The Insider’s Edge To Real Estate Investing with Esther Reizes-Lowenbein

Welcome. This is the Insider's Edge to Real Estate Investing with James Nelson, the principal and head of Avis and Young's Tri State Investment Sales Group. In this program, you'll learn game changing strategies to outperform the market. James will teach you how to source, execute and capitalize on the best real estate opportunities in New York and around the world. Now, here's your host.

Welcome to the Insider's Edge to Real Estate Investing. This is your host, James Nelson. I'm principal and head of Tri State Investment Sales at Avison Young. Welcome. As always, thank you so much for listening. I know there's, there's options out there. There might not be that many podcasts which deal with real estate investing, but I appreciate that you found mine and I really appreciate it when you leave comments and suggest it to your friends. That's how people find this. And the whole goal of this show is to help you gain the insider's edge to real estate investing so you can outperform the market. That is the title of my book that I am working on with my writing partner, Rachel Hartman. If you did not hear that 12 part series, go back and listen to it. That was the premise for the book that's coming out in late January. Keep checking Back to James Nelson.com for information on how you can pre order. It's only a matter of days at this point. So very, very excited to have that out there. So for today's show, we have with us Esti Lombine. And Esti I met at an event, BizNow's Ascent conference down in Miami, which is an incredible conference, if you all ever have the chance to go. And I was able to witness firsthand how she works the room and working the room, you know, for some people that just means handing out a bunch of business cards. And that's not too memorable. No, but Esti was really great at making connections. She describes herself as a lifetime learner and so it's allowed her to pivot. She was a speech pathologist for 10 years and with a young family, she realized she needed to pivot, have some more flexibility, but also do something to fulfill her and to continue learning. And so she went out, she studied, she became a real estate, a residential broker for starters. Then she learned the investment game and now capital raising. And now she's closed on over 300 million in commercial transactions and she's putting out a lot of great content on her social media channel. So check the show notes as always that you can find@james nelson.com or wherever you're listening to this so you can learn how to connect with her. So we're going to have a brief word from our sponsor and then we'll get right into that interview with Esti Lowenbine.

A Different Approach to Putting Our Clients First Avis and Young's Tri State Investment Sales Group sells multifamily office, retail, development and specialty sales throughout the New York metro area. As experienced thought leaders in their industry, our 35 member group is available to help you make informed investment decisions by advising you on your current holdings or identifying new opportunities in the marketplace. Our one unified team is built on an industry unique platform which promotes unparalleled collaboration and and teamwork. We share core values of hard work, integrity and expertise. We put our clients first providing tailor made strategies to achieve superior results. Please Visit us at aytristateinvestmentsales.com and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram amesnelsonnyc to learn more.

So for today's Investor Spotlight, I am thrilled to have with us Esther Raises Lowenbine, who is founder of Esther Raises and Company. She is also a licensed Realtor. She's an investor and syndicator fund manager. She has successfully closed a record volume of transactions and raised a significant amount of CRE equity across several assets all within four years. She is recognized as a serial networker and has a knack of connecting buyers, sellers and investors. Esther holds a Master's degree from Adelphi University. She's an entrepreneur and a philanthropist. She takes a great pride in her wonderful children. Additionally, Esther together with her husband are extremely active in their community and run a not for profit providing relief for underprivileged individuals. So great to see you. I know we were able to meet up down in Florida at the BizNow event so I can definitely attest that you are a serial networker. I got to see you in action and so it is great that we could reconnect and have a conversation today.

You saw me in my element. Exactly.

Yes. And it always helps when it is 70, 80 degrees outside as well. Wonderful. So maybe for our audience and you've got a really interesting background and I know you do a lot of different things so I'm really excited to get into this. But maybe tell us about where you grew up. What were your interests earlier on, maybe before you went to school? And was real estate a path that you thought about at an early age?

Okay, sure. I started as actually a speech language pathologist. I graduated in 2007 when I was expecting my second child. I worked as a speech language pathologist for about 10 years, I'd say, and for several reasons, I decided that I need to pivot into something else. We had moved from Brooklyn to Rockland county at the time. I also had a son that was born with medical needs, exactly what I had studied for. And I felt like once I had finished working with him, I could not continue in that field. So for several reasons, I decided I just need a change. One of the bigger reasons actually where I just was that I wasn't feeling fulfilled and I was looking for something that would bring me more fulfillment that I wouldn't have to go back to school for. So I'm an extrovert. I love connecting with people, I love getting to know people. And real estate just was like a random choice. I'm like, what can I do that I would love that I don't have to go back to school for? And I landed in real estate. Simple as that.

Wow. So did you know anyone already in real estate or have any experience at all or what? How did you make your first connections? It'd be great to hear about that.

I knew nobody.

Where'd you start? I don't think my podcast was going back then. If not, maybe this could have been your introduction to the business, but did you start just asking around and did you eventually, who were some of kind of the earlier people that you met and what was some of the advice they gave you?

I actually knew no one. Getting started. It's actually funny. People are like, who was your inspiration? I can't point to anyone and say that person inspired me to get into the business. My husband was involved in real estate before I got involved. Not to the extent that I am involved, not to the extent that we are both involved in at the moment. But when he was involved, I did not mix in. I did not find out anything. Like even to the point that when we bought our home about five years ago, five and a half years ago, I didn't even know what a mortgage was. That's how little I knew at the time. Once I decided to get into real estate, I started going to classes. I started, you know, I got my salesperson's license, so I took that 75 hour course and then I just started going to classes and learning. And I'm an avid learner. I love learning. I attended every single class I can get my hands on, whether it was in person, online. I started listening to podcasts. I'm totally self taught. I didn't attend any masterminds or any of those, I just started learning from wherever and from whomever I can.

Amazing. And this is while you had, you said you had two or three children at the time, if I read correctly. Do you have eight now? Is that correct?

That's correct.

Unbelievable. Wow. And you're here with us today, and I know you're feeling a little bit under the weather today and still you can just sense the energy. So it's amazing that you've been able to accomplish all this, you know, while also balancing home life as well. So, so I guess part of the business that was attractive to you was that you could do this on a flexible schedule, kind of learn as you go along. That makes, makes a lot of sense. So I guess. So when you originally got that salesperson's license, and for, for our listeners who don't know, there's no such thing as a commercial license or a residential license. I mean, you could have the same license at least in New York State, where I'm licensed as a broker and I'm licensed in a couple other states as well. So. And it's pretty much the same thing where whether you want to go rent an apartment or go, you know, lease, you know, the World Trade center, it's the same license. So you end up getting your license, but then you need to get sponsored by a brokerage firm. So did you, did you go straight to EXP then? And if so, what, what kind of shop was that?

Just to backtrack. I graduated from Speech Language Pathology when I was expecting my second child, but I got into real estate when I was expecting my seventh. Actually, sorry, I was expecting my eighth. I was expecting my eighth child. Sorry, yes, about four plus years ago. Yes. Just to backtrack on those numbers, I got sponsored originally by Keller Williams. I joined that company at first and then I just gravitated to EXP because it was even actually before COVID that I just because of my busy lifestyle, I have to be available for my children always that I wanted everything to be virtual. I couldn't go into the office for every single thing. So before COVID I was a pioneer and joined a virtual brokerage. Now EXP became very popular because it is a virtual brokerage and everyone's going virtual in all aspects.

Got it. So in what type of sales or brokerage were you doing and when you started off, were you on your own or did you partner with someone there who, who is kind of giving you training if this, this business was new to you?

I started on the residential side. So I got some, you know, Training as I went along. You know, the first few houses I sold, I worked closely with the mentor in the program, and then I kind of got the hang of it. But then I decided that residential wasn't so much for me. I like getting to meet the people, getting to meet the clients, and showing the houses. But I felt that it was too emotionally based. I'm more of a factual person. I like, you know, situations. Where does it work? Does it not work? Does the investment opportunity work for me? Do the numbers add up versus do I like the bathroom tiles or the kitchen? It got too tiresome for me to take clients around. And also, residential realtors work mainly on the weekends, and that was something that just wasn't working for my family. So I dived full force into commercial. I actually wanted to join commercial to begin with because I knew that would be my strength. But the broker originally directed me to residential, so I said, no problem. I don't mind learning the residential market too. But I always had that in for commercial. So I'm here, and I'm staying here.

Wonderful. So on the commercial side, then, did you start off doing some leasing, doing some sales? What's your area of focus right now for commercial brokerage?

So I kind of just dived in. I kind of got lucky because my husband's family was selling a property, and that kind of threw me into the game. So I worked with a mentor to sell that first property, and then my name got out there. So I started immediately on the sales side. I started transacting lots of properties, even across the nation with other brokers that were licensed in those states. So I just got very involved on, like, a serial networker, as you said, and I just got my hands in whatever I could. And then I sold a property with another broker to a client in Connecticut. And that client had asked me to help them find equity for the property that we sold eventually. And within two phone calls, I found them an equity partner. So I was like, wow, this is really cool. Let me try to do this some more. So that kind of threw me into the equity side of the business.

So I got to stop here for a minute, because you're brand new to the business, you're brand new to commercial brokerage, you're brand new to raising equity, and yet suddenly you're figuring this out. You're connecting everybody. So this first equity source that you found or your network now to raise equity, is this just all a result of the networking that you've been doing in the last year or two? So these are no, outside, as you said, you didn't know anyone getting into the business. So I guess maybe some of these people. We were at a conference down in Florida, There was a couple hundred people there. You know, I'm sure maybe some of those people have been helpful to you.

Oh, for sure. I always find connections where I go 100%. I have. When people say, like, find friends and family with money. Not me, I have no friends and family with money. It was all from the connections that I made being a realtor that I was able to branch out into the next opportunity. And I am a quick learner and I work very hard. So, you know, it's not like, okay, um, you know, information entered her head and, and she was ready to move on to the next thing. I'm really committed. I'm, I learn. I love learning. I'm constantly, constantly, constantly listening to podcasts. I haven't watched a movie in four years. It's either my kids or I'm transacting or I'm learning. So it's either or. And it takes a lot. People are like, wow, everything seems so incredible from the outside. But they, they don't realize the behind the scenes of what, what it takes to get in to every aspect. But yeah, back to your question. It was the equity came as a source. As a source from the connections that I made as a realtor.

That's incredible. And I can agree with you more about the wealth of knowledge that's out there through podcasts. And I, you know, I'm listening to podcasts constantly. And you know, true confession, before I started this podcast about two years ago, I didn't even listen to podcasts. I just, you know, I knew, oh, there's this medium out there, it sounds interesting. And you know, we can do these long form interviews, which I always love talking to people and doing these videos. But you know, with, with, I find with videos, people have a much shorter attention span. It's like, you got two, three minutes, it better be good. You know, if not, I'm scrolling up. Whereas with podcasts, I mean, you can really, you know, get great knowledge and you can do it while you're, you're, you're running or you know, walking the, you know, the babies or what, you know, you know, whatever on the commute. And so it's, there is a lot of great information. What, what are some of the other podcasts that you listen to that might be helpful for our audience?

Oh, I got to be careful there because I've been on over 30, so if I Can't point any out. But the Bigger Pockets, I've been on that one, too. That's a great source of knowledge for anyone getting started on any level.

Actually, they have a massive, massive platform, too. I mean, that. That is, you know, if you were to look at the rankings with downloads, the Bigger Pocket series is, I mean, off the charts, number one. And they've been going strong for, you know, for years. And it's, you know, I can see why you listen to it. And it's very, you know, it's great practical advice, and they get people to call in and it's, It's. It's great information.

Yeah, yeah.

So, I'm sorry, what other shows?

So the Bigger Pockets, they have a branch called the Multifamily Mentor Show. That one's also really good. I was actually a guest on that one, too. Yo. And the Weiss has a phenomenal one. There's so many. There's so many really good ones. I mean, someone could go check on all the podcasts I've been on. I have it on my LinkedIn page, my Instagram page, and they're all great.

Oh, that's awesome.

Good.

Well, I'm glad you're now part of this show. And we've got, you know, we're well over 100 episodes, so there's some great, great stuff out there. And I think that, you know, always opportunities to learn from new people. So, okay, so you raised this equity, and then where. Where do you go? So, so what kind of property was this in Connecticut? You know, what was the equity that you raised? What were kind of the terms? I assume you were compensated for this? Just. And, you know, I know. I'm sure some of this stuff is confidential, but whatever you can share just to give the audience of a sense of how you kind of put the pieces together.

So, truth be told, that that one was a six unit, a property portfolio, meaning properties of six units. And it was a bunch of them. The equity that I raised over there, I ended up returning because at that time, when I raised the equity, I did not know what I was doing. Obviously, the guy had reached out to me and asked me to raise equity. I didn't know what I was doing, so I returned that. I didn't want to have anything to do with that because once I. After that, people started saying, hey, you got to be careful with the sec and you have to. I know all the laws. So I actually went out and started studying all the laws, and now I'm pretty fluent in all the regulations, and I Decided to start a private equity fund for that reason. So I'm working now closely with an attorney, but that was my first experience just getting involved in raising, learning as I went. But now I spoke before I actually started my private equity fund, I spoke to about 14 SEC attorneys just to get their take on it and to see. No, the funny thing is that every attorney says something else, but it's. I deep dive into it and I went full force and making sure that everything's on track and everything that I send out is with my attorney's permission. So that's how I got started.

Yeah, you know, it's great advice to our listeners if you're ever. And I've been involved in a couple funds and you know, having the right counsel on board and the right disclosures, I mean really, really important. I mean there are, you can certainly run amiss there if you say the wrong things, you're speaking to the wrong people. You know, that's where we get into, you know, our investors. Accredited, non accredited, if they're accredited, are they actually, you know, self certifying that they're accredited? Do you have to verify, you know, how many people can you go out to? Is the number of people limited? Blue sky laws? I mean this all opened up, if I'm not mistaken, after President Obama started these, you know, these blue sky laws which was, which were intended to open things up, make these types of investments more available, but certainly with a lot of regulation and a lot of disclosures that are required. So, you know, I think you were smart to figure this out before you started, you know, really digging in. So I saw that you posted on LinkedIn that you just closed a fund with a 506 CLP raise. Sounds like this is a COGP JV Equity Fund. So maybe just if you can tell our audience a little bit about what that was about and what you're planning to do with it.

So that was an opportunity that was more of a fund to fund style.

So I.

It was a property in Corpus Christi, Texas. 580 units that had actually already closed and we were looking to backfill a little bit because the last investor didn't come through. So the seller closed with his own finances and then we came in to fill in the last little bit. That was actually my. One of my smaller raises that I've done. But I was kind of excited about it because it was the first one through my fund. I was working so hard setting up this fund for the longest time and when it finally comes together and you Complete your first raise. It's kind of exciting. So I do a lot of code GP&JV raises that I do. I connect people together, meaning if someone's looking for one sponsor, they're willing to co GP or jv, I connect the two of them. But that wasn't through the funds. Through the fund, it was, it was only limited partners that came on. And yes, they all had to be accredited, which poses its own challenges because a lot of people I know are not accredited. So every type has its challenges. But I was excited to finally reach that goal. So it was exciting to me.

Wonderful. And so for those of you who are listening, who might not be familiar with the terminology, I would go back and listen to the show that I did with my writing partner, Rachel Hartman and Derek Aiken, who also is an NYU professor. And that whole show is on understanding the capital stack. So when Esther's talking about CoGP, so CO General partners. So technically, and correct me if I'm wrong, you'd have one partner who kind of is maybe finds the opportunity, runs the business plan. Maybe the co GP would be the person who's raising the capital, structuring the deal. And then the limited partners are the ones who, you know, are passive but they're receiving, you know, the returns. The general partners, the ones that receive the promote. So it sounds like you're, you found that it makes sense to sit in that GP seat moving forward. But originally the way you were doing is kind of bringing these passive LP partners to the table. Is that, is that fair?

Yeah. I mean, code GPS can either be someone that you know, someone that is either the kp, the key principal that puts the loan on their name. The Code GP can also be an asset manager. The Code GP can also be the acquisitions person. So a COGP can be either of them. Doesn't necessarily only have to be for raising money. And I think you're not allowed to come onto a deal solely for the purpose of raising money. That's one of the laws as well. But, you know, I'm glad I asked the question.

I'm learning things from the show and you know, thank goodness for attorneys too because. Yeah, I mean, I gotta, you know, brush up here, but. No, that's fabulous. And then I see you also said, you know, with all the requests coming your way, your team is gonna be working on several ground up projects. Our latest request is for $160 million raise for a hotel, luxury residence, waterfront development. So it seems like you've come a long way. You've gone from you know, first selling, you know, homes four years ago, then a six family or portfolio six families. And now we're talking about luxury ground up hotels on the waterfront. So is there anything in specific that you can talk to about that?

Just to make it simpler for the listeners, we're actually only looking for 50 million for that one. So if anyone would like to come on 50 million in Miami, a waterfront beautiful property, ground up. It's going to be a hotel and luxury residences. That's my latest raise that we're working on. But I am working on several ground up multifamily projects. I'm working on a ground up retail, working on a ground up industrial. So yes, I started on a smaller scale and now I'm reaching out to family offices and institutional financing, working on raising for all the all assets from multifamily to industrial hospitality to surgical centers. Actually at the event that we went to, I met someone that is investing in surgical centers and I made that connection there. Pretty much all assets of its code, GP and jv. I structure one way. If I'm raising from limited partners, I structure a different way. Everything within legal boundaries and I just figure out how to do what and I just go about it as need be and working hard and hustling away. The only explanation like that I can give is that I have got on my side because the fact that I went from like selling a home to, or actually not even knowing what a mortgage was, I should say, five years ago to now raising hundreds of millions of dollars, it's, you know, it's hard work and it's, I really thank God that I have that faith and it's just been an amazing, amazing, incredible journey.

It's super inspiring. And you know, I know a lot of our listeners to the show are still in college and thinking about how to get into the business and they might not have any connections. So for you to say, you know, look, I didn't know anyone when I came into this business four years ago. I started as a residential broker. Now you're raising funds, multimillion dollar funds. You know, that is what I love about this business is that there's no, there's no ceiling, right? There's no, you know, it really, you know, it's a cliche to say the sky's the limit, but you know, the deal sizes and what you choose to work with, I mean, it's really, no one's stopping you, I'm sure, you know, no one's saying, well, you know, you were a residential broker. What you know, what do you know? I mean, if you have the deal, if you have the investor, you know, that's kind of all that matters, you know, whether or not you've been doing this four years or 40 years. So this recent fund that you're raising. So are you the manager then? So are you actually running the fund and then you're going to be raising money. This one sounds deal specific. Or you've got an opportunity, so you're raising money for this one specific. So is the general partner. You know, they brought you this opportunity. You're the lp and you're bringing all these investors together, or how are you structuring that one and how are you compensated?

Yes, every deal is different. Every deal is a deal by deal situation. I am. My fund is a. It's a Delaware Series LLC. So I can have several SPVs within one fund. So I can reach for several deals simultaneously. But it's all deal specific. Maybe one day I'll do a blind pool fund. I feel like in order to. I mean, I trust myself, but in order for people to trust me, I think I need to do a few funds that are deal by deal before I go ahead and do a blind pool. That's what I feel.

Coming from someone who raised two blind fund blind. And what we're talking about is, you know, raising money for a concept, a thesis, call it discretion within a box. But there's not specific deals. You're going out and raising money to go invest in a specific strategy. But, you know, a lot of challenges. I mean, first of all, if you've never done this before, investors are saying, well, hey, I'd rather try things out on a deal, one that I actually understand and know what it is before I just go in blindly. So, you know, the flip side of that is, you know, if you do get. And it sounds like you're well on your way to get this experience, when you do have that blind pool fund, you know, that is, you know, any investor's dream, because then you've got that capital where you don't. When you're out there bidding and you're looking to buy, you don't have to tell the owner, oh, well, hey, I need some time here because I gotta go raise the money. You know, you got the money. That is discretionary. You can move a lot faster. But I would agree. I mean, even in my partners, in the last two funds I did, one of my founding partners ran a giant fund at ing, major institutional experience, sat on the board at Brookfield, and still it Was like, okay, it's still tough to convince people to commit. And these funds can, in some cases, were 7, 10 years old to commit without seeing something. So I got to imagine finding the specific opportunity is, you know, certainly is helpful to get started. So, I mean, I know you've probably already answered this question, you know, but I'd like you to kind of be a little more specific with when you say you're a serial networker and, you know, it seems like a lot of these opportunities are coming from people who you meet. The capital is coming from people you meet. So, like, what are you doing that other people are not doing to make all these connections in a very short period of time?

Well, I am out there. I'm out there on social media. I'm out there in person. I don't stop, you know, even. And if I can do it with eight children, no one has an excuse. So I'm out there constantly networking, whether it's online or in person, meeting new people, learning. It's literally nonstop. I live and breathe my kids and work, and I also happen to love what I do, so it really helps. It takes a ton, and it also takes a lot of trust. Like you said, those investors that were coming in, it all takes a lot of trust. I feel like another reason I wanted to do a deal by deal specific fund was because I'm very transparent. I want everyone to be able to see the opportunity they're investing in. And I feel like also me sharing a lot on social media about my personal life also enabled me to gain people's trust and kind of made me more relatable to people. So maybe that gave me more of an in as well. I don't know, it's just my guess, but I really, you know, work hard and have a lot of faith in God that things will work out. So I guess the combination of the two.

Yeah, no, and I know again, you're active on social media channels, and that doesn't mean, like, I mean, you're posting real content and real thoughts, and I see you've put out some white papers, and I think sometimes when people hear, oh, you're on social media, you just going in, scrolling through, you know, liking people's posts, making a couple of comments like, no, you are. You're not a follower. You're someone who's actually posting content and building an audience. So that's. That's. That's super helpful. And I think it's.

Well, I do do both. I do both because I do, of.

Course, you want to Support other people. You want to comment, which is important. Yeah, but the point is you're also, instead of being reactive, you're being proactive, you know, so you gotta, you gotta do both. So.

Yeah. Another, another key to my success also was that my husband kind of like started noticing. I mean he was always noticing what I was doing, but he kind of like got more involved and he took, he started investing more on his own. He, we kind of joke like he became my biggest client right now because we're actively purchasing our own deals. So that kind of like also like really like motivated everything and pushed it through. And also just the support that I was given from so many is incredible. You know, just helps me go forward and people have faith in me. So that really like, it really gave me that boost to continue going.

That's awesome. So what type of investments are you doing with your husband now? What type of properties?

So we're purchasing office, industrial, triple net retail properties nationwide. We actually just closed on a mall in Connecticut. We went under contract on another one. Yeah, constantly things happening.

What's the thesis? You know, are these. So you're finding these opportunities like the mall in Connecticut, was this something off market where you met somebody, you found out about it, or did you find out about it through another broker? Just because a lot of our listeners are very interested and you know, hearing about how you source opportunities, how you find things, how did you know when you found it that it was a good deal and anything you could share on that.

Sure. So we actually partnered with somebody, which was also a lucky thing. We had. We partnered with someone that had transacted a lot of real estate himself and he had a lot of in. He had a great in with a lot of brokers. So he was receiving off market deals from brokers and that kind of threw us in as well. I also sourced some deals for the team. It's my husband and a few partners. I also source some deals through my networking. So yeah, that specific deal had a food anchor chain, so it was appealing. You have to be careful with retail. And even office is very location specific. So we kind of like dive into the deal by deal situation. But those are general criteria. We are looking into purchasing land right now as well to build industrial properties. We're pretty opportunistic.

So yeah, I would, I would say especially if you're doing office as well. So. So maybe talk about some of the office opportunities you're looking at. I mean, I know there's a lot of concern now coming out of this pandemic on, you know, what the return to work is going to look like and hybrid. And so where, where are you looking for these office opportunities and kind of what it, what does that profile look like?

So office has to really boil down to the location and the tenants. You know, you could even have an office that's good in one block and the next block over. It's not good. So it's very, very specific. You have to have great tenants with long leases and it has to be in a flourishing environment. That's the bottom line.

That's great. Yeah. And are you, you're looking to find opportunities? I mean, is it, is it a numbers game? Are you seeing a lot of deals and are these all things that you're kind of, when you're sourcing them or digging up again, are these from other brokers off market? Are you finding them online? How are you going about finding these opportunities?

So, like the rest of the world, we prefer off market deals, right? Everyone's like, off market, off market, but we are working with a bunch of brokers. I have people, because I speak so much and I'm out there and I'm kind of loud. I have people presenting me deals. So that's come my, it comes my way, too. Just from all the networking and podcasts and speaking and social media posts I've put out. Things are coming my way. Yeah. What was your other question? Sorry.

Well, I just, I mean, it's fantastic. You have so many different things going. So what, what do you, you know, if you're thinking a couple years down the road, five years down the road, I mean, what are your goals? Where would you want to see yourself?

So that's a really funny question for me because if I were to look at myself five years ago and ask myself, where do I see myself in five years? I would have never imagined myself in real estate at all. My HUSBAND LAUGHS he's like, I would have quicker imagined you on a stage in Vegas then being in commercial real estate. He's like, we don't know where this fell from. Like, it literally fell into our hands. So when I, when people ask me that question, I kind of say, like, I'm enjoying the ride. I have no specific goal in mind. We're just, you know, moving along and transacting and pivoting as need be having fun doing it. Obviously it takes a ton of work and every, every once in a while I crash and get sick like I am right now, because it is a lot of work and I have a lot on my, on my Shoulders. By now I am learning to delegate and I just hired someone amazing. So things are growing. You know, I plan on going far. That's my five year goal. But the exact number I don't have aiming for the moon.

I can only imagine. Like you said five years ago, you weren't even in the business and even, you know, weren't even considering it, so. Well, with only a couple, you know, few minutes left, I mean, what. It's kind of been the theme of everything you've been saying. But what advice would you give? Especially, you know, typically I would say for, you know, college students or someone looking to get in the business, but how about for all the, you know, the parents out there, you know, if someone, you know, with kids and being able to manage it all, what would you say to them? And I know you said that you've got two priorities, it's your kids and, you know, work. But. But like what, what does that actually look like? What, what is your schedule? Because, you know, getting the kids to and from school and you know, I don't know, I didn't ask you the age ranges, but you know, I've got three and mine are older and it's like, you know, I was home alone this week, weekend with just two of them and. And I'm like completely burnt out. So, so I, I'm just. What advice would you give to them? How do you find the time? How do you make it all work?

So my children are between three and a half to 16 and I have eight. Yeah, it is super hectic and not one no day, no two days look the same. So every single day has its own struggles and juggles. I became as easygoing as possible. It's the only way to go about it. You just kind of flow and you work hard but you, you can't like think too much into anything. I do have my life totally changed though, as in the last two years. I haven't cooked or cleaned my house or done laundry in the last two years. I have some help at home because I work so much. That's the only way I can do it. Hiring as need be. I pretty much, I'm there just to give my kids the love and attention that they need at this point and just be there for them emotionally and physically. But I hire as much as, you know, as as much as I can. And my advice to others going in there is do what you love because you know, any. And also you don't have to know exactly going, let's say college students going to college you don't have to know what you plan on doing for the rest of your life. Like, I started as a speech language pathologist. It served me well at the time. I have no regrets. Yes, I did decide to change careers and I pivoted accordingly. Life happens, life moves on nothing. You don't have to have anything set. Like, people leave college and they think that they have to have their life figured out as they go. It's not the case. You know, you pivot accordingly as long as it works for you and your family. Like, for me, my husband had a job. He was, his income was. He was doing well. So I was able to take that time and go into real estate because people know that when you go into real estate, you don't make money initially. You only make commission that you earn if something works out. So you have to have that flexibility and ability to do all that work without getting paid initially. So that is a pro that I had going for me. I had my husband bringing in the income so he wasn't relying on me. It was something that I actually started as a hobby. I wanted more for myself. Like, I didn't feel fulfilled. So I started doing this as a hobby. I started doing this out of passion. So do something you love and work hard, network. And it takes a lot. It takes a lot. So you have to just keep on going at it.

That's incredible advice. Well, Esther, thank you so much for sharing your story with us and our audience. I know they're going to get a ton out of this and super inspiring. If our audience wants to find you on social media, where's the best place that they can follow and see what, what everything you're up to?

I'm on LinkedIn. I'm on Instagram as Estee Loewenvine. LinkedIn as Esther Risesloinbind. I'm on Facebook. You'll find me. I'm pretty active on those platforms.

Wonderful. Well, thank you again for joining us today and thank you to our listeners for tuning in. This is James Nelson, your host of the Insider's Edge to Real Estate Investing. If you have not already connected with me, please do so at James Nelson NYC on LinkedIn, Instagram or Twitter. And finally, please check out James Nelson.com if you have not already. I built this site for you to give you the inside edge to real estate investing. Until next week, thank you again for joining.

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