Are the AP Boys Retiring from Flipping Houses?

We are fast approaching the end of 2018, a year that saw AP Real Estate Investing (aka the Force of the North) rise to power in the southeast Michigan real estate market. A year in which we sold our first flip in Garden City, purchased, renovated and sold a second in Hazel Park, and also purchased and began renovation on the new AP worldwide headquarters. We have also made some incredible friends along the way and actually achieved some level of recognition and notoriety as “the house flippers” within our continuously growing network.

Don't believe me? See for yourself...

Now, as we shift our attention toward 2019, many people have been asking the question, “Where do the AP Boys go from here?”

The logical answer would be double down and continue to ride this house-flipping rocket ship all the way to the moon. This was our intention, of course, until our shareholders meeting this past weekend…

After a thorough review of the year-end financials, along with a deep-dive analysis on associate workload and satisfaction levels, the following question was raised by one of the esteemed members of the board, “Is now the right time for us to flip another house?”

As you can imagine, such a ridiculous question caused some eyebrows to raise around the room. But before everyone get's carried away and starts jumping to conclusions, allow me to present you with some facts.

A couple months ago, Brendan began working as a real estate agent. Anyone who has worked as an agent knows that building an initial client base takes a lot of time and effort up front. He also continues working 2 days a week at the restaurant asking people how they would like their burgers cooked. OH! I almost forgot… Brendan is also getting licensed as a drone pilot so that we can start offering drone video and photography to agents in the area. Scary thought, I know… Brendan operating something that can fly.

Meanwhile, I continue to work full-time at Bosch, which requires some late evenings and occasional travel, but nothing too demanding. But now, add the fact that I recently purchased a home which needs a significant amount of renovation before we can officially relocate worldwide HQ. It doesn’t leave a ton of free time for either of us to contribute to another house flip.

“Well why don’t you guys spend less time on content and more time on house flipping?” Great question… Because, my friend, AP is a real estate MEDIA company, not just a real estate company. If we don’t produce great content for our followers we are doing the company a disservice. We did not set out to create a great house-flipping business. We set out to create a lifestyle brand and loyal following of like-minded individuals interested in real estate investing. And we fully intend on doing so.

So obviously our time is limited, but that is only one constraint. The second is available capital. We’ve learned from the first two flips that deals become much more lucrative and accessible when you can purchase properties in cash. Also, since I now have a primary residence in my name, it makes financing a flip through conventional methods a bit more difficult. Could we investigate hard/private money lenders, potentially partnering with other investors or maybe even look into seller-financing? Yes, we absolutely can and we have. We do a lot behind the scenes that doesn’t always make in on the podcast or on social media, but I can assure you that we are looking into any and all options when it comes to finding and funding another project.

So let’s bring this thing full circle. The short answer is no, we are not retiring from flipping houses. However, as a result of all the aforementioned points, the unanimous decision was made by the board to “pump the brakes” on finding another flip. Therefore, we are temporarily shifting our focus and attention toward renovating the future worldwide headquarters of AP Real Estate and also offering real estate photography as a service.

What does this mean for you, the loyal and faithful AP Army? It simply means more great content to come.

Love you guys.

-AA