How He Flipped 340 Houses and Became Sacramento’s Top House Flipper

Ocean Eagle (00:00)
So when I saw the market starting to drop and I saw $435,000 houses that were on the market for 175, I saw opportunity. And so I didn’t but many people think you gotta go down to the courthouse steps and sit there and buy houses at the courthouse steps.

I never bought a single house out of I’ve I flipped over 340 residential and commercial houses. I was the number one house flipper in Sacramento for probably 16, 17 years.

Dylan Silver (02:01)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today we’re joined by Ocean Eagle, who has a background as a real estate investor advisor and former top producing house flipper who built one of the most successful fix and flip operations in the Sacramento market before having a spiritual awakening and helping folks and especially veterans.

Find natural approaches for healing. Ocean, thanks for joining us here today.

Ocean Eagle (02:26)
Yeah, it’s good for good to be here. Thanks for having me, Dylan.

Dylan Silver (02:29)
Now

⁓ great to have you on here. You mentioned in the green room you were buying during and and immediately after the global housing crisis. That was a crazy time for everybody. What was that like for you?

Ocean Eagle (02:44)
Well, I mean, during that time, you know, I was I was a real estate broker and I owned a real estate company. And ⁓ the couple of things I did, I do the opposite. So when when all of the local real estate small companies were closing in Sacramento, I took on all their agents. I didn’t have any overhead. So I just absorbed a bunch of agents. ⁓ a couple of my agents that came over had an FHA contract. ⁓ so they had access to the and I want to talk about asset managers.

They had access to the FHA asset managers and those that were in control of the distressed properties.

So when I saw the market starting to drop and I saw $435,000 houses that were on the market for 175, I s I saw opportunity. And so I didn’t but many people think you gotta go down to the courthouse steps and sit there and buy houses at the courthouse steps.

I never bought a single house out of I’ve I flipped over 340 residential and commercial houses. I was the number one house flipper in Sacramento for probably 16, 17 years. But I went down to the courthouse steps and I watched the guy come out with his little folder, sit it down on top of the trash can, and then I watched the people bidding and I watched the ones with the earpieces in that were talking to people back at the office. And so I realized that when you try to buy stuff.

⁓ when you’re in competition, you can’t make money. You lose money. And that during that time, there was a company called BlackRock that came into Sacramento and they bought every house they could find. And so anybody that didn’t have an in with an asset manager or an asset management company, because that’s what I did as a broker. I would I had agreements with asset managers because the process is once they don’t sell at the clo at the courthouse steps.

Then the bank that foreclosed on that house, the mortgage company, gives that and assigns it to an asset management company. That asset management company then assigns it to a real estate broker to sell it. So I had an in with the asset managers. They wanted them sold quick. They didn’t care how much they sold for. They didn’t get paid on how much the house sold for. They got sold, they got paid by getting them sold.

So they would contact me before we would put it in the MLS. Here’s what you can buy it for, but it has to be in the MLS for about a week before we can take your offer and we’ll sit on it. So it’s who you know, you know. So for me, it was it was shooting fish in a barrel. And these things were coming fast and furious. ⁓ I could buy as many houses as I wanted every week. And then my my two agents that had FHA contract with FHA asset managers.

I bought many distressed FHA properties because my agents would get the listings and then they would give me the backside information on it. I would go drive the property, see the property. It was a very simple process for me. ⁓ ’cause you have to know the market, obviously. So people out there trying to buy fix and flips in markets they don’t live in or markets familiar with, they’re they’re just playing Russian roulette. You know, they they they’re gonna lose their

Dylan Silver (05:46)
Right.

Ocean Eagle (05:52)
They’re they’re gonna l I’m gonna say a customer, but they’re gonna lose their butt, you know, if they attempt that stuff.

Dylan Silver (05:58)
You know, when we talk about acquisitions at volume, especially in the time period that you were you were doing it, ⁓ how did you you know finance these properties? What was your capital stack like?

Ocean Eagle (06:09)
So

so so at that point, ⁓ before they changed all the mortgage laws, so I was a mortgage broker. And at that point I could write my own loans. So I would buy five houses and do all the loans at the same time and put twenty percent down on each one as an investment house, and then close them all within a week of each other.

And the mortgage companies never knew that I was buying four other houses at the same time. So I would buy five at once and put them on these 80, you know, 20 down, 80% investor, no income, no asset, no verification loans called no-nos. And just I didn’t care what the rate was because I was flipping it. And I had a very specific process on flipping the house because the other the other thing I had at that point.

Dylan Silver (06:37)
Wow.

Ocean Eagle (07:00)
I had had a guy that was ⁓ a commercial developer, really good friend of mine. Got him. I knew he had a lot of money. So I did two, I I talked him into doing two houses with me back in like 2004, before the market crash. And I made him so much money in two houses that we just opened up an account at the same bank. And he and I did 150 houses together. He never saw one of them. He was just a silent investor. we he funded a hundred percent.

purchase price and rehab cost and then we split the net fifty fifty.

Dylan Silver (08:20)
when you were on the other side of this, the disposition side, the the home is flipped, at that point in time, were folks able to purchase these homes or was it at was it changing because the the crash was going on?

Ocean Eagle (08:33)
Well, the crash was going on, but they still needed to d write loans. They still needed to write mortgages. They still needed to ⁓ feed that system. So the you know, the they got the restrictions were tighter on the mortgages now that they got rid of the no income, no asset loans and the the eighty, twenty hundred percents, you know, and the the the three year no interest arms or three three year interest only arms, all that stuff kind of washed away in in an instant. But the values were

back down in line. So, you know, you didn’t have a cafeteria at a high school worker going in claiming she made enough money to buy a $450,000 house. And as long as she had a social security number and and a good credit score, it was done. You know, so all that went away. So you actually had to go back and do your work now. You had to do verifications on ass on income, on assets, on jobs. So you had to verify all that now. But yeah, I could, I could sell, I sold everything because

My bottom right. So my my my formula, worst case scenario, once I’ve run my comps and I run my CMA, my current market analysis, I’ve walked the property. Worst case, I’m gonna make money. Best case, I’m gonna make a lot of money. So I don’t really I didn’t really micromanage things. That allows me for an opportunity when my general contractor’s in there, I’ve got a problem. the plumbing has to be replaced, you know, or things that come up when you’re flipping a house. It’s not for the faint of heart.

You know, it’s it’s I had three general contractors and all of them were on jobs at it various levels, whether I’m so when I would purchase the property, I would I would enter escrow and I would I would walk the property while I’m in escrow with my general contractor. And as soon as escrow closed, he got ten or fifteen thousand upfront on a let’s say a forty thousand dollar rehab. And he bought all the supplies. I didn’t go do all that stuff. He bought all the supplies, everything.

But we had a set ⁓ we had baseboards that were set that we knew what to buy. We had granite that we knew what to buy, or quartz or the color cabinets we were doing, interior paint colors, hardware that was going on all the doors in the cabinets and the bathrooms, doors, you know, if it we would walk in and that wall’s move you know being removed, we’re gonna recess a beam in the ceiling on that one, open this house up. So all of that stuff was set. So when it closed escrow, we were off and running and a crew

10 were on that property tearing it apart and then quickly as we can put it back together, windows being ordered, new H VAC systems going in, ⁓ all a roof going on, all that stuff was ready to go. And my general contractors did everything. I didn’t sub it all out. So they kept me free to go buy more houses.

Dylan Silver (11:10)
At your peak, how many different flips did you have going on simultaneously?

Ocean Eagle (11:15)
Twelve to fourteen.

Dylan Silver (11:16)
So managing that many flips, I mean, people talk about managing one flip and difficulties with contractors. What was your, you know, leadership approach to managing these sites and the contractors and the subs?

Ocean Eagle (11:28)
I trusted all three of my GCs. I knew them well. They were not just general contractors. They became friends of mine. ⁓ my my my word to them was just don’t screw me over. Don’t take shortcuts that get me sued later on. So out of 340 flips, I was never sued one time by anybody. So ⁓ don’t take shortcuts on electrical, on plumbing, none of that stuff. Don’t take shortcuts on anything we’re doing. ⁓

As far as I did additions to houses, I built them from the ground up. so I’ve done I’ve done I’ve been very I was very involved, but it’s a trust thing. So you gotta know your G C because general contractors, ⁓ there’s not many, there’s not a lot of good ones out there. They will and you never and you never prepay You you never prepay a contractor. ⁓ you always hold money back until they’re done. Because if you prepay a contractor,

He’s putting your job to the side. He spent that money and he’s going off and working on another house, you know, and putting yours and yours is gonna sit. So you keep hungry by not paying up front.

Dylan Silver (13:06)
What was the level of distress that you were comfortable with in in acquisitions? Were you looking for, you know, heavily distressed, you know, roof to studs, or were you looking for something that would need a more light rehab?

Ocean Eagle (13:16)
I would do both. It didn’t matter to me. It’s a numbers game for me. You know, what can I buy it for? How much do I put into it? Can I make money? You know, it was real simple formula. And but you gotta I was a broker. I I knew Sacramento like the back of my hand. I knew the surrounding areas like the back of my hand. You know, I f I told you I flipped three houses in Austin, Texas from Sacramento. Right. And I learned a valuable lesson. You know, I didn’t make I pretty much broke even on all three of those because

I was having to fly in and out of Austin once a month and I needed to go more. And I had a couple of general contractors that I found that were doing work on the houses for me, but they were sitting and nobody was there managing them. And, you know, you you I didn’t really take into account that Texas is three and a quarter percent property taxes. So the longer you hold a house in Texas, the property taxes go way up and eat into your bottom line. And I didn’t really, you know, I allowed a a real I went

I I found a real estate agent who found 15 houses for me. Flew into Austin. I viewed all 15, wrote offers on seven of them, got three of them, and I flipped those houses. Now I didn’t I I would normally run my own comps. I didn’t, you know, rely on anybody else. I relied on this woman to run the comps on me. So all that together taught me that I I do business where I know. I don’t go outside anymore.

I got lucky I didn’t lose on on those. I I pretty much broke even, but it took me six months to finish all three of those. You know, per purchased to flip to to sold, you know.

Dylan Silver (14:46)
I’ve often wondered, you know, how folks are buying in markets that they don’t know or that they haven’t traveled through for all of the reasons that you said. You know, have have you seen people who, you know, aren’t this massive team, but maybe like a team under, you know, ten people or twenty people? Have you seen them successfully do this?

Ocean Eagle (15:05)
You know, I haven’t seen I’ve seen a lot of people try. Let me let me give you example. So back when I had done about 30 houses, I wanted to really blow up and I thought, how am I gonna do this? And then I saw something online for this woman on the East Coast that called herself the Queen of Rehab. And she had just her blast was 270 houses flipped, you know, and she had a seminar coming up in Baltimore. And I said, All right, I’m gonna go to this thing. So I flew across, went to this thing, and see that was back when

Flip that house on HGTV was real popular back in the 2000s. Everybody wanted to flip a house. I mean, I had I coached 15 seasons of sports. I can’t tell you how many ⁓ parents of kids I coached would give me 300,000, 200,000, because they just wanted to be a part of flipping a house. They weren’t involved in the process at all. They were just silent investors. So they all knew what I did. So people would come to me with their money. Hey, we want to flip a house.

They would pull 300,000 in equity out of their own house to do it. So, but when I went out to Baltimore to this thing, I quickly realized that there were a bunch of, you know, not very intelligent people there. And I was sitting in like a ring of ten people and we were all talking and everybody’s talking about excited, you know, flip a house. And they started asking questions to run around the room. And I asked this one person, I said, How many of these things have you been to?

And so like, I’ve this is my sixth one. How many houses have you flipped? I haven’t flipped a house yet. You know, I’m like, yeah, you’ve been to six of these seminars and you haven’t flipped a house yet? And like, no, no, no. They were just enamored with the idea that they could do it. They didn’t know how to do it. This course, look, you can talk all you want. There’s not a lot of people that are designed to be millionaires. You know, there’s not a lot of people that are willing to take those risks, ⁓ that are willing to put in that kind of work.

To be a multimillionaire. So these people that are multimillionaires sell you on these things. She was just there selling DVDs and selling a $5,000 week at her house down in Florida. You know, she really wasn’t teaching anybody how to really flip a house because there’s all these programs out there that tell people, you can flip a house with no money, you know, go to the tax sales and buy tax distress properties, you know. I mean, it’s not for the faint of heart. It’s not that easy, you know.

So when I realized I asked the only people in the group, it was this couple, and they were in the middle of flipping their first house. They asked me, How many houses have you flipped? I when I told them 30, their mouths dropped and they said, Why are you here? I’m like, I’m asking myself the same question right now. You know, so then I left. I went back home, just went kept going forward, and that’s you know, not not long after the market crashed, and then I was just

It was like shooting fish in a barrel. And I think we’re coming to that again. I think I I know we got a lot of distressed properties starting to hit the market. ⁓ back then I was buying short sales as well. I wrote a lot of offers on short sales. But that was when the Barack Obama homeowners debt forgiveness act was in place. That expired in two thousand twelve. So when people would short sell their house and they owed seven hundred thousand and they short sold it for three hundred and thirty, the bank wrote that difference off.

But they would 1099 you for that loss. So you would maybe be looking at incurring a three hundred thousand dollar income, right, on your taxes. But the debt forgiveness act was a one page form. Sign that, all forgiven. That expired in 2012.

Dylan Silver (19:14)
Now, when you were navigating, you know, some of these changes in in the the law, but also determining how you were gonna scale, right? You you really dove into flipping. At this point, there’s so many different, you know, ⁓ niches that people can get involved with as investors. There’s you know, wholesaling, flipping, you know, short-term rentals, long-term rentals, corporate housing, you know, multifamily. Hey, I’m gonna invest in a syndication or start a syndication. You know.

At that point in time, was all of this, you know, in your mindset? Were you thinking about all these different avenues? Or were you basically looking at flipping and saying, Hey, I’ve done thirty of these, let me continue doing what’s working?

Ocean Eagle (19:53)
Yeah, I did multifamily as well. You know, I at one point before I I just got lucky. Before the crash happened, I had 15 doors. I I had I was a landlord. So I owned fifteen doors, they call them doors properties out of six plex some others two plex four plex. And but being a landlord sucks. I I you know, especially you a lower income landlord, you know, it it’s not fun. And I was managing everything myself as well as I had four kids.

And I was coaching 15 seasons of sports in the middle of all this and had a big house myself and I was still an active agent. I still sold 30 to 40 houses to buyers and sellers as well as flipping all my houses. And I had ⁓ up to upwards of 40 agents under my broker’s license as well. So I had an office manager that if you could imagine when you own eight to fift eight to fifteen houses at a time, own a rental properties, and then I had my flip properties.

That’s a lot of utility checks to write every month. That’s a lot of property taxes you’re incurring. That’s a lot of insurance checks you gotta write. You know, all of that stuff. And plus I had all my agents that needed their commission checks cut. So it was it was a lot. I can handle a lot. I was designed for it. But like I said, not everybody can do that. It’s you know, you need to you need to focus in and laser focus on what you know and stick with that. Wholesaling, you know, is is

I get these calls all the time. Still, I’ve been out of real estate for six years now. I still get messages on my cell phone want to know if I have any flips or we’ve got a distressed property for you. And I’m just, I don’t do that anymore. You know, my focus is on helping people heal. But you know, my my main thing is like if you’re gonna really want to be an investor or a flipper, I highly recommend people get a real estate license because 300, let’s say 300 houses. I wrote all my own offers.

Over the course of sixteen and a half, seventeen years of writing offers on my properties, that’s if if I averaged four thousand dollar commission on the buyer side, I made one point two million dollars just writing my own offers on all my flips.

Dylan Silver (21:58)
Let’s talk about ⁓ pivoting here. let’s talk about scaling a business and burnout. I’ve talked to you had you had teams and teams of teams and forty agents, right? And then your GCs and the subs, right? And we’re involved in in the community. But there’s a lot of people who may be solopreneurs and they may be doing, let’s say, you know

ten to twenty million dollars a year in transaction volume and they’re beginning to feel burnt out, right? And we see this a lot. And I’m sure you see it, you see it still, right? What what can people do to avoid that?

Ocean Eagle (22:30)
Well, less is more. So we we you need to learn to not get emotionally and I was never emotionally invested in any of my flips. I it was a numbers game for me. So I didn’t take them on emotionally. I was also going through a lot with my marriage and there was a lot going on. I was also a member of a country club and you know, I was a scratch golfer and played a lot of golf and coached my kids and it was a lot. So at age forty one I had a nervous breakdown. So my whole body shut down.

And ⁓ so for me, I had to learn how to pull back and not try to be everyone’s hero. And I had to learn how to take care of me. And I I just I I work with people, ⁓ I’ve worked with a lot of CEOs recently on non-disclosure agreements. I’ve worked with doctors as well. ⁓ I work with them privately one on one to help them with their stress levels, to teach them how to be natural self-regulators and take a look at why do you have

you know, three different, you know, vacation homes. Why why do you have all that stuff? When is it enough? So I’ve worked with them on scaling back their life, becoming more of a minimalist. Because when we don’t have all of our possessions, we’re no longer possessed. Because every house comes with like nine different bills. So if you owned all these other houses, you know, you’ve got all these bills on every house, you know. And it just gets to be too much. So for somebody like me, I was wired to handle a lot.

But eventually it even caught up to me. ⁓ so for people I’d I’d say know your market, get a real estate or broker’s license, don’t try to do too much, you know, quality versus quantity, always.

Dylan Silver (24:04)
You know, ⁓ we were talking in the green room as well about travel. You mentioned Costa Rica and some retreats. ⁓ when did you start becoming you know, a a travel person and someone who’s g been going to places like Costa Rica? ⁓

Ocean Eagle (24:19)
Yeah, that really kicked in for me. I’ve always liked traveling, but ⁓ when I when I had a spiritual awakening about seven years ago, I knew that I had just been changed like on a cellular level. And I knew I’d just been called to A help people, but B also to put me first. So I started putting me first and I started buying one way plane tickets to places and ⁓ not round trips. And I would buy I did that in Europe. I

bounced around. Last year alone, I went to Egypt three times. I went to I’ve been all over the pyramids, all over Sakata. I’ve been all over, you know, the ⁓ Luxor and Oswan and the Oswan Dam. They’re finished off I’ve been all over Egypt last year. And then I’ve been all over Peru. I went back to Peru. I lived there but I went back four times last year. And I like taking people and showing them the ancient sites because I’m I was always into shows like the Ancient Aliens. And I always was enamored by

you know, Machu Picchu, which I’ve been countless times now, and Saxewama, Yante Tamba, all these amazing places. ⁓ so for me, after I had this awakening, I realized that I needed to walk away from real estate and everybody thought I was crazy.

Dylan Silver (25:30)
I’m sure. What what were they what were they saying at the time? Huh? What were people saying? Like and and how what were those conversations like?

Ocean Eagle (25:38)
Years

old. I’m 57 now. I was 50 years old, and everybody thought I just kind of lost my mind. And ⁓ but eventually, you know, all everything opened up for me, all that energy and focus I had on in real estate was now focused into a voice inside me telling me to write books. So I’ve published I’ve been published seven times now in the last six years, and I’m a five-time ⁓ best-selling author. All books on hope and inspiration, The Gift of Inspirations, one and volume two.

Salt, surrender, accept, let go, and trust. that’s faith. And then the I wrote the gifts of desperation, a journey back to me. ⁓ so it’s all about you know, self-discovery, self-improvement now too, because I had a childhood of massive trauma, massive trauma, abuse, abandonment, neglect, eleven schools, two states, double alcoholic parents, alcoholic stepfather. You know, I was subjected to and saw things that a kid should never see.

So I’ve alchemized all of that. I was chasing those wounds. I was trying to fill it with houses and cars and all this stuff that never filled that hole inside me. So if we don’t do that deep inner work, there’s nothing you’re no amount of money’s ever gonna fill that. You’ll always feel incomplete and empty inside.

Dylan Silver (26:50)
We are coming up on time here, Ocean. I know you’re involved in quite a bit. Any new projects these days? And then also anything you’d like to mention directly to our audience?

Ocean Eagle (26:58)
Yeah, you know, I’ve I’ve got I I’m always open to one on one work. I had a guy that’s a top financial advisor, owner of a big financial wealth management company down in Scottsdale. He just worked with me last week. ⁓ one on one privately, really got to the root cause of where his anxiety was coming from, his fears were coming from, his inability to focus at work. ⁓ so I do one on one private work with people. ⁓ I’m not exp I’m not cheap, but I’m very effective.

And I’ve I have developed a now chemical process that I put people through, as well as doing sweat lodges and going and seeing the Sedona Wolf Sanctuary and being with wolves in Costa Rica. My retreats we all monkeys and macaws and really get people out of their their normal environments. And one of the one of the cheapest ways to come be spend time with me is in Sedona. So I have a retreat so September eleventh through the fourteenth in Sedona, Arizona. It’s gonna be an amazing retreat. And that’s for men and women.

And the first three days are all part of the pro process. And then the fourth day is an add-on. Well, we will be at the Sedona Wolf Sanctuary and I will actually be rebirthing people up on the mountain at sunset. ⁓ so that’s another one. Then I’m also gonna be on stage. ⁓ I’m a keynote speaker at the Ultimate Wellness Conference coming up in Miami Beach September twenty fourth, twenty-fifth, and twenty-sixth. I’ll be on stage from two to three on the twenty fourth, ⁓ talking about everything.

about my life and spirituality and how to heal naturally. ⁓ and then I’m gonna announce ⁓ a men’s retreat in Sedona here coming up late October. So if you can find me at I find me at IamOceanEagle on Instagram and my website is oceaneagle.org ⁓ but the best place really is go to Instagram or Facebook, Marty-Ocean Eagle Daniel and go to my Link Tree and maybe you can put that on here. But my Link tree is is a great resource for everything.

Dylan Silver (28:45)
Ocean, thank you so much for your time today. Thanks for joining us.

Ocean Eagle (28:48)
Hey, thanks for having me, Dylan. Great to see ya.