Marine Resells Appliances for Extra $2,000/Month

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

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Thanks for tuning in today. My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host of Side Hustle School. I love bringing you all these stories. I love hearing what you're up to. We have a wonderful group of listeners out there who are all trying to create freedom through the form of an income generating project to be able to do more of what's important to you, or in some cases, just to pay the bills.

Hey, I get it. So today we have a case study in appliance flipping. How do you go about reselling washers and dryers? Well, it helps if you know how to fix them. But if you don't, maybe you can learn from YouTube.

In this story, a former US Marine living in pricey California sets out to earn an extra $2,000 a month by buying, fixing, and flipping washers and dryers. I'll bring you this story, along with a helpful tip or two, in just 30 seconds. [Music]

It might surprise you to know that household appliances used to last 20 to 25 years when purchased brand new. Now today, it isn't out of the ordinary to replace a washer and dryer after fewer than 10 years. So what happened there?

Well, the manufacturing of these appliances has improved in some ways, no doubt, but clearly not all. And though some people accept the rinse and repeat of the modern market, Vincent Guiteau saw something he got hung up on. While looking for appliances for his own house, he found that brand new sets would be bought and sold for $800 or more every day. But used sets that had a problem or two would sit on the market at $100 for much longer. Now, some people wouldn't consider buying used appliances that weren't working well, but as a former US Marine, Vincent saw a whole other ball of lint.

After buying the used broken washer dryer set of his dreams, he looked up its serial number and began parsing through its parts to figure out what was wrong. He was no stranger to online research. After all, his day job now was in cybersecurity. Step one was a confidential government database that few have access to. No, wait, actually, it was just YouTube.

Using the appliances serial number, he searched for instructional guides and he learned that all he needed was a $15 replacement part. From there, it was a quick fix. After repairing the washing machine, Vincent started to put the pieces together for a money machine. Living in pricey California, he wanted to boost his income. Now, luckily, the house he owned was a duplex, so he was able to rent it out for a small profit.

But again, in California, expenses are high, so he began buying, repairing, and reselling more appliances. Most of the time, after opening one up, he'd be able to see what was wrong. Many of the needed repairs were simple, just like that washer dryer he'd purchased for himself. Having come out of the military and into cybersecurity, the transition wasn't known for being physically demanding. Purchasing and repairing these appliances, however, became his new afternoon workout.

And unlike other workouts, this one was financially profitable. Vincent's monthly target was $2,000 in net income. At first, he stuck with appliances he was familiar with, as well as anything that might have tutorials online. He was soon earning beyond his monthly income target, enough to buy a small truck, pressure washer, and some power tools. But, as Aesop wrote, "All that washes doesn't wash." One of the biggest problems he faced during this time was faulty products.

Sure, often it was simple. He could find a few new parts, along with a tutorial or two, and that would get the job done. But every now and then, he'd come across a set that would be out of his wheelhouse of repairs, or he'd be unable to find the parts he needed. After losing time and money on unfixable products, Vincent started to strategize his buying process. He would only acquire brands and machines he knew he could fix.

One more problem, though, the occasional difficult customer. On more than one occasion, he had no choice but to exchange the set or refund their money and get back his product. After too many of these incidents, he decided to buy and place vending machines for a more reliable side flow of cash. And that led to flipping houses and other adventures. Since he started, Vincent has moved to Texas.

He's currently running for election in the U.S. House of Representatives while still working in cybersecurity and real estate. Vincent is a busy guy, what can you say? Hopefully it works out for him. But if not, he can always sell more appliances.

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It's always important to think about the mindset of your buyer, why might a buyer make this particular purchase and why might they buy it from you, right? And so when I think about the market, the buyer of a used washer and dryer on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist or whatever platform you're using, that buyer is a little bit different from one who just goes to the store. They probably don't have as much money or they might just be frugal. They might just like to look for deals and understand that they can get a much better deal if they go through the effort of doing this. There might also be some other characteristics as well though.

And so I think that's why it's important to always think, whatever you're selling, even if it's just reselling, which is fairly simple as a business model, understand the mindset of your buyer. Try to think about what they're looking for and what might cause them to make a purchase, what might cause them to hold back on making a purchase. One other quick observation, bulk is a problem. Like a washer and dryer takes up a lot of space, right? So you can't just keep hundreds of them in your house.

The bulk storage is an issue, the transportation is an issue. So you just have to plan for that, right? So for a lot of people, they might wanna resell something else, but obviously it can be done. Everything can be done. People need appliances, they break.

There's definitely a secondary market for it. So good work, Benson. Good luck everybody else out there. Inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is better. Today's show notes, including links to anything mentioned, maybe some other resources as well.

My own preferred washer and dryer, maybe not actually, but everything else, sidehustleschool.com/1907. Thank you again for tuning in today. I hope you'll come back tomorrow. Much more is coming up. My name is Chris Guillebeau.

This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

from The Onward Project.