BOSSES IN THE WILD // Kathleen on The Best Ever Show

Kathleen Shannon 0:02
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Kathleen Shannon 0:52
Hey, bosses, I wanted to share something with you today that some of you have heard me talk about, but I don't talk about it a whole lot. And that is I have a business that I don't even think about as a business. Because it's not super creative. It's almost completely passive. And in my mind, it's more like a savings or retirement plan than a business. And that is real estate investing. So I make my living as a creative entrepreneur. It's the work I do through a creative and being boss that pays the bills. But one of my goals is to build wealth. And that doesn't come from getting paid to do the work that comes from investing, or at least the way society set up right now. That's how it works. So I've decided to invest in real estate. Now, in order to do this, I didn't have to be rich, which is a common, you know, misnomer or misunderstanding whenever it comes to investing in real estate. I just had to be disciplined and a little brave. Now, to be clear, just like I've approached building a business for myself, it's been the same for real estate. It's been about slow growth and long term vision. I'm not trying to get rich overnight, and I'm figuring it out as I go. Even as I've been on a couple of real estate podcasts.

Kathleen Shannon 2:08
Now to share my own investment story. I'm realizing I could have made different investments like in multi units, even Tony Robbins in his money book, which I highly recommend talks about investing your money in a pool that goes into like investing in retirement villages, as all the baby boomers age with a pool of other investors. And you could totally do this. But I wanted to do it in a way that felt a little more authentic to who I am just like all of my business endeavors. So I'm going to share with you a few practical rules I have for myself whenever it comes to investing in real estate. And this is how I stay aligned and authentic to doing it my way. And that includes I always put 20% down on the homes. And this is for really practical things including a lower interest rate, and to not have to pay PMI. So it's some technical stuff there. They are all homes I would be willing to live in myself. My goal is to keep the home nice, I want them to be better with each tenant not worse, I want them to be nice and add value to the neighborhood, not bring it down. I'm not looking to be a slumlord by any means. And I want to be fair to myself and my tenants whenever it comes to charging rent and enforcing boundaries. I'm sharing my own real estate investment journey on best ever podcast and I go into a lot of details there.

Kathleen Shannon 3:32
But I wanted to share a few more insights with you here. So one, you don't have to be rich to invest in real estate, you mostly need to be disciplined about saving your money, and brave enough to make the leap. Number two, if you're totally new and want to invest, I would do it by making your first home a potential investment property. So live in it for two years, make it nice and then rent it out. Number three, you don't have to rent to total randos a lot of creatives feel like their business isn't real if they're not being hired by strangers. And I think I even talked about this on a recent episode. But we all know it's a network of friends and peers that keeps us afloat in our creative businesses. Same for real estate, try to get friends or friends of friends in your place for but we all know that whenever it comes to mixing friends and business, you have to have firm boundaries in place. Make sure you communicate those boundaries and plan for the worst case scenario while hoping and high vibing enough for the best case scenario. Number five, trust that you can handle it. I think a lot of people get really freaked out about having rental properties but just trust that you will be able to handle anything that comes your way.

Kathleen Shannon 4:43
Number six, live below your means. So maybe you can qualify for a home loan of let's say half a million dollars. You can still buy a home for 200,000 or maybe you can afford a Mercedes but how about you drive a used Subaru? Maybe you can afford the Louis Vuitton bag How about you just put your credit cards in your back pocket. Now, these are all things I personally want and can totally afford. But instead, I'm choosing to live under my means without the flashy things so I can afford the quality of life I want for my future self by investing in my retirement.

Kathleen Shannon 5:19
I also wanted to add that I've been asked a lot about my recent move to Detroit, and how that's affected my homes in Oklahoma City. So we still have them. And we're still renting them now. And we're not looking to invest in Detroit. So Detroit has a ton of like, really old, beautiful, but dilapidated homes that are super duper cheap. And if you were into flipping it would be easy enough. I've looked into it. And there are enough deep systemic issues that go beyond just flipping a home. As to why I would be uncomfortable doing that myself also, like I just want to focus on I don't know my family and being boss and breathe creative. I'm not looking to expand my circle yet whenever it comes to investing in properties. I often say that becoming an entrepreneur is kind of like going from renting to owning, it's a metaphor I use a lot. And with that you have the same challenges and opportunities. You really have to look at what's best for you by assessing your own personal finances, goals and context of where you live. And what makes the most sense.

Joe Fairless 6:28
Best Ever listeners, how you doing Welcome to the best real estate investing advice ever show. I'm Joe fairless. This is the world's longest running daily real estate investing podcast. We only talk about the best advice ever. We don't get into any of that fluffy stuff with us today. Kathleen Shannon, how you doing, Kathleen? Good, how are you, Joe? I'm doing good as well. Nice to have you on the show and a little bit about Kathleen. She is the CO owner of the branding agency braid creative. She is also a real estate investor. She invest in residential properties. And she is the co host of the podcast being boss, which is a podcast for creative entrepreneurs, as well as the author of the book being boss, which is a book I imagined for creative entrepreneurs. She is based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, but soon to be a resident of Detroit, Michigan. So that being said, Kathleen, you want to get the best ever listeners a little bit more about your background and your current focus.

Kathleen Shannon 7:19
Yeah, sure. So I own my own branding, agency braid creative. And I went to school as an artist thinking I would be a painter and never imagined that I would be investing in real estate. I was thinking about before I came on this show the fact that I think so much identity is wrapped up in our homes and the homes that we buy. And it keeps a lot of people from buying homes. And I feel like I was able to kind of like make that leap and make it happen. So other than braid, creative, my brand new agency, I also co host the being boss Podcast, where I'm talking about advice for creative entrepreneurs. And there is a huge overlap between entrepreneurship and investing in real estate and how you manage it and your different approach. Everyone has a different approach, right? So it's all very, very personal. It also comes down to numbers. So that's kind of where I'm at.

Joe Fairless 8:13
I'd love for you to elaborate on the first part that you mentioned where you said, so much of your identity is wrapped up in the homes and maybe the result of that might be people don't buy as may? Well, you helped me understand that a little bit more.

Kathleen Shannon 8:28
Yeah, sure. buying your first house is a huge milestone, I think that it is wrapped up in the same vein as getting married or having a baby. And it's not a decision that most people go into lightly. It's incredibly personal and emotional. And whenever you're buying your first home, you want it to be just right. If you've ever watched any HGTV people just get so wrapped up in the emotions of it. And I think that you have to really take that out of the equation whenever you start investing in real estate, because it really is a numbers game. And it really is about building your wealth and building your retirement. And I just think that a lot of especially creative entrepreneurs, which is my audience, I think a lot of them don't think of themselves as someone who could be investing in real estate. I think that a lot of them may have the impression that you have to be a millionaire to invest in properties. And that's certainly not the case, especially if you know your area and have a unique situation kind of like Oklahoma City has.

Joe Fairless 9:38
If I were a guest on your podcast, and we were talking about investing in real estate, knowing your audience, how would you position that conversation so that it resonates with them, and they're empowered to then go buy real estate?

Kathleen Shannon 9:55
You know, I would probably start with the first smallest step. So So what is the first thing that you can do to start stepping into a future of owning real estate and investing in real estate? So the first thing you would want to do is get qualified for a loan. Right? Yep. And I know it sounds really simple, but that's the kind of thing that people they're not, I would say lean into it by researching the market, getting alone, figuring out what you can afford, really crunching some numbers. And I would say start with your own first home. So whenever you are buying your first home, don't think about buying your forever home. I think that a lot of people really overextend themselves, with their mortgage by buying the kind of house that they think is going to be one and done. And that's it. Instead, I would buy something that is a good starter home that would make a really great investment property and a few years. So that's what I would tell people is to start with your first home, the one that you actually live in for a couple of years, because then you're going to get better finance rates, you're going to get the feel for what it's like to even manage a property. So just little little things like all the repairs that come up, you start to understand the expenses associated with owning a home. And then from there, I think that a lot of people think about renting out their home to someone who wants to destroy it. I feel like the biggest fear whenever it comes to owning residential property is, well what if someone just trashes my home and that is a relevant fear and it does happen but just like entrepreneurship, you have to trust that you can handle things that are thrown your way you can get a cleanup crew and for 500 bucks Your house is looking good again. If you are interested in investing or want to hear the full episode of my real estate journey, be sure to check out the podcast by searching best real estate investing advice ever on iTunes or wherever you're listening to podcasts or at joefairless.com

Kathleen Shannon 12:01
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Emily Thompson 12:15
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