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Show Summary
In this episode of the Investor Fuel Podcast, host Michelle Kesil interviews Ramy Morgan, a seasoned general contractor and home flipper. Ramy shares insights into his business strategies, including raising capital, connecting with investors, and his journey into the home renovation industry. He discusses the challenges faced in the contracting field, the importance of having a strong team, and his ambitious goals for the future. Ramy also offers practical advice for aspiring home flippers, emphasizing the significance of creating a vision board and understanding the market.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Ramy Morgan (00:00)
The capital raising, we have one right now that just literally got listed three days ago. And within the first six hours, it had received over 6,000 views and became a popular view on Redfin. We have a current project going on right now and I’m trying to lock in two more.Michelle Kesil (01:53)
Hey everybody, welcome to the Investor Fuel Podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil, and today I’m joined by someone that I’m looking forward to chatting with, Ramy Morgan, who’s been making serious moves as a general contractor and home flipper. So excited to have you here today.Ramy Morgan (02:16)
Thank you for having us.Michelle Kesil (02:19)
Of course, I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching flipping homes and everything you know about the business from your years of experience as a tradesman and a contractor and all of the knowledge that you have. So let’s dive in.For those not familiar with you and your world, can you give the short version of what your main focus is?
Ramy Morgan (02:49)
Yeah, so my main focus for my company would be ⁓ definitely raising some more capital ⁓ with a wide range of investors so we can go ahead and acquire more real estate acquisitions. So it would be a combination of real estate residential homes and commercial multifamily space as well.Michelle Kesil (03:16)
Awesome, and what markets are you operating in?Ramy Morgan (03:20)
Currently out of Los Angeles an area specifically called Santa Clarita ⁓ I did a few in Houston, Texas and then now we’re also looking in the Cleveland, Ohio area as wellMichelle Kesil (03:35)
Awesome. What have been some of the main keys that have allowed your business to run smoothly and successfully?Ramy Morgan (03:46)
Not to be arrogant, but me. ⁓ Just my knowledge when I sit down with an investor or hop on a phone call, just the sheer knowledge that I have allows the investor to be confident and their money not being spent on other things other than the actual real estate acquisition. So when I’m asked a bunch of questions on the acquisition, we’re able to share it, not only that aspect.but on the trade aspect, the design aspect. So we’ll be able to answer all of the questions and fulfill their kind of due diligence when they’re in trying to invest in my company.
Michelle Kesil (04:31)
Yeah, that’s important. How are you connecting with these investors? Are you using networking as your strategy or where are you meeting these people?Ramy Morgan (04:44)
Currently friends and family We’ve been able to go to a couple investment or investors like meetup groups ⁓ one of them ⁓ I’m really really fond of it’s called Phoebe Wonderful organization and I was able to get a couple investors from there. They actually have an event tonight So I’m gonna be going pitching another deal tonight I just came across a property today that we’re submitting an offer on so ⁓It started off with friends and family, but I’m definitely trying to scale it to grow and have, you know, at least 10 to 20 investors in our investor pool to where we can pick up and submit, you know, our acquisition offers to them.
Michelle Kesil (06:05)
Amazing. What are you most focused on solving right now in your business? I know you mentioned the capital, but yeah, what are like other projects you’re working on?Ramy Morgan (06:19)
The capital raising, we have one right now that just literally got listed three days ago. And within the first six hours, it had received over 6,000 views and became a popular view on Redfin. We have a current project going on right now and I’m trying to lock in two more.⁓ It’s just really structuring the ⁓ private placement member and them to be able to allow.
us to grow and get more investors in with us. Other than that, I think the structure, the integrity, our team, our design team, our project management team, I think we’re okay.
Michelle Kesil (07:02)
Amazing. Can you share a little bit more about your background? How did you get into this industry and get started?Ramy Morgan (07:11)
yes. It’s one of the proudest things of my life. ⁓ As a five-year-old kid, ⁓ I always rolled a passenger with my father. My father was like my hero. He was my superhero. And ⁓ I’ve been in the business all in all 40 years, but professionally for 25. But since five years old, I would be passenger with him going from job to job, learning to actually do the trade.I re-piped my first house when I was 12 years old with my father. I was underneath the house in the crawl space, soldering and sweating ⁓ copper lines as my dad was on top, ⁓ feeding me the copper drops ⁓ out for the sinks and faucets. So it’s always been a proud moment, always being with my father, learning the trade. And then as I got older, I just, I don’t know how to draw.
if a gun was pointed at my head, but I can close my eyes and I can draw in my mind. And a home is my canvas. So I can basically visualize it and I’ve been able to produce every single vision that I’ve had, ⁓ whether it was kitchen or bathroom remodels when I started off to a full home renovation and design. And then as I got older, I got more into the trades and worked
each and every trade with my own bare hands. But after a few falls off the roof, my body couldn’t take it anymore. So I decided to step back, be the brains of the operation and hire the best tradesmen ⁓ that I’ve picked up over the years and just kind of run it like a soccer team or a football team or any sport team. You know, you have management and then you have your best MVP players. And that’s what he’s sickly what I do right now is
I bring in top MVP players to go ahead and produce my vision.
Michelle Kesil (09:18)
Amazing. I love that story of how you were able to use all those skills and create your success.Ramy Morgan (09:27)
Thank you.Michelle Kesil (09:30)
When you talk about creating your vision, can you expand on that? Like what are some of your visions and how did you create them?Ramy Morgan (09:41)
I mean, it’s kind of simple and complicated at the same time, but I mean, I could look at a home and I could see past its ugliness. So I don’t need any AI or tool or, or designer to go ahead and tell me what I can produce out of this home. So I’ve looked at so much architecture. Architecture to me is, a gift that people have, ⁓ just like many other people that with gifts and talents.So I understand the dynamics of a home and its structure and its integrity. So understanding that, it can actually make it easier for me to know what wall can be removed, what wall can’t be removed, and how I can expand and give the home a rebirth. So when I go into a home, for example, I basically look at its bones.
its structure and its integrity first before I even create a vision or a design and then once I know which walls can be removed and which ones can’t then I’ll go ahead and start, you know, just picturing in my mind what possibilities can come out of it and ⁓ I just start, you know, basically sketching and drawing in my mind on what to do and ⁓ once I have it set in stone inside
I basically have a team that demolishes everything for me and then I basically share that vision with my guys. I still don’t draw it on paper. I I verbalize it and they get me so well ⁓ and they help me create it. And it’s very easy, but also complicated because sometimes I can’t fully share it with a lot of people because they can’t see it themselves, but I could fully see my canvas that I’ve grown up.
Michelle Kesil (11:37)
Yeah, that’s incredible to have that artistic view and vision for what you’re creating.Ramy Morgan (11:47)
Thank you.Michelle Kesil (11:50)
What are some obstacles that you have found throughout this journey and how did you overcome them?Ramy Morgan (12:01)
⁓ Laziness. There’s a lot of people that say they can do certain things and ⁓ they can’t produce. So in order to be an all-star team, I need all-star players. So ⁓ I think in any industry, ⁓ everybody goes through this obstacle and this hurdle. So ⁓ luckily for us,This past year, we haven’t had too many turnovers with guys. We’ve had a few, so we’d had to stop and then go make some phone calls to people in the industry that I’ve known for many, years and see if they have any recommendations for replacement spots or replacement subcontractors.
Michelle Kesil (12:55)
Yeah, of course. Definitely seems like contractors are a tough thing to find the right ones.Ramy Morgan (13:05)
Yeah, it’s a hard industry, you know. It’s a very difficult industry and that’s why I wanted to get out of it as a contractor because it has such a ⁓ nasty taboo and ⁓ taste with it when you hear somebody say, I’m a contractor. you might be one of those. So it’s a very tough industry. A lot of people, it’s changed after HGTV.Every single person that was out there that started watching HGTV and all these home renovation shows, now you can renovate an entire home in one hour, produced tens of thousands of contractors that have no idea of what it takes to be a contractor. It’s a huge responsibility ⁓ because you’re basically in charge of
managing and maintaining the integrity of the home and making sure the homeowners are always going to be in a safe place. That’s their safe haven. So ⁓ after all those shows, it’s become a very difficult industry. It’s actually made it worse.
Michelle Kesil (14:18)
Yeah, absolutely. think people get too caught up in the projection of what the TV is showing, not realizing that reality works different than what is meant to be entertainment.Ramy Morgan (14:31)
Sure. Yeah,exactly. Yeah, and all of the in-betweens, you know, it’s easy to demolish something, but to reconstruct it and how to analyze, you know, six months in ahead that there needs to be one specific two by four or a bolt or a wire or a pipe that needs to be placed here six months in advance. So by the time you’re putting everything together,
it falls into place. So a lot of people don’t think about that and they just wait till the very end and then it screws up the project. And by then the profits have already been eaten up and contractors end up skipping out. So it takes years to develop those skills and to be able to become a general contractor. Nobody can just become a general contractor.
Michelle Kesil (15:25)
Right. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.What are some of your goals for where you want your business to head to?
Ramy Morgan (16:19)
Our goal for 2026 is to flip 10 homes. We’re picking up these homes in the 1.2 or under million dollar bracket with the resale value of 2 million. So our goal next year, God willing, would be $20 million of sales for 10 projects. And then also within the next seven year goal is to own and hold5,000 rental doors. ⁓ That would be the goal before I do final retirement.
Michelle Kesil (16:59)
Amazing what an exciting and grand goal to have for your vision.Ramy Morgan (17:07)
Very easy to accomplish. Just got to work at it.Michelle Kesil (17:11)
Yeah, what would you say for maybe someone that is just looking to get started in the flipping space and they are hesitating or they don’t know what actions to take or how to get started? Like what’s some advice you can give to those people?Ramy Morgan (17:31)
Very easy. ⁓ Step number one, create a vision board. Very important. Every successful entrepreneur out there, these are not my words. are everybody, every successful person has left a footprint and it’s up to you to take it or not, but create a vision board. Very easy. Once you create that vision board and you wanna start flipping, log into Redfin.create an account, it’s a free account, and basically go into the area that you currently live in or want to renovate and flip in. And let’s just say, for example, you know, an area in Los Angeles, I look it up, I can set all of the ⁓ filters of what I’m looking for as far as a three-bedroom, two-bath, three-three, whatever your criteria is, what is your dollar budget, set that.
And then once you’ve produced that, go to every single home and hit the like button, which will go ahead and give you free Intel every single day because anytime there’s been a price drop, price increase, pending sale, closed escrow, Redfin will send you a quick text on every single project that’s going on and you don’t need to rely on a realtor to go ahead and give you all that information. And once you do that,
Get in contact with a bunch of different ⁓ investment ⁓ associations. Put yourself out there. Figure out where you’re going. What are you doing? Try to go to every single open house as much as possible. Walk in it. Find out why are they selling it? Who’s selling it? Why are they selling it for this price? What amenities is this house offering? Monitor it.
see how long it sits on the market, how far away is it from shopping centers, how far away is it from a Starbucks, very important, how far away is it from an on-ramp and off-ramp of a freeway, so many variables, but once you do it inside and out or over and over and repeat it, it becomes so natural that it doesn’t seem like a long laundry list. ⁓ I was also very fortunate to join
a real estate seminar called The Real Success and ⁓ it helped catapult my real estate company to a whole other level. I was always looking at home as a contractor, but after taking that three day seminar and I’m still part of the program, they convinced me that I was doing it wrong. I shouldn’t be looking at it as a contractor. I should be looking at it as an investor.
completely different mindset. ⁓ don’t share your ideas with simple minded people. If anybody’s going to go ahead and put you down and not believe in your dream and in your vision to easily end the discussion and never bring it up with them again. And always revert back to your vision board. Always revert back to your vision board.
Michelle Kesil (20:55)
Amazing. I think that is so helpful and simple for people to get started. Yeah, there’s no external blocks to do any of those things.Ramy Morgan (21:08)
No, you can really do anything you want. I mean, we’re in one of the greatest countries in the world. I mean, we have the freedom of speech, free rights, we can do anything we want. So I’m gonna try and produce my own kind of flipping seminar later on sometime next year. And if anybody wants to also get in contact with me in that aspect, we don’t mind to share some, a little bit more skills and knowledge as well.Michelle Kesil (21:39)
Amazing, that’s incredible to share your knowledge like that. So, before we wrap up here, yeah, if someone wants to reach out, connect, learn more from you, where can people find you? ⁓Ramy Morgan (21:54)
Yes, I have a just a simple basic ⁓ Instagram page. It’s r.morgan79 I just used that for now ⁓ My current email is [email protected] I just still use some of my old stuff because we did hire a branding company to come in and kind of create an entire brand for our company so ⁓Just because I don’t have everything all put together, that doesn’t mean we’re a successful company. A lot of people sometimes kind of not believe in that, but ⁓ it takes so much to build something. So I just had to create just a simple basic Instagram, my footprints there. You can see a multiple projects that we’ve been working on. They can definitely reach out, DM me or via email, but Instagram again, r.morgan.
79 and I’ll be gladly able to respond to them whether they’re investors and they want to take a look at what we do and how we’d work with them and give them their returns or if somebody has a question in regards to some knowledge on wanting to learn how to flip
Michelle Kesil (23:14)
Amazing. Well, listen, I appreciate your time, your story and perspective. Thank you for being here.Ramy Morgan (23:23)
Appreciate your time as well. Thank you so much.Michelle Kesil (23:26)
Of course. And for the listeners tuning in, you got value from this, make sure you’ve subscribed. We’ve got more conversations with operators just like Ramy who are building real businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode.
