In this episode of the Cedar and Porch Real Estate Investment Podcast, host Shona Lepis interviews Portland‑based husband‑and‑wife team Kurt McLaughlin and Jennifer Florent, founders of Invest Northwest. The conversation traces how the duo responded to the isolation of the COVID‑19 era by launching a face‑to‑face monthly meetup, which later evolved into a full‑day investor conference. Kurt describes his role as the visionary who generates big‑picture ideas, while Jennifer acts as the analytical integrator who handles details and execution. They explain how the conference is priced to be "pay‑for‑itself" and how its greatest value lies in one‑on‑one conversations with speakers. The pair emphasize the power of community‑driven learning: networking, mentorship, and exposure to diverse financing, sourcing, and investment strategies. They discuss common barriers for new investors—analysis paralysis, fear of being exposed as a fraud, and limited perception of opportunity—and offer practical advice to overcome them, such as reaching out for coffee, attending multiple meetups, and taking small actionable steps. Throughout, they frame luck as the intersection of preparation and opportunity, illustrating this with anecdotes about Olympic athletes, lottery winners, and everyday "unsuspecting millionaires." The episode showcases how showcasing real renovation projects—from bare‑bones construction sites to fully staged homes—serves as an educational platform, reinforcing the message that real estate success is built on consistent preparation, community, and decisive action.
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Welcome to the Cedar and Porch Real Estate Investment Podcast. I'm the host, Shona Lepis. Follow along as we unpack and demystify real estate investment strategies through expert interviews and personal experience. From how to find off-market deals to creative financing to long-term and midterm rentals, our goal is to educate and inspire others to gain financial freedom and generational wealth through real— All right, I am super excited to have the power couple on, Kurt McLaughlin Shannon and Jennifer Florent. They are super active in the Portland real estate investment community and they are founders of Invest Northwest. And they're just really interesting people doing cool stuff. And I will let them do some intros and chat about what they're up to.
Hi, I'm Jennifer Florent. I am a licensed realtor. I'm with Keller Williams. Do a lot of investment type real estate. Mostly lots of running numbers and analysis on that end. And selling our finished products when they're ready to go.
I'm Kurt, and I have a heavy construction background, so that's pretty much what I've done most of my life is both commercial and then residential real estate. And then more recently I found my kind of passion for design, interior, for especially for residential property.
Awesome. You guys are like the perfect couple. Those two like backgrounds are like super valuable because you got to run numbers and design is so important. You guys do so much, and I'd love to focus on what you've done from building a community. Like, I think that's so important. I think sometimes we forget that, we get so caught up in our own kind of stuff. But do you guys want to talk about how you founded Invest Northwest and the conference you have coming up, and what was the inspiration behind that?
Yeah, I'm a visionary. I don't know if people know, that's a term used to describe what some people would typically say an artist is. So details are definitely a hard thing for me to gather up. So we constantly have a lot of ideas and big picture stuff. And then, yeah, as we started down this investing road, one of the things that was going on was COVID and the community just wasn't here. There wasn't a lot of interaction with other people and I just wanted more information. I really just wanted a jolt of, of seeing other people as well. So we decided that we were just going to start a meetup, that meetup, that monthly meetup, just to see people and interact with others that are in the same space that we're in. And then that rolled into, we don't have a conference or any big event here in our area in Portland and Northwest that's really helpful to gather all this information. And then Jennifer stepped in and had the ability to organize some of that and follow up with all the little details that I am definitely not good at.
That's— yeah, it's a whole EOS thing, the integrator and the visionary, right? Yeah, that's it.
Yeah, I try to integrate.
I'm a firm believer in education and networking. And when I first heard about the conference, conference, I was like, oh, this is my backyard. It's 15 minutes away. It was really exciting. So I guess just speaking to the power of education and networking and your guys' journey, how do you think that's helped you along, or what have you gained from it?
I tell people all the time, people ask me what we get from the conference, and really it's a, it's a pay-for-itself event. So we charge just enough to get everything covered and make sure everybody gets a really valuable event without having to buy junk when you're there. And the biggest benefit I get is the one-on-one time with all of these speakers. Like, it's just almost invaluable to get to have these conversations, get to hear their thoughts. It's one thing to listen to someone present for an hour, but it's another thing to have this kind of off-the-cuff conversation for just hearing their real thoughts without putting stuff together. So that's probably the biggest benefit I feel like I get from creating this network and with Sahand.
When we started our first meetup, it was pretty much very intentional that we did it face-to-face. That's why our— it's really called Face to Face. It was the middle of summer 2021 and everybody was still wherever they were and nobody was really doing anything. And so we had our own projects. It's not like we had to meet at a public space or anything. So we started our meetups at our project houses and went from there and did a lot of— did the monthly one after that and The more that we did that, the more it became apparent that we needed to do something on a larger scale in Portland because there really isn't anything as far as a formal conference goes in the investor space. There's some other events that happen here and there, but I don't think that anything that's a full day event that gets you so much content. I'm sorry, our dog is a—
he wants to contribute.
But yeah, so the networking itself is just— I don't want to say it's not necessarily like the opening the doors thing or anything, but it's just like the connection between all of the different facets. There's a million different ways to do real estate investing. There's a million different ways to fund it. There's a million different ways to source it and everything. And this just brings everybody together and lets people cross the right paths at the right times and gets everybody to come together and share what their focus and skills are and put those pieces together.
I love that. I forgot, like COVID, I remember I started during COVID too, and I was so eager for connecting because everything was on Zoom and I was like, yeah, I was like, oh, there's a networking event. It's really—
that's kind of like getting the— we were getting that from some other people too, and we're just like, all right, whatever, we have our own venue, let's just do this.
So I think it's really original that you guys are hosting it at your own spaces that you create, because I think people love to see that finished stuff, and you guys do beautiful work, and that's mostly— it's like at a bar or something, but to actually be in the space and get to show it off and—
yeah, we've done it in all different, all different phases, you know, just to the studs and eating off of literally sawhorses plywood across the top or with tacos and stuff and then halfway finished to completely on the market and staged.
So, yes, going from that, those points, right? You see this beautiful product and behind the scenes is pretty messy, right? You don't always see—
Yeah, real life HGTV.
It's like you just see the beautiful tile and it's just like you flipped your fingers and it was done, right? I love also that you guys are just about taking action and I think that's really important. I think there's so many strategies and the toolbox in this industry is really big. So what are some of the things that I think maybe a newer investor could take away to get started, like from this conference maybe? I think that's sometimes you get overwhelmed by all the options out there.
Yeah.
What I see a lot of people is they lurk on the Facebook forums or the other forums trying to get some information, and I think they don't quite understand how much other people want that connection as well. And so just reaching out and finding a way to have coffee or meet for lunch or get into a meetup, I think most people think that there's like some formal setting and they get asked these specific questions. But personally, I find the most value comes from even with talking with mentors and talking with coaches, like just that average conversation that every day, oh my God, I was feeling this, leads to some epiphanies that wouldn't have come up in like a, these are the 10 questions you ask every day. It's, we were at an event a few weeks ago and made me go back to my notes in a phone and One of my notes, I'm not sure why I even got into it, was talking about the raindrops and the consistency of the raindrops are what cut holes in rocks. And those little things that we hear that kind of speak to us that are not these typical set keynotes or words of wisdom that we hear from the Robert Kiyosakis or the Brandon Turners of our world, but just they come from everywhere and they have huge impact and different impact for different people. And so that same note, like as we build our own tribe tribe, like we get to have experience from everybody else that's in our area or region, or we're doing the same thing. And it, those things mean who you're using for your financing, who you're using for contractors and who your wholesalers, what strategies we're working on or what's coming up. When we get stuck in one little avenue and one venue, we only use one contractor, we only use one bank, we only do one strategy. Pigeonholes us into what the 2008 market crash was, like stuck in this one thing. And the reality is that there's so many ways to make money and to be successful, but what we're comfortable with is what we typically do. So the more we get introduced to those things by other people doing it, the more it opens our mind and we get expansive curiosity to try new and different things. And security by having someone who's done it that way and the ability to ask questions and partner, go down those avenues without actually just jumping off this cliff and building a parachute on the way. You get to have, you get to hold, you get 6 people to jump off the cliff together.
Yeah, I think a lot of, at least on my side, he's the visionary, I'm more of the analytical integrator type. And that, with that comes the whole realm of analysis paralysis. And I think that a lot of new people that have no experience really get bogged down in that and don't know how to get over that. And then once that actually happens, you realize, what was I overthinking for all of this time? And it's a lot easier than I thought it was. And I wish I would've done this 2 years ago. That kind of mentality. There's been a lot of that for me, even personally jumping into my first one a few years ago and everything, just getting over that first initial hump. And that's, Basically, the essence of our conference is that action step. Take that one step and, or take that next step. If you're in the middle of a rut or a certain style of investing and you want to try something else, take that step. Get out of your head and find your community and ask the questions and then take the action.
Yeah, especially right in the market shifted so much. I think we all are pivoting, right?
Yeah, absolutely. I think every single one of us is reevaluating and hunkering down in some areas that we know are working. And then really, it's a time to innovate on our plans and be the ones to be able to pivot and show people how to do it. Is where we've landed, is helping people make the connections, be the— being the facilitators of people making those connections and putting this together so that people can do what they want to do and meet the right people and meet the right partners and get on their investing journey or further down their investing journey.
Yeah, for sure. I know last year when I went, I came across Jeff Stevens and I'd heard of him. He was this like elusive— my jaw just pretty much dropped during his whole presentation. It was all about like negotiation and owner carry and it just, it made so much sense. My whole like marketing strategy has changed because of going to that conference basically. I think I was exposed to stuff and then I came across like Greg Pinho, right? At some other event. I think you guys were presenting at that. Maybe it was one of the many. Anyway. But yeah, I think definitely from exposing yourself, and in person too, there's those connections that you just don't get if you're down some YouTube rabbit hole or Facebook group or something.
Yeah, definitely.
I think one of the things people are afraid of in public speaking and networking and meeting other people is being found out as a fraud.
Yeah, I'm not always—
I'm not— some aspect, let me say, I'm not an expert, so no one would want to hear what I say, and I think it's quite the opposite. We don't want to see experts. We want to see people who have succeeded, but we also want to see people who have failed and hear both stories. You can go from zero to a rental. You can go from 10 rentals to 20, and you can go from 30 to zero, and we can survive. It's okay to lose. It's okay to fail, and you're not going to die from it. Did you die? We all want to hear those. I want to relate to those things. I want to relate to someone who's doing it. I want to see like this big mass presentation of how I syndicated 5,000 units and I'm a billionaire. It's just, it's hard to believe.
Fiction is boring.
It is so true. Yeah, you're like, you had 200 doors and it was all owner carry and it just fell on my lap.
And everything just fell magically into place and we all just ran and rode out to the sunset.
Financially independent.
Even when it's not this, it was so easy and it just fell on my lap. Like, Luck. We talk about luck and a lot of people do. It's like luck is really hard work. And when it all falls into place, it's because of all the preparation you've done. Olympic athletes are not Olympic athletes because they went to the Olympics and won the gold medal. It's because they put 10 years of hard work and 5 coaches and the things they did every day to become the luckiest person of the day. It's just not. And so we love watching that Olympic gold piece, but we also love the documentary following them of, oh my God, they got up at 3:30 every morning, 7 days a week. 365 days a year for 4 years. Talk about lucky.
Yeah.
Are you willing to dedicate yourself to be that lucky? It's not the lottery. And there's a reason that lottery winners go bankrupt after 3 years. The millionaire next door that you had no idea was a millionaire lives in the same house with the same 10-year-old car and has the same phone that the iPhone 3. And it's like, these people are these unsuspecting millionaires that Just do it every day.
Yeah, it's that— go ahead.
The best definition of luck that I ever heard was when preparation meets opportunity.
Yes.
And that's basically the essence of it. You can't— sure, there are just random coincidences here and there, but the real essence of luck is those two crossroads right there.
Which is one of the things about the— we— I talk a lot about exposure. A lot of conference content, a lot of our meetup content. We go to other meetups. We go to 4 other meetups regularly, monthly. So that means we host one and go to 4 on a regular basis. And then every quarter we go to essentially an out-of-state event. And every year we go to a big event, a big conference that's not ours. And that exposure helps us see what's out there, see what other opportunities are. Because when opportunity knocks on your door, if you don't know it's an opportunity, you don't open the door. That's one of the biggest things that people who are coming into this, coming into real estate, they're like, and personally my biggest holdback was when I went to my first conference, a fan, Merrill Flip This House conference was like, or event, 3-day event was, I understand getting lucky and getting a wholesale house off the market for 30% below retail, basically at a 70% ARV one time in my life. Like I understand that. But what you're telling me is that I'm supposed to find one of these houses every month? That's impossible, there's not that many. And then you're in this room of 100 people and you start realizing that half of them have done that this year, and you're like, wow, that means that there's 50 of these. And then you start putting that into different markets. It's like, the reality of it is just— for me, it was hard to accept, and it was the biggest limiting belief I had coming into the whole thing. So it just— the eye-openingness of what opportunity could be, and then when it shows up, like, jumping on it. Like, ticking down, get, get the data, do your analysis, and if the analysis is anywhere near— if
