KGCI: Real Estate on Air - An Insider's View of Building Wealth through Real Estate

Episode Date: May 1, 2025

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the abundant investor. I'm Christine Fisk. I'm here with my co-host, Beth Rooney. And we're really excited this week to do something a little bit different. We're going to give you a glimpse into a week into life of abundant investor. A lot of times you probably hear or see one or two of the things we're doing. And this week, we were so immersed in many different client projects and other engagements we were working on. We thought it would be fun to take you through some of the really really cool activity that's happening over here, particularly when it comes to setting our clients up for success. Yeah, Christine, it was that we, you know, it was a fun week. And we have, you know, so many different things that we offer to our clients. And this week, we got a little taste of

a lot of them. So we thought, geez, let's, let's share some of that stuff. I think, um, let's start talking first about real estate investing because I, we talk about that a lot. We've had some really great guests recently about that. And I know you had a big week getting your rental prepared. And, you know, it's great. It's great. So yeah, I'll just start out by sharing a little personal anecdote. I was out at my new duplex that I'm turning into a midterm rental. I've got one of the units rented, got to meet those tenants. They're in there for several weeks. And then I'm working on getting the other unit ready and spending time out of state in New York, upstate New York, getting this unit ready for our next long-term renters. This is also going to be a furnished

rental. So we're in the process of furnishing it, also doing some work on the property itself. So things like when we inherited this property, it had one thermostat in one of the units. So to say that the heat is rising upstairs and there's no way to cool it down as a bit of an understatement. It was very clear we get to get an HVAC person into split the heating. And so those types of things are great to be getting done. And it was a very busy week shopping for furnishings, working with contractors, getting things up and running. And then meeting with local people in the community, which I really love to do

because there's so much benefit to having your network in that community, even if you're not going to be present or planning to do a lot, having boots on the ground is fundamental to out-of-state investing. And for us, we really like to get to know a few key people so that we can lean on them and trust them to manage our rental and to manage all aspects of it going forward. So that's what the first few days of this week look like. And then on the same topic, real estate investing, it's really fun because we have a couple of other things happening there. We have a client that made an offer on a property. She did not get it this time.

However, she's very optimistic, and we know that it's going to happen very soon for her. She's looking also to invest out of state. So guiding her through that process. She's one of our one-on-one clients is very rewarding for us because we're getting to share all of the expertise that we both bring to the table from both the real estate world and the real estate investing world to guide her to that. to that purchase. And then we've got another client we're working with who has a property and has decided to move it from a long-term investment to or long-term rental where she's got tenants in for the year in an unfinished, furnished situation to move that into a short to mid-term rental.

So we're advising her on what's involved in that. We're starting to set the stage for the next steps there so that when these long-term tenants move out, we've got a co-host lined up. We've got a plan in place for getting that place, her property really ready for her next renters. So yeah, so that's great. So that's like, you know, like if we just stop and talk and break that out for a little bit in terms of like, all right, so you're doing your midterm rentals. You're up there. You're learning the process. You're in the middle of it doing an amazing job.

We're using that information to help our clients that we're coaching, right, be able to invest out of state as well. So it's really great. So if you think about real estate investing, I also heard you talk a little bit about community. So I think if you start thinking about, so how are we supporting people by helping them build well through real estate investing? Well, we just gave you a couple of examples, right? One through just building community. It wasn't this week, but we have our, we have. have our investor coffees where we're sharing ideas, learning from one another. We're offering

coaching to our clients that's one-on-one. And like those were two great examples you gave, Christine, one about somebody that's looking to make her first investment. And a second one about somebody that already owns an investment that wanted some advice about the best way to think about actually financing it, maybe pulling some money out of it, and also the best way to use, you that property. So, you know, changing it from a long term to a midterm. And we have several people that engage us on that topic. I think that was really interesting because we saw the opportunity, just to dig into that for a second, we saw the opportunity for that person to optimize their revenue if they were willing to move it from a long term tenant to a midterm tenant. And when

we showed them the numbers, they were very optimistic. And then we also have great partnerships with co-host so we could introduce a co-host where they can be all hands off and be making more money with this property. Yeah, that's so great. That's so great. So a little bit more on that. We offer, Christine and I offer the service of getting the property, sort of doing the analysis like we did, and then getting the property all set up, furnished and stocked and, you know, in determining the best use for that property. And then we have an awesome business. partner one and several more to come that are able to manage the day-to-day or month-to-month clientele and marketing of the property and if they want really

the full property management like you know managing the cleaners and the handyman if something breaks or whatever they may be so I think a lot of people find that to be very refreshing that they're sitting on an asset but they don't really want to get into the nitty gritty and we can we can do the nitty gritty. We can handle that. And they can net a lot more money even after paying for the co-host and for our service of getting it up and running. Right. That's right. It's an initial upfront investment that pays itself back. Usually the furnishing is paid back in the first year to two years. So I do, you know, sometimes even sooner actually. And then we can go in and do everything soup to nuts so

that people can be really hands off. So, you know, there's a lot of interest in passive income. And I think there's also interest in owning other property and in getting invest, investing in real estate so that you can take advantage of the tax writeoffs and other benefits. And this is a way that people can do that. And have it be truly passive because the truth is, if you don't have these teams in place like ourselves and our co-host, then you are being more active. And you never know when you're going to get a call or an email or a text from someone who's standing. at one of your places and has a concern that you need to address right away. And by the way, at one of my other midterm rentals, it's a short-term rental in the summer,

and it's a long-term rental off-season, so it's kind of a hybrid. We had something break with our heat this week as well. So I'll just throw that in there. So we're self-managing that. So my husband has spent a lot of time on the phone with heating companies, trying to figure out how to keep our heat pump working, which was just installed two years ago on a complete renovation and just get to the bottom of how to handle that. So those are the types of things that sometimes come up. And I think sometimes keep people, especially women out of real

estate. And I just want you to know that everything is really figure outable. And if you want to be the one figuring it out, you can hire people to figure it out and still reap the rewards of real estate. Yeah, I love that. I love that, Christine. I think that's so great. And, you know, you again back to community i think that one of the things that's been uh important to us is to create community absolutely and we've done that several ways um we talk about building community where i was in out of state with the the actual people on the ground there but we're doing that in other ways too we're doing that through our investor coffee like you said and we have a vision for building that out even further, right, Beth?

Absolutely, absolutely. And so, yeah, the real estate investing has been a lot of fun. Again, it wasn't this week. It was a few weeks ago, but we've had some one-on-one conversations with people about maybe turning one vacation home into two. And we have great business partners that we work with that are really good about being creative with financing and helping. helping them determine, you know, where's the best place to pull the money from. And then we can

actually also help them buy the property. So we're fully licensed real estate agents. I'm licensed in the state of Massachusetts and Rhode Island. And being part of EXP, we have business partners all across the country. So we made some really nice referrals to that earlier client, we were talking about that's getting investing in her first, her first, her first, first investment properties. The connections that we made were great. So these are personal people that we've vetted. We've met. Christine, you met with for coffee with somebody this week. We really, we're not just, you know, throwing you out to people that we don't know. These are people that are part of our network and that we're on calls with a lot and we feel

really comfortable that you're going to be in great hands if it's not us procuring the property for you. Exactly. That's one of the reasons we joined DXP. in addition to so many others is that we felt like there was a really strong referral network because we knew that we would have a lot of clients that are looking to invest out of state, and we knew that we were going to want to have an easy way to access and get to know agents from across the country and maybe even across the world. So we've been able to do that. And that has been awesome because it's built up community around other things that we're doing.

We're meeting agents that are interested in investing who are coming to our investor coffees. And by the way, we're having one in a couple weeks. You can always check our social media. There's usually a link in our link tree to the next one. And I would say, too, one of the other things we love about EXP is just the model of doing things differently. And the real feeling, I think one of the things, you know, we just love the feeling of it being community over competition and collaboration over competition. We don't have that sense of competing with others locally. We just really don't have that.

In fact, we're really trying to bring to the table and bring to our community outside of Boston a local network of agents who are supporting and sharing ideas. And we've learned so much in the short time we've been at EXP. And then we're bringing other knowledge to the table too. And we just want for real estate investing and the whole life insurance products that Beth is able to sell. We want to bring that to more people. So we're eager to build out our network of local agents. And we just have this vision of us sitting around a dining room table collaborating and having

coffee and laughing and having a great time while building the dream, which is helping clients with real estate. Absolutely. And that's a great segue to sort of that next piece of business that we, you know, the next pillar. We talked a lot about, okay, so real estate investing, check. What about just buying and selling real estate as your primary residence? Well, we're certainly doing that.

And this week I had the great pleasure of working with a couple of buyers. And it's tough right now for buyers, but there are properties out there. So if you're a seller and you're listening, man, this is a great time to be a seller. And if you're thinking about selling and you're thinking, yes, but I don't know where to go, well, maybe put your real estate investing hat on and think about what Christine and I were just saying. You know, maybe you have kids out in college. Maybe you buy a mid-tier rental in their college town. And you spend a month out there.

I know my sister and her husband got to spend some great time renting out at Notre Dame. Their son was out there playing lacrosse. And a ton of the parents rented places just for the whole spring with work from home. They were able to spend so much time out there. And it's just really kind of a fun thing. So, you know, really thinking a little bit differently and putting on, you know, that non-traditional hat. So if you're a seller, we would really encourage you to do that. And for buyers, I'd say, just be patient.

You will find a home. It may take a few offers or it may mean that you don't buy your forever home today, but maybe three or four years down the road you do. And it may turn out to be a great blessing in disguise because now you have another property that maybe you can hold on to by then. And then you can start your real estate investing journals. So yes. With that said with buyers and sellers and working with them and everything that we're doing, we're getting busy. So I love your comments, Christine, about building out our agents because we're going to need

that help. At some point, Christine and I are not going to be able to have the time to do all these things that we're doing. So I would love to see this team of agents, you know, especially people that are newer in their career that want to learn from people like you and I, Christine, that have been in this business for a long time. I'd love to be able to hand off some leads and some buyers and that kind of thing. And I feel like there's a great opportunity for folks and to do it in such a fun and collaborative way. I mean, we're really about, I think everything that we've done in our life has been about

lifting others up. And that's how we see this and envision it. And we're already feeling that being here at EXP and part of this powerhouse group and feeling that collaboration over competition. Absolutely. And I think it goes back to our roots. You know, we remind ourselves of this regularly that we both actually attended the same college. We were both college athletes. So we're really attuned with having a team, being part of a team, leading a team. It's what we both love to do. We're also both coaches. There's just a lot of alignment around that. And we really live by our principles of integrity, compassion, reaching out and helping people to optimize their wealth. And we're like, looking for other people who have those same values and want to be part of a team that is doing things differently, willing to look outside the box. And so, yeah, I absolutely love that. I also want to just go back to what you were saying about buying and selling, especially for sellers, because we've talked about some really creative ideas and we've actually helped some people do this as well. So I really love to show these examples too. You can sell your house

and go rent for a while. If you're looking to downsize in particular, particularly, we talked to a lot of people who are, maybe they've had their forever home or they've been in their home for a long time and are saying, I just don't necessarily need all this space anymore. And that's exactly the type of home that a lot of people we know are looking for right now to upsize on the other side of the coin. And it's a great time to go explore and rent and not be tied down to something. And then you walk away, you've got a lot of equity in your pocket. You could invest in maybe a beach house or a second home somewhere where you might eventually want to. to retire. You might help your kids buy a house. There's a lot of creative things to do with that.

And we can help you think through multiple angles, including a tax, you know, with the lens on the tax side of it and refer you to some of our great tax friends. And like you said, Beth, we've got these financing partners who are super creative and really investor focused. So I love that. I also love the idea of potentially moving somewhere else for a little while, maybe with the intention to come back, knowing that the market could change. And like you were looking at with some of your buyers this week, some condos or some condos out there that there is more inventory of certain types of housing. And we have real insight into what's happening in the local market. And like you said, connections to partners and other markets that we can help people with as well.

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, there are, there are, there is inventory. It's just where the biggest crunch is is that trade-up market in greater Boston. And I know from speaking to our colleagues in other parts of the country, it's like that's where the bottleneck is. And so if you're sitting on an asset that is in high demand and you're thinking anyways, well, I'd love to maybe have a condo in Boston and a house in the Cape, this might just be a great time to make that change. And maybe you rent in Boston for a little bit.

You buy in the Cape. And then you eventually do buy a condo up in Boston. And so you can have, or in the suburb that you, wherever that may be, wherever you raise your family. But there's some nice options in a lot of the suburbs in Greater Boston and in downtown that are even to rent are affordable compared to, you know, maybe the cost of staying in that big house with your big property taxes. So, yes, there's some fun things to explore there for sure.

Another fun thing we got to do, Christine, is kind of shifting gears here is we got to help an investor set up her life insurance policy this week and get that all straightened out. And that's, you know, that is, was a really, we've done this a number of times, but it's just fun when everything happens in one week, you know, for like all these different hats we get to wear. Yeah, this was particularly fun. We've got a great client here who is just getting started in investing and spending more time and more of her resources on that, looking for creative financing options and really looking at a way to optimize her money, the cash value, be able to use that towards real estate in a couple of years. She's going to be able to take out a down payment,

put it on another property. She's already got her first property under her belt. And then, you know, she's talking about maybe her husband and her will be investing together in the future. There's a lot of opportunities there to utilize that and the benefits that go along with this overfunded cash value life insurance policy. So I love that. that. It's really great. And we leverage those policies too. And it's such a great tool for investors. Yeah, it really is. It's actually a very simple tool that people overcomplicate. You know, it's just an account type. So it's life insurance. And why do we use life insurance? Well, we use life insurance because it comes with a lot of built-in benefits. The number one benefit

is that it's protected from taxes by the IRS. They've allowed life insurance. policies to be a place for money to grow in a taxed sheltered environment. Okay, so that's great. Yay, that's a huge thing because your money is now growing. Think of it like a Roth IRA. It's growing in a tax favorable environment. But it's a lot different than that because it has all these other benefits. Like, God forbid, it's life insurance.

So you were to die, your family would get a tax-free benefit that would help them pull the pieces together and be filled. and be on sound financial footing. But it also protects you if you're sick and injured and can't work. And it allows you to access that money. And this is why it's so important. And this is the sort of how the breadcrumbs all lead together. As a real estate investor allows you to borrow from your policy,

and since it's a loan, it's tax-free, make an investment in real estate, and pay yourself back on your timetable, and on your terms, and then let that, and then use that money again. And all the while, because you didn't withdraw your money, you were borrowing from the life insurance company, your money was continuing to grow with uninterrupted compound interest. So this whole idea of an overfunded high cash value life insurance policy is something that is, you know, it goes together with real estate investing like peanut butter and jelly.

And we are more than happy to spend. some time and get you educated. We have some great reading, some great books that people can read. And, you know, it all does come together really, really nicely. Absolutely. Well, we did something else fun this week that's a little bit different for us. Yesterday we got to go play. I felt like, you know what I felt like yesterday, Beth? We were like the sharks on shark tank. Yes. We got to go to Babson College here in the Boston area and where, by the way, Beth, you've got some ties. Yes.

And help in entrepreneurial class of a class of freshmen who are putting together business ideas, they got to pitch us. And so they were in full sales mode. We were the customer. We got to poke and prod them a bit and maybe make them a little uncomfortable in a way that ultimately was beneficial for them and gives them some feedback on their sales pitches. So they're pitching these products that they've developed for a fair in a couple of weeks. And it was great fun working with the students and getting to put some of our coaching

and teaching hats on for a little while. Absolutely. Yeah, that was really fun. You know, Batson is the number one entrepreneurial school. So it was fun to share with them, our entrepreneurial journey and what we're doing here. It was so interesting to see how many of these students were really interested in real estate investing as a career. and to hear their pitches and see them sort of adapt on the fly and make really great changes.

And yes, we left there feeling like, okay, the future's in good hands with young entrepreneurs. And it really was a special treat. And then we also have a fun thing that we're doing where instead of having a Botox party, we're having a real estate brunch party this weekend. So by the time this airs, it will have happened. but my niece is gathering a bunch of her friends together that are thinking about investing in real estate, whether it's their primary residence or they're making a real estate investment. And they really just want to hear the nuts and bolts about what is required.

And so Christina and I are going to go to brunch tomorrow and do that. And we're really looking forward to that. So it's been a fun week. We've done a little bit of everything that we're offering here at the abundant investing. Yeah, and I'm excited for that brunch tomorrow. You know, I think you mentioned Botox. Bumptyches. It's like you heard of Botox brunches. Why not get your girlfriends together and become badass real estate investors together, right? Like to me, that sounds so fun. If I were my 20s, 30s, right, early 30s, I think that would be a really fun way to get together with a group of friends and to just educate ourselves so that we can learn how

to build wealth for ourselves and for our future families and have a good time together doing it and be in it together so that we can support each other while we're in it. And I, you know, I think that's where the future is as well. I really am hopeful that especially younger women will, but all people will be thinking about their future and thinking about the power of real estate and how it can support them in their longer term goals and dreams. Yeah, I love that. I love that. You know, it reminds me of my mom and her friends for years had the blush investment group. And they got together once a month at different people's homes. And they really learned about the stock market and which was great for them, you know.

And they did, in fact, invest in stocks over a number of years. They pulled out a bunch of money and they all had a great trip to Paris. And, you know, it was a nice, it was a really, you know, a nice thing for these women to do. And I'm thinking the same thing like you're saying. Like, why not get together? And we're seeing that when we're having these real estate investor coffees. It's like people want to have other people that they can run ideas by, run scenarios by, and not feel so lonely in this field of real estate investing.

And so if you want to pull together a group of people that are interested in real estate investing, we'll come and get you educated and, you know, help you get that off the ground. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's been a great week and I feel like we're firing on all cylinders here with so much great activity happening. And we're also, we're in February. So I feel like the spring market is upon us as well. And just really looking forward to helping our clients and welcoming new clients in to be able to support them and in all that we do. Yes, exactly, exactly. So if you are a real estate investor, we got you. If you are a real estate

buyer, we've got you. If you're a real estate seller, we've got you. If you are somebody that wants to start building wealth with life insurance, we've got you. And if you're an agent that wants more collaboration, we've got you too. We're here. So reach out to us. We'll put a link. We always put a link in our show notes about how to connect with us. You can follow us on Instagram at the abundant investor. And we'd love to hear from you. It's, you know, the more people we talk to, the better. I mean, when we were waiting the other day at Babson, the woman came out and she's like, oh my gosh, I have this condo. Can you help me? We really want to, we want to invest a little bit more and maybe then use it as a midterm or short-term

rental. We think we'll get a bigger place so we can have our growing family there. And then when we're not there, rent it out. We're like, yes. We can help you with that. Yeah, exactly. Love it. We can help you with that, we can help you even get around the mental obstacles that get in the way. So it's something we don't talk about directly as much, but I think that coaching the ability to see things through different angles and help you see outside the box that traditionally we tend to get stuck in is a real advantage. And it's something we pride ourselves on with all the interactions, also for the agents who are thinking of, you know, I just want more freedom. I want something different. And I want people that think outside the box and are supportive.

we've got to. So I love it. And it's perfect timing because this week was females and athletics. And it's all about empowering women. And that's what we're here to do. And it was a great week. Thank you for everybody that worked with us this week. And we look forward to working with even more of you.

Awesome. All right. Thanks, everybody.