Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper interview Tomas Carrizoza about his reselling business.
Free Flipping Course: freeflippingcourse.com/
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fleamrktflipper/
Check out our FREE Workshop: https://courses.fleamarketflipper.com/flipper-university-workshop-webinar
You can find us at: https://fleamarketflipper.com/
Reseller Hangout Podcast - Interview With Tomas
Rob: What's up, pro flippers? On today's episode, we are so excited to talk to Tomas, who is a flipper university alumni. He has had some amazing success in his business and we're so excited to talk to him and get some more information about his business and kind of how he's been rolling this, this, this game we call flipping.
So Tomas, thank you so much for jumping on here and giving us a little bit of your time today, and let us ask you some questions.
Absolutely. Thank you guys
Tomas: so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
Melissa: Yeah. Thank you so much for being here. So let's go ahead and dive right in. Give us a little background on how you got started with flipping.
Like, did, was this something that you'd always dabbled in or no or like yeah, tell us how you even got started in this whole business.
Tomas: Sure. So, so I've always loved yard sales. I've always loved bargaining, you know, but I never thought of this as a business or a way to actually provide income for my family.
So, a couple years ago I got a promotion and which moved me out of town. It's, I've been working retail management for the last decade or so, and I finally got to this new spot, one position from the top. And I took an inventory of my life and I realized this really wasn't something I was enjoying doing.
Something I wasn't very happy doing. So then I started seeking opportunities to maybe do something else. So, I had a mutual friend, me and my sister know this young lady named Stacy and my sister told me Stacy was doing some flipping, and right off the top of my head I was thinking she was flipping houses.
So I'm like, you know, that's really not for me. I don't think that's gonna pan out around where I'm living. So, fast forward a couple months, we got some more information and we kind of got the gist of what she was actually doing and it's really sparked my interest. I was looking to step outta my management position, take a step down, which would be a substantial pay cut for me and my family.
So I needed some money to supplement there. So that's where flipping came in. She kind of introduced us to you guys and the program Flipper University. After a couple months of thought, me and my wife dove in and the rest is history.
Rob: I love it. I totally love it and it is powerful. We went through that situation as well, where we came to a crossroads in our careers and what we were doing, and we had to decide, do we wanna keep going down this track or do we want to invest more into our family?
Do we want to make that decision on really looking outside to find something else to do? And that's kind of when we went full-time as well into the business. And yeah, as for you listening, Stacy is one of our coaches inside of Flipper University. We absolutely love her. Tomas, that's who he's talking about.
So yeah, it's awesome that you knew Stacy and you got, and she got you plugged in, so we're super excited. Yeah. It's so, so exciting to watch your growth. Yeah. Absolutely. Through Flipper University and just, you know, with your, your sales career and, and taking this over. So yeah. Thank you so much.
Right.
Melissa: And so, absolutely. Are you, you dove into this, are you right now still part-time and this is supplementing your income right now?
Tomas: Yes. So what we did, we started really slow. We wanted our business to grow organically. So I stayed at, in my position for about a year. We did flipping for a year just to kind of feel it out and kind of see what kind of income we could make. As of about four months ago, I was able to step out of my salary management position, usually about 50 to 60 hours per week down to an hourly position, which is 40 hours, more consistent. Monday through Friday I'm working. And flipping is supplementing that income.
The difference from what I was making as a salary manager to now as an hourly manager, I actually enjoy what I'm doing. I'm having fun at work. I, I'm able to make plans. I'm not having to work crazy hours. So it's, it's definitely been, been a very good thing for my family.
Rob: I love it.
Melissa: I love that too because I, I relate to like the management position.
I had a management position at one of my jobs, and then when I moved to a new job, he, they wanted me, I guess, like I kind of, I'm a hard worker. Like I go towards that. Like I'm gonna do all the things and they gave me this option to be a manager and I was like, that's a lot more work. Like there is so much more responsibility than just getting in and doing your job.
And I mean, yeah, there are benefits, but if you can go there and not have the stress and you now enjoy what you're doing, I think that's so awesome. Like for sure.
Rob: Yeah. Even in yours, they didn't offer you that much more pay for the manager, so that was more of a.
Melissa: It's like, it's a lot more stress so you go no.
Tomas: Yeah, no thank, no, and that, that's exactly what it was. And it was me stepping out of there. Because I, I may, I may have been present at home, but I really wasn't present. There's always something on my mind. I'm getting calls in the middle of the night, text in the middle of the night, you know? So now while I'm here, I'm here, which is probably the best part, you know, and, and I can clock in, clock out, and leave it all at work.
Melissa: I love that. That's so, yeah, absolutely. That's so cool. It's not coming at you at all times a day. Yeah.
Rob: Yeah. Well, tell us a little bit more about, so what are you flipping right now? Like, what is your normal yeah, your normal items that you're flipping and, yeah, a little bit more about your, your specific business.
Tomas: Okay. So my business model, I'm, I'm only part of the business. My wife does all the hard work.
Rob: I love it.
Tomas: I get to do, I get to do the fun stuff. I go purchase stuff, I negotiate, I do the sales, the customer service. She does the majority of the shipping. So she calculates best way to ship all that good stuff, the hard work, I get to do the fun stuff. So I gotta give a shout out to my wife Tiffany. She's the brains behind the operation, for sure, but we flip everything, you know, we, anything from ink toner to cooktops from, we've done a lot of printers. I had a connection with a guy, that does like a computer repair shop and he hooked me up with a bunch of printers that they just replaced from a car dealership.
So stuff like that. There's nothing that is, out of our realm of flipping at this point, unless you get to that super big stuff. We haven't gotten into freight yet because our space here that we have, we're renting, well, we're here, we don't have a whole lot of space to store, so we haven't kind of gotten into that side of flipping yet, even though we're, we're getting pretty close to doing that. So that, that's really our business model. I've, I. Me and my wife both source. So she's always looking for stuff. Facebook, Marketplace, OfferUp, that kinda stuff. I'm the guy that reaches out to them and tries to make the deals. I take pictures, I list the stuff, and then she takes it from there.
She keeps track of all the books and all that stuff too.
Melissa: That's so great that you can work together too on that. That's a fun It is, it is a lot of fun to do together too. Like that's when, when I stopped training, I did that. I was on maternity leave. I'm like, well, let me just help you with the business cuz I didn't get paid maternity leave.
So that's, he helped you so you can sell some more stuff and it's, that's how we kind of started to work together. Yeah. I guess was the first time. Yeah. And it's so cool that you guys have that and you can do that. So, and you are doing different parts of it, which is really cool.
Rob: And I relate. My wife is the brains of the business as well.
She does everything on the back end that she doesn't get the credit for, but she isn't amazing at that as well. So that's really cool. So you did mention Facebook Marketplace. Are, are you only sourcing like on the apps or are you also doing flea markets, thrift stores, other stuff like that as well?
Tomas: Yeah, so I do everything. So, there's online auctions that I've been pretty successful with something called CT Bids where they have a lot of local online estate sales in our area, so you can go on there and you can bid on certain items. So we've got a couple really good plots there that we've solda lot of, a lot of items there.
I also have a thrift store right on my way home from work, which is a pretty awesome thrift store. And I've kind of, now that I have more of a consistent schedule at work. I'm stopping by there two or three times a week and just doing my little loop around, I, and I very rarely don't find anything profitable there.
So you know, Goodwill, that kind of stuff. We live in northern Arizona, but Phoenix is just an hour and a half drive away from us. So a lot of things in Phoenix also that we've had to make a drive for and pick up. But yeah, I really, there's nothing that I, that I won't do. I love it at this point.
Melissa: You found some things in Phoenix when we were there that were you like, oh, too bad we have to leave. No, that's awesome.
Rob: Yeah, Phoenix was cool over there. Somewhere over there and, snagged some stuff too, so that's really cool. So, but that is good. Yeah, a good point. You're, you are doing almost anything you can think of because a lot of people aren't even doing like online auctions.
And you're taking advantage of that. The apps, thrift stores, everything, and that's really, to be successful at this business, you have to be willing to go out. Find those different sources. So if you're only doing one maybe with Facebook Marketplace and you can't find stuff, you still have all these other resources that you're able to find stuff.
Tomas: Right, right. And it, it comes in different from different ways too. You know, some, some weeks we'll find some great stuff at thrift stores. I forgot to mention, my favorite is yard sales by far.
Rob: Love it.
Tomas: We, we have a ton of yard sales here. It's been pretty cold, but now they're starting to revamp the yard sale game around here.
And, we live in like a retirement community, so there's a lot of cool vintage stuff. There's always quality items we can find. I find that yard sales is a place where I can negotiate the best, you know? And, you know, people are just trying to get rid of stuff so, you know, I'm there to help them out.
Melissa: Yeah. Probably the best deals I think you can find at yard sales. I love yard sales too. You like the flea market a little bit more than yard sales, but I I, you just can find so much at yard sales.
Rob: Yeah. And the difference between, like you said at the yard, sales people are there, flea market, typically vendors are there making money, so they're trying to get the most they can see for an item.
Yard sale, people are getting rid of stuff that's in their house that they've stored. Yeah. And it's like, okay,
Melissa: they don't want to put it back in the house.
Rob: Exactly, I don't wanna take this in at the end of the day, what are you gonna give me for it? Take it. And that's, that is a really cool feature of yard sales. If, when you're thinking of the different types of sellers, yard sales typically are where you can find some really, really good deals.
For sure.
Tomas: Yeah, for sure.
Melissa: So what would you say on average, like you've, if you can know about like what you, how many hours are you doing, a week on in your business?
Tomas: Prob, probably total, we're doing maybe 15 to 20 hours a week. Okay. We, we tend to not really work much on Sundays. So it's really just a Monday through Saturday kind of thing.
And now that I have a more consistent schedule, we're kind of getting in a really good groove on when we're doing what. And, yeah, I wouldn't say more than 15, 20 hours a week and it's been great.
Melissa: Okay. Awesome. And are you comfortable sharing, like what around your monthly, sales are or?
Tomas: Oh yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely. So monthly sales on average are around $5,000. Okay, sweet. We're selling probably about couple, two to three items a day, so maybe about 60 to 75 items a month. And we're netting over $2,000 a month. Okay. That's in our, in our bank account. We're consistently doing that and we, we averaged it out over a year and I remember sitting down with Stacy and her husband and she was like, okay, so how much money are you trying to make? And I'm like, well, if I stepped outta my management position, I need to come up with about two grand of two grand a month, you know, to supplement that income. And we ended last year making $2,100 a month , which was exactly what we needed. It's just crazy how it worked out. And, and I'm loving it too. It's something that I can't wait to do. It doesn't even feel like work a lot of the times to me, you know, and it's just, it's been great. That $2,000 mark is only the beginning though, I feel like.
There, there's just a ton of opportunity there.
Rob: It is so exciting. First of all, that's legit. You are not spending crazy, crazy hours doing this. You're doing it with your wife who you absolutely love. Your face is lighting, we can see the joy in your face of what you're doing, so you can't hide that. You really absolutely cannot hide that.
So, that is so exciting. Congrats. You're doing amazing. And you're right. You, you haven't scratched the surface of what the possibility is. The, yeah, it's just amazing the better you get at this business, how really efficient you can do it and get better and better at it. So yeah. You're doing amazing, man.
That's awesome. Yeah.
Tomas: Thank you. Thank you.
Melissa: Over your time now doing this, you have some experience, so what would, do you have like a, a flop or some, a lesson that you learned along the way that was a mistake that you learned from that you could think of?
Tomas: Yeah. The one that comes to mind is I went out and bought a lot of like 10 light fixtures. You know, I looked up, I probably paid too much for them, but I bargained down, you know, and I, I, I show up at the house and they have the goodwill stickers on them so this was obviously a reseller that was trying to offload them on me, and me being the sucker that I was, I took them, I swooped them up, and we finally, that was probably about eight to 10 months ago, I finally sold one.
The other, these were brand new, brand new packaged, we finally sold one a couple weeks ago and we ship it out all, it was easy to buy cause it was already all there. We ship it out and the person gets it and some of the crystals on the chandelier are shattered, right? Oh no. So we're like, oh no, we didn't even look in here.
It's all sealed up. We thought it was brand new. So we ended up having a crack open, one of the other ones, pull out the crystals, send 'em to them. The buyer was happy, but just, it made me just really, realize that sometimes slow down because I see this number. I run a comp on one of the 10 different lamps or light fixtures and it was great. But now we're sitting on the product. I still have all of it, so sometimes I just need to pump the bricks. That is probably one of the lessons I've learned.
Rob: Such a good point. Yeah, absolutely. Slow down and I guarantee, yeah. When you go through these learning processes or these mistakes that you make, it makes you, you're pumping the brakes, you're also looking before you're shipping stuff out, making sure stuff's not broken.
Yes. And that's one of the things that you learn. That's the best part about making mistakes, is you do learn and you typically don't make the same mistake twice once you make one of those mistakes, which is great.
Tomas: For sure. And that's the, that's the thing about this business too. I mean, you can't have growth without your failures, you know?
And that's something that we've learned and that we continue to learn. And that, that's the cool thing about this business is you get to see so many different angles and you run into these scenarios where you're, you're not gonna make the same mistake twice, you know, and it, it just helps you grow. And it's helped me and my wife grow as, as a couple as well.
Now, before we box cooktops, we have the conversation of, okay, we're going to be kind to one another. We're gonna take our time and we're gonna do this right. We know what we're doing now. So we, at the beginning it was a little shaky, but now we've gotten to a really good place.
Rob: Yeah, that's a good point.
And I'll ask you about that too a little bit, because there are some people who will be listening or watching this. Melissa and I work together. It sounds like you and your wife work close together for at least, you know, 20 hours a week, 15 hours a week. Yeah. Was that a hard thing to really transition?
Yeah. Transition or even grow into knowing each other's strengths and working with each other through this business? Was that something that, you're still learning or is it one thing that you, you know how, I mean, just give us some pointers on how you guys did that and what really has worked out for you.
Tomas: Sure it was probably a lot harder for my wife than it was for me. But I mean, at the end of the day, I'm a really, like, I just wanna get things done. You know, I'm just an action guy. I want to go, go, go. And she's very methodical. She plans things out, which is probably the better way to do things. But yeah, we, we've grown so much as a couple because we do learn through this business and through the year and a half that we've been doing it, we've learned so much about each other and how to really just work together for the better good. You know what I mean? And, and to use each other's, I just recognize each other's flaws, but also use each other's, I don't know the word I'm looking for, but strengths, yeah, their strength. Exactly. And, and my strength is customer service. I've worked in retail for the last 12 years, you know, and, and I reach out to the buyers whenever there's an issue or I put the wording together.
That's my strength. You know, I'm, I'm a negotiator. She wouldn't dare ask for somebody to take anything off of an item where I'm, I'm asking crazy amounts, you know? And, but boxing, no way. Shipping and boxing. Like I would not take the time to calculate the type, like she's got a spreadsheet for all the boxes we use, the sizes, the boxes.
She knows exactly what she's doing. She does the research. I would not take the time to do that. So her strength is definitely, more methodical, thoughtful, and I'm more of just an action guy and we really work well together because you kind of need both to be successful in this business, you know?
Melissa: Yeah. For sure. Because if you didn't have like, people that take action, get stuff done, which is ama like amazing, you need that. You need that. Yeah. But then if you have, then you can sometimes like go too fast. And then you make a ton more mistakes. But then if you're methodical, then you don't make the main mistakes.
But sometimes if they don't have the action part, then they don't ever go anywhere. So the two together is like perfect.
Rob: It is. It's a match made in heaven, for sure. So relate.
Tomas: We're a great balance.
Rob: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I relate to that. We have social media stuff and we'll get posts from comments back from people.
And my first reaction, I'm not in, customer service. I'm like, all right, let's tell this person off. Let's get this person's got problems. And Melissa's like, yeah, hold, but punch the brakes, I'll take care of this one. You just go back and find some more stuff to buy. So it is really cool. It's one of those things that you work on each other's strengths.
She doesn't let me comment back to people because I would, you know.
Melissa: You give good customer service on eBay, you're just not on. Yeah.
Rob: Social media cause social media. Exactly, exactly. So, but it is. It's, it's cool. And you guys have been working for, you said, like a year and a half together, and I think you, you constantly are growing.
You're constantly doing that. I know, Melissa and I, it took us a couple years to get to the point where we realized what pushed each, pushed each other's buttons, how to stay away from it, didn't really compliment each other. And I, it sounds like you guys are, definitely down that road, which is really, really cool.
That's exciting for sure. Yeah, for sure.
Tomas: For sure.
Melissa: I know one of his things was like, I am more of the organized planner. A li not, I'm not a super planner, but I, I want to like, have all my checklists. Like, today we're gonna get this done and we're gonna do it. And he's like, I'm like, okay, what are you doing today?
And then I'm like, did you do that? Did you do that? Did you do that ? And he's like, I, you're not my manager. Like I don't have a boss for a reason. That's it. Yeah. So I'm like, okay.
Rob: So, but she's learned that she's learned how not to really interact with me that way. And she's learned how to do it the right way.
Or at least with my book. So she's not doing that and she doesn't feel like a boss to me. So I think that's really really cool.
Melissa: So we figured it out. Absolutely. Figured it out and, and you're more motivated and Yeah. It, it works. It works out. So it's fun.
Tomas: That's cool. That's awesome.
Melissa: Yeah. And we have a lot of fun. Would you say that you have a most memorable flip that you can think of?
Like, anything interesting?
Tomas: You know, I'm pretty, by the book, I mean, I, I took Flipper University, you know, and I, I'm in the Facebook group. So I mean, a lot of the things we get are recommendations from there, what we see other people doing. But one of the big things that stands out in my mind, probably the most memorable and meaningful for me. First of all, there's a JennAir cooktop and he had a double oven. Also, I, I wasn't doing freight, so I couldn't sell a double oven on, on eBay at this point.
So I was, contemplating going back and forth. I actually talked him down on just the cooktop and I sent him a message. I'm on my way over there, and he said, you know, how about I'll just give you the double oven for free, and this thing's huge. We have a Nissan Rogue , so I'm, I'm looking up the measurements on this thing, you know, I'm like, I have made fit, I don't know, but if it's free, I'm not turning down a free thing.
You know what I mean? Right. So I, I drive out about 45 minutes ago, pick it up, you know, we, me and this older gentleman, we squeeze in this. Huge cooktop and this huge double oven in my Nissan Rogue. I have the sh the seat pushed up to the steering wheel. I'm a six two guy. I'm driving all I drive all the way home.
So anyway, we get it there. I end up selling the double oven cooktop, making more than my money that I spent on the, I sold the double oven and then end up listing the cooktop on eBay. Cuz we know how to ship those. We know how to do that. And. I remember being at a hotel in Phoenix because I had to go do inventory for work, and now this is the, the shift that nobody wants to work.
I'm working until from like 9:00 PM to four in the morning. I'm at the hotel and I'm just really questioning life's decisions, right? At this point, I'm a manager in a different city and I'm, I'm running an inventory for for this other building, and at about 9:00 AM we get a notification in my hotel room that this cooktop sold for $2,400.
And that was just a moment for me, like, wow, this is definitely something that's possible. You know, I'm here and I'm, I'm miserable doing what I'm doing. You know, this is not fun. And you know, this other side of the business, my side hustle is, is now able to provide some real. Real money for my family, you know?
And that was kind of like the aha moment. Like, wow, maybe this could and that was probably about three, four or five months into us flipping. So that was, that was kind of the turning point. So that was one of the more memorable flips for me for sure.
Rob: That's awesome. That is exciting. Yeah. Nothing like that.
When you do that and it's a legit, I mean, that's serious money. That's awesome that you can make that kind of money. Yeah. On doing what we enjoy doing. So, yeah, that's, that's really cool.
Melissa: He's like, what am I doing here right now?
Rob: Yeah, for sure. I just made one flip that made as much as I needed to make for the whole month, and I'm sitting here in the middle of the night doing it.
Yeah, no, I get it. Yeah. Yeah, no, it's pretty cool.
Melissa: So what would you say give, like, if you were to give somebody, like if they're trying to start this business, and they're kind of like feeling like, ah, I don't know if I can do this. What is something like some encouragement that you might give or a tip that you might give to them getting started?
Tomas: Yeah, for sure. I would say definitely start slow. You know, the worst thing you can do is go out and spend a ton of money on shipping supplies, on items that you're not gonna make the ROI on. There are things for free everywhere. You know, I don't think we paid for shipping item, packaging boxes, bubble wrap.
Like we didn't pay for any of that until probably about four or five months in because we were just on the, the lookout for free items. And, that's something that can really hinder your business if you're, you're there dropping 20, 30 bucks every time you're buying a box when you're first getting started.
Now that we're a little more established, I'll go to U-Haul and buy a box, you know, if we need to. But growing organically and slowly for us, selling stuff around the house, smaller items, just to kind of get the feel for how the business runs was such a big deal for us being successful, you know, if we would've just started out big and not knowing what we were doing. It would've been a lot harder for us. And I'm very particularly like, I keep very good track of how much we're spending. My, my wife keeps all the records, so like, we know what we're spending and what we're profiting every month. So we, we really try to be aware on, on that. Like you always say, Rob, money is made on the buy.
So, you don't wanna go out spending a ton of money to make $20. You know, we, we wanna make sure we're very particular about what we're doing. Especially at first, you know, and if you wanna be successful in this business, start slow. Let it grow organically. Learn the ropes, you know, and then you can go from there.
Rob: I love it. Such great, great advice. Yeah, definitely put on the brakes, you know, and people hear about they, it's cool because you hear about, even like that flip, you had $2,400. People are so quick to get there and then you're gonna make a lot more mistakes. You know, knowing nothing about the business, trying to do a flip like that.
You're gonna make mistakes and shipping, you're gonna make all these different mistakes. Mistakes versus if you just really, really like Tomas is saying build the, the routine build you know, the, the, what am I trying to say? The, the process. Go through the process slow to where you really understand how the whole thing works, and then you go to the next level and you start doing more and more and more.
I think that's such great advice.
Tomas: Yeah, for sure, for sure.
Melissa: I think sometimes people do jump in a little too. I, I, we do love action like that is something, cuz there there's two sides of it. Like, you still wanna take action. You don't wanna just get stuck and be like, oh, I can't do it. But taking like more, that approach of just doing it, because sometimes people, I think they jump all in and they wanna make all this money, which is great, but then that's when you make mistakes and you're like, oh, this doesn't work. Or eBay's broken, or like, you know, all these things. You think that because maybe you just went in a little bit too fast. Yeah.
Rob: So and I will, I will add to like what you said, it hurts a lot more selling a $2,400 item that you don't really know what you're doing versus selling a $25 item that you make a couple mistakes.
It hurts your pocketbook a lot more on the $2,400 versus the $25 item, and once you really start to match their $25, $50, $100, $200 items, then you can go higher and higher and higher and you get really, really good at it. So that's a huge point. Absolutely.
Melissa: I love that you guys are, what you guys are doing in your business.
This is so fun. So, and I love you can see, like, I don't, if you're listening on the podcast, you can't see how excited he is about like, but when you talk about it, you're just like, you're so loving it. I love it. So I know love. I love it.
Rob: I love it. It's so cool. Yeah. So cool. All right, well Tomas, thank you so much.
We greatly appreciate your time that you come on here and, and tell us a little bit about your business. You've been very open with us and we greatly appreciate that. Thank you so much for doing this and spending some time with us today.
Tomas: Absolutely. Thank you guys so much. It was my pleasure.
Melissa: Yes, we know this is going to encourage a lot of people, so thank you. Absolutely.
Thank you so much.
Tomas: Yeah. Cool. Absolutely take care.