Responsible investments are essential to a long-term financial strategy. Investors need to understand the basics of finance and investing before attempting to make real estate investments. This can be achieved by getting involved in education, learning how to pick the right investment options, and understanding what makes up a successful investment portfolio. This episode with Whitney Elkins-Hutten will help you learn how to spot great opportunities and avoid bad ones while creating a successful plan.
Whitney is a real estate investor and personal finance trainer whose vision is to help thousands of families on their path toward financial independence. After purchasing her first rental in 2002, hitting a home run, then nearly losing it all on her second deal, Whitney took control and figured out how to invest in real estate the right way. She realized that success must leave clues. So, she studied and used her research, business operations, and training skills and replicated the very personal finance and wealth creation strategies to create financial freedom. Today, Whitney is a partner in $900M+ of real estate assets, including 6,500+ residential units and 1,400+ self-storage units, and flipping over $3M in residential real estate.
Tune in!
During this episode, you will learn about:
*****Thank you so much for listening to the Making Money in Multifamily Real Estate Show! This show covers everything to do with Multifamily Real Estate Investing to help you, the listener, become an expert in your real estate ventures. The host, Dave Morgia, brings on guests who are already experts in their respective fields to discuss what principles and practices they follow that have helped them achieve their success so far.
Please consider leaving a review and sharing it with your friends and family, and follow us on Facebook!
*****Thank you so much for listening to the Making Money in Multifamily Real Estate Show! This show covers everything to do with Multifamily Real Estate Investing to help you, the listener, become an expert in your real estate ventures. The host, Dave Morgia, brings on guests who are already experts in their respective fields to discuss what principles and practices they follow that have helped them achieve their success so far.
Responsible investments are essential to a long-term financial strategy. Investors need to understand the basics of finance and investing before attempting to make real estate investments. This can be achieved by getting involved in education, learning how to pick the right investment options, and understanding what makes up a successful investment portfolio. This episode with Whitney Elkins-Hutten will help you learn how to spot great opportunities and avoid bad ones while creating a successful plan.
Whitney is a real estate investor and personal finance trainer whose vision is to help thousands of families on their path toward financial independence. After purchasing her first rental in 2002, hitting a home run, then nearly losing it all on her second deal, Whitney took control and figured out how to invest in real estate the right way. She realized that success must leave clues. So, she studied and used her research, business operations, and training skills and replicated the very personal finance and wealth creation strategies to create financial freedom. Today, Whitney is a partner in $900M+ of real estate assets, including 6,500+ residential units and 1,400+ self-storage units, and flipping over $3M in residential real estate.
Tune in!
During this episode, you will learn about:
*****Thank you so much for listening to the Making Money in Multifamily Real Estate Show! This show covers everything to do with Multifamily Real Estate Investing to help you, the listener, become an expert in your real estate ventures. The host, Dave Morgia, brings on guests who are already experts in their respective fields to discuss what principles and practices they follow that have helped them achieve their success so far.
Please consider leaving a review and sharing it with your friends and family, and follow us on Facebook!
*****Thank you so much for listening to the Making Money in Multifamily Real Estate Show! This show covers everything to do with Multifamily Real Estate Investing to help you, the listener, become an expert in your real estate ventures. The host, Dave Morgia, brings on guests who are already experts in their respective fields to discuss what principles and practices they follow that have helped them achieve their success so far.
Welcome to the Making Money in Multifamily Show, where we discuss everything to do with multifamily real estate investing. We believe it's the best way to gain financial freedom and build lasting wealth. This is where you'll find it the best information and practices to help you succeed in your real estate business, whether you're already experienced or just starting out. Here's your host, Dave Morgia.
Dave Morgia:Hello, listener and welcome to the show. I am your host, Dave Marge, and with me today is Whitney Elkin Sutton Whitney is the Director of Investor education at passiveinvesting.com. She is a partner in over 700 million in real estate. That includes over 5,000 residential units across multifamily, mobile home parks, single family rentals and assisted living, and over 1400 self storage units across eight states in the us. And she also has a background experience flipping over 3 million in residential real estate. So just an incredible background, Whitney, and really appreciated being shot on the show today.
Whitney Elkins Hutten:Yeah. Thank you so much for having me on.
Dave Morgia:Yeah. So, I guess we'll dig kind of right into, you know, your, your role in passive investing.com investor relations. And we mentioned before the show, it's, it's all about the teaching, right? so do you just wanna kind of explain to the listener what that means for you? What you really try to just encompass in your role at the company and how you try to bring investors in, educate them, get them through the whole process of learning this real estate.
Whitney Elkins Hutten:Absolutely. And so for me, my role is investor education. So I've, I've, my background actually is in investor relations. I was the director of investor relations and operations at another private equity group, and, actually had the privilege of raising on multiple deals, with passive investing.com. So I've known, the company for a very long time, and I'm actually a limited partner on many of those deals myself, I think my husband and I are in over 50. Passive deals, 10 of which are, with passive investing.com. And so, when I kind of, you know, like Covid, I think a lot of us reinvented ourselves. And during this time period I was like, What do I love about my job? And I'm very competitive person, so I, I was so excited to do the fundraisers, just that pressure and everything. you know, you know, like, you know, can you hit. And at the same time, you know, I really just fell in love with helping investors understand what passive investing is and how it can actually help them achieve their goals. You know, maybe it's like creating cash flow, passive cash flow, maybe building equity within their portfolio. you know, creating diversification out of the stock market and, you know, helping them leverage tax benefits. But that's where I decided to focus my time and energy is really just, you know, spending time. You know, with, investors in situations like this and meetups, one-on-one calls, just to kind of help them, you know, wrap their heads around what passive investing is and how it can be like a very beneficial part of their portfolio and help them achieve their goals.
Dave Morgia:Yeah. That's incredible. And I guess you mentioned, you know, different avenues in which you maybe bring people into your top line funnel. what is kind of the 80%, you know, looking at the Preddo principle, what's like the 80% of like what you do to, to get people into the business? how are you really kind of educating them to get them up to speed? Or if they're already educated, what are you doing to kind of make sure they're ready for like a deal specific?
Whitney Elkins Hutten:Oh yeah. So, you know, we're kind of breaking down the business funnel for me. I like, you know, putting like little golden nuggets across like the internet, you know, maybe it's, you know, video podcast. I love YouTube, only because I can talk faster, way faster, and I can actually write. I actually did a presentation at our Multi-Family Investor Nation conference back in January, and I, you know, I said, Hey guys, if your time crunched video is amazing, because you can like, spin it into so many different avenues, like, you know, break it up for, you know, podcasts, you know, leverage it for blogs. You need to, you know, create like little snippets for social media. You know, for me, and that's, you know, what I concentrate on in this video, it's not just because of the power, the leverage in it, but also it's much easier to create a connection with people because they get to see you, they get to see how you react to questions. Are you, you know, there's an element of, you know, when, when we're talking face to face as somebody. You know, can I, do I know them? Do I like them? Can I trust them? And those are actually the three key hurdles or obstacles or, you know, maybe not even obstacles, but you know, three kind of like milestones that you need across in order to have an investor, you know, actually, believe in you, believe in your business, and, make an investment. So, you know, some people come into, you know, this type of like environment, maybe it's podcast or, you know, one of my, weekly YouTubes that I do at passive investing made simple. And they're just, they have no idea what passive investing is. So we start off there, you know, just really kind of like breaking down a lot of the terminology. I, I don't know about you. When I first got into real estate, I was, you know, you're learning a whole new language,
Dave Morgia:drinking right out of the fire hose.
Whitney Elkins Hutten:right? Yeah. Well, but, and the thing is, it's like, you know, you know, learning the stock market, learning anything, it's like we've created this whole dictionary of new words when there's actually a lot of transla. Skills and a lot of translatable knowledge in there. And so I help people find those common threads so that it's not as scary and not as foreign to them, you know? And then honestly, people, you know, come in, maybe they've read a few books, you know, join me on, you know, a couple podcasts or, you know, in on my weekly master ca class, or joined one of my boot camps and they have a little bit more base knowledge now. It's about like, how can I help them, you know, understand how this fits into their strategy. Like, they get it. They, they, they know it's for them, but they were like, I don't, I don't know where to. Okay, so we kind of bust through some myths. We help them understand some of the math, that way they can go into their next investment with more confidence. And then other people that are like old hats at this, they have like multiple, you know, investments already under their belt. And then for them that they, it kind of circles right back. They just need to be able to know you, like you, and trust you and, you know, really understand that you are in it to take care of their money as if it's their money and invest it wise. So we can all make a.
Dave Morgia:It sounds like to me, and I'm, I'm gonna pick at this, the no, like, and trust, cuz I know I've had Dan on the show before we mentioned you work with Dan Hanford and he, he mentioned the same three principles. You know, I think it's a very important thing. You need to, your investors needs the no, like, and trust you. Whatever, niche you're in, whatever industry it, it's gonna, it's gonna boil down to that eventually. Right. for you, it sounds like the reach, you know, the social media, whether it's the podcast or the networking or, or whatever, that probably tackles, I'm assuming, like the know and the like. Right. for the most part. Maybe you get some trust in there just through people spending hours and hours listening to you, and then maybe they learn to trust you without you even talking to them. But, but how do you bridge that gap from the, from just the familiarity of you being online, having a presence to then getting them in person and kind of getting them to trust you? Where does that kind of bridge form?
Whitney Elkins Hutten:Well, you know, even just to back it up a little bit, and I think this is, where I think video helps people do this, but also I think, I, I, my background is in training development. I also come from public health. I come from the medical field, and the first thing is people need to understand that you're a human being. Right. Like, so any presentation I'm on, I, I'm not going do the spiel for you here, but you know, people wanna know your background. Where did you come from? Like, why are you an expert to even talk about what you're talking about? You know, I talk about, you know, people wanna know why I invest in real estate and if you're on any one of my presentations, I put up a, a picture of my husband and my child, like on, you know, of us having a lot of fun. That is why I invest in real estate. and I, and I go through that, not so much. Go, Hey, like, I've got the perfect life. Here's my like, you know, one, you know, snapshot in time on social media, right? Like, look at us having fun. It's because I want people to understand that I'm like them. You know, I too, one, you know, worked a nine to five job. I mean, I worked in public health, I worked for the cdc. This is back in 2001. And I mean, I was traveling, you know, 80 hours a week, And I loved my job, right? My job was tied to my identity and I really loved it. And, but that, that's where I think. You know, not to go too far down that rabbit hole about who I am, but to answer your question directly is I think people invest with people they know. People that they can identify with. Maybe not, maybe they're not from the same background, but they've got some sort of common thread. I mean, I, a lot of investors identify with me because I come from the public health field. Some identify with me because I, you grew a portfolio of 30 single family rentals and then I decided I wanted to move, you know, get out of active investing into more passive and they're struggling there. other investors identify with me cuz I'm a mom trying to build a business. and they've got kids at home too. So I was talking to an investor this morning. You know, she's got one kid, you know, with the tutor, the other, the two year olds in the car. And I'm like, I'm actually free today cause my daughter's in Camp Right. Like, so we're, we're connecting on that level. So that's, but that's part of the no part. Right. And then, and I think a lot of people skip that knowing part. Cause they go, they go, they look at this and they were like, I got 20. To tell them about my deal, to tell them about my company, right?
Dave Morgia:Not before the horse right?
Whitney Elkins Hutten:They're just like, you know, you know, shoving poorly nuggets down and down their throat and that I, we understand that we're all busy, but I think you have to like find that connection and then you can go into the like piece, right? That's where you start kind of, you know, understanding the person's goals. What are they they want? Does this person really truly understand what I need as an investor? Can they meet my needs? That's where you're gonna build the like part, and then the trust is, you know, Part of that is gonna be how do you perform? You know, getting them into your funnel, getting them into your, your first deal. You're gonna be a lot of trust along that journey. you know, but also that that trust journey doesn't end. It is continuous cycle. Once that investor's in the deal, how do you maintain communications? Are you doing what you say you're gonna do? Are you performing to your business metrics? Are you delivering on time? your monthly reports, your quarterly financials, you know, your, your tax statements that, and, you know, and, and things, Things happen, you know, things get missed. How are you getting ahead? Of the, of the communication timeline and being upfront and transparent with the investor of what's going on and keeping them in in the loop as if they're a business partner. And that's what people are, you know, want to know they're being honored as a business partner.
Dave Morgia:Yeah, skipping it ahead to that aspect. I think how you respond when times are tougher, whether it's deal related or in the business, whatever. that's what people are gonna remember long term, So when you wanna work with an investor for say, 30 years, you want them in deals, you know, year after year, whatever, cycling through your, your syndications, if you're doing syndications. Making sure you're keeping honest and keeping communicative during those tougher times. If the deal is, you know, maybe going a little bit slower than you thought, that's gonna really, matter and sometimes even win people over, right? Even if the deal didn't go as smooth as you thought might win someone over. Cause they said, Man, your morals are really good. And look at what you were able to, to do and be honest and, and upfront with everything that's happening. So you'll see a lot of people appreciate.
Whitney Elkins Hutten:Oh, actually, in being a problem solver, I mean, I'm, I'm actually in, my deal right now. It's an old deal. it's not so many, you know, a lot of people talk to me and they're like, Who are you invested with? And you know, like Dan, I'm with multiple operators. I'm not gonna refer this person. However, we are hitting a tough time in the business on, on, on the exit, and there's been a lot of misses in the communication and, it's not winning favors with any of the investors. There's over 50 of us in the deal. We're all like, what is going on? but, you know, you know, for somebody who's upfront, transparent, honest, a problem solver, right? you know, those are, those are. Those are, you know, not every deal is gonna be a home run or go according to plan. You know, people wanna know that they're being well taken care of.
Dave Morgia:I wanna pick on that investor or that sponsor without picking on them too much, but what did you, learn from the experience you're currently going through that you're maybe applying to what you guys are doing at passive investing? Is there. You're taking away as a, Hey, we haven't really thought about this, or, or have you just been so, you know, tough on investor communications that you guys are so confident. You got it. You got it covered from day one.
Whitney Elkins Hutten:Well, no, I think, you know how you evolve your business, you always need to listen to the investor, you know, And as far as this personal, this is a personal investment of mine. you know, I have evolved over time, much like Dan has, and I'm sure he talked about it here. You know, the seven flags of, you know, his, he calls 'em the seven red flags and investing in it. And, you know, I, but when you look at his list, there's actually more than seven key. And, you know, this particular operator, you know, has a couple of those red flags in there. So I think this speaks to my evolution as far as a passive investor, what I should be looking for at the very beginning, before going to an investment. I, I entered this investment, I think about six years ago. So, it's, you know, I have involved my checklist. Since then, this wouldn't be a deal that I would go into today, but, you know, hey, like, you know, like in this, it's not a real estate deal, by the way, but you know, like real estate from, you know, most of us are here to talk, are here to talk about real estate. Real estate. I liquid, you know, other passive deals are e-liquid. And so, You know, you have to know your, who you're investing with, right? It's the jockey. It's not the horse. I know so many investors I have the phone with they, and I'm sure many people here have the same experience. They're like, Tell me about the deal. What has the highest returns? What gets the best diversification or tax benefits? And you're like, Whoa, hold on. That's fantastic. However, don't you wanna know who we're Let's talk about why we're, why, why we are the group though, you know that, you know, for you. Let's make sure we are a good mutual fit first.
Dave Morgia:Yeah, and it's funny, some people. I've found are just so deal specific like you mentioned, and they don't even consider the fact that like who, who is running this deal? And even just a little bit shallow than that, like who is underwriting the deal Cuz you could just apply any type of assumptions and have a deal look really pretty and, Just to go straight into the, the deal and what do the numbers look like, You know, what are the projections without even peeling back the layer of like, well, what does this group assume for this deal? it's just really funny when people dive like right into the deep end head first into talking about, you know, what is it gonna look like for my money, 1, 3, 5 years from now. yeah, just really interesting. But getting into, I guess we'll transition into kind of, you mentioned, you know, who you guys are as a team. That's, that's a lot of the, the brand and the loyalty. and you mentioned before we started. Recording that you're actually adding different verticals into your business, whether it's the car washes, what have you. that to me is a change for some investors, right? It's not something they're used to investing in. but at the same vein, they trust you guys. They know you guys, they like you guys. So how do you kind of get them ready, get them taught up, or if they already learn, how do you get them prepared these investors for, for something like that? Cuz it's a totally different investment.
Whitney Elkins Hutten:Yeah, so I, you know, just to back it up a little bit, I mean our, our company name is passive investing.com, so it wasn't passive investing multi-family or passive investing in self storage. So, you know, really the whole basis of the company, you know, is we are a private equity firm and we believe in creating passive income for our investors. Long term wealth build through multiple assets that are backed by hard real estate. So, you know, really we can, you know, we're looking to help our investors diversify all in one place. And it can be a number of different areas. You know, we started off with multifamily. we added self storage last year, and then, you know, we added car washes and hotels this year. Now it's kinda like an iceberg, right? Everybody sees, like the first car wash still come out and they're like, Oh, wow. They just added a car wash deal overnight. But that, we've been talking about this internally and investing in it internally for like 18 months. you know, almost two years. You know, our hotel deals. We were actually looking at the deals before Covid hit. but on the, you know, the car wash piece, you know, we've been, building out that funnel internally for quite some time. Kind of, you know, speak what you're talking about. we wanted to make sure that we were consulting with experts, that we had the right markets, we had the right acquisition modeling, that the returns were gonna be what we could deliver to our investors, you know, Our, our founders invested in car washes before we brought this to our, our investors, right? We tested this model internally first, and so it's really kind of putting where your money, where your mouth is Now, as far as prepping the investor, I think you're, you're, we're having those conversations early. when we're on the phone with our investors or, you know, doing a podcast or doing a webinar, you know, I get to, you know, kind of tease the investors, you know, Hey, guess what, you know, join us here in a couple weeks. We're gonna have, you know, talk about car washes. And they're like, Why car washes? Right? So we get to, you know, help them understand it from a macro perspective as an investment, before they. See it. And so that's, that's one of the exciting parts of my role is that I get to just talk about why car washes are a great investment in general and not so much like, Hey, we've got, you know, this deal that's available. Do you wanna get in it right? Yeah. And,
Dave Morgia:and pretty much the thesis for that too is when you're not screaming to get investors into a specific deal, you'll probably do much better at getting the investors into that specific deal anyways, right? When you're just, preaching that it's good to invest in this type of real estate or this type of investment, versus you need to invest in this deal right now, you know, don't miss it, you're gonna scare some people away probably. Right? So,
Whitney Elkins Hutten:Well, people need time to get used to it, right? It's like with any sales model, you know, whether you open a company or bring on a new vertical or bring on a new product line, it doesn't matter like what business you're talking about, you know, about 20% of the people are gonna get it. They're gonna love it. They're gonna, and, and you know, maybe it's because they love you. Maybe it's cuz they already know about the investment and they love it. then you got 20% or. Car washes. No way. Why would I do that? They don't like it. And that's fine. That investment's not for them. But then you're gonna have about 60% in the middle that are going, Hmm, tell me more. and that is the area that I get to play in and I really love that. Because it's hard, you know, coming from investor relations, you're doing, you're balancing education as well as the, the actual, the raise portion. And so whenever you're actually in the middle of a raise, you're, you're gathering all the money to close And so, that's where it's really, you know, I get to have a lot of fun because I get to bring in, you know, start talking to investors about this. And often and just help them get over, you know, or do their research, but help them get over any sort of objection. That way, whenever they actually see the deal, they're prepared. They, they say it's like a heck yes, or like, You know, I'm gonna wait for a little bit and that I encourage people too. I mean, you know, you gotta date for a while, right? Like, especially if you're coming in new to a company, you know, it's totally buying to get to know us, get to know any operator, really. get to, you know, see what their deals look like, how do they communicate, right? Like that goes back to that no, like and trust kind of factor.
Dave Morgia:And to dig in Whitney to maybe the subsection of investors who are loyal investors to, you guys have done multiple deals but weren't quite warmed up to these car wash deals yet. What type of actions are you taking with them, if any? Are you just giving them more time and space to kind of get, you know, a little bit more digested? Are you providing more resources? What, what is it you guys are doing to kind of nurture that funnel a little bit more? Consist.
Whitney Elkins Hutten:Yeah. So, you know, part of it is just like education, right? it, you know, helping them understand, you know, what the structure of the deal is. This, you know, the preferred return is different. The preferred return on our car wash deals is about 10% versus 7% on our multifamily. the IRR or the, the, the waterfall is different too. So we're doing a 60 40 split up to 20% IRR on the cash car was. Very different than the 70 30 split on the multifamily and sell storage to 13% irr. and that right there triggers a lot of people. They're like, Why are you able to do that? Well, because it's different. You're buying a business with underlying real estate as opposed to buying commercial real estate as a business. Right. So, we are investing in car washes, right? And we're looking to put in these operational efficiencies that we've gotten so good at on the multifamily side and self storage side, and, you know, into this business. And, that really just, you know, people need to, you know, have time to kind of wrap their head around like, Oh, I'm buying a business that has real estate attached to it. you know, how does this work? Right? We talked about the terminology at the beginning, you know, multifamily and self storage. Were usually, you know, talking about the, you know, how we push the net operating income on the asset, you know, car washes, it's a different language. Now we're talking about, it's. Expected growth income. We don't have break even occupancy on multifamily. we're not talking about that on, like we do on multifamily. Now we're talking about like, you know, our break even costs, you know, down to 45%, you know, on our hotel deals. Right. You know, so we have to kind like, you know, help again help people find that, that language and. You know, switch their vocabulary or create that new vocabulary just so they can kind of wrap their heads around. you know, really the questions they're trying to answer for themselves. You know, hopefully if they're ra within our ecosystem, you know what, They know what they want. They know why they want it. They, they trust us. Now they're trying to figure out, you know, how is my money protect? Like how is, How is my capital protected? What kind of cash flow can I get out of this? Can I build long term equity from this type of investment? And what kind of tax breaks do I get? Those are usually the questions then that we're trying to help them answer from that point on.
Dave Morgia:Yeah, and I guess to niche further answering those questions, solving those problems, is that usually in the form? More webinars and just kinda one direction social media? Or are you trying to drum up more phone calls and one-on-ones? What are you guys really looking to do to, to get everyone up to speed, if you will?
Whitney Elkins Hutten:Well, everybody has like their mode of, how they like to be communicated with. Sure. So we do it across all the different modes. I, you know, love video, so I'll do that. I'll, I, you know, we'll write a FAQ document. We'll do blog post. both internally for our investors, put it up on our website. you know, we'll, get ourselves on, you know, schedule on podcasts. Talk about the different, you know, asset classes too. you know, we always invite our investors anytime that we have like a new vertical that comes online or any, anything, like, they can always reach out to us. That, that's one thing that sets us apart, I feel like from a lot of operators, is that we're a hundred percent accessible. You got a question? You know, I, I've gotten four texts from investors than, like, right here on the, you know, on our, on our webinar. I mean, we're accessible, you know, to, to hop on the call with them, you know, and talk to them one on one and help them really, truly, you know, get comfortable with the investment before they pull
Dave Morgia:the trigger. So here's a question more just for work life balance and kind of you personally, how do you balance being accessible to all these investors that you want to help and you truly do what it seems like. but how do you balance that when you know they have your, your personal number and you got four text messages and the 30 minutes we've been on the phone. how do you balance that when the, the hours are late and you're trying to get back to family, which you mentioned at the beginning of the show is the, the biggest thing for you. So how, how do you kind of figure that out for.
Whitney Elkins Hutten:I live and die by my calendar So it's not so much, you know, and here's the thing, I mean, most of the people here are, you know, actively trying to build their businesses. For me, it's not so much does the investor need that answer, right? Then they need to know when they're going to get the answer. Right. And so, you know, if it's in the middle of the day, like, you know, I have my set work schedule, you know, I, I will pack it in. I will respond to as many people as possible. If not, like, you know, I, I have some time for Grace at the beginning of my day and the end of my day to, you know, let people know, hey, Your questions more suited for a conversation. Here's my calendar link. let's get you on a call here. You know, here are some times that I haven't, you know, tomorrow. or, or the next day, right? or like, Hey, I did get your email. you know, please gimme, you know, until tomorrow morning to get back to you in and get you the resources you need and get the detail that you need. Right. So it's, it's not a, you don't have to be accessible at 10 o'clock at night, and that's not what people are looking for. They're looking for responsiveness. You know, generally my rule is 24 hours. You know, I, I pride myself on the same day, but, you know, I, I give 24 hours and then, you know, really just letting investors know when they can expect to get the answer.
Dave Morgia:Yeah, I think you nailed it at the end. Responsiveness, it's right there. You're not necessarily gonna get them the answer they're looking for, but acknowledgement that you're gonna get it to 'em is, is probably, you know, 80% of the battle. So Oh my gosh. Or partners or anybody. Right.
Whitney Elkins Hutten:So Well, no, I think you, you nailed it right there. And that's where I was gonna go with this. I mean, this is just a good business practice. I'm actually, my. I'll keep the story short. She has some orthodontia work that we're working on, and we've been waiting for two weeks from the dentist, and they called me yesterday a little up in arms that I had actually called them two weeks later to get the answer on their orthodontia work. And I'm like, Just tell me when you're gonna have it. And, and they were really riled about it. I'm like, Is it gonna be. Tomorrow, Is it gonna be Monday? Just tell me when I'm gonna get my answer and I won't bug you anymore. but they couldn't even tell me that. I was like, That's a problem. that's a customer service problem.
Dave Morgia:I, I'm in the camp. That bad news is better than no news cuz at least you can react to it. Right? You can make a decision based off the news. So
Whitney Elkins Hutten:and I don't think there's no bad news needed here other than the fact they're gonna tell me they, there's another $5,000 of orthodontia worth. I'm already prepared for that.
Dave Morgia:Yeah. It's, it's funny that can you into other businesses, right? They, they, everybody goes through the same thing. If you can, if you can nail your, your relationships with people and just let 'em know, you're, you're actually there to care. I think that's more than half the battle for sure. So, mm-hmm. but Whitney, I'd love to hit these five key questions. We are, we are kind of coming up and I know we both gotta get outta here, but, if you just wanna shoot off the first one here, if you could only pick one trait that explains your success, what is that trait and why?
Whitney Elkins Hutten:Only one trade. I think. I don't take no for an answer. sometimes in my detriment, but, I had to learn that, right? Like, You know, from a very young age, it wasn't, you know, Robert Kiyosaki says, you know, don't say I can't. How can I, For me, I had to learn. It's not, no, it's just not now. And so I'm kind of like the little squeaky wheel You can tell me no. And two weeks later I'll be like, Did you really mean it?
Dave Morgia:It's only more fuel for the fire. Right? So, yeah. And then what is the most uncharacteristic thing you have done in your business, and why did you do.
Whitney Elkins Hutten:I, I think for me, I mean, I don't know, I maybe kind of growing up in an environment where I, I felt like I needed to be a perfectionist. I think I had to let that go. I just had to be like myself. my goofy self, my, you know, I'm, I, you know, I'm not perfect. I'm, I misspell things, I stumble over my words. I say Mm, and ah, and I think I just had to get really comfortable with that. And when I did, My business actually started taking off, oddly enough.
Dave Morgia:Yeah, it's so funny. So many entrepreneurs, you know, obviously consider themselves high, high performers. And then in the same vein, everything has to be perfection because they're a high performer and letting go of that, that control, that perfectionism is actually probably gonna leap you much further than than hanging onto it. So it's very ironic. Yeah, definitely. And then can you name a time where you felt like you were not going to end up successful, and how did you overcome that?
Whitney Elkins Hutten:You know, I think for me, you know, it goes back to the perfectionism. I was always thinking I had to have the perfect business plan in place. This was before I really like doubled down on real estate. I had to have the perfect business plan. I had to have like all my ducks in a row. And, the, I. It was tying me. And then when I finally just got into the ready, fire, aim mentality, things kind of started taking off, you know, performing many experiments, seeing if things worked, seeing if people responded, listening to feedback. you know, once I really kind of like gave myself a break from not having to have all the answers again, not, figuring it out, how can I do it? Who, Who has the answer, not how do, how do I get it done? I think that's really where things started taking off for me.
Dave Morgia:And then to flip to that, can you name a time where something in your business went perfectly and what did you do to make that a reality?
Whitney Elkins Hutten:just, you know, tenacity, for me, like just, I guess I would say two things. One tenacity, just, you know, you know, when we were scaling our single family rental portfolio, moving over into multi-family real estate, just looking for those open doors and walking through 'em and being okay. that I didn't have all the answers. and then, you know, when you hit kind of those obstacle, you know, those obstacles that you're just like, this could go really disastrous, or it could work out really well. And then you just kind of, like, for me, I, I don't subscribe to the secret, but sometimes you'd have to kind of like let things go and be patient. cuz not everything is in your control. it's in your influence, but not always in your control.
Dave Morgia:And then last one here, what have you been focusing on lately to improve yourself or your business?
Whitney Elkins Hutten:Well, that's a great question. you know, really just trying to, you know, have like, you know, more conversations with people, and, and more varied conversations. You know, you know, especially in the line of work I'm in, it can be like a lot of the same conversation over and over and over again. You know, people coming to us that already have like some sort of like knowledge about passive investing.com, but really putting myself out there in groups. Don't know about passive investing that aren't completely sold in real estate and being okay with that and just really getting to have like, you know, open, open people's eyes to what the possibilities are, not only for like their wealth building, but just their life in general. Different freedoms they can experience in life. that's, for me, what I've been focusing on is just helping people again, you know, meet them where, where they're at and kind of, you know, showing them what's.
Dave Morgia:Well, Whitney, I appreciate the talk from just the conversation. It seems like you've really kind of found your niche and, and your, your kind of skills have aligned with your passion, so I congratulate you for that. just a lot of wealth on how you would deal with investors and really ultimately, you know, how you deal with people really, if we're boiling it down to something. but yeah, just appreciate it once again. And just for the listener, do you wanna let them know how they can reach.
Whitney Elkins Hutten:Absolutely, yeah, you can reach out to me at passive investing with whitney.com. Short little form there. just helps me capture some information about you and your investing goals. And then, you also get access to my calendar if you wanna jump online, you know, on the phone for a, a call. And I can just, you know, I like talking about all things real estate, so, just, you know, would be honored to get the opportunity to know, know, use, as a person and see if I can help.
Dave Morgia:Awesome, Whitney, Thanks again.
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