Making $36,000 in 90 Days with No Real Estate Experience

0:00What do country music, motherhood, and a$36 ,000 flip have in common? Well, today's guest thought she was headed for Nashville stardom. But when the world shut down, she made a bold pivot that changed everything. And trust us, this rookie didn't just dream big. She took action.

0:19Tony J. Robinson:Today, we're sitting down with Tori Tyler, a first-time flipper who crushed her debut deal and is already scaling up. We're getting into the numbers, the mindset, and the exact steps she took to go from analysis paralysis to profit.

0:36Welcome to the Real Estate Rookie Podcast. I'm Ashley Kerr.

0:39Tony J. Robinson:And I'm Tony J. Robinson. And let's give a big warm welcome to Tori. Tori, thanks so much for joining us today. Thank you guys for having me. I'm excited to be here. So, Tori, to kind of start us off here, you moved to Nashville to chase music, not real estate. So how did you go from that dream to actually starting to think about real estate investing? Absolutely. So yeah, real estate was never a part of my plan, which is kind of interesting because my aunt and my dad are both realtors and have been for a very long time, but I never considered it for myself. I started music at a really young age and always thought this is what I want to do with my life.

1:17So after I graduated college in 2019, my husband and I moved to Nashville and I did exactly that. It was chasing the dream. I was writing songs and playing shows. I had a waitressing job just to, you know, do that in the mornings and then go alongside of my music. And that's what I was doing and chasing. And then COVID happened. And I, it's funny. I was actually walking on stage to do a show and the manager of the bar came out and was like, Hey, we have to shut down right now. Like the city just put something out that like, we have to close our doors. Everyone has to go home. You can't play tonight.

2:01And I'd already paid my musicians, everything. And they were like, you can't play this show. Like, and then, I mean, everything shut down. All my shows got canceled. Um, and it was kind of this moment of like, okay, what now? Like, what am I going to do? I also got laid off from my waitressing job because everything went to online to go orders. So I had a lot of time at home to think, what am I doing? What's going on? Um, what's something that I can do besides waitressing, if the world goes back to normal that, you know, would actually make some money and could still go alongside music. And so I thought about real estate, the market in Nashville, if you guys, you probably know about that went crazy during COVID.

2:46And so I was like, might as well get my real estate license, see what this is all about. Um, could make some good money and it's, you know, still flexible enough to be able to play shows. So got my real estate license in Tennessee, um, and just continued to do that. And music actually did really well. my first year, I joined really big brokerage up there with Remax. They're the number one Remax team in the world. So I learned a ton, got a lot of good knowledge, got a lot of good leads, was able to kind of jump in with traditional real estate and found that I actually really liked real estate. My husband and I ended up buying our first house during that time, about 30 minutes outside of like downtown Nashville.

3:31And we planned on pretty much staying there forever. We were going to just settle in Nashville and raise our family there. And that was going to be it. And then I had a baby. And about one week after having that baby, I said, we got to move back home. I need my family. I need some help. And it was also freezing up there. I'm a Florida girl through and through. And it was a snowstorm up there. And I was trapped inside with a baby and I was like, honey, we got it. We got to move.

4:04Tony J. Robinson:I want to get into the move Tori, but before we do, I just want to circle back to that moment because obviously COVID impacted so many people in so many different ways. And obviously there were lives lost, but there was also this other component of a lot of people just reshaping what they want the rest of their lives to look like. It was just, it's like the whole world just kind of took a moment to breathe and reassess and say what I want to do next. But I guess what was, what was going through your mind? It's like, you have this dream that you've worked your whole life towards. And in a moment, it almost gets like pulled away from you.

4:41Tony J. Robinson:Do you feel like you were giving up on that dream? I guess, how did you stay motivated or just like what was going through your mind when your dream of becoming a musician's going away, the income that you had is disappearing? How are you staying motivated during that timeframe? So I would say that combined with having a kid is really what kind of shifted my dreams and goals. I would say, as far as the music industry, also during COVID, the music, the music industry changed a lot. It, it, most of it became virtual. And so it was a lot of like, you have got to build your social media brand. You've got to build that presence.

5:17You've got to be putting out Tik TOKs every day. And it, and it just started to look a lot different than just going out and writing songs and playing shows. And so I, you know, just during that time was kind of like, is this what I really want? You know, and then having a baby, I'm like, do I want to be on the road and traveling and playing shows at, you know, 50 weeks out of the year? Or is that maybe something that I can still do as a hobby, but it might not be like my main thing anymore. And so it was kind of the closing of a chapter that I kind of had to grieve in some way because I grew up my whole life thinking this is what I want to do.

5:57And then I had to realize it's okay for your dreams to shift. And like this real estate thing was like a new passion inside of me that I never knew existed. And so realizing it's okay that that is now maybe taking priority where music used to be that for me. And so I would say it really solidified once I had my first daughter of like, okay, I want to be able to build something for our family, not just for me to be a star and be singing and playing shows, but something that will allow me to spend more time with my family and build something for our future. And I feel like that just kind of led me in the direction more of real estate.

6:40Tony J. Robinson:Tori, once you had that realization, because I think a lot of people listening understand the power, the importance, like all the things that come along with being a real estate investor. But once you made that decision, what did you actually start doing to get yourself ready to get that first deal? Like I said, I started out just as a realtor, right? So I wasn't even initially interested in investing. I didn't even know what that looked like until we moved back to Florida. we sold that first house that we bought right outside Nashville. And in one year, so we bought it for$305 ,000. One year later, we sold it for$450 ,000 without doing hardly anything to it.

7:19And that right there really got my attention and we sold it off market. Like I didn't even have to do a showings, anything. And so I was like, man, this is powerful. This can open doors. This is something that I should really start looking into of how can we do more of this? How can we tap into this side of the industry? And so that is really what started my, I guess, thought process of like, just outside of being a realtor, like investing things that we can do for us. Um, but then like for three years, I just took in information and did absolutely nothing. Um, I was like the person who you would say was totally stuck in like the analysis paralysis side.

8:05I was listening to podcasts and I was reading books. And even when I got to Florida, started going to networking events and meetups and things, but I was never putting that into action. I would dabble in this and dabble in wholesaling or cold calling or do a few of these things, but never stuck to any strategy and just felt this like overwhelming, I don't know, I'm just spinning in circles. I'm not actually like doing anything. Um, and so finally it was last October, my husband looked at me and was like, okay, you need to stop talking about it and you need to do it. It's time to do it. I went, we had decided kind of like we were going to start with doing a flip and that's the direction we were going to go.

8:52And so he was like, I'll support you however I can, but you just got to pull the trigger and do it. So that was kind of my motivation to get off my butt, stop twirling and actually get started doing it for us. This episode is brought to you by Accenture. When your advertising operations fall out of sync, everything else follows. Spotify and Accenture are working together to reinvent the rhythm of ad sales using automation, analytics, and smarter workflows to simplify campaign delivery and access better data across the business. The result? Less time spent on operations, more time connecting brands with the moments and fandoms that matter most.

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11:22Yeah, absolutely. So I have a good mentor here in Jacksonville that I've learned a lot from. And she has a very successful flipping business here. And just after talking with her and she started with wholesaling and I looked into that for a little while and was like, I mean, I don't really have the time to cold call all the time and go out and door knock and do all these things, maybe get wholesale deals. Um, flipping just seemed like something that would be fun, would be exciting. Something my husband and I could do together, like a big project. And we, you know, had saved up enough to have kind of like a down payment.

12:04Um, and so we decided to just start with that and go for it. Um, I ended up going to a networking event and I had my second daughter by this time. She was in my front pack carrier taking a nap. She went with me. She slept the whole time. And I ended up meeting a girl at this networking event and her and her husband had started a wholesaling company, like a brokerage here in Jacksonville, and they find deals, distressed properties and sell them to investors who are looking for rentals or to flip. And so I was like, Hey, that's me. I want to get on your buyer's list. And so we did, and they started sending us properties and about the third property that we got from the agent there, I just hit my inbox and I had a good feeling about it.

12:58So I was like, let's go take a look. So we went out and took a look at it and it ended up being the one. Um, what's funny is that I was FaceTiming my mentor. I was just talking about, and she was like, this isn't really a zip code that I like venture into it in Jacksonville. I don't flip in that zip code. She was kind of giving me some red flags and things to look at. And I was just like, I don't know, I was just starstruck with the whole idea. And so I was like, I have a good feeling about it. So I'm just going to do it. Looking back, I'm like, maybe you should have taken my advice.

13:35Tony J. Robinson:And Tori, I think that was going to be my question, because I think a lot of rookie investors can get enamored with a deal because maybe it is the one that they kind of feel makes the most sense. But how do we balance that excitement against the cold, hard facts of what a good deal looks like. So I guess my first question is knowing what you now know, would you still have done that first flip? It's so hard to say that because knowing what I know now, I know I made money, but a little bit of buyer's remorse after I bought it, I was like, oh, I started to have that freak out moment of like, oh my goodness, this is the biggest house on the block.

14:15This person says, don't ever buy the biggest house on the block. Well, now we're really going to be messed up, you know, like started going into all these things. Um, and there were a few unexpected things that came up. We didn't see in the beginning that cost it a little more money, but you know, I still think there's something to that gut feeling. And we had looked at a few that we did say no to. Um, and this one, I really feel like had so much potential and that, you know, I looked at the comps, I knew it could sell and that's where being a realtor too helped me a little bit. So I would say I still would have bought it.

14:49Tony J. Robinson:And you touched on a little bit, Tori, but I guess what else about the deal? If your mentor is saying like, I don't really know, what else about it made you feel like, okay, I think this one actually does make sense. So it had just come out in the pipeline for this company. And there were several other investors lined up ready to jump at this. But we had first dibs because we scheduled first. So that made me feel good that there were other people also really interested in this. What's funny is that we had to have a$10 ,000 deposit to put down to secure it for this company. And it was a Saturday.

15:28I didn't have my checkbook. So I had to drive to the bank and pray that nobody else was there with their$10 ,000.

15:36Tony J. Robinson:Or that was just a really good wholesaler, trying to build some urgency. you know, that could be it as well. They're banging down the door. You got to get your offer in quick, get your EMD over here. Exactly. But no, I mean the area, it's a very up and coming area in, in Jacksonville. It's about a mile from like the heart of downtown where there's lots of cool, like breweries and restaurants and new businesses opening. And so I felt like it could be a really good rental for someone or, or a home for somebody to live in. So I, on the, on the realtor side felt like this has good resale value. There's a lot of potential here.

16:17And I really liked that it was mainly cosmetic. It had solid foundation. It had a new roof. It had a new HVAC. All we had to do really was get in there and update all the cosmetics, which is what I wanted for my first deal. I didn't want a full gut to the studs rehab. I think this example has two points to it. And the first is you had a mentor that was basically telling you, no, this isn't a good deal, not to do it. And I think there's a lot of rookie investors that are waiting for a mentor to tell them, yes, buy that deal or no, don't buy that deal. I mean, you go through the rookie Facebook group, you go in the forums and it's people asking, is this a good deal?

16:57When it comes down to it and you are face to face with the deal and you are the perfect example of this. It doesn't matter as much what that person is saying because that deal could be right for you, but wrong for them. And when it comes down to it, you're going to make the decision based upon the facts that you have in front of you, your life, your comfortability, the risk you're willing to take. So I think it's an example of don't have analysis paralysis is because you're waiting for a mentor, you're waiting for someone to tell you yes or no. Because even if they tell you their thoughts on it, majority of people are going to make the decision on their own, especially real estate investors, entrepreneurs.

17:47They are focused on what is going to work for them. And so just remember that if you are a rookie listening, waiting for that perfect mentor to tell you, yes, do this deal. No, don't do that deal that you may not even take their advice after all, because that deal will work for you. Yeah. And I think, I think that's so important. Like at the end of the day, you have to be responsible and accountable for your own business. You know, somebody else can't be the one to tell you, yes, you should do this or no, you shouldn't. You have to kind of own it. And I think that in that deal, you know, she was able to guide me and give me advice.

18:28And, but we are very different investors. And I realized that even after just doing my first flip is we have a lot of differences, which is totally fine because what works for her again, like you said, might not work for me and vice versa. So it makes me more confident as an investor knowing that like, okay, I can still be successful doing it a different way. And I think that is what is great about real estate.

18:52Tony J. Robinson:Yeah. And Tori, I just also want to highlight that you didn't wake up on Monday morning and to say, hey, I want to invest in real estate and then go submit this deal, right? You had been studying, you said, for a few years prior to that, you were an agent in the area. So you had a strong foundation to be able to make this quote unquote judgment call. So I just want to highlight that for the rookie audience, because we're talking about going with your gut. We're talking about, you know, maybe making decisions for yourself, but only if you've put in the work in the same way that Tori did to be able to confidently do that.

19:24Tony J. Robinson:And not just, you know, waking up on a random day and trying to, you know, submit offers on deals that you know nothing about. But Tori, can you can you break down the numbers for us? Like, what was your purchase price, your renovation budget? What did you initially project as your ARV? Yeah. So we bought this house for$118 ,800. Our renovation ended up being about$45 ,000. And so the people who sold us the house kind of give us like an estimated ARV and they had it at 210. So I was working all my numbers based off of that. We ended up selling it. I listed it at 225 and we sold it four days on the market.

20:09We had an over-asking price offer at$228 ,750. I have to say, it's not often you hear that your ARV is actually higher than what the wholesaler says. Usually it's reversed. They're always at the top end. Yeah. We've got a great relationship with this wholesaling company and they actually just sold us our second deal as well. But yeah, so I was totally blown away that we were able to go that much over and have an offer in four days. It was like the perfect setup. And what did you end up profiting off of that deal? So we ended up profiting about$36 ,000. And what's amazing is going into this first deal, I was really just like, hey, if we can break even on our first deal, I'll be happy.

20:58You know, I, my husband was like, no, we need to make some money. But I was like, Hey, at least we'll have the knowledge. We'll feel better going into the next one. Like, let's just try to break even. So seeing a profit that big was, I mean, and for some people might not be that big, but for me,$36 ,000 hitting the bank account was a big deal. So I was very, very, very happy with that, especially in this market. Well, and let's talk about what you had to do to earn that$36 ,000. So how long did this project take and how active were you and your husband in this deal? Were you guys there every day?

21:37Were you guys the contractors? What did you actually have to do to earn that$36 ,000? Yeah, so we bought it January 31st of this year, 2025. And the rehab took exactly about eight weeks. Um, we did hire a contractor to do most of the work, but my husband is very handy, loves doing projects, all that kind of stuff. So we, we wanted to get a little bit of sweat equity in there. So we did things like I ordered all of the, um, fixtures and, um, hardware lighting, all of that. And we installed those things, you know, we built, um, wooden shutters to go on the front porch. I painted, you know, the front door.

22:21We did like smaller projects like that. We did all the landscaping, um, just things that would bring the cost down a little bit and that we could easily do also was helpful for like recording content, um, for social media of us, like doing things. People love to see that. Um, so we got our hands dirty a little bit, which brought the cost down. Um, but I went by at least twice a week, um, just to check on it, make sure things were going well, make sure that progress progress was being made. And, um, we did go by, this was like the second week, um, when the plumbing and electricals all being kind of fixed and up to standard.

23:01And we walk in and there's water shooting out of the shower head all over the walls, all over the light fixture that had been left on. So that's one of those moments where I was like, Oh my goodness, what do we get ourselves into? This is crazy. one of those like nightmare moments. You're like, I hope this never happens, but I'm glad that it did happen because one, it wasn't a huge deal. The new drywall wasn't even up yet. So it wasn't like it, you know, ruined anything. It made me realize, okay, this was like one of my worst fears. And then it happened and it wasn't that bad. Like we got through it.

23:38It's not as scary as you think it's going to be. Um, and so that was like a really big learning point for me of like, okay, we found this issue and we moved on and we still were able to make money. So when did you actually sell the property? You bought it in January and then when did it close? Yeah. So we put it on the market April 1st and we closed on May 5th. So all in all, it was about three months. So to make$36 ,000 over three months and do some of the work in the house. And I mean, I think that is a great deal. Yeah. My husband has like a W2 job. He's in law enforcement and does that. I'm a mom to two little girls and we just fit it into our life.