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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, Chris DiPreta shares his journey from a blue-collar upbringing to becoming a successful real estate entrepreneur and educator. He discusses the importance of hands-on experience, the challenges of scaling an investment career, and the transition to delegating responsibilities. Chris also delves into his strategies for out-of-state investing, the lessons learned from mistakes, and the mindset required for success in real estate. He introduces his educational platform, Hustle and Homes, aimed at helping aspiring investors navigate the industry with practical tips and resources.
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Christopher DiPreta (00:00)
So I think it’s more of a mentality of kind of letting things like be perfectly imperfect. ⁓ You know, if you think that someone’s going to do it the way that you do it, then you’re sort of mistaken and that and in that it’s going to cause you stress. And so long term, you have to adopt the idea that if you’re nine, if you’re 90 % there, you’re 100 % of the way to get to the next level. Right. ⁓Kristen Knapp (00:06)
Right.Christopher DiPreta (00:24)
And so I had to adopt that as a, you know, I like to think of myself as like a perfectionist. And in this business, that polish has gone away.Kristen Knapp (02:07)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Kristen and I’m here with Chris DiPreta, who is a real estate entrepreneur and educator. And he is the founder of Hustle and Homes. So thank you so much for being here, Christopher. Amazing. So you have a lot of experience and you touch a lot of different places in real estate. So I want to start at the beginning. How did you get into this industry? What made you fall in love with it?Christopher DiPreta (02:17)
Thank you for having me.So I grew up in a blue collar setting. My father owned a deli and so I’ve worked with him basically all my childhood. And as people were coming in, they were always talking about real estate, buying and selling houses and different contractors looking at different people in different houses and stuff like that. So my dad kind of ⁓ bred into me to go down that path and that would be very lucrative for a lifestyle. So. ⁓
After, you know, after I spent the time with him growing up, I kind of jumped into the aerospace industry. I got my degree in mechanical engineering. And then from there, realized that that was not going to pay the bills long-term. ⁓ So I kind of followed my pops is a suggestion and jumped into buying a rental property and then flipping some houses. And so, yeah, not the bills that I wanted.
Kristen Knapp (03:15)
Wow, mechanical engineering wasn’t going to pay the bills? Awesome. Soyou just started right away. I mean, did you have any hesitation jumping in in your first deal?
Christopher DiPreta (03:28)
Actually, I did and I tend to be the risk taker and most partnerships that I’m involved with. So yeah, no, wasn’t, it was something I knew I was going to do. to be kind of like.precautionary. I jumped into different jobs throughout high school and college, whether it was working with a mason over the summer, I worked on electrician during college. So I had a lot of the base knowledge on the contracting side jumping into it. So I wasn’t intimidated by the asset itself. Now, learning all the other the other aspects of it was a little intimidating, but I figured once I bought the house, it was kind of like me in the house and I could figure it out.
Kristen Knapp (04:03)
Yeah, absolutely. And it sounds like you did because you’ve been able to scale your investing career significantly over last 10 years. Can you tell us a little bit about that?Christopher DiPreta (04:09)
Yes.Yeah, so we were kind of hit right place, right time. I’m from the lower part of Connecticut, which tends to be very expensive. So where I went to school was upper Connecticut. And I was seeing houses that just weren’t a lot of money in comparison to what I was used to. So the math started working out on rents versus what they were being sold for and what the mortgages were. we had a great day. right after, not right after 2008, but it was in the aftermath. I started investing in 2012. It was a lot of foreclosures.
2013 kind of you know all that good stuff and that allowed me to buy properties that were a little bit cheaper and were cash flowing significantly. So I was allowed to make mistakes early on. I was allowed to force appreciation into those properties and then refinance out and conserve my capital.
and kind of do it all over again. And it got to the point where it was just what we were doing over and over and over. And I didn’t really even think of like what we had. It was just more of like, I want to get to 100 units as fast as possible. And by 2017, you know, we looked up and you know, me and my two partners were like, okay, we have, you know, 70 houses. You know, we are millionaires, right? And it was great. was a great realization to know that the work paid off. But you know, we weren’t selling anything. So you know, we
we just kind of cashflowed and then we kept on going. So from that perspective, the scaling was relatively easy when our hands on, when we were doing everything hands on. It got a little challenging when we started introducing employees and property management agreements and stuff like that. But for the most part, we figured out our way, but we, the market allowed us to the hustle of doing everything very cheap of us doing the work allowed us to make mistakes and scale a little bit faster. But without those terms, wouldn’t have, I wouldn’t know, you know, any of the nuances of being
Kristen Knapp (06:40)
Right.Yeah.
Christopher DiPreta (06:48)
being a landlord without having the ability to make mistakes.Kristen Knapp (06:52)
Ofcourse, I mean, think you brought up a great point about when it’s appropriate to, maybe not appropriate, but when it might be best to partner with somebody, when it might be best to do things on your own, you feel like in the beginning, it was really critical for you to kind of have a stronger hold on it yourself to learn.
Christopher DiPreta (07:11)
Correct, yes. ⁓ I tend to be hands-on even today. I rent out my own units when it’s appropriate. There’s different holding companies, different portfolios. So some of stuff that is personally owned by me, I still take care of. It keeps me level-headed and gives me some humility.to the whole thing because at end of the day if the tenant isn’t happy with the service of what you’re providing then your whole business can crumble because it’s such a dead heavy business and the recurring revenue is so important for you to kind of continue to grow.
Kristen Knapp (07:43)
Yeah, and what would be your advice for somebody who is similar to you, where they’re able to do a lot themselves and have had a lot of success and now they’re at the point where they’re finally like, okay, I need some help to scale to the next level. What does it look like to kind of, you know, let other people into your business and stop, you know, doing everything yourself? I’m sure there’s a challenge there.Christopher DiPreta (08:04)
So I think it’s more of a mentality of kind of letting things like be perfectly imperfect. ⁓ You know, if you think that someone’s going to do it the way that you do it, then you’re sort of mistaken and that and in that it’s going to cause you stress. And so long term, you have to adopt the idea that if you’re nine, if you’re 90 % there, you’re 100 % of the way to get to the next level. Right. ⁓Kristen Knapp (08:11)
Right.Christopher DiPreta (08:29)
And so I had to adopt that as a, you know, I like to think of myself as like a perfectionist. And in this business, that polish has gone away.Just because you can’t be everywhere at every time doing everything. And I think ⁓ if you have a problem with that, maybe like remote investing, maybe the way to do it, because you you can’t get to the property at all times. It gives you a balance of, you know, work-life balance where you don’t have to be on the property at all times.
The first step for me was kind of getting out of the properties from a construction standpoint. I knew what I needed the finished product to look like and what good plumbing looks like and good electrical looks like and proper code and all that stuff looked like. So I adopted the theory that if it looks good at the end and it could pass as an inspection with a town, I couldn’t do it better myself because they’re the professionals doing it every day. So that was the first step for me.
Kristen Knapp (09:23)
Absolutely, and what are maybe some of your tips on hiring people or working with people? What do you look for in people? And maybe what are red flags as well?Christopher DiPreta (09:33)
So referrals, a lot of referrals, people that they’ve worked with. Now I have a larger network, so I can just call on people, hey, I need somebody that does this. But in the beginning, it was harder and just kind of like a shot in the dark type thing. And ⁓ you’re moving fast, you’re at the property, so you hire somebody, they’re working alongside you type thing. And maybe if that’s a piece of it that you don’t wanna do or don’t wanna do a lot of due diligence.just hire somebody that may do the painting while you’re doing the cabinets or you know maybe they’re you know they’re taking care of the landscaping while you’re inside you know doing the turnover or whatever whatever it has of being but working alongside people
shows you the work ethic that they’re bringing to the table and when you’re a younger investor or I should say starting out you don’t really have the the ability to pay for everything so working alongside them allows you to understand what they’re doing and maybe you pick on a pick up on things that you could do next time that are like little tips tips and tricks that
⁓ that they have that they usually don’t say.
Kristen Knapp (11:04)
Absolutely, and you catch us up to where you’re at today with your investing.Christopher DiPreta (11:10)
So I do a lot of out of state investing now. tend to tend to do larger, ⁓ larger deals. I did my first purchase out of state was actually in Oklahoma. In law in Oklahoma, I bought a 36 unit building and the renovating that refinance that out last year. It’s a stable asset at this point. It’s a great investment for us. And then weWe’ve had a few mishaps on the larger side where we’ve raised the money to buy something, but appraisals didn’t come back because the rate environment’s a little weird. ⁓
contract for a 19 unit building in Amarillo, a 12 unit building in Lubbock, and a 9 unit building in Amarillo as well, couple parcels down. So yeah, we’re growing the out-of-state portfolio as well as, you know, continuing to flip in Connecticut. I have somewhere around 8 properties on the market right now in Connecticut, looking to probably start buying in Connecticut in the very near future. But the biggest project that we’re working on now are
Or trying to get our hands on as the new development. ⁓ We’re trying to break ground. I’ve never done a new development multifamily in Connecticut, but that’s definitely where I’m setting my eyes on right now.
Kristen Knapp (12:22)
That’s awesome. It definitely feels like the next natural progression in your journey. Without a student investing, how would you go about researching the areas that you’re buying in? How do you kind of become an expert without actually being there?Christopher DiPreta (12:26)
Yeah. Yep.So the first one, again, like I said, I’m very hands-on, so like I flew out there. ⁓ There was an opportunity that we saw the numbers worked out. I tend to invest around, you know, things that are not going to go anywhere. So there’s a military base out there. ⁓ So we look for something that’s like a concrete economic driver. ⁓
Or, you know, now, nowadays, I look for what big box stores are there? Is there a Chick-fil-A opening? Is there a Buc-Ease opening? If you’re not familiar with that, it’s a large gas station down south. ⁓ And they do all the demographic work. They’re spending millions of dollars to make sure that they’re following population trends and all that. So if an opportunity comes my way, the first thing I look for is increasing or decreasing population. And then from there, is there anything else opening? Is there, you know, storage units? Is there a McDonald’s?
a
burger king, a Taco Bell or any any of the southern chains that are out there because they’re going to do more demographic work than I’m ever going to do and can’t afford. yeah, and so then. Yeah, yeah, so Starbucks is a big one. It’s just, you know, we’re looking for, you know, middle of the road or lower income areas or affordable areas, I should say.
Kristen Knapp (13:38)
Yeah, that’s such a good tip. Yeah, I’ve heard that about like Starbucks too.Christopher DiPreta (13:52)
A lot of times Starbucks won’t be there or they will be on the outside or the skirts of the town. But we’re looking for secondary markets that are going to appreciate over the next 10 years and kind of sit and wait.Kristen Knapp (13:55)
Yeah.Christopher DiPreta (14:07)
little bit harder on the lending side because a lot of people a lot of lenders know have not proven the area yet but the first deal kind of proved to be great we took a million dollar building sitting as was and ended up making it worth three three point one million so you know from that perspective it’s it’s a good strategy it’s a little bit harder to kind of get people to buy into it but my track record helps you know the lenders kind of lend the money on that soKristen Knapp (14:30)
Yeah, at this point you have such a great track record. Andyou’re also a broker as well, correct? When did that kind of get into the mix? ⁓
Christopher DiPreta (14:36)
I am, yes, I’m the…So we were buying and selling, we really, we were selling flips back in the late 2015-16 and so, you know, it was a natural progression to buy, to get my partner, Brian, got the broker’s license.
And so Glenstone was the company that I that I’m running that was running from the beginning and Glenstone had a broker broker’s license in.
it was just a natural progression to to then go and get it myself. We had a property management firm that was managing for other investors. So you need the brokerage license as well. So I kind of spearheaded the property management side and my partner spearheaded the ⁓ brokerage side. And then I got offered to take the Connecticut the state.
take the to be the broker for a new company and I’ve been coming company called CIC International Realty, call it closed international Realty. And so I took it as just more of like a figurehead position. And now it’s been it’s been great, you know, commission split is 100 100. So there’s only a transaction fee per, per, per deal. And so it’s been it’s been a good networking move for me.
as well as more of a, you know, a position or a role, a role player for, for a lot of people that are underneath me in the actual brokerage. So, yeah.
Kristen Knapp (16:36)
that’s incredible. Yeah, I mean, you have a lotgoing on. So, you know, someone might look at you, someone who’s been able to scale so well and kind of have your hand in a lot of different areas. I would love for you to talk about some of the challenges you’ve had to overcome or something, maybe something that went really wrong that you learned from, whether that be recently or, you know, when you’re starting out.
Christopher DiPreta (16:55)
So when I first started,were, you know, you’re flipping houses and I don’t come from a wealthy family or extremely wealthy family. you know, when you start making, you flip a house, you make $80,000 or like, you your ego kicks in. so being so, you know, early 20s, having three or four hours is going at the same time and making good, making great money. You know, you kind of overlook things and you get, you get sloppy. And so our fifth, I think it was our fifth flip.
We didn’t do a, we wanted to buy the, get the property, was such a good deal, we didn’t do a septic inspection. So we did the work, got a contract on the property, got to find out, wasn’t, the septic wasn’t even, ⁓ wasn’t even professionally done, ⁓ it was basically a hole in the ground. And so we had to get an engineering ⁓ perc test done, we had to figure out where it was gonna go, ended up being a $46,000.
endeavor, which is, if anybody that knows septics is like two and a half times what it should cost. ⁓ And so we were spread too thin from a financial perspective, and we had to borrow money. So it was kind of like a, you know, a little bit shameful. I ended up, you know, kind of slowing down at the time and putting a pause to it. We sold, we sold all those houses, I moved back, I left my job at that time. So I was, you we were, we were hemming and hawing that everything was working out and then I ended up moving back.
parents for a little bit just kind of recouped ironically met my wife then and then turned around and kind of went right back at it after everything was sold and everybody recouped their money and then more recently I would say that I guess you know some mishaps were not really my I guess my fault not to sound you know
I don’t know that’s not to sound like it wasn’t me, but it was more on the appraisal side I’m just thinking that things were gonna always be a certain way and That that values were always gonna go up and like they say if you didn’t live through a recession as an investor You didn’t really you know, you haven’t really been a real estate investor and so I guess I’m I’m the byproduct of feeling the pain ⁓
that perspective and so that when the multifamily side and the commercial lending wall which is still coming our way started we we’ve had we had some appraisal setbacks on some newer deals and so that was rather frustrating and you know there’s investors involved and you know having to explain that you know although you didn’t we didn’t lose any equity you know there’s just the value of the property just wasn’t as much as we originally anticipated and then one of those deals ⁓
ended up just was before we didn’t contract it. So we ended up just kind of canceling the deal and walking away from it. And me and my partner lost, you know, around $45,000 between due diligence and deposit. And so you get you know, you get frustrated with those little setbacks. But I know for the most part, I’m a firm believer of you, you’re investing in the ground, you’re investing in real estate, those are hard assets, and you always come out on top of your holding.
The problems that start occurring is when you’re flipping. It’s when the market shifts and we’re in a volatile market now and if you don’t have the backing to withstand that, then that becomes an issue.
Kristen Knapp (19:57)
Yeah, no, that’s a really good point. those kind of things are so unavoidable. I mean, I think that you learn through making mistakes the areas that you have to really be diligent about and really keep an eye on. ⁓ And I know that one of your biggest strengths is kind of your persistence and your consistency. So talk a little about that and how that’s gotten you through maybe some of the lows in this industry.Christopher DiPreta (20:17)
Mm-hmm.Um, you know, it’s just, guess, is staying positive through all situations because if you have a creative mind and you’re a creative thinker, real estate is kind of the…
the safe space for you. There’s no real rules in real estate and how you structure things, who you can bring in, what you can sell. You can sell shares, you can sell the house, you can divide up a three family into condos. So I would say during those, not dark times, but the times where you’re frustrated and you want to progress, it’s go for a walk. What are the facts of the situation? Kind of.
work your mind around like okay if I do this what would be the outcome and kind of take it from there it’s just you know there’s days where it’s like it’s a frustrating business and you know you want to do something else but then there’s other days when you know when you win a lot especially like a long-term commitment like a like a building like we just talked about that’s where it’s you you’re really never gonna make that kind of money you know in my opinion with the sales set that I have doing anything else ⁓ so yeah it’s just it’s it’s really about mindset
Kristen Knapp (21:19)
Yeah.Totally. And you have so much to teach people and you have your own teaching program, Hustle and Homes. Talk a little bit about that.
Christopher DiPreta (21:29)
Yes.So, Hustlen Homes was built out of the thought process that you don’t really need a lot of money to start to get involved to become wealthy or learn the tips and tricks around starting with no money. And so, was teaching so many people on the sidelines, like, this is how you do it. This is how you get started.
You know how I got the bug, you know, the I call myself a deal junkie because you know, you’re always after the next deal. And really, you know, pulling back the curtain on the industry of like, you know, how do you do it? How do you get started? Like I use conventional financing at my first couple flips. No one was telling us about hard money lenders or private money lenders. And so, you know, knowing where I started and how that how long it took me to get over that curve of understanding and what is actually accessible today because everybody and their mother wants to lend money from a private
private or a hard money lending standpoint because this is you know real estate is such a an inflation hedging asset so for you to not be able to get into it now is just an excuse of just work ethic or
persistence. And so I wanted to give a platform people to get educated on that and give them the connections, whether it’s the private money lenders, the hard money lenders, or, you know, even getting lines of credit or 0 % credit cards and teaching them that path, you know, getting your credit right, because that that to me is, you know, that’s one of the the foundations of investing properly. And is giving them, you know, potential deals to like once you’re in the in the community, there’s, you know, there’s deals that you could purchase. And I believe heavily in the the Burr method, which
which I call the equity mining method ⁓ that people can get wealthy in real estate with very little cash because I used the first 10 years I used like $25,000 over and over and over again. And so if I could do it and you’re willing to do it, anybody could really do it.
Kristen Knapp (23:15)
Mm-hmm.Yeah, well that’s so great. mean, you’ve just on this podcast, you’ve given so much inspiration and practical tips for people. So I’m sure that’s a great community that you’re building. I’m sure you’re helping a lot of people. So tell people where to find you, where to find hustle and homes.
Christopher DiPreta (23:37)
So, you know, at Chris.dipreta is my Instagram, and you can just DM me, ⁓ Hustle, and we’ll jump on a call. I also have the Hustle and Homes page at Hustle and Homes. ⁓ We are in the middle of creating the course, and… ⁓in that community will be able to get these, get you guys some, some inventory to pick up and some tips around rehab, some hard money lenders and stuff like that. But yeah, anybody can find me. And then also if you want to message me directly, it’s chris at hustlinghomes.us as an email. And yeah, we can get on a call.
Kristen Knapp (24:16)
Great, well I really encourage everyone to check Chris out and I think that you, you your Hustle and Homes, I think you’re providing people with such good guidance and helping people cut through a lot of the mistakes that they might make otherwise. So thank you so much for being here, I really appreciate it.Christopher DiPreta (24:28)
Yeah.Now thank you for having me. And it only takes one house, right, to change people’s future,
Kristen Knapp (24:36)
That’s a great thing to end on. So everybody, thank you so much for listening and we will see you back next time. Bye.Christopher DiPreta (24:38)
Yeah
