EP72 Investing, Flipping, and Leveling Up: The Bexaida Dominguez Story

[00:00:00] Taking action because people get stuck on fear and fear paralyzes you. I mean, that's exactly what happened in 2020 with, you know, the pandemic. It paralyzed a lot of industries and a lot of industries went out of business for that reason. From cornfields to high rises, office to industrial, houses to hotels, and every other asset class in real estate, we cover the people, the projects, and the profit. Welcome to the Investing in Iowa Show.

[00:00:26] This show is for go-doers, action takers, and business owners. It's for people like you who are sick of Uncle Sam taking a huge bite of your apple. If you're looking to get ahead of what's taking place in Iowa, learn who is doing what and how you can get in on the action. You're in the right place.

[00:00:44] Hosted by Neil Timmins, an Iowa native who has been involved in over $300 million in real estate right here in Iowa. Recording in studio from West Des Moines. Here's your host, Neil Timmins. I've got Bexaida Dominguez here on the show. Bex, good to see you. Yes, thank you so much for having me here, Neil. I appreciate it. Thanks for being here. Say, for the audience's sake, who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?

[00:01:10] Yeah, so I am Bexaida Dominguez, and I grew up here in Iowa, actually, originally from Mexico. So I've been here almost 24 years. What brought you? What brought the whole family? Or maybe just you? What brought everybody here? Yeah, so back when the railroad actually brought the whole family. So we had a great, great, great, great uncle come and work on the railroad here in Iowa. And then we just started coming up here, and it's been great. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:01:37] Yeah, well, that's incredible. So you came here, and then what'd you do when you first got here? So I was in school in the Des Moines District, and then we moved to the West Des Moines District two years after. Grew up here in West Des Moines. Valley Junction was my playground, and so graduated from Valley High School. I loved it. It was amazing. Yeah, so you got out of high school, and what'd you do? I was trying to figure out life, right? As so many 18-year-olds are trying to do, yeah.

[00:02:05] Yeah, as a young adult, I was trying to figure out life. I didn't want to be a follower, right? So I didn't want to just go to college because everybody was going. So I decided I was going to take a year off or a few, I think. I just went to, I went to DMAC for a few semesters, and nothing was sticking. It was just one of those things that I did not know what I wanted to do. So I decided to work, you know, start making money.

[00:02:28] And so I got in the food industry and started working my way up to being supervisor, and then eventually became a general manager by the time that I was maybe 23, 24. I figured I could make good money as a manager if I wasn't going to go and study anything. But it worked out. I loved it. How long did you stay in that industry for? From the time that I was about 16 till about, I was 28. So it was, it was about 12 years. And then at 28 what?

[00:02:53] 28, I figured out, I mean, like, what am I doing, right? When you work for somebody, you're not going to get financial freedom. There's going to be a cap of how much you can make with them. And so I was a general manager, couldn't see myself being a district manager. And then I would also see the numbers come in, right? So they would make my salary in about two weeks. And I'm like, dang, what am I doing? I'm working 50 hours, overworked, tired all the time. Challenging schedule?

[00:03:18] Challenging, yeah. 4.30 in the morning to about 3 p.m. Yeah, it was, it was insane. And so one, there was a week where I was opening up every single day, every single day at 4.30. And this gentleman kept coming through at 4.30 or at 5 when we opened. And I eventually, maybe four days in, I asked him, I'm like, hey, what do you do for work? He's like, I'm in real estate. I'm like, at this time, you know? And he's like, well, I do non-traditional real estate. Awesome. So he came in the next day. I said, can I go out of coffee with you?

[00:03:46] He talked to me about wholesaling. And so that's when I started getting, you know, the wheels turning in my head. Like maybe there's something else out there that I can get into, you know? And so eventually I started researching wholesaling, how to do it, how to get started. And I had a deal going on. And so I sent out some direct mail, eventually got a deal. And I think I spent six hours maybe with my first deal, $4,000. And I was like, I like this better than the other stuff.

[00:04:15] So yeah, that's how I got started into real estate. First deal was a wholesale. Wholesale deal. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, I'm going to ask because I'm just curious. Who in the world is there four days by every day in a row at 5 a.m.? Will you share the name or will you tell me after the fact? Because I'm just curious as to, I know a lot of realtors, a lot of people in real estate business, and not many are operating at 5 a.m. No, I'm not. I can tell you that. And he was. And he's like, hey, listen, I get started early.

[00:04:44] I get excited and get started early. And so that's what worked for him, his schedule. I'm like, I don't think I can do 5 a.m. after quitting, you know, the restaurant industry. Yeah. So. Well, so much of that, certainly I understand it deeply value your morning routines. And so a lot of that has to go in with that at 5 a.m., not actually going to work. Right. Hey, Iowa investors, this is Ava Bauckamp, chief of staff at Legacy Impact Investors.

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[00:05:41] They are for qualified, accredited investors only. If you want to learn more, please visit LegacyImpactInvestors.com to apply. All right. So you're a wholesaler deal. You make four grand. And you're like, yeah, I was hooked. It was 2020. So there was a lot of things happening. The pandemic was happening. I was getting into real estate. My partner and I were buying a house. We didn't know anything about real estate, right? But and then I decided that I would quit my nine to five that same year.

[00:06:10] And my dad and I had plans of starting a painting company because he had been painting for 12 years with somebody else. And that gentleman was retiring. So 2021, we go in and start our painting company. And so we were very blessed. We inherited all that gentleman's clients. So we started, you know, painting right away. And so focused on painting 2021 and starting for my license.

[00:06:36] As a wholesaler, I felt like I was in the gray area. And so I'm like, maybe I can get my license as a realtor and I can do whatever, right? Like, obviously, there's things that I have to abide by. But I felt more confident. Serve a broader clientele population. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Studied whole 2021. I was painting. It was insane. I was up on ladders. I was up on the roof, right? I was just starting a business from scratch with my dad.

[00:07:03] And so 2022 comes around and my partner and I decided to start flipping. I got my license in March 2022. And that same month, we got our first flip. We didn't know what we were doing, right? And we went through a hard money lender. We didn't know how it worked. But we figured it out. And it was amazing. I mean, the experience, we did profit from it, which was amazing because sometimes with your first flip, you don't profit, right? And so we did profit and we were hooked ever since. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:07:32] Oftentimes, as far as I say, oftentimes in that first deal, certainly the point you went through is, yes, you profit, but you probably made more in the education that you received. A thousand percent. Yes. And that's what it is. It's taking action because people get stuck on fear and fear paralyzes you. I mean, that's exactly what happened in 2020 with, you know, the pandemic. It paralyzed a lot of industries and a lot of industries went out of business for that reason now. So.

[00:07:57] A number of people who took action at that time frame made a considerable amount of money. Yes. I'm like, why was I not selling houses in 2020? But I also heard it was stressful, you know, from all the deals. And I mean. Yeah. Yeah. It's often stressful for realtors making too much money. Yeah. Right. It's crazy. Should never be a thing. It feels a little better when you get that paycheck. Yeah. That's like, just like flipping a house, just like anything, right? Yeah. Yeah. No, but it was great. And we just kept doing it.

[00:08:26] You know, we, we kept, we're on our eighth flip. So, and, and we're going into three years and we've flipped three homes or sorry, eight homes. And so a lot of learning experiences. A lot. Did having the painting business with your father, did that help you from knowing or meeting contractors in various trades? Yes. Yes. A thousand percent. It helped with connections and it also helped with capital, right?

[00:08:51] Because otherwise when you start from zero, if you don't have private lenders or you have a big chunk in your bank account, you need some type of money coming in. And so the painting business was such a blessing in all aspects. I mean, it opened up a lot of doors for sure. Still have the painting business today. Still have it. Yeah. Yeah. We're still painting. We do residential, commercial. And so interior, exterior, and we're heavily based on referrals. I think that's where you remind me, you're, you're younger, you've got better memory.

[00:09:19] But I think that's where we originally met was in 21. Yeah. As a result of the painting business. Actually. We were doing on our properties. Yeah. That's how we met. And you guys have done a fantastic job. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah. Absolutely. All right. So let's go back to your first flip. What, what were your biggest takeaways coming, you know, you finished the project, it gets done. What did you really learn? What were the takeaways from that that you applied, you know, on an ongoing basis? I think keeping a budget in place, right? Because when you're first starting it, we bought this property with a realtor that helped us

[00:09:49] during COVID. Sure. But, you know, during COVID, realtors weren't taking the time to explain the process. They were just dealing with a lot. And it was just like, okay, we're under contract. Congratulations. Go get inspection. And then we'll keep in touch, you know? And so he helped us, but he didn't specialize in working with investors. So there was no guidance. So it was all figuring it out by ourselves. And I think our hard money lender was a big, big blessing because he helped us with getting a budget set up, right? Getting a budget set up, keeping track of that.

[00:10:18] And so what we learned from that too, is that layout has to do a lot with it, right? When you're flipping and location. So, and also like the timeline is never going to be perfect. We wanted to flip in three months. It took twice as long, you know? And there's a lot of moving pieces with contractors that take time. So I think that the biggest lessons came later on when we did more flips. Yeah. Yeah. I want to go back to the hard money and lending side of things because this comes up, you know,

[00:10:48] we've got a business here. This comes up, you know, we ask people for certain things. And oftentimes, as you said, like a budget. I mean, we ask for a scope of work. We certainly provide a one to help get somebody into our format. So we have a clear understanding about what it is they're doing. Oftentimes, if somebody has a viewpoint that you have, which is these people I surround myself with are here to help me. But from our lending standpoint, it's always to help someone. Absolutely. And sometimes that means, hey, did you think about this? Yeah.

[00:11:17] And the answer sometimes is no. What is that? Right. It's just to have that conversation because the last thing we would ever want somebody to do is to sign up for, you know, a loss or no money knowing that on the way in. Exactly. Yes. Yeah. Oh, my God. To have. Yes. To the fact because nothing goes exactly to plan. But you've got to be able to go on the way in and go, yeah, this is the plan and this is the profit at the end of this as long as we execute. Yeah, absolutely. And that was something that was on that budget. Like, we didn't think of things like that.

[00:11:47] You know, like the exterior, the junk removal, the landscaping. Well, we didn't when we were running our numbers separately. We didn't think of the landscaping. We were just thinking of the interior of the home. Right. Or any permits that are going to get pulled. Right. How's the sewer? Or a lot of things that you don't go in and look at it cosmetically. Sure. You know, so absolutely. It helped us a lot. And he did an absolutely amazing job about guiding us through that. All right. So you learned even more. You do want to learn something cool.

[00:12:15] And then there's probably be learnings, you know, all the way through the process. Yes. Talk to me about, you know, I guess flips two through eight. What have been the takeaways through there as you've advanced? Yeah. No, I think the biggest is you rely a lot on contractors. Right. Right. But then also those that have a license, we trusted that they would tell us the truth about having a license. On one of them, we were doing a whole rewire. And, you know, he's a gentleman that seemed to be established as an electrician.

[00:12:43] And so he started doing most of the work and we started having issues, started having issues. Finally, I asked him for his license number. Could not find it. Could not find it. He was not licensed. He was getting sponsored, which is not the same thing as having a license. So we learned to check, you know, for licenses. That whole, I mean, that project, we actually just sold that in the spring of 2023. And that whole project, we learned so much. Also working with the city. I had heard that it was very scary and it was not at all.

[00:13:12] It's like building a relationship, right? If you start off being positive and wanting to collaborate and cooperate, they're going to work with you. Right. And so we had a phenomenal experience with the city. We were able to get a tax abatement, which we also learned about that. So the next owners could save money on that. Sure. So the perks of pulling permits is that you can get tax abatements for the next people. And you also learn to work with the city, get along with them, make friends.

[00:13:42] Yeah. I'm in agreement with you. If you approach, like any relationship, if you approach it coming into meeting someone new for the first time with a positive outlook, it tends to go pretty positive. A thousand percent. So that was our biggest lesson. And then the most current one was just doing sewer scopes. I mean, you know, checking the sewer because these are old houses and they used to do all kinds of material like PVC or some have clay tile, other have orange burglary. So and it can save a lot of money. So you're doing scopes before you buy?

[00:14:12] Either before or after, depending on how much budget you have. Right. And if there is enough for you to not have it, you know, but I would a thousand percent moving forward, get that done before to make sure that it makes sense. There's a lot of orange burglary in the city. A lot. A lot. You know, every, it seems like every sewer is, you know, eight to 15,000. Yes. It's super expensive. And they do a giant hole in your front yard. Exactly. And they charge you for all of that. Yeah. I mean.

[00:14:40] The front yard, you know, takes a while to recover. Absolutely. Wow. Are you keeping any as rentals or are you just selling everything? So we were selling at the beginning just because we needed capital coming in. Right. So, but recently we were able to buy our first rental. And with that, we, we did creative financing. So we did under contract just because it was somebody that they couldn't, they weren't going to profit if they sold traditionally.

[00:15:07] So we were able to come in, give a down payment, keep it. And now we're looking for tenants. So it'll be our first rental. So we're excited about that. Did you buy it under contract or on a sub two? So on contract. On contract. Yeah. And then their existing mortgage presumably is in place. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So there's over, they wrapped it essentially with their, their, with their mortgage. So on contract. Yeah. Defined set of terms there. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So it was great.

[00:15:37] It worked for both parties. You know, I think there's a lot of, it has become and becoming a more popular conversation today is creative financing. And largely, I think for a couple of different reasons. One is that interest rates obviously doubled overnight over the couple of years ago. And it's all of a sudden we're at seven or eight or whatever the, whatever the range happens to be today. And then as a result in certain places, if they bought it, like a lot of people bought during COVID, fantastic interest rates.

[00:16:03] But they're in a spot where they couldn't sell today and walk away. Some people have to write checks depending on how much money they put down. Yeah. Right. And some just don't make anything. So it, it is requiring a little different approach to be able to put things together when you've got a seller who wants to sell for a lot of reasons. Right. Absolutely. Could just be as simple as, you know, my wife got a dream job and it's not here and we're going to move out of state. Yeah. Yeah. No, but it, I mean, it's amazing that there's a lot of ways that somebody could

[00:16:33] sell a house, not just traditionally. Right. And as realtors, it's, it's our duty to start learning about these ways, these creative ways of financing so we can better help the, you know, our clientele in our community. If you're a house flipper, execute the burst strategy or do double closings and are in need of money. Little Guy Loans is your go-to lender here in the Des Moines area. Time is money. Loan approvals in 24 hours. Closings in five days.

[00:17:01] Little Guy Loans was founded by Neil Timmons, an investor just like you. Since he has been in over 10,000 homes in Des Moines, there's never an appraisal. Houses, multifamily and commercial property loans up to 1 million. Check out www.littleguyloans.com. Talk to me about, you know, what are some of the ways that one could buy creatively, let's say from a homeowner standpoint, not just an investor standpoint.

[00:17:28] So I think, so for example, I had a client that she couldn't qualify for more than 125. 125,000. 125,000. I mean, sometimes you can't even get a flip with 125. Nowadays, less likely a livable house. And so she couldn't qualify for anything higher. She's not going to get more income at the moment. Her dream was pretty much shattering away with traditional. So we went to, there was this condo that had been on contract for a long, long time.

[00:17:53] And he was upside down because he put it on the market a month after he got it. And so we knew that there was room to come in and offer to buy on contract. And so that's where it came in. Like, hey, if they don't qualify traditionally, you can go this route. But not every realtor knows how to do it. And not every broker knows about it. Because I talked to somebody, to an agent, and she was like, hey, my broker doesn't want us doing these types of deals.

[00:18:23] But it's like everything is legal, right? You have a contract in place. And obviously, if it doesn't get executed, there's consequences just like anything else, right? So that's... Just like not paying your mortgage. Exactly. Exactly. So that's where it can help our clientele. I mean, sometimes they just don't qualify. And it's not something that's going to change in the near future. Yeah. No, I completely understand that. And I understand that certain brokers' perspectives going, we don't need to...

[00:18:50] We don't really want to go down this path, you know, when you know one way and it's been that way for so long. It's easy to stay on that path. Exactly. Yeah. And, you know, I haven't had the opportunity to do a stop too. I've heard of also assumable loans, right? I haven't had the chance to do it either. But there's so many options out there that we could be offering our clients once again, because at the end of the day, that's our duties to help them out. And our knowledge has to be broad.

[00:19:16] How has investing, being an investor, helped you as an agent? A ton. I mean, I work a lot with investors. So most of my clientele is with investors, which I love because my business can be very predictable. If I know this investor will buy and sell four times a year, that's four already. The next one is, let's say, three. So I love that aspect, but I bring in the knowledge that I gain while doing my flips, right?

[00:19:40] And I offer those tools that I got along the way, like the scope of work and keeping a budget, reaching out to the city, knowing when to reach out to the city. Because not every single home needs to be through the city, right? And so it's helped me educate my clients more than anything. And also it helped me get some of my clients started in investing because they didn't know how to do it. And I remember looking back at my journey. It's like, I wish I would have had somebody guiding me through the first investment, you know, the first flip.

[00:20:11] So, yeah. For you, why Iowa? You can do what you do anywhere. You choose to be here. Why? Yeah. So obviously it's been home for a long time, but I also think that we have an amazing market, right? We have, I have outside investors. I mean, out-of-state investors coming in to buy here because renting still makes sense. And houses are still affordable here, you know, rather than the West Coast, the East Coast. So I like that. And then families here as well.

[00:20:39] And it's just a really nice place to live and stay. I like it. What are you most excited about here this year in 2025? 25. We just acquired our first commercial building. So that's exciting. Yeah. Thank you. Tell me about that. It came through one of my family members. He's been doing some landscaping work for this gentleman and he was ready to retire. He wanted to sell for X amount of dollars. And I'm like, can't get financing right now.

[00:21:06] Because as you know, as investors, when you're first getting started, and I don't know if it's with everybody, but your credit goes up and down. Just because you're using maybe credit cards to get started, have multiple deals going on, right? So your credit's not going to be always perfect at the beginning, right? And so I told him we can't do traditional. Well, he was willing to sell on contract. And so we were able to get that. And so we're on a seven-year interest-only contract. And it's on Army Post. And it's exciting and nerve-wracking and everything.

[00:21:36] But you've got to take a leap of faith eventually. What type of building? What are you using? Type of building. So it's a mixed use. Right now it has a pawn shop in the front. It'll have offices on the top. And then there's two mechanics in the back. So very, very mixed use. Yes. Yeah. All right. I went down that rabbit hole. Bring it back to 2025 because I got curious about it as soon as you said about it. Thank you. All right. So you're excited about that. What else are you excited about for this year? I think just educating people.

[00:22:04] So I love holding seminars for new investors or even seasoned investors. Love holding seminars and getting people riled up about that. And also, you know, learning about or teaching about financial freedom. And even though I'm only three years in, like the mindset has everything to do and who you surround yourself with. Right. Has everything to do with it. So that's where I'm going to I'm going to focus on that. I'm going to focus on teaching others about financial freedom and investing and doing flips,

[00:22:34] you know, keep doing flips and maybe holding one more rental. And so a lot of exciting things. A lot. Yes. We also have I partner up with a few other agents here in the Des Moines area. And we have we wanted to start a community so called Level Up Movement. Just focus on collaboration, helping each other grow, empowering each other. And it's something that the West Coast has it very well. Like they've established that. And I feel like we could do that here, helping each other grow. Right.

[00:23:01] And so we we started that at the end of last year. So we're very excited to start that movement and help other realtors. Iron, charpence, iron. Yes, yes, yes. Yes. That's great. Are you ready for the final three questions? Yes. All right. Let's say if you had one piece of advice for your 20 year old self. Man, that's a tough one. I'm like a lot of things. So I think that dreaming. Right.

[00:23:26] Because I feel like I stopped dreaming when I got into the maybe the restaurant business just because it was like, OK, I can become a manager. I'll stay there. So I didn't dream. Right. I didn't allow myself to dream. So I think dreaming has a lot to do with where we go. So I would say dream, dream big. I think there's an old saying. I remember this. It's something to the degree of most people die at 21. That's the day they stop dreaming. You're so right. I mean, I would.

[00:23:56] I mean, I still think I started dreaming pretty early on. I was 28, but definitely at 20. Well, everything gets created twice. One in the mind's eye and then one in the man's eye. Yeah. Yeah. To be realized. I love that. Two books that changed your life. Great question. I love that. I got goosebumps. Thinking Girl Rich. Yeah. Loved it. I loved it. It took me a while to read, but I was processing everything. And then thinking. Sorry. Thinking Girl Rich was the first one. And then the second one was Rich Dad Poor Dad. Sure. Loved it.

[00:24:25] Loved it. So. Kyusaki Obey. Yes. If you were cast away on an island for one year, you get three pieces of data about your business each and every month. What three things must you know every month to know how your business is running? Oh, that's a tough one. Okay. Repeat it again for me, please. If you were cast away on an island for a year, you can only get three pieces of data about your business each and every month. What three things must you absolutely know every month to know how your business is running? I think I would want to definitely know about my clients.

[00:24:55] So maybe getting letters from my clients. Secondly, I probably would want to know where my contractors are at. And then the third one, finances. You know, like a financial report. Yeah. And then I can be stranded on an island. I'll be good with that. Well, like I said, I've asked you lots of questions. What's one question I did not ask that I should have asked? Gosh, maybe my ultimate goal. Yeah. What my ultimate goal is? Just because we have a lot of little goals, right? Sure.

[00:25:22] So my ultimate goal is to definitely retire in 10 years. Yeah. And financial freedom. What does that look like to you? So financial freedom and retirement. So I think financial freedom looks like cash flow, owning assets. I don't need to be working. I can be sleeping and money's going to flow in. Retirement. I think obviously I'll be, I think I'll be like 42, 43. I feel like I'll still have energy, hopefully.

[00:25:48] I feel like to me, retirement looks doing, doing something that I don't need to do for money. So maybe, you know, living in Italy, having maybe a vineyard, something like that. So still dreaming. I love it. That's all I, that's all I do. I love dreaming. Fantastic. Well, I've enjoyed this conversation. Say for the people, they want to find you, they want to follow you and they want to connect with you. Where can they go? What should they do? Yeah. So I have Facebook, Saida Dominguez, and then I do have Instagram as well.

[00:26:18] And it's why Bexsaida. And yeah, they can reach out to me and you can chat, grab coffee together. Links are below in the show notes to connect with you, Bexsaida for everybody. So I appreciate you being here. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate you, Neil. Thanks for listening. If you're enjoying the show, may I ask a favor of you? Naturally, subscribe so you never miss an episode. But would you rate and leave an honest written review on Apple Podcasts?

[00:26:45] There's a lot for us here at the show, and I appreciate reading your thoughts. Great guests make for a great show. If you know of another Iowans who would be a great guest, or you yourself have interest in being a guest, well, get on our radar. Visit Investing in Iowa to fill out an application or recommend a guest. And if you want to connect with me one-on-one, go LegacyImpactInvestors.com. Click on the Invest With Us button in the top right corner.

[00:27:13] And there, you can pick a time for the two of us to get on the calendar and connect. Until next time, keep investing in Iowa.