From Naples Builder to Real Estate Fund Manager – Katie Lober’s Investing Strategy

Katie Lober (00:00)
I want to be the bank. I want anyone who comes to me that’s like, man, like we’re making good money, but we didn’t show much on our tax return or we really want to be part of this project, but we just don’t have this extra couple hundred thousand or whatever it is. We are putting a debt fund together so that we can literally be the bank and a blessing to people who we can trust, who we can count on that just aren’t getting, they’re not getting that opportunity elsewhere. So that’s what we’re focusing on full time is the fund. You know, we have our equity piece.

We have our debt piece for our own speculative builds, but our goal is to actually build a hundred doors for even low income in an area that’s about an hour north of where we are in Naples so that we can really start creating something where we’re seller financing or we’re giving mortgages to people that maybe can’t qualify for regular financing because that’s who we were.

Michelle Kesil (02:21)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil. And today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with, Katie Lober, who’s been making serious moves in the real estate space in Naples. So really excited to have you on the show, Katie. I think our listeners, yeah, I think our listeners are really going to take something away.

Katie Lober (02:43)
Thank you.

Michelle Kesil (02:49)
from how you’re approaching your real estate business, building, being a broker. Yeah, you have so much to share. So let’s dive into all of that.

Katie Lober (03:00)
Let’s do it.

Michelle Kesil (03:01)
Awesome. So first off for people who may not be familiar with you and your world, can you give the short version of what your main focus is these days?

Katie Lober (03:11)
Yeah, so today I’ve kind of evolved into a fund manager. So instead of just being the builder, the broker and kind of helping other customers create wealth with their money, we’re actually the ones putting money in and obtaining people’s investments so that we can build speculative homes. So we build high end speculative homes in Naples, Florida. We buy the property, we depreciate the asset, we tear the asset down, build new and then stage and sell. So we’re kind of a one stop shop. And so that’s my main focus right now.

And then we do have the building company and the brokerage, so we still do help high-end customers either build, sell, or buy.

Michelle Kesil (03:46)
Amazing. Do you only operate in the Naples area or what markets do you operate in?

Katie Lober (03:52)
Yes,

yeah, we’re very niche. we not only building wise for our own specs, we only do one street even we are very, very honed in on one exact area where we’ve kind of proved the concept. And then for even for real estate, I probably go, you know, five miles one way or the other, but I am 100 % Naples, Florida.

Michelle Kesil (04:13)
Okay, great. Yeah, I would love for you to expand more on this fund building because I think that’s a unique topic that, yeah, I would love to hear more about.

Katie Lober (04:24)
Yeah, hello?

I love that. So, you know, we’re kingdom builder capital and we are looking to be the bank. we, whenever me and my husband got started, you know, when you first start construction, you’re the one doing the tile or the demo. You’re the one’s painting. You know, you’re trying to keep it all in house because of that fear of letting control go, letting any of the profit go. And then we led into our own construction company, hiring out employees, subs and all of that. Same thing with the fund. At first we wanted to make sure that we took our own money

And we invested it wisely. Could we have a high return and minimize risk? And so we did that in this little kind of niche neighborhood, still golf cart to the beach, but the big builders were really focusing on steps to the beach. So we went across a main highway and we kind of went all in on one street and we sold our first spec there under construction. We’re pending on our second. Then we have our third across the street and then we have a fourth one that will be starting. So that’s kind of the neighborhood that we

decided to let other people in on it. So instead of just us making all the profit, we’re the builder, we’re the broker, we decided to let our friends and people that we meet invest. So when they put their money in, can either be, you lot of your audience might know about, you know, class A, class B investments, debt and equity partners. And so that’s how we’ve built our funds is we have a debt piece where someone has a preferred return of say 10 percent. And then we also have our equity piece where, you know, depending on what

we make on that specific project or on that grouping of projects, you’ll get even more return than the 10 % is what we’re aiming for more like 25, 30%.

Michelle Kesil (06:51)
Amazing that is such a cool concept. yeah interesting and Yeah, you have like a lot of moving parts in your business with the renovations and the brokerage So how do you like keep your business like running smoothly with all of these moving pieces?

Katie Lober (07:08)
think that’s the hardest part, right? Is making everything continue to move, but that’s probably my biggest strength is taking big things and making them approachable, small, problem solving. I think women are excellent problem solvers and I think that we’re not involved in finances, we’re not really running hedge funds and funds. It’s just not something that we were maybe told as little girls or even when we’re in college, we’re not like really focusing on those things. But women are an amazing asset to not only the building process, but to fund management.

that when I was a builder, I right out of college graduated and became a project manager for Toll Brothers. And when I did that, I was the only female in that role.

could see the differences, like the little distinctions that I would see that men maybe weren’t seeing. And then men have amazing strengths that I ended up learning from. So just being in community and like having female and males working together for that same goal. So that’s what we try to do with our businesses is we really try to make sure that everybody is operating in their highest level, their highest role. So we do a lot of, you know,

personality tests and matching people with what they’re supposed to do and making sure that when we put someone in a role, they’re really going to be optimized, not just for what their strengths are right now, but for what their future goals are. Cause we want everyone growing with us. So that’s been a really neat way for me to have my brokerage. For instance, with the brokerage, you know, not a lot of people realize, but a lot of people get into real estate thinking, Oh, that’s going to be so fun. I’m going to make so much money. I’m going to make my own schedule. And the realities of real estate, if you’re in it is that’s a hundred percent not

true,

right? You do make money if you have great deals closed, but you’re waking up every day jobless with no guaranteed money, no one paying your bills. So when people get into real estate, I try to mentor them and help them really get the deals done. I write all their contracts and have them, Hey, like, did you see how I wrote that? What do you think? And then we do that same thing with the building industry. We get people in and then we move people around. So some of the agents that started with me originally thinking they were going to be full time, we’ve actually moved them to

where they’re getting great referrals for real estate, but they don’t want to do the work full time. So they actually refer their deals. We handle them from A to Z and they get a 40 % check for just referring their business to us. So I’m trying to kind of like meet everybody where they’re at. And I think that’s what keeps like all these plates properly in the air instead of falling left and right is that I’m always able to be flexible.

I think flexibility is the number one thing that people kind of underestimate in real estate and in business is you have to be flexible if you’re going to have a successful business.

Michelle Kesil (10:18)
Yeah, absolutely. really love how you expressed all of that and how you’re helping people highlight the things that they’re good at and step into their strengths. And yeah, I think that just creates a better functionality overall for everyone involved. So that’s such a beautiful way to work. Yeah. So.

Katie Lober (10:38)
Thank you.

Michelle Kesil (10:40)
Every business I know had a moment where things got real, maybe a deal went sideways, or you had to make a fast pivot. Would you mind sharing one of those moments that you’ve experienced?

Katie Lober (10:53)
man, this is like every Tuesday. like every real estate. I can go back even to, you I was here in Naples, Florida in 2005, you know, so I was part of the market crash and the pivot that I made was actually, was teaching fitness before work and when the market started to kind of turn and things started to happen, I’m like, I need to have something besides real estate even that I can pivot to. And so I opened gyms. So I actually became partners with different gyms

and moved to Chicago and Open Gyms and moved to Missouri and kind of came up with my own concept. So I’m like the master pivoter is really how I feel. And the second that I saw the market get back going in Naples, I came right back down, picked up like nothing had happened and restarted. But I think every business, you’re one bad day on the other end away from just a total, you know.

Pivot in your business in terms of especially with building, know We had something under contract and the people started getting scared because of things happening in the market about six months ago and they were gonna walk away from the contract but instead we sat down with them and we really had like a real Conversation and I think that’s what people they get scared that they’re gonna lose money or they’re gonna lose the business So they get really hard in the sand they draw their line They burn the bridge and they don’t make it work. And if you’re

to come to the table and give and take. I think almost any situation can actually be worked through if both parties are willing and able. And I think that’s the big miss that a lot of people in business, I know as me in my 20s versus me in my 40s, I mean it’s like life-changing game changer the way that I approach situations now and people.

There’s almost nothing that can bring my day down now. You know, I’m like, okay, how are we going to work through it? And you know, my relationship with God is probably most important to me. So I think if you bring him into anything, everything can be blessed and everything is for a purpose. So that’s really helped me as well. But pivot wise, I think we’re pivoting about every Tuesday or Thursday, depending on, you know, market and subs and you know, we were in the building industry. So even right now, you know, even with immigration, I mean, people are taken off the job sites now and, and

businesses are having to kind of completely reevaluate who they’re hiring and how much they’re charging. So it’s been an interesting year, but I think if you have a positive attitude and you’re willing to really meet the other person and care about a win-win instead of just trying to win yourself, I think anything can be worked through and pivoted from.

Michelle Kesil (13:23)
Yeah, absolutely. That’s really what differentiates the people that are dabbling in this world versus the ones that are here for like that long-term vision. Amazing. So let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next?

Katie Lober (13:33)
100%.

want to be the bank. want anyone who comes to me that’s like, man, like we’re making good money, but we didn’t show much on our tax return or we really want to be part of this project, but we just don’t have this extra couple hundred thousand or whatever it is. We are putting a debt fund together so that we can literally be the bank and a blessing to people who we can trust, who we can count on that just aren’t getting, they’re not getting that opportunity elsewhere. So that’s what we’re focusing on full time is the fund. You know, we have our equity piece.

We have our debt piece for our own speculative builds, but our goal is to actually build a hundred doors for even low income in an area that’s about an hour north of where we are in Naples so that we can really start creating something where we’re seller financing or we’re giving mortgages to people that maybe can’t qualify for regular financing because that’s who we were.

You know, if you’re an entrepreneur, you go to a bank and you’re like, look, I’m motivated. I’ve got this. This is my track record. And they’re like, yeah, well, where’s your W-2?

right? Or like where where’s the proof in the IRS? And you’re like well I don’t really have that yet because you know we had to write off a lot or we had a lot of losses the first year or whatever it was. So that’s our main focus is just making sure that we can be the lender and not the borrower.

Michelle Kesil (14:56)
Yeah, that is so powerful and unique. Like if someone maybe is also considering doing something like this, but they don’t really know where to start, like what advice can you give them to create a similar vision?

Katie Lober (15:53)
So if you’re somebody who’s been, you don’t even know what a fund is, you’ve heard about a hedge fund and you don’t even really know what that is, funds are so much easier than people think. And a lot of people are doing it right now with syndications, right? So syndications are where people are partnering for like one deal or one purpose, and then they’re basically having that all go into one pool. And then when that deal is done, they have to close it down, right? So if they’re doing that, it’s a syndication.

If they want to do a fund, a fund is basically where instead of having to close that down, you could have taken in money over time and done multiple projects that didn’t have anything to do with each other. So if you wanted to create that, you would then start a fund. So my advice would be to literally chat GPT or Google, like what is a fund? How do I start one? And then my personal reference is called fundlaunch.com. So Fundlaunch is a consulting company that I’ve partnered with where

they are trying to democratize Wall Street. So Bridger Pennington, he saw like his dad run billion dollar funds. He can, he has a fund himself that we’ve actually invested in and he started something to help just regular people in business that are good at what they do, build and start funds properly with the right documents, with third party auditing, like basically just try to get people really on the right track and doing it so that they don’t get in trouble, you know, with security fraud and things like that.

Like obviously if you want to take people’s money in, they need to trust you. And the best way to be trusted is to really get yourself educated and partner with other people who have knowledge and have the systems together so that you can then have a real fund that people can trust that is done properly with compliance and is legal that you can then help other people make money and make money yourself. So that’s where I’d go first is something like FundLaunch or something like that with Bridger because I think that’s an excellent way to start getting educated on if funds

are for you and he’s easy to follow on YouTube as well.

Michelle Kesil (17:54)
Amazing. Yeah, I think that’s going to be really helpful for people that are just learning. ⁓ So a lot of people listening to this show are either earlier on in like their real estate and investing journey, or they’re just looking to level up. And I think they benefit from hearing this. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network and your business. What do you feel has made the biggest difference for you?

Katie Lober (17:59)
Yeah.

The biggest difference is, like you said, it’s relationships, right? It’s not trying to, I’ve seen a lot of younger people that I’ve tried to partner with or people coming up, they think they’re going to make one good relationship and they’re gonna be millionaires and not have to work. And newsflash, anything that’s worth it is gonna take time, it’s gonna take energy and it’s gonna take work. And how cool is it that you can be more successful by just being like an authentic friend and partner to people, doing things for people.

without expecting anything in return is going to be the biggest number one thing I think younger people could do right now. You find somebody that’s doing it. I’m not saying you have to have them, you know, be your mentor or you’ve got to spend all day with them because a lot of busy people don’t want someone spending all day with them, right? But do something for that person and try to be someone who’s giving instead of taking because I think that’s what a lot of people are doing today is they’re trying to take, take, take, take, take, and they’re not figuring out what kind of value add

could I give to somebody who’s doing what I want to do? Figure out how you can be a value add and do it. And I love TikTok. I love Instagram. It’s awesome to connect with people on there, but that’s not going to be, doing that is not going to be the way that you grow like a sustainable long-term business. It’s going to be in the belly to belly type of relationships that you’re growing by like actually showing up to an event that somebody puts on, actually going and listening to them speak, you know, being,

in person instead of always trying to rely on working from home and being remote because I think that that’s something that’s really disconnected people and it’s made it really hard for people to really truly connect is that we’re not in person anymore. So that’d be my biggest advice is like get in person with the people that you want to be more like and see what you can do to provide value to them without expecting anything in return.

Michelle Kesil (20:12)
Yeah, that’s such good advice. yeah, relationships are everything in this space. So thank you for sharing that.

Katie Lober (20:17)
If someone can’t trust you, think about this. If you can’t trust the significant other you’re with, right? Like how does your relationship go? If you can’t trust your boss, if you can’t trust your friend, if you can’t trust people, your relationship is going nowhere. So if people trust you, they will work with you. There’s people who were in fitness with me. There’s people who are building with me, real estate with me. Anything I do now, they wanna do, cause they know who I am. They know that I’m gonna do what I said I was going to do. So I’ve built that relationship now

anywhere I pivot to, if I had to pivot 100 % out of this space, they would come with me. And that’s the kind of relationships that you want to build is just where people can trust that you’re going to do what you said you were going to do. So integrity goes a long way. If you say you’re going to be somewhere, be there. If you say you’re going to do something, do it. And it sounds so simple, but I think it’s literally one of the hardest things to actually do is to stand by what you said because your feelings start to run your calendar. So you can’t let your feelings and emotions run your calendar. Your calendar has to

set and whether you want to show up or not you’ve got to show up.

Michelle Kesil (21:19)
Yeah, absolutely. That is powerful advice. So a lot of people listening to this show are like investors. And yeah, I’m just curious, like, how can your projects maybe and investors or potential investors collaborate or support each other?

Katie Lober (21:38)
yeah.

Well, we would love that. mean, we built our funds so that people with, know, we really are looking at a minimum of a hundred thousand for our first people getting in. If you had a hundred thousand dollars that you were like, man, I want to make this big. I don’t want to just put this somewhere in a bank or put it in a, in somewhere that I don’t know for sure what I’m going to get back. You can start investing with people like us who have a proven track record where you’re putting that hundred thousand dollars in and you’re getting a return in one to three years, depending on how long you want to hold it.

tax benefits you need, we kind of have it all built out. So if anyone had questions about that, I’ll give you guys my info too. It’s just katie at KBC fund.com. And if anyone had a question like, man, what does that mean? Like if I gave this, what does it do? And I’ll show you the paperwork. I’ll show you the strategy because there’s a lot of things that when you’re first starting out, you don’t think about, you know, if you’re making pretty good income in your regular job and you’re trying to do this on the side, this can be a huge benefit because you can make this go against your taxes. So there’s tax benefits that you can get from real estate.

investments and there’s so many ways that you can get involved. We’re also tied in like I said to fund launch where we’re getting people pitching us funds all day you know so we’re we’re actually able to be like whoa I like that gold fund I like that bitcoin fund like I’m not going to learn everything there is to know about bitcoin so I’m going to put my money with a fund that with experts that already know what they’re doing and I think that’s the thing if you had to take the house down build the house stage the house and sell the house to make money right

but you could have just put your money with people who actually knew how to do that and make money by not doing any of that work. mean, isn’t that, it’s like brilliant, right? It’s like letting our money that we’ve accumulated work for us instead of physically working. And I think it’s what most people want, but they’re too scared to do. So the best way to do that is to really like get to know the people that you could invest with, get to know their strategy, invest in something. And then once you see it, you’d be like, man, I want to do that.

And then you have a built-in mentor. mean, if you’re investing in one of our funds, it’s like, you could ask me anything. I’d give you time, energy, show you strategy, show you what we’re doing. Same thing with other people who are investors. They might not be able to spend like hours with you, but they could give you some of the tracks that we’ve ran on because, I mean, if you’re good in business, you know that you’re not my competition, right?

Like all your people listening, I’m not worried about them being successful. I want them to be successful because them being successful does not detract from what I’m doing. I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing and be successful in it. So I think that’s the other thing too is just don’t worry about comparing to all the different people. If you’re in a mastermind or if you’re in a group, don’t worry about comparing to them. Take the good things that they do. Notice things that you don’t want to do that they do and then create something of your own, but you’ve got to start somewhere. So an investment in something like what we have is a great

way to kind get your feet you know get your foot wet instead of having to jump right into the the pool.

Michelle Kesil (24:31)
Amazing. Thank you for sharing that. So before we wrap up here, if someone wants to reach out, connect with you or just learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to find you?

Katie Lober (24:41)
Yeah.

Well, at Katie Kingdom Builders is kind of my like tick tick tock probably the best to kind of get to know who we are and what we do and all that. But Katie Katie at KBC fund. So King builder King builder capital dot com is probably the best way to get a hold of me. I’ll answer any email. So if someone really just has like ⁓ a really basic question that they’re kind of nervous to ask anybody, I’m pretty I’m pretty approachable. And if they have a really high high level question as well, I’d be willing to either answer them or connect.

them with somebody that I know in my network that’s able to kind of get with them. We also have with FundLaunch, they actually have spots for people that want to intern that actually get to be part of funds. So depending on if you have a bunch of people that listen to this that want to start getting involved but they don’t really know how, we have an opportunity for them as well to kind of become an intern of like high-end multi-million dollar, even some billion dollar funds.

Michelle Kesil (25:37)
Perfect. Well, listen, I appreciate your time, your story and perspective. We need more people in this space who are doing things in this right way. So thank you again for being here.

Katie Lober (25:46)
Yeah, thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.

Michelle Kesil (25:48)
Absolutely. And for those of you that are tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’ve subscribed. We have more conversations coming with operators just like Katie, who are building real businesses. And we’ll see you all on the next episode.