8 Real Estate Deals in 2 Years While Working Full-Time (Raising 4 Kids)

20:44And that's an area that we've used, kind of a tactic that we've used moving forward. We focus on letting them know, hey, we will share with you as much as you want to know, you know, progress photos and final photos, all of those things. We would love to share those with you if you want that. And especially to give you kind of, especially if the property has been in your family forever, we want to be able to give you that peace of mind and, you know, burden, like, left off of you after selling the property.

21:20Tony Robinson:But how did that seller know, Molly, that you and that first partner were even options? Like, how did the word of mouth actually get around to that person? That's what I'm most curious about. Yes, social media. Yeah. I thought it was crazy. I think that was a really big thing in the Rookie podcast when I would listen. And I was like, how are you saying that we buy houses, right? You're like, we buy houses. And I'm like, that is not my money. I'm not buying anything. So that was really hard for me to get over of, hey, I can say this. And they don't need to know the background as long as the property is being taken care of.

22:00Right. So, uh, the, we buy houses thing, we were posting a lot on social media and it did feel very, um, what's the word? Like I felt very out of place. Like imposter syndrome in a sense. Yes. Imposter syndrome. Like totally because I'm like, I'm not buying the house. Like, what, what am I talking about? Um, but I'm can, I'm controlling all of those factors that they don't have the capacity to carry themselves. So like, I'm actually taking a burden off of somebody else.

22:31Tony Robinson:But Molly, what, like, what were you saying? And where were you posting? Like, obviously it struck a chord. So what was that? Yeah. Our stories were very like our Facebook stories, Instagram stories. At that point, we didn't have TikTok. Now we're very involved with the TikTok videos, but we were just sharing and saying we buy houses. Like if you have an ugly house or a divorce house or anything, probate houses, anything that is a burden to you, like reach out to us and we'll make it happen. And I think that was also another part of pulling the trigger initially really had to do with feeling comfortable, not knowing the answers to everything, but knowing where to find the answers, right?

23:13Like I knew if somebody came to me with a probate deal, I'm like, I don't know what I'm doing fully. But knowing that I have the resources and community to find the answer to that. And that's not something that the seller is, they can't figure out right now. So I'm helping solve that problem for them.

23:32Ashley Kehr:I've bought probably four properties that were either from an estate or like there was like one right now that I'm literally just closing today is that the owner of the property is in assisted living and the family is in a trust and his children are actually the trustees and have the decision making or whatever and dealing with them. And I cannot tell you how much of a burden this property has been for those children that are selling it for him. Just having to go to the property to meet the inspector, the appraiser, all of these different things, and then getting the house cleaned out. I mean, the seller has been messaging me and expresses to me how this has been such a burden on her and things like that.

24:25Ashley Kehr:So there are those motivated sellers out there who just want to get the property sold because it's not worth the headache, the hassle of like putting it on the market, going through, you know, different offers. And then, you know, maybe that offer falls through and then it's going back on the market and things like that. So there are definitely people out there that are just motivated to be done with it. And like one of the people that I had purchased from that was an estate, like they were just so sad about their mom passing that they just wanted to be able to move on with their life. And they just couldn't feel like they could like finish grieving until this part was also done of getting the house sold, getting their things cleaned out and everything like that?

25:05Ashley Kehr:We've actually focused on that. So we recently kind of going into the new year with our new goals, I was like, I really have a passion for, I am a pretty empathetic person and I love helping solve someone else's problem for them. Right. So we have actually recently started going to assisted livings and memory care facilities and meeting with their directors and saying like, hey, we will come in and help your new clients of somebody that's already dealing with the stress of having to put a family member into care. Like, hey, let us take the burden off instead of them going to find some random person that they're not sure their property is going to be taken care of.

25:51Let us take that on for them and then provide whatever services they need for us. If they want us to clean out the junk, if they want to clean out the junk themselves, if they want update pictures, all of those things, just adding another layer that I think it could be a really cool niche, hopefully coming into this new year.

26:12Ashley Kehr:Yeah, that is such a great idea. What a great relationship to build. How have those conversations gone? Have they been receptive or how has that worked out? We had to figure out first when you like go into those, like into the assisted living places, you commonly are talking to the, you know, front desk person. And we figured out like, hey, we actually need to call these places ahead of time and meet directly with the director. And that has been so much better. And we've seen a lot more, you know, success. They've like, a lot of them have been like, we have never had someone come in to kind of, you know, offer this service.

26:51And it's not something that like, you know, we want to, you know, there isn't any referral compensation between us and the assisted living. It's just saying, hey, if you're going in with a packet of stuff to give these people that are in such a, you know, distraught state of mind, let us be like a way to calm their mind a little bit and take care of that property and be able to close as quick as, you know, a lot of people, I feel like in that same boat, you might have already like have dealt with this, but they think that they can rehab it or they think that they have the funds. And then, you know, two months down the road after paying that mortgage payment and realizing like, I don't have seven grand to drop on an HVAC system, then you become an option when maybe originally you weren't an option.

27:40So I think still getting your name out there and letting them know the services you provide can be extremely beneficial.

27:47Ashley Kehr:So are you giving them pamphlets, business cards, brochures that they can hand out? Okay, cool. Just kind of like a five by seven, just kind of a postcard-like item that just says, we buy houses and here's what we can provide to you in order to make your life easier. Which are very inexpensive to create online and get printed. Yeah. What a great idea.

28:12Tony Robinson:That's a great guerrilla style type marketing, Molly. I love that approach. But you mentioned someone not having the funds, 7K to pay for an HVAC system. How did you actually fund this first deal? Was it just money you had saved up? Was it private money, hard money? Walk us through how you actually put together the 115 for the purchase plus the 30K for the renovations. Yes. So this one was hard money. We had saved up some funds when my husband, well, he was still employed at that time during the first deal. And then when he, when we were doing, when he was flipping the property and also employed, we were like, yeah, this isn't going to work.

28:51And that's kind of when he dipped. So we originally bought the property in February of 2024 and he quit his job in May of 2024. But yeah, this one was hard money.

29:03Tony Robinson:Got it. And hard money covered what percentage of your total cost and what did you use to fund that difference? Yeah. So they actually covered everything up front. So yeah, we just came in and paid the interest on the back end and our points on the back end. And we came out of this deal, we put in$0 of this deal besides our monthly interest payments, which the concept was wild to me. Yeah. So this is in 2024. So my very first real estate deal was a very similar kind of setup where I had zero cash out of pocket. I just have to pay the monthly interest costs. But I found that it's been a little less common kind of post, especially post COVID.

29:46Tony Robinson:Who is this lender? How did you find them? Yeah. So we found them from the real estate community in St. Louis. We they are big with helping first time flippers with their projects. So they actually were the ones that came in when Kyle had all of these big ideas and they were like, not necessary. So they were such a great mentor to us. And we send a lot of people their way when they are thinking about using hard money. That's incredible. I know most hard money lenders are the opposite. They want you to have some experience.

30:28Ashley Kehr:But if you think about it, you give somebody a chance and they end up becoming an investor, you've built that relationship for a long period of time where most lenders are waiting until you've already got deals, then starting to build that relationship where they're getting in the forefront and trying to get your business and building that strong. And I feel like it's one, a drill sergeant in basic training always told me like, we'd rather someone come in that has never shot a gun before than someone who is, you know, a pro hunter because we can teach them the ropes. And I think that's kind of the tactic that they take is like, hey, we can teach you all the things the way we want you to learn it.

31:10Right. And I think, I think that is huge to their success.

31:14Ashley Kehr:Yeah. That's so funny. Like employers will even say that sometimes like in different industries, like we'd rather someone brand new that has bad habits from the other job they were doing. But Molly, I think it just goes to show that there are so many different ways to fund

31:30Tony Robinson:your first deal. And as long as you find a deal that's good enough, if you can get it in front of the right people and enough people, sometimes you can find someone that's going to fund everything for you, right? And you just got to kind of worry about the carrying costs. So the first deal sounds like a home run deal, right? You do everything the right way. You find a great deal. You get great lending. But you actually said that your fourth property is one that you're most proud of. And I know it involves a woman who lived there for a long time, who maybe who wasn't in the best position. Walk us through that fourth deal and why you feel that one is one that really stands out to you.

32:03That connecting piece, right? So we found this deal. Our kiddo's in-home daycare provider, it was her sister who we bought the property from. And she had lived there for a long time. And we came in and flipped it. And then on the back end, it's like so cool. to even think about. We didn't know this. The agent came in and was like, hey, we have a buyer and all of these things. And after going under contract, we found out that the buyer was the lady who owned the home's daughter. And she was going to now have this property as her first home. And now her grand, the lady's grandkids are now going to like be living in this home.

32:57And I just, it's so cool to think about and the different, you know, she had lived there for so long and then to be able to walk into the same property and have such a different eye for it. And now your kiddos and grandkiddos are living in it. Just really cool, full circle moment for us.

33:15Ashley Kehr:That really is such a cool thing to find out that you were able to provide that service for someone and their family and to keep the property in the family. Because sometimes I think there is like this like bad reputation of investors of like, oh, you're stealing from grannies, you know, you're taking their home, you're cutting yourself a deal and they're getting the shaft and stuff. But the fact that the same family actually went and came and bought the house at the price you were asking for. And, you know, it shows that they didn't actually end up with a bad deal. They they thought it was a good deal in the end.

33:55Yeah, it was it was really, really cool. I think about that property all the time because I'm like, gosh, how cool it must be for her to like pull up in the driveway of like now her kid's house that she lived in and like know the memories that are being created. and that those same kiddos grew up in that house. Really cool.

34:12Ashley Kehr:So Molly, you've done eight flips in 22 months and that's pretty fast. Now you told us the deals that you've made money on, but have you lost any money on some of the deals and what were maybe some of those lessons that you learned along the way? Yeah, so we did lose money on one of our flips. We did not do our due diligence when going to look at the property, right? Sometimes you trust other eyes on the property and don't look at it fully or you're like, oh, okay. I think when we started doing multiple at a time, it gets easy to forget the really important things. So we went into this property.

34:54We did not get any inspections on it, which sometimes is common for flip properties. But this one was a little bit different. We didn't notice that it didn't have gutters on it. So the rain, all the water was just dropping directly back into the foundation. And then come to find out there was$9 ,000 worth of termite damage that we did not see. And, you know, I'm surprised nobody fell through the flooring. The lady had lived there for a very long time. And that was a wholesale deal, which we have not done too many wholesale deals. And it was really just letting our checks and balances slide because we were working so many properties.

35:46And I think it really it was such a good learning lesson for us to come back and be like, hey, there is no reason why this should have happened. but we let it slide because, you know, there were a lot of other things going on in the pipeline. And it has really kept our checks and balances moving forward to not make mistakes like that.

36:08Tony Robinson:So what's changed now in your process to try and avoid repeating that same mistake? Yeah. So my husband views every single property. We take video of every property. AI has change the flip game when it comes to being able to view a property quickly and efficiently. And if we miss something, AI is going to catch it.

36:30Ashley Kehr:Let me ask you about that because my mind is just like, oh my God, that's such a great idea. But I'm not sure if you're going the same way that I'm thinking, are you uploading those images and video to AI and having them point out things to you? Yeah. And you can upload the HVAC system and it'll tell you when it was the brand, the make, the model, the... Like any problems like, oh, this model has had issues or warranty claims or things like that. Wow. Such a great idea. Yes. And there is in the St. Louis real estate community, there's an AI superstar that she just has really opened my mind to using it a lot more on these flips.

37:11And I mean, even things like, hey, can you tell me how many outlet covers I'm going to need? And it takes that video and it tells me how many outlet covers I'm going to need and how many events. It's wild. So just using that stuff to our advantage, it kind of gives you a big brother. It kind of gives you an extra set of eyes and things that you wouldn't catch. So that has really been helpful as well. And we have created just forms that happen on every single property where we walk it and the form looks the same on everything. So we can never go back and say like, hey, we missed this.

37:51Ashley Kehr:So with those forms, are you having it and then you upload the video and then you having AI actually fill out those forms for you? We don't, but that's not a bad idea. That probably could happen, right? Yeah. We kind of have created it off of the inspections, like our occupancy inspections. And we've taken those and just like, hey, what are the key points that we don't want to waste time on? Inspectors come in and look at these properties multiple times, right? That's just time is money in this aspect. So that is what our forms are created off of in order to kind of keep tabs on the things we need to keep tabs on.

38:26But that's really a good idea to use.

38:29Tony Robinson:But when we come back, Molly, I want you to lay out some of the mindset shifts and maybe some of the tactical moves that you say any rookie can apply starting today, including how to deal with imposter syndrome, which you talked about earlier, how to make offers without fear, and how you're involving your kids. Yes, even the three-year-olds in building generational wealth. So we'll cover all that after a quick word from today's show sponsors. All right, we're back here with Molly. Molly, you said something pretty incredible off camera, but that in the last 90 days, Kyle, your husband, has walked 114 properties, made offers on 47 and bought five.

39:04Tony Robinson:That volume is something most rookies would never even come close to. First, how do you think you guys are even getting enough deal flow for him to walk 114 properties? Where are you going to source that volume in such a short period of time? A lot of our properties, surprisingly, are on market. So we have started focusing on on market just because we didn't have a whole lot of luck with the wholesale game. There's just a lot of people trying to be wholesalers and they don't necessarily know the market or they don't live here. And it just makes it a little bit more convoluted. So a lot of the properties are on market.

39:39A lot of them are maybe portfolio loans that other people in the area have brought to us. Some are off market or we've created really great relationships with some realtors in the area and they'll bring us off market stuff or things that they don't think that they're going to be able to put on market or that maybe they've passed from a rental perspective on their side. So that's kind of all the different types of ways we've been getting the deals.

40:06Ashley Kehr:Are you working with an agent that's taking you to all these showings and things like that? Or has your husband thought about getting licensed? My husband has thought about getting licensed. We do reach out to a lot of property owners as well. And I, we just don't necessarily know that we want to, it would be a great cost savings, but we don't want to, don't necessarily want to have to like disclose that we're a realtor on those types of things. So we kind of - And there's a lot of paperwork. Yes. Yeah, it would be helpful. And honestly, like he would be a great realtor because of the, you know, he just has a different eye for things, especially walking this many properties.

40:52I'll never forget when he came home from one of these properties. And he said, he's like, yeah, we walked in this property. And the people that were living there said, you know, there's a flea infestation downstairs. And I was like, oh gosh. And he's like, yeah, the contractor was with him said one time we walked out looking like a strawberry and I just couldn't stop thinking about the bugs and the strawberries. And that's not my lane. I work the finance side of things. He can look at the nasty properties.

41:20Ashley Kehr:Well, I was also curious because I mean, I don't know the split of how many were actually on market, but like that's still a lot of properties for an agent to have the patience to walk through with all of these and, you know, only end up buying X amount out of seeing all of these showings. So are you working with one agent? Are you working with several? And why do you think they're okay with being available to do all these showings and, you know, not guaranteeing that, you know, maybe you'll close, you know, a 10th of them even or less. So several, so every Friday, a realtor in the area sets up kind of a walkthrough of like some on market and some off market about 10 to 12 every Friday and new investors, a lot of them, we have a name for ourselves now.

42:08We used to be the new ones that went and now they're like, oh, if Molly and Kyle show up, they're going to buy all the properties. So we can't offer. But we really get to go and motivate them of like, hey, if our numbers work on this and your numbers work on this, make an offer. And I think that's a kind of, you're going back to mindset is just like, make the offer. And I think a lot of these realtors have realized that, because we work with a few, probably three or four, pretty tight. And I think what has made them okay with looking at multiple properties is they know that when we find one, it's going through.

42:46We do have private money now. So they know that that deal is going to close. And there are also, we're actually closing on a wholesale one tomorrow. And I'm excited for that because I think this guy knows now that you bring us a deal and we'll close it.

43:03Ashley Kehr:I need to look at this to flip this real quick and look at it on the agent side. So an agent is setting up almost like little mini open houses at properties where investors can show up at the allotted times, view all these properties. If you are an agent listening to this episode, what a great idea to build relationships, to network with investors, whether they buy one of the houses or not. That is a great idea. Yeah, we love it. And anytime that a new investor or somebody that's interested tells us, we're like, you need to go to Friday walkthroughs because they at least get you in the mindset and you're getting around the people.

43:42Right. Like, I think I don't remember who says it, but the five people you surround yourself with, you know, like that's the sum of you. And when you're doing that every Friday, chances are eventually, regardless, there are some that have been there for a year that haven't pulled the trigger, but they're going to get there. and because they're surrounding themselves with the people that are making the deals.

44:04Ashley Kehr:Yeah, even just to watch what other investors are looking at, pointing out, asking them questions, like just the networking piece of being a rookie real estate investor attending one of those. And how fun, who doesn't love shopping for houses? It's so fun. I brought my mom one time. She's like, of course, trying to figure out the stories of all these houses. But I was like, mom, are you ready? Wear your boots because you never know what you're going to walk through.

44:31Tony Robinson:Molly, I'm curious though, 47 offers on 114. And you even mentioned you tell the other new investors like, hey, just make an offer. And I think that's where a lot of new investors get stuck is that they see whatever the asking price is and maybe their numbers don't quite work there. So they just kind of walk away. Do you know, just like ballpark, how many of your deals are actually below what the original asking price was? Is it like, 10 % where maybe most of what you're closing is at or above? Or is it like 80 % where the majority of what you're buying is actually below what they initially asked?

45:04Tony Robinson:Do you have just like a rough estimate of what that looks like? 100 % of the offers that we have put in are below asking. And I think that's such an important thing for people to understand. Why is it that so many new investors see the purchase price and feel that that is like the, that it's written in stone. How do you overcome that fear of maybe insulting the seller? That's the thing that I hear all the time. I don't want to insult the seller. So I don't want to go too low. How do you not get too caught up on that? That took a while, honestly. And I didn't want us to create these relationships with these realtors and these realtors are getting cussed out by the seller because they're like, why are you bringing us this offer?

45:48And I tell every realtor or anybody that if they want to see my numbers, I'm going to show them my numbers because numbers don't lie. Right. So I am always willing to show my numbers to show that this is what I have to be at in order to make my deal work. And guess what? I know that probably, you know, 80 % of them I'm not going to get. I know that. But I also know that if they don't have any other offers in the next four months and they're still sitting on market and they potentially don't have another option now, now I'm an option. Right. So they have, there have been multiple situations. We dealt with this on our second deal.

46:35Um, I, well, it would have been our second deal, but it took a while, you know, they came to us and we offered them something and they were like, we can't take this. It was a probate situation. It was, you know, uh, I think a grandfather's house. And they were like, oh, no, we're just going to flip it ourselves. And then three months later, they're like, we can't do this. And so you're still, they're still benefiting. It's a win-win, right? They're still getting money that they need, and we are relieving them of the payment that they can't make. So don't be scared to make the offer and also know that potentially six months later, they could come back to you and say, Hey, are you still available to take this offer?

47:20Because that happens a lot.

47:21Tony Robinson:I'll never forget. I think I might've talked about this in a podcast a while ago, but when I first started trying to invest, again, I was focused on Shreveport, Louisiana. I wrote a bunch of letters and I mailed them all out. And I talked to this lady and she had, you know, her and her husband were retiring and they had like, I don't know, like eight or nine houses they were looking to sell. And at the time, they were just asking too much. And I gave her my numbers, much like you. I walked him through like, hey, here's where it works for me and here's why. And we couldn't agree on a terms. She ended up calling me, I think it was like two years later.

47:51Tony Robinson:And she's like, hey, Tony, I don't know if you remember me. We talked a few summers ago. Hey, I think we're finally ready to meet you where you're at. Now, we had stopped investing in that market. We were focusing on short term rental and other things, so I didn't move forward with the deal. But that was two years later, right? And someone still had my phone number. So you never know just by opening up that dialogue, even if it doesn't close today, maybe it's six months, maybe it's 12 months, maybe it's 24 months from now, but at least you've planted that seed to make yourself an option for them if and when they're ready.

48:18When you brought up the handwritten letters, maybe you're the reason that I did this. I wrote 100 handwritten letters and I sent them out. And the only person that called me off of them. This guy was another investor. And he said, Hey, you must be focusing on pre foreclosures because I've seen your letter at like six of my properties. And I was like, great. And he's like, I just want to let you know, um, you're doing your due diligence and also you have great handwriting. And I was like, okay, so how do I get the deals? and he's like well I get them at auction and I said can you teach me and he said no thanks but I was like the worst like the worst he's gonna tell me is no but I was like he doesn't want me to go because he has competition right like he doesn't want to teach me that and maybe in 10 years when he's ready to retire he'll come teach me and until then I'll try a different route

49:19Ashley Kehr:So he was the one that had bought them, but the listing hadn't been updated. At first, I thought all six of his properties were in free foreclosure. Like, whoa, that's a lot of properties to be doing.

49:34Tony Robinson:And let me just clarify to you for any of the other rookies that are listening. When I say handwritten letters, that batch that I sent out, they actually weren't all handwritten. The letters were printed. I signed my name at the bottom and I hand wrote on the envelopes. Um, so maybe save yourself just a little bit of time.

49:51Ashley Kehr:There's companies that have the robots that look like, that's what I do. I have learned my lesson. It was a good learning experience, but it helped.

50:01Tony Robinson:What it helped.

50:02Ashley Kehr:Well, Molly, thank you so much for joining us today. I can't even tell you the last time that I said, that's a great idea. So many times throughout an episode, but where can people reach out to you and find out more information? Yeah. So on Facebook, just Molly Shepard. And then on TikTok, just real estate Molly and on Instagram, real estate underscore Molly. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm Ashley. He's Tony. And we'll see you guys on the next episode of Real Estate Rookie.

50:29Tony Robinson:Hey, rookies, if you're watching this, we want you to apply to be a guest on the Real Estate Rookie podcast. That's right. Ashley and I are looking for amazing stories just like yours to be a part of our Real Estate Rookie podcast. Now, look, you don't need to be an expert. You don't need to have done thousands of deals. Even if you've done one deal, your story could help inspire the next listener.

50:48Ashley Kehr:As a rookie investor, especially if you just got your first deal, it is all fresh in your minds and you are the best person to tell your story, give your experience on how you got it done to help someone else get their first deal.

51:00Tony Robinson:So head over to biggerpockets.com slash guest if you want to be a part of our show. Again, that's biggerpockets.com slash guest. And we'd love to have you on.