How to Flip Houses With No Money: 59 Deals Using 50/50 Partnerships

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In this conversation, Marjie The Flipper Queen shares her journey in real estate investing, emphasizing the importance of building a community, maintaining authenticity, and setting realistic business goals. She discusses her unique skills, challenges faced, and the significance of networking with like-minded individuals. Marjie also highlights her commitment to helping others in the industry and her plans for future events.

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Marjie The Flipper Queen (00:00)
Yes, so I have flipped 59 houses altogether. That is again, I don’t have a lot of money. I don’t cast cash flow like super alive. That’s not the name of the game. The name of the game is partnership with people that has money. So there’s two kinds of investors like the investor, the passive investor and the active investor. The passive investor usually they have millions of dollars in the bank and they want little minions to work for them. I’m willing to work for them.

So said, okay, so it’s usually a 50-50 JV partnership, so people doesn’t know what that is, especially if they’re new. It’s like you partner with somebody, one is the money person and one is the person that’s doing all the work. And then once it’s sold, you guys have a documentation that this is the partnership and then you split the profit.

Micah Johnson (02:21)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host, Micah Johnson. And today I’m speaking with Marjie, who’s been making some serious moves in real estate investing for the last three and a half years now. Marjie, welcome in, glad to have you.

Marjie The Flipper Queen (02:35)
I’m to be here with you.

Micah Johnson (02:37)
Me too, I’m pumped. I think we got a lot of valuable things to share with folks today. Just through your experience through real estate, the way you go about it, I love your dedication, your passion, how much you like to give back. So let’s dive in on that. For folks who may not know you yet, what’s your main focus right now and what markets you operate in?

Marjie The Flipper Queen (02:51)
Okay,

so first I want to introduce myself. My name is Marjie also known as the flipper queen So if you google at the flipper queen, my picture is gonna come up big big down with a sledgehammer so what I’m focusing right now is just scaling the business but in a very realistic and truthful way because

As we know, in the next couple years, think we are entering the, somehow everybody’s talking about it, the recession and you’re already seeing we are a boom and bust economy in America. And so what I’m trying to do is to scale a business correctly and to scale my furniture and design business and other flipping business in seventh division of my company where it can sustain itself, grow a little.

in the next couple years, but not go down, like not fall apart because recession, you’re going to see who’s the toughest, right? Because people that’s not prepared for systems and changes, they will fall and you’ll not see them again. It’s hard to come back from a fall, especially if this is in real estate industry because you’d lose your reputation along the way.

Micah Johnson (03:52)
Right.

for sure. to grow responsibly, you got to build for growth. You set yourself up for it. If it’s done accidentally or in a way that isn’t supported, that’s where you get that reaction to it where things kind of fall apart on you. Because as you grow, the same tools don’t work. The creator of Rakuten has a, I can’t remember his name at the moment, but he calls it the rule of three and 10.

Marjie The Flipper Queen (04:25)
Yeah.

Micah Johnson (04:30)
Anytime your business three X’s or 10 X’s, the tools and systems you use to run it have to adjust because now there’s more people involved. There’s more production involved. There’s everything adjusts along the way. And that’s what we were talking about a little beforehand is, we all come up with ideas or entrepreneurs do with, you know, I want to 10 X my business this year. But what I like that you’re saying is really looking at what’s the landscape saying.

Marjie The Flipper Queen (04:40)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes.

Micah Johnson (04:56)
You know, it’s great to have goals

and there’s nothing wrong with being a dreamer, but if you’re not reading the terrain of what’s actually happening, then you’re not really getting anywhere, right? You’re just kind of throwing mud at the wall to see what sticks.

Marjie The Flipper Queen (05:04)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Micah Johnson (05:58)
So.

Marjie The Flipper Queen (05:57)
Yeah, and it’s

important to understand the systems and the processing along the way because at the end of the day, those are hard to actually execute. The people that know the system and the processing, they have put time and effort to it. And a lot of people doesn’t understand how that goes, honestly.

Micah Johnson (06:18)
It’s true. And I use car analogies a lot in here and I’m not even a car guy, but it just makes sense to me where like a professional real estate investment company, they have built a machine that trades in real estate. And that machine is made up of a bunch of parts, like an engine where you don’t, you don’t not only need to understand all the parts to the engine, you got to learn how they get put together. you know, you

Marjie The Flipper Queen (06:32)
you

Yeah.

Micah Johnson (06:43)
put an engine together and it still doesn’t run quite right. You can maybe get to the store down the street, but it’s not getting you across the United States, if you know what I mean, where you got to know how it all works together to make it function. It’s just part of it. And you don’t learn that in a day. No one figured out, it’s not just chat GPT, nobody figured out how to fix an engine in a day.

Marjie The Flipper Queen (06:48)
So.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You’re so right, you can’t sell GPD that one.

Micah Johnson (07:07)
That’s right. That’s

right. Well, tell us how’d you get into real estate? What led you to opening up the companies you have now?

Marjie The Flipper Queen (07:14)
Oh my gosh, it’s so much fun. So I work at IRS for close to 15 years, but I think if you calculate the overtime that I put in, I’m probably working there for like over 20 years because I was doing overtime 20 hours every week. So you have a 40 hour weekday and then the 20 hours I put overtime into it. So every week since I started IRS, I was doing 60 hour weeks. And that’s when I realized

based on the financial life of a person, because I have cases, you know, going through all of this, and I was thinking, okay, I couldn’t even use certain things in the tax code, because I’m not investing in real estate, or I’m not a business owner, and then I realized, yes, you can be successful in 95, don’t let anybody tell you that you cannot, but it’s very, the statistic of it is so low, that more than likely, it’s a lottery win.

So I decided, even though I do love my job at the IRS, I really love, I am the kinder IRS. I remember having somebody call me and they really have like bad tax problem. They call me and I said, then he ain’t yelling at me. And I told them, hey, I am one of the kinder person here. So if I hang up on you because you’re cursing me, which I’m allowed to by our rules, you’re gonna get somebody that’s not as kind.

And so I said, we can like, down a little bit in here and then let me assist you because I’m a kinder IRS. And then they’re like, okay, okay. And then they were like, it’s so funny because I’m from Hawaii, right? With a Filipino Hawaii accent. So right before they hang up, I can’t hang up to them. I wanna make sure that they’re actually hanging up before I hang up. And they said, that fucking Spanish girl is so nice. I’m like, not even.

You know who I am dude, but okay I’ll take it. was funny.

Micah Johnson (09:14)
They’re calm now, I’ll take it.

Marjie The Flipper Queen (09:16)
Yeah,

so from that on, I said, okay, what I’m going to do is I’ll tell my boss, like, hey, I’m going to go to like a meetup. I have so much day off. I will make sure that that I do all the hard cases in our whole entire department. Like, just feed it to me. I’ll help you with it. And I love doing cases, especially harder ones. I just love it like a puzzle to me. So I said, but I’m taking off today because I’m going to go.

and run to a millionaire kind of meet up and they’re like smirk up me and then it’s like yeah you go you know and then what I would do I started IRS at four o’clock in afternoon so if there is like a demo party or anything that Flippers doing they’re usually doing it in the midday in the middle of the week because of course that’s their job right that’s their business so it’s not like in a Saturday Sunday thing so example on the Tuesday or Thursday they said we have a demo party from

11 to 1. I would leave Fresno at 7 o’clock in the morning, get there like 10.30, 11 o’clock if there’s traffic, stay there from 11 to 1 o’clock and drive back home to Fresno straight to my IRS work and clock in and do my shift from 4 to 12.

Micah Johnson (11:10)
That’s the dedication it takes though. When you’re dealing with someone like yourself that’s that way, success becomes inevitable. One of my favorite quotes is, if you don’t have resources, be resourceful. How are you using your time? How are you going and finding the information that you need? And so you’re noticing in these cases that you’re working, ⁓ businesses and real estate are obviously the way that folks are making

Marjie The Flipper Queen (11:37)
Yeah.

Micah Johnson (11:39)
wealth they need to make. And that pushed you in the direction to where you’re starting to, you’re working 60 hours a week, still making it to different demos and meetups, learning it. So how long ago was it that you dove in headfirst and started what you have built today?

Marjie The Flipper Queen (11:54)
So May 2020 is

my first flip. That’s where I closed my first, like I acquired a property for a flip. And during that time, again, I started with no money, right? The way I end up having money is that, cause I was like, even with all those overtime, I was putting it in my 401k, but like physical cash, really doesn’t have any. mean, the taxes alone will take like 30 % of your income. So that.

alone is a negative to all of us is doing overtime. We get to the higher tax bracket just for doing overtime. So what I did is I ended up, it’s in the middle of pandemic, there is a new construction and I said, okay, I’m gonna buy that new construction and I’m gonna sell this one so that I’m living right now, which is my first home, me and my husband. So when I sold it, I have $79,000 profit tax

free from that after I pay all of my bills. I’m literally zero all credit card card everything and then I have $79,000 left. So I know I can, I don’t know what to do. I don’t know taxes, ⁓ implication or anything, but I know what I’ve learned is it’s real estate will be the best, right? To have that going. So I have $79,000, but when I move into the new construction during that time,

the last one before it shut down to buy the lot so it took about a year before they give me the keys but by that time I got it I have a hundred thousand dollars in equity on that new construction yeah before I even put my first monthly payment and yeah it’s so crazy so I bought it at 300 with a 328 I put $20,000 down payment

Micah Johnson (13:43)
That’s not bad deal at all.

Marjie The Flipper Queen (13:51)
And then, and I took that from my 401k. And so that ended up being like, that’s my seed money now. So I’m holding $700,000. Like, ⁓ my gosh, this is the most, my husband is like real afraid. Like, what are you doing? It’s like, no, I’m gonna flip this thing. And I was like, we’re gonna figure this out. So that’s when everything happened.

Micah Johnson (14:15)
2020 you flip your first house and now you’re up to what 59 of them right between combining the ones you’ve done and done for other people

Marjie The Flipper Queen (14:21)
Yes.

Yes, so I have flipped 59 houses altogether. That is again, I don’t have a lot of money. I don’t cast cash flow like super alive. That’s not the name of the game. The name of the game is partnership with people that has money. So there’s two kinds of investors like the investor, the passive investor and the active investor. The passive investor usually they have millions of dollars in the bank and they want little minions to work for them. I’m willing to work for them.

So said, okay, so it’s usually a 50-50 JV partnership, so people doesn’t know what that is, especially if they’re new. It’s like you partner with somebody, one is the money person and one is the person that’s doing all the work. And then once it’s sold, you guys have a documentation that this is the partnership and then you split the profit.

Micah Johnson (15:53)
Okay, that’s an excellent way to do it. It’s one of the fun things about real estate is you can create those easy partnerships where, again, this is a team sport where you are, a lot of folks are good at getting the work done. A lot of folks are good at the money part. A lot of good folks are good at the finding deals part, like learning which section you’re good at, what you have availability to, and then plug in, find that strength. Because like you said, there’s money out there.

Marjie The Flipper Queen (16:18)
Yeah.

Micah Johnson (16:19)
that’s looking

Marjie The Flipper Queen (16:19)
Yeah.

Micah Johnson (16:20)
for something to do if you develop the skill set to know what to do with it.

Marjie The Flipper Queen (16:24)
Yeah, and then one of the greatest things too is that if you understand how money works, especially in the United States, I couldn’t tell you other places, but in the United States, there’s really money people that they don’t even think about, like we think like, they’re scared, they’re gonna lose their money on me. There is venture capitalists, people that they know like, okay, I have $13 million, I’m gonna hit, hit, hit, hit.

Hopefully all that hit. If not, at least two gonna fail, right? You don’t wanna fail, but you also just go in afraid that you’re gonna lose their money. If you’re gonna work for them, you’re gonna treat their money as their money, and if you make money out of their money, all of them has people that knows money. So your name just got regurgitated. Hey, this one girl, the Flipper Queen, she made me 30 grand in a matter of three months, then.

other investors are going to talk about it. So integrity, honesty, reputation, that all has come to play. And yeah, it is scary to hold other people’s money. But if you do it with the best intentions, because the sad thing is repetition is so important here. So if you fail, then you fail. But most of the time, the people that understand money understand that there’s a risk. You submit them the deal, they’re looking at the risk too.

And so for them to look at it like, okay, I’m willing to risk on you, then you work hard. You work as hard as you can. And they don’t want it to work with the construction workers. People with money, they don’t want to work for anything. They want it to just sit there and watch their money grow. So if you’re willing to work for it, like I love working with construction worker. I love feeding them. I love yelling at them. I love understanding how they think. I love their little quirks along the way. Really, I felt like

I’m just literally having a construction worker for me is so much fun. It’s like babysitting my kids, but like in a man form most of the time. And I was like, I know how to deal with you guys, you know, between their kids and their fights and they wanna work with each other. It was just a fun way. It’s good to me to find my spot and it’s good for the millionaires that invest with me to find their spot with them.

Micah Johnson (18:40)
Exactly. So you’ve been doing this three and a half years now. What are you excited about this year? What’s going on in Got you pumped up.

Marjie The Flipper Queen (18:49)
So 2026, it’s our second pathways to real estate investing where we gather 70 advanced real estate investor and then 30 new real estate investor and we put them in a room, no upsell, we’re not selling you anything. It’s basically a mastermind where you can think what’s going on with your business. How can you solve it? And then how can you have other help you solve your problems?

So their problem is either they’re surpassed my problem or they have the same problem as me, right? So if we can help each other grow,

by helping each other with all our problems. Last year, like people, it’s like, I have this problem. It’s like.

here’s they’re here or I have this person that helped me with that problem. I was like that’s what I wanted. Like I am don’t put me in conference where I already paid thousand thousand dollars and then you’re gonna sell me another fifty thousand dollars. Like we are coming into a recession what we need to do to bond as real estate investor and entrepreneur is we need to bond together a little bit and like help each other here.

Because at the end of the day, we don’t want to all go down. We want to race together. And as a group, we should be able to do that. And we also allow 30 % of it, or so 30 people. If you’re new and you just want to hear, how do we talk? Like me and Micah were talking today off the camera today. And we were talking about things that like, this is not normal conversation. It was just a fun way to look how our mind all works.

most exciting part. It’s called Pathways to Real Estate Investing.

Micah Johnson (20:06)
Love that pathways to real estate investing. So you watch the industry and realize that, okay, I need to get in on this. Now for the last three and a half years, you’ve gotten in on it. You’re building some successful things and now you’re helping others out. I love that. It’s one of my favorite things about real estate is the real professionals, get their givers, they give back. They keep the door open behind them and help you through it to show you what you need to do.

So for those that are listening in that would be interested in learning more about you and the event, what’s the best way for them to find you?

Marjie The Flipper Queen (21:54)
Yeah

You can go to my website the flipper Queen calm and You’ll get to see the seven division of my company So we have seven divisions that we grow from ground up three and a half years ago when I started and then the flipper Queen the

business was formed. So I was already flipping way before the business was formed and all of a sudden, because I was doing so much at a time, I was doing six and a quarter the first year and we’re just crazy. So the first year and when that happens this one girl Alma and she’s called the woman who invests. said they start calling me the flipper queen. So that’s when I start the moment they said you’re

And then I literally went and got my assistance like you need to register that name that was the name But yeah, so I I just know like this company is is ready to Help other people along the way because I don’t start with money. I don’t start with connection. I just know

Micah Johnson (24:35)
It’s the one, nailed.

Marjie The Flipper Queen (27:34)
My position right now, if I help more people along the way, good things are just gonna come to me. And the same thing with others. If they help me, good things are gonna come to them. I know what we need to protect here as a group of real estate investors is we all know how to make money and we just need to protect our heart from greed. We also need to protect each other from vultures along the way. So…

It became real estate investing before for a few. Now with social media and everything, you know who’s, you don’t know who’s faking and who’s not faking. So what I want is like all my friends, all my community, I want to make sure that you’re actually doing what you’re said you’re doing. If you’re residential living facility expert, I need to know how many do you actually own and operate. If you’re a midterm rental, how many midterm rentals are you operating right now? Not.

not a year ago, not two years ago that’s completely different deal makeup is like right now like what are you doing right now right so

Micah Johnson (31:39)
Absolutely. Well, if you’re listening or watching and check our show notes, we’ll make sure to have Marty’s website right there for you, for you to check it out, visit it, reach out to her, sign up for the event. If it’s something that you think you’d be interested in learning more from, get out there into the real estate world and listen how we talk to each other. If you love real estate, then you understand what we’re talking about. And ⁓ not many folks like to talk about it like folks who love to talk about it. get your chance. Marty.

Marjie The Flipper Queen (35:50)
Yeah.

Yeah.

I, they get bored. Like

people that doesn’t know the real estate world, they’re like, you’re talking real estate again. Can we talk about the weather? Like I am not talking about the weather.

Micah Johnson (40:26)
Yeah.

Yeah, the weather’s fine. Well, Marjie,

thank you so much for being here today. I think we need more folks out there doing it like you the right way, leading with their hearts, still building successful business, taking care of folks. So again, thank you so much. If you’re listening and watching in, please like today’s episode, share it if you got value from it to someone else who think you get it. And as always, please don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast. We appreciate every single one of you that follows along with us out there. Until next time, have a great day. We’ll see you on the next episode.

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How to Flip Houses With No Money: 59 Deals Using 50/50 Partnerships

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