From Teacher to Investor: Laura’s Real Estate Journey

Brett McCollum (00:02.794)
All right guys, welcome back to the show. I’m your host, Brett McCollum, and I’m here today with Laura Sides. And today we’re going to be talking about how Laura went from being a teacher to now as a full-time real estate investor. Without further ado, Laura, how are you?

Hey Brett, good thanks. Thanks for having me on.

Man, I’m so excited. We talked quite a bit pre-show getting to know each other a little bit. Definitely excited to do this. I think we have a lot of value that we’re going to be able to unpack and bring to our audience. you know, typical everyday question you always hear on these shows, give us some background, Laura. Who’s Laura sides? You know, how did you get into real estate? That sort of thing.

Yeah, so I didn’t see real estate coming at all. I had no experience. parents were not investors. know, they were kind of the poor dad model. So I went to college. I had my degree in biology. I started teaching middle school science and then I ended up staying home once our daughter was born and that was 10 years ago.

Two kids later, so we three kids at home the pandemic hit and we went down to Florida for a week I brought rich dad poor dad with me and I was reading it out to my husband and I was like babe There is a whole nother world out here. You know, let’s let’s explore what that can look like for us So as soon as we came back, we pulled a key lock on our primary house We had $100,000 there and we used that to buy our first flip Yeah, so it’s been

Brett McCollum (01:30.862)
Wow

Crazy, never saw it coming and just jumped right in and it’s been life changing.

Isn’t that funny though? let me ask you this. I never even asked you this question. So, almost like a classic story for a lot of us real estate investors. You know, get the purple Bible as you will, right? And like, what? my gosh, this is real, you know, kind of thing. How long, and didn’t ask this before, how long had you had Rich Dad Poor Dad in your possession before you actually read it?

that’s a great question. I’m kind of crazy. I have no idea what inspired me to pull it off my shelf. But I got down to Florida, opened the book up and a hall pass from when I used to teach in middle school fell out.

Wow.

Laura Sides (02:15.63)
kind of vaguely remembered, like I don’t know what led me to the book and I had only been like a chapter and a half in, but I think at that time when I was early 20s teaching in middle school, it just didn’t resonate with me. I didn’t understand what he was saying. Like the words didn’t stick. And then fast forward, I don’t even know, it must have been like five years and I pulled it out again, took it on vacation with us and it changed.

In that funny how that is like I know so many people like even us I was telling you when my wife I was in the business already and my wife finally reads rich dad and then she’s like, my gosh me too, you know kind of thing She we had had it for years Years. I mean, I think it was a I think my wife got it as a high school graduation gift Wow, I Mean and she was maybe

Wow.

Brett McCollum (03:05.966)
30, 32, something like that years old when she finally picked it up. That’s I was wondering. It’s just interesting. And if you let yourself look in that rear view mirror, you’re like, could have been doing this for how long, you know, kind of thing.

think that’s my biggest regret is not getting into real estate sooner.

Well, I think that’s everybody, you know, that everybody that understands it. Let me let’s say it that way, right? Because, yeah, it was just one of those moments where for her where she was like, I can’t believe I didn’t read this sooner, you know, and but you can’t live with that. think the time is you’re ready when you’re ready because you may not have been ready in your 20s, you know, and maybe you would have started and you have ran into the ground and messed everything up. Who knows?

Right, not adequate background knowledge, maybe your life experiences. But I think what’s important is, so what’s funny is I still haven’t finished Rich Dad Poor Dad. I got like four chapters in, I was like, we gotta act on this. So once I did realize that, and this has carried through the rest of my real estate and other investing, is like once I realized how good it could be, I was like, all right.

Next step, next step, next step. So it’s like taking that information in these bite-sized pieces and applying it. And I think that’s what keeps you from this like analysis paralysis, right? I could have read the book, but I didn’t need to because on my first slip I made a hundred thousand dollars in six weeks. Right. And then it just, the ball kept rolling.

Brett McCollum (04:32.45)
That’s incredible. that’s, I, okay, every successful, not every, a lot of real estate investors I talk to, the common theme though for, it is for all of them is action, right? And that’s almost cliche in our industry. Now you listen to these podcasts, you get like, you’re like, action, take action, take action. But like I read four chapters of a book and then I did my first deal on me. Like that is action, right? And I think that

In real estate, we’re rewarded for the level of action that we take, and then I think our businesses are then rewarded for that.

There’s certain you have to be comfortable with that risk, right? Like and then opportunities are gonna present themselves to you and anybody listening listen like you’re never going to feel a hundred percent ready if you wait you’re just gonna keep waiting part of being ready is just deciding I’m gonna go for this and I’m gonna surround myself by the people that are gonna help me figure it out as I go

Yeah, I mean, that’s I mean, that’s kind of great. Like, so let me ask you this question. You said you made the comment you have to be comfortable with the risk.

Do you think, and I think a lot of us, I’m guilty of this, naivety is sometimes good in the beginning? Like you don’t know what risk really means when you first start.

Laura Sides (05:57.294)
You have to know you don’t want to sink your ship. Like you can’t be so risk-inverse, you don’t want you have to be able to take enough risk. You know, like I’m not gonna tank our house, right? I’m not going to buy. This isn’t the safest route either.

It almost sounds to me like, I hope I’m not putting words in your mouth when I say this, you were at that, your family, you guys were at that something needed to change moment. Like you were looking for, was there anything back, like kind of in the back of your head, like I don’t want to keep doing it the way we’re doing it or what kind of led to like a, cause I mean that was a Reddit and I’m going, you know, was there anything going on around then?

I think it’s the perfect mix of, my husband’s very successful in his career and I got to stay home with our kids. And we’re kind of sitting there on the couch. Actually, it was a month. We had taken a month off to go to Florida and we’re sitting on the couch going like, is this it? Right? By all definitions, we have a really great life. We are not in any type of debt. We go on whatever vacations we’re going to go on out to dinner. Like we don’t operate on a budget.

and we have three beautiful, healthy children. Is this it? Like this is it for us? We’ve hit the, by all definitions, we were considered successful. And we kind of felt like, man, we’re in our early thirties. What else can we do here? I’m also a huge extrovert. So as much as I absolutely love staying home with our kids,

I needed more. There was no amount of like going to the gym or going to mom’s club events and talking about what was on sale at Target just wasn’t doing it, you know? And I needed more. I loved the ability to like now have this purpose and be able to talk to other investors and talk to bankers or whatever, contractors, just get out and see something to completion. So there wasn’t anything wrong. It was just like, I

Laura Sides (07:59.118)
think there’s something more.

And that’s purpose. Like that’s like, that was the word you used. I think that’s incredible. Cause when you grabbed that, first day out of the gate, you did very well on it. Are you guys, what is the bit? So that was, I mean, we’re closing in on five years ago now, right? Ish?

I think it was 2021 that we did, May of 2021 that we did that one.

Okay. And are you guys still flipping houses? You’re still like, what’s the business look like today? What are you guys working on?

Yep, so I’m still home with the kids. That’s definitely job number one, right? I still have two kids at home, and we’re homeschooling those two. And I flip houses, yeah, casually. We pick up jobs as we can. And one of my biggest things right now is easier flips so that we have built this team out and we can kind of set the team in place. This past one, the one we did just recently, we flipped in three weeks.

Laura Sides (08:59.458)
It was on market. We paid what they were asking, put our team in place, flipped the whole thing in three weeks and made $70,000. Wow. And it’s mostly cosmetic. Like here we’re in the suburbs of Philadelphia, so there’s a lot of demand for housing, but most of our housing here is 550 or above. OK. what we like to do is get a two to three bedroom. What would be considered like a starter home for someone? Because you just don’t see them excessively anymore.

Oftentimes it’s a townhouse or a condo. We’ll put our team in and they just basically take out what’s there cosmetically, right? It’s gross and ugly and dirty. And then they put it all back, but nothing is really structural. There’s no wet basements. There’s no roofing issue. It’s just purely cosmetic. so we’ve just learned to identify what works for us and what works for me as basically a project manager now. But on the last flip, I was only there two or three times. Our team took care of all of it.

Yeah, yeah, that’s incredible. Yeah, so I think that’s brilliant, by the way, especially I don’t know your market is obviously as well as you do. know, but locally, the speed to market is really, really important. Withhold times and things for us that we’ve been sitting on projects longer. So, you know, you’re you know, you’re holding costs, you know, are much more increased. So if you can, you know, get your team in there and get that thing turned around.

The faster you do it, the better, right? That’s incredible. So you’re doing that. What would you like volume wise, what are you anticipating for 2025 to look like ideally on a, like if I can do two houses, three houses, what are you guys hoping to do this year?

Such a good question. I don’t ever like to forecast because I don’t ever want to put myself in a situation because I feel forced or the goal suggested like I need this money because right now we only buy properties that we know we’re not going to lose on. Right. And we know that the day that we buy them we could sweep it out and make money that day. Ideally I think doing five you know five flips this year would be fine. We also like to buy and hold though. So

Laura Sides (11:12.372)
A big part of the investing was like, how can I offset my husband’s W-2 tax liability? So that was a big one originally. And what happened was we bought our first Airbnb. And once I realized all of the tax implications and benefits to owning short-term rentals, that was another game changer. Like next level unlocked, right? And now because of these Airbnb purchases,

not only have we offset my husband’s W-2 tax liability, but a lot of our flipping tax liability too. So there’s an intricate balance of how many flips and then what you do with the money in the same year.

Yeah, that I I’d almost forgotten we talked pre show about the the STR side in that so are they all local for you your your short terms are they scattered around?

Both of them are about three hours away. Okay. So there are beach towns and one’s in Delaware, one’s in Maryland.

Very cool. Okay. That’s really cool.

Laura Sides (12:13.474)
What’s cool about that too is our kids are super involved. We involve our family heavily in the flips. That was a big reason with my first one, I was homeschooling and I’m like, I feel like I could teach them more, right? Finances, renovations, getting their hands dirty and let them knock down a wall. How cool is it for a five-year-old to be able to knock a wall down, right? we taught them a lot through that. And then what was really, really cool is

Your memory unlocked right there, yeah.

Laura Sides (12:38.894)
that $100,000 we made on the first one, we showed them like, this is how you take this money and put it to work because flipping is active income. You have to work for that money. That’s not the goal here. We can take this money and instead of upgrading our own lifestyle, and we talked about this, right? We could get you all new toys. We could get a pool in the backyard. We could get new cars, a new primary. Instead of doing that right now, we’re gonna take this money and we’re going to put it into assets that are going to pay us.

So we taught them we’re gonna take this $100,000, we’re gonna buy a house, it’s gonna be a beach house for our family that was never on our radar that we thought we could own. So now we own a beach house, we can use it, we can use it with family and friends, put it in auctions for donation type stuff, and then use it as an Airbnb and have it more than offset the cost to own it and not have to pay taxes.

and the tax liability. That’s amazing. yeah. Are you guys looking to do more short-term rentals ideally or like not twos enough, you know, cause there’s two different sides of it, right? Like some people are just like, it’s a lot to manage, you know, it’s, it’s got, it’s what are you guys?

I appreciate it. There’s so many benefits.

Laura Sides (13:52.75)
first one, we had no idea about short-term rental anything. It kind of came to us and we again, we’re just like, yes, we’ll take it. And we put a property manager in place, but it was like a big box property manager and they did make us money, but they didn’t take great care of the gas experience wise. And they just little oversight on the quality of the experience. So I was like, I think I can do this better than they can. But my husband

Okay.

Laura Sides (14:21.846)
Remind me like you don’t want a job. What are you doing? You know, so I do manage both short-term rentals now, but we’re we’re looking to probably get more of a local boutique management company on those so they can be like have some vested interest in how well the property does as opposed to a large company the second short-term rental and this is

A weird feeling for me, but we’re looking at the possibility of selling it. We bought it for $600,000. We probably put about $30,000 into it between furnishings and just light renovations. And I had an agent tell me the other day that she thinks it’s worth 900, like if we took it to market and we bought it two years ago. But you’re basically selling like a turnkey business. Right. And then we would 1031 that into another short-term.

I figure yeah, that’s that’s perfect. Yeah, and then for the audience if they don’t know why for whatever reason Why why 1031 that Laura?

So we don’t have to pay the capital gains taxes on Network.

fake capital gains. Yeah, that’s exactly right. We teach our kids the same things, know, like, so you mentioned Rich Shepard earlier in our conversation, and he has his game, the cash flow game, right? So we play that a lot with our kids teaching them like, you know, what is the liability? What’s an asset? What’s you know, and the idea, the whole idea on the 1031 exchanges, so that when you sell this, and you’re going to get these

Brett McCollum (15:48.504)
you know, hey, instead of paying 35 % or whatever it is on, well, it’s long-term capital gains. So it won’t be short. It might be less than that. But you still have capital gains, right? And you can legally, responsibly roll that into something with no tax liability and continue to increase your, you know, your wealth at the same. It’s almost like, it feels almost like a cheat code, right? It’s like, wait, we’re allowed to do this? You know?

cool that, I mean, if she’s right, right, if there’s $300,000 of equity gain there that we can take and buy one or two other properties with, that would be pretty…

That’d be pretty cool. I think the answer to what your original question was like is, you know, would adding more short-term rentals be adding more work? And I think it’s a who, not how. So we would just have to we definitely are looking to put those property managers in place because you don’t want a job. You can write. You absolutely can run your own Airbnb. It’s not difficult, but it can be time consuming.

Sure. Yeah, but I mean, I can tell like from talking, it’s time consuming, but it’s like in some days maybe better than others. But I mean, we tend to enjoy that side of it sometimes, you know, and I’m sure there’s some days where it’s like, I don’t like this so much, but you know, how.

think they’re getting a good experience. So between the cleaning team, the handyman and myself, I can guarantee that. So if I could just replace myself.

Brett McCollum (17:15.438)
Have you guys been able to use the property for the family? I know you mentioned that. How cool is that?

it’s super cool. Our parents, my family, you know, we’re the first generation to really get creative with money like this. So from a line of blue collar, you know, eventually workers, it’s really awesome. It’s a really cool.

So the first property we bought didn’t really have enough bedrooms for our extended family to come down. So I made sure that our second property had all the bedrooms. It has two master suites and then two other bedrooms, right? So this Easter, his parents, my brother-in-law, my sister-in-law, and their families will all be there for Easter.

That’s that I mean and what a great like I don’t know if I I’ll use the word anyway, but like it almost the selfish feeling of like I get to it’s not selfish because it’s pure like Do this for my family is like the coolest thing in the world, you know

It’s everything. My next thing is like, want to have enough cash flow that I can be like, Hey guys, I booked us this trip in Jamaica. Like we’re all going. That’s what I want. I, or, you know, I’m the whole Easter is going to be catered. The chef is going to be there. Whatever. That’s my goal. I just want to be able to enjoy life with family and share, know, what, in what we’re creating and they’re huge cheerleaders and I appreciate it. And I love them. You know, they don’t understand what we’re not a lot of times. I don’t understand what we’re doing, but

Laura Sides (18:42.754)
They’re super supportive and I appreciate that.

That’s and that’s the best, know, is, you know, being able to share with our families and like, what a great, you know, and then at the same time, like what you’re able to pass down to your children and then your, you know, someday grandchildren. And then, you know, it’s like knowing that the work I’m doing today is going to have impact for them legacy later. And thank God you finally read, you know, even if like maybe you would have gotten to it at some point, but like, thank God you read, you know,

Rich Dad Porta when you did or whatever for whoever’s listening. Thank God you whatever it got you into it you did because it leaves impact forever as long as you don’t quit, right?

There’s definitely nights where you think about it. I’m like, I should cancel the Instagram.

I’m sure too like it’s not always since you started there’s it’s not always been perfect, you know I’m sure there’s it’s challenge I mean we talked about the the victories and we talked a lot about like the wins and and stuff like that But I’m sure there’s been some challenges you guys have walked through too

Laura Sides (19:48.716)
Yeah, I think we’re almost playing it too safe in that there hasn’t been anything major. So if I’m not combating big challenges, I’m probably not going big enough. But it’s been this really slow, very careful entry into real estate investing. But one of the challenges I remember, it was my birthday’s New Year’s Eve. And we had a flip going. And I remember I had to carry materials in for the guys. So they were ready or whatever. And I’m carrying those materials. And I’m like, this is.

100%, not how I want to be spending my birthday. Like I’m setting these guys up and I’m like, I need to put the people in place so that I never have to do this again. So those challenges, you know, little, whether it be a bad guest experience at the Airbnb and I, or me carrying materials in have caused us to level up in ways that I wouldn’t have had I not had these challenges. So like now at the last slip, I’m, you know, going three times I’m better at communicating like.

This is your job. This is what you’re doing. I’m not gonna be there.

That’s incredible. I don’t think there’s anything by the way, like I’m a little biased when I say this, but especially with when, where the market’s turned in the last couple of years with a lot of the uncertainty with all that, having a careful approach isn’t wrong. You know, cause I would, I would rather be careful and have gain than

You know what, I’m gonna keep pressing challenges or keep pressing things and then lose everything I just worked for. There’s a balance, I’m sure. There’s definitely a balance. right now, with the uncertainty, I think you’re, and I’m biased again, but I think that’s really wise in today’s world. And take it one step at a time. you don’t have, there’s not a,

Brett McCollum (21:43.138)
Like you said, we talked like, was asking like, what’s the future looking like? How many, like, you know, I don’t like to forecast that because I having the, there’s no, it’s you against you, right? There’s no like measurement. Like I have to do as many deals as this person, you know, I have to, that’s what gets people, you know, taken to the cleaners is when they’re trying to be like somebody else or like it’s, it’s you against you at the end of the day and when your family goals.

Yeah, thank you for saying that. And I think one thing that we’re really, really mindful of, and my husband’s good at this, is we’re watching for lifestyle creep. So right now, everything that I’m doing in flipping or the money we’re making from our short-term rentals feels like bonus income. It’s not something that we need to live. And my husband did an incredible job before I even had any clue about finances setting us up. we lived in no debt. We live in no debt. We have no credit card debt.

Besides our primary mortgage and now the two Airbnb is but they pay for them, you know, there’s that there but Living in no debt allows you to operate in a little bit more of a risk Situation because like we could weather this if it didn’t go well, right? But we don’t really want it to not go well so I think part of being able to be where we’re at is because we don’t have this debt and

you know, when we started doing all these flips and having this extra income, we didn’t upgrade our house to a 10,000 square foot house or our cars to escalate. It’s like, we still can make pretty calculated decisions in life and business.

And that’s wise. mean, think if you look at the most successful people I know in here, you use it. Classic one is, know, Warren Buffett. Was he like in his 50s before he had his first billion? But it wasn’t that he wasn’t playing the game. He was, it’s just taking his time and letting it do its, and just slowly but surely adding, adding, adding, adding, adding. And then one day it’s like, my gosh.

Brett McCollum (23:49.346)
Couple hundred billion. Yeah. I think that there’s wisdom in that though, that, you don’t have to do it all today. And that, but a lot of entrepreneurs are guilty. I’m pointing fingers here. like, yeah, but I know I did one and I made a hundred on it. If I did 10, I can make a million.

your destination reached.

Laura Sides (24:12.834)
Mm-hmm

Unfortunately, that just doesn’t work that way. But that’s what we convince ourselves sometimes of like, well, I already know how to do it. I’ve done it a few times. I’m just going to scale. Yeah. You know, and if you’re not watching, was, I’m, you know, quote unquote scale, you know, that’s the buzz in a lot of our industry right now is scale, scale, scale. And I think there’s some, there’s an appropriate balance to scale.

say my CPA early on and it stuck with me so if he’s listening it’s probably not but I was sitting at his desk we did the first flip he saw that 100 right and he goes, Larr when I was young I started I forget what business it was but he’s like I I started a business and we grew too fast and it got out of control and then it didn’t do well he’s like I caution you don’t let that happen to you

He’s like, because this is good. But you know what, in the beginning, I haven’t heard this much anymore, like the, you know how people, feedback can kind of like roll, know, stick to some people and then like it would roll people, like the shoe’s gonna drop. It’s not always this easy. You’re not gonna, you know, we’ve never, and not gonna, what, guess, we’ve never lost money. We’ve made as little as like 20,000, but that was in a two week flip. So like, still not really a loss. You know, we’re just kind of moving the needle forward.

Yeah, let’s it’s perspective, right? Like, let’s ask this question. Back when you were teaching, how long did it take you to make 20 grand?

Laura Sides (25:42.06)
and that’s a really good point and you have to be there every day.

In the film with middle schoolers, you know, god bless it. I loved our middle schoolers. but wow, you know

Yeah, so that was the one year that I came in and I was sitting across from the same CPA and I’m like, oh, this one we did and we only made 20. He’s like, Laura, you made 20 in 18 days.

I mean, that’s, it’s a, it’s a cheat code. You know, real estate, it’s a cheat code. I say that like if you’re, can, that it is possible. But as you’ve said, and I want to make sure we’re cautioning people listening to is there is risk. You have to do it with wisdom. And I know that you got based on our conversations. I know you guys are. That’s why you’re being careful about what you buy so that you can make it 20 K in 18 days.

You’re not taking the risk of like, think it might maybe if I do this and that, then you’re taking them almost the sure bet, and there’s wisdom in that.

Laura Sides (26:38.904)
Thanks. Yeah, we probably could do 10 or 20 a year if we were a little more riskier, if we accepted lower margins, right? But typically we’re flipping in three weeks and the return is around $50,000.

Yeah, that’s incredible. And then you’re able to take that and slowly but surely you’re gonna start adding maybe more to the rental income. And over time, you look back and 10 years later, you’re like, man, look at what we did. there’s peace in it versus the anxiety that comes along with, I have to do 100 deals. Like, oh my gosh, ask me how I know. But yeah.

Well, I don’t want to take too much of your time, Laura. You’ve been great. I always do like to ask kind of towards the end of our shows here. You’ve given so much wisdom already, you know, but if you could something that you’re like, this is stuck with me, you know, something that you could maybe, you know, people that are listening could hold on to. Do have any any like nuggets of advice you’ve got that you like to maybe share?

I’d say do it, right? Step that you do not have to have the whole thing planned out. You don’t have to know what your biggest goal is. Just take the next step, surround yourself by people that know more than you do, and lean in. And just, even just like me, right? You don’t have to make it this big scary leap. Just do the next thing that can get you closer to your goal. And it’ll evolve quicker than you ever thought.

Incredible. Guys, you heard it. I love that advice. Laura, if people want to reach out to you, connect. I know you mentioned your social media presence, stuff like that. What’s the best way for people to connect with you?

Laura Sides (28:30.498)
I’d love to connect over on Instagram at sides underscore investing.

Perfect guys, follow Laura. She’s worth following. I promise you that you won’t be disappointed. Laura, it’s been a great, great pleasure getting to know you. And guys, until the next one, I hope to see you there. Take care, everybody.

Thanks, Brett.