Former Financial Analyst Sharon Riddle Shares Her Journey into Real Estate & the Power of Mentorship

Are you one of the many busy professionals working in offices day in and day out? Do you wonder how some people grow their wealth fast, retire early and play on work days? Well, you're in luck because Ginny Bolling hosts this show Pivots of Prosperity where she interviews people that can do just that play on work days. Many guests have become financially free. She also interviews people that are on their journey and people that are in support roles like attorneys, contractors, brain brokers and others. Commercial real estate is the common element. She is on a mission to be sure. Busy professionals know they can own substantial commercial properties too, like apartments, self storage facilities and others, and not have to do the work managing them. Passive investing is the key. Syndications are the typical method. Tax write offs are some of the biggest rewards. Ginny and partners find the deals, build a strong team and business plan, then offer the investment opportunities to passive investors. New episodes are released every Tuesday at 12, so watch for new releases. If you want to get involved, let us know. You need to get pre qualified to hear about most deals. See the show Notes for contact information.

Jenny Bolling here with Pivot to Prosperity, the podcast brought to you by Pivotal Real Estate Investments, where we help investors build wealth and income through commercial real estate that improves communities. And today we have Sharon Riddle here. Thank you for coming Sharon.

Well, I'm really happy to be here with you today Jenny. Great.

Well let me read your bio and then you can tell me what, as you listen, occurs to you that you'd like to add.

Okay? Okay.

All right. Over her career, Sharon Riddle has worked in companies, nonprofit organizations and government agencies. She's provided business solutions in the areas of software upgrades, business process analyses, and conducted best business practice research for over 30 years. Sharon began investing in single family real estate in 2005. With her business partner Dan. She took a leadership role managing all facets of the business including property analysis, acquisition, rehab, property management and resale. Sharon, with her business partner Dan started the transition to multifamily in 2015 with initial education and investing. Initial education Investing passively in 18 properties in the Texas, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio and El Paso areas. Oklahoma City as well Colorado, Aurora and Brighton and Jacksonville, Florida, Ohio Columbus, Ohio. I said that. Oh, the backwards way. Totaling 3507 units to date.

Woohoo.

That's a lot. She has served as a key principal, completed sale of all single family residential assets to become a lead sponsor in multifamily projects. She manages social media marketing for multifamily LLCs, joined the women's multifamily mastermind in 2019. She does personal mentoring for students and is a student of Brad Somerock since 2015 and multi millionaire multifamily mastermind since 2019. I think the next one is Dan's. And so Dan Riddle, your husband. Right.

Is your partner. Partner, yeah.

That's awesome. That's awesome. Well, thank you for coming. And so as I read that. What. What didn't it say that you want people to know today?

Well, one thing is the point where you and I have a connection and. And that is the mastermind that we both are in together. And that's race master with Hunter Thompson. Right. And that was, for me, that was 2023. Yeah.

And that's a great group. Lot of very active people. We get connections to a lot of deals through knowing those people, meeting those people, taking the time and money and go meet in person, shake hands, hear them out. Building those connections is absolutely huge for those of us that are wanting to find the best deals to bring to our investors.

Right, Definitely is. I've made a lot of connections in a very short time period.

Yeah. Right. So why don't you tell us what you're working on today and what is on your dashboard most?

Well, what I am working on today is our team is really in the hunt and we are hunting for our. Our first GP deal. And we really want a hundred unit with some conservative underwriting. So we don't want a property that has too many items that we have to put a reserve on, that's boilers and chillers. And so we're wanting to keep it in that, really in that sweet spot. It's a target that a lot of people. It's been a target for many people now because of the consecutive interest rate hikes. But that really has been the place that we've wanted to be for launching our first GPTM to really perform for our investor base.

So let me reiterate what you're saying here too. I just said you had an interest in 3507 units. And, and that's all through LP work is what you're saying. Right.

One KP and the others are LP.

Right. And. And that when you say KP, for the listeners that are not familiar with this, this lingo, you were the key partner then. Right.

You were key principal. So I was on. Yeah, we were on the loan.

You were on the loan. Exactly. So you've gone from being a conservative, observant of many different deals, many operating styles, many things.

Correct.

And then you jumped into the fire Right.

We're heavy, we're hot and heavy in our underwriting for sure. And so doing the tours, making all of that happen. And you know, I, I'm, I'm the woman who's in this mix, so it's a very interesting place to be in. Yeah, all of us are very data driven. Very, very much into, into the numbers. And I'm the one who just really kind of picks up some things on those tours or before. It's like all the pieces aren't just adding up. So that's, that's a very interesting place to be and really utilizing my, my voice as, as a woman. Yeah. In a collection. We've, we've. You and I have been in so many rooms where there, there are not as many women as there are men. And so we really have to be very succinct and kind of amp. Amp up a little bit when we're having our conversations because we can, we can talk a little bit differently than men, but we can pick up on some things that sometimes the men don't pick up on.

Absolutely. And you know, it occurs to me too when I look back at your bio, we just talked before we started recording. You were a business analyst and you've done a lot of financial analysis before getting into this world. Why don't you talk a little about that too?

Sure. Well, I was a financial analyst for a privately held company. One point in time, Sally Beauty, and that was before Ulta really was on the scene. And, and as the CEO of Sally Beauty would say, trying to take away our market share of the woman's purse. So that's how Mr. Renzulli kind of looked at the world. So we really pulled together monthly reports and year end reports of a lot of analysis, a lot of budget preparation and a lot of cross skills are very useful really either as a general partner moving forward and certainly as an LP or kp because I was the one always reading the monthly reports between me and my W2 job in aerospace. But reading through a monthly report is not a really big deal for me because I'd read through so many financial documents actually I had created so many budget documents or so many slide presentation regarding sales performance in retail on a store to store basis. So.

And that really, it's like a muscle that you're working and, and it's not for everybody. So that's, you need to add that to your bio.

But we, I've talked a little bit about some of that and Ray and I brought that up too because he was, he Was talking a little bit about that and then moving over really as a senior business analyst with Dallas Area Rapid Transit, I was, it was a transit authority. It's a transit authority, but a little different muscle because I was on a lot of projects that were really system based. I was working with web developers. We were going from a legacy system to a cloud based system. So really utilizing some things that I had really learned in my MBA as well in my system analysis and design class. So I totally get that work. And I'd been in a consulting company previously. I worked for Computer Science Corporation, so I really utilized a consultant headset, moving in house, working with executive management on projects. Some were the system project that we were doing, it was really a migration project, moving from legacy mainframe to cloud based system with different, with different suites. Everything that we had to do in each of the department areas.

So the real test in patience, isn't it?

Well, it was a real test in data too, because there was a lot of data testing going on, so. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's all great background.

It is.

But. So let's take that into today's market. We, we wanted to talk mainly about today's market and how those of us in data that love data are having to deal with today's market.

Well, in today's market, we are really having to take a close look at asset management and really tightening down, tightening down because there were so many successive interest rate hikes in such a short window, short time frame, it really affected what really made Dan and I a lot of money in the 2015, 2016, 2017 timeframe with the bridge loans. So made us a lot of money during that time. And nine of our properties have gone full cycle, so we've seen a lot of full cycle benefit. So that's been a good thing. But a lot, a lot of individuals, a lot of really fine operators getting caught in that squeeze. So they need to tighten up their asset management and they got to preserve cash. That, I mean, that is what. And for the passive investors in the middle of that, it's really distribution pauses.

Right?

Not, not a super scary thing for me because, you know, I've seen a little bit of that when I'd experienced a fire in the past. And you know, my first, one of my first early properties had a fire, so they turned that around, no problem, they got it back online. And I have a couple that have a fire right now. And one of those is kind of compounded because they do have a bridge, got a bridge loan. So preserving cash and they're also trying to work with the city inspectors to get the property fully online and, and utilizing the CAPEX budget and they're having to utilize some insurance money. So you've got inspectors, you've got insurance adjusters and you're trying to, to continue moving forward on the business plan. So a little challenging to be sure, right?

Definitely. And so when you talk about property management and asset management and whatnot, why don't you elaborate on why you consider that so critical? I share your thoughts, but yeah, I'm.

Sure you do because you're so data driven also. But I will say that it's just really, it's really critical to keep everything very, the operation very closely monitored, but also cash control, so that's the balance sheet too, but really making sure you can squeeze everything you can out of the operating budget while you're fully moving forward at a reasonable pace considering the environment on the capital expense budget too. So you've got two things you've got to do. You've got operating budget, keep things rolling in a good place and then also continue those improvements moving forward because that is what's going to really allow for the exit strategy, the successful exit strategy. Everything's got to get done that you, that you planned or if you're sliding on the schedule. I am seeing some of that going on because I read those monthly reports, some of the schedule slide, it's going to impact the exit strategy moving forward. Either you're going to have a longer hold or they're just some projects you're going to be policing. You know, especially if you did part of the raise for the capital expense budget outside of the loan, inside of the loan, you're going to have to make sure those items are taken care of because the lender is not going to allow anything else.

And so going deeper into something you said there, and it almost maybe sounds confusing that you said you've got to finish the plan to be able to exit the way it was intended because you're trying to drive up rents is the understanding typically, Right?

Well, not only just driving up the rents or, or at least having the rents perform to plan, having them perform to plan, but you're going to want appreciation on the back end. That's going to be part of that exit strategy equation. As far as a successful exit strategy for the business plan. And, and those are what, those are what the investors are buying into. They're buying into the business plan. That is what sold them in the beginning. If they're data driven investors like Dan Riddle and I, and yet at the.

Same time we were talking about pausing things because it may be because of the market. There's not enough payback to keep renovating right now. You need to do an analysis to see should I continue spending that cash or is there going to be enough. Will the market recognize those improvements yet?

Correct. And, and I've even it, you know, even way back in 2015. Dan and I have talked to a sponsor and some things were kind of sliding the schedule as far as some of the improvements. They had a pool that was kind of getting hung up with an inspector requiring to, to bring in a, A, a different filtration system than the, than the budget, than the operating plan and the business plan had required. Well, Dan and I had talked about, talk to the sponsor about reforecasting. Well, it's pretty common in aerospace. It's really pretty common in some of the environments that I've been in to reforecast. But I will tell you, in all of the properties that I've been on all those projects, I have never seen a reforecast today. Never seen one. I don't know, maybe you have, Jenny, but I haven't seen people take the time to do that.

I think that you have to understand that there's going to be course corrections whether it's a reforecast or whatever you want to call it. I think that you do have to understand that as the market changes, the general partnership team needs to be given some reign to be able to flex and turn. You might have to give concessions for a few months so that you can compete with that next door new project while they're leasing up and they're giving two, three months free rent. You're going to have to discount and things like that. Yeah, it's like you got to be able to change the business plan or else you're going to be done for faster than you have to be.

That's true. But I will tell you, even with, even in some of those monthly reports, I would really love general partners to go ahead and, and describe the bite the bullet things, you know, like concessions. These are some things that we're having to do and it is because of market conditions and just, you know, because that's a reasonable way to describe that. I mean I have described things in that way, you know, as an analyst. Yeah. On, on financials.

So it happens.

What's the problem? Just, just go ahead and say it, say it in, in a thoughtful and constructive way. But go ahead and describe some of the challenges in the Front and not at the end of a monthly report in the footnote. And maybe that's just my little pet peeve because I've been in the analyst world before, but that's just how I would even love the monthly reports to be constructed. If there's so many challenges that do exist in the, in the market and in the micro and macroeconomics.

Yeah. You need to have a team that's willing to be transparent and recognize what, what's their duck is a duck and all that and how they're going to handle it. You know, that's, that's to me a big part of the know like and trust equation. If you don't tell me about it when I'm first looking at the deal, then I'm probably pretty reluctant to get.

In that deal even with ongoing operations. I mean, it would be really kind of great to see a recommendation area.

Yeah, right.

I mean, I don't see monthly reports.

Well, listen, I know that we're tight on time. I want to ask you the big question.

Sure.

Is there a pivotal person or event that brought you to where you are today or that is pushing you towards where you're trying to go?

Well, there are several. And I will say one of the first pivotal people is Jimmy Reed. And Dan Riddle and I are sponsors of his meetup. And we knew Jimmy way back in 2006. That's how far back that relationship goes. So Jimmy Reed largest real estate investment meetup in Tarrant county. The oldest one in Tarrant county for Texas. So Jimmy Reed first, as you know, he was teaching wholesaling. Moving forward, I would say the person that connected me helped connect me with Alan Cowgill, because Alan Cowgill helped us. We went to a boot camp and learned how to work with private lenders. So it's kind of like syndication, but on a very micro level. So Ellen Cowgill. And then I would move forward to Brad Simrock, who almost spent a decade with Brad. It's hard to believe, but he taught us nuts and bolts of the multi family space. You know, all the metrics. I would not know metrics regarding multifamily if it had not been for Brad. And his dedicated teaching would not. And then moving forward, my expectations regarding Hunter Thompson. So Hunter Thompson is another pivotal person because I had a need to really strengthen capital raise and not be fearful. That's another thing. I want to be very confident in my capital raise and in talking to people about money and the opportunity that real estate brings to the table for them. I want to be able to do that.

Well, that is huge. It's, you know, it's really an opportunity for people. And, and it's so important to realize.

That.

You got to fix that in your head. Instead of asking people, you're not asking them for money, you're asking them if they want an opportunity and make, you're bringing it to them to, to make it possible. So yeah, that's, that's, it's a huge mind shift, but so good. Well, so you're nominating them as pivotal people.

They're. They're my pivotal people for sure.

All right, well, very good. So why don't you tell people how they can reach you?

Okay. They can go to my website, which is www. Excalibur. I'll spell it E X C A L I B R E Texas dot com. So Excalibur texas dot com. And I am, as Jenny knows, very social. So, you know, I am on Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook.

Fantastic. Okay. So yes, we will put that in the show notes and people can reach out to you and we will send you all the goodies too, when we are ready to air it so that you can also share with your people. I thank you so much for coming on today.

Well, thanks for having a real conversation with me. Just, I mean, let's just. We know we had this conversation where we were just talking about the landscape environment and what we would like to see. That's kind of aspirational too. Yeah, yeah. There's.

There's some rocky times we're going to have ahead of us. And I think that it's going to be really important that people that want data and that want real people find them and stick together. We need to stick together so that we can cross check. I mean, if you're looking at something in Jacksonville, that's two hours from me or in Orlando, I'm right here. And vice versa, I'm looking at things in Texas. So we need to stick together so we can help ensure that there's invest. We don't none of us want investors to lose money.

No, we don't. We want them to. We want them to prosper and to have some of the rewards that we have experienced over the years just by being dedicated, data driven and conscientious. Just kind of being numbered numbers nerds, you know? Yeah.

And just care and just care.

Care about people, care about what we're doing. Be and have integrity and be authentic. Right.

Excellent. Well, thank you again. You take care.

You do the same.