He made $70,000 on the first property. Now He’s Done 200 Flips In His Career—Here’s How He Did It

Workers putting the finishing touches on the ranch-style home were just arriving when an all-black Tesla Model 3 arrived on the job site. As soon as the door opened, an investor stepped into the Dallas, Texas, heat. Excitement emanated from the experienced flipper as he encouraged and extended his hand to his team. This is Donnell Greer.

With over 200 flipped homes under his belt, Greer is a real estate pro who has managed to build an impressive real estate machine. They started in Dallas and have since expanded their operations to include the entire Dallas–Fort Worth metro area as well as parts of St. Louis, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

Despite his ever-increasing success, this Lone Star State flipper is always grateful for his position and wants to help others find financial freedom. In this article, Donnell shares how he got started, tips for investors, and other key takeaways from his prosperous career in real estate. Whether you are a seasoned investor or a beginner, there is much to learn from his story.

becoming a real estate agent

Greer’s journey began in a marketing class at the University of Texas – Arlington. In class, he was assigned to sell a software product to a CEO in his field. Imagine Shark Tank, but for college students trying to land a job or internship.

After hearing Donnell’s presentation, the CEO was blown away and offered him a sales position at his IT company. Excitement for her first job out of college quickly turned to sadness as she envisioned a life with an average salary.

Anyone who knows Donnell will tell you that average is not in his vocabulary. He started looking for ways to make a better living and stumbled upon real estate. A friend of his was a real estate agent and told him he was getting $30,000 a month in commissions from selling houses.

A lightbulb went off. Donnell signed up for a virtual real estate agent training that same night. He saw the potential and soon thereafter became a licensed real estate agent.

It wasn’t long before he was a top-producing agent at Century 21. However, it was clear to him that there were only so many hours in a day that he could work. He wanted to start finding ways to make money work for him.

His first foray into real estate investing

Donnell started things like “How to Grow a Business” and “How to Get Rich” on Google. Naturally, he discovered real estate investing, which combined his existing skill set as an agent with a proven method of creating wealth.

Then his eyes fell on the articles written by Brandon Turner and David Green. ,BRRRR.

For Greer, “It seemed like it would take too long to save on properties. I was still a new agent and wanted to find some way to raise my cash. At first, I thought the BRRRR method was a scam because it wasn’t true.” Was too good to be.

Connecting with people after doing research big pocket forumAnd in trying it out himself, he realized that BRRRR was actually an amazing way to recycle money.

On his first deal, he was able to successfully execute BRRRR method, He bought a house for $80,000, rehabbed it for $15,000 and the property was appraised for $165,000. This success was the catalyst that propelled his career.

success is more than the tip of the iceberg

Hearing about Greer’s early success may be inspirational to some, yet sounds like a fairy tale to those who have struggled to make it in the industry. From a surface level, it may seem like he got lucky, but any successful investor will tell you there’s more to it than meets the eye.

It took countless hours, hard work and belief in himself to reach where he is now. These are some of the lessons he learned along the way.

create a win-win situation

Once, while knocking on the door, Greer asked a gentleman who answered the door, “Have you ever thought of selling your house?” The man who answered said that he had always wanted to go back to his childhood home, but it belonged to another family.

Later that day, Greer scours county records and captures another family. It just so happened that they were interested in selling. To cut things short, Greer was able to broker a sale between both parties, making everyone happy.

But the story didn’t end there.

The man who bought her childhood home calls Donnell over and invites her to show him the renovations that have been done since it closed. This was a complete gut job straight out of HGTV. Seeing the potential for something big, the man became Donnell’s preferred contractor. They proceeded to overturn several houses at once.

Sometimes people are so hyper-focused on getting the best deal for themselves that they forget about the other people in the transaction. In reality, the best investors find ways to create win-win scenarios.

Learn the Power of Leverage

It takes money to make money in real estate. “However, the money doesn’t have to be yours,” says Greer.

Donnell received capital for his first deal from a family with whom he was very close. He joked that the 10% return they offered him was far more than what he would get in a savings account. To him, the borrowed money was worth more than anything he had in his bank account. After successfully completing rehab, he was able to pay back his lenders and used his profit as part of the downpayment for his next deal. Yet another win!

What he learned was that he could spread borrowed capital across multiple properties instead of one at a time. He went from a few flips every year to double digits per month.

Greer suggests starting with a small amount of money leverage and letting it snowball as your skills improve.

be persistent and take action

How many times have you heard experienced investors say to analyze multiple trades per day? And yet, how many of us follow it? Greer says we’re so focused on instant gratification that it’s easy to forget that “the mundane work you do day in and day out seems boring but pays dividends.”

Looking back on his career, he said, “I can’t tell you how many hours a day I spent messing with Biggerpockets [calculators], It may seem like nothing is changing as you work through one asset at a time. In fact, you are learning your market inside and out as you refine your buy-box. When that one big deal finally comes around, you’ll be ready for it.

Clearly outline roles before entering into partnership

When you decide to team up with a friend or relative, it can be hard to imagine anything going wrong. Hopefully, it isn’t, but Donnell reminds us that it can happen, and as such, you should be prepared.

There was some rift going on with the partner in his own business. The initial agreement was that the work would be divided equally based on their skill sets. The reality turned out to be quite different, and Donnell did much more work than his partner, splitting the profits equally.

They have since separated amicably, but Donnell has warned anyone entering into a partnership to treat it like a marriage. This means properly outlining roles and responsibilities in the operating agreement. This can then serve as a reference point to guide your business. Starting with an operating agreement as your foundation reduces the risk of things going awry.

conclusion

Today Donnell has a flexible schedule that allows him to pick up his kids from school, work when he wants to, and spend his free time helping others. All of this was made possible by applying the lessons he learned. You can do the same!

Note by BiggerPockets: These are the views expressed by the author and do not necessarily represent the views of BigPockets.