The Journey of Self-Discovery with Christina Suter | Part 2 #887

Over the last 15 years, Christina found the greatest obstacle her clients faced was an overwhelming amount of information about investment real estate that didn't produce the results they needed.  So, she created the “Live A Rich Life - Real Estate Investment Workshop” to simplify the process so people could get started at a pace they could handle, using a system that maximized results.

For over three decades, Christina has experienced massive success in the real estate world.  She has purchased over 40 million dollars in real estate and acquired over 350 doors.  In 2019 She co-authored, You Got This! on Real Estate Investing Success. She founded FIBI Pasadena with over 3,500 members as part of the For Investor By Investor (FIBI) Real Estate Network.

She has spoken at top industry events including the Think Realty Conference and Expo and the Intelligent Investors Real Estate Conference.  She hosts the Real Estate Breakthrough Podcast where she coaches investors and interviews the industry's top players.

Christina serves as Chairman on the Board of Resources for Infant Educators, offers hours of free advice and real estate mentorship every week, and supports charities including, Veterans of America, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, National Police Association and Make-A-Wish Foundation.

As a mom to her daughter, and successful business owner, Christina offers a unique perspective on how to optimize your real estate investment while aligning with your personal values.


In this episode:

• How Christina started in real estate
• Her perspective on how the 2008 financial crisis affected real estate
• Insights on navigating downtrending markets 
• The importance of pricing properties and recognizing market cycles 
• Balancing parenting and entrepreneurship
• Data sources she looks at when evaluating deals

The Norris Group originates and services loans in California and Florida under California DRE License 01219911, Florida Mortgage Lender License 1577, and NMLS License 1623669.  For more information on hard money lending, go www.thenorrisgroup.com and click the Hard Money tab.


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Narrator: 0:01

Welcome to The Norris Group real estate podcast, a show committed to bringing you insights from thought leaders shaping the real estate industry. In each episode, we'll dive into conversations with industry experts and local insiders, all aimed at helping you thrive in an ever-changing real estate market. continuing the legacy that Bruce Norris created, sharing valuable knowledge, and empowering you on your real estate journey. Whether you're a seasoned pro or a newcomer, this is your go-to source for insider tips, market trends and success strategies. Here's your host, Craig Evans.

Craig Evans: 0:45

Hey, welcome back to part two with Christina Suter. Let's get to it. You know, I'm so it's even getting more interesting to me, because as I'm watching some of the parallels, I'm thinking through how some of the stuff worked in my life. So you're coming out of college, what was, what was your first your first job? What did you do to make a living? Right out of college, you're striving to be normal. How do you how do you make a living?

Christina Suter: 1:11

Exactly, good news. I was lucky. So the other second thing I never got to about my childhood was it my mom was disinherited because she came to California and got pregnant and then got married, and so she got disinherited from her family in Chicago. And so she was raising us three kids. My older brother and sister were one dad, I was another dad, and effectively she was a single mom, raising three kids up until the time I was nine when she'd be married, but when my grandmother passed away, all of a sudden, we went from a family that didn't have very much money to a family that had money. So now I could afford to go to this fancy, private boarding school for high school, because now we had money that we didn't have before. So part of the culture shock was growing up in Saint Gabriel on the wrong side of the tracks to being in this private girls boarding school on the East Coast. Just very different, just a very different experience of expectations. Okay, so I was lucky. I didn't have to when I went to college, my mom would pay for the college I don't just didn't have student loans. She would pay for the college and schooling I was in, and she'd give me some money for my housing. So as long as I was in college, I was making money, and then I was in college, right? That base routes was paid for. I'd ride my bike to school, but I at least got my, you know, my rent covered, right? No, when I wasn't, I worked as a receptionist. I worked in childcare, as in the toddler room, or I worked as a receptionist in childcare, I worked as a, worked as a marketing you know, those beer displays during Super Bowl season. You see the big display at the top right, there's the goals on top, and there's all these beer cases, and they're all facing a certain way, and they're making the okay. My job is to go count that to make sure it was actually set up correctly. I had the little map making sure the store did it right, and counting the cases to make sure it was the right number high and the right number across. So I did that for all...

Craig Evans: 3:06

I thought, you better tell me you're on the streets, on the street corner of like, flipping the sign and you're the guy out there.

Christina Suter: 3:12

Might as well have been on the street corner flipping the sign. It would have been just as interesting, trust me, and I worked at a call, a cold call center for like, one day. As I walked out of the cold call center, I'm like, I can't do this. And I put the phone down, and the boss is yelling me, you're never gonna hold another job again. You'll never be successful in life if you're not willing to do this. And I'm like, I'm not willing to do it, so I'm leaving. So, um, so I held a variety of jobs. The point is, I held a variety of very typical worked in child care. Was probably the primary place that I kept coming back to was either working as a receptionist, working in child care. But when I went back to get my teachers credential, I got a job as a special ed teacher. So I was in special ed as a kid, so now I went back and I got a job as a computer instructor in a special ed school with severely emotionally disturbed and developmental disabilities in the school. So I used those two things to be able to get the job as a teacher, and I worked that for about two and a half years while I was getting my teacher's credential. Then once I had my teacher's credential, I realized I could be a teacher, but I wasn't making the difference I wanted. So I went back to school and I got my master's degree, and that's when I started being able to work as a business consultant. So that's what I've done, is consulting ever since 2000 that's been my job on the side, or primary job, depending upon the cycles of real estate, has been my consultant.

Craig Evans: 4:41

So, when did you officially or unofficially, get into real estate then?

Christina Suter: 4:47

2002 so well officially I, so I was 17 years old. I was turning 18. My mother was in was grew up in Saint Gabriel with Third Degree smog alerts. My mom had lung problems, right? And she could not be in in Saint Gabriel any longer because she had to go to the hospital if this, if she got exposed to too much smog, she's like, I'm leaving. And she told all three of his kids, right? Hey, I'm leaving. Who wants to take care of the house, and I'll take it over, mom. Like, you gotta go, right? Like, I want you to be healthy. I love you. Go get your ass, you know, get your ass to wherever you want to go. I'll take it over. What I did is do was that she gave me the house. She titled the house over to me in my name, and like, what the heck am I gonna do with this? I thought I was babysitting a house. I didn't think I was inheriting a house. So I inherited a house, and I read it out to my godparents, and then I went, Hey, this kind of extra little paycheck thing while I'm receptionist, while I'm working in childcare, this extra little paycheck for rent, kind of cool, right? Because, remember, my mom at that point had been able to pay off the house, right? Change in economic status, right, wrong side of the tracks and saying cable, but now she could pay off the house, right? So, and then I, my brother had this condo, remember, half brother? So it was for his grandpa, not my grandpa, and he, I don't want anyone, you know, I kind of like this rent thing. Can I buy that from you? Sure? And I rented it out section eight to this great lady who had two teenage boys she was trying to get through high school, right? She rented it out for years from me, and then my mom's health was like, I found a place I'm going to live, and I'm like, well, here, let me help you buy that house, right? You gave me the money. Let me help you buy that house, right? I also had some stocks by that time, and so I bought that house, and she took care of it, and then all of a sudden, he was in this little known neighborhood called Healdsburg. Now today, we know Healdsburg, if you drink wine, you know this little known, little known city called Healdsburg with this cute little country square, you know, downtown Healdsburg, right at the time it was undiscovered, so it tripled in value, value. I bought it for about 350 and it sold for over a million dollars. And now I'm going, Whoa. What the hell am I going to do with this, right? So I've graduated with my bachelor's in business. I'm working as a consultant. I graduated with my master's, and I'm working as a consultant. And I'm running a little tiny business, renting out a space to like, yoga instructors, sat songs, you know, therapists and stuff like that, and renting out this little space while I'm consulting with them, my teachers, and I'm helping them have a more successful business model so they can pay me rent, like, let me successful, so you'll pay my rent. So I'm successful, and then I'm I'm selling this almost, you know, almost close to quite a million dollars in gain, but like,$750,000 worth of gains. And I'm like, What am I going to do? Am I going to buy a whole bunch of other houses? I went, I'm going to buy an apartment building. And at that point, I did. I bought an 18 unit apartment building in Van Nuys, California. I researched over 100 apartments. I started going to real estate clubs. One real estate club in particular is very much like FIBI, right? It's about networking and education. It was not about sales. And I asked for help. I don't know what I'm doing help. I want to buy an apartment building. I don't know anything about it. And I had, you know, five emails in my email box that night of people who could help me, and I end up buying a multi unit, and there was enough money coming off of the multi remember, I'm placing a gym. I'm doing my consulting work, but my needs were the same needs as if I was a teacher, right? That was my level of requirement for income. So between my little bit of consulting work and the money off of the apartment building, I was free to be a consultant. I really didn't need a nine to five job, and what I discovered was I was more successful in transferring my real estate from one to another and learning that asset class, and I felt more comfortable with that $750,000 worth of gain in moving that around. Then I felt trying to meet my $3,500 budget in my small business that I was running, and I'm like, Oh, I think I'm in the wrong business. Let's keep doing consulting, but let's become an investor. And so as originally as about 2002 I kind of went, Hey, I've hit my first milestone. I've replaced my version of active income between being an entrepreneur and having an apartment building and the other rentals.

Craig Evans: 9:20

Let me backtrack just one second, because I want to clarify something. To clarify something. Your consulting, ground level consulting, if I remember, right? Is that right?

Christina Suter: 9:28

Yes. So the place I ran was a little place in Venice. We called it ground level Center for Spiritual Living, or set us ground level Center for Spiritual something or the other. And I just told the name. I made it ground level consultant.

Craig Evans: 9:43

Okay, okay, so do you still own that, operate that? Do you still do consulting under that? Or where is that at now?

Christina Suter: 9:51

I just I'd be branded to Christina Suter. I rebranded my own name about not right before covid. So probably seven or eight years ago, seven years ago, I'd be grounded to Christina Suter I'm still doing the consulting, but in 2007 remember when cycles go up and down, and when you go down, you realize 2007 right? As I'm as life is low now falling apart around me. And that's a whole story by itself. We can get into or not. I double down on my consulting work, and I my At mid 20s, that about the time this is all happening, right? advisor, my business and financial advisor at the time, said, why don't you advise on real estate? I'm like, real estate, that's I do that for me. I'm not going to advise on other people's money. And then a week later, I'm like, Yeah, you know what? Let's do that. And I created this thing that didn't really exist called being a real estate investment advisor. I'm not a registered investment advisor at the time, I wasn't I am now. At the time, I was not a registered investment advisor. I was a fee based consultant working with individuals to create a mom and pop portfolio, much like I had done, ranging anywhere from half a million dollars all the way up to $20 million I've now advised on over portfolios, you know, over 20 up to $50 million and worked with different funds and family offices. But now at that time, that was kind of my bracket, right, half a million to about top was $20 million people who had a portfolio either was not performing. I can give you great examples, or they hated it. Two sisters and, you know, inherited their dad's multi family units in LA, and they hated it. My dad's life was absorbed in these apartment buildings. And I don't like these people. They're all cd, cd grade units. We don't want it. What do we do now? I'm like, Well, do you really want to sell all of it? No, well, I'm okay. Let's use the strategic brain to come up with a plan for happiness and peace in one's life around owning real estate and being financially wealthy. What does it mean to live a rich life? Is a much bigger question than the dollar amount in your bank, yep. So let's do that conversation having do with goals, who you want to be, what's the impact you want to have, who's the person that is normal for you in your mind. And being peaceful isn't always normal, but if that's the, if that's what normal is to you, is peaceful. Let's talk about how you create that while you're creating a financially balanced and successful life, that, to me, is the most powerful conversation. Um, no, no, see, I would have been 30 something. So is. I'm now 55, 56 it is 202 was born in 1968 I don't hide my age. I'm a blue hair though, I'm a blue hair.

Craig Evans: 12:47

Listen, as a southern guy, you should have taken the mid 20s, right?

Christina Suter: 12:52

I mean, I apologize. You know, you're just gonna I was, I told you. I don't fit in other cultures. I'm a Southern California girl. I'm straightforward. I'm pretty transparent, right? Like so the truth is, I was in my early 30s...

Craig Evans: 13:08

When, when do you think you saw that paradigm shift really set in for you and you, it's clicking that. Wow. Christina Suter can do this.

Christina Suter: 13:19

All right, so it's going to be weird or not, depending upon your point of view.

Craig Evans: 13:24

Well, our listeners may think it's weird, but see, I probably won't.

Christina Suter: 13:30

So when I was doing my consulting, so I have a master's in spiritual psychology, so I started at CSPP with a intending to get a side D in psychology, and then I realized that I could study psychology at CSPP, but what I wanted to study was healing, and that the capacity to help somebody heal their memories isn't necessarily the same as being able to observe and quantify through intelligence tests, through vorshak, through the MMPI, being able to observe and quantify what is happening the healing process is actually slightly different, right? Some might say quant viably, different, right? So I switched over to a master's in spiritual psychology, and I continued to work on my own healing while I learned to sit with other people. What I discovered was when I was invited to start consulting with my clients, and then I started consulting with more and more of them as I told them, hey, this is what I'm doing. I had this moment where I went, Ah, I got a bachelor's in business. I got a teacher's credential. I got a master's in psychology. They seemed completely unrelated to each other at the time as I was walking in, I'm over here doing business now. I'm over here being a teacher. I'm over here, like, Who the hell am I going to be? All these are very conflicting degrees. And now all of a sudden I went, Oh my gosh, I have exactly what I need to do. What is exactly is fulfilling to who Christina Suter is in this world, as Christina Smith at the time. But. Christina Suter is in this world, and I realized that I was following a much greater calling and wisdom inside of myself than I Christina could take credit for that had been perfectly orchestrated without me knowing it had been orchestrated and I was meant to help people this way. I was born with a learning difference. So could, I could understand what it meant to struggle through finding your peace and your freedom and knowing how incredibly crucial that is to joy on the planet, that moment on the top of the hill going, I'm going to be joyful because I choose it, because I'm going to embrace life, because that's the only freaking way it's worth living, right, right? I know what that journey looks like, personally, having claimed it, and if I hadn't been struggling as a kid, I wouldn't know the power of that journey, and I wouldn't know what it means to feel crippled at the knees by a memory that, Oh, my God, it's so horrible, I can't tell anybody. And go, Yeah, I know that, babe. Let's talk about it, right? And I can still do my strategic design, and I can still do my top down constructing of people's businesses or people's portfolio, because of the learning difference, I have the gift of being able to see how it works. Like, wow, oh. My God. Welcome to Christina. I worked out Christina, so it's been silly, but I like I said, you either get it or you don't, you relate to it, or you don't. You know, somebody asked Jerry Lewis once they said, Jerry Lewis, why with all your money and you're a famous actor, do you spend all this time raising money for these kids? And he said, if you're asking me the question, it explains to me that you're not going to understand the answer, because raising money for all these kids is what is most satisfying, right? That's effectively what he say. So Christina invests in real estate, and I'm good at it, because I have the mind that can be successful in that area. But I my passion, my love is helping people grow into being successful human beings, because that is the joy of being on the planet that lights me up. That's the consulting work. I appreciate all the questions I think anybody's asked me this many questions about Christina. Like, you know, it's always real estate economics and, you know.

Craig Evans: 17:30

Right? It's like speed dating, except we don't have to go home tonight. I mean, we don't have to worry about who's paying the bill?

Christina Suter: 17:38

Precisely. Your wife will be happy to see you. My husband will be happy to see me, and we had a wonderful dance. This is fantastic. That's right.

Craig Evans: 17:46

Listen, there may be days my wife may pay you to take me, I don't know, right?

Christina Suter: 17:50

There are days my husband would wish I wouldn't come home. He's quiet, peaceful engineer, and I can see on his face, oh, my god, the girls are home. Okay, I can do this. I can do this. All my pieces just disappear for the next several hours, but I can do this.

Craig Evans: 18:06

I can honestly tell you, this has been one of the funnest conversations I've had on our weekly podcast, because there's so many things that I hear you talk about. It's like, yeah, that's me. Yeah, yeah, that's me, and that's me too. Okay, that's still me, you know. So are you the type that will do like, do you fly by the seat of your pants? And I think I know the answer, but I still want to ask the question, do you fly by the seat of your pants? And just go into it. Are you the type that's going to do a ton of research, and once you've kind of found what you right or wrong believe to be the answer, then you you know if it's in a positive direction for you go full bore into it, whatever it is, right?

Christina Suter: 18:50

So my sister does all her research beforehand. We've had extensive conversations on this. I'm very close to my sister. She's extensive research beforehand. She understands exactly what the plan is before she starts implementing it, so she knows what Z is going to look like before she starts doing a and she was a VP at Nationwide Insurance. So she, Lily was the second in charge at veterinary pet insurance, and then they got bought out by nationwide, and so she immediately became a VP at Nationwide, which is a pretty big achievement, right? And, you know, I'm just saying, I'm like, I'm proud of my sister, right? She did it. She really nailed it, right? So, but what I do is I go, Okay, here's the plan. We're going to start implementing the plan. The plan changes as the plan goes. I build it as I fly. Now, here's what's important, is I do my research while I'm building so let me give you a perfect example. I get invited to be on economic panel. Darn. I haven't done my research for the last couple of weeks. I'm going to study before I show up to the economic panel. So I say yes to the economic panel, and then I do my research, so that while my backside is sitting in that chair, I have my notes with me, because I have a horrible memory, so I'm going to actually bring notes, right? So, So, I got, like, my husband wants to invest

Craig Evans: 20:00

Right. in Arkansas. Okay, great. So I'm like, well, let's identify, let's we have identified Arkansas. Let's identify the area. Now, let me identify an agent. Then I'm going to fly my ass out there, and I'm going to say, okay, agent, show me what you have here. Is there something actually in my Buy Box? And if there's not, I'm going to change my plan, right? I'm going to go somewhere else, and I'm going to start researching another potential neighborhood in Arkansas that isn't that area, and then I'm going to fly back out. I'm going to say, Okay, well, maybe this area is my area, so I'm going to constantly build it while I'm flying. But I'm relying on my research to be able to inform my next step. But I'm not doing all the research except to confirm that Z exists. Does that make sense? So I started A but I'm going to confirm that Z exists. I know what my z is. My z is a cash flowing building, hopefully with a six to seven cap, where I have a positive arbitrage on my interest rate right, and I can bring cash home, and it will continue to have appreciation in the general vicinity in which it is located. That's what I'm looking for, a nice stable building I can put 33% down on and have it perform and cash flow. So I've done my math. I know what Z is, but I'm going to build it while I'm flying. Let's, let me start diving into real estate a little bit then. So you, I think, what'd you tell me? '02 is where you started, kind of dabbling in real estate. So how did, how did'08 affect you?

Christina Suter: 21:32

Alright, Craig, you keep asking these really big questions. And you know the big questions before you ask them, you can't ask 35 year real estate investor. How was '08 without knowing that there's a story there. Come on.

Craig Evans: 21:47

Exactly, well, but you know, here's the thing, why? Part of what I'm wanting people to see is that, you know what? Listen, if you've been in this industry long enough, you've been on this side of the cycle, right? We understand the world. You know, this is not Chicken Little. The sky's not falling.

Christina Suter: 22:02

Sky's not falling. It's so not falling. And the Fed's not going to let it fall. It's, it's they, there's, you know, come on. They didn't keep increasing interest rates. They didn't try to overcorrect on this one, right? Even though they were late getting it started, they didn't over correct. They've now having the conversation about, we're no longer concerned, but we're not going to tell you whether we're increasing rates or not, because we don't want the whole Titanic shift to start changing course yet we wanted to. We want people stay a little afraid that we're going to be doing this for a long time, but we don't want them so terrified that everything is tanking. It's not about the interest rate. It's about managing the mentality around the rate. I mean, come on, 7.7% is not a bad interest rate. Yeah, that's my economic tirade. You can play with that.

Craig Evans: 22:50

So don't leave me on oh eight. I want to hear your story.

Christina Suter: 22:52

Okay, so wait, okay, so I was married in September of 2006 right? I am.

Craig Evans: 23:00

So at 06 you're now a Suter.

Christina Suter: 23:02

In '06, I'm now Christina Suter, and I my husband was a very good Suter. And '06, I'm now as I'm now married as a as a suitor, and I am. My husband is older than I am. He's retired. He lives on a fixed income, and I'm hot shot Christina. I've hit my nice, you know, investment marks. I feel ready to be a mom. I'm ready to be married. I'm gonna take on my world, right? And don't worry, babe, I'm a professional investor. I got this covered right? Later, I'm eating my words, and we're having a lot of fights, right? You said you had it covered. You said you're a professional investor, and I'm watching my portfolio, at certain times during that downturn go down by $100,000 a month. I had over $400,000 in savings, and it is disappearing actively getting down to zero, right? So what did I do? I froze for six months and I went, I'm a big, big fat loser, right? All the limited thinking can fly in. I'm a big fat loser. I should just stop. I should just give up. I'm clearly not built for this. I you know, whatever lesson or desire I decided in 2000-2002 about who I am as a professional investor. I'm going to take on bubble bucket. So I'm a loser. And I went, I'll just, I'll just give up. And I remember distinctly I was sitting in the chair in my office. It's one of those black chairs. It has like the back support. And I'm sitting in the chair and my head's back like this. And I'm like, I'm such a loser. I should just just give up. And then I went, I remember my master's in psychology, but when you're 80 and you're at Erickson's last stage of life, Christina, are you going to be regretful of who you've been and what you've done in your life? Are you going to be satisfied because. That's what 80 is. You get to decide you don't have another choice anymore. You're not going to relive this life. You're done. You know you're close to done. You get to decide if you liked what you did or if you didn't like what you did. And I went if I give up now, I'm not going to like what I did. I will not be proud of myself. I will not have lived the life I feel that I can do. And I went, Okay, well, get your fucking blah, blah blah out of this chair and go work it out. I didn't have a plan. I just knew had to work it out. So I worked it out, and I took short sales. I did some strategic short sales on some properties. I've talked to business partners. I said, I want to sell out of everything I am trying, right? It's 2008 I'm trying to get pregnant, not being very successful at it. I'm in vitro, a lot of drugs in my body. I saw everything, everything working and non working. I just wanted to be peaceful. I just wanted to fulfill what the purpose of my portfolio had been. Was I wanted to be able to pick up my kid from school. When I was a little kid, my mom, remember, she kind of ignored us. She was a single mom, raising three kids. She ran her own company. She would pick us up real late from school. I remember being in preschool, she'd be two hours late. And I'm not making it up. It's not just bad preschool memories. It's literally the teacher saying, your mom's two hours late. Oh, my God, when is she getting here, right?

Craig Evans: 26:33

Yep.

Christina Suter: 26:33

I wanted to be able to pick up my kid from school. That was the purpose of being financially independent for me, and I was about to miss the vote, so I sold everything, and I converted it all. What I had left, my mom helped me out. Thank God she had the family buy a piece of land from me for 450,000 that was what its value was before the big downturn, land doesn't sell, and downturn, so they bought the land for me. So I now have 450,000 in cash. I sold the apartment buildings. I sold the fourplexes. I sold the condo towels. Don't ever buy a condo. Tell, they stink. Just saying, even it was on the beach in Hawaii, don't buy a condo. Tell, right. So I sold all the exotic all the I was in the middle of two flips. I sold the flips. I was in the middle of a condo conversion. I had gotten white yellow paper. I was within a month of white paper. I put it all out, and I sold every last little bit, and I converted it all over to hard money lending to flippers, because the flippers were actually starting to make money in the market. And that's the whole portfolio went from active to passive. And my daughter was born in October of 2009 so I went from loser to I might be a loser, but this is what I'm going to do anyways, and it's helpful, because I'm humble. Every time I get in trouble, it's my ego and my need to look good that gets me in trouble. That's what I've noticed after 35 years. It's my ego.

Craig Evans: 28:00

That's good to hear, because there's a lot of people that are getting into this industry, or that are new in the industry, or that have been there, that are going to, we've all seen it, that they're either, you know, they don't know how to take this ride, or they're going to take this ride and not want to say anything because of their ego, you know.

Christina Suter: 28:18

And not want to mitigate it and not get out when it's working, you know, like, oh, okay, yes, their ego will have them stay in. They will have them sell a property that is actually fall. I mean, I've sold, I've sold at, oh, that's today's price. So I'm going to put it at today's price, even though the market is continuing to go down month after month after month. There are a lot of markets that are not seeing that in residential, but for those markets, they are seeing that and knowing that. You need to be three months ahead you're going to sell in a downturning market. You need to project three months into the future of what the value of that property will be in three months, and you price it at that, you'll get an offer. The person who's buying it knows that it will be worth that when they close escrow in three months and they're willing to pay that price, but they won't pay today's price in a downtrending market, right? So, yes, they are unwilling to acknowledge that this is just a cycle, and there's a way to ride a wave, there's a way to ski down a black diamond, and that what they have to do is change their thinking and not let the ego be the thing that keeps them stuck. This is what I do. This is what I've done. This is what I know. No, it's not going to work. Can you admit to people it's not working and get a new set of skills and a new set of instructions, but you have to admit it first. Sorry, Craig...

Craig Evans: 29:35

I think one of the things I love about that you've talked about is also my wife had a saying for it, because she had the same thing that she always wanted to be able to pick the kids up and be there. And, you know, she, she, I love my wife to death, but we, we planned early on in life to be able to prep for her to be a stay at home mother, right? So she works her hind parts off. I'm not. I'm not, you know, I'm not that guy that says, Oh, she doesn't know. She works just as hard, if not harder than me, every day, right? She had given it the, the term, she said, I want to be an on time mom.

Christina Suter: 30:14

Yeah.

Craig Evans: 30:15

She said, I don't ever, she said, I don't ever want my kids to come to the bus line or the pickup line and be waiting, right? She said, I want them to be able to drive up and see mom being the first one or two cars in line. And she said that would that was because, you know, she went through much of what you're describing as your life, right? She said, so I want to be that on time, mom, so it's very cool to hear you say that, hey, my whole goal of selling everything was because none of it mattered. I want to be the on time mom, right? So that's cool, that's cool. So, alright, so...

Christina Suter: 30:47

Again, it's the values. It's not just the values of being a good parent. In my mind, I mean his values being good parent. I want to be a good parent. I wanted to be a really great parent, which my mom wasn't. God bless her. She did what she could. She gave us the gift of not being abusive, right? Not being says physically abusive, that was a gift that my mother was capable of giving us, right? So it is raising another human being on the planet that hopefully has self confidence intact. That's about them being self confident, not just me knowing that I'm a good mama. Now it is also about me knowing I'm a good mom. I'm just saying it is about me. Come on, it's not, it's not just, hey, you know, whoa. It's all about my kid. No, okay, I like knowing I'm a good mama too. I like looking at myself in the mirror at the end of the day and going, Yeah, I picked up my kid on time, right? I was a good mama. I fulfilled my it's, is my daughter's self confidence intact. Okay? I'm not deluding yourself, right?

Craig Evans: 31:46

Yep, exactly. What do you think's the biggest thing that brought you back to real estate, then?

Christina Suter: 31:52

The capacity to be an entrepreneur and have choice in my world?

Craig Evans: 31:57

So back to the basics of I want to be back in that spot again.

Christina Suter: 32:00

I want to be back in the spot of having control over my time. I want to be back in the spot of using my best skills, not my weakest skills, right? So I'm dyslexic. I kind of suck as a receptionist. Even though I had many jobs as a receptionist, I kind of suck as a receptionist, truth be told, from when it comes to strategic design and managing a team and working with, you know, with management companies, I can actually develop loyalty with my management company, right? That's a positive skill I have. So it uses my skills. It lets me have control of my time. I can buy and sell poppies from Hawaii, from Canada, believe me, I've done it right, and it works with my ADHD of going, I'm going to do this for the long and do this for a little. I'm gonna learn this next. I'm gonna learn that next. Oh, my God, I can learn this piece of real estate that I can let that I can let that piece of real estate next. It allows me to constantly and consistently grow and challenge myself in being able to have what I want to grow into, and yet I don't have to have it. I don't have to move on that some other person's timeline. I can move on my timeline. So there's just so much freedom and so much a natural fit for me that I like and I'm grateful for real estate and the structure of what it is in that I wake up every day being ready to do this. I don't wake up regretting what I'm going to have to do for the day.

Craig Evans: 33:16

Yup, so let me do this. I want to get two questions in really quick, because I know I'm on a hard stop with you so, so let me ask you this, because I want to make sure that I'm getting a few things that I want people to be thinking about, from how you carry out business right and how you evaluate so to you, what are the biggest sources of data that you look at when you're evaluating deals, areas that type of thing. Give me your top two or three things that you

Christina Suter: 33:49

Huh? Well, they do shift based upon current

Craig Evans: 33:49

And that's that's good information, because you look at. cycles. But GDP is one of the things I look at, unemployment is one of the things I look at. You know, how many new jobs have got a lot of younger investors out there that are. Just trying been created. How many people have applied for unemployment? The increase or decrease in that because I'm basically real estate houses, jobs, and so I'm looking for what happens. 2008.'09 taught me that I It doesn't matter how big a player I am in real estate development or not development, I am going to rise and fall with the shift, and the greater shift, specifically is to figure out, what in the heck do I need to look at versus, you the economy. So I pay attention to the general macroeconomics of the United States before I then do regional. When I do regional, and I do real estate specific, I look at the number of housing units, I look at stays on market. I look at months of supply, specifically to try to get a sense for inside of that state, or inside of that region, is the market going to go up or going to go down. I also look at whether, before I invest, I look at mix of industries, and I look at whether or not the population is going up or going down in those particular neighborhoods when I'm looking to buy in. know, what every guru, so to speak, is telling me to read or look at in their book, you know, so real quick before we go. Because I want people to be able to get in touch and be able to, you know, hear from you, learn from you, things like that. Tell people how they can find out about past you know, FIBI Pasadena.

Christina Suter: 35:21

All right, so FIBI Pasadena, can be found on meetup.com but I think even just as important is we recorded on we have been recording, and I think for six or seven years now. And so if you go to YouTube and type in FIBI Pasadena, and you can see years worth of our presenters in their recording. So it's free education for you guys, specifically the newer investors, because I'm a teacher, I believe in education, right? So that's available. I also went a secondary meeting called ITI, investor to investor, and we have one in Glendale. We have another one. We just opened in City of Industry. So I and a guy named Steve have opened that meeting together, and we're developing other meetings under that same brand. We have an educational course right under ITI, which I teach the basics of investing in single family. The investor profile, how do you find happy in real estate, right? The investor profile, I teach, how do you do your comping on residential real estate, and how do you invest out of state? Because those are all skills that I've used inside of my portfolio, having owned in seven different states and by, as I said, over 50 units of my own, 300 I've shared with other people. So that's ITI and then, of course, there's ChristinaSuter.com where you can you want to cultivate a portfolio based on what you want, as far as joy and happiness in your life, and using real estate as a vehicle to get you to your purpose, then let's talk about what it means to actually have a rich life and have that conversation with me. So ChristinaSuter.com.

Craig Evans: 36:52

Awesome.

Christina Suter: 36:52

I even give you my phone number if you want.

Craig Evans: 36:54

Christina, I am so grateful for you being on and spending time with me today. Hopefully we can do this again soon, because I would like to spend some more time in real estate with you and but it's been fun for our listeners to really be able to hear who you are, what makes you tick, how you become the woman that you are to be a strong woman in this industry. So super excited to have you on for everybody listening today. Thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate your time, everybody. Thanks so much. Hope you have a great day. We'll see you next time.

Christina Suter: 37:24

Thank you, Craig.

Narrator: 37:26

For more information on hard money loans, trust deed investing, and upcoming events with The Norris group. Check out thenorrisgroup.com. For more information on passive investing through the DBL Capital Real Estate Investment Fund, please visit dblapital.com.

Joey Romero: 37:45

The Norris group originates and services loans in California and Florida under California DRE license 01219911. Florida mortgage lender license 1577 and NMLS license 1623669. For more information on hard money lending go to thenorrisgroup.com and click the hard money tab.