Off-Market Pittsburgh Fix and Flip Deals: How Chad Church Helps Investors Buy,Rehab, & Profit

Chad Church (00:00)
So I work with lot of, and know a number of REO agents, bank foreclosure agents, right? So I’m constantly watching what their inventory should be coming in.

That’s part of the finding. I’m one of those agents that, like right now I have an off-market pocket deal that someone’s gonna need to throw 150 in. They’re gonna end up spending about 280 to buy it, and it’s gonna sell for 650, 700.

Micah Johnson (02:00)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the real estate pros podcast. I’m your host, Micah Johnson. And today I’m joined by Chad, who’s been making some serious moves in real estate now for over three decades. Chad, welcome in man. Glad to have you.

Chad Church (02:11)
Well, thank you for having me, Micah.

Micah Johnson (02:14)
Absolutely, I’m excited to dig in today with you. You use being a realtor a unique way. And as someone who got in the business started as a realtor, I love what you’re doing because it really gives access to people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to invest in our market. And I think that’s powerful. ⁓ let’s dig in, man. For those who aren’t familiar with you yet, tell us a little more about yourself and what your main focus is right now.

Chad Church (02:37)
My main focus right now is Southern real estate in Pittsburgh. I have been licensed in Colorado and Pittsburgh and have done investment property work in other states like North Carolina. Did a man camp in North Dakota with a while back. And right now my focus is working with my clients that are investors mostly because

⁓ I find more enjoyment out of that. I get to take a bigger ⁓ part in what they are doing. And so I make it so that the end product is what I need to get so that I can put it out there and sell it.

Micah Johnson (03:19)
Right? Right. And what’s awesome about it is, is you know, the market, the benefit of a really good realtors, they actually have their ear to the ground. Right. Realtors kind of get a bad rap. Sometimes folks just call them for the keys, but the ones that are really good, they’re worth their weight in gold because you’re actually out there. You have your ear to the ground, understanding what’s going on, your ability to understand comps are about like that. It’s a valuable asset to have, especially for investors in the flipping game. And that’s

If you know your numbers, that’s how you win, right? Like numbers are really important. So how’d you get there? What led us to where you are today?

Chad Church (03:57)
⁓ It’s kind of interesting there. I was on the beach in Cabo San Lucas many many many many many years ago and I met a girl who said she was a realtor and you know, we started talking and she explained to me the way that she does her job and It at the time it sounded like a dream and I guess for about 20 years it was She said that you know, she worked with investors. I said, I do too and then she explained that

Well, but I work with investors where we do the fix and flips and I run the whole show. And I thought it was really interesting because I just always thought of an investor wanting to absolutely be in control of everything that they’re doing with their money and their asset. I guess I think it took about 20 years to kind of marinate into me where I realized if

I am the one that actually is managing the process and I find the property, I know what the value is, the ARB, and then I explain that to my client.

They understand that, showing them that. And then I take over all of the brain damage, and there is plenty of it, of working with the contractors.

you know, design part was, which is really my thrill. You know, I manage that and I make all those choices and put the transaction together and, ⁓ the, you know, the house together so that we can put the end transaction together with the end buyer. And for that, I take a consulting fee and I also do get my commission. So it works out as a

a good way for me and what that allows investors to do is it allows an investor from, I don’t know, you’re in Florida, ⁓ to come to a market like Pittsburgh where it’s less expensive to buy property and make money on it. And it allows them to, you know, at an arm’s length, be able to invest, make money in Pittsburgh and, you know, move on down the road and continue to do it over and over and over and over.

Micah Johnson (07:12)
Right. And you’re nailing it, man. Cause when you, mean, when you go into a new market, it’s a new market, new company, you got to set up a whole new team. You need everything new. Like when you go bouncing around. So it, to have someone like yourself in a market that really gives access to someone who really can only passive invest, right? There’s not much passive investing in real estate. That is a term that gets tossed around a lot, but the money part is where if you can, if you have the money,

And you can find the operator and the deal finder. Now you got, we call it the deal triangle is what a group of men calls it, where you got those three parts. I need the deal finder, I need the operator and I need the money. A lot of times you’re never all three. Sometimes you are, but when you’re really humming good, you’re not because it’s not your skillset, right? Operators, when you got that finder and operator, that’s a valuable skillset to have because you can do things a lot of other people can’t do. And when you’re a realtor doing it,

Chad Church (08:09)
Well, you talk

about finding, that’s part of one of the more important elements that, mean, your investment is, it starts out at that finding level.

So I work with lot of, and know a number of REO agents, bank foreclosure agents, right? So I’m constantly watching what their inventory should be coming in.

That’s part of the finding. I’m one of those agents that, like right now I have an off-market pocket deal that someone’s gonna need to throw 150 in. They’re gonna end up spending about 280 to buy it, and it’s gonna sell for 650, 700.

So that finder part is really important because a lot of these, I call them kids out there, are just running around kind of, you know.

⁓ look what I found on Instagram, and it’s not a real deal.

Micah Johnson (09:09)
Right. No, no. And that’s a problem. A lot of the professional investors I know around the nation deal with right now is a lot of stuff gets presented to them. That’s not even close. It’s not factoring in all the things that need to be factored in because people doing it haven’t gotten all the education that they need. Haven’t taken them lumps and bumps. And it’s funny because they’ll get upset. Like, what do mean it’s not a deal? It’s like, man, you’re not factoring in holding costs. You’re not factoring in commissions. You’re leaving out so much by just using, you know,

You think it’s 70 % of ARV minus the rehab. There’s a reason you’re 30 grand off every time you present a deal to me because you’re leaving off all these important parts. Right. And then one thing you nailed there too is if that, if the profit isn’t close to the rehab budget or over, it’s not worth it to an investor. It’s just not worth it. Why would you risk 150 grand to make 20 grand? That doesn’t make any sense. And you see those deals a lot. So I couldn’t.

Chad Church (09:44)
Ha ha ha!

All right. ⁓

Micah Johnson (10:42)
I couldn’t agree more, man. You win on the buy. That is where you make your money. Having the ability to go find deep off-market properties, to be in the know. I was on an REO team when I first got into real estate. man, you understand a lot about what’s coming out there, how it’s going to operate. There are good deals that folks don’t get access to unless you build those relationships. And it’s where that money is, man. It’s why your fee is what it’s worth.

Cause it’s not about just everybody gets to make money. That’s the fun thing. If you do your job right, everybody wins. And that’s one thing I love about real estate. It is not a loss across the board. Literally everybody can win. Even when you’re buying those distressed properties. I mean, a lot of times those sellers will thank you and appreciate how much money you’re making. Cause that problem you actually solved, you actually took care of them for something. And that’s, that’s powerful, man. It’s why I love it.

Chad Church (11:37)
Thanks.

Micah Johnson (11:38)
Yeah,

no, it is, man. I appreciate what you’re doing. So you got a, ⁓ you got a fun property coming up this year. Tell us a little about something that you’ve been working on a little access you got overseas.

Chad Church (11:49)
Yes, about, I don’t know, it’s probably really honestly been a decade ago I started looking. I saw on 60 minutes or something, ⁓ dollar or euro, one euro properties in Italy. ⁓ And that kind of, you know, got me thinking because I, you know, I hate to call myself a bottom feeder, but I love, I love buying at the bottom. It’s a thing. anyway.

Micah Johnson (12:18)
All

Chad Church (12:19)
They got me interested in property in Italy. And one of the things I do when I’m looking at property in general is I will look at a market for a very long time to understand the nuance, which people don’t do enough these days. so about five years ago, I really kind of started digging in to Italy. Initially, I thought Sardinia.

⁓ And ⁓ but at this point now in Italy the market is kind of bouncing back and really most places anywhere in Italy are Probably, know depending on what you want. You can find a good deal. So I Back after about five years about that last April Maybe sorry, maybe March last year anyway

in the spring, I started looking for real for reals and I made a bid on a property which I lost. It was right across from the ocean, literally the main drag and the house and then the ocean and my bank, it was in an auction and my bank, they charged a $50 wiring fee and it lost me the auction against one other person.

Micah Johnson (13:30)
No.

No.

Chad Church (13:47)
So

that was depressing. But what happened was, I believe that when things don’t happen the way you think you want them to in that moment, many times they will happen better later. yeah, you know, and that’s the universe is telling you to wait, it’s gonna get better, right? And so I’m under contract now.

Micah Johnson (13:50)
Yeah.

Just wait.

Right, right.

Chad Church (14:12)
and a property in the south of Italy and Calabria about 45 minutes north northeast of Reggio Calabria. Got it at auction and that was the only bidder on it. This place had been foreclosed over the last 28 years, last 30 years, like 28 times.

So the process over there, yeah, ⁓ it’s a completely different process. Even when you’re buying something that’s not auction foreclosure, it’s gonna take way longer than you think. And when I was watching this, I thought, ⁓ man, it’s gonna take, if it takes them five months, I’m a real estate guy, I know how to do this. And it’ll be a year.

Micah Johnson (14:41)
Hello.

Chad Church (15:10)
Basically before I get the keys to my place, but ⁓ it’s a great it’s a great buy. ⁓ It’s a 5,000 square foot villa ⁓ five bedrooms and four bathrooms and I got it for a steal the appraisal shows the value is going to be high the people that are in there just have to get out now and So this year I’ll be picking lemons from my lemon tree

Micah Johnson (16:15)
Nice man, I love that, I love that. That’s the fun thing about real estate is once you get into it, you can just keep wandering around in it and find yourself getting access to things that, you know, a lot of people outside of real estate, they get weird about people’s dreams, but the inside of real estate, man, you can want to buy a private island. Okay, what do we do? Right? What’s next? What do you actually want?

And there is no can’t do it. And that’s what I love about it, especially investment real estate, because it’s nothing but problem solving and kind of taking it back to where we were before. That’s what you’re really doing for your investors. Same thing you’re doing for yourself over there is it’s a series of problems that you solve that lead to a profit. And if you know how to do them, it’s why it’s so valuable. So is there a, is there a certain kind of investor you look forward to work with? What is your ideal client?

Chad Church (17:09)
Somebody who will listen and take direction. ⁓ They, you know, and it’s not, and I’m not looking for a billionaire or anything like that. ⁓ I’ve worked with family offices before and been with the hedge funds and so forth. It’s, I actually get more joy out of somebody who’s made a little money in their life and wants to make a little more. ⁓

you know there you may be upper middle class and and and they enjoy watching that process. Maybe you watch a lot of HDTV or something and they like seeing that evolution, but that they don’t want to be involved in ⁓ picking colors in in in. I frankly just want somebody that I work best with clients that have faith.

enough in me to let me go at it and get it done. I’ve got, you know, portfolio houses that I’ve done or been involved in getting done. And ⁓ I feel that that speaks for itself. I’ve got clients that, you know, would talk highly of me. yeah, so I somebody who’s hands

is best. And it’s not because I want to just, you know,

go wild, you know, I can take, I take draws and so forth, but A, I want to be able to control that end product because people make dumb choices. Somebody will be doing, you know, from Pittsburgh area, somebody will do a $350,000 house and they’ll throw that, you know, laminate vinyl garbage on

hardwood floors, know, these people that are still stuck in like the gray of what really was 19, you know, we’ll say 2000, you know? They go to Home Depot and they’re like, yeah, but I got all these fans for, you know, a great deal. They were on close out and they look like garbage. There’s so much that goes into that that an idea

Micah Johnson (19:16)
Right, right.

Chad Church (19:31)
It makes it so much easier for me to bring somebody back a profit if they listen, if they’re not trying to run roughshod over me, and if they just, you know, hey, drop in once a month, drop in once a week, take a look, but this is how I run the project. ⁓ That’s my ideal client because it allows me to do better.

Micah Johnson (19:56)
I love

that man and they’re out there. They’re out there. So if someone that’s listening in wants to reach out to you, learn a little more about your market, what’s the best way for them to find you?

Chad Church (20:06)
They can find me on TikTok, know, Chad Church, my KW Realty Pro on Facebook. Right now we’re redoing my redeveloping my website presence. So that’s not exactly there. But the way that somebody can really get a hold of me is 412-320-95.

25 I answer my phone and that is what’s important in this business people that don’t answer their phone I Can’t take them seriously. So and then my email address [email protected] I got it 1960 it works for me my clients start clicking in Chad my email comes up the email goes across it works

Micah Johnson (20:47)
Right.

Right? Love that. Love that. Well, thanks for sharing that, man. And if you’re listening out there and watching, check our show notes. We’re going to have all Chad’s information there for you to reach out to. And like you me say a lot on this show, reach out to professionals. There’s a reason we bring the kind of folks we do on here. It’s not, we’re not here to gamble. We’re here to invest. And you do that by working with other professionals, people that are worth what you pay them. There’s something I heard as a young kid, you may know how much it’s saving you, but you have no idea how much it’s losing you.

And that is a huge deal in real estate, especially when it comes to like the finishes he’s talking about. It all matters. We can’t just do the hedge fund flip to all the basic stuff. That’s not going to work if you’re really trying to, to master that game. again, Chad, thanks for being with us today, man. I appreciate you. I think we need more folks out there like you doing it this way that are actually providing a real service going on offense and as a realtor, man, I love that. So appreciate what you provide there.

Chad Church (21:58)
Thank you very much, Micah. It’s been a joy meeting with you and I hope I get to see you again in the future.

Micah Johnson (22:05)
For sure, man, for sure. We’ll have to bring you back on, see what’s been going on. Learn about that house in Italy, see what’s going on there for sure. Well, thank you everybody out there that’s watching and listening in. We appreciate each and every one of you. If you got value out of today’s episode, please like this episode, share it with someone else you think you get value out of it. And if you’re not a subscriber yet, you know what to do. Click that button, follow along with us. We appreciate every single one of you that do. We have more conversations coming up with operators just like Chad. Folks out there.

building a real business in the industry. Thanks for being with us. We’ll see you all in the next episode.