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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds interviews Dan Nelson, a seasoned real estate professional with over 20 years of experience in flipping houses and investing in properties. Dan shares his journey from corporate jobs to real estate, the importance of having a supportive partner, and the strategies they use to navigate the challenges of the market. The conversation emphasizes the significance of networking, staying present, and focusing on goals while managing risks in real estate investments.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Dan Nelson (00:00)
Yeah, so we were mostly flipping properties in the beginning and properties we lived in, right? So like worst case scenario, we were there, right? We never had to sell it. But then we started doing them on the side. And the very first one we did, of course, we didn’t know what we were doing. We got a recommendation on a contractor and it’s a classic contractor story. They collect the money. They’re behind on some other projects. So they use the money to pay off that other project. And then they ask for more money.Quentin (00:06)
Yeah, yeah.Yeah, yeah, Yeah.
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I’m super excited today to be with you. Excited about my guest. comes just with knowledge that I’m sure you’re going to soak up and soak in. I love the mindset of this gentleman here. He really wants to help people. He want to help people create cashflow. He want to give them knowledge.
give them something that they look forward to. If they’re thinking about leaving that job or transitioning, he wants to put them in position where they have the cashflow to do that. And so I’m excited about his expertise. I’m always excited when I get the chance to peek through somebody else’s lens, to hear them talk and see things from their perspective. And so I’m excited to introduce you guys today to Mr. Dan Nelson. How you doing today, sir?
Dan Nelson (02:51)
Thanks, Q. Really appreciate it. Doing great.Quentin (02:52)
Yeah, good man, good man. I’m excited to be here with you, man. I’m excited to talk to you. I’m excited the things that you’re about to offer our listeners from your expertise. And I’ll be honest with you, Mr. Dan, I kind of just want to go ahead and dive in. So if you don’t mind, you know, tell people what, are you mainly focused on these days? Maybe tell them a little bit about yourself, maybe how you got started and also what markets are you operating in?Dan Nelson (03:17)
Sure, yeah. So I got started, my wife and I both had corporate jobs and she quit one day, came home and said, I just walked away from this job. And I said, wow, we just bought a house. What are we gonna do here? And she said, I’m gonna start flipping houses. I’m gonna start with this house. And so she did. And 20 years later, that’s all she’s ever done. And at some point I…you know, I became a real estate agent to help people do the things that we learned how to do along the way. and, ⁓ based on that experience, so we’ve been flipping for 20 years. And then at some point I was like, man, the risk of flipping is so high. Like every, every single flip is such a high risk. You know, it’s a lot of money, you know, and it really could bankrupt you if you, know, if it doesn’t go well. And so then I started buying investment properties really to protect herself against that risk. That was the only reason I did it.
So then we started putting together investment portfolio as well.
Quentin (05:00)
Beautiful, man. I absolutely love it. I love every time you bring up your wife, man, I guess I get a little giddy because, know, us as husbands, you know, our wives, they’re our backbones. They’re our partners through life. And so I love it, man. Y’all been flipping for 20 years. That’s absolutely amazing. And listen, I know that’s not especially always easy in this climate. So what’s been the key to keeping things running smoothly? Like, do y’all have systems in place to kind of keep y’all organized? Give us a little bit of your secret,Dan Nelson (05:28)
I mean, to me, like ⁓ my wife hates it when I say this, but I think flipping a property is so easy. You look at a property that, and you say, okay, know, in Chicago where I work, you you asked about the market, I work in the whole Chicago area, suburbs and all that. But ⁓ there are properties, what’s unique about Chicago, there’s property where on one street there’s a property for $350,000.Quentin (05:35)
Yeah.Dan Nelson (05:53)
Down the road, there’s one for 600. Around the block, there’s one for 1.2 million. So if you can find that property that can be near those other ones, you’ll basically get the appreciation of those other properties around there. So you just find a property, like let’s, in that case, property is 350,000 on a street where there’s 600,000. And then you figure out how to spend less than that. And my wife is really, really good at the design and elements that most people won’t be that good.And I actually encourage them, don’t think you’re a designer. Look at the comparable property and try to do that. Unless you just have that skill set natively, like a lot of people kill their budgets by like figuring out what to spend money on or like making the wrong decisions. then the next buyer comes in and goes, this is weird. And they feel like they have to rehab the whole property again.
Quentin (06:43)
Yeah, yeah. Actually, man, that’s really good advice. Just look at the comps. Look at what the other people kind of done and kind of use it as a guide, right? Because I’ve had designers on and one designer told me, listen, there’s difference between a decorator and a designer. There’s worlds of difference. And so a designer, they know what they’re doing. They’re looking at different things through a different lens. And so…Dan Nelson (07:02)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.Quentin (07:11)
This is why I love talking to people and I think that was a good point that you brought out. Let me ask you this, know, there’s moments, you know, with every operator that I’ve talked to, there’s moments when things get real, maybe a deal goes sideways or a time when they have to pivot fast. You mind sharing one of those stories from your perspective, a time maybe where you had to kind of pivot fast based on the criteria of what was going on?Dan Nelson (07:32)
Yeah, so we were mostly flipping properties in the beginning and properties we lived in, right? So like worst case scenario, we were there, right? We never had to sell it. But then we started doing them on the side. And the very first one we did, of course, we didn’t know what we were doing. We got a recommendation on a contractor and it’s a classic contractor story. They collect the money. They’re behind on some other projects. So they use the money to pay off that other project. And then they ask for more money.Quentin (07:38)
Yeah, yeah.Yeah, yeah, Yeah.
Dan Nelson (08:00)
You know, unfortunately we were savvy enough. I don’t know why to go. No, we’ll only pay you for the work that’s done. We’re not going to pay you for the work that’s not done. And we had to stand off for a week. And obviously we could not, like, we could not keep both these mortgages and this rehab going at the same time. So it was very, very tense. And so then I just went to his subcontractors and said, do you want to get paid? Like he’s not going to pay you.And then we started, then we were able to get the contractor back in when they were like, well, they’re going to come over here and get paid. So then he ended up running the project again. But yeah, that, that was one of the most stressful times of my life.
Quentin (09:12)
Yeah, no, can imagine. I hear so many like stories. ⁓ And I know contractors, I know you’re listening, but I hear so many stories about that’s where some of these pain point comes in is with the contractor. know, really having somebody you can rely on, somebody who’s going to be upfront and have integrity. And I’m hearing so many stories about, you know, trouble with the contractors. And so, like you said, you had the weird with all you had savvy to be like, Hey,You’re not going to paid unless we get this thing together. So I appreciate you saying that story. I appreciate your honesty. know, we have, we always say, you know, it’s easy for us to talk about the success, but how about we talk about the process that got us to success and some of these things that we have to deal with is the process of how we get to success. So I really, really appreciate you sharing that Mr. Dan. Let me ask you this, sir. What are you most focused on or scaling next? Like what’s the next real goal for you and your wife?
Dan Nelson (10:07)
Yeah. So we, we really slowed down pretty dramatically. We’re fortunately in a position where, mean, ⁓ you know, part of age, you know, being married is you got to be on the same page. So the only thing I care about is buying investment properties. The only thing my wife cares about is flipping properties. Right. So it’s, know, one of us really has the same desire and she really just likes taking things that are ugly and making them beautiful. ⁓ she’s really good at it, really talented and really good at the numbers. So it always works out.Quentin (10:24)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Yeah.Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Dan Nelson (10:35)
But so we kind of have to find this middle ground. So what we do now is we buy an investment property. ⁓ She flips it and we turn it into a rental. So and we live, we try to live in it two out of five years. If you live in a property for two out of five years, you don’t pay capital gains when you sell it. So our goal is to sell it between two and five years after that. And in between that, we make it a midterm rental. ⁓ So it cash flows and we make money on it and we don’t pay taxes on it when we sellQuentin (10:45)
Gotcha.Caution.
That’s a nice little system you got there, Mr. Dan. I know, I absolutely love that, man. Thank you so much for sharing. That’s big. Having a system in place that fits you guys, that find agreement between you and your wife is everything. Because the next move, can compound things or it can create total chaos, depending on how you play it.
Dan Nelson (11:10)
Thank you.Quentin (11:30)
And the last thing we want is chaos within our marriage. So I’m so glad you guys found a system that’s working for you. Now, listen, I talked about the process, ⁓ the journey, maybe that’s another way to put it as well. And I love the fact you brought up your wife as soon as we begin talking. And so I know a lot of people listening, I think they have benefit hearing this about relationships. So when it comes to ⁓Dan Nelson (11:33)
Yeah, exactly.Quentin (11:58)
⁓ relationship, like building your network and building relationships. I know you have it with your wife, but even maybe outside of your wife, how important is it building your network based on relationships? What’s made the biggest difference for you when it comes to that?Dan Nelson (12:13)
Yeah, you mentioned my wife and so I had a full time career for a long time and she said just quit and become a real estate agent and her whole thing was like be the agent that you wish we had when we started. So that’s basically was kind of my goal. ⁓ yeah, mean, obviously you can’t do what we do unless you have a connection of ⁓ other investors, unless you have, you know.contractors, inspectors, attorneys, you have to have a big team of people that’s out there. And yeah, and so, you know, I do regular events with the investors. So they get together, they get to talk to each other and we share, you know, knowledge from experts, just like, you know, you do with this podcast, but at a much more local level. But yeah, that community, like you can’t really do anything or you can’t scale much by yourself. You definitely have to have a community to do that.
Quentin (13:49)
No, Relationships are everything. of course, love the relationship you have with your wife. But even just, you you telling me about your background, I know that comes with just building relationships. Because when you was talking to me, one of the things I’ve seen with you is the servant’s heart. You want to help people that’s input, you know, to be in a better position to, you know, to have money on the side or even if they wanted to, you know, pivot, that they would have enough cash flow to do it. And so…You know, because, you know, we haven’t talked about it much, but just with your background as an agent, I’m sure there’s ton of connections that you make with people. so, you know, relationships and connections are everything. And so, ⁓ you know, especially within this landscape. And so, you know, when I talk to people like you, Mr. Dan, you know, just, you know, loving on your wife, the perspective of finding a system that works, just your years of experience. I like to ask this question. Is there any kind of…
particular from your lens, maybe something that you think about that you know would encourage people or would offer some kind of, I’ve said encouragement, but it’s just like advice. Like from your perspective, what kind of encouragement can you give people just to keep, know, stay motivated, keep doing what they’re doing.
Dan Nelson (15:03)
Yeah, I mean, the thing that gets us the most frustrated is when we focus on the worst case scenario, right? That’s mostly the thing is, you know, whether you’re just fighting with a sibling about like, who’s responsible for what, you know, like when you’re getting together for Thanksgiving and dinner or whatever, it’s always, you go down and think, they’re asking me to do this because they think blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, you know, and it’s the same way when…you know, when we’re working on a deal and it gets really stressful and difficult, it’s very easy to put a lot of negative thoughts into what the other person’s thinking or believing and then taking all that on. But if you can try to stay in the present moment and try to just focus on what your goals are, what you’re trying to do and not allow yourself to think about what are all the negative aspects. That’s not the same thing as not preparing for things, not preparing for risk, but
but not focusing on what is the worst that can happen. If you can just stay present and think about what your goals are, you’ll have a lot more success. You’ll definitely be happier.
Quentin (16:09)
I love that ⁓ focusing on the present. That’s huge. You some people say, you know, be where your feet are, right? You can’t, you can’t be outside your feet. You got to be planted and focus on where you are now. so dreaming for the future, planning for the future is absolutely important, but do not forget to be present and be grateful and be attentive to the things that are right in front of you. And so I think that’s a great message, Mr. Dan, and I thank you so much for saying, sir.Now listen, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, or maybe collaborate and learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you,
Dan Nelson (16:46)
So it’s Dan loves houses, danloveshouses.com, Instagram, TikTok, everything it’s Dan loves houses. I’m also on LinkedIn. ⁓ And obviously I’m always looking for investors. know, the Chicago market is an incredible market and it’s a great place to invest in.Quentin (17:03)
There you go, y’all heard him, Dan Love Houses. Listen, thank you Mr. Dan Nelson, sir. I appreciate you, man. I appreciate your time. I appreciate your story. I appreciate your perspective. We definitely need people like you that’s doing it the right way. And from one husband to the next, man, thank you for loving on your wife. Thank you for finding that agreement, because that’s the most important partnership we will ever have in life. So thank you, sir. I appreciate you so much, man.Dan Nelson (17:29)
Thank you, appreciate it.Quentin (17:30)
Absolutely. If everyone else, heard it, listen, great value and we’re going to continue to bring you great value. So make sure you are subscribed. It’s a one click process. Click the mouse, click and we’re done. And you’re going to continue to keep getting these great, great valuable conversations, just like I had today with Mr. Dan Nelson. So sir, thank you again. And to everyone else, we will see you on the next time.
