But sean conlon was made in america. Sean i have lived the american dream. Narrator hes built a fortune in the hardnosed world of chicago real estate. Sean i came here with 500 in my pocket, and i worked as a janitor. I shovelled snow. I cleaned toilets. I did anything i needed to do to scratch out a living. Narrator at night, he started to sell real estate. Sean after i got my First Commission cheque, i realized i was never going back to my day job. Narrator and by age 26, he was one of the topearning brokers in america. Sean i have bought, sold, and flipped billions of dollars of real estate. Theres nothing more exhilarating than taking something thats tired and rundown and breathing new life into it. Narrator now, seans looking out for the next generation of developers. Woman we need help. Sean theres no crisis we cant handle. Narrator investing his own money. Sean so whats your ask . Man 2 million. Narrator . And years of experience. Sean youll see how it should be done. Narrator . To help them create great real estate. Sean its spectacular. Woman wow. This is beautiful narrator and their own success stories. Nick youve helped me save this. Sean all right caren thank you. Narrator this is the deed chicago. Sean 47yearold robin carter spent the past two decades in corporate sales, repping one of the biggest soft drink brands in the country. Robin i love to sell, and i made a lot of people a whole lot of money. Sean but last year, robin was laid off. Instead of looking for another job, she decided to use her severance money to invest in her dream career real estate. Robin i think about people like warren buffet, berkshire hathaway. [laughs] you know, most of your billionaires, they started out in real estate. You got to take a leap, and thats what i decided to do. Sean six months ago, robin purchased this 19th century greystone in woodlawn, on chicagos south side. Not only is it right next door to where she lives now; she got it for only 88,000, with high hopes of turning it around. Robin when i walk into a place thats been rehabbed, thats super exciting to me. That makes me smile. Im a before and after girl. Sean but what robin struggles with is everything in between. Because now, four months into the reno, shes finally realized the budget she set is nowhere near enough. Robin im not 100 percent really mapping out how much a project costs. Im gonna be like, oh, shizzle, you know . [laughs] red alert. Sean about ten miles from downtown, woodlawn is one of chicagos hottest real estate markets. So the fact that robin got a historic greystone for such a steal means that it could be a great investment. Robin come on in. Sean okay. Obviously youve started doing some work on it. Robin i have. Were framing. Sean the ceiling heights are great. Its bright as hell. Robin yeah. Sean youre probably thinking, like, white, white walls, dark floors. Robin i am, yep. White, or. Sean thats very cool. Robin . Light grey, which is the new white. Sean okay. Will you keep the window, or. Robin i am planning to keep the window. Sean okay. Robin yep, the stained glass. Sean its wonderful and traditional. Robin yeah. This is my living room, dining room area. Sean okay, yeah, perfect. Robin yep. Sean and then, so back here, what have we here . Robin so, this was a change that was just made today. Sean okay. Robin this was the bathroom. Sean alright. Robin were gonna move the bathroom. Sean okay, why . Robin we want to open up the property even more, so you can see it from front to back. Itll help from a lighting standpoint. Sean okay, yeah. Makes sense. Robin people love open floor plans. Sean i get it. Robin yeah. Sean it makes it wide open. Robin yes. Sean wouldve been nice to make that change a couple of weeks ago, right . Robin absolutely. Sean just a little expensive to take down your framing. Robin yes. Sean i really like what robin has planned. If she moves that bathroom and tucks it away by the stairs, shell have a bright, open first floor with a huge living space that flows into a large kitchen at the back of the house. Its the perfect floor plan for entertaining. Robin this is coming off. Sean so youll have steps here . Robin we will have a deck here. Sean and this beatenup old porch . She plans on demolishing it to make way for Outdoor Living space. Sean itll make for a nice yard, then, with a deck, right . Robin and a deck, yes. Sean very cool. Robin yeah. Sean and whats going on here . Robin theyre rehabbing this house next door. Sean oh, thats cool. Robin so, good timing. Im excited about that. Sean yeah. Robin cause when its time to sell it, thatll be fantastic. Sean having the house next door being renovated for sale is even more confirmation that this neighbourhood is on the up. But it is important that robin beats them to the market. Sean hmm. Okay. So, this is the master bedroom. For a row house, its actually wide. Robin yeah. Its sizeable. Sean but row houses can be dark, so i really want robin to bring back this original skylight. Sean anywhere you can get extra light from, it makes a big difference. Robin yeah. Sean aside from the master bedroom and ensuite bath, the rest of the top floor will have a laundry room, two additional bedrooms, and another bathroom. Sean right, lets take a look at the basement. Robin awesome. Sounds good. Sean okay. So what are you doing down here . Robin um, so what im gonna do in here, theres gonna be a front room. Sean yep. Robin . Actually down here, so for lounging. Then youll have a bedroom, a laundry room, a bathroom, storage along here. Sean have you thought about somewhere where youll put a kitchen . Might you put a small kitchenette against that wall over there or this wall . Robin i hadnt had that built into my original plan. Sean right. Sean if robin builds a kitchen in the basement and puts in a separate entrance, this space all of a sudden becomes a standalone apartment. Buyers are sure to see the potential of rental income as a bonus. But it will mean more work, and i want to make sure that q, the contractor that robin has on the job, is up to the task. Robin hey, q, how are you . Q good. Hows it going . Sean nice to meet you. Q pleasures mine. Sean how are you . Q good, good, how are you . Sean youre the contractor . Q yes. Thats what they call me. Sean and how do you guys know each other . Q uh, we met in the coffee shop. Robin yeah. Somebody told me he did a fantastic job from a gc perspective, and its been great. Sean so how did you start contracting . Q i started about 27 years ago. Sean okay. I like that. What else are you working on . Q im working on a couple more projects, uh, on the west side. Sean okay. Q . And on the south, Near South Side here. Sean q has several jobs on the go, and that means robin is really going to need to stay on him to make sure that this job doesnt get lost in the shuffle. Sean i wanted to ask you about Something Back here, q. I had noticed that theres a. See this, right . Q yes. Sean its pretty slight, but obviously its structural. It bows to the centre, right . What are you going to do here . Q were gonna actually take this out. Sean yeah. Q and rebrick it, reshore it up, and get it level. Sean what do you think this will cost extra . Q we estimate 7 to 10,000. You know, we never know whats gonna come down when we start moving it. Sean right, right. All right, so you borrowed 140,000 to do the renovation. Robin yeah. Sean do you think thats enough . Q no, shell definitely need over 140,000 to finish this renovation. Sean okay. Robin yeah, were probably looking at anywhere between 40 to 60, give or take. Sean so, potentially 200,000 total. Robin exactly. Sean when do you think youll be finished the house . Q we figure about 90 days. Thats based on city approval. The city inspectors sign off on everything. Sean considering whats left to be done, 90 days seems just about right. And that means robins house will hit the market in late spring, which is a real sweet spot for selling a home. Sean so youre renovating this to sell. Robin im renovating this one to sell. Fix and flip, yep. Sean okay. Robin so then, in addition to this property, im also working on a property in North Kenwood im moving into. Sean what do you plan to do with your home next door . Robin so, my house next door. Sean yeah. Robin . Im planning to airbnb it. Sean okay. Sean no one could ever accuse robin of lacking ambition. Shes fixing to flip this place, will use her current home next door as a Vacation Rental to generate income, and shes renovating a third house that she plans to move into. Sean so thats a lot of moving parts. Robin i mean, its a costly equation. Sean does it keep you awake some nights . Robin 5,800 is what i pay on mortgages alone for the three properties. Sean okay, wow, wow. Robin right, so thats a substantial amount. Sean okay. So what do you realistically think you can sell it for . Robin i think i can sell it for anywhere between 4 and 415. Sean im impressed. Let me noodle your request. Robin okay. Sean . And ill be back to you, okay . Robin okay, sounds good. Both thank you. Sean right now, woodlawn is going through a major transformation. The university of chicago is expanding their campuses here, and renovations like robins are attracting more affluent buyers. Sean plus, the comps tell me she could easily sell her place for the 415,000 she wants and walk away with a potential profit of around 120,000. Thats an incredible win for a rookie. Sean well, thank you very much for coming. Good to see you. First things first. I really like the fact that youre. Reinventing yourself. Robin yeah. Sean sometimes i think id love to reinvent myself. Robin [laughs] sean . But down the road. Robin yes. Sean so lets say, hypothetically, i lend you the money to flip this property. Robin i think i want to keep that property now. Its two separate units. So i have the ability to lock off both of those units and actually have two different rental situations going on at the same time. I cannot do that in the property that im currently in. Sean have you a handle on what rent you can get . Robin um. It should it should work out well. Sean so were changing the whole game, right . Robin mmhm. Sean so its not a flip. Its become somewhat of a backflip, right . Robin [laughs] thats a good one. Sean just so were clear, you would still be borrowing the money to finish your present project from me. Robin and actually sell the property that im currently in. I owe about 220 on that particular home. If i sold it for 400, i would get a profit of 180. So theres actually more money in the house that im currently in. Sean so then you would pay off the loan i would give you when you sell the property next door . Robin correct. Sean as much as i dont like being blindsided middeal, what robin is proposing is actually much better for both of us. Shell end up with a bigger profit by selling the home that shes currently living in. And that home can go to the market much sooner, and that means i get paid back much faster. Sean you wanted how much from me . Robin it was 64,000. Sean im going to give you a onestop solution for everything. Robin mmhm. Sean i will actually give you 275,000. It takes out your current lender. Robin mmhm. Sean i will give you the 64,000 to finish the construction. Youll be paying 14 percent on that money. And i will take 20 percent of the profit. Sean and i would want to reserve the right to replace q if he doesnt perform per contract. Thats my proposal. Robin i feel really good about q. I plan on working with him on other projects, so i have an issue with that particular point. Sean the general contractor gets paid for his construction. Robin mmhm, right. Sean as the lender, your interests are perfectly aligned with me if i lend you this money. Sean qs are not. Robin right. Thats fair. So then. 14 percent interest. I was thinking more of eight points. Sean if i had your situation right now i couldnt get an eight percent mortgage, okay . Robin uhhuh. Sean you have three mortgages, youve two Construction Projects going, and you dont have a job. Robin right, right. Thats correct. Sean so, how about. Ill do 12 percent. Robin okay, i like that. That works for me. Sean you win there. Robin and we keep q . Sean you have to remember, me giving you this money, i would be investing in you. So i have to trust that you know what youre doing. Robin okay. Sean do we have a deal . Robin i think we have a deal. Sean okay. Robin alrighty. Thank you. Sean ive done a deal with robin on her greystone reno where electrical and hvac are being installed. The plan is to build two separate units that robin can rent out through airbnb. Chicago is the third most profitable Vacation Rental market in the country, right after san diego and miami. But not all rentals are created equal, so im taking her to three different units, at different price points, to show her how to maximize her profit. Robin wow this is beautiful man come on in. Robin thank you for having us. Man sure, of course. Robin this is awesome. Wow. Woman come on in. Robin oh my gosh sean wow. This is rock star. Uber urban. Robin i love it. Sean these properties are some of chicagos most successful airbnb rentals, and i want robin to see what makes them better than the rest. Sean i like it. Woman so i have a fullystocked bar for all of my guests. Sean look at this. Laura if they finish a bottle, they replace it with another, so they sort of restock the bar for me. Sean i like the subway tile. Man 2 i wanted the kitchen to feel like youre in a restaurant. Sean okay. So really good for entertaining, right . Man 2 its fantastic. Woman 2 absolutely. Sean oh, this is cool. Woman 2 the unique pieces. Robin yeah. Woman 2 . Are what brings the whole place together. Sean unique touches and vintage furnishing will definitely woo higherend clients, but robin also needs to understand how to get top dollar without breaking the bank. Robin so i love the way you have it furnished. Man i got the furniture completely off of online websites like craigslist, letgo, offerup. Robin wow. Laura when youre doing a Vacation Rental, for every extra guest you have past a certain number, you charge an extra nightly fee. So wherever you can put in more beds. Robin yeah. Laura . Do it. Sean so lets say i call up. Man 2 yeah. Sean i want to rent your house. Man 2 yes. Sean how quickly would i hear back from you . Woman 2 less than a minute. Robin wow. Man 2 Response Time is critical. Sean if robin follows these tips, she could turn her two units into serious money makers. Sean say you rented this home for one year, right, to somebody . How much would that rent out for the year, would you guess . Man 2 i would guess. Close to 40,000. Sean okay, so this would rent for 40,000 per year. Man 2 for a fulltime rental. Sean for a fulltime rental. So airbnb . Man 2 um. Woman 2 double that. Sean okay, so youd double it. Man 2 yeah. Man if it were rented as a singlefamily home, i would expect to get, hopefully, 3,000. Uh, with the Vacation Rental, 7,500 to 10,000 a month. Sean okay, so doubletriple again. Robin i like it. Okay. Sean if you were going to rent this apartment just for the year, what would you charge per month . Laura i would charge 3,000 per month. Sean but, doing what you do, the Vacation Rental model, what do you charge . Laura well, the nightly rate brings me in about 30,000 a month. Sean wow. Laura so 10 times what i would normally make. Sean thats unbelievable. Robin ah, yeah. This is exactly what i want to do. Youve changed my life, laura laura [laughs] sean mine too. Im going back to the office and im selling everything. [laughter] robin airbnb it all sean definitely in the wrong business. Laura [laughs] sean these potential numbers are astounding, but Vacation Rentals can be risky and not everybodys going to make 30,000 a month. But after hearing these figures, i am confident that if robin gets her units rented, she can cover her 2,000month mortgage and then some. Sean ohho robin oh my, oh my. Sean theres a lot of bull [bleep] here at this stage. We need to get it done. Robin absolutely. Sean rookie develop its more than just fast. It keeps all your devices running smoothly. With builtin security that protects your kids. No matter what theyre up to. It protects your info. And gives you 24 7 peace of mind. That if its connected, its protected. Even that that petcamera thingy. [ whines ] can your internet do that . Xfinity xfi can because its. Simple, easy, awesome. [ barking ] into two Vacation Rental units. And today her gc has his crew tearing down the back porch to make room for the deck. [crashing sounds] sean woo [crashing sounds] robin oh my, oh my. [crashing sounds] robin wow. [construction sounds] sean ohho there it goes sean okay, guys, well, i just wanted to catch up on our schedule in here. So, obviously, q will be able to enlighten us a little bit on the inspections . Q we havent scheduled them yet. We wont schedule them until we have a completion. That way we make one phone call and its done. Sean there are two ways to handle inspections book them, then work backwards to the date and make sure that all of the work is done. And then theres qs way do all of the work and then try and get the inspections booked. Its risky because it could take the city weeks to get out to the site. But i have to assume that q has it under control because he has lots of projects in the neighbourhood. Sean okay, it would be wonderful if you could keep it on track, right . Schedulewise . Q yeah. Robin thats the plan, yeah. Sean schedule is something in your flipping career that youre gonna have to start to pay real close attention to. Robin absolutely. Yep, yep. Sean very important. Robin yeah. Sean because then youre going to start selling next door soon, right . Robin yes, yes. So next door, well start selling it its supposed to go on the market in about three weeks. Sean okay. Robin if you think about qs timeline and my timeline. Sean yeah. Robin . Its really coinciding and working well. Sean it could be perfect. Robin absolutely. Sean robin lives right next door to her reno. Since selling that property is how shes going to pay me back for the loan, i want to see how much work it needs before we can list it. Sean im going to look at it like i would as a salesperson. Robin got it. Sean so first things, the kaleidoscope of colours is very pretty. Robin yeah. Sean . But its very personal. Thats your taste. Robin yes, okay. Sean im going to say youll need to paint this neutral. The other thing, your furnitures very big. Robin okay. Sean and so, you may want to store it. Robin yeah. Sean . Sell it, whatever you choose to do. Sean we might decide on a little staging. Robin yep. Sean but whatever you do, make space in here. Sean okay, now, the good news is your kitchen looks like itll be okay. I think if we cleaned it up. Robin okay. Sean . And polished it and stuff, it might be okay. Robin great. Sean youve got a lot of stuff. Robin i have a lot of stuff in here now because im moving. So im just storing it here right now. But this is really kind of a breakfast nook area. Sean but when we start showing. Robin yes. Sean . We definitely need all this to be gone. Robin oh, yeah. This will be gone. Sean i mean, all this has to be addressed here, right . Sean robins home needs decluttering, plaster repair, restaging with smaller furniture, and a new paint job from top to bottom. But if she puts the work in now, it should ensure a quicker sale. Sean its an investment. Robin yep. Sean youll get it back. Robin yep. Sean we have a plan. Robin sounds good. Sean while the crew is working to restore the original brickwork on the exterior, robin and i can focus on her interior finishes specifically, the kitchen, since she wants the entertaining area to be a draw for people looking to airbnb it. So we will need cabinets that will look great in the listings photos and withstand a ton of wear and tear. Sean this really works. Robin and its clean. Sean i really like it. Robin its a good look. Sean do you think itll be in your budget . Robin yeah. Sean its perfect. Sean up next, countertops. Sean okay, so this is the quartz, right . Robin okay. Sean so. Robin i do like this. Sean two slabs of quartz will run us 6,000, almost double the budget. So i want to show robin something much more costeffective. Sean this is the granite. Robin okay. Yeah. We can keep moving. Really quickly. Sean okay, okay. [laughs] robin like running. Sean okay. Okay, so you like none of them . Robin this ones not bad. Sean okay, well make a note of that. Yeah, im sure its the most expensive granite in the place, so we got you there. Robin i just. I dont like granite. Sean okay. No, i can tell. The granite probably knows you dont like it, too. Robin yeah, yeah. No offence, no offence. Sean i just hope that when she hears the price difference, shell come to her senses. Sean all right, so this was a granite. So, this was the only granite that robin liked. Saleswoman this is called thunder white, and this is 1,500 for the slab. Sean okay. Did you see that . Do you see why im leading you to granite . Its much more affordable. Robin yeah, i see. Saleswoman and the granite, its more durable, too. Robin thank you, melissa. Sean for a rental, i would seriously lean towards this. Robin okay. Sean at the home robin plans on selling, shes followed my plan to a tee. Its gone through a complete transformation. Sean the walls are bright white, and shes staged the house with smallerscale furniture. Its now ready to go on the market. Sean but theres bad news too. Robin has a family emergency and needs to leave town, but shes agreed to meet with me about her gcs schedule on her way to the airport. Sean where are we at . Robin dont have the inspections yet. Though we should have had them by now, so we are behind on that. So hes calling for the inspections now. Sean how much do you think its gonna push us out . Robin it could be about, im thinking about another two weeks. Now again. Sean at least. Robin . Hes assuring me that, hey, once i get these inspections, im gonna go, go, go. Sean so theres no way you kind of need to step up the pressure on him now. Robin i agree. Absolutely. Sean this impacts you much more than q. Robin yeah, and im spending money, so its not a good thing. Sean its been over two weeks since ive heard from robin, and when i drop by, theres no one onsite and the backyard still looks like a war zone. Meanwhile, the reno on the house next door is completely finished. This is not what i meant about staying on schedule. Robin when we first started out it was moving well, um. And now its really become more, hey, the inspections, this and that. Sean like, im not buying the inspection excuse. Robin oh, absolutely. Sean because if he was hands on he would have figured it out. Robin absolutely. I wholeheartedly agree with you. Sean somebodys bull [bleep] me. Robin but heres the situation. Hes taken on another project now, and so when we talked last week my question was, hey, where are we from a commitment standpoint . And it was, you know, im totally committed to this project. Sean i know robin wants to take q at his word. But actions speak louder, and this flip is officially off the rails. Robin man, this is out of control now. Sean youre not finishing when you said you were. And heres the thing. My construction site, id clean that up, so these guys are not pissed off and she could get her house done next door. Q yeah. Sean thats how i would do it. vo quickbooks salutes the grit and determination of those who work for themselves. Theyre the backbone of our economy. And in these challenging times, theyre adapting to support their communities. But many need our help. If youre a Small Business in need, or want to help a local business, go to quickbooks. Com smallbusinesshelp intuit quickbooks. Has come to a complete standstill. Its bleeding both time and money. So ive asked for a meeting with her and her gc, q. Sean im obviously here to see what the hells going on. Q so, uh, major problems we found out here. Every time we touched a window, it collapsed, so we had to reconstruct all the windows. So if you want to come up, well take a look at that. Sean we can walk through, but heres the argument im gonna make. Youre not finishing when you said you would. Like, how are these guys getting all their stuff done . They started after your one. I mean, theyre well done before you now. Q yeah. Robin this is not only impacting me in trying to sell my house; its also impacting my neighbours and what theyre trying to sell. I dont like to be the one thats causing people issues with all that garbage in the backyard that we were supposed to already clean. Q its a construction site. Its gonna have have garbage. Its gonna have everything. Sean but ive seen a few construction sites. I mean, heres the thing. On my construction site, id clean that up so these guys are not pissed off, and she could get her house done next door. Thats how i would do it. Sean well, lets take a walk through, okay . Well see whats changed. Sean what q is saying just isnt adding up. Framing out the windows should take a week, at most. Q every time you remove one of the windows. Sean yeah. Q . All of the bricks collapsed. Sean okay. Q so each one of these had to be rebuilt, and headers put in every last one of these windows. Sean i guess the thing that probably is frustrating to robin is we did talk about you calling the city two months ago for the inspections. Robin right. Sean youre now talking about calling them, calling them again, or. Q electricals been called. Hvac has been called. Construction has been called. Sean and they were called in. When . Q they were called friday. Sean obviously not gonna hit any of the deadlines initially discussed. Sean the way q is dragging his feet, this could go months over schedule. And in the meantime, robins paying 2,000 a month for the mortgage. Thats real money she wont be getting back. Robin so are you fully done with your other projects, so these guys can truly focus on this . Or where are we, honestly . Q no. Theyre here. Robin but they worked over there, too. Q yeah, they had two days over there. Robin they worked over there too, which. Theyve been over there, q, more than two days. Q it doesnt matter, but if i got an emergency on a site. Robin it does, because its impacting my project. So they have been over there more than two days. So one thing you said to me last week was, im fully committed to your project. Q right. Robin but nobodys here today. Q i explained to you everything that went on, right . Robin that somebody was sick. Q i said tomorrow everybody was gonna be on point. Sean thats it. I cant listen to one more excuse. As of right now, q is off the job. Sean hes definitely bull [bleep] us. Robin yeah. Sean now, not sure what the background is. He mightve got too busy. Robin yeah. Sean . But then he shouldve told you. Right now theres a lot of bull [bleep] here at this stage. We need to get it done. Robin absolutely. Sean with q off the job, its time to get this reno back on track. Sean morning, guys. Robin hi, how are you . Luis hey, good morning, sir. Robin hi. Sean ive brought my contractor, luis, to finish the job. Sean so were ready to Start Construction . Luis were ready to rock and roll. Robin lets go. Luis after you. Sean but just as were getting down to business, the City Building inspector shows up, and we havent even had a chance to review any of qs work. Sean a city inspector is kind of like being stopped by the police. Im just always nervous around them. I have been my whole life. Even when they still walk in, i get nervous. Luis how, how much . Oh [bleep]. Luis yeah. Inspector well, youre eight and a quarter on your rise already, and thats eight. Luis uhhuh. Inspector youre over eight already, so. The stairs arent to code; the headrooms not to code. Luis i have to redo this whole thing. Okay. Inspector you got to reframe the whole stairwell. Luis yep, yep. Inspector so really there is no bearing wall in here, you know . This isnt were not counting this as a bearing wall. There is nothing underneath it, so. We cant pass that. Inspector you know, obviously its. Its [bleep]. Luis it is sloppy [bleep]. Okay. Inspector all right. Theres a ton of stuff here we denied. We went through a lot of it. Luis there are things that we need to do. Inspector ill put everything in the system for the next inspector. Luis please, thanks. Sean i cant say for sure, but part of me wonders whether q put off booking the inspector for so long because he knew the work would never pass. Sean first things first, i can tell by the expression on your face you know that that was pretty bad, right . Robin yeah. I mean, it was denied, so. We got work to do. Luis there is no supports on the stairs. Robin mmhm. Luis the steps are too high. Robin mmhm. Luis thats construction 101. Robin mmhm. Luis sorry. Sean its substandard work. Its interesting, you know, sometimes you dont know till you get rid of somebody that great expression that warren buffet had its only when the tide goes out you know whos been swimming naked. Robin mmhm. Yeah. Sean and you being at this inspection was a great thing. Had your previous contractor been here, this wouldve gotten glossed over. Robin yeah. Sean good news is, this should be your absolute bottom today, right . Robin right. Sean i mean, it can only get better from here. Luis yep, yep, true. Sean so, new day. Were starting over. We know weve major structural issues which need to be addressed. Were gonna move forward together, the three of us. Luis yes, sir. Robin okay. Good deal. Sean okay, all righty. Robin yes. Robin i got some good news. Sean okay. I always like good news. Robin yes. I got an offer on this place. Sean you did . Robin i did. Sean how much . Sean weve had to spend weeks fixing the problems that robins former contractor left behind. Sean loadbearing beams are installed where previously there were none. The staircase that didnt pass inspection is reframed to code. Sean the exterior brickwork is redone, and the backyard is cleaned up. All the work passes inspections. This reno is finally moving forward. But today robin says she wants to talk about her home next door. Robin ive got some good news. Sean okay. I always like good news. Robin yes. I got an offer on this place. Sean you did . Robin i did. Sean how much . Robin 375. Sean okay. I think thats good. Robin yeah, and i accepted it, yay sean excellent. Thats really good news though. Robin im excited. Sean im excited closing soon . Robin closing soon. Sean shall we go and have a look at this . Robin absolutely. Lets do it. Sean over at the reno, luiss crew is working hard to make up for lost time. As a new roof goes on the garage, the back deck is floated with concrete, insulation goes in, and the drywall begins. [construction sounds] sean looking good. Robin theres a ton of progress. I can actually see it, you know, now coming to life. Its a great feeling. Sean this process has obviously been way more complicated than it should have been. Robin yeah. Sean like trying to catch smoke in a bottle. Robin i know, yeah. Sean how much had to be redone, because the previous contractor obviously didnt do it properly. Robin right. Sean lesson learned, right . Robin oh my gosh, yes. Definitely. Sean feeling good. Robin oh, these guys are doing a great job. Sean all the drywall work has been done, so the whole house is getting primed and painted. New Hardwood Flooring is installed. [construction sounds] sean the trim is in place, and all the bathroom tile is set and grouted. Sean meanwhile, ive found an estate sale online where we might be able to find a piece of vintage furniture. Robin i cant wait to see this bar sean that will bring style and function to robins Vacation Rental. Joe nice to meet you. Sean and this is robin. Robin hi, joe. How are you . Joe hey, robin. Come on in. Sean oh, this is something. Robin oh my. Wow sean so, whats the story here . Joe well, the story is we lived in this home for 62 years, and my grandmother and my mother, like, made it like a museum. Sean i love this; the plastic on the couch forever. Robin my grandma had that. Joe no one was allowed to touch anything. Sean so you were never allowed to sit on there . Joe no. Off limits, guys. Robin oh my gosh. Is that a kodak camera . Sean where . Joe yes, it is. Robin i came here to get a bar, but i gotta get this camera. I am serious joe thats the original instamatic 44 with the flash cubes. Robin i gotta buy this camera. Sean this really is like a snapshot of history. Joe and theres our lovely bar. Sean the bar, robin. Robin oh, i like the bar. Joe vintage bar. Joe no one was allowed to even sit on it or. Robin so the bars never been used, joe . Joe no. Sean as an irishman, a lightly used bar is a very novel concept. Robin [laughs] sean very excited about that. Robin it does look brandspanking new. Sean this is perfect, right . Robin yes. I love it. Sean so we went and looked at some airbnbs and they had, like, a nice bar area. Robin has a nice new airbnb, so we want to have something we can put the alcohol on. Robin this is super cute. Sean 395. I need to sit down. Robin yeah. [laughter] joe i know robin would pay me for what its. What i have on there. [laughter] sean all right, joe, so. If i was to say like 250, what would you say to me . Joe um. I think we could counter at 325. This is family history. Sean so that would be your final no bull [bleep] price . Joe right. Sean might you help us carry it to the car . Joe yes, i will, and ill even throw in the camera. Sean all right, deal. There you go. Robin hot diggity dog. Thank you, joe. Youre a good man. Sean we have a deal. Robin im gonna carry the stools. Ill leave the heavy lifting to you guys. Sean thats some interesting paintwork. Robin well, this is a chalk wall sean okay. Ohhoho. This is phenomenal sean ive been helping robin renovate this greystone in order to jumpstart a career in Vacation Home rentals. And while the construction crew works on the finishing touches, ive asked her to brainstorm some ways to make her new airbnb stand out from the crowd. Sean owners who brand their rentals get more bookings than owners who dont, and robin has cleverly combined her last name with her favourite colour to come up with the carter blue. I think thats quite creative. Robin what do you think . Sean this has come together really nicely. Robin you like it . Sean yeah, i really do like it. Robin this is a fireplace i added. Because if you think about it, although this is gonna start out as an airbnb, eventually i want to sell it one day. Sean okay. Robin . And most places have a fireplace. Sean makes sense. Robin so kinda two Living Spaces right here. Sean thats some interesting paintwork. Robin well, this is a chalk wall sean okay. Robin so thats where im gonna brand the carter blue. Sean okay. Robin and itll also say, places you wanna see, places you wanna go. Welcome, sean. Enjoy your stay sean i like that. Thats really creative. Robin you know, people today love to take pictures, so envision carter blue. They take their photos, they post them on instagram, facebook, whatever. And then weve got instant advertisements. Sean so. I notice the blue door. So thats carter blue . Robin you get it. Sean i see the theme. Robin you like that . Sean i think this is really cool. And this is great. You can put two stools here, yeah. Robin a couple stools, one on the end. We had a little situation and luis informed me that there were no more white cabinets. Sean these are much cooler. Robin i love these, and i love them much more than what i would have liked the white cabinets. Sean theyre way cooler. Robin yes. Sean so lets see upstairs. Robin all right, it looks great. Robin this is the master. Sean i like it. Robin right . Sean whats your plan for the room . Its a really nice size. Robin im gonna do two beds. Sean okay. Its a good idea. Robin yeah. I mean, more occupancy. Sean so how many people can this home accommodate then . Robin eight. Sean okay. And then this is your master bathroom. Id spend some money on the toiletries and stuff like that. Robin okay. Sean i had a property and the person handling it for me had insisted that i get better toiletries, that i get better dishware. Robin yeah. Sean . That i get better pots and pans and i was so irritated, but the comments were better. Robin really . Sean it increased my rental price significantly. Robin i like that idea. Thank you. Sean all right. Lets head downstairs. Robin all right. Good stuff. Sean you have a skylight. Robin you like it . Sean i do like it. Sean so, right now, you have a perfect canvas here. Like, this is fantastic. Robin yeah. Sean its beautiful. Robin yeah. Sean well, have you thought a little bit about what youre going to charge per night . Robin i have. We want to start out at 200 a night, but the beauty of the situation in this deal. Sean yeah . Robin. Is that ill have somebody living here permanently whos gonna pay me a permanent rent every month. Sean okay. Robin so ive got a base. Sean so you have a rental income downstairs. Robin correct. Sean upstairs, robin will only have to book five nights at 200 each to cover her mortgage. Anything above that is pure profit since shell be getting 1,000 a month in rent from her downstairs tenant. Robin shes gonna be my hostess for this place. Sean the real key. Robin yeah. Sean . To airbnb, responsiveness. Robin yeah. Sean so this person whos going to be your hostess, test her. Call in. Robin yeah. Sean okay, so then the next thing is your reviews are so critical, right . Robin exactly. Sean so, cleanliness is the most important thing. Robin so, i have hired a person thats going to maintain it and keep it clean. Sean okay. Robin in order to pay for it, though, ill also charge a cleaning fee from like 100 to 125 bucks. Sean plan of action. Robin okay. Sean come in here and pore over the cleaning of the place. Robin yeah. Sean . First several times, and consistency in cleaning. Robin yeah. Sean lets agree on a one hour. Robin one hour. Sean . Response time . And youll test it. Robin okay. Sean and thats our plan. Robin yeah. I like it, i do. Thats a good job. Sean we got a deal, again. Robin welcome to the carter blue. Sean oh my god this is incredible. Sean for more about this flip and others, go to thedeedchicago. Cnbc. Com. vo theyre adapting to supporto their communities. S. But many need our help. If youre a Small Business in need, or want to help a local business, go to quickbooks. Com smallbusinesshelp intuit quickbooks. Hey, our workers comp insurance is expiring. Should i just renew it . Yeah, sure. Hey there, Small Business owner. Pie insurance here with some sweet advice to stop you from overpaying on workers comp. Try pie instead and save up to 30 . Thirty percent . Really . Sure get a quote in 3 minutes at easyaspie. Com. That is easy. So, need another reminder . No, im good. Reminder for what . Oh. Ho ho, yeah need workers comp insurance . Get a quote in 3 minutes at easyaspie. Com. vo quickbooks salutes those who work for themselves. Theyre adapting to support their communities. But many need our help. If youre a Small Business in need, or want to help a local business, go to quickbooks. Com smallbusinesshelp intuit quickbooks. Its more than just fast. It keeps all your devices running smoothly. With builtin security that protects your kids. No matter what theyre up to. It protects your info. And gives you 24 7 peace of mind. That if its connected, its protected. Even that that petcamera thingy. [ whines ] can your internet do that . Xfinity xfi can because its. Simple, easy, awesome. [ barking ] sean when robin bought this greystone, she planned on a quick fix and flip reap the rewards and start a new career in development. As if that wasnt a big enough change, we ended up revising the old floor plan and then robin decided she was not going to sell, so i had to fire the old contractor and hire a new one. Now, robins reno and her vision for a future in Vacation Home rentals is finally complete. Sean hello . Robin sean, how are you . Sean oh [laughs] this is phenomenal robin do you love it . Sean oh my god. This is incredible. Robin welcome to the carter blue this is my chalk wall. This is my branding chalk wall. Sean top eating spots. Robin yeah. Sean . Top bars. Robin and. Sean top guy in the whole city ever, sean colon this is a really interactive, proactive thing youre doing. Robin like, who would not want to take pictures in front of this . Sean its brilliant. Robin i got a brilliant from sean sean no. I love it. Lets do the first selfie. Robin [claps] lets do it. Sean come on. Alright. Excellent. Robin awesome sean it really brands it and it personalizes it. Robin yeah. The branding is going to resonate throughout. Robin so i have my own logo, the carter blue. Sean very nice. Robin right . And different hues of blue throughout. Right . Sean i really like it. And then, from a real estate perspective. Robin yeah. Sean . With this wall gone this space feels spectacular. Robin it does. I mean, it opened it wide open. Now, from the time you hit the door to the time you come through, you can see all the way through the hall. Sean its great. Ill tell you what i really like too. Youve got lots of different zones for people to gather in. Robin yeah, yeah. Sean the place just feels good. Robin yeah. And heres the other thing that was good about this too. I used a little bit of new. Sean yeah. Robin but then some of this stuff is a lot of my old stuff from my other house. Sean and it worked. Robin you want to repurpose this stuff. You dont want to go out buying a bunch of new stuff. Sean and the kitchen turned out perfect. Robin thank you. This is also a place where folks can kinda chill out. Sean so this isnt the granite i was pushing you towards, no. Robin from a budget standpoint, because the project went long, the people that were working on the house next door, they got their fence up before me. So when we had to do fencing in the front, i was like, well repurpose some dollars. Sean fair enough. Ill allow you to rationalize your behaviour. Robin thank you. Sean it looks really cool. Robin good sean the cabinets, fully stocked. Robin bam gotta be ready. Sean and i see joes bar. Its found a new home. Robin it has i love the bar. Thank you so much for that. Sean and its fully stocked. Robin and check out the mugs. Sean carter blue coffee cups. Robin yes. Sean i mean, youre really going for this. Robin yeah. Sean okay, i want to see the rest. Robin all right. Lets take a look. Sean, you remember this . Look at it now. Sean yeah. It was a complete disaster. Robin i know. It has come a long way. Sean this is great. Robin thank you. Sean i mean, its clean, some chairs. Robin yeah. Sean some tables, some plants, a barbecue. Robin maybe a little firepit sean see, thats something they wont get in a hotel. Theyll have this outdoor space. Robin yeah. Sean this is great. Robin thank you. Sean this really came together wonderfully. Robin im very pleased. Sean lets go in through the blue door. Robin carter blue. Sean all right, sean, were headed into the master bedroom. Sean this is great. You put the two beds in. Robin i did. Sean more guests. Robin i put the two beds in. More guests, more money. Sean still tons of space. And its a proper master. If ever for resale. Robin yes. Sean. This room size is great. Robin agreed. Sean and the master bathroom. This turned out fantastic. Youve got a huge shower. Youve got the double vanity. Fantastic bathtub. Youve the jets in it. Sean youve done it all, and you actually got all the little bits and bobs. Robin i did. Sean to personalize the place. Robin i did. I took your recommendation, so it was a small expense. People will love this stuff. Sean whats amazing about this is, you know, youre in a price point where. Robin yeah. Sean . People wont get this in a normal hotel, and that kind of sets you apart. Robin my goal with the carter blue is to really make this a home away from home experience. And if you think about that, thats exactly what this does. Sean so, robin, where are the rest of the bodies going to go . Robin [laughs] robin right here. Ive got two bunkbeds in here, so folks can sleep in here. Sean cool. Robin yeah. Sean bunkbeds, i like that. Robin and then lastly, this is the last bedroom for two as well. Sean so eight people up here. Robin right. Sean okay, that should make you some money, right . Robin it should. Sean this is a really cool airbnb. Robin thank you. Sean i mean, i think it will do spectacularly. Robin thank you. Im ready to make some money. Sean now, on that subject. How did you do here . Robin i went over my budget. Sean okay. Robin but , but, but, but it was warranted. So for the fireplace. Sean okay. Robin . I had to fix the things that the first contractor screwed up. Sean which were numerous. Robin exactly. Sean i must confess, i never thought wed be here. When we did a deal, we stopped discussing flips, you did more of a backflip on me, and. To overuse a Tammy Wynette term, you stood by your man. Robin [laughs] that was not my man, but keep going. Sean you stood by your contractor. Robin there you go. Sean that being said. Robin mmhm. Sean were here. [laughs] robin we are. Sean which is unbelievable. Robin absofreakinglutely. Sean i cant speak highly enough of your ability to listen. You listened. Robin i learned a ton along the way. So, number one, have a good plan. Sean right. Robin and then a plan b. Sean c, d, e. Robin [laughs] then a plan c. Robin d, e, f, all the way to z. cause somethings going to go wrong. Sean yeah. Robin number two. Dont look for the least expensive gc. That was like the worst thing i could have ever done. Sean absolutely. Robin you get what you pay for. Sean im proud of you. Robin i never would have gotten through this without you, and its been amazing for me. Sean well, thank you. Robin so, thank you so much. Sean now youre going to be a super hostess here, at the best airbnb in the south side. Robin best airbnb, period, sean. [laughter] tonight on the deed chicago a couple on the rebound from the real estate crash. Bernette i had a great fouryear run. Then when it south, it went south. Theyre rebuilding their business with a housebuying spree. Sean so were seventeen or eighteen houses . Bernette were eighteen right now. Sean youve been out buying houses like drunk sailors but owning too many houses is stretching them too thin. Sean when do you get the. . Bernette tomorrow. Sean and the appliances . Bernette tomorrow. Sean so its all manana. Theres no way this is finished. If they cant focus on growing smart. Kai i am strategic enough to not become so heavily leveraged. Sean but you dont have a strategy. They risk losing it all again. Sean where we sit today right now,