Episodes

  • 93: What 30 Years In Real Estate Taught Him That Most Investors Miss

    93: What 30 Years In Real Estate Taught Him That Most Investors Miss
    May 10 2026
    ✨ Ready to stop figuring this out alone and build a real strategy with someone who has done it? → calendar.app.google/NMFNL2CYYPMP1FZn7 ✨ Sign Up for my Newsletter → erikab.kit.com/f2f4df9a56 ✨ Grab your Early Bird Ticket to The Owning It & Living It Experience by 5/31 → www.owningitandlivingitexperience.com ✨ Follow for more → instagram.com/erikabrowninvestor Most of the real estate advice you scroll past on Instagram is from someone who has been doing this for 18 months. My guest today has been doing it for 30 years. In this episode, I'm sitting down with Doctor Joe, a real estate investor who left a Fortune 100 corporate career and started buying rental properties one at a time. No flips. No quick wins. No hype. Just Section 8 housing, smart systems, and a refusal to quit when the market got hard. Three decades later, he's not chasing the next deal. He's traveling the world while his portfolio pays for it. Six countries this year. He recorded this episode with me right after he came back from Mexico and Dominica.This is the conversation I needed when I bought my first rental and didn't know if I was crazy for wanting more. If you're tired and quietly wondering whether real estate is even worth it anymore, this is the one.The final OILI Experience happens November 13 to 15, 2026 in Atlanta. If you've been thinking about coming, this is your last chance to be in the room. Tickets at experience.owningitandlivingit.com.Listen to the podcast version: Instagram → instagram.com/erikabrowninvestor/ Time stamps: [00:00] Meet Doctor Joe and the Fortune 100 exit [02:00] Buying one property at a time on Section 8 [05:30] What 30 years of cycles taught him [09:00] Why most investors quit at property #2 [13:00] The bookkeeping mistake landlords don't see coming [17:00] Why scary markets are the best time to buy [21:00] Living off the rewards (six countries this year) 24:00 The investor roadmap 27:00 What he'd tell his younger self #realestateinvestor #blackwomenbuildingwealth #realestatecoach #conference #realestateconference
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    49 mins
  • 92: Why I'm Letting Go Of Something I Worked 3 Years To Build

    92: Why I'm Letting Go Of Something I Worked 3 Years To Build
    May 5 2026
    Ready to stop figuring this out alone and build a real strategy with someone who has done it? → calendar.app.google/NMFNL2CYYPMP1FZn7 ✨ Sign Up for my Newsletter → erikab.kit.com/f2f4df9a56 ✨ Grab your Early Bird Ticket to The Owning It & Living It Experience → www.owningitandlivingitexperience.com ✨ Follow for more → instagram.com/erikabrowninvestor/ For the last year, I've been carrying a decision I didn't know how to say out loud. In this episode, I'm finally telling you why I'm letting go of something I spent 3 years building from nothing. The Owning It and Living It Experience has changed lives. People stop me at events to tell me how this conference opened their eyes to possibilities they never knew existed. So why am I walking away? I'm sharing the real, the honest, and the deeply personal reasons behind this decision. Here's what I cover: → The honest truth about what it really takes to build a conference of this magnitude → Why turning 40 changed everything about what I say yes to → The vivid vision exercise that helped me build my dream life in under 5 years → What the hustle of my 30s actually cost me (and why I'm done with that pace) → The season of surrender I'm in and what it means for the future of OILI → Why "you can do something" and "you should do something" are two different conversations → My favorite memories from the last 2 years of the conference If you've ever felt the weight of something successful and couldn't articulate why it was weighing on you, this episode is for you. The final OILI Experience happens November 13-15, 2026 in Atlanta. If you've been thinking about coming, this is your last chance to be in the room. Tickets at experience.owningitandlivingit.com. Listen to the podcast version: [PASTE PODCAST LINK] CONNECT WITH ME: Instagram → instagram.com/erikabrowninvestor/ Time stamps: 00:00 The decision I've been carrying for a year 01:30 What the OILI Experience really is 04:00 My favorite memories from the last 2 years 07:00 What contributed to this decision 09:30 Turning 40 and the vivid vision shift 12:00 The 30s hustle vs the 40s reaping season 15:00 The questions I had to ask myself 17:30 You can vs you should 19:00 What's next for OILI #realestateinvestor #blackwomenbuildingwealth #realestatecoach #conference #realestateconference
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    15 mins
  • 91: Never Buy a Rental Property Without Running These 4 Numbers

    91: Never Buy a Rental Property Without Running These 4 Numbers
    Apr 26 2026
    ✨ Ready to stop figuring this out alone and build a real strategy with someone who has done it? Book a call to work with me in 2026! https://calendar.app.google/NMFNL2CYYPMP1FZn7 ✨ If this episode was helpful, you'll love my newsletter. Practical real estate advice, real stories from the community, and the next smart move you can make. https://erikab.kit.com/f2f4df9a56 ✨ If you're looking to meet more like-minded people building wealth, you'd love being in the room at The Owning It & Living It Experience. Grab your ticket before the next price increase. https://experience.owningitandlivingit.com ✨ FOLLOW FOR MORE: YouTube for long-form episodes + IG for daily content. https://www.instagram.com/erikabrowninvestor/ Most landlords do not lose money because the market turned on them. They lose money because they bought a property that was never a good deal and nobody taught them how to tell the difference. In this episode, I walk you through the exact four-number filter I run on every single property before I ever think about making an offer. No complicated spreadsheets. No guesswork. Just four numbers that tell you in under 10 minutes whether a deal is worth your time or whether you need to keep moving. Here is what we cover: → Why analyzing deals based on feelings will cost you → How to pull real comparable sales the right way → The rental number mistake that turns an asset into a liability → Why your expenses are never just the mortgage payment → How to calculate real cash flow before you fall in love with a property If the numbers do not work on paper, no amount of fixing and hoping will make them work in real life. This episode will show you exactly what to look for. #realestateinvesting #landlord #rentalpropertyinvesting #wealthbuilding #blackwealthmatters
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    12 mins
  • 89: How to Start Investing in Real Estate in 2026 (What I’d Do Differently 10 Years Later)

    89: How to Start Investing in Real Estate in 2026 (What I’d Do Differently 10 Years Later)
    Apr 19 2026
    I’d love to help you go from stuck to clarity with your Real Estate strategy! Let’s hop on a call and chat! https://calendar.app.google/xFyiMcYxfdNS3g35A If you are brand new to real estate or you have been stuck for a while and feel like you are starting over, this episode is for you. I am walking you through exactly what I would do if I were starting from scratch today with everything I know now after 10 years of investing and 35+ rental properties. No fluff. Just the order I would do it in and why. 📲 Follow on Instagram: @Erikabrowninvestor 📩 Join the email list: https://erikab.kit.com Grab your Early Bird ticket to my Conference before rbe prices increase! https://owningitandlivingitexperience.com CHAPTERS 0:00 - The question I get asked all the time 1:30 - The biggest mistake new investors make 3:30 - Step 1: Get honest about your financial freedom number 6:30 - Step 2: Avoid new and shiny syndrome 8:30 - The quick win rule 9:45 - Step 3: Financing options beyond 20% down 11:45 - Using your 401k to buy property 14:00 - Step 4: Stop trying to build alone 16:45 - Step 5: The mindset shift I wish I had sooner 19:00 - Your next step #realestateinvesting #firstrentalproperty #wealthwithinreach
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    16 mins
  • She Went From 3 to 6 Units as a Single Mom While Working Full-Time — Here's What Changed

    She Went From 3 to 6 Units as a Single Mom While Working Full-Time — Here's What Changed
    Apr 12 2026
    If you are carrying the financial weight alone and real estate keeps calling you — this one is for you. 📲 Book a discovery call: https://calendar.app.google/xFyiMcYxfdNS3g35A Vanessa bought her first property in 2023 with a plan, a budget, and a whole lot of ambition. What she didn't have was a system, a real team, or anyone who had done this before to call when things went sideways. The contractor ghosted her during a state emergency. She was $10,000 over budget before she even finished the first floor. Tenant screening was a mess. And it took her 18 months to fully stabilize that first property. Fast forward two years — she just closed on her second property, went from acquisition to fully occupied in 3.5 months, and is cash flowing for the first time. Same woman. Same market. Completely different result. In this episode, Vanessa breaks down exactly what changed — the strategy, the team, the mindset, and the support that made the difference between spinning her wheels and actually building something. We cover: → The mistakes she made doing it alone (and what they actually cost her in time and money) → The midterm rental strategy that finally got her cash flowing → How she went from 18 months to stabilize a property down to 3.5 months → What depreciation put back in her pocket at tax time (her CPA's number shocked her) → What she would tell every single parent who keeps putting this off Work with Vanessa in Connecticut! - https://calendar.app.google/FKonQznQZnyio7M59 ✨If this episode was helpful, you’ll love my newsletter. I share practical real estate advice, real stories from the community, and the next smart move you can make. https://erikab.kit.com/f2f4df9a56 ✨ Would you like to work with me directly? Book a Call to work with me in 2026!: https://calendar.app.google/NMFNL2CYYPMP1FZn7 ✨ If you’re looking to meet more like-minded people that are interested in building wealth, you’d love being in the room at The Owning It & Living It Experience. It’s where real estate strategy, community, and clarity come together to help you make your next smart move. You can grab your ticket before the next price increase. -https://experience.owningitandlivingit.com ✨ FOLLOW FOR MORE: YouTube for long-form episodes + IG for daily reinvention content. https://www.instagram.com/erikabrowninvestor/ #RealEstateInvesting #rentalproperties #landlordtips
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    49 mins
  • 88: You're Leaving Money on the Table With Your Rental Property Every Month (And Don't Even Know It)

    88: You're Leaving Money on the Table With Your Rental Property Every Month (And Don't Even Know It)
    Apr 9 2026
    Ready to stop figuring this out alone? Book a free call to work with me and let's build a real plan for your rentals: https://calendar.app.google/xFyiMcYxfdNS3g35A If you own rental properties, you need a banking and bookkeeping system that actually works for landlords. Baselane is the platform I use to run my entire rental operation. Sign up at http://baselane.com/erikabrown and get a $100 cash bonus when you deposit $500 into your Baselane Business Deposit account and maintain that balance for 30 days. New Baselane banking customers only. Bonus paid within 30 days of meeting requirements. See full details at baselane.com/100-cash-bonus. #ad This is a snippet from a longer episode. Watch the full video here: https://youtu.be/E_st-xOa-dE #landlord #rentalproperty #propertymanagement #realestateinvesting #landlordlife
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    4 mins
  • 86: Real Estate Was Supposed to Give You Freedom — Here's Why It Hasn't Yet

    86: Real Estate Was Supposed to Give You Freedom — Here's Why It Hasn't Yet
    Mar 29 2026
    ✨ Ready to stop guessing and start scaling? My Landlord Accelerator is a live 4-week cohort where I help you lock in your strategy, build real systems, understand your financing, and create a 90-day plan for your next deal. We start the week of April 6 and spots are limited. Grab your spot here: https://owningitandlivingit.com/landlord-accelerator/ You did the right thing. You bought the property. You made the investment. But right now real estate doesn't feel like freedom — it feels like a second responsibility on top of everything else you're already carrying. Before you start questioning whether this was even worth it — watch this episode. Because what you're feeling isn't a sign that real estate isn't working. It's a sign that something specific needs to shift. And I'm going to tell you exactly what that is. In this episode I break down: 🔑 Why most landlords are still thinking like property owners instead of business owners — and what that's actually costing them 🔑 The $10/hour vs. $1,000/hour task trap that keeps you busy but never actually moves you forward 🔑 Why not knowing your numbers is silently bleeding your portfolio — and how to fix it fast 🔑 The real reason you don't have time to find your next deal (hint: it's not your schedule) 🔑 Why a 90-day plan is the difference between landlords who scale and landlords who stay stuck — and how to build one You are closer than you think. Don't quit on real estate. Quit on the way you've been running it. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 0:00 - Why real estate doesn't feel like freedom yet 0:45 - The property owner vs. business owner mindset shift 2:30 - The renovation trap: spending money on the wrong things 4:30 - The #1 sign you don't know your numbers (real story) 6:00 - The $10/hour vs. $1,000/hour task trap 8:30 - Why a 90-day plan changes everything 10:00 - What to do next: FREE class + Landlord Accelerator ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📌 KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔹 The exact mindset shift that separates landlords who eventually experience freedom from those who stay exhausted and stuck 🔹 How to identify which tasks you should stop doing immediately — and what to focus on instead 🔹 What a simple 90-day landlord plan looks like and why it's the fastest path from frustrated to free ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✨ WORK WITH ME ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ If this episode was helpful, you'll love my newsletter. I share practical real estate advice, real stories from the community, and the next smart move you can make. https://erikab.kit.com/f2f4df9a56 Would you like to work with me directly? Book a call to work with me in 2026! https://calendar.app.google/NMFNL2CYYPMP1FZn7 If you're looking to meet more like-minded people that are interested in building wealth, you'd love being in the room at The Owning It & Living It Experience. It's where real estate strategy, community, and clarity come together to help you make your next smart move. https://experience.owningitandlivingit.com FOLLOW FOR MORE: YouTube for long-form episodes + IG for daily content. https://www.instagram.com/erikabrowninvestor/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔎 ABOUT ERIKA ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ I'm Erika Brown, CEO of Owning It & Living It. I've built a $5M+ rental property portfolio while working full-time and homeschooling my kids. Now I help high-income professionals scale their rental portfolios with systems, strategy, and support — no burnout required. #landlord #landlordtips #rentalpropertyinvesting #realestateinvesting #realestatewealth #financialfreedom #rentalincome #passiveincome #landlordmindset #realestatebusiness #propertymanagement #landlordcoach #scaleyourportfolio #wealthbuilding #realestate2026 #landlordaccelerator #generationalwealth #rentalproperty
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    18 mins
  • 84: 3 Reasons Keeping You From Buying Your Next Rental Property

    84: 3 Reasons Keeping You From Buying Your Next Rental Property
    Mar 22 2026
    ✨ Join me for my FREE Class! The Biggest Roadblocks Keeping Landlords From Scaling — and How to Fix It March 26, 2026 at 12PM & 7PM ET via Zoom https://owningitandlivingit.com/landlord You want to buy your next rental property — but something keeps stopping you. It's not the market. It's not the rates. It's probably one of these 3 mistakes. And the third one? Most landlords don't even realize it's happening to them. In this episode I break down the 3 real reasons landlords stay stuck: 🚫 Mistake #1: Thinking 20% down is the only way to buy (it's not) 🚫 Mistake #2: Trying to scale while your current property is still broken 🚫 Mistake #3: Winging it with no systems — so there's no time to find the next deal If any of these hit home, come to my FREE class on March 26th where we go deep on all three and I show you exactly how to fix them. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 0:00 - The 3 mistakes keeping you from your next rental 0:30 - Today's sponsor: Baselane 0:45 - Welcome + subscribe 1:30 - Mistake #1: The money problem (you don't need 20% every time) 3:15 - Mistake #2: Trying to scale a broken foundation 5:00 - [Baselane Ad] 5:45 - Mistake #3: The silent killer — no systems 7:15 - FREE Class details: March 24th ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 📌 KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔹 Financing strategies beyond 20% down — HELOCs, DSCR loans, seller financing, partnerships and more 🔹 How to know if your current rental is bleeding you before you add another door 🔹 What "winging it" actually costs you and what systems look like in a real portfolio ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ ✨ WORK WITH ME ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ If this episode was helpful, you'll love my newsletter. I share practical real estate advice, real stories from the community, and the next smart move you can make. https://erikab.kit.com/f2f4df9a56 Would you like to work with me directly? Book a call to work with me in 2026! https://calendar.app.google/NMFNL2CYYPMP1FZn7 If you're looking to meet more like-minded people that are interested in building wealth, you'd love being in the room at The Owning It & Living It Experience. It's where real estate strategy, community, and clarity come together to help you make your next smart move. https://experience.owningitandlivingit.com FOLLOW FOR MORE: YouTube for long-form episodes + IG for daily content. https://www.instagram.com/erikabrowninvestor/ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 🔎 ABOUT ERIKA ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ I'm Erika Brown, CEO of Owning It & Living It. I've built a $5M+ rental property portfolio while working full-time and homeschooling my kids. Now I help high-income professionals scale their rental portfolios with systems, strategy, and support — no burnout required. #landlord #landlordtips #rentalpropertyinvesting #realestateinvesting #landlordmistakes #nextrentalproperty #realestatebusiness #passiveincome #propertymanagement #landlordcoach #wealthbuilding #financialfreedom
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    12 mins