April 8, 2025 • 2469 mins
In this episode of the Suzanne and Sarah Real Estate Investing Podcast, Suzanne and Sarah are back from a spring break that was anything but restful. From new listings and mentorship wins to dead rats during inspections, they dive into what it really looks like to hustle in today’s real estate market.
✨ Topics We Cover:
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Market and listing updates in Bend & Redmond
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Seller financing and off-market portfolio deals
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Strategic insights for buyers in high-interest environments
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Why asking better questions leads to better deals
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Balancing personal chaos (like moving into a construction zone) with professional growth
💼 Whether you’re navigating negative equity, structuring creative partnerships, or looking for smart investing moves in 2025—this episode will inspire and inform.
📌 Subscribe for weekly episodes and connect with us on Instagram for behind-the-scenes stories and live market tips!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Suzanne and Sarah RealEstate Investing podcast, where strategy
meets hustle and your real estate goalsturn into reality where Suzanne and Sarah
Investors agents and your go-to teamfor smart strategies, honest insights,
and plenty of laughs along the way.
(00:21):
Whether you're flipping, renting, orjust starting out, we're here to help
you invest smarter and live better.
So let's dive in because thebest time to invest is now.
Yay.
We're back.
Sorry.
You got it.
After week of being off for spring break.
(00:41):
That wasn't so break right, Suzanne?
That is so true.
Spring break is basically a breakfor everybody except realtors.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's what we learned last week.
Okay.
So we're back with the Suzanneand Sarah Real Estate Investing
podcast for another week of funstuff to talk to you guys about.
And as we already said, spring breakwas no break at all and we've been
(01:05):
going, going, going, as we normallydo, and I pulled off a big move from
one primary residence to another.
I forgot how hard that is.
It's been a few years since I've done it.
And what did you do, Suzanne?
Oh, I just zipped overto France real fast.
To secure an alternative residency.
(01:26):
No big deal.
Yeah, typical.
Typical.
What's so funny is Matthew pointedout to me, the other's just do you?
He was like, do you even knowwhy Suzanne is doing that?
I'm like, no, but we'lltalk about it eventually.
That makes total sense for Suzanne, soI'm not even questioning it, a typical
week, in our not so typical lives and.
As they say, no rest for the wicked.
And we are pretty wicked atbuilding an intentional lifestyle.
(01:52):
So true.
Yes.
All right, let's talk aboutmarket and business updates.
Spring break.
March, end of March.
This is generally when we tell sellersit's a good time to list your property
and more listings are hitting the market.
We've got buyers that are ready togo, but rates are still high and it
makes investment deals tough to pencil.
(02:13):
So we are seeing the typicalspring activity ramp up.
And as always, we tell a lot ofour folks that we work with that
Redmond continues to offer morebank for the multifamily book.
So basically you can get the same rentsor better in Redmond for $200,000 less.
(02:34):
It seems a better deal to me.
So lots of folks are activelysearching for seller financing
deals as a way to make deals pencil,and they're few and far between.
But Sarah and I like tocreate those opportunities for
our sellers and our buyers.
So some deals that we are personallyworking on this week we have a lot of
(02:56):
connection and connections in the investorcommunity and someone brought us an off
market portfolio in Klamath Falls, whichis south of Central Oregon, about two
hours south more in southern Oregon.
And so we brought that deal that has a.
13 plus percent rate to one ofour most motivated buyers who has
(03:17):
some big door expansion plans.
Yeah.
And also this week we launched anew residential listing in Bend.
What's unique about this listing isthat it's actually been functioning
as an STRA short-term rental.
And these sellers got theirSTR permit before the rule
(03:39):
went from 300 feet to 500 feet.
So we're in a little bit ofa tricky situation because
we're selling a furnished.
Rental that really can't be used asa nightly rental for the next buyer.
And it's tenant occupied by along-term renter right now, and
it's nearby to the train tracks.
So that can be a deal breaker for some.
(04:02):
And yeah those kind of this will bean interesting one to watch because
it's a really sweet little house.
Nicely done, but has afew oddities about it.
Yes.
And for that one, yes, it can't be used asa short term rental, but I do think that
there's potential for midterm, and that'swhat we always look for every single
week when we're doing our top X email.
(04:24):
They're willing to sellthis place fully furnished.
It's decorated, it's gotstrong rental history.
So for the right investorit could be the right one.
Yeah.
No, I think that's a great buyer for this.
Particular property.
Someone looking for afurnish, midterm rent rental.
Yeah.
Also navigating a really interesting.
(04:46):
Seller financed sub to sale for oursellers who actually want to be the bank
on the sale of their condo and are doingthis strategically because they wanna
earn the interest money over the nextsix, six years and then get a payout in
six years when their kids go to college.
So this is their part of their strategy.
But it's not as straightforward asjust a seller finance deal where the
(05:10):
sellers own the property outright.
So these guys have an underlying mortgage.
They want to do a contract for saleor a land sale contract to the buyers.
And so a pretty thoroughcontract has to be written up.
And it's not something thatwe, as realtors can do.
It's not something that escrow can do.
So it has to be done by an attorney.
So I spent all of last week.
(05:31):
Calling every single attorney Icould find in Ben and Portland
and pretty much anywhere.
And it was spring break.
No one was willing to do any work lastweek if they even answered the phone.
So I've been getting a few callsback this week, which has been nice.
But yeah, good luck if you're tryingto get something done with attorney.
(05:52):
We have some super sweet sellersthat bought a short term rental with
us back in early Covid days, 2021.
And the property is worthless than they paid for it.
So we call these ournegative equity sellers.
And when they called, they werejust done being property managers
for their Airbnb remotely.
From a different state andthings weren't working that well.
(06:14):
And they were self-managing.
And so they were like,we think we wanna sell.
And I was like, okay, let's look at this.
But you may have to write acheck to sell your property.
And nobody wants to write a wedon't want our buyers or sellers to
write a check to sell our property.
So we reached out to some ofthe investors in our community
who are negative equity, what can we dofor them to just break even and walk away?
(06:35):
And we actually fielded asubject to offer for them.
And ultimately we also shared someshort-term rental optimization tips.
And they decided to hang onto theproperty for now, and, hoping to
ease the stress of self-management.
And we'll be there whenthey are ready to sell.
And hopefully at that point they'llhave more equity in their property.
That was awesome for you to supportthem through that full circle of,
(06:59):
deciding they wanna sell, gettingthem an offer, them coming back
to deciding they don't wanna sell.
And that's, buyers and sellersgo on journeys, you gotta
feel it out along the way.
So thank you for guiding them on that.
Yeah, they came full circleand I'm glad and that was the
conversation I had with them.
You guys are making the right choice.
And it was so interesting to hearthem too, because they were relieved
(07:20):
to hear me say that they feltbad that I had spent time trying
to sell their property for them.
And I was like, you guys, no.
Like I want you to win here, andfeel good about your decision.
And so it was great to have that.
Conversation for them to feel a senseof relief and that we'll be there when
they're ready and when the time is right.
(07:42):
For me this week I have beenmostly focused on one of our
most active buyers there.
It's crazy, like I had a video meetingwith them two weeks ago and then last
week in my mind didn't exist 'cause.
I had an off week and then all of asudden they just showed up and bent.
And I got to meet them and it was likea blink of an eye and it was really fun.
So I showed them one property acouple days ago, and these buyers
(08:05):
are super cute in that they.
Aren't totally sure in what theywant yet except that they know
that they want a live and flipand they don't like cookie cutter.
And I've seen this before and and I'm sureI'll see it again, but where we are in
process with them is showing them older,less cookie cutter homes that probably
need more work than they need and wherethey're going to land, I'm sure is.
(08:29):
A little bit newer more like lipstick,superficial flip homes that are just
fine to move into, but have the abilityto add value to over the course of the
next five years while they're livingthere without making them really
uncomfortable, like removing lotsof walls and doing full electrical
and plumbing and things like that.
So really excited to be workingwith them, really good people.
(08:50):
And.
I just, I love helping buy these buyerslike this in particular, like refine
and just give them a little bit ofguidance and make it so they, they
feel like they're making all thesedecisions on their own, which they are.
But just helping people come to termswith what they're really looking for when
they are vocal about needing guidance.
And I dunno, I find alot of pleasure in that.
(09:12):
So having fun working withthis new set of buyers.
It's like coaching.
Yeah, exactly.
That's what it's, that's a big part of ourjob because, and I tell new buyers that
all the time listen, like this processis gonna go as fast as you want it to go.
It's gonna, and it's all reallyguided by like how well you
know what you're looking for.
(09:32):
If you come into this and you have.
All the specifics lined up of exactly whatyou're looking for, your timeframe, your
budget, your wants, needs, don't wants.
And we're gonna find that for you andget you under contract right away.
But some people come to us witha more vague idea of what they're
looking for, and I help them putwords to it and give them the
locations and give them the ideas.
And that's just our job, and I love it.
(09:54):
It's great.
And it's coaching.
Cool.
So our topic of the week.
Our main focus, I think from the themeof what we've had going on is that
creativity is how the best deals aregetting done in our current market.
Every deal that we've put togetherlately has required some form of
outside of the box thinking, andhere's what we've been learning.
(10:17):
I know that in our market for mostof our investors, we always ask if.
Seller financing is on the table.
Like regardless of whether it's listedthat as that or not we know in this
market interest rates are a hugepart of what is difficult to make
deals pencil, and if we are able to.
I ask that question first.
(10:38):
Help educate sellers who maybearen't getting that education and
show them the benefit of that.
That is obviously gonna benefit ourbuyer as well because they're gonna be
saving money on interest and bank fees.
And it should benefit the seller too, inmost cases because they have earned income
off of their asset that they wouldn'totherwise have by playing the bank.
(10:59):
Yeah, and just quickly an exampleon that with this Klamath Falls
portfolio, it's three duplexes.
The seller wants to sell forsix 50 and 7% interest rate.
For 10 years, this seller would makejust an interest, almost $400,000.
(11:20):
Added income.
So instead of selling for 60, theysell for over a million because
they're keeping the interest moneyinstead of it going to a bank.
That's what we're talking about interms of the benefit to the seller.
Plus they're not getting the full amountall at once, which helps them reduce or
defer their capital gain to super asset.
(11:40):
Yeah, it's just such a no brainerto me, and I get there are a few
particular situations for sellers wherethat might not work or be appealing,
but if you don't need the money rightaway, if you are a true investor
and have multiple properties like.
Why not?
Like, why not do this, at leastmake the term short to begin with.
And if it doesn't work for you,then, collect on your balloon.
(12:02):
But otherwise, maybe be open torenewing for longer terms too.
Like Suzanne will tell us in futureepisodes and future meetups what how
lucrative it can be to play the bankinstead of just the real estate investor.
But yeah, I really, just to, tofinish up that thought I really do
think like the biggest piece to thatactually, like working is the person
(12:23):
communicating with that seller and it's.
Hard when we're representing thebuyers because we don't always, and
most often don't have a direct lineof communication with those sellers.
And we're relying on the sellersagents to play telephone with
information that we're providing them.
We take our job seriously in that, likewhen we provide this information to
sellers agents, listing agents we do,we like, we will actually like outline.
(12:46):
For them.
So hopefully they can justcopy and paste this information
and put that in front of them.
You know exactly how much the sellerstands to gain from these situations.
But so we like to do other people'sjobs for them sometimes too, and help
make other people's jobs easier becausewe're all in this for the same goals.
Yes.
And it's a win-win.
And that's the other part of, thiscreativity is how we get the best
(13:07):
deals done in this market is alsorecognizing that certain people
bring different things to the table.
There may be somebody with thecapital, there may be somebody with the
skills or the time or the knowledge.
And it's about bringing those variousparties together to create a win-win.
And this is something wedid over the last two weeks.
We helped create a joint venturepartnership between two investors in
(13:30):
our community to buy an off marketproperty where everyone is gonna benefit.
And we're super excited tobe part of facilitating that
connection and helping all of ourinvestors win through the process.
Totally.
So real estate, the moral ofthe story is real estate is
not one size fit, all fits all.
And this market inparticular, creativity is key.
(13:54):
Yes.
All right.
Let's move on to our client andindustry PSA and our industry.
PSA was a fun one this last week.
Just don't fake it till you make it.
If you're new as a realtor just askquestions and don't, try not to let
your ego get in the way of humilityand the opportunity to learn.
(14:18):
And, so we were working witha newer agent on what's, not
a super straightforward deal.
We're representing the seller,they're representing the buyer.
This is where the sellerwants to be the bank.
They're selling seller finance, yet theystill have their underlying mortgage.
And yeah the more junioragent on the buyer side.
(14:40):
I was certainly trying to hidethe fact that they were new to
the job but it was very clear.
So in that case, not to pull rank onsomebody, but just to have a frank
conversation with their more seniorbroker, I picked up the phone and said,
Hey, here's what, what's going on?
And in my, it's, it was a greatconversation with that senior agent
because she also understood what washappening and she encouraged me to
(15:04):
even be hard on this more junior agent.
Which was awesome and it was greatto have that support and I wasn't too
hard on this person, but definitelygave them something to think about.
So it's important to have these candidconversations and everybody wins when
we collaborate and we're not comingat it from a competition standpoint.
(15:28):
I love that story.
Yeah.
It took me a minute to, I was curious whatyou were gonna be talking about there.
So I'm tracking now.
Yes.
I. I was feeling that way too, soI'm glad to have that affirmation.
I was, yeah.
All right.
Our client, PSA of the week is, Heyguys, there are still deals happening.
(15:48):
They are fewer and far between, I willsay, as as, as long as you're looking
on the on market conventional route.
But they just look different.
So if you're feeling stuck, andif you're wondering if it's even
possible to buy or invest in thisparticular market, here's the deal.
The best opportunities thatwe're seeing aren't just found.
(16:12):
They're not like therefor the plucking anymore.
We're not hitting the refresh buttonon the hot sheet and Ooh, there's
one we should act on right away.
That's still only happening.
Once every couple of months, we'reseeing one of those really, right
now, they're created, the people thatare finding the deals are the ones
that are out there with like boots onthe ground and the ones who have the
(16:33):
resources in community and are reachingout to collaborate on these things.
So this week alone, we've beeninvolved in a few of these.
Suzanne, you wanna take itfrom here for a little while.
Sure.
Yeah.
So we've talked about it a little bit,that seller finance subject, subject
to condo that lets our sellers earnpassive income, and also that short
term rental owner who thought they wereready to sell, but decided to keep it
(16:57):
after we showed them how to boost theircash flow and minimize the stress of
being a self-managing Airbnb owner.
Totally.
And the buyers that I was talking toyou guys about a little bit earlier
who we're working with right now inthis journey of them, visioning what
they want and us helping 'em findwhat they want, they've realized
(17:17):
that their budget's pretty decent.
They're, they're up toprobably a million and they're.
Deciding to trade and choosewalkability and, location and
lifestyle over square footage.
Like they realized, oh, maybe inthis phase of our life we only need
two bedrooms versus three in orderto be close to things we want.
And this is really, I think how thisrelates is you're not, we're not just.
(17:40):
In a conventional market whereour, our money is going to buy
us like exactly what we wanted.
We can't check all the boxesin these this day and age.
And so we really have to get clearon and specific about what are
the most important things to us.
. And then, like we've already talkedabout, we've got a couple other off
market investor deals happening that weare just, we're working on creative terms
(18:02):
regarding seller financing or short, somesort of short term seller carry that will
actually help make these deals, penciland, our high rate environment right now.
So what do all these have in common?
Creativity.
Strategy and a willingnessto ask better questions.
And in a lot of cases, be the leader,be the teacher, be the thought leader.
(18:24):
So if you're sitting on the sidelineswaiting for better conditions.
I think we should talk.
I don't think it's a waitaround and see kind of market.
If you are really here and ambitiousenough to get some deals done
this year because sometimes thenext moves aren't just obvious.
And until you really understand youroptions and all the different plays
(18:47):
out there that are strong in thismarket, you're not gonna see them.
So that's just you.
You're gonna see those things byshowing up to things like our investor
meetups and just having conversationswith us and other like-minded people
in our community because, we alldon't know everything and the people
next to us know more than we do.
And that's how we exchange ideas and seemore and are exposed to more good deals.
(19:08):
Yeah.
And the reason that these buyersare sticking with us through
. Not straightforward deal.
It's because it's a five and a halfpercent interest rate, and that's at
least a point and a half lower than whatthey're gonna get in the traditional
and conventional financing at least.
Probably more like 8% would be whatthey ended up with on this condo.
(19:31):
So it's worth their while tostick it out and see if they
can make it happen, because.
At a 5.5% interest rate, this condoactually pencils for them at 8%.
It doesn't.
So that's why creativity,strategy, and willingness to ask
good questions and be creative iswhere it's at right now in 2025.
(19:56):
Love it.
Okay.
Onto our highs and our lows of the week.
So my highlight of the week wasmoving, believe it or not, most people
would be like, Ooh, I hate moving.
It's so stressful.
And Suzanne Poignantlypointed out to me that.
(20:16):
She thinks I'm good at makingstressful situations fun.
I was like, Ooh.
Yeah, you're right.
I am.
I find that challenging and I thinkthat translates to my role as a
real estate agent as well these arestressful situations and I, I. Find
pleasure in trying to make them fun andexciting and less stressful for people.
And I, maybe that's some sort oflike self preservation and survival,
(20:39):
but I think I was able to help makemy families move this week fun.
And I know we had a lot of funand we, mentally treated it
like we were on spring break.
Again, thanks to having Suzanneon the, on the phones, on the
ground for me to pick up our slack.
But yeah, moving, believe it or not,into my one third of a finished house.
(21:01):
Actually, it's not even onethird of a finished house.
It's one third of anunfinished finished house.
Living in a one apartment, one onebedroom apartment with my family of four.
That's a lot of fun.
Oh, good.
I love it.
And it's a time that they will alwaysremember because it's out of the norm
and it's something different and it's.
Memorable and fun because itdoesn't, it's like almost feels like
(21:21):
vacation or camping or something.
It totally does.
Matthew kept saying I feel likewe're on vacation this week.
I feel like you're, and yeah.
Or camping, like it'snot a lot like camping.
You're right.
Yes.
Yes.
Having all of our creature comforts isn'talways the best thing for us, and we
learn when we step away from those things.
They're great opportunities tolike really analyze, at least for
(21:42):
me, really analyze what am I doingout of habit every day versus what
is actually serving me every day.
And I love opportunitiesto analyze that stuff.
Absolutely.
Yes.
Last week was flying solo, which is great.
It's, it.
My pleasure to give Sarah some time andspace and freedom and disconnectedness,
and I'm always so excited when she reallydisconnects and doesn't answer her phone.
(22:08):
It's so good.
So last week, as we talked about thatwe've had this seller finance sub
two condo deal, and I mean at onepoint we received determination on.
Creativity and having frank conversationswith junior and senior realtors
helped hold the deal together.
And it was really rewarding to be apart of that and keep it together and
(22:31):
have, a relationship with everybodythrough all of this, all through
the roller coaster, up and down.
And then also, like I said, helpingthose low equity sellers pivot to
a new plan without having to writea check to sell was very rewarding.
And I've been learning how tooptimize my short term rental.
So it's been great to be able to sharewhat I'm learning to help other people in.
(22:53):
Love it.
Your highlight of the weekwas helping other people.
That's pretty cute, Suzanne.
I like that.
Okay.
Low light challenge of the week, man.
I've been just runningon adrenaline, I think.
My body's been waking up early, goingto bed late, and I am bumped and
bruised up from moving a bunch of heavy.
(23:13):
Heavy furniture, I can't seem tonot run into things or stub my
toes or cut my fingers or whatever.
So my body is behind myenergy level right now.
I think.
I was very sore last weekend.
My new house has three levels of stairsand my legs are really feeling it.
So I'm back to my regularexercise class this week, but
(23:36):
I took off of it all last week.
Because I couldn't have done the twothings together in the same week.
It would've been way too hard for me.
So that was my low light.
I'm still tired, but I'llcatch up here eventually.
I'm just grateful I'm not sick.
For sure, and I hope you were liftingwith your legs and not with your back.
(23:56):
Sounds like you were, I'm sure.
Yeah.
My lowlight was I was just after a12 hour flight from Paris to Mexico
City, I. Lounge in Mexico City forfour hours waiting for our next flight.
And I was like jet lagged.
No idea what time it was.
It was like, I think four in themorning Mexico time and I'm working and
(24:19):
thinking I'm doing all this great stuffand like sending these really detailed
findings to our fires about theirinspection report for their sewer scope.
And lo and behold, I sentit to the wrong people.
So I was, yeah, it was just a momentwhere I was like, note to self, don't work
(24:39):
when Jet lagged after a 12 hour flight.
Yeah, things can wait, andthis is the thing that's.
We continue to learn aboutourselves is sometimes things aren't
necessarily urgent in that moment.
And had I waited a couple of hours untilI maybe got a few more hours of sleep I
might not have made that mistake, but.
(25:01):
Sarah saved me on that one actually.
She was covering for mewhile I was flying that day.
So grateful for your help and just quicklypopping in and covering for me on that.
I really wasn't coveringfor you consciously.
But what I will say is that if you, what,who you sent that to was like the best
(25:21):
person, possibly you could have sent itto it's buyers that like wouldn't have
cared at all or didn't care at all.
I don't even think we gota response from them on it.
Like me, they just like such a non-issue.
But I see it as obviously, yeah,like an opportunity to just
be like, oh yeah, I'm tired.
Probably shouldn't do things whenI'm tired because I do that too.
But it's usually later at night.
And like after a cocktailor something, right?
(25:46):
So true.
Yeah.
So last week was also our first fullweek with our rockstar trans transaction
coordinator who is diving right in.
He's super eager to learn andwe spent a lot of time on the
interview process vetting him.
He worked for us on a trialbasis for three weeks or for
(26:06):
three days the week prior.
And so we felt really confidentjust jumping right in last week.
And so that was super awesome.
It was great to have apartner while Sarah was gone.
And like I said before, I was gratefulthat Sarah actually disconnected
during a big week interpersonal life.
And, I think we, we both feel this waywhen we can support the other one too.
(26:29):
To live the life that we want andto create these life experiences
and memories that are so important.
And that's ultimately why we're all here.
Also, a big shout out to our amazinglicensed assistant who was waiting on
standby and ready to jump in and help to.
(26:49):
Yeah.
Was that was our gratefulfour section Yeah.
That you were just talking about.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, so I'll just go ahead and say thatI am most grateful for this past week.
There's just been so many momentswhere I've been like, wow, pinch me.
Like I don't feel likethis is my real life.
(27:09):
And and it's because like it's truly.
I'm truly at a point where so many ofmy biggest dreams are like unfolding
right in front of me, and my childrenare so happy and my family's so happy.
And it's, this particular week is justcoming from this like physical, this
location move where we've just movedto a spot for our primary residents
(27:31):
that is making us really happy.
So I'm just soaking it all in.
I love that.
And it's amazing.
How a shift in location can makesuch a big difference in your life.
And that's what we do, right?
We help people shift locationto live their best life.
And that's exactly what you're doing.
(27:51):
Like Sarah, you're living up to your.
Email handle.
Totally.
That's exactly why I created that.
And it's exactly been my mission.
Like from, before I moved out hereis when I created that idea, right?
That this idea of this I'm, I wantto go to Bend to live my best life.
And I, my first home in Bend got me here.
And my first home in Bend iswhat's launched me into real
(28:13):
estate investing in general.
And.
It's now yeah, it's just my firsthome here has just been a platform
for getting even closer and yeah, morerefined position to where I really
wanna be, which is close to nature.
For sure.
Yeah, you're gonna start seeingall these bird memes pop up on your
(28:33):
Instagram now, Sarah it's no joke.
This is really what happensas we get near a certain age
that I won't say publicly but.
It's been so funny.
Even here I was at yoga and my yogateacher is nearing that same age and she
was like, I don't know what happened.
But like now I look out and Ilook at the birds and I'm like,
oh, that's a red crested warbler.
(28:56):
And it's just like one of theseweird things that happens to us.
And like all these thingsthat we previously.
Overlooked or didn't have time forbecome the highlight of our day?
No, I definitely I thinkit's a slow down thing.
Really?
Yeah, because what's so funny,I've already noticed in my own
backyard is like Matthew, and thekids see that nature all the time,
(29:16):
and I'm always like, where is it?
It's because they're like, theirbrain and bodies are moving slow
enough to notice that stuff.
Whereas I'm like, I'm not on that plane.
Yeah, I could see getting older, slowingdown, more birds becoming a thing, man.
So I'm in the right spot for it for sure.
Yes.
Our funny real estate moment ofthe week already touched on this,
(29:37):
but like spring break is reallyan actual break for most people.
Real estate is pretty quietduring spring break for literally
everyone except realtors.
When we have deals that are alreadygoing there's still work to be done.
If you wanna get something donewith another party, like an
attorney, for example, good luck.
Maybe wait another week.
(29:59):
Yeah.
And what we wanted to cry about, or, thenot so funny thing that happened this week
is we had, we have a buyer under contract.
On a property that's contingenton him selling his other property.
And we were working on negotiatingan extension for that contingency.
And the seller sent over an addendumwith the new contingency date, but also
(30:25):
put in there a stipulation about whatprice they wanted the buyer to lower
their contingent property to in order to.
Agree to this extension and wesent that over to the buyer.
It was already seller signed,and our buyer assumed we wrote
(30:45):
that addendum up with thoseparticular terms and questioned.
I guess our integrity, I don't know,questioned whether, we should have that
opinion about his replacement propertyor about his relinquished property.
Yeah.
And the pricing on it.
And just, he just didn't knowthat it came directly from the
seller instead of came from us.
(31:06):
And I guess we could havecommunicated that better.
But once he figured out that.
That didn't come from us.
I think things got better and wewere able to get the listing agent,
the seller, to just agree to a timeextension versus just a price extension.
But, if I was the seller'sagent, I would've done the
same thing, but it's all right.
(31:27):
Yeah, and I think that was just theteaching moment there was like, we have
our clients' backs and to be questionedwhether we did or not, that was the
little cry moment of of course, likeof course we have your back and we are
here representing your best interest.
But sometimes we need to.
Be more vocal about that and explainto these things to our clients so that
(31:50):
they understand where things originate.
Because we know this because we deal withthe documents every day and we know all
that, but it's good for us to not assumethat everybody else understands as well.
Yeah.
Never.
But always assuming the best.
That's what we're always tryingto encourage amongst ourselves and
our clients and our colleagues.
Don't come in assuming like shit's first.
(32:10):
That's just ask and thenlet's draw conclusions.
Okay, so what is going on inour own personal investing
in portfolios this week?
My world.
I'm only really gonna talk about St. Louisthis week, and that is, I've got the one
property that has been under contract witha conventional buyer, me selling it for
(32:30):
sale by owner and I. Always the hardestpart of a transaction is the inspection
contingency or the inspection period.
And I was not holding my breathbecause this is 120 year old building
occupied by four tenants in St.Louis, and I know what inspection
reports from these places look like.
We received a, what would be theMissouri equivalent of a seller's repair
(32:55):
addendum that was pretty extensive.
They asked us to do a lot ofkind of silly things in it.
I feel very grateful to have my.
My license here in Oregon and experienceas a real estate agent here because I
am definitely senior to this buyer'sagent and I've had the opportunity to
teach him a few things along the way.
And I feel like I have got prettygood control over the situation.
(33:16):
So countered back with what would be ourequivalent of a buyer'ss repair addendum.
Plus a small price reduction of athousand dollars from the purchase
price in lieu of a couple of the silly,bigger repairs the buyer was asking for.
And we're through the inspection period.
So really technically, the onlything that could come back to bite
us in the butt at this point is ifthe buyer's financing fell through.
(33:38):
I'm not worried about anappraisal on this building.
So there's that and.
Check back in.
I'll let, I'll certainly let you know.
Prospective closing date is April 30th.
I'm gonna be really excitedif we get through that.
And then basically with our other buildingwe had a tenant who's been there long
(33:58):
term, who is an assistance tenant, whodecided she wanted to move last month, but
then I think quickly realized she couldn'tfind a place that's nearly as nice as
hers for the price that she's in and hasre relinquished her her termination or.
And she's decided to signanother 12 month lease.
But in that process, we jacked upher rent a hundred bucks a month
(34:19):
because she's not paying it anyways.
So I'm excited to be raising rentsat that building in preparation
for, yeah, just optimizing itto get that one listed and sold.
Next, I'm gonna be outta St.
Louis by the end of 2020, negative eight.
Turn lemonade is being made there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(34:39):
Major lemonade.
I guess I have one morething to talk about.
I, yeah.
I also rented my primaryhome in Northeast Bend.
This.
Past week.
They actually took possessionyesterday, but that was like
a fast and furious process.
Like I, it was a two, essentially twoweeks from the time that I listed it
to, to rented it and, collected securitydeposits and rents and all those things.
(35:01):
And I'm really glad that I talked toSuzanne, who has more experience in
long-term rental management here in Oregonand also a property manager friend of
ours before diving too deep into doingthis myself, because Oregon is a lot.
Scarier of a state to havetenants than Missouri.
And the words that Suzanne told mewere Sarah, or something like this.
(35:23):
Sarah, assume that everybodyknows everything about tenant
landlord laws and that everyonehas access to a free attorney.
And I was like, oh, okay.
That's gonna change how I operate here.
That, and also what I didn't know wasthat you have to accept the first.
Qualified tenant thatmeets all your criteria.
(35:44):
So I to make sure that I set verystrict criteria so I could be selective
about who I brought into our home.
And we ended up with an incredible, supergrateful family moving into our home.
And it all just is unfoldedin the best way possible too.
So we've got another cash flowingrental here in central Oregon.
(36:07):
Oh, so good.
I'm glad that worked out.
And I'm curious, where is the family from?
They're from this, theseones have a home in Colorado.
They own a home in Colorado.
Yep.
Interesting.
Yeah.
When we had our River Bend listingfor sale at the end of 2024 it
was on the river, 1.6 million.
(36:29):
Three out of three interestedbuyers were relocating to
Central Oregon from Colorado.
So it's just interesting, I thinkfor us to, to note that, folks
come in our way from Colorado.
Oh man.
Yeah.
And I should probably bring thatup to those buyers that we have
looking here, that I've beentalking about today, because they're
looking between Ben and Colorado.
I'm gonna tell them like, Hey,forget Colorado, everybody
(36:50):
who's moving here from there.
All right.
For me and my real estate portfolio wehad a lot of follow up from our March
meetup where we talked about kickingcorporate and ditching the nine to
five using real estate investments.
And I talked about my journey in learninghow to be a private money lender and
had a few folks reach out for my privatemoney lending starter kit, which is
(37:13):
basically the two documents I wish I hadwhen I started and I didn't have them.
So I. I also took a couple calls withpeople who are curious about getting
into private money lending, wanna learnhow to fund other people's investments
and create passive income that way.
So it feels good to already be givingback in this space and creating
a bigger community of lenders.
(37:34):
And I'm excited.
This is my next.
Venture into real estate investingand doing it on more passive side.
And it's been reallyrewarding and super powerful.
And just like we talked aboutearlier, different people bring
different things to the deal.
There may be somebody who'sreally good at the renovation.
(37:54):
There's maybe somebody thathas time to find the deal,
and I can be the person that.
All right.
Let's talk about our actionabletakeaways and final thoughts for
today's episode of the Suzanne andSarah Real Estate Investing podcast.
So first up, the best deals are notfound, they are created, and whether
that's through seller financing.
(38:16):
Buying or selling subjectto the underlying mortgage.
Optimizing your short termrental by making a few small
tweaks that make big impacts.
The creative strategy is thename of the game in this market.
And having people like Sarah and I on yourside to implement those strategies with
you is a super valuable and powerful tool.
(38:38):
Yes.
And another super valuable and powerfultool is being inquisitive, being
outgoing, being willing to ask betterquestions and not shying away from
the uncomfortable ones and ones thatyou might not like the answer to.
And really, this is just how weunlock win-win opportunities.
(38:58):
And it's it all, I think it all stemsfrom the tone and the intention.
But yeah, just gotta make sureyou're surrounding yourself with
people with good intentions.
For sure, and we talk a lot about howwe mentor new realtors in our industry
and what we just wanna say to thoseof you who are getting into this and
feeling a little green and maybe alittle intimidated, don't be afraid to
(39:22):
lean on your team and ask questions.
That goes for all of us, right?
Assume positive intent, askquestions, and come from a place
of humility and willingness.
Yeah.
So guys, if this episode or anyof the other episodes you've heard
from us hit home or wanna make yourethink your current strategy or who
(39:43):
you're working with we'd love to hearfrom you and ways you can do that.
DM us on Instagram.
I'm at Best Life Bend, orSuzanne is at Suzanne Rose.
More.
That's a good place to ask usquestions or tell us about what
topics you want us to dive into next.
Also just make sure that youare signed up and subscribed to
our weekly investor newsletter.
(40:06):
This goes out with our top picks andthen we do want every month with some.
More insider tips and creativefinancing inspiration.
And then also you can catch more behindthe scenes footage from us and other
full episodes on Ben Lifestyle andinvesting topics on our YouTube channel.
And you can grab time totalk with us personally.
We do a free 15 minute consult and youcan grab the link to schedule with one
(40:30):
of us on our bios or our Calendly link.
Finally.
We wanna see you in person or onlineat our monthly investor meetups.
You don't have to do this alone.
We've got a communityhere for you already.
And we're talking about reallyinteresting things every month that you
probably are gonna learn something from.
So if you're enjoying our podcast,please like it, please leave a review.
(40:51):
Please subscribe.
This helps us more than and weappreciate you hanging out with us
every week, and we're excited to seeyou in person when you get to bed and
hang out with you here in the meantime.
All right.
We'll see you next time on the Suzanneand Sarah Real Estate Investing Podcast.
Thanks for tuning into this Suzanne andSarah Real Estate Investing podcast.
If you enjoy this episode, then subscribeand leave us a review because your
(41:15):
feedback helps us reach people like youwho are ready to elevate their lives.
Don't forget to share this episodewith someone who's passionate about
real estate or personal growth.
And for more tips, resources andupdates, follow us on Insta or visit us
at central Oregon investor network.com.
And remember.
You have the power to designthe life you want, one real
(41:38):
estate investment at a time.
See you next week.
Welcome to the Suzanne and Sarah RealEstate Investing podcast, where strategy
meets hustle and your real estate goalsturn into reality where Suzanne and Sarah
Investors agents and your go-to teamfor smart strategies, honest insights,
and plenty of laughs along the way.
(00:21):
Whether you're flipping, renting, orjust starting out, we're here to help
you invest smarter and live better.
So let's dive in because thebest time to invest is now.
Yay.
We're back.
Sorry.
You got it.
After week of being off for spring break.
(00:41):
That wasn't so break right, Suzanne?
That is so true.
Spring break is basically a breakfor everybody except realtors.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's what we learned last week.
Okay.
So we're back with the Suzanneand Sarah Real Estate Investing
podcast for another week of funstuff to talk to you guys about.
And as we already said, spring breakwas no break at all and we've been
(01:05):
going, going, going, as we normallydo, and I pulled off a big move from
one primary residence to another.
I forgot how hard that is.
It's been a few years since I've done it.
And what did you do, Suzanne?
Oh, I just zipped overto France real fast.
To secure an alternative residency.
(01:26):
No big deal.
Yeah, typical.
Typical.
What's so funny is Matthew pointedout to me, the other's just do you?
He was like, do you even knowwhy Suzanne is doing that?
I'm like, no, but we'lltalk about it eventually.
That makes total sense for Suzanne, soI'm not even questioning it, a typical
week, in our not so typical lives and.
As they say, no rest for the wicked.
And we are pretty wicked atbuilding an intentional lifestyle.
(01:52):
So true.
Yes.
All right, let's talk aboutmarket and business updates.
Spring break.
March, end of March.
This is generally when we tell sellersit's a good time to list your property
and more listings are hitting the market.
We've got buyers that are ready togo, but rates are still high and it
makes investment deals tough to pencil.
(02:13):
So we are seeing the typicalspring activity ramp up.
And as always, we tell a lot ofour folks that we work with that
Redmond continues to offer morebank for the multifamily book.
So basically you can get the same rentsor better in Redmond for $200,000 less.
(02:34):
It seems a better deal to me.
So lots of folks are activelysearching for seller financing
deals as a way to make deals pencil,and they're few and far between.
But Sarah and I like tocreate those opportunities for
our sellers and our buyers.
So some deals that we are personallyworking on this week we have a lot of
(02:56):
connection and connections in the investorcommunity and someone brought us an off
market portfolio in Klamath Falls, whichis south of Central Oregon, about two
hours south more in southern Oregon.
And so we brought that deal that has a.
13 plus percent rate to one ofour most motivated buyers who has
(03:17):
some big door expansion plans.
Yeah.
And also this week we launched anew residential listing in Bend.
What's unique about this listing isthat it's actually been functioning
as an STRA short-term rental.
And these sellers got theirSTR permit before the rule
(03:39):
went from 300 feet to 500 feet.
So we're in a little bit ofa tricky situation because
we're selling a furnished.
Rental that really can't be used asa nightly rental for the next buyer.
And it's tenant occupied by along-term renter right now, and
it's nearby to the train tracks.
So that can be a deal breaker for some.
(04:02):
And yeah those kind of this will bean interesting one to watch because
it's a really sweet little house.
Nicely done, but has afew oddities about it.
Yes.
And for that one, yes, it can't be used asa short term rental, but I do think that
there's potential for midterm, and that'swhat we always look for every single
week when we're doing our top X email.
(04:24):
They're willing to sellthis place fully furnished.
It's decorated, it's gotstrong rental history.
So for the right investorit could be the right one.
Yeah.
No, I think that's a great buyer for this.
Particular property.
Someone looking for afurnish, midterm rent rental.
Yeah.
Also navigating a really interesting.
(04:46):
Seller financed sub to sale for oursellers who actually want to be the bank
on the sale of their condo and are doingthis strategically because they wanna
earn the interest money over the nextsix, six years and then get a payout in
six years when their kids go to college.
So this is their part of their strategy.
But it's not as straightforward asjust a seller finance deal where the
(05:10):
sellers own the property outright.
So these guys have an underlying mortgage.
They want to do a contract for saleor a land sale contract to the buyers.
And so a pretty thoroughcontract has to be written up.
And it's not something thatwe, as realtors can do.
It's not something that escrow can do.
So it has to be done by an attorney.
So I spent all of last week.
(05:31):
Calling every single attorney Icould find in Ben and Portland
and pretty much anywhere.
And it was spring break.
No one was willing to do any work lastweek if they even answered the phone.
So I've been getting a few callsback this week, which has been nice.
But yeah, good luck if you're tryingto get something done with attorney.
(05:52):
We have some super sweet sellersthat bought a short term rental with
us back in early Covid days, 2021.
And the property is worthless than they paid for it.
So we call these ournegative equity sellers.
And when they called, they werejust done being property managers
for their Airbnb remotely.
From a different state andthings weren't working that well.
(06:14):
And they were self-managing.
And so they were like,we think we wanna sell.
And I was like, okay, let's look at this.
But you may have to write acheck to sell your property.
And nobody wants to write a wedon't want our buyers or sellers to
write a check to sell our property.
So we reached out to some ofthe investors in our community
who are negative equity, what can we dofor them to just break even and walk away?
(06:35):
And we actually fielded asubject to offer for them.
And ultimately we also shared someshort-term rental optimization tips.
And they decided to hang onto theproperty for now, and, hoping to
ease the stress of self-management.
And we'll be there whenthey are ready to sell.
And hopefully at that point they'llhave more equity in their property.
That was awesome for you to supportthem through that full circle of,
(06:59):
deciding they wanna sell, gettingthem an offer, them coming back
to deciding they don't wanna sell.
And that's, buyers and sellersgo on journeys, you gotta
feel it out along the way.
So thank you for guiding them on that.
Yeah, they came full circleand I'm glad and that was the
conversation I had with them.
You guys are making the right choice.
And it was so interesting to hearthem too, because they were relieved
(07:20):
to hear me say that they feltbad that I had spent time trying
to sell their property for them.
And I was like, you guys, no.
Like I want you to win here, andfeel good about your decision.
And so it was great to have that.
Conversation for them to feel a senseof relief and that we'll be there when
they're ready and when the time is right.
(07:42):
For me this week I have beenmostly focused on one of our
most active buyers there.
It's crazy, like I had a video meetingwith them two weeks ago and then last
week in my mind didn't exist 'cause.
I had an off week and then all of asudden they just showed up and bent.
And I got to meet them and it was likea blink of an eye and it was really fun.
So I showed them one property acouple days ago, and these buyers
(08:05):
are super cute in that they.
Aren't totally sure in what theywant yet except that they know
that they want a live and flipand they don't like cookie cutter.
And I've seen this before and and I'm sureI'll see it again, but where we are in
process with them is showing them older,less cookie cutter homes that probably
need more work than they need and wherethey're going to land, I'm sure is.
(08:29):
A little bit newer more like lipstick,superficial flip homes that are just
fine to move into, but have the abilityto add value to over the course of the
next five years while they're livingthere without making them really
uncomfortable, like removing lotsof walls and doing full electrical
and plumbing and things like that.
So really excited to be workingwith them, really good people.
(08:50):
And.
I just, I love helping buy these buyerslike this in particular, like refine
and just give them a little bit ofguidance and make it so they, they
feel like they're making all thesedecisions on their own, which they are.
But just helping people come to termswith what they're really looking for when
they are vocal about needing guidance.
And I dunno, I find alot of pleasure in that.
(09:12):
So having fun working withthis new set of buyers.
It's like coaching.
Yeah, exactly.
That's what it's, that's a big part of ourjob because, and I tell new buyers that
all the time listen, like this processis gonna go as fast as you want it to go.
It's gonna, and it's all reallyguided by like how well you
know what you're looking for.
(09:32):
If you come into this and you have.
All the specifics lined up of exactly whatyou're looking for, your timeframe, your
budget, your wants, needs, don't wants.
And we're gonna find that for you andget you under contract right away.
But some people come to us witha more vague idea of what they're
looking for, and I help them putwords to it and give them the
locations and give them the ideas.
And that's just our job, and I love it.
(09:54):
It's great.
And it's coaching.
Cool.
So our topic of the week.
Our main focus, I think from the themeof what we've had going on is that
creativity is how the best deals aregetting done in our current market.
Every deal that we've put togetherlately has required some form of
outside of the box thinking, andhere's what we've been learning.
(10:17):
I know that in our market for mostof our investors, we always ask if.
Seller financing is on the table.
Like regardless of whether it's listedthat as that or not we know in this
market interest rates are a hugepart of what is difficult to make
deals pencil, and if we are able to.
I ask that question first.
(10:38):
Help educate sellers who maybearen't getting that education and
show them the benefit of that.
That is obviously gonna benefit ourbuyer as well because they're gonna be
saving money on interest and bank fees.
And it should benefit the seller too, inmost cases because they have earned income
off of their asset that they wouldn'totherwise have by playing the bank.
(10:59):
Yeah, and just quickly an exampleon that with this Klamath Falls
portfolio, it's three duplexes.
The seller wants to sell forsix 50 and 7% interest rate.
For 10 years, this seller would makejust an interest, almost $400,000.
(11:20):
Added income.
So instead of selling for 60, theysell for over a million because
they're keeping the interest moneyinstead of it going to a bank.
That's what we're talking about interms of the benefit to the seller.
Plus they're not getting the full amountall at once, which helps them reduce or
defer their capital gain to super asset.
(11:40):
Yeah, it's just such a no brainerto me, and I get there are a few
particular situations for sellers wherethat might not work or be appealing,
but if you don't need the money rightaway, if you are a true investor
and have multiple properties like.
Why not?
Like, why not do this, at leastmake the term short to begin with.
And if it doesn't work for you,then, collect on your balloon.
(12:02):
But otherwise, maybe be open torenewing for longer terms too.
Like Suzanne will tell us in futureepisodes and future meetups what how
lucrative it can be to play the bankinstead of just the real estate investor.
But yeah, I really, just to, tofinish up that thought I really do
think like the biggest piece to thatactually, like working is the person
(12:23):
communicating with that seller and it's.
Hard when we're representing thebuyers because we don't always, and
most often don't have a direct lineof communication with those sellers.
And we're relying on the sellersagents to play telephone with
information that we're providing them.
We take our job seriously in that, likewhen we provide this information to
sellers agents, listing agents we do,we like, we will actually like outline.
(12:46):
For them.
So hopefully they can justcopy and paste this information
and put that in front of them.
You know exactly how much the sellerstands to gain from these situations.
But so we like to do other people'sjobs for them sometimes too, and help
make other people's jobs easier becausewe're all in this for the same goals.
Yes.
And it's a win-win.
And that's the other part of, thiscreativity is how we get the best
(13:07):
deals done in this market is alsorecognizing that certain people
bring different things to the table.
There may be somebody with thecapital, there may be somebody with the
skills or the time or the knowledge.
And it's about bringing those variousparties together to create a win-win.
And this is something wedid over the last two weeks.
We helped create a joint venturepartnership between two investors in
(13:30):
our community to buy an off marketproperty where everyone is gonna benefit.
And we're super excited tobe part of facilitating that
connection and helping all of ourinvestors win through the process.
Totally.
So real estate, the moral ofthe story is real estate is
not one size fit, all fits all.
And this market inparticular, creativity is key.
(13:54):
Yes.
All right.
Let's move on to our client andindustry PSA and our industry.
PSA was a fun one this last week.
Just don't fake it till you make it.
If you're new as a realtor just askquestions and don't, try not to let
your ego get in the way of humilityand the opportunity to learn.
(14:18):
And, so we were working witha newer agent on what's, not
a super straightforward deal.
We're representing the seller,they're representing the buyer.
This is where the sellerwants to be the bank.
They're selling seller finance, yet theystill have their underlying mortgage.
And yeah the more junioragent on the buyer side.
(14:40):
I was certainly trying to hidethe fact that they were new to
the job but it was very clear.
So in that case, not to pull rank onsomebody, but just to have a frank
conversation with their more seniorbroker, I picked up the phone and said,
Hey, here's what, what's going on?
And in my, it's, it was a greatconversation with that senior agent
because she also understood what washappening and she encouraged me to
(15:04):
even be hard on this more junior agent.
Which was awesome and it was greatto have that support and I wasn't too
hard on this person, but definitelygave them something to think about.
So it's important to have these candidconversations and everybody wins when
we collaborate and we're not comingat it from a competition standpoint.
(15:28):
I love that story.
Yeah.
It took me a minute to, I was curious whatyou were gonna be talking about there.
So I'm tracking now.
Yes.
I. I was feeling that way too, soI'm glad to have that affirmation.
I was, yeah.
All right.
Our client, PSA of the week is, Heyguys, there are still deals happening.
(15:48):
They are fewer and far between, I willsay, as as, as long as you're looking
on the on market conventional route.
But they just look different.
So if you're feeling stuck, andif you're wondering if it's even
possible to buy or invest in thisparticular market, here's the deal.
The best opportunities thatwe're seeing aren't just found.
(16:12):
They're not like therefor the plucking anymore.
We're not hitting the refresh buttonon the hot sheet and Ooh, there's
one we should act on right away.
That's still only happening.
Once every couple of months, we'reseeing one of those really, right
now, they're created, the people thatare finding the deals are the ones
that are out there with like boots onthe ground and the ones who have the
(16:33):
resources in community and are reachingout to collaborate on these things.
So this week alone, we've beeninvolved in a few of these.
Suzanne, you wanna take itfrom here for a little while.
Sure.
Yeah.
So we've talked about it a little bit,that seller finance subject, subject
to condo that lets our sellers earnpassive income, and also that short
term rental owner who thought they wereready to sell, but decided to keep it
(16:57):
after we showed them how to boost theircash flow and minimize the stress of
being a self-managing Airbnb owner.
Totally.
And the buyers that I was talking toyou guys about a little bit earlier
who we're working with right now inthis journey of them, visioning what
they want and us helping 'em findwhat they want, they've realized
(17:17):
that their budget's pretty decent.
They're, they're up toprobably a million and they're.
Deciding to trade and choosewalkability and, location and
lifestyle over square footage.
Like they realized, oh, maybe inthis phase of our life we only need
two bedrooms versus three in orderto be close to things we want.
And this is really, I think how thisrelates is you're not, we're not just.
(17:40):
In a conventional market whereour, our money is going to buy
us like exactly what we wanted.
We can't check all the boxesin these this day and age.
And so we really have to get clearon and specific about what are
the most important things to us.
. And then, like we've already talkedabout, we've got a couple other off
market investor deals happening that weare just, we're working on creative terms
(18:02):
regarding seller financing or short, somesort of short term seller carry that will
actually help make these deals, penciland, our high rate environment right now.
So what do all these have in common?
Creativity.
Strategy and a willingnessto ask better questions.
And in a lot of cases, be the leader,be the teacher, be the thought leader.
(18:24):
So if you're sitting on the sidelineswaiting for better conditions.
I think we should talk.
I don't think it's a waitaround and see kind of market.
If you are really here and ambitiousenough to get some deals done
this year because sometimes thenext moves aren't just obvious.
And until you really understand youroptions and all the different plays
(18:47):
out there that are strong in thismarket, you're not gonna see them.
So that's just you.
You're gonna see those things byshowing up to things like our investor
meetups and just having conversationswith us and other like-minded people
in our community because, we alldon't know everything and the people
next to us know more than we do.
And that's how we exchange ideas and seemore and are exposed to more good deals.
(19:08):
Yeah.
And the reason that these buyersare sticking with us through
. Not straightforward deal.
It's because it's a five and a halfpercent interest rate, and that's at
least a point and a half lower than whatthey're gonna get in the traditional
and conventional financing at least.
Probably more like 8% would be whatthey ended up with on this condo.
(19:31):
So it's worth their while tostick it out and see if they
can make it happen, because.
At a 5.5% interest rate, this condoactually pencils for them at 8%.
It doesn't.
So that's why creativity,strategy, and willingness to ask
good questions and be creative iswhere it's at right now in 2025.
(19:56):
Love it.
Okay.
Onto our highs and our lows of the week.
So my highlight of the week wasmoving, believe it or not, most people
would be like, Ooh, I hate moving.
It's so stressful.
And Suzanne Poignantlypointed out to me that.
(20:16):
She thinks I'm good at makingstressful situations fun.
I was like, Ooh.
Yeah, you're right.
I am.
I find that challenging and I thinkthat translates to my role as a
real estate agent as well these arestressful situations and I, I. Find
pleasure in trying to make them fun andexciting and less stressful for people.
And I, maybe that's some sort oflike self preservation and survival,
(20:39):
but I think I was able to help makemy families move this week fun.
And I know we had a lot of funand we, mentally treated it
like we were on spring break.
Again, thanks to having Suzanneon the, on the phones, on the
ground for me to pick up our slack.
But yeah, moving, believe it or not,into my one third of a finished house.
(21:01):
Actually, it's not even onethird of a finished house.
It's one third of anunfinished finished house.
Living in a one apartment, one onebedroom apartment with my family of four.
That's a lot of fun.
Oh, good.
I love it.
And it's a time that they will alwaysremember because it's out of the norm
and it's something different and it's.
Memorable and fun because itdoesn't, it's like almost feels like
(21:21):
vacation or camping or something.
It totally does.
Matthew kept saying I feel likewe're on vacation this week.
I feel like you're, and yeah.
Or camping, like it'snot a lot like camping.
You're right.
Yes.
Yes.
Having all of our creature comforts isn'talways the best thing for us, and we
learn when we step away from those things.
They're great opportunities tolike really analyze, at least for
(21:42):
me, really analyze what am I doingout of habit every day versus what
is actually serving me every day.
And I love opportunitiesto analyze that stuff.
Absolutely.
Yes.
Last week was flying solo, which is great.
It's, it.
My pleasure to give Sarah some time andspace and freedom and disconnectedness,
and I'm always so excited when she reallydisconnects and doesn't answer her phone.
(22:08):
It's so good.
So last week, as we talked about thatwe've had this seller finance sub
two condo deal, and I mean at onepoint we received determination on.
Creativity and having frank conversationswith junior and senior realtors
helped hold the deal together.
And it was really rewarding to be apart of that and keep it together and
(22:31):
have, a relationship with everybodythrough all of this, all through
the roller coaster, up and down.
And then also, like I said, helpingthose low equity sellers pivot to
a new plan without having to writea check to sell was very rewarding.
And I've been learning how tooptimize my short term rental.
So it's been great to be able to sharewhat I'm learning to help other people in.
(22:53):
Love it.
Your highlight of the weekwas helping other people.
That's pretty cute, Suzanne.
I like that.
Okay.
Low light challenge of the week, man.
I've been just runningon adrenaline, I think.
My body's been waking up early, goingto bed late, and I am bumped and
bruised up from moving a bunch of heavy.
(23:13):
Heavy furniture, I can't seem tonot run into things or stub my
toes or cut my fingers or whatever.
So my body is behind myenergy level right now.
I think.
I was very sore last weekend.
My new house has three levels of stairsand my legs are really feeling it.
So I'm back to my regularexercise class this week, but
(23:36):
I took off of it all last week.
Because I couldn't have done the twothings together in the same week.
It would've been way too hard for me.
So that was my low light.
I'm still tired, but I'llcatch up here eventually.
I'm just grateful I'm not sick.
For sure, and I hope you were liftingwith your legs and not with your back.
(23:56):
Sounds like you were, I'm sure.
Yeah.
My lowlight was I was just after a12 hour flight from Paris to Mexico
City, I. Lounge in Mexico City forfour hours waiting for our next flight.
And I was like jet lagged.
No idea what time it was.
It was like, I think four in themorning Mexico time and I'm working and
(24:19):
thinking I'm doing all this great stuffand like sending these really detailed
findings to our fires about theirinspection report for their sewer scope.
And lo and behold, I sentit to the wrong people.
So I was, yeah, it was just a momentwhere I was like, note to self, don't work
(24:39):
when Jet lagged after a 12 hour flight.
Yeah, things can wait, andthis is the thing that's.
We continue to learn aboutourselves is sometimes things aren't
necessarily urgent in that moment.
And had I waited a couple of hours untilI maybe got a few more hours of sleep I
might not have made that mistake, but.
(25:01):
Sarah saved me on that one actually.
She was covering for mewhile I was flying that day.
So grateful for your help and just quicklypopping in and covering for me on that.
I really wasn't coveringfor you consciously.
But what I will say is that if you, what,who you sent that to was like the best
(25:21):
person, possibly you could have sent itto it's buyers that like wouldn't have
cared at all or didn't care at all.
I don't even think we gota response from them on it.
Like me, they just like such a non-issue.
But I see it as obviously, yeah,like an opportunity to just
be like, oh yeah, I'm tired.
Probably shouldn't do things whenI'm tired because I do that too.
But it's usually later at night.
And like after a cocktailor something, right?
(25:46):
So true.
Yeah.
So last week was also our first fullweek with our rockstar trans transaction
coordinator who is diving right in.
He's super eager to learn andwe spent a lot of time on the
interview process vetting him.
He worked for us on a trialbasis for three weeks or for
(26:06):
three days the week prior.
And so we felt really confidentjust jumping right in last week.
And so that was super awesome.
It was great to have apartner while Sarah was gone.
And like I said before, I was gratefulthat Sarah actually disconnected
during a big week interpersonal life.
And, I think we, we both feel this waywhen we can support the other one too.
(26:29):
To live the life that we want andto create these life experiences
and memories that are so important.
And that's ultimately why we're all here.
Also, a big shout out to our amazinglicensed assistant who was waiting on
standby and ready to jump in and help to.
(26:49):
Yeah.
Was that was our gratefulfour section Yeah.
That you were just talking about.
Yeah.
Okay.
Yeah, so I'll just go ahead and say thatI am most grateful for this past week.
There's just been so many momentswhere I've been like, wow, pinch me.
Like I don't feel likethis is my real life.
(27:09):
And and it's because like it's truly.
I'm truly at a point where so many ofmy biggest dreams are like unfolding
right in front of me, and my childrenare so happy and my family's so happy.
And it's, this particular week is justcoming from this like physical, this
location move where we've just movedto a spot for our primary residents
(27:31):
that is making us really happy.
So I'm just soaking it all in.
I love that.
And it's amazing.
How a shift in location can makesuch a big difference in your life.
And that's what we do, right?
We help people shift locationto live their best life.
And that's exactly what you're doing.
(27:51):
Like Sarah, you're living up to your.
Email handle.
Totally.
That's exactly why I created that.
And it's exactly been my mission.
Like from, before I moved out hereis when I created that idea, right?
That this idea of this I'm, I wantto go to Bend to live my best life.
And I, my first home in Bend got me here.
And my first home in Bend iswhat's launched me into real
(28:13):
estate investing in general.
And.
It's now yeah, it's just my firsthome here has just been a platform
for getting even closer and yeah, morerefined position to where I really
wanna be, which is close to nature.
For sure.
Yeah, you're gonna start seeingall these bird memes pop up on your
(28:33):
Instagram now, Sarah it's no joke.
This is really what happensas we get near a certain age
that I won't say publicly but.
It's been so funny.
Even here I was at yoga and my yogateacher is nearing that same age and she
was like, I don't know what happened.
But like now I look out and Ilook at the birds and I'm like,
oh, that's a red crested warbler.
(28:56):
And it's just like one of theseweird things that happens to us.
And like all these thingsthat we previously.
Overlooked or didn't have time forbecome the highlight of our day?
No, I definitely I thinkit's a slow down thing.
Really?
Yeah, because what's so funny,I've already noticed in my own
backyard is like Matthew, and thekids see that nature all the time,
(29:16):
and I'm always like, where is it?
It's because they're like, theirbrain and bodies are moving slow
enough to notice that stuff.
Whereas I'm like, I'm not on that plane.
Yeah, I could see getting older, slowingdown, more birds becoming a thing, man.
So I'm in the right spot for it for sure.
Yes.
Our funny real estate moment ofthe week already touched on this,
(29:37):
but like spring break is reallyan actual break for most people.
Real estate is pretty quietduring spring break for literally
everyone except realtors.
When we have deals that are alreadygoing there's still work to be done.
If you wanna get something donewith another party, like an
attorney, for example, good luck.
Maybe wait another week.
(29:59):
Yeah.
And what we wanted to cry about, or, thenot so funny thing that happened this week
is we had, we have a buyer under contract.
On a property that's contingenton him selling his other property.
And we were working on negotiatingan extension for that contingency.
And the seller sent over an addendumwith the new contingency date, but also
(30:25):
put in there a stipulation about whatprice they wanted the buyer to lower
their contingent property to in order to.
Agree to this extension and wesent that over to the buyer.
It was already seller signed,and our buyer assumed we wrote
(30:45):
that addendum up with thoseparticular terms and questioned.
I guess our integrity, I don't know,questioned whether, we should have that
opinion about his replacement propertyor about his relinquished property.
Yeah.
And the pricing on it.
And just, he just didn't knowthat it came directly from the
seller instead of came from us.
(31:06):
And I guess we could havecommunicated that better.
But once he figured out that.
That didn't come from us.
I think things got better and wewere able to get the listing agent,
the seller, to just agree to a timeextension versus just a price extension.
But, if I was the seller'sagent, I would've done the
same thing, but it's all right.
(31:27):
Yeah, and I think that was just theteaching moment there was like, we have
our clients' backs and to be questionedwhether we did or not, that was the
little cry moment of of course, likeof course we have your back and we are
here representing your best interest.
But sometimes we need to.
Be more vocal about that and explainto these things to our clients so that
(31:50):
they understand where things originate.
Because we know this because we deal withthe documents every day and we know all
that, but it's good for us to not assumethat everybody else understands as well.
Yeah.
Never.
But always assuming the best.
That's what we're always tryingto encourage amongst ourselves and
our clients and our colleagues.
Don't come in assuming like shit's first.
(32:10):
That's just ask and thenlet's draw conclusions.
Okay, so what is going on inour own personal investing
in portfolios this week?
My world.
I'm only really gonna talk about St. Louisthis week, and that is, I've got the one
property that has been under contract witha conventional buyer, me selling it for
(32:30):
sale by owner and I. Always the hardestpart of a transaction is the inspection
contingency or the inspection period.
And I was not holding my breathbecause this is 120 year old building
occupied by four tenants in St.Louis, and I know what inspection
reports from these places look like.
We received a, what would be theMissouri equivalent of a seller's repair
(32:55):
addendum that was pretty extensive.
They asked us to do a lot ofkind of silly things in it.
I feel very grateful to have my.
My license here in Oregon and experienceas a real estate agent here because I
am definitely senior to this buyer'sagent and I've had the opportunity to
teach him a few things along the way.
And I feel like I have got prettygood control over the situation.
(33:16):
So countered back with what would be ourequivalent of a buyer'ss repair addendum.
Plus a small price reduction of athousand dollars from the purchase
price in lieu of a couple of the silly,bigger repairs the buyer was asking for.
And we're through the inspection period.
So really technically, the onlything that could come back to bite
us in the butt at this point is ifthe buyer's financing fell through.
(33:38):
I'm not worried about anappraisal on this building.
So there's that and.
Check back in.
I'll let, I'll certainly let you know.
Prospective closing date is April 30th.
I'm gonna be really excitedif we get through that.
And then basically with our other buildingwe had a tenant who's been there long
(33:58):
term, who is an assistance tenant, whodecided she wanted to move last month, but
then I think quickly realized she couldn'tfind a place that's nearly as nice as
hers for the price that she's in and hasre relinquished her her termination or.
And she's decided to signanother 12 month lease.
But in that process, we jacked upher rent a hundred bucks a month
(34:19):
because she's not paying it anyways.
So I'm excited to be raising rentsat that building in preparation
for, yeah, just optimizing itto get that one listed and sold.
Next, I'm gonna be outta St.
Louis by the end of 2020, negative eight.
Turn lemonade is being made there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
(34:39):
Major lemonade.
I guess I have one morething to talk about.
I, yeah.
I also rented my primaryhome in Northeast Bend.
This.
Past week.
They actually took possessionyesterday, but that was like
a fast and furious process.
Like I, it was a two, essentially twoweeks from the time that I listed it
to, to rented it and, collected securitydeposits and rents and all those things.
(35:01):
And I'm really glad that I talked toSuzanne, who has more experience in
long-term rental management here in Oregonand also a property manager friend of
ours before diving too deep into doingthis myself, because Oregon is a lot.
Scarier of a state to havetenants than Missouri.
And the words that Suzanne told mewere Sarah, or something like this.
(35:23):
Sarah, assume that everybodyknows everything about tenant
landlord laws and that everyonehas access to a free attorney.
And I was like, oh, okay.
That's gonna change how I operate here.
That, and also what I didn't know wasthat you have to accept the first.
Qualified tenant thatmeets all your criteria.
(35:44):
So I to make sure that I set verystrict criteria so I could be selective
about who I brought into our home.
And we ended up with an incredible, supergrateful family moving into our home.
And it all just is unfoldedin the best way possible too.
So we've got another cash flowingrental here in central Oregon.
(36:07):
Oh, so good.
I'm glad that worked out.
And I'm curious, where is the family from?
They're from this, theseones have a home in Colorado.
They own a home in Colorado.
Yep.
Interesting.
Yeah.
When we had our River Bend listingfor sale at the end of 2024 it
was on the river, 1.6 million.
(36:29):
Three out of three interestedbuyers were relocating to
Central Oregon from Colorado.
So it's just interesting, I thinkfor us to, to note that, folks
come in our way from Colorado.
Oh man.
Yeah.
And I should probably bring thatup to those buyers that we have
looking here, that I've beentalking about today, because they're
looking between Ben and Colorado.
I'm gonna tell them like, Hey,forget Colorado, everybody
(36:50):
who's moving here from there.
All right.
For me and my real estate portfolio wehad a lot of follow up from our March
meetup where we talked about kickingcorporate and ditching the nine to
five using real estate investments.
And I talked about my journey in learninghow to be a private money lender and
had a few folks reach out for my privatemoney lending starter kit, which is
(37:13):
basically the two documents I wish I hadwhen I started and I didn't have them.
So I. I also took a couple calls withpeople who are curious about getting
into private money lending, wanna learnhow to fund other people's investments
and create passive income that way.
So it feels good to already be givingback in this space and creating
a bigger community of lenders.
(37:34):
And I'm excited.
This is my next.
Venture into real estate investingand doing it on more passive side.
And it's been reallyrewarding and super powerful.
And just like we talked aboutearlier, different people bring
different things to the deal.
There may be somebody who'sreally good at the renovation.
(37:54):
There's maybe somebody thathas time to find the deal,
and I can be the person that.
All right.
Let's talk about our actionabletakeaways and final thoughts for
today's episode of the Suzanne andSarah Real Estate Investing podcast.
So first up, the best deals are notfound, they are created, and whether
that's through seller financing.
(38:16):
Buying or selling subjectto the underlying mortgage.
Optimizing your short termrental by making a few small
tweaks that make big impacts.
The creative strategy is thename of the game in this market.
And having people like Sarah and I on yourside to implement those strategies with
you is a super valuable and powerful tool.
(38:38):
Yes.
And another super valuable and powerfultool is being inquisitive, being
outgoing, being willing to ask betterquestions and not shying away from
the uncomfortable ones and ones thatyou might not like the answer to.
And really, this is just how weunlock win-win opportunities.
(38:58):
And it's it all, I think it all stemsfrom the tone and the intention.
But yeah, just gotta make sureyou're surrounding yourself with
people with good intentions.
For sure, and we talk a lot about howwe mentor new realtors in our industry
and what we just wanna say to thoseof you who are getting into this and
feeling a little green and maybe alittle intimidated, don't be afraid to
(39:22):
lean on your team and ask questions.
That goes for all of us, right?
Assume positive intent, askquestions, and come from a place
of humility and willingness.
Yeah.
So guys, if this episode or anyof the other episodes you've heard
from us hit home or wanna make yourethink your current strategy or who
(39:43):
you're working with we'd love to hearfrom you and ways you can do that.
DM us on Instagram.
I'm at Best Life Bend, orSuzanne is at Suzanne Rose.
More.
That's a good place to ask usquestions or tell us about what
topics you want us to dive into next.
Also just make sure that youare signed up and subscribed to
our weekly investor newsletter.
(40:06):
This goes out with our top picks andthen we do want every month with some.
More insider tips and creativefinancing inspiration.
And then also you can catch more behindthe scenes footage from us and other
full episodes on Ben Lifestyle andinvesting topics on our YouTube channel.
And you can grab time totalk with us personally.
We do a free 15 minute consult and youcan grab the link to schedule with one
(40:30):
of us on our bios or our Calendly link.
Finally.
We wanna see you in person or onlineat our monthly investor meetups.
You don't have to do this alone.
We've got a communityhere for you already.
And we're talking about reallyinteresting things every month that you
probably are gonna learn something from.
So if you're enjoying our podcast,please like it, please leave a review.
(40:51):
Please subscribe.
This helps us more than and weappreciate you hanging out with us
every week, and we're excited to seeyou in person when you get to bed and
hang out with you here in the meantime.
All right.
We'll see you next time on the Suzanneand Sarah Real Estate Investing Podcast.
Thanks for tuning into this Suzanne andSarah Real Estate Investing podcast.
If you enjoy this episode, then subscribeand leave us a review because your
(41:15):
feedback helps us reach people like youwho are ready to elevate their lives.
Don't forget to share this episodewith someone who's passionate about
real estate or personal growth.
And for more tips, resources andupdates, follow us on Insta or visit us
at central Oregon investor network.com.
And remember.
You have the power to designthe life you want, one real
(41:38):
estate investment at a time.
See you next week.
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