House Flipping, Title Fraud, and Authentic Real Estate Investing with Sinead DeRoiste

Sinead DeRoiste (00:00)
today, after my meditation, it really dawned on me that the first real estate is you. You are the asset. You are the real. So investing in you as the being, as the holistic,

person and not just a part of a process to profit is where I like to say I don’t just flip the property I flip the person. When you have an external flip you get a profit when you have an internal flip you get sustainability.

Scott Bursey (00:00)
Hi everyone and welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host Scott Bursey and today I’ve been joined by someone that I’ve really been looking forward to speaking with, Sinead DeRoiste, who’s been making serious moves in the residential real estate space. Sinead is a trusted voice, a top tier professional who has turned her years of experience into a roadmap for her clients. As the author of What the Flip? Real Estate Simplified so you can get more.

She’s dedicated to the market and empowering the community she loves. From the first handshake to the final signature, she’s a champion for her clients. Sinead, welcome to the show.

Scott, thanks for having me.

Scott Bursey (02:46)
it’s our pleasure. I think our audience is really going to take something away from your HEART philosophy, the heart philosophy, if you will, and the way you’ve transformed the home buying process into an educational journey. Sinead, let’s dive in, shall we?

Sinead DeRoiste (03:04)
Yes.

Scott Bursey (03:05)
So first off, for people who may not be familiar with your world, give us the short version. What’s your main focus these days?

Sinead DeRoiste (03:12)
I am looking to give people the opportunity, whether it’s first time in ⁓ or seasoned investors, to give people the opportunity to turn a profit by flipping real estate and to give the property a second chance to present itself to the community.

Scott Bursey (03:31)
Awesome. And what markets are you operating in? Are you ⁓ global? Are you national? Are there some specific markets that you’re concentrating on?

Sinead DeRoiste (03:41)
I do have roots in Ireland. I would love to be in that market. That’s where my family is currently. I’m also from Pennsylvania, so I keep my eye out there. I have property in North Carolina. I’m also a licensed broker in the state of North Carolina. And right now I’m currently investing in the Mitten State of Michigan.

Scott Bursey (04:00)
Awesome. Awesome. Please tell us a little bit about your heart philosophy.

Sinead DeRoiste (04:04)
Sure, well the heart of the matter is really how I got involved in real estate. I’m a compassionate person and I tend to follow my heart and listen to my mind as well. But when I’m talking in real estate, we’re talking about honesty, education, alignment, responsibility, and transformation. And that’s the core at the heart of what I do when I invest in real estate. Because sometimes following my heart, not crunching the numbers in my mind can lead me into

a place that doesn’t yield the best results, but I don’t really take losses. learn lessons and learn from there and grow from there.

Scott Bursey (04:44)
Absolutely. Hey, I’m with you on that. Love it. What caught my attention about you was the way that you’ve been able to seamlessly bridge the gap between high level corporate storytelling and authentic social advocacy. Proving that a brand’s most powerful assets is its purpose. That’s not easy, especially in this climate. What’s been the key to keeping your machine running smoothly?

Sinead DeRoiste (04:48)
you

I would say having, well, it’s two, it’s three things, right? So in my core philosophy, I would say our first nation is imagination. Our first state is mind state.

And today, after my meditation, it really dawned on me that the first real estate is you. You are the asset. You are the real. So investing in you as the being, as the holistic,

person and not just a part of a process to profit is where I like to say I don’t just flip the property I flip the person. When you have an external flip you get a profit when you have an internal flip you get sustainability.

Scott Bursey (06:42)
That is remarkable and great, great words. Thank you for sharing that. Now, Shraed, every operator I know has a moment where things got real. Maybe a deal that went sideways or a time that you had to pivot fast. You mind sharing one of those moments with us?

Sinead DeRoiste (06:59)
goodness I just posted about this deed fraud stuff I don’t know if you had any experience in it at all but whoo I call this the awakening experience Scott and I just moved from Carolina to Michigan I found out where the local you know county auction was taking place I showed up my cashier’s check and my cash in hand and there was a specific gentleman there that did not want me to buy the property and I couldn’t tell if he was

scorned from maybe it his family’s foreclosure. There’s a lot of personal reasons why people are invested in emotional, but he was telling me don’t buy the property. And I was telling him if he wanted to bid against me, no problem, let’s compete. But he didn’t want to compete, he just was giving me a don’t you dare kind of warning and my goodness, Scott. What I got myself into was he actually recorded a deed for a dollar purchase that same day, took it to the county, they registered it, it muddied

up the title. I was surprising my partner with this purchase and we ended up in a year long legal battle where I was proving their deed was a fraud and it brought the investigative journalists out of me. I used to do journalism right out of college there at Penn State and my goodness thank God I had those skills to do the investigation because I was able to back them into the corner. But dirty deeds and surprising your business partner with buying a property.

would be the two ⁓ wildest rides I’d ever taken. And I thought it was a clean cosmetic in and out, but the legal side got downright dirty. So we just call that one the dirty deeds.

Scott Bursey (08:42)
And Sinead, what a wild ride you just illustrated. Thank you for that. It’s incredible how moments that feel like a disaster in real time often become the foundation for the next 10 years of growth. And honestly, that right there is the filter. It’s what weeds out the dabblers and defines investors who actually have the staying power to weather the cycles. Let me ask you this.

What are you most focused on, solving or scaling next?

Sinead DeRoiste (09:14)
Ooh, well, in terms of scaling, ⁓

The last go-round I bought a couple properties, so I’ve got multiple flips going on right now and I think I’m gonna scale that back. I think I realized that going big or going home, ooh, I’m going home. I’m not gonna go so big, I’m gonna go more methodical. I would say too, I would like to get more involved in helping people who end up in the foreclosures process figure out a way to help themselves before it gets to that.

think that ⁓ necessities like food, clothing and shelter ⁓ are important in building neighborhoods where the neighbor doesn’t mind being a neighbor. So we don’t just have a hood. And so ⁓ right now I’m dealing with a sensitive situation with squatters in one of my flips and they are actually the descendants of a grandmom who never deeded the property and then they didn’t pay the taxes and having to put these people out is

probably just as heartbreaking for me as it is for them and working with community resources to make sure these people can find sustainable living. But I would like to get more involved in the advocacy part to help teach people how to make sure grandma passes the deed along to a descendant, things of that nature. I don’t want to keep, I love having my job, but I don’t like to see people hurt along the way.

Scott Bursey (11:20)
I can tell and you know, that’s the real talk and that’s what you offer the world and I gotta say, I love it. May I ask, what’s your next real big goal? The bullseye, if you will, you know, the next six to 12 months.

Sinead DeRoiste (11:37)
Next six to 12 months is going to be focused on teaching ⁓ so people can learn along the way and empower themselves. This whole thing started for me. I was in corporate sales for a huge food company. Talk about food, clothes, and shelter. I worked for a major food corporation for a decade before jumping into entrepreneurship. But ⁓ I would like to see people. It started for me with a book on CD while I was working my account executive job. I was listening, learning.

Then I got my real estate license and now I’m doing it independently and I want to be able to empower people To feel like they are healed like they are ready to own it and like they are educated to go out there and execute on it so for me it’s working with ⁓ in those capacities and continuing to teach and guide and mentor People and I don’t even like to use the word clients. I mean, these are my peeps, you know I like to work with genuine people and get genuine results

So I want to continue to scale up that and continue to flip, you know, and maybe not multiples at one time, because I don’t want to flip myself off of this earth because balance and health is wealth. ⁓ So, you know, doing things in a strategic yet ⁓ regulated nervous system kind of way.

Scott Bursey (13:00)
Sure, absolutely. And I’m really interested to know, going from the corporate world into the independent sector, how do you maintain your edge when things are going well? You know, it’s easy to grind when you’re broke, but how do you stay hungry when you’re successful?

Sinead DeRoiste (13:18)
you never forget where you came from. mean the roots. It’s a garden for me. I’m a big agricultural advocate. for me, rest is a part of work and we have to remember to balance our joy. We spell enjoy E-N-J-O-Y, but I like to look at it like I-N-J-O-Y. I have to enjoy who I am, what I’m doing. And for me, it’s about work that keeps my heart

light and and I think I said earlier I’m a big dance party advocate you know I don’t like to get into politics too much I know they exist but I think that we could all use a good dance dance dance so for me I celebrate the success I nurture my humble roots I operate in gratitude I journal a lot so sometimes when I’m way up there feeling super good I read back through some notes of some things I had to

overcome and then I pat myself on the back again or give myself a butterfly hug and say, hey, we made it. Now where are we going? And realign with a stable ⁓ satisfaction of a goal accomplished and a humble heart for the experience and the lessons learned along the way.

Scott Bursey (14:39)
Absolutely, very well said, Sinead. Now, I gotta ask you, the next move is where the leverage lives. You know, it can either perfect your operations or detonate your workflow, depending on the strategy that you deploy. Now, I know a lot of our audiences either earlier in their journey or looking to level up, and I think they’d benefit from hearing this from you. When it comes to building relationships,

and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

Sinead DeRoiste (15:51)
You can’t fake it until you make it. You can mirror and project. You can meditate, imagine, but faking, I wouldn’t advise that. I would definitely, know, oof.

I would continue on the path of authenticity. You know, I mentioned Dirty Deeds, the property, and that almost like really beat me up out of the game. I thought I was doing something so spectacular and it ended up so crazy. And if I would have stayed discouraged, I wouldn’t have met my next great alignment of people who also had the same company in common, whoever knew that company even existed to do what they did. But by being authentic and not losing my

core desire. I was able to connect with someone else who had the same pain point, lo and behold, and we were able to build and grow and do some great, I mean, six figure numbers together. you know, turn pain into purpose, lean into authenticity, follow your heart.

Scott Bursey (16:55)
that hits home. In an industry that is so transactional, being the person who actually shows up when there isn’t a deal on the table is what creates that competitive edge around your business. It’s that unsexy consistency that most people aren’t willing to do. Thank you for sharing that. Interested to know, how do you maintain…

Sinead DeRoiste (17:13)
flat out the truth right there, absolutely.

Scott Bursey (17:16)
When things aren’t going so well, we all, you know, have a special space or a lot of people do anyhow. I guess my question is, where do you go to regroup, to reenergize, to say, hey, things aren’t going well right now, to get yourself in the right mindset to tackle the next ⁓ project so you can continue to excel like you have been?

Sinead DeRoiste (17:28)
Yes.

And where I was going with that is Big Sinead is the educated informed version that Little Sinead, Little Sinead is just yesterday. Little Sinead was just a couple hours ago, cuz I don’t know. None of us know 100 % of what we don’t know. And so I meditate and I reflect and I take the educated self, Big Sinead, back in the space where Little Sinead didn’t know better, couldn’t do better. And we authentically connect and we discover what was missing to

Little Sinead might need a hug. might have embarrassed myself in a meeting. I might have spoken out of turn and Little Sinead could be five-year-old Little Sinead too. It could go that deep. So for me it is introspection. It’s reflection. It’s prayer. It’s meditation. It’s know journaling. I am my own personal essayist. So sometimes I reread where I’ve been to recognize that I do actually have the fortitude to go forward because you know the press

is called the present. is a gift. However, our past can sometimes get in the way of where we’re at and where we want to go. And so that’s where I use the power of my current knowing to go back and reach out to my inner uncertainty and bring that up to where we are so we can be here together in alignment and be comfortable. And authentically, if I don’t know, then Big Sinead keeps asking questions of other big people. You know, I expand on what I can teach my

so I can go back and heal that part of myself that felt lost or uncertain. I hope that answers it.

Scott Bursey (19:17)
It does and your gifts are a gift to the world. All right, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out and connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Sinead DeRoiste (19:21)
Thank you.

sure they could reach out to me on Instagram. I am at dream, see, live because if you can dream it and create a plan to see it, I know you can live it.

Scott Bursey (19:42)
Awesome, awesome, perfect. Well, thank you. We really appreciate your time, your story and your perspective. We need more people in this space who are doing it the right way. Thanks again for being here.

Sinead DeRoiste (19:48)
Thank you,

Welcome and thank you for having me.

Scott Bursey (19:56)
And for those of you,

there is our pleasure and you are welcome back at any time. For those of you tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We have more people, more conversations coming up with operators just like Sinead who are out there doing business correctly. We’ll see you in the next episode everybody.