From Broke Parent on the Move to Real Estate Mogul: The Untold Strategy That Built Me 4 Rental Properties Against All Odds

Joanna:
I was scared to make my first phone call.

Henry:
Now she has four rental units and she’s profited over $130,000 on her first two flips. In 2023, Joanna was home alone with a six-month-old baby while her husband was offshore working, and she was looking for a passive income stream that could help her have enough money to bring him home.

Joanna:
Then I discovered real estate investing.

Henry:
Joanna didn’t have any cash to start with, so she leveraged her home equity.

Joanna:
I wasn’t seeing many deals on the market, and that’s when I started talking to sellers.

Henry:
She didn’t have any construction experience, but she figured that out.

Joanna:
I bought my first rental property for $100,000.

Henry:
And that’s after she paid the seller $20,000 more than he was asking for.

Joanna:
I’ll explain that later. Now that house is worth double the amount I paid and it’s cash flowing hundreds of dollars.

Henry:
Joanna has made five more investment deals since 2023, right in our backyard of Northwest Arkansas. Her husband isn’t working offshore anymore and her family has a beautiful new five bedroom home. That’s the lesson of this inspiring story. Anyone can figure out real estate investing and start on the path to building financial freedom.

Joanna:
You can even use the same real estate investing strategies I used.

Henry:
Because we’re about to reveal them right now. Joanna, welcome to the show.

Joanna:
Thanks for having me, Henry. Oh,

Henry:
This is cool. Good full circle moment for me because I’ve been around you for a while and I’m excited for you to tell people your story because I think it’s really inspirational.

Joanna:
Yeah. I just in a short amount of time have been able to essentially change my family’s life. It’s a pretty big deal for us.

Henry:
I love it. I love it. So let’s start at the beginning. Tell us how you guys started.

Joanna:
I’m a nurse. My husband used to work in the oil field and

Joanna:
We had a lot of children.

Joanna:
So at

Joanna:
That time we had four children. I was just like, “We need to figure something out to where you can come home.” Oh, so

Henry:
He was working out of town in

Joanna:
The world? Yes. He was working 20 days out of town and then he’d be home 10 days. Oh, wow. The boys were getting older, and so I was just like, “They need their dad.” So I started thinking about ways that I could make money for us. Also, just thinking about when they go to college, how are we going to pay for all this? So I started listening to BiggerPockets. I actually heard you on a podcast, Henry Washington from Northwest Arkansas able to achieve a hundred doors. And I was like, “Wait, there’s somebody here who does this? ” So I was raised in Sabrina, Arkansas and immediately started following you, immediately started watching your funny videos and just was like, okay, I think I’m ready for the next step. Joined your mentorship in January of 2023 and then decided, okay, it’s time for us to start sending mail.
So started sending mail and that is how I got my first deal. I received a call in June from an elderly man who was looking to sell his property. He was getting older. He didn’t want to deal with the hassle of owning a home anymore. His children did not live close, and so he was ready for the next step in his life. So of course I asked him all the questions that I needed to ask him. And then in the end I was like, “What are you looking to get? What are you wanting?” And he said, “I really would like to just get 82,000.” And I was like, “Oh, okay. Yeah, sounds great.” It’s

Henry:
An oddly specific number.

Joanna:
So in my mind, I was like, “This house must be terrible because he only wants 82,000 and it’s in the middle of Rogers, Arkansas, which it was in a great location.” So I go over to the house that evening because Henry’s always like, “You got to go that day.” So I went that day, looked at the house, made him my offer, and essentially I asked him again at that point, “What are you looking to get? ” And he said, “I really want 82,000.” I said, “Well, I’ll be honest, your house is in great shape. I don’t foresee you having any issues selling this house on your own. All I can offer you is

Henry:
100,000.” What a negotiator.

Dave:
He was like, “You heard me say 82.” That’s less.

Joanna:
He’s like, “Can I sign this right now?” I was like, “Yeah, sure. You can sign right now.” And so he signed and we shook hands. I was like, “It’s a pleasure to meet you. ” And I left.

Dave:
Can I just ask, why did you go with 100 when he wanted 82?

Joanna:
In all honesty, I just knew that his house was worth more than what he wanted. And I knew that if he sold it on the market, he could probably get more than 82,000. At the time, I had a sibling of mine who told me, “Hey, I know you’re starting this journey. If you find something, just know that I have 100,000. I have that money to be able to. ” So that’s all I had. And so that’s what I offered because that’s the best I have for you. I can’t just give you 82,000. I need to give you more because I know that your house is worth more. I know you’re going to need more. And I don’t know. To me, it was just the right thing to do in that moment. I just was like, “I know I can give him 82, but I have a hundred.
So even if I buy it at 100, it’s still a really good deal.”

Dave:
I think that’s super commendable. Good for you. We talk a lot on a show about real estate does not have to be a zero sum game where one person wins and the other person loses. It should be mutually beneficial. And you created a good situation where the seller got more than he was expecting and you still got a great deal. And to me, that’s the perfect example of a win-win situation you can create in real estate.

Joanna:
Yeah. So he was really happy about it. I was obviously- I would have been elated about it and that was my first deal. I ended up helping him find an assisted living where he could move to. I helped him move some stuff out and sell some of his stuff that he left in there and ended up paying him that money of what we sold. And he actually rode with me to Title because he didn’t have any kids around and he didn’t drive anymore. So we drove together to Title and then- Do you

Dave:
Guys still hang out or …

Joanna:
No, we don’t hang out anymore. He was so sweet and he was so happy to be in his community. So yeah, it was a really beautiful experience. So I ended up calling my brother as well right after. And I was like, “Hey, you remember that

Dave:
100K?” I need it all

Joanna:
Now. I was like, “I’m going to need that money.” So then immediately my brother was like, “Okay, so how are you going to pay me back?” And so then my husband and I started the journey of getting a HELOC on our first property. So we were homeowners at the time. We bought our house in 2016. And so by 2023, we bought it for 130 and when it appraised at that time, it appraised for 250. Okay. Oh, wow. Good for you. So we were able to pull out a $100,000 HELOC on that property and I paid my brother back two months. So once we closed on that, I paid him back.

Dave:
So he lent you the money to close and

Joanna:
You

Dave:
Paid cash for the deal?

Joanna:
Yes.

Dave:
Okay. Then you paid him back with the HELOC.

Joanna:
Right.

Dave:
Was this a flip?

Joanna:
That was the idea going in for it to be a flip. After just telling my family members about the property, they were like, “It’s in such great shape. You should just keep it. ” So we fixed it up. We put new floors in it, granted, painted, did some other work that needed to be done, put a renter in it, six months later refinanced. Great. So it appraised for 220. Right.

Dave:
Okay.

Joanna:
And I pulled out just the one, it was like 110 that I was in it.

Dave:
Amazing.

Joanna:
Wow. Yeah.

Dave:
Perfect burr.

Joanna:
Right. Yeah. Right. What’s it rent for? It rents for 1,500.

Dave:
That’s a

Joanna:
Great

Dave:
Deal. Yeah.

Joanna:
And the mortgage is like 800 or so, something like that.

Dave:
Amazing.

Joanna:
Good for

Dave:
You.

Joanna:
Yeah. And it’s still in really good shape. So that was … Man, I was so happy about that.

Henry:
So what I really love about this story, and just kind of what I want to put out there, because I can see the comments already like, “Oh, I could do this too if my family had $100,000.” I get it. You did have a brother that gave you 100,000 to buy it, but that just bought you time because what you did was you went and you pulled a HELOC on your primary. And a lot of people do have a primary and have equity. And that’s a great way to find capital because once you pulled that HELOC, you just paid your brother off and you were all in it with your own money. So this is something that people can repeat. And I think one of the benefits and one of the safety net that she had that I want people to realize is don’t just go pull a HELOC and then go buy anything, right?
Because if you use borrowed money and buy a bad deal, you put yourself in double hot water, but you use- Credit card debt. Yeah, exactly. But you used HELOC money and you bought a really good deal and that gave you exits. You had equity. So if something were to happen and you were like, “You know what? I need to sell this thing.” You could have sold it, got all that money back and you were safe. So HELOCs are great tools to use if you buy a good deal and protect yourself. Man, that’s a super cool story. I’ve heard it a bunch of times, but it still gives me goosebumps when I hear it. We’ve got more of Joanna’s story that we’ll get to right after the break. As a real estate investor, the last thing I want to do or have time for is to play accountant, banker, and debt collector.
But that’s what I end up doing every weekend, flipping between a bunch of bank apps, bank statements, and receipts, trying to sort it all out by property and figure out who’s late on rent. But then I found Baselane and it takes all that off my plate. It’s BiggerPockets official banking platform that automatically sorts all my transactions, matches receipts, and collects rent for every property. My tax prep is done, my weekends are mine again, plus I’m saving a ton of money on banking fees and apps I don’t need anymore. Get a $100 bonus when you sign up today at baselane.com/bp. BiggerPockets ProMamers also get a free upgrade to Baseline Smart. That’s packed with advanced automations and features to save you even more time. All right. We’re back on the BiggerPockets podcast with Joanna, and she was telling us about her first deal, which ended up being a rental property.
So what happened next?

Joanna:
Oh, so after we bought that one, it was July of 23. My husband was laid off from his job and I was not working at the time. So I had just had a baby when we bought our- Baby number. Number

Dave:
Five?

Joanna:
Baby number five.

Dave:
Congratulations.

Joanna:
Yeah, baby number five. And I was like, okay, crap. I’m a nurse. So I told him, “I’ll just find work. I’ll work.” We were on a call with you, with your group, and I was just telling you about our situation and you said, “Well, why don’t you come work for me? That’ll be good experience for you while you find a nursing job.” So I said, “Sure, I’ll do that. ” Huge

Dave:
Mistake working. This is going to end badly.

Joanna:
So I was officially Henry Washington’s acquisition manager.

Dave:
Nice.

Joanna:
So yeah, so I started working for him and about a month later I also started working as a nurse. So I would work three days, 12 hour shifts, and then on my days off, I would work for Henry. And then my husband was at home with all the kids, which he loved. Wow. Actually, I even more double down on I need to learn this stuff. I mean, I was very blessed on my first deal. I was very happy about it, but I was still very scared. I’m still

Henry:
Scared all the time.

Joanna:
So I worked for him and that helped me a lot, just running numbers, talking to the sellers, going through the process. And I finally got another call from a mailer in April of 2024. It was a house on an acre out by the lake. And so I went out there to see it. I offered him, I think I offered him 130. Did he

Henry:
Ask for 110 and you were like, “Oh no, I’ve got 130 for you. ” He’s

Dave:
Like, “I could get Henry to pay 150.”

Joanna:
Kickback. He also was an older man looking to travel. He wanted to buy an RV. He also was looking into investing into other things, and so he wanted liquid cash. So we went back and forth a little bit on that one and we ended up settling at 140. Was the

Dave:
Idea to flip this one?

Joanna:
Yes. So this one, I wish I would’ve kept it. It was a cute home and it’s like not even five minutes from the lake. So I ended up putting new floors in it, painting it, granite, and it was a very light flip for me. So I was like, “Okay, I see why people do this. ”

Henry:
What was the rehab

Joanna:
Budget on it? So the rehab on that one, I think we spent what, 30? 30 on it. It took a lot longer than it was supposed to. But anyways, we ended up putting it on the market for 275.

Dave:
Yep.

Joanna:
And you

Dave:
Were in 170, yeah.

Joanna:
Yes. 24 hours later, we had a offer for full price. Amazing.

Dave:
Unbelievable. That’s so cool.

Joanna:
Yeah.

Dave:
So did you just finance it with cash because you pulled that 110 out of the first deal or did you use any financing?

Joanna:
When we refinanced our rental, we used that money to pay the HELOC back. So we had 100K in HELOC.

Dave:
Okay.

Joanna:
By this time, I had already pulled a HELOC also on my rental property. So I had 100,000 from our primary home, and then I had 75,000 in a HELOC from our rental property. So that’s the money that I used to pay for it and to fix it.

Dave:
It’s just an example of how once you get that first deal or second deal, you can use the equity that you have and that starts to build momentum and never gets easy, but it makes every deal a little bit easier.

Henry:
Never gets easy. It always feels scary. Yeah. But when you buy a good deal, you do have somewhat of a safety net. And it sounds like the second one was a good deal too, because you were all in for 170, you had it on the market for 275, had an offer full price and 24 hours. So what were you able to net walk away with on that one?

Joanna:
I walked away with 82,000 on that one.

Henry:
82,000

Dave:
Is your lucky number. It’s the second time it’s coming up today. All right.

Henry:
Can I ask this for some perspective? How much were you making as a nurse at this

Joanna:
Time? Oh God. I think I was making yearly probably like 50 maybe 50 to 60 a

Dave:
Year. And how long did that whole flip take you?

Joanna:
Probably about five months because I let him stay in it. I let him stay for a month. It took us about a month to fix it all up. And then once it hit the market, it was-

Dave:
Unreal.

Joanna:
Yeah.

Dave:
So I imagine at this point you’re all in on this. You’re like, “Yeah, I just made more than my annual

Joanna:
Salary.” My husband was like, “Okay, we’re doing this. ” We were like, “That’s what I’m talking. I’ve been saying this. ” Then both jobs

Henry:
Combined

Joanna:
Because

Henry:
Henry’s cheap.

Joanna:
So yeah, I mean, my husband was like, “This is crazy.” And I was like, “This is crazy.” So I continued to work for Henry. I continued to do my nursing job. While I was fixing that one, around June, another house came up that a wholesaler had. Essentially, he contacted me and was like, “Do you know Henry Washington or do you work for Henry Washington?” And I said, “Yes, I do. ” And so he said, “I have a house that I’m looking to sell.” I went to go see it, made the offer. Made the offer for me. Yeah, made the offer for Henry and Henry, the goat, he’s just had all these projects going on. So he was like- It’s

Dave:
Too busy.

Joanna:
Yeah, he was so busy. So he was like, “Hey, you know what? Do you want to do this one?” And it was a very scary one because it was not what I’m used to. I’m used to these little pretty ones that I can just put some floors, paint, granite. Obviously, I was not going to say no, but I was definitely scared. And so I was like, “Yeah, no, I’ll take it. It’s not a big deal. Yeah, I got it. ” And so he was like, “All right, find money.”

Dave:
Oh, you thought I was going to pay for it.

Joanna:
Yeah. So my mother-in-law had just retired, and I knew we were on the brink of closing the one by the lake. So I was like, “That money’s going to come right

Joanna:
Back

Joanna:
To me. ” So I talked to my mother-in-law about lending us money, and then my other brother also, we were just having a discussion and I was like, “I don’t know where I’m going to have to get these other $50,000,” because we went under contract for 150,000 with her. And he was like, “Well, I have a HELOC on my house. I can just let you borrow that. Y could just pay me the interest on it. ” And same with my mother-in-law. I actually was the one who had the idea because she had it in a savings account and it wasn’t really making her a whole lot. So I was like, “Listen, I’ll pay you 10% on your money if you let me borrow it. ”

Dave:
That’s fair.

Joanna:
So I borrowed the money from them to pay for the Bella Vista- Closing. Closing, yes. And then once I closed on the lake one, when we got that money, I used that money to rehab the Bella Vista one.

Dave:
Can I ask you a little bit about this? Because in real estate, everyone always talks about private- Private money. Private money, it sounds like this organization of bankers who are handing out cash left and right, but usually it’s friends and family, at least when you’re starting. I do some private lending. I don’t really lend to new people if they haven’t done a couple of deals, but I imagine it’s hard to approach your family and friends with those conversations. Can you just tell us a little bit about how you approach those conversations and how they went?

Joanna:
Definitely. So I really had to lay all the numbers out for them and let them know that their money was secured by the asset. So with my mother-in-law and my brother, I just let them know, listen, if I was to sell this how it is, you could still get your money back. It’s a good deal where we could clean it up, put everything in a dumpster, get it nice and clean, and we can probably still sell it as is for X amount of dollars and you can get your money back. I wanted them to know that it was a safe investment for them, that I wasn’t just making up numbers and I really had to explain everything out to them, what I planned on doing and what the value of that house was. I

Dave:
Mean, that’s great. That’s how a bank would think about it, right? We’re looking at the collateral and operator experience.

Henry:
So this one, you paid for 150? How much into it?

Joanna:
We actually ended up putting 60 into it, which was about budget of what we were meant to put in it, and we sold it for 281.

Henry:
So you made 40?

Joanna:
Yeah. One thing I didn’t budget for was windows. That was something that I wasn’t expecting, but still worked within the budget. I have a lot of uncles that helped me on that one. That’s nice. Yeah. I ended up getting a roof for five grand. Oh, nice.

Henry:
Whoa.

Joanna:
So that helped me- In

Henry:
Terms of roofs, that’s almost free. What is your uncle’s phone number?

Joanna:
Yeah. So that helped me out with the budget. I was able to put the money that I thought I was going to put into a roof, into the windows. My stepdad does floors and tile, so he did my floors and tiles on that one.

Henry:
Not for free though.

Joanna:
Yeah, not for free. Help me out. Yeah, yeah.

Henry:
She got a dose of reality on this. Because it didn’t sell in 24 hours. And when I tell you this girl was freaking out after two weeks on market. What did you do wrong? That you didn’t have an

Dave:
Offer. I think a whole generation of investors felt that in 2024 though or 25, whatever this was. Oh my gosh. Yeah.

Joanna:
Yeah. I listed it in October of 2024 and crickets. I did everything brand new. So roof, windows, water tank. I mean, everything was new, but everyone wanted the heating and cooling system. They wanted a brand new heating and cooling system.

Dave:
Just the one thing you haven’t done

Joanna:
Here. I’m the only thing I didn’t do. Do

Dave:
You have an uncle who does HVAC?

Joanna:
I don’t. I don’t have an uncle that does HVAC. I know I’m telling my cousins, I’m like, “I need one of y’all to do HVAC.” So anyways, we did end up going under contract in December and we closed in January of 25.

Dave:
Nice.

Joanna:
The next step, because my realtor was like, “Okay, it’s getting long here. I know your money’s out. I know you’re making those payments.” He’s like, “I really recommend if you don’t sell it, just rent it or Airbnb it. ” And we still would’ve been in a position, I think, to be able to do that. Perfect. But that week we had that conversation, we ended up getting an offer on it.

Dave:
How many days on market?

Joanna:
Over 50.

Dave:
Yeah. I mean, that’s like an average these days, but I’m sure

Joanna:
It’s. It

Dave:
Was average.

Henry:
I remember it was over a month because at about a month you were asking, you’re like, “I don’t know what I want to do. ” And I’m like, “All right, let’s run through the numbers.” And I’m like, “You’re sitting on 50 here. You’re fine.” Breathe.
All right, Joanna, that’s three amazing deals. I like the creativity you use to be able to get these things financed, but it’s actually not the most creative deal that you’ve done. And we’ll get into that one when we come back from our break. All right. We’re back on the BiggerPockets podcast and we are talking with Joanna and she’s talked us through three deals that she’s done where she’s had to get creative with how she took the deals down, but they were really successful. But I know you’ve got another one that involved a little more creativity. So let’s talk about that one.

Joanna:
So in Northwest Arkansas, we had a huge tornado come into the city. That was May of 2025. The city was destroyed. It was the worst thing that I think that has ever happened in this area, tornado-wise. There was a house on a corner lot that I would drive by every day.

Dave:
Had it been tornado damage?

Joanna:
Yes. So there was no roof on it. And one day I happened to drive by and I saw somebody putting a force, like an older man putting a for sale sign. So I stopped immediately and hopped down and I was like, “Hi, my name is Joanna. I’m a local investor in the area and I wanted to talk to you about your property. Could you tell me a little bit about it? ” And he was like, “Well, as you can see, that’s true.” And so I said, “Okay, well, let’s just get to it. What are you looking to get for it? What do you want? ” And he said, “I really like to get 120,000.” I immediately messaged my realtor, asked him for some numbers. He told me ARV was 350, 375. So the very next day, I walked to the house with my uncle, who’s a contractor, and he was like, “Listen, honestly, roughly…” He’s like, “You’re probably going to spend 150 or 60 on this house if you want to put it back where it was.
”

Dave:
So that’s a much bigger bite than

Joanna:
You’ve taken

Dave:
So far. Yeah.

Joanna:
So I told the little man that I would give him the 120 and- Was he

Dave:
Short?

Joanna:
Well, he wasn’t a little. He was very sweet. He actually, as we’re signing the contract, had people pulling up and wanted to buy it. And he was like, “Nope, I’m selling to her. We’re signing a contract as we speak.” And this guy was even like, “I’ll give you 150.” And he was like, “No, I’m going to sell it to her.” And I told him, I was like, “Take it.

Henry:
”

Dave:
Take it. Take

Henry:
The

Joanna:
Money. People just want

Dave:
To sell you houses.

Joanna:
Right.

Dave:
Honestly, no, it really is a skill that you have. If you obviously have a way with people,

Joanna:
They

Dave:
Trust you and want to work with you.

Joanna:
I think he was a very old school man and was like, “We shook on it. We signed the contract. I’m selling to you. ” And I was like, “This is nothing but a piece of paper if you want to sell it to him.” So anyways, I ended up closing on that one. It was going to be a flip. My husband walked it with me one night and he was like, “Why don’t we add rooms up top?” And he was like, “We can just move in it. ” And again, it’ll be brand new. He’s like, “We’ve been talking about, we want a new house.” All the houses in Northwest Arkansas that are four bedroom five, they’re selling for a significant amount of money.

Henry:
You’re currently at this time married with five children.

Joanna:
Right.

Henry:
Yeah. So it’s seven of you and you were living in how much square footage?

Joanna:
It’s 2,100 square feet. We had a bonus room in the back, but really it was a three two. They converted the garage, so we used it as a play area. So we had all the boys in one room, baby was in the room with us. And the oldest, obviously she had her own room because she’s the oldest girl. Ready for a bigger house. It was crowded.time. It was crowded. Yeah. Our older boy, he’s 11 now, but he was just like … They never really complained. They like being with each other, but we knew that they needed their own space. Yeah, at a

Dave:
Certain point. Yeah.

Joanna:
Right.

Dave:
And this house that you’re talking about, I mean, pop in the top’s expensive, but there’s no roof on it. The lid’s already gone. The top’s big. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And you’re going to have to do some structural work, I assume, on this house anyway.

Joanna:
Right. So we ended up getting an architect out there and getting an engineer out there to let us know if it could bear the weight of adding on top. They said yes. The house was originally a three two, but again, it had an office in the back without a closet. And so we ended up converting that office into an actual room, and then we built a room upstairs with a bathroom, and so it became a 5.3 is what it ended up being. And I had a garage. Which I was so excited about because we didn’t have a garage at our old house. So it ended up being a 53. We started on that renovation in August of 24. I didn’t have any money. I mean, we had money, but not enough for me to pay cash, as you can say.

Dave:
And this kind of changes it because you’re not going to sell it quickly. So you need

Joanna:
Money that

Dave:
You can leave into the deal.

Joanna:
Right. I went to several banks to ask them for a loan on this house. We looked terrible because we had both our HELOCs out. So we had our HELOCs in the Bella Vista house because it wasn’t selling, essentially I paid my family back, my mother-in-law and my brother with the HELOCs. And so we were out the HELOCs and people were looking at us like, “Y’all are crazy. You have $175,000 in debt and you think I’m going to give you a loan?”

Dave:
Yeah.

Joanna:
So several shut doors. They would not, they would not. And I was starting to freak out because I was like, “How am I going to find the money to pay for this? ” I told him that- You already had under contract,

Dave:
But you hadn’t closed?

Joanna:
No, we had it under contract and I was looking for the money. One of my cousins said, “You need to go see Martin at Legacy.” He knows our family. He’s helped me with some deals. So there I go right before my nursing shift, I go in there and I’m explaining to Martin the situation and I said, “Listen, as soon as this Bella Vista property closes, I’m going to pay those HELOCs back. I’ll be in a way better position than I am now. I’ve done a few deals.” He was like, “Well, tell me about you. Tell me about you. Are you from here?” I said, “Well, obviously you know my cousin and all my brothers have their own businesses.” And then I started doing this and I said, “My mother has her own business.” And he was like, “Well, what does your mother do? ” And I said, “She cleans houses.” And he’s like, “Oh, okay.” He’s like, “What’s her name?” And I was like, “Delilah.” I was like, “Her company’s DeeDee’s cleaning.” He was like, “Delilah?” And I was like, “Yes, Delilah.
Deedee’s Cleaning is your mom.” And I was like, “Yes, DeeDee’s cleaning is my mom.” And he was like, “She cleans my house.” He was like, “I know your mom. I’ve known your mom for years.” Oh my God,

Dave:
That’s so

Joanna:
Funny. So I was like, “No way.” And he was like, “I’ll tell you what, I know your mom. I know she’s an amazing human. I know she works hard.” He was like, “I’m going to work this out for you. We’re going to get this done.” He’s like, “We’re going to get this done.” So essentially- Is this the

Dave:
Community bank?

Joanna:
Yes, local community bank, and he ended up lending me the rehab and lending me the purchase. So we just had to come up obviously with But it was 10% down. Down

Dave:
Payment. And was that financing? Did you refinance it when it was done? Yes. Okay. So that was just like a bridge loan kind of thing?

Joanna:
Right. Yeah.

Dave:
So

Henry:
Purchase was

Joanna:
One-

Henry:
120.20. Rehab was one.

Joanna:
60.

Henry:
So you’re all in for 280.

Joanna:
We were all in for 280 and when we refinanced, the house appraised for 420,000.

Dave:
Wow. Unbelievable. That’s so cool.

Joanna:
Yeah. So we ended up just refinancing it and now in the process of pulling a HELOC on that one as well.

Dave:
Amazing.

Joanna:
And the

Dave:
Kids like it?

Joanna:
The kids are obsessed with it. Oh, that’s okay. They love it. They love it so much. And I’m not going to lie to you. I used to talk to Henry about this because they used to make me mad. They did not want to move from our old house because they just loved the neighborhood and they lived there all their childhood. So we’d walk it when it was almost done and they’d be like, “I don’t like this. I don’t.” And I’d be like, “You ungrateful of things. I’m working two jobs. I’m flipping houses. I’m trying to do something for you guys. And you guys don’t like it.

Dave:
” And now they love it.

Joanna:
Now they love it. Yeah. They are obsessed with it. They’re so happy.

Dave:
Oh, that’s great. Oh, what a cool story. Good for you.

Henry:
What I like about this story is there’s a couple of lessons. In real estate investing, oftentimes we make decisions for other people. It could have been very easy for you to say, “Four banks told me no. They’re right. My finances aren’t in the best place. I get it. And you could have walked away from this deal. That obviously has improved your family’s life for the better.” And so I think there’s a lesson in this and not taking no for an answer. One bank isn’t the end all be all and community banks can be a little more flexible. So instead of just saying no, you had to go put yourself out there again at the risk of being told no. So I love that you put yourself back out there. But also this is what community banking is. Personal relationships matter. And there are ways you can manufacture connection.
We’ve talked about this all the time. Get in your local community groups. You can go to Ria groups and meet local bankers. You can go to Rotary Club meetings and meet local bankers. You can go to Chamber of Commerce groups and meet local bankers and you’ll meet them on a more personal level so that when you’re walking into their office, at least these people have seen you. So these are things that you can manufacture. But the point of community banking is to support local businesses. And as a real estate investor, as a house flipper, you are a local entrepreneur. So walk into these banks, put yourself out there and try to take advantage of some of the benefits that come from community banking. I love this story. It literally makes me feel good every time I hear it. I just know your family personally. Joanna’s children are just amazing human beings.
And so me envisioning them in this house just makes me feel good. So it’s a super fun story. It’s great that real estate has allowed you to do that. So did you continue to buy? What’s your portfolio look like now?

Joanna:
So after we did the refinance on our house that we’re living in, I got a call about some duplexes. So we bought duplexes and we bought those for 240. We have each side rented out for 1,200. 1%. Perfect. So we fixed both the sides, but one of them had a more extensive rehab. So we fixed that side. They appraised for 350. And then shortly after in September, I got another call. Well, actually it was a call, but I’d been following up with her for a while was another tornado house. This one had half of a roof. I’m currently working on that one. And I just recently went under contract last week on another one in front of the house where I live right now. Amazing. So across the street. Yeah. So I have two flips going on right now and we have a duplex and two rental homes.
Right.

Joanna:
Amazing.

Dave:
Wow. Congratulations. So I mean, it’s been less than four years since you started. You said you started in 22. And it sounded like when you got it started, you had some goals, right? You wanted to bring in more income, get your husband closer to home.

Joanna:
Right.

Dave:
How has your progress so far helped you in pursuit of those goals?

Joanna:
Oh, wow. Tremendously, because we were able to pay off a lot of debt that we had. He is now home. So we’re happy about that. I think my biggest goal that I didn’t know I had at the time was this house. So our brand new house is just life changing that we were able to acquire that and invest in it and still not have … Because mortgage rates were high. So we were like, how are we going to be able to afford a $600,000 home? So now we have this room for everyone. It’s brand new and we can afford it. Amazing. And so that’s like my biggest happiness of all of this is that I was able to put my family in a brand new home and it’s enough space for all of us and we all love it.

Dave:
I love what you just said, that your goal being your own lifestyle. I think a lot of real estate investors focus on financial freedom. It’s this thing years in the future that you go out and pursue and nothing is good until you get that. But you’re a perfect example that real estate can help you improve your life today. It doesn’t have to be once you hit X amount of doors or some net worth. You have improved your family’s life in tangible ways. You have a new house, your husband’s home and closer to his family.That happened quick. You didn’t have to get dozens of doors. That was less than four years ago. So it’s a very inspiring and tangible story.

Joanna:
Yeah. So that’s just the biggest thing that he’s home. We’re in our new house and he ended up opening up a car dealership. Amazing. That’s what he does. So just for us to have the lifestyle of being able to be there for our kids, for soccer, for school things- My

Henry:
Kids, that’s a lot of kid

Joanna:
Activities. I got two

Henry:
That’s a lot to keep up with.

Joanna:
Yeah. So gosh, that’s just like my biggest thing.

Henry:
This story is amazing and I’m sure a lot of people got a lot of value from it. But I also know there’s probably some people listening who maybe feel like, “Man, I don’t know if I have the confidence to do this. I don’t know if I have the time to do this. I don’t know if I have the finances to do this. ” And you struggled with a lot of those thoughts. So what piece of advice would you give to the young lady or man listening right now and feeling those feelings? Oh,

Joanna:
Man. I really had to make the time, especially when we would have the meetings. I would be cooking on the meetings. I would be at soccer practice on the meetings. I started telling myself, “I’m going to do this. I’m going to be a real estate investor. I’m going to find my first property.” Just believing it because I didn’t believe it. I didn’t believe that I could achieve what I’ve achieved so far. That girl would never in a million years think that she would be in this position right now. So really just tell yourself every day that you’re going to do this and it will happen.

Henry:
I love it. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Joanna, for coming and sharing this truly inspiring story. It is a testament to how real estate can benefit you in the short term and long term and a testament to how we all have to
Kind of overcome our own negative self-thought and self-doubt. But there’s fundamentals to real estate. And if you follow the fundamentals, you can A, build wealth, but B, protect yourself while doing it. And I know that there was scariness and risk along the way, but you navigated that and you mitigated that and it shows. So we’re proud of you and thank you for sharing that with us. And for those of you listening, we hope you got great value from this episode. We appreciate you joining us and we’ll see you on the next episode of the BiggerPockets Podcast.