How She Flipped A Distressed Property in San Jose for $65K Profit! | Real Estate Skills

In this powerful student success story from RealEstateSkills.com, Savvy, a former NASA project lead, shares how she transitioned into full-time real estate investing and completed her most distressed fix-and-flip yet in San Jose, CA, one of the most expensive markets in the U.S.

Learn how Real Estate Skills helped her analyze deals, run rehab numbers with confidence, and scale her fix-and-flip journey, all backed by a supportive mentorship community.

Here's what you'll find in this interview:

• Transitioning from a federal job to real estate full-time
• Analyzing and executing a high-cost distressed property flip
• Using Real Estate Skills tools for accurate ARVs and rehab budgets
• Managing hard money loans and holding costs
• Lessons from navigating a shifting housing market

*For in-depth training on real estate investing, Real Estate Skills offers extensive courses to get you ready to make your first investment! Attend our FREE Training and gain insider knowledge, expert strategies, and essential skills to make the most of every real estate opportunity that comes your way!

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Peter Soros (00:00):
Everybody, Peter Soros here with RealEstateSkills.com. Today I've got a great interview for you with one of our students in the San Jose, California area. Her name's savvy and she's actually not even new to fixing and flipping. She's done fix and flips before. She's also done buying holds before, but this was a little bit of a different fix and flip for it was the most distressed property she's ever gone after to do a fix and flip. And also you might know San Jose is one of the most expensive cities in all of the country, so I can't wait for you to hear this story. She's got great wisdom and experience to share with you, so let's dive right into it. Hey, savvy, how are you? Glad to have you here with us.

Savvy (00:39):
Yeah, hi Peter. It's lovely to be here. Thank you for having me.

Peter Soros (00:42):
I've been waiting for this day ever since you got that deal under contract, and I know you got so close on some other ones. So I'm really looking forward to dive into this and learn all the details about what happened. But before we jump into the deal itself, I want to let everyone else know a little bit about you, where you came from before you did real estate. So tell us what were you doing before you joined Real Estate Skills and what happened and led you to where you are now?

Savvy (01:10):
So I am one of those federal employees. I was a federal employee, actually, I'm still on their books. That was offered a resignation plan in February.

(01:23):
So, I have been wanting to do real estate full time for the longest time actually. I would buy fix, I would hold, I've been doing that since 20, actually, since 2007, but really more so since 2015. I had three or four properties or six properties that went back and forth. I would hold it for a few years. I'm in California here, and then I would make a nice 50% profit on it, sell it, get it to the next one and something like that. I did not always look into distress properties when I was doing that. I wanted to do this full time. So I got a chance in February, January, February when the new administration came in and they said they want to not have enough federal employees around. I was like, this was my chance. This was like universe way of telling me, you ought to go for this because you've been wanting to do this for so long. And they said they would pay us for eight months. And I was like, what could be better? I'll be paid. I don't have to worry about and be stressed and make something work. And so that's what I did. I took that offer and since February 25th, I've been doing the six for six months now, full time.

Peter Soros (02:45):
Nice. How did it feel from making that transition to the government job to then just being on your own with your own business? How did that feel, that transition?

Savvy (02:58):
It was a pretty good feeling because I would work eight to 12 hours and even though it was a government job, I worked for NASA and my job was not a nine to five job. I was a project lead. I was working on with a lot of people. I was extinguishing fire and they were asking me to come five days a week, drive 45 miles, one and a half hours, two hours per site. I was not in the mood to do that. There was no way I was going to do that. So from that perspective, it felt perfect to just not have that stress, be the owner of my own time, my schedule, even though I was telling you I cannot tell. I can't make plans too far out because I don't know what I'll be extinguishing. But at the same time, I enjoy it. I thrive in it. I like the fluidness of it. I love it. So I enjoy the flexibility. I love owning my schedule, owning my time. I totally enjoy that. It's not like I have to rush, rush, rush. I can tell them when I'm coming. I'm coming to my contractors. I don't have to show up somewhere. And that's what I love. Yeah, I enjoyed the transition thoroughly. I had more time to walk and meditate. I loved it.

Peter Soros (04:26):
That's really one of the biggest reasons why most people, like even myself got into it, freedom, being in control of your time. That's one thing about investors is it's all about their time because we really realize how important our time is. That's the one thing we can't really get more of, right? We can try by getting healthier, whatever we can do, but that's the one thing that is, it is finite. But, I'm glad to see that you've seen that and you've been able to make that change and you were able to take this opportunity really, and I love how you saw it as a positive thing, which some people would be, this would be a life devastating.

Savvy (05:08):
It was. Yeah, it was for lots of people.

Peter Soros (05:13):
It was for a lot of people. And I guess you could say it was devastating to your old life, but it brought about a brand new life.

Savvy (05:21):
Exactly.

Peter Soros (05:21):
Yeah, that's one of the great things about it. So you mentioned you've done some fix and flips and buy and holds before. So let's start a little bit there. What was it about real estate back then that got you into real estate? What is it about real estate that got you involved back then?

Savvy (05:40):
I dunno. Just love for homes and make them nice and make them good. Live in a good space because just that feeling like this house I'm living in is a condo. I bought it in 2015, I rented it out to students all this time. It's in Santa Cruz, it's close to the water. I'm like half mile from the ocean.

(06:04):
And when I moved in here, I put my new lights, I painted it up because to me, where you live is your space and that needs to be very positive. It needs to resonate with you, because that's where you rejuvenate. This is where you get connected to your source. So for me, it has always been like that. And I bought several houses and sometimes I would take my daughter, she's 21 now, then she was young.

(06:38):
And she would say, mom, are you going to make this nice? This looks ugly. How did you pick this up? I bought a mobile home in Sunnyvale and I lived there for, I fixed it, but it was in shambles. Everything was, the cold kitchen was broken and there was leaks and whatnot, and that was the first thing she said. I said, yeah, we'll make it ready. We'll not live in a bad place. So there was a thing about wanting to do that. I had gotten into real estate business with my brother in 2007 and then we fell out, but I had a property with him that I sold in San Jose area, and then I had some cash money sitting and that was the start for me to start investing. And I was like, okay, I'm going to do this on my own without his help. So that was a big move for me in 2015, but I had been doing it since 2007, eight with him. But I was like, okay, this is now I can do it myself. So that's how I started. So it's just a love for real estate. It's just a love to create new things. It's love to design new kitchens and bathrooms and make the whole place wide. I enjoy it. I actually thoroughly enjoy it.

Peter Soros (07:56):
Yeah, I mean you're creating, like you said, it's like you're almost like your own sacred space and you're helping create that for other people. That's one of the big, just payoffs for doing this is helping other people create that space for themselves, create housing for other people. What they do with it obviously is up to them and how they utilize it, but you give them that opportunity that, Hey, this is for you. So no, I love to hear things like that. How was this one that you did just now, was this any different than the other ones you've done in the past? Was there anything that you approached this one differently, your purpose for this one was different or just in general, was there anything different about this specific property, why you chose this one than the ones you've done in the past?

Savvy (08:49):
This one was definitely very more distressed than what I have bought in past. So that was a big difference.

(08:56):
I was not going to get a conventional loan on it. All the others I have done, they have been somewhat in a bad condition, but I could still do a conventional loan. So that was a huge difference either learning from you doing the wholesale VIP wholesale course and I had bought the flipping both the courses and I only finished the wholesale course and I was like, you've given me all the information I need to run my numbers. That was the key. So in the past, I never bothered to figure out what my ARV would look like because I already knew I'm holding this for the next few years. I didn't even know how many years am I going to hold it for five years, six years, I would see opportunity in the market, oh, the market is hot, let's go. I would sell it, but here I knew that I was going to sell it right away.

(09:48):
I'm not going to sit in it. I'm not planning to hold it. And so that made a very big difference in the way I approached it because now I was on a tighter deadline. I had to stick to my budgets and I wanted to make sure that my a ARV was good. I working with the right numbers. So that was the difference. I had to get a little more discipline here. Otherwise, from the creative side, it was pretty similar. And for me, digging up and finding places where I can save money to purchase houses or purchase material, all of that was still the same. I would've done it the way I would've done my house, but when I took it, I treat it as if I was going to come live here. So I've created a space where I said, oh no, you know what? I would love to have a closet here and I don't want to see a washer dryer in my kitchen. I like it here. There's no other spot, but let's cover it up so it doesn't look so terrible. So small things like that, which I wanted to see, I created. So from creativity, it wasn't different, but I had to stick to my budget and my debt timeline.

Peter Soros (10:58):
No, that's great to hear that you went off and actually improved the house, not just fixing it up again, some rehabbers will just fix it, just clean it up the way it is, not actually improve it by actually changing the layout, like you said, changing the laundry room from being, where was it in the kitchen or something like that, or open, you closed it off and gave it's own spot. Those are the things that you would think are almost obvious that should be been done from the beginning. But as we've seen plenty of very strange floor plans and layouts. But that's great that you went the extra mile to actually improve the property and not just by looks, but by actual function as well.

Savvy (11:44):
Yes, yes. The one I did in Oakland, which is still in the market, in fact, it had two levels and the lower level had a room, tiny room, which, it had a humongous space dedicated to a laundry area and then a landing space and then another area. And they're all wasted. They're all wasted literally. And then a room in the end and it looked dark and we broke down a lot of walls there. We actually created, I created a master suite downstairs with a beautiful walk-in closet and a bathroom and there was a bathroom downstairs. I removed the bathroom and instead created a laundry room in that spot and then that area that was going wasted with all that stuff, I created a studio so somebody could have an ADU, so they could actually have a private entrance and they could actually do short-term rentals, long-term rentals. So that space was totally recreated by me, thought through how I would create it. I had a lot of fun doing that. It took a while to do it, but I had a lot of fun doing my Oakland project, which is still in market.

Peter Soros (13:04):
Okay. Yeah, we'll have to touch on that a little later on this call. Real quick. So you have this experience before of doing your own real estate deals. What made you want to actually get some coaching and why did you come to Real Estate Skills out of your other options?

Savvy (13:23):
Well, there were a whole bunch out there. That's true. But what I was attracted to with Real Estate Skills were a couple of things. One, you guys were available to talk to.

(13:34):
You were having your regular calls, and even though I knew stuff, I didn't know how to do numbers. I did not know how I should account for utilities and for property tax and for insurance, I would've had to create all that. Now, you can say that's an expensive way to get an Excel sheet. Really, you can say that. But I think it's not just the Excel sheet, it's what goes into it as well, right? How do I do my ARV? I remember once I was trying to purchase a property and you ended up giving me a video recording where you showed me in a recording how you went through all the different properties and what you were looking for. To me, that was precious because I was like, oh, this is what Peter looks for. This is how I have to do it. So the more I watched those of yours, the more I learned from you guys, and that gave me the confidence that what I know how to do, calculate an ARV or calculate costs.

I'll tell you why I didn't do wholesaling was because my biggest issue was I could not stand with confidence and say, what are the rehab costs? Because your numbers were good. You guys gave us a very good place to start with, and I loved them, but I also realized that what I really needed was real numbers. What does it take? So that's why I came to Real Estate Skills was it was the smaller groups that were available. There's a few others and they have 2000 people on a call, a hundred plus people on a call. Nobody talks. It's like, no, no, no, no. I don't want to be in a place where I can't ask a question. Because that's what I'm paying for is your expertise, your mentoring. That helps me. That's what I came for, to get that mentoring and that handholding, whether you did it for me or whether I watched you vicariously doing it for others, it was huge because it gave me the confidence, okay, I can do this. I see how it has to be done. So that's what attracted me to you guys. And I talked to a couple of peoples, I think Mike Adams, I may be, yeah. And then they said I could get an accelerated call with Alex. I never took my call with Alex because I went into fixing and flipping and I realized how much I loved it. So, but all those things were very lucrative for me that I need somebody to talk to and make sure I'm doing this correctly.

Peter Soros (16:13):
Yeah, no, it's great that you mentioned that or I appreciate that you mentioned that. It just makes us feel good that the extra support we put into the extra time we put into it, that it's appreciated. It's helping you because we are basically doing what we wish we could have had when we first started, so that it makes a big difference. And giving you not just the support, the motivation and feeling the confidence to, because I mean, for a lot of people who've never done anything, Real Estate Skills, myself included, when I first started, it was scary. It was scary.

Savvy (16:53):
It can be. It can be.

Peter Soros (16:54):
Yeah. And now we can start kind of shifting gears into the deal itself. So this deal was in San Jose, correct? Which for some people may not know, San Jose is one of the most expensive cities in the country. In the country. So where did you find this deal savvy?

Savvy (17:20):
Through a realtor.

Peter Soros (17:22):
So it was all market.

Savvy (17:24):
From the contractor who introduced me to a realtor, and the realtor saw I was making offers on distress properties. This was right in his neighborhood, and he showed it to me. It was a duplex and it had tenants in one house. And yeah, I looked at it and I like, Ooh, I can fix this. That's the first feeling I get. Okay, challenge. The layout was beautiful, it was an 1800 plus property 925 each side, two bedroom, one bath. The layout was very nice.

(18:07):
They didn't need any extra changes to that in my opinion. It was mostly I didn't have to make a lot of changes to the function in general. It was mostly cosmetic, but even as cosmetic, it's still needed. A new kitchen, a new bathroom, a new floor, and new lighting and paint. It needed the whole deal, but I didn't have to rip walls and I didn't have to deal with heavy stuff. So to me, I thought that was a great place to start. So really it was the contractor to the real estate agent who got me that, who helped me get it.

Peter Soros (18:47):
Okay. So what about the funding? I know that's always going to be a big question when you're doing a fix and flip, which route did you go for the funding for this?

Savvy (18:59):
I used hard money loan for this. I remember having a lot of chats with you guys on school about how to get, so when we started, I started by putting some offers. Everybody needs to know where is your proof of funds coming from? So I actually went to certain websites. Kiavi is a good one, and I was using, I went to a meetup. This is another thing. See, I learned from Alex on the course to do all these, go to these meetups. So the meetup was online, but it was worth it. It was a company called Marshall Redx, and they do hard money loans. And I built a relationship with them. I went to their meetup and then I emailed them and I said, this is what I'm looking for. They asked me for a bunch of stuff, and now they became my go-to people for any POF letters so I could send them an email at night.

(19:57):
And well, next morning I had a letter from them. And because they wanted the business obviously, so I had to of course have enough funds with me. So I had sold a house, which is where I had some funds sitting, because I had to bring in 10, 15% initially. And I was not going to do another loan on that. That would not have worked for this property. It was already priced very high because San Jose is, like you said, very expensive to start with. Even though I got the property at 50 or 70K below, it's a price. It was still on the high side. So then I had to also figure out what my, and they'll obviously also give fund a hundred percent funding for the costs and how do I calculate my rehab costs? So while I was doing the course, I started talking to cash buyers. I was like, I have nothing to lose. Let's talk to these guys. And I talked to a few people and one or two of them were really nice. And he said to me, you can calculate that this is back in January. The numbers are different today because now I'm in the market. I can tell you, he said, we calculate $75 per square foot for renovations if there's nothing big going on, just cosmetic. And I use that number and I got 160K, 162K exactly as my number.

(21:31):
And I was like, this is a good number. Let me start here because it's a very healthy budget. At that time, it was a very healthy budget to start with, but I saved on it. I actually did it. I think I did it in 45, 1 45. I managed to even go lower than that, but I started at a very, so that's how I calculated and decided how am I going to go forward? What funding do I need? So I had to have 15% in my pocket, plus all the closing costs. They ask for 1.5 - 0.2%, two points. So it's not cheap. It's not cheap, but your Excel sheet, that sheet is your tells. You plug in everything and you know exactly where you stand, how much you're going to make. And I basically made, even though I sold at a lower price than what I had started with, I had an offer that fell through, but the numbers I had plugged in the day one, when I actually got this thing, I made the exact same number.

Peter Soros (22:40):
Wow.

Savvy (22:42):
I made the same exact profit. I was like, this is impressive. But again, 10 15K up and down because I saved some and I also lost some money with a contractor initially who was overcharging me. I had to fire them. I had to get new contractors in place. I lost some time and money. It was a very interesting experience for me. I had to even fire my real estate agent, actually. So I learned that. Don't be afraid to move, just move.

Peter Soros (23:20):
Don't let anyone get in the way of your deals.

Savvy (23:23):
Yeah. I mean, you can see it's hurting you and you can see it's going to hurt you financially. Well, just let it go. No need to hold onto it, just let it go.

Peter Soros (23:36):
So, you purchased it, what was it? It was like 900 something. Let's look at the numbers. 900, what was it? 900 even? Yeah, 900 even. And then I remember you listing it for 1.27, was it?

Savvy (23:51):
28.

Peter Soros (23:52):
1.28. And it closed for 1.227.

Savvy (23:56):
Yeah, I closed lower. The market has shifted. My first offer was 1.3. I would've made a nice 130K on it.

Peter Soros (24:05):
Got it.

Savvy (24:07):
But that fell through and the agents were partially responsible because what had happened is when we did the property inspections, we got a really bad inspector who was just trashing the place. You put a brand new place and it was the way they wrote the report, the information they gave us to fix things was super helpful. We fixed it all. I used the report. I brought my contractor and said, look, I paid you for all this, fix it. And they did. But the problem was the way it was written, so there was a lot of buyer remotes, and they started reading these reports and they're like, oh, this place is not what we think. And it wasn't managed well that we should have done a new inspection. And that's what I learned in the process. So I re-listed it at 12.5, just a little under 12.5,

(25:04):
And I re-listed it with a new agent because I realized that my agent hadn't even bothered to read the property inspection report. And I had asked them about 10 times because I was busy with the other property, and I was on his case telling him, read this report. We need to make all the notes of everything we fixed because somebody imagine this report is the most important thing. A buyer reads and makes an informed decision. And if it's saying everything is unsatisfactory when it's not, then it's not going to work in our favor either. We need to get a new report, get the same guy to change, come back, look at it. He didn't make the phone calls, he didn't do all the things asking him to do. And I had lost 50 days. And 50 days means I'm paying 50 days of hard money interest, which is not small money. I'm paying a lot of money. Then I had to just one Saturday morning, get a pen. One Friday night I looked up people and I said, I'm going to find somebody who does really well in this area. And I did. And I real it slightly lower because within 50 days the market had shifted immensely. Because the first offer I got was within nine days. And if I had closed in, I would've made a really decent profit. But hey, I came out positive.

Peter Soros (26:22):
What were your hold costs? You kind of told us what your repair costs were. Like 160 something. So about hold costs, and then this way we can kind of see what your end profits were after paying all the closing costs.

Savvy (26:35):
I'll have to look at them. I don't have at the top of my head.

Peter Soros (26:38):
That's fine. Just if we, ballpark if you have..

Savvy (26:42):
I mean, we're talking about 200 to two 50 something on 200, not K, pardon me. $200 on utilities. My insurance for the year was about 2000 1900 something. So I had this house for almost six months, so about a thousand dollars. It's the property taxes. That was an interesting one for me. The property taxes, the Santa Clara County sent me a bill and said, we will be charging you for 1.3. And I said, I bought it for 900K, why would I give you a supplementary tax of 1.3? So these are the kind of things you have to deal with when you are fixing and flipping. All these things will be thrown at you and you have to go back. And so they sent me another supplemental. I had paid 2000 something from February to July, and I got a supplemental bill of another 4,000. So paid about $6,000 in taxes.

Peter Soros (27:52):
Just like that , right.

Savvy (27:55):
There's little you can do about that. It's still not bad. It was less than what I would've paid if they had kept me at 1.3. Of course.

Peter Soros (28:04):
Yeah. So all said and done. How much did you actually profit from this fix and flip once all your expenses were paid? What did you actually keep in your pocket?

Savvy (28:16):
About 65K.

Peter Soros (28:18):
Okay. Not too bad. Some lessons learned and with those agents and the contractors. But still not too bad. Not too bad at all. So congratulations, savvy. We're all really proud of you.

Savvy (28:33):
Thank you. And thank you for the support. Thank you for telling me what is a good deal, what is not a good deal, showing it to me. And so I don't get carried away because at one point I had three deals in my hand.

Peter Soros (28:48):
I remember.

Savvy (28:49):
You do? And I let go of one and I said, you know what, we'll work on two. And here I finished two. Actually, I finished three in the last six months. I had a house that I had bought in Santa Cruz in 2022, and it was a triplex very close to the ocean, and I decided to fix it as well. I had fixed it before I entered it out, but this time I spent a little bit money and gave it a new kitchen and a new bathroom, and al other, there might issues whatever. And I'm going to hit the market soon on that one. So that's the one I'm excited to see. What happens. That one I just held for three years.

Peter Soros (29:36):
Gotcha. Okay. So you had a little, I guess a long-term rental, but because it's a couple years and now you did a system, minor repairs on it, updates, renovations, and you're going to put that on the market. So that's all ready to go on market soon, you said?

Savvy (29:54):
Yeah, like next week. Yeah.

Peter Soros (29:55):
Oh wow. Nice. And then that's one's in Santa Cruz, and now you've got one also in Oakland. So tell me about that one.

Savvy (30:03):
Oakland was, again, almost a hundred year old house, sitting closed for three years. Had a death in that house, I believe. And so I got it at 790 and I put about one 90k. I estimated 220K. But I got really good contractors who saved me tons on building a deck and a roof. That's where the biggest costs were. So once I saved quite a bit, I spent 20, 30K on just the cost. But that one sitting in the market again, it's been 49, 50 days. Market has shifted immensely. You're aware with the interest rates, the buyers, it's not like it's not getting activity. People are coming, they're looking at the house and then they're just shy. So I'm hoping to move that one soon. I've already reduced price on it twice, hoping every time I reduce, I get a spurt of activity and then they sit there and then the We're just looking. We're just looking. Well, don't look because it won't be a buyer's market for too long.

Peter Soros (31:18):
Yeah, it's true. Things are going to shift eventually. It can't stay like this forever.

Savvy (31:23):
Correct.

Peter Soros (31:24):
Is it worth renting out at all anytime soon or probably not. Based on what you know about the area and with that specific property.

Savvy (31:35):
Okay, so because it has a hard money lending loan on it. That's right. I would have to refinance it and then I can start, it's close to Children's Hospital.

(31:51):
So, I could easily find somebody to rent it out. It can be a possibility with nurses and doctors in the area. Nurses usually looking for a party, traveling. It's really walking distance too to there so they could walk to it if they liked, but so that thought has crossed my mind, but I prefer to sell it because refinancing it will not. Yeah. I don't want to go that path right now.

Peter Soros (32:22):
Yeah, okay. Just wondering. Just wondering. But, good to see that. You closed this one and you've already got another one on the market and another one coming on the market. I was going to ask you, what's the future for Savvy, but you've already working on your future.

Savvy (32:37):
I've got two in the, and I'm also looking at another one to purchase very cheap this time. Hopefully it's a property in Oakland Hills that was burned down three years ago.

(32:51):
I might get it if I can get it for really, really, I'm about to write the offer on that one. We'll see. Nice. Nothing to lose If I get it, I get it. I don't get it.

Peter Soros (33:00):
It doesn't matter As long as the numbers make sense. Yes, correct. It's like we say, or investors have been saying forever, you make your money when you buy it. Right. So if you know, get it at the right price, it's just a matter of time. You got to do the work and then you'll make money on it. So very exciting. Savvy, I can't wait to keep hearing about your progress. You got to keep us updated. I know you're busy.

Savvy (33:28):
Yes. It gets tough. I get when I'm working on two and three properties and I got my own other things in life, I don't get on school as much.

Peter Soros (33:38):
I'm teasing you.

Savvy (33:40):
I don't even get on social media. My daughter sometimes says, did you see in Star? Put that on it? I'm like, just send it to me directly. I'll see it.

Peter Soros (33:49):
Say, your mom is busy.

Savvy (33:52):
Yeah, if I have time, Peter, I prefer to spend it with myself in a quiet spot rather than constantly bombard myself with, Exactly, with more information, with more everything.

Peter Soros (34:09):
So I always like to ask students at the end of the interview, what kind of advice would you give people watching this? Whether they're on the fence about starting in real estate or investing or even joining Real Estate Skills. What would you recommend or suggest to people who are on the fence thinking, should I do this? What should I do? Kind of thing. Is it worth the risk? Is it worth the trouble? What advice would you give someone who is thinking about going down the path that you went down?

Savvy (34:46):
The sooner you get started, the better. That's my thing. Real estate always goes up and take the course, listen to those videos, work on them or come to the thing. I would say it helps if you're brand new, it gives you a very good idea on what you're doing and come to your calls because you guys talk a lot about your experiences and you can learn so much from that. So real estate is something, all the things I bought 10 years ago, 15 years ago, whatever I bought, they always appreciated. And in this market, yes, market is not the best, but it's actually an investor market right now. It's a buyer's market and buyers are standing on the sideline wasting their opportunity. They don't see it. But that's what it's a buyer's market today. If somebody came to me with that offer on that Oakland home, I'm more willing to go even a little bit up and down because I needed to move. But they're not seeing that they're stuck on just one thing, but they can refinance. It'll eventually go down. So they don't see that the money sitting in a CD or a money sitting elsewhere is not going to make them that much returns. What this will do within a year or two, especially in California, California is and Bay Area, the prices are crazy. So my gut feeling on the San Jose, and I would make 1.3, even though my ARV was 1.23, which is what I sold it for.

(36:25):
Close to 1.23. That was my a rrb in January. My gut was I will sell it for 1.3. It was not wrong. It was correct. The market shifted is just not in my control. So that's what my suggestion to people is don't be shy, go for it and never be like I learned from this experience was if it's not working, be ready to shift, be ready to make the next move. Don't ever get stuck. Anything in life, don't get stuck. Move on. If you see it's not working, whether it's your contractor, it's whoever move on. That's hard to do. That was not easy to do because people are involved, they're upset, and you have to take that upset and you have to take it with an open heart without getting angry about it, because that doesn't go anywhere. Getting angry is just hurting your own self. It's a poison that you drink while you think you're giving it to the other.

Peter Soros (37:25):
Makes, that's some great wisdom right there. Everyone listening. Just have to remember, this is business. We say it all the time. We have to take emotion out of our financial decisions. We can do it for emotional reasons. We want to do this so we can spend more time with our family and have more freedom. We do it for that. But when it comes down to the numbers, when it comes down to getting the job done, it's very, very clinical. If the numbers don't make sense, you don't do the deal. One of the best sayings I was ever told was, some of the best deals are the ones you never do because you can get into so much trouble if you do the wrong deal.

Savvy (38:09):
Well said.

Peter Soros (38:10):
And like you said too, it's like these are business relationships, just like personal relationships. Sometimes things go wrong. If you can salvage it, great. If you can't, you need to keep moving. You can't just give up. You got to keep..

Savvy (38:27):
Moving. And both the guys I fired, I called back and I said, look, I still value your friendship and I miss your friendship and I would like to stay as friends. And that calmed them down right away. They weren't angry anymore. They weren't upset because negative energy from anywhere, it'll touch you. You're all connected, it'll touch you. It'll constantly keep pulling you. And as soon as I did that, it stabilized. I didn't have to think too ever about them. They were not in a bad, upset, unhappy place. They felt that, okay, she said something nice to us. So I think that also is very valuable to do is to keep, keep people in a good place, not because and genuinely from your genuine heart, not just to say words for the heck of saying. So. Those are my few gold nuggets I found while I did this for the last six months.

Peter Soros (39:28):
Well, it will serve you well. So listen to Savvy's wise words from our experience.

Savvy (39:34):
Thank you.

Peter Soros (39:36):
We're out there just trying to do the best we can for ourselves, our families, and in the great scheme of things, our community. You're creating housing for people. You can drive by the things that you helped create. There's people living in those places. It's their sacred spaces like we're talking, they're raising their families in there, or there's a much deeper meaning to what we can do if we are aware of it. And then your mind kind of changes of how you approach everything and the people you have to work with to make this happen. We can't do it alone. We do need other people to make these things happen. So as much as we can be a positive force in this whole process, that's the best thing. And that's how we always say to do business. It's always got to be a win, win, win. However many people, everyone has to win. If someone's not winning, we don't want to do business like that.

(40:39):
Well, savvy, I really appreciate you doing this. I was really looking forward to this day. I knew this would come and I think we're going to probably be doing this again soon with other day.

Savvy (40:50):
Sure, I'd be happy to.

Peter Soros (40:51):
I would love to hear some new updates on the new ones. And as always, we love to always hear from you, so I know you're busy pop in every once in a while in the community.

Savvy (41:02):
I will.

Peter Soros (41:03):
People will love to hear about your progress. I'm sure they're going to see this video eventually and they'll just be like, wow.

Savvy (41:09):
Yeah, sure. If it inspires anybody more than happy to and happy to also take calls or talk to other people who would like to hear more.

Peter Soros (41:18):
Hey, maybe they can bring you some deals, maybe.

Savvy (41:22):
And they have. People have. They have. It hasn't worked out recently for me yet. But I'm sure it might. Who knows? You never know.

Peter Soros (41:31):
We just keep that door open, right?

Savvy (41:33):
Yeah, yeah. I am one of your cash buyers. Not a very big one, doing too many of them. But yeah, awesome. You never know what works. Never know. But thank you for having me. Thank you very much. And thank you for mentoring me. I, from the bottom of my heart, appreciate what I got from you, Ryan and Alex. Even though Alex, I never talked to him, but I learned so much from those videos. I appreciate the information, how well it's put together, and I appreciate the mentoring and the support because it gives you the strength to do and the clarity to go forward. So thank you.

Peter Soros (42:10):
It means a lot from us to hear that Savvy. Thanks so much for sharing that. All of this has changed our own personal lives. It changed my life. I was in your seat once many years ago when Alex did the video with me when I did my first deal. So I know it changed my life. This is why me and my position, it means so much to give back to all the students coming in. I was in your spot. I know what this can do for you. You just got to do it, and we're here to help you as much as we can. So again, thanks so much, Savvy. We'll be in touch. Thank in touch, take care.

(42:44):
And there you have it. I'm so glad Savvy was able to share her experience and her wisdom that she's learned along the way with all of you.

(42:53):
As you can see, things can happen. She had this life-changing event and she turned it into a golden opportunity where for some people it could have been and was devastating, but because she knew where she wanted to go, she had a little bit of experience, but she committed a hundred percent to this. She had just joined the community, probably not more than a couple months or two before this happened. So she was basically ready and set with the information and the tool she needed to move forward in this. As you heard, this wasn't the typical fix and flip she's done in the past. This was much more distressed, carried a lot more problems. She ended up having to fire her contractor, fire her realtor, and re-list it after it fell through the first contract. It can be quite frustrating, but she persevered and stayed positive.

(43:47):
If you'd like to learn more about the Real Estate Skills community, go ahead to RealEstateSkills.com. Send us a message and we'll get in touch. Until next time, take care.

*Disclosure: Real Estate Skills is not a law firm, and the information contained here does not constitute legal advice. You should consult with an attorney before making any legal conclusions. The information presented here is educational in nature. All investments involve risks, and the past performance of an investment, industry, sector, and/or market does not guarantee future returns or results. Investors are responsible for any investment decision they make. Such decisions should be based on an evaluation of their financial situation, investment objectives, risk tolerance, and liquidity needs.