159. Lady Landlords and Investing in New York City with Becky Nova

Average Joe Finances: 0:00

Hey, welcome back to the average Joe Finances podcast. I'm your host Mike Cavaggioni, and today's guest is Becky Nova. And Becky is I normally don't give like intros or anything, but we were talking a little bit off camera and we were just talking about New York and pizza and stuff because it's two things that we really like pizza and real estate. But she's the founder of Lady Landlords, so I'm really excited to to have her on. Becky, thank you so much for joining me today.

Becky Nova: 0:23

Of course. Thanks for having me on.

Average Joe Finances: 0:24

Yeah, absolutely. Hey, first things first. Okay, so I didn't really go too much into your background or anything, so we wanna know more about you. So if you could share a little bit about yourself, share your story. Who is Becky Nova?

Becky Nova: 0:36

Sure. So I am a cancer researcher by day and a real estate investor by night. I actually quit cancer research back in my twenties for a few years. I moved over to Europe. I used to own a tour company in Spain. I expanded into Portugal. I bought a bar in Portugal, and I bought a bus to take people between Spain, Portugal, and back and forth. Unfortunately though, I made a really bad business decision on buying that bar in portugal. Moved back to the United States about 10 years ago now. Pretty much penniless and homeless, trying to figure out what I was gonna do, but no one ever really aspires to live in their parents' basement at 30 years old. So I needed to find a way to get out. So I ended up going back to cancer research, and that was around the time that I met my now husband. Emilio is an immigrant from the Dominican Republic. Really moved here with that American Dream homeownership was such a big part of that, and that was really what had us fall into kind of being that accidental landlord to start.

Average Joe Finances: 1:38

Okay. My first rental property too was also an accidental landlord thing as well. While I was in the military, I had to transfer to another duty station and it was impossible to sell. This was in 2007, 2008 timeframe. It was impossible to sell, so I wound up renting it out, and that was my first experience as a landlord when I was 22 years old. But now, just get away from all that. So the thing is you you met your husband, right? He came here with that, that American dream, right? The, you wanna own your own home, start a family. All that good stuff, right? That, typically when people think about coming to America, that's what they think about. So how did you wind up becoming an accidental landlord? Like how did that work out?

Becky Nova: 2:17

Sure. So I wanted no part of buying a home, not even like our own personal home. To me, I just wanted to come back to the states, make money, and I was gonna go live abroad again. That's all that I wanted. But as you do in relationships, you compromise. So my husband really wanted his own home, same thing, the whole white picket fence, that whole story. So I said, okay, fine, we'll buy a home. I am not living mortgage payment to mortgage payment. We live in New York, right outside the city. At the time we were actually living in the Bronx, things are expensive. And I said, this is not something that I'm willing to just put all of my money into and just stay and work in this nine to five grind for the rest of my life. So I always tell people I had the best idea ever that we were gonna buy a multi-family live in one. and rent it out. I had no idea that this was a concept that house hacking was an actual term to me. I just needed a way to help offset the high cost of living in New York.

Average Joe Finances: 3:13

Okay. Yeah that's fair. And it's really awesome because house hacking is probably one of the best ways to start. So by doing that, just to start off, you're already putting yourself. I guess like putting the right foot forward as starting your journey. Into real estate investing, which I don't think you realized you were starting yet at that time. Now I want, I wanna rewind back to the whole thing in Portugal, right? Because that sounds like it was pretty detrimental. And for you to be able to bounce back from something like that I'd like to know a little bit more. So how much money did you lose? In that process. And what was it like trying to climb up back out of that debt hole that you got yourself into?

Becky Nova: 3:52

Sure, I hate sharing this part of the story because it always means that, I have to admit my husband was right.

Average Joe Finances: 3:58

Yeah.

Becky Nova: 3:58

It's always a tough one for me. My tour company in Spain was probably one of the most successful businesses I've ever had in my life, and I've done various things, but that was absolutely fantastic. The bar that I bought in Portugal was really where I made just a horrible business decision. I got really screwed over from the guy that I had bought the bar from, and I lost a little over a hundred thousand dollars. Yeah, and then also it ended. Where I had to put so much effort to try to save the bar that I ended up losing the to company. So that also killed off one cash cow and then really took every other, all the rest of the money that I had. So after that, it happened, like I could have actually stayed probably and would be still fighting a legal case in Portugal to see if I could have gotten my bar back now 10 years later. But what would I have been doing during that time? So instead I cut my losses on the bar. I ended up just partying in Portugal for the rest of summer and moved home in the fall . So when I came back very much with this idea that you can do the things that you love, and then I forgot and I went out and that's exactly what I did. And I found work in places that were what I was passionate about. And then I realized that things that I was passionate about either didn't make money or definitely did not cover expenses in New York. So that's when then I ended up going back into the medical field at that time, and I started a medical consulting company. The medical consulting company was really something I was trying to get off the ground, and honestly, I was just not making money at all. And every penny that I made went back into the business and it was really a tough time. And it was actually at a point where my husband realized I was in debt. I had a horrible credit score because I couldn't afford my bills. That he was the one that really came to me with almost an ultimatum. We were still dating at the time, and he said, Hey, listen, I wanna buy a house. I wanna have kids. I wanna build a life together, but here you're in debt and you don't have a good credit score. We can't do the things that I wanna do. So he was , fix this, or get out. And I was like, Nope. This relationships were saving. And I knew I had the potential to go back and make money. I knew I could go back to my old career. , but I was really just made with what I was been doing previously within cancer research. So I decided to suck it up. I found a contract that paid way too much money than they probably should have paid me for a short period of time that would've gotten me out of debt, but also given me the money for that down payment in only a few short months. So that was really a game changer for me and it ended up putting me in the position to find a role back in cancer research where I felt more empowered to be able to help my patients. So I ended up going back to them then full-time, in a much better capacity 10 years after I'd quit.

Average Joe Finances: 6:33

Wow. What a comeback story, right? From, so when you wind up losing the tour business in Spain, it's because you had to over-leverage to try to make up for the losses of the bar. Like how did you wind up losing that?

Becky Nova: 6:44

So part of it was because I had to put all, sink, all the money into one. My other problem was that where my tour company was in Spain versus where my bar was in Portugal was about five hours away. Okay. So I had homes, I had apartments that I was renting in both places, and the idea was that every three to four days I would switch cities. But because the bar was having such problems, which I'll explain in a second, I couldn't oversee my business in Spain. And unfortunately my business was very much as branding is these days. They are the person in front. So now all of a sudden, the people I left to manage my tour company just weren't the right personality, not the right managers to be there. So I had to decide which one of these two businesses I wanted to save. My goal is always to go live on a beach, so to me, saving the my beachfront bar made more sense. Problem with my bar was that I bought the bar from the previous owner and I bought it in Turn-key Condition. Now turn-key condition, meaning for a restaurant that I have the tables, that I have, the chairs, that I have the plates, I have the silverware, I have a commercial kitchen. And when I bought the place, the seller took out all of those items, emptied it, he took out my commercial stove and just put in, a little dinky four burner that you would find in your home. I can't run my restaurant that way.

Average Joe Finances: 7:57

Wow

Becky Nova: 7:57

And also one of the other parts of the agreement was that he was going to help transport the kegs, the food, everything that was needed, especially since I was gonna be back and forth between the two cities. And that was something he completely cut me off from that where this bar was. Think since you were from the east coast. It think Jersey Shore. You have three, four months to make your money in summer and that's it. So I couldn't sit there and fight with him, or I just needed to act, so I went and bought new tables, new chairs, new plates. You have no idea, like a kitchen knife, a professional kitchen knife can cost you like a hundred bucks. I never knew that. So I really had to go and save these things. I had to at the beginning. I actually had a guy in the neighborhood of this beachfront town take me on his moped. Two grocery stores and we would literally do trip day in and day out with me on the back of a moped trying to hold like, cases of beer up and down these cobblestone streets to be able to get 'em to my bar because I just needed to figure out how to make it work the best I could.

Average Joe Finances: 9:01

Wow.

Becky Nova: 9:02

Then long story short, he ended up having problems with the new bar that he bought, so he felt that the appropriate thing was to come back and steal the bar that he had sold to me, so he ended. Paying off the town's attorney to claim that we did not have a fully executed contract. So then he actually, the Portuguese police turned the bar back over to him within all my stuff.

Average Joe Finances: 9:23

Wow. Oh my goodness. So I didn't know it was that bad. Like when you described it initially it was like, okay, that the business kind of flopped and that was that. And you wind up losing out on money that, that's even worse than anything I could have possibly imagined. Wow.

Becky Nova: 9:37

And want wanna know why he lost his bar and had to come back and steal mine?

Average Joe Finances: 9:41

Sure. Yeah. I. Does it have to do with the fact that he probably installed all of that commercial equipment that he took from the old bar and it just didn't work? That I don't know. What was it?

Becky Nova: 9:49

No, because he was running drugs through his own bar. And needed the bar to launder money and his partner found out, so he had to come back and steal mine bar. So he had a place to wash his money.

Average Joe Finances: 10:00

Interesting wow, it's a unfortunate situation. Like you definitely got dealt a extremely bad hand there. It sounds like, you pretty much lost everything, but you were still able to bounce back from that, right? And build the life that you have right now, which is absolutely amazing. And I think it's important to focus on the losing aspect that you had. And it's one of the reasons why I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into that is to show that cause, I know a lot of people that get down and out because they get into a deal that doesn't work out at flops or, there's one or two things that happen in their business and they just throw up their hands like, this isn't for me. And they give up on being an entrepreneur, right? So you're gonna have days like that and. Started off in that aspect, right? You had a really great business and then you had one that destroyed both of them. So right off the bat, someone else in your shoes would probably just throw their hands up and be like, Nope, I'm just gonna go back to doing my nine to five, doing the cancer research that you were doing, and that's gonna be that. But no, you said I'm gonna go back into that to recover, but I still wanna get into something else. And that's when you figure. Real estate was something that you were interested in by accident, but a happy accident, right?

Becky Nova: 11:07

When I came back, people, everybody when I came back were like, oh my God, you must be so upset. That was so horrible. What happened? You lost all this money. You lost this life that you had built. You lost your business. And I was just, to me, I was just like, was I sad? Am I upset? Yeah. But okay, it happened. I learned so much from that experience. That has now helped me. But honestly, there are still things that now I feel like I do in my real estate investing journey, or within my business with lady landlords that I actually learned from making all of those mistakes. And honestly, I think that was better education than I could have gotten from many MBA.

Average Joe Finances: 11:40

Yeah, A hundred percent. I mean that's one of the things I wanted to point out too, is in real estate or in business in general, when you have these things happen, don't look at it as a failure or anything like that. Look at it as an expensive education, right? You just paid for your degree.

Becky Nova: 11:54

It is still cheaper, more than an MBA.

Average Joe Finances: 11:55

It is, right? But you got to learn all of this and, get the scars to prove that you were there and at the same time come out on top that you know what not to do in the future. Definitely something to think about as you're doing this. Now, okay. So you started off you got the house hacking thing going, right? . What was the very next step after that? Because I know you, you were apprehensive to even buy that property and you said if I'm gonna do it, this is how we're gonna do it. How did the next deal go? What made you decide to say, I'm gonna go ahead and start buying real estate?

Becky Nova: 12:24

Sure. It was actually at the closing for that first property. We were at the closing, and honestly, Mike, the closing was horrible. There were so many problems with our paperwork. the closing took over four hours and probably had more curse words thrown out than any other closing in, like the history of closings. It was an absolute disaster.

Average Joe Finances: 12:42

It is also New York there's a lot of, there's a lot of F bombs in New York.

Becky Nova: 12:45

Right? So at the end of this closing, that was absolutely miserable. I get a check from the tenants living in my property. I'm day one. I just signed over my life. I just signed the biggest check I've ever written in my life, and yet I'm getting money back on day one. I loved this, and that was right then and there. I actually said at that closing, I was like, oh, I'm so doing this again. My husband, my realtor and my mortgage broker looked at me and were like, are you nuts? And I was like, no, I'm gonna figure out a way to do this again. So we closed. That's when I went on this absolute like rampage of just understanding everything about real estate. I started plugging into all the podcasts. I was reading books about real estate. I was talking to anybody that I could about it. I really went on this like whole, that's when I learned actually what house hacking was . It was then that I learned about this concept that now I was already employing and I kept calling my realtor and my mortgage broker like every couple weeks, at least once a month. I was like, Hey, can I buy another house now? Hey, can I buy another house now? And they kept being like, no, you can't. Like it's gonna take you years to buy another house. And I'm like, no, I'm gonna figure out how to do this. It was from staying in touch with those people that then presented the next opportunity. Now my husband still thinks I'm nuts. He's I just wanted to buy a home for us. What the hell are you making me do? So he's like dragging his feet in this. But one of those times that I called my realtor and I said, Hey, I'm ready to buy another house. Can I buy another house now? He said, actually, I think I might have something you'd wanna buy, but I need you to call your mortgage broker and see if you can get approved for it. And if so, we can move forward. I called my mortgage broker like I did every month and I said, Hey, can I buy another house yet? And he says, I don't know. Let's look at the numbers. Let's see if we can make it work. He goes, you know what? Actually, I think we can, you're in a place where we can actually make this deal work. In the meantime, my husband walks inside the house and he goes, Hey, it's so weird. I just saw our realtor across the street coming out of our neighbor's house. I wonder why that is. And I was like, he has a listing for our neighbor's property. That's what it. and that was exactly what happened. He met this little old lady in the neighborhood when he was actually at our house for the appraisal and they stayed in touch and finally this little old lady was ready to sell her house. So we ended up then buying our neighbors fourplex with a parking lot. And for those that know New York, no, a parking lot is a big deal around here.

Average Joe Finances: 15:03

That is a premium.

Becky Nova: 15:04

Yes, I prefer that over the house, to be honest.

Average Joe Finances: 15:07

Yes. Okay. So let me get this straight. So the property that you bought was a duplex, right?

Becky Nova: 15:12

Correct.

Average Joe Finances: 15:13

And you lived in one side with your husband and then rented out the other side. Already had tenants in place, right?

Becky Nova: 15:19

Tenants, yep.

Average Joe Finances: 15:20

Then the one across the street was a fourplex?

Becky Nova: 15:23

Yes.

Average Joe Finances: 15:23

So did it already have three sets of tenants in place? cause the little old lady was moving out. So did you already purchase that with three tenants in place?

Becky Nova: 15:30

So, Little old lady and her husband who'd owned the place for 30 years. First off, they were hoarders. They had stuff everywhere. They also didn't really understand pricing for the units. So their pricing of what they had, these three other couples, these three other families and the other units was just crazy. So we actually made an agreement. To we told the tenants, these are the prices that they're gonna be if you wanna stay. So we gave them the option to actually move out of the property before the closing if they did not accept the new prices or then they were to accept what those new rents were gonna be. One tenant chose to stay, two chose to leave, and then the fourth unit was the sellers who then needed to stay in the property for about three months after the closing. Because they were moving all of their precious items to land somewhere else and they were, an 80 year old couple that, of course, needed to save money and move all of those items themselves.

Average Joe Finances: 16:29

Okay. That's fair. Now, did you work that into the agreement that they got to stay there for those three months for free, or were they paying rent during that time?

Becky Nova: 16:36

No, so they did stay for free. Okay. Which was part of the agreement. But there was one money put in escrow and there was clearly a fine if they stayed pa past that date.

Average Joe Finances: 16:45

Okay.

Becky Nova: 16:45

But also was because we needed them to finish some of the work on the house that they of this removal of all of these items was really one of the reasons that they also needed to stay. And then since when we actually looked at the house, we couldn't even see a lot of things. There was a whole room I didn't even know existed , because we just couldn't, we couldn't see it because it was just covered with so many things.

Average Joe Finances: 17:06

Wow.

Becky Nova: 17:07

So they also agreed. To be able to fix some of the things. Like they repainted everything when they moved out, but they needed to clearly get everything out to be in that condition.

Average Joe Finances: 17:15

Yeah, it sounds like a TLC episode right there of hoarders.

Becky Nova: 17:17

Yeah, I was just say maybe a little bit more of that hoarder show. They could have definitely been on that. So it was insane.

Average Joe Finances: 17:22

When that happened, so you had the one tenant that stayed in place, the other two moved out, did you renovate those two units or anything? Or did you keep them as is and then look for new tenants? Or did you just fix it up a little bit? New paint, change out the carpets or anything?

Becky Nova: 17:36

Sure. Remember that I live across the street in a duplex. The tenants that I had upstairs were this young, these two young bartenders, and when I met them, I'm like, oh, these two are gonna fall in love. These two are so right for each other. They didn't see it. They did not get along. They hated each other after their year lease. But they wanted to stay with us. So what ended up happening was we had the tenant from upstair. Move across the street. He wanted his own space, but he can't afford the area. So we made an agreement with him, Hey, we'll rent you this apartment, but it's outdated. It's not renovated. We'll give it to you for a cheaper price so that way you can afford it, but we're not making any upgrades. So he took it. So we just literally had him move across the street, which was fantastic. Then the top unit that the tenants moved out, we did a gut renovation on that one because that was just, we could not rerent that. It was just, there was a family that had lived there for 16 years.

Average Joe Finances: 18:33

Oh, wow.

Becky Nova: 18:33

Moved in as a couple. They ended up with three kids. There seemed to be a little bit of a miscommunication between the sellers and them on why they ended up choosing to leave, but that was the choice that they made. And then the seller's apartment, when they finally moved out three months after, we thought that we were gonna have to make upgrades to it, but we were like, you know what? Screw it. We're just gonna throw it on the market. We can't do work till next week. We'll see what happens. And we rented it in under 12 hours.

Average Joe Finances: 19:00

Wow.

Becky Nova: 19:01

Yeah.

Average Joe Finances: 19:01

Wow. Okay. So now at that point you have, what, three out of the four units rented? cause you're renovating one of 'em. Then you have your upstairs unit and your duplex rented out. So did the, one of the bartenders stayed there, right? The other one moved across the street. So now you're pretty much what, four for five at this point?

Becky Nova: 19:18

Four for five. The sixth apartment we renovated while we were actually on our honeymoon. Okay. On the other side of the world.

Average Joe Finances: 19:26

Wow.

Becky Nova: 19:26

So we had our contractors sending us things. Then when we got back, we finished some of the other items up ourselves, and then we got that rented. We got that rented out as well.

Average Joe Finances: 19:33

Okay. Selfish question from me cause I'm 5,000 miles away from some of the properties that I have. How do you manage, not only the tenants while you're traveling around and everything like that, but also managing the contracting and all that other stuff that was going on when you were renovating those units, cause that's a lot to have going on while you go out on your honeymoon. So did that kind of workout.

Becky Nova: 19:54

Sure. And also my husband and I live in the Dominican Republic during the winters, and that was my dream. Remember that whole compromise thing? He wanted his home. I want my beach home.

Average Joe Finances: 20:03

There you go.

Becky Nova: 20:04

So I knew from the very beginning of all of this that I needed to put systems into place so that way I can manage my properties from anywhere. I didn't care that my properties were across the street I was gonna treat or that I lived in one of them. I treated even that first apartment that's above my head, I treated that as if I was, Becky Nova property manager for a thousand units. Like I put systems in place. I had my own email for it. I had a Google Voice number, like I put things like an order. So same thing with the contractor. Once we had that contractor, my favorite thing ever is using Home Depot where I have a pro account. So then I can have my contractors go pick out the items that are needed, or I can actually put the items that I want so I can pick out what color paint I want, what color backsplash I want, what type of countertop I want, put it all in a cart. My contractor goes, just picks it all up. Signs goes to check out. I get a text message that says, Hey, do you allow this person to make this purchase? I click, yes, I do, and I could do that from the beach. And then I just, what I was doing during that time was I was using FaceTime. to be able to check in on the work. So then that way I can see. I'll never forget this, we were in the Maldives on our honeymoon and one of those like really like romantic little, like over the water hut type things.

Average Joe Finances: 21:18

Oh, nice.

Becky Nova: 21:18

And our contractor was calling us and it was probably like midnight in the Maldives. And he was calling us, FaceTiming us, showing us that he'd installed the toilet. We're like, thank you for interrupting. Our romantic, over the water hut here on our honeymoon to show us that you put in a toilet. It was such like a weird thing to do, but that was actually how we did a lot of interrupted.

Average Joe Finances: 21:37

After that. You just light a candle right. Now everything's right. No, that's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah, so you put systems in place as if you were like managing Apartment units, right? Like you have this huge undertaking. And I think that's really important that even with just having, the five units besides the sixth one that you lived in, right? But having that, those systems in place so that no matter where you went, It was gonna work. So you could take those trips, in the wintertime to Dr. Right. And live out there for a couple months and not really have to worry about what's happening back in New York because you know that if something was to come up, the right people are in place to, to take care of it.

Becky Nova: 22:15

Correct.

Average Joe Finances: 22:15

I think that's huge.

Becky Nova: 22:16

The other thing too, is having like a boots on the ground. So it was really here in New York it's a little bit easier because it's very typical to have broker's fees. So my realtor who's actually become like a very good friend to me I've also bought four more multifamilies from him in the past three years. So I would probably like me to, but he's really somebody that I can count on and be able to call and say, Hey, can you go check up on this? Hey, can you go see what's working here? We have that and we also have a handy. That just we can call for really anything. And he's been great for opening a door for a contractor making, opening a door for a plumber when there's an emergency. So it's really great just to be able to have those couple people on hand that you can really count on. And I have no problem paying people for time. So Cool. I need my handyman to go open a door. I'll send you money, right? Let's sell you, let's Venmo you with Cash App, whatever you want. Like I'll send you money if that's the service that you're really gonna be able to provide for me.

Average Joe Finances: 23:09

Yeah. That's fantastic. I think the other key thing here is the relationships that you built, right? It's not just, people aren't getting that phone call from you saying, ah, it's Becky. They're getting that phone call saying, oh, it's Becky, what does she need? Because you built that rapport and you built that relationship. So I think that is huge. One of the biggest things I talk about on this podcast too is like that, that networking piece, but more importantly. The networking is the relationship building piece. You can network all day and get to meet all the people you wanna meet, but if you don't actually sit down and take the time to get to know them and build that relationship, they're just gonna be like, oh yeah, what I, yeah, I know that guy and whatever. So yeah, I think that's definitely important.

Becky Nova: 23:44

One of the best things that I've done also within that networking and building those relationships that I just wanna share as a tip that's really helped me.

Average Joe Finances: 23:51

Yeah.

Becky Nova: 23:52

Is, I refer them all the time. So now, once again, I'm not doing a gut rehab every other day. I'm not a flipper. I do buy and holds. So I don't need somebody to come in and do a gut rehab all the time. But when I need somebody to come do a gut rehab, I want a phone call back. I wanna be prioritized. So what I've learned to do is refer people as often as I can and share resources that are great. So then that way when I do call, I go to the top of the line. Here in New York, last summer, we actually had a hurricane. It was gonna have a ton of rain, a ton of winds. Already Where I live is a place that like is like more likely to flood than some other areas. I actually had a roofer call us and say, Hey, just so you know, I'm gonna come stop by tomorrow morning at nine o'clock. I just wanna check on the house. Just know that you're on the schedule. We don't know if you're gonna have any damage or not, but I just want you to know that you're on the schedule because in case you do Becky and Amelio, we're gonna make sure to take care of you guys first. That was amazing. I didn't even have to call and worry about that, and luckily we didn't have any damage from it. So I called him and said, Hey, don't worry coming by. We're okay. Don't make the trip down here. But he did that because I had referred him so much business over the years that he found value in that relationship and was willing to do that for me.

Average Joe Finances: 25:02

Yeah. That's, and that's the key word you just said right there, value. Bring somebody value and they will never forget you.

Becky Nova: 25:07

Correct.

Average Joe Finances: 25:08

That's huge. Absolutely. I wanna touch on a little bit on lady Landlords. So if you can share a little bit about what is Lady and how do you help empower women in investing?

Becky Nova: 25:17

Sure. Some of us might remember March, 2020, a lot of people of a sudden got sent home trapped in their houses, those types of things. My husband was one of those. He ended up being losing his job. They closed down during that time. He comes home and was like, Hey babe, I lost my job. What are we gonna do? That's, we lost an income stream. And my response was, oh my God, we have to buy another house. And he was like, no. Like I lost my job. What do you mean we're gonna buy another house? And I was like, listen, we can't count on other people. To provide us with income. We need to create that ourselves, and this is a better example of that than anything else. We need to buy another rental property. He thinks I'm nuts again. He runs off, slams the door in one of the other rooms and I was like, fine. You know what? I'm like, I'm sure there's other people out there that think like me that realize that this is something that we have to really put our best foot forward on. So I said, you know what, I'm gonna go make some friends with some strangers on the internet. I started Lady Landlords as a Facebook Group. Honestly, Mike, I thought it'd be me and my mommy hanging out there, but all of a sudden I got member request, and we just really grew as a group. We now have over 30,000 members that have joined Lady Landlords in the past two years. And when people joined, all these women were sitting there looking for resources, and I felt like. We became a great landing place to come and ask some questions. Hey, I don't know what to do about this. I don't know what to do about this. How do you handle this? How do you grow? How do I manage this tenant situation? And I kept answering a lot of the same things over and over again. And I said, listen, if I hear the same question twice, I know other people are thinking about this. So let's figure out a way to really be able to disseminate that information in a better way. So from that I was able to put together a course on how to get started, on how to manage your tenants, on how to grow your portfolio. We do workshops, we do networking events. We have a podcast too, and it's just really become a go-to resource for women to get the confidence that they need to go out and play in this man's world of real estate investing.

Average Joe Finances: 27:08

A hundred percent. I love that because, I remember the first real estate meetup I went to, I think out of like the 30 something people that were there, there was two women, right? And I go to real estate meetups now, and you start seeing more and more women, which I think is fantastic because it always seemed like it was the quote unquote man's sport, right? When you were going to real estate meetups. If you were a woman, you were like feeling out of place, right? And to see that kind of growth, and I think a lot of that impact is, Directly from things that you've done as well with starting this group, it's built that interest, right? Because it's important to have something else, right? besides just your own job, or even if you're a homemaker, right? This is still something you can get yourself into learn about and start creating other streams of income, right? And be more independent. And I think that's huge. And you. I like the fact that I'm seeing more and more women at these meetups and at conferences because it's just giving a more diverse background to real estate investors. And it brings in that I guess the, it doesn't really, it doesn't change the dynamic at all, but it just, it allows you to expand your network to just so many more places. So I think I think what you've done is absolutely amazing. First off, I wanna say thank you for, the, what you've built especially from the ground up. Just creating a Facebook page called Lady Landlords. Right? I'm pretty sure that it wasn't hard for people to find when they said, woman's I want to go learn about real estate, and they do a little search. That's one of the first things that's gonna pop up. So you created a community to have people feel more comfortable, to have women in particular feel more comfortable about real estate investing and that's just, that's awesome. So I just, I wanted to point that out. I think it's absolutely amazing what you've done.

Becky Nova: 28:55

Thank you.

Average Joe Finances: 28:55

Your story is amazing. The bounce back that you've had how you got into real estate by accident and then said, Hey, this is nuts, but I wanna keep doing it. You went with the flow of I think this is crazy, but I like crazy, so let's stay crazy. Your husband might still think you're crazy and that's okay. You're creating all these different streams of income and you did exactly what you said you wanted to do when he lost his job, right? You said we lost a stream of income. We need to replace it with a stream of income. And that's what you were doing. I think it's super important to have multiple streams of income. So you could set yourself up when you reach that financial independence number. It's life changing. And you're only gonna get there by getting multiple streams of income, whether it's in real estate, the stock market, whatever you wanna invest in businesses. I prefer real estate. I know you prefer real estate as well. It's just a great way to build wealth and build cash flow. All right. Becky, this has been absolutely fantastic. I want to transition this into something that we call the final round. I'm gonna ask you four three hard-hitting questions and then one opinionated question. So people we already know how you are when you're in a very tough situation. But this will provide maybe a little bit more transparency for people. So if you're ready to go, we'll get this party started.

Becky Nova: 30:02

Alright.

Average Joe Finances: 30:03

All right, let's do it. The first question, Becky, is what's the biggest mistake you've ever made in real estate investing?

Becky Nova: 30:09

I'm gonna take a little cop out on this one and say none.

Average Joe Finances: 30:12

Ooh. I feel that there was first, this is a first here. All right.

Becky Nova: 30:17

I still believe that there things, the first property that we had a ton of issues. It was also only a duplex, it was the right property for us to start with. We got our feet wet with one tenant. Things weren't necessarily right. We ended up having a ton of leaks and other issues with the property. We had a legal battle, oddly enough, with my own attorney that I won. It taught us, it gave us the foundation that we needed to then go to the second one. Second one, same thing. We made mistakes. But I learned from all of those and they taught me how to do that better. And then the third deal and the fourth deal. So to me, I don't really think that they were mistakes. They were put in my path to teach me something.

Average Joe Finances: 30:53

I love it. I love it. Again, like you said before, it's it's education, right? Each one of those experiences educated you to make you better for that next deal.

Becky Nova: 31:01

And every time I now, when my husband and I go look at like a property, we'll talk about something and be like, oh, but I don't know about this. And we're like, we didn't think about that three years ago. We didn't even know that was a thing. So now all of a sudden it's just interesting to see how we've been el able to elevate what we look for and really refine our process. But we had to go through that to get to where we are now.

Average Joe Finances: 31:22

Yeah. It helps shelter you from some of the things that you might run into if you were to buy that property, because it was things you weren't thinking about in the past. Like you said. If the house was built in the sixties or seventies right. What's the plumbing look like? What kind of wiring is the electricity in there, or do we have to rewire the whole house so we have to, replace the plumbing. Those are questions that when you did your first deal, you probably weren't asking that.

Becky Nova: 31:42

No.

Average Joe Finances: 31:43

No. Awesome.

Becky Nova: 31:43

I was just like, Ooh, I like the paint color. I didn't, really we didn't, we did not ask the right questions at all for the first property, and we turned out okay, we got involved, we got that first property, which honestly was the most important part.

Average Joe Finances: 31:55

Absolutely. All right. Becky, so the next question is gonna, it ties into that last one too. But what is something that you've learned, which you've learned a lot that you wish you knew when you first started.

Becky Nova: 32:05

Sooner to get involved the better, which I feel like is probably an answer you've heard before. I feel like real estate investors always say that they wish they had gotten started sooner.

Average Joe Finances: 32:13

Yep.

Becky Nova: 32:13

And I think I'm gonna fall into that category. I wish that I had understood the power of real estate back then earlier on in my twenties, one, because I think as we learned, prices are really only going up. But, so I think getting into the game sooner than later just makes more sense. And I wish I had understood that I could have taken and built some, a real estate portfolio sooner that then would've paid for my European adventures, where then I had a safety net that when I went and bought a business and it didn't turn out right. Cool. I still have my rental income coming in every month. I can lose that money and I still had a safety net and I wish I had built things backwards that way.

Average Joe Finances: 32:50

Yeah that, that is a very common answer for that question and I think it's important that's a common answer, right? Because a lot of people, they'll say that they, I wish I would've started sooner. I wish I would've started when I was younger. , those are the typical things you hear. And it's, I think it's important for people to hear that, especially some of my younger listeners that are listening to this right now Becky's part of that club too. We all wish we started this when we were younger. So if you're in your twenties, get started now. Don't wait until you're in your thirties. Because if you start in your twenties, you could be retired in your thirties and just living an enjoying life. So I think that's huge. So I appreciate, and the transparency.

Becky Nova: 33:25

And it's never gonna be perfect. It's every deal is not gonna be exactly right and the perfect deal, and you're not gonna get a home run every single time but the more important part is to get involved and do it sooner than later.

Average Joe Finances: 33:37

Yep. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Awesome. So hey, speaking of home runs, how about them Yankees? How about Aaron Judge? But anyway.

Becky Nova: 33:45

Reference to that too, even Aaron Judge, it took him a while to get 61.

Average Joe Finances: 33:49

Yep. And he's still got, what, seven more games to, to try to break the record.

Becky Nova: 33:52

Get another.

Average Joe Finances: 33:53

All right, here we go. So the third question Becky, is do you have any tips or tricks that you would recommend to someone that is just getting started today?

Becky Nova: 34:01

Yes. I alluded to this earlier on in our talk here, but systemized from the beginning. Go into that, even if you don't have a plan to build an empire or build beyond 2, 3, 4 units, treat even one unit as a business, you need to have things organized. You have them, things systemized. You can't be in a place of just running around like a chicken with your head cut off because, oh, you need a lease, or, oh, you need to post an ad for your listing. You need to come up with what qualifications a tenant needs to have. You need to have those things structured and systemized. Start from the beginning, it'll make your life so much easier, especially if you plan on growing.

Average Joe Finances: 34:37

A hundred percent love that answer. Having those systems in place can make or break anything that you do in life. And I really like how you point out that even if it's just one property, even if it's just one door, have that system in place. Make it look like you know what you're doing right. Your tenants will never know the difference. That's awesome. Okay. Final question of the final round, and I will preface this with, besides your own, do you have a favorite business investing or real estate related book or podcast, or both?

Becky Nova: 35:05

My favorite, I don't know if it really falls under like investing more than like kind of entrepreneurship and self-help, if you will, but my favorite book that I always recommend to people is Start With Why by Simon Sinek. It was also probably, I think it's still considered like one of the most popular TED Talks ever, but the book itself is amazing. Start with Why really gets involved in what is the motivation behind the things that we do. Mike, as you alluded to some days as an entrepreneur, are fantastic. We feel like everything's going great. Two hours later, the entire world crashes. Then all of a sudden things are fantastic again. Then all of a sudden, the world crashes again. right? We need to understand what our motivations are of why these things are important to us. When we bought, when I had that closing, that first closing, that was absolutely horrible and it was such a disaster. I needed to have that anchor and that grounding of why this was so important to me. My husband understood that was that American dream homeownership was so important to him. My goal, I wanna go live on a beach. So it was something that we needed to be able to ground ourselves and say, why are we putting in this energy? Why can't I just worked at a nine to five job? Buy my single family home. Live there until I retire and die. What made me have to do something that was gonna be different, and that's really what start with why helps people get to, is an understanding of what's your anchor and your motivation that will help carry you through when things just get tough.

Average Joe Finances: 36:23

Yeah, absolutely. Love that. Great book recommendation. So I definitely appreciate that. Now, I know you do have a podcast as well, so that's gonna go into this last question here. But this, first of all, I just wanna say, Becky this interview's been absolutely amazing. I love your story. I love what you're doing. So now for my listeners, I wanna be able to share with them where they can find more information about you. So you have a website you can share with us, social media, and of course, where can we listen to your podcast?

Becky Nova: 36:47

Sure. So easiest place for those that identify as female is they can come find us in the Facebook group, lady Landlords, nice and simple to find us there. You can also find us our website at lady-landlords.com, which has a link to our podcast, and you can literally listen to our podcast wherever you listen to podcasts or on YouTube. And lastly for all genders, you can find me on Instagram @beckynova24.

Average Joe Finances: 37:12

All right, fantastic. So I'll make sure I have all those links in the show notes to make it easy for the listeners. So you can just click or copy and paste away. Just again, don't do it while you're driving. Becky, this has been fantastic. Thank you so much for taking the time to have this conversation with me today and share your story with our listeners.

Becky Nova: 37:29

Of course. Thank you so much for the opportunity. I really appreciate it.

Average Joe Finances: 37:31

Yeah, absolutely. And hey, to my listeners, thank you so much for joining me and our special guest, Becky Nova, on the average Joe Finances podcast. Go leave us a five star review and tell us what you liked about today's episode with Becky. Aloha from Hawaii and have a fantastic rest of your day.