Women Invest in Real Estate

Hello friends! We’re excited to dive into this week’s podcast episode content because it’s another episode that YOU, our amazing listeners, asked for! It also is on our list of most common questions we receive so in this episode we’re sharing exactly what we look for (including red flags) in an investment property. For us, knowing what to look in an investment property for has become second nature when we are analyzing deals, but if you are someone who is just starting out you likely have no idea where to even start - and that is totally okay!First, we’re going to talk about what we look for in single-family properties. Amelia is one who is really never looking for a single-family home, but when she does, give her the smelliest house you can find, especially for those that need cosmetic updates as well. Amelia loves the phrase ‘smells like money’ because even a smell can scare off buyers, and often times it’s not that hard to get rid of odors. Grace tends to also look for houses that stink, because again, a smell can be gotten rid of with some work. Also, those tend to have less competition in a buyer pool. Grace also has learned that she now stays away from houses with less-than-desirable layouts or funky driveways, especially when the house is on a busy road. We both love houses that are packed full of ‘stuff’. In many cases, buyers can’t see past the junk and all you have to do is remove the junk and there can be so much opportunity behind it. A few other things we stay away from are houses with foundation issues, bad neighbors, and those that are located in less-than-desirable neighborhoods/locations. Moving onto multi-family homes, we agree that houses with funky driveways and interior layouts, monster/Frankenstein-converted houses, properties with little to no off-street parking, and common areas to keep clean, are all things we stay far, far away from. When we are looking into buying a multi-family property we look for those that are under-managed. Mismanagement is a huge area where you can add value by coming in and really overhauling their units (and business processes) and in turn, raise the rent. For the most part, tenants are okay with the increase in rent because it means you are taking better care of the property. When it comes to buying a property, one big red flag we look for as a buyer is if the seller won’t let you see all of the units. In most cases, a seller not letting you see each unit means they aren’t properly being cared for or maintained. However, if you are in the position where you are buying the property and are aware that there are problematic tenants/units, that is a completely different story and you can work with it.Next, if a seller is unorganized or seemingly hiding their financials, we recommend staying far away from those. With the exception of someone selling a simple duplex, etc., and has no other units, sellers should always be organized and upfront with their financials. The more intricate you get, the better the financials you have to have because there are so many more pieces to the puzzle. ​​We would love to hear what you look for when buying/selling your properties and if you have any other questions you’d like us to answer in an upcoming episode! Last, we would also love to have you inside our private Facebook Community where aspiring and existing investors come together, learn, grow and support one another.We’ll catch you in the next episode!  Resources:Check out Steadily for your REI bizJoin our private Facebook CommunityConnect with us on InstagramReserve your spot for our retreat in Salt Lake City

Welcome back to another episode of the WIIRE Podcast. We hope everyone had a great New Years and we are so excited to jump into 2023 with all of you! This week on the podcast we are going to talk about some of the mistakes we made in our businesses in 2022 and how we are going to fix them moving into 2023.  Mistake #1: BookkeepingThis year we both learned exactly how important it is to either outsource your bookkeeping tasks entirely or set yourself up with a strong bookkeeping foundation from the get-go, in your business. Bookkeeping is something that never stops which means that you really need to stay on top of it so you don’t continue to get further and further behind. If bookkeeping is just not your jam, we get it. But in this case, we highly recommend outsourcing your bookkeeping early on, to make sure your finances are kept in order, track your expenses, etc., especially come tax season. If you plan to track your expenses and manage your books internally, that’s great! But make sure you set yourself up with a strong foundation either by using a bookkeeping platform and setting up a bookkeeping routine you can stick with, or outsourcing setting up your system and having them teach you how to manage it yourself.  Mistake #2: Putting Things On Hold For The Next Big ThingLong story short, Grace’s deal to purchase the manufacturing business didn’t pan out, and while they were out time and some lawyer fees, the biggest bummer was that they had hit pause on so many things they could have been doing. They could have purchased more rentals, upped their equity, cash flow, etc. Our biggest piece of advice here is to always keep moving.  Mistake #3: Not Having a Daily Routine/ StructureBeing self-employed has amazing perks, one of which is the freedom to design your own lifestyle. The challenge is that it can be super easy to fall into the trap of not getting as much done as you could because you don’t have a daily routine or structure for your day, to allow you to be as productive as you could be.In 2022, we both learned that by actively blocking our calendars, we were able to be so much more productive.  If you want to deep-dive into your relationship with time management so that you can you can live the life you desire without the stress, join Amanda Boleyn’s live group coaching program, Attention Audit, where she will be teaching her 4 P’s to Effective Time Management. Thank you for joining us for our first episode in 2023! Catch you next time!  Resources:Connect with us on InstagramReserve your spot for our retreat in Salt Lake City

Hello everyone, welcome back to the WIIRE Podcast! We know you all love hearing about all things MTR so this week we are bringing you another episode about MTR strategy, except this time we are talking about the 5 pitfalls (which we’ve lovingly termed ‘cash-flow-killers’) you’ll definitely want to avoid making with properties in your REI portfolio.   1. UtilitiesIf you’re not tracking tenant utility usage, you should be. Utilities are typically covered for tenants in mid-term rentals, but you’ll want to make sure that your tenants aren’t going over ‘average’ usage for the utilities. We recommend adding a utility addendum to your lease explaining that any overage from the average usage (which can typically be found on your utility company’s website) will be billed back to the tenant. You can also post signs on the doors so when they go to leave the property, they’re reminded to check things like the lights and thermostat, and not leave them in use when they aren’t even home. Lastly, you could invest in a thermostat that you can control remotely and set limits on.  2. LocationC & D class neighborhoods, simply put, are just not recommended for MTRs. Even units in some B-class neighborhoods will sit vacant longer than desired because traveling professionals know what kind of areas to look for and which ones to stay away from. Vacant units will always cut into your cash flow, so choose your MTR location very wisely.  3. Noisy LocationsMany MTR tenants are traveling nurses, and as you could guess, work nights (or even around the clock) on some days. Typically they are only in the unit to eat, sleep, and repeat so they want to come home to a quiet space they are comfortable in and aren’t interested in dealing with a noisy neighborhood or noisy neighbors. 4. Cleaning FeesThis one can be a bit tricky. It’s nice to be able to cover your tenant's cleaning fees - it’s one less thing for them to pay, right? While true, that also cuts into your cash flow.After covering cleaning fees for quite some time by just charging more for rent, Grace has discovered that she is likely leaving money on the table because it cuts into her cash flow. She realized that she could simply include a cleaning fee, along with the deposit, and tenants are still happy to rent her units, despite the cleaning costs coming out of their pocket. She also realized that for the most part, tenants are used to paying a cleaning fee. Amelia collects a deposit to hold the unit, then 1-2 days prior to move-in collects the 1st month’s rent along with the cleaning fee.5. Not having a detailed list of supplies for your unit.Do you know exactly how many cups, plates, forks, towels, etc., are in each one of your units? If you don’t you should. Now before we proceed, we will be the first to admit that we have both been super lax here, but it is on both of our ‘goals for 2023’ lists to do a much better job of this one.Go through your units with a fine tooth comb. By having this list for each unit, when your tenant moves out you know not only needs to be replaced and charged back to the tenant. Keep this list handy for yourself, your cleaner, or your property manager so everyone knows exactly what should be in each unit so you aren’t losing money by keeping your rentals stocked and passing those charges along to the tenant. That’s all for this week friends, thank you for joining us. If you have any questions or topics you’d like us to cover shoot us a DM on Instagram!Catch you in the next episode!  Resources:Join our WIIRE MTR Profit AcademySee what Amelia is up to on InstagramCheck out Grace’s updates on InstagramConnect with the WIIRE Community on InstagramGrab your spot for our retreat in Salt Lake City

Welcome back to another podcast episode! We recently received a great topic request on Instagram to talk about low and no-money-down deals that we’ve each done so this week we are diving into exactly that. In this episode, we will be sharing three examples of deals we’ve done, all real-life examples from our personal portfolios, and we hope they are super helpful and allow you to think outside of the box!Amelia purchased a single-family home in April 2021 after having found the deal through a local investor she saw working through Facebook Marketplace. But by the time she called him about the deal, it had already sold, so Amelia did a bit of research and found out that the seller owned multiple properties in the area. She reached out to see if he had other properties for sale and offered a package deal for multiple properties. This offer was for a 30-day close on four properties and despite dragging her dad along (kicking and screaming), it was a killer deal.  Amelia and her parents partnered 50/50, but none of them had to come out of pocket for money with their creative financing techniques.  Grace also has done her share of creative financing and on her deal wanted to use instant equity that they were buying into. At the time she had one single-family home that was under construction and wanted to buy two duplexes (four units) for $255,000. 20% Down would have been $51,000, which she absolutely did not have at the age of 23 and only one year into her W-2. Even splitting it 50/50 with her partner wasn’t going to work, but Grace was willing to work some creative financing to make it happen. Grace knew the owner of the four units who had had a wholesaler approach him to purchase the units. Grace convinced the seller to let her look at the unsigned contract and told him, in short, that it was basically a piece of crap, and he should sell to her instead. The good news was that the wholesaler had already worked the seller down to his bottom dollar of $255K. Grace called the bank she had used for a previous deal, which turned her down. She called a second bank, one she had been banking with personally, and spoke with the VP directly, who knew Grace and her background well and was willing to take the chance on her deal of 10% down. Being newly employed at the time and her boyfriend being unemployed, Grace turned to her sister to bring her in as a 3rd partner in the deal. Her sister agreed and this allowed Grace’s portion of the down payment to drop from the original amount of $51K to only $8,500.  The final example were going to share is the first (and only) deal Grace and Amelia have partnered on together. In a previous episode you heard us share that we purchased a property in Amelias hometown from one of her friends parents for only $38,940. Having mentioned to the seller about a year prior her interesting buying, the seller remembered that seed Amelia had planted. One important thing to note about this deal was that the seller is moving and not taking everything with them, and was moving into an apartment and didn’t need the immediate seller payoff. Amelia and Grace negotiated to pay her one year after closing, so they could fix it up and flip it with no down payment. They planned to do some painting, updated the flooring, and sell it for between $60-70K. During the process, plans changed and they ended up putting a renter into the property, furnished, and with a few other unexpected expenses coming up, they had to do some additional work to refinance the property so Amelia could solely own the property and buy out Grace’s portion. A few months in, Amelia refinanced with her local bank to purchase Grace’s portion of the property, which appraised at $65K. To buy out Grace’s portion of the property Amelia partnered with her parents because, despite Amelia financing the down payment, her parents adore the property and would like to flip it when the current tenant moves out. All in all, they were under contract for $38,940 and did a wrap mortgage for the financing, and paid her off in full after the 1-year time period.  One final recommendation…Don't be afraid to wheel and deal with your bank. Some of them will say no, but some of them also might be interested in what you have to offer, especially if they know that you can get the deal done. So the first deal you do, maybe you won't be able to wheel and deal as much. But as you establish that relationship, just ask and make sure you're exploring all of those options.We hope you liked the breakdown of these deals. As always, if you have any recommendations for future episodes, feel free to DM us on Instagram. We love getting your requests, and we will catch you in the next episode!  Resources:Grab your spot for our WIIRE retreat in Salt Lake CityConnect with Amelia & Grace on Instagram

With 2022 drawing to a close, tax season is nearly upon us. This week on the podcast we are joined by our friend, Natalie Kolodij, a Real Estate Tax Strategist who is sharing her expertise with us on what we should be doing to prepare for tax season when it comes to REI. Natalie is an IRS Enrolled Agent and Real Estate Tax Strategist who has been working exclusively in real estate since 2014. Natalie is highly specialized in her niche and loves helping people get set up with the right strategies to really work on building their wealth in the most effective way they can.The first thing we cover in this episode is how you can save on taxes by having your rental property transition (temporarily) to a short-term rental property, before turning it into a long-term or mid-term rental. One of the key things with normal rentals, long-term rentals, or even mid-term rentals, is that they're in the same category for taxes called ‘passive income’ to the government, meaning that you don't pay any payroll taxes on it. But a trade-off there is that when a passive activity like a rental creates a loss, you can't always use it, depending on your circumstances. There are certain circumstances where you can, and some circumstances when you can't. So typically, if your annual income is above $100,000, you might not be able to use that loss. It can always offset other passive income, but not your W-2’s or other income types. It's in its own bucket and that is passive loss limit. You don’t lose it, but rather it carries forward into the next year. Short-term rentals are a unique hybrid area where if you have a short-term rental, where the average stay is 7 days or less, then it can qualify as non-passive. By breaching that nonpassive designation, any losses you create are no longer subject to that income limit and there’s no true cap on that. So with a short-term rental, you can do something like utilize cost segregation, where you push some of your depreciation up to the front end, have a big loss in one year, and be able to fully deduct it against your earnings from your W-2 job (or flipping income or any other types of income). It creates a really great loophole. In this episode, Natalie shares so many great tips and tricks, just like this, about how to prepare yourself for tax season, find the right accountant for your business, and so much more, in a way to help set you up for a stress-free tax season. She also shares her Year End Tax Prep Checklist for Real Estate Investors with our listeners. Want to connect with Natalie or find out more about her current client offerings? Shoot her a DM on Instagram or visit her website to learn more!Thank you for listening, friends! We’ll catch you in the next episode!   ResourcesVisit Natalie’s WebsiteConnect with Natalie on InstagramGrab your ticket to our 2023 retreat in retreat in Salt Lake City

Hi everybody, welcome back to the WIIRE podcast! We are so excited to welcome our friend and real estate investor, Jessie Dillon, to the show this week! Jessie is not only a member of the WIIRE Community, but has attended two of our retreats, and today she is going to be telling us all about how she rents out a room in her home as a mid-term rental.Jessie is based in central Massachusetts and rents out the room in her own home as a house hack, and aside from her REI business she owns a beauty business and is a wife and stepmom. Jessie has grown her REI biz to 5 doors and in 2022 alone grew her portfolio from $0 to $1.5 million! Why rent by the room?Jessie started investing in real estate in January 2022 and at the time lived in an extremely reasonably priced apartment with a fantastic landlord. While he was a great landlord, he owned multiple properties, causing him to not pay super close attention to each individual property. Jessie decided that she would only move and increase their cost of living if it was the absolutely perfect situation. Eventually, Jessie found a duplex property on Zillow that had been listed for roughly one month and was only one mile away from their apartment. After looking at the numbers they went all in on it and by that evening had signed an offer (in a smoothie shop, nonetheless) for the property. It was in a great neighborhood, half of it was newly flipped and the listing agent was also the owner who had done the work. It was so easy - no one else really even needed to be involved. They purchased the property in July and moved in at the end of August. Right away they got a long-term tenant for the other half of the duplex and they began tossing around the idea of renting out their guest room as a mid-term rental. They debated whether they wanted to share their personal space with a complete stranger and eventually decided that the potential income it would bring in was too good to pass up and they should at least try it out. Within 6 weeks they had a tenant locked in. How much does your tenant pay in rent?Their monthly mortgage payment is $3,850, and between the income from the other half of the duplex and their mid-term tenant, they only have to cover $50 of that monthly mortgage payment. They basically are getting $700 per month of principal paid down, with their $600K asset appreciating (in a high-appreciation state), and them only paying $50 towards the principal interest, taxes, and insurance, it’s just too good of a deal. Jessie and her husband purchased the property for $590K using an FHA loan and also a private investor from their circle.Next came furnishing the unit. Jessie kept it super simple and while she considered going the normal marketplace route, she opted to go with mostly new items because that way if the in-house mid-term tenant thing didn’t work out, she would at least have a super cute, furnished guest room. So, how is it working out having someone else live in your space?Actually, great! She shares our space respectfully and we get along great. They did a full background check, social media search, Facetime calls, formal lease, etc., the same as they would for a short-term tenant or a mid-term tenant in a separate property. It’s been about 6 weeks and she actually might extend it out further. Jessie listed the property on both Airbnb and Furnished Finder. The tenant pays $1,700 per month, which includes everything, including ‘light pet care’ and laundry service since Jessie works from home (creative bonus income!). If you want to know about Jessie or connect with her personally, send her a DM on Instagram!Thank you for joining us this week, we’ll catch you in the next episode! ResourcesConnect with Jessie on InstagramJoin us March 2-5, 2023 for our retreat in Salt Lake CityFind out more about the WIIRE Community

We are back this week with episode 21 of the WIIRE podcast and joining us this week is our friend, Cat Storing who recently joined us at our WIIRE retreat in Orlando. Cat is going to be sharing with us all about her experience in hiring Virtual Assistants (VA) to work on her team. Cat had so much to share and brought an amazing energy to the retreat, and we are so excited to have her on this episode.  All About CatCat is a business coach, is really good with technology (her claim to fame), is an author, hosts the REI Podcast, is excellent at figuring out processes, and is really into real estate investing. And while she loves doing all of the things, she is still just one person, so this is where hiring a VA has come in really handy in her business. She has worked as a personal stylist and also in purchasing and now has transitioned into real estate and business coaching. Cat helps people monetize their expertise and is an amazing resource to so many people.  Cat’s First VAWhen Cat hired her first VA, she was ready to really dive into the world of social media but knew the demands of social media and the dedication it requires. She also knew she couldn’t be doing all of these things, and posting to social media while still working her full-time job. Cat found her first VA (located in India) on UpWork and her specifics was giving the tasks to her VA and having them complete them overnight so that when she got up in the morning she could review them first thing. The problem (that she now realizes) is that she did not manage them well enough and they wound up taking advantage of her. She paid him on a weekly basis and since she wasn’t reviewing the tasks, he quickly figured that out, and simply stopped completing the tasks. Now, Cat has learned how to successfully manage her VAs and review their work, prior to submitting payment. Her biggest recommendation for those looking to hire their first VA is to allow them to learn your ways.  Cat’s Best Tips for Hiring a VADecide exactly what tasks you need to outsource (or what you simply don’t want to do)Look for a VA in your niche if you are looking for a real estate VA look for those specifically)Once you begin working well together figure out if they are teachable and want to learn more tasks before offloading additional tasks on themHave a system in place to review their tasks regularlyTreat your VA the way you would want to be treatedStart before you need to hire someone (i.e. NOW!)Test the waters with different VAs If you want to see more about what Cat does, visit her website or connect with her on Instagram. Thank you so much for joining us, we’ll catch you in the next episode! ResourcesJoin us March 2-5, 2023 for our retreat in Salt Lake CityConnect with Cat on InstagramFind your first VA on UpWork

Hi friends welcome back! This week’s podcast episode is a fun one because it’s another behind-the-scenes episode where we’re going to dive into exactly what we are working on and give you a unique glimpse into some exciting things we each have happening in our businesses. Amelia’s UpdatesA few weeks ago Amelia (and her biz partners) submitted an offer and letter of intent to purchase a motel property and finally heard back from the sellers. While it wasn’t a resounding ‘YES’ to their offer, the sellers did ask to sit down with them and get to know them and their businesses, and really build that ‘know, like, and trust’ factor. A big part of why they want to sit down with Amelia and her team is because they’ve asked them to carry $1M of the down payment on a seller-financed note. This will allow them to vet them as sellers and learn about their experience and it is a great start to moving forward.Amelia found this deal by posting on a local Facebook group for investors in Des Moines, Iowa. She had a pretty graphic created depicting her exact buy-box, and what she is looking for, and very quickly a broker reached out to her. Despite it being slightly outside what she was looking for, they anticipated she might still be interested in this unique property. Amelia had previously tossed around the idea of purchasing a hotel/motel type of property so really this wasn’t entirely outside her buy-box. With a higher purchase price, this 41-unit motel has a lot of potential, and she is super excited to see how this deal moves forward (knock on wood).  Grace’s UpdatesGrace and Brandt are in the process of purchasing a manufacturing business, even though the purchase is moving a bit slower than anticipated. For this purchase, they agreed on a 20% down over 7 years at 4.5%. A business acquisition works a lot like a large real estate deal where you have your letter of intent and then you have to get your purchase agreement signed. They had their letter of intent signed and sent a purchase agreement approximately 30 days ago and they’ve heard back from their attorney that their next step is to collateralize their real estate, which they had already anticipated happening. To do this, they made a list starting with the highest equity to the lowest, prioritizing things they want to hold onto. The seller asked for 20% down so they will be financing 80% at a purchase price of $820K. To finance this purchase they are using private money, plus the money they have from cash-out refinances that have been sitting. They cashed out their 8-unit BRRR about 3 months ago and haven’t used that money either, so all of this will be added to their financing. They’ve submitted their list and are just waiting on the response from their attorneys and they are excited to move forward!They found this deal because a few months back, Brandt expressed interest to Grace in buying something other than traditional real estate; a business. After doing some research they eventually found this manufacturing business that was up for sale on BizBuySell. With both of their backgrounds in engineering, this was a great opportunity and they jumped on it. They plan to implement better management as well as better systems and processes and make this business a long-term purchase.  Hopefully, on the next BTS episode, we both have promising updates!Do you have questions or things you’d like to hear us talk about on an upcoming episode? We would love to hear them! Just DM us on Instagram. Thanks for tuning in, we’ll catch you in the next episode! Resources:Grab your spot for our retreat in Salt Lake CityConnect with Amelia & Grace on InstagramGet the book Buy Then Build by Walker DeibelFollow Codie Sanchez

Hello everyone, welcome back to the podcast. In this podcast episode, we're going to talk all about creative financing. Specifically, we will be breaking down the three main types of creative financing: seller financing, wrap mortgage (also called a wrap-around mortgage), and Sub2 mortgage. When you hear the words “creative financing”, you need to understand that is an umbrella term for seller finance, wrap mortgage, Sub2 finance, etc.; all of those terms are in the realm of creative financing. Many times people confuse seller financing (us included!) with these very specific, and different, types of financing.  Seller FinanceLet’s first break down seller financing. Seller financing is when the seller lets a buyer buy them out over time, and the property has no debt on it. You can negotiate the terms to be exactly how you want and it can be much quicker to close, especially with rising interest rates, to benefit both you as the buyer and the seller. A seller finance deal has a purchase price, a down payment, a monthly payment, and a specific term length. Wrap MortgageThe second type of creative financing we’re going to discuss is a wrap mortgage or wrap-around mortgage. Think of a wrap mortgage as a seller finance deal, but with debt on the property. With the purchase of the property and you are taking your mortgage and wrapping it around the existing debt on the property. An example of this would be this: think of a property with a $95K mortgage on it. You come in and buy it for $105K, which wraps around the initial mortgage and whatever the difference between the mortgage debt, and the purchase price is the equity that the owner has. Just like a seller finance deal, a wrap mortgage has a purchase price, a down payment, a monthly payment, and a specific term length.Sub2 MortgageThe last type of creative finance we’re going to cover is the latest buzzword, Sub2. Sub2 is essentially the same thing as a wrap mortgage, except you're not giving the seller any equity. Also with a Sub2, you're not preparing any documents that show that you are owning the house, like you would with a mortgage. An example of a Sub2 would be if you are taking over someone’s house, it means that you are taking over the existing loan. Say the loan is for $95K, which is a $600 payment, you take it over at $95K. In the $600 payment, the seller basically gets to walk away with their hands clean. Maybe they had a super distressed property, maybe they moved out of the house three years ago and they've making been making two mortgage payments and they're just ready to be done. For whatever reason they're willing to let you take over their mortgage and just walk away. The difference is that you don't draw up a mortgage agreement stating who is purchasing the house from whom, for $X per month for X number of years. That document is what would protect the seller down the line if they decide to go get another house in terms of showing a DTI (debt to income ratio). With a Sub2, there is no seller protection and no mortgage documents outlining payment terms/schedules.  To summarize…Creative financing is the umbrella term. Seller finance is when a seller sells a debt-free property and the buyer pays them back over time. A wrap mortgage is the same thing, however, there's an existing piece of debt that the buyer takes over and they pay it back over time. Sub2 is the same thing as a wrap mortgage, except for there are no mortgage documents that protect the seller from DTI requirements. If you have any additional creative financing questions feel free to shoot us an email or DM us on Instagram.Catch you in the next episode! Resources:MTR Free TrainingConnect with us on Instagram

Hey everyone welcome back to episode 18 of the Women Invest In Real Estate podcast. We are super excited to talk to you today about how to know when it's time to go full-time in real estate investing and a couple of steps that you should take prior to quitting your full-time job. Plus, we're going to dive into our personal stories and when we knew it was time. Amelia’s JourneyIn 2020 Amelia flipped a property (hear this story in episode 1) and this led her to the realization that she was interested in buying rental properties and replacing her income from her full-time job with rental income. She then bought a tri-plex which cash-flowed around $700-800 per month. At the time her income from her full-time job was right around $50k so she was used to sticking to a strict budget and living below her means but knew she could get to where she could quit her full-time job. Quickly after that, Amelia then purchased a quad-plex from the same seller and was cash flowing around $1,000, so she was already at $1,800 per month. Being that Amelia was already debt free, she really only needed to bring in enough to cover her own rent and food. She eventually reached 7 doors, and by the end of the summer of 2021 was up to 15 doors and just shy of replacing her full-time income. She also knew that by quitting her 9-5 she could focus more on her REI career and be able to bring in even more income. The last step before she quit was going under contract for an 11-unit property with her partners from Idaho. Roughly 30 days later, she left her full-time job and never looked back.  Grace’s JourneyWhile working remotely from Iowa as a mechanical engineer Grace’s income was sufficient but far from making her a millionaire. She was supposed to be relocating from Iowa to San Diego to begin working in-person for her job and in February of 2021 after wrapping up a large BRRR project. She felt really good doing this real estate project in the place she was born and raised and knew that it just would not be in the cards in California. She asked her company if she could work remotely permanently which they quickly shot down. She decided it was time to try this real estate thing on her own. She gave roughly three months’ notice to give herself time to prepare. Grace took the time to step out on a limb, and create an emergency fund for herself and she ended up taking some of her 401K out just to live on as a cushion (totally worthwhile in the long run). Amelia and Grace constantly remind themselves that you can’t fully see the opportunities that can come when you don’t have time or energy to look because you’re working full time. Once you are able to focus on entrepreneurship full-time, there are so many ways and things that you can do to make money.Best tips to prep for quitting your 9-5:Give yourself a deadline to replace your full-time incomeRemember your WHYBe personally debt free!Know exactly what you spend every single monthEstablish good relationships with lenders after you have a few successful projects under your belt but before you quit your jobHave an emergency fund (most people say 6 months is sufficient but think hard about your personal situation)Don't forget, that there is some opportunity cost with you still being in a full-time job and you have the ability to make even more in real estate if you can focus full-time on that instead.Thank you so much for listening! We will catch you in the next episode.  Resources:Listen to WIIRE episode 001Find a Healthcare Plan for your solo biz