From Wholesaling to 22 Rentals: Mary Haimovitch’s Real Estate Strategy

Mary Haimovitch (00:00)
Okay. I would say getting screwed by a contractor. There was a time when I’ve purchased the property and you know, I borrowed hard money and I’ve fronted the contractor a certain amount of money up front and he actually ran away with my money. But the good thing is I was able to overcome that by foreseeing when I when I purchase properties, I deal I do the the worst worst case scenario. And if my worst worst case scenario, after I get screwed, whether I get screwed or not, if I make 25 grand as my worst case scenario profit, I’ll I’ll buy that deal.

Issa Hanna (02:05)
Welcome back to another episode of the Real Estate Pros show. I’m your host, Issa Hanna and today I have Mary Haimovitch with me, a seasoned real estate investor, wholesaler, construction person here to share knowledge with us. Mary, welcome to the show.

Mary Haimovitch (02:17)
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

Issa Hanna (02:19)
So I’m so so glad to have you. We were talking earlier. You you’ve been in the game since you were fifteen years old. You said you started—I’m gonna get into your story, your your how you got started story, but first I kinda wanna just have you run down what you’re doing now. Like what you’re what businesses are you involved in in the real estate industry.

Mary Haimovitch (02:27)
As a wholesaler, yep. Okay, I am a wholesaler. My markets are New York and Philadelphia. I also am a licensed contractor. I’ve done over twenty-five projects since I started a few years ago, and I am a landlord. I own about twenty two doors in the city of Philadelphia in the city of Philadelphia, mostly in North and West Philadelphia. And I also fix and flip properties. So I’m under the in the real estate umbrella basically. So I do a little bit of everything to do with real estate. Except for mortgages.

Issa Hanna (03:13)
Hundred percent. You you’re taking that natural progression, the wholesaling and then you you know, you got s—not stuck, but you know, when you do so much wholesaling you end up with doors usually, rental properties. Right. And then yeah, you want to keep some of the income coming in. And then you know, you got into the construction because you’ve got rental properties, you’re always doing construction, you got construction.

Mary Haimovitch (03:25)
Right. And I was tired of getting screwed by other contractors. So I said, you what? Let me build my own team of subs and do this myself. You save a lot more money, you keep most of the control of the project, and it just works out better. You don’t have to actually give a a contractor a huge down payment to to start the job. And it’s it’s better, especially, you know, when I purchase to buy, fix, and sell, I borrow hard money. So they do the draw pro—the draw process where they give you the money as you go, as you do the stuff. So it just works out to be my own GC. And I started getting referrals and getting other investors to do their projects. And that’s how I got into really like the co—the construction company. I started with doing it for myself and then, you know, some investors wanted me to, you know, do their projects and I just went on and started a company.

Issa Hanna (04:31)
Yeah, and you told me you said the reason why these investors you’ve built such a big investor network and you’ve been able to do 25 projects in in just a few years is because of the trust you built. You know, they trust you. How how are you able? Give us some examples for for our people at home of of how you build that trust.

Mary Haimovitch (05:36)
Well, it’s all on honesty, you know. I’m honest with them. I’m an investor myself, so I understand the position that they’re in. So even some of my investors, like one of my investors, Shirby, I did like almost all her projects since she came into Philly. And I told her some projects that she brings to me for an estimate, I tell her, “Don’t buy that house. It’s not worth it.” You know, being honest with them, telling them whether the layout is bad or not. If it’s worth it to even purchase that property. And you know, it’s beneficial for me if they purchase it so I could make money on doing the construction. But if I tell them, like, “Listen, don’t even touch this house or don’t buy this house, I don’t think it’s a good deal,” they respect that. So I think it’s my honesty and my personality, really. You know, I’m able to build a trust with them, being straightforward straightforward and very blunt with them, my clients. Yeah.

Issa Hanna (06:25)
A hundred percent. All the successful people in our industry, whether they’re agents, you could even be on the loan sides, you could be a construction person. You got to deal with honesty and integrity because you’ll make that that first check, that first, you know, that first draw, whatever it is. But if they don’t like you, they don’t trust you, you don’t do a good job for them, you don’t make them money, you’re not honest and have those hard conversations with them, they’re not gonna give you that repeat business. And and in this business, you don’t survive without getting that repeat business. So—

Mary Haimovitch (06:57)
People just don’t think long term.

Issa Hanna (07:00)
Hundred percent they chase that that quick dollar and and you don’t last in this game with the quick dollar. And that’s why you’ve been in it since fifteen years old and you’ve lasted and and you started off wholesaling.

Mary Haimovitch (07:10)
Yeah, start it off selling for my first investor.

Issa Hanna (07:12)
Yep. And you told me that and you told me that one of your strengths is you got really good at finding wholesale deals in one of the hardest markets in in the world even. Tell us a little bit more about that.

Mary Haimovitch (07:13)
Yeah, finding wholesale deals in New York City, you know, the five boroughs, you know, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, you know, Nassau, you know, is is very hard. But I was able over the years to build my network with brokers that have off market deals, estate attorneys that have deals on pro—you know, estate sales. I’m I’m able to you know know the neighborhoods, mar—use direct mailing as marketing, cold call, buy lists from ListSource and you know and skip trace these leads and cold call and build relationships with these brokers and these realtors that trust me because I always deliver. And you know, with New York is, you know, it’s hard to get in the door with certain things. And a lot of wholesalers believe that you have to have a lot of money to wholesale in New York because of these big prices, these big down payments that’s required to lock down a seller, but I’ve found ways to bypass that. Well, my whole process is from when an owner calls me to an agreed—and then we make an agreed price of of sale, price of purchase. Sorry. I’m sorry guys, I’m a little nervous. When I agree with a price off for a seller, I then put the property in contract, but I don’t put the down payment down, I use the buyer’s—I use the buyer’s deposit to execute the assignment contract. So that’s how I bypass not having the ten, sometimes even fifty thousand dollars to put on a down payment in order to lock a contract down to wholesale it. New York the prices are higher than you know most of the other states and stuff like that. So and I get a lot of my deals also from realtors, from seasoned realtors that I’m not seasoned—from experienced realtors have been in the game for ten years plus, I’ve still held on to those relationships ’cause of me being honest, me being straightforward, me getting back to them, me being an experienced investor and wholesaler in that in that market.

Issa Hanna (09:27)
Hundred percent. And and I love that you said like, you know, there’s ways around it. You don’t have to start with millions of dollars. And real estate, our industry is one of the only industries you could start with zero and make that generational wealth. And and the more knowledge you acquire in this game, the better off you are. Just like Mary. You you see, she’s she’s given us knowledge that we haven’t heard on the show before. So so I love that. I love how you’re able to to to communicate exactly how how to do it and and you’re not gatekeeping. I love that. I love that about you. A lot of people keep it tight, but you don’t. I wanna shift gears just a little bit. I wanna talk about every investor, including myself, is a real estate nightmare, right? So a time where something went wrong and you had to get over it or or you just got through it. Can you give us a time where that happened to you?

Mary Haimovitch (10:18)
As a as a purchaser myself?

Issa Hanna (10:20)
Yeah, or or for a client. What w—whatever j—pops in your mind.

Mary Haimovitch (10:58)
Okay. I would say getting screwed by a contractor. There was a time when I’ve purchased the property and you know, I I I borrowed hard money and I’ve fronted the contractor a certain amount of money up front and he actually ran away with my money. But the good thing is I was able to overcome that by foreseeing when I when I purchase properties, I deal I do the the worst worst case scenario. And if my worst worst case scenario, after I get screwed, whether I get screwed or not, if I make 25 grand as my worst case scenario profit, I’ll I’ll buy that deal. So yeah, the contractor ran away with, you know, ten, fifteen thousand dollars, but I was able to get money off of a credit card, okay, get back that money and continue with my project and still at the end, I I netted a little less on the back end as profit, but I was able to deal with the contractor screwing me, still be able to finish the project on time, and sell and make a profit.

Issa Hanna (11:56)
I love that. I love that. And that’s the age old fight, investors and contractors, right? We all want a good deal on the contractor. There’s a million of them out there. They might they might show you they’re the best guy ever, and then run away with the deposit. I’ve heard it a million times. I love that you said, and it’s a testament to your experience, when you’re underwriting, when you’re when you’re going through, okay, is this a good purchase, right? You estimate high, you know, and you and you—so you estimate your costs high, you estimate your profits low. If it still makes money after that, that’s when you pull the trigger on it. What I always tell everybody, I said, “If it makes sense, it makes dollars.” Right. So if it makes sense on paper, you’re gonna make the dollars. So you’re able to say, “Okay, well, whatever, I I lost this money, but at least I’m still on pace for my project and I’m not gonna lose my—I’m not gonna lose at the end of the day. It’s not gonna be a negative.” So so I love that and that’s a testament to your your experience ’cause a lot of people panic. A lot of people I’ve heard horror stories that that go south real quick from from where where your point was. So I love that.

Mary Haimovitch (13:05)
Always say if you if you buy right there’s always a way out. If you buy a deal right with a safety net, there’s always a way out. Whether it’s you you can’t sell the property, but you could still cash out, you know, you could do the BRRRR system, you know, you could, you know, cash out and put a renter in there for a couple years until the market turns and then resell, you know. So there’s always a out I believe if you buy right.

Issa Hanna (13:30)
Hundred percent is an exit strategy. And the more experience you have, the better you’ll get at these exit strategies, at being able to predict how much money you’re gonna make. And and you know, if you’re lost right now and you wanna invest and you don’t know where to start, reach out. Reach out to any real—reach out to us here at Investor Fuel. We’ll love to help you with with teaching you how to underwrite. We also talked about, you know, the GC company probably came out of necessity because of things like that. Right. And and you’ve grown your GC company and you’ve got a network of investors and your future plans. We talked a little bit in the future, your next vertical scale looks like it’s gonna be in new construction houses. So development, let me know.

Mary Haimovitch (14:10)
Purchase properties, purchase lots, vacant lots in in low-income areas and build affordable housing. Right now I’m actually digging into that. One of my friends actually is building in Mantua, which is West Philadelphia. He’s building 10 single-family homes. And right now I’m actually—he’s breaking ground in about two weeks. So I’m just picking his brain. He gave me a couple of his—like his architect. He gave me his actual builder. Cause I’m a renovation contractor and I do conversions and stuff like that. But building a new construction, that’s a whole nother thing. You know, starts off with the foundation and, you know, testing the land to make sure that the land is not contaminated, you know, all that comes into a factor when you’re, you know, going to build, you know. So I’m learning right now, but my hopes is in the next year or so to jump in, depending on how the market is and, you know, it just all depends.

Issa Hanna (15:49)
Hundred percent. And I love that about you. You you’ve been in, like I said, since fifteen years old in the real estate wholesaling, landlord, all this. But you know, you said, “You know what, I’ve never done the new development.” So I’m learning right now. You found yourself somebody you could learn from, and you’re learning and that’s that’s successful people. That’s how you scale your business from in real estate and grow multiple branches off that one tree. You know, we’re not experts in every field. So you you you know, you gotta be humble enough to admit, like, “Hey, I’m not an expert at new development. If you want a wholesale deal, if you want me to teach you about being a landlord, I got you. But new development, I’m gonna learn this from somebody who’s doing it.” So and congratulations to your friend. Congratulations to your friend on—yeah, con—congratulations, man. That’s that’s a big thing for sure. And affordable housing.

Mary Haimovitch (16:33)
Yeah, noproblem.

Issa Hanna (16:40)
I actually have a lot of affordable housing in my portfolio and I I love I love that. You keep the—you keep the neighborhood’s integrity where it should be. So I I love that. Five years down the line now, where am I gonna see you, Mary? What are some five—

Mary Haimovitch (16:53)
Be a big time developer. I’m gonna still—cause you know, I’m still wholesale in New York. I I definitely wanna be a developer in, you know, developing big projects and also go into luxury development. I I know luxury development is kind of slow right now on the resale, but I’m definitely wanna get into that space as, you know, affordable housing and also get into l—luxury.

Issa Hanna (17:15)
I would love that. The luxury market’s a whole different game, but you can really put your touches and and what you want on it. You have a better budget as affordable housing, you know. So you can do that for sure. Now I want to talk about—I want to get your advice about one thing that you’re probably one of the best people I’ve ever talked to in doing is building a network and growing business relationships. I want you to give our young viewers some advice about how to start doing that. Because a lot of people don’t know where to start when they first start in the game. And that’s the biggest, most important part of our of our game is is building these relationships.

Mary Haimovitch (17:53)
I mean, I would say the best part of building a relationship is is being honest. It’s being honest and being yourself. At the end of the day, whether they’re prof—and being professional, of course. The other professional person or the person that has more time in the game than you are, they’re people. And it—everything is all conversation. You don’t wanna step to someone with a lie, you wanna be honest, straightforward, whether you’re, you know—you call a broker and tell them, like, “Listen, I’m an I’m an—I’m not an experienced wholesaler, I’m just getting started, but I have qualified buyers that are willing and able to purchase properties, cash. I verified their proof of funds,” and you deliver. You try to deliver as much times as you can. Once someone sees that you deliver and you say what you mean and you do what you say, they will always do business with you. So just being honest and being yourself and delivering, you’ll build the relationships. People love to do business with people that make them—that they can make money with. And also honesty and be real with as well. So that’s the best advice I could say. Like—

Issa Hanna (19:00)
No, that that is the best advice and every—you can go to any business person, any successful billionaire, and they will tell you exactly what came out of Mary’s mouth. So that—I mean golden advice. Great advice, Mary. Now if people wanted to get a hold of you, we you know, we got some investors over here, we got some investors that watch our show, maybe they’re in the New York market for wholesale, maybe they’re in Philly and they they want some GC work done, where could they get a hold of you at?

Mary Haimovitch (19:26)
They could come on my Instagram, which is @successnotstress2018, or they could follow me on TikTok, which is @realestateflippinggeek. That’s it. Real Estate Flipping Geek.

Issa Hanna (19:40)
Real Estate Flipping Geek and it’s not a page with with a small following. She’s got viral videos.

Mary Haimovitch (19:46)
Followers on my TikTok and I have a whole bunch of my work, before and after videos, me giving advice, wholesale deals. I always post on my stories as well while I’m doing walkthroughs for potential leads, things things of that nature while I’m in the office. So I’m always—it’s a motivational page. Like you’ll learn a lot off of the page and you’ll see that I’m actively doing this every single day.

Issa Hanna (20:10)
I love that. Seems right up our viewers’ alley. So to our to our subscribers, make sure you guys check her out because you can gain a lot of knowledge from from her. I gained a lot of knowledge about—I’m not a wholesaler, just just from talking to her for about an hour, I’ve gained some knowledge from from Mary on wholesaling. So make sure to subscribe to her to her channels, check out her TikTok. Mary, it was a true honor to have you on the show.

Mary Haimovitch (20:36)
So much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Issa Hanna (20:39)
Thank you. And to our viewers at home, if you guys enjoyed my conversation with Mary, make sure to hit like and subscribe. I talk to people every day that can bring us different knowledge on every aspect of the real estate industry. Until next time,