Speaker 1: 0:31

I am Anna Bilek and I am the owner of the Bilek Property Group. I'm with EXP Realty. That's my brokerage. I am a real estate agent by trade and a real estate investor. Formerly a government employee but reformed, I decided I didn't want to do that forever and now I jumped into real estate about three years ago.

Speaker 2: 0:48

Nice. So give us a little bit of a backstory about yourself. I think I read that you were in the Navy.

Speaker 1: 0:54

Well, so I was not. I was a Navy. So people are like what does that mean? I was a Navy civilian, so I was not in uniform. I was a government employee that worked for the department of Navy. So I worked at the Washington Navy yard for almost 20 years. I did budgets and finance was mostly what I did, and then I did strategic communications at the end of my career and I was there, like I said, for almost 20 years and then I decided there were a lot of events that led up to this decision, but at some point in 2021, I decided I don't want to do this anymore. I've served my time with done great things for the country and now I need to do something else. My husband was active duty Navy and he retired in 2020. So he's the one that wore the uniform.

Speaker 2: 1:33

Okay, kudos to him and all he did for us. I would like to ask you how you got into your industry, from going to that background now, going into being in the industry that you are right now, and what made you decide to take this path.

Speaker 1: 1:46

Yeah. So it's funny, I think I'd always thought about real estate Like I had a lot of friends. I had neighbors that were fairly successful real estate. Like I had a lot of friends, I had neighbors that were fairly successful real estate agents in my neighborhood and I had seen what they did. I chatted with them about it and initially it was really hard. I had a secure paycheck. I'd been working for the government forever. Like who wants to give up a paycheck every other week, no matter whether you show up or not, and so I had always thought about real estate, but it was very scary to give up that security. And then one day it was. It was early in 2020. My husband invited a coworker of his who I knew from working at the Navy yard and his wife and his wife used to work for the Navy but made a switch into real estate and she told me her story and she was very successful. She's actually an agent here in the Northern Virginia area. What's?

Speaker 2: 2:31

her name.

Speaker 1: 2:32

Lauren Wiley. Okay, I always tell her I was you're like my origin story and she's like oh, thank you. So she told me about her path from becoming a government employee to a real estate agent and I was like and she didn't die, she didn't like fall apart, the world didn't end. So I was like okay, I met someone that did it, I can do it too. So I had that conversation with my husband.

Speaker 2: 3:00

He knew I wasn't happy in my position at the time and he was like let's make a plan, go get your license and we'll go from there. Wow, here I am and here you are, not looking back. Nope, what was the turning point when you realized you didn't want to keep working just for money and instead build wealth through real estate?

Speaker 1: 3:10

So so I knew I didn't want to keep working for money. Well, part of it was the government job. So I went to real estate because you see, like, oh, I can sell houses, I can make all this money. And I think they don't tell you the unsexy parts at first.

Speaker 1: 3:22

The unsexy the unsexy parts Like it's a lot of hard work, and in the back of my mind I always knew like yes, exactly. And so I'm an avid reader and I don't know. I don't remember where I found the book or how I heard about it, but I read a book called the Cashflow Breakfast Club, who's written by a broker out here in Loudoun County. I didn't know him at the time. I stalked him and found him and now he's part of our friend circle, Nice goal, and that book was a parable about an agent who essentially was super successful but broke all the time and it was kind of like somewhat based on his life experiences, and he learned how to use real estate investing to basically not work for money forever. And I was like, oh my gosh, I went from working for money to still working for money and I really love real estate. So how do I pivot into something where I can turn that into wealth and cashflow, so like I don't have to be turning keys at 80. No offense to those that do.

Speaker 2: 4:24

No for sure. And then, like you, also have a podcast, which offers a great resource for people as well. Can you tell me the name of it, when can people find it and what's it about?

Speaker 1: 4:33

Yeah, so we have the agent to investor podcast. I do that with a really good friend of mine. He's an agent in Maryland named Nico Garcia. We met at a brokerage where we were both previously at and he heard me talking about going to investor meetups and he was interested. I introduced him to the community and we became the best of friends, talking all the time about how we were going to buy real estate and the things we were going through, and we're like, you know, maybe we should start recording these conversations. We're doing them every week anyway, and we realized how many real estate agents like.

Speaker 1: 5:05

As an agent, we have access to deals first before many other people on the market, but most agents are afraid to invest in the product that they know best. And we were like, well, wait a minute. What if we just talk about this and show agents that it's possible? It's really not that scary. There's so many resources out there that they can tap into and not just call themselves investor-friendly agents, which a lot do but they know absolutely nothing about investing. It's kind of scary, it is. Well, they've worked with investors who basically have said this is what I want. Here's the house. Put the offer in, we're done. But if you ask them, well, what's their buy box, like, what's the cap rate on the property, what's the cash on cash? Like they have no idea what you're talking about because they've just sorry have essentially been paper pushers for some of these more seasoned investors that they just need someone to write the contract.

Speaker 2: 5:53

Whoa, yeah, my mind is blown now. It's kind of scary because they're helping people out there and they don't really know what's going on, and people like this is their money. That's kind of a scary power to have.

Speaker 1: 6:04

It is Well and so they're really good at buying and selling houses for most residential people like people buying a home to live in. And that's where, with the agent to investor podcast, to teach agents one to build wealth for themselves, but just become better agents, because you get all this knowledge and these tools that you can help not just real estate investors but you can help the everyday home buyer think more about building their wealth in the future. Kind of like a financial advisor does or like a stockbroker does. You're walking them through how is this home an investment for the future? Do you want to live in it forever? What are the rental rates in the area? Do you think you'll have to move? Will it rent? Will you keep it Like? Those are a lot of conversations most agents don't have because they don't think like investors. They're just like I sold them a house onto the next, yes, whereas they can not capitalize off of it, but become.

Speaker 2: 6:53

Grow your wealth. Yes, and a lot of people don't know that they think they're just buying a home. But there's a lot of potential in buying that home, like you could either rent it out or rent downstairs out. Find a way to have income coming in which a lot of people don't think about. They're just like oh, I just bought my house but I don't know how else to make money. I don't know how.

Speaker 2: 7:10

I'm going to pay my mortgage. So the fact that you offer this resource there and have all kinds of people from all walks of life come in with expertise who know all about that is incredible, and this is available on YouTube.

Speaker 1: 7:22

Oh, yes, it's on YouTube. You did ask me that question. It's on YouTube, spotify, apple Podcasts, and then we do have an Instagram account where we post clips of episodes as they come out. They come out every friday. We try to get them out like 5 am roughly, but they usually come out friday mornings 5 am. What made you choose that time? Uh, because we know lots of people are headed into work. I mean, as a former government employee that has to drive into dc, like I know, lots of people are sitting in their cars early in the morning, at least here on the east coast, driving into work. So let's give them something to listen to that's's beautiful, so smart.

Speaker 2: 7:53

And yes, all the go-getters get up at 5 am. To be honest, it's because they want to avoid traffic. That part there. She said it, not me. And then let's see what were your first steps as a real estate investor and what do you wish you had known when you started. Oh, there's so much.

Speaker 1: 8:08

Tell me. Well, so the first steps, honestly, was finding a community. Like I read the book the Cashflow Breakfast Club, like I said earlier, I looked at the bio. I was like, oh my gosh, this guy is here and he had a meetup in Loudoun County and I will acknowledge it was a little far from me and it was at night so I didn't make it out. But then he started a meetup in Fairfax, which is closer to where I am. So I told my husband. I said, okay, I signed us up for this investor meetup. I don't know what it's about, I don't know what's going to happen.

Speaker 1: 8:34

The book was really good and he's like all right, let's go, we'll sit by the door and as soon as they start trying to sell us something we're going to ditch, we're just going to walk out, because that's what we felt like most of the time. You go to a lot of these seminars and they give you just enough to get you. Curious child will tell you all our secrets and this was a community it started. His name is Omni Casey. He is like a really good friend and mentor. Now His wife and him basically created this book and his vision is like and I say this. He made his money with real estate and his vision is to help 100,000 people it might be bigger than that now basically generate wealth through real estate. So he does these meetups for free.

Speaker 1: 9:17

He has an educational curriculum that talks like, walks you through it's like a 12 step program, so each month is a different topic and it builds on itself and it just explains how to get into real estate from the very beginning of like figuring out your finances and maybe doing what's called house hacking, where you rent out part of your house to help pay some of your mortgage and then you take that money that you're saving and that's what you put in a hidden savings account and roll into a down payment for another property. So step one was basically surrounding ourselves with people that know better than what know more than we did because we knew nothing. You know, we bought an investment property during COVID, like lots of people did in North Carolina, but like we weren't treating it like an investment. It really was a second home and we just thought we knew what investing was, but we didn't. So we surrounded ourselves with people. So step one, honestly, was surrounding ourselves with a community that just thought bigger and knew more than what we did.

Speaker 2: 10:08

Absolutely. Can I ask how you weren't treating it like an investment program? Maybe someone's going to hear something like wait a minute, that's what I'm doing, that's cool, yeah.

Speaker 1: 10:16

So we, we bought it was it's a beach house. We bought it and we're like, hey, this is great. Low interest rate, mortgage payments are great, we can rent it out when we're not there. And we just weren't consistently renting it out. I was like, oh, but the beautiful art we put on the wall and people are moving my stuff and like we're just going to rent it to friends and family because I don't want randos in the house. But we kept saying it was an investment property and that's what I meant, like we were not capitalizing on how much income we could actually generate off of this property, because I was truly treating it like a second home.

Speaker 2: 10:51

Okay, yeah, as opposed to like you know.

Speaker 1: 10:54

You disconnect yourself with investment properties and you see it as an investment versus as a like. Well, that's my house, I don't want people touching my stuff.

Speaker 2: 11:02

And that's kind of like you kind of have to like be okay with that. You do the purpose of that right Exactly. Make that their home Exactly? Yes, good to know. Kind of Thank you. And now you're passionate about teaching others how to build wealth. What drives that mission for you?

Speaker 1: 11:20

So I think it's because when I was with the government I was like there has to be something else, like more, like I felt like I don't. I've always through most of my life I've never been that. I never grew up that kid. That was like I know I want to be a doctor. I know I want to be an astronaut, I know I want to be a princess, whatever.

Speaker 1: 11:37

I was always like what do I want to do with my life? Even until like my forties, I was like, okay, what do I want to do? And I was working for the government that I fell into the job. That was the easy button answer and I was like there has to be more. And then when I fell into real estate, I was like, okay, it's close, but not quite there. And then when I fell into real estate investing, I realized how many like this is an avenue that so many of the people I know can utilize to like not get stuck. Like a lot of people get stuck in a job because they have to be there, they need the insurance, they need the money they have created no like retirement plan for themselves or it's not one that's going to actually sustain them, and I don't want that for people.

Speaker 1: 12:18

I didn't want it for me and I want to teach people that they don't have to fit in this stereotypical box of working a nine to five until they're 65 or 70. And someone gives them a plaque and they're like good luck, hopefully, you know, you have a couple good years left, and so that's why I'm passionate about it, because it's really not as hard as people think. It's scary. Everything unknown is scary, but it's possible to everyone and it's just an avenue to help people escape Like. I guess what society has told us is these are the steps you should go through in life. And then you know you go to school, you get married, you have kids, you have a picket fence, you retire Exactly, and this is not that one way.

Speaker 1: 12:50

There's different paths that you can take Exactly, and this is not that one way. There's different paths that you can take.

Speaker 2: 12:56

I want to ask you something that's a little bit maybe kind of I don't know. To me it's kind of crazy, maybe because I relate to it. But what if somebody has thoughts on becoming somebody who owns a property where they can invest in it, but they're not good with their finances and they're trying to? What advice would you want to get when they're like kind of playing with that idea or interested in it? What would you tell them in order to get their maybe finances right or in a good situation? Cause I'm sure a lot of people come to you and they're like, hey, I've got this issue. What are the steps I need to take? What are those steps?

Speaker 1: 13:31

look like. So for like the very beginning phase and sometimes it's difficult, like I was at a phase in my life where I had kids and I didn't want people living in my house. But if you're at a phase where, like you can buy yourself a property, look for one where you might be able to rent a room. Talk to a lender, first of all, because you can buy a property with a residential loan. And sorry the music you can buy a property with a residential loan and get a really good interest rate on it because you're going to be living in the property. And then, if you're able to do that, then you can go ahead and basically rent out parts of the house and have someone else pay that mortgage for you.

Speaker 1: 14:10

And then one thing I learned from Omni and from his book was and then you set up an account that you don't have an ATM card for, you don't have a checking account book, a checkbook for it's kind of this hidden account. You set up auto deposit and if you are getting paid a certain amount and you know you're saving a thousand dollars a month in mortgage because someone else is paying part of it, you have that automatically transferred into that account. You don't see it, you don't touch it, and then you leave it and you let it sit there until it builds up to basically be enough where you can then be like okay, I can use that as a down payment for my next property and then you can move on from there. So that's, like I'll say, a super beginner step is just start hiding money from yourself.

Speaker 1: 14:48

Yeah that's hard.

Speaker 2: 14:49

It is no, but you got to do it. If you want to do it, you've got to be able to hide those little, not little, those big investments into that other account. Don't look at it, don't touch it Don't even get the online.

Speaker 1: 15:00

Yeah, don't get a card, don't get a debit card or an ATM card. Don't like look at it, don't get like the auto notices, just let it sit there. I'll say another motivating factor that is part of what we learned from our community was write yourself or write a check to for like ten thousand dollars or some dollar amount that will hurt to an organization that you really would never pay anything to. And then put an envelope, address it, put a stamp on it and hand it to someone to hold you accountable and say if I don't accomplish X in three years, drop this in the mail and see what happens. And so I mean some people don't take it all the way to the extreme and actually handing it to someone. We wrote the check and we like put it on the board, and so it's sitting there staring us in the face every day. A motivator.

Speaker 2: 15:46

Exactly yes, absolutely not.

Speaker 1: 15:49

Exactly, you write it to someone or something that you are like it's like a gut punch when you think of like oh my gosh, I'm giving them money Exactly To that, and it's like OK, then it makes you kind of think twice about like OK, do I really want to go out to that extra dinner? Do I really need that Starbucks? Do I really need to, you know, buy those new shoes or that new purse? It's like, oh, that check is staring me in the face or I know it's out there.

Speaker 2: 16:11

So it's like I don't know about that. You better think twice Right? I love it. And what do you like to do on your free time when you're not helping other people with their investments? We are not making doing your podcast, yeah. What do you like to do to?

Speaker 1: 16:24

unwind. There's so many things. So if I'm sitting at home by myself, it's reading. I love to read. I'm an I've always been an avid reader. I used to, as a kid, read like the RL Stine books, like Fear Street, Like before Goosebumps it was like Fear Street. So I still read. I do a lot of like personal development type books. So that's that. I love to travel. I guess it's probably the other thing. My husband and I, like I've lived in pretty much. I've lived in Alexandria since 1985, which blows my husband's mind because he's retired Navy so he traveled everywhere. He met me here and I've lived like in the same one block radius since I was five and I'm 45 now.

Speaker 2: 17:05

You don't look 45. Oh well, thank you. You look like you'd be like 32. Good genetics.

Speaker 1: 17:10

So no, I live one block away from the house I grew up in. My mom lives in the house next to me. My sister lives in Springfield, which is 20 minutes away. So I was like, OK, my kids once my kids our youngest one is 16. And once she is done in two years, we're like home is going to be wherever we are and it's probably not going to be here. So in the interim we like to travel and just kind of figure out where do we want to land. Interim we like to travel and just kind of figure out where do we want to land and so we're just exploring different countries, different places and be like, okay, what's next after the kids are? Like off to college and our legal obligation to keep them alive until their 18 is complete we did it.

Speaker 2: 17:45

We did it. They're alive. What are some destinations maybe you've been thinking about or considering?

Speaker 1: 17:50

um, so we have already we've been to panama, costa and Spain.

Speaker 1: 17:53

already we want to go to Portugal because Portugal is nice I know and a lot of like expats, of like I've heard a lot of like about the real estate market because I'll say, the other pastime that my husband and I truly are passionate about, honestly, is real estate. Like that is something we've come I know because it's not just a job Like I will, we will go like on vacation and we'll set up appointments with like agents to go check out properties to understand what the markets are there, and it's just, it's just interesting to us, it's fascinating. It's like do we want to invest here, do we not? And then we just make great connections by doing that too. So our network expands every time we go anywhere. But I think Portugal is the big one. We want to go back to Spain, because Spain I mean all these countries are huge, so we've only visited sections of them. So we want to go back to Spain and explore some more yeah.

Speaker 1: 18:37

Yeah, and then I mean I always have other things, like Greece is another one, Italy, and then at some point we're like, okay, maybe when the kids are gone, if before we go, totally international, maybe we'll get an RV and just travel across the United States because there's so much.

Speaker 2: 18:54

Yes, travel across the United States because there's so much. Yes, national parks, exactly, beautiful, beautiful places, oh my goodness. And being in the open road, like I always see that in the movies, people are like on open roads. That would be so cool. I think you should do that too.

Speaker 1: 19:01

Yeah, that's what we were thinking and I mean so. It's so. We're so into real estate investing. Then we're like, okay, the RV we get has to have storage for tools. Because if we find a town we like, if we can pick up a property that we can do some light rehab on, either keep it as a rental or flip it. Like if we have no timeline for when we have to be somewhere, maybe we'll stay in a place that we really like for a little bit work on a property and then move on to the next. Like that's where our brain is at. It's like, okay, what can we do? That's real estate related. I love that.

Speaker 2: 19:28

And you mentioned you like traveling and you mentioned Portugal and like investing investing in properties, possibly there. What is the investing industry like overseas?

Speaker 1: 19:40

So overseas it is so overseas they don't have like MLSs like we do here. Like it's more really like word of mouth, like you have to know people. Like as far as pricing goes, we chatted with some people and they're like it's like, how do you much, how much do you want to pay for this? Like in your bones, like what do you feel is the right like price for this? Um, so it's a it's a little bit of a different animal, but a lot of countries you have to know which country you're going to.

Speaker 1: 20:06

Some allow non-citizens to buy land. They just ask like in our case, since my husband's retired military, he has a pension, so they do. A lot of countries will let you do buy there, but you have to provide some kind of proof that you're not like some, like nobody that has no money, that the house is going to fall apart, like you have some kind of income that's coming in. And so Portugal specifically, I've had a conversation with an agent out there a couple months ago. I don't know how much of this has changed, but they do do lending. They have lending in Portugal specifically that they'll give to non-citizens. But the difference is is like part of what they qualify you on is your age Like. Basically, they don't lend to anyone past 75. And depending on how old you are like, you may qualify for a 25 or 30 year mortgage product, which they do have, but they subtract your age from 75 to determine the length. So if you're 50, you're getting max a 25 year loan.

Speaker 2: 21:02

What.

Speaker 1: 21:03

Well, I think part of it is like they want to make sure you're around to actually like pay the bill Okay.

Speaker 2: 21:07

And they don't do credit scores overseas right, or is that a thing? I thought I heard that that's not.

Speaker 1: 21:12

I, if I recall correctly I'm sorry if I'm butchering this to the guy that told me this, um, it wasn't necessarily credit score. They look at like they'll look at pensions, they'll look at bank accounts, they'll look at income that you have coming in and like just they'll look at your whole, like wealth portfolio and just ensure that you have the ability to pay on the property. Okay, which I think is part of the reason for the age too, because they figure it's the age thing. It's like okay, at 75, it's. And I was like, yeah, I know. And I was like, okay, I gotta. And this is why you gotta start sooner rather than later.

Speaker 2: 21:43

Oh my gosh, so true, especially overseas. Yes, oh my yes, I never thought of that. Now I've got people thinking me, thinking Is there anything I have not touched on that? Perhaps you would like to get out there or share about yourself, your podcast, your industry, your clients, your business. You have the floor, no pressure.

Speaker 1: 22:00

Oh my gosh, I feel like this is the hardest question because it's like where do I start? I'm the person that hates to talk about themselves. So, yeah, like I said, the podcast is Agent, the number two investor that's got that drops every Friday and that's on like YouTube, spotify, apple podcasts if you are an investor or have any history in that. Like, we're always looking for guests to come on and talk about their experiences, because people do it 1000 different ways, and so we like to have people that talk about house hacking, buying like trailer parks, buying, you know, laundromats, whatever, because there's so many different ways to build wealth. Yes, that's the safe way. We'll go with the safe way to say it. And then, as far as from the real estate perspective, I am a licensed real estate agent in Northern Virginia.

Speaker 1: 22:46

I have lived and grown up in the city of Alexandria since literally 1985. I live in what's? It's a neighborhood, delray, which now people are like, oh, you live in delray, how fancy. And I'm right I was. Like I've lived here since the kids were scared to come over here because it wasn't all that nice.

Speaker 1: 23:02

Yeah, and, and so my market, my people that I love to help, are the government and military employees because those are the people that I know best from my years as a government employee working with the military and with government civilians who are looking to either buy or sell a home in Alexandria and, like the outskirts of Alexandria in Northern Virginia, and want to have that investor perspective.

Speaker 1: 23:25

Like maybe they're looking to sell because they're retiring and you know, if they live in Alexandria long enough, they've probably made quite a bit of equity and maybe they want to figure out like well, how do I use that equity to buy my next home and maybe I can use it to buy some investment properties too. Or you know, first time home buyers they're like I want to buy a home, but I know this isn't my forever home. How do I use this as a stepping stone to get to that next level with the house, with my wealth building or with the future home? And so that is what I'm here to do is to provide that perspective to buyers and sellers in Northern Virginia and Alexandria specifically of how they can use this biggest asset that they have to just keep generating wealth from it.

Speaker 2: 24:04

I love it. When did you first get an interest in this? I know you have a background and you were a civilian. What is it? Navy, navy, civilian, yeah. What made you want to say like, okay, not only are you investing it, but what made you want to share that wealth?

Speaker 1: 24:22

So I I Omni loves cause. I talk about him all the time. So when you, I'll say if you are in Northern Virginia and you're interested in learning about real estate investing, look up the cashflow Breakfast Club, because there's chapters all over, like Northern Virginia, maryland, like the DMV, and we have one in Arlington that my husband and I co-host, and so Omni has a list of questions that he provides at each of the meetings and it's kind of like icebreakers to have, because it's in networking and education. And the first question that he always asks is once you become financially independent, how are you going to change the world? And that is the first question.

Speaker 1: 25:00

And he says it doesn't have to be like the entire world, it could be as your, it could be, it could be your neighbor, it could be within your own family, like that could be the world that you're changing. But how are you going to change the world? And it's that like reciprocity, that like wow, how can I change the world? Well, that like reciprocity, that like wow, how can I change the world? Well, I can change the world by showing people there's another way, kind of like what I said earlier, like they don't have to fit into the standard box that I think most of us are taught to fit into, growing up Like there's other ways and you know people see these wealthy individuals that have, like these glamorous lives, and most of them did it through real estate and they did it because they learned how to utilize real estate, how to utilize tax laws, like things that everyday people can do but they feel like they can't or they don't know how yeah so why not share the wealth?

Speaker 1: 25:43

because you know what is it? Uh, rising tides, every ship. No, I have to think of a better quote, because I can't remember the one about yeah, take your time. No, it's the one. You know. The rising tides raise all ships, or something like that. This is a Navy cliche. Everyone's going to correct me because I said it wrong, we won't hold you to it.

Speaker 2: 26:00

I'm sure they'll know I'm not familiar with it, so I'm like that's a great quote. I love it. You nailed it.

Speaker 1: 26:04

Yeah, sure, just the thought that, like what you give, you get in return. I am a firm believer in karma, and if I give without expecting anything back, I know the universe will take care of me.

Speaker 2: 26:19

So thank you so much for being on the podcast and for sharing your journey, sharing your insight, telling us a little bit about your podcast where people can learn and use that as a resource. I really appreciate your time and you being here today. Yeah, thank you for having me, absolutely anytime, yeah.