Welcome to a brand new episode of Unstoppable REI Wealth, where we delve into the fascinating world of real estate investing and uncover the secrets to creating wealth through the revolutionary slow flip method. In this week's episode, I have the pleasure of interviewing the one and only Scott Jelinek, a former New Yorker turned real estate guru, who has developed a unique approach to making money consistently and without stress for the rest of your life. Scott's Slow Flip method is a game-changer in the industry, challenging the traditional norms of real estate investing. He has written a groundbreaking book on the subject, which he is generously giving away for free. This is your chance to learn from the master himself and gain invaluable insights into this revolutionary wealth-building strategy. Join us as Scott shares his inspiring journey, from humble beginnings to financial success and a luxurious lifestyle. Discover how he started with just one property and leveraged other people's money to build an impressive portfolio. Learn how he overcame challenges, including foreclosure and damaged credit, to develop a unique strategy that changed his life. In this episode, Scott reveals the secrets behind the slow flip strategy, where properties are bought and sold with innovative financing options, maximizing profitability. He'll take you through the step-by-step process of buying low-priced properties and selling them with financing options, offering buyers the opportunity to own their dream homes while providing cash to sellers. It's a win-win situation that fills a gap in the market and creates incredible wealth. But that's not all. Scott also shares his expertise in unconventional selling methods, such as lease-to-own options and fix and flip wholesaling. You'll be amazed by his success stories, including jaw-dropping assignment fees and out-of-town deals that made him hundreds of thousands of dollars. Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to learn from a true real estate mastermind. Visit our website, billyssecrets.com, and get your hands on Scott's free book. It's time to unlock the secrets to financial freedom and take your real estate investing to the next level. Tune in to Unstoppable REI Wealth, and let's unleash your true potential. - Interview with Scott Jelinek - Introduction to the Slow Flip method - Scott Jelinek's real estate journey - Challenges and pivots in real estate investing - Explaining the Slow Flip strategy - Buying low and selling with financing options - Lease-to-own option for selling houses - Scott Jelinek's experience with fix and flip wholesaling - Recognizing passion and strengths in real estate investing - Reflections on coaching and personal growth - Overcoming fear and gaining confidence - Taking control of one's own business - Scaling a business and finding balance - Financial stability and debt-free lifestyle - Selling properties without fixing them - Selling to conventional landlords - Lease options vs. agreement for deed - Slow flipping properties and long-term ownership - Accessing resources and tools for real estate success Check out Scott's website https://www.slowflips.com/ Connect with Scott https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-jelinek-78556b6/ And after that head on over to... https://easysell411.com https://billyalvaro.com https://billyssecrets.com Who knows maybe you will be our next partner? To get some neat (and FREE) Tools | Tips | Tricks to help you in REI!
Welcome to a brand new episode of Unstoppable REI Wealth, where we delve into the fascinating world of real estate investing and uncover the secrets to creating wealth through the revolutionary slow flip method. In this week's episode, I have the pleasure of interviewing the one and only Scott Jelinek, a former New Yorker turned real estate guru, who has developed a unique approach to making money consistently and without stress for the rest of your life.
Scott's Slow Flip method is a game-changer in the industry, challenging the traditional norms of real estate investing. He has written a groundbreaking book on the subject, which he is generously giving away for free. This is your chance to learn from the master himself and gain invaluable insights into this revolutionary wealth-building strategy.
Join us as Scott shares his inspiring journey, from humble beginnings to financial success and a luxurious lifestyle. Discover how he started with just one property and leveraged other people's money to build an impressive portfolio. Learn how he overcame challenges, including foreclosure and damaged credit, to develop a unique strategy that changed his life.
In this episode, Scott reveals the secrets behind the slow flip strategy, where properties are bought and sold with innovative financing options, maximizing profitability. He'll take you through the step-by-step process of buying low-priced properties and selling them with financing options, offering buyers the opportunity to own their dream homes while providing cash to sellers. It's a win-win situation that fills a gap in the market and creates incredible wealth.
But that's not all. Scott also shares his expertise in unconventional selling methods, such as lease-to-own options and fix and flip wholesaling. You'll be amazed by his success stories, including jaw-dropping assignment fees and out-of-town deals that made him hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to learn from a true real estate mastermind. Visit our website, billyssecrets.com, and get your hands on Scott's free book. It's time to unlock the secrets to financial freedom and take your real estate investing to the next level. Tune in to Unstoppable REI Wealth, and let's unleash your true potential.
- Interview with Scott Jelinek
- Introduction to the Slow Flip method
- Scott Jelinek's real estate journey
- Challenges and pivots in real estate investing
- Explaining the Slow Flip strategy
- Buying low and selling with financing options
- Lease-to-own option for selling houses
- Scott Jelinek's experience with fix and flip wholesaling
- Recognizing passion and strengths in real estate investing
- Reflections on coaching and personal growth
- Overcoming fear and gaining confidence
- Taking control of one's own business
- Scaling a business and finding balance
- Financial stability and debt-free lifestyle
- Selling properties without fixing them
- Selling to conventional landlords
- Lease options vs. agreement for deed
- Slow flipping properties and long-term ownership
- Accessing resources and tools for real estate success
Check out Scott's website https://www.slowflips.com/
Connect with Scott https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-jelinek-78556b6/
And after that head on over to...
Who knows maybe you will be our next partner?
To get some neat (and FREE) Tools | Tips | Tricks to help you in REI!
Billy Alvaro 00:00:00 What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Unstoppable Rei Wealth. This is episode number 109, and I'm interviewing a dude today from Long Island now living down in Virginia Beach, Mr. Scott Jelinek. And I gotta tell you, he has a very unique way to create wealth. Everybody touts about, you know, fix and flip and chunks of cash and buying and selling and wholesaling and all these other crazy things that make the quick money money today. Well, Scotty has a method that he calls the Slow Flip. And actually, he's written a book about it. And when you listen to his model of how he got wealthy over time with the Slow Flip method, you're probably going to crap your pants and then you're going to go run out and get the book that he's given away for free. He's not selling anything. He's not asking for any money. This dude is a genuine giver. And when you learn his process of slow flip and I want you to have an open mind, but this slow flip is the method for you to easily make money for the rest of your life and not have to stress out. Hope you guys enjoy this podcast. Welcome to Unstoppable real estate investing wealth. My name is Billy Alvaro, aka the Unstoppable BA, former billion dollar mortgage banker gone bankrupt, turned professional real estate investor, where each week you'll learn the tools, strategies, systems, and secrets myself and other highly successful real estate investing entrepreneurs use to start, grow, and scale their businesses, creating massive profits and how you can too. And we'll teach you how to put those profits to work so you no longer have to get ready to finally experience financial freedom and generational wealth. Now let's get started. What is going on, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of Unstoppable Rei Wealth. I'm your host, Billy Alvaro, the unstoppable BA. And I'm pretty excited to introduce this guy today because he is a former New Yorker Long Islander and now he's living down in, uh, Virginia Beach. Met Scott Jelenik, I think probably like four and a half, five years ago in a similar circle that we were rolling in and he was doing events and he was kind enough to let me fly down to his area, checked out how he was doing his events years back so I could get myself started. And Scott, uh, you're a solid human being. I'm happy to have you on the show today, man. Welcome aboard.
Scott Jelinek 00:02:18 Thank you. I'm glad to be here. And it's good to see you, Billy. It's been a while.
Billy Alvaro 00:02:22 It's been a long you know, this this whole podcast, I put it together to get people to start, grow, and scale their real estate investing business. And we've had a lot of guys on here teaching wholesaling and fix and know fast cash make the money. Now roll it over commercial apartment buildings. You have a really freaking unique model that I want to go into in a bit. It's a really cool model. I love the name. People are going to be taken back by the name. But before we get into your model and your process on how you're really building super wealth and how you have your lifestyle now, you bought a place down in Bimini. You're like living the life. Take us back how'd you get started in the real estate business, how long you been doing it, and give us a little bit of a background.
Scott Jelinek 00:03:02 So I'm going to make it short because, again, we only have, what, an hour, 2 hours, 6 hours to do this. So I bought my first house in 19 this makes me feel so old, 19 94, 29 years ago. And I don't know if you remember back then there was a thing called non qualifying assumptions, right? They're much like sub two only, but with the bank's blessing him. And so I bought this house to live in, and I did, I moved into it, but shortly, and it was $5,000 down, 675 a month. It was a townhouse in Virginia Beach. Shortly after I bought it, another one came up for sale on the block. That was $2,000 down. And I didn't know anything about anything. Nothing about value, equity, the work, nothing at all, other than I paid five down, and this one was two down. And I felt like I got ripped off. And I know it doesn't make sense, but that's the way my brain was working at the time. And so I decided to buy this next one just to cost average me out, right? 3500 each now. And that was my first spark of real estate. So I started every month. They would pay me the rent, and I would pay the mortgage. And it kept every month, nagging me. I'm like, I borrowed the money, they're paying it off. I borrowed it, they're paying it off. And I became obsessed. And this is way back. This is a long time ago when Saturday newspapers is where you found your deals. We didn't have the internet, right? Saturday newspaper, I'd be sitting, circling houses and calling and running out to see them. Only non qualifying assumptions. Um, and I bought as many as I could. You know most of the story, but, um, come to 2001, when appreciation finally started, I had about 20. And that's when I really got into going to events, seminars, reading books, getting learning about everybody. Tell me. Yeah. And I almost wish I didn't at the time, because what happened is, I did what everyone taught to do, which was I refied everything, pulled all the cash out and bought more. So I had about 20, and I turned them into 84 properties by 2007. And we all know what happened then. Uh, and then I had 84 properties, I had 84 mortgages, and I got smoked, and I lost about 55 of them to foreclosure and it's tough on anyone, right? But it was tough when I'm driving an Escalade that's wrapped in stop foreclosure, right? We bought houses, and here I am in foreclosure. So it was tough and then had to pivot and figure out most guys went out of business, went back to their old lives, their old jobs. I didn't have that option. And so I
Scott Jelinek 00:05:18 started looking at the people who were still doing well and trying to model and see what were they doing different. And that's kind of how we got here.
Billy Alvaro 00:05:26 Yeah. So you have, honestly, a really unique model, right? Everybody out there talks about fixing and flipping fast cash, do your wholesale deals, chunks of cash up front, and you have a process that you've dubbed the slow Flip. Now, you're a fast guy, bro. You're a fast dude. New Yorker. how in the hell did you get into slow Flips? And first off, what the hell is a slow flip for the audience that are listening?
Scott Jelinek 00:05:48 So I'll tell you, a lot of it started from me trying to model these guys who were doing well, right? And I would have lunch with them, and I'd kind of interview them, and it was like, what are they doing different? Everyone else has got their tail between their legs and losing everything, and these guys are crushing it. Well, one of the things I found they were doing and people hate when I say this everybody loves to argue, and I'm like, forget it. You're right. You're right. Is they owned everything free and clear. Everything. Their house, their cars, all their rentals. Everything was free and clear. And I'm like, well, that doesn't make sense. Everything I was taught was leverage, leverage, leverage, right? And so that was one part of it. And then the second part was property values got crushed. So suddenly, I'm seeing the deals of a lifetime out there. I can't buy them because I don't have any credit. Now I lost all my credit shot. I have no money. I spend all my money trying to save my houses. So I start trying to figure out how to do it, and I'm talking with people who will loan me the money. And everybody we're all trained. When you buy a house, either you use hard money and it's short term, like six months, or you get a mortgage, and it's like 30 years. And it kept bothering me because I'm like, well, how come if I buy a house for 30 grand, I mean, buy a car for 30 grand or buy a car for 50 grand, they finance me for five years, but if I buy a house, they want to finance it for 30 years? And so I kept talking with new lenders till I got them to agree to I said, no, I want to buy this. That's what a slow flip is. I always joke and say, we buy it like a car we sell it like a house. I said, I want to buy them, but I want to not a balloon. I want to pay them off amortized in five years. And so that is exactly what we did. And now that's the buy side. The sell side is we're not renovating, we're selling them as is. We generally sell them the day or two after we buy them, like, immediately. And we sell them, uh, what I call super retail. But we sell them with long term financing. So we sell them on a 30 year mortgage. We buy them on a five year mortgage. And so that's kind of how it came about. Now, I started I did a process like this with mobile homes during the boom. Because back then, houses, you couldn't find houses in this price range. And so I did mobile homes because there's a hole in the marketplace. And that hole is the seller needs cash and the
Scott Jelinek 00:07:46 buyer needs financing. So let's get in the middle. We provide them with their cash, provide them with their financing. And now that's exactly what we do with houses.
Billy Alvaro 00:07:53 So I love the concept, by the way. So you have lenders out there who are giving you short term, but long term money. Not six months, not 30 years, five years. So no more than five years. You have a five year flip. That's it.
Scott Jelinek 00:08:06 Correct.
Billy Alvaro 00:08:06 You're getting it for what kind of interest rate are you paying on the.
Scott Jelinek 00:08:08 I pay 12% interest rate. And I know everybody's like, oh, my God, you can get it so much better. It's crazy. Even when rates were two, I was paying twelve. But the reason is, if you mess with an amortization calculator on such a short term mortgage, it doesn't make that big of a difference. On a 30 year mortgage, it's huge difference. Going up 1% is huge. You're in the mortgage business, you know this. But on a five year mortgage, it changed so little that, uh, my opinion was, let's keep the lenders happy. And that's how come I have such an abundance of lenders, because they thrilled to be making 12%. And so I never messed with them and tried to lower it. I've always left it the same.
Billy Alvaro 00:08:39 I love it. So 12% amortized over five. Not interest, only fully amortized.
Scott Jelinek 00:08:43 Fully amortized. On 30,000, your payment comes out to 667, 33. And that's fully amortized. There is no balloon. The 61st month, there is no payment. It's done.
Billy Alvaro 00:08:52 Month 61, it's free and clear. All right, so you're finding these properties. What's your average price point? Like, were you buying cars? What the hell were you buying?
Scott Jelinek 00:09:01 I didn't know where you are. So where you are, I know your price points, right? And a lot of times when I mention these price points, people are like, that's insane. I just had an argument this morning with somebody online.
Billy Alvaro 00:09:10 I saw it on the video. Yeah.
Scott Jelinek 00:09:11 And they're like, you can't do that. And I'm like, okay, stop telling me I can't do it. I've been doing it. We started doing this model in 2011. On average, our buy prices are between 30 and $50,000. Now, I buy a lot for 18 and 20 grand, but the average is going to be between 30 and 50. And I know people, especially if you got a lot of people, like up north by you, you're listening? You can't buy a parking space for 30 or 50 grand, right? Your houses are going to be three, 4500,000. However, I got people in New York that are in our program, but they still buy just like I do. I buy in four states. I only live in one, and then I buy in other states where the numbers work. And so you don't have to be where you are. So you buy a house for 30 grand. We would sell it immediately that day for 89,000. People are like, Well, how could you do that? You didn't renovate it. How is it worth 89 selling payments? The value is in the financing, right? I always say we sell the financing, the house comes with it, and that's as simple as that.
Billy Alvaro 00:10:06 It's, a really smart model, dude. I mean, honestly, it's a brilliant model. It's a Way For you guys to get paid A tremendous amount, like the slow flip. Now, let's look at the numbers. Right. So what's your average time frame for These people staying in the home? Are they actually buying it? Are you doing A lease option to them?
Scott Jelinek 00:10:22 A wrap? No, we sell it To Them on A full 30 year mortgage. So they are buying it from day one. Our industry has a black eye. Yeah, we do a contract for deed. Our industry has a black eye because there's so many people that take advantage of the situation where they'll do, like, a lease option and you have a year or three years, and then you're out, right? Or you'll do A land contract, but you got a five to or ten year balloon, and they end up losing. They put their money down and they can't get approved or refi. And I didn't want to do that. And so what we did, I do it the same way I started buying back in 1994 when I bought My first one. It was A non qualifying assumption, right? And I took over the full rest of the term on that 30 years. Well, I sell the same way I give them the full term. All they have to Do Is Make their payment, and it's their house. They have to refi or get Their credit fixed or get a balloon payment. It's their house as long as they make their payment.
Billy Alvaro 00:11:15 How much are you usually taking down from These people?
Scott Jelinek 00:11:17 Generally, three to five grand. Now, I have a lot of them, and we've gotten ten. I've gotten up to 65 grand down I have one that's an $875,000 house. I do some unconventional ones, but, um, on average, these lower end houses, we do three to five grand down.
Billy Alvaro 00:11:29 So three to five down. So you're getting back most of 10%, 15% of your purchase price. And then what's the differential? What's the spread that you're making between what you're paying your investor for the first five years and the payment that they're getting?
Scott Jelinek 00:11:42 There's almost no spread. And let me explain that to you. So the payment is 875 a month on average. Now, mind you, I have some up there, but on average, it's 875. My payment on a 30,000 is 667 33. But then I also got taxes and insurance, right? So I make next to nothing, maybe $5100. But my whole thing is that I tell people. This is why people hate it. Like you were saying, people want to make money fast, right? Now, my whole thing is, uh, I tell people and this is what I tell people in my program, I said, we don't deserve to make a dollar until the house is free and clear. So that means for the first 60 months, we are paying off the house and paying off the lender for the rest of our lives and for the rest of the time with it. Now it's our money. And so there's a saying that I love to share, Billy, and I know you know this already from your own life, but if you do what's easy, life will be hard. And if you do what's hard, life will be easy and slow. Flips is the hard path, because, again, you can do the burr method, right? And we start getting paid next week. Yeah, but now you got a mortgage for 30 years. You got to keep juggling this with or you can do what's hard and struggle along for five years, and now you're free. You don't really appreciate freedom until you have it, right? Nobody realizes that they're not free until all of a sudden they can wake up and don't have to do anything. They can do whatever they want. And that's the difference, because I used to do the other method. I loved the burr. I refied, I pulled everything out and did everything everyone taught, and it was great until it wasn't.
Billy Alvaro 00:13:00 are you mixing it up, doing any other strategies? Subject to fix and flip wholesaling?
Scott Jelinek 00:13:06 Yeah, so I still wholesale, and I'll always wholesale because I like it and I'm good at it. Right? I did one just recently, a $250,000 assignment fee and that was my largest one ever. And, you know, there's one billy, I did one out of town that I called you on, on Long Island and Queens. Yeah. And that was a deal, and I never buy out of town. And I ended up closing on it and just listing it because there was a tenant, which made it tricky. So I had to wait out the tenant and COVID was going on, but we ended up making 196,000 on it. And I've never seen the house. I closed on it, got the tenant out, and listed it as is. So I love doing that. I'll never stop because I enjoy that. As far as sub twos, I will buy sub two, and I do a, combination slow flip has two sides, the buy and the sell side. And I like to pay them off as quick as possible and sell with long term. But sub twos will buy sub twos and then still sell on the slow flip method. The challenge I have with sub twos is a lot of people are teaching, don't worry about equity as long as you can cash flow. And I'm very much against that because that could flip on a dime.
Billy Alvaro 00:14:05 you lived through it.
Scott Jelinek 00:14:06 Scott I lived through it.
Billy Alvaro 00:14:07 You lived through it like I did, right?
Scott Jelinek 00:14:09 And I know they have a lot of people are teaching this, and I watch their stuff and I'm like, man, that sounds great. If the world keeps if you started in 2008 or after all you've seen, is this right? Going up? But if you started anytime before then, you're like, all right, well, this no equity plan isn't such a great plan. But that's not me. That's what they're doing. So I will buy sub twos and I sell them with the slow flip method. And, I don't do any rehabs anymore. I stopped that in 2013.
Billy Alvaro 00:14:36 Smart man.
Scott Jelinek 00:14:37 Yeah. I have zero desire to do any more rehabs.
Billy Alvaro 00:14:40 I went through today, I think I have, like, 53 on the books that are in one phase or another. It's a money suck. It's a money drain in your operations, right? Gives us a nice, healthy profit. But our cash conversion cycle, scott at least in the northeast area where we're at, it's like nine to 15 months before I see any returns on my capital. It's a long ass time, man.
Scott Jelinek 00:15:01 But the other thing is, and this is for you, Billy, you are a rehabber. Uyou do good job at it. And you have a system, you have a process, you have staff in place. And so you have a machine going, doing and I'm not against rehabbing at all. And I always tell people, I said, if you love taking something ugly and making it pretty, and you love the processes and managing contractors, there's more money in rehabbing than there is in wholesaling, by all means, but only if you love doing that. If you don't, then don't do it. Don't do it because you're chasing the dollars. Because you won't be making that money 100%.
Billy Alvaro 00:15:31 And so I honestly, personally do not like to rehab. But I have a team that loves to rehab, right? My project managers, New York, New Jersey, they handle all my shit. They take care of everything. This is what they love to do. They're trained for it. They have the personal Pi for, like they are the project manager. When I was doing the rehabs, I was cursing out, getting the fistfights with every freaking contractor out. Like, you know, you're lying. You're telling me you're coming here, you're not showing up. I'm taking pictures. You're not passing inspections. It was craziness, and I knew if I was going to go down this road, I'd have to scale It systematize and get the right people in place. If I had to do it, though. Scott and three years ago, when I moved to Jersey, right when COVID hit, I'm like, you know what? I'm out here. I might as well start rehabbing. I started rehabbing and went right back to ten years ago when I started doing I'm like, I hate this.
Scott Jelinek 00:16:19 You learn nothing.
Billy Alvaro 00:16:21 But there is good money in it. If we didn't doing the rehabs with the volume we're doing, we'd probably make, like, close to $2 million less a year. If I was just wholesaling the properties.
Scott Jelinek 00:16:30 Yeah, no, obviously there's got to be better money in it because the wholesaler made money, and it goes to a rehab who makes money. I love the idea of rehabbing for people who love it or build a business around it, but I don't like when these guys think they're just going to show up after a class and start rehabbing houses. I'm like, man, if it was that easy, it is work.
Billy Alvaro 00:16:50 Scott if you don't mind discussing you don't have to, but how many units do you have now under management with the slow flip method that you have?
Scott Jelinek 00:16:57 So I currently personally own 178. my number one student in my program has 89, and he's only been with me four years. And I always thought it's funny because he always jokes and he's like, My goal is to beat you. And I'm always like, you will 100% beat me, because I'm kind of done. I still buy, but I'm not hungry. I'm not looking for deals. I buy what comes across my table. But at the rate he's buying, I'm like, you'll definitely beat me. He's only 29 years old. I know I'm turning 50 this month. I'm like, I'm done. I'm not done. I still buy, but you know what I mean? I'm just not slowing down. I'm not trying to set the world on fire but he's 29, so I'm like, yeah, he is setting the world on fire. I say, you'll definitely beat me. Every time he says it, I'm like, that's not a challenge because you will definitely beat me.
Billy Alvaro 00:17:42 you had a coaching program for years, right? Like, you were doing this for a long ass time.
Scott Jelinek 00:17:47 Yeah, I started coaching in 2015, and I like it a lot. But, uthis is the thing. It's tricky. And I know you worked a little bit with Coach. I don't know if you still do any coaching now or not. The tricky thing is I like it a lot. When people actually do it? Yes. When people embrace it and do the stuff and become successes, I love it. That's why I still do it. There's nothing I enjoy more than that. But the converse to that is when someone pays you money and you say, go make this thing blue, and they show up with it. Red. Well, I thought red would do better. I'm like, but what'd you pay me for? Why did you pay me if I know blue does better? I'm making up the colors here. But you know what I mean. You already know what works, and then some people will pay you and then still argue everything. I'm like, that is not what you paid me for. You paid me to save your learning curve so I can cut you right to the end. So I love it. I do love it, obviously, or I wouldn't still be doing it.
Billy Alvaro 00:18:35 I got to tell you, you were kind enough to let me, when I was getting to my coaching scene, to go down and check you out. What you did and not blowing smoke, bro, you're very good on that stage. Like, funny, charismatic, obviously fucking knowledgeable. But the way you carry yourself and work the crowd, kudos to you, bro. You got it down pat. It's your personality.
Scott Jelinek 00:18:55 I appreciate that a lot. If you knew the level of fear I went into before I did my first event, like, I could throw up waiting to get on stage. Seriously, I was, like, sick to my stomach because I never spoke public in my life, and it was the biggest fear. I've a crippling fear, and it was amazing. It took me about four events to get over it, and, like, now I don't care at all. I can stand up and talk in front of anybody. But back then, it was like I was outside in the hallway. Like, why do I do this to myself? Oh, my God, I can't believe I.
Billy Alvaro 00:19:22 Got to go on.
Scott Jelinek 00:19:23 What am I going to say? What am I going to talk about? It was crazy how scared I was to do it.
Billy Alvaro 00:19:28 Isn't it funny, though? Every time we start something new I shouldn't say every time, but when we start something new, we're just not good at it. And when you're not good at it and you have this fear of it, it is, like you said, crippling. But look at the transition over the last eight years of how you went from somebody shaking in the hallway to now. You just walk in there, bro, and you just command attention and respect, and you have that I think it's a New York thing, bro. You just have that way about you that the people instantaneously know. Like, trust. It's an instantaneous. You really it's not this, dude, you're blowing smoke when you're up there. You're adding a shit ton of value.
Scott Jelinek 00:20:05 When you're speaking, and you sat through my event. So I tried to not hold anything back. And I do that even with, ueverything I do now. I try to just give them everything, because I've been to enough events, and I still go to events, and I've been to enough events that there's nothing worse than when you paid and you sit there and you leave with more questions than you came in with.
Billy Alvaro 00:20:23 Yeah.
Scott Jelinek 00:20:23 And I'm like, well, what did I just do? It basically it's like, I saw a live infomercial, right, and they're trying to get me something else.
Billy Alvaro 00:20:28 And I'm like, Give me a little bit information. Not enough. Just enough to get you another question going. Yeah, I get it.
Scott Jelinek 00:20:32 And so we didn't do that. I gave them everything. Now, we did have a coaching program, but that was if you wanted to do more, not learn more, if you wanted to work together. But it wasn't like I had secret stuff to teach you afterwards. I gave them everything at the event, and it made me feel better about it. So I didn't feel like people were going to come and then be angry like I used to be angry. I would attend someone's and be like, they didn't teach me anything. They all taught me what they're going to teach me if I go to this next thing. And I was like, I didn't like that at all.
Billy Alvaro 00:20:56 So give me an insight, Scott, because I know at one time your company was like this. You've scaled back. You've gotten to a point now where you're 50. Do you still have an operational business with employees, or have you kind of scaled down over the last couple of years?
Scott Jelinek 00:21:10 So in 2013, I did my first month long vacation. And I know you're doing this now. You said every year, right? So you're doing six weeks or eight weeks. I've done about a month long every year since then. But 2013 was my first month long vacation, and this is ten years right now. Because actually, I was just looking at the date. I had an emergency medical thing right when I got back, but we'll talk about that in a second. But while I was away, I was in Panama for 30 days, and I had a lot of time to think, right? Back then, the cell phones didn't work there. I bought a Panamanian phone and it was just dialed. There was no Internet, none of that. you have a lot of time to think. We had this big, beautiful beach house, and it was a great time, but I had a lot of time to think. Well, one of the things I realized was my employees, I had a bunch of people working for me at the time. I said they didn't work for me, I worked for them. I'm doing deals to keep everybody employed. I'm doing more deals than ever. I'm making less money than. Ever. And I know so many people that are doing this right now. And I talk to people and them my story. And I'm like, Listen, you need to end it. And so what happened is, I got home and I flipped everything on its head, and I became a one man band again. I got rid of everybody. And to this day, I do a fraction of the deals I used to do, and I make ten X more money than I used to make, because now it's mine, I get to keep it. Before, while I was waiting to get on with you, I had, a web lead come in, and I called and set an appointment for Thursday. I called and set the appointment. I'll go on Thursday, I'll buy the house, I'll wholesale it, make 20, 30, 50 grand, and I keep it where I used to be. I had buyers and sellers and coordinators and people to do all this stuff. The money would come in, but it wasn't mine. It would just go into the account and get spread out amongst all the employees. And so that was a big transition for me. Ever since 2013, it's been just me. When I say just me, it's really me and my wife. My wife works with me as well. But I have no employees. Zero.
Billy Alvaro 00:22:55 And I love it, bro. That's an amazing thing right there. I've been on all three levels. The starting, the growing, the scaling back to starting solo, and there's pros and cons with it all, but you hit nailed it right in the head. As you scale, your company is making more money, but you're making less percentage wise than you were when you were a one man show or one or two guys in the office. I get it. We have to cook through 60 deals a year before we start making before I start making money.
Scott Jelinek 00:23:27 That was exactly the number. So I used to have to do five deals a month to break even. But now, if I had a month where I only did three deals, now, I was short too. Means the next month I had to do seven just to break even. And if I only did five, which was what I was expected, I'm still never and it got to a point where I felt like I was chasing every month. We're doing a ton of deals, and, uh, deals were profitable, but I had so much overhead that I'm like, we're not making any money. What am I doing?
Billy Alvaro 00:23:51 Yeah, it's challenging to get past it. And there's that piece when you start to scale where it's like the no man's land. When when you get caught there, you're literally just working to pay your bills, and you either have to scale back or you have to try to bust through that glass ceiling and scale forward. And it's difficult getting to that next level. We've jumped a couple of different times. This next jump is going to be a challenging jump, because we're going from seven figure company to a mid eight figure company. Wanting to scale it even further. And it's not easy, man.
Scott Jelinek 00:24:25 See, and to do a business like you're talking about, you have to scale. You can't do that on your own. Clearly, you have to do that. What I do is, like, I don't work much. I'm lucky. Like I said, I have an appointment Thursday. Well, that's my next appointment I have on my calendar. I don't have to do anything I did today. I was out of my boat, and my only thing on my calendar was to come talk to you. Then tomorrow, I'll be the same thing. I'll be on my boat tomorrow.
Billy Alvaro 00:24:45 Good lifestyle.
Scott Jelinek 00:24:46 Thursday, I got an appointment. Yeah. I read in a book, and you read the same books I read, but one of them said, I have something most people will never have, and that's enough and I really appreciate that, because so many times people, their comments or their reasoning why paying off your stuff is so bad is they're like, you can make so much more if it always starts that, you know, you can make so much more if you refi, pull the money out, and buy ten times more. And I'm always like, yeah, you go make all that money. Don't worry about me. Don't worry about me. You go make all that money.
Billy Alvaro 00:25:18 I think guys that lived through the crash, and I was one of them with you. And, in six, seven, eight crushing it, eight happens. Everything falls apart. I find myself $14 million in debt. And when you lived through that and I was leveraging everything back then, bro, like, I would make the money, I'd pull it out of the house. I'd buy another car, buy a property, renovate it, pull the cash out like I was leveraged to the max. When you get like that and shit hits the fan and everything overnight dries up, and the values decrease by 30, 40, 50%, you're fucked. I went your mindset. Everything I do I shouldn't say my rental properties have mortgages, but I'm paying them down. I don't refi to pull the cash out. It is free and clear lifestyle, minimum mortgages on my house. The other houses are paid off. I don't want to have that debt, because I live through it. And when COVID hit, I literally sat in my home office here and shit my pants for two days, cut back all my overhead overnight, $70,000 a month. And I'm like, I'm going to survive this thing. I'm not going to go through and deal with because especially at this age, man, you get into your mid 40s.
Scott Jelinek 00:26:22 I'm not starting over.
Billy Alvaro 00:26:23 I don't want to fucking start over, man. No way. It ain't happening.
Scott Jelinek 00:26:26 So I have 178 houses now, 79 of them. It might be 80 now, I think 79 of them are free and clear, and they'll all be free and clear at some point within the next five years, because every time I buy new ones, they're on five year mortgages. I can stop doing anything. Stop coaching, stop wholesaling, stop buying new ones already. And there's way more every month than I need, which is the peace of mind I never had before. It was always this month, I got to make X amount so we can live to next month. And now it's like, everybody's like, every time I hear, you can make so much more. If I'm like, don't worry about me. I say, you go make the money. Don't worry about me. I'll be okay. Great, bro. Hey.
Billy Alvaro 00:27:05 I know. Ah, you also wrote a book. Tell me about the book.
Scott Jelinek 00:27:08 So, yeah, I just wrote a new book that's called The Art of the Slow Flip. and this book, I literally went through the entire process from start to finish, from what it is, how it works, then to where do we find them, how do we fill them, who would buy them? This is a great thing people ask. And you didn't ask it actually well, you did, actually, because you knew the answer, because they buy the financing. Why would someone pay 89 for a house that there's one just like it on the block for 40 or 50, right? Well, they would when they ask me that, when a buyer comes in and says, well, yeah, there's one for 40, I say, well, then I would buy that one. And they're like, Well, I can't buy that one because that one's cash. I'm like, well, then I would buy mine. And I brutally honest with them. And this is the way it is. If you want it, it's the same payment you were going to pay if you were renting, so why wouldn't you? Your choice isn't mine or this one. Your choice is rent or mine. And so it works out well for them, it works out well for us, it works out well for the seller. And so I put everything in the book from start to finish on how to answer those types of questions. When people ask how'd you come up with that price, I put everything in there because, like I said about my live events, I didn't want to hold anything back. So I put the entire thing in from start to finish.
Billy Alvaro 00:28:18 Your whole process? The whole formula.
Scott Jelinek 00:28:20 Yeah. I was very pleased with how it came out. When it was done, I was like, man, that is everything.
Billy Alvaro 00:28:25 That's your second book, right?
Scott Jelinek 00:28:26 Didn't you write it? Yeah, the first one was called, work Just Gets in the Way of Making Money and the first one, Slow Flips, was a chapter, and I taught on everything in there. Marketing and rehabbing and wholesaling and raising private money. And Slow Flips was just a chapter, but that was the one chapter that everybody was constantly calling and emailing and texting about. I want to know more about this and know more about this. And it's basically it's the main focus of my life is slow flips. So that's why I kind of geared toward everything, toward training slow flips. Now, I love wholesaling, so I still teach wholesaling, and I still do wholesaling. But, uslow flips, to me, I feel like everybody needs to even if you just bought five or ten.
Billy Alvaro 00:29:08 I'm like cash flow, man.
Scott Jelinek 00:29:10 It's so nice once they're free and clear.
Billy Alvaro 00:29:13 Yeah, it's no doubt. Let me pick your brain. I don't think I asked you this. When you sell the properties, you're not fixing them at all, so they're coming in and fixed. So even these dumpy ass houses you're selling with the slow flip method.
Scott Jelinek 00:29:24 Absolutely. So I closed on one just the other day, and I want to tell you these numbers on it. And I contracted this one almost a year and a half ago, maybe two years ago. And the guy I was under contract with died after we were waiting for closing. And then because of COVID probate, courts were all backed up. And then so there was two heirs, and then one of them said they didn't want to sell. Yada. Yada. It finally closed. Which I still got it for the same price two and a half years later, which was really nice. Yeah. So I paid $36,000 for this house, and it's in Hampton, Virginia. Right. Real nice house. I mean, it looks nice when you go inside, though. It was a dump. You open the door, and it's just piles of garbage. I did a video on. I don't know if you see my videos. Anyway, it sold not the same day, but the next day. I had to put a lockbox ah on it that day. The next day, it sold. We sold it for 100. And keep in mind, I paid 36 for it. We sold it for 169,000. Got $4,000 down and 1395 a month.
Billy Alvaro 00:30:20 Oh, my God, dude.
Scott Jelinek 00:30:23 So someone else does all the work, but they got a deal, too, mind you, because they're going to renovate. Most of our people are landlords, conventional landlords. They're not homeowners. Most of the people who buy my houses, they're conventional landlords. So they fix them up and then they rent them out. Section Eight or some of them do rooming houses. They do different programs. My number one investor that buys from me has 13 houses for me right now, and he loves us because he's making four or five $800 a month per house off of my houses. So he's crushing it. We're crushing it. Everybody wins. It's not like everybody's like, oh, you're the only one who wins. I said, no, everybody's winning in this scenario. Everybody wins because he couldn't do it otherwise.
Billy Alvaro 00:31:00 Are you having them do any type of qualification? Like, you have to be doing something.
Scott Jelinek 00:31:04 They have to be breathing and they have to have the down payment. Those are the two qualifications.
Billy Alvaro 00:31:09 You don't care about credit, you don't care about what they make, nothing.
Scott Jelinek 00:31:12 So let me tell you why I don't. I go back to how I started, and that was non qualifying assumptions. And the word non qualifying says it all. It was non qualifying back then when I started. and you were in the mortgage business, but you were after non qualifying assumptions, right? So they did away with them in 1987 for FHA and 89 for VA, but you were still able to assume them for the full 30 years afterwards. Well, it was non qualifying. I met a seller and they owed 87,000, and they agreed to sell it to me for 90. I give them the three and I get the house. And the mortgage company blessed it and put it in my name. I didn't have to have a job credit. I didn't even have to have a pulse. They didn't check for it anyway. I do check for a pulse, but there was no qualifying. And so I kind of felt like that's how I got started, right? And I bought a ton of houses that way. Then I felt like for me to check other people, I'm like, well, who am I to do that? Nobody checked me when I got started. I just had to have the down payment. And so that's exactly how I sell. I sell the first come, first serve. You have to have a pulse and the down payment, and that's it. I don't check your credit, I don't check your job, I don't check any of that stuff.
Billy Alvaro 00:32:14 Talk to the audience about when you are selling them. You're selling them for a contract, for deed. Educate them on what that is and how that protects you.
Scott Jelinek 00:32:20 So there's two different ways people do what they believe to be that we do that. People talk about lease options or rent to own or a lease option. We don't do any of that. And I don't like a lease option. I used to do lease options till I lost in court once. I don't like lease options because under a lease option, you are, uh, still a landlord. You have a lease, and they have an option to purchase, but they're not actually buying it. So although your contract may say you're responsible for everything, which everybody teaches, everybody who teaches lease options, I watch it and I'm like, that's just not true. They're like, no, we put in the contract, they're responsible for all repairs. I'm like, you can put that in the contract, but the law still says the landlord is responsible. It doesn't matter what's in the contract. You can't put in something that violates the law. So I lost in court once over that. The judge told me his words were, the benefits and burdens must convey together. You can't give them all the burden and you keep the benefit. And so I met with my attorney and I said, this is what just happened. This is what, the judge said, what do we need to do? And so we changed to an agreement for deed. We do it full term so they don't have to refi, they don't have to ever have a balloon payment. They never have to pay us off other than 360 payments and no qualification. So we do an agreement for deed. And the way I explain it to my buyers, if a buyer was to say, well, what's the difference? Or how is this different? If I bought from a bank, I tell them this. I say, when you buy a house using a bank, the deed goes in your name and then you pay on it for 30 years. When you buy a house from me, you pay on it for 30 years, and then the deed goes in your name. It's the exact same end result. Another question people might ask, Billy, is, uh, they say, well, what happens if they default? You just get the house back and they lose their down payment. I'm like, well, what do you think happens if you bought it with bank of America and you default? You think they're sending you a know, that's the way it goes.
Billy Alvaro 00:34:07 Is it the same process, foreclosure in your state if you have a contract for deed?
Scott Jelinek 00:34:11 No. And that's one of the buy. I'm in four states I buy in, and we only buy in states where you don't have to foreclose. So we don't buy in states. Some states require a foreclosure and we won't buy in those states. The states that we buy in, it's the same process as a tenant. If they defaulted, we go through an eviction process the same as a tenant. We would send a termination of the contract and then it's a regular eviction.
Billy Alvaro 00:34:33 That's beautiful, man. That is like, absolutely beautiful to do it like that. How many percent wise? How many of your people in the slow flips pay you off early?
Scott Jelinek 00:34:43 So for years, I started doing this Model M in 2011, and for years it was almost zero, right? They would stay I have people still in there since 2011, but for these last few years, because we had this run up on values, we had a ton pay us off. And I almost got nervous for a minute. I'm like, I'm losing my houses because I was losing a bunch of them. But the reason is the values went up so much that either, A, they were refiing them and paying us off because the rates were so low, but more often than not, they were selling them, and they're allowed to. They have all the benefits and burdens of ownership. Some of my buyers walked away with over 100 grand. And so people say, oh, you left that equity on the table, or you did this, or you could have made more money. And I'm like, Listen, I bought the house for 23,000. I sold it to him for 89, right? He renovated it, and then maybe six, seven years later, he sold it for two and a quarter. I'm like, he deserves the money. I want him to make the money. Because guess what? Now he's calling me. Hey, do you got any more? I, uh, want him to make the money. I still did well with it, believe me.
Billy Alvaro 00:35:39 people get a little greedy, man. They don't realize you don't need it all. You just need enough.
Scott Jelinek 00:35:43 I want everyone to make money. The more everyone else makes, the more everybody's trying to find me more stuff so that we can all do deals together.
Billy Alvaro 00:35:50 That's a good way to look at it, bro. This was great, man. Honestly. Good, really solid conversation. If people want to find you online, how do they find you?
Scott Jelinek 00:35:58 So I forgot to tell you this, Billy. So the easiest way is I'm given a free copy of the book, the Art of the Slow Flip for anybody who's listening. And they can get it just from Slowflip.com Slow flip.com. Other than that, I'm on all socials, as, you know, just under my so, you know, you name it. I'm on all of them, from TikTok to YouTube to Instagram. What's our new one now?
Billy Alvaro 00:36:22 Threads.
Scott Jelinek 00:36:22 Threads, yeah. threaded together. Yeah. So I'm on all of them under my own name, so I'm really easy to find. Beautiful, bro.
Billy Alvaro 00:36:29 Well, listen, good chatting. Love the slow flip, you guys. I would take him up on the offer. Go get the book. Learn how to do this slow flip. You got to be fast if you're going to be doing slow flips. Bottom line. Take care, Scotty.
Scott Jelinek 00:36:41 I love it. Thanks, Billy.
Billy Alvaro 00:36:43 You got it. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of Unstoppable real estate investing wealth. My mission is to give you, my listeners, the blueprint for success. The insider secrets for starting, growing, and scaling your real estate investing business so you can experience and live the unstoppable lifestyle. I've made it simple for you to catapult yourself to success. go to Billyssecrets.com. That's billys Secrets.com. There you will find every single tool, tip, trick, strategy, system, and secret used to make millions of dollars as a real estate investor. Everything my team uses and my guests use all in one place for you to tap into so you can start, grow, and scale your real estate investment business. I really hope you implement what you're learning. I hope you utilize these tools, tips, tricks, strategies, and secrets. And I hope to see you on the next episode. God bless. Bye bye.