Real People, Real Stories.

In this episode of The BRRRR Investor Podcast, Laura Endres shares her honest journey of building wealth through real estate, navigating unexpected setbacks, and discovering the strategies that helped her keep moving forward.

If you're investing in rental properties, thinking about your first flip, or looking to grow your real estate portfolio, this episode is packed with practical lessons you won't want to miss.

🎙️ In this episode, you'll learn:
✅ How Laura Endres got started in real estate investing and expanded from Illinois to investing in Los Angeles
✅ The pros and cons of self-managing rental properties versus hiring a property manager
✅ How she navigated personal and financial challenges during a major investment project
✅ Lessons learned from flipping a condo in a difficult real estate market
✅ Why mentorship, teamwork, and adaptability can make or break your investing journey
✅ Practical advice for both new and experienced real estate investors

Real estate investing isn't always a straight path to success—but the lessons from the toughest deals often become the most valuable.

If you're looking for honest conversations about building wealth through real estate, growing cash flow, and becoming a smarter investor, this episode is for you.

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Transcript

Alex Nahle [00:00:00]:
Welcome back to the BRRRR Investor Podcast, where our mission is to empower aspiring real estate investors in their journey towards building generational wealth. All right, excited to be back. Thank you so much, Laura, for being here today. Appreciate you jumping on.

Laura Endres [00:00:16]:
Happy to be here.

Alex Nahle [00:00:17]:
Awesome. Awesome. So today I'm excited for this episode. We have Laura Endres. Laura and I have been working together for a little over a year, about a year and a half or so. I don't know, correct me if I'm wrong on time, but time has been going by so fast on this journey. So again, we had the opportunity to, you know, work together and, you know, we're going to share about that. We're going to share about your experience, we're going to share about, you know, the challenges that we face during this journey and then also the, the great moments. And truly from, you know, we want to hear this from you directly. You know, someone that went through the experience. You're not a new investor, which, you know, I'd love for you to share about that as well. But you, you have, you know, stepped away from real estate investing for a little bit. So with that said, let's start off by sharing a little bit about who Laura is. What do you do? And we'll, we'll start there.

Laura Endres [00:01:13]:
So my name is Laura. I live in Northern Illinois. Did spend several years out in Los Angeles area because our oldest has been out there for about 13 years. I'm an educator, so I taught school, I homeschooled my kids, and now I've been a personal trainer since 2009. That's my day job. And as you can imagine, that was fantastic when I lived in la and then thanks to the pandemic, we went online and I now have clients in about six time zones, which is pretty cool. Started my real estate investing. Wasn't planned. It sort of happened because we were living in Los Angeles. We came home to see family and there's a lake community, which is where we live right now. And we thought, wouldn't it be great if we had a small property that we could use when we come home to visit so that we didn't have to stay with family and, you know, put them out and we offered on a small little cabin and then it got bought. Know someone else got it and we were disappointed. And my Realtor, who's fantastic here in Illinois, said, what was the reason that you wanted this? And we said, well, and we could rent it out when we're not using it. And she said, well, if you're Interested in rentals? I have a duplex for sale. Long story short, we bought the duplex and then we bought three more properties within about two years. So I think after being in Los Angeles, the price point in Northern Illinois was just so attractive. It did not scare us. It scared us when we lived here originally, like it would to buy any property, but after we had seen prices on the west coast, we thought, you know, this is doable. So we bought four properties. I self managed. It really became my deal. Bought it with my husband and my oldest son and it really became my thing. So I learned how to, to manage properties and tenants. We, we held them for a few years and, and then it just got to be too much. I was getting busier with work and my husband was busier with work. And they, my husband and my son said, should we sell these? And I, I was real hesitant to do that because I had learned so much. And I thought, am I really going to have gone through this process for a couple years and then sell? But I said, I'll sell if we think we can make money. And we did. So. So that's kind of my history. Still live in Northern Illinois. Came back to be near family again. And that's my, my initial history with real estate.

Alex Nahle [00:03:39]:
That is awesome. And how did you. So when you did, you know, take the leap of faith and you got the duplex and then you got the other properties, what was going through your mind? Like, obviously the price point was very attractive. Right. You know, just like many, many investors, especially those starting, you know, they, they do look at those areas because they're attractive from a pricing standpoint, which could be great and could be not so good. Right, We've talked about that. But what did you feel like, you know, going into it, the price maybe made you feel at ease, that it's not as much of a risk. But with work, with all that you guys had going on with your professional life, personal life, how did you feel about jumping into it and what were the resources you leaned on to during that process?

Laura Endres [00:04:26]:
I was very excited because I like to do a lot of things and I am a jump in and I'll figure it out as I go kind of person. So I really wasn't doing daunted by this. I also have a cousin who has been building his portfolio for about 20 years, and so I leaned on him a little bit for advice. At first I was going to buy a condo, and when we ran the numbers, he said, no, no, no, no, you're looking at this all wrong. And so he saved me from that purchase and taught me a lot in that process. And so figuring it out was hard. I joined some Facebook groups for landlords and really leaned on those people and what they said they had done, whether that was good or bad, what they do now. And I just really trusted their process. And then it worked. When I stuck to my process that I had developed on how to vet tenants and things like that, it went well. When I did not stick to the process, then stressful things happened. So that was an interesting thing to learn. The thing about the properties here is that they will cash flow right away, but they won't appraise much. So, you know, we get. We get to the point where all of our money is our. You know, our liquid cash is tied up in the rentals. We did have private investor for two of the properties, which allowed us to go in with cash offers because it's very competitive here because the price point is attractive and there is a severe shortage of housing and rental properties. So properties go fast. So going in with cash was enormously helpful. But also, interestingly, had two duplexes, a single family, and then a four unit. We thought the four unit was going to be our cash cow. We thought that was going to be amazing. And that ended up being the property that was the most difficult and the one we wanted to unload first. So, you know, you just don't always know until you get into the weeds on these things. But I learned a lot. And then when we did make money on all four properties, I was pleasantly surprised. I was then able to remodel my own kitchen in my. In the house that we bought here. We were able to buy a little bit bigger house than what we had originally planned. So that's how that all went.

Alex Nahle [00:06:41]:
That's awesome. And would you be able to share a little bit, give us an idea of, like, what kind of cash flow were you generating on these properties at the time?

Laura Endres [00:06:50]:
Okay, I'm gonna have to think back,

Alex Nahle [00:06:52]:
but I mean, obviously you had. You had no mortgage, right? Well, you did have the private money loan that you were paying off. So, you know, that also can skew the numbers a little bit. So you want to kind of consider that. But, you know, if you put in the mortgage in there, you know, taxes, insurance and so forth with other expenses and, you know, leaving room for repairs and unforeseen repairs and stuff, what would you say, you know, monthly? Is it a few hundred? Is it more than that? What would you say the cash flow was? Approximately?

Laura Endres [00:07:23]:
That was. Yeah, the other interesting thing because again, it wasn't entirely what we expected. Like the single family home brought in had a wider margin because that was in high demand to be able to rent a small single family as opposed to an apartment. And so I want to say we would have, we would have been positive about 10,000 a year with that one. And then the other ones were a little bit tighter. So, you know, that was, that was where got real. I did start, I did hire a property manager for 8% for two of my properties at a certain point when I was feeling overwhelmed. And so that cut into the profit a little bit more. So yeah, at the end of the day, you know, we were playing the long game and. But we were making at least a few hundred each month on each property unless something went sideways. Right. Another thing we didn't anticipate is snow removal. So when you have a multi unit, you can't realistically expect them to go out and shovel the enormous driveway. So now we're paying for snow removal. It could snow every day here. It could snow every day. And I thought, oh my God, there goes my, there goes all my money, right? So I mean, if you can get a tenant to do it and you give them a little break on rent, that's ideal. But I wasn't able to on the four unit because all the tenants were a little bit older. So that's where I thought, well, there goes our profit. It so that, that, that property was trickier. And we kind of learned that the hard way because like I said, I just jump in. I'm learning to be a little more prepared now and run numbers before I,

Alex Nahle [00:08:52]:
hey, you know, whatever works as long as you know your style. I mean, that's, I believe, one thing that we both have in common, right. And you know, it's, it's definitely a strength. And as long as you know it, you can avoid it being a weakness. So it sounds like it was more of a, you guys, you know, you had more of an appreciation play. For the most part, you did, you know, you got, I want to use the word lucky. You know, the, the market was in your favor, the couple, you held it, you know, it appreciated and so forth. You sold them. Because when we went back to it, right when we started working together, we felt that maybe it kind of, it was stagnant for a bit, right? There wasn't much movement and you know, it was like, yeah, you'll make a little bit of cash flow. But the appreciation kind of slowed down when we started looking, so. So that's cool. So it sounds like you didn't really burr any of the properties. You just, you know, traditional rental, you got them, you got a long term tenant and you, and you manage it until you've got a property manager yourself.

Laura Endres [00:09:48]:
Right. Right.

Alex Nahle [00:09:49]:
Now, did you feel the property manager. I mean, I, I'm, I'm, I'm a big advocate obviously of hiring, you know, the right people to do the right job. Unless you have the proper system in place to, to, to manage it yourself. And if you do great, there's nothing wrong with that. But you always have to consider like, what is that costing you really? Right. What is the opportunity cost, what are you saving and so forth. Because sometimes it actually costs you more by. When you think you're saving money by not paying a property manager or something of that nature. But with your experience with a property manager, were you satisfied like as far as, you know, communication? As far as, did you feel like they were treating your property like you would treat it and were they doing any repairs that you were not happy with or not authorized? Share a little bit about.

Laura Endres [00:10:29]:
I felt like it was about 50, 50 pros and cons. At the end of the day when I met with the property manager and sat down with him, I felt like it was the best day of my life because I was really ready for help.

Alex Nahle [00:10:43]:
You were done with it, right?

Laura Endres [00:10:45]:
And he says, I'm here for you. And I was like, thank you, I love you. Can I hug you? You know, because I dealt with some. The four, the four unit, four unit was everything. It was that one, that's the one that broke us. Tenants had been in there for a long, long time and were paying vastly under market. So I'm trying to raise rents carefully and they're upset. So that was, that was difficult because otherwise we were going to be in the negative. So I kind of blame the previous owner for letting them have rent control for 25 years straight. You know, just way, way, way under. And so the property manager was brought in for that property and another one and I was real happy about it. However, they also got me the first and only tenant I ever had to evict. I was glad to have their help because the thing about this property manager, they manage a lot. So they've got, they've got a repairman. He was fantastic. That was really helpful. They have an attorney, he helped us and walked through the eviction process and it was pretty smooth and not as costly as I would expect. But like I said, they got one tenant who paid two months and Then never paid again. And I was going to her door and trying to talk to her and be reasonable to see what's going on, why things like that. So, you know, that really was difficult. But the things they did, they did really well. They just had systems that was easy for them. Right. They had young guys on the team who would just go out and do the basics and things like that. So I did appreciate most of it.

Alex Nahle [00:12:12]:
That's awesome. And you know, that's definitely. You brought up a great point. That's something, you know, everyone should take into consideration. When you're buying a property, rental property, investment property, like, you know, is it currently tenant occupied? If it is, there's a lot to consider. It doesn't mean you shouldn't buy it. Right. But there's just a lot you need to consider. You need to be very careful about that. And also, like, what is the history of the rents and what is the, the nature of the previous landlord will definitely, you know, affect you or backfire on you because, yeah, they've been there for a long time. If they, you know, they've been spoiling it, the tenant or not maybe necessarily, you know, raising the rent appropriately, gradually, then, yeah, it's going to come back to you. So that's why we highly recommend that and we've talked about that. So, so that's cool. And then the snow, it's like, you know, you don't even think about that. And here in California, like,

Laura Endres [00:13:01]:
that's not an issue. Yeah.

Alex Nahle [00:13:04]:
So let's get into, you know, now as far as talk about, you know, the, the, the journey with us together, how we met. I know, you know, I met Rob initially at Rotary. You guys were visiting from Illinois. And then I believe I may have had a meeting, like an event the, the following week. Because Thursday. Yes, we met then on a Tuesday, I probably had an event. I believe it was Pasadena. So. And then, you know, we started working together. We worked together in Illinois, started writing offers there. So let's go ahead and talk about that story a little bit about how we met. How was your experience there? What were you feeling like, oh, shoot, are we doing this again type of thing? Just through that.

Laura Endres [00:13:47]:
Yeah. So because we lived in LA for a while, when we go out, we both have clients out there, my husband and I, and so we'll. We go out for a month at a time and we were there and Rob had gone to a Rotary meeting, met you, and I don't know if you were speaking or somehow learned what you were doing. And he came Home and said, you have to meet Alex. This guy is a realtor. He does real estate investing. You need to meet him. You would love him. And I. I was shocked because my husband is the one who did not want to deal with the rentals anymore, and it was his idea to sell. And I. So he said, he's having an event. We went to your Pasadena event. That was great. And then you talked about mentorship. And my first thought was, yes, please, I want you to mentor me. This sounds fantastic. But I said to my husband, we are going to go and have a beer and talk about this. Because I really was like, don't say this is a good idea and then change your mind. Right. Because I had sort of accepted that we had moved on and we weren't doing that anymore. So we went and had a drink, we talked about it, and I said, I really want to do mentorship with Alex. And he said, yeah, do that. So I did. And that's kind of how that started. And then you and I started, what, talking every week, I believe. And I was in Illinois, so at first I was evaluating properties here. I just assumed I would be purchasing again in Illinois. And you were helping me learn how to look at the properties, run the numbers, see, you know, if it makes sense. And granted, I had been a little emotional about the properties the first time around because it was just so personal, and I was doing everything myself. And so I was trying to learn a little bit how to step back and just evaluate it. Not on an emotional standpoint as well.

Alex Nahle [00:15:39]:
Yeah, and that's important because, you know, a lot of investors, you know, tend to fall into that emotional trap. Right. And it's normal. It's just. You just have to be aware of it with experience, you catch yourself. And it happens. Like, I love what I do. I love properties, and I. I tend to, you know, catch myself there. But, yeah, you remind yourself it is an investment. Of course, there's nothing wrong with having pride of ownership and, you know, being specific about what you own. But, yeah, definitely not have an attachment. So, yeah, it happened to be where I was just sharing about, you know, at that club meeting, I was sharing about what I do, and it happened to me. That's when Rob was there. So that was. That was, you know, really, really ironic. And. And. And, you know, coming from someone like yourself, you're obviously, you know, a. A coach yourself, right?

Laura Endres [00:16:25]:
You.

Alex Nahle [00:16:26]:
Your clients hire you in a similar manner, but more in a different industry. So coming from someone like you, how. I mean, you. Obviously, you said, yes, Right away, Right. You wanted the mentorship. You. You appreciated what mentorship is. But why, like, why. Why would you say that? I mean, you offer similar services, so can you share a little bit about why you think that's even important for others?

Laura Endres [00:16:48]:
You know, there's a saying in my industry that even the coach needs a coach. It's not necessarily because you don't know what to do, but you're really sort of outsourcing some of that to someone else, making sure the whole thing is well rounded. You're checking all the boxes. Someone. It's an appointment, right. So it's accountability to do the things that you need to get done. And I. I'm a great student. Right. Like, if you say, okay, here's what we're going to do, I'm like the eager beaver who's like, got it. You know, I will have answers for you by next week. And I work really well with accountability. So if there's a deadline, I'm talking to Alex. I said I was going to look at this property or run the numbers or whatever it was. I will make it happen. If there's no deadline and it's sort of out here, it, you know, it tends to get pushed down the list. Right. It can be hard to prioritize it when there's so many other things in your life pulling your attention. I also just felt like there must be things I don't know. And to me, a market like Los Angeles was intimidating, was out of the realm of possibility. I'm dabbling in small towns and rural areas, and that's what I know because that's where I'm from. And so it never occurred to me that I could do anything outside of my personal area. And that's also what I was interested in, was to talk more about how I could expand and what I needed to know to do it.

Alex Nahle [00:18:10]:
So it sounds like, you know, you know, part of it. Obviously, you trust the process and, you know, coaching in general because of your background and sounds like it's really, for you, like more of a guardrail to keep you on track, to learn from someone else's experience. Right. Their successes and their mistakes and to try to get a shortcut through that. Right. Because, you know, when you're. I can only imagine, like in your industry, like, you know, you look at a client, you talk to a client, you evaluate them. Obviously everybody's different. Right. You have to create something specific to that client age.

Laura Endres [00:18:39]:
Right.

Alex Nahle [00:18:40]:
The way that they. They process, you know, the, you know, their food and all that. Kind of stuff makes a huge difference, I bet. So you're going to create something specifically for them. And, and, and with that, that's, you know, what I try to do with this program is like really figure out what is it that, you know, Laura and Rob know, need, what are their goals, what are their risk tolerance and then kind of work with them and build something from there. So, so that, that's awesome, you know, to hear again from someone like you. So, you know, going into it, we initially started working together. You guys, you know, wanted rental properties. You, you were looking in the Illinois area and you know, we started underwriting. You started sending me property. You connected me with your agent because I can always connect. You know, we have obviously a network of agents all over. But I, I, I can definitely work with someone's agent, you know, to be able to collaborate together to get, get to the, you know, the, the win of what the client needs at the end of the day. So she started sending. We looked at some commercial mixed use properties, some, you know, just residential. We underwrote them and you know, I gave you my two cents on them as far as, you know, the cash flow, the appreciation and so forth. We even made an offer on, I believe at least one and you guys inspected it and then, you know, we backed out.

Laura Endres [00:19:51]:
Right.

Alex Nahle [00:19:51]:
And then how did we get into la? So, you know, on our calls, I know we, we had, we have our calls and you know, I've, I, I was sharing with you guys some of the things that, you know, I'm working on here and the kind of, you guys felt intrigued. So can you touch a little bit on that? How did you get to LA after? Did I force you to come here?

Laura Endres [00:20:10]:
No, but you laid a nice little trail of breadcrumbs that I eagerly followed. I believe you were sharing example, you know, you're always sharing examples and stories and projects you've done, how they went, any problems you ran into, how you solve those problems. So you were always sharing lots of different scenarios and you were sharing about working with someone in the same way that you're now working with me as partners. And I believe I was intrigued. And I probably said something like, but that just isn't possible for me and here's why. And you said, well, not, not so fast. I also want to back up to when we met you. You came vetted because you were a part of Rotary International and my husband's been involved in Rotary for a long, long time. And those people are fantastic people. So if you were just a stranger that we met in la, that would have been much more scary, right? How do we know who this guy is? How do we know we can trust him? But you're, you're so public facing, you do so many networking events and you run different groups, you're in Rotary. And so, you know, it just, the vetting was just done. It was a done deal. So I just want to say that, like, we trusted you right off the bat. And so you said, well, let me talk, let me talk you through how it could work for you in this area. And I said, well, let me bring my husband on because he's a financial advisor and insurance agent. And he, I understand the numbers, but I have to. Takes me a minute, right? I have to write it out, I have to really see it. He just can talk to you and be like, oh, yeah, makes sense. Got it. So that's when I started looping him in. Because we would be doing these things, these projects together financially, and then we had to sit on it because we were like, okay, it, maybe it is possible. And we like, especially for me as an individual, as a personal trainer, I remember when I first made enough money in LA to support myself. I mean, I didn't need to because I was married, but like, I finally make enough to support myself. And that was a moment of pride. I had hired a money coach, actually, interestingly enough, to help me get to that point. So I also was like, there's no way we could do it in la. We just don't have that kind of liquid cash laying around. But you explained it in such a way that we thought maybe it's possible. So here we are.

Alex Nahle [00:22:29]:
Sweet. So with that plug for Rotary, we owe them a Paul Harris donation or something.

Laura Endres [00:22:35]:
True, true, true.

Alex Nahle [00:22:38]:
But, you know, you know, I really appreciate, you know, about both of you guys. Obviously you have two different personalities. You balance out each other and so forth. But like, you know, you're very collaborative, you're very trusting. You allowed me to do my job right. And, and then, you know, we, we kind of work through it together versus, you know, like, I'm sure you have some clients as well. Like, you know, you, you share with them, they hire you tell them you do, you got to do this, and then they're doing something completely different. So what I appreciate about you guys is, you know, you listened, you trusted me, you, you allowed me to take you on the journey and, you know, I guided you and I shared with you some of the pitfalls, some of the landmines that we may be facing and, and Walking into. Right. Like, I wanted to make sure I was very clear about, you know, it's not always going to be. We have to expect the unexpected. We have to expect some of the challenges. And, and, you know, you guys obviously did. We started working together. You have limited resources, you know, just like majority of, you know, the clients that I work with. And that's, you know, what I love the most is, you know, when we come, we're hardworking professionals and educator. Right. So ironic how many educators I'm working with. So educators and those in the medical industry are really what we focus on because we truly believe, you know, you have a lot more resources than you think. And resources doesn't have to just be money. Right. It's not just monetary. There's a lot of resources. You guys are very, very talented and. But you're very preoccupied with your profession. Right. And that's why, you know, I pour my heart into working with such individuals or couples or partners. So the resources are limited. You felt, you know, how am I going to buy something in LA, right? You are buying something in Illinois. $100,000 $75,000 purchases. You can put 20, 25% down. But then you came to me like, how can I do that in LA? And like you said, you know, I shared with you some of the things, the story, some of the things we're working on. Not just theories, ideas, hypothetical, oh, let's see, this guy, what they did, or that person, what they did. No, I shared with you what I'm actively doing and then you saw how it could apply to you. You were very scared, right? Both of you were very scared. Maybe Rob a lot more than you at times, but you were very scared. A lot of the times I was able to detect it. And you expressed it and, you know, we talked about it, but I know there are times that you, you were scared and you were kind of keeping it in and, and we got to the finish line. So let's go ahead and, you know, talk a little bit through that. You know, I know we, we made an offer. We made multiple offers. We looked at a lot of properties. We had one that we were very, very close at getting, and we were going to buy two at the same time. We knew the Sadakoi property was an exceptional property. We negotiated significantly. We got an amazing deal. But then we got to a point where, you know, we found the mold issue and stuff like that, and the seller wasn't willing to cooperate anymore. So we have to know as investors, again, that's an example of not to get attached to the property and be distracted. And we have to know when to walk away. So we walked away bravely from that one, and sure enough, you know, we got another one. And that turned out to be a success, despite us going into it, knowing some of the challenges, right? We had exit strategies, we had backup plans, and despite that, we were a little bit, you know, there was some fear there. And I want to share that. That fear is normal. And now that you're over it, right, you've gone cross that bridge, I want you to touch on how healthy that fear was, how important that fear was, and how much that stretched your experience. So let's talk about, you know, that, that journey with getting the, the property that we got. And I'll share a little bit about, you know, the final numbers. What were the results? It was a win. At the end of the day, it was a successful win, but we were prepared, you know, to, to. To pivot. So can you share a little bit about that, please?

Laura Endres [00:26:23]:
That. So we. The project that we did and completed with you is, was a condo. And so therefore the price point was a little more palatable to us. We had looked at multiple properties with you, me especially. So every time I would go to Los Angeles, we would drive around and look at properties, and then we did make offers, and we're going through the process, got accepted for the condo that we, that we've got. And then like you said, Sadaqui, a single family home. And we were going to do that at the same time. So first of all, for me to go from there's no way I can ever do Los Angeles to oh, well, now we're going to do two is bonkers. Okay, so we thought I was scared in the condo. I mean, I would have been biting my nails through the whole, the whole thing. But again, you, like, laid it out for us to help us understand how, how it was going to work. And then we did run in the. The condo was going great. We got it. The rehab was pretty quick. I was really impressed with your team and how fast, because I was just looking back at the numbers this morning to, to double check all that, and we renovated the entire thing and it was very tired and drab and brown. You know, it hadn't been updated in probably decades. And now it's bright and cheery and white and tile and it's really beautiful. But we did run into. And we were off. We were. I mean, we were normal scared, but not like the type of scared of questioning if we'd made a mistake or anything like that. Until we had a little bit of trouble with the financing of the condo on the buyer's side. Turned out that the HOA was a little bit non compliant with a few things. You and I actually kind of helped them get compliant on one of the two things that they needed to do so that we were sort of working with the HoA in the sense of like, can you make this happen fast? Because it's not only affecting our ability to sell, but other people's ability to sell and buy in that community. And it got, it got worked out. At the end of the day, there were many times I was more. I was trying not to let on how scared I would be because I didn't want to make you think I was a drama queen or. Or have you worried that at every turn you were going to have to appease me. So I'm really. I'm good at fake it till you make it. And we did have a few times where we're like, we can we talk? And every time we talked, we felt great. And then we moved on, and then we were fine for a while. And then it'd be like, okay, can you talk again? Can we just, you know, talk through this? Because it was at a certain point feeling a little bit like it was going to be hard to sell. And then out of the blue, we got two offers, like a couple days later, right when we had been seriously discussing plan B. What's plan B? And when are we going to. Well, we knew what plan B was, but when are we going to shift to that strategy? And right away, then we got these two offers, and it turns out we didn't have to. So that was amazing. I mean, I was doing this through the whole. The whole escrow process. They wanted to close fast. We wanted to close fast. I mean, at the end of the day, we made money. I mean, it was really great. And so when it was all done, my husband and I were like, okay, let's take a little break. That was exhausting. And then a week later you're like, I'm looking at a property. And we said, okay, so we're a little bit like that. We're a little bit like, I'm scared. Okay, let's do it.

Alex Nahle [00:29:37]:
It's awesome. But I want to share, you know, something very, very important, and I commend you guys tremendously about that, you know, we haven't talked about yet, is during this time that we're working together, not only that, you're dealing with the challenges. I mean, I don't want to say challenge with the journey of. And the emotions and the feelings of the, the, the real estate investing process and you know, putting your money there and, and risk and so forth. And, and it's a big thing and the fear that comes out of it is always going to be there, just changes a little bit. But you have, you're going to feel it and it's just a matter of like pushing through it. But you know, one thing in a couple things that you guys were dealing with is again, just to touch on it a little bit. You had some personal things you were dealing with, with the house, seriously, you know, with the insurance, the house. You can elaborate as much as you want. And then personal, like family friend issues that really would. Without even having to deal with a project. That's a lot. So I want to make sure, you know, you, you understand that and you give yourself the credit that's due because not only that, you managed the, the project very well and you got through it with it with. Despite the, the challenges that we face. But yeah, you're carrying a lot on your shoulders during that.

Laura Endres [00:30:44]:
So.

Alex Nahle [00:30:45]:
Yes, thank you for that and I commend you about it.

Laura Endres [00:30:48]:
Yeah. And, and I appreciate, I appreciate every time you said that because we were going through a lot in our personal life and you know, occasionally people are like, oh, no big deal, you'll bounce back. And you're like, no, you don't understand. Like, we're really having a hard time. We had probably one of years of our life. My husband ended up with three health issues. Only one is something we knew and two were not. And so he was having surgeries and lifting restrictions and affected his ability to work and do sales. So that was, that was huge. We had a plumbing disaster at our home where we live. Turned out the pipes were made by a company that was sued and made faulty products. And we had a disaster that was $120,000 insurance claim, seven months of renovation. It destroyed 70% of our house. We were gone when the water was running. And so that. That was crazy. Our son got married during that time. I would. My joke was, I'm trying to look good for this wedding and I'm so stressed out. So that happened. And then my younger son had two friends take their own life within about six months of each other, different friend groups. So he's struggling. I was closely involved in that, so I was struggling. Health issues. Our house fell apart. Meanwhile, if I'm in LA, you and I are looking at properties because I'm really Good at compartmentalizing, like, I've got to deal with this. And now, you know, I'm working, I still have to show up and be positive and all that for my clients and everything I was doing with you. But it really tested our limits. You know, we had to be out of our house and all. It was just a lot, it was a lot like, should I move into the condo? That's where, that's where that was.

Alex Nahle [00:32:33]:
You guys inspired me. I mean, I'll be honest, I didn't, I was like, wow, you know, that everything that you dealt with during the time and you were dealing with the, you know, the condo, I thought we're gonna have to call it quits, give you guys.

Laura Endres [00:32:44]:
Right.

Alex Nahle [00:32:46]:
But so that's very commendable. And again, for me, it was inspiring to see you work through that very, very well. So, so, you know, to touch a little bit about the project, you know, the condo, as we talked about initially, just to share with everybody, it's not, you know, my preference. It's not something that I would highly recommend as a priority, you know, of an investment. However, we went into it knowing that and we were open about that and we discussed that. However, you and I had a unique thing and every, every investor, every partner is going to be different, right? You had presence in that area, you had family in that area. We had a backup plan as, you know, a second home. It was a co living strategy and then a BRRRR and then, you know, obviously selling it. Right. And we knew the challenges that we're going to face to selling it. Now the product came out exceptionally well. Obviously, that's the feedback we got. It was amazing. It's the best unit in the community or even in the area. You know, the staging was amazing and helped itself very, very fast. So that was cool. But again, having a condo, especially in today's market, the condo market shifted very, very much and it's really hard to sell. But then we managed to get an offer. We worked very well with the offers we got and we sold it and it was a great success, like you said afterwards. And now we look back and it's like, oh, wow, that was great. We learned a lot. So I'm going to touch on the numbers a little bit, but I also want to share, you know, like you mentioned, you know, you got, we finished the project, we went over it, we, we took care of the numbers and then, you know, a property came up, talked about it, you guys were ready to go, right? And now you guys are a level where we're working with you where you're not even having to use your money, you've already have two private money lenders lined up where we're gonna go in on the next project with zero money out of your pocket. And, and we're gonna do, you know, either it's gonna be a BRRRR or a fix and flip. It depends on the product that we find. But that's kind of what we're looking for. And that's at the level that you're at now, right? You started with your own money, now you're gonna be using somebody else's money. So as far as the condo's concerned, the way we found it, and a lot of people ask me, you know, how do you find properties? Is only off market and so forth. No, we, we find properties many, many ways. Off market is one of many ways. It's not the only way. It's not the most common way. It is one of the ways. But a lot of it is relationships, right? As many are on the market and so forth. But a lot of it is relationships in many forms. And one is with agents. So how did we get this particular property? We're in escrow on, on Sadakoi too. We did our inspection going through it, and then we came. This one came about. I get a call from an agent that I've worked with before, you know, I've bought other investment properties from. And you know, she had a buyer in escrow on that, on that condo, and then they were having some issues, so she reached out to me. Alex, I have trouble. This is the deal. It's a good deal, blah, blah, blah. So we negotiated, made it even extra special deal for us, and then sure enough, we got it right. And that's, you know, the relationships, the trust that I've built with other agents. They know if they come to me and I say yes or we say yes, it's a done deal. So we got that project. And to be specific, you know, the plan was to be in and out very quickly so we can explore the, the other side of it. So to be specific, we bought it. We, we, we, we did the rehab in one month and six days exactly. And then the project was from beginning to end, including that rehab timeline. It was five month and two days to. For it to be officially sold. So that was the journey. Obviously it was a little longer than we were, we would have liked it to be, but at the end of the day, it was, you know, a great win. Like we mentioned, we've explored the idea that. Hey, guys, you Know, there's a potential, okay, if we may lose, we may break even, and then we may make money like it is on every project and we win in every scenario. And all three of us were okay with it. Obviously we're not playing to lose, but we are prepared that if we are gonna not make money, let's make sure we gain in other areas. Right. So long story short, we, you know, after selling it, we netted about 17% cash on cash return is what I came up with as far as number. And again, 17 in just a matter of like a five month period. I think that was a significant win. And that's, you know, ultimately what we want to do is like, you know, how can we maximize the numbers so whether it's a lower price point, higher price point, at the end of the day, it's how much we walk away with after paying, whether we have lenders or not. So 17% cash on cash return. Phenomenal job. Great job to you and Rob and you know, congrats on that big win. And you know, I'm excited and looking forward to the next one we do together or the next few we do together. Right.

Laura Endres [00:37:10]:
So, you know, I will say too, on the condo thing, you know, you would you had shared that condos are tricky. They're different, they're unique, you know, completely different animal. And you had shared that. And then, you know, as we went through the process, it was. But now we know too. And if we were to do that again, which, you know, we're all kind of joking, like, okay, let's lay off condos for a bit here. But if we were to do it again, we know, you know, it's like eyes wide open. And so I'm always good about like seeing the big picture. Even if it didn't go as planned. Right. You still learned so much. Sometimes that's the best way to learn. Right. Is you have a few little slip ups along the way and it's, you

Alex Nahle [00:37:50]:
know, sometimes depending on what you learn, that's sometimes priceless.

Laura Endres [00:37:53]:
Right, right, right.

Alex Nahle [00:37:54]:
And you know, the reason we like you know, to share with the listeners and viewers, you know, the reason we got into a condo because, you know, at the time the market shifted and fix it, we wanted to get into a fix and flip specifically because, you know, it was your first deal together. We avoid to get into a project that we're going to hold. Let's try it out, let's see how it works. And you know, it was hard to find deals that were penciling out. And again, this one just Came to us from, you know, a relationship, and, you know, it was an opportunity. We took advantage of it. It's not something that, you know, I look for or like flipping condos or anything like that.

Laura Endres [00:38:25]:
Right.

Alex Nahle [00:38:26]:
Come about. And we took advantage of it and we maximize it. And I think it was a great win for all of us. So good job. Now, with that said, and because of the challenges of the condo, and I've. I've done condos before, and I've always go into them with that mindset. Like, you know, you got to be careful and you got to be prepared. Now, would you say, like, after this whole journey, whether condo or not, but maybe more so the condo, would you say it was something that you feel confident that you would have done yourself and, and been as successful, or do you feel like, you know, working together with someone because, like, you hear me say it all the time, real estate is a team sport. Right. You know, it's hard when you're by yourself. Right? At the very least is when you're having those tough times. You can pick up the car phone or get on a zoom and talk. Like you said, we talked through a lot of things and that made you feel good. How would you feel if you were on your own on that? How would that be different?

Laura Endres [00:39:14]:
You think? Well, a. I never would have done it. I mean, not. Not even within any realm of possibility. And, and to be clear, we. We know some other realtors in LA, and we never. I mean, we weren't. We didn't own in LA when we lived there. We rented it just. It was never, ever a thought, so never would have even happened. But Also, for sure, 100% leaning on your experience, your knowledge, your understanding of the market out there, and the fact that you sort of have. Have history of doing these types of things. And another thing I wanted to say on that, which, you know, we were looking at properties for like a year before we got one. We made a few offers, but what. And yes, there's a part of us that are like, why is it taking so long? Or whatever. But no, it was really like, you were not pushing us to do anything that we weren't comfortable with. And you also were only showing us deals that penciled out. Right. You weren't trying to get us to take a bigger risk than what we would have been comfortable with or talk us into something. You were very, very respectful of it being our first time of us being nervous. And you would look at properties and say, I penciled out. Didn't work. Okay. You know, so that was great. We'd look at five things and none of them would pencil out. And so. Or there were times where we weren't ready and, and you were able to do it your with someone else. And we were, you know, understanding of that. Ironically, the time when we had the condo on the market and we were waiting and had some interest in some offers and people liked it and everything, we were going through some things personally. So in, in a way, the timing was almost perfect of like, we have a lot on our plate personally. Condo is just kind of in a holding pattern right now. I mean, obviously that's costing us a little bit of money, but it sort of worked out the way it needed to work. And then I always joke about, I went to Ireland, I just got back from Ireland with family, and I said, you know, when it's going to close is when I'm in Ireland to make it. To make things difficult. And that is exactly what happened. So, you know, we're doing paperwork to make sure you could sign instead of me and yada yada. I mean, it was like, yeah, I should have gone to Ireland three months ago and then it would happen sooner. It's a funny little.

Alex Nahle [00:41:25]:
True team effort. A true team effort. I mean, you were able to do your thing, live your life, do your travel. I was able to travel and then when I needed you.

Laura Endres [00:41:32]:
Yeah.

Alex Nahle [00:41:33]:
So it was, it was a great experience. I, I appreciate you guys very, very much. I appreciate your trust and I'm excited for you guys and you know, that with the journey ahead, especially, you know, with your boys getting involved in this with us. So, yeah, I look forward to, you know, our next property. As you know, we're obviously, you know, actively looking right now and are ready to make offers. So. So we'll be sharing a lot more about that on the next episode. But for now, Laura, thank you so much for joining us. I appreciate you taking the time. I hope, you know, our listeners and viewers find value with, you know, especially those that are working professionals that feel they don't have the ability, the time, the resources to be able to even do this. Right. Those that are looking in other areas for maybe the wrong reasons. Right. You know, again, I'm not against. I'm, I'm big on, you know, investors with, with knowledge, with expertise, invest with intention. Don't just go to an area or buy a property just because. Buy it for specific reasons and don't chase the low price point. So you guys overcame all that. You guys had that perfect criteria and then you trusted me. We came to LA and we made the magic happen and you bought, you know, prime real estate that you obviously, you know, we're able to sell and, and make a profit on. And you've seen the other examples that we're also looking at about the BRRRRs that, you know, how, you know that that has worked and that, how that would work for you guys and so forth. So I'm super excited. Thank you so much for your time. Is there anything, any last words you want to leave before we jump off?

Laura Endres [00:43:06]:
I just think, you know, it's, it's my side hustle, but I want it to be my main thing at a certain point. Right. And, and I think just trusting you, trusting the process, you know, walk it, walk it through, take a look at it. But if it's possible for me, it's possible for, for others, for sure. So it was a great experience and excited to keep going.

Alex Nahle [00:43:28]:
That is awesome. If, I mean, if we can do it, anybody can do it with the right guidance. And so feel free to reach out if you have any questions. Thank you so much for taking the time to listen or watch this episode and stay tuned for much, much more. Thank you so much, Laura, again.

Laura Endres [00:43:45]:
Thanks for having me.

Alex Nahle [00:43:46]:
Thank you all for joining us on the BRRRR Investor Podcast. If you found today's episode helpful, please hit like and subscribe to our channel for more real estate insights. We love hearing from you, so please leave your thoughts, questions or topics you'd like us to cover in the comments section below. Be sure to check out our website, thebrrrrinvestor.com and follow us on social media @thebrrrrinvestor. Keep learning and investing and we'll see you in the next episode. I'm your host, Alex Nahle. Stay invested.