Stay-at-Home Mom Grows Real Estate Empire

Real Wealth Show: Real Estate Investing Podcast

She’s a mother of 6, grandmother of 19, and says her claim to fame isn’t just all the green smoothies she’s made, but a real estate empire that helps pay for it all. She started investing seven years ago and says: “If a stay-at-home mom of six can do it -- so can you!”

Kim Bosler says she always had a passion for real estate but lacked the confidence to do it on her own. She finally got going by networking with other real estate investors who were doing what she wanted to do. And now her adult children are following suit. They are all investing in real estate.

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TRANSCRIPT

Rich Fettke: [00:00:00] You're listening to The Real Wealth Show with Kathy Fettke, the real estate investor's resource.

[music]

Kathy Fettke: If you've been listening to me for a while, and I've been doing this a long time, you know I've interviewed some really interesting people. You might be surprised to hear me say that today is one of my all-time favorite interviews. I'm Kathy Fettke and welcome to The Real Wealth Show. Our guest today prides herself on making more green smoothies than she can even count because she has 6 kids, and 19 grandkids.

She's going to share today how she's built a real estate empire, made lots of mistakes, but made even better choices over the years, and is going to share how she's done that, how she's financially free, and how she's now getting her kids investing in real estate, and wouldn't change a thing. Kim, welcome to The Real Wealth Show. I'm so excited to have you here.

Kim Bosler: It's so great to see you, Kathy. I just love, really, honestly, it's because of Real Wealth Network that's given me so much. It's all because of you that I got involved in real estate, and I really can't thank you enough.

Kathy: Thank you. It hasn't been all rosy, has it? You started investing with us, seven, eight years ago, something like that.

Kim: Seven years ago.

Kathy: It was kind of the Wild Wild West back then. There were a lot of foreclosures, the property management systems weren't really in place and we've learned a lot since then, but oh, boy. You've had ups and downs. I received a lot of emails of you being frustrated, but here you sit, in 2021 ahead, right? Tell me a little bit about that.

Kim: Right. I just want to thank you for your just patience and perseverance with me, too, because we were-- I think in some ways we were learning together. [00:02:00] There was some things you just can't predict in real estate but all in all, it was just a phenomenal, it has been a phenomenal experience. It started seven years ago, really. Actually, was about 10 and I was on the plane and a friend of mine, her husband had just passed, and she had nine children, very large family. She said, "The greatest gift that Gordon gave me was, he owns five properties outright, and that allows me to go see my grandkids." She was just saying what a gift that was.

I thought about that for a long time and I thought, I came home that day and I really believe in vision boards. I thought, "That's exactly what I want to create too, somehow." Her husband was also professional, but you don't have the built-in pension. You don't know how long you're going to live. There's just so many variables. I already knew that having a hard asset was something that couldn't be stolen, and it could only grow in equity. I put down on my vision board, "I would like to own six homes." [laughs]

She had five, so I thought maybe six would be good and I actually started laughing. I laughed out loud when I put that down and I thought, first of all, my husband was very against real estate. We'd done some earlier in life and had not done well. We didn't really have the money to invest at that time. We still had kids at home. We have a large family, lots of grandkids like you said. Even though he owns his own dental practice in California, it's really expensive to run a practice and there's a lot of overhead.

Anyway, so I put that down and we started going. I had a really good friend at the gym, and he was always talking about his investments. It was so exciting. Then one day he said, "You know Kim, I think the best thing you could do would be to just hook up with Real Wealth Network." I didn't have a pad and paper and so I was running on the treadmill next to them and I was thinking, [00:04:00] Real Wealth Network, Kathy Fettke.

Okay, I went home, I looked you up, we started going to live events. It was so thrilling. One time, I got my husband to go and it was properties in Texas. At the time, she was selling she had a package of six. I said, "This is it, Bruce, let's buy these six." He said, "Are you crazy?" I said, "No, they're $120,000." Now, remember, when people hear that I bought homes for $120,000, that was seven years ago, but seven years from now is going to be seven years ago.

Kathy: That's a very good way to put it.

Kim: It's just never too late and even then I knew those homes had just been $80,000 and so I still thought it was paying high, but it was still at the 1%. They were renting it for $1,200, which is hard to find now even, and so we did.

Kathy: You bought all six?

Kim: We did, and you know what? He said, "This is your deal, because I think real estate is really risky and this is going to be your thing." I had to take out a HELOC to do it. Think about that. For $25,000 down, I only had to take out $150,000 to buy six homes. Now, where else can you get a bank? I think someday we're going to tell grandkids about this. There was a time when you could buy a home for $120,000. The bank actually will take the risk of 80%. All you have to do is 20%. It's still cash flowing, at least $500. In fact, it was a little more than because it was on land-only for a year, and they weren't taking into consideration there was a building on it yet.

They guaranteed the rents too, for one year. That's when property management did things like that. They don't do that anymore. For $150,000 we owned six homes and those homes now today are worth about $250,000. That was a really, really good investment but that [00:06:00] also taught me about doing the 1031 exchanges. I didn't know what those were. She said you own the property for, try to get new builds for four to five years, and then turn it around, and you don't have to pay on the capital gains. I just thought, "You're kidding. This is--"

Kathy: How can that be?

Kim: Yes, just the whole thing about real estate, there just really isn't anything I have found where you can take an average American, who's not a doctor or not anything special, and you can start investing, and pretty soon, over a lifetime, you can really grow your wealth. Now, I started late, I started at age 56 and still, within this short six or seven years, I've been able to grow a very large portfolio. It started with those homes in Texas, it started actually with Real Wealth Network, because you were able to vet these people, and get the best of the best.

We had a network, we had people that we could talk to, friends, we could mingle and associate, "What are you doing? What's working for you?" In fact, I have the best CPA ever, and I also found him through a podcast that you did with Real Worth Network. It's just a lot of benefits to being involved in your group Kathy, and I don't know, I wrote down the many benefits of real estate right here this top 10 reasons, and maybe I can share those, but I am so grateful.

Kathy: I would love to hear that. Are you still buying? Because I think you might be.

Kim: You know what, the thing is, is that once you get started, if you're doing this plan of 1031 exchanges, you actually have to keep going. That's what's exciting about it. You can stop of course, but the opportunities are just always so prevalent. It's addicting actually, and it's a lot of fun. You start getting to know different people, and they bring offers to you. I don't know, it's really exciting.

Yes, the places that I'm enjoying the most [00:08:00] are thanks to Ben, he was my counselor and told me last year, to do a couple of 1031 exchanges, which I did, and bought a lot of properties in Florida. Last year was such a sweet time. I didn't even know what I was doing and I just did it. In fact, they seemed too good to be true, so I didn't really trust it. If I had known what was going to happen this last year with real estate, I would have bought a lot more of it.

Kathy: How many did you buy?

Kim: Everybody would have. We bought eight in Florida.

Kathy: Oh my gosh. That's amazing. Then there were some areas that were more difficult and some that you-- which is again, the nice thing about real estate, especially one to four unit homes that can be sold fairly easily if you're in the right area. There were a couple in Chicago that were more difficult. Why is that? There's a lot to it, but maybe just a couple of things you would have done differently.

Kim: Well, just really briefly, I actually went on a home tour that Real Wealth put out. I went with Ben actually and we-- it was an incredible company, Mack was, and they just happened to go bankrupt. I don't know why but I know-

Kathy: I think they over-leveraged.

Kim: Probably, and we saw that. I was actually the one that noticed it because we weren't getting paid for four months. I looked up online and the news had just broken that day, I think. I emailed all my friends in Real Wealth and that was a little bit of a challenge, but it was something that was overcome, we could overcome, for sure. As I mentioned before, each one of those properties has still gone up in value. I actually made a lot of money on the home that I just sold in Chicago, and I have just three more to go, but I've got great tenants. They're all paying rent and one of them I had to put some money into. That was probably my [00:10:00] only bad property, was one in Chicago, where a tenant pretty much destroyed the place.

Interestingly, if you've got a large portfolio, that's the advantage of it, because you've got other properties that nothing's really coming out of your own pocket, so to say.

Kathy: If you really go into it like a business, and with any business, if you're going to be hiring employees, you need to have reserves, because what if you have a bad month? The employees don't get paid and you don't have a business. Any business, you've got to have enough reserves, usually 6 months, maybe 12 months. When you know these things can happen, and you've got the reserve set aside, it's just a business expense, and it's non-emotional.

Kim: It feels non-emotional to me. What it feels like to me, because we don't really spend the money right now, is it feels like a giant Monopoly game. That was my favorite game when I was a kid. We used to stay up for hours and play it all night and sleepovers. I just loved Monopoly. That's what it feels like. Sometimes, there's something bad that'll happen and you go, "Okay, well, I've got this thing. I'm going to pass Go pretty soon." Go is payday when you're-- it automatically goes into your account if you've got good property management.

That's really key is great property management, which I have really been blessed to have in areas. Chicago, I go through a few, but I don't regret anything. In fact, I have to tell a story about you, Kathy, that just shows your integrity. When I first got involved with Real Wealth, I know you already know what's coming, but there was a guy on your site that was only on there for maybe five days, until you realize, "Wait, this is--"

Kathy: Until I bought a property from him, and realized it was a mistake.

Kim: He sold me a property for $54,000 in Philadelphia and it was cash. I was so excited [00:12:00] about my first property. We went out there and he said, "You don't need to do an appraisal, anything like that. It's all great. You don't need to do an inspection." I was just really too trustworthy. Anyway, we went out and found out that it was a real disaster. Kathy, I still can't believe this, but you bought the property from me.

Kathy: I still have that thing.

Kim: I don't want to advertise that, because I know that that's not something--

Kathy: I don't do it every day. It was $50,000.

Kim: I think you just looked at me and went, "This poor girl is so dumb that I'm going to help her out."

Kathy: No, no, this was a long time ago, and our systems have changed a lot since then. It's because of this horrible experience, where this guy, and we didn't know he was doing this, but he was just telling people, "Don't worry about it. I'll vouch for. You don't need an inspection and you don't need an appraisal, so let's just stop right there." You never. If you're an out-of-state investor, you always get a third-party appraisal and you always get a third-party inspection. Get several. Get it for everything. It's going to be cheaper than buying a problem.

Kim: Even on real properties, still, our new builds get an inspection and an appraisal always.

Kathy: Absolutely. The wonderful thing about doing it on a new build is if they miss something, they fix it. Especially, if you do it right before the warranty is over, like you've owned it for a year, and then right before the warranty is over, get that inspection, and get them to fix it.

Kim: It's so great and they're so good. The builders, they care about their reputation, and they want to fix it, make it right. The tenants want it right, too. It's really great. I cannot, honestly, Kathy, think of-- real estate just has so many benefits. I know that there can be some things that go wrong, but honestly, when you've got hard assets, like I said, it's [00:14:00] something no one can steal from you. Even if it burns down, you've got homeowners insurance. It's something that can be leveraged with 80/20. If you go into stocks, it's 100% your money, and then even that, it's not a hard asset.

Kathy: If you think about it, granted we've had a really good 10 years, but that house that I bought from you, in retrospect, it was only about $5,000 to fix, but with you as a new investor, that was terrible. You're like, "No way." That house has doubled in value and it stayed rented, so it's actually been a pretty good deal.

Kim: Oh, I'm so glad.

Kathy: Isn't that funny? Then your Chicago properties, again, there was some real difficulty there, but you're walking away with more money.

Kim: Absolutely. I'm thrilled with my purchases in Chicago in the long run. That's with any home I've decided. In the long run, real estate is always your best deal. That's number three. You've got a tenant that's paying off this 80%, and the bank is taking that risk. You've also got appreciation. This last year has been incredible. Every year can't be like that, but still, think 30 years down the line, even grandkids, it's just going to be amazing. You've also got upfront depreciation, and I didn't realize you can take all of that now. They've got this thing.

If you've got a high income year, you can really help reduce taxes with the upfront depreciation. I think some of it can be up to like $25,000 off your taxes in a year, which is nice for home. Then you've got expenses you can write off. You've got great property management. You've got 1031 exchanges you can do. Also, I think besides it being fun, is number 10, and the most important, is you can teach your kids how to do it. It just gives them a lifetime of such security [00:16:00] that they can feel like they can do, too. When they see just me, a mom, doing it, they're like, "I can do that then."

Kathy: It's really full circle, isn't it? It was 10 years ago that you met this woman who was so happy, she inherited-- not inherited, but was left with six homes to be able to live on. Here you are, now showing other people how to do it, here on the podcast, teaching other people. It's so awesome to see. You have six kids. What are they doing? Are they all investing now?

Kim: Five are married, and the one we're taking to college, BYU, in just a couple of days. He did return from a mission in Korea. All of them do invest, and they've all seen it, and they want to do it. They're excited. They all have other careers, but it's something that they want to do on the side. I think most of them are right now. One is just getting out of the Air Force. He's a orthopedic surgeon. He said, "Mom, I really, literally can't wait until I start making money so I can start buying real estate."

Kathy: Oh, with a VA loan, right?

Kim: "I thought you were excited to cut bones." He says, "No, I am that, too, but--"

Kathy: To cut bones. Oh my goodness. That's funny.

Kim: It's nice to be able to just see them excited about that, because it's the American dream really, I think, is being involved in real estate.

Kathy: I agree. Now there's two syndications, and I didn't really want to talk about this, but I also totally believe in transparency. In 2014, I syndicated two-- we had been doing a lot of land acquisition and building homes with experienced developers. Then the word got out, and our 40-year veteran real estate attorney said, "Oh, you should really look at this thing. [00:18:00] It's a wine village and the rent will be much higher because it's direct-to-consumer sales. There'll be tasting rooms and you could charge more." Anyway, we ended up syndicating. You invested in that, and then in another ground-up project.

In the projects where we have bought land and we're just building houses and it's a simple plan, it's almost never on time and there's always challenges, but it's fairly simple, and banks understand it. With something like a wine village, as cool as it sounded, as excited as we all were, and what an amazing thing to be able to showcase these different wineries that could have visibility from the freeway, lenders just didn't understand it. Then of course, the fires, then COVID, and it just has been extremely difficult. In retrospect, I think for both of us, in this process of growing, I would never do that deal today because it's too different. It's just too different.

Kim: I still think it sounds amazing. I look at some of the syndications on CrowdStreet, and things like that, and they look like they're trying to do the same kinds of things and big multi-family things, but we didn't know. What were you going to ask?

Kathy: I was just going to say that we've learned both of us. It's been extremely hard for me. I'm still dealing with it. If there's anyone listening who can help us get financing to build this thing, or do something else with it, I think it actually would make an amazing RV park because you could have all the RVs around the already approved events center for weddings, so you could be little RV weddings with little tasting rooms around. There's so many things we could do for so much cheaper, we just need that creative financing person. I'm actually glad I'm talking [00:20:00] about it because who knows maybe that person will find us. It's right off Highway 5.

Kim: I know, it's such a perfect location. It is. It's just, everything looks good to me.

Kathy: What did you learn from it, Kim?

Kim: Well, one thing I've learned is that we don't worry about it. If you make a bad investment, you move on. Of course, I have to complain to you first.

Kathy: As you should.

Kim: What are we going to do Kathy, and then you always have this yogi type of, just this beautiful way of responding and I'm like, "She's so mature and kind." Anyway, no, but you just move on and it's just like life. Life is life and there's nothing that ever goes just perfectly. Things happen and go wrong. Even when we have a big family reunion, and we all get together, there's little things that happen, and if you stopped and over analyzed everything, you'd be unhappy.

You just have to say, "Okay, this wasn't a good investment, but look at all these," and focus on the ones that are so good, and then that catapults you to more good investments, but there's not a single person who's ever done real estate that's done everything perfectly and that I can testify to. If you're going to do this shoulda, coulda, woulda game, then there's not a single investor anywhere that can't say I shouldn't have. They look back and there's things they could have done differently to make more profit or do differently. You just can't worry about it.

Kathy: I love that. Rich tells me that all the time, he reminds me because it's easy to go down that road. I just think, "Oh my gosh, if I just stuck with what I know, which is single family, and we did a fund back in 2009, I would have my private jet," which I don't really even want, so it doesn't matter.

[laughter]

Kim: Well, it's [00:22:00] all part of the game. When something doesn't go-- really, I'm glad I played Monopoly as a child because, there's no Monopoly game that goes perfectly either. It's just one of those little bumps and hopefully you make enough in the other investments that it makes it okay. I'm just so grateful that I bought the properties last year that I did in Florida. I wouldn't change anything really. It's just been a real blessing, all of it.

Kathy: Oh, I love that. I do have one more question that I just got to ask, because I think it's so important. With your husband being a dentist and a high income earner, although I know there's also a ton of expenses there and that's a difficult business, my dad was a dentist, but you have been able to really offset his income with tax deductions by becoming this real estate professional. Tell me a little bit more about that.

Kim: Well, I met Ryan Shellhouse through your podcast and he's phenomenal. I think that guy is just a walking brain, but he said, "Kim, you should become a real estate professional." I said, "What's that?" He said, "At least 17 hours a week, if you can dedicate to real estate, then you've got all these benefits. You get the upfront depreciation, you can write off all your travel." There's just so many tax benefits to it.

I said, I want to be a real estate professional and so that was cool. He gave me that, but I thought at the beginning that I would be trying to fudge to get 17 hours, but I really do spend at least 17 hours a week now in real estate. It's passive. When you're doing active 1031 exchanges and taking care of your properties, there's just things you need to do. Part of it is looking for other properties and things like that, and listening to podcasts, and all those things count towards the hours. Reading real estate books. I have learned so much [00:24:00] about real estate, I just love it. Your book's amazing, Kathy. I do spend at least 17 hours a week doing real estate, but it's fun. I love it.

It even includes the travel part. I go to see my grandkids and I'm writing that trip off, and none of them live by me anymore. I would die without being a real estate professional, I think now, because now, I can just go and it's all written off.

Kathy: There's a lot of detail on that. We have webinars on our website at realwealthnetwork.com that will explain that further, and give you resources and referrals to these accountants and these teams nationwide.

Kim: You have to log your hours. It's really important. It's not something you're just called and then that's it.

Kathy: Yes, you got to do it right. You don't need a license, so you don't have to run out and get your real estate license. It's the amount of time that you spend on your properties, or learning about your properties, or researching, or traveling to them or any of that. You need to have enough, and certainly you do, to have it count, to make it believable that you work that much and you do, and you can't have any other job that you work more at. For many people who maybe don't have that job, but can feel like you have a job because the write-offs can be so enormous, that the amount of tax deduction you get is the same as what a salary would be.

Kim: It's such a perfect husband-wife situation. If your husband wants you to be doing real estate and he's got the big 8-to-5 job, you can definitely be a real estate professional with your 17 hours a week. It's just a perfect combination for that type of thing. Yes, I've loved it. I've loved it. I'm so glad. I love to fly to Florida and I can write it off, too.

Kathy: You're going to need a hotel to stay in to look at your properties and maybe then your kids also join you in that hotel.

Kim: Exactly. Yes, they might be potentially looking as well.

Kathy: Yes, that's true.

Kim: It really is [00:26:00] a great family business. I've loved it so much. Thank you, Kathy.

Kathy: That's really great.

Kim: I wouldn't have known about it. See, if it wasn't for Ryan, I met Ryan's through the podcast. Every time I listen to a podcast of yours, I learn so much, Kathy. It's just amazing. Loved it.

Kathy: Oh my gosh. Thank you so much. Any final words? What are you focusing on now and maybe it's just enjoying your family and your free time.

Kim: I'm actually going to try to slow down a little and just get everything paid off. That is the goal. You start people out with say, 10 properties, because the Freddie Fannie gives you 10 per person. Bruce and I can each get 10, and we've fulfilled that now. I just want to pay those off and have something that our family can have in our portfolio. My kids aren't really going to need it. That's the nice thing. They're very independent, and smart, and able to invest on their own, but there's things that I want to, special causes that I want to donate to. I think that's what really makes it exciting.

I don't think there's any real joy after a while in just accumulation. It's a very empty feeling, unless you have something that you specifically want to do for the good of others with that money. That's what brings you real joy. There really is not-- if that's all it is, is accumulation, then it's nothing more than a Monopoly game. I think when you set real intentions, God helps you. I don't ever say the universe, because I want to give credit to me, where credit is due.

I think God helps you with those goals and He knows when your intention is good and He wants His children to be successful so that [00:28:00] they can contribute. There's a lot of people in a lot of organizations who need help financially, and that's what really makes life exciting, I think, to be able to help most days.

Kathy: I can't wait to have you back on to hear about all the good you're doing in the world.

Kim: Well, I just want to thank you Kathy, because honestly, it was Real Wealth, it was having that. Honestly, the organization just gives you courage. I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't know. You teach in your course, and you tutor, and you provide what's necessary, and there just couldn't be a better organization, and it's never too late, and you're never too old. Just remember, five years from now, it's going to be five years ago. Just start, it's always a good time to invest in real estate. Always. People used to tell me that and now I really know that.

Kathy: I love that. All you have to do is pull out, just Google FRED, because that's the Federal Reserve and existing home prices, and go back 40 years, and you'll see this trajectory. All you have to do is ask yourself, do you think that's still going to continue based on the massive amount of money printing, the de-valuing of the dollar that increases hard assets? Yes. It's hard for you and me to sit here and say, is your $200,000 house in Florida going to be worth $400,000 in 10 years? Yes, maybe five years. I do hope more people can really get that message and protect themselves from inflation.

Kim: Well, that's the great thing about inflation. I hate that the government's always messing with the dollar and now we are going to see, especially with all these taxes and everything, and just so much going on in the world, there will be definitely inflation, but you've got a 30-year fixed loan. Your [00:30:00] payment is not going to change.

Even though everything else is going up you've got that permanent low payment, low interest rate, and still interest rates are historically low. I think they're going to stay low for a while, because just one tiny change with all the debt that we've gotten America, is going to be huge for our country. I think they're going to try to keep it low for awhile, so it's just not too late. I think now's a great time to still invest. Even though the 1% is harder to find now, you can still find places in Florida that are cash flowing. If you put 25% down, there's still places that are $500 or $600 cashflow.

Kathy: I think you mentioned too, that you had done your underwriting, not really calculating for rents to go up, and I think that's a smart thing to do, but they have gone up and now you're way beyond the 1% rule.

Kim: I never did that. I mapped it all out and I kept it at $1,200 in Texas and now they're $1,800 from five, six years ago, and that's just average. They've just gone up so much. It's crazy and it will continue to do that too, so that what else people can take into consideration when they're planning their portfolio.

Kathy: Kim, it's been such a pleasure to have you here and you're just my favorite interview so far, so fun. It's so fun talking to you. I think people are going to really get a lot out of this.

Kim: Love you and Rich so much. Thank you, and anybody thinking about it, just your first step is to sign up for Real Wealth Network. Start listening to the podcast and just do it. Just jump in. It's so doable. If I can do it, anyone can.

Kathy: I love it. I love it. Take care and squeeze those little what, six one-year-olds that you've got.

Kim: Can you believe it? All my daughters have babies in one year. [00:32:00] It's so great.

Kathy: I'm so proud of my one grandbaby and I look at your picture, I'm like, "I wouldn't even remember each of their names." (laughter) All right. Take care. We'll talk to you soon.

Kim: All right. Thanks, Kathy.

Kathy: Thank you for joining me here on The Real Wealth Show. You can go to realwealthshow.com to get access to those in-depth webinars on how to really save taxes by owning real estate, becoming a real estate professional, which markets to buy in for more cashflow or potentially growth, which teams have the highest ratings from our over 56,000 members, property managers, and property teams who can find you really good properties which is hard to find in some of the fastest growing markets. You can get all that information at realwealthshow.com

Rich Fettke: Views and opinions expressed in this podcast are provided for informational purposes only and should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell any securities, or to make or consider any investment or course of action. For more information go to realwealthshow.com.