The Truth About Flipping Homes | Integrity, Partnerships & Profits

Quentin (01:31)
All right. Well, hello everyone. Welcome to the Investor fuel podcast. When I tell you I am excited, I am excited today because I am your host, Quentin Edmonds. And you know, people just call me Q Edmonds. You know how it is. And today I’m joined by someone I am looking forward to you guys talking to as we chat it up. I am joined by Ms. Arredondo. She’s here and listen, she’s making serious moves when it comes to the art of the flip.

I cannot wait for her to talk to you about it. I cannot wait to hear about her education style and what she’s doing to make sure people are educated with what they need to know. And so I am so excited to introduce to you Miss Christina Arredondo. How are you doing today, ma’am?

Christina Arredondo (02:19)
Thank you. I’m excited to be here and everybody knows that if I’m excited, you gotta be there. And I’m just honored to be part of your pod.

Quentin (02:27)
There you go, y’all. That’s a tagline. I don’t know. I may try to steal it. She may have to come after me because I love that. She’s excited to listen. You better know. Here she comes. So listen, I know how listeners are really going to take something away from you and learn from you today because you are the educator. You believe in educating. And so I am so excited about what you have to say.

If people who are not familiar with you, if they wanted to get to know you, give us a short version of what your main focus is these days. And if you don’t mind also, tell us what markets, what markets you’re operating on.

Christina Arredondo (03:05)
Yeah, absolutely. So I am a firm believer that people do business with people, right? Everybody knows that. So I want to start with telling you who I am. I’m actually Texas homegrown girl. I’ve been in LA for the last six years and I’m from a small town in Texas and I have three beautiful children and I love LA. I love Texas, but I definitely love LA.

I had no real estate background coming into this journey. And in a matter of, I’d say the last five years, I’ve developed not only my own expertise, but a network of people that support. And now I have this new passion for ⁓ real estate and how to change the real estate game. A little bit about what I do, because it’s very different than who I am. I am a connector, by the way. ⁓

I have an education platform. My business partner, Ricardo Carrillo, is a broker and has been in the industry for over 18 years. ⁓ I met him, I came out of the W-2 banking world and went into foreclosures. And anybody that’s ever done real estate knows that distressed properties, people in distressed situations is very sensitive and it’s a tough position to be in. So I met him.

He had a creative way of flipping, which at the time we didn’t know it was our version of a novation. So we flipped a client’s home that was in distress, got them out of a hard money loan, and we realized that through our gifts that we were onto something.

And he’s been flipping for over 13 years by himself with OPM. And it was just, it was crazy. The two of us came together, started.

having monthly networking events. And from there, we now have an education platform, community of over 75 people. We have members in nine states and we’re actively flipping in five of the nine with currently 19 active projects right now. there’s so much to share, but that’s in a nutshell who we are, networking partnership, mentorship, that’s what we stand by in teaching the Flipper mindset.

Quentin (06:13)
Yes, ma’am. I’ve been waiting for you to say it. I love it. That’s what caught my attention, that networking partnership and networking mentorship. Like, I love it. I love the fact how you build in a growing community. Then you said 75 people in nine states. That’s amazing. That is amazing. So y’all are doing things the right way and I love hearing about it. Listen, like that’s not easy in this climate. Like, so let me ask you, what’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly?

Christina Arredondo (06:41)
You know, ⁓ one first and foremost, God, I have to say that when we started this journey, ⁓ we kind of were, he had his gifts, I had my gifts, and we came together and not really having a business plan or knowing, we just wanted to teach people, right? We just wanted to get in front of people and talk to people and share his heartaches, share his losses, share his wins so people wouldn’t make the same mistakes. And consistency.

Since day one, since him and I met, we have had monthly events. Now we have three monthly events as to where before we were having one. It’s just been consistent, consistent, and the power of people. Like honestly, and I don’t want to sound sleazy at all when I say this, but again, real estate is a people’s industry. It’s a people’s game. You have to be able to meet people, talk to people, connect with people, and that’s what we’ve done.

our own members are just sharing and we’ve expanded through to all these states because people are excited about what they’ve learned or partnering with us or the fact that we funded a deal. So it’s all the power of people in prayer.

Quentin (07:55)
Yeah, you definitely talking my language for sure. You mentioned that you are a connector and I tell people all the time when you sit down, it’s not about me, it’s about you. I’m just going to say this real quick. I always tell people when they ask me about me, I always say my purpose is to connect or unite. And my passion to do that is do storytelling. But I share that with you. I am a connector. love, you know, that’s how we keep our ecosystem flowing. And I’m just not talking about just

Christina Arredondo (08:06)
you

Quentin (08:25)
and, and, know, with capital and money, but just the ecosystem of people, of connection, of, relationships, authentic relationships. That’s how you do it. You connect with people and you keep connecting and it just starts this ecosystem of us sharing and being there for each other and looking out for each other. And that translates into business. Like if that’s who you are at heart, it’s so much right that you would bring that to your business at the same time. And so I just love it. I love what you’re saying. I really do.

everything you’ve been about being a connector, absolutely love it. ⁓ Now, of course, you know, every operator I know has a moment when things get real, right? Maybe a deal will sideways or a time they had to pivot fast. You know, do you mind sharing one of those times? Maybe you had that in your business.

Christina Arredondo (09:10)
Yeah, and there’s actually two. So the reason why, one thing you will hear me say over and over and over, and I utilize this platform to be able to share with people is that this game isn’t easy. This business isn’t easy.

And my business partner, he’ll share with you. We actually have a podcast and he was very transparent and open. I used to tell him hashtag, or I still tell him hashtag no filter because sometimes he makes it sound so scary. But you know, he lost a half a million dollars on investment.

And the market took a shift and interest rates changed. it’s because of that loss and that hardship that he went through that we pride ourselves in our underwriting. So when we are underwriting a deal, we go back and think about, okay, those losses and the investors’ money that were lost and those deals that went south. I think that was a huge ⁓ turning point for him. And we’ve leveraged off of that to be able to teach people and to be able to help people.

In our current business model, everything has been a proof of concept. We’re only a year old in the education platform. And yeah, we’ve gone into deals that have not made money. Our investors have received their return, but the operations hasn’t. And that was all part of, that’s part of the investment in real estate. That’s part of learning. As we are 19 flips in,

through our education platform, now we know it’s quality. It’s quality. have our school teachers that are relying on us. We have everyday hard workers that are investing their savings in us. There’s so many people counting on that underwriting and us being able to have a solid exit plan that I think those two hardships are what make us a little stronger today.

Quentin (11:32)
⁓ So well said, that’s the kind of stuff that people don’t talk about enough. ⁓ That’s honestly what separates the folks from like who dabble from the ones who kind of stay in it in the game long-term. And so, you know, I absolutely love it. I absolutely love what you and your partner is doing. And I may ask you this, what are you most focused on solving or scaling next? What does the next real goal look like for you?

Christina Arredondo (12:01)
So, you know, the market’s shifting, right? And ⁓ even we’ve seen that with some of our properties sitting a little longer than what we would have liked. We’re gonna see ARVs that are going to start changing, right? So maybe going into the flip, we had an idea of what that ARV was going to be. So we know that diversification is very important. We don’t want to, so I’m from Texas, so of course I’m gonna use my Texas reference.

You know, we don’t want to be the quarterback and the running back and we don’t want to be all those positions, but we want to be sure we have key players. So if we continue to bring advisors to our community that maybe are experts in sub two, maybe they’re experts in multifamily, maybe they’re experts in pad split, which our network consists of those people already. And we bring this diversification to our members that are part of the community. Now they have other options.

Everybody gets into the flip as kind of the starting, That’s easiest thing to do. But then what happens after the flip? What happens when you make money? What happens if you need to buy and hold? Well, now we have advisors in our community. So to answer your question that diversification, adding more experience to our panel, adding more experience to our network so that our members can have more options on building their portfolio.

Raising capital is so easy ⁓ for us because one, our exit plan, two, our reputation, and three, because of our network. People have confidence in us. And that goes back to the advisors that we have that are sitting in our network.

Quentin (13:46)
That’s big. That’s big. The fact that you have the right people in place for whatever it sounds like you got it for whatever, whatever situations might may run into you got the right people in place. And so, I mean, that’s, that’s big. That’s big. And it kind of take me into right. What I want to say next, because of course the next move, can either like compound things or create chaos depending on how you play it. Right. And so

I know a lot of people that’s listening to this. They may be early in their journey. They may be looking to level up. And I think they will benefit, and you kind of alluded to this, and I think they will benefit from hearing this when it comes to relationship and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you.

Christina Arredondo (14:35)
Wow, you I didn’t have a real estate background.

So, when I moved to LA, I knew only one person when I moved here. Now you ask anybody in my circle, think every third person knows who my name is. If you don’t know my name today, I promise you’re gonna know it tomorrow. ⁓ I think what’s made a huge impact for not just me personally, but for our education platform and for our business is that ⁓ people, we network.

Quentin (15:33)
Yeah.

Christina Arredondo (15:42)
Network, network, network. I’m at networking events probably two to three times a week. ⁓ I do intake calls with people. I think I probably do about 30, maybe 30 to 35 calls a week. I’m just listening. People want to talk about what their problems are they want to be connected. ⁓ I feel that by being able to connect people through networking, the partnerships

come organically and we’ve seen that. We’ve seen that. A lot of our members that we’re in partners with now, we have a $1.3 million deal in Pasadena right now. She’s a full-time school teacher. Her husband’s a general contractor and we met her through the power of networking through someone else that is a partner for us with us in Indianapolis. She got her first deal through networking. ⁓ She was at a networking event, met a wholesaler and that’s how she acquired the deal. So again, networking, the power of people, meeting people.

such as yourself, Q, I hope you and I stay in contact after this podcast. Nothing is transactional for me. Nothing is transactional for me. And I think that’s bottom line is that you have to build relationships in this business, in life, and just in anything that you’re wanting to do that you wanted to have longevity.

Quentin (17:00)
Yes, ma’am. You’re talking that language because relationships is everything in this space and you are talking it. We preach it. We say it over and over and over that relationships is everything. It’s all about connecting. all about, again, I can’t think of a better word than relationships. And so, yes, I appreciate you for saying it. Listeners, y’all know, if you’ve been listening to us, we talk about it all the time. So thank you, Miss Christina, for doubling down on it once again.

is there anything that you’ve been musing about? Is there anything that you feel like is in your heart, maybe to tell the people, to educate the people or a tool or resource, just a mindset maybe that you want to leave people with? Like, is there anything that’s been on your mind that you feel like people may really, really need to hear?

I want to give you space to say it right now, Ms. Christine.

Christina Arredondo (17:52)
I appreciate that. You know, and it’s perfect timing. We’re having an event this Thursday. It’s our birthday month and it’s actually called the Naked Truth Behind Real Estate. yeah, so this is like so fitting. It’s almost like it was planned. When I came into this space, well, back up, when I was in banking, I would have clients that had money in the bank. They had a good FICO score.

Quentin (18:09)
Yeah.

Christina Arredondo (18:21)
and they were coming in and not being able to refinance their home. They were coming in and not being able to refinance even their auto. ⁓ And what happens to those people, right? They just say, I’m sorry, and then they go away. So then I went into the foreclosure space and these people were losing their life home. They were losing everything that they had invested. And I worked with some investors at the time that were not, I couldn’t go to bed at night feeling comfortable with what I was doing. We’ll put it to you that way. And…

I thought, man, there has to be more integrity in this business. And that’s the message that I want to give people today. There is integrity in this business. You just have to really find out who you’re working with. Trust the right people, because there are good people out there. And observe the community. Talk to the people that they’re networking with. Look at their circle. Evaluate who they talk to and who they’re learning from.

I was really nervous. had a big trust factor in this industry because my first deal, my investor took 75 % of my deal and had never even touched the client. And I thought, there’s no way, there’s no way that this is how business is done. Now, a year, I’ve been with my business partner for about two and a half years. We’re in the education, we’re in this education platform a year into it. And I can say, I go to bed at night feeling very good about what we do. And when you are,

part of a community that has integrity and you are part of people that really take pride in their name, ⁓ then learn from them. Learn from them, grow from them. Nobody should try to keep you in a box. They should try to give you all the tools so that you can build your profile and you can build your portfolio and you can fly on your own. So my message is just learn from those people that have the utmost integrity. They’re out there. I’m right here.

And it can’t find me, I’m sure there’s other people. There’s cute.

Quentin (20:19)
Miss Christina, I thank you so much. I thank you for leading with integrity. I thank you for being the educator. I thank you for being the uniter and connector that you are. I really appreciate it so much for you being here with us today. And so listen, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, maybe collaborate,

What’s the best way to reach out to you? What’s the best way for them to get in contact?

Christina Arredondo (20:46)
Look, systems is key. If you’re starting your business out there today, systems is key. And I will tell you, my brand consultant, God bless him, he’s amazing. Fixandflippeerconnect.com, that is our website. So not only can you submit a deal, you can schedule a call with me, you can check out our social media, you can see our before and after. If you’re interested in investing money, there’s a button there. If you just want to snoop around, fixandflippeerconnect.com, that’s the place to check me out.

Quentin (20:54)
Let’s go.

Christina Arredondo (21:14)
⁓ You can also find me on Instagram under red moon underscore CBA, but can’t remember that just go to fix a flip here connect

Quentin (21:23)
love it. I love it. Miss Christina Arredondo. Thank you so much. I appreciate you. I appreciate your time. I appreciate your story. Like we need more people like you that’s going in the right way in this business who have the stick-to-itiveness, who has the perseverance, who has the integrity. So I just appreciate again for you being here and talking to this community. Thank you so much.

Christina Arredondo (21:28)
Very good.

Thank you for having me. Thank you for having Fix and Flip. ⁓ I’m very honored to be here. And I’m going to ask you, because I always ask everyone, can we end this with a high five? ⁓

Amazing. Thank you.

Quentin (22:04)
See, I don’t know. That’s what

got me popped up in the first phase. Y’all don’t even know. I love it. I love it. Thanks again for being here and for those who’s tuning in. I hope y’all gave us a high five as well. And listen, if you got value from this, please make sure that you subscribe. All right? We’ve got more conversations coming up with people just like Miss Christina Arredondo, who are doing things the right way. So listen, stay connected, stay tuned in, subscribe, and we will see you on the next episode.