Welcome to episode eight of season one of the Growing Empires show. This is the final episode for season one. And in today’s episode we’re going to recap all of season one and let you know what to expect out of season two. Stay tuned.

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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Wow, I can’t believe that season one is actually coming to a close. This has been a great first season and I can’t thank you enough for tuning in and being a part of my show. Throughout the course of season one, we had a lot of great beginning information and each season we’re going to dive much deeper into a lot of these really hot topics for investors. We covered the concept of real estate investing and we kind of broke down the difference between passive and active income. As you know, passive income is income that is generated without requiring any of your time or attention. And active income is income that you’re acquiring, but it’s involving some of your time and attention. We broke down the different types of real estate investment options and how we can determine which one is a passive and or an active income option for you. Passive income is generated, usually from hedge funds, REITS, syndications, private equity funds and active income is usually wholesaling, buy and hold properties, actively pursuing buy fix and flips or flip properties. And those require a lot of your time and attention.

And then we kind of broke the mold a little bit in a sense, and I shared with you kind of the concept behind my companies and why we are so insistent on creating a passive income vehicle strictly for the buy and hold properties. And partly that has to do with the real estate market and the properties that are really the home runs right now in our current market. But it also is because, you know, I realize that investors in general, are able to invest because they have a steady source of income. And usually that’s from some sort of nine to five job. And in many cases, if you’re some sort of executive or higher up in companies, you may not even have the luxury of working nine to five, you may be working 10 to 12 hour shifts, depending on your commute.

So the last thing you’re going to have is time to really put some energy into that investment property. The challenge with that is, if you lost your job, as we’ve talked about before, what are you going to do, how are you going to make the money that you currently make if you haven’t figured out that you need some type of passive income vehicle. So I feel that our ability to create a passive vehicle for you to buy and hold investment properties, kind of marries the goal of the investor with a resource that can actually help you accomplish it. And being that we’re able to do that in an area in a location that I would consider to be very recession proof, we’re certainly able to help you acquire bulletproof investments. I feel that it’s a win win. And you know, this market is really hot. It is definitely something that you know, people are flocking to in droves. And we want to make sure that you have the opportunity to get ahead of this, right. We want you to experience all that the Lehigh Valley has to offer. For you to be able to do that you need to make the steps to move forward.

So season one was all about taking the steps to move forward. We talked to you about how to identify the right types of investments, how to identify the right types of banks to do lending, we talked to a little bit about the money and how that works in real estate investing so that you know that you have options. And I explained to you even how to interview for a property manager and create a network if it’s in an area that you’re not used to. So I believe that season one gave you the roadmap right and gave you the starting point to be able to invest in an area that maybe you’re not so familiar with. Season two is going to be all about the Lehigh Valley. We are going to give you all of the secrets, we are going to break down what types of investments to be involved in, what types of investments to stay away from, we’re going to give you some secrets that only we use in the real estate world to identify properties. And we are going to peel back the curtain and make sure that you can take advantage of all the things that the Lehigh Valley has to offer.

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In season two, we’re going to relay a lot of stats, we’re going to talk about the demographics and the economics that make this area so hot. We’re going to talk about the proximity to New York City, the Tri-State area and Philadelphia. You’re going to get to experience a second special guest interview with a commercial broker from the Lehigh Valley who is also very heavily invested in in real estate investments as well as sourcing off-market properties. We’re going to talk about a completely new avenue of investment options in the Lehigh Valley. And that’s the recent launch of the Empire Capital Fund.

5:34 The episode will continue in just a moment.

It’s true passive income from real estate investing is the secret to building wealth. However, portfolio development takes a great deal of time and experience to be successful. It’s important to protect your portfolio so that it remains strong and can continue to provide you with passive income you desire. I help investors bulletproof their investments by developing a portfolio strategy that hedges economic cycles and provides for consistent income growth. I can do that for you to. Start by scheduling a call with me at growingempires.com. Whether you’re a new investor or have several properties that need better management, I can help. Schedule a consult today at Growingempires.com. That’s GROWINGEMPIRES.com and will make your portfolio stronger than ever.

I want to take a moment to just impress upon you what it means to have a business partner. I want to take a moment to talk a little bit about the pandemic. Season two is all about the real estate potential of the Lehigh Valley. And although this episode was recorded at the back end of the pandemic, I want to let you in on a little insight of what we’ve experienced, and something to make sure that you’re looking forward to in any area anywhere in the country that you’re going to be looking to invest in. These are really, really key facts of the Lehigh Valley. But they’re exactly what help you make your investments bulletproof.

So when this pandemic happened for the Lehigh Valley, it felt very abrupt as I’m sure it maybe did for the rest of the country. But I can tell you, I remember specifically being in my office in the middle of March, with my entire team there, going about the day to day operations of all the things that we do between real estate and property management, seeing this broadcast from the President, about the pandemic, and then seeing an article that the Governor of Pennsylvania that was writing regarding how he’s going to help mitigate the state of Pennsylvania by closing everything down. And literally in a blink of an eye. We had to completely alter our business. And I’m not joking when I say overnight, okay, but here’s what was my biggest takeaway. If you had your property trusted to just a property manager, or you’re maybe self managing, God forbid, or you are investing in an area where you don’t have a large handful of people to help you, support systems, or you’re perhaps invested in areas and in types of properties that are not so recession proof, I bet you started to panic when this happened, just like everybody else. In the Lehigh Valley, we did something a little bit different.

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First of all, we took a breath. Second of all, we gathered everybody together. And we started to talk about the pieces of our business that we’re going to be directly impacted by shutdowns. And as you know, when when this first went out, there were businesses that were considered life-sustaining and some business was were considered non life-sustaining. So our business was like 25% life-sustaining and the rest of it was non life-sustaining so portions of our business shut down. This was not a major feat for us, because as I had expressed in season one, we’ve departmentalized our business. So every department has a very specific role and all those roles together combine to give the exceptional customer service that our investors experience. So the departments that were affected by COVID, were able to pause and kind of think of creative ways to get their job done without closing the doors, but still being in the guidelines that were permitted in the state of Pennsylvania. The departments that were considered essential services like general repairs and maintenance on properties that already had tenants, those employees resumed normal operations.

So what I did first was I had a meeting with my team and I said, “Look, we have an obligation here. Our obligation is to make sure that the investors that we represent their money is protected.” Which means that although our governor is shutting down and we have to follow a new set of regulations. It is our obligation and our duty to make a quick shift and to figure out how we’re going to deal with this situation. Because in a matter of a couple of hours, as the world starts to learn what’s happening, we’re going to get bombarded with questions about what we’re going to do or what the investors think that they should do. So we have to be prepared.”

And out of that meeting, we came up with very key solutions. My entire team ran out to create video tours for every single unit that was vacant at the time of the shutdown, or that was going to be on the market in the very near future so that our owners could take advantage of the online presence that we have, which is why we’re so successful at renting properties quickly. So that’s what we did. We ran out, we took videos, and we did walk-through tours, and we posted it on social media. We posted it on our website, and we did absolutely everything we could to make sure that the lease up was going to continue to happen. Then my leasing team started making phone calls to anybody that was coming up on any kind of lease renewal. And we started to say, “look, we will let you stay for a couple of extra months, we expect that this is going to be challenging for you to find a new home. Let’s stay at your current rate. Let’s continue to pay rent as you always have. And we’ll make sure that you have a roof over your head until we all as a group, get through this pandemic.”

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Those tenants were so satisfied. Many of them wrote us great reviews. And, you know, they appreciated the fact that although their lease was ending, we weren’t going to just kick them out because we cared, we truly cared. We wanted people to be safe. We wanted them to have a roof over their head. And if they were a good paying tenant, it’s only a benefit for the landlord for that tenant to keep staying and paying. So now their lease went from one year to 14 months, 16 months, 18 months, some renewed for a new year, but who could ask for anything better? So we immediately took advantage of the potential vacancies that were coming up, we immediately took advantage of the opportunity to convince people to stay longer, that may have moved in other circumstances. We continue to handle the repairs and maintenance as was needed. And again, because we’re a very sophisticated and a large company, everything that we do is technology-based. So any of my employees can work from home anywhere in the country. And well, they can actually work anywhere in the world. And we can still get done what we’re expected to do every single day without skipping a beat.

Then from the delinquency side, which we knew was going to be the most challenging, is we took a proactive approach. We didn’t wait till April 1st rolled around and hope that we got money, we actually started reaching out to tenants. And we started to gather details on how they were going to get help. And we gave them all the information we help them know about unemployment, we help them know what services we’re providing, grants and or help, you know, rental assistance.

We gave them applications to fill out. We did everything that we could to support them. We gave them all the information that they could possibly need to be successful and to help them help themselves. And immediately, we realized that there was only a very small percentage of our population that even was concerned about not being employed any longer or being on unemployment, because the majority of our population of tenants work in any type of manufacturing, but they work in warehouses that their grocery store employees, they work in hospitals. That’s the demographic of our tenant in our B and C class neighborhoods. So we learned very quickly that the tenant population that we represent was unlikely to even be impacted. And for the ones that actually were, because of course, there were some we were quick to give them the information way before they needed it so that they could take advantage of it and not be caught with these long waiting lines, and the inability to get anybody on the phone to answer any questions. So I’m pleased to say that as a result of that, we experienced a far lower delinquency in the month of April, May and June, then we experienced in the previous January and February months, and I think that’s a huge accomplishment.

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But that’s the difference between having a partner on your side, having somebody that is truly invested in being in business with you, versus a property manager, who I guarantee you—didn’t have a clue of what to do in this situation. You know, fast forward when this episode is recorded, it’s July, we’re at the tail and you know, we just went green a couple of weeks ago in Pennsylvania and we’re starting to get back to what I guess is going to be our new norm, right? And, you know, we are still taking a lot of precautions are businesses continuing. But I am very, very pleased to say that our owners did not experience the catastrophic changes to their investment properties that I am certain that other investors that are even local experienced as well as people that owned investments in other areas.

So in season two, we’re going to talk heavily about the Lehigh Valley and why, why is this area so bulletproof from an investment standpoint? And why is this area so good economically for supporting rental properties. And then we’re going to talk about the classes of properties, and where we’re seeing changes happen. We’re going to talk about how we forecast things and how we help owners navigate the information on the web and how the market is ever-changing, so that they can take advantage of the details that create these protected investment options.

I am so excited about season two. And I again just want to thank you for listening for staying tuned. And please don’t forget to submit your questions for our question and answer segment each season. Until next time, take care.

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