In this episode, I sit down with Christina Suter to talk about how she built financial freedom through real estate investing—starting as a teenager with her first property. We get real about college stories, early money lessons, and the reality of losing (and then rebuilding) millions during the 2009 downturn. Christina opens up about flipping homes, investing out of state, doing hard money lending, and the mindset that’s been key to her success. If you’ve ever felt stuck or overwhelmed about how to build wealth in real estate, this conversation is going to give you clarity, strategy, and inspiration.
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Hello and welcome back. I’m so excited to have you listening today. I’m Adrienne Green and today I have with me Christina Suter. Thank you for being with me.
I’m so excited to be here and thank you for having me on the show. I just love how you’re really trying to help people move forward and trying to understand what it means to create your financial freedom and giving them real stories about how to do that. It’s all about stories and it’s all about grit, right? Like what can we do? How can we do this? We’re all human beings trying to get it done. And I love that you bring that element to it.
You’re so sweet. I’m so excited. We’re going to have a great conversation. And for listeners, Christina, one of the things I love about her is she’s based in the Pasadena area, which I don’t talk about too much here, but I went to USC in LA and then I worked in Pasadena right afterward. I guess, a special place in my heart for Pasadena. And so she’s joining us from there. And that’s exciting.
Even worse, I went to USC too.
We’re BFFs.
I really did. Right on. Okay, here’s the funny part. USC is all about the football games and I never attended a football game until after I graduated. I know it’s silly, it’s funny. Yeah, it’s funny. It’s very funny. I did attend one fraternity party. One.
That’s funny. That’s funny.
That’s probably a record for lowest number.
I think so, I think it’s a record for lowest number. I think the only number lower is zero.
Yeah, and I mean I guess there’s probably certain, you know, groups of students that would apply to. I know that I definitely went to more than one. We’ll just leave it at that.
Good for you. See, you actually used the advantages of USC, whereas I didn’t. I did, I’m afraid. But it’s good. It’s a great school. It’s a great university. I’m really glad I went. Maybe my daughter will go, although honestly, she’s considering UCLA.
I don’t know, you might have to disown her, right?
I know with UCLA, but I did go to UCLA as well. No, even worse. Now that’s it, you’re kicking me off, we’re done.
You’re one of those. It’s okay. It’s okay. I have some good friends who went to UCLA and to be honest, you guys had a better location at UCLA for college. At least, you know, I’m sure when you went and I went there at USC, it’s better now, but oh my goodness, I remember once I was at the University Village for a study session and somebody stole my bike seat off my bike. And because the area is so bad there, I couldn’t just walk home with my bike. It wouldn’t have been safe, so I had to call my roommate to come pick me up. And then come back the next day and get my bike and get a new bike seat. But yeah, those were the adventures of USC.
Yeah, I lived on 23rd Street, which is just north of USC in a room share. And which is what I’m doing now, by the way, is I’m doing a room share in Indianapolis. I’m like, I remember this. I was a college student when I did a room share, right? And they broke into my car, in my window, in order to steal my sunglasses. That’s all they got. What they got were sunglasses. I’m like, okay, well, there you go. Enjoy the sunglasses.
Ridiculous, yeah. And I remember a thing when I was there, and this is the last thing, and then we’ll move on, but I remember it was a thing when I was there that they were stealing the gas out of gas tanks and then putting water back in so it ruins your engine. I’m like, really? Really, people? Thanks.
Just take the gas. If you’re going to be that desperate, take the gas, but why put the water? Like that’s sort of above and beyond. I don’t know.
I know it’s crazy. So we have made it through and we have grit and that’s why we can succeed in real estate investing. So Christina, you have so much to share. I want to dive in and I want to start at the beginning. What made you get into real estate investing in the first place? What prompted you to take that leap?
All right, so my mom, you can blame my mom for most of my financial education. Rock on, mom, good job. She sat me down when I was 12 and showed me the LA Times and showed me the paper where all the stocks were listed at the time. And she said, you see all these little numbers? This is a company, and if you give them money, they send you money back, and they’ll send you more money than they gave you.
Like which one do you think would be really good? Do you want to do Federal Express? That’s the guy who comes to the front door. Do you want to do Wrigley’s Gum? Because you really love Wrigley’s Gum. And I did Wrigley’s Gum. I was like, well, is there an ice cream company in here? Because I love ice cream. But I did Wrigley’s Gum. That was my first foray into stocks and understanding stocks.
And then when I was 17, my mom couldn’t live in the family house anymore because in Downey—if you remember third-degree smog alerts in San Gabriel in the valley.
I remember how bad the air quality was in LA overall, for sure.
At that time. So my mom had really bad asthma and she would literally go to the hospital if she got sick and there was a third-degree smog alert—she’d be in the hospital. She said, I can’t keep living here. So she asked all three of us kids, “Will somebody take care of the house?” I’m like, sure, go mom, go, go, go. I’ll take care of the house, don’t worry about it. And then she’s like, okay, here. And she gave it to me. She literally titled it over to me. And I went, what the hell am I supposed to do with this?
My goodness, you were only 17.
I’m 17, I’m going to USC for college. At least I’m close, but I have no idea. I now have a house. And I got all this—I was only 17—I have all this furniture. And I’m like, Mom, what am I supposed to do with all the furniture? She says, do whatever you want. She’s like, sell it. I’m like, no, no, I don’t want to sell all of it. So I literally got an auction company who came in, grabbed a bunch of the furniture, sent a bunch of it into storage. I rented out to my aunt and—well, I call them my aunt and uncle, they’re my godparents—Steve and Karen.
And I rented that and they bought it from me on an installment sale, which I knew nothing about. And then eventually I bought a condo for my brother, and then my mom needed another house—always rent to your parents, I’m just saying—because when my mom finally found a place she wanted to live, I bought a house for her to live in, which she didn’t want in her name because she was worried about estate taxes and how old she was and her lung problems. She took care of it—pride of ownership. I mean, it was just beautiful. I have pictures of what it was like before and what it was like when she was done. It had accumulated over $750,000. I realized a gain of almost a million dollars when I went to sell it. I bought it at $350,000, I sold it at $1.2 million.
My goodness. Wow. And what area was that in?
Healdsburg, California—before Healdsburg became part of the Napa Valley. And then all of a sudden, it’s like the cute little town of Healdsburg is now part of the Napa Valley tours, and people think it’s so cute. And now her house is much more valuable and she took good care of it. So that was when I really—like, that was 2001—and that’s when I was like, okay.
Well, I’ve been a… I worked, right? Like so many of us, I worked. I finished with my bachelor’s in business at USC. I then went to UCLA for a couple of sessions to reposition myself. Actually, I went and got my teacher’s credential at Loyola Marymount, repositioned myself at UCLA to do a psychology degree, got my master’s in psychology. I had jobs in between all of those degrees. I was working as a receptionist. I worked in childcare. I worked as an infant room head teacher. I worked in marketing.
My boss politely fired me and then I promptly dated him after he fired me. That’s a story for another time. My marketing job fired me, but that’s okay. So there you go. But eventually, in 2001, I became a full-time investor. Because it wasn’t hard to replace an assistant teacher’s salary. That was not difficult. So I now had enough money, bought an apartment building in Van Nuys—an 18-unit on a street called Magnolia.
And I still feel like that’s good juju to this day. I use Magnolia all the time in my business name because it was my first apartment building, and it cash flowed. So there you are. All of a sudden I went from worker bee blah, blah, blah to, hey, I have enough money that I’m actually cash flowing, and I became a professional investor.
One of the things I love that Christina hit on there is—you’ve got people who want to get into real estate investing, and sometimes we can see our situation in a scarcity mindset. People who don’t have a huge income—they’ve got their full-time job, their W-2, whatever that is—think, “It doesn’t make that much, so I don’t have much to save.” But on the flip side, it’s easier to replace that income and go full-time into real estate investing. For people making multiple six figures, that takes more time and work to replace through real estate.
It’s something I learned from the purple book—Rich Dad Poor Dad—that one of the things about entrepreneurs is that one of the advantages we might be willing to embrace is knowing that you can have a smaller lifestyle. I mean, how many times… I know Clyde Wilson, I think his name is Leif Vong—Ride with Clyde—their lifestyle wasn’t very big. They never needed to have a lot, because part of the joy of entrepreneurship was the creation.
A lot of entrepreneurs are people who are like, “I don’t really need a lot. I just need fulfillment and purpose. I need to have my day be something I want to align with.” And what I need in terms of home and car maybe isn’t very much. That actually adds to our risk tolerance, because what we’re needing to replace is easier.
So you got started with that multifamily in Van Nuys on Magnolia—where did you go from there? Now I know we’ve got 24 years of history there, so we don’t need an exact play-by-play, but if we were to have broad strokes to go from there to here, what does that look like?
Christina said she took on the mantle of being a real estate investor. She started taking real estate investment classes and read The Unofficial Guide to Real Estate by Marty Stone, who was involved in founding Buckingham Investments. Years later, that group came to speak at her meeting. She said, “Oh my God, you were my first book, my first investment book, and now here you are speaking at my meeting—so cool.” Total full-circle moment.
She had bought the Magnolia building and had other properties. She sold the condo, so she had more capital. She took classes, joined masterminds. One mastermind group got together and bought some fourplexes in Knoxville, Tennessee, a 30-door building in Tennessee, another apartment building in LA, a single-family in Fairfax. So from 2001 to 2006-2009, she was flipping in Los Angeles—especially in the Hollywood area—and flipping in Oregon. She had a half-flip project in Oregon, owned some condotels in Hawaii, and lived in Hawaii for two years while doing a condo conversion.
So now we’re talking about the next six to eight years. She did all these projects and another condo conversion in LA. But then 2009 happened—and she said, “I got my ass handed to me.”
Christina shared that she was about $200,000 away from her first “freedom number.” You know how you create these freedom numbers and think, “Man, I hit that number, woohoo, life is good. I’m the rock star.” And then she lost almost $2 million in the downturn. She had $450,000 in savings and used all of it to hold up the properties during the crash—because she wanted to survive.
She used all the reserves on the condo conversion, which was negative cash flow. The Portland flip got completely stalled when they pulled the construction loan. She stopped flipping in LA. The condotels dropped from $140,000 to $14,000 in value. One multi-unit property she bought at $2.4 million—she had to sell it for $1.4 million because she ran out of money and couldn’t pay the property taxes.
She sat at her computer and thought, “I’m a big-ass loser.” She had been on top of the world in 2006—got married, told her husband not to worry, she had it all covered—and now she felt like she completely messed it up. She told herself she might just quit. “Forget it, I won’t do real estate. Who cares? I don’t need to. I’ve got a teacher’s credential, I’ve got a master’s in psychology—I can do something else.”
But then she asked herself, “Would I like myself if I quit? Would I be proud of myself at 80?” And she knew the answer was no. She wanted to keep her self-respect intact. That meant facing it. Swallowing it. Sorting everything out. Selling the properties she needed to. Figuring out how to live on what she had.
She doubled down on her consulting practice. She earned income through it and brought all her money home. She started doing hard money lending. She sold everything—whether it was working or not. Every single door. She had about 50 of her own and about 300 shared with partners. She sold it all.
She went 100% into hard money lending.
I asked why that was the right move. Christina explained that the purpose of investing in real estate is to have financial freedom to fulfill your purpose in life. It’s not about the money or the assets—it’s about creating the life you know you want to live.
In her case, her daughter was born in October 2009, and she wanted to be a present mom. She wanted to be the kind of mom who picked up her daughter on time from school. Her own mom was a single mom raising three kids, and she knew what it felt like when your mom didn’t pick you up. She didn’t want that for her daughter.
Hard money lending gave her that. It helped her stay calm, be present, have passive income, do her consulting work, and most importantly—pick up her daughter from school on time. It fulfilled her vision.
I shared how hard money lending works really well for me too, especially because I travel full-time internationally. It doesn’t require me to be in a specific place at a specific time—it’s flexible. Christina agreed. She said she couldn’t find another career that matched her skills, nature, and desires the way hard money lending did. It gave her the time and freedom she needed.
She explained that hard money lending is a great semi-passive way of investing. With apartment buildings, you have to check in regularly—even if you have a property manager. But with hard money lending, it’s simpler. You place money, get checks, and when the money comes back, you place it again. Depending on the size of your portfolio, you might be placing money once a month, once every two weeks, or once a quarter. You still get that income coming in, and it gives you the freedom to travel, to parent, or to just live on your terms.
I pointed out that she eventually got back into owning properties again, and asked about the transition back from hard money lending into owning doors.
She explained that when her daughter started kindergarten, she suddenly had more time. Preschool had only been a couple of hours a day, but now she had five hours a day, five days a week. She quickly started looking at her options again. This was around 2014–2015. The market had stalled and was starting to go back up. She started doing local flips again in L.A. and also began looking out of state.
She didn’t want to invest in California anymore—she wanted to do short-term rentals instead of long-term. She had owned a C or even D-class building in Van Nuys, and her Knoxville, Tennessee 30-unit had required them to kick out a drug dealer who opened the door with a gun. She had been there, done that. And California’s laws made it even more challenging.
She realized that in places like Indianapolis, she could buy single-family homes where short-term rentals were allowed, the tenant pool was different, and she could access her properties to rehab them as needed. Plus, she’d get appreciation and higher income. Not necessarily 1.5% net, but definitely higher than traditional long-term rentals—more like 1.2 times the income.
It was worth the effort. She created a very specific buy box based on the lifestyle she wanted and what she needed from her investments. Out of four markets she considered, Indianapolis came out on top. So she started buying there and kept flipping in L.A.
I commented on how strategic her approach was—no emotion, no fear—just clear goals and steps to reach them. She said she wasn’t afraid to invest out of state because she’d done it before, and she knew California wouldn’t give her the flexibility she wanted around midterm and short-term rentals. That’s why she went out of state. And she emphasized this: team, team, team. Always build your team first.
That’s what I was going to ask next—so many people, especially in California, want to invest out of state but are scared. They don’t know where to start. So I asked her, what wisdom would she share with someone looking to become a long-distance investor?
She said it starts with knowing your buy box. That’s what took her out of state—her buy box. She wanted good rules, flexibility, and properties that met her lifestyle and investment goals. She paused briefly because her dog barked in the background—“you’ll have to live with that,” she joked—and then continued. Whether your strategy is BRRRR, flipping, or long-term hold, you’ve got to be clear on your buy box.
She picked four cities that aligned with hers. That choice was based on long-term plans and the purpose of her portfolio—she wanted both appreciation and income. She did the math. And she loves her math. “I got A’s in math. Can you tell I got A’s in math?” she laughed.
I added that a lot of people get intimidated by the math in real estate investing, but the truth is, it’s mostly just multiplication.
She agreed. Clients often say, “If there’s a dollar sign in front of it, I can do it.” It’s not calculus. It’s not even close—it’s long division at most. If you can do that, you can invest.
Then she shared the real reason she chose Indianapolis. It was the team on the ground. She refused to put a single dollar into a market until she had a solid team she trusted. She’d been to Detroit and met people, but no one ever brought her a property—nothing became actionable. Pittsburgh had more C and D buildings than she wanted. Cleveland had high unemployment.
But in Indianapolis, while the first person she toured with wasn’t the right fit, she kept asking, “Who else should I meet?” And she did—she met contractors and agents while she was there. Then she got on a call with a guy named Tom. While on the phone, Tom sent over his license, insurance, and other paperwork immediately. She thought, “Okay, you’re my guy.” He eventually turned out to be difficult, but he was the one who got her started. Once she had him in place, she bought her first property.
I pointed out how important that was—that she didn’t just find her team online or through referrals alone. She went there. She physically visited. She met with multiple people in person. That’s how she built her team.
She confirmed it. “Yeah, that’s how I found my team.” She said she never hesitates to get on the ground. Once a quarter, she’s flying to Indianapolis or Tulsa. If a project is ending and she needs to do a final payout—she goes to get eyes on it. If her project manager suggests a property—before due diligence is up—she wants to see it in person.
Then she shared a powerful story to illustrate why. It goes back to that 30-unit building where her property manager once met a tenant at the door—who answered with a gun in hand. They were trying to get him out. And stories like that taught her—if she gets there physically, she sees and learns things that don’t show up in the pictures.
She said when she drives up to a property, she’s looking around. “I’m five blocks away… there’s the blood bank… there’s the payday loan place…” One building she decided not to buy had a plasma donation center across the street—people selling their blood and plasma. Her project manager said, “Christina, you cannot buy that. You said you didn’t want C or D buildings.” And he was right. “They sell their blood across the street.” She said that’s probably a C or D population.
She was clear—she started in C’s and D’s. And she values that experience. But she’s learned that’s not where she wants to be anymore. And I agreed—it’s not a match for what she wants right now.
She said, “Right. I’m going to fly into the city. I’m going to look at it.” Then she told another story—about a guy in Detroit who wanted her to do a loan. She was flying from LA to Indianapolis, and on the way back, she built in a layover in Detroit. She got in an Uber and went to see the house herself. The house looked great—but two doors down, the upper porch was literally falling off.
Her Uber driver asked, “You’re not getting out of the car, are you?”
She said she was going to, but he said, “I don’t suggest it.”
She appreciated what the borrower was trying to do—his mission was to clean up Detroit one street at a time. And she respected that. But she wasn’t going to invest in the nicest house on a block where the rest of the neighborhood was still struggling.
She added that someone else could have easily looked at it and thought, “Wow, so much potential!” If it fit their buy box—if they were chasing high appreciation and were willing to take on high risk—they could’ve jumped in. But it wasn’t for her.
She made an important point: “I want to make sure that my bias isn’t other people’s bias.” She picked her bias based on her needs. And people need to pick theirs based on their own.
I pointed out how powerful that is. That real estate allows for so many strategies—so many ways to make it work. The key is figuring out what aligns with your goals, lifestyle, and risk tolerance. There’s something for everyone.
Christina agreed completely. “Your nature, your skills, and your purpose will align for understanding what your proper investment is.” And that alignment means you’ll want to stay in it for 20, 30, 40 years—because you’re in your lane.
As we began to wrap up, I said I wanted to talk about mindset. Because to me, that’s the real difference-maker. It’s not intelligence, resources, or timing. It’s mindset. And I wanted to hear her take on it.
Christina described mindset as the ability to lift your head up. To even look at what you really want. She said early on, it felt like there was a ceiling above her. Like she was stuck in a tunnel with no sense of openness or possibility.
She had to push past that. She had to learn to trust herself. And to do that, she did a lot of personal growth work. She didn’t have the easiest childhood. She said her mom—who she still appreciates for her financial education—was a single mom raising three kids and was often overwhelmed and loud. Christina said, “Mom’s mad again—OK, everybody disappear to your rooms.”
So she had baggage. She had to face it. She said, “This ceiling I feel—I put it there. And if I put it there, I can take it off.”
But she also said she couldn’t do it alone. You can’t solve the problem with the same mind that created it. So she went to therapy. She attended workshops—Insight, Landmark, Mindspring. She got a master’s in spiritual psychology. She studied abnormal psych at UCLA. She went all in on rewiring her beliefs.
She said the point was, “I don’t want the ceiling on top of my head anymore.” And the only way to lift it wasn’t by hustling more—but by aligning on the inside.
Christina talked about one of those rewired beliefs—like being able to recognize, “My mom yelled at me… and here’s the message I took from that… and guess what? I don’t have to keep that message.”
She said real bravery is sometimes not about taking on some giant new business project. It’s being willing to look inward. To face the fear. To feel the hard things that happened as a kid. That was where she found her bravery.
I told her I knew someone listening needed to hear that. And she said, “I hope so. That would be a joy for me.”
I told Christina I could just tell—she’s a true believer in what real estate can do. It changed her life, and now she’s out there helping others do the same. I feel the same way. That’s why I love having these conversations.
To wrap up, I moved us into our closing quickfire questions.
First up: “What’s your go-to tool for managing operations?”
She said, “Who Not How.” It’s a book, and it taught her that the key is knowing who will help you—not how you’ll do everything yourself. Christina shared that she’s ADHD and dyslexic. She’s great at seeing systems and strategy, but daily accountability isn’t her strength. So finding the right who to manage those parts has been key to her success.
Second question: “What’s one piece of advice you’d give to your younger self when you were starting out?”
She said: “Don’t be distracted by shiny objects.” That’s what led her into trouble in 2009—trying too many things without being thoughtful. She became much more focused after that. Her advice? Trust the math. Be thoughtful. And if you don’t know how to be thoughtful yet, get a mentor or consultant to help you run the numbers and stay grounded. That support system will help you succeed the right way.
Final question: “What book has been transformational in your investing journey?”
Christina listed a few: The Unofficial Guide to Real Estate, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Think and Grow Rich, and Napoleon Hill’s 16 Laws of Success. She said those books helped shape her mindset, her strategy, and her ability to dream bigger.
I asked how people can connect with her and keep the conversation going. She said to visit christinasuter.com or livearichlife.info—but the best way? Just text her. “I don’t really like emails,” she said. “Just send me a text at 310-463-5942.” Her mentor used to say “eyeball to eyeball, belly to belly”—and she still believes in that kind of real human connection.
That wrapped up our conversation. I let listeners know that Christina’s contact info would be in the show notes, and reminded them: if this story helped you, send it to someone else who could benefit too. And I’ll be back again next week with another powerful episode.