Welcome back to another informative episode of the IRA Cafe podcast! This time, host Kyle Moody, Business Development Manager at American IRA, sits down with Haley Gant, real estate investor and founder of Elite Mountain Mortgage. 

Newly based in Asheville, North Carolina, but seasoned in the real estate industry, Haley draws from a lifetime steeped in real estate investing from growing up in a family of hard money lenders in Texas to now building her own company in the Blue Ridge Mountains. 

Together, Kyle and Haley explore Haley's journey from being immersed in property visits as a child, to launching her career in mortgage lending, and finding her niche in short-term rental investments. The discussion touches on key moments that shaped Haley’s business path, including navigating moving across the country, adapting to the challenges and rewards of rural real estate, and building credibility in a new market. 

Haley also shares her experience as both an investor and a broker, and how her personal approach sets her apart from large mortgage firms. Whether you’re interested in leveraging self-directed IRAs for real estate, understanding the nuances of rural investment properties, or looking for practical advice to break into real estate investing, this episode offers valuable insights from someone who’s walked the walk.

Key takeaways:

1. Building Your Track Record: Haley’s background in real estate taught her the value of diversification and learning by doing. She emphasizes starting with what you know, managing risk, and making sure your investments don’t stretch you too thin.
2. Real Estate and Lifestyle: Personal interests and lifestyle goals can shape viable investment opportunities; for Haley, proximity to recreational activities like mountain biking played a key role in her choice of markets.
3. Adapting in Uncertain Environments: The real estate landscape, especially in rural or rapidly changing markets like Western North Carolina, demands adaptability, a strong network, and reliable local resources for property management and maintenance.
4. Personalized Lending Advantage: As an independent mortgage broker, Haley sets herself apart through dedicated service, transparency, and relationship-building providing tailored loan options and advocating for client education throughout the mortgage process.
5. Advice for New Investors: For those just starting out, Haley highlights the importance of building a genuine local network, taking a conservative approach to choice and financing, and being patient, doing your due diligence and waiting for the right deal instead of jumping at every opportunity.

Whether you’re new to self-directed IRA investing, exploring non-recourse loans, or simply looking for inspiration to take your own leap into real estate, this episode delivers actionable advice, honest reflections, and an encouraging reminder that with the right connections and persistence, you can chart your own successful course in real estate.

Ready to take control of your financial future? Visit us at www.iracafepodcast.com and book a free informational call. 

Welcome to another session of a sit down with the IRA Cafe, wherever and whenever you've decided to join us. We're so glad that you're here today and that you've taken a few minutes to learn something new. I'm Kyle Moody and I'm the business development manager here at American ira. And it's my pleasure to bring you another guest to your screens. Without further delay, I'd like to introduce you to Hailey Gant with Elite Mountain Mortgage. And Haley is possibly newer to the Asheville area, but she's not new to real estate. And so we're going to talk a little bit about her knowledge, where she is now, what led her to this, and see what kind of information she can share with you. So, Haley, thank you so much for joining us today.

Tell us a little bit about who you are and what we can learn today.

Yeah, thank you guys so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. So my name is Hayley Gantt. I am a real estate investor. I'm a mortgage lender currently based out of Asheville, North Carolina. But I am originally from Houston, Texas. I've been out here for about two years. Just got started in the mortgage industry this year.

But I have been around real estate investing for pretty much my entire life. When I was in kindergarten, my parents quit their corporate jobs, went to Vegas one weekend, and then on Monday they started investing in real estate. And that was 25 years ago. They're also hard money lenders. And I am an only child, so I had no choice but to grow up surrounded by everything. Real estate. It really comes second nature to me. I always see it being a part of my life.

And all of that has kind of led me to where I am today, which I'm sure we'll get more into here in a minute.

Wonderful. Hey, well, thanks so much for telling us about that. So, only child. I am, I'm right there with you. So I, I get, there's, we, we just get it right. So you're either volun told or pick it up by osmosis and everything. So totally understand. Well, so how long do you think that you've been in, say, the real estate space and then also break that out into the mortgage space?

Yeah. So as far as real estate, I mean, I like to say since I was in kindergarten, I remember growing up, I would go to houses with my parents on the weekends. I remember sitting under staircases of houses as they were meeting with contractors, you know, walking around, finding, like, old things in the house that people left behind from that investment space. And then it really wasn't until I got older, into high school and college that I realized I had a lot of knowledge and information that my peers around me did not have when it came to real estate. So, so I was always around it. And today my spouse and I, we, we have a couple of short term rentals, we have a couple of long term rentals and I do private lending out of my Roth ira. So I've always been around it. But really once I got out into the real world after college is when I really started to do things more of myself with my own money.

And then when my spouse, David and I got together in 2019, you know, know, he was also very interested in learning about real estate and, you know, as we got older, kind of built some wealth for ourselves and just started picking off bit at a time each year. My personal favorite space is the short term rentals. We've got a cabin down in Brevard, North Carolina, if you know where that is. That has by far been our best investment. I love that cabin. We will probably never sell that thing. But yeah, I, I kind of like to dabble in all spaces because it is good to be diversified and have different things going on because you just never know what might happen, you know.

Gotcha. Gotcha. So Vegas, the west coast, Texas, and here you are now in the Asheville area and you've got properties in Brevard. What, what brought you up to Asheville? Why Asheville?

So my spouse loves mountain biking. So back in around 2020, we knew we wanted to invest into real estate outside of Texas. And Brevard, North Carolina just popped up on the map because it's one of the biggest or the best mountain biking places in the country. So we actually visited Brevard and Asheville for the first time in 2021 and with the goal to look at land, see you know, what areas we liked, things like that. When we were here visiting on that first trip, that cabin in Brevard went up for sale while we were here. And it just checked all of the boxes that we would have been looking for. Somehow the universe aligned and we were able to buy this cabin when the housing market was starting to get crazy in 2021. With my job at the time, I was able to get the loan, David was able to do the down payment.

So we bought that cabin. We got it live on Airbnb December 2021. And that is, I always say that is the catalyst to us moving out here because once we bought that Cabin. We would drive out from Texas, spend two weeks at a time out here, load up the truck, bring all three dogs with us. And once you stay two weeks in the mountains of western North Carolina and then you drive 15 hours back to Houston, Texas. Every time we did that drive back, we were just like, man, we need to move. We need to make it happen. We told ourselves it would be in the five year plan, but, you know, we don't have kids.

Our dogs are our kids. And we knew if we made it happen in five years, our dogs would either be too old to enjoy it or might not even be here anymore. So in the beginning of 2023, you know, we were in Houston. It was January. We weren't really happy. We love the outdoors. I was tired of the heat in Houston, and we just kind of said, screw it, let's make it happen. This year we connected with a real estate agent.

We started house hunting. But, you know, in 2023, you were making offers on houses and eight other people were also making an offer on that house. So it was kind of just fun and games. And then we finally came back to this house that had been listed for 90 days. They had it listed for too high. We threw out a low offer because in my experience in real estate, I'm never afraid to throw out a low offer on a house because you just never know. They countered, we said no. They accepted our offer and we moved out here July 2023.

So. So almost exactly two years ago, we've been out here and we absolutely love it. We love biking, we love hiking. I can take my dog outside in July and she doesn't get a heat stroke. It's just fantastic. We're very, very happy with our decision to move out here. Great.

Forget the dog. You can walk outside, not have a heat stroke. So that's that, That's a plus as well. So that's a little bit about Elite Mountain. More mortgage. Is this a your company, a franchise? Tell us a little bit about that.

It is my own company. So I started Elite Mountain Mortgage this April. So when we moved to North Carolina, you know, I've been around real estate my entire life. I quit my corporate job in 2021. We were focusing on real estate full time. And then the goal in those years really just became the gold was to move to North Carolina. Where once we moved out here, I honestly didn't really know what I wanted to do. I didn't know my best path forward.

But back when I worked in the self directed IRA space, I loved events My mom and her husband built and run a wedding venue back in Texas. So I actually got a job out here as a wedding coordinator about three weeks after we moved out here. And I loved that job. It was so much fun getting to help couples plan their weddings and execute those weddings. And that job was a lot of fun for about a year and a half. But then Helene hit, as we all know, had a really big impact on our area. And so, unfortunately, my job as a wedding coordinator went away after Helene. And for the first time in my life, I was faced with, I don't have a job, I don't want to go get a job making some nominal hourly rate for someone else where I'm just trading my time for a paycheck that I know I'm worth more than.

And so over winter of this past year, I was really kind of faced with where do I go from here? So I knew I wanted to get back into real estate and I honestly just kind of got back to my roots. Like I said, my dad has been a hard money lender for the past 20 years. I've heard a lot of people say real estate investors graduate and grow up to be lenders. So getting my mortgage license just made a lot of sense. I hunkered down over the winter. It was nice because it gave me something to work towards and it gave me a path forward. Honestly, I wasn't super excited about it at first. It wasn't until I passed the NMLS National Licensing Test, which has a 53% pass rate.

On the first try. I passed that test. I went back in my car, I cried, and, and I, at that point, I was excited about what I was doing from here. So then the question became, I have my mortgage license. Do I go work for a bank, do I go work for a retail lender, or do I go the broker route and pave my own way? So I started reaching out to some of my contacts here, and I had a really nice conversation with a guy named John here in Asheville. He is with NEXA Mortgage, which is the brokerage that I ended up joining. And it's nice because with NEXA Mortgage, I am backed by the national brokerage, but I'm able to operate under my own company here, which is Elite Mountain Mortgage. I have done sales and marketing for my entire career and it's always been for other people's companies.

I've always been the champion of someone else's brand. So now it feels really, really good that I am the champion of my own brand, my own company. I'm building something for myself, really honing in hopefully on the DSCR space. I mean I can do loans through over 250 different wholesale lenders. So this route might be a little slower starting out since I'm truly starting my business from the ground up. But I think three or five years from now, thinking long term this is going to be the best path for me. I think I'm going to have a lot of success with this route and I am hitting the ground running and I am not giving up, I'm not stopping. I don't care what people say about the real estate market these days.

There are always opportunities, there's always money to be made and we can talk more about that soon. But yeah, I'm really happy with the path that I chose. It's a new company, new venture, but yeah, I'm doing it well.

No, and that's, and that's great because obviously you did some of your research on the long standing companies that have been there in Asheville. One thing that you've learned over the past few years, that Asheville is very local. People love local. They, you know, they're, they're loyal to a lot of companies. So tell us a little bit about what sets your company apart, maybe from some of the others that are out there. Obviously I have no doubt you probably have connections at those companies. What do you offer? And honestly, being smaller than a lot of the bigger things out there, how does that set you apart? And what can you offer that they can't?

Well, I think what sets me apart the most is me. I mean, I'm a one man show. I have a lot of help on the back end which is so vital as you're getting started in any, any industry, but especially the mortgage industry with loans. These loans and shopping rates is not easy, it's not straightforward, it can be complicated. Every situation is different. But I know in my heart that I'm going to work hard for my clients. I'm going to find the answers that I need to. I love learning.

I am always a student and my goal is for my borrowers to make informed and educated decisions about the loans that they're signing up for. Because I know signing up for a mortgage for your home is probably one of the biggest liabilities you will take on in your life. And I don't want people to be signing up for these loans without really knowing what they're getting into. I also think people love to work with people they like and they enjoy. I think I have a fun personality. I'm definitely an extrovert if you can't tell, but I think letting your personality shine forward and being able to work with people that you like and connect with people, people are always going to come back to the person that they enjoyed chatting with, that they enjoyed spending time with. They know they had a good experience. And yeah, as I'm building my network out here, you know, just be yourself.

You're probably not going to jive with everyone, but that's okay because the people that I do jive with, I'm looking to build really genuine connections with. And I think being educated about what you're doing, working with people you like and providing a good quality service with a high level of communication is really going to set you apart in whatever you do. And that's my goal with what I'm doing as a mortgage lender.

Ah, great. I like that answer. And you know, so any of our clients that are truly using their self directed IRAs, they may not always be able to come with 100% of the cash on the deal that they're trying to do. So do you have the ability to help self directed clients with non recourse loans by any chance?

So that is something I actually started to research that last week after I spoke with Patricia from your team. I am not 100% sure if I'm able to do non recourse loans, but I'm certainly looking into it because I do know that that is a huge opportunity because holding real estate as an investment in general is can be very profitable long term. Especially when you combine that with owning real estate in your IRA with the tax deferred or tax free advantages. You see me put my IRA hat back on. Now, it can be really advantageous, but the reality is is most people don't have enough money in their IRA to outright purchase that property and account for any cost to fix it up or hold those initial costs or really just leveraging that money you have in your ira. Getting a non recourse loan is a great resource there. So I am looking in to see if I can do that and I'll have to come back and circle around and let you guys know. If you're listening to this later, reach out to me, I'll let you know if I'm able to do non recourse loans.

Great, thank you so much. And what we're actually talking about there, for folks who this may be your first time joining us or if you're just sharpening the the saw on your knowledge of self directed retirement Accounts or investing in general. Anytime you are buying a piece of real est within your IRA, you can buy it 100 cash. You can partner. Obviously there's syndication type of deals that folks get into. But if you don't have 100% cash and you're not looking to partner, you really want to keep this close to vest on your own, then one of the options that you can do of course is leverage with a loan in your retirement account. However, it's not going to be a conventional loan that you might be used to. It can only be a non recourse loan.

And so that's what we were talking about, non recourse loans. All parties agree that the only leverage for the lender is to come back and take the property itself in the form of a default. They can't come after you personally or the remainder of your retirement account to make themselves whole. So Haley, hopefully you're going to be able to get that information and help folks in the self directed realm in the future. You had mentioned earlier that obviously one of your backgrounds is your own real estate investing, you and your husband. And so I enjoyed hearing some of that short term midterm rentals. It sounds like what is a deal? I always ask folks this and I always hear this at any of the normal meetings that I'm in or conventions. What is one of your deals that you have learned that the most on good, bad or otherwise.

It's usually the bad deals that that happen that people learn the most on. But what's one that you can share with us?

Oh yeah, no one wants to hear about the deal, that everything went well. That's not exciting. You know, I would say we have our short term rental that is just outside of Austin, Texas. We're actually in the process of selling it right now. But this house is adorable, David Fully remodeled the entire thing. It started as a fishing shack. It's out in Burnett, Texas, if you guys know where that is. It's about 40 minutes west of Austin.

This one has definitely been a learning experience for us. This house was a selfish endeavor. We actually bought it because it is less than a mile from Spider Mountain, which is again big mountain biking place. We're seeing a common theme here. We like to invest in real estate where we can go do fun things. So the house in Burnett, we've owned it for a few years. It was a full remodel. Probably paid a little too much for it.

Probably accepted a little bit higher of an interest rate than we needed to. But the big learning curve with this One, because this house has rented. But the maintenance on this house being in a rural area has been challenging to say the least. So, you know, if we need an electrician to go out to the house or if we need to switch cleaners out there, a lot of people don't go to that area because it's such a far drive out there. And you know, if we've had an issue with the cleaner, she's the only one in town. So that has been challenging. And we again, we bought that house as a selfish endeavor so we could go stay there, so we could go enjoy it. I will say David did a beautiful job remodeling this house.

It has custom kitchen cabinets. It's the, the house itself is fantastic. But just the area that it's in compared to how much it's renting at this point, we would rather invest that capital in other places. So we're actually under contract to sell it right now. When we were living in Texas, we actually had a lady rent it midterm. I think she started with a six month rental, so we made some good money. She was actually building a house in the neighborhood and she had delays in building her home because of the same issues with getting people out to that area. So she ended up staying, I want to say like eight months, almost a year in our house.

And by the time her house was finally done and she moved out, we moved to North Carolina. So we never got to fully enjoy the selfish endeavor portion of that property. But what I would say the teaching moment with that is, you know, when you're buying properties maybe more in a rural area, make sure that either you can get out there or you have the resources to get out there and make sure that maintenance can happen in a timely manner on that type of house. Because if you have a shower leak, if you have a septic issue or someone just can't operate the lock, to get into that home, you need to have ways that you can get someone there quickly. I will say our cabin in Brevard, which is also a short term rental. We've had the exact opposite of that. You know, it's easy to get people out there. We managed that property remotely from Texas for two years before we actually moved out here.

So now it's really easy. I mean, we probably go by about once a month, we check in, but we've had really good relationships with our cleaners here in the cabin in Brevard. So we haven't had those same challenges. But I would say when you're purchasing properties, don't pay too much. Don't let your heart get involved, you know, too much. Yes, it's fun to buy real estate. You're investing, but you have to buy it right on the front end. And you have to make sure that you have the resources in the area to take care of that property as you're owning it.

And especially short term rentals, they need more maintenance. You know, it's more hands on. You're more in the hospitality space than just a landlord or fix and flipping it to sell it. So that's been a learning experience. I am sad to see that one go, but I do think it will be for the best. And now that we're in the Carolinas, I want to invest my money where I live. So, you know, we're definitely reinvesting that capital in other areas just closer to where we live now.

Gotcha. Well, truer words never been spoken in the Asheville area. For those of you who are listening outside of our area here, whatever state or time zone you're in, Asheville is in Buncombe county, which North Carolina has 100 counties and it's the seventh largest. So that's big. And though it doesn't look massive on the map, it covers a lot of very rural areas, a lot of elevation changes. And of course, Haley noted at the beginning of the podcast about Helene coming through. And so the areas that the hurricane affected made it very hard for emergency and everything else to reach folks had the hurricane not happened. Start thinking about the other basics when you buy rural, if you're living there.

I mean, even things of going, oh, gosh, I forgot something at the grocery store. Well, it might be a half hour before one way before you get somewhere. Okay, so, and that's just for a head of broccoli. You know, imagine if it's actually a water leak. So no, Haley hit that on the head there. Haley, really quick, before we wrap up here with your knowledge, you know how you've jumped in over the years into your own real estate investing? What's something that someone starting out who hasn't made the leap yet, they're close. But what are one or two things that you could share with somebody who is starting out that they need, need to know about getting into real estate investing?

Yeah. Gosh, this could be a whole another podcast. I feel like I could give you 10 things right now. But really, if you're starting out in real estate, build the network, start going to your local meetups, the local meetings, and making genuine connections with people face to face is invaluable in this industry. And I would also say, you know, don't jump into things. Make sure you're protected. You know, not saying there's, there's shady people out there, but even if you're working with people that are genuine, you want to make sure that you've really done your due diligence before you get into deals. Work with people that have done this before.

Make sure your numbers and your math have been run conservatively. And you know, there's been a lot of crazy weather events that have happened all over the country, all over the world in the last couple of years. You know, if something happens, say if a hurricane comes through or there's a flood, is your investment protected? Go out there, build connections with people, do your due diligence. Don't jump into things just because you want to be in the space and you think you have to be in a rush. There are always going to be deals out there. Find what you want to focus on. Find the type of deal that you want, get your criteria down and keep your eyes peeled. Be picky.

That way, once you don't go after every deal, but once a deal comes across your plate that really fits the criteria that you've been looking for, jump on it. Work with reputable people, be conservative, save your cash and build your network. I mean, as I mentioned, I mean, I was a wedding coordinator out here for my first two years living in North Carolina. I wasn't really focused on building my real estate network. So now that I'm a self employed mortgage lender that relies so much on me having a big network in this area, I have a big network, but everyone's in Texas. So my last three months of my life have been hitting the ground, running hard. I've joined local business groups, I've joined a real estate investor meetup here. I literally just started volunteering at their sign in table.

I, because I wanted to be involved. And now I actually get to get up on stage every month and open up the event. So I'm building that credibility and brand recognition. So go out there, build your network, get involved, Laser, focus on what you want to do and be conservative and protect yourself. If I could round it out into a couple of minutes of advice, that would be my advice.

No, that's fantastic and thank you so much. I mean, I think that was a really great way to sum up what, what we've talked about here throughout the podcast today. And we appreciate your time. We look forward to seeing how your company is going to grow. And we at American IRA look to be your go to for folks that you have in your understanding of the self direction world. How we can be a resource for any folks that you know might truly need that. Well I tell you what we Again thank you for everyone who has joined us today. We're going to let you get back to the rest of your daily activities.

Remember you can catch this information of these podcasts and webinars by visiting our website@american ira.com and doing your research, finding articles, getting a lot of information and education that we love to have out there for free for folks. Feel free to always sign up for any of those and if you can't catch it live, don't worry if you have been if you did sign up for it, we can definitely make sure that you get a rebroadcast. So also feel free to request some consultation time with either myself or anyone from our sales team. So again we thank you for joining us today. We look forward to hosting you again on another session of the IRA Cafe. Thanks so much. Have a great rest of your week everyone.

American IRA llc, a North Carolina llc, acts as a third party Administrator for New Vision Trust Company, a state chartered South Dakota Trust Company. As a neutral, self directed IRA administrator, American IRA does not recommend or endorse any investments, individuals or entities, including financial representatives, promoters or companies. American IRA and the IRA Cafe are not responsible for other statements, representations or agreements nor do we evaluate the quality or profitability of any investment. American IRA does not endorse guests on the IRA Cafe Podcast. Guest opinions are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of American ira, its subsidiaries, associates or custodian. Participation in the podcast is voluntary and no compensation is provided. American IRA is not a fiduciary and cannot offer financial advice. Please consult your CPA or another professional before making financial decisions.