Community Highlights: Meet Kristi Kandel of Freedom Hacker Movement, LLC (DBA: Local Real Estate Developers)

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kristi Kandel

Hi Kristi, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Raised in a small farming town in Ohio, they didn’t have a lot of money growing up. Kristi became very good at creating ways to make money at a young age. As an adult, real estate put here on the path to building personal wealth, and along the way, she realized it could also be a powerful tool to make meaningful changes in our communities.

Kristi Kandel’s journey is one of resourcefulness, resilience, and impact. Growing up in a small farming town in Ohio with limited financial resources, she developed an entrepreneurial spirit early on, finding creative ways to make money as a child. After college, Kristi began her career in the sign industry in Florida, where she was introduced to the world of commercial real estate. During this time, she launched her first company, providing code check analysis for clients in the sign industry—a venture that was successful enough to fund her first overseas trip.

Her career took a pivotal turn when, during a business trip, a client suggested she explore commercial real estate. Shortly after, she boldly asked a local development company she was working with if she could join their team. Within three weeks, Kristi started her new role as a real estate developer, embarking on what would become a fast-paced and transformative career. Her achievements included relocating to California to open her company’s first office outside Florida, where she played a key role in developing Family Dollar locations across the state. A mentor later remarked that Kristi gained the experience of a 30-year career in just four years.

In 2015, Kristi founded I&D Consulting, a company that enables developers and tenants to outsource project management for real estate deals. A year later, she expanded the company to create opportunities for others, fostering a culture that emphasizes work-life balance, quality of life, and financial stability. Under Kristi’s leadership, I&D Consulting focuses on affordable housing developments & developing clean energy infrastructure projects.

Alongside her work with I&D Consulting, Kristi has built a successful real estate investment portfolio, starting with short-term rentals in Lake Tahoe and expanding into multifamily properties nationwide. Beyond her own ventures, Kristi is passionate about empowering others. She believes that by combining passion, expertise, and sustainable practices, individuals can drive meaningful change in real estate and beyond.

Today, Kristi Kandel is a leading real estate developer with nearly 20 years of experience, specializing in public-private partnerships that transform neglected properties into thriving community spaces and empowering communities nationwide. With over 50,000 hours dedicated to real estate development, Kristi has successfully completed hundreds of projects as a developer, consultant, and planning commissioner, driving sustainable economic growth and revitalizing communities. As the founder of Local Real Estate Developers, she is on a mission to empower 1,000 ordinary people searching for more impact and fulfillment, to redevelop overlooked properties in their communities!

Kristi has managed over $450 million in projects across various asset classes and collaborated with major brands like Chick-fil-A and CVS Pharmacy. While serving on the Planning Commission, she played a pivotal role in a 30-year master plan update that shaped her community’s future. Following the devastation of her community by a hurricane in 2022, Kristi’s vision for empowering Local Real Estate Developers was born. She believes in empowering ordinary people to invest in their communities by redeveloping overlooked properties, becoming business owners, and supporting local businesses, thereby keeping money within the community and enabling local governments to enhance public infrastructure.

Kristi is recognized for her unique expertise in public-private partnerships and her ability to align the vision of local developers with government master plans, completing transformational projects that unite communities and create self-sustaining ecosystems.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Throughout my life I’ve learned that there are no destinations. There is no magical place where we summit the mountain and there are no mountains left. We will never achieve enough to end the struggles of life permanently. Without the struggle life would cease to have meaning.

Life itself is about the journey and the struggles and obstacles that arise are what give life meaning and purpose. When we embrace the hard times and understand that we are going to grow as a person, leader, team member, etc. as we navigate each hurdle we are then able to pause and choose how we respond to each new challenge life gives us.

I’ve gone through times where a company I worked for almost went out of business in 2008 and I was the last person standing in our FL office where even my boss had been laid off before things turned around. When I started my company in 2015 I did it with very little savings in the bank and left a 6-figure job to give entrepreneurship a shot. I even bought a new SUV and laid in the back to see if worst came to worst I could sleep in my car. Thankfully I never had to and I ended up building a wildly successful company. There were numerous times over the years that we almost went out of business and most recently in 2024 a major client almost went bankrupt resulting in us laying off the entire team we’d built for that client.

I’ve invested in smaller multi-family real estate in several states and many times it looked like a property might result in significant losses and with lots of strategic planning and going through plans A, B, C, D,… they all ended up with great outcomes or at least outcomes that didn’t lose money and I gained a ton of wisdom.

In 2022 my community where I have my primary home in Fort Myers Beach, FL was completely destroyed. 100% of the businesses and homes were damaged (12-18′ of hurricane storm surge from Ian) and it took almost a year to have some businesses open and homes repaired to let some people start living there again. In all it will take us 10-15 years to completely rebuild. It was one of the most significant life events I’ve ever experienced and I’ve learned so much about myself and life from it.

In 2018 I lost my uncle who was like a father to me. Dealing with significant grief and loss at 32 really changed me but in a good way. Feeling the emotions and sitting with them. Not bottling them up or numbing them. Life is short and nobody gets out alive. We are going to lose people, things, animals, money, jobs, etc. Impermanence is life. It was another huge process of acceptance of the realities of life and that you can’t stop living just because you lose someone. Life still goes on and we owe it to the people before us to continue living life to the fullest for the remainder of our time here on this earth.

I’ve learned to not take anything for granted and to make sure we put life challenges and situations in perspective. We often overcomplicate life and make it harder on ourselves than it needs to be. When we embrace the fact that life itself is about the journey and that there will always be new mountains to overcome we stop pushing back on the challenges and stop living in the why me victim state and inside live from an abundance mindset and the knowledge that everything is happening for us.

There is always a lesson, silver lining, and reason to have hope in life. We are meant to have bumps and bruises, grey hair and wrinkles. We need to be pressure tested by the tough times to really appreciate the good things in life. To learn to be grateful for the simple things and to prioritize relationships, connections, and community over everything else.

As you know, we’re big fans of Freedom Hacker Movement, LLC (DBA: Local Real Estate Developers). For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
As the founder of Local Real Estate Developers, I am on a mission to empower 1,000 ordinary people searching for more impact and fulfillment, to redevelop overlooked properties and renew the soul of communities across the country.

Kristi is recognized for her unique expertise in public-private partnerships and her ability to align the vision of local developers with government master plans, completing transformational projects that unite communities and create self-sustaining ecosystems.

We have built out courses to provide the foundation of real estate development (www.localrealestatedeveloper.com/course-signup) to teach ordinary people how to become a successful real estate developer. We are engaged in public private partnerships with municipalities and economic corporations to build and host live workshop events to teach locals the business of real estate development and how they can participate in revitalizing their communities. We also partner with non-profits like Better Block (https://www.betterblock.org/) to bring the ideas of the local developers to life in temporary ways so that the communities can touch, see, and feel prospective projects in 120 days and provide feedback since the full development cycle will take 2-5 years.

What I’m most proud of is seeing ordinary people transform their dreams into reality. I love helping others realize they have what it takes to become local developers, creating spaces where their communities can live, work, and play. Uncovering the untapped potential in properties and watching it improve the lives of their family, friends, and neighbors brings me immense joy.

Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
My entrepreneurial journey began with $1 bags of candy sold at the bank on Saturdays as locals came to cash their weekly checks. I’ll never forget when a local business owner accused me of putting him out of business. His harsh words stung, but they became a turning point—I realized my idea was working. It also taught me an invaluable lesson: not everyone will cheer for your success. Over time, I came to understand that his reaction was rooted in a scarcity mindset, not abundance.

Life isn’t a zero-sum game. It’s not simply black and white. It’s the complexities—the highs and lows, the right and wrong—that bring depth and meaning to life. In those nuances, we discover the beauty of truly living.

Pricing:

• Blueprint Course is $197 and we have a 50% off coupon: BLUEPRINT
• Accelerator Course is 2K and is a 90 day program with virtual sessions
• Free – workshops we put on in communities. In Q1 we are hosting a workshop series (3-4) live events in Hancock, MI with Hancock, Houghton, and Michigan Economic Development Corporation (more details being worked out this year)
• Free – monthly webinars and people can find out about them by following our LinkedIn page: linkedin.com/company/local-real-estate-developers

Contact Info:

• Website: https://localdeveloper.kartra.com/videopage/BlueprintCourse
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/localrealestatedevelopers
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@LocalRealEstateDeveloper