You’ve secured your forever home, but what does your future look like? That question hits home for kwELITE Real Estate agent Shae Spitz, who found herself thinking about that very answer a few years before she turned to property investment.
“You have to think about your future – 401Ks, retirement plans, they’re not set up to make you wealthy,” Spitz says, recalling how she wasn’t satisfied with the plans she and her husband had through their jobs at the time. “Our retirement wasn’t growing the way I wanted.”
One morning, Spitz says her husband, Adam, called her and expressed interest in attending a seminar about renovating properties he heard while listening to the radio. Neither of their families come from a background of investing, but that didn’t stop them from attending a two-hour seminar in Omaha and eventually a multi-day conference to learn more.
She says it soon became clear that there was a tremendous upside to investing.
“You can leverage so much when it comes to real estate with little to no money,” Spitz says. “Equity grows at an unbelievable rate if you buy at the right price.”
Although she says she knew they were making the right decision to pursue property investments, that didn’t make actually doing it any easier. She recalls putting expenses down on credit cards and talking extensively with lenders.
“I cannot tell you how uncomfortable I was when we made the decision. I could have thrown up every day because of how nervous, stressed and anxious I was. It was gut-wrenching,” she recalls, noting she then got her real estate license in July 2018 because she became so fascinated with the industry. “I wouldn’t want to go back to 2016 and 2017 when we first started investing, but I don’t regret doing it. It was absolutely worth it.”
Today, Shae and Adam have invested in multiple properties around the area and are focused on the rental side of things. Additionally, she recently purchased an old community church building in Columbus and is in the process of renovating it, with plans to open an AirBnB in 2022.
“I don’t do any of the work myself. I stop in weekly to make sure things are going well,” she says.
Although Spitz now has her real estate license, she’s adamant not having one shouldn’t deter someone from pursuing their own property investment path. She says it’s just important to ask questions – and to not be shy about it.
“I tell everyone; get comfortable being uncomfortable, it’s the only way you’ll grow,” she says. “There will always be excuses – you’ll hear people say they’re not smart enough, bring up insurance costs, how they don’t have enough time or enough money. It’s not going to be easy. You’re going to fail, but you need to get back up and keep going, that’s the only way you will succeed.”
Are you ready to make an investment in a property? If so, kw ELITE has a variety of residential and commercial building listings on its website. Call kwELITE Real Estate at 402-563-4663 to speak with Spitz or any of our realtors.