September 23, 2024 • 34 mins
In this episode, we sit down with the power duo Anna Kara and Ron Arutyunyan to dive deep into their journey from humble beginnings to real estate moguls. Anna shares how her resilience led her from war-torn Armenia to building a boutique mortgage company, while Ron reveals how a childhood love for Monopoly shaped his strategic approach to real estate investing. With their signature motto, "Investing is sexy," Anna and Ron show how passion and purpose can turn dreams into reality. Tune in to hear their inspiring story of love, business, and legacy building!
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hello, lovely people. This is Nicole and this is Samantha.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
With the power of we, we are here to switch
it up and teach you about business relationships and how
to not only survive but make it in Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
In each episode, we will have top influential guests from
the world of real estate. We work hard, we stage hard,
and we get it done the power of we.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Hey boo boom, Hello, how are you. I'm good? How
are you?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I'm so good? What a great day? I mean, so
much fun. We've been just living it up.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Pum you know what. I'm so excited about these podcasts.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, it's like so many fun people coming on these days.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
It's been incredible and it's like we get it done.
I love having this podcast because we have so many
great people that get to share their stories. And when
we first started this podcast, we had no I didn't
even know what a podcast was. And when Laurie came
to us, going, you guys have to tell your story
and you need to do a podcast, I was like what.
(01:26):
And look at what we've done from you know, so
many cool guests like Flavor flave To Camilla's Sacred Della
Rep Lindsay and Lindsay's Shaw.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
It's been really great.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
But you know what I want to talk about is,
you know, I finally after getting divorced in like two
thousand and seven, I never invested and I finally bought
a house and I'm already made. It was like, what
a year and a half ago, two years and I've
already like made like four hundred.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Thousand, and I'm like, what the hell have I been doing?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
I know?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
And then we did this really cool event.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yeah that was Modern Day Wife and these cute couple
was there.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
And she had this thing investing is sexy.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I was like, I love that, saying I can't wait
to talk to the person who phrased that.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I mean, it was so cool.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
So which is really good because I can't wait for
you to do your first investment. And I think one
of my personal goals.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Is I want to do a flip next year. What
do you think about that?
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I should I own a staging company. I help everyone else.
Why am I not doing that?
Speaker 4 (02:31):
For?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
No? Flipping is a great, great weight, mate.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
And I know you're going to be in my face going, okay,
I want to do it with you. So anyway, Nicole,
why don't you talk about who's coming on.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Introducing Anna Kara. From witnessing the fall of the Soviet
Union to surviving the hardships of war in Armenia, Anna
Kara's life journey is a remarkable testament to resilience and determination.
After moving to the US at twelve, she quickly realized
that success comes to those who hust Leaving law school
to support her family. She started as a receptionist in
(03:04):
the real estate and mortgage company, but soon carved her
own path, founding a boutique mortgage company at just twenty
years old. Anna and her husband Ron invest in and
flip real estate, transforming properties and lives along the way.
After fourteen years of marriage and a divorce, Anna found
her way back to Ron, proving that genuine love and
connections are priceless. Through the Anakara Foundation, she gives back
(03:29):
to her Armenian roots, reminding us that true success is
about making a lasting impact. As a mother of three entrepreneur, investor,
and philanthropists, Anna's legacy is built on great authenticity in
the belief that investing is sexy, especially when it's about people.
Welcome Anna Wow Wow Yay.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Anna and her husband Ron so excited to have you
guys on.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
I mean when I met you, I was like, who's
this girl next to me? She's so cool?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
And I was like stealing your cookies. I'm like, you're
all about branding. I mean, we have so many questions
to ask you. But honestly, I really like that you're
a mother because obviously I'm a mother, right, And you're
passionate about your business and you know that's me. And
I remember having lunch with you and you were like,
you gave me one bit of advice.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Do you remember what it was?
Speaker 5 (04:21):
I honestly don't.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Okay, so you go stop having everyone else return your DMS.
You need to do it, and I'm starting there because
that has changed my world.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
Oh my god. That's how you don't even know.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
We don't even know what we're doing when we when
we give people's advice, if they take.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
It or not. So why did you say that to me?
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Because it worked for me old as yours. It's the
connection with people.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
It works for me exactly exactly. So where did you?
So let's talk about it.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
So you have a mortgage company, right, I mean, tell
me how that started.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Well, first of all, thank you for having me super excited.
I'm super excited to see you yay. And I started
just as any other girl, pretty much trying to look
for a job because my mom had a manufacturing company
that went bankrupt and I needed to work in order
for it to support her. And I just started law school.
(05:16):
So I got hired at a real estate and a
mortgage company as a receptionist and as the observer that
I am. I love studying people on how things work
and trying to understand how things work. So I was
just observing overall, you know, just how they're getting leads,
how they're getting clients, and then just the whole game
pretty much. And soon enough, back in the days, they
(05:40):
used to do cold calls, and back in the days,
I remember that there was no Thomas, there was no Google.
There was just only Thomas Guide pretty much kind of
a deal back in the days. So I realized very
quickly that they had over like twenty or thirty that
was close to thirty loan officers and real estate real
state agents combined together. And I realized all these leads
(06:03):
that they were giving back to me about i'll say
about eighty percent. They're like, no, it's a cold lead.
There's nothing happening. It's that one, that one nobody's answering.
And I realized, and it was timestamping as far as
what time they were calling and what time they were
trying to get.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
Hold of these people. And again, back in the.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Days there were no smartphones that we're not connected as
we are today. And I realized, they're calling you at
ten am, and they're calling them at like six seven pm.
I'm like, ten am that I work, nobody's going to
answer the phone. And then at six seven pm they
just got home, they were trying to make dinner with
their kids. Nobody's going to talk about mortgage with you,
so asked my boss. I'm like, hey, can I the
leads that they return as dead? Can I try calling
(06:39):
them before I give back to you? And it's like,
you're not licensed, you can't quote any rates. I'm like,
that's fine, I'm not going to quote raates. I'm just
going to talk to them and if they want to,
I'll just you know, referm to you. And he said yeah, sure.
So six months into it, I had more transactions on
the board than on any of those relators alone.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Off because you know why, you know why, I love
that you're talking about this because you don't take no
for an answer. Yeah, and that is my motto, there's
no no in my world.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
And that as a CEO, you know, yeah, you cannot.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
There's nothing you can just So that's how their journey started.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
And my rent was nine hundred and fifty dollars at
that time, and I was making eight hundred dollars cash
every month, so I had to come up with some
way of making money.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
And sure enough, that was my way of doing it.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
And I just fell in love with the process because
you're able to help people, you know what I mean,
You're just like making dreams come true. And then you
have investors who are invest you making their portfolio bigger.
And a year and a half after that, my boss
was moving to Marino Valley, moving the company. As I
come with me, I'm like I can't, and I was like,
you know what, I'm just going to go at it.
And twenty I just went ahead and open up my
(07:44):
mortgage company.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
And for you, wow, and twenty years old. Yeah, like
thinking about that's only five years ago for you.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Yeah, Like when you think back twenty years old, can
you imagine that?
Speaker 4 (07:56):
You know, I can't I honestly, I think the only
reason and I was able to do.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
It because I didn't understand a lot of things.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
I guess I was just, you know, my gut feeling
was telling me just get it resilience.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
Yeah, and I was like, that's it, we just have
to do it.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
So well, you have so much so I mean, really,
you know, Nicole's on the podcast with me, so.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
I really want you to hone in on this.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
So I want them to realize that investing is sexy,
and it's also if you do it at a young age,
which I wish I did.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
God bless it. You know, I told you that.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Term investing is sexy. Like, where does that come from?
Speaker 4 (08:29):
See, I always wanted I've always been the opposite. Then
the mortgage industry out there and the real estate industry
all together.
Speaker 5 (08:35):
I was like, Okay, why guys.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Making it so boring?
Speaker 4 (08:38):
It's so boring everybody Back in the days when I started,
like everybody was like thirty and plus, like you didn't
see younger crowd in there. It's now that you're you're
seeing real estate more younger crowd and the mortgage. But
back in the days, it was like it was like
thirty plus year olds with like suits and being all
serious and all that stuff. And I was like, okay,
but like you know, I want to bring the girl's
(08:58):
side into it, you know, the girl the side of
things down, to bring the fun side of things. So
I always kept my company as a boutique. It was
never the your corporate office space. So right now in
my office looks like a living girl. When you walk in,
it looks like a home living girl. It doesn't look
like an office. Have to check it s yes, you
have to love it. And so as far as the
(09:19):
investing is sexy, portion of it came up because I
was like, okay, people need to understand that investing is sexy.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
That's why I.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Had at the at the at the show and when
I had you know, Prada Chanel, like crossing it out
and yes, a check mark two deeds like title oarning
deeds to the property. Because if you invest that early
age basically you start early. What's going to happen is
that investment is going to pay for your product and
your Chanel and you know, Gucci and your deal versus
(09:48):
now you're working your time to pay for those items.
Versus if you invest, you'll have someone else paying for
those items.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
And also what about you know, spending, Like for twenty years,
I was spending back then five thousand dollars a month
on rent, which was a lot back then, right, if
I would have put that toward mortgage, I mean yeah,
I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
So for someone who like doesn't have any investments and
is thinking about investing, where's just someone start.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
That's a great idea.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
I'll have Ron kind of jump into that one.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yeah, hey, run, how are you well? Yes, it's so
great to have you on here.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
So yeah, help us out.
Speaker 6 (10:27):
Look, so everyone sort of has their own idea of
what investing should look like. Depending on who you speak to,
some people are going to tell you single families are
not the way. Someone's going to say, go get a duplex,
live in one unit, right the other unit. I personally
started off with a single family residence. And that was
the first property I ever bought, which was about twenty eighteen,
(10:51):
and I bought that for seven eighty five and today
it's worth like one point three million.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
Great, So it wasn't even too long ago. Yeah, in
eighteen twenty nineteen. And in the meantime that house is
being used for insurance housing, Airbnb. So it was generating
like eight nine to ten thousand dollars a month depending
on the month. Wow, not only did the appreciation go
up on its own by me just owning it, I
(11:16):
was actually positive cash flowing on that house too.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
That's great.
Speaker 6 (11:22):
What I would recommend is for your first home by
a single family residence, if you don't need to live
in it. Even better if you do, that still works
because it's still you're going to gain the appreciation over time. However,
if you have the opportunity to rent it out to someone,
I usually stay away from traditional tenants. They just don't
pay as high as I would like them to, and
especially with today's rates and the pricing of homes, it's
(11:46):
rather difficulty.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
What does that mean? Traditional tenant?
Speaker 6 (11:49):
Traditional tenant is someone that comes and signs a one
year or two year lease, as if you know you're
going to rent an apartment or a studio.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Who isn't traditional.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
Insurance housing, mid term rentals, short term rentals such as Airbnb,
insurance housing. There's like traveling nurses that will come and
book your house for six months out of the year
that the top dollar. Usually usually when you're dealing with
businesses or corporations, they're paying a premium to house their
(12:19):
employees in that time. So although you might not have
the luxury of having a tenant in there for a year,
it might be three months out of time or six
months out of time. You leverage that because you're getting
paid more on the monthly. So that's a niche strategy
that I focused on, and that's double down on throughout
the years, and that's what's worked for me. And I
(12:40):
mean there's.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
You know, okay, well if that worked for you. But
I know you guys do flips too.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I know we're gonna jump around, but I want to
know because I'm serious. After I talked to her like
in the beginning of the year, I want to do
a flip, right, And I should have done it millions
of years ago, because I helped a million flippers over
sixteen years.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
By the way, guide us.
Speaker 6 (13:01):
So flipping houses. So I always say this, whether you're
flipping or you're buying and holding, I make as an investor,
I make my money on the buy, not the sell.
Meaning when I when I analyze deals, and when we
analyze deals, I'm alway running to her and I'm asking
her for opinion before you know we do anything. It's
the key. The key is to buy at a at
(13:24):
a discounted price. Okay, you never want to go and
buy something that's on the market and pay, you know,
let me put it in terms of MSRP.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
I love that. I really want my listeners to hear.
Did you hear that? Say it again?
Speaker 6 (13:37):
Please you? As an investor, you never want to go
and buy something off the market because at that point
you're competing with traditional buyers. That's not the game you
want to play as an investor. You make money when
you buy at a discounted rate. And the way to
buy at a discounted rate is when you're buying distressed homes.
Distressed meaning you know the house needs some TLC and is.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
There a lot distressed homes out there?
Speaker 4 (14:01):
There is?
Speaker 6 (14:02):
You just got to find them. And the more you
put yourself out there as an investor, you'll notice how
these steels start finding you. When you first get started,
you're like, Okay, how do I find my first steal?
How do I find my first steal? I can't find anything.
And then once you do a transaction, then you start
getting calls from other people because what happens is there's
there's a database out there and people see who bought
(14:22):
this house, when you bought that house, and if you
bought it under your personal name or a corporation, they
have an idea.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
If you're a business, it makes so much sense because
I have like five investors that flip flip flip, and
they constantly are doing it, and I'm like.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
How do you find these houses?
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Like I just ran into one of the Beverly Hills
event and I was like.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
He's he's for years. I'm talking fifteen years.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
He's been doing this and flipping and flipping and flipping
and now he's huge.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
But how do you know how much money to put
into the property?
Speaker 1 (14:51):
So you because I have like that's a great question
that like there was.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
A project I was just staging, but the investor was saying,
how he like put too much money into it, so
he's not making money out of it, So how do
you know what that price is? And like how to
make more money off it?
Speaker 6 (15:07):
I guess So our first two or three flips, we
ended up going over budget times two. And the only
way to really get over that hurdle is just its experience.
Experience once once you've done you know enough, Once you've
built a solid crew of reliable people, you can already
project your what your expenses are and what your costs are.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
That makes sense.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
But when you're first getting started off, you might walk
in and you know it looks like, you know, eighty
grand will be done, just some paint. But the problem
is when you open up the walls, that's when you realize.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
That got it.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
And also I think really, when you're doing something, whether
it's staging, flipping, whatever it is, you're so passionate about
it that they say, oh, that's just an extra two
hundred dollars to have the better look. So that's where
people get in trouble. I see it all the time
when I'm doing design with clients. They want I give
them options and they want and I'm like, you're on
(16:06):
a budget. I always go back and tell them you're
on a budget. Are you sure you're going to stay
in that budget? Because if they stay in that budget,
then they're happy, and then I'm happy.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
So yeah, I get that.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
If I also may add to that, one of the
keys in order for you not to go over budget
and to be for the sale to be profitable, which
a lot of people miss this completely. Is when you're
buying a distress home, you cannot buy that distress home
whatever is appraising currently on the market. You have to
buy it as undervalue. That's why rom Wos keeps saying
(16:37):
that you need to buy it on their market value,
because what happens if the property is let's say worth
right now as this condition six hundred thousand, you pay
six hundred thousand, you're at zero. So now you're putting
your own money into it, you know what I mean.
And then you're going to some homes we buy over FaceTime.
We don't even physically see them, mostly our majority of them.
(16:58):
It's over FaceTime. Hey you've got this, there's like twenty
people standing outside. Why are your money in right now?
The deposit it will be yours kind of a yell,
you know. So that's why. And then when you go in,
you don't know what to expect some of those spaces,
like you know, it needs a brand new roof, it
needs brand new this. So that's why you have to
have your cushion when going in there. But that if
(17:19):
the property is worth six hundred, you're buying it for
five hundred thousand as is you're already hundred thousand dollars
equity in there.
Speaker 5 (17:25):
Okay, So if you.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
Spend one hundred and fifty thousand, once you're done with
the value with the property, that property is worth, let's
say eight hundred thousand, you're already hundred thousand dollars equity.
You're already saving there. You got your money there back, right,
and you spend extra let's say fifty thousand on it's
your cost technically it's one hundred and fifty, but in reality,
you know what I mean, you just your margin becomes
much higher. That's one of the major keys. And people
(17:48):
completely missed that, right, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
And so when you so you have your mortgage company,
you guys started doing flipping, and do you do that
a lot right now?
Speaker 4 (17:58):
The flipping right now, we just kind of mainly buying
and turning into units. The single family is turning into
units because of old ADUs being allowed and so on.
So we're turning into units and we want to hold
on to them.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
That's great, that's great. How did you guys meet?
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Well, you're a family business. The reason we're asking is
you're a family business. We're a family business, and it's
so great to have a family business on here and
like where did you meet and.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
How do you how do you work together? Right when there's.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Everyone always asks us that, yeah, let's.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Turn this around on you guys, because you'lain.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
Okay, sounds good, Go Anna go we met Our mutual
friend called me is a like Anna. I have a
really good friend of mine whom I used to work for.
He wants to get into the real estate side of things,
and he wants to do flips as an investor and
so on. But he wants to get insights of things
like how things work as far as the financing goes
on the real estate side.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
He wants to he got his license.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
He wants to come into work, and I was like, okay,
let me call you know, the best person for you
to be next to and so on.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
Anyways, I was like, I don't want.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
To, you know, I don't have time to babysit anybody.
They always come and they don't focus on themselves. They
focus on me and my clients, and they're like sitting
there counting how many clients I have instead of I'm like,
it's twenty four years of work, that's why I have
those clients And just show up out of nowhere.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
You know.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
He's like, no, no, he's different, you know, give him
a chance. I was like, okay, fine, so it's got
to schedule the meeting. He came and we sat down
and we talked. I was like, this is what I
want to do. And so I'm like, okay, fine.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
And in the beginning, I always I don't give people
night and.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Day like I will just be in a space where
I test them out, you know what I mean. I
don't make things easy for them. I make it difficult
to see if they're going to stick around. Yeah, because
every personal experience, love that personal experience. I used to
open my doors be like oh yeah here, welcome, take everything,
whatever you want.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
And then like they're like, by screw, you know, done so.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
And I was like so for that reason, I'm like, okay,
I need to test him to make sure that he
is able to survive in this industry, because you're going
to get a lot of rejections overall throughout the especially
being in this industry. So he started coming in and
then I flew to Armenia because I had charity work
to do there and so.
Speaker 6 (20:18):
On, and then she ignored me for the next two
and a half months.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
I love it.
Speaker 6 (20:22):
While I'm technically working there.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Good for you.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
Yeah, but the office, the girls were there, they were
helping you, don't don't he told me.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
By the way, he's going to make sure that I remember.
He reminds me of it.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Well, I don't blame him anyway.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
So that's how when I came back, and then we
started working you know, close closer basically through the process
of things. And then one day he just told me
that he cannot live without me. No, oh, come on,
(21:00):
that was word for word he was. He was serenading
with love. Literally at two o'clock in the morning, while
I was parking my car at.
Speaker 5 (21:08):
A stop sign.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
He was, what a nice guy.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
Wow, this car and I've met a lot of before.
Two hours, I kid you not.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
For two hours we were at Front's house and then
we just left and then he just like stopped me
on my way and uh yeah, and I guess the
rest is history.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Wow, that's great. And how long have you been together together?
Speaker 4 (21:28):
All together? It's like two and a half years, almost
three years? Yeah, married one yeah?
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Married one year?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Nice?
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Well, congratulations, it's a newly new marriage. So what happens
when you guys don't agree, how do you work? Like
everyone always asks us, how do you deal with that?
Speaker 6 (21:50):
I think it depends on what the topic is.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Well, it could be about your business. It could be
about how.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Do you communicate out work, and then like when you
go home, how do you separate your person away from
your work?
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Exactly?
Speaker 6 (22:01):
Okay, So that's actually that's a problem for us.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
She'll always tell.
Speaker 6 (22:06):
Me, she's like, we're not working right now, can you
not talk about work?
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (22:10):
My brain is just sometimes it's hard to control. And
sometimes it even happens to her and I'm like, can
you just put your phone down. We're just having dinner
right now. Let's just like get away. So there will
be times where she checks me and she's like, you
know what, just drop it. Let's not talk about work
right now. There will be times I'll remind her, you know,
put the phone down. And then, you know, you have
instances that occur where for me, there are certain things
(22:33):
that really mean a lot to me. And then if
it's something that doesn't mean a lot to me, but
it means more to her, you know, I let her
you know, navigate the ship per se. And then when
it's something that I feel that, you know, it's sort
of in my direction. Then you know, we just we
have like a common ground.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
That's great, that's great. Yeah, it's all about learning each other.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
And you know, I mean I obviously I work with
Nicole very closely and Fernando, my fiance say and.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
I find that.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
If I say something like managing at home, it doesn't work,
absolutely doesn't work for me. I have to I talk
about it all the time, drop back into the feminine
and when I'm home, and that's really changed a lot
for me. Because we're women, we still even though we're bosses,
we have to be their partner as well. And that's
(23:26):
you know, I try and tell my listeners. I didn't
know that for a long time. And seriously, since I've
dropped down into the feminine, I think my life has
gotten much easier, honestly.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
One hundred percent with you on that. And that's something
that I think, you know, after I met Ron as well,
because I think for for working women who are strong
and you know, independent, they need to feel the they
have to have the reassurance from the men that is
next to them that they'll be able to handle certain things.
(23:59):
For me, that's how it works if I know you'll
be able to handle it. Like, I don't need to
be there for me to handle and take care of things.
I'm just going to like cool down. And people think
when you're when you're when you're a working woman, you
know what I mean, when you're an entrepreneurial, they think
that you want to be constantly in that space.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Yeah. Absolutely, I personally don't. You know, I want to
be a girl. I want to get spoiled. I want
to be you know, like I want to be that way.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
I don't want to I don't want to be a man.
I keep telling you people, I'm like, listen, I don't
want to.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Be a man me either.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
You know I'm at work, have I do enough you know,
men's stuff at work as far as you know, making
certain deals and talking about doing a lot of stuff.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
But at the end of the day, I want to
be a girl.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
So yeah, it's so true. It's so true. It's like
it's taken me.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
A long time to learn that, you know, I mean,
because you know, I don't care what they say. But
back in the day, it does count because you know,
I'm sure Frando doesn't want me. I know he doesn't
want me telling him what to do all the time
for sure, and they and he also wants to be
able to give his two cents and have me open
(25:09):
up and really listen to him. Right.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
I think the way it works.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Is just like that level of mutual respect, right, like
even just having that with any family member that you're
working with, my daughter, husband, whatever it is, and just
being able to like hear each other and listen and communicate,
and that that's what's helped us.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
All right, Yeah, that's been we fine, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
Yeah that's not Yeah, that's nothing. But at the end
of the day, it's just a matter.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
Of you know, knowing how far to push that.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Yeah, yeah, it comes.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
So you're doing so much, Anna, It's like, I'm so
impressed with what you're doing. You're always constantly growing. You
remind me of myself, Like it's never enough for me.
I'm doing Masson, then I'm doing my own Now I'm
creating my.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Own furniture line.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
And I'm going to Guadalajara, and next time I'm going
to China, and and now I see you doing this
amazing event which I can't wait to go to because
I really want you to talk about branding and like
the logo, people think, you know, branding and marketing are
the same thing, and you're doing this big event.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Tell us about it. I'm so excited, so excited to hear.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Well, September twenty sixth, it's next week coming up, and
we're basically what let me just back it up a
little so you guys understand where it's coming from.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
All of this.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
So, as I said, I always wanted to have that
boutique mortgage company and be different than everyone else around us.
And that's exactly what I created. Because when you say Anakara,
they're like, oh, it's Anna Carra Lows.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
They're like, yo, okay. Then they're like, it's.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
This level that they put me on, and it's not
that they just put me on.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
I've earned that.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
I worked very hard to earn that level that they
know we work with integrity and honesty and we tell
you exactly how things are right. I made sure those
old those things, the three things are very clear to
every bar, that amazing clients, every bar and the realtors
and everybody that we work with. So when I started
(27:08):
social media about ten years ago, together, I didn't know
that why I'm doing it. I just knew I had
to be on it. It's just some kind of like
a gut feeling. I can explain this. I had this
since I was a little kid, just observing people and
you know, what they're doing, and just studying just overall.
So I knew I had to be on social media.
But I was like, Okay, let's just give it this
(27:28):
a start, figure out where it's going to take us.
We'll just learn as we go. So what happens is
people call themselves marketing teams, and they call it branding
teams and so on. So I realized very quickly those
are just people pushing buttons in the background, just posting
stuff for you. But if you let other people do
(27:50):
your branding and do your marketing, you're letting your company
just go down the drain because it's a copy paste
like everyone else's. So I had to be very It's
one of those things like at the event, whoever's going
to come, one of the main speakers is christ He
breaks down and he's an a MA word running designer
by the way, and.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
He's the guru of marketing.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
He's in Dubai right now and over two thousand people conference,
he's flying in. Yeah, next week he's going to be
with us. So he's on another level. And so one
one of the things that Chris does, which I had
the chance to be surrounded with certain people back in
the days that I was able to do that they
understood what marketing was and branding. So he asked you
(28:35):
specific questions as far as you know your businesses, what
you're trying to your target audience, what you're trying to accomplish,
and what is the long.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
Term goal short term goal.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Really gets to the bottom as far as of who
you are, because it doesn't matter. Yeah, because it doesn't
matter if it's a big company or not. It doesn't
matter if it's your face or not. At the end
of the day, it's your baby. Yeah. You know you
need to you need to you need to understand what
you're presenting. So I I sat down, I did all
the work.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
I figure O.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
I'm like, I want to make sure we come up
with integrity, honesty, you know, beat it to go to
person for people. Even if we don't do the transactions.
I have people calling me even if I didn't close
the transactions, like can you please look at it. I
don't trust this person. My husband's friend is the loan officer.
I don't trust this person. Can you please look at
the docs. I look at them, no questions ask I'm like, yeah, sure, okay,
(29:22):
no problem.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
But that's what I want it to be. So and
then that's when the marketing portion starts in.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
Okay, you need to come up with your colors as
far as what your color is, what your brand represents,
what does it stand for. You need to understand the
psychology behind colors. Okay, so what it stands for with
so on, and then you come up with your logo,
and you come up with your font, and then your
your company has a branding package that whenever you go somewhere,
that's what you send out to people. Hey, if they
(29:50):
post something, this is my logo, this is my color.
You cannot post anything else without different colors. You have
to be very specific because what it helps it does
it's a brand recognition. So people start seeing your logo
and everything that you do.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
Pretty much. Oh that's that, you know, like Nike like
you see it. You know what it is like. Nobody
needs to explain anything to you.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
So with that said, that's when my focus was that
I wanted to focus on that, and that's how I
started building. And as far as the videos goes that
I started posting, there's different things that I've tried on
social media. Obviously Instagram updates with like every twenty four hours.
They're changing their algorithms and it's like we can't keep
up with it at this point. But you know, just
(30:32):
keeping an eye on that and just monitoring, figure out
which platforms you want to be on, what you want
to do, and so on. And I was very every
video I did it was very intentional. I didn't want
to relay a message that will just for the purpose
of getting views and likes. I said to the team
that was working, I was like, I don't care if
we get one person to watch this, it will be
(30:52):
the right person that's going to watch, right, And I
don't want freaking one million views and no return, you know.
And then DMS, I've always, always, always, always, I said,
I'm going to be the one that is going to
respond to dms, and people feel it, people know it, really, yeah,
And when you start responding to your DMS, you just
(31:12):
build connections, and that's the key to any business. I'm
just branding overall all together and I'm very grateful that,
you know, I'm able to host this event. All these years,
I haven't done any events. Everybody kept asking me, He's like,
why don't you do this, you know, workshop, this workshop?
And I was like, it's not the time, it's not
the time. I'm very intuitive and I listen to my
(31:33):
gut always, and this was the time. I was like, Okay,
you know what this is it, let's do it. Everything
works out for the speakers, the days work out, everything
worked out. Let's see, let's get this done. And it's
going to be a different level of Well.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
I'm excited.
Speaker 5 (31:48):
I can't wait. So you guys got to come out.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Yeah, we're coming. And listeners if you want to come,
where do they go? How do they get a ticket?
Speaker 4 (31:57):
They could go to my Instagram it's at Anna Kara
Loan's with a k Or they could go to Elevate
e l V eight dot event uh and get the
tickets there. And yeah, and what time does it start?
I don't if it starts. Agenda goals went up today
because we're waiting for Chris to finalize it. It's an
all day event. The doors open at nine light. Breakfast
(32:20):
is going to be served her first speaker is at ten.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
Lunch is going to be served.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Wow, very classic. Of course you brought me flowers. You're
always thinking. Seriously, you keep me on my toes. Honestly,
I love it.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
I love it.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
I like that we have to we have to you
know each other.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
So we got very nice friend Scarlet Scarlet. That has
been amazing. I love this lady.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
She is just amazing and you're you inspire me honestly, thank.
Speaker 5 (32:47):
You so much. My love. Likewise, that goes both ways.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
So I am definitely going to the event. Unfortunately Nicole
can't come, which is a bummer because she has to
do an event herself. But Josha and I will be
there and I know so many people I've sent it
out all over the place. Thank you, So I'm sure
you're going to have an incredible, incredible turnout. And next
time I want to hear a lot more from you.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
You are so great.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
I love that you're just so calm and you know,
such a great energy.
Speaker 5 (33:16):
Marking you know branding.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Yeah, it's amazing and I really we thank you guys
for coming on.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
So again, listeners, if you want to come to the event,
where do they.
Speaker 5 (33:27):
Go September twenty sixth. They could go to Annaikara Loan's.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
Instagram or go w W dot e l V eight
dot events and get your tickets.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
And I don't know about you, but if you're going
to invest I would definitely hit them up.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
So how do they hit you up? Just the same social.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
Media, Anna, carolans DMS. We'll be more than happy.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
All the contact information is there and yeah, but side
note with branding, I stop printing business cards.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Interesting. I can't wait to hear everything. I'm so excited.
Praise of the day is investing is sexy. Yay, Thank
you so much, thank you,
Hello, lovely people. This is Nicole and this is Samantha.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
With the power of we, we are here to switch
it up and teach you about business relationships and how
to not only survive but make it in Los Angeles.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
In each episode, we will have top influential guests from
the world of real estate. We work hard, we stage hard,
and we get it done the power of we.
Speaker 1 (00:50):
Hey boo boom, Hello, how are you. I'm good? How
are you?
Speaker 2 (00:54):
I'm so good? What a great day? I mean, so
much fun. We've been just living it up.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
Pum you know what. I'm so excited about these podcasts.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Yeah, it's like so many fun people coming on these days.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
It's been incredible and it's like we get it done.
I love having this podcast because we have so many
great people that get to share their stories. And when
we first started this podcast, we had no I didn't
even know what a podcast was. And when Laurie came
to us, going, you guys have to tell your story
and you need to do a podcast, I was like what.
(01:26):
And look at what we've done from you know, so
many cool guests like Flavor flave To Camilla's Sacred Della
Rep Lindsay and Lindsay's Shaw.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
It's been really great.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
But you know what I want to talk about is,
you know, I finally after getting divorced in like two
thousand and seven, I never invested and I finally bought
a house and I'm already made. It was like, what
a year and a half ago, two years and I've
already like made like four hundred.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
Thousand, and I'm like, what the hell have I been doing?
Speaker 4 (01:57):
I know?
Speaker 1 (01:57):
And then we did this really cool event.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
Yeah that was Modern Day Wife and these cute couple
was there.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
And she had this thing investing is sexy.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
I was like, I love that, saying I can't wait
to talk to the person who phrased that.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I mean, it was so cool.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
So which is really good because I can't wait for
you to do your first investment. And I think one
of my personal goals.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
Is I want to do a flip next year. What
do you think about that?
Speaker 4 (02:26):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
I should I own a staging company. I help everyone else.
Why am I not doing that?
Speaker 4 (02:31):
For?
Speaker 2 (02:32):
No? Flipping is a great, great weight, mate.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
And I know you're going to be in my face going, okay,
I want to do it with you. So anyway, Nicole,
why don't you talk about who's coming on.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Introducing Anna Kara. From witnessing the fall of the Soviet
Union to surviving the hardships of war in Armenia, Anna
Kara's life journey is a remarkable testament to resilience and determination.
After moving to the US at twelve, she quickly realized
that success comes to those who hust Leaving law school
to support her family. She started as a receptionist in
(03:04):
the real estate and mortgage company, but soon carved her
own path, founding a boutique mortgage company at just twenty
years old. Anna and her husband Ron invest in and
flip real estate, transforming properties and lives along the way.
After fourteen years of marriage and a divorce, Anna found
her way back to Ron, proving that genuine love and
connections are priceless. Through the Anakara Foundation, she gives back
(03:29):
to her Armenian roots, reminding us that true success is
about making a lasting impact. As a mother of three entrepreneur, investor,
and philanthropists, Anna's legacy is built on great authenticity in
the belief that investing is sexy, especially when it's about people.
Welcome Anna Wow Wow Yay.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
Anna and her husband Ron so excited to have you
guys on.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
I mean when I met you, I was like, who's
this girl next to me? She's so cool?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
And I was like stealing your cookies. I'm like, you're
all about branding. I mean, we have so many questions
to ask you. But honestly, I really like that you're
a mother because obviously I'm a mother, right, And you're
passionate about your business and you know that's me. And
I remember having lunch with you and you were like,
you gave me one bit of advice.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
Do you remember what it was?
Speaker 5 (04:21):
I honestly don't.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
Okay, so you go stop having everyone else return your DMS.
You need to do it, and I'm starting there because
that has changed my world.
Speaker 5 (04:32):
Oh my god. That's how you don't even know.
Speaker 3 (04:34):
We don't even know what we're doing when we when
we give people's advice, if they take.
Speaker 1 (04:38):
It or not. So why did you say that to me?
Speaker 4 (04:41):
Because it worked for me old as yours. It's the
connection with people.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
It works for me exactly exactly. So where did you?
So let's talk about it.
Speaker 3 (04:50):
So you have a mortgage company, right, I mean, tell
me how that started.
Speaker 4 (04:56):
Well, first of all, thank you for having me super excited.
I'm super excited to see you yay. And I started
just as any other girl, pretty much trying to look
for a job because my mom had a manufacturing company
that went bankrupt and I needed to work in order
for it to support her. And I just started law school.
(05:16):
So I got hired at a real estate and a
mortgage company as a receptionist and as the observer that
I am. I love studying people on how things work
and trying to understand how things work. So I was
just observing overall, you know, just how they're getting leads,
how they're getting clients, and then just the whole game
pretty much. And soon enough, back in the days, they
(05:40):
used to do cold calls, and back in the days,
I remember that there was no Thomas, there was no Google.
There was just only Thomas Guide pretty much kind of
a deal back in the days. So I realized very
quickly that they had over like twenty or thirty that
was close to thirty loan officers and real estate real
state agents combined together. And I realized all these leads
(06:03):
that they were giving back to me about i'll say
about eighty percent. They're like, no, it's a cold lead.
There's nothing happening. It's that one, that one nobody's answering.
And I realized, and it was timestamping as far as
what time they were calling and what time they were
trying to get.
Speaker 5 (06:16):
Hold of these people. And again, back in the.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
Days there were no smartphones that we're not connected as
we are today. And I realized, they're calling you at
ten am, and they're calling them at like six seven pm.
I'm like, ten am that I work, nobody's going to
answer the phone. And then at six seven pm they
just got home, they were trying to make dinner with
their kids. Nobody's going to talk about mortgage with you,
so asked my boss. I'm like, hey, can I the
leads that they return as dead? Can I try calling
(06:39):
them before I give back to you? And it's like,
you're not licensed, you can't quote any rates. I'm like,
that's fine, I'm not going to quote raates. I'm just
going to talk to them and if they want to,
I'll just you know, referm to you. And he said yeah, sure.
So six months into it, I had more transactions on
the board than on any of those relators alone.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
Off because you know why, you know why, I love
that you're talking about this because you don't take no
for an answer. Yeah, and that is my motto, there's
no no in my world.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
And that as a CEO, you know, yeah, you cannot.
Speaker 5 (07:08):
There's nothing you can just So that's how their journey started.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
And my rent was nine hundred and fifty dollars at
that time, and I was making eight hundred dollars cash
every month, so I had to come up with some
way of making money.
Speaker 5 (07:20):
And sure enough, that was my way of doing it.
Speaker 4 (07:22):
And I just fell in love with the process because
you're able to help people, you know what I mean,
You're just like making dreams come true. And then you
have investors who are invest you making their portfolio bigger.
And a year and a half after that, my boss
was moving to Marino Valley, moving the company. As I
come with me, I'm like I can't, and I was like,
you know what, I'm just going to go at it.
And twenty I just went ahead and open up my
(07:44):
mortgage company.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
And for you, wow, and twenty years old. Yeah, like
thinking about that's only five years ago for you.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
Yeah, Like when you think back twenty years old, can
you imagine that?
Speaker 4 (07:56):
You know, I can't I honestly, I think the only
reason and I was able to do.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
It because I didn't understand a lot of things.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
I guess I was just, you know, my gut feeling
was telling me just get it resilience.
Speaker 5 (08:05):
Yeah, and I was like, that's it, we just have
to do it.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
So well, you have so much so I mean, really,
you know, Nicole's on the podcast with me, so.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
I really want you to hone in on this.
Speaker 3 (08:16):
So I want them to realize that investing is sexy,
and it's also if you do it at a young age,
which I wish I did.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
God bless it. You know, I told you that.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Term investing is sexy. Like, where does that come from?
Speaker 4 (08:29):
See, I always wanted I've always been the opposite. Then
the mortgage industry out there and the real estate industry
all together.
Speaker 5 (08:35):
I was like, Okay, why guys.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Making it so boring?
Speaker 4 (08:38):
It's so boring everybody Back in the days when I started,
like everybody was like thirty and plus, like you didn't
see younger crowd in there. It's now that you're you're
seeing real estate more younger crowd and the mortgage. But
back in the days, it was like it was like
thirty plus year olds with like suits and being all
serious and all that stuff. And I was like, okay,
but like you know, I want to bring the girl's
(08:58):
side into it, you know, the girl the side of
things down, to bring the fun side of things. So
I always kept my company as a boutique. It was
never the your corporate office space. So right now in
my office looks like a living girl. When you walk in,
it looks like a home living girl. It doesn't look
like an office. Have to check it s yes, you
have to love it. And so as far as the
(09:19):
investing is sexy, portion of it came up because I
was like, okay, people need to understand that investing is sexy.
Speaker 5 (09:26):
That's why I.
Speaker 4 (09:26):
Had at the at the at the show and when
I had you know, Prada Chanel, like crossing it out
and yes, a check mark two deeds like title oarning
deeds to the property. Because if you invest that early
age basically you start early. What's going to happen is
that investment is going to pay for your product and
your Chanel and you know, Gucci and your deal versus
(09:48):
now you're working your time to pay for those items.
Versus if you invest, you'll have someone else paying for
those items.
Speaker 3 (09:54):
And also what about you know, spending, Like for twenty years,
I was spending back then five thousand dollars a month
on rent, which was a lot back then, right, if
I would have put that toward mortgage, I mean yeah,
I mean.
Speaker 2 (10:09):
So for someone who like doesn't have any investments and
is thinking about investing, where's just someone start.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
That's a great idea.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
I'll have Ron kind of jump into that one.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yeah, hey, run, how are you well? Yes, it's so
great to have you on here.
Speaker 6 (10:25):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
So yeah, help us out.
Speaker 6 (10:27):
Look, so everyone sort of has their own idea of
what investing should look like. Depending on who you speak to,
some people are going to tell you single families are
not the way. Someone's going to say, go get a duplex,
live in one unit, right the other unit. I personally
started off with a single family residence. And that was
the first property I ever bought, which was about twenty eighteen,
(10:51):
and I bought that for seven eighty five and today
it's worth like one point three million.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Wow.
Speaker 6 (10:56):
Great, So it wasn't even too long ago. Yeah, in
eighteen twenty nineteen. And in the meantime that house is
being used for insurance housing, Airbnb. So it was generating
like eight nine to ten thousand dollars a month depending
on the month. Wow, not only did the appreciation go
up on its own by me just owning it, I
(11:16):
was actually positive cash flowing on that house too.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
That's great.
Speaker 6 (11:22):
What I would recommend is for your first home by
a single family residence, if you don't need to live
in it. Even better if you do, that still works
because it's still you're going to gain the appreciation over time. However,
if you have the opportunity to rent it out to someone,
I usually stay away from traditional tenants. They just don't
pay as high as I would like them to, and
especially with today's rates and the pricing of homes, it's
(11:46):
rather difficulty.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
What does that mean? Traditional tenant?
Speaker 6 (11:49):
Traditional tenant is someone that comes and signs a one
year or two year lease, as if you know you're
going to rent an apartment or a studio.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Who isn't traditional.
Speaker 6 (11:59):
Insurance housing, mid term rentals, short term rentals such as Airbnb,
insurance housing. There's like traveling nurses that will come and
book your house for six months out of the year
that the top dollar. Usually usually when you're dealing with
businesses or corporations, they're paying a premium to house their
(12:19):
employees in that time. So although you might not have
the luxury of having a tenant in there for a year,
it might be three months out of time or six
months out of time. You leverage that because you're getting
paid more on the monthly. So that's a niche strategy
that I focused on, and that's double down on throughout
the years, and that's what's worked for me. And I
(12:40):
mean there's.
Speaker 1 (12:41):
You know, okay, well if that worked for you. But
I know you guys do flips too.
Speaker 3 (12:45):
I know we're gonna jump around, but I want to
know because I'm serious. After I talked to her like
in the beginning of the year, I want to do
a flip, right, And I should have done it millions
of years ago, because I helped a million flippers over
sixteen years.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
By the way, guide us.
Speaker 6 (13:01):
So flipping houses. So I always say this, whether you're
flipping or you're buying and holding, I make as an investor,
I make my money on the buy, not the sell.
Meaning when I when I analyze deals, and when we
analyze deals, I'm alway running to her and I'm asking
her for opinion before you know we do anything. It's
the key. The key is to buy at a at
(13:24):
a discounted price. Okay, you never want to go and
buy something that's on the market and pay, you know,
let me put it in terms of MSRP.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
I love that. I really want my listeners to hear.
Did you hear that? Say it again?
Speaker 6 (13:37):
Please you? As an investor, you never want to go
and buy something off the market because at that point
you're competing with traditional buyers. That's not the game you
want to play as an investor. You make money when
you buy at a discounted rate. And the way to
buy at a discounted rate is when you're buying distressed homes.
Distressed meaning you know the house needs some TLC and is.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
There a lot distressed homes out there?
Speaker 4 (14:01):
There is?
Speaker 6 (14:02):
You just got to find them. And the more you
put yourself out there as an investor, you'll notice how
these steels start finding you. When you first get started,
you're like, Okay, how do I find my first steal?
How do I find my first steal? I can't find anything.
And then once you do a transaction, then you start
getting calls from other people because what happens is there's
there's a database out there and people see who bought
(14:22):
this house, when you bought that house, and if you
bought it under your personal name or a corporation, they
have an idea.
Speaker 3 (14:28):
If you're a business, it makes so much sense because
I have like five investors that flip flip flip, and
they constantly are doing it, and I'm like.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
How do you find these houses?
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Like I just ran into one of the Beverly Hills
event and I was like.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
He's he's for years. I'm talking fifteen years.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
He's been doing this and flipping and flipping and flipping
and now he's huge.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
But how do you know how much money to put
into the property?
Speaker 1 (14:51):
So you because I have like that's a great question
that like there was.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
A project I was just staging, but the investor was saying,
how he like put too much money into it, so
he's not making money out of it, So how do
you know what that price is? And like how to
make more money off it?
Speaker 6 (15:07):
I guess So our first two or three flips, we
ended up going over budget times two. And the only
way to really get over that hurdle is just its experience.
Experience once once you've done you know enough, Once you've
built a solid crew of reliable people, you can already
project your what your expenses are and what your costs are.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
That makes sense.
Speaker 6 (15:31):
But when you're first getting started off, you might walk
in and you know it looks like, you know, eighty
grand will be done, just some paint. But the problem
is when you open up the walls, that's when you realize.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
That got it.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
And also I think really, when you're doing something, whether
it's staging, flipping, whatever it is, you're so passionate about
it that they say, oh, that's just an extra two
hundred dollars to have the better look. So that's where
people get in trouble. I see it all the time
when I'm doing design with clients. They want I give
them options and they want and I'm like, you're on
(16:06):
a budget. I always go back and tell them you're
on a budget. Are you sure you're going to stay
in that budget? Because if they stay in that budget,
then they're happy, and then I'm happy.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
So yeah, I get that.
Speaker 4 (16:16):
If I also may add to that, one of the
keys in order for you not to go over budget
and to be for the sale to be profitable, which
a lot of people miss this completely. Is when you're
buying a distress home, you cannot buy that distress home
whatever is appraising currently on the market. You have to
buy it as undervalue. That's why rom Wos keeps saying
(16:37):
that you need to buy it on their market value,
because what happens if the property is let's say worth
right now as this condition six hundred thousand, you pay
six hundred thousand, you're at zero. So now you're putting
your own money into it, you know what I mean.
And then you're going to some homes we buy over FaceTime.
We don't even physically see them, mostly our majority of them.
(16:58):
It's over FaceTime. Hey you've got this, there's like twenty
people standing outside. Why are your money in right now?
The deposit it will be yours kind of a yell,
you know. So that's why. And then when you go in,
you don't know what to expect some of those spaces,
like you know, it needs a brand new roof, it
needs brand new this. So that's why you have to
have your cushion when going in there. But that if
(17:19):
the property is worth six hundred, you're buying it for
five hundred thousand as is you're already hundred thousand dollars
equity in there.
Speaker 5 (17:25):
Okay, So if you.
Speaker 4 (17:26):
Spend one hundred and fifty thousand, once you're done with
the value with the property, that property is worth, let's
say eight hundred thousand, you're already hundred thousand dollars equity.
You're already saving there. You got your money there back, right,
and you spend extra let's say fifty thousand on it's
your cost technically it's one hundred and fifty, but in reality,
you know what I mean, you just your margin becomes
much higher. That's one of the major keys. And people
(17:48):
completely missed that, right, you know.
Speaker 3 (17:50):
And so when you so you have your mortgage company,
you guys started doing flipping, and do you do that
a lot right now?
Speaker 4 (17:58):
The flipping right now, we just kind of mainly buying
and turning into units. The single family is turning into
units because of old ADUs being allowed and so on.
So we're turning into units and we want to hold
on to them.
Speaker 5 (18:12):
Nice.
Speaker 1 (18:12):
That's great, that's great. How did you guys meet?
Speaker 3 (18:18):
Well, you're a family business. The reason we're asking is
you're a family business. We're a family business, and it's
so great to have a family business on here and
like where did you meet and.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
How do you how do you work together? Right when there's.
Speaker 2 (18:32):
Everyone always asks us that, yeah, let's.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
Turn this around on you guys, because you'lain.
Speaker 4 (18:39):
Okay, sounds good, Go Anna go we met Our mutual
friend called me is a like Anna. I have a
really good friend of mine whom I used to work for.
He wants to get into the real estate side of things,
and he wants to do flips as an investor and
so on. But he wants to get insights of things
like how things work as far as the financing goes
on the real estate side.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
He wants to he got his license.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
He wants to come into work, and I was like, okay,
let me call you know, the best person for you
to be next to and so on.
Speaker 5 (19:06):
Anyways, I was like, I don't want.
Speaker 4 (19:09):
To, you know, I don't have time to babysit anybody.
They always come and they don't focus on themselves. They
focus on me and my clients, and they're like sitting
there counting how many clients I have instead of I'm like,
it's twenty four years of work, that's why I have
those clients And just show up out of nowhere.
Speaker 5 (19:23):
You know.
Speaker 4 (19:24):
He's like, no, no, he's different, you know, give him
a chance. I was like, okay, fine, so it's got
to schedule the meeting. He came and we sat down
and we talked. I was like, this is what I
want to do. And so I'm like, okay, fine.
Speaker 5 (19:34):
And in the beginning, I always I don't give people
night and.
Speaker 4 (19:39):
Day like I will just be in a space where
I test them out, you know what I mean. I
don't make things easy for them. I make it difficult
to see if they're going to stick around. Yeah, because
every personal experience, love that personal experience. I used to
open my doors be like oh yeah here, welcome, take everything,
whatever you want.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
And then like they're like, by screw, you know, done so.
Speaker 4 (20:00):
And I was like so for that reason, I'm like, okay,
I need to test him to make sure that he
is able to survive in this industry, because you're going
to get a lot of rejections overall throughout the especially
being in this industry. So he started coming in and
then I flew to Armenia because I had charity work
to do there and so.
Speaker 6 (20:18):
On, and then she ignored me for the next two
and a half months.
Speaker 4 (20:22):
I love it.
Speaker 6 (20:22):
While I'm technically working there.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
Good for you.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
Yeah, but the office, the girls were there, they were
helping you, don't don't he told me.
Speaker 5 (20:33):
By the way, he's going to make sure that I remember.
He reminds me of it.
Speaker 6 (20:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:37):
Well, I don't blame him anyway.
Speaker 4 (20:40):
So that's how when I came back, and then we
started working you know, close closer basically through the process
of things. And then one day he just told me
that he cannot live without me. No, oh, come on,
(21:00):
that was word for word he was. He was serenading
with love. Literally at two o'clock in the morning, while
I was parking my car at.
Speaker 5 (21:08):
A stop sign.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
He was, what a nice guy.
Speaker 5 (21:10):
Wow, this car and I've met a lot of before.
Two hours, I kid you not.
Speaker 4 (21:14):
For two hours we were at Front's house and then
we just left and then he just like stopped me
on my way and uh yeah, and I guess the
rest is history.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Wow, that's great. And how long have you been together together?
Speaker 4 (21:28):
All together? It's like two and a half years, almost
three years? Yeah, married one yeah?
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Married one year?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
Nice?
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Well, congratulations, it's a newly new marriage. So what happens
when you guys don't agree, how do you work? Like
everyone always asks us, how do you deal with that?
Speaker 6 (21:50):
I think it depends on what the topic is.
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Well, it could be about your business. It could be
about how.
Speaker 2 (21:56):
Do you communicate out work, and then like when you
go home, how do you separate your person away from
your work?
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Exactly?
Speaker 6 (22:01):
Okay, So that's actually that's a problem for us.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
She'll always tell.
Speaker 6 (22:06):
Me, she's like, we're not working right now, can you
not talk about work?
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (22:10):
My brain is just sometimes it's hard to control. And
sometimes it even happens to her and I'm like, can
you just put your phone down. We're just having dinner
right now. Let's just like get away. So there will
be times where she checks me and she's like, you
know what, just drop it. Let's not talk about work
right now. There will be times I'll remind her, you know,
put the phone down. And then, you know, you have
instances that occur where for me, there are certain things
(22:33):
that really mean a lot to me. And then if
it's something that doesn't mean a lot to me, but
it means more to her, you know, I let her
you know, navigate the ship per se. And then when
it's something that I feel that, you know, it's sort
of in my direction. Then you know, we just we
have like a common ground.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
That's great, that's great. Yeah, it's all about learning each other.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
And you know, I mean I obviously I work with
Nicole very closely and Fernando, my fiance say and.
Speaker 1 (23:01):
I find that.
Speaker 3 (23:03):
If I say something like managing at home, it doesn't work,
absolutely doesn't work for me. I have to I talk
about it all the time, drop back into the feminine
and when I'm home, and that's really changed a lot
for me. Because we're women, we still even though we're bosses,
we have to be their partner as well. And that's
(23:26):
you know, I try and tell my listeners. I didn't
know that for a long time. And seriously, since I've
dropped down into the feminine, I think my life has
gotten much easier, honestly.
Speaker 4 (23:36):
One hundred percent with you on that. And that's something
that I think, you know, after I met Ron as well,
because I think for for working women who are strong
and you know, independent, they need to feel the they
have to have the reassurance from the men that is
next to them that they'll be able to handle certain things.
(23:59):
For me, that's how it works if I know you'll
be able to handle it. Like, I don't need to
be there for me to handle and take care of things.
I'm just going to like cool down. And people think
when you're when you're when you're a working woman, you
know what I mean, when you're an entrepreneurial, they think
that you want to be constantly in that space.
Speaker 5 (24:16):
Yeah. Absolutely, I personally don't. You know, I want to
be a girl. I want to get spoiled. I want
to be you know, like I want to be that way.
Speaker 4 (24:23):
I don't want to I don't want to be a man.
I keep telling you people, I'm like, listen, I don't
want to.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Be a man me either.
Speaker 4 (24:31):
You know I'm at work, have I do enough you know,
men's stuff at work as far as you know, making
certain deals and talking about doing a lot of stuff.
Speaker 5 (24:39):
But at the end of the day, I want to
be a girl.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
So yeah, it's so true. It's so true. It's like
it's taken me.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
A long time to learn that, you know, I mean,
because you know, I don't care what they say. But
back in the day, it does count because you know,
I'm sure Frando doesn't want me. I know he doesn't
want me telling him what to do all the time
for sure, and they and he also wants to be
able to give his two cents and have me open
(25:09):
up and really listen to him. Right.
Speaker 5 (25:11):
I think the way it works.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
Is just like that level of mutual respect, right, like
even just having that with any family member that you're
working with, my daughter, husband, whatever it is, and just
being able to like hear each other and listen and communicate,
and that that's what's helped us.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
All right, Yeah, that's been we fine, don't get me wrong.
Speaker 4 (25:28):
Yeah that's not Yeah, that's nothing. But at the end
of the day, it's just a matter.
Speaker 5 (25:34):
Of you know, knowing how far to push that.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
Yeah, yeah, it comes.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
So you're doing so much, Anna, It's like, I'm so
impressed with what you're doing. You're always constantly growing. You
remind me of myself, Like it's never enough for me.
I'm doing Masson, then I'm doing my own Now I'm
creating my.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Own furniture line.
Speaker 5 (25:51):
I love that.
Speaker 3 (25:52):
And I'm going to Guadalajara, and next time I'm going
to China, and and now I see you doing this
amazing event which I can't wait to go to because
I really want you to talk about branding and like
the logo, people think, you know, branding and marketing are
the same thing, and you're doing this big event.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
Tell us about it. I'm so excited, so excited to hear.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Well, September twenty sixth, it's next week coming up, and
we're basically what let me just back it up a
little so you guys understand where it's coming from.
Speaker 5 (26:27):
All of this.
Speaker 4 (26:28):
So, as I said, I always wanted to have that
boutique mortgage company and be different than everyone else around us.
And that's exactly what I created. Because when you say Anakara,
they're like, oh, it's Anna Carra Lows.
Speaker 5 (26:39):
They're like, yo, okay. Then they're like, it's.
Speaker 4 (26:42):
This level that they put me on, and it's not
that they just put me on.
Speaker 5 (26:46):
I've earned that.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
I worked very hard to earn that level that they
know we work with integrity and honesty and we tell
you exactly how things are right. I made sure those
old those things, the three things are very clear to
every bar, that amazing clients, every bar and the realtors
and everybody that we work with. So when I started
(27:08):
social media about ten years ago, together, I didn't know
that why I'm doing it. I just knew I had
to be on it. It's just some kind of like
a gut feeling. I can explain this. I had this
since I was a little kid, just observing people and
you know, what they're doing, and just studying just overall.
So I knew I had to be on social media.
But I was like, Okay, let's just give it this
(27:28):
a start, figure out where it's going to take us.
We'll just learn as we go. So what happens is
people call themselves marketing teams, and they call it branding
teams and so on. So I realized very quickly those
are just people pushing buttons in the background, just posting
stuff for you. But if you let other people do
(27:50):
your branding and do your marketing, you're letting your company
just go down the drain because it's a copy paste
like everyone else's. So I had to be very It's
one of those things like at the event, whoever's going
to come, one of the main speakers is christ He
breaks down and he's an a MA word running designer
by the way, and.
Speaker 5 (28:10):
He's the guru of marketing.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
He's in Dubai right now and over two thousand people conference,
he's flying in. Yeah, next week he's going to be
with us. So he's on another level. And so one
one of the things that Chris does, which I had
the chance to be surrounded with certain people back in
the days that I was able to do that they
understood what marketing was and branding. So he asked you
(28:35):
specific questions as far as you know your businesses, what
you're trying to your target audience, what you're trying to accomplish,
and what is the long.
Speaker 5 (28:42):
Term goal short term goal.
Speaker 4 (28:43):
Really gets to the bottom as far as of who
you are, because it doesn't matter. Yeah, because it doesn't
matter if it's a big company or not. It doesn't
matter if it's your face or not. At the end
of the day, it's your baby. Yeah. You know you
need to you need to you need to understand what
you're presenting. So I I sat down, I did all
the work.
Speaker 5 (29:02):
I figure O.
Speaker 4 (29:02):
I'm like, I want to make sure we come up
with integrity, honesty, you know, beat it to go to
person for people. Even if we don't do the transactions.
I have people calling me even if I didn't close
the transactions, like can you please look at it. I
don't trust this person. My husband's friend is the loan officer.
I don't trust this person. Can you please look at
the docs. I look at them, no questions ask I'm like, yeah, sure, okay,
(29:22):
no problem.
Speaker 5 (29:23):
But that's what I want it to be. So and
then that's when the marketing portion starts in.
Speaker 4 (29:29):
Okay, you need to come up with your colors as
far as what your color is, what your brand represents,
what does it stand for. You need to understand the
psychology behind colors. Okay, so what it stands for with
so on, and then you come up with your logo,
and you come up with your font, and then your
your company has a branding package that whenever you go somewhere,
that's what you send out to people. Hey, if they
(29:50):
post something, this is my logo, this is my color.
You cannot post anything else without different colors. You have
to be very specific because what it helps it does
it's a brand recognition. So people start seeing your logo
and everything that you do.
Speaker 5 (30:03):
Pretty much. Oh that's that, you know, like Nike like
you see it. You know what it is like. Nobody
needs to explain anything to you.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
So with that said, that's when my focus was that
I wanted to focus on that, and that's how I
started building. And as far as the videos goes that
I started posting, there's different things that I've tried on
social media. Obviously Instagram updates with like every twenty four hours.
They're changing their algorithms and it's like we can't keep
up with it at this point. But you know, just
(30:32):
keeping an eye on that and just monitoring, figure out
which platforms you want to be on, what you want
to do, and so on. And I was very every
video I did it was very intentional. I didn't want
to relay a message that will just for the purpose
of getting views and likes. I said to the team
that was working, I was like, I don't care if
we get one person to watch this, it will be
(30:52):
the right person that's going to watch, right, And I
don't want freaking one million views and no return, you know.
And then DMS, I've always, always, always, always, I said,
I'm going to be the one that is going to
respond to dms, and people feel it, people know it, really, yeah,
And when you start responding to your DMS, you just
(31:12):
build connections, and that's the key to any business. I'm
just branding overall all together and I'm very grateful that,
you know, I'm able to host this event. All these years,
I haven't done any events. Everybody kept asking me, He's like,
why don't you do this, you know, workshop, this workshop?
And I was like, it's not the time, it's not
the time. I'm very intuitive and I listen to my
(31:33):
gut always, and this was the time. I was like, Okay,
you know what this is it, let's do it. Everything
works out for the speakers, the days work out, everything
worked out. Let's see, let's get this done. And it's
going to be a different level of Well.
Speaker 1 (31:47):
I'm excited.
Speaker 5 (31:48):
I can't wait. So you guys got to come out.
Speaker 3 (31:51):
Yeah, we're coming. And listeners if you want to come,
where do they go? How do they get a ticket?
Speaker 4 (31:57):
They could go to my Instagram it's at Anna Kara
Loan's with a k Or they could go to Elevate
e l V eight dot event uh and get the
tickets there. And yeah, and what time does it start?
I don't if it starts. Agenda goals went up today
because we're waiting for Chris to finalize it. It's an
all day event. The doors open at nine light. Breakfast
(32:20):
is going to be served her first speaker is at ten.
Speaker 5 (32:23):
Lunch is going to be served.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Wow, very classic. Of course you brought me flowers. You're
always thinking. Seriously, you keep me on my toes. Honestly,
I love it.
Speaker 1 (32:33):
I love it.
Speaker 5 (32:34):
I like that we have to we have to you
know each other.
Speaker 1 (32:37):
So we got very nice friend Scarlet Scarlet. That has
been amazing. I love this lady.
Speaker 3 (32:43):
She is just amazing and you're you inspire me honestly, thank.
Speaker 5 (32:47):
You so much. My love. Likewise, that goes both ways.
Speaker 3 (32:50):
So I am definitely going to the event. Unfortunately Nicole
can't come, which is a bummer because she has to
do an event herself. But Josha and I will be
there and I know so many people I've sent it
out all over the place. Thank you, So I'm sure
you're going to have an incredible, incredible turnout. And next
time I want to hear a lot more from you.
Speaker 1 (33:10):
You are so great.
Speaker 3 (33:12):
I love that you're just so calm and you know,
such a great energy.
Speaker 5 (33:16):
Marking you know branding.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
Yeah, it's amazing and I really we thank you guys
for coming on.
Speaker 1 (33:23):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (33:23):
So again, listeners, if you want to come to the event,
where do they.
Speaker 5 (33:27):
Go September twenty sixth. They could go to Annaikara Loan's.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
Instagram or go w W dot e l V eight
dot events and get your tickets.
Speaker 3 (33:38):
And I don't know about you, but if you're going
to invest I would definitely hit them up.
Speaker 1 (33:43):
So how do they hit you up? Just the same social.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
Media, Anna, carolans DMS. We'll be more than happy.
Speaker 4 (33:49):
All the contact information is there and yeah, but side
note with branding, I stop printing business cards.
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Interesting. I can't wait to hear everything. I'm so excited.
Praise of the day is investing is sexy. Yay, Thank
you so much, thank you,
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