Speaker (00:01:04) – 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.

Jennifer (00:01:25) – Welcome Christian to the Growing Empire show. I’m so glad that you’re here.

Christian (00:01:30) – Jen, thank you so much for having me on the show. I’ve been an avid listener for the last couple of years, and it’s it’s exciting to have the opportunity to come and speak to your audience and, and talk a little bit about our engagements together and a little bit about my background, and maybe it would be a way for other people to learn from my experience and, and continue on their own real estate journey.

Jennifer (00:01:51) – Awesome. Well, let’s kick off this episode with you, sharing a little bit about your background and what you’re doing now.

Christian (00:01:57) – Absolutely. So happy to give a little bit of a little bit of my journey and how we got to be here today. I was, for the most part, I would consider myself a recovering engineer if not fully recovered. I went to study at Penn State and and wanted to work in the world of operations and manufacturing, and just found out that it wasn’t really for, it really wasn’t for me.

Christian (00:02:20) – I got into real estate pretty early on after after college. my, my brother was a finance major and and read Rich dad, Poor Dad and turned me on to the world of real estate investing. And having that inspiration really kind of kicked off the next, you know, 12 to 15 years of my real estate investing journey. And and I think that happens for a lot of people is that you hear from someone who’s either in the industry or interested in the industry, and it just sparks something for you and gets you really interested, and then you can start really diving deep. So I started doing a lot of my own research and reading books and listening to Bigger Pockets and, and just ripping through as much information as I possibly could to learn the basics and get ready to, you know, be prepared for our first deal. And my brother and I were bootstrapping ourselves. we were talking to friends and family. We raised, you know, $20,000 and bought a duplex in, Phoenixville, which is about 30 miles outside of Philadelphia, not too far from the Lehigh Valley, where I know you’re based.

Christian (00:03:28) – and within a year and a half, we were able to, cash out, refi that, and move into, you know, another duplex. And it really snowballed from there. But again, I think the important thing was the basis of education. the basis of a strong network and, being willing to take action and take some risk when you don’t have all the answers.

Jennifer (00:03:50) – Well. Very good. Well, today we’re going to talk about how to balance work and investing. We’re also going to touch on some tech strategies to make sure that you can keep more money in your pocket when you’re real estate investing. I’ve asked Kristen to join me to share his wealth of knowledge that he’s gained throughout the years in this subject, and I am just as excited as I think you are, Christian, so I want to jump right in. So tell us a little bit more. Let’s elaborate. You did kind of touch on it, but I’d like to talk a little bit more about your real estate journey and that first deal.

Jennifer (00:04:24) – Right. That first deal, you know, like what money did you use to buy it? How did you determine that that was going to be your first deal? You know, like how did you get off the fence is, I guess, what my major question is, because I find that that’s such a a key factor for people, is that almost like that parallelization, like you were mentioning how you’ve like, you know, indulged in all this education sometimes that can be detrimental to people because it almost paralyzes them, because they think that they’ve got to wait for that perfect shot. And there’s no such thing in real estate. So tell me about your very, very first deal. How did you get off the fence? How did you find the money and how did you determine what was going to be that very first asset that you bought?

Christian (00:05:08) – Yeah, it’s a very important question because that first real step into real estate, I would say, is actually the beginning of your journey. If you think about all of the work that you do up until then, the the podcast, the YouTube videos, the the meetups, the networking and all of that is that’s kind of the prerequisites for the course, right? That’s not when the the homework actually starts.

Christian (00:05:32) – It’s it’s when you’re able to pull the trigger and go through a closing and get those keys and realize how much trouble you’re probably in, at that. And that was really that was really how things worked out for us was, you know, we didn’t know everything. My brother and I knew that it would be it would be better for us to start as a partnership. we we would basically be able to leverage each other’s networks and, and from that, you know, we would expand our reach in both, you know, fundraising and, activity with family, friends and others and simply talking about what we were interested in doing. People have to know that you’re in real estate, and it doesn’t have to be something that you either keep to yourself or don’t talk about with colleagues at work. it has to be something that people look at you and think. That person’s into real estate. And the reason I say that is because when it comes to fundraising, either now for the first project or down the line, when you’re raising for funds or syndications, there’s there needs to be a certain understanding of credibility that you’ve built up over time, and it’s almost impossible to come to someone and say, hey, I’ve got this great real estate deal.

Christian (00:06:50) – Do you want to invest in it? They need to think of you and be aware of what you’re doing long before you get to that point. So I had been speaking with my friends about the possibilities of my brother and I investing in real estate. They said they were really interested, and my brother and I again, just out of college, we didn’t have a lot of money. I think both of us were contributing $100 every month out of our paycheck into our checking account, waiting for that deal to come. But everyone knows that even though it was 2012, you know, that wasn’t going to buy you anything. We needed to to raise some some capital. So again, talk to friends and family. A friend of mine lent us $20,000. One day my brother found a duplex in Phoenixville with a for sale sign in the window. Wasn’t advertised, wasn’t on the market. He walked in and talked to the owner. He asked them how much they wanted for it and they said $95,000. So we had our down payment.

Christian (00:07:46) – We were off to the races. that was really how things started. But again, that’s that’s having the courage to walk in the door, to ask the questions, to be uncomfortable, to have uncomfortable conversations with people and and to understand their motives. And for us, that was a great first step because, a year later, they called us after seller financing the property to us and said, hey, could you do a, you know, could you fully capitalize and pay us out? And we negotiated a 10% discount for a one time payment. So we actually saved, $9,000 on the sale of the property just by going to a bank and getting a loan on it after we had renovated. So, that gave us a great foray into the next one where we were able to pull out some of the equity, the property, and, and move on to the next deal. But yeah, we didn’t know everything. We didn’t have we didn’t have a plan. We had to react to the situation that we were in.

Christian (00:08:46) – but a lot of that prep work that we had done for, you know, was, was a lot of the it was the preparation for when the opportunity came along.

Jennifer (00:08:54) – And on that first deal, if I caught it correctly, you didn’t even use your own money.

Christian (00:08:59) – That’s correct.

Jennifer (00:09:00) – You borrowed some and you got seller financing. So you didn’t use any of your own money, not any of your hard earned cash to get into that first deal. Wow. That’s amazing.

Christian (00:09:10) – Yeah. That’s correct. We did, we did fund the renovations on our own, of course. So that so that went a little bit slower. But, by the time the, the, former owner had called us and said, hey, can you, can you make that payment? I really need the cash right now. We had completed the renovations. The banks were happy to loan on the property, and we got out of there without really, a lot of heavy investment on our own part.

Jennifer (00:09:33) – Awesome. So how impactful has it been by utilizing, like, your network and building partnerships in your real estate journey, you had mentioned that in your as you were talking about your, your background and kind of what you’ve been doing, you had mentioned your, you know, building your network, building partnerships.

Jennifer (00:09:52) – How impactful has that been in your journey thus far?

Christian (00:09:56) – Yeah. It’s paramount. It’s it’s absolutely one of the most important things you can do. And frankly, it’s probably something that people don’t do enough of. In today’s world, people think that you can build relationships online. They think that watching YouTube videos is is education. You’ll never learn more than working hand in hand with people who are in the industry, who are doing what you want to do. And one of the cool things that I’ve heard recently is, you know, a lot of times, you know, you’re at a meetup or something and you see somebody who’s who’s living the life or doing the thing or feeling feeling their way through an industry that you want to be a part of. And you say, oh, I want to do what you do. But the question typically comes back, then you want to do what I do now, but are you willing to do what I did? And being along the journey with people who are doing the did who are going through those struggles, you will you will see the work that goes into it, because lots of times you only end up seeing the finished product or the end result because they’re up speaking in front of a group, or they’re putting out YouTube videos and and you haven’t been along the journey with them.

Christian (00:11:15) – So finding ways to connect with people while they are in that growth phase and are in a similar frame of mind to you and want to be connected to others who are like minded. You’ll find that deals and opportunities come out of those relationships more than the MLS, more than your agent. They will be thinking about you when they want to raise capital. They’ll be thinking of you when they want to work on asset management, or even taking a, you know, a hammer and a bucket of paint over to their property. Those those opportunities are worth their weight in gold. And building those in-person relationships with people is is really the key to what I believe. You know, and obviously this was all pre-COVID and pre, you know, the zoom revolution. So it was it was different back then. But I would tell people nowadays that, you know, calling in on zoom and and getting on calls with people is not nearly the same as walking with them on their journey, being a part of it and and building those personal, foundational relationships for future prospects, deals and opportunities.

Jennifer (00:12:27) – So how do you do that, though? How do you how do you grow a network? How do you build the opportunity for partnerships? Where do you start?

Christian (00:12:35) – So I think that finding your way to real estate meetups and in person happy hours are are great starts. Those are great starts. But that’s I would say again, that’s kind of like the that’s kind of the prerequisites to class. when you actually get down to it, your, your personal relationships will be built on the follow ups on the next meeting. Can I take you out for a coffee? Mr. investor. Mrs. investor, can I. Can we grab dinner sometime? I’d love to come walk your property with you. I’d love to, to see what, what deals you’re looking at, how you’re vetting them. but then also you doing the same thing for others when somebody comes to you and says, hey, you know, I’m really interested in what you’re working on. Include them, take them along with you. You never know who’s going to be able to help contribute to your project in some sort of substantial and meaningful way.

Christian (00:13:32) – You know, whether that’s with their own sweat equity or their own analysis or their own spreadsheets that they’ve built, or with their network, with their financing or with their access to funds, being a part of other people’s journeys is is really important. But it it probably won’t happen at the meetup. It comes from the next step. It comes from the follow up. And maintaining those relationships is incredibly important. Allowing people to see you in a vulnerable state and and understand what you’re trying to accomplish and what you’re willing to do for them. Sometimes that means getting in the car and driving for an hour, to go walk a property or to be a part of someone else’s discussion, is how you’re going to build those foundational personal relationships that will allow you to then gain access to a breadth of knowledge that you would have never had on your own.

Jennifer (00:14:27) – Okay, so what are some of the biggest do’s and don’ts that you’ve learned from your partnership journey?

Christian (00:14:32) – Yeah, well, I can tell you a lot of the don’ts.

Christian (00:14:35) – I’m not sure how many of them. Not sure how many of the DOS people would want to follow if they, if they knew the entire story, but, I would I would certainly say that. Make sure that you you vet your partners, and work only with people that have similar aligned values to not just interests, but similar values that you will not run into conflict with them at a point down the road. and communication is is crucial regular, frequent, targeted communication that includes, you know, detailed note taking, whether you use, you know, asana or just email or you find some way to document your communication so that people are always aligned on the same page and have an opportunity to voice, either a, a, you know, a dissenting opinion, that that needs to be part of the healthy relationship that you have with, with partners and, and another one that I would say that, you know, maybe doesn’t get talked about enough of is when you’re vetting properties and when you’re vetting opportunities.

Christian (00:15:45) – You need to build out scenarios for the best and worst case scenarios. And sometimes the worst case scenario is an asteroid hitting the Earth, and then we don’t have to worry about real estate anymore. But when you think about, when you think about, you know how things could go really well for you and how they could, you know, turn out to be more of a headache or a, or a hardship for you. Those scenarios that you build in the, in the early stage will help you down the line to know where you are in that scenario. Sometimes you might be often flying and realizing, hey, this is the best case scenario that I built and things are going according to plan. But more often than not, what you’ll find is your real life scenario is somewhere between best and worst case. And. And if you’re trending towards, you know, your your baseline scenario of performance, you’ll know it because you ran those numbers ahead of time and you saw that, you know, you were only going to be either breaking even or just barely cash flowing.

Christian (00:16:46) – you know, that you were going to be spending, you know, x percent, you know, 2 or 3% on maintenance, but your worst case scenario had 7 or 8%, and you’re spending closer to that. And and that will help you to make decisions about what you want to do next. If you’re in a best case scenario, then you really can can choose from, a multitude of options, including buy and hold. but if you’re in a, if you’re in sort of the, you know, the lower end, the worst case scenario, that also helps you to make decisions quickly because there’s nothing worse than holding on to a really bad investment for a, for a longer period of time than you need to. And understanding that because the analysis you did beforehand, you know, it was really helpful. So I would say those are a couple of maybe one one do and one don’t. Okay.

Jennifer (00:17:33) – All right. So how would you rank your like the value to you. Right. You mentioned a lot of things.

Jennifer (00:17:40) – You talked about podcasts. You talked about books. You talked about educating yourself. You talked about networking events. You talked about investor groups. You talked about meetups. Is there one that kind of has outweighed the other in your journey as far as being able to scale your passive income?

Christian (00:17:58) – I would I would definitely rank the in-person meetups as the highest value prerequisite, if that’s the word that I use, right. If you’re if you’re looking to get into or you’re looking to expand your real estate portfolio, then the the readings, the podcast, the education, all of that treadmill material is just, you know, it’s good for for what it is. It keeps your mind focused on the goal at hand. There’s plenty of things you can learn, plenty of tips you can pick up on. But when the rubber meets the road, it’s going to be you and your network. And not just people that you know, not just business cards you’ve collected, but people that you have. Foundational, real business based relationships that are going to mutually benefit each other.

Christian (00:18:50) – And you only get that through being a part of some of these in-person meetups, taking that next conversation, asking people to go out for a coffee or lunch, and and understanding how you can add value to them, you know, without asking them for anything other than that cup of coffee, but displaying your value add to their proposition. and additionally, it’s it’s paramount that while you are building your network, that you are in regular communication with people that you believe are going to be part of your long term journey, and that that doesn’t necessarily mean you have to go, you know, you know, see, see all of your members of your network once a month. It means that they need to hear from you. They need to know that you’re thinking about them and that you’re thinking about opportunities and prospects. but it helps you to be front of mind when investment opportunities come up for them that you’re the first person they think of, and that your text message or that your email is right at the top of their inbox so that they know that you’re the person that they want to go to next with an opportunity.

Jennifer (00:20:01) – That’s great advice.

Speaker (00:20:04) – The episode will continue in just a moment.

Jennifer (00:20:07) – 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 social. 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 Jennifer dejesus.com.

Jennifer (00:20:58) – Sign up and we’ll see you in the club where everyone’s on a journey to becoming a better investor.

Speaker 4 (00:21:05) – So let’s talk about the.

Jennifer (00:21:07) – Elephant in the room. How do you. Yeah, this is a good one. how do you balance the ultimate working full time with your passive real estate investing, which is probably a part time gig, right? How are you balancing that? Because I think that that’s literally everybody’s struggle, right?

Christian (00:21:28) – Yeah. And that is that is the elephant in the room. And I think it’s it’s it’s okay to talk about, people’s struggles in this space because, there is there is always going to be a trade off when you choose this life of real estate. It it’s going to take time from either you personally and your, your own mental health and well-being, your physical fitness, your interpersonal relationships, you know, with your family, your wife and spouse, your kids, whomever it is, there’s an investment and there is a trade off. And I think it’s really important for people to be okay talking about that.

Christian (00:22:13) – a lot of times the the end goal for everybody when they see, you know, the, you know, the, the Grant cartoons of the world is I need to quit my job and get into real estate full time. And I want to be, you know, I’m probably not the first person on your podcast to advocate for this. but I certainly want to reinforce the point that a lot of those people, a lot of those, you know, high net worth individuals are not advocating for people to quit their jobs. What they’re advocating for is for people to find yourself a stable job that provides you the flexibility to leverage your savings, your W-2, or 1099 income into income producing assets. And if you’re fortunate enough or you know you’re you hustle more than everyone else, and you get yourself to a position where you can replace your, your salary, with your real estate, that’s awesome. But it doesn’t have to be the end all be all for everyone else. You know, I have a close personal friend who who quit, a job at, at Vanguard, during 2022.

Christian (00:23:27) – And if you can’t think of a worse time to leave your job to invest in real estate, it was probably right around the time that prices were continuing to go up and rates were just starting to take off. and it became a real struggle. And that is, that’s a real it’s a real difficult concept for people to to grasp that it’s okay to continue working a W-2 or a 1099 job, because there are other media for you to invest in real estate that don’t require your full time attention. And frankly, today’s market is one of the more complex of the last 20 years with regards to real estate. And there are real strategic advantages to the people that are doing it full time, as opposed to the part time investor and having that ability to tap into a network of people who are in the business full time and working with them on projects that they have sourced, is a key element of participating in the real estate, industry. given the challenges of today’s high prices and high rates.

Jennifer (00:24:40) – That is a really great point.

Jennifer (00:24:42) – And we’re going to elaborate on that. And just a minute. But I don’t want to get off this topic just yet about part time investing. So what I want to know, though, is, you know, clearly if you’re part time investing, right, you cannot possibly do it all yourself. So how are you determining what role you’re taking in that investing and what role you’re leaving to others to play?

Christian (00:25:06) – Yeah. And that that role for me has evolved over time. So, when, when I was just getting into the industry and when I was just getting started and my brother and I were out there hauling laundry machines into the second floor of units because they were told that they had in unit laundry. the the scope was different. Right. And that’s evolved over time when, you know, I got married and, you know, my wife and I now have three kids. I’ve had to outsource a lot of that material participation in, in a pretty substantial way. my brother and I decided to go different ways because he was still in a position of, you know, materially participating.

Christian (00:25:50) – And I simply just wasn’t going to be able to when work relocated us out of the country. I had to take a different tack with regards to property management, construction, all the regulatory nonsense and issues that come along with owning properties in a, in an area where, there are city restrictions and code to, to stay on top of, it became way clearer to me that I wanted to be an investor and not a handyman and not a property manager. when I got to that point in my investing journey, things became very clear to me. It was no longer, what are the requirements for me to go and help turn over a unit? It was how much are we going to spend on turning over that unit? What are the returns on investment for a renovation of $5,000 versus $10,000? What difference in rent could we get? And how does that equate to an NOI that will then eventually reflect more positively on our cap rate and give us a an appreciation of the property that will give me my actual payback? It’s not what do I need to do? It’s what should I do with the capital that I need to allocate.

Christian (00:27:07) – And that clarity was the start of a new, I would say, a new real estate investing life for me when I was able to get to that point and make that, and make that commitment. I then began to think of myself more as a, as a, as an investor in real estate and an allocator of capital, as opposed to somebody who, you know, buys property in their backyard and still takes the, the handyman phone calls for, you know, and, you know, plunging toilets and doing all the horrible things that come along with being a local landlord. It allowed me to remove myself from some of the day to day. And that comes at a cost to, but again, I mentioned earlier that there are trade offs, and what you pay for in property management and peace of mind is what you get back in your time that you can spend with your family and the, you know, not taking that phone call, for a tenant who has called the cops on the other tenant, things like that.

Christian (00:28:12) – And that that peace of mind is what I wanted to get to. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t stressful phone calls and stressful emails and, you know, hey, the fire department was called on your property, and we’re not sure if anyone’s still in there. Those stressful phone calls will still happen. but the trusted advisors and partners that you’ve brought on board to handle those sort of scenarios are what lets you sleep at night without worrying about what the next, inevitable domino to fall will be.

Jennifer (00:28:38) – Great point. So I know that you mentioned and and I know that you do own assets yourself. I know some of them you own personally, some you own with partnerships. But I also know that you’re invested in funds and syndications tell me what drove you to invest in those types of opportunities, like a hedge fund or a syndication? you also mentioned like raising money as well. So why are you doing those things in addition to owning the assets yourself?

Christian (00:29:10) – Yeah. So it all really comes down to market timing.

Christian (00:29:14) – At the end of the day, being able to own the asset, in your own LLC or with a partner allows you to reap a lot of the benefits of, of real estate, right? When you talk about appreciation, cash flow, the mortgage pay down, the tax benefits, all of those things you get to capture personally, which is which is fantastic. But a lot of those properties I was buying in 2018, 19, 2021 and, you know, built up a nice, a nice portfolio of properties in the Lehigh Valley and, you know, was able to find them right off the MLS. Right. And and some of them, I would say, came from the benefits of being a close partner of one, Jennifer DeJesus, who passed who passed along a property to me as as every good. Property manager can do. That’s where I feel like I really started to find my niche and find my way in. This was going to be my path forward was going to be, you know, you purchase the property in in a semi distressed condition or an under managed condition.

Christian (00:30:22) – You renovate, increase rents, refinance or cash out and move on to the next one. But the market shifted and things changed and I wasn’t able to find properties either. you know, off the MLS or through a network of people that I knew, and the amount of time it took to source a deal went up tenfold. I would say that the number of properties that you look at, and the one number of properties that you pass on was, I mean, it was light years away from what it had been in years past. And for me, trying to do the same thing that I had been doing by sourcing deals, and expecting to get the same return on investment, expecting to get the same IRR. was was a fool’s errand. And what I figured out was the best thing for me to do while I kept my W-2, and gave my, my, my wife the stability of continuing to work a job. what I wanted to do then was partner with people who were sourcing deals full time because they had the benefit of doing that and investing in projects that I could vet after all of the sifting, had been done.

Christian (00:31:38) – And I understand this, you know, just as well as anyone that the funnel for project inflows had to grow substantially, and the number of projects that came through the bottom shrunk and and that became a real barrier to entry for investors like me who were trying to source their own deals. And so funds, specifically the Empire Capital Fund and a number of these syndication projects that I had been able to participate in at different levels through my network were the best avenue for me at the time to continue to to reap some of the benefits of real estate, including those things I mentioned before appreciation, cash flow, mortgage paydown, and the tax advantages. without the labor intense work of sourcing the deals myself. and what I also found is that there are other ways to participate in the gains and funds and syndications, specifically your fund Gen, you know, provides, you know, additional C shares to those who help bring in additional investors. I’ve been able to fundraise and be a GP on a number of Syndications, and participate in some of the the asset management fees that come along with that.

Christian (00:32:53) – But that’s me on my journey of evolution, not trying to do the same thing that I had been doing in the past, when the market has clearly shifted. And I think that even goes back to my earlier point about knowing where you are. Are you in a best case or a worst case scenario? Do you need to change tack? Do you need a different horse? is it important for you at this point in time to spend more time with your family and outsource more of that? can you partner with other people who are doing different things and be a a partner on a deal instead of taking it down yourself? all of those things really played a role in how I got into some of these projects and why I went in that direction.

Jennifer (00:33:31) – So how are the funds in the Syndications? A great way to get off the sideline when finding deals in a market is challenging. Why is that a great avenue to to tackle or to go into?

Christian (00:33:44) – Yeah, I would say that in in today’s market, I would tell anybody that if you’re looking to learn.

Christian (00:33:52) – How it’s done in the industry, and you only have a limited amount of capital, and you can’t necessarily expose yourself to the risk of high interest rates and high prices at a time when, you know, liquidity is also extremely important, then finding a way into these funds and or syndication deals, which are in many ways non liquid. but what they have done is they have built in a hedge against the risks that are associated with real estate by, holding cash reserves, by holding adequate insurance, by by registering these deals with the SEC, having the lawyers look through all the paperwork, they’ve done a lot of the work in advance, and you can reap the benefits of being a part of these projects and taking advantage of those for benefits of real estate that I mentioned earlier. And and doing so in a way that your education will grow, your network will grow, your net worth and assets will grow. and you’ll be in a position when, when you know, either the next one comes around or maybe the next time it’s a joint venture or a property that doesn’t fit in the fund, and you’re able to then work, your experience and network into taking down the next deal on your own, maybe when the timing is more advantageous to you.

Christian (00:35:13) – but in a in a world where it’s easy to get paralyzed by the high rates and the high prices and a lot of the deals that are out there don’t pencil out and won’t even get funded by the banks. I’ve had that situation happen a couple of times now, where a deal looks good on paper, but a bank won’t loan on it. this this is where I believe that there are significant benefits to people trying to get into the world of real estate. and finding yourself a fund or a syndication with a trusted partner is is probably the best avenue for a lot of people.

Jennifer (00:35:47) – I think there’s also another piece of that, too, is that you can be incredibly more passive, you know, fund in a syndication. So for somebody that’s trying to navigate the waters of, you know, being that part time investor, and maybe doesn’t have the time to do all the things that you’ve done to to grow your education and build your network. That would be a great entry point as well. And that that then gets you inside.

Jennifer (00:36:15) – It gets you inside the door of where those people are, because the other investors in those funds and syndications are typically very savvy real estate investors.

Christian (00:36:24) – Absolutely.

Jennifer (00:36:25) – So what a great way to get in the door.

Christian (00:36:28) – Absolutely. Couldn’t agree more.

Jennifer (00:36:30) – Thank you for listening to this first episode with Christian Beyer. As you can tell already, he is an incredible resource and wealth of knowledge regarding real estate. I think his tips on how to get involved in real estate investing, how to get off the fence, get your foot in the door, and how to get around people that are going to help you propel your career in real estate investing was paramount, as he talked through his challenges with balancing working full time and investing part time. I think many of us can relate. Ultimately, that’s one of the key struggles that anybody has as they decide to take their journey into real estate investing. So I hope you got a lot out of this episode and definitely got the momentum and the drive to just get started by utilizing some of the methods that Christian outlined in this podcast.

Jennifer (00:37:24) – Make sure you stay tuned to our second episode where Christian is going to go into far more detail about those tax strategies, what he’s used successfully, and how it’s propelled his real estate investing journey to go from that single unit to over 300 doors in one deal. Until next time, take care.

Speaker (00:37:49) – For more information about how Jennifer can help you plan, develop and manage a strong real estate investment portfolio, visit Growingempires.com.

Connect with Christian here: https://www.cornerstonecapitalre.com/