How a Nurse Replaced Her Income With Real Estate Investing

Tracy Freeman (00:00)
Mm-hmm. So I was a nurse for 30 years, loved taking care of people. and there was kind of a let’s just say a shift in my nursing career. so I decided to start into real estate, didn’t really know how. And then of course, Robert Kiyosaki’s *Rich Dad Poor Dad* book kind of just fell into my lap. I read that and I was like,

I need instead of working for this hourly rate as a nurse, which I loved doing, I want to take the money that I’ve saved over the years and make it work for me.

Freddie Steen (02:10)
Hey everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros Investor Fuel Podcast. I’m your host, Freddie, and today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with. Tracy Freeman, who’s been making serious moves in the real estate industry, particularly in the way in which she’s been able to conquer creative financing in multiple markets. Tracy, I’m glad to have you here.

And I think our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching transferring from a career in healthcare for 30 years into capital raising, scaling, flips, and building wealth. Let’s dive in. So, first off, for people who may not be familiar with your world, Tracy, give us the short version. What’s your main focus these days and what markets are you operating in?

Tracy Freeman (03:07)
So my main focus right now is mortgages. I am a mortgage broker, but I’m also a real estate investor. I have several lower income folks rentals and I have a farm where I run two Airbnbs. so my focus is kind of split, but I juggle them pretty well.

Freddie Steen (03:36)
Love it. Love it. What what caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to capitalize on understanding market trends like barndominiums. Yeah. That’s like especially in this climate. What’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly in multiple markets?

Tracy Freeman (04:00)
Yeah, so I have long-term and short-term rentals. one of my short-term rentals is a barn dominium and the location that we’re at is just perfect for fishermen and vacationers. we’re near I I’m in Lake County, so there’s a lot of lakes, there’s a lot of fishing tournaments. we’re also near Orlando, Ocala, and The Villages. So

Families love to come here. we have animals, pigs, chickens, goats. so people stay in our barndominium for a whole farm experience. and then we also my husband and I, we do mortgages and we invest in real estate. So we kind of have a vast array of different specialties that we do.

Freddie Steen (05:37)
So for our listeners and our audience, very savvy real estate pros like you and your husband, can you give us a 30,000 foot view of why everyone is so interested in the barndominium concept? Can you break that down for me?

Tracy Freeman (05:57)
Yeah, sure. so barndominiums are very unique. And we do have lenders that will lend on either a barndominium that’s already structured or a ground up construction on your own land if you wanted a barndominium. And they’re just they’re unique. They’re farmy, but they’re ups they can be upscale. we had a handyman come in when we first bought the farm to do a few things on

In the barndominium he said it was like the most unique barndominium he had ever seen and there’s nothing like it i’m in Lake County, Florida and there’s no other barndominiums in the area so it is such a unique property and our farm is so zenful and beautiful and you can just walk out the front door and my little pig is right there and

It’s just a really fun experience that people really enjoy. And for the boaters, boating tournaments, you can’t put your truck and your boat in a single parking space in a hotel. So we have plenty of parking for boats and and their trucks. so we get a lot of people that love to stay in the barndominium for for their fishing tournaments.

Freddie Steen (07:16)
Tracy, every operator I know has a moment where things got real. Maybe a deal that went sideways or a time they had to pivot fast. You mind sharing one of those moments for you?

Tracy Freeman (07:31)
Gosh, which moment should I pick? So yeah, being a real estate investor and mortgage broker and owning a farm, yeah, we we deal and we have to pivot with different stuff like almost daily. so

Let’s let’s say a mortgage. Somebody calls me for a mortgage and we’re halfway through, we’re doing great, and then they call and say, I found another mortgage broker that could be cheaper, or somebody with less fees, or I just had somebody we were a week from clear to close, and they said, my uncle’s gonna let me borrow the money, so I’m gonna cancel my loan. Well, you know, that’s life. That

Those things happen. You just have to pivot and keep on trucking. because that’s life. You deal with it and you move on. it can be a little upsetting, you know, this is a commission-based job. but you deal with it and and move on to the another client who, you know, really needs your services.

Freddie Steen (08:40)
Tracy, that’s the kind of stuff people don’t talk about enough. And honestly, it’s what separates the folks who just dabble from the ones who stay in the game long term. Let let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? What’s the next real goal for you?

Tracy Freeman (08:50)
Right.

Mm-hmm. So the next real goal, our farm is we bought it and we are flipping it. It’s the biggest fix and flip that we’ve ever done. We live here. So our focus is on selling this farm and then really growing our real estate rental business and really focusing on mortgage mortgages. So we’re you know pivoting from

The farm. we bought it, it was such, it was in disrepair, overgrown. so we’ve really fixed it up and now it’s a beautiful property and for the next buyer. so it’s kind of hard to focus on doing everything perfectly. but we our motto is strive for progress, not perfection. so we stay as organized as we possibly can with all that we have on our plate.

But then we are also trying to build our mortgage array of realtors and investors. because I’m an investor myself, I focus mostly on investor mortgages, which is one is DSCR asset-based, where we don’t need W-2s or tax returns. The the loan is based on the asset itself.

So that’s kind of what we’re focusing on building more of once we do sell the farm.

Freddie Steen (11:01)
Well, that’s that’s big. I mean, that’s the kind of stuff that our investors and our audience get a lot out of. So especially when you’ve already got a real estate portfolio, I know that we talked earlier. Can you talk about how you made the shift from nurse to real estate to now being in multiple markets in your investing, particularly what you’ve seen in Ohio?

Tracy Freeman (11:29)
Mm-hmm. So I was a nurse for 30 years, loved taking care of people. and there was kind of a let’s just say a shift in my nursing career. so I decided to start into real estate, didn’t really know how. And then of course, Robert Kiyosaki’s *Rich Dad Poor Dad* book kind of just fell into my lap. I read that and I was like,

I need instead of working for this hourly rate as a nurse, which I loved doing, I want to take the money that I’ve saved over the years and make it work for me.

So I learned about other people’s money and getting into the real estate space. And so it it just it’s all a stepping stone. We bought one single family house with a private lender. I bought it from a wholesaler.

And then it just snowballed. We before 2020, before COVID, we were buying like one house a month and we were just on fire. And we had three closings in one day. And and then a few years later, my portfolio was about where I was ready to retire as a nurse because the rental income we were getting was

replace my nursing income. and then I figured, well, maybe I’ll become a real estate agent. that way I can see the MLS, pocket listings, all of that. And then I was invited to a mastermind group and I met a mortgage broker. And he’s like, I’m starting my own company. Don’t become a real estate agent, become a mortgage broker like me. And so I looked into it.

And I had my license in six weeks. My husband’s like, I’ll do it too. So he had his license. We’re both mortgage brokers. and so we started in mortgage broke as a mortgage broker and figured as an investor, I can help investors grow their portfolio. And so I started focusing on Ohio because the real estate market in Ohio is so hot where you can.

Buy a duplex for 150 and your cash flowing like the DSCR ratio is like a two. So even if you have a loan, you’re still cash flowing like a champ. so that’s kind of been my niche is to help other real estate investors grow their portfolio. And Ohio is just one of my areas because it’s such a great place to buy real estate and make money.

Freddie Steen (14:12)
Well, especially when you’ve already got your own personal portfolio of real estate and also a team of persons that are helping you in the mortgage broker side place. And you’re in multiple multiple markets, the next move can either compound things or create chaos depending on how you play it. So now I know a lot of people listening are either early in their journey or looking to level up.

Mm-hmm. When it comes to building relationships, Tracy, and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

Tracy Freeman (15:36)
So you want to hang out with like-minded people. wherever you’re at, there’s real estate meetup groups. Just Google what meetup groups are in your area and start hanging out with people that are doing what you want to do. I’m in the Orlando area. There’s plenty of real estate meetup groups, and I joined a a group called CFRI, Central Florida Realty Investors, in

I joined in 2018 and now I’m a business member for mortgages and I’m on the board. so I’m able to help these new people that come in that have all these questions and they don’t know where to start. I I love being able to to help people kind of direct them and what niche they want to do in real estate. and it’s really been beneficial not only to me, but now that I can help other people.

And it’s just a really great group to get started. So my suggestion to anyone would be to, you know, find a real estate group in your area and just hang out with them and learn as much as you can from them.

Freddie Steen (16:49)
Yeah, you you can’t fake that. I mean, relationships are everything in this space. All right. So be before we wrap, before we wrap, can you I appreciate your time. I mean your story, your perspective. We need more people in this space who are gonna do it the right way. So thanks again for being here.

Tracy Freeman (16:56)
Yeah.

Yeah, my pleasure.

Freddie Steen (17:14)
And if someone wanted to reach out, connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Tracy Freeman (17:26)
So you can get me on social media. I am Tracy Mortgage Lady. you can just do a search on there. Or I love phone calls. you text, maybe you’re shy and want to text. but my phone number is 352-223-0712. Or you could email me at Tracy, T-R-A-C-Y, at M-P-I-R-E-F-I dot com and I would love to talk to you with whether you’re seasoned or a beginner, you know, I love to be able to collaborate with other real estate investors anytime.

Freddie Steen (18:12)
Thank you. Thank you, Tracy. And and for those of you tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming with the operators just like Tracy, who are out there building real businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode. Thank you, Tracy.