Speaker 1 (00:00:01) - Welcome to episode 12 of season 17 of The Growing Empire Show. Today we're going to talk about capital raising, how you invest with me, and what you can expect for the upcoming season, season 18. So make sure you stay tuned. Speaker 2 (00:00:18) - Welcome to Growing Empires, hosted by real estate entrepreneur and trusted investment advisor Jennifer DeJesus. 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. Speaker 1 (00:00:38) - So let's jump right in. Season 17 and the majority of 2024 has already been quite interesting. And being that we are halfway through the year already. I think it's really critical to talk about some of the opportunities and trends that emerged and things that are becoming more and more popular for real estate investors. As you know, 2023 and 2024 was plagued by inflation, high interest rates. We've got an upcoming election, but there's been quite an opportunity, despite all this, for real estate investors. People ask me all the time, when is the right time to get into real estate investing? And my answer is going to be the same every single time I'm asked that question. Speaker 1 (00:01:26) - There is no right time. Just like you can't time the stock market, just like you cannot foresee the Powerball numbers to win the lottery. You cannot predict the best time to invest, and that doesn't mean that there isn't a good time or a better time to invest. What that means is that if you're constantly waiting and trying to time the market, you are essentially going to miss out an opportunity. You are going to be paralyzed by your beliefs. You are going to be paralyzed by your inaccuracies or predictions of what the market will allow you to do. And much of that could be based on social media. It could be based on other investors that are in your ear. It could also be based on somebody else's failures. None of those things, though, should be an indication or a reason behind why you're not investing today. So let's start with the basics of real estate investing, specifically why I'm doing it and why I think you should be doing it. You know, I was in a situation many, many years ago, a couple of decades ago, where I learned firsthand how disposable an employee was. Speaker 1 (00:02:42) - It doesn't matter how hard you work, it doesn't matter how many hours you put in. It doesn't even matter how you perform in that role or how you outperform everyone else in a company. You are still a disposable asset unless you own that business. And for many of us, owning businesses is not what we desire to do. We don't want the headaches of managing employees. We don't want the headaches of the operational side of a business. And maybe we don't want the financial burden either. So the majority of the population is an employee at some point of another person. I don't know about you, but I certainly didn't strive to work hard to make sure that I was making somebody else's dreams come true. I was working hard because I wanted to put food on the table, and I wanted to grow my family's wealth and provide for my own fortune and, you know, experiences and habits and things that I wanted to do with my family. But that's essentially it. When you work for somebody else, it doesn't matter where you are in corporate America, it doesn't matter your title, it doesn't matter. Speaker 1 (00:03:49) - You are still disposable, you are still down sizable, and your fortune rests heavily on that income in many cases. So what we're going to talk about today is how you make sure that you can change the tide for you, for your family and for your future. Now many people look at their current employment or their job and they say, there's no way I can leave my job. There's no way I can retire early because I need the income. And while that may be true today, I desire to help you change that in the very near future. Many people have untapped opportunities to start real estate investing that they haven't even thought about. Money in the stock market. Money in your insurance policies. Money in IRAs or 401 case you could borrow from a friend or family. You can go into partnerships with somebody you can borrow from a bank. There's so many ways, and I could go on and on and list the ways that you can get started investing. And sometimes you can get started investing without your own money. Speaker 1 (00:04:57) - And in some cases, even if you are investing with your own money, you can do it in a manner where you get special tax treatment to avoid paying excessive taxes on money that you accumulate or money that you acquire. So how does one get started? How do you get off the fence? And if you're one that listens to podcasts and reads books, and maybe you're set up on investor forums like Biggerpockets and some of the other things that are out there, you may be getting an overload of education and detail from these forums. Sometimes, though, immersing yourself in all of that education can also be part of the reason that you get paralyzed, because you start to think that there is a one trick pony in real estate. One way to get rich. You know, maybe you hear somebody talking about storage facilities, and then you hear somebody talking about commercial real estate, and then you hear somebody talking about single families and multi families, and it all gets very confusing. So while I am a big advocate of networking events, I am a big advocate of podcasts and I am a big advocate of reading and educating yourself. Speaker 1 (00:06:05) - I'm also a big advocate of getting out there and just doing it. There is always going to be some risk associated with real estate investing. So if you have anybody that's telling you there's no risk associated with you, they're flat out lying to you and you need to look to other people to get advice. There is risk. There's risk in you changing your job, right? There's risk in you waking up and driving to work every day. There's risk in everything that we do. So we are not going to ever be in a position where our lives are completely risk averse, right? But that doesn't mean that you have to be reckless in how you spend your money or the things that you do with your money. And although there's no shortage of people out there that are going to speak and have opinions about real estate investing or their experiences, I want you to keep something very critical in mind. Opinions are the cheapest commodity that we know of in life, so take opinions with a grain of salt. Unless somebody has been in a position that is where you see yourself in life, I would definitely suggest that you refrain from taking critical advice. Speaker 1 (00:07:15) - Advice that affects your future, your family, and your fortune from people that are not in a place which is where you want to be. Instead, you need to surround yourself with like minded professionals, like minded investors, and people that are in a position that you would like to be so that you can learn how to navigate and get there successfully. Over the years, I've helped many people become very wealthy and very rich in real estate investing. And the reason that I'm able to do that is that I have five very vertically integrated companies that assist investors with achieving very passive real estate investing income, because we do it all for you. So this is a perfect opportunity for you to get on the inside of real estate investing without an incredible amount of risk. Why? Because we've already paved the way for you. We've already set up the systems we already have the businesses in line to help assist you and provide services to you so that you can achieve financial freedom with real estate investing. So what does that look like? Well, typically what we first do with any investor is we meet with you and have a conversation about your goals in life. Speaker 1 (00:08:32) - Where do you want to be? How much money do you need to make, and at what point in your life can you say that you are in a position where you could retire whenever you felt like it? Because ultimately, that's the first thing that we're striving for. Sure, real estate can help you save for college. Sure, real estate could help you travel the world if that's what you choose to do. And sure, real estate can help you build up a nest egg of savings that will help you live a more comfortable life. But the reality is, is that many people strive to retire at some point, and my hope for you is that you can retire at a very young age. And have more time back to yourself to do the things that you love to do. Because you're not a prisoner in corporate America, because you're not a prisoner at your current job, and because you are finding ways to make money while you sleep. That is not the result of your time and your energy as your job would be. Speaker 1 (00:09:30) - So what does this look like? At that initial meeting, one of the things that we'll do is talk about what your goals are and what your timeline is for those goals. Sometimes we have investors that are brand new starting out, and they're very young and they've got many, many years ahead of them. So we could take a much slower pace or ramp it up as fast as they truly want to. But ultimately we can work at a different pace than if you are much closer to retirement. Say you are only 2 or 3 years from retirement. It's still not too late to get involved in real estate investing. As a matter of fact, there's never the wrong time to get involved in real estate investing. The worst thing that you could do, though, is hesitate if you strive to retire early. If you strive to spend more time with your family, if you strive to have more time back to yourself, to travel the world and do the things that you love to do, then you need to figure out and you need to allow me to help you be able to navigate how to not allow your job or your career to consume the better part of your hours of every single day, and give you time back to do the things that you love to do. Speaker 1 (00:10:42) - After we identify what your goals are, we'll start to strategically put a plan together that'll help us identify how much money you're going to need, when you're going to need the money. And we'll do this based on the plan for savings, what you have in the bank, what you have in 401 k's, what you have in IRAs, what you have in your insurance policies. And we'll go kind of down the list. And it's not just me. I have a team of people around me. I've got attorneys, I've got CPAs, I've got financial advisors and people that will really work together as a team for you to make sure that we can set the stage for what this will look like in the future for you. We're going to help you expand upon that knowledge by involving you with networking events and getting you around like minded people, because that's where you build large networks that essentially will create partnerships, and it will allow you to then have the opportunity to start scaling and investing and much larger quantities of real estate by way of other people's money. Speaker 1 (00:11:43) - And those partnerships. We're going to talk to you about syndications and hedge funds, and how those are one of the easiest vehicles and can be one of the most risk adverse options for getting involved in real estate, especially if you're newer and maybe even if you're a little scared, because what you can achieve with syndication and hedge funds is guaranteed returns, guaranteed residual returns on your money that you've invested. Speaker 2 (00:12:15) - The episode will continue in just a moment. Speaker 3 (00:12:18) - 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. Speaker 3 (00:12:58) - 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 Jennifer DeJesus. Com sign up and we'll see you in the club where everyone's on a journey to becoming a better investor. Speaker 1 (00:13:17) - So now what I want to do is turn your attention to some of the larger things that we're doing and opportunities that you may have right in front of you that maybe you didn't even recognize. As I've stated, I've helped thousands and thousands of investors become very wealthy in real estate over the last decade and a half, and now it is my mission to start to partner with some of those investors. Previous to that, we've been the service provider, as I mentioned, the five very vertically integrated companies. But now I'm on a mission, a much more aggressive mission to grow and scale at extreme rates. And how we're going to do that is with very, very large multifamily, mixed use industrial and storage acquisitions. Speaker 1 (00:14:07) - So how can you be a part of this? Well, there's many ways. First of all, we do need to have a conversation. But typically in these larger deals there are multiple partners involved. So you can get in as a passive investor, you can get in as an active investor. There's typically general partner opportunities, limited partner opportunities. And then just the passive investor opportunities. And sometimes there's some other versions in between there. So it doesn't necessarily matter where you are in that role. But typically the partnerships are made up of somebody that finds the deals, somebody that is really good at funding the deals or raising capital. And then typically there's that numbers person, right. The person that kind of just makes sure all the money goes where it needs to go and that we're not overspending or under improving properties. So typically that's the outline of a really good robust partnership. And inside of that there's limited partner and passive investor options. So maybe you are a doctor or an attorney or, you know, a CPA or somebody that you know, has a wonderful career but also has made a lot of money over the years and have saved up a lot of it. Speaker 1 (00:15:21) - And you don't quite know what to do, because your career is so demanding that you haven't had the time to learn or feel comfortable real estate investing. Getting involved with me could be that ticket for you, because I would allow you to come in as an investor, specifically a passive investor. And by utilizing your capital, I can guarantee you a very specific return on the investment that return on investment, although I'm not going to disclose it per this particular podcast, because it is relative to each specific deal, and each specific deal will be a little bit different. What I will tell you is that, you know, there's nowhere that you're going to go where somebody can say to you, give me $50,000 and I will make sure that I turn it into $75,000 for you, or $100,000 for you, or much, much more. That's what we're talking about. We are not talking about the little 2% return that you maybe get, or 4% return that you get from your 400 and K. We are not talking about your volatile stock market options. Speaker 1 (00:16:20) - We're not talking about your your bonds and dividends that you're getting from other places. We are not talking about those very minimal, very low returns that it would take you the better part of three decades to actually accumulate wealth. And I'm not saying that those instruments or those vehicles are a bad place to invest. I think there's a lot to be said about diversity in your investments as a whole. I do believe stocks are important. I'm invested in stocks. I do believe that 401 and IRAs are important. I'm invested in those things as well. But I think there's a time and place for everything when we're talking about getting your money to work for itself, and when we're talking about aggressively growing your passive income so that you can look to retire, those other vehicles that I previously mentioned will not get you there fast enough. What I'm talking to you about now is your opportunity to take your money and double it, or triple it, or even more, and there's multiple ways that I can help you do that. Speaker 1 (00:17:21) - And I've got 15 years of referrals to share with you. If you ever wanted to question my ability to help you turn your money into significant profit. But let's talk about 2024 and 2025 and what you can expect. Let me give you an example. Right now I'm working on a bunch of deals. I'm working on 113 units in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It's a mixed use building. It is a gorgeous building with a lot of opportunity, including building opportunity, and we're expecting returns for investors to be north of 7%. So as a passive investor, you can give us your money and I can guarantee you a 7% return at a minimum, not including profit. Okay. That's just one vehicle. Now I want you to take that opportunity. Now I want you to think about. Where your money's currently invested. If you're not currently getting a 7% return on your money, you need to think about reorganizing where your money is invested and putting it in vehicles that allow you to scale much faster and grow your wealth. Speaker 1 (00:18:31) - And that's just one example. Obviously, we're talking about just the return on your money, the return on your investment as a passive investor. But there's many opportunities and there's many other different types of splits, depending on how involved you want to be in something like this. I'm working on a 40 unit ground up construction project in Whitehall, Pennsylvania. This particular deal is going to be a sizable opportunity. It's going to be an A-Class building, and it's going to provide significant returns for the investors involved. I'm working on a thousand unit storage facility project in Texas area. I'm working on a 92 unit multifamily project with the opportunity to build to 110 units in Arizona, and these are just giving you some examples of things. But if you want to be able to put your money in a vehicle, that's going to return you seven, eight, ten, 12, 15, 20% return on your money. Real estate is the way to do that, and there truly is no other vehicle available that will allow you the opportunity to get that type of return that quickly. Speaker 1 (00:19:44) - And depending on your risk tolerance, your returns can be north of 50%. Yes, it is truly possible, but there's a couple of things that have to happen. Number one, you've got to have trusted advisors. I could be that advisor for you. And the things that are outside my scope of expertise, like law and and CPA work or accounting work, you know, insurance policies and protection, those are all things that I have the network or inside my network to provide to you. So getting involved with me, whether you're buying the assets yourself or whether you're investing in some of our passive vehicles that allow you to just have significant returns on investment. Here's what I can guarantee you. We'll be working toward a plan to get you financially free. We will be working toward a plan to allow you to retire early, and we will be building your passive income so that when you do retire, or if you have any bumps in the road in life, you will be able to navigate those things very efficiently because you have taken the opportunity to invest and be well advised for your future financial success. Speaker 1 (00:21:01) - So what can you expect for season 18? Season 18 we are going to talk a lot about tax advantages that you can use with your real estate investing. We are going to specifically talk about how to get started with your 401 K. Almost everybody out there has a 401 K. And no matter the size of that 401 K, that's typically an opportunity to get started real estate investing. And guess what? The money's already there. You've already made that money. You've already acquired that money. And there's ways to utilize that money tax deferred to be able to invest in real estate. We're going to talk about how you take that 401 K, how you turn it into a self-directed IRA so that self-directed IRA can be your vehicle for real estate investing. We're going to talk about cost segregation studies and 1031 exchanges. There are so many different types of tax advantaged strategies that you can use to defer your capital gains, keep money in your pocket, and build your wealth. You definitely are not going to want to miss anything that season 18 has to offer, and I assure you that it will definitely be a season that you'll want to have on repeat until you could take advantage of all the strategies that are out there to make sure that you pay a lot less. Speaker 1 (00:22:22) - The IRS and a lot more is kept in your pocket building your financial future. So let me be the first to welcome you to our next season. And until next time, take care. Speaker 2 (00:22:35) - For more information about how Jennifer can help you plan, develop and manage a strong real estate investment portfolio, visit Growing empires.com.