How Nicolas Martucci Scales House Flips with Direct-to-Seller Leads, Novations & Private Money

Nicolas Martucci (00:00)

Yeah, for sure. This would be a couple years ago, or maybe, yeah, it was like two years ago, I would say. I was pivoting towards doing, wanting to get into the construction end of things and taking on some big renovations. Because you see, oh, you know, there’s a massive spread on this, but I have to put in a lot of work. What I’ve realized is like putting in too much work kills you every time. did two…

bigger deals than I ever done at one time with you know both renovations were over 200 grand and it took me over a year to do both projects and I made no money on both of them. So my suggestion you learn quick is you know you don’t want to make a beautiful house you want to make a sellable house we’re in this business to make money so do what you have to do and you know typically do a little bit less sell it on the market for a little bit of a discount and everyone’s happy.

Leo Wehdeking (02:22)

Everyone, welcome to the Investor Fuel Podcast. I’m your host, Leo Wehdeking, and today I am joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with, Nicolas Martucci. Am I right?

Nicolas Martucci (02:34)

Nicolas Martucci, Italian, the Italian stallion.

Leo Wehdeking (02:38)

All right, all right. Well, Nicolas,

it’s a you know, he’s a person who’s been doing ⁓ serious moves in the real estate industry. So Nicolas, I’m very glad to have you over here, I think that our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’ve been approaching your real estate business. So let’s dive in. And for people who may not be familiar.

Can you give us a version on what’s your main focus these days?

Nicolas Martucci (03:06)

Yeah, of course. And I appreciate you having me on here. Super excited. Yeah, so pretty much, you know, I’m a house flipper. The bread and butter of the business is getting in discounted properties. You’re always going to make money when you buy. So I’m running Google PPC, SEO, YouTube, cold callers, everything under the sun to get in discounted properties.

⁓ Once I get in a discounted property if it fits my buy box to buy and hold I’ll keep it Refi it and you know use it as a rental Typically single families. I’ll renovate and resell And if anything just is too much work or anything like that a wholesale And one other option which I know a lot of people have been moving towards are Novations, so I’ve been doing a lot of novations if the sellers are open to it, which is just you know

⁓ doing some work while the owner still has the property under their name and then reselling it directly on the open market and taking the spread once it sells.

Leo Wehdeking (04:05)

Alright, cool man. And Nicolas, in what markets are you operating in right now?

Nicolas Martucci (04:11)

So I have two companies, one that I say is nationwide, which is not, it’s not actually nationwide, it’s only a few different states. It’s like Ohio, Illinois, Texas, Pennsylvania, Jersey. And then I have a local flipping company in New York. I’m about an hour and a half outside of Manhattan, over by Poughkeepsie. So I’ll do anything Westchester.

up a few counties and then on the other side of the river right above Jersey up to ⁓ up to Albany. So I’m buying and flipping as many as I can.

Leo Wehdeking (05:29)

Now, something that really caught my attention, it’s the way that you’ve been able to put in all your effort into building relationships with most of your investors, all right? So whenever you flip a house and you decide to resell it, all right? How do you first find the right…

person that actually is going to help you invest in that property that

Nicolas Martucci (05:55)

So as far as when you say investing, you’re saying as far as finding the money.

Leo Wehdeking (06:00)

Yes.

Nicolas Martucci (06:00)

Okay, so I got very lucky when I first started out. A buddy of mine connected me with an attorney that did hard money and he saw the deals that I was getting at a discount and he ended up lending to me before I had any experience. So shout out to ⁓ him, his name is Dan. He would give me close to 100 % of the purchase price ⁓ and then I would reach out to friends and family to fund the gap from there.

Also, when I first started, I did a lot of wholesales just to build up my bankroll so I have that extra money for renovations and that gap funding. And then just as of recently, I got pre-approved with Kiavi and Kiavi will do 90 % and 100 % of the construction. So that makes it a lot easier to close more houses and then just use my money and investors’ money to fund pretty much the gap and then could flip as many as I can.

Leo Wehdeking (06:53)

Cool man, cool. Now, what’s been, you know, what’s been the recipe to keep your business running smoothly?

Nicolas Martucci (07:01)

So the recipe is always just getting in more deals. That’s everything. You make your money when you buy these houses. So one thing I did this year…

is pretty much triple on my marketing. want it to grow, want it to expand, and the only way to do that is to put that money out each month. It gets a little scary, you know, having to shell out so much each month, but when you see the return, you know, you realize it’s worth it, and, you know, this business is nothing without getting deals, you know, in my opinion, directly from the seller, because, you know, wholesalers, it’s tough to make spreads sometimes when you’re only buying from wholesalers, so I feel you need to be direct to

color.

Leo Wehdeking (07:39)

Now, Nicolas, I actually every operator that I know has a moment where things like that real maybe a deal that went sideways or a time that you know, you had to pivot real fast. Do you mind sharing one of those moments?

Nicolas Martucci (07:54)

Yeah, for sure. This would be a couple years ago, or maybe, yeah, it was like two years ago, I would say. I was pivoting towards doing, wanting to get into the construction end of things and taking on some big renovations. Because you see, oh, you know, there’s a massive spread on this, but I have to put in a lot of work. What I’ve realized is like putting in too much work kills you every time. did two…

bigger deals than I ever done at one time with you know both renovations were over 200 grand and it took me over a year to do both projects and I made no money on both of them. So my suggestion you learn quick is you know you don’t want to make a beautiful house you want to make a sellable house we’re in this business to make money so do what you have to do and you know typically do a little bit less sell it on the market for a little bit of a discount and everyone’s happy.

Leo Wehdeking (08:45)

And you know what, that’s the kind of stuff that a lot of people don’t like to talk about. Whenever, you know, they go sideways, they all want to make money at the end. All right. But you did, you know, actually pretty well. All right. You decided to finish both projects, even if you didn’t get anything in return, you know, but at least that taught you a lesson that took you to where you are right now.

Nicolas Martucci (09:10)

Yet I think it’s important to go through those times because then you realize like, all right, I almost got burned doing this or I did get burned doing this. Now I know I can’t go that route.

Leo Wehdeking (09:20)

Exactly, exactly. And honestly, for me, that’s what separates people who actually just dabble than the ones who stay in the game for long term. All right.

Nicolas Martucci (09:33)

Yeah,

I completely agree. You need to always learn from your mistakes and don’t let it beat you up. Just take it as a learning lesson and move forward.

Leo Wehdeking (09:42)

Correct, correct, correct. Now, let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? Like, what is your next real goal?

Nicolas Martucci (10:28)

So for this year, I was aiming to hit my million in revenue mark, which I’ll be close to. And you know, the goalposts always move. So my next year.

I want to make $2 million in revenue and take home around $1.5 or so in profits. And then I think keep going from there. mean, always, you know, once again, you hit your goal and then another goal unfolds. So I want to keep scaling. I want to keep spending more money on marketing, keep flipping more houses, and get to a point where maybe we’re doing about $5 or $6 million a year.

get to like a hundred rentals or so and then eventually not need to work because I’ll have enough money from cash flow from the rentals but I know I’ll still always want to do stuff so I don’t think I’ll ever retire but it’s nice to have that cushion so you know that like if you don’t get a deal or here or there it’s fine because you’re still safe.

Leo Wehdeking (11:22)

Yeah, I totally

agree with you. I totally agree with you, man. All right. Now I know that a lot of people listening are either early in their journey or they’re just looking to level up. All right. And I think they’ll benefit from hearing something like this. When it comes about building relationships and growing and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

Nicolas Martucci (11:43)

So one thing I would say is, especially if you’re staying local, your word is everything. Sometimes what will happen is you’re new.

you’ll get a deal and you you might have a solid offer on it but last second someone comes in and offers five thousand more but you already agreed to sell you know to this buyer if you burn someone the word gets around very fast like that’s it’s a small community everyone’s gonna know like hey don’t do business with that guy he’s not a stand-up guy so I would say you know always just be a man of your word even with the sellers also they could sense if you’re if you’re being shady or something like that

You want to just be authentic and try and help everyone in each situation. Like not every deal is a wholesale or a flip deal. So don’t try and force it if it’s not there. Always look out for everyone’s best interests and you’ll succeed.

Leo Wehdeking (13:15)

Yeah, actually that’s something that you cannot fake. I believe that being authentic, okay, it’s everything, not only in real estate, but in every aspect of the world, even, even in your individual personal life, you know, we need to be authentic at all times. So yeah, that’s actually pretty good. I totally agree with you now.

Nicolas, before we wrap up, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, or maybe collaborate or learn more.

What’s the best way for them to reach out to you?

Nicolas Martucci (13:44)

Yeah, sure. So Nick_martucci on Instagram. My website is Hudsonvalleycashbuyers.com. I am on Instagram as Hudson Valley cash buyers as well. I haven’t been posting, but I got to keep going with that. And yeah, reach out to me on the website or on Instagram, shoot me a message. And I’d love to, you know, help out or do some JVs or anything along the way.

Leo Wehdeking (14:05)

Well listen, I really appreciate your time, your story and your perspective. We need actually more people like you.

Thanks again for being on the show and for those of you that are just tuning in if you got value from this just make sure you’re subscribed. All right, we got more conversations with operators just like Nicolas who are out there building real businesses. All right, so until then we’ll see you on the next episode guys. You’re welcome

Nicolas Martucci (14:31)

Thanks, Leo.