5THINGS KENANDANITAWANTTO SAYTO INVESTORS
before you jump in
Both Ken and Anita spend a lot of time talking to real estate investors, es- pecially new ones. “We actually have certain things we really want everyone to know about real estate investing, that we feel helps kind of frame the con- cept,” Ken said. Here are the five things they feel every investor should know (and implement) as early as possible in their real estate investing business:
educate yourself and wait for the right deal. You need to be careful not to have that ‘paralysis of analy- sis,’ but that’s where the partner or mentor comes in.” “You need to have that balance,” Anita added. “Have two opinions and a backup plan. The great thing about real estate is that you can always fall back on another strategy. When the house doesn’t sell the way you expected – and there will be times when it doesn’t – then real estate always offers other options and you need to make sure you know in advance what they are.” The thing is, if you have memories in a home you grew up in, those memories are valuable. Those are the things you want to hang onto, those diamonds in your life,” said Anita. “This house was destroyed and hurt; it was sad. Then we came in and sure, we changed everything, but it brought the house back to life and now a new family lives there and the story continues instead of just being over.” THE FUTURE IS FLEXIBILITY Anita may joke about loving a property so much she cannot let Ken sell it, but the two do flip the majority of their projects. However, when the situation is right, they employ other strategies.
studs and framing,” Ken recalled. “Our project manager didn’t want to touch it,” Anita added. “It had a really bizarre layout, just a series of rooms. We figured it was a boarding house of some kind. The upstairs and downstairs were just hallways and bedrooms,” Ken said. Despite the strange layout, the property had a great deal of square footage, which is why the two ultimately decided to take on the project. Over the course of the rehab, they learned that the original owner was a grandmother who raised over 100 foster children in the home. Many of them returned when they learned the house had been restored, renovated, and listed for sale. “They couldn’t have been more thrilled. 4. Consider working with a more experienced partner or mentor 5. Work out a viable backup plan for every investment “I remember in the mid-2000s, I just wanted to jump right into real estate so badly,” Ken said. “I just wanted to find a deal and do it for the sake of getting started in invest- ing. We’re seeing that mindset a lot again now, and it is so important to
1. Be patient
2. Be analytical
3. Decide on your strategy
to live in the house came by to see what we’d done,” Ken said. “That restoration and renovation is a celebration of the fact that the house, the story, was saved,” Anita added. “Does it look like it used to? Not at all, but the footprint and the story are still there and the property itself is now part of the community’s story again instead of being a negative for the neighborhood.” “Ultimately, we opted to put that one on Airbnb rather than sell it,” said Ken. “It’s come a long way from the house some of the neighbors wouldn’t even drive past if they could avoid it!” Another favorite story for the Corsinis is a former boarding house they restored last year. “That house was gutted. It was down to
2018 Season 2 of Flip or Flop: Atlanta airs, Corsinis continue flipping and expand new construction
Don’t let the timeline fool you. While on the surface it may appear that the couple are masters of that on-a- dime “pivot” Ken described, in reality they are constantly watching the market and monitoring their business’ performance. In 2009, Ken saw “the writing on the wall” and returned to school to earn a master’s degree in building construction from Georgia Tech and obtain a general contractor’s license in preparation for the market today. Anita, who has a master’s degree in mathematics, leverages her analytic eye against everything from how her design decisions perform to what the local market is doing in every geographic sector of Atlanta.
2017 Season 1 of Flip or Flop: Atlanta airs, Corsinis continue to focus on flips
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