How to Build Wealth Through Real Estate With Money You Already Have | Cassondra Liles

Cassondra Liles (00:00)
Okay, so conversations equal contracts. You got to get out of your house. You got to go meet people. You’ve got to go to lunches. You need to hang around with the people that are are interested in buying real estate. Stop hanging out with realtors. Realtors like to hang out with realtors. Realtors aren’t buying real estate from you. Join the Rotary Club, join the Lions Club, you know, join some civic organizations or some volunteer organizations and go and have conversations. It’s that easy.

Issa Hanna (01:59)
Welcome back to another episode of the *Real Estate Pros Show*. I’m your host, Issa Hanna And today I have Cassondra Liles with us, a seasoned real estate and investor here to share her knowledge with us. Cassondra, welcome to the show.

Cassondra Liles (02:10)
You appreciate you having me.

Issa Hanna (02:11)
I appreciate having you. Definitely a wealth of knowledge. We talked a little bit earlier. I related to a lot that you said because we both are real estate agents. We both are real estate investors. So I’m super excited. But with that, for our viewers at home, can you kind of run down like what facets of real estate you’re in and then what your day to days kind of look like?

Cassondra Liles (02:31)
Sure. So I have been a North Carolina licensed realtor since 2002. I own eight Airbnb short-term rental properties. I have two long-term rental properties and I have two commercial properties. And what I my goal as a realtor is is to help people build wealth through real estate investing.

Issa Hanna (02:49)
I that. I love that. And I did a little bit of research. We’ll get into that later. But I got a surprise for you viewers. We’re not just talking to an investor in a realtor. We’re talking to something else. But that’ll come later. I kind of want to get your origin story. We all have a pretty cool, I fell into real estate story. So I want to get yours, Cassondra.

Cassondra Liles (03:11)
Married a builder. I had a cushy corporate job and I was doing fine, but I am not a nine to five, eight to five girl. I, you know, you get into real estate so you can work your own hours. So pick which 16 hours of the day you want to work, right? So I I married a builder. He said, he was a custom home builder. He said, you know, get your license, you can sell my properties. And then I just fell in love with the business. So that’s my story.

Issa Hanna (03:39)
I love that. And a lot of times it is, you know, you’ll meet somebody or you’re married somebody and they’ll have a business that goes hand in hand with being a realtor, the real estate business. You start doing deals. Next thing you know, you gain all this knowledge and you’re like, hold on, I can probably invest. And so goes the tree starts growing from there. The branches start branching off. So I love that. I mean, you guys have got three real estate centered businesses right now between you and your husband.

Cassondra Liles (04:08)
Well, we’re divorced now, but we did.

Issa Hanna (04:11)
Okay, cool cool. Well, you know.

Cassondra Liles (04:16)
You’ve got the

Issa Hanna (04:17)
Yeah, well at least he got you some knowledge to get some listings and now here we are with the most knowledgeable of the realtor on the show.

Cassondra Liles (04:26)
But my story getting into short-term rentals is a little bit interesting. I had no intentions of getting into short-term rentals. My my kids, I have three kids that are each a year apart. They’re up, they’re grown now. But I always told them when they went to college, you know, you live on campus the first year. and then after that, you usually move off campus. And I said I’d buy them a little townhouse or a condo or something that they could have as theirs, their roommates pay the, you know, part of the mortgage and kind of send them off in the world with a with a little place.

So I bought this super cool historic home, just because I love historic homes in Greenville, North Carolina, where my son went to college at ECU. And as that freshman year was going on, I thought, I’m not letting these kids move into this super cool historic home. So you know, you know what sophomore college boys are gonna tear a house up. So I converted it to a short term rental, no clue what I was doing, made every mistake in the book, and that’s what kicked off my short term rental.

game is because I just decided I was not gonna let him move into the house. And then I bought like six more over the next two years. And then I was just so excited about it. You know, I’ve kind of burned out a little bit getting them set up and and you know running and operating is is a big task. It’s almost a full time task. It takes a couple months to get them going. But yeah, I kind of fell into it and now now I love it.

Issa Hanna (05:42)
Definitely and you know somebody who owns rentals You do fall in love with it. You get bit by the bug you go through the process You make tons of mistakes with your first one, but you never lose you always learn that that’s something I always say I’m already loving this story. Yep. Just keep moving forward. Can’t go backwards. That’s for sure going backwards cost you a lot of I also wanted to bring up I seen that you’ve authored a book about real estate. So can you tell us a little bit about the book?

Cassondra Liles (06:13)
It’s called *Real Life Monopoly*, and it literally was born out of all the mistakes I made. I started taking notes. Don’t do this again, do this, this worked, this didn’t work. And then I put together like a slideshow presentation just more to collect my thoughts than anything else. And I was presenting it to local investor groups. I was doing this and I still do it actually. And and I’m glad to do it for for anybody interested. I was doing it for local realtors and so forth. And then I’m thinking, man, I Some kind of paragraphs here, some some chapters here. And so I started putting it down on paper and I was hoping to get a hundred pages. I’m like, please let me have enough material for a hundred pages. And I ended up with 190 pages. So I’m really proud of it. I’m certainly not a experienced writer, but I do think it offers a wealth of knowledge for anybody that is thinking about getting started in short-term rentals or is in it and not really sure what they’re doing.

Issa Hanna (07:04)
Yeah, definitely a book that was born out of necessity out of your personal business notes full of knowledge. So for people at home, make sure you check her book out because I guarantee it’s going to be full of knowledge.

Cassondra Liles (07:16)
It’s called *Real Life Monopoly*. You can get it on Amazon.

Issa Hanna (07:19)
*Real Life Monopoly* on Amazon. guys make sure to check her book out because a lot of people write books. They try to appeal to the masses. I love it. You took notes and these are like your yeah, it’s so niche and it’s so probably informative just because this is a professional’s notes that you guys are reading. This is born through the fire through the through the problems that she had. unbelievable, unbelievable and then I want to kind of You said that you’re into building wealth for your clients and you walk the walk. So, can you explain why dealing with you and a client calling you and wanting to build wealth and having you help them build wealth, why is that so beneficial? How do you walk this walk?

Cassondra Liles (08:04)
Well, let me just say there’s thirty-five million people. Forty percent of the US population owns their house outright, no mortgage. Sixty-six percent of people in the United States have fifty percent equity in the house, in their houses. These people are sitting on massive amounts of money that they can use to buy more properties, whether they’re commercial or short-term rentals, midterm rentals, long-term rentals, to build wealth. So a lot of people don’t. look as their house look at their house as a way to make money, but there are so many people out there with these big buckets of money that I try to educate that you can use it to to build a better future for your family and it’s legacy money.

Issa Hanna (09:28)
Definitely legacy building money. Guys, if you have a paid off house, it’s like a bank, you know, you have access to that equity. So if you’re not tapping into it, you definitely got to get the right guidance to tap into it. And that’s where Cassondra comes in. But you know, if you’re not tapping into it to expand, you’re doing you’re probably doing something wrong. So make sure if you’re in North Carolina, you focus on her because she can definitely help you build a lot of wealth. There’s a

Cassondra Liles (09:54)
Ever of other avenues too, like self-directed IRAs. You can use them to buy crypto, gold, silver, real estate. 529 college savings plans. I bought my son a house with his 529 college savings plans. Now there’s nuances to each of these. I do cover them all in the book, but there’s a lot of ways to get money. People go, I don’t have any money to buy real estate. I’m like, let’s talk. I bet you do, and you just don’t realize it.

Issa Hanna (10:17)
Exactly. Somebody experienced that they’ll know exactly where that money’s at and exactly how to leverage it. So I want to talk a little bit of future with you right now. I look you up five years down the road, you know, I kind of snooped on your bio earlier before. What am I going to see in the bio? What’s going to be written about you in five years?

Cassondra Liles (10:36)
Well, I’m kind of on the backside of hustling real estate. Yeah, I don’t think I’ll ever stop working with buyers and sellers. I I enjoy it, but I am just working with past clients now. I’m going to invest in more properties. I’m probably gonna sell a few of my less producing properties, but I’m just gonna keep investing in real estate. That’s that’s kind of my end game. You know, realtors never retire. I’m probably just die at my desk one day, you know. So that’s what we’re we’re just always out there in the hustle. But I’m trying to do more of the wealth building than the actual transactional real estate these days. So, you know, I’m fifty five years old. I’ll be 60 in five years. I hope that I’m I’m slowing down a little bit.

Issa Hanna (11:12)
I love that and yeah, we will all miss that house. We’d be 80 years old. Call us. We’re going to come take the pictures and list it.

Cassondra Liles (11:21)
We just can’t help ourselves.

Issa Hanna (11:26)
Definitely. And then I kind of want to get your advice for our younger viewers now. People who just got their real estate license, maybe new investors, right? Our business is built on relationships, on growing networks, on just talking to people, right? So for people just starting, how do they get the ball rolling on building and growing these networks?

Cassondra Liles (11:46)
Okay, so conversations equal contracts. You got to get out of your house. You got to go meet people. You’ve got to go to lunches. You need to hang around with the people that are are interested in buying real estate. Stop hanging out with realtors. Realtors like to hang out with realtors. Realtors aren’t buying real estate from you. Join the Rotary Club, join the Lions Club, you know, join some civic organizations or some volunteer organizations and go and have conversations. It’s that easy. The somebody will say, you know, everybody tells tells you you’re a realtor, somebody will say, my gosh, I you know, I know somebody at work, blah, blah, blah. You have to have the conversations to get the contracts.

Issa Hanna (12:23)
I love that. I’m going to steal that from you. Conversation.

Cassondra Liles (12:27)
It’s all yours.

Issa Hanna (12:28)
That’s definitely a golden phrase because you can’t be anti-social. know nowadays Zoom and this and that, it’s very easy to be staying in the house. It’s very easy to not go out, not socialize. But if you’re not out there, if you’re not giving that card to somebody or you’re not publicizing that you’re a realtor other than Facebook posts to your family, You’re not really going to do much. the clubs amazing way to pick up clients, you know, non-realtor clubs, right? Cause now you’re in this club, you’re to be maybe the only realtor. There might be another one in that club, but.

Cassondra Liles (13:05)
there’ll be another one. There’s always two in everything, but

Issa Hanna (13:08)
Exactly. But all you know, there’s 100 people in the group between you two, you’ve got 50 clients each, you know, and if they like you better, you got the whole hundred.

Cassondra Liles (13:18)
I just like to say givers gain. The more you give to your community, the more you get out of it. be a person that’s a giver, not a taker, and it will just pay you back. It’s just it’s just the way the world works.

Issa Hanna (13:29)
100 % guys, you got to just like they say in real estate school, do the best for your client that you could possibly do. Do your work with honesty, integrity. Don’t think about that one commission check. Don’t think about, man, this deal is so high or, or whatever. can make a lot of money. You think what’s best for that client. You think how to guide that client to the finish line. Because when you do that, you, you also, you make a commission check, but you plant a seed. Right. and that seed will grow into tons of clients just from that one person that you did right by.

Cassondra Liles (14:04)
There’s no such thing as a past client. People are like, that’s a past client. That is a client just not currently in the active cycle. Every client is a forever client. And you got to think of it that way. You got to keep the relationship after closing. Got to do a great job. They’ll hopefully refer you a family member or a neighbor or somebody from work. But that person is a forever client. There are no past clients.

Issa Hanna (15:06)
Never a past client. I love that. Where you’re dropping so many knowledge bombs on our new viewers. You’re dropping some knowledge bombs on me today. love that. another thing I want to add in that we talked about while we’re giving advice to these new guys. Don’t be an, hey, no offense to you car salesman. Don’t be a car salesman, you guys. Don’t be a salesy type guy. You need to be a knowledgeable professional that people could look at for guidance and be confident in your advice. Just wanted to throw that little cherry on top for you.

Cassondra Liles (15:36)
People can smell commission breath. If you are desperate for the commission, they know it and they know that you’re not being the fiduciary and their best advocate. Always do what’s best for the client and you will win in the end, even if the deal falls apart. Do not have commission breath.

Issa Hanna (15:51)
Definitely, I love that. Now, I wanna give you the floor. I wanna give you some time to plug yourself, right? If people wanna get a hold of you, ask some of the knowledge, ask a little bit of knowledge about what you’re doing, or maybe just like, hey, I wanna deal with you as a realtor, I wanna be a new client, where can they reach you?

Cassondra Liles (16:12)
so my website is well my business is called The Key Team, K E Y T E A M I work in Wake and Johnston County, Raleigh area, North Carolina. But if you need any referral in the area, even if it’s outside of my area, I’ll find find somebody for you. so my website’s thekeyteam.com. You can call or text me at 919-523-5065

Issa Hanna (16:37)
Make sure you guys, if you’re in the North Carolina area, make sure you call Cassondra because as a fellow realtor, when you talk to another realtor, can tell who’s legit, who’s not. Cassondra right here, one of the most knowledgeable real estate people that I’ve met, very personable and will do right by you. You will get the right guidance and you will cross that finish line. So I love that Cassondra. And then I want to close out the show with something that I think might be really fun. And it could be a real estate deal. He kind of touched on it with the Airbnb a little bit. But I want to get the real estate nightmare that sticks out in your mind because we all have one.

Cassondra Liles (17:18)
I’ve got I’ve got a good one. And this was not that long ago. This was about two years ago. I was on the dating apps. And I yeah, this is this is a crazy story. And I guess I kept declining this guy, and he did a reverse image search on my picture and found out I was a realtor and called me to his house to list his house. Well, I I soon realized I’m like, this guy’s not selling this house. I can’t figure out what’s going on. I and I finally said What’s your deal? Like, I don’t feel like you’re selling your house. He said, I keep trying to match with you and you won’t match with me. And I feel like you’re you and I are meant to be together. I was like, What? Yeah. So I said to him, I’m gonna walk to that door. If you follow me, you’re gonna have the fight of your life, and I can assure you I’m gonna win. It was crazy. I it’s that that was the craziest real estate that thing I’ve ever had happen in real estate. It was wild.

Issa Hanna (18:10)
Cassondra thank you so so much for coming on the show. I really enjoyed talking to you, enjoyed picking your brain. You are a wealth of knowledge in our industry and I wish you all the luck in the world in the future.

Cassondra Liles (18:23)
Appreciate it. Thank you.

Issa Hanna (18:24)
Thanks for coming on and to my viewers at home. If you guys enjoyed my conversation with Cassandra and want to see more like it, make sure to hit like and subscribe. I talk to people every day that can bring us different knowledge on every aspect of the real estate industry. Until next time, the real estate pros are out.