{"id":7951,"date":"2023-06-10T17:42:45","date_gmt":"2023-06-10T17:42:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/?p=7951"},"modified":"2023-06-10T17:42:45","modified_gmt":"2023-06-10T17:42:45","slug":"no-money-for-real-estate-2-side-hustles-you-can-use-to-fund-your-first-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/10\/no-money-for-real-estate-2-side-hustles-you-can-use-to-fund-your-first-deal\/","title":{"rendered":"No Money for Real Estate? 2 Side Hustles You Can Use to Fund Your First Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t have enough funds for real estate deals<\/strong><\/a>? Today, there\u2019s no excuse. Beyond strategies that allow you to invest in real estate<\/strong> with no money down<\/strong><\/a>, you can always start a profitable side hustle and put the earnings towards your next deal.<\/p>\n

In this episode of the Real Estate Rookie<\/em><\/strong> podcast, we\u2019re chatting with Ava Yuergens<\/strong> and Josh Janus<\/strong>\u2014two young entrepreneurs who managed to launch their own profitable side hustles<\/strong><\/a> to help fund their first real estate deals<\/strong><\/a>. Shortly after Ava and her fianc\u00e9 launched their very own couch-flipping side hustle<\/strong>, they were able to generate enough cash<\/strong> to invest in real estate. Josh was a student by day, so he needed a side hustle that he could work outside of school hours. After seeing the schedule flexibility<\/strong> that DoorDash provided, Josh started making food deliveries\u2014often using multiple apps and two phones to maximize his earnings<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve ever wanted to start your own side hustle<\/strong><\/a>, this is the episode for you! You\u2019ll learn how to launch your own successful side hustle from square one, sharpen your entrepreneurial skills<\/strong>, and generate more than enough income for you to put towards your first real estate deal. Finally, Ashley and Tony tie the bow on this showdown-style episode by evaluating these side hustles for upfront capital<\/strong>, earning potential<\/strong>, time commitment<\/strong>, and risk<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

\n

Ashley:
This is Real Estate Rookie episode 294.<\/p>\n

Ava:
We were making about 10 grand a month with couch flipping. On average, I would say if you\u2019re like consistent and dedicated, you could do anywhere from 2 to 5 a week.<\/p>\n

Josh:
You don\u2019t want to drive 10 miles delivering $20 in food, and you make a $2 tip. There\u2019s DoorDashers making $10 an hour, and then there\u2019s other ones making 40 or 50.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
My name is Ashley Kehr and I\u2019m here with my co-host, Tony Robinson.<\/p>\n

Tony:
And welcome to the Real Estate Rookie Podcast where every week, twice a week, we bring you the inspiration, motivation, and stories you need to hear to kickstart your investing journey. And Rookies, we got a great, great episode for y\u2019all today. We\u2019ve been torn around with this concept in the background for a while now, but one of the biggest obstacles or challenges that we hear from aspiring investors is the capital that\u2019s required to get started. While there are certain types of real estate investing or strategies where you can get in for little to no capital, a lot of times you need some cash to get started. And we thought what better way to overcome that obstacle than bring back some previous guests from the Rookie show and from the Real Estate Podcast who used their side hustles to fund their real estate business. So today we\u2019ve got Ava Yuergens and Josh Janus to come back and talk about their side hustles and how they use that to fuel their real estate business.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Then at the end of the episode, we kind of break down three different criterias that we have set as to how to weigh out these two side hustles. And the first one is upfront capital, income potential, and then passiveness, what is the time commitment. And then we kind of threw in a fourth one there too as to, what is the risk? How much money could you lose on this? So make sure you guys listen all the way through and kind of check these out. Maybe one of these side hustles will be great for you, guys. Make sure to leave a review on YouTube or wherever you may be listening and let us know if you like these Side Hustle episodes. I think they\u2019re great for everyone listening, but also if you have kids and you want them to start making money somehow, this may be a great episode to have them listen to.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Yeah. And honestly, that was part of how this whole episode came to be, was because my son\u2019s 15 and he\u2019s trying to save up for his car right now and he\u2019s debating on these different side hustle ideas and we thought it\u2019d be cool to hear firsthand from folks. So maybe we\u2019ll get my son Shawn in one of these episodes in the future as well so he can interview some folks firsthand.
But just a few quick housekeeping things before we jump into Josh and Ava\u2019s episode. If you guys can head over to biggerpockets.com\/reply, we\u2019ve got a new landing page up where you can submit your questions for the Real Estate Rookie Reply episodes. We\u2019d love to hear from our Rookie audience. It\u2019s one of our favorite types of episodes to do, is to hear from y\u2019all and answer your questions directly.
And second, I got to give a shout-out to someone by the username of Nico and Casey. They left us a really heartfelt five-star review on Apple Podcasts. The title of their review is My Lighthouse in the Storm. It\u2019s a very deep and touching title, but Nico and Casey say, \u201cThere is so much advice out there. Most of it\u2019s contradictory for real estate investing that it feels like you\u2019re being tossed about in the ocean during a storm. There seems to be risk and the potential for losing large sums of money no matter where you decided to go. Worst of all, you feel like you were in it alone. BiggerPockets and particularly the Real Estate Rookie Podcast has been my guiding light. Your advice is sound and the guests you interview remind me that anyone can start this journey. I haven\u2019t closed on my first deal yet, but I\u2019ve been making many connections in and out of state, and it\u2019s only a matter of time. Keep up the great work.\u201d
Nico and Casey, probably one of my favorite reviews I\u2019ve read as of late. We appreciate that. For all of our Rookies that are listening, if you haven\u2019t yet, please do leave us an honest rating review on whatever platform it\u2019s you\u2019re listening to. The more reviews we get, the more folks we can reach. And more folks who reach, more folks we can help.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Ava and Josh, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for taking the time today to teach us about your side hustles. I want to start off with you guys telling everyone a little bit about yourself. Ava, we\u2019ve had you before on the Rookie Podcast. Josh, you were on the podcast with David for the BiggerPockets Podcast. So let\u2019s jump in with you. Ava, can you start off with telling us just a little bit about yourself and what side hustle you are going to be teaching us today?<\/p>\n

Ava:
Yeah. So hi, my name\u2019s Ava Yuergens. I started a real estate investing company when I was 15 with my now fiance, Ben. We were able to acquire 900K in residential real estate before I graduated high school. And now, basically we were able to acquire a lot of real estate because of this side hustle called couch flipping, which we will talk more about today.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
And Josh, what about you?<\/p>\n

Josh:
Hey, I\u2019m Josh Janus. I\u2019m 22. I am a real estate agent and investor based in Cleveland, Columbus, Ohio. Basically I was DoorDashing as I\u2019ll talk about later in college, not really knowing what my journey was going to be. I was listening to the BiggerPockets Podcast and listening to all their educational material regarding finances and real estate, and that led into where I am today.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
So Ava, you were on episode 271 of the Rookie Podcast and Josh was on episode 749 of the Real Estate Podcast. So thank you guys so much for coming back. We want to break down these side hustles so at the end of this episode, someone listening can go out and replicate what you guys did or maybe something very similar. So Josh, how did you even hear about your side hustle and doing DoorDash?<\/p>\n

Josh:
Yeah, I didn\u2019t really want to work a traditional job. I wanted to work a job where I could maybe listen to podcasts or audiobooks or do something while working to try to improve my overall education. So I was just kind of Googling what could you do. I had a car, I had some money saved up, but I didn\u2019t have anything particular. I think some Uber Eats ads popped up. I was like, \u201cOh, maybe I\u2019ll try that out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony:
Josh, it\u2019s such a weird world that we live in now. My wife and I, we\u2019re notorious for not cooking. 90% of the food that we eat gets delivered by someone else. So either we\u2019re Instacart-ing from the grocery store or we\u2019re doing DoorDash or all these other things. So it\u2019s cool that there\u2019s side hustles out there that people can use through that kind of stuff. So you hear about DoorDash. I mean, how old were you at the time when you started?<\/p>\n

Josh:
18 or 19.<\/p>\n

Tony:
I mean, as an 18 or 19 year old, was there any hesitation about driving around your local city delivering food to strangers? I think for a lot of people, that might be part of the hesitation around DoorDash. I might be getting ahead of myself, but just, I don\u2019t know, all the interaction with strangers, was that a concern for you at all?<\/p>\n

Josh:
Yeah, I mean a little bit. Just navigating, like figuring out where to go. Some people\u2019s apartment complexes or building arrangements could be complicated to somebody that isn\u2019t experienced to it, I guess. So that might make people nervous.<\/p>\n

Tony:
So let me ask this, man. Who do you feel is the ideal person to take up the side hustle? What are some of the skills or traits or tools that someone needs to be successful doing this?<\/p>\n

Josh:
I think it\u2019s somebody that\u2019s self-driven because you really only get paid for as much as you work. But at the same time, you can be really flexible with it. You don\u2019t have to do it a set number of hours or set number of days. There\u2019s always those commercials talking about it, but it\u2019s true, you can set your own schedule.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
And Josh, what made this a good fit for you? Was it the schedule or was it something else that really enticed you as to this is something you wanted to do?<\/p>\n

Josh:
For sure. It was definitely the scheduling because I had classes during the day and I wanted to find something that I could make money with after school or in general, between 5:00 and 9:00. I don\u2019t want to be out too late. And then I also wanted to be able to either listen to books, audiobooks, podcasts, et cetera. And this job allows you to do that almost the entire time.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Josh, can you just explain how it is flexible? How are you setting your own schedule? Is there an app you\u2019re going into and putting in when you\u2019re available to work? Do you have to set it ahead of time? Can you just give us the glimpse as to how exactly you are setting your own schedule?<\/p>\n

Josh:
So certain markets, you\u2019ll actually have to set your schedule in advance because it\u2019s competitive. Wherever hours was working, you can just log on and start working and you don\u2019t really have to tell anybody when you\u2019re going to do it. So it\u2019s kind of the ultimate level of freedom.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Josh, this isn\u2019t necessarily about the side hustle, but you talked a lot about wanting to have the freedom to listen to podcasts and all this other stuff. Just out of curiosity because you said you were 18, 19 at the time, what sparked that initial interest for you?<\/p>\n

Josh:
Yeah, I\u2019ve always been kind of entrepreneurial. I made duct tape wallets, sold shoes, sold virtual currency. I kind of had some money saved up and I didn\u2019t really know where to take that, but I figured if I just kept jamming information in my head, eventually I\u2019d figure something out.<\/p>\n

Tony:
I love that, man. We got to have both you and Ava back because I know both of you guys have multiple side houses that you\u2019ve tried. Next question for you, Josh, what was the cost of entry? What were the startup costs for you to get the side hustle rolling?<\/p>\n

Josh:
If you have a car that\u2019s within the last 10 years, I believe that\u2019s their guidance. And you have a valid driver\u2019s license and you have enough money to pay for gas in the beginning, that\u2019s really all you need. You can borrow somebody else\u2019s car and rent it, but yeah.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
I didn\u2019t realize that you needed to have a car within the past 10 years. Is that just because they want your car to be reliable so that the food is actually getting delivered and there\u2019s less risk of breaking down?<\/p>\n

Josh:
Yes.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Okay.<\/p>\n

Josh:
Yeah, I had a couple, one or two flat tires they actually would assist in paying for, which is kind of helpful.<\/p>\n

Tony:
I was going to ask, because I know I\u2019ve heard Uber, I\u2019ve been in Ubers before where the driver says, \u201cOh, this isn\u2019t even my car. I\u2019m renting this car from Uber.\u201d And Uber will rent you a car. They take care of all the maintenance and the service. So just for anyone else that\u2019s thinking of\u2026 Even if you don\u2019t have a car, some of these gig based things will actually give you a vehicle and then you just have to do the work of actually driving it around.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Yeah. And Josh, you mentioned right there that they helped you with your tires. Did they give you money when you got flat tires? Or how did they assist you with that?<\/p>\n

Josh:
I believe they did credit me for a flat tire and they also paid me for what I would\u2019ve made if I completed the delivery. I think it was both. I could be wrong, but\u2026<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Oh, that\u2019s interesting. Okay. So Josh, you\u2019ve started your gig. Were there any other kind of startup costs besides having a vehicle and having to spend money on gas?<\/p>\n

Josh:
If you buy a magnetic thing to put on your car by your front windshield, that\u2019s very helpful. So you\u2019re not constantly looking down, a good set of headphones, have some snacks, have some water in your car, and just be ready to just live in your car for a couple hours a day.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Basically, Josh, it sounds like the startup cost for this are relatively nothing, right? Most people already have a vehicle. Most people already have what they need to get started. So if I wanted to right now, I could probably start making money with this side hustle tonight if I wanted to?<\/p>\n

Josh:
Yeah. The actual registration sign up was a couple days.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Okay. And then Josh, once you got going, how long was it? So since that initial day you started the signup process, how long until you actually made your first dollar?<\/p>\n

Josh:
I made money on the first delivery. So you make money right away. You get paid out once a week, so you wait a couple days to actually get it. But you need to learn what is a good delivery to take and what isn\u2019t. So making sure people are tipping you and things like that. But really you get paid from day one.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Yeah. How do you tell what is a good delivery or a bad delivery? I didn\u2019t even know that there was actually a difference.<\/p>\n

Josh:
Oh, yeah. I mean there\u2019s Door Dashers making $10 an hour and then there\u2019s other ones making 40 or 50 because you have to learn how like\u2026 You don\u2019t want to drive 10 miles delivering $20 in food and you make a $2 tip and it takes you an hour round trip. But maybe you drive 10 minutes there, 10 minutes back and you make $9 and you waited five, 10 minutes at the store. That\u2019s a lot better utilization of your time. So I think DoorDash really allows you to learn the value of time as well.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
So are you able to see? Like when an order comes in, are you able to see all of that information as to what the tip will be, where the food is that you\u2019re picking up, where you\u2019re dropping off?<\/p>\n

Josh:
You\u2019ll see where it is and you\u2019ll see where it\u2019s going. They hide the tips. You can go on Reddit and other forums and figure out how they hide it and learn it. But for the most part, it\u2019s very transparent. And actually, every single delivery is like its own independent contract. So you can either accept it or deny it and get another one presented to you.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Oh, so even after when you accept it, you can see all the information and then you can go back and cancel it and then go and take another one?<\/p>\n

Josh:
Yeah.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Oh, okay.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Does DoorDash help you optimize your routes as you\u2019re going through this? Because you talked about making sure that you\u2019re getting the best return on your time. Does it have a routing functionality that says, \u201cIf you\u2019re picking up multiple deliveries, go here, then here, then drop off in this sequence\u201d? Or do you have to figure that out yourself?<\/p>\n

Josh:
It does do that, yeah. If you\u2019re in an area, if you\u2019re in a city or somewhere busy, it works really well. If you\u2019re kind of doing it in the middle of nowhere a little bit I was doing, it\u2019s not as great, but yeah.<\/p>\n

Tony:
That\u2019s pretty cool. Ash, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever shared this with you before either, but I have such a colorful history. But when I was in college, me and my friends had a startup and it was called Tumee, T-U-M-E-E. And this was before DoorDash and Uber Eats really blew up. They were just early phase startups and we were trying to essentially be the kayak for deliveries. So if you went to Tumee, you would put in what you wanted and then it would give you the best price between DoorDash, Postmates, and whatever the other apps were at the time. We never really got off the ground. We had a really cool looking app where we couldn\u2019t get funding. But I don\u2019t know, just tidbit for you to know more about Tony\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Yeah, always having you surprise us with all these ventures or jobs or different things you did.<\/p>\n

Tony:
All right, Josh, so next question for you here, brother. And this might be a silly question, but how many people are on your team to do this DoorDash thing? Are you always by yourself? Are you tag teaming with a buddy? What does that look like?<\/p>\n

Josh:
I had a friend that did it along with me, so we would be on calls sometimes. But the way to that I grew it was I started to use multiple apps at the same time. And then once I got the hang of that, I actually used multiple phones to get different orders. And you try to line everything up. You don\u2019t want to have people wait too long for their food. You got to be strategic with it. But if you do it right, you can do pretty well with it.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Wait, so walk me through why you need multiple phones. Why can\u2019t you do it all with one phone?<\/p>\n

Josh:
Because you could potentially get two similar delivery requests on two different accounts that maybe one house is two miles away from the other and you wouldn\u2019t necessarily get both of those requests at the same time on the first phone. So you can kind of stack deliveries that way.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
So it\u2019s almost like you\u2019re two people then? You\u2019re signed in on under different logins to the app?<\/p>\n

Josh:
Yeah, you\u2019re essentially two people. Yep.<\/p>\n

Tony:
So what\u2019s the most number of phones you\u2019ve been logged into at one time? You got five phones that you\u2019re running around with doing-<\/p>\n

Josh:
No, that that\u2019d be pretty chaotic. Just two. I think I\u2019ve had six different deliveries on my car once. I think that was my max.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Well, all I could think about is that song. I got two phones. One for the [inaudible 00:16:10].<\/p>\n

Tony:
Yeah.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Okay. Well awesome, Josh. We just want to kind of dive in and get the background information on DoorDash. And now we\u2019re going to turn it over to Ava. So Ava, how did you hear about the side hustle that you chose?<\/p>\n

Ava:
We found couch flipping just because we searched up on YouTube, just side hustle ideas and couch flipping just seemed like the most intriguing one.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Just, Ava, I think everyone understands what DoorDash and Postmates are, but for folks that maybe haven\u2019t heard of couch flipping before, can you just even define what that means? What does it mean to flip a couch?<\/p>\n

Ava:
Yeah, I\u2019ll just go step by step. So the first step is you go on apps like Facebook Marketplace OfferUp. And then you look for couches that people are selling that are just underpriced or maybe need a clean and you could sell it for higher. But then you basically just make your offer. You can low ball it just like real estate. And you get the couch, you can clean it or if it doesn\u2019t need cleaning, you just leave it as it is. But then you take really good pictures and then you upload it back on those apps for just a higher price.<\/p>\n

Tony:
So you\u2019re literally almost like flipping a house, but you\u2019re flipping a couch. You\u2019re flipping furniture that people have. That\u2019s wild. So who is this side hustle for? What are some of the skills or traits you need to be successful with couch flipping?<\/p>\n

Ava:
I would say kind of like DoorDash, you figure out what couches are going to be the most profitable and what ones just aren\u2019t worth your time. I would say it\u2019s not necessarily a skill, it\u2019s just something you learn over time. But I would say you do need to have some muscle, have some meat on your bones because couches are really heavy, so you definitely need to be able to lift it up. But I will say you can do it with just one person. You can either get the owner of the couch to help you actually get it into your vehicle. Or there\u2019s a side kind of hack. You just put one end up on like if you have a truck, you put it in the truck bed and then you go around on the other side and lift the other end and just push it in. So it\u2019s possible to do it with just one person, but you just got to be strong.<\/p>\n

Tony:
So just on the skill side piece, so Josh talked about how with DoorDash you got to be smart about which deliveries you take and which ones you denied and make sure that you\u2019re maximizing your time and maximizing your revenue. How do you get good at analyzing a couch? How do you know like, \u201cOkay, this is how much this couch is going to make when I resell it on the back end\u201d?<\/p>\n

Ava:
Yeah. So over time you\u2019ll realize which couches sell the fastest. Where I live personally, everyone loves a good huge gray sectional. I don\u2019t know what it is, but I mean I guess they\u2019re modern and they\u2019re pretty. So we always know if we can find a gray sectional for 200 bucks, we could probably sell it for 1,200 if it\u2019s good quality, if it\u2019s big. So you will learn over time which couches sell the best. It\u2019s different in each market, but for me personally and for a lot of other different places in the US, gray sectionals do really well. And then you can also look at how far away is this couch. Is it in your city? Is it in the city over? So drive time. I mean, also just if you have to clean up the couch, take that into account because to clean up a couch, it could take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
For that you know the fact that the gray sectionals go great, in the very beginning, how did you do your market research as to what kind of couches you wanted to buy? Was it trial and error? Were you going up and seeing what things were selling for on Facebook Marketplace or OfferUp? How did you learn what couches go for and what the true value is?<\/p>\n

Ava:
Yeah, so like you mentioned, we saw that, for example, gray sectionals, they were selling really fast where we live. And also we watched a lot of YouTube videos and we knew that this one guy who couch flipped a ton, he just did sectionals because they were so good. So we tried to stick to just sectionals. And then also some of it\u2019s just self-explanatory. Obviously, you don\u2019t want to get a leather sectional that\u2019s ripping all over, so that\u2019s something you can\u2019t fix. So I guess it was a lot of trial and error, but also some strategy that you just kind of learn over time.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
And when you were watching these YouTube videos and you found this couch flipping online, what made you decide that this was going to be a good fit for you?<\/p>\n

Ava:
Mainly just because my fiancee Ben, he had a truck and he\u2019s strong. So yeah, I mean, I won\u2019t take full credit, he was pretty much the whole driver of it. And also just it was very attractive because it could make a lot of money. I mean, you\u2019re making anywhere from on average 200 to $700 an hour. So it\u2019s a great return on time.<\/p>\n

Tony:
And then Ava, what\u2019s the cost of entry? If I wanted to get started couch flipping today, what kind of capital do I need to put up to get started?<\/p>\n

Ava:
So you can get couches for free or 100 bucks? What we did for our first one is we got it for free and we already had the truck so it didn\u2019t cost anything. But if you don\u2019t have a truck, this is where it can get pricey just because you need to be able to have a car that\u2019s actually going to fit a couch because couches are huge. You got to have some way of transportation. The only way you can work around not having a truck is borrowing someone, like if your grandparents have it, your relatives, any friends or renting one or maybe having the people deliver the couch to you. But I mean there\u2019s a couple ways around it, but I would say having a truck is pretty important.<\/p>\n

Tony:
I didn\u2019t even realize. So you\u2019re saying, Ava, that at times you would find couches that people were giving away for free and then clean them up and turn around and sell. So your initial capital investment would be zero on those couches, is that what you\u2019re saying?<\/p>\n

Ava:
Yeah. And some people like that we got them for free, they\u2019d be really upset because sometimes people will message you after and they\u2019re like, \u201cThis is my couch.\u201d But yeah, you can actually do it and get them for free.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
There probably are people though that just want to get rid of it and they\u2019ll give it for free just to have somebody haul it off of their property so they don\u2019t have to dispose of it. Where I live, there\u2019s like a town dump and they have trash day every once in a while where you can bring appliances, things like that, and you have to load up the trailer of all the stuff and then drive it there and take it to the dump. I could see if people don\u2019t have a truck, they don\u2019t have a trailer, they really don\u2019t have any way of getting it there, plus it\u2019s an inconvenience to have to drive there. So I could definitely see the value of finding those people that just don\u2019t want to get rid of the couch themselves, that they\u2019re willing to give it away, just have somebody haul it.<\/p>\n

Tony:
I opened up Facebook Marketplace on my phone while you\u2019re talking Ash, and the very first couch that showed up says free. The very first couch on Facebook Marketplace is free. So there you go. I never even would\u2019ve thought of that.<\/p>\n

Ava:
Yeah, sometimes they\u2019re free when either they\u2019re just really bad or they need a good clean or maybe they need same day pickup or something like that. And also we\u2019ve been able to get couches for free by\u2026 It\u2019s just like real estate. Like a fast close, you can get a discount. Same with couches. You\u2019re like, \u201cSame day pickup? Oh, that\u2019s like a hundred bucks off.\u201d So yeah, it\u2019s literally just like real estate.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Let\u2019s go into the kind of that negotiating a little bit, because with DoorDash you really can\u2019t negotiate. You\u2019re pretty much told what the cost is. But as far as negotiating couches, what are some of your tactics for that?<\/p>\n

Ava:
Yeah, so like I just mentioned, same day pickup is huge. People just usually when they post it, they just want to get rid of it. So same day pickup\u2019s a great one, and you can get a couple hundred off for that if you\u2019re lucky. Usually it\u2019s like 50. Also, you can just maybe bid against other people. In the summer is when you\u2019ll usually get in bidding wars because everyone\u2019s looking for new furniture. And obviously, buying a new couch, you\u2019re paying a couple thousand. And then on Facebook Marketplace you can get it for a couple hundred. So a lot of people buy couches on there. Negotiation, there\u2019s some, but it\u2019s pretty much slim to none. But one way you actually can get more money out of people when they\u2019re buying it is offering delivery because again, everyone has a truck, so how are they going to get it to their property? So if we deliver, we\u2019re able to up the purchase price by 50 to 100.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
So along with your startup cost, when you take these couches, it\u2019s usually you\u2019re probably not selling them same day. So do you have a storage unit that you\u2019re paying for? Or where do you store the couches until you\u2019re actually able to sell them again?<\/p>\n

Ava:
That\u2019s actually a really good question. So since we started this when we were 16, we were still in my parents\u2019 house, so we would just put all the couches in my parking spot and I just park outside. But then my parents just got, they\u2019re like, \u201cI\u2019m tired of these couches in my garage.\u201d Because they also, sometimes, they just have a stench of someone\u2019s home, even if it\u2019s not bad, it\u2019s just\u2026 I don\u2019t know. So they wanted them out. So eventually we did get a storage unit. I believe our storage unit is about a hundred something a month. But you can fit a bunch of couches in ours. It\u2019s like ours isn\u2019t very big, but we just stack couches on top of each other.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
And then do you offer delivery or do you have people just come right to the storage unit and pick it up?<\/p>\n

Ava:
Yeah, so it just depends on how far away they are. If they\u2019re super far away and they ask for delivery an hour away, we usually won\u2019t do it unless we\u2019re actually getting a good price for it. But if they\u2019re close and they really need delivery in order for it to close, then we\u2019ll go ahead and deliver it for them.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
So with all of this couch flipping, what was the reason that you wanted to make this extra money anyways?<\/p>\n

Ava:
Yeah. So again, since we were making a couple hundred dollars an hour, it was a great way in order for us to make a lot of money as just young people in order to invest in real estate. I talked about this on my episode a little bit, but for our first investment we did a 50\/50 partnership split with my parents. And if you add up the down payment, closing costs and then any repair costs, and then you split that in half, my parents paid half and then we paid the other half and then we paid our half with all our couch flip money.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Yeah. So you literally use your couch flipping business to fund your first real estate purchase, which is the whole purpose of this episode is to show our listeners what\u2019s possible when you get a decent side hustle so that can generate some revenue. So let\u2019s go back to that first couch, Ava. You said that you got that first couch for free. How long did it take after you purchased that couch to actually get your money back from selling it?<\/p>\n

Ava:
So it did sell same day and then we delivered it the day after. But we got it for free. And again, with the skill over time, you realize what you can actually price it, but we just wanted to make sure we sold it. So we put it up for maybe 200. And so on our first one, we got $200.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Just transactionally, what are you using to get the money? You just sell Venmo or are you sending PayPal invoices or something?<\/p>\n

Ava:
Usually it\u2019s just Venmo and then sometimes just cash.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
So when you did that first transaction, how much time did you actually put into it with picking up that free couch, delivering it? Did you have to clean it at all? How much did you make hourly for that first $200?<\/p>\n

Ava:
So on our first couch we did clean it. I would say it was about an hour and a half worth of work because it wasn\u2019t too far away. So we just had to pick it up, clean it, take pictures. And then actually something I do want to mention, again, with the skill is over time you\u2019ll realize how to sell it in the description. It\u2019s just a listing for a house. You got to talk about it in the listing, make sure you clarify things like colors. And then also always include measurements like height, width, and length, because people are always going to ask and it\u2019s just a pain to go remeasure it. So always measure it, put those in the description. But I would say all in all, since it was our first one, it took a little longer, so maybe one and a half to two hours.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Out of curiosity, Ava, have you found one platform being better than the others to list your couches? Do you get more interest on Facebook Marketplace or are you on OfferUp? What are all the platforms that you\u2019re on and which one has been the best one for you?<\/p>\n

Ava:
Yeah, so I always say you can do it on OfferUp and Craigslist as well, but we have only ever used Facebook Marketplace because it\u2019s the best for selling and buying.<\/p>\n

Tony:
All right. So last question here before we kind of switch gears. You mentioned you and your fiance, but is there anyone outside of the two of you? How many people do you need to make the side hustle of couch flipping a realistic goal for people?<\/p>\n

Ava:
Just for our end, it is just one or two people. But of course you need people who are actually selling their couches. But just to actually do it, you just need yourself. Obviously it\u2019s going to be easier to lift a couch with two people, so keep that in mind. But yeah, you can do it by yourself.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Awesome, Ava, thank you so much for sharing the start of your side hustle. We have some more questions for you, guys. So Josh, let\u2019s go back to you. Can you recount a crazy moment? Maybe it was an interaction with the customer, a big order you had, or maybe something went wrong. Can you kind of give us that entertainment?<\/p>\n

Josh:
Yeah, it was\u2026 I don\u2019t know. It was 2:00 PM on a Tuesday or something, like middle of a workday, and I was delivering Taco Bell to this house that had a big gate. So I had the code and I got through the gate and it was a quarter mile driveway in this huge house with like\u2026 It had a Lamborghini and a Rolls-Royce in the driveway. It was absurd. I was like, \u201cWhy are you guys ordering Taco Bell?\u201d I don\u2019t know. I thought it really funny.<\/p>\n

Tony:
You know what you should have did Josh? Have you seen those videos where it\u2019s the people going up to millionaires homes and saying, \u201cHey, what do you do for a living?\u201d Did you get to ask that question?<\/p>\n

Josh:
I wish that was happening when I was doing this because I could have just done that also. And then maybe you had two businesses going.<\/p>\n

Tony:
There you go, man. That would\u2019ve been been a really good idea. Oh, I love that. So you never had anyone that was like, I don\u2019t know, belligerent or drunk or just anything crazy like that where you were fearful for where the situation might go?<\/p>\n

Josh:
Luckily, the majority of what I was doing was during COVID, so actually I didn\u2019t meet too many people, but I am sure there are some funny stories out there about that.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Ava, what about you? Flipping couches, meeting up with people, any crazy stories about either who you sold to, who you bought from, anything in between?<\/p>\n

Ava:
Yeah, so there\u2019s the small things where couches have, like we\u2019ve been lifting them and they just fall down the stairs. Or one time, actually a couple weeks ago, we were lifting one and then all of a sudden we were going out the door and their cat just jumped right out of the couch. But there\u2019s this\u2026 Yeah, so we almost took their cat. But there was this one time we were going into the city downtown. I don\u2019t know, it was kind of this sketchy area. The neighbor\u2019s house\u2026 We were going into the house to get the couch, but then the neighbor, I don\u2019t know what they were doing, but they were on the porch and then all of a sudden we made eye contact and he pulls up his AR, not pointing at me, but he just pulls up and just show it. We just sprinted to the car and left. Honestly, I just couldn\u2019t. But yeah, those are the crazy stories I can think of right off the top of my head.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Yeah, I guess getting a gun pulled on you is [inaudible 00:31:27].<\/p>\n

Ava:
Yeah.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
And that\u2019s the one thing we didn\u2019t talk about with either of them is pulling up to strangers houses. And especially Eva, if you\u2019re going into the houses to get couches, what are some ways to kind of protect yourself? I know at this one property that I\u2019m at right now where I\u2019ve been working a lot, we\u2019ll order groceries here because we have a full kitchen and everything. It\u2019s just this very random dirt road that Josh says goes back a quarter of a mile, but this is all dirt and the property\u2019s overgrown. There\u2019s like a haunted house looking things at the end. You know could tell they\u2019re not sure if they\u2019re in the right place. So how do both of you navigate as to like are there certain areas you won\u2019t deliver to Josh, or Ava you won\u2019t pick up couches from?<\/p>\n

Ava:
For me personally, Ben\u2019s\u2026 Well, he always says this, Ben\u2019s a really good wrestler, so he is like, \u201cI\u2019ll be fine. I\u2019ll beat him up. Don\u2019t worry.\u201d So I\u2019m always with Ben when I do it. But he went to state every year. He\u2019s good, so I\u2019m okay.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
And Josh, what about you?<\/p>\n

Tony:
Yeah, is there ever a DoorDash you\u2019re like, \u201cNo, I\u2019m not picking that one up. I\u2019m not going there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josh:
I would utilize the tips as a way of judging the area. So if I\u2019m delivering $60 in food and you\u2019re giving me $2, it\u2019s like I\u2019m probably not going to go over there.<\/p>\n

Tony:
That\u2019s interesting. I don\u2019t even think I ever noticed what the tip is because DoorDash just has a default tip amount. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever changed that. But now hearing from a DoorDasher, I might need to pay more attention to that to make sure that I\u2019m getting my fruit delivered quickly, right? Because can you change your tip amount on DoorDash after you\u2019ve submitted your order?<\/p>\n

Josh:
You can change it after. I\u2019ve had both sometimes like I can\u2019t open up the food, I don\u2019t know actually what\u2019s in there. And people would be like, \u201cOh, they put onions\u201d or something on the food and then they\u2019d take half their tip away and it\u2019s like, \u201cDude, I had nothing to do with that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony:
Wow, I didn\u2019t know that. I didn\u2019t know that. All right. Let\u2019s go to our next question here. What about longevity, just in terms of how sustainable the side hustle is? So Josh, let\u2019s start with you, man. I mean how sustainable or how\u2026 I don\u2019t know, I guess how long do you feel you could keep up doing DoorDash as a side hustle?<\/p>\n

Josh:
I think it pairs really well with a W2 job or something where you can work at night or maybe you\u2019ll work on a Tuesday or a Saturday morning. I think it\u2019s sustainable as long as you want to do it.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
And Eva, what about you for couch flipping? I would think that maybe lifting couches may take a toll on your back eventually, but what would you say the longevity is for doing couch flipping?<\/p>\n

Ava:
Yeah, I would say you can hurt your back, so you got to be careful. But as long as you\u2019re fit enough and you can lift heavy objects. And also, I guess if we\u2019re talking about if you have a job while doing this, a lot of the times the only downside about couch flipping really is it\u2019s not really on your own time. It\u2019s whenever a good couch pops up because they\u2019re not on there 24\/7 all the time, because obviously if it\u2019s good, it\u2019s going to go fast. So you have to be constantly looking at your phone, refreshing the page in orders to text the person right away like, \u201cOh, I want this couch.\u201d So pairing with the W2 job, I mean you can only take so many bathroom breaks, so I don\u2019t know. But I would say it\u2019s good for the weekends and stuff. But yeah, longevity wise, as long as you\u2019re good with lifting heavy objects, you can do it as long as you want.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
And Ava, if I remember correctly, you have a bunch of virtual assistants for your other business. But for a side hustle, do you think you could hire a virtual assistant to basically just comb through listings every day or have them set alerts and where you\u2019re not even having to worry about logging in and checking for all these listings?<\/p>\n

Ava:
Definitely. I definitely think you can because if you just plug in the location, anyone can do it from anywhere. So for sure.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Man, now my head\u2019s spinning. Could I build a couch flipping empire where I have VAs across every single-<\/p>\n

Ava:
People do. People have huge warehouses and buy them at wholesale. It\u2019s crazy. You should just look it up on YouTube.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Well, I guess that leads into my next question. And Ava, I\u2019ll start with you on this one in terms of consistency of income, because you said people aren\u2019t posting couches all day every day. So I guess how many couches could you flip in a month? What\u2019s the average number that someone could expect to do? Am I flipping a couch every day? Is it once a week? What does that look like?<\/p>\n

Ava:
I would say it depends on\u2026 Obviously in spring and summer, people are moving, so it\u2019s more common. But on average, I would say if you\u2019re consistent and dedicated, you could do anywhere from two to five a week. So just from a income perspective also you could do less couches, but just raise the price higher, just all that kind of stuff. But we were making about 10 grand a month with couch flipping, especially during the summer when we didn\u2019t have school.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Yeah. And gosh, so 10 grand a month, how many couches is that, like ballpark?<\/p>\n

Ava:
I\u2019m thinking like 10 to 20. 10 to 20, okay. I\u2019m going to say 10 to 20.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Yeah. Wow, that\u2019s a lot of couches in a month. 15 couches a month, that\u2019s like a couch every other day. That\u2019s a lot of volume. I didn\u2019t realize there were that many couches out there. I wonder if it\u2019s somewhat market dependent.<\/p>\n

Ava:
It is.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Like you probably have to be in a bigger kind of city to get that kind of volume. Whereas if you\u2019re in a more rural or remote area, the volume of couches might be smaller. Like every house in your neighborhood is on acres and acres. So the density just isn\u2019t the same as mine where I can see my neighbor\u2019s house out my window right now. So I wonder what that looks like.<\/p>\n

Ava:
Yeah, I agree. It is really market specific because we live right outside Milwaukee, so there\u2019s a lot of couches for sale all the time.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Josh, what does your income look like on a bad month, a good month, and how long are you actually spending time driving and how many deliveries on average would you say?<\/p>\n

Josh:
Yeah, when you start out, you need to learn what orders are good to take and what aren\u2019t. So you can probably be around $15 an hour, maybe 20 in the beginning. But as you kind of pick up the pace, you learn when to go. The hotter hour\u2019s during lunch and dinner, especially more on the weekends versus weekdays. I mean, you can push 40 to $50 an hour pretty consistently. Of course it is market dependent. I kind of did it in an area where there were three main shopping centers with five to 10 restaurants at each, and I kind of just cycled through those. But it\u2019s kind of probably averages around 30.<\/p>\n

Tony:
So Josh, you said you would cycle through the same restaurants. So were you friends with the people at the local Johnny Carino\u2019s because they saw Josh coming in every other day? Or was it multiple deliveries from the same restaurant on a daily basis? What\u2019s the frequency at one location?<\/p>\n

Josh:
Yeah, I mean, you could probably do 10 to 15 at one restaurant and almost just be their delivery person during the entire day. And bonus, you actually, if you start to make friends, they will give you the food that nobody picks up and you can get a bunch of free lunch and dinner. I mean, I had almost every single major meal covered for free.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
That\u2019s another cost saving tip there to save money not having to pay for food for your meals. Well, that\u2019s awesome guys. I want to bring you guys both in to do a group discussion here and maybe you guys have questions for each other too on your side hustles. But looking back, is there something you would\u2019ve done differently to make your side hustle maybe more profitable, maybe more passive or efficient? Ava, let\u2019s start with you.<\/p>\n

Ava:
Yeah, so I would probably say that now we go\u2026 We set a certain profitability goal. For example now, if a couch isn\u2019t going to make us 500 within the hour, we\u2019ll probably not get it just because we have our other businesses now. So yeah, we have a goal. But now on average our couches make anywhere from 500 to 1,000 for every one to two hours because that\u2019s how long it takes to flip a couch.
But I would say I wish sooner I would\u2019ve just gone for the bigger fish because at first when a couch was priced at $400, it would kind of be scary to buy. But now knowing what I know, I wish I would\u2019ve bought some of those couches because if it\u2019s a gray sectional and it\u2019s priced for 400, well you could sell that for over 1,000. So you\u2019re still making a huge chunk of money. But I was just scared because it was just a lot of money when I was used to getting couches for free. So I say something I wish I knew sooner or now I know is just you don\u2019t have to be scared of the bigger price couches just because they\u2019re higher priced. It\u2019s the same as flipping a million-dollar house and selling it for a couple more million.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Ava, did you ever lose money on a couch?<\/p>\n

Ava:
Yes, we have. We have broken even before. A lot of the times it\u2019s because we were 16 and really nervous. So when the pictures looked really good and we would go to the house, we\u2019d be scared to say, \u201cOh, nevermind, I won\u2019t want it anymore.\u201d So we would just take it, which eventually we learned to be like, \u201cNo.\u201d But yeah, so we have. Those obviously are majority of the times, that\u2019s when we\u2019ve broken even or even lost a hundred dollars or something. But losing money on a couch flip, it\u2019s very rare, but it does happen.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Josh, I wonder for you, have you ever lost money on doing DoorDash? If you looked up your week and maybe what you spent on gas, it didn\u2019t equate to what you actually made during the deliveries. Has that ever happened?<\/p>\n

Josh:
No, I wouldn\u2019t lose money that way, but sometimes you would be expecting a cash tip. Like this one delivery, I drove almost an hour away from the store and it was catering. It was $350 in food. I went in their house and I put it all\u2026 I set it all up for their family, and I didn\u2019t get a single dollar tip and I was really annoyed. So there goes two hours of time for 10 bucks.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Yeah, I guess that\u2019s like how you lose money is that your hourly rate goes down significantly. So it becomes to the point where it\u2019s not worth your time, even though you\u2019re not physically losing money, but you\u2019re losing your time and it\u2019s not worth the value. Okay, so do you guys have any questions for each other before we kind of close this out?<\/p>\n

Ava:
I do. Do you have a DoorDash hacker secret that no one else knows that you think it would be interesting to share?<\/p>\n

Josh:
They do catering now, so I\u2019m not sure how to sign up. But if you could just deliver catering orders. And I know one guy that does it and he was doing really well. Multiple apps. People don\u2019t really do that very often. And then go on Reddit and try to learn the tips like how they hide their tips. I\u2019m not going to explain it here, but basically you can figure out like, \u201cOoh, this one\u2019s going to be over $12\u2032 or something like that.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Josh, I feel like the two phone thing and being able to be in two phones on multiple apps\u2026 Because what? There\u2019s Postmates, there\u2019s DoorDash, there\u2019s Uber Eats, I guess, do you have a favorite between those? Do you prefer DoorDash or have you tried Uber Eats or Postmates?<\/p>\n

Josh:
I probably prefer Uber Eats to be honest. It\u2019s so market dependent in the hours if you really get in the weeds on it.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Dude, I wonder if you could be an Uber driver who does Uber Eats and Uber at the same time. So you\u2019re picking up people, but then you\u2019re like, \u2018Hey, I got to stop by McDonald\u2019s,\u201d pick up this meal and then you drop off the food in and the person. Awesome. Josh, what about you Have any questions for Ava on the couch flipping side?<\/p>\n

Josh:
Definitely, yeah. This is like a follow up question after this. How often do you see the same couch or one really similar?<\/p>\n

Ava:
When I\u2019m buying them, just how often do I see a repeat couch that I\u2019ve seen before?<\/p>\n

Josh:
Yeah, I\u2019m asking because maybe you could take blank or template photos and then almost pre-sell them.<\/p>\n

Ava:
We have done that.<\/p>\n

Josh:
Nice.<\/p>\n

Ava:
We have done that. Oh, we got in trouble though. So one time this one couch, it went up on Facebook Marketplace and it was going crazy. Everyone wanted it, but we got it first and we got it for a couple hundred bucks. We made a thousand dollars on this couch. But before we even got it, we just uploaded the pictures because it looked gray in the pictures, which people like, but it was green in person. This kind of weird soft, green gray. But we put in the description it\u2019s green. Don\u2019t worry, I wouldn\u2019t do that. But the pictures that she took just looked so much better. So we just uploaded them. Everyone, since it was so popular, people were trying to get it, everyone\u2019s coming like, \u201cSomeone already tried to post this for hundreds of dollars less.\u201d And then other people were commenting, \u201cAppreciate the hustle kid.\u201d Yeah, but we have reposted the same pictures, but we haven\u2019t ever used stock photos because usually people think those are scams most of the time.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Yeah, I wouldn\u2019t take stock photos either. But yeah, I like the idea of like, \u201cHey, maybe before you even get it, if it\u2019s the same couch\u2026 If there\u2019s an IKEA couch that\u2019s always selling in your neighborhood, then just having those photos might work.\u201d
Well, Josh, Ava, both of you I think have given so much value to the Rookie audience in terms of ways that you can generate some additional capital to fund your real estate business. And like we said at the top of the show, both of you were guests on BiggerPockets Podcast. Ava, you were episode 271. Josh, you were 749 on the Real Estate show. So if anyone listening wants to go back and get their full backstory, check out those episodes.
But one final question before we let y\u2019all go. Josh, we\u2019ll start with you and then Ava, we\u2019ll go to you. But if someone wants to start your side hustle today, give me the 30-second step-by-step game plan of how to get started if I want to do it this afternoon.<\/p>\n

Josh:
Make sure you have a car that\u2019s reliable. Good tires. Good brakes. Once you got that, sign up for as many apps as you can. Use an actual address. Use all the real information and map out where you\u2019re going to try to focus on. If you don\u2019t know your local area very well, try to see where all the stores are and hit those areas up. And then maybe even take a day and kind of drive and walk through some of the restaurants and figure out which ones seem to be running efficiently and which ones aren\u2019t. And try to focus on the ones that are quicker and just get going.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Ava, how about you?<\/p>\n

Ava:
Download Facebook Marketplace. Make sure you have a truck or a truck you can borrow. Start making offers on couches, get an offer accepted, go get the couch and then take pretty pictures and upload it.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Awesome. Thank you, guys. One last question. How has this helped you guys with your real estate investing careers? Have you used money from the side hustle to purchase properties? Have you learned the actual valuable skills that have kind of translated into your real estate business? Ava?<\/p>\n

Ava:
Yeah. So I obviously have used couch flipping to not only get my first rental property, but our second property was a short term rental and there\u2019s like 10 grand worth of just mattresses, decorations, just housing supplies that you\u2019d need in an Airbnb. So we saved up 10 grand from couch flipping in order to buy all that stuff. And then also just skills wise, this was our first time ever doing sales and making money and negotiating. I say we learned lot of that. And also me and Ben are both kind of more introverted, so this definitely helped us crack out of our shells and talk to people who we didn\u2019t know, so yeah.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
And Josh, what about you?<\/p>\n

Josh:
It\u2019s a pretty good way of maybe being eligible for your first house hack if you do it for two years because you can establish two years of tight income and then you can also actually\u2026 I\u2019m not a tax advisor, but you rack up a lot of miles and you can write it off and actually not pay that much in tax on the income. But I basically used it to fund a few of my first deals and I was able to listen to a ton of podcasts and books and set myself up a lot better for when I was ready to start making some investments.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Awesome. Thank you guys so much. Josh, can you tell everyone where they can reach out to you and find out some more information?<\/p>\n

Josh:
Definitely, yeah. Josh Janus on BiggerPockets. And then Josh Janus on Instagram.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
And Ava?<\/p>\n

Ava:
Hi, I\u2019m just Ava Yuergens on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and you could just reach out through DMs and then also Ava Yuergens on BiggerPockets.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Just really quick, if each of you can spell your last name, just so people know how to find you. Ava, you go first.<\/p>\n

Ava:
All right. So it\u2019s Y-U-E-R-G-E-N-S.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Cool. And then, Josh?<\/p>\n

Josh:
J-A-N-U-S.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
You guys can reach out to them to talk about side hustles or even real estate investing. Make sure you go back and listen to their episodes. We had Josh on Real Estate Podcast episode number 749, and Ava on the Rookie Podcast episode number 271. Thank you guys so much for joining us, Ava and Josh, and provided a ton of value today with the side hustles.<\/p>\n

Josh:
Thank you.<\/p>\n

Ava:
Thanks.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Well, that was really interesting, Tony, learning about those two side hustles. You and I have the worst shiny object syndrome because we both are already thinking, \u201cHow can we make these work?\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony:
I\u2019m going to have the biggest couch flipping business in America by the end of the year. Yeah, it was really cool. I mean, Ava and Josh, I think both gave different perspectives. I think what\u2019s so cool, Ashley, is that there\u2019s so many different ways you can fund your first deal. So there are literally no excuses around why you can\u2019t get started in real estate investing, because both Josh and Ava approved no matter what your age, no matter where you\u2019re at in your life, with very little resources, you can start generating additional revenue to put towards your first real estate deal.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Yeah. So we thought for this segment we would kind of weigh these side hustles with three different elements. So the first one is, what is the upfront capital? How much money do you need to start the side hustle? What is the income potential? How much can you actually make? And then is it passive or is it going to take up a lot of your time? What does that commitment look like? So as far as the upfront capital, I feel like these were actually very similar, the two side hustles. What I could see is that you needed a vehicle or access to a vehicle being kind of the main priority of these two side hustles.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Yeah. And I\u2019d say the majority of folks listening to this podcast already have access to a vehicle. Only caveat is that I guess with DoorDash it can be more than 10 years old. And then with the couch flipping, you probably need a truck or at least maybe like a minivan where you could pop out the seats or something. But neither one required a significant amount of money to get started. So let me just quickly break down how the scoring\u2019s going to work. So 1 would be poor, 2 would be average, and then 3 would be great, okay? So if we give something a 1, it means we\u2019re not super stoked about. If we give something a 3, it means we\u2019re really stoked about it.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
So I think for the upfront capital, Tony\u2019s at a 3, I\u2019m at a 2 just because you do need to have that vehicle expense. And with a vehicle comes paying for gas, it has maintenance on the vehicle that you have to maintain.
So our next category is the income potential. So as far as these two different hustles, I honestly think couch flipping has a way greater potential at making money than DoorDash because I feel like DoorDash, you\u2019re kind of limited as to how much you can actually drive. And as Josh talked about, you can get really good at logistics and have two phones and different apps on them and try to coordinate as best as possible, but it\u2019s still you physically having to go around and make these deliveries, where couch flipping, I see it as there\u2019s a part of it where you\u2019re monitoring, you\u2019re negotiating online where it\u2019s not physically having to drive yet to work this business and then you\u2019re going to pick up. And yes, there is a max as to how many couches you can actually pick up in a month. But with the couch flipping, it seemed that per a couch, there was a greater span or greater hourly rate that they were getting compared to doing DoorDash.<\/p>\n

Tony:
Yeah, I\u2019d agree with that completely. I think that the upward income potential for the couch flipping\u2026 Like Ava says she was making 10 grand a month flipping couches. Not to say that you couldn\u2019t potentially do that with DoorDash and Uber Eats and Postmates, but the time commitment will probably be significantly higher to try and get to that level of income. So yeah, I think I\u2019m going to give couch flipping a 3 when it comes to the income potential. And I\u2019d probably give Uber Eats a 2.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Yeah, I agree with that. I think there\u2019s something else that we could put into this category too as to your risk also. As to DoorDash, there\u2019s not a lot of risk. You\u2019re not really putting up money up front, where with couch flipping, you could be spending $400 to buy this used couch and then you sell it at a loss for 200 and now you\u2019re out $200. Where with DoorDash you may be out a little bit on gas money, but Josh said that\u2019s really never happened where he hasn\u2019t at least made back his gas money. But as far as his time, he might have driven somewhere and ended up being $5 per hour he ended up getting paid and making. So I think that it\u2019s important to weigh that difference too.<\/p>\n

Tony:
That\u2019s a great point, Ashley. Yeah, there\u2019s no risk really to DoorDash because again, all you got to do is jump in your car and maybe you spend a little bit of gas, but that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
And also I would say you\u2019re more guaranteed to actually have business where couch flipping it depends on what\u2019s being listed in your market, how well are you at negotiating, how well you know what a couch sells for and what it\u2019s actually worth. So a lot of research and a lot of learning. Where DoorDash, you\u2019re given the business, it\u2019s there and you can take it above and beyond like Josh said and really figure out the tip system. But at least you know you\u2019re going to get paid to something for the standard rate from DoorDash.<\/p>\n

Tony:
All right, I guess our last category then is passiveness. This is passiveness\/ time commitment. I think both of them kind of have some pluses and minuses to each. Josh with DoorDashing, I think the benefit from a time perspective is that you control when you work and when you don\u2019t. If you just want to do this around your day job and say, \u201cHey, I\u2019m at work from 9:00 to 5:00 and I\u2019m going to DoorDash every day from 5:00 to 8:00,\u201d then you can commit to that time window and more likely than not, you\u2019re going to be able to generate some revenue. Whereas with the couch flipping, like Ava said, you\u2019ve got to kind of be monitoring that throughout the day because if you\u2019re late on the trigger, you could miss what is a really good deal. So I think from a flexibility standpoint, I do like DoorDashing a little bit more than the couch flipping.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Yeah. I think as far as the research, the analysis, DoorDash is I think a lot easier to like, \u201cLet\u2019s just go and do it\u201d and you\u2019re making money day one. Where couch flipping, you do have to actually learn and do some research on your market onto the value of a couch. And so I think the time commitment of researching couch flipping and really understanding your market definitely can take up a lot of time, especially with just getting experience of buying and selling to get good at it and also negotiating.
So as far as passiveness, I think mentally DoorDash may be more passive. If you have one app, you get the alert. Okay, this is where you have to go pick up the food, then you\u2019re delivering it. Where with couch flipping, you have to really think, \u201cIs this couch worth it? Is it going to be a deal? How far is it going to take me to pick it up?\u201d And all these different things that are kind of aligned with that. So I guess as far as passiveness, as far as time commitment, what do you say your ratings are for that?<\/p>\n

Tony:
Yeah, I guess just one last thing to add on to that. I do also like, and we just barely scratched the surface with this, but there is the ability with couch flipping to hire virtual assistants that can kind of reduce that time commitment yourself. So if you have a VA that\u2019s oversees and their whole job is to go through all of the Facebook Marketplace listings, all of the OfferUp listings, whatever the little platform you can think of and they\u2019re just monitoring that, looking for couches that fit your criteria, and then once they find something, it\u2019s all through the messaging apps anyway, so if they\u2019re just in that app and they\u2019re messaging for you and then when they lock something in, then you\u2019re just going out there and picking it up and validating all that stuff.
So obviously that\u2019s a little bit more involved. But I would say if we exclude the virtual assistant thing, I would probably give the couch flipping a 1 just because I think that there\u2019s a little bit more friction there. And I would give DoorDashing a 2 only because it is always tied to your own time. So I give couch flipping a 1, DoorDashing a 2.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
And with the couch flipping too, cleaning. That is your time cleaning. First of all, lifting the couches is physical labor, cleaning the couches is the actual labor you\u2019re having to physically do yourself. I mean, with couch flipping, I think you could hire everything out and still make a little bit of profit at the end of it, but I think the people that are probably working for you are probably going to catch on like, \u201cWhy am I going and picking up these couches for somebody else? I can do this myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony:
\u201cI can do it myself.\u201d Yeah.<\/p>\n

Ashley:
Yeah. But so thankful to have these two guests on today to talk about side hustles. Before we close out today, I do want to give a shout-out to a real estate Rookie, gfrproperties19 on Instagram. He used the hashtag #realestaterookiepodcast and I saw his post where he actually used the BiggerPockets calculator reports on biggerpockets.com and he showed us a sample of an analysis he did on a property recently. And he said, \u201cAs the market has been evolving, we have had to evolve our approach to find our next property. We are now looking for a small multifamily property to house hack as our loan terms will be more favorable as interest rates continue to go up.\u201d Then he asked for other people to comment as to different ways they\u2019re having to evolve or pivot their strategy and how they are analyzing deals. So go follow @gfrproperties19.
And if you guys want to submit a question, make sure you guys go to biggerpockets.com\/reply and submit your question or submit your side hustle so we can have you as a guest on the show. As always, thank you for listening. I\u2019m Ashley, @wealthfromrentals, and he\u2019s Tony, @tonyjrobinson, and we will be back on Wednesday with a guest.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EwuQTRQ-ShA123<\/a>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span>?<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n

Use RentSavvy<\/a>, the only nationwide tenant placement service for filling your rental property quickly for one flat fee.<\/p>\n

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Note By BiggerPockets:<\/b> These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.<\/p>\n


\n
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Don\u2019t have enough funds for real estate deals? Today, there\u2019s no excuse. Beyond strategies that allow you to invest in real estate with no money down, you can always start a profitable side hustle and put the earnings towards your next deal. In this episode of the Real Estate Rookie podcast, we\u2019re chatting with Ava […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7952,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/ROOK_294_WEB.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7951"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7953,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7951\/revisions\/7953"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/imsfund.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}