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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pro Show, host Erika interviews Yvette Evans, a successful real estate investor who shares her journey from buying her first property in 2013 to building a portfolio of rental properties. Yvette discusses her evolving strategies in real estate, the challenges she has faced, and the importance of networking and building relationships in the industry. She emphasizes the need for resilience in the face of unexpected issues and shares her vision for affordable housing in Philadelphia.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Yvette Evans (00:00)
You just gotta you gotta start, you know, you can’t just talk about it. You have to you have to be about it. It’s whatever it is whether it be real estate rather be cars I don’t care what it is. If it’s your passion You just you got to do it
Erika Proctor (01:47)
everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pro Show. I’m your host, Erika, and today I’m very excited to be chatting with Yvette Evans. She’s been making serious moves in the investing space. Yvette, it’s awesome to have you on the show.
Yvette Evans (02:01)
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thanks for having me, I appreciate you.
Erika Proctor (02:06)
For those tuning in, give us the rundown. How did you get started in investing?
Yvette Evans (02:10)
I got started investing in about 2013. That’s when I bought my first property. I loved everything about it from start to finish. I came into some, was working as an EMT and we had gotten to an accident and
Long story short, I had came into a little bit of money and at that time I had two children and we were renting not far from where I bought my first property. So with the money that I had, I thought it would be the smart thing to do would be to invest it. And what other way to invest it than buying a property. So that’s what I did.
I didn’t come from rich parents, so I had to do something that I knew that I could leave to my children. I didn’t want to mess up the money, so I ended up buying a house and I fixed it up and instead of moving in it, I rented it. And that was just the start. That was the beginning.
Erika Proctor (03:11)
Yeah, yeah, that’s awesome. So was that kind of like the moment that you knew you kept wanting to do this or was there a different point that kind of a light bulb went off?
Yvette Evans (03:21)
Yeah. Yeah, it really did. It was a shift in me because I…
I had always had in the back of my head that I didn’t want to work for the rest of my life. I wanted to have my own business. What? I didn’t know. But like everything about it, just going in and just doing the walkthroughs and just tearing it down and putting it back together again and just
people coming by and they looking and wanting more and wanting more and the income wasn’t bad either. So yeah, that was the start. And I figured if I can do this one time, if I do it twice, then I’ll be making double as what I’m making now. So that was the start of it. That was the start.
Erika Proctor (04:03)
Yeah, that’s so awesome. And you’ve done this many times now. So, Havett, for you, how has your approach with different properties evolved?
Yvette Evans (05:02)
⁓ well, you know, they have several, it’s evolved tremendously. Since the first house, I’ve just been buying houses year after year, every two years, until it’s just exploded. So, but I have different angles that I take, you know, I may go online, you know, they have several,
listings that you can go through. have like Zillow, Property Shark, Redfin. You know, go on there on those sites and I look for properties in my means, in my cash category. I don’t buy above my means. I buy low and then if I decide to sell, I sell high. Or I can, or I’ll.
just keep them as rental properties. But it’s been great.
Erika Proctor (05:47)
Yeah, yeah, that’s awesome. So can you give us a little more info for our listeners or new? How do you decide which strategy fits a particular property?
Yvette Evans (05:57)
If the property has strong bones, like I said, me personally, I buy distressed properties. I buy fixer-uppers and things of that nature because I like to fix my property to my standard the way I like to do it. yeah, I just make sure that the bones are strong, the structure is good, you know.
The roof is good. There’s no trees growing in the property. I’m not too fond about the outside or the beauty of the property. just, I look for the bones, strength in the property.
Erika Proctor (06:31)
So as I’m sure you know, every investor has a moment where things got real. Maybe there was like some unexpected issues with the property. Maybe you had to pivot fast with what your plans were. Can you share one of those moments from your journey?
Yvette Evans (06:46)
Yeah. I brought a 10-bedroom property, 10-bedroom, three-bathroom in the Temple Hospital area in Philadelphia. It was a three-story property, nice property. Bones is good. Structure was good.
As I started fixing the property up and, you know, during the construction on the property, we came to found out that there all the pipes were took out of the property and in the street. So we had to call and get the proper people to come out there and dig up the street, which was a huge nuisance because that wasn’t something that we thought that we would have to.
be involved in, but eventually we had to. And it was a step back, that’s, you know, things happen. You have your ups and your downs in real estate investing. Sometimes you get lucky. A lot of times, sometimes you might not, but that’s, you just got to roll with the punches and just stay strong and just do what you got to do to make it happen.
Erika Proctor (07:46)
Yeah, absolutely. Did that experience change anything in your process or how you approach deals today?
Yvette Evans (07:52)
You just make sure that you have money set aside for just any kind of emergencies because you never know what can come up. Especially in older houses, anything is liable to happen. So you just make sure that you have a little security blanket just for the just in case of because no house is perfect. No house is perfect. And just make sure also that you have an inspector come.
Erika Proctor (08:11)
Yeah.
Yvette Evans (08:16)
to help you out with issues that you can’t see.
Erika Proctor (08:18)
Yeah, absolutely. I know a lot of our listeners are either starting out or looking the level up even if they’re not. When it comes to building relationships to grow your business, what’s made the biggest difference for you?
Yvette Evans (08:32)
social media.
Because in putting out content, you know, letting people know who you are or what you’re trying to do.
You can put out flyers.
Just putting yourself out there to the people any kind of way that you can. So you can be seen and so you can be heard. If you’re not putting yourself out there, then how’s somebody gonna know where you are or who you are and what you’re trying to do?
Erika Proctor (08:55)
Absolutely. Are you a part of any networking groups too? Do you have any advice when it comes to networking?
Yvette Evans (09:02)
⁓ well, I deal with a lot of city and state, programs. deal with shelter programs and stuff like that too, as well. I watch a lot of, videos, of real estate investing. read a lot of books. I listened to a lot of podcasts. So, yeah, it’s all kind of avenues. If you want it bad enough, you’ll find it. You know, it’s out there.
It’s really out there.
Erika Proctor (09:23)
Yeah, absolutely. Yvette Evans, were there any books that were kind of a game changer for you?
Yvette Evans (09:28)
Yeah, as a matter of it’s a book I forget by Robert, I can’t pronounce his last name, Tchaikovsky, I want to say.
can’t think of it right off hand. You kind of pulled me off guard. But I forget the name. Yes, but it’s several books that I have read. Real Estate ⁓ Investing for Beginners, that’s for one.
How Money Works, that’s another one. The Power in Real Estate, that’s another one. So if you go online, there’s thousands of books that you can read that’ll teach you real estate investing. Yeah.
Erika Proctor (10:02)
Yeah, that’s great. I know that you also run Philadelphia Affordable Housing and Philadelphia Affordable Roofing. What kind of advice would you give to people who are wanting the level up and manage multiple avenues of business?
Yvette Evans (10:18)
Okay, so
You just gotta you gotta start, you know, you can’t just talk about it. You have to you have to be about it. It’s whatever it is whether it be real estate rather be cars I don’t care what it is. If it’s your passion You just you got to do it
you just have to you know
by any means necessary. You know, it’s no excuses. It’s no excuses. If you want to do something and you want it bad enough, you got to find your why. Once you find your why, then that should just, you know, ⁓ open up all the doors for you to just go conquer what you pose to conquer for your family.
Erika Proctor (10:56)
Yeah, I love that. So that for the future for you and what you’re doing, what vision do you have? What goal do you have? Certain parts of your business that you’re wanting to scale.
Yvette Evans (11:07)
Well, right now, I have rental properties right now. So now I want to look into the fix and flipping now. I want to buy, up, and sell. I want to help a lot of people out there become homeowners. And I also want to teach people as well how to become a real estate investor and a property owner.
I also want to start buying land as well to build my own properties on because I don’t know here in Philadelphia we really really have a shortage on housing for people in the city of Philadelphia. So I’m trying my best by any means necessary to provide housing for the citizens and the people of Philadelphia.
Erika Proctor (12:29)
It’s a really exciting vision event. Before we wrap up, if someone wants to reach out, connect with you, or maybe explore collaborating, what’s the best way for them to get in touch?
Yvette Evans (12:41)
⁓ They can reach me at Philadelphia Affordable Housing, LLC on Facebook, Philadelphia Affordable Housing on Instagram, and Philadelphia Affordable Housing on TikTok. I’m also www.philadelphiaaffordablehousing.com as well.
Erika Proctor (12:58)
Perfect. Yvette Evans, I appreciate your time and your story. We need more people in this industry who are building their business the right way. Thanks for being here today.
Yvette Evans (13:06)
Thank you for having me.
Erika Proctor (13:07)
And for those of you tuning in, if you got value from this episode, make sure that you’re subscribed to the Real Estate Pro Show. We’ve got more conversations coming up with operators like Yvette Evans who are out there building fantastic real estate empires. We’ll see you on the next episode. Bye.
