Happy Black History Month! In the spirit of the month, I want to share a story about a prominent African-American figure in real estate investing.

Meet Biddy Mason! Biddy Mason lived through slavery and still managed to become one of LA’s wealthiest women and one of the city’s first real estate moguls!

Biddy was a slave for most of her life, and she eventually moved to California with her master’s family where she spent many years working as a midwife, cook and livestock breeder. But because California was a “free” state, Biddy eventually petitioned for her and her family’s freedom and won.

When she gained her freedom in 1856 she worked for a prominent LA physician where she learned about the various enterprises that existed in the city and it sparked her interest in becoming a landowner. She saved her income from her job, and nearly a decade later she bought her first piece of property in downtown LA. It proved lucrative for her so she continued...

Mentors are here to help you, answer your questions, and guide you so that you don't make the same costly mistakes they did. A mentor's guidance is invaluable!

Maybe you can relate… My parents always told me I could be ANYTHING I wanted (so long as it was a doctor, lawyer, professor or engineer. ) Being a “good girl”, I dutifully graduated from an Ivy League law school. But as a lawyer, the slow itch of dissatisfaction started creeping up. Truth be told? Before long, I was full-out miserable. But I did what I thought was “right” until one Tuesday morning, in seemingly “perfect” health - it happened: The crippling pain. The frantic drive to the hospital. The panic about what was wrong with me. And then? A 9-day stay in the hospital and 30 days at home to recover from an emergency appendix rupture. But here’s the truly tragic part- after I realized I wasn’t dying? Relief. Relief at not having to go back to the office to attend to my mundane and miserable career as a lawyer. And then it struck me- who would rather be holed up in a hospital than living life? Had I really become so...

A friend of mine is a successful businessman who owns 3 multi-million dollar businesses. Some would say that’s pretty wealthy, right? BUT the problem is he still found himself owing $500,000 to the IRS one year. My friend was not happy about that and he learned he could reduce it if he invested in real estate. So he did! He bought an apartment building in Memphis, Tennessee and that apartment building brought his tax bill from $500K that year to $0. He’s making money AND he saved $500K. That’s all because of the federal tax benefits that real estate investing allows.

I share this with you to remind you that wealth is not just what you make, it’s what you keep! Real estate allows you to keep a lot more of the money you make, instead of giving it to Uncle Sam. 

Is residential housing, especially multifamily still a good investment right now? Are prices too high? Are we in a bubble?

As we review the state of the market, large multifamily in particular, we see that assets are performing wonderfully well while others are severely affected by economic issues.

As property prices continue to soar, it's a really hard time to find assets at a price where the numbers make sense. That is unless you have an advantage.

These advantages can include having stellar reputations that put you at the front of the line for opportunities and/or thinking outside of the box to find opportunities or to add value.

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In between cooking, the holidays, the family traditions, the cleanup, and the new year's resolutions, you may have been doing a little reflection over the last few days.

Are you excited to share the progress you’ve made towards your goals with your loved ones?

I tried many things on my journey to building a life with more flexibility (I’m a certified Money Mastery Coach, NLP Coach, Success Coach, certified mediator, certified interior designer, Reiki Master, certified yoga teacher, feng shui expert…). Slowly I started to realize what had been under my nose and all around me for years… real estate.

Why?

Because real estate is the perfect passive income vehicle for women, especially those raising a family or caring for others.

Unlike so many of our traditional careers, in real estate you don’t have to trade your time for income. After expenses, what you have is monthly, recurring mostly-passive cash flow … while you sleep! You can vacation, spend...

“When you have clarity of intention, the Universe conspires with you to make it happen.” ~Frederique Frederickson

Clarity of vision is the most magical thing for goddesses, and yet it can be one of the hardest things for many of us to find. I can definitely relate. This was exactly where I was about 4 years ago...

My husband and I had been flipping houses in LA. We thought that was what we wanted to keep doing, but as property values rose it was getting harder to make that business work for us. We started to look for 4+ unit buildings (thinking a buy-and-hold strategy that would keep us cash flowing was a better option), but financially we were finding it nearly impossible to find something (a) we could afford in LA and (b) would make us any money even if we could afford it.

Flipping had been our main source of income. We were stuck and starting to burn through our savings. We had a complete lack of clarity on what to do and how to get out of our situation. I was starting...

What makes a great team member? I always come back to the three C’s when I’m evaluating someone to be on my team, to work for me, or to welcome into my inner circle. These 3 C’s are (in order of importance):

1. Character: this tells me everything I need to know about them. I evaluate how trustworthy they are, I evaluate how they treat all people (like the waitstaff, their assistant, me, etc), and I evaluate their overall integrity. I only want to work with people who are trustworthy and who respect the people around them, so character is a big one for me.

2. Commitment: you don’t want to bring someone on your team who you can’t rely on! So commitment is another key value that I consider before I start working with someone. I look at their commitment to our shared mission/vision/values- are they practicing what they preach? I also evaluate their commitment to our shared project- are they holding up their side of the deal? Are they hitting deadlines? Are...

Step 1: Harness your power.
Step 2: Believe in yourself.
Step 3: Take over the world.

People all around the world have created millions because they invested in real estate. 90% of millionaires become so through real estate. Today we are going to share 4 incredibly successful female real estate investors that you should know about!

1. Barbara Corcoran

At the age of 23, she quit her job as a waitress and borrowed $1,000 to found a little real estate company in NYC that would become the largest and best-known brand in the brokerage business: The Corcoran Group. She's also a shark on Shark Tank. She has a net worth of $100 million. 
Learn more about Barbara here

2. Dottie Herman

Dottie began her real estate career in 1978 working as an agent for Merrill Lynch on Long Island. During that time she became one of the top brokers, and in 1989, she took out a $7 million loan to buy Prudential Long Island Realty. From then on she put all her efforts into building the most powerful brokerage on Long Island and then in the Hamptons. She has a net worth of $270 million.
Learn...