Ep 20 How To Be Effective In Repair Work With Michelle Barajas

How can you be effective in repair work as much as possible? Having a detailed plan is critical. Jeffrey Rutkowski introduces Michelle Barajas, the Renovation Project Manager at CT Homes. In this episode, Michelle talks with Jeffrey about how engineering is the most significant factor during the inspection contingency period of the contract. Make sure your instructions for repair are clear. The contractor has to interpret your instructions the exact way you meant them. Do you want more tips on efficient repair work? This episode’s for you. Tune in!

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FortuneBuilders Real Estate Investing Show | Ep 20 How To Be Effective In Repair Work With Michelle Barajas

We have an incredible episode lined up for you. We have Ms. Michelle Barajas here from CT Homes. She is the Renovation Department Manager. It’s going to be incredible. Our word of the week is repair estimator. Every investor needs a tool to assess the ballpark repair costs of a project quickly. That’s very important because we know statistically that for every 25 offers the average investor, so you get one accepted. For CT Homes, there is about 1 out of 14. JD always wants me to make that very clear. For 1 out of every 14 offers, we can’t go into full-blown estimating repairs, getting contractors into the home, giving us official bids.

We need a tool in roughly 15 to 20 minutes to assess approximately what this house will cost to renovate. That’s one of our vital numbers, the repair cost and ARV. A repair estimator is simply a tool that gives an investor the ability to ballpark the repairs so you can get those offers out the door. Most of them will not get accepted, but when the one that does, we could look at going forward or not going forward with this deal and developing a full-blown scope of work. There you have it. That is the word of the week. Let’s get into the show.

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Michelle, welcome to the show. How are you?

I’m good. Thank you for having me.

It is such an honor to have you on here. I’m so excited to have you on the show, Michelle, you are the Renovation Department Manager for CT Homes. That’s a significant role that I know you’ve been in and with the company for years. You managed probably over 400 projects.

 

I’ve never counted, but I’m going to say between 400 and 500. You lose count after 100. I don’t know.

That is an incredible experience. How many do you have going on? What are you working on?

Active construction, about 31.

You still have time to come to the show. I appreciate that. That is a significant role. I want to spend this show talking about what you do because you fill in everything when the property is locked up to the home inspection, delivering the home to the new buyers, where the rubber meets the road. Before we get into the details of that, share with the readers what you did before real estate? Now you’re a boss. You’re managing all these properties and working for one of the best residential redevelopment companies in the country, but where did you get started?

I was a florist before I came to CT Homes and before that was all retail. I knew nothing about real estate and construction. I was a florist for about 4 to 5 years before staying home to have a baby and then straight to CT Homes. It was a new world.

How did you stumble across that opportunity? Was it something you were looking for?

I was a former employee here. I had a friend that worked at CT Homes and he was like, “Michelle, you would do excellent at this role,” not because of what I knew, but because of my skills. I’ve known this person for a very long time and he’s like, “Let’s do it.” I was like, “I don’t know.” It’s scary. I was like, “What have I got to lose?”

We have JD on the show a lot, as you know. The Owner and Operator of CT Homes for those of you that aren’t familiar. We call him our resident expert. He is always dropping knowledge and talking about how incredible the team is. On a scale of 1 to 10, I’m curious how good of a boss is he?

He’s got his moments. I am just kidding. JD is awesome. He is willing to teach and coach. The most inspiring thing about JD, though, is that man works harder than anybody I know. Sometimes I step back and I’m like, “I’m doing so many things. I work so hard.” He beats me. Hands down, he is the hardest working man I know and it’s inspiring.

You see that with Paul and JD, all of them. You can never have a good excuse not to work hard because you see them working that way.

It’s not like I’m sitting here working hard for somebody else. They’re working hard and leading the way. It’s cool to watch. He’s great at everything he does.

Florist to real estate investor. Let’s walk through the process. We had a Dan Wright in here. He is the Acquisitions Manager for CT Homes. He goes out, finds properties, writes offers and gets a property locked up. At what point does Michelle enter the transaction?

As soon as it’s locked up, we have very strict timelines. They’ll call me now. I’m sure I have some messages from him like, “Can you go to a property tomorrow?” It gets locked. I’m out there within 24 to 48 hours, checking out the house to make sure that our numbers are somewhat lining up to what they’re in escrow for. I’m there instantly.

By that point, they had made an offer on the property, so they had a ballpark repair in mind. You’re going out there to verify that and evolve that into a scope of work.

Be as detailed in your work as humanly possible.

I’m also there to see if any other consultants need to be there. Do I need to get an engineer there because the foundation looks bad and it’s something that I can’t assess? I’m there to look at everything as a whole because they’re only looking at stuff on the MLS. They don’t physically ever go to these properties or rarely do they go unless they have to meet an agent. It’s to get my eyes on everything that can be missed over the phone, pictures and video.

For those of you reading this show, many of you who are brand new to real estate and you’re not in the position to hire a Michelle in your business yet or maybe you’re scaling in going in that direction. Maybe you’re a single-person company right now. When your property gets under contract, you’re immediately getting out there verifying the repairs and scope of work. You mentioned an engineer, but what other common things may come up that would be out of your expertise?

Sewer. I don’t have x-ray vision as much as I wish I did. Depending on the age and condition of the home, I may need to get a sewer company to scope it. Roof, I’m not climbing a roof either while I’m there. I’ll have a roofer come and see if it’s a total shot roof or, “Can you do some maintenance and give me some type of warranty on it?” Engineering would be the biggest one. At this point, I can guess certain things, but engineering, I won’t take that risk.

You’re operating within the inspection contingency period of the contract. They’re looking to you to sign off on the deal that they locked up and to see if anything was missed or anything. How often do they get it right? How often do you come in?

They’re close or they’ll try to convince me why I’m off. They’re good at what they do as well. It’s just the things that they can’t see in pictures. They’re about 90% there. They’re pretty good.

You go out and they have a repair estimator in place. You’re verifying those numbers. You’re looking for any red-flag items above and beyond or something they may have missed. You’re going to be translating that into a scope of work. Explain to the readers what the scope of work is? What is your process for putting that together?

We have a template. We already have a system on a scope of work because I’m not going to sit there for ten hours on each house. On there, I’m going to make this as detailed as humanly possible because I have to write this and give it to somebody. They have to be able to interpret it the same way that I meant it. It’s going to tell you, “I want this wall removed and scraped,” and all the materials. I go as far as even writing SKU numbers.

Every part of this house is on there from the outside to inside, bathroom and kitchen. Furthermore, when I walk the house, I don’t give it to them and say, “Give me an estimate.” I walk it with them in case anything I missed while writing the scope of work. Now I have my notes and send them so it can be part of their bidding so I can avoid any change orders, which they’ll still come up with. I want to be as prepared before the project starts as possible.

You have your systems in place. How much time does it take you to put together a scope of work for one individual property from start to finish?

It’s gotten easier, 20 to 30 minutes if it’s very simple like the cookie-cutter home. If it’s something a little bit like, “I got to make it custom,” it’ll take me about two hours.

That is a key part of the process, putting together a scope. Michelle said as detailed as the SKU number. Every doorknob, mirror, vanity light or kitchen cabinet. You’re taking all the guesswork away from the contractor.

I don’t want them to be like, “She didn’t list it on there. Let me do it for her.” I hate it and they have to restart. I want to make it dummy-proof. It needs to be. There is no time for mistakes. We’re go, go, go. At the speed that we move, I have to make sure that everything is there. In the beginning, I missed stuff all the time. As you do 2, 3 or 4, you start to get them tighter.

You guys do a lot of homes, but I’m assuming you have standard kitchen and bathroom packages. That’s something that we teach our investors. How many standard bathroom packages?

 

About 4 or 5. What I try to do is I have different packages for a different style of home. I’m not going to put a ranch-style house in a Spanish-style house. It’s a template. I copy and paste. I get to the point sometimes where I don’t want to do that anymore. I’m more familiar with materials, but at the beginning, that’s so important. You have 4 or 5 standard packages and you copy and paste. You don’t want to sit there and reinvent the wheel every time you sit down.

There are some crazy lead times with certain supplies going out. We’re talking about sliding doors and things along those lines. The costs are rising month-to-month. How are you factoring that component in when bidding jobs and verifying costs?

What we’re doing with the lack of material or appliances is we’re ordering them the day we start. Most of the time our projects are longer. We order day one because I don’t want to be caught at the end and, “I just ordered them.” Anything that has the longer lead times, we’re doing the first week.

Besides appliances, what type of items would you recommend investors ordering on day one?

Windows and sliding doors, the lumber thing is not an issue. That was something that we had to navigate through and it’s gotten better. 1) It’s gotten cheaper. 2) It’s not being held in containers like mid-COVID. I ordered a Teakwood for an exterior shower and it took six weeks and then they knew for them to tell me it was locked in a container and I wasn’t getting it. It was nuts.

Appliances, windows, sliders, lighting fixtures, they’re there. The only thing is that the price fluctuates and they are discontinued like that. If I write my scope of work, I pick that light fixture. If they order it in four weeks, it’s probably not even there anymore. Fixtures and finishes. It’s good to get that upfront. You could put them in a warehouse, your garage or whatever the case may be. Those are the things.

That’s coming from day one. What are some items you’re not worried about that are so easy for the investor to get?

Plumbing fixtures. You may have to change the style a bit, but they’re always there. Lumber and roofing are there. Flooring, I’m not concerned either because there are so many different types and if this one runs out, there’s one that looks just like it that I can go with. I’m not super concerned about that. The ones that I mentioned are the important ones to get. Those are the only ones that I’m concerned about. Everything else, it’s going to be there.

You walked the property, verified the repair estimate or put together a scope of work, 20 to 30 minutes. You alluded to it earlier. You’ll walk through with the contractors, but what is the process for lining up the walk-through? Are you putting that out to multiple contractors?

I do. I suggest that everybody starting does. I have my handful of contractors that I know which one is capable of what and the house needs what. I will schedule the ones that are more capable of that specific job. I use Caleb on 20 out of 30, which is why he is so busy. I select a few, so I will send 2 to 3 to each house to bid. If they’re seasoned, I don’t feel the need to walk with them unless they say, “I do not understand this.” I’ll make myself available for that. If it’s somebody that we’re starting off, I’m front and center. I do suggest that you send multiple.

The people you have an established relationship with a lockbox on the door, email them the scope of work, they walk through, and they bid the job.

That’s the way that I do it. When I finish the scope of work, I email it out to each contractor that I want to bid it and I say, “Meet me here on this day or time.” I kept going like that and may the best GC win.

I want to talk about how a GC wins and what are the things that you’re looking for and things that may turn you off. Before I ask you that, I want to let the readers know, if you are looking to learn or get started in real estate, FortuneBuilders can help you in any facet of the game from getting off the ground, scaling, transitioning into commercial, buying and holding properties. We have a free weekly training that we do. Go to FortuneBuildersShow.com and you can grab yourself a free ticket to one of those trainings. Now the bids are coming in. Are you giving a specific timeline when you ask like, “All bids are due by?”

Everybody’s busy, but you need to be responsive.

Yes. It could take a little bit, but I can give them 48 to 72 hours. That’s a snug timeframe, but it’s doable. It’s not so much that I need it by that timeframe, but I want to see who was more interested in doing it.

You have some of your go-to guys or gals already, but with a new relationship, what are some things that are going to happen in that bidding process that is going to disqualify a contractor in your eyes immediately?

One, they don’t submit a bid, which has happened. I don’t understand. They took the time to walk the house with me, so that alone disqualifies them. If I have to ask them multiple times, it’s going to show me already that they’re not going to be responsive. I need responsiveness. I understand everybody is busy, but my job is not going to sit there. If they show me that they’re not as interested in the job that I am hiring them, then it’s a deal-breaker.

What are some things that would impress you with a new relationship? What would a contractor have to do to be like, “This is somebody I should take seriously?”

The complete opposite of that. I’ve been fooled before. I had a contractor that came in on fire. It’s like, “Here’s your bid.” They have given me the bid on the job site because they read the scope of work prior to our walk. That’s the reason why I send it out first, so they can get familiar with it so they can ask questions while we’re there. They’re giving me a speedy bid and answering everything that I need as quickly as possible. If I hired them already, getting me their insurance information, signing your contracts, getting everything in order before we start. It makes me know that they’re all there.

Outside of insurance, what are the things you’re gathering from contractors?

We’re signing our actual independent contractor agreement. That’s the contract between them and us. This is how much and your timeframe, because we also penalize if you’re not on time. Everything is set in stone. We do their payment schedule, which we also develop before they start because JD will use this one repeatedly. We’re no human ATM, so we have their payment schedule for weeks 1 and 2. They know what they’re going to get paid and what to expect every Friday. We do the insurance indemnification, so we have to have that and their liability insurance.

I’m sure you’re verifying their license and all of that along the way.

That’s all free stuff. You go on California State Licensing Board and everything is there. You can get their information for workers’ comp too.

Michelle stated the one for California, but there is a website that you can go to verify in your state. For FortuneBuilders students, inside the Mastery side, we have a little tool where you could do that right in there. With a contractor, a new relationship is established. They bid the job. Maybe they have their little contract they want you to sign. They’re being introduced to your paperwork for the first time. We call it six critical documents. What are the talking points you’re using with the contractor? The contractor is like, “Why can’t we use this? I’m not familiar with this.”

I’ve only been asked to sign a contract once. I do let them know ahead of time we’re going to be signing our contract. It’s something that you can work towards. This is the way we do things. I don’t need to be bound to your contract. I may have to fire you. I don’t sign anybody else’s contract. I put that up front. What we have done is because they want some type of security as well. Not with every general contractor, but some trades like my cabinet guy.

He has to put up the money upfront when you order, so he’ll ask for a small deposit. Since I’ve had a long relationship, I have agreed to that. He did have to earn that. It’s like, “I don’t want you to be out of money because you have this many jobs for me.” That’s got to be a lot of money. You work towards that. You have to learn how to work with each other. Later on, I’m comfortable doing certain things. You and I are not going anywhere, but upfront, I set the expectation, “This is what we’re going to do. If you’re not comfortable with it, then I’m sorry. We’ll try again later.”

I know in the payment schedule, I use the same one. It’s not, “We’re paying you $10,000 a week. We’re paying you $10,000 assuming you get X, Y, and Z done and complete it.” How are you handling those weekly inspections and what if only 75% of the job is done?

In the beginning, when you’re first hiring a contractor, you’re barely learning each other. You have to be pretty strict with that because you don’t want it to get lenient and by the end, they’re not doing anything and you still pay to them. There are two of me. I have Angel, my project manager, which is my nephew also. Angel will do all the pictures.

Twice a week, he’ll go to each project, he takes pictures and he uploads all those pictures. When we’re doing invoicing and JD is signing checks, we see, “They did that. I’ll go ahead and sign it.” If there is something that is not showing there like, “It’s $20,000, but your pictures don’t reflect what you’re asking for,” JD will say, “Why?”

There are post-it notes all over my checks. Sometimes there is a reason why and depending on the contractor and relationship that we have, if I have to do it, okay. For the most part, you want to be pretty strict with it. You’re not a human ATM. We verify every week. At the beginning, with a new contractor, we meet them at the property on a Friday. We hand-deliver the check to say, “Let’s check that. This was all done. It checks all the boxes. Here’s your check.”

 

If 75% of the work is done, they’re getting 75% of the money allocated?

I keep the check. I say, “How about we reevaluate the situation on Monday?” Maybe they work through the weekend, Monday we meet again and they’re done. It’s like what I was saying about being strict at the beginning. You don’t say, “Here is 75%.” That check is already made. I’m not going to go back to accounting and be like, “Can you avoid this?”

You’re setting these standards upfront and they understand. That sets a standard. They’re going to work hard to make sure when Michelle shows up on Fridays.

Michelle always shows up on Friday. That’s something that you have to establish with them too. You also have to prove yourself to this person. I show up on Friday with a check. If you start with the, “Can you wait until so-and-so date?” It’s going to turn them off too. We got to keep them pumped. “We’re going to keep working. I’m going to get a check this Friday. After this one’s done, we’re going to get another house.” That’s how you make the relationship and you reel them in. Most of the contractors that I use, I’ve used them since I started. You build to that, but you have to keep your word as much as you expect out of them too.

I want to move on and talk a little bit more on this topic. Before we do, we have a segment of the show that we call The Fear Factor. We teach and train a lot of investors across the country. We always hear an investor, “In some way, shape, form, I’m afraid to get started. I’m afraid to do this. I’m afraid to rehab my first property.” Fear is something we all deal with in life. Especially over the past years, fear has been a little out of control in our country. How does Michelle Barajas deal with fear?

Head on. I can’t think too much because I feel self-doubt. When I told you about when I first started here, I had no freaking clue and I was terrified. The first thing that Paul Esajian says to me in my first week, he says, “Don’t F it up.” I’m not freaking scared. Don’t have self-doubt. Just freaking do it. Go for it. All in. That’s what I did when I came to CT Homes and that’s what I do when I have to make a quick decision, put out a fire on the field. I can’t sit there and think about it because then it’s over. I get in here and it’s over. Go for it. Commit. Go.

I was talking to someone. I said like, “I’m at the point where I would rather make a wrong decision quicker than sit around and take a week to make a decision.”

Since you already fluctuated between ten different decisions, whichever one you make is not going to be good enough anymore. The first one is probably the right one.

Let’s get back to these contractors. I love that you set up this weekly routine. They know Michelle is showing up on Fridays. You’re coming with a check in hand and following through on your word. If the work is done, they’re getting paid. If it’s not, maybe give them until Monday and they wrap it up. Let’s talk about the end of the job. The job has come to completion. Usually, there is a punch list of a lot of little items. How are you handling that process? How are you closing out the deal with the contractor?

Either Angel or I will do this punch list. If there is a permit, which a lot of the time there is a permit, we have to make sure that the punch list is completed to our satisfaction and that the permit is final like if there is something or even through an engineer that needs to sign off on something that was instructional or whatever the case may be. We need all of that signed off, nothing pending, so I can close the book, move it along. After all, that’s been verified, we release their final payment and have them sign the lien waiver.

Keep your word as much as you expect others to keep theirs.

You don’t stop there. You take it to the finish line to where now the house is marketed for sale. Staging, is that something you’re coordinating or outsourcing?

We do have a third party, so I won’t do staging yet. The sales department will usually handle the coordinating of the staging. They’ll meet them out there and they’ll coordinate all that. We accommodate anything that’s extra for them. We do that, but I don’t have much going on with the staging.

Close it out with the contractor sales department, gets it ready to market and then photograph it.

As soon as it gets listed, whoever will sell it and once it goes into escrow, that’s when I jump back in. I have a brief three days of rest with this house. It happens so fast. It hits the MLS and three days later, you’re at the home inspection. We’d love to have that, but no. It’s about a week, and then we have a home inspection, which we show up to 100% of the time. If it’s not myself, it’s Angel and JD can step in if he needs to as well because sometimes they land on Saturdays, Sundays or any day. We go and are the face to CT Homes. CT Homes is this well-oiled machine and that’s all people know.

It humanizes us. Angel and I go because we’re the person who knows the most about this house. We want to meet the buyer, which is my favorite part. We’re meeting the end-user. I worked so hard on this house and I finally get to meet the person that’s going to make memories here. That’s my favorite part. We’re there to go through the process with them. This is the biggest investment for everybody. It’s a very nervous time for them. We go and describe what we did. Maybe they have questions about, “Did you do this or that?” With a renovated house, no one could assume what was done.

If we’re there, they can ask anything that they have concerns or questions about. It makes things very smooth. It makes them comfortable. It’s what it is at the end. It’s a very good experience for both parties to be there. A lot of agents at the beginning they’re like, “Why are you here?” They think we’re going to sit there and hover over this home inspection, but no, we’re there for the buyer. They have to have tons of questions. It’s there to make the process smoother.

JD was on a while back. He was talking about the home warranties and different things that you will provide. He talked about creating a folder. Are these things you’re delivering during this period or is this more at closing?

We do the buyer’s gift and package. The package is my scope of work. They’ll get the scope of work in case later down the line, they want to add things, paint something or add a tile. They have everything in front of them along with their warranty. There are appliances that come with a warranty and home warranty. All of that gets delivered the day we close escrow. Something cool too that we do is the secret service.

You’re getting intel.

That’s what I’m doing at the same time they don’t know this, but while I’m chit-chatting with them, I’m getting ideas of what we’re going to give them as a buyer’s gift, too. We’re learning about them as well. It’s cool. When they get all of this after closing, it’s like an extra plus. Not only did you get this house, but you got all this cool stuff.

Any common issues that arise during the home inspection? Is there anything normally that pops up that you have to deal with?

 

Everything always pops up. They’re all minor. This is another cool thing about being there because a home inspector isn’t going to make something softer. They’re going to say, “This GFCI plug isn’t working.” To a buyer that’s not experienced, they’re going to like, “What the heck does that mean? Do I have to get this electrician out here?” I can shut that down quickly. If I’m there, I can say, “We’re going to take care of it.” I won’t make a big deal out of nothing. Tiny little things always come up because we don’t live in these houses. We can test everything. I can’t figure out what’s going to happen, but I can address things while I’m there as well.

I can say, “We’ll take care of that. This is not functioning this way because it’s this style or because of this.” We can address a lot of concerns while we’re there. I’ve seen a home inspection report and if I’m not seasoned, that’s scary. The verbiage on there is not nice. It’s not pretty. It’s a different language. It makes them feel a little bit more at ease. There are still items. It’s most of the time, “There’s a leak at the faucet.” A big deal, but to them, it’s like, “I have to get a plumber out here.” Most of the time it’s easy punch list stuff is what we call them.

It saves a lot of time, too, versus a realtor having to write up an inspection contingency checklist that you have to go back and forth on. That’s awesome. What’s your craziest contractor story? What’s something that’s gone completely sideways? Maybe talk to us about how to fire a contractor.

They came in and were doing so well. They did one house. Their finished product wasn’t to our standard. I said, “You’ve had people here. You finished on time. You did it on the budget. You were responsible with everything. Let me give you another shot, but let me coach you on how we want it to be.” JD questioned it a little bit like, “Are you sure you want to go this direction?” I’m all, “Trust me.” They checked a lot of good boxes.

There was one box that I was like, “I don’t know. Can they do it or not?” I said, “I’m going to be there with them. Twice a week, I’m going to meet with them. I’m going to catch things before they happen.” It didn’t work out so well. They still didn’t and then I started getting scared. I could tell that they were making so many mistakes and it had only been 2 to 3 weeks. I was like, “I can’t.” What I did is I tallied where we were, how much they had done and paid them. Do we owe them or us? I did all that. I called them into a meeting here. They had no idea what I was doing.

I said, “Let’s meet over here and talk about some stuff.” We met them here. I just put it out there. “I’m nervous about the direction that this is going. I’m not confident that we can finish the way we need to finish.” It’s no hard feelings. It is what it is. I got to keep moving. He’s had some concerns about losing money and I’m like, “I don’t want you losing money. If you go belly up, I can never use you again.” I still would like to use them, just not in that capacity. Maybe I can start them on something smaller. I bit off more than I could chew with them. I said, “I’m going to take it from here.” They weren’t thrilled about it, but I couldn’t take the risk.

What I did was, “Let’s close out our books.” He’s like, “Can I have some time?” He’s going to try to come back with some number. I’m like, “That’s not going to happen.” I had to back it up. We agreed on numbers and I had him sign the lien waiver. We shook hands and went our separate ways. Will I use them again? Probably, but not on that job. Something smaller. They can train themselves up to it. I went full force too fast and confident. I was like, “No.”

I’ve had a story where it didn’t go that well when it came time to fire. JD and I tag team that one. It happened three different times. They weren’t taking, “You’re fired,” for an answer. We’re like, “Let’s give this one more a week. Michelle’s going to monitor this.” We wanted to keep the relationship because we had used them before. “You’re not performing. What do you want me to do? I can’t prove you any longer.”

You fired them, but they kept showing up?

They’re like, “No, please.” They were almost begging. We went ways and shook hands. There is no bad blood between anybody here. You never know. I don’t burn bridges. I don’t want to burn bridges. I may need you one day. Regardless of their skill, somebody is meant to do something. I could use the one that I fired. He does great at certain things, so if I need him, I can hire him for those things. There is no reason to be like, “You’re fired because you suck.”

That’s one thing I love about the way that you guys operate. Even in firing a contractor, the relationship is still intact and you could do business again.

I could call them right now and be like, “Can you go look at a house?” They’d be like, “Okay.” I love that. We’re not here to freaking crush people. We want to build these relationships and keep this long-term. It benefits all of us. There is no reason for me to come in here and be like, “You’re terrible.”

We have a lot of readers that are thinking about getting started in the business or maybe in the business looking about scaling. What is the number one piece of advice you would give to somebody kicking around the idea, “Should I start as a real estate investor?”

It’s a fun gig. It’s stressful, but what I would say that I use is systems. Have systems in place. If you’re going to go for it, go for it. Don’t just wing it. You can’t wing this job. There is no way.

I tried winging it and it doesn’t work.

Never burn bridges.

You’ll find yourself doing the same thing many times. Have systems and a good support system. That’s the most important. Commit. Go for it. It’s scary. There is a lot to learn. It’s doable, fun and rewarding. Get stuff done. GSD.

Michelle Barajas, everyone. Thank you so much for coming on.

No problem. Thank you. This was fun.

We’ll have to have you back here soon. This was great. Thank you to everyone reading this episode. As always, we would be so honored if you would share this with friends. If you know anybody that’s looking to get into the business or learn more about financial education in general. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Send me some messages. Any questions you have, any future episodes you would like, or anybody you’d like to hear from, I could probably line it up for you. Thanks, everyone. Take care.

 Important Links:

• CT Homes
• JD Esajian
• Dan Wright – Previous episode
• California State Licensing Board
• Are Home Warranties Worth It? A Guide For Owners & Investors
• Facebook – FortuneBuilders
• Instagram – FortuneBuilders