BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast

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549: Building a $2M Portfolio While Raising 2 Kids w/ Maria Friström

Dec 26, 2021

Guest

Maria Friström

Maria Friström, a Finnish real estate investor and business owner, turned her life around after facing personal challenges and grief. She shares her journey from a tech job to building a $2M real estate portfolio while nurturing her children. Maria reveals how to view spending as investment opportunities and discusses the emotional intricacies of balancing motherhood with property investing. Her resilient story highlights the importance of creativity, communication, and leveraging relationships to thrive in the real estate market.

01:21:16

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ANECDOTE

Lactation Epiphany

Maria felt overwhelmed balancing work and motherhood in Silicon Valley.
This led her to consider real estate for financial freedom.

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ADVICE

Tax Benefits

Consider using real estate as a hedge against high taxes.
Maria bought her first rental property in Fort Collins, Colorado, primarily for tax benefits.

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ADVICE

Pitching to Investors

When pitching real estate deals, tailor your approach to your audience.
Maria presented her investment opportunity to her engineer brother and husband using detailed Excel spreadsheets.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Transforming Spending into Investment Opportunities

03:04 • 4min

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From Banter to Real Estate: A Journey of Growth

06:39 • 10min

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From Identity Crisis to Real Estate Success: A Multimillion-Dollar Journey

16:51 • 2min

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Navigating Real Estate as a Mom Investor

19:13 • 11min

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Understanding Personality Types in Business Interactions

30:12 • 2min

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Resilience in the Face of Loss

31:52 • 7min

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Investing in Real Estate with Limited Funds

38:53 • 6min

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Navigating Connection Through Feedback and Authenticity

44:56 • 26min

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Courage, Fear, and Laughter

01:11:00 • 10min

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Retire Early with Real Estate

Chad Carson

Atomic Habits

James Clear

Atomic Habits by James Clear provides a practical and scientifically-backed guide to forming good habits and breaking bad ones. The book introduces the Four Laws of Behavior Change: make it obvious, make it attractive, make it easy, and make it satisfying. It also emphasizes the importance of small, incremental changes (atomic habits) that compound over time to produce significant results. Clear discusses techniques such as habit stacking, optimizing the environment to support desired habits, and focusing on continuous improvement rather than goal fixation. The book is filled with actionable strategies, real-life examples, and stories from various fields, making it a valuable resource for anyone seeking to improve their habits and achieve personal growth.

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

Mark Manson

In this book, Mark Manson argues against the typical self-help advice of constant positivity, instead suggesting that life's struggles give it meaning. He emphasizes the need to focus on what truly matters and to accept and confront painful truths. The book is divided into nine chapters and uses blunt honesty and profanity to illustrate its ideas, encouraging readers to find meaning through values they can control and to replace uncontrollable values with more meaningful ones.

Big Magic

Elizabeth Gilbert

In 'Big Magic', Elizabeth Gilbert delves into the mysteries of creativity, encouraging readers to live more creative and fulfilling lives. The book is divided into six parts: Courage, Enchantment, Permission, Persistence, Trust, and Divinity. Gilbert argues that creativity is an essential part of human nature and that it requires courage to accept and overcome fears. She emphasizes the importance of persistence, trust in the creative process, and the need to separate creativity from the pressure of making a living. Through personal anecdotes and insights from other artists, Gilbert demystifies the creative process and inspires readers to pursue their passions with curiosity rather than fear.

Resonate

Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences

Nancy Duarte

In 'Resonate,' Nancy Duarte focuses on the art of storytelling in presentations, emphasizing the importance of making the audience the hero and the presenter the mentor. The book explores how to structure presentations using mythic structures and the hero's journey, contrasting 'what is' with 'what could be' to create engagement. Duarte provides practical advice on understanding the audience, creating emotional contrasts, and using visual and delivery techniques to make presentations memorable and impactful. The book includes case studies, sample presentation slides, and dramatic techniques to help presenters deliver persuasive and transformative presentations.

Maria Friström is an investor, designer, mother, and business owner from Finland, and she’s one of the only few people that can match Brandon Turner in height. Maria was working in Silicon Valley before she voluntarily left her position to build an empire of her own. She took her down payment savings for a primary residence and on a whim bought a rental property in Fort Collins, Colorado.

She and her husband then decided to move to Finland to raise their children. Through some challenging life events, Maria was left heartbroken and grief-stricken, with a business that became a full-time job for her. She wanted to express her creativity via design, so they decided to move back to America to flip their first rental property in Colorado.

Maria’s inspiring story is a testament to how real estate investing can pull you out of financial, emotional, and mental depths. She has built a real estate empire worth well over two million dollars and has the financial freedom to spend time where she wants, with who she wants, doing what she wants.

In This Episode We Cover:

How to build your real estate portfolio without building yourself a job

Using real estate as a hedge against high taxes

Presenting investment opportunities in a professional, efficient way

Healing after heartbreak and using your passions to bring you mental clarity

The 4 keys to raising capital for real estate investing (whether it be banks, private money, etc.)

Why you should always be willing to eat the shiz sandwich

And So Much More!

Links from the Show

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