Nancy Wallace-Laabs (00:03)
If you've been working really, really hard and you're just trying to transition out of your full-time job, you're trying to make second income, if you're working hard, you're exhausted and trying to build the freedom that you have been wanting, your first rental property matters more than any property that you're gonna buy after that.
So in today's episode I'm going to be diving into why the first property sets the stage for all your other properties.
My name is Nancy Wallace-Labs and I've been investing for about 20 years now. I'm a licensed real estate investor and I'm in the DFW area. If you're wanting to get started in real estate investing without quitting your full-time job, reach out to me at 469-430-9885 and let's talk or book a free no obligation strategy call. So why is buying the first rental property so important?
Well, it sets the stage and sets everything that comes after that. So once you buy one rental property, believe it or not, buying second, third, fourth, and so on becomes so much easier. So first off, you're gonna learn real world lessons. You're gonna cut your teeth, if you will, on how to buy real estate investing properties. You're going to build your confidence. Once you get that first deal onto your belt,
you will not believe the freedom mentally that that gives you that this is something that hey I can actually do this right. You're going to learn about mistakes that landlords make okay on that first rental property but I'll be guiding you so we're going to minimize those risks. You're going to find out that financing the second and third and fourth deal gets much easier after that first deal. So
So most people get this wrong. It's kind of a mindset thing. But they think that if they buy, you know, one property, then getting the second one that they really achieve something when they don't give themselves enough credit to actually say, hey, I've got my first rental property under my belt. Because again, as I said, I probably sound like a dead horse on this, you're, I'm beating the bush because the first one sets the stage for everything. It sets the stage on
the mistakes you might learn, the areas that you want to invest, your price point, what lenders are going to require when you're buying investment properties. So here's what I've learned through my years of investing, that that first rental property, that's the one that changes everything for you. It's where your investor identity is actually born. It's where your systems and processes take shape.
It's where your confidence is forged. It's where you learn how to become a true real estate investor.
without having property number one be really strong, it's hard to have property two, three, and four be strong as well. So that's why we want to focus on that one thing. I've done videos about one thing, one property, one strategy. So I want you to get your mind around, that's how you build and really start becoming where you can transition from your full-time job into real estate investing.
So here's what I believe, that your first rental property teaches you what no book can.
So I've read those same books, right? I have some of them that I use as my Bible, right? I've watched the videos. And this is from my own experience. What I can tell you is that until you've actually put your hands on it, until you've actually run the numbers, until you have the feeling of success, there's nothing like it. There's nothing that you can learn, that feeling that you can get from a book. Sure, you can get knowledge, but you can't really get the conquest, if you will.
of getting your first rental property.
So there's a massive difference between knowing something but actually feeling it in your bones. Feeling like, my gosh, this is what I did. I made this happen. I conquered my fears of investing in real estate.
So once you own that first rental property, here's some things that you're really going to experience and learn. And we will be there every step of the way to help you. But one is tenant maintenance. One of the things that you're gonna learn is about tenant communication, actually getting a good tenant in your property, right? So that's the first thing once you own the property, you it cleaned up. I mean, obviously we...
You bought the property because you wanted to make money. You know, it's cash flow. You ran the numbers, so you know. Now you have to put a tenant in there that's going to pay rent. So you're going to learn about tenant communication. And then you're going to go into the maintenance realities. What does it actually take to maintain a rental property? Now once you have a tenant in there, you know, that takes off some of the burden because, you know, I set up in my leases where the tenant has to take care of the lawn and all the utilities and
you know I typically don't provide washers and dryers in my property so the burden of that cost goes on to the tenant and then you're going to manage your cash flow from your property you're going to check you know your income that the tenant is paying you versus the expenses and again you have already done all of that so you're now at the point when you own you're just managing your cash flow
So here's what I see all the time when someone buys their first rental property, their confidence. And confidence is built. It's not borrowed. It's not something that you can get from a book. It's from taking action and feeling like you really did something that you had been wanting to do. It builds your
not just your knowledge, but that feeling inside that you can do this. And that's what I really love. I love seeing that in women. I work with a lot of women and they're just nervous about pulling the trigger. They're nervous about how do I negotiate with sellers? They're nervous about how to get the money. But once they've walked through those steps and they've actually owned the property, it's overnight.
their confidence soars and yours can too. So it feels scary but then you overcome that. Now what I can tell you is that the next property when I bought my first property I had like all kinds of scariness right and then when I bought the second property I had a little bit I still had those butterflies in my stomach but I knew that I could do this because I already did it. So maybe it never completely goes away.
but now you have the confidence to know that you can make this happen.
And the thing that really gives you confidence is when that first rent check hits your mailbox or that first direct deposit from the money that you're making on your property, when that hits your bank account, that's a whole nother level of confidence that really says, you know what, I did this right, I did this, I'm doing this for myself.
And that's what we call an identity shift. And that is priceless. You can't put a paycheck, you can't put a number on that confidence factor that builds when you've purchased your first rental property and you're now the owner, you're a landlord, or maybe you're a short-term rental operator.
So in some of my previous videos and our shows we've talked about some mistakes that new landlords make. So first off I don't want you to become a landlord if the numbers don't make sense on the property. So that's usually the number one mistake I see people making is that they just didn't do their due diligence and they just skipped the numbers. They said hey I want to get into the game I'm going to buy that property.
mistake? see new investors making on their rental properties is that they rush in and put in the wrong tenant You can have the very best deal out there, but if you skip doing due diligence on finding the right tenant and doing a Complete background check you're going to be buying yourself So to speak a huge headache
So that's really, really critical. So once you've learned how to buy the property, then the next step is how to learn to put in a tenant. And then just overall underestimating expenses. So everybody right now in Texas has just gotten our property valuations for our property taxes. And so property taxes are a big thing here in Texas.
And there is a way to protest them, but you do have to know how to do that. And I have another video out there about protesting your taxes, but property taxes usually go up every single year. And this year, people are seeing 8 to 10 % increase in their property tax bill. So sometimes we have to factor that in, depending on where you're buying property. If property taxes are going to be a
big hindrance to your overall numbers. And then having no systems in place. Now, when I say systems, I don't mean that you have to have a big CRM. If you're working a full-time job, it is very easy, simple to manage up to five properties. I would say doing an Excel spreadsheet. You could use QuickBooks if you wanted. But there are very simple ways to manage your...
investment properties. You don't have to go out and spend hundreds of dollars on some kind of CRM to track all of these things and what not. You can do it all through very simple Google Sheets or Excel worksheets.
Now.
Once you've purchased that first rental property, the financing becomes so much easier on the second one for a couple reasons. Number one is because you have demonstrated that you know to the lender what it takes to get the financing, right?
So when you're buying your first rental property you learn the steps of getting the financing. So there's finding the deal, there's running your numbers and then getting the money. And so the money is all about you positioning yourself to
basically give confidence to the lender that you can pay the loan back. know, are you going to have a down payment? Where's the down payment coming from? So once you understand the money side of buying investment properties, that does not change. That does not change. So your next property, it'll be the same. Now, the type of lending that you get might change. So instead of going to like a regular credit union or an independent bank, you know, you might have expanded your network into private money lenders.
So you'll have to look at after your first, it's always a good idea after that first rental property to kind of regroup and say, okay, this was an easy process. You'll learn the length of time it takes different lenders. And what I have found, I like to use independent banks, community owned independent banks. Why? Because you get a relationship with the people who work at the bank. Your relationships are very important.
because they're making the decision whether or not they're going to loan you the money. How did you position yourself? And so a lot of times what we'll do is we'll work with people and teach them how to put a prospectus together. And a prospectus is basically the financial picture of the property value and how you're going to generate income and what the... It's basically a P &L that's made pretty to present to a lender. So after you've gotten your first
rental property, then you now are a proven investor and you know how to secure. So you basically built confidence in not just in yourself, but when a lender looks at you, you're like, okay, this isn't their first rodeo. They've been here before.
So, property one literally sets your entire strategy of how you're going to invest. Because that first property, you're going to take some time to look at the market that you want to invest in, the type of property that you want to invest in, where you're to get the financing. And it teaches you all of the skills that you need, know, negotiating with sellers or working with a realtor.
you know, figuring out your strategy. that, usually what happens is once you've done it one way, you're just gonna repeat it. You've probably heard of the BIR, the BIR strategy. So that's buy, rehab, rent, refi, and repeat. And really, real estate investing is about repeating the same system over and over and over. You might expand or...
go into different kind of ⁓ areas, different types of investing, whether it be multifamily, whether it be passive investing, but the steps and the strategy are always the same. You're always gonna do your due diligence. You're always gonna make sure you look at the numbers, right? And so you're going to follow kind of a formula. And so when you learn the first steps for your first rental property, that sets the stage for everything that follows.
So what you need to know before you buy your first rental property? Well, you need to know, you ready? And what does that mean? Well, does it mean, do you have the skillset to analyze numbers? Can you just scratch it out? I've done different videos about how you can analyze a property in less than 15 minutes. You can look at a property, you can look at the numbers, the P &L, if you will, the profit and loss statements.
and find out does this property make sense as a rental property? Does this property make sense for me to buy? Is it in a good area? Is it going to have appreciation, cash flow, all of those things? So first off, are you ready with your analytical skills? And then the second one is trusting the numbers, not the fear. The fear, if you've never done this before, it's like anything. If you didn't know how to swim or you didn't know how to drive a car,
you would be fearful to get in the water or get behind that wheel because you just don't know what you don't know. So until you take those steps and you can take baby steps, you don't have to jump in and, you know, jump in and hope that you float, right? You're going to analyze, like if the water was very, very choppy and you didn't know how to swim, you're not going to jump in without a life vest, right? So think of real estate investing as
you know you have to have a certain skill set before you can jump in then that skill set is about analyzing the numbers and analyzing the property to make sure that it's going to be a good deal and then you know you do not have to do this alone. In fact it's better that you don't. You want to make sure that you can work with someone that you trust that will guide you and that's why we that's why we started money making mamas my daughter and I. We just said you know what
There's a gap there for women about how, without spending tens of thousands of dollars to find out, and sometimes you spend tens of thousands of dollars and you still don't know how to buy a rental property, which we work with people like that all the time. But you have to have a team, right? And that team is like a trusted mentor. That team could be a property manager, it's your lender, it's the handyman.
It's the inspection guy, it's all of the people that are going to help you secure that first rental property because remember, you're building a process and a system so that you can continue to build on that and what you're really doing is you're defining your clarity around real estate investing.
I tell women this all the time and you guys too, I tell you this, you don't have to quit your day job. I didn't and my daughter didn't. We started because it's very hard to just quit. I we all need to pay our bills, right? And I think most people that are watching my videos, they're not independently.
wealthy or they would just be going out there and buy it. It's like, Nancy, I don't really care. I can just go out and afford to make any mistakes I want. So what I'm saying to you is that real estate investing is much easier than people make it sound. It is a system. It's about you getting clear, so having a strategy, being clear and defining your goals, defining your area, defining your markets, and working with people that you can trust to kind of help you guide.
guide you because once you learn the skills you'll be able to just repeat it over and over as many times as you want and as I've said in prior videos you know you don't need 20 properties to really build a lot of wealth you know you can own one to one property will change your entire wealth system right your whole income you might not be able to quit your day job from one rental property but you will start to see a shift in your income
in your shift in the way money works, you'll start to see that shift and it just happens. I don't want to say it's magical because you do put a lot of work behind learning how to buy your first rental property, but the changes that happen you have to experience and the only way you can experience is by taking action. So that's why I'm so passionate about getting people to start and letting them know, this is something that you can do. It's not hard.
you can learn the skills you just need to know the steps and so that's just what it is is that you've never been taught the steps and that's why I Kelsey and I you know started the money making mom is because we want to teach you the steps so that you can do this on your own and you know will help you get started but you'll be able to do it on your own in a very short amount of time you wanna smart start small start small but think big right and what I mean by that well
A single family home is where we started. That's the strategy that I believe in. That one property does so much for your income. It does so much for your mental health. Your feeling of accomplishment. Your feeling of I can do this. I can build something for myself that I've always wanted to do. And like I said, it's not as hard as you would think.
So that's why we break it down. We make it very, very simple, right? And then you have the ability to build passive income. You can still, no one's saying you have to quit your job, right? In fact, if you love your job, stay there, right? That's what you should do. You should stay in your job, but build the second income because when you rely on a paycheck, you are not in control of your destiny, if you will, because the employer could shut down.
you know, you could get hurt, you could get laid off, a whole lot of things could happen. So when you start investing in real estate, you actually take control of your financial destiny. You set the goal for your own self and you say when it's time to leave, if ever it is. So some people buy real estate investor, or they start real estate investing for their kids, you know, or they're ⁓ a woman who has worked all of her life.
and she's at the end of her, you know, kind of close to retirement and she realizes she doesn't have enough money for her retirement. So it's never too late to get into real estate investing because in just a short amount of time that one property can have such an impact on your wellbeing.
Because when you are clear on what you're trying to achieve, that just gives you a goal. It gives you direction, and you're not all over the place.
I have seen people just transform their lives just by taking the small steps that I've talked about today. Like learning, you know, how to analyze a property. That's the very first thing. Learning how tenant communication works. Learning how to take action. How to trust the numbers and know that you can, that you will be okay, then that you can't let that fear stop you.
⁓ You don't have to have perfect conditions. There's never the perfect time. As I said before, you're never too old. You're never too young. Okay, you do have to be 18 to execute a contract. But you have someone in your corner, Kelsey and I both, that have done this, where we have built it one brick at a time. We started with a strategy, the strategy that I'm talking about, the single family, buying a single family property, renting it out.
and month over month building that cash flow. So it's one simple step that you can start anytime when you feel ready.
Now we like to get people to start as soon as they can. As soon as you, we want to make it as easy as you can. So the first thing people ask me, think probably the number one question I get asked, besides where's the money, is how do I find a deal? And you know what? Deals are everywhere. They're everywhere. Every day there are deals out there. So when people tell me they're waiting for the perfect market, they're waiting for a buyer's market, seller's market, I'm like you don't have to wait for any of those markets because if you know where to look,
you can find deals every single day and I do. find deals every single day. So to make it easy we have a free guide we want you to download it. The link is below in the description and it's basically something simple called finding the deals you're already missing because you don't even know you're looking at deals right in the face. So it goes over our proven framework of how we find deals and how some seller scripts in there.
You know, we talk about specific markets that you might want to look in and you only you can decide that so you have to kind of figure out your goals and Your so I'm gonna give you like why call it my buy box, right? So my buy box is three-bedroom two baths about 1,500 square feet. like a corner lot No pool that that's my buy criteria I throw in some other ones, but that's kind of the basic criteria
So those are the properties that I look for because those rent all day long. I can buy them pretty much in any neighborhood and they'll rent all day long. And I like the smaller properties around 1,500 because the repairs, if you have a 4,000 square foot home, the repairs on a foundation are gonna be about three times higher than on a 1,500 square foot home. So that's one of the reasons I go for the smaller homes. So this is a free resource that you can get right now.
So go ahead and just click that download button and you can get that. You can also reach out and schedule a call with me at 469-430-9885 or any number of ways to get in touch with us and it's all down in the description below. Now, I do want to talk to you about what should you do next, right? So I just did a video and I want you to watch it here and it's about how
you know, should you be buying a rental property in 2026, right? And once you've watched that, then you can say, watch the other one, that's about how much money do I need, because it's not about the money, it's about how you structure it.
So if you're ready to find your first deal, then here's what I encourage you to do. Number one, download our free guide to help you start looking at where you can find deals. Number two, book a strategy call with myself, and you can reach out at 469-430-9885. Follow up with any one of our episodes about how much money do you need or what are the three numbers that you need to know.
So we have a series that you can follow to get more information. And then check us out. Share. know, share, share, share. And drop a comment because I'd love to hear your feedback and what is it that is stopping you from investing in real estate. So thanks so much and I'll see you in the next episode.
