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Welcome to Episode 8 of season 10 of the Growing Empire Show. Today is our trailer for season 11. But before we jump into that, I’d like to recap what season 10 had to offer. And we’re going to do our question and answer segment. So stay tuned.

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Welcome to Growing Empires. Hosted by real estate entrepreneur and trusted investment advisor, Jennifer de Jesus. Growing Empires provides insight to building wealth through passive income producing real estate investments for those who want to build and manage a more profitable real estate portfolio.

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So let’s jump right into season 10. Season 10 theme was all about leveling up. And we had a variety, quite a variety, of special guests. We talked to Adam Von Romer, regarding commercial real estate investments and how to dip your toe into that industrial or commercial segment of real estate investments, what to know. Some tips and tricks for that how to know what investments are the right to buy. How to expand outside of your current marketplace, where you live, and where you own and operate your businesses. How to invest in other regions and other markets, how to know what regions to find, and we talked about how to not be scared of the industrial side of the business or commercial real estate, we talked about some of the common misconceptions regarding commercial real estate. And Adam spoke to me for three episodes, actually. And that was episode 2, 3 and 4 of season 10. And then I had my special guest, Eric Martell. And my special guest right beyond that was Joe Viery. And we talked about all different strategies between financial investments we talked about utilizing different types of techniques to capitalize on appreciation and equity and buildings and how to pull that money out reinvest it. We talked about cost segregation studies and tax strategies and how to save money. How to depreciate your buildings differently, and how to look at them from a financial perspective, and save on those income tax dollars and use that as strategies to continue to help you reinvest that money and grow a much larger portfolio. We talked about how to go from one unit to 500 plus units. We talked about real estate partnerships and different types of strategies to help you scale faster if that’s your choice. So kind of in conjunction with our leveling up theme for season 10, season 11, we’re going to talk about how to buy investments, but without using your own money. So we’re going to talk about things like cash out refinances, and using equity to build more equity. Should you have partners? Should you not? We’re going to talk about all the different types of things that people use to build wealth in real estate. And a lot of those strategies are from investors that have used tactics to make their money work for themselves. And by being able to do that you will quickly learn how to buy investment properties without using your own money. And when you get really good at doing that, you’re going to find that leveling up, and being able to go from that one or two, or 10 units to 500 plus units is a very, very simple transition. When we’re talking about building wealth through real estate investments, this is how we do it. And the trick is to try to buy a very large portfolio of properties and continuing to invest without having to use your own cash.

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So I’d like to jump into our questions for this season. So the first question I got from our listeners is, I’ve heard that I should not invest in commercial properties, would you consider that to be true or false? And as we discussed with my special guest, Adam Von Romer, every type of real estate investment is more of a choice than anything. Certainly there are different types of investments that are bad investments versus good investments. But what it comes down to is not the type of property that you’re buying, it’s about the risk associated with that type of investment, how much cash you want to invest in, what is your threshold or tolerance level for that long term hold strategy? Because unless you’re doing some sort of very quick proposition, like a fix and flip, or you’re doing some sort of wholesale deal, the reality is, is that the value of your investment will grow over time. So when we’re trying to figure out whether we should buy small single families, small to large multifamily. Should we invest in industrial real estate? Should you invest in commercial real estate? Really, the deciding factor is your tolerance level. And how much of your time you want to invest and better yet, how much of those resources can you hand off to another person, by way your property manager or your tax advisor or those people that are going to help you make sure that your money is protected? So should you buy commercial real estate? Absolutely. But should you know what you’re getting into and should you be certain that those risks associated with that type of investment makes sense for you? Absolutely. So I would not say that there’s any one specific area, I can tell you that there’s sections of real estate that I don’t personally invest in. And one of those is retail, I find retail to be a very volatile type of environment. Because as we saw with the recession, and as we saw with our recent pandemic of COVID, retail is not necessarily a necessity, it is a sometimes a need, but a lot of times it is a luxury item. So for example, clothing manufacturers struggle with Amazon, right? Retail, small box, retailers struggle with shipping and different types of things that Amazon came in and kind of swooped in and picked up. Think about that small mom and pop restaurant that is overtaken by the large chains. So I find retail to be a little bit more volatile for the simple fact that the economic shifts has a lot to do with whether those businesses can be sustained in those environments. There are certain things that I also think are necessities and homeownership or having a roof over your head not even homeownership but having a roof over your head is a necessity. So I choose personally to invest in real estate, and specifically homes for people. Because I know that there’s nothing that’s going to change in the economy, that’s going to not have you needing a roof over your head. So when I invest, I’m looking for things that are a sure bet. And I know that real estate investments, specifically apartment rentals, and small home or single family rentals are the way to go. And that’s just my choice. Now I do own other businesses and I do own other types of real estate. I do actually own commercial real estate as well. I own single families, I own multi families, and all of them were purchased for a very specific reason. But when it comes to analyzing the type of investments you want to buy, it all comes back to what is your tolerance level for change? What is your tolerance level for risk? And do you have the right type of team on your side to make sure that whatever investment strategy you are buying, especially if you are trying to be a passive investor, you have somebody on your side that you can trust and that can help you make sure that these investments are profitable.

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The episode will continue in just a moment.

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As an investor, we know it’s important to stay on top of market trends and real estate opportunities that add value to your portfolio. We also know that having a trusted source of reliable information to help you stay a step ahead of other investors is critical to your success. If you’re interested in having these types of resources, as well as access to me and my team, I invite you to join the Empire Investment Club. A free service that gives you an easier way to make sense of today’s and tomorrow’s real estate opportunities. As a member of the Empire Investment Club, you’ll get access to relevant resources and investment focused experiences such as live interactive webinars, market trend presentations, and investor socials designed to equip you with what you need to succeed. So whether you’re an active investor, passive investor, a combination of both or just starting out, the club is where you’ll get what you need to build a portfolio you love. To join, just head over to JenniferdeJesus.com, sign up, and we’ll see you in the club, where everyone’s on a journey to becoming a better investor.

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Second question; to scale, do I need to have partners? And the answer to that is no, you do not need to have partners. Now how much money you can initially invest, and how quickly you’re able to make adjustments will determine how quickly you can scale. But you don’t necessarily need partners. And, again, partners are not necessarily a bad thing either. Most people do get started with partners in the very beginning because they’re short on cash. So one of the best reasons to have a partner initially is to have an additional amount of cash influx. If you’re going to go down the path of having a partner, I suggest a couple of things. Number one, never go into business with somebody, especially somebody you know very well, like a friend or a family member, without having all of the context of your partnership in writing. Never do handshake deals. And never just assume because you know this person or you’ve got a long history with this person, that everything is going to be okay. Because everything will be okay until it’s not okay. And then when it’s not okay, it’s going to be a real problem. So make sure that you always protect yourself. And that regardless of how well you know somebody, even if it is your spouse, that you have a very specific partnership agreement about who is responsible for what and whose share of the money where the money goes, how the money is allocated, what happens in the event of things like a death, divorce, you know, businesses going bankrupt, those types of things. You want to make sure that you always prepare for the worst and anticipate the best. But you do not need to scale to have partners. So you certainly can buy more with more money. But it’s, again, it’s a tolerance level thing, it has to be something that really makes you feel comfortable. I’m not opposed to starting out with investors. But once you get the hang of things, and once you start to get your money working for you, you’re going to find that you probably don’t need that partnership to grow your passive income and real estate investment business.

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And last question is, how do you go from one to several 100 properties? And I feel like this was entirely the topic of season 10. But I think it’s still a great question. Because for everybody, this answer is going to be different. It is very unique, depending on who I am talking to, and how much they’re investing and how much time they’re putting in, and what type of team they have behind them. So the quickest answer of how do you get from one to a couple 100 is to invest all the time. Make smart deals, but invest all the time. Meaning, we’re not going to save a little money, let that money be invested, wait to save more money to wait to be invested. If you do that your acquisition period is going to be years upon years upon years. However, another strategy and something that would happen a little bit quicker is by a value, add property, take that property, take all your pain at once, put all the improvements in that you need to fix up that building, take that building from making no money to making a lot of money. And as quickly as you can do that is as quickly as you can pull that money out by way of a cash refinance. And then you’re going to take that equity that you just built up that you just cash refi-ed out, and you’re going to invest that money again. And then you’re going to do the same thing all over again. Realistically, if you buy a property, if you have a property with tenants in it, it could take you a little bit longer to turn over the building. But if you buy something as potentially distressed, if you buy something that’s potentially with little to no tenancy in it, or the tenancy that’s on a month to month, know that you have a lot of control. So if you can turn over the building, and you could improve it in a couple of months, say three to six months, that’s as quickly as you can do a cash out refi to reinvest that money, you definitely want to make sure that you’re looking for things that are being purchased far below market value. So you want to try to find something almost using like an analysis as you would if you’re flipping a property. So you want to try to buy things at 75% or less of the market value. It’s not always the easiest acquisition, and sometimes you have to look very hard for it. But that doesn’t mean that you wait to find that investment. If other investments that are not going to be as quickly financially rewarding, but still make smart investment choices. You can definitely take those investments and utilize those in the very near future, I would highly suggest that you look at things like your 401k, I would highly suggest that you talk to somebody about self directed IRAs, and how you can use self directed IRA money to invest in real estate. I would definitely suggest that you talk to somebody about hedge funds and syndications as a way to get started. I would look at things anywhere from a single family all the way up to large multifamily properties. But you want to make sure that the markets that you’re investing in have very solid demographics. You want to make sure that those marketplaces have very good stability with jobs. And ultimately you’re going to find that, especially if you’re investing in real estate apartments or housing, you’re going to find that those are very consistent and very fruitful type of investments. So long story short, how do you go from one to a couple 100 depends on the strategy that you want to take. But one of the easiest ways to do it is take a property, create that value add proposition that forced appreciation by doing those improvements, creating an influx of cash, by way of increasing the market rents, then taking that equity out, borrowing against that equity, and reinvesting that equity into a new property. And, you know, at first you may be talking single family to a duplex or a duplex to a 4 family. But pretty soon, you’re going to have a same type of topic you’re going to be talking about, you know, duplexes to 10 units or more and then 10 units to 50 units and a 50 units or a couple 100 units. Never be afraid to sell any of your investments. So if the market shifts in a way that your property is worth a considerable amount more than you ever thought it would be, it might be time to sell. The property may be a great cash flowing property. But if the market demands have shifted your property in such a positive manner that your property is now worth significantly more than it was the day that you bought it, you might want to consider selling that asset and then utilizing something like a 1031 exchange or some other type of tax advantage and you want to reallocate that money into a new investment strategy.

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So that was all I have for episode 10. I am very much looking forward to season 11. As I’m sure you are as well, so please make sure you stay tuned. And don’t forget we’re going to talk about how to buy investment properties without using most of your own money. And until next time, take care.

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For more information about how Jennifer can help you plan, develop and manage a strong real estate investment portfolio visit growingempires.com