Some people are born into wealth and success, but some have to work hard to achieve it. Sofia Estrada Castro is a prime example of that. Despite dropping out of high school and struggling with dyslexia, she has spent the past two decades working in the real estate industry, ultimately becoming a leading light that younger generations of women can look up to for motivation.
Sofia has earned everything she has in life and clarifies that none of the success came easily. “I worked several jobs while trying to find my passion in life.When I first met my husband Bobby, he told me he always wanted to be an entrepreneur. We discussed the idea of starting a business, but it failed as quickly as it got started, which meant getting back to the regular 9 to 5 jobs. Even so, we didn’t let the failure get us down,” shared Sofia Estrada Castro. “Instead, we continued to think about what we could do and how we could have success as entrepreneurs, which led to us finding a how-to manual that we could purchase to get started.”
According to Sofia, that how-to manual would cost a pretty penny. “We paid around $1800 for the manual, which was a LOT of money for people who had bills to pay and limited income. So, we had to borrow the money from our parents,” said Sofia. “We learned so much from the manual and started working hard right away because we were ready to see the fruits of our labor. It took us a year to get the business to grow, but it didn’t stop once the growth started happening. Now, the business brings in millions in revenue annually.”
The business’s success made Sofia realize that she has what it takes to excel in the real estate industry, so she started to dive into other projects, including condo conversions. Of course, some mistakes were made along the way, but she learned from the mistakes and became even better at what she does because of the past. Over the past several years, she has spent most of her time buying, flipping, fixing, and even renting properties and has gained more than enough knowledge to share with others.Her main focus is currently growing her multifamily portfolio which is valued at $600 million.
Because she is so knowledgeable and wants to help others, Sofia Estrada Castro has started Queen Ventures with plans to provide women in real estate with the education and tools needed to make big moves. “I’d like to see more women getting into real estate, especially since most people see it as a male-dominated industry. I want women to know that they can have as much, if not more, success than their male counterparts,” she said.
Building nothing from something required long hours and hard work, but that didn’t stop Sofia. She has come such a long way from the teenage girl who dropped out of high school and didn’t know what she wanted to do in life and wants to show other women that they can do the same while using their passion for real estate to generate significant wealth.
