She Built $5M Portfolio While Raising 4 Kids (Lazy Way)

The Real Estate Investing Club

Join an active community of RE investors here: https://linktr.ee/gabepetersen 0:00 Introduction to Melissa Nash and Lady Luck Investments 3:36 The First $50K Birmingham Deal That Changed Everything 8:13 Why Taking Action Beats Education Every Time 11:05 What Turnkey Real Estate Investing Really Means 14:54 Property Selection Criteria and Market Analysis 19:24 Building Your Investment Team the Right Way 22:26 Book Recommendations for New Investors 25:07 Why Little Rock Arkansas Is the Most Landlord Friendly State 28:41 Handling Squatters and Property Management Disasters 32:54 The Utah Short-Term Rental That Printed Money 36:31 How to Connect With Melissa Nash  TURNKEY REAL ESTATE INVESTING FOR BUSY PROFESSIONALS 🏡 In this eye-opening episode of The Real Estate Investing Club podcast, I sit down with Melissa Nash from Lady Luck Investments to reveal how she built a $5 million real estate portfolio while raising four kids and working full-time. Melissa started investing in her 40s with zero experience and transformed her financial future through strategic turnkey real estate investing in landlord-friendly markets across the Midwest and South.  Want to learn more about our guest? Connect here: https://www.hellomelissanash.com/ Want to learn more about the REI Club Podcast, how to invest with Gabe at Kaizen, or join our community of active real estate investors on Skool? Visit the podcast website at https://www.therealestateinvestingclub.com or click here: https://linktr.ee/gabepetersen

Transcript

00:00all right we are back with another episode of the real estate investing club i hope you guys

00:11are having a great day whatever day it is for you and wherever you are it is friday on the podcast

00:17it usually is friday in the past couple of ones has been on like wednesdays and thursdays but

00:21we're back to our friday cadence uh so we're bringing that good friday energy to you guys

00:26this is going to be a good episode because we have melissa nash with us on the show melissa is

00:31from lady luck investments she went from broke to five mil a five million dollar portfolio all

00:36while raising four kids i have a two-year-old daughter and another one on the way and i can

00:40only imagine how hard that would be so this should be a good story story melissa thanks for uh thanks

00:46for hopping on the show absolutely i'm so glad to be here thanks for having me absolutely as i said

00:53i'm excited to jump into this you got started in your 40s uh in real estate you know you got started

00:57late you had four kids you had everything against you but you're still able to make it happen so i

01:02want to hear this story why don't you take us to the beginning and tell us how you got here

01:05yeah definitely well the first thing i did is i actually took action you know that that's kind

01:10of a big part of it you know you can educate yourself and listen to podcasts and you know be in

01:17the forums all you want but unless you actually take action you're not going to do anything and so i

01:23i'm so grateful for melissa and this is about just under 10 years ago i'm so grateful for myself for

01:29taking action that very first property and as you mentioned you know i i didn't know anything about

01:35real estate i knew rich people owned real estate my husband's grandmother had bought real estate in los

01:41angeles in like the 70s and i know she she passed away wealthy although i didn't really know her and

01:47i didn't really know her story and so i knew real estate made money i i didn't really understand how

01:52and i also live in california and the math just doesn't math here you know it doesn't make sense

02:00it's not landlord friendly i learned that term you know through my education i didn't know what

02:04landlord friendly was and so through through through education and research and seeking out some mentors

02:10i kind of learned about these things and then and then i got really discouraged because i was like

02:14i i don't want a full-time investing job i don't want to be a flipper i don't want to be a wholesaler

02:22you know i don't i don't want to do all this stuff i don't want to fly to other states and you know i've

02:28got kids and a family and i had a full-time job and i was like i guess i can't invest you know it was

02:32just kind of like i guess i'll just give up and somebody that i had met actually introduced me to

02:39the concept of now that the term is just kind of thrown around a lot but and i've since learned that

02:45there is a big differentiation but turnkey real estate investing where you can buy a property in

02:51another state somebody's already renovated it renovated it and there's a local property manager

02:56in place so i i learned about this and i was like this is the ticket like this is how i can get started

03:02so then it was just kind of like okay who do i trust how do you know what markets do i know that

03:08makes sense you know researching the property management all of that kind of stuff so so my

03:12very very very first property was a turnkey property meaning it was already renovated with

03:18the property manager in birmingham alabama the property was a fifty thousand dollar property

03:23definitely you know c-class section eight tenant and the section eight tenant stayed there for eight years

03:31oh well i still own the property and it's one of my top performing properties and you know i was able

03:37to learn quickly that you can use your equity just from holding it and so i was able to do a cash out

03:44refinance take that money put into another one and then with that property you know so i've been able to

03:50just use creative strategies with helox and cash out refinancing and saving you know all these different

03:57things networking making connections all of that is kind of what i've done to continue to build and grow

04:03nice yeah i i like your story especially at the beginning you're talking about how you were kind

04:08of discouraged you know growing up in california or being in california i'm in washington i remember

04:13when i got started i was i you know i read rich dad poor dad or something and i was like

04:19really interested in real estate and i started looking on market and i realized like i needed a lot of money

04:24i had like you know this is when i was working i was in my 20s i had like 20 000 in my bank account

04:29and i was like i don't know how i'm going to do this so turning to turnkey investments that's an

04:33that's an interesting strategy it's not something i feel like a lot of people hear about or or realize

04:38is an option you know if you have a w-2 and you have your you have your you want to keep your job you

04:44don't want real estate to be your full-time only thing you're doing going out there wholesaling flipping

04:49whatever so you want to keep your job and then you you don't realize that turnkey is is a strategy and

04:55it's a it's a very good strategy for those who don't want real estate to be their primary focus

05:00so take us to that first deal you mentioned you got it in in birmingham why why did you decide on

05:06birmingham and what kind of um led you to make that purchase you know it was because the connections

05:12it was you know i i met somebody that said hey you know i've got a really great property management

05:19company out here and and i know somebody that can give you a property that's already been renovated

05:24and so it was just kind of honestly blind trust and a leap of faith birmingham is very very landlord

05:32friendly it's it's i think it's number two for lowest property taxes in the country over 58 yeah over

05:3858 of the population rents and so i you know i'd done my research on the market itself and so then

05:44it was just connecting with the right people you know who do i trust and then honestly it was just

05:49blind faith i've never flown out there i mean i've been to alabama but i've never seen this property to

05:54this day i've never seen any of my properties and i don't care to i don't want to i've hired really

05:58good teams and i have very good systems to be able to buy properties out of state i have my due

06:03diligence i have my checklist you know great people on the ground and so i don't i don't need

06:09to be there yeah yeah and i mean you mentioned you bought this for 50 000 so i'm assuming you put

06:14something like i can't do math this early in the morning something like ten thousand dollars down

06:18did you you finance this i'm assuming or did you finance 20 down yep yep i mean all in i think i was

06:23about fifteen thousand dollars and you know it was yeah nerve-wracking to take that out of your

06:29savings account and go you know i guess i'm buying a property in alabama but you know what but that's

06:35that's what you have to do is i i i knew i had to take action and if i didn't do this i was never

06:42going to do it because there wasn't ever this was my learning curve this was how i was going to learn

06:46this was how i was going to decide if i was going to keep going i had to take a risk and do something

06:52and this one seemed the least risky i mean thank goodness knock on wood you know um it it's it's

07:00it's grown significantly and and i think back on it though is you know it wasn't perfect you know i

07:04had a squatter in the property i've had some plumbing issues in the property some subject stuff

07:10you know it hasn't been perfect and if i had only owned that one property and never did anything else

07:15i would probably be freaking out a little bit because when you have one property and every little

07:20thing that happens you're like oh my gosh i i don't ever want to invest again you know but i

07:26continue to take action and i continue to learn and grow a network and figure out what i wanted to do

07:31and so when you have a large portfolio and something happens on one property you're like it's fine you

07:37know it'll it'll make up for it my strategy is buy and hold these are long-term hold properties i'm

07:42not worried if i lose money on one property one year i'm looking at the portfolio as a whole

07:47and i'm looking at long term that the tenants are buying me a free house i mean what else what

07:52else is better than that yeah a free house with a little bit of cash flow it's the best way to go

07:56exactly and tax benefits come on there you go it's a win-win uh yeah and so so you started in

08:03birmingham at what point did you start did you keep buying in that one metro you mentioned you started

08:08to build a team and usually when you build a team you keep the same property management in a metro so

08:12you can kind of get those economies of scale are you still buying in birmingham today or have you

08:17branched out oh yeah i've branched out i branched out pretty quickly now i i bought a few properties

08:22in birmingham and i went down to montgomery went up to huntsville um you know sold a couple properties

08:29yeah yeah i was i was kind of like alabama and then i i figured out that like hey like somebody's

08:34actually got a decent deal on these and they've gone up in value and so i actually sold a couple of

08:41them which i'm really great huntsville boomed really really really fast and now i mean it's

08:46kind of expensive it's hard to cash flow so i kind of do regret selling those but they did enable me to

08:51continue going in other markets so i'm in about five other markets i also expanded and started

08:56doing short-term rentals as well okay short-term rentals is very very active investing um and they're

09:04a little bit more stressful i definitely prefer my long-term rentals those are my absolute favorite i

09:10don't have to think about them i've got my property manager they deal with the tenant so i kind of

09:15stopped buying short-term rentals and i'm definitely back into the long-term rentals okay yeah short-term

09:21it's kind of i almost romanticize owning a short-term so we buy mobile home parks rv parks and self-storage

09:27facilities they're also very you know management intensive it's a real business that you're buying

09:31and my wife and i have like almost pulled the trigger multiple times on short-terms just because

09:36like it just you know we romanticize being able to go there every once in a while and use it ourself

09:41yada yada but it is just as labor intensive i feel like and it's not something you should just jump into

09:47thinking it'll be it'll be pretty easy because there's so much turnover you have to you know you

09:51have a lot of people going there um consistently and so you really need to have a plan getting into

09:56there which is why something like long-term turnkey rentals are so attractive to investors who

10:02don't want to be in there full-time because it doesn't take as much time it doesn't take as much

10:06of your mental bandwidth um getting those up and running and then and then keeping them exactly i

10:12don't i don't spend i call it lazy investing because i don't i don't even spend i mean i i couldn't even

10:18say it was 20 minutes a week on my long-term rentals i mean it's literally like zero effort yeah yeah and

10:25it's good that way so we've been throwing turnkey around i want us to define that term because not

10:30everyone understands what that means um what does it mean to you what is a turnkey rental

10:34yeah normally when you hear a realtor will say it and they'll say you know you put the key in you

10:39turn it you walk in and you can move in that's generally the term and so when people say that i

10:44mean yeah that that is the case but but to me in the system that i have built with my company is it's it's

10:50a whole process it's it's the property it's the people and it's the process and so i've now created

10:57an entire system that i help people with and so number one it's identifying the market and identifying

11:03the property then it's the people on the ground you know who's doing the renovations title escrow

11:10lender property manager it's all the people that are involved that are going to help you succeed and

11:16make it as passive and as lazy as possible and then it's the process itself buying your property

11:232 000 miles away is is pretty scary and so you have to be able to have you know the systems to

11:30you know vet the people but also you're going to get inspections done and you know what if this

11:36happens and there's this plan and then it's the scaling and the strategies to grow your portfolio

11:41because you know i've never heard anybody say i want to buy one property and that's it you know

11:47everybody wants to build a portfolio especially with turnkey you have to build your wealth and buy

11:53multiple properties because you're holding them for long term and yeah you're going to get some

11:57cash flow but it's not life-changing cash flow on one property by any means i mean three to four

12:03hundred dollars it's cool it's great that's not life-changing money so you need to buy multiple

12:07properties and so how do you scale how do you grow how do you systemize you know from the llcs to the

12:14business setup and all that kind of stuff so it really is to me what i have created is a turnkey

12:20system it's not just the turnkey property yeah absolutely so you mentioned property people

12:28processes and then scaling is kind of your your process for uh for building a business on turnkey

12:34rentals let's start with that first one property i mean buying turnkey it definitely there are specific

12:39criteria where it actually works you cannot do that here in seattle it's just not possible there

12:44there aren't there aren't any deals out there that will well there are very few deals out there that

12:48will pencil on the long-term basis so what is your criteria when you're buying these turnkey rentals

12:52where you look what's your you know bed bath ratio that kind of stuff yeah you know what's funny is i

12:57don't really look at bed bath ratio at all and i actually don't like large properties i like small

13:02properties and in fact one of my biggest tips that i'll tell you that anybody's listening is you know

13:07once you've kind of narrowed down different markets that are landlord friendly the midwest the south

13:12these these are kind of the go-to bread and butter markets there's not a lot of appreciation happening

13:17there's some growth happening but that's what i love about them they're just kind of

13:21set it and forget it consistent markets very affordable high rental demand once you've kind of

13:26identified some markets now i have teams of great property managers and some of these key markets and

13:33property managers hold the true knowledge um you know you can go on i don't know zillow and

13:39neighborhood scout and you can like look at crime stats and you can look up this stuff and i don't

13:44know where that information comes from i don't even know how old it is let's get the actual facts

13:49straight from the property manager i've learned to really rely on trust trust on them they'll tell

13:54you the the numbers one of the properties i own it's a two-bedroom one bath and it was because

13:59the property manager was like actually in this area a two-bedroom one bath rents the fastest

14:03there there isn't that many of them and there is a demand for that so i don't necessarily believe

14:09in the whole has to be a three-bedroom two-bath thing it's some areas there's different demand for

14:15different things and it's all about quantity if if the market is oversaturated with three-bedroom

14:19two baths and all of a sudden you've got the only two-bedroom one bath with the right budget

14:23it's gonna rent quick so i don't really follow that criteria it's more about i definitely like cash

14:30flow i want to make sure that i have you know at least a year one i'll say nine or ten percent return

14:37on my um on my cash that i you know my hard-earned money that i am putting down as my down payment

14:43um i want at least a nine or a ten percent cash on cash return which is absolutely possible with

14:48interest rates today if you know where to find them um i again i want to see that i'm in an area

14:54that has really high rental demand and i want a little bit of growth and appreciation i'm not just all

14:59about the cash flow i am you know my my portfolio is scattered where some some of my properties are

15:06really high cash flow and some have a lot more appreciation and i think that's healthy so it depends

15:11on where i am in my portfolio like you know again it's always connections and people you meet and

15:17opportunities which is why it's so important to continue to take action because you never know who

15:20you're going to meet i just bought a property in little rock arkansas i've never bought there before

15:24and we ended up working out a deal with one of my lenders where he got really creative on the title

15:29and the seller was willing to sell the property under market value even though it was already

15:34renovated and it was turnkey and so we were able to get creative with the title work they put my name

15:40they put the title under my llc and then uh because of my creative lender i give him all the credit he was

15:47able to turn around do a cash out refinance immediately i didn't have to wait and i think i ended up

15:51only putting like i know it was like under ten thousand dollars down on a hundred and ninety

15:57thousand dollar property in little rock now great deal i mean my cash on cash return is huge on that

16:01but my cash flow isn't that exciting i think i make like 200 bucks a month cash flow but i'm like

16:07i actually don't care because i only put ten thousand dollars to buy this property so so there is

16:12strategies like that that i change and i pivot but again i'm only here and able to do this because

16:17i've been continuing to take action and learn and grow yeah on that note like you know turnkey

16:24properties they i'm by definition they're they're not flips you're buying properties that are they're

16:30ready to rent they're they're in decent condition are you buying are you buying flips are you buying

16:36like where are you getting the properties that are in the condition that you're looking for are they

16:40are they new builds are they flips or are you buying from just retail sellers that haven't put a lot

16:45of wear and tear on their property no no no i'm actually buying them straight from the flippers

16:50straight from the renovators so for the last 10 years so when i first got started and bought that

16:54first property um i realized that there were people out there that this was their business they were

16:59flippers they were renovating properties and selling them and so as i was continuing to buy

17:04those i started building out my own network and because of course everybody's coming to me and going

17:10melissa how are you doing this how are you buying properties in alabama and you know memphis and

17:14you know like what are you doing and so i was like hey i'm going to kind of build out my own system and

17:18my own team so that's what i started doing so now i help people be able to do it themselves while i'm

17:23helping them use my connections essentially so i've got teams that i have personally bedded out and

17:29bought properties with in a bunch of these different markets memphis kansas city indianapolis

17:35birmingham and that is their sole business they buy properties that are distressed they flip it they

17:40renovate it then they give those properties to me directly they're not on the mls they come to me

17:46and then i get to share them with the people that i'm working with and go hey i just got this really

17:50great property you interested in it and i'm buying from the same pool like i see properties come in

17:55i was like yes i will take that one um or i've got you know clients that i'm working with and they'll

17:59take it um so they are exclusive and they are with teams that i personally bedded out because

18:04i see the inspection reports consistently and you know real quick if somebody's a good flipper or a

18:10bad one when you see those inspection reports yeah i mean and again on that note building the team

18:17you've mentioned a few times is one of the the most important and also most difficult to get right

18:21steps so what is your advice uh you know what are the key roles that you needed to build out to build

18:27your business and then what's your advice for somebody trying to replicate that yeah definitely i think

18:32that you need to constantly be checking in and asking questions with whoever you're working with

18:39a lender for example is part of your team your lender could be your cfo you know they're the

18:45ones that are going to continue helping you if you're working with a lender that specializes in

18:50investment properties they're going to have different types of loans for you they're going to be able to

18:53tell you hey you know i've got this property can i do a cash out refinance or can we do a heloc on that

18:59rental they're going to help you grow and scale my lender actually looks at my taxes before i submit

19:06them to make sure that i'm not taking too much write-offs on the business side because it's very

19:10tempting and i've done it they they he's like no like you can't take you're gonna enable yourself to

19:16qualify for conventional loans anyway and so we want to get your write-offs on the real estate side not

19:22on the business side and so i really do have you know for since the very beginning i've listened to

19:27my lenders and i'm like okay what do i need to do so that i can continue to get qualified and then as

19:33i'm talking to my lender and i've got this great relationship with them throughout the years i'm

19:37asking them like hey what are the top markets you're seeing where are investors buying who do you know

19:42i'm constantly networking and so i think that's the biggest thing is don't just lay there like talk to

19:50people and i know it's hard sometimes i'm actually an introvert i may not sound like it sometimes but i

19:56actually am and i get so nervous and i get so scared to like pick up that phone and i have to

20:00like talk myself into it but i'm like i'm gonna do this i gotta do this so your team really is is more

20:07than just um you know you think of your team as just like myself or your property manager but include

20:13your lender in there as well you know i've got it you know some of the markets i buy in often i've got

20:20my title company there the escrow company there and i use them over and over again and i ask them advice

20:25and you know hey i'm moving this property over to an llc can you do a quick claim deed for me and

20:29you know is everybody else doing that or what else is other people doing you know i'm always just kind

20:33of like am i alone in this or what else is going on yeah yeah having uh just having people that you

20:40can kind of act as a soundboard especially when you're out there doing deals on your own and you

20:44you don't have a team of other investors that you're working with talking to the people on your

20:49team you know your lender you're you're you know you're well i'm just gonna say lender again

20:52your property manager anybody that is uh that's you're working with daily they will give you good

20:57advice on on the deals that you're working on so i like to hear that um i did take a peek at the

21:02clock though i i you know we have two more steps we have the process and then the scaling that we

21:07haven't gone through but uh we've already run the clock down it's past the 20 minute marks we do have

21:12to push it in to the quick question round are you ready let's go for it fire away it starts with

21:18education um i'm gonna need two recommendations for you and this uh it could be any form of education

21:24it could be a conference you've gone to a mentorship program you've been a part of book you've read

21:28movie you've seen anything but i need two recommendations one for general life wisdom

21:32and then one for real estate okay well i hate to say rich dad poor dad because everybody does and

21:38it's so cliche but i actually anybody that's brand new and thinking about investing if you have not read

21:43rich dad poor dad then you are like missing something like you actually have to so i'm sorry

21:47to say that the other one is i'm very very into napoleon hill think grow rich i'm very into positive

21:55mindset and i guess kind of manifestation in a way but like all of that positive thinking setting goals

22:01is huge i again i would not be where i am today if i did not set big goals for myself because you can't

22:07hit something if you don't set those yeah yeah um i mean uh rich dad poor dad a lot of people say it

22:14but for good reason it's a it's a good book at least to give you the motivation and the framework

22:18that you need it won't tell you how to do real estate that's not really the goal of it but

22:22if you want motivation to understand why it's important to get into real estate that is the book

22:26to pick up um all right with that i'm going to push on push us on to the next question this is for

22:32your younger self let's go back to the melissa who had no experience in real estate she was just

22:37thinking about buying that first rental out there in uh birmingham i think you said go to her look

22:42her in the eye give her one piece of advice moving forward keep taking action that's it keep taking

22:48action you learn as you do you know i could not have read or learned all the things i've learned

22:55there's no way i've learned by doing so continue taking action and do not stop taking action yeah yeah

23:02that is uh that's timeless advice and i'm gonna put it in the same category as i wish i got started

23:07sooner because it has to do with action so many i'm 95 96 97 of the people who come on this show

23:12they that's the piece of advice that they give when i ask this question and so whenever somebody

23:18says something like that i always want to put it back to you the listener if you are out there you

23:22haven't gotten your first deal done go take action get it done it doesn't matter what it is

23:27could be a turnkey rental you know a fifty thousand dollar property in the middle of nowhere just go get a

23:32deal done make sure it pencils but get it done and then get that ball rolling because everybody

23:37who comes on the show wish wishes they got the ball rolling sooner because the more action you take the

23:42more you're going to get hit in the face but it will get that ball rolling i said that multiple times

23:47and 10 years down the road you're going to be happy that you got started today so next question this is

23:52about the u.s you have mentioned a few times that you like to you've expanded into different markets

23:57um so why don't you take us to your favorite market today um that you're most excited about

24:02investing in great question um well i'm actually pretty excited about the new property i just bought

24:08in little rock that's a new market for me and i have a phenomenal team they're great property

24:12management um the properties are pretty affordable very landlord friendly in fact it's the most landlord

24:17friendly state in the country it's still illegal you can get thrown in jail if you do not pay your

24:22rent according to the laws of course they don't enforce it but no it's kind of crazy

24:27i'm from washington that would never happen right right yeah so uh no little rock is a great market

24:32for me it's a new market for me although it's been a great investment market for quite some time

24:36huh interesting i have i only have one experience with arkansas with that general area i bought a

24:42a self-storage facility in hot springs and we just had so much property crime down there it was it was

24:48annoying and i just uh i don't know i had a bad taste in my mouth but i've heard you know little

24:52rock the prices are really low and so i understand i'm sure they cash flow pretty well are

24:56you do you have you had i mean this is a new acquisition for you have you had any property

25:01property crime issues or anything like that no i'm also very picky about areas i mean this is a solid

25:07b class area um you know i i own c class in other areas and again i think it's um just a matter of

25:15making sure your property manager is is a good property manager but also you know betting out those

25:19tenants but also being aware of like what you're buying like my expectations are are kind of low if i'm

25:25buying in a in a kind of a rougher area i don't have high expectations but i i definitely prefer

25:30b class areas have a little bit more appreciation a little better tenant a little bit less risk

25:35yeah makes sense all right uh that leads us to the next question this is about finding deals it all

25:42gets it all starts with getting in contact with the seller and pen in that purchase agreement so what

25:45is your favorite way to generate new leads and find deals yeah definitely i've i've got i've already got

25:51the teams who i know do a good job i've already vetted them out i have my i have my people i'm

25:56always looking for new people i'm always talking to people i'm like hey you know do you know any

26:00flippers in this area how long have they been in business but the key is vetting them out and having

26:04long-term relationships one of my uh partners in indianapolis i've known him for 10 years and i've

26:09seen hundreds of inspection reports from his team i know i know his management company as well and so

26:14again it just comes back to me for relationship building and so i i get to at this point in my

26:20career i get to lean on the teams that i already have um and then of course if i'm looking for a

26:25new market i'm gonna i'm gonna talk to my network i'm gonna ask my people you know i don't even look

26:30at the mls i don't even know like zillow what like i don't even go there everything i do is off market

26:35yeah yeah brokers uh it actually took me a while to realize the value of brokers and i'm in the

26:41commercial side which is really stupid of me but i i was 100 you know convinced that you could only

26:46find good deals by doing off market lead gen you know sending mailers doing cold calling texting all

26:51that stuff and it wasn't until recently that i realized brokers are just as good and it's a lot

26:56more fun because you can just have a conversation and they'll bring you the deal before it hits the

26:59ml or you know hits the mls so yeah building that network is definitely key so now it's time to

27:06talk about deals that you've done it starts with lessons learned not every deal we go

27:10through or we get goes the way we expect it in fact most times something goes wrong and that's

27:17when we get to learn a lesson so what was a deal that went a little bit sideways for you and then

27:20what was the lesson you pulled from it yeah definitely well that very first property i bought

27:25i had a squatter right away right after i bought it and i was like oh my gosh and they stole like all the

27:30copper and you know and i was just like great what did i do you know i just bought this property

27:352 000 miles away and you know and it goes back to having a really good property manager

27:39honestly that that that truly is key i still have them to this day and they were like no worries you

27:45know we got in there we removed them we know what to do again buying in a landlord friendly state where

27:49you can remove squatters and you know and they were like yeah it's gonna cost you a little bit of money

27:54you're gonna have to replace you know the furnace piping or whatever it was and they took care of it

27:59for me i didn't have to do anything i didn't have to do the bids again they handled it and then they

28:03said you know we're gonna you know send somebody over to make sure this doesn't happen again we

28:07notified all the neighbors to keep an eye on the property for us like they just went out of their

28:10way to handle it for me and then um they're like hey you know we got a new renter so it was just

28:15kind of like okay i got over that storm i got over that hump you know and that renter stayed for eight

28:20years um you know and so again it's also being creative with your property manager and when there

28:26is a problem like don't just settle for what they're saying be like okay like think with them like

28:32you have to think with them you know i was like okay how can we make sure this doesn't happen

28:35again how can we button it down you know i was kind of asking them these questions not just letting

28:40them handle it because that's the other thing too is a lot of people think you know turnkey like

28:44i can literally just take a nap and fall asleep for 10 years no you have to put on your thinking cap

28:49and think and strategize with your property manager sometimes you might come up with an idea that they

28:54didn't think of and they've given me brilliant ideas with buying extra insurance policies and different

29:00things you know so so really asking them the questions again like getting into them and going

29:05like hey give me the secret stuff you know i want i want to know the insider stuff what's going on behind

29:10the scenes nice yeah i like that think with them that's a really good way to approach your property

29:15management team and just goes to show i mean that specific example that you gave it um it it shows why

29:22it's so important to have and to find a good property manager there's plenty of bad ones out there i've

29:27been thrown there are bad property managers out there you don't want on your team so you really

29:31have to both take take your time finding a good one and then be super appreciative when you do find

29:36that person treat them well think think with them as you said and just you know make sure that they

29:41understand they're valued uh as a valued member of your team yep and and also last thing i'll say about

29:46that is pivot quick if you're not happy with your property manager get out of there find a new one

29:52don't wait they're gonna get worse yeah yeah we've learned that that lesson too yeah i learned

29:57by doing that's right all right uh now that was the lessons learned let's go to the highlight reel

30:03sometimes a deal just kind of goes the way that you hoped it would go and you kind of sail off into

30:08the sunset it sets itself as you know kind of your your favorite deal in the past so why don't you

30:13take us to your highlight reel what is your your favorite deal you've done throw it out there's one

30:18of my short-term rentals um actually my very first short-term rental it was right before covid i mean

30:23the timing was it was good and i had been researching this market in utah a little ski town

30:28for quite some time and we loved going there as a family and so i kind of justified and said you know

30:33hey we're going to be able to use it whenever we want we can go up there enjoy family time and then

30:38when we're not there it's going to make money and pay for itself so we we we bought it and uh we actually

30:44ended up doing a 10 down on it because i was able to do it for a second property not an investment

30:50property and then we ended up just kind of you know deciding we were going to rent it out or whatever

30:53but um we didn't need to do any renovations to it at all we replaced like the the stove and the

30:59refrigerator kind of updated it brought in some new bedding the bedding was atrocious it was like

31:04grandma's house like disgusting we made it really nice like a you know like a beautiful hotel clean

31:10crisp replaced some of the lighting and just kind of modernized that we honestly didn't do a lot with

31:15it it was so booked out that and i was actually using a property manager a local property manager

31:21because i i didn't know i could do it on my own at that point and so we were paying them like 30

31:26but it was so booked out we couldn't even use it like we were like we can't even go it's so booked

31:32out and then i started looking at the numbers and i was like wow you know we're paying this property

31:36manager 30 that's a lot i was like if i could figure out how to self-manage it that money's

31:42in my pocket so i started doing that and i mean the profit margin i mean it was huge we were making

31:48like really really good money i mean profiting at least five to seven thousand dollars a month on

31:54this property that i paid like 150 000 for like it was crazy like when i say good deal like that's a

32:02good deal right and so we ended up deciding to sell it because it was in an hoa and they were

32:10just giving us hell because it was so busy everybody in there was like what are you guys

32:13doing they're kind of upset with us drugs man yeah so anyways so we ended up selling that doing a 1031

32:19exchange and because of that we were able to take a huge profit and then dump it into our second short

32:26term rental which is in palm springs where i'm at right now and that was truly my dream house was to

32:30own a vacation rental here so that was able to come to this one and this one was a distressed property

32:35that needed to be renovated and so my husband was able to um hire out most of the subs and kind of do

32:41the renovations so then because of that one we bought this one and because of that in four months after we

32:48renovated this one um we brought up the value seven hundred thousand dollars on this one um so it

32:55appraised for double what we paid for it and then i did a cost segregation on it and this is a long

33:02story but i ended up getting a 350 000 tax deduction on a cost segregation because i bought that condo in

33:11utah so that's why it's the best deal ever i thought you could only do a cost seg on i'm not i think i'm

33:17being naive here yeah i thought you could only do it on a commercial property but you can do it on a

33:21residential property as well absolutely you can i do them all the time and with the big beautiful

33:26bill that just came out there's a lot of things in there that are good some things maybe not so good

33:30for other people but that's one of the things you get a hundred percent bonus depreciation is back

33:34and if you have a short-term rental you can take advantage of that there you go another reason to

33:39buy real estate another reason so sorry that was very long but i was very i get very excited it's all

33:45good it's all good all right let's move it along and this is about raising money it is you can get to

33:51the point where you run out of your own cash very quickly in real estate and so a lot of times

33:54you got especially if you're going after bigger deals um you have to raise capital this might not

33:59apply to you so this might be an irrelevant question but i'm going to ask it anyways what

34:02do you do to raise capital i don't i absolutely don't i use my own properties equity so i'm reusing

34:09my own money nice i love it well then the burst strategy that's your uh that's your way to raise

34:15capital i like it it is it is but it's not necessarily i'm not i'm not renovating the properties

34:20myself i'm using that my own equity from just natural appreciation mostly i mean i have done

34:25the burr yes sorry i have done the burr like with this palm springs one but for the most part my

34:29turnkey ones you do build equity in those because they are in appreciating good areas so there is a

34:35strategy in that itself yeah absolutely i remember somebody came on here and they had a quote where it

34:40was like uh any deal is a good deal if you can hold on to it 10 years and that's that's just pretty

34:45pretty much true it's not always true but it's it's almost always true yep yep it's not it's not

34:50timing the market it's time in the market there you go there you go it's a good sound bite all right

34:56that leads us to the very last question this is for the listeners you've given us a lot to think

35:01about i'm sure people want to reach out can contact with you this is a two-parter where can

35:05they find you and then what can they expect when they reach out yeah definitely so go to hello

35:10melissa nash.com and there i've got a couple things in there they always say like hey give

35:14people like one thing i do have two buttons you guys can click on the first one is how to be a

35:18lazy investor i've got a quick guide on how to get started you know if you're a busy working

35:23professional and you're like hey i don't want to go out and do this all on my own how do i do it the

35:27lazy easy way that is the guide for you so you can grab that um and then the other one is i do book a

35:32couple of free strategy calls each week where people are like hey i want to talk to you more about

35:36helping me build out the strategy is this the thing for me so there is a thing up there that you can

35:40click and book a free strategy call perfect i will put that link in the show notes so if y'all

35:46want to reach out to melissa all you got to do is click the little more in the description it's going

35:50to pull down that full description and in there you can find her links all right that wraps it up thank

35:55you very much for hopping on the show absolutely thanks for having me and i'll i'll come back again

36:00sometime if you want yeah we gotta finish that list that we got we still got two more steps to go

36:04over so that's right with that said i thank you guys for showing up you guys are the reason we do

36:10this so if you guys have any questions at all reach out to me gabe with real estate investing

36:14club.com if you want to support the show just leave us a review or a comment other than that i hope you

36:19guys have a great week keep rocking real estate and i look forward to seeing you on the next episode

36:25bye

36:31so

36:35you

36:37you

36:38you

36:42you

36:44you

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