Can investing in real estate become a pathway to financial self-sufficiency?
Or, if not total financial self-sufficiency, can real estate investing provide a
supplemental income stream that helps relieve monetary pressures?
Becky Nova, a 38-year-old cancer researcher who runs clinical trials
for prescription drug companies, answered these two questions with a
resounding “Yes!” Her husband unexpectedly lost his job during mid-
2020 and the couple’s earnings dropped from two incomes to one. Nova
said, “I saw the pandemic and my husband’s out-of-the-blue job loss
as an opportunity … an opportunity to increase our wealth, not just our
monthly earnings, by investing more in income-producing real estate,
such as rental properties.”
In addition to acquiring more rental properties that produce more monthly
cash flow while building the couple’s overall wealth, Nova launched Lady
Landlords. She describes it as an educational resource that targets “women
just like me, women who are non-real estate professionals, women who are
Millennials to Boomers” to invest in real estate.
Why focus on helping women with real estate investing? Because women,
even in today’s world, continue to earn $.75 to the $1.00 men earn. And,
women continue to experience substantial economic and lifestyle declines
after facing a breakup or divorce or widowhood.
Women are rising in visibility in investing
Charles Tassell, president of the National Real Estate Investors Association
(NREIA), indicated that women now represent 35–40 percent of NREIA’s
membership. “Sixty percent of these relatively new members are independent
women, not spouses of members, as they used to be.”
Tassell sees more women members in NREIA as a very positive thing
because, as he told the New York Times, “There is gender bias in real estate
investing. It’s important for investors, especially women, to keep up
their guard. Women have to be a little more careful and conscientious
about whether someone is preying on them or not. With self-care,
along with trustworthy information, comes self-defense.”
Resources that educate and empower
Two relatively new businesses that help educate women about real
estate investing throughout the country include Nova’s Lady Landlords
and InvestHER, co-founded by the mother-daughter and homeflipping
team Elizabeth Faircloth and Andresa Guidelli.
InvestHER sponsors a weekly podcast specific to real estate investing,
meet-up groups in 56 different locations around the country, a
12,000-member free Facebook group and a yearly conference. According
to Guidelli, the conference is an opportunity for InvestHER members
“to leverage the knowledge and experience of other women in
everything from syndication, self-storage, small multis, midterm rentals,
you name it.”
Lady Landlords offers a weekly podcast on real estate investing, plus
courses such as “A Beginner’s Guide to Real Estate Investing,” “Growing
Your Real Estate Portfolio,” and “Tenant Management.” It also offers
workshops such as “A Roadmap to Real Estate Investing” that teach
women actionable steps to take today to become real estate investors.
In addition, there is one-to-one and small-group (4–5 people) real
estate coaching, free videos and a free Facebook group on real estate
investing that currently hosts more than 27,000 members.
Building generational wealth
Here in Santa Fe and Albuquerque, Robin Riegor, a 40-year veteran real
estate agent who ranks among the top five producers within Coldwell
Banker, says, “Women are now the strength in buyers today.” Why?
“Because real estate investing, whether it’s investing in a place where
you’ll live or a place you’ll rent out to produce cash flow, is a relationship
business, and women are good at relationships.”
Riegor also believes that women real estate investors know the specifics
of what they want: a nice neighborhood, a nice kitchen, a garage,
a casita for when they get older and a place with the easy maintenance
of a lock-and-leave. “Investing in a place to live in or a place to rent out
doesn’t have to be over the top or cost an arm and a leg,” says Riegor. “It
just has to feel comfortable and be something that you understand.”
Sally Stelfox, a cofounder with Joyce Hannaum of Albuquerque’s The
Christmas Store (since sold), was the daughter of a real estate appraiser
who told her to never forget that little old lady inside of her. “What my
dad meant by that,” said Stelfox, “was to make my money work for me
so that I’d have the money I needed to live the life I wanted. My dad
told me investing in real estate was a way to do that. In some ways,
real estate investing over time becomes another person who’s making
money for you.”
All of these women, Sally Stelfox and Joyce Hannaum, Robin Riegor,
Becky Nova, and Andresa Guidelli and Elizabeth Faircloth are saying
the same thing to women: “Do it ... invest in real estate.” And outfits
such as the National Real Estate Investors Association, InvestHER
and Lady Landlords exist to help novice and experienced women real
estate investors fund their chosen lifestyles and those of their children,
independently.
As Becky Nova of Lady Landlords said, “We’re not crocheting. We’re
building generational wealth here.”
