How Ayanna McMahon Turned House Flipping Into Women’s Sober Living Housing

Ayanna McMahon (00:00)
And I remember thinking, I want to do that for someone else. when I’m, you know, and I wouldn’t say I’m back on my feet in any sense, like where I want to be, but when I’m at that place that I can do that, I want to be able to do that for someone else. And so, ⁓

I really had no intention of doing a sober living house. It wasn’t something, it wasn’t even on my radar really. And it just kind of kept coming up. know, Instagram, Facebook, they had this different idea apparently. And so it would come up and it would come up and it would come up.

Q Edmonds (02:08)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds and I am excited to be here today. I am super excited about my guest. ⁓ She has been very, very patient with me. I ain’t gonna let y’all know all my mess ups, but y’all just know I’m not perfect. I’m not perfect. And sometimes the systems we use are not perfect, but that’s what we talk about here. We talk about systems and…

finding different systems to put in place, so to improve one of the systems that we have. So this person has been very, very patient with me, and I’m so happy because I believe that you’re all gonna learn a lot from her and her journey and her story in this real estate space. And so I am so happy to introduce you all to Ms. Ayanna McMahon. Ms. Ayanna, how you doing today, ma’am?

Ayanna McMahon (02:55)
I’m great. Thanks for having me.

Q Edmonds (02:56)
Absolutely.

Listen, I’m so glad to have you here today. Thank you for being here today. ⁓ And so I’m going to type, I just want to dive in. So I would love for you to tell the people what your main focus is these days. Give them a little maybe of origin story, kind of how you got into the real estate space. We love the origin story, the hero’s journey. And then also tell them what part of the world you’re in.

geographically, people love to know, hey, this person’s right around the corner. Maybe I can get in contact with them and do some business with them. So if you don’t mind, again, what’s your main focus, your origin story and where you are. Ms. Ayanna, you have the floor now.

Ayanna McMahon (03:33)
Yeah, so my main focus now is flips mostly. I also have recently opened a women’s sober living home, women’s sober living and transitional housing. So we have women that are both coming in from off the streets or out of rehab or prison. So that’s kind what I’m working on right now. I have been in real estate for 23 years. I got my license when I was 23 years old or something.

I bought my first house when I was 21 and I think I caught the bug. So now I like to say I collect houses. So I have been doing real estate in Washington state for the last 23 years and just recently about eight months ago now moved to Iowa. So I’m currently working in the Iowa area.

Q Edmonds (04:08)
Yes.

Yeah, yeah. I love it. Thanks for taking us through the journey. I love, you know, what your first house said when you was 21. Like how you say now, you are a collector. Well, I collector of homes, a house collector. That’s why I put collector of homes, house collector. So excited about what you’re doing for women in their transition. And so, you know, I believe that everything, that we are a…

Ayanna McMahon (04:37)
Yep. ⁓

Q Edmonds (04:51)
a compound of our moments, right? We’re a compound of our life decisions. And so Ms. Ayanna, I have a saying where I say destiny has no wasted moments. Meaning no matter what we go through in life, these moments build us to where we are today. It has built us kind of for this journey that we’re on in a specific space that we’re on. And so I would love to know throughout your journey to get into real estate where you are 23 years of doing real estate, even relocating.

I would love to know what has these moments taught you about yourself? Has it taught you discipline, resilience? Has it just given you a new eye when it comes to things? Like what is these moments and these transitions throughout your life in real estate taught you about yourself?

Ayanna McMahon (06:23)
moment. mean, I, I think real estate has taught me quite a bit. I think my life has taught me resilience, right? ⁓ I was married for 27 years, and I went through a divorce a couple of years ago. ⁓ And it was definitely just kind of a, I just landed, you know, on my back. And so I think these last couple years have really been a rebuild.

⁓ And like you said, ⁓ just this evidence of like, keep showing up, right? Like when things are hard, when things are scary, when things are, you know, when I feel like I can’t take another step, you just keep taking another step. ⁓ And during my journey of the last couple of years, there were times, I mean, God was always there, ⁓ but there were times where you needed somebody else’s touch, you know, like a human’s touch.

And God would just be so gracious in bringing people into my life during that time and being that patch.

And I remember thinking, I want to do that for someone else. when I’m, you know, and I wouldn’t say I’m back on my feet in any sense, like where I want to be, but when I’m at that place that I can do that, I want to be able to do that for someone else. And so, ⁓

I really had no intention of doing a sober living house. It wasn’t something, it wasn’t even on my radar really. And it just kind of kept coming up. know, Instagram, Facebook, they had this different idea apparently. And so it would come up and it would come up and it would come up.

And during that time, I finally, because I’m a little dense and it takes me a little bit, I finally kind of just pursued it and at least started looking at it.

Um, and, and so I, um, went, so yeah, I just started, I started looking at it and then I, I kind of went down that route. actually owned a house already and it was going to be a flip, um, five bedrooms, three, two and a half bath. And, um, so we kind of took it to the route of opening it up and, and going up for Maggie’s house. And that’s the name of it, Maggie’s house.

Q Edmonds (08:43)
I love it. Thank you so much for sharing. And listen, you how we go. We’ve been, you and I have been dealing with interruptions a lot. So this is going to be just one flow. So please know it’s okay. I trust and believe I understand everything that’s going on. Well, I’m sympathy. I sympathize with everything that’s going on, but so many distractions and stuff around. ⁓ But definitely, thank you for your story. ⁓ I don’t know if I ever shed on this part. I’m not sure if we talked about it lot, but ⁓ you know, after 15 years of merch, I got.

know, divorce. And that was almost eight years ago. And I still feel like I’m rebuilding it. I still feel like, you know, honestly, like so many things came out of that. And I wrote down, as you was talking, sometimes purpose come out of pain. You know, like, like there are just situations that has caused us just to be uncomfortable. It’s called this pain causes us to grieve. And sometimes we find a lot of purpose out of that. And I really believe

That’s how it was for me. I started getting into this podcast space after my divorce. It was like a purpose out of my pain, because I knew that people needed a space to be able to talk, you know? And so I definitely understand that. And I’m so glad to see that you are, and I love how you put it. You said life taught you resilience. know, real estate, it has taught you some other stuff, but life has taught you resilience. And I absolutely, absolutely loved that. And I thank you for.

And talk about some of the adversities that you’ve been through, because I don’t care what space we find ourselves in, they are going to be adversities. And I believe adversities come to kind of like make us strong. Like what doesn’t break us, it may bend us, but it may not necessarily break us. And so I love that. And I love that you have incorporated this into your real estate space.

And so Ms. Ana, I would love to ask you with Maggie’s house and with your real estate, what are the next real goals? What are you looking to solve at Scale Next?

Ayanna McMahon (11:18)
So I’m kind of in a temporary, I would say for most of my life I’ve been more like more long term. So either long term rentals ⁓ or Airbnbs, that kind of thing. did have gun flips throughout the years, but it was kind of just like when one needs sense, you know, it’s like, that’s way too good to pass up or maybe one of my clients didn’t want to get it.

But right now I’m really in just like a spin as quickly as possible. So I’m trying to have at least one going at a time. Actually from here to meet a listing agent up at the house and we go on the market on one tomorrow. And then I’m closing on one tomorrow. So to purchase. So we’ll start that one just and kind of keep going. So right now it’s really, really just kind of like I said, the short term flips and

and kind of building up the revenue again.

Q Edmonds (12:09)
got you, got you, understood, understood. I would love because you’re talking about helping women, building something sustainable for them to help them with their transition. And I always say at the foundation of any sustainable business is servitude, right? It’s serving people. I even believe in building community within real estate, because I believe that healing happens in community. And we’re both faith-based people, and I believe that’s something that’s taught.

in scripture in James 5 16, like it says, when you confess your faults, one to another, you can, you’ll be healed. And so just feel like healing happens in the community. If you have a safe space to be able to talk about what’s going on, healing happens. And I even think building that in real estate, if you have surrounded by people who want you to win in real estate, people that can help you and support you, people that maybe are somewhere where you’re trying to be, you know, maybe they have the houses, the amount of houses that you’re trying to get. And so I would love

to hear your perspective on relationship building within real estate or just relationship, your opinion on relationship building in general. Like what is your perspective on relationships? Are they important within business? ⁓ If they are, how do you go about doing it? I just want you to talk to me a little bit about relationship, Ms. Ayan.

Ayanna McMahon (13:26)
I mean, I think any place that you can get wisdom from other people’s experiences, I mean, why would I not want to learn from somebody else’s mistakes? I mean, why would somebody not want to learn from my mistakes versus like making those same mistakes, right? ⁓ And so I am like, I’m pretty much always got somebody on like Dean Graziosi, Tony Robbins, Tony Robbins, like whoever it is that I’m currently kind of in Dr. Hardy, I love him. ⁓ So I’ve always got somebody kind of in my ear when I’m just running around doing things.

Um, so yeah, so I think wisdom is huge. Um, I think finding people who are like-minded to kind of challenge you as well, right? Um, I honestly don’t talk to a lot of people about what I’m doing that are kind of in my just like sphere of influence because I feel like a lot of times people can kind of tell you, wow, you’re dreaming too high or you’re pushing too much or you’re going too fast or you’re whatever. And it’s like, well, I know

Q Edmonds (14:13)
Gotcha.

Ayanna McMahon (14:22)
I know all that stuff. I have people who can speak into my life, but I don’t let everyone speak into my life. ⁓ As far as building relationships, yeah, I think finding people that are kind of on the same page and pushing you and encouraging you is super important. mean, kind of what we were talking about, even with contractors, right? Like finding the right people in your life. So finding the right contractors. I I had a contractor that was terrible and he cost me a lot of money. And I was in a…

in my life where I just couldn’t quite, I just wasn’t paying enough attention. ⁓ And so that’s something I’m huge and I’m huge at promoting with other people. mean, I’m like, and right now I just fired a contractor like three days ago, cause all he, you know, he showed me I couldn’t trust him on something small. And I’m like, I’ll pay you, you’re done, you’re out. Like I won’t ever use you again. And so I think it’s, I think being quick to action when you know, like trust your gut, like when you, you know, when something seems off.

it’s time to find somebody else.

Q Edmonds (16:04)
Mm, mm, mm, mm, I love it. Nope, you’re absolutely right. ⁓ And I love, I wish I could say this eloquently as somebody said, but it’s like, have to be, ⁓ is it slow to hire and quick to fire? I think, I’m not sure if that’s the exact term, but like you said, you gotta trust your gut. If you know that there’s not alignment, you know it’s not working, just, you know, add quickly on that. And so, I definitely hear that for sure.

And like you said, contractors, whoo. Contractors, y’all listening, please, just be integral. Do what you say you’re going to do. Restore the name of the contractor, please, if you’re watching this. But Ms. Ayanna, listen, is there any topic that I have not brought up that you would like to talk about? Or is there any other words of inspiration, education, or motivation you feel like?

Ayanna McMahon (16:43)
in.

Q Edmonds (16:57)
people may want to hear or could benefit from. I’m just kind of like trying to open up the floor if it’s like anything on your mind or your heart that you think people may could benefit from. I would love to hear it.

Ayanna McMahon (17:08)
Gosh, I mean, I think one of my favorite things that Tony Robbins says is life doesn’t happen to you, it happens for you. ⁓ And I just, think that’s so important because as we’re going through really hard times, you know, it’s about the resilience, it’s about the getting up. You know, as I like to listen to all these podcasts, it’s like, it’s not about the failures, right? Like we’re all gonna have failures. And everybody that I’m like listening to has had failures. It’s about…

pivoting and moving on. And I think it can be so easy to just sort of get discouraged and give up. And so I think that’s the thing. I’m super passionate about not getting stuck in my own life and really loving the life that I’m living and choosing to do that moment by moment, even in the really hard moments. And like I said, I’ve had some really hard moments.

And that’s what I’m teaching these women that I have, you know, that’s that’s what I’m passionate about with them is like, let’s not get stuck. Like, yes, you guys have had a terrible, you know, childhood or like all these things and they can go back and they can just talk and it’s like, well, every time I see them, they talk about their past and it’s like, okay, like that was a part of your story. But like, let’s move. Dr. Harvey says, like, look at the future.

and work towards the future. Like, this is where I want to be and how am going to get there? And I’m passionate about that for myself and for, you know, the women that I’m working with.

Q Edmonds (18:36)
I love it. Yeah, I often say failure is fertilizer. And we know with fertilizer, sometimes fertilizer is just dumb, right? It’s just, it’s manure, it’s mess, it’s smelly sometimes. But if you allow yourself to get rooted, if you found yourself to get nurtured by what we may call failures or hardships, it’s just fertilizer for you to grow from.

Ayanna McMahon (18:53)
Mm-hmm.

Q Edmonds (19:02)
It’s going to make you strong. It’s going to give you the nutrients that you need. And so you’re right. Let’s not get stuck. Everything is intended for us to be able to grow from. And if we allow our minds to grow from it, we can do anything. We can overcome anything. And I believe you and I are testaments to that. You know, that when the life that we had planned for doesn’t happen in…

fulfill itself the way we thought that you can grow from that. You can pivot from that. You can actually allow that to grow you up to be something even stronger. And my father used to say, and I hated it when he said it, but he asked me a question. said, Quentin, have you ever seen a tree eat his own fruit? And I’d be like, what, dad? He’s like, have you ever seen a tree eat his own fruit? And I was like, no. He’s like, that’s right. You grow fruit so other people can pick from your tree so they can be nurtured.

And that’s what I’m learning that if we allowed our failures to grow us up to a tree that bring forth fruit, other people can eat from it and be sustained. And I believe that’s what you’re doing with what you’re building for women. And so I absolutely love you. I love you for being here. I love what you’re doing. I love for your resilience and the way you’re overcoming. And so I just, really, thank you for being here today. really, really do. ⁓ Ms. Ayoine, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, learn more about what you’re doing, collaborate, how can they get in contact with you, man?

Ayanna McMahon (20:26)
Yeah, so I have an email address. Let me just give it to you, the actually email address.

Q Edmonds (20:30)
Yep, if you’re comfortable,

yep, you’ll see it. We’ll transcribe it and put it in the show notes.

Ayanna McMahon (20:35)
Okay, so it’s Ayanna, A-Y-A-N-N-A-M as in Mary O-S-as in Sam at yahoo.com. So that like dates me right there. ⁓ So that would be the best way to kind of, or you can go onto Instagram or Facebook and then it’s Ayanna McMahon, who’s my like handler or whatever.

Q Edmonds (20:45)
Yeah.

Gotcha.

Gotcha, absolutely. Well, listen, let me say three things to you sincerely. Sincerely, I’m to say these three things. First, thank you for your time. Thank you for your time. And I think you know what that means. mean, I thank you for rearranging your schedule, doing different things differently, being here. You could have been anywhere in the world, but you’re here. So thank you for your time. Please know that I value that. Secondly, thank you for your story.

Ayanna McMahon (21:14)
Thank

Q Edmonds (21:25)
Thank you for your authenticity, the gift, what I even call of your vulnerability. You shared things with us that you did not have to share. And I believe those stories plant a seed in people. We may never see the growth, but it plants a seed of change, course direction. And so I appreciate your story. Lastly, thank you for your perspective. Thank you for the way you think, your mindset, and bringing that perspective to this platform. I greatly appreciate you, Ms. Ayanna, for coming through today.

Ayanna McMahon (21:53)
Absolutely, thank you for having me.

Q Edmonds (21:55)
Absolutely. So listen, look in the show notes, get in contact with Miss Ayanna check her out for sure. Definitely make sure you are subscribed here because I promise you, we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Miss Ayanna. So ma’am, thank you again and everyone else listen, y’all have a fantastic day.