Michael Quinnell is a guest on this episode, He is into real estate investing, and he mostly buys properties in the Bay Area. He got started in the business when he was just 10 by doing random businesses around the neighborhood like kool-aid stands to doing landscaping jobs for his neighbors. Today, he’ll be sharing tips and his personal experiences in flipping, wholesaling, and entitlements in the Bay area.
When he was in UC Santa Cruz, he realized that his friends who were into real estate investing made more money than his teachers, so he decided to get his real estate license. Subsequently, he got involved in Loans and helping people buy new constructions and he made good money from it. He decided to invest his gain in a house. At auctions, he was getting houses below 20 or 30% market prices and that was when the market crashed. He learned a lot from that experience, like how to make a short sale.
After that he started doing a lot of lofts (renovations), in a year he did up to 20 or 25 short sales foreclosure. He later got his first wholesale deal, which he secured for $10k over at the Southside. The clients attempted to evade payment; Michael then threatened to sue.
Michael did a lot of foreclosure short sale, and a little bit of property management for banks for about 5 years. As a result, he earned some experience in the realm of property management. Michael read Tim Ferris’s 4-hour workweek and bought a ticket to Brazil and left the country for six months. He roamed South America, Asia, he later returned back and sold everything before moving to Rio for a year, where he had a business in (BDP) business leads. He admitted that the experience was enlightening.
When he returned, his interest shifted to the investment side of real estate and flipping houses. That was when he ran into Tom Tran from “Stronger mom.” They remained in contact due to their mutual interest. Michael pointed out that he has been doing wholesales, rehab, new constructions, entitlement projects for the past four years and so far, all have been good.
Luckily, his presence in the real estate has given him access to agents and knowledge about the real estate business. He met Adam in April through Bryan Pham with the intention of looking for a partner to do bigger deals with and it has worked out. They have an ongoing project in Cambrian, San Jose, which is a really great area. He presently has various projects he is working on and two possible upcoming projects.
He responded that his business is financed by a “combination of everything”. He uses social media for advertising his business and his family or friends who have extra cash to invest in his property. His overseas business partners also invest. He raises money with friends to finance his project and has learned a lot from friends like Tom Tran in that aspect. He finances most of it with hard money for the first’s.
He moved back after the world cup, 2014/15, and had to start afresh. He took a sales job in telecommunications for 6 months. It took him 12 months to get his first deal from mailers; he got his second deal a month after that. Then, He put in a lot of effort and work communicating with sellers with the knowledge that if you want what other people don’t have, you have to be willing to do what they won’t do.
Michael saved money and spent about $15-$20,000 thousand a year on mailers. It’s also necessary to communicate with specific people; For instance, people that have equity. It is also good to show investors your worksites so they can see for themselves.
Also, in flipping, if you want to determine how good a contractor is at his job, you can visit the person’s job sites and check out his references.
Through referrals, networking at events, or Facebook groups. He learned from Tom that it is easier to give them a small job first and work from there. You are likely not to get burnt if you test them out first.
Retail prices go for 500-700 dollars’ square foot. Luckily his partner Adam has excess experience in new construction. So they do a lot of projects involving foundations or repairing foundations.
He spent around 190,000 dollars for a 400 square foot addition, electric plumbing, kitchen, bathroom, landscaping.
Definitely, you have to get a permit to do an addition. It’s illegal to work without one. For this project, it was an over-the-counter permit. But each city differs in the permit methods. Like San Jose, you might need an appointment if you intend on changing beams.
Not necessarily, you can have a drafter do it. But you need to provide them with relevant calculations. He did an entitlement job with Tom, who brought a friend that was an architect that helped them with their project. Michael mentioned that it is advisable to get someone local, somebody who knows all the rules. If you get a firm for a project, you would have to pay double of what small businesses will require. Also, you can get an architect to make a plan.
However, he has learned a lot from past projects, especially in the entitlement area. Michael stressed that entitlement is not something you can learn from reading a book; it is different from flipping houses and it costs a lot of money to get started. But you can get creative with it, for there are a million things to do with it.
He stated that he spent less than $60,000 and that they partnered with the seller for the project. They put up a deposit and split the profit. It was a good learning experience.
Michael is now more focused on flipping houses, entitlement, and addition jobs. The main goal is to scale it up and move to commercial and do other projects like new construction, high-end homes. He is trying to raise more money. Money is a big deal because you will have a long holding time.
Using hard money depends on the amount you want to raise. Construction loans are harder to get but more profitable; the rates are 20% or 30% percent less.
Michael admitted that he would buy anything as long as the numbers make sense. The only way to scale up or grow is to do more flipping projects and go higher. The goal is to keep Leveling up. It is also important to have a partner who has a lot of experience in the field.
It can be anything; it can be “I drove by your house that day and saw it was empty, are you interested in selling?” You have to talk to a lot of people before you get a seller. You have to be willing to grind day and night, on vacation, and make many calls.
He spent a year when he got back, making money, and investing in mailing. You get a lot of failures and closed deals but you have to keep pushing.
There is a lot of competition, so you have to work hard, you have to do something different to differentiate yourself from the rest
Michael admitted that his biggest challenge has always been himself. Pushing himself to work harder and competing with himself to try and break his current record. Also, he knew that he has to be accountable to his staff because these are people that have families to take care of. He Pushes himself and clocks in a lot of hours. He loves what he does and doesn’t mind working long hours.
Michael wished he dropped out of school earlier and joined construction.
Everything works; just do a ton of it. Focus on one thing and really go hard at it. Put your time into it. He did away with Netflix and television and any other distractions and put his all into his business and it paid off.
No, because I have seen a lot of this and it hasn’t been so bad.
Make sure you love what you do; it doesn’t have to be real estate; it can be baking. You can make good money doing what you love. He stressed that it is easier to work hard when you are doing what you love. In general, do you, and hustle hard for yourself and ignore discouragements.
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