Edna Keep: $75 Million In Real Estate With Other People's Money
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Edna Keep started out as a single mom at the age of 16 living in subsidized housing to now owning over $75 Million in real estate, consisting of over 800 doors, which has only taken these past 10 years to build. In the middle, she became a millionaire as a financial advisor. Yet after learning about investing in real estate, she realized she couldn't advise her clients through mutual funds anymore. She had to get into real estate. She's now an entrepreneur and coach inspiring others to invest with the help of "other people's money" and wants to teach you how to do it too!
In this episode, hosted by Mike Swenson, we discussed:
- Edna was a financial advisor for 15 years. She was trained by mutual fund companies.
- Within 18 months of starting investing, they own 50 doors, had 5000 a month in cash flow and their net worth has increased a million dollars.
- Edna partnered with numerous people that she’ve met in her training.
- Edna started her first apartment complex. They’ve bought 24-unit apartment building at 75,000 a door.
- She’s had their best success by working with a coach. She hired her first coach way back 1999 when she was working as financial advisor.
- Edna’s advise is that “Build your Power Team”
Timestamps:
00:00 Intro and overview on Edna’s career
01:30 How Edna got into real estate and her background as financial advisor.
11:51 Edna’s approach to investors and to people that turned into 50 doors right away.
14:31 Her partnership that results in buying 300 doors.
16:01 Her first apartment complex that she’ve got.
22:54 Talking about raising capital.
22:18 What does she love the most in real estate.
36:29 Edna’s advice.
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Full transcript here:
Mike Swenson
Welcome to the REL freedom podcast where we inspire you to pursue your passion to gain time and financial freedom through opportunities in real estate. I'm your host, Mike Swenson. Let's get some real freedom together.
Mike Swenson
All right, welcome, everybody to this episode of the real freedom podcast. And I'm so excited today we have Edna Keep here. And and this journey is really from being a single mom at age 16. You know, you lived in subsidized housing with your daughter and subsidized daycare to now your multimillion dollar real estate entrepreneur and coach. So your major operations, our long term buy and hold rentals for apartment buildings, and your claim to fame as you have $75 million in real estate, primarily built through other people's money. And we'll talk a lot about that. But you're also a coach, a trainer, and you have a free real estate coaching on Fridays, as well as Mindset Monday events live on your Facebook page each week. So welcome, Edna, we're so excited to have you. Thanks so much, Mike. I'm very happy to be here. Great. Well, why don't we just get started? Why don't you just give us a little bit more detail of that journey. Obviously, that was kind of the short, the short version. So give us a little bit more details of kind of how you you got into real estate, your background, you were a financial advisor. And just to kind of talk about how that transition into real estate happened for you.
Edna Keep
Sure. I was a financial advisor for 15 years. And you know, a lot of people might think that financial advisors know all kinds of investments, but we didn't, I was trained by mutual fund companies. And that's all I mean, that's all I knew. And for a long time, I never even looked at anything else. So I actually had clients coming in wanting to redeem some of their mutual funds to invest in real estate and going, what are you crazy? Why would you want to invest in an asset class that pays you like 3% a year because in our area, it was like, that was what our inflationary rate had been like, for 50 years. And so just did a few conversations I started to understand I didn't understand. So and we actually took, first of all, an evening class through Robert Kiyosaki his group. Actually, it was Russ Whitney back in the day. But when we got started, it switched over to Robert Kiyosaki. And then a three day event, and it was after that three day event that our eyes were really opened to what was possible in real estate. And they talked about all the different ways like lease options and land development and commercial and single family home and wholesaling.
Edna Keep
And, all these things, and mortgage paid out and the fact that the tenants are paying off your assets and all this kind of stuff. And you know, within 18 months of us starting, we own 50 doors, had 5000 a month in cash flow, our net worth has increased a million dollars, my net worth, I got my first million as a financial advisor in 15 years, or 38, I guess. And so when we did it in one year, 18 months about, I knew I had something, and I actually couldn't even sell mutual funds anymore, I had to sell my practice, because the last year, I basically looked after the clients I had, but I didn't bring any money because I couldn't say anything good about it anymore. And and a lot of people thought I was absolutely crazy to give up this business I built for 15 years, as people close to me who knew me and where it come from and, and all that kind of stuff.
Edna Keep
And I left that business making about 250,000 a year a lot of it was a residual because we got paid a trailer fee. So but 120,000 a year or maybe more was residual. So it was recurring No matter if I went to work or not. And, and so a lot of people say I can't blend working about three days a week to doing that. And a lot of people thought, Oh, I can't believe you'd give that out. But you know what, I have never regretted it for a minute. We love what we do. Robert Kiyosaki always teaches, you know, the way to build wealth is to buy assets that other people pay for, and I couldn't even wrap my head around that as a financial adviser, that that could even happen, you know, so when I learned that and understood it, yeah, made all the difference in the world for us.
Mike Swenson
Yeah. Well, and I think that's the thing, you know, a lot of people outside of real estate, you know, yeah, just just don't understand what's possible. And you know, the, you often think like, there's, there's kind of this misnomer of like, Oh, well, if I own real estate, then I've got you know, I've got tenants calling me and bugging me and I've got to go to the property and you know, they always talk about the 2am toilets, that clog and that sort of thing. And you know, it was it was kind of the same thing with me like I wanted to get into real estate A long time ago. And what stopped me is I didn't want to be kind of the 24 seven traditional real estate agent, you know, running all over the place.
Mike Swenson
I didn't Realize that they had teams that they had leverage that they had other people that would take things off your plate. And it's the same thing with investing like you can, you can do certain things, and you can hire out others other things, you know, that's why you have property managers to help with managing the property. And, and when you have good people surrounding you, you can be so much better at your spot, because you've got somebody that's doing an awesome job, but their spot, you know, a great property manager can leverage your time and leverage your expertise in ways that you never thought possible because they have systems in place and efficiencies in place. And so, people working together, sorry, go ahead.
Edna Keep
They're better than it at it. And we are, you know, that, you know, we will go back to conventions, we were actually inducted into Robert Kiyosaki his Hall of Fame at that 18 month period, because we had done so many strategies and done really well. And people would come up to me all the time and say, Oh, how did you do that? How did you grow so fast? Like I met, I took the same classes as you same year, same timeframe. And you got like 50 doors, and we have like four. And so after a few questions, that's exactly what I found out what you just said, they decided to step over dollars, or step over dollars to pick up. Because they want to save that 100 bucks a month of property and not do their own property management, they want to save a little bit on repairs, maintenance, and do it themselves. So these hardworking people already had a full time job, and we're trying to build this real estate portfolio got drawn into that day to day crap. And so then they couldn't grow. And I seen that again, and again, and again.
Edna Keep
And you know, we were a little bit lucky, a little bit of mindset, we were both making really good money week, my husband and I, we had no intention of giving that up. But we knew it didn't make sense for us to learn how to be property managers, it didn't make sense for us to learn how to, you know, handle repairs and maintenance. And it just didn't make sense. So we had to hire it out. And that was the difference between our growth and their growth. And then the other one was, I was used to talking to people about money, and a lot of people aren't. And I find a lot of times people make mistake, you know, they get excited about real estate. And they start to think about approaching other people because they've hit their ceiling and can't get any more mortgages around out of their own money. And they go to people with this attitude, oh, you have all the money and poor little me, I don't have any money, and I want to buy more real estate.
Edna Keep
So I want to use your money, even though I'm a beginner. And you know, you can't get good investors, when you're talking like that, you have to go in with the goal, I have the goals here, I have got some great opportunities, it's not I'm looking for money, if I've got an opportunity you probably want to hear about the language is so important. And the confidence comes through when you can talk like that. And I see a lot of people skipping up, I'm going to just learn on the fly and read a couple books and do this. And then they they just blow all their potential investors out of the water and never, ever get a chance to talk to them.
Edna Keep
And a lot of people say, Well, I don't understand why people would invest with me, why wouldn't they just do it themselves? That's another big one that really holds people back. You know what, there's so many people out there that would love to invest in real estate? Do you know why they don't is because there's not enough people telling them the value of real estate. And I mean, you know, yourself, that has changed a lot in the last few years. There's a lot more people like us educating people. But you know, back in the day, when as a financial advisor, the reason so many people were mutual funds is because there was so many of us, we were telling everybody to buy mutual funds, and then they did and and then now I think we got a really great opportunity. But just like when I was a financial advisor, you got to educate people on why they want to invest there. And that is his parts that people skip when they're trying to raise money. And then they get stuck, and they can't can't do it. They didn't get anywhere.
Mike Swenson
Well, and I think the other thing too, that's really important is there's people that may want to be more active investors, and there's people that might want to be more passive. People want, turnkey and people want to dig into the details. And so if you find somebody that wants something a little bit more turnkey, or they don't want to be involved into the day to day and you said hey, if you give me X amount of money and I give you x amount of return back and you don't have to do anything, why wouldn't you want to do that if the return is good enough and so people want solutions to their problems and if I just said hey, here's an opportunity you give me this money I'll do this with it and you won't have to really do anything day to day and you get this much money back. Yeah, there's people that want to do that. But then there's also people that want to dig in deeper but but there's there's so many different opportunities out there and
Edna Keep
and fewer people want to dig deeper. Like the that pool is is actually smaller. And the people that would love to invest in real estate with the right person, if you educate them and show them that you know what you're doing?
Mike Swenson
Well, and another thing that you had mentioned that I liked was you're talking about just your, your approach to approaching an investor, you know, you think about a show like Shark Tank, or you think about, you know, starting a business and going to the bank or raising capital, you have a business plan, here's what I'm gonna do, here's why I'm qualified, here's what it's gonna look like, Here's the money that I need, here's how it's going to get used. And here's the return. So why wouldn't somebody approached a real estate investment the same way? Instead of just saying, Hey, here's my empty pockets, can you fill them? You know, treat it like any other business plan or any other business, you're going to launch you have to have your your act together, you've got to have a plan. And when you present that plan, give them a reason to say yes.
Edna Keep
And you know, when you point out the Shark Tank there, you can see like the investors lots of time just to those guys up and spit them out. Those are the ones that don't know their numbers don't understand. They're going in with like, almost stuff fly by the seat of your pants attitude. And they're, they just get spit out. But it's the ones that have a really good understanding. And even someone sometimes say, No, I'm not willing to take your offer. This is better than that. Then Then it goes, Okay, this guy has a belief in himself as well, or this girl? Yeah, there's something there. Whereas if you walk in, oh, yeah, I really need your money. And I'll do whatever you see, yeah, you're not you're not strong, you have to be strong.
Mike Swenson
Hmm. So how did that play out for you then in your early days? You know, how did you get started with that? And how did you approach people? And I mean, obviously, you mentioned, you know, it turned into 50 doors right away. But But how did that process work for you?
Edna Keep
You know, there was a couple things that I think we did differently from the average job, we hired a coach we took the training cost is 27,000. us, I still remember, I think it's around 40,000. Now to go through their programs, I've got a coach with as part of our program, we got a coach, we attended all the training, we really jumped in with all the networking, we still stay in touch with some of the people we met at those classes. And you know, one of the other things is our very first class we took, there was a couple there who kept talking about this other couple who had recommended they come two years later, they own 20 doors. And we actually met them at one of the events our coach put on, and we ended up partnering with them on our first several deals, including our first apartment building.
Edna Keep
And it really helped us because they took a lot of our fear away, because we were those people, like you talked about earlier, we're scared of tenants and toilets, and roofs and furnaces and all that kind of stuff, you know, and they they showed us that it didn't need to be we didn't need to be so fearful, including walking in properties and going, I wouldn't live here and they're going, No, you wouldn't. But you're not attended your home loan or different, you know, different levels. So we partnered with people who had more experience than us two years worth. But we also help them take things to the next level, because we were already successful business owners how to get net worth had weakened good income. So we were the ones that brought the first department building to the table. So but that partnership, and they were also property management firm, because they decided they wanted that part of the business so they could give up their day jobs. So that took a lot of pressure off us too, because we never did get roped into that property management part.
Edna Keep
So that was a big thing, partnering with other people who knew more than we did, even if it was only two years ahead. And then when that partnership ended, just you know, different ideas of where things wanted to go. We actually partnered up with another couple of other daughter couple who had taken the same training with us. And it was probably two, three years old. So they knew we had partnered with this fellow for a long time. And then they approached us and they said, hey, we've got some deals, but we just haven't been able to raise capital, we'll give you 75% of this deal. If you raise the capital, I gave 65% of it to the investors and kept 10%. And then that was the last time I did that. After that I usually kept as much as the managing partner, so 25 30% but the first time I kept 10 and brought the investors in for 65%. And that's how I got my you know, first partners with them.
Edna Keep
And you know, that partnership went on to we bought 300 doors together, as they kept finding deals, I kept finding the money. And so it was a really, really good partnership. And I find that that happens a lot of time in with my students. You know, some people get involved and they're all going home and they're going yeah, I want to do what you do and I want to be the active investor. Then they start getting involved in they realize how much work it is and they go Yeah, I think maybe I'll just be the passive investor. And and that happens a lot too. I I'm in the process of putting some people together in the group right now, where some have decided they want to have, or in some cases, they can't use the money themselves. So they put it together with with somebody else in the group. And that part is really good too.
Edna Keep
You know, people have to think abundance. Some people go, Oh, I got this under 1000, I gotta save it for my deal, save it for my deal. And then they don't find a deal for three years. And the money's gone, of course. But if they help people along the way, other people will help them back. And that's how things can grow exponentially, too. And, you know, it's all learned when people were first approaching me and say, Oh, well, yeah, of course, you could raise money, your financial advisor. But you know, what, 15 years before that I wasn't I learned everything through the train of mutual fund people. And that's actually how I ended up training people too, because I realized that I had something that I could teach people. And it didn't have to be as difficult as they as they thought it was.
Mike Swenson
So So how big was that first apartment complex that you guys got?
Edna Keep
24 doors? Yeah. Okay, we bought 26. And then that 24 unit, and that's what also pushed us them to just stick with multifamily. Because, you know, most people, they can get three, four houses, we actually got 15, before we were cut off, because we had good network, we had good income, all that kind of stuff, we even got a couple of 5% down, but then we were just out of the blue, it was like nope, you're cut off, even though they they wouldn't tell you when you're going to be cut off, we kind of knew at some point we would. So we bought a 24 unit apartment building at 75,000 a door. And just with what was going on in our city at the time, there was a lot of in migration city was just booming, we actually kind of converted that building and sold the boat for about 147,000 a door. So our that that deal turned out really, really good for us. But, and yet, in times, I wish I would have kept it because, you know, we increase the rents, we could have had really, really good cash flow. But we also need to take advantage of what was happening in the market at the time. So it made more sense for us to do that.
Mike Swenson
And I think too, sometimes people you know, hear a story like that and think like, oh, gosh, like they made so much money. And then they think well, I have to wait for that one. You know, like you don't always know they they give an example of you know, like hitting singles or hitting a home run like you don't necessarily know when you're going to have that the home run but but you can't have everyone be a home run. So you just have to get in the game and hit some singles along the way.
Edna Keep
What that's really good point in our first 15 houses we still own endure most of them still to this day. They
Mike Swenson
were all of the 15 are single family home. Right.
Edna Keep
We did start our we have three condos, and we bought a duplex so some are duplexes and then some we put basement suites and houses and different stuff like that. So it very quickly went to duplex type properties and a couple for plexes and then moved into the apartment buildings. But yeah, the A lot of people will wait and wait and wait. But you know, I had a mentor to his name is Don Campbell. He wrote the book called real estate investing strategies in Canada. And he started all his journey in 1981, so many years before us. And he said, and I always kept this in my mind. He said the most money I made were the average deals that I bought. He said, Yeah, I got a couple home runs in there, no doubt, as did we. But he said my biggest net worth was just that buying at market value and holding it long term and letting the tenants pay down your mortgage. She said my biggest portion of wealth came through there.
Edna Keep
So I always kept that in mind. Because, you know, market value a lot of people Oh, you know, and I remember having this mentality. Even in the first duplex we bought, we seen somebody had a house up for sale, it was actually a duplex, it was two bedrooms up one bedroom down. And it looked new, because she put in all the windows and stuff, but it was actually an older property. And I remember thinking about we got to make a lowball offer. So she was asking 160, we offered 140. And she said No, you know what I think was the market. So what do they are I can get? I think I can get 160. So then we went back and said, Well, what about 150? And she said, Well, you know, that's a pretty fair offer, I'll probably take it, but I want to finish the work because I really kind of think I can get 160 so then we said Well, how about we give you 160 and we knew that was a little bit over what it was worth maybe 5000 more than it was worth.
Edna Keep
But you invest with us the downpayment, because you know we at that point, we'd already figured out we're going to run out of our own money if we didn't start doing the creative financing. So she fully invested the downpayment, we had enough to put it in but she replaced it right at the at the closing table and later 6% interest so when we explain that to her, she said to us, wow, for once in my life, I am going to win twice, I'm going to get the price I want. And I'm going to get five or 6% on my money. She said, If I put that in the bank, I don't like one or two. And you know what, it was so funny. Just the other day, I just had a birthday. And she's still reaches out to me. And Happy birthday, Edna, you know. And that was a first purchase back in probably 2008. Maybe, you know, at the end, it's amazing the relationships that you make with people to over the years. But the way that we did, it really helped her out for a long time. She ended up having to look after her mother and all this kind of stuff.
Edna Keep
But you know, that helped us and really swayed us. But I remember people telling us well, yeah, I think you overpaid for that property. But you know, what, we were making $1,000 a month in cash flow. Do you think I cared if I overpaid 5000, not at all. But that's another thing people get stuck on, oh, I gotta get this really good deal and grind the realtors. That's the actually got as a student went over a realtor. And she said to me, the number one reason I signed up with you is because one of the things you said in an interview was stop grinding your realtor, pay them what they're worth, you know, but it's true, people will try to grind and grind and grind. And you know what? They might close that one particular deal. But would you ever deal with them again, Not on your life? Right, we ended up getting the best deals, because we didn't do that we didn't nickel and dime people under their job. You know, because we understand that, you know, sometimes you're dealing with three or four or 510 buildings that don't close. And and so you deserve to get paid on that one. But lots of people don't. She said, I guess than working with people like that. And so yeah, she said that was the number one reason she decided to work with me. So it's kind of fun.
Mike Swenson
I mean, I think people forget to Like, it's it's a relationship business, and a reputation business too. And so, you know, even though there's lots of real estates, you know, I'm in Minneapolis, St. Paul area in Minnesota, like there's a lot of agents, but you never know, when you're going to work with another agent again. And it might be a really important deal, you know, the markets tight, let's just say it's a, you know, a normal residential transaction, let's say you, you know, I've got a buyer that we've written up a few offers, they haven't been accepted, what if the one that they really love is the listing agent is the agent that I just had a really bad deal with, or I tried to screw them over, you know, in some way, well, then they're not going to be too excited to accept your buyer's offer. So you have to play nice in the sandbox, and you have to, you know, build great relationships with people and yeah, deals fall apart, things fall apart, but being respectful and, and, you know, that stuff really goes a long way for you to to help pitch your long term goals.
Edna Keep
Absolutely, it does. Yeah, that's a really big thing.
Mike Swenson
So talk a little bit, then about the raising capital piece, because I know the listeners are gonna be really excited to learn more about that. You know, what, what advice do you have for people, you know, outside of how, you know, approaching it with as a business mentality, not just, hey, look at my empty pockets mentality, but how, how would you recommend people you know, if I want to get started in investing, or excuse me, if I want to get started with, you know, building an investment portfolio, and I don't have the money, but let's say, you know, I'm a real estate agent, and I have a lot of knowledge. How would you go about doing that?
Edna Keep
Well, we've got our best success throughout everything in our life by working with the coach, you know, I hired my first coach in 1999, when I was working as a financial advisor, I was at a convention, and one of the coaches on stage said, How many in the crowd have a coach and I looked around, and it was all the ones who were making a million bucks a year. And at that time, I think I was making like 150, and I went, Okay, that's a shortcut. So hiring a coach is one of the biggest things because the, they'll take a lot of that fear away, walking you through the steps that you need to make happen. And teaching you what you need to say, one of the things that I teach my students is even the first conversation, you have to look professional, you have to speak professionally, and you have to introduce yourself.
Edna Keep
So even if you're a doctor or a lawyer, or you know, whatever you're doing, most of time people, you know, they're their first way of introducing themselves is like with myself, it was while I'm a financial advisor, and I help people create wealth with with mutual funds. So you have to change that and, and even if your doctor lawyer or whatever you're doing, you you have to add that in. You know what, I'm a doctor by training. So I'm quite busy, but I also help people build wealth through real estate. Oh, how do you do that? You want to create curiosity in that 32nd space that you get a chance to talk to them about? And I mean, there's always going to be the people that go, Oh, well, I have a ward on my toe. Could you ever look at it, you know what I mean? Have you know it? People also might go, Oh, really? You know what, that's something I've always wanted to get into real estate. How did you do that? Because I'm a busy professional, I don't have time. How did you ever make time and then the conversation can have happen, right?
Edna Keep
So even just knowing what to say, right off the bad house. The other thing is, and this is what we found was huge success. For us at the at the top, we only owned a couple of doors, we could talk about a team that owned over 20 doors, you know, so it was not doing it by yourself. Because Yeah, if you're a lone wolf, you might, you might raise reasonable capital from your best friends and stuff, because you got a good reputation. But people want to know that you have a team, because what if it comes to you. And then 10 years later, 15 years later, where's their money. And then the other really big key thing, a lot of times people think it's all about two returns on their money, the biggest thing is returned out of their money. And and that's something people need to wrap their heads around to because I actually had a student come on board with me, and he said, and I'm stuck.
Edna Keep
He says, For four years, I've been stuck at 24 doors, I think it was a 2.4 million, something like that. And he says, I'm finding deals that can pay 40%. And I can't get investors, I go well, there's your challenge. You're telling you're telling him you're can get them? 40%, right? He said, yeah, it worked out. Of course, you can't, you can't tell people, you can give them 40%. Because the first thing they're going to be thinking is, that's too high risk for me, I can't do that. So you have to be also careful with speaking those really crazy numbers, go ahead and over deliver given a given 40 you can't talk that up front, You'll scare them right out of the water. I mean, lots of people are, you know, used to earning two or three or four or 5%. And if you start talking 40, they automatically are going to think that it's too high risk.
Mike Swenson
So does that comprehend that?
Edna Keep
Yeah, no, it's just high risk, and I'm going to lose all my money. So you got to be careful with how you present it that way too. So yeah, those are probably the biggest tips I have, like, really be careful what you say, show them how they're going to get your money back. We always like by cash flowing assets, and we show them how to cash flow alone, we're going to pay you back your your principal that you put in over the course of the next five years, then sometimes we have to refinance and give you the rest. But you want to show them first how they're going to get the principal back.
Mike Swenson
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. So talk a little bit then, you know, our our podcast is obviously focused on, you know, building, financial and time freedom, you know, through opportunities in real estate. So, you know, obviously, you you made money in your previous life in your previous career, and now you've made money in in the real estate space? What does what does that mean for you in terms of being able to do what you love? You know, some people say, Well, I'm never gonna retire, because I love what I do. And I feel like I'm never gonna work a day in my life. You know, but But what does that look like for you based because of what you've been able to build in real estate, you know, trips, you've been able to take, you know, kind of dictating whatever you've wanted to do. How does that work for you?
Edna Keep
You know, the number one thing that's worked for me, Mike, is, I never knew there was such a thing as a coach that you could be a coach for other people. And although I kind of was when I was a financial advisor, but it was just different terminology, right? Yeah. And now my biggest love is helping other people. We got all our I mean, we could have retired probably 10 years ago, maybe not eight for sure. And had totally replaced her income from my financial business and my husband's trucking business, but it because people kept approaching us and we were able to help and help and help in both both investors and students. That everything that I do now, I do like it student based, so I spend 90% of my day with students and lots of free time I got three teenagers living in my house, I get lots of time to spend with them. But I'm one of those people like I will never retire because I don't feel like I work.
Edna Keep
Even when I was a financial advisor. I used to think where the heck else can you get paid so well, just to visit with people because you know what, most the time people don't want to talk the whole time you're visiting with them or about their money, you know, like the plans in place that are that it's like, Okay, you know what else is going on in your life and, and, and so you're just really visiting with people and got paid well to do it. It's it's the same with coaching, like you're coaching, you're helping, you're helping, you're helping, but you just get to socialize with people all day long. That's that's my forte. You know, I was a C student in school. It's the remember saying to one of my students went past his class or one of my teachers I passed his class with a 50. I said, Did you ever think that I would become successful. And he said, you know what I thought if you found something that could you could use your social skills that you would, and you don't want in school social skills are not celebrated, you know, not celebrated at all.
Edna Keep
So to be able to make a whole career out of that, is just fabulous. You know, so that that's the part I love about it. And then yeah, and, and, and every time a student buys a building, I am just as excited as they are, you know, and so it's like living vicariously, because I remember the excitement of the first few that we bought. And the end, the thing that allows me to do that, too, is we still have managing partners for everything. So we have managing partners that deal with the property managers, the maintenance and stuff, because there's still not for most people, there's not it's not entirely passive, real, real estate's not an entirely passive, unless you're managing partners who have an ownership position. So that's how we've dealt with most most of it, is we have managing partners, because I don't even like talking to the property managers anymore. You know, what I read?
Mike Swenson
Yeah, yep. Well, it's building leverage and building great people and providing them with opportunities, you know, they're gonna show up in a different way, because they have an ownership stake in the business. And, you know, it's maybe that's something that they didn't have prior. So now they're gonna show up differently. And you've earned that freedom from, you know, essentially deciding who you get to talk to, or who you want to talk to, or whose life giving to talk to you versus life sucking.
Edna Keep
is still gonna, well, attendant will try to bypass our property manager and come to me and I'm gone. Like, I don't even know the answer to those questions. I I'm not gonna put you off. I do not know the answer to that. So I just given my property manager, and if they try to come back, and I haven't had it happened this morning. I said, didn't I give you the property managers number? Honestly, I don't know the answer to that. They were looking for a one bedroom apartment something something? I don't even know. I don't even know. So yeah, that's, you know, sometimes better. Otherwise, you get drawn right back in, right?
Mike Swenson
Yeah. So what did those relationships look like? So, so some of your key people, because I know, a lot of people, you know, that are building big things are doing it with great people. And I think sometimes people gloss over like, well, I just want to have those people in place like that, that those relationships take time, the trust takes time, you know, the them, you know, going to bat for you, and you know, taking care of problems for you that stuff takes time. So you can't just say, Oh, I want to you know, hire some managing partners to take care of all my headaches. And now I don't have to worry about it, you know, talk talk about building and finding those people and how long you've been in business with them?
Edna Keep
Well, you know, what, nowadays, my best managing partners started out being my students, you know, they just excelled. They were really good and professional, and they had had deals, again, I could raise the capital, they could be the managing partner. And, and lots of times, that's how they got their start. So the first 24 or 48 doors were getting with us helping, and then they went on to start building more and more of their own portfolio with some experiences that so that, again, is a really nice way of doing it. Because, you know, I've always, I've always had in the back of my mind that at one point, I want to invest with my students, because I know that they're trained how I want them to be trained.
Edna Keep
Like there's lots of other trainings out there, there's lots of other people, but I train them I know, when they have a good deal like I you know, understand it, I can see it inside now what I've taught them and and so that that's actually one of my goals, I want to be investing 100 grand a month with my students and and a half with, you know, usually with other people's money. But at some point, when we're to the point where we're doing that it's going to be completely passive, and it's going to be an ownership position and, and setting your kids up that way to you know, being the ownership position and stuff like that. So yeah, that that's another ultimate goal for us.
Mike Swenson
Well, what a great environment because you're, you're observing them in their natural habitat, like they're, you know, so you can kind of see, like, Who's showing up who's not showing up, you know, who puts in the extra time who gets it, you so so you've kind of built a community of people that you can watch and observe and provide them with opportunities as as things move along. So that's fantastic.
Edna Keep
And and it's fun, because it's fun to see the growth in them to when they get that first decent opportunity. And then it's like, you know, the one Managing Partner we have we bought 40 or 38 units together and he had 25% And ownership if you didn't raise any capital, we raised it all. And, you know, that was, I think your two, three when he was working with us because he done and the biggest reason for him is he was local to where we were buying. And it was a big deal to test that we had a local prop. Somebody close as managing partner, but you know, four years in because he was finally able to quit his job, he was a teacher. And one last year alone, he made over 600 grand wholesaling deals, he didn't even want anymore, so he decided to focus on multifamily, like we do, but he kept getting all these houses, because that's used to be what he marketed for.
Edna Keep
So he will sell them to people that wanted houses. And and you know, when he started, he couldn't even fathom that he couldn't even think about that. And part of the thing and it was a real thing working with him. We kept having to tell him like you got to stop stop being that person that's over attendance house at midnight fixing the toilet, you got to stop that because you can't even think though how busy you are, you got to back that up. And and it didn't happen till you actually did about this teaching career. And then finally he was able to have some time to think and network and and connect with these people that it could help. Right?
Mike Swenson
Yeah. Any other advice that you have for folks, before we wrap up, anything that I missed that you want to share?
Edna Keep
Build your Power Team, one of the things for us is a very first part of the course a teaches build your Power Team, because like you said earlier, you know, you need a good realtor on your team. And then mortgage broker and lawyer and different stuff like that. And, and lots of times like you guys have really, really good value, find the deals, you know how to analyze them, you can help them with stuff like that. So it people have to be around like minded people. That's the biggest thing too. Because in the real world, like there's a lot of people out there who are ready to shoot you down, take you down, it's that crowd syndrome, right, they're gonna drag you down. So if you're real like minded people doing what you want to do, that's, that's the best thing you can do for yourself.
Mike Swenson
Awesome. Well, thanks so much for coming on. I appreciate it. For people that want to learn, learn more about you and what you do, how can they get ahold of you?
Edna Keep
Well, the best way they can see my that's my website and in connect with me through there, I do a lot of free stuff. I have a couple of free Facebook groups, which I'll make sure that you get links to Mike. And yeah, and then if it's something that you're really interested in, and you want to, you know, jump right into multifamily. I usually tell people book a strategy call with one of my team because it's not a fit for everybody. There's, you know, I have specific criteria, I want people to be ready to go with it. Because I tell people, you know, you can study til the cows come home. But it's not till you do a deal that you're really even going to know that you know what, you know, so I want people already say, Okay, I'm buying a building this year, and not people go, Well, I just kind of want to learn the strategy, because that doesn't really fit for me, it's like, go read another book, because you're not ready, right? If you got that burning desire that you want to buy a building that I can help you.
Mike Swenson
Yeah, you know, I heard recently, somebody had mentioned about, you know, striving for perfection could be an excuse for taking action, you know, and so many times people think I just need to get a little bit better. I just need to do this a little bit better. And they use that as a crutch for a reason to not not take action on something. So yeah, we're finding the people that want to move forward.
Edna Keep
Yeah, I need to know more. I need just need to know more. I just need to know more. In some cases, there's people out there no more need don't learn anything. Because sometimes they think they know too much they scare themselves into not taking action. You know, that perfectionist attitude is one of them. Right?
Mike Swenson
Yeah. Well, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it and, and there was a lot of value there. So So thanks so much. And yeah, if you want to learn more about Edna, go to our website ednakeep.com and yeah, thanks so much for coming on. I appreciate it.
Edna Keep
Pleasure.
