Realtors for Single Women Buyers
Two women found creative ways to achieve home ownership for buyers still in their 20s, as a path toward financial independence. They want to help others – especially single women – to creatively buy real estate long before it has usually been done.
BACKGROUND OF TWO WOMEN BEFORE THEIR BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP
At 24, Kristina Modares (KM) was single and living paycheck to paycheck, crammed into a rental house in Austin, Texas with multiple roommates and barely scraping by on her income of $27,000 a year. Now, at 34, she owns five houses of her own.
At 25, Stephanie Douglass (SD) was also single and financially strapped, working 11-hour days teaching elementary school math with her bills piling up. When her landlord told her he was raising her rent, she was panicked that she wouldn’t be able to afford her rented home. Now, at 35, she also owns 19 houses of her own.
THE PROBLEM
Even though women have outpaced men buying homes in the U.S. housing market since the late 1990s, women aren’t profiting from owning real estate to the same extent as the men.
Researchers at Yale University have found that single women often fail to negotiate at the outset of real estate negotiations as well as men, resulting in women continuing to pay more for houses and taking home less than men when the women sell their houses.
THE SOLUTION
KM and SD want to use their creative experiences as single women buying real estate while in their mid-20s to mid-30s, to help other single women use homeownership to increase their wealth and thus, financial independence.
SHARED GOALS LED TO A BUSINESS PARTNERSHIP
Before joining forces as business partners, KM and SD had coincidentally the same experiences with real estate:
- Purchased their first homes.
- Earned their real estate licenses.
- Utilized social media to discuss their individual plans to focus on helping single women follow their path to creatively buy real estate to gain financial independence.
As the women now relate with some amusement, “It all started on Instagram.” KM and SD had both begun their individual investing journeys separately but realized that they wanted to learn from and meet more women like themselves. KM messaged SD on Instagram; they met for coffee and what turned into the “best first date ever” became a business partnership that has outweighed anyone’s expectations.
After discovering their shared experiences and hopes, KM and SD decided to open a real estate brokerage together, focused on helping first-time female buyers. They named their business “Open House Austin” – based in Austin, Texas – and began building a following on TikTok and Instagram.
Their message: The path to homeownership doesn’t have to be a straight line, and women don’t need to wait to have a (romantic) partner before becoming a homeowner.
CREATIVE THINKING
The partnership of KM and SD aims to help women think creatively for how to buy real estate on their own.
Editor’s note – Creative thinking is a cousin of Critical thinking; both are useful in any career journey.
Creative thinking – also called ‘creative problem solving’ – is the ability to come up with unique, original solutions to problems. It involves ‘brainstorming’ – considering not only a large number of ideas but also a variety and range of them; then experimenting with the ideas individually and taking risks.
Critical thinking is a learned skill to question your own knowledge and information received from others – especially politicians! It is invaluable in research and many workplace scenarios. Critical thinkers do not accept the beliefs and allegations of others without probing for the truth. As examples: Attorneys pursue provable facts, not just what their clients believe, to devise strategies to persuade juries. Physicians analyze the needs of new patients to recommend the order of treatment by nurses and other doctors. Carpenters and plumbers evaluate the materials needed plus the most efficient way to properly complete the job and thus earn a profit while satisfying the customer with on-time, satisfactory performance. Real estate agents for buyers consider their clients’ wishes for home features including neighborhood, then the client’s ability to finance the purchase, sometimes requiring creative strategies.
At the outset, KM and SD want women to understand what it means to buy a house. “It doesn’t have to mean you’re settling down. It can be a key piece in financial freedom and wealth building,” notes SD.
The creative thinking can extend to ways to cover the monthly mortgage payment – while being careful not to run afoul of local zoning regulations. As examples:
- ‘House Hacking’ unlocks an extra stream of income from a home by renting out a portion of it.
- Obtain building permits and materials to erect a ‘tiny house’ in the backyard.
- Build a ‘sneaky duplex’ by adding an exterior door to a bedroom to give tenants a private entrance.
- Buy a home with a friend. This allows pairs of single women to claim the same income advantages offered to couples.
- Utilize a ‘buydown’ – a mortgage financing technique where the buyer starts out with a lower interest rate for a limited time – sometimes after paying a fee and sometimes as a concession from the seller. Such a strategy can help buyers save cash at the outset to buy into a home, although the buyer needs to be prepared for costs to jump when the initial rate expires.
One of the customers of Open House Austin recently bought a three bedroom, two bath bungalow with a sunroom. That buyer is now in the ‘permitting process’ to transform the garage into an accessory dwelling unit when can be repurposed into a rental for extra income.
NOW A MATURE BUSINESS RETAINING ITS ORIGINAL GOALS
Having successfully established their own business by working hard and continuously adapting to an evolving national and local economy, the partners now spend much of their time building Open House Austin into the education hub they wish they had when they bought their first homes. From recording for the Open House Podcast to building and teaching Open House Homeschool, these ladies are busy turning their company into the ‘go-to’ place for first-time buyers and investors nationwide.
While they no longer personally work with individual clients, KM and SD have built a staff of licensed realtors and support administrators to work with individual clients by utilizing the same creative thinking which has served their clients so well since their brokerage was established. Google “Open House Austin” for further details.
Prospective buyers hiring KM and SD are not limited to single females, but this new real estate brokerage has decided that single women need and can use their help, so they aim their advertising – especially on social media – to attract the interest of their target audience.
CAREER SATISFACTION
Beyond earning real estate commission payments, KM and SD are pleased whenever their creative plans assist a buyer to create their own income stream as they start to build their wealth and financial independence.
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This career story is based on several sources: a news article written by Debra Kamin, published by The New York Times on March 3, 2024, plus internet research, including the website: openhouseaustin.co.
