As a black woman in this country, in the city that I love being looted and burned down, I feel I can't be silent and yet I genuinely don't know what to say.  

I only like to share if what I say can provide some measure of hope, peace, inspiration, or understanding.  

Every time I start to even think about writing something, I begin to cry. My eyes are puffy from it.  

Sunday morning, I went to the grocery store. My original choice, Trader Joe's, had been looted and was closed. I went to Ralph's. The windows were all boarded up, and there was a huge police presence (it was a Ralph's right next to a police station).  

I wanted to say something to the police officers: "I think the majority of you are good people and doing your best to serve and protect. Thank you for putting your life on the line, and working to restore order." Every time I started to open my mouth, I started to cry. I didn't want to break down in the middle of the store, so I kept quiet...

There are three main reasons I believe why more women aren’t investing in real estate:

1) Many simply have not considered the incredible advantages of real estate, or that they could ever participate as a real estate investor.
Perhaps they haven’t considered that there is an option for creating income other than trading their time for money. Or maybe they just think it’s something that “very rich” people do, and it’s not something they could ever afford.

2) They understand real estate investing in the abstract but do not know how to apply those concepts to their own work or investing.
They understand the concepts of real estate investment, but they don’t know how to do it. They don’t know what steps to take, or where to go in order to gain the necessary knowledge.

3) Last but certainly not least, they understand how it works, but they’re afraid they’re going to lose money.

They have heard of people making lots of money in...

There are 3 important aspects of a property you need to evaluate… these are the same for almost every investment property.  

Physical Characteristics

The first aspect of a property is its physical characteristics.  This includes things like:

• square footage,
• number of units/rooms/bathrooms/etc.
• amenities (stainless steel appliances, gym, pool, etc)
• architecture
• class of property
• property condition
• location, etc.
 
The size, characteristics, and location will determine who wants to be your tenant, how much they’re willing to pay, what kind of appreciation you’ll be able to get.  When you’re assessing a property you want to consider all of these characteristics and what it means for your rental price.  

You will also want to assess how you could improve the property to it’s highest and best use or to get the highest and best rents.  Sometimes the best...

"Take every opportunity to hang out with people who inspire and uplift you." - Monick Halm

If you’re a Mompreneur, you should be investing in real estate.  In this article, I’ll share 5 big reasons why.

But first, how would I know?

I am an entrepreneur, mom of three, and I have been a real estate investor for 14 years now.  I started with duplexes and single family home flips and my husband and I are now invested in apartment complexes and mobile home parks.  With our investors, we own over 1200 rental doors in 6 states.

Real estate investment has been great for my family’s finances and lifestyle.

Even though there are surprisingly few women in this space, real estate investment is a wonderful side-business for women.

As an avid investor and real estate investment mentor, I’m always striving to improve my skills and knowledge in this field, so I attend a lot of real estate conferences and seminars.  When I’m in these conferences, often less than 10% of the attendees are women.

It’s surprising because real estate is...

I have to admit I was scared.

I took a deep breath as I signed the check request for $75,000.  If we didn’t get the $3,075,000 we needed to purchase this 77-unit building plus the $500,000 to renovate it, we would lose the $75,000 earnest money.  

We had never bought an apartment building before.  Up to this date, the largest thing we’d ever managed was a duplex.  I looked at my husband.  He seemed a little pale.  I’m sure I did too.  I took his hand in mine.  “Let’s do this,”  I said.

A week later we put in an offer for another building – 51 units, selling for $1,800,000.

Three months later, we sat toasting at an elegant restaurant in Albuquerque on the day we closed escrow and became the owners. That week we bought two buildings in Albuquerque – 128 units total.  We raised over $2.2 million dollars from private investors and got bank loans totaling...