Emcee

Paula McMillan, CPA, CFP®, PFS, CEPA, CDFA®, CGMA

Paula McMillan is a Wealth Advisor and Executive Director at Hightower Signature Wealth. She helps individuals, families, business owners, and real estate investors with wealth management, tax, and retirement planning. As a CPA, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® professional, an NC real estate license holder, and an investor herself, she brings both expertise and personal experience to real estate decisions. Her insights have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and U.S. News & World Report, and she created the AICPA podcast series Women and Wealth and Retirement Readiness.

Session 1: The Right Property, the Right Price

What should I buy? Jason opens the day by showing, live on screen, how a full-time investor-agent finds, underwrites, and makes offers on real estate. His examples include underwriting a listing in minutes, surfacing off-market inventory from tired landlords, and finding house-hack properties for first-time investors. He shares the honest pros and cons of single-family, multifamily, land, mobile home parks, and NNN commercial, plus the five numbers that kill or clear any deal. His thesis is simple: relationships source the deal, and AI just gets you to the seller faster.

Jason Coleman

Jason Coleman is a Triad real estate investor, licensed NC broker with eXp Realty, and eXp ICON Agent. He bought his first rental in 2017 and grew to nearly 40 units. He now holds a roughly $5M portfolio of 24 Class B rentals through Rylynn Holdings LLC, most of it acquired off-market and financed creatively. Through Triad Exit Partners, he helps retiring landlords exit through seller-financed and portfolio sales. An early adopter of AI in real estate, Jason will demo his AI-driven sourcing and underwriting tools live.

Session 2: Show Me the Money

One of the biggest hurdles in real estate investing is how to pay for it. Sandy walks through the options for financing the first purchase and the next one. She also shows how to become the buyer of choice when properties come up for sale, earning referrals from financial advisors, sellers, and lenders alike. You'll learn to speak each sector's language, and who is lending today and who will lend to you.

Sandy Shelton, CPA

Sandy Shelton is a Certified Public Accountant with more than 38 years of experience. She practices under the firm name Sandy Shelton, PLLC, alongside partners Vaishali Shah and Mark Gibb, focusing on real estate, tax, and IRS representation. She once owned more than 25 homes, primarily in the Triad, so she brings a hands-on perspective. Sandy has served on several nonprofit boards, including the Financial Service Advisors Council. Away from the office, she's traveling, working on her Italian, or at her lake home at Smith Mountain Lake.

Session 3: Build It Right

10:40 – 11:30 AM

How you structure a real estate investment shapes everything that follows. Terry walks through choice-of-entity decisions, including sole proprietorship, S-corporation, and C-corporation, and the asset protection advantages of LLCs. He then covers the tax issues every investor faces: Qualified Business Income treatment, depreciation recapture on resale, the passive loss rules, and securing a step-up in basis at death. That last topic includes Qualified Small Business Stock and real property held in an S-corporation.

Terence B. Stanaland, JD, ChFC, CPA

Terry Stanaland is Of Counsel to Teague, Rotenstreich, Stanaland, Fox & Cratch, P.L.L.C. in Greensboro, where he maintains an active estate and trust practice. An attorney, retired CPA, and Chartered Financial Consultant, he is recognized as a national expert on technical tax matters and consults regularly with insurance companies and brokerage houses. He is a frequent lecturer and author and a former National Director of the Society of Financial Services Professionals. Terry graduated from East Carolina University and the University of Florida School of Law.

Session 4: The Landlord Life

Steve became a landlord at 22 and now oversees a rental portfolio of more than $7 million. He walks advisors through how to serve clients at every stage of rental ownership: the first-time buyer weighing a rental, the investor expanding a portfolio, and the landlord overwhelmed by day-to-day management. He covers the questions to ask before a client buys, what belongs in a realistic rental budget, and the full ownership cycle. He also explains what separates a good DIY landlord from one who needs professional help. Two real client case studies bring it all to life.

Steve Tyree

Steve Tyree is a licensed North Carolina real estate broker, property manager, investor, and owner of T'Vinci Properties. For three decades, he has helped investors build profitable rental portfolios through professional property management, guided by the belief that everyone deserves a home they can be proud of. Steve has served on the boards of the Triad Real Estate Investors Association and the Greensboro Landlord Association. He speaks widely on his philosophy of Honorable & Profitable Landlording.

Session 5: Tax Smart Real Estate

Are you an investor or a dealer? The answer determines whether gains are taxed as capital gains or as ordinary income subject to self-employment tax. It also decides how losses are treated and whether sales qualify for 1031 exchanges and installment sale treatment. Keith unpacks that distinction, then covers the three hurdles to using real estate tax losses: the passive activity rules, basis limitations, and the at-risk rules. Drawing on recent federal tax cases, he emphasizes planning strategies that help clients avoid unexpected tax surprises.

Keith Wood, CPA, JD

Keith Wood is an attorney with Carruthers & Roth, PA, in Greensboro and a North Carolina State Bar Board-Certified Specialist in Estate Planning and Probate Law. His practice covers tax planning, representation before the IRS and the NC Department of Revenue, business transactions, and estate planning. Keith earned his undergraduate business degree and his law degree, with honors, from UNC. He is a former member of the NCACPA Board of Directors and past Chair of the NC Bar Association's Tax Section Council.

Session 6: The Art of the Exit

A 1031 exchange defers tax; it doesn't forgive it. Most programs stop at the deadlines and identification rules, and this one starts where they end. Victoria offers a framework for deciding how the deferral ends, then walks through eight exit strategies. They are the step-up in basis at death, Delaware statutory trusts and UPREITs, installment sales, partial exchanges, the drop and swap, charitable remainder trusts, refinancing, and converting to a residence. She closes with what happens when an exchange fails and the mistakes that recur in practice. The material is current through the 2025 tax act.  

Victoria Templeton, Esq., CES®

Victoria Templeton is Executive Vice President and Exchange Counsel for Investors Title Exchange Corporation and a nationally recognized 1031 exchange strategist. As a Certified Exchange Specialist®, a member of the CES® Council, and a committee member and speaker for the Federation of Exchange Accommodators, she helps shape industry standards. She has facilitated millions of dollars in tax-deferred transactions and is known for making complex tax law accessible, often through humor and real-world analogies. Victoria earned her JD from Santa Clara University School of Law.

Session 7: From Kayaks to Cornerstones

When the 2008 recession and the loss of his business partner closed one chapter, Andy bought a single building on Lewis Street. It became SouthEnd Brewing, and he went on to own most of the block. Eighteen buildings later, he shares what made historic downtown projects work, from historic tax credits to city and state incentive grants. He also covers why he sells only when approached and how to decide when to hold or sell as higher rates hit loan renewals. The throughline is placemaking: the right tenant for the neighborhood and a community that grows with it.

Andy Zimmerman

Andy Zimmerman is a lifelong entrepreneur who founded AZ Development Real Estate Holdings and Development in 2014. His work has helped remake downtown Greensboro by turning overlooked historic buildings into thriving spaces for business, dining, and creativity. His signature project, the Gateway Building, opened in 1919 as home to Hudson Overalls and now anchors the resurgent Southend. Andy serves on the boards of the Greensboro Chamber of Commerce, the UNC-G Capitol Foundation, and Peacehaven Farm, and is a co-founder of Forge Greensboro.