How to Turn Rent Into Wealth With Real Estate Investing

S.D. Newkirk (00:00)
I know you want all that, but hey, you know, build your legacy, invest in yourself, is what we try to educate the buyers to do. So it’s difficult doing that at this time, you know, because like I said, people are stuck on the three and a half to four percent.

Annette Newkirk (00:12)
Yeah. And I always say to them, you’re either paying off your mortgage or someone else’s. Yeah. So I’m like, really think about that. And that’s where he’s getting with, you know, it’s about ⁓ investing and building that equity and then eventually that turns into wealth.

S.D. Newkirk (00:18)
Exactly.

Scott Bursey (02:00)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast powered by Investor Fuel. I’m your host, Scott Bursey And today we are joined by Annette and SD Newkirk, the visionaries behind Home Life Coastal Properties. Annette and SD have mastered the art of high value acquisitions and wealth building strategies throughout Florida, consistently helping their investors secure prime assets in some of the most competitive markets in the country. Annette and SD, welcome to the show.

S.D. Newkirk (02:29)
Thank you. Appreciate it. Glad to be a part of it, Scott.

Scott Bursey (02:32)
It is just awesome having you two here. And for our listeners who may not be familiar with your journey, please tell us how did your career begin and where are you pouring your fuel now?

S.D. Newkirk (02:42)
Okay, I’ll let my wife start first. Ladies first. Thank you.

Annette Newkirk (02:47)
⁓ I actually began my real estate career in Texas, the Dallas Fort Worth market. ⁓ I had been laid off from IT ⁓ shortly after 9-11, unfortunately. And I decided from there I wanted to invest in myself and at least always have a backup. and I just recently purchased a home myself, and I had lots of questions from all of my friends and family members. So I was thinking maybe real estate would be a good idea as a backup for me. And ⁓

Shortly after got my real estate license and I did that, started helping just mostly family, friends, and co-workers because I was working in I got back into technology. ⁓ And that brought me all the way to here in Tampa. I was transferred from my job there in Texas to the Tampa Bay area ⁓ about 10 years ago. Shortly after relocating, I had to go back to school here and get my broker’s license.

So I went ahead and got a broker’s license here in Florida and opened a brokerage shortly after. So that’s kind of what got me going. And right now I am completely and totally fueled ⁓ in mostly new construction and working with investors.

S.D. Newkirk (04:00)
Indeed. Well, myself, ⁓ I’ve been in the industry for quite a bit of time, about 27 years. ⁓ and started out doing collections, lost mitigation, a little bit of bankruptcy. Then I went into processing on the front end, then ⁓ underwriting, then I became a loan officer because of my wife, convinced me to after you know a downside with the company I was with, you know, that just didn’t pan out. So they ended up having to do ⁓ I guess you could say layoffs.

So I had a rebound and think of another different, I I wouldn’t say career, but different path in this mortgage industry. ⁓ you know, once you win it, it’s hard to leave. That I learned, you know, yeah, I I I consider some other things. I considered becoming a pilot and I was like, man, but I love mortgages. I love helping people out, you know. So this will this what we do.

Scott Bursey (04:46)
that’s awesome, you two. You know, the way you pivoted from standard brokerage into high value coastal wealth building shows exactly why you’re dominating that space right now.

S.D. Newkirk (04:56)
Yes, and they and they

Annette Newkirk (04:58)
And

that really all came from our passion of helping. As my husband stated, we do feel like real estate is your first step to building wealth. Exactly. And so any client that we work with, regardless if they’re first-time home buyers or already building a high profile network, ⁓ we give the same type of guidance as far as what’s the next level, what’s the next investment.

S.D. Newkirk (05:19)
Exactly. One thing we definitely believe in is not a no. I would never tell a client you are you’re you do not qualify. I would tell a client this is the path to getting your home. You follow this path, we could get you there. You know. So I I keep them motivated. You know, the last thing someone wants to hear is, No, you can’t do it. No, yes, you can. It’s just this is what it’s gonna take to get it done.

Annette Newkirk (05:41)
Oops.

Scott Bursey (05:42)
That’s really awesome, you two. And what caught my attention about you were the way that you’ve been able to build a massive reputation in the competitive Florida coastal market. You know, constantly deliver high value acquisitions while managing complex property transactions with total precision. That’s not easy.

S.D. Newkirk (06:48)
No, it’s not. No, it’s not. Yeah, it comes with some, you know, difficult planning. Make sure you have the right team. Team is always important. You know, my wife, she has you know, we have a fabulous team, but my wife, she coaches the our agents, you know, to to the T every week, you know, sometimes twice a week, ⁓ one-on-ones with them to make sure they know what they’re doing. I also hold classes with ⁓ with the team as well, doing like wind down Wednesdays to educate them and let them have a little fun barn together.

But besides that, you know, once you have that understanding with your team and everybody on board, and when I say team, like I said, it’s not just the real estate team, but you know, my loan officer assistant, my processor, the underwriter, the insurance, like my yeah, I I we really build a team. The financial advisors, the CPA, if you need it. Yeah, we really build a team to make sure that our customers have the best experience possible.

Annette Newkirk (07:31)
Angela.

S.D. Newkirk (07:41)
And make it a seamless, you know, deal because nobody wants to be stressed and nobody wanna wait till the last minute to say, hey, you don’t qualify or hey, we need this, you know. So we try to make sure they very ed well educated to know what the process is.

Scott Bursey (07:53)
that’s awesome. Thank you for highlighting that, YouTube. And curious to know when you’re assessing your core business model, what do you identify as your biggest competitive strength when you’re closing these high value coastal deals?

Annette Newkirk (08:06)
Relationships. We start from the beginning with that in mind. No matter who the client is, how we can build that relationship. And so my most high value deals really came from relationships. It’s part of the network. Not I don’t do any type of high-end marketing, publicities, or I do utilize social media, but not to the extent where it’s I’m bit I’m just going there for leads. It’s more of just showcasing the agents.

and the level of service that we provide. But the the business really comes from relationship.

S.D. Newkirk (08:38)
Most definitely relationships. I I could definitely support that. Building that we could say, you know, a cold market could become a ⁓ a warm market, I guess you could say, because you know, when I go to a lot of networking events and you can meet someone and they could say, Yeah, I would love to work with you, but until you really build that relationship with them, you don’t know what’s gonna happen. You could send multiple text messages, multiple calls, multiple emails and

they could stay they could be grounded to the person that they’re working with. So it’s about building that relationship and convincing them, hey, look, I’m the right person for you. So yeah, it’s it you you have to it’s all about turning that cold into a warm and to make it work. So yeah, stepping in.

Scott Bursey (09:16)
And how do you translate those relationships into immediate results for new investors coming into your ecosystem?

Annette Newkirk (09:23)
I I I think, you know, as he stated, we do a quite a bit of networking, but ⁓ we collaborate the network. So we make sure that he may have someone in his network that meets that could provide a service or has a property or opportunity for someone in my network. So we create events like on a monthly basis to allow the networks to come together and it kind of organically.

Creates the business. Yes. ⁓ but those relationships and the trust that each of us have built with our networks is what allows them to come together and they automatically trust the people that are there because they know us.

S.D. Newkirk (09:59)
Exactly. So you know it’s easy for someone to come into one of our events and looking to buy an investment property. If that investment property needs work, don’t worry. We have a GC over here. We have an insurance guy over here. If you want to put your business in a trust, we have a somebody that does trust over here. So yeah, we really put together a team.

Scott Bursey (10:16)
Yeah. That’s critical insight right there. When you have that kind of leverage in the market, your ROI naturally follows.

Annette Newkirk (10:24)
I agree. Yes. For sure.

Scott Bursey (10:25)
And guys, digging into the operational side of things, what is the one friction point or weakness in your acquisition process that you’ve had to retool recently to keep scaling?

Annette Newkirk (10:35)
Yeah, that’s that’s gonna definitely be ⁓ getting systems that meet the demand in the current market. So ⁓ we had to scale up to that. ⁓ and we are still looking for different vehicles and tools in today’s real estate market with the new AI just booming, you know, right now, new AI technology booming, you know, looking for opportunities to continue scaling up. but that’s what we’ve seen as the biggest challenge. You can’t

You can have the same business mindset, but you’re gonna have to at least upgrade the business tools that are available now to really compete in this market.

S.D. Newkirk (11:12)
Yes. And convincing buyers to, you know, really build that legacy, you know, right now with the rent with the interest rates being where they at and people thinking, hey, I want three and a half, four percent rates right now is that six percent would get you down to like a five and a half, you know. But you know, just educating the buyers to know exactly what is a good time, you know, because

We have to look at what I come across as this. We have a lot of renters. It’s the the renting the rental market is booming right now. So trying to get them to like hey, convert from this rental over to this house.

And they looking at okay, my mortgage payment’s gonna be this, and you know, I’m not gonna have this pool and I’m not gonna have this. But look, you you’re building your legacy. Look at you’re only gonna live in this house for a couple of years as a young person. Use the house as an investment or you know, sell it, or you could put renters in it and use that as income and go buy another house. You know, we try to educate the buyers that there’s there are opportunities out there by starting with just something that you are comfortable with. I mean, well, that’s you can fish your budget, yes.

Annette Newkirk (12:10)
Fit your budget thing.

S.D. Newkirk (12:47)
And and and and just look at the bigger picture on at the at the end of the road, you know, you’re not gonna always find the house that you want right away, but you are building your equity. You are saving yourself money, you’re not just giving your money away. And that’s what we try to educate people to understand. Yes, I know you want to be downtown, I know you want the amenities,

I know you want all that, but hey, you know, build your legacy, invest in yourself, is what we try to educate the buyers to do. So it’s difficult doing that at this time, you know, because like I said, people are stuck on the three and a half to four percent.

Annette Newkirk (13:16)
Yeah. And I always say to them, you’re either paying off your mortgage or someone else’s. Yeah. So I’m like, really think about that. And that’s where he’s getting with, you know, it’s about ⁓ investing and building that equity and then eventually that turns into wealth.

S.D. Newkirk (13:22)
Exactly.

And they

Scott Bursey (13:34)
Absolutely. It all revolves around education. I couldn’t agree any more, guys. Let’s dig a little deeper into the landscape. Where do you see the biggest blue ocean opportunity for an investor looking at ⁓ the Florida coastal properties in the in the current market?

S.D. Newkirk (13:50)
⁓ Well, right now a lot of clients that we’re running to investors are taking advantage of this DSCR product, the debt to service coverage ratio. Because with that, you only take 15 to 20% down, depending on what the credit ⁓ history is, but 20 to 10 15 to 20% down, and it’s based on what that property could qualify for. So if the if it says the rent is ⁓ $2,000 and the mortgage payment is only $1,980, that hey, do you fit that 1% right there?

It’s easy, you know, and I think it’s the easiest product for investors because you don’t have to show income. All you have to do is just provide the bank statements to show reserves. And we typically closing those deals within well, my wife and I, we just had one and I think we closed it within two weeks. You know, it was like a week and a half, but by the law, you have to be seven days. They think we did it in like 10 days, pretty much. Yeah.

Annette Newkirk (14:40)
And so I have to agree with him. a lot of investors now they don’t have the cash flow that they had previously. So my he’s he stated with the inflation, things are more expensive. So they are looking to use other people’s money, but the interest rates are high. So then they’re all that’s also a challenge for them because other people’s money is more expensive now. ⁓ and

What the I think saving grace is as he stated, many times it’s very easy to qualify for that DSCR loan. Yes. Because you are just qualifying the property, not the personal expenses, incomes, and financials. So that that’s definitely a great market. Now, once he gets them qualified, what I’m really pushing or fueling them with are the Airbnbs, believe it or not, Scott. ⁓

We have learned ourselves, we we recently had to, we’ve been displaced from our home while it’s under renovation. And so we had to find a place that was already furnished. And so we went on the hunt, and it happened to be, of course, the Airbnb is going to be the most convenient. Well, when we looked at those the pricing, compared to because I also have a property management division, compared to what I can get my clients in just monthly rent as a normal.

12 month lease, the short term is killing it by three to four times. So that is definitely ⁓ what we’re fueling right now. If you’re once you get qualified and get that funding, don’t worry about anything because the the return that they will get on that as an Airbnb will definitely bypass the rental or the mortgage payment that he’s speaking of that has to be met as a criteria. Most definitely. So

that’s probably the hottest market right now. Yes. ⁓ and in Florida, of course, we are a tourist state, so indeed. And and and people are really go wrong with that, right?

S.D. Newkirk (16:30)
And people have to understand is that DSCR rates are very close to conventional rates right now, anyway. You know, maybe just one point higher. And there’s ways to get the rates down as well with buy down. So it’s a lot of freedom with DSER loans. So it’s definitely a great product for them. Well, well, well, let’s step back. Cause the thing is with hard money, it’s still a good thing for if it’s in a property, if it’s if it’s a property that they buy and that need a lot of renovations, a lot of work that just won’t pass the appraisal because

Annette Newkirk (16:45)
Still much better than ⁓ hard money.

S.D. Newkirk (16:58)
You have to remember the DSER loan, you still have to pass the appraisal. So if they get a hard money loan, renovate the property, they can always use the DSER loan to refinance that, well, pay off the DSER loan. I mean, I’m sorry, the hard money loan and have the DSR loan in conversion.

Scott Bursey (17:54)
As far as the home life coastal properties is concerned, what is some of your your more short term strategy? And then maybe ⁓ explain some long term vision that you have as well.

Annette Newkirk (18:04)
I think short-term strategy for us is we are riding the waves. So with the agents, it’s really just understanding the market is not as smooth as it was, but it will turn back. What goes up will come down. The same vice versa in real estate. So I just tell them to hold tight, look for creative ways. we’re seeing a lot of BPOs, which are broker price opinion requests, because there are some foreclosures happening in the market.

lots of short sales happening in the market. So I’m challenging the agents to look into other avenues of build of getting income and just expanding their experience in those areas. We are training on short sales now, how to negotiate them. Yeah, how to prepare the sellers for that market. and then on the flip side, how to prepare your buyer if they decide they want to invest in a short sale. So ⁓ that’s

That’s pretty much what we’re doing. And then we’re just gonna hold tight until we get back to our lovely market that we’re accustomed to, which is more it’s not really so much of feeling like the interest rates are gonna drop. Because as my husband stated, if you were around after the crisis in 2007, 2008, they actually estimated the market to normalize about 2023, which is what it did and where we are. So do we expect the historical rates?

two, three percent, no. But I do expect a more solid economy where people feel comfortable in purchasing. Yeah. And when that comes back, they will understand, okay, this is where the rates are. Yes, definitely. But we’re st we’ve still been educated. And so that’s what we’re doing now, educating them, preparing them. And then when the market becomes more comfortable, hey, we’re ready to sell and buy again.

S.D. Newkirk (19:49)
Exactly. Yep. And on my side, you know, traditional financing is really not the option for a lot of people due to inflation. So a lot of non QM, non-qualifying mortgages have been the path for a lot of my buyers that I’m working with right now, bank statement loans, tax returns, 1099s, and like I stated, the DSER loan. So, you know, those type of not QM products, it’s just making it opening doors for those buyers that could not really get into the door before.

able to make a purchase now because you know you have people, you know, business owners, of course, you’re gonna do a lot of write-offs or quite a few write-offs to save yourself some money. But when it comes time to buy that house, you can’t have all those write-offs. So exactly. So having an option to utilize that bank statement loan to s ⁓ service the income or even the option to do a ten ninety nine for those that are self employed like we deal with a lot of truck drivers as well. So having that option for them so they don’t have to provide their tax returns, it is it’s opening up more doors for sure.

Annette Newkirk (20:27)
Yeah, it’s still some minute.

Scott Bursey (20:45)
I love that guys. Thank you for that. And you’ve given our pros so much great words of wisdom here today. But is there any additional advice you can leave with our pros?

S.D. Newkirk (20:55)
Man, just keep the grinding, keep hustling, keep grinding. Don’t, don’t we what we believe in is taking the time out in the morning, just you know, meditate, breathe, make it set your plan, you know. Don’t go directly into working. My my wife, she gets up at I’m not me, she gets up at 4 a.m. in the morning and start meditating and doing going through a whole process, you know. So, you know, just just taking the time out to really understand your plan and how you’re gonna execute it before just jumping into your day, you know, because

today is n just really the not time to just go in, hey, I’m gonna do this, do that. Nah, you you have to plan it out, you know, because the the market is not that way. You have to have a plan. So

Annette Newkirk (21:34)
Yep.

He’s right, strategizing, maximizing and collaborating. Yes. We’re really big, as I stated again, on building relish relationships with our clients, but also other business partners. Most definitely. ⁓ you know, we I I mentioned opening up to the financial advisor realm, insurance, just really being ⁓ a collective team, but relying on each other.

to feed each other as well like referrals we refer to them they refer business to us but we all take care of our clients together so ⁓ i think i would just advise the market to continue building relationships continue looking for opportunities to collaborate and most importantly building our skill set to maximize the market because with all of the technology that’s out there’s people can easily access information

But many times they don’t know what to do with it effectively. Exactly. And so they need skilled professionals. So I would say don’t shortcut, really learn what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. ⁓ as investors, really get there, research the market, look for strong teams like Home Life Coastal Properties that have really the knowledge base, but other people in the team that can help you get to the finish line. And that’s title, insurance, lender, all those things.

S.D. Newkirk (22:55)
Exactly. We don’t we when we bring somebody aboard, we don’t put them in a position to have to search for all this, to look for a lender, you know. And just just because I’m a lender, it’s not, you’re not obligated to work with me because you’re with home life, you know. You can work with any lender you choose, but best believe I’m gonna be by your side, making sure that lender is doing their job as well. Cause, you know, I have years of experience and I’m not gonna let a deal fall just because whether it’s with me or not with me, you know. So yeah.

We work together as a team as we don’t want to deal or not.

Scott Bursey (23:25)
Guys, those were some great words. Nett and SD, that was outstanding. Thank you. Thank you for that. And for our listeners that want to follow your journey or collaborate with you, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Annette Newkirk (23:39)
You can definitely go to our website, which is www.homelifecoastalproperties.com. we’re located in downtown Tampa. ⁓ in the beer can building is what they call it. It’s the old psych center. You can reach us anytime there. The office is open Monday through Friday from 8 to 5:30. ⁓ and then of course you can follow us on social media. We have Home Life Coastal Properties for Instagram as well as Facebook. And then I’ll let my lesson talk about that.

S.D. Newkirk (24:07)
Yes, and I have, you know, my personal site, you know, business site with Nobus Home Mortgage. Of course, you could Google me. I am ⁓ you know, like I said, licensed. So if you put in s.d.newkirk, you will find me my social media links as well, you know, SD Newkirk. And also I go by your neighborhood MLO, because I’m everybody’s neighborhood MLO, mortgage loan officer. So you can find me on social media with that as well. But yeah, ⁓ we’re we’re we’re very easy to find, you know, and you know, hey, just a call away.

Simple as that. And I’m 9 a.m. to nine PM. I work for the people. ⁓

Scott Bursey (24:41)
Net and S D, thank you for joining us today. This has been an absolute pleasure.

S.D. Newkirk (24:46)
Yeah, like Scott, yes.

Annette Newkirk (24:48)
Love it. Thank you. Take care.

Scott Bursey (24:49)
And to our listeners, we appreciate you. If you receive value from today’s episode, please subscribe. We’ll be filling your tanks with a lineup of elite guests, just like Annette and SD Newkirk, who are accelerating and setting the pace for the rest of the industry. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.