177: How to Invest in Real Estate with Liz Faircloth

LIZ FAIRCLOTH [00:00]

You can put your money into these real estate projects. Again, vet the operator, I can give you tips on that, but also get tax advantages because you own a piece of that property.

[MUSIC]

CAMILLE WALKER [00:17]

So, you want to make an impact. You're thinking about starting a business sharing your voice. How do women do it that handle motherhood, family, and still chase after those dreams? We'll listen each week as we dive into the stories of women who know. This is Call Me CEO.

[MUSIC]

Hey, everyone. Have you ever had interest in investing in real estate? Today, we're going to talk about how you can take the baby steps into the world of I have no idea if I want to invest into real estate into what are the steps I can take to be financially independent and buy some investment properties? What does that look like? Let's dive in.

[MUSIC]

Welcome back everyone to Call Me CEO. This is your host, Camille Walker. And as you know, we celebrate women building business, but we also celebrate women building wealth. And today, we are speaking with Liz Faircloth, who is the co-host of The Real Estate InvestHER and also co-owner of the business that she runs with Andresa Guidelli, which is all about helping women with real estate ownership, investment, how do I start, what are the first stages? And this is something I'm really passionate about. And I've never had a guest like this before on the show. So, I'm so excited that you are here with us today. Liz, thank you for being on the show.

LIZ [01:40]

Camille, thank you so much for having me super excited about sitting down and talking with you here today.

CAMILLE [01:45]

Yeah. There's already so much. I had to stop us a few times because there's so much to talk about. And first of all, I'd love to hear where you're from. Tell us a little bit about your family and how you got into real estate.

LIZ [01:58]

Sure. So, born and raised in New Jersey. So, if I talk fast, and people often say that I have a slight accent, but I'm a Jersey girl, although I'm a New York Mets fan. So, definitely identify more of a New Yorker than a Philadelphia fan, which is really important just to put out there as the most important fact to know about me. I'm not an Eagles fan.

But anyway, I was born and raised in a little town outside of Flemington, New Jersey, which is west part of the state. Long story short, I'm the youngest of three girls. My parents, all family's from New York, their generation, 100% Italian, grew up in a very hardworking family that valued money, but you work really hard.

My dad was a school teacher, my mom worked part-time. There was moments if it's free, take three. So, this frugality. And I don't want to say we were middle class, but it was always it's a big deal if we went out to dinner. And I'm really appreciative of the upbringing.

And I'm the youngest, so my sisters always said that I got more than they did. Very grateful for my parents, they really instilled a lot of hard work ethic and frugality in me. And so, that was always my foundation. And then, I went to school. Really long story short, I went to school for psychology. Went and got my master's degree in social work. I wanted to be a therapist. Mother Teresa's my idol. I just always wanted to serve and help people.

And along the way, I was getting my social work degree, I got up, my brother-in-law gave me this little purple book called Rich Dad, Poor Dad and said, "You have to read this." And I said, "I don't even know what this is." And he said, "Read it." I said, "Okay, if you tell me to." He was the only entrepreneur that I knew. So, he was the only person. I didn't even know what an entrepreneur was. And I didn't grow up around that. And he said, "Read this." I said, "Okay, I respect you, Tony." And I did and that forever shifted my thinking and approach to like, wow, talking about business and passive income and real estate investing.

And it talks in there about getting a sales position. If you really want to be an effective entrepreneur, you need to know how to sell. And I never even knew what that really was either. So, I'm like, you know what? Here I am getting my social work degree. Let me get into something where I'm selling. And so, I actually found a job, not in social work, not many people go get their master's degree in social work and do nothing with it. But I decided I wanted to get a sales position consulting.

And that really helped me I think in so many ways as I become an entrepreneur myself. And at the same time, I met my now husband, and him and I would get together, and we were in our 20s, and we'd be like, "How cool would it be to buy a property and create wealth for ourselves?" We didn't know anyone that was doing this. But we wanted a bigger life, and that seemed like a way to do that and creating this business and an investment portfolio and living life on our own terms.

And there's a lot of sexiness around it in a lot of ways, we just work and hanging out on the beach. That hasn't happened. No, I'm joking. But long story short, we bought our first duplex in 2004. My father actually loaned us the money. We didn't have it, and that led us into building a portfolio. With other investors, we own a couple of 1000 units now in four states, mostly larger multifamily, more value add in turning buildings around. So, been at this for about 17 years. And at the same time, met my now partner and Andresa, where we were doing deals together about eight years ago and decided to launch InvestHER.

CAMILLE [05:39]

A couple thousand, I was expecting maybe a couple hundred, a couple thousand. That's incredible. I have so many questions. So, starting back in 2004, you open up this first venture into buying a multi-unit, was it a condo, did you say?

LIZ [05:58]

It was like a row home. So, it was a little town outside of Philadelphia. At the time, I was working at the time. So, yeah, I had left grad school, I was in New Jersey. My then boyfriend was living in a town over. So, there's a lot of cute little towns outside of Philadelphia, but a lot of them have older row homes, very common type of property.

So, most people are like, "Why did you start with the duplex and not a single family?" It's really what was there because actually single family homes, it wasn't suburbia, it was like a little mini city. And so, it was a row home. I don't know, probably about 1500 square feet, very small. But it's a duplex. So, I had two units. And one was vacant, and one had a tenant in it, and that started the process for us.

CAMILLE [06:47]

That's awesome. Did you move into the vacant side, and then rent out the other and build it from there?

LIZ [06:51]

No, that would have been smart. That's a really common way that people do that, but we didn't do that. In hindsight, that would have been a good way to do it. But no, we ended up finding it on a foreign ad where one of the strategies, we went to a seminar, and then they said, "Call all the foreign ads." And this was a long time ago. This was before social media.

And so, we did, and we're looking at the newspaper, and so we called them. And the gentleman's like, "Yeah, I have one vacant spot." And that's hard. In a duplex, that's 50% of your revenue. And he was a part-time landlord, a lot of these folks that own these types of buildings, even now, they call them tired landlords, in a sense, they have a building or two, but it's like they're dealing with everything. It's a business, right? You're dealing with people, you're dealing with money, you're dealing with ups and downs, depending on the type of demographic you're in. So, he was frustrated. And he was like, "I want out, I'm done." And that's how we bought that property. And then, we got our start from there.

CAMILLE [07:51]

Okay. So, you're off to the races. And this is something, when did you discover both for you and your husband that this was the course that you wanted to take? And what were the baby steps that you took to get there?

LIZ [08:04]

Yeah. I think about the step of just delayed gratification, living below your means. We bought a property at the time. So, I had started working in this sales/consulting job. And my husband at the same time quit his job right when we were married. And then, that was 2005, we got married and had a couple of properties under our belt, started figuring out, how do we buy more and with other people's money and getting creative, always creative financing has been around us, that's just how, because we didn't have the money to buy the properties.

And so, at the time, we bought a place in New Jersey. We moved to New Jersey, lived there for about eight years, but we really figured out, okay, if we do nothing with real estate, because even if you have a few properties, it's not like it's making $1 million dollars a month. It's giving you some cash flow, but then you're reinvesting the money. So, it's a whole process, especially if you're beginning in this. So, we needed to make sure I was able to take care of the mortgage on what I was making.

And so, we really moved into a property, and I'm grateful for that. In hindsight, it's just a one simple choice we made, but I think about it, I'm like that really granted us the opportunity for us to really build something and not have to feel like you can't quit your job because we need to make the mortgage, but we never had that because we were in a smaller place. We waited and had kids eight years later.

So, it was always that kind of thing, but, yeah, that's one step we took, delayed gratification and living below our means to make it work. And we've been at this a long time. Our growth really happened on I always to call it the second half of our business. The first half was really figuring a lot out. I feel like we grew up within the business. When you're in your 20s and you're learning a lot about how to manage money, how to build a business, how to buy property, then 2008 happened, I quit my job. And then, that happened.

CAMILLE [09:57]

Right. I was going to say, what happened when 2008 happened? Because I was actually in the mortgage business in 2008. And that whole thing, that was when I totally shifted my career, too.

LIZ [10:09]

Yeah. At the time, we were more risk takers, me and my husband, we didn't have kids. And we had savings. And he said, "Why don't you just join me full-time?" We were at this for a few years. Most people do that when you've replaced your income with a side business income. That's like the logical, smart thing to do.

It's not what we did. We said, screw it, worst comes to worst, we have savings. If we really are betting, I'll go back to doing something else. So, I left the work that I was doing, and then the market crashed. And we had bought a building that was vacant. So, we had a vacant building that wasn't making us anything. I had just quit my job. Market crashed. It wasn't like a pretty time. And I'm like, I just left my job. They had a going away party for me. I was like, "See you."

So, we got really resourceful. When things happen, you get resourceful, and you figure it out. And so, we ended up taking this commercial building that we thought we'd have one tenant. We ended up breaking it up to small office space, before Regus, before WeWork, even though WeWork went under. But when shared space was really a newer thing. And we said people need this because we kept asking what was needed in the community we're in.

So, we turned that around. And then, we started to really turn pieces, turn everything around to focus on multifamily, because that's really where we're having our success. And we were diluted in other focuses. And I always say that was something I wish we did sooner is to really get focused. But I'm appreciative of the journey, but when you're all over the place, it's hard to get good at something. And I think you scale and you grow a business when you become really good at something. And it tends to be boring. It's like rinse and repeat almost. And I didn't know that at the time. But I know that now in my 40s.

CAMILLE [12:04]

Hey, I'm listening to that and thinking that could apply. In fact, I'm thinking that's a soundbite already right there. Because it is, it's when it gets boring and it's so common to you, but it doesn't mean it's common to someone else. Because I'm listening to this and going, how would you even start on the first one? That alone just feels really interesting to me. So, I think you're right, that applies to business in general is getting to the point where it's boring, and you're really good at it.

LIZ [12:32]

I love real estate for a lot of reasons because it's a tangible asset. It's something that you can do well. You're controlling it, so you can do well with it or not. And so, I always say we participate in the market, you can't control market. So, you do have to pick right, where you're going to buy. But market is always the most important thing. And then secondarily, it's like, okay, what type of property am I going to buy? And then, what's the strategy at which I'm going to deploy? Am I going to buy it? Am I going to use that short term, that that single family home and do a short-term rental, because I'm in a vacation kind of area, or am I just going to have a long-term tenant, what have you?

So, getting focused on those three buckets, market, asset class, and then strategy is really where it all begins. And I always say it always should align with your goals. We're not financial planners, but that's really how you should treat a real estate investing decision. It's the same thing that should be moving you towards your financial goals.

Somebody's like, "I'm just looking for some extra cash," okay, so what does that really mean? Is that like a short-term goal, a long-term goal? And then, let's work backwards because then you can really start to identify the type of properties you want to buy and what makes sense and how do you build a team and all those sorts of things?

CAMILLE [13:53]

You mentioned that you and your husband had found creative ways to come up with money. Can you expound on that? What does that mean? If someone's starting out and thinking, gosh, I don't have a lot of money to invest in my own right now? How could they do that?

LIZ [14:07]

Yeah. There's quite a bit, and my husband actually wrote a book on it called Raising Private Capital. So, it's like we never thought we'd write a book on it, or my husband wrote this, but that was the strategy that we did. And so, private capital, in a sense, is really how we grew our business. Now, in real estate, people understand that typically you go get a loan from a bank. That's traditional financing. Typically, depending on the market, you can do 5%. That's no longer happening, like 20% 25% Although, I've heard vacation rentals, you can even do something as low as 10%.

Just a quick tip about financing is that make sure you're talking to the right banks, meaning, I love the big banks, but a lot of them are not like this investment-friendly, investment property-oriented bank, you need to talk to banks that the majority of their lending is to investors, and there are a lot of them. So, I just want to make mention of that.

CAMILLE [15:09]

I know this is like non-promotional by any means, but can you mention top three, five that come to mind that you've had success with?

LIZ [15:18]

Yeah, I would say always small community banks, credit unions. Credit unions, small community banks, they're the ones that usually have more of an appetite for investment properties. I'd also say, there are companies that actually they're not like institutional banks, but they're called hard money lenders, meaning they're going to lend you money, and it's going to be probably at a higher percentage.

CAMILLE [15:42]

Yeah, the risk is higher. Yeah.

LIZ [15:44]

However, they're going to be able to allow you to do the deal, and especially if you have the experience, it's a great deal, then they help, and then they underwrite it. So, they'll tell you, "Yeah, this is something we lend on," or not. So, although, it's not like institutional money, and it's not 8% or 7%, wherever we are right now, it is something that a lot of people that are adding value, buying low enough, and they're going to sell high enough, it really works for them. It's the money that they use for that down money, and sometimes all of it, they lend on both construction in the traditional sense, but anyway, to digress.

But, yes, small community banks, credit unions are great. We did so much work with them. And that was really where we got our start, too. Where were we? Because now, I'm thinking about the banks and the banking industry.

CAMILLE [16:35]

Yeah, the creative ways to come up with money.

LIZ [16:36]

Creative financing. So, going back to that, one of our first creative financing was through our parents, they own their homes free and clear. Now, again, this is 2005. It is a little bit of a different time right now than then, little more like the Wild Wild West, and then the market crashed.

However, it's almost like a HELOC. And that's called a home equity line of credit, where you are, in essence, borrowing against the equity in your home. Pretty simple. And so, we did that through my parents. Both of their homes were free and clear. So, they allowed us to borrow against their homes. Now, you have to really trust somebody, you know what I mean?

CAMILLE [17:21]

Yes, you do.

LIZ [17:21]

And I'm so grateful those notes are totally done. We ended up buying a couple assets, a couple properties long term. That's not ideal for a line of credit. Line of credit is great, you use it, you put it back, use it, put it back, it's not really there for long-term assets. But we always paid the monthly and those notes are paid off, because we sold some buildings.

But, again, in hindsight, I'm very grateful for my parents, because they didn't need to do that, their free and clear home. That was our first creative way to finance some properties. I'd also say though, then we started getting a little more sophisticated in the sense of people have the traditional retirement accounts.

A lot of people have retirement accounts, 401(k)s. Most people don't realize that they can convert those 401(k)s when they leave the company, they leave the job, Intuit, it's called a self-directed IRA. So, it's in essence a tax savings account, it's an account that you use for retirement, but you direct it, not the company.

And so, if I have a self-directed IRA, there's tons of great ones out there. Quest is one we work with that I have an account, I can now lend that to you, Camille, because, Camille, you're saying, "I want to buy that single-family home, and I could probably make it work, but I need that 20% down money." Because that's the best part about real estate is a lot of its leverage, even if it's high interest rates, you can leverage, but you still need money in terms of the down payment, etc.

Now, if I live there, there are creative ways where some people can put as little as 3% or 5%, there's some really interesting products out there. But traditionally, we're at about 20%, 25%, even on an investment property. So, now I say to you, Camille, "I need 50 grand for that down money," and we work together. You lend me the 50 grand out of your IRA, and I take that 50 grand, it's a note. You're lending it to me, and you're not lending it to me for free. You say, "I want 10% of my money for a year until you refinance."

Now, there's a lot of pieces of this puzzle. It's not just as simple as lending money out and good luck. There's a lot of paperwork involved. I'm not an attorney. I'm not an accountant. We have done this tons of times where it's a win-win. People that have self-directed IRAs, they're in control, and they usually like real estate. So, they already have that appetite. Then, I'm on the other side, and I'm like, "Great. I need that. I need the money to invest, and it's a win-win." So, that's one way we really got our start where people were lending either their self-directed IRA account's money over, or they had cash that they lent to us.

The other way to do it is you can go into partnership. I find the property, and Camille, you say you have 50 grand, I don't have any money, great, but you and I have to have active roles together. You're going to look at the bookkeeping, meet with the contractor. I'm going to talk to Mary about whatever. We both have roles in the company. We start an LLC, 123 Main Street, we buy the property together. A lot of people are nervous about that, because you're starting a business with someone. You're literally partners.

So, that should not be taken lightly, especially real estate. Real estate's not a stock you can buy one day, sell the next day, it's a longer-term asset. It's more at stake, usually has more zeros, but we had success with that, with small investors.

And then, we got to the point where Camille would come to us and say, "I'm not going to be an active partner with you. But quite honestly, I got 50 grand or 100 grand, and I want to passively invest with you." And that's what's called a syndication, that's what's called you're filing with the SEC, and you're bringing in investors together to buy larger properties. And that's really where we've worked with accredited investors and those sort of things where they don't have a role. They literally just passively invest 25 to 100 grand or more into a big property.

Those are all the creative ways that we've done it where it's ownership equity or its lending. And they have different advantages. If you're listening to this like, you know what? I don't have a desire to buy a property, I don't care, I love my business, I'm building my business, you can put your money into these real estate projects. Again, vet the operator, I can give you tips on that. But also get tax advantages because you own a piece of that property. That's a big deal for people who have taxable income that they need to bring down. And that's always a favorable thing. Other people are like, "No, I just want to lend my money. I'll get it back in a year. And I'll keep recycling that. And I become almost like my own bank."

CAMILLE [22:12]

Yeah. So, the biggest question that came up, in my mind, and I'm guessing is coming up in other people's minds is, how do you find people that you can trust, as well as how do you find people that trust you?

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Hey, everyone, if you're listening to this episode right now, one of the questions I get all of the time is how I get everything done that I'm doing. I'm running a podcast, I have a blog, I have coaching clients, I have a course. And I have social media. And the answer to that question is, I have help. I have virtual assistants that help me keep the business going, as I'm running the chaos of home and business.

And I want to do the same for you. If you feel like you're drowning, let me help you, coach you through finding those steps so that you can be working for yourself in a way that feels productive and also fulfilling. You can have a free discovery call with me in the link in the description. I would love to talk with you and see if there's a way that I can help you to feel less overwhelmed and more in control of what your day-to-day looks like.

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LIZ [23:17]

Yeah. And we've had our share of when that doesn't happen. Even from the perspective of partners, contractors, we've had our share of tough situations, to be honest with you in the 17 years. I've been in court. You go through different things that are not pleasant, you lose money, it's not pleasant. And the name of the game, I think a lot is trust, but verify.

I think most people are either one or two people. I think there's one person out there, that's just too trusting. And they really need to trust but verify and move slower, and have more logical people around them to make sure they're not moving too fast. Then I think there's another person listening, usually not an entrepreneur, but they could be, and they tend to be more of a cautious person. And they don't make the decision until they're correct. But on the other hand, they may not trust anyone, and they may not do any deals. And sometimes you are a little bit of both.

And so, my husband and I were much more trusting to a fault. And I just saw the good in everyone, and I still do, but I don't know, I vet more, I'm a little more cautious. I'm a little more careful with who we do business with. The thing is longevity in this business, meaning I really wanted to be that passive investor and so many people can and still make the returns they want and get some great tax advantages. I need to make sure the operators are who they say they are, number one.

Number two, did they buy a property since COVID? I don't if I would do business with them, meaning they just got into the game. They just got into real estate. I like to see a track record of five to 10 years at least or more to know that this person has been in this a long time, they've seen the ups. They've seen the downs, they bought buildings, they've sold buildings, they have a resume. And there's a lot of people that are working with them, they have a lot at stake. That to me is a great way to vet.

CAMILLE [25:27]

The reputation that they've built, yeah.

LIZ [25:29]

Correct. Social media is interesting because everyone would think usually the people that have the biggest followings are the people that you want to lend your money to, and they're usually really good at selling and outward stuff. But do they have a good operator? Do they have somebody that's managing the property?

I think real estate is all about the management of the property. It's not about following of it. It's just not. Especially now, you're managing timeline, you're managing budget, that can make or break your project, especially if you're doing a renovation or a project, which is really where the value is added. But I think there's always ways to vet, and you have to be slower in the beginning, and then start to build on that trust. But there's no recipe.

CAMILLE [26:21]

No, it's risk. I think with entrepreneurship, it does tend to lean towards people who are a little more trusting or going to risk.

LIZ [26:32]

Risk-taking.

CAMILLE [26:32]

Yeah, not as risk averse. But one thing I would like to know, specifically with getting started with your properties and then management of those properties, because that can be a really big job, how do you suggest that people do that when they're just getting started and maybe they have another thing, but real estate isn't their full-time job? And then, I also on top of that am wondering, do you think everyone who wants to invest in real estate should get their own real estate license?

LIZ [27:04]

Sure. So, the first one is an interesting one because managing a property is like you're literally fulfilling on the customer, you're taking care, it's just similar to any sort of business. Your tenant or resident or whatever is your customer. So, whether it's one person in a long-term situation where you rent to a family in a single-family property, we've had those, or it's a multifamily, and you have two tenants, or you're renting to the nurse in XYZ city. And you're doing a mix, call it a mid-term rental, where it's short-term leases, 30-day plus, because they've cycles, and then they're going on to another hospital. Very, very popular strategy right now.

You need to know your customer, number one. And then, you need to have a lot of support around apps and treating it like a business. I think that's the biggest thing. There's a free property management software that we work within our community. It's called Innago, I-N-N-A-G-O. I wish this thing was around when we started. I was doing the bookkeeping, I was cleaning the units, my husband was doing X, Y, and Z. We were very hands-on.

And I think there's something of value to that, but this was our full-time thing. But if I had a job and I'm growing a business, I need to. when I look at a property, put a 10% expense line for a property management company. Because whether I do the property management or whether I outsource the property management, I need to analyze the property with that line item. Because if you don't do that, you will be beholden to manage, we had to manage a lot of our properties, because we didn't have the money to pay it. You don't want to be in that position. So, I'm always a big fan of always putting a line item. I think you do better than 10%. But I think that's a little high, just being conservative.

And there's a lot of property managers that would take a part of that. And then, if you're running it with a bunch of apps and automations, a lot of that can be set up. So much that can be done now, especially when I think about when we started, but you don't know what you don't know. You don't know what you don't know. Short-term rental, you're in the concierge business. It's not like set it and forget it. You're serving people coming in, coming out, coming in, and there's a whole lot of people that know a ton about that. It's not my specialty. But you're serving people through, and I know people who do that by themselves, they manage it with a bunch of different apps. And they have their cleaning crew, and they figured it out.

CAMILLE [29:45]

By that, you mean like Airbnb and those types of things?

LIZ [29:49]

Yeah, exactly. So, the biggest thing is to say, what are my financial goals, and what type of property and strategy will get me there? I'm not someone who's into the hospitality. If I bought a vacation rental or short-term rental, which we are looking for one, I will outsource that. It is just not my jam. I just don't want to get messages about linens and experiences. It's just not my thing. I'd rather have someone help me do that wherein I'd figure out, and there's a lot of furnishing sites or look where you can get a lot of support, a lot of help.

CAMILLE [30:29]

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. With real estate, it's always the sooner, the better, if that's a path that you're hoping to do with time and growth and all of the things. But is there a first baby step that you suggest to people that you help that are wanting to start and maybe don't know what those first few steps are? I know that you talked about the three, identifying the type and the money and the asset, what you want to use it for. But are there any other first steps as far as what you would suggest as well?

LIZ [31:04]

I would. I never knew how important this was until we need to get a handle on it. And I'd say financial management, meaning I was talking with someone and you're asking them, "Do you know what your even household income is and your household expenses?"

And there's so many apps right now, Mint.com. We've just moved over to QuickBooks because I just really want to get as very specific where our investments, it's like a snapshot for us. And I feel like if you can't figure that out, you don't have a pulse on that. I think it's really hard to buy an investment property, because you're going to need to have it on the investment property.

I know women who own property, and they do not know what their income and their expenses are of those properties. They don't know if they're making money or losing money. That's a problem. And I don't mean to be mean, and not a problem, it's a detriment to them. But we want to help and say, okay, because it's really hard when it comes to money. Some people are like, "I'd rather not look at it," but it's something, that relationship to money is the core of real estate investing. So, that is something that I think people could be doing now. What is my relationship with money? Is there a scarcity?

Think about what we've all learned. I grew up in a family, if it's free, take as much as you can. And I'm grateful for that. And I'd say though, I've also started to value that things do cost money, there's an investment, and there's a cost. And I always thought it was just cost, get the cheapest thing. That affected my business where we got the cheapest contractor, and guess what? If you get the cheapest contractor, it's going to cost you more at the end anyway.

CAMILLE [32:53]

That's true.

LIZ [32:53]

So, I feel like my relationship to money, had I had a healthier one when we started, I think we would have financially done much better with the properties we were buying and that we are holding. So, as we grown in our relationship to money, our portfolio and our business has also grown. But it wasn't always like that. So, I think that's definitely a baby step.

And if you're like, I don't have a property, you have a household, an apartment, a place you live, and there's money coming in, there's money going out. So, start to get a handle on that. Start to get a handle on your credit score. Start to get a handle on those things, your business. And then, you're making sure the house is running well, then you could start looking at, okay, I'm going to go add another property to this.

CAMILLE [33:42]

That makes a lot of sense. So, for the second question, do you think should you get your own? I have a couple of brothers who are real estate agents. And it definitely takes time, but it doesn't seem like it takes forever. I thought, maybe I should get my own. What are your thoughts on that?

LIZ [34:03]

Yeah. And we have a team, if you're familiar with eXp where women are real estate agents, and they join our team to grow their investments. So, I'm a big fan of being an agent and being an investor, because I think the two of them together could work for certain people.

However, I will say being an agent, even an active agent, you have to sell a certain amount of properties. That's a business. That's a whole other business. It's a very active business. But it's like anything, it's like someone's like, "I'm going to go flip this property, so I can buy a rental." Okay, hold on, hold on, hold on. Flipping a property is a business in and of itself. And it is different than buying a rental.

CAMILLE [34:48]

It's a hard business, too. It's a lot of work.

LIZ [34:51]

It's hard to flip properties. It is. I always say if you're going to choose, rentals are forgiving, because you're owning them over a certain amount of time. Flips are not forgiving. You could lose your you know what in a property, or do well. So, I just say all that because I think if you want to invest in real estate and really do that, I want to buy that property, the best thing you could do is start to say, okay, what am I great at? What do I have access to? Then how do I build? How do I find that agent that can help me find on market deals? And then, how do I find properties that no one else knows about? Okay, what does that look like?

And so, you want to almost be the orchestrator, in my opinion, versus it's like saying, I'm going to fix the house, too. Now, there are people who do live in flips, very interesting. They fix as they go, Godspeed.

CAMILLE [35:45]

I know it's a lot of work.

LIZ [35:47]

It's a lot of work. There's no way I can renovate. My husband and I are actually not that handy. We've never done a ton of hands-on renovations. You learn things along the way, just because you're around it. But you don't want me fixing anything unless it's tile like a tile floor, I'm pretty good at that.

But I think it's like focus on your core. And I think the idea of outsourcing and delegating, but I don't know if it costs more in the end. I think it doesn't, because it costs you more of time and energy. Now, you're trying to sell property, buy a property. I don't know, unless that's your dream. And you're like, I hate what I'm doing. I hate this business. I want to be an agent and also be an investor. Okay, cool. That's a percent of people. I don't know if that's everybody, though.

CAMILLE [36:36]

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I like that response. One question I wanted to ask you specifically about moving forward with investment, I know you teach about this a lot is confidence in financial wealth for women. And I think that that is so powerful and so needed in confidence building for financial independence. Can you tell us a little bit about that with your community and how you help to build? How do you actually help women build that confidence? What does that look like?

LIZ [37:04]

Yeah. No, it's something, it started when my partner and I were going to these events, and we're partnered on projects, we were flipping deals together. So, we're active real estate deals, we started out as good friends, it led into that. And we go to all these conferences, and we'd always be the only women there. And then, even worse, we got really mad because we never saw a woman keynoting the conference. She was always on this random panel that was random. We're like, why is she on a panel? Why isn't she speaking keynoting?

And we wanted more representation for women and investing. So, that was the impetus of our community. And then, we learned along the way that more and more women are getting more wealth, currently $10 trillion of just money in the US economy. And that's going to $30 trillion in the next three to five years. So, it's for a variety of reasons, spouses dying, wealth transfers happening, there's a lot of reasons for that.

But regardless, women are going to have more and more money at their disposal. Yet, their confidence is at 29% when it comes to investing. Traditionally and statistically, that is outsourced to a spouse, if they're in a traditional relationship, or to someone else. They're not in control of the investing decisions.

And that's where we're shifting, we want that 29% to go to 99%. Because when women do invest, they outperform men. They actually make phenomenal investors, because they tend to be a little more conservative. They tend to be a little more calculated in their risk taking, they make the right calls. They're just not making the right calls enough.

So, the way we help women build confidence is that ultimately, we're all in charge of our own confidence. Yet, what's lacking out there, there's so much information, you can literally Google, how do I flip a property? You'll get all the information you want, quite honestly. Information is not what's needed. That's not lacking. I don't think knowledge is even lacking. It's the community.

So, you can tap a community and don't feel like you have to figure it all out yourself. So, that's what we're really existing for is to create a community, whether it's a local meetup, whether it's our conference, whether it's just going on our free Facebook community and saying, "Listen, I loved your podcast. I want to buy a short-term rental. I'm looking at this market. What do you all think?"

Because it shifts, women when they do it together, anything, magic happens. There was a Wall Street Journal article last summer, and the title of it said women owned the economy this summer. Why was that? Women in drones were going to see Barbie, they're going to see Beyonce. They're going to see Taylor Swift. They were doing it in groups, and they call it the woman multiplier effect. So, that's happening. That's occurring.

You go to a Mud Run, Women's Mud Run. Every woman there is with eight women. They got t-shirts on. They do it all in. That's what women do. So, we're just trying to take that energy, put it into investing. It doesn't mean you and I need to go buy a property together, which we could, but it means that we're going to support each other. It means that I'm dealing with a contractor, I have a community to tap. So, I don't have to make these decisions myself. That's really what we're providing is a safe space for women.

CAMILLE [40:28]

I love it. This has been absolutely wonderful. I've learned a lot. I'm sure everyone listening is feeling the same way. Please tell us more about where they can find you and also a little bit more about this conference that you're hosting.

LIZ [40:41]

Sure. So, our website's are our hub, www.therealestateinvesther.com. And I'd say the easiest way to get connected is to join our Facebook community, it's free. It's really a safe space for women, or join a meetup, that's also free. There's 50 of them across the country. But those are two simple ways to get connected to us. And then, we're doing free events every month. We do them by Zoom. And, yeah, we have our conference once a year, and this one's June 2nd to 4th. It's going to be at a beautiful Omni Resort in Austin, Texas.

CAMILLE [41:20]

I love Austin.

LIZ [41:21]

Yeah, we have 30 speakers coming. It feels like a big retreat. That's what we're really focused on, all women, but these are women looking to get things done. They have fun. We do a fun end of the event party where everyone's going to be wearing white. But women are there to get things done and make things happen. And I love the energy just because it's like women are there to like, "Okay, I just left my family for two and a half days. Let me get the most out of this."

CAMILLE [41:53]

Yes. I love that. In all the time that I have created online business in 12-plus years, when women get together in our conferences, magic happens. And a lot of times, it isn't necessarily the class that you're in, but it's the conversations that happen in between classes or after classes or those connections that changed your life. So, I absolutely believe in that.

LIZ [42:15]

Hanging out by the pool.

CAMILLE [42:17]

Yeah, sorry. I wanted to ask you the question that I'm asking everyone this year is what are you reading, watching, or listening to? You can name one for each or just your favorite.

LIZ [42:31]

Yeah, I'm reading an interesting book. You could read the tactical but how you are with yourself, your journey with yourself is I think the key to growing any business. Because if you don't have that in check, it doesn't matter what strategy you learn, what tactic you learn.

So, the book I'm reading right now is called Love Yourself Like Your Life Depends On It. Very simple book. Honestly, he could have wrapped it up in probably less than six hours. Definitely listen to it on 1.5 on the Audible, but it's so simple, but sometimes we second guess ourselves or second guess our decisions or we want to move here, want to do this, but we're just unsure of ourselves, even entrepreneurs.

Loving yourself, I think, and I thought I did love myself, but I'm like there's a journey, and I'm really getting a lot from it. And it walks you through simple things you could do every day in your meditations or to get yourself centered in your own confidence with just yourself, let alone making an investment decision or to do something different because that really builds and makes us like, no, I'm going to do this. I'll figure it out. That's okay. It's like that confidence piece. So, that's what I would say I'm listening to.

When I go to the gym, and I'm by myself, what's the show I'm watching? Virgin River. I'm watching Virgin River right now.

CAMILLE [43:57]

Yeah, that's a sweet one.

LIZ [43:59]

But by myself because my husband's like, "I refuse to watch that show."

CAMILLE [44:02]

Yeah, mine too.

LIZ [44:04]

And then, yeah, listening and reading are probably my two things. The other book I'm reading and really enjoying is 10x, what is it called? I don't know where it is now. I'm reading it with our book club called 10x by Dan Sullivan. It's like 10x Is Easier Than 2X. He's written a bunch like Gap and the Gain, those sorts of books. But, yeah, I'm enjoying that where you can really leverage your core strengths and get rid of the rest and how do you do that to 10x your business, your life, etc. So, that's the other one I'm reading.

CAMILLE [44:37]

I like that. Very good. This has been so helpful. And, of course, we're going to link to all of these resources below. Thank you so much for your time and for this mission to help women with investing and confidence in finances. I feel like that is so important. And if we can't be financially independent, and we have that doubt, it's hard to propel women to the level of equality that we need to be, to be at the front of the room instead of in a random classroom being a part of a panel. You know what I mean?

LIZ [45:00]

Women are amazing. They really are. And I've just become so honored. I love working with them. And I love seeing them achieve because they're just the rockstars in and of itself. And we're just trying to create the space to help them become their rockstar self.

CAMILLE [45:29]

Love it. Awesome.

LIZ [45:30]

Thank you so much

CAMILLE [45:31]

Thank you. Of course. And everyone, thank you for listening. Remember that you need to subscribe to see each and every episode that pops up every week so that you can celebrate women like Liz who are changing the world. Any share that you do, any review is also very helpful. I appreciate you, and I will see you next time.

[MUSIC]

Thank you so much for listening to this episode. If you found it helpful, any share is so helpful. Also, if you are listening to this and want to be a guest on Call Me CEO, you can go to my website, www.camilewalker.co, and apply to be on the show. I would love to share your story.

[MUSIC]

Hey, CEOs, thank you so much for spending your time with me. If you found this episode inspiring or helpful, please let me know in a comment in a 5-star review. You could have the chance of being a featured review on an upcoming episode. Continue the conversation on Instagram @callmeceopodcast. And remember, you are the boss!

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