From Sick & Bankrupt to Real Estate Investor!

 

Katherine Nelson-Riley: There's tax implications, there's corporation implications, there's all kinds of different things that are open there.

Sarah Larbi: REITE club community, welcome back to another awesome episode of the REITE club podcast. My name is Sarah Larbi and I'm here with my co-host Francois Lanthier. How are you, Francois?

Francois Lanthier: I'm excellent. Thank you. And how about you?

Sarah Larbi: I am doing well. I can never complain when it's beautiful and sunny out. And that's just living life. And this is why we do real estate, to be able to enjoy those small things in life. And for me, it's like the sun, the food and wine. But we have a very special guest today Katherine Nelson-Riley, our operations manager. She is doing so much behind the scenes. Looking back when we first started or before we started working with her, we were not this organized. We didn't have all the processes and procedures in our REITE club business and she's come on and really helped the club grow tremendously.

So to that, Katherine, thank you so much, but she has such an inspirational story. She really became an investor recently. I wanna say in the past six months acquiring two of her own properties. But I'll tell you her story is so inspirational. You are gonna wanna listen to this. And she shares it with us, but she's in her early sixties and it's never too late. It is never too late to start.

Francois Lanthier: Yes, very exciting. And it's nice to see someone in, like you said in their early sixties to get started and a single mom for years overcoming all kinds of challenges. So anyway, I won't reveal all the punches, but make sure to tune in.

Sarah Larbi: Yeah, absolutely. And guys, reach out to Katherine. Let her know. If you've enjoyed this podcast, let us know. If you've enjoyed this podcast, if you wouldn't mind leaving a rating and review, that would be awesome. And check out thereiteclub.com. Register for free. There's tons of great resources that we keep adding each and every day. On that note, let's bring in Katherine. Katherine, it is a pleasure having you on. How are you today?

Katherine Nelson-Riley: I'm great. Thanks so much for having me.

Sarah Larbi: I'm super excited. I was looking forward to today and being able to interview you because you've come such a long way and you've got some exciting new purchases that you can share with us. But first and foremost, I wanna say thank you for everything that you do for the REITE club as the operations manager. We could not be where we are today without you. So thank you so much. You've just done amazing for us.

Katherine Nelson-Riley: Oh, you're most welcome. It's my pleasure. Like it's an absolute joy to be with and part of the team. It's, truly is. It's like a family and when they invite everybody to grow with you, I find that it's especially nice because everybody is growing, every single member of the team as well as the REITE club itself. It's just really something that is bigger than what you would think. And it's just an absolute delight and a pleasure to be a part of.

Sarah Larbi: Amazing. And you could officially say that now you are a real estate investor as well. So, welcome to the club and I'm glad that you decided to come and grow with us as well. If you could share maybe a little bit of your background, be as open as you want or share what you want, what you're comfortable sharing, but you didn't necessarily come from easy beginnings. And I don't know if you're willing to share a little bit of your background story and then how it all came about where you started to look at real estate investing.

Katherine Nelson-Riley: Sure, and I'll make it as succinct as possible because everybody has their story, of course. And I was actually born and raised in Southern California. So, I'm a native Southern California gal. I have a twin sister. When I was in my early twenties I had been in a car accident while I was in college, so I was on track to be a lawyer, marine biologist and photographer.

Anyway, while I was healing from that, I ended up working part-time, waiting for the next semester to start at college. And ended up working for a wholesale tour operator. I totally loved it so much. I was traveling all over the place, doing all kinds of things, and that's where I met my now ex-husband who was on a cruise in the Caribbean.

After a year-long relationship, ended up moving from Southern California to North of Toronto in January. I thought, what do you do? . I know exactly true love, but man, I didn't know what cold was until I got it. And I didn't know that cold would hurt. So anyway I thought we'd only be here for a year. and then that of course didn't happen. I've been here for 42 years and so we had three daughters within three years, and then he decided he preferred his girlfriend. Same story, different verse from so many different things.

And so then I ended up, finding myself like, geez, I've got three daughters that I've got to raise. How am I gonna get their education? What am I gonna do? And I purposefully decided not to take them back to California cuz I didn't wanna take them away from their dad. Fast forward, I had to retrain. So I went back to school, but I chose corporate communications. I was still on track to go back for law, but I chose corporate communications cuz it was faster. It included law and I could be in the workforce faster to be able to support my daughters.

And so that's what I did. I started with corporate communications and then puddle jumped through a few things. Ended up in the business of golf for many years. I coordinated the classic down here in Niagara. We eventually moved down here cuz I had to figure out how to get an education from my girls. So they were athletic. We have rowing in St. Catharines. There was our section nine in the states that opened up. Because I'm American, the girls are dual citizens. We moved down here for rowing and for scholarships.

That's basically one of our daughters did go through, she wrote for Canada, she wrote for University of Michigan, and the rest rode and it was great. It allowed me as a mother, a single mom, to be able to raise my daughters in an atmosphere to where I could be close. And still raised them, but I did all this on my own. I didn't have any help. I had no family, I did have some friends that helped a bit so on and so forth. But the majority is it, I did it all on my own.

I ended up in the business of golf and worked with NGCOA Canada for a number of years, is a regional director. And then all of a sudden, one morning I woke up and I got sick and I was dizzy, and it didn't go away. So what had happened was I got hit with a neurological vertigo, and what it did is it knocked out my cognizant. What that means is what my eyes were seeing, what my brain was processing and what I was acting upon were three different things. And it was pretty horrible.

So anyway, I took a leave of absence and then it came to the six month point and either had to go back or I had to leave and I thought, I can do this. Like I can do this. I can. So I went back and then I couldn't. So when I approached the director, I just said I'm struggling. I need some help. Can we talk? Can we make some arrangements? Whatever. And they said, sure, no problem. But then they came back to me a few months later actually a few months later. And then they terminated me without cause.

It took me two years to start to be able to get things back, and my husband used to sit in the living room with flashcards, literally little kid flashcards because we had to retrain my brain how to process and how to think. So it was a really long journey. And so from there, what to do, we had the house, the girls were already, by that time, they were out on their own and in their lives and at university. So we opened up a bed and breakfast. So it was something we could do with the house. We had everything, we're down here in the Niagara region, so it was natural.

It was still a struggle, like you would think it's very easy to be able to do it, but every single time I was doing something, I would make mistakes, but I wouldn't know I'd made mistakes until after the fact. I was still retraining my brain and coming up with procedures. Actually, or strategies in order to check myself all the time to make sure I wasn't, so that in itself was a huge journey and then I started to come around to where I could get back into the workforce.

I started volunteering. I took a little retail job just to get things going, and then I was starting to get back into the corporate world and my husband was hit with cancer. So it was a very serious cancer. And so it was very a good blessing that we had the bed and breakfast at the time. And what I did at the time that we were going through the year that we were going through the chemo and the radiation is because 99% of everything that we did, I took care of him.

It was all I did. We had a little bit of help, which was an absolute blessing. But the majority of it, I did it all while juggling the bed and breakfast and everything else. But I increased our bed and breakfast business by 200% that year.

Sarah Larbi: Katherine, you continue, but I wanna say this is so inspirational. I've known parts of your story, but thank you for being open and for sharing it. And this is important, to see even just the progress, right? And it's just awesome to see what happened to you, how you overcame that and where you are today. But I'll let you continue, but, thank you for being open and sharing this.

Katherine Nelson-Riley: You're welcome. It's one that, to be honest, this is maybe only the second or third time I've ever really shared it there. There's only a few people that do know it. And part of that is that you don't want to have somebody lose their confidence in you because you've had, I almost wanna demo it like a brain injury. And of course with that, we went through every single testing, but I slipped through the cracks with the diagnostics, so I didn't have a label. And through that I'm gonna actually just take the time to be extremely transparent just because somebody else might be going through something and they might not, they might be wondering.

Hopefully, they can take a little bit of inspiration from me. But by trying to find the diagnostics, by trying to figure it out, I was trying, everything went through Syntonic photo light therapy. I went through, you name it, on the craniosacral massages. I went through every single test that there was.

You never saw anybody as excited to maybe be being diagnosed. They were sending me to the top doctor up at McMaster, and I was so thrilled to, even if I did have a diagnosis of MS, was because I would have a label, I would have a diagnosis, and fortunately I didn't have it. It was one of those bittersweet types of things there, but that also took a toll as well.

Everything along the lines, you're just struggling and it's awful. Being dizzy. I'm sure everybody can relate to being dizzy but this isn't the inner ear dizzy BP V, it's the neurological. So anyway, I ended up there was credit card debt that had amassed and I never in a million years dreamed that I wouldn't just wake back up and be able to get back into the workforce because I've always been a problem solver. That needs to be done. Great. Let's find a solution and let's do it.

When you're a single mom and you're raising three kids by yourself, three daughters within three years by yourself, their dad, unfortunately chose for whatever his reasons are, but he took me to court almost 14 times.

Actually not almost, it was over 10 times. Anyway, I don't remember the exact number, trying to prove me to be unfit. Unsuccessfully, I might add, but for his own reasons and his own ego and his own story that he needed to tell himself or whatever it was, but the unfortunate part is that it caused damage in relationships and within our family and so unnecessarily because it's about her daughters.

It's not about whatever decisions adults make. And that had a huge impact as well. So you're juggling a lot. It takes a toll on you, and I do believe that is what happened with the illness. I don't wanna say this to be honest, whenever anybody has a serious illness, anything if they refer to it as that illness, because it's not that you don't want that to take a part of who you are.

You don't say my cold, you say the cold, I have a cold. You don't personalize it, so I wanna make sure I don't do that. And I also wanna make sure I give out the message to people that when something serious happens to you, please make sure to not personalize it when you're talking about it, so it doesn't attach to who you are. It's just a blip in your life.

Sarah Larbi: Katherine, do you mind, if I ask you like what diagnosis did they come up with an actual diagnosis at some point or it just went away on its own? Or how did that resolve?

Katherine Nelson-Riley: Actually, it was time, it was a lot of therapy. I therapy as far as physical therapy. I had fabulous chiropractors. We worked on Lifemark physiotherapy. They have an actual vestibular rehabilitation program. So it was literally working with almost like a physiotherapy for your brain, but all of this cost, so they never did come up with a diagnosis. I truly believe I'd rent the candle at both ends. I truly do because I went directly while I was going back to school and raising the girls and dealing with divorce and dealing with all kinds of other things that go with that. But when I was going back to school, I lived there. And Seneca was just north of Toronto. So I was, every single day I had the girls up by five.

We were ready to leave the house by six. I gave them to the babysitters at six. I was at school, went to school all day, came back up, had the girls pick up the girls by five or six. We came home, had dinner, homework, and a bedtime routine. And then I started my homework. So that started at that point in time and juggled everything else.

Then we got into the workforce. And so it was still juggling everything else on the top. And it wasn't just nine to five jobs, it was, it's the 10 or 12 hour days. So I think between everything, I literally just burnt the candle out and my body said, that's it. You're not listening to us, so we're gonna stop it for you.

One of the other tools from all of this, as I was trying to find the diagnosis, is I did raise the credit card debts because I didn't have any other way of paying for anything. And I was so desperate to be able to find a solution, to be able to get back to me, to be able to get, to be a working, viable part of society and to be self-sustaining again. But the timing didn't work. So here's one of the things. Credit card people suck.

Francois Lanthier: They do.

Katherine Nelson-Riley: I was so 150000% honest with them and said, look, here's my circumstances. I know I ran up this money. I know that I owe you. I am planning on paying you back. Here's my circumstances. So on the front end, they're fine, but then it escalates and it finally got to where they were taking me to. A lot of people don't realize, but when you are, when a credit card company is taking you to court for debt and you're going to the small claims court, they automatically add 25% onto the debt, and then you are responsible for all the court costs.

Sarah Larbi: Wow. I didn't know that they added 25% on top, to pay for the fees. That's unfortunate.

Katherine Nelson-Riley: Whatever your debt is, it is 25% on the top. And I took it seriously for almost two years, cause this was a very long process. So for almost two years, I tried desperately to not claim bankruptcy, but when they took me to court, they took the ball outta my hands and I had no choice.

Francois Lanthier: That's it. Now to you private lending sounds very cheap. I'm sure compared to credit card charges and adding 25% and court costs and Wow. But you've survived and that's so amazing and such an inspiration. Wow. And you're still so young and full of energy. Seriously. I mean it after all this, a lot of people would be 120 years old now, so this is excellent.

Katherine Nelson-Riley: It's definitely been a challenge, but I think one of, part of what it does too is that you actually go into a bit of a trance part of one of the symptoms, that I had with vertigo as everything. As I progressed and the dizziness subsided the brain fog and the 3d, it was literally as if you were working and you were watching yourself down, literally. So you're literally almost in a 3D fog experience watching yourself, and I could feel the inside of my head. It was just the weirdest thing.

Like I could feel things, you just, these little like when your arm falls asleep or something? And then it starts to come back and it has that tingly. That's literally what I would get throughout my head. Every once in a while. It would be just things just moving on the inside of my head. And it was so weird. So I have fought literally, and it's been, it's pretty, been pretty close to 15 years and I have to make sure that I take very good care of myself.

With that, there was adrenal. And it just is so important for people to take care of themselves and that is one of the biggest lessons that I learned because I didn't take care of myself. I didn't put myself first. I didn't believe in myself. I'd been put down so many times throughout my life, my marriage.

Francois Lanthier: As a mom, you sacrifice yourself. I see my wife, I'm not a mom. I can't say, but I know she'll always wear even clothing, like silly stuff. She'll like, oh yeah, the kids need new clothes. And I'm like you need new clothes too. And she's the kid who needs to go first. And as a mom, you already, and as a single mom, I can't even imagine. And then your health, of course it's essential.

Katherine Nelson-Riley: Taking that time to make yourself a priority. So that is one of the things I'm really proud of. I'm so proud of my daughters. I just really am, they're so successful in their lives. They're so grounded in who they are. They're families. They've got, they made wonderful choices in partners. I'm very blessed. We have two of our daughters who have blessed us with the titles of grandparents.

We have six grandbabies right now between the ages of two and a half and five and a half. And our youngest daughter's getting married this summer. So there'll be more added to the collection for sure. Now, that's one of the big things I wanted to make sure I instilled in my daughters.
Physical fitness and activity, yoga, mind, body and soul. Nurturing is important and that's a lesson I still struggle with is believing that I am important enough and valuable enough to make myself a priority.

Sarah Larbi: That's important and it's great to hear your story, to see how you overcame it. And I also wanna say, now that you're saying we have a great new husband, don't know how long you guys have been together for, but Jack and so you're the one, together, you did the bed and breakfast piece and move forward. Can you maybe tell us how your life has changed, since the bankruptcy, like when was it that you started feeling like you were pivoting in a different direction?

Katherine Nelson-Riley: I think one of the things with the bankruptcy is that year I can't tell you how humiliating it was, how humbling it was, how heartbreaking it was, and emotionally. To have to do that. I just felt like 150000% of a failure is and you know that there's seven years that's attached to that. So you have to be so very careful about your credit, about how you spend, about everything that you do there. There is planning. There is knowledge that you have to have and I literally learned it in the trenches, which is not quite the right way to do it, but I guess it's a school of hard knocks, right?

Francois Lanthier: You can only get better. So I can't get worse .

Katherine Nelson-Riley: Exactly. But that was many years ago, and I shouldn't say many years ago. It's actually only been actually everything. Discharge I shouldn't say discharge, but the seven years was up between the two credit companies. They overlap each other.
It's really only been about a year and a half since I've been coming all the way out of it in order to be able to really work at rebuilding my credit in order to be able to move forward. So that's all. And I'm 63 tomorrow.

Sarah Larbi: Oh, happy birthday .That's awesome. Okay, so Katherine, so you've really been doing and shifting and acquiring. Now, two properties, I believe you got one in Costa Rica and a pre-built also near St. Catherine's. Is that correct?

Katherine Nelson-Riley: Absolutely. I'm so excited for it. I really am. That was one of the things that was great. I knew I wanted to transition out of the bed and breakfast, and so I was looking for a little contract to be able to start getting back into the world and transitioning outta the bed and breakfast and kind of feeling the way.

That's how I met Laurel and Danielle. And I was brought. For a, it's supposed to be for a couple of hours a week or a few hours a week. In order to get them and help keep them organized, and then all of a sudden it just exploded. And with everything that was going on, and, but I never knew before I started into there.

Sure, I'd heard about real estate investing, but I never knew that it was something you could do. We bought a house, sold a house, bought a house. Even the knowledge that I've been learning now, the resources that are there, the possibilities, the success stories and the tales from the transits for sure.

Cause there's a few of those from people, they were just so inspirational. And I literally was like if they can do that I can do that too. So because of our circumstances, I wanted to, I knew that we needed to enhance any savings in retirement for our future because I certainly didn't have any.
As I saw these inspirational stories, I was, the light bulb was going off and ideas were being planted, and possibilities were opening up. So I thought they can do that. I can and when some opportunities did open up like the one down here in Niagara and it just felt right. It was like, I'm going for it. So I did. And the same thing with Costa Rica.

Francois Lanthier: That's amazing. And it's such an inspiration coming out of bankruptcy and health concerns and Wow. At 60, 62, 63. That's crazy. Congrats. And really the same thing motivated me at a younger age, but again, I am working in the private sector, you don't have a retirement plan, or some people do, but I don't, and my wife doesn't. So what's next? What's gonna happen to us when we're in our sixties?
Same as you. I thought real estate investing was reserved to the super wealthy or really large projects, but it can actually be smaller like condos or like a single unit. That's an investment in itself. So what are you looking at now when investing? I know one was quite far. What's the attraction? What's your criteria?

Katherine Nelson-Riley: That's a great question. The criteria is that the numbers have to make sense. I've developed my power team, of course, thanks very much to The REITE Club and learning and meeting people there. But my circumstances are a little bit different.
I'm not just a straight Canadian that's investing. Whether inside Canada or out, I'm also an American, so I'm a dual citizen, right? So tax, there's tax implications, there's corporation implications, there's all kinds of different things that are open there. So those are all things I need to take into consideration just to make sure that makes sense.

First, and what else attracts me is I've learned from those far more experienced than I in real estate investing is don't squirrel, find something and kind of keep going there. The two properties that I've already started investing with one will be assumed and I will flip it before it finishes.

Sarah Larbi: You're gonna sign the contract.

Katherine Nelson-Riley: Yes. Oh, thank you. See, I'm still learning, right? so I'm going to assign the contract for that one. And then the other one we're going to use as a cash flow and also for us to be able to use, so I'm still investigating some of the other areas.
I'm very intrigued with some of what US Properties is offering with theirs. And again, it's because I have family that's in Detroit, one of my daughters lives there. It would be great to be able to have some investments that were cash flow that were there. So I'm still learning and I'm still determining that. Sorry, that's long-winded.

Sarah Larbi: That's awesome. it's honest, right? And I think it's really cool that you're also sharing your story and there's no right age or wrong age to start. Anybody can make it happen and you're starting to change your life. You mentioned power team, and experts on your team to help you maneuver through all of these opportunities, are there, a handful, maybe one or two that you can share maybe conversations with an expert team member that you've had or something that they've been able to show you or potentially do for you that helped you, get to that next step. Could be a lawyer, mortgage broker, or an account. Any, any of that. Is there somebody you're like, this person really unlocked something for me?

Katherine Nelson-Riley: There's quite a few of them actually. For the, just the first part was being able to have the conversation with a number of different people and I'll tell you that there, there's many options that are within The REITE club that are tried and true. Tried and tested, by so many people and they've literally earned their reputations. So it was a really hard decision for what was a right fit for these particular properties. But, I think making sure that I understood what was needed in contracts, making sure that, okay, these are the things you need to look for in pre-build condos.

When I, but that same conversation happened with the lawyer and also with the mortgage brokers and, but I actually hadn't used a mortgage broker for these two deals. These two were actually JVs. So these two were actually JVs and I am going to be starting with a mortgage broker as well.

I just hadn't progressed enough with the finances and getting all the bankruptcy underneath and that behind me to be able to start with that particular one. So that actually I have an appointment for that conversation to start next week, because I really would like to add, I'm gonna say at least a minimum of another four properties by the end of this year.

Francois Lanthier: That's excellent. And now working with a mortgage broker, you're gonna get your number, I call it. So you're gonna get an idea. Okay. You can spend a million or two or whatever it is, doesn't matter, but it gives you a direction, and that's why this is essential to be guided by the right people and that's so great.

You started with creative investing first, which is really cool. Again, and I think this is, thanks to all that hardship, I think it's formed you to be accepting of something different. Like JVs. Most people don't start with JVs. They start with something else, then they build up to it. So that's really excellent.

Katherine Nelson-Riley: One of the things that was really interesting, I've watched a number of new investors or people that are just getting into it. Just even from the outside I've been on the, not a wallflower, but watching them go through their journeys or I'm overhearing some conversations or I'm a part of just hearing their journey.

Sometimes there's an awful lot of stress that's involved. And I have to say, I, I didn't have any of that. I had zero anxiety, I had zero anything. And I think it's not thanks, I do know that it's because I have done my homework, that I've listened, that I've participated, I listened to podcasts.
I listen to the recordings. I read the articles and the blogs even last. Was it last night? Yes, it was. It was last night for our Ontario event. From the Windrose group, one of our partners that has been phenomenal, I guess from the very beginning, right? With the REITE Club. She was on the virtual network, which is fabulous because it's not recorded so people can actually open up, they don't have to worry about anything being recorded, and she was sharing so much financial advice and it was literal.

The ideas and that were pinging in my head and saying, oh, I didn't realize that. Okay, that means I can do X, Y, Z. So every single time I am listening to an event, if I'm listening to a podcast, there isn't one thing. I never take it one time. I never leave with no, no more knowledge. I take away at least a minimum of five new ideas or knowledge points every single time.

Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. And I will say, even myself, I've been investing, not that long. It's been eight years, but I'm still always taking five, six key things away. Every single, even podcast, right? Even from talking to different investors from the podcast, there's so much to learn.
Like you'll never. , you don't, you'll never fully learn it all. But I think it's great that you're so passionate also because you started working with us in the real estate investing realm. And, it's awesome to see your passion about it and seeing your success from it as well and you taking action, which is really cool.

I'm glad to hear about the four deals, and. Something I would wanna ask you, because sometimes people come to me and say, oh, Sarah, you're young. You started young, I'm 50 or 60 or 70, or, whatever it is. I'm not saying that's old necessarily, but what do you tell somebody that might think that, right?
They might say, oh, it might be too late for me. What are some, some things that you can share with them, and then maybe a couple tips of what they can do to get started at whatever age.

Katherine Nelson-Riley: At 63, I think it's just being open. It's being open to new ideas. It's being, allowing yourself to think outside the box.
It's also not listening to other people as the naysayers. Listen to those that make sense to you and trust your instincts for heaven's sakes. That's why I know that these two deals that I already have and with me, I didn't have any anxiety because I trusted mine. I also did my homework.

Don't get me wrong, I definitely did my homework. I definitely ran the numbers. I definitely did all my due diligence, but I trusted my instinct and I think that is one of the big things I would pass along to people. It doesn't matter how old you are when you start, obviously if I'd known then way back then, what I know now, would be entirely different on so many different levels. But it isn't, and this is where we are now. For me right now, 63 tomorrow, and a grandmother of six, I really truly feel that I am just beginning the best rest of my life.

Francois Lanthier: That's amazing because sometimes people think, oh, I'm aging. I'm over 40. That's my case. i'm gonna be 41 in a few days. and I'm like, oh, this is it. But then 63 and you're just getting started. It's so exciting and you're picking the right type of project as well. So some people in their seventies, like I'm speaking with my mom, she's I want to invest as well. I'm like maybe don't do a flip and start ripping down walls, but find something that works for you and makes sense and be open to these possibilities and your instincts.
With 63 years of experience must be really honed. And as a mom, all that baggage does come in handy. You can recognize things and recognize some bad people as well, which is tremendous. That's a huge value. So four deals. What's your plan to finance four deals in the next six months, cause it's this year.

Katherine Nelson-Riley: I'm not entirely positive yet that I'm still working on. I just know. that it's gonna be a minimum of four. So I still have to have conversations with mortgage brokers to figure out how they're doing it. And actually, to be really honest, Francois, you and I have had conversations. Because of the way that you have creatively been able to do some financing.

Danielle St. Jean has been absolutely phenomenal because of the way that they run their financing and how they've been able to run things. Sarah, you and I've had a few like conversations with every single person you learn and what their success is and so I can't answer that quite. But I will be able to soon.

Francois Lanthier: Can't wait to, it seriously, and it's very doable. Like four deals. Definitely. I know with your drive and passion, it's very doable. And with the network, with The REITE club, so that will be easy.

Sarah Larbi: I think you bring trust, then you bring integrity and I think people know you and they'll gravitate towards you.
I'm gonna predict that a lot, some of these if not all of them will likely be a joint venture partner, somebody that wants to work with you and if you have integrity and you have trust, I think it brings others similar, into your life as well. But I didn't mean to interrupt you, I just wanted to add that in. I'm sure you'll have no problems finding some partners too. Do these deals with you as well.

Katherine Nelson-Riley: Thank you for that. I really appreciate it. I'm and one of the things too is that other than inside the REITE club, and of course my husband and two of my friends, nobody knows I'm doing this. I haven't told anybody. I have not told my family.

Sarah Larbi: Why do you think that is?

Katherine Nelson-Riley: For a number of years going through. My life there's been an awful lot of criticism. There's the, I've been on the receiving end of a lot, and so I have learned that I keep a lot of what it is that I'm doing to myself because when I have said this is happening or, I was thinking about doing that.

People are very quick to share their opinions and so I. Chosen to keep this, obviously this is going to be out there in public and there is a chance they might find, hear it or whatever, which is fine. That's absolutely fine. It's not that I'm hiding it, I'm just choosing to be quiet about it and to keep this as my close to me at the moment. And then as I grow in my success. To let my success speak for me.

Francois Lanthier: Like your pictures in Costa Rica, selfies, that's gonna be hard to hide.

Katherine Nelson-Riley: It doesn't matter if I'm going down to Costa Rica, if I'm down there, but as, as far as but when they're invited down to come on down to, to the condo and this is X, Y, Z and what is it? And how much do I owe? And who'd you book there and says, oh, it's yes.

Francois Lanthier: The best way to prove them wrong. So I totally agree with you, and I've done the same. Some family members or friends, I'm discreet about it. And then if they see it and hear me on social media, well good for them. But absolutely, it's good to keep that safe distance from naysayers. And then when it's too late, then they can't say anything otherwise. There you go.

Katherine Nelson-Riley: It's almost It's a way of doing a little bit of a classy raspberry . I know you've been saying that I can't do X, Y, Z, or whatever, but I've done it.

Sarah Larbi: Cool. Katherine, I'm sure there's gonna be tons of more success coming your way. And thanks for sharing your story. We can keep going and going. We'll have to have you come back and let you know for you to let us know once those four deals are done, how that all came together. The next part of the podcast is our lightning round. So as everybody gets the same four questions and you're gonna give us the first answer that comes to mind. Are you ready to play?

Francois Lanthier: Yes. Okay. Let's do it.

Sarah Larbi: All right. Lightning round. Question number one, Katherine, what is the best advice that you have ever received from another investor or at a networking event?

Katherine Nelson-Riley: Keep your credit card sparkly clean.

Sarah Larbi: All right. Great answer.

Francois Lanthier: That's a classic.

Katherine Nelson-Riley: Yeah it was a classic, but it was something that never occurred to me until it was actually said to me in the context that it came to me, and it was like, oh, okay. It's all about learning.

Francois Lanthier: Absolutely. And what's your favorite real estate investing resource? So a club or a website or a book or a person? You have to pick one.

Katherine Nelson-Riley: I have to think about this. The REITE club for sure. It has everything underneath one umbrella that you need. And from the networking to the resources, the education, the information, the training, the community and the feel good. It's when The REITE club had their event in 2019, real people doing real shit and then, and they also invited you to come grow with them. It's as real as it gets. And that's what's important and yes, so the REITE club.

Sarah Larbi: I will say, Katherine, The REITE club would not be where it is today if it wasn't for you, cause you drilled down on processes, procedures. Here's what we're doing. Like we are so much more organized and I have goals and visions thanks to you. So thanks for all you do.

Katherine Nelson-Riley: You're most welcome.

Sarah Larbi: Question number three. What in your opinion is the one attribute that has made you most successful?

Katherine Nelson-Riley: Tenacity and a sense of humor.

Francois Lanthier: I can imagine. For all, everything you've been through and , but now it's gonna be, everything is free sailing from now on. So what do you typically do on a Sunday morning?

Katherine Nelson-Riley: I take some contemplative time to be able to regroup, look over the last week what's been accomplished and plan for the upcoming week, get caught up on some household and personal chores and some of my personal business. And then to make sure that I have now learned to make sure I'm carving out some playtime for myself, my husband, our family and friends, and just being able to just go enjoy life.

Sarah Larbi: That's important. Absolutely. And I'm glad that you are taking that time to enjoy your life as well. And Katherine, where can our REITE Club community reach out and find out more?

Katherine Nelson-Riley: You can reach out and find out more. I've got and my Facebook page is knrandco. I don't have a lot of social media and everything else. I'm basically here, but I'm on Facebook, I'm on social media. I am on LinkedIn and my corporate name is KNR and I know that'll be in the show notes and we'll go from there.

Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. And you're also, you can be found on the REITE club as well. What's your right club email?

Katherine Nelson-Riley: Absolutely. I wasn't, Aware. I could put that on here too? Katherine@thereiteclub.com. Absolutely. Reach out if you've got any questions. If there's anything that you need, if you've got a story you'd like to share, success stories or anything, I'd love to have a chat. If there's anything you need that would be I'm happy to I'm happy to assist.

Sarah Larbi: Awesome. Catherine. And any final last words of advice?

Katherine Nelson-Riley: Last words of advice. Be kind to yourself, Just be kind to yourself. Trust yourself, trust your instincts, and believe in yourself, and the rest will fall into place.

Francois Lanthier: Oh, thank you very much. That's some powerful words and they're really great. It's been a pleasure getting to know you more as well, even though we work together. Finding out more about the real person behind the operations manager.

Katherine Nelson-Riley: I call myself the detailer.

Francois Lanthier: There you go.

Sarah Larbi: Amazing Katherine. That was very inspirational. And The REITE club community. Reach out to Katherine. Say hi. Let her know if you've enjoyed the podcast and we are stronger by working together and continuing to grow together and building our dreams together. So Katherine, thank you so much.

Katherine Nelson-Riley: Thank you so much for having me. It's been an absolute delight.

Francois Lanthier: Thanks. Sarah, what was that like? What an emotional and inspirational story. I can't believe Katherine's been through so much and is investing, sorry, in her early sixties. And she's just getting started in life. I just love that gives me hope for myself, turning 41, I'm like 60, there's something. Look forward to.

Sarah Larbi: Oh man, you're not that old at all. But you know what I really like when she said that this is gonna be like her best life moving forward and the best is, I think that is just really cool. It's just great to see somebody persevering, not giving up, figuring out. It's also just awesome to see her daughters striving and being the best that they can be. That's super awesome. She must be so proud of what she's been able to accomplish and she should be. But it's great to be able to share the stories of people at different levels that had started in different capacities.

Her bankruptcy, like she didn't let that. At the end of everything. And she didn't give up and she continued and figured out, okay, what does she need to do? And I think that is awesome. And I know that she could do four deals for the rest of the year. I'm not worried about that.
Ultimately she's bringing a positive, awesome energy, but she's well connected. She's learning, she's putting, her learnings into action and moving things forward, which I think is absolutely awesome. Any key takeaways on your end, Francois, that you wanna just reemphasize?

Francois Lanthier: Absolutely. Overcoming like the bankruptcy and only about a year and a half ago, that's why, after the full seven years and all that cycle. It's incredible and just, she said her biggest asset is to be perseverance and she does persevere and push through, and again, a single mom, a sick husband, ex-husband, court trials.

She's seen it all. So a bad tenant will be nothing to her. I pity the bad tenant. She'll get one day. I pity that person there. There's no stopping her . So really it's the look at the best out of life and the best is yet to come. So that's my key.

Sarah Larbi: Absolutely. REITE Club Nation, REITE Club community. Thank you for tuning in. And don't forget, please leave a rating and review Until next week. See you soon. And don't forget to keep coming and growing with us and living our dreams together.