My parents were in construction and bartending. No stranger to hard work, I followed in my father’s footsteps and got into construction right out of high school. Almost every summer, I spent my days with my dad, watching him remodel houses for homeowners.
At 18, I was framing houses for $200 a week. I quickly worked my way up the ranks, and by the time I was 21, I went out and started my own construction company.
At 25, I got my degree in Architectural Drafting & Design. At the age of 30, I started reading books about the stock market, real estate, etc. The book that changed my life was
Rich Dad Poor Dad. It was then that I changed my thought process. I decided that it was time to make a change in my life. I started focusing on reading real estate books and saving as much money as I could (which wasn’t much).
With only $200 to my name, I bought my first investment property in 2006. I bought four that first year. After that, I was off and running. I even bought my first house to live in. It was an auction house that I had bid on. It was a 4-bedroom, 2.5-bath home (2200 sq. ft.), and I paid $94,000 for it. Later, I sold it for $185,000.
This was around the time that the construction industry was drying up. I was rehabbing my own properties, and people liked my work so much that they asked if I would work on their properties. I decided to start a construction company that specialized in rehabbing houses for other investors.
I have now rehabbed over 800 houses in Northeast Florida.
I am now a state-certified contractor. My construction company was voted as the 5th-fastest growing company in 2012 and 7th in 2013. I continue flipping houses today as well as wholesaling, building a rental portfolio and helping others in their real estate transactions. I also teach classes and run my own boot camps as well for the local REIA clubs, where I was also on the executive board of directors and served as president in 2015.
- Cameron Gaskill, the “Real Deal” Rehabber