Transform Your Mindset: Smart Financial Advice for Rental Property Success

John Harcar (00:01.875)
All right. Hey guys, welcome back to our show. Super delighted today to have Amy Shick on here with us. And what we’re going to talk about is, besides her journey in business and in real estate, we’re going to talk about why it’s important to get into game and build a lifestyle around it. Really dive into it. Remember guys, at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, mean, really all real estate entrepreneurs, two to five extra business.

We do that by providing the community and the tools to grow the business you want, which helps you live the life you want. So Amy, welcome to our show.

Amy Shick (00:40.706)
Thank you so much, John. I’m really excited to be here and talk about real estate.

John Harcar (00:44.873)
I love I you know, one one guest one one time told me that he gets he loves what he does so much. He gets he gets paid to eat ice cream. I get paid to ice cream. I talk real estate all day. So thank you for coming on and sharing with us. And I’m excited to talk about our topic about getting into the game. I think a lot of people just spend that time and analysis paralysis and maybe just are maybe afraid to take the leap. But it’s how important it is. But before we talk about that, let’s talk about you.

What is your kind of tell us about your background in real estate? You know, kind of what all got you to today?

Amy Shick (01:20.226)
Yeah, so my grandmother was a realtor and had…

several properties around the San Francisco Bay Area. So there would be times that I would go with her to either show a property or to look at a problem that needed to be fixed or something. So I kind of got the bug then. Fast forward in life, I became a paralegal, was working in San Francisco, had our first baby and my husband decided it’s 2003 and I want to go back into the military. So then at the time

I was pregnant with my second baby and so we moved so that he could you know start an army career and I found myself without a job and two babies to take care of and

And he was deployed, right? So what are we going to do? So I bought a house and worked on it while he was deployed. And then when he came home from his deployment, we moved. that was when I called my grandmother. I mean, it wasn’t like I’m going to be a real estate entrepreneur. It didn’t happen like that at all. It was what do we do with this house?

John Harcar (02:31.095)
Right.

built out of necessity is where it came from,

Amy Shick (02:37.258)
Exactly. So my grandmother said you should keep it and this is why and keep it for 20 plus years. Do not sell this house. If you’re not going to keep it for 20 years, sell it now.

That was the advice. So we turned it into a rental. That was the first one. we hired a property manager because we didn’t know what we were doing. And we were moving to Germany. And so I kind of felt like a nine-hour time difference might be kind of difficult. Yes.

John Harcar (03:07.743)
International landlord, I think that’s first I’ve heard, first I’ve heard here, well not actually I’ve heard it before but.

Amy Shick (03:12.878)
So at first we weren’t making any money off that property we Were actually losing about $150 a month but I knew that eventually rents were going to come up and You know the rent would be more than the mortgage and I look back at it now I mean that was in you 2006 when we turned it into a rental and I look back at it now and I think my gosh a $998 a month mortgage

John Harcar (03:42.391)
those were the days. Yeah.

Amy Shick (03:43.504)
But at the time, it felt right. That’s the good old days. So then once we moved back to the US.

I really had the bug and we bought another house and fixed it up while we lived in it. That’s kind of my job while he was working. And then we bought another little fixer-upper that was, we were fixing just to rent. We didn’t live in it. Yes, I used my children as labor and I paid them with Sonic Slushies. And then we just, right.

John Harcar (04:00.436)
Okay.

John Harcar (04:14.391)
Hey, best labor you can get, They give you hugs. They give you hugs at the end of the day.

Amy Shick (04:20.056)
Exactly, exactly. So yeah, so they helped out and then it was just, we just acquired properties with each time we moved, oftentimes buying them as our primary residence and then turning them into a rental when we left, which was a year to two years later. So we just did that as we bounced around with military. So that’s how I got started.

John Harcar (04:38.037)
Right.

John Harcar (04:44.543)
What were some of the hard parts about doing all this managing remotely? I mean, you had to at least have a good team maybe in place in town or in person,

Amy Shick (04:55.094)
Well, so that’s actually kind of interesting that you bring that up because as a military spouse, you know, we, moved to a place and then very quickly assimilate and get to know people. So as I was working on the property that we were living in, that’s when I was meeting and hiring electricians and plumbers and handymen. So when we left and turned it into a rental, I already had my little network of, you know, service providers, for that property. So,

John Harcar (05:22.231)
Got it.

Amy Shick (05:25.088)
And now I manage our properties from afar. We’ve got one here locally in Washington and then we now have two in Florida. So we’ve consolidated and sold our Georgia properties and a Washington property to consolidate and buy other properties.

John Harcar (05:42.282)
OK, cool. I love this story about your grandmother taking you to, you know, are you going to listings and stuff with her? One of my most favorite questions to ask people usually at the beginning is, you know, where did you get the bug? You know, I probably got like 60 % of people like, that purple book. But some people say they have that influence. It looks like you did. Where did you get the knowledge to do all the repairs? Get in there, get your hands dirty. I mean, that’s not something everybody knows how to do.

Amy Shick (06:09.335)
Yeah.

My parents are big time DIYers. They were also in real estate and when you have four kids, you typically buy not so great properties and then put sweat equity in them. And then my husband and I’s very first property that we bought because it was like, I’m pregnant, we need to buy. And we bought this condo that was like a 20 year old rental. And piece by piece, my mom and dad taught us how to tile.

John Harcar (06:14.945)
Got it.

Amy Shick (06:41.392)
how to redo the floors, know, paint. mean, painting I already kind of knew. And then my husband does, you know, some plumbing and electrical that my dad has taught him just throughout the years. And my husband is a huge YouTuber. So we will find something on YouTube and then learn how to do it and then fix it. I he does the same thing with our Toyotas. He fixes everything on them.

John Harcar (06:56.833)
Okay.

John Harcar (07:04.919)
He’s a handy guy and that’s a good thing to have around the house, right?

Amy Shick (07:10.506)
Yeah, no, for sure. Actually this weekend he’s going to fix a fence and a bathroom fan.

John Harcar (07:16.395)
And I don’t think many people tell you this, but thank you for your service. know, people people tell the active ones, but I mean, they don’t know behind the scenes. So thank you for that.

Amy Shick (07:20.34)
well.

Amy Shick (07:26.184)
well, I support I don’t serve. I don’t think the army would want me. I don’t follow directions well. No, I just. I definitely move at my own at my own beat, that’s for sure.

John Harcar (07:31.735)
You’re one of those rogues, aren’t you? You go off the reservation. You go off the reservation a lot, don’t you?

John Harcar (07:41.949)
I love it. So, so what is like, what is like you guys business look like today? I mean, I know you still, you you have some rentals, right? Okay.

Amy Shick (07:47.852)
Yes, yes. And so they’re long term. I call us like a boutique investor. They’re long term rentals. I manage them myself. I use just online tools like Zillow and apartments.com to manage them. And then I have a bookkeeper that helps me at the end of the year because it’s a lot. And then I am a lender. So I do residential lending. That’s my day job. And then, you know, the property

management side, just do it. I’ve been doing it for so long now that it just is kind of, it’s not a lot. I really have some good systems in place to just kind of make things smooth.

John Harcar (08:32.693)
What got you into lending?

Amy Shick (08:35.075)
It’s kind of funny, I really wanted to get into private lending and I started going down that road and then I figured out very quickly to really scale I had to use, get other people’s money. And I just thought, I don’t feel comfortable with that, right? And I just thought it would take me a very long time to ramp up and scale that. And so since my husband is still active duty, I really thought of getting my real estate license.

John Harcar (08:39.895)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Shick (09:05.68)
you know, we could be moving every year to two years and that would be tough as a realtor. So that’s where I got into lending because it’s the other side of it, but I could do it anywhere. So, but, of course I, you know, start as a lender and we’re going to be here for another three years. So it’s kind of worked out. yeah.

John Harcar (09:25.897)
What was holding you back from doing the private thing and asking people for money? Was it fear of asking for money?

Amy Shick (09:32.468)
No, it was the fear of losing someone else’s money. Right? Because that is wrong. I don’t mind making mistakes and absorbing the risk with our own portfolio because I know that I can make it up in other ways. But when you’re using someone else’s money, I just don’t know if I could… Yeah, I just didn’t…

John Harcar (09:36.439)
That’s real. That’s real.

John Harcar (09:56.536)
Yeah, no, it takes a mindset, right? Because like you said, that is very real. It is easier for me to say, okay, this is my money. I’ll recoup this somehow. I’ll figure that out. But yeah, if it’s someone else’s, you’re just like.

Amy Shick (10:05.699)
Yeah.

John Harcar (10:10.871)
Especially if you don’t have that that bond relationship to where they would understand and I think a lot would. So are you guys still buying houses now? Are you guys still adding to your portfolio?

Amy Shick (10:15.01)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

Amy Shick (10:23.541)
I’m out.

Well, actually we’re on, we have started investing in commercial real estate through a, well, I guess you would call her, she’s still a business partner of mine, but we had started a business years ago to help military families purchase homes and manage their properties. And so she broke off into the commercial side. So she’s the general partner and then we invest in her projects, which has been great because I’ve been

John Harcar (10:29.643)
okay.

John Harcar (10:42.875)
cool.

Amy Shick (10:54.136)
through her without feeling the overwhelming sense of am I doing this correctly, right? Because she’s the pro at it. And then we’re also looking for another property in Washington that we can acquire with an assumable loan, a VA-assumable loan. And so that’s kind of tricky. We’re kind of looking for the needle in the haystack. Yeah, in Washington.

John Harcar (11:15.253)
Okay.

John Harcar (11:19.287)
Okay, Washington State. Okay, Washington State. Okay, cool. Well, there might be someone on here that might listen. All this moving, all this business change, all these things that are happening in your life. It’s like, what are some mindset tools, maybe routines, maybe some things that kind of helped you in your times of, is hard.

Amy Shick (11:26.23)
Yeah, absolutely.

John Harcar (11:44.076)
What did you do? Like what are some things that would help you that maybe some of our folks are kind of experiencing the same things that might be in Army Wives?

Amy Shick (11:51.08)
so I like to really play out scenarios. and it’s, it’s not that I have it at a certain time, but when I acquire a property, you know, I think like, okay, five years from now, 10 years from now, and then I play out different scenarios and I just kind of crunch some numbers. And again, this is, these numbers aren’t real, but they are possibilities. so it’s like, okay, well, what does it look like if I turn it into a short-term rental? You know,

what kind of upside potential would this property have? Or based on the season of life that we’re in, is having a lower maintenance, long-term rental the best thing for us? And what does that look like if we keep it this way for five years? And I just project out numbers and run different scenarios. So when a situation does come up, I’ve already kind of played through some of those numbers.

John Harcar (12:48.919)
Yeah, makes sense. It makes a lot of sense. And I think that’s what people don’t do. They look at maybe one exit on a property. And I’ve always been in the belief, and I’ve always been taught that, make sure if anything, it works as a long-term rental. Because if anything, the other exits are fine, but if as long as it works as a long-term rental, it could be a potentially good investment.

Amy Shick (13:04.867)
Yes.

Amy Shick (13:12.258)
Yeah, and I mean, that’s something that I learned from my grandmother is you have to hold the property for 20 plus years to really see the benefits from actually owning real estate. It is the long game. the thing that I, because I’m always tracking like, okay, what kind of appreciation have we gotten this year? How much of our mortgage have we paid down?

John Harcar (13:15.254)
Yeah.

Amy Shick (13:36.97)
Is this investment still making sense? Sometimes there are some years when you look at the numbers and you’re like, my gosh, that AC and the plumbing. Like, wow, this year was a losing year. But you’re going to have some losing years. Just if you were in the stock market, you would have some losing years. I do feel like it’s a little bit more in our control for some reason.

John Harcar (13:44.587)
The headaches have been more than the profits. What am I doing?

Amy Shick (14:01.934)
owning real estate that those losing years I do have little bit more control over versus if we were just buying stocks.

John Harcar (14:11.553)
See, I look at it, is it really losing years or is it just not making as much money as the year before? Because realistically, five years from now, I might not have made as much money as I did in 24, but my property is worth a couple hundred grand more, so am I really losing?

Amy Shick (14:16.971)
Right? Yeah.

Amy Shick (14:22.168)
Right?

Amy Shick (14:27.364)
So those moments where…

You know, at the end of the year, when I’m looking at, you know, the maintenance that we’ve spent for that property and I’m like, whoa, okay, so we, we use quite a bit of our reserves, you know, to pay for, you know, this maintenance. I also, to make me feel better, that’s when I take a look at, okay, but look how much we paid down this mortgage. You know, we’ve got a 2.75 % interest rate on this property. You cannot deny that that’s a huge benefit. And then what kind of market appreciation did we see this year?

John Harcar (14:35.018)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (14:54.167)
That’s incredible.

Amy Shick (15:00.79)
Right? And so that kind of makes me feel a little bit better on some of those tight ears.

John Harcar (15:06.135)
Yeah, I mean, of course. I guess I think it’s just no one really loses. So let’s kind of, and I was trying to get a mindset kind of question. So what is the reason why people just kind of sit on the sidelines? And how can.

Amy Shick (15:18.51)
Yeah, I’m sorry

John Harcar (15:21.429)
No, I was just gonna say, and how can they get their butt off the couch?

Amy Shick (15:25.634)
So I think the best way to get off the sidelines is to buy a home as your primary residence and live in it and do some projects on it because that’s where the confidence comes from. And then you realize, well, I’ve been paying rent every month. I had to pay that on time and I had to take care of that property to get my deposit back.

It’s really the same. It’s just you’re paying yourself instead of paying someone else’s mortgage. And just get into it as a primary residence. But also when you buy, don’t buy with this is going to be my dream home.

buy something that other people are gonna wanna live in. And we look at that with every single property that we buy is not just are we gonna like this property? Is it in a good area? Does it have good schools? Is it nearby things that are growing? Is it in a commute circle? But would other people also like this house and want to rent it from us? So.

John Harcar (16:27.223)
And it goes back to, think, knowing what your exit is going to be, knowing kind of what the plan is not, bam, I’m to buy a house. I’ll figure out in a couple of years I’m going live in it or not live in it. But until then, I’m going to make it so I like it. No. If you’re going to plan on using an investment, make it so someone else likes it. What are some of the trends you’re starting to see, whether it’s on the lending side, it’s in the real estate side? What are you seeing now in the industry?

Amy Shick (16:43.543)
Exactly.

Amy Shick (16:53.774)
Well, we are seeing people stretching their debt to income ratios, you know, with purchases. We are seeing a lot more investment in duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes where people are living in one unit and then renting out the other. Of course, you know, because we are in this Army community, we’re seeing more and more soldiers, single soldiers, buying homes and then renting out rooms.

John Harcar (17:09.269)
sack.

Amy Shick (17:23.728)
And it really is amazing because there so many service members that instead of moving to a place and like…

getting an apartment, and then they know that they’re going to be deploying for six to nine months. So what they’ll do is they will just rent a room from another soldier for three to six months. And then that way, when they’re deployed for six to nine months, they don’t have any financial obligations, and they’re not leaving a place empty. So it’s really helping them financially.

John Harcar (17:50.999)
That’s brilliant. Yeah.

That’s brilliant. mean, is there any type of any quality? Do you have to be in the military to buy like a property on the military? Cause that sounds, mean, for me, that’s like, you got someone that’s, if you have boots on the ground that can manage something like that, I mean, it’s, what will it always be there? Soldiers. They’re always going to come and they’re always going to go.

Amy Shick (18:03.67)
No, I mean anybody can do it and I- I-

Amy Shick (18:11.863)
Yeah.

Amy Shick (18:16.534)
Yes, yes, and we see this with nurses, right? And they put it on furnished finders or even just on Facebook.

John Harcar (18:20.757)
Nurses, yes.

Amy Shick (18:26.414)
So yeah, I mean it’s been interesting. And that’s the thing that I also tell, especially my kids, they’re young adults. I tell them, live like nobody else, right? Just kind like the Dave Ramsey thing, so that later you have so many, you build in opportunities for yourself. And a lot of people think, I’m gonna get my first apartment, it’s gonna be my own. Well, and you’re gone at work all the time with an empty room. know, capitalize on, that’s a moneymaker.

John Harcar (18:55.083)
Yeah, heck yeah!

Amy Shick (18:56.368)
So rent out that room and you don’t have any weight. You’re not married, you don’t have kids. You can live this kind of fluid lifestyle and do it while you’re young. And then you keep those properties and then when you move out, then you move someone else into your room.

John Harcar (19:07.147)
Right. Right.

John Harcar (19:16.841)
Yeah, perfect. What advice would you give someone looking to get into the game today?

Amy Shick (19:22.254)
Um, that you don’t have to have 20 % down.

Right? Like a lot of people think, you have to have so much money down. But with FHA loans, even low down payment conventional loans, we’ve got down payment assistance programs that you can get in for zero down. Seller concessions. know, the market has a lot more inventory on it now. So we are seeing a lot more buyers getting seller concessions to cover closing costs. And sometimes, you know, they’ll inflate their offer, you know, to get more for

you know, of seller concessions. But I mean, I have some clients that are coming to, you know, they’re paying a thousand dollar to two thousand dollar earnest money and we’re either able to refund it with the closing costs or they’re breaking even at the closing table. So I think people have this idea that they have to have all this money saved. But the cost of waiting is great. It really is significant and it does keep people out of the market because

Homes are appreciating, you the national level is about 5%. So when you look at that $500,000 home, you know, next year you’re going to buy for $525,000.

John Harcar (20:37.611)
Well, they you know, what’s what happens interest rates go down. What happens to prices? go up prices come down with that interest rates. go up. I mean, it’s it’s it’s a cyclical thing. Yeah, the one’s the best time to do anything yesterday. That’s the best time.

Amy Shick (20:42.85)
go up. Just yes.

Amy Shick (20:50.222)
Right? And that’s the other thing, you know, a lot of people say like, oh, well, I’m waiting for interest rates to come down. Well, those 2 and 3 % interest rates are probably never going to happen again. Right? That was like a one-time bargain piece of advice. Yes.

John Harcar (21:05.483)
Maybe fives, somewhere in the high fives, maybe.

Amy Shick (21:08.974)
That would be fantastic. The other thing is people are waiting for this crash to happen, know, like in 2008, nine and ten and you know, so many, so much regulation has gone into lending that, you know, our lenders truly are qualified lenders. But the other thing people also worry about is their credit. They think, oh, my credit score is 600, I can’t buy anything. Oh, yes, you can buy things at

John Harcar (21:38.197)
Mm-hmm. sure. Yeah.

Amy Shick (21:38.928)
So, yeah, so I think it’s just knowing that there’s a lot more opportunities for lending out there. People think I have to have perfect credit and I have to have money to buy and that’s not the case.

John Harcar (21:52.322)
Well, for folks that are out there, what’s going on with your business? Do you have any coaching? Do you have any types of services that you provide? of your business here. Let’s go.

Amy Shick (22:03.406)
Yeah!

So I’ve got a few things going on. I have ebooks that are free. One is, I mean, they’re geared towards military, but they really could be used for anyone. The first book is How to Buy with the Intent to Rent, right? Because it’s a different mindset. And then the second book is How are you going to manage that property yourself? And is it a good idea for you to rent it yourself? Sometimes it’s not a good idea to rent it yourself. And so this book helps you determine

Should I rent it myself or should I hire a property manager? And then if I am going to rent it myself, how do I do this? Right? And so we just share those tools. So those are two tools that I have available. And then I’ve also built out a course, you know, for realtors to understand the VA loan and then also understand that population of homebuyer. Because military families buy with a different mindset than our civilians.

and counterparts. And so when you understand that mindset and how to market to them and serve them, then you can just provide a better service and you’re going to have just more clientele. those are kind of like the biggest tools that I use and that I share with people.

John Harcar (23:21.695)
And how can people get in touch if they want to reach out to you, they want to talk to you, learn more, how do they reach out?

Amy Shick (23:26.686)
Sure, so I’m on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn the most. And so it’s just Amy Schick and it’s S-H-I-C-K. If you Google me, you’ll be able to find me.

John Harcar (23:39.935)
Yeah, it’s a unique last name. So it shouldn’t be too hard to find, pick one out. Well, Amy, thank you so much for coming on. This was such a great call, our great conversation. I love it. Guys, I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you took some good notes. And if you have any questions that you want to reach out to Amy about, will put our info in the show notes. And Amy, it was a pleasure. Thank you again.

Amy Shick (23:44.983)
Yep.

Amy Shick (23:51.041)
Yeah, thank you.

Amy Shick (24:03.81)
Likewise, thank you so much,

John Harcar (24:05.4)
All right, guys, we’ll see you on the next one. Cheers.