Our speaker this month is Jeri Schlickbernd. Jeri and her husband, Mike have created a conglomerate of companies in the real estate industry, including Schlick Construction, Orange Property Management, and DVG Realty, which has recently teamed with Realty One Group Sterling. Over the past decade, they flipped nearly 300 properties. And, in 2019 they began Dreamvesting Capital Group with $2m and have grown it to over $17m in multi-family and new development assets. Jeri’s coaching program, Dreamvesting Catalyst has helped nearly 100 students begin their real estate investing careers with a success rate of over 80% of their students purchasing their first or next property within 90 days of graduating from the program! What makes their program so successful is their focus on Mindset because if you believe you can, you can!

Our speaker this month is Katie Shahan. Katie is a recent transplant to the Omaha area. Raised in Colorado, Katie attended Midland University from 2005-2009 before accepting a job as an Office Manager for a small software development firm in Minneapolis, MN. After taking on sales, implementation and operations, Katie worked her way up to President and CEO of AcuStaf Development Corporation. Over the course of 4 years, Katie was able to grow annual revenue to $6 Million while maintaining roughly 90% gross margins. She provided fiscal, strategic and operational leadership and successfully negotiated the sale of the corporation. With her exit from AcuStaf, she founded MDI with the intent to provide custom software development solutions to government agencies and real estate brokerages. In 2020, Katie started development on the Yarlow App. Yarlow is a mobile app that helps users build confidence in home-owning and increases transparency in the transaction process. To understand the transaction process fully, Katie also created her own real estate brokerage and is currently a licensed broker in MN, FL and NE.

Our Speaker this month is Nancy L. Loftis. Nancy is an attorney engaged in the private practice of law in Lincoln, Nebraska since 1982. Her practice focuses on financial, business and real estate issues, including entity formation, transactions, residential and commercial property development and management, tax deferred exchange transactions and bankruptcy and reorganizations. She develops and instructs courses for licensed brokers and agents approved by the Nebraska Real Estate Commission and instructs real estate courses for the University of Nebraska College of Business. Her B.A. and J.D. degrees were awarded by the University of Nebraska in 1979 and 1982 respectively. Community service includes significant work on the boards of Nebraska Trails Foundation, Great Plains Trails Network, Houses of Hope, Child Guidance Center, First Plymouth Outreach Committee and Lincoln Independent Business Association.

Our speaker this month is Deanna Walz from Habitat for Humanity. Deanna is the Director of Development and Marketing for Habitat. Her goal is to bring people together to address the issue of affordable housing in our community. She has a career background in local media, marketing and event planning and dabbles in pottery and theatre for hobbies.

Our Speaker this month is Jennifer Haralson. Jennifer began her serial-entrepreneur career in 1999 in San Diego, CA with a pet sitting business. Haralson also founded the Pet Working Group- a large network of pet service businesses in San Diego County. Having networked with her competition, she started a referral company in 2000 and sold both businesses in 2003 as she returned to her roots in Lincoln, NE. Here, she embarked on a full-time teaching career and started a family. Finding that a heavy bureaucratic school system didn’t fit her needs for motherhood or creativity, she started another business in October of that year. Haralson built a large client base, hired staff, and finally a manager to run the business while she taught part-time and tended to “mom duties.” 

In 2009, she opened a one-of-a-kind cat hotel, breaking industry rules and starting a new cat focused boarding solution. She sold her Lincoln pet businesses in 2016.

Jennifer was the business coach and consultant for Tim Zeng, owner of Zeng Countertops, from 2019-2020, at which time she was offered full-time employment. Zeng Countertops runs on the EOS system and Jennifer is the Integrator. 

In 2015, Jennifer founded Visionary Education, Inc. With her Master’s degree in education, and a coaching endorsement, she still provides business coaching services for small to mid-sized businesses who are struggling to scale and reach the next level.

Our speaker this month is Cindy Kwiatkowski. Cindy was born in Lincoln, and currently lives in Omaha.

Owner of ARC Homes Management, LLC’s, Cove Lounge and Grille and Goldeez Food Fun and Spirits. Married to Ron Kwiatkowski, a Board Member for the Metropolitan Omaha Property Owners Association, “Retired” RN, MSN, Mother of three and Grandmother of ten.

We started investing in real estate in 2012. At that time my husband and I were working full-time. I was an RN, and my husband was in business telephone equipment sales Both of us worked 50-60 hours a week.

We started out investing with the intent to purchase -2-3 rental homes to assist us financially in our retirement. Our plan at that time was to continue to work in our positions and retire around the age of 68.

We had no clue as to how to get started, and that our goals would quickly change.

The decision to get into real estate investing was one of the best decisions of our lives. The thought of having financial and time freedom was no longer out of our reach.

Over the course of the following seven years, we purchased about 6-10 homes per year, fully renovated them and either turned them into rental homes or flipped them.

My husband and I both continued to work full time for the first four years while also purchasing, renovating, and managing these homes. We sacrificed quite a bit of any free time we had for the first couple years, but we had a dream, and we knew that real estate would get us there.

After 4 years of investing, Ron was able to quit his full-time job to work in our business. I continued with my nursing career and worked several hours a week in our businesses as well.
In 2019, I decided it was time that we enjoyed a little more traveling and a lot less working, so I retired from 28 years of nursing.

We now own 45 rental homes that we manage ourselves. We spend a lot of our time traveling and enjoying our “semi-retirement”. We work on our own schedule. We worked hard to develop good resources, good mentors and good friends that have guided us when we needed it.

Our speaker this month is Cyndi Lamm. Cyndi believes that there is no expiration date on dreams! Having been homeless in Lincoln for a number of years in her youth, Cyndi aspired to be an attorney and own property for most of her life. Though both dreams seemed hopeless at different points, through perseverance and prayer, realized both dreams.

Today, Cyndi Lamm is a practicing attorney, serving as legal counsel for the Legislature’s Natural Resources Committee and Cyndi has occasionally joked that having been homelessness in her past, she began to “collect homes” with her husband Tim since 2013.

Cyndi delights in public service that encourages others to seek their dreams. She was elected to the Lincoln City Council where she served from 2015 to 2019 and ran for Mayor of Lincoln in 2019. Cyndi has served on boards for the People’s City Mission, the Lincoln Community Playhouse, and Child Evangelism Fellowship.

Our speakers this month is, Liza Mendoza.

Liza is the owner of LP Fitness found a love for health and fitness after experiencing her own weight loss journey. In 2014, she founded LP Fitness. It was then that she found her passion for helping people navigate through their own journey. Fast forward to 2023, LP Fitness is now a transformation center dedicated to providing a one of a kind experience while helping the Lincoln Community reach their health & fitness goals. Today Liza takes pride in being Lincoln’s ONLY Latina owned gym and was recently named Lincoln’s 2023 “Best Place to Feel the Burn”. Liza is excited to continue to help the Lincoln Community reach their health and fitness goal while also leading the way for other minority women entrepreneurs.

Our speakers this month are Jodie Williams & Amanda West from Lincoln Housing Authority. 

Jodie Williams is the Tenant-Based Housing (TBH) Manager at the Lincoln Housing Authority (LHA). After a 30-year career in various positions with the NE Department of Health and Human Services Jodie joined the Lincoln Housing Authority as the TBH Manager in September of 2021. Jodie’s team consists of 22 staff comprised of housing specialists, which are supervised by the Housing Supervisor, and the front desk and inspections staff, which are supervised by the Inspections and Front Desk Supervisor. The TBH division is responsible for determining initial and ongoing eligibility for Section 8 and Public Housing and that the housing is safe and affordable for those receiving assistance, all while following the regulations established by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the LHA Administrative Plan as well as the LHA Move to Work Agreement with HUD. 

Amanda West is the Inspections and Front Desk Supervisor at the Lincoln Housing Authority. She has worked for LHA for more than seven years. Amanda’s primary responsibility is overseeing the daily operations of the Inspections Department and Front Desk staff, but also assists with performing housing inspections, rent increases and serves as landlord liaison. Amanda is grateful for the opportunity to partner with landlords in the community to ensure families have safe and affordable housing.

Rebecca, graduated in 2017 with her Associates in Business Admin and fell in love with accounting classes which speared her into getting my Bachelor’s in Accounting in 2019. While working at a small accounting firm she found my passion in Real Estate Bookkeeping/Accounting. As her family grew she decided to step away from public accounting but soon after realized it was not just Real Estate accounting she loved but helping owners really understand their financial situation thus R/EAL Accounting was born!

Jenny, graduated in 2020 from Doane University with a B.A. in accounting after 15+ years as an insurance claims adjuster. 
She worked for 3 years at a small accounting firm, and then for the Department of Insurance before joining Rebecca and Laura to form R/EAL Accounting. Accounting is her passion (seriously, I do this stuff for fun!) and it’s made meaningful by being able to help small businesses.