About Vanessa

What running a tree company taught me about real estate

Pretty much everything I know about owning property, I learned from running a business first.

People matter most. A great crew makes a tough job look easy, and the wrong hire can turn an easy job into an expensive one. Buildings work the same way. The property manager, the maintenance tech, the leasing agent. They're the ones who decide whether the plan actually happens.

Systems matter just as much. The reason a business can run without the owner standing over it is repeatable processes and clear policies. I look for that in a property, and when it isn't there, that's usually where I see the opportunity.

And you have to make time to plan. Every business owner knows the days that disappear into putting out fires. The work that actually moves you forward is the planning you do when you step back from all that. I try to buy and run buildings the same way I run a company: think long term, and put systems in place so the fires get smaller.

The $30,000 lesson

Early on, I let a home inspector talk me into checking the sewer lines too. He was not a sewer inspector. That mistake cost me more than $30,000, and it taught me more about due diligence than any course ever could. Now I hire specialists for specialist work, and I check who's actually qualified to look at what.

More women in these rooms

I know a lot of women who've built serious businesses and careers. Practices, agencies, contracting companies, you name it. Most of us are juggling employees, customers, kids, and everything else at the same time. The question isn't whether we're capable of investing. It's how we make what we've worked so hard for build wealth for our families, without piling even more work on our plates.

Four of my five kids are daughters, so this is personal for me. I want them, and women like them, in the rooms where these decisions get made, asking questions without anyone acting like they should already know the terminology. And I want them passing what they learn down to their own kids.

At home

My husband and I run Alpine together, and at home we’re raising five kids in New Jersey: four girls and a boy, anywhere from toddler to teenager. If you’ve ever tried to get seven people out the door on a Saturday morning, you already understand most of what I know about logistics.

Then there are the animals. We have three rescue dogs (Freddy is the one who likes to interrupt my underwriting) and a ferret who contributes nothing but chaos. Animal rescue is close to my heart, and I don’t expect our house to get any quieter.

Owning a business takes up more of your life than anyone tells you. My kids have grown up around it. Early mornings, storm calls, trucks in the driveway, payroll talk at the dinner table. It hasn't always been easy on them, and I won't pretend otherwise. But they've learned things I never could have taught them with words: what hard work looks like, what grit looks like, and how to keep going when something gets tough.

I learned about money later than I wish I had. I want my kids to learn it a lot sooner.

When I’m not working

You’ll usually find me on a sideline. With five kids, there’s always a game, a practice, or a tournament somewhere, and when we’re not watching sports, we’re playing them together. I make time to work out because it keeps me sane, and when we get real time off, we travel. Our favorite place to end up is the beach. Some of my favorite trips are for work, though: walking our properties in Birmingham, and going to conferences to learn more about real estate and about growing Alpine.