The Wisconsin Investor
Each week, we bring you interviews with some of Wisconsin's top real estate investors who share their tips, tricks, and strategies that you can implement right away. This show is dedicated to helping Wisconsin real estate investors elevate their game. Along with interviews, I'll also dive into hot topics in solo episodes and feature experts from various real estate sectors across Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin Investor
Got Laid Off. Flipped a House. Made $35K First Deal. Here's How.
📉 Tired of the 9-to-5 grind? This episode of The Wisconsin Investor Podcast features Eric Nelson, a former 20-year corporate employee who walked away from his job at US Cellular — and flipped his first house for a $35,000 profit in just 70 days.
🎙️ In this inspiring interview, Eric breaks down:
- How he turned a severance package into a real estate business
- The foundation problem flip that scared away other investors (but made him $35K)
- Leveraging Home Depot’s kitchen design services to save time and money
- Transitioning from corporate structure to entrepreneurial freedom
- Balancing work-life with a blended family of 6 kids
- Building out a portfolio of long-term and short-term rentals
- How he handles low appraisals and confidently runs the numbers
💬 Want to connect with Eric personally?
Follow him on Facebook → facebook.com/eric.nelson.56
(Tip: Look for the profile showing a family man, investor, and Midwest local — that's our guy.)
💥 Whether you're new to investing or looking to scale, Eric's story proves you don’t need decades of experience — just the guts to get started and a smart strategy. His journey from “flip phones to flipping houses” will leave you inspired, educated, and ready to take action.
👇 Get off-market Wisconsin real estate deals every week at 6AM:
📬 Join the Buyers List
🔔 Subscribe now for more real investor stories and cash-flow strategies.
#realestateinvesting #houseflipping #BRRRR #wisconsinrealestate #passiveincome #financialfreedom #thewisconsininvestorpodcast #propertyinvestment
Hey guys, you're listening to another episode of the Wisconsin Investor Podcast. I'm your host, corey Raymond, and as usual, I am bringing you guys another rockstar guest today. I'm super excited about today's episode. I'm going to introduce him here in a second, but I did want to talk about something I've been talking about recently was our Burfer Beginners Course. You guys have heard that on a lot of the episodes, but what I'm going to talk about today is recently we put some data together at Wisconsin Discount Properties of our ARVs, and so a lot of times I've been in this business now almost a decade One of the things I hear from you guys out there when you're looking at some of the off-market deals is that the ARVs are inflated.
Speaker 1:I hear that all the time. You guys, you're putting these ARVs out way too high. So we said, well, let's see what are we putting the ARVs out at. And so we look back at over 50 different flips in a time span. We didn't hold back anything. It's on our website. You can go check it out under case studies and in that the data came back and showed that of 50 different flips that you guys out there have bought from us in this time span, the average ARV of what it sold for was five grand higher than the ARV that we advertised when we were marketing it at Wisconsin Discount Properties. So that also included some deals that had sold way less. And those were folks who we talked to that just basically cleaned it and listed it. They didn't bring it to the full ARV but guess what? We included those anyway. So our ARV is probably even more conservative than what we have been advertising. So you can have confidence if you go to wisconsindiscountpropertiescom, join the buyers list, start getting these off-market deals in your inbox every week 6 am if you're Central Time, week 6 am if you're central time, and you can have confidence that these ARVs are to the best of our knowledge and we are doing our best to be as transparent as possible here.
Speaker 1:All right, with that, let's get into today's episode. I have Mr Eric Nelson with us who, for those of you guys out there that don't know, is pretty darn new to this space, and so I love bringing people like Eric on because a lot of times they have so many good nuggets and so many good things that we can all learn from, no matter what experience level we have, and so we're going to dive into that today. But Eric is one of those guys who's been buying a lot of deals from WDP, so we appreciate that man. That helps all of us out over here on this side of the coin. But, eric, tell everybody a little bit about yourself, man and um, how'd you get into this real estate thing, man?
Speaker 2:sure thanks, cory, appreciate you having me on uh, yeah, man one of those things where I've I've really been wanting to dive into this for for a long time. I mean, I've been wanting to do this. I was thinking back I don't know if you remember uh, because armando montelongo or something like that. He started to flip this house back in 2003 on HUTV, before there was that. I've been watching the old real estate shows for 20 plus years, and even as most recently as I look back at my text with Joey, who I know everyone there, probably everyone watching this podcast knows podcast knows that works for you guys over there at WDP. He and I worked together at US Cellular and we had some texts back in 2022 where I was like all right.
Speaker 2:I'm ready. He started sharing some information on WDP, how it all works, and I'm like man, that sounds too good to be true. He's like no, he's like you just got, you just gotta. You know, you gotta, gotta get in. Man, you gotta get in. I'm like, all right, we'll see, we'll see.
Speaker 2:So, fast forward to 2025, I finally, you know, finally, you know, not only dipped the toes but jumped fully in, fully into the real estate investment world and had some shifts in my corporate career my nine to five, so I mentioned us cellular. Worked for them for, uh, really 20 plus years and, um, you know, they have a merger coming in, where t-mobile is is purchasing them. They threw a nice little severance package in front of me and, um, you know so well, no better time than now to jump into this real estate thing. I guess, yeah, I started I found out about that in November of 2024. Started LLC basically the next day in January 1st, september 2nd was my last day there in 2025 and started full goal in the real estate world in 2025. Purchased my first property, I think by end of February.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, dude. So you had this on your mind in 2022 and you said there was some exchange. So those of you guys that don't know, Joey is one of my acquisition specialists. Been with me, he's one of my longest tenured guys and he's an absolute rockstar for us, so he does a great job. There's a whole what's funny, Eric there's this whole US cellular network of people.
Speaker 1:I think all three of my acquisitions guys have all come from US cellular backgrounds, so maybe I just need to start recruiting US cellular people, maybe to work for me. I don't know, I've got a problem over there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been a great connection, you know, getting reacquainted with you, know those other guys that work there, and the partnership has been great with all of you guys there.
Speaker 1:Quite honestly, that's awesome, man. What was the? You know you've been watching. You watched for 20 years HGTV roughly right.
Speaker 2:Didn't take any action 2022,.
Speaker 1:You said it was too good to be true. Tell me a little bit about that. What was the holdback? What were the things that you were thinking like, man, this is too good to be true.
Speaker 2:I, I, I can't, I'm not ready yet I think I think the risk right. Um, I have, I have four kids. Um, you know just well, not recently, more than six years, here come, come november, but my wife and I, you know, blended families. We had six kids. You know, together, so together. So we've been going through all that stuff and it's not always the easiest sell right To be like. I'm going to quit my nine to five and go flip some houses right, it's not the easiest sell right?
Speaker 2:So I would consider myself a, you know, conservative person when it comes to just making sure my finances are in a good place. Right, especially when you have kids that depend on you. You need health insurance. You need, um, you know, stable incomes, all all those, all those things right, we all have bills to pay. So that was probably what deterred me the most, um, and you know it's. I'm fortunate enough to have, um, you know, a, a very good partner and a great, great wife that has a steady W-2 job. Right, that we can have the insurance and the stable income, if you will. Right, and it was just one of those things where timing I felt like it was really, you know, I got the push that I needed to say you know what I think now is the time, and she was supportive of it, family was supportive of it and, um, you know, just just jumped on in.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, man. Well, what's crazy, man? God's perfect timing, right Like? You've been looking at this for a long time, you've been educating yourself in some ways, right Like? I mean, just, even if you think you're not watching some of these flip shows and stuff, you're learning stuff, you're getting ideas. There's always stuff that you're you're not just watching. You know, I don't know some Netflix show, that's whatever, I forget what the what the crazy Korean one is that everybody's all goes nuts about, but I don't know that you're learning too many lessons. They're watching something like that, so you're learning things in there.
Speaker 1:And then 2022 comes and you've got six kids that you're worried about making sure are taken care of, and it's hard to give up that, that income Plus, you know. The other thing we see a lot of people do and that's one of the things I advise is, if you are in one of those roles, you know, do it on the side, start slow. But when you got six kids, man, maybe it was a time. Was it like time was an issue? Is that why you weren't looking at starting it on the side, or was it just attention that you didn't have to be able to give to it, or what? For sure, for sure.
Speaker 2:Time time was definitely a big part of it. Our kids are all very active. They're, they're older now, so again, that's, that's a piece of it where, you know, my youngest daughter is a senior in high school and so we're I don't want to say we're empty masters, but we're, you know, we're getting there. The other kids have been through college or in college. Um, so that was a piece of it. They're all very active. You know you got sports, you got travel ball, you got au, you got summer vacations, you got to get the boat out. You know there's, so there's all kinds of all kinds of distractions.
Speaker 2:If you were worried, it didn't seem like you know that it was the perfect time to try to do it on the side. And I'm not really a half in kind of guy. I'm like if I'm going to do this, I'm going to go all in and I'm going to do it right. And yeah, I just, you know I did read some books, did you know? Did some? You know, talking to a lot of the people that that do work, work for you Kind of like all right, so like no bs, what's what's? Break this down for me how? You know, how does it work and I'm a numbers guy, you know. I come from my operational background and finance background and that sort of thing, so that helps, um. So I was like all right, you know I, there's always going to be some risk involved, right? But, um, I think if you do, do your homework enough, run your numbers enough, keep your numbers modest.
Speaker 2:You mentioned ARVs early on. I think, from what I've seen, the ARVs have been really spot on. That can be the finished products that you're putting in the properties, as well as your, what your finished products are going to look like. But yeah, I think it was a number of those things. You know it's, it can. There's a, there's a fear out there. Like, I think, if you, if you go into something like this and you don't have a little bit of fear, I think you're crazy, right, I think you gotta, you gotta be probably also a serial killer right yeah, yeah, there's a good chance.
Speaker 1:If you're not scared a little bit, you're, you're definitely you should be on a watch list somewhere. Yeah, yeah, dude, that's, that's great insight, man, and I that's kind of what I anticipated was, you know, I think that is something you know. It's easy, uh, uh, from the, from the bleachers, to say, dude, everybody should do real estate and you should do this, but, man, your kids are only little, so long Right, and you know that time you don't get that time back, you hear one of the biggest regrets from anybody who's had kids is like I wish I would've had more time with my kids, you know kind of a thing. So you know, sometimes it's just a timing thing, man, and it sounds like when the time was right, you struck.
Speaker 2:So that's pretty sweet, didn't take you long? No, no, we got after it pretty quick. And, you know, obviously the goal here is to build something that can be passed down to the kids too. Some of the kids have a passion for, you know, real estate already, whether it's getting their hands dirty helping me with demo or whether it's, you know, my daughter and you know, getting into the business side of things and eventually getting her real estate license to be able to sell some of these properties or helping us stage them and getting it getting it ready.
Speaker 2:And same with my wife. You know, like I said, my wife works a demanding job and has a demanding career, but she loves to be involved in the process of picking out pink colors or if we're gonna, you know, do some staging or, you know, landscaping or whatever, I would still run some stuff, some stuff faster, but I found out real quick that she eventually was like, you know, maybe you should just handle this. I have my own, my own thing, okay. Well, I guess it was fun for a hot minute now, I'm, yeah, you got it like.
Speaker 2:I trust you. Just just maybe let me know. If we buy a house like that'd be, that's my thing. But when it comes to like you know, if you want to pick out a vanity for that bathroom, go ahead.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, good, she's, she's, she's, she's resigned herself. Her pet project is over. She's, she's got her, she got her fix.
Speaker 2:She's letting you handle it now, yeah.
Speaker 1:Very nice. What were? Um. So when you got started, you went quick, right, like you. You got this little severance thing and then boom you're you're buying deals shortly thereafter, like what were some things that maybe you didn't anticipate, uh, when you started this, this journey I would say, uh, probably like the permitting side of things probably just jumps out to me just because it's something that I'm dealing with currently.
Speaker 2:Right now, right is just making sure you have proper permitting for the projects, right that you're getting your permits pulled from the cities. You know, I anticipated finding quality contractors to be a challenge. I would say that I'm pretty fortunate in that standpoint that I have found a couple guys that I work well together. I do some of the stuff myself. To a point I found a electrician Really just building your team. I anticipated that being a challenge. It's been a little bit of a challenge but honestly you know not to call that seamlessly plugging WDP here.
Speaker 1:But I'm getting paid, you can. I'm not going to stop you here. Keep going, buddy.
Speaker 2:This is great, and obviously, like I said, I had some connections there, but it's been great to. When I need something, I haven been great to when I need something.
Speaker 2:I have reached out to. Those guys are like hey, who's, who's your electrician right or? Um, you know, I know tony is a big part of a lot of things you guys do there from a great guy. His brain and chain is a great talk with him. He's been great. You know, picking your brain on some things has been, has been awesome too. Those would be probably some of the challenges. I'm a big proponent of having systems in place right, like having a, you know, just a good, not only a good plan, but just a repeatable system in place, right. I think I'm still building that and and taking pieces of some of the things that you guys have done, I guess, and other people do, kind of you know, maybe make it my own a little bit, um, and I like to keep it simple, right, so just, um you know, getting that nice simple plan in place and planning your work and working your planning, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, that's such a good piece of advice, Cause if you're just out there flying around like a like a loose cannon, everything's going to feel chaotic in your day to day. You're probably your stress level is going to be much higher than it probably needs to be. Where, if you just have, like you're saying, if you can create a plan and you can stick to that plan and you can just and again, again you're gonna have to alter as you learn new things, but for the most part, as long as you continue to go down a certain path, it's not going to feel so chaotic. It's going to feel like you're you're working a system and you're working a process, versus just like I don't know what I'm doing, I'm crazy, right, yeah?
Speaker 2:yeah, you and I were talking a little bit about save your menards receipts, send in those rebates.
Speaker 1:They add up yeah yeah, buddy, I got an ards envelope, right here it's put.
Speaker 2:Put all my, all my receipts in that envelope and then, like once a month or so, send those babies in and you get those rebates. Now you get, you know, five, six, seven hundred bucks to buy a vanity. Buy some, whatever you need, right yeah?
Speaker 1:hey, if you got a business credit card or a separate credit card too, or you're earning some cash for back rewards or something like that man, that stuff adds up to pretty soon. You got, you're spending 40 G's on a flip or something and, like you, you just bought a big project which we can get into in a second. But you know, with all the, all the material and stuff that you're gonna have to buy for that bad boy, you put that all on a little rebate card. You're getting some, so that's that's how it adds up.
Speaker 1:pretty quick, man, and we do that with our businesses. We spend a ton of money every month and on advertising or whatever anything I can put on the card where I'm not getting charged you know some little service fee or whatever put it on there. I'm throwing it on the card and getting those getting those little rebates or those cash backers adds up every little bit helps yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. Well, I did want to talk about real quick, cause you're in an interesting thing. You went from corporate world for 20 years to now you're doing real estate full time right, like there's enough. Yeah, this is your, this is your gig, right? Yep, what's that transition been like, eric, have there been challenges with making that transition, as? Have you found kind of a system, like you mentioned, that's worked pretty well for how you manage your time? And then, what is your that's worked? Pretty well for how you manage your time.
Speaker 2:And then what is your? What makes up your time right now on a day-to-day basis? Yeah, yeah, so I started with um usd really kind of an agent of usd, if you will in a little 10 by 10 kiosk outside of food court back in, uh, 2004. Okay with that, yeah, you know. But and no, I wasn't one of those guys that would yell at you when you're walking by the phone counter. Okay, that was a different company, but I was.
Speaker 2:I was, I was in the in the mall kiosk selling some you know motorola razor, face plates and you know kind of stuff back in the flip phone days. But yeah, so I started there and kind of worked my way up from one position to the other and you know, my last position I had with US Cellular was a senior manager of our basically the business channel, right, the B2B teams and the support teams that service the larger businesses throughout the state of Wisconsin, right? So like Green Bay Packers purchased 50 iPads, like I came and set them up, service the larger businesses throughout the state of wisconsin, right. So like green bay packers purchased 50 ipads, like I can't implement them, set them up, set it all up, good stuff.
Speaker 2:But um had. You know, had a great, great career there, learned a lot. Um, had a lot of really good mentors it was, it was a good, really good company to work for and, um, you know, they took care of me on the way out. And now I'm putting that money into into into flipping houses right From flip flip phones to flipping houses, I guess.
Speaker 1:Oh, dude, I love that it's going to be. It's going to be our tagline for this episode.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, hashtag it no. So, um, yeah, I mean a lot of thought went into it, right, and um, like we said before, you know, it's just time to pull the trigger and get into this thing. So I have been had a bug in my real estate agency here I guess for a while too. That sold me this house that we live in now. Gosh, almost 10 years now I think we've been here, but you know, to look for some different properties.
Speaker 2:She, you know, after I told her we went all in, she let me know she had what what she called, I guess, an in-house listing which was just with her agency there, that um hadn't necessarily hit the mls yet, that you know, needed some work. It had some foundation stuff which is a little scary if you don't really know, know much about right, and I could tell that this is going to be something that people probably be, you know, afraid of. But there again I reached out to the resources. That that I knew. Um joey, actually, I think, referred me to um, the foundation guy that you guys normally use a couple different ones brad probably brad at deer view, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's our go-to guy usually yeah, yep.
Speaker 2:So those guys came out and gave me some quotes and I was like, all right, well, that's about about what I figured. But you know, there again, when you know they show up and they got, uh, they start digging out the side of your house and they're drilling anchors into your foundation of uh you know floor of the house. You're kind of like man, what did I get into here? But yeah, um, yeah, the first one turned out really good. You know they, we, the house. You're kind of like man, what did I get into here? But yeah, um, yeah, the first one turned out really good. You know they, we ended up, I think, sticking probably close to 60 grand into it by the time we were done, which is a lot of money. On the first one, um, you know, we ended up okay on it at the end of the day.
Speaker 2:I think all in construction there we were probably 70 days from close to finish turning around for basically me and one to two other guys kind of doing the, doing the work. We didn't have to do too much on the outside, but otherwise the inside was complete gutter, kitchen, all that good stuff. So you know, good learning process, use some resources at home depot, right, kind of let them do the layout Okay, um, let them do the countertop and kind of some of that stuff. But yeah, so that was a good learning process going through the kitchen design and all that. I hadn't done that before but okay, pretty smooth overall. Uh, but yeah, that was the. That was the first one. I think from beginning to end, that project, from close to sale was, I would say, probably five months. Okay, we closed in February, sold in June. Okay, that makes probably less than five.
Speaker 1:Did you make some money?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that one we probably walked away netted probably about 35 nice one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, not bad dude.
Speaker 2:If you make anything in your first one, you're doing good that's, yeah, that's kind of what I, kind of what I was telling you, let alone make 35 g's dude, that's pretty awesome man.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's incredible dude. And the time frame that that's a quick, quick turnaround time with that big of a project. The other thing I think is interesting here, cause you took on a big project for your first one. Yeah Right, that's pretty impressive. Most, most people I advise I'm like man, just you know, start with some cosmetic stuff, get a nice one under your belt. But you're like rip the bandaid baby, let's get it all done. Huh yeah, what was your thought process behind that? I mean, we talked about fear before. Talk about that a little bit. How did you as a first-time deal, was it just confidence in your numbers? You had enough spread there that you felt pretty confident in going into a big project like that. What was your thought process when you were evaluating that deal?
Speaker 2:if can remember back, yeah, I mean the numbers look good on it. Um, I think, like I said before, I'm just kind of an all-in guy and I knew that I didn't want to just come in and put some new paint and patch this and patch that, right, I knew I wanted to have a really good finished project. So, um, kind of just had a vision of what I wanted the house to look like when we were all all done. And you know, we just we just made it happen. It doesn't mean that there wasn't some, you know, some fear second guessing along the way.
Speaker 2:But you know, I think to me, I guess I'm in the mindset, as I'm working on these projects, if the numbers start to get, I don't know less where I want them to be essentially right. I'm just from the mindset that I'm just going to work harder on my own, then right. So, instead of you know, paying mr sam list to come in and redo the floors like I rent the equipment myself, right. So okay, having you know pro painters, come and paint the house like you got to get in there, roll up your sleeves and paint it yourself. I think it's a healthy balance, right Of subbing out some of this stuff to like the foundation. Obviously I'm not going to do myself, but you know, when it comes to spreading some mulch or mowing the lawn or whatever, it is right Like you got to sometimes just roll up your sleeves and and do it yourself, so you know you can make some money.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure. I love that, especially on those first, those early ones, right? Like you know, one of the things I'm a big proponent of is it depends on your goals, right, but if you're looking to scale and grow and create more of a business out of it, versus you know, just something you enjoy doing, like that's the other balance too. Like I hear some guys that are like, um, if you mow your own lawn you're an idiot, right, and I'm like you know I'm. I see the point, I get the point of what we're trying to make, but some people love mowing their lawn. So it's like, if you enjoy doing it and do it right, you know, not everything has to be necessarily about the monetary component to it. If you enjoy doing it, it brings you joy and happiness and you love getting your hand. You know some guys like working with their hands. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that, right? Um, yeah, but for you.
Speaker 2:What does that look like? I do pay someone to mow my own lawn because I think I'm too busy doing doing other stuff. I gotta pay someone. I'm right there with you.
Speaker 1:We moved it. We moved to pulaski back in like 2014 I think that's where 20 yeah, it's like no, 2016, I think that's where I grew up and, um, we had three acres out there, basically just like grass right, it was like three acres of grass. So I bought like the zero turn thing. I was like, yeah, I'm gonna get out of the zero turn every all the time. This would be awesome. I love it. I love driving this thing, and after like my third time mowing the lawn and it took like two or three hours I was like this is so stupid. What am I doing? I want to sell this thing right now and hire somebody to come out here and do this lawn for two or three hours every couple weeks. I'm not doing this, but some people love it. You Right, you know, let them. Let them do it. I guess.
Speaker 1:The day-to-day though, for you, eric, let's go into that real quick. I want to go circle back to that. What cause? I think there's people out there that are either already doing real estate and considering going full time, or they're like you and they're going to have some kind of life event happen and they're just going to rip the bandaid and go full bore without you know, maybe easing into it first, like you're doing.
Speaker 1:I think one of the fears when I was leaving corporate America was what am I going to do with my day? How am I going to keep myself busy? I've been doing this in the pockets of my life right For those people who started it early. How am I going to structure my days? What am I going to do? We're so used to in corporate America. You show up at this time, you do this, you do this, you got a meeting here, you got lunch. That boom, boom, boom, boom. It's very structured. You don't have to think about it when you're on your own. That can be a fear for people. It's like how do I manage my time? What does that look like for you, and has that been a challenge at all? Have you had to kind of feel that out, or was it? Has it been pretty easy to transition into the full-time work for yourself thing?
Speaker 2:um, no, I. I think it took a little bit of time to, yeah, adjust right and and again like, kind of get into your new life, kind of new workflow, right I'm. I'm the type of person that I probably have the the opposite problem. My wife tells me all the time of like, can you just sit still, can you just not do something? Like I'm to the point where it's like oh, I got a free sunday, might as well clean out the garage and yeah, florida right, so.
Speaker 2:So I never really have a problem staying busy, um, but it but it does take a little bit to be like, okay, I'm used to sitting at my desk here and having, you know, six zoom calls I don't want to be on to. Now I got to figure out what materials I got to go buy, right, or what's the scope of work on this next project. Or I got to review the different deals that we have. This week when I was because I was really in, as you know, because I'm up to four properties now I think that I purchased from you guys I was into, like I got to start buying stuff here. I got to start stacking these things up because you do want to find a way to replace that W-2 income, right.
Speaker 2:Like my wife and I have a healthy competition that we did about like who was going to make more money this year, right, so I thought she was the only one with a W-2. I'm like, well, I got a tall task here to make sure I'm matching that or beating that here by the end of the year. So, yeah, just you know, analyzing the deals, checking on the projects that are going on, as much as you know you want to trust your contractors and you think you have good people working for you and all that stuff. I mean I think you have to stay on path and you have to stay in the deadlines, stick to the plan, right, and and then that's laid out there. I did kind of learn that real, real quick in the. The first person I hired for my first clip I thought it was someone you know, I had known for for a while met him at a church basketball league type of thing.
Speaker 2:It was always one of those things that, hey, if I ever do this, I'll give you a chance. Man, you know why don't you come and do this first one with me and learned real quick? I should have probably done a little bit more, um, you know, background work on on board and we had to. You know I had to pivot kind of mid project, which is, uh, you know, also something that could have sent me back there, but we just probably do so. Yeah, I mean again, I think I've always tried to have a healthy work-life, uh, balance, but yeah, it was an adjustment, you know you have. Yeah, like I said, I I'm pretty self-motivated, self-starter type of guy, so I'll keep myself, you know, busy as much as you want to. You know watch espn until 10, 30, 11 am, maybe every day, or you know, march madness.
Speaker 2:It probably splits up a little bit cory, I'm not gonna lie yeah, yeah I watched a little bit of yeah march madness, but that that probably wasn't that much different than than when I was in corporal.
Speaker 1:I was gonna say that I get it too, like guys are gonna check their phone 90 900 times during the day during march madness to see what's going on with those games. It's just part of our culture, you know. You just got to basically chalk that up. Like you said, it doesn't matter if you're working corporate America for yourself, it's you know you're going to have those days.
Speaker 1:It's healthy too. You got to have that time to just sometimes you got to have a little time for yourself and decompress a little bit, and I think that is actually probably one of the things I see from people who go out on their own. It's it's the opposite. Like they have so much, they put so much pressure on themselves, like if they're the type of person who's considering going out on their own and running their own business. They're probably pretty driven. If you took a personality test, their disc profile, their D is going to be pretty high. They're going to have a pretty dominant personality type and they're going to put more pressure on themselves than probably anybody else would to be successful. In most cases Right.
Speaker 1:And so part of the issue sometimes isn't necessarily that they're they're taking their time. You know watching some ESPN. It's the opposite. Like they're not taking any time for themselves and it just consumes their life. So it's almost like the opposite. Like for me, I had to, I and I still have to work on this their life. So it's almost like the opposite. Like for me, I had to, I and I still have to work on this. I have to put boundaries around when I'm working and when I'm with family, and it gets really tough with with cell phones and internet and all that stuff. Now the lines get very blurred of of what what's acceptable necessarily as a business owner and what should be acceptable as a family man and a business owner. It can be a struggle on the opposite side of things.
Speaker 2:For sure. Yeah, I've definitely been on that side of it as well and been checked at 8.30 at night when I'm seeing what floorings on sale, menards or something, or watching a video of the new listings you guys have rolled out or something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, has that been a challenge for you, eric, in your life. As far as setting some boundaries with family now that you're out on your own or like, is it kind of consistent with what you had previously in the corporate world?
Speaker 2:I mean, I like to think that I have more flexibility now. Right, then, what I have before, you know, especially especially during the day for the additional flexibility has been, has been, nice, right, but to your point too, it's like, I'm sure the flexibility is nice, but there's still that, um, you know, I don't want to say how many over your head, but really they're like, okay, I need to be, I also need to be working right, I need to be doing something to make sure I'm, you know, turning around the bacon and helping support the family too, right, so it's been, it's been nice to have the flexibility. I don't miss constant calls from corporate world, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:I had a really good team, especially this last time when I was there. I missed, I missed the people from from that. But you know, I was definitely getting to a point where I didn't like answering to anybody. Uh, I've been there for probably a while. Um, you know, you know you gotta answer to yourself, so that's a bit of an adjustment yeah, going out on your own talking about that a little bit.
Speaker 1:for the people out there that are social, like, how are you and maybe you haven't found this yet. If you were, you know you mentioned the team piece of it. I think that that also could be kind of jarring. You're all all of a sudden you're around a team, you're all on a on a mission together, you're all in the same struggles you have you can complain about the conference calls together. You got that common bond and then you're out on your own and now you're kind of on an island in some aspects. Like, have you been able to to find some way to still have that kind of cohesive like get your people bucket filled and and how are you doing that now as a solo, solopreneur here?
Speaker 2:yeah, I'd say that's still a work in progress, right? So, like I mentioned before, I have the connections there with you know, with you guys, whether it's Joey or even even page page, and I have good friends, we talk quite often, so that's been nice for him and I. He's just kind of getting, um, you know, dipping into this as well, and so you know, a lot of ideas off of each other, share struggles, share successes, right? We celebrate when we both, actually, I think, closed on our first flip on the same day. Oh, that's crazy dude.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and we have the same last name, so that's even more that's even more crazy.
Speaker 1:Things are getting weird. Yeah, so that's even more crazy. That's even more crazy, things are getting weird.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly. But yeah, I think that's something I'm continuing to grow Right and I know I need to get to some of the REI meetings that you guys have even just watching, you know, in preparation for this. Watching some of these podcasts, like reviewing some of that, I'm like man, there's so much I have left to learn with this and so much good information out there. So I would say that's something I'm continuing to work on and want to continue to grow. My network my team you know just be around like-minded people right To have that entrepreneurial experience that had that passion for real estate and you know, for me that goes all the way back to my dad was in real estate.
Speaker 2:Um, I can not help them mail envelopes out for, like, you know, like for email, right, they were sending out mail, mail letters for um. People to to um get a free market analysis done on their home. People to to um get a free market analysis done on their home Right, an OG there, yeah, so that I think I need I I want to continue to to expand, um, you know, that kind of social setting of who were bouncing ideas off of all that good stuff, you know, cause it is a lot of times, you know just who. You know too. Like I said, I've been able to in a short period of time, get a lot of times.
Speaker 2:You know just who. You know too. Like I said, I've been able to, in a short period of time, get a lot of connections. And, um, you know, just just the other day I was talking to a contractor and I'm like, oh, I have this project where we're looking at maybe vaulting the ceilings. You know, I know I need an engineer out here. I'm sure that's going to take forever. And it's like well, I know this guy. Actually, why don't you give him a call him up? He happened to be at the Menards in Oshkosh. I'm like well, I'm just down the road. You think you could stop in. Oh, yeah, I can stop. So you just stopped in. So you just start saving those people in your phone. I got Joel the builder, david the scrap metal guy. You just start junk clean out, jerry, whatever it is right, you just start building a network of people.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, the guys on our team always give me crap because that's how I literally save people in my phone since their contact. So, like I have like this guy, mike the mud jacker I don't even know his last name, I just know he's mike the mud jacker and that's how he saved my phone. If I need mud jacking, that's the guy I call. You know, you got I got junk guy. Yeah, that's that's just how my contacts look now. So if you ever need a contact and you get one from me, usually their last name is going to be whatever I remember about that person or their, their role or whatever the case is.
Speaker 1:But the networking piece, man, I I swear we talk about this on every single episode because it is so important and I think not necessarily even like as you and I are talking, eric, I'm kind of thinking through the networking piece of it and it can be a lonely island if you're out on your own.
Speaker 1:Like you know, for people in corporate America and stuff like that, you still have that team connection a lot of times, so it's not as impactful.
Speaker 1:But I think, like for guys like you've gone out on your own, especially if you're more of a social person type.
Speaker 1:When you go out on your own it can be really lonely and like almost depressing at points because you're so used to that back-and-forth human interaction, like in your face, eight hours a day for 40 hours a week, and then you go out on your own and like it's just crickets and you like all your friends were your work friends because you spend all your time with them and like, oh, now they're all out doing something else or you're not in their little sphere. If you left a job, that necessarily wasn't by choice. And so getting to some of these events for the information is great, but it's more so sometimes even just for your own mental health, to be around other people with the same struggles and that you can build some connections with and relationships with and and talk through some things, joke, you know, make the real estate humor if you will, and those types of things that can. It can really help mentally a lot of times if you're out on your own.
Speaker 2:For sure, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, man, this is awesome, eric. One last thing I want to ask you about. I want to go to something a little tactical, because this was some, some little nugget you threw out there a little earlier that I've never even I didn't even know it was possible. So we've, we do, we do flips. We're doing more flips than we have in the past because our team's doing a great job locking up a lot of deals and sometimes we have more deals than what we want to put out to you guys.
Speaker 1:But but I don't get a ton into like the rehab. I've never been great at doing rehab. I don't like it. I'm not a detail guy. I don't like. I'm like I'm. I keep talking about this one in Jackson port that I'm doing. You and I were talking a little bit before this like I hate this. I hate general contracting this thing right now, and I don't have to have the general contract anything inside the house, I just have to get the house there on a new slab and I hate it Like I hate it. I'm learning a ton, though I put the second one probably would be much easier because now I've learned a lot. Everything wouldn't be such a shock to me. But, that being said, you know you mentioned something a little earlier. You went into Home Depot and they helped you lay out and design the kitchen. I didn't know this was. I didn't know you could do this. So can you tell? Tell us a little bit. How did you? Who did you talk to? How did you set that up? What was that process like?
Speaker 2:Tell me a little bit more about that. Sure, uh, you know, I don't know how I necessarily stumbled across it. I think I just started talking to somebody in their uh department there back by the kitchen cabinets, and, uh, I started asking questions about the kitchen cabinets. You know what are the most popular ones for contractors? What do you recommend? What's? You know what's the mid-grade cabinet, what's the higher end cabinet? You know you start to learn about what comes with soft closed doors, right, and then what's the price difference for those types of things? Um, but then, yeah, then I just started talking to somebody there and they out, uh, kind of outlead their program that they have, where, essentially, if you give them the rough dimensions right of the kitchen, they first set up a consultative call with you to start to lay it out, right, you give them the dimensions kind of where you think you want things.
Speaker 2:Do you want an island, you know, do you want, you know, an in-cabinet fridge, whatever right? Um, you know, do you want? You know, uh, in cabinet fridge or whatever Right? Um, and then then they then you set up another appointment after that, actually, sorry, so they sent, then they send out their own measurement team, right, so they send out to take? Take the measurements themselves just to, I think, confirm you know to use the tape measure. I guess, I don't know, maybe I'm so new, maybe they just did that with me, I don't know, yeah, I would, I would need that if that was me for sure I would.
Speaker 2:I would even trust mine for sure yeah, but they, you know, and that that's mainly for the countertops, I think, right, they want to make sure they get the countertops right, okay, um, so yeah, they.
Speaker 2:And then you have um another meeting where where they actually will lay out the kitchen um with you and I went in person for that actually, where it's kind of, you know, you get to see a nice little 3d image of the kitchen and you can um tell them, you know the height of the cabinets that you want, you know you want standard heights, you need elongated cabinets, because which I needed in this particular flip, because I took a sledgehammer to the fake like soffit, that oh yeah, kitchen um yeah, and then they, um, they do the countertops as well, and it was a pretty easy for you to pick out your appliances while you're all there, um, but it was a nice, it was a pretty easy process. And then they had somebody come in and install the quartz countertops, because again, I know that was over my head. I didn't know my contractors well enough then to really trust if that was something they specialized in and I just figured if.
Speaker 2:I'm going to invest in quartz countertops. I'm going to pay a quartz countertop company to put it in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome, would they? Would they hang the counter? Would they hang the cabinets too for you, if you want, if you need them to?
Speaker 2:yep, yeah, they'll install it. I mean for a fee, obviously, but yeah, they'll, they'll install everything. But I think, like, I think the design and the layout portion was maybe 150 bucks for the consultation. It wasn't, wasn't, wasn't much at all. And then this, this last clip that I just started actually um in in Oshkosh. Uh, it's a pretty straightforward kitchen, but I went to Lowe's for that and I just sat down with a guy right there and he, he did the imaging right there no appointment, no there. And he, he did the imaging right there no appointment, no anything. And uh, that was really smooth too.
Speaker 1:Wow, dude, that's such a good nugget right there for people, cause I think, eric, even for me I'm like it's one of the struggles you talked about getting into this, or things you anticipated maybe being a challenge. Luckily for you have not been as big of a challenge as they can be. It's finding good people to do the work Right and you outsource it to some of these big box stores. If they have people that are vetted, you know you're probably, if they don't do it right, you're probably going to have a good chance of getting somebody to come back and fix it because it's through a big box store. Right, and as long as it can meet timelines and the cost is comparable, I guess you would say, to what you could get elsewhere, it's an easy it's almost like a cheat code to get get some of these flips done without having to go and find all these different people to help you go do it and then you got to come up with the design and do all this stuff Like man.
Speaker 2:That might be the way to go for some people out there listening to this yeah, I mean I, I just looked at it as a learning opportunity is worst, worst case case scenario. Even if I don't do it again, at least I'm learning something about the process here as we, as we went through it.
Speaker 1:Yeah wow, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:yeah, I think the cabinets. I think like another key learning would be, like cabinets and windows, order them quick, because those are the things that can take the longest, especially if you have special sizes for your windows. You know, if you custom windows, that could take a little bit. Yeah, you know some in-stock windows from Menard or something you know, not as long, but cabinets I think these last cabinets that I just ordered took two to three weeks, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, definitely that's. I mean we've been pushed back before when we've had to do new cabinets and we had one situation also make sure you know when your cabinets are coming in, if you're not having home depot install it. We had home depot one time. Drop them off on a friday, didn't ever send us anything and they sat out outside all weekend and it rained all weekend and so the cabinets got ruined and they took them back. They were good about it, but now we were another three weeks out from getting new ones again.
Speaker 2:So yeah, anyway, and look them over, look over your finances, look over your cabinets right away when they get delivered, because a lot of times you do only have a small window to return. When you're surprised you know you don't want a brand new anything getting delivered with damage, right?
Speaker 1:yeah, exactly what does the future look like for you, Eric? What's the big goals? I mean, take us, what's five years? We talked to Eric. We bring them back on. What's that going to look like?
Speaker 2:I mean five years from now. Uh, I would hope that I have a healthy portfolio right? I think, uh, my goal is to have diversified portfolio of long-term rentals, short-term rentals.
Speaker 2:Uh, just starting this four plex is going to be a big, big project that we just closed on and we're doing that on monday already with, uh, you know, clean out and all that good stuff, um, but yeah, I just want to have a good portfolio right of long-term, short-term uh. Um, you know, maybe get into the commercial side of things to see Makes dollars. It makes sense, right.
Speaker 1:All that good old tagline. So right now the goal is flipping some to get some cash and then start converting that into rentals.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Nice Awesome.
Speaker 2:And continue to. Just I'm sure I'll still be learning five years from now. Oh yeah, Just a sponge trying to suck up as much information as possible and continue to, just, I'm sure. I'll still be learning five years from now. But you know right, just a sponge trying to suck suck up as much information as possible.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome dude. Yeah, as at the time we're recording this, eric closed on a big project that we had out to the list. Uh, yesterday he closed. Oh, you say mold, mold is gold baby. Oh say mold, mold is gold baby. Mold is you got the mold is gold four unit dude?
Speaker 2:so yeah it turned, turned some people away, so you got it now right. Uh, yeah, that's, but that's an exciting one. Yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Unique, unique building is, but it's got in the in-unit laundry and each of the units, nice four-car garage, a lot, of, a lot of room there. We, you know, we, we think to, um, you know, make some money on it after we get. What do you think?
Speaker 1:in the numbers on that thing are going to look like eric. So tell everybody what'd you get it for? What do you think you're going to stick into it? What do you hope it's going to appraise for?
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean roughly, we got it for 100. I think it's going to take 100 to get it right, probably 60 on the the outside, 40 on the inside. You know if you're thinking 10 grand a unit, you know, but it could go over that. You know there's some unknowns there where I think electrical is going to be a pretty big expense there as we work through it. But you know, again, I'm not getting paid for this but WDP and my you know your boy Reese over there did a really good job putting together some. You know your boy Reese over there did did a really good job putting together some.
Speaker 2:You know some numbers there with, uh, even the rental meter and you know what the building's gonna, you know, be worth after a certain span of time. But you know, so if we're all in with rehab, even at 200, 225, I think your ARV on that one was 325. The lender that I was initially working with did their own kind of independent appraisal of the property and it came in right at like 320, 325. So it came in right in line with what you guys came up with. And again, you mentioned that that earlier. So you know that was spot on. So even if you go for, mentioned that that earlier. So, um, you know that was yeah. So even if you go for that, even if, at you know, at 320, um, you know most hundreds will be 80, 80 percent of that, if you're in a mortgage.
Speaker 2:Hopefully you can cash out, you know cash out 60 on it. And when you refinance and get some good renters on there and should cash flow, you know, pretty decent. I'm thinking 1,000, 1,200 and hopefully more, you know, per month. But yeah, it should be a good project.
Speaker 1:I'm looking forward to it, dude. That's awesome man. And 320 might even be low right by the time you get it done and you start getting it rented up. Right, that's one thing I think that helps when we put these ARVs out this is just a hypothesis I have is, by the time you flip it so you buy the property today, the market is at what it is right. By the time you get it out there, say, it's six months now and you're listing this property. Or when you go to refinance this thing, let's just say you've got them all rented now. It took six months, maybe eight months, to get it stabilized and rented, or whatever the market consistently appreciates over time. Right, I just did a podcast, a solo episode, where I broke down a bunch of numbers, and this one it'll probably get released right before yours, like the week before your episode, eric. And what's interesting is like where this is in Manitowoc, you bought it, right.
Speaker 2:Yep Just outside of Manitowoc and a Francis Creek area.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I had, I had my good friends over at chat GPT do some deep research on market appreciation on rental properties and I did it for, like all of Northeast Wisconsin, manitowoc, over the last two years has appreciated like 17 to 20% or something like that, like just insane growth. Not saying that's going to happen to you, but that's where I think we see some of these ARVs maybe down the road coming in higher. It's just time is just working and the market's just consistently appreciating. So you're going to get those little bumps. So, like, if you're looking at an ARV today and your appraisers this is one of my struggles I have with some of these ARV appraisals or appraisers Sometimes they're looking six months to 12 months in the rear.
Speaker 1:Right, we're looking especially for a flip. So if you're buying it using a community bank and you're going to use a flip, right, we're trying to predict what's the market going to be in six months, not 12 months ago. What's it going to be in six months from now? And so a lot of times it's kind of lost in that translation. Again, it's not a huge difference. Four or 5% is pretty common over time, but it's still a factor. Right, you put 4% on 300,000, that's a $12,000 difference in a year in a year's time so it makes it-.
Speaker 2:Even looking back on my first flip that I did, the appraisal that was done that by by the lender um came in at like arv or they don't necessarily call it arv. I think it's kind of like a hybrid of arv and kind of current current value, because they'll end up at 80 of that number. So that came in yeah, I mean 260, right is what their appraised value was for that. So they lent up to 80% of that, but that house sold for 3.1. So when you think about where they put that number and where it ended up actually selling and again that's where I think it depends on the finishes you put in them. We put nice elements, you put quartz countertops, you put some good LGP in there.
Speaker 2:But, that's what those can pay some dividends in the end.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure. Wow, that's crazy. So one thing I just heard there we have a couple right now, one that I just did a refi on and we have a buyer of ours who actually works for us. They have a higher end one that they've bought and the appraisal came in super low. Right Point is if you can get through that and figure out a way to still finance it or rebut that appraisal and get your appraisal up. But if you can't appraisers sometimes they don't like to change their appraisals. They're a little bit like they know what they're doing. They got a little ego right, if you just gave, I think, some people some hope. Right Like, you know your numbers and you you know you're solid on your numbers and the appraisal comes in low, don't, don't count yourself out here. Right Like, there's still a good shot. You're going to, you're going to be able to get your number. If you do the, do the property right Like, rewrite, like, fix it up the way it should be right.
Speaker 2:Yeah for sure, I think, the more that's great yeah, the other thing about that, I just sorry we might have some offering going on oh, go ahead, eric.
Speaker 1:I think we had a little delay there. Yeah, I think we had a little delay there.
Speaker 2:Go on, go ahead okay no, I think the more you get under your belt too, right, you can show your lenders of like, hey, I, I know, you know this is what you're thinking, but these are the last two or three. We did that, here's what they sold for, right? So you just get more, the more experience I think can show them what you're capable of doing.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep, and I just had one on a on a duplex. So we re, we renovated both units of this upper lower duplex. We had an ARV on it of 240 that we put out to the buyers list. My appraisal came. Them were actually decent. I was kind of like, oh crap, this isn't cool, cause some of them looked pretty nice from the pictures on the previous listings. Uh, but then I went and I pulled actual. I just pulled my own comps and, like again, he used the three lowest comps. So I'm rebuttaling it right now.
Speaker 1:I wish I had an update of how that rebuttal went. But I did use my good friends again over at chat GPT. So we got a couple of shameless plugs today. Wisconsin discount properties and chat GPT hook up here. But I had it I. It was really cool. I put in all the comps that I found, I uploaded those and I I put in the appraisal and I uploaded that and I had it.
Speaker 1:Basically pick apart the appraisal and talk about why my comps were more relevant than what the appraisal was and it put together like a nicely worded rebuttal, cause otherwise I'd be like this appraiser is an idiot, you know I probably wouldn't get very far. So I had to put a nice little rebuttal and the lender called me like right after I sent it over to him. He's like thank you so much for putting all the data you gave me. This is incredible. Like wow, I'm going to send this off to the appraiser and hopefully we can.
Speaker 1:I think you got a great case here, you know, with all the data. I'm like thank you, chad GPT. You are amazing. So you know there is that possibility. So that is the risk. When you're going to do these refinances, you're going to get a low appraisal, but, um, but you don't have to close on it either, which is nice, unless you have a hard money loan and you've got to close that thing out. You've got some time if you've got to get a different bank or a different appraisal if you don't like the way your appraisal came in. So it happens.
Speaker 1:Well, eric, appreciate you being on man. This has been awesome. I loved everything we talked about today. There's tons of good nuggets in here, so this is one I think people will go back and re-listen to Again, especially if there's somebody that can relate to your current state or they're thinking about maybe going out on their own.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of good stuff in here, but for those of you guys listening I say it on every episode go share this stuff on your social platforms. Not only does it help us continue to get the word out and put this in more people's earbuds, but it's going to help you guys as well. You're going to have more people, more lenders that, that know about your private money. Possibly some deal flow coming in from people who see you're doing these types of things, especially people like Eric, who are in you know doing, doing some of the dirty work sharing some of that stuff. Now they're sharing some of the these episodes of education for other people. It's only going to help you.
Speaker 1:So, if you guys do want to get on that buyer's list, eric did a great job promoting today. I'll send him a check after this for that commercial today, but you can go to wisconsindiscountpropertiescom. Put your information in on there to get added to the buyer's list and then Reese or Connor from my team will reach out to you and have a conversation, figure out your goals, talk to you a little bit about getting you connected up with some of the people you might need to help you in your real estate journey, whether you're here, local or you're somebody outside the state that wants to invest in our markets. We would love to have that conversation with you and we will see you guys on the next episode.
