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
From Analysis Paralysis to First Flip: Page Nelson’s Fast-Track Lessons
This week, we sit down with our teammate and acquisition specialist Page Nelson, who went from overthinking to owning it—literally. He breaks down how he pushed past fear, landed his first profitable flip, stumbled on the second, and came out sharper, faster, and more confident as an investor.
If you’ve ever hesitated to pull the trigger on a deal, this episode will help you see how clear math and smart systems beat fear every time.
🔥 Inside This Episode:
📘 Free BRRRR course via Wisconsin Discount Properties (for action-ready investors)
🧠 How Page turned analysis paralysis into action—and why clarity kills fear
💰 The first flip win: tight scope, clean exit, and strong ARV strategy
🧱 Second flip struggles: distance, timelines, contractor prep, and carry costs
⚡ Hard money breakdown: speed, cost, points, and six-month pressure
📏 Rehab math: quotes vs. gut instinct + a siding cost surprise
🤝 The power of networking—REI meetups, success clubs, and referrals
📍 Dialing in the buy box: closer deals, better margins, less stress
🌅 Wisconsin lifestyle perks: Door County weekends + supper clubs
📲 How to connect with Page for deals, collabs, and questions
🎧 Listen now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube.
If you enjoyed the episode, please share it, subscribe, and leave a review—it helps us reach more Wisconsin investors like you!
📞 Connect with Page Nelson: 920-247-2536
Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of the Wisconsin Investor. I'm your host, Corey Raymond, and I got one of my very own here with me today, who I'll introduce in a second here. I'm excited for this episode today because uh I think there's a lot of good nuggets that we're we're gonna get from this guest here, which I again I'll talk about in a second. Before I do that, though, guys, as I do on pretty much every episode, I talk about our sponsor, Wisconsin Discount Properties. Today is no different. One of the things I'll just remind our audience for if you're out there and you're interested in the Burr strategy, this is one of my favorite strategies in real estate. We have a free course that uh you can get just by filling out our um our website, going to our website and filling out the the contact form, get a call going with Connor or Reese from our team, and they will hop on, they'll talk to you a little bit about your goals, what are you looking to do, that kind of thing. And if Burr is something you're interested in and you want to take the course, they will get you the discount code to get it for free. Now, this is something when it first came out, we did some one-on-one coaching with it, but it was$3,000 for the course. We got rid of the one-on-one coaching piece for it after a little while. It was$1,900. Now, if you're joining our buyers list, we're giving it away for free. So a ton of value in this course. It's really only designed for people who are ready to take action, though. So if you are still in the info gathering stage of real estate, this is a great place to be, is to be listening to this podcast. But if you said, Hey, I listen to this, now I'm ready to go do it, the course is the thing you need to get started. So get the course for free today just by going to WisconsinDiscount Properties.com. Put your information in there, and uh, we'll get you that uh that discount code. So with that, let me introduce my man, Mr. Paige Nelson. What's going on, Paige? Hey, not much, man. How are you? How are you? I'm doing good, buddy. I'm doing good. You are uh you're actually technically on the clock right now, so we gotta make this a podcast quick, you know, so I can get you back to doing deals. But for those of you guys that don't know, Paige is a uh a member of our our team at iBuyWI, which is the acquisition arm of Wisconsin Discount Properties. And uh Paige has been through, I don't even know how many houses, Paige, but a ton of houses from your time working with us. He's been collectively with us, I think what, about a year and a half total experience here now, locking deals up. So uh I think just this year alone, Paige, you've probably locked up almost 60 houses at the time we're recording this. Yeah, some Paige is doing an awesome job for us. He's really working really well with our sellers and providing them a great experience in the in the process. And then he's also been doing some of his own real estate investing here as of the start of this year, I think, is when you got your first one, right? Yeah. So today I wanted to have Paige on, guys, because he's a little bit newer to his own personal investing. Uh he's taken some massive action this year, him and his wife, and they're they're learning some lessons, they're continuing to move forward and they're doing a great job with it. But not everything is as roses and rainbows in real estate, as we'll we'll talk about today a little bit. But Paige also has a ton of experience looking at houses. So there's a lot we can cover today, Paige. But I guess just take everybody back a little bit. How did I always like to start with this? How did you get started in real estate? What got your uh interest in getting started in real estate in the first place?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I would say uh it's a very similar story to a lot of other people where you had the idea of it, you loved the idea, you watched all those shows back in the day of all these investors and uh watched the all the real estate shows and everything, and we just kind of sat back and was like, that's cool. Wow, these guys are having a lot of success in this industry. And uh again, I always thought about it, never really considered doing it, you know, it really diving into it myself, but uh I knew a couple of people. So I've I've known Joey for a very long time, right? And you enjoy he's been with you now for I don't know, six years or so.
SPEAKER_00:And almost six years, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so I've had a few conversations with him. Uh he's had a quite a minute, quite a bit of success in this industry, and uh had a again a couple conversations around that. And uh I really didn't uh pull the trigger until I got uh with you uh in this business here. And uh, you know, I always joked about uh when I first started with this company that uh uh it was great. I was here just for the information, just for the knowledge, the education is what I was here for. But turns out you pay me too, so that's kind of cool. Uh I like that aspect. Uh noise. Yeah, yeah. So uh yeah, so I had a lot of conversations with Joey about this stuff and you know, being here for uh you know, I was here for a while, six months into this thing. Uh again, just like you said, beginning of last of this year, I ended up just pulling the trigger on a property. I just said enough is enough, enough with the analysis paralysis that you talk about. And uh I just made the leap and I'm like, let's just let's get the ball rolling. What's the worst that can happen? I and it right uh oftentimes what I hear from people is it's really hard to make a mistake in this industry, right? If you're really trying and you're doing everything you're supposed to do, it's hard to mess this stuff up. It all comes down to numbers. That's it. It's math in the end. So yeah, so that was my first one this year. I've done two of them now, and uh looking to do my third one here, closing on that one pretty quick.
SPEAKER_00:So nice. When you said analysis paralysis, let's go back to that for a second. You know, a lot of times when I see analysis paralysis, it's really fear at the root of it, right? Like, do you is that what you were you were experiencing with some fear of getting started? And the yeah, you know, you mentioned like you kind of realized at some point what's the worst that could happen. Leading up to that, was there sort of this thing playing in your head of like worst case scenarios of like what if this doesn't go right? Is that what was holding you back or what was keeping you from starting even earlier than you did?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I think it I think it comes down to uh the uh having a clear understanding of the process. Uh, I think that might have been part of it. And yeah, there was a little bit of fear there. You don't want to I don't know if it just comes down to some sort of psychological aspect of it too, where you just don't want to fail. Uh maybe that's part of it, but uh, but it is a big number when you look at it, you're like, wow, this is a this is a lot of money that you're that you're dealing with here. And um, you know, that was that was probably one of my biggest concerns there. But again, what it really comes down to is just math and uh and having a lot of conversations with you and watching all the people around me uh not not really caring about this stuff, it seemed like it wasn't that big of a deal to get these properties and do these flips and things. And uh it turns out that is absolutely correct. But yes, there's a there was a little bit of fear, and once you get over that and you talk and you just focus on the numbers of it, what that's all you gotta focus on. That's all you gotta worry about, right? And it all works out in the end. So yeah, that's that was it. Um yeah, I think again, working with you and being surrounded with all these people, and I think that helped out a lot just to get over it. And and I don't have the only one. My wife was my wife was she was uh you know, the the angel devil thing, you know, she was the conscious was there, and she she was like, I we can't do this, like this is a big risk. I had to keep having these conversations with her, and and we kind of uh agreed together that let's just do it. Let's what's the worst that can happen?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, what was the turning point for her though, Paige? Because I think it's really easy. Like a couple things you mentioned there, I just want to highlight. I think on every episode so far, almost every episode at least, people are talking about the network, right? And just surrounding yourself with people, right? Everybody who's been in personal development, you always hear that you're the sum of the five people you spend the most time with, yada, yada, yada, right? It really is true. Now, what's interesting is you chose to come into a profession and literally surround yourself all day long with people who are in real estate, doing real estate on their own. Plus, you work for a business doing real estate. Your wife is not in the industry, yeah, right? And so you're probably coming home charged up, like, oh my gosh, honey, we're gonna do this thing. And she's not around this energy all the time of like the confidence that you're getting to suck from her. What was the turning point for her? Like, when did she go from like, hey, this is a really big risk to all of a sudden, like, uh, let's do it? What was that like?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I think it I think it came down to that. It was me coming home, bringing all that energy home and the excitement and enthusiasm, and and just sharing a lot of the information that I learned with her. Uh, she wasn't completely on board, but she just trusted what I was saying. And uh so the yeah, so to touch on a little bit, the first property that I picked up was was one of one of the ones that were on our list. It was it was one that I actually met with the seller and got under contract, and I've seen a lot of value in it. Um we we dug into the ARB and all that stuff. But anyways, I getting a little off track there. But to answer your question, uh what was it that got her on board? Again, I think it was just saying, yeah, I think this is the right move. I mean, what else are we gonna do? How you know uh the the the end goal for us is we want to get a couple flips under our belt, get all that uh education, get uh we're gonna learn so much doing that, and then in the the long game is to get some rental properties.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah. Cool, awesome. So she eventually just worked her along and hard enough that she finally said, All right, I give up. You win, Paige. But I think it is important. Like I think it it in relationships, what's what's important? We talk about the RES success meeting that we run. Wisco Rhea has meetings all over the state people can go to. There's caffeine and cash flow that you can go to during the day if you if the nighttime thing doesn't work for you. So there's plenty of opportunities to route to surround yourself with people who are in this industry. And I think when you're starting out, it's so important for the audience that's new to real estate or want it has the interest in real estate to just get outside their comfort zone and get to some of these things. Because the first meeting is gonna suck if you're not an out extrovert like you or I, right? Like I love being at those things, but if you're if that's not your cup of tea and whatever, it's gonna suck to be there. But you go back, you show up again, and you show up again. Pretty soon you start seeing the same faces and you start having conversations with some people and you can suck the confidence from those people and and make it your own. If you're out on an island trying to do this by yourself, you can talk yourself out of it really quickly and really easily. Or your partner, who maybe is the brake pedal, so to speak, in the relationship, they can come in with a strong position and say no. And if you don't have that confidence that you're sucking from the people around you that are doing it on a day-to-day basis, like it's really easy just to go, okay, yeah. I guess we'll just continue working our job till we're 65, get an RV, drive around the country for a couple years and die, you know, type of a thing. So oh, look at that. Paige's getting calls right now live on this thing. I mean, this he this guy's less locking deals up. Nonstop, man. It's non-stop. So just taking money out of your pocket by keeping you on. We gotta hurry this thing up, man.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. All right. Uh no, I think what you're talking about here is super important, though. So it's it's nice that I have access to all you guys and we were working in this uh in this industry and everything. But um if if I wasn't here, yeah, I would highly recommend that uh people attend these REI meetings. You can just learn if they're so valuable. They really are, just with all the people, the networking opportunities there, everybody's there to share something. Everybody is very uh open and and they want to share. Everybody wants to share all their success, and um that's just how it is. So yeah, if you've never been to an REI, I highly recommend going to one of those.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, for sure. And I think what's interesting is like um as we've had to take our business to higher levels and and continue to grow and expand and that kind of thing, like we have to pay to go to be in some of these things now. They call them masterminds. A lot of people have heard that terminology tossed around, right? Like we pay tens of thousands of dollars a year for personal development, growth, and to be a part of some of these bigger networks. Like if you're local and you're tapping into some of these events that are happening, most of them are free or a very small charge. I think REI success, we charge like$100 for the year for two people and we donate any of the proceeds from that. So it's not like we we don't charge to make money on this thing, we charge to get people to commit to it. Um, but that's a such a I mean, if you can't get$100 of value by going to one of these events once, right? It's you, it's you, it's not the event. There's one person in that room, I guarantee, one conversation that'll make you more than a hundred dollars in real life. You can charge a hundred dollars a meeting for that. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And just to clarify for those you guys will say, it's not a hundred dollars a meeting, it's a hundred dollars for the year. Okay. So just don't be scared off by that if that number intimidates you. And I get it, when you're starting out, money's tight, right? Like you don't have money to be thrown around on tens of thousands of dollars a year on masterminds. So this is a great opportunity for people who are, you know, just getting their feet wet to get around people that it can breathe some confidence into them, connect them to some people that can accelerate their goals and and really take them to that next level here locally and around the state. So that's great. Talk about what was that first deal like for you, Paige? What were some of the lessons learned? You know, going into it, what did you think the process was gonna be like? And was there, you know, some things that maybe were different than what your initial you know thoughts were, even with your all the knowledge you do have.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, so it was still uh it was it was still it wasn't easy, okay? But it also wasn't that difficult. I mean, when I look back on it, I'm like, maybe I made it more difficult than it needed to be. That's really what it comes down to. Uh and everybody says that. They're like, dude, your first flip, you're you're gonna overdo it, you're gonna overthink it, all this stuff. So I knew that going into it. I'm like, oh, this is good, this would be cakewalking. Keep it simple, do all this stuff, right? So uh this one again, I got it off of our off of our list. Uh ended up uh taking it down for I think it was like 165, I want to say, somewhere right around there. Uh now I did end up using hard money on this. Uh and and so I got enough to where it basically covered the the purchase price, and then there was maybe another five grand or something left over for some rehab. So luckily on this one, you know, I had some capital sitting on so I could use to uh to fix it up and and a ton of sweat equity also. So I didn't use contractors 100%. I did get in there. Me and my wife and I uh we went in there and did what we could, right? Some painting and all these other things. But um, yeah, so so that took us, I want to say it took us about four months or so. Uh we got it listed. Now I think the ARV on that thing was somewhere around 250, something like that. Okay. So that's what I was working with. Those numbers we go, we went to go, we went to list this property, and we got offers immediately on this thing for over ask. So we listed it at 250, and it long story short, it ended up selling for 265, uh, no inspection. I mean, it was just it was amazing. We had several come through. So yeah, that was a that was a success story. That was a big win for us. I mean, that's awesome. I probably stuck in maybe about 35 grand into it, 40 grand or so, but still it ended up walking away. You know, I got to that the title company, uh, sat down and they cut me a check for about 55 grand. So that was a pretty pretty good success story for my book. Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Was that 55 grand a profit, or was that 25? Well, that was 55 profit. That was after paying the for the rehabilitation.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. So either way, that's what that's what I got that check for, is 55. So you're right. I it did cut in a little bit, but either way, that was uh that was a heck of a that's still a big win.
SPEAKER_00:Dude, first flip, man, make anything on the first flip. We've said that on the show multiple times. If you're making money on your first flip, that good that was good luck or good good job by you. No, yeah, because most people on their first flip, if you can just break even, that's a big win. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01:I made a made a hefty profit on it. It was about 25 grand or so. And uh yeah, so that was great. Uh, I loved that. And now that again, at the same time, though, I was also doing a second flip. So this is where it got kind of got away from me. And and this is where I was gonna get.
SPEAKER_00:I'm glad we're talking about this. I was about to go there, but you beat me to it.
SPEAKER_01:Lesson learned though, and I think it's really important to talk about this. So for me personally, so just starting out, uh, myself and my wife getting after this, these things here, we were doing uh we I think we just bit off a little bit too much to start, right? So what going back on it, I would say if I just focused on one at a time, it would have been a a much better, much better option for us, right? So the second property that we got, uh I kind of just neglected. It was just kind of sitting off on the on the back burner there. Uh this one was up in Sturgeon Bay, and now this is a great property. It it was pretty amazing, but again, I just I just didn't put in the time that was needed into this place. Um it kind of the time got away from me, and then we just hustled right at the very end there. And uh, long story short, we got it sold, but this one was not a win for me. I I did have to bring some money to closing in order to get this thing done.
SPEAKER_00:But again, it was what is the what is the out of those two flips, are you still are you still net positive or are you net negative now?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, we have we're still up about uh you know 15, maybe 20, somewhere around there. So oh shoot, that's not bad, man. Yeah, no, so it's still pretty good. And I thought I thought maybe you lost worse on the surge of bayonet. No, no, it was it was okay. It was still okay. I still had to bring a check to closing. Nobody wants to do that, but again, uh I'm happy that it happened. I mean, for just for the aspect of of looking back on it and uh figuring out why that happened, right? So it's I mean, if I was uh part of me thinks like, what happens if I would have made a ton of profit? That would have been awesome, right? But maybe I would have really just been slacking in the future again. Now I know that there is a it's very important to stick to deadlines, and the faster you move these things, the better. And I know people say that, but I learned the hard way that you need to get moving on these things. So yeah, you know, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, and you used hard money for both of them, right? I did. I didn't talk talk to the audience who who's not really familiar with hard money because I think this is one of the things that uh it's a great tool to use, and you definitely used it to get going. So there's pros to using it, and then there's some some risks, there's some cons that people should be aware of. Maybe just talk about your experience with hard money and and what that looked like.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so uh so hard money, the first one that I went through was uh good faith uh with Tony Breyer. He uh great guy. Uh so what they do is we look at the ARV. So, what's the property gonna be worth after it's all fixed up and everything, right? So let's talk take talk about the Kimberly property. Say it's a$250,000 home, they will they will borrow you 65% of that, of whatever that value is. Uh, and then I believe there's a couple points up front automatically. Um uh but either way, so the the convenience of it, the the best part about it, I should say, is the convenience of it. It's almost just like cash. So you can come in and and offer on these properties, and you don't actually have to have cash, you don't have to have that amount in your bank account. You work directly with these guys, you look, you you come up with a game plan of what you're gonna do to the property, you why you believe it is this ARV and all that stuff, right? They will give you that 65% right away to purchase the property, and oftentimes that there's enough spread there. Well, you'll have a little bit of uh a rehab budget there, too, right? So um, so anyway, I I like it because it's convenient, it's fast, you don't gotta mess around with banks or anything like that. You just get it done, and again, it just comes down to numbers. So it is expensive at times, but the convenience is outweighs the the price.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely. And I think for a lot of people who are starting out, hard money is we typically see a lot of people start with hard money as their first option because of the convenience. You don't have to deal with the banks. You know, if you're coming in, you don't have a track record yet. Some of the banks don't want to necessarily lend to you yet. So it's almost like the chicken or the egg, right? Like, well, shoot, how am I gonna get experience if nobody will lend to me? And I don't have money to go just buy these things cash right now because that's why I need to flip, because I need money, right? So it's kind of this chicken or the egg. So that the hard money really fills that need in the marketplace to have that. Now, like you said, I I typically advise people to avoid hard money as much as possible because they're going to have uh some higher costs and they're gonna be less competitive on offers if they're running their numbers properly, right? Because they're they're they're you know, commercial financing, as we call it, or community banks is typically going to be less expensive, but less convenient. Now, for example, a lot of our deals that we put out pages, you know, when you guys are locking these up, you are trying to get closed dates that will allow for us to run our process, put it out to the buyer's list, have an inspection on them, and then still have 30 to 45 days ideally from the date we would assign it to you in order to get it to close, right? Um, sometimes it doesn't always happen though. And so if you're using community bank or commercial financing, they need that window because they're gonna need an appraisal to tell you how much they're willing to lend you, basically. And then you're gonna have that that time frame that they still needed to go through whatever approval process and then get it closed. Uh, with hard money, it's like you could close it in a couple hours, literally. Like, I know uh good faith has closed some in like three hours. Literally, they got it from one of the investors that they'd have been working with. They were comfortable with the investor, comfortable with the numbers, and boom, they had that thing closed up in several hours. So that's some of the big differences. But again, it is more expensive, so something to be aware of. You and you only get usually a six-month window. You know, if you're working with some national hard money lenders or some national companies out there, they may have longer um close period, you know, time frames where you have to pay it back. But local local ones are typically six months. So, like you said, you get you can't use you think you got six months is a long time until you get into a flip, right? Yeah, that's right. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. So looking back at that Sturgeon Bay one compared to the Kimberly one, okay? Now that you've had a little time to reflect on it, you mentioned one of the lessons learned with the Sturgeon Bay one was you kind of had it on the back burner. It was kind of just sitting there, right? We just kind of touched on that time frame. Were there other things that now that you've had some time to reflect that you look back and you say, well, this is what made the Kimberly one a winner, and this is what sunk the Sturgeon Bay one and made it uh a net loser?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it it really came down to what I did to the property also. Again, we we devoted so much time and energy into the Kimberly property, and we didn't we just didn't do the same thing to the uh Sturgeon Bay one. Now, so for me personally, uh I've I've looked at I've I've dialed in my buy box a little bit better. So the the Sturgeon Bay property was just a higher ticket home, right? It was uh$300,000 home, and um uh so that was part of it. Uh rehab budget was uh I mean around similar, about 20 grand or so, but uh uh a location also very is key. Uh for me, an hour away from from home was was challenging for me. So that's something that you maybe want to consider in the future. That's something we are considering now going forward here. Uh but uh yeah, we should have just uh devoted a little bit more time to it, uh maybe got contractors lined up beforehand a little bit better than what we did. We had some people uh that we we felt we could trust, and it just kind of fell through. So uh and again, just a little side note here going to those REI success clubs and and being a part of their the uh the group on Facebook is a really uh is a valuable resource to find quality contractors, just a little side note there. But nice, and that's something I learned also. Uh I was doing it on my own, but uh word of mouth is definitely the best way to find contractors. So what would I do different? I would have done one property at a time and I would have devoted a little bit more time and energy and got some better contractors up there.
SPEAKER_00:Got it. Very good. How is that how are how are these two experiences changed you know the future for what you and Renee are are doing in the real estate space? Because you're not scared off by that loss. I mean, you guys are still actively looking. So what what how has that changed anything other than the buy box, tightening up that buy box a little bit? Uh changes that you guys make it.
SPEAKER_01:Again, we just we learned so much just from those experiences. I know I'm not sharing enough details on what we've learned, but uh we did, we just learned so much from it. Uh yeah. Um, and it it it it gave Renee, that's my wife, uh she she's she has she's much more confident now in the process, right? Because she's experienced these two now. She's actually excited about it. So she's uh she's the one on the buyer's list now, looking at different properties and kind of figuring out what we need to buy. So we actually picked up one coming up here in in Appleton. So this one was on our buyers list also, and uh we ended up getting the winning bid on that one, and we feel good about it. It's and she's very excited about it. She's ready to get in there and start uh getting these contractors lined up and all that stuff. So I think it just comes down to experience. And uh again, we it had we not just pulled the trigger on that first Kimberly property, well, then we wouldn't have this uh confidence that we have now.
SPEAKER_00:So that is awesome I think that's such a great lesson, right there, guys. I think that's a nugget you gotta go back and re-listen to if if you were doing something else, you're you're at the gym working out, kind of listening to this in one ear and doing something else. It's like anything, Paige. Like when you first do something, it's really uncomfortable, right? Like, I think about the first time I ever presented in front of an audience, right? Or in front of uh uh like on stage doing anything. I mean, it's scary. Like, oh my gosh, like I don't know what I'm saying. I don't know if people are gonna like this. What are they da-da-da-da-da? Now that like I can get on almost any stage in front of an audience, and I'm like, if I'm if I know what I'm talking about, I'm like, whatever, not a big deal, don't care. You can put me in front of 5,000, 10,000, 200 people. I don't care. It doesn't bother me. First time it did. It's the same thing in real estate. Like, I think there's a lot of people like listening to this episode, maybe that have that analysis paralysis. That's why they're listening to the show. They're hoping I tell them some nugget that's gonna just unlock the key to the kingdom, and now all of a sudden they're gonna have all the knowledge of all the real estate investors ever, and now it's gonna make all the difference in the world. And it's not, it's not until you get into the game and you just pull the trigger and do that first one to really get over that uncomfortable piece, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. And uh, you know, the interesting part about this too is again that what I'm doing here, I'm an acquisition specialist, I meet with all these sellers and everything. And now that I've been doing my own flicks, that's that's helping me on on both sides of it, really. So this the position that I'm in here, helping helping your team here, and uh, and my personal stuff, it's that they're helping each other.
SPEAKER_00:Right on. What we're so how are how is that helping each other? Like, talk about that. Is that just in the numbers now? You're a little more confident in understanding rehab numbers. Is that what you're referencing or what's that's right specifically?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So when I uh you know first started with this business and everything, we kind of uh do our best to dial in numbers and we'd have conversations about it. What does it look like as far as rehab goes and all that stuff? Now when I'm a meeting with a seller, I can see things for for what it is and and have a much better understanding of what that's going to cost, uh, whether it's going to be uh on your own. Uh oftentimes when we put it in, uh we calculate it out hiring the stuff out, right? We don't yeah, we try that's what that's how we do it. So that's yeah, that's that's what we do on appointment. We look at stuff, we go, okay, well, the kitchen, you know, it's a little dated. We don't say this stuff out loud to these sellers, but we're we start calculating our minds of we start tallying up all the all the price and the cost of everything. So that's helped me out quite a bit, uh, just uh going through the process on my own. And um, so yeah, that that helps. Yeah, it helps the other side too.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, and if you're out there and you're listening to this and you're not an acquisition specialist for a company like ours, which 99% of you are not, uh, what Paige is talking about is still applicable to you because after you do that first one and you're you're in the details, you're you're managing that project, you're you're either in there doing it yourself or you're hiring it out and finding people, you get you get a really good idea of all of the cost, right? I remember this was one of my first things, Paige, when we got our first property. I tell I tell this story a lot, but I like literally didn't know the difference between the water heater and the furnace. And I mean, our first house that we did, we built brand new. So like I didn't have to be, I never had to maintain anything or like I changed a furnace filter. That was about it, you know. Uh I didn't I didn't have to do anything. It was like white glove service, right? So when I got into this business, I'm like coming into this with no confidence because I have no confidence in what anything is in a house. Like, I don't know. I mean, I know what a window looks like, you know. That's that's about it. And uh, and I remember we walked through this first duplex and the floor was pretty beat up and it was kind of sinking, you know, it had the sinking floor going on in the kitchen, and uh, you know, so I'm like, oh my gosh, this place falling down, like what's happening? The garage was like leaning this way, and I was like, oh my god, I need a new garage. I need this. Like, this is gonna be this is gonna be a$70,000 rehab, right? And at the time we had a really good contractor that we just same thing, word of mouth, networking. Somebody gave us you know their contractor that we could use, which is pretty rare, and it was great, which is even more rare. And um, we walked through this house and I was like, hey man, like how much for like to just update this beat up floor, what do you think that would cost? And it ended up being like way less than what I was anticipating. And then and then I was like, hey, what about like these kitchen cabinets are pretty beat up? And it was like, well, if you replace them, we're probably at this cost. If we just paint them, because they're not bad, they're just ugly, then it's this cost. And I was like, Oh, you can do that. Wow, I didn't even know you could paint cabinets. This is amazing, you know? So, like just that experience. Then I pretty soon I would walk into a house and I would be like, Oh, yeah, 30 grand rehab. That's what it is. Like it just after a while you do enough of them, and you're just like, it's not scary anymore. It's like, oh, okay, I know a square foot for flooring right now is about this to install this. I know windows are gonna be this, like it's all the stuff you just start kind of accumulating that. But it takes that experience of doing it a few different times, and you're not gonna get that listening to podcasts, you're not gonna get that without just getting in and getting dirty and starting to make some of these phone calls, starting to walk some of these properties with some contractors, or in our case, I always recommend people share that buyer resource folder that we have. It has an inspection report in it, it has a walkthrough video. Sometimes we'll have some pictures in there. Just share that with a contractor and say, Hey, I'm thinking I would want to do this, this, this to the house. What would that cost? And you know, look at the inspection report, what else would need to be done? What would this all cost to do?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's really good. And I'm I'm with ideas. Yeah, no, I'm I'm I'm with you on this. It's uh there's oftentimes we just look at a property. I did so this is what Renee was experiencing during this time too when we first started came into this. She was See these videos, and she's like, What are you talking about? That's it's gonna cost a fortune to get this stuff up. But I'm like, No, no, hold on, let's let's break it down, let's talk about it. Uh, let's look at what the actual numbers are. So it is it's scary when you look at some of these places. You think it's gonna be that you can't even do it, it's gonna cost more than the home is worth. But the reality is when you start uh putting the numbers down, you start adding it up, you're like, oh, it's really not that bad. For an example, uh, we just we so we were kicking around these numbers about the society on this uh uh De Pier property. It's yeah a good example to to talk about here. We were kind of uh going back and forth, like, man, this this could come back anywhere from 30 grand, 40 grand. I don't even know. Like it's gonna cost a lot. Well, we just got a quote back on it. Uh by the way, this uh I don't know when this video is coming out here, but this property is live right now.
SPEAKER_00:Not soon enough, Paige. Not soon enough. About after the week is over, yeah. So if it's still out there next week and you're listening to this on Tuesday morning, hey you know.
SPEAKER_01:So uh, anyways, uh the the quote came back and I believe it was around 16,000 to 18,000. So we were way off. I mean, we were we were talking, we were thinking crazy numbers. So that really helped out with the budget quite a bit. And um, it just just goes to show you uh just don't be afraid when you see these things and they seem uh so overwhelming, it's not that big of a deal. You you just uh while in the numbers a little bit better, figure out exactly what the cost is going to be, and um yeah, that's it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and I tend to do that on a lot of our deals. I'm looking at it as a conservative approach when when you guys bring a deal. I'm thinking I'm putting myself in a buyer's shoes when I look at this, right? I'm like, oh, first glance, siding, 50 grand, just budget 50 for it. It was$16,000 to do the side. I mean, you do 16 grand of brand new siding to that house in De Pere, Wisconsin. So for those of you that aren't familiar with De Pierre Wisconsin, it's a little suburb of Green Bay, super popular market, great schools, so on and so forth, right? Um, but you put new siding and give that thing a new look. I mean, that's a totally different house. And that your ARV just goes up just from doing that. 16 grand is not that much to do what that would do to that house, right? But on my first look, I'm looking at that going, oh my gosh, this thing is a dumpster fire, right? Like, good lord. I I did what Renee do. But when you start actually get diving into some of the numbers and you break it down, you're like, oh, that's only a couple grand here, it's a couple grand there. It's not really as much as you probably think it is. So though for those of you guys listening to this as well, I just want to plug the REI success meeting here as well. If you're in the Green Bay area or you want to travel a little bit if you're not, um, in November, it'll be the third Tuesday of the month. Normally we do it the fourth Tuesday of the month, but with Thanksgiving being later this week, it'll be the week before that. We did this last year, and it was super powerful. Paige, I believe you were at this meeting where we we put one of the deals that we flipped up on the screen, and we gave everybody a QR code, and everybody at their tables went through the inspection report and the pictures we provided. Yep, and they all had to talk about scope of work and what it would be like. And so we gave you our resource folder and all this stuff, and we had obviously the actual numbers on it. And we went around the table afterwards and we had everybody plug in on their little QR code what they thought the rehab was gonna be. You remember this one?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. It was it was very entertaining in education. It was entertaining.
SPEAKER_00:We had some people, like their table came up with$30,000 for the rehab, right? And then we had other tables that were at$90,000 for the rehab. So think about for those of you guys out there listening to this, what Paige is talking about today of just that experience, Paige, you gained from doing those two flips and starting to understand some of the numbers. And then in some of these deals, like if you haven't had one, you had to get siding done before, it's a you're you're guessing, right? When you're walking through these or looking at them. When we get those things, we try to get quotes on some of the stuff. Now, sometimes we don't have as much time as we'd like, but even if you're not buying that particular deal, if you're looking through all these buyer resource folders and now you see this house and you're like, oh my gosh, they got a siding quote. Just plug that into your mental file cabinet here for the next time you have one that looks ugly, you know roughly what the signing would cost, right? And imagine how much more competitive you can be if you can dial in your rehab numbers. Think about how many tens of thousands of dollars people are missing out on out there because they're guessing at the rehab numbers. I mean, that's insane. If you're if you're budgeting 90,000 and your competition is budgeting 30 and they're more dialed in, and they know 30 is a pretty pretty good number, you're underbidding by$60,000. How many deals are you gonna miss by doing that? Yeah, you're absolutely right. It's a huge, it's a huge deal. So, and our actual number on that deal, if I remember correctly, we spent$18,000 on the rehab. So nobody got it right. Everybody over budgeted on what they thought it needed to needed to be done to it to get it to to flip and sell. But every market's different, every property is different too. You know, a rental property, we're gonna budget differently on rehab than we're gonna budget on a flip property, you know? A place in Sturgeon Bay of Flip, we're gonna budget less. Uh I mean more probably for a higher end property than what we would on, you know, something that's the ARV's 180 or something, you know. So just depends. But anyway, well, Page Man, I got a lot of lessons out of this myself. These are all great reminders. I think our audience did as well. Uh, one of the things we always ask every guest, as you know, from listening to this thing, uh, this required listening here, by the way, at the company. No, I'm just kidding. Uh, but the uh we we want to include people from outside of Wisconsin, maybe that don't know much about the state. You know, they're thinking about, man, where could I place some capital? Where could I do some of these flips or rentals or whatever the case is? We'd like to tell them a little bit about Wisconsin. So for you, do you have a favorite Wisconsin tradition or place you like to visit? Yeah, that's the I I should have been prepared for this. This is the only prepared question on these things.
SPEAKER_01:You know, uh Wisconsin is known for their supper clubs, right? So we friends who like to get together and try new supper clubs in the area. Uh of course, Door County, that's always a good time. What maybe about twice a year, we'll take the family up in Door County and and go visit up there, especially during this time of year where the fall the leaves are changing colors and everything, is beautiful up there. But there's uh you can't go wrong with a little supper club. They got supper clubs up there too.
SPEAKER_00:Two birds, one snow. They do. Yes, that's very that is a great point. Yes, that the some of the supper clubs up here too are just epic. Like I mean stereotypical. Some of the some of the best. Yeah, for sure, for sure. Well, awesome, Paige. This has been great. Hey, man, if anybody wants to reach out to you either to talk about any of the deals that you got going on or just pick your brain on anything that you talked about today, man, what's the best way for somebody to get in touch with you?
SPEAKER_01:Uh, I would say just give me a call. I my direct number is 920-247-2536. That's the best way to do it. And I'm open for anybody who wants to call and talk to me about any properties that are out there, and you'll know that they're mine. We do these intro videos on these things, so you'll know which one's mine. Yeah, give me a jingle if you've got any questions at all.
SPEAKER_00:Awesome. Well, thanks for everybody for tuning into this. Guys, if you got some value out of today's show, please share it on your on your socials. Really important for us. We're trying to grow those ratings and reviews. So we've been at this now, I think about a year. And uh, one of the things I've been doing a really poor job at is really trying to get more of these ratings and reviews and subscribers on the YouTube channel. So if you guys are listening to this episode and you're like, man, yeah, this was great, just do us a huge favor. Go out there, leave a rating and a review for us on whatever platform you're doing it on. And again, if you're if you're watching any of this stuff on YouTube, subscribing to the channel really, really helps us. And then commenting on the videos also really, really helps us as well. So uh engaging with the content is what I'm being told. Really helps us grow the audience, and and we want to continue to get the word out there and let people know about investing in Wisconsin and help some of those other people out there that uh like yourself that are listening for those nuggets. So I appreciate you guys tuning in. Uh, we will see you guys on the next episode.
