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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros Podcast, host Michelle Kesil interviews Dawn Guinard, a real estate agent who specializes in helping investors identify and develop building lots in Idaho. Dawn shares his journey into real estate investing, the challenges of the local market, and the strategies he uses to help investors succeed. He discusses profit margins in spec homes, the process of building and selling new construction, and the importance of market analysis, marketing, and strong investor relationships.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Dawn Guinard (00:00)
It’s easier to control profits. If you pick up a lot, you get the price of the build. You know what your building permit is. Everything is more of a fixed cost. You are not going to tear down a wall and run into mold and other ⁓ large cost overruns. And then of course we can do market analysis onon the upfront side so that we can really design the products to the market versus fixing it and hoping that you’re in the market in the end.
Michelle Kesil (02:03)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. Today I’m joined by someone I’m looking forward to chatting with, Dawn Guinard who is a real estate agent and now really focusing on helping investors with developing and finding their lots in the Idaho area. So, excited to have you here today, Dawn.Dawn Guinard (02:26)
Thank you.Michelle Kesil (02:28)
Yeah, amazing. let’s dive in. First off, for those not familiar with you and your world, can you share what your main focus is?Dawn Guinard (02:38)
My main focus as a real estate broker in the Nampa, Idaho area is to help investors realize a more unique, clean way of investing their real estate dollars by utilizing building lots and fee builders, putting them together to build specs and to sell those on the open market.Michelle Kesil (03:06)
Awesome. And how did you get started with this project?Dawn Guinard (03:12)
The way that I got started in this is in 2016 I met a gentleman who worked for a local⁓ fee builder company and we started building specs we would grab a country lot and build a house on it and sell it and and turns out that the profit margin on these properties is really great so from there we moved into an opportunity ⁓ an investment group there was five gentlemen and they bought 25 lots in a little development in emmin Idaho
And we did the same sort of project. We listed the homes, was able to show people the homes with, you know, in the…
builders, other developments, and we got them all sold. So we went through 25 homes, all specs sold very quickly. Once we completed that project, we had two additional lots in Mountain Home, Idaho that we were doing the same thing on. They picked up the lots for 50,000. They built out the house. We sold them for, oh gosh, I think it was 425. So there was quite a little bit of profit in there. And a gentleman who owned 10 lots in Mountain Home called us.
So we went into his neighborhood and built specs for him as well and he had a great product profit. Now we’re finished up with that and looking for the next project.
Michelle Kesil (04:48)
Awesome. What has been something that you’ve learned and overcome as working on these new projects?Dawn Guinard (05:43)
The biggest hurdle to overcome is when you get in contact with a buyer and they want to go to the fee builder’s website. There’s a big discrepancy between the retail and. ⁓or the wholesale, it’s essentially wholesale retail, right? So they see the wholesale price and then they kind of scratch their head and they’re like, well, but you’re charging me X. So that’s been something that really has to be managed. So you have to have the collateral upfront, ⁓ pricing, ⁓ inclusive features and those types of things in place so that they’re not straying onto the wholesale website.
Michelle Kesil (06:26)
Yeah, absolutely. And what do you feel are some of the main keys that have made the biggest difference in allowing your business to be able to grow and to run smoothly?Dawn Guinard (06:37)
The biggest keys is the fact thatFrom 2014 to 2016, I worked for this particular builder, so I have an extremely in-depth knowledge of the product. So with that ⁓ and just the experience, I’ve helped investors with roughly 30 projects. ⁓ so just my knowledge, there’s very few people in the Valley that know how to do it efficiently.
So when I have flippers call me and they say, hey, we’re trying to find a flip, I’m like, but what about this? And they get pretty excited.
Michelle Kesil (07:20)
Yeah, why do you think that is? That they’re more eager for this type of opportunity?Dawn Guinard (07:23)
It’s easier to control profits. If you pick up a lot, you get the price of the build. You know what your building permit is. Everything is more of a fixed cost. You are not going to tear down a wall and run into mold and other ⁓ large cost overruns. And then of course we can do market analysis onon the upfront side so that we can really design the products to the market versus fixing it and hoping that you’re in the market in the end.
Michelle Kesil (07:55)
Right. So what do these projects kind of look like? Like let’s say from the starting point to finish, what is that journey?Dawn Guinard (08:05)
So from the starting point, we have, say for example, the development that I just finished up in Mountain Home.The gentleman bought 10 lots and I would think that they were probably developed, you know, in the 08 era. So he picked them up for very cheap, 40,000, cleaned them up. He had wells installed. They were all one acre lots. had wells installed. So now this investor has 10 lots of one acre size and ⁓ with wells installed. So that’s where he started. Once he had that in place, he was trying to devise
a
way to build the houses and get it sold. So he gave me a call and we were able to put together a product line. ⁓ We had six different houses that would fit on each lot that fit into ⁓ the existing ⁓ market, you know, as far as compatibility, the ability to move.
And then we put together the ⁓ amenities for each house. And then we put them into the MLS and started marketing them. Initially, we had several pre-solds right off the bat. So we sold a couple upfront as pre-solds. As the market slowed down due to the ⁓ interest rate fluctuations, we then stepped in and created our first spec home per se. ⁓
We analyzed the market, determined what price range and what amenities we would need in this product to be able to sell it. So we built out that house. Once it was done, we sold it pretty quickly. I was able to advise him to put at least the front yard landscaping in so it gave it real clean look. And then we went ahead and went on and finished out the neighborhood. He’s got four lots left that he wants to do some separate projects on. But other than that, we dropped two more specs in the
last spring. Got him all sold in the summer and he’s a pretty happy guy.
Michelle Kesil (10:44)
Yeah, awesome. And so what are you most focusing on solving or scaling to next in your business?Dawn Guinard (10:54)
I am looking and I’m watching for lots. So ⁓ beings that I am the real estate agent on it to assist the investors, the big challenge is again to find the building lots. I do watch foreclosures. There’s been a lot of building lots ⁓ coming and going. We’re reaching that five year mark where a lot of these developments. ⁓construction loans will start adjusting so they may or may not still be viable, you know, from a price standpoint. But I’m just looking for lots of investors at the moment to help implement this ⁓ project.
Michelle Kesil (11:39)
Yeah, absolutely. And what is like the lead process look like to find the lots.Dawn Guinard (11:47)
The way we’re looking at it is I do a lot of prospecting ⁓ from reverse type of prospecting. So I look for the lots and I’ve been contacting a lot of the owners to see if they’re interested in working with this. ⁓and just trying to get the word out that this is really, you know, a unique and profitable way to invest your real estate dollars. So the challenge is to find the investors and then put them together with the lots and the land home packages. Financing is relatively easy. We’ve got quite a few people have the cash to buy the home sites out upfront, but we also have…
different lenders who provide construction financing ⁓ for non-owner occupied projects.
Michelle Kesil (12:45)
Awesome. And is there like a specific type of investor that you’re looking to be partnering with?Dawn Guinard (12:56)
One that can see the vision, of course. have a lot of, and one that may be thinking a little larger. I have a lot of local investors who you can present ⁓ the information to, but they’re super focused on the flips. ⁓ just finding the right person.Michelle Kesil (13:23)
Yeah, absolutely. And as far as the other side of your business with real estate, are you also working with investors there?Dawn Guinard (13:35)
Yes, I work with different investors. ⁓ They’re kind of coming out of the woodwork lately. I’ve had lot of investors call me, work for, do some foreclosures, some flips, ⁓ but mainly just the new construction focus.Michelle Kesil (13:57)
Yeah, and what’s been like the most rewarding part in the new construction?Dawn Guinard (14:04)
The most rewarding part is certainly the completion when you can walk along the sidewalks of that development that is unique. It’s not a, you know, it’s just nice because you’ve put it together. You know what, you know, the amenities of people looking for years walking through and you see the beautiful lawns and the houses and the happy homeowners.Michelle Kesil (14:36)
Yeah, absolutely. And what, like are you partnering with other people besides investors? Like are there other types of, you know, support groups that you use to create the projects?Dawn Guinard (14:49)
No,it’s just me at the moment. Looking to expand out, had… ⁓
As I said, I finished the first project with a group of investors. The second project is finished up with my single investor. so now I’m just, ⁓ he’s the investor we just finished up in Mountain Home. He’s focused more on flips. Yay. But at any rate, yes, we’re done just kind of in the middle looking for new projects.
Michelle Kesil (16:02)
Yeah. And what is your goal for like what type or how many new projects you’d like to have?Dawn Guinard (16:11)
I would like to have at least one a year. I have a team in place who assist me with the holding open houses and the marketing for the agent or for the investor just to make sure that, you know, once we get one underway, you can typically sell off that into the rest of the development. It makes it much easier. I have…been working on some different research projects. There’s ⁓ a six lot development in Caldwell, Idaho. Sitting out there.
The biggest challenge with that is just being able to get the cost of the home down and the lot price to be able to come together to make it make sense. The owners of the lots, they are priced a little bit high right now. So it just, doesn’t leave a large profit margin. So that’s kind of where I am now. And at the very end of the day, I’d like to be able to do it for myself.
Michelle Kesil (17:18)
Yeah, definitely. That’s exciting.Dawn Guinard (17:20)
Yeah,but it works perfectly, especially for, say, a developer who has a small development and he’s not able to get the lots and sell the lots at a higher price. He could actually do combine both his equity in the lots as well as build homes with a fee builder ⁓ and sell them and.
you know, quite a substantial amount more profit by, you know, having both ends of it.
Michelle Kesil (17:54)
Yeah, absolutely. And how did you like learn about this side of the business? Has it just been through like the trial and error?Dawn Guinard (18:05)
No, actually I became in contact withthe fee builder, he was a sales rep for a fee builder, so he knew the process and asked me to market the properties for him. So through that and through the two developments, ⁓ I worked with him on the building side on both of them. So I was able to learn the process and massage the marketing to really become quite adept at getting these sold.
Michelle Kesil (18:48)
Yeah, amazing. And what does the marketing look like?Dawn Guinard (18:52)
The marketing, we tried to set up the marketing, you know, real similar to a production builder. The builder that I worked for was a production builder. So you have, you know… ⁓collateral for each individual floor plan. It’s extremely important to have your inclusive features upfront. It’s extremely important to have a flyer with all the ⁓ base prices and then you have to really be in in tune with the cost of the lots and the building permits and any other additional items you’ll need to have like ⁓
if you need to do wells or septics or that sort of thing. ⁓ But the collateral is, you know, the marketing is real similar to just what a production builder does. You just have your collateral together and provide it to, you know, the different people. I have ⁓ in the MLS, there is access to put all these different collateral pieces in so that when people see the house, the agent
is able to just pull the documents off the MLS and just have everything right there. So the biggest key is just to eliminate as many questions as you can to create enough material so that they know exactly what you’re selling. And ⁓ it keeps it ⁓ very structured.
Michelle Kesil (20:21)
Yeah, absolutely, that makes sense. And do you have any like networking strategies for connecting with the right investors?Dawn Guinard (20:23)
Mm-hmm.I do. I own my own real estate team, Real Estate Solutions, and we exist within Homes of Idaho. Homes of Idaho is a really great company in as much as it’s quite large. so within that, we’re able to have access to lot of developers and builders and different agents who have investors to be able to offer the program.
Michelle Kesil (21:00)
Amazing, that’s exciting. ⁓Dawn Guinard (21:02)
Yeah, itreally is. if you’re, you know, someone is interested in investing in real estate at the end of the day, ⁓ there’s a better way than, you know, trying to get the home as cheap as you can and then work through the condition.
Michelle Kesil (21:21)
sure.So before we wrap up here, if somebody wants to rage out, connect, learn more about what you’re up to, where can people find you and connect with you?
Dawn Guinard (21:33)
They can find me. have my website. It’s ⁓ res-idaho.com. Real estate solutions, Idaho. ⁓ My phone number is 208-989-2625. And as always, you can reach me ⁓ on my email, don at res-idaho.com. Of course, LinkedIn, Facebook, know, all the typical areas.Michelle Kesil (22:00)
Perfect. Well, I appreciate your time, your story, and your perspective. Thank you so much for being here.Dawn Guinard (22:07)
Yeah, thank you so much Michelle. I really appreciate the opportunity to visit with you. ⁓Michelle Kesil (22:13)
chorus. Andfor the listeners that are tuning into the show, if you got value, make sure you have subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators like Dawn who are building real businesses, and we’ll see you on our next episode.
