OVERVIEW

On this week’s Bucket Talk, we talk with DIY interior designer Cori Bosco, who calls in from her home in Florida. She began her career as a PE teacher but in the late 2000s, she got her real estate license and started flipping houses on the side. Fast forward 10 years, she has amassed a following of over 5 million on TikTok as East Coast DIY, sharing her journey as a house-flipper and designer. Listen in as Eric and Jeremy chat with Cori about getting into real estate

ABOUT CORI

Cori Bosco - known as @eastcoastfloridadiy on Instagram and East Coast DIY on TikTok - has been flipping houses for a long time now. After starting her career as a teacher, she started flipping houses on the side. When her and her husband bought a house in late 2019, they suddenly had a bunch of time on their hands thanks to COVID. Her kids told her about TikTok and she decided to post videos about her journey flipping houses and designing their interiors.

“So in May of 2020, I [make] my first post, and I didn't think it was gonna go anywhere. Like I was never out to, you know, try to get followers or anything like that…my first post which was of our kitchen, our family room and then out to like the view of it in our backyard view and it like within the first day got like 2.2 million views. Wow, like, oh my gosh, this is kind of cool.”

By December of 2020, Cori had amassed 500,000 followers, posting photos and videos of projects they had done around the house along with some videos of her favorite Amazon finds. Around that time, she entered a competition through Jeffrey Court tile to see who could do the best renovation of one room in their house using their tile. Just when she found out she got selected, though, her husband got activated for the Army Reserves and had to leave for a year.

“We had our little thing, where I would do some parts, he would do some parts and we made a great team, but [this time] I'd have to do everything on my own. I was like, I don't know if I'm up for this, no, you know what, I can do it, I can do this…if I remember correctly, it was the same week he left that I had to start this project and I'm like, What am I getting myself into…but it ended up being awesome.”

This was a turning point, not only for Cori, because she learned so many new skills, but for her TikTok. Once she realized that social media was a viable source of income, she went full steam ahead, creating content around the house renovation she was doing. One thing she realized was that to keep gaining followers, she needed to be constantly creating new content.

“We're excited to see what happens, you know, and what renovations and stuff we have coming up. So I definitely can't sit still, I know I'm gonna be busy, you know, doing stuff. And with my followers expecting new content, you know, every day every other day, I gotta come up with something new.”

Moving forward, Cori and her husband Vinnie are taking on new projects, currently working on a condo they bought. The plan is to keep flipping houses, with Cori eventually getting her contractor’s license to unlock the ability to do bigger projects without jumping through hoops.