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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds interviews Jim Tyler, a seasoned real estate expert with extensive experience in flipping properties. Jim shares his insights on the current market, his journey into real estate, and the keys to successful property flipping. He discusses the challenges faced in the industry, his future goals, and the importance of building relationships and networking. Jim emphasizes the necessity of hands-on experience and hard work in the real estate business, providing valuable advice for aspiring flippers.
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JIM TYLER (00:00)
If you want to do the fix and flip business or if you want to do any type of rehab in this business, you have to be willing to do the shit work. You have to be willing to cut the carpet out of a house that’s got six pounds of dog piss in it. You have to be willing to pull toilets out of a house that are full of shit because the plumbing’s not on. You have to be able to walk into a house, put a respirator on and take out the mold and get rid of the stuff.Quentin (02:00)
Hello, everyone. Hello, hello. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. Super excited to be with you today. I have someone here who’s a wealth of knowledge, who’s been doing it for a long, long time. Listen, not one thing, I think, real estate that has been done that he hasn’t already did. I don’t think it’s one question. We can ask him that he’s going to get his stumped on. This guy’s a wealth of knowledge andI just want to dive in with them right now. I’d like to introduce you all to Mr. Jim Tyler. Mr. Jim, how you doing today,
JIM TYLER (02:36)
Thank you, sir. I appreciate your time. Thanks for having me.Quentin (02:38)
No,absolutely, man. I’m so glad you’re here. I think our listeners are really going to take something away from your approach when it just comes to real estate, when it comes to your knowledge, when it comes to your knowledge about the market and where it’s about to go at. And I’m just excited. I’m excited to let you just be the star of show and get all this experience from you. So I’ll be honest with you. I want to dive in. You know, for people that’s not familiar with your world, I want you to take us into it.
Tell us what’s your main focus these days and what markets are you operating in Mr. Jim?
JIM TYLER (03:10)
Main focus right now is flipping wherever possible. There’s still opportunity out there, although be it not as plentiful as it was, there’s a lot of amateurs in the business right now that are kind of screwing up the price points. ⁓ Mostly Southern California, a little bit of Arizona. I believe I’m doing this because I want to share my knowledge with as many people as I can to that point in my life where I want to do this, but…I believe in the next 12 months, there’s going to be some really great opportunities because the faults are on the rise. REO will be coming. A lot of people will be chased out of the market because they’ll be scared, but it’ll be great buying opportunities. So I’m looking forward to, you know, taking advantage of that and like have one more swing at the bat, so to speak, before it’s time to hang up my cleats.
Quentin (03:59)
Take us down the road. What got you started here, Mr. Jim? How did you get passionate about real estate?JIM TYLER (04:05)
Simple real good question. I like that. I was a buyer’s agent selling real estate and I got my license I was working at the time for federal express and I got my license part-time Started doing open houses selling houses and I met a engineer from McDonnell Douglas, which was now Boeing and He took a liking to me because he didn’t have a son and we went along and I sold him many many properties He was making a lot of money. SoLucky for me, I must have sold him house a month. One day he came up to me and this was about a year in our relationship and he says, Jim, I’ll buy this house that you want me to buy. was in Norwalk, California on one condition. And I said, what’s that? He goes, you have to help me rehab it and resell it. I want to teach you how to do this. That was a perfect fit for me at the time because being a buyer’s agent, lack of inventory. Every time I had a buyer in the car.
Back in the day when you would take buyers to houses because there was no internet, every house needed something, paint, carpet, kitchen. Buyer would say, if it just had a new kitchen, I’d buy the house. If it just had carpet and paint, because realize when the buyers are closing, they don’t have the money to hire a contractor. They don’t have the money to buy carpeting. They don’t have the money to put windows in. So the light went on. I needed to be a turnkey guy.
Jerry, who was my investor, he taught me how to rehab and he also sponsored me on my first couple of flips. So I gravitated away from day-to-day real estate sales. I still help people. have people who call me and ask me to sell their house or help them buy a house. I do that because I’m licensed in Arizona and California. But for the most part, I get a lot of joy out of the rehab because you know what you paid for it. You know what you’re gonna spend for it.
you have a pretty good idea what you’re gonna sell it for and handing the keys to somebody on a freshly painted, freshly redone kitchens, bathrooms, windows, handing the keys to the buyer with the relief of the smile on their face is worth it all. And I love doing it. I get a high off of that because I make the product that’s not in the marketplace. If that makes sense.
Quentin (07:02)
Absolutely. Absolutely. So I love it. mean, you’re doing a fix and flip. You’re handing the keys to the people who the virus is looking for. That’s exciting. And I know it’s not always easy in this climate. So what’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly?JIM TYLER (07:22)
Say that one more time, didn’t hear you, I’m sorry.Quentin (07:24)
Now I said, what’s been the key to making that machine run smoothly?JIM TYLER (07:29)
knowing how to do it. So when I first got in the business, I would repaint the molding that was on there and I would reuse the doors and I would try to redo what was in the property. I’m talking about properties that were built 30s and 40s and the 20s and 50s. know, a lot of them had lead-based paint on them. A lot of them had enamel versus water-based paint. So learned like, my God, the paint doesn’t stick. So I learned a lot.So the process is simple. Every time I buy a property, I strip it completely. And then I go back with new moldings, new floorings, new kitchens, new bathrooms. But I start fresh because the redo of something when you’re doing a older home and you’re trying to just cut corners, those corners cut you more. It’s like when you get your car fixed, the auto mechanic, he fixes your car and you go home and it’s not fixed. He has to go back. That redo costs the mechanic more money.
He probably skipped a step, but the redo is where he loses money. So on the flipping, just get rid of it. Get rid of the moldings, get rid of the doors. Everything is cheap. It’s all at Home Depot. It’s all at supply houses. Put it all in, learn how to do it. There’s not one thing in the house I don’t know how to do. From electrical to plumbing to roofing to concrete. I can do everything in the house because I learned how to do it. So I’m not a victim of the tradesman. When the electrician comes out and says, I want this, I laugh at him.
Okay? And then I negotiate with him and say, okay, here’s what I’m going to pay you because you know this is how much it’s worth. And he smiles and says, okay.
Quentin (09:10)
So they can’t get over on you, man. They don’t know. You’ve been around the block, man. They can try to get over on you. They can’t get over on you.JIM TYLER (09:15)
Here’s the funny part is they theystill think they’re slicker and faster and hotter than me and I tell them up front Dude, I’ve done this probably longer than you’ve been alive on this planet So I will gladly pay you a fair wage. You’re not gonna go broke. You’ll still be able to forge your 250,000 dollar truck you’re driving around But I’m not going to overpay. I know what I want done you do specifically I’ll pay you accordingly, but that knowledge is powerful
Quentin (09:26)
Yeah.JIM TYLER (09:43)
But what happens is a lot of these flippers get in, they don’t know what stone countertops cost, they don’t know what kitchen cabinets cost, they don’t know how much Romex cost, they don’t know how much Pex cost. You need to know all of that. So when the guy comes out with this estimate, he’s just like,Quentin (09:44)
Yeah. Yeah.JIM TYLER (10:34)
really? I don’t pay my doctor this much money. But that’s where people lose money, because they overpay the trades and they overpay on the purchase price.Quentin (10:39)
Absolutely,But listen, let’s stay right along this vein because I know you’ve been around, I know you got stories. I mean, of course there’s moments when things get real. Maybe a deal goes sideways, a time when you had to pivot fast. You mind sharing a story like that with us, Jim?
JIM TYLER (11:02)
Absolutely Compton California. Okay. I wasn’t doing a property in 2013. Went to the building department. Give me your code sheet for window replacement. Here it is right over the counter. Handing me the code replacement. Told me what type of windows, what I could do. I used retrofit windows. Didn’t have to modify the openings. Did everything to the sheet that they handed me.In that particular town, when you go to sell that property, you have to have a city inspection. The guy came out and told me all the windows were wrong. This is after I paid money for them and I installed them. So I went downtown and argued with them. said, this is the sheet you gave me. And they just looked at me and said, too bad. We want it done a different way. Bite hard. You know, you go, you have to, you to,
At that point I to analyze, am I going to get any farther by doing anything else? And I knew that they were going to protect each other no matter if somebody made a mistake at the city or not. So Jim just took my licking, I went and replaced the windows and moved along. But that was quite, well actually it forced me out of town. I refused to work in a town anymore because I did the right thing and I was punished for the right thing.
And I don’t need to go into a low income neighborhood, make a beautiful home for somebody that really appreciates it, spend my money, pay cash for the house, pay cash for everything, only to be kicked in the teeth when I’m trying to make the community better. I’m trying to make money, but yet I’m also making the community better at the same time. So live and learn, chalk it up. That’s what I did. That’s a real story.
I still hate that story.
Quentin (12:55)
Yeah,yeah, yeah. Listen, I wasn’t trying to break up any trauma, but I do appreciate that story. I appreciate you sharing. That’s the kind of stuff people don’t talk about enough. mean, and honestly, it’s what separates folks who just dabble from the ones who stay in it for the long term. And so I can see why you had staying power, Mr. Jim.
JIM TYLER (13:18)
Well, if I would avoid going to the city and avoid getting that sheet and avoid asking those questions ahead of time. Yeah, sure, it’s on me. But even though. And to be honest with you, I just don’t think they wanted me in town because I think the guy that gave me the sheet, his brother is in the same business doing the same thing I was. And let’s make it difficult on this dude. You know, who’s this guy? So a lot of that was in there and it’s just OK.Quentin (13:38)
Yeah.Yeah. Yeah.
JIM TYLER (13:49)
The welcome ad is not out, so I’ll go to another city. No problem.Quentin (13:51)
Yeah, you know,I’ll keep it moving. I definitely understand that. Yes, sir. But let me ask you this. What are you most? No, go ahead. Go ahead. OK. But no, I was going to ask, what are you most focused on scaling or solving next? Like, what’s the next real goal for you, Mr. Jim?
JIM TYLER (13:54)
Well, they did. We can’t let them. Go ahead. No, go ahead.Well, the next real goal for me is I think put together some like-minded people with some money and take advantage of the opportunity that’s coming with the foreclosures and with the REO that’s on its way. The REO and the foreclosure business is going to change. It’s probably going to be more of an auction network type deal. There’s going to be a lot of properties that are foreclosed on.
that are not going to fall away. Let’s just use an example. Bank of America may not foreclose on Mr. Mrs. Wilson, okay? But they may sell that non-performing note in an auction format. And so now Jim has to take on that non-performing note. Jim has to take on the tenant. And Jim has to do the eviction. And Jim has to buy it without seeing it. So there’s going to be a different format coming this way, I believe.
And I think if I can put together a group of people that
have my knowledge at least or less or a little bit more or whatever, there’s going to be a great opportunity because the market that’s coming up is not going to be for the weak and it’s not going to be for the mild. It’s going to be, it’s going to be, I mean, balls to the wall. It’s going to be a tough one, but it’s going to be a great one because there’ll be great deals had.
Quentin (16:06)
No, I love it. That’s big. I love how you got the foresight to see how the market’s about to shift and you’re putting yourself in position to be ready. And you want to partner up with people who’s going to put themselves in a position that’s going be ready. so, and I know over all your years, you know that the next move, it could either compound things or create total chaos, depending on how you play it. And so I know you’ve seen that and you’ve been around where you’ve had to take the chaos, lean into it and try to make something beautiful out of it. And so, yeah.I know that’s coming down the pipe for sure. And so listen, Mr. Chairman, you know, a lot of people that are listening, they’re either early in their journey or they’re looking to level up. And I think they have benefit from hearing this. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?
JIM TYLER (16:55)
I want to help as many people as I can. I love teaching. You know, I love I love the when the when you see the light of the eyes come open like God, I waited and I think of that those aha moments. I’ve done that with my sons. I’ve done that with a lot of people in my life.And I like to be there. it’s not for ⁓ the kudos. It’s just that’s how I’m wired. I’m wired to fix things. I’m wired to help people. I’ve always been that way. I started restoring cars when I was 14 years old with my father. I still restore cars. I still restore houses. So I’m a fixer. That hasn’t gone well for some of the women in my life because I try to fix them. I usually get my ass kicked.
Quentin (17:38)
Yeah, yeah.JIM TYLER (17:42)
When it comes to business, know, it’s I just it hurts my heart to see a younger person. Be stuck. And the biggest thing that bothers me is when they get the wrong information and they go down the wrong alley. And next thing you know, they’re in a knife fight and they’re standing there, you know, with a pencil in their hand and they’re getting killed. I don’t like that. I want to be the guy that gives a machine gun so when they get in a knife fight, they can take care of themselves. It’s knowledge is power. I’ve learned so much and I learn every day.I still watch videos on certain things. I still talk to people. I’ll never, ever admit that I know everything.
Quentin (18:22)
I hear it, right along those lines, we’re coming up pretty much about to wrap, but before we do, I wanna ask you, is there anything that’s on your mind that you wanna just sell out viewers as far as inspiration, education? You’ve been around for a long time and I would just love for you to speak to the people from the heart and from your experience, if there anything you feel like that they should know. I just wanna open up the floor to ask you that.JIM TYLER (18:46)
If you want to do the fix and flip business or if you want to do any type of rehab in this business, you have to be willing to do the shit work. You have to be willing to cut the carpet out of a house that’s got six pounds of dog piss in it. You have to be willing to pull toilets out of a house that are full of shit because the plumbing’s not on. You have to be able to walk into a house, put a respirator on and take out the mold and get rid of the stuff.You have to be able to go in the attic and do the hard stuff. You have to understand you can’t hire all that done and succeed. You have to learn how to do it yourself. You have to first hand and anybody that works with you that you have, I have a lot of people that I hire, you know, as I wouldn’t call them grunts, that’s kind of a bad word, but that they’re doing grunt work, okay? But they’re working right alongside of me. Now I’m 67, I can’t do what I used to do. I mean, if I get down on the floor, takes me 20 minutes to get up.
Quentin (19:36)
Yeah,JIM TYLER (19:44)
So, ⁓ but the bottom line is you have to do everything. You have to learn how to do everything on the house and you have to physically do it and not just ask Google and not just ask you chat GPT. You’ve got to physically do it. I mean, the one of the first houses I ever did, I cut the carpet out of it. And a guy taught me, okay, cut the carpet out and then roll it up with duct tape. And then that way it’s easier for you to throw up. I did that.Quentin (19:58)
Chad, you too? Yeah.JIM TYLER (20:13)
I threw the carpet on my shoulder. It was in San Diego County. was 100 degrees outside. I walked outside and tipped the carpet a little bit on my shoulder and all the dog piss run right down my back on my shirt into my pants from the carpet. Okay. Enjoy that one, you know.Quentin (20:27)
Mmm. Yeah.Ha ha ha!
Yeah, yeah.
JIM TYLER (20:33)
Butthat’s they don’t show you on flip or flop. They don’t show you that. They get it at Escalade and drive over by some countertops and some cabinets and then they go have lunch. Wrong. So I’m trying to, I’m really making the point at home. These are true stories and what I’m saying, be willing to do the work. If you’re not willing to do the work, you’ll never succeed. I’ve done over 100 properties. I’ve never lost money on any of them.
You just have to know what you’re doing, which is firsthand experience.
Quentin (21:08)
I love it. I love it. Thank you for that. Thank you for your knowledge. Thanks for your inspiration. Listen, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, maybe collaborate, what’s the best way for me to reach out to you, Mr. Jones?JIM TYLER (21:22)
They can gladly email me if they want. And I don’t know how you want to do those links. You can probably embed them in the video. I don’t know how you do it.Quentin (21:31)
Well, give the listeners for those that may not look, give the listeners your email if you know it so that way they can hear and write it down.JIM TYLER (21:38)
Okay, anybody who reached out and wants some help, it’s Jim C. as in Charlie, Tyler, T-Y-L-E-R, Jim C. Tyler at Yahoo.Quentin (21:49)
There you go. Well listen up. Yes sir, absolutely.JIM TYLER (21:50)
glad to help.If I get any hate mail, you’ll get it right back. So just remember that.
Quentin (21:57)
Listen,y’all, I’m telling y’all, he can dish it. If you can dish it, you better be able to take it, because I know Mr. Jim can dish it for sure.
JIM TYLER (22:03)
You’recoming after me. I’m coming right back. Exactly.
Quentin (22:09)
Be prepared, just be prepared. Absolutely,absolutely. Well, listen, thank you so much for your time, for your story and your perspective. We definitely need more people in this space that’s doing it the right way. So Mr. Jim, thanks for being here, man.
JIM TYLER (22:24)
Okay, buddy, thanks for your time. I appreciate it.Quentin (22:26)
Absolutely. And for those of you tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We have more great conversations coming up, just like with Mr. Jim today. And so you do not want to miss out. And so Mr. Jim, thank you again. And everyone else, we will see you on the next episode.
