Flipping, Wholesaling, and Multiple Streams of Income

In this episode, I get the chance to interview fellow 7 Figure Flippers Rob Badhorn and Ernie Vargas. Rob lives in Arizona, but performs flips and owns rentals in Ohio. He worked in corporate America for 23+ years, handing $1.5B in revenue for Sales Teams Across USA. He is constantly building multiple streams of income, especially during these challenging times, as he considers himself a serial entrepreneur. Rob’s rental portfolio includes the flips and/or wholesale of 100+ homes utilizing the marketing strategies of Direct Mail, Bandit Signs, Cold Calling, RVM’s/Voice broadcast, FB Custom Audiences, and Texting. He also owns a software company specializing in Lead Generation and Skip Tracing.

Ernie Vargas purchased his first house in 1994 and continued doing real estate while working full-time, but he didn’t hit the success he felt he was capable of. In 1999, after an accident that left him in a coma, he realized that life was short, so he quit his job and went into investing full-time. Eventually, probate hit his radar and started him on a quest to learn all he could about this niche that no one had answers for.

After many years of specializing in probate, Ernie has become a true probate expert, often helping attorneys and their clients in the probate process. His ability to think outside the box coupled with his expertise in negotiating and marketing has allowed him to help several hundreds of investors, agents, and sellers get deals closed. Now Ernie not only has more time to spend with his wife and four kids, but he gets to do what he truly loves doing - helping everyday people create wealth and personal freedom.

The guys first began by giving us their backgrounds and what lead them to real estate investing. Ernie described the moment that really changed things for him when he was working as a freezer stocker at a warehouse store that would eventually become Costco. His boss said something to him that made him realize that he wanted much more from life. He changed jobs and on his way to his first day of training, ended up getting into a terrible car accident that left him in a coma. This experience, coupled with a seminar he went to, completely changed his thinking.

Rob said his journey was similar to a lot of other investors - he read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, went to a few seminars, but he said he has always had the bug to get the passive income stream going. He was in the corporate world but purchased a couple of rentals in order to make up his salary so that he could invest full-time. Joining the 7 Figure Flipping mastermind group really changed everything for him.

Rob talked about his rental portfolio and how he manages the properties himself while employing one handyman to do the work. I asked how much of the work he actually does himself as far as background checks, collecting rent, etc. and Rob said he thought the thing that changed the most in the past several years was the software available for property management.

Even though he has a large rental portfolio, Rob felt the need to expand into other forms of real estate investing to develop multiple income streams, which is the reason why he and Ernie partnered up. I wanted to dig deep on the details of their partnership because so many people struggle with making this work. Ernie said they both have different areas of expertise; Rob is really strong in the area of technology related to real estate and Ernie has become a probate specialist. They had met at a 7 Figure Flipping event and Ernie called Rob concerning skip tracing and the rest is history.

We also discussed the issues with probate investing which have been intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic situation. There is so much talk about this type of investing being deceitful that I wanted the guys to explain how they actually help people with integrity. Ernie talked about how many investors shy away from this type of work, but that the demand for people-loving investors is so high because there is a real need to help those who are grieving through the process.

These two investors bring so much to the proverbial table and share so much information with you in this episode of Just Start Real Estate. Don’t miss my conversation with Rob Badhorn and Ernie Vargas!