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