Marty Boardman was featured on an episode on BiggerPockets podcast. Marty had a lot to say about building a business and avoiding losses on house flipping. This article features everything he had to say, and you need to know on the podcast.
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Marty Boardman On Money Loss and His Experience
“Well, yeah. It was. The music stopped, and I didn’t have a chair in 2007. I’m sure that we probably have some listeners and some followers of BiggerPockets who can relate to that. But I mean, I was sitting on about 65 properties in 2007, and the market here in Phoenix dropped in value by almost 60%, and I was anticipating some correction—I knew the market was hot.
I knew that the pace we were going, the regular increases in the value of 6-10% a month weren’t sustainable. So I thought I was conservative, buying around 70 cents on the dollar, but the market corrected itself by 60%, and the music stopped, and I didn’t have a chair. Exactly. And it’s hard, I think—well, it was at the time to know how much was over-leveraged.
And it’s funny I tell people all the time I’m grateful for the global economic collapse and the real estate market going into the tank because it saved my marriage. I’ve been married 14 years, and thankfully, the whole rest of the world, the rest of the country fell apart as far as real estate is concerned as well.”
How Marty Boardman Started Flipping Houses
“I got into real estate investing full-time in 2002. Before that, I was a TV news cameraman. I was the guy that you could see schlepping around the camera gear—100 pounds of camera gear, and here in Phoenix, in the summertime, we would be covering brush fires, and we’d be chasing bad guys. I’d like to say we were chasing ambulances and raindrops. Whenever it rained here, it was a huge breaking news story and, of course, chasing fire trucks and ambulances.
I just got to a point where I decided that I wanted to have more financial freedom. I wanted something a little more stable. I wanted to do something that didn’t require working nights and weekends and holidays. So here I go choosing real estate, right? But you have to do that. At least I was doing it on my terms.”
Marty Boardman Rebuilding Himself
“Yeah. In 2007, I went from a net worth of $8 million to a negative $2 million. So, you know, I never really lost hope throughout the process. I always felt like, you know what, if I was able to build a business like that in three years, I could rebuild it. So we had some pretty frustrating times.
At one point towards the end of 2008 going into 2009, we were burning furniture to stay warm. I mean, I would sell stuff on Craigslist. I had a Rolex watch I hocked at a jewelry store. I sold my Mercedes, started driving a ’94 Honda Accord. It was a humbling experience.”
Marty Boardman Finds Deals Again
“I’m grateful for it because during the process. I read a lot of books, books about Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Edison and Walt Disney and every one of them have had a monumental failure in their life. It’s kind of helped them regroup, and I guess it’s just a rite of passage for any entrepreneur to fail miserably at least once or twice in their life. I’m fine…
You know what? I tell people, Brandon, when I’m teaching classes—I have a class today for realtors, and I teach one about fixing and flipping. And I’ll work with anyone, but they’ve got to do one of two things for me. They’ve got to bring me money, or they’ve got to bring me deals. That’s how they add value to my business. And most people have one of two things.
They either have time, or they have money. Those who have time, you know what? Bring me deals. If you’ve got money, well then, we’ll go find deals and work together.”
It is easy to get caught up in the concept of leverage and buying houses. It is remarkably easy. Marty Boardman just mentioned what he was able to accomplish as a former cameraman in three years – a net worth of $8 million. It is important to use leverage responsibly and not become intoxicated with the real estate bug. Keep your head about you and be smart.
DOWNLOAD PDF [Marty Boardman’s 4 Master Lessons On House Flipping]
