She Got FIRED… Then Built a 7-Figure Real Estate Portfolio!

What's up, y'all? It's your girl Nichole Briscoe, aka the Mobile Home Mommy. And guess what? Today I have one of my real estate sisters with me, Miss Andrell Harris. I love her so much, y'all. Thank you. So Andrell is a 7-year veteran. Figure real estate strategist. My sister owns mobile homes, group homes, traditional real estate. The girl do everything. And guess what, y'all? I got so much to share with y'all. But guess what? She's not my real sister. I met her off the internet less than 6 years ago. But we're going to get into that. So without further ado, Ms. Andrea Harris, I want you to introduce yourself and tell the people who you are and what you do.

Hey, everybody. My name is Andrea Harris. I am a strategic real estate acquisition specialist, and I specialize in helping corporatepreneurs transition with real estate from their 9 to 5 using real estate investing strategies. So that's me in a nutshell. So to all my corporatepreneurs out there, 9 to 5ers, I'm your girl.

But tell the people what corporatepreneurs are. Okay. Because I feel like you made that up.

Um, it's actually a term that's been on the internet, but I kind of, I kind of like adopted it. So I consider a corporatepreneur someone who has one foot in corporate And the other foot out in entrepreneurship.

Okay.

Okay. So you combine that together, you're in corporate, but you have that entrepreneurial spirit. So you put it together and you're a corporatepreneur. So that's the term that I call it. So those are my people.

Okay. Okay. So tell me your journey from being a corporate 9-to-5 worker into full-time entrepreneurship. Because, you know, we both were struggling, kind of struggling, kind of like, can I make it outside being an entrepreneur? Yeah.

We actually left the job at the same time. So that journey for me looks, it really looked like, you know, you're getting fired from a lot of jobs to kind of understand that I was kind of meant to work for myself. So it was a lot of trial and error, but I kept seeing people and I was like, I want to do this.

So wait, you was getting fired? Hold on, you kind of stayed right there. You was getting fired?

I was getting fired and I'm a good person. And so I was like, why am I continuously getting fired from these jobs when I know my heart is pure and I know, you know, They have their own set of rules. I just didn't fit into that. And so I said, you know what, let's take a deeper look at things. Because one thing I learned with corporate is that corporate America isn't loyal. So, um, from my first job that I had, when the market crashed, they shut down. I didn't see it coming. So that job taught me you got to secure your own butt on the outside of corporate. So that's what I did.

Okay.

Okay. And so I decided to research things. I was looking into different opportunities to get into. So I was in What is it?

MLMs.

You know what that is?

Kind of like you make money, but you make other people money.

Exactly. Like the pyramid scheme. The Mary Kates, right? So I was in all of those things.

Some of our people are Mary Kate consultants now. Hold on.

So I was just trying to figure it out. And I looked at the lifestyle that they had and I was like, okay, I want to do that. But something in me said real estate. And I knew that real estate was going to be that ticket. So I started reading Rich Dad Poor Dad. And so that opened my eyes up. So at that point in time, I was trying to figure it out. Back in 2009— well, 2006, I went to school to be an agent.

And what happened?

I quit.

Because why?

I didn't want to be an agent. I only knew about getting into real estate, going in to buy houses and sell houses.

So you thought you had to be a real estate agent. I didn't know.

I thought I had to do that. And the instructor said in the class, if you want to invest in real estate, you do not need your license. And that was it for me. And so from there, I was like, well, how do I get started? Because I don't have money. I don't have credit. I don't have any of those things. So I started educating myself, plugging myself in different types of rooms. Okay. Okay. I went to a REIA, a Real Estate Investors Association.

How did you find these REIAs and these groups? Because a lot of times we don't have people in our circle that are on the same page.

Good question.

So how did you do that and navigate that solo too?

That was— and you said the keyword solo. So when you're on this journey, you're not going to have people that's going to go with you. Right? So you have to want it for yourself. And so for me, I was driving to work and I told myself, this is my last corporate job. And when I was driving to work, it must have been divine timing because on the radio there was a commercial and the commercial said something about real estate seminar. So I was like, ooh, this it. You know, I was, I was like, let's go.

It sounded like one of them little seminars that'd be like, don't buy anything, just show up, we'll tell you everything.

Yeah. So that's what it took. And so when I got, and I believe in pieces on a puzzle to your board, like in life, like different things that come so you can patch it together and it makes a big picture. So to me, this was one piece of the puzzle that I needed.

Okay.

Because when I got to this seminar, which by the way, I had to drive an hour out by myself. So it's interesting you said solo because I didn't have friends to go with. So I drove down there an hour. I was the youngest person in the room and I was the only Black person in the room.

Mm-hmm.

And I looked around, I said, I'm in the right room because whatever they know, I need to know. And so the instructor of that class, he was talking and he was like, hey, you know, you're gonna be a millionaire, young lady. I was like, you just reconfirming what I already know. Took pictures with him and everything. And then he was like, do you know about the REIA? I was like, no, what is that? Real Estate Investors Association. So at that time I was like, okay, I know I want to invest. Now here's a real estate investors association just for us, not realtors. He was like, I teach there, you should come. And that was my ticket into that room. Okay. So just being proactive with the journey, making it clear like, God, this is what I'm going to do, and then stuff just starts showing up. And I was able to get into that room. And when I got into that room, I met one key person. He said that he wholesaled real estate. That was about 2010 at the time. I said, do you have to have a license? He said no. I said, do you have to have credit? He said, no. I said, I want in. And so that was my first entry into learning about that. And so from there, I was like, it made sense.

So you were okay with doing it solo and partnering with somebody just to figure out how to get it done?

Yes.

Okay.

Now, what, what, what ended up happening is I knew about the concept, right? But it wasn't a lot of people on YouTube. There was no YouTube, no Instagram. It wasn't all those things. So I still— I'm a systematic person. You have to teach me A, B, C, D, and I'm going to do it. Okay. Okay. So I didn't have a mentor, and I was reaching out to several people, but they were busy. We know how it is now because people reach out, well, can you mentor me? We really— it has to make sense. So it didn't make sense at the time for people to mentor me. So I went in, tried to hook deals up. My first deal, I tried to hook up 2 people in the real meeting. I had a buyer and a landlord— well, he was the landlord and the buyer— and I hooked it up with a flipper. I had both of them in the house at the same time. Didn't know what happened. I couldn't tell you. I didn't know.

So they probably backdoored you.

They probably backdoored me. I don't know numbers, no contracts, no nothing. I just knew in my head, you hook up 1 with 2 and you get 3. I jumped out there.

That 3rd didn't come through for you.

It didn't come through.

Okay, go ahead.

So it fell apart. And so I say that to say, because that fell apart and I didn't have that structure, I put it on the back burner. I said, I don't have what I need to kind of keep this going. I don't have a mentor or anything like that. So I put it on the back burner. And then, you know, I put all of that on hold. And I found out at that point in time that I needed somebody to help me, in which I later on got the help that I needed. But yeah.

Okay. Good stuff. So from there, talk about, I want to know how you got fired from your job. Quickly, how did you get fired from your job?

So getting fired from, which one? Okay, so the first, well, I'm going to say the most eye-opening job.

The last one.

Well, I got fired from the last one before I moved into entrepreneurship.

Yeah, full-time entrepreneurship.

Okay, so fast forward.

Ooh, child. Good employee, she said. Good employee.

So fast forward to this particular job, which I said, this is my last job working as a corporate professional. I made that decision. So when I got to this job, it was several departments. This particular department was new. Very simple. Very easy.

Okay.

All you had to do was process faxes. That's it.

Okay.

Nothing stressful. Nothing. So when I got into this department, I was half in, half out of corporate, meaning that I had one foot in, but I had my other foot out because on lunch breaks and everything, I would call sellers. I would go to appointments. So in the corporate world, we had a chat. And so on Mondays, everybody's in the chat. Wednesdays, Thursdays, everybody's talking. Me, I'm a cricket because I was already tapped out. I'm already building on the outside of corporate. So I'm like, I'm tapped out. So I guess they picked up on that, right? I was vocal. And this is another thing. You can't explain certain things to people that you're working around, in my opinion, because they may look at it like, oh, you're doing something else. And they may find any reason to try to let you go. And so in this case, My supervisor was the head person over compliance. We didn't have a third party. So in my opinion, based on the fact that I was tapped out of the job, I wasn't saying hey, I wasn't responsive to a lot of things, like culture-wise. And I felt like she felt the distance, but she also knew what I was doing, right? In real estate? In real estate.

Okay.

So I felt like when she was going through picking, because we had to get audited on our work, and she would come back and be like, oh, you messed up here. I'm like, okay. So I went to a first initial and then I just kept seeing a snowball. I'm like, oh, I know where this is headed.

But by this time you were already doing what in real estate?

By this time I already was making more salary-wise, okay, part-time. And I also had my real estate properties on the board that covered my income. And then I also had, in this point in time, I was like, okay, I'm prepared because now I have this residual income, which is what I was after. I wanted that to, you know, go over and I had my emergency fund in place.

So you had all that prepared?

Yeah, I was prepared.

Okay.

Because, you know, the previous job taught me about being fired.

So then now let me ask you this then. How did you transition to building your portfolio? What specific strategies helped you build your portfolio? Portfolio.

I started getting good at finding deals. Okay. That's the thing. Buying good on the front end.

All right.

And then once I started getting good at the front end stuff, I was like, okay, now we got to try to put stuff on the board.

Now we're talking about real estate. She does mobile homes, she has group homes.

And I do a slow flip strategy.

But she does traditional real estate.

Yes.

Real, real good.

Yeah, true.

So how were you finding those traditional properties?

Those traditional properties came by the way of me getting good at finding deals, which were tax delinquents. That's my thing. Tax delinquent and vacant properties are my jam.

Okay.

Okay? So I started pulling lists on those, got good at those, and then I started dealing with deceased owners, which is a whole nother thing that got me into what I'm in now. But those particular properties is where I found the most success and was able to take properties down on my own and then secure them on the board at heavily discounted prices.

Now, I'm not going to lie. I've purchased— I won't say purchased. I've looked into looking at mobile homes and houses with deceased people. As soon as I see it, I run because it makes me nervous because I'm like, if they dead, how do I find these people, etc.? Yes. So why is that your specialty?

Um, I actually— the first properties that I started coming across to hold, they were from dead people.

Okay.

So I kind of got thrown into it. Uh, when I first start— when I say holding, that means buying the property and then holding it for cash flow on the back end. All

right, so, so walk us through the process. How were you finding these leads first?

Okay, so the leads, I would do driving on occasion. I would drive around neighborhoods, okay, um, looking for vacant properties.

Okay.

If they're vacant, then I go and do research.

What's the characteristics of vacant?

Characteristics, very good question, because sometimes we may see a vacant property, right? It could be a landlord that's in transition to get another renter, right? So I look for properties that are more so abandoned type versus vacant. Like, so the difference is code violation letters on the door, high grass, boarded up windows, tarps on the roof, missing mailboxes. Those are things I'm looking for. Broken out windows, roof and tarps and all those things. Now vacant, you can still contact those as well, but I still need a story behind it. So when I say story, are they tax delinquent?

So how do I know if I'm finding a good neighborhood to go to? How do I find a good neighborhood?

Best house on— I mean, the worst house on the best block.

The worst house on the best block?

Yes.

So if I live in— I'm in Alamance County, do I just pull up a neighborhood near me? That's what I'm asking.

Okay, so there's a thing that I typically do too where I say, or look for hottest zip codes. So hottest zip codes mean there's a lot of investor activity that's going on there.

Okay.

Which now with AI out there, it's simple. Now you can go to AI ChatGPT and say, okay, what's the hottest zip codes in this area?

Okay.

So you can find the hottest zip code,

hottest zip

code, a lot of transactions going on in those areas.

Okay. Then you could peruse those.

Or if in the area and it's kind of up and coming or on the verge of being, um, gentrified. So that means it could be like in Greensboro, we have MLK and we're looking at MLK a couple of, you know, just a year ago, it's dilapidated properties there. But then also we got new builds coming up. They're tearing down houses. So that's a prime area to go around because we see activity. They're going in and they're doing new builds.

All right.

So we go target those vacant areas. I mean, vacant properties.

So AI, I can type in hottest zip code.

Yes.

I hope y'all taking notes. And then after I type in hottest zip codes, I'm looking for areas where I see a lot of new builds going up or people buying these, because then I know I got buyers in that area.

Bingo.

Okay. Then I drive around, get those addresses.

Yes.

And then I find out bro man from the 5th floor is dead. Then what?

So if he's passed away, which I love digging, okay? I love digging. I love research. I love complicated stuff like this.

Okay.

Okay. So this was my jam. So I was like, and I love being like a detective. Okay. So sidebar, I wanted to go to school to be a forensic pathologist. It's like putting clues together from deceased people where you got like, if someone drops a gum at a crime site, I wanted to pick it up.

Okay, so AKA you nosy.

Yeah, yeah. So this worked perfect for me. Okay. Trying to piece stuff together. So I was like, okay, wow. So now I still get that aspect of it that I didn't pursue that dream of mine. Got you. Because they were like, I would have to be on call. They would call me middle of the night, like, Detective Harris, we need you on the site. So I didn't want to do

that. Okay.

So no, no, no, for real. So now when I go on to these properties and I see that it's owned deceased,

yes,

now my mind is like, what's going on? Okay, who is the spouse? Okay, is there a spouse? Okay, so ladies, sometimes we know we can find stuff out, right?

Right.

So I put on my, you know, my hat and I went in. Okay, obituary. So if we know somebody's deceased, let's get into the obituary. Okay, what are we looking for? Leaves to cherish. Okay, so now when we find leads to cherish, now we're going to skip trace, meaning we're going to call those relatives, figure out the story on that.

Okay.

So that's how you will begin doing that. Um, there are some deeper searches that you can do for genealogy, but for the most part, I try to go into— and let me give y'all a free site that y'all can go to, is truepeoplesearch.com.

Okay.

I like that site because you can go and put in the owner's name into that website, and in some cases it will say deceased and it gives you the

Okay.

So that's, that's how you can kind of confirm if they're deceased.

So we find out he didn't have a wife, he didn't have a daughter, but he had a stepson.

He had a stepson.

Let's say the wife died too. We found he had a stepson. What does the conversation look like when we find that person?

So typically what I do is I reach out and I tell them, hey, there's a property of a family member that I believe that you own.

Okay.

We're trying to clear title with this property and you have interest in it. So it's like a loss, lost money.

Okay.

Okay. So it's like, it's like lost money, and we're calling them to inform them of this property that we found. And so once we do that, it's a matter of a lot of times, and majority of the times, it's education.

Okay.

They lack education of what do we do with it, because we don't know. They're not taught, especially us. They're not taught, okay, especially if there's no will in place, they don't know what to do. They let the property go, right? So I have to coach them through, uh, what that looks like. And in most cases, um, they there's a probate process, meaning that if they didn't have a will, the state has to determine how those assets are going to be divided up.

Okay.

And so I go in, I talk to them, I let them know their options, and then I, you know, make sure we can get the proper, appropriate team in place, which are attorneys, probate attorneys and real estate attorneys, where they can go in and assist the process with the individual.

Okay.

Now, if it comes down to the offer, now this is the thing.

Okay.

One of the properties that I took down, the first one with the deceased guy, I got in contact with the family member. Catch this, from the obituary. It was an old auntie. She was 90-some years old. And I said, can you put me in contact with someone that I can speak with? She did. He said, sure, I'll sign off what I need to do happily. And he signed the contract. It was a $10,000 property. Sent it to my probate attorney. I'm paying this upfront, by the way.

Okay.

So I paid the probate attorney after I got that one contract. And I said, We want to clear this out. He came back and he said, it's 10 heirs on this property. He's not the only one that has to sign. So now I'm like, well, here's the journey, right? How do I get in contact with the rest of the people? More importantly, you said you want $10,000. So now, you know, when it comes to the other family, they might, we want more than $10,000. Nobody challenged it. I got in contact with all 10 heirs.

And they said what?

Everybody was okay to sign off.

And you didn't have to give them any money?

They all divvy it up to $10,000. They all divvy it up to $10,000. And so that process, it taught me a lot going through that process, the probate, getting it to where the guy can sell off and then pass it on to the real estate attorney.

So before I pay this probate attorney upfront, I need to have people on board to sign because I don't want to be paying upfront if people ain't going to sign, right?

That's right. I didn't do it until I had the contract.

Okay.

Okay. So I had some type of what we call standing interest in the property. And then I did that. And so some— and then like I said, I didn't go in talking like a big-time investor. I was like, would you take $10,000 for it? I didn't run numbers, anything. I just said, would you take $10,000 for it? He's like, yeah, because I haven't seen the inside of it. He said, no problem, let's do $10,000.

Okay. So you got the $10,000, then what happened? What'd you end up doing with the property?

After that, um, one of my strategic ways of doing things, um, is I So I started to investigate or research ways to not be a traditional landlord. Okay? Because when we say traditional landlords, we're thinking tenants, we're thinking toilets. Okay. Something breaks, we have to fix it. So for my first property that I put on the board, I did a slow flip strategy. The slow flip strategy, and good question, you said, what did you do with the $10,000? So after I paid $10,000 for the property, I went online. Okay? I didn't do any rehabs to this property, didn't change the doorknob. I went on Facebook Marketplace at the time. I put it on Facebook Marketplace for about $60,000. And I said, I need a $10,000 down payment. Okay, so catch that. I got my money back.

Got your money back up front.

So I got my money back out. Okay. Um, I did go to a class where they were teaching slow flips, so that's how I kind of learned that. So I'm a fan of learn and apply. Whatever you learn, you apply it.

Okay.

And so I said, okay, fine. Put it on Marketplace, got me a buyer. He came in, he said, don't show nobody else. Okay, he had the $10,000. I had the whole house cleared out.

Payments for the rest.

Payments for the rest.

And interest.

And interest. Okay.

Okay. Now hold on, because I got y'all. Tell me how to do this if I ain't got $10,000 up front. I can't do the slow flip method. So how do I get the money for real estate? Yeah.

Okay.

How do I— like, if I— the same situation, but I don't have the money, the $10,000 up front to just buy the house. What should be the exit strategy?

Okay, so in regards to acquiring the property, if you don't have the money to acquire, then starting out the way that I did it was flipping contracts, which is wholesaling. So that money that I was getting from wholesaling, which you can get like $5,000, $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, $40,000, I knew that that money had to go and be deployed. So my money was never to take it and then park it in a bank account. It's to get it and find a way to put it into some real estate. You're going to plant it. And so all that money that I was getting from flipping contracts, which is the capital, piece, that capital had to go back into something. So I had the money from that to go into that.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

So active income into a passive income vehicle.

Active income into a passive income vehicle.

Correct.

Okay. So to date, if I asked you what was your favorite strategy, what would you say? You like your group home money? You like your slow flip money or your mobile home money? Like, which one is your favorite?

Favorite.

And why?

Okay, so this— I think they all have their own unique benefits. I kind of look at them like kids.

Okay.

Like, you can't— you might have different kids, but—

But you can't say who your favorite is.

Yeah. Okay, so they all serve a purpose.

Okay.

Okay, the purpose with the slow flip, they don't have to call me. I love that.

Okay.

Something breaks, it's not on me.

So you the lender, not the landlord.

Mailbox money.

Mailbox money.

Love it.

Okay.

Okay, so that. That aside, I do have traditional rentals, right? So it still falls into that category of you got the tenants and toilets, right? But that's my legacy portfolio because that's being passed down.

Okay.

Okay. Now, over the traditional rental, it's the group homes because you can maximize the income under one roof.

So basically what I hear you saying is skip all past that. You, you don't have no favorite kid. You love all the avenues of your money.

Yes.

Okay. Okay. But if somebody was getting started in traditional real estate with no money, you would tell them, do these steps?

Definitely. I would say when you're first starting out, learn how to get good at finding deals.

Finding the deals.

That's acquisition. Okay?

Okay.

So get good at finding deals. What does that look like? So for you, it may be, I'm going to go to Google, I'm going to pull up tax delinquent properties in my area or whatever that county is. Okay. You can start there or you can drive. That's your thing. So I would start there with getting good at those, pulling your leads first. And then if you're needing capital, then you can flip the contract.

Okay.

Okay. And then when you start getting the money, you can determine—

Flip the contract means just finding somebody who will buy it.

Bingo. Find somebody selling and flip it to somebody that's going to buy it.

All right.

Okay. So that would be your capital piece. Now I would say when you get that capital, because as I said, you want to take that active, put it into passive because that's where the freedom comes in at. Right. You, you have a choice. It's like a fork in the road. What makes most sense to you? So for me, my first thing was I didn't want any tenants or toilets. I wanted mailbox money. So if you're like, okay, I want to go that route, I don't want you to— if the HVAC breaks down as soon as I get this property, I don't want to be— so if you feel like, okay, I want to be hands-off with my first couple of investments, I will go to slow flip strategy.

Okay.

For that reason, your income is your income.

Okay.

Okay.

So get good at wholesaling. That's my active income. Then I'm going to make it passive income by trying to find some slow flips where I'm still not the landlord, I'm just the lender. But I got money coming in every month.

That's right.

That makes sense.

That's right.

Okay.

That's right. And so then from there, you can scale up to the group home strategy, the shared living model, because you're getting more income under one roof. Okay. So now you're putting it on steroids. I have my, I have my safe income money coming in, right? And then I have more income coming in because it's under one roof. I can maximize that.

Now, the tools I heard you use so far with doing the flipping of the contracts will be finding the zip codes, hottest zip codes, using AI, um, ChatGPT.

Yes. Uh,

then

TruePeopleSearch.com.

Search to find the people.

Yes, that's a free website.

How I find these, this probate attorney or real estate attorney that's willing to work with me as an investor?

Okay, you can go to investorfriendlylawyers.com.

Oh,

okay. So that's going to bring up— because now every state is different when it comes to closing real estate. Some states close it as a title company, some close as a real estate attorney. North Carolina's real estate attorney. So every state is different, but that website will allow you to go and pick up, okay, who's in my area, who's handling this as an investor-friendly attorney or title company. Okay. So that's a free website that you guys can use as well. Um,

Skip— which skip trace website should we use? And how we find obituaries? Do we just type their name in?

You can go to Google, you can put there— what I like to do is whatever state that I'm dealing with, so whatever the county is, I like to put their name and then obituary, or obituary by county, and see what comes up. Now there are, um, you know, different deeper searches that's paid for, but those are the free searches, you know, that you can use.

Okay.

Yeah.

Listen, y'all, this is Andrell Harris. If this has been interesting to you, all of her information is going to be below. You can find her at Real Estate Millions.

_realestatemillions. On Instagram. That's the platform on Instagram. On Facebook, it's my name.

And guess what? She has a school community as well. The link for her school community will be below. Now, like me, she doesn't just throw people in to teach you, she's actually teaching Tell them about your community because I know people are going to ask, how do I find the contracts? Do I have the script? So give us about the community.

So the Real Estate School community I have is from wholesale to holds. Wholesale to holds. H-O-L-D-S. Because we want to get you from active to

passive.

So within that community, you have access to the course. So I start you out with the Flipping Contracts course so you can learn that. And then we also talk about the slow flips. Slow Flips course, that's in there as well. But you have your agreements in there. You have the community to support you in there. I run challenges because I'm a big believer on everybody coming together with that momentum. So there are periodic challenges that go on in the community. We have guest speakers coming in and all of those things.

October 1st is her challenge, y'all.

October 1st. So you better get in there. And so it's— and I try to make it more because we talk education, like we're good educators, but I want it to be more like a a community, a family community. Okay, so I make it so that they can come in and talk and we can kumbaya if we need to. We hop on Zooms and things like that to kind of make it feel more like family while we're learning. Um, so I would say the culture of Real Estate Millions I'm very proud of, and I'm open to having more people come in and join.

All right, well, you all heard it here from Ms. Andrell Harris, the real estate strategist— excuse me, 7-figure real estate strategist. Um, I would love to see you all in her community if traditional real estate is interesting to She has a challenge coming up October 1st. She does challenges all the time, and she's hands-on in her community as well. Until the next episode, see y'all later. Bye!