Pamela Hodgkins arrived back in the Portsmouth area in late 2015, employed as a senior account executive for a national managed information technology services provider.
It was a good job, but it wasn’t what fulfilled her. “I’m thankful for the opportunities it provided me, but my passion has always been in the more creative space,” said Pamela.
Today, she is working her dream turned reality in the creation of Brass & Pine. She is now a full-time real estate investor, home renovator, property stylist, and Airbnb host.
It was a good job, but it wasn’t what fulfilled her. “I’m thankful for the opportunities it provided me, but my passion has always been in the more creative space,” said Pamela.
Today, she is working her dream turned reality in the creation of Brass & Pine. She is now a full-time real estate investor, home renovator, property stylist, and Airbnb host.
DIY home renovations and real estate investing have always been in her DNA. Her mother has been in real estate sales for over 25 years, and her father, also in the real estate hustle for just over 10 years. “My dad was and still is a ‘jack of all trades’ when it comes to home repairs, improvements, and renovations projects,” she said.
Pamela took it all in from an early age, absorbing the left-brain and right-brain qualities that each parent offered — the left-brain business savvy of mom, the right-brain creativity of dad.
As she got older, she got into her dad’s work to learn hands-on. “I am cutting tile, grouting, using power tools without hesitation and building out wild design ideas I have on a daily basis,” she said. “I wanted to get my hands dirty, have paint in my hair and renovation battle wounds. It was imperative to learn the trade.”
Born and raised in Concord, N.H., first attending Endicott College in Beverly, Mass., then graduating from East Carolina University in 2004 with a business management degree, the corporate world came calling.
She worked for a few top-of-the-line technology companies in the country as a sales account executive.
She’d kept her hand in home renovations, buying a two-family home in Kittery, Maine, a couple of years ago to renovate, rent it and hold on for passive cash flow. Her goal was to acquire one property a year and so far it’s panning out just that way. Closing on property No. 3 in March,
she expects to have a few more within this year as well.
That effort, which she considered a “side project” to her corporate job was enough to convince her she wanted to make it her full-time job.
So she’s become a real estate adviser, project manager and has taken on her first investor. She’s juggling her live-in renovation project in Portsmouth, her first investor partner flip project, and a kitchen renovation for her local friends’ condo. “The immense interest I received from everyone convinced me this is what I was meant for on a full-time basis,” she said.
With her membership at the Cooperative Venture Workspace in downtown Portsmouth, N.H., she has a business address in the heart of a very active real estate market.
Pamela describes Brass & Pine as “a resource for real estate solutions including renovations, flips, sales, interior styling, Airbnb management and investor partnerships “
Since she’s been living in the home she’s been renovating, the Workspace is an occasional refuge.
“This gives me some sanity, and some peace and quiet,” she said. She can get organized and she uses the space to connect with other small business members. The Workspace also provides the conference space for her regular small business networking group.
The Cooperative Venture Workspace is evolution of the creative, shared workspace.