Real Estate with Friends: Kara Pendl’s Guide to Successful Partnerships

We’re launching the Open House Education community, and I couldn’t be more thrilled! This is your space to connect with other women who are ready to dive into creative real estate strategies like house hacking and buying with friends. With live workshops, partner-finding events, and all the support you could want, we’re building something special together.

Doors open November 12th-22nd—don’t miss out!

Kristina leads a conversation featuring Open House Education community member, Kara Pendle. She shares her first hand experiences with real estate partnerships, including lessons learned from her first project, the church renovation. They discuss the importance of finding the right partners, the challenges faced in real estate, and the value of community support. The ladies conclude with encouragement for new investors to take risks, find their community, and seek partnerships in their real estate journeys.

Follow Kara's ceramic company on TikTok @karacotta_ceramics

Chapters

00:00 Launching a New Community for Women in Real Estate
02:56 Creative Real Estate: A New Approach for Women
06:03 Partnerships in Real Estate: Kara's Journey
12:08 Lessons from the 'Church Project'
17:51 Navigating Challenges in Real Estate Partnerships
24:05 Finding the Right Partners: Key Qualities
30:11 The Next Steps: Building on Experience
35:48 Encouragement for New Investors
41:55 Kara's Business Ventures and TikTok Plans


Get in Touch

Comments, suggestions or feedback? Email Kristina at kristina@openhouseeducation.com

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Make sure to join our community waitlist! We open our doors November 12-22

Transcript

0:03

Hey everyone, welcome back to the open house podcast where women talk real estate. Okay, I feel like I have so many exciting things to share that are happening. First of all, I'm in the middle of launching my new company for women. So if anyone is new here, I started a founding member group for women who are interested in creative real estate. This was in August and 100 women joined. I was like, my gosh, shocked. I'm excited. And we've been learning a lot from each other. We've had around three virtual events a month and we have an amazing online Slack community. and now I'm opening it up for 500 other magical ladies to join and I cannot wait. And I'm honestly a little nervous too. I haven't done like a launch in a while and I forgot how like scary it can be, but mainly excited. So, you know, it's a national community. So please, please share with any of your friends or your family. And to me. creative real estate for women. What this means is, you know, really breaking traditional mindsets around real estate and doing it very differently than what has or has not been taught to us. So the vibes of my company, Open House Education, are very much like, you know, buying homes with friends, collaboration, like making money that feels good, knowing your neighbors. making the home you live in a true investment, vacation homes, like buying a house, vacation home with your friends. I want women to like enter my website and feel relaxed, like, my God, it's not another spooky man barking about investment strategies. I want women to be like, it's someone who looks like me doing really cool things in real estate. I've found my people. So if any of my ramblings sound like something you're interested in, please head to my beautiful new website. I just had it redone and I love it so much. It's openhouseeducation.com and look into what this community can offer you. Also, in case you guys didn't see this, some very exciting news as well is I was on an episode of House Hunters with fellow community member Alex Reyna, who was also on the podcast. We were... Like I was shown kind of helping her buy a house with her friend Amber. Very exciting stuff. So I'm recording this when I haven't seen the episode yet. So I'm a little nervous about that, but hopefully it's really good. I know the whole experience like filming with them was really cool. It was a lot of work. I might, you know, talk about that in another podcast episode. But just wanted to shout it out if you want to watch, you know, We, it's probably called like something buying house with friend, HGTV, house hunters episode. So please go, you know, support us there. Alex and Amber were amazing. and yeah, we don't get paid for this. We hopefully we'll get some like publicity from it, but it was really cool to be on and I loved it. So last week I actually went into a full on deep dive about all the offerings. You can listen to that episode for more context. Also super excited for today's episode because I'm talking to community member Kara Pendle who lives in the beautiful Lake Tahoe area. She actually used to live in Austin and has been a great friend of mine for years. So she is an amazing serial entrepreneur and is probably best known for her company, Caricata Ceramics. She's a big following on Instagram and a super talented ceramicist and business owner. we talked about this in the episode, so we need to support her. She's on a mission to reach 10,000 TikTok followers to, I think it's like unlocking some awesome creator benefits. So definitely go give her a follow there. I linked it in the show notes. So in today's episode, me and Kara are actually talking about two of her partnerships that she's gone through with buying her first two properties. But she also recently sold her short-term rental management company for, you know, top dollar. And I asked her about it the other day and she told me it was because of her incredible systems that they had in place at her company. That's why it was, you know, she was able to sell it for so much. So if you are joining our community in November, you're in for a treat because she is teaching our virtual lunch and learn that month. And she's sharing all of her short-term rental tips and she's also in the slot community. You know, she's in the community. So women like her are in there and ready to help you. And that's exactly why I did start this group is to teach women what I know, but also to learn from others like this. I've said this multiple times. This is the group that I wanted when I was 22 and getting started and I couldn't find it there. It didn't exist. So I'm creating it. Speaking on that, a girl did email me today and a woman, a girl, a woman, and she was like, I'm interested in joining, but I am a beginner. I don't know if I have a lot to offer or if this group is for me. And I told her that she should definitely join and we have 100 % something to learn from her. You know, like there's we have something to learn from everyone and guess what? You being in this community is going to get you to make some big moves this year and you'll possibly find your next real estate partner as well. And Kara actually talks a lot about this in the episode because we're talking about those first two properties she partnered on and the wealth of information she learned from both of these experiences. So we welcome all you newbies out there and you know, we're excited to partner with you and to teach you. And when you join this community, you'll be expected to do the same one day as well. Okay, let's jump in and hear how Kara structured her real estate deals with her friends and how she actually picked real estate partners so you can do the same. Okay. Kara, you're here. Thank you so much. I feel like there's so many different topics of real estate we could talk about. But today, we are specifically talking about your partnerships with buying real estate. So we will try our hardest to stick to that and also only talk about probably like two out of the five partnerships you've had today. But tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started on your real estate journey. Yes. Thank you so much for having me. is So exciting and I feel like so full circle for a friendship. So yes, I love partnerships. I am a serial entrepreneur and I actually have had business partnerships in almost every single one of those businesses except for my primary business right now. And then with real estate, getting into real estate investing, I was able to partner on every single property that I've owned except for one and I've had... You know, the whole gamut of experiences, highs and lows, and just excited to share my knowledge. Hopefully it will help somebody else along the path. Okay, so yeah, how did you get started in real estate? Like what was your first property here? Yeah, so the impetus for getting into real estate was that I owned a couple of businesses, finally was starting to get some traction and had some kind of side money and I was pretty versed in kind paper assets and investing in stocks and things like that. And I had heard so much about real estate investing and people having great experiences, especially from you. had been following your journey and I know that you had had some really great wins. And the first project kind of just came and fell in my lap and it was with a group of women. And yeah, it just kind of was serendipitous. Wait, is this the church? Projects, the church project. my God. Yes. So I was kind of like a silent investor on this one, but it was one of like my earlier partnerships and I honestly don't remember much about it. yeah, feel like, yeah, you got to rehash all these details for me as well and audience because I'm like mommy brain and also that was a long time ago. So yeah, talk about that. Yes, so we have to go back to 2019, which feels like a lifetime ago, obviously, before the pandemic. So we'll protect the identities of everyone involved. so this project came about Rachel wanted to renovate this church into three short term rental units. So essentially, you know, a mini multifamily. And like I said, I had a little bit of cash, I about $10,000. And I had gotten to know Rachel through kind of just women's networking in Austin and knew about some other businesses and partnerships that she had. So kind of already trusted her. And I also was just really intrigued with the idea that she had. And then she had also brought in you as a silent partner as well as two other people. And I kind of knew those women as well. So it gave the whole project a little bit of, I guess, like street cred. And ultimately at the time, I mean, I was really curious about real estate in general. had been listening to a ton of podcasts. I've been reading books, kind of watching from the sidelines. And even though $10,000 was absolutely a lot of money to me at the time, I mean, it still is, but definitely it was a big, really big risk at the time. I just kind of got to this place that I was like, I can't sit on the sidelines anymore. I know that there's going to be things that I'm only going to learn if I actually get into action and do this. So I started meeting with Rachel, who is the general partner of the deal. And then we kind of met as a group and chatted through, you know, what can everybody contribute in terms of W-2 or cash or sweat equity? And then what is our equity split going to be for each one of those contributions? And my contribution ended up being the $10,000 for 25 % equity and sweat. So I was going to be kind of her right-hand gal. At the time, I had a lot of just kind of free time to work on things like scheduling the contractors, sourcing materials, being on-site to meet with people, just general management of the project. So that seemed like it was going to be a good fit for where I was at. And again, I knew that ultimately at the end of the day, what I wanted more than anything was to learn. And this was going to be kind of like, jumping in the deep end. that's that's fair. Let's I want to go back a little bit. So how long had you known Rachel before, you know, jumping into this with her? I knew her, I would say more on the casual side for probably three or four years, definitely more as like an acquaintance. And then this deal, I definitely got to know her much more intimately. And, you know, any deal that you go through together with people you really see the ins and outs of their personality. So definitely got to know her a lot better. my gosh. And okay, so when we're talking about this church property that we know a lot about, like tell the audience what is this church property? Like, do you remember some of the numbers that you can share with us? Yeah. Yeah. So I believe it's a hundred years old probably at this point, but it was a historical church in East Austin. had been closed down. for like 20 some years, so it hadn't been actively a church for quite a while. And then it had been bought and semi-flipped previously twice in a row. So over like the three years prior to us acquiring it, somebody else had tried to do kind of what we were trying to do. And again, Rachel's vision for it was to turn it into three short-term rental units with the main unit having the potential to be a long-term. rental as well. the space would eventually have a lot of flexibility in it. feel like we were trying to turn it almost into kind of like a, not a hotel, but like there was going to be rooms to rent in there, right? And like common spaces. kind of like a hotel, but like a self-managing. Actually, one of someone else who is on the podcast, Jen, she's doing something very similar to that in Pennsylvania, where she bought like a tennis center and she's doing the same thing. So similar to that, I would say, is what we were trying to do, right? Yes. Yeah, it had like an event space component to it. And that's when the original numbers have been put together. That was one of the really attractive things about it was how flexible the space was going to be and how we had all these different options of making it be a revenue generator and limiting our... risk as much as possible because we were thinking, look, we've got all these different avenues we can take if plan A, B, and C don't work out, we've got DEF. And also at the time, the short-term rental market in Austin was significantly stronger than it is now. So at the time, it also seemed like a really smart play. But we did learn a lot. Yes, I know. That was a crazy one for sure. How much did it sell for again? Like how much did we get under contract? It was under contract for 340 and at the time we had done the after renovation valuation was 640. And we did get a hard money loan for it, which also that's the only time I've ever gotten a hard money loan. And at the time, I don't know if anyone's business acumen on the active side of managing the project really understood the cash flow of a hard money loan. That was honestly one of the one of the things that really came back to bite us in the butt on it. when we did sell it, I believe we sold it for 440. We are really lucky that the project, because it actually, spoiler alert, it never came to fruition. We did not complete the renovation. It went very off the rails and we are in hindsight now, I know how much worse this whole thing could have gone. And we are really lucky that we did not only end up getting our money back, but we made a good return for the little bit of time that we did hold it, also considering the fact that we didn't finish it. Yeah, actually, oof, I do want to get into that. Actually, you know, let's get into it. Tell us the story. What happened here? I know, so we met up, you know, I was very much like a silent investor in this. I put, I can't even remember. Like there were, you said five of us? my gosh, my brain. Yes, I believe it was whatever the commission was for y'all. I don't know if this can actually be shared publicly, but it was, I think that's what the deal was, that you put that in or didn't take it in exchange for us. It wasn't actually like a cash gift. We were the real itters on that. think our company was kind of like the extra partner in that. And so we just gave our commission as our investment. I remember, and we were silent investors. And that was a deal that I remember kind of feeling like some FOMO about like I almost was just like, I should just do it because they're doing it. I don't do that, y'all don't do that. Because like this is a project that I'm forgetting because it was very chaotic. But I will say, I wouldn't trade it in, right? Like, I don't know about you, you had a very different experience than me. You put in Sweat Equity, which was a lot of your time. And you said you wanted to learn. So how did that How did this go for you? Tell us like the nitty-gritty, the down and dirty, tell us what happened here. Yes. I did get exactly what I was looking for. This project did teach me more than anything else. I would say the biggest thing I took away from that, which is something that has served me very well moving forward, not just with real estate partnerships, but also with business partnerships, is the number one thing I look for now in partners is organizational skills. Truly more than anything else, I want to work with somebody who is organized or what I kind of think of as like type A minus. So I want the person who is hyper organized. They are competitive. They're a self-starter. I don't care about perfectionism at all. Like it can be messy. It can be have an error in it. But if it's getting done in organized fashion and there's a critical thought process through line, that's what I'm looking for. So all that to say. That was one of the things that was really missing with this project was the organizational skills. We were kind of all over the place with the timeline that we initially set for it with the hard money loan was four months from start to finish. And this was a major renovation. Like we're talking everything, windows, roof, siding, floors, HVAC, electrical, literally everything. So I didn't know that at the time, but that timeline really isn't super realistic. Or I guess it's not realistic to close on a property and then start to contact contractors for bids and things like that. If we had the contacts that I have now or having gone through many renovation projects now, it seems more feasible, but we didn't have anything like that lined up. So we kind of hit the ground running on day one, starting way behind where we should have been. And with hard money, the clock is ticking. It's every single day is. more interest and you're paying a high interest rate. so yeah, essentially we ran out of money basically to finish the project and there were options to re-raise or change over the debt structure that we had. But Rachel, the main general partner of the project, I think she got to a point where the liability was solely on her. And that was something that in our kind of download after the process. She said that was one of her biggest learnings and takeaways was she took on 100 % of liability. So none of the other limited partners really had any skin in the game. We weren't on the hook for the hard money loan. We didn't have to give any more cash if we needed it, anything like that. So it was really all on her. And I can see now in hindsight why she chose to want to sell when we ran out of money versus try to figure the financing piece out because that is a really scary position to be in. And again, I don't think anybody's real business acumen at the time had the capacity to kind of get us out of that. But I mean, we did get out of it. like I said, kind of a miracle situation. that was a lucky break. so how was this kind of like structured in the beginning? she took on the liability. So she applied for this loan and then she just needed cash? Or how did that work? She needed a little bit of cash to close on the private hard money loan. So we needed a down payment for that. And then we needed, she needed sweat equity. She needed help because she had a full-time job that was like pretty demanding at the time. So she needed somebody able to meet on site, things like that. She wanted a design help. So one of the other partners was actually an amazing interior designer in the, guess she's probably national, amazing taste. So that person was really contributing. that design I plus cash and then we had your business contributing kind of as advisors in real estate because both of you had so much great knowledge and then also kind of that equity cash exchange for the so it was structured as a joint venture agreement. We did have an operating agreement. I will say that was probably one of the better wins that we had was we actually did have everything in place that should be in place. so how did you kind of navigate this like hard time with Rachel? I feel like tension was probably high. I don't know, like how, what was your day to day interactions like? Yeah, that's a great question. And along with the organizational skills being a big learning, the my other number two thing I look for in Partners Now is somebody that you can have really candid, open, communication with with Rachel specifically, I, I actually did not, we didn't have a lot of a rug personality wise. We actually got along really well, even through kind of the tough navigation of when the deal was going kind of south, we were running out of money. There was all this stuff still left to do. we, I still felt like we were on the same team and I was such a beginner at the time and just really threw from start to finish, I just was so thankful to be in the project and be learning. And at the time, in my mind, I thought she was a lot further ahead of me than I think where she actually was. So I did carry a lot of respect for her through the end of the project. But I also, I think a strength of mine is being able to have really direct conversations with partners. That's not something that I personally feel a lot of anxiety or stress around, to the point that I feel like I've gotten feedback that I can be almost too transactional sometimes and like the emotional side of it can be like void for me when business is just business. can kind of keep it on that level. So, but it is definitely something that I look for with partners. Like I want somebody that I feel comfortable telling them XYZ thing. And it doesn't mean I don't like you as a person or a friend or anything like that. It's just, want to feel both the streets going both ways that we can have just open. dialogue all the time, but I did, you know, remain friends with her after the project was over. And then, you know, our lives have gone really separate ways. So I don't see her talk to her really that much anymore. But definitely, I don't have any kind of like ill feelings towards her or the project. That's amazing. I think, you know, you like your positive. I think a lot of people listening could be like, well, they got really lucky because they got to sell the property. And, you know, you you got your return back. essentially, right? Like what you put in, you got back. mean, I don't know about your sweat equity, but you got more of a return than your 10K. I think it was 15,000 that I got back. So I got the original 10K and then the 5K on top of that. you know, I think once I broke it down to like hours invested, it came down to like minimum wage. But again, I was really there for the education piece of it. Free real estate education. Yeah. You got like something that no one can Like if you're going to pay for this in school, you're not going to get the experience that you got. you know, I personally have never thought you as transactional. think, you know, why you got out of like why this you got such a positive outcome out of this is because you have such a positive attitude. You don't overanalyze things and you know, you're you're actually very good at taking calculated risks. And I think you're welcome. I'm being. honest and I just you know I think a lot of women listening want that like want to know you know what's give other women out there like your secret I know you've been burned you know and essentially before but you don't let that you know keep you down and I'm not even just talking about this like anything in life that happens you know you've always kind of bounced back in such a amazing way that I think others are just like how how how Yeah, I mean, it's the same with real estate and with business is I think just wrapping your mind around the fact that it is going to be a wild journey and 1000%. I think everybody should take an entrepreneurial path at least one time in their lives, whether that be through real estate or through starting a business. But knowing that you're going to have the highest highs and you're going to have some pretty low lows. that's that is really part of the journey and what's going to grow you and they you can only get as much of a reward as the risk that you're willing to take with it and you know knowing that it's not going to always be a slam dunk. The goal for me at least always is I'm just trying to net positive right like maybe I'll have five wins and I have three big losses but I'm still netting two positive and that's that's all I'm going for so. I just know that you have to keep taking risks and be willing to kind of fall on your face and skin your knees to also achieve those really amazing wins. And yeah, with business partnerships, I've had some really bad scenarios, but then I've also had some beautiful, amazing situations and more so those than the bad. Yeah, I love that. Thank you so much for sharing. That is life. You're going to have bad situa- quote unquote bad situations. And you can either learn from it or kind of like sit around and sulk in it for years. And, you know, I do sulk sometimes, but I try to like, take like a certain period of sulking time and then I get up and yeah, like it's it's hard to do but it is it I feel like that's where the most beautiful kind of experiences in life happen. You know, when Rachel kind of approached you about this project, So a lot of the women in the community are like, well, I have friends. How do I get them to take me seriously? I'm like, we always have a glass of wine and we're like, let's buy a mountain house or whatever. But how do I be like, how did she get you to take her seriously? Or were you just hungry for that? I think it probably was a little bit of a combination, but I will say pretty much every opportunity when I look back on it, whether it's again, business or real estate. honestly comes down to the community and network that I'm surrounding myself with. That is why open house education is such an incredible tool and community for women because everybody in there is kind of looking for the same thing, right? There might be a different skillset. People are coming from completely different backgrounds, but everybody is curious, hungry, wanting to know more, wanting to do more. And with Rachel, the way that I met her was through a women's networking group and then had kind of surrounded myself. with other women that were interested in real estate and it was something that I was just curious about. so I trusted her, but I also was just really curious and wanted to jump in and try it myself. And that is the best advice I would give anyone trying to do anything, just find the people who are also interested in that thing. Start telling people about what your goal is, what you're interested in. I swear it always, it always seems like it's like, synchronicity or just a great synergy, but it's not you're putting yourself in that situation with like minded people who want to do the same thing. So I said this on every podcast episode, but I'm literally getting goosebumps. feel like every everyone has this like one sentence where I'm like, like, it's so true. Yeah, you got to get yourself out there. And like I had that revelation today, weirdly, like, I was like, who have I partnered with? And where did they come from? Because I remember when I started my journey in real estate, I was like, you know, in my early 20s and none of my friends were talking about that and I had to seek it out. yeah, like it, I, who I partnered with were, were women that I like sought out in the same ways that you sought women out to partner people to partner with. So, yeah, like the only close friend that I had that I partnered with, was my sister. before. Now I have good friends who I met through shared interests or real estate and investing and all that, but you got to seek them out. Yeah. In fact, my most recent business partner, Megan, she and I met at a networking event that Rachel was hosting years ago. Years later, Megan and I decided to be partners through just because we knew we had similar things that we were interested in. And something great happened. through that church project, like maybe you wouldn't partner with Rachel again in the same way, but through that you learned so much and you met your next business partner through her network. amazing. And the other thing that I took out of that was all the contractor partnerships. You know, I got to work with these people in real time, get bids with them, build relationships, that essentially I got paid to do that. And then I went on to renovate two more properties after that and use all the contractors that I vetted through the church projects. And those projects went super smooth and fast because I already had all those pieces in place. my gosh. Yes, the confidence you get and the confidence and the education you get from your first project just jumping in. It's not going to be perfect. You're going to make a mistake. Not everything's going to go right, but you're going to learn so much and you're going to get so much confidence for when you go to the next project. It's like... my gosh, this feels so much easier. Yes. I'm not crying. Now I can't have paint drop and I didn't just sob into it. Yes. Megan and I would always say, at this point, it's not like if this crazy scenario will happen to us, are like, well, when will that happen? Something totally off the walls is going to happen. But now we're so much more equipped to be like, okay. We're just going to have to solve now for an unprecedented event. No big deal. my God. Okay, wait, let's go into this. So take us to your next partnership. Like after the church, how long did you wait until you were like, okay, I to do this again? Yes, pretty much immediately. And the next project actually was so fun because I got to partner with my friend Chip, who at the time he had bought two primary homes, I think, but he hadn't really ever done a renovation. And what I loved about him as a partner is he is not a, he's very conservative with his investments. He's really smart with his money. And so what he helped me do was when I approached him, cause I knew he had a W-2 and I really needed a W-2 at the time. And I also needed some cash to close and I knew he had a great job. And I knew that the way I would be able to get him into this deal was, by presenting him with a flawless plan. So having every single detail organized, thought through, because again, he is very conservative. So it gave me such an experience of really presenting an investment package to somebody and thinking through every kind of question that they're gonna have and anticipating that ahead of time and having all that prepped and ready to go. And he did end up seeing my vision for it. So we bought this property also on the East side. and he put in, like I said, 10,000 and his W-2 to co-sign on it. And in exchange for that, I gave him 10 % equity and I took all liability on myself. in our agreement, I said that, you know, whatever legalese, that no matter what happened, basically I would absorb all of the risk, costs, expense, anything like that. Was this a house you were going to live in? Yes, a house that we were going to renovate it and live in it. And At the time that we bought it, the market was really in flux in Austin. Again, this is a deal that I did happen to get super lucky on. This is definitely not typical, but we only held the property for about eight months. We bought it for $283,000 and we sold it for $463,000. So we made a gigantic return. again, not typical at all. We just happened to hit the market at the... right time for it. But Chip made an amazing return on that deal. And because of that, I presented him with other projects that I've been looking at. right away, he's been super interested and has committed to be part of it. What was your decision to because I think a lot of people listening are like, you when they think about buying a house or property with anyone, they typically are like, I have to live in this property with this person. But there's so many different ways to go about partnerships. What made you decide to sell this one too? right after, you know, and also I'm typically a buy and hold investor with real estate. So I'm not as like keen or familiar about like buying something and almost like this is almost like flipping versus. And I'm with you. I definitely was not looking to flip the property this fast. I thought that we would live there for several years. And when I say we at the time I was engaged to somebody not Chipp. Chip is married to somebody else, but so that was unique about the deal is Chip and I never intended to live together there. He was truly just like a guarantor, basically co-signer on the loan. And when we ended up selling the property, I don't even know if we would have done it, but we were being very aggressively pursued by buyers. And we ended up selling to a large corporation that had kind of like. pounded down our door, they had contacted me every which way to Sunday and they just made the offer and said it would be a seven day close. And I was like, okay, you know, I ran up my chip and he kind of was like, do whatever you think is best. But at that point, I mean, we're talking about almost a $200,000 gain. we were like, yeah, let's, this is the right move. In fact, I didn't believe that it was, I thought it was a scam for sure. I like call the company back separately. And I was like, is this real? Is this a real person who works for you? Because it just seems too good to be true. And again, I do think that this is very much on the end of the spectrum of like not a regular situation. So yeah, well, I mean, I like showing the details of how something happened anyway, even if like, this is a different market, someone may live in a different city. But just knowing that like you you know, from your first partnership, you learned a lot, took that experience, learned how to almost pitch a deal to someone else. And how I guess, how did you even pitch him? Like, what did you do to pitch him? Because I think that's what people are also really interested in. I made him and I am prepping for the podcast. I you know, I had to go back and look at all the numbers and whatnot. I found it. I made him like a PowerPoint presentation. and very rudimentary Excel screenshots and things like that. And I did try to make it as professional as possible, even though he and I had been friends for about 10 years prior to that happening. So he knew me very well, and he is in my inner circle. But I did try to treat him and the whole process as if I didn't know him and really wanted him to feel respected as an investor. And I tried to make it as professional as possible. And so yeah, I made him a presentation. And I kind of was like, If it doesn't work for him, like I said, this is a great learning experience to go through building something like this. And I was prepared to shop it to basically anybody in my network that I thought had a W-2 and had a little bit of cash. I love that so much. Like that is so valuable. And you don't have to be perfect. Like you said yourself, like you're not someone who wants things perfect. And I think that holds up a lot of people right now is they're like, well, how do I even get started? Like, how do Who do I present this to? And I'm like, write down a list of everyone you know, everyone, and then just like look at these people and then like really think like, who could I talk to about this? If there's not more than five people, you know, go start meeting people. It's, you know, there's opportunities to do that. But I love that you were like, so I'm assuming you took the sales price, which what a great sales price, right? Like if you're If you buy something that's more affordable, there's less risk there. So you bought something that was affordable and you took probably the after value number, like after repair. So what is that? ARV? Yeah, ARV. ARV. So how much money did you guys put into it? We put in to close. It was $17,000 to close. He brought $10,000. I brought $7,000. And then we put in... It was around like 10,000. did not, the house didn't need a super, well, I should say it's questionable if it needed a, one really funny thing about this specific home is that it actually didn't have a foundation. So it was actually sitting on three jobs. And so, but it had been like that for 50 years or so. So we felt like it was okay. And again, so I took on a risk with it. it was also in the floodplain. it was also in a my gosh. So you were like, sell like, why wouldn't you sell at that? Yeah. This corporation. I'm like, if you're selling to like a family with small kids, but you're selling to this, probably crazy, greedy corporation, and you're like, Okay, you deal with this. Yeah, yeah. And that was the plan. Eventually, we were going to lift it up and put a new foundation underneath it, and yada yada, but it didn't need a ton of structural. It didn't need like new windows, didn't need a new electrical or anything like that. So was mostly just going to be cosmetic updates. And I knew that it was just going to be a starter home. It was not going to be our forever property. Like you said, was buying it at 283 on the East side at the time even was a seal. And I was very much still getting my businesses going and whatnot. So it was perfect for what it was. And then it ended up being, yeah, slam dunk. in all of the analysis and ideas that I presented to Chip of like, I live in it for XYZ and then we rent it and blah, blah. Never in any of that presentation did I say, and we might be able to sell it in the next year for like this humongous win. that was me and the scenario. Yeah. Ben put that, presented itself because we were willing to take the risk on it. Yeah. Yeah. That's amazing. think it's kind of common in that area of town for some houses not to have foundation. I bought a house that was on cinder block foundation. you know, it's very, very interesting. Okay. These are super helpful, different partnerships. And I love that you kind of rolled right after that first partnership, which honestly, I think a lot of people would have been like a little traumatized from, but you were like, no, I learned a lot. really excited. Let's go to the next thing. I guess like, I liked that you mentioned who you look for in a real estate partner. I guess we didn't talk about this before, kind of went over it where Chip had a W-2 job and you need that when you're buying a house and you're going through the lending process and you were, you're an entrepreneur, so you were 1099 or you have to have two years in your business. So now, you know, what are you looking for when you structure another deal with like a partner and a friend? What are you looking for? overall, like, I guess, what are you looking for now? And what would you do differently, I guess, than what you did in the past? that's a great question. mean, a W-2 will always and forever be the gold ticket to all the people out there working a corporate job. You have amazing buyer power. Use it. If you are interested in real estate and you have that W-2, man, you can really get into pretty much the pick of the litter in terms of projects. So I would use that to your advantage. So yeah, I mean, I'm always looking for a W-2 person. I also think now because my life is in a really different place and my businesses are really in different places. I am looking for partners that do want more of that SWAT equity, more of that education piece, people who can be kind of more boots on the ground and doing the day-to-day operational things. And I love to... use my cash, use a little bit of like the guidance, knowledge, expertise I have, but I don't necessarily have that same kind of time or bandwidth to put into every project. So definitely partners that have more time available. But also cash is king. So I will always say cash. If you've got money to burn, get over here. Seriously. my gosh. Who does right now? How would you vet someone? to know that they are organized or, you know, like for a future partner. Because I know, like, I look for that as well. Like, I've learned a lot from past partnerships because before I think we both were like, get me in there. I don't care. And then now we've learned a lot where we're like, hold on, let's, you know, let's vet these partners a little bit better. Yeah. So what I learned that has been successful for me now and a couple of different partners is try to do some kind of mini project with them. before, whether it's a month long thing, three months, six months. It can be anything with Megan, specifically my most recent business partner, and she's also a partner on a real estate deal. She and I, traveled pretty extensively together on kind of challenging trips. So we went on some long backpacking, backcountry hiking trips, things that are gonna stress you emotionally, physically, mentally, and the planning and execution of that. you really get to know somebody's character and then, you know, having, going on like a one-on-one friend dates with that person and see what the conversation cadence is like. Again, Megan is somebody that I feel completely comfortable having totally candid conversations. We laugh, we cry. She's a person that I can trust for feedback. She's also somebody I can trust to like push back on me when I, you know, have a bad attitude or my idea is kind of wacky. And our working dynamic in that way always felt really good. And then we actually bought an investment property together before we became business partners. So I really got to see how we interacted with each other through that process. And she is somebody who is highly organized. And our personalities were a really good match. So that's when we decided, let's do business partnerships. yeah, mean, would, moving forward, try to vet somebody through a project or some kind of like stressful situation just to see how you kind of mesh. Yeah, yeah, that's so invaluable. I 100 % agree. And I, you know, I would add also, like, I love that you said the pushback because, you know, when you're looking for a partner, you're vetting them, but you need to vet yourself, right? Like, are you okay with pushback? Are you a people pleaser? Are you going to like not be truthful because you don't want to hurt someone's feelings? Like you have to. You have to have hard conversations. You have to be honest. And I think that's where the best partnerships are going to happen and last. You need somebody that you can be one person's gas, one person's breaks. It doesn't need to stay in that role, but that you can be, you know, you have that balance and that checks and balance, guess. I love that. Okay. I've taken up a lot of your time. Is there anything else that we haven't covered that you want to share? I would just say with partnerships, if you're considering it or it's the thing that's holding you back. from getting into real estate is it feels scary to do it alone. 1000 % it is scary to do it alone. Get a partner and just get out there. really, gotta get off the bench if it's something that you're curious about. You're never gonna feel 100 % ready. You're gonna make mistakes. It's gonna be fine. Everything is figure outable. Like you can solve it. Even if you don't pick the right partner the first time, you'll learn and you'll know and you'll choose better and differently the next time. But just... do it. I swear you cannot stay on the sidelines, just do it. yeah, with short term rentals specifically, if you are in the community, if you're in the open house community, you, I will be sharing a lot of short term tips and tricks in November at the lunch and learn in short term rental management and knowledge is kind of, it's one of my favorite things to talk about. So I would love to see and meet everybody there face to face. Kara also had a short term rental property management company on top of everything else she does. And on top of your main company, is? Kara Kata Ceramics. So we are a handmade small batch ceramic company and we are, we were based in Austin for 15 years. Now we're in Lake Tahoe. And if you want to follow me, please come and follow me over on TikTok because I have been hitting that short form video content hard. I'm trying to get to 10 K. Please. Come and see me on TikTok. Let's help her get to 10k guys. it, she is doing amazing things. She's sharing amazing content. Yeah, this has been amazing. I feel like if you were a cult leader, I would follow you. So, thank you so much. You are also, mean, I so look up to you. You've been such an inspiration to me along the journey and I just feel so blessed to have you in my community. Same Kara. Thank you so much.