Building Wealth Through Real Estate and Insurance

Stephen Schmidt (00:03.15)
Welcome to the show where we interview the nation’s leading real estate entrepreneurs. It’s your host, Stephen Schmidt, and I’m back at it like a bad habit. And I’m grateful that you’re listening today. I got a really special treat for you guys in the studio. And I know I always say that, but this time I really mean it. And usually I mean it. We’ve got Kelly Fasterling in the house who she is an absolute phenom across multiple different industries coming from a long career in

tech, she started investing really back in the 90s, but really started taking it crazy serious after the 2008 crash and including she’s actually purchased 90 investment doors in five years and sold off a 43 home package, a 31 unit apartment building. And she currently still has rentals long term and midterm. And we’re going to be able to blend not just the real estate investing side, but some of the real tea side with

Pretty impressive wrap sheet of if I recall over 12 billion in sales for the real estate side.

Kelly Fasterling (01:04.867)
With 4.3 billion in sales, 12,000 transactions.

Stephen Schmidt (01:10.318)
12,000 transactions. There it is. 4.3 billion in real estate transactions on the realty side. I appreciate the correction and also has her hands deeply ingrained in the life insurance space, which I’m sure we might get into some tips and tricks and all that without, of course, financial advice being given without all of that. Well, maybe some cash value insurance policies and how that might relate to real estate. So.

Kelly Fasterling (01:13.411)
We were close.

Stephen Schmidt (01:35.854)
We’re going to get into a great conversation. before we do that, just remember folks at Investor Fuel, we help service providers, real estate entrepreneurs and real estate investors, 2 to 5X their businesses so they can build the businesses they’ve always wanted in order to live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. With that being said, it’s the longest intro I’ve ever done, Kelly, because you have the longest rap sheet of anybody that I’ve ever had on. Welcome to the show.

Kelly Fasterling (01:57.86)
Thank you, thank you for having me on.

Stephen Schmidt (02:00.693)
You bet. Grateful you’re here spending some time. I asked you in the pre-show, I was like, where have you been hiding? Because somebody that’s done all of this, usually they toot their horn a little bit more in the online space. But I’m glad you came out from under that rock and are here on the show today. Do you get out and do this quite a bit? Or is this not something you do very often?

Kelly Fasterling (02:24.791)
Just starting, I host my own webinar. It’s the Wealth Mastery Blueprint and I help people understand kind some of these basic concepts, outside of a few Facebook ads, I’m not out there very much.

Stephen Schmidt (02:41.133)
It’s amazing. I always love it when we find these hidden gems. So Kelly, tell us this. So that way we can kind of set the frame and the tone for the rest of the show. For some folks, can you give us a little bit of your background and what got you even interested in real estate in the first place coming from the high tech industry and how’d you get into it and how did you get where you’re at today?

Kelly Fasterling (03:07.203)
Exactly. Thank you for asking. So I was high tech software development 25 years. Beautiful career, real volatile. A couple layoffs. Got laid off within a month. Husband left, three kids, 11, 13, 15. No job, no support, 100 % financially responsible. And then same era, lost my 401k, half of my 401k two times in a row.

And so it was just kind of a devastating setback coming through that era. I knew it had to change. It couldn’t keep going the same way. So I leaned into Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad. Did you read that book, Stephen? That one was a changer for me. And then his second one, The Cash Flow Quadrant, another changer, but moving from being an employee, which I had been for 25 years.

Stephen Schmidt (03:49.494)
I have,

Stephen Schmidt (03:58.316)
Right.

Kelly Fasterling (04:00.835)
to really shifting from self-employed to creating leverage on both assets and on business. That was important to me. So I started shifting that direction, started figuring out how to invest in real estate, because not only did I read his book, I did his full mentoring series. So $26,000 later, I’m in, I’m in, I’m buying my first house. And then it got challenging to find one. I’m in Colorado Springs and…

our rent ratios, especially today, are a little bit off. You pay a lot for less rent than I can do in other areas of the country. And then I got connected in with some folks that would invest in other areas of the country and they’d researched them to find the landlord-friendly areas and provide all the services. And I started going that way and that was powerful.

Stephen Schmidt (04:38.797)
Sure.

Stephen Schmidt (04:52.235)
You bet. Yeah, you know, to your point there, Rich said, poor dad. I actually read the cashflow quadrant first and a shorter book, but it was something I read in, I want to say two days. And I’m pretty sure I didn’t sleep in that 48 hours because I was thinking to myself, I’ve been lied to this entire time. So it was the most, one of the most eyeopening books that really started my whole self development and entrepreneurial journey myself. So now when you,

Kelly Fasterling (04:59.394)
Okay.

Kelly Fasterling (05:12.769)
Yeah, exactly.

Stephen Schmidt (05:21.505)
When you looked at starting to go outside of your local area, I think this is something obviously in very hot markets people have to do. Like nobody’s really investing in investment properties in California right now, right? There are some, right.

Kelly Fasterling (05:36.867)
Not very landlord friendly. The Chinese are coming in, they love it.

Stephen Schmidt (05:44.526)
That is a good point. But almost almost 100 % across the board investors I talked to that are actually like I’m buying and holding property like they are not doing it where they live in California. They’re like I go to Memphis, Tennessee for that. So what are some of the challenges that come from owning property that’s not local?

Kelly Fasterling (05:58.956)
Exactly, got some great properties there.

Kelly Fasterling (06:10.155)
Yeah, you get to decide as an investor whether you want to do it yourself and we have or whether you want to engage with somebody who can do it for you. I’ve done both. Doing it myself, it was a lot of, this a good market? Where in this town are the better properties? And then finding them and finding the team because you still need the realtors, the rehab crew, you need the mortgage, you need all the pieces.

So that’s one way to do it. And when we did it that way, it took a lot of time. And at the end of the day, as I look at that method versus the method of leveraging people that just are serious about doing this in certain market areas, and they’ve already amassed the team, and they’ve got the right people there, and they buy in bulk the paint and the carpet and the stuff. When I shifted and moved to the direction of getting the support,

that just skyrocketed because now all I needed to do is fund it and it just started to take off. And I was then able to take these properties, of course we started, it was Vegas and Phoenix at the time. And then those markets rose enough that we could either sell or refinance out of them and shift them to Orlando or Memphis or Indianapolis. And it was just a powerful growth opportunity to take

the starting base of a couple properties and have them grow.

Stephen Schmidt (07:40.462)
Certainly. Now, so at what point did you add in the, I’m gonna also start a realty business and get agents and then I’m gonna do insurance. At what point did that evolve over time where you saw more opportunity and realized I could vertically integrate and circulate money but within multiple industries?

Kelly Fasterling (08:05.953)
Yeah, I’m a massive believer of multiple streams of income. Real estate right now is a tougher market, but life insurance doesn’t have to be kind of thing. having multiple income streams, I think is a valuable asset, plus they compliment. I got my real estate license because I was referring people to how I invest in real estate and I was getting paid. Every house they bought, I got a referral fee.

Stephen Schmidt (08:20.749)
I agree.

Kelly Fasterling (08:30.739)
As I started down my money management path of investing in an asset that was 100 % liquid that I could use for my real estate, 100 % safe, great tax efficiency, just like a Roth without being a Roth, because if you’re a high income earner, you can’t get into a Roth anyway, and then it got great returns. so coupling that asset with my real estate was a powerful combo. So I did it for me, and then I started bringing my real estate friends in.

And finally I looked at Michael and said, Michael, how do I get paid? And he said, you have to have a license. I can do that. So that’s how I branched into the cash value life insurance realm. And that’s been just powerful as we work with people that a lot of high net worth folks are moving that direction because they can’t invest in the Roth and they’re worried about where taxes are going to go and they want to get it on exit that’s going to be tax free long term.

Stephen Schmidt (09:12.599)
Mm-hmm.

Kelly Fasterling (09:29.227)
So there’s a lot of power in that. So that took me that direction, which then moved me into the securities world and getting that securities license and being a full fiduciary for people and helping them look at the different options they have and being fairly neutral. There’s some great benefit in the securities world, great benefit in the life insurance and annuities world, great benefit in real estate. Where do you want to play? What do you want to do? I can give you the pros and cons of each one of them, but where do you want to play?

Stephen Schmidt (09:59.566)
Now, so which if you could only do one forever and I’ll even box it out as far as if you could only invest, if you could only sell real estate as a broker, owner, or realtor, or you could only do insurance and securities, which of the three are you the most passionate about?

Kelly Fasterling (10:19.555)
Wow, that’s a big question because I think they all collaborate so well. The real estate world is a forever world. Everyone has to own a home, live somewhere. The leverage available in the real estate world based on the various models is a powerful tool. So even though the real estate industry is down a bit right now,

Stephen Schmidt (10:25.719)
Yeah.

Kelly Fasterling (10:47.721)
it will swing back in full force and roll again. So that opportunity to create leverage by providing the best platform out there for people to use is very, powerful. when I kind of look at where and how do I spend my time, I love them all. And as I connect with people, it’s what’s good for you? What do you need? Let me help you through it.

But where do I actively spend a lot of time? It’s growing the real estate team.

Stephen Schmidt (11:22.413)
Okay, and and ultimately like with insurance and annuities securities How do you blend like? Because this I’m trying to find the sticking point because this is so interesting to me by the way for context I also have my insurance license and have for a decade So I I know that space very well, and I know how complicated it is

Kelly Fasterling (11:43.233)
Okay. You did that well.

Stephen Schmidt (11:49.09)
To continue doing the CE and then even further to go get a series 7 or a 69 or whatever right like it’s complex stuff so Like I get lost in variable annuities, even though I can’t sell them technically, but I get lost in just understanding those half the time so Like why do you keep?

Adding more on is it just so that way you can literally be the one-stop shop for basically everybody or or what’s the strategy behind that?

Kelly Fasterling (12:21.121)
Well, I’m a massive proponent of multiple streams of passive income. My goal is a pretty big number with seven passive income streams. I have six today. They aren’t at that number yet, but it’s continuing to add. for me, it’s more about providing value. It’s about connection with people. It’s about seeing what they need. And until we engage in that conversation, I don’t know what they need. I don’t know where I can help.

Stephen Schmidt (12:30.879)
Mm-hmm. Nice. Gotcha.

Stephen Schmidt (12:39.681)
Hmm.

Kelly Fasterling (12:49.389)
but I’m a great connector and I am not an expert in any one of these fields. I’m not the one that you’d say is, that would be the one that would be the proponent on any of them, but I have the team that is the best, I believe, in each one of these areas. And that’s, I’m that connector.

Stephen Schmidt (13:04.343)
Sure. Yeah.

Stephen Schmidt (13:11.287)
Right.

Yeah, and that’s what, man, you took my next question away from me by saying that. Because that’s where I was going with it is you’re not the Patrick Bett David of insurance, you’re not the Ryan Serhant of realty, or the Kit Clothier of real estate investing, but you are able to automate and get the team that is the expert and be the connector of all of the dots. And that’s kind of where I was going with it too is how do you manage

Kelly Fasterling (13:35.831)
Right.

Stephen Schmidt (13:42.048)
all of these different things while also still having the

time flexibility, also the lack of confusion for other people. Cause I think when you switch from thing to thing, which I think a lot of people make that mistake, I’ve done it myself, people then you lose your entire network. You have to rebuild it all over again. And now it’s like, well, we don’t even know what Steven does anymore. Like, is he a this, is he a that, is he a this, is he a that? But when you’re able to build a team, have success, and then add a vertical to your point of getting those multiple streams, it’s ultimately, and tell me if this is an accurate read, it’s not about

you being the person, it’s about you being the person that can create the opportunity for others.

Kelly Fasterling (14:25.865)
And it’s, I see synergy in all of those things. Some people might say, well, real estate, life insurance and securities are all so different. All of us are trying to create that future for ourselves. We’re trying to create that peace of mind in that, for me, financial freedom, financial time, geographical freedom is key to people’s peace of mind. And so if I can provide the tools to help people.

Stephen Schmidt (14:29.708)
Mm-hmm.

Kelly Fasterling (14:53.827)
create that for themselves in the long run, that’s where the value is. So I just think it’s very powerful to be able to go to the 80 % level to describe things. And then when they need to go to the 100 % level, I’ve got the folks that can do that.

Stephen Schmidt (15:14.785)
What do you do to relieve stress?

Kelly Fasterling (15:17.923)
My husband and I love, love, love, love to travel, love culture and seeing how other folks on this earth live. We were spent a month in Thailand. We’re going to go to Greece for three weeks. That is key. I have three sons and only one granddaughter. They aren’t being quite prolific enough yet, but time with family, spend time with my mom, sister and brother on a weekly basis, walk.

Stephen Schmidt (15:39.573)
Yeah, yeah.

Kelly Fasterling (15:46.099)
every day, exercise every day, love love love to be outside. So I’m very

Stephen Schmidt (15:52.897)
I don’t think I know anyone from Colorado that doesn’t love to be outside.

Kelly Fasterling (15:56.846)
doesn’t get outside. It’s a daily thing. I had a fitness trainer come in and he said, what are your priorities? I have to get outside. That is for me the biggest thing is getting outside every day.

Stephen Schmidt (16:12.363)
What are you seeing with, I know you mentioned and I think we’re all seeing the volatility of the real estate market right now. What are you seeing as some major opportunities with everything you’re doing in the next 18 months while real estate is kind of like teetering on a very rocky cliff right now?

Kelly Fasterling (16:35.267)
Yeah, with any shift and change, there’s opportunity. It’s determining where the opportunity is and how to embrace it. For instance, in the real estate world as realtors, real estate agents, according to NAR, 74 % of those agents did not close one transaction last year, and 30 % of them fell out of the industry. Sounds bad, but that’s opportunity.

Because the ones that are in that will take advantage of marketing and getting their name out and leaning in will create that market share in their neck of the woods. And there are a lot of tools to do that, a lot of ways to do that. although it looks like it’s tough times for realtors today, and it is, and it is, there’s opportunity to go after that market share because a lot of people are just pulling back right now.

Likewise, you look at investing in real estate. You 2008 was a tough time for a lot of investors. A lot of them lost their holdings because they were over leveraged. But it was a great time to get in. I was able to start in the Phoenix area, houses that used to be 300,000, I was able to pick up for 100,000. And I was able to grow that portfolio back as the rise came back up. And those people that owned houses,

let them go back to the bank and they’d go down the street and they’d rent one, the same house, for a third of the price. So there’s always opportunity. It’s looking for that silver lining and finding where that opportunity is and navigating. And for me, it’s just being open, being open to listening, keeping an ear to the ground, knowing what’s going on, and being open to things changing because they’re always going to change. And we just get to navigate.

What’s next for us?

Stephen Schmidt (18:32.397)
Love that answer. If you had to go back to the beginning of when you got started, but you could take all of the knowledge you’ve gained over the last couple decades, what would you do different and what would you do the same?

Kelly Fasterling (18:53.783)
Do the same, I would continue to grow at the pace. I would continue to take advantage of the appreciation, because the appreciation just sits in the house until you take advantage of it. So take advantage of the appreciation to grow the portfolio as quickly as I was able to. What I would do differently is on a couple of the bigger projects that we did, we did a 43 home package and an apartment building, we 100 % leveraged.

And 100 % leverage puts you in a spot that is a bit of a challenge. So when COVID came through, and I thought I was well protected because I was in a lot of different states. And with that 100 % leverage, when in my apartment building, half the renters, they weren’t touched by COVID, so it hadn’t come through that area. Half of them knew I couldn’t evict, and they just quit paying.

And so with that 100 % leverage, it put us in a position where expenses were high and we eventually just had to sell it. so things that I would continue to do is continue to kick the tax can down the road with 1031 exchanges, continue to do cost segregation studies and keep my tax bracket at an effective 12%. I would continue to look at opportunity and growth.

regardless of the market. As I got into long-term rentals and looked at the interest rates in this market right now, cash flow gets a little tough. Okay, so what’s an opportunity? Well, midterm rentals. They cash flow a whole lot better than long-term rentals. A lot of people do short-term rentals. I haven’t created that success there, but some people, I have friend that has 16 short-term rentals. She’s created massive success with it. So it’s looking at opportunity and being open.

to doing something different.

Stephen Schmidt (20:51.465)
If you were to give one piece of practical, but also tangible advice that doesn’t include the phrase, just get started. For somebody that’s brand new, what would you have them go do to create a springboard towards future success?

Kelly Fasterling (21:16.983)
I would have them connect in to mentors or to team that can help them. That I would say is probably my biggest springboard was connecting into a group that frankly would do the investing for me and in other markets because I had to go through the brain damage of figuring all of that out and which markets and how and who do I put together? I would have been much, much slower. So it’s just leaning in.

and connecting with the people that can help you do that job. And then at some point you might be able to take off on your own, but I won’t say that just get started, but find a way to create success given your risk profile and your analytical profile and how you go through your thought process. Some people just dive and go, other people have to think about it. And there’s some meat in the middle position there. Get the team to help you.

Stephen Schmidt (22:18.061)
That’s a great answer to that question, by the way. One of the best I’ve heard to that question. I’ve also asked it, I’ve never asked it like that, because I finally, I think I finally hit a moment in my interviewing career, which I’ve asked a few 10, maybe hundreds of thousands of questions to people at this point. And I always ask like, what advice would you give to somebody that’s new? And a lot of times it’s like, just get started, take action. And I’m like,

What’s like a tangible thing somebody can take away? What a beautiful answer. And really to reiterate what you said is it’s essentially get around people smarter than you that are already further ahead than where you’re at and do what they’ve done, learn from them, and then eventually you’ll get it. How important was mentorship for you early on?

Kelly Fasterling (22:48.461)
Bye.

Kelly Fasterling (23:03.971)
Right, right. And then you’ll be able to do the shifts. Yeah. Say that again.

Stephen Schmidt (23:11.064)
Sorry, go ahead. You finish what you say. I’ve got that question pre-loaded. I’ll ask it once you’re done.

Kelly Fasterling (23:14.935)
Yeah, and then you’ll be able to do the shifts. So if you can connect in and enroll following somebody’s system, at some point you’ll be able to say, okay, now I’m willing to branch out and try this. For me, it was getting far enough and saying, yeah, now I’m willing to try a short-term rental. Now I’m willing to try a midterm rental. And I’m willing to head down that path and then I’ll try it a few times and then I can grow it from there. But getting enough experience that you know how to evaluate what the numbers look like.

to know if this is gonna be, you think it’s gonna be a success for you.

Stephen Schmidt (23:49.111)
Yeah, you got it. So, and then my follow-up was how important was mentorship to you early on, masterminds maybe, like how important was that to you when you were getting started and what did you take away from those that really helped you to get the success you now have today?

Kelly Fasterling (24:08.075)
It was being around people that had created success that really gave me that momentum. Had it been just up to me, I would have been slow, frankly. I would have second guessed my decisions. connecting in with the Kiyosaki organization and having mentoring there was very, powerful. It was like a step by step by step, here’s what you do. It was expensive, but it was very powerful.

And it got me started. It got me into my first house. And then I learned by doing that first house what I liked and didn’t like. I don’t like property management. I’m not good at it. I don’t assess people well. I let them stay in my house too long because I believe their stories. And you can’t do that as a property manager. I also didn’t want those phone calls when something went wrong. I’m not that kind of support person. I’m a planner. figuring out where you best play, what your role is.

and then engaging people around you that will do those things that you don’t like or you don’t do very well. But had I not had that, it would have been a slow go and I’d probably still be sitting here talking about it rather than doing it.

Stephen Schmidt (25:24.065)
Well, Kelly, thanks so much for coming on the show today. If people want to connect with you or learn more about you, where should they go for that?

Kelly Fasterling (25:30.561)
Yeah, they can find me at TheWealthMasteryBlueprint.com.

Kelly Fasterling (25:39.783)
And I was lucky to marry into a pretty unique name. If you Google me, I’m probably the only one out there.

Stephen Schmidt (25:49.259)
Really?

Kelly Fasterling (25:50.243)
It’s a wonderful thing. My last name was not so unique. There were a lot of us, but I am lucky now.

Stephen Schmidt (25:58.689)
Well, there you go. love it. Well, thanks so much for being here, folks. Go show her some love from the real estate pros and the investor fuel community. Appreciate her being on and we’ll see you all on the next episode.

Kelly Fasterling (26:08.365)
Thank you, Stephen.

Stephen Schmidt (26:15.896)
Yep, man, what a great show.