The Scoop with Tanya Flanagan

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The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 Jazz and more the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.

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Good morning, and thank you for joining me for the scoop with Tanya Flanagan. I'm so happy you decided to wake up and start your day with me. Here on the scoop, where we talk about life, joy, funny moments, trending topics, and so much more. We promise to keep you in the know and find out what you know. So let's get started.

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Good morning, Las Vegas. And as always, I'm so grateful that you decided to wake up and start your Sunday with me here on the scoop on 91.5k u and v Public Radio. Delighted to have you with me once again for another week and another lively discussion. I hope you find today's topic entertaining and informative. At the very least very interesting. I thought it was unique and something fun to talk about. So I am excited to welcome to the studio with me for morning conversation. My friend who I've known for 25 years since her oh my gosh, youngest son was the baby. He was the cutest baby ever. Anita Ross and Anita, thank you for joining me.

Unknown Speaker 1:24
You're quite welcome. Tanya, thank you for having me today. And good morning.

Unknown Speaker 1:29
Good morning. So the cool thing that you do, and I've known you for years through your career years, but that you kind of want a second career. And that's what I thought was so cool. How we evolved through life, and we kind of work for a company for 20 or 30 years. And then we're still young enough to create a second career. And so sort of your second space is what we love to watch on HGTV. And what do we do to our houses and remodel? So you are buying properties and refurbishing and flipping or selling or whatever, or maybe even being hired to just renovate a home for someone who doesn't have the vision, but you have the eye? So you have a company called pin legacy group? Correct? You are the CEO? Oh, of course, with your husband, Lamar, correct the CEO? Yes.

Unknown Speaker 2:18
Let him have that time.

Unknown Speaker 2:21
So you were in government for how many years? 21 years. 21 years? Are you still? Are you retired or I retired? Last year? Congratulations. retiring. Thank you. So before you retired from government, and it was federal right?

Unknown Speaker 2:38
So I worked for the DoD contractor that manage the Nevada National Security site. Okay, so that company changes names about every 10 years or so. So I was there through three different company names, but started back in 2002 and retired last year. Well,

Unknown Speaker 2:58
congratulations on retiring. Thank you. Well, top level security, does that mean you can find out things that other people can't find? It always sounded to me like you have this cool, top level security job and you could find out things other people couldn't clearance like you are Angela Bassett in a movie or something on the President's detail. And so that's always what it sounded like to me it because you could barely talk about what you do. And I'm like, that is so high level,

Unknown Speaker 3:23
I didn't often speak of what we did there. But I did potentially or usually work associated with the purchasing systems, folks there and did that for the preponderance of my time there. I did do a stint with the counterterrorism operations support. It

Unknown Speaker 3:45
sounds like there's a conversation within what you used to do if you could only talk about like, if only you could tell the stories that would be even just quite as interesting. So what we're going to get into and talk about this morning, but I think it's really cool that after 21 years of working you found another passion. I did they did makes you excited to wake up in the morning. So how did you get into this space of I mean, you as a husband, wife team could practically have a TV show probably by now. So I'm almost wondering why people haven't like approached you. Right? Haven't figured it out, or you haven't said hey, let's just film it ourselves. We might be onto something this morning. But how did you get into the space of identifying properties and wanting to like, do this to buy homes and renovate them? Flip them? Yeah. Where did that come from? Well,

Unknown Speaker 4:34
the truth is, like you mentioned earlier, a lot of people like myself, were glued to HDTV, and I was just so drawn to the things that people were due to their homes and just, you know, way back when it was people just kind of fixing up their homes and that type of thing and the show's over. Can migrated to flippers, and I got just completely sucked in to all those shows that show people that flip homes. And I really, the interest itself didn't initially turn into the idea of wanting to do that work. But I realized that I was just so glued to this that there was, you know, an interest there that I couldn't turn away from. And it wasn't just turning away from the TV shows just, there's something there that interest Did

Unknown Speaker 5:33
you find yourself talking to your husband? Every time you turned around? You were doing a new remodeling project at home? And he said, We just really have to stop No,

Unknown Speaker 5:40
actually, that that's the thing that I didn't do. There was always things I want to do. But no, we didn't do remodel projects at home, I learned pretty early in watching other people that couples doing remodeling projects at home can be a very trying situation, on the relationship and on the marriage. So I think we we might have done, you know, something, but nothing, anything major. And, you know, I felt like preserving the marriage was more important than trying to do a flip magic. Right? That's

Unknown Speaker 6:21
the focal point. Right? So how do you get into it? Like people would say, do you take your life savings? Do you as you're watching these these shows in your head and toward retirement and start to sock away money so that you have some capital to get stuck in some some you have to have the dollar to do you take some equity out of your own home? Like what got you started to purchase the first property? Or do you look for distressed properties so that our that cost a little bit less if they can do that in this crazy market that we're in these days. So it wasn't always crazy, the

Unknown Speaker 6:54
idea of getting into real estate had always been there. You talked about, you know, knowing us since he was a baby. And I initially thought I might just become a realtor way back when so that was 20 some years ago. And then along along the way, I decided that, you know, maybe just having some rental properties. And the opportunity presented itself. When I said, Well, maybe we let's just try one. And we and that was in 2015. And we came across we were working with Sheila parks, I'm sure you remember her. And she helped us find a property. And it was great. When we got to the house, I'll never forget when we got to the front door of the property. She turned around and said to me, now it needs a little work. And we get inside the house. And I was like that's an understatement. But understand she was trying to kind of set the tone. And so we said okay, we'll flip this the price was right. It, it, we were buying it on our own, we at that point now already had a rental property because we had moved from our the home we originally purchased and had moved my parents into that house, our original hug. And then at that time, the house was very inexpensive. Because the people were just trying to get out of it. There was you know, some kind of family distress going on at that time. And we decided we would flip it. So we started that process. And yeah, we had to, you know, scrape money, here and there, you know, as best we could, the thing I give Lamar credit for is he's been a great saver, and you know, pocketed money away and we were able to kind of tap into that money to use it for the purchase our credit was good enough that we could buy this additional property, and then use some of that cash to pay the contractor and buy the materials and that type of thing. But along the way, in the process of flipping that home, we decided to move my parents into that home. And because it was more convenient, they were my dad was an avid golfer, and this, this house was on a golf course. So it worked out really well as far, you know, better suited them than the house that they were in. But then now I don't have another limb to flip. Right and I don't have necessarily the cash coming out of you know, that one. So it's like I kind of had to start over. You know, trying to kind of work that and I actually went back to

Unknown Speaker 9:54
because when you flipped it it wasn't it didn't become a home that you sold your parents you bought it in Put the minute Correct. Okay, so everything you put into it was in it correct? So did it create any instant equity or anything that you could? There

Unknown Speaker 10:09
absolutely was? That's a very good question Tanya that absolutely was equity in the home for one because I was able to get it well below market price. And to once we made the updates to the house, and we did everything to that house, all new cabinet, that house had no flooring in it, all the cabinet doors were missing, you know, the house was in, in very bad shape inside. And so we painted it with new flooring, new cabinets, new countertops, NEW tile, and, you know, did a lot of plumbing repairs and electrical painted inside and out. So we did have, you know, some investment in there. But the good thing is there was equity in the home to start. Because we we were able to get that house below below market price. And even though I knew I was getting it below market price, I still tried to negotiate that price down a little bit more.

Unknown Speaker 11:08
That's the sign of a good negotiator. Right? Right.

Unknown Speaker 11:12
So but so that worked out. And Sheila was great at helping us with that. But like I said, I had to start over. Now I now I need to find because I was using my personal credit, and income and financing for that. But what I realized is I needed to shift over to an LLC, so that I could do this under the terms of the LLC and try to find financing that way. So it took about a year and a half. And in that time, maybe little less than a year and a half. But it took some time to kind of study and research and search and ask questions and talk to people, anybody that I knew. And in the interim, I went to real estate school to educate myself on that process. What's that real estate process? Like, you know, what's legal, what's required? What, you know, just, even though a lot of people said, oh, you should just go ahead and get your real estate license. No, let's not forget, I was still working. And I didn't feel that I had that the personality that it takes for to be a realtor and certainly not that availability

Unknown Speaker 12:37
that wasn't your go to be it wasn't her so that would write in kind of like right cream on the top, if you will, of just adding an additional right option to the list of opportunity Correct?

Unknown Speaker 12:49
Well there's, there's a financial advantage to doing that, assuming that the brokerage that you work for will allow it because some are a little restrictive, in that respect, meaning representing yourself in your own transactions, that that can be a little tricky. And I've seen people do things that didn't seem like they were quite ethical, right. And and I never wanted to risk that or present myself in that way at all so but I did want to be as informed about the process as much as I could so you know, started researching different organizations and lenders which was back then rates were still so if normal residential rates back then were three and 4% hard money lending was seven and 8% then so it was a little it was a little challenging to know that you know, we potentially be borrowing money at that

Unknown Speaker 13:55
seven 8% Right it's really interesting because I don't think people really realize what goes into it because when you see HGTV you see these people and you're like so did someone you know is it a Heartland or relationship is their backing Where's it coming from to have these houses helps contractors have the work crews because it's all flowery right and so there's always the crew and they demo the plays and they pick out this really decorations and that looks so easy and at the same time they show you you know a few of the bumps in the road and some hiccups but you're just sitting there fascinated and then you're at home like everyone else. Oh I can't get a shower that looks like that. But there's so much our kitchen or look at this countertop and look what they've done. But there's so much that goes into it and the fear of of shifting your life because you were also headed toward here you and your husband had worked your lives and you're retired and most people are thinking we're going to travel or you know maybe we'll get a summer home or maybe there is some grandiose purchase that You have in mind, but it's tied to security, not necessarily to being brave enough to take the risk to start something else that's draining the coffers to do it, to wait for the return on the investment. So I have to say to you, kudos. Oh, thanks for taking, you know, for stepping out there and doing, Oh,

Unknown Speaker 15:21
listen, my stomach was in knots often knowing that the financial risk that it would take to do it, and HTTP does present and other shows, I'm not pinpointing one network, but Right, they, you know, they do show you the pretty part of those things. Now, sometimes they'll show you, you know, the little hurdles, you said, it's

Unknown Speaker 15:50
hard, you know, you have a plan for the home, right, because you can't move this or the wiring was done, you know, 60 years ago, or whatever. But I think what I'm saying is this, you're sitting on the outside looking in, so it was really cool to take a glimpse inside to see what really goes on. So you did all this studying, you found out, you know, some real estate rules on what was supposed to go up. And now you're looking into a second one. So at this point, how many houses have you done? Because we're talking about the first one back and you said 2014 20 2015? So how many have you guys done? So can you think of at

Unknown Speaker 16:27
this point? It doesn't seem like a lot. If I say 10?

Unknown Speaker 16:31
No, it does seem like a lot. But because that's like one a year and it leaves an hour or more while working. But having gotten the momentum going to get these things to turn over? Like, how long was it before you saw it become a profitable thing to where it could be fun, and you weren't spending your own budget. So I'm thinking is there now a point where you're not spending your own money, so to speak, but there's, it's making enough revenue to allow you to purchase the next house, and do it again, so that it does become passionate work that you enjoy doing and you and your retirement say say I really look forward to working on this project, or helping some family build a dream and creating a space that someone will really want to call home and feel as welcome welcoming environment, when they walk through the door and turn the key.

Unknown Speaker 17:26
That was always the intention. Once I started, I realized the opportunity to become more or less dependent on banks and hard money lenders was to try to be a cash buyer, as they say cash is king. And that's really true in the real estate business. And so, you know, we struggled initially. So then the next two, they actually kind of landed for me. I've had the same realtor the entire time. George trill from Keller Williams, he's done a great, great job. And let me just tell you that the how I came to know him, was his son and my son went to the same school, and they played basketball together. And so my youngest son Avery says to me, we're going to a basketball game, he knew that we were, you know, really kind of starting this process again, after about a year or so. And he said, Mr. George is a Realtor you should talk to him. And I did the entire basketball game. I distracted him from the whole game. I talked over the whole 40 minutes that they were playing and I think he didn't believe me. But he he caught on to you know what I was doing but and he found me great properties. There's, there's a huge consideration that has to be made with every there. So

Unknown Speaker 19:00
what are you looking for? When you do this? What are you looking for in a property and I realize each person I guess could be looking for something different. But are you saying in a certain size home have you done huge properties to moderate sized properties of you transform like 10,000 square feet of space or so 5000 square foot home 13,000 square foot home,

Unknown Speaker 19:22
I've stayed in the in the smaller home market until this year. But that people believe that Oh, when they sell the put the property on the market and they sell it, that's where you make your money. You make your money when you buy it, because you have to be able to get that house at a reasonable price to bring it up to market value. So you don't you don't buy a house at market value. And then add another 1020 30 $40,000 in price yourself and think that you can now still make money on it right? So you have to be able to get that house below market value, and then add the value to it by virtue of the improvements that you're making to. So we stayed in the three to four to $500,000 range on properties actually did buy a $75,000 condo, and was able to even make money off of that. But that said, this year, we've moved into a bought a million dollar property that we're working on now. It's very large, it's almost 6000 square feet. It's in a very beautiful neighborhood in the southeast part of the city. And we're very excited to be able to, you know, really add a lot of beauty to the home and value to the home. You know, I got a very nice text from my realtor today. You know, saying that, you know, how he appreciated the things that we've done the logo, on my business cards, the motto actually says, we make homes happy. So if you think about that expression, you know, a happy home.

Unknown Speaker 21:06
Sometimes to know your realtor gets UPS early as we do so. Yeah, absolutely. And do a little, a little blurb of encouragement, right.

Unknown Speaker 21:15
He's been there with me, right from, you know, practically from the start. And that said, you know, it's always been my intention to kind of bring that life back to, to these homes a lot. They are sad, unfortunately, sometimes when I get them because someone else buying that home, I really want people when they move into that home, to just be you know, just all smiles, right, I think about a been blessed enough to the first house we ever bought for ourselves as a family. It was all smiles. It was brand new. It was you know, very nice. It had a fireplace. Listen, I thought that was the end of the world. That's

Unknown Speaker 21:58
the time when you just want a house with a fireplace and and then we have houses where pools are running through the inside of the living room out to the outdoors. And you're like, Can I get a house with a pool in my living room running out to my outdoors into my actual pool? We've seen windows I mean, it's just amazing when the doors open all the way up. Like I mean, you just there's some really amazing stuff out there. And it's so, so much fun. I have to ask now that you've kind of gotten into, you know, the weeds of it, and you get it. What is your favorite room like to do? What's your favorite room? to re to reimagine

Unknown Speaker 22:41
reimagine? Yeah, I would say the master bathroom. Because we call it the primary bathroom now,

Unknown Speaker 22:48
but we call it Yeah, we are the main master ensuite. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 22:53
with Yeah, we don't use master anymore. But that now

Unknown Speaker 22:58
you have like multiple masters. In theory, you know how you have like, some homes will have what feels like a master upstairs and an ad

Unknown Speaker 23:08
or something. So my favorite is the primary bathroom just because the homeowner spends most of their time in the kitchen. And then they're in their bathrooms. And I know that I appreciate that was the one thing that drew me to the house that we live in now is because the bathroom was nice and large. And it had a nice big tub. And, you know, I compare that to my very humble beginnings growing up. And I, you know, I can appreciate what it what it means to be able to relax in that space in that space and have a nice shower and a very nice bath. So I really enjoy baths. And my second is of course kitchens, I cook a lot. So I'm sure my husband might disagree with that a little bit. But I cook as much as I can

Unknown Speaker 23:57
to, you know, hit on you for an invitation to get some eats and

Unknown Speaker 24:02
my desire to be ambition for but kitchens mean a lot to people too. And the functionality of the kitchen and the beauty of it right. When you're entertaining effort. A lot of people spend time in the kitchen,

Unknown Speaker 24:15
I was really surprised that I expected you to say the kitchen first. To be honest, I thought the kitchen will be at the top and then I thought the primary bedroom and bathroom would come in second. Maybe follow up by family space because it's so important how family space is, is laid out so that people really enjoy the interactions that they have with one another. We're getting into the last five minutes of the show. It's always amazing to me how time flies when things are so interesting to talk about. But I want to make sure is there if anyone is interested in learning more about your company, are you are you ever for hire or do you ever do any work where you help people to imagine a space within a home that they don't want to sell but that they just want to redo it

Unknown Speaker 24:59
Hi, I, I have certainly, you know, talk to friends about, you know, recommendations I might make and places where I might direct them to as far as to find the materials that they're interested in. I also engage a designer myself on especially like, on the project I'm working with now, the thing that I can appreciate is that I really have a really good network of friends and family and people that I've worked with, you know, over these years, that I can reach out to them and ask them, you know, we have general contractors that, you know, I've kind of tugged on them to ask them questions. And, you know, how do I do this? And, you know, to learn, but I've used that information to help people that have asked me, Hey, I'm thinking about redoing my kitchen, you know, this is, well, this is how I would recommend you go for it with this, I haven't been actually contracted to do that work at this point. But I've been to but I am but I am open to it that you know, help people do

Unknown Speaker 26:09
that with the contractor Are you are you the contractor on projects, because I know sometimes it

Unknown Speaker 26:14
so it depends. So So, for example, the one that I'm working on now, even the the company owns the home. And I do have a general contractor though, using cue construction, they do great, great work all over the valley, they build milled multimillion dollar homes, look them up. They're, they're great. And so in these very large projects, I absolutely use the guidance and expertise of the general contractor. But you can use smaller contractors or use, you know, different trades directly. So have an electrician, company, the H back and that type of thing. So plumbing. So it just depends on the scope of the project, you know how we engage that way, but just

Unknown Speaker 27:01
wanted to say congratulations to you on life after you know, the first chapter, you know, to write a completely different book a different story and to be a black woman in this space in this really phenomenal time, as we see the focal point being so different on black women, I'm grateful that they're coming to our country changes to so

Unknown Speaker 27:24
that women are being seen more clearly, in being able to do you know, what they want to do what they're passionate about. I'm grateful that a lot of a lot of minds have changed. You know, over this time, you have to know that I'm still working in a predominantly male field. And I do get a lot of questions like, Oh, are you the designer? And you know, when I say no, I'm the owner? Or, you know, oh, you know, they get a little surprised because I haven't come across a lot of females,

Unknown Speaker 28:02
I would say in this question I was about to ask you how, you know, visible or women were and we're about to run out of time, but any social media or website or any way people can reach you if they want to, or you know, are interested or I haven't

Unknown Speaker 28:19
quite gotten that to that point yet. But I will be building I do have some families that's going to build me a website, but Penn legacy group.com I do own the domain. So ultimately will will have their have something there. And yeah, we'll have that on Instagram and Facebook and whatnot. have

Unknown Speaker 28:39
you here I will be you know, excited to see the renovation projects. And I think that you know, maybe there was a TV show or something. And your future you and your husband, Lamar might be the next Joanna and what whatever game Egypt

Unknown Speaker 28:56
Sharada her mic or whatever.

Unknown Speaker 29:00
But with that, I hope that the listening audience has enjoyed just hearing about your unique journey from government to flipping homes and renovating projects. And I want to say thank you for spending some time with me this Sunday morning. I appreciate it.

Unknown Speaker 29:15
I appreciate it.

Unknown Speaker 29:16
Thank you Las Vegas for tuning in. Have a wonderful week. And we'll see you next time right here on the scoop on money 1.5k u n v Public Radio. Have a great week. Stay hydrated I want to thank you for tuning into the scoop with me Tony Flanagan and I want to invite you to get social with me I'm on Facebook and Twitter. My name is my handle ta NYFLA na GA N You can also find me on Instagram at Tanya almond eyes Flanagan and if you have a thought and opinion or a suggestion, don't hesitate to shoot me an email to tonya.flanagan@unlv.edu Thanks again for joining in. Stay safe and have a great week.

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