Real Estate Wisdom: Eileen Kukowsky’s Top Tips for Aspiring Investors

Dylan Silver (00:01.04)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. I’m your host, Dylan Silver, and today on the show I have real estate entrepreneur investor, Builder, and CEO of Real Property Multiservices, LLC, based out of Houston, Texas. Fellow Texan, Eileen Kukowsky. Eileen, welcome to the show.

Eileen Kukowsky (00:24.268)
Hello, Dylan. Thank you for having me.

Dylan Silver (00:27.288)
It’s a pleasure to have you. And before we hopped on here, we were talking a little bit about your entry point into the real estate space. Mind blowing story. You got started when you were a kid. You were investing in real estate when you were a kid.

Eileen Kukowsky (00:45.006)
Yes, pretty much. started at the age of 17. I was a teenager, so still in school and studying and an opportunity of investment came my way and I decided let’s do it.

Dylan Silver (01:00.678)
Let’s get granular here, Eileen. When I was 17, I didn’t even know what real estate really was, let alone that I could potentially buy it in the next coming years. things are changing, right? Maybe it’s harder to get real estate now, but it certainly was no easy task then either. You’re 17 years old. Did you know anything about the real estate space? I think you mentioned your family might have been involved as a contractor.

How did you get, stumble upon this deal? How did you get involved?

Eileen Kukowsky (01:35.022)
So I was able to leave school early. I signed up for a co-op program to where I could leave school part-time, half the time. So when I did that, I was also doing medical coding and billing. was certified at the time, also bilingual, and I was a notary, licensed notary. So at that time, I was working in the medical field doing the medical coding and billing.

And I came across an MD who offered a property that they had to sell and I went to look at it and that was my first property investment.

Dylan Silver (02:17.606)
You make it seem so simple, but it can’t have been that simple. So you came across a doctor because you’re in the medical billing, right? You’re a notary, so you’re meeting lots of different people. You come across a doctor who had a property to sell. You’re in Houston. Was it it Houston at the time? Is that where you grew up? So the doctor was also in Houston. Can you say which hospital this was that he worked for? How did you come across him?

Eileen Kukowsky (02:38.508)
Yes.

Eileen Kukowsky (02:43.266)
Well, I worked in the medical field. we have one of the biggest medical fields in Houston. So I worked for a doctor out there. They presented a deal that they had a two-bedroom condo that they needed to offload. And he had two roommates. They were all partners on the deal. And he came up with a number. He said, $15,000 for this two-bedroom. And I just asked, how did you come up with that?

Dylan Silver (02:50.5)
Yeah.

Eileen Kukowsky (03:13.27)
number and he said well you know it’s three MDs that live there we figured we’d split it three different ways and and we we’d part ways and you take over the deal so at that point I said sure I’d love to walk it and let’s let’s let’s continue to to to make this deal happen if it’s meant to be

Dylan Silver (03:35.078)
So let’s get granular here, Eileen. Is that okay with you? Okay, okay, okay. So you’re 17, you’re medical billing, doctor who works there says I have a condo to offload and he’s going to the 17 year old, he’s bringing this to the office. How is this happening? This is blowing my mind here.

Eileen Kukowsky (03:38.453)
Sure, of course, give us, do it.

Eileen Kukowsky (03:54.958)
You know, that’s a great question. I have always been into real estate and always wanted to do a deal. So I was talking to nurses and doctors and I just put the word out and just said, hey, I want to invest in a deal. If anybody has a deal, bring it my way. And just the word spread throughout the community of the office. And that’s how I was able to get the lead.

Dylan Silver (04:22.094)
And so it was $15,000 for the whole condo or for part of the condo.

Eileen Kukowsky (04:26.862)
For the whole condo, 15,000. This was.

Dylan Silver (04:28.55)
Oh, this is a good deal in Houston. $15,000. I’m imagining if three doctors are living there, it’s a nice condo.

Eileen Kukowsky (04:38.904)
Pretty decent. mean, it needed some upgrades. And I knew exactly what it needed when I walked the property. And we negotiated terms, and we came up with an agreement. At the time, I had worked for an attorney.

Dylan Silver (04:41.624)
Okay.

Dylan Silver (04:46.886)
Mm-hmm.

Eileen Kukowsky (04:59.918)
before that and I had learned the process of how to do an owner finance deal and how to structure it. So I was able to bring that knowledge to them and negotiate the terms and I offered 12,000, 4,000 each, drafted up the paperwork and we made a deal.

Dylan Silver (05:20.038)
So basically they asked for 15, you said I’ll do 12, take it or leave it, and you gave them 12.

Eileen Kukowsky (05:26.594)
You got it.

Dylan Silver (05:27.898)
Was this a cash deal?

Eileen Kukowsky (05:29.784)
cash deal.

Dylan Silver (05:31.238)
Okay, so 17, was this done at 17, you’re 17 years old? Okay, so 17 years old, let’s get this story, this is unbelievable. So 17, you had already had medical billing experience, worked for an attorney who taught you seller finance at 17, and was a notary. So you’re very, very, are you aware kind of how much of an outlier you are at this point, or is this just kind of your normal?

Eileen Kukowsky (05:35.502)
17, yes.

Eileen Kukowsky (05:59.008)
You know, sometimes I have my awe moment and I tell myself I was so driven that it never really dawned on me to even think that way. But as I’m older now, looking back at the story, sure. Yeah, it makes me feel like, whoa, what was I doing? How did I do it?

Dylan Silver (06:14.276)
Yeah.

Eileen Kukowsky (06:26.648)
So when you do a co-op program, they allow you to choose a position or whatever is available per semester. So each semester, I decided I’m going to work for the law office of Keith Lovelace, the attorney. I know I can grab some great value there. The second one was I decided let me do medical coding and billing.

did my license, scored really high on the test, and started doing medical coding for private doctors. and that, I didn’t even know what path or what guidance it was gonna lead me to. just all happens.

Dylan Silver (07:08.302)
What did your parents, what did mom and dad do?

Eileen Kukowsky (07:13.63)
well, they were very excited, very supportive. But at the same time, they didn’t want me to deviate from education. And I knew I was going to deviate from it. And I had to speak really fast. So I knew real estate was going to be my passion. And I didn’t need to go all the way to college for it. I just needed to get the real estate education.

Dylan Silver (07:25.167)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (07:42.522)
Did you get any of this from them? I think you mentioned dad was involved in contracting work. Where did this, you’re so passionate at a young age. mean, I’m 31 years old and I feel like I discovered real estate like five years ago that I could be involved in this. Was this something that you mentioned from a young age? Was it like an aha moment where you see in dad work on homes? How did this come about for you?

Eileen Kukowsky (07:47.714)
Woof. Woof.

Eileen Kukowsky (08:07.042)
Yeah, so my dad is also a builder. He worked for top builders in here in Houston. So I grew up in the construction world. So some of my workers still till this day have known me since I was a little girl. Super close to retiring, but some of my guys still know me since I was a teenager.

Dylan Silver (08:18.971)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (08:31.056)
So you’re seeing Dad go out there, and is he doing subdivisions? What was a lot of his work that he was doing?

Eileen Kukowsky (08:38.562)
He was doing a lot of home renovations, remodeling. He was part of some new construction deals as well. Some private town homes and condos over there by Kima Boardwalk. He was part of a lot of different construction projects. He was the foreman, he was the general contractor, he became the builder and really close with top builders in the world.

Dylan Silver (09:07.768)
So you’re seeing him invest in these deals and you’re thinking, you know what? I’m going to carry the torch and I’m going to take it to another level.

Eileen Kukowsky (09:15.104)
It, you just nailed it. And I thought to myself, if I do this, I’m going to do it on a whole nother scale. and I just went to my dad. I just remember being seven or eight years old. was sitting, I was like in a little, you know, those little doctor chairs that twirl around.

Dylan Silver (09:28.452)
Seven or eight.

Dylan Silver (09:34.191)
Yeah.

Eileen Kukowsky (09:35.414)
I was sitting on one of those watching my dad tape and float on these high 30 foot ceilings. He was on stilts with all of the teams and all of the guys and he was running teams and construction teams. So it’s pretty much in my blood. I grew up, I eat, sleep, breathe this stuff. But then I just took it to a whole nother level with my designing, the construction design.

I just have this gift is what people are saying when I walk into a property. just know I want to tear this wall down. I want this one. I want open concept design. Let’s do an arch here, blah, blah, blah. So we just go with what the flow of the house and the comps look like for the area.

Dylan Silver (10:24.65)
I think we could probably fill up a whole podcast, maybe two podcasts, with scaling from that first deal, 17 years old, 12,000 for a condo, to then where you are today with high-end remodeling, construction, high-level flips, your experience in underwriting these deals, large real estate portfolio. But I wanna see if you can give us the cliff notes, because I wanna dive into that. Give us the cliff notes of

how you scaled from that first deal at 17 years old to where you are today, how did that growth process look like, the Cliff Notes?

Eileen Kukowsky (11:03.918)
I feel like there’s probably three. The first one would be the 17, and then I got introduced to my mentor, who was also a real estate investor. Her name was Nancy Berg. Little did I know that I was going to land into a gold mine when I met her. Fate was just…

right there, lied in the palm of my hands. And when I met with her, she wanted me to… I guess she saw something in me. And I didn’t know it at the time.

because keep in mind at this time I’m already probably 18 going on 19. I had finished the 17, the condo deal, flipped it, made an amazing profit from it. I don’t know if I told you that.

When I purchased it at $12,000, I invested about $15,000 in the rehab, turned around and sold it for about $92,000. So with that money, I just knew I needed to do something else. So then I ran into my mentor who had a condo for sale that I wanted to purchase. But this one I wanted to buy and hold.

So I did, I offered her terms. I did the negotiating skills and offered her owner finance and I underwrote the deal with her, basically gave her my terms and she accepted. Then after that, when I came back to the table, she had another deal to present to me and I wound up purchasing that one as well.

Eileen Kukowsky (12:51.894)
And at this time, I’m 18, 19 years old and I have a condo and a house. So I returned back on the third time and she had a list of paper on the table. It was in the front, tons of addresses. On the back, tons of addresses.

At that point, I didn’t know what to do. And I asked her, what was this? Did you want me to alphabetize this? Is there something you needed me to do with this list? She says, well, that list is all the properties that I own, 92 properties. I own them all. I see greatness in you. As a matter of fact, I see myself in you when I was your age. At this time, she has a head full of white hair.

She’s 70 something years old, ready to retire. She says, take that home, that list home, analyze it, let me know what you want to do. And I said, well, what do you mean? She says, we can come back and talk. So I took the list, I went and researched, and turns out that I saw a bunch of addresses in the same address of the condo that I had just purchased from her.

Turns out she owned the multifamily building. Turns out that I said, out of all of the investments, wouldn’t it be smart to just invest in one location? That way, if I have any rehabs or remodels, it’s all in one location. I can handle it. I’m 19 years old. I thought, let me just stay in a little cluster. So I went to her and I said, I want to purchase all these addresses. She says, good choice.

Dylan Silver (14:30.981)
Yeah.

Eileen Kukowsky (14:37.79)
Also, I’m president of the board, but I no longer want the title. I’m going to hand it over to you. You’re going to become majority ownership. So your vote will count for more than 51 % of the vote, and you will automatically be in as the president of the board. At that time, I said, whoa, not only was I going in there for investments, I went in there to, I was going to create, I was going to be a

I was given a title to become president of the board, learn the operations, the systems, and how to run a board along with managing a multifamily unit. Pretty much, yes. So.

Dylan Silver (15:19.672)
This was like a condo association.

Wow. So this is a big life event, big life event. So this is Nancy Berg in Houston, basically hands you a portfolio opportunity and president of condo association, if you will. You’re 19, unbelievable. At what point in time did you start getting into the high level remodels?

Eileen Kukowsky (15:49.87)
So I was parked there for about 20 years. I was president for over a decade. I purchased all of the condos around 19,000 each. At that time, it took me some time to flip them little by little, 10xing the complex from 19,000 to now worth over 120K each.

So I 10x that multifamily unit, commercial property, generating passive income, taking the knowledge that I’ve learned from all the contracts, started renting each one of my units. I became my own property manager. I was managing the property. I was leasing them. I was the leasing agent for each one of them. In the meantime, I was receiving income.

Passive income enough to pay off my note to her as an owner finance package deal that I had structured with her and receiving three to $500 per unit profits for over 20 years earning over $3.7 million. Taking my $19,000 investment per unit and turning it into a $3.74 million passive.

regenerating income for 20 years. And then that’s what I sold everything. I went through a crazy catastrophic divorce, hit rock bottom, and took a couple years off to regroup, reframe.

Dylan Silver (17:21.606)
Unbelievable.

Eileen Kukowsky (17:39.094)
I knew that everything I had built, there was one thing that couldn’t be taken from me, which was my knowledge, my experience. So then that’s what that transitioned me to become stronger, better, and faster. And then that’s when I came across a million dollar flip that was presented to me by a wholesaler.

Dylan Silver (17:48.826)
Yeah. No question. No question.

Eileen Kukowsky (18:09.006)
I underwrote the deal and I said, if this is going to be my shot, it should be now. This is what’s going to do.

Dylan Silver (18:16.272)
And so million dollar flip, was this a deal that you bought for a million dollars or was this a deal that was a heavy rehab or a high level rehab that then was a return of a million?

Eileen Kukowsky (18:29.262)
Oh, that’s a good question. This, I purchased it at $575. The ARV was a million, under a million, like $970 something.

Dylan Silver (18:39.27)
Okay. Yeah. Big risk. Yeah.

Eileen Kukowsky (18:42.422)
It was a huge risk for me, but I knew I was ready for it based on my history, my knowledge. I was so ready for this deal. And I knew that this deal was either going to make me or break me. I dropped everything and gave this deal my undivided attention. And I knew if this was going to be the time or the opportunity, it’s going to be now to allow me to get back to where I was.

once was before the little dip that I took in the journey. So it allowed me to have great value and appreciation for things.

based on everything I’ve been through. But the deal was a deal that made sense. When I walked the property, when you get into these high-end homes, there’s a lot of stuff that you can save. You look deep, for me, I look deep into the carpentry, the craftsmanship. And because there were so many beautiful designs for the craftsmanship, I knew that this place, all it needed was a facelift.

I changed there was the primary bathroom. I did gut that completely and turned that into a shower tub combo to make it more look more luxurious. So I went in there with the mindset of only pouring 120 in rehab for it to be basically leave the exact structure and then turn around put it on the market sold in 11 days earning six figures.

Dylan Silver (20:21.574)
So that would start a business that would start a high-end Remodeling business. I think this is a very niche space. I’ve had maybe two other people in this space most people who do Fix and flips when you hear that term it’s you know for a lower price point, but this high-end high-end it takes a lot of Good underwriting. There’s a lot more risk because you’re dealing with now kind of leverage if you will

And then as well, you have to have the expertise to be able to select location, to be able to see trends, then to be able to, you know, outfit the home properly in order to get that exit that you need. As someone who’s successful in this area, do you have any specific guidance for folks who may be looking at high, high end, high level remodeling, high level flips as something that they’re interested in?

What would be your advice to them if they’re starting out?

Eileen Kukowsky (21:22.102)
Location, location, location. Know your location. My farm is memorial. I have pinned the location down to the T. So know your areas before you do this. Do your due diligence. Run your comps. Have an amazing team behind you, realtor agents that will run the comps with you. I look at the different pictures and the comps in the area, and I do

the comparison analysis based on what their design looks like and then I try to take it up a notch. So what I do is I try to go one better and when I put it on the market I put it on the market 5 to 10 to 15 20k lower. So that’s my strategy.

Dylan Silver (22:14.266)
That is a gold nugget right there that I think a lot of people listening to this will say, yeah, that checks out. I should take a look into that myself. Eileen, we are coming up on time here. Where can folks go to get a hold of you?

Eileen Kukowsky (22:29.582)
So yeah, they could come and they can reach me on any one of my platforms Which I can also share the links with you on that they can follow me on Instagram Facebook I am my website there. I can send all those in that information over to you so you guys can Click on the links follow like and comment below Yeah, I’m here to answer any questions or concerns

Dylan Silver (22:58.896)
Well, thank you so much for coming on here, Eileen. We appreciate having you.

Eileen Kukowsky (23:03.116)
Yeah, of course. I loved being on here.