Two nearly identical houses on the same Norwalk street. One investor walked away with real profit. The other barely broke even after a year.

Every flipper eventually has to answer the same question: run the rehab yourself, or hand it to a general contractor. There's no universal right answer. It depends on the deal, and it depends on you.

Neil walks through the real math behind a general contractor's markup on a real rehab budget, and what your own time is actually worth once you're running more than one deal at a time. Self-GCing wins the money on paper. It doesn't always win the deal.

The episode gets into two investors on the same Norwalk street with the same rehab budget and opposite outcomes, plus a borrower who tried to save money rehabbing a house himself and lost far more in carrying costs than he ever saved in labor.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

- How to run the real math between a general contractor's markup and what your own time is worth

- Why the same self-GC decision can be right on one deal and wrong on the very next one

- The three numbers Neil checks before picking a lane on any given rehab

- What actually happened when one Norwalk investor tried to save money rehabbing a house himself

- How to split the difference and self-GC most of a project while hiring out just the trades that need it

- And more.

Hosted by Iowa real estate investor Neil Timmins.

Want the full breakdown? Read the article at https://littleguyloans.com/gc-your-own-flip-or-hire

Find every episode at https://www.flippingiowa.com

What if the best deal on the block never makes it to a listing at all?

Every investor checking Zillow and the MLS is looking at the same twelve houses everyone else already found. That's not an edge, it's a scrum. The real margin in an Iowa flip often gets made before a property is ever listed, and driving for dollars is how you get there first.

Neil and Maggie break down what actually works: how to map a neighborhood in a grid instead of wandering the same three streets, which distress signals on a house are worth writing down (and which ones mean nothing on their own), and why a handwritten-style mailer beats a slick postcard almost every time.

They also get into what two of Little Guy Loans' most profitable borrowers do at scale, running mail, signs, and calls against one carefully built list from four directions at once, and why the sixth postcard works when the first one goes straight in the trash.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

- How to map a Des Moines-metro neighborhood so you cover every street once, not the same three blocks four times

- Which two or three distress signals on a property actually mean something, and which ones don't

- Why a handwritten-style mailer outperforms a slick one almost every time

- How Iowa's most profitable off-market investors run one list from four directions at once

- What changes, and what doesn't, on the financing side once a deal is off-market

- And more.

Hosted by Iowa real estate investor Neil Timmins.

Want the full breakdown? Read the article at https://littleguyloans.com/driving-for-dollars-des-moines

Find every episode at https://www.flippingiowa.com

What's the real difference between a flip that closes with zero cash out of pocket and one that comes up $46,000 short at the closing table?

"No money down" isn't a loan product in Iowa hard money lending. It's a structure, and most first-time flippers get the mechanics wrong before they ever pick up the phone.

A hard money loan alone almost never gets you to zero cash out of pocket. The real work is filling the gap: a seller carry-back, a private gap partner, or equity you already own.

Every one of those structures lives or dies on the 70% after-repair-value cap. Neil Timmins breaks down two versions of the same Iowa bungalow, one with room to spare, and one that came up tens of thousands short.

On this episode, Neil and co-host Maggie Monroe cover all three ways investors get to little or no cash at closing, the real ARV math behind it, and what a lender needs to see before stacking a second position.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

- How to tell if a hard money loan alone gets you to zero down, or leaves you short

- How to fill the gap between what a loan covers and what closing costs, three ways

- How to run the 70% ARV math before you call a seller or a partner

- How to know what a lender needs before stacking a second position behind their loan

- How to tell if a no-money-down structure fits your first deal or is one to grow into

And more.

Hosted by Iowa real estate investor Neil Timmins.

Want the full breakdown? Read the article at https://littleguyloans.com/no-money-down-hard-money-iowa/

Find every episode at https://www.flippingiowa.com

What's a missing basement worth on your next Iowa flip? About twenty thousand dollars, and most investors never see it coming.

Running comps sounds like paperwork. It's actually the whole deal, and most flips that go sideways in the Des Moines metro trace back to one bad assumption buried in the comp sheet.

Most first-time investors pull sales from too far away, or pull comps that don't actually match their subject property, then average anyway. That's how a bad number sneaks past someone who thought they'd done their homework.

Neil and Maggie break down how to pull comps that actually hold up: the right radius, the right time window, and the filters that separate a real number from a guess wearing a dollar sign. Then they get into the twenty thousand dollar mistake that almost sank a real Iowa deal, and how catching it saved the deal instead of killing it.

By the end, you'll know how to build an after repair value you can defend before you ever call the seller back with an offer.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

How to set the right radius and time window before you pull a single comp

How to filter out comps that look close but don't actually match your subject property

How to adjust for condition instead of averaging sale prices straight across

How one missing basement created a twenty thousand dollar gap on a real Iowa deal, and how it got renegotiated instead of killed

How to run your after repair value through the seventy percent rule to set your ceiling offer

And more.

Hosted by Iowa real estate investor Neil Timmins.

Want the written breakdown? Read the full article at https://littleguyloans.com/running-comps-des-moines

Find every episode at https://www.flippingiowa.com

What does an eleven thousand dollar paint job have to do with the difference between a good flip and a break-even one?

A scope of work is supposed to protect your rehab budget. When it is missing, vague, or living only in a contractor's head, that gap turns into real money, and it shows up fast, right after demo day when your leverage is already gone.

Most flips do not fail on the purchase price. They fail somewhere between the sledgehammer and the final walkthrough, when nobody wrote down exactly what the contractor was supposed to do. Neil Timmins walks through the paint job that started this conversation: a borrower's fifty-plus-deal relationship with a longtime contractor, and the moment a familiar price crept too high to ignore.

Neil and Maggie break down what actually belongs in a real scope of work, how it becomes your draw schedule, where contractors quietly pad a bid, and how a Windsor Heights rehab kept a fourteen line item budget on track even after a surprise in the sewer line.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

How to write a scope of work a contractor actually has to price against

How to catch contractor creep before it eats your margin

How to turn a priced scope into a draw schedule that protects your cash

How three simple habits keep change orders from becoming arguments

How a fourteen line item scope kept a Windsor Heights flip on budget

And more.

Hosted by Iowa real estate investor Neil Timmins.

Want the full breakdown? Read the article, Scope of Work for Fix and Flip: Keep Your Iowa Budget Honest, at https://littleguyloans.com

Find every episode at https://www.flippingiowa.com

What if the house you're about to flip is actually the better rental, and the only way to know is the math most investors skip?

Rent versus flip trips up more investors than almost anything else in this business, because most people decide with their gut instead of a spreadsheet.

One investor grabbed a projected $35,000 flip profit without checking the rental side. Six months later the market shifted and that profit shrank to $18,000, even though the property could have cash-flowed $400 a month indefinitely.

The Beaverdale duplex that changed Neil's own mind: a $220,000 purchase and $40,000 rehab against a $340,000 after repair value blew past his 70 percent ceiling, leaving just $28,000 on the flip. The rental side penciled to $650 a month in cash flow, on top of paydown and appreciation.

This episode breaks down how Neil runs both sets of numbers before writing an offer: the flip math that sets his ceiling price, and the four rental numbers that show what a property is really worth if he holds it.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• How to run the four rental numbers that reveal a property's real annualized return

• How to use the 70 percent rule to set your ceiling price before you make an offer

• How to read days on market as a real budget signal, not a vanity number

• How to build a rate cushion into your numbers before you refinance

• How to decide when a flip and a rental are basically a coin flip

And more.

Hosted by Iowa real estate investor Neil Timmins.

Want the written breakdown? Read the full article at https://littleguyloans.com/rent-vs-flip-iowa/

Find every episode at https://www.flippingiowa.com

A four-line scope of work with $22,000 next to the words "general remodel": is that a plan, or a guess with a decimal point?

First-time flippers in the Des Moines metro rarely blow their budget on closing day. It happens three weeks into the rehab, when the money's half gone and the surprises start showing up.

Neil Timmins walks through the five mistakes he sees on repeat, from a Beaverdale bungalow that looked like a cosmetic flip until galvanized pipe turned up behind the bathroom vanity, to Norwalk flips where seventies-era plumbing keeps catching investors off guard.

Then there's the borrower who handed Neil a scope of work with exactly four line items, one of them reading "general remodel, $22,000." Neil pushed back, the borrower went to his contractor for a real breakdown, and the detail that came back uncovered fifteen hundred dollars in savings.

Neil and Maggie Monroe also break down the financing math, including why a 70% after-repair-value cap can shrink a loan even when the numbers look generous, and why the exit plan most investors skip is usually the one they need most.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

- How to build a rehab contingency before you submit the offer, not after

- How to turn a four-line scope of work into a real, biddable plan

- How a 70% after-repair-value cap can cut your loan even when the numbers look generous

- How to budget for holding costs so an extra month on the market doesn't eat your profit

- And more.

Hosted by Iowa real estate investor Neil Timmins.

Want the written breakdown? Read the full article at https://littleguyloans.com/first-flip-mistakes-iowa/

Find every episode at https://www.flippingiowa.com

What if the thing you're most embarrassed about, your credit score, isn't even on the list of what actually gets a hard money loan approved?

Most first-time flippers freeze the moment a real deal lands in front of them, assuming a hard money lender grades them the way a bank does. Neil Timmins breaks down exactly what he checks, in order, and it starts with the property, not the person.

The trip-up spots are always the same: comps pulled from the wrong pocket of the metro, and a rehab scope that's one guessed-at number instead of real line items for demo, mechanicals, and cosmetics.

Then there's the number that controls the whole structure: seventy percent of after repair value. A ranch in Ankeny listed at $165,000 with $35,000 in rehab and a $250,000 ARV blows past that cap until the purchase price drops to $140,000.

Neil also tells the story of a repeat borrower with a credit score most banks would have laughed at, funded more than once, because of what he brought instead: a co-signer, real cash, and a loan to value in the fifty to sixty percent range.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• How to figure out how much cash you need to bring to close a deal

• How to build a rehab scope that survives contact with the actual house

• How to calculate the ARV cap before you get attached to a property

• How to structure a deal so a rough credit history isn't the deciding factor

• How to tell whether your exit plan holds up under real scrutiny

And more.

Hosted by Iowa real estate investor Neil Timmins.

Want the written breakdown? Read the full article at https://littleguyloans.com/qualify-hard-money-loan-iowa/

Find every episode at https://www.flippingiowa.com

There's a $54,500 gap between what a distressed Iowa listing looks like it's worth and what the math actually says.

Iowa foreclosure filings are up roughly 30 percent since the fall of 2024, putting more distressed listings on the Des Moines metro market than investors have seen in years. More listings that look like a deal isn't the same thing as more deals.

The mistake is letting the discount do the thinking. A low asking price feels like a deal before anyone runs a number, and a wide comp spread can hide months of deferred maintenance a struggling seller never fixed.

Rising inventory means more houses to chase, but the math doesn't get easier. Neil Timmins walks through his four-step process for every property: pull true sold comps, walk the mechanicals before the finishes, build a rehab number room by room, and run the 70 percent rule last, never first.

Then he breaks down a real Waukee listing that looked like a steal at $210,000, until 1998 mechanicals, a dying roof, and a full kitchen gut cut the real number to $155,500.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• How to spot an underpriced foreclosure versus one that just looks underpriced

• How to pull sold comps that reflect true after repair value

• How to walk a property for the red flags that wreck a rehab budget

• How to use days on market as a submarket-specific risk signal

• How to run the 70 percent rule last so the math decides the offer

And more.

Hosted by Iowa real estate investor Neil Timmins.

Want the written breakdown? Read the full article at https://littleguyloans.com/real-estate-deal-analysis-iowa/

Find every episode at https://www.flippingiowa.com

One piece of drywall turned a $25-a-square-foot rehab into $50 a square foot. What's hiding in your next flip that you haven't priced yet?

Most flips don't go sideways over the purchase price. They go sideways over the rehab number, a guess wearing a dollar sign, borrowed from the last house instead of pulled from the one in front of you.

Neil Timmins just relearned that in Beaverdale, where a bungalow that looked like paint and floors turned into knob and tube wiring behind the basement drywall. One wall changed the whole budget.

The fix is order, not optimism. Mechanicals first, then structural, then finishes, then curb appeal, because a cosmetic flip with a bad panel isn't a cosmetic flip anymore.

Neil and Maggie Monroe walk through the room by room process, real Des Moines-metro rehab numbers, how contingency should scale with what you find, and how the seventy percent rule turns a rehab estimate into a real maximum offer.

In This Episode, You'll Learn:

• How to walk a house room by room and catch hidden rehab costs before you offer

• How to price mechanicals, structural work, and finishes in the right order

• How to size your contingency to what you actually find on the walkthrough

• How to run the seventy percent rule to set your true maximum offer

• How to build a contractor bench that gets you a fair price on a surprise

And more.

Hosted by Iowa real estate investor Neil Timmins.

Want the written breakdown? Read the full article at https://littleguyloans.com/estimate-rehab-costs-iowa-flip/

Find every episode at https://www.flippingiowa.com