How Building Relationships Creates Long-Term Wealth in Real Estate Investing

Nicole Hoss (00:00)
Okay, so relationship to me is huge. That’s actually why I was originally brought on to high return real estate eight years ago is because I build relationships with clients and I, because I have been there. And so if there’s not a relationship and there’s not a…

camaraderie with whoever I speak with, then they’re not going to trust me. They’re not going to trust the process. They’re going to look for somebody else.

Quentin (01:57)
Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds, and I have a special guest today. She’s like special guest? Yes. She’s special because I love, I’m loving her heart. I love her humility and I’m loving what she’s about to share. And she’s like, Quentin, she’s probably like, don’t, don’t big me up too much, but no, she is the type of person I love to talk to someone that’s authentic.

someone that leads with just who they are and their personality. And that’s what I’m sensing. And I know this is going to be a great podcast. And so a podcast episode. And so I’m so excited for us to peek through the lens of Miss Nicole Hoss, Miss Nicole, how you doing today, ma’am?

Nicole Hoss (02:40)
Good, thank you for having me.

Quentin (02:42)
Absolutely.

I’m so glad you’re here. So glad that we get a chance to do this episode together. And Ms. Nicole, I am the type. I like to dive right in. Right. So I would love for you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days. If you can give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got to the space, you know, where you’re at. Like we love the heroin journey. And then if you don’t mind, tell them what part of the world you’re in. People love to know.

what people are geographically. And so what you’re up to, your origin story and where you are. Ms. Nicole, you have the floor.

Nicole Hoss (03:17)
Thank you.

I, so I am my origin anyway, where I’m at. So what I’m doing right now is I am continuously looking for real estate investment properties to purchase for my own portfolio.

So that’s been my main focus for the last nine to 10 years. I continue to do that. I continue to, I mean, on the daily, I will look at deals just to keep my eye on what’s happening on the market. So I’m always looking to add to my portfolio or…

pick something from my portfolio that maybe needs to go because of, you know, taxes increase and no longer they’re making any sense or maybe I’ve held them for too long and they need to go. So that’s where I currently am. The other half of what I currently do is I actually sell real estate investment properties out of the Indianapolis area and Alabama area to investors who are looking to start investing or add to their own portfolio.

So I do it not only for myself, but I also do it for

for investors that come to my company to start investing and looking for some guidance. So that’s what I do. And my origin story is the way I started doing all this is, it’s kind of a long story, but ultimately what happened is my husband was working a job, I mean, still works for the same company, but it would take him on the road driving

Quentin (04:29)
Absolutely.

Nicole Hoss (04:48)
around frequently where we lived and at the time that was in Illinois and he was looking for he was listening to a lot of podcasts he’s very productive when it comes to spending his time on the road and I was a stay-at-home mom at the time with three kids under three ⁓ yeah

Quentin (04:57)
Mm-hmm.

Wow.

Nicole Hoss (05:56)
I had twins and then just over two years later had another one. So I don’t recommend doing that in your life if you can choose to not have three that close together. It’s a bit chaotic. ⁓ But I was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and the twins were going to kindergarten.

Quentin (05:57)
Mmm!

Yeah.

Nicole Hoss (06:17)
And so that was with one kid. my gosh. I had so much time on my hands. And my husband was listening to all these podcasts and started listening to bigger pockets.com or bigger pockets podcasts. And ⁓ he would come home after a couple of days and or call me at night. He’s like, he goes, would you be interested in learning more about

Quentin (06:27)
Absolutely. Yeah.

Nicole Hoss (06:38)
real estate investing and I was like, this is something I never heard of. I was so in the weeds really with kids that and my prior life was in education. like it wasn’t, yeah, it wasn’t on my radar at all. And also whenever I thought about real estate investing, I thought you had to have a lot of money.

Quentin (06:44)
Yes, yes.

Yeah.

Nicole Hoss (06:58)
and we were fine, but we didn’t have excess money. So it was something that, you know, we talked about it and I went, okay, he’s like, you you got two kids going to school, could be something that you do during the day when our youngest is napping. And I’m like, yeah, that’s true, I could. Plus with him traveling, I…

Wasn’t going to be able to have a traditional job in that, know I because I wanted the kid like the youngest eventually like a year later She was in school too. However, we didn’t live Anywhere near family. I’m talking like states away from family So if a kid was going to go down meaning, you know get sick have to stay home I was the default parent that was gonna have to stay home with them So a traditional job where I was gonna have to go in

Quentin (07:34)
Yeah, wow.

Nicole Hoss (07:46)
someplace was not going to work for us. So real estate investing made sense. Especially once I learned, hey, you don’t have to have, you know, strapped full of cash in order to make it work. So that’s really how this whole thing started. Was my husband listening to podcasts and going,

Quentin (07:58)
Yeah. Yeah.

Nicole Hoss (08:07)
we make about what they’re talking, you know, the people that he was listening to what they’re making. So why can’t we do this? And if you’re interested, you know, here’s the idea, run with it. And that’s kind of my forte is I can run with it. Like I, I struggle with coming up with the idea myself, but I’m a good doer and I can figure things out along the way. So yeah. So

Quentin (08:23)
Yeah. Mm. Mm. Woo. Mr. Coat, thank you.

Listen, I absolutely love stories. I put a premium on stories. And so thank you so much for sharing. Thank you for letting us know where you are, how you got to where you are, just giving us the journey. And so while you was talking, I was actively listening.

Right? And so I’m going to say some things that you said and I’m saying it because I’m going to make a statement and I’m going ask you a question. Okay. And so you’re looking at, you know, purchase properties for yourself now. That’s where you are. You’re also selling real estate investment properties to investors for yourself and for a company. Your husband had a job that would take him on the road.

while he was on the road, he’s very productive listening into podcasts. And you were at home with three kids under three, including twins, right? ⁓ He heard the bigger pockets of podcasts. You was in education and he laid it out and like, babe, like, this is the idea. What do you think? And you heard it, you picked up the vision and was like, yes, we can do this. You ran with it.

Nicole Hoss (09:20)
Yes!

Quentin (09:36)
I regurgitate all those things that you said to you, to us, that you said about yourself, because Ms. Nicole, I have this saying where I say, destiny has no wasted moments. Destiny has no wasted moments. Meaning no matter what we go through in life, we are building momentum to the moments that we’re at right now. And we borrow from each aspect of our life and it fortifies something in us. It fortifies our mindset. It fortifies our why.

Like we know what we’re passionate about now. So I would love to know on this real estate journey, what has the moments taught you about yourself? Has it taught you discipline, resilience, innovation? Like what has these moments taught you about yourself, Ms. Nicole?

Nicole Hoss (10:51)
my gosh, resilience for sure. ⁓ One thing me and my partner always say is that investing is not for the faint of heart. So you, you, you have deals, they are not always a home run. ⁓ but I feel like every deal is a base hit. So, you know, if something doesn’t look like a home run or doesn’t feel like a home run while you’re in the middle of

Quentin (11:03)
Mmm.

Nicole Hoss (11:13)
you still have progressed in life. Like each stumble, each issue that comes up with a property, you learn from it first of all. And it makes you a better investor and it takes you to the next step. I have learned that I don’t stop. Just because something

Quentin (11:31)
Mmm.

Nicole Hoss (11:34)
man, just tried to get it honestly, like a month, two months ago, was so close to getting a property under contract and it looked so good. And then, and then I just hit it kept hitting roadblock after roadblock. And it was, I mean, it’s, it’s so frustrating because something that should work.

Quentin (11:46)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Nicole Hoss (11:53)
for you to see, you know, hey, it’s not going to work. And then finally, for me, you know, there was the pride too. Like, gosh, you know, hey, I’m going to get another property under contract. This is so exciting. I need to add to the portfolio because it’s been, you know, a little, it’s been a few months since I’ve had something and I start to get down on myself. And so then I see that and it’s like, okay, I’m so close. And then to just be not down again.

Quentin (12:16)
Yes, ma’am.

Nicole Hoss (12:17)
to then be able to pick yourself back up and go, okay, you know what? I’m learning. I learned. I’ve been learning for nine, 10 years now. It’s constantly learning. And that’s what I have gotten out of this whole process is that it’s the constant learning. And every hiccup is not a reason to fall on the ground and give up completely. Just gotta keep going.

Quentin (12:38)
Mmm, whoo, mmm, mmm.

Gotta keep going. thank you. Thank you for that thoughtful reply, answer to that question. You just said, know, every, and I wish I could say it just as eloquently as you said it, but every knockdown is not intended for you to stay there. That’s kind of how I synthesize what you just said, right? And I often say failure is just fertilizer. It’s just fertilizer. And when you,

Nicole Hoss (12:58)
Yeah.

Quentin (13:06)
If you know anything about fertilizer, sometimes fertilizer is just, sometimes it’s dung. Sometimes it’s mess. It’s messy. It’s smelly. So sometimes when you fall down, it’s intended to be messy. It’s intended to be smelly. Sometimes it just stinks. Life just stinks. But here’s the thing. There are nutrients in that, just like in fertilizer, there’s nutrients that if you allow yourself to learn from the lesson, it will grow you.

Nicole Hoss (13:21)
Yes.

Quentin (13:32)
It will grow you strong. And I mean, when you put the fertilizer down, when you put the seeds in, when you water it, sometimes it creates this beautiful landscape that you never would have imagined if you had not put down the fertilizer. So sometimes the failure is just the fertilizer for you to grow from.

Nicole Hoss (13:47)
I love that analogy, especially because my husband’s in agriculture.

Quentin (13:53)
And

my wife’s in education. So it’s a confluence. Things are just flowing all through, y’all. And I love you. My wife is very similar to you. She makes everything better. I say something, and she just makes it better. And I borrow a passage from the Bible. It says, you write the vision, you make it plain. And then those that hear it, they take the vision, and they run with it.

And so when I think about that, that’s what I think about you. You said, you you may not write the vision, but when you hear it, you take it and you run with it. And that’s, that’s my wife. And so, know, wives, y’all just, y’all just awesome. Y’all make everything better. Y’all just really do. Absolutely. So let me ask you this, Ms. Nicole, what’s the next real goal? Like, what are you looking to solve or scale next? What’s next for you?

Nicole Hoss (15:21)
Well, a couple things. in my personal business, definitely looking to scale, always looking for new properties. I’ve had all the way up to 10 doors at one point.

The market over the last few years has been crazy. So I have sold properties when it made sense. ⁓ But when you’re selling properties, you’re selling because the market says to sell, the market is not saying buy. So I have sold some properties and then actually was able to deploy capital from those properties, a couple of them, into other projects. So I was able to purchase something that my husband

Quentin (15:38)
Got you. Yeah.

Nicole Hoss (16:00)
I wanted to do for for like I’m not even kidding you 22 years we’ve been looking to buy a property in Colorado and finally last year after

really diving into some new avenues in Colorado, we were able to find a property that we wanted to purchase. And in order to do that, we had to sell a couple of properties that I had had for probably well longer than I needed to in Indianapolis. Honestly, you know, I got a little attached, you know, for really no reason. They’re properties and I should have sold them previously, but I didn’t. But it all worked out. But I was able to sell a couple of properties by the line.

Quentin (16:38)
Yeah.

Nicole Hoss (16:41)
out in Colorado which was really nice. And then my next goal then is to start building that investment property portfolio again in both Indianapolis and possibly in Alabama as well as there’s some interesting pockets in Alabama. But it’s not that I don’t have anything in Indianapolis. I still do have a handful over there. I just would like to get back and have more properties as long as it makes sense.

Quentin (16:50)
Yes, ma’am.

Yeah.

Nicole Hoss (17:07)
And that’s where I’m at right now, is just finding what makes sense. And I feel a shift. I do feel like it’s going, it’s becoming a buyer’s market. There’s just all the other avenues that are more of a…

learning aspect, and I wouldn’t say roadblock, but you know, trying to navigate around new tax laws and interest rates, which have been plaguing us for the last couple of years. But, you know, looking at the whole landscape and going, okay, this makes sense. Now it’s to find those areas, you know, whereas at one point you could look pretty much anywhere in Indianapolis, it would make sense. It’s not like that today. And, and so it’s

Quentin (17:25)
Yeah.

Nicole Hoss (17:49)
My goal right now is to find those pockets that are making sense and start rebuilding what I had over there to build up my portfolio again.

Quentin (18:01)
Absolutely. I love it.

Nicole Hoss (18:02)
Yeah,

that was, so that’s my personal business, my other business, the one that I’m the 50 % now part of ⁓ with my business partner. We are looking to expand our customers. So expanding out our email list really. And so what that does is it gives investors across the country a chance to invest in Indianapolis or Alabama by speaking with me.

Quentin (18:06)
Woof!

Yes, ma’am.

Yes. Yeah.

Nicole Hoss (18:29)
who is an out of state investor, because I don’t live in Illinois anymore. I live in Iowa, so I’m even further away from where I’m buying property. But I get it. I get what it feels like to be out of state and not understand our market. so that’s what we’re doing is we’re talking to investors across the country who are looking to invest not in their backyard. So I talk to a lot of people in California.

And so that’s the other part of where I am in my real estate world.

Quentin (18:55)
Yes, ma’am.

Yes, ma’am. I love it. Oh, I love it. I love what you’re doing. And I’m going to absolutely love asking you this question, right? So I’m going to say a word and I want to hear what comes to mind. The word relationship. When I say the word relationship, what comes to mind? Just what comes to mind, period. And also what comes to mind in business? I’m going love asking you this question. So what comes to mind when you hear the word relationship, Ms. Nicole

Nicole Hoss (19:20)
Okay, so relationship to me is huge. That’s actually why I was originally brought on to high return real estate eight years ago is because I build relationships with clients and I, because I have been there. And so if there’s not a relationship and there’s not a…

camaraderie with whoever I speak with, then they’re not going to trust me. They’re not going to trust the process. They’re going to look for somebody else.

So relationship building is huge for me. I want to be the person that even if they don’t have it, even if they’re not interested anymore in properties in Indianapolis where I’m selling, they can still come to me about general questions. have a couple clients that I have been working with

for I think six years. One of them is located in California. The other one is located, actually I think he’s in Maryland. I need to go back and double check where he’s at. I don’t always know where the people are that I’m talking to, but I have two customers that, I mean, they haven’t purchased from high return real estate in at least four years. And I still talk with them on a

Quentin (20:17)
Yeah.

Nicole Hoss (20:28)
every few months just because they because of the relationship that I built with them like it’s and that’s and so that’s what I think about when I think about when I hear the word relationship is it’s a lifelong friendship you know I may never ever ever be even in the same area code as these individuals but we have built a relationship

Quentin (20:40)
Yes.

Yeah. Yeah.

Nicole Hoss (20:51)
with the foundation of real estate investing. And to be able to speak with people that are like-minded like that, like it’s really important because my friends across the street, they don’t think like that. So, like I can hardly talk sometimes about what I do because they don’t get it or they think I’m crazy.

Quentin (21:08)
Yeah.

Right.

Nicole Hoss (21:10)
You own properties and it’s three states away? How does that work? You bought a property without ever stepping foot in it? What? Yeah. So the people that I have met through real estate investing and through high return real estate, those are the relationships that I really thrive on because they get it.

Quentin (21:11)
Yeah. ⁓

I say I knew I was going to love asking you that question. Because one of the words I use when I talk about relationship as well is community. And I think what you explain is that you build in a community, an ecosystem where people thrive. I often say community is common unity. It’s people who have the common goal in mind. And like you said, you may not buy this year, next year, but there is community that

ecosystem, they know where to come when they have questions and when it’s time to buy. And so not only do I feel like you build a relationship, it sounds like you build a community as well.

Nicole Hoss (22:04)
Yes, that’s definitely been the goal, to be able to bounce ideas off of each other and not have that, know, are they gonna buy? Hanging over my head, that’s not, like, that’s not how I operate. I operate on building the relationship.

Quentin (22:14)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah. Well, I just want to say, I’m going say something further to you, but I just had to take a moment just to celebrate your journey. I mean, from being in education, stay at home mom, three kids, to taking this real estate idea, running with it. And now you’re 50-50 partnership. I mean, just the journey is fantastic, fantastic. And I’m so glad that you shared it with us.

Listen, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you, Ms. Nicole?

Nicole Hoss (22:53)
Couple ways, one, they can just email me directly at Nicole, that’s N-I-C-O-L-E at highreturnrealestate.com. That’s, I mean, it goes straight to my inbox, which is on my phone. So no matter where I’m at, what kids activity I’m at, I can usually see it. And the second way is our website is highreturnrealestate.com.

and there’s a form that usually pops up called the Insiders Club. You fill that out, I also get a notification. So either way, you’re going to get a hold of me because I’m the main person that gets to talk to you. And so it’s really exciting.

Quentin (23:28)
I love it. But let me say three things to you, and I say these sincerely. One, thank you for your time. You could have been doing anything in the world, but you gave us your time. So thank you for your time. Secondly, thank you for your story. Thank you for your gift of transparency, your approach of authenticity, even the gift of your vulnerability. You shared some things you did not have to share. And I believe stories have a way of planting seeds in people.

You’ll never know the growth, but, or you may know the growth, but sometimes you may never know the growth, but literally you can course correct people. And I think about your husband listening to Bigger Pockets and I’m thinking about somebody listening to Ms. Nicole. And then years later, 10 years later, they’re going to have a growth off of the seeds that you planted. So thank you for your story. Lastly, thank you for your mindset, the way you think and bringing that mindset to this platform.

Nicole Hoss (23:57)
you

Quentin (24:21)
I greatly appreciate you coming on today, Ms. Nicole.

Nicole Hoss (24:23)
Thank you so much, Quentin.

Quentin (24:24)
Absolutely.

Well, listen, y’all heard Ms. Nicole. I told you she was going to be fantastic. Y’all see why. Y’all see why I was talking in the beginning, right? So please get in contact with her. Her information is in the show notes. Check her out. Get in contact with her email. But definitely make sure you’re subscribed here, because I promise you we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Ms. Nicole. So ma’am, thank you again. And everyone else, listen, y’all have a fantastic day.