Daily Inspiration: Meet Mackenzie Page

Today we’d like to introduce you to Mackenzie Page.

Hi Mackenzie, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Before I got into Real Estate I was a touring musician writing songs and traveling in a van all over the US and Europe. My band ended and I just reached a wall with touring, eventually deciding I needed to switch it up. I started listening to the Bigger Pockets Podcast and became obsessed with Real Estate and investing in general. Obsessed with the freedom that owning an asset could bring a person. I felt that it was the direction I needed to go. So I got my license.

My drummer at the time was also working in real estate and he gave me the best advice. He said I should try and be someone’s assistant. That the school part of real estate doesn’t really teach you how to be successful in the actual day to day work of the job. I put it out there to my circle and found an incredible woman who’d just had a baby and needed a ton of help. She, gratefully, signed me up for a coaching program which taught me the ins and outs of working with clients, contracts–the whole lot. Then she threw me into working with her clients. It’s a surprisingly untraditional way someone gets into this job, but it was invaluable to my growth. I had a mentor that worked with me hand in hand. That gave me a huge leg up. I got to see and be apart of the process through her business. I worked for her for about two years until my own business took off to the point that I had to help her find a replacement. We still call each other constantly because real estate can be a lonely business.

During that time my partner and I bought our house and turned half of it into a studio Airbnb that we rent out. That passive income is everything. It’s helped us save for the whole house renovation that we are currently in. I always tell my clients if you’re looking to level up, buy something that needs work, and do a little bit every year until you’ve built something and forced some equity out of it. Find a way to rent part of it out.

Now I get to help my clients do the same! I am really one of those annoying people that can truly say I love my job. I love helping people navigate their life situations–location change, aging out of a home, or buying their first–it brings me such joy to talk through all of the possibilities a person has. I joke that sometimes I am part-real estate agent, part financial-therapist. Because big decisions aren’t made lightly. There’s a lot that goes into them and I think having an ally on your side to talk through options, get creative and think outside of the box– it really helps. I just love my job!

I am also on the board of a women’s investor network here in Denver called Rocky Mountain Women Invest. We host meet ups monthly and learn from each other all about what’s working in investing, helping each other to reach goals. It’s a great group and being in that room has really changed my life. I also get to write the blog for the group!

When I’m not working, I’m either writing fiction, or working in our little hobby farm with my partner, rescue pup and flock of sassy chickens.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Definitely not smooth. I got into real estate during the 2021 rush of insanely low interest rates. No one could get an offer accepted, people were practically offering their first born child to buy a home. On the reverse of that, I have also worked in the more recent markets with the highest interest rates seen since the 80s, where nothing sells and no one buys. But I think there’s value in only knowing the extremes in a career. Being an entrepreneur it is all I know. You never know where your next paycheck is coming from. You never know really what’s around the corner, be it obstacle or gain. But I also think that is the fun of it. There’s no ceiling to what you can do. There’s no one telling you what to do or which way to go. It’s just you trying your best to listen to your intuition and doing a little bit every day to make it better. And that’s gotten me to the top 3% at my brokerage out of 800 agents. I think Oprah said it– luck is when opportunity meets preparation, and I’m always preparing for the best.

Growing up my mom always called me a pitbull because I’d never let anything go. I think that stubbornness has really served me. I’ve failed a lot, tons actually, but I’ve never really given up. It’s always, “okay, which way are we going to pivot this time?”

I think one of the hardest part was going from artist to telling my circle I was doing something else. I kind of had to go all in to be taken seriously. I think that is the fault with social media really. We don’t often allow people to pivot. We put people in boxes, like oh she does this and he does that. But really, we’re all ever-evolving people. We have different chapters in our lives. Different jobs, different hobbies.

I had a spiritual mentor once tell me that the goal of modern society is to push us into one thing, one direction, and live that same thing every single day. But he said, he would rather live as many lives with his time here on Earth that he could. And I loved that. I want to be as many things, try as many jobs and hobbies as I can. It’s probably why I also love to write and read fiction. I think, to me, that is living fully.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Because I come from a creative background through music and writing, I approach real estate from a creative mindset. It’s looking at a house you love and seeing how we can make it into an income-generating asset? How can we force equity here? House Hacking is the term most people know it by, but essentially it is offsetting some of the mortgage burden by renting out a portion of the home either long term, short term or mid term. There’s a ton that goes into these decisions like, how can we create a rentable portion of this home? Or does this location allow for short term rentals? Ect, ect. It’s a lot of juggling I’ve helped tons of my clients who are now running successful businesses from their homes, and also paying themselves instead of landlords.

I also love to get into the emotional aspects with my clients. Tackling the fears of making such big decisions and working through the life changes. Timing is everything, and whether you’re selling one home to buy another, or your rental is up and you’ve only got so much time–there’s a lot that needs to be mapped out. I love navigating the unknown with my clients. Anticipating the hurdles and talking about potentials. I always said if real estate didn’t work out I’d be a therapist or life coach, but thankfully I get to add all of those aspects and tailor my services to what my clients really need. Need to chat it out for a hour on the phone? Need to run numbers or design choices by someone? I love being that support person for my clients.

How do you think about happiness?

I like the excitement of building something. I also like rush of praying it will all work out and simultaneously planning my next vacation or project. I’m a planner, trying my best to live in the present moment, but I also think it’s what makes me good at what I do. I like to look ahead at what’s possible and pivot when there’s inevitably changes. I guess you could say the carrot on a stick really works for me.
The best day is always a checklist tackled, and another set for tomorrow, in my garden with my chickens running around at my feet, a glass of sparkling rose in hand and a story in my head, knowing that I’ve done my best that day.

Pricing:

• Call me. We’ll chat.

Contact Info:

• Website: inktr.ee/MackenziePage. https://homewithimpact.com. mpagehomes.com (in construction–when does this run?)
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madame_kenzington/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mackenzie.page
• Yelp: Zillow Reviews Page: https://www.zillow.com/profile/mackenziepagerealestate
• soundcloud: (band Spotify ) https://open.spotify.com/artist/3PnCdmpbp1M9FqDynMZurL
• Other: an interview w/ me: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0YAAbdYIxqyhfFWZJkasmr.

Image Credits
All thanks to the @madmerryphoto. https://www.instagram.com/madmerryphoto/