Real Estate Explained

He Flipped a House for Six Figures, Then Bought Two More—Here’s How with Jarriel Jordan

• Nick Bush

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In this episode of Real Estate Explained, we sit down with Jarriel Jordan, a DMV agent who's not just selling homes—he’s building wealth. From door knocking and working with his mom to flipping a house for six figures and buying multiple properties, this is the real estate journey most people don’t talk about.

We’re getting into:

🎙 The grind of working with first-time buyers who “aren’t ready yet”

🎙 How he turned rejections into relationships—and deals

🎙 What move-up buyers are really asking (and why most agents mess it up)

🎙 The flip that changed everything—and funded his rental portfolio

🎙 Real talk on landlord lessons, bad tenants, and when to bring in a property manager

🎙 Why he’s still driving the Altima (and not buying liabilities for likes)

This one’s for the agents still writing their own contracts, the buyers who think they need 20% down, and the investors trying to figure out what a good deal really looks like.

✍🏽 Grab your notepad and tune in—because this episode is stacked with strategy, storytelling, and the kind of wisdom that only comes from doing the work.

Podcast Intro 

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to Real Estate Explained, the podcast that gives you a backstage pass to the ever-evolving world of real estate. I'm your host, nick Bush, a realtor with over a decade of experience helping clients buy, sell and invest with confidence. Whether you're a first-time home buyer, a seasoned investor or just curious about the market, this show is for you. Each week, we'll dive into trending topics, break down the latest real estate news and bring you expert interviews with the pros so you're prepared for every step of the journey, ready to turn your real estate goals into reality. Keep watching. All right, so I'm here with my man, gerald Jordan.

Speaker 2:

What's happening?

Speaker 1:

I think you got some Margellas on.

Speaker 2:

Is that right? Are those these Adidas man Are?

Speaker 1:

those Adidas.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, okay, but they look like.

Speaker 1:

Margellas, you're rolling. Yeah, thanks for coming out, man. Appreciate it man, Appreciate you having me All the way down from Upper Marlboro.

Speaker 2:

Yes, sir PG County. Yes, sir Born and raised.

Speaker 1:

Born and raised. That's great. Before we get in, introduce yourself to the people. Who are you, what's your experience in real estate, et cetera.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely. Look in this camera here you can look at Agent in the DMV Service DC, maryland and Virginia. My niche client is first-time homebuyers. I'm 29. We're going to be 29 this year, so that's pretty much my sphere. So that's who I interact with majority of the time. That's who sees me majority of the time. But I have a lot of move-up buyers. I'm an investor. I have a few properties. I flipped a few properties. I've done a lot of wholesales one which is closing on Friday, so it's a lot of real estate that I've touched. My mom's a realtor. That's how I got in the business and you know we can talk about that what that looked like for me. Yeah, and just go from there. But yeah, I appreciate you having me.

Speaker 1:

Yeah man, that's great. That's a lot. I was, you know I was in the DM like yo. What do you?

Speaker 2:

want to talk about You're like whatever. Those are all the topics that I got to prepare for, but no.

Speaker 1:

so tell us how you got in. You know, before the pod started we were talking about, you went to college, got your degree. Didn't know what I wanted to do.

Speaker 2:

I was a major in political science and sociology, so a double major Didn't really know what I wanted to do. I started a business in college. I didn't tell you that. I started a business in college where I was doing graphics.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, I was doing graphics on the side. Like $100 a piece Gave me my first little $1,000 in my account Little side little thousand dollars in my account, a little side hustle, yeah, man.

Speaker 2:

So you're just trying to figure everything out. Got into real estate. My mom was in real estate. She got into real estate two years before I graduated. Okay, I got in 2018. She got in like 2016, 2015. But yeah, I didn't look back since man Got into grad school just to see if real estate didn't work, I would have a fallback option. So, yeah, man, I'm here now Real estate panned out, I'm doing pretty well. So at 23,.

Speaker 1:

I got into the business at 25. And my first, the people I reached out to first, was just like family, right, but really it's your friends, your sphere, people you can reach back to from high school, things like that. And the objections I was getting was like they were like what do you mean?

Speaker 2:

buy a house right Like.

Speaker 1:

I don't have 20% down. I got student loans. I don't have an 800 credit score.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I didn't start my credit yet.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. So was that the type of stuff you were dealing with? Absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Okay, the same exact stuff.

Speaker 1:

So how were you framing the real estate conversation to your network and sphere to do?

Speaker 2:

deals. Yeah, at that time it was a lot of educating them. They didn't become my clients until like now, a lot of people are starting to. I mean, I'm about to be 29, 30. People are evolving to where they now have money, where they have established their credit score. So at that point it was a lot of educating them until this point. So it was a lot of prospecting, sowing and reaping our harvest now.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

But at that time again, a lot of educating them. But I was door knocking. I was talking to a lot of older people. My first few listings came from door knocking and from there people saw me on social media. I was always a big social media guy. I always knew that social media would be a way that I can get business because again of the clients that I wanted to serve in my sphere, I wanted them to see me. So, yeah, man, I started with the older crowd and now it's transitioning to, of course I guess I'm the older crowd now, people my age starting to buy houses and been seeing me constantly over a few years. You know, do what I did.

Speaker 1:

So what's the mindset around door knocking. I hate door knocking. I'm always like I'm 6'3", I'm black, I'm not trying to door knock a neighborhood, but in PG County it's also a little different I'm door knocking today.

Speaker 2:

Yeah yeah, I've always door knocked around something specific.

Speaker 1:

Like a listing or something.

Speaker 2:

Like a listing. So today, specific, so like a listing or something like a listing. So today I'm door knocking around. It's in my neighborhood, I have a listing in my neighborhood. So I'm me and the neighbors I just moved there in, like december. So me and the neighbors um saying, hey, you know, I live here, I also have a listing. Um, but just inviting them, I'll say, hey, we have free ice cream for the first 40 people that come, okay. So yeah, door knocking around, something specific, not just like a random like, do you?

Speaker 1:

want to sell your house? Yeah, exactly, that makes a lot of sense. Maybe you inspired me a little bit just right now. Yeah, man.

Speaker 2:

So my mom would have listings. I'd say, hey, my brokerage has a listing right around the corner. You know we're going to have a lot of people in here. Just wanted to see if you know you would be open to getting a market analysis. Yeah, a yeah, just door knocking around the listings that my brokerage had at that time.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and when you said you were working with older people at first, are you meaning like seniors downsizing, or just people a little bit older than you? I was working with seniors downsizing Okay. Yeah, so how did you? How did that? And that was from door knocking, that was from door knocking Door is just being around.

Speaker 1:

I'm really interested in the downsizing market, like the transitional market. So right now I work with a lot of move-up buyers. My sphere is kind of moving up, but I really want to target that downsizing community because you know they need to move. It's kind of like you find the people that need to move, yeah, so why do you feel like you didn't stay in that niche? Because it and the move-up buyers Did. You feel like you could have landed there and just run that?

Speaker 2:

place for a long time. Yeah, I could have landed there. I mean that's a good question. I mean I just think my business just transitioned naturally Again, with a lot of people seeing me over the years, my business just got busy with them and that just became my focus. Okay, yeah, Okay, it was just a natural transition.

Speaker 1:

And so what type of education did you have to give the first-time homebuyers to get them off the fence?

Speaker 2:

One that you don't need a 20% down. I mean, that's the biggest thing people have heard over the years how much you need to purchase a house, helping them understand what credit is. You don't need the perfect credit score, how to start your credit, things like that. I'm not a credit specialist, but I always say you know, get a credit card, pay something on it and just pay it down. Don't pay it off. Usually pay it under 10%. That's what I've heard. So, yeah, just give them that education and just going from there and just being consistent and just following up, seeing if they had any real estate questions. That was the bulk of it.

Speaker 1:

I did a lot of first-time homebuying seminars.

Speaker 2:

First-time homebuying seminars.

Speaker 1:

When I first started, I don't know if they're as popular as they were, but when I got into the business I was getting those same questions and I realized then you learn loans. I always say no one's ever walked up to me and asked me about the home inspection contingency or the appraisal contingency or the appraisal contingency. They always ask me about financing right, and that's from a $300,000 price point up to a $2 million price point. Everyone wants to figure out how to afford the house For sure, and if I couldn't talk loans I probably wouldn't have any business Right. And so I had to learn you know. Oh no, you can go conventional 3% or FHA 3.5% or all of the D Open Doors Maryland Mortgage Program where you could bring $0 to the table.

Speaker 1:

And so it is important to constantly educate people and all that stuff. I actually feel like we're more in an education business than a sales business.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. People don't do this every day, so you have to educate them from the ground up like they don't know anything, because the majority of the time they don't. And even if they've purchased a house before, it's a different market.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and so are you. Um, so now that some of those first time homebuyers those people purchased, are they now moving up? And so what's the conversation that? What's the conversations you're having with, like, move up buyers? So someone bought a house already with you. You've obviously stayed in touch Now.

Speaker 2:

They want to move up. So what is a move-up buyer thinking about? What questions are they coming to you with and how are you helping them through that process? I think the biggest question move-up buyers have are how they're going to transition with, like what that looks like, because it's a balancing act selling their house and buying another one. You know, majority of the time it's not going to line up perfectly. So what does a possible rent back look like? What does extending the contract out until we settle in your house look like? So it depends on their goals.

Speaker 2:

If they need to sell to be able to purchase the house. Of course, in a perfect world, that's what everybody wants, you know. You at least want the proceeds, even if you don't have to technically sell. You want the proceeds from your house to be able to do whatever you want with it with the next. So it's about helping them understand what that transition period looks like. Help them understand, of course, when they purchase some people may have purchased in 2019, 2020 it's a different market now um, helping them understand that with the rates, um, and just helping them overcome that fear, uh, but that those are the few biggest things rates and how everything's going to transition when our house is listed and just looking for a home. Do you like?

Speaker 1:

rentbacks. Are you like suggesting a rentback? Often with that, that's kind of my mind we could do a rentback. What do you think?

Speaker 2:

It really depends on their goals. I say that's an option. I say we can extend settlement, make sure that. Well, let me pause. Let me backtrack. I always say when you're buying a house and moving from this house, we're going to need at least a few days of a rent back so we can make that transition easier, so you don't have to put your stuff in storage or whatever the case may be. So I always say a rent back is needed for that aspect. But yeah, I always say you know, if you want to do a rent back, this is what it looks like. Sometimes you do have to make sure that you're paying their new mortgage, so it might be a little higher than what you're paying currently. My goal would be to try to negotiate that out of the situation or for a minimal cost. So, yeah, that's one of the many options that I say, on top of, of course, hopefully they can move in with somebody. That would be great too.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Or again just extending settlement.

Speaker 1:

I love the rent back too. Yeah. Or again, just extending settlement I love the rent back, bro. Yeah, because you know, when people are thinking, when they already own their home and they're thinking about buying the next home, really their concern is that they could be homeless, exactly. And I tell people I said, look, this might look like a 30-day process, but really you kind of have 90 days to shop for your home in the ideal scenario. And the way I framed that to them and I was like I'm like, look, if we go on, so first of all, if you're engaging in the market and you're going to see homes and you're shopping, you're going to find the house that you're looking for.

Speaker 1:

Whether we're in a high inventory market or a low inventory market, we'll find it as long as we engage in the market. But the 90 days comes from. We go on the market, we get a contract. Average close time is 30 days. So you have that initial 30 days to go shopping and ratify on something and maybe you time it up right so when you close on your, you can close at the same time.

Speaker 1:

But you can get a rent back up to 59 days. So if you get the 59 day rent back, you really have 89 days to shop and close on your new home.

Speaker 2:

So that's, that's like the smoothest landing, yeah for sure you know for sure, for sure we have. And then it comes. It comes to like how long of a rent back do you want? Like you said, 59 days is as long as we can do. Will a buyer be willing to do that? Well, it depends on the property. It depends on you know how we structure it. But likely we can get that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think in our market like it's so low, like I feel like people just get it here right. Like I feel like if we were three hours, you know southwest, maybe people might be like rent back, like what are you talking about? My in-laws moved. They had retired in South Carolina before they moved up here and I was helping on the deal. It's a different market in South Carolina.

Speaker 2:

Bro, I was a little abrasive down there.

Speaker 1:

People were like bro, you got to chill. Things are not happening that fast. You're calling at 6.30 pm, they're done doing business.

Speaker 2:

That's crazy. So it was a little strange.

Speaker 1:

So it sounds like you got some investment juice too, yeah, so tell us about that. What are you doing on the investment side?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, man, I own three properties.

Speaker 1:

Congrats, bro, that's. Great.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, and it came from my first flip. First flip I did, man, that was all the proof of business that I needed and from there kept doing some flips. But yeah, my first flip I made six figures and then I invested that into two different properties.

Speaker 1:

That's great, okay. So where'd you do the flip? That was in Bowie.

Speaker 2:

In Bowie, maryland, single family, Single family yeah, and you made six figures on that. Yeah, I partnered with somebody. We both made six figures. It was a killing Y'all crushed. Yeah, I got it from a lawyer one of my friend's father, who I helped purchase at the time. He was a lawyer. He was representing a guy that just fell on hard times and needed to get out of there. It was just a good deal.

Speaker 1:

Was it a big reno project? Not too big. It sounded like it was probably light.

Speaker 2:

It wasn't too big at all.

Speaker 1:

Okay, and then you bought two homes from there, correct? And so where are these two properties?

Speaker 2:

One is in Fort Washington, where I grew up.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

The other one is in Bowie.

Speaker 1:

In Bowie. Okay, it's a condo in Bowie and a single family property in Fort Washington. And what was your mindset around? I guess like, how did you run the numbers and know that these are two good investment?

Speaker 2:

projects. Yeah, man, investing is a numbers game. Man, if the numbers make sense, then the deal makes sense. Of course there are things that are outside of our control, like the market. At that time the market was on the ups. But just running the numbers, making sure that the rental market made sense with what my mortgage would be I know in Bowie I have a condo plus the condo fee. On the other one I don't have anything. So just making sure that the numbers lined up how much I can rent it out for versus what my mortgage will be, making sure at least my mortgage will be covered. Um, but if I get some pocket change on top, that's icing on the cake. Yeah, yeah, on both of them I'm getting icing on that cake.

Speaker 1:

Y'all like doing all right and then that's why we got to get you out the Altima bro, you know what I mean?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, man, I love the Altima. Man, gas mileage is good Paid off.

Speaker 1:

You can't beat it bro. I like the Altima too. I try to keep mine. We talking about it. Did you have any concern or were you aware at the time that Maryland isn't a landlord friendly state and it's more tenant friendly Did?

Speaker 2:

you have any concern about that. Going through the process I learned a lot about it. At first I wasn't too educated on that. I just wanted to get property and, you know, make some money off of it. But you know, going through the process I had to evict some people. Okay, I will say that certain pockets are a lot more tenant friendly than others. Okay, I'm sorry, landlord-friendly than others. But yeah, my experiences have been good. I had one bad experience, but for the most part everything has been solid.

Speaker 1:

It's been pretty solid.

Speaker 2:

But you know, I've learned, man. I've learned a lot through being a landlord about myself, about people, about how to vet people, and it's been one of the most more fruitful things that I've done.

Speaker 1:

So expound on that a little bit, Like how are you vetting people? Like what does a landlord need to know? You know a rookie landlord needs to know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah for sure. Well, a few things. First and foremost, you have to just make sure that you have your standard criteria of what you're looking for in a person, what kind of credit score you're looking for. Standard criteria of what you're looking for in a person, what kind of credit score you're looking for, how much of income versus how much they're making versus what the rental price is looking like. Usually it's like three times what their lifestyle looks like, and you'll be able to get that through, like their bank statements.

Speaker 2:

So we ask for bank statements, we ask for their pay stubs, we call their employer, we call their references, we talk to them, we references, we talk to them, we sit down and talk to them. So you know, it's a few things, a few steps in that process, but honestly, you just have to go with your gut. You have to get the vibes. One thing for my property out Fort Washington the first tenant I had. I was in a rush to get somebody in there, so I really didn't better too well and it landed back on me. But again, again, learned through the process, had to go through the eviction. We ultimately were able to settle without the eviction, but learned a lot through that process.

Speaker 1:

Okay, yeah I've never thought about looking at the bank statements for lifestyle, you know, because I have an investment property in dc and we have a tenant in there. She's you know. You know we like her sometimes, right, but she pays her rent. You know, I think that we just don't want to be. My wife and I are like we want to property manage. Do you self-manage or do you have a property manager?

Speaker 2:

Not anymore. After that first situation I took myself out of it.

Speaker 1:

Oh, so you property. So talk about that, like what, like. What about? That first situation made you go? The property manager route.

Speaker 2:

A lot of my emotions were involved and in this real estate, owning a rental property is a business and I can't mix business with emotions. So I was like you know what, I'm going to remove myself from this. I'm going to have somebody else manage it, talk to me about what's going on, but you'll handle everything else.

Speaker 1:

So I mean, it's no price to peace of mind man, so I don't mind paying a little bit on top. And so you have the property manager. So you basically have hey, this is a criteria we're looking for in a tenant, and then they obviously market it, list it, and then you have the property manager kind of vet everyone based on that criteria and send you Well with that, because I'm a realtor.

Speaker 2:

I list them yeah, I list them. I do my own vetting and everything, but once I get somebody in there, they do.

Speaker 1:

And they're handling, like the repair request and things like that, everything, and it just gives you that peace of mind, giving peace, and I have to deal with it. Yeah, I think that's the route we're gonna go, because we we rented to our neighbor actually, um, and she's dope um, but there is, we realized there's a closeness, she's got a little bit of leeway to do.

Speaker 2:

you know, yeah, she got comfortable.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's very comfortable, and we initially signed a six-month lease and we're re-upping her for another six months Because I'm just like I was like, our house is in Hillcrest and so I'm like man, we were like, so we did this six months as like almost a trial.

Speaker 2:

That's another thing that I've learned. For a lot of my clients who are now becoming landlords, renting their property out, I always say start with at least a year. Well, at most I'm sorry a year just to try it out, because you don't want to bound yourself to a two-year lease. Everything goes bad and you're stuck and bound by that lease, and then you have to go through the eviction process yeah so I always say at most you want to do it your first year the first trial run a year and that makes sense with every tenant.

Speaker 2:

Give them a year and see how it works out, and then you'll be open to doing whatever it is at the end yeah, we did a six month and then.

Speaker 1:

And then in February when she reached out to renew, we were like, yeah, but renew for a year just so we can have the peace of mind if someone's in there, absolutely. And then she kind of did something and we were like I was like let's go with the six-month again just to see if it's smooth, right, and if the market shifts. We have some want to be landlords and have to manage. It's better to get a property manager. So at the end of the six-month period we're going to go to property manager route. Yeah, for sure. And then are you from a mindset standpoint? It sounds like you got a lot going on. You're just like a real estate investor also.

Speaker 1:

So you got flips, wholesales and buying holds. What is the main focus, though? Like what are you trying to do? Buying holds.

Speaker 2:

Why is that? Buying holds? That's where just the wealth is built. So for the property I have in Bowie, I mean I have a son now we were talking about that before but I mean when he graduates, or whatever he wants to do, he can live in that.

Speaker 2:

It'll be damn near paid off by that time, you know, and he'll be able to live rent-free. He can save that money to be able to do whatever he wants to do next, buy a house, whatever the case may be, I can pull money out of that property. Put him through college. We try and get the scholarships, you know. Yeah, I can do whatever I want with the equity that has been built through those properties, through the mortgage being paid down and, of course, the appreciation on top. Yeah, so, yeah, that's. The main goal is to have buy-in holds and the flips are to fund those buy-in holds. I have a flip going on now in Fort Washington.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

And that should be on the market like within the next two weeks.

Speaker 1:

It's really nice, that's great bro.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, those flips fund those properties that I do purchase.

Speaker 1:

And are you using hard money? You just go on a hard money route for flips.

Speaker 2:

Or are you self? So it depends. I work with a lot of partners. For this specific deal, I purchased in cash.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's great bro. I know a lot of guys with a lot of money.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so you're leveraging the JV to get it done. Yeah, that's good man Like a lot of people, and it's inspiring because you're 29, but you got in this game at 23. You have three properties. You've done hella flips it sounds like you kind of flip regularly and you're selling properties on top of that. So you got a lot going on. You're not even 30 yet, you know. And then you're wholesaling properties too, yeah, and so is that something you do often, or you just come up on them.

Speaker 2:

Nah, whenever I come up on them and don't have the capacity to flip them, I sell them. Yeah, yeah, I'll wholesale them. Okay, you're crushing bro. Yeah, you can't keep everything, man. You know Some things you got to get rid of, just like the property I'm wholesaling right now. I'm selling it to my partners that I'm working with on the Fort Washington deal.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and you're wholesaling it to them. Are you like for your buying holds, maryland? Is that where you're going to stay, like kind of the market you?

Speaker 2:

know that's the market, I know yeah.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, vacation rentals like in florida, uh, but for now, yeah, just maryland, that kasemi market is great, the disney, oh.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I stayed out there. I was in kasemi in february, early february yeah, it was cold. In florida it was a rare snow that they had, like in northern florida, yeah, so it was trickling down to orlando, oh, that's crazy. Yeah, it was cool, though. Cool though Kissimmee's nice, I love it.

Speaker 1:

I tell Bronson like every week I'm like yo, I'm going to buy. I'm buying a bunch of properties in Ohio.

Speaker 2:

Why Ohio? What's her guy?

Speaker 1:

Section 8 Karim. I'm trying to get him on the pod.

Speaker 2:

Shout out.

Speaker 1:

Section 8 Karim, do you do Section 8 route? Why didn't you do it? And we found a great Section 8 tenant also. We thought she was going to be a great Section 8 tenant Good credit, good income et cetera. But the RFTA packet man just getting through that RFTA packet was a monster bro, it's tough.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I have one of my clients who lives in DC. He has a Section 8. She's great, though, but one of my other clients they were renting to a Section 8. Man, it was terrible.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like what's happening, what happened?

Speaker 2:

And Section 8 has a bad reputation.

Speaker 1:

I would say there's a stigma.

Speaker 2:

Yeah right, but I mean it can happen with anybody, even if they're not Section 8. So I just want to preface that what I'm about to say with that. But yeah, man, she was pretty bad. Like she was pretty bad, like she left. It was roach infested, I don't know how she was like literally living there. It was bad. I'll send it to you after this, but yeah, it was awful.

Speaker 1:

No, we had a tenant we liked and we looked at like the tenant. So the first tenant we were going to go with we looked at her credit was solid, her job history was solid. But we looked at the amount of tenants that were going to be in there. It was like she, it was you know, it was like they might. We're like ah, no, you know. And uh, we found somebody great and we were going through the rfta process and it was our first time and it was just a. It was just a lot, bro. It was just so many moving parts and you know, these, the people that work, they don't care to push, push thing forward, and so they were just taking their time. And our neighbor hit us up and was like, hey, if you still are renting that, I want to get in there. And she Airbnbs her property and she's Airbnb-ing ours.

Speaker 2:

So I'm just like that's cool In DC. I'm not sure if it's the same in Maryland. I'm sure it's very similar, very similar. But in dc, with my uh tenants that are renting my clients who are into a section eight, um, they had to go off of what they thought the uh rental value for that.

Speaker 1:

The voucher program thought it was yeah which sucked.

Speaker 2:

I was able to get to get them what they wanted, but um yeah, just had to go through that negotiation process, which is which sucks, and I'm sure maryland is the same, I think. I think that's just how the voucher program works.

Speaker 1:

They kind of determine the market value, the market rent For me, for Ohio. So my thought process around Ohio and I was actually talking to my old barber, he's like yo, we just connected on the gram and we're talking about this. He's like I'm ready to shoot at some of this and he's thinking about Ohio, indiana, like Alabama. But basically, from my understanding of the market, there is the price point. A lot is very similar to Baltimore, right, but Ohio is more tenant friendly and the west side of Baltimore is the west side of Baltimore, and $75,000, $100,000 in Ohio is just like the blue collar price point, right, so it's less going on outside and um, and so it's like a more attractive tenant, absolutely, people are just like look, this is what we can afford, but we go to work every day, we're chilling and the neighborhood is fine and, uh, you could buy under a hundred thousand dollars.

Speaker 1:

so what I'm trying to do is get the cash flow first and then so basically the numbers on that is, like you know, like $500 to $800 cash flow. You're buying $75,000 properties. Right, you know you got to put your 20% down, but even then you're not bringing too much cash to the table and you can rent those out for like $1,400 to $1,700. And then, like, you're including property management and all that, so you're cash flowing management and all that, so your cashflow in around like six 700 most of the time.

Speaker 1:

And I'm like if I can get like 10 to 20 of those, then I'm chilling and and not like chilling like let me spend the money, but I feel like, even like $5,000 cashflow or you know, especially $10,000 cashflow, then that portfolio is just reinvesting itself.

Speaker 1:

Then it's like and so yeah then it's like I don't have to earn the money to like buy my investment property out. This 5 000 in a perfect scenario turns to 15, 20 and three to four months, and then I could buy another one. The 10 000 turns to 20 in two months. Then I could buy another one. Then, once you get to, a certain number.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, for sure I'm nervous to invest out of state. Um, so I'm taking my time with that. Yeah, reason being is because, like, if something happens, let's say like a pipe burst or whatever the case may be, I don't have people out there that can just go.

Speaker 1:

And that's what people don't know. When you're invested in real estate, having that handyman connection, is key, but that's why the property manager is there.

Speaker 1:

Sure, the best advice I got from somebody because I know a guy I referred him a deal in Richmond actually and he was invested. He said he had 20. So I was telling him, like my play, and this guy right now is he's at the stage where he's buying like 50 unit buildings. Right, he's at like 50 unit buildings and he's like we're trying to get to 150 to 300 door buildings and then just hold those and so he's been 1031 exchanging. And he said he had 28 rentals in Ohio and like the Cleveland area Right, and he was like we did get a lot of cash flow but sometimes the return wasn't worth it, because when you have 28 properties single families you have 28 roofs, 28 yards, 28 different tenants, 28.

Speaker 2:

HVACs.

Speaker 1:

And he's like so it can be tricky. And the other thing is that when you're trying to sell that portfolio, it's harder to 1031 exchange because you got to get somebody to buy a ton of them at the same time.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that makes sense.

Speaker 1:

That's cool, man, see you out here hustling bro. Yeah, man, how are you? What's your long term? Are you solo agent? Are you building a team? What's that going to look like for you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I'm in tom ferry coaching my body right here, tom ferry coaching. You heard tom ferry, I'm sure, of course. Yeah, I listen to the pod all the time. Yeah, I'm in this coaching program. I went to a summit last year in august. Man, it was great, um, and they got me. I knew that. I mean, that was the thing it was like I would tell them.

Speaker 2:

I was like, yeah, they're gonna try to make me sign up for coaching. I'm not going to do it, but I did it. It's, it's one of the best investments I made in my business. Uh, but right now, me and my coach are working on ways where, uh, I can structure my business as a business. Bring on an assistant to like double as me to just increase my productivity, um, but I do have a team. Um, I have a team. It's two agents, uh, daje and Thomas. They're great. Um, daje's full-time, thomas is part-time, but they do great work. So I'm looking to more. So right now, structure the business side and then expand my team with other agents once that's developed.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so I'm solo I've always been a solo agent just because I look at the splits and everything and I'm like why would I? But my bookkeeper has me tight with my numbers and so I actually go back and forth because right now I'm building on my operations team. So I have me and I have a very sphere-based business. So I have a sphere-based business. I'm not calling expires, I'm not calling thoseires, I'm not calling those. You know, like random people like that. So passing off deals could be, you know, weird for somebody I know 20 years and I'm passing them off. But for me I'm building like the operations team. So I have my social media team like pretty much set. I got my transaction coordinator pretty much Like I got my transaction coordination team set.

Speaker 1:

So you know, from contract to close is good no-transcript and then I have a uh, and then I have, and now I'm working on getting like the operations person to like manage the database and like do all those follow-up tasks. And I don't really, you know, I'm more on the list side now At this moment, I should say, because you know it always shifts, but I don't show that many houses. I really leverage show and assistance to show properties for me and so I'm not showing so for me it's all about like I'm trying to delegate as much as possible.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1:

And I think the teams that I see with a ton of agents either those people are bought in on the culture and what they're getting from the team or those teams just are giving them a ton of leads. And I'm like, well, if I could stay in my numbers, leverage out everything and mostly just do the real estate part and the relationship managing and building, then I don't know if I even want to start a team, because I'm trying to also get into the builder space too, so I might just be solo with the operations team and then also do some building.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I'm in a similar phase. So, yeah, I'm building out the ops team. Again, like you said, I have transaction coordinators, man. I don't know how I survived my first few years in real estate without them. Man, it's, it's crazy like I do some deals without them, like they don't do new construction, they don't do um, like my own deals. But when I don't have them, man, it sucks bro, like writing contracts, like coordinating all.

Speaker 1:

I'm like man. It was a lot of time spent doing this stuff.

Speaker 2:

You don't write contracts.

Speaker 1:

No, I don't write contracts.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, they can't write my contracts, but I actually like writing contracts.

Speaker 1:

I used to feel like that until somebody started writing them and doing a good job. Yesterday I was at a pre-inspection with my clients on a deal that we, knock on wood, should be ratifying today, and we had a pre-inspection. They wanted to get an offer in. I had my phone, submitted the job form and an hour later it was in my inbox for review.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, for sure. You do pre-inspections a lot. We did on this one In.

Speaker 1:

DC in the competitive market you do pre-inspections. I feel like in the burbs they're just like pre-inspection, what's that? But in the city it's popping. I'll do them if we need to.

Speaker 2:

How do you talk to your clients about that? Because my clients are like damn what if I don't get it? I'm just spending money. Well, that's the risk you take.

Speaker 1:

I just tell them, you know if we're going to be competing against four or five other people, I guarantee you that one person doesn't have a home inspection contingency in there. So if you want to remove yours comfortably, we should do a pre-inspection.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know, like somebody I like, I like the way you put it. I say, hey, you might not get accepted, but that's the risk you take. But we do look a lot more competitive because we don't have that, uh, contingency in there I'm like it's gonna cost you five hundred dollars, but somebody's taking it out anyway.

Speaker 1:

So if you want the house, this is you know you got to pay to play, and what's? Five hundred dollars on the four percent equity you're going to get next year?

Speaker 2:

Yeah for sure.

Speaker 1:

So I think you just, you know, I kind of tell them like bluntly, like we got to do it. But for this one it was like my clients wanted to do a home inspection and but we weren't going to be able to put that in the contract, so we did pre-inspection and this is like my seventh transaction with these guys. I got you.

Speaker 2:

So it was easier. It was easier to talk through.

Speaker 1:

All right, man, as we wrap up, give the people, give buyers. I got to figure out how to ask this question. Bronzer ChadGBT made this question for me. I haven't gotten it off. All right, edit it out so it's smooth. As we wrap up, what's one piece of actionable advice that you can give buyers and sellers?

Speaker 2:

Actionable advice that I can give buyers and sellers. Actionable advice that I can give buyers and sellers. Actionable advice that I can give buyers and sellers Right now. For buyers is just figuring out what this market looks like for you. I don't think a lot of buyers understand what they're looking for essentially. What does a deal look like for you? I know the biggest thing is I just want a deal. What does a deal look like for you? Does that look like getting a reduced price on the property? Does that look like getting seller help? Does that look like getting everything fixed? What does that look like for you? So I think buyers have to position themselves into understanding what exactly they're looking for. I don't think they understand that and what the market entails and how they can take advantage of this market, because I do think it's more of a balanced market, more so leaning toward a buyer market in some areas. So they can definitely take advantage of this in some areas.

Speaker 1:

I think it's a good question.

Speaker 2:

And for sellers, have to be a lot more competitive with price and make sure that we're not overpricing our properties. Just being realistic with the price, I think that's the biggest thing, especially in this market. It's a lot of economic uncertainty. A lot of buyers, especially in the DMV area, are facing job loss, and that's just a true reality, you know. So we just have to one, be patient. Two, just trust the process and make sure that we're marketing and pricing our property at the right price.

Speaker 1:

And I'm an add-on for sellers.

Speaker 2:

You got to update the crib, bro, oh yeah, you can't just throw it on the market anywhere. Paint Not at all. Update the light fixtures Stage it.

Speaker 1:

Floors stage. You have to put the work in.

Speaker 2:

You do have to put the work. You can't be frugal up front and expect a high return. Yeah, yeah, I had that conversation with one of my sellers just yesterday.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, those days are over.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 1:

All right, man, thanks for joining. Where can the people find you? How can they follow you?

Speaker 2:

Reach out to you, yeah, yeah yeah, Follow me on all social media at Gerald Jordan, J-A-R-R-I-E-L Jordan. Like Michael Jordan,

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Nick Bush

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