How She Built Her Diverse Portfolio Without Syndicating
28 Oct 2022 · 39 min
In this episode of The Real Estate Investor Show, hosts Liz and Andresa interview real‑estate investor Kimberly Marie about her journey from single‑family flips to a 60‑plus‑unit multifamily portfolio built without using syndication. Kimberly explains how she leveraged home‑equity lines of credit, cash‑out refinances, and 1031 exchanges to fund acquisitions, and how she deliberately shifted from labor‑intensive flipping to buy‑and‑hold for time‑freedom. She emphasizes the importance of regular "goals audits" and a personal "success criteria" mantra that aligns investments with lifestyle priorities. The conversation covers team building—partnering early with broker Cory Gardner, hiring assistants, an onsite manager, and using tools like Asana and Real Estate Lab to systematize operations. Kimberly shares concrete lessons from a costly historic‑rehab project, the value‑add underwriting process for small multifamily, and the mindset shift from hustle to strategic delegation. The episode also includes sponsor reads, a discussion of daily routines for financial freedom, and a rapid‑fire segment on transformational books, routines, and inspirational women.
Chapters
Welcome, ladies, to The Real Estate Investor Show, providing inspiration, strategies, and insight to empower women investors to live balanced and financially free lives. Now, here are your co-hosts, Liz and Andresa Guidelli.
So on today's episode, ladies, we have Kimberly Marie. She is an investor involved in single-family homes to multi-family homes to new development, and we get into a lot of her story of how she's been able to scale and grow. And something that she was able to leverage was moving through, you know, as she built her team, when it made sense to actually partner with these team members. And I think that's a helpful nugget you're gonna get from today's episode.
And as she grew her portfolio, she always did this audit. She audited her goals in order to make sure she was making a decision in terms of acquiring properties or offloading them.
Interest rates are sky high in 2023, and buying a rental property means you could get stuck with an 8, 9, or 10% mortgage rate. But what about a 2.99% rate with Rent to Retirement? Rent to Retirement has 2.99% seller financing available on turnkey properties. You heard that right. That's a seller-financed 2.99% interest rate with an average cash flow of over $900 per month. Plus, they've got options where you can put as little as 5% down with no PMI. As the nation's leading turnkey investment company, Rent to Retirement helps investors build headache-free, high cash flow rental portfolios. And since their properties are fully turnkey, newly built or renovated, leased and managed, anyone can invest. Even those who aren't into landlording. So what are you waiting for? This 2.99% rate deal won't last long. To learn more, visit renttoretirement.com. That's renttoretirement.com or text REI to 33777. Again, text REI to 33777.
You're trying to close on your next rental, so why is your insurance company dragging its feet? With long lead times and never-ending paper forms, it's no wonder it takes forever to finally get a policy. Modern investors deserve better. They deserve Steadily.com. At Steadily.com, you'll get fast, affordable landlord insurance available online 24/7 in just a few clicks. You can even get next-day coverage, which takes just minutes, by the way, to obtain, and you can do it all from your phone. Steadily was founded by landlords who created insurance products tailored to the unique needs of this industry. It's their sole focus, and that's why landlords nationwide consistently rate them 4.8 out of 5 stars. So whether you've got a single-family, short-term, or multifamily portfolio, Steadily.com can secure the best coverage at the best price to protect your properties. Discover how Steadily can save you both time and money on your rental property insurance. Visit Steadily.com for a commitment-free quote tailored to your needs today.
Welcome back, ladies.
This is Liz and this is Andresa.
Welcome back to The Real Estate Investor Show, where our mission is to empower women to live a financially free and balanced life. We like to say that week in and week out because that is what we stand for and what we hold everything that we do under the light of that mission, right, Andresa?
Indeed.
So just want to jump in here and introduce you to Kimberly Marie. Thank you for being on our show. We're gonna get into how she's been able to build her portfolio that includes all different types of niches without syndicating and without, you know, going down that path. And we'll talk about what syndicating is for those who don't know what we're talking about. So Kimberly, thanks for being on our show.
Yeah, thank you both for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity.
Yeah. Excited to get into your story here in a moment. We always like to get connected to all of you, share something that's coming up for us, because if it's coming up for us, chances are it's coming up for everyone listening as well. So Andresa, what's, what's happening for you? What do you got to share with us today?
Nothing.
Just, I don't know if I can believe that from you.
Nothing going on. So it's funny, right? And I, I don't know if that's me or anything that happens in my life. I'm always observing, like, What is the meaning of this? What is the lesson behind it? What is, why is this happening at this, this moment? So what I want to talk about is success criteria. And that came out of a conversation that I had with somebody that I hired to take care of my backyard.
You're like, what the hell? How did you get there?
Connect me the dots, please. So I called a company to take care of my yard. My yard has some lumps of the grass. And I want it to be flat so I can build a mini soccer field for my child. That's the goal. So I called this company. I never had grass in Philadelphia before. This is my first time having grass. I had no freaking idea. But this guy that I spoke over the phone was very enthusiastic. She asked me like, what are the times that, that worked for me? He sent a voice message the day prior confirming his arrival. He arrived on time and he was prepared. He had a little notebook with the plant, like the skeleton of my property and where things were, was very detailed, presented his knowledge about drainage and all different types of things. And then I had to freaking ask him, right? Like, how long have you been working for this company? And he's like, well, actually it's my company. I was like, I knew it.
I gotcha.
I knew it. I knew it. And I was like, all right, now I need to know what is your company? Why the hell you're here? Like, what the hell you're here? He's like, we have 85 trucks on the road and about 50 employees. And then I was like, now I really need to know why the hell you're here. And I'm very lucky to have you. Here, but I need to know why. It's like, because I can, because I choose to. I choose a couple of clients where I'm the one that goes there. And I don't really care if it's Saturday, Monday, Sunday, or whatever it is. I choose to do that. I don't have to. And we talked about entrepreneurship, but how much it gives us freedom, right? So for all of you ladies, this is why we do real estate. That's the bottom line. It's not to have a lot of doors under our belt. Out and say, yeah, here, take it. I have $53,000. It doesn't matter. It's about the freedom of time. So everything that you do, I want you to look and to create your success criteria. And no, I did not come up with that term. Came from Dan Sullivan, the book Who.
How.
If you haven't read it, please do. So when we look at your success criteria, don't just look at the number of doors as a result of that. right, of your success. I want you to also look at all the things that you do care about. Is it picking up your child from school, like me? No, or no. Or is it like having time to do gardening? Or is it whatever you, you call it, what that is. And all your actions and habits are going to be based on that. Does that fit? Do you live your success criteria? That is the bottom line. The success criteria is not something that you're looking to achieve like your goals. It's a mantra, it's a guide for you to live in your daily basis. So if you haven't done that, I highly encourage you to do it because all your question marks, should I be working on this? Should not we? Does it fit my success criteria? And the answer is no. You have no guilt because You know that that does not fit your success criteria.
It's a deep question, right? It's literally not gonna take 10 seconds. What's my success criteria? I mean, what you're saying is it's gonna take more thought. So highly encourage you, those are listening, do that the next 24 hours. Tag us on our Facebook community. That's why we created a Facebook community at the same time we created a podcast 4 years ago. We did those simultaneously for a reason.
On purpose.
On purpose to create a community not just provide a bunch of content. So make sure you ask yourself that question and look at your life, have a little quiet time. And that's what's gonna help you move the needle, not just the financial rewards of investing, right? So love that, Andresa. Great share. Can't wait to see the soccer field. So Kimberly, thank you again for being on our show. We'd like to start with this question. What lesson has taken you the longest to learn?
Ooh, that's a tough one. Lesson that's taken me longest to learn, I would say honestly, kind of what her story just was about having freedom. I've been in a huge growth mode this year at the beginning of this year, like to start hiring people and offloading different things. And it's been very challenging for me mentally because I've been going through this like, I could do this, it's going to be faster if I do it, but really my assistant should be doing this right now. But then I'm like, oh, I have to create these SOPs and I have to train her and this and this and this. I just need something done quickly. But then I'm like, no, Kimberly, like, this is for your assistant. It's like, you do it once, cry once, go through it once. And then from there, it's going to be paying me back infinitely in my time. So that is just really challenging because like you mentioned the book Who Not How, I read that about 3 months ago and it really challenged me to think like, oh, okay, like I really shouldn't be doing a lot of these mundane things and things that don't take a lot of skill because I should be doing my money-making activities every day in order to make my business continue to grow. So. I think that's been pretty challenging for me.
And I think that that's a revolution that is happening now, right? We're going from, oh, you need to have 10 years under your belt of working hard in order for you to earn the right to step out. And then we went through the other phase, like, oh, you don't need to work hard. You need to work smart. But still, you're working smart.
You're still doing it.
So now we're like, actually, nope. I actually don't need to do it and don't need to have this enormous amount of experience in order for me to grow my business, to step out, to get the support that I need in order to build it. So in a nutshell, Kimberly, share with us how your portfolio looks like. And at the beginning, when you got started, how did you transition? How did you pivot?
Yeah, so right now my portfolio is a mix of probably about 20 single families, which is what I bought in the beginning of my journey. But anything I purchase now is all multifamily, small multifamily. I just closed a 20-unit and then I have a 16-unit.
Thank you.
So usually like 30 units and under is what I've been purchasing. And yeah, pretty much the pivot of my journey was exactly again what you shared in the beginning of this episode was about time freedom because I started with flipping homes. And while I did really well monetarily, it, it was so much time and so much work that I, it wasn't jazzing me up. And so I wanted freedom. And so that's when I transitioned to buy and hold single family and eventually buy and hold commercial.
And you're doing also some development work, right? Ground up.
Yes, I am working on that. So I have some land right now in an area called Fountain Square, which is actually where I live and started going through the entitlement process with that land. But then that's when everything was jumping as far as costs for materials and everything. So I kind of tabled that because I already have the land. But now I'm looking at some infill stuff downtown, which is really exciting for me.
Which state is that though?
I'm in Indiana, downtown Indianapolis. Yeah. Yeah. So the costs are here seem to be a lot lower as far as cost of living than the rest of the United States. But materials are materials.
So, so you have north of 70 units right now, right? Under your ownership.
I used to. I actually offloaded. So I have about Well, actually, because I just bought those 20, so I have about 60, 65 right now.
Okay.
In that ballpark.
And so you've been able to scale, buy more properties without syndicating. And for those listening that are not clear on what syndication is, and I have a lot of experience in that because that's how we were able to grow our portfolio. In a nutshell, it's a term for organization or combination of investors pooling capital for investment in real estate. So it's literally pooling money together to buy Assets in real estate, and there's a lot of legality around it, but that's in a sense of what you're doing when you're syndicating. So I'm curious how, from a financial perspective, right? And financing is a such a big piece to this, the puzzle. It's the essential piece to the puzzle of growth and scaling. So tell us a little bit about when you were flipping and then you segued to single families. How did that shift for you from a financial perspective and how you were able to acquire more?
Yeah, so when I was flipping, I was doing a lot of it quote unquote cash according to the bank. I bought my first primary residence when I was 24 in a gentrifying area, and I actually like refinanced 3 times in the first year to get a pretty big HELOC on my house. So I had access to about $76,000. So I would purchase a house like for $30,000 cash and then still have whatever it was left over in my HELOC. But then also I got my mom on board, so she did the same thing. She got a HELOC on her house and she was my first investor and I was just paying her back on an amortization schedule and an interest rate. So that's how I started flipping. And then once I kind of started, like my first flip, I made $50 grand, which was awesome. And so I just kind of kept stacking up that money, just reinvesting, reinvesting, boom, boom, boom, boom, to just have more and more and more capital without having to go to a bank and say, hey, like, I mean, of course I would still get construction loans, but I wasn't like super leveraged as far as the bank was concerned because they don't really look at my HELOC. They're like, oh, it's just, whatever she's using it for is her business kind of thing. And once I started doing rentals, so I, my first rental, I paid $71,000 for it and I paid cash. I put it fully on a HELOC. I put about $5,000 into it, had it rented out for a year to one of my friends. And then when she moved out, I rented it out for like $400 more. And at that time I cash-out refinanced it and it appraised for $189,000. So I made a ton of money on the refi, which was a non-taxable event. And then I was able to then be like, okay, great. Okay, now I got my HELOC money back and this cash, so now I'm going to go do that again. And pretty much I just kept stacking up like that until I was able to buy my first apartment complex, which the purchase price for that in 2019 was $625,000. So I put down about $180,000 and I offloaded a different house to buy it. So it was just kind of like a snowball effect of stacking up the capital. And I never looked at it like, oh, how am I ever going to do this? I was just like, okay, one foot in front of the other. I'm just going to keep doing this. And it's not like I didn't want to syndicate. I just had blinders on and I was looking at, okay, what do I have access to right now? What do I know how to do and what can I do with what I have? And that's just kind of how it happened.
And I think it's a natural way of being and doing it, right? When you, you mentioned that you offload a couple of properties now, and I think that that's something that a lot of the investors have a hard time with because we're looking to build our portfolio and people upload for different reasons. So let's say apartment complex is time, the cycle, it's after 5, 7, 10 years, it's time to offload because the cycle is already completed. In your case, what criteria, what questions did you ask yourself in order to determine I will offload this specific project property.
Yeah. And it all goes back to your goals. So I'm always doing a goals audit for myself because my time and my life and what I'm doing and my happiness is really important to me. And like I said, I bought my first house when I was 24. I was so young. So my goals back then are very different than what they are now. So I was doing goals audits. And so I know a lot of times, like you said, it's very difficult for people to offload some of their properties. A lot of things that I hear is, oh, I bought it so cheap and look at these returns and blah, blah, blah. But instead of looking at it from a scarcity mindset, in my opinion, of what am I going to lose if I sell this, I look at that as in what am I going to gain and how is this going to help me? And I look at it from an abundance mindset. And so it's all about the velocity of money to me. So if you bought, like, so my first rental, I mentioned I paid $71,000 and then it appraised for $189,000. So that's that's, you know, over $100,000 right there. I just doubled my money basically for what I had in it. So, you know, you double a million 10 times, you're at a billion. So to me, how can you double the fastest and what is that going to help you do? So, you know, I lost a couple hundred dollars of cash flow every month if I offloaded, but I gained $100,000. And then where am I going to put that $100,000 to then double again and again and again? And then also in turn helping me free up my time. So just, I think it's just shifting perspective based on what your goals are and what you want your life to look like.
When you made this shift from single-family homes to small multis, from a team perspective, I'm sure your team had to also shift, not just, you know, the money part, but the team. So tell us a little about what that looked like. What was your team when you were managing single families? Were you managing them yourself? Did you outsource that? And then how did that shift when you got into just, you know, more, more small to mid-size multis that you're involved in now?
It's kind of been a long learning process. So yes, I self-manage all and still do all of my single families and my team. My biggest team member is my broker. His name is Cory Gardner and Gardner Property Group. So he's my broker. And so kind of like what we talked about earlier with offloading different tasks, I know a lot of people, especially who are new, feel like they need to get licensed and do it all. But I've always tried to have the mindset of, hey, you're going to be the king of that. I'm going to be the queen of this, and together we can combine and conquer. And luckily, I found him really early. So when I was doing my luxury flips, he was the one selling my luxury flips. And he was young and hungry too. And so I would talk to him and say, hey, I think I want to get into commercial. I want to do small multis. And he's like, okay, well, where is your head at? What are you thinking? And, you know, so he was kind of growing into commercial as well, and he had already done some commercial deals. And he's like, I think that's a great idea. Like, let me see what I can do. And he's the one who brought me all of my commercial deals that I found and closed on off market, actually. So I've been very lucky in the sense where I've gotten to grow with my team, which is my broker. And then as far as management goes, my first apartment was a 23-unit C-class. So I did outsource that. But when I sold that, I was doing really heavy, like when I first bought it, it was 2019. I didn't know what I was doing as far as value add. But now, you know, I do performance and value adds and what does this do to my returns if I bump the rent by this much and put this much into each unit? And so the next property I bought after I sold that 23-unit, I 1031'd it to a 16-unit. And I'm putting like $25,000 to $30,000 into each unit. I'm bumping rents by $500 to $700 a unit. So that's a lot of construction. And to me, any of the property managers that I had a good relationship with from my C-class wasn't going to fit because this was going to be a B-class. And to me, managing a manager was going to add to my plate. So yeah. Yeah.
Let's walk through that transition of when you bought your first you know, 23-unit, you said, right?
Correct.
Okay. When you first bought that, what you thought value-add was versus what you, the words you just said about, if I do this with the rent and I add this type of value, what is this gonna do to my return? That's a whole different level of thinking for multifamily investors versus I know I need to add value. Let's walk through that, right? From where you were to where you are now. When you were in that 23-unit and you were thinking, I have to add value, how did you begin to learn the other pieces of the puzzle of, okay, how do I evaluate? What do I really need to do here to raise rents? So then obviously this property is worth more and I can refinance it or whatever your strategy was. So walk us through some of those beginning learning, whether they're stumbling blocks or, or just learned lessons. So I think that's a big piece to what women and those listening really, really need to hear and refine very specifically.
Certainly that was my first apartment. So keep in mind, like everything I will say is just coming from, I only bought single family. Flips and rentals before jumping to this. So I went into it from the perspective of, which is still true, is that you make money when you buy. And so I bought direct to seller and I just bought it really under market. It was a 9 or a 10 cap, so, and it was $625,000 for a 23-unit. And even back then, that's an incredible price. So I was thinking, oh, I'm going to buy low, sell high. And so I didn't know anything about, hey, I'm going to put up a fence, I'm going to clean up the parking lot, I'm going to replace roofs. Any sort of money to be put into the building in order to bump rents. I just saw, hey, these rents are low, I can bump 'em by $50 a piece right now, and there we go. But I had no idea what that was going to do to the value of my building. I didn't know that bumping it by whatever it was, $50 a unit was going to increase the value of my building by $250,000. I learned that later when I actually went to refinance and I said, oh, I've built this equity by forced appreciation by just renting. So I think that's really important for everyone to understand that commercial is very different than than single family in that sense, because it has nothing to do with comparing other 23 units in the area. It's like, hey, what are you doing? This is the only building we're going to look at. We're going to evaluate this as a business and what income this building is bringing in and then refinance ourselves from there. So that was a huge learning curve for me.
That was a good one, right, that you added. And then I want to talk about the bad one.
Yeah.
What are the lessons that you learned that cost you money?
Oh, don't bite off more than you can chew. So after I bought that 23-unit, I didn't buy anything for 2 years because that's when I said, okay, goals audit. I only want to buy multifamily commercial. And 2 years later, I bought a 27-unit, which was downtown. And the units, I swear to you, were probably the size of this office that I am sitting in, like 150 to 350 square feet, very, very small. Some of them wouldn't even be able to fit a queen bed and that's the whole unit. And I was like, oh, but the location and you know, you can make them Airbnbs and make them really nice. And I bought those for, it was $750,000 and no bank would finance me. It was super old, it was historic. And I was all like motivated and said, hey, there's probably all this meat on this bone. I can do this, I can redevelop it. And I didn't know anything about tax credits or opportunity zones or historic society. Or just the fact that this building was going to take $1.2 million on top of the purchase price to make it something that would be reasonable. The health department and, you know, all this stuff. And so that was a really tough building. I lost thousands every month just holding that thing, thinking that I can learn and I could do this. And then again, I goals audited and stepped back and said, is this worth it? Like if I actually run these pro formas and Hey, let's just say I do put over $1 million into this and let's just say I do hit these runs. What are my returns? My returns were under 10% for the 10-year pro forma. And I said, is this worth it? Because velocity of money, that's when I was like, huh, I don't really think this is for me. And because it's not like I was making a ton of money every year to take advantage of the tax credits and the opportunity zones. So that's when I said I need to offload this thing and move on.
Top real estate investors love to talk about how they save so much on taxes, but how are they able to build rental property empires while skirting Uncle Sam? 1031 exchanges. 1031 exchanges allow you to defer capital gains taxes while you sell an investment property, exchanging your old property for a bigger, better one and avoiding the tax man while you do it. And that's where First American Exchange Company comes in. They're the leaders in 1031 exchanges. Whether you're a seasoned investor or just starting, First American Exchange can help you with simple rental property exchanges, complex commercial real estate investments, reverse exchanges, and more. Don't let your taxes eat into your profits. Visit First American Exchange Company at firstexchange.com or call them at 800-556-2520. That's firstexchange.com or 800-556-2520. Keep your money in your pocket and propel your portfolio further at firstexchange.com. First American Exchange Company does not provide tax or legal advice. Consult your financial, real estate, tax, or legal advisor about your circumstances. First American Exchange Company. Safe, smart, secure.
Ready to pop the question? The jewelers at bluenile.com have got sparkle down to a science with beautiful lab-grown diamonds worthy of your most brilliant moments. Their lab-grown diamonds are independently graded and guaranteed identical to natural diamonds, and they're ready to ship to your door. Go to bluenile.com and use promo code POD to get $50 off your purchase of $500 or more. That's code POD at bluenile.com for $50 off. BlueNile.com, code POD.
Jewelry isn't a gift you give just once. It's a way to remind your loved one of a beautiful moment every time they see it. Blue Nile can help you find the gift that says how you feel and says it beautifully with expert guidance and a wide assortment of jewelry of the highest quality at the best price. Go to BlueNile.com and experience the convenience of shopping Blue Nile, the original online jeweler since 1999. That's bluenile.com to find the perfect jewelry gift for any occasion. bluenile.com.
So what, what did you learn about yourself? Because there's almost layers of learning, right? There's the layer of learning about what did I learn about my investment strategy, right? That's what you're saying. And that's such an important piece, right? In terms of saying, okay, what did I learn there? But then what did you learn about yourself? You know, as an investor, as a leader, as an entrepreneur, what were some of those learned lessons that you got with this particular project?
The first thing I learned was during the closing. Have you ever done something in your life where you are like so far in it and you're like having headaches every night, super stressed, not sleeping, and you're like, if I get through this, I can do anything.
Yep.
If I do this, I could do anything. And I did it and I was like, oh my gosh, I could do anything. Like with my team and everything I've learned, like I just closed this building even though I couldn't get insurance, I couldn't get financing, like literally every single thing was against me. And I was like, oh my gosh, I did it. But then also learning to be honest with myself, it's like, I did it, but did I really want it? Or did I want to just see if I could? Because then once I did it, I was like, oh shoot, now I owe this huge mortgage every month. And then I have this going on, I have this going on, and I can't find a contractor who can do the historic, and I can't find something that's going to fit my budget. And is this even going to be worth my returns? Learning to just be really honest with myself and say, hey, if I make the wrong decision and I just keep doing it like on the hamster wheel, just do it, and I never zoom out and say, is this something that's going to fit my life? Like, you could— I could have really went under on that building. That could have been really, really bad. And so I didn't think of it that way. I was just like, you know, hustle mentality and head down and you could do this. And then it, you know, it's like, oh, I really need learn to put this into perspective and not sink. Because if I sink, I mean, then there goes my whole business and then there goes everything that I'm trying to build with my broker and my family and my mother and everything. So that was a tough lesson to learn. But after that, it's way easier to just really zoom out and say, hey, this might be a tough decision to make in the moment, but is this going to help me in the future? So it's just, you know, mindset shift again.
And when it comes down to systems and processes in order to you know, free up your time. Share with us, what do you have in place in your business right now?
Yeah, so I recently hired an assistant, so that has been huge to offload a lot of these tasks because I'm renovating a 16-unit that I just purchased. I'm renovating a triplex, and then I have a couple units going at this new 20-unit. So I have a lot of vacancy and I also have a lot of construction going on. But with a lot of vacancy is a lot of lease-up. So I have my assistant doing a lot of the leasing and a lot of like the management stuff that I I don't have a third-party manager for. It seems like I'm kind of building that in-house indirectly. And also another thing that I've done is on my 20-unit, I have an onsite manager who's been awesome as far as lockouts, just showing units, letting contractors in, and he has been wonderful. He is worth his weight in gold. So just kind of challenging myself to offload different tasks and say, okay, hey, you know, pay this amount and get this in return and free up your time and in turn grow your business. Just me stepping back a lot and doing a lot of the operations and like big picture things and finding deals and doing things that I am the best at and offloading other things.
Any go-to particular tools, you know, that, that have been must tools for you as you've been offloading to a new, new team members in terms of setting them up for success? Anything that's been like your go-to?
Yeah, I mean, honestly, I'm just thinking of different apps. Like I've used Asana with my whole team, so my broker and my assistant and everything. And so it's like you type in a task, you assign it, put a due date, and then we communicate directly through there. So it's not like I have to text or send an email. So implementing that is super awesome. And then also just different things for automation in general have been super, super helpful.
In terms of your partnership with your broker, right? What are the different factors that you guys bring to the table? Meaning he's so different than me on this particular, but that's a good thing. Share with us how you guys complement each other and how did you come up with the, how do you know that?
Yeah, how do I know is very difficult because like I said, I've been working with him since 2016. So over the years it's kind of just developed into something that we both understand. It's like, okay, you do this, I do this. He is really good at closing people. So, and I'm really good at finding them. So I find a deal, let's just say I'm on a run and I see this building. I said, oh my gosh, I've been watching this building for however long. I really want this. I send it to him. And so even let's just say I see the owner of this building calling on the doorstep. Perfect situation. But even still, I'll talk to them and get the information, but then I'm going to offload it to Cory and I'm going to say, hey, can you please call him and close him? Because I'm probably going to mess something up. And so I'm not afraid to pay him a commission and pay him well and be like, hey, please do this. And I've actually started giving him equity of these deals because he's again worth his weight in gold. So he's good at all the sales stuff, the closing, and also he's a big numbers guy and I'm big picture more so. So for these pro formas and the rent bumps and all this, you know, we use a software called Real Estate Lab for underwriting and he does a lot of like the inputting and stuff like that and say, hey, if you bump it by this much, this is what you bring to the table, this is what you have to close with and da da da da da. So, and then I go in there and afterwards like tweak little things. So yeah, pretty much like he does a lot of broker sales duties. I do a lot of like hunting, finding, closing type things and relationship building.
At what point did you start giving equity to him? When did that happen in the historical way of working together and how did that come to be?
Yeah, it was a year ago actually, because I realized how much he really does. Because I really, what happened was I was trying to buy a property in Austin, Texas and I was like, wow, I don't have a Corey here. Like, and it's so much harder for me to do my job when I didn't have my partner. And I was like, wow, like, He gets paid really well, is on commissions and this and that. But at the end of the day, that's really not my business. Like, I think he should have a piece of this, you know, just for everything that he does. Because when I tried to go into a new city without him, I was like, wow, if I just had him here, like, we could run this. And so it was after I closed that 16-unit that I mentioned, I own a duplex, 2 parcels to the north of that parcel, and I owned it since 2000, end of 2017, beginning of 2018. And I told Cory pretty much like, hey, I want this apartment. And he poked this guy for 3 years. We finally closed it just recently. This 20-unit that I purchased a couple months ago now, we went to dinner with him, just me and my broker and the seller. And I asked him, I said, why me? Like, why did you pick me? Because he's had offers, so many offers. It was a building that everybody wanted really. Like he had brokers pounding down his door and he looked right at Cory and said, him. And then he said it again. I was like, really? He's like, yep, him, him, you, I liked you and him. He's like, every time I'd get a call, I just knew that they had a sales or a number of calls to make and blah, blah, blah, blah. Nobody was personable. Corey called me and he, whatever Corey does, he did. And he was like, yeah, it was him who closed it. I was like, oh my gosh. And that building is retiring my mom. And that was a big part of my why. And so I was like, oh my gosh, see? So like, if that even like further nail in the coffin, like, yep, this is why that you have equity of everything. And, you know, a lot of people just, you know, punch the clock and just kind of get in this routine. And he really, like, cares and is really good and, you know, he deserves it. And so it kind of just, it happened that way just by him proving himself to me over the years.
I think it's something that investors can, to be mindful of, of the people that they're working with and is there a way to expand that or reduce it? And to your point, equity is one way to go further into connection with people, obviously in partnership. One other question I have for you is you, you mentioned goals audit a few times and how you do these goals audit. Is there a particular process you follow, or just literally looking at your goals, big picture? Is there certain questions you ask just to drill that down a little bit? I think that could be helpful for the one listening of doing their own goals audit. So anything in particular you do, questions you ask, any specifics you can share?
Yeah, I write my goals. I try to write it at least every month, if not more. I really should be doing it every day and every week. And when I do I try to just write down all of the goals, like 30 days, 60 days, 5 years, 10 years, you know? And then first I just write down everything that I think that I could ever want in my life. And then I try to assign a timeline to it. And then I say, okay, what are actionable steps that I can take today and the next 90 days that I can reach these specific goals? And then I back up and say, okay, what are things that I'm doing right now in my life and what is taking up a lot of my time and what are things that I don't need to be doing so I can create space for these things that I need to be doing in order to reach these 90-day goals, 1-year goals, whatever. And I just really try to challenge myself in the who can help me do this and what do I need to not be doing? What can my assistant be doing? And how is this going to help me with my quality of life right now in order to have your cake and eat it too? Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. One of my favorite things I got out of that book was as entrepreneurs, like everybody says, says, oh, you can't have your cake and eat it too. But an entrepreneur says, well, why not? Why would you have cake if you can't eat it? So how can we have both and not make any sacrifices? And so it starts with just writing down every single thing I could possibly want, whether it be materialistic or whether it be deep. Like, I want a happy, healthy family. I want an incredible bond with my future husband. And so it goes to how can I provide for them, but also how can I be an incredible partner? How can I be supportive to my friends and how can I be there for my family. And so it's like a lot of bigger picture perspective on things. And when you write those things down, it becomes really clear. Like I find some, I was just cleaning my desk the other day and I found old, you know, hey, here's what my goals were and they seemed so crazy at the time, but then it's like, oh, it's really not that crazy. And you know, a rising tide lifts all ships and then it's like, okay, well how have I helped my family and how have I helped my friends and my partners and my broker in doing that? So just again, just shifting the mindset.
Yeah. And getting into the habit of doing that, right?
Yeah.
Because it's not like this haphazard audit you're doing. This sounds like consistently, so that's great. Awesome stuff. Kimberly, where can the ladies learn more about you and follow you along your journey?
Yeah, I post a lot on my Instagram, the good, the bad, the ugly. I'm very open. So that is KimberlyMarie920. Or if anybody has any questions, you guys can send me an email at Kim@reddoorrenovation.com.
Awesome. All this information you guys can find on our show notes. Now we're going to transition to our fabulous 3 questions. And the first one is, what's the most transformational book you ever read?
Ooh, I want to say Build an Empire by Alena Cardone. Awesome.
Second question is, which routine is most powerful to live a financially free and balanced life?
I say for me, exercising every single day and making room for that. Because if I don't, I'm realizing that I'm not as focused and I also don't feel as good. That's the first thing that if I don't do it, I compromise other things in my life. And then it starts— my eating habits go down the drain and then everything. So I exercise every day, refocus my brain. I do a lot of my thinking in the morning. I keep my mornings free. I try not to schedule anything before noon so I can get all of my business things done in the morning and exercise every day.
Awesome.
Last question is, which woman, famous or not, has inspired you the most?
My mom, without question, for sure. She is the most incredible woman and she's always been my biggest supporter. I would say her and my grandma.
Awesome. Love it. Thank you, Kimberly, for being on our show. Thank you for sharing your journey with, with us and our, all the people listening. So appreciate your time. Thank you.
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
Thank you. If you enjoyed this podcast and want to receive updates on our next interviews, go to our website, therealestateinvestor.com. There you can subscribe to our show, become part of our investor community, and get updates on upcoming episodes.
If you like our show, please share with other women who would benefit, and don't forget to leave us a rating on iTunes. We'd really appreciate it. And as always, we encourage you to take one action as a result of today's show and put it into motion so you can live both a financially free and balanced life. Thanks for spending time with us.
Ciao.
More from Andresa


Tallulah Le Merle | AI for Investors: What's Real, What's Hype, and How to Use It



