The Key To Scaling Your Real Estate Portfolio The RIGHT Way
Elizabeth Kelly’s journey from fundraising professional to real estate entrepreneur offers invaluable lessons for investors at any stage.
Welcome back to ep96 of “Inspired To Invest”
As she shared on the Inspired to Invest podcast, her path wasn’t always straightforward, but it delivered both financial freedom and profound business wisdom that she now shares with coaching clients.
Kelly’s portfolio growth exemplifies both the opportunities and challenges in real estate investing. Starting with single-family homes and condos before she was properly educated, she and her husband eventually scaled to nearly 400 units across multiple markets.
They focused primarily on apartment buildings in cash-flowing markets like Kirkland Lake, Ontario, and St. John, New Brunswick. During the 2010s, they were able to purchase multifamily properties with just 5% down, which accelerated their growth trajectory significantly.
One crucial insight Kelly emphasizes is the danger of “money churn” – the strategy of buying properties, renovating them, refinancing, and quickly moving to the next deal.
While this approach worked well in previous market conditions, today’s tighter financing environment has slowed this cycle dramatically. Investors who built their business models around rapid money churn without proper safeguards have found themselves vulnerable to market shifts, sometimes with devastating consequences for themselves and their investors.
The management challenges of a large portfolio became evident as Kelly’s empire grew. She established a property management company that eventually managed approximately 400 units, but discovered that the operational demands were far greater than anticipated.
This revelation ultimately led her to sell roughly 75% of her portfolio to focus on properties that function more like businesses rather than traditional real estate investments. “For me to keep a property in my portfolio, I need to be able to make money in multiple ways, not just by charging residential rent,” she explains.
Education stands as the cornerstone of Kelly’s investment philosophy. She emphasizes that seemingly “easy” decisions often result from not knowing what you don’t know.
Before investing, she advises newcomers to understand market evaluation, risk tolerance assessment, different investment strategies, and fundamental business skills. “The second you buy investment property, you’re not just an investor—you’re an entrepreneur. You need to know how to run a business,” Kelly states emphatically.
Perhaps most importantly, Kelly addresses the need for strategic growth rather than expansion for expansion’s sake. As she puts it, “Just because you can grow quickly doesn’t mean you should.”
She’s seen too many investors pursue aggressive scaling without first establishing proper systems and processes, only to face potentially catastrophic challenges later. For those involving other people’s money, this responsibility becomes even more profound.
The freedom that real estate investing has provided drives Kelly’s continued passion for the business. From setting her own schedule to creating her desired income, the flexibility of entrepreneurship has transformed her life.
Today, she focuses on coaching others while maintaining select properties that function as businesses with multiple revenue streams. Her story reminds us that real estate is ultimately just a vehicle to achieve our broader life goals – not the destination itself.
To connect with Elizabeth, go to @elizabethkellyconsulting on social or https://ekconsulting.ca
Thank you for KnightsbridgeFX for bringing us this month’s episodes. To learn more about how you can save money when you have currency to exchange, go to https://knightsbridgefx.com and on social @knightsbridge.fx.
“Inspired to Invest” is proud to support the Beyond Success Program, a not-for-profit financial literacy program for students, launched by More To Give & MAK Investments. Find out more at @more2give.ca.
Join us again for our next episode Jun. 4
Thank you for tuning into “Inspired To Invest”, hosted by Serena Holmes & remember, “when you invest in yourself, the sky’s the limit!”