We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kata Walters. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kata below.

Alright, Kata thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I have had a very unconventional journey into the real estate industry. Pivoting from a 20 year long modeling career into a completely unknown world as a rookie landlord with one property to self managing 30 units across state then pivoting into flipping houses and now developing all in the past 8 years.

With that said – I think the foundations of success especially for small businesses is being comfortable taking the leap into the unknown. Having a high risk tolerance ( something I think many entrepreneurs have ), utilizing but not taking for granted those around you who bring value and experience to your business. The phrase “ your network is your net worth “ is often used to portray the importance of your circle and who you spend your time with but nothing rings truer for small business and for me when I look back at my journey so far than the importance of choosing the right people to be on that journey with. Trying to tackle everything alone- especially new territory in any business is extremely hard but with the support and knowledge of your team ( and this can be just one partner or a construction crew or simply just a VA ) but there is confidence that comes with knowing you aren’t doing it alone. And when you have confidence and support you can achieve anything.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m a retired fashion model turned full time real estate investor/ developer.

I started my business Hinuera Properties ( a New Zealand name to honor my homeland ) back in 2016 when I was still modeling full time. I purchased my first rental property and enjoyed the process so much I quickly purchased several more ( with every last cent of my savings ) and in 2020 I decided to retire from modeling – Covid made that an easy decision and dive head first into real estate investing and dive headfirst into life as a landlord and all things real estate.

Not long after deciding to focus full time on building a portfolio of rental properties my property manager sold his business and I decided to self mange my then portfolio of 30 units. A learning curve coupled with our across the country move from New York to California was a major challenge but an important learning experience in many ways. I will say that after two years of that I was almost broken and decided to sell the portfolio and take my time and happiness back.

After selling the portfolio I had proudly built from scratch and feeling almost lost for a brief moment I decided to focus on flipping houses and lean more into the creative side that I had always loved but with managing never had the time or the energy for.

We ( my husband and our Doberman pincher ) moved out of California after a 2 year stint and settled in North Carolina where I instantly saw opportunity and immediately started building my team and haven’t looked back since.

I just sold a beautiful mid century modern renovation project ( I prefer to say renovation instead flip haha ) because there is nothing fast about it usually.

And in true fashion of my journey so far I am again pushing into a slightly different field and learning and pivoting into ground up construction and development.

Currently we are set to break ground next month on a beautiful very modern build in Chapel Hill NC and we are starting a second ground up construction project soon – a modern duplex in downtown Raleigh..

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I had a major pivot in my business in 2022 which also confidentially coincided with a life change. The pivot came from a near burnout after self managing my portfolio across state and honestly I think just not knowing how to say “no”. I think this was an important lesson for me and I hadn’t taken the time to really assess my workload and work / life balance since returning from modeling and starting my own business. I grew quickly and didn’t know how to manage time for myself away from the business I also admittedly have a habit of urgency – if things need to be done I can’t relax until I have done them basically haha this is dangerous for any entrepreneur. I took a step back and realized I wasn’t happy and I was so buried in the daily tasks of managing my properties ( which were very maintenance heavy ) that I was losing the whole point of when started my business in the first place.
1) because I love everything about real estate and 2) the freedom and challenge that comes with running your own business .

Somehow in those two years I had lost sight of that and something had to change.

I decided to sell the portfolio and the plan was reinvest into a larger multifamily building ( a strategy called scaling up ) but as fate would have it and with rates skyrocketing I cousins dins the right investment so I pivoted into flipping / renovating and found my passion for my business again. At the same time we moved back east and everything fell back into place.

Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?

When it comes to managing my team, whether it was during my management period or now in the present with my builder, architect, realtor etc is being accountable. When I say I’m going to do a certain task or get something done I make sure that is my priority and I deliver as promised.

Also being aware of other peoples time .Its easy to work 24/7 in your own business but respecting your teams time and not taking that for granted is important to me. I want people who work closely with me to know I appreciate them and all their input and I don’t take that for granted.

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