Create Your Dream Life: The Power of Real Estate Investing

Stephen S. (00:03.438)
Welcome to the show where we interview the nation’s leading real estate entrepreneurs Welcome back to the show if you’re joining us for a second third or hundredth time and welcome if it’s your first you’re in for a real treat today I’ve got a duo I’ve got Omer and Kimberly Ashkenazi and we are going to be Talking about a dream today. And so how we how we get into this is gonna be a great start

And just remember at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, and real estate entrepreneurs, 2 to 5X their businesses to allow them to build the businesses they’ve always wanted, to allow them to live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. With that being said, Omer, Kimberly, welcome to the show.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (00:46.645)
you, Stephen. Happy to be here.

Stephen S. (00:48.556)
Yeah, I’m super excited to get into our conversation today talking about how to maximize potential and really just talking about a dream, which is what you two are building in the real estate space. Before we get into all that, though, can you give our listeners just a little bit of a background? How you got started in real estate, what that process was like, and then what’s gotten you to where you’re at today?

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (01:13.301)
Well, I’m Israeli and in Israel the cost of living is very high and the salaries are very low. For example, an average apartment will cost about $300,000 and the average rent will be maybe $1,000. When I was in my early 20s, I read a book called Rich Dad Poor Dad that really lit a fire and found itself in the clothes of men.

Maybe a different life is possible. Maybe I can own a lot of real estate. And I met Kimberly about the same time. She’s American. And we decided to move here to start building our dream, which is we want to be full-time real estate investors. We want to have a passive income portfolio that continues to grow without us doing anything. And in the last…

I don’t know, more than 10 years we are building ourself, we’re building our dream and I’m getting closer every day.

Right? I would say a few things. One is like he’s describing from an early stage, knew as young people when we’re looking at the future and what could it possibly hold for us. To me, real estate was a great opportunity in the US is what I’m saying and other parts of the world, but really looking at how real estate, how it’s done, how it…

Stephen S. (02:22.8)
I love it. No

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (02:48.661)
what happens with it over time when you’re an owner, obviously how it’s treated from a tax perspective, that’s a huge part of it. But to me, real estate was like a beautiful key to building long-term wealth. And so from an early stage, we have been thoughtful about how we’re building our business together, looking for synergy, looking for a way, I heard on a podcast, I think a Bigger Pockets years ago, we listened to so much Bigger Pockets earlier on. Oh my gosh.

And the person being interviewed said what really drove him was laziness. He just, you know, was always doing something creative and always very almost kind of a hustler because he felt lazy. He just wanted to create a business where he could kind of take his hands off. So, you know, I, we love how with real estate, if you’re thoughtful and just if you keep going, it’s a great way that as it gets bigger and bigger to a certain point, depending on the type of real estate you do,

it can be more hands off. That’s a beautiful thing. Yeah, and also I don’t think that our goal never changed. So since we started, it’s the same goal. Maybe different ways to get it, but we’re always focusing, we stay very focused on what we want to do and how we want to do it.

Stephen S. (04:09.442)
What is that goal?

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (04:12.081)
is to have a passive income income portfolio that you know keep growing without us doing anything to it so do a lot of work now and then it’s just like planting a tree you know we want to provide enough shade so it’s taking some time but then once the tree is growing up it’s just going to keep growing without us doing anything to it the roots are big enough

Stephen S. (04:35.084)
Why is passive income important to you all?

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (04:38.581)
Because it’s going to free our time. We’re not going to be slaves to money. you know, it’s a short ride here. And life is a short ride and we want to enjoy it as much as possible. And passive income can free us. We can spend more time with our kids. We can actually give them something when we move on. And just have a better life. The biggest asset is time. The biggest asset is time.

Stephen S. (05:04.782)
Yeah.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (05:08.777)
We don’t know how much it does we have.

Stephen S. (05:08.878)
100 % agree.

You got now Kimberly, let me ask you this because you got this you got this stud over here that comes to you one day and it’s like I’m quitting my job. You know what I mean? And like we’re going to do real estate. What were you were you? Did you have a background in real estate previous to this or like what was that like when Omer came to you? It’s like we’re doing real estate. What was that like? Was that a long series of conversations or was it like, hey, we’re going all in? How did that process and what were you feeling and thinking during that season?

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (05:42.943)
Well, we had from the beginning been working towards that. That had been the goal. So he got a job, I got a job, but we always wanted those jobs to be in something that would support our real estate goals. So initially he was in construction work. So our portfolio is in residential, but that gives him a good understanding of what we’re dealing with. My first job was really more like learning the community because we wanted to understand we invest near us.

Stephen S. (05:56.749)
Hmm.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (06:12.725)
Most of our portfolio is within an hour drive. my first job was working within the community and then after that I worked at various jobs in housing for a few years. But I mean I would say the fact that I was nine months pregnant and he was like, all right, that’s it, I’m quitting and jumping in with two feet. That was kind of interesting timing, but that’s okay. I mean the beautiful thing, and anytime that I meet young people,

especially if they’re pre-kids or early, before they started having kids, like, my gosh, take advantage of this time because this is when you can burn the midnight oil, you can just like, work, work, work, work, work, work, there’s not a crying mouth that you have to stop and feed or you don’t have that obligation that you absolutely have to prioritize that. You can’t say, baby, I have to go take this phone call. So, but when you’re…

before that time, then that’s the opportunity to take the risks and you know, like just make the magic happen and more creative and risky things that it’s much harder to do as you have children and get a little older. And also, like I thought you pushed me too quick, but it doesn’t matter. Probably. Yeah. Also, you can always find another job. You cannot always just go and start your business. Like life.

gets in the way and like right now we have you know it will be more complicated to go and start a business when you have three kids not just one so yeah I quit my job when when Kimberly was nine months pregnant with our first born and because we came here to build our business not someone else and I believe in him and I believe in me and I feel like that anytime we’re either building our own dream or we’re building someone else’s

Stephen S. (07:31.342)
Mm.

Stephen S. (07:57.422)
Well, that resonates a lot with me too, because if it kind of like we were sharing before we were before we hopped on the show, you know, for even me right now, I have a two and a half year old and a literal one month old baby. And thanks. But so to the exact point of what you mean, it’s like that changes so much so quickly. And those are I have four kids total, but those are my two newest. Right.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (08:12.311)
Congratulations! good time!

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (08:22.293)
Yeah.

Stephen S. (08:26.942)
And to your exact point, like you there that does take away from your ability to do things without sacrificing something else that might be more important because at the end of the day, life isn’t meant to just be worked all the way through. It’s meant to be experienced and meant to be enjoyed. And so to your point, I would just really stress that for anybody that doesn’t have kids yet, especially couples that work well together, because that’s another dynamic you two have seemed to be able to figure out.

as being actual partners. So, and I guess that would lead right into my next question is like, what is it, how important has it been for y’all to prioritize your relationship versus the business itself as well? Because I think sometimes we get lost and that’s all we talk about.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (08:58.389)
It’s a word.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (09:17.631)
You didn’t tell me this question was going to be on the interview. my goodness.

Stephen S. (09:22.124)
I didn’t know it was gonna be on the interview until I asked it.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (09:26.337)
Go ahead, go ahead. Let me see. So a memory that I have is in the first house we lived in, which first of all we bought at a short sale. The house like fell through, came back on the market and we were very lucky to get it. It was just this great little home. But it had a large bedroom. It was a townhouse and the whole top floor was the master bedroom.

And so our office was in our bedroom, which I hate that like mixing energy. I mean like, my gosh, that was the season, right? And so even now it has taken time and discipline to prioritize our relationship and draw the line when necessary because it is very easy to constantly be, first of all, as our own business owner.

Stephen S. (09:58.67)
Yeah.

Stephen S. (10:16.6)
Hmm.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (10:22.409)
and you know small business it’s easy to work 24-7 you know this person calls and that person texts and if he’s not answering you know in some instances there’s someone else that will take over in many instances you know following up on a lead or closing a deal that’s him and so it’s hard to draw that line and be like you know what it’s 6 p.m. on Friday that needs to wait regardless of what it is

And for our relationships and things that we have learned with time is now we’re very fortunate that we have a babysitter that is regularly scheduled. She’s scheduled three, like one day a week, I’d say three weeks out of the month, where she picks him up from school and we use that as just a regular date night on a Monday night. you know, most Mondays by far. And…

We used to, like when we would close the deal, we would go to a nice restaurant every time. But I certainly remember the conversations early on where it was a disagreement that it wasn’t a priority, our relationship. And so it’s a work in progress. And I think like anything, your relationship or your business or anything, it’s got to be iterative. You’ve got to be paying attention to what’s going on and adjust.

to optimize. So to answer your question, it’s extremely important. It’s not easy to work with your spouse and there is nothing more important than your marriage. And we have had the conversation before where I told him I was like, I’m done. I’m done with that part of the business. This is not good for us. Because you absolutely find yourselves in those moments of like, wow, we’re having a disagreement about something work related. And if we weren’t,

Stephen S. (11:56.814)
You bet.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (12:13.205)
If this were just a work relationship that’d be annoying but since this is also our marriage like we have to figure out how to put it in this place. it’s not for everybody. It’s not for everybody and at first we did everything together. small decision, every single thing. I mean to ask Kimberley, Kimberley to ask Omer, you know what kind of color, what color, what kind of… And now everybody has his lane. just, everybody picks what he’s good at or what his competitive advantage is. Yeah.

and we just stick to it and we just complement each other. But it takes time, you need to figure it out.

Stephen S. (12:50.574)
Sure. Man, if you didn’t like me asking that question, you’re going to hate the follow up. so, so when you see, because this is speaking so much to me because my wife and I are very similar. Like we’ve, we’ve been, I mean, basically business owners the last three years. And so whatever I’m dealing with, whatever we’re talking about, it seems like most of the conversation, sometimes even

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (12:56.915)
Go ahead.

Stephen S. (13:18.87)
Revolves around work when you’re together and there’s no kids and it’s just you. How do you shut that off to actually create? engaging like relationship with one another but also shut work completely off or do you Fall into that trap of just talking about it that’s all you talk about. What does that look like for y’all? So I think that’s something a lot of couples struggle with myself and my wife included

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (13:21.511)
Yeah, yeah.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (13:42.933)
I don’t think it’s all, I think it’s easy to fall into it, it just needs to be a decision. know, like we’re going out to lunch or dinner and we’re not going to talk business. That’s it, know, figure it out. We’re just not going to do this. And go ahead, Kaylee. So I would also say, I would say this is a little more my field too, is putting in the intentional effort to create the non-work opportunities. You mean our, I mean we’re working on it together.

Stephen S. (13:49.006)
you

Hmm.

Stephen S. (14:08.332)
Mm.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (14:11.483)
Yes, right. I hope that’s exactly what I said. But also any relationship, marriage, whatever, relationship, when you are raising children together and you’re also busy, this is a different version of that same kind of trap where you get into the rhythm where the only thing you’re talking about is kid logistics. It’s like, who’s speaking up? Who’s running on? Did you get this?

And so to create those moments where you are spending positive time together, you’re not just, you know, ending up together at night when you’re exhausted or, you know, giving each other a kiss on the way out the door, you have to carve out that time. And I would say really it has been such a help that we schedule it once a week that it’s automatically scheduled. It’s been a relief that it just automatically comes up, but also…

I think it’s very helpful to experience things together. So it’s been newer for us, yeah, I would say, but like going to go to take a hike somewhere or if you can go on a vacation, even with the family, but getting yourself out of like we, our office is also at home. And so it’s important for us to enjoy time together, either as a couple or as a family outside of the physical environment as well.

to create the positive experiences when your mind is a little more free to think about things other than work. However, I mean, it’s not possible that a day goes by that we don’t talk about work. Certainly not at this stage. We’re still in the building stage. So just remember to have fun while you’re at it. Yeah, work is work and you gotta put limits, but just have fun. Don’t take it too seriously, it’s just work. Yup.

Stephen S. (15:46.798)
Sure. Yeah.

Stephen S. (15:56.354)
Love it. Let’s talk a little bit more about the dream. What is the dream for you all?

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (16:06.965)
For me, dream is having control over our time. Being comfortable, doing things efficiently, teaching our kids, sharing with them our values, and teaching them that the value of not being a sheeple.

Stephen S. (16:09.992)
Don’t speak at the same time now. Don’t fight over who goes first.

Stephen S. (16:19.042)
Mm.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (16:31.007)
that there’s the way that it appears that things can be, well, you know, there’s one way to do things, which is the obvious way, or there are certainly more efficacious ways to be a little creative and do things a little differently. And yes, you get laughed at and yes, you might fall, but then it’s way more efficient, Pareto all day. So, but you know, control over our time. That’s the for me. Well, I’ll tap into this and I’ll say like, my, my, the dream for me looks like a lot of options, you know?

Take money out of the equation of life. And now you have a lot of time. You don’t need to go to work. You don’t need to worry about anything that’s financial and related. You want to go on a vacation? Let’s go on vacation. You want to go there for a week? Let’s do this. You want to explore life? Let’s do this. You have just a lot of options. And you just choose whatever makes you feel good. You want to go to work? Go to work. You want to close deal? Go close deals. You don’t want to do it? That’s fine too. But you have…

100 % control on your life. For me, is the truth. You don’t have to do anything that you don’t want to do.

Stephen S. (17:41.87)
What are?

What are some of those tangible things that having like if somebody just dropped 500 million in your lap tomorrow, right? And obviously if you had that, you threw it in a market, you’d make eight figures a year just on returns, never have to work again. What would you be doing a week from now? If that was the case, what would you actually be doing? How would life change for you?

Stephen S. (18:23.97)
Well, because we’re taking money out of the equation, right? So we’re just saying, OK, awesome, because that’s what we just talked about. Like we want to take money as an equation of we don’t have it has no control over you. So what would you do differently if you didn’t have to work? What would life look like at that point? What would you be doing? What would you be?

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (18:26.93)
Right.

We will.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (18:40.669)
I think we’ll travel more.

Stephen S. (18:43.191)
Mmm.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (18:44.031)
We will travel more, expose our kids to different cultures, different segments of the world. That’s what I see. And I would say that more of our time would be spent giving back. Yes. Either just through volunteer work or anything that we have learned, sharing it with others. Yep. But spending more time in service. Yeah. We’ll give more. We will get more, all this kind of stuff.

Stephen S. (19:00.312)
Hmm.

Stephen S. (19:09.134)
Yeah.

Stephen S. (19:13.258)
I love that. I’ve been asking people for the better half of a decade. When I talk to people who say, just love my job and I’m like, you do. And I’m like, would you do it for free? they go, well, no, because I got to pay my bills. And I’m like, so you just really like it. And they go, well, yeah. And I’m like, so why don’t you go get rich and take money out of the equation and then just go do it for free if you love it so much and do it as a service to people?

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (19:14.377)
This was so-

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (19:27.445)
We’re not.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (19:39.955)
Yep.

Stephen S. (19:42.04)
but then also have the control of what you’re doing on a Tuesday morning at 10 o’clock. You know what I mean? Because ultimately that’s what it’s all about, right? The ultimate vision, I think a lot of why we get into real estate investing is for that ultimate dream of having complete control of time and money not having control of us.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (20:00.637)
Yeah. Amen. And this has been proven as being one of the best vehicles to create health. This is why real estate has so many benefits.

Stephen S. (20:06.819)
Yeah.

Stephen S. (20:10.35)
100%, you bet. with what you’re building right now, what does day to day look like for you and what are you building in this current moment? You have a couple different wings that you focus on within your business. So what’s the main priority for you guys right now in the next 12 to 18 months, let’s say?

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (20:33.457)
Well, that’s a great question. I can answer it out of my sleep. So right now we have a lot of open projects that we purchased to as a whole, you know, a lot of units that we’re turning around and we are doing the burr every time. So we buy, we fix, and then we have a cash cash out refi and then going to the next. So our day to day at the moment, at least for me, and

I will go to the job sites about three times a week. Go check in, see what’s going on, take care of everything that I need to take care of. For example, the city didn’t give us this permit or, I still manage as my own GC and we’re using subcontractors. So I’m running the jobs and I’m running the leads that are coming in. So there will be someone who wants to sell. I’ll go and check this out.

try to close more deals and at the moment we’re doing more wholesaling until we finish our projects. yeah, so if something comes in, so I am not a big fan of the shotgun method of lead generation. So I prefer some people getting 100 leads a day or 100 leads a week.

and then you need to shuffle through all the noise and then maybe you want to two deals. I prefer to get 10 leads and close one. So our lead system is kind of different. We’re not getting too many leads, but what we’re getting is very quality. So we’re not chasing up that much. So it’s people that want to talk to us.

So that’s something we’re focusing on. Again, also to free our time. Again, I don’t want to talk to 100 people with any of those. I have no intention. So my day to day, running the jobs, try to close deals. How’s your day to day keeping going? Day to day, work wise, I don’t know, it’s changed a lot. Because now with the three young kids, a lot of

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (22:54.025)
Until very recently even in the last year. I was definitely the front person in managing banking relationships But we’re just the face You know and underwriting But he’s gotten really solid with both of those

But we are at a place now where we want, at least for the next, I mean it’s interesting that you asked 12 to 18 months because over the next, I would say 12 to 24 months, we want to just stabilize what we have and take a little bit of time to just like optimize, tighten things up. You know, I’m starting to work with our attorney and CPA about restructuring our entities a little bit.

Stephen S. (23:27.374)
Hmm.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (23:41.725)
And so just tighten up loose ends, but just kind of cruise. Just take some time to not be on the chase for a little bit. And then for me personally, after doing that for a little bit, want to, what we have is primarily small multi-families. And I want to sell what we have in Maryland. Maybe not everything, but a lot of it.

and relocate our portfolio to Pennsylvania or Virginia. So I’m saying that as my personal ambition of something we might get into in 18 months or two years. He is thrilled about this for anyone that might be watching this. His face is just saying how much he supports my plan. So I’m gonna check back in in a year or four and he’ll be like, she’s so loving it!

Stephen S. (24:31.278)
I love it. Well, man, we’re we’re already coming up on our time here and this has been such a great such a great show. But before we kind of wrap up, let me ask you one last question and then we’ll we’ll probably have to have you come back for a part two or something like.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (24:48.789)
We would love it.

Stephen S. (24:51.722)
If you had to go back to the beginning of when you got started, but you could take all the lessons and all of the losses, the wins, the good and the bad, and you had to do it all over again when you started with all that knowledge, what would you do different and what would you do the same?

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (25:10.569)
Got one?

I think if possible I would just do things faster, a little bit faster. But I don’t, I think that we have been very thoughtful and we’ve done a great job.

Stephen S. (25:22.158)
Mm.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (25:33.255)
You’re right, but let me tell you my thing. it’s funny that you asked it because I told it to so many people. You some people come and ask me for advice and I always say like, if I would have started from the beginning, here’s what I would do. So we came here very motivated to buy as many units as fast as possible. So if I were to start over with the knowledge that I have today, I wouldn’t buy a four unit apartment building with an FHA.

Stephen S. (25:45.997)
Yeah.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (26:02.549)
The 3 % down, 4 units and I would have done it every 2 years I would have bought 4 more units. So in 6 years I would have had 12. You you need to live in 1 unit. you would live in all of us? Yes I would. But how would we do that? I’m not living with you. Okay I would have found a different wife. I’m just kidding never. Never. if you want to get 3 kids.

Stephen S. (26:05.902)
3%, I think.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (26:32.117)
Three kids, you find a place that you like, you buy, you live in one unit, you rent the other three, every two years you buy this for, I don’t four, six years, and then you have 12 units. And then on those six years, you keep learning, you’re going to meetups, and you start applying. But then you have a base. You have 3 % down on 12 units, and now you have the base. You can even not do anything for the next 10 years and you’ll still be.

Go find a job. You’re going to move every two years to somewhere that’s small multi-family. If I don’t have kids, 100%. 100%. I think that’s a reasonable thing to do once or twice. It depends what your goal. If your goal is to buy as many units as soon as possible and you don’t have, and you’re just getting started during your 20s, I don’t think there is a better route. I can go and buy anything. You can use the system for a 3%.

four units, just live there for a year or two, go buy another four units. So that’s what I will do if you want to get as many units as fast as possible and your wife supporting that idea.

Stephen S. (27:42.84)
You bet, love that. And just to throw it out there, Kim, I moved five times in three years. I’ve now been in one place for the longest I’ve been in it since pre-COVID. that’s, yeah, it’s not fun. I would have rather had movers every single time, but you know, it is what it is. And hey, if it was gonna make me wealthy, I don’t know, maybe I would probably take.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (27:55.572)
Thank

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (28:08.957)
Yeah, something else, you know, to your listeners, if you’re just getting started, just be focused and don’t give up. If don’t give up, you will succeed. Because it’s not, it’s not, it may be simple. It might be simple, but it’s not easy. Ask questions, invite people to coffee. Yeah. One of the biggest things that helped me was a mentor. find someone that you like their day to day and do what you want to do.

Stephen S. (28:09.272)
Well y’all.

Stephen S. (28:16.45)
Mm, you bet.

Stephen S. (28:23.886)
Hmm.

Stephen S. (28:30.382)
Hmm.

Stephen S. (28:38.05)
You bet.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (28:38.601)
So if you want to do wholesale, then go get a mentor that does only buy wholesale.

Stephen S. (28:42.42)
Right. Well, Omer, Kimberly, thanks so much for joining us today. If anyone wants to learn more about you, what you’re working on, where should they go for that?

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (28:50.645)
Well we have a Facebook page, it’s akaahousebuyers.com or on Facebook. A is in Apple, K is in Kite, O in Octopus. Or Ashkenazi, Kimberly, Omar.

Stephen S. (29:00.705)
There you go.

There you go.

Stephen S. (29:13.204)
Awesome. Well, y’all, you’ve heard it here first. Hope you enjoyed today’s show. And if you got as much value out of it as I did, I know you’ll be off to the races. We’ll see you on the next episode.

Omer & Kimberly Ashkenazi (29:22.768)
Thank you very much.