Don Costa is a married father of 3. He has been in the house flipping game since 2003. He almost lost everything in the crash and he rebuilt his business in 2012. His company currently does around 100 homes a year.
Don started flipping houses when he was unemployed. The unemployment check only covered his living expenses and so he had to find a way to find deals, get funding for them and to fix them so that he could sell them and profit.
He got a notice of default list and began going door to door to try to buy houses from the people about to face foreclosure.
To buy and fix up the houses, he worked out a deal with a money partner to joint venture. The money partner would put up the funds. He would find the deals and manage the fix-up and they would split the profits 50/50.
Not all deals are 50/50, we discuss some of the other terms investors use and how those are determined. Basically, the more value you bring to the table for the joint venture, the more you should make out of the deal. If you are finding incredible deals, managing the rehabs and getting them sold, shouldn’t you be asking for a 60/40 split? Heck yes.
Don didn’t have money to make monthly payments to hard money and private money lenders. He didn’t have money to spend on rehabs before getting draws from lenders. He had to joint venture.
He still joint ventures to this day. The reason is that he always wants to do as many deals as he can. Joint venturing allows him to be able to do that.
Daniil Kleyman runs multiple companies that are all related and based in Richmond, VA:
True Vision Analytics creates and markets real estate analytics and marketing software. Their current user base exceeds 80,000 investors (wholesalers, rehabbers/flippers, and landlords) as well as brokers all over the US and abroad. Primary product is Rehab Valuator (www.RehabValuator.com) with other products in the works.
Evolve Development is a real estate investment and development company that specializes currently in ground-up development of multi-family and mixed use project. Past work has included single family rehabs though the current focus has shifted to larger scale work. Current pipeline includes roughly $20 million in projects in the pipeline in Richmond, VA. They also self-manage all of our assets internally through our property management company.
B rett is the founder of Simple Wholesaling, headquartered in Indianapolis, IN. He has been involved in real estate full time for 10 years. While enjoying the ride of entrepreneurship, he recognizes that God has provided this opportunity for him and his family. He has made it his mission to spread the Kingdom of God through empowering real estate investors. Ingrained in his heart is the will to assist others to be successful in this business and to help build a positive reputation for the wholesaling industry. Brett is a simple and humble guy that focuses on giving back to share the wealth of knowledge and experience he has gained as a successful wholesaler.
Jefferson Lilly is a self-made millionaire mobile home park investment expert, educator, and industry consultant. Prior to co-founding Park Street Partners in 2013, Mr. Lilly spent seven years investing his own capital and acquiring and operating his own mobile home parks.
Before becoming an investor full-time, Jefferson spent nine years in sales leadership roles with several venture-backed startups in Silicon Valley. Jefferson has been featured in The New York Times, Bloomberg Magazine, and on the ‘Real Money’ television show. He holds a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.
Brad DeGraw is a self-proclaimed Amazon nerd and E-Commerce Entrepreneur who started with $100 and a WiFi connection and turned it into over $1 million in Amazon sales. Brad’s obsession with Amazon led to developing a system for creating best-selling products and a proprietary Amazon launch formula.
Sharing his best techniques, the successful author and sales marketing expert offers the “secret sauce” behind dozens of successful brands – and does this work with newbies through his “A-Z Done With You” program.
Brad lives in Denver, Colorado where he regularly hosts webinars and local events for e-commerce newbies and brand owners to share tips, stories, and news about what is working right now.
Cliff Gager has been in the real estate business since 1992, when he started in the residential mortgage lending world as a loan officer for a national mortgage company. Struggling at first to make commissions doing loans for Realtor’s clients, Cliff soon discovered he was in a business dominated by much older, more experienced, and more established mortgage lenders and brokers.But Cliff was able to discover a niche market opportunity that these more established lenders and brokers had overlooked – and wound up creating his own client base in the private lending world.
Working with several non-institutional financial investors, Cliff hit upon the idea of originating private mortgage purchase money loans for real estate investors who were buying, fixing, and selling residential houses. As a result of this discovery, Cliff was to become indispensable to these real estate investors by not only providing the initial funding for their acquisitions, but also by providing the financing for the people who actually wound up buying these properties after those same investors had completed their rehabilitation of the properties and put them up for sale!
After watching many of these “house flipping” investors make money doing these deals, Cliff saw the clear potential for profitability, jumped in with both feet, and started to buy, fix, and sell houses, all the while continuing to perform in his already existing position as a residential lender and mortgage broker. In October of 1994 Cliff branched out, opening Galleria Investment Group and, close on its heels, followed that up in March of 1995 by creating the Galleria Realty Group.
Almost immediately after that, in April of the same year, Cliff launched Galleria Mortgage Group, a licensed mortgage brokerage business. Beginning around September of 1997, while working through some difficult times, Cliff began working in the real estate seminar industry for many of the late night TV “infomercial” gurus you likely know today! Since then Cliff has worked as a real estate “mentor” – doing the actual fulfillment for these aforementioned “gurus” on what (he discovered) were the very expensive real estate training classes they were selling to the people.
In 2010 Cliff started working independently with students of his own, and is now bringing his training directly to the people that need it the most, and, just as importantly – at a price that most everyone can afford! Cliff teaches real world strategies that absolutely work. Whether you are a beginner -or a seasoned investor – Cliff can help you reach your goals faster and easier! Now you can benefit from Cliff’s 25 plus years of experience in real estate investing, mortgage acquisition, private lending, and ongoing “advanced” training for investors already “in the biz”! Cliff has taught thousands of students nationwide, using his own finely honed system that utilizes truly unique and exciting strategies, to profit from flipping and buying properties.
Larry Goins is a Visionary, CEO, Entrepreneur, Real Estate Investor, and Educator. Larry has been investing in real estate for over 20 years.
Previously, Larry served as president of the Metrolina Real Estate Investors Association in Charlotte NC, a not-for-profit organization that has over 350 members and is the local chapter of the National Real Estate Investors Association.
Larry is an active real estate investor and travels throughout the United States speaking and training audiences at conventions, expos, and Real Estate Investment Associations on his strategies for buying and selling houses. Larry has also written several books on real estate investing that are available wherever books are sold. Larry and his assistant Kandas are also the hosts of the BRAG Radio Show. BRAG is all about using real estate to Be Rich And Generous.
Between speaking engagements and mentoring other investors, Larry oversees the daily operations of his investing business that wholesales properties, seller finances properties and holds properties for investment.
On a personal note, Larry and his wife Pam have two children, Linda and Noah. He also has a grand daughter, Ember. They are members of New River Community Church in Lake Wylie, SC. As a husband, father, businessman, and real estate investor, Larry holds true to his core values and moral integrity. His personal and business motto is, “People and principles before profits.”
David Finkel is an ex-Olympic level athlete turned business multimillionaire. He is a Wall Street Journal and Business Week best-selling author of 9 business and financial books, including co-authoring SCALE with Priceline.com co-founder Jeff Hoffman.
David is the founder and CEO of Maui Mastermind®, one of the world’s premier business coaching company which has worked with over 100,000 business owners, helping them grow their companies and get their lives back. David’s clients enjoy an average annual growth rate of 64.2% while at the same time increase their companies’ “Owner Independence” by an average of 97.4% per year. Over the past 20 years, David and the other Maui coaches and advisors have personally started and scaled companies with an aggregate value of $63 billion.
His weekly business owner e-letter is read by 100,000 business owners around the world and his syndicated business articles on Inc.com and Huffingtonpost.com garner over 150,000 readers every year. His work has been featured in such prestigious media outlets as the Wall Street Journal, International Business Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Fox Business, MSNBC, and Inc. Magazine.
An in-demand keynote speaker, David’s message of how to grow a business by strengthening its core systems, team, and culture has galvanized business audiences around the globe.
He and his wife Heather, and their three young sons live in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
Frank Rolfe has been an investor in mobile home parks for almost two decades, and has owned and operated hundreds of mobile home parks during that time. He is currently ranked, with his partner Dave Reynolds, as the 5th largest mobile home park owner in the U.S., with over 250 communities spread out over 25 states.
But it all began with one mobile home park, Glenhaven, in Dallas, Texas. “When I bought Glenhaven, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing or how a mobile home park worked. If I had, I would have never bought that park, as it saddled me with a master-metered gas and electric system – two of the biggest challenges a mobile home park owner can face – and a tenant base that was straight out of COPs. We had carnival workers, hookers, the absolute dregs of society. It even had a wrestling ring in the back.
A few years later, I had unbelievably turned that dump into a nice, quiet, family community, with a neighborhood feel and kids riding bicycles down the streets. Another five years later, the park was worth around $1 million more than I had paid for it.” With his success with Glenhaven, Frank continued to buy more mobile home parks, focusing on parks that had good locations, but were terribly managed.
Frank has always believed that mobile home parks are all about “affordable housing”. “Beginning with Glenhaven, I noticed that a mobile home park – when properly managed – offers a significantly better quality of life than a comparably priced apartment. Nobody likes to have neighbors banging on their walls and ceilings, or the lack of a yard or nearby parking – or just the lack of a neighborhood “feel”. It occurred to me that I could have my phone ringing off the hook if I could deliver an affordable detached dwelling with a yard that was safe, clean and respectable. That’s what I delivered at Glenhaven, and that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.”
Along the way, Frank began writing about the industry, and his books, coupled with those of his partner Dave Reynolds, evolved into a course and bootcamp on mobile home park investing that has become the leader in this niche of commercial real estate. “Dave and I have trained hundreds of investors on how to properly buy and operate a mobile home park, 100% based on our real-life experiences in the hundreds of parks we have owned and performed due diligence on. It gives us great satisfaction when people tell us about the mobile home park that they have purchased and how well it’s going. We really wished that someone had given us some direction when we began – it would have saved us a lot of money and stress. But I guess it all worked out pretty well in the end.”
Frank lives in a small town in Missouri with his wife and daughter. He is very active in community affairs, being a member of the Lions Club, the school board, and Chairman of the Landmarks Commission. He holds an A.B. in Economics from Stanford University.
Between 1980 and 1982 Jackie Lange’s whole life changed when her son and daughter were born. She made the decision to quit her long distance operator job so she could stay home to raise her children. Luckily, she had a husband that was very supportive of her decision.
But, as the years went by, she realized that her whole life and livelihood for she and her children were completely dependent on her husband. With national statistics proving that 50% of all marriages end in divorce she knew that she needed to do something to create income of her own.
After being out of the workforce for 12 years, her employment prospects looked bleak. So she knew she would have to find a way to be her own boss if she wanted to make the kind of money she would need to support she and her children.
She looked into all kinds of work at home opportunities. The only one she found that would create the kind of income that she wanted to make was real estate. Instead of working 40 hours a week, she could make the same kind of income working just a few hours a week with real estate.
Real estate investing offered flexible hours and an unlimited income potential. After reading a few books in the library and studying a few courses, she started her quest to make money with real estate investing. From that point it only took her 3 weeks to cash her first check for $8,000.
She was totally hooked.
Now, she’s been successfully buying, selling, leasing and investing in real estate for more than 20 YEARS and has created a “not so small” fortune from real estate. She’s bought anything from a $400 mobile home to a $20 million dollar mansion to an 18,000 acre ranch and everything in between! She did this all with no college education (heck, she did good to make it through high school) so don’t worry, you don’t need a PHD or years of training to make the kind of money many doctors dream about!
It does not matter what’s happening with the economy. There are always opportunities to make money with real estate and people will always need a house to live in. What’s happening on Wall Street or with the government does not affect Jackie. She’s created her own economy and financial security.
In 2000, she met Jack Miller. He was the most brilliant real estate investor she had ever met. His seminars were filled with creative ideas but there was one problem. If you could not get on a plane and fly to his seminar, you could not learn from Jack Miller. So many people could benefit from learning Jack’s strategies, but they can’t all fly to a seminar every month. So she wanted to get Jack’s information recorded and online to help him reach more people. It took a lot of convincing, but after several years, she talked Jack into letting her record his events and get his information online so everyone could get the information they needed to be more successful in their real estate business. That’s how Cash Flow Depot was born.
Looking back, she can’t imagine where she would be if she had not discovered how to make money with real estate. It is the quickest and easiest way to make a lot of money fast.
She now lives in a tropical paradise in Central America…. thanks to the cash flow from her real estate investments. She owns a small coffee farm and still invests in real estate in Panama. In 2010 she started PanamaRelocationTours.com and now offers relocation tours in Panama and Ecuador.
You never know .. real estate investing could lead to an entrepreneurial lifestyle. Even if you don’t make a full time business out of real estate investing, just a few deals a year can keep you completely out of debt. Real estate can provide monthly cash low, wealth accumulation, and tax savings not available with any other type of business.
There are many ways to make money with real estate which don’t require buying the house or getting a loan.
Stephen understands the dreams, challenges, and goals of business owners because he comes from a family of entrepreneurs. His grandfather (Pop) immigrated to the United States from Greece in the early 1920s. He worked as a dishwasher in a small Canton, Ohio restaurant until he had saved enough money to open his own place.
He named his first restaurant “The Ideal.” Pop’s business savvy and discipline would make any corporate executive envious. Pop’s determination and grit were what helped him keep his restaurant afloat during the Great Depression. He sold a soup and sandwich combo for a nickel. How’s that for a value menu? Pop’s business plan was simple, “No matter how bad the economy gets…just remember…everyone’s got to eat.”
Stephen owes a debt of gratitude to his mother, Evie, who owned a successful bakery for 14 years (making the most elegant cakes) and showed him the meaning of hard work and dedication first hand. Also, to his Aunt Elaine and Uncle Bill, where, at 10, he worked cutting strawberries for pies and watching the parking lot for violators. Quite an adventure for a young lad! Then, at 11, Stephen worked for his other Uncle Bill and Aunt Chris, beginning his illustrious dishwashing career. He started out making .25 an hour and got a raise to 1.25…he felt like Donald Trump in those days!
Ten days after he graduated from high school Stephen left all of his family and friends behind and headed to Air Force basic training. What he didn’t realize is that he would learn lessons that forever changed him as person and helped shape Predictive ROI to this day. It is there that he re-learned the meaning of entrepreneurial grit. When his drill instructors would stand over his head, look into his eyes, and shout, “Airman Woessner…you are required to perform 25 repetitions of this exercise. However, you ARE encouraged to do more.” Rest assured, he never did 25 – it was made abundantly clear that the minimum requirement was not an acceptable standard.
He would be remiss if he left out the part of his story where he has made costly mistakes along the way. Stephen built one of his previous companies up to a valuation of $10 million, only to lose millions when the dot com bubble imploded. This very expensive lesson is where he became passionate about measurable ROI! Stephen went on to write two bestselling books based on all of his research and also to share what he has learned through workshops, training seminars and keynote presentations. He is happiest at his whiteboard and flip-charts, empowering others to do digital themselves!
For a number of years he served as the business education coordinator and a business counselor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Small Business Development Center. He had the privilege of teaching many training sessions throughout the University of Wisconsin System, including the prestigious UW-Madison School of business.
In 2011 he launched Predictive ROI LLC because he wanted to devote himself fulltime to sharing what he has learned and to strip away the mystery of digital marketing. They work with clients, using Stephen’s patent pending ROI process, so that they can dramatically increase their sales immediately. It is their passion and they never give just the minimum! One of their core values is “One More. Hustle.”
One of the many blessings that has blossomed out of the conception of Predictive ROI is that Stephen has been able to realize his commitment to paying it forward through education; because he believes that is the greatest equalizer. What he did not mention above is that Pop accomplished all he did with only a third grade education. Pop had to drop out of school to care for his family when his father was tragically killed in an accident. It has been Stephen’s greatest honor to provide scholarships to children in need.
When he is not analyzing streams of data, working with his valued clients, or speaking with amazing business leaders, you can find Stephen enjoying his wonderful wife, Christine, and daughter, Caitlyn. They find great joy in bike rides, hikes, football games (Go Broncos and Buckeyes), and all things Disney.