Brett:

Welcome to another episode of the capital gains tax solutions podcast. Also streaming on expert CRE secrets Podcast, where we believe most high net worth individuals and those who need help with clarifying their capital gains tax deferral options, not having a clear plan is the enemy and using a proven tax deferral strategy such as the deferred sales trust as the best way for you to exit your highly appreciated real estate, business, or other assets. I'm your host, Brett Swarts. In each episode, I'm joined by some of the best real estate and financial wealth and business minds in the world where they share their ideas, deal stories, and inspiration. I'm excited about our next guest. She is out of the great state of New Jersey and she is focused and helping people buy and sell real estate, real estate professional herself but she also has a passion for helping women invest in real estate and spread the knowledge and wealth for more women to invest in real estate so I'm excited to dive into this topic today with Kat Timpson. How are you doing today?

Kat:

I'm well thanks, Brett. Thanks so much for having me. This is awesome.

Brett:

Absolutely. For our listeners to get to know you for the first time. Could you tell us a little bit more about your story and your current focus?

Kat:

I am a realtor in Summit New Jersey. I had come out with my family from New York. I was a native New Yorker thinking of never moving to New Jersey ever. That's a no-no. But moved out here ended up having about five homes that we renovated and upgraded. It was just so much fun and interesting. We had a couple of bad experiences with realtors and I thought well, never gonna deal with them. And I had a friend who allowed me to help her in real estate and once I did that, I realized it's not really about disliking somebody else, it is really about doing it better yourself. So that was sort of my push to get into real estate. We've got tons of people coming from New York, a commuter half-heavy area. Buying and selling weren’t relatively easy in the area. But I found myself getting a little bit challenged by the repetitiveness. And so, I started focusing on investments and that's more I'm happy to talk about that, Brett because I think it's just different from what realtors are doing.

Brett:

Love it. Cool. Raised in New York now in New Jersey, helping people buy and sell real estate but also investing and taking a different approach. By the way, you can learn more about Kat Timpson at kattimpsonrealestate.com. Kat, before we dive into some of those areas of investing opportunities for women, and others as well. Of course, you can invest, but we'll touch on the female side of things today. I'm curious, Kat, I believe we've all been given certain gifts in this life. And these gifts have been given to us to be a blessing and help to others. Some people call them strength. Some people call them superpowers. But I want you to go back to your earlier days, maybe it's High school, maybe it's University days. And I want you to think about maybe there are one or two gifts that you believe you were given? And how does that help how you help people today?

Kat:

It's funny that you say that because I had a best friend in high school who was an amazing musician. I was so envious, because you sort of list his talents, what he could play, what he could do. And he said, what are your talents? I don't know, I guess I'm a people person. I love to network, I love to connect people with needs, people who have things in common. I think that's a lot of what sales are. It's about relationships. So it's networking. It's about bringing people together.

Brett:

It's a beautiful thing. You're right. I can't help but think of a movie. When you see people personally, you see the movie, Office Space. He's like, what would you say you do here? He's like, I'm a people person. He's like, full. So you physically take the TPS reports to the customer. He's like, Well, sometimes, no, but I mean, I think that's true. When you can align with folks, you can connect with folks. And then connect also well with other brokers or other investors, which will help make deals happen. And then at the foundation of that is being a person who can connect with others. So I love that as a gift. Let’s dive into the topic today, which is helping women invest in real estate. When did you become fascinated with this topic? And give us a little bit of the backstory here?

Kat:

It's really in the past year, I just got divorced myself last year. And in doing that, I realized and I kind of, I mean, I knew it was coming, but I have an ex who is a Wall Streeter, and I wasn't doing the house finances at all. So I knew it was coming that I was gonna have a major challenge being single and getting financially literate and savvy. And in doing that, I also was finding what I had a passion for, as a result, I had an accidental set of clients. I had a passion for investing, it just seems so fascinating to have people come in and really appreciate a property, look at how it can be enhanced, and then sell it back to the community. And so that's really where my interests came, then I ended up having a friend in the same agency I was at prior. And he and I were working together, and found we adored the process. And that's really what it is, I think the process, how you help people get through something that they're going to buy and make money on. And he loved it as much and we decided to become a team. And that's really where it started. It's we're relatively new, we'll be honest about that we're relatively new in terms of this particular team. Both of us have been doing real estate for, I think about 25 years together. And it's just, it's so different, in so much it's different every day. And most real estate is I'll say a lot of people on sales, love sales because you never know what's coming. But in investment, real estate, it’s a roller coaster. And it's so satisfying when you get that deal. And you've negotiated and you've been a part of it. And you can say this is going to work for my client.

Brett:

Cool. Love it. And so let's connect the women part, right? Because you're right, it is a big challenge. By the way, growing up, my parents were divorced. And I was with my mom 9% of the time. And my dad was an entrepreneur, real estate investor owner, and she helped run some of the business too. But all of a sudden, you know it you got to realign, you got to refocus. You got to step up and get your finances in order as well as investing well. What is the

The biggest thing that helped you or the secret that helps you overcome doing this, or tip or strategy to inspire some women today?

Kat:

I think one of the things that's interesting about being in investment real estate is that I am one of the few women who are doing the investing. But even though real estate is generally a group of women, it's just far and beyond a majority of women, there are very few agents who are doing it. What I realized in the research that I was doing, was that sort of irony because actually, women are amazing investors, and they're great at this, just an instant stereotypical just happens to be some female traits, like being able to multitask in a way that maybe men don't always do. Some patience that maybe men don't always have, these are like natural things that you must have, to be a good investor. And the other part of it is I encourage women to think about real estate as an asset class. I think, in general, investment is male, heavy. Women don't get an education about investments. And they don't get an education about real estate as a side investment. They may know more about buying and selling a family home, which is great. And that's a start. But I don't see them reaching out to think about how they can take real estate and use it for their prosperity. And that's why it's so meaningful to me to talk to women and help them do that.

Brett:

That's cool. I think you're right. You know, my wife, she's better at multitasking. She started patiently. I heard a great economist talk about something he calls having the conviction to stay with your investments like the best investors, and this particular guy who worked for PIMCO and very respected economists and he's a Teesside Professor as well. And he goes, it's having the conviction and the belief in whatever position you've taken, and then having the patience to see that come to fruition. So, I think you nailed on the head, looking at those strengths for women’s patience and multitasking, as a way, to invest well in real estate. Is that a fair summary?

Kat:

Incredible. I think one of the things that are so great about women is regularly, they are involved with the community. And that's one of the great things about investing in real estate when you enhance a property. Generally, that's what's happening. I mean, there are certainly people who are buying apartments and I hate to say slum lords, but there are people who aren't doing right by the people that they're residents, but generally, certainly where we're doing it, people are enhancing the properties, enhancing the community and that is also super exciting, and why women get even more involved because there's no immunity inside and out.

Brett:

Yes, that's very well said, enhancing the community, enhancing the properties and if they're connected well to the community it's only going to help. That's what we're hoping they tend to do when exchange stays around because it encourages people to trade properties, move into other properties and then enhance those and have that in tax incentive. Although, if it does fail, we had a cool thing called a deferred sales trust. In case anyone wants to learn more about that, you go to capitalgainstaxsolutions.com. Let's shift a little bit into that.

Kat:

I’ll be going to that, Brett .

Brett:

Thank you. You've got to shift and adapt in a marketplace and that's key. I think helping women invest in real estate and how we invest and look at different things, to know that there are options and there are folks like Kat Timpson to help you with that on both the brokerage side and also working through these things. As a real estate professional myself, oftentimes, we sort of have the financial advising hat on, sometimes the tax hat on, and the brokerage hat on, but it's more than just real estate, sales professional, you're a consultant. So, any thoughts on that Kat?

Kat:

I think that especially in investment there are people that I encourage to go into it and they say they can't. That they don't know anything about it and the truth of the matter is if you have a great advisor who's a coach who's going to help you through the process it's doable. It's not science. someone who's done it a few times and you've had somebody who can give you that support all the way through it's a much less challenging situation but I agree, it's not something you just go in willy nilly there is research that needs to be done, there is awareness about what the financial ramifications are going to be. Some hopefully better than others like some of the tax benefits and some of the tax problems. They're things that I wish we sassed out a little bit more because it would encourage more investment and like so many things in America. We've got inequity and to encourage more women minorities to be a bigger part of the backbone of America, which is our real estate market. It's such a passion to me and I think it's so vital that we discuss that.

Brett:

Absolutely. It's the education and finding coaches who are a few steps ahead of you who can guide you and coach you through and realizing it's for everybody. It's not rocket science literally, it's real estate and you look out and go okay and what are the comps and what are the rents and yeah you might have 1000s of connections for some maintenance dealers and management people but you can find those folks and of course having a great realtor to represent you so that is amazing like Kat Timpson. By the way, can we learn about Kat Timpson at kattimpsonrealestate.com. So, let's talk a little bit about the frustrations with capital gains tax. I’m curious, in your career, what's been the biggest frustration for yourself or your client when it comes to capital gains tax deferral options for primary homes or investment real estate?

Kat:

It's so interesting because the short-term capital gains issues are potentially a problem for investors. After all, again in our area, we're North-Central New Jersey, investors are looking to getting fix things up and flip them that is not a long term, that short term, so we're trying to figure out better ways to help our investors put together a strong financial plan around that but it's not conducive because a lot of them you know you could change over right if it becomes your primary residence but that's not what these people are doing they're using it as a business so I think it's gonna be interesting to see what the new changes are going to be if they're going to be any but I would love the discussion to go into how do we help investors make money even though some things are thwarting their efforts.

Brett:

That's a great point, short term versus long term capital gains tax, and essentially if you've owned something for less than a year generally speaking it's gonna be considered short term meaning that's the ordinary income it's not applied to the capital gains tax rates but if you own something for longer than a year, it shifts over to long term capital gains tax which is lower however Biden is proposing the administration is to double that from 20 to about 40-39 instant change and that's going to have some huge ramifications and then the other part he touched on is the if you look at a primary home to the last five years what's really cool they have what's called the 121 exclusion and it's where if you're single, 250,000 is tax-free and then 550. If you're married, but anything above and beyond that, it's going to get hit with the long-term capital gains tax. So you got to be, you got to want to know your options, you're going to want to get with someone like Kat Timpson who can walk you through that. Also, we provide that as well. But connect with both of us if you want to learn more about that. So that being said, what are the questions that clients and men and women should be asking that they're not asking if they're going to be, finding out connecting with you for the first time Kat?