Tony, one of the scariest but most exciting things about real estate is your first flip. And today's guest didn't just survive his first one. He crushed it. Yeah, but the real story isn't the flip that went perfect. It's what happened after because our guest today, Chris Rickenbaugh, learned more from the mistakes, the setbacks, and the partner issues than he did from the first home run. Exactly. And he's only been in the game since 2024.

But in that short time, he's bought 10 deals, flipped houses,

raised private money, and even dabbled in midterm rentals.

Today, we're diving to what he learned the hard way and how rookies can avoid some of these same pitfalls.

This is the Real Estate Rookie Podcast, and I'm Ashley Care. And I'm Tony J. Robinson. And with that, let's give a big warm welcome to Chris. Chris, thanks so much for joining us today, brother. Absolutely. Thank you guys for having me on. I've been a long-time listener. Chris, can you walk us through your very first flip? How did you find it? How did you raise the money? And what did this first deal look like? Yeah, that first flip back in 2024,

just a little about a year and a half ago, I found it on the MLS. So I was working on trying to find

expired listings, maybe some subject to opportunities, and I just

was scrolling Zillow, saw this house that was in my neighborhood. It was priced kind of low.

And I said, you know, that house doesn't look bad. It just needs touched up in the middle. So I called

the real estate agent I was working with and said, hey, I'd like to walk this

house. Let's see what we can do. So we walked it and I said, okay, well, I know this area really good.

I know I could sell it at about $2.25 and I said, let's put an offer in on it and see where it goes.

So we put an offer right at their number. It got accepted a couple of deals or a couple days later. And then, you know, we went into the money raising game. So that's the, that's easily the scariest part. So after about a week or two of calling around, I got set up with hard money. We were ready to go. I was, you know, kind of at the end of, end of my contacts. I'm like,

oh my gosh, who do I reach out to? So I actually texted somebody whose Airbnb I stayed at. We sat down

after I forgot my remote in his apartment. And he said, you know, if you have any opportunities

come up, just let me know.

So I shot him a text and he said, yeah, man, let's sit down. Let's go and walk it. So we walked it and

I had to raise 35,000 to be able to purchase the home. And he says, yeah, man, let's do it. So that's how

we ended up purchasing the home. We found a contractor who he knew. And they brought

his buddy down from Connecticut, who's a general contractor up there. They knocked the house out in 12

days. So it was a home run. And then it was under contract to sell within two days of being on the market.

Okay.

...