In this post, I’m sharing my personal journey from corporate finance to building a successful real estate investing portfolio. You’ll learn how I transitioned careers, scaled my real estate business, and leveraged tools like virtual assistants to create a lifestyle of financial freedom, time flexibility, and location independence—all while raising a family. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to scale, these lessons will inspire and guide you on your own investing journey.
For a complete guide on optimizing and scaling your real estate investments, download my Freedom Blueprint! This essential tool walks you through ten key steps for organizing a profitable property portfolio. Click here to get your copy today!
My lessons as a real estate investor and how I got to where I am today. I realized that I haven’t had an episode yet that shares my journey and how I got to where I am today. That’s what I’d like to share with you here. There are going to be a lot of nuggets in here—a lot of wisdom and lessons learned that I think every single real estate investor and entrepreneur listening will be able to take, apply, and use in their own lives to make it better.
To start off, I think I was brought up with a very typical American upbringing. Of course, there were ups and downs and trials. My parents worked corporate jobs—not entrepreneurial or anything like that. I did well in school and was able to go to the University of Southern California (USC) in L.A. through an early enrollment program. I skipped my senior year of high school and started college at just 16 years old, which was amazing. I love that my parents trusted me to do that. I learned so much at USC and loved my time there.
My focus was business—business administration with a concentration in finance. I really liked numbers, analysis, and systems even back then. I wanted to get into finance to help people because finances are such a major issue for so many. If your finances are in order, it’s a key factor in having your life in order.
After graduating, I worked for a fixed-income asset manager for a year. I felt so far removed from actually helping people. I was just doing spreadsheets all day in an office with windows that didn’t open, where the A.C. blasted constantly—it felt like I was in the Arctic. I realized that I wasn’t connected enough to helping people there, and it wasn’t the life I wanted. I couldn’t see myself in that office for another decade or more.
I left and went back to school to get my high school teaching credential. I taught high school math, and during this time, I had my first ventures into entrepreneurship and the gig economy. I tutored for the SAT on the side and even started a business making customizable children’s books. That business didn’t do very well, but it was the start of my learning journey.
After getting my teaching credential, my husband and I moved from Southern California to Northern Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C. I was excited to get out of California and try something new. We ended up living in the D.C. area for almost a decade, which was a transformational time.
I started teaching high school in Northern Virginia and realized that there were a lot of great things about it. But when my husband and I decided to start our own family, I couldn’t see myself leaving my little baby every day to go teach other people’s kids. That just wasn’t the lifestyle I wanted.
I started teaching math online through a homeschooling group, which was awesome and allowed me to stay home. At the same time, we had a hobby farm. Fun fact: if you want to talk about chickens, rabbits, pigs, ducks, dairy goats, or gardening, I can have a pretty in-depth conversation about those subjects!
We also started renting out our basement in our “forever home,” which we bought in 2013. It was a big five-bedroom house for just my husband, me, and our dog. After a few months, I realized it was way more space than we needed. I was trying to figure out how to avoid going back to teaching in public school, so I explored renting out the basement.
We knew a few people—some of my husband’s coworkers—who were managing rental properties themselves. That was my first exposure to landlords. I thought, if they can do this, so can we. I asked for copies of their leases, made my own, and listed our basement on Craigslist. We ended up getting our first tenants.
It was a little scary—you always hear worst-case scenarios—but we thought, it’s just a year. Let’s see how it goes. It turned out to be fabulous. It was great to have people living in another part of the house. We were on 11 acres, surrounded by other large properties, so it was nice to have neighbors of sorts. Our tenants were super helpful at times, like when a bear got into our beehives, and one of them helped me after I got several bee stings.
That experience opened my eyes to the potential of real estate investing. It was the easiest money we had ever made, and I knew this was something to explore further.
Our next step was investing locally. I’ll be honest—I didn’t have a big investing plan. I wasn’t even thinking about long-distance investing at that time. We started small and focused on Northern Virginia. It’s not the most investor-friendly market, but we found a niche in condos. These were older condos with low fees, high rents, and relatively low purchase prices. They worked out great—they were in the black and gave us a decent return.
We’d save up for a down payment, buy a condo, and repeat. That’s what my husband and I did. We self-managed everything—leasing, showings, and maintenance—because a 10% management fee would have put us in the red.
In 2018, I decided to get my real estate license after we missed out on a property, which I felt was partly due to the agent we worked with. I thought, I’ll get my license so I can better manage our deals and take advantage of the benefits of real estate professional status. Once I got my license, I realized I wanted to help others too. I started working as an active real estate agent, all while managing our investments.
The next transformational step came in 2019 when we bought our first long-distance rental—a short-term rental in Myrtle Beach. It wasn’t part of a grand plan. We were on vacation there and started looking at properties. I was floored by how affordable they were compared to rental rates. I ran the numbers and thought, this is what we need to do.
We found a place, made an offer, and closed in about 30 days. Of course, there were challenges, like managing the property remotely and fixing it up to meet our standards, but it was a great learning experience.
Fast forward to 2020—a year of challenges and changes. By then, we were managing both long-term and short-term rentals, and I was an active real estate agent while raising three kids. That year, my husband and I also decided to move to Chattanooga, Tennessee, which we felt was a better fit for our family.
I restarted my real estate business in Chattanooga and focused on working with investors, especially long-distance investors. I also began leveraging virtual assistants to handle the operational side of my business. That allowed me to focus on high-value tasks and scale quickly.
By 2022, my team was completing 130 transactions annually, with $28 million in volume. This success led my husband and me to start Workergenics, a virtual staffing company helping other entrepreneurs and investors grow their businesses with virtual assistants.
In 2023, I decided it was time to sell my real estate team and focus on traveling full-time with my family. Now, I dedicate my time to real estate investing, working with other investors, and teaching them how to create freedom through systems, technology, and virtual assistants.
If you’re interested in learning more or need guidance on running your real estate portfolio like a business, visit my website. Thank you for reading, and I hope my journey inspires you!