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A Few Good Doors
Inspiration and practical "how to" information for those who want to live a prosperous and purposeful life, using real estate investments as a tool for getting there.
A Few Good Doors
The Power of Women in Real Estate: Flipping, Funding, and Creating Wealth + Legacy
In today’s episode, I'm talking with Julie and Jaelle — two real estate agents turned real estate investors who are combining creative financing, smart renovations, and heart to shake up the investing space. We talk about seller financing strategies, fix and flip projects, and how they’re raising the next generation of investors (yes, their teens are on the job site!). Julie and Jaelle are the founders of Women Real Estate Investors of Oregon (WREIO) — a fast-growing, women-led real estate investing community that’s helping women take action and build generational wealth.
We dive into what it really takes to become a successful real estate investor, why community over competition is more than a catchphrase, and how intentional investing can create lasting impact.
Here are the top takeaways from this episode:
1. Real Estate as a Tool for Generational Wealth
Julie and Jaelle didn’t just find their way into real estate — they aligned around a shared mission to use it for long-term impact.
This shared vision has shaped their investing strategies, their business model, and how they involve their kids in the process.
2. Renovating for Profit—and for Purpose
Fix and flip isn’t just a hustle—it’s a smart, intentional strategy when the math checks out. These two make sure it aligns with their goals before diving in.
They also factor in the time-value equation and whether a project allows for family involvement, which ties back to their bigger “why.”
3. Seller Financing as a Creative Win-Win
Julie and Jaelle are using seller financing to structure deals that benefit everyone—especially the seller’s bottom line.
By negotiating directly, they were able to avoid extra fees, lower the interest rate, and create a smoother, more personal transaction.
4. Building a Women-Centered Investing Community
WREIO (Women Real Estate Investors of Oregon) began with a dozen women and now has over 1,100. It's become a hub of empowerment and action.
Whether they’re hosting in-person meetups, launching a virtual seminar series, or celebrating wins on Facebook, Julie and Jaelle are creating a space where women collaborate—not compete.
5. Community Is the Catalyst for Action
For anyone hesitant to get started, this was their powerful message: Whether you’re a noob (yes, they went there) or a seasoned investor, the encouragement, experience, and wisdom inside this community are what move people from fear to action.
To see what WREIO is all about check out their socials here:
https://www.instagram.com/wreio.oregon/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/wreio/
You can Find Julie and Jaelle here:
https://www.instagram.com/thejaygrouprealestate/
Want to learn more about real estate investing? Hop on the waitlist for the Soulful Investor Society, a community membership for real estate investors and those who'd like to get in the game. Once on the waitlist, you'll be the first to know when the doors open AND you'll get lots of amazing freebies, including a FREE 1:1 coaching session with me, where we'll map out your plan from start to finish, so you can finally buy that investment property or grow your portfolio.
Welcome to A Few Good Doors, a podcast created to show you just how possible investing in real estate is for most Americans and how it can be an incredibly powerful tool for creating wealth over time. Do you feel like it's too late or you don't have enough money? Listen up. If you can qualify for one mortgage, I can show you how to become a real estate investor.
Once you embrace the how and the why, you can repeat the process. Acquiring four or more properties over the course of 10 to 15 years Can and should have a massive wealth effect. I believe that everyone deserves to live up to their full potential and having good people with money is what will change the world.
I'm your host, Ann Reed, and my mission is to help you make the world a better place with a few good doors of your own.
What happens when two powerhouse women team up to flip houses, build wealth through real estate and bring hundreds of other women along for the ride? You get Julian jail. Two Portland real estate agents turned real estate investors who are combining creative financing, smart renovations, and heart to shake up the investing space.
In today's episode, we talk about seller financing strategies, fix and flip projects, and how they're raising the next generation of investors. Yes, their teens are on the job site. Julian J are the founders of Women Real Estate, investors of Oregon or Rio. A fast growing women-led real estate investing community that's helping women take action and build generational wealth.
We dive into what it really takes to become a successful real estate investor, why community over competition is more than a catchphrase, and how intentional investing can bring lasting impact. If you've ever wondered how to get started in real estate or how to scale with purpose, this episode is your permission slip.
Let's dive in.
I am here with Julie and Jaelle and they are local realtors in the Portland market who have become investors and. Also have started a women real estate investing organization for female real estate investors, which is how I met them.
It's such an amazing group and they have such a great story that I wanted to talk to them and share what they know with all of our listeners. I wanna start just briefly, I know both of you have come from different backgrounds and kind of landed in the real estate world together or at similar time.
But give me a little bit of a backstory of how you got into real estate.
I think ultimately once we both tell our stories or how we even came together, it's because our values are the same. Yeah. And we have that same like end goal in mind of generational wealth or being able to provide for our families and our sons, provide for their families when we're long and gone.
Right? Yes. But yeah, go ahead. If you can jump in.
Yeah. I mean I my degree in math, I always wanted to be a math teacher. I got sucked into the corporate world, into finance for about a dozen years before I was able to take a layoff and follow my, my first love, which was teaching mathematics. And I found very quickly that the world of public education, there's just so much need and the list never ends.
And I never have time to actually do what it is I'm hired to do. And that is teach kids how to do math. And so I burnt myself out of that career pretty quickly. But I always grew up around home construction. My very first house that I bought straight outta college, I ended up adding it was right in Milwaukee on right by King Road.
And I ended up adding a second bath and a second walk-in closet to that home. And in nine years I sold it for a hundred thousand more than what I bought it for. So that was kind of my first lesson in my early twenties of the power of real estate. And so ever since then, I have kind of found myself in a fixer upper situation.
My husband and I bought and sold I think eight fixer uppers now that we literally move into for two years, fix it up, sell it, move on, and do it again. And so when I burned out of teaching, it was just kind of the logical choice to go ahead and become a real estate agent to help facilitate. Really our, our future and that long-term strategy of, of investing in real estate.
Yeah.
That's awesome. I didn't, I don't think I realized that you actually got into real estate to become an investor or to help that facilitate you being an investor.
I did. I did. It was you know, we had, my husband and I had looked at some other programs wealth Builders was one, it's like Fang I can't remember, but it's a, it's a, I don't even know if they're still around anymore, but I know Amy Maggiore started out in that same program where it's just learning how, you know, on the investment side to acquire properties and flip 'em in a, in a very systematic way.
And that was right around the opportunity. I was like, well, why don't I become an agent? I feel like I'd have a lot more exposure to the market. Understand. The ins and outs of the retail side and have a career there that ultimately would enhance that retirement strategy. And that's where, that's where Julie and I met was during training in the same office.
Mm-hmm. Yeah. We just, like she said, we discovered we had very similar core values. Mm-hmm.
I got into real estate 'cause I heard it was easy.
Somebody, anybody who's in it is chuckling to themselves. Right.
And I can make a quick buck and it was just, I, you know, fly by the seat your pants and you'll be a millionaire tomorrow type of thing. Right.
Yeah.
No, no,
I like that idea. Has that not worked out for you that way?
It hasn't worked out for me that way. Not yet.
Hasn't long term real estate, long term, long term plan. Yeah.
I, so I found myself in a corporate position that I wasn't super happy with and 22 year career in one field and one profession.
And it was, it was a big jump. It was a leap of faith into something different. And I think why I picked real estate was I saw flexibility in lifestyle, creating what I wanted in a lifestyle. You can work as hard or as easy as, or you know, little or as much as you want, excuse me. It is hard. It is much more difficult.
You do have to educate yourself, of course, and be very diligent in real estate. The investing side kind of came in slowly. I don't think I originally saw it. I wanted to invest. Besides I knew I had been. Mm-hmm. Right. Like so for instance in college, and I didn't even know the term for it until I think I met you and you told me that I had done it, but in college.
I couldn't afford really my dorm. So it was a thousand dollars a month for the dorms at UT and I was struggling to pay that. My parents are like, you're on your own. You know, it's one of those things. And so I ended up buying a townhouse and the mortgage was like 400 and like $27. Amazing. Or something amazing, right?
And I was like, well, there we go. I just saved myself 500 bucks a month. And then I decided to rent the two back bedrooms out. It was a three bed, two bath, little row house. And I charged them each 500 bucks. I said, let's all save $500 Right from the dorm, right?
Good spin. Good spin. I like it.
It was a win, win win, right?
And so I just kind of got through college and got through that property, but then my brother and I purchased a property later and. You know, so it was kind of just dangling over here as Grace Gray space in my brain. And so it finally clicked, you know, came to Keller Williams and came to real estate, met Jaelle
She's talking about investing, and I'm like, yes, this is it. This is what I wanna do. Yeah.
It wasn't a hard sell. That's like it already made so much sense to you. Like, wait, yes, yes, let's do that.
But it was one of those things I didn't conceptualize Right. When I was like, let's change careers. Yeah.
And become an investor. Right. I was like, no, let's buy and sell houses for my friends and I'll help them and, mm-hmm. Yeah.
So just, this is just my curiosity. So now how would you say your business, 'cause you guys are still actively helping buyers and sellers. Mm-hmm. Like how much, I guess if you had to say like a percentage of your time.
'Cause I know you also have some other cool projects in the, the works with real estate investing, renovating, reselling kind of thing. Yeah. How much time do you, is your split between, I would call it just transactions for others versus yourself and the investment side?
I, I would say 50 50. Yeah.
It's hard to say because I think, I think my perspective, although it may not equate specifically to ours, is that my full time job is as a realtor. And I guess that's kind of the way I think about it, right? Like, I come to my office to get out of my home and the distractions of my home, and I work as a realtor during the day, but so many of the other pieces just filter into that.
Yeah. So, yeah, I mean, some days it's 50 50 some days, you know, if I'm trying to negotiate a particular client, it might be all day that day. Yeah, it really, you know, Julie and I own three businesses together. We have our, we have our realtor business, the J group. We have renovate her homes, which is, we flip homes together.
And then of course we have women's real estate investors of Oregon, which is really, you know, that opportunity that we bring other women around locally to, to learn and network and connect and be empowered. And that fits in there too.
I think for
me, between the investing and WREIO, which I would put in the investing bucket because that network Yeah, that's fair.
Right. I think for me it's about 50 50 between working directly with clients so they can purchase a home or sell a home. To us doing to our own activities. Yeah. And through WREIO, I would kind of put that in that bucket in my mind. But yeah. WREIO right now creates so many opportunities for so many people.
We do not want to let our foot off of the gas Yeah. In that space for a minute. So I agree. Yeah. And I think our goal as we grow is to make sure that Jaelle is pretty much gonna be full-time WREIO.
That is my vision. I think we can get our real estate business kind of churning. Right. You know, I, I really acting as the operations person now.
Mm-hmm. We have assistants. So I do a lot of the behind the scenes while Julie's out there, you know, talking and building those relationships and being social. And I'm in the office, you know, at my computer being less social. But the hope is that yeah, I can transition my time over to fully working on that, on that women's group and on the investment side.
Yeah. I think be amazing.
In the perfect world, we would split it. It would still kind of look like a 50 50 share, but I am a hundred percent J group. You are a hundred percent WREIO or renovate. Yeah. But anyways, it's just how we're probably gonna end up as we grow try to align and streamline those businesses
and play to our strengths. You know, Julie is, she's very good at what she does and there's a reason she's the face.
Yeah. I think it makes a lot of sense.
That's real estate, you know, it's relationships, so it's, yeah, she's very good. Yeah.
Yes, it is re relationships for sure, but you also have to kind of, I mean, I think they're both very valid parts of it, right?
Like you can be a great relationship person and be really terrible with your document. True. And we've all, weve all come across those realtors too. Oh indeed. Well I love that. I could see this going two different directions. I wanna hear more about your, your renovations where, where you guys are with that.
And I also wanna hear more about WREIO. So, which I'll let you decide which way you wanna go.
Well, I think renovation is probably easy to talk about right now 'cause we've got exciting stuff going on. We, we do. We do. You do. So we've renovated multiple properties together. We are using kind of that fix and flip strategy as creating that bucket of money so that we could diversify and probably go other ways in the investment space. Yeah.
And I see us still running the renovation business if we start getting long-term rentals or other investment strategies going. The renovation business I think will still be there, but we have two properties right now.
One will close on the eighth and one just closed. Mm-hmm. Yep. So just super excited to have kind of two and the way we got those are a hundred percent through network. Yep. And that's where the networking power comes together, so yeah.
And those are both know,
that's you're and your business
Yeah. And know kind of what your niche is.
Absolutely.
Yeah. Super cool.
And how much, when you're renovating, walk us through, 'cause I, I have listeners that are way ahead, like doing lots of renovate and resell type of projects. And I have some that are just kind of curious about it. So one question I have for you is how do you decide, 'cause I'm sure, especially if you have made yourselves known as, this is a part of our business and this is one of the things that we do.
How do you decide what projects you wanna take on and which ones? 'cause I'm sure you pass on probably more than you actually take on.
I wanna do them all for sure.
I, yeah, I, I'm with you.
Actually, no. There's always a couple that I'm like, no.
I mean usually, you know, 99% of the time it's a a hundred percent.
I mean, it's always comes down to the numbers. Yeah. You know, we can, we can go and see a home and have the grandest vision for it, but the numbers have to be there from day one because you can't, you know, we've said this in some of our classes before, you can't save your way to profit. Mm-hmm. You know, you can save your way to fixing an oops that you didn't know was coming.
But the numbers just have to work in the beginning. So, particularly when you see homes on market you know, it can be quite a challenge trying to get that price down to a place that makes sense. And you know, Julie and I only buy projects that honestly are, are a better deal than, than what's normal.
Yeah. A lot of investors will pay more than we will, and we're just, we're just the two of us. Right. We don't have our own crew. We don't have our, our, you know, multiple projects running in multiple discounts. Mm-hmm. Like, it's just us and a couple of contractors we work with. Mm-hmm. So, and plus we're splitting the profits, so it's important for us to, you know, make sure the numbers work.
So yeah. Make sure it makes sense for both of us. We do have some parameters, as all investors do. Numbers have to, of course, what Jaelle said, numbers have to work. But I also like to see on that time to value ratio. Yeah. That how much time is this one realistically gonna take? How much of my time is it gonna take?
And or Jaelle, both of our times. Mm-hmm. Of course. But then at the end, are we walking away with what kind of profit and how does that divide into that time to value? Because. When it, the numbers might work, but the project needs to be so long that it really works out that we're making just, we're just not making very much profit in the, for that amount of time we might pass.
Yeah.
Yeah, so what you're really saying is an hourly rate, so to speak. Like how much of my, yeah. Maybe you're not looking at it as such, but how many, yeah, if we're, how much, like if you're getting only $15 per hour, at the end of the day, it's probably not worth like your time is spent better spent doing something.
Yes, exactly. Absolutely. And I'm not sure that that's perfectly defined, you know, but it's absolutely the, the mindset for sure.
Yeah. And then it goes into that generational wealth piece because as we profit on something, or once we buy something, we are actively looping our children into this, into this mold, into this, into the equation, right?
And so. It also for me has to be a project that we can do that that, that, that we know based on, you know, we have teenagers that are, you know, very able, willing bodies. It's kind of like, you know, let's put 'em to work a little bit and get them to understand real estate from the, from the beginning here.
Yeah. I mean, ultimately they're our big whys. Mm-hmm. You know, that's, that's why we do everything we're doing. So getting them involved. Julie and I have talked about, you know, right now we kind of pay them an hourly rate, whether it's to have them come and do landscape bringer, to move furniture, if we're staging something that's getting ready to market.
But why not give them, you know, a percent of our profit mm-hmm.
Or whatever the numbers really mm-hmm. Look like for that project, because. It builds in that, that, you know, the better they do, the more money that home can sell for and ultimately the more money they make. So we've talked about that. It's certainly a, you know, it's, it's a, it's
evolving. It's evolving the want. Yes. And it's getting better, I think because at the beginning they're like spreading mulch and they're like, okay, yeah, gimme my 40 bucks. But now my son will come to me and ask me, you know, what projects do you have going on? Yes, me too. And they're, they're more aware of what we are doing and what we're trying to create.
It's opened up these conversations that have been so meaningful and I really wanna get 'em where we like, have 'em sign contracts. Yeah. And be
like. Yeah. Make them a partner. Yeah. This is what you're
doing anyways, we're all, yeah.
'cause you know, we, I don't think Julie or I are die hard to make sure our boys go into real estate.
No. But I think we're die hard to make sure they know it's an option and that they understand it as a business strategy. Because I certainly didn't have that growing up. You know, it was the go to college, get your job, save for retirement, and life is good, you know, and it, it's just, it hasn't worked that way for my generation And, you know, I found real estate as a strategy.
You know, it is truly a retirement strategy later in life. And I just want my son to understand that of his options. That's how this strategy works and what
it, I think that's so crucial. And what did I understand you correctly, that that is also one of your key factors in deciding which projects to take on? Is, is there a piece of that that our kids can
Yes,
I love that. I think that's so smart. I we do the same thing with our kids, and I think it's smart, not only for the obvious reasons of, giving them work ethic and helping them understand the value of a dollar, and hopefully picking up some ideas for, how, how real estate can work.
But I think it's really important if you are building this wealth for them, that they don't squander it they don't squander that opportunity and that they understand. Your strategy, maybe down the road they'll pick a new strategy or tweak it or whatever. But having that foundation of understanding, what you're doing and what you're building, I think is so, I, I love that you guys are doing that.
We are doing the same thing with our kids of just really trying to involve them and give them a foundation, because I, like you did not really grow up with anybody going, Hey, have you ever thought this might be a way that you could create some wealth over time? I think that's amazing.
I'll give you unsolicited advice, you should have them be contracted employees Yeah. For your business and, we pay our kids through our business and then they use that for college. Like it all comes through and becomes a write off.
I didn't know, understand how to do that when they were younger, but, there's a lot that you can do, which is another whole part of, there's so much more to real estate investing in these businesses of being an entrepreneur that are helping you build the wealth.
It's not just the buying the real estate, fixing it up, selling it for profit. There's tax advantages and all kinds of business strategies that are so impactful. And again, if you're not growing up or, in a place where you're learning that you don't know and then you just work. You work and pay a lot of taxes and hope that at the end of the day you have enough.
We can't hope, we need to be intentional these days. It's just,
and financial literacy, like kind of what you were talking about a little bit ago is it's just, it's not there, right? Mm-hmm. And I don't have all the answers, but I can definitely, hopefully open doors so my son goes and seeks and finds answers to it because Yeah, there's so many ways
it is. Well, and it's back to the dad, poor dad, you know, at its, at its most basic, is that kind of what the system teaches us is very different than, than how money works, and it's understanding the difference. Yeah.
Well, we'll never all know all of it, right? But if you give them like a step above where you were at their age, and then they can take the torch from, from there.
I think that's really valuable. And I think that's amazing. This might be a good segue into more of WREIO, because I feel like you've created this community where you invite experts in to talk to the community about real estate investing, and there's a lot of knowledge. You're on the monthly having these speakers come in.
There's some that you already know what they're the information that they're sharing, but I'm sure there's also a lot that you're like, oh. Oh, absolutely. Who knew?
Yeah.
Yes. Oh my gosh. Yeah, there's, so when
lawyers come in, we're like, oh yeah. Absolutely. That's great. Yeah, it's been a really good journey. When Julie and I both, both realized that we kind of had this investment thing in common, we started to hit the local networks, and there's a lot of amazing groups out there. They're just very male dominated. And we just kind of talked about putting together a space that was for women only.
Mm-hmm. And it was an instant hit. Our first meeting, we had a dozen women come, which I think the Facebook was only like 25 people. So I thought that was pretty good. That's amazing. Yeah. Yes. And I was still struggling with social anxiety at the time, and so rather than make conversation which freaked me out, I just decided I was gonna run around and ask everybody the same question.
And it was, should we do this again? And if so, how often? And unanimously everybody said, you need to do this every month. And so we started organizing it every month and. People have been coming ever since. We, we are now over, well, we went from our original 25 members. Mm-hmm. Now about 1100 members in about two and a half years. And
that's phenomenal.
We're working really hard to try and you know, obviously we're located in the Portland metro area and so that's where our monthly meetups are. But we recognize we have a huge community outside of the Portland area. And so we're trying to bring more and more opportunities to 'em.
Yeah. In fact, we're having our first Bend meetup here in a few weeks. Woo woo. This month. So we're definitely looking forward to that. I love it. That's awesome.
With WREIO, it's it's, it's pretty cool. And the growth has been amazing to watch. Yes. And what I really enjoy, and I wish there was a better way to quantify it, is how many people have met, networked, done business with, you know, felt like they've just leveled up their investment game. Yeah. 'cause of this group. Yeah. Yeah. And it's really, I mean, when people come to the meetings, we can talk to 'em of course. And they're always like, yeah, I did a deal with so and so and it was great, or this and that, or I use this plumber, or, you know, this attorney.
And so that stuff, it's, it's very humbling to hear and gratifying at the same time that we've kind of created this space that people can be totally comfortable in. Mm-hmm. Yes. And not without any issues, right. We've had a couple of very small little things happen that we've gotta go, oh, didn't think of that. And you kind of dip that in the,
in the behind and move on. But then, yeah. I just can't wait to see where we go from here. Right.
Yeah. It, it's so cool. I feel like, I feel like there's nothing but opportunity. Yeah. Yeah. And we just need the time and resources to grow. Mm-hmm. Because there really is such a need.
Our pillars that really guide us and, and mm-hmm help us make all of our decisions is that we're about education, empowerment, and community. And all three of those things are so evident in every meeting that we have. And there's so much more need in every one of those areas. You know, the, the female only community has just been, it's just been dynamite.
And it's good to see many of our members just really kind of coming to the group first. You know, we talked to a, we talked to a woman the other day that had an off market deal, and she's like, well, I wanna post it to WREIO first, at least for 24 hours before I go out to the other groups. Groups. Awesome.
Like, those are the things that just, the fact that it's, it's, it's a bit of this sisterhood of just us having each and really learning to collaborate and not compete has been mm-hmm. So important to us. And, you know, there's always so much to learn in this space. You know, innovation. I saw a post on that.
It's like, there's just always new things coming and ways to do creative financing. Mm-hmm. And just empowering each other. I, I love in our monthly meetings when our speaker's done and then we kind of have the rest of the night to mingle. And that's where I watch the women taking their selfies mm-hmm.
And exchanging their numbers. And sometimes I just like to kind of stand back and just kind of, have my little proud mama moment a little bit where, yeah, it's just like, that is what humbles me, and that is what warms my heart. Is just seeing those connections happen and seeing success happen because Yeah, because we're in a together.
I've mentioned this to you too before, you should be very proud, and I think it is a testament to your thoughtfulness and your energy that you're at. You are attracting, like, the most amazing women. I have unfortunately I haven't been able to be as present at, at the meetings and stuff like that, but even so, I can say I met Melissa Appleton, she's a hard money lender.
I know other hard money lenders, but it, it was almost an immediate like, comfort knowing that there was a female hard money lender. 'cause I don't think that's super common. And the same with, there's some wholesalers in the group. Right? Right. I'm not saying I, I don't wanna speak of stereotypes, but there is an inherent comfort level in working with other female entrepreneurs in some areas that are typically more male dominated.
Yep. And having more of that because women, let's just face it, like women operate differently. And I'm not saying one is good, you know, masculine, bad feminine are, it's just different. And I think that you guys have created an amazing community. I would not have probably met Mel Dorman, who's teaching the Seller Financing Academy that I'm so super pumped about and it's because of you guys.
So thank you for what you're doing and thank you.
And you, we do have a change coming up. You should probably know about it now. We're gonna have a very strict membership policy that you have to come to every meeting. Oh. Or you're out, sorry.
Or we'll say bad things about behind your back.
I'm totally joking. There's no membership or dues that. That was attendance policy.
Yeah. I mean, that was honestly, that's why when I was asking them that first meeting, how often should we do this? That was one of the reasons why everybody said monthly is because the fact is many of us are moms. We all have a million things going on and we cannot make it every month.
So the more often that we're able to meet, the more opportunities we have for that collaboration in that community. Yeah. In July, we're kicking off a virtual seminar series so that again, we can give the opportunity for people outside of the Portland Metro and outside of these, I love this, so glad little satellites, but just a chance to, to learn, to collaborate, and to be part of the community more.
Yeah. Yeah. I'm excited about it. I'm too, and Mel Doman, by the way, is our first speaker in, in July. She's kicking off our virtual seminar series. So
that's amazing. There's also a tremendous value in just the Facebook group. I think you mentioned earlier, people posting. Mm-hmm. Properties that are available or looking for partnership either financially or in other ways for projects.
So that's a big part of it. Even if people couldn't make it to every meeting, you can still really reap the benefits of being part of the community. Mm-hmm. Just in that space. I think in fact, I think that's how I met Melissa Appleton. I had a deal, like it wasn't a deal, but I had a wholesaler that I was working with that and I posted the property in the WREIO group and had a couple of responses.
Yes.
Through that.
That's what it good. That's what it's for. That's what it's about. Yep. Yeah.
So kudos to you guys. And we can put, if you want to in our show notes that if people wanna join the online series that you have going in July, we can totally do that. As well as all the other places that people can find you.
Yeah, I think we, I think, I think for any meeting that WREIO hosts, it's, it's, it's really through our community.
Yeah. Mm-hmm. What, and this could be across the board with real estate, with your fix and flip, with WREIO, I want to hear what is, has your biggest win been? And also if you've had any flops, and if so, like what, what you learned from it.
Well, I'm still waiting for that quick million dollars. Yeah. So that's a flop for sure. It's been a few years. I'm still waiting.
That Rich quick isn't, isn't panning out
Well, I think a recent win that we had, well I do feel like having to, being able to have the space and knowledge to be able to do two projects at once mm-hmm. Is a big win for us. But our most recent on a renovation project, when was we did a condo in Newburg.
We name all of the projects, so this was Marsha. Jaelle had sent a letter out to this homeowner. A like a year ahead of time. Yeah. And she passed and the brother found the letter and called us
and held onto it. Yeah. For nine months while he and his family went through probate. And when he finally got to the point where he was able to sell, he picked up the letter that he had saved and, and called us and called. Yeah. I called Julie, I'm like, Julie, I said, I'm meeting with this guy.
I need you to come.
I said, okay.
And we met up like a Yeah, we met at Starbucks. Starbucks and signed a contract. And it was closed like a couple days. Few days later. Yeah. 10 days later. It was a two week construction turnaround time. We had a week of kind of operations, you know, cleaning, cleaning and staging. Yeah. Photos. Photos and, and then on the market and then sold.
So that was, quite profitable for the amount of time Right. That we, yeah,
I mean, we worked directly with the seller as well, so I feel like it was a win, you know, financially for those two reasons. One, there were no, and even being a real estate agent, right? But there were no real estate fees, there were no buying or selling fees, there was no wholesaler fees.
It was just us getting to negotiate directly with the seller, which ultimately we created a situation that made us happy. That made him happy. Right? Yeah. It was a win-win. Yeah. So that saved us. And then because we were able to do it in such a quick turnaround, thank you, Julie, for working that with the contractor we were actually out of town for the worst, the first week of renovations.
Mm-hmm. And it was just with the quick timeline and the, and the direct negotiations that was our most profitable, despite the fact that it was a condo,
kind of the smallest Yeah, yeah, yeah. Project that we've done.
Just kind of everything aligned and it was, it was a huge win.
Were you reaching out when you said you sent the letter, and I'm just curious, was that as like, oh, I would love to list this, or was it specifically for like a seller finance or, it
was a version of a seller finance letter. However, being a real estate agent, I have to structure those a little bit differently.
But it was actually something I had, had Mel Doman review for me in her first coaching cohort, and we had done these letters and we kind of reviewed 'em all together. And so it was a version of that, you know, very just person to person with the seller.
I say I'm an agent, but that, that's not the context in which I was writing.
Yes. So the intent behind it was you wanted to purchase the property?
Yes.
Or. Was it
for investment
specifically for a flip? Is that what your thought was?
Yep. Mm-hmm. Yep.
And we send letters out like this. Currently we still do to different pockets and yeah. Mm-hmm.
That's what I was gonna ask too. 'Cause that's kind of unusual. Was it just one letter that you had sent?
No. Commercial letters.
Okay. That's what I was wondering because it would be, that would be phenomenal to send one letter and then, but you kind of have to nurture those.
Yeah. I think for that particular mailing you were doing, I think I probably did about eight weeks is my guess. When I did about a hundred a week, I was having my neighbor, I was paying my neighbor to write out the, the envelope, so it just looked more personal. So I would say 800 letters and I had a couple other calls, they just weren't mm-hmm.
As successful. It was something like, oh yeah. You know, if you wanna buy my house for a million bucks, you know, I got one of those and I, yeah, I got a lovely one that was, you know, we're not thinking about selling now, but maybe in a while, you know? Thank you. Mm-hmm. You know, for reaching out, I, it, it definitely, that vibe is a little bit different than, than the classic realtor golden letter, but those work too, you know, and we do those in our, in our J group as well.
Yeah. I think that is so important because I think I've heard a lot of people talking about how letter, like sending letters doesn't work, but I, like my experience has been otherwise, so I think that's awesome. I'm curious a little bit about how did you, 'cause I feel like a lot of people don't wanna deal with condos.
How did you select that particular condo? Was it one that you had worked like in the ultra way business?
I just did a search for high equity.
I didn't discriminate between condo or single family home. Okay. I did, I do think I pulled out manufactured home, but condo, townhouse, single family home, I kept all that in there.
So yeah, it just came up as, as a high equity you know, owner.
So, I don't think it's giving anything away, but, when you're looking for high equity, you're looking for long time owner ship typically? Or is there
Yeah, so we get reports. I mean, you can get reports from a title company, you can, I think I, I don't know if I still had REI works at the time.
I might have I've used prop stream, but all of those you can go in and just filter and they typically know what the mortgage balance is because sometimes even longtime owners. You know, we'll, we'll take money out for, for living expenses or, or whatever it is they need. Mm-hmm. But yeah, there's, there's those calculations that can be done based on, you know, what the, what the known mortgage balance is.
Yeah. I love that. I mean, it paid off, right? Not to be, it did you know, to particularly worry about it paid the
800 stamps. Oh my gosh.
That's amazing.
But we have, we're in a 1700 letter. Yeah. Is it 17 or 20? 700? 17. Oh my gosh. I think 17 right now. 1700. So we, I had a list pulled, printed the letters, and we're sending batches out every week over the next, what, six weeks or seven weeks or something?
Yeah. And I would say every week we send a batch out on like Monday or Tuesday. And by Friday and Saturday I'm getting calls. I mean. I think from when we started, we're probably at least getting three to five calls a week.
That's great.
From people interested or questioning the letter, like Yep. Just asking, asking questions.
And I take all of those as opportunity, you know? Yeah, yeah.
Because we might buy it.
Mm-hmm. You know, or anybody in our, in our, you know, in our women's group or if it's a retail opportunity, great. We'll sell it too.
Yeah. Yeah.
But we hope it's a order calling up to say, I can't live here anymore.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Hey, there's opportunity there for the right price. So when you say a 1700 or whatever, are you, you are not se sending 1700 letters out weekly, it's, you're chopping that up.
Yeah, that was, we did one poll in an area of certain size and style of home. And in this particular area we did not necessarily filter out low equity.
We just were looking for a particular type of home. Yeah. And 'cause there is, there can be opportunity for something that's even turnkey, right? I mean, it could be, could be turned into a long-term investment or, you know, what have you. Mm-hmm.
Yeah. So, anyways, and we're just sending a few hundred of those each week.
Yeah. Yeah.
I love that. Are you guys are you primarily focusing on like fix and flip right now? Or are you kind of edging into more of a buy and hold? I know we talked before and you said that. Between the two of you, you hadn't quite figured out how to have that be in partnership with each other, but that you both had to recognize that you would like some buy and hold stuff eventually.
Yeah, I have. My only issue, I mean, it's really gotta be the right house in this area for me to hold it. I have had a long-term hold in Tualatin for eight years that I got rid of because it is really hard. It can be very difficult anyways to cash flow. It's gotta just be the right, and you've gotta always kind of have, you know, your foot on the pulse there or finger on the pulse and be dialing those in to make sure that you still cash flow.
Homeowner's insurance is a big issue. Right. That's coming up right now for a lot of people, so I'm finding that out of state yeah. Is a little bit better.
Mm-hmm.
Right now in our three, in our three buckets, we are focusing right now on fits and flips. Right. I think we are totally open to looking at other strategies but just not, might not be here.
Yeah. I think you hit the nail on the head. Mm-hmm. She and I have, have both talked about that. Mm-hmm.
That, you know, actively and locally is where we want really the hands-on projects, but ultimately long-term, I'm not sure we want our portfolio to be in Oregon. Yeah.
And the other thing to consider, just to put a bug in your ear is my, I found that long-term rental is, is hard here because of our price point and current interest rates and stuff like that, it is hard to cash flow on a long-term rental in the Portland metro area. So that's where other strategies come in, like pad split or some of those types of things. And I, I mean, I have a whole different philosophy than a lot of people do with cash flow in general. And it all depends on what your goals are. And I only put this out here because one of the things that is great about Portland for buy and hold is that we're one of, we are the most affordable west coast city.
And so when you look at our neighbors to the north and our neighbors to the south, and you can kind of see where real estate has gone and we're kind of doing the same thing and we have historical data that shows that homes double in value every 10 to 12 years here. That's where I'm like, okay, so even if I have to feed this property a little bit, it's like, that's right.
You know, people putting money into a 401k in hopes that someday it'll increase in value to the point where it'll do them some good in retirement.
And then you just spend it up, which is like the opposite of real estate, right? Like yeah. You put the money towards your asset and real estate and ultimately it means that asset is paid off and generating cash flow, whereas 401k you put all your money towards it and then all you have to do is just whittle away its value, right?
So you're right from a, from a long-term perspective in this area, and maybe that's one of the reasons we're focused on the short-term strategies right now, is that if you are willing to just feed the baby a little bit in the beginning until you can mm-hmm. You know, get the rents up a little bit, get the cost down a little you know, by doing some of those maintenance upgrades, you're, you're a hundred percent right.
It's, you know, long term you're always gonna.
Well, and I think too, and I need, I need to get Mel dormant on my podcast, but I think that there you do.
Yes, you do.
I do. We'll put a shout out to Mel. But I think too, that, that's why another reason that I'm so excited about the seller financing is being able to negotiate something that, when we know that, that there's that, I mean, there's never any guarantee, I have to say that we all have to say that we're all licensed realtors here.
We can't promise any returns on any anything. Right. But historically speaking, when we have seen this pattern of home values doubling, it's like, okay, so if I can use seller financing and maybe negotiate a lower interest rate and maybe interest only payments for even half of that 10 to 12 year period, then you're like, oh, okay.
That, that might make me get to the point where, I'm not having to feed this property. That's right. And then when you pour in some of the other strategies, like a pad split or, a long-term short-term rental combination property where you can, you can with those actually cash flow quite a bit.
Yeah. There are some more expensive costs for management. But going back to what you originally said about your fix and flip business, if the you, you can look at all the numbers and if the numbers make sense, then yeah, there are, there are properties, I guess is what I'm trying to say, where the numbers do make sense.
So they do,
and this, and the third thing I'll add about the seller's financing, in addition to, you know, maybe interest only payments and a lower interest rate is a lower down payment, you know, versus the traditional 20% down, you need a hundred grand for half a million dollar house. You know, that's much harder to come up with than maybe 15 grand or 20 grand.
Anything to just kind of get the ball rolling with a seller. You know, it's, it's just everything's negotiable when you're just sitting across the table with the, with the owner.
Right. Well, and then you have the potential to throw gas on the fire if you were to get, property where you guys get it for a really good price because it needs some work, and then you're adding Yes, value to it by fixing it up. And then you have the strategy on top of it. I get super excited about all of that.
So, so our property that closes next week Yes. We're seller financing it.
That's so amazing.
Thank you, Mel.
I I was gonna say from talking to Jaelle at Mel's house when she had the gathering for the Seller Financing Academy, that was your quick thinking on your feet, Julie, that got you guys that, that property with seller financing.
So do you wanna share a little bit about that story? 'cause I think that's super cool.
So this agent, friend of mine, brought this deal to me. It's been a family home. It's been in the family for a long time. And like, I don't think this one I, you can even pull up on MLS you don't even see a, yeah. A past sale. So it was before like 90 or something. Right. And it needs some work and so. It's a situation where the father has moved out and the daughter is kind of taking the reins here. He hasn't passed away or anything, but it's that time, that transitional time. And they said, come on out. And so we walked through and they, she called me because she knows that Jaelle and I renovate houses.
Mm-hmm. And they were thinking about, what are we gonna do with this house? Do we wanna do the work and put it on the market? Or do we wanna have an investor come in, you know, that kind of thing. And so I walked through, talked to them. The, the daughter was there too, which was very nice. She was so apologetic about the condition.
And I was like, I'm not wearing a hazmat suit, so this is great. Right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Seriously. I was like, I've seen so much worse. Yeah, please do not apologize. Like it is what it is. Right. And so standing there in the driveway, I said, I will have a cash offer to you. By tomorrow. And I will also have a, an, an offer to seller finance.
And I set it right there in front of her agent, which is a friend of mine. And I had not pre mentioned anything, but I said, you'll get two offers and it's a negotiation. I said, the numbers that I'm gonna throw out are not intended to be, you know, what's the word? Not derogatory. Like I, not to off offense.
Yeah. I mean, really insulting, not offensive. Yeah. I'm not, I'm not trying to offend anyone, but I'm an investor and this is what I would do and I will tell you how much money I'm planning on putting in and how I want finance it and how to get the most money in your pocket to just mm-hmm. To just take it.
Right. You and so did that exact thing. Yeah. I talked to Jaelle, said, can we do this? We talked through some of the numbers and what I want, you know, wanted to offer. And I just wrote 'em up and they came back with one, one edit. Yeah. Yep. I think and said we would love to do the seller finance 'cause it puts more money into the family's pocket.
And this one we actually did as kind of a short term seller finance. Mm-hmm. It's not seller financing in a traditional way that you wanna have it for long term Right. And not hold it. And they're not trying to like defer taxes and, you know, stuff like that. Right. This was literally, so any holding costs or loan origination fees, points, anything that a, like a hard money lender would take, or a private money lender can go straight to the family.
Yeah. And that's how I presented it. I said, I would pay this anyways, so I'd rather pay you.
Rather pay you. And Yeah. And they came back and they said, well gosh, I really like those options. We were really hoping for this number. And so Julie and I talked again and we're like, well, we can do that number if we lower the interest rate.
Yep. So ultimately we got a better than market interest rate mm-hmm. Because we were able to pay a little bit more for the house. Yeah. And it's just, it's such a win. It's such a win. When, when all those fees get to actually go to the family. That, that, yeah.
Because it's, it's real money when you're, I know it doesn't maybe sound like a lot because we deal with half a million dollar houses or million dollar houses, but we're gonna put another $50,000 into this family's pocket that we would've given a bank.
Mm-hmm. And that's real money. That's real money. That's real money. So,
and I love that. I, I think it's so easy. Especially as realtors to come in with your own agenda of the typical way that you would take a house and, put it on the market. I realize this situation, they had an agent that could do that if they wanted to do that.
Yeah, exactly.
But really understanding that not everybody is looking, they're not looking for that. And if you can come in and explain to them that their bottom line is actually going to be better doing this, then with like a way less stress too. Right. I learned that a couple years ago working with an elderly neighbor that, what she, the, the short story is that she wanted me to list her house and because she was a, like a dear friend and neighbor, I was willing, I was like ready to go to bat and kind of take one for the team, so to speak. And like, okay, normally I wouldn't haul all your stuff away for free and do all of this stuff.
And then I ended up getting an offer from a wholesaler who just happened to call me. You know, there's some lessons in this.
They were, they were making regular calls. They happened to call me. Yeah. I told them about the property and he solved a problem, which was, we'll take it as is with everything that they don't want. Have the family come in and take everything out. 'cause she was moving into assisted living and I struggled with it a little bit, like, oh, I know it's so much less than she could get if we went through all of this headache.
And what she hadn't told me is she actually needed the money. She was already in the assisted living.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
And she was behind on her payments. She needed the money. She needed not to have the headache. She didn't have anybody. Yeah. I love it when realtors in particular can kind of see that, like really listen to what people want and
Exactly. Right. Mm-hmm.
Create that, it's a win-win. I mean, so many wins, right? It's a win for you guys. It's a win for the seller and it's a win for their family that has I'm sure this massive sigh of relief. And it's actually a win for their realtor too. That's like looking like this. Totally. So I think that is so good. And I'm so happy for you guys that you were able to
Yeah, it's super cool and I don't think I would've done that, having not, had the push from you to go to Mel's class. I'm such a like, I don't need that. I'll just go learn on my own.
There's so much information all the time. There's so much all the time.
It's hard.
So I'm one of those where I'm like, well, I'll just go read about it. Like, I love to read. I, I read, you know, probably close to three or four books a month and I just was like, I'll just go read about it. And she goes, no, you need this community, right? You need to start learning this. And you know, Mel's amazing.
And so I would not have just on the tip of my tongue, had the confidence to talk about it right there and put that little seed. Yes. And just tell them, this is what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna give you two options and please know it's a negotiation. Right. So, yeah. You know, let keep an open mind.
And that's, I think that I can contribute. I. Going through Mel's class to my confidence to be able to do that, to make this deal happen for sure. Awesome. Which is also you. Yes.
We gotta send that to Mel as a testimonial.
Yeah, you made me go. I know.
I'm like, this is turning into, I'm gonna have to reach out to Mel, right? I know. Right after this. And be like, you know, we were just talking about you
like some marketing money from now. No. Right? Yep.
Yes. Or this is when you say like, Bravo, bravo, bravo, right? Or,
yeah. this was amazing. I love talking to both of you. It's, is there anything else that you would like the world to know about what you're doing in the world? Or any parting words for sort of maybe a newbie investor that has been talking about it and doesn't quite have the confidence to take that leap of faith? What would you tell that person?
That's such a great question. It is, and I think for me, I'm gonna just jump right in.
Mm-hmm. Please do.
you Are the most important thing in your investment. Like you are the most important, right? Mm-hmm. And so for a new person that thinks that they don't know what they're doing, that's okay because you're at your speed, but you've got to take that leap and don't do it by yourself. Mm-hmm. Right. Do it with this group, with this community.
We can link people up with, you know, to, to go with you on the journey. But you've got to do it. And the only caveat to that is don't do it unless the numbers work. Right. But you but, but stand in like your confidence. Like, 'cause you are the most, this isn't someone else's dream, this is your dream. Mm-hmm.
So you've gotta do it.
Yeah. I whole, I wholeheartedly agree. I, you know, we, we have a lot of women in our organization who will finally come to a meeting and they'll say, yeah, I've been kind of lurking online for months and I, and I finally made it. And it's like, this is the beginning. Mm-hmm. For her.
Yep.
She, it's, it's okay, lurk, get comfortable, but at the end of the day. Be willing to show up and get around other people. That will inspire you, that will motivate you, that will help you, that will teach you, that will encourage you. Because there's so many of us who have done a lot of really stupid, dumb things in our lives, and frankly, if we can do it, oh my gosh, you can do it if can do it mean.
It's, and, and, and getting around the community of women in WREIO, the encouragement, the partnerships, the let's go have coffee, let's talk, let's, it's you are not alone. That's the biggest thing, right? Mm-hmm. None of us are in this alone, and it, it, it takes a village and the WREIO women are, are, it's really a, an amazing, amazing group of people.
I couldn't agree more. I think that I heard recently that we've kind of been through this era of online courses and with the advancement in AI and technology, the how, the how to do this is really pretty at your fingertips for most people.
Like yeah, most people could figure out the how, but having that community is what will tip people from. Mm-hmm. You know, wanting to do that. And it doesn't have to just be with real estate investing. It could be weight loss, it could be
whatever. Yep.
Whatever it is that you have this kind of desire to do, but maybe a little bit of fear around, I agree that it's being in community. That is sort of becoming the more important thing than the, the course or the, I think, I think personally like having, having both is really important. But if you had to choose, I would go with the community part of it.
I agree. And especially with women, you know, you, you said this earlier, women do business differently and, and we do.
We have a charity that WREIO supports called Kathy's Place and the director, Kimberly was telling us one time about her work in Africa and that the, some of the different governments are starting to lean more towards women run charities because men come in and solve the problem, which is fantastic.
Women come in and like build a school, right? So they don't just solve the problem, they put in preventative measures. To prevent the problem from coming back. And so I think, I mean, that's just one piece and one example, but it's just we do do business differently. And it's not right or wrong.
She said dooo,
Julie,
I'm so sorry.
We'll edit that out. Okay.
You gotta leave that in.
You gotta have fun.
You gotta have fun. Sorry.
No, we just, I mean, the point's been made earlier. Yeah. You know, it's just, we, we, we are in this together and we are it's just, it's not a solo project. It's not say it all the time. We're better together.
Better together. And I just, I talk to so many newbies, so that's why I think it's such a great question. I guess the actual lingo in teenager speak is noob.
Oh, the noob. The noob.
How did, how did we not all know that? Right. With all of us with these teenagers, right.
How you spell it. Noob. NOOB.
Yes.
Okay. Make sure, you know.
But again, I think that's why I'm just, I'm so adamant, like don't, just, don't just be on the sideline. Be an active participant you know, let your guard down, meet the people, the people in our community and the people. They're, they're the best people to work with. Mm-hmm. Right.
They're just so incredible. And so it just, yeah. Like get in there and, but advocate for yourself. Make sure you're not getting taken advantage of. Of course. Mm-hmm. It's all. Up to you. We can't promise anything. Right. But do it. Yeah. There's so many people in our group that just haven't pulled the trigger yet, and I just really, there's so many opportunities.
There is. And so many ways to learn, you know? So just get out there
even with social anxiety, just pick a question.
Yeah, yeah. Right. Just decide what's the one question I'm gonna ask people at this meeting. And frankly, you may not even ever have to ask it because the community is just so welcoming.
Yeah.
But I struggled with that and I get it. And it's hard to show up in a room full of people you don't know It is. But this is, this WREIO's a pretty dang good welcoming room.
Yeah. And on this flip of the coin for the, for the people that have been around WREIO for a long time, or in been I call, you know, advanced, you know, or knowledgeable investors or whatever.
More experienced. Sure. More experienced. Thank you. Like give give without expectation, right? Yeah. Give that education, talk to people about projects, your lessons learned, and and I think we do a pretty good job of that and don't expect that someone's gonna, you know, can do it 500 bucks for your knowledge.
Like just give it. Right. And because it will come back, it does a hundred fold, right? Yeah. It does what you give these, this group. So
I love that. I had my friend Erin Bradley, she's with Pursuing Freedom Official on the show, and she gave the analogy of the barrel of monkeys where you have like one reaching up and one reaching down. Yeah. So I love that visual of a hand up.
I'm a new logo like now. I love that coming up in my head.
Oh my God. But it's so
true, right? Like if you're, if you're reaching up to, to have somebody help you and reaching down to help the one behind you, I think that is the way that a community should work.
And I, I have no doubt that it's working that way in the community that you've built, because you guys are so, like I said, kind and generous and thoughtful in how you set the community up. And I think we've all seen that in action with WREIO. So thank you for creating that.
Well, we love it. And we're not going anywhere.
Nope. We got coffee mugs, so we're,
oh, there you go. Then it's official, right? You're
stuck with us. You're stuck. Yes.
Once you have a mug,
us official.
Well, and thank you for having us. This is a fantastic,
oh, Anne, we appreciate it so much. Yeah.
Thank you.
She said, do, do.
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