Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about one of their favorite tools for success in reselling.
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One Of Our Favorite And Secret Tools To Success!
Rob: What's up, pro flippers? On today's episode, we are talking about one of my favorite and secret tools to success in this flipping business.
Rob: Alright guys, so today we are gonna talk about one of our favorite tools in our arsenal of tools that we use for this flipping business.
Melissa: And the best part is it's a free tool.
Rob: Everybody loves free.
So do we. So what are we exactly talking about today? Well, before we talk about that, this business, we find some really, really cool deals. And sometimes those deals need to be cleaned. They need to be fixed. They might need, certain things done to them that that's why we're getting them for such a great deal.
And then we can do a little bit of work to it. Turn around and make some great money on it. So that is what we really are banking on with this flipping business. So.
Melissa: So what is that free tool? It is YouTube.
YouTube.
Rob: If you are not utilizing YouTube, which you probably are, but you might not be utilizing it like we are, so that is what we wanted to talk about today.
Melissa: We don't really use YouTube to be entertained, I wouldn't say. Like that's not, no, I don't go if I'm going to. Try to go mindlessly scroll or something. It's not going to YouTube. I go to YouTube to figure out a answer to a problem. How is what we typically do? If I wanted to scroll, I'll go on TikTok, but yeah, it's not really YouTube, but we do use YouTube a lot and you use it all the time when you're just tinkering around and trying to fix stuff.
And I think it, the, the best part about this is, I think people sometimes will see some of the stuff that you've either fixed up or cleaned up or whatever, and they're like, well, you know how to do all that stuff. And it's like, no, not really. I just looked on YouTube not trying to discredit you for what you can do.
I mean, you have the mind that you can yeah, figure it out, but you use the tool a lot, so.
Rob: Absolutely. And I think back to my childhood, when I was raised, my dad, he didn't have access to YouTube. I know this is before the internet.
Melissa: Could you imagine?
Rob: My dad still knew how to fix stuff and I don't even, like, I can't even imagine not being able to have that resource that I can go to because even stuff that I know how to do, or I can figure logically in my mind how the, how the, the, the unit works.
And I, I know how to take stuff apart. That's not the problem. But I still go for that resource. I still look to see if maybe there's something that I'm missing or maybe there's something that, they, somebody has a quicker way to do it or a quicker tool to do it if it takes a special tool. So I'm always on there looking.
So even right behind us, I mean, on the podcast you can't see it, but on video you can see there's a cooktop, a 45 inch cooktop right behind us. I made a video for that last night of changing out the igniters. It's a gas cooktop. Three of the igniters weren't working. And I, I could figure it out without YouTube.
Don't get me wrong. I totally could take it apart, take screws out now because you've done it a lot. I have. But I still go to YouTube and see what videos are on there that I can find to be able to use as a resource. So, if you're not using YouTube, you don't have to have crazy tools. You don't have to have crazy experience to be able to utilize the playbook, the playbook on how to do something.
So that's what we use it for. And I, I'm, I'm being a hundred percent honest, honest and transparent. Anything that I'm doing, I'm typically looking at a YouTube video before I actually tackle it just to get a better idea of the layout of what I'm gonna deal with. So, if you're not using YouTube, jump in there and use it.
Absolutely. It is an amazing free resource that you can. Really take advantage of in this business.
Melissa: Yeah. And, and I think it's also a great tool, like once you're really in the mode of taking action and then if you hit a problem, then you can go search that problem. So, and if you don't really know, like where you're starting from or you, you know, you can be overwhelmed with all this stuff, but once you're like really in the zone and you're going, okay, I, I hit this problem, let me go see how to solve this problem.
And you can, then you can go search and you can mutually find an answer. So, I even just recently we drive older cars. So just recently one of our cars died. Yeah. And now you gotta try to figure out on YouTube. Right. Absolutely. How to figure it out. So.
Rob: Absolutely. And I logically, like I said, I can plan stuff outta my head logically how to do it. But I still will jump in there and watch somebody else's video, of anything else that I might not have thought of or anything else to do. Yeah, I can totally see it. And for ours, it's a diesel truck. And what my issue is, the injectors, one of the injectors went bad on the diesel truck, so it's pouring too much gas into the engine.
It's hydro locking the engine so the engine won't turn over. So like I said, logically I can understand it, but that's from years and years of doing, mechanic work and doing stuff like that. My dad taught me when I was young as well, but it's also being able to do that. I still will jump on YouTube and see if there are any good resources, any good videos.
Of anybody giving tips or tricks about how to do stuff. And we feel like this is a free resource that you should be utilizing as well. Almost everything, and I'll give you more examples of like, we just pulled those tables outta the trash the other day. Oh yeah. They're teak top tables.
They're commercial tables. I probably will jump on and I, I probably won't. I, I, I'll take that back. I have done this before, is the best way to clean teak. You can look at the different types of chemicals that are out there and all you have to do is how to clean teak. Best way to clean teak, throw it in the search, which we've done now before.
Absolutely. You used to look it up. Exactly, but before I knew how to do it. If I wanted to know and if it was some other type of wood, mahogany or something else, I'll still jump on YouTube and say, okay, what's the best way to clean mahogany? Or what's the best way to clean this type of table and do it, and I'll do the resource.
I'll look up the resources before I actually tackle the thing, I'm trying to think of one more that I can throw in here. One of our other vehicles right now, Melissa told you we drive older vehicles. One of our other vehicles is stuck at my shop right now and I put a high torque starter in that vehicle and it tore apart my flywheel.
So the flywheel is what's on the back of the engine and it spins the engine with the starter to start the engine. Well, I got it over there and it didn't start, and I got up underneath it and looked, and I saw that the flywheel, the teeth are out of the flywheel. It, it like tore it out. So. I jumped on a YouTube and I'm like, okay, how to change a flywheel in a 1999 Chevy, Chevy Tahoe.
Chevy Tahoe, that's what we have is a 1999 Chevy Tahoe. And I jumped on and I saw videos of these people doing this and kind of giving, and to be honest, the, the engine has to come apart from the transmission. So big, the two biggest components on components on the truck have to come apart. But I wanted to see if anybody had a quicker solution to actually do that and maybe a quicker tip to do that.
So I jump onto YouTube, I watch a couple videos, and I'm like, all right, well, I got a plan together. I know from what I know, and I know from what these guys are saying that have, have actually done it and created a video. I know I have a, a plan of action to actually take action and do it. So that is a, a great resource.
If you're not using it, we want to tell you it absolutely is a free resource and something that you should totally be thinking about. Anytime you get into a jam, anytime you can't figure out how to do something, jump on there and see who's actually done it.
Melissa: Yeah. And it, it's pretty cool to know, like you don't have to know everything about everything before you start taking action and doing stuff because somebody's already done it and you can go find the answer you need.
You just need to start moving forward. Yeah. And take action. So.
Rob: And you might even think right now you're like, Rob, you know how to do all this stuff, or you do this and you do that. Guys, I got a, a 20 year headstart on you by doing the stuff that's in YouTube by doing that kind of stuff. And once you do it one time, you're like, all right, I got this.
I, you know, I figured out how to clean teeth. Do I need to go watch another video? No. I know what the chemical, the best chemical out there. I know. You know, pressure washing, whatever you do, you find out what you can. And then for the next round, you have that in your arsenal of experience, you know what you can do.
You go onto the next one, and then you build the same library in your head of. Okay, I know how to do this. So that is really what it's about, is really learning and getting the experience in this business. And I got such a headstart on a lot of people on that, but I still use the resource. I still wanna find out if there's anything that I'm not thinking about or anything that I might encounter while I'm taking on a project like that.
Melissa: You didn't go to any kind of schooling for flipping. Get your master's degree in flipping. I remember, just real quick, the, when we went to go, you took something to boppy, to my grandpa, yeah, last November at Thanksgiving. And he had a it was a generator. It wasn't working or something. Yeah. And you printed him off the schematics And my grandpa thinks just different, way differently, yes, than you. You guys just are different thinkers.
Rob: He's educated like Ivy League educated and I'm not.
Melissa: He's an engineer and he just like processes things way different. He needed the schematics and he was trying to explain to you when we went to go pick back up the unit, how it worked.
And you're like, I cannot read this. I don't know. Show me what to do.
Rob: It's true. He was like telling me and he was getting frustrated with me because I have no idea how to read schematics, but he's explaining it like, are you an idiot? Why can't? And he's not saying that. No, but he's just getting frustrated.
And he was older in his nineties. It was super funny though. Yeah. But him doing that, and I'm like, okay, I see what you're saying right here. Come out and show it to me on the generator so I can do it. And he'd come out of the generator and he's like, yeah, you're right. I don't really see where this is.
And I'm like, thank you. I don't understand how this relates to that. So it's one of those things, I can't read this. So it's one of those things. And then you jump onto YouTube.
Melissa: But you don't have to know that. That's the thing. Like you don't have to have an engineer mind. You don't have to like you, you know, a basic understanding and be able to learn from other people and be open to learn different ways and different, different ways to do things.
So it's a great tool to use. We highly recommend it. You use it all the time. Yep. It's a free tool, which is great. So it's something that Yeah. You, but definitely better be utilizing.
Rob: Absolutely. The more you use it, the more you build that library in your mind of how to do stuff, how to fix stuff, how to repair stuff, how to do, whatever you need to do.
You just get better and better at it by using that tool. It's, it's kinda like school. You're learning a skillset and you can keep using it over and over in this business. So definitely if you're not using it, use YouTube for everything that you're doing. Go and see if there's any ticks or tips or tricks about whatever you're getting to repair.
Whatever you're getting ready to clean, just check it out first.
Melissa: Yep. And guys, thanks so much for taking the time to spend with us today. We super appreciate it and if you have any questions you wanna hear answered on the podcast, we'd love to get those answered for you. So just go to fleamarketflipper.com/question and submit your question and hopefully we could share it on the podcast.
You guys rock. Have an amazing day and we'll see you guys on the next episode.