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Welcome to Episode 8 of Season 13 of the Growing Empire Show. Today is our season trailer to make sure you 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 season 13, we talked about common investing mistakes that can and should be avoided. We talked about some of my life changing real estate lessons, and purchase contracts, strategies and how to avoid mistakes when buying deals. We talked about the pitfalls of investing. We talked about the worst investment mistakes you can make, and the reality of managing your own investment property. We talked about how to avoid being a bad landlord. And we had a great question and answer segment. I hope you were able to enjoy all that season 13 had to offer. And I’m going to start out this episode with another investing mistake that people make. And that’s failing to be informed and educated.

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Most investors are investing for passive income. And what that means is that they likely have a nine to five, or some other employment that requires their time. Maybe they own a business, you know, but a lot of times, investors are investing for passive income. And a lot of times how they afford those investments is that salary job, that corporate job, that nine to five. So what that means is that there’s a little bit of time, only a very little bit of time, right time is precious. So there’s only a little bit of time to educate yourself, be informed. So you know, in investing, you have to rely very heavily on the people you surround yourself with. You have to rely heavily on their expertise, and their experience. And one of the ways that you can be informed is to create that rockstar team around you. From attorneys, to accountants, to insurance brokers, to your real estate broker, property management company. But even with all the best of the best people around you, it’s still
very, very critical for you to make sure that you are educated and informed and know what is happening in the world that could impact your investment strategy. Including knowing enough about the area that you are investing in to know what the different rules and regulations are in that state, in that municipality, so on and so forth. And why am I bringing this up? Well, even with the best of the best team around you, if you’re not paying attention to and continuously immersing yourself in educational opportunities for investors, if you’re not networking with a large group of other investors, you’re going to miss opportunities to educate yourself that could be readily available, very easily accessible, and probably cut back on the amount of time that you need to read and involve yourself in the educational side. As
an example, you’re listening to my podcast, and I hope you’ve gotten so much information out of 13 seasons worth of content. But does it stop there? Are you just a podcast listener? Or do you immerse yourself in networking events? Whether they be virtual or live. Do you read? Do you listen to, you know, audio books? Do you involve yourself in things that will impact your investment strategies long term. We try to be a resource for all of our investors. To give them the best of the best educational content. And
we gather that content, not just stuff that we put out, we gather that content from experts, and investors and experience. And we tried to bring all of that into a platform that allows our investors to be highly educated. So if you’re listening to the podcast, thank you so much for being a part of it.

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I hope you’ve had an opportunity to check out our Empire Investment Club. We started that club in actually January of 2022. And so we’ve got one full year in and it’s been phenomenal. Part of the Empire Investment Club is really it’s our networking opportunity for you to get around other like minded investors to learn what they’re doing, get some tips and tricks, find out what works, find out what doesn’t work, and really save yourself a lot of headaches and potential financial loss by just being educated and learning. And part of that Empire Investment Club, we do monthly networking events. To date, they’ve all been virtual, because we find that that’s the easiest way
for people to connect. Either usually an hour long, their virtual, we record them. And we’re happy to distribute those recordings to you, if you’re a member of the club, because they are exclusive to the club. But we’re happy to distribute those if you happen to miss one of the club conversations. We
always have guests on our club conversations, we are always talking to other professionals. For example, we had 1031 Exchange Corporation there to speak about 1031 exchanges, we’ve had insurance brokers there to talk about properly insuring your dwelling for investors. We’ve had attorneys
on there, we’ve had accountants on there to talk about tax time and tax prep and some tax saving strategies. You know, we’re always bringing in educational content. But I think you know, what really is important is that you’re also surrounding yourself with other like minded people, and networking events are one of those ways to do it. And if you don’t have the opportunity to do it in person, I highly suggest that you do it and find an avenue that allows you to do it virtually. If you don’t know about our
investment club and like to sign up, all you have to do is go to JJenniferdeJesus.com and click on the link to sign up. And that’s where you’re going to get all the information. In addition to our club conversations, we also produce weekly advisor guides. Which are articles or blogs that we write, regarding a variety of topics from landlord kind of rules and regulations to protecting your investments and what to do in the different seasons. I mean, it’s just such a wide variety of information and library for you. And then you can also join our social media networks, LinkedIn, Facebook, you know, YouTube, we’ve got all kinds of things out there that we are publishing and posting. So whatever you can do to immerse yourself in information you’re going to find to be very valuable. And it actually also accelerates your investing. Because sometimes you can meet people that will be great partners for you. Sometimes you can meet good advocates that will help you find the deals or negotiate the deals. So in any event, we hope you enjoy our podcast. And we hope that you take the time to involve yourself in the Empire Investment Club.

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I want to switch now to a really hot topic. At least it’s a hot topic for me. There was an article published a month ago in January. And it was in regards to nationwide rent control. And when I saw that article, I was instantaneously afraid. And the reason that it kind of shook me a little bit is because you know, we’ve always prided ourselves the Lehigh Valley, that is, Pennsylvania that is, we pride ourselves on being that landlord friendly state. And with very few controls, it’s really easy for investors to be super profitable in this environment. So when I read an article about nationwide rent control, what concerns me is most of what investors buy, that really turns to double digit profits, that turns double digit cap rates are what we consider to be B and C Class value add properties. And what’s great about value add properties is that you can buy them completely vacant, you can buy them, you know partially occupied or fully occupied. And you have complete control over when you improve the property and when you add equity to the building.
Typically, when people are buying value add, the buildings are somewhat occupied. Meaning they have small amounts of cash flow. And part of the value add strategy is to improve the rents which requires you to turn over the unit, increase the rents and then maybe separate utilities and different things like that. But you have the flexibility to kind of do it on your own timeline. What nationwide rent control means is that for the investors that counted on that value add proposition, meaning they counted on being able to turn the unit over and then increase the rents drastically. You may no longer have that ability. Because nationwide rent control or rent control in itself means that you are capped out and that you are not going to have the ability to increase rents at your will or at your leisure. And there’s very specific stipulations around what you can and cannot do and how much you can increase rent year over year. You know, we have seen people buy properties where rent was maybe $500. And it should have been like $1,200. Right? It’s drastically different. Rent control would stop that, or prevent you from being able to have those options as a landlord. Why am I bringing this up? Certainly not to scare you. But it goes back to what I was saying a few minutes ago. And it kind of correlates with our theme of common investing mistakes. Ultimately, the key to being successful is to be educated, and to know everything that’s going on around you that could prevent you from having great success in investing. Now, do I think nationwide rent control is going to be a thing. I don’t actually, I don’t actually. But as an investor, as an advocate for investors, and as somebody that is delivering information, I feel it is absolutely critical for you to be informed and educated and know what is potentially on the horizon that could impact your investment strategies very quickly. So what do you do with this information? Number one, you educate yourself, read up on it. There will be articles monthly, usually put on by the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, you know, different news sources like that. Just keep an eye on it, it probably is going to be nothing. But I would rather you have the opportunity to make adjustments in your investing strategy, before it becomes a problem than to wait until it is potentially a problem and wish you had reacted. I always preach to my employees, to my investors to everybody that I work with. Proactive is much better than being reactive. And in this type of situation, by the time you have an opportunity to be reactive, it’s far too late. So keep yourself educated. Know what is happening in the world around you know what is happening in the state that you’re investing in. Surround yourself with your team of people that could keep you abreast of everything that’s going on, listen to podcasts, join networking groups, and you will find that you are going to be very very successful in real estate investing.

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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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So let’s talk about season 14. I cannot believe we are already to season 14. Thank you so much to everybody that has been listening to us sharing their feedback, asking questions on our question and answer segment. I so appreciate your dedication and your enjoyment in being a part of our
networking groups and our investor clubs. You make it what it is today. And I am so fortunate and so appreciative of your continued dedication and partnership. So season 14. We’re gonna talk about a really hot topic and very touchy subject might I add. We’re going to talk about protecting your investments through title insurance. I find that investors are so uneducated in regards to title insurance, the title process, the differences between lender insurance and owner insurance, what attorney opinion letters mean and different types of deeds, what you should avoid and not avoid. And then just some of the fraudulent things that happen. So real estate and title businesses are constantly battling fraud and it impacts everything that you do with your investments. And you may not even know how susceptible you could be as an investor, from fraudulent real estate deals, to fraudulent wire fraud, settlement fraud, there’s so many things that happen. And I think it’s so critically important for you to understand what happens in the industry, especially because you’re not from the industry, right? Most people are investing are not from the investment world there from, you know, other corporate jobs, I think it’s really critical that you know all about the types of fraud that happened, and specifically how to protect yourself. We are going
to have some very experienced title agents. One of them will be Michelle Bechtold, who is a tile agent for Steel Abstract, the company that I own. She has been with me since literally since Steel Abstract opened. And she is just a just incredible wealth of knowledge. And I’m sure you’re gonna really enjoy
that episode. And, you know, she’s been in the business for 25 plus years, I don’t even know the actual count. It’s it’s been a, you know, several decades. And we’re going to have some of our underwriting teams, our attorneys for the title business part of the podcast in Episode 14, sharing their information on how to avoid all the different types of fraudulent things that happen in real estate and or title business. We’re going to talk about different purchase strategies. We’re going to talk about tips to save money in title insurance. We’re going to talk to you about holding open policies so that you don’t have to pay double the transfer tax. We’re gonna talk about clearing title issues and what that means to you prior owner mortgages, judgments, liens, everything that you might experience in a title transfer or a deed transfer for a real estate transaction. I think season 14 is going to be the most informative and most educational event we have thus far. And I’m really excited to be able to partner with some of our experts in the industry to share that information with you. So I hope you stay tuned for all that season 14 is there to offer to you. Make sure you sign up for the Empire investment club if you have not already. 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