Flipping Iowa

About Flipping Iowa

You're always hunting the next deal. You're managing contractors who don't show up, subs who go over budget, and timelines that slip. And somewhere in the middle of all that, you're supposed to be running a profitable operation. Flipping Iowa is built for house flippers who are in the trenches. Every episode delivers the tactics and strategies that help you find better deals, manage your projects tighter, and protect your margins when everything else is trying to eat them. No fluff. No theory. Just what's actually working in Iowa right now. Two new episodes every week, hosted by Neil Timmins, Iowa's hard money lender. Neil has funded flips across the state through Little Guy Loans, closed over $300 million in transactions, and flipped houses himself. He brings what he sees on both sides of the deal to the mic every episode.

Publisher

Neil Timmins

Category

business · business

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

25 Aug 2026

Latest episode

13 Oct 2026

Latest episodes

16 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   13 Oct 2026

   Ep 15: The Real Reason Iowa Flip Budgets Blow Up Mid-Rehab

   What if the contractor never lied, and the rehab still ran six thousand dollars over budget? Most contractors are honest. That's not where Iowa rehab budgets actually blow up. The real problem is timing: there's often no checkpoint between money going out the door and work getting verified, so by the time an investor notices a problem, two or three draws are already gone. Take a recent West Des Moines flip budgeted at twenty eight thousand dollars in rehab. By the time it wrapped, it had run to thirty four thousand, because draws kept getting approved off a phone call and a couple of photos instead of an actual walkthrough. Most first-time flippers skip the two documents that would have caught it: a real scope of work, specific down to the material and finish, and a real draw schedule that ties every payment to inspected, completed work instead of a calendar date. This episode walks through the exact checklist to run before releasing any draw, the warning signs a rehab is about to go over, and the story of a contractor who vanished at week four, and why the investor barely lost a dollar. In This Episode, You'll Learn: How to write a scope of work specific enough to catch a bad draw request before you pay it The six things to check every single time before releasing a rehab draw Why tying every draw to inspected milestones protects you even if a contractor disappears mid-project The warning signs that a rehab is about to go over budget, before you see the final number How draw discipline connects directly to your hard money loan's after repair value cap And more. Hosted by Iowa real estate investor Neil Timmins. Want the written breakdown? Read the full article at https://littleguyloans.com/avoiding-contractor-cost-overruns-iowa/ Find every episode at https://www.flippingiowa.com

2. 

   8 Oct 2026

   Ep 14: The Seventy Percent Rule That Protects Every Iowa Flip Budget

   What if two nearly identical houses, same street, same square footage, were never actually worth the same money? Every fix and flip offer in Iowa comes down to one formula: after repair value times seventy percent, minus your rehab cost. That's your ceiling. Two inputs, one number, and it decides whether a deal makes you money or quietly eats your margin. The formula is simple. The inputs are not. Get the after repair value wrong and the seventy percent rule will let you overpay without ever feeling reckless. It'll feel like discipline. It's actually just bad math wearing a discipline costume. That's the trap hiding in plain sight on almost every Des Moines metro deal. A missing basement, a comp pulled from the wrong pocket of town, or a listing that sat too long can quietly swing your after repair value by twenty thousand dollars, and the seventy percent rule will never warn you. This episode walks through the real formula with real numbers, when experienced investors stretch past seventy percent on purpose, and the loan file where a missing basement almost cost a borrower his entire deal. In This Episode, You'll Learn: How to calculate your true max offer using the seventy percent rule before you fall for a house How to tell whether your comps are actually comparable, not just technically nearby Why a missing basement can quietly move your after repair value by twenty thousand dollars When it actually makes sense to stretch past seventy percent, and when it will bite you How the same seventy percent cap controls what a hard money lender will actually fund And more. Hosted by Iowa real estate investor Neil Timmins. Want the written breakdown? Read the full article at https://littleguyloans.com/70-rule-max-offer-iowa-flip/ Find every episode at https://www.flippingiowa.com

3. 

   6 Oct 2026

   Ep 13: The Three Checks That Protect Every Iowa Flip Budget

   A house from the nineteen forties can hide an eighty-thousand-dollar surprise behind a wall that looks perfectly fine. Light rehab or full rehab is the single most expensive guess a new investor makes, mostly because it usually gets treated like a decision instead of the guess it actually is. Neil breaks down the three checks he runs on every property before committing to a number: age and systems, comps and the after repair value ceiling, and timeline tolerance. Get the scope call wrong in either direction, and the gap can run twenty to forty thousand dollars on a mid-range Des Moines metro flip. The episode also covers a Windsor Heights deal where a hundred-fifty-dollar sewer scope, and the willingness to ask one more question, turned a ten-thousand-dollar concession into a three-thousand-dollar one. In This Episode, You'll Learn: - The three checks Neil runs on every property before setting a light or full rehab budget - How to tell a genuine light rehab candidate from a house dressed up to look like one - What an aging sewer line did to one Windsor Heights investor's negotiation, and how he protected his margin anyway - Why a hundred-fifty-dollar sewer scope belongs in the contract on any pre-1960 Iowa house - How the scope call changes your actual loan numbers, not just your contractor's invoice - And more. Hosted by Iowa real estate investor Neil Timmins. Want the full breakdown? Read the article at https://littleguyloans.com/light-rehab-vs-full-rehab-iowa Find every episode at https://www.flippingiowa.com

4. 

   1 Oct 2026

   Ep 12: The Three Numbers That Control Your Iowa Flip Loan

   One number was twenty-seven thousand dollars off, and nobody caught it before it nearly killed the deal. Ninety percent of purchase price. Up to one hundred percent of rehab. None of it means anything if the after repair value underneath it isn't real. Neil breaks down loan to cost in plain terms, what it actually covers, where borrowers get it wrong, and why the after repair value cap is the number that actually controls a deal no matter how good the other two look on paper. They also dig into a real deal where a missing basement quietly moved a property's after repair value by twenty thousand dollars, and how catching it early turned a dead deal into a twenty-seven-thousand-dollar retrade instead of a loss. In This Episode, You'll Learn: - What loan to cost actually covers, and how it's different from after repair value - Why the lowest of three numbers, not the biggest, is the one that controls your deal - What a missing basement did to one Iowa flip's comps, and what it ended up costing - The three things to pull together before you ever pick up the phone about a deal - How fast a real, well-documented deal can actually close - And more. Hosted by Iowa real estate investor Neil Timmins. Want more like this? The full article, Hard Money Loan-to-Cost Explained: What Iowa Lenders Fund, is on its way to https://littleguyloans.com Find every episode at https://www.flippingiowa.com

5. 

   29 Sept 2026

   Ep 11: Should You GC Your Own Flip or Hire It Out

   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

6. 

   24 Sept 2026

   Ep 10: How Driving for Dollars Finds Iowa Flip Deals First

   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

7. 

   22 Sept 2026

   Ep 9: How Iowa Flippers Structure Deals With Zero Cash Down

   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

8. 

   17 Sept 2026

   Ep 8: The Twenty Thousand Dollar Mistake Hiding in Your Comps

   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

9. 

   15 Sept 2026

   Ep 7: The Four Words That Keep Your Iowa Rehab Honest

   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

10. 

    10 Sept 2026

    Ep 6: Rent vs Flip: How to Decide Your Next Iowa Deal

    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

11. 

    8 Sept 2026

    Ep 5: Five First-Flip Mistakes Every Iowa Investor Makes

    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

12. 

    3 Sept 2026

    Ep 4: What It Takes to Qualify for a Hard Money Loan

    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

13. 

    1 Sept 2026

    Ep 3: Analyze Your Next Deal as Iowa Foreclosures Rise

    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

14. 

    1 Sept 2026

    Ep 2: The Wall That Changed a Beaverdale Flip Budget

    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

15. 

    1 Sept 2026

    Ep 1: How to Vet a Contractor Before Your Next Iowa Flip

    Why would two contractors quote the exact same electrical panel job fifty percent apart? On the first-ever episode of Flipping Iowa, host Neil Timmins says he's never seen a flip blow its budget because somebody bought the wrong house. He's seen plenty blow up because somebody hired the wrong contractor. Most investors vet a contractor with a handshake and a good feeling. Neil breaks down the phone call he makes before anyone sets foot on a property, what an insurance certificate has to show, and why he'd rather walk an active job site in Beaverdale than look at a photo of one. Then there's the story that opens the episode: a borrower staring down a five thousand dollar gap between two electrical bids after an inspector flagged a fire hazard days before closing, and how a referral from Neil's own contractor bench closed that gap by half. He closes with the five red flags that mean walk away before you've spent a dollar, and a real Johnston flip where the vetting process, not the bid, decided who got hired. In This Episode, You'll Learn: How to run a screening call that filters out the wrong contractor early How to verify a contractor's license and insurance without taking their word for it How to read a job site walkthrough for signs that predict your own timeline How to ask reference questions that surface what actually goes wrong How to spot the five red flags that mean walk away before you've spent a dollar And more. Hosted by Iowa real estate investor Neil Timmins. Want the written breakdown? Read the full article at https://littleguyloans.com/vet-a-contractor-iowa-flip/ Find every episode at https://www.flippingiowa.com

16. 

    25 Aug 2026

    Trailer - Flipping Iowa

    There's a nicer house out there. A newer car. Your kid's college, paid for. In Iowa, that isn't a dream, it's a deal you haven't found yet. Flipping Iowa is built for people already in the game: first-time flippers, investors scaling up, and realtors who see these deals cross their desk every week. Every episode delivers real tactics for finding better deals, running tighter operations, and protecting your margins, so you can seize the opportunity that's already in front of you. Hosted by Neil Timmins, Iowa's hard money lender through Little Guy Loans, the show works like a sherpa's guide, not a lecture. Neil curates the lessons, his own and the ones learned by investors across his community, and brings them straight to you. Arm yourself with the knowledge. Then go execute. New episodes twice a week. Subscribe to Flipping Iowa and start seizing what's already yours to take.

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