I did not start my real estate journey with a trust fund or a mentor in my corner. I started it with a full life, a lot of questions, and a stubborn belief that ownership was possible for women who looked like me.
I was a Nigerian-born woman building a life in Utah. I had responsibilities. I had family. I had faith commitments that were non-negotiable. And I had this quiet, persistent conviction that the women around me, the mothers and professionals and women of faith I knew, were leaving serious wealth on the table because nobody had sat down and explained how this actually works.
That conviction turned into Ekot Properties. It turned into a portfolio of hundreds of units across Utah and California. It turned into a holding company, a podcast, and a career I genuinely love.
None of that happened in a perfect season.
So if you are waiting for the right time, I want to gently tell you: the right time is a myth. What is real is the right strategy, the right education, and the decision to start.
This is the guide I wish I had.
The Mindset That Has to Come First
Before we talk numbers, we need to talk about the story you are telling yourself about money and real estate.
A lot of women I meet have already disqualified themselves before the first conversation. They say things like: “I do not have enough saved yet,” or “My husband handles the finances,” or “Maybe when the kids are older.” Those sentences sound practical. They are not. They are fear wearing a reasonable costume.
Real estate is not a reward for when your life gets easier. It is a tool you can use right now, in the life you already have.
Here is the mindset shift that changed everything for me: I stopped asking “Can I afford to invest?” and started asking “What is it costing me not to?”
Inflation is real. Time in the market matters. A property you buy today is not the same as a property you buy in three years. Every year you wait, appreciation and equity building happen for someone else.
None of this means you need to be reckless. It means you need to be honest. Honest about your fear, honest about your finances, and honest about what you actually want your life to look like in ten years.
Write that down. The ten-year version of your financial life. That picture is your north star.
Getting Educated Without Getting Overwhelmed
Here is the trap: there is so much real estate content available that most beginners drown in it. YouTube channels, podcasts, courses, books, TikTok investors showing you their Zillow dashboards. It is a lot.
My advice is to narrow your education before you broaden it.
Pick one market (the one you live in or know). Pick one property type to learn first (more on that shortly). Pick two or three voices you trust, and go deep with them before you start collecting more.
For foundational knowledge, I recommend:
- Read one solid book on real estate investing fundamentals. “Rich Dad Poor Dad” is a classic entry point for the mindset shift. Brandon Turner’s work on rental properties gives you the mechanics.
- Talk to a local real estate agent who invests themselves. Not just someone who sells homes. Someone who owns income property. That perspective matters.
- Attend at least one local real estate investor meetup. The conversations in those rooms are worth more than most online courses.
- Pull the numbers on three properties in your area, even if you are not ready to buy. Practice running basic math: purchase price, estimated rent, rough operating costs, mortgage estimate. Get comfortable with the vocabulary.
Education without action is just entertainment. But informed action is how you protect yourself. Do not skip this step.
Your First Property: What Actually Makes Sense
This is where most beginner resources lose women with full lives. They make the first deal sound either terrifyingly complex or impossibly simple. Neither is honest.
Here is a realistic breakdown of where most women start:
House hacking is one of the most powerful entry points available. You buy a small multi-family property (duplex, triplex, fourplex), live in one unit, and rent the others. Your tenants help pay your mortgage. You build equity. You learn property management at a small, manageable scale. And because you are an owner-occupant, you can access better financing terms than a traditional investment property requires.
A single-family rental in an appreciating market is another common first step. You buy a home you can rent for more than your monthly carrying costs (mortgage, insurance, taxes, maintenance reserve). It is simpler to manage than a multi-unit, and it builds equity over time. The tradeoff is that one vacancy hits your cash flow harder than a multi-unit would.
A long-term rental in a landlord-friendly state is worth understanding before you invest. Utah, for example, has a reasonable landlord-tenant legal framework compared to some coastal states. Where you invest matters as much as what you invest in.
What I would avoid as a first deal: short-term vacation rentals (the regulations are complicated and volatile), commercial properties (the learning curve is steep), and anything that requires a full gut renovation (unless you have construction management experience).
Start simple. Get one property performing well. Then grow.
Financing and Credit: The Honest Conversation
Nobody talks enough about this with women, especially women who have been managing households and supporting others but may not have built aggressive personal credit profiles.
Your credit score is a tool. If it needs work, you work on it, unapologetically and without shame. Here is what matters:
Know your credit score before you talk to a lender. Pull your reports from all three bureaus. Understand what is dragging your score down. Dispute errors. Pay down revolving balances. Give yourself a 6-to-12-month runway before you need financing if your score needs improvement.
Your debt-to-income ratio is just as important as your credit score. Lenders want to see that your monthly obligations leave room for a mortgage payment. If you are carrying a lot of debt, address that before trying to qualify for investment property financing.
Conventional loans, FHA loans (for owner-occupied purchases), and portfolio loans are the most common routes for beginner investors. Each has different requirements, different down payment structures, and different rules. A good mortgage broker, not just a bank loan officer, will help you understand all your options.
Partnerships can bridge gaps. If your credit or capital is not where you need it yet, consider partnering with someone whose strengths complement yours. Just document everything in writing, from day one. Verbal agreements do not hold up.
This is general guidance and not financial or legal advice. Your specific situation deserves a qualified professional who knows your numbers. That is not a disclaimer to skip. It is a real instruction.
The Truth About Property Management
I have been managing properties for over fifteen years. I run Ekot Properties and Ekot Real Estate, and I also co-founded Wasatch Cleaners because I understand that the operational side of owning real estate is not passive.
Let me be direct: no investment is truly passive. Not real estate, not anything.
Tenants have emergencies at 10 p.m. on a Saturday. Maintenance issues compound when you defer them. A bad tenant can cost you months of rent and thousands in damage. These are not reasons not to invest. They are reasons to invest with clear eyes.
Here is what healthy property management looks like for someone starting out:
Set expectations with tenants in writing, clearly and completely. A strong lease protects both parties. Do not use a generic template from the internet without having it reviewed for your state’s specific landlord-tenant law.
Build a maintenance reserve. A common starting point is setting aside one to two percent of the property’s value per year for maintenance and repairs. If the property is older, budget more.
Decide early whether you will self-manage or hire a property manager. Self-management saves money and teaches you the business. Professional management costs (typically 8 to 12 percent of monthly rent) but protects your time. Neither is wrong. Know your capacity honestly.
Screen tenants rigorously and consistently. This is where most first-time landlords get hurt. Have written screening criteria. Run credit, background, and income verification for every applicant. Apply your criteria equally.
The landlord experience you have is largely a function of the systems you build before a problem happens.
Building a Team You Can Trust
You cannot do this alone, and you should not try.
I say that as someone who learned it the hard way. Trying to handle everything yourself feels like saving money. It is usually the most expensive mistake you can make, in time, stress, and missed opportunities.
Your core real estate team should include:
- A real estate agent who invests. Someone who understands investor math, not just sales comps.
- A real estate attorney. Especially important for contracts, entity structuring, and evictions if they ever arise.
- A CPA who specializes in real estate. Depreciation, 1031 exchanges, pass-through deductions. This is where serious money is saved. A general accountant is not enough.
- A mortgage broker. Someone who can shop your loan across multiple lenders rather than being limited to one bank’s products.
- A reliable contractor or handyperson. Before you close on anything, know who is going to fix things.
You are also looking for community, not just professionals. Find other women investors. Find a local or national real estate investment group with a community of women. Share knowledge, share referrals, ask honest questions.
I co-host The Broker’s Table podcast because those conversations matter. The conversations between real operators, not polished influencers, are where actual learning happens.
When Faith and Finance Intersect
I am a woman of faith. That shapes how I invest, how I lead, and how I think about wealth.
There is a version of prosperity thinking that is shallow and frankly dangerous. It treats money as the goal and uses spiritual language to justify greed. I do not recognize myself in that.
But there is also a false humility that says people of faith should not think too much about money or building wealth. I reject that too.
My conviction is this: stewardship is sacred. I believe we are responsible for how we develop the resources and capabilities we have been given. For me, real estate investing is not just about accumulating assets. It is about creating stability for my family, building generational wealth that my children and grandchildren will inherit, funding the causes and communities I care about, and proving to the women who come after me that this is possible.
That frame changes how I make decisions. I invest with integrity. I treat tenants fairly. I build businesses where people are seen and valued. And I define success in a way that includes my family, my faith, and my community, not just my balance sheet.
Your values belong in your business plan. Do not compartmentalize them out.
The Mistakes I See Women Make Most Often
Not to end on a cautionary note, but on an honest one:
Waiting for perfect information. You will never have all the information. Make the best decision you can with what you have, with appropriate professional guidance, and move.
Under-estimating costs. Purchase price is just the beginning. Closing costs, carrying costs, maintenance, vacancy, management fees, and capital improvements all affect your actual return. Run conservative numbers.
Over-leveraging too fast. Building a portfolio of ten doors in two years sounds impressive. Running out of cash reserves in year three is a crisis. Grow at a pace your cash flow and your capacity can support.
Skipping the entity conversation. Once you own income-producing real estate, you need to have a real conversation with an attorney and CPA about how to hold it. Personal liability exposure is real.
Doing it completely alone. I mentioned this above, but it bears repeating. Community is not optional. Isolation is expensive.
You Are Ready to Start
Not in the perfect season. Not when the kids are in school. Not when you have saved another few thousand dollars or gotten one more certification.
Now. With the life you have, the knowledge you are building, and the decision to take this seriously.
I started with faith, a full life, and a refusal to accept that wealth was for other people. If that sounds familiar, I want to hear your story.
I share practical, honest notes for operators building businesses and wealth on my newsletter, Operator’s Notes. It is not motivational content. It is the real work.
And if you are in Utah or looking to invest in markets where I operate, reach out directly. I built what I have by building relationships first. That has not changed.
Your wealth is not waiting for the right time. It is waiting for you.
