Central Iowa REALTOR®, house hacker, and the person behind House Hack Jack. Licensed in Iowa since 2018.
I am a residential and investment specialist with the Flanders Team at RE/MAX Real Estate Center in Ames, and I work the Ankeny to Ames corridor and 30+ Central Iowa communities.
The short version: I grew up in West Des Moines, finished school at Iowa State, got licensed before I graduated, and bought my first house hack in Ames in 2020. My wife Kat and I have built a small portfolio the same way since, and I have been filming the whole thing on YouTube since 2021 - including the parts that went sideways.
That is not a marketing angle. It is the reason I am useful to the people I work with. When a first-time buyer asks whether the numbers on a duplex actually work, I am not reciting theory.
The Flanders Team runs on three words: proactive, relationship-driven, referable. In practice that means you hear from me before you have to chase me, I would rather give you an honest answer than an easy one, and I am building a business on referrals - which only works if the experience was actually good.
The team has completed 345+ transactions and $101M+ in volume since 2018, with 200+ 5-star team reviews across Zillow, Realtor.com, Google, and Facebook. Most of our business comes from repeat clients and referrals. You can read what past clients wrote, word for word, on the client reviews page.
I will also tell you when a house is not worth it, when a deal does not pencil out, and when the right move is to wait. That costs me a commission sometimes. It is the whole reason people come back.
House Hack Jack started because the information I needed at 22 did not exist in a form I trusted. Everything was either national advice that ignored Iowa, or a highlight reel with no numbers.
So I publish the actual numbers on my own properties - purchase price, rents, what the updates cost, what I got wrong. If you want to see whether this strategy works in Central Iowa specifically, that is the fastest way to find out.
Ankeny · Ames · Johnston · Huxley · Polk City · Altoona · Bondurant · Grimes · Urbandale · Waukee · West Des Moines · Gilbert · Pleasant Hill · Norwalk · Indianola · Adel · Madrid · Slater · Cambridge · Boone · and 30+ Central Iowa communities
Buying, selling, or just running numbers on something you saw. No pressure, and no obligation to do anything about it today. Agents referring a client into Central Iowa can start here.