150: Update on My Brokerage, Flips, and Rentals

On my 150th episode of The InvestFourMore Real Estate Podcast, I go over my business, which has been a little crazy lately. I started a new real estate brokerage in April, which we have been getting up and running, and I have been remodeling a new space. I am still flipping a lot of houses, but I have not been buying as many flips as I would like to. I have not been buying a lot of rentals, but the one rental I bought this year has been doing very well. On the podcast, I talk about all of this, the challenges, the progress, and the plan moving forward.

How is the progress on my real estate brokerage?

I started my real estate brokerage in April, which was a couple of months earlier than I had originally planned. The office I was previously working in decided I needed to leave sooner rather than later. However, my team is with me at the new brokerage, and three other agents have left the office I used to work at since I left! It has taken a lot of work to gets things up and running with the new office, but we are making a ton of progress. Here are a few things I had to do:

  • Create my business (Blue Steel Real Estate)
  • Become a managing broker
  • Transfer my license and my team’s license to the new brokerage
  • Get our MLS access changed
  • Set up a showing service
  • Change insurance for the office
  • Get office supplies
  • Create a logo
  • Get real estate signs

There has been much more we have had to do, and luckily, I have a lot of help. Aside from getting the new brokerage up and running, we have had to remodel a new space for the brokerage. I am in a temporary office until the permanent office is ready. We have been working on the space with a contractor I have used for years. Progress was moving at a snail’s pace, with the paint taking over 7 weeks to complete! The contractor was not doing anything to speed up the work and eventually told us he had bigger and better clients that were more important. We fired him a couple of weeks ago and had a new contractor in the space the same day. I was so relieved to have the new contractor there and working! We have made a lot of progress, and I think we will be able to move into the new space June 1st, although not all the work may be complete.

Here is a recent video of the progress:

How have my house flips been progressing?

I had a goal to flip 36 houses in 2018. I have been doing a decent job of selling flips, but we have not been buying nearly as many as I would like. We have sold 10 flips so far this year, with 6 more set to close in the next couple of weeks. However, I have only bought 7 flips! I was planning to buy 3 per month, and I am way behind that number. I have been distracted with the new brokerage, remodel, and everything else going on, but it is also getting tougher and tougher to find deals. Colorado has a crazy real estate market, and things have not calmed down at all. We are doing direct marketing, working with wholesalers, looking on the MLS, and many other places, but it is tough. I have a number of leads from my direct marketing campaign that I hope will pan out soon.

How have my rental properties performed?

I have only bought one rental in 2018, but it was a big one! I bought the building where my new real estate office will be. The total square footage is over 68,000, but it also holds a grocery store, a restaurant, and another office. I rented out some of the vacant space, which has made the building perform even better than we anticipated. It has been a little work learning the ins and outs of the building and leases, but it has been really fun and cool. The tenants pay for almost every expense, which makes the building a home-run purchase. I feel like we got an amazing deal.

It has been a little stressful this year with everything going on, but it has been exciting and fun as well. I would love for things to go faster, but I am used to remodels taking longer than I think they should. It has been a great experience having my own office and being in complete control of how we run things.