EP64 Real Estate Hustles and Creative Financing Hacks: Gabriela Ariza's Real Estate Journey

In the ever-evolving world of real estate, creative approaches can lead to significant financial rewards and long-term success. Whether you're just starting out or looking to grow your portfolio, thinking outside the box can open doors to unique opportunities. 

Gabriela Ariza, a cybersecurity and real estate investor on track for FI., shares her house hacking strategies, including renting out different property spaces and using low down-payment loans to maximize returns. She also opens up about the challenges she faced during her first property flip and emphasizes the importance of having cash reserves. The episode dives into creative financing techniques like private money lending, self-directed IRAs, and tapping into rural markets for better opportunities. 

Gabriela shares her success in acquiring city-owned lots, developing affordable housing, and forming key partnerships with city officials. She highlights the value of networking and creative financing, offering practical lessons on house hacking, property flips, rural markets, and strategic growth in real estate.

Tune in to hear Gabriela’s expert tips and inspiring stories that can help you level up your real estate game. Don’t miss out and get ready to unlock new strategies for success!

Connect with Gabriela Ariza:

 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriela-ariza/

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

Chapters

• 0:00 Real Estate Investing and House Hacking
• 10:01 Property Renovation Lessons and Strategies
• 16:38 Creative Financing and Rural Real Estate
• 29:26 Private Money Lending and Property Development
• 42:13 Inspired Rural Real Estate Investing

Transcript

Violeta: 0:00

Hola, hola, welcome to the Money Chisme podcast. Today we are getting into my favorite type of chisme real estate investing. And I do have with me another fellow real estate investor, gabriela Arisa. She's here to share her real estate investing journey plus some tips for new investors. Hola, gabriela, thank you so much for joining me today. Thanks for having me Appreciate it. Yeah, I'm excited because I always like to hear other people that are in our community investing in real estate, because usually you see not our community too much when you see like real estate investors. So I really am happy that you're here to share your journey and you have some really good tips. I'm excited to get into it. So, to get into it, I want to start off from the beginning with your first rental property. What was your first rental?

Gabby: 0:58

Actually, my first rental was a house hack. I didn't really know what I was doing and I didn't realize that I was getting into investing in rental properties to begin with. I pretty much got out of college and I was like, so what do we do next? Oh, okay, let's just buy a house. So I ended up buying a house and decided to just rent out the rooms and started renting out like the basement, and I rented out the garage and I was like, wow, okay, I'm able to pay my mortgage and still have a little bit left over by just doing this. So that's where it all started nice.

Violeta: 1:39

I feel like I was the same way, where that was kind of like the next step, really same thing. Thing it's like, okay, going to college, all right, I'm doing college or done with college, what's next? And it's like, okay, I'm gonna buy a house because that's the dream, right. And I kind of ended up doing the same where I rented out one room for a friend that needed a place to stay and I ended up making some income off of that. And same thing like I didn't know, I was real estate investing. So a lot of people start off that way. And you mentioned house hacking, which is basically just finding a way to make income from a property that you're living in, and you found some really cool ways that I didn't even think of at that time to make income, and I want to get a little bit into that. Yeah, you rented out some of the rooms, but you also did some other things with that property. Can you talk about a little bit about that?

Gabby: 2:42

Yeah. So I decided to rent out the garage, and that was thanks to a friend who gave me an idea. He literally just bought like a lot and then he put a bunch of gravel and he just started renting out all the spots because they were close to the train station. So when I was house shopping I was trying to find a house that was close to a train station so that way I could be like okay, I'm going to rent an extra spot in the garage because I only had one car and there was a bunch of street parking. So immediately once I got the house, I started renting out the garage. And that was probably the best thing ever, because the person who needed it was just using it for a classic car and it was just stored in there and pretty much the whole time I had that house he was just renting.

Violeta: 3:28

Oh, wow, that's awesome. When you got your property, that was your first initial thought was like, oh, rent out the garage. You had the mentality of buying somewhere close to the train station.

Gabby: 3:42

Yeah, and then the other thing was also renting out the basement. I was trying to look for a house that was split into, where the basement had privacy but it still had windows and all that kind of stuff and I was like I could rent this out, especially for somebody who is local to the area or needs access to get to downtown. I was thinking about all the layouts in mind on how can we have privacy but at the same time do house hacking without having to buy like a duplex or triplex?

Violeta: 4:13

Yeah, and so when you bought your first house, was this like your idea of like, okay, I'm gonna live with in it for a few years, or did you think that you were going to stay there for a long time? Or what was your mentality?

Gabby: 4:30

I thought I was gonna stay there for a really long time Because, also, the location where I was looking at was very close to my job and so I could drive. It was like a five or six minute commute and I was like I'm going to keep this house forever because it just made sense. And then, literally two months after I got the house, I got laid off and I'm so grateful that I was house hacking because that mortgage payment didn't weigh so much on me, because it's like all this is coming in and it's helping me for housing. So it was really, I guess, a blessing. In disguise you could say yeah, yeah.

Violeta: 5:15

That's one of the things that I like about real estate investing because, like you have something else to cover down for unexpected Like you got laid off, but your mortgage was pretty much, if not all, paid at that point. So you're like, okay, who cares, I got laid off, I'll find another job and not have to stress about it too much. So one of the big questions that I always get is do you buy your first property and this is a great way is by living in it first and finding ways to like house hack it. But how did you get your first home? Like what kind of loan or what was the process like for you?

Gabby: 5:59

I did a conventional. I think it was like a five percent down and so with that you only have to be in the property for a year, have it as a primary, and then you can move out and then do the same thing. So that's what I did. I stayed in that house maybe a couple or about three years or so, and then I did the same thing, got a conventional and then went to the next property.

Violeta: 6:23

Yeah yeah, that's a good way to get started and that's pretty much like how I used to be a home loan to get my first house, which I'm lucky for. That is like a 0% down and stuff.

Gabby: 6:36

So that was good for me, yeah.

Violeta: 6:39

So that was good for me and yours is good because people think that you need like the 20% down up front when they're going out to buy like their first home or whatever. But there's loans and stuff out there that you could do 5%. I think FHA is like 3.5% or something like that. You just got to find something that works for you. And you found something that worked for you and it was five percent.

Violeta: 7:06

Five percent is really good to yeah, that yeah, with that, you said you lived in it for about three years. What made you decide to move, and were you thinking of another rental? Or were you again thinking of OK, I'm gonna buy my next place where I'm going to stay at for a while?

Gabby: 7:30

So what happened was I started remodeling the basement more probably in year two, and so I decided to move to the downstairs and it really felt like two separate units. So the people who were upstairs, they wanted the whole entire house because they ended up having a larger family and the kids were becoming teenagers and stuff, so they wanted their own space.

Gabby: 7:57

So I didn't think about it, but I was like, okay, I'm ready to move on and rent out this whole entire house and go to the next project. And during that time it was COVID time, so a lot of people were moving out of the city and they were going into the suburbs and so there was a lot of opportunity where a lot of people were selling and things were sitting on the market in the city. So I was like, okay, let me go ahead and go in while everybody's leaving. Like, okay, let me go ahead and go in while everybody's leaving. So I ended up finding I ended up finding a condo and it ended up being an estate sale and it had just been for like 100 something days and it was a good opportunity because it just looked really disgusting, it was really stinky, it was just so outdated and I was like this is perfect because the location is what I was looking for and it was in a good building. So I'm like, okay, let's go for this one.

Gabby: 8:54

so I wanted to try Cordo, just to get a different experience. Besides like a single family home, so that's why I went in that route, yeah.

Violeta: 9:03

Yeah, that's another good point that a lot of people at the beginning that they're trying to get into real estate investing, they are thinking of pretty much turnkey properties, like you don't really have to do much and everything, and so, yeah, those are going to be more expensive and a higher down payment or whatever, unless you get like a conventional loan that gives you 5% or something like that, but that those are usually like higher priced. So I guess that's a good advice right. There is like when you're first getting started, like you have to look beyond. You saw potential, like everybody else was turned off by it, like it stinks, it looks ugly, but you saw the potential and you went for it and so how did that go with? I guess you pretty much had to do like a rehab. How was that.

Gabby: 10:01

So that was really challenging because I needed to be out of my original place and so I was in limbo like trying to close on this other property, and once we closed, I was like, okay, this is my new place, where am I going to stay, while also remodeling. So yeah, I literally was in a sleeping bag in the kitchen while the remodel was happening in the rest of the space. Yeah, but it was just so worth it because at the end, like the change, it looked like a completely different unit and I was going in with the intention of either flipping it or doing more of a rental, and so it just depended on the market. So when the market shifted, that's when I determined which exit strategy I wanted to take.

Violeta: 10:53

Yeah, and what would you say was your biggest, I guess, obstacle or lesson learned there, because sometimes some people just get into flipping, or scared to get into flipping, because they're like, oh my God, what if, like I can't, you know, fix it in time or whatever. What was yours I?

Gabby: 11:15

think, some learning lessons.

Gabby: 11:16

I think it really helped that I started off with a condo as my first flip, because you're not dealing with so many mechanicals and so many of the major ticket items like nation or a roof.

Gabby: 11:29

So I was like, let me start with this, because I'm still trying to get familiar with everything. So it was more of a cosmetics flip and I think that really helped. So with that I really learned, like how to deal with contractors and the expectations and even communicating with them, because sometimes they may understand something different and you're like no, this is how I actually wanted it. Yeah. And then the other thing is I was pretty much going in with just a lot of experience from other people as well. So I connected with a lot of people in real estate who had done flipping before and I had gotten tips from them as well. So I think that's really important. If you're going to do something like that and if you feel intimidated, either do it with somebody else, watch them and shadow them how they do their flips, or do a smaller project where it's more cosmetic and less of the ticket items are affected.

Violeta: 12:29

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point, that cause. That was going to be my next question Did you do this by yourself or did you get someone to guide you along the way? So you, it sounds like you did find one or a group of people that you were able to lean on and give you some pointers. That's one of the things I would like to do a flip but it's a little intimidating to me at the moment because of all those things, because it would be a house for sure. So I'm like worried about the big ticket items like cosmetic stuff is okay, whatever roof and all that. Or worst case scenario, like you open the drywall and there's like rotting or termites, things like that.

Violeta: 13:10

So I think I'm gonna wait until a little. I have a little bit more experience and a little bit more risk tolerance. So right now I'm just sticking to multi-family properties, which has its own unique things as well, especially in the market that I am in. But lots of lessons learned that I'm learning along the way, and I want to go a little bit back to your first property of the lessons that you learned from that one, since we talked about the lessons you learned with your flip, what kind of lessons did you learn with your first property?

Gabby: 13:51

I think really working my numbers would have been better, and I really recommend, when you analyze a property, to really focus on the numbers, and I think I would have preferred to have more cash reserves, because when you get into a property you think about, oh, I just need money for a down payment and closing costs and that's it.

Gabby: 14:12

But when you go in and you realize that there's things that end up breaking or need maintenance and stuff, it can cost you a lot. And so with my first property, I really struggled for a couple years because, even though the mortgage was paid off, a lot of the repairs were just coming in, because that was something really big. If you see a property that has a lot of old mechanicals, like the water heater is ready to give out, along with the HVAC and the AC, you do want to ask for some type of seller credits or negotiate the price, because for me, all of that died the first year, and so I was like, oh man, I don't even have enough to cover all this, and it was just a lot and I was working extra hours to try and keep up with this. So I think that's something big is really work your numbers and make sure that you have reserves when you get involved with a property, even if it's going to be your primary yeah.

Violeta: 15:12

Yeah, that was one of my lessons learned too with these two properties that I have, because I did the same thing where the water heaters were a little bit like older and I was like you know what I could probably squeeze by a little bit, and I did for a year or two and then, like last year, both like two of them went out and I had to replace those and then the furnace. It is like, oh my God, definitely a hard lesson there. It's that I should have just fixed them up front and I did negotiate a lower sales price. But my fault was that I should have just did it upfront, cause then I wouldn't have to deal with it now. And then, especially with tenants in there, like that's the main thing is you don't want to have, you know, these tenants without like hot water or heat or AC or whatever.

Violeta: 16:01

And so one of the lessons I learned but I was lucky that because they're multifamily, one unit's paying off the other one and stuff like that I lucked out on that that I had that kind of buffer. But yeah, I agree to have a few more cash reserves than what you initially planned, especially with older properties. That's another lesson that I learned is like have a larger buffer and for maintenance and repairs than what you would if you got like a newer property. So yeah, I agree. And so with the condo you did manage to get another property that you were able to actually do, a kind of like creative financing or a unique way of acquiring a property. So I want to get into that how did you get your? I guess this would be your third property. That would have been my third.

Gabby: 17:02

Yeah, I think there were two happening at the same time, actually the condo and then a duplex, but with the condo. So I was becoming friends with a neighbor and she was renting out her condo, but she would come every so often and so we chatted and I had heard like what was her concerns and she's like I want to retire and I don't want to deal with this condo and I need to move out of the state. So I don't know what kind of options I have. I'm not really ready to sell yet, but I want to sell.

Gabby: 17:36

So I proposed to her to do a lease option, which is where we go into a contract where I pay her portion and then I get a tenant in her condo and I manage and handle everything in that condo. So I was making money and at the same time she was also making money but not having to worry about dealing with the tenants or dealing with any of the repairs and stuff like that. So we signed that contract for a year and that was a really good way to try creative and see if that was something that I wanted to do, because the nice thing about the lease option is you can have a clause where it says, hey, after this time frame I want to go ahead with the purchase of the property, or I don't want to anymore. So that's really good.

Violeta: 18:31

Oh, okay, nice. And so you had it for a year, and did she decide to sell or she ended up keeping.

Gabby: 18:37

She wanted to sell, but unfortunately, what happened with the condo building is that ended up losing financing, and so the reason why they lost financing was because they were not keeping up with repairs of the building, and so that was red flag and it was really good for me because I was like, wow, I'm not locked in for 30 years and here I am stuck with this thing and who knows if association is going to keep up with the repairs. So I was able to walk away and I was comfortable walking away. So it was great because she also discovered a new way of doing creative financing when she didn't know that this was even an option.

Violeta: 19:22

Really, yeah, yeah, that's a good way to get some income and it's a win-win you make some money, you get the tenant there and they don't have to deal with it and it gives them time to decide on what they want to do with that property. And so you were saying that building wasn't doing the repairs and everything like that, like what happened to the other condo, your first condo.

Gabby: 19:51

So I'm running into the same problem as well, because while I was going through the lease option with her, I was also trying to sell my condo. So I'm running into the same problem as well, because while I was going through the lease option with her, I was also trying to sell my condo, but luckily, the way that I sold my condo was I kind of did what do you call that like for sale by owner. I was able to target people who had cash only, and so actually the person who bought my condo paid full cash, so we didn't have to worry about the loans in that case. Oh okay nice.

Violeta: 20:26

Yeah, you did good on both of those yeah that's nice, nice. And you were mentioning that you were having kind of like a second deal in between there, that you bought a duplex.

Gabby: 20:40

Yeah, so at the same time I was looking at a different area, so I had already invested in suburban area, now was in urban, and I actually found an area in the rural Illinois area and I was like, wow, I see a lot of cash flow potential here, there's a lot of good price points and numbers are working really well. And so I decided to purchase a property in that little small town and I ended up getting a duplex and it's such a great duplex. To be honest with you, I think I really like the multifamily, and with that one I purchased it with like a commercial loan, so I had to do a 20% down for that one. Okay nice.

Violeta: 21:29

And so what made you like? Because one of the questions that you know I often get is like how to decide the type of market like what. You kind of mentioned it a little bit what? But what kind of like signs did you see in that rural area that made you think of you know what? I think this might be a good area to start investing in.

Gabby: 21:52

I like to do analysis of the area. I know know a lot of people are like, oh well, rural towns are dying and people are leaving and they don't want to live there. But if you really look at the market and you focus on what's happening there, like types of jobs, there were a lot of factories there, a lot of manufacturing happening, manufacturing happening. They started opening up a lot of stores that are popular in, like other areas. Like they opened up a Marshall's, they opened up a Pet Supplies Plus, like they were just getting a lot of new stores in. And then we were seeing the demand for rentals and the percentage of the market. It was like 40% of people were looking for rentals in the area, like 40% of people were looking for rentals in the area. And so I was looking at all of that and I was also looking at the price points.

Gabby: 22:44

So a lot of the duplexes at that time were selling for about like $60,000 and 20% down on something like that is not that substantial in the grand scale. So I was like, okay, looking at that and then looking at the numbers of OK, I'm able to get about $500 a month in cash flow coming in and different things like that was able to help you buy that property, which is nice, because sometimes some of these like conventional loans or these lenders, they're like, oh, I think mine, what did I ask him?

Violeta: 23:22

I think he said like 80,000 was the lowest that he'd go, uh, for sales price. So it's nice that you were able to find somebody for 60k. I think you said it was 60k around there.

Gabby: 23:36

So yeah, that's a good, yeah, and actually a tip for that, because, um, you will run into that issue, because I was running into this too is you want to go to the local community banks who are servicing those areas, because they're most likely to give you loans for such low price points?

Violeta: 23:56

Oh yeah, that's a good tip. Yeah, because, yeah, the local banks know the area and tend to help out their own community most often so yeah, that's a good tip.

Violeta: 24:06

I'm going to try that next time if I spot something.

Violeta: 24:10

And you're right, the rural areas a lot of people are just like, nah, I, I don't want to. I don't want to do that, but especially now with all the big cities where I'm going it's San Antonio and Austin is full, so they're starting to creep away. There's a lot of rural areas where I, where I bought there's a lot of land being sold here and there, so I'm seeing that as well in the area that I am going to be moving to. So I've been keeping an eye on it and seeing what's going on. I see there's like roads are being fixed up and they just built like a big I thought it was going to be a Bucky's, but it wasn't. I think it was a Valero, like a big giant one, and a lot of other things that there are buildings. I'm thinking, maybe next year, trying to get something there too, after I already got all my other stuff done. But yeah, knock on rural areas, especially if they're close to like big giant cities, because people are moving out.

Gabby: 25:12

Exactly. Yeah, actually a lot of the renters like when I had vacancies and stuff, a lot of renters were like, coming from the city and they're like, hey, we're just trying to move somewhere cheaper because it's expensive in the city and we work remote or we work local. We'd rather work in this area. And the other thing is looking at towns that are the county seat and that they tend to have a lot of the larger stores like a Walmart or a Home Depot or something like that, and if you find towns that have a golf course or some type of amenities like that, it usually says that there's people that do have money there. So take a look at that.

Violeta: 25:53

Nice, nice. And for you, how are you finding these properties? So we know one was like your neighbor Were you like on the main websites like Zillow and Realtorcom or whatever, or like how are you finding your properties?

Gabby: 26:09

Yeah, so initially I started with just looking on Zillow, the MLS, worked with a realtor, and then I changed that strategy a bit. So now my focus is more looking off market because you're able to get a little bit more of a discount when you're purchasing a property. So now it's just networking and I really push networking. I'm networking almost every single week in town and just showing up to business functions and just letting people know, hey, I'm interested in purchasing property, because a lot of people are retiring in this town and so a lot of them want to move to Florida or somewhere warm, and so if I can show up and be like, hey, I'm interested in purchasing, that puts me in their mind. So when they are ready to sell they can go ahead and give me a call. So that's how I've been doing it now.

Violeta: 27:01

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point, because you don't know who knows somebody that might be selling a property. With networking I was able to find because I was having the hardest time to have a one-time closed construction loan with my VA loan and I couldn't find anybody. Nobody wanted to do it because they didn't know what it was or whatever. And through this group I managed to find a lender that's going to be able to do it and I was like man, you never know it could be a lender, it could be somebody that's selling or know somebody that's selling. So those are a good ways to find some properties and people that can help you through something that you've never done before, like your flip.

Violeta: 27:45

And so definitely don't forget about the networking portion. And there's events, I think now, because the ads know they target me. So once you start doing like things like that, you'll start seeing the ads of local events, like there's always some random real estate event, investing event or something similar that's going on and I get the ads for it and sometimes I'll go if I'm able to. So definitely start going, because some of them are free or pretty cheap. Sometimes you think they're going to be like very expensive, but sometimes they're like discounted or they're just free. So yeah, yeah.

Gabby: 28:26

I think it's important to do that, because not only have I been able to get leads through that, but I've also built private money so that way I don't have to necessarily go to a bank and get loans for my future properties that I want to acquire or build. So that's really nice. Too is building rapport with other people who want to invest but they don't necessarily want to get into the tenants, toilets or flipping business. So they're willing to invest their money into your projects and if you're showing up and showing your projects to people, then they know that, then they know what you're doing. Yeah.

Violeta: 29:06

Yeah, and since you you brought it up about private money lending, can you explain a little bit of how that works, and have you used one yet or are you planning to?

Gabby: 29:17

I actually am planning to. I just haven't found the right deal that I'm looking for, so it has been tougher, but pretty much how it works. Let's say you want to purchase a property, so you need money for the acquisition, so the down payment, or maybe you need the money for the actual renovations of property. Instead of going to a bank and having them have all these extra requirements and the FICO score and everything, you can go to a private money lender who will charge a certain interest rate and they can provide you the money and then you just pay them back within a certain timeframe. So what's nice about that is, once you have that rapport with that person, they are more comfortable working with you and just lending more money on more projects.

Gabby: 30:09

So right now I have one who he's helping me out with new builds in the area, so we're trying to figure that out and he's willing to do private money lending for that. The other awesome thing is, if they've already been involved in real estate before, they also have the credibility to help you get more funding with the bank if they don't necessarily have all the private money. So for me, even though I have a good credit score, I haven't done multimillion dollar projects but my private investor has. So when we go to the bank, we can talk and be like, hey, we want to do a $2 million project. We go to the bank, we can talk and be like, hey, we want to do a two million dollar project and so that also helps me as well.

Violeta: 30:54

Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. And private money lenders are also good, because a lot of these properties you're especially they're like really need a lot of rehab or anything like that you're not really going to be able to like get a regular loans, like VA loans and FHA loans and stuff like that. They have certain the property has to be livable and not like falling apart, which is not going to be your typical fix and flips, unless it's just like mostly cosmetic. But if it has like big issues, you're not going to be able to get like one of some of those types of loans. So you're kind of left with private money lenders. So definitely that's something I would like to do, but I'm not there yet. So that's another option, like you mentioned. If your FICO score or whatever is not there yet, that could be an option. But they are meant to be short term, so don't think that you're going to have them like five, 10 years and stuff like that Depending. You might never know, but for the most part, they're short?

Gabby: 32:02

Yeah for sure.

Gabby: 32:03

And the other thing that I do want to point out, too, is a lot of people have IRAs, and so there is a type of real estate IRA self-directed IRA that you can use. So if you want to be a private money lender which that's something that I'd like to do as well is fund other projects you can actually put money into this IRA and you get to choose which projects you want to invest in, and you get to choose which projects you want to invest in. So it's different than the REITs, whatever you call it, and whatever money that is made, it just goes back into your retirement fund tax-free. Now, the catch is these are for people who don't want to get their hands dirty and do the contracting work and all that kind of stuff, but it's nice because there is a penalty if you were to do something like that. So this is strictly just lending on other people's projects, and then you just get the earnings, whether from interest or from the sale or anything like that, but it's a nice way for another retirement vehicle, nice.

Violeta: 33:02

And for your properties? Do you manage your own properties or do you have like a property manager?

Gabby: 33:15

Initially I was managing myself and then I ended up getting a property manager. But because it's a rural town you don't really have that many options for property managers, so I just started building out my own team. So I have my VAs, I have my maintenance people, I've built a lot of training material and really I don't have to worry about answering the phone or dealing with the day-to-day type stuff, because everything kind of runs as a business, which I think is very important because you don't want to be caught into. Oh, now I have another job on top of everything I was trying to do.

Violeta: 33:46

Yeah, yeah, that's what I tell people when they're like I want to manage it myself and everything like that. There's a lot that goes into it. So make sure you understand that For me, I have property managers one, because they're far away and I literally just don't have the time to even manage or find a team. So I'm like you know what. So if, for those that do want to manage it themselves, they have to think of all these things and you talked about having a team you have a VA and a few other maintenance person what kind of other team members do you have? An attorney, what other team members do you have?

Gabby: 34:27

Yeah, so I have my CPA, I have a bookkeeper, because the taxes that can be very messy sometimes. I want to have that organized. And then, yeah, I have an attorney, so whenever we need to do creative financing or anything like that, he is really knowledgeable in that and that's really important when you're building out the contracts that you're sending to sellers. And then I have my maintenance crew. I have just a couple of VAs and really just a good phone system as well. Yeah, Nice.

Violeta: 35:01

Yeah, it sounds like you got a good strategy right there. I think that's something I would like to do eventually, and build a team out and everything and like lots of plans for the future. So what's next for you? What kind of plans do you have for your next investment?

Gabby: 35:20

Right now I'm looking at a few properties to acquire and then, at the same time, discussing with the city to see if we can build on some lots, because I was given about five free lots where the city is just encouraging hey, build more new housing. So we're right now taking a look at that, looking at the soil, seeing how we can build houses and just make more affordable housing options.

Violeta: 35:48

Really, nice, yeah. Yeah, that's a good, that's a good uh option that you were given these lots. Can you um talk a little bit how you found these lots?

Gabby: 36:01

yeah. So my duplex was next to an empty lot and I was wondering what was happening to it, and so I saw that the city owned it and owns like a bunch of them. And so I just reached out to the city and I'm like are you guys gonna do anything with this? Because you guys keep cutting the grass and nobody's being. You guys have it.

Gabby: 36:20

And so what they said was oh, we just we'd like to sell it, but nobody wants them, because pretty much everybody just wants to dump like trash and stuff on them. And they're like we don't want to just sell them to anybody, we want to make sure that they're going to be taken care of or something's going to develop on these lots. So I told them that I'd be interested and so I brought plans in and I showed them what my contractor's thinking about doing and the projects. So they said that they wanted to offer me all the lots for free, and if I could come up with a plan and we could get this started, they would love that, because that just provides more housing to the area which is a need and over time the city will be receiving taxes on those lots.

Gabby: 37:13

So they have other incentives as well on those lots. Not only would I get them for free, but they also are giving tax incentives where I don't have to pay taxes for a few years and then also I don't have to pay sales tax on any of the building materials that I'll be using.

Violeta: 37:30

on those lots oh nice, yeah, that's a really great deal. Oh my god, I didn't even think of trekking the city for these types of lots and giving me some ideas of how to do it, and so, like, wait, you approach them and you had to give plans. So that means you had to go look for a builder and give them a rough draft. So what's?

Gabby: 37:55

nice is if you look on Etsy or there's like different types of websites where they are house plans that are already designed. So you can take those to the city because they show all the angles of the plans. And I just took those to the city and so if we need to modify them, we just have to put them in the software and we can make modifications. But the overall rough sketch of it was something that I just had to get on the internet and it fit my idea. I just took that to the city.

Violeta: 38:27

Oh, wow, nice, Nice. And that's good, because now you already started this kind of relationship with the city, so now any other future things you want to do in that area you're going to have probably an easier time because now you built that relationship. So that's freaking awesome.

Gabby: 38:45

Thank you, yeah, and that's why it's so important to build those relationships, because you never know how other people can help. Because when I went to the city, I'm like, hey, there's this well on the lot and I need you guys to remove that because I can't build and that's going to cost an extra four grand to remove. And they're like we're going to do something with this lot. We don't mind us taking out the well, so be very accommodating when you build that relationship with them.

Violeta: 39:16

Yeah yeah, and yeah, a lot of people think the city and it can be like some of them are mean or whatever. But I I've had to deal with the city a few times because there was like this apartment complex behind one of my properties and like the trash just kept flowing. Every time the dumpster came to do it, like trash would fall. And then I would get cited. And so like I talked to him and I was like, look, because I kept trying to, I would get this mail saying that it's going to keep going up or whatever. I was like, look, I'm trying to fix it. I was like, but I'm trying to like figure out what do I need to do? Can you send me the pictures, cause I don't know what you're talking about. It just says like trash and that's it. And so they sent me the pictures. The guy was pretty nice and everything. And I was like, so I don't know, should I build a fence or what or whatever. But eventually it was just resolved and I think the property manager just told the tenants to just be more aware and make sure that they're like watching that. And so I haven't done sighting after that.

Violeta: 40:19

But yeah, that was like my one time of dealing with the city and they were pretty nice, so, like, very accommodating. I was like, look, I'm trying to like, I don't want to have my tenants struggle or have to pay these fees because they're getting charged these fines as well. That's one of the things that people need to remember is just go out there and, like you said, networking even with the government, the city or whatever. You never know what you might end up with, like properties, like lots. So that's freaking awesome. And so I guess, to end it, what would your tips be for those that are thinking about getting into real estate investing?

Gabby: 41:03

I think, find the investing strategy that you really want to pursue. I think a lot of people start a certain way like, oh, the conventional loans or house hacking. But you don't necessarily have to Like, there's so many avenues of real estate, so really find the one that really speaks to you and really research and do a lot of networking with other people who are in that type of real estate space and those projects and get a better understanding, because a lot of times when you learn from those people, you learn from their mistakes as well, and so it can take a lot of time and energy and stress when you jump into the project. But definitely don't hold back, really jump in and get into real estate investing and I know everything's scary but little by little, as you feel comfortable and really understanding the stuff, eventually you're just going to have to jump in and take action, and I think that's a very important part of it.

Violeta: 42:00

Yeah, exactly, yeah. Important to take action because you could talk about it and think about it and research until your eyes freaking fall off. But if you don't ever could talk about it and think about it and research until your eyes freaking fall off, but if you don't ever do anything about it, then what's the point of all of that? But, yeah, I'm inspired by your story. I have so many things to do now. I'm gonna go look up the website for the rural area that I'm in and start scoping out some lots and see if I get lucky too. Yeah, yeah, thank you so much for coming on here and sharing your story and, like again, I think it's important to see people like us, and especially someone young and another woman doing it out here doing real estate investing, so that motivates me even more. But for those that want to follow you or reach out to you, where can they reach you?

Gabby: 42:52

Over on Instagram and threads. It's the same tag, which is fab, underscore millennial, so you can find me over there and I'm posting about real estate all the time.

Violeta: 43:03

Nice, make sure you follow her because I'm definitely like tracking, especially with these lots. I'm excited to see what you do with this. I'll be like stalking you. Yeah, thank you, and that's it for this episode and I'll see you in the next one. Bye.