Real Estate Underground

From Nursing to Nurturing Real Estate Investments, with Alexandra Dotcheva

• Clark St Capital • Season 3 • Episode 88

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Welcome To The Real Estate Underground Show #88!

In this captivating episode, we follow the inspiring journey of Alexandra Dotcheva - from a violinist to a nurse and now a thriving real estate investor. Her story is a powerful testament to resilience, adaptability, and unwavering determination.

Alexandra spent 26 years as a violinist before realizing in 2008 that the classical music market was shrinking, and she needed a new path. Despite facing opposition from her parents, she made the difficult decision to pursue nursing school. In 2011, she witnessed the mistreatment of nurses by profit-driven corporations, which led her to discover the world of real estate investment. Clueless at first, she stumbled upon the books of Robert Kiyosaki in 2012 and gained the knowledge she needed.

 

In this episode, you'll learn:

  • Alexandra's unique strategies for effective property management and time utilization.
  • Insights into her property evaluation methods, with a focus on cash flow and essential amenities.
  • Alexandra's resilient money management approach, including saving for property acquisitions and establishing a repair reserve fund.
  • Candid insights into what she would have done differently, providing a roadmap for investors of all levels.

Don't miss this thrilling episode filled with profound insights and practical tips on real estate investing. Alexandra's journey is fueled by courage, resilience, and undeniable success.

To learn more about Alexandra or her book, visit https://www.holisticselfconfidence.com. Discover her blog, where you can access both the paperback and ebook editions of "It Really Is Simple: A Holistic Approach to Self-Confidence." The eBook is also available on popular platforms like Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Apple Books.

Resources: 

Clark St Digital helps you grow your real estate company with:

  • Amazing Overseas Talent who cost 80% less than their US equivalents
  • Done-For-You subscription services
  • Done-For-You project services

Go to ClarkStDigital.com to schedule your free strategy meeting.

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Ed Mathews:

So the big question is this how are real estate investors who don't have a ton of free time, don't have access to off-market deals and didn't start life on third base, how do we grow a real estate business conservatively to support our families, finally leave the corporate rat race and build a legacy? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. I'm Ed Matthews and this is Real Estate Underground.

Ed Mathews:

This is the Real Estate Underground podcast, show number 88. Greetings and salutations, real Estate Undergrounders. This is Ed Matthews with the Real Estate Underground. Thank you so much for joining us today. Today is another really cool, interesting conversation. So I actually came across this person on Facebook following her around holistic self-confidence. Turns out she's a real estate investor as well, and a whole bunch of other things. And so, alexandra Docheva, thank you so much for joining us today. It's a pleasure to see you and to finally meet you because, like I said, I've been following you for quite some time, so welcome.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Ed Mathews:

Absolutely, absolutely so. For the folks out there that haven't followed you on social media yet, I'm curious about if you could tell the audience your background story and how you got to be where you are today.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Yes. So this is briefly as possible so we can focus on the real estate world first. So I am originally Bulgarian. I was a violinist for 26 years, very specialized, very limited by that in many ways. So I came to the States in 2000, earned my master's and doctoral degree in classical violin and then in 2008, I realized I wasn't competitive enough. The market was shrinking for classical music and I went into nursing. I put myself to a nursing school. It was one of the harder decisions I ever made, because my parents were against it. College, for like, why are we doing it after all these years of work, practicing 79 hours a day for decades? Right, so nursing school. Then I started. I became an active part of the work force of the nurse in 2011.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

And shortly after, when I saw how many of the nurses lived and were treated by the corporations that have devoured hospital, I realized the face of job security is in me. They were working the butts off and sicker than the patients in many ways and broke them.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

I was ever as a musician, so then I figured I need to learn how to invest, and I was clueless and completely clueless financially because, as a musician and then a nurse, I have no clue how to save for investing, hold investments to all the world, their assets, classes and all that. And I came across the books of Robert Kiyosaki in 2012, 13. I started reading them. I read six or seven of his books, I told him, because he started from scratch. He was on the verge of homelessness with his wife at some point and he built his wealth, his millions, from scratch. And I was like, okay, if he can do it, why can't I? I am not smart, but I'm disciplined, so if I make myself learn this stuff, I should be able to choose an ethical asset and prosper in it. And he really got me grossed in real estate because he's so passionate about it. He has this ability to explain difficult things in a very nice way. That's combined with black food and research.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, and me right, that's absolutely.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Right. And then I eventually took that leap of faith and bought two of his online courses, which were really expensive for me at the time because I was a starting nurse a lowest pay rate as a starting nurse, even though I was like mid-30s. I was a beginning nurse, so I made myself a disciplined financially and started saving. I bought multiple real estate properties after that and at the time point today where I can really choose to work or not work, I mean I love nursing because it's a great way to be useful to people.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

but as far as financial independence, I manage my own properties. I love my tenants. I can safely say that I have the most affordable housing in the Phoenix area right now because I don't skin my tenants financially and I still can make excellent living for myself and I love one.

Ed Mathews:

Amazing.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

And yeah and then. So two years ago I wrote the book. It Really Is Simple, a Holistic Approach of Confidence to Show People how they Can Stop Anything from Scratchy. They Apply Themselves and how I Did it and they Can Do it. And Then Came to Holistic Confidence Business and Stuff About it.

Ed Mathews:

And it's a fascinating approach because there's so many of us, myself included, that when we were starting out, or as folks in the audience who were thinking about starting out, they're terrified.

Ed Mathews:

I mean, I always hear you and I were talking about this before I hit record that when I meet folks that would love to get into the real estate business, I hear three basic themes I don't know where the money, I don't know where to get the money, I don't know where to find the deals and I don't have time because life. And invariably when I ask more questions, I hear a lot of fear and a lot of self-questioning and, frankly, questioning from the folks that are around the person that I'm speaking with. And one of the things that I admire about you and your story is that you found a way to overcome all that and succeed on many levels. But since this is a real estate show, we'll focus on the real estate, although I'm fascinated by the classic violin career. In terms of rental properties, can you tell us a little bit about your portfolio and where you focus? I know you focus on Phoenix, but what kind of assets?

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Of course. So the way I started was funny because my boyfriend and I were renting and I said we need to buy an asset first before we buy our first house. So we first bought a complex. I went to a lawyer, created an LLC because I understood that each of the properties has to be put in a different business entity for tax and legal protection, because anything that is a potential plaintiff and also the most important part actually legally is also the trust. We have to create a trust. It's a long time expense with your lawyer so you can put all of your assets under the house because that's even better protection than the LLC's sales.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

So once we bought the four places. We lived in one of the apartments and it was great because I got an FH loan as a first time homeowner and only paid 3.5% down on that property and we renovated all the other three apartments. We lived in the other the remaining one apartment as broken and old and faded and disgusting as it was because the previous landlord was an absentee guy from California and in Arizona, so he was feeding the tenants like dogs, basically. So we decided we're not going to do that. We picked the apartments and then, after a year and a half, when my boyfriend bought our house, we fixed the fourth apartment. But the point is we first bought the asset and a way to start investing.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

If you're renting and you don't know where to start, you can buy a duplex, triptych or fourplex. Now, in our case, the duplexes and triptychs were really overpriced. I mean to be more precise in 2014,. The duplexes were overpriced with. The triptychs were in pretty nasty areas. It's the next one for five pounds for sale. So that's fourplex, somehow worked out in a relatively okay area and a decent price. So, but the challenge with a fourplex, as you might know, is you have all the problems quadruples because they have a broken, they see a hard hitter, but then you get, oh, four hitters after you. Five hitters because there is a laundry room involved with all these details that people freak out about. But it was a very steep, great learning curve for me because if I can do the fourplex, then I can do the pay to get, so then I bought several single family homes, which have been excellent, because with a single family you fix it in a week.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

I had to learn how to pay and my boyfriend talked it out. I had no school or so ever but realized hey, we learned to paint, I can save a lot of money and handyman and then leave really tough stuff for the professional contractors. So you recover these properties and you with the houses. The tenants come immediately and I can be sentenced for five, six, seven years. Now they don't sleep because my friends are very reasonable. I want to suggest to people who are looking into real estate the way I do that Of course I always fish in the markets, I research properties. I look at 300 or so before I place five or six offers, and each offer is different because each property needs specific things to be done before.

Ed Mathews:

I can go for the tenants.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

So when I look at the rents in the market, I like to start in the middle of the market. So I'm competitive, but not, like you know, overpaying the income, because I make income immediately after I start. I even make income before my first mortgage payment is done, if I'm able to recover the property fast enough before the tenants get in.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

But once I'm at the middle of the market and the tenants went there, then I really gravitate towards the lower end of the market because there are tons of great investors out there. That will inflate the market and the prices of the rentals getting inflated and what we're seeing this year and last year recently renewals at $400, $500 increase. I've never seen anything like this before and I vowed I would never do this to the people that I offer my business to, because the whole point of being a renter is to be affordable, and I also paid up myself for 14 years straight in this country before I bought this. First bought forklift. Yes, yeah, we're talking about you know.

Ed Mathews:

And I admire that, and we operate with a similar philosophy in that I'm fine with being 85, 90% of the market, and that is usually for open units. If I'm, you know, when I acquire a building and I'm inheriting new residents or existing residents, excuse me, we stick to the 3% to 4%. There's really no reason to push them out because, frankly, I'm actually hoping that they stay for years and years and years, right, and you know so. So I agree, I think you know, I think that you can be very successful and do very well and not gouge your residents, right.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Yes, and this comes back to your own discipline and integrity, because if you're financially disciplined, you don't have to gouge your tenants. Exactly, and with the real estate market, people will always need to work above their head, and it's not necessary because their credit history is poor. But there are some people that honestly don't want to manage any property and they just refer to it, absolutely.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

So different and the 3% to 4% depends on the area. For see me, you get migrating west and west and west, because up to the Phoenix foreplex, then Phoenix became a prize that I didn't like anymore. So then you know, in Olmira, then west, further west of Bacai, something kept from swimming westward. But what you said, you have to be sustainable by being affordable to your clients, absolutely. The real estate business is no different than any other business.

Ed Mathews:

And it's a simple exchange of value, right. I mean, you're providing a you folks like me, folks like you, you know we're providing a clean and safe place that's been, you know, well appointed so that they're proud to live there. And, you know, hopefully, the you know the idea is to keep them there, keep them in place for, you know, several years, and which also makes your property more valuable because you're not spending money on turnover and releasing right, which can be very expensive.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

And then you can be very probable to immediately manage one day you need to manage and you cater to their needs and it's a very satisfying way to give a business.

Ed Mathews:

It's a, it's a simple exactly. I totally agree with you. It's a simple value exchange, right? If you have a problem, we come fix it. If you have a question, we answer it. You know, if you need to talk to somebody about something going on, then we're happy to be of service, right, and it's yes, sir. No, no, ma'am, please, thank you, it's our pleasure, right, I mean it's truly customer service. And you know, I've known so many of our peers that have said one of two things either one. Don't let them know that you're the owner, and I couldn't care less if they know I'm the owner, Exactly, Exactly. The fact is is that if they need something and they need it quickly, they know, because we help them, we train them, basically, that you know it's better to call our team, right, but if they don't get satisfaction, I'm fine with the phone call. I want to know Absolutely.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

And see, I have this one tenant who will not complain for three months, which is not his bother, even if they complain, and I don't know why. They tell me now, right, I mean they have to trust you. And as far as letting them know whether you're the owner or not, depending how big you want to grow, I mean purchase an apartment complex with hundreds, 200 units, of course they hire a management company.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

In my case, I want to get full control over my properties because I don't trust anybody personally. And finally, the good manager. Good manager is worth your weight in gold. They say right, but how do you trust them? I see lots of instances where the manager says they're going to somebody and they don't do it, and I'll still manage my bookkeeping and my tenants and my repairs much better than somebody else that doesn't own the property I agree.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

In that case I have. No, I meet my tenants personally. I wouldn't do it any other way. So they know I'm the owner and I put very reasonable and firm, clear conditions in front of them and I thought look, I'm a very reasonable landlord, but these are the three conditions you pay your rental time, you keep my property clean and you do not disturb the other tenants on the property. These are very simple rules and they agree to them. If they don't agree to them and they throw out a disaster tenant within a month because I know within a month or so, I've fixed three evictions in the nine years I've been in business.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

It's not pleasant, but you will have to also make that decision and activate it, and I know it's scary to many people to say, oh, I can't do this. Well, if you have to do it though, you have to because you have to lose your good balance with someone who didn't keep their promise and it's not abiding by the legal agreement for the rental lease.

Ed Mathews:

Right.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

I agree.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, I mean. The residents in any building have the right to quiet enjoyment of their home right. So if you've got someone who is a bad seed, who is disrupting the building, and you are afraid or hesitant to move on from that resident, think about it from the perspective of the point you just made, which is, if you don't get rid of the problem, then the problem will overcome all of your good residents and you'll start to lose them instead. So pick your poison. Which one would you rather lose? The good resident with the problem resident right.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Absolutely. I've been threatened. I've been. I mean, I've been through a lot of stuff all the time, but to the most one case it's actually my other residents came to me, with me to court to testify against the pen and that was disrupting the whole process of the building and everything. And that was the last conviction several years ago, because it wasn't a meeting. It's not pleasant, I'm not saying it's easy, I'm not saying it's pleasant, but it has to be done.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

It's like everything else that you need to do with your property or business, your life, your health. It's something you have to do. Don't put it off. It's a bad problem. Solve it as soon as efficiently as you can.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, absolutely so. Let's get into your investment criteria, your buy box. So when you look at a property and you're thinking about buying it, what are some of the attributes that you're looking for in terms of the financial attributes, location, whatever how do you decide? What filter do you send these potential acquisitions through to determine whether they're a good fit for your operation?

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Right, so the area has to be growing, coming up in growing areas, so it's not still as expensive as the other areas, because the markets change rapidly and the more established markets get expensive or quicker, from what I've noticed.

Ed Mathews:

Can I stop here, right there, when you say growing what's growing?

Alexandra Dotcheva:

The population, the price, the area is growing in terms of employment, attracting more employment, more businesses and all that. That's the growing area. Okay, so it hasn't hit boundaries yet. It's not, you know, not to be forced to the boundaries, like if you've got Scottville, for example, that they have strict rules how much to grow the city and then you don't grow the city in order to smart.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

But the internet Phoenix, which is very famous. People come from all over the world, they're coming to excuse me and it grows in price very quickly in certain areas. So that becomes out of reach at some point if you really want to stay reasonable with your criteria for down payment and all that and how many properties you want to buy. So that's why we kept migrating waste because before that bubble exploded completely. Now because the current market unless you find an amazing deal, some fixer offer that you really can buy at an realistic price, because they're not selling even fixer offers with a difference price. They think they have a gold mine and they're like no, not really.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

No, but sell or finance is different from when you get the data from the bank. It depends on how you want to start your deal. But another criteria so employment you have to get easy access to amenities, stores, of course, transportation in some cases, and the vapor hood has to be decent. So you have to actually know. Actually that depends on the properties, with all our associated properties without. But if it's a fundamentally decent neighborhood that you see that the buildings are well maintained and the people are middle class, people who do their jobs, people who take care of their life, don't cause trouble, then that's an okay, perfectly fine community for me to be in.

Ed Mathews:

Okay, good, and then, from a financial perspective, what are you looking for when you're evaluating the property? Are you focused on cash flow, appreciation, cash flow?

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Cash flow investor. Yes, because I want to be able to get employment freedom if I want to put my job at any point. Because the last few years obviously things became very difficult for people for nurses and healthcare professionals and we were presented with some pretty weird choices that we never had to make before. And if your employer or government or whatever is demanding something that is completely in incongruity with your medical and medical principles, you should be able to say, okay, I will do it because I think I can do it, but if I can't do it, I can't be and still have decent income. So cash flow for me is very important in my investments. Give me choices and give me choices.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

I keep my property softified and that's the financial thing. As far as financing the loan, like I said, the first property and HA also grew up to live in one of the units, so it was an excellent down payment because I was my poorest. At that point I had the least amount of money, but later on it was not a problem to organize myself enough to save the 20% for down payments. I've also explored sellers finance deals, which can be excellent. I just didn't come across at the time across sellers that were with reasonable interest rates and properties and location, because somebody wanted like a 12% interest when the market interest was 4% or 3%. 75% in my rate is 800.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

So this person is not attractive to me at all, which is 12% interest, and since we want to speak, $50,000 dollars, something completely insane that's not a win-win situation. I'll do that, but that type of thing, you know, you know you're not your options and you can navigate your way through deals and financing.

Ed Mathews:

Yep, okay, so you're a cash flow investor in terms of appreciation in your equity, Obviously, you know, since 2014,. You've been investing in one of the top 10 hottest markets in the US, so I'm curious about how you look at equity and appreciation. And then I want to talk about you know your view into the market, giving that you're in one of those very hot markets.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Right. So are you asking whether I'll take a loan against my equity ends?

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, how do you do? That I mean there are some investors that will sell in 1031 exchange into something bigger. Some will take a line of credit and some don't touch it and want to pay it off, and I respect all three.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

But I don't touch the equity. I don't touch it because the only thing with the equity, of course, I can distribute it, all my properties in different business entities to protect the new case, anything happens, and then everything is under trust. But the equity, I don't have a problem not touching it because, again, I have structured my life in a way that, for one thing, status display for me is something completely useless, and I came from a family in Bulgaria where, I mean, my parents were not the richest people by any stretch of imagination and when the events happened in 1989, when the regime failed, the communists, the GFL, I mean their professions, fell like on the bottom, bottom of the paying ladder and so, to look at it, was just important to have the things we need and still look decent. But see, I don't try to push or hurry, so I don't need to take loans with the equity is just to show off how amazing I am for the rest of the world.

Ed Mathews:

Because I put care aside that right.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

So I like the equity where it is, in case I ever have a horrible emergency in my life and I kept to sell, which will be completely against what I wanted to do, but sometimes you never know like that.

Ed Mathews:

I have also.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

It's all just the equity though. I mean I have built Couturn accounts for every single month on businesses which comprises at least the three months worth of mortgage payments for that property. In case I lose 10s and I can't find 10s of staff that I want to Right, what's on top of that, there is some money for repairs. You need it. So each of my LLCs has this very good Couturn accounts and I don't touch that either. So that's another form of equity to wish.

Ed Mathews:

Absolutely.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

It's a very disciplined way to build it. To survive the property. You built your little Couturn account in the same business savings or market, whatever you want with your union, credit union or bank and then proceed to save for another property. I'm very organized in that way because I want my property set in a certain way financially and then I go on to the next property. I'm very organized and kind of narrow minded in some way, but it helps me because it keeps me in control of investments that way.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah Well it's a very disciplined way to approach it. Right Is that you're acquiring a property, you're fixing that property, you are stabilizing and renting that property, and when all of that's done, then you go get another one, right?

Alexandra Dotcheva:

They do build the accounts for three months of mortgage with the income from that property. So everything the way you see it as safest. You treat every property like you treat your own emergency. You have a savings account for emergency expenses from three to six months in case anything happens, but if nothing happens you don't touch and put down. It's going to be very long.

Ed Mathews:

Right. So I operate the same way, I plan for disaster and when it doesn't happen, we're pleasantly surprised. The only difference between our operation and yours with COVID, we went from that three month operating expense to we actually pushed it out to six months and, just because you never know, right and fortunately, we were blessed with a whole bunch of really amazing residents who, fortunately, most of them, kept their jobs and the ones that didn't work, yeah, yeah I was going to ask if there were any residents or not, not a one, no Same here Same here actually yeah.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

I've not been took advantage of the fact that the government allowed them to not bearing without any explanation, because that was that horrible, completely illegal move from the government, I think. But my parents were. They could they appreciate when you're honest with them and you treat them like equals? And they are equals, they're your clients, they are your clients or they're provider and you have to be extremely honest and respectful of them. Absolutely Many locals don't really see it that way.

Ed Mathews:

No, they do not, and that's a mistake. The fact is, you're running to human beings, you have an enormous responsibility to those people and, yeah, you're no better or worse than they are, so in terms of belief, and so I get stopped all the time. I wish I had the time or whatever, to get into this business. So I'm curious, in terms of having gone through that process yourself and now you're an expert on building self-confidence and helping other people do that, I'm curious what separates the folks that are able to do what you've achieved and versus the ones that are stuck in that, you know, dream phase or whatever you want to call it.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Please speak for everybody. I can only speak for myself. Okay, but one thing when people start expressing their doubts, especially when they're saying that I have to do a mark mark for lots of stuff, and after that, if you tell them to mark mark for lots of people or against that, permit the subcomponent builder.

Ed Mathews:

But then whether I should invest.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

I cut the time. I cut the time that I allotted to listening to these people and then I cut the time that I previously allotted to even sharing my intentions with these people. So you make yourself less available to people who don't align with your goals and dreams. And they're here at still with people all the time. They can be the nicest people, the most well-intentioned people, but it's ignorant advice if they don't know what they're doing, what you're going to do. So keep perspective, but don't take their advice. So don't waste your time discussing anything with them, because it might take an hour or two to discuss for a copy, and during that hour it can be planning research, market researching, investment options or career options, anything that you're afraid to do. Because all you have the time is. You have the time that you have to make the time Because it's a matter of priority.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

The priority for you is that you're not unilaterally involved.

Ed Mathews:

So when you come across someone who is struggling with confidence and they're not sure, I'm sure you mentor folks just given your background and the fact that you wrote a book and it's been well received. I'm curious about when you're working with somebody who's trying to figure out or build that courage or confidence to get over that hill and start their next career real estate or whatever what is it in them that finally gets them to take that big step?

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Well, in many ways they're very disillusioned with their current lives and they feel a certain age when they realize they've not been shown for, like me at age 32, and I realized that music was not going to work anymore, even though I had done this for 26 years and it comes at different age for people.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

So when they're desperate to learn something new but nobody around them can offer them anything of practical value, they come to me and we do a very full examination of what they want, why they want it, and then time management. So I made them grab the table of how we utilize the time. What is the condition that they're held? Do you have any chronic diseases that were sucking away time, doctor's appointments and sucking money away in medications and doctor's appointments? Very important factor that I work with patients all the time. I'm one of those who still does hands on care with patients and I'm proud of it because I learned a lot from my patients and we made them when they have their health in poor conditions and their finances are in poor condition, and that affects their relationships just as poorly.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

So I focused on these three areas and they will look at the money. Do you owe any credit cards? How many unpaid balances do you have on credit cards that are damaging your credit score, limiting your buying power? Let's do something about it. How many of these expenses are completely unnecessary at this point? Right? So looking at health, nutrition, exercise, detox but I'm a maniac on these three things. They will look into their careers, then the finance aspect. I mean we rip everything apart in the time management and then, in course, spending your time right now. Who told you that? Why are you one hour today with this person who can't contribute anything to your life because of childhood memories? No, you need to distract for everything. So they realize eventually I mean pretty soon that everything is so connected the five life aspects of health, career, finance and citizenship and ultimately spirituality.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Then they become much more territorial with their time, gradually, gradually based on some of them sooner than others you know they see the value of taking control of their time and how much more they can do with their time as far as their physical well-being, mental well-being and financial well-being.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, and I couldn't agree more. You know, the fact is that it comes down to decisions and choices, right, and you know you can choose to play video games, or, you know, go out and party on Friday night or watch movies or TV or whatever. Right, and those are choices. And you know I'm not saying don't ever do it. I mean, I watch movies all the time, I watch TV, you know on a regular TV.

Ed Mathews:

Most of my watching is basketball and baseball and football, but you know, the fact is that we have choices, right, and you know I did an exercise with a group that I was speaking in front of, where we broke down 168 hours that you have in a week and you know, went through the process of okay, let's say, you work 60 hours and you want to go out for fun. You know, two night, two hours a night, and you want to go, you know, have fun on Saturdays and Sundays for eight hours, and you know all the other and we talked about all the other things that they could possibly do, and you know the math works out and obviously you're sleeping eight hours a night. So it's time for your weak gun. And when I've done this exercise in the past, we can usually identify 25, 26 hours a week that you are doing something that's keeping you from doing what you say you want to do, right, exactly, and so it can be as simple as your Netflix subscription.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

It's a formal procrastination. Yeah, it's a formal procrastination and false excuse, false secure, false security. It's something that's important. It really is an L If you're wasting your time royally.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, I agree. So I'm curious about also how you operate your business. I also manage my team and I manage all of our properties here, and so my background is technology and process right. So I'm a big systems person and so I'm curious what is your approach to managing your properties and what are the systems that you put in place or pay attention to?

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Well, for one thing, I always have the groove with the tenants and there's a problem, call me right away. Then we inspect the properties One of the four things we call every couple of weeks to be very good to clean up around to some landscaping if necessary. Yep, the other two properties with the single family homes, the tenants are very self-sufficient. Then some of them actually like to repair things by buying the part that we care about.

Ed Mathews:

Wow, it's wonderful.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

We get this very nice to the family. That helped me so handy that he says I just wanted to fix immediately. Get this part from Lolls for me, I'll pick it up fix it to the initial picture of the team.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

fix the part, of course, can be a picture of the broken part. So that's one part of the management. If they can't fix it, I can't, of course, the team of plumbers, electrician, candy man. You know, it's funny because when you start building a business you think of the lawyers and the landers, the real estate agent, all that, but you don't realize that the hardest and most important part to have in key is the contractors.

Ed Mathews:

Yes.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Very price contractors especially. They'll work under their own license. They're not part of the company, they're the hardest to find because everybody wants them for their wonderful prices Right, and the most important part of the team, right. So then, if the tenant can't fix it, I send the contract that I need communicate with the tenant and as far as bookkeeping and accounting, I do not. I always immediately document every expense, every financial transaction that's taken on the same day. I documented, I don't put off, never put off, and that's my minutes.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

So at the end of the year, when I attended to my tax accountant, I had this beautiful document with all the expenses and income and repairs, renovations, difference between repair, different improvements in repairs because these are differently tax, differently built by the IRS, all these things. But I do all that myself. I wouldn't carry it any other way. It keeps my brain working and I do this. I don't use a fancy bookkeeping software. I'm my own bookkeeping software with the simplest board file for each different Interesting. But seriously, I mean just, it's great. My family was terrified at first, but then GRS said you know, you're one of my easiest plans to work with because they represent this completely clear and organized.

Ed Mathews:

And I said, yeah, which is all that, which is the end game, right? I mean, it doesn't matter how you get there, it's that you get there. You're handing over a clean package, you know, on a quarterly and an annual basis. Okay, so obviously, you know, given your various very talents, I'm curious about mentors and folks that have helped you along the way. So I'd like to ask you you know what is the best advice you've ever received and, yeah, who gave it to you?

Alexandra Dotcheva:

The best advice came from the rich debt company, from Robert Kusak. Yeah, it took time for me to trust them because I read six, seven books before I bought the closet. But once I bought the closet, because they were expensive and I put them on each one, I paid to ask for it. It's one thing to get free advice. It's another thing to buy a book but then getting the actual mentorship and investing time. Like I said, it was expensive so we just had to plan how I would say for this money, how I'll pay off my credit card that I put the course on and I did all that, but it engages in a completely different way. Suddenly, it feels like I'm adults. Oh, that's actually not money, it's all gonna pay for my class. I have to pay for my class now and immediately when you do action, because I took the real estate class with the rich debt company in 2020 or 2014,.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

We were still in Syracuse, new York, planning to move into Arizona by the summer of that year. So Arizona was beautiful market for real estate investing and I started in the first month I took building the team and all that the real estate. It was crazy, crazy, crazy busy. So that was the main mentorship I got of Star Wars real estate. And then I read a lot of the books that the rich debt company suggests, like the Millionaire Next Door, the Richest Money, babylon, creating World by Robert Allen that's a super favorite.

Ed Mathews:

Anomitable.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Creating World. I've read it three times. It's just so good and you learn by these extremely successful people who also started from scratch, and it makes it more accessible to your mindset that you believe that you can do it too. It might not be fast, it may not be the cleverest person, but you will find your own way, your system that works for you, and if you stick to the plan and you don't give up and you don't distract yourself, you will make it. But listen, if I made it, anybody can.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, so I admire that. The fact is, though, is that success leaves clues right, and so you don't as you were saying, you don't have to be creative. You can simply follow the playbook or the plan or the system of someone who's already been there and done that right.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

You will have to become creative because your situation will be different. You will have to develop creativity gradually and learn from mistakes. See, I have another mentor who's very precious friend and a neighbor with a lot of the properties. He has taught me amazing amount. I also learned from his mistakes a lot. That's the country part, because when you're in, also very close to it, you see the things that are real. And yeah, I'm not looking at that question, you're right, but many ways to learn from people who have been in the business for a long time.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, so you mentioned Kiyosaki's books and some of the others that are the greatest hits, so to speak. Rich's man and Babylon is one of the best books I've ever, most impactful books I've ever read. So how do you? Today, obviously, people still read. I see the bookshelves behind you and I have a similar bookshelf over there in my office here. I'm curious how you take in information today, given that you're as busy as you are. Right, you're still a practicing nurse. You run your business, so do you listen to videos, audible books or audio books, podcasts? How do you take in information? And the other? The follow up to that is I'm curious who you're paying attention to today, these days?

Alexandra Dotcheva:

I buy books, physical books, I read ebooks, I do videos, I watch videos and I listen to podcasts Anything I can get my hands on in my little free time. I constantly get all the information.

Ed Mathews:

So one big firehooks that you're just drinking as much as you can get in.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Yes, that's right. That's form of mind growth, the inspiration, the other form of spirituality, the medication, the clearing of the mind, that as far as security and knowledge, you constantly get to update yourself because otherwise you become old and obsolete.

Ed Mathews:

Totally agree. Adapt or die right.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Yeah, so I like certain books by Kelly Lovens. I started reading way later in my journey than most people have, because my mentors were different but certain things.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Kelly Lovens, I did a lot of health related books, especially about the corruption in the healthcare system, because I need to make my patients aware about this corruption because it's becoming absolutely rampant. I mean, it's been going on for 30 years but getting to the point where people have to be educated. Same with the food industry, pharmaceutical industry. It's all this combines the nutrition for just the people that keeps them stick for decades, and very functioning and profitable with healthcare. So some of the healthcare professionals I have to attempt to make people aware of that. That is my biggest thing, even more important than investing, because if you're serving humanity to do no harm, and you see the harm, then you need to make people aware.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

So I read a lot about that too, so I can relate this information to my patients.

Ed Mathews:

Excellent. It's amazing that you do that and you're that conscientious, so that's pretty cool. So let me ask you you had a lot of different life experiences and you are where you are today. So if you had to do it over knowing what you know, sitting here in this chair, what would you do differently, if anything?

Alexandra Dotcheva:

I would immediately start nursing school and I can't pursue the studies. I would wait eight years. I would wait eight years because I would have been more realistic and less of a dreamer, like you say, about my real ability to stay very competitive in a ridiculously competitive classical music market. I would have walked it up earlier and suppressed my ego and stupid limits from learning something new because I was so stuck in a very narrow frame of mind. That's what I would have done differently to become a nurse in my late mid-20s instead of mid-30s, and I would have been a decade ahead seeing things, because when you're younger you're more ignorant and so you have more less fear of failing and the older you go, more the so-called responsibility, fear of failure and judgments and all that gets in the way and it's harder to look up.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, I agree. I started investing in real estate. I think the first property I bought I was 41. And boy, I wish.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

I had started much earlier.

Ed Mathews:

But where we are is where we are, and those are the decisions we make, and the only direction to go is forward. So, alexandra, I've enjoyed our conversation. I'm curious about you on a personal basis when you're not doing real estate or you're not taking care of your patients, what do you like to do? What do you do to enjoy, have fun?

Alexandra Dotcheva:

I go to the fitness four days a week and I spend an average of two and a half hours a day. I have very, very steep fitness routines and that's when I throw a bottle of art drink. You say you started real estate at age 41. You know what I started doing at age 41? I started doing a lot of sports and today I do 100 pull ups per session with my own weight and I add weights to my legs to make it heavier, and I do the same with my dips. I do ridiculous cardio at the fitness and this is very unlogical. Confidence is really for me too, because I don't have an ounce of extra fat on my body. I'm mainly at that weight because I want to read back example. I can't tell the patients please stop eating animal products, go plant based, go to the fitness if I can do all these things. So this is my favorite fitness. It's a big, big outfit for me.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Then I also listen to music classical music. I don't play music anymore, but I love to listen to it because it organizes my brain in a very specific way. As far as financial planning goes. It's funny. You don't baroque music. When you listen to baroque music, it's very strictly organized in that health point of brain with the finances. It's a great story. I've talked about it in the book in the spirituality chapter with some of the detail.

Ed Mathews:

It's interesting you say that because I've read multiple studies where music, math and language skills all operate in the same area of the brain. If you are talented at one, pretty good chance you're talented at all of them. It's interesting that baroque music helps organize your mind to be able to do finance math.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Yeah, it does that to me. It just sits in this space, spirit concentration. That's a long-awaited plan for two, three years again.

Ed Mathews:

Right and, being European, I know you speak at least two languages. Because we're not talking in Bulgarian?

Alexandra Dotcheva:

In Bulgarian, so I speak English, spanish and Italian.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Or Borussia. I can read to be French and German without understanding almost anything, because I didn't pursue it. I started learning it and I learned the rules of reading in German and French. I didn't start just dupes with other things, but Spanish and Italian pretty closely, yeah. And so the Romantics, yeah.

Ed Mathews:

Is Bulgarian a romantic language? Or Slavic, okay, yeah, all right. Well, alexandra, I'm fascinated and I'm grateful for your time and you sharing your experience and your lessons learned. If people want to get in touch with you or learn more about your book, or just learn more about you, what's the best way for them to get in touch?

Alexandra Dotcheva:

They can go to my website. The website is holisticselfconfidencecom. Log dashes holisticselfconfidencecom. Then there is a blog there that links to the book paperback and ebook. The title of the book is it Really Is Thinple a Holistic Approach to Self-Confidence. The paperback and ebook are on the website and the ebook is also available on bars and novel Amazon and Apple Books.

Ed Mathews:

Excellent. Well Alexandra, thank you so much for your time. Congratulations on all your success. I look forward to continuing this conversation into the future.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Absolutely, Ed. Thank you for having me Congratulations on anything that you have accomplished.

Ed Mathews:

Thank you very much. All the same, to your late starter yeah, exactly.

Alexandra Dotcheva:

Wonderful, yeah, thank you, thank you Thank you for having me.

Ed Mathews:

This has been the Real Estate Underground podcast, a Clark Street capital presentation. Thanks for joining us. If you're enjoying the show, please remember to subscribe and share it with your friends. If you'd like to learn more about Clark Street capital and our upcoming projects, please join our investor club at clarkstcom. Slash join Until next time. Happy investing.

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Ed Mathews - Clark St Capital

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