Creative Real Estate Investing: Renovating Distressed Homes With Integrity

What does it take to turn a neglected property into a home someone can be proud to buy?

In this episode of Real Estate Connections, Mary Foerster sits down with Suzanne Sharkey, a fourth generation real estate investor and developer who buys and renovates homes throughout North Shore Massachusetts, Southern New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.

Suzanne is the founder of Creative Elite and specializes in complex real estate situations, distressed properties, creative acquisitions, and thoughtful renovations. Her work focuses on breathing life back into neglected spaces while building a network of high-integrity professionals who believe they can do more together.

Suzanne shares how real estate runs through her family tree, beginning with a grandmother whose investments helped shape Suzanne’s understanding of property, security, opportunity, and legacy. She also talks about her mother’s career in real estate and how watching her serve clients helped Suzanne understand both the beauty and the difficulty of this work.

Mary and Suzanne discuss Suzanne’s current renovation project in Nashua, New Hampshire, and the real-world decisions that come with renovating a home well: permits, contractors, tile choices, cabinets, budget limits, quality materials, and the concept Suzanne calls “affordable luxury.”

This conversation also explores creative finance, subject-to transactions, foreclosures, auctions, hard money, family lending, and the unconventional real estate deals that do not always fit inside the traditional MLS box. Suzanne explains why she is drawn to complicated situations and why distressed sellers often need customized solutions rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.

At its heart, this episode is about integrity, relationships, problem-solving, and the belief that real estate can be both profitable and deeply human.

What You Will Hear

• How Suzanne became a fourth generation real estate investor
• The role Suzanne’s grandmother played in shaping her real estate mindset
• How Suzanne’s mother influenced her understanding of service and clients
• Why traditional real estate roles did not fully fit Suzanne’s personality
• What creative finance means in Suzanne’s work
• Why distressed properties often require customized solutions
• How foreclosures, auctions, and off-market opportunities differ from traditional MLS listings
• Why Suzanne is drawn to complicated real estate problems
• The story behind Suzanne’s Nashua renovation project
• What “affordable luxury” means in a renovation
• Why material choices matter when renovating a home
• How to compare contractor quotes intelligently
• Why the lowest bid is not always the best choice
• How Facebook contractor groups help Suzanne find qualified tradespeople
• Why Suzanne believes in ripping out work and doing it right when something is wrong
• How family support helped her finish a difficult project
• Why relationships matter in real estate entrepreneurship
• How community helps investors avoid isolation

GUEST BIO

Suzanne Sharkey is a fourth generation real estate investor and developer who buys and renovates homes throughout North Shore Massachusetts, Southern New Hampshire, and Rhode Island.

As the founder of Creative Elite, Suzanne specializes in untangling complex real estate situations, creatively buying distressed properties, and breathing life into neglected spaces. Her work includes unconventional acquisitions, foreclosures, auctions, creative finance opportunities, and renovation projects that require thoughtful problem-solving.

Suzanne describes her renovation style as “affordable luxury,” choosing quality materials and finishes that elevate a home while remaining within reach for real buyers. She is passionate about making real estate more approachable by sharing her experiences openly, fostering a network of high-integrity friends and professionals, and helping people do more together.

In this conversation, Suzanne shares how her family legacy in real estate, her love of problem-solving, and her belief in connection have shaped the way she invests, renovates, and builds community.

GUEST LINKS

Instagram:
 https://www.instagram.com/suzanneksharkey

This episode is intended for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice.

Transcript

0:00

And welcome again to Real Estate Connections podcast. Today, I'm so excited we have Suzanne Sharkey here. I have heard Suzanne's name for, I would say, maybe a year or two connected to people that are really wonderful. They're investors, they're realtors, they're personal growth people. I finally got to meet Suzanne Sharkey at a party on the 4th of July. Something happened there, and the universe presented the most wonderful person. Welcome to Real Estate Connections podcast, where relationships open doors. I'm Mary Foerster, and housing is a universal need. We are often thinking about our existing housing, our future housing, that possibly of family members. This is where you're going to hear the issues and the people who are working the issues every day. Please hit subscribe and like if you find this podcast helpful to you. Thank you. Suzanne, I'm so happy to meet you finally face to face, and I know my listeners, our listeners, are going to be so happy to know you. And I have to share that one of the first things that Suzanne said to me when I visited her project on Monday was, "I come from four generations of real estate." Suzanne, tell us that family tree, how that happened, but also where you are different on that tree, because you are. Yeah. So I have loved real estate for a very long time. And I remember when I kind of went into it full time, that's when I started thinking about, you know, how am I connected to real estate, and why do I think this way? And people tell you, you know, follow your, the things that you care about, follow that enthusiastically. And so when I started thinking back to it, why I was so driven in this one department, grandma was a big motivator for me. I mentioned to you when I saw you on Monday, that she ended up taking our whole family to Disney World a very long time ago. And she was a high school teacher. Her husband was a high school teacher. So for her to be able to afford that for our family, which was a big family, there's four kids altogether, was a pretty big deal. The older I got, the more I realized what grandma did. And I also noticed over the years, all of her investments. And so when she finally passed away, we ended up having to clean out everything. And at that time, did the gravity of what she accumulated all those years, all of her notebooks, her journals, she used to have a typewriter, and she would type up like promissory notes. And I know this because when I went to college, I had to borrow money from her. But grandma was sensational. And so when I look back on what she achieved and accomplished, I was really blown away by her. And when I look back into her history as to what made her who she was, because for all her good things, she did have some downfalls. But what made her who she was, she was born in 1929, right when the depression was at its highest. And the way that she ended up surviving, her mother passed away early on. And then her father remarried. And she would talk about her stepmom and growing up in that environment. And then at some point, her father also passed away. But she was able to survive the depression with her stepmom taking care of her because of the investments that her grandfather made. So he was a landlord. She was a broker and just an investor, somebody who worked a full time job, made smart investments along the way, tried to even do a rental. She was very upset when she had tenants. I found a binder of photos that she wrote notes in. And then later on, my mother, so we were four kids altogether, my mom always wanted to provide more and more for us. And when she got to a point where she could go back to the workforce again, I was so unhappy because I used to go home to a house full of love and warmth after school. And then when mom was working, it was not that. And so I missed her terribly. And so to spend time with mom, I would become her GPS. And I would do her little book and she wasn't very good at that stuff. So I would do her GPS back when it was not digital. And I would also do her emails for her because she speaks very well when it comes to English, but writing is a little bit of her Achilles heel. So I've been entrenched in real estate since forever. I'm fascinated with it. I laugh all the time with Mark where I tell him, if I didn't end up in real estate, I wonder where I would be. I'm definitely a problem solver. I definitely fall in love with people. I definitely like the thrill that anything is possible in real estate. And I know that's one of the topics that you wanted to cover today, the whole term of creative finance. But those are the things that thrill me. So being fourth generation, something cookie cutter would not suit me. So being a listing agent or a sales agent, it's two within a framework. I like to live a little larger. I like to use my mind. I like to stretch the horizon and the frontier. And so I do the quirky, weird things. And so since 2020, I ended up joining a mentorship and I learned how to do a unique version of real estate transactions. So the buzzword is creative finance and the specific one that they lead with is a subject to transaction. And within that umbrella, there's a million different ways to go from there. But since that time, I've done a lot of foreclosures, auctions, the stuff that doesn't fit into the normal box of online, MLS listed highest visibility stuff, all of the weird, the intricate, that stuff thrills me. And those are the people, at least for me, that are most desperate for help. Because not a silver bullet is going to help them. They really need something custom tailored. And it's so frustrating for someone who needs help and can't get it with the normal modes that everybody has access to. And so for us to be able to find each other and come up with a great solution is a very rewarding thing for me. And the other thing that this less conventional way of doing real estate does is it improves our inventory one house at a time. And so when I used to support a flipper down in Maryland, he did 30 a year. He would work on 30 foreclosures or short sales. And he had a system and he was very, very successful. And the other thing Danny did was he decided, I'm going to make this much profit on this house. And he didn't have to have the big profit. He was very careful about not having enough profit. But I loved the steadiness with which he approached, I would say, in unconventional markets. Right. In unconventional market. So you have a flip project right now. We visited up in Nashua, New Hampshire. And it was a sweet bungalow. Really, really sweet bungalow. And I'd like to use some of the pictures in the show notes. We'll add them to the show notes. And that project you've been on, you said for a few months, nine months because you had to wait two months on permits, right? There's always a unique story and a unique problem to solve. And yes, it was a story for another day. But yeah, I had to wait for permits probably for about two months. They had the wrong person. They were contacting and we kept for different reasons missing each other. So yes, I got held up for about two months. And then one of the other holdups was I ended up improving the attic into a bedroom. And originally it was frowned upon. And then I had to go and make my case, which I did and finally got it. So a little bit of a journey. But that's all you can do is make the most of what you have in front of you that day. And be okay with that, which I am. Yeah. Mm-hmm. And the other concept we discussed was this concept of selective luxury. Do I have that concept correct? I mean, so as you're working on these projects, talk to us about what your intention is around luxury. So I enjoy nice things, as I think we all do, especially as a female. I love glitter, glamor. I can tell what a quality item is just by looking at it. I used to, I don't know, play this game when you go shopping, I think at like the thrift store or anywhere. And I would be like, I could easily pick out the most expensive thing in the store because I feel like I understand and I appreciate quality, all of the value and effort that goes into it. So I have what I call affordable luxury. I like nice things. I appreciate nice things. I don't like junky things. And the more that I go through this process of shopping, do I learn about things? So for example, ceramic tile is not as good as porcelain tile. And there's a price difference because I'm usually asking myself, well, why does something cost way more than the other? Not only does it visually look maybe more appealing, but like help me understand the cost to it so that I can pay that amount that you're asking me for. I call it affordable luxury because some people, I guess if you're maybe not educated, you don't have resources to a good network, they can charge whatever price that they want to charge. But I put it on myself since I'm on a budget that I have to really shop hard for nice things. And so because of that, I end up getting very good deals for tile or anything that I put in my house, anything that I have to purchase, I heavily research because it just makes me better along the way. And so I make really good choices. I've seen throughout the, since 2020, the growth that I've had with the product that I've put out, each house is better and better. So yeah, I know that I like good stuff. It has to be worth the price that they are asking for. And usually I trend towards picking nicer things because I like nice things. And I make my houses the way that I would want it because from, I don't know, it's a, what is it, language of love to be able to do a house the way that you would want somebody who knows what they're doing to do it. And so I've been very successful in more, I guess, higher end markets. I'm not in the luxury market at all, but I'm definitely between whatever the median price range is and something, you know, slightly higher. So I like my style being affordable luxury because it's all nice stuff, but it's within grasp, within reach. Yeah. And that was evident when you showed us your project the other day. It really brought me back to when the little bit of flipping I did, but mostly the flipping I've observed. So to the audience, what's important about, Suzanne just said is you will be doing a lot of renovations to your own homes. And I, Carl just renovated a bathroom upstairs. It was really a closet bathroom, hasn't been, you know, updated in what, 50, I guess, 50 years. So we did a prefab shower, a nice one. But when I went to put the flooring in, our friend who was an interior designer said, do not put in, you know, kind of a synthetic floor, put in ceramic tile and porcelain tile is what we put in, right? And so I said, why? And she said, it makes all the difference in the world. And it was much more expensive, no question about it. But I know when that project is done, I'm going to feel good about it. I'm not going to feel like, oh, I wish I had not picked up something at Home Depot and just threw it down, you know, had Carl install it versus a professional installer who we've had right now. So listeners, that's the important, that's the message here, affordable luxury. Use materials you can afford and air on the side of quality for sure. But the cabinets you had in your kitchen, you were so proud of them in that those cabinets. And I looked carefully, cabinets are often a real standard of quality in a renovation. And they were all plywood, which was fascinating. And you were so proud of them. And you were working hard to make sure that that trim was going to make it the most presentable cabinets. And that was impressive. Yeah, I definitely think it comes down to attention to detail. So even just your, you know, closet bathroom, how the shower touches the walls, touches the floors, the seams along the thing, the baseboard, how everything connects, does it flatter? I mean, it's so much effort to put a whole house together that you don't want to get to the finish and then just give up, right? You had put so much work into it, honor the work that you put into it by finishing it well. And then again, it goes back to just, I guess, my standard for myself. I, the image that I have in my head is I never want someone to sit on my toilet and know that I renovated this house, whether most likely the next buyer, I don't want the next buyer to ever curse me and be like, why didn't, why did she do this? Why didn't she just cut it like this or cut it like that or put it there? This thing annoys me or whatever the case may be. So I, I put a lot of thought and effort into my house. I want to be proud of what it is that I'm putting together. And all along the way, I made sure to do that. But I also see the growth that I've had all along the way. I've had better contractors, I've had better materials. I constantly shop every single project. I thought initially when I was shopping for each line item that I would get to a point where this is my go-to and I don't have to deviate from that. So I'm going to shop at hardcore and then for the rest of my life, I will use this one thing. And it's not been the case. Every time I actually very much enjoy going back to the market, I have some resources that definitely helped me. So not only do I have a network, which I love the fact that my network and your network collided, I've known you, I've known your name for a long and so yes, I love being able to meet you that way. But in addition to that, I adopted a group on Facebook contractors help contractors, New Hampshire, Massachusetts. We just reached 20, 23,000 members when I joined, I think we were at like 7000. Everyone that I have added to that group since then I always vet so I don't do any spammy people, weird, lots of weird people selling things and I keep them all out of it. And so that group is exclusively jobs, people that are that have a job that needs to be filled asking for exactly that. And so just alone, like with the tile, I ended up having to pivot. So originally I did a fiberglass around, which was great for my price point for this one project. And it was horrendous. It came out terribly. It was not the right fit for it. The guy who installed it was my plumber and should have just told me he couldn't do it. And then the caulking job I was shocked by and there was no way around it. It had to come out and I had to redo with tile. My tile quotes were anywhere from 700 up to 4500 labor only, because the way that I like to do the way that I like to compare things is I ask questions as much as to better understand things. And then I also like to make it apples to apples as much as possible, because it's very frustrating for someone to give you a number 3000 and 10,000. And you ask the question, help me understand, you know, what's, what's the difference? What are you giving me? What's the value in the 10,000? What do you offer me in 10,000 that the 3000 doesn't have? And so usually I do it where I buy the materials because a long time ago I had a contractor buy materials and I was like, that's junk. I would never pick that. I would never pick that. And so I picked all my materials, I pay for my materials. That's one thing you'll learn with contractors is when they take a down payment is to pay for materials mainly. So if you take that lion's share of the work, providing the materials, having it ready at the project, they just have to come through and with labor, install it, then it makes the process a lot easier. And so because I have that network and I have that resource, I'm more easily able, it's not, it's not completely easy, but I'm more easily able to go out, get quotes, get a good grasp on what it costs. So like a normal, I've noticed a trend, I think I got 16 different quotes just for the tile. And I make sure to dial it in so that we're talking all about the same thing, you know, about 60 square feet of tile, 12 inch by 24 inch, you know, 16 inch spacing, shooter on both sides, you know, floor to ceiling and everybody knows, but I think the normal price of a tub surround with, with that kind of tile is about 2500. And so you'll see guys that might go slightly over because maybe their workmanship is better. Or you'll see guys that slightly underbid because they want to get the job. And then you'll see massively underbidded people. And you know that that's going to be a train wreck, don't go there. But yeah, it gauges you because you could ask anybody, you know, what's the going rate for something like this? Or you could actually, I don't know, set, put the request out there and see what you get and then get a better understanding of where prices fall in line. Terrific. Is your mother still in real estate? She is. She won't give it up. And what does she think about the path that you're taking? Does she have? It's funny, a long time ago, won't. It took me a while to get into real estate. I have always loved it. I've always championed my mother because I love and adore her. I would hear the stories of so and so is being bad. You know, what's going on, taking random calls, calls late at late at night, having to send out emails, she would want me to check her emails to make sure that it was a strong email that she put together. And so I'd be reading these scenarios as to you know, what's happening. And I would get upset and be like, who does she think she is? Why is this person doing this bad thing? We're like not understanding the full thing. So my mom is a real estate agent in, she first started out in New Jersey, large Korean population. I'm half Korean. And then now my parents retired in Rhode Island and she works there. Originally, when she started, my mom very much has a bleeding heart. And she loves taking care of people. And it's probably not to her total benefit. So I've seen her deal with some of the hardest cases possible to which I would tell her please, for the love of God, fire the customer. This customer sounds like a train wreck and a headache. I don't like them, get rid of them. And she had some bad actors as clients. And you said, you know, there's an expression in the training that I had as a realtor, which is delete. You never know, sometimes you don't know, but eventually you get the signals eventually. And are you finding that? Do you find that I mean, because you obviously have to sell your property, you hire a realtor to sell your property. Is that what you do? Yes, I've done it best. So I was licensed back in New Jersey, where my mom was licensed, but I wanted more flexibility and being part of, you know, a national association doesn't really give you that. And I understand why. But yeah, so going back, my mom used to handle some of the worst of the worst. She wouldn't quit. She's very religious, my mom. And I think that's one of the reasons why she doesn't quit. But for the longest time, she had always said, I don't want you to get into real estate, she would make a comment when these things were happening. And so she put it in my head. And that's why for the longest time, because in 2020, I would have been about 33 years old. And I had done some other things, corporate training, worked for banks, I did supply chain management as my major, which I loved. I've done a lot of operational things work that can work in multi different industries. But I was a little bit thrilled by real estate. But I had her words in my head, which was I don't want you to go in. She loves me, she doesn't want me to have a hard time. But I had to explain to her one day that the hard times are where the growth is. And so she's been such a supporter ever since. We had a heart to heart where I was like, this is important for me, that I get your permission to do this, I want to do this, but I want to know that you support me. Because if I don't have that, it's going to hold me back. And so we had that she still worries about me. That's her that's, that's her mo is to worry about me. But over the years, she's I've invited her in more to see my actual projects. I think she came out to the first one, which was probably number six or seven, not because she didn't want to, but because I didn't invite her or I wasn't proud of what I was putting out just yet. But this house that was the testimony house I talked to you about. I was very proud of that one. It was like a two hour drive for her to come up because she's in Rhode Island. And I work in like, Massachusetts, Northern Massachusetts. I don't like her to have that drive. But she came out, we went to dinner, and it was really awesome. And I'm happy to bring her to the national house as well. So it's it's been a lot of fun. I used to go I still go down for dinner, family dinner, like every week, the day changes. But I usually am talking about the projects that I'm working on. So they've been hearing about things. And even on the testimony house, my dad became a lender in the 11th hour. In the 11th hour, I had run out of money, I needed to sell my house because those hard money payments that you make on a monthly basis, I didn't have enough money to make those payments. And so I had to get rid of the house. But the agent that I had at that time ended up not working out, it was a girlfriend. And we ended up having to and I had two options at one point, and I was talking to my parents about it. And at one point, my dad said, so you need a little juice. And I was like, okay, I think we're talking about what I think we're talking about. Yes. And he became a lender for me in the 11th hour, he gave me enough money to make two more payments, which was two more months, I ended up having to go out and hire another real agent. And she blew it out of the water, it was $65,000 more than my first agent. It was what needed to happen. Because had I really wanted not to lose the relationship with my friend, but had I done that, I would have been in the whole big time. And I wasn't it was such a tumultuous time in my life, that my accounting was not that good. So even though I thought about, you know, letting the time I'm really glad that I followed my gut on that one, because my gut had told me all along, something was off. I had listed the house, my friends reached out, congratulated me, you know, hey, good job, blah, blah, blah. And they're like, you, what's going on with you? How was what's happening? I was like, I don't know, I'm not happy. Like, I know I finished it. This was my testimony house. And to be at the finish line with a great product, it should be, this should be celebratory, something's missing, something's not right. And it ended up being that I didn't have the right agent listing it, it was not the right scenario to sell it. And so when it became finally time, I have this moment that I call it a tickle pickle. It's a weird, funny inside joke. But the part that makes you feel alive, I don't feel alive every time I close a house, but I get this certain joy. And the joy that I got was when I had the first offer with the second agent, because I had worried so much that I made the wrong choice, because that's what I do, I worry, I think that's the gift from my mother, worrying. That's from your mom. Yeah, I worry. And I remember getting that offer. And that's when I just the world was lifted off my shoulders where I was like, this was the right decision to do. I'm glad I went in this direction. And it's also really how the universe came together. I never asked my dad for money. It was not anything that I would ever do. But yeah, he jumped in, made that possible and gave me enough runway to make it right. I made a mistake. And yeah, he helped me give me an opportunity to make it right. And that's my thing, like I want to do it right, which I think is why I put so much effort into choosing the right product, choosing the right contractor. If it's wrong, we rip it out and we do it again. We find the money in the budget to get it right. Because that's important to me. I'm not a person that is going to try to cover it and I don't like that myself. So yeah, if I do it, I want to do it right. And if I don't do super luxurious, then at a minimum, you can trust that the integrity of my of my construction, my project, my decision making is there. Because that's what I want. I can't go against that. Yeah. Yeah, good. Well, you've said so many things that are so, so important, really, really important. And one, this concept of money that carries you through the deal, I'm familiar with that. Because when you lend from your IRA, and there's a whole world in which, of course, people finance through their IRAs, right? And that there are short shorter term lenders that will lend you 20,000 to get through the next two months, etc, etc. And there might be some points on it. So, there are these vehicles all around. And I know we're going to have a conversation about creative finance. I cannot wait for that. And then the other thing too, is I am so impressed by the integrity and respect that you hold in your family, the respect for your mother, who takes on too much in terms of people's other emotional or whatever personality needs, and yet the respect you have. And I would say, I'm grateful to meet you and get to know you because a lot of what happens in this world, especially real estate is transactional. And you often don't get to know the person on the other side of whether they are the renovator, in this case a flipper, or whether they're the home inspector or whatever, you often don't get to know those people. And so, it is an equal honor to have a conversation with you, in which you reveal what's really important to you more than the transaction. And so, that's what Real Estate Connections podcast, where relationships open doors. It's about relationships. And I'm grateful to COVID, I'm grateful to the pandemic. It has forced our attention to relationships. I tell everybody, and I don't know when exactly I learned this, so I just turned 39. And do I know all the secrets of the world? Absolutely not. But I remember learning at one point that the hard stuff that I did, no one can take it away from me. And I've had disappointing things happen. I've had people make bad choices. I've been, I don't know what the word is, but I didn't receive justice. But I remember telling myself that no matter what they did or do, it doesn't take away from what I've done, what I've learned, how I've grown. So, it doesn't hurt me. I never lose. I never lose. So, when you talk about COVID, and then Jan, my coach, which she's so funny, she talks about precision. When I look back, I definitely see magic in the universe. I'm like I believe in the universe. I call myself, I'm about 57% woo woo because I'm still slightly pessimistic about things. But there have been too many things that have happened in my life that are just undeniable. That you're just like, there's something. I don't know what it is, but it's something and it's magical. So, the two things I definitely believe it is whenever somebody is having a hard time, and I tell this to my friends, when they're crying over something, I always tell them that I'm slightly jealous. There's a part of me that's slightly jealous because the difficult thing that they're currently going through, they will be better for it on the backside. There are lessons that you just cannot get when you're in the hunky dory phase of life. You really have to face the music. You have to work through the feelings that you're feeling about whatever situation is going on. You have to find your way back to alignment. And so yeah, you're never not better for it. One, and then two, I love what you talk about in real estate connections, because without question, I understand that humans are meant to be connected. And in entrepreneurship, very often do you find yourself being an island. And that's one of the reasons why I started doing what I was doing for my real estate group. I would host weekly calls, I would host quarterly meetups. I love these people. They're not my competitors. Just being able to have like group therapy, talking about whatever issue is happening, you know, how to have hard conversations with contractors, who is disappointing me, why is someone ghosting me. To be able to have a space where you can share that with others is really powerful. So I love this, the fact that you're building a community that people can reach out to each other, ask questions, because this world can be a little bit lonely if you're not doing that. And I truly believe that as humans, we're meant to be connected. And so anything you can do to work towards connecting better, will always be in your favor. Thank you so much, Suzanne. It has been an honor and a pleasure to talk with you today. And I know we're going to talk some more. And we are going to talk about creative financing, which I love, I love, I love. Thank you, Suzanne. Good luck selling Nashua. I know that you'll have another wonderful project when it's time for that wonderful project. And enjoy. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us today. And I hope you found this conversation useful to you and your real estate bowls. You'll find the contact information for our guests in any links they recommend you have in the show notes. And should we be able to help you identify some strong real estate professionals in your area, drop us a note at info at real estate connections podcast.com. Thanks again, and bye for now.