How to Start a Couch Flipping Business with $0⏐Ep. #249

Tim MacLeod (0:00)

If you can carry in a stubborn load of groceries, you can make 10 grand a month from prepping couches. Anybody who hates their job gets the dopest gig. The only way that I could stay afloat was just slamming 16-hour doubles, and I was just headed towards a mental health crisis. So in my first half month, I made more in my evenings after full-time work than I did in my nursing job. 2023, I did 183k, and that was with a three-year-old in Intel.

Chris Koerner (0:25)

Wow.

Tim MacLeod (0:25)

It doesn't feel like work. Lots of days off during the week. A $200 purchase for a $5,200 sale.

Chris Koerner (0:32)

Whoa.

Tim MacLeod (0:33)

I don't put pants on for less than $1,000. The time freedom is stupid.

Chris Koerner (0:37)

Yeah.

Tim MacLeod (0:38)

It's awesome.

Chris Koerner (0:41)

So the other day, I'm swiping Instagram as I do, and I come across this guy called the full-time flipper. What does he do? He flips couches in rural Canada on Facebook Marketplace. He makes six figures a year working part-time, golfing a ton. He's got kids, his wife works, and he just buys couches and sells them. Or he gets couches for free and gets paid to take them to the dump, or he sells the free couches. His name's Tim, and what he's doing could be replicated in any market, large or small. If you like Shannon's episodes or the appliance rental stuff or the garage shelving stuff, you are going to love this. Tim is a ball of energy and he shares everything. He holds nothing back. All the tactics are in here. Please enjoy. Well, Tim, why don't you tell us who you are and what you do?

Tim MacLeod (1:25)

My name is Tim McLeod. I flip couches. I used to be a nurse. That was fun, but just not enough money. I kind of put myself in a hole with adulthood, got married really young. We had one kid and that was good. And then another kid on the way and my wife was kind of at her limit. The only way that I could stay afloat on this little financial treadmill I got myself pinched on was just slamming 16-hour doubles. And I was just headed towards like a mental health crisis. So I needed something extra. Overtime needed to be replaced desperately. But all my options for replacing the income sucked. Like I could relocate or commute an hour away and make danger pay in like a mental health asylum. With my current nursing certificate, going back to school sucked. Like I scraped through the first time. The thought of going back was brittle. I just needed to replace the overtime. I didn't want to overhaul everything. I just wanted to replace the overtime. I just needed something extra to take the edge off. And I had some success flipping phones and iPads because that's all I really understood.

Chris Koerner (2:20)

I've done that.

Tim MacLeod (2:21)

These are worth 450 Down the city, there were 300 bucks because it's saturated with inventory. It was kind of like a just geographical arbitrage, bring them up to the stakes where there was no supply and they moved way better. And my in-laws were in the city. So it was easy. Go for a free meal, grab my phones, come back. And every single one was like a nursing paycheck because after taxes was like 180 for a nursing paycheck. So a couple phones would take the edge off.

And then I had this terrible experience selling a couch because so many people wanted it, but everybody is like, could you drop it off? I'll pay your asking price, but could you bring it by? I was like, no, we got a little Mazda file. I can't. I was like, I can't help you. I'm so sorry. And then finally, I hit a deadline. And my best option was some guy who was under asking price because he had to go get a U-Haul. He's like, could you do this? I got to rent a thing. I was like, yeah, sure. And so who got paid? U-Haul got paid. It's like, hold on, if I had a truck, I could have done that. I'd lost 200 bucks for not owning a truck, it was the dilemma. And so I pitched the idea to my brother Ross, who's a business owner. And the idea at first was an excuse to justify buying a Ford Ranger because I thought it would make me feel like a man.

Chris Koerner (3:35)

And that's a pretty small truck as far as trucks go. Small for a couch, right?

Tim MacLeod (3:40)