Jordan Samuel Fleming sits down with Tim Street of Foolproof FSBO to talk about a side of real estate investing that too many people overlook: the disposition process.

Tim breaks down why fix-and-flippers and buy-and-hold investors should consider taking a more active role in selling their properties instead of automatically handing the deal to an agent and giving up tens of thousands in commissions and fees. They cover how today’s tougher market demands sharper pricing, stronger presentation, and better execution, plus practical strategies like pre-listing inspections, transparent “show your math” pricing, story-driven listings, and creating buyer urgency through exclusive showings and neighborhood-driven marketing.

If you want to tighten your numbers, protect your profits, and sell faster in a more competitive market, this episode delivers a clear blueprint for leveling up your dispo game.

About Tim Street

Tim Street was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, where growing up in a working-class family shaped his focus on practicality, systems, and self-reliance. At 17, he enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he developed a lifelong respect for execution and practical application over theory.

After his service, Tim became a Federal Air Marshal before transitioning into startups, sales, and real estate marketing technology. He went on to co-found and scale multiple businesses in sales and real estate tech, gaining deep exposure to how listings are marketed, distributed, and converted online.

To fully understand the transaction side, Tim became a licensed real estate agent and quickly emerged as a fierce competitor to the old guard, consistently selling homes faster and above list price by leveraging pricing strategy and buyer psychology rather than traditional agent tactics.

Seeing how repeatable—and teachable—the process actually was, Tim ultimately stepped away from commissions and founded FoolProof FSBO. Today, he focuses on helping homeowners and investors understand the systems behind residential real estate sales, with an emphasis on technology, leverage, and retaining more control and equity in the transaction.

Important Links

Watch & Listen

• FSBO Readiness Quiz – Find out if selling yourself is right for you 👉 https://foolprooffsbo.com/quiz
• 7-Day FSBO Launch Blueprint (Free eBook) 👉 https://foolprooffsbo.com/ebook
• Investor Power Pack 👉 https://foolprooffsbo.com/investors
• smrtPhone – The only phone system built for real estate investors (5,000 free minutes)
• ThatRealEstateTechGuy.com – All episodes and exclusive tech discounts

I can tell you one thing: technology is the single most important aspect of every business that has successfully scaled.

It’s time for That Real Estate Tech Guy, your weekly chance to explore how technology can help your real estate business explode. Each week, you’ll hear from real estate investors who have been there and done that, and you’ll learn their favorite technology tips.

Listen in as Jordan speaks with tech companies, explores new tools, and uncovers ideas that will help you scale your business.

Welcome to this week’s episode of That Real Estate Tech Guy. I’m your host, Jordan Samuel Fleming, Chairman of smrtPhone.

This week’s episode is a little different. Usually, we’re talking to investors or technology companies, and we’re often focused on the acquisitions side of the business.

Today, I’m joined by Tim Street from Foolproof FSBO (that’s “For Sale By Owner”). Tim has a powerful perspective on why investors, especially fix-and-flippers, should consider handling the Realtor side of the sale themselves, instead of automatically handing it off and losing a big chunk of profit.

Tim has a full blueprint for how to do it, and this conversation lines up perfectly with several disposition-focused discussions I’ve been having recently.

One of Tim’s biggest points is simple: in this market, you have to make your property stand out. It’s not enough to throw it on the market and assume you’ll get top dollar. You have to work for it. Tim breaks down practical, step-by-step strategies that can seriously improve your disposition process.

There are also links in the description to resources Tim is giving away, including materials that walk through his system. I definitely recommend you check those out.

Alright, let’s get into it.

Tim, welcome to the podcast. Introduce yourself and tell the audience what you do.

Thanks for having me, Jordan. My name is Tim Street. A lot of people in real estate know me as “the FSBO guy,” because I focus on helping homeowners and investors sell without leaving unnecessary money on the table.

I’m both a homeowner advocate and an investor advocate. I help people treat their home like the asset it is and make smarter, more informed decisions when they decide to sell, so they can retain as much equity as possible.

So give me a snapshot of who you typically help. Who’s most likely to be in this situation, and what are the most common ways you work with people?

The interesting thing is, I’m an investor too. That’s actually why I got my real estate license. I got tired of working with agents who didn’t have the business or negotiation experience I had from years in the startup world.

When I got into this, one idea hit me early: leverage.

Whether you’re in startups, real estate, or anything else, leverage is everything. And it was a shock to realize you don’t have to own something to control it. You just need a controlling interest.

Real estate is one of the best examples of that. Every dollar I save on a sale is leveraged, sometimes by a factor of 10 or 100. So saving $1,000 to $3,000 on a transaction can translate into $10,000 to $300,000 of purchasing power on the next deal, depending on how you’re financing and scaling.

That’s why I love understanding how homes are actually sold, what truly moves the needle, and how to make sure every dollar you save turns into real leverage for the next project.

For a typical investor journey, most people are either wholesaling, flipping, or holding. How does what you teach apply across those main exit strategies?

For wholesaling, you’re usually assigning the contract, so this is less relevant. Where this becomes powerful is for flippers and buy-and-hold investors when they’re ready to liquidate or potentially 1031 exchange into something else.

The people who get the most value from working with me tend to be hands-on investors. Not someone with a billion-dollar portfolio, but people like me.

I’ve got a small portfolio of short-term rentals here in Brevard County. I’ve got a team, and I don’t love getting my hands dirty, but sometimes I’m the person resetting the internet, or snaking a drain line, because the plumber is unavailable.

And I’ve seen investors spend weekends rehabbing bathrooms, doing all the hard work, then turn around and hand their sale to an agent who takes $30,000 for a job the investor is completely capable of doing. They just don’t realize it.

And honestly, that’s partly on us as an industry. Real estate has spent billions convincing homeowners and investors that selling their own home is too complicated or too legally risky. But that’s not true.

Investors are often 10 steps ahead of the average agent when it comes to understanding the market. They’re close to the numbers. They’re paying attention. They’re informed.

That makes a ton of sense. And disposition is usually the toughest part. So what are the biggest things people think they can’t do when it comes to selling themselves?

The biggest fear points are mispricing and missing the market. People fear either leaving money on the table or pricing too high and getting no interest.

In a market like this, pricing too high is far more dangerous than pricing too low. You really can’t underprice a good property because the market will respond. Underpricing often creates emotional competition and bidding, and it can push the final price higher.

The next fear is the legal side. That’s a rational concern, because there are definitely FSBO cases in real estate court.

But the reason most of those cases exist comes down to disclosure paperwork. People miss the bigger point: when someone hires an agent, the agent isn’t doing title searches or practicing law.

The agent hires the same people you can hire. Title companies. Closing attorneys. Inspectors. Professionals who do this every day.

A lot of agents are really project managers. Good ones will position a home well and sell it fast, but the structure of the transaction is something investors can absolutely learn and run.

I’m a Marine. I go crabbing for fun. I’m not a genius. If I can do it, you can do it.

And in many cases, investors can do it better, because they’re the subject matter expert on that property. They know what’s great about it, and they can represent it with confidence.

That hits home. Because when I think about it, agents aren’t legal experts. They have a license. That’s really the big separator.

And I’ve always felt the real estate investment community over-focuses on acquisitions and lead gen and under-focuses on disposition, even though that’s where the money is made.

And with the market changing, it feels like the “sloppy” years are over. People used to get away with mistakes on flips because everything sold. Now, there isn’t that wiggle room.

Exactly. A tougher market strips out the mediocrity. It forces your acquisition strategy, your money strategy, and your exit strategy to be sharper.

And here’s the double-edged sword: if you survived the cut, you’re now competing only with other A-players.

So it’s not about being perfect. It’s about identifying gaps in your system and optimizing them.

One of the biggest gaps I see is liquidation. People throw money out the window without realizing it. They hand it to an agent and never learn what’s actually on that closing statement.

But when you work directly with a title company or closing attorney, you get visibility and you can push back.

“What is this miscellaneous fee?”
“Why is this here?”

Even $300 or $400 matters. Because as an investor, that becomes leverage for your next deal.

Before we go back to the episode, I want to make sure you know smrtPhone, the only phone system built for real estate investors, connects with best-in-class real estate investing CRMs.

And because it’s my show and I’m the co-founder and Chairman of smrtPhone, I’ve got some great deals for you.

Click the link to take advantage of 5,000 minutes of free calling with smrtPhone, the only phone system built for real estate investors.

Click and call. Close more leads.

Now, back to the show.

So if someone wants to get started selling on their own, what are the basics? What’s the first step?

First, you need to understand the process. It’s a blueprint.

I put together resources on my website, including a seven-day launch plan that walks you through getting your home on the market in seven days.

And I also created an Investor Power Pack specifically for investors, focused on what matters most when you’re selling an investment property.

But here’s what I really want investors to hear: in this market, you’re selling against A-players. That’s all that’s left. So you have to be different and better.

The old standards aren’t enough anymore.

If the closet doors don’t close smoothly, buyers notice.
If they have to yank a door to open it, they notice.

So here’s one of my favorite plays: get a pre-listing inspection.

Hire an inspector and tell them to walk through the home like they’re representing a buyer. Have them list everything that’s wrong.

Then fix everything that’s handyman-level or below. No questions asked.

Next, factor “end of life” items into pricing. If the roof or AC is old but working, that’s condition and pricing, not panic.

Third category is code and safety issues. Fix them. You don’t want to sell an unsafe home.

Then here’s the ninja move: have the inspector come back and re-inspect. Often they’ll do it for free.

When buyers show up, you tell them:
“I’m not dumb enough to think you’re dumb enough to think this house is perfect. Here’s what was wrong, here’s what we fixed, here’s what remains, and here’s how we priced it.”

You take the teeth out of the negotiation before it even starts. Buyers stop wondering what’s hidden and start trusting the deal.

That’s so aligned with what I just heard from Daniel from Investorbase last week. You’re competing for attention. You’ve got to stand out. Professional photos matter. The listing description matters. The presentation matters.

Exactly. Great photos, a compelling description, and pricing that creates momentum.

I even built a custom ChatGPT called the Hemingway Listing GPT. You put in your home details, and it writes a description like a story, because generic listing copy is invisible.

Instead of “3 bed, 2 bath on cul-de-sac,” you’re painting a picture of life in the home. That creates emotion.

I love that. And you mentioned another tactic earlier, the invite-only open house?

Yes. It’s called the invite-only open house for neighbors.

Two days before the home goes live, host a neighbors-only open house. Wine, snacks, casual vibe.

The homeowner knocks on doors and says:
“Hey, I’m moving for a job opportunity. You’ve lived here longer than I have. Would you come by and tell me what I should do to make this home better?”

You flatter them, and now they’re invested.

And more importantly, who cares more about who moves into the neighborhood than the neighbors? They become your boots-on-the-ground salesforce with thousands of connections your MLS post will never reach.

That’s genius.

And then you combine exclusivity with urgency. Limited showing windows. Clear deadlines. Create a real event around the home.

That’s how we got homes under contract quickly, often within the first week.

Alright, Tim, let’s wrap up with the best way people can connect with you and learn more.

The best first step is to take my quiz. It takes about two minutes and helps you determine if anything about you or your situation would make FSBO a bad fit.

If FSBO isn’t right, I also have a nationwide network of agents where I’ve pre-negotiated reduced commission, so you still save money either way.

And honestly, I put a ton of content out for free. If you can watch YouTube, you can learn this.

Tim, this has been a genuine pleasure. I love the myth-busting, the focus on disposition, and the practical tactics people can actually use.

For everyone listening, check the links in the description and show notes. And Tim, I’d love to have you inside the smrtPhone community at some point to share this directly.

Thanks again for coming on.

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