This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
I've been spending a lot of time on Threads, which is the new social media app from Facebook/Instagram/meta. I guess that's the official name now. But I've really enjoyed posting on Threads. Feel free to hit me up if you're there. It's 193 countries, 193 countries is my username.
But I saw this post from someone the other day who is like, you know, the best advice I've ever heard is, you know, somebody who says, I don't know enough about this topic to give an opinion. And I was like, that sounds cool, but I've never actually heard anybody say that, you know, especially online. Like everyone has an opinion about everything, right? And so I thought about that because I do try to be careful about not giving advice on topics that I'm not an expert in. And I thought about that as I was preparing for this episode here because we're gonna hear a question from Steve.
Steve is from San Francisco. He's a realtor, at least he has been a realtor. He's now, I guess, a mortgage consultant, he says. We'll hear from him. Basically, he's no stranger to the intricacies of the property market, but he's looking for advice on how to find underpriced properties and cut down on renovation costs.
So let's go back to that idea on, you know, not giving opinions that you're not qualified for. The thing is real estate flipping can be profitable, but that's not an area where I have been terribly successful. I had some Airbnb properties for a little while and they lost money, actually. I actually heard from a bunch of other people who lost money on Airbnb properties. Maybe I was doing it wrong, who knows?
Or maybe there were some structural issues that I should have considered before getting into it, which also means I was doing it wrong, but still the point is. So I'm happy to share some basic tips to help Steve here. I at least share my perspective, but I'm not gonna give a lot of detailed advice on real estate investing 'cause I'm not good at it. But let's see if we can offer something helpful to him and anybody else out there who's thinking about this approach. And in his case, he's trying to do it in San Francisco, which is especially challenging, but I don't wanna preempt the advice.
Let's hear from him after this quick message from our sponsor and then I'll do what I can. [Music]
Greetings, I'm Steve from San Francisco. I've been in real estate for over a decade, starting as a realtor and now working as a mortgage consultant. My brother recommended your show to me and I've learned a lot from the experiences of different stories. I've seen the lucrative side of property flipping and I'm considering using my skills to start a side hustle in this area.
Can you offer some guidance on how to get started, particularly how to find underpriced properties and reduced renovation costs? [Music]
Hey, Steve. So here's the thing, which I kind of alluded to. You probably know more about this than I do. You know, when it comes to, as you said, finding underpriced properties, reducing renovation costs.
Well, Steve has been a realtor and a mortgage consultant. He's worked in that industry for many years. So I'd be surprised if I have technical knowledge that exceeds his. In fact, I think it's probably flipped. You know, what I tend to look at more is, okay, I am a business ideas person.
I'm a marketer. I have some history of like, I can think about strategy. I can think about like helping people figure out, you know, which idea to pursue now and you know, how do I spend my time when there's so many competing demands and requests for it and such? That's what I try to do. In terms of property flipping and the reducing renovation costs, well, Steve has access to the MLS, like the database of listings.
You know, you can go there and look for sale by owner properties. Sometimes there's an advantage there if somebody's going outside the agent system. And of course, you know, the more people you know in terms of contracting and repairs and renovation for lowering those costs, well, that's good. You want to focus on renovations that add the most value. Those are kitchens and bathrooms, typically.
Also just keeping the original layout and working with the existing plumbing and electrical systems whenever possible can definitely cut costs. I did learn some of that when I was doing the Airbnb thing. But mostly just for anybody out there, you know, maybe a bigger picture thing, just keep in mind that while property flipping can have the potential for high returns for some, it also carries a lot of risk and it requires a lot of hands-on management. So I think for many, many people, there are better options. You know, it's just not a passive side hustle.
So for somebody who wants to go into it, I respect that. For other people, I'm like, what else can you do? It might be a little bit easier and lower risk and higher return and quicker return. And I mean, you put those things together and you're like, yeah, I think actually it sounds a lot better to do something different for many of us. Okay, just my two cents.
As I said, I never want to give advice that I don't feel qualified for. I want to make sure I can be truly helpful to everybody out there. So of course, let me know how I'm doing. Let me know how I can improve and how we can make this podcast even better for you. It's all completely free, seven days a week.
Got a question or some feedback, sidehustleschool.com/questions. And of course you can listen wherever you prefer. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
