In the latest Real Estate Talk episode, we uncover Robin Barnes' early beginnings in the real estate world. From flipping homes with her father to becoming a successful investor and realtor, Robin shares her story and lessons learned along the way. Stay tuned for valuable tips and tricks! Make sure to subscribe for more inspiring real estate content.
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On Episode #31, meet Ms. Robin N. Barnes, the Principal Associate Broker/Owner/CEO of Latitude Commercial & Development Company & Latitude Foundation. Armed with a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Michigan and a Master’s Degree in Global Marketing, Robin is a seasoned professional in the real estate industry. She holds prestigious designations like ABR, Certified Distressed Property Expert, Luxury Home Consultant of the Year, and Commercial Specialist. Robin's passion for "Restoring Michigan Housing, One Neighborhood at a Time," drives her work, making her one of Metro Detroit's top Residential Brokers and a sought-after Commercial Broker and Opportunity Zones Specialist nationwide.
Ms. Robin N. Barnes, Principal Associate Broker/Owner/CEO of Latitude Commercial & Development Company & Latitude Foundation, holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of Michigan and a Master’s Degree in Global Marketing, alongside Realtor designations including ABR, Certified Distressed Property Expert, Luxury Home Consultant of the Year, and Commercial Specialist. With a commitment to "Restoring Michigan Housing, One Neighborhood at a Time," Robin excels in residential and commercial real estate, specializing in REO properties, short sales, and bank/investor properties. As Latitude’s Top Producer from 2013 to 2019, she is renowned for her transparent and efficient approach, making her one of Metro Detroit's top Residential Brokers and an esteemed Commercial Broker and Opportunity Zones Specialist.
PHONE
(248) 765-0221
latitudeluxuryrealestate@gmail.com
PROFESSIONAL
Commercial Broker/Owner/Developer
SKILLS
2008-12 ERA Agent of the Year 2012 Board Member -Oakland County Real Estate Brokers Association (NAREB) 2013-2016 Chase Bank Scholar Award Recipient 2013-2019 GMAR Ethics Board Member 2015- Michigan Housing Council Premiere Member Broker Trained - VRM/BPO University 2022- COZA Enrolled
TITLE: Investor Robin Barnes How She is handling today’s Michigan Market - RET Ep#31
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© Randy Stedwell.
hey everyone how's it going out there in YouTube land and in Facebook group in
the Metro Detroit off Market real estate Facebook group I hope you guys are
having a wonderful day uh we have joining us today Robin Barnes she was
having some technical GI technical difficulties getting in here so uh we got all that
situated and I so she is not only an investor she's also a realtor she's also
a investor friendly realtor and she's a broker has a lot of accolades we put a
bunch of that in the description so do check that out but you know we're here
to find out what she's done going in this market in this current market what
we're in in this is March 18th in 2024 okay so the reason why I put that
date there is because if you're watching this a year later this all could change you never know we don't know what the
fed's gonna do we don't know what the housing Market's gonna do anything so we
want to hear up to-date information on what's changing what she's doing to
change that and then hey maybe we can change according uh according to what
she says as well so without further Ado Robin how you doing today I'm doing
great hello everyone how are you awesome so this is I am very happy
to have you here uh I really do appreciate it and um you know thank you
for bringing I you know for taking the time to speak to everybody uh you know what
you know first off you know before we get into what you're doing um what you're doing in this
market or anything like that tell us kind of how you got started in real
estate and you know what did what made you become an investor become a realtor
uh so on and so forth so how did you even get real estate in your head um I actually kind of started off
as a young as a young person a young um you know say about in my 18 years and
for 18 years old um my father when I was um he was a builder he was a he built
foundations for homes so that was kind of his you know his side gig thing he
was a foreman in the plant by day and he was a he built Foundations at night you
know so because of that you know I I was always around different construction
situations um need to be fixed and stuff like that so that's where I kind of got the niche for I always knew um I was
going to be in real estate um always wanted to be the developer was always the end goal because I wanted to build
communities and things like that um City stuff like that that was always kind of the goal um y but I started off just
simply flipping homes you know my dad was my first um he was my first private
lender I guess you can say he was suffer always fun is tougher
than any private lender I've had since I've been grown let me guess he wanted like 25%
right mainly all the profit um but yeah but I mean he was he was you know he
made me very arular about certain things um because he had built our home so he
had drew it our home so um it was just he walked me through the whole process and so um we literally you know my first
house was with him as my lender and I sold I flipped flipped it and sold the house boom that was
it so that's awesome yeah so that's pretty much how so you had so you had
knowledge for Real Estate from being a young age with your dad and everything now that that that's being in the
construction what when did you turn to I want to be an investor or I want to be a
realtor um you know how did you I mean besides flipping obviously because we
had to do that but when did that that's the investor part you just told us that but when did you say I want to be a
realtor um I well I hate to say this but I'll be honest greed um I found out that
hey that's okay greed sometimes greed that that's how that's what makes things work that's what it was it was greed
because I found out I heard that I was limited to how many houses I could flip so I I you know you know I got that
that um you know that God syndrome that complex I didn't want nobody to stop me I wanted everything and I wanted
everything I could get and so I said hey let me go on and get this license that's awesome so
where what year did you become a realtor just so we can get the timeline down oh you're making me think oh my god oh how
long ago it had to been about uh 20 let me see 2008 probably like 2005 or six
somewhere in there the the market crashed a year after I had started so had to been about
2006 or seven somewhere like that is when I okay okay yeah because the market crashed about the end of
2007 okay it was starting to crash then but um and so how did you speaking of
which you know you're brand new realtor during this market crash of you know
20072 2008 I you know how did you handle that you know were you investing as well
and did you lose um no actually I was not investing because at that time like I said I just
got my license and so now I'm in the mindset of oh I want to only do luxury luxury properties um so I was selling
actually out in uh in the in Palmer Woods NS areas in Detroit and um I had a
couple of great deals I had just closed on a deal that one of my uh friends good
friends and also my uh they went to the same church I did um and I had closed on their deal and lo and behold um my
broker who was always kind of dibbling in with the banks and stuff with
foreclosure um I was working with her and because I was her assistant and an agent and so I was working with her and
um she needed some help with doing some of the msrs and stuff like that and so I
would help her you know just just to help her out and um lo and behold one
night to I cleaned out everything in our in our uh in our banks you know everything we had to do the bpos and the
msrs I cleaned them out and we got them done I got off the phone with her so everything's cleaned out and she double checked she said yep we can go to bed we
used to we used to do these night be up night two and three o'clock in the morning chugging through the work you
know and we were showing houses during the day and the next morning got up and
I we had like you know 25 properties out of nowhere right and it just kept
happening for each bank that that she was affiliated with and so we knew something was happening um you know the
bank called and told us what was going on and they wanted us to jump on it right away so we just went into how we
gonna make this happen how we G to do it yep and they kind of gave us a little bit of guidance but from there on we
just set up a system and and rocked with it that's all you could do that's all you can do so um so when when did you
start buying after you know I thank God you did not lose anything um during that 20072 2008 um
crash when did you start buying say e whether it be flips again or whether it
be buying holds um I'm not a I've never been really big on the buying hole and I'll
tell you why I like getting the big CH at the end and so that's that little
part with me so so it's there okay we just got to talk about um so to me me I
get a high off of okay Roi the return on my investment of my flood yep and so
it's just something about that it's something about setting the tone in the neighborhood where other people were all
hovering around you know oh we're gonna sell around you know 120 130 you know my
goal was to make sure I'll be the the most expensive house in the neighborhood that sold and so because I had made a
lot of connections with different lenders you know um at the time I was with um rocket mortgage things of that nature I
I had I had access to to know exactly what I needed to do what I didn't need to do I looked at some of the things
danan Gilbert was doing at the time of the rebuild after that Y and I just kind of followed his lead and so my house is
sold for a lot more I just I put different things in there that I knew that females who who actually pretty
much bought a house you know the guys want the man cave I knew what people wanted and so I kind yeah said I'm gonna
I'm going to cater to that and my my house is sold so as far as me getting into the buy and ho I just now got back
into that um I did it in flip before um yeah it was okay but um and it was fine
um but you know I'm getting back into it now a little bit okay so by the way if
anybody has any questions if you're watching and you have questions live we are live so put a put them in the side
chat and we'll answer him live as long as it's pertaining to what we're talking about okay so Ron wall Raven says hello
Robin hi Ron so Ron is awesome so and
you know I always appreciate you come on here Tim rumbler says bring in the value
so that's awesome I always always bring in the value as much as possible right
we even got some people watching from Facebook so you know um I think Tim was
on there before he said let's go so most definitely so we can bring bring your uh
chat on here and bring your questions on here we'll both answer them so let's
continue uh you know how are you uh or
what are you doing right now as far as are you just said that you're getting
into buying holds and are you still doing flips at the same time and
what I balanced the two I balance you balance the two okay tell me why tell me
why you decided to do that what was the the thought process well for right now
it's you know you should be you know right now you should be trying to Garner
wealth you know get you a wealth magnet going on there a wealth Foundation what better time now than to get into rentals
most people need rentals it's kind of hard you know the six and seven % interest rates you know houses you know
the scarcity of housing people need somewhere to live now so now it's more of for for rental for me is more of
getting out there trying to get something out there that a good product that the community can have that if they
need to rent they can and it's something within their bounds so that's what we're trying to that's my concept of doing it
the flips is what I just do just to keep me active in flips and that's it so just
what I acoss most definitely so uh J Matt from
Facebook ask where are the target points of uh value growth in metro Detroit and
I I think what he's asking is is where do you think the growth is gonna be in metro
Detroit you know I'm gonna be honest with you everybody is the areas when I was doing my flips and you know looking
at doing different things with u with rental those areas now are pretty pretty much at the top of the line now so your
bagle and things like that um your Indian Villages and stuff like that in those sub areas around those major areas
those are pretty at a pretty high level right now so you're not going to get as much of a return on investment and even
if you get a home that's in those areas you're going to have to charge probably like the top dollar in order to get your
return investment back on the property um I say a lot of areas to me I'm I'm
more of a um I call I consider myself like a Columbus I like to go into different
areas and bring those areas up I'm all about buying the block I'm all about going into areas people don't want and
bringing those bringing those areas up and making and pretty much forcing other
people to say hey you know what that's a nice house on the Block I want to bring that area up I want my house to look
nice you got the homeowners involved now you bringing more people to the street you know people taking more Pride into
the area and so so you're slowly bely bringing those areas up and you got it for a good deal you still get your
return on investment and the people have a nice neighborhood to you know it's it's a upand cominging new neighborhood
so that's kind of what I'm in now I and I agree with that for the buy and holds
the only thing is is like I had this conversation with a new investor into this area um and they're looking to do
fix and flips and that exact strategy I go you
can't do that with fix and flips because the comps are just not there're not there I go now now what you w to do is
as soon as the comps get there now you pounce because that's when you can get
them cheap and then bring them up and prove hey here's the comps here's the
value okay but I'm all about buying holds as well all right so I like the
quick cash for fix and flips but I'm all about the cash flow oh absolutely
because that's going to give you your wealth that's going to keep you where you need to be and as an economist I
tell people um the reason why I can do I'm not as um afraid of risk is because
I do have that background as an economist I can read the market I can understand what's going on um being in
the development field we're always looking outside of the box for different areas so I'm not specifically afraid to
do c things I know just when to pounce when I can get it all all the way up to
a year earlier and then all of a sudden you start seeing coming in but that is not a that's from a a level of expertise
I guess you can say and from me doing it myself that only I can you know I wouldn't tell a new a new investor to do
it like that because they're gonna freak out you know they'll be nervous all the time they putting the lights in place you know so it's like you have to yeah
you have have people grow to that to that level of where they comfortable you
know what I'm saying so you know like I'm I'm into buying buildings you know into buying you know four level uh you
know four anywhere four plus units I mean that that there to me when you're talking about affordable housing that's
a whole new game um that's something that I do outside of the state of Michigan is we actually go we with
through opportunity zones we are building you know actual cities and building and bringing and transportation
and lights and stuff like and we're not getting these areas where people is where it's safe no we're not gonna pay
top dollar for that we're going to 9 time out of 10 we're g to get some of these buildings that look like I don't know what tear them down and then go
from there and we build up and you can build a whole bunch affordable housing where people can live so it's a
different mindset once you get into that level so like I said for me I I know my
my skill set and how far I can go because this is where I'm at but for the new investor know you need to get your
feet wet I tell new investors do a flip do it in a nice safe place I mean you
you know and get out of get out get out of the notion that you're gonna make $60,000 off of each flip you know what
I'm saying or $40,000 you know understand that breaking even is not what you want to do
but if you do that's a good thing it's only once you're not once you're in a hole is when there's a problem and so
you have to re-evaluate and reassess so H1 one you do yeah you may only make 30,000 off the deal but that's a good
day that's not you tell me another job that you can get in a month where you're making $30,000 you get a check for 30
grand you're not there is no place that you're GNA do that so you gotta you gotta craw before you walk and I think
definitely you know and Amman puts in here building the community you know for
sure so and you know um you know this virtual real estate Services Michigan
says yes bringing back uh alive and she said thank you for the that person says
thank you for the invite as well so um you
know yeah most definitely too oh that's her name
Colette has been in the business forever man's a rock star too so that's awesome
so you just talked about building communities building affordable housing
building this whole thing now I know that when we do these things
everybody's like well I want the highest rent possible I want this when you build these things you do too but we still
need affordable housing Absol okay so there's a diff there's a part where it
says you know why don't we build the masses and uh we're going to still make
it right and still make it good for everybody uh for everybody to live in
but then you know this way we can still cash flow sorry I'm stealing that from uh I
from Mr Wonderful from Shark Tank so sorry don't sue me bro
so that's one of my mentors oh yeah I love it I love it because that's the
thing at the end of the day we're investors we still need to make money in order to I I tell people this we need to
be be we need to be greedy in the beginning and even still need to be greedy throughout the thing because if
we can't feed ourselves if we can't continue to run we can't help other people and even though I make money even
as a wholesaler I still believe I help people get out of situations oh
absolutely okay absolutely so yeah 100% I'll tell you A lot of times when I buy
my homes I buy them from wholesalers I've always done that I mean that is the investor way to go most investors are
never going to buy a property off the MLS because the MLS is going to have it at the top dollar for that area when
you're investing you're trying to get it at a good price so that you can put money into it and still make a profit
even once you oh yeah you know what I'm saying the same when you're doing um
rental I mean you want to get your property at a good price so that when you bring it up to Cod and you can put
renters in there if you're doing section eight you know what I'm saying that's the new hot thing um is doing Section 8
I mean so I mean you could do the bur method on on Section 8 you know get a house rehab it rent it out you know and
and after six months you can you can refy it and repeat you know sometimes you can do it in 90 days depending on
the lender I mean so those are all actions that you can do and section
eight I know people say well I don't want section eight when you are an investor you have to have the mind mindset that when you're renting you're
the house is going to get there's a thing called wear and tear okay true enough you don't want nobody putting
holes and stuff in your walls and all that but if you got a tenant a long-term tenant you already know up front yeah
you putting decent stuff in but it's not like you're doing in a primary home okay so you're not defin uh you know trip XX
uh um Granite you're not putting in and I don't mean triple XX as you know nudity I mean of granite so you're not
putting in Granite that's 10 10 and $30,000 on a countertop okay that's for somebody that's a primary homeowner
that's gonna probably live a good 20 30 years in that house that's a different ball you know Custom Cabinets stuff like
that that's for a person that's going to stay in that house for a specific longevity type of time when you're
talking about rental you're not going to put that type of stuff in so but you have to also be able to mitigate and
manage the amount of money that you got to be able to say okay this is going to be a loss after this three years when
these people come leave I'm probably going to have to paint I'm gonna have to put in new carpet if I have carpet I'm
gonna have to redo the floors there's a certain level of mitigation of money that you're gonna have to put back into
that unit in order to get it back up to where a person who was staying there before would be wanting to stay there
again for the same amount and so that's the key you know in the bird method you
look somebody to that you're looking for that renter to be able to pay the loan
so once you pull that money out then that renter got to be able to pay that loan so that you're not paying it you moved on to the next the property so
there's different mindsets you have to and based on that real quick and what's
guaranteed money coming from the government government who pays
government rents section eight section eight who got paid consistently during
covid and never missed a beat government section that's right so if
you didn't learn anything else that's what you need to understand right now you also have to understand this is that
it also depends on the area that you're renting into because I'm not going to put the same finishes in Detroit that I
am going to put in Birmingham okay absolutely not so so everyone just just
understand that that every strategy is different every area is a little bit different it's just look at it's just
like when you're fixing flipping a house you look at the comps for that area if
none of the comps for that area say I'm gonna put in courts countertops and I'm
gonna flip this and all of them say I'm gonna put um for
Micah why would I spend the difference to put courts unless I know I'm going to get
the extra value out it on it you know exactly why you it that's exactly why
you do it I'll tell you Randy I'm a type that I want I don't want to just rent my
motto is is that I want to rent to something that if I had to move in it I'm good okay yeah I'm not I'm not gonna
be freaked out okay so yeah you what I was getting at what I
was you know well you're saying why you put courts in well if courts is going to okay you got to look at the spread of in
that area is not just if if everybody is making, 1500 but if for the average for
a three-bedroom in that area is700 why wouldn't I go for the 1700 of course okay so my point is this
my point is this is is you're looking at you're looking at comps and if you don't
think it's going to a praise for a higher price by putting that in are you talking about a FP yeah
yes specifically a flip okay so if if by putting that in there you're not you
know it's not going to appraise for a higher price but you spent say I would
you we'll call it 50% more okay well there's no point of you spending 50%
more if you're not going to get get the return but Randy we are investors we
don't ever play top dollar for anything we have connections we have
relationships what is Real Estate relationships relationship I may what I
may pay for courts is not what the average Joe is going to pay for courts I I get that see what I'm saying so no I
do you still have all I'm saying is you still have to you still have to play The Devil's
Advocate you still have okay am I if I put x amount of money in here extra am I
going to get that return plus more absolutely and and what I'm saying is is
if you're not going to there's no reason to do that well your numbers the math got a math that's what you're saying
correct the math and based on what we're talking about here we're talking about flip
houses Colleen has a uh or Colin had a question when flipping a house what
rehabs uh within the house increase the value the most floors paint light
fixtures Etc I am I I'm a stickler for all of
those um but I am a I'm more of a paint my walls I am a stick about my walls
like I'm looking at your walls behind you that's a that's a nice that's a good decent job I like it because even on TV
it looks good with all the bright lights you know um I did it I did it myself oh you see Yay see myself oh this here was
like a like a bright yellow was a bright yellow it had all the the white at the
bottom it was there but this was all yellow ceiling was yellow I changed the
ceiling to be white and I changed the walls that's actually one of my favorite colors it's like a like a navy blue like
a like a a gray blue yeah and so you know so your paint a lot of times we can
do a lot of upgrades like with paint you know if you get a good
painter they will make your house look amazing sometimes we get we do a lot of
other little stuff that we think that's just G to make that house pop but some of the most simp things make your house
stand out and pop and and it doesn't cost a lot of money I have literally
painted a whole house did an accent wall did a couple of different things yeah you have to put in Windows if you got
that but this house had windows so I didn't have to worry about that what I did was wrap the windows you know it's
nothing worse than a window that's not wrapped okay to me okay so I just had Windows wrapped you know we did the
hardwood floors you have a lot of kids now that have so a lot of parents don't want a a house
that has carpet because it's just keeps up too many allergies for the kids and so if they want to you know you know so
you get the floors done okay you put in a nice sink you put in some nice cabinets you don't have to get the best
of cabinets but put in nice handles things like your handles and your knobs and your and your mirrors and your
bathroom nobody does medicine cabinet no more please people take them out we don't do those okay but you know those
are things like that that brings that house up we don't do popcorn se but anyway you know scrape that stuff off
but like I said that those are the things in a nice hard wood floor do the porch make it look nice I'm not a big
stickler for awnings because they that's so 70s and 60s that's so like our parents grandparents you take that off
redo patch up you know do some tuck pointing around the house put some nice gutters out you know make sure your
water and your gutters is Flowing away from the house because water is not our okay in any house you do that and really
set the house off and and and and this is just all paint I'm talking about you
could paint you know what the end thing is right now painting the outside of the home you can do this with bricks okay so
you can have a brick house and you can literally paint that house a good painter or if you got a team a crew that
can paint they can literally paint that house on the outside and make it look like something in fmta and you know so it's just but that
adds character to the house that normally is not there because a lot of times our brick homes are not in the
best of shape so once you have so much tuck pointing and stuff done it just looks messy and so it just never comes
back so a lot of people are beginning to get into that where they're painting homes know so it's you're spending a
more more money on painting but it's much better than you putting in all this
other stuff now if you have to do that now if you don't have no porch and you got to put in a porch well then okay
that's what you got to do but it's usually in houses that I have a lot of stuff like that where I got to put in
all the Mechanicals I got to upgrade the entire um electrical board where I have
to you know do the plumbing where you know and if I if it's too much if all my copper is gone there too many holes in
the wall well I'm probably nine time out of 10 is just going to drag all that all that plaster out because I don't want to
be bothered with that you know it's easier us to do dry than it is Plaster that's a lost art and it cost much so
it's just certain things you have to know what to do how to make that house look nice and it doesn't have to be a
lot of stuff you know don't get the fixtures that everybody has do go out on the Lim say hey put this nice fixture up
I'm not going to do what we call the boob lights you know everybody doing boob lights you know you just go and do
something a little different put it a nicer handle you can still get the same uh cabinets from Home Depot if that's in
your budget you know still get them but just put nice handles on them okay those
are little things that you can do that can make the house look really really nice and I'm I'm I'm a realtor I'm an
investor but I'm also a broker a realtor bro I'm a broker and so for me staging a house sets it off staging any house
whether you're renting it or you're flipping it you have to Stage that house that's going to get you the number
because a lot of people especially first-time home buyers who's 90% of who you're probably working with when you
first start off in investing they don't quite know how to put the room the house together this helps them to do
that most definitely and nine times out of 10 when you're staging you're going
to get that back if you're going towards a retail and uh a
retail um buyer okay absolutely so especially if it's a first-time home
buyer or anything like that so you there one thing when I did my renovation of my
house I I realized there's a lot of Cheaper options that still look good you
still look good there still there's a lot of expensive stuff that look exactly
the same as the cheaper options you know so you're you can do a lot of different
things and do a lot of different things and save money but keep in mind kitchens and bathrooms are what
sell houses absolutely the more bathrooms you got the better it sales
correct and just don't let that don't don't forget that and don't forget who's
looking and who's actually making the decision on the house okay do you ever
think a man is going to say uh yeah I kind of want this one and this one the
only way that's happening is if he single or if it's a
man or if it's a man I mean I don't know if somebody's gonna buy a whole house for a man cave you never know but but
hey hey you got the money you got the money make it nice make and you don't have to like I mean really you know the
easy thing about men and I I just love you guys but the easy thing about men is if you just give them the concept that
hey this can be your man cave it's already set up for you to make it what you want I have seen men's eyes light up
like this because it's like oh I got a space that's mine you know what I'm saying and so they light up I mean the
the the steps are done the floors are done in the basement it's waterproofed it's ready to go you know we just
separated the Mechanicals from the rest of it you know so the clean the painting is good you got the the you know the you
know the dark ceilings or the white ceilings and I'm gonna be honest with you I'm gonna be honest with you that's
actually what sold me out my house is that my base was finished
okay you know is basement's finished okay not not that not that you know it's
it's it has enough space I'm used to Bas having enough space it's the fact that
it's finished finished okay now it's still older style
but I can change that yeah okay there's drywall there's there's carpet there
there's like when during our renovation in this house I basically stayed in the
second floor to sleep and in the basement to watch to you know entertain
and because we tore out our kitchen completely um it was kind of our we had
a little we have a dry bar down there and it it became our
kitchen so there's a microwave there and I have a little mini fridge there so you
know so that where you hang out for the games and stuff did you put a TV
yeah I just I I don't have live TV I only do use the apps or whatever but
matter yeah so I I watch my movies down there I do whatever like that's my area
I got last owner left a pool table here and a ping pong table here oh you game
room it's it no they left it here so like it was already
there like I don't have to make it a gameer it already is so
you made a game room slash you know man cave game roomtv room where I I don't
have stairs I can get all of my food and everything is right here my little snacks little beer a little water
whatever you drinking wine oh yeah and you ain't gotta go upstairs no not until you get ready to
go to sleep right it's not a wonderful thing and I
think men should have that you know I think that's a good thing so and it just so happens that I that's
the only place we have like I have a TV in my bedroom and I have a TV there
that's it I don't have a TV in the living room okay because my wife at the
time did not she doesn't like the look of a TV in the living room so I'm like okay so I'm like I'll go
downstairs but it's hey doing whatever I can
but that yeah you're right that's what sold me but I'm obviously not a decision maker the biggest thing was is I a
reason I basically what sold my wife on it was there's enough space to do the renovation on the
kitchen so we fully gutted the kitchen took out a wall everything made an open
concept made a huge island in the middle oh my God everything see so yeah it's
and I did most of the work myself and see you saved so much money there but I did everybody can't do it you know no so
sometimes sometimes we have to buy it already set up like that because people just don't have a skill said and
not what's funny about that is I did not know how to do that in the beginning but
you learn you taught selftaught I I learn and then I actually have a friend of mine that's a contractor and I pay as
a consultant to tell me what to do when are you g to tell besides College when
you going to pay somebody just to tell you what to do oh that's a wonderful thing I do it all the time I get paid
for now right to do like so I paid him to sit
there and tell me what to do so what did I learn I learned Plumbing I learned electrical I knew the basics of
electrical I that's part of my day job anyways but I I learned I I learned the
proper way to sand and mud and and and make a patch and do all that stuff and
uh you know how to lay dry wall even though I kind of already knew it but not the professional way um how to paint
properly you know around you know I just I learned a lot of stuff so it's like
time versus value but it by doing that and then I hired a separate contractor for to run the all electrical and then
um there were some things that I did you have f did your house have fuses or did
it no no we had we had Breakers yeah okay okay yeah so and then we had uh my
house was only built in 96 oh so you were good okay yeah it just all it just
all was original to 96 yeah so and and and we're on a well
so every Plumbing fixture it was copper and it was just corroded because we're
on I have a water softener so okay okay all right this s like you got your house
for a great deal and then you turned around and put a added equity and value to it oh yeah and so now it's definitely
worth way more than probably what you originally paid and if you were to Market it would probably you know with
your little fixer little things you want to tidy up or fix up get a sell like that because we don't have anything on
the market really so yeah so on if I were to sit here and
um I if I paid somebody to do the work that like a contractor it would
have been another 100 Grand on top of what I paid and we did all the first pocket so
out of pocket it was 80 I would have paid 180 to pay
somebody and we did the whole entire first floor um all luxury vinyl plank
with the stairs everything what you can see here or I see your plank this floor in
Here original that's the plank no that's the plank yeah okay that looks good so
yeah yeah this is all the plank and it's really high quality it's good stuff I
love it so um but so let's we kind of get back in we
got side track sorry I like to talk about I like to talk about stuff that I just did because it's I did it with my
own hands you know that's good but you also solidified what I said is that loud
you know that that that even though it was a 80s man cave you saw the vision
and what it could be once you once you bought the house and and mve forward and that's really what investors are we're
Vision we're Visionaries we see what can happen and what it can be if we just put
some time a little effort into it most definitely and then I so
what are you you so you said you're doing buy and holds now so as well as fix and flips where are you buying right
now um for your buying holds and then where are you doing your fix and flips are you doing inside Detroit proper are
you doing in the suburbs are you doing all of the above and you also mention that you're doing stuff out of is it
like out of state or in different areas yes um my my um as far as my investments
I'm a numbers girl I I've um it has to make sense to me um if I like it if I like the area um I don't ever say is not
an area I don't like because there's is always something I like it just has to make sense numbers have the math have to
math that's pretty um I'm I'm being I'm not a very I'm into Aesthetics but I'm
not it's is when I'm looking to do my own personal Investments I'm looking at
or if I'm doing for the few clients that I still want that I prefer to do stuff
with um just won't you know I have clients that just won't let me go so and that's and I love it I love them they
know how I am they know I you know I perform they know I perform on a high level and they like that so that's
that's what I have um so those people I look for them the same way I would look for myself and they're accustomed to
that so um awesome so but it's basically um like I said I'm I'm more of a visual
I'm a Visionary so where some people may say ah I don't want to be there no you
know I can if I if I see it and and it's going to work and the numbers make sense
um I haven't had one that hasn't made sense and so that's not a brag it's just
I the numbers don't lie I tell people all the time one and one is two all over the world no matter what language you speak it still two so as long as it's
adding up to two it doesn't matter it's it's going you're go it's going to happen for you um as far as what I'm
doing when I said out of State I am finally into the development world so
what I am have a private Equity Firm okay and we are we're not just your
ordinary private Equity Firm even though we can do private Equity normal private Equity but what we do is specialize in
Opportunity zones which is um part of a 1031 exchange shelter so when you have a
um when you sell your investment properties um opport Unity zones um is a
private Equity that you can invest in on a certain project um and we'll have the the VA and
everything out there for you to know what we have available um and you have the opportunity at that point to say Hey
you know I'm gonna have to pay tech capital gains at first but after 10 years once the project is completed in
10 years um you have the opportunity of rather uh cashing out which if you do
you do not have to pay any capital gains on the cash out so let's say you put in
$50,000 of your investment you sell your house you got $50,000 you well you 150 you put you
know 50,000 into it um after 10 years and after that it has to stay in there
10 years um that 50,000 has now grown into you know three million okay okay
because you done an affordable you put the 50,000 toward an affordable housing deal 300 and some units with um mixed
use retail all that kind of stuff Parks um everything um affordable housing
affordable renting um and then you probably even put in some condos or um a
project that we're about to probably start in New Orleans is we're going to be doing some uh VA so I'm gonna be
doing actual VA housing um a project like that that's um
150,000 well I'm sorry 150 million um you can easily you know possibly come
out out of a a deal with you know $3 million Roi but when you get ready to cash out your three million is all
taxfree so you don't pay any capital gains off of that because of the shelter
so um so it's specifically because it's for a government-backed program like
Affordable Care hack okay so it's not necessarily because you're running a syndication you're doing all these
apartment buildings and this like that no it's specifically because this money is being doved towards uh a
government-backed uh funding program
okay yeah sort of kind of it's um what opportunity zones is is a private Equity
Fund on steroids got it that's that's kind of how we put it um a normal private
equities fund you still have to pay your capital gains okay because this project
because opportunity zones is a part of the federal government and the RS the
private Equity Fund itself is set up that if I do an investment in an opportunity Zone which is a zone that
the governors of the of all the 50 states have said that certain areas is deemed opportunity zones if I were to do
a project in one of those areas or if one of my um developers wanted to do in
that area then we would literally do a fund raise just like through the private
equity for that opportunity Zone and because of way the Equity Fund is set up
with the IRS and with the federal government we will get that the the
investors the qualified investors will be able to get a tax shelter so they
would put in whatever they're they put they have to pay their initial um uh
capital gains on their initial investment however instead of you have
90 days you have you know six you have like almost a year okay a year and a pay
it off instead of just the 90 days and so you get an extension on paying your capital gains once you invest in the
opportunity Zone but at the end of 10 years when you get ready to pull out if you decide to pull out if your if your
return on investment from that 50,000 is now 3 million then you'll get the three million so there is a time frame on that
of 10 years it is a long-term investment is 10 years but when you're dealing with
and being in a development field um when you're dealing with um development because you're dealing
with tax credits you're dealing with you know working with the states you're working with the different cities you're working with the government you working
with so you had then there's a fundraise part that has to happen and those people have to qualify and all of that so
there's a lot of different moving parts and so those parts don't move as fast because sometimes you may have the
property sometime the property does is not Fe it doesn't pass the feasibility reports so if it don't then you got to
find something new but at the end of the day there there's a just you trying to get the tax credits because of
everything you have to go through you have to go to City Council you got to go to Mayor they gota the community has to tell you what they want it's a lot of
community involvement it's a lot of um municipality involvement um and so
you're working together as a team to bring this area up and not only do we bring in housing but we also bring in
retail we do work to force development we bring in jobs we bring in all type of
stuff so 10 years it takes me four years to even get it pretty much started and
you know where we breaking ground then once you break ground it it goes fast then you got to put the people in there
you're selling as you go 10 Years it'll go by quickly so
so you know um all of the all of this going on it's
crazy on you know how much actually goes into this
now if you invest in your fund you don't have to as an investor you don't have to
do any of that you you because you run the fund have to do all that but the
investor can just and I want to go do my fix and
flips yeah a lot of qualified investors and the investors that normally we get
to put into these funds are people who have um more than you know um so many
millions of dollars of investment in so so they're set up very high that's what we mean by a qualified investor and so
normally they're Wall Street so they just they see a good deal they say hey this is great Robin you know how much
you need you know well you know I got it out there I need 250 I need 150 I need 50 million yeah whatever um I can get a
job I can get a a 50 million I can get one person to get at and it's a done deal it just depends that's the type of
investors you deal with so um do we take how are you meeting all these types of
investors because of I go to certain events that are qualified that are
qualified investor you have to have invitation so you I need to go to those events man I tell you that I'm going all
these local events here man I need to go to some of those yeah you just I mean I
tell people it's it's a lot of money right here in Detroit in metro Detroit oh you know you just got to be in the
right spot but I mean it's you know those type of investors they hang out in different events and things of that
nature and because of my fund a lot of times I will start um throwing events
just for them so it'll be a private only you know investors and stuff so so yeah
but basically you know we have people that do that for us they you know I got people who say hey I got an investor you
know whatever and then we just negotiate the deal and keep it going who gonna get paid who gonna get this and you're good
and you know you're basically negotiating if you're bringing something to the table there's always a room for
that too so but yeah but it's just um that's how we do I mean it's kind of the
commercial side of of real estate you know that's awesome residential yeah and
I I definitely want to get into some commercial the commercial side of real estate as well um because I do wanna
yeah I do want to get into wholesaling some of those commercial stuff too like
it's crazy because what it you know on a normal residential deal I I probably make about five to 10 grand on a
wholesale deal honestly um on a residential and like single family I
mean but commercial man you your fee could be 100
Grand you know it can be so might take a little bit longer or might not but
remember now you got to negotiate with your CL with your you know with your client you know what I'm saying so it's
a different ball game but you're used to that you know wholesalers are you know they know that you know if my client is
the person that I'm selling the house for and if you want to buy it and you got somebody that's you know that's
representing you they got to put their money on top I mean it's just that's just how it roll definitely you know or
split so same thing with 100% so we're coming we're coming to the end here and
I just want to ask uh you know kind of like for the future real quick um what
do you plan on doing we kind of already talked about it with there with your your your buildings and and your um you
know you called it a it's not a syndication it's called a private Equity
private Equity opportunity with opportuni okay so um how can since we
kind of already talked about that how can our uh audience here and uh help you
get to that point and how can we be of value to you well I mean you know um from what
I'm doing here a lot of the stuff that I do with private Equity um that's a whole
different ball game I mean that's something you'll definitely have to call me about how we work with that um because it's a lot more than what I kind
of gave you the the Quicky answer oh yeah the the the very layman term one
it's a lot more to it but um so that's a different thing you'll have to call me about that one but um hey I'm always
looking to purchase homes I have people that are looking to purchase homes um we got people who are looking for flips we
got people who are looking for I got people who are looking for um multif
family um got it I mean so um definitely looking for we got people who looking
for something in um uh they're looking for a house in I know you and I had
talked um in the um in the BBS you know in Oakland County something like that
war y War um you know stuff like that so I mean you know so that's kind of where
we at um and you know it's not a lot of inventory I understand so that's fine
but you know but I think that's going to change you know eventually um but you know that's what I'm doing here on the
home front I'm still a real I'm still a broker I still do regular um buy and
sale the regular real EST brokerage through I am the owner I'm the owner of my brokerage latitude luxury real estate
latitude real estude okay I know some people are brokish through like say exp and stuff like that so that's why I
asked that so no I I'm a I'm a boutique um real estate um owner broker broker
owner that's awesome and so we've been in business for I want to say about 15
years now and so yeah so um yeah so we do I do pretty well you know so um it
works out well for me um Platinum One Properties is what I use for myself um
so that's for anything that I'm that I'm flipping or rental flipping whatever I'm
doing for myself is through Platinum one um and then Nelson Edward um development
is what is going on with opportunities ownes and development and private Equity got it um yeah and we
work yeah so if anybody wants to contact her I whether it be just to be you know
just to get say one of her real estate agents uh part of her or or needs help
or wants to Grant you know wants more information about what she's doing um I
did put her contact info in the description below so check that out but
just so people have it while you're here how do they get a hold of you you can you can call me directly I've been being
called directly for so so long it doesn't even matter my number is all over the place so the number you can
reach me at is uh 2487 65221 um you can also reach me through
313 399 9538 that's for on latitude but you can
still call me there if you have anything else um or you can always shoot me an email you could text me on either one of
those phones um and you can just shoot me an email at and it's super easy it's my first name my last name so it's Robin
Barnes broker gmail.com that's my personal email you can call me on that we do have um a website that we are is
in construction because I'm kind of changing things around to accommodate Nelson Edward development um named after
my dad um so so yeah so we um I'm doing some
things so that we can make sure we can tap into all those things so that should be up soon um and we'll be going from
there but yes that's my little My Little World of Real Estate most definitely so um I'm really really
happy to have you on here be able to share your your story your backstory and
what you're doing now as well with everyone and I'm really hoping that at least one person out there has learned
something from this podcast that's always my goal okay I just I I just want
one person to learn something that's it that's awesome thank you so much for
having me appreciate no problem maybe that one person is me who knows I always
when I talk to I'm gonna be honest so you rocking and rolling Randy we have these convers like wow you you're just
an awesome awesome person to talk to so thank you I really do appreciate it I'm
it it's just my nature and I love to learn and talk about talk about real
estate and just things in general with people so uh because one thing I learned
when I was a kid was I need to learn from other people's
mistakes I need to learn from my own mistakes but I also need to learn from other people's mistakes so I don't make
those same mistakes right it's called saving time yes and time is the one
thing we cannot buy and money so exactly so awesome all right so we are
going to end this podcast what we're going to do is I'm going to bring you down I'll do a quick ending um and I but
stay behind because I want to talk I want I want to have a have a chat with you all right no no problem bye all
right thank you everyone for watching and thank you everyone for um you
know for all the comments all the questions and always coming in with
great value I one thing that I do want you to do please do hit like hit hit the
Subscribe if we' only if we've giving you value only if we giv you value okay
uh and then you know leave a comment down below uh if you're watching this replay I'd love to hear what you think
about this uh we are also look thinking about doing a Meetup here in the local
Metro Detroit area um I'd like to know what you think about that if you'd be interested in it uh you know we're
thinking about doing that uh either once a month or once every other month we haven't decided yet so please do let me
know uh you know I want to hear feedback I want to hear you know what what you
guys think about that so that's awesome so until next time which is we're gonna
be in two weeks we're gonna have another guest on the show I can't wait uh let's
all do deals
together