Ashley Wilson is the Co-Founder of Bar Down Investments, LLC & HouseItLook, LLC. She has over ten years of real estate experience and has been involved in over $40 million in transactions within both single and multifamily real estate. Ashley Co-Founded Bar Down Investments, LLC with her husband, Kyle. Ashley leads asset and construction management on her multifamily investments, and has provided operational consulting for several other large multifamily owners throughout the country. Additionally, Ashley & her father, Tom, also have a very successful high-end flipping business in Pennsylvania, HouseItLook LLC, which handles several million in transactions annually. When Ashley is not working on her businesses, she enjoys spending time with her family, including her husband and their two daughters. Additionally, Ashley enjoys competing with her horse. Wow!
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Transcription:
The way that I've been able to achieve what I've achieved today and the way that I believe I'll continue achieving success is through my network. I strongly believe that the reason that I've been able to achieve success is not only my inner circle, my family and friends, but colleagues and other people that I look up to and people who are doubters, really, every single person has an influence on me. I try to look to see how I can provide value. And also I really try to figure out what lessons they're learning and use them in my day to day life and implement them within my business. So I think without really being in tune to all the people around me, I would not be where I am today. I also thrive off of my colleagues successes, and it's not in a competitive way. It's more in a comradery way. So I really enjoy seeing my friends, colleagues, business associates have success. and that really inspires me. And it tells me things are possible. It reminds me that, you know, if you're having a bad day, that you can have a good day, you know, immediately following that horrible day. So I just continue to stay positive, surround myself with incredible, brilliant people. And I just work my butt off so I can keep up with them. I love everything. You've just said you are my new best friend, Ashley. Cause your mindset is everything. I mean, I'm going to go back to everything that you just didn't like just the last minute, just thriving about on other people's success and not doing it in a competitive way. I, I start, one of my tenants I live off of in my head is there's no competition, only collaboration domination together. We can dominate. If we compete, the nobody wins. I mean, there might be a winner, but in the end that winner loses because if they're competing and competing in a nasty way, it doesn't raise all the ships. So I love the fact that you thrive off of success, but I really want to dig deep in what you said about thriving off the energy in your network and some of the lessons that you've learned, what are some of like the deep down lessons that have allowed you to kind of, I mean, you have this amazing business says going down and you have your family. So what is one large lesson that you can share with my listeners? I think not being afraid, whether it's a question that you want to ask or taking a risk on something. I think that is really put me in a position to take chances and invest in myself, believe in myself, believe in my capacity, believe in my capability. Um, and believe in my character, those are three things that I look for in a partner, but I should also be confident that I possess those things as well. And in terms of doing that across both my business and personal life prior to getting into real estate, I felt like I had two personas. I felt like I had a work persona. And then I felt like I had a personal persona. And I really didn't like when those two personas crossed over. So I wouldn't friend my work colleagues cause I worked in corporate big pharma to be specific. I worked in corporate and I wouldn't allow my corporate friends to be my friends on Facebook. I just didn't want the overlap. I wanted a divide between the two and I really think that structured me in the sense that I only thought of business and working hard during nine to five, let's say right, but now in real estate, working within real estate and the life that I live now, I feel like I can be my authentic self. And to me that allows me to grow 24 hours a day, as opposed to previously, I was only growing from a business side between nine to five, Monday through Friday and on a personal side, whether it be as a wife or as a mother outside of those hours. And I don't think now that I've totally changed my mindset and I act differently now, I feel like I am constantly growing and I don't stop my business growth or my personal gross or my growth as a mother or as a wife, just because it's between the certain hours of the day. I mean, I know that sounds really silly and I don't know if other people can relate to this, but for me, that is something that was really eyeopening and really changed my whole life on so many levels. It's not silly at all. I've dealt with the same thing I've dealt with and I still deal with it today. Like my, sometimes I feel like my mom brain can't, if it's taken over, I can't think real estate, I can't think business, but again, I think that's all mindset that's because I've somehow in my brain. I've told myself, okay, if I'm thinking about my children, I can't think about business. And if I'm thinking about business, I can't think of my children. So how do you transcend that bridge? Like you said, you can do it and you can grow on a 24 hour basis, but can you give me and my listeners, how Having, um, the wherewithal on who you are, knowing who you are having? Um, patients, I have been really focusing over the past few months on my patients. And when I say patients, I don't mean my ability to weight in now it's like a hundred foot line at six feet increments to get something I don't, I don't mean something like that. What I mean is if my children, because obviously we're all in a situation where we're working from home and our kids are running around, you know, I'm having fun at home as well. And you're trying to balance all of that. What I mean is that when my kids come in and I am doing something that might cause a little bit of stress or anxiety for work, that when my kids come in and they're like, Oh, can I type on the computer? Can I call her on this notebook that you need? And you won't be able to read a single note after I'm done with it. Instead of just like expressing frustration or anger or anything like that. I take a deep breath. I do what I want them to do. I try to be a role model for them because at the end of the day, like I'm telling them to have patience and understanding and, you know, treat your sister with respect and uh, call 'em stay calm. But if I'm not showing that to them, then the I'm not being a good role model for them. So I wouldn't be a good role model in a sense of, yeah, mommy is a badass, she works and she's doing all these things and you can do it too. And you're not limited by gender. You're not limited by race. You're not limited by all these things that, you know, when I grew up, those were real things, but at the same, same rate, I want to explain to them, Hey, like, this is what mommy is doing right now. So mommy needs these notes because mommy's sending an email and an email is like a letter that goes through the mail. But instead it goes through your computer and try using moments as learning moments, as opposed to seeing it as you know, it's taking you away from something, it doesn't have to be a negative. I think when you express negativity, when you express frustration, you're expressing that they are bothering you. And that's a negative. What you want to do is turn that into a positive, turn that into, okay, what is mommy doing right now? Mommy's writing a check. You guys can't write on checks, but I'll teach you. This is how we pay people. And, you know, just using those moments to really be patient. And it takes a lot of discipline and I don't get it right all the time. And I don't even want to know statistically how often I get it. Right. But the point is, is that I'm trying to be cognizant of it. I'm trying to be an example. And when I get it wrong saying, I'm sorry right away. And showing an example on the other side of showing when you're wrong to your children too. So I just really think that we all are very stressed out right now. We're probably stressed out for a lot of different reasons, whether it's financially, whether it's health-related family related or it's just because you're out of your norm, it's human nature that we go in. These routines and human nature likes routines. Even people who say they don't have a routine, they have a routine of not being in routine. So when you change your routine, there is natural resentment of change. People don't like change. That's why people don't like when Facebook updates their platform or iPhone updates, their operating system, or zoom, zoom just recently updated how to use a system. And everyone's going crazy. So like, you know, these are just all example, little tiny examples, and that frustrates you. So magnify that across your entire day. And it's understandable. It's human nature. It's understandable. It's not excusable. So it's, it's something that we just need to work together and take a moment to breathe and realize truly how lucky we are. There's something in everyone's life right now. That is absolutely incredible. And if you shift your mind to focusing on all the incredible things that are going on in your life and not let something that is going to poison those thoughts, overtake your positivity, that's when you can achieve so much more in life. I don't even know where to start with everything that you just said, Ashley, you just spoke into my heart because I mean, just like just what you just said, poison. I had like my question already to go, but poison over positivity or like you, when you let that poison take over, it takes over the positivity. And I'm sure you see it blatant all over social media all over just your daily basis. And if you focus in on that, you become part of the problem, not part of the solution. And if you, it sounds like you are the type of person that tries her best to approach everything with a positivity and kindness. I mean, what you said about there's something in all of our lives that we can just grab onto and know that we're lucky, we are lucky to live this life. We're lucky for that one thing, no matter what it is, and for the listeners out there, I know we're all going through different things right now, we're in different States, different levels of being open, different, different everything. And if we're all cognizant about that and knowing that we can, there's something there hasn't, there's something in your life that you can grab onto. Like Ashley said, there's something that we can, we can grab onto and just be, and be thankful for lucky. I really I'm looking at all my notes. I'm like, what do I want Ashley to delve into? Let's talk a little bit about, more about your routine and how, how you, how you're on a day to day basis. I know you talked a little bit about this, but because this is moms multifamily, I want to know how you're teaching your daughters about what you do and why mommy is such a badass, like you said. So, um, my daughters are five and three. Um, so they're just at the perfect age to introduce. So I'm into what I'm doing and it's all different levels. So some people would say, Oh, they're too young to understand multifamily. And yes, they are probably too young to understand multifamily, but when we're playing and we're doing imagination. And, um, for example, at Easter, I said to my older daughter, her name is Dylan. I said, Dylan, um, I can either do one of two things. You can either have one chocolate kiss now for dessert, for lunch, or if you invest it with mommy, which means that you let mommy keep it at it. So you can't have one right now at snack time, I can give you a half a chocolate at dinner. I can give you a half a chocolate and tomorrow at lunch, I could give you a half a chocolate and tomorrow dinner, I can give you a half a chocolate. So this one chocolate becomes two chocolates over two days. If you don't have the chocolate right now, what do you want to do? Do you want one chocolate now? Or do you want two chocolates over the next two days and really sell this idea, wanting to chocolates over the next two days? And her response was, I want to chocolates because two chocolates is more than one chocolate. And you know, it's kind of like, okay, you know, that's not exactly how multifamily works. And I understand that. But what I'm trying to instill in my daughter is the principle of investing and the principle of not needing, um, you know, uh, immediate gratification. I think we live in a society where we have Twitter word counts. Instagram only allows a minute posts, tic talk. It's like, whatever. I, I'm not, I can't keep up with all this stuff. Um, once again, change. Right. But, um, so I think the thing is, is because we live in a society of instant gratification. I think it's more important than ever that I instill in my children, the idea of investing and, um, putting away a little bit today, grows exponentially longterm. And that's what I'm trying to instill in them. So it might not be okay, we're going to take Barbie and we're going to put her in this little condo, except I, I say that. And yet one of our shipping boxes that came in on something, we ordered, we built an apartment building together. So out of a shipping box. So, you know, there are a lot of things that you can do to be creative. You don't have to know, go to Pinterest, just use your mind, become a kid again, do exactly what your kids want you to do, which is use your imagination and play with them. That's all that matters to them. It's most important. You know, we're going to look back on this time. We're going to be like, wow, this was really stressful, but we got through it. Our kids are going to look back on this time and say, this was the best time in my life because I got to be with you every single day, mommy and daddy, or mommy, mommy, or daddy and daddy, whatever your parental situation is. So I think it's, it's so important now more than ever to embrace the, the opportunity we have to, to educate our children more, to be more involved with our children. And, um, on the multifamily side of things, you know, there are times where I just really need to get work done. And my husband and I are partners in the multifamily business and without him, Oh my gosh. He is just everything to me. I mean, he literally is my number one cheerleader. He always is backing me. He's always supporting me. And it's not, even to me, it's to our daughters, which is more important. I'm gonna like tear up now. Um, but it's more important to me that he is that role model to my daughters because eventually, you know, they'll end up with someone as supportive as he is. Um, so yeah, so things you didn't even like prompt this. I just like went on it on my own. So I'm like probably going to regret crying first time, like meeting and everything. But anyway, See, that's real though. I mean, you are, our husbands are cut from the same cloth because I have the same thought. My, the way my husband presents himself to me is the way my daughter and my son, my sons, my sons will grow up and be like their daddy. And my husband is such a supportive factor in my life. And my daughter is going to marry someone like her daddy. And that is a supportive factor of my life. And it's okay if we cry all over this planet at us. I'm cool with that. Yeah. So Much of what you said to me, everything you said about, about the partnership between you and your husband. I mean, that's you, my husband's watching the kids right now and that we're in this same is that it's an extremely stressful time. And you need to have whether, you know what, whether or not you are a single mother, whether or not you are two mothers raising two fathers raising it doesn't matter who the mother is. As long as you have that support system. And if you don't have a support system, I implore you find one because you shouldn't have to do this alone. Children should be raised by them, not even should, if you are alone and you're doing it. And I, you know, I'm going to stop talking because I'm going to put my foot in my mouth. You find your support, where you Can. And for me and Ashley, it's our husbands, whoever your support system is just thrive in that celebrated, especially right now in this time. So I'm going to wipe my eyes a little bit, hopefully scars all over my glasses. Okay, take a deep breath. Let's dive into the future. I met you through the amazing invest herd nation. And I love calling it nation. I know, listen and dress. It don't call it that. That's what I call it. That's not her nation. And Liz was like, you have to interview this amazing woman. You are amazing. Ashley, you have to interview this amazing woman, Ashley Wilson. She has this amazing background. So what is next for you, Ashley? What's I know Liz and address. I had this amazing summit coming up. Are you part of that? Yes, I am. Part of that. I'm working with, and as you mentioned, they are both incredible on their own, right? And collectively, this is a perfect example of when you work together and have synergies with someone, literally the world is limitless for you and Liz and undress a have that, that X factor. When they get together, they're both incredible women. They come together and just magic happens. So I am blessed enough that I can be a part of this and can support them in any way, shape or form that they need. If you are interested in coming to our summit, it's on June 12th. I hope that's okay if I mention that for anyone I've mentioned it. Okay. Yeah. So it's on June 12th. We're really excited about it. We have such an incredible lineup of speakers. I can't even begin to tell you, I mean, the speakers are just so impressive and all of them were just like, yes, of course, I want to do this. And you have such an incredible community. I think, I don't even think people realize who were in this community, how well-respected this community has become. I mean, from day one, it has been that way. But I mean, in just in terms of like it's growing like wildfire and I, I'm a huge believer that it will continue to grow at the rate that it's growing, just because it, it leads by example. It is not out to, um, upsell you on things. And, and, um, it really gives more than, I mean, everything right now is free except for the summit. This is the first paid thing that they were doing in, you know, two years. So, uh, to be honest with you, it's long overdue that we give back to them, everything that they've provided for us. I mean, the people that I've met in this organization have just been amazing. So that's one of the things in terms of on the horizon that I'm working with them, um, not only in this, but on some other things that I'm really excited for them to announce once everything's squared away. And then in addition to that, we're continuing to build our multifamily business. We actually just got another under LOI that we're moving forward with in Houston, which I'm really excited about. Yeah. So we have, um, that's 150 units, um, down in Houston. I love Houston. I already have a property down there. I love that market. Um, so really excited about that. And then, um, we're going to continue the flipping business with my dad. We've, we've changed our business. Um, so this is something that might interest your listeners. Um, so sometimes when you look at, um, an asset class in real estate, there is, um, general guidelines of when you should invest in that asset class based off of specific market indicators, uh, single family on the flipping side lens really well to getting in at the downturn right after it hits the bottom and on the rebuild is when you should get into flipping. And right now, as we all know we're going through this recession, uh, who knows how long it'll last. Um, but one of the things that we did preemptively is we started to change our model where we now partner with home buyers who are looking at full renovation houses, but they don't have the wherewithal to do the renovation and they don't even have the contacts. So what we do is we come in and we basically flip the house for them in a sense, so we don't have to have our capital at risk. The holding time, doesn't no longer matters to us because, you know, normally in flipping the holding time matters because you're, you want to put it on an opportune time, back on the market to sell, and, or you don't want the market to take a downturn when you put it back on. So you're always in a rush, but partnering with home buyers, it's like a perfect blend between the two. So we've started to integrate that into our business and work with retail buyers on that side, but we're going to continue doing that. And then there's a few other things that we're doing to looking into complimentary businesses for our business. So I'm a huge believer in identifying efficiencies and then taking those efficiencies and automating them. So if I believe that there is a need, um, within a certain industry, then I will look to see whether or not I can automate it and make it a profitable venture that is complimentary to the business that I'm in. So a lot of people use the reference sets. You want seven different streams of income. Most millionaires have seven different streams of income it's along those principles, but it's taking it one step further by saying you're diverse in a sense that it's not the same type of investment, but it's complimentary meaning that they play on each other, but they are not necessarily needed. The two are needed to be successful on their own, right. They must be successful in their own. Right. Um, it just helps that they support other. So just as an example, if I wanted to build a system that rivaled Yardi, um, that would be complimentary to multifamily. So it doesn't need my multifamily business to survive because there are other people who could use that property management software system. But it does compliment me because there's obviously a high cost burden on my operating expenses on my property. When I have to go through a third party vendor as if, as opposed to having the program in house, I am not doing that. I'm just using that as an example. I don't want Yardi to like come after me or something, because I wouldn't even know where to begin with that. But I'm just saying that as an example, well, no, The best investors that I know are doing exactly what you're saying, they are pivoting. They are changing their business up to service the market. I mean, we can't, we can't be our investors in a bubble. It's what the market tells us we need to do. So I am so happy to hear that you pivoted your flip business. Cause I know so many flippers are just like, yeah, I'm not going to do it anymore. I'm done. And some are just like, you know what? I took my business and now I'm doing it this way. I'm following the market and I'm doing that way. So right now it's a time to pivot and figure out what to do. And then everything that you just said about finding that complimentary business. I actually just talked to this, uh, this dynamic couple who actually did open something up in the realm of property management. It's more like a software for sponsors and asset managers that they can like put everything in there. And they had started working on this pre COVID and now there are, they're completely just diving deep into the software because they know that this will be complimentary to their business. And it's really important to get this out to the, to the market. So thank you for everything that you've just said. If you could give my listeners just one more bit of advice, and this is the only thing that they will ever hear, what would that piece of advice be believe in yourself? Thank you. I mean, you could do, you don't have to actually say anything else after that, because that by itself is huge. Some, so many people don't get into real estate or don't take the next step because they don't believe in themselves. So take you from Ashley Wilson, this amazing mom, this amazing entrepreneur, this amazing runner of real state, just amazing person. Take it from her, believe in yourself. And don't forget. Go and look up and I'll leave a link. Look up the, invest her group and buy tickets to this amazing summit. It's going to be fantastic. I already got my tickets. Listen and dresser are fantastic. Friends of mine, I believe in their cause. And I believe in what they're doing. And if you are part of this group, you haven't bought your tickets yet. Buy the ticket. It's going to be an amazing, I mean, it's just here, all the information that Ashley just gave you. If you listen to this podcast again, you're going to be that much more in your business. So buy that ticket. Thank you so much, Ashley. Thank you for keeping on. Thank you so much for having me. I really enjoyed that. Thank you. And thank you to my listeners for listening. I am so very grateful. If you like what you heard, please rate and review and please subscribe. You guys are amazing and don't forget to believe in yourself by now. Join us by your second cup of coffee. Every Monday through Friday at noon live everyday, bringing us our best content we've done so far. Super excited, super engaging bunch of great guests. We're here to answer your questions and so appreciate you listening. Make sure to check this out. Can't wait to see you.
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