The Science of Flipping is a real estate coaching program. The program trains and mentors its students on 5 strategies in which to earn in real estate investing. You can choose to enroll in any of the courses in the program.
In this review, we will answer these important questions. Is the coaching program and its creator legit? What do you get with the program and how do you make money with what you learn? How successful are the students of the courses?
We also compare Justin's real estate flipping business opportunity with an online digital real estate business model that allows you to earn passive income by renting web properties to small businesses.
Who Is Justin Colby?
Justin Colby is a successful real estate investor in Scottsdale, Arizona. He earned a bachelor of science degree from UCLA in 2003. At age 26, he ran a real estate brokerage company in Northern California until he lost all his money. He moved to Scottsdale, AZ in 2007 and started wholesaling and flipping.
Since entering the real estate industry, Justin has secured over 1400 deals across many states. He was Vice President of Sales for Real Estate Worldwide from 2015 to 2017. Since 2012 he has been the President of Phoenix Wealth Builders, a real estate solutions company in the Phoenix market. He is also the Regional Market Manager for Sundae, a company that connects sellers and buyers, since 2019.
Justin founded The Science of Flipping Coaching Program in 2012. He wrote a positively received book, The Science of Flipping: A Proven Formula For Successful Real Estate Investing, in 2014. Justin is also active on his podcast.
Pros and Cons of The Science of Flipping Coaching Program?
Pros
Justin Colby has a wealth of experience in real estate investing and he is very present and active with the program.
Free account with access to informative training materials, resources, and softwares.
Step-by-step training materials on different strategies. You can decide which training / softwares to buy.
Doesn’t oversell. They give realistic expectations that you will need to invest a lot of time and resources in order to find success.
Exclusive Facebook group with 12K members.
Cons
No price transparency with the coaching memberships.
Each course has to be purchased separately. New added courses need to be purchased to gain access.
The program does not provide proof of funds to its students to help them secure a deal, unlike many other real estate wholesaling coaching programs.
What Do You Get With The Science of Flipping Coaching Program?
You can make an account for free and access the free 15 lessons training. The training videos are very informative and give out strategies and tips. With the free account, you can also access:
- Insider Resource Library that has all the best systems and softwares. Free 7-day trials.
- Insider Toolbox where you can download blueprints, scripts, forms, calculators, etc..
You can select which specific training course you want to apply for. These courses are:
Science Of Flipping Insider Academy
Free training course.
The 5 Day Deal Challenge
$55 for 5 lessons + 1 bonus lesson.
Everything you need to know to get your first deal in 5 days.
The Facebook Flip Formula
$27 for 6 lessons + 4 bonus lessons.
How to find buyers and closing deals on Facebook.
The REI Masterclass
$97.00 or $1 for 14 days, for 30 lessons.
Learn the best strategies, systems, and secrets from dozens of the best investors in the United States.
The REI Masterclass EVENT Recordings
$74 for recordings of the live event on June 24-25, 2022
The event features dozens of the best real estate investors as speakers.
The Science Of Flipping Academy Premier
$497.00 for 73 lessons
Full training and coaching on how to launch, grow, and scale your real estate investment business.
Wealth Accelerator Recordings
$47 for recordings of March 11-12, 2022 live event.
The event features dozens of the best real estate investors as speakers.
There are 3 premium coaching membership types. You will need to book a discovery call to apply for the membership and get the price.
Insider Resources:
All the systems and software that you'll need in your real estate investing business.
Insider Toolbox:
All the tools you need to run your business: contracts, scripts, calculators, spreadsheets, etc.. All tools are free.
There is a Top 20 Questions (And Answers) Every Wholesaler Should Know video. This is a recording of one of Justin's group coaching sessions. It is an example of how the coaching calls would go.
How Can You Make Money With The Science of Flipping Coaching Program?
The training courses teach you everything you will need to know about finding a property, evaluating the property, opening escrow, finding and negotiating a deal with the buyer, closing deals and signing documents.
Justin and his coaching program emphasize that marketing is the business and real estate is the product that is to be sold. He suggests the Inverse Profit Method. These are proven methods with zero advertising cost. Such methods are driving for dollars, putting up bandit signs, using social networks, socializing with real estate brokers and other entrepreneurs, door knocking, cold calling, and others.
Justin also advises you go national and not just local. Expand your business to multiple markets.
5 Exit Strategies
First thing you should learn are the exit strategies. The training teaches 5 exit strategies:
- Wholesaling - cash offer only and closes quickly. Seller gets no extra fees above the agreed offer.
- Wholetailing - Property purchased through escrow then immediately put up on MLS (multiple listing service).
- Rehabbing - Buying a property, fixing it, then reselling at a profit.
- Buy and hold - Buying a property and putting it up for rent.
- Creative financing - Non-traditional means of financing a purchase.
4 Types of Properties
1. Single-family properties: independent residential structure on private property.
Good rent.
Great for buy and hold, and rehabbing strategies.
There's always a market for single-family homes.
Poor economy of scale. No tenant leads to no cash flow or even negative cash flow.
2. Duple, triplex, and fourplex: 5 doors or more is no longer residential but commercial.
Better economy of scale. Losing one tenant will not put your cash flow at a negative.
Higher property cost and a little more complex to manage.
3. Condos: an individually owned unit in a residential building or complex.
Good for Airbnb business model if location is great.
Can get good seasonal rent based on location.
HOA (homeowners' association) dues may kill cash flow.
Less financing options, less property appreciation.
Harder to resell.
4. Apartments: self-contained residential units that occupy parts of a building.
Great economy of scale. Loss of a few tenants won't kill cash flow.
Very expensive price.
Hard to manage and has increased legal risks.
Harder to resell.
4 Market Segments
You will pick the best exit strategy based on 4 market segments:
- War zone - war zones are "unsafe" markets. Best exit strategy is wholesaling.
- Lower income segment - low income residential properties. Any strategy works well here.
- Middle income homes - blue collared residential properties.. Good for all exit strategies
- Luxury segment - white collared residential properties. Best for wholesale and rehabbing exit strategies.
Finding Sellers
They suggest 3 key strategies on how to get more leads without increasing the marketing budget:
- Door knocking
- Cold calling
- Ringless voicemail
Justin explains you can spend more effort instead of spending more money to generate leads. He recommends you use all strategies simultaneously for the best effect, as marketing is about touch points.
Comping Properties
Justin suggests using these free programs to comp your properties:
- Redfin - show pictures of property and an after repair value.
- Zillow - cross check info with redfin. Ex: build date, sq footage. ownership info like tax payments, length of ownership.
You are advised to check building sketches to make sure there are no non-permitted additions, as this lowers value. The program also teaches how to use comp calculator to make an appropriate offer. It is typical to sell the property 10% above its value, 6% for real estate commission, and 1-2% for closing cost.
Building Buyers List
Justin advises you should continuously build your buyer's list. You are encouraged to use free marketing mediums such as meetup.com, Facebook (make or join groups to create your network), Craigslist. Google, or to cold call realtors.He also suggests using Find Cash Buyers Now which costs $149/mo. for basic, or $299/mo. for premium.
3 Types of Financing
- Deed of trust - not all transactions will have. 32 states are trust states. Titles the property to a third party (law firm) as security owed by the borrower (you) to the lender.
- Promissory note - borrower (you) promises to pay the lender a specific amount over a specific time period. Terms are defined in the deal.
- Mortgage - property is pledged to secure a debt.
How Successful Are Students of The Science of Flipping Coaching Program?
What are the students of The Science of Flipping Coaching Program saying? There are tons of such success stories, pictures, and videos scattered throughout their site.
My extensive search has found no complaints or negative reviews on the coaching program. The program reviews on trustpilot.com are incredible. They have 154 reviews and all are positive, giving them a perfect score.
If you will base it on the reviews and success stories from students of the course, you could say this is a very effective course. One good reason for all the positive reviews is that Justin and the program do not oversell the promise of success.
If you would check out the free video of a coaching call, you'll see that Justin is very knowledgeable and teaches his students well. He doesn't promise success, but keeps reminding and motivating his students to keep working hard.
How Jonathan Kirk Closed 5 Deals Totaling $75,000
Jonathan's Background and Story
Jonathan is a renowned real estate investor known for his sales and negotiation strategies. His investment strategy is dynamic and adaptive, which enabled him to manage a wide portfolio of assets and handle different types of deals.
Strategies That Helped Him Make $75,000 from 5 Deals
Challenges Jonathan Faced
What's not mentioned in the interview: There are many risks involved in house flipping. Hidden problems like structural issues, plumbing, and electrical faults can significantly increase renovation costs. This problem is too common that 50% of flipped properties end up going over the budget.
Is House Flipping Difficult in 2024?
House flipping can be difficult in 2024 since housing prices slowed down because of the decreasing number of people who are able to afford properties or sell their current homes. Despite this, experts still predict that it's unlikely for housing prices to drop soon. This has caused some problems in the real estate market.
The lower number of people willing to sell or buy real estate properties means there are fewer deals to be made for the increasing number of competing real estate investors. This will be a challenge for wholesalers and flippers, while buy and hold investors are likely less affected by these changes.
Can you still achieve financial freedom with real estate investing in 2024? Of course, although it will certainly be more challenging. You may need to find properties in less competitive areas and treat house flipping like a full-time job. Beginners might struggle to get their real estate business going and make a substantial profit from deals.
I have tried many business models in the past. One that brought me much success works similarly to real estate in a way. In this business model, you take the role of a landlord. Businesses pay rent to you and this all happens in digital space. There are no physical properties.
I'll summarize how it works:
- Build and rank your site on Google. This ranked site will generate leads.
- Local business owners pay monthly to get leads from your sites.
Basically, your site is your digital real estate and these local businesses act as your tenants who pay rent. Ranked sites on Google stay there for a long time. This allows the possibility of a long-term passive income. Check out Local Lead Generation, it might be a better alternative for you.
I spoke with Justin Colby and signed up for the Science Of Flipping elite program In July 2023. I paid the $5000 deposit and I have not downloaded or opened anything on the program other than the introductory video. I decided this program was not for me after further reviewing Justin Colbys podcast interviews. I requested to cancel since I have not even begun the onboarding call, used or downloaded any content, or started any course materials. After notifying him I wanted to cancel, he asked me to call him on the phone. We just spoke on the phone and he has decided to keep the $5000 and referenced the legal contract as the reasoning behind it. I do not recommend this program.