate agent I can. I’m forming relationships to hopefully bring me some bank-owned foreclosure homes, so I can buy them that way.” Just scrambling, both of them, to make money. Both good ways to do it, but then they got to Mike Cantu and said, “Mike, what are you doing today to make money?” And Mike just looks at them and says, “I’m collecting rent.” So, drop the mic. The point there is he’s comfortable; he’s got rental income. It doesn’t matter what the market is doing. If he doesn’t want to work 110 percent, 20 hours a day to try to find a deal at that point in time, he doesn’t have to because he has rental income. So we’re going to talk about that today because I think that’s very important. Andrea: Yes, so five reasons why every house flipper should have rental properties. Reason number one: flipping a property can pay you one time, but rental properties will pay you for a lifetime. Doug: Absolutely. The right rental property will continue to pay you and your heirs for as long as you own that property. You may make $15/20/30/50,000 on flipping a property, but if you count up the rental income month, after month, after month for years, and years, and years, you can far surpass that income by flipping a house, typically. Andrea: We sort of look at it like flippers as hamsters on a wheel, just constantly running, and running, and running. But it’s hard to ever jump off that wheel if you don’t have rental properties. So for us, we feel like rental properties are our way off the hamster wheel someday; whenever we choose to really. Doug: So the idea

    15 min

  6. 08/18/2016

    Episode 36: Dave’s First Flip! Questions from a Real First Time House Flipper!

    Episode 36: Dave's First Flip! Questions from a Real First Time House Flipper! by Doug & Andrea Van Soest | Spouses Flipping Houses http://traffic.libsyn.com/spousesflippinghouses/SFH_036_Daves_First_Flip.mp3 Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS Share: Twitter | Facebook Episode 36: Show Notes In today’s episode we are answering our close friend Dave’s questions, who recently got his FIRST house-flipping deal! During his process he’s had A LOT of GREAT questions for us. Questions a lot of people probably have just getting started. So today, we will be answering and sharing those Questions & Answers with you, so you’ll have a bit more confidence in getting started and landing your own deals! Episode 36 Transcript Download Episode 36 Transcript Doug: Welcome back to the Spouses Flipping Houses podcast. We are back for Episode 36. Andrea: After a long and fabulous summer. Doug: Fabulous. It was a great summer. We thought we would take a break for a couple weeks when school got out, you know. Things were kind of busy. We had a couple trips we were going on, and we didn’t know that couple week break would turn into a couple months. Andrea: We just thoroughly enjoyed our summer. I wish I could bottle up that feeling of peace and relaxation that you kind of experience when there’s not as much hustle and bustle, and got to wake up, and go-go-go, and get kids to school, and then work, and then football practice, and dance. It was just so relaxing. Wish we could have stretched that out. Doug: Summer was really full, really fun. Our kids are at an age where, I don’t know. Normally this time of year when summer is coming to an end and school is starting, we start to do the happy dance when school is back is session. Like okay, back to normal kind of schedule. But I don’t know; we haven’t felt that way this year. We want the summer to keep going. Andrea: Yeah, they’re kind of at that age where it was just easier. It was so, so fun. Doug: So they’re back in school now. They started last week, and we are back to normality and a normal schedule, if you will. Andrea: If there is such a thing. Doug: If there is such a thing, but that being said it allows us some time to get back to the podcast, which we’re really excited about. We’ve been looking forward to getting back to record some episodes and getting some more feedback from you guys. So we are back! Andrea: Okay, so this is a little off-topic, but there is no way we can not talk about my current personal obsession. Do you know what that is? Doug: Oh, absolutely. It’s on NBC 24/7. Andrea: The Olympics. Oh my gosh, it’s so exciting. Doug: Yeah, so Andrea was the track star back in her day, in her heyday, and she’s always loved the Olympics, and she has kind of brought me into that too. And we’ve just really enjoyed watching the competitors compete, and just hearing all of the back stories, and watching them, I don’t know, celebrate when they accomplish this feat in their particular sport. Andrea: Yeah the looks on their face when they have worked for years, blood, sweat and tears to accomplish this goal, and they finally accomplish it. And they’re crying, and I’m crying. It’s so cool. Doug: It is. There’s really something inspiring about it, just watching people you know, I don’t know, live out their dream in that moment where they are accomplishing probably their life’s dream. When they are winning the gold, or silver, or whatever it is they’re doing. Pretty exciting. And then there’s the guy who does a false start, and you’re done. Andrea: Oh man, no second chance. Doug: Wow, you know that’s life. Andrea: Terrible. Doug: That’s life sometimes though. Andrea: I don’t know. I think they need to reconsider that rule. Doug: You blew it. Andrea: Let’s have a second chance people. One second chance. Doug: I know. My heart breaks for them, but that’s the way it is. Yeah, the Olympics have been great. We’ve got a cool thing we’re going to talk about today, so we have a friend named Dave. Dave was actually in our wedding. I was roommates with Dave in college, a good buddy of ours who has kind of worked with us off and on over the years. He actually read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad at the same time we read it. We were experiencing life together at that time, and the same thing happened to him. He just got inspired, kind of became entrepreneurial and was wanting to do real estate as well, kind of like we did. Life took us different paths. Dave actually got in a band, got married, traveled around for several years on tour, and different things. But Dave has always wanted to flip houses and has kept in touch with us over the years, and in the last several years he’s actually been living in Hawaii with his family. He’s been following the market, making offers here and there, asking for feedback from us on different deals that he comes across. And we’ll give him our opinion, and he’s just been trying to get into this business. Well, a few months ago Dave got an acceptance on a deal, and the numbers look pretty good. And so he is super pumped that he got his first deal under contract. Andrea: We could not be more happy and thrilled for Dave because kind of like the Olympics, he’s been trying and trying for this and finally got one. It’s so exciting! Doug: And we remember that feeling. We felt like we tried forever making offers, and different strategies, and just hovering around the industry for a long time wanting to just get that first deal. And when it happens, you’re just a wave of emotions, and fear, and excitement, and nervousness that all hit you. Andrea: Yeah, like the, “Oh no, why did they accept it? Was it too high?” Doug: Why didn’t anybody else overbid me? I must have done something wrong. Yeah those questions all come into your head. But through this process of opening escrow and getting things lined up for him to close and begin this project, he has had a lot of questions for us and understandably so. He’s sent us several emails, and we’ve talked to him on the phone quite a bit. Andrea: But the thing is, he had really been studying, and researching, and learning for years. So we realized and would have thought at that point that he knows it all. He’s ready to go, but he still got to this point and still had questions. So it made us realize there have to be other people that have these same questions. Doug: Yeah and you can take seminars, and courses, and really know a lot about real estate investing, and then when you get your feet dirty and get into it, you realize that you don’t know it all. There are questions; there’s always stuff you’re unsure of or that’s holding you up. And that’s just normal, so what we did was took a bunch of these questions that we thought were great questions, probably questions that a lot of people, especially on their first flip, would have. Andrea: Yeah, I think some of them are questions that probably scare people off not knowing how to do these things. So it’s good stuff. Doug: Yeah, so we thought it would be very informational for people, and they might relate to it. So we’re going to get into some of Dave’s questions on his first flip. So let’s go for it. Andrea: Okay, question number one: should I flip in an LLC, a corporation, or something else? Doug: Yeah, so here’s how we start this answer. We are not attorneys. Andrea: Disclaimer. Doug: Disclaimer, we are also not accountants, disclaimer, nor do we pretend to be by any means. But this is a very common question, very common, and a lot of people ask it. A lot of people are wondering what’s the best entity to do business in. What do you set up? Do you do a corporation? Do you do a partnership? Do you do an LLC? Do you just flip in your own name? What do you do? Andrea: We cannot tell you exactly what you should do. We are not telling you exactly what you should do. We’ll tell you what we did. Doug: We’ll tell you what we did and our opinions and thoughts on this thing. First of all, don’t let that question hold you back from even making offers, and that’s the danger here is thinking, I don’t know what company to form or legal entity to have and having that hold you back from even making offers. Don’t let that happen. Just make an offer in whatever. If you only have your own name to start, make it in your own name. Go for deal first. And I want to give kudos to Dave because that’s what he did. He got the deal first, and then he started to wonder what to do next and was asking this question after the fact. That’s the correct order in my opinion, so what we did is set up an LLC here in California to start our first flip. I don’t remember if we had it set up— I think we did have it set up before we actually got our first offer accepted, but that wasn’t that important. And we flipped homes in our LLC for I’d say the first year I think in the business. The reason we did an LLC was we had just heard from other investors. We asked around, and other people had said that it was a good entity to have I think because the paperwork was simple in our state, wasn’t a lot required in terms of the backend. It was fairly inexpensive to do and relatively easy to setup. And it was kind of a layer of protection between you and the actual house, so that’s what we did. Andrea: But…there’s a giant ‘but’ here. Doug: There’s a giant but. And this may be state-specific; I’m not sure. But in California, there’s a thing called the gross receipts tax that applies to LLCs. Gross receipts meaning your total gross sales. Once you hit a certain amount, an extra tax kicks in and in real estate,

    27 min

  7. 06/23/2016

    Episode 35: Andy McFarland Interview – Part 2

    Episode 35: Andy McFarland Interview - Part 2 by Doug & Andrea Van Soest | Spouses Flipping Houses http://traffic.libsyn.com/spousesflippinghouses/SFH_035_Interview_With_Andy_McFarland_Part_2.mp3 Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS Share: Twitter | Facebook Episode 35: Show Notes Tune in today for the second half of Doug’s interview with Andy McFarland. If you missed part one of this awesome interview with one of the the industries best, make sure to listen to part 1 right here. Here’s a Few takeaways from today’s episode: Andy’s simple tips for building rock-solid rapport The importance of working from a SERVICE FIRST mentality The #1 change Andy would make to accelerate his progress if he could go back to when he first started How Andy & his Brothers keep a good relationship while working together A Quick Look at Andy’s ILoveRealEstateStories video series Where You Can Learn More from Andy Andy’s advice for beginners & the biggest mistakes to avoid Resources: ILoveRealEstateStories Video Series House Flipping Formula 7 Figure Flipping Flip Hacking Live Event Episode 35 Transcript Download Episode 35 Transcript : Welcome to Spouses Flipping Houses, Episode 35. This is the summer edition. : We are Doug and Andrea’s kids, and we have officially taken over their podcast. : Yeah. : Our mom and dad are busy packing for the trip we’re leaving on today, so we thought we’d pitch in and help them out with their to-do list. : We looked through the list, and most of it was no fun. Stuff like laundry, vacuuming out the car, checking with employees, boring! But record podcast intro, that sounded like fun. : So what do they normally talk about anyways? : Hm, I’m not really sure. I don’t listen. : I know. They talk about houses. : That is so boring. : Well, we have the mics, so we can talk about whatever we want. : Basketball championships? : That’s even more boring. : No way, but maybe we should just introduce what this podcast episode is actually about. : Sounds good. : Okay everyone, sit back, relax, and get ready to here the rest of our parent’s interview with the one and only Mr. Andy McFarland. : Do you even know who he is? : No, not really. But mom and dad think he’s pretty cool. : Oh okay, this podcasting thing is pretty easy. : Totally. Doug: Okay, you make it sound so easy though, like build rapport, and you know. First of all, I love the point you made about genuinely caring about the person. And we take that approach as well, and I think that’s huge. That’s why I really respect your approach. We’re not going here to steal a property from anyone. We’re here to see if we can help solve a problem that you’re having. And usually if they’re contacting you from whatever marketing, there’s something going on. It’s either the house; it’s finances; it’s family; it’s health; it’s something. There’s something that’s driving them to need to sell this property quickly, so you’re trying to dig that out of them. But how do you build rapport? Because people might be listening thinking, sure that sounds easy to you, but I’m nervous as heck to go in there. People are on their guard and you know, so what are some tips, real tips, on how you would do that? Andy: Yeah, I like to go to their house. I think rapport starts on the phone but getting that in person with someone it’s easier to build rapport. You can look at them; you can smile; you can sense their body language; you can sense how they’re reacting to you. So I like to go in person with somebody. Truly care about that person. Knowing in your head that it starts with that mentality, and if you go in there like that, you need to truly care about them. Because if you don’t, check yourself first. If you don’t care, it’s going to be hard for you to do these other things. But if you do care, all of these other things we’re going to talk about will come naturally to you. Go in there, care about the person. If you find yourself in that appointment talking more than you’re listening, you’re doing something wrong. So go in there and listen more than you talk. Remember you’re given two ears and one mouth, so use them accordingly. Listen twice as much as you talk and if the conversation is stale and not going anywhere, then you can remember an acronym for that. I’ve taught this before, friends— or family, right— so ford. F-O-R-D. F is for family, so you can start talking with somebody about their family. Wife, kids, whatever it is, ask about their family. If you see them kind of light up, it’s something they’re interested in and want to talk about. If they just are short and don’t really want to talk about it, that’s okay. Some people don’t necessarily want to talk about that, so you can move on to the next one. O is occupation. A lot of people want to talk about what they do, what their job is. So ask about their occupation. If they light up, if they like it, if it’s interesting, keep asking follow up questions. If they don’t light up with that, you can go on to the next one. R, recreation. What’s the recreation? What do they like to do for fun? So again, see are they lighting up with this. I like to ride motorcycles; I like to go canoeing, whatever it is they like to do. If they light up, ask them about it and don’t just ask them what they like to do and move to the next question. If they say they like something, ask a follow-up question, ask a follow-up question, ask a follow-up question. For me, I’m truly interested. I want to know if someone says they’re interested in scuba diving and they just got back from Cozumel, I want to know. Tell me about it. How’d you learn how to scuba dive? Where are the dives you’ve been on? I’m going to ask all of these follow-up questions that’s going to get them talking. And number four is dreams. What do they want to do? What’s their aspiration in life? You talk about people’s dreams. Some people have these dreams of being a rock star or whatever it is they want to do. Talk about their dreams. So whatever they light up about, go there with them and keep asking follow-up questions. And what you’re going to find is once you find those things and they light up and tell you about that, and you listen to them and are actively listening and asking follow-up questions, they’re going to tell that you really care about them. They’re going to naturally get in rapport with you. They might not even know your name after 30 minutes, but after they just shared with you their dream, or their recreation, or their occupation, they’re going to be like, “Oh wow. Sorry Doug, you came here to talk about the house. I mean I was just blabbering on for 30 minutes about whatever it is I was blabbering about.” But at that point, you’re going to feel it. Once they’ve lit up and followed-up deeper, you’re going to feel in rapport. You’ll feel this just drop, this wall of strangerness will drop, and you’ll be their friend. So you go from being an unwelcome pest to a welcome guest in their house. And at that point, once you’re in rapport there, that guard has been dropped, at that point they will probably allow you to help them so you can shift the conversation to the house. But don’t just jump to what you want. Again, now they like you and they’re going to share the truth with you. So you can say, “Okay, tell me Doug, what’s going on with this situation? What would you like to see happen here?” And then I’m going to listen intently as to what they would like to see happen. Don’t assume it’s about money; don’t assume you know what it is they want. Listen to them and as soon as you listen to them, they’ll tell you all of the things they need for you to give them in order to get what you want— which is to purchase the property and ultimately help them. So I don’t go in there and say I have to do this. I go in there with that attitude of 1) I’m going to build rapport. 2) I’m going to listen to them and once they tell me what they need, I’m going to craft a solution that works for me that gives them what they need. And at the end of all that, we’re going to be friends. They’ll have told me the things. I will have repeated it back to them, and I’m going to say, “Doug, I’ve given you all of the stuff. You’ve said you needed these things. If I can take care of those things for you, is there any reason we can’t do business today?” “No.” “Great. Will you please trust me with this business, and sign the contract, and let me take care of you.” They’re going to sign the contract. Doug: That’s awesome because you know, the first thing you’d think of is, “Okay, what’s wrong with the house? How many bedrooms, bathrooms, square footage? What price do you want?” And honestly, a lot of the people out there, that’s all they’re doing. There’s no rapport building. They’re going in; they’re finding out how low they can make an offer on that house. And the people are turned off by that. Andy: That’s a lot of my competition, and that was never my approach. And I would go into situations with multiple people that were vying for that business, and I would ultimately walk out with the business because I took the time to listen to them and give them what they needed, and I’m going to take care of them. And in my team I’ve tried to translate that to my team, and I’ve got some people on my team that are better at that than me, and some of them are at varying degrees. But we try and employ that same strategy across the board of we’re helping people. We have a Monday morning meeting with everybody on my team. We a

    30 min

  8. 06/17/2016

    Episode 34: Andy McFarland Interview – Part 1

    Episode 34: Andy McFarland Interview - Part 1 by Doug & Andrea Van Soest | Spouses Flipping Houses http://traffic.libsyn.com/spousesflippinghouses/SFH_034_Interview_With_Andy_McFarland_Part_1.mp3 Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: iTunes | Android | RSS Share: Twitter | Facebook Episode 34: Show Notes Today Doug will be interviewing our friend, and highly respected Real Estate Investor, Andy McFarland. Andy has been investing in real estate for over 13 years and just last month in May alone did 33 deals! In other words, Andy is Killing it in his market! Tune in to today’s episode for an excellent interview with Andy McFarland. Here’s a Few takeaways from today’s episode: How Andy got started in Real Estate Investing Andy’s Recommendation for what type of deals a beginner should start with How Andy got started finding deals Andy’s recommendations for scaling your business Simple tips for meeting with sellers and building Rapport Resources Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World Rich Dad Poor Dad Treehouse Investments Kolbe Test Episode 34 Transcript Download Episode 34 Transcript Doug: Welcome back to Spouses Flipping Houses. This is Episode 34. We’ve got a killer interview, actually two-part interview, but part one will be today with Andy McFarland. He’s a friend of ours, highly respected investor, and is just killing it in a few markets. So I’m excited to share that interview with you. I think you’re really going to enjoy it. But first, Andrea how are you? Andrea: I am fantastic and mostly because we are about to head out on a vacation that I’m super excited about. Doug: Yes, yes really excited about. Andrea: So our daughter is turning 13 this fall, and we’re doing a special trip with just her. So we are taking her to New York City. Doug: She was born like last week. How can she be 13? Andrea: I know. You know what they say how don’t blink or they’ll grow up in a heartbeat? It’s so true. It happens; it’s happened. She’s almost 13. Doug: Yeah it’s scary. Andrea: So we had read this book by an author that we really love named Bob Goff, and he wrote a book called Love Does, incredible book if you’re looking for something to read this summer. And we were really inspired by him, and one of the main things that we took away was this idea of taking each kid on a special trip when they turn a “coming of age” year. So he does 12; we decided to do 13. And we just thought what a special bonding memory that would be with each kid to take them on a special trip. So our sweet Adley is turning 13, and we are taking her to New York. Doug: New York City. Yeah, she’s really, really excited. We’re excited too, and so that’s coming up and we just can’t wait for that. So we’re all jazzed around here for that trip. Andrea: So we’re actually going to be gone for 11 days. We’re going to drive to Carlsbad, New Mexico. Doug: Road trip. Andrea: And drop our boys off at Doug’s parents house, and then we’ll fly out to New York for five days, and then fly back. And then we’ll be at a family reunion for Doug’s family there in New Mexico. So eleven days is a long time; we’ve never actually left our business for that long. I know a lot of people work remotely, and Joe McCall travels all over the world and still does his business. We take a lot of trips but not really long ones, so this will be the longest we’ve ever been away from our business, and we actually feel great about it. So that’s really exciting that our business is now in a place that we feel like we can leave, and it’s not going to skip a beat. Doug: I mean when we first started this business, if we would have taken off this amount of time, our business would have just completely come to a stop because it was us doing everything. So no calls would be made and returned; no mailers would be going out; no offers being made, nothing. And then when we would get back, we’d have to kind of restart again and try to get that ball and momentum rolling again. But now it’s really neat to just look and see how far we come. Sometimes it’s hard to see your progression until you have something to measure it against. And so it’s exciting to us to see that it would be business-as-usual even though we’re not going to be physically here. Andrea: Yeah, so on to the good stuff. We have a really fun interview for you today with Andy McFarland out of Utah. He’s actually in three different markets, and this guy is someone who we really highly respect. He is an absolute action-taker, like the best action-taker that we know. Doug: Yes definitely. Andrea: He’s young. He’s built an incredible business for himself in the last 13 years and as much as we respect and admire him for all of the things that he’s done in business, he’s just a really great person and willing to help anyone that needs help. He’s just a good guy. Doug: Yeah, yeah. I think you’re going to get a lot out of this interview, so pay attention to the things Andy is talking about and how he was able to go from nothing to building this incredible investing business. He did 33 deals in May, in the month of May, 33. Andrea: That’s amazing. Doug: That’s more than one a day, so a guy worth listening to for sure. Andrea: Okay, here we go. Doug: Alright we have Andy McFarland on the horn here with us. How’s it going Andy? Andy: Really good, I’m doing really good Doug. Doug: Hey man, it’s been good to get to know you over the past year. So I met you about, I guess maybe nine months ago at a Collective Genius Mastermind meeting. Andy: Yep. Doug: Had known about you before that though, but great dude. I’m glad to have you here with us. A lot of what you do, and we’ll get into it later, Andrea and I have kind of modeled after your business model if you will. You set the pace, and we followed behind you and just don’t recreate the wheel you know. We just get in your tread and do what you’re doing because I think it’s a really good business model. Andy: Oh that’s awesome. I’m honored to hear that man. Doug: So tell us a little about you, your family, where you live, what you do, how you got into this business. Andy: Sure, going way back I’m an army brat, so I was born in Georgia, and I’ve moved all around the country, including Germany from time to time. My dad retired from the military, and we landed in Utah. So I’ve been here ever since. All of my family is here. Both of my brothers who work with me and my sister, she’s here. And I started real estate when I was about 22 years old. I read Rich Dad Poor Dad, it got me turned on to real estate, I bought a property, fixed it, sold it, rented it. It was called “The Tree House.” I nicknamed it the Tree House, and I learned a ton from that and ended up making good money from that. And I haven’t really looked back ever since. I had a full-time job at the time, and I actually got fired from that full-time job. Doug; Weren’t you like skateboarding on the property or something? Andy: Yeah so I worked on a loading dock and when we were done at the dock and punched out, you know it’s a good opportunity to go ride and skate on the dock. But apparently management didn’t think it was a great idea, so they let me go. It was the best thing that ever happened to me. That was my last W-2 job for somebody else, and I haven’t looked back. And man, I have not worked a day since. I’ve put in a lot of hours, but I love what I do. And I love even more what I do right now. It just keeps getting better and better, seriously. Pinch me, it feels like it just can’t get any better, right? But to answer about my family, I live in Utah with my wife and three kids currently, but she’s pregnant so we’re going to have our fourth kid middle of next month. Doug: Nice. Congratulations man. Andy: July 2016. Thank you, so extremely happy. I’m extremely happy. Doug: Three kids and one on the way. How do you have time to do anything else besides kids? Andy: I have a great time, and the head of that great team is probably my wife. She’s amazing. She’s a stay-at-home mom, which is definitely a thankless job, and it definitely is a job. But she enjoys it; she loves it; she’s really good at it. And without her doing what she does, I couldn’t do what I do. But she helps there and just handles the household so amazing that I can go out into the world I guess, and kill things and drag them home for us to eat. Doug: Awesome, and you mentioned a great team, and we’ll touch on that down in the interview here. So in Utah, have a great family, you’ve been doing this since you were 22. So how long have you been in the business? Andy: How many years is that? My birthday is tomorrow. I’ll be 36, so what is that 14 years? Doug: So you lived through the big crash. Andy: Yeah I lived through the crash. I survived the crash for sure. I didn’t go bankrupt or anything, but it was tough. Doug: So we got started during the crash, 2008 really after the crash as everything was really cheap. Andy: Great time to get started. Doug: Great time to get started, yeah. So I can’t imagine if you were in our market, it’s probably similar where prices were cut in half or more. So what were you doing early on when you first got started, and then what are you doing now in terms of deals? What does your business look like? Andy: Yeah, it’s always been real estate. I’ve always done wholesaling before it was cool and sexy. I’ve always gone direct-to-seller. I pretty much did deals however we could. I was working with a partner primarily when I first started, for the first year or two I was on my own and I worked with a partner

    31 min
See All (41)

4.9
out of 5
117 Ratings

About

Want to learn how to invest in Real Estate? Want to work with your spouse but are afraid of driving each other crazy?! Spouses Flipping Houses is all about navigating the world of entrepreneurship together with your spouse or loved one, and taking the necessary steps to make money specifically in the field of Real Estate Investing. Whether you are just beginning to think about getting into the “house flipping” business, or you’re a seasoned entrepreneur with loads of experience, you’ll find the topics, tips, discussions & interviews will provide amazing value to help you take your business to the next level…and to do it all successfully with your spouse or loved one. Oh, and you can learn to do it all without killing each other! In fact, if done properly, we think your relationship will grow stronger in the process. Tune in to listen to Doug and Andrea Van Soest, seasoned Real Estate Investors, entrepreneurs and married parents of 3 who love working together, as they lead you down the path of growing your business and relationship together.

Information