How to Protect Your Real Estate Portfolio with Mary Lou Dobbs

Mary Lou Dobbs (00:00)
real estate is always going to be king in my eyes. I mean, I’ve always had a passion for real estate. I do see people doing some ⁓ unique things like buying airplane hangers and renting them out because they don’t have to fix ⁓ a heater or an air conditioner. They don’t have to deal with renters to the degree you would in a residential property or commercial property. ⁓ You have someone who has a plane, they want to take care of it.

Scott Bursey (02:00)
your host Scott Bursey. And today pros, we are getting a massive shot of fuel straight from the source. We have a legend joining us. Someone whose career spans half a century in the high stakes world of corporate insurance. Mary Lou Dobbs isn’t just an expert. She is the ultimate risk mitigator, bringing 50 years of deep corporate knowledge that is absolutely crucial for every real estate investor.

If you thought your due diligence was tight, wait until you hear how Mary Lou views risk and opportunity. Get ready to lock in your portfolio protection and maximize your returns. Mary Lou, it’s an honor to have you here.

Mary Lou Dobbs (02:41)
Thank you, Scott. I appreciate it.

Scott Bursey (02:44)
And for those of our listeners who may not be, ⁓ please, please. And that’s what I was just going to say. Please open with the story and tell us about yourself, Mary Lou.

Mary Lou Dobbs (02:45)
I’d like to open with a story. go ahead.

First I’d like to talk about someone named Usain Bolt. ⁓ He’s from Jamaica and he was a sprinter. And he practiced on a grass field. He was in a country with only about three million people and his drawback was he was six foot five and sprinters are usually small and fast. So when he came out of the block, he always was slow.

But he had something that they couldn’t measure and that was he never saw himself as failing. And so in 2008, 2012 and 2016, he won gold medals and ⁓ he became the fastest runner in the world. And he did it with his stride. So because he started slow, it was his stride was so long that he caught up with all the other runners.

And I feel his story in my bones because in 1974, I got a divorce. I had an 18-month-old son, no career training. I had no social or professional contacts. I was thrust into the insurance world with the businesses. I called on businesses and I knew nothing and really felt like he did coming out of the block slow.

And I went to my first professional meeting and I was standing there all by myself. No one was approaching me and I felt a tap on my shoulder and I turned around and looked down and this man said, I don’t think women belong in the insurance business. And I replied, neither do short little fat men. And that kind of set the stage of what was going to happen over the next 50 years. Trying to fit into my lane.

Scott Bursey (04:48)
that’s in,

I would say that is just remarkable. 50 years of seeing it all moving from corporate risk to real estate portfolio protection is a natural leap for you.

It sounds like in your perspective is invaluable for our pros here today, Mary Lou. Mary Lou, I like to start off with asking you this with the single biggest advantage of real estate investor.

Mary Lou Dobbs (05:57)
Thank you.

Scott Bursey (06:04)
gains. Let me ask you, what is the single biggest advantage a real estate investor gains from approaching due diligence with an insurance underwriters mindset?

Mary Lou Dobbs (06:19)
I want to tell you how I found money for investment portfolios. And I think this would be of interest to your listening audience. I was at a Remax party ⁓ celebrating ⁓ with the Remax group and a man walked up to me and said he wanted me to ⁓

come to work at Wells Fargo Bank and teach his bankers how to sell profitable products. I did that for two years, turned the bank around to selling profitable products, and then I ran their insurance and executive benefits department. And so what’s interesting about that is

The business bankers weren’t very positive about opening their portfolio to their partners, which I was one of, an insurance agent. And so I had to earn their business and I did it in a fun and exciting way. If you’d like me to share what that is. And then I’ll tell your investors how to find money in portfolios.

Scott Bursey (07:18)
⁓ please.

Mary Lou Dobbs (07:25)
So ⁓ I watched all the partners and what they were doing was going in and ⁓ meeting with the business bankers. And you could see on the business banker’s face, it was like, God, what fresh hell is this going to be? It’s credit cards or mortgage partner or the SBA loan partner. And so they always went in talking about their products and their services, not approaching the business banker and how they would allow them.

to open up their portfolios to these partners. And so I bought a wheel and I showed up early with a lot of gifts and I put them on the conference table and I had this, I call it the wheel of misfortune. And I’d have a business banker and I had little cards on the wheel and they’d come up and twirl the wheel and they’d pull a card and it would say, ⁓ you’re in business with a partner and your partner.

dies and now you’re in business with his wife. You’ll do a hundred percent of the work and get 50 % of the profits. Wheel of misfortune. And then the business banker would turn the card around and they’d see, if my partner, Mary Lou Dobbs went in and funded a buy-sell agreement and used life insurance and the partner died, then…

The money would walk in and you could buy the partner’s wife off and she would leave and you’d get a hundred percent of stock and do a hundred percent of the business. So I taught them through examples and through fun, making it interactive. And they did open up their portfolios to me. And I ended up being number one in the country for six consecutive years. And it wasn’t because I was smarter. It was because I found out what was important to the business banker, just like

real estate people have to find out what’s important to the customers they’re working with, the clients.

Scott Bursey (09:18)
Absolutely. What a great example, Mary Lou. And Mary Lou, can we touch on your book that, I guess the new edition came out three weeks ago, the revised edition.

Mary Lou Dobbs (09:29)
Yeah, it’s called the art of being a badass woman breaking the hold on good girl conditioning. I have to tell you, I’m in a real estate investment group and I asked one of them to refer a contractor to me and I accidentally read the text and it said this.

Dear Manuel, please be nice to this woman. She’s in my real estate investment group. She’s an old white woman.

He hurt my feelings because I spent 50 years trying to be something ⁓ much more than just an old white woman. And I was packing for a thousand mile motorcycle trip to join my son in Colorado for his 50th birthday party. So he actually ended up being the first, ⁓ he’s on the first page of my book ⁓ talking about how not to ⁓ have something negative.

put you down, but actually stimulate you to do something like create a new chapter for yourself. So I never dreamed of writing the book, but his comment inspired me to share my history and how I wasn’t done yet. Even though I’m in my almost late seventies, I’m not done ⁓ creating the life I’d like.

Scott Bursey (11:28)
That is awesome. And we’ve got to ask you this question with all of your experience. Where do you often see investors drop the ball when it comes to standard liability coverage on large commercial assets?

Mary Lou Dobbs (11:43)
Well, I don’t know the liability side of insurance. did executive benefits and I sold life insurance to overfund for retirement. But I will say I would like to share where to find money for your deals. so in in 2001, a company called Enron went broke. They had a terrible auditing scandal.

And Arthur Anderson was part of that and 25,000 people lost their 401k money, their pension money to the tune of $2 billion. So the IRS was very distraught over the situation and they changed the rules on 401k ⁓ plan documents and they allow for what’s called an in-service distribution.

So this is kind of money laying around, it’s people’s qualified money. There’s some restrictions on using that money for investments and ⁓ for real estate investments. ⁓ One of them is you have to be 59 and a half. Another one is ⁓ it has to be vested money. And you have to, if you roll it out, they’ll allow, it’s called an in-service distribution. So you can be working for that company, but yet you have a desire to.

maybe do more than the market or you’re fearful of the market or you’re conservative and you’d like to do some real estate investments, you can still be working there and pull that money out and roll it into a self-directed IRA and start making real estate investments. You do have to have an arms length transaction and use a third party administrator. And that’s what I did. And I started buying rentals.

And then I was able to leverage my assets in a larger way than just having it in a qualified plan.

Scott Bursey (13:46)
And what do you feel is a big opportunity right now through your lens?

Mary Lou Dobbs (13:54)
Well, because of my age, I’m more worried about keeping what I’ve got than making a large ⁓ amount of money. being part of that real estate investment group, learned that there was these, and I read about it in my book, I have a whole chapter on being an entrepreneur to young contractors who are trying to build their own portfolios.

And what I did was they approached me and I loaned them money from my self-directed IRA and I earned a really good interest rate, couple of points, and they get an opportunity to build their portfolios or flip homes because the banks won’t loan them money until they’ve owned that property for at least a year. So they call me their bank lady. And I have a lot of knowledge on the bank side. you know, even though

They see me as this old white lady. I’m also have a lot of expertise that they need. And they also have expertise that I’ve learned, know, how they’re, they’re hunters and they go out and find these wonderful deals. And then they’re stymied because they, can’t find the funding to, and so we fill up, I fill a big gap and I think other people could fill a big gap for them as well.

Scott Bursey (15:54)
With your experience, can you give us any gold nuggets on the vision that you have of the trajectory of the industry?

Mary Lou Dobbs (16:07)
⁓ Well,

real estate is always going to be king in my eyes. I mean, I’ve always had a passion for real estate. I do see people doing some ⁓ unique things like buying airplane hangers and renting them out because they don’t have to fix ⁓ a heater or an air conditioner. They don’t have to deal with renters to the degree you would in a residential property or commercial property. ⁓ You have someone who has a plane, they want to take care of it.

and it’s golden to them. And so ⁓ this is kind of a new area that I’ve never heard of. And some investors are doing that kind of thing.

Scott Bursey (16:47)
Airplane hangers, that’s fascinating.

Mary Lou Dobbs (16:50)
So

you know, it’s about finding out what everyone else is doing and doing something different. ⁓ I know when in my eighth year, I was called into my manager’s office and ⁓ he said, Mary Louie said, Lincoln Nationals had 75 year history and they’ve had a sales contest every year. And he said, you won this year. And I beat out 4,000 agents. And it was, and I was so shocked, but I like bold.

Scott Bursey (16:58)
Ahem.

Mary Lou Dobbs (17:20)
of had found my stride and I worked twice as hard and made a huge commitment. But I was also asked to do recruiting tapes, recruit other women into the business. And then they asked me to speak at their 75th anniversary in Hawaii and do a keynote. And I remember coming back and I was in my office and one of my associates came to the door and he leaned against the door and he folded his hands and he said, you know, Mary Lou, he said not.

quite as much production, didn’t take quite as much production to win the national sales contest this year as it has in other years. And I realized that was that French saying, the deja-poo, like this shit has happened to me before. And ⁓ I think that’s the biggest issue, ⁓ not being heard, not being listened to, not feeling valued. ⁓

And I’m not gonna just say women, I’m sure there are men too who feel that same thing, know, being appreciated for your knowledge and your expertise is really critical.

Scott Bursey (18:27)
And we’re going to pick your brain here a little bit, Mary Lou. After 50 years, what’s one universal risk management principle from the corporate world that every pro should apply to their personal real estate investing in your eyes?

Mary Lou Dobbs (18:43)
Well, I think, know your lane, you know, like, what are you really good at? I was good at selling corporate insurance and executive benefits to business owners. And I knew that. And so when I left Wells Fargo, I started my own company and ⁓ it’s hard to get to business owners when you don’t have a referral source. I know a lot of real estate people probably like, how do you get to the people with the money?

And so what I did was I looked at what everyone else was doing and I thought I’ll do something different. And I would go to ⁓ Manta and get the top hundred companies in New Mexico and mostly in Albuquerque. And we would find out who the owner was, what they earned, how many employees they had. And then we’d get a cupcake from Smith’s and put it in a container with a card that talked about saving taxes or building your portfolio.

And then my assistant would deliver it to him and go right past the gatekeeper on the desk of the president of the company. And then when I called their resistance was down. And I remember when I first got in sales, I was so afraid they’d find out I didn’t know what I was doing that I would ask them a question like, why did you choose ⁓ a mortgage company or a contracting company to, to,

have your business and they would talk for like 20, 25 minutes and then they take a breath and they would say, okay, lady, what, is it you do? What happens is you bring down the resistance and they’re open to hearing what you have to say as a professional. And that’s called psychological reciprocity. It’s like, I’m honor bound when I give you my full attention to listen to you as well.

Scott Bursey (20:35)
some excellent words of wisdom. And Mary Lou, this is the part of the show where we try to extract that one deep dive pro secret that shifts careers. Given your five decades in corporate insurance, what is the one pro secret about policy structuring or claims defense that the average real estate investor is completely unaware of, but that can save or make them a massive amount of money?

Mary Lou Dobbs (21:03)
closing cells. I think I have some power phrases in my book that I use. ⁓ I call them power phrases, not closing, because the book has a wide audience. But when we grow up ⁓ to the age of two, there’s been some research, sometimes we hear the word no from 200 to 400 times a day by the time we’re two years old. And so people’s minds are

are geared to saying no to you. So, you you’re trying to close the sale, you want to close a real estate deal, ⁓ property or commercial property. And their first thought is to say no to it, because that’s what they’re conditioned to. So I, I, I share this power phrase, it’s a closing skill, and I used it and it worked for me. instead of asking, would you like to buy this and move forward? So they would say no.

I want to think about it or I’m not ready, which is usually what happens. You ask, would you have any objections if we ⁓ cleared you financially for this property? And they would say no. So you’re getting a yes with a no. So it’s, would you have any objection if we cleared you financially for this property? No, because that makes it easy for them to move forward. So you have to work, you have to help them through the buying.

process and I think that’s the most valuable I give I could give to the listening audience.

Scott Bursey (22:35)
That is extremely, extremely gold nugget right there. Walking them through the process logically. That is outstanding. Mary Lou, the insights you’ve shared with us today have been amazing, just amazing. Is there anything else you’d like to leave with our audience here today?

Mary Lou Dobbs (22:58)
Well, right now I do thought field therapy and emotion code. I’m a transformation coach and I work with people who have fear of making big sales or cold calling or they just want to have a larger life and some of their past experiences has helped them back. And so I do that ⁓ work. I’m a transformation coach. My website is maryludobs.net. have a

17 minute video on women in power that just ⁓ started streaming with different ⁓ television stations on streaming and so there’s a lot going on in my life. I know I should be in my rocking chair, but I’m on my motorcycle. I do tours all over the world and I’m just vibrant and alive and people go where does that energy come from? And I tell them we have circuits that run through our body and ⁓

when there’s anxiety or trauma or ⁓ fear, they shut down and we get less and less energy. And I show people how to ⁓ create a surge of energy through their body. And so they can maximize their energy and have the life that they desire.

Scott Bursey (24:14)
That is outstanding. And is there any other way that they can collaborate or follow you that you’d like to share with our listeners here today?

Mary Lou Dobbs (24:24)
Well, the book, the book is on Amazon. It’s in any bookstore. ⁓ Yeah, I would love to. There’s so much. There’s so many golden nuggets in the book that I share and some of the more power phrases. I use one called Up to Now, you know, because when people come to me, they want to tell their old story. And you probably had that, too. You know, people want to tell their old story over and over. And yet they want a new reality or they want something new in their life. So I tell them

Let’s just start with up to now, I’ve had a fear of doing something or calling on a very wealthy client. So it creates also a circuit of possibility thinking so they can move in a new direction. I guess I’ll leave with, you know, up to now, I’ve enjoyed being here and I have a lot more to share and yeah, I’ll be on other platforms as well.

Scott Bursey (25:21)
I know our listeners are going to want a slice of you, Mary Lou, in their lives. This has been an absolute masterclass. Thank you for joining us here today.

Mary Lou Dobbs (25:32)
Thank you, Scott. I really enjoyed it.

Scott Bursey (25:34)
And for our listeners, we appreciate each and every one of you. If you got value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ve got a lineup of exceptional guests, just like Mary Lou, who are making huge moves in the market.

There it is. Make sure you pick up the book, everybody. There it is. That’s one you’re gonna wanna read.

Mary Lou Dobbs (25:51)
One last promotion.

Thank

you. Thank you.

Scott Bursey (26:02)
Thank you, Mary Lou. And to all of our audience, thank you.