EP 524 - Discover how Rhea Tobin went from aerospace to acquiring 5 Properties and raising about $1M

Tim Mai (0:00)

An operator here in Houston lost over $150 million of investors' money. He seems very legit, but the one thing was that he had filed bankruptcy before.

Rhea Tobin (0:13)

If the person disclosed their bankruptcy, told you about what happened, it's less, I'm not saying it's no red flag, but it's maybe like a dark burgundy. If they didn't disclose it and you found out about it, run it the other direction.

They're hiding it. That's a big red flag.

Tim Mai (0:35)

Welcome everyone to our HERO Capital Show. I'm your host Tim Mai. And today we have another amazing guest on the line with us, Ms. Rhea Tobin.

Rhea is the president and director of RMT Equity Partners. She leads a dynamic real estate investment portfolio focusing in the Sunbelt States. And with a background as a senior manager in the technology sector, Rhea excels in driving results through teamwork, collaboration, partnership and relationship building. She specializes in strategic acquisitions of new properties and value add enhancements and also works as an asset manager of the properties after close through the sale. Currently has over 22 million dollars asset under management.

Outside of work, she is passionate about helping others wherever she can. She has been on the board, been a board member of the San Diego Chapter of Child Help, which was dedicated to the treatment and prevention of child abuse. She also volunteers for USO, American Cancer Society, Make-A-Wish Foundation.

And with that, everyone, let's give Rhea a huge Texas welcome, y'all.

Rhea Tobin (1:52)

Woo-hoo! All right.

Tim Mai (1:57)

Yes. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for being on with us today. And yeah, I'd love to start out with you can share with us a little bit about you. How did you go from technology into this crazy world of real estate that we are all in?

Rhea Tobin (2:11)

Well, that's a good question. I started looking at real estate probably in, I want to say, 2012-ish timeframe. I was actually looking for an out of my corporate job even back then because just I had done everything that I thought I could do and really, really didn't love the job anymore. But I was still in it for quite a few years after that. But I started with purchasing some land with people in California. So that was kind of my start in, I want to say, 2014

So I owned quite a few acres of land in California. I'm not sure that I love that anymore because California is not the greatest in development. But it's okay, they're in a good space for growth. So we're going to keep it for a while. And then after that, 2016 timeframe, I unfortunately lost my job in corporate America. A downsize, they closed the division. And so what was then me looking to try and get out, okay, now I really need to get out or need to find something else. So I started and I signed up with Ari Mentor in the tail end of 2016 So technically my training did not start until 2017 because I literally signed up in December with the holidays and all of that good stuff.

So started in 2017 At the same time, I was still looking for another job because you got to pay the mortgage, all that good stuff. But I really enjoyed, I took really the first year, I just wanted to learn because I had general understanding about real estate and thought that it was something that I could do. I had done well just in investing for myself, in my own properties and that sort of stuff. So figured this is something that I could do and took the training classes, really focused that first year just on absorbing information, meeting people, trying to build a network of team and that sort of stuff. And then I closed on my first deal in 2019

It was a 67-unit property in Kentucky. And we had that. Of course, we closed and about nine months later, COVID hit. So that was a lot of fun, but just generally getting into the business to go circle back and just make sure I answer your question. It was just really looking for an out from corporate America and building my own business is really kind of what started it and real estate appealed to me.

Tim Mai (4:25)

I see. Very cool. And with, I guess it's been 10 years now.

Almost 10 years, nine years, I guess. Yeah. Almost 10 years since you've been in this. And what's when you, I'd love to go in, because especially speaking to, for all the people that are new to real estate, what part of real estate started to drew you into it? And then, and I know you mentioned that your strength is in asset management, right? In the operation side of the business, right? And so I'd love to explore like where, what, which part of which role in our real estate attracted you and how you leverage your skill set from your existing career into real estate, and then how it differs now 10 years later.