[00:00:00] Sia Senior: We’d love to increase our portfolio and do it with like-minded people who have the same kind of values that we have. But the goal is also to connect with them and pick out larger units. And so in picking up larger units, that will provide our friends, family, and others that, you know, connect with us and along with our values to be able to invest alongside us in the larger units where they can enjoy the benefits, as you know, of passively getting income from real estate that’s stable, you know, consistent, not so crazy like the stock market. Although I do have some in stock market, but it’s a hard asset that I think is great to keep. And so that is our goal now, is to kind of connect with other people.

[00:01:03] Nicole Pendergrass: Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode. Today we actually get to speak with Sia Senior and let me tell you, this girl is fantastic. I really love her. She has a great spirit. You know, I’ve got to know her over the past couple of years, we’ve been in connection, we’ve had a few conversations, we’re in the same meetups, we’re connected on social media, we’re always messaging each other back and forth. And I’m planning on some big things with us in the future. She’ll see this intro later and hear that. But in any case, let me tell you a little bit about Sia and what she has done in her journey, and where she’s at so far. Sia started her journey in real estate investing alongside her husband in 2005 while working as a math teacher. 10 years later, she left the security of her W2, became a full-time real estate investor. Her experience includes house hacking her first property, flipping eight properties, and buying and self-managing multiple properties to hold long-term. Her portfolio also consists of a 16-unit asset acquired through a JV partnership, which they just closed on last year and that is actually in Tennessee, I love that state. Sia is a principal at Arrowhead Capital. Arrowhead Capital is a real estate firm that acquires multifamily assets in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast. They are committed to providing their investment partners with excellent opportunities, which allow them to passively create generational wealth and enhance the apartment communities of their residents. So we dig into much more than that. That’s super high level. We get to dig into the details and the mindset behind her journey, how she’s been super conservative with every decision that she’s been making. You don’t have to build wealth and be risky and lose it all and lose your shirt and Sia is a prime example of how to do that. So if you are interested at all in following any aspect of her journey, or even if real estate is not something that you have the time or capacity to take on as an active participant right now, there’s plenty of ways to get involved passively, and I would definitely connect with Sia and keep watching what she’s doing because she may have opportunities sooner rather than later to be able to help other people invest who normally don’t have opportunities of this nature. So, I just love her mindset and where she’s going in the future, and you definitely need to be connected with her. So let’s get started.

[00:03:30] Nicole Pendergrass: Hi, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Share The Wealth Show. This is the show where we build, grow, and protect minority wealth, and today I’m super excited, guys, you don’t understand. This relationship has been a couple of years in the making. Has it been a couple of years already?

[00:03:50] Sia Senior: Yes. Yes. I know, right?

[00:03:52] Nicole Pendergrass: It’s crazy. Like, I remember my first call with Sia, and she has really just hit the ground running. She was already doing big things before she transitioned into commercial real estate, so we are going to actually dig into that. But Sia, just want to say thank you so much for coming on the show today. And I don’t know why it took me so long to get you on here. But thank you, thank you for coming.

[00:04:17] Sia Senior: Nicole, thank you so much for having me. First of all, you know, I love you and was so excited about your show, and I just, you know, patiently waited on the side and cheered everyone else on, waiting for my turn. And so, you know, I fully support all that you do and am excited to be able to share whatever knowledge I have to make sure that people have all of the opportunities and all of the information available to them. And so I applaud you on for this show, and I think that, like, I told you before, this is going to be life-changing for a lot of people. So I’m excited to be a part of it.

[00:04:46] Nicole Pendergrass: Thank you. I appreciate that. Okay, so let’s just hop in and get started. I actually read a, you know, brief overview of your bio and what you’ve been up to before, what you’ve done now. But if you want to just briefly dive into your journey and mainly any big transitional moments that really changed how you thought about money, finances, investing, and how you even just got started and what that looked like.

[00:05:16] Sia Senior: Sure, sure. So I’m a former high school math teacher. I was teaching full time with my husband who was working as a federal contractor. When we first got into real estate, we purchased our home that we moved into and both of us sat there and like, Wow, the agent, she really made some quick money off of doing this. We can do this. So we became agents, literally was just like that, you know? And so it was great because I could do that in the summer, on the weekends, he could do that, you know, on the side as well. And so we both started being agents, helping people get into their homes, listing properties. And shortly after that first property, we purchased our home. We decided to move into our permanent home that we live in now. And that was during the time where, you know, it was easy because it was ’04, ’05. So, you know, it was easy to get money to, you know, purchase a home. It was right before the recession. And so lots of people were able to, as they say, you know, if you could breathe, you could get another loan. And so we were able to, you know, that’s what the situation was. We were able to purchase our home and keep the first house as a rental. We convert it as a rental. We qualified on our income. And so we were able to do that and get somebody into the property. And for us, that was the first time because we realized, Wow, okay, like we are, you know, getting cash flow from this property, you know, our first rental, and this is easy. There’s not much to it. And so that I think was the first time we were like, Light bulb. Okay, this is something we can do. And so we, after that, proceeded to just purchase more properties while helping other people, first-time home buyers get into their home. And I would say probably two years after that, my husband left his full-time job and went into real estate full-time. So as a broker and picking up properties, and I continued to work as a teacher. And I did that for the next 10 years. So during that time we just kept adding. We flipped a couple of properties. And we just kept building our portfolio while also using my active income and the active income from the flipping to support the real estate business in terms of our portfolio and you know, the brokerage. And 10 years later, 2015, after my third child and managing all the properties and doing the flips and taking people out, I realized I couldn’t juggle everything. And so I left teaching and pursued, you know, the real estate full-time, helping with managing the rentals and all of that. And so, you know, by then we had a little over, I would probably say maybe like 10 or 15 properties, and then we proceeded to continue to purchase until right now where we have almost 30. And during that time, while we were building, when we met in 2020, we realized that this would be a great time to try and scale, and we’re trying to figure out a way to do that. So we connected with some people in a like-minded, people that were interested in building wealth and adding to their portfolio. And that’s how we came into commercial real estate. And so we joined a mentoring program, got with those people, made some connections, networked, and last year we were able to do a joint venture for 16 units in Tennessee. And so that was our first time getting outside of our circle, which was just the two of us and building wealth. But it was great because it was, one, nice to be able to see how we could work with other people and teams and also be able to, you know, grow our wealth quickly with other people in that kind of form. And so that’s where we are now. It’s been great. And now my goal is to help others do the same. And so we’re still looking at doing joint ventures, but we’re also looking at doing GP deals where we buy larger units and for those people in our circle, family, friends that want to invest in real estate apartments like we do, but don’t have the time or not able to leave their job, but they don’t want to leave their job, they can possibly invest with us. So that’s our goal and where we’re headed to.

[00:08:37] Nicole Pendergrass: Okay, wow. Okay. Oh, my goodness. There’s so much in there. I have so many questions. You saw me like, I’m writing down all these questions already. So first I’ll go into the light bulb moment when you guys saw that that other agent made money so easily, was there a plan behind wanting to make that extra money or was it just, oh, we just want more money, you know? Was there like a long-term vision for why you wanted to become agents besides the money part?

[00:09:08] Sia Senior: So for me, I’ll be honest, I just enjoyed showing properties. I loved HGTV, and so I like that part of it. I think my husband was really keen on not necessarily being in the job that he was at. Being a contractor for the federal government is, you know, I mean, some people might like it, but he was, it was good enough for him, but it wasn’t something that he really enjoyed. And so he enjoyed real estate. So the idea was he can find something that he’s passionate about. I was happy being a teacher. I mean, I’m a math teacher. I have no problem doing that. I’m an educator, so, for me, it’s fun to do the math and educate, even though the kids don’t necessarily like it. But you know, it was really more a way of being able to supplement income. And he found a way to do something like that, that he enjoyed and found real estate to be the the goal. So, you know, it wasn’t hard to do. You’re showing properties, you’re helping people, right? So you’re filling two goals. They want to get someplace they want to live. You’re able to earn income from that. And so I think that’s how we first started, where he was focused on that. For me, the mental change came once we got that first rental where we’re able to convert and I was like, okay, so we can, you know, pick up properties that we would, as agents, we pick them up under our own commission and everything like that, so we can actually get some supplemental income. So if I wanted to do other things, I have that income coming in and so I think that was a part that got me on board once we got that first rental, and I saw, you know, how easy it was to do, and it was helpful in other ways as well. ‘Cause our goal has always been to, when we’re working, to provide value to people. And so that’s why I was a teacher, right? I wanted to educate. And so for me, providing housing while also being able to add some income to our wealth was great for us. And I think that’s kind of where we got started.

[00:10:41] Nicole Pendergrass: Okay. Because I was going to ask, but I feel like now I know the answer because you remained a teacher for 10 more years before finally leaving your job. So was that a difficult decision for you, or did you feel like you were making the sacrifice for the bigger goal? Were you resentful at all? Like, did you want to leave? You know what I mean? So how did it look for you mentally?

[00:11:05] Sia Senior: Well, mentally, you know, real estate, it’s a great profession and it’s a great way to build wealth in terms of the income, right? So you have the cash flow from your rentals. But for me, you know, I had a study job. It was always going to be paid. Like, I was always going to be able to be a teacher, have the insurance, have that stability. And so for me, I wasn’t comfortable just, you know, leaving my stable job to go with real estate, which could be feast or famine. You know, sometimes you have a lot of clients, sometimes you don’t have any, right? Sometimes you have great, great deals, sometimes you don’t. Sometimes attendance are paying, sometimes they’re not. And so for me, it wasn’t enough for me to leave off of one or two or three rentals. And then, you know, waiting for the income coming in for buyers or sellers, that wasn’t enough for me to leave and that’s why I stayed for 10 years.

[00:11:51] Sia Senior: I mean, he tried to convince me before that because like I said, he left after two years, right and it wasn’t enough for me because, you know, we started having kids and. I need health insurance and I need it to be good, consistent. You know what I mean? Like when you have kids and yourself, like, you know, And can you have it with the real estate? Obviously you can, but it’s much more expensive. And I had great health insurance, I had everything great. So for me, it didn’t make any sense, and I was able to do all of it, you know, at that point. And so it just got, you know, without a third kid, it was when I was like, okay, there’s this draw.

[00:12:20] Nicole Pendergrass: So you know what? I feel like you and your husband are like me and my husband like, except I’m your husband and you are my husband ’cause he’s like, yeah we’re both still working. Sounds like your husband is much more like, let’s just jump in and do it. And you’re like the levelheaded one. And that’s definitely the dynamic. My husband’s always pulling me back into reality or into levelheadedness I guess ’cause I always see the opportunity in everything, I’m like, this is going to be great, you know? Jump and do all of it.

[00:12:50] Sia Senior: Yeah, no, that is definitely my husband Paul. Like, he is definitely like that. He had been, you know, researching and learning. Like we read The Millionaire Real Estate Investor book, The Millionaire Next Door Book. So he had done a lot of research and was just, he had a goal, and I believed in him, but I also believed in having health insurance, you know what I mean? And recognizing, you know, we were doing this and building our wealth during the recession. So as you can imagine, as we’re starting to add properties, we see the landscape of, you know, investors. Losing their properties, people losing their home. So it didn’t make sense for me to go into that field where we were both in there completely, right? Like, we needed to have some kind of an anchor basically until we were confident if we had enough foundation that it didn’t matter if we had another recession because we would still be okay. So that’s where that came from.

[00:13:33] Nicole Pendergrass: Okay. So I may, because, you know, I have this whole getting out of my job plan, my free by 40 campaign. And so, the only thing part of that is like, alright, I looked at the health insurance and I looked how much, you know, they were paying, my job was paying is their portion to toward my health insurance. I was like, oh, that’s not bad. And then until I realized, that was biweekly not monthly. And then I was like, Oh, you know, that makes it a little bit harder. And so now I want to transition into a part-time remote job, at least to give me more freedom to do real estate, but mainly so I can keep health insurance and less like, you know, something blows up so extremely, you know, a lot that I don’t need to even worry about that because the health insurance is covered. So I may be plugging you to find out what you’re using for insurance. Actually, you know what, why not just say it on the show now? So what are you using for insurance that’s not…

[00:14:29] Sia Senior: So we’re in Maryland right outside of DC, so we have what’s called the Maryland Health Exchange, which is part of the Affordable Care Act, Obamacare. And so we are able to purchase on the exchange our insurance. And so, again, I agree with you, when I left teaching and we were in that COBRA period and I saw what the teacher, the school system was paying, I was like, I’m not paying that, you know what I mean? Like, it was crazy, but I didn’t need all of the extra coverage that I had there. So that was the other piece. And so the coverage that we have now, we go into the exchange. Every open enrollment, we look and see what’s available. And I have the same health insurance plan. I have Kaiser, so I’ve had them since I was in high school. So it’s the same plan I’ve had. I had a teacher, and I just was able to find them and keep them. And I think it’s probably one of the benefits of where we live too. I don’t know that that necessarily that in people, in other parts of the country, depending on what their state has available, would have that same option. But we were fortunate enough to be in a state that provides this type of option for us, and it’s affordable. You know, every month, every year I go through and look up and see what the options are and try to get the best plan that makes sense for us. And it’s definitely important. We’ve always been able to pay it every year, and there are benefits with the tax credit if you financially, you know, can get some of that, sometimes you get a tax credit, so that helps offset a little bit too.

[00:15:38] Nicole Pendergrass: Oh, that was nice. Thank you. Very helpful ’cause I’m always looking for those options as I’m trying to plan my escape.

[00:15:45] Sia Senior: Yes.

[00:15:46] Nicole Pendergrass: Okay. So 2015, you quit your job finally, right? Yeah. Then y’all, you guys were growing, and then by 2020 you decided you wanted to scale. What made that decision happen? And between 2015 and 2020, how many units did you add to your portfolio, and is that what made you decide that this is going a little bit too slow? Or like what was the impetus for wanting to scale?

[00:16:10] Sia Senior: Well, I think that for my husband, he was ready when I went in 2015 to, like, to scale, but, you know, I kept saying, Okay, let’s keep our plan and let’s get focused and let’s keep pulling it back.

[00:16:21] Nicole Pendergrass: Always pull it back.

[00:16:23] Sia Senior: Yeah. I was like, okay, look, I’m here now, but let’s, you know, so we had enough that we could take care of our expenses in 2015. So the idea was just to kind of build on that in case something crazy happened because the market was still increasing and doing really well. So that’s when we. Started to do a little bit more flips. And we added probably maybe between 2015 and 2020, we probably added like another 10 properties, probably 10, 15, something like that, around about that. And so, you know, we just kept adding the properties, and I think the pivotal point was in 2020 when the pandemic hit, and we were all stuck at home. And so it was, the idea was like, okay, well, you know, if there’s a time to do it, it’d be now because, you know, we’re here, we have all this time available to us. And we had it before ’cause since we’re working, you know, for ourselves, but we had time to not be rushing around. And so, he first found, you know, out about the different options. ‘Cause he’s always been thinking about how do I get the bigger apartment buildings we drive by in DC and stuff like that. And so, he came across a couple of different places, a couple of different groups and presented to me. And at first, I was like, mm-hmm, this is a Ponzi scheme. I’m not doing that. Like, it didn’t make sense to me. I had to do my research ’cause I was like, that doesn’t even sound right, you know? But doing some research, I was like, oh, okay, so group investing. Oh, okay. ‘Cause I was thinking, you know, when you drive by, you’re thinking big institutional companies own these things. You don’t think regular people like us own it. So I was like, mm-hmm, there’s something suspect about that. Let me do some research. I’m the good, you know, investigator on the side, like, I will check everything. And so once I realized, oh, this is legitimate, I was like, okay, yeah, I’m good to go. And I think he was surprised because once I was confident enough, like, okay, we can take this risk, and if we fall by the wayside in some sense. We still have enough with our own personal portfolio that we will survive, you know what I mean? So it was a calculated risk. I’m always about the calculated risk kind of thing. We have something to fall back on.

[00:18:06] Nicole Pendergrass: I’m going to interject there that anytime I’m looking at a new opportunity, I’m calling you now because I’ll be like, all right, can you vet this for me? Make sure that this is all right and legitimate because my emotions will get in the way and I’ll just want to jump in. Financially, what was your money mindset throughout this journey, and what is your plan now? Or has it changed as far as creating any type of generational wealth? And it seems like you weren’t really gunning for financial freedom in the sense of being able to leave your job, like you wanted that as a security, but you still like the idea of at least having that as a cushion, you know, and building that up. But as far as continuing or what’s your next plan for growth? Because you guys have done a very, I think, strategical and kind of intentional, you know, motion through or journey throughout your experience, and it hasn’t been just like jump in and go crazy. You’ve done it like step by step, becoming realtors first and then helping people buy houses and then buying your own houses and finally keeping them, doing a couple of flips. So like, you guys have a lot of experience in a lot of different areas and so now that you’re scaling into commercial, besides the real estate journey, what is the plan for you and your family as far as creating generational wealth or are you trying to do any type of funds? Like, are you, I don’t know, there’s just so many ways that it can go. And so I just want to see like what the conservative plan is ‘cause I know…

[00:19:47] Sia Senior: Right. So I think that like, our plan is one to make sure that our family is set, right, because, for us, it’s like, you know, before you can help other people, you first have be able to help yourself. You can’t pour from an empty cup. We need to put on our life vest and put on our face mask, you know, air mask, like on a plane, before we can help anybody else. And so I think that’s where we are right now. We have funded our trust. We have a family trust where we’ve, you know, made sure that we have a will on there that talks about where everything should go in terms of with the children and things like that in case something happens to us. We’ve got our properties in there, you know, so that that’s all protected and if something happens to us, they know how to handle that.  I think what it was really helpful for me recently was listening to one of your episodes where you had, I can’t remember her name right now, I don’t why it’s escaping me.

[00:20:30] Nicole Pendergrass: Portia. It’s probably Portia.

[00:20:31] Sia Senior: Yes. And you know, there are things that I’m definitely going to go back into our trust and kind of fix because, you know, the goal was to keep it long term. And I didn’t realize, you know, the way we have it set up, it’s still long term, but if our kids decide they want to do something else, you know , it may not last. And my goal is to have, and our goal is to have it last generations as long as we can. And so there’s going to be some alteration in the trust to make sure that it has that lasting effect as long as we can because as long as our family is secure and safe and we’ve been educating our kids, right? That’s the second piece, slowly right now in terms of the financial literacy, so that they know what a job does and how that, you know, brings in income and how other ways that mom and dad have income coming in. And that you can have both and that’s fine. But to, you know, to make sure that you least have this financial passive of income coming in so that you can do the things that you want to do, you know? And so if you decide you want to teach, if you decide you want to be an artist, if you decide you want to, you know, be a lawyer, you can do those things, too, if that is your passion. But you still have this on the side in case you decide, and life changes and you want to do something else. So that foundation, I think, is there.

[00:21:30] Nicole Pendergrass: How old are your kids?

[00:21:31] Nicole Pendergrass: So 11, 9, and 7.

[00:21:34] Nicole Pendergrass: Okay. So then my next question with that is also like, if anything were to happen sooner rather than later, hopefully not, God forbid, right? But they are still young and still minors. Do you have anyone kind of earmarked to oversee the trust and investments until they become of age and are able to, like, legally take over?

[00:21:57] Sia Senior: Right. So we do now and it’s a family member. But like I said, listening to Portia’s thing, since creating the trust, we’ve actually grown. So I’m definitely looking at maybe doing some kind of outside assistance, you know, in terms of like a professional kind of trust fund manager to go alongside our family member, so that, you know, the management operation of it continues so that it lasts long enough. And so I’m looking at that option to go along with, you know, someone who’s obviously to take care of the kids and be able to know them and to know what they need as they grow in case, you know, we happened to not be here. And so that’s the goal. We’re still transferring that piece, but we do have something set up. But you know, the concern is always having, you know, putting the responsibility of something that we do willingly because we enjoy it on somebody else who may not want to be managing properties. They may not want to, you know, deal with it.

[00:22:46] Nicole Pendergrass: Or have the knowledge behind it, too.

[00:22:47] Sia Senior: Right. Absolutely.

[00:22:48] Nicole Pendergrass: Right now I have a family member doing it as well, for me and my husband, but neither of them are into real estate investing or know anything about that. So, we put that as a default. But I think my episode with Edmund Chien, the very first one, the second half of that we talked about, ’cause he did a lot of family offices, and he kind of shares how to create your own mini family office by just having your, like, a wealth manager, having your accountant and having your tax attorney all together and in connection with each other and having these discussions. So you kind of can create your own family office, even if you don’t have family office type wealth yet, you know.

[00:23:27] Sia Senior: That was a great episode.

[00:23:29] Nicole Pendergrass: Oh, thank you. Yeah, there’s so much information in all these. I even need to go back, like go through back through my notes, go back through the show notes, like, and really pick out, because I have my trust sitting on my nightstand, still, that I need to get notarized, you know, and I need to stop, like, actually I need to do that this weekend. That is a good idea.

[00:23:47] Sia Senior: I’m going to follow up with you later and make sure you do that.

[00:23:50] Nicole Pendergrass: Yeah. Tomorrow we’re taking the kids to the movies and looking at a venue for my oldest ‘s fifth birthday party. And so we might as well just take that trust and put it in the car and go stop by a notary someplace.

[00:24:03] Sia Senior: Exactly, Exactly.

[00:24:04] Nicole Pendergrass: That’s what I need to do, I’m telling my husband. Thanks. See, Good thing we had this interview this morning. All right. Oh, gosh. But yeah. So I’m sorry, I cut you off, but, yeah, you can finish if you had anything else about your family’s plan for the future and how, like what do you plan on doing, like with commercial, how large do you see that getting? Are there any, like, once you, ’cause I understand the whole putting your oxygen mask on first. Once you do that, you feel like you’re in a place that is pretty stable. Do you already have those bigger plans and that bigger give back is going to be, or is that still like a thought in development?

[00:24:42] Sia Senior: No, absolutely. So right now, like I’m working on, I do webinars two times a month, Wealth Wednesday webinars that I try to help people, friends in the family, and you know, their friends about educating ’em on the real estate, investing in the benefits of it. And so that’s something I’ll continue to do. It’s been mostly active, you know, for people who wanted to get in, but I’m going to be transitioning to kind of passive information sessions for people who don’t necessarily want to be active investors, right? The other thing that we plan on doing is, yes, we did the joint venture and we’ll be doing more. We’re open to that because. You know, we’d love to increase our portfolio and do it with like-minded people who have the same kind of values that we have. But the goal is also to connect with them and pick out larger units. And so in picking up larger units that will provide our friends, family, and others that, you know, connect with us and along with our values to be able to invest alongside us in the larger units where they can enjoy the benefits, as you know, of passively getting income from real estate that’s stable, you know, consistent, not so crazy like the stock market. Although I do have some in stock market, but it’s a hard asset that I think is great to keep. And so that is our goal now, is to kind of connect with other people. You know, we’re looking right now and always underwriting and just trying to find the right deal because when we purchase deals, we purchase them correctly. That’s our goal. And so that’s why we take as much time as we do, you know, because we want to make sure that this is something that we have longevity in, just like we had with, you know, the single-family space. And so, you know, the 16 year is a nice start. We’re starting to build and the goal is to eventually, you know, do something similar to the funds where it’s kind of crowdfunding, where people who don’t necessarily have 25, 50, a hundred thousand can still invest with us because my goal is like, my purpose is not to just make it so that people of only a certain financial status can enjoy the benefits, right? I think that once you start investing, even if something small, you know, a thousand dollars, and see the benefits of that, I think that help creates a mindset in you and a change in like, Oh, okay, like this is possible and I don’t need to start at 50 or 25, you know? But then we can always inform them and show them how they can, if they have, you know, retirement accounts, pull some of that off and put it into self-directed and be able to do the same thing. But I think sometimes people need an experience. It doesn’t have to be a major one to get them started, you know? And so just like I needed just that first rental to be like, oh, okay, this seems pretty decent. And it wasn’t cash flowing, like hundreds of thousands of dollars. It was cash flowing, probably like $200 or $300. But, you know, and we couldn’t live off of that, but that’s what I needed to get started. And so I think the same is true for people, you know, especially in our community that need to at least have that experience. And for me, the goal is to give exposure. And so you can give exposure at lower amounts and still help them get a lot, you know? So that’s the goal.

[00:27:14] Nicole Pendergrass: Oh, my goodness. Exactly. And that is an idea that has been turning in my head for quite a while, is how to create a fund where, The minimums are not 25,000, you know, and you are just giving that opportunity for people who are interested, but don’t have that because I think that that is a forgotten demographic of people who are basically overlooked because there are extra issues and costs with running a fund like that.

[00:27:41] Sia Senior: Absolutely. Right.

[00:27:42] Nicole Pendergrass: A lot of people don’t want to take that on. But in any case, we definitely need to talk more about what markets are you really looking?

[00:27:51] Sia Senior: So right now we’re definitely looking in our backyard. So we’re in the DC area, so up through toward Philly ’cause that’s a two-and-a-half hour radius and probably parts of Pennsylvania because I went to school, there so I’m familiar with that area down to Richmond, you know, anything that I could drive to in two, three hours. We’re also looking at North and South Carolina ’cause we have connections with people in that area.

[00:28:10] Nicole Pendergrass: I I started looking at the Carolinas.

[00:28:12] Sia Senior: You did. You did. So, yeah, so we’re looking in this space. I think we’re really open to, and I’ve been talking to my husband, open to places that make sense too ’cause so like a lot of parts in the Midwest, they have great cash flow and we’re cash flow investors. But, you know, so that’s another piece where that might be something that we hold for, you know, kind of legacy as opposed to something where it’s hot and real quick where you can, you know, refinance or flip it out, the properties where you’re, you know, doing a syndication and back and forth. So we’re trying to do a mixture of the two, you know, and so that’s our goal and that’s our plan.

[00:28:42] Nicole Pendergrass: Oh, nice. Okay. We definitely are going to talk more because that fund idea is very similar to what I have been thinking about, and I keep debating if there’s something I should be trying to do now or if I should wait until I maybe have a few more units and few more cash flow. So I’m more stable first or, you know, like I keep, ugh, going back and forth in my brain about when I should actually implement that. But we should have the conversation because then you can make me be more conservative, more realistic. Not putting all the things on my plate at the same time, because that’s my problem. But yeah. So this is, oh, my goodness, this is such a great conversation. I love what you’ve done. I love what you’re doing. I love what your plans are for the future. Everything is so calculated and just like, it is safe. It’s much safer than just depending on someone else for your financial well-being until you retire, right? And so you did a route where you can build up as you were still working, you still had that extra security blanket, but then you were able to step away when it made sense. And that’s not even everybody’s journeys, people can still build and stay at their job if they love it and they never want to step away, or they can invest passively, like you were saying, if they don’t even have the time to get involved actively. There’s no cookie-cutter way to build wealth and create your journey, right? Because it’s your journey. You have to decide what is good for you.

[00:31:13] Nicole Pendergrass: So that’s great. So what we’re going to do now is the last few questions that I ask every guest, I know you know what they are. So Warren Buffett said that diversification is protection against ignorance. What do you take that to mean and what does that mean for you?

[00:31:32] Sia Senior: Well, I think, you know, I haven’t studied Warren Buffett that much, but for me, I think it means, based on what I see, seen him do, I think the idea is that like, if you’re not sure about something, then you kind of need to spread your eggs all over the place, right? And so for me, I don’t mind that because if I’m not as educated in something, then why would I put all of my eggs in one basket And so, you know, I think there’s some validity and there’s some safety in, you know, as opposed to me going all in in this one space, especially if I’m not aware of it. So let me put a little bit here, Let me put a little bit there and see how that goes. So for us, you know, we still invest in the stock market. We’ve got rentals and we don’t have rentals, you know, instead of just picking up one rental, right, like picking one asset and going in. Now we have rentals all over this place in different spots and multiple rentals so that if one happens to go out of commission, we still have other ones that can take care of us, you know, and so I think there’s some smartness in that actually, if you don’t know what you’re doing to kind of spread your wealth, not everyone has time to go deep into everything, you know, and so it’s a great way to be safe and conservative, you know. And if you’re not well and knowledgeable about it, at least, you know, you’ve opened your options to all of those, and so something has to hit, right, so that’s that’s how I look at it.

[00:32:37] Nicole Pendergrass: Okay. I love that. And then, in Monopoly, have you played Monopoly before?

[00:32:43] Sia Senior: Yes, I have.

[00:32:44] Nicole Pendergrass: Okay. Boardwalk or Baltic Avenue. What’s your strategy for winning the game or what are you buying first and why?

[00:32:51] Sia Senior: Yeah, so I’ve heard other people’s comments and I’m going to go with, I think you know this, I’m going to go with Baltic because for me it’s just, you know, I know that if something happens, I have that safe one, right? Like, me buying Baltic gives me money to buy other things. And so rather than putting it all into and waiting for Boardwalk, and what if I don’t land on Boardwalk, right? Like, I’m waiting forever to get there. But if I get something that’s nice and small and easy to get to and I can have that, I can have Baltic and still have money left over to purchase other things. So for me, I’m going with Baltic.

[00:33:22] Nicole Pendergrass: Amen to that. I love that. Just start with something. Don’t wait for the big shiny objects. You don’t know when that’s coming, right? So okay, there’s another question that I am adding now, if you had to pick one thing that you would need in your business to catapult you to the next level, cause you never know who’s listening, then maybe somebody has a resource for you, what would that be? What’s the next level for for you and what you need to get there?

[00:33:52] Sia Senior: So I think for me, What I’m looking for is connections with people who are where I’m trying to get. I think that’s the biggest thing, right? Cause I think that when you get in the space where, you know, they always say like, if you walk into a room and you’re the smartest person, then you know you’re in the wrong room. I absolutely agree with that because I feel like we’ve been able to elevate where we are because we were leaving the single-family space and we got into a space where there are people who were. Wanting to build and wanting to do commercial. And so how could we really do commercial unless we were in a space with people thinking that way. And so that’s how we were able to connect with people who want to do the 16 unit, which was much bigger than what we normally do in terms of of a single purchase. I think that, you know, the goal of doing the trust, right, and helping to build wealth, I think I would need to be in spaces with people who have that kind of mindset and who have resources that are available. You know, whether it be connecting with people who financially or just in that space where people mentally have a different kind of thinking than I do about how to approach this because it’s a major thing to do, right? We’re trying to help people who have been disadvantaged, you know, who don’t have opportunities, but there’s obviously a way, right? And so the goal is to get with people who can help me figure out how to do that and to help others in a scale that’s much bigger than I’ve ever been able to. You know, so that would be great to get into a space with someone and with people who are much, you know, much more successful than we are ’cause I think that’s the key, success leaves clues.

[00:35:13] Nicole Pendergrass: It really does. That’s a great mindset and answer to that. So if people want to get in touch with you and want to reach out and they’re inspired and they want to be the safe investor, how can they get in contact with you?

[00:35:28] Sia Senior: Oh ,gosh. Yeah. Well, I’m usually on LinkedIn or I try my best to be on LinkedIn, especially if they’re in the channels over there. But I post every once in a while, and so that’s a great way to connect with me. Also, I have a website, arrowheadcap.com, where you can definitely contact me there. I have a little quick guide about five benefits of investing in real estate passively, and so I could definitely send you that. I’ll have a newsletter that’s where you can find about webinars, so you know that’s the place to catch everything, at our website.

[00:35:52] Nicole Pendergrass: Perfect. All right, everyone, reach out to Sia. Pick her brain, get connected. You know, like you heard, she wants to connect with people, right, especially getting in the rooms where people are doing more. So even if you aren’t, I’m sure she is willing to reach out and talk to you and help you in your journey however she can, that’s why she’s here. She wants to share information. So thank you again, Sia, so much for coming. I really appreciate your time and I will see you soon.

[00:36:26] Sia Senior: Thanks. Great times. Thank you, Nicole.

[00:36:28] Nicole Pendergrass: Bye everyone. Thanks for joining today.