WEBVTT - Selling a House for Top Dollar with Mindy Jensen #162 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:02.480 Welcome to How the Money. I'm Joel and I and 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:05.360 Matt and today we're discussing selling a house for top 0:00:05.400 --> 0:00:27.280 dollar with Mindy Jensen. Chedule. Our guest today knows pretty 0:00:27.360 --> 0:00:30.080 much everything there is to know about residential real estate. 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:33.120 Mindy Jensen. She is a licensed real estate agent in 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:36.120 Colorado and she's been buying and selling homes for about 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:38.400 twenty years now. And not only does she buy and 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.560 sell for her clients, but she is an investor herself. Specifically, 0:00:42.880 --> 0:00:45.959 she has this effective way of flipping properties and we'll 0:00:45.960 --> 0:00:48.199 actually we'll get into that here in a little bit. 0:00:48.520 --> 0:00:51.480 But Mindy she works at Bigger Pockets dot com where 0:00:51.520 --> 0:00:54.400 she helps investors learn the proper ways to invest in 0:00:54.440 --> 0:00:57.720 real estate, and she also co hosts the podcast Bigger 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:00.640 Pockets Money. And so today we'll spend the majority of 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:03.080 our time though, it's talking through the ways that our 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:06.640 listeners can sell their homes for the most money possible. Mindy, 0:01:06.640 --> 0:01:08.440 thanks so much for joining us on the show today. 0:01:09.160 --> 0:01:11.760 Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to talk 0:01:11.800 --> 0:01:14.080 to you guys today. I love real estate. So hit 0:01:14.120 --> 0:01:17.520 me all right, hit me with your best shot, don't 0:01:17.560 --> 0:01:22.880 just hit me. Great song too, By the way, Mindy, also, 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:24.400 you wrote a book like this is how Much you 0:01:24.440 --> 0:01:25.920 Love real Estate? You wrote a book called How to 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:28.840 Sell Your Home. And if our listeners stay tuned till 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:30.560 the end of the show, we're going to give away 0:01:30.880 --> 0:01:34.880 ten physical copies autograph of your book. So that's so awesome. 0:01:34.959 --> 0:01:36.959 Stay tuned for that. By the way, the first thing 0:01:37.000 --> 0:01:38.560 that we lead off, the first question that we lead 0:01:38.560 --> 0:01:41.480 off asking people is about craft beer. Because Matt and 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:43.400 I drinking craft beer on the show. It's really important 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:45.440 to us. Today on the show, we're drinking a beer 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:48.880 called Slamming at the Club by Casa agree a Specialty ales, 0:01:49.280 --> 0:01:51.160 and I know you love craft beer as well. What's 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:54.280 your splurgs? What's your craft beer equivalent? As you're saving 0:01:54.520 --> 0:01:57.120 money and being intentional as you save for the future, 0:01:57.360 --> 0:01:59.200 what are you willing to spend a little bit more 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:03.560 on right now? Well, it is absolutely a splurge. It 0:02:03.720 --> 0:02:06.160 is literally the dumbest thing you could spend money on. 0:02:06.280 --> 0:02:10.600 It is a car. On the Bigger Pockets Money podcast, 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:11.959 one of the questions we ask of all of our 0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:14.480 guests is what is your biggest money mistake? And most 0:02:14.520 --> 0:02:18.119 people have some version of I bought a brand new car. 0:02:18.520 --> 0:02:22.079 I don't actually buy new cars. I bought a used 0:02:22.120 --> 0:02:24.480 car back when I was in high school a thousand 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:26.679 years ago. I had a friend who worked at the 0:02:26.720 --> 0:02:29.399 accurate dealership and I was picking up up after work 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:31.200 and I walk in and I'm like, oh my god, 0:02:31.240 --> 0:02:33.800 what is that? What is that car? That's the most 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:36.400 beautiful car I've ever seen in my life. He's like, oh, 0:02:36.440 --> 0:02:40.560 that's the new NSX. Like wow, that is amazing. How 0:02:40.639 --> 0:02:43.160 much is it? He's like sixty dollars. I'm like, well, 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:46.600 that's not going to be my car was in high school. Yeah, 0:02:46.600 --> 0:02:47.959 there was a lot of There was a lot of 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:49.560 money back then. It's a lot of bunny now, but 0:02:49.600 --> 0:02:52.240 it was even more back then. So fast forward like 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:55.919 ten years. This car came with this coffee table book 0:02:56.400 --> 0:02:59.040 instead of a sales brusher because it was sixty dollars. 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:01.600 And I found copy of that coffee table book at 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:04.440 a thrift store. So I bought it, thinking something, I'm 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:07.960 going to own an NFX, and I packed it up 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:10.240 and moved it every time we moved, because, as you 0:03:10.320 --> 0:03:13.080 alluded to in your introduction, I do live in flipping, 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:16.000 which means I move every two or three years, so 0:03:16.040 --> 0:03:19.840 I'm packing up things a lot. We started talking, my husband. 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:21.600 I started talking. I'm like, you know, I would really 0:03:21.600 --> 0:03:23.919 like to own one of these cars now that we're 0:03:23.919 --> 0:03:27.360 financially independent, you know, let's let's look at them. And 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:32.480 we found one and it costs forty thousand dollars, which 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:35.640 is that is an absurd amount of money to spend 0:03:35.640 --> 0:03:40.240 on an old hunt Yeah, old Unda. I've got a 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:41.840 friend who has one too. He's like, yeah, I got 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:44.480 an old Honda. When I went to get license plates 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:51.160 for it, she's looking. She's like, is this thousand dollars? 0:03:52.000 --> 0:03:57.400 I said, that'lls like, why would you pay so much for? Well, 0:03:57.440 --> 0:03:59.480 you and you and your husband you're both into cars, right, 0:03:59.480 --> 0:04:01.000 You guys are both kind of car nerds to a 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:03.120 certain extent. I know, I know your husband, Carl, he 0:04:03.160 --> 0:04:05.960 really wants a Tesla M right. Yes, he is a 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:08.440 supercar nerd. I am not so much. But I was 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:11.720 always really really excited about this car. So he bought it. 0:04:12.280 --> 0:04:14.760 He drove it home from Wisconsin is where we found it, 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:17.240 and I started driving it to work when it was 0:04:17.320 --> 0:04:19.960 nice outside and you know, it wasn't gonna rain or 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:23.880 hail or snow or whatever, and I felt so awesome 0:04:23.920 --> 0:04:25.920 in this car. It's like who I feel like, it's 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:28.200 not you know, I'm driving down everybody's looking at you, 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:30.400 Like as you drive down the road in an NSX, 0:04:30.800 --> 0:04:33.520 people will come up next to you, like the passenger 0:04:33.640 --> 0:04:35.920 is hanging out of his car with his camera, like 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:39.400 taking pictures of your car. And it was a perfect specimen. 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.480 It was like the most beautiful type of this car. 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:46.040 And then I was driving down the expressway and there's 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:48.920 this guy in this super jecta pickup truck and he 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:51.920 starts coming over and I'm like, no, no, don't hit me, 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:54.120 don't hit me, and I'm hugging my horn and he 0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:56.880 finally like sees me at the last minute, and that 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:00.240 kind of flipped a switch in my head, like you're 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:03.479 sitting on a pile of forty dollars driving down the 0:05:03.560 --> 0:05:06.640 road and you could get into a car accident and 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:10.279 ruin it. So I said to Carl, maybe we should 0:05:10.320 --> 0:05:12.440 sell this car. He's like, yeah, I've been thinking about 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:15.800 that for about six months now, and uh, yeah, we 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:18.520 should sell it. And then I swear the next day 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:20.479 a house came on the market that we wanted to 0:05:20.480 --> 0:05:23.680 buy and we needed to close really quickly, and we're like, 0:05:24.200 --> 0:05:26.159 let's sell the car so we can buy a house. 0:05:26.880 --> 0:05:29.120 So for you, it was a car. You know, I 0:05:29.120 --> 0:05:31.279 feel like a lot of people do have that car 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:33.440 storage old. That's sure something that I feel like you have. 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.120 I I kind of have that story of spending I 0:05:36.120 --> 0:05:37.800 don't know, maybe more money on a vehicle than I 0:05:37.880 --> 0:05:40.760 had ever really wanted to. But you're always pretty good 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:43.680 about finding those deals, spending a bare minimum amount that 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:46.080 kind of get you there. Right. I tried, but sometimes 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:48.240 it bit me. Sometimes I did go too cheap with 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:52.360 car purchases, that's for sure. Oh I've been there too, Jill. Right. Oh, man, 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:54.680 like the eight beater, I've I've done that and it 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:57.840 didn't last me very long. No, it doesn't. Well man, 0:05:57.839 --> 0:05:59.960 do you like he alluded to, you are financially independent. 0:06:00.000 --> 0:06:04.760 You're known online sometimes as and that's because of your 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:07.440 goal that you and your husband Carl, that you had 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.920 to reach financial independence in fifteen days or less. And 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:13.200 you know that was a while ago. But where did 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:16.479 you guys get that that crazy goal? And actually, like, 0:06:16.480 --> 0:06:18.520 how how's it going? Because you don't get to talk 0:06:18.560 --> 0:06:22.239 to folks every day who are financially independent it's going perfect. 0:06:22.279 --> 0:06:26.120 Thanks to have a nice day now. So Carl was 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:30.159 a software developer. He loves computers almost as much as 0:06:30.160 --> 0:06:34.440 he loves cars, and he loves programming computers. He was 0:06:34.760 --> 0:06:36.640 I was a stay at home mom, and he was 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:38.720 having a really, really bad day. It turns out there 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:41.120 was a bug in the code that he was writing. 0:06:41.600 --> 0:06:44.279 And the code that he was writing was for blood 0:06:44.279 --> 0:06:47.360 bank software. So if you have surgery and you need 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:51.240 units of blood, this software would choose the unit that 0:06:51.839 --> 0:06:54.960 matches with your body, blood type and all this stuff 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:57.200 so that you don't die, because if you get a 0:06:57.240 --> 0:06:59.720 different unit of blood it's like not compatible in your 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:01.600 body's like no, we're just going to die instead of 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:04.680 you know, figuring it out or whatever. Obviously I am 0:07:04.720 --> 0:07:07.640 not a blood person, but having this code that could 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:10.480 kill somebody really gave him a lot of stress, which 0:07:10.520 --> 0:07:12.800 is kind of the dumbest thing I think I've ever said. 0:07:14.400 --> 0:07:16.640 Writing code that could kill somebody. The code that could 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:20.800 kill somebody was killing him. Yes, So spoiler alert, he 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:22.600 didn't write the code, and it turns out there wasn't 0:07:22.600 --> 0:07:24.800 a bug, but for about a week, his whole team 0:07:24.840 --> 0:07:28.600 didn't know that. So he just had all this stress 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:31.080 and anxiety, and he finally sat down at his computer 0:07:31.120 --> 0:07:33.640 and he just banged out how do I retire early? 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:37.800 And this little website that probably you've maybe you've not 0:07:37.840 --> 0:07:41.880 heard of, it's called Mr Money Mustache popped up and 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:45.360 he's reading through. He's like, no way, and he keeps reading. 0:07:45.360 --> 0:07:47.280 He's like, this guy's selling something. What is he selling? 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:49.640 So he keeps reading, he keeps reading. He's like, wait 0:07:49.680 --> 0:07:52.520 a second, this is just a math problem. This guy 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:54.320 is laying it out and he laid out the four 0:07:54.400 --> 0:07:56.800 percent rule in a way that Carl had never seen before. 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.880 He's like, oh my god, we could retire really soon. 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:03.920 And he comes running down the stairs. It's like, hey, hey, 0:08:04.200 --> 0:08:08.600 we can retire in about three years or six years 0:08:08.640 --> 0:08:10.760 or whatever it was. And I'm like, okay, great, because 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:13.200 I knew how stressed he was about his job. And 0:08:13.240 --> 0:08:15.040 he's like, and I'm going to start a blog about it. 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:16.800 I'm like, that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of it, 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:20.720 because why would you Why would you blog about that? 0:08:21.120 --> 0:08:24.480 He only knew of Mr Money Mustache and uh get 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:27.080 rich Slowly at the time, but he decided he wanted 0:08:27.120 --> 0:08:29.880 to start a blog about it. We figured out our 0:08:30.240 --> 0:08:33.360 current net worth, we projected how long it would take 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:37.040 us to get to our desired net worth of one 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:40.880 million dollars in investable assets. Uh, he thought it would 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:44.600 be about fifteen hundred days. So he was like, well, 0:08:44.640 --> 0:08:47.240 that's the name of our our blog. Great, good luck 0:08:47.280 --> 0:08:49.319 with the blog. I thought he was going to run 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:52.160 out of things to write about, and he cranks it 0:08:52.200 --> 0:08:55.480 out all the time. So yeah, that's how fifteen hundred 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:58.319 days came to be. And that goal mindy of something 0:08:58.360 --> 0:09:00.800 specific like days, I gotta imagine that was like a 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:03.640 driving force the whole time. That being the blog name, 0:09:03.720 --> 0:09:05.679 that being kind of the time period that you guys 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:07.840 have picked out. That had to be really really helpful 0:09:08.280 --> 0:09:11.080 in kind of nudging you at the times where you 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:14.280 probably wanted to kind of bow out or stop socking 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:16.000 away as much money as you were and maybe starts 0:09:16.000 --> 0:09:19.560 spending more today. Did that kind of specific timeframe? Was 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:22.040 that a big boost in helping you guys continue to 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:25.400 attack that goal? You know, I'd love to agree with 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:27.800 you because that sounds way better than saying we're just 0:09:27.920 --> 0:09:30.240 really cheap and we didn't spend a lot of money, 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.840 And we both knew that you needed to invest, so 0:09:34.200 --> 0:09:36.760 we did. And he's a tech guy, so he would 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:40.840 invest in things that he knew about. He was having 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:43.319 a problem at work one day, a different problem, and 0:09:43.360 --> 0:09:45.000 he's like, oh, man, I don't know how to do this. 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:48.360 And his seat mate said, oh, you should google it. 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:51.000 And he's like, what this is way a long time ago, 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:54.080 like you should look it up in Google. And Carl's like, 0:09:54.120 --> 0:09:56.520 what is that? So this guy shows him and Carl 0:09:56.640 --> 0:09:59.920 types in his question and there's his answer. He's like, 0:10:00.080 --> 0:10:03.040 oh my god, what is this? What is this amazing 0:10:03.080 --> 0:10:07.040 thing called Google? And when they went public, they did 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:12.320 this like Dutch auction thing, and he like bid on 0:10:12.400 --> 0:10:14.840 stock and they're like, okay, everybody bid this much or 0:10:14.880 --> 0:10:17.200 this is the average of everybody's bid or whatever the 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:19.160 stock price is going to be this. So he bought 0:10:19.480 --> 0:10:21.960 a ton of it. And then Facebook came out and 0:10:22.000 --> 0:10:24.040 he bought a ton of that. And you know, we've 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:27.200 had some duds too, but we've had some really great products. 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.120 And once Apple came out with the iPod, all you 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:33.880 see everywhere you go is white headphones. Everything else was 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:37.400 black headphones, but Apple has white headphones. You see white 0:10:37.440 --> 0:10:40.120 headphones and everybody's ears. You're like, Oh, that may be 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:42.640 a thing, you know, that might be a good stuck Like, 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:45.080 I think that's gonna be something I don't I don't know, 0:10:45.240 --> 0:10:48.160 just a hunch. Well maybe I have a quick follow 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:51.040 up though. So we're talking about financial independence. So for 0:10:51.120 --> 0:10:54.560 you guys, like obviously, besides you being able to kind 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:56.360 of buy the card your dreams for a short period 0:10:56.400 --> 0:10:59.160 of time, they're right, how did financial independence change how 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:01.880 you guys live? Because of all the folks we've talked 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:03.640 to who are financially independent, I feel like y'all are 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:06.240 maybe what I would call the most normal. Like you've 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:09.360 got a couple of kids, you live in Colorado, Like 0:11:09.400 --> 0:11:11.600 the kids go to school, you're still doing weird stuff 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:14.000 to make money, which we're gonna talk about a second. 0:11:14.000 --> 0:11:16.200 You guys still live like a super normal life. You 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:18.719 haven't bought in like your own island or anything like that. 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:22.000 But but yeah, so how have you realized that financial independence? Like? 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:26.000 What has that changed? So the biggest change is that 0:11:26.320 --> 0:11:29.440 Carl doesn't have to go to a job that he hates. 0:11:30.120 --> 0:11:34.439 And I think in fire financial independence retire early most 0:11:34.440 --> 0:11:37.640 people focus on the R E. And you know, I 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:39.640 gotta get to financial dependence so I can quit my job, 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:42.439 so I can quit my job, And that's what he did. 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:46.160 But we were financially independent for a while before he 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:48.760 took the leak, before he actually quit his job, because 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:51.840 he had a really good paying job. He was making 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:55.120 six figures, he could work from home. Why would you 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:57.520 walk away from that? And he didn't know what he 0:11:57.559 --> 0:11:59.480 wanted to do after he quit his job, so he 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:02.400 just stay for a little bit longer. And then I 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:04.760 got the job that I have now, working at Bigger Pockets. 0:12:04.840 --> 0:12:07.760 I love my job. I've never had a job that 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:10.960 I love more. So it was okay for him to 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:14.680 leave because we sort of had a cushion. I don't 0:12:14.679 --> 0:12:17.520 really feel like I'm working because I get to talk 0:12:17.559 --> 0:12:20.000 about real estate all day long. I get to talk 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:23.160 about money all day long. I don't have to work there. 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:25.160 I get to work there. I love going to work. 0:12:25.160 --> 0:12:27.760 I feel guilty when I go to work. You know, 0:12:27.800 --> 0:12:29.880 I'll be leaving the house and the girls are fighting 0:12:29.880 --> 0:12:33.240 with each other and Carl's like wrangling them, and I'm like, see, 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:34.959 I'm gonna go have a good time at the office, 0:12:35.200 --> 0:12:37.160 you know. But I really enjoy what I do. I 0:12:37.240 --> 0:12:39.480 love everybody that I work with. It's just a really 0:12:39.480 --> 0:12:45.160 great experience. So he gets to run his own life. 0:12:45.160 --> 0:12:48.160 You know, he works at we have partnered with that 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:51.240 very little known blogger Mr money Mustache on a coworking 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:53.840 space in our town of long Mont. But it's not 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:58.160 really a job, Like he just really enjoys talking to people. Yeah, 0:12:58.200 --> 0:13:00.800 he's just hanging out and like he works on the blog, 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:04.360 he's We just bought a house. Oh, this is a 0:13:04.360 --> 0:13:07.760 good segue. We just bought a dumpy house that we're 0:13:07.800 --> 0:13:11.000 fixing up. So perfect segue. Let's get into that. So 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:13.480 you guys are still normal people despite having a chief 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:16.360 financial independence. But you guys are still doing live in 0:13:16.360 --> 0:13:18.800 flips and and we really want to talk a lot 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:21.559 about selling a home man because you literally wrote the 0:13:21.559 --> 0:13:25.120 book on that. But I'm really really interested in how 0:13:25.160 --> 0:13:27.920 you guys have used the live in flip strategy to 0:13:28.000 --> 0:13:29.520 help build some of that well, to help you a 0:13:29.600 --> 0:13:32.400 chief financial independence. So can you first share with our 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:36.480 listeners what a live in house flip is? Okay, So 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:38.640 a flip is when you take an ugly house and 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:40.760 you make it look beautiful and you sell it. A 0:13:40.880 --> 0:13:44.520 live in flip is when you buy an ugly house, 0:13:44.600 --> 0:13:48.760 you move into it as your primary residence while you 0:13:48.880 --> 0:13:51.480 fix it up. You have to live there for well, 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:53.960 you don't have to. But I lived there for two years, 0:13:54.480 --> 0:13:56.120 and then when I go to sell it, I pay 0:13:56.280 --> 0:13:59.599 zero dollars in capital gains taxes because it was my 0:13:59.640 --> 0:14:02.760 primary residents. I lived there for two years and I 0:14:02.800 --> 0:14:05.920 pay zero, zero capital gains taxes up to five hundred 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:11.760 thousand dollars um because of the section exclusion in the 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:15.439 United States text Code. So I've never hit that five 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:19.760 hundred thousand dollars. I'm really excited about this house, not yet, 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:23.040 not yet. The house that we just moved from. We 0:14:23.080 --> 0:14:25.640 bought four a hundred and seventy six thousand dollars. We 0:14:25.800 --> 0:14:29.360 put about a hundred thousand dollars into it, and I 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:31.680 could list it today and sell it tomorrow for five 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:35.360 five I could list it and sell it a little 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:38.440 bit longer for probably five seventy five or six hundred 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:41.680 thousand dollars because I've lived in it. Yeah, because I 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:43.880 lived in it, because I you know, I did all 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:46.640 the I didn't do all the renovations myself. And when 0:14:46.640 --> 0:14:48.440 I say I, I mean my husband and I we 0:14:48.480 --> 0:14:50.960 did hire some people, like we put a second story on. 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:54.600 That's a lot of work that you're going to do 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:59.480 on the side with kids asking for dinner like it's 0:14:59.480 --> 0:15:00.840 a time to eat. It's like, no, I gotta, I 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:02.640 gotta add the second story to the house. I'll be 0:15:02.680 --> 0:15:06.040 done in in six months. Yeah. Yeah, So um an 0:15:06.040 --> 0:15:08.760 air fire and chicken nuggets are your best friend as 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:11.800 a live in flipping mom. So that brings us to 0:15:11.840 --> 0:15:13.520 another question about it. Well, and first I want to 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:15.640 say on the tax thing, you said up to five 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:18.720 thousand dollars tax free in profit from the living flips, 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:21.200 and if you're a single individual, that's two fifty dollars. 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:23.720 Because if you live in a home for two years 0:15:23.880 --> 0:15:26.400 and you sell it, you're not taxed on the gains. Right, 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:28.600 But if you live in it for less than two years, 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:31.160 then it's not technically a living flip. It's just a flip, 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:33.480 and you're gonna pay tax on the profit that you 0:15:33.520 --> 0:15:36.600 make from selling out house. Right, Yes, ish if you 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:38.640 own the home for less than a year, even if 0:15:38.640 --> 0:15:41.400 you're living in it. I believe it's Texas regular income 0:15:41.880 --> 0:15:44.360 if you sell it after living there for one year 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:46.600 but not living there for two years. I think it's 0:15:46.720 --> 0:15:51.160 tax as long term capital gains, which I believes. But 0:15:51.200 --> 0:15:53.920 if this affects you, please talk to your c p. A. Okay, 0:15:53.960 --> 0:15:56.320 all right, that's good stuff. Oh it's great advice. Well, 0:15:56.480 --> 0:15:58.600 I want to know more about, like, what was the 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:02.240 hardest part of living in the home while you're actually 0:16:02.280 --> 0:16:04.040 working on it, right, because obviously you weren't in its 0:16:04.320 --> 0:16:07.200 while that second story was being put on. Right. Oh, yes, 0:16:07.240 --> 0:16:09.480 I was. Are you serious? Okay, Well, first of all, 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:10.960 I want to know about that. But I mean, the 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:12.880 reason why I asked this is because we added onto 0:16:12.920 --> 0:16:14.760 our home, my wife and I and our kids. We 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:17.680 lived through a home renovation and man, it was one 0:16:17.720 --> 0:16:21.560 of the hardest things we've ever done. So we've always 0:16:22.000 --> 0:16:25.960 lived in our flips because we're cheap and we're not 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:28.160 going to pay rent at one place, or you know, 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:29.960 pay a mortgage in one place and pay a mortgage 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:33.080 in another place. We could just live there. We chose 0:16:33.160 --> 0:16:37.080 to live in flip in Colorado in the winter time 0:16:37.400 --> 0:16:41.360 because that's when the construction workers were available, so that 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:44.160 was freezing cold. Um, it's out for everybody. I can 0:16:44.160 --> 0:16:46.240 sit here and make it sound really, really awesome, because 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:49.600 when I cash a check for a hundred thousand dollars, 0:16:49.680 --> 0:16:52.160 that makes me happy. Not every flip is going to 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:56.240 give you a hundred thousand dollars in profit. But once 0:16:56.440 --> 0:16:58.720 once you sell it, it's really easy to be like, oh, 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:01.080 that wasn't so bad. It's like old birth. You have 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:03.280 a baby and you're like, oh, my goodness, it hurts 0:17:03.280 --> 0:17:04.679 so much to have a baby, and then once the 0:17:04.680 --> 0:17:06.760 baby comes out, you're like, oh, I love this baby. 0:17:06.760 --> 0:17:09.160 I can totally do it again. So you just forget 0:17:09.160 --> 0:17:12.879 about the pain. But it is a mess, like it is, Oh, 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:16.520 plan to be out of the house during drywall day 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:20.040 and hire somebody to come and clean it for you 0:17:20.080 --> 0:17:23.919 when you're done, because that's the messiest part. But you know, 0:17:23.960 --> 0:17:26.800 when you you pull the dry wall down to you know, 0:17:26.920 --> 0:17:30.159 do whatever you're doing behind the walls, you still have 0:17:30.280 --> 0:17:32.840 outer walls, so it's not like the whole house is 0:17:33.640 --> 0:17:37.399 ripped apart and there's varying levels of living flipping. You 0:17:37.440 --> 0:17:39.920 can do just a cosmetic flip right now. The house 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:42.240 that we're in, Oh my goodness, we got such a 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:46.720 smoking hot deal on it, but it's basically cosmetic. I 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:49.840 have an ugly kitchen, but I can use it. Like 0:17:49.920 --> 0:17:52.800 the cabinets still holds stuff and the all the appliances 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:56.040 are new, but the cabinets are really ugly. The countertop 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.560 is this white tile countertop, and I've been living in 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:02.960 my house, my other house for about five years now 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:06.440 with the solid surface countertops, so having a tile countertop 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:08.719 and like, wow, why did they ever do these? Like 0:18:09.080 --> 0:18:11.320 all the grout gets all dirty and growth. Of course 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:17.080 it's it's it's the worst well many, I mean, that's 0:18:17.119 --> 0:18:19.040 something that we haven't really talked about on the show much, 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:21.120 is living flips. But I love it because I think 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:23.399 there are a lot of people that after hearing you 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:25.239 know how you do it and the money that can 0:18:25.280 --> 0:18:27.600 be made from it. Men, living flips are just an 0:18:27.600 --> 0:18:29.840 awesome way to go for a lot of people, especially 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:33.199 if you're okay dealing with the mess while you're doing it. 0:18:33.280 --> 0:18:35.439 So yeah, I love hearing that party story. But you 0:18:35.480 --> 0:18:37.840 really really want to get into selling a home and 0:18:37.840 --> 0:18:40.800 helping people figure out how to do that, especially considering 0:18:41.040 --> 0:18:42.639 this is Erring in February. A lot of people are 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:44.840 thinking about selling their homes. So we're going to get 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:57.520 into that right after the break, all right, We're back 0:18:57.560 --> 0:18:59.720 from the break and we're talking with Mindy Jensen about 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:02.520 selling your house for top dollar and Joel, like you mentioned, 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:04.840 I think a lot of folks are considering selling their house. 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:06.560 It's kind of at the beginning of the year, the 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:09.600 ramping up. It's about to be spring. So maybe that's 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:12.439 our question for you next, is when is the best 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:14.320 time to sell a house? You know, we've seen the 0:19:14.359 --> 0:19:16.760 stories about how the spring season it seems to be 0:19:17.280 --> 0:19:20.040 the hottest time to sell the houses that start, and 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:22.080 it's starting earlier. Maybe I don't know. I've seen stories 0:19:22.080 --> 0:19:25.320 about spring housing sing season starting in January this year 0:19:25.359 --> 0:19:29.240 because there's so much pent up demand. Yeah, so okay, 0:19:29.400 --> 0:19:31.880 maybe you remember back in two thousand and eight there 0:19:31.960 --> 0:19:35.600 were there was this housing crash because people were losing 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:38.960 their jobs. They weren't buying and selling houses. When you're 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:42.440 not buying and selling existing houses, you're not building new houses. 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:45.760 So there is this huge glut of people who want 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:48.119 to move but can't because there's nothing on the market 0:19:48.359 --> 0:19:49.960