Hello friends! Welcome to the very first episode of the Women Invest In Real Estate podcast with Amelia and Grace. We’re so excited you’re here! In this first episode, we’re going to tell you a little bit about our backgrounds and also dive into the lessons we’ve each learned during our investing journey.
Amelia’s Story
Amelia is a 30-year-old investor from Des Moines, Iowa whose investing journey started in 2019 when she bought her first property with her parents to flip. In June 2020 they sold that property and she decided she no longer wanted to flip properties but instead wanted to buy rental properties so that she could earn passive income every single month. Her plan was to use a portion of the proceeds from that flip to put down payments on her next rental properties.
Prior to that, she had spent about two years researching properties and trying to talk her parents into joining her on the real estate adventure before they finally gave in and none of them have ever looked back. When they finally said ‘yes’ they purchased a 4 bedroom, 2 bathroom property for only $28,000, and everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
Amelia firmly believes in just getting started.
When they finally finished the flip and sold the property they moved on to purchasing a tri-plex in her hometown. Knowing it already had tenants living in it and being in pretty rough shape Amelia was driven by providing safe and clean housing to residents of her own community. Since then, Amelia has continued to grow her real estate portfolio and now has 30 doors across the state of Iowa.
One of Amelia’s biggest lessons learned was how to get creative and just roll with the punches. Another note Amelia leaves us with is failure is not an option. Know how to pivot and problem-solve: if you cannot do those things real estate may not be the best fit for you. Lastly, she learned that if you show other people (friends, family, or close-knit network) what you're doing and that you're making money and having success, they're going to want to get involved.
Grace’s Story
Prior to getting into real estate, Grace actually had already established an Instagram following by posting about her love of reading. Once she made the pivot (changing her entire presence on Instagram) she met Amelia. Grace originally went to school for engineering and after only one year Grace made the pivot into real estate. As a New Years’ Resolution with Amelia they started a Meet-Up, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Grace began her real estate career by partnering with her sister and her boyfriend and together they purchased their first property in 2021. A few months later they purchased a few more and had a total of three properties (five doors). She felt like this was the right move for her and with the ability to go back to her old job (or find a new job) - and was in a debt-free comfortable position to take this chance.
“You can do anything and everyone is an entrepreneur. Just put yourself out there. You just have to decide.”
Another piece of advice Grace gives to anyone starting on the real estate journey is to double your timeline and your budget. Don’t start with a full gut (like she did - which thankfully worked out in her favor).
Now, Grace has a total of 20 doors in her real estate portfolio, all within about 20 minutes of where she lives, self-managing all of them. But what Grace is really excited about is what is just ahead of her. Nothing. There is nothing in Grace's pipeline and she's pumped to be able to spend time reassessing and figuring out exactly where she wants to put her intention next.
“It’s ok to not know what you want to do or where you want to go. We’re all just figuring it out.”
We both struggle with imposter syndrome (who doesn’t), but at the same time, we have learned to work through it, together.
Thank you so much for tuning in to the first WIIRE episode, see you next time!
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