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00:00 - 05:00
David:
Welcome to the military millionaire podcast. I am your host, David Pere. Don't get it Alex and Alex is the co host, despite what he says on social media all the time where somehow I end up co hosting my own frickin show for Alex. I don't know what's going on.
Jin is, this is gonna be fun. So Jin, for those of you who followed social media from the very beginning, Jin has been there. Genuinely like from the beat there are videos on YouTube for before I even had 1000 subscribers like Jin and I jumping in a car and driving around at garage sales and driving for dollars and looking for houses in Hawaii. And he was one of the originals at the meetup I used to host in Hawaii, which he's trying to revive right now.
And just cool dude, he was in the Marine Corps when I was in the Marine Corps. Yeah, I guess I can say that now almost, um, we worked together out in Hawaii a little bit. And we crossed paths, a decent amount, got connected at the meetups and just became good friends. And so he's actually back in Hawaii now as a veteran working for another job and investing long distance from Hawaii. And it's just been a lot of fun. And this is just it's always fun when you get to interview another friend.
So Jin, welcome to the show and tell the audience a little bit about your story.
Intro:
Welcome to the military millionaire podcast where we teach service members, veterans and their families how to build wealth through personal finance, entrepreneurship and real estate investing.
I'm your host, David Pere. And together with my co host, Alex Felice. We're here to be your no BS guides along the most important mission you'll ever embark on your finances.
Vehicle one, you're clear to depart friendly lines. Roger Vic one Oscar Mike.
Sponsor:
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Jin:
Yeah, well, thank you for having me. It's great to be here. And like you said, it's great because it's almost like the OG moment right back in the day. You were telling me you're gonna start this YouTube channel and do all this stuff. And I was like, heck yeah, let's do it.
You know, I remember one of the first videos we recorded was on your back patio. Remember that? I don't even remember what we were talking about. But..
David:
We're running around and you were trying to get a focus on somebody who was moving with the camera.
Jin:
Exactly.
And it was just like, I brought my camera. You had yours and we just sat there talking abou.
David:
Driving for dollars!
Jin:
Actually right. We're talking about driving for dollars. So..
David:
I haven't gotten any better with the cameras since then. Just paid for autofocus.
Jin:
I mean, but yeah, no, it was a lot of good times, right? That's honestly, that was my beginning in real estate. Right. We were both on active duty. I knew I wanted to do something in real estate and I was kind of flailing right. And I don't know, I just was going to meetups, I was talking to people in Hawaii, everyone flips. That's just what people do, right?
And so I remember just looking around at all the people, all the people at networking events, they're like, yeah, I'm a flipper. Yeah, I'm a flipper. I'm like, Okay, I guess I'm flipping. I'm gonna go flip houses now because everyone else is doing it, right.
And so I kind of tried, you know, I looked at listings and ran my numbers, but I didn't know exactly what I was doing. And you know, just kind of daydreamed right about flipping houses and stuff. And through my networking you know, I met some people right? You know, Corina Moto is one of them. And a lot of other high profile flippers even here today, right? They're still actively flipping and they all went through a mentorship course, right.
05:00 - 10:00
Jin:
And so I was like, Well, if they have great results, I might as well sign up too, because I obviously looked at myself and didn't see any great results, right? So I went ahead and signed up for it. And that's when things kind of took off, right? I learned a lot of the internal processes, if you will, like how everything works, how to run your numbers accurately, I had access to a huge network, right? Once I participated in this, this mentorship, and, you know, I hit the ground running, and I dragged you along. Well, I guess you drag and we both drag each other along, if you will, you know, we were driving for dollars and, you know, door knocking even like I wouldn't have I never would have door knocked in my life if you weren't there with me.
David:
Creepy houses.
Jin:
Exactly. We had some creepy houses and, you know, people were like, get off my property, you know, and, you know, it's a good time. And you know, it's something that in the beginning, everyone needs to go through the bad stuff like that. I think that's what everyone has that origin story, if you will, of like door knocking and driving for dollars and whatnot.
And through that, I eventually found one wholesale deal, right? I didn't have that much time left on Island after I did that mentorship program. And I actually got out and moved back to Virginia, where I'm from. And I was like, well, I can't, I can't flip houses in Hawaii anymore. Well, at least in my mind, I didn't think I could. So I pivoted, I pivoted to rentals as a wife, I'm, I'm at, I'm in Virginia, I've got this w two jobs, right. And I'm going to go ahead and just try and do rentals. And so I kind of pivoted and went into maybe buying a turnkey or doing that, um, you know, try to buy locally in Virginia and stuff like that.
Again, flailing you know, I was doing all the right things networking, I was educating myself and things like that. And it wasn't until I reached out to someone who was buying rentals, right doing exactly what I wanted to do. And I was like, Hey, man, so I'm, I'm thinking about buying a turnkey. And he just about reached through the phone and smacked me across the head, because he hates turnkey, right. Do not do turnkey, if you're going to be an investor, I was okay. Cool. He said, Why don't you come invest with me in Kansas City, Missouri? And so I was like, sure, because I can see him right. And he's Kallio, right of WM properties. He is very successful with investing in Kansas City, using the brrrr strategy and things like that. And so I knew this was the right person to learn from. And to become of traded services, I built his new website. I did a lot of photos for him back when I was still in Hawaii. And today, I'm helping out with marketing things, making videos and whatnot. And so we kind of like trade services in exchange for my I can have access to him and, and pick his brain whenever I want to. And it wasn't until I found someone to mentor me again, that I started gaining some incredible traction, right.
So from there, I bought my first one last year. And then this year, I'm in two at the same time. And I'm looking for eight more. And I wouldn't be here today, right? If I didn't have that mentorship, right? If I didn't have someone basically keeping me accountable, and kind of like keeping me on like, I'm always like, Oh, look at this flip. And he's like, no, brrrrs, rentals, focus, right. And just having someone to be like that. It's so good, right? And yeah, that's, that's pretty much my story. Like I went from flipping to rentals. And here I am today.
Alex:
My favorite thing about that whole story was that you basically said, I attribute most of my success to meeting the right people or the right mentors. And yet, somehow, still, when you're with David, you carry him along.
David:
Alex didn't actually listen. Anything else you said as soon as you said something about, you know, helping me he was like, Oh, that's all I needed.
So, yeah, I like CJ, we used to, I think I think I only made it once or twice. But he used to host a, I'm sure he still does meetups. And at the time, it was in the FedEx. He asked where he worked if you could host a meet up in his office after hours. And he hosted a pretty cool little meetup on the other side of the island. We used to go over there. Good people.
Jin:
Yeah, they're great. And it was EPS actually, I think he would be a little upset if he said that, you know, his biggest competitor, but.
David:
I mean, he had anyway once he replaced his income. So..
Jin:
Ieah, I mean, yeah..
Alex:
I'm kind of intrigued because you see all these people flipping houses and you get excited about it? Which it sounds like, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but it sounds like you got excited about it, are you? You kind of assume that's what you had to do cuz that's whatever it is doing.
10:00 - 15:00
Jin:
Yes.
Alex:
Which is, which is not a good way to invest. I agree like that's not a and so you kind of left that and now you're looking at and then you had to turn key which I agree is a horrible, not horrible, it's, it's useful for a small subset of investors, most people would be better off buying and rehabbing and brrring. Most people, most investors, most people who, anyways, so you got off that and you start looking at rentals, but then you sometimes you look at flips, and you know, you've been doing this a little while. So why are you still? Um, what's the goal? Why brrrr? Why does brrrr fit your goals so much better than flips?
Jin:
Man, that's a good question, right? And it all boils down to my why, right? Like, why am I doing this? Why am I going through all this? You know, all the little things that come with investing, right, especially out of state. I'm dealing with like the day to day BS. And I just knew from the beginning that, you know, having just the job, right, the military doesn't pay much for in the first place, right. So it was even stronger back then.
David:
Exactly.
Jin:
And then when I got out, you know, I'm, I'm now a government contractor, right, and doing cybersecurity. So I'm making good money now. But even then, I know that it's not enough to support my family, right? And if you couldn't tell, I was not born here. I was actually born in South Korea. And so we actually immigrated to America.
Alex:
I can't tell that just by looking at you. I just went like, you know, that that's not how that works. I'm just, I just put that out there.
Jin:
Yeah, you're right.
You're right. My bad.
David:
We do not support Asian hate or Asian, whatever.
Jin:
Yeah, you're absolutely right.
David:
Segue that Jin was actually a Chinese linguist in the Marine Corps, which I thought was hilarious. When I realized he was from Korea and the Marine Corps was like, Chinese language, you should specialize.
Jin:
I've told you the story, right? That's a side note. Like this is exactly how it happened. I had orders for Korean. I show up. I'm checking into the language school and the Gunny that's over there that's checking me and he goes, Lym are you Korean? Yes, Gunny, Fuck you Chinese and he rips my orders. And he knows shit like types of a new thing on the computer just prints it out. He's like, congratulations, you're a Chinese language. I was like, thanks. You know and so anyways, that's that story of how I became a Mandarin Chinese linguist.
Alex:
And the Marines really have their stuff together. It sounds good.
Jin:
Yeah, right. It's just what it is. But what are we talking about?
Alex:
Tell me about your why, the most important thing in your life. That's what we're talking about before David railed. It is nonsense that you derailed it with your.. I don't want xenophobia. I don't know what you're doing.
Jin:
My bad, my bad.
David:
So okay, so you weren't born here?
Jin:
Yes, I wasn't born here. We immigrated here. And I remember my early on, right? I'm just not having much, right. And growing up, my dad has always been an entrepreneur, always working, working like 80 hour weeks, even to this day, he's working like the way he is he what he does, even though he doesn't have to, it's just ingrained in him, right.
Um, and with that being said, like, he's going to live that traditional Asian lifestyle that when he retires, when he quits working, he's going to rely on his kids to basically support them. And so there's no retirement account, right? There's nothing to cushion him other than maybe like the Social Security, right? And so, when I look at, when that happens, I can support myself today. Maybe a significant other, right, maybe another child. But if I were to add my parents into that, there's, I mean, my my, I could, right, I just have to live a very, super humble lifestyle, if you will, right. It's worked, it's doable, but I don't want to I don't want to live that kind of life.
So I saw real estate as a way to grow my wealth, right? further than what is you know, the typical w two person would do, right. And so, at the same time, I feel like as an immigrant family, you know, my my parents came here, they risked everything right, leaving their home country, and they came here and they set this foundation for the next generation for me and my brother and my sister. And so for me if I were just like, live life, and not do anything to further improve my life or my family's wealth, if you will, that I'm just kind of wasted my that foundation, right that my parents had set.
15:00 - 20:00
Jin:
So this is also another thing that I look at, I'm like, hey, I need to build upon this, I need to do more than what a normal person would do and just go to work, retire and they die, right? And so that's my why I want to support my family, not just my, my, me, myself, my significant other and my future generations by all I need to care for my parents, right. And so my biggest why is that I am taking care of my family.
And so I saw what people were doing in Hawaii, and it's glamorous, right? People are making over $100,000 per flip. And you're like, Man, that's amazing, you know, people flipping 10 houses a year making a million bucks. And you're just like, man, I want to do that, right. So naturally, I was going towards that just because I was surrounded by it here in Hawaii. And then when I left, when I left Hawaii, I was no longer surrounded by flippers, I was surrounded by people who were doing buy and hold people who were still flipping people who are wholesaling, right?
And so from there, I just kind of like listening to what other people were doing. I knew what rentals and buying hold was right? And what it brings. But it wasn't till I was sitting in a meetup over in Virginia, listening to someone how they went from buying their first house, moving, and then keeping it, bought the next one, rented it out, bought the next one, rented it out whatever, right? And they're there now at this point where they're just, they can just chill for the rest of their lives. And it's generational at that point, right? Because we all know active, like flipping is active, you need to do it in order to make money. Whereas rental is passive. Once you once it's set, it's pretty much almost hands free, right?
So that's why I pivoted more towards rentals, because I now I saw like, Okay, if I want to create generational wealth, then this is what I need to do, not flipping, right? And so to answer your question, Alex, I went from flipping to two rentals, based on my why, like, I need to support my family. And how I can best do that is to build generational wealth through rentals. So here I am today.
Alex:
Dude, I love this story. Because I relate to it so much not because I don't have any family, really, my parents, but what I find to be so interesting, if I could kind of take a pragmatic, like overlay of what you said, versus what a lot of people in the world do, which is, you know, they live week to week, they live month to month. And, you know, you say it's for my family, but if I could take it from maybe a different direction, cuz I think it's the same thing. It's like you looked at the world and said, Well, if I just live month to month, you know, if that month to month, a single point of failure stops, I'm screwed. I have to have something that buys me time and keeps residual income and which are essentially the same thing. And so you looked at the future and said, what's going to happen if when my parents retire, and then you take care of them, I need to have that income. And I think at the core of it, this is most people's real deep down real simple problem is that they're playing for next week instead of for 30 years. And so your why is like I have to live for 30 years, and I have to take care of my family in those 30 years. And other people, they have the same exact problem. And they just go but I'm like, they just don't think about it. They only think about next week. And I don't mean to oversimplify, I'm just trying to show it from a different perspective. But I just love that because that's when everything clicked for me is when just everything in my life started working much better when I was like, I'm stuck. I'm just I don't care about this weekend, or rather, this month or the next paycheck, I just don't care. I don't even care about the next six months, I don't even think about it. I care about 10 years, I care about 30 years, and I only work towards those goals. Certainly I build them into one to six months. You know, goalposts and I'm sure you do the same thing.
But when you have that 30 year goal, I assume this is why you're like okay, I'm not going to get distracted by the short term FOMO the Bitcoin mania, the flipping mania, I'm not going to get distracted by these things. Because as lucrative as they might be, they don't help me develop the skills to solve the 30 year problem.
Jin:
No, absolutely, that's you hit it right on the head. That was perfect.
David:
I think you've put yourself in a huge advantage too by acknowledging the cultural, outside ramifications, but the cultural fact that the way your family is that you're going to end up supporting your parents, right. And actually, I would challenge people listening right now to think about that. Because people don't generally think about that if it's not a cultural thing. And the unfortunate reality is that a lot of people listening to the show may find themselves in a position where they're supporting parents and that's something that is much better to think about when you're 25 or 30 than it is to think about when it happens and I you know I speak we had a an aunt who she's passed away but she ended up in a home She was like, 40, right? And you don't see that coming. But my family watched my family have to take care of her and, you know, pay for the home for the last like, five, six years of her life that she was just, I mean, essentially in a vegetative state.
20:00 - 25:00
David:
And that was more of an unfortunate thing. But unfortunately, there are a lot of people in the US who, whether through cultural reasons, or through poor planning, do not have any retirement. And so that's a really good thing that you've been able to kind of identify like, Hey, I'm going to be in a spot where I'm going to need to take care of these people. Let me plan for that vise, just myself. And I think that puts you at a huge advantage. But I also would challenge people to think about that, because some of the people listening to the show may end up in that spot. And that's, that's kind of cool, or a valuable goalpost to realize in advance.
Alex:
So, turnkey sucks. Tell us why.
Jin:
Oh, man, where to begin.
Turnkey. Okay, so first of all, I'm doing the BRRRR, right. I'm sure we're all familiar with the brrrr. But right off the bat turnkey, your ROI, your cash on cash returns are gonna suck, right? You're buying something at full market price. Someone has already priced in their profit, right? And they're selling it to you as a product. And for some, for a lot of people it works, right? Maybe someone is just making a million bucks a year doing e-commerce buying Dogecoin, whatever. And their time is more valuable focused on focusing on that income generating activity. And they want to diversify. So they just go ahead and they just dump it into some sort of asset like I turnkey, perfectly fine, right? For those people.
But for me, I know I can do better, right? I'm not I'm not making a million bucks doing something else. I'm just making, you know, regular w two income. And if I can, if I have the time, might as well why don't I put in a little bit more effort to get a better deal, right? And so that's one reason the ROI right on it just sucks.
The second reason is that you don't know what they did, right? You can buy a property, you can buy a turnkey, and you don't know the level of detail that they went through, like, when they ripped up the floor? What if there was like rotting floorboards in there? And they're like, oh, we'll just, we'll just cover that up. We find it, right? What if they found some other issue? And they just yeah, just cut corners, they just covered it up. They said, Fine, we're gonna, we're gonna sell it to someone else. And we're going to kick the can down the road, it'll be, you know, it'll pop back up in about a year. And we can say, Oh, sorry, we, you know, that's just natural wear and tear of the house, right. And so that's another reason why I don't like turnkeys. Because, I mean, I'm sure there are plenty of reputable companies out there. But we don't know. For sure, right. And so I'd rather do my own rehabs right on all my properties. So I know, right, exactly what work was done.
And then lastly, we don't know what their process for putting a tenant, right? And I've heard nightmare stories where this turnkey company just wanted to sell this thing as fast as they could. And they no crap, put a homeless person in there with no income whatsoever, right? They gave them cash or whatever. And that person was that homeless person who just gave the cash back as rent income, and then they sold this turnkey to someone else. And as soon as that other investor bought it, it was like, they just stopped paying, right. And now you have to immediately start the, the, the, what's the call?
Alex:
Eviction.
Jin:
Kicking out process, kicking out a kicking out process. And, you know, it's just a nightmare. Imagine like, you're a brand new investor, you're like, Yeah, I heard about this real estate, real estate stuff looks like turnkeys the way I want to go and you buy something, and right off the bat, not even cash flowing, you have to go through an expensive eviction process. And then once you evict them, your property manager goes, Oh, there's a weird rotting smell coming out from your floorboards, right? And you rip it up, you're like, Okay, now we got to spend another 10 grand to fix this. And so that's like the worst case scenario, right? It's not going to happen to everybody. Obviously. It's a very good business structure, if you will. It's working right. There's a target market for it. There are plenty of reputable reputable companies out there. But I've heard enough horror stories to know that you know, I can do better than my mind's will take it upon myself.
25:00 - 30:00
Alex:
These are all unbelievably good reasons. And my top three, those are my those are the ones I was hoping you're gonna say.
Jin:
There you go, I read your mind.
Alex:
No, no, I mean, you're, you're I'm going to recap right, you're buying somebody who's already bought the property at discount, took the equity and sold it to retail. Um, you don't know their tenant placement. You know, it's like you're buying turnkey, but you might not get turnkey. What if they go away? What if they get a turnkey operation? And then you get a property manager? What if that property manager changes? Well, now you're back to square one, learning the system yourself and you paid retail? And then what was the third one was the second you listed?
David:
The shoddy work.
Jin:
Yep.
Alex:
Shoddy work. Yeah, I don't worry so much about that one. But it's valid, it's a very valid concern, where it's like, I mean, if you're doing out of state and you get somebody else to do the work for you, you kind of have the same problem. But at least you have a little bit more quality control where you're like, you know, it, you're gonna get the inspection or you're getting the appraisal, right, and they might go, Hey, this is all messed up and like, Okay, well, or I can fly out there and see the property or at least I have the relationship with the guy. So he's being sheisty. I can tell. with a house that you buy at a state out of market and you buy a turnkey, it's like you really don't know.
Um, so I love all these all these all you don't get the equity. It's not really that turnkey. And you don't know the house that well, I love all of these great answers.
And to my investor friends, right, it's like if you want passive, there are better ways to invest in real estate for positivity. Buying turnkey is like the worst possible. It's not that it's not any more, it's not any more passive than doing a brrrr and you get none of that and you get no benefit. No real benefits.
David:
What's up guys hope you're enjoying the show, I wanted to stop for just a few seconds to talk once more about Rentometer and no they did not sponsor the second ad. This is a mid roll ad, they sponsor the beginning of the show, but I believe in Rentometer enough that I wanted to just poke my head in here and reiterate that you guys should give it a shot. It's a seven day free trial. This will absolutely save you money by helping you get greater rents on a property or helping you avoid from trying to ask for too much in rent and sitting vacant forever, which can be almost as costly, if not worse.
So I absolutely recommend that you go try Rentometer for free at Rentometer.com or the link down in the show notes and give them a shot you absolutely can't lose with a free trial that will literally make you 1000s of dollars on your rentals. Now back to the episode.
David:
There are some Okay, turnkey companies out there we're bashing them. It can be an okay situation, right? Like Stu and Dave, run storehouse 310 ventures, they guarantee their work for a year they weren't you know, so there are options, it can be a good fit for you, depending on your strategy. But I fully agree that if you have the ability to do your own stuff, or like there are other options out there, that can be great, especially for a newer investor.
Alex:
There are plenty of good operators out there, Stu and David are obviously you know, friends of ours and fantastic human beings. And then there are the Clayton Morris's who do the exact same thing on the opposite side of the scale. The point I think Jin is making is not that you shouldn't, I don't think the main point he's making is that you shouldn't trust the turnkey operators is that you just don't, you inherently can't know you don't have control. And so it's like, if you're going to give up control, I want to if I'm going to give up control, I want a lot more positivity. A lot more, I'm going to be an LP and a multifamily deal.
I'm going to buy a read, right or I mean, you know, take the extra, if you're going to go through all the work, take the extra responsibility and buy at a discount, get the rehab done and get, you know, my brrrrs I have now well this is the markets gone up. I'm 50% equity in my portfolio.
Now if I had bought retail, I'd be at 75-80% LTV now with the market going up. So, you know, I just that's so much money just for the, you have one extra step I bought a place out of state I found the place I hired a rehab company, then I hired a property manager. The difference is you find a turnkey operator, you're still going to do the research on the property because you want to make sure you're going to do due diligence. You're still going to have to deal with the property manager from here on out. It's not that much more work and it's a lot more money and it's a lot more control.
Jin:
Yeah, absolutely. I feel the same way.
So yeah, I mean, like, that was such a good point that you said Alex, like if you want to pass the 50, that's passiveness right in your investments. There's so many better options. That was that hits the nail on the head like it's just yeah, that's perfect. Like, if you want passive income don't don't give, don't buy yourself a potential problem, right? Go into a LLP, you know, have some sort of syndication let them deal with all that and you just sit you truly just sit back and you know collect your checks.
So yeah, I really like that point that was a new counterpoint that I really enjoyed. I'm going to use it up now.
30:00 - 35:00
Alex:
Let me defend. I'm sorry Dave, I’ll let you talk for a moment.
Let me defend, let me defend turnkey. You know, turnkeys are actually good for somebody who wants to get into real estate investing, and you know, wants to try it for their first shot, right? I don't know the market, I need to build a team, I need to learn this market, I need to learn the process, I need to take a little bit of the risk off my plate.
So for the first one, I'm going to go out of state. I'm going to buy in Kansas City, I'm going to get a turnkey operator to get me that property. So now maybe the deal isn't the best. But now I have one and I have the experience. I have a team starting to be built. I have an understanding of how this works. I'm starting to meet contractors and vendors. I'm networking out there, I fly out there all these things. Well, maybe now I can go up there and get one of my own. So the turnkey operator gets you in the door. I like it in that regard.
David:
Alright, so now, why the brrrr strategy?
Jin:
Yeah, so the brrrr strategy is why I do it is because I like it, it makes me feel like it has a bit of everything. You know what I mean? Remember, when talking about flipping, it's glamorous. Like the, you know, the before and after showing like, Oh, I bought this thing for $10. And now it's worth 1 million, you know, and so, um, you have that in the brrrr, you still have the glamorous part of it, where you bought something, you fix it up. And now it looks amazing, right? You're just not collecting the profits right off the bat, you're just building your wealth over many, many years.
And so another thing about that is when you're doing the brrrr strategy, a lot of people don't want to do that work, right? It's just, it's just another barrier, if you will, for some people who'd rather just buy turnkey, right? Because they want to get there like what you just said, Alex, they wanted to get their foot in the door into a market and kind of learn the ropes, if you will, right.
And so, um, you're able to buy these properties, obviously, right, because you're competing against other flippers and whatnot. But you're buying these properties, and you're putting in the work to really get to capture a lot of the equity, right, right off the bat. And so that's one of the main reasons, right, I don't want to buy turnkey because it's not, it's just the ROI sucks, right? In my opinion. If I put in a little bit of legwork, then I can capture a lot of that equity. And, and just have a stronger portfolio right, right off the bat, rather than hoping for appreciation or just debt paid down by my tenants or something over 30 years.
So that's yeah, that's my reason why I'm doing brrrr. Over turnkey, does it answer your question?
David:
It does.
And then how are you? Obviously, you're in Hawaii, and he's in Kansas City. So talk to me a little bit about your team and kind of some of the processes and what you had to be able to set up in order to start doing this from a long distance, and also across the ocean and four hours behind and whatever else I can come up with?
Jin:
Yeah.
I kind of just stumbled through it, right. But I think what I touched on earlier, right was having finding someone who is doing exactly what I wanted to do was key, right? Because it shortcut me through all of the potential pitfalls, all the mistakes that could have been made along the way, right.
And so when I linked up with CJ, he's been in the market for 6,7,8 years, I don't even know he's been in the market for a while. And him and his wife, they're financially free, right. And he's doing exactly where I want to do and that he's supporting his parents, and supporting his kids. And now he's created this generational wealth that his kids can pass on to their kids can pass on to their kids, right? And so he's, he's, he literally has done what I want to do, which is why I turned to him and said, I want to do rentals, right? And so you basically leveraging him and his time, his experience, his network is what allowed me to really accelerate my own growth, if you will, right.
And so dealing with teams and stuff. I mean, yeah, I interviewed some realtors. Yeah, I talked to some general contractors. Yeah, I talked to some lenders and, and property managers and stuff like that. But there's nothing better to just be like, Hey, man, so who do you use for your Gen Con? Okay, cool. What do you use for your property managers? Oh, they manage your entire portfolio great. Let me just use them, right and so that you know that handling that network part right, the boots on the ground, if you will, I can just lean on my mentor right and and just tap into their network. I'm dealing with like the other stuff, right, the time zone differences and stuff like that. It is what it is, right? I had to wake up at the crack of dawn one morning for closing to make sure that my wire went through and that they had all the paperwork right I to no crap like sign papers with blue ink and then have it notarized put it into a freakin ups envelope like two days before because there's no one day shipping out of Hawaii, by the way.
35:00 - 40:00
Jin:
So you have to put it in an envelope. And then like I would call them first thing in the morning, like, did you get the package? Yes, we got the bag. Okay. Did you get the wire? Yes. Are we closing today? Yes. Okay, cool. I'm going back to sleep now. But like, that's just, you just gonna have to do that. There's no, there's no way around it. Right.
So, yeah, I mean, like investing out of state. It's not, it is a mental thing, right? Some people want to see it, they want to touch it. They want to lick it, whatever. But for me, I guess. I mean, David Greene has a very good point in his book, right? In his out estate investing. And that's if you were to walk through a property, would you be able to point out all the issues with that property better than a property inspector? Probably not.
Would you be able to calculate the rehab amount better than a general contractor? Probably not. Right? So why do you have to go look at it, why not send the professionals to go and do it? Because they're going to do it right. And they're going to do it faster, more efficiently, more accurately, right? They're just going to do way better than the way you can. There's no reason for me to go to that state to go even look at my properties. Now I honestly don't even plan on going to Kansas City. Unless I'm doing something like a much bigger commercial deal. Then Yeah, maybe I'll go. But for right now, my single family rentals, I don't plan on ever checking them out. So dealing with out of state stuff. It's fine. Right? I got my boots on the ground, thanks to my mentor network that I kind of slipped myself into. And everything else is handled, right. And so yeah, this does answer your question?
Alex:
So I used to say, for out of state because I kind of grew my portfolio out of state before I moved back here. And people say, Well, what you know, what do you do, the tenants don't pay. And I'm like, Well, if the tenants don't pay, it's not like I can drive. If I lived there. Think I can drive down there and shake them down. I'm not gonna knock on the door and choke them to pay me, right. It's like, I'm gonna send I gotta send the sheriff. I gotta go to court anyways, so I probably just gonna do that. It's gonna cost me I know, I got the muscles, right? Yeah, they're gonna be terrified of me in my picture.
So, um, I got my partner's gonna do this. He's gonna do 450 bucks. And then I don't have to think about it. And it doesn't happen that often anyways, but yeah, I love that, right? It's like, what differences are gonna make if you're gonna be there, you're not gonna have to do anything different. You know, you're gonna hire somebody, just hire him from afar. And then to your next point about multifamily. You know, I bought my 24 unit long distance. I bought that now I flew to touch it, because I was not going to raise the money and ask people for money without having seen the property guide? David?
David:
Did you look it?
Alex:
Now I have not yet licked any of my properties.
Apparently, Jin thinks that's what we do.
Alex:
Yeah, well, you know.
Jin:
Have you read the book? It's in the book.
Alex:
It's in the book. Lick all of your properties, that's rule number three.
Um, yeah, I love that. Yeah. I mean, if you got a multifamily property, um, you know, you need a really unbelievably good, reliable team, you know, but you can still do that long distance, I had that property 19. It wasn't. So over a year later I moved. That I moved back and was near it. And even then it's like, I don't go there that much now. I have more than one, and I'm gonna go to them and live here. In fact, to your point about having single family homes not going to see him? There's two properties here in town that I bought long distance, that are within a 10 minute driving distance. And I've never been to still, I've never seen them in my life. And they're 10 minutes up the road. It's like, what difference does it make? If I don't, it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. There's a tenant in there can't get inside anyways.
David:
We bought the hotel we took over a month ago, and I've never seen it.
Alex:
I think being close actually can act as a crutch for you to like, have that like, well, I'm close. So I feel safer. Rather than learning how to deal with the stress of being long distance and learning how to manage from a distance. If you can manage a property, a property manager and an operation from a long distance from the phone. That's like an invaluable skill set. If you have to be there. Now you've committed to non scalability.
David:
Yes, a very valid point.
All right. So we have touched on two different occasions, having a mentor. Everybody in their mother always asks, Will you be my mentor or how can I find a mentor or whatever, right? So talk to me about your two mentors. So I know one of them was through a course that you went through. But talk to me through it and you mentioned the value but kind of through how those mentorships came because on both occasions you had to give value to get value. So.
40:00 - 45:00
Jin:
Yeah, so I mean, the first one was straight up cash, right? You want to be a part of this mentorship, you're gonna have to pay. And so I paid into that right? Call it what you want, mentorship, you can call it an educational course, you can call it whatever, right. I paid into it, and I got incredible value out of it, right, I got a wholesale deal out of it. And a lot of education that basically set the foundation of my investing, right? And so that was, that's one way right to find a mentor, just pay into their programs, right? There's so many programs out there that you can pay into for mentorship, right? For all these different kinds of things, whether it be flipping houses, or rentals, or even like business, right? How to run a cleaning company, you can buy into mentorships, like that, right? And so yeah, that's one way, right.
And then for CJ and I, we had a pre existing relationship, right, as you know, like, he would hold his meetups out in Kapolei. In the UPS Store, right? And he was he, even back then when I first met him, like, four or five years ago. He was all about cash flow out of state cash flowing properties. He's always about it, right? And I was like, I want to do flipping, because that's what everyone else is doing.
So him and I, we just, we just maintain contact, but I never, we never really worked together in a sense, right? Like, he never came with me driving for dollars or, you know, helped me friggin do cold calling on Island or anything like that. So, we just had a friendship, right? A relationship. And that just developed over time. And, you know, I just love networking at the time. So him and I, whenever he had an event, I would go and like, do you want photos? Cuz I do photos. And I got my camera here. I mean, you take photos for you guys. And then if I ever met someone else on Island looking for rentals, I was like, Well don't buy rentals here. You can't, you can, but it's not a good idea. But let me tell you about someone else who is doing rentals on the mainland. And so I sent multiple referrals, actually to CJ. And they've been working together, right in some capacity. And so by the time that I had pivoted to rentals, him and I, we've already had an established relationship, I have provided value wherever I could not because I wanted something out of it. But because I just enjoyed his company, right? I wanted to do these things, because I like him and in this family, right? And so that mentorship, I didn't I didn't really seek it out. I was just like, yeah, I want to do rentals, what do you think? And then and then he offered me that, right? He's like, Oh, well, why don't you come invest with me? I'll teach you everything you need to know about it. I was like, okay, sweet. And then on top of that, I was like, Hey, man, your website, website kind of sucks. And so I made him a new website, right, which was great. And then on top of that, I knew how to do video print. When I came back to Ireland, it was great, because they're doing a whole big media thing, big media push. And so doing a lot more photos, doing video, right with them.
And so I was just constantly providing value in some way, right? Not specifically in the realm of real estate, I was providing value where they needed it, right, they needed some sort of marketing thing. marketing material, write social media posts, content, video content, better website, you know, whatever I could do, I was providing this value. And then in exchange, you know, we had these weekly phone calls and talked about what's going on.
So yeah, I mean, there's so many different ways to find mentors, right? And I guess to answer your question, either pay, just pay for it right? And make sure you're paying for some like mentorship, right from someone that's doing exactly what you want to do. That's like the key. Like you're not gonna you're not you want to pay some dude, a guru, if you will, about real estate investing. And he just talks about everything, right? You don't want to go wholesaler, a wholesaler right? You want to go to a flipping mentor. If you want to do rentals, you don't want to go to a wholesaling mentor, whatever, right?
So buying, finding the right mentor, doing exactly what you want to do, and then just pay for it. And then if it's not like they're not really offering something like a paid to do or whatever, mentorship, do whatever you can to help them out. They have pain points, not like you're not going to help them out in their real estate per se. They probably have that established, right because they're experienced. They got that taken care of.
But through casual conversation, I'm sure you can find out right? What's going on? What are they looking for? How can I help? right and so I found that whatever their pain points were and I, I fixed that right, I addressed those pain points. And that was it.
45:00 - 50:00
Alex:
Jen, a few questions. I love that. That speaks to me. A few questions. What kind of um, what kind of camera do you shoot?
Jin:
Right now I'm using a Canon 5D Mark IV.
Alex:
Oh, that's, that's adorable. Are you gonna get the? Are you gonna get the R V? I want the R 5 so bad. Really bad.
Jin:
I know, right.
Don't you have the R V? I thought you had it.
Alex:
I'm shooting right now. You're looking at me through an R.
Jin:
Okay, that's what you had in DC, right?
Alex:
Yeah, so I've been rocking this since it was new. But that was the best mirrorless that canon had at the time. Now that came with R V I'm getting ready. But it's a hefty price tag for a guy who doesn't make money with cameras.
But hang on. We have a third person who wants to talk?
David:
I just want to hear you say what lens?
Alex:
Oh, okay. Oh, King jackass. Okay, so, um, I tell David, like, I have this setup, right? You're looking at me on a sigma 24 millimeter art 1.4 art, great little lens, right. But it's an EF lens. So I'm on the adapter.
Okay. David, he tells me, you just set up looks so good. I want this kind of setup. What should I do? I said, Go buy an EOS R. So he goes by ones. And then he's shooting on a 50 millimeter. So it's a little a little narrow for YouTube, right? So it looks too tight in the frame. So they need a wider lens. And I said, so he goes off and he buys the brand new RF 15 to 35. Look, I haven't shot it yet. But oh my god, I want it so bad.
So one of us. One of us is a fairly somewhat professional photographer videographer with a bunch of experience and knows how to use the camera. And the other one of us asked that person what to buy, spent the money and now has a better looking, better has a higher quality has a has a higher value production product and doesn't and yet and doesn't know how to use it.
David:
Maybe the best autofocus on the market.
Alex:
If any camera would look better if you weren't in the frame.
So Jin, um, no, I love this. All right. So like I talked about this all the time, like networking is, I don't like to actually say that it's a trait of value, I like to say that people like to invest in other good investments.
So if you can be a good investment for somebody, they'll take the time on you, right? Whether that means, hey, look, I'll give it to somebody, I'll take somebody out to call, I'll take a younger person out to coffee and teach them if I think that that person, you know, is a worthwhile investment of my time, they don't always have to trade value. But trading value is a really easy way to get in.
Now you say, well, somebody goes, Well, I don't really have my real estate, what can I teach them? And you made a great point where it's like, Look, life is not one dimensional. If your life is one dimensional, right, you need to expand if you're like, I only have real estate, and that's it. Like, well, then you better be really good at it. But odds are you have other talents, and you just don't know how to leverage them yet, maybe.
So I have this camera, you have the camera. And I think you probably found what I did, which is like it turns into a superpower because entrepreneurs are egomaniacs. And so it's like, take a couple of good pictures of them and they're like, Oh, hang out all you want. Oh, let's do whatever you ever want.
Two this internet fad, or have you noticed is not going away? Right? We're all three of us sitting here on expensive camera gear on a podcast doing videos well with fancy lenses. And people want. They want content. They want pictures, they want video. They want high production quality, they want unique creativity. And what I've found is that business people aren't always that creative on average, right? It's kind of good. Like I'm actually below average at business and a little bit above average on creativity. But because of my social circles, all business people and most of them have no creativity, it becomes a superpower for me. I'm just trying to reiterate what you're saying. It's like Dude, find your superpower that's not related to real estate isn't real estate and bring it into the real estate world.
David:
I love that Alex you just admitted on a recording that he's not good at business.
Alex:
I said average.
David:
I mean.
Alex:
You're not good! That's how I know I'm pretty good. Compared to you, and I'm like, Okay, I'm not bad. I know where the floor is on this thing. So you know, somewhere in the middle.
David:
That's me. Not creative. Not a business guy.
Alex:
David. You're unbelievable at Marketing.
David:
I wasn't, but I appreciate it.
50:00 - 55:00
Alex:
And that's a skill. And that's a skill set I don't have. So again, to Jin's point, like, everybody has different skill sets, it's really important to find those. And then, and then leverage them to the things that you don't have. Because the other person, I'm terrible at marketing, if I can get linked up with David to get to do, I could produce the content and David could disseminate it, we'd be a force to be reckoned with.
But the same goes for whether it's like, hey, look, maybe you're really good at organization in Excel, maybe you're good at, you know, numbers and finance and underwriting, maybe you're good at photography, videography, content, you know, content production, maybe you're good at. Maybe you're good at writing. Maybe you're good at, you know, operations and systems, like everybody has different skill sets.
So whatever that might be, find the person with the who needs that and fill that, you know, create that symbiosis, like, you can teach me real estate, but I can teach you this.
Jin:
Absolutely.
And sometimes, like there's something about the media, like you said, entrepreneurs, they want to be in the spotlight, right? And if you have that skill, they'll bring you on, right? So a perfect example of that. Actually, David, you sent me a post by Brandon Turner, he was looking for someone to just edit videos, right? And I was like, well, that'd be great to have to basically live in Brandon Turner's spare unit, and just edit video for him, and then just have unlimited access, right? That would be such an incredible value, right? For anyone looking to invest.
And so, right, if you have that superpower, first of all, I suck at editing videos, I hire someone else to edit my videos. So I did not do it. And so if you had that superpower, imagine that. It's like nothing to do with real estate. But you could have had a mentorship, right, it's some sort of the unlimited access to Brandon Turner of all people. So yeah, find that superpower, whatever it is, and, and, you know, make sure that that's something that they want, right. And I think this whole media stuff is something that a lot of people are looking for. So yeah.
Alex:
Yeah. And the other thing I'll add to that is like, I'm I'm a I'm getting to be a pretty good photographer. Not great. I'm pretty good. Compared to photographers, compared to non photographers. I'm a magician, right. But I guess my point is, it's like, I don't feel like I'm that good. So people to your point, right? Like the people, I don't have any superpowers. It's like, no, you're probably really good at something and you don't recognize it, because it's easy for you because it's your superpower. Somebody else's like, Oh my god, I couldn't do that to save my life, right? I'll sit there. And like, I have this little YouTube setup and this fancy thing. And I'm like, yeah, it's because of the color and depth and the way I structured the light and all these things, and it's like a big, it's not just camera equipment. It's like a, it's like a whole thing that I see and how it's designed with the shadows. And you know, and you know, David has better equipment than me, and he can't put it together. Because he doesn't see it that way. I'm not I'm not really busting David's chops on this one. I just mean like, most people, right, you have an average, you have a YouTube setup, but it's like, I don't know how to control the light or create a composition.
And so, um, your superpower might be something that you don't think you're actually that good at, but you don't realize that everybody else is 10 times worse. And so, you know, ask your friends, what do you think I'm good at that I don't think I'm good at? What do you think I'm good at? What do you think of me? What do you think I'm good at that as a talent that maybe I'm under appreciating?
David:
If they're real friends, they'll tell you.
Alex:
That's a super path, another superpower of mine that I'll tell you everything you're bad at and everything. And then what's left is what is your strength.
David:
That's valid, I can attest to that. But I mean, the bottom line is right. Like, it's got to be. It's like anything and everything in life, it's got to be an equal exchange of value, right? You're paying for someone's time you're, you're building a relationship with somebody, you're providing something for them, you're providing something with them, you're, you're a worthwhile investment where they know they're going to get something back out of you if they I mean, that's a huge one. And I've been told that by some, I guess, I don't wanna say whales in the real estate space, but by some pretty big guys in the real estate world where I've only asked like, one or two of them like why, you know, I didn't have anything really to give you when we first started talking like, why did you like why were we able to maintain a and it was like, literally one of them told told me like, Well, it's because when I told you, you should try something you you did, like and I've now that I'm on the other side of that coin, I see how many people come to me for advice, and I give them what I think they should do. And then they like, come back with the same question and they didn't. I'm like, why am I gonna keep giving you this mentorship if you like I'm not gonna do it for you. Sorry, newsflash, like you pay me a lot more for that.
55:00 - 1:00:00
Jin:
Yeah, exactly. And that's another good point too, right people are they're always like you said people who come to you, oh, can I can you be my mentor, right? You also have to also realize that if you're on that side, like where you're looking for mentorship, you have to be a good mentee, right? You can't, you can't just be fishing for free advice. And, and just trying to take take take take take, and then not provide value back, right. And at the same time, if they've given you a smidgen of information or, or something, right, and you do nothing with it, they don't want to work with you. Let's be real, right?
So, you know, just goes to show like, they don't want to work with anybody they want to work with other people that they know are, they're going to be confident that they're a worthwhile investment. Like, yeah, I gave him this little piece of information. And he took it and ran with it. And you know, okay, that's impressive, right.
And so I have another perfect example of that, right. So this guy named Alex Camacho. Are you guys familiar with him? So he has someone on his team, right? was basically begging Alex to be part of his team, right? And all he said was, okay, here's my, here's a little thing to my deal machine app. If you can give me like 20 properties in two weeks, then we'll talk. And this guy went out and did like 100 and something in like a week. And that caught his attention, right? Like imagine. So you're trying to get mentorship or trying to get access to someone that is really successful. And they give you a little bit of advice, like, Hey, you go do this, and you don't do it, they're not gonna work with you. They don't want to work with you. And but if you do the exact opposite, right, like just what you said, David, like, they told you to do something, and you did it. That is already way above and beyond what everyone else is, when whenever, you know, they come to them, right? People come to them, ask them for advice, and then they don't do anything with it.
David:
Don't be so naive to think that you're the only person asking them for advice if they're successful enough that you're looking for it.
Jin:
Right.
Alex:
Also, I do that all the time, I put small barriers of entry to people on purpose, just to see, um, small ones. And I can't think of any good examples right now. But um, you know, and I know, David does it too. So the people who are like, I need a mentor, it's like, Go ask somebody for something. And when they tell you to go do something, recognize that it might be a test, right? So what I'll say is sometimes like, go read this book, and then get back to me. And then they go away, and it's like, bro, you're not willing to give up reading a book, I'm not willing to take my time on you, flat out, the thing is, nobody's going to care about your success more than you. So whatever you're not willing to do, the next person is willing to do even less.
David:
You know, one of mine is like, a lot of my content was written around questions I get all the time. So like, for prime example, today, somebody was like, you know, I get this all the time, but like, Hey, I have some question. I love your content, blah, blah, blah, you know, I got some questions about the VA loan, I'd love to pick your brain or the visual to call I'd love to whatever. And a lot of those are very fruitful. But a lot of those are very, like, come on, man. Like, these are the questions you got, like, you can find this anywhere. So now what I'll do is I'll just drop the link for my first like my main VA loan post, and I'll say great, Hey, take a look at this, read through this. And then when you're done, whatever questions you have left, you know, shoot them over. Most people don't ever get back to me. Whether it's because they didn't read the post or the post answered all their questions. Great, but like, Man, that saves me some phone calls that would have been just repeating things that I spent hours writing, right. So like, little little tiny things like that. Yeah, it might just be a test to see if you're actually like, if you're serious, because or another one, like my calendly. Hey, I have an intro call that I do like a 15 minute intro call that I do every day of the week on my way to work, or I did I don't anymore, because I don't have the commute. So I don't know what that's gonna look like.
But on the calendly like, link, it says that you need to call me. I don't, I don't even have your number. If I wanted to call you. I couldn't. So you better call me. And if you don't, sorry, you missed your chance. You know, and if you don't message me before that saying you're not gonna make it like you weren't that serious. It wasn't that important to you.
Alex:
Jin, um, before we wrap up, what's next for you?
Jin:
Oh, man, um, so for me, my goal is 10 properties here 2 down 8 more to go. And so there's that I am continuously networking, raising more private funds, right? Because I knew I wanted to take down eight more. I need more private funds. So I'm continuously networking and talking to people. And that's in terms of real estate, right. I'm also moving back to Virginia. So that's what's on my plate, but other than that.
Alex:
I thought you're coming to North Carolina?
1:00:00 - 1:05:00
Jin:
Yes. So it's still up in the air. So we have to find out.
Alex:
Bro, I need a videography buddy. Come on, come on.
Jin:
That's why I was like, man, Fayetteville, you're in Fayetteville, like, that'd be great. I would, you know, find a duplex or a quad to like house hacking. And we would just go, basically, you know, make David jealous because now we're going to go around friggin making videos and doing all this fun stuff without them, right. So.
Alex:
I’m always down anyways, we got actual talents, let's go.
Jin:
I’ll tell you the possibility of meeting you in North Carolina.
Alex:
I need a videography buddy and some real estate buddies. Let's go.
Jin:
All right.
I mean, we'll find out it's, I'm still a W two, unlike you. So I don't have the freedom to just do whatever I want willy nilly. So whatever. I'm still chained to this w two jobs. I mean, the goal, the goal is to get out of it eventually. But for now, I'm going to stick with going back home to Virginia where my family and friends are. And then if they're like, Hey, we need you to go to Fayetteville. I'll be like, Okay, I've got some friends down there and let's go. But I don't I don't find out till much later.
David:
Damn, some friends? You already know more people in Fayetteville than Alex does.
Jin:
I mean, other other co workers, if you will, right.
But no, Alex is probably the only real estate person I know, personally. But I know he's well network out there. So I'm sure I'll meet plenty of other real estate investors.
David:
Show up and ask him for his little black book. It'd be good.
I'll give it all to you.
All right, we got a couple questions we asked him as a guest.
Jin:
Okay.
David:
First one, if an E one, E two, was asked for advice on real estate, business life, whatever. Like, what's the one thing you wish you'd known when you join the military?
Jin:
Have a why? Like, why? Why for everything, right? First of all, I have a why for like life in general. Like, why are you even here, right? And so that basically creates once you have this, why it creates this roadmap for the rest of your life, right? And so, think of it like a puzzle, right? If you ever done a puzzle, we always have to use the picture that's on the frickin box, right to know how to piece this crap together. Imagine if you didn't have that. And you just had this, this 1000 piece puzzle, not knowing what the heck it's supposed to look like. That's what people are going through in life. They're just like, Oh, these two pieces fit together, actually. So I'm going to put these two together. Oh, this one fits too. And then they look over here. And these, these other pieces fit together. And they're going through life without this greater picture of where they want to be. And so they spin their wheels. They they're and they're not, you know, they don't know what they're doing. They're just like you said, Alex, right? They're going day by day, week by week, and not caring about the 10 year 20, 30 year picture.
And so my biggest piece of advice would be to have that why, to find out what your goals are, why you're doing anything? And like, why did you join the military? Why do you want to go and start investing in real estate? You know, so once you have that picture on the box, all you need to do is take those little puzzle pieces, right? Knowing your little action steps and frickin piecing together makes it super easy. So.
Alex:
It sounds so rudimentary, but really it is people are just they're winging life. And then they're like, oh, it didn't go my way. It's like, you don't know what your way. It could have been anything if you have no, if you have no big plan or no, you know, goals, no real goals, not a month to month goal, or like, I want to fix my money problem. It's like, No, no, no, like, you got to get the big why and then everything you do, everything you do, falls under that purpose. And then it's like now everything that everything I do is aligned with one you know, or maybe it hasn't been one but you know, a singular one or two to three. But usually one big goal right? Where it's like this is what, this is where I'm moving. So now all my decisions have a similar purpose. I love that.
David:
I like the puzzle analogy, too.
Alex:
Yeah, that's a really good resource.
David:
What's one good resource course website book, whatever you would recommend to anyone getting into real estate investing?
Jin:
Ah, man.
This is like beginners. All right. And I would just tell them to go to bigger pockets. That's where I started right. Right before I got on ship on the 31st mu. I downloaded all the free ebooks that they had right as long as you signed up for an account and got like three free ebooks and then I was like, well this is not enough. So I went ahead and bought a couple more ebooks right for me to read on ship and that's what really sparked my interest in real estate. That's how I found out All the different ways you can go through real estate, there's flipping, buying and hold, wholesaling notes, whatever, right?
Get your basic foundation, and then figure out from there where you want to go, and then just pick one and go with it. So the best resource, I think, in my opinion is, is bigger pockets, right? They have good content, the books are good. And that'll give you your foundational knowledge, right of real estate investing as a whole. Then from there, you can pick and choose what strategy you want to take, and then find that mentor that's doing exactly what you want to do in that space. Same exact market whenever, you know, like, Whoa, really hone in on finding that mentor, and then focus on that. So.
1:05:00 - 1:09:12
David:
I like it. Where can people get a hold of you, brother?
Jin:
Instagram, honestly, I don't, I don't really use anything else. I do Facebook, just because, you know, our mastermind is on there. A lot of investor related groups on Facebook. So that's the only reason I still have a Facebook account.
But Instagram is what I use the most. I'll post there all the time, right stories, new posts, whatever. So follow me at JinyLym_, why there's an underscore is because some jerk took Jin Y Lim. So I had to add underscore.
So yeah.
David:
Right.
And then I have one other question that I don't ask on every show, but I meant to ask earlier on in this show. So you got 10 seconds, super short, super brief answer, fire round, whatever.
How in the world? Do you know what a property is going to rent for from across the ocean?
Jin:
Man, you got to use tools online, I use a tool called Rentometer I'm sure everyone has heard of it. It's just the tool to use right for finding rent comps. So Rentometer it's super cheap. 99 bucks a year. If you're going to do multiple rentals, right? It's totally worth it. If you're gonna do one, find someone who has an account, pull your rental comps. But if you're going to be a multiple bs series investor, then get that pro account and you get some real good data in terms of finding what that property is going to rent for. So.
David:
And obviously that was the show sponsor Rentometer for the entire month. And Alex and I have although we have the sponsor shot slots we've meant to like work that conversation into this episode, and I completely forgot. Here we are.
Jin:
Alex has no words.,
Alex:
Sometimes I feel bad for um, you know, bustani so bad on your own show. And then you say things and I didn’t validate.
David:
You didn't bring it up either.
Alex:
Rentometer rocks. I love Rentometer. It helped me out a ton when I was long distance. I use it all the time. I love Rentometer.
David:
Yeah, absolutely.
So, JIn, always a pleasure catching up, brother. And when you make it back to Virginia, you know, when you decide to go visit your properties in KC hit me up. So, you know, we'll hang out. We'll make Alex jealous, too.
Alex:
Hey, come to Fayetteville.
Jin:
Yeah, we should, we shall go.
David, I'm reviving your meetup tomorrow. So I'll be sending you a photo. Joe's right. And the Oji spot at Kailua Beach Park.
David:
You told me if I let you publish it in my facebook group, you were going to Photoshop me into that photo.
Jin:
That's right. I'm just I'm just gonna make you huge. You just gonna be the entire background.
David:
Perfect!
Alright, it's been a good one. Thank you very much for joining us, brother.
Jin:
Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me.
End:
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Episode: 144
Jin Lym
Join your hosts, David Pere and Alex Felice, with guest Jin Lym as they talk about mentors, leveraging other people’s expertise, and how Jin pivoted from flipping houses to doing rentals as a real estate investor. When Jin thought about the possibility of catering to a whole family and his parents in the future, he knew he needed to start gearing towards building generational wealth through real estate.
Jin knew he needed to enter a specific niche of real estate investing to reach generational wealth and financial freedom. Thus, he got into rentals. From previously flipping houses in Hawaii, Jin moved to rentals to bring in residual income. In light of the topic, David, Alex, and Jin also discuss how this dilemma explains most people’s fault when planning out a way of generating income.
In this episode, listen as they talk deeper about networking, the BRRRR strategy, why turnkey assets suck and why they’re good, and how investors can capitalize on their superpowers in order to jumpstart and gain an edge in the real estate business.
About Jin Lym:
Jin is a Marine Corps veteran and budding real estate investor. With a bachelor’s in Information Systems and Operations Management from George Mason University, he has over seven years of professional information-technology experience, working with companies such as Rolls-Royce North America and Rackspace.
Konea Capital was born out of Jin’s passion for helping others and sharing knowledge, so starting a real estate investment fund focused on personal development and financial education was a natural thing for him to do.
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Sponsor: Rentometer
https://www.frommilitarytomillionaire.com/rentometer
–
Outline of the episode:
- [05:37] Everyone is going to have that origin story.
- [07:17] On finding mentors and incredible tractions.
- [10:56] It all boils down to your why.
- [17:19] The core problem of people when it comes to planning ahead.
- [20:59] Why turnkey properties suck.
- [30:00] Turnkey properties are good for those who…
- [30:46] The Glamorous BRRRR Strategy.
- [33:10] Leveraging people helps you avoid pitfalls.
- [47:45] People like to invest in other good investments.
- [47:49] Bring your talents and skills into business – find your superpower!
- [55:05] A good mentor only works if the mentee is good.
- [01:01:52] Your ultimate goal in life is your roadmap.
Resources:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jinylim_/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1735593999901619/user/675920146
Biggerpockets Real Estate E-books:
https://www.biggerpockets.com/files/search?category=ebooks
Compare Your Rent With Other Local Properties with Rentometer:
Follow Our Journey:
Website: https://www.frommilitarytomillionaire.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Frommilitarytomillionaire/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1735593999901619/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frommilitarytomillionaire/
Grab your book copy of The No B.S. Guide to Military Life – How to Build Wealth, Get Promoted, and Achieve Greatness by David Pere:
https://www.amazon.com/B-S-Guide-Military-Life-greatness/dp/1736753010
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Advice to an 18-20-year old:
Have a “why” for everything you do.
–
Recommended resource(s):
–
Sponsor: Rentometer
https://www.frommilitarytomillionaire.com/rentometer
–
Real Estate Investing Course: https://www.frommilitarytomillionaire.com/teachable-rei
Recommended books and tools: https://www.frommilitarytomillionaire.com/kit/
Become an investor: https://www.frommilitarytomillionaire.com/investor/
–
SUBSCRIBE: https://bit.ly/2Q3EvfE
–
Website: https://www.frommilitarytomillionaire.com/start-here/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frommilitarytomillionaire/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/militarymillionaire/
–
My name is David Pere, I am an active duty Marine, and have realized that service members and the working class use the phrase “I don’t get paid enough” entirely too often. The reality is that most often our financial situation is self-inflicted. After having success with real estate investing, I started From Military to Millionaire to teach personal finance and real estate investing to service members and the working class. As a result, I have helped many of my readers increase their savings gap, and increase their chances of achieving financial freedom! – Click here to SUBSCRIBE: https://bit.ly/2Q3EvfE to the channel for more awesome videos!
THIS SITE IS INDEPENDENTLY OWNED AND OPERATED. ALL OPINIONS EXPRESSED HEREIN ARE MY OWN. THE VIEWS EXPRESSED ON THIS SITE ARE THOSE OF THE AUTHOR OR THE AUTHOR’S INVITED GUEST POSTERS, AND MAY NOT REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE US GOVERNMENT, THE DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, OR THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS.