5 Powerful Lessons from a Real Estate Investor & Coach in Florida

Michael Stansbury (00:02.722)
Hello everybody and welcome to the real estate pros podcast. I’m Mike Stansbury My guest today is Jeri Schlickbernd Jeri. How are you?

Jeri Schlickbernd (00:26.654)
I’m great, Mike. Thank you for having me. I’m excited to be here.

Michael Stansbury (00:31.542)
Yes, ma’am. Thank you for being here. We’re going to get into your story in just a moment. But first at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers and real estate entrepreneurs, two to five X their businesses to allow them to build the businesses they’ve always wanted and to allow them to live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. Jeri, I’ve got to ask you, I want to know this first, before we get into what you’re doing today to help the most people, what’s your origin story? How did you pivot into real estate?

What were you doing beforehand? Kind of tell us about that.

Jeri Schlickbernd (01:02.167)
my gosh, so I kind of grew up around real estate.

In a sense, I’m from really small town in Nebraska, so they don’t even have realtors. The local insurance guy sells land and farmland. But my dad is a commercial developer, a commercial builder. So he builds like Super Walmarts and things like that, and always was interested in real estate. saw my dad draw architecture plans. So it was always kind of in the back of my mind. And as I became an adult,

It’s so funny because I traveled for work after college. I was a meeting planner for Fortune 500 companies and it was time to settle down and this is how naive I was. I googled travel and real estate and timeshare came up and I had never heard of timeshare and I was like this sounds awesome. So I lived in Arizona at the time and I had to get my real estate license in order to sell timeshare there. I did that for one year.

because I was awful at it. I’m way too naive and honest for that industry. So I did it for a year and then I became a realtor because that was the next logical thing to do. Did that for several years. I built teams. I’ve had my broker’s license in three different states. I’m still a broker in two states.

Michael Stansbury (02:14.254)
you

Jeri Schlickbernd (02:31.018)
That led into property management. I met my husband about 10 years later, who’s a contractor. And so realtor and contractor kind of went together and we started investing. So we started with flipping houses.

in Omaha at the time. And in the Omaha area, we flipped about 300 properties in a 10 year, not quite 10 year period. And then of course, like most investors, we wanted to grow and do bigger things. And we started moving into multifamily. We’ve done development and we started teaching other investors how to do it. So I’ve been doing this for a really long time, longer than I care to admit.

Michael Stansbury (03:10.846)
awesome. So, yeah. Well, it’s interesting. love how the, you know, one of the things is like, sometimes when you’re beginning in this industry, even though you had the background, right, your dad was, you know, in real estate, commercial real estate, you know, we always, the fact that you went through the timeshare thing and you realized, in order to sell these things, I’ve got to kind of, kind of ignore my core values. And you’re like, I can’t do this too much. But you’re right. It’s a really good lead into being a real estate.

Jeri Schlickbernd (03:36.449)
Yeah.

Michael Stansbury (03:39.82)
So were you and your husband, was he contracting? So he was a, when you were flipping houses, did he also have a construction business kind of vertical as well? You guys help people there? Yeah, tell us a little bit about that.

Jeri Schlickbernd (03:46.988)
Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So he started his own construction company in 2004. I met him at the end of 2010 when I moved back to Nebraska, which is where I’m originally from. And

At the time, that was 2010, which the real estate crash hit Omaha about that time in 2010. And so I was actually a short sale expert. So I was selling short sales to investors and my husband’s construction company was renovating them. And it didn’t take very long for us to say, a minute, the investor is making way more money than we are.

We felt like, you know, and we’re already doing the work. We just had to figure out the financing part and understand how that worked. So we started, yeah, we started with three houses, like one at a time, but all three of them were in a process.

And another great deal came up. And so we asked my husband’s father to invest with us. And so he was our first other investor. And we just grew it pretty quickly. At one point, we were doing 40 to 45 properties in a year.

Michael Stansbury (05:09.12)
Yeah, that’s a good rhythm. Really, that’s a strong business. so during that time, know, flipping all these houses, over 300 houses. And so when did you transition into like multifamily? How did that look? And did you still continue to flip houses or how did the business kind of evolve?

Jeri Schlickbernd (05:28.716)
Yeah. So we did, we bought our first multifamily in 2018 with a partner who today you may even know of him, but today him and his current partner have a few thousand multifamily doors. They went really big in the syndication route, but just like us, he was all single family and we like nervously bought a 20 unit together.

And we realized like, that actually wasn’t that hard. And now we have 20 more tenants who are helping to build this with us.

And yes, we kept flipping houses. You know, the deals weren’t as good as they were when we started. And so the number slowed down and we started focusing more on multifamily. But we have the construction company. We had also started a property management company during that time to manage what we had and manage what some of our other investors had.

So we were growing property management, construction. I had a real estate team. We own our own small brokerage. So we had all of these verticals going at the same time. And they, you know, it was, it was good. Everybody wants to go vertical, but I will tell you, I’ll repeat, my partner.

who only focus on growing multifamily assets has several thousand doors today. And we spend a lot of time growing, trying to grow these other businesses, which were, have been okay, but not the same level of success. And so I’m not sure that I would do it that way again, honestly. Um, it just, um, you know, it’s like the next thing, like, like, sure, we can do that. We can do that. And we would just figure it out. We’re both,

Michael Stansbury (07:06.722)
Right.

Jeri Schlickbernd (07:22.718)
hustlers and very motivated. And so, you know, when everybody talks about going vertical, I’m like, yeah, I get it.

And it is difficult, you know, even when you have team of people around you, it’s difficult unless you can find the you have to find the right operators of each business that can really help you take it to the next level. It definitely does help in the slow periods because you always have income coming from something. But, you know, we’ve like all entrepreneurs, you have hiccups and one business might have to pay for

Michael Stansbury (07:36.685)
Yes.

Jeri Schlickbernd (08:02.75)
lost that month in another business. so, you know, it’s not a, it’s great, but it’s also, you’re juggling so many different avenues of revenue and that can be good, but in a service industry, it’s much more difficult than just like selling a widget, you know?

Michael Stansbury (08:22.19)
Right. Yeah, so I think I understand exactly. I think what you’re trying to tell our audience is be careful of the distractions. There’s a lot of good data about just focusing on one thing and on one thing until you have that mastered. And then once you feel like you’ve got all your systems and processes down where you can actually hand it off to somebody, then you can probably think about another vertical.

Jeri Schlickbernd (08:32.011)
Yes.

Michael Stansbury (08:49.73)
But until then, until that foundation is set and then you’ve got some walls around and then all the duct work is in place, everybody goes, well, let me start this thing over here from scratch. And then you forget about what you’re building over here. Is that kind of what you’re innovating? Yeah.

Jeri Schlickbernd (09:04.876)
Yes, exactly. Now, you know, we are in a position today because of all of it that we are living the life that we dreamed of, but it

does take your eyes off the ball and you have to be really focused and, you know, that’s one of the things we talked about a bit off camera that I’m sure we’ll address some more, but, you know, you have to be willing to work really hard to make all of those things work and get to that place and you have to be able to divide your focus with the right people in place so that you’re managing the business instead of the day-to-day.

So definitely leverage but with the right systems and people.

Michael Stansbury (09:48.94)
Right. Yeah.

Yeah, so Jeri let’s transition that. We talked a little bit about this beforehand, but from all this experience that you’ve had of the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur and working, really hustling and working a good bit amount of time, most people ask like, they may have a lot of income coming in, but what do they do with their lives? So how are you helping people and coaching people now in this space? What does that look like for you?

Jeri Schlickbernd (10:19.756)
So for me today, I have created a program that I’m really excited about and it’s called Legacy Builders Immersion. And I help people like you and I who have a good thing going but that you start to question is it all worth it? Is all the time that you’re putting into it worth the time away from family? I want to give a shout out to my female investors out there.

When I first started, was the only one in the room and I love going to events today and just seeing how many women are part of it or how many women are even just joining and their husbands and becoming interested. But I think that especially for women, we find that is this worth it? You know, like we’re building all of this stuff, but are we enjoying it? Is it fun? Is it aligned with who we truly are? And for people who are builders and

and aggressive and always pursuing the next deal. It’s so easy to just get caught up in what’s the next deal and how much money can I make and you know like the negotiation like closing the deal and winning the contract. But is it worth like having a heart attack over you know because it can be really stressful right? I’m sure everybody on that’s listening can relate to that.

Michael Stansbury (11:36.046)
Right.

Jeri Schlickbernd (11:44.46)
You know, there’s definitely stressful times and my passion is to help people reconnect with their purpose of doing this because we don’t

We don’t go into real estate investing because we just want to amass $100 million. You know, we go into it because most people want freedom. They want to go to the beach, you know, they want to their toes in the sand and just have mailbox money coming in. But is that what’s happening for you? And I, you know, for so many of us, no, it’s not.

Michael Stansbury (12:15.128)
Right.

Jeri Schlickbernd (12:19.64)
And yeah, personally, I had a few years of where I was like, why am I doing this? It’s so much. And I had to really take a step back and reconnect with who I am, uncover limiting beliefs I didn’t even realize I had. You know, like, for example, with me, we had, you know, we’re worth millions of dollars. And yet in my mind, I’m going, well, how are we going to pay for that?

Michael Stansbury (12:20.024)
Yeah.

Jeri Schlickbernd (12:46.422)
Where are gonna get the money for this? And it was never enough because I had a limiting belief about money that I didn’t even realize that I had. And so my other passion over the past 25 years has been understanding how people work, how our minds work, and just how we operate. Like, why does this happen? Why is one person driven to create a lot of money and other people aren’t?

What it comes down to is your thoughts and beliefs and your unconscious patterns. And so I help people like me, like these are my people, know, type A driven achievers. I help them slow down a little bit and get to the root of that and uncover the blocks that are there and get a clear frame on what are you going for? What are we achieving here and why?

and then opening up that unconsciousness so that you can easily achieve it because that’s possible.

Michael Stansbury (13:54.392)
Thank

Jeri Schlickbernd (13:54.896)
I have some self-paced courses, but the thing that I’m the most excited about is you actually come to my home in Florida for two to three days and we do a deep dive that involves some unconscious work, some reprogramming of your limiting beliefs and thoughts, some fun stuff like deep sea fishing and just transform everything from the inside out and send you home so that you can achieve what you’re going for from a really

I call it a soul aligned space that feels good and in three months after, it also includes one on one coaching with me, of course, things like that. But in three months after that, you will literally have a moment where you wake up and you’re like, my gosh, I love my life. What happens? You know?

Michael Stansbury (14:47.918)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Jeri Schlickbernd (14:52.04)
It can be that simple. And so I’m really passionate about that because it’s made a difference for me and so many of my clients and it makes it make

Michael Stansbury (15:01.526)
Are most your clients in the real estate space or where do people find out about you most, Jeri?

Jeri Schlickbernd (15:09.366)
So most of my clients are real estate investors or agents, a lot of agents as well, and small business owners.

I have on our dreamvestingcapital.com website, dreamvesting, like investing but dream instead of the IN. So we’re investing in our dreams. That’s actually the website for our fund that we manage, but there’s a page called Legacy Builders and you can find the information on my program there. I’m currently revamping my entire coaching page right now.

It will reflect those things, but you can find a lot of good information there. Of course, I’m also on social media, Instagram, and Facebook under Jeri Schlickbernd, which is super hard to spell and super hard to say. So I also go by Jeri Christine, Christine with no H. That’s my middle name, and it’s just much easier to understand and spell.

Michael Stansbury (16:04.504)
Thanks.

Michael Stansbury (16:14.476)
Yes ma’am. You’re not living in Omaha anymore. You’re living in Florida. When did you guys make the move? Are you still doing business in Omaha or are you guys in Florida full-time working? What’s that look like?

Jeri Schlickbernd (16:24.246)
We are. Yeah, so we still have our businesses in Omaha. We we we merged our real estate team with another larger company. We have our property management company, our construction company, and all of our investments right now are still in Omaha.

We actually moved to Florida because my husband is very clear on his dreams and his why. And we had some friends that moved down here to St. Petersburg. And when they moved, he said, if you find a home on the water, let me know. I want a house that I can drive a boat up to. And so.

Six months later, they called and said, Jeri, we found your home. And I was like, that’s great. We’re not ready. Because again, my money program was like, how are we going to do that?

And they said, no, you have to see it. So we came to Florida, well, my husband flew out to Florida, and this house was built by the developer of Reddington Beach, which is one of the big beach communities here in our area in the 1950s. And…

we’re only the third owner. So the people that bought it after him in about 1960 owned it up until 2021 when we bought it. It was originally going to be a vacation rental with some other investor friends of ours. were going to use it and rent it out when we weren’t here. And contractors in Florida are a whole special breed.

Jeri Schlickbernd (18:00.076)
And everyone in Florida talks about it because it is so hard to get somebody to show up when they say they’re going to show up. It’s island time here. It’s it is just not an island, but you would think it was an island. I don’t know if they’re fishing or surfing or what, but it would have taken us in Omaha six months, like nine months on a bad day, took a year and nine months. And so our investor.

Michael Stansbury (18:09.663)
Island time,

Michael Stansbury (18:25.294)
Did you guys take help flying your help from Omaha to there?

Jeri Schlickbernd (18:30.236)
Yeah, yeah, we did. We did. We tried to get him to go. so, yeah, our investor friends got sick and tired of it and wanted out. So we bought them out and we said, Hey, this is our dream. Why not? So we sold our home in Omaha and moved down here a little over two years ago. And now we get to look at the ocean every day. And it’s pretty incredible. And yeah, I

Michael Stansbury (18:49.941)
awesome. I love it.

Jeri Schlickbernd (18:55.934)
I hope that for every real estate investor, my wish is that you get to live your dreams because of it, because it is pretty wonderful.

Michael Stansbury (19:08.142)
That’s awesome. Well, Jeri, I appreciate the information about we got the information that you have. We’ll put all that in the show notes below. So if you’re somebody that wants is interested in hearing more about how Jeri can help you out, the information about her coaching program and what she’s doing will be down in the show notes. Jeri, thank you for being on the Real Estate Pros podcast. Really appreciate hearing your story. It’s a it’s a great story about just the peaks and valleys of real estate investing and taking what you’ve learned.

your life experience and helping other people. I’m sure you’ve got, I’m sure you’re impacting people in a great way. Any final thoughts for our audience?

Jeri Schlickbernd (19:45.104)
Mike, just like I said, I just really hope that if you’re on this path, stay the path because it’s the best avenue that I know for anyone to create wealth. It doesn’t matter how smart you are, it doesn’t matter your background, or it doesn’t matter if you have money even to invest. There’s so many creative ways to invest in real estate and it really can be the tool that makes your dreams come true.

Thank you so much for having me on the podcast today. was a pleasure meeting you.

Michael Stansbury (20:14.945)
awesome.

Michael Stansbury (20:19.416)
Pleasure meeting you too. Guys, thanks for watching the Real Estate Pros Podcast. Do all the things, like and subscribe, comment below and get in touch with Jeri down there in Florida if you need our help. Thanks everybody. We’ll see you next time.