Real Estate Communities with Andresa Guidelli

The Real Estate InvestHER: Empowering women real estate investors to live a financially free and balanced life

Meet Andresa Guidelli, the Co-Founder of The Real Estate InvestHER®. Andresa is the co-founder and CEO of The Real Estate InvestHER® community, a platform to empower women to live a financially free and balanced life on their own terms. She is the co-host of the “The Real Estate InvestHER® Show” and co-author of “The Only Woman in the Room – Knowledge and Inspiration from 20 Successful Real Estate Women Investors!”

We dive into searching for people to grow with, knowing who to ask, and why financial freedom is more than just money.

I was born and raised in Brazil. I came to the US for my master’s degree and ended up taking a door to door sales position selling B2B for Verizon. My goal was to gain sales experience. And I had one conversation with my manager. He encouraged me to read  the book “Rich Dad Poor Dad” and that alone opened up a completely new world. Until that moment, my  goal was just to get a job and a corporate environment and go from there. So the possibility of owning not just one house but multiple properties was just a very far thought process that I couldn’t comprehend. And that was about 12 years ago. And now, recently, we closed on a 607 unit apartment complex.

A couple of years ago, my business partner Liz and I started meeting each other on a monthly basis to support each other’s businesses. We asked the question, where do women like you and I go to get the support?  It’s not possible to build a business, a legit business on our own and t trying to figure out everything by ourselves  was very daunting. We only found communities that were very knowledge-based – real estate strategies alone. We wanted something more business oriented and also that had self-care attached to it because we believed in that holistic approach. We couldn’t find anything, so we created the Real Estate InvestHER® community. Our mission, our vision for all the women and around the world is to create a community where we support women to live financially free and balanced lives. And the way that we do that is what we call an intimate global community. Women raise their hand, get the support they need to move forward. That’s the most important thing. Living life on their own terms. We believe that balance means something different to every single person. So, we stand for it.

What was your first investment?

My ex-husband and I purchased a small house in South Philadelphia,  a two bedroom, one and a half bath that we did a ton of construction, which we  overpaid for it. I didn’t know what I didnt know. We have purchased the property right and added a ton of value, which increased the equity in the property. We decided to pull that equity out through a HELOC. Once we received the appraisal report I knew something was off.

So I requested a quick report from the bank and I found mistakes. I created my own report and then sent it back to the appraiser and lender. They accepted my recommendations and raised the  the value to $25,000. I was able to pull out $68,000 total that allowed me to reinvest into another property. And one thing that I learned is: you don’t have to accept the appraisals. I thought at that time, everybody appealed  it. And I found out it was not such a common thing. And since then I have appealed different appraisals. And I’ve got a total of $300,000 extra. I haven’t just kept quiet and not opened up my mouth. So, that was my first deal.

How/why did you get into your space?

I was in a toxic relationship. And it took a long time for me to get out of it because all our finances  were  combined. All the finances, all the properties, all the assets that we have. I couldn’t find a way out of it because I was not individually financially independent. So I had to really create that for myself. And I’m really passionate about sharing with all other women how important is for women to be financially independent. So if they are in a situation where it’s not healthy for them, for their children, they can make a choice and they are not obligated to stay in a relationship. Financial freedom is more than just zeros in the bank. It’s sometimes a life and death situation. It sometimes happens in real life. So I want to support women to do that for themselves. That’s the bottom line for me.

What role do you play in the wealth space and why is it important?

We believe you can get knowledge everywhere regarding real estate. The issue that we have found with women are masters in trying to figure it out everything by themselves. Many women are limited by their experience or funding or the time that they have. So what we are presenting to women right now is a different way of being of what they can bring to the table. They know who they are, what they bring to the table, and they are looking to connect with other women that would fill  their gaps so they can move forward and scale.

Mobile homes, for example, I don’t know much about. But I know that if I want to get into mobile, I know the women who  I can align myself with. And I know what I bring to the table, what they bring to the table and here we go. So there is a shift of mindset to building a business. Mostly REinvestment is a business. There’s no such thing as a hobby or doing things in your way. I believe in processes and systems. There’s no way we can scale without having processes and systems in place and building a team. I fired myself for every single position that I had. I am about to fire myself in my current position. I’m very excited about it. So that is the platform we are  providing to women. A safe place e they can come and say, how did you do that?  And other like minded women can  brainstorm and create a possibility that works for each woman.

What do you believe is the most exciting thing you’ve learned and want others to know?

People say, “I don’t want to change who I am”. I’m all about becoming the best version that I can be. And I don’t want to be the smartest person in the room whatsoever. I’m in the wrong place if that happens. We’re about to get into a different level of business, where we’ll get together for a conference for 500 women. The numbers are  crazy and all that logistics that goes behind it…insane. We closed on a 670 unit apartment, s I shared with you, it started with one single family home. So we evolved. Our essence is still the same. Our core values are still the same. But we evolved and will continue to evolve. I’m excited to see who I’m going to become. We’re peeling the layers to be who we truly are .

Something happened another day that was very fun. You know what Facebook shows you like “Five years ago, this is what you wrote”. Supposedly five years ago, I was complaining about my construction project. And I went into a rant. Now, I was like, who is that person? And I posted in our community and said, I can’t even recognize that person. So one person said, “That’s actually great. Because you evolved so much that you’re like, who was that?” And so five years from now, I’m gonna look back and say the same thing…I hope so.

Who is a person or company that inspires you in the space and why?

We have a couple of women in mind. Ariana Huffington, Sarah Blakely, CEO of Bumble Whitney Wolfe. So inspiring. She just went public, holding a baby in her arms.

Those women really rock. And my gratitude is for Ruth Bader Ginsburg for the work that she has done. If we look back on those women. It wasn’t that long ago that we couldn’t own a house, have a credit card or a bank account. So it’s not that long ago that we, things are changing and we are still carrying over. We’re very grateful for women who shake the boat.

What advice would you give to someone getting started?

I always say that it’s very lonely when we think we need to figure our by ourselves.  Too much content  leads to this analysis paralysis. And content does not equal action. It does not change a behavior.

Two things that I would say? Surround yourself with other people that have done what you’re looking to do. Reach out.

Focus on the small actions. Micro actions are going to move the needle forward. It is connecting with a realtor or connecting you with the lender. whatever that action is, you create momentum. So focus on the micro actions.

You are the average of the five people that you surround yourself with. So sometimes our family and friends bring our average down when it comes down to real estate. You can still have a great time with them. But for the real estate piece, figure out who has done it and  walked the walk. So you can really link arms and bypass mistakes. I don’t need to work hard for 10 years in order to earn the right to be a successful real estate investor. You don’t need to make the same mistakes.

How can we keep in touch?

The easiest way to find more information about what’s going on with us is our website. And we have a Facebook group, there’s a ton of women with a ton of experience there. You can join us. And we have a conference on June 23rd and 24th, InvestherCON. Five amazing keynotes lead by Kim Kiyosaki and more than 20 sessions. They are multi-billionaire people, who also live life on their own terms. Their portfolio doesn’t matter. They live different lives. They have children, or some of them live in different countries. And they’re going to be sharing exclusive content. This is a  two day transformation far away from the traditional real estate conference. We’re going to be talking and pushing the boundaries there. There are going to be tears and laughter. And our goal is for you to connect with others deeply. And that connection will not end at that event. That’s the most important thing for us and we’ll continue after that. We invite you to join us.