Two Millennials Build Their Empire Through Creative Financing

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, we have Zoe and Sasha, who are two millennials who've known each other forever and have started a real estate investing company together. And they focus on creative financing, which we'll get into, and how they're able to do that and bounce off of each other with their strengths, in particular of student housing and how they kind of got their start there. And they're also evolving to other areas.

What you're going to appreciate is that they are in their 20s and their mindset, the persistence, and how they leverage each other's skills is really amazing and duplicable. So This is a very, very nice episode for those of you that are in your 20s and those of you that are interested in student housing. Those ladies are rocking and rolling, and I can't wait to hear what they're going to come up with in the next 10 years.

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.

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.

Welcome back, ladies.

This is Liz and this is Andresa.

Welcome back to The Real Estate Investor Show, where we are on a mission to empower women to live a financially free and balanced life. We do that week in and week out, right, Andresa?

Mm-hmm.

So we're excited to have Zoe and Sasha on our show today. Thank you both for being here. This dynamic duo. So excited to jump into both of your stories, get into all the good stuff here together. So thanks for being here.

Of course. Thank you for having us.

Awesome. Awesome. So for those who are here with us for the first time, thank you for your time. Thank you for the time you're carving out to be with us. We always like to get connected to all of you and share something coming up for us that has to do with either real estate investing, business, or self-care, our three pillars that we stand for in our community. So Andresa, what's coming up for you?

You know, I think that you guys have probably already heard of it, like how you do one thing is how you do everything in life. And this week was very, very cool to see. We have our Strive membership and one of our pod leaders, Alicia St. Germain, she's running a pod called Running the Business That You Love, taking the business that you love to the next level. So she asked the mentees to go ahead and post a video of them on our private Facebook group about their intentions. And it's such a simple task, right? However, there was a lot of things that came out of it between resistance, being perfect, what's the purpose of it. This doesn't make any sense and all of it, right? So yesterday she posted a very nice and interesting video dissecting it. So when a mentor asks you to do something, right? Many times we don't know why, but how you react to it, it is probably how you are doing everywhere else in your business. Everywhere else in your business, you're behaving that way. So for those that were like, oh, I'm not going to post this video because it's not perfect. This is the 5th, 15th time that I'm recording this and I can't get a word out. I'm not going to do it. That's probably what she's also doing in her business, in other areas where she's seeking some sort of perfection. And since that's not reached based on her vision of what perfection looks like, She's not doing it. So I just want to encourage you guys to take a look at what exactly you are doing nowadays that is across the board. That is really what is holding you back from moving forward. And Liz and I talked about it many times. People say, oh, money, time, support, everything is holding me back. And actually it is you. So we want to get you the hell out of the way. So take a couple of minutes to just think about who you're getting support from, who you're getting advice from. And when your mentor asks you to do something, just go for it. Even if you don't understand, if you don't agree, because a lot of great things might come out of it. Even if you don't do it, that is also something will come out of it. And then you dissect with your mentor and your accountability groups. And if you don't have one, you must have one. I'm telling you right now, can't play solo. But that, that was a very cool exercise to see how things change it and all what came out of it, beautiful breakthroughs that came out of one simple exercise. So Alicia, love you.

And it's so important, right, to be in the game of working on ourselves. And to your point, I love that. I love you're saying that because it is so powerful to look at if you're, if something's happening for you in one area, it's probably happening in other areas. Not as a bad thing, but as a, a wake-up call, right? Mm-hmm. A positive wake-up call. So I love that. Awesome. Loïc and Sacha, thanks again for being here. We always like to kick things off to ask you what propelled you to begin investing in real estate. And I know you're, you've been best friends for some time, so if you both wanna answer what both brought you here, that might be a good place to start. Zoe, why don't you start?

Okay, so I got started actually when I was 22 years old. I was about to start grad school and I did not want to pay rent and it was going to be my first time living away from home. So I decided instead to buy a condo. And in that condo it was 3 bedrooms. So I lived in one room and I rented out the other 2. And then Sasha separately.

Go ahead. Yeah, so I had always wanted to go into real estate. So after college I started working for a small property management company in town. And I got my real estate license under them doing their rentals, and I kind of just saw what they were doing and what their clients were doing and eventually went for it myself.

She actually was my realtor for the second property I bought, which was a condo in that same complex where I had my first one. So we worked closely together before we jumped in on our first property that we owned together. She was also helping me with mine.

And how long was that?

So that— we're 27 now. So that was— well, she's almost 27, 5 years ago.

Oh my gosh, you guys are starting to sound so old.

We're not going to tell you our ages because that's—

Let's not talk about it.

Let's not talk about that.

Keep that.

I'm just an old person.

So it's very interesting, right? Because many of us got started later on in our 30s. And I love seeing women, especially women started in their 20s and figuring things out instead of saying, well, my 20s, I'm just going to screw up as much as I can and just have fun. And then when 30 comes, then I'll think about it. So for those that are listening to you, because we have a lot of young generation coming through InvestorCon too, and they are in similar situation and they're either going to college or doing different things. They're like, I barely have the time and Certainly don't have the money. So Zoe, break down how did you come up with that idea, first of all, of living in one unit and renting out the other two, which I think everybody should learn in school and do it.

Yeah, so I mean, BiggerPockets calls it house hacking. I didn't even know BiggerPockets was a thing at the time though. I just kind of was thinking like, how do you live for free? How do I pull this off? And that seems like the most logical and easiest way to do it. To me. And you know, there's a lot of programs that are out there for first-time homebuyers. So there's a lot of ways that you can get your foot in the door without having to spend a lot of money. There are loan options where you can go conventional and put as little as 5% or 3% down. There is a, for Connecticut specifically, there's a CHFA loan that covers your down payment expenses. So you can go into it with literally no money out of pocket at all. And a lot of these loan products people don't know about. And so they think, oh, I don't have the funds, I can't invest in real estate. But the truth is, like, anyone can do it if you're at least talking owner-occupied. This is such an easy way to get your foot in the door and start your real estate investing career. And it's very safe too, because you're always going to need a place to live, right? So it's housing for yourself and it's your first property in your portfolio too.

Now that's great, Zoe. So tell us a little bit about the first project that you both did together. So it sounded like you were doing a couple of things separately. You have this long-term friendship that began, you know, many moons ago selling friendship bracelets. So I just need to say that. I think that's really neat. Was that a business, by the way? Just out of curiosity, was that something you guys actually—

No, it was just like a side hobby.

You're like, yeah, we just made a few million dollars from that. Okay. So I wanna make sure I was curious. So that was the beginning of your, your partnership together. Okay.

Very cool.

So tell us a little bit about your first deal that you did together. It sounds like you were doing some things separately, but I'm really, really curious to hear that first deal because, you know, it's a lot when friends come together to partner. There's a lot at stake and, you know, just curious about how you navigated that together and who went to who and how did that come up and what was that first deal? What did that look like as well?

Yeah, so Zoe had already had a couple properties and I was really eager to get started. I had gotten into like all the BiggerPockets stuff before she did, so I was already familiar with like seller financing and whatnot. So I was reaching out to like Any property off market I could find, like asking if they'll seller finance. And Zoe was telling me for months, like, this is the biggest waste of time. Like, I don't know what you're doing here. And then I found this like crappy little house in the middle of nowhere where the guy was like, oh, seller financing is always an option. So we go out there and see it and the house like wasn't going to work, but he had other houses that he was also trying to sell with seller financing. And one of them was a property right by the school that Zoe already had a student rental at. So I reached out to her, she came to see it with me, and we ended up partnering on that since she was already familiar with the area and I found the deal and the financing, it worked out really well.

I just want to add something to that, that, that deal, when she first presented it to me, I was trying so hard to get her to not waste her time and go over there. It was a 2-bedroom house. I, I can't even describe to you how small and how little sense this house made. It was, far from campus. It was like over 20 minutes away from campus. And students do not want to live that far because a lot of what we do now is student rentals. And I was trying to explain to her, you know, they want to be within at most a 15-minute radius. Do not waste your time meeting with this guy. But she convinced me that it was worth it and we should check it out. And this individual has now been one of the best assets that we have. He is our go-to private money lender, hard money lender. Everything. I mean, and we just recently actually closed on another property that he sold to us. Yeah. Last week. And all these deals, we put anywhere from like 5 to 10% down. So we're not talking about huge amounts of money. It's just finding the deals is the hard part.

Yeah.

It's the relationship building. Like we spent a lot of time like talking sellers into financing to us with low money down and just kind of like prove to them that like we're worth the risk in that. It's going to work out well for everyone in the long run.

I love to hear that, what you said, we're worth the risk, right? Because many young and young, old, middle-aged, whatever women, many times we're like, oh, I need 20, 30 years of experience or 40, whatever years of experience in order for me to earn the right to be worth it, that. So from that perspective, it sounds that you guys were masters in building a rapport with this gentleman, and therefore there was a trust. When you look back, what exactly did you guys do to persuade, sell him, enroll him into seller financing?

So I mean, that first property we bought, like, he was the one that was offering seller financing, so he was super on board with it. But there were other properties that we've bought since where we really had to convince the seller. We have a 6-family a couple towns over that we were talking to the seller for over a year trying to convince him to seller finance to us. And he was very nervous, like just the whole idea. He thought that like worst case scenario, we would trash the building and he would have to foreclose on it and take back a worse building. So I mean, we provided him with references, showed him everyone else who seller financed to us, showed the track record, 100% on-time payments, that all our buildings are cash flowing. Like we have, reserves to cover anything that would go wrong. And it was a very slow process. It took over a year to actually close on this building, but our one-year anniversary of owning that building just happened a couple weeks ago and he reached out to us and told us how happy he is with the deal and what a great job we're doing.

I love that. I, I want to just, let's take a step back there because I think you're in your 20s and you grew your portfolio by seller financing, with probably people that were a lot older than you, right? I would imagine. I, I mean, I venture to say so there is a level of trust they had with you that they were able to do this, right? So let's just break that down. 'Cause you said a few things. You said one of the biggest things that they're looking for is your stability. And that's sometimes hard in with people in their 20s, right? Because it's kind of like, you know, I think that's a question mark. So financial stability, I think you said, you know, you said you shared with this person that you had reserves. I think that's really important. It's all about mitigating risk. When people are taking a chance on anyone, whether it's financial, whether it's a deal, whether it's a property manager, whatever that team member is, especially someone who's doing seller financing, they're assessing, is this something I should do in terms of my risk? They don't say it like that, but that's what we're trying to hedge. So you were able to convince that person in a way that they felt comfortable. So I just wanna make mention of that. You did that beautifully, probably, you know, as you're kind of growing your, your portfolio by becoming financially stable and then convincing and, and sharing that with them. And that's what people wanna hear is, is this person, do they have a track record? Do they know what they're doing? And do they also, are there, is there stability here? So if you know what hits the fan, will they be able to, to deal with what happens? So I just wanna make mention of that. So, okay, you got this first particular deal underway. How did you now then form a partnership? You went from one deal, you know, and then now you're doing deals together. Walk us through that path because so many people, whether in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, whatever it might be, consider partnership, right? That's a big one. So I, I just wanna kind of go there since we're, we're talking about that now.

I just think that like we're very like-minded, like even before, like we were partnered, anytime we'd like just hang out, our conversations would always just like, end up being about real estate and like about buying properties. So it just like made sense to like go into it together. We also have very different like strengths and weaknesses and I think we balance each other out very well, like when it comes to our properties. Yeah.

I think though in the beginning we were not really expecting it to turn into what it has. You know, we bought that first property together and we didn't plan on continuing buying properties together. It kind of just, happened naturally and organically in that way. And we just, yeah, we have for the most part an easy time working together. You know, of course there's going to be some problems, but it's how you resolve those issues when they arise that matters. And, you know, we get through pretty much anything that comes our way and then we're ready to tackle the next one.

So the student housing, did that came by chance or did you guys intentionally? Because you, I'm assuming you were a student or, or getting out of it at some point.

Yeah. Well, so like I said, when I first started, my first property was because I was starting grad school. Mm-hmm. And then I saw how much money student rentals make compared to the average, you know, multifamily. I know multifamilies are great. They're much more passive. Student rentals are a lot more involved, but there's also way more profit potential. You can take a single family house and you can net profit on it $2,000 a month. You can't do that on a normal single-family rental. And single families are easier to get into because of the lower price point too. At least in our market, there's a lot less competition on single families than there are for multi-families. And so the prices are driven up for the multi-families.

So let's, let's break it down to the student housing, right? Because the potential is there. We have students, they're not going anywhere. And with COVID things shifted a little bit. And I'm curious to see how you guys navigated that. With you guys had student housing and how did COVID affect your business and how did it affect in a positive way or negative way?

I mean, I think we were definitely affected in a positive way. This particular school that we were at, they like cut the capacity of the dorms like in half. So people who thought they had housing also didn't have housing. So people were scrambling for off-campus housing. There's only so much of it, which just drove all the rent up in the area. So anything that was going for like reasonable prices all of a sudden was outrageous prices.

I mean, that's true, but my original condo had actually some issues because when I first started doing student housing, I was renting by the room, which is a huge rookie mistake with student housing. Do not rent by the room. Rent it, price it, buy the room but rent it to a group that all knows each other. So, you know, you can say like, oh, it's $800 a room for this 3-bedroom house. So therefore it's $2,400. Anyway, at the time—

So you mean that you have one tenant?

Yeah, you have one group that's on the lease. So let's say it's a 3-bedroom house.

There's just 3 names on that lease and they're jointly liable versus like 3 individual leases per room.

Exactly. So it's one lease for the group, the parents or whoever is the cosigner. It's all there. And they divide. At the end of the day, what you care is that they're following the rules and there's one payment coming through and not individuals.

Okay, cool.

Yes.

But at the time I was renting by the room, so I had 3 separate leases for each of these students or renting bedrooms. And once COVID hit, one of them was like, hey, my classes are online. I have no reason to be living here anymore. So I'm moving back to New York.

Bye.

And I was like, No, you have to pay rent. And he's like, well, I'm not going to.

And he left.

So I had to get his room filled. Then another one did it to me like 3 months later. I guess he saw that his friend did it. So he was like, I guess it's cool. And so he left too. And so I was definitely scrambling and there was a time for that condo that one of the bedrooms, I just never got it filled. So the good thing is, you know, it was only 2 bedrooms to break even. The third one was profit. So it was fine. I was just breaking even for the rest of that COVID school year. And then after that, I, forced them to do group leases. Now if someone leaves, it is the group's problem to find a replacement. It is not my problem.

That's great. And how have you been able to like scale that? So how have you found more student rentals? Are you actively seeking that at that particular university or have you shifted and looked at student rental kind of in other areas? Or what's been your strategy in particular? Because it's a niche, but it's also very, probably very specific to the particular university or college that you're at too, in terms of like strategy, I would imagine, or is it just universal and you're, you're looking at student rentals in these 3 or 4 markets? I'm just curious to learn more about that strategy part and how you've grown, or are you specifically looking at your, where you are right now as a, as a growth?

So as far as student rentals go, at this point we are kind of, we're branched out. We, we're looking at the deal, not necessarily Is it a student rental or is it not? You know, if it's a deal that's going to cash flow, we will happily take it. So if it's multifamily, whatever it is, cash flows make sense, we're in. At the time though, when we were first getting started, we were pretty much strictly only looking at student rentals. So the radius we set was within, you know, like I said, a 15-minute maximum drive to campus. And we were targeting one specific university at the time because we figured then it'll be easier if something goes wrong with one property. You know, we have a handyman in that area. He can go to wherever we need him to. However, I actually was working in academia after I finished grad school, and so I worked at a university that was across the state. So when I started that job, I did end up buying a single-family house that I also— Sasha and I don't own that one together, that's just me. And that single-family house is 5 minutes from this other campus. So I realized through that process that, you know, okay, getting good people is definitely difficult. Getting a good handyman is difficult. But once you have a good one and you have— or handywoman, I should say too. Once you have someone in place, it flows, you know, as long as they don't leave you, then you're good. And so I have now my, my one person that's in this area that I have the one house and it does really, really well. And then we have one handyman that's in the area where the rest of our student rentals are and there's just one in every location and then sometimes a backup one. Yeah.

So I mean, I think really the reason that we are focusing on that one school that we have is it's just like the large state school around here. It's about half an hour from us and like I mean, half our high school went there. It's like where most people around here go to school. So there's a big pool of renters there. And then we just network a lot, even like around here, half an hour away, like all the meetups we go to, like everyone knows, like, hey, these are the girls that do the seller finance student rentals. So our second property was actually something that just like fell into our laps through networking through these wholesalers we met one time and they just had an off-market lead. It was a duplex right by campus that the guy only wanted to sell through seller financing. So they immediately thought of us, and we were the only people they reached out to, and we put the deal together and made it happen.

I love that you guys are well known for that. Those are the seller finance student rental girls, right? Because then when people think about it, right, you don't want to be the dollar store. You want to be this specific. This is what you get when you get there. This is what they're talking about. That doesn't mean that you cannot invest in other things, but It means that people think of you when they think of that. So for the ladies that are listening to us and they are thinking about investing in student housing, what they should think about— you said closer to the university. What are the other criteria that you will recommend?

So I always think you want to look at bedroom counts. Bathroom count is somewhat important, but not nearly as much as bedroom count, because the way that the rents work for student housing is by the room is how you calculate the full rental price you're charging for the property. So if you have a 2-bedroom house, the most you're going to get is, I mean, you can push $1,000 a bedroom, but in our area, the most you can comfortably get would be like $900, $950. So you're looking at an $1,800 to $2,000 rent amount that you can get on this property versus the same square footage, but the house has 3 bedrooms. Now all of a sudden you added another $800 or $900 a month that you're able to get in rent. So bedroom count is huge. Proximity to campus, like you mentioned.

I want to add the, like, the size of the bedroom. So frequently, if you're looking at like a 4 or 5 bedroom house, half of these bedrooms will be like the size of a closet. You know, that's not realistic for a student to like put a bed and a desk in. So like, you really want to look at stuff like that. And also sometimes you can add bedrooms. Like if there's an unfinished basement, but it's only a 2 or 3 bedroom house, there's a big basement, you may be able to add 2 more bedrooms down there and turn it into a 5 bedroom house.

Right, so also look at the potential for what you can make the house into. We love finishing basements, especially if there's windows. You can add so many bedrooms into basements. You can add bathrooms to basements. You can really make a nice house. So use your imagination and get creative when you're touring these houses that are near campuses.

And then another thing to add is make sure you follow the local ordinances, or at least look into them, because many of these college towns, like, the neighbors have had it with the frat parties and whatnot. Just like, make sure that you're not breaking any rules. And for example, the town that we mostly invest in, they changed it to only 3 people per house lately. But before 2010, you could have 4 people per house so that student rentals that were already registered before that are going for a lot more money because you're allowed to have those 4 people. It's grandfathered in.

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.

When you're ready to pop the question, the last thing you want to do is second-guess the ring. At bluenile.com, you can design a one-of-a-kind ring with the ease and convenience of shopping online. Choose your diamond and setting. When you've found the one, you'll get it delivered right 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 your purchase. 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.

That's really interesting insight, Zoe and Sasha, with regards to the keeping abreast of like ordinances. There's so much of that that we all need to do for any niche, but especially with what you're up to. How would you suggest someone goes about doing that when they're not local? Is there any sort of like strategy or is there any sort of like contact Or, you know, how do they know what's happening with that local ordinance of that specific university if they're far, or they're looking at some universities that are, you know, across the country and they don't know that local person or they can't just pop in on them. So can they do it kind of long distance and who and how they would do that would be my question.

Yeah. So we've definitely come across that situation, other towns that we've looked into that we're not super familiar with all their local regulations. And we just call the town without giving them a specific address or giving anything away. We just ask what the rules are in the town. It's very willing to tell you.

Yeah. Okay, so you're just doing it by phone. There's no other tip or strategy or— Okay, I was curious if there's, like, I don't know, monthly update meetings that they can give that type of—

You found the girls. You found the seller, right? See, there were the girls and F them.

Yeah.

1-800, here we go. So here's the thing. You guys are so young. Right? And I'm not saying this in a way to say, oh, you guys are young and already have a ton of experience under your belt. And I can't wait to see what you guys are going to do the next 10 years. Do you feel lonely around your groups? Where you are, your friends? Do they think you guys are the weirdos or are they into real estate or they're like, I have no clue what the hell you're doing?

No. So our friends are great. They all think it's very cool. We have one very close friend and we're like in a trio of close friend group and she thinks it's awesome but thinks it's totally not for her and has no interest in it whatsoever. She is very, very risk averse and she— we tried actually to get her to buy a property when she was starting her new job. Yeah. To get her to get an owner-occupied multifamily. And we were trying to explain to her all the benefits and how easy and great it would be. And she freaked out and ended up moving to another state. So there you go.

We're weirdos, but I think for other reasons.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Certainly not common. Not common. I didn't have those conversations on my 20s. Right. And I think that that's what we want to see. And we want to see it more and more. And you guys are going to be examples for all the other 20s that are looking at you and say, wait a minute, it's possible they're doing. Well, let's do it too.

Yeah, I mean, I think it just comes down to being super persistent, especially if you don't have a ton of capital. Because when we were first getting started, we basically had no capital to pull from. Like we each had $10,000 we had saved up of our own money and that is all that we had to invest with. And so Sasha spent a ton of time calling everyone she could off market and then this one person that was ready for seller financing fell into our laps. And if it wasn't for him, it would have probably taken us a whole nother year of her being persistent.

Yeah, I was getting very discouraged. I mean, it had been months and months and she had been telling me forever, like, you're wasting your time. And I was starting at the point where I thought I was maybe wasting my time too. Like, we were very close to just like going back to just like saving money and waiting till we had like 20% saved up and just going through a traditional bank.

I want to give kudos to both of you, right, for the discipline, the persistency, Because we are in that generation where it's like, if I don't get it this week in 2 hours, I'm out or I give up. Where do you guys get that from? Because I—

She has that. Go ahead.

Where'd you get it? Where'd you get it, Tessa?

Where can we buy it?

I just think I kind of set on a property. I'm the one that was like following up, even if it's like every couple of weeks. That one six family took us over a year. I think it took 13 or 14 months to close. But like, Every like few weeks I would just reaching out and being like, hey, like just touching base. Like, are you ready to sell? Like, do you need any other information? Like, let us know like what you need from us if you want to meet up.

And I think this is also why we make such a good team because she's really good at being persistent and following up and I'm really good at closing the deals. So once we actually get that meeting with the individual we're meeting with, I'm the one who presents all of our information, who articulates to the seller why they should wants to sell to us and hold a note and, you know, get us to that very next step. But if it wasn't for her continuing to follow up, we wouldn't be at that situation where I get to close it.

Yeah. And she's very eager. If after like a couple weeks, like she's not seeing progress, she's like, okay, we're done. Let's move on to the next property.

Love that. And on the vein of partnerships, I know we touched on it. It sounds like you really appreciate certain things about each other and you're leveraging those things, right? Because we always talk about You know, liking things and appreciating things, but it's about leveraging, right? Those, those skills so you can grow the business, right? That's the key. So when you haven't seen eye to eye, what was it? How did you work through it? You know, because there's a lot of that that happens in partnership. We all know that.

Yeah.

We were about to do the laundry here.

Yeah.

But the skills on, on how to move through that is critical in this business. So, you know, curious to hear that if you don't mind sharing a, example of what happened, what was the breakdown, and maybe how you— not maybe, how did you move through that to get to the other side together?

Okay.

So one thing that's kind of ongoing with us that I think we have finally started to find a good compromise for is that I am very type A, very structured, very— I want to know exactly when this is getting done, how it's getting done, where it's getting done, all the details. And Sasha is very go with the flow. Chill, it will get done. It's okay. We don't need to know details. So the compromise we ended up coming to is that now we have a Google Calendar and it's a shared Google Calendar. And so now we both have access and we've both gotten in the habit of just sticking things into the Google Calendar. So that way I don't need to harass her and try to get information out of her. I can just look on the calendar and see when it is we're planning on doing this thing and who is planning on doing it. We assign names to certain tasks. Because we also, you know, butt heads about tasks not being divided evenly. And so now we've really tried to make it a lot clearer and assign specific things to a specific person. I think it's been helping us a lot. I mean, we've done it for a few months now and we definitely butt heads less than we used to. I love it.

And just like based off that, like, I mean, we just spend like so much time together that like we're bound to have like disagreements, like even outside of work, like we just spend like most of our days together. So I mean, like, I feel like anything that, like, comes up is just like little bickering that we, like, quickly get over.

That too. Yeah. We've been best friends for 20 years, so it's one of those things that's just— you're together all the time or you're talking all the time when you're not together. And it's either work or social life, but it's always us communicating.

Awesome.

I love that you took the risk to partner together and you keep working on it? Because that's a unique— I think that's unique for a lot of people. They don't want to put the friendship at risk or what have you. And I think that happens a lot, no matter what your age is, especially probably harder when you're older, you know.

I know.

So it's been 2 and a half years now that we've been partnered together, and my— all my family and all of our joint friends were like, don't do it, just stop doing it, stop working together, it's okay, do your own thing. And we we just work well together. We are able to grow and scale in a way that I don't think either of us alone could do as easily or fluidly as we've been able to do together. And now our portfolio is like around 25 units now.

So we've been able to really scale well and it's just more fun doing it together. That's true.

Yeah.

One of our more recent purchases was a duplex right down by the beach and we had such a great time this past month just like setting it all up. It, we're turning into an Airbnb by the beach, so We were setting it all up. We were decorating it. We were going to the beach in our free time. So I mean, if either of us were doing it alone, we definitely wouldn't have nearly as good of a time.

Send pictures to that friend that moves out of state. Say, hey, could be here with us at the beach.

See?

I know we should.

That's right. Could be a private money partner for you in the future, right? Yeah. That's great. I love your story. I'm excited to see what happens for you both. And I think you got a great foundation. And a great attitude. And it sounds like just a great model too, and you're going after it. So where can the ladies listening learn more about you both and follow you both on your journey?

Thank you. So yeah, we are on Instagram and on TikTok with the same handle. TikTok is fairly new, so bear with us on that one. But Instagram, we've been on for a while. So it's ZoeandSashaInvest, all one word spelled out. So Zoe is my first name and then the word and, and then Sasha, S-A-S-H-A. H-A, and then invest.

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, and we're going to always start with you, Zoe. The first question is, what's the most transformational book you ever read?

I think Sasha is actually better at answering this one. She literally reads all the time. So go ahead, Sasha.

So, well, I think the one book that we both read that has really helped us was How to Win Friends and Influence People. It's definitely helped us in like speaking with sellers and with the whole seller financing and just getting people on board with like what we want them to do.

Awesome. The second question is, what's the most powerful routine that you do to create a financially free and balanced life? Whatever balance means to you.

So we both have different things that we do. For me, I have been trying to develop new hobbies and make new friends in other ways. So I am now rock climbing, I'm crocheting, doing all sorts of new things I haven't tried before. And I have this big circle of, you know, rock climbing friends. I'm also volunteering, so I've circled friends there. So just filling my time with things besides work has been really helpful for me to feel more balanced in life in general.

Yeah. So a big part of my routine is that every morning the first thing I do is I go for an hour-long walk with my dog, and that's kind of just like my me time when I just like plan out my day and everything and try not to like think too much about work and just like, that's like my relaxation time every morning.

Love it. Last question. Which woman, famous or not, has inspired you the most?

So this one we discussed a lot, and I think we both came to an agreement that, you know, as children growing up, The one woman that was always around that was doing business things and real estate and all sorts of cool investments was my aunt. So her name is Alicia. She is killing it in the world, and she right now is in Mexico investing in all sorts of luxury condos and renting them out short term and just doing awesome stuff.

Look at that. We started with Alicia and we're finishing up with another Alicia. Maybe you should have your aunt coming through. The podcast to tell us how she does short-term rentals in Mexico. Let's get her.

She would love that.

Let's get Alicia here, people.

Thank you so much for being on our show. We so appreciate your time and sharing your wisdom and the wisdom you have gathered in working together and building, going after your dreams. So thank you for your time and excited to see what's next.

Awesome. Well, thank you both so much for having us.

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 it 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.