The Bigger Pockets podcast comes out today! Super excited to hear it. Honored to have been a guest with Josh Dorkin and Brandon Turner. Cant wait to do another podcast, it was so much fun. I hope you guys enjoy listening and I hope you guys go out there and fight the fuckin good fight!
-Justin and Marley
The game is over. The Denver Broncos won Super Bowl 50. Announcers rush the field for a word with Peyton Manning. “Peyton, now that the Super Bowl is yours, what comes next?” “Well, I guess I’m going to Disney World" Peyton responds,like so many other quarterbacks before him. Orlando’s identity—forever shadowed by two giant mouse ears.
Don’t get me wrong…I dig Disney…doesn’t everybody? The theme park and its surrounding attractions were a massive part of my upbringing. Disney films touched the soul of a younger, more impressionable me. Trips to Epcot chaperoned by my grandparents were opportunities to walk around “the globe,” tasting new and exotic foods and absorbing new and exotic cultures. the photo ops with every Disney princess that made my heart flutter and get giddy with a 7 year olds nervous version of love. Far more important than any of my personal experiences with the corporate and cultural icon, Orlando’s Disney World draws millions of tourists to Orlando each year, and in so doing, has laid the foundation for our city’s economy. My family’s survival was inexorably tied to Disney, as was a vast majority Orlando residents.
But, times they are a changin’. Orlando is growing and gaining a unique identity as it steps out of a looming mouse-ear-shadow. This city is alive. This city is growing strong through a new sense of self. I can feel it in the air. Downtown is housing more and more creative workspaces like Canvs and Catalyst that boast innovative young businesses and entrepreneurs. The Milk District and Mills50 areas have quickly become bohemian havens for the bar, food, and concert scene. We are defining our city and nothing can stop us.
It’s a “cold” (sorry northerners) winter day in Orlando; I know exactly what the doctor ordered—a big boy noodle bowl of pho at Anh Hong, my personal favorite Vietnamese restaurant in the city. Across from me sit two close friends and Orlando residents: Ted Henderson and Josh Call. In conjunction with playing five or more weekly crooner gigs around town, Ted has been slaving away on a new album that aims to encapsulate the experiences fostered by a lust for living in a young city, enjoying the fruits its countless beautiful women have to offer, all the while acknowledging the torment innate in such love and lust (think if The Weeknd and Chet Baker had a love child). Josh Call owns the classic Vegan Hot Dog Cart in Downtown Orlando (grab two chili dogs after a few pints at Lizzys, you will not regret it) and recently opened his latest foodie venture, Dixie Dharma. This newest brainchild resides in the Market on South—an open marketplace offering artisan goods, a bakery, booze, and some damn good vibes. All across Orlando one can find lunch sit downs like this one and the people who comprise it. Young, energized, hungry individuals with a taste for culture, a thirst for knowledge, and the goods needed to add to our region’s cache, its charm, and its charisma.
I take pride in the pride my neighbors take in our city—shout out to my Lions. Keep creating, making Orlando a place that people revere in or outside of a theme park, on or off of I-Drive. Let’s make Peyton try vegan chili dogs because he wants to, not because I got him drunk and and made him.
"Today is the day" keeps ringing in my ears, from the second I opened my eyes this morning. I know that in a matter of hours potentially millions of people will see my face on their TV: representing a sector of business that we take pride in, representing a generation of American's that I take pride in, and its all about to be in front of the American public, maybe even the world.
Tonight the first episode of the show we have poured so much of ourselves into the last year and a half is about to air. The show that has consumed our lives and schedules and secret fears. There is no turning back now......but I have to stop and ask myself, how did I get to this place?
Lets rewind to 2008, I am a year out of high school and am fresh from backpacking Europe and am ready to take on the world. Just one problem....The sky is falling. Orlando is being rocked by the recession and it is affecting everyone. My parents small business closes its doors and they can no longer afford their mortgage payments; no matter how hard we all try. The home goes into foreclosure and my parents stop opening the mail....a few months later on a rainy lightning filled evening, I get a bang on my bedroom window since our doorbell; like a lot of things had stop working ages ago in our home. I walk outside to see whats going on, only to walk into a scene from The Sopranos. There is a BMW 7 Series in my driveway with its lights on, shining onto 3 men wearing long coats and holding umbrellas. The largest one approaches me and with a deep belting voice ask " Is your father home?" I reply "no, who are you?" to which he replied " I need to speak to him, its very important, tell him its about his house" and he hands me a handwritten note with only a name and number on it and walks away. "What the hell is going on?" is all I can hear in my head. I knew something was wrong. Someone is about to get whacked. Later that night we found out that this group of men luckily were not on the market to off us and we were not gonna be sleeping with the fishes...but we may be sleeping outside: They just purchased my parents house, MY family's home, at the courthouse auction. And they want us out in a week unless we buy it back for a large sum more than they bought it for.
When a man is backed into a corner, he can either fall to his knees and accept his fate...or he can keep swinging and try to create his own fate. I learned from a very young age watching my father win and lose, win and lose, and start all over again that if you want to make it in America,you have to keep swinging...you have to keep going no matter how many times you fail, because this is the greatest country in the world and this is where dreams live and miracles happen everyday. America rewards the persistent. We called every friend in our circle who might have liquid capital and offered them the chance to get in on a great off market deal....AND we knew everything about the home and the renovation...because we have lived there the last 6 years. Ha! We finally tracked down the cash and renovated the home which we sold two months later for a 160k profit! We just turned lemon's into sweet sweet lemonade and it tasted so good.
We started buying homes at the auction every week and were renovating as many as we could afford with our friend until around 2012. After that my family moved to Denver to renovate homes and be closer to the craft beer scene(brewing is a large passion of my family's) I stayed in Orlando, doing the same.
In 2014 my friend Ashlee was approached by a production company who was curious about our home flipping in Orlando and wanted to Skype with us about it. She thought it was a prank and hung up on the person twice. I told her we should hear them out and lo and behold, they were legit, and they represented Mike Rowe! That dude rules! They have to be cool too! So we start talking about what we do, what they do,what Orlando is like, what we are like,etc. A few months later we get a phone call to let us know that they told A&E about us, and they want to film a pilot; They were on a plane within a month from LA to Orlando filming us on our day to day.... The pilot turned to series, and now here I am...Sitting in my home office, nervously typing this article just hours away from our premier to the American public. What a long strange road it has been.
I want you to know that filming this show was so much fun, and that none of us plan on bastardizing our industry, or turning into slime eating guru's that swindle old people out of their hard earned money. We all grew up way too punk rock for that. We just want to have fun for the cameras and keep America entertained, and who knows? maybe I will have the chance to help and inspire American's that they can help their country and change their lives like how we have everytime we turn an abandoned house into a family home again. Here is to home, here is to America. Cheers gang.
Dogs are awesome. Probably the three truest words in the English language alongside :grandmas are cute: Your dog is always so freaking stoked to see you, no matter if its after a long exhausting day of work, or at 3am stumbling in from a night out full of whiskey drinks without bottoms and friends without bedtimes. Your dog is ready to party, cuddle, or snack the night away with you. Life can be such a breeze when you have a dog that listens to your every word and reacts to your every mood.
But there is a lot of work that goes into training your beast to get to this level. Some people say that dogs can be stupid, stubborn or just wont listen, some say its the breed, others say its the way a dog was raised. I say that whatever the case, you should still try your hardest to train your dog and stop making excuses! Your dog deserves the shot of showing you what it is secretly capable of, and you owe it the 15 minutes a day to try training it to find out.
While I am not a professional dog trainer by any means, I am very adamant about people going the extra mile, especially when it comes to owning a dog.
Do you want to hear a crazy story? I was at a block party in the College Park neighborhood of Orlando, There were hundreds of people in the streets partying and I had Marley with me, off leash like usual. A pretty blonde girl that looked around my age came over to my group and said "oh my god! Your dog is so cute and well behaved! I have a dog that looks almost identical but she could never be off leash! She is a crazy psycho" I asked her about her dog and she told me that it doesn't listen and would bolt if she didnt have a leash on it. She also told me that it also chews everything and cannot be trusted alone. We talked about how our dogs were the same and when I asked her where she got him she said "Some guy out in the country, I am pretty sure my dog is an inbreed idiot"......this is where my jaw dropped. We had gotten our dogs from the same man...our dogs were sisters! We could not believe this and we had to get them together for puppy playdates, and I had to see for myself how a dog that shares the same blood line with Marley could be such a little monster. The first time I met Marley's sister Madison, it was crazy to see the difference in two of the same dogs, owned by two different people. The difference in the extra mile of training, versus lack of thereof was night&day. I gave them homework to do, and set them on a path to train Madison to be the dog she deserves to be.
There were two big influences for me when it came to training Marley, one was a dominant alpha approach to teach her hunting,pointing,and retrieving. The other was positive reward approach for all other aspects. Some things were as simple clipping a 100ft lead to her and throwing a ball or decoy and literally pulling her back in and giving her a treat until she learned how to fetch and retrieve every time. Other things were more complicated like training Marley to ring a bell next to my backdoor every time she wanted to go outside and potty. Everything I did served a purpose and has given Marley and I the chance to live such a fun life together due to me being able to trust her in all situations and scenarios.
Go the extra mile, train your dog and in return your dog will train you! Patience is a virtue, the extra mile is a strength of stamina, and a good dog is the best reward!
Check out the following systems I used to help me train Marley (disclaimer: I am not affiliated with any of these products)
The Bell Training System
SportDog Hunting collars and Training Systems (this is the collar Marley is always wearing)
101 Dog Tricks
The Perfect Dog Training System by Don Sullivan
Posted on January 14, 2016by The Hollywood Times
FLORIDA-BASED HOUSE FLIPPING TEAM REMODEL ABANDONED “ZOMBIE HOMES”
NEW YORK, January 14, 2016 – FYI’s new original series, “Zombie House Flipping” explores the recent trend of house flippers scooping up foreclosed and often abandoned “zombie houses” and renovating them to return neighborhoods to their former glory. Eight one-hour episodes begin premiering on Saturday, January 30 at 10pm ET.
In “Zombie House Flipping,” millennial house flipper Justin Stamper and his team of renovators have found a solution to the abandoned, rundown homes in Florida. As the “Robin Hoods of Real Estate” in Orlando, Justin and his team buy and fix up dilapidated, sometimes bank-owned homes, making big money in the process – but of course, not without difficulties along the way. From leaking roofs and the threat of sinkholes, to electrical fires and poorly piped Florida “McMansions,” there is never a dull moment with this group of house-flipping mavericks.|
“The problem of zombie homes blighting neighborhoods across America is ripped from the headlines,” said Gena McCarthy, Senior Vice President of Programming and Development for FYI. “Once again, FYI is tapping into the social zeitgeist to create a unique and entertaining format in the home genre.”
In each episode, Justin and team, along with his trusty dog Marley, will tour decrepit properties and determine their resale value. Once they pick a property, Justin hands it over to the dueling construction and makeover masters: Keith, the builder, and Duke, the designer. Butting heads on everything from bathroom tile to the proper windows for Tudor homes, these guys will only agree to disagree, but with limited time and money they somehow find a way to make it work. After the dust settles, property scout and realtor extraordinaire, Ashlee, lists the revived property in hopes of turning a profit. The next day, it’s time for another zombie hunt.
“Zombie House Flipping” is produced by Pilgrim Media Group for FYI. Executive producers for Pilgrim are Craig Piligian, Sam Korkis and Scott Popjes. Executive producers for FYI are Gena McCarthy, Liz Fine and Jordan Harman.
“Flipping houses”….....it seems the words roll off the tongue so easily nowadays. But what does it mean to flip a house? Does it mean swinging a sledge hammer into every wall in a house after watching a few “how to” videos on YouTube? Maybe. Does it mean buying a house and reselling it for more money after some fresh paint and carpet?Sometimes. Hell, maybe it means finding a property that no one knows about yet, putting it under contract, and assigning that contract to a cash buyer for a fee.
There are so many different definitions and moving parts "flipping houses" to debate about that we lose track of the big picture. It doesn’t matter if you are a DIY expert flipper, a quick turn and burn flip kinda guy, or a wholesaler just trying to make as many fees in a fiscal year as possible. We are all living this crazy, fast paced, quick on your feet kind of lifestyle for a reason: it is our American Dream.
Real Estate gives us the chance to improve our lifestyle, the chance to make something out of nothing, and sometimes...a chance to start over. There are many people I meet that are taking the leap and turning their main focus to real estate investing well past the age any "sane" person would switch careers. Sometimes all you need is a deal, a down payment, lender, and a vision. You might not even need all those things before you take the jump (but I highly advise you plan thoroughly!)
Working with real estate also does another magical thing; it changes the world. I KNOW, I KNOW but hear me out. Every house that I have ever bought, sold, or wholesaled has changed someone’s life, and also changed a neighborhood. That boarded up house in your Auntie’s neighborhood that all the *pUnK rAwKeRz* chug Mickey's hand grenades in, before smashing the bottle on the floor and spray painting a dick to Donald Trump’s forehead on the wall has been bringing down property values all year and is a zombie that needs to die. It’s these situations where I have the chance to change a neighborhood in my city, the chance to take a house that once was full of squatters and raccoons and turn it into a home that a family can live out their own version of the American Dream in again, a family in a city that I am honored to help. This is where my job makes me the happiest.
So, if you're in the Real Estate game, what does flipping houses mean to you? What is your favorite part about it? What is YOUR American Dream?
