In this powerful interview, Phil and Brian sit down with Tony, a Freedom Mentor graduate who went from swinging a hammer to flipping houses creatively. Discover how mentorship helped him earn big profits without rehabbing and how you can do the same.

• Learn how Tony transitioned from rehabbing to closing 23 deals
• Hear how he made $85K on a single flip without rehabbing
• Learn why mentorship beats going solo in real estate
• Get inspired by real-world strategies that work, even if you're just starting out

Meet Tony—From Rehabber to Creative House Flipper

Tony started in construction, living in his own rehabs—buying, renovating, and selling one property at a time. But after joining the Freedom Mentor program, he discovered a smarter path: what we now call Creative House Flipping. In this interview, you’ll hear how Tony shifted from hands-on rehabbing to becoming a transactional engineer: someone who gets properties under contract or on title and resells them for significantly more. That shift allowed him to scale his business with minimal risk and focus on what he truly enjoyed—structuring deals and flipping creatively. Today, Tony is fully committed to this model and the results speak for themselves.

Where It All Began

Phil: Alright, Tony, we’d all like to know—first and foremost—where were you before you joined Freedom Mentor? Where were you in your life, and what were you searching for when you first started finding our information?

Tony: So I was working in residential construction. I bought my first house in 2010, and it was a fixer-upper. I did a rehab on that one, then bought another house, moved into it, and did a rehab on that one too. Then I did it a third time. Throughout that time, I had been watching a ton of your YouTube videos. I actually called the number back in 2015, but I chickened out. Too many cold winters working outside finally pushed me to say, “Alright, I’m doing it.”

What Made Freedom Mentor Stand Out

Phil: What was attracting you to what we were sharing in our videos? What was different about what you heard from us?

Tony: Yeah, I liked the whole idea of being the “reluctant rehabber”—just finding good deals and flipping them to a contractor who wants to do the whole rehab. Going through those rehabs… by the time you're done and you get that thing sold, it’s like, “Man, I don’t even want to look at the house anymore.”

It’s fun taking an old house and turning it into something nice, there’s something to be said about that. But I wanted to take it to the next level. Watching your YouTube videos and seeing all the different avenues in real estate, stuff I knew nothing about, I just found it all very interesting.

Mentorship vs. Going Solo

The Temptation to Go It Alone

Brian: Tony, did you think about pursuing this on your own since you already knew how to rehab? Was that maybe your initial thinking, “Hey, let’s just do this myself”? Did you really feel like you needed help when you first started?

Tony: Well, that’s kind of what I was doing. But when it came to doing what you guys teach, I thought—there’s no way I’d want to try it by myself. Absolutely not. I think it would be way too much of a gamble and way too dangerous financially.

Why Freedom Mentor Was the Right Fit

Phil: What was it that convinced you that you needed help to go to the next level? And why was it us, as opposed to anybody else out there teaching how to be successful in real estate?

Tony: The reason I chose you guys was because of all those YouTube videos I watched. They seemed very in-depth. I could tell you knew what you were talking about from the very first one I saw. The first video I watched—I actually searched “how to flip houses” back in 2014—and I landed on your video, The Secret to Flipping Houses.

Looking at all those numbers, it was almost the exact same thing I was working on. Like: it cost me this much, I thought it was going to take this much to fix it up… but it took more, it took longer to sell, and it didn’t sell for quite as much as I wanted it to. And then at the end of the video, you said, “What if you could do this without doing all that work?”—and talked about making a quick nickel versus a slow dime. That’s what really got my interest.

Mentor vs YouTube: Guidance You Didn’t Know You Needed

Phil: What role does a mentor play for you versus YouTube University or just figuring things out on your own?

Tony: Well, first thing, I didn’t know anything about marketing. And that seems to be the biggest part of this business. So that was huge. Learning how to establish relationships with title companies, and having a friendly agent, especially if you’re not an agent yourself and don’t have access to the MLS—that was really important.

Phil: Some of the things that a mentor explains are the things you don’t even know to ask.

Tony: Yeah, especially when it comes to dealing with sellers and buyer’s agents. I needed a lot of help with that stuff. Sellers ask some pretty tough questions because they want to know what’s going on every step of the way. And there were a lot of times where I didn’t really know how to answer. So it was really nice to be able to hop on coaching calls and say, “Hey Brian, or Michelle, or whoever—what do you think about this?” And then it was pretty easy to get things figured out.

Would Tony Have Made It Without Mentorship?

Brian: Do you think you would have achieved what you’ve achieved without our help—especially when it comes to working with sellers and people?

Tony: Not even close. There’s maybe one or two deals out of the 23 I’ve closed with you guys that I could have probably gotten done… but still not without you teaching me how to find a good title company. So honestly, I don’t know if I would’ve gotten any of them.

Creative Funding: How Tony Made His Deals Work

No Funding Is the Best Funding

Phil: Tell us a little bit about how your deals got funded—because I’m sure a lot of people are asking themselves that question.

Tony: Yeah—my favorite funding is no funding at all. It absolutely works if you know the right people. I did use hard money from you one time—for the only rehab I ever did. But otherwise, I funded some of the deals myself. Most of my deals, I think I was all-in for around $200. I looked into transactional funding, I actually tried to use it one time, but that deal fell apart. That was one of the only ones that really fell apart and it had to do with a buyer’s lender who just didn’t want to think outside the box. I guess that’ll happen sometimes.

Flipping Without the Rehab Headaches

Brian: Tony, I just find it fascinating that you came in with the skills to rehab properties, but you’d learned enough, the hard way, to know: “I don’t want to rehab properties. I’d rather just flip them. I just got to figure out how to do that.” And when you talk about only $200 at risk in a deal, and I know you closed a lot of those—what’s the biggest amount of profit you remember making when you only had $200 on the line?

Tony: Well, that one we closed last summer, that one made $50,000. And I only had like $200 into it. Then there was another one where I think I had around $2,500 in it because I did some clean-out and yard work. So I was in for about $2,500, but that one made right around $85,000. So… I’d say that’s pretty good.

Brian: It’s phenomenal because you know how to rehab, and most people are drawn to that. They figure, “That’s the only value I can add, I have to rehab.” And that goes for a lot of folks who have just some of those skills. But you have all the skills. Yet you know enough—and to me, that’s just wisdom—to know the quick nickel beats the slow dime. And you’ve proved it over and over.

Big Profits, Low Risk: Tony’s Favorite Deals

Brian: I’m curious, are there any deals that really stick out to you? Maybe some highlights or favorite deals?

Tony: My favorite deals, the ones that made the most money, were the easiest ones to deal with. The ones with the smaller profit margin… for some reason, it’s like there’s just more problems. I don’t know what the deal is with that, but it just seems like that’s how it’s been.

Phil: It’s always been that way. When I first got started, I discovered the same thing. It was the first time I’d ever hired a CPA—an accountant—and he looked over my books and said, “Well, it looks like there’s just a collection of deals that made all your profits for the entire year, Phil.”

And I said, “Yeah, I know. Those were my favorites. I wish they were all like that.”

Then he asked me, “Well, how do you get more of those?”

And I thought, that’s the question I should be asking. It’s always been that way, Tony. We’re talking 30 years of this type of business model. The bigger deals are like a hot knife through butter—and you wish every deal was like that. That’s why our model has always been: keep marketing better and better to get more of those. And now that you’ve reached your level, you can cherry-pick. You can step over the really small deals and focus on the big ones.

Learning to Say No to Thin Deals

Tony: Yeah, it’s pretty easy to determine that now at this point. I know there was a time where I actually quit working and thought, “Oh, I’m going to go full-time in real estate.” That’s when I started getting thin deals under contract—and yeah, just a nightmare. I was spending all this time trying to get those closed, and I kept wondering to myself, am I missing out on something better because I’m spending too much time on stuff that’s not going to make much money?

Inside the Apprentice Experience

Real Support, Real Growth

Phil: Overall, what was it like to be a part of the Freedom Mentor program?

Tony: I thought it was awesome. You and all your coaching staff have just been fun to work with—just a lot of down-to-earth people, easy to talk to. I had a lot of fun throughout the journey. There were challenges, and I was nervous at times—especially when there was a lot of money on the line and I didn’t want to screw things up. But overall, it was a lot of fun.

Advice for Aspiring Investors

Action Beats Analysis

Brian: There are going to be others who look at this and wonder, Can I do this? What kind of advice would you offer them? If you had this to do over again, how would you approach it? What would you tell someone who’s considering this business?

Tony: I would say—don’t wait around for the perfect time. If you’re ready, go for it. It seems like a big step to get into, but with your guys’ help, it’s just not that scary when you have mentors guiding you to take actions that make sense. That’s the biggest thing—for other people—is to just start taking action. When I first joined, it was almost a year before I closed a deal. I was on all these coaching calls, just analyzing and analyzing… and nothing happened until I actually started marketing, taking action, and talking with sellers.

Lessons from Experience

Skip the Tool Belt—Start with Mentorship

Phil: What advice would you give your younger self?

Tony: I would say—join a real estate mentor program instead. When I was younger, I thought it seemed like a lot of fun to buy a house and fix it up. You think you’re making a lot of money, but it just gets to be way too much work—especially when you’re living there with all the dust and chaos.

When I was working construction, I’d ask myself, "Do I really want to come home and put the tool belt on again after work?" It just gets to be too stressful and pretty soon, you stop enjoying it. I wish I would’ve joined in 2014 when I first made that call. That’s for sure.

The Partnership That Didn’t Float

I had a little partnership going with a general contractor. We were pretty good friends at the time and did a couple of rehabs together. He thought he should get 50% of the profits. And I was like, I don’t know if this is really going to make sense. I didn’t really have anything else going on. I was tired of working for the man, so I thought, Alright, I’m giving this a try. It seemed okay until the money got involved. Pretty soon, we were at each other’s throats. It just didn’t work at all.

That was a bad move on my part. I wish I wouldn’t have done that and I’ll never do it again. Because I think I’ve heard you say a few times on your calls, Brian: What’s the only ship that doesn’t float? I learned that the hard way.

Why This Partnership Worked

Brian: It’s interesting, you came out of a partnership that didn’t work, and you entered into one with us. What gave you confidence that this would be a good partnership?

Tony: I just thought you guys had such credibility. And our interests were aligned, you guys want to see us make money. With the contractor, it was more one-sided. He didn’t really care if I sold the house. He wanted to make it seem like he did, but at the end of the day, you could just tell there was no real credibility. With you guys, it was completely different.

Tony’s Future in Real Estate

Cherry-Picking Over Gutting

Brian: I’m curious, Tony, as you’re cherry-picking deals, and obviously you’ve done a ton of flips and wholesale deals, do you see yourself doing many more rehabs?

Tony: No. I just don’t like getting into those rehabs where you start tearing stuff apart and find mold or rotten lumber, stuff you didn’t expect. It gets to be a nightmare. Unless it’s something where it clearly just needs new cabinets, trim, flooring, and paint—I might do that. But I’m not going to start gutting houses.

Creative Flipping: A Win-Win Model That Works

Brian: What I love is that you came in with contracting know-how. You knew that wasn’t the only way you wanted to add value. And you’ve developed all these skills to the point where you don’t even want to rehab and yet you can still make the money you want, doing real estate the way you prefer, with fewer headaches. That’s just a total win. So congratulations on that.

Tony: Yeah, absolutely. I really appreciate you guys. I’m really glad I found the program. It’s been an awesome journey.

Every Successful Real Estate Investor Has a Mentor

Inspired by Tony’s Story? You can do this too. The Freedom Mentor Apprentice Program is designed to guide you step by step, no matter your starting point. Whether you’re brand new or already experienced like Tony, we’ll help you transition into a professional real estate investor earning consistent profits year after year. You don’t have to go it alone. We’ll show you how to build a real estate business that delivers freedom, flexibility, and financial results without the stress most people face trying to figure it out themselves.

Ready to take the next step? Apply to the Apprentice Program here: Freedom Mentor Apprentice Program.

If that feels like too big of a step right now, grab a copy of How to Be a Real Estate Investor to learn how this business works and how it could fit into your financial future.

Questions for us, text FREEDOM to 305-315-8030 or post a comment below.