Flipping Homes In Real Estate Investing with Leka Devatha

I know exactly what to say how to negotiate because I want the highest and best for the seller. And I've been in their shoes way too often.”

Leka Devatha obtained her broker's license in 2017 and became one of the Top Producing real estate agents in her office. She also serves as an advisor on the board of certain lending, a FinTech company based in San Francisco, San Francisco, she enjoys inspiring and motivating other entrepreneurs to build successful businesses.

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Brett: 

I'm excited about our next guest. She moved from the US to US from India 13 years ago. She quit her corporate job at Nordstrom in 2014 and started re habitat homes. We have it homes, rehabbing homes apologize, a company focused on residential development redevelopment. After a string of successful flips. She obtained her broker's license in 2017 and became one of the Top Producing real estate agents in her office. She has now flipped over 40 homes and has expanded her focus to include land development additions, acquiring long-term rentals both in state and out of state. Her strength is in finding creative exit strategies on every deal. She also serves as an advisor on the board of certain lending, a FinTech company based in San Francisco, San Francisco, she enjoys inspiring and motivating other entrepreneurs to build successful businesses. And for this reason, host a monthly meetup real estate at work to bring new and seasoned investors together. Please welcome Leka to the show. Hey, Leka please pronounce your last name because I'm not gonna miss that one up again.

Leka:

It's like Leka. Thank you for having me, Brett.

Brett:

Excellent. Welcome to the show such a pleasure. Would you give our listeners a little bit of your background in your current focus?

Leka:

Yes. So I moved back, you said I moved here from India back in 2006. And I had a pretty successful career in fashion merchandising at Nordstrom, corporate. And then in 2014, you know, I've always been an entrepreneur my entire life, and just working for someone else was not satisfying at all, in the least bit. And so I said, Okay, let's take on this big bad world of, you know, finding a new career path. And doing something that really excites me, motivates me inspires me. And that's kind of how real estate fell in my lap. And then as I started researching it, I really want to do new construction. But then I wanted to keep it simple when I first started. And that's how the whole fix and flip strategy, was discovered. And I started flipping homes in 2014. And since then, I've flipped over 40 homes. I've done land subdivisions, additions. And I'm on the board of a lending company. I did get my broker's license sold over 10 to 14 million in real estate transactions in three years. And I host a Meetup group, which is where I met you, Brett.

Brett:

Awesome. Exactly. Thanks for that overview. And before we dive into some of the strategies in the way you do the fix and flips and, and work with private lenders and such, I want to back up I want to go back to maybe the days before you moved to the US. And I believe we've all been given certain God-given gifts and these gifts are used to be able to be used to be able to bless other people. So I'm curious, what was the gift that you believe you were given? And how does that help how you help people today?

Leka:

Ooh, deep question. Okay, so I think from very early on like I was 10 or 12, I came up with my first business idea. And so I and I had, I started my first company, actually, when I was 18 years old. And since then, I've just been hustling. And I feel like one of my biggest strengths is, you know, my ability to network and find the right people for the job that I want to get done. And that really honestly has helped me too. My career in real estate investing and even today, when I host a meetup group, you know, I'm happy to help people kind of recognize their own strengths to be able to put forward the best foot and you know, achieve their own, like financial goals or whatever that may be. I do a lot of zoom calls with people these days. And it's really exciting to see, you know, what, what plans people have and how I can help them achieve it.

Brett:

Excellent. So yeah, networking, connecting and then helping to inspire, identify strengths for people, so they can take the next level up and whatever, whatever endeavor they're going into. Fair summary?

Leka:

Fair summary.

Brett:

Excellent. Awesome. I love that. That's an amazing gift. And I can tell you're using that so well, because exactly, right? I don't go to many meetups, but for whatever reason, I was like, I want to be on this meetup. You know what I mean, and the people you had, and it was fantastic. And so I highly recommend those meetups. Now let's dive in a little bit about strategy now. And what you're seeing, we're in, we're in the middle of you. So maybe the later innings of COVID, in some ways, the stock market has recovered the economy remains to be seen what's going to happen here with real estate values, election coming up. But all that being said, walk us through what you're seeing on the ground, especially, I think you're doing a lot of your deals in the Seattle market. What are you seeing for fix and flips and opportunities and walk us through a kind of like an average deal right now?

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