Getting into the real estate industry and becoming a nationally recognized “housing market expert” was never part of my plan. I never imagined that I’d end up being a regular featured guest on major news networks like CNBC, Market Watch, NPR and CNN. Who would have thought that I would be come so good at what I do in just a few years that news powerhouses would think I was an expert?

How My Real Estate Journey Began

My real estate journey began as a way to fight for the survival of my family–in more ways than one.

Years ago, my husband Rich noticed a freckle on his leg and was later diagnosed with melanoma. Given that melanoma is a fast-spreading and potentially very deadly form of skin cancer, it must be treated early for the best chance of recovery. After getting the scan results back, the doctor suspected that the cancer had spread to Rich’s liver.

At the time, it was basically a death sentence. In fact, the doctor told him he probably had 6 months to live.

What a shock to be told my fit, adventurous, thrill-seeking husband could have just months to live! We were not prepared emotionally to handle this news, especially with two young daughters at the time. With Rich being the sole breadwinner for our family and me a stay at home mom, we weren’t prepared financially either. 

I knew I had to come up with a way to make money and replace his salary so that he could focus on his healing. I had been out of the professional world for so long that my connections and experience were no longer relevant and I had no idea how to find a job that would cover our massive expenses.

Deciding I Needed To Create Real Wealth

I decided I didn’t just want to provide enough for my family to just get by. I wanted to become truly wealthy so that we would never have to worry about money again. But how?

I’m a believer in leveraging what you already know how to do and are especially good at. My career had been in news broadcasting and I was still hosting a weekend radio show in San Francisco as a fun, side gig. The basis of the show was to help people achieve more, learn more and earn more. 

I decided to use this platform for more selfish reasons, and find out how other people had become wealthy. I did this by interviewing self-made millionaires so that I could learn what they were doing and basically copy it. 

I interviewed lots of people who built their wealth through a variety of ways. But what piqued my interest most was when I learned about income-producing assets – something you buy once, but that pays you back month after month, forever.

Thankfully, Rich’s diagnosis was incorrect as the growths on his liver turned out to be non-cancerous. After removing all the skin cancer, he was 100% cancer-free! Hallelujah! 

But during that incredibly fearful time of not knowing if he’d survive, we learned things we may not have ever discovered.

Within a few years, we owned over $5 million of real estate through the power of leverage. Today, we’ve raised over $140 million for real estate projects nationwide and have helped thousands of other people build multi-million dollar real estate portfolios as well. 

Rich and I started RealWealth as an educational platform really for ourselves, because we were desperate to learn the secrets of the wealthy. We wanted to create a safe place where people could learn for free, with no pressure to buy anything at all. It has now grown to over 53,000 members worldwide! We’ve also created a referral network of highly experienced property teams who help our members find quality rental properties in high cash flow markets nationwide.  

Why Real Estate?

More and more people are investing in real estate as a vehicle to save for retirement. We are excited to help them understand the various housing markets and trends that are so important when it comes to real estate investing.

I’ve been helping new and experienced investors purchase cash flowing real estate nationwide for almost two decades now. In fact, I was one of the few who predicted the Great Recession and encouraged thousands of people to sell their high-priced, low cash flow properties in the expensive “bubble” markets and exchange them for high cash flow properties in affordable, emerging markets.