Episodes

  • Does Hard Money Make Real Estate Investing Easy?
    Feb 25 2025

    On today's episode, Melissa Appleton talks about hard money and private money lending and how both can be valuable tools for real estate investing. Melissa is a certified Hard money broker and funding expert with DeBerry Funding. She also has a passion for real estate investing, specializing in creative solutions for fix and flips, mid -term rentals and ADU conversions. Melissa is dedicated to empowering investors with the tools and knowledge they need to succeed.

    Here are the key takeaways from today's episode:

    1) Hard money is a tool, not a last resort-

    Many investors misunderstnd hard money, assuming it's risky or predatory. In reality, it's a tool that allows investors to act quickly, scale their portfolio, and preserve liquidity for future deals. Knowing how to structure deals correctly makes hard money a pwerful advantage, not a burden.

    2. Financial Freedom requires a mindset shift

    Owning a home doesn't make you a real estate investor. The shift from traditional homeownership to strategic investing-through rentals, value-add projects and leveraging financing-is the key to building generational wealth.

    3. Women are stepping into real estate investing more than ever.

    Women are increasingly taking control of their financial futures in real estate. However, the space has historically been male-dominated, making supportive communitied like Women's REIO invaluable for networking, education, and confidence-building.

    4. Leveraging Other People's Money (OPM) is essential

    Investors don't need all of their own capital to scale. Hard money, private money lending, HELOCs, DSCR loans, and seller financing allow investors to grow faster and smarter while keeping their own reserves intact.

    5. Realtors need to Understand Investment Financing

    Many agents don't fully grasp hard money, creative financing, or investment strategies, which means they miss opportunities to serve investor clients. Agents who educate themselves can package better deals and close more transactions.

    6. Networking & Mentorship are Critical for Success

    Successful investors don't go it alone. Attending local meetups, building relationships with lenders, wholesalers, and other investors opens doors to off-market deals, partnerships, and funding solutions.

    7. Creative Strategies like padsplit and Mideterm Rentals increase Cash flow.

    Traditional long-term rentals often don't pencil out in expensive markets. Alternative strategies like padsplit, ADU conversions, and midterm rentals offer ways to maximize rental income and adapt to changing markets.

    8. Education & Action Reduce Fear and Hesitation

    New Investors often hesitate due to lack of knowledge or fear of making mistakes. However, the best way to succeed is to educate yourself, connect with experienced investors, and take action-even on a small scale.

    Whether you're just getting started or you're looking to make your next move as a real estate investor, I'm rolling out a membership community called the Soulful Investor society (S.I.S) Hop on the waitlist here and you'll be the first to know all of the juicy details, including bonuses and special pricing.

    stan.store/AnnReed/p/you-were-meant-for-moreand-you-know-it

    You can also follow me on IG @annreedandco

    If you'd like more info. about the loan options that Melissa offers, you can find her at:

    www.deberryfunding.com

    @melissahardmoneyappleton

    503.453.6477

    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 7 mins
  • Using the Housing Market to Build Long-term Sustainable Wealth with Beth Silverman
    Feb 11 2025

    On Today’s episode, Beth Silverman shares how she went from $200,000 in debt to building a real estate business and real estate investment portfolio. She believes that anyone can achieve financial freedom and passive income through strategic real estate investments. She’s ranked in the top 1.5% of Realtors nationwide by Real Trends and she’s built a reputation as a powerhouse investment specialist, helping clients find off-market opportunities, maximize ROI, and leverage tools like 1031 exchanges to build long-term wealth. With roots in new construction and REO fix-and-flip, Beth began her career in Baltimore before relocating to St. Petersburg, Florida, where she became a top producer in short-term rental acquisitions, leading the acquisition and sale of over 75 high-performing beach STRs.
    Beth is also a leader in co-living investments, partnering with PadSplit to help investors place 250+ units while championing affordable workforce housing. A sought-after mentor, instructor, and best-selling author, she created “PadSplit Mastery for Realtors”, was named eXp Realty’s Mentor and Instructor of the Year, and is a three-time ICON agent. When she’s not closing deals or expanding her portfolio, you’ll find her enjoying a cigar and the Florida sunshine in St. Pete.

    Here are the key takeaways from today’s show:

    1) Want to Invest? Start With What You Have!
    -House hack with roommates
    -Use an FHA loan (3.5% down)
    -Buy an investment property before your own home
    -Utilize a HELOC on existing equity
    Most people think they need $$$ to start investing. Reality? You just need strategy.
    2) Real Estate: The Ultimate Tax Hack!
    -Depreciation = tax-free cash flow
    -Cost segregation = HUGE tax write-offs
    -HELOCs = funding your next deal
    If you’re making money, you NEED real estate in your portfolio. The wealthy know it—do you?
    3) Investing is NOT One-Size-Fits-All!
    You don’t need to fit into the "guru" model of investing. Ask yourself:
    -Cash flow or equity?
    -Short-term or long-term?
    -Passive or active?
    Your strategy should match YOUR goals, not someone else’s flex. Play your own game.
    4) PadSplit: The Real Estate Hack No One Talks About!
    Want cash flow WITHOUT crazy expenses? Try co-living investing.
    -Convert single-family homes into multi-unit rentals
    -Rent by the room for 2-3x traditional rent
    -Passive income + helping solve the affordable housing crisis
    It’s Airbnb for long-term tenants—but better!

    For more tips, on how to invest in real estate follow your host, Ann Reed, on Instagram @annreedandco

    You can find our guest, Beth Silverman, on Instagram @buildwealthwithbeth

    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 25 mins
  • Jessica Nieto EXP Icon Of The Year
    Jan 28 2025

    Jessica is such a bright star in the real estate industry, and this interview provides a blueprint for building a service driven real estate and investment business while emphasizing the importance of mindset, clarity, and consistent action. With this, Jessica reflects the ethos of empowered leadership in real estate, which surely played a part in her being named EXP realty's icon of the year.

    Here are the top takeaways from today's episode:

    Lead with Service: Build trust and long-term success by focusing on providing tailored solutions that meet clients’ unique needs, whether they’re new investors, institutional clients, or homeowners.

    Operate with Conviction: Shift from “I want to” to “I will” to turn intentions into actions, while maintaining a resilient and growth-focused mindset.

    Cultivate VIP Relationships: Prioritize trust, deliver on promises, and nurture key connections to create a reliable foundation for referrals and growth.

    Take Consistent Action: Progress comes from doing the work regularly, even without immediate results—experience and mastery are built in the doing.

    Stay Laser-Focused: Align actions with clear goals to maximize time, energy, and results, avoiding distractions or spreading efforts too thin.

    Empower Others: Lead with a mission-driven mindset, mentoring and uplifting those around you to create a ripple effect of positive impact.

    Commit to Growth: Continuously refine skills, adapt to challenges, and stay curious, ensuring you evolve in step with your long-term vision.

    You can find Jessica on IG @jessnieto28

    For more real estate investing tips follow me on IG @annreedandco

    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 6 mins
  • Building A Legacy with Kris LeDonn
    Jan 14 2025

    In this episode, we discover the unlikely paralells between creating legacy through real estate investing and doing the same by preserving our photos. Our guest, Kris LeDonne, host of the "Picture Love" podcast walks us through the intention behind preserving photos, which isn't much different than the legacy people desire to create by investing in real estate. It's no surprise that it often starts with love and wanting to be remembered as someone who had a positive impact on the world.

    Here are the key takeaways from this episode:
    1. The synergy between personal values, preserving memories, real estate investing, & entrepreneurial pursuits, reflects a holistic view of success.

    2. There are some parallels between preserving photos and investing in real estate. Both require intentionality, organization, and a vision for the future. It's also interesting that while you may or may not have been taught how to do either, there is an opportunity to choose differently for yourself and your children.

    3. There is no shame in asking for help in an area that is not in your zone of genius. In fact, it can be one of the most loving things you can do to make meaningful change in your life or the lives of your loved ones. Luckily, there are experts for everything, typically just a click away.

    4. Whether it's through helping clients manage photos or guiding them in real estate investing, it's paramount to work with a professional that you trust in order to create lasting impact.

    5. Collaboration is a key to success along with working with knowledgeable professionals in order to achieve goals and navigate challenges effectively.

    If you want to know more about Kris or get her freebie, you can find her as follows:

    Podcast title: Picture Love
    Url: https://podcast.picturelove.us/

    SOCIAL MEDIA: Follow Kris on

    • IG @picture.love.kris https://www.instagram.com/picture.love.kris/
    • FB @KrisReminisce https://www.facebook.com/KrisReminisce/

    FREEBIE: Obliterate Overwhelm (over the state of your photos)



    Show More Show Less
    56 mins
  • Feeling Stuck? You Have to Be Your Own Hero with Kimberly Gayle
    Jun 4 2024

    When we feel stuck, it's because we're not in alignment. Learning to tap into the truest version of ourselves, getting clear on what we value, and being honest about whether or not our current life reflects those things is key. The strategies, our guest, Kimberly Gayle, uses to help her clients create authenticity in their brands and businesses can easily be applied to real estate investing.

    Kimberly Gayle is a Personal Branding Strategist, Business Consultant/Coach, Podcast Host and forever Entrepreneur. Known for her real, honest, brave and bold approach to life and her enthusiastic energy, she sees life as an adventure, believes that anything is possible, and wants everyone to experience the power of living aligned. Kimberly’s podcast, Brave & Bold The Personal Branding Podcast focuses on harnessing the power of branding to become known for your brave and bold self and encourages listeners to step into their REAL leadership and differentiate themselves by WHO they are, not by what they do! As a consultant and coach, she helps people shed the layers that hold themselves back from getting visible and embrace their real, bold selves, so they can get well known and become highly sought after!

    Here are the takeaways from today’s show:

    1. If you have a little flicker inside of you that you want to do something different, even if that hasn’t been modeled for you, have the courage to seek out a way to make it possible.
    2. When you face trauma in your life, which we all do at some point, you can either succumb to it or stand up and say this isn’t right and I’m going to do something about it to protect others from having to endure the same thing.
    3. Love is at the center of who we are as human beings, and if we can see that, we seek to make choices that make the world a better place. Helping others see this too is key.
    4. Kimberly’s innate ability to question things, led her to a point in her corporate career where she thought, “there’s got to be a better way of spending our time,” which then led her to start questioning her own values and what she actually stands for? And as importantly what does she stand against?
    5. When the money is great and the titles are great, but you’re feeling miserable because the job is not in alignment with who you are and what you stand for, it’s hard to make the leap into the unknown in hopes of living a better life.
    6. Getting really clear on your own identity and what you stand for creates so much ease when you’re making the leap from Corporate to entrepreneur.It also makes for clear branding which makes life as an entrepreneur so much easier and more enjoyable.
    7. When you’re out of alignment, going through the motions, living on the hamster wheel, with the culture of hustle and grind that is so common in our country it’s not living, it’s existing. This happens when we violate our own value system. It then manifests as anger, frustration, even disease and if you don’t make a change, you may be denying yourself the opportunity to live a long life.
    8. You have to be your own hero regardless of what you’ve experienced.

    Follow me on instagram @annreedandco
    or ann.reed@exprealty.com

    Here's where you can find Kimberly:

    Instagram: @kimberlygayleconsutling
    Website: http://www.kimberlygayle.com
    Brave & Bold – The Personal Branding Podcast
    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/brave-bold-the-personal-branding-
    podcast/id1587515399?fbclid=IwAR3Qo5R44Orrob4kPynfiDtoi5ocnYu75yEu4j5BGqMOoRWlaC
    -66QwEIhA
    Need help building your personal brand? Request your Free Personal Brand Strategy Call with
    Kimberly Gayle
    https://forms.gle/LNMjzcHtXuauGZbv7

    Show More Show Less
    53 mins
  • How To Make Money Renovating and Reselling Properties and why "Flip" is an 'F' word our guest Erin Clark no longer uses
    May 28 2024

    Our guest, Erin Clark, of Erin Clark homes walks us through how she got started in rehabbing homes for profit, mistakes she made along the way, and how she’s grown her network of investors who want to make money in real estate this way.

    Erin is a Dallas native and never imagined she would be doing this for a living. Her undiagnosed ADHD and chronic entrepreneurial spirit led her into owning her own Sports therapy business, followed by fitness and wellness coaching for moms and finally, and reluctantly, into real estate.

    Her path into renovations was an accident after a series of saying "yes, but (dot, dot, dot)" and she quickly realized, through trial and error, she was born for this.

    Renovate and resale is her trademark process for taking unloved homes and making them new again, and she loves more than anything to teach and partner with women through this process.

    When Erin isn't managing multiple projects at a time and hauling bathtubs in the SUV, you can find her carpooling kids to sports, sneaking in date nights with her husband, drinking coffee until it's appropriate to snag a glass of wine and building a women-centered community online.

    Here are the key takeaways from today’s show:

    1. Being willing to say, “yes,” to something you’ve never done before can unearth talents you didn’t know you had and lead you to a new way of making money in your business that you absolutely love.
    2. Having the mindset of “How hard could it be?” helps overcome fear and builds confidence. Failure is inevitable along the way. It’s your ability to dust yourself off, learn from your mistakes, and move forward that matters.
    3. Renovate and Resell projects take time and money. If you don’t yet have the money to fund the project, contributing time to oversee the project while partnering with someone who has the funds can be a way to get your foot in the door and build experience.
    4. Really diving into the numbers is the key to success when renovating and reselling. Making sure there is plenty of margin to account for things that could go wrong, cost more, etc. is imperative. It’s also important to evaluate what went well, where you stayed on or below budget, and what went over in terms of time and money after each project. This will help inform better decisions on the next project.
    5. Differentiating your project from other “flips” can and should pay big dividends. Erin spends a lot of time upfront imagining who is most likely going to be the buyer for the end product and then goes above and beyond to create that home.
    6. Buyer beware! When purchasing a “flip” home, there are no warranties and no guarantees like there are with new construction, so it’s imperative to do your due diligence to make sure that the home is inspected well, and that anything that should have been permitted has a final permit with the local government.
    7. For realtors that are partnering with investors to renovate and resell homes, it’s imperative to have separate contracts with those you partner with so it’s clear what your role is as the realtor and what it is as the project manager, financier, or any other role outside of your role as a realtor.
    8. Some keys for success when starting to renovate and resell are: 1) know the neighborhoods for your projects inside and out, so you know how high you can push the resale price, and what buyers there are looking for in those neighborhoods, 2) Create an amazing team of contractors, 3) Make sure your margins run deep, taking into account, not only the material and labor costs of the renovation, but also the carrying costs of the loan.

    You can find Erin on Instagram @erinclarkhomes

    And online at erinclarkhomes.com



    Show More Show Less
    58 mins
  • How to Build a Real Estate (investment) Business and a Life you Love with Chelsea Wright
    May 24 2024

    Chelsea Wright is a catalyst for change. As an experienced Realtor with a demonstrated history of success she understands the unique challenges Realtors face in scaling their business.

    She has worn every hat in the industry from team leader, to solo agent, to Transaction Coordinator, and ISA. Her multifaceted experience allowed her to scaled a team from 27 to 264 strong through systems, models, and training in less than two years. She has coached hundreds of agents to doubling their income while massively improving their quality of life.

    Here are the key takeaways from today’s episode:

    1) In order to successfully have multiple streams of revenue in your business, don’t go it alone. Hiring good people to help is key-coaches, mentors, & executive assistants are all key players to building successfully. Also, focus on simplicity-everything that is done needs to create three wins!

    2) When you bump up against fear and resistance, whether it’s around investing or in other areas of life, the first step is to ask yourself what are the stories that you have around your identity, the goal you’re trying to reach and the resistance you’re experiencing? And what do you make these stories mean about you? Then question whether or not it is absolutely true, because the reality is that there are a myriad of experiences in life and you get to choose what your stories mean to you.

    3) When someone says,”I don’t have time,” what they’re really saying is, “it’s not important to me,” or, “it’s not a priority.” Ultimately, we do what we want to do.

    4) People pleasing is really putting your needs last, oftentimes to the point of bitterness or resentment. The people you’re serving pick up on you being bitter and resentful and then they’re not pleased and it becomes a vicious cycle. A polite, “no” oftentimes, serves everyone involved better.

    5) Oftentimes, people think creating boundaries is about protecting themselves from the people around them but it’s actually an act of self-care. Creating good boundaries is about recognizing how different actions have made you feel in the past and then deciding how you want to feel moving forward and only choosing actions that make you feel that way. Note: boundaries don’t have to be announced.

    6) To create a business and a life you love, reverse engineer it by scheduling all of your “me time” first. That includes all of the birthdays and special events you don’t want to miss. Then decide how many hours you want to spend in and on your business, keeping in mind that the amount of time you alot for a task is usually the amount of time it will take to get it done.

    7) Most people know there are benefits to investing in real estate. It's the belief in their ability to execute that keeps them from envisioning a future in which they actually do it. The reason they can't envision a future in which their behavior changes is because every time they fail, they make that failure, their identity, they personalize it. So, to go after it, they would also have to be able to shake off the failure quickly and to learn from it and move on instead of allowing it to reinforce all those years of not doing the thing.

    8) Where people go wrong is when they see somebody else performing better than they are and instead of being inspired by it, they let it define what they're NOT doing. They let it define their inability instead of inspire their ability. It's really important that if you're using a comparison that it fuels you rather than leaves you with a negative energy of defeat.



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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • How to Invest in Real Estate Syndications with Carrie LaShell
    May 15 2024

    In this episode, realtor, entrepreneur, and real estate investor, Carrie LaShell, teaches us what real estate syndication is and why they’re the real estate investment of choice for some people.

    Here are the takeaways from today’s episode:

    1. A Real Estate Syndication is where multiple investors pool their money and skills to buy properties, in Carrie’s case it’s larger multi-family properties that are out-of-state..
    2. If Cash Flow is your goal, it can be tricky to find an investment property in places like California, where average price points are much higher than the national average. Syndications are one way for people in high price point areas to be able to invest in Real Estate.
    3. Syndications are also a good bet for those living in areas with landlord tenant laws that are not landlord friendly, and for those who don’t want the hassle of managing a short or mid term rental
    4. Real Estate syndications are made up of GPs or general partners and LPs or limited partners. GPs are the people who find the deal, sign on the debt to purchase the deal, raise money from other investors, and are in charge of the everyday tasks of running the property, and therefore, make more money on the deal than LPs. LPs, are investing their money in the deal for an expected return.
    5. When considering investing in a real estate syndicate, look at areas that have more inbound moves than outbound moves, there is job growth in the area, low crime rates, and rents that are continuing to go up. It’s also really important to feel good about the GPs and make sure their vision for the property is in alignment with your goals.
    6. Every deal is different, so you have to be really clear about what your goals are, both financially and from a lifestyle perspective.
    7. If you’ve done your due diligence, you’re putting yourself in the right rooms to learn from others that are investing in real estate the way that you want to, and you continue to analyze deals and educate yourself, then focusing on the possibility, rather than overemphasizing the risks, is recipe to conquer fear when it comes to investing in real estate.

    If you’d like to know more about real estate syndications, feel free to reach out to Carrie. You can find her:

    Instagram: @carrielashell

    www.carrielashell.com

    www.lapearinvestments.com



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    53 mins