Fire-Damaged House Flipping: How a Firefighter Invests in Real Estate

Dan Lennon (00:00)

For a regular person, and I tell most of my firefighters this, I’m like, if you can buy your first home, live in it, flip it into a rental, then buy your forever home, at the very least in the next 20, 25 years, when you retire, you’re gonna have a million dollars plus in just real estate between that rental and your primary on top of your retirement. Just do that.

and I want people to do that for themselves if they have the hustle to do it. But in reality, like most of us, like time is your biggest like thing that we all want. it’s your biggest currency and that’s really all that matters.

Cody Crabb (02:03)

Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Cody Crabb, and today I’m joined by Dan Lennon. Dan is a Central Florida realtor, active firefighter, and real estate investor who’s found a unique way to bring those worlds together from helping fellow first responders build wealth through real estate to investing in fire-damaged properties himself. Dan, welcome to the show.

Dan Lennon (02:25)

Hey Cody, thanks for having me, man. I like your setup. Sorry I’m doing it from a iPhone. I’m new to the podcasting world. So I’ll try and upgrade my equipment. Maybe if we do this again, it’ll look a little more professional.

Cody Crabb (02:36)

Well, I do have to say, anyone that’s watching this on video, give us a can you can you like scoot out of the background just for a quick second so people can get a little bit more? Because I gotta say, like that is like that is some top-notch branding. I commented before he started, that’s the G that the not it isn’t the G.I. Joe logo. It’s a take on the G.I. Joe logo. Immediately I was like, that is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Nail you’re nailing the branding. So at the very least, so

Let’s let let’s dig into this. You’ve got kind of an interesting story. You’ve got you have a an a little bit of an overlap here between firefighting and real estate. What originally made you decide real estate was something that you wanted to pursue outside the fire service?

Dan Lennon (03:14)

so well my dad has a couple of cabins up in Tennessee. Back during the economic collapse, he picked one up for like a hundred grand out in Pigeon Forge, picked up another one for a really good price. He ended up having three at one point. And now he’s just retired. He’s getting ready to sell it. Now these things are like at least five times worth what they were originally purchased for. So, from a decent age, I’ve always seen the power of real estate. You always hear people always talk about it, right? Like real estate is

one of the best investments you can ever do on top of Yeah, exactly.

Cody Crabb (03:42)

You guys do.

Dan Lennon (03:44)

It was a Cardone is always talking about it, But it’s also like we were talking about before we started recording. It’s like, how do you do it for the regular person? Because not everybody’s gonna be some eight-figure multimillionaire that’s gonna be buying apartment complexes. But that’s kind of where it started and a friend of mine in the fire department had been doing real estate. I think he got his license just before COVID and obviously during the COVID years it was like you just stuck a sign in the yard

And people bought it, yeah. So when I saw that, that’s when I started kind of shifting my focus from doing a lot of overtime, I was doing a lot of stuff at training, I was getting burned out. and then I decided, what, I’m gonna get my license. And I’m one of these people, and I’m sure there’s a lot of people out there like it. Like once you get something in your brain, I get super hyper focused and I gotta see it through. And then if I don’t end up liking it, then I move on. But if I end up liking it, then it’s just like that’s my thing. And fortunately.

Cody Crabb (04:32)

It’s

part of my personality now.

Dan Lennon (04:34)

Yeah.

And it’s a great it’s a it’s a good thing and it can be a bad thing because my wife gets annoyed with me sometimes when I get hyper focused on the stuff,

Cody Crabb (04:41)

I relate to that very

Dan Lennon (04:42)

Yeah. You gotta keep them happy. but yeah, so once I started going, I realized how much I loved it and then I was fortunate enough where from my background and training a lot of the people that I trained started entering the buyer pool where they’re looking to buy a home.

And my path was probably a lot easier than most breaking in the industry because I already had a good sphere. And the sphere of people that I already knew and trusted me as an instructor were the ones that started using me to help buy their homes. And so it kind of just grew from there. And from what I mentioned before, like the logo and kind of the branding aspect, I was very fortunate to just meet the right people at the right time, which, call it destiny, call it what you will, but

It was right when I got my license, this person that I met, she was like, You need to kind of lean into your other occupations from the military and the fire department, because that’s going to help you in this industry to build trust with people you don’t know. So, like I mentioned, people don’t people in the fire department and even the military, like when my buddy and I were talking about it yesterday, like the phrase, thank you for your service, I know when somebody says it to me.

it it’s like truly like being thankful, but it makes us a lot of us like uncomfortable. I don’t know why.

Cody Crabb (05:47)

Yeah. Well I’ve heard this too from people similar. They’re like, It’s my job. Like it’s not I I’m not some like incredible hero. Like that’s how they feel a lot of times. Like I just did my job.

Dan Lennon (05:56)

Yeah, which I do appreciate it. But that was that the whole thing of like, if that makes me uncomfortable, now I’m now I’m using my job to platform myself in the real estate industry. So I’m like, it’s this like conflicting thing. So I had to get over that. But once I kind of just said, all right, you what, I’m gonna go with it, then it kind of just escalated and took off from there, which has been it’s been life changing and also all the people that have been able to help along the way.

a lot of people that I’ve helped that have bought houses before, they’re like, I appreciate the fact that you’re not this like commission-breath salesman that’s just trying to push me to do something that you take your time. It it’s not I can see it’s not about a paycheck, it’s about making sure we’re good. And so that’s to me the best thing ever. Like people before business is always gonna be my lifetime motto.

Cody Crabb (06:37)

Yeah. Well and I think it may feel a little like icky for lack of a better word to like kind of you use the fact that you’ve got this experience. But in a lot of ways I think it’s a it’s a really good thing. Like I was kind of mentioning this before. Like I think people kind of a lot of times people that are in real estate, you get people across the board of what they what their background is or what their goals are and things. And I think somebody that is like

You still work as a firefighter. You’re still a first responder. This is something that you are this is like part of your life. It’s not like a thing that you’re just faking or something that you did a long time ago. Like it’s a real part of your life. So I think a lot of people will probably appreciate working with someone who, like you said, you’re just you’re a regular guy. and speaking of regular people, you mentioned making real estate work for regular people who, they’re not necessarily trying to build a massive portfolio. What does success in real estate?

look like to you for like quote unquote a regular person. And I’m talking about like in vet for investing.

Dan Lennon (07:33)

Yeah. So I remember when I bought my first house, it was in 2009. Owned it for three years, and we had another baby. And normally when that happens, you’re like, all right, we need to get something a little bigger. I got such a good deal on the house. I bought it for 119,000. Part of me was like, I kind of want to keep it as a rental. I had talked to my agent about it, and I remember she was not really super helpful with like guiding me down that path. She was like, you don’t want to deal with 10. She was just talking me out of it. And I,

In that moment I thought maybe she’s just looking out for me. And then in twenty, when that person I sold that house to, they bought it from me for one nine one twenty nine. They sold it for three sixty five in 2020.

Cody Crabb (08:10)

Probably a punch in the gut. Yeah.

Dan Lennon (09:00)

It was. It was. So, but again, that was like right. That was that was one of the things that the build of me getting my license, these are all these little things that started like kind of telling me along the way, like, hey, you could probably do this. And I thought about getting my license for years. I just, you have kids, you start doing other things, life takes you in a different direction until finally you’re like, All right, I’ve been thinking about this long enough. I gotta jump into it. So to answer your question though.

For a regular person, and I tell most of my firefighters this, I’m like, if you can buy your first home, live in it, flip it into a rental, then buy your forever home, at the very least in the next 20, 25 years, when you retire, you’re gonna have a million dollars plus in just real estate between that rental and your primary on top of your retirement. Just do that.

And I and I want people to do that for themselves if they have the hustle to do it. But in reality, like most of us, like time is your biggest like thing that we all want. it’s your biggest currency and that’s really all that matters. Cause at the end of the day, you come to this world with your hands empty and you leave it the same way. So yeah, why is it that we gotta keep chasing this monetary thing? But you wanna be comfortable, that will buy you your comfortable times in your late years when you shouldn’t have to kill yourself and be working.

Cody Crabb (10:10)

Yeah. And just hearing this. So, everyone fantasizes about winning the lottery or having a ton of money or something. yeah. and with no real reason behind that. Like they don’t have something coming in. They don’t have a reason to expect that this is gonna happen. But as like a person who just like works a job, a working class person, hearing you talk like this is so comforting. Like I’m just hearing you talk like, people regular people could do that. Like I could probably

eventually figure out how to do that. and that feels so like possible and r like actually real versus like someday I’m gonna own an estate where I have no there’s no worries. But this is like with the income I have, that’s maybe even something that I could do. So that must feel really great to be able to not only give people hope like that, but like it’s all right. Like you don’t have to build a hundred door portfolio in order to like actually

Make this worth your while and give you some security in your later years and stuff.

Dan Lennon (11:02)

Yeah, and some people do. I mean, the biggest thing is if you can start young when you’re, if you’re a single person, you don’t need to go buy a four bedroom house to start. Go buy something that it’s called house hacking, right? You buy something that might need some work, but you can still qualify on it. You live in that thing, you fix it up while you’re there. And then once that thing’s fixed up and you got it for a cheap price, rent has continued to go up. And we’ll see what happens with the property tax thing here in Florida. And, rents like if you’re an investor here in Florida and you have homes.

and they start taxing you higher on your rental properties, these investors are gonna be the ones that end up making their renters pay for it because they’re not gonna eat it, So take that first property, buy it at a really good price, keep your mortgage low, and then move on to your next one. And I know most people that listen to this are gonna Yeah, but it rates are high and this and that. This market right now is probably the best buyer’s market you could look for because there’s so much inventory. People have been

People got kind of spoiled with the COVID years because it was just everything was flying. Two thousand twenty-two, I think value shot up over nineteen percent. You’re not gonna see that in a normal market. And now you’re starting to see where everything’s kind of sitting flat again. Maybe we’ll have a little bit of a dip to kind of correct. But if you look at a 50-year trend, real estate’s, three to five percent a year always going up. It’s a long game. You’re not looking to flip it quick.

Cody Crabb (12:18)

Yeah, well and like you said, like you said, the I think the mindset of like this could provide some security type thing is like that is a long game, that is a long play. So it sounds like that’s much more of the line of thinking that you have of like just don’t stress about like acquire, acquire, acquire, acquire. Like make a long-term plan and execute it without so much of the worry about like when is the perfect time and when is the I’ve talked to people that are like

I bought my house at fifteen percent in like the eighties or like something like that. I’m not saying that it there’s never gonna be lower rates, but like that’s what refinancing is for. And you’re basically renting money at a higher rate right now, and you can just fix that later. Like there’s so many reasons that it you have to kind of think about so many other things. So what do you think stops so many people from doing this sort of like

buy a house, buy a rental strategy. Like is it is it the money? Is it the fear? Is it that they don’t realize they could even do it? Like nobody is it nobody’s helping them? What do you see as like the reason that because this seems like who a someone with a regular job, like couple a couple with a regular job, like wh why could you not make that work, right? Like eventually. And so tell me what it is that stops people, you think?

Dan Lennon (13:27)

Well, I think it really depends on the person, but I think broadly, one, it’s the fear, right? Some people are f are afraid to be committed to something for the long-term, right? Like and that’s okay. If you’re someone that you’re not like you want to have the flexibility of being able to just say, All right, I’m not gonna lease here, I’m gonna go there, that’s fine. Just know that you’re paying somebody else’s mortgage and the money you’re putting into that, you’re never getting it back. When you buy a house, you’re even though you’re paying the mortgage, you’re paying yourself in a way.

And if when it’s your primary, the interest on that loan is also tax deductible. So low is your taxable income on your W-2 when you file. Right there, there’s no reason not to do it if you’re going to plan to stay in a certain area. So fear is one, two is you don’t you don’t have the resources, right? So fortunately, like I’ve made myself a resource, to anybody who wants to work with you, but a lot of the people that I that I kind of market to are the first responder community because.

This is some of the hardest-working people you’ll ever know. And a lot of times they just don’t have the time. Like I just got off shift yesterday. I worked a 24. We had a fire at like two o’clock in the afternoon. Then we were up all night running medical calls. Then I had to run to a house that that I have listed that’s closing in two weeks. I had to do all that. Then I worked out with my son this morning when I got home. And now we’re sitting here talking. So it’s like just that part of my day is a lot, but I still have that time blocked out to talk to people. If you’re

a dual-income household with two kids, when are you gonna have the time to research all this? Maybe when you’re laying in bed and then you start seeing, Grant Cardone telling you need buy, 20 doors and all this other stuff. But for the everyday person, you just need to find somebody, whether it’s me or anybody else who’s willing to put the time in with you and talk to you on like, let’s build out a simple plan. All right, maybe your credit’s not that good. Credit’s always going affect your credit, your interest rate. The higher your credit, obviously, the better, the better interest rate borrowing power you have.

And your debt to income. Stop going and buying brand new cars. That is the worst thing you can do. And that was the best piece of advice I got from my next-door neighbor who you never know it, but the guy, he’s a he’s a business owner, he does really well. And he told me years ago, he goes, The key to financial success is never having a car payment. Because if you can take that car payment and you can put it into your retirement, by the time you’re 65, you’ll be a multimillionaire without even blinking an eye.

Or you put that money into real estate or whatever. It’s just people get so what what’s that saying? It’s like poor people stay poor ’cause they keep chasing shiny objects. like it’s always that next new thing ’cause you get that high when you buy that new thing or when the Amazon guy comes in for

Cody Crabb (15:53)

Because

that’s all there is. Like when you when you’re at that level, the newest thing you’re ever gonna get is when you buy when you buy like a new phone or a new or a new like you said, a new car. It’s cheaper than a house. So you buy you feel like you wanted this new it’s the only version of that they feel like they’re ever gonna get. And so that yeah, they just do the instant gratification part instead of just waiting.

Dan Lennon (16:14)

Yeah. And I mean, I think it’s a natural progression, right? I’m sure like I don’t how old are you?

Cody Crabb (16:18)

Thirty four.

Dan Lennon (17:00)

Right. But I mean, you’re a different person than you were in your twenties, especially the way you think about money and paying bills. You probably made a lot of mistakes just like I did along those waves, And I’m forty-three and it took me probably a little bit longer to kindly kind of figure it out, I’d be on vacation and we’d be spending money we didn’t have, and all I’d be thinking about is, man, I gotta work overtime when we get back because I wanna make these memories with my kids, which

Again, I would never replace those memories, but at the same time, I put a lot of undue stress on myself because I didn’t have that financial plan. I didn’t have this all dialed in. Now I finally got it dialed into where, okay, now I know how to use my money and I know how to make it make more money while I’m sleeping, which is the one thing you always hear people talk about.

Cody Crabb (17:40)

Yeah, of course. so now I’d like to pivot a little bit and I want to make sure we have time to talk about this. fire flips. I want to talk about this because as a firefighter, buying fire-damaged houses is just about of as perfect of a crossover as you can get in this kind of situation. Tell me about the first one you bought and kind of what inspired you to start doing this. and how do you how did what were you seeing that made you go like, actually.

if I’m looking at this, maybe there’s value that someone else might not see.

Dan Lennon (18:07)

Yeah. I mean, so the first thing that started it was after I’ve been in the fire service almost twenty years. There’s nothing worse when you go to somebody’s house and then you have to go in and there’s water sprayed everywhere, all their personal belongings are destroyed. you’re trying to save family photos and do all that stuff. But that’s the worst feeling in the world when you’re like they’re like, What do I do now? And really the biggest thing we do is we’ll call American Red Cross, they’ll give them some temporary, assistance.

If they have insurance, then they got to contact, we don’t really get too in the weeds on that. And then you always get the restoration companies that are all driving in, chasing them, trying to, get their business and have them sign a contract. Yeah. And when I from seeing this, I started looking at it as, who’s like truly helping these people after this? And we help them during it, make sure everybody’s alive, try and put it out the best we can and save as much as we can. And then we wait and see. when I got my real estate license, a good friend of mine.

he was the one that kind of inspired me to get it. we he was going into the BRRRR Invest Academy. So he learned a ton of stuff. I was just kind of getting into the realm of like researching, calculating an ARV. and you as a realtor, when you’re when you’re doing a listing, you’re always looking at your comparable sales in the area. so him and I kind of just decided to team up and start, looking at stuff just to get the groundwork laid for, all right, let’s maybe look to take down a house.

Little did I know it was going to end up being a house that was fire-damaged. It kind of just happened that way where a guy I knew who was running a restoration company told me, This family, it’s only insured for, half the build value. they’re an elderly couple and they were thinking about selling and now they don’t want to go through the rehab process. And so I was like, Well, if they’re open to a conversation, I’d be more than willing to come over there, take a look at the house and see what we can do for them. So, I was off duty. I went over there, met with a family, really great.

couple, in their 80s, originally from Massachusetts, where my family’s from. So we had the Boston Red Sox connection and stuff like that, which is pretty cool. Felt like I was talking to my grandparents. so walked to the house, it was a garage fire. And then they had opened the door to the garage and then smoke just all through the house. So everything was just trash with smoke damage. The main body of the fire was in the garage where the car burned up and that was like the worst of it.

the house had a pool in the back, which was, recently redone and it was a beautiful house. So I started looking at it and I’m like, there’s no I don’t need to do a roof. I don’t need to redo windows, we just need a new panel and maybe like run a few wires here or there. I mean, I have a limited construction background, but I could pretty much look at something to know. Like there’s not as much damage, like fire damage where we got to tear the house down. This is a savable structure. So

Me and my buddy just started talking and then we ended up just pulling the trigger. And we went into this blind. Like we didn’t know anything. and the guy who ran the restoration company, I kind of had a deal with them. Like, if I end up getting a deal from you, I’ll give you guys the work. the issue was the people that did the work were lying to us about their licenses. They didn’t pull permits, they didn’t do a bunch of stuff. Like I was I was trusting them and we let it go on a lot longer than it should.

The rehab probably should have cost us eighty-five. We ended up paying one twenty for the entire thing. but there was still so much meat on the bone that we were able to absorb it. and the nice part of the story is the people who bought it was the granddaughter of the original owners who sold it to us. So it stayed in the family, which was Yeah.

Cody Crabb (21:23)

That is cool,

Dan Lennon (21:24)

Well, we ended up having to fire those people too. And I got a different contractor who now those are my people and they did

They went in, they fixed everything, they made it look great. It was it was awesome.

Cody Crabb (21:32)

And you know what? I love it when people have like really crappy experiences and first of all, it doesn’t make them quit because a lot of people are just like, forget it, I’m out. But the other thing is when you get to learn that lesson so early on and it doesn’t cost you everything, that’s like pretty much best case scenario because you wouldn’t have found this team had that not happened.

Dan Lennon (21:51)

Likely. yeah. And I mean it’s funny because my buddy we’re talking about it like during this whole process I just go, man, treat it like we’re paying for a college education and this is our tuition. This is the price of it.

Cody Crabb (22:02)

That’s

a great way to look at it. Yeah. Even if we lose every cent and it just is it breaks even, like at least we learned how to do this next time.

Dan Lennon (22:10)

Yeah. And now though it’s funny ’cause once you do it then it builds the confidence to do the next one and the next one. But now it’s just it’s getting harder to find them ’cause there’s so many people out there that are going after not so much the fire damage, but again, fires aren’t happening every day. So it’s a competitive market as a flip.

Cody Crabb (22:26)

Interesting. So what is it that you can do with your kind of expertise and background that a typical, flipper or a restoration company would look at and maybe make a different decision, do you think?

Dan Lennon (22:37)

I mean, for me, it it’s more so if I can make the numbers work and we can make a enough profit where it makes sense for us to invest the time and energy, then we’ll do it. But ultimately my first goal is to make sure these people are taken care of. are you guys able to get to your next thing? where is it that you need to go? What do you need out of the house? and then just try and work with them because when you lose everything, it’s the worst thing you ever see. So it’s like

the money and the success doing a flip is secondary to me is making sure that those people are taken care of. Just because now it’s at least I get to fill in the gap of the thing that I was never able to do before when I was just a fireman showing up on an engine. Now I get to come to the other side of it So it’s nice to see then when those people I I’m able to give them what they want and they get a check and walk away and now I get to go and get a project and everybody’s happy because the goal is

Everybody should win in the scenario, right? I don’t want somebody feeling like they got hosed and taken advantage of, which unfortunately, that’s out there. And so I always tell the people that I talk to in these scenarios I look, I may not be able to give you the best numbers. Maybe this other guy can do better. I don’t know, but I’m gonna be honest with you and I’m only gonna offer you the number that I can give you. Like up front. I’m not gonna like do the whole start low, go high. I’m like, this is this is my max. That’s it,

Cody Crabb (23:46)

Yeah. So what I’m hearing is like maybe someone else could you maybe you would make similar decisions to other companies that might do rehab type stuff. But what you’re willing to do is kind of give them some grace with like what like work with them with the stuff that’s in the house and give some time and like stuff like that. Whereas a company might just want to be like, Let’s move, let’s move, let’s move.

Dan Lennon (24:06)

Yeah, like my timeline is different, And I’ve actually got a partnership now with somebody who, if I find the deal, they’ll fund everything and then we just split the proceeds fifty-fifty. So wow. And so and that’s fine with me. One, now I’m not leveraging necessarily my money. I’m just basically the project supervisor at that point. And then on the real estate side, when we go to sell it, I’ll list it and then not take a commission so we can maximize profit. But at the end of the day, it gives me the ability to say, Hey, if you need

Two months, three months, four months, six months, whatever. We just write a contract. And if we need to extend, we need to extend these people that we bought the house from, we got under contract with them in August of twenty four. And we didn’t close on it till like April of twenty-five. So we had to wait that long because they had got locked in with the public adjuster who was fighting back and forth with the insurance. And there was kind of a whole other story with that where

I think the public adjuster was trying to do something a little shady to make a little extra money on it. But we just kept and then we’re we were gonna walk away and I tell them I’m like, we’re gonna extend, here’s the paperwork, we’re good, So I’m a people person first. Like I’d rather have friends than have, be the wealthiest guy in the world.

Cody Crabb (25:14)

Yeah, and some people feel the opposite these days. no, but that’s so true. I love that line of thinking. and I think a lot of people would really appreciate, it that’s the last time you want to be doing a business transaction is like you’ve just lost all of your stuff or a big chunk of it or your h your childhood home is gone. Like that that’s the last time you want to be doing these kinds of things. So being able to find somebody who’s not only empathetic but willing to kind of

work with you on timeline and be straightforward and stuff. I mean, that must be really great. So thank you like in general because we need more of that in the world, I think. but the this has been really interesting. so for someone who maybe has a little expertise in this arena and this sounds interesting to them, what would you what would you advise them to do? Like maybe they maybe they’re an expert in the water

damage or something like that and they could, what would you recommend they do to start out and looking for flips like this?

Dan Lennon (26:07)

I mean, it like I found that if like the mitigation companies, for instance, depending on, whatever it is, like I tell them all the time, I’m like, look, every touch for you guys, if they don’t have insurance, what do you do then? And there’s there are some companies that will make them an offer and try and buy it, but there’s some companies that are just like, we just move on. So I tell them like, look, if you want, call me and I’ll come and take a look at it. And if it makes sense, I’ll buy it.

And I’ll hire you guys to do the work. So at least now every touch turns into something for you, and then on the fire flip side, like so there’s a few different apps that we can track, like when fires go out, or if I see a news story about a certain fire in areas that I know, because I know a bunch of firemen to be like, Hey, where was that fire the other night? I have a program where I can pull the information and I’ll reach out to them directly, or I might do a drive by, leave my information there or whatever. I’m not super like aggressive.

And I always and it’s hard too because like a stranger who’s getting called by another stranger who’s trying to tell I’m here to help you, like I have no credibility in their mind. I’m just

Cody Crabb (27:05)

How many people how many other versions of it are they getting to?

Dan Lennon (27:08)

Yeah. And by the time I get to him, because if I’m on duty, I’m probably the sixth, seventh, eighth guy that’s called and they’re like, just stop,

Cody Crabb (27:16)

got like bots calling out and stuff too. I mean it’s probably hard to yeah. But I as just as just a consumer, I could see why like you get called by a bunch of people, and then a real guy is like, here’s my card, I do this, I specify I specialize in this. Also, I’m a firefighter. Yeah. I would be I would be willing to like give it a shot, even if it wasn’t like the first, even if it wasn’t the cheapest, even if it wasn’t the first person that talked to me. Like that is a little that I see why that works. Because there’s a little more trust there inherently.

Dan Lennon (27:44)

Well, and even if I don’t like say if the guy is like, No, I don’t want to sell, I’ll just tell him, All right, no problem. But if you need a recommendation for a contractor, if you don’t have one, I don’t get anything out of it. I don’t care. Like I just want that person to at least have resources where they don’t get into the jam that I got into where I hired the wrong people on my first flip and then lost, forty thousand dollars basically. and then I had to scramble to get everything done with my partner, I always hear that thing, like,

If you’re good at something, you should always get paid for it or whatever. I’m just like, if you need something, just call me. I don’t need to make a dollar off of everything and I try and help somebody with,

Cody Crabb (28:14)

Yeah. Love that. Well, and the funny thing is you are getting paid for it. So like that’s a that’s I th I always feel like I kind of have a similar philosophy of like if you if you’re good at something get paid for it. But I th the way I think of it is like if you’re good at something, don’t be stingy and like the money will come in. Like if you’re willing to just give things away for free and help people when they need help and stuff, the money will come. It’s that gets you connections that has so many benefits that are not tangible at the moment, but they are there and you’re gonna that is going to pay it.

pay off, I believe, really. Like I don’t know if I believe in karma per se, but it’s that kind of thing of you put good stuff out there, good will come back to you. So yeah.

Dan Lennon (28:50)

Hundred percent. I agree with that.

Cody Crabb (28:52)

Dan, for somebody listening who feels like real estate is real estate investing is for people with way more money or that it’s like for Warren Buffett that can buy out massive chunks of the US. what is something that you would like them to take away from this conversation?

Dan Lennon (29:06)

I honestly think that if you’re gonna get into investing, you should first get your license and become an agent, only because it’s gonna give you the tools of evaluating properties. like my buddy Tony, he went through that BRRRR Invest Academy. Now, you gotta pay money to get into that, but it’s training. And if and if you don’t have the money for training, then put yourselves in the rooms with people that are doing the things that you wanna do. find these groups locally that.

do these things, go on these Facebook pages, ask questions, read. I mean, it’s my first year, I didn’t I didn’t close one real estate transaction and every day I made a hundred calls. Every day I was reading something, every day I was learning because it was like I hadn’t done this and I’m competing with people that were doing this 10 years. So I need to make up ground. It’s like that Kobe Bryant mentality of all right, if you practice once a day.

How many how many times a day are you getting that compounding effect? But if you do three sessions in a 24 hour period, your growth is going to be exponentially faster because now you’ve just compounded all that in a shorter period of time. So that first year, I probably learned three years of real estate that most agents learn in one just because of that dedication of doing it. Plus, having that second career as a fireman gave me the ability to do that because I at least I’ve got an income, and I get that. It’s hard breaking in this industry.

I tell my wife, I’m like, I don’t know how anybody could just jump into this if they don’t have a good nest egg like kind of stashed away.

Cody Crabb (30:26)

Mm-hmm, I love it. Thank you so much for giving us so much time today. This has been a really interesting conversation. if somebody wants to connect with you, they want to work with you in Central Florida, they want to learn more about how to, do something like fire flips, what how can somebody get in touch with you online?

Dan Lennon (30:40)

so they can probably see that my contact info is on there. but I’m always very responsive on my Facebook and my social media Instagram. So if you go at Dan underscore Lennon underscore realtor (dan_lennon_realtor_) and you shoot me a DM, happy to have a conversation. Give me a call, shoot me a text, happy to have a conversation. I I’m here to help anybody that wants help. If somebody wants to work together, great. I’m always open to talking. And real estate, it is a very fun industry because

If you do get it on the flipping side, it’s awesome to go into something and see it trashed and then have a picture in your head to what it could look like, and then actually seeing it happen and then standing back and going like, it’s like when you mow your grass, even like I mow my grass afterwards, and you stand out there with a beer and you’re like, man, this looks good. You got that little bit of pride. So when you watch that transition and that transformation to taking a house from what it was to what it is, or helping a client who it was

A first-time home buyer thinking it wasn’t possible to now they’re closing on their house and they’re getting the keys and you see that reaction. it’s all good feelings, good vibes and that that’s why I love this job.

Cody Crabb (31:43)

Yeah, it’s I think for somebody who wants to make money and do a lot of good, there is certainly a place for you there. so yeah, I love that. And I’m glad that you found it. It’s of all people that’s I think it’s great. thanks so much for giving us some time today. And thank you, listeners, for giving us some time as well. If you liked this episode, make sure you don’t miss the next one. And it’s been a pleasure. Thanks so much for joining us today, Dan, and we’ll see you on the next one.