From Real Estate Rookie to Property Pro with Ashley Kehr, Ep. 698
0 Comments

Written by John Casmon

March 25, 2025

Ashley Kehr is a real estate investor, educator, and co-host of the BiggerPockets Real Estate Rookie podcast. She started her investing journey in 2014 and has since built a portfolio of over 40 units across residential and commercial properties. Ashley is the author of Real Estate Rookie: 90 Days to Your First Investment and co-author of Real Estate Partnerships, guiding new investors on how to build and scale through strategic collaborations.

Get ready for REWBCON 2025, happening from April 10th to 12th! Use my code JOHN at checkout for 10% off your ticket.

Key Takeaways:

  • Real estate investing allows for flexibility, but success requires systems and processes.
  • Partnering with trusted individuals can accelerate portfolio growth.
  • Living below your means early on provides freedom to take investment risks.
  • Scaling too fast without proper infrastructure can create major stress.
  • Investing should align with personal lifestyle and long-term goals—not just unit counts.

Topics:

From Accounting to Real Estate

  • Left her accounting career after realizing it wasn’t the right fit.
  • Took an unexpected opportunity to manage a 40-unit apartment complex.
  • Learned property management through hands-on experience, growing to 80 units.

Building a Real Estate Portfolio

  • Partnered with a childhood friend’s son for her first duplex investment.
  • Focused on buying small, manageable properties before scaling up.
  • Expanded her portfolio to over 30 units while managing properties full-time.

Lessons in Scaling and Outsourcing

  • Realized she was doing too much alone and needed better delegation.
  • Experimented with third-party property management, which led to major challenges.
  • Brought management back in-house using virtual assistants and improved processes.

Aligning Investing with Lifestyle Goals

  • Initially hustled hard but later shifted focus to more time with family.
  • Prefers a “small but mighty” portfolio over constant expansion.
  • Invests strategically in flips and select buy-and-hold properties.

📢 Announcement: Learn about our Apartment Investing Mastermind here.

Round of Insights:

  • Failure that led to success: Focused too much on unit count and scaled too fast, leading to stress and restructuring.
  • Digital resource: Monarch Money for managing personal finances and investments.
  • Book recommendation: Hug Your Haters by Jay Baer—teaches effective customer service and tenant communication.
  • Daily habit: No strict routine—values flexibility and doing what feels right each day.
  • #1 Insight for creating systems to scale: Use SOP tools like Loom and Tango to document tasks and simplify outsourcing.
    Favorite restaurant in East Aurora, NY: Bar-Bill Tavern.

Next Steps:

Thank you for joining us for another great episode! If you’re enjoying the show, please LEAVE A RATING OR REVIEW, and be sure to hit that subscribe button so you do not miss an episode.