How Going Halfsies On A House In College Turned Into A Million Dollar Real Estate Business

High school friends Aria Khosravi and Alan Blue didn't have good grades or much money when they met, but that didn't stop them from building a seven-figure real estate flipping business together. 

Persistence Pays: Khosravi and Blue got the idea to buy their first house together while attending Colorado State University. Instead of paying rent every month, they figured they could save some money by purchasing a home and renting a couple of the rooms out to friends. 

According to a Business Insider report, they "weren't very good students" and "didn't come from rich families," but in 2004 they saved up enough cash to put a down payment on a $190,000 four-bedroom house.

Renting out two of the bedrooms and breaking even on the place was enough of a success for the duo to keep going. They bought a second property together in 2006 and then signed a one-year lease on a business location and turned it into a hookah bar. 

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They didn't make much money from those two locations either, but they kept pushing forward. After graduating college, Khosravi and Blue started focusing all of their time on real estate. 

After getting some advice from local investors, they decided to try their hand at house flipping. They bought a small house in 2009 for $95,000. They put about $35,000 into it and sold it for a profit of $20,000 pretty quickly.

"We were making $35,000 a year, if that, from the hookah lounge ... we couldn't believe it," Khosravi said. 

After completing their first flip in 2009, the pair started putting all of their time and effort into real estate. Khosravi and Blue have completed 91 flips and did 15 last year alone.

In addition, they own 16 rental units.

Before purchasing a property they run the numbers to determine if it's better to hold onto and rent or flip it for a quick profit. 

"The flipping business keeps the lights on and keeps money in the bank. The rentals are more long-term plays for us. They'll be the dessert that we'll eat 20 years from now," Khosravi said. 

The longtime friends and business partners made $1.2 million in gross profits in 2022. 

Read Next: 23-Year-Old Entrepreneur Profits $750K A Year Renting Out Properties He Doesn't Even Own

Photo: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.

This story is part of a series of features on the subject of success, Benzinga Inspire.