Balancing Business & Family: Lessons From Real Estate Investor Tabatha Thorell (Episode 17)

Frank Hereda (00:02.382) Hello everybody. Welcome to another episode of focused free fit with your favorite business coach, coach Frank Harita. And we have a special guest today. Tabitha Thorell. Welcome. And, absolutely. so I'm excited about today as I told you before we got on here, but, I'm really excited to hear about what you're getting into and what you guys are doing. Tabatha Thorell (00:15.701) Thank you, Frank. Thank you for having me. Frank Hereda (00:27.95) So why don't we get started with you telling everybody a little bit about yourself. I will want to start with, you know, early years and get to know you a little bit and how we got to where we're at. But right now, let's just start with who you are and tell us about yourself. Tabatha Thorell (00:43.701) Yeah, so I am a wife, a mom to five beautiful girls, entrepreneur, investor. I run a podcast. Yeah, those are kind of the hats that I'm currently wearing. Speaker, I go on a lot of other people's podcasts and summits and just share what the last 20 years of life has done for us. Cause my husband and I have been investing in real estate for 20 years, which is so crazy. And. up and down and all over the place. And we've been entrepreneurs for as long as we've been married. So for your listeners out there that are business owners, entrepreneurs, and you're married and have kids, it's, it's a roller coaster ride. So yeah, that's where we're at. And that's who I am. Frank Hereda (01:25.614) That's exciting. Well, you've got a lot on your plate. You know, I have, we have a lot of similarities. I feel like you're talking about me and my wife and our kid and our son. And so all the things we've done, because that sounds like us, but tell us, okay, so did you grow up in Nebraska? Where, where did you grow up? And is this something you both, I think you said it where you were high school sweethearts or did I, did I see that wrong? Tabatha Thorell (01:29.589) Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (01:50.837) Yep. Yeah, no. Yep. We're high school sweethearts. We met when I was 15, which is crazy because my oldest girl is about to turn 15. So I'm like, my gosh, but I'm the youngest of five. Thank you. Thank you so much. we, I'm the youngest of five. My husband's the youngest of six and we are in rural Nebraska. So if anybody knows anything about rural communities, you have like the small towns everywhere and our Frank Hereda (01:58.382) my gosh. You have a beautiful family by the way. I saw your family, a beautiful family. Tabatha Thorell (02:17.717) Small towns were right next to each other. And so how dare I date a Loomis boy, you know, that kind of thing or whatever. But, you know, I met it, it's honest. Okay, I'm just gonna give your audience a little laugh moment. For those of you who are country, like you listen to country music, the Tim McGraw song, Barbecue Stains, that is like how my husband and I met. We met, our first official meeting was at a convenience store on the way to the county fair. Like if we're not like a country song, I don't even know. Frank Hereda (02:24.778) Hahaha! Frank Hereda (02:47.182) That's funny. Tabatha Thorell (02:47.669) but yeah, I met him and I actually thought he was dating one of my friends. And when I confirmed that they weren't dating, I'm like, okay. And I pursued him for three months before I got any like, okay, I want to, you know, date you. And it's not cause he was like this sly cool guy. It was like, he was just shy and he was like, well, if she's going to call me then. I won't call her. So, you know, and this is clear back in 2000. So not a lot of girls would take that first step, but you know, I just, I saw his character from the beginning and I'm not kidding you, Frank. I told one of his friends, I said, if he would just date me, I know we'd get married someday. And so I, you know, here I did. It's true, right? No. So we met then we live in his hometown. Frank Hereda (03:13.294) Ha ha! Frank Hereda (03:18.24) Wow. Frank Hereda (03:33.998) That's hilarious. Tabatha Thorell (03:39.765) But my hometown is just eight miles away. We just like the small town vibe. I don't love our winners. We have really harsh winners, so I could do without that. I love the beach. So where you're at, I'm so jealous because I would love to be by the beach. But my kids can walk to school. And I am involved in all of their activities. And they're in several different activities. They get to be well -rounded. They don't have to choose at age 12. Frank Hereda (03:48.334) Yep. Frank Hereda (03:52.078) Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (04:07.509) what sport they're going to love and dedicate their life to it. They get to try everything and they get to go to my with my husband to work when they want to and they get to go with me. And so that kind of lifestyle is really what we wanted from the beginning because for us it was about family. It was about living every day and really investing in each other and our family and we get to do that here. So You know, we're blessed to be able to travel to all like different beaches and experience things like that. But like our home base, his family's here. Some of my family's here. My siblings are kind of across the country, but we have a lot of like friends and family that are here. Frank Hereda (04:45.614) Gotcha. That's great. I love it. That is, that is really cool. And you know, that's the, I grew up in a small town outside of a big city. I grew up in a small town in Indiana outside of Chicago, but that's what I love about where we live now in Myrtle beach. It's a very small town, but it's close to some, you know, different things. So I think it's great living in a small town. So I love it. So. Tabatha Thorell (05:07.541) Yeah, we love it. Frank Hereda (05:11.822) Obviously you got married. It did work out. You got married. Yeah, the suspense is killing us. Yeah, so you got married. And then walk us through the process of, you know, what? I mean, I guess if there's something, you know, that you want to mention before that, but like, where was the meeting of the minds that you were like, okay. Tabatha Thorell (05:14.005) Yeah, it did where I f*** we did where it worked out. I know, right? we did get married. Frank Hereda (05:34.83) this is what we've got to do, this is, or was it something that slowly became obvious after 10 years that's like, hey, this is what we're going to do together? Walk me through how that started. Tabatha Thorell (05:43.061) Right. Well, we both knew that we wanted a family and we wanted to be involved in our families. Both of our dads were very hard workers, but I never saw my dad. Like he worked, I mean, sometimes 18 hour days, like sometimes seven days a week. And if he was home on Sundays, he was so exhausted, you know, and so irritable with about money. My mom had an illness, my sister had a mental illness. So if anybody has ever had medical bills, you know, it can just be like soul crushing. And so, I learned really early on to do a lot of things myself. I was alone a lot, even though I had siblings that were all older. My mom was bedridden a lot. And I had a lot of friends, but I think the void of not having my dad there and just not feeling important in that aspect, I just learned how to do everything on my own. I learned how to achieve things, even though I didn't feel like I was very... smart or fast or athletic or whatever, you know, and so I just kind of, I hid who I truly was because I was loud and I was energetic and adults don't always like that. So they said I was too loud and I needed to be quiet. So I hid a lot of my talents, but when I met my husband, I was myself. Like I could just be myself. We are opposites. So I would bring out in him like his energy and people always thought he was so shy and quiet. And then around me, he would just talk for hours and just, and vice versa. He's very patient and steadfast. And that brought that out in me. And so early on, we just knew we complimented each other and we didn't like other people telling us what to do. So we knew, I knew the corporate America or the nine to five was never gonna be mine. I actually thought I was gonna be a counselor because I loved helping. Tabatha Thorell (07:37.397) marriages and families stay together and live like really unified lives. I just always had that passion. cause I was really close with my family, even though I had older siblings, we were really close and we just love to laugh and play and have fun together, go to the lake, do those things. Like the memories that I do have were awesome. You know, it's just, we also had a lot of scarcity and we had a lot of illness and you know, I didn't want that for my family. So. We kind of saw that from the beginning, like, hey, we're not gonna work for someone else. So there's no retirement plan. There's no ROA. There's nothing that's, the government's not gonna save us. And we didn't wanna work until we were 70. So my husband, when he was in college, was like, hey, I'm gonna buy this house. I'm gonna rent out the top and live in the bottom so I can live rent free. And like, do you wanna help me renovate it? And you know, of course I'm like, yay, let's do this. And... We just saw that as a way to build wealth, but we didn't know what we were doing and this was early 2000. So like there wasn't YouTube. I mean there just started being some TV shows like on HGTV, but very new stuff, you know, and my husband's very skilled at like carpentry and contracting and so and then he just, I just like to do stuff. So I'm like, yeah, let's just go and let's peel this wallpaper off. And that's really where the real estate stuff started. Frank Hereda (08:36.27) Yeah. Yeah. Frank Hereda (08:44.91) Yeah. Frank Hereda (08:56.846) Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (09:00.661) We bought house number two within that first year as well. And then as we got married and had kids, we just started buying more properties and seeing that wealth creation happen. But we did a lot of things wrong. We did everything ourselves. We exhausted ourselves because we thought if we want to make money, we have to do it ourselves. Save, save, save. Yeah. And that, cause that was our parents thinking. I can hear his dad say, a guy would never, Frank Hereda (09:22.126) Save, save, save, save. Frank Hereda (09:27.054) Sure. Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (09:30.229) make money doing that, you know, and stuff. And so we had to break a lot of those limiting beliefs along the way. I was fortunate enough to be, you know, to have coaches and mentors that taught me to break that cycle so that we could gain that freedom. And then, yeah, like I said, I think my driving factor was as an entrepreneur, you know, we all know it's, it's difficult. There's challenges. Sometimes you're living month to month, you know, you don't always know where the money's coming in. But for me, it's knowing there's no cap. Like I get to decide, I get to make that decision to go out today. No one's gonna tell me, okay, your salary can only be $100 ,000 or your salary is only gonna be, or you can't take off for your kid's stuff. Because I am like, no, thank you. Like I am not gonna do that. So that I think was the driving force as far as like the entrepreneurship. It was like, I wanna create my destiny. And... Frank Hereda (10:17.198) Yeah. Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (10:25.941) If my destiny is $50 ,000 a year, I'm still in charge and control that nobody's gonna like put the lid on because I know my work ethic and my vision and no one is going to tell me otherwise. Frank Hereda (10:38.862) Gotcha. I love it. So it sounds like you both were on, it sounds like one, you were both willing to take action right away. So your husband started, he bought that property and then you said, Hey, let's do this again. So let's start with those first two. I agree. I mean, the journey is always paved with lots of mistakes, right? But that's how you learn. So tell me about the first two properties you got. And then after that, so you had the first two, how did they end up and How long was it before you were like, hey, this is actually a cash flowing situation here. Was it right after you got out of school? Because I find a lot of times for entrepreneurs, especially people that might be hearing this that are like, wow, if they did it when they were in college and they started, we could do it right now. How did you start without getting jobs and you were able to like survive? Or was it just like that low you lived on so little? I mean, there's gotta be one of the two. Tabatha Thorell (11:24.309) Yep. Tabatha Thorell (11:31.381) Right? Yeah. So it's funny because I actually lived in his dad had bought properties when he was I think it was about 15 or 16. Okay, his dad's a farmer and he had and he was a rancher and he hated cows. So he sold the cows and was like, I'm gonna buy rental properties. He knew nothing about real estate, like never invested never you know, he was skilled and welding but I want to say he was a skilled carpenter. But my husband just naturally was good. like gifted at that. So he came in and helped him renovate these homes, helped kind of property manage it, saw it at that age. So he saw his dad kind of do this, but again, his dad's thinking was like, you do everything yourself. So that was my husband's mentality. So when he, we got the house, we renovated it right away. And then we bought house number two. I don't really know. I need to have my husband. I need to really ask him what was the driving force looking back when we coach people through this. buying the second house really helps your first house investment because if you just have one, it's like a house of cards. If one thing goes bad, you really have no protection. But when you have multiple properties, they kind of help each other because then if you have three cash flowing properties, then you can kind of borrow over here to help this situation. And you don't feel so taken under when something happens. So he did that right away. And I think, I mean, we just knew buying houses and having rental properties if they were cashflow made sense. But this is what I tell my audience. And this is what I tell people. It's who we knew. So his dad had a relationship with the bank. So we know his dad. So when he went in to get the loan for his bank, he brought his dad along. Now people could say, yeah, well, it must be nice to have a dad like that. You have somebody in your life like that. Don't. Frank Hereda (12:54.574) It's very true. Tabatha Thorell (13:23.925) say, because they had a parent that helped them, then that was because no, it's who if you look at it, who you know, not the thing of like, because you might have an uncle or a friend or a cousin or somebody that's willing to go in and co sign for you, especially because you can always make them a partner, you can always show them the deal, whatever his dad knew obviously, like, my son's gonna do this, this is great. But I mean, I was hustling, I was a waitress and I worked anywhere from 30 to four hours a week while I was a full time student just because I was like, again, I was like my dad, I got to hustle, I got to do this, I got to make the money, I got to pay my bills because we weren't married. And so like, I helped but I wasn't like the financial but I had to take care of myself. And then when we did get married and plan the wedding, we paid for two thirds of our wedding, you know, so like I was always trying to get that extra money like what can I do? Frank Hereda (14:21.982) Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (14:22.453) what else, what other job. So that was the start of it. And then when we got married, he just always had this drive to like get the houses and all the honest Frank. I liked them. I saw it as a wealth building, but I was more about the hustle of we got to earn income, like, okay, enough of this, like houses. And even though they were flow, I didn't always know the numbers because that was like his thing. He knew all the numbers and I saw it like, Frank Hereda (14:42.894) Sure. Tabatha Thorell (14:51.285) because we did everything ourselves, it took them away. And I was like, we are time like poor right now and I wanna be time wealthy. And so when the girls got a little bit older, then we would take them with us, like if we renovated a project. So then I felt like, okay, at least we're together, we're teaching our kids the characteristics, work ethic, roll your sleeves up. So I felt better about that. But there was a time when I was just like, I'm done. like sell all the houses. There was a period of time in there where our kids were really little. A lot of things went wrong. He was doing everything himself and I was at my breaking point. And then that's when we kind of started hiring people. That's when he was like, we bought a few more properties to kind of help coincide again, the ups and flows of the business and stuff. What I wish is that I had a mentor or coach and I, I saw, I sought them out, but what I saw in the real estate space, I did not like. It was a lot of male heavy, the real estate of business flipping, wholesaling, like this really heavy stuff. And that's fine, but we weren't there yet. And it was like, invest in this so you can get this. And I just, I wasn't, I wasn't sold on that. Yeah. I just didn't like the energy that the real estate coaches at the time. I'm not saying there weren't great ones, but not that I could see. And so I had coaches that were helping my coaching business. And so I just took their insights and I wish I would have took their insights and applied it to the real estate stuff earlier, but I just kind of compartmentalize them. And that's what we've done in the last four years. And that's where our exponential growth has just taken off. And that's what I want to help entrepreneurs see that when you can marry the two and learn to do it from the beginning, man, like the sky's the limit. Frank Hereda (16:46.606) So lots of nuggets in there. So it sounds like what I hear you saying is, and I agree with this 110%, it's not what you know, it's who you know. And you leveraged on relationships, which I think you're right, everybody can do. And then at some point, when I coach a lot of real estate agents, but my clients that I coach, I focus on automation, elimination, and delegation. Tabatha Thorell (16:59.029) Yep. Tabatha Thorell (17:09.972) Mm -hmm. Frank Hereda (17:15.086) And a lot of what you're talking about is delegation right now. and that's super important. And so, you know, it's interesting. My wife and I do a lot of the same things that you guys do. And I think it's really tough. You talked about the struggle you had with, you know, with the kids and, you know, the properties and you're ready to just throw your hands up in the air. And I think a lot of times people either don't want to even go through that. Or they think, it's so easy. You don't, they don't see that. And they think, it's just all really roses. Right. So how much, I mean, you and I know, but tell the audience like how much effort goes into making the relationship work. And when you have a business and you're both in the same business, I mean, that's a struggle sometimes, but it's reality. But at the end of the day, you're both working towards a common cause. And it's enjoyable to do it together. And when you have like the end result in mind, but what did you think about that, that period? Tabatha Thorell (18:15.797) So like to make our relationship like my husband and I relationship work, is that what you're talking about? Yep, yep, yeah, yeah. So the one thing that my husband and I have always like foundationally been in sync on with everything in our life is that we wanna build a life where we get to be together and experience things together. We are so conscious of time and... Frank Hereda (18:19.854) Yeah, like with the kids and all the things you have. I mean, that's very difficult. So how did you get through that together? Tabatha Thorell (18:44.373) not just like to have an abundance of it. Yes, that'd be great. But like when we are together intentionally. And so like even when we have these businesses and the real estate and stuff and he's looking at his phone and my kids are right there. I'm like, put your phone down. Like you are home. Like sometimes he might only be home a couple hours before they go to bed. And I'm like, put your phone down. Like you need to be intentional. And I don't always like to feel like that because I feel like the mom to him, but I'm like, Frank Hereda (19:06.766) Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (19:13.173) It's reminding him because he's like me, we are just so engulfed in everything that sometimes you have to be like, no, like be intentional. And so with the kids, he is an amazing father and he doesn't let always every once in a while this season right now we're in because he's a farmer. June's always a little stressful because of our rental properties and that, but I have to remind him like we're doing this all for them. And they're only little for so long. Our oldest daughter, four years, and then who knows, right? Cause like she's gonna enter high school. And so we just do everything with intentionality. And even in our relationship at night, even if we're watching a TV show together, we're together, we're connected, I'm not on my phone and he's on his phone and the TV's on. It's like, we're watching a funny sitcom. We're laughing, we're joking about that. We're giving each other massages, like talking about the day, even if it's for an hour. That is something that's been important our whole entire marriage. And then over the years, because our personalities are completely opposite, I had to work on me and say, what kind of wife do I want to be? And am I being like, am I doing the things that I want to be the wife that he will forever want to be married to? And is that true to myself? And just marrying those two things. Because I don't think that you should become someone. for someone else just because that's what they want. But I do always want to be a loving, kind, supportive wife. Like I always want, those are attributes I want him, I think about what he would say at my funeral. Was I those things and not just because he misses me, but was I truly supportive? Did I respect him or was that response like kind of snarky? And so I had to take inventory and him as well, cause he's very quiet and reserved. Frank Hereda (21:02.35) Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (21:07.285) and I take that as rejection. So that part of it was, they don't teach you that in business school, they don't teach you that in investing, they don't teach you that. But when you can figure out how you can communicate yourself and be your best version every day, and I fall short every day, and I forgive myself every day, and my husband falls short every day, and I forgive him every day, because at the end of the day, we're still together, we're still like our family unit. I would never leave because the whole purpose of us doing this is so we can be together more. So if I get frustrated and think, I'm just gonna leave, well, that's the complete opposite, you know? And I think people forget that. It's like, why did you get married? Now, some people, they can't work together and they're like, I need my separation, like good, you know, and that's fine. But my husband and I could literally work every single day together, take care of the kids together. and we still want to have enough time. Like we just are each other's best friends. We're our supporter. We love talking about different, you know, investments and that excites us. And then we get excited about talking about the kids sports and family vacations. Like all of those things are so embedded in us that that's what we love to do, but not everybody's that. So that might not serve everyone, but I know what can is you bring your best version to self, to the relationship and just. Like ask, like, how can I serve you today? Like just an hour ago, I asked my husband, I said, how can I make your day better? Like, what can I take off your plate? Cause he's very overwhelmed. Now I am as well. And, but I'm not, I'm not saying that. So he says, well, what can I do for you? Like, I am literally asking as a service, like how can I serve you? And he's like, could you take this to the bank and can you create these invoices? Now some people. Frank Hereda (22:53.166) Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (23:01.781) And some women might be like, why didn't he ask what he could do for me? You know, but I literally was asking from a place of service because I would do that for my clients. I would do that for my kids and I would do that for my husband. And so I do that. And then I feel good about that. So we just really look at those times a little bit differently, but it was really about like, how can I bring my best self to the table? And then when he's having a bad day, Frank Hereda (23:05.262) Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (23:29.813) Like just give it a forgiveness and grace in that. Frank Hereda (23:31.886) Yeah. I think it's interesting. I think, you know, you, what, a lot of what you said, I, I'm, I'm with, I think one, we're all, none of us are perfect. being truly of service to your spouse, right. And, and just trying to help. And so I think in, in having the same, having, being aligned on what you're trying to do, why you're doing it. Like you said, he, you're reminding him like, Hey, we're doing this for the kids. And I think that's a really important piece of it. For sure. okay. So. Tabatha Thorell (23:40.885) No. Right. Frank Hereda (24:02.286) Obviously it takes a lot of work. That's what I really wanted people to understand and get through, but everybody, you're right. People are going to have their own way. They're going to get through it. It may not be like you or my wife and I and how close we are. So you, when was the point where you were like, okay, this is, this is going to be something and, and how did it evolve into what it is today? Like, what was that process like? Because you had some properties, you made some mistakes along the way. How did you figure out like the sector? I mean, you're in Nebraska, so. It's not like there's high rise condos. So I'm guessing it's single family homes or is it farms or what is it and how did you come up with that method and what the plan was? Tabatha Thorell (24:33.693) Right. Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (24:40.373) So single family homes is really where our bread and butter was. And now we have some multifamily units and we are actually in the middle of a deal of doing some storage units and then acquiring about 15 more single family homes in the next two to five years. So where we have always just thrived is in college areas, just because college students need a place to live, right? And so where we're at and it's... Frank Hereda (24:55.182) Okay. Tabatha Thorell (25:07.381) close enough to where if we do need to go check something out or if there is some sort of, you know, dispute or something like we're close enough to where that works. And my husband still will go and do some renovation projects. Not always we have contractors now, but if it's something that he enjoys and he can do and whip out in a day, they could go do that. Right. So like, that's nice. My dad's also by trade in electrician. And so a couple years ago, he was like, I think he was like 67. He was like, I wanna, I have some money. Can I invest with you guys? And so it's never too late guys. Like he was 67 years old and he finally invested. And so I was like, yeah, sure. So he comes in and does some of the electrical work and we have a few properties with him, which was great. I really think what kept us like in the game was, you know, my husband wasn't willing to like. give up on the vision of like, this is creating wealth, like we need this. We were always like, we knew we couldn't put all our eggs in one basket, you know, like we couldn't all put it in the farm, we couldn't all put it in my business, we couldn't put it in the real estate. So like that was always in the back. Even when I say, Frank, like, I wanted to give up, I knew I wasn't, I'm not a quitter, I knew we want to sell the houses because what else is there? Stocks? Like I know nothing about that. And that's like starting from scratch. And I was like, well, that doesn't sound fun at all. Frank Hereda (26:29.742) Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (26:31.573) So it was kind of like we could have done more flips or wholesaling. When I say give up, like I was more like, should we be doing things differently is really what my mindset was. Yeah. Like, is this the right thing? I don't know. And like you said, we are a little bit limited because we would love to get into apartment buildings, but the ones that would come up would either get grabbed so fast or there'd be so much to do that it would be like a $5 million property. And we just weren't a - Frank Hereda (26:39.502) Sure. Well, you do that on the journey. It's tough. Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (27:00.469) equipped yet to like be able to handle that. Like you said, to delegate and automate some things because we were doing everything ourselves. And in my head, I'm like, we can't renovate 50 apartment units, you know, but now that we have a different mindset, that doesn't scare me. I'm like, yeah, let's do this and we'll hire at the contractor. And I know there's going to be blurbs. So we have to take this money and we got to find a lender for this. Like our mindset has changed on that where, you know, five, even five years ago, I wasn't as invested because to be honest, I almost felt like it was my husband's thing and I just helped make things pretty and I helped property manage it and take care of the tenants, but like the business side of it was him and he was too scared to take the risks because he was our provider. So he felt like if say he invested in a property and went under, he would feel like less of a man. And I'm thinking, I don't care if something goes under because, you know, in the United States, we're protected by a lot of different things, you know, insurance, bankruptcy laws, like all this stuff. And I'm like, and honestly, worse comes to worse. We have to downsize our own house. We're still together. That's all I cared about. But in his eyes, and I know a lot of men's eyes, it was like, I'm supposed to provide for you and I can't take that risk. And so when we find, when I sat down with him and literally looked at him in his eyes and said, Frank Hereda (28:18.413) Mm -hmm. Tabatha Thorell (28:25.653) I don't let's do this. Like I will follow you. I will do whatever it takes, but we either have to grow this or sell everything and do something different. And that's when I think it gave him the freedom to be like, okay, saying yes to more projects. And he's still a little more cautious. I'm a little more like, yeah, let's do it. Let's talk to the bank. Let's go. I already talked to him, you know, Chris and like all this stuff. And he's a little bit more, you know, he'll say, okay, but. you know, he's a little bit more cautious, but I think that excites him that I'm behind him no matter what. Like we can live in, you know, we can live in a RV, you know, down on the corner. Like we'll be okay. You know, we'll figure it out because honestly, and you know, all entrepreneurs, we go through this because we're very vision oriented, but at the end of the day, it's your relationships. It's your kids. Like what are we teaching them? And if we do go through that struggle, like we, we don't. Frank Hereda (29:00.302) Yeah. Frank Hereda (29:03.726) Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (29:22.805) tell our kids all about like our financial struggles and stuff. But we tell them like when stuff isn't like right, you know, this last year COVID didn't really hit us hard, but it's like we're seeing those effects now. And I think a lot of people are just cause he's a farmer. So 2023, like 22 was a little okay. And then 23 was rough. And this year we're still kind of the tail end of that. And we tell our kids, you know, we're like, we... we have to pull the purse strings back or we're gonna have to work a little extra hours if we're gonna do this family vacation, we bring them in on the vision so that they don't feel blindsided. And then we don't live a life that we didn't earn. If that makes sense, like we're not like, you know, spending all this money right now, like, yeah, who cares? Like that we're still fine, like, you know, and then pretty soon we have to be, you know, have bankruptcy. Like we're not gonna live that either, but we don't teach our, like we teach our kids. Frank Hereda (29:59.374) Yeah. Frank Hereda (30:15.15) Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (30:18.741) We don't know the word expensive. That's not in our language because everything is expensive or inexpensive. It's relative. So right now there's just not the cost. Like the cost is too high for us to get that. But in a couple of years, if we do the thing that we need and use our minds and all this stuff, then we'll be able to do that. And so just teaching them those things are really important for us. Frank Hereda (30:43.662) Yeah, no, I love it. So you, it sounds like single families. Were you buying like somebody else's portfolio? You said you're about to pick up 15 single families. Is that from a portfolio or, okay. Tabatha Thorell (30:53.237) Yeah, yeah, so that will be somebody's portfolio. Are all of our other ones, I mean, we bought some from other investors like our duplexes and our fourplex were obviously from other investors. And then I'm trying to think if some of, I think a majority of ours have always been from other investors that have wanted to get out and always had tenants in there, except for our very first, the very first house I know didn't have, tenants in it because we renovated that but I'd have to because we still have those two properties like all of the properties that we've done some flips and sold a few properties but most of the properties we've acquired we we've held on to just because the ROI is too good like you know it's still really good so we're like why would we sell it you know Frank Hereda (31:27.47) Gotcha. Frank Hereda (31:34.638) Held. Frank Hereda (31:41.294) Sure. So tell me, walk me through a little bit more about the properties you pick up. Is it, are you in an investor group? How do you find them at the MLS? How are you coming across the properties that you're finding wholesale? What are you doing? Tabatha Thorell (31:55.445) So we literally just, you know, scout the neighborhood. We have a very good real estate agent who like a property will go, it won't even go up for market and he'll call us because people know that we're investors. So we have a really good relationship with the bank. Again, this goes back to the relationship. It's who you know. We haven't done any sort of like investor groups. Like I said, Frank Hereda (32:13.294) Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (32:21.205) we knew we wanted to double our portfolio in the next five years. So we were like going to maybe do some syndications and some multi -units. Well, then this opportunity kind of fell in our lap where we could over the course of five years buy out this portfolio. And so we were like, okay, well, do we just do that or do we still join a group and just keep going and maybe get into the eight figure portfolio because that's what would happen. Frank Hereda (32:48.398) Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (32:48.437) And we're not opposed to it, but we do have some like storage units going up. And I haven't figured out the automation of some of it because we have to automate some of it in order to withstand that kind of growth. We don't want to just grow and then just be like, you know, no. Frank Hereda (33:05.774) It's important systems and processes is important for sure. Yeah. Well. Tabatha Thorell (33:08.405) Yeah, and that's not our strong suit. So I'm like, learning to delegate that and, you know, get an infrastructure of somebody that really can and. Frank Hereda (33:16.014) Yeah, that's good though, at least you're aware. So I heard you say storage units, are you building them? Did I hear you say that? Okay, so is that, is your husband, it sounds like he's pretty handy. Does he have a GC license? Do you need one out there or does he like, do you guys use another contractor? How's that work? Tabatha Thorell (33:23.541) Yep. Yep. Tabatha Thorell (33:34.133) So he doesn't have a GC license. He could if he wanted to and a few jobs he's thought about. So if we do the storage units, we will outsource that. We do have some contractor relationships that we would work with. And we were gonna do bigger storage units for like RVs, campers, boats, cause where we live, we have lakes around us, but our winters are really harsh. And so people have to store these somewhere. And... Frank Hereda (33:42.606) Gotcha. Tabatha Thorell (33:59.509) A lot of our storage units are for personal use. And so we wanted to build some bigger ones just because there was a need for that. Frank Hereda (34:07.406) That's interesting. You know, this is the second time in two days, I heard somebody talk about storage units for RVs. and I was talking with someone about storage units for RVs and boats. We obviously we're on the coast, so that's a big thing here. RVs and boats. so that's interesting you say that, but. Tabatha Thorell (34:22.517) Yeah. Yes. Tabatha Thorell (34:28.501) Yeah. Well, and look at what the market needs. That's something to like, if you have people, your listeners on here, there's a need in a town close to us. That's a college town. They need homes and good landlords that are going to give these students who have no, they don't have any like references really other than like their mom, you know? And so some landlords are like, Nope, if you don't have, you know, a past landlord, I'm not going to rent to you. Frank Hereda (34:32.206) That's right. Frank Hereda (34:49.518) Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (34:56.021) And so we just looked at it as a need. And so our growth is that's where the need is. We looked at like the RV storage units and there's a lot that's open. And so it's like, we looked at the numbers and like, okay, if we could get this, you know, we did the numbers, there was a need, the numbers work. So we take care of that need. I think we just overcomplicate stuff. It's like, well, should I do a multi -unit? Should I do this? The bottom line. is ROI, like what is ROI? And I tell my husband that too, I'm like, you can't get emotionally invested in it. You just have to say, what's ROI? Is there a need? That's the emotion. I would say if you can find a need, that's where the, but then take it away, like then that's it. Like there's a need, so you're gonna fulfill that need. And if there's always a need, you're gonna make money and it's real estate. So it's gonna work out, you know, but that's what we did. Frank Hereda (35:23.662) Yeah. Frank Hereda (35:41.422) Agreed. No, I agree. So talk to me about, let's talk about the building wealth, the legacy wealth, the building wealth. Let's talk about that piece for a second. So at what point were you like, hey, this is something that we want to focus on and what are you doing for that piece? Tabatha Thorell (36:05.749) So in 2019, my husband and I went to a conference and people would come up and ask what we did. And I was like, well, I'm a coach and my husband farms, but we own real estate, we own income properties. Every single person was like, my gosh, I've always wanted to do that. And this is like a conference for entrepreneurs. So like everybody's like entrepreneur, business owner, right? You know? Frank Hereda (36:23.598) Yeah. Wait, when you say everybody wanted to do it, you mean owning the investment property piece or okay. Gotcha. Tabatha Thorell (36:27.957) Yes. Yes. Everybody like we'd say, we own income properties. I've always wanted to do that. Like I always wanted to invest in real estate and we'd say, well, why haven't you? And they, well, you know, just not sure. And you know, the excuse like money and I don't know when and is that the real? And this was one too, like, I don't, is that really the best way? Like, you know, it was like, they're trying to convince themselves. Like, you know, and I'm like, well, over 90 % of millionaires own real estate. So I'm just going to say that. So if your desire is to be a millionaire, which all of them it was because they're at this conference, then you should do what rich people do, you know, and they weren't doing it. And so I told, you know, I remember, I still remember this, we were sitting down to lunch and we were like, we brought stuff or whatever, sitting there. And I said, you know, I would just love to have this mastermind with entrepreneurial couples who have families and like help them invest in real estate and just, Frank Hereda (37:02.03) Yep. Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (37:26.965) build these families that are amazing. Like I didn't, that was my idea. Like that's about as good as it was, you know? And I couldn't articulate, but I was like, if the kids could mastermind and the parents could mastermind, you could come together and you could just really build this family unit. Again, go back to what I went to college for. The whole purpose when I went to college was to help couples and families build stronger family units. So that has been a thread through my entire life. Everything I've done is like, how can I make that family unit stronger? Frank Hereda (37:32.302) Yeah. Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (37:56.821) And this was at the beginning of, I think I told you, 2009, it was actually the beginning of 2020 right before COVID. It was in February before COVID. And so COVID hit, and like I said, it didn't affect us a big chunk yet financially, but our kids were taken out of school, you know, even with my coaching business, everything was kind of in ins and outs and all that stuff. And then the next year we had baby four and then the next year I had baby five. So that's what really threw us through the loop of then, you know, and then the ramifications of COVID and things like that. So that idea was there, but it was just kind of put on the back burner. And it come up every once in a while, I actually found a video from, I think it was like two years ago, where I'm like, okay, I wanna do this, I wanna do this thing. And you know, just nothing, you know, I just, I kept pushing it back. And here's why Frank, because my husband was the brains behind the real estate stuff. So I felt like he was the face and I was the coach and I wasn't qualified to go out there and like teach this stuff. Even though I'd been investing with him alongside him for 18 years, I never even told people, I always said like, we're real estate investors. Like I never really titled myself as that, you know, I kind of hid behind him. Frank Hereda (39:19.054) Mm -hmm. Tabatha Thorell (39:19.093) And a friend of mine was like, why aren't you teaching this? Like people want this. And I was like, well, I don't, you know, I see stuff on the internet and I don't love what's out there. Like I don't want just a course. I didn't, you know, there's so much on YouTube. People can do this. Like the information's out there and there's a lot smarter people than me out there teaching it, you know, and they're way more successful than me and people should go to them. He's like, Frank Hereda (39:36.334) Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (39:46.581) what if you could be different, would you do? And I said, I wanna teach the piece of teaching your kids success and wealth principles, but you yourself investing. So that has to be a piece like learning to buy those income properties, what it takes the infrastructure, how to delegate right away, how as a couple you do this without your marriage being ripped apart, but then teaching your kids the characteristics. Because I did a lot of research on wealth building and, these families by second generation, 70 % of wealth was gone. Third generation, 90 % of wealth was gone. Third generation. And I was like, I see these entrepreneurs hustling and doing this stuff. And I'm like, you're not working that hard. So by third generation, all your hard work is gone. No way. And so I started digging deeper of like why that happened. And a lot of it was communication. The kids didn't feel seen, loved or heard. Frank Hereda (40:20.59) Gone. Tabatha Thorell (40:46.293) the person who created the wealth did it while damaging everything else. And now I'm not saying everybody does that, but this was a common theme. And it was the kids didn't know how to create the wealth. So when they got it, it was kind of like a person winning the lottery. It was just gone. They're like, this is, I don't know how much things cost. I don't know how to manage my money. And then some of them resented the money because... Frank Hereda (40:53.294) Good chunk, yeah. Tabatha Thorell (41:14.485) it took their parent away and all they wanted was a parent who cared and loved for them. And I was like, man, I know like we're in a new age. So like some of that stuff is kind of old school, but some of it is resonating with kids right now. And so I was like, how could you bring kids in into the family vision, even in the entrepreneurship, even the main business, but then also in that investment, like finances. and what wealth is and how you create assets versus liabilities and could you make that fun for them? And then could the kids mastermind together? You know, my kids live in a very small town, so there's not a lot of like -minded kids here. Not that they're not great, they have some great friendships, but they just don't think about things like that. They're not entrepreneurial families. So when they can just really mastermind together and learn how to do that at a young age, I just feel like that's very powerful. It might actually... Frank Hereda (41:54.798) Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (42:07.445) in a good way, hinder them from wanting to go to college because kids go to college so they can like, you know, they say, like spread your wings, find your fraternity, find your group of people. Well, if you already have your group of people and you're doing good and you're making money, don't go blow it all on a university where people are gonna brainwash you into something that you don't even want to do, right? And so creating that environment, that safe place for kids was really huge. And then also bringing in tax strategists. and teaching people tax strategy because 52 % of your income goes to taxes. And if you don't learn how to reduce that, you are going to be constant on that hamster wheel. And your accountant's job is not to save or make you money. And a lot of people think it is, but it's not. Their job is to keep you compliant. So if you don't bring in other strategies, they're just keeping you compliant. Now they might... they might say, this will help you save and they'll see little things, but not a big bird's eye view, especially if you're an entrepreneur, you need to have someone in there that's like specifically trained for that because there's a lot of ethical ways to save money. And then we teach you like with the income properties, how that kind of all ties in place. And so I just wanted an environment, like a group, like a mastermind group where there's question and answer sessions, there's trainings, there's experts that are coming in. and just how you can really build that family vision and keep that communication and that love and that you really want. That's why you had kids. That's why you're married. Cause you really want that because then your kids are going to learn it. And then they teach their kids that. And that's where the generational things happen. Instead of being scarce with money, instead of having these limited beliefs about money and what wealth means and greed and philanthropy and giving back like, You can change that narrative for your family, but we need an intentional space. We just do, because life gets too busy. So if you don't have that intentional group, it's too easy to say, I'd love to do that someday. Yeah, I really would love to do that. Then you're not. Frank Hereda (44:12.718) Yeah. Frank Hereda (44:19.502) That's what happens to everybody on with everything, right? So it's the family, it's saving for retirement, it's tax strategies, it's teaching their kids, it's whatever, right? It's always tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow. Tabatha Thorell (44:30.901) never comes. Frank Hereda (44:32.462) I like, I love it. I think it's great. And I think the biggest piece that you're, that you're focusing on that's most important in my mind is taxes and people don't focus enough on tax strategy and designing what they do in life around their taxes. That's really what you should do. And what's funny is most people don't know that the tax code, I forget how many pages is out of the thousands of pages. I don't know. 85 % of it. is designed is written to tell you how to save money. And the smaller the last 15 % is just here's what you have to pay. So people don't realize that about the tax code because they don't take the time to look at it. But I love it. I think it's great. And it seems like so how and so you're focused on the family getting together, saving on taxes, talking about money. I think that's the other big piece. At least when I grew up, that wasn't something that we did. We didn't really talk that much about money in the home. You know, it wasn't, it just wasn't a conversation in my home and in most people's homes I know. So I think that's really important. Yeah, that's right. Tabatha Thorell (45:35.317) Or if it is, it's a negative. It's like, that's too expensive. What is money grown trees? How much does that cost? No, we can't afford that. Like in my household, that's the narrative. It was never like, money's abundant. You just have to be creative. It was never, it was just always work hard, work hard. It wasn't what value are you adding? How can you, you know, create, create the money, have that give and take in Epson flows? Yeah. Frank Hereda (45:57.774) Yep. Yeah. It's important. So I love it. I love that you guys are doing these different things. So what's the, what's the plan? What's the future hold and where are you guys trying to go? Tabatha Thorell (46:10.677) So the big plant, like I told you, is we're acquiring these new properties and trying to do that as fast and with taxes and doing all of those things, you know, to make sure all the things are good and to delegate and to get those systems. Because again, that's where we've always kind of faltered. I would love to explode this, our family, our legacy well project, because I feel like the butterfly effect from that, the ripple effect. Frank Hereda (46:20.494) Yeah, yeah. Tabatha Thorell (46:38.325) is so huge and now is the time because you're not gonna get any younger and whether you think you have the money or don't have the money or could get the money or have the time or I'll teach those later, you're probably not. You're just like me because it's even for us, we have created this for our own selfish desire because we would teach our kids this stuff but it was like haphazardly. There was no structure to it, you know? And we'd have conversations with, kids, you know, our kids about money. And my oldest daughter actually had like this moment where she was feeling all anxious about money. And I just sat down with her and I said, what is going on? Because in our household, we really try not to have that kind of, you know, emotion about money and stuff. I'm not saying that we always win there, but you know, we are intentional about it. And she was just like, you know, she's 14 going on 15. So she's like, wants to be a kid, but she wants the stuff. Frank Hereda (47:28.11) Yeah. Yeah. Tabatha Thorell (47:36.213) to be an adult, you know, like a phone and a car and all this stuff. And she's like, I just feel like I just don't want to worry about money. And I said, well, you don't have to worry about money, but you have to learn about money. So just walk me through that. And she was like, well, it just, I think I need all this money. I need to do all this stuff. And I just sat and I said, okay. And I just asked questions. Cause before I was just doing what every parent does is we tell our kids, right? You need to do this. You should do this, do this and blah, blah, blah. And. We think it's better because it's different than what our parents said, but it was still me talking at her. And so when I sat with her and asked her questions, she was able to talk about it. And I said, and we had a conversation about her buying a rental property. Cause I said, if you want to buy your car, you're going to have payments or you're going to need to pay for this and you're going to have gas and you can't work during the school year, you're too busy. And so she was like, I said, but what if you bought a rental property? And she was like, Mom, I don't like it. She got really like defensive and I was like, okay, what about that overwhelms you? And so I just listened and she was like, well, you gotta earn a lot of money and then you gotta go and you gotta like have all these tenants and they're always calling you and doing this stuff. And in her defense, that's what she saw us doing. And I said, no, no, no. What if you walk to the bank with daddy and I and because you know us, they gave you a loan for a house that you and I researched together and figured out that it was cashflow positive. and then we introduce you to our property manager and they take over filling it and taking care of the tenants during the month so you can go to school and then once a month you just check in with them. Do you think that you could do that? And she was like, well, yeah. And I said, you are making a mountain over a moat. Like she didn't really know all the steps, but she thought that she did. So she was being so overwhelmed. And I feel like that's what so many listeners do is that they, They, I can't have the money. I don't have 40 ,000 for a down payment. And then the houses around here, they need so much work and I'm not a contractor. And then what if I get tenants that don't pay or destroy the house? And then I'm just, you know, one roof away from. Yeah. And so when we walked her through that, then she was like, then she got excited. And then she's like, well, can we go look at property? Can we look at properties? And I'm like, yeah, like, absolutely. We can go on Zillow and realtor .com. And she became excited about. Frank Hereda (49:40.846) It's the six steps from dying. Yeah, exactly. Tabatha Thorell (49:58.005) And so it was just me sitting back and taking that time. And I know parents want that for their kids, but unless you have that intention, unless you're surrounded by other people that tell you those stories and inspire you to do that or walk, hold your hand and say, yes, what's the next step? Okay, now you just need to go find financing. Well, do you know about this lending process or do you know about this creative way or do you know someone who can co -sign? Taking them off the ledge. That's what they need. They need that community. Frank Hereda (50:29.998) Love it, I agree. I think it's great. Tabitha, where can people find you? Where would you like them to go? Tabatha Thorell (50:36.085) We well, we have keep legacy wealth .com. So I mean, if this the real estate stuff is just really inspiring, you go there, we have some free resources. We currently have a free group work kind of restructuring how we really want to launch this program, because I really want to start off with a bang, we've just done kind of a soft launch talking like these concepts and people just are loving it. But what's the best? platform, right? Like what's the best way to serve this community? Because again, I'm very hands on. I want people to execute. I don't want it just to be a course that they take. I want to be there and provide that community for them. So go to that. And because then you get on our email list and so any upcoming stuff is just fantastic. And I also have a podcast called What Went Wrong? The Untold Stories of Bouncing Back. So if you need stories of inspiration, check us out on every podcast. platform and also YouTube because we video everything and then we also put real estate tips on there and stuff. So those are really the two. I'm not loving Instagram right now. I'm trying to go more towards TikTok, personal preference, Facebook and Instagram. I'm just, I'm there and that's where you can message me because I still like check messages there. So if you have a personal message, but trying to really switch platforms just for personal preference. Frank Hereda (51:49.902) Yeah. Frank Hereda (51:56.11) Okay, okay, cool. Well, I love it. I appreciate your time. I love what what you guys are doing. And, you know, I'll make sure you put everything in the show notes for everybody so that they can find the links and find you guys. And I appreciate it. We should guys wish you the best. Absolutely. And we'll check everybody out on the next episode. Thanks for being here, everybody. Bye. Tabatha Thorell (52:12.021) Thank you so much, Frank. Information: Tabatha's: https://keeplegacywealth.com/ Frank's: https://linktr.ee/fhereda