5 Secrets of Flipping Houses: Joy Steidl’s Game-Changing Insights

John Harcar (00:02.013)
All right. Hey guys, welcome back to our show. I’m your host John Harcar and I’m here today with Joy Steidl. And what we’re going to talk about besides Joy’s journey in business and real estate is we’re going to talk about a pretty cool sounding new platform that she has. And it’s called Easy Real Estate Platform. Definitely going to help a lot of agents from what I heard and investors. Remember guys, at Investor Fuel we help real estate investors, service providers.

really all real estate entrepreneurs, two to five X their business. We provide the tools, the community, the resources to scale your business the way you want to in turn scale to the life that you want. So Joy, welcome to our show.

Joy Steidl (00:44.898)
Thanks so much for having me. Really excited to be here.

John Harcar (00:47.415)
Yeah, I’m curious to learn more about the new platform. I always like all the new tech things that come out, any way to make our life easier. But before we jump into all that, why don’t you tell our audience a little bit about you, kind of your background in business, your journey in real estate, and kind of what brought you up to today.

Joy Steidl (01:05.134)
Absolutely. So I have been in the real estate business for about nine years now. Prior to that, I did all kinds of things. I started out my career as an engineer of all things. have a degree in physics, so I was a system engineer for Motorola for many years, but really was not suited for that job. I didn’t like sitting in a cube writing code. I liked interview mixing with people.

John Harcar (01:29.301)
Ha

Joy Steidl (01:32.11)
So I transitioned more towards a sales role. So I did outside business to business sales for many, many years. But really, really enjoyed helping people, really enjoyed getting to know people.

So that kind of helped me transition. Always have had a passion for real estate. And so about nine years ago, I decided to get my license. I’m located in the Nashville, Tennessee area. So been working here successfully for about eight or nine years and done some investing.

myself, had some fix and flips, done some buy and holds, I’ve done some Airbnb properties. So I’ve worked with, you know, regular clients helping them buy and sell, but I’ve also put the investor hat on and worn that as well. So.

John Harcar (02:21.321)
Awesome. Okay. If you’ve ever watched any of my podcasts, I’d like to go backwards. I think there’s a lot of story in the journey, but I also like to find out this one thing because I have a little pole in my head. If people say a certain answer when you were growing up in your life, right? Prior to you being an engineer and physics, I mean, that’s a far stretch from the other side of real estate, but in your life, as you grew up, I mean, was there any influence, any exposure to real estate, maybe a realtor?

Joy Steidl (02:41.774)
Good luck.

John Harcar (02:49.847)
family member, maybe a buy and hold uncle, a friend that flipped a house or something like that.

Joy Steidl (02:55.646)
Absolutely. Yeah. So my father was actually a land developer out in Colorado. purchased, funny story, he purchased with his friend one side of the mountain and then his friend purchased the other. His friend ended up in a little place called Aspen and so did really, really well for him and he ended up in a smaller town on the other side of the mountain called a little town called Buena Vista. So one became very, very successful. My father was a successful

you know, land developer, one developed a whole ski area and he just developed some nice homes. So.

John Harcar (03:31.831)
Wow, that’s so he could have got the other side of the mountain for all they know. I mean, did they coin flip it or how did they choose who gets what? Okay.

Joy Steidl (03:35.479)
Right. Right.

You know, I don’t know. I don’t know the exact whole story, but it was kind of an interesting. But yeah, he kind of.

help my passion for just real estate and kind of the whole business. I really love the business side of it and just being able to, you know, open that space, create something from nothing. And so it’s just, it’s, it’s a really unique experience, but I would say that played into my love for the business as well. Yeah.

John Harcar (03:55.105)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (04:08.735)
OK, yeah, I usually get something like that. There was a family member or I get I read that purple book. Those are, you know, about 60 % I think are where it’s ticking on the lead for the purple book. But I just like to find out because I’m almost curious about where that seed was planted. So you go to school for physics and engineering. That’s not your gig. You don’t want to write code. You want to talk to people. You get into sales and then you go into I guess that’s a natural thing. A natural thing for real estate is being an agent.

What was some of the…

hurdles, things, the challenges when he first kind of started getting out there and actively doing real estate.

Joy Steidl (04:47.532)
Yeah, absolutely. I think, you know, when I got into it, of course, it seems very glamorous and that, I get to see homes and you get the very surface level part of it. And I don’t think anyone really prepares you for just the actual business and the marketing and the day to day sales part of it. So I had done outside sales. Yes, yes. But and you just sort of think things will come. And of course, when you actually get into real estate, you realize that is

John Harcar (05:07.851)
Follow up.

Joy Steidl (05:17.556)
absolutely not the case. That it is a grind. It is a hustle business that you have to be in every day doing, 500 different hats, marketing, advertising, client relations, follow-up, communication, know, business and all that’s involved in every kind of transaction in the real estate industry. So it’s a lot, but I also found that very exciting.

John Harcar (05:57.751)
Well, that’s good. You found your lane. So what prompted you to flip some houses? Did you just find a couple that were like, hey, man, this is too good of a deal to pass up. I could flip this and make some extra money.

Joy Steidl (06:08.682)
Yeah, absolutely. So that’s exactly kind of what happened. Just ran into a couple of deals that where, you know, the seller was in a position that really, really needed to get sold. And it was in an area that I was really familiar with. And so I was like, Hey, this is Friday, my neighborhood. would love to opportunity to try and see my hand at doing that. I knew a couple of people that were in the fix and flip business, had some friends that were contract.

So, was able to partner up with them and we did a couple of flips, had some good success with those. Of course, you always have the ones that are difficult too. You can never have everything easy in this business for sure. and it’s great. It was a really, really good learning experience throughout the process. Same thing with some of the buy and holds and putting on the landlord hat. That’s a whole different, you know, game in its own and then Airbnb.

John Harcar (06:52.16)
Yeah, yeah.

John Harcar (07:06.038)
Sure.

Joy Steidl (07:08.506)
It’s all been really, really good. I love to gain knowledge, so I love to just learn. And so anytime I can do that and get experience hands-on, I love to do that.

John Harcar (07:20.629)
Awesome. Which of all the things you’ve done so far, like you’ve done the traditional, you’ve done the flip, you’ve done the buy and hold, you’ve done the short term, right? So what is your favorite?

Joy Steidl (07:34.154)
say I mean I really do like fix and flips just because I’m that kind of person that likes to to see the you know ugly and turn it into the beautiful. Yeah yeah I think it is I think it is a

John Harcar (07:43.881)
Create yeah, yeah

Joy Steidl (07:48.64)
outflow of creation. So to take something, you know, we’ve gotten some pretty scary houses and then just kind of seeing that whole process again, it’s not the HDTV version where it takes 30 minutes and you know, it’s all the ugly in between, but it is gratifying at the end to see where it started and then see where it ends up.

John Harcar (08:13.015)
of all the different things, what do you think have been some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned? Maybe over-encompassing all of them or maybe in specific ones like do this extra due diligence or what are some of the things you picked up?

Joy Steidl (08:23.31)
I would say making sure that you have good processes in place and planning.

And kind of the fact that they always say the devil’s in the details, but that’s very, very true in those situations. Not only in real estate, but in investing as well that you have to obviously continue and again learn, but really delve in and expand your knowledge, but be able to do that in a way where you’re keeping track of those details.

John Harcar (08:38.177)
Ha

John Harcar (08:57.975)
Okay, very cool. Well, before we segue into this new platform that you have, real quick, tell us about your business. Like, what does it look like now? What are you like heavier in? Are you heavier in the traditional or figure? What are you doing?

Joy Steidl (09:11.574)
Yeah, so I’ve kind of transitioned mostly to working with sellers. I transitioned that probably about a year or so ago when I started working with some investors, had some investors that particularly had cash offers that they were using. So I worked with a lot of homeowners that were in the need of cash offer situations. Again, being able to provide those services that people are really in need either financially or the home is in need. And again, that’s

I feel like a needed service. So I kind of got in that niche a little bit. I’ve always continued to still do regular listings. I am luxury certified, so I’ve done some luxury listings as well. But I tend to work more towards the seller side, and that’s kind of one of the reasons how I found out about the EZ platform is because it’s mainly geared towards sellers. But I think the difference in today’s market is just

been the last few years have been just a big rollercoaster for a lot of different reasons, obviously a lot of the lawsuits and all of the things that are involved. so I’ve really been kind of concentrating on how to really focus my business to help clients succeed throughout all situations. And that’s kind of what led me to the EZ platform and how that really can help everyone in the real estate

John Harcar (10:34.122)
Awesome.

Joy Steidl (10:41.378)
business whether investors whether it’s agents or whether it’s buyers or sellers or buyers agents it kind of helps everybody so yeah

John Harcar (10:48.087)
Okay, well, perfect segue. Let’s talk about that. I mean, what is the biggest need that this platform solves?

Joy Steidl (10:57.196)
I think it has probably maybe three main components to it. The first is that it is transparent. So that’s been a big deal, especially recently, you know, with all of the regulations and all of the changes is that what the platform offers is full and utter transparency. So it’s similar to somewhat like an eBay in a way that it is a platform where clients can list their home on.

And when they do that, they get the choice to choose what commission they pay. So they can even pay as little as 0 % commission, but they get to structure that. So again, it follows the new regulations and really actually allowing the seller to make that choice, right? It’s never, well, we suggest you make the 3 % or it’s this percent. They literally get to make that choice on how much they get to pay. And then…

John Harcar (11:44.567)
Okay.

John Harcar (11:54.017)
So was this stemmed out of that gnar ruling?

Joy Steidl (11:58.043)
So it existed prior to that.

John Harcar (11:59.919)
okay, okay.

Joy Steidl (12:01.582)
But and so it was really, really helpful in situations like in 2020 when we had multiple offers, 30, 40 offers on a property. This allowed this was great for those buyers and those buyers agents because it’s fully transparent. So someone can go online and make an offer on a property and they can see right then and there in black and white what that offer is. So if I’m going to offer three hundred thousand dollars for a property, I put my offer in at three hundred thousand and then someone puts in an offer for three

I see that right then and there. I then now have the choice as the buyer to say, do I want to increase my offer? How bad do I want this house? You know, it’s never that highest and best blind. That’s a kind of no-win situation for everyone.

The seller, you would think that that’s a win for the seller, but in the end it’s not because they don’t know they could have gotten more. Someone might’ve been more willing to pay for that property if they had the opportunity. The buying agent has no idea they’re going in blind like, Hey, let’s, let’s, you know, do this trick or this trick to try and win this house. But we really have no idea where we’re at. And of course the buyers are blind as well. They’re like, well, I would, I, if I could have paid $3,000 more for that house, I absolutely would have, but I had no idea that that was an option.

John Harcar (12:54.432)
Yeah.

John Harcar (13:17.473)
Hmm.

Joy Steidl (13:17.936)
This again solves that problem. It’s completely transparent and so the buyer if they want to you know increase their bid they absolutely can do that.

John Harcar (13:27.799)
Okay, so as an investor, right, if I’m going on there and I’m looking to buy a property, that same kind of premise, you’re just being able to see what you’re bidding against, in a sense, as opposed to like, you know, if I have the highest of bests I throw out my highest of 350, but I’m willing to pay 355, right, but I don’t know that someone’s been paying 352, this now tells me this person’s paying 352, make that 355 offer, so I, okay, that makes kind of sense, okay.

Joy Steidl (13:37.294)
Absolutely.

Joy Steidl (13:46.86)
Right.

Joy Steidl (13:52.396)
Right. Yeah, absolutely. And the great thing is too, that it’s somewhat like an auction, but it’s not an auction and it’s really important. it’s distinct in that it isn’t an auction. And the main reason why is because the seller still has maintains control. So the seller can accept, they can reject, or they can negotiate any offer at any time.

John Harcar (13:59.177)
I was going to ask, is it like an auction site?

John Harcar (14:15.622)
Okay.

Joy Steidl (14:16.492)
So that’s what differentiates it from an auction. So it’s not, it’s not an auction where it’s, it’s the, highest bid wins the day. That seller can, Hey, even if it’s the highest bid, maybe those contingencies are not what they’re looking for because it allows, for quicker sell times. So most times when I’m listing a property on the platform, we’re able to get it under contract in less than 30 days. Whereas especially right now, we’re kind of most of the nation has transitioned into more

John Harcar (14:19.403)
Got it.

John Harcar (14:24.438)
Right.

John Harcar (14:38.327)
Mm.

Joy Steidl (14:46.476)
of a buyer’s market. So things are sitting 30, 60, 90 days on the market. And this allows us, because we’re funneling so much activity where it’s needed, which is the very first time on the market, those first two weeks on the market are key. And this allows us to really funnel that activity. We’ve had many open houses where we have a hundred plus buyers at the open house. So again, just numbers, more buyers equals more offers equals more money.

Joy Steidl (15:24.918)
You do, you do. And that’s kind of the point is we do have some good, we really, really work with agents that want to learn. And so we have a pretty rigorous training program. So if agents are interested, you know, they can definitely contact us and see if they want to get trained and learn more about the platform. But we do, we have a certification program that they have to go through some training so that they know how to utilize the platform to the best of the platform’s ability. So it functions.

John Harcar (15:32.148)
Right, right.

John Harcar (15:41.515)
Perfect. Do you see this as kind of being a trend here and towards the future of more of these online platforms, more transparency, especially like I with the norm ruling, all these things starting to be kind of more of the norm now.

Joy Steidl (15:54.972)
the way it should for their clients. yeah.

Joy Steidl (16:04.11)
Correct, yeah. So for investors, yeah, you would work with a certified, easy master, we call them master agents, because they’ve taken the master training. But it is a great option for investors as well, because for one, it allows you to…

John Harcar (16:17.684)
Mm-hmm.

Joy Steidl (16:20.03)
have a quicker turnaround time and as you know with investors time is money so if I can get a house turned around I can reuse like that capital somewhere else and then the main key part about the platform is we utilize what’s called the buyer premium so that’s similar in auction right is when you come to an auction you have a buyer’s premium that they pay and again that’s where the commission flexibility comes in is the the seller can choose what commission they want to pay and what

John Harcar (16:46.58)
yeah. Do I have to have a real estate license to list a property on there? So let’s say I’m a flipper and I go flip my property. Do I have to have a license to put it up?

Joy Steidl (16:49.944)
and that is transferred to a buyer’s premium. But with investors, they can also use that buyer’s premium and they can use it kind of as a buffer sometimes for them to make sure that they have the right profit margin that they need for a property. Yeah.

Joy Steidl (17:13.879)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. So the best way is to go to the platform itself. It’s called EasyRealEstatePlatform.com and they can also contact me directly at HousesByJoy at gmail.com. They can do that or they can go to my website, is HousesByJoy.com. But yeah, the platform itself is the best way that way. I always encourage them to go on the platform, kind of take a look around. There’s, you know, tons of about pages and there’s lots of reviews.

John Harcar (17:26.869)
Okay, so it would be either myself learning how to do and getting certified or finding a certified person to do that for me. Got it.

Joy Steidl (17:45.328)
We’ve sold over five, we’ve saved sellers about five million dollars so far in the last few years utilizing the platform. So yeah.

We have quite a few. Yeah, we actually have a whole investor unit within the site as well. So we have a number of different owners. The founder, Robert Kleimer, was an innovator and he basically assembled a team together. So he has investors and he has marketers and he has business people and agents as well and kind of just assembled a team to basically make the platform as

user-friendly and as agent and real estate friendly. His whole goal was to re-energize the real estate space and make it a friendly environment not only for clients but also for investors.

John Harcar (18:29.387)
Yeah.

Very interesting. Very, very interesting. I love it. How do people get a hold and find out? How do people get in touch with you to find out about it? Maybe get a demo if possible, or just learn more.

John Harcar (19:04.919)
Sweet.

John Harcar (19:25.311)
How many investors do you have using it? Okay.

John Harcar (19:51.788)
awesome.

John Harcar (20:19.467)
okay, now we’re talking. We should have gotten into this part a little bit earlier. I didn’t know about all that!

John Harcar (20:58.069)
And then can any buyer get access to the platform to look at properties? Okay, very cool.

John Harcar (21:35.755)
So awesome. Thank you so much for sharing all this. It sounds like a pretty cool system, guys. If you’re out there listening and you want to learn more, something she said resonated with you, please reach out. We’ll put all the contact information in the show notes. Joy, thank you again. Great conversation, great product. And everybody at home, we will see you on the next one. Cheers.