Have you ever looked at an old, abandoned property and seen a diamond in the rough? That's exactly what Beth Rooney and Christine Fiske discuss on the latest Abundant Investor Podcast. We unravel the secrets to spotting lucrative real estate deals that others might miss, sharing tales of transformation from complex lots to Cape Cod rehabs. We demystify the process of turning challenges into triumphs and the overlooked into goldmines.
In this engaging session, we're not just talking theory; we're diving deep into real-life successes, like the story of a client who leaped into the unknown and came out on top in the real estate game. Our practical conversation spans the spectrum of strategies from tax benefits to tapping into community networks, all designed to bolster your investment portfolio. Whether you're contemplating your first property or looking to expand your empire, we've got advice and a beginner's educational course to set you solidly on the path of the savvy investor. Join us, and let's unlock the potential of your next big real estate adventure.
Have you ever looked at an old, abandoned property and seen a diamond in the rough? That's exactly what Beth Rooney and Christine Fiske discuss on the latest Abundant Investor Podcast. We unravel the secrets to spotting lucrative real estate deals that others might miss, sharing tales of transformation from complex lots to Cape Cod rehabs. We demystify the process of turning challenges into triumphs and the overlooked into goldmines.
In this engaging session, we're not just talking theory; we're diving deep into real-life successes, like the story of a client who leaped into the unknown and came out on top in the real estate game. Our practical conversation spans the spectrum of strategies from tax benefits to tapping into community networks, all designed to bolster your investment portfolio. Whether you're contemplating your first property or looking to expand your empire, we've got advice and a beginner's educational course to set you solidly on the path of the savvy investor. Join us, and let's unlock the potential of your next big real estate adventure.
Hello everybody and welcome back to the Abundant Investor Podcast. I'm your host, beth Rooney, and I'm here with Christine today, and today we're going to talk to you about our favorite topic, which is building wealth through real estate, and we're going to talk about how do you spot a good deal. So, whether you are a real estate investor and this is something you're doing outside of your primary home or you are somebody that's considering, um, you buying your first primary home, or maybe trading up, this episode is for you because spotting a good deal is getting more and more difficult as the market gets, you know, heated up, um, but it's, and what's really important through all of this is having the right mindset. So we're going to talk about all of that today.
Speaker 2:
Absolutely, I can't wait to dive in. This is a topic that I love so much. I think there's so much opportunity in real estate. Like you said, beth, it's available to anyone that wants to do it through where they're living, which is a really cool way to think about building wealth where they're living, which is a really cool way to think about building wealth or as you become or build your real estate portfolio. So we have a lot to dive into and we're going to tackle a lot in a short amount of time today, because this is a great way to really hone in on what we talk about all the time building wealth through real estate.
Speaker 1:
Yes, I love it. So you know, the number one way to spot a good deal, I think, is to be open to look at things that others have looked past right, agreed totally. So maybe zig when others zag. So you know, one thing might be to say, hey, this home has been sitting on the market for a long time. Especially if we're in greater Boston, things are not sitting on the market for a long time. They are coming on, they're getting multiple offers and they're going off. But occasionally there is something that's been sitting for a while and it's likely because it needs work or you know, whatever it may be. So I'll give you an example of something that I did.
Speaker 1:
My husband and I built a house from the ground up, and the lot that we bought had been on the market for well over a year, and it was something I drove by almost every day.
Speaker 1:
As a matter of fact, I had a client that was going to buy it, but then decided that it was going to be too much work and decided to buy a home that was almost done. And so what was wrong with this lot? Well, it was in a great location, but it had a lot of conservation land on it. So the way you positioned the house on the lot was restricted. The height of the home was restricted, so you couldn't build a typical sort of colonial with a finished attic right, because we had to, because and also it had I had a high water table, so we had to build the lot up, which restricted the height. So we had to, you know, design a Cape style home. It's still a two floor home and we had to position it a certain way on the lot and we could only build so much driveway because of the conservation.
Speaker 2:
All of these things were hurdles, but things you could just get over if you were willing to do the work, yeah, and I think that too, you're willing to see the vision that was maybe not the traditional way that most people would think of that, and it's so interesting to hear you tell this because I haven't heard the story before and I think about that house and I think I would have never known you were restricted because it was beautiful, that had a big driveway, it didn't seem like it was height restricted to me, Right.
Speaker 2:
So I think these things come up and a lot of people say I don't want to deal with that. That sounds hard, it's challenging and you know. So they go and buy that finished house and that's. That's totally okay If that's what you want, if you want to make an investment and see the opportunity to build equity, you're going to have to look at things the way that you're talking about, in the way that you did in this circumstance, and I think that that's that is like, ultimately, the key way that you did in this circumstance, and I think that that's that is like, ultimately, the key way that you build wealth through real estate investing is being able to see something like finding a great deal that other people are going to look past because, largely because of fear, because mindset, maybe, maybe time is a true constraint and they're not able to.
Speaker 2:
But I think, if you're willing, there are opportunities in any type of market and it's a matter of you know thinking around them and talking to people and getting ideas and being open minded, right Like you are piece of the puzzle, you move on, you figure out the next piece of the puzzle, you unlock the next step.
Speaker 1:
You know, and if you can, if you can just have that mindset and take it one step at a time. Again, it's like building a house you, if there's a process you go through, you don't. You don't pick out your kitchen first. You might want to, but before that you have to say you know how big is it going to be and you know what color windows do you want and all that other stuff first you know.
Speaker 1:
So there's a process, and to avoid getting overwhelmed by it, you just do the step that's in front of you next. It's like a lot of things in life.
Speaker 2:
Totally, totally. And I think you know a lot of people would think, oh, building a house from the ground up, that sounds like very overwhelming. But I like how you broke it down and you saw the possibility. I mean, you also probably like were thinking about this for some time because it was on the market and you had the opportunity to visit it with your clients. So the wheels start turning and then you're realizing no one else is jumping on this. I could build my dream home here and then voila, like you did, and it was amazing.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, and it was pretty similar for me. I decided I wanted to buy a house in a beach area on Cape Cod here outside of Boston, and the house I knew was the one we were going to buy was one that sat on the market for almost a year as well, and not every great opportunity, by the way, has to be something that's been sitting around for a while. We'll get to some other examples. This house had been abandoned and it was completely overgrown. You drive up everything was overgrown.
Speaker 2:
I mean it might look a little bit scary to some people.
Speaker 2:
And then you go inside and the furnishings are still there and there were some bizarre things. There was a priest that lived there, so there was a pew inside of the living room right and there were a lot of pictures up and it was a vibe right and we could see past that and see that we could turn this into an inviting beach cottage that people would love to come and vacation at, including ourselves. And it had this adjacent cottage, which was adorable, and apparently the priest had created a separate living space over there and put it in an illegal kitchen and we had neighbors right after we bought it. The neighbors came walking by a couple of them and said, oh, I can't believe you bought that, isn't there?
Speaker 1:
mold in there.
Speaker 2:
And I said yes, there is.
Speaker 1:
And we're taking it out.
Speaker 2:
We're going to have that removed and what do you know? Like that's exactly what we've done and I'm so grateful that we were able to see past everything in there, and that's really so much of it's the vision to be able to see beyond and create a new building, a new, a new home for yourself yeah, and then also it's like the mindset that we can do this.
Speaker 2:
Like you said, it's a puzzle and approaching it in a way that you, you are not going to let yourself fail on something this big. I can tell anyone out here, even if you're like really afraid of this and haven't made a move for 20 years but always wanted that vacation house, you are not going to let yourself fail. I just know you're not. It's mindset and then it's just taking the steps and getting it done and you will get there. And this is possible to almost anyone.
Speaker 1:
Yep, I love it. I love it. You know, I had the really blessing and I was so fortunate that my dad did this. I saw my father do this down the Cape. We bought a house in the Cape that was done and it was really cute. And he had a building in Boston that he made an investment in and kind of turned it around quickly and came into some money.
Speaker 1:
So he bought a second house in the Cape and when I tell you this is the ugliest house in the prettiest street, I'm telling you it was one room. It was built in the seventies. So one room was like orange and yellow. The next room was red, white and blue. You remember these houses and it was just.
Speaker 1:
Even this style of the house was ugly, it was just so ugly. And he was like this house is beautiful. And I remember thinking the same thing because a lot was so cool, like where it was located and you know he rented it to somebody for a couple of years, site just as it was. Somebody was willing to live in the orange and yellow and brown and red, white and blue. Well, he built plans and saved up some money and then, um, renovated the whole thing and put an addition on, and we enjoyed that house down the cape for 30 years and made such beautiful memories. He ended up selling the other one and so, yes, it's like it's the the, the house that others have maybe disregarded, or that, in your case, that just overgrown. It's a mindset and a vision and I think the uglier the better You're going to rip it out anyways, that's right.
Speaker 2:
Exactly, we were talking earlier about the smoke smells. We walked into a property recently that had been smoked in for years and years and years and it just permeated everything and I'm sure there are people that walked into that house. We had a hard time staying in that house. There were people that walked in and walked out because they could not see beyond, smell beyond.
Speaker 1:
Yeah exactly that smell is like money. You know like I can get rid of this smell.
Speaker 2:
We know how to do that, yeah absolutely yeah. I love it. Yeah, so I think you know, I think that's another point is that there are going to be houses that come on the market that haven't sat for a long time, that are still going to be untouched by a lot of buyers.
Speaker 2:
A lot of buyers will rule them out right away and you might be able to make an offer on a place that comes on the market that hasn't been on for very long for either considerably lower asset price you know put in a considerably lower offer or you might be able to spot something right away that you can snag up before someone else finds this price to sell on MLS, so investors find deals on MLS.
Speaker 2:
they find deals off of MLS just by putting the word out as well that they're like looking for properties. I just want to say, though, that you know, if you have your eye on the market and you have these searches set up so that you have them coming into your inbox and you're keeping an eye on the market, you're gonna find things. They're definitely out there, and they take some grit, and they take some seeing beyond. They're there all the time, though, and they don't have to be something that's sitting there for a very long time.
Speaker 1:
The other thing, christine, is maybe looking outside if you're an investor, especially because if you're buying your primary home, you're probably going to want to be in a certain community right, and that I understand that. But if you're an investor, being open minded to other markets, especially if you know, like we're as I said, we're in Greater Boston the market here is really really hot. It's expensive to get started, so why not look outside of your primary market? And Christine and I offer a service where we coach mostly women on how to get started investing in real estate. And we had a client recently that was just I was just so impressed. We were able to help her find the right market, we were able to help her find the right agent and we were able to help her find the right property and she closed this week.
Speaker 1:
But how she was able to do that was really her mindset. She was a take action and put fear in the backseat kind of approach and I really respect that and I think that's such a big I mean like we're talking about all the ways you can spot a good deal, all the places you can find it. But if you spot a good deal and you don't have the gumption to move forward because of fear or because of you know, you're just not great at taking action. We've talked about making good decisions on other podcasts and making decisions as opposed to, like you know, falling into analysis, paralysis, it doesn't matter. You really have to first start with that mindset, that's right A hundred percent and I love.
Speaker 2:
I love what you brought up about looking into other markets, because people invest out of state all the time and you have so much. I mean there's endless, endless menu of opportunity in terms of locations. Look to places that you already maybe have a connection to to begin with. Or, like you said with this client that we worked with, we pointed her in the direction of some place that we already knew, put her in touch with an agent who really honed in on the specific community where she ended up buying into family and it's just so exciting to see. And you can manage. That's a whole other podcast for another time. You can manage real estate out of state. You don't have to physically be right near it and there's a lot of ways that that make that easy. Today. I think that the reason this all happened so fast for this client was she was just ready.
Speaker 2:
She's ready and willing to step into the unknown and she'll do it scared and I think a lot of us let that fear hold us back, and so we never take the step beyond reading. Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and you know the best book for anyone wanting to invest and you know we've read it maybe three times and it's on the nightstand and then never actually go and take the leap Taking the leap is where it's at, and we have all kinds of tools as well.
Speaker 2:
Beth right for being able to look at an investment. How is it going to cash flow? What is the return on this? Even we can point you in the right direction to tax advisors who can help you. There's so many tax benefits to real estate as well. If you want to look at saving on your overall tax bill, it's a great strategy.
Speaker 1:
So yeah, I just have to interrupt you there for a second and just say you're such a great example of this because tell our listeners where you're tuning in from. This morning I'm sitting.
Speaker 2:
This morning I'm sitting in Syracuse, new York. I am here at where my daughter's in school. We decided to invest in property because we researched the market. We saw a big opportunity to come in here. The average housing price here is about a fifth of what it is at home. It's risen in the last year since we've purchased. However, it was hovering closer to $200,000, which is incredible compared to the market that we are in, which Beth said is really hot.
Speaker 2:
And then now we have a place. I'm not staying in it right now, but we do, because mine are fully rented. They're renting midterm, so I've got long-term tenants in them. We've got a place to stay when we come if we want. We've built some community here. We've got a place to store some of my daughter's things over the summer in the basement. It's great.
Speaker 2:
It's really like there's so many pros to it and we've built some community out here in terms of having a property manager that we trust, having other people, other investors that we know and that's who's Airbnb I'm staying in right now. Other investors that we know and that's who's airbnb I'm staying in right now. Um, so yeah, there is just endless possibility and it's really, really exciting and real estate is helped by 90 of millionaires and multi-millionaires. So I think, if you're thinking about getting into this game, um, it's definitely an interesting one. To me it's a lot more interesting than just putting money into stocks and bonds, but I really there's nothing tangible about it. I actually like houses and I like to think about them and we can offer. You know, we offer this client. We've helped her to find her local team. We've helped her to think about how to manage it going forward.
Speaker 2:
That's our zone of expertise, so we can help you to the extent that you want to outsource this stuff. Um, yeah, you know, it's. It's so exciting. And, beth, you had an example, too, where you bought another house that you lived in, where you saw something come on the market and you said that's for me, it's the house on the block that no one you know that needs the most work.
Speaker 1:
Right, and you could see the potential and you were willing to live through the construction of it, which when you talk about it it doesn't even sound like it was that rough yeah no, it's true, and I think talking about spotting a deal and, like you said, christine, once you start looking, you're going to get really educated and know when something's a good deal and when you should jump. And we've talked about taking action and being really able to make quick decisions. Well, my husband and I were at a baseball game it was 430 in the afternoon, four o'clock, and we saw this pop on like we got the alert. This house came on and we left the baseball game, came and looked at the house, we made an offer that was good for three hours and we had the house under agreement by 6.30 that night. It doesn't always work that way. You know.
Speaker 1:
Not every real estate agent is gonna be willing to cancel their open houses. We have an open house this weekend and we've already had several agents try to get us to cancel it and we think we're not. You know, get us to cancel it and we think we're not. You know, we know we're not gonna do that. We're gonna host all three open houses and get all the offers in, but occasionally you'll come across a seller who just wants to. Yeah, we'll take that and we don't want to deal with it and it's. Every situation is different, and we were able to capitalize on that and get it under agreement really, really quickly. And so I think if they had gone to an open house, we probably would have had to pay a lot more for it, and so the opportunity is there, you know.
Speaker 1:
So before you say that's never going to work, try it it just might work right and if it doesn't, well, then you can make a decision if you're going to be part of a multiple offer situation or not, you know. So I and I give like we. As we had people try with us, I didn't give them credit. We were very, like you know, polite to them. Thank you very much for you know, for trying that, but no, thank you so, no, no, you know, no, no, no, big deal, no big deal, no bad feelings, it's all it's all good, you're just trying different strategies and seeing what's working and it's not personal.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, exactly so. You know, I think, christina, I just want to give people a couple of different ways they could work with us to get started, just to get educated. We have a very simple course. It's $47. A very simple course it's $47. It gives you a great video explaining all the different ways you can invest, all the different ways you can finance it. We give you a workbook so you can start to take some notes and start to visualize on how you might want to become an investor. And then we give you a couple of really easy spreadsheets to start being able to do some back of the envelope math on analyzing deals. So that's one option.
Speaker 1:
Another option is we're going to have an investor panel coming up soon. It's a power panel, so we're bringing in experts around how to finance this. We're going to have yeah, exactly so we have this really great panel set up. If you're interested in that, just shoot us a DM and we'll get you an invitation. We'll put the link to our course in the notes and then, finally, if you want to have us coach you, if you, if you really want that one on one, like you know, help. This is where I want to invest. This is what I'm thinking. This is the market I'm thinking of. We will help you and we'll get you in touch with somebody that's local to that market and and coach you along the way from, you know, visualizing it to celebrating your closing, like we were able to do this week with one of our clients. So it's all really fun we are. We love working with folks on this topic. Obviously, hopefully, you can hear the passion and voice for it.
Speaker 2:
We have some great experience that we really like to share. We'll put the links in the show notes and you can always check us out on Instagram or on our website, debundantinvestorcom. Thanks for tuning in, everyone, thank you.