Arthur and Ruben watched their father, a Ukrainian immigrant, move from odd jobs into buying and selling cars. That was the lesson they cite: a paycheck was not the only path.

Arthur flipped cars as a teenager. Ruben printed t-shirts. The work they stayed with combined Arthur's real-estate side and Ruben's construction side. They sold Arthur's cars, started with about $50,000 and built one house.

They say they only meant to build five homes a year. The company they describe has finished more than 250 and handles land, construction and the sale. He puts the operation in the tens of millions, on the order of $84 million in the episode title's framing of the real-estate work.

Five houses was the plan

On Upflip they walk through the first house and the point when the goal of five a year stopped matching the jobs. The episode is about that gap.

The home count is theirs. The start was used cars, t-shirts and one build.