Unlocking Real Estate Success: Melissa Richter’s Journey in Maine

Dylan Silver (00:01.186)
Hey, folks, welcome back to the show. I’m your host, Dylan Silver. And today on the show, I have real estate entrepreneur, single, multi and commercial residential investor, also advisor to newer and also established real estate professionals, Melissa Richter. Melissa, welcome to the show.

Melissa Richter (00:22.825)
Hello Dylan, thanks for having me on.

Dylan Silver (00:25.6)
It’s a pleasure to have you on the show here. You’re in Portland, Maine. Portland, Maine. How is it out there in Portland, Maine? I’m in Dallas right now.

Melissa Richter (00:34.15)
Portland, Maine is a wonderful community. It’s always topped of the charts for quality of life for places to live in the country. We have the ocean and the mountains and no traffic and yeah.

Dylan Silver (00:42.509)
I think that…

Dylan Silver (00:47.885)
Yeah.

No traffic? How do you live in a city without traffic? That’s incredible.

Melissa Richter (00:54.818)
Yeah, we’re spread out a little bit, but we have art, culture, like you can be on the ocean in the morning and you can be in the mountains in the afternoon.

Dylan Silver (01:05.816)
How long have you been out there?

Melissa Richter (01:08.513)
most of my life.

Dylan Silver (01:11.557)
I just pulled up the population of Maine. So we’re looking at 1.4 million people as of 2024. You know how many people are in Portland? I don’t know how many people are in Portland.

Melissa Richter (01:20.931)
It’s in the greater Portland area, Portland itself, but it’s 150,000.

Dylan Silver (01:25.652)
Okay, so I mean, we’re still talking about, you know, a smaller city, but a city nonetheless, been there for

Melissa Richter (01:31.108)
But it’s the biggest city in Maine, so we have everything that’s needed, right? Everything, because it’s the biggest one, so we get all the concert halls, all the civic centers, everything is here.

Dylan Silver (01:35.789)
need.

Dylan Silver (01:47.126)
One of the interesting things, we were talking about this before hopping on the show here, is I’m in Dallas, greater Dallas area, and of course being in Texas, we’ve got lots of open, unimproved land. And being from the East Coast myself, I grew up in Northern New Jersey. It’s funny, New Jersey’s the Garden State, someone’s gotta show me where the gardens are in New Jersey. Yeah, I don’t know, maybe that was an old adage. I don’t know where the gardens are in Elizabeth. No offense to Elizabeth, New Jersey, but if you’ve ever been there.

Melissa Richter (02:07.875)
I’m

Dylan Silver (02:15.372)
Not a lot of gardens in Elizabeth. But you mentioned there’s actually quite a bit of vacant land, unimproved land in Maine.

Melissa Richter (02:24.082)
yeah, well with our population the way it is and we are one of the largest New England states. So yes, depending on where you are, Northern Maine, it’s almost like we have two mains, a Southern Maine and a Northern Maine. And in Northern Maine, there’s a lot of fields.

Dylan Silver (02:35.438)
Mm.

Dylan Silver (02:39.286)
Are people looking at doing land deals or are they looking at RV parks? This is a huge thing out here. People are looking at all different land plays. Of course, you’ve got infill lots in the middle of subdivisions, but you’ve also got lots of vacant land and people are looking at all types of land deals.

Melissa Richter (02:54.134)
Yes, definitely our mobile home deals have gone up higher. We seem to have an influx of people coming and buying them up and then increasing the rates, which is a little scary for our locals.

Dylan Silver (03:06.414)
Yeah. I’m curious about your path as a real estate entrepreneur. know myself personally, I started out, I was working for Nissan, had no idea about real estate, didn’t know anybody. And I just saw my rents. I lived in what I thought was, still think is a nice apartment in San Antonio. I remember we had two pools and two gyms. And I said, well, I’ve made it now. But then my rents going up and up and up. And I said, man, I don’t know how.

Melissa Richter (03:30.976)
Thanks

Dylan Silver (03:35.266)
people are owning homes. Maybe I’m the only one that thinks this is so difficult. And then I was talking to my buddies and it seemed like it was getting harder and harder. And now that I’m in real estate, I see it is pretty hard for the average person to get into real estate, even as a homeowner. So that’s kind of what got me inspired to get into real estate was just kind of like, how do people own homes? What got you involved in real estate?

Melissa Richter (03:59.199)
I high school guidance counselor saying that this would be a good career choice for me. I also as a child of the eighties and everybody was making money in real estate and and it was just a it was my parents bought a lot and made 20 grand in the you know in a year of owning the lot and so it just seemed like an opportunity I studied. I had a

I was a bartender at a pool bar for a summer and nobody came. So I read all about real estate and investing and owning and self-educated at that point.

Dylan Silver (04:43.192)
Was that pool bar, was this like adult beverages or was this like hot dogs? What type of bar?

Melissa Richter (04:48.146)
There’s no adult beverages at a resort in New Hampshire, actually.

Dylan Silver (04:53.55)
That’s like a really nice way to spend the summer learning about real estate.

Melissa Richter (04:57.446)
It was great.

Dylan Silver (04:58.818)
Yeah. So that was your first your entry point. Were you thinking I’m going to be a real estate agent? Were you thinking I’m going to be a real estate investor? What was your thought process at that young age?

Melissa Richter (05:09.96)
thought that old ladies sold real estate and not young. So I always thought, I will get into real estate as I, you know, I’ll invest. I’ll get into real estate as I get older.

Dylan Silver (05:22.934)
And then from there, were you looking at deals? Were you looking at single family homes? What was your first deal like? How did you decide, I’m gonna just jump in here?

Melissa Richter (05:31.933)
Yeah, well, it was I graduated in college and it was not a great job market at all. And I was like, well, if I’m going to work for nothing, I might as well work for nothing for myself. I started selling real estate. was rookie of the year the first year. And then before I made too much money, they had these special low low income

housing opportunities and I jumped on that.

Dylan Silver (06:05.134)
So you became a real estate agent. How was the real estate exam? Was it easy? The Texas exam is hard. The Texas real estate exam, for everyone who says that it’s easy, I don’t believe these people. I’ve spoken with brokers in other states who take the Texas exam, and they’re like, what in the world? I said, I know, it’s hard. Was the real estate exam in Maine, was it easy, was it difficult? How was it for you?

Melissa Richter (06:28.445)
It’s changed since then, but I was a business major, so contract law I’d had a lot of already, and I’d already taken the real estate course during my college. So I basically was retaking it. So I aced it.

Dylan Silver (06:42.094)
That’s an old hat.

Dylan Silver (06:46.318)
and you were doing well as a real estate agent and expanding your business as an agent. How was that first year, year and a half like? Was it quick to find your first couple listings? Were you knocking doors? How were you finding clients?

Melissa Richter (07:07.108)
That’s a great question. I had to. basically the best thing I did was a, I basically I took the reverse directory, which is how everybody was listed and you found streets and you called and I would call, we called it smile and dial and I would start.

Dylan Silver (07:14.443)
I’m out.

Melissa Richter (07:35.74)
around noon I would do all my like pre-marketing and all my stuff in the morning and then around noon I would start calling and I wouldn’t go home until I had an appointment.

Dylan Silver (07:46.444)
Yeah, that’ll make you some money for sure. And you also had to. This is the only way. So you go from that and then you mentioned you bought affordable housing, it? I think you might have used a different word. it Section 8? What was the term that you used?

Melissa Richter (08:00.322)
No, it was, it was called a new neighbors program, which was a grant program basically for lower income people to be able to move into neighborhoods that needed renovation. So I got a 2 % loan to buy these via a fixer, basically a fixer upper in a fringe neighborhood. And I was a real estate agent, so I knew which neighborhoods were closer to the fridge than others.

Dylan Silver (08:13.666)
I got you.

Dylan Silver (08:28.298)
time. And so you this was one single family home that you bought. This was a 40 was it a quadplex?

Melissa Richter (08:33.378)
No, units.

Yeah, well, that’s a great thing about Maine and it’s that I’ve noticed that out West in these planned communities is they don’t have what we have here with this triple triplex is duplexes quadplexes. We have a lot more of that, which is a great entry point for people who want to own or occupy and start that way.

Dylan Silver (08:51.7)
my god. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (09:00.396)
I’m thinking about Boston now, because I lived in Boston for six years. I forget what they’re called. Is it the triple deckers? I forget what it’s called. But I have this Boston memory now. I’m thinking about Subaru’s and snow on the ground.

Melissa Richter (09:03.16)
Mmm.

Yes. Yes.

Melissa Richter (09:13.696)
Thank you.

Dylan Silver (09:15.726)
So that was your entry point into real estate. You’re a real estate investor now. You see the proof of concept. You’re an agent. Are you thinking at that point in time, hey, this real estate investing thing is pretty interesting. I’m going to go dive into this. And is that taking up most of your time? Are you sticking with selling and listing homes? And is that taking up most of your time?

Melissa Richter (09:37.729)
Dylan, get bored easily. I’m like, with the right team, there’s nothing you can’t do. I, know, when you find a deal and you don’t have an investor at the moment for it, and you know it’s a great opportunity, you take it. I have a client who said you never steal in slow motion. And it’s, I don’t like to consider myself a stealer of anything.

But there are values to be had out there with the right tolerance for risk and work to be done. And know what kind of work is going to not cost so much and how much work is going to break your back.

Dylan Silver (10:20.622)
So you said, okay, I’ve got proof of concept here. I like this real estate agent thing, but I really like being an investor. And this is the new thing. And this is what’s really capturing my focus. Did you start looking at a bunch of single family deals or you mentioned that first deal was a quadplex. Were you looking at a bunch of quadplexes or was it a little bit of everything?

Melissa Richter (10:41.311)
that point I had no money. So my first co-op flex I I sold and then I bought a Triflex that was in a better location. And then the, I figured out, then they did the whole tax structure where if you live in a property for two out of the last five years, you don’t pay capital gains tax.

Dylan Silver (11:04.622)
That’s helpful.

Melissa Richter (11:05.863)
Yeah. And I said, well, hey, let’s buy a single family house. I’ll live in it. And then, I’ll fix it up and I’ll sell it in two years. And even if I made $50,000 on that, it’s like making $75,000 working for somebody else because you’d had no tax.

Dylan Silver (11:25.39)
So is that rule still in effect in Maine?

Melissa Richter (11:29.749)
It’s a federal rule, actually. You should know this. Again, I’m not a tax expert. Attorneys, attorneys. I’m not a tax expert. I’m not a tax… Consult with your tax accountant.

Dylan Silver (11:41.902)
Cause speaking with my parents, either of us, one of the things that I learned from taking this exam in Texas, they handed me the piece of paper that said you passed. It was my first try, I was like, man, that exam was hard, wow.

And I was like scratching my head. said pass. I quickly left the room because I’m like, that was way too hard. I’m going to take this passed exam and run with it because I’m glad that I passed. But it’s like you here’s all the information about all the legal. You have to memorize it. We got a lot of, you know, land in Texas. So a lot of it was land and land rights and so on and so forth. Mineral rights. But here’s all the law. Just don’t ever use it. You’re not an attorney. So just kind of know about it. That’s kind

Melissa Richter (12:13.17)
Yeah.

Melissa Richter (12:19.828)
I tell my clients that I am like Ben and Jerry’s. We have ice cream here. Like I can tell you the name of the flavors. I can’t tell you everything that goes into it.

Dylan Silver (12:35.118)
That’s a great analogy. I love that. You’re getting me with all the Northeast references now. Now I miss Ben and Jerry’s. I miss triple decker apartments. So you had the triplex and you were bootstrapping effectively, but you also mentioned being low on capital, which I think a lot of people relate to starting out. How did you start getting more capital? Did you start selling a bunch of homes? How did you get more capital?

Melissa Richter (12:41.844)
Hey.

Melissa Richter (12:54.195)
All right. Right.

Melissa Richter (13:01.811)
Yeah, great. Fix and flip, basically. mean, that’s how you build your capital here. Like I when you live in your home and then you now have effectively increased your income by $75,000 every two years, that capital builds really quickly.

Dylan Silver (13:10.062)
who are flipping homes. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (13:26.702)
For sure. Did you ever at any point then or at some point in time along the journey go into fixing flips? Did you start looking at for yourself, know, flipping homes in 90 or 120 days?

Melissa Richter (13:40.837)
I not at that point because why would I, I was young and didn’t have a family and I could move every two years without, like I’d throw my stuff in the back of the truck and go, you know? it was, that was, it was just too profitable to, to make up, then to make up enough capital. But also I did, I did do a fix and flip part of the, the, up here again with your triplexes and stuff.

FHA loans are still you can get a FHA loan on a duplex, triplex and that and that’s only a three at that point was three percent down now it’s three and a half percent down you have three and a half percent I tell every young person that comes into my office if they’re looking for a single family have you ever considered a multifamily because if we want to build wealth for yourself because once you own your single family and you want to buy an investment property you have to get into that at 20 to 25 percent down before you can get into that if you own it

You only have to own it for a year and you can be in it for three and a half percent down. Then get it right, get your experience and then move on to your single family after that.

Dylan Silver (14:52.334)
I tell people exactly, not quite exactly that, but more or less that the lending portion of this is really the hard part. You can find the perfect room that makes you feel warm and fuzzy inside and you’re like, like everything about it, but you also gotta qualify for it. I’m from New Jersey, so I don’t know what the median home price is in New Jersey, but it’s probably much higher than it is out here, which is like high 300s, low 400,000s. It wouldn’t shock me if New Jersey was 600,000 or more.

Melissa Richter (15:01.573)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (15:21.358)
And so when I think about all of this and people looking at homes and I’m 31 people my age and younger looking at homes, I think it’s, it’s challenging. It’s challenging. If you need two incomes at like $110,000 a year to qualify for these homes based on the money down, based on credit, based on all these factors, what are some other ways that you can do it? And you just brought up a great one, multifamily or a couple of units, and then three and a half percent. Like you can’t beat that.

Melissa Richter (15:51.235)
Correct, Dylan, really, you can’t.

Dylan Silver (15:53.964)
And so you’re getting by, you mentioned every two years you’re effectively paying no capital gains. At some point you must have other people who are coming and saying, hey, Melissa, how do I get involved in this real estate thing? And just through word of mouth, you started advising people on their real estate business and their real estate transactions.

Melissa Richter (16:16.128)
yeah, every young person I knew in that new neighbors program was in place. I jumped, jump, anybody would listen to me. Might’ve gone through a couple of boyfriends at that point. I was so interested in real estate. But yeah, there was, mean, you just, when you, that’s what I get so excited about. And that’s why a lot of my now, you know,

Dylan Silver (16:30.57)
everybody.

Melissa Richter (16:43.607)
people who have been with me send all their children to me to say, okay, at least you have to talk to Melissa about how to do it next. I had one client who came to meet with me and I said, okay, this property just came on the market. It’s in the neighborhood we needed to be in. It’s here. It’s a three unit. It’s this, it’s this price. We got to go move on it. We got to go see it right now. They were thinking about buying real estate. We had it under contract that night and they

They sold it, it was $163,000 three unit. They then, I think six years later, condoed each unit and sold each unit for $250,000.

Dylan Silver (17:30.04)
Whoa, that’s a pretty penny.

Melissa Richter (17:33.206)
So they thanked me.

Dylan Silver (17:36.046)
When people these days are coming to you and bringing you deals are they bringing all types of deals? Are they bringing you you know you mentioned commercial residential? That’s an area a lot of people would like to get into are they bringing you opportunities, you know for Multifamily and are they asking you should we take a look at should we buy this deal? Are they saying you know?

We’re potentially looking at flipping this. Is this something that we’re going to have a lot of issues with? What kind of questions are you getting? Or is it all across the board?

Melissa Richter (18:06.496)
Yeah, those are all, yeah, everybody wants to make money in real estate. That’s how do I make money in real estate, Melissa? And I try to figure out what it is their wants and needs are and what their tolerance for risk is, just like any other investment that, you know, if you went to your investment advisor, you’d want to know what your personal investment goals are. Is this something that you want to buy and have and sell when your child goes to college and it’s your college fund?

Dylan Silver (18:13.838)
Well.

Melissa Richter (18:35.551)
This is is it something that you want as a future one of the big things we’re talking about because of that whole. Tax free is you know selling investment property and then buying something that they might want to retire to.

Dylan Silver (18:54.306)
Yeah.

Melissa Richter (18:55.356)
That’s a big advantage. Big advantage. Because now they’ve taken… Sorry, go ahead.

Dylan Silver (18:58.702)
I’ve spoken.

No, no, no, cut you off. I spoke with a couple people who’ve like blown my mind talking about like self. I’m probably butchering the explanation here, but like self directed retirement funds. I are they’re buying. And I’m like, you’re this is way beyond my pay grid. I don’t I don’t even really understand what’s going on here. But they were explaining to me.

Melissa Richter (19:13.611)
Yes! Yes!

Dylan Silver (19:25.698)
I’ve heard this term that if it’s passive, meaning it’s not there, they’re not having to be involved in like the day to day operations of the business. To my understanding that these can be investment vehicles for them. So people are putting real estate into like IRAs. So was mind blowing.

Melissa Richter (19:33.355)
Sure. Yes.

Melissa Richter (19:41.451)
Yeah, it’s a little tricky. For me, I’ve talked about doing that personally, but because I’m so invested in real estate already, I need to diversify actually into the stocks and other markets, right? So that’s just my personal, but yes, I’ve looked, but you do have to have a lot of money in there and then it’s…

Dylan Silver (19:58.85)
market.

Melissa Richter (20:08.668)
It gets a little tricky when you’re buying and selling through that, but it is a huge win for you if you can manage that.

Dylan Silver (20:16.3)
We about bulletproof. Bulletproof in your retirement is, you know, it’s pretty crazy what people are capable of doing, you know, with right now what we have access to. I’ve just, you know, had a couple of guests on the show here and just really changed the way that I view quite a few things and retirement planning is one of them. Melissa, we actually are coming up on time here. Where can folks go to reach out to you, get in touch with you and maybe learn a little bit more about real estate up there in Portland, Maine?

Melissa Richter (20:46.397)
my website is called mainsouled.com. It’s pretty easy, M-A-I-N-E, S-O-L-D, mainsouled.com. you’ll find all my contact information in there. I don’t, this is one of my first podcasts. Like I said, most of my business is all word of mouth. I’m thinking about doing 100 % referral business.

That’s because I get really frustrated when people, when I try to give really good advice and they don’t listen.

Dylan Silver (21:23.17)
This is gold. Take this advice. I know. I tell guests on the show, give us some gold, but don’t give away all the gold, because we need something for people to reach out to you for. But Melissa, thank you so much for coming on the show here today. Congratulations on all your success. And just thanks for coming on the show.

Melissa Richter (21:42.588)
Thank you, Dylan, for having me and good luck with everything. And I look forward to hearing more about people on your show.