Hidden Gems: Meet Katya Borisova of Real Estate Appraisal LLC, Ferrara Group, Bulgarian School of Northern California

Today we’d like to introduce you to Katya Borisova.

Hi Katya, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I am a first generate emigrant, moved to US in 2002. I met my ex-husband online at a time, when we had no computers at Time, to communicate, I had to walk everywhere including an internet club, as I had to save the money from the bus tickets to go to the club and chat with him. After a year of online communication he came, we met and 3 months later we go marries as he was waiting for his green card and we had no choice; as wanted to see if we can make it work. It was unconventional at the time, I then waited for 8 more months before I can travel to US and receive my green card. We were married for 16 years and have two beautiful kids. We divorced in 2017 and to the most challenging years of my life and put me on a journey of discovering my passion and what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

Some of the key facts that made me who I am today had to do with the following:
– Moved to US on June 20, 2002 just few days after I turned 25. and a just over a year after I graduated from my Masters in Macroeconomics in Bulgaria with two specializations – Marketing Management and Intellectual Property. I came to a US not speaking the language and found out I can’t really use my education without completing some form of higher education in US.
– My first job I found online 6 mths after I came to the country. I was looking for a job that would allow me to interact with people and learn the language – this was one of the hardest time of my life (or I though) – I have found out what means to be depressed, I didn’t want to go out even to the store because I was extremely sensitive to the fact that I was not able to understand anything the store’ staff might say to me. Here I was, a smart educated woman with the rug pulled under her feet, in a new country with a husband I barely knew, with no friends or family and no way to communicate. My first job was as a sales representative in a department store, selling jewelries. I got pregnant with my first child soon after I started working there. Since I couldn’t really communicate well, I was.mostly smiling at people and doing my best to communicate, but this is when I found out I like to work with and help people, even tough I spoke poorly, I did well and got promoted soon after I joined.

– We moved to San Jose, CA in 2023, my son was 1 year old, I found out from a girlfriend that if I want to use my education in US, I can go and study in an MBA program, so I did. I knew noting about the education system, so I decided I want to go to best school I think I can get to with my still poor English. I decided on Santa Clara University and focused all my efforts on it. I relentlessly kept going to the Director of Admissions office and orientations for potential new students, I was so restless, she was giving me as an example to others – I never missed an opportunity to go and learn as I had no idea what to expect. One of the most memorable conversations of my life were with the assistant dean at the time, I was pregnant now with my second child, studding to pass my GMAT and the director of admission just left the school. She was the only person who knew me and my story. The assistant dean invited me for a conversation, I was about 4-5 mths pregnant and she asked me when do I plan to start school to which I answered “In spring”. She looked at me and asked me what was my due date I said March 22nd, she said you know that we are starting on April 2nd, you wont be able to do that, why don you wait till the wall or winter, so you have time to recover, my answer shocked her – I said I have a goal and set up my mind that I am starting in April and yes I am sure of it. When I think back that was absolutely insane, but I was so driven and passionate about making any opportunity I have being in the land of opportunities, count, that I saw it as I don’t have time to loose as I am starting later than anyone else my age (I was almost 29 at the time and taught I am behind). I started MBA tat April with a 2.5 yr old and a 10 days old baby. I could understand abut 50% of what was thought in classes, I knew no business English words, so besides of the challenging material I had to learn English as I go. I felt as a fraud, like I don’t belong, people kept asking me how am I doing it with two young kids, I didn’t know how to respond because I didn’t understand – what else was I suppose to do except work hard and do my best given this is what I really wanted?

– I graduated in Sep 2008, I started my first serious corporate job in April that year few months before graduation. Same, I had no idea how to find a job or interview, where to start, so I used the resources the school made available. I heard from a colleague in one of my classes that he works for Brocade (later bought by Broadcom) that they are a great company to work for with good benefits. I also read somewhere that when decided where to work, you don’t start with the job you like, you start with the company you like. I attended a career fair in the school and met representatives from multiple companies. I stared my search online, found a position that sounded amazing to me “Business Transformation Manager” in the company I really wanted to work from “Brocade”, so I applied. Went through drilling interviews, but at the end got the job and just before I started my capstone, I started working at Brocade. I spent 7 years there, I have very found memories from my years with the company, learned a lot, made friends for life, but in 2015, I received an offer I could not refuse and I moved to Arizona to join Vuze, a cool company that was working on reshaping the property maintenance world applying innovative new models. They were just acquired in a reverse merger transaction, and my skills in M&A integration and leading complex cross-functional initiatives, were what they needed.

– In 2010, I initiated the process of organizing a Bulgarian folk dance group in the Silicon Valley, California. It was a passion project driven by my sudden need to connect to my ruts. To this day, people find it interesting when I tell them, I only started a group in order to learned how to dance Bulagrain folk dances. In 2010, my passion to preserve my language, culture and tradition driven me to open the first Bulgarian school in Norther California (www.californiabg.com) which is now in existence for 13 years. At the launch of the school, in May 2012, I had the host and 0rganize a gathering for the Bulgarian community in Silicon Valley, CA for the visit of the Bulgarian president Rosen Plevneliev – the first and only visit of a Bulgarian president in the area.

– 2017, I am now 40 years old, just before my birthday and I find my self at a cross road, my marriage was not going well, I own a beautiful home under the mountains, my absolute dream home yet I am unhappy with two teens and making the decision that I will divorce. That has been the hardest decision I had to make in my life and the Universe came with a strange way to support it, right in the middle of my divorce, my company did a restructuring and lay-offs followed, so I lost my job. This was the scurried time of my life and my second time feeling depressed – for about two weeks a felt so lost, cried my eyes out between calling connections in the Bay Area and trying to figure out what am I going to do to support my kids I just knew I have to find a work – a girlfriend invited me for coffee, l broke in tears, I was a mess and she said her husband has a small start up company and needs someone to help him in the business, so I joined as his right hand for 2.5 years. Then in 2019 I joined a technology start up which a friend and colleague of mine started by buying a division from another company and that job went away as COVID-19 heat. So here I was few year later in the same situation thinking to my self “How many times would the Universe show you you are meant for something different, go find your path based on your potion and not out of fear for survival” and I did.

-I always had passion for real estate, I 4-yrs finished a Building nd Architecture trade school back in Bulgaria and I always had a gut feel I want to invest in real estate, but had no skill, had no idea how to find money and what to do Luckily in the mean time, I worked with a Broker/Real Estate Agent from my community and he was starting to learn and invest and encouraged me to do the same. I bought an investment property in 2018 following his system and advise of how to find funds, to buy low and refinance getting my funds out and doing it again. However, after the first property it took me 4 years to do it again, I was spiraling, in the mean time joined a firm as an appraiser trained and after a year I was a certified residential real estate appraiser. I did that starting again from the bottom in a new industry, because I new, if I am gong to be serious about this business, I have to learn as much as I can and show my intend (I truly started understanding what mindset means at that time).

– I continued showy acquiring properties, while focusing on bustling my appraising business and becoming one of the best appraisers, I built my confidence, joined training programs, started trying new things. I became very efficient in remodeling my homes, started developing my own knowledge base and systems, started experimenting with new models of investing and made bold decisions when my bac was against the wall and thought I will get bankrupt if I don’t find a way to pivot and change direction. The answer came from another pivotal conversation with a friend investor – I was trying to sell the last home I remodeled, very challenging house and another property became available and with no income and two houses waiting from me to pay the mortgage every month, I had to quickly figure out something. he shared with me that a friend of his helps low-income single people to rent a room and there is a company that can help find those people in need. It resonated with me a lot as I always had a passion of helping people and what better way than to provide them with beautiful high-qiality place to call home. Again, had no idea what I am getting my self into, but I chose to trust my intuition. At that time, tings were changing in my life, I started focusing on mindset more, on trusting we are the creators of our own destiny and as long as we are moving forward, no matter how hard it might seem, the Universe will provide the support needed. So I took a leap of fait and became one of the first investors in this new model. I focused on making sure all the residents in my homes are treated with dignity, I set high goals of making sure I provide the best quality home they can have, so those people can leave life with dignity and support. I go visit them, I spend time to talk to them, I personally respond to their messages as fast as possible and focused on making sure if anything needs attention, no matter urgent or not, is taken care of with in a day 90% of the time. My passion are the people, I want to help as many people as I can and my only goal right now is finding a way to scale faster and identifying opportunities to help those in need – mothers getting out from abusive relationship and foster kids coming out f the system are the groups I really want to focus on helping.

Few lessons learned on my journey:
1. Everything in life happens for a reason, bigger the bad, even bigger the good that follows.
2. Trust the process, go with the flow. – there is no need to ponder why me, why this is happening to me…wasted energy. Stay positive no matter what as we don’t know who we will meet tomorrow because of the tough situation today, that can change our life.
2. If anything in life seems as it is coming easy, it means you are on the right path – just keep moving forward. – Don’t be afraid to take chances, find your passion and go.

Thank you for this opportunity and reading all of this, I hope I can inspire someone going through tough time that there is always light in the tunnel, that we can achieve everything we put into our mind as long as we stay positive and keep marching forward.

As you know, we’re big fans of Real Estate Appraisal LLC, Ferrara Group, Bulgarian School of Northern California. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I run four separate businesses at this point.

1. Bulgarian School Khan Asparuh in Northern California with two locations – Sunnyvale and Concord, CA and also providing online learning
2. Real Estate Appraisal LLC – Real Estate Appraising Business
3. Ferrara Group – multiple line of business related to real estate investing
– Real estate investment portfolio
– Private Money Lending

We love surprises, fun facts and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
– I have done everything in my business with the intention to create freedom and travel the world. – I love adventure traveling, – hiking is my most favorite outdoor activity

Contact Info:

• Website: www.azappraisalcompany.com
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/ekaterinaborisova