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Is Real Estate Really Done Going Up? The Truth About Today’s Market with Tiffany High

If you’ve been paying attention to the media lately, you’ve probably heard one consistent message: “Real estate is slowing down… prices can’t keep rising… investors are in trouble… it’s safer to be in the stock market.”

But is that actually true?

On a recent episode of the Money Ripples Podcast, I sat down with someone who’s not just talking about real estate she’s living it every single day in one of the most underrated markets in the country. Tiffany High, founder of Results Driven REI, has built one of the most efficient flipping and wholesaling operations in the nation, right out of Ohio—specifically Columbus and Toledo.

And what she shared may surprise you.

Why Affordable Housing Is Still Winning in Today’s Market

One of the biggest takeaways from my conversation with Tiffany is that affordable housing markets are behaving very differently from the overheated coastal markets you hear about in the news.

While places like Austin, Dallas, Tampa, and much of California have seen dramatic swings, markets like
Columbus and Toledo are experiencing something completely different:

• Homes are still affordable

• Buyers are still active

• Investors from expensive states are pouring in

• And flipping and wholesaling still work if you know what you’re doing

Tiffany’s strategy focuses on the median home price in each zip code, not trophy homes or high-end flips. In places like Columbus, that median price can vary dramatically by school district, making it possible to buy and renovate livable homes that people can actually afford.

And in Toledo, fully rehabbed homes in the $150,000 to $185,000 range are still attracting bidding wars even with tenants in place.

Yes, tenant-occupied properties are receiving multiple offers.

If that doesn’t tell you the real estate market still has pockets of strength, nothing will.

The Journey Behind the Success (and the Breakdown No One Saw Coming)

A lot of people see successful investors and think they’ve had a smooth journey. Tiffany’s story proves otherwise.

She didn’t start out with deep pockets or a big network. She got into real estate after leaving a decade-long corporate career to move home and help her family. Her cousin showed her a flip where he was making $80,000, and she thought, “If you can do this, I can too.”

She maxed out a credit card to learn how to flip, hand wrote lists from courthouse records, and door knocked her way into 40 flips in year one.

But when she scaled too quickly, everything fell apart.

She put people in the wrong seats. The business controlled her. The stress escalated. Toxic team members drained the energy out of the entire organization. And she hit a breaking point that led to a suicide attempt and a week in a mental institute.

It was her father who refused to let her quit. He told her: “Now you know what not to do. And the world would suffer if you stopped.”

With that wake-up call, she rebuilt everything from the ground up.

How Tiffany Rebuilt: Real Business Infrastructure

Most real estate programs teach you how to do deals. Very few teach you how to build a business.

Tiffany hired a mentor from outside the real estate space someone who had scaled large sales floors and established real corporate infrastructure. In 90 days, she tore her company apart and rebuilt:

• Recruiting

• Onboarding

• Training systems

• Compensation structures

• Scorecards and KPIs

• Leadership development

• Real accountability

• And operational efficiency

The result? 300+ deals the next year, and a business that no longer owned her.

It’s a powerful reminder that doing deals makes you money but building a business creates freedom.

How She Analyzes Today’s Market (and Why It Still Works)

Tiffany and her team have become experts in reading micro-trends in affordable markets. Their approach includes:

• Pulling four layers of comps (active, contingent, closed, and off-market)

• Analyzing 90–120 days worth of DOM trends

• Evaluating micro-neighborhood pricing differences

• Avoiding areas where active inventory is stacking up

• Pricing at median values to attract the largest pool of buyers

This is why they can move fast. Before the market cooled, Tiffany’s team could buy, rehab, and sell a house in 60–70 days total. Even today, with longer DOM cycles, their 35–50 day listing window is still outperforming many national averages.

Speed reduces risk and Tiffany has mastered speed.

What About Passive Investors?

Most of my listeners aren’t active investors and Tiffany’s operation has something to offer you too.

Her company pays 12% annualized interest to private lenders, and she puts safeguards in place that many investors wish they had seen before making hard money loans:

• Personal guarantees

• Strong cash reserves

• Contractors who don’t get paid until the job is complete

• Transparent operations

• Open office days where lenders can watch everything live

• Conservative underwriting

• No draws paid out early

As someone who’s seen countless passive investors get burned by bad operators, I appreciate how much she focuses on protecting the lender first.

If you want hands-off returns with someone who has a proven system, this is the type of operator you want to evaluate.

Tiffany’s Ripple Effect: Building Leaders, Not Just Doing Deals

When I asked Tiffany about her ripple effect, she didn’t talk about money. She talked about people.

Her mission is to develop leaders inside her company who can replicate the impact she’s created so the work doesn’t rise and fall on her shoulders alone.

She teaches a simple, yet powerful belief: “You will only grow as big as your ability to lead people. Deals don’t create freedom people do.”

And she’s committed to passing her skill sets down so the next generation of leaders can multiply that ripple effect far beyond what she could do alone.

Final Thoughts: The Market Isn’t Dead It’s Changing

Yes, some markets are softening.

Yes, affordability is a crisis in many places.

Yes, interest rates changed the game.

But there are still markets like Columbus and Toledo where affordable housing is strong, buyers are active, and investors are profiting if they follow proven systems and run real numbers.

The market didn’t die.

The easy button died.

And that’s good news for real investors who know how to adapt.

If you want a deeper look into Tiffany’s strategies and her powerful story be sure to listen to the full episode of the Money Ripples Podcast.

And as always…

Don’t just take notes. Take action. That’s how you create your ripple effect.