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As one of the sponsors for the first-ever Real Estate InvestHER® Conference, we are very proud to bring you our special guest for this week's episode, Liz Faircloth. 🤩

Along with partner Andressa, Liz started The Real Estate InvestHER® because she saw a significant flaw in the REI networking world: It was not very inclusive of women in the space. They set out on their goal to create that space for women to join together with their shared passion for real estate investing, and the InvestHer community was born.

Today, the Real Estate InvestHER® community has over 50 Meetups across the US and Canada and an online community and membership that offers accountability and mentorship for women to take their businesses to the next level. Join Brendan and David to learn more about InvestHER® and how women are shaping the industry in the full episode of Real Estate Investing Unscripted!

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Brendan: Welcome back to another episode of Real Estate Investing unscripted. I am Brendan Bennett, VP of Revenue here at Fund That Flip and your co-host and with me is your other co-host, David Dugan. What's going on, David?

David: Brendan, all is well in my world over here. back in the studio again today. Excited. How's, how's everything in your world, Double B?

Brendan: Can't complain, man. We had a, a great recording yesterday with Val Moses from Fund That Flip. by the time that this episode drops Val's episode have already been out for, for a couple of weeks. So, if you haven't listened already, pause this one. Go listen to that one and come right back. Val dropped a ton of knowledge for us about her experience as an investor in the Cleveland Market, but also how that experience as a Cleveland investor influences her role as VP of asset management for ftf. So I work at the company and I learned a lot about what Val does on the Air live during that podcast.

David: Yeah, that was awesome to have her. you know,  you and I are lucky enough to get to chat with her offline a lot, but, it was awesome to have her in the studio so she can share her, her knowledge with everybody. And, as it happens, we've been having just a lot of rockstar women. On the podcast of late, and, we have another one today that I know I'm very excited about.

so I'm gonna go ahead and, and jump right into our bio. Liz Faircloth. So Liz is the co-founder of The Real Estate InvestHer movement and community. So their mission is to empower women in real estate to live a financially free and balanced life on their own terms. She, grew up in a middle class family in New Jersey.

She graduated school and worked to become a social worker. She then got into the Rich Dad Poor Dad book, as many of our, our investors and our clients do, and that was life changing for her. And then from there, she started her real estate investing career in her twenties. she's now operating a large scale real estate business, while also empowering thousands of women across the country to reach financial freedom.

So Liz, it's great to have you. Welcome to the podcast.

Liz: Thank you. Thank you Brandon and David. appreciate both your time, appreciate being here on your show. 

Brendan: course. We're excited to have you. So Liz, David did a 30 second overview of who you are, your background. If you wouldn't mind, we'll get into a ton of detail later, but just give us the Liz Faircloth version of who you are and, and what got you here, 

Liz: The Liz, the Liz Faircloth version. I like that. How much time do we have now? Um, yeah. In, in a nutshell, my husband and I met in our, in our twenties, and I had, I had already read Rich Dad Poured Out. I ga I was given that from my, brother-in-law. Okay. And I was in school for social work, so I was, I wanted to be a therapist.

I wanted to own my own practice, but simultaneously I get this book, I meet my husband, and then we started taking courses and courses and just opened our eyes to, wow, not just working for money, but money working for you. both my parents to this day are literally the hardest working people I know.

And I, and I'm appreciative of that, right? Cuz it's served me in my upbringing. I'll say it's really helpful to know other strategies. So money is working for you as well, right? And as you, as you start to build your portfolio. So we start taking courses, not knowing anyone, didn't even have the money to buy our first property, and we ended up buying our first investment in 2004.

I am. Dating myself, but that's okay. Quite some time ago, it was 19 years ago, I bought my first investment and and it was great. it was a duplex and we learned a lot. We, we did it by going door to door and knocking. I mean, just old school. It was no sh more than a strategy than just literally asking everyone we knew and going door to door to see if they wanted to sell their properties.

And, and it worked. And we ended up buying our first duplex and then we really got our start scaling and buying more properties in New Jersey. Trenton, New Jersey, which was a tough market to be honest. And there's a whole bunch of lessons I can teach there. Um, and then we really got our scale when we went elsewhere and started investing outta state.

So we own properties, still own in New Jersey, but we own in Pennsylvania and Kentucky and North Carolina. So, um, Yeah, our journey's been a lot of twists and turns. And then along the way I met my other partner, Andressa, and we launched the Real Estate InvestHer community about five years ago. So I can share more about that

David: Yeah, so the, that's of course one of the main things we wanna talk about, and you've got the awesome neon behind you with the, the investor real estate, community logo on there, and that's awesome. Explain to us, if you can, where the need for that came from. Like why, why is it such an important movement?

Where did that need come from?

Liz: Yeah, it's, it's interesting and I'll share a little bit about what's happening right now in the world from a, from a financial end and where, where we feel like we're adding value and how we wanna really add value. But when we, we started the community, it, it really came out of me and Resa. Coming together, and her and I both had this shared passion of supporting women, whether it was me in business or starting different groups.

We just had this both shared passion of that. and we were both active real estate investors. We were doing deals together and we'd go to conferences, we'd go to meetups, and there just wasn't a lot of women. On stage, there was a lot of women presenting. there wasn't a lot of women there, to be honest.

We knew women invested, right. It was five years ago. we just didn't know a lot of them, and, and we didn't know how we can bring them together because I. There is something really helpful and safe when you bring people together who have shared goals. Share a shared, you know, not that we're all the same, but you have a shared kind of life script and you can't dismiss when it comes to construction.

I'm not talking about like, you know, there, there, there's still a level of, of mail and finance and, and when you think of an investor, You still think of a white male on Wall Street? I mean, most people, right? Or I've never done the research, but probably seven outta 10 people will still say that. So there's a level of working through that.

It's not right, not wrong. There's no good, there's no bad, we're not ever male bashing. Um, I think, I work with a lot of men. I think men are amazing. We're just creating a safe space for women to thrive and that's what we're up to. And, and that's just evolved over the last five years. To share a little bit of what's happening now, right?

Women actually control 10 trillion of the household finances, which is a lot, right? Which you could say is a lot. In the next three to five years, it's gonna go to 30 trillion. So for a lot of reasons, right? Women outlived men, seven to six to seven years. there's a, there's a changing shift happening where, again, stereotypically general, from a generalization perspective, right, who controlled the money in the household, women are actually like, Over 70% very comfortable running the, being the cfo.

That's not the issue. Women's confidence in investing goes down to 19%. So there's a real gap of controlling money and actually controlling it from the perspective of investing it. And that's where we feel like we're trying to add as much value and create that, community that can help women through that.

Cuz it's not just about the knowledge, right? I mean, you can Google how to flip a house, you can Google how to buy a rental property. I mean, it's not the easiest thing, but it's actually not rocket science. That's not the gap that women, these are very smart women. That's not what's holding them back. It's not the how, it's doing it with other people, getting the support, not making the same mistakes.

So that's what we really lean into online and offline, creating this community of women that they don't have to feel like they have to do it alone, and they can do it with more access, more speed. These women are 35 to six years years old. This is not, no offense to millennials. They have time. If you're in your twenties, the women we serve mostly is, is older, right?

They're not older, but they, they don't have time to waste. They wanna do it. Now,

Brendan: Liz, through your guys' research and experience, what do you think drives that 19% confidence level for women to, to take charge of finances and to pursue financial freedom? What have you found has been most common of, of the reason for their confidence level being here I know it's not all about driving the statistic, it's about real life results, but I'm curious cuz that's a staggering one.

Liz: I mean, you know, gender roles is, is a real thing. I mean, you know, and I think it ma, it doesn't, it doesn't mean that all the different, Families, they operate the same way. But there are unset expectations. If you have a traditional relationship, even from a masculine to a feminine to a man and a woman, there are still traditional things that both people do.

Not in every household, but a lot of women we still talk to. So in that age demographic, you have women whose kids are now graduating. So the, the time freedom. So say, okay, you have women who have maybe worked their whole life in a profession that they're like, I'm an engineer, I'm a professional. I'm done with killing myself.

I wanna do something that gives me more freedom. That's one, a big group of women we serve. Right? Then you have women who have been maybe stay-at-home moms who've literally been managing the household and, and raising the kids, and now they're like, hold on. I have all these skills that I can be applying to something that gives me more independence.

So I think there's a shift of, um, wanting more freedom, financial freedom, and, and also not just shift. I think I. And putting in the pieces of the puzzle to get me there. And, and obviously, you know, buying real estate, doing something that takes that effort is a way to get there. There's a lot of investment strategies.

Right. But, you know, real estate is one of them that, you know, people also are seeing stuff on H D T V. They're like, hold on, I can do this, you know, kind of thing. So the. It's not this obscure random, no one talks about investment class. I think it's one that's out there and it's just like, okay, how do I do that though?

So I, I do think just the shift in what women want and need has always been there, but I think women, there's more permission, there's more support. and the time is now due to the statistics I just shared too.

Brendan: What do you guys specifically target when you're working with women to help them elevate that competence level? Cuz for you it's, they have the know-how they, they have a lot of the technical skills. It's, it's about the proof of concept for them that they need right before they jump feet first. 

Liz: It's the knowledge

and the community. So, you know, I think equals confidence because what, what ends up happening in traditional, I think, traditional sort of settings is go get the knowledge. Go read the book, go get the podcast. So listen to the podcast and you'll go learn how to do it and, and then, you know, Godspeed kind of thing.

That's great, but we all know people who know. How to lose weight, right? We know how to actually do it. Why is there so many diet programs and systems out there, right? I mean, they're not going outta business and then just more comes out. It's like, has it, have we had a book about that before? It, it doesn't matter because it's still something that sells.

Cause people still aren't common sense is in common practice. Right? So the part of, of the knowledge is great, but without community of. I, I joke, but women don't, like, if they're out, they don't go to the bathroom by themselves. They usually go with someone, you know, no offense. But a lot of men don't go to the bathroom with their friends.

Women do. Women do a lot together. So we're creating a community of, of, of women who don't necessarily want to go shopping together. They may or, or talk about nonsense. They're talking about their goals. They're talking about investments, they're talking about how do they increase their net worth. That's what these women wanna talk about.

So it's just we're creating a different community of what the conversations that are kind of quote unquote, socially acceptable. cuz it's not easy when you're living and you're, you're connecting with neighbors and they're lovely people, but you're like, I wanna talk about something a little deeper.

Like, I wanna go buy cuz what, you know. And I, I'm at events and it's just interesting cuz the guys will always ask my husband, oh, what are you investing in right now? You know, wouldn't it be cool to go to an event and just hear women talk about that? And that's what happens at our community. But that's usually, you know, what we've, we are really encouraging and they talk about the other stuff, right?

What your, what your crazy kids are doing. I mean, all of it, right? So that's what we're encouraging and that's what community encourages. Because if not, you're in your head, you're reading a book and then you're talking to your neighbor and they're like, what are you thinking about? Don't invest right now.

It's a horrible time to invest with the interest rates. And then you go back to your life and go, yeah, she's probably right cuz she doesn't know who else to talk to. I'd be like, it's a great time to buy. You know? We just gotta be smart and be conservative. So I don't know if that helps, but it's the, it's the knowledge plus the community equals the confidence.

So I'm not doing it alone and, um, I transfer the skills that I already had somewhere else to this business cuz there's so many women who really have the skills and the, the, the knowledge, they just have to transfer it.

David: I think there's a lot to that, right? The, the community piece, cuz I, I often take it for granted. One, I, you know, I'm a white male, right? I, I get to work in a place that allows me to be immersed in real estate all day, every day. I've been doing this for, you know, almost four years and it's still, It's still taking me this long to buy my first investment property.

Now, I just did that last week, but I wouldn't have been able to do it without being surrounded by all those people that were like-minded. Right. And having that community around me. But it was, it's a lot of people that are like me, they look like me. They're around my age. Right. And like, I, I think you, I think you need that.

Right. And I, I see it here within our own four walls of this office. There are plenty of women who are now getting into real estate, really smart. Hardworking women that see this as a real opportunity and, and they're kind of creating their own communities, or they're part of your community, right? Real 

estate investors.

So I think it's a, I think it's an awesome cause and I think there's a lot to the community piece that can help people actually, one, get started and then two, help them grow. Um, all that being said, I, I did have a question kind of just along the lines of, Women in general. Right. Do, do you find that women are more risk averse, just naturally?

or is it something that women are more conditioned to, to be more risk averse? What's your take on that?

Liz: It's a great question. there's just, there's statistics that show that women will outperform men from an investing perspective. The reason why, and it's, it's a small gap, but it is a gap of, of, of outperforming. The reason why is that they may, that this study showed it, They might be more conservative in making the decision, so it may take longer or they might get more information, but it's usually the right one. So I do think there's a level of, of overall, and maybe that's conditioned, whether that's you're, you're born with it. I, I would say that a lot of the women in our community are risk taking people.

They're naturally risk takers. They have that risk taking. were they, were they encouraged to do that? Were they in an environment they were able to do that? Or not. Right. That's a whole other Right. Nature and nurture conversation that is way above my pay grade. I, I'll just say that. I think, I think normally, and, and this is 

the women that are, at least in our, we have our general community, and then we have our, our mentorship program, which is called Strive.

So I'm just speaking from, from what I can see in working with these women, they, they

have a level of conservative meaning, okay, I wanna make sure this is the right decision. But then once they make it, they go and they manage it and they, and it's usually is the right call. They don't usually make these haphazard call like, because you gotta remember the number one reason women invest in real estate is for generational wealth.

So the last thing someone wants to do is pick the wrong asset, right? They're not just doing this for, there's a lot of reasons to invest, right? There's a lot of reasons to buy property. It's not just a kind of boast at the picnic, it's to really no offense, but people do do that for the different reasons.

We all have reasons why we do things. It's to literally pass a legacy down to their kids. So they're not gonna take that lightly in the sense of, eh, it could be this or this. They're gonna be very mindful cuz the, that's the overarching goal that, that a lot of women have in terms of investing in real, in, in real estate in particular.

But yeah, I mean in, in terms of like the, the profile of the women we serve, they're naturally risk taking. I don't, I just, I think they have to un, we have to unlearn things, you know, as well, not just learn things. Because usually it's, it's their core behavior. And I, one of the things we do in our member mentorship is what's their natural behaviors versus who they've adapted to.

And it's fascinating to see a lot of women actually are becoming more cautious and careful, which if you do that, not to get too geeky with personalities, but if you have a risk taker who is being cautious, what it actually yields is someone who, who's indecisive. And we see that a lot because actually I'm not naturally indecisive.

I've learned to be cautious and hold back. So now what's manifested is this indecision, which is naturally is not there for them. So we do a lot of that, work not just about real estate strategy, but it's also work on themselves. Meaning what are my blind spots? Like what do I need to really be, go all in on, you know, am I, if I'm a visionary, am I trying to do it all myself and be the manager?

You know, visionaries who try to manage are. It's a bad horror movie. They shouldn't do that. And vice versa. So that's the work we do is like, how do they do it on their own terms, not just by someone else's standards. I think the big thing that comes up too, David, from a cautiousness perspective, is they don't need more units to be successful.

And, and, and I really, and no one does men or women, but there is a, there is something out there about like, you know, I don't know, there's something about the, the a hundred units or more. And like I'm more than if I buy more, I don't know what that's about. I don't know where it came from, but I could just say that that's not what we stand on because you could financially be doing great with 10 units and 10 properties, let alone.

50 that are kind of doing okay. You know, or a building that's just sucking the wind. I've had it, I've seen it. I, I've experienced it. So does that make them more cautious? Maybe. But does that make them more profitable? That's what women care about. They, they don't want, it's not about the

numbers. 

Brendan: I love that you guys focus on that because I think I, when I was very early in my real estate investing career three, four years ago, I was fixated on the most number of units possible. Cause I thought that gives me credibility. No matter what room I'm in, I'm able to, connect with people that are at all varying levels of real estate investing.

But now that I've been doing it for a couple of years and. I've experienced some of the hardships and like, Hey, it's not really about that. It's like, what? Why am I doing this? I'm doing it for cashflow. I'm doing it for generational wealth. So to your point, Liz, if you, if you need 10 properties that are maybe short term or midterm rentals, that you can get the same result with 50 that are long term, I think.

I think it's really smart that you guys preach that and focus on that, because other investment communities, whether they're men focused, women focused, whatever, Don't always do that. And I think you could maybe send someone down, a wild goose chase that isn't gonna lead to them being as successful as quick just by saying, Hey, that's quality over quantity, which is, you know, very cliche, but also very true.

the one other comment that I wanted to to mention is you said a lot of the women in your group are risk takers, and I think that makes sense because there's way less risky options out there than real estate, right? They could put money in a cd, they could put 

Liz: Correct. I don't believe real. Real, I agree. I think real estate is an asset class is fairly a very 

Brendan: Sure. So I, I, I think what I'm, what I'm interested in is, it sounds like now you guys focus on, women in the investing space at large.

So real estate still being a core tenant of that. But do you guys now has the real estate investor community expanded beyond the core real estate? You guys talk about all the other avenues of investing that are often tangential to real estate.

Liz: Yeah, it's actually where, where we're headed, you know, as a, as a brand. you know, we're really leaning into the, the, you know, um, It's the real estate investor, but really at the core of it, you're, you're, what does it mean to be an invest her? Right? And so yeah, we're, we're definitely, we've always taken the holistic view of we have three pillars in our community.

So even from like a content perspective, when we put our invest her con together, if we do anything, it's like we think about these three pillars. Real estate, investing, self-care, and business. Because the last thing women wanna do is, or anyone is build, build a, an investment portfolio and not run it like a business cuz it is a business.

Um, I know you guys. Probably preach that when you're working with your, your customers. Right. and I'll say the self-care piece is often overlooked. It's often overlooked for a lot of people. but certainly, you know, for, for the women we serve, right. So you're, you're kind of, women don't wanna just achieve blindly.

They've already done that. They're already have been successful in their life. That's not what we're trying. Oh. Have more goals. Women have to have less goals. That's the women we're talking to. Like, you have to underperform in a sense or get laser focused on what you're after. I was just talking to a woman, a moment ago and, and she was sharing about a flip and this and that and that.

I said, and, and she wasn't in our program yet, but we was just an exploratory call. I wanted to see where she was at and support her. I said, can I, can I recommend something to you? She goes, yeah, what, what? Which one do you think the flip or the midterm rental? I said, I think you need to breathe. And she just stood there and she's like, you're right.

I really need, I'm like, you haven't taken a breath. You've spoken for 10 minutes and you haven't breathed.

So

I can see that because I'm like that too. And I, I think that's what we're up to is like mindfully, mindfully achieving, right? Mindfully saying, do I really wanna be an active investor now? You know, I, I started my twenties.

I'm in my forties now, mid forties for that matter. I mean, if I'm active, I need, it's gotta be very focused and it has to be very, there's a very good reason We are active in our large multifamily business where we're syndicating and doing that. But other projects, I'm like, eh, how do I bring a partner into this?

I don't wanna run this. No, nah. You know, we're, you know, again, when you're in a different stage, you, you are, do everything. So, so that's the, that's who we're really serving and that's really what it's about, is holistically not just investment wise, but holistically, how do we serve each other and help each other?

Cuz it's not just about the investing. Why do people want to buy real estate? They want freedom. Why do they want freedom? They want more peace. Well, let's just be peaceful now. That would be helpful versus waiting five years in our passive income, because I tell you, even at that point people won't, they'll find something else.

So it's about like kinda happily achieving and doing it in a really, really intentional way that we use that word a lot intentional. and that's what we stand upon. You can get advice anywhere and figure out how to buy a property. That's not really what we, that's not our, that's not where we shine.

It's really about the holistic view.

David: So I, I think you're touching on some really hard hitting points, right? intentionality, right? Like being, being very, I would say almost detail oriented. Brendan and I work with real estate investors every day, right? And we help them scale. So naturally we deal with the people that are.

Totally scatterbrained trying to do a million different things at once. They don't have any system or process to whatever they're doing, and they're kind of a mess, right? We help try and wrangle 'em in as best we can, but they're a mess. but then we have the ones that do it at the, you know, kind of a pace that works for them.

They focus on the detail and they tend to have more success. And I, I think there's something to that. So I wanted to pivot a little bit into something you just mentioned, which is, you know, some of. where, where your business is headed now, right? You're doing some syndications, you're doing larger projects.

with a lot of investors that I've worked with, it's, it's about, you know, to use a sports analogy, right? They see the ball go in, right? They see the ball go in. They've had success, right? Okay. I bought a property. I got some success there. Okay. I bought 10 and I executed 10 rehabs. I saw some success there.

Now I want to get into different asset classes. How did that process work for you? Was it like a gradual like. Stair step thing where you, you tried different assets and saw success there, or did you do it a different way?

Liz: that is probably the biggest thing that I wish I learned when we were scaling was the idea that more is not better in a different asset class is not necessarily better either. meaning. I talk a lot about managing and maximizing your current assets and how important that is and how most people don't do that very well, so, I think once we started to manage and really maximize our smaller multifamily and said, this is a focus for us.

Like what do we do? Well, we were property managing. We had flips going on. we had a raw land deal. I can go on and on. All the random things we had going on. Um, I think we were naive. I think we were young. I don't think I was very business minded. You know, I was a social worker by background. I just wanted to help people.

My husband was an engineer, but he was all, I mean, talk about scattered right in our twenties, so, Once we said, what? What is it that we do well? Like, and usually people don't do a lot. Well, they usually do one or two things really exceptionally well. Let's be honest. No one does 10 things exceptionally well, so.

We were doing a lot of things that were good. We were doing things that were some bad and then we were doing like one or two things, so spying small, multi with other investors, right? Pulling money together, doing it with, um, active partners and passive partners. We were really having and taking dilapidated buildings, renovating and doing like the classic burr strategy. We were doing that very well. That was the only thing we were doing exceptionally well, to be honest. Managing our properties. Again, flipping, I'll make the long list of things that just depending on the partner, just, you know, so, um, That's what we really went all in on and said, how do we let go of the rest?

So we had at that point, you know, really make a decision as we scaled. We went from like an eight unit to an 18 unit, and then the 18 unit, we went to a 49 unit and at that point we let go of managing. So we actually hired a third party manager as the first property that we decided to do that with. We managed everything ourselves.

We had a team, we had a construction team. It was tough. It was a lot of tough years managing that cuz it's all management. Think about it, property management companies are successful if they're amazing. It's stellar at actually managing systems and processes. That is not what my husband and I bring to the table.

Again, we did it. We had to, but it wasn't something like, oh my God, that's my core genius. I love to manage processes. No, that's, that's not, we'd like to enroll, grow, find new properties, put money together. That was what we did well. So once we did that and really owned that, we let go of other things, really let go of other things.

Um, we scaled and then the 49 unit really gave us this whole opening of, wow, we can buy property and not manage it ourselves. My husband wanted to put a team in place. It was an hour and a half from our house. I said, that's a horrible idea. Because now not only we have to manage a process, now we have to manage remote people that is not in our, that we're gonna, it's gonna, it's gonna end.

It's gonna end bad. So he listened to me and so we hired that third party manager, which then gave us the confidence, like this opening that we can now, oh, we can go outside an hour and a half. And then we bought properties in North Carolina, in Kentucky and really build out, you know, the concept of what we did well with a four units buying underperforming assets.

And, and, and, and obviously doing it with other people and bringing it up to the performance it needs to be. That's, that's the model. it shifted a little bit cause this market's a little funny with multifamily and I can share what we're actually focused on now, or, or we're tweaking that a little bit.

but yeah, that's a little bit about our journey and, it's about the managing and maximizing what you have and going all in on what you do well and letting the rest go to others. And that was hard for us, but we did it and we knew that was the right thing to do and I'm so grateful We are, we are not managing directly anymore.

Brendan: And Liz, to that point, I'm curious, you mentioned that, the real estate investor community is where you're spending a ton of your time today. So like the next one to two years, do you see yourself kind of gravitating more into that? Hey, I'm gonna find people to run the real estate side of the business cause I don't wanna let that go.

But my passion and, and my time is most valuable if I'm investing into the community that you've guys have built over the last five 

Liz: Yeah. 

Brendan: Walk us through that a little bit. 

Liz: Yeah, 

You know, it's funny because around the same time I met my now partner, RESA, my husband and I, I had, various roles. We worked full-time together. We started it together. there was many years that I was more, Back seat. And he was the front seat because, I was working and making, making money for us cuz it wasn't getting yielded from some of the real estate that we were doing.

so there was a lot of roles I had, but you know, it was 2013, I had my son, I left my corporate role. I had to do some soul searching and I, and I was doing things in the business that wasn't, weren't bringing me joy. My husband and I are actually very similar. And, and that's a good way in good ways and bad ways, right?

But, if you have two people that are similar, you either need really focused lanes or you become redundant and you don't want redundancy in a partnership, cuz then you don't need the other person. So I was doing things in the business and then that led us into like 2014, 15 and 16. and then I met my partner around that same time.

We started, you know, looking at different things we can do together. You know, I, I love real estate. But what I love more than real estate is empowering people and inspiring and creating, creating a place for people, especially women. to have the ahas like that to me is like why I'm on this earth. So it superseded real estate.

Investing is the vehicle. So for me, I had to really listen and go and it was very, very, very stressful for my husband and I to be both as active as we were in the business. So we really had a look at what, what, what is my highest best use of my time. I was doing all the investor relations, and then we hired someone, we fired me from that.

So I, it was always like, how do we fire me from that strategically and like where I weigh in, I do, I'm involved, but it's, it's more strategic at this point. It's not day to day. which then allowed me to really go all in on what my passions were with, with really creating the space for women with a podcast.

And it led to meetups. You know, we didn't charge anything for any, you know, we didn't charge for the first few years of invest her. Um, we didn't know it was a business. We didn't actually create an LLC until, like year two. It was really just a movement. It was a community. We just wanted to create something where women felt comfortable.

and then people would, women would be like, what do you do? What are you doing here? We need this. We're like, oh, okay. This is an opportunity to really serve the market, right, and to serve women. so that it was almost like this perfect blend of where my own trajectory was going. I left my corporate job that I really loved.

That's what I was doing, was inspiring, people in the corporate sense, but that wasn't the demographic I wanted to continue on. So I kind of retired from that in a sense. And then joining my husband, I'm like, hold on, I'm losing myself here. And then that really was born into my own thing, my own company, which I co-founded with, with Andres.

David: You have a, Kind of a fascinating path, right? That the, what's fascinating to me is you started in social work, which to me is like a very, very noble career because it's one of the most underpaid professions I think you can have, right? You're, you're working hard and you're helping people. You, you've somehow found a way to parlay that into a career that actually makes you money, but you're still serving a very social purpose, right?

Mm-hmm. You're still helping people. I think that takes a special type of person and a special vision, and you've accomplished it. So, so kudos to you.

question kind of related to that, so like you've, you've been able to find certain advantages, in investing in, in being a woman and, and kind of share those advantages with other people in your community.

What are some of the advantages that you find that women have in investing? and on the flip side, what, what are some disadvantages that you think women are running into?

Liz: a disadvantage in general, and not that every woman experiences this, but. you know, I've experienced it sometimes on the end of going to events and they're like, oh, is your husband here? You know, oh, did your husband get you involved? I'm like, no, I got my husband involved first off.

You know, like, and Andrea likes to joke cuz she was very, focused on the construction side very, you know, as the construction manager. And, you know, you'd have contractors, especially contractors, right? Ask questions like, what, well, you don't, you're not gonna make this decision. Your husband is.

She's like, I write your check. He doesn't know anything about construction. Right. So I, you know, are all contractors like that? No, I mean, I can't say that, you know, and to even be general is not fair. I think that's, you know, something, you know, if you think about the, just the history, right? women actually couldn't open a bank account with their hu without their husband like 30 years ago.

That they couldn't do that. So there was things that you couldn't do literally legally that have changed, but, you know, is, is the ism still there? I, you know, that's a whole other conversation for another day. But yeah, sexism still exists. It is what it is not is what it is. And, and I don't mean to like dismiss it, but it, it does exist.

And what are we gonna do differently to not just women, but men also need to be part of the solution? Not to get on my, my high horse, I think there's always is the, the, the isms exist, the discrimination or the, you know, the limitations. But women don't put that on themselves. I don't look for it, right?

It's like, oh, who's gonna treat me badly today? Like, I don't, I don't project that. I don't focus on that. I think women have more, so many advantages. But, but you, you ex, we have women in our community will PO post something like, I couldn't, I couldn't sign this document cuz they required my husband's signature.

Like, and it wasn't about credit score or all the other reasons that that could happen. It was literally just so that that's a problem. 

And that's still a problem 

David: That still happens. 

Liz: where not so much a problem that, you know, we're gonna be interviewing a woman who's opening a bank, women focused bank. Right? So you're gonna see more of that happening more and more and more because, Again, they're gonna have, tri women are gonna have 30 trillion.

there's the issue of the wealth is there. So it's just the, you know, obviously the, the projection of making it happen. I think they're, the, the listen advantages are, are a lot, I think women are gonna naturally be a little more holistic. They're gonna pull, I don't wanna say relation cuz there's some women aren't relationship oriented, but in my experience, women are a little more we than I.

They're a little more collaborative than competitive. In general. I'm being super general right now. you know, and there's men that are super collaborative. but I, I think there's less ego there. And again, if we go back to reasons why women do invest it is to, to pass along to their kids. so I, I think that then creates this more holistic collaborative nature.

I, I see it. Women are partnering together, they're doing deals together. The financing and the way they're treated in the commercial space, especially large multifamily is still pretty bad. There's a lot, there's a lot more male, commercial brokers, not on the residential side. I'm talking commercial, core commercial, and you talk to a broker who's a big deal, that's something to overcome and that's still something that happens.

And at that point women have to really share what their street credit is. And I have to do that sometimes where I'm just not like involved in multifamily. I have to give them the stats cuz then I'll be taken seriously and that's fine. You know, I can go, go down what I've done. Not that I know everything, but if I need to go there, I will go there.

but I don't lead by that. I don't go to a start a conversation and talk for 10 minutes about how, how much properties we own. Right. That's sort of random to me. I like to get to know people. So, so back to your question though. I think Advantage is definitely collaboration over competition, I think that's a theme that we're moving into with the current economy.

1. I don't know a lot of people who can do things alone, and that's for men and women, you know? I think the other part I'll say is that, um, from a creative perspective, I've seen a lot of women do really well with the homeowners. a lot of women negotiating deals like seller financing.

Because they're understanding holistically what these pains of these people are going through. It's not just about the property, it's about just closing the deal. It's about like, how do I solve this person's problem? Again, men and women are, can be very good at that, but I have seen women excel with that because they're literally doing it so they can create that win-win.

David: Hmm.

Brendan: Liz, I'm not sure how much involvement, um, the community currently has in this, but I'm, I'm curious. Similar to real estate in like the small business sector. There's a ton of baby boomers that are reaching age of retirement, who are wanting to pass down their businesses. Their children are like, I don't want it.

So they're going out to the marketplace. Some of them, whether they're, some of them are whining these businesses down and kind of, dissolving them. Others are saying, Hey, let me sell it to someone. Are you guys seeing a lot of women either in your community or outside of your community, a lot more starting to step into the space?

Cause I view that small business sector. Not completely similar or parallel to real estate, but I think some of the personnel that get into small multifamily might get into like the carwash ownership business or a small restaurant or whatever that might look like. Have you guys seen that in, in your community? 

Liz: yeah, absolutely. We, what we're finding is a lot of the women in our, especially our, our strive group, cuz we just see their posts and it's, it's not as massive as, as our larger community, one woman, especially when you start to look at properties and you say there's a business on this property. So there's always this line of business and in some ways, real estate.

And so, yeah, I, I see that as an opportunity, especially you can combine focuses. It is a business, right? So then that opens up a whole, okay, you gotta know what you're getting into and how do you mitigate risk? That's always the question, right? How, how do you mitigate risk? In a mindful way, but yeah, I do see that more and more happening.

there was a woman that was, felt the confidence. I think this is cool because, you know, when she entered our community, she was pretty quiet. and then she's like, listen, I was at this, me and my boyfriend were playing golf, and I struck up a conversation with the owner. I didn't know it was an owner. I would've never done that.

He's talking about how, how done he is. And she's like, the land that this building is on is tremendous. And then just, and then she's like, and now I'm cons. I'm thinking of this and we're gonna meet next week. And she's like, I'm like, so cool. Right? Because that, that, you know, if she didn't have someone to throw it to Right.

Or community, she would've felt a little alone. So, no, I do see that. I do see the businesses that. Or, you know, a laundry, laundry facility, you know, washing, washing, drying clothing, you know, if you will, is a, is a business that's simple, like the simpler businesses, landscaping, coin operated, like you said, you know, facilities, 

HVAC is, you know, heating and cooling.

I don't know about you, but I had my toilet rooted out and it's like $500. I'm like, how do I buy this business? This is psychotic. Like this is great. He was here for a half hour, solved my problem and charged me $500. And that's what happens every day. Like, how do I get in on that? Like, that's a great business.

So I think as women are scaling, they're thinking about how much money they're spending. Right. How much are they spending on, on, on their, on their different line items? And if you can solve it by buying that business for us, we're, we're actually thinking about taking back property management possibly.

So that's a business that our team is really going all in on because of, you know, just some of the markets we're really trying to cut expenses and what have you. But that's a business, right? That's a business in and of itself. It's not property. So I think a lot of women's heads are there and you know, I think there's a lot of 

opportunity right now. 

Brendan: Yeah, I, I think it makes a ton of sense. there's a, I feel like a huge wave going on right now about the small business sector, specifically boring businesses, right? Ones that are not,

not gonna be really attractive to someone say, oh, I own a, a dumpster company, for example. Doesn't sound very sexy, but the return, the returns are right, and the scalability is there.

So I feel like. Similar to the way that a lot of the women in your group approach real estate, which is like, I don't care if it's sexy or not by the number of units, I care about the bottom line. I feel like that small business sector has a lot of those similarities on like, it's not gonna be, the most brag worthy business owner title at the party.

But what do you really care about? It's that generational wealth. It's the cash flow, and oftentimes that's 

Liz: Yeah, it's where our heads are at. We have a, group we use. Who comes, picks up your laundry. And at first, you know, people are like, oh, I don't want anybody touching my laundry. But then if you're the one doing most of the laundry, you don't really care anyone who touches your laundry, cuz you just don't wanna do it.

Right. So when I've evolved, right, you know, I used to cut my own grass, I used to clean my house, you know, and then you start to say, okay, how can I u is that money well spent where I could be doing something that's gonna yield me more, right? So that was a new thing that we're like, let's just do this.

And then the woman was phenomenal. I mean, literally you put it in a bag by the end of the day. It's there folded by person. It's like magic has happened. And she texted me saying, I, I'm really, I could reduce my labor. I don't, I don't, I'm not gonna be able to go as often, you know, or once a week I'm gonna have to.

So my husband and I said to ourselves, that's an interesting opportunity. You know, she's struggling with labor. she's got a great business model here, but is it maximized? So it's something that's on our radar to like, just sit down with her and chat with her a little bit and see if there's a potential.

But like, There's a lot of families who want to outsource that. It's, it's a lot doing laundry. I don't know about both of you, but it's a time suck.

David: I have two kids, laundry dishes, mowing 

Liz: I feel like it's all I'm doing.

David: Yeah, I, it's, I hear you.

Liz: And it wasn't that expensive, right? Because it always is, you know, people come back to the expense. cause I was like that.

I'm literally the cheapest person you'll ever meet. I always go back to how much does it cost. It's not something, even when we didn't have any money, I was like cheap. I'm cheap all the time. But you really do ask yourself, what is the highest and best use of my time? 

Is it really cheap? Oh, that's up to, that's, you know, can I barter, can I get creative here?

There's so many ways to like outsource things and barter and not spend a lot. So I'm a big fan of that when I wasn't for many years.

Brendan: It's cool to, it's cool to see that in practice for sure. one last question before we close it out. So the one thing that really intrigued me, both from what you said, but also from the website and learning a little bit more about the community, is the mentorship program that you guys offer.

So I wanna learn a little bit more about that selfishly for David and I for the person of the podcast. But I also think, any men or women listening just to have a thorough understanding of that service. Cause I think that's kind of, If I'm looking at it correctly, a little bit above and beyond what the typical, mastermind group or whatever might, offers.

So I think it would be awesome to focus on that.

Liz: Yeah, no, happy to. And, and again, that we did our, we've, we've done two conferences now, but we did two virtual conference. We did our first virtual conference during Covid. Which I wasn't very happy about cuz I'm like, my God, I had two kids under the age of like six home and we're gonna go run a conference online.

It was like, so I had to be pushed a little bit. I'm a little like, that's too much. But it was great. And at the end of that end of that, women were like, what? What are you, what are you gonna offer? What do you, what do you have more for us? Like more For us, we're like, we have nothing. Nothing here. This is it.

And so that got us really our wheels turning and getting really obsessed with who we serve and who we wanna serve. So the women we serve and strive, our community serves everyone, right? It could be the newbies, it could be women who haven't bought their first deal. We have meetups, we have a Facebook community, and our Facebook community is such an.

Active Facebook community where women could really post things in a really safe, safe way. And then we have our podcast, we at least two episodes a, a week. But our strive mentorship program is really particularly for women who are solopreneurs. They're doing everything by themselves. They've done five to 10 deals, so they have deals under their, their, their belt, and they're really looking to grow and scale, but they're looking for more of a.

A mentorship program, not just by one coach or one person, but a holistic group approach. So we do mastermind with the group, Andreas and I do mastermind. We have, um, 

Liz: an alignment call where we literally have everyone pull up their goals that they, that they wrote when they began and saying, are you still, do you even still 

wanna achieve that goal?

Because women will just achieve what's in front of them to do. And again, is it intentional, is it mindful? and then we have pods included in our mentorship. So we have women who are other leaders in the space, doing like a five month educational and accountability calls, once a month where you're in smaller groups, like we call them pods and one's on like single, going single family to multifamily.

We have one on short term rentals. We have one on, um, Deal structure cuz so many women wanna get deals done, they just don't know how to do it creatively or need to step that up so that that one's led by an attorney who's able to tell them what they can and can't do. so we have pods where women get together in smaller groups and then we have, you know, we have events for Strive for Strive members, but it's about two things.

it's a 35 to say 60 year old woman who just as. Wants access to the right resources when they need it. And they want speed. You know, I was speaking with a woman, like I said, and she's 53 and she's like, I, I, I wish I did what I'm saying five years ago, cuz now that's cost me more than your mentorship program.

That's, that's, you know, that's, that's tenfold. And then quite honestly, what we charge is very, very reasonable in our crazy space of, of real estate, you know. Gurus, and we don't call ourselves gurus, so it's about more of a, it's more of a, more than a membership. We say it's like a lifestyle group where women really lean into each other.

And it's not just about me being the mentor or Resa, it's about the collective. And we really pull in the resources and access so women become financially free on their own terms and just move the needle with, with a quicker pace. Not an overworking pace, though, in a pace that works for them, but they don't have to like, Kill themselves in the process.

That's who we serve and that's what, um, we're really about. That's that, that's one of our, and every, and then so many other things. We do have our, our free resources of our, our meetups. We have 55 meetups across the country, and, women are coming together in small circles and we're listening to women what they want more of and trying to give that to them.

Brendan: I love it. 

Liz: So yeah. Any of the women that you guys work with prior? Our 

Brendan: Yeah. 

Liz: Right on from that flip side.

David: Yeah. Yeah. well, you guys are spoken very highly of around here, around the office, and, I could see why, it's an awesome group you run and, and you've been fantastic. what about the socials? If, if somebody wants to find you or Andres,

where can they find you?

Liz: our Instagram is at the real estate Invest Her, but I'd say that the, the easiest way to get connected to us is join our free Facebook community. I mean, really we are constantly, you literally could post a question there and the women that weigh in, I know them personally cuz we used to have like 40 women when we started.

But I see the women answering and if it's spammy and not supportive and not helpful, we literally take it down. We're like zealous about that and we have 15,000 women in there and the women are like, Just appreciative of that group so much. So that's the best place. It's a group in, in Facebook, but it's at the real estate.

Invest her, the investor community. and check our website out.

The realestate invest her.com. We have also mentioned real quick for women and men listening, we do two free events a month. You know, no strings attached, they're just high level. we handpick people to teach different topics. We have a couple on, the mor, the economics mortgage industry. What's happening there?

We have a woman coming on, soon, but we usually do, we took June off cuz we had our investor con, which. Was a undertaking. So, but we have them coming back in July and, we always have topics that we know our, our community wants and needs, and those are free 

and men and women are, are, are welcome to come to those.

And you get those right on, you can sign up for those right? On our website. I think it's the real estate investor.com/events and 

literally it's just, um, high content, events that we have. I do wanna give a quick shout out to, to from that flip because when we started, just a quick story. my husband and I knew Matt well through another circle. And I was sharing with him what we're up to, like right when we started and he's like, send me more information.

Maybe we can support you. And, and from that, flip was our first sponsor of our podcast. I think we have like 2,500 downloads. You know, we're, we're published now by BiggerPockets and I'm really appreciative of the support. They're always first to sponsor or get involved in our community and vice versa. the women that have worked with Fund That Flip have only sung your praises.

I love the team approach. Um, you don't just, it's not about women just shopping around getting the cheapest deal, but about getting the right financing for their deal. I know you've served a lot of the women in our community, and I'll just say that you've been nothing but supportive of our community.

So I'm just, I'm appreciative of that. Like we have a lot of cool companies we work with now, but you know, we've built a pretty Welsh established brand now, so people are jumping on the bandwagon. You guys kind of supported us when we were like, nobody's and nobodies, and no one really wanted to support us.

So I'm very, um, 

fun. Netflix Flip will always have a special place in my heart.

David: Well, thank you. That's kind of exactly what we're going for, right? It's

Liz: Yeah. Well, and it, it shows. So anything I can do to support you guys is, is very important. I know we've chatted about different things and different collaborations with, I'm excited about continuing, but, but yeah, appreciative of, of the 

support. 

Brendan: Liz. 

David: Well, Liz. Great having you. anything else you wanna share?

Liz: No, no, I, I thank you for your time. I, I would just say don't give up is, that's the last thing I would say is that, that, that,

had I given

up, I don't think I'd be sitting here talking to both of you. You know, and there was a lot of times I wanted to give up, to be perfectly frank. It was not easy, you know, and it's still challenges, new challenges are coming my way.

You know, growing a different business, different, different, you know, different challenges, but just not give up, be mindful and don't give up would be my, my two words of wisdom to end

things. 

David: let's be sure to sync back up maybe a year from now and we'll talk about. Some of those challenges you've faced over the last year or so and how

you've gotten through them and see where you've taken the, the multiple businesses you operate, since then. So until then, it was awesome having you.

Really good stuff. I will go ahead and sign us off here. So, for Liz Faircloth, for Brendan Bennett, I am David Dugan. Thank you for tuning in to Real Estate Investing unscripted. See you next time.