The Surprising Way Real Estate Became My Mission Field

I'm excited to introduce you to Jim Britts, a pastor-turned-real estate quick flipper who's living proof that tentmaking can transform both your ministry and your finances. Jim's journey from full-time pastor to successful real estate entrepreneur is exactly the kind of story that inspires our community.

We occasionally feature guest posts from tentmaking practitioners who are walking this path successfully, and Jim's story is one you need to hear. His transparency about the challenges, the faith required, and the unexpected ministry opportunities that emerged will encourage anyone considering their own tentmaking journey.

Over to Jim!

From Full-Time Pastor to Real Estate Success: My Tentmaking Journey

If you would have told me 6 years ago that I would make a living in real estate, I would have said you were crazy. First, I had been a full-time pastor for the past 20 years and was loving getting to lead the church God had called me to plant that was going really well and multiplying into multiple new plants. Second, I knew nothing about real estate.

Then God threw a grenade into my life. In our old house that we lived in for almost twenty years, there was a park behind it where God would from time to time invite me to listen to him in the middle of the night. Most of my walk with God is reading His Word and trying to obey, but these 2am spontaneous meetings with the Trinity have become a couple-times-a-year part of my relationship with God. That night He said in that voice that is almost audible: "Jim, I love the story of your church, but you've missed the whole point of what I called you to. I called you to make disciples that make disciples...and you're not." I'm not going to dive here into my ministry journey except to say that among so many other transitions, it also led me to seriously consider tentmaking for the first time in my life.

A significant mentor in my life, Chris Galanos, invited me on a personal Zoom call to hear what he was doing in terms of tentmaking, and that's the first time I ever heard about quick flipping. Parts of it sounded exciting and parts sounded way outside of my gift mix. So I reached out to a friend who has very complementary gifts and abilities (we are radically different) and shared what I learned with him, and he was immediately interested. I'm wired to connect with just about anyone, and my business partner James is good at everything else.

So in December of 2019, we went through a quick flipping training and both invested $10k each to start our business, Freedom Fast Solutions. We wrote out a plan that would enable us to run the business for a year, and if we didn't make any money, we likely wouldn't go back to our wives asking for more. We both had other jobs (mine was leading our church) and set out to be very part-time at quick flipping. We made SMS texting our primary marketing strategy and focused on just our local area of North County San Diego so we could meet as many people face-to-face as possible.

We got our first contract 4 months later in a 55+ community, but three days before our investor showing, the first COVID lockdown was announced. NOBODY was coming to a showing, but by God's grace the owner extended our time and we were able to make $10,000 on our first deal. Later in the fall, we had our second deal of $34,000, which enabled us to pay ourselves back the initial investment, have finances for another year, and pay ourselves a whopping $500 each for a whole year of work.

Chris had told me that the secret to the business was to not give up when it's going slow, and we've found that to be so true. The next year we tripled our earnings on 5 deals, and in year 3, I took the huge step of faith and came off payroll at our church plant. I've continued to work part-time hours in quick flipping, and now in year 6, every year has been our best year ever, including this one that is only half over.

We've seen the slow decline of texting and so have added cold calling, handwritten postcards, and Pay Per Leads. We had read up early that San Diego was one of the most difficult and competitive markets to do this in the country, but even here we continue to grow. We hired another pastor as our full-time Leads Manager over a year ago and have a texter who lives in the Philippines.

We also discovered Novations early on, which has been our most successful option in closing deals. (If you don't know what that is, I'd strongly recommend that you do.)

The biggest surprise was how much ministry and real estate investing overlap. My partner and I still meet on the phone most days of the week to pray for the people we have met in our business. Our leads manager has as a last question, "How can our team pray for you?" It's opened up doors to share Bible stories with them and on several occasions help them start discovery Bible Studies with their friends and family. People willing to sell their houses at a discounted price usually have some stresses and struggles in their life and are deeply in need of a pastor. I do way more shepherding as a quick flipper than I do as a pastor! 😊

We've also found the simple value of being as honest as we can has actually made us stand out from much of the competition. We tell people we won't buy their house if we can't convince ourselves that we are a good option for what they are going through. That's meant walking away from potential deals in order to help people make more money. Long story short, if I could make a great living doing a tentmaking business that leaves most of my time still open for ministry, I'm pretty sure you could too.

Thanks so much, Jim! Your story perfectly illustrates what we've been talking about in our recent newsletters about Kingdom Investors and overcoming the guilt around making money in ministry.

Key Lessons from Jim's Journey:

1. God's Timing Isn't Always Our Timing - Jim was thriving in traditional ministry when God redirected his path. Sometimes our tentmaking calling comes through unexpected circumstances.

2. Partnership Multiplies Impact - Jim recognized his limitations and found a complementary business partner. You don't have to do this alone.

3. Start Small, Think Long-Term - They invested what they could afford to lose and planned for a year-long test. Sustainable tentmaking isn't about get-rich-quick schemes.

4. Ministry and Business Integrate Naturally - Jim discovered that real estate quick flipping opened more pastoral care opportunities than traditional ministry. Your business can become your mission field.

5. Integrity Sets You Apart - Being honest and putting people's needs first actually became their competitive advantage. Kingdom values work in the marketplace.

6. Persistence Pays Off - The secret Chris shared about not giving up during slow periods proved crucial. Most tentmaking ventures fail because people quit too early.

Jim's story shows that tentmaking isn't just about supplementing income - it's about discovering new avenues for ministry while building financial sustainability. His journey from knowing nothing about real estate to running a successful business while maintaining ministry focus is exactly what we'll be covering in our upcoming webinar.

Ready to discover your own tentmaking sweet spot? Join us for "The 5-Step Tentmaking Blueprint" where we'll help you find scalable models that actually work, just like Jim did.

Standing with you

Simon