In this episode, I had the pleasure of interviewing Corinn Altomare, the co-founder and principal of Hearthfire Holdings. Her journey from opera performer to managing nearly $150 million in assets across 22 locations is nothing short of inspiring. Corinn shares valuable insights on resilience, creativity, and persistence in real estate, along with practical advice on navigating growth, working with a spouse, building a team, and transitioning strategies. Whether you’re scaling your portfolio or seeking inspiration to pivot, this conversation is packed with actionable wisdom to take your investing journey to the next level. Don’t miss it—tune in to learn from her incredible experience!
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Hello and welcome to another episode. Today I have with me Corinn Altomare. Thank you so much for joining, Corinn.
Thanks for having me, glad to be here.
Corinn is an amazing investor, and I’m so excited for her to share her story with you. I know there’ll be a lot of wisdom, takeaways, and lessons learned. Let me tell you a little bit about Corinn, and then I’ll let her take it away and share her story. To give you the big picture, Corinn is the co-founder and principal of Hearthfire Holdings, a private equity firm that manages nearly $150 million in assets over 22 locations. She has a background that spans opera performance, tech, and property management at the Federal Reserve, and she has family roots in real estate as well. Corinn has a unique perspective to help investors build wealth and transform communities. She’s a passionate advocate for women in business, and she’s been a leader in groups such as the Real Estate Investor and GoBundance Women. Outside of work, she finds joy in empowering the world through her young daughter’s eyes.
So I just love what you bring to the table, Corinn, and I’d love for you to give us some depth into that background and how you got to where you are today.
Sure, as you outlined in the introduction, my life has been a winding road. I came to real estate while I was still full-time gigging and in my performing artist days. Real estate was meant to be a passive income source for me so that I had a little bit of a financial foundation between gigs because it’s a very uncertain life. I ended up in that single triplex, which was my first investment in 2012. That now has turned into a full-time, very legitimate private equity firm with about 15 employees and a C-suite team that I’m honored to have helping us build things at Hearthfire.
It’s been quite the journey for sure. If listeners are considering certain transitions or trying to figure out how to get to X, Y, or Z from A, B, or C, I’ve been there and done that. It’s all about creativity, resilience, and persistence, I will say.
Creativity, resilience, and persistence—I agree those are so important, especially in the real estate investing space. I feel like creativity is higher up there than it may be in some other spaces, right? This is almost like the Wild West, like a new and evolving field in a lot of ways. I’d love to hear maybe some specific examples, if you’re willing to share, of those pain points or times where you had growth and evolution and how those factors came into play.
Sure. I think you get to a point, and I certainly got to a point, in the original multifamily portfolio because, at this point, we’ve had nine full-cycle deals in our history. But in the early years, when we were managing the apartments, I’d get called to an apartment that was flooded. I’m in Philadelphia, where we’re between two rivers, so anytime it rains really hard, water comes up in the basement because we have such a high water table.
I’d get called, and I’d be over there shop-vacuuming a flooded basement in my business attire because I was working for the Federal Reserve at the time. I see a lot of new investors go that route of starting into real estate, thinking they’re going to get passive income or financial freedom, and all they’ve done is buy themselves another job. I was so there.
You get to a breaking point. Is this really what it was meant to be when I started, and I had this grand dream and vision of financial freedom and investing in real estate so I could do whatever it was that was my life dream? You get to that breaking point and either need to figure out your way through it or acknowledge what’s not working and pivot.
For us, it was growing things to such a point where we couldn’t wear all the hats anymore and continue to function. For us, it was starting to hire a team, then training that team, and figuring out how to transfer everything. We’re a husband-and-wife team, so so much of our operations in the early days were because we were always attached at the hip. We could almost speak shorthand to one another. That doesn’t translate when you’re building a team, hiring new people, and trying to get that legacy knowledge out of your head and into SOPs or some other sort of repeatable reference materials for new people as you build and grow your team.
So I don’t know if that exactly answers the question, but…
No, I think it does. I think there’s some real pearls of wisdom there. Something you touched on that I’d love to explore further—so many real estate investors work with their spouses. What wisdom would you give to those who are working with their spouse and may be struggling?
I’m still trying to figure it out every day. So if you’re struggling, join the struggle bus. It’s fine. That’s life, as long as you keep struggling through it together. Self-awareness and realizing each partner’s unique strengths—without beating yourself up for who you are or aren’t—and recognizing who your partner is and who they aren’t is key.
My husband is the high-D, super-fast-thinking, numbers-driven strategist. I am the heart, conscience, and steady track in between all the big shiny objects and ideas. Balance, right? Most relationships have that yin and yang.
There are couples I know who do a great job of having once-a-month weekends away. We’re workaholics and terrible at that. But even at this level, after working together for 15 years, we’re still figuring it out. The joy and excitement in life are about evolving together, respecting one another’s opinions, having some disagreements, and then coming back together to work toward the big picture.
Wow, I think there are a lot of pearls of wisdom in that answer. I’d love to dive into something else you hinted at earlier: building a team. Let’s talk about your experience hiring and leading a team.
I’d love to dive into something else you hinted at earlier: building a team. Let’s talk about your experience hiring and leading a team.
This is a master class topic, but I’ll still say I’m not perfect at it. One big lesson we’ve learned is that you get what you pay for. Early on, we tried to go cheap, and we learned some very expensive lessons. Now, we prioritize hiring people who are five to ten years ahead of us in their experience. When we were earlier in the business, we didn’t value our experience or what we brought to the table enough. That held us back because we partnered with people who were at the same stage as us, and they couldn’t help us grow the business.
The best hires we’ve made are those who intimidate us a little bit because they’re in their zone of genius and are better than us in certain areas. It can feel scary to hire people like that, but it’s the only way to grow a business beyond yourself.
But here’s the thing—while it’s important to delegate, you can’t completely check out as the business owner. You have to listen to your gut, ask questions, and monitor performance. Even with a skilled CFO or operations lead, you still need to track KPIs and keep an eye on how things are going. It’s not about micromanaging; it’s about staying engaged enough to ensure your business is on the right track.
You mentioned you have over 22 locations now, which is incredible. What have been some key lessons in managing multiple locations?
We grew with the goal of eventually attracting larger, institutional-quality management partners. In the beginning, we self-managed our first multifamily and self-storage properties. Then, as we scaled, we brought in smaller third-party management companies. That worked for a while, but we realized there were limits to what smaller companies could handle.
As we continued to grow and refine our processes, we reached a portfolio size that allowed us to bring in large institutional managers. Now, CubeSmart and Extra Space manage the majority of our portfolio. That shift has allowed us to focus more on asset management, investment strategy, and scaling.
Geographically, we’ve expanded from local properties to out-of-state, which was a big step. With national managers like CubeSmart and Extra Space, we’ve removed the previous geographical boundaries that limited us.
You’ve transitioned from multifamily to self-storage. Can you share what inspired that pivot and how you managed it?
The decision to pivot came down to scalability and alignment with our goals. Multifamily deals weren’t penciling out in a way that made sense for us. The returns were thin, and as conservative investors—especially at the time, when our investors were mostly family and close friends—we weren’t willing to take on too much risk.
We started exploring other asset classes like storage, manufactured homes, and RV parks. Self-storage stood out because it’s a simpler business model. You’re not dealing with tenants living in your properties or landlord-tenant laws. The operations are lower-cost—you’re managing asphalt, sheet metal roofs, and security lights instead of kitchens and bathrooms.
We sold all our multifamily holdings, brought our investors into our first storage deal, and made the pivot. COVID confirmed our decision because we saw the challenges of managing multifamily properties in a landlord-unfriendly area like Philadelphia during a crisis. Storage has been a better fit for us, with lower expense ratios and more scalability.
It sounds like you’ve tried a lot of different strategies and businesses along the way. What advice would you give to newer investors who feel like they need to stick to one path?
The truth is, you might start with one strategy, but you could try several others before finding the perfect fit. We had multiple businesses going at one point—property management, construction, multifamily syndications—and it was tough to manage them all successfully.
Eventually, we realized the importance of focus. Scaling and excelling in one area is much more achievable than trying to juggle several industries or business models. For us, having a child also forced us to prioritize and cut back on distractions. The limits on our time made us more strategic with where we focused our energy.
Absolutely—those time limits often force us to be smarter and more efficient. Now, let’s wrap up with some quickfire questions. First, what’s a transformational system you’ve implemented in your business?
Notion. It’s not a system, but it’s an incredibly powerful tool.
Okay, my second question was about a go-to tool. So, if Notion is your answer for both, could you describe how you’re using it or why you love it?
Notion essentially functions as our intranet. It consolidates all of our information and serves as a roadmap for the company. It’s highly customizable, which makes it incredibly powerful—but also overwhelming at first. We use it to organize files, create databases, and track everything across the business. There are also fantastic Notion templates you can purchase and customize.
Finally, what’s a book that’s been transformational for your investing journey?
Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss. It’s not specific to investing, but it covers so many areas of life—health, relationships, finances. It’s a massive book, but you can pick it up, read a chapter or interview, and find inspiration for whatever season of life you’re in. It’s approachable for short attention spans, but also deep enough to go down any rabbit hole that catches your interest.
Where can people connect with you if they’d like to learn more?
Our website is hfireholdings.com. There’s a “Contact Us” form there, and I’d encourage people to reach out that way.
Perfect, and we’ll include that in the show notes. Thank you so much, Corinn, for sharing your insights and experiences. I know our listeners will gain so much value from this conversation.
Thank you! I hope your listeners find it helpful. Good luck, everyone.
To our audience, please comment below with your biggest takeaways or what you plan to implement. Be sure to like the video, subscribe, and I’ll see you next week!