Flip Talk Rookie Playbook

Welcome to FlipTalk’s Rookie PlayBook podcast - the show dedicated to helping new real estate investors learn the step-by-step process of building a successful business as an investor. Each week, your hosts Don Costa and Ryan Scialabba share real-world experience, insight, tips, and strategies to help you learn the necessary steps to start, build, and grow your real estate business. Don and Ryan b...

  All good things must come to an end, and it’s no different for the Rookie Playbook series. It’s been an amazing 48 weeks, and we believe if you’ve come this far, you are now fully equipped with the knowledge on how to run your own real estate business. This isn’t a goodbye from your hosts as much as it is a see you soon, however, and we want you to know that we have plans set out for other shows...

  Selling your rehabs aren’t as complicated as buying a property, but it’s not exactly a walk in the park either. There are many factors to consider before letting go of your hard-earned asset for cash in the bank. From analyzing the neighborhood, computing costs and price points to creating the contract, you have to take the right steps and consult with the right people to make sure you’re not ma...

  One of the most common errors real estate entrepreneurs make is the idea of never slowing down and always growing. While that in itself is a great business strategy, there is also such a thing as growing too big, too fast, and in too many places. If not handled properly, scaling too quickly can make you lose your business focus. How exactly do you know when to pause and when to continue? Today,...

  Working with people can be one of the most challenging parts of being a boss. Somewhere along the way, you’re going to come to a point where managing your staff becomes a separate business altogether. The worst part is, the longer you remain as a business, the more likely are you to have to sort out and even cut the underperformers. How do you do that with the best interest of everyone involved?...

  If you think managing one real estate business is hard enough, imagine managing two. That’s what working with contractors can feel like if you don’t know what you’re doing or if you’re generally unprepared. If you’re not careful, the wrong contractor could trick you with endless changes and revisions in the contract or outright overbid on your projects. How can you prevent these things from happ...

  Real estate investors know the deal is only over once it’s over. Until everyone involved gets their money, the contract is never closed. In this business, closing a deal can be as soon as the house is sold or can take as long as when your next deal starts. Doing this faster means not just trust in your team, but also forming good working relationships with contractors. How do you do both? Today,...

  Establishing a working system is a necessary step in scaling your real estate business. A system can help bring in the kind of deals you truly want. But, how do you know if your system is doing what you set it up to do? What if your system, in the long-term, turned out incapable of producing the results you expected? Today, Don and Ryan discuss how they set up their checks, balances, and exit sy...

  From an onlooker perspective, a transaction is just the exchange of money for goods. It looks simple enough, but in real estate, this can get more complex than what you expect. If you don’t know what you’re doing, you might not get what you paid for. What happens before, during, and after a transaction? Today, Don and Ryan discuss transactions and some of the systems you can use to get started....

  Getting leads is critical to your business’ cash flow, but knowing which properties are profitable is just as important. This is where establishing acquisition systems come into play. You have a team and tools to help manage your acquisitions, but those are just parts of a bigger machine. How do you make sure each section runs smoothly? How do you know what kind of acquisitions systems to use fo...

  When you’re starting in real estate, one phone call can be the difference between a five and six-figure annual income. Each call could end up becoming your biggest deal yet which explains why it’s critical to build a proper system around it. How do you know what lead intake system to use? What call service should you have? Today, Don and Ryan discuss why having a lead intake system is essential...

  A successful business of any kind runs on two things: The right people and the right system. You can easily filter qualified assistants and staff, but you can’t say the same when it comes to systems. This is especially true when you’re on the verge of expanding your real estate business. How do you know if a system is a good fit? What do you do after installing one? Today, Don and Ryan explain t...

  Managing a real estate business is probably one of the most stressful career choices a person can make. As a budding entrepreneur, things can feel so more overwhelming you might think about quitting. It happens to everyone - even the most seasoned investors think about closing shop once in a while - but what sets the pros apart is that they persist. How do you push beyond your breaking point? To...

  As the year ends, so begins the tallying of the results of your business venture. You quantify the amount of money you made, the money you lost, and the amount of money you had to lose to earn the money you made. When it’s all said and done, what you have with you are numbers. How do you interpret these numbers in preparation for the coming year? How should your business adapt to what you achiev...

  The year’s almost done and at this point, you’ve either reached your quota, are nearing it, or if you’re quite unlucky, nowhere past half. Whether you had a good year or not, the next few weeks should revolve around strategizing and planning for a new year. The best business leaders plan ahead, and young investors such as yourself would only be doing yourselves a favor by following in their foot...

  Whether they admit it or not, sales people have strong egos. They always think they can close a deal no matter who the clients are. However, this type of confidence can be a problem in a growing business because those with strong egos are difficult to teach and work with. This is why creating your sales team is about team chemistry as much as it is about conversational skills. Today, Don and Rya...

  Your business is only as good as the team you form around it. So, when bad things happen, the market is the last thing you should blame as a business leader. Not everything goes smoothly in business, and many say failures are stepping stones to success. Shortcomings because of avoidable human errors, on the other hand, are the kind of stones you don’t want to step on. Today, Don and Ryan discuss...

  The best way to sustain your business is to become the top-of-mind company to potential leads. It means you have to be always relevant, and to be relevant is to actively pitch your business to sellers and buyers alike. This is where an efficient and well-calculated marketing strategy comes in. Today, Don and Ryan share some of their business goals for the coming year and why they’re putting a lo...

  The market may seem to be brighter every day, but we all know this uptrend won’t last forever. As investors, we must not only put money on assets but also make sure we protect them. You have to establish an adequate cash flow so you won’t end up with negative returns during a short or even long-term crash. Today, Don and Ryan explain what it means to have high-level cashflow control. They share...

  The higher you go in business, the harder it is to keep track of its growth. That’s a fact for any type of business, even in real estate. Crunching numbers in deals is one thing, but to deep dive into numbers of your own company is a whole other matter. If you don’t know what you’re doing, things can go south pretty fast. Today, Don and Ryan discuss the importance of not just having data but hav...

  The term “real estate business owner,” is heavily associated with being rich and owning a lot of luxury cars. The media, particularly social media, has a way of exclusively showing the perks of being a successful real estate investor, but what a lot of people don’t realize is there are a lot of uglies happening behind the scenes. It’s not always rainbows and butterflies, as the song goes, and it...

  Growing your business involves a lot of human resources and even more working hours. The initial growth will make you feel proud and excited at what you’ve accomplished. However, there will be times where you encounter a plateau and meet stagnation. What should you do to overcome and break past this state of your business? Today, Don and Ryan discuss what is needed to continue growing in a marke...

  Part of the role of an acquisitions manager is to have the patience and wisdom of a researcher and the charisma and confidence of a negotiator. Their tasks mainly revolve around fieldwork, settling, and elections to purchase short and long-term lease agreements that meet your business’ goals. Suffice to say, hiring the right acquisitions manager is critical to making sure each contract signed wi...

  You can invest a lot of money in getting educated and learning from real estate experts, but it will all be for nothing if you don’t take action. Overthinking the risks and methods involved in this type of business will get you nowhere. Sometimes the only advice you need is the advice that makes you walk out that door and get started. Today, Don and Ryan describe the challenges of employing peop...

  You can market your business without scaling, but you can’t scale a business without marketing. Marketing is responsible for getting your business leads, referrals, and closed deals. This is why a properly executed marketing strategy is imperative when it comes to expanding your real estate business. Today, Don and Ryan discuss some of their best-kept marketing secrets and how they led to succes...