Gustavo Adolfo

Buying ugly, unwanted, abandoned houses 🏚🏠🏘 Houston

[☣️ Pleb Kruse = BTC foundationalist in exile 🟩🔆 @DrJackKruse]

My Lawyer would kill you if you acted and answered a depo like this. You give them way too much info. You talk too much.

I have done a ton of legal work and depo's and my answers rarely exceed one to three words.

[☣️ Pleb Kruse = BTC foundationalist in exile 🟩🔆 @DrJackKruse]

This is mandatory reading to be in my tribe. it is 100% spot on.

[Gustavo Adolfo @GustavAdolfoG]

This is how you win

[Makayla | Real Estate Investor @REIMakayla]

There is a system built into the United States housing market that lets you buy a house with:
NO mone
NO job
NO income verification.. &

get the bank to hand you back MORE cash than you spent, and have the federal government deposit rent into your account on the 1st of every month while you sleep...

I have used this system 80+ times. I am 27 years old. I do not have a degree. I have never shown a lender a W-2

Nobody explained this to me. Nobody sat me down and walked me through it. I found every piece of it by accident, by losing $45,000 on my first deal, and by spending 4 years asking questions that most people don't know exist

I'm going to explain the entire thing right now. Start to finish. As if you have never bought anything in your life. Because the people who already know this will never tell you. Every person who learns it becomes their competition

Bookmark this. You will come back to it

STEP 1: FINDING THE HOUSE (and why you're not looking where everyone else looks)

Most people think you find investment properties on Zillow. You don't. Zillow is where retail buyers go to overpay. By the time a house hits Zillow it has been priced by a realtor who wants a commission, staged by a seller who wants full market value, and bid on by families who will pay with emotion. You cannot make money buying at full price. That's rule number one

The houses that make money are the ones nobody wants. Ugly houses. Vacant houses. Houses where the owner died and the kids live in another state and the lawn is knee-high and the mailbox is overflowing with HOA violations addressed to a dead woman

I am not being dramatic. 70% of my deals come from dead people's houses

When someone dies, their property goes through probate. That's a legal process that takes 6-18 months. During that time the heirs are stuck paying property taxes, insurance, lawn care, and utilities on a house they will never live in. That's $500-$800 per month leaving their pockets for a building they didn't ask for in a state they don't live in

Most realtors won't touch a probate property because the timeline is unpredictable and their commission might take a year. So the house just sits there. Rotting. Losing value. Costing money every month

That's where I come in

Probate filings are PUBLIC RECORDS at your county clerk's office. You can see the property address, the heirs' names, and the attorney handling the estate. Free. No subscription. No software. Go to the courthouse, pull the filings, pick up the phone

I call the attorney or the heirs directly. I say: "I buy houses for cash. I can close in 7 to 14 days. I handle the title work, the cleanout, everything. You don't have to visit the property or spend a dollar. What number works for you?"

They almost always say yes. Because the alternative is paying $800 a month for a house that is actively falling apart while they wait for a realtor who won't return their calls

Other places I find deals: wholesalers (people who put houses under contract at a discount and sell the contract to investors like me for a fee), the MLS (I buy 3-4 houses per month off the MLS in Ohio alone, most investors don't even bother looking here because they assume every listing is overpriced, it's not), and direct-to-seller marketing (SMS blasts, cold calls, mailers, emails). I send 5,000+ mailers a month

The house doesn't have to be local. I own properties in 4 states. I have never visited some of them. That sounds insane but when you have a contractor, a property manager, and a system, you don't need to stand in the living room to know the floors need replacing

STEP 2: THE ONE RULE THAT DETERMINES WHETHER YOU MAKE OR LOSE MONEY

Before you make an offer on anything you run one equation. This is called the 70% Rule and it is the only math that matters in this business:

Maximum purchase price = (After-Repair Value x 70%) minus Repair Costs

If a house will be worth $200,000 after renovation and the renovation costs $40,000:

$200,000 x 0.70 = $140,000
$140,000 minus $40,000 = $100,000

Your max offer is $100,000. Not $110,000. Not "close enough." $100,000 or you walk away

I actually use 60-65% instead of 70% because hard money carrying costs eat into your margin and one contractor delay can vaporize a thin profit. The people who lose money on flips don't get unlucky. They skip this rule, buy at 85% of ARV, and then discover there's no room left when the surprises hit

If a deal doesn't pass this test, I don't care how cute the kitchen is. I walk

Below $30,000 in expected net profit, I won't touch a house. One delay, one material shortage, one surprise behind the wall, and a $20,000 margin becomes $3,000. That's $3,000 for 4 months of managing contractors, visiting the site, dealing with permits, sweating the appraisal, and waking up at 3am wondering if the foundation inspector missed something. A W-2 job pays better with less stress and a dental plan

STEP 3: BUYING THE HOUSE WITH MONEY THAT WAS NEVER YOURS

This is the part nobody believes until they see it happen

I have not used my own money to buy a house in years. Not once. Here's how:

HARD MONEY LOANS. These are short-term loans (usually 12 months) from private lenders who underwrite the DEAL, not you. They don't ask for your W-2. They don't call your employer. They don't look at your tax returns. They look at the house, the renovation plan, and the numbers

If the deal makes sense, you're approved. A bartender with a 660 credit score gets funded the same as a hedge fund manager if the property cash flows

Hard money lenders typically fund 80% of the purchase price and 100% of the renovation costs. If you have a track record (5-10 closed deals), some will fund 90-100% of the purchase too. On a $200,000 total project your monthly payment runs about $1,500-$2,000

Lenders who do this: Kiavi, Lima One Capital, Easy Street Capital, RCN Capital. All online. You can get pre-qualified in 48 hours

THE DOWN PAYMENT. The hard money lender covers 80% of the purchase. You need 20% plus closing costs. On a $100,000 house that's about $20,000-$25,000

Here's what nobody tells you: I have put that entire amount on 0% APR business credit cards

Zero percent interest for 12-18 months. The only money I'm actually out of pocket is the interest on the hard money loan while I renovate. $100,000 in 0% credit can fund 1-2 houses per year. I turn that same allocation 3-4 times in a 12-month cycle because cosmetic flips take 4-6 weeks

You don't need a savings account full of cash. You need a deal good enough that other people's money fights to fund it

STEP 4: RENOVATING FOR THE APPRAISER, NOT FOR YOURSELF

I spent $4,200 on paint once and it added $43,000 to the appraised value of the house

$4,200. Sherwin Williams. Same greige on every wall. 3 days of labor. $43,000 in equity created from a paint roller

That is the single highest-return move in residential real estate. And most people skip it to spend $35,000 gutting a kitchen when a $9,000 reface would have gotten the exact same appraisal bump

Here is the entire renovation playbook, ranked by return on investment. I have done this 80+ times. These numbers are not theoretical. These are my numbers:

PAINT: $3,000-$10,000 for a full interior and exterior. This is #1 and it is not close. Fresh neutral paint makes a 30-year-old house look new in 48 hours. Appraisers see clean walls and their number goes up. Every time

FLOORING: $4,000-$8,000 for luxury vinyl plank throughout. Rip out the stained carpet from 2003 and put down LVP. Buyers make gut decisions in the first 10 seconds of a showing. Those 10 seconds happen looking at the floor

KITCHEN REFACE: $8,000-$15,000. You keep the existing cabinet boxes. Replace the doors with shaker-style fronts. New hardware. New countertops (laminate or butcher block, not quartz, unless your comps have quartz). New faucet. This gets you 80% of the visual impact of a $40,000 gut job at 25% of the price. The appraiser sees "new kitchen." They don't know you kept the original boxes

BATHROOMS: $3,000-$10,000 each. New vanity, new toilet, new mirror, new light fixture, tub surround. You're changing what people SEE. Nobody rips out the subfloor to check if it's new

LIGHT FIXTURES: $500-$1,000 for the whole house. $40 per fixture times 15 fixtures = $600. Swapping brass boob lights from 1994 for modern fixtures changes the entire energy of every room. Most underrated move in renovation

LANDSCAPING AND CURB APPEAL: $1,000-$3,000. Fresh mulch, trimmed bushes, power wash the exterior, maybe a new front door. Buyers decide whether they like a house before they walk inside

Total cosmetic renovation: $25,000-$45,000 depending on size and condition. 4-6 weeks start to finish

The rule that saves you from wasting money: MATCH THE COMPS. BEAT THEM BY 10%. NEVER BY 50%

I know a guy who spent $85,000 renovating a house in a neighborhood where every comp had vinyl plank and laminate countertops. He put in hardwood, quartz, designer tile. Magazine quality. Sold for $223,000. His total cost was $195,000. Profit: $28,000

If he'd done what I do ($31,000 in cosmetic work), same sale price. Profit: $82,000. He spent $54,000 more on renovation and made $54,000 less in profit. The quartz countertops cost him $8,000 and added $0 to the sale price because no buyer in that zip code was comparing his house to houses with quartz

The appraisal doesn't care about your taste. The appraisal cares about what the neighbors sold for. Renovation is a math problem

THE THINGS THAT WILL DESTROY YOU IF YOU DON'T CHECK FIRST

Before you close on any house, you pay for an inspection. You bring your own contractor to walk through. You do not waive inspections to win a bid. I don't care how good the deal looks

Septic system replacement: $15,000-$30,000. This is what killed my first flip. I didn't inspect for it. The septic failed two weeks after closing. $15,000 in the ground I never saw coming

HVAC replacement: $15,000-$25,000 if you use a service company. In Ohio I can get a furnace for $1,400 and an AC unit for $2,000 and have my guys install them. But if you're new and don't have those connections, budget $15,000-$25,000

Roof replacement: $10,000-$12,000
Full electrical rewire: ~$10,000
Foundation repair: $10,000-$50,000

Any ONE of these can turn a $40,000 profit into a $5,000 loss. When you're starting out, stick to cosmetic projects only. Light paint and floors. No structural, no mechanical, no plumbing overhauls. Leave the gut renovations for after you've done 10+ deals and can spot the landmines before you close

STEP 5: GETTING EVERY DOLLAR BACK (and then some)

This is the part that sounds like I'm lying. I thought it was a lie too until I did it

One of my actual deals:

Purchase price: $97,000
Renovation: $31,000
Total invested: $128,000

I painted every wall. Replaced every floor with vinyl plank. Replaced the kitchen cabinets. Updated both bathrooms. New light fixtures. Landscaping and a power wash

4 weeks of work. The house looked like a different property

I listed it for rent and got 30+ inquiries in 4 days. A Section 8 tenant got approved at $1,375 per month. HUD deposits that directly into my bank account on the 1st. The tenant pays $0. The government covers everything

Then I waited 3 months for what lenders call the "seasoning period" and got the house appraised

Appraisal: $205,000

I bought it for $97,000 six months earlier. Put in $31,000. The appraiser said it's worth $205,000. I created $77,000 in equity by painting walls and putting in floors

Then I applied for a DSCR refinance. DSCR stands for Debt Service Coverage Ratio. The lender looked at one thing: does the rent coming in cover the mortgage going out?

Monthly rent: $1,375
Estimated mortgage payment: $1,050
Ratio: 1.31

Approved. They never asked about my job. They never asked about my income. They never asked about my tax returns. They didn't ask about me at all. The building is the borrower. I just signed the paperwork

Loan amount: $153,750 (75% of the appraised value)

$153,750 back on a $128,000 investment

That's $25,750 MORE than I put in. Handed to me as a check. Tax-free, because the IRS classifies refinance proceeds as debt, not income. You do not pay taxes on borrowed money

I walked out of closing owning a house that:

Makes $325 per month in cash flow after all expenses
Has $0 of my money left in it
Is being paid for by the federal government
Paid me $25,750 to own it

I used that $25,750 to buy the next house. And did the same thing again

This is called BRRRR. Buy, Renovate, Rent, Refinance, Repeat. Investors have been doing this for decades. But nobody explains it because it sounds like a scam and the people profiting from it don't need you competing for the same houses

STEP 6: THE GOVERNMENT PAYS YOUR RENT (and nobody tells you because they don't want competition)

Section 8 is the official name for the Housing Choice Voucher Program. It's been funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development since 1974

Here's how it works from the landlord side, because nobody ever explains this part:

A low-income family applies for housing assistance through their local Public Housing Authority. If approved, they receive a voucher that says the government will pay X amount per month toward their rent. The family finds a rental. The housing authority inspects the property (basic habitability, nothing insane). Once approved, the government sends money directly to the LANDLORD

Not to the tenant. To you. Direct deposit. Every month. From the same entity that funds the military and prints the currency

The rent amounts are set by HUD. They publish something called Fair Market Rent for every county in America. And here's the part that will really piss you off if you're currently paying rent somewhere:

HUD Fair Market Rent is frequently HIGHER than what you'd get renting to a regular tenant in the same neighborhood

A house that rents for $900 on Zillow can pull $1,100-$1,200 on Section 8 because HUD uses regional data that runs above hyperlocal comps. The government pays a premium. Above market rate. To house people in a house you bought for $87,000

My numbers on one property:

Purchase: $87,000
Renovation (paint and floors): $18,000
Total investment: $105,000
Section 8 rent: $1,275/month
Monthly expenses (taxes, insurance, maintenance): $425
Monthly cash flow: $850
Annual cash flow: $10,200

After refinancing and pulling $84,000 back out, my actual cash still in the deal is $21,000

$10,200 per year on $21,000 invested. That's a 48.5% cash-on-cash return. From a house. That the government pays for

The S&P 500 averages about 10% annually and people build their entire retirement around it. I'm getting 48.5% from a government direct deposit that doesn't care what the stock market did today

There are 2.5 million families on the Section 8 waiting list right now. Some cities have waitlists 5-10 years long. When I list a Section 8 property I get 30-50 applications in a week. There is a LINE of pre-approved, government-funded tenants waiting to pay you and there aren't enough landlords accepting them

Most people hear Section 8 and picture something bad. That's fine. More buildings for me

STEP 7: WHERE TO START (and where not to)

Best markets to start flipping and buying rentals: Ohio (where I'm based, huge for Section 8), Georgia (expanding to Atlanta right now), Indiana, Alabama (Birmingham), West Virginia, Wisconsin, Illinois, Missouri, South Carolina, North Carolina, Texas, Florida

Worst markets to start (too expensive, margins too thin): California, New York, Arizona, Washington, Oregon, Nevada

Start local. Your first deal should be within driving distance. Learn your market, learn your contractors, learn what $4,200 in paint and $6,800 in flooring buys you at appraisal time. After 5-10 deals, go virtual. I own properties in 4 states and manage most of them from my phone

Start cosmetic. Paint, floors, kitchens, bathrooms. No structural. No mechanical. No "the foundation looks a little off but the price is great." Leave the gut renovations for year 3

Start with one deal. I don't care if you do it slowly. I don't care if it takes you 6 months to find it. One deal done right teaches you more than 100 hours of YouTube videos

MY FIRST DEAL COST ME $45,000

I need you to know this part because if I pretend I figured this out clean, I'm no better than the people who sell courses and skip the part where they lost everything first

My first flip lost me $45,000

I over-renovated by about $30,000. Granite countertops in a neighborhood of laminate. Tile backsplash where nobody else had one. Designer light fixtures where $40 Home Depot ones would have appraised the same. I wanted it to look beautiful. The appraiser did not care what I wanted

Then the septic failed. $15,000. Because I didn't get it inspected before I closed. I didn't even know you were supposed to inspect a septic system. Nobody told me

I sat in the driveway and cried. I quit. I told myself real estate wasn't for me

Then I came back. Because I realized the $45,000 I lost was tuition. And the lesson it taught me (run the 70% rule, match the comps, never waive an inspection) is the reason I've made money on every deal since

That was 80 houses ago

HOW I GOT HERE

I had a medical school acceptance. Then I had four ankle surgeries in six months. Congenital leg deformities I'd been managing my whole life finally won. Med school disappeared

I started an eBay store in October 2021 because I had no job and no other options. Moved to Amazon. Started with a pallet of phone cases from a liquidation sale. Then Dove soap, one pack at a time. Buy for $3, sell for $12, keep $9. Over and over

I built a 7-figure Amazon wholesale business shipping boxes 16 hours a day out of my parents' house

Then one realization changed everything: houses are products. Same as the Dove soap. You buy below market value. You improve it. You sell at market value. The only thing that changes is the number of zeros

Sourcing products on Amazon taught me how to source houses. Managing vendors taught me how to manage contractors. Analyzing margins on a spreadsheet taught me how to analyze deals. The SKU just got bigger

I'm 27. I own 80+ properties across 4 states. I flip 35 houses a year. The government pays me rent every month. My net worth increases while I type this. I started with a pallet of phone cases and a medical dream that fell apart

Nobody told me any of this was possible

THE TWO THINGS STANDING BETWEEN YOU AND YOUR FIRST DEAL

Looking back across 80+ houses, every obstacle I ever hit was one of two things:

1. I didn't have the money to get into the deal
2. I didn't know what I was doing once I was in it

The funding and the knowledge. Not intelligence. Not connections. Not a degree. Not a rich family. A way to pay for it and a map of where the landmines are

I spent 4 years building both from scratch. Lost $45,000 learning the hard way. Made every mistake the hard way because there was no other way available to me

So I built the two things I wish someone had handed me when I was 23 and crying in a driveway:

The funding. 0% APR business credit and capital to get into your first deal without draining your savings or begging a bank that's going to say no anyway

The blueprint. The exact system, the exact numbers, the exact order of operations. Everything in this post and everything I couldn't fit into it. So you don't pay $45,000 in tuition like I did

Book a funding call or apply for mentorship here: https://t.co/1TEqSMC00C

The empty house in your neighborhood right now is sitting there rotting while the heirs pay $800 a month to not live in it

Somebody is going to buy it for 60 cents on the dollar, paint it, put in floors, and have the government pay them $1,200 a month to own it while they sleep

That somebody should be you

[THE DUKE OF MADRID II @thedukeofmadrid]

Jude Bellingham has transformed so much that he was speaking Spanish to the entire Argentina team.

From the very first second of the game, it was him against the whole Argentina team.

[Antonio Linares @alc2022]

The stock market will run a test every once in a while to see how much of a pussy you are

[Gustavo Adolfo @GustavAdolfoG]

This

[𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗖𝗛𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗢 🇪🇸 @mitchollo]

argentina is proof that karma doesn’t exist and bad people get away with a lot of evil things.

[Gain of Fauci @DschlopesIsBack]

Hillary Clinton’s Open Plea To China

"Since Russia is clearly backing republicans, why don't we ask China to back us?"

She actually said this on live television…

[Mane Mane 🇵🇸 @ManeMane1_]

We should lowkey pretend this is the world cup final

[Gustavo Adolfo @GustavAdolfoG]

What else could you expect

[James Speed Rogers @speed_roge75310]

The Republican party is dead to me. All 50 Republican senators voted to merge the American & Israeli militaries. Sickening.

[Tony Rigatoni @tonyrigatonee]

Rare democrat W

[` @chixxsays]

This edit deserves an Oscar 🥹❤️

[Melissa Chen @MsMelChen]

England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 fans in an Atlanta pub singing “Hey Jude” to ward off a giant Messi head strolling by on an Argentina supporter

So far, it seems like Atlanta is 80% Argentina fans. Hope more England fans arrive tomorrow

[Chase Passive Income @chasedownleads]

This young man is executing one of my favorite passive income strategies

[Tim Ferriss @tferriss]

There is a process that I have used, and still use, to reignite life...

Create two timelines—6 months and 12 months—and list up to five things you dream of having (including, but not limited to, material wants: house, car, clothing, etc.), being (be a great cook, be fluent in Chinese, etc.), and doing (visiting Thailand, tracing your roots overseas, racing ostriches, etc.) in that order.

If you have difficulty identifying what you want in some categories, as most will, consider what you hate or fear in each and write down the opposite.

Do not limit yourself, and do not concern yourself with how these things will be accomplished. For now, it’s unimportant. This is an exercise in reversing repression.

Be sure not to judge or fool yourself. If you really want a Ferrari, don’t put down solving world hunger out of guilt. For some, the dream will be fame, for others fortune or prestige. All people have their vices and insecurities. If something will improve your feeling of self-worth, put it down.

Drawing a blank? In that case, consider these questions:

1) What would you do, day to day, if you had $100 million in the bank?
2) What would make you most excited to wake up in the morning to another day?

Don’t rush—think about it for a few minutes.

If still blocked, fill in the five “doing” spots with the following:

— one place to visit
— one thing to do before you die (a memory of a lifetime)
— one thing to do daily
— one thing to do weekly
— one thing you’ve always wanted to learn

What does “being” entail doing?

Convert each “being” into a “doing” to make it actionable. Identify an action that would characterize this state of being or a task that would mean you had achieved it. People find it easier to brainstorm “being” first, but this column is just a temporary holding spot for “doing” actions.

Here are a few examples:

1) Great cook —> make Christmas dinner without help

2) Fluent in Chinese —> have a five-minute conversation with a Chinese co-worker

Determine three steps for each of the dreams in just the 6-month timeline and take the first step now.

Define three steps for each dream that will get you closer to its actualization.

Set actions—simple, well-defined actions—for now, tomorrow (complete before 11 A.M.) and the day after (again completed before 11 A.M.). Once you have three steps for each of the four goals, complete the three actions in the “now” column.

Do it now. Each should be simple enough to do in five minutes or less. If not, rachet it down. If it’s the middle of the night and you can’t call someone, do something else now, such as send an e-mail, and set the call for first thing tomorrow.

If the next stage is some form of research, get in touch with someone who knows the answer instead of spending too much time in books or online, which can turn into paralysis by analysis.

The best first step, the one I recommend, is finding someone who’s done it and ask for advice on how to do the same.

[The Tokyo Drifter 🇲🇽🇺🇸 @MrDrifter]

Mexican Texas 1836 versus American Texas 2026