From P.E. Teacher To Real Estate Rental Expert

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So please ask your questions for Jason to answer. You ready?

Jason: Let's do it, man.

Steve: Alright. So first question is, what was your life like before real estate?

Jason: I was a phys ed teacher. I moved from Long Island to New York to Henderson, Nevada by myself. I was 22, 23. Mhmm. I was a teacher.

And I had no clue, no direction what I wanted to do. Yeah. And I hated teaching. Hated teaching. Hated it.

Couldn't state it.

Steve: What did you hate about teaching?

Jason: I just didn't like, well, obviously, the low pay and Compensation is like the conversation, and I just didn't there was no fulfillment in that job. So

Steve: Did you have any suspicion of that? Like, I guess, why did you become a PE teacher then?

Jason: So both my parents were teachers. Got it. And it was instilled early in my years. Being a teacher is the best job because you get the summers off. Mhmm.

And That's true. It's true. But, I just didn't love it. And so what I did was I transitioned to parents fulfilled? Yes.

They were.

Steve: So they loved it. They loved it. Right. So you saw two loving parents have a career in teaching. Yep.

They were happy with it, and you say, okay. That's life for me.

Jason: Correct.

Steve: And then you did it.

Jason: And that's exactly what I did.

Steve: And you realize, wait a minute. This is not the life for me.

Jason: That you nailed it. Yeah.

Steve: And I totally get that. You know? Like, I thought, you know, being an engineer made sense. Right? Because I actually enjoyed it, right, in college.

And then I got in the real world. I realized this is not fulfilling

Jason: at all. So I didn't love it.

Steve: So pay is not great, but, you know, at least it's gonna be fulfilling, and then it wasn't fulfilling. No. So then what?

Jason: So then I was just given an opportunity to coach a high school lacrosse program.

Steve: Alright.

Jason: And I was teaching and then going to coach at night. And this

Steve: is in Nevada?

Jason: This is in Las Vegas in Henderson. Yeah. And throughout the years I was doing that, I was just given opportunities by the parents. I was coaching 200 parents in this program, and they were like, Jason, go work at this job, and you'll make more money than being a teacher. Go work at the night club, etcetera.

And eventually, it got to a point where one of the parents was like, I think you would be good in real estate. Mhmm. You're very personable. You're organized. And I was like, you know what?

I've I heard the market is good. It was really low, but now it's coming up. And I was like, let's give it a shot.

Steve: And when was this? This was 2,015. 2015. Alright.

Jason: Yeah. And I just hit the ground running. I got my real estate license. I told all my friends, family back in New York. I'm like, I'm I got I'm a realtor now.

And What was their response? They were a little blown away. They were like, you know, I'm not the smartest business person in the world.

Steve: Fortunately, that doesn't matter.

Jason: It doesn't matter. Right? And, they were like it was they were shocked. Yeah. That's a good question.

I don't get that a lot. And, so I was calling my family and friends, and they were like, well, let's go buy a piece of real estate out there. And I just started buying my friends' rental properties Yeah. When I started partnering with them. And it just exploded into this whole big business.

Steve: So you told your friends. You're working a referral system or a sphere of influence system. I'm guessing this is through some sort of coaching or mentor that suggests that you go in this direction.

Jason: So my mentor, he he did set me up for success, but he was amazing because he took me off the boat, threw me in the ocean, and drove the boat away.

Steve: That's how most brokers are.

Jason: Yep.

Steve: Was that your broker?

Jason: Yes. It was my broker and my mentor. And it was the best thing that that I ever did. He did show me the correct ways of of networking. Yeah.

I'm really good at networking. I was working at, Access Nightclub. Which is no one nightclub in the world at the time. Yeah. Just telling everyone I have my real estate license.

This is before the surge where everyone had it. And, people just trust me. What were you

Steve: doing at the nightclub?

Jason: We were doing, the bottle service.

Steve: Okay. So I can't picture you, like, in a bikini. Right? So what part of the bottle service?

Jason: When when, when these customers come in and they order bottle service, the girls, they can't hold the heavy bottles of champagne Right. And the bottles of liquor. So they need somebody to help them. Got it. So you're like the assistant to

Steve: the waitress. You're like the

Jason: bar hopping away? Yeah.

Steve: The, yeah,

Jason: the bar

Steve: back, we call it. Bar back. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

So you're telling everyone there. I'm in real estate. So my question here and this is just out of curiosity because, you know, we go to Vegas, we go clubbing, we go crazy, whatever. Is your audience then and you're telling everyone, are they out of state or in state?

Jason: Both. So a big part of my network is from New York Mhmm. And where I grew up. And the thing about New York is it doesn't really grow. It's New York, where I'm from in Long Island.

There's no growth really there. And so people kinda wanna try different things in different places, but they didn't have an outlet to go buy real estate somewhere else. So I became that outlet. Mhmm. And quickly, it blossomed into, hey.

If you wanna buy out of state real estate, Jason's the guy. He could set you over the rental property and get you a place here in Vegas, and that's what I did.

Steve: Alright. So before we get into that, I just wanted, you know, just touch on this real quick. You know, we're talking about the broker that kinda, like

Jason: Mhmm.

Steve: Drops you in the ocean Yeah. And and drives the boat away. Like, guys, the reality is you gotta do your research, right, when you're looking to hire a mentor on the traditional side. Just like you need to do your research before you hire a mentor, right, on the on the real estate investment side. You gotta investigate the broker because that is the norm.

Jason, come to my brokerage. I'll give you all the support you need. I'm gonna give you leads. I'm gonna coach you up. And then the moment you sign the the dotted line, you realize this over.

Alright, Jason. Get out there and get after it.

Jason: Right.

Steve: Right?

Jason: I was I was put in a unique situation because through coaching Mhmm. I had a network of 200 families every single year.

Steve: Right.

Jason: So parents would graduate out Mhmm. But then younger ones would come into the program. So I was just meeting tons of families every single year. Yeah. And that was a huge

Steve: Well, for sure. But that was your efforts.

Jason: Yes. That

Steve: was your relationships. Right. One point I was making is that there are a lot of brokers that will recruit hard in the moment and they promise, like, more leads, more appointments, this and that, and the moment you sign the dotted line

Jason: Right.

Steve: Hey. You know what? I wish you the best. Yeah. So my

Jason: my my thing is that you can't rely on somebody else to be successful.

Steve: A 100 true. 100% true. Okay. So, we were going back to you're helping your friends and family, I presume family in New York, invest in rentals.

Jason: Yes.

Steve: And that worked really well.

Jason: Works really well.

Steve: Okay. So explain some of your early success there.

Jason: So my cousin, Joe, when I wanted to move to Vegas, we were plowing snow in Brooklyn, New York. It was, like, four in the morning, and I was like, dude, I don't wanna do this anymore. Mhmm. I wanna do something different. And he was like I had my best friend growing up.

My best friend since kindergarten was going to UNLV, and he was like, yo, the real estate's, like, $3,030,000 dollars for a condo. And my cousin heard, and he was like, let's go buy a condo. So he bought a condo. And then two years later, I'm like, can I go live in that condo? I wanna move there.

And he was like, I'll give you a shot. If you mess up, we're gonna have a problem.

Steve: Alright.

Jason: And he let me go. And so that same that same cousin, I got my license. I told him, and he's like, yeah. Let's start buying rental properties. So I bought my first I bought my house first.

Mhmm. And I bought my first, rental for $250,000. And we target targeted the area that I was coaching in in Henderson. It's a really high end area in Las Vegas, Nevada. And it was all people that wanna go to this one school, Coronado High School.

And there's a big rental demand there because people wanna go to school there. They want their kids to

Steve: school there. You're right in this Yep. District or this School district. Yeah. Then your kids can go to Coronado High School.

Jason: And I just started buying and buying, and I did not stop buying, and I never sold. But the the first condos and houses we bought for the house was $2.50. It's worth $7.50.

Steve: Oh, wow.

Jason: You know, seven, eight years later. Yeah. And I bought a lot of them.

Steve: That's good. That's smart. So, you got your real estate license.

Jason: Got my real estate. Yeah.

Steve: Help people buy rentals.

Jason: Mhmm.

Steve: And then you bought rentals.

Jason: Yes.

Steve: So that part's a little bit different.

Jason: Yes. It is.

Steve: You know? You know, the one of the sad realities, because, you know, again, I I wear hats. So, you know, I'm I'm in both realms. One of the biggest, frustrations that there are a lot of realtors that sell real estate, but they never buy the rentals. Yeah.

Why did you buy rentals?

Jason: Because my cousin Joe told me to do it.

Steve: Ah, okay. So now that having bought those rentals, how many people is Jason showing properties to today to buy rentals?

Jason: A lot.

Steve: You're still showing properties to buy rentals.

Jason: I get so many to your point, people like that I walk the walk. Mhmm. And I talk the talk, and then I walk the walk. So they're saying, Jason like, I see Jason buying real estate, so I should do it too. Mhmm.

Or I see Jason, and I kinda wanna do what he's doing.

Steve: Sure.

Jason: So that's been a huge help to me. Because a lot of realtors go out there and they say, oh, go buy a rental. It's good cash flowing, blah blah blah. Mhmm. But then you ask them how many rentals you own, and they say, zero.

Mhmm. So I've just been doing that. I stick to my lane of I just buy rental properties. Mhmm. I have systems down of you buy the best location, location, location.

Mhmm. You rent the crap out of it for a long period of time, and it will progressively make you money. Right. It's no secret. It's not a crazy secret sauce of brain surgery.

It's just a simple method.

Steve: It's not it's not crazy. It's not innovation. No. And yet it's uncommon.

Jason: It's uncommon. And I don't know why. I don't know I don't know why. Maybe it's a little scary for for agents or newer investors, but I did it right away, and I got the nerves out.

Steve: Right. But I wanna touch on this. You're still showing properties.

Jason: Yes. I am.

Steve: That's very different.

Jason: Mhmm.

Steve: Typically, right, you get to a point where, like, you hire transaction coordinator, you're hiring showing agents, do this and that. Why are you still showing properties?

Jason: The people that I'm dealing with now are I love working with professional athletes Mhmm. Now. So it's it's I love moving people to Las Vegas. Yeah. That's, like, a special thing to me.

So if if I get a call, somebody's like, I'm moving from here to Las Vegas Mhmm. I love giving that person the full experience.

Steve: Yeah.

Jason: Well, I'll show them the house. I'll take them to dinner. I'll take them to the nightclub, take them to the pools. I'll do all I'll give them

Steve: the full experience. Exactly.

Jason: People like that.

Steve: Well yeah. I mean, yeah, you're doing all those other things. Yep. So you're not selling the house. You're selling Vegas.

Jason: Yeah.

Steve: You're selling the lifestyle.

Jason: The experience of it. Correct. Right. Because that's where Las Vegas is.

Steve: It was really smart, though. Right? Because, I mean, most people we we talk about this right now. I just launched a dispositions course. Right?

You know, selling properties. Like, how do you sell your assets? Right? And the point I've been making in it is that we don't sell assets because we're selling assets as a widget. Yep.

Right? We're selling an exit to your or or or a step closer to your end goal, whether it's more time with family, vacations, retiring spouse, whatever. But there's an end game in place, and that's what you're doing here. You're not selling the house. Like, hey.

You wanna move to Vegas? Like, let me show you how awesome Vegas is, and then this house is just part of that story.

Jason: Yeah. I never really thought of it like that, but, yeah, that's exactly what I do.

Steve: Yeah. No. I think that's brilliant. So at what point then did you transition to short term rentals from just regular ones? Because you're buying regular rentals for Henderson for the high school.

Yep. When did you transition from year long rentals to short term rentals?

Jason: So we had, in my brokerage, it's it was a big property management hub. We had a few people doing property management. They were doing really well. And my mentor with short term rentals, his name is Sean Cunningham. He was like, you love rentals.

This is just long term rentals on steroids. Yeah. The cash flow is just astronomically more. And I'm the type of just show me at work one time, and then I went all in on it the past two and a half, three years. I was like, this is incredible.

I was getting a lot of calls all the time. Do you have a house for me to stay in for the weekend? And I didn't have it. So I was really fixing a problem that I had. Everyone's asking me or visiting me to come Mhmm.

Clients or whatnot. And I was like, now I gotta build out a whole different type of business. Mhmm. And I went all in on it. I was like, I'm gonna build the nice short term rentals in Henderson.

Steve: And that's

Jason: what we did.

Steve: And your focus then is predominantly in Henderson.

Jason: Yep. Only in Henderson.

Steve: Okay. Because I think Vegas

Jason: Yep. Again. Alright.

Steve: The the the hotel unions or whatever, the lobbying firm Yeah. Fought really hard against Airbnb.

Jason: And they they still are.

Steve: Oh, I thought they won, so it's still ongoing.

Jason: It's still ongoing. Is it so to your point, so we have the city of Clark County and then the city of Henderson. Mhmm. Clark County is, where Las Vegas Strip is and the surrounding areas. So there's no set rules and regulations.

But in Henderson, there are rules and regulations. Mhmm. So if you want an Airbnb property, you have to get a specific license per house. And so the rules are set, they're clear, and you have to pay a tax. But everywhere else, it's a free for all.

Kinda like Arizona. There's no rules here. You just gotta do whatever you want. So I was like, I I I like doing business the right way. Mhmm.

So I built my entire business in Henderson. When Clark County and the city gets their stuff together, then I'll transition.

Steve: So you appreciate the regulation being in place. Mhmm. Okay. So talk talking about that because most people are anti regulation. I'm generally in that category for with a handful of exceptions.

K. So explain to me why you're you you look forward to regulated areas.

Jason: So there's only a 340 licensed Airbnbs in Henderson. So you know that it's not gonna become an oversaturated market. Uh-huh. So if I'm gonna buy a house, I know there's not gonna be any other property around me that it's gonna do short term rentals. Mhmm.

And now I know the business model. I know that there's not gonna be another 5,000 in Henderson Yeah. That's gonna bring down my profit. With the city of Clark County in Las Vegas, it's a free for all. Yeah.

So they could be seven in a row on your street and all types of problems. And so I'm just not into that. But the city of Henderson, they do a really good job. Yeah. They make it they make it fair.

They make it reasonable. You have to pay your license fee once a year.

Steve: But it makes sense because you're cash flowing so

Jason: much. Exactly. Yeah. And it and so I'm I just like businesses that are set structure. Mhmm.

It's not anywhere annoying. Maybe a little bit, but it's it's fair.

Steve: You gotta know the rules. I know the rules.

Jason: So you

Steve: can work within them. Exactly. Exactly. Right. So and I bring this up.

So I'm generally less regulation. Right?

Jason: Yeah.

Steve: But, you know, one of the things that came up in the conversations over the years is, like, blockchain and crypto. Right? You know, like, it's gonna become regulated. It's gonna become a problem when it's regulated. And I'm of the, I think, minority position.

Like, no. Regulation's gonna be great. Because once it's regulated, then at that point, we know the exact rules, and it creates safety for everyone else to get involved as well. Definitely. There's a lot of money on the sidelines because it's an unregulated industry.

Jason: The the example I use is when I first moved to Vegas, Uber was, like, the big no no. You can't Uber anywhere because of the hotels and the valet and all that. But then slowly, people started to give in. They're like, oh, Uber's good. It works.

It's helpful to everybody. Yeah. So I think, hopefully, the hotels every hotel sold out anyway. There's no more hotel rooms in Las Vegas that you could rent. So this helps bring more tourism in so you could these people could go to the casinos and lose all their money.

So once they get on board with that, it's gonna be helpful.

Steve: Sure. So, when exactly did you make that transition, to add short term rentals?

Jason: 2019. Early

Steve: twenty nineteen. Yeah. Okay. And then along the way, we had this little inconvenience. Right?

COVID came along

Jason: Yep.

Steve: Yep. And Vegas Okay. Shut

Jason: down. Vegas shut down. So I I I entered the space right after COVID. So it was right at twelve towards the tail end of COVID, I started.

Steve: Okay. So

Jason: I didn't get affected by the

Steve: So you were not affected by

Jason: the I wasn't in it. No.

Steve: Okay. That was gonna be my big question. Like, how did you navigate that? Because I know a lot of people transition from short term rentals to thirty day rentals or whatever for nurses.

Jason: Yep.

Steve: Okay. So then what are some of your biggest victories then in, you know, doing rentals, as your core focus?

Jason: So in a weird way, you help a lot of people. Mhmm. Like, if you're if somebody wants to go to that school and the mom's like, look, I'm a single mom. I I need my kid to go to the school. And you help them get in so that kid could go to that school, that's like a fulfilling one.

Mhmm. But my biggest win, in all of real estate, it's gonna be tonight, actually. Our big short term rental is gonna be on TV. Yeah. So we built out San this property, San Gabriel.

It's a 9,000 square foot mansion, and it became so big and popular. Somebody saw it, and it got to, Pilgrim films in the UFC. And they said, we wanna film our reality fusion shows in here. And I was like, wow. This is, like, my make it moment.

Because I love the UFC, and I'm like, holy crap. And so they were like, we're gonna take the keys from you. We're gonna do our thing. Just leave us alone Mhmm. And then we're gonna show the end product.

And so today at ten is the end product.

Steve: Gotcha. So your one of your properties in Henderson Mhmm. Is gonna be the primary location Yes. For a new reality TV show.

Jason: Yeah. Two new shows. So the Power Slap, Dana White's Power Slap Mhmm. Which is that's on right now, and Ultimate Fighter.

Steve: That's awesome. Yeah. Congratulations. Thank you. So that's that's a massive, massive victory.

So you at some point, right, you you're a PT PE teacher. Yep. Not quite fulfilled. And then you went to real estate after a few different stops along the way. When did you realize real estate was it?

Jason: Very early.

Steve: Very early?

Jason: I I will say, though, the thing about real estate and being an entrepreneur, it's very lonely at times where you're like, am I doing the right thing? You can't really consult other people besides other entrepreneurs because they won't understand. Everybody else gets a paycheck every week. Right? Yeah.

I'm sure you've felt this too. Right? Definitely. And so but there was a time where I was like, okay. It just like, I'm looking at my numbers of my rentals, and I'm, like, wow.

One day, when all these get paid off, I'm not gonna have to work anymore. Mhmm. And it's gonna be relatively soon. I have just set myself up for success buying these little rental properties that are just cash flowing, and most of them are almost paid off at this point. Wow.

And I'm, like, I'm gonna be able to live off this, and I can do whatever the hell I wanna do. Right. And that was, like, the light bulb moment for me. I'm, like, okay. That's gonna be it for me.

But now I'm in a position where I could help people. Yeah. That's, like, really what I'm getting into now with the with I love coaching. So I coach lacrosse, love that, and I've I I became successful through coaching lacrosse because, like, all these people, I get clients from lacrosse. I you know, these people buys houses for me.

And now my former players that are graduating from college are coming back and working for me.

Steve: Oh, really?

Jason: Yeah. And so it's like a full circle of, like, wow. Now I'm teaching them how great real estate is at 21 years old.

Steve: Yeah.

Jason: That's that's a good for fulfillment also.

Steve: What are some of the struggles that you face along the way?

Jason: I think the lonely part was obviously, COVID was tough being a realtor. Mhmm. And, you know, it's it's not easy, like, just not having a paycheck at times. You you have to fig you have to get creative. You have to have excellent money management skills.

Sure. You have to have excellent, like, I'm not going to go spend this whole paycheck on stupid things.

Steve: Right.

Jason: And so those are definitely still to this day where I'm like, I'm strict money management. I don't go buy anything crazy. I just save up my I save up my $25. I try to buy another rental. Mhmm.

And I've stuck with that from the beginning, and it works.

Steve: So you mentioned that some of these might be paid off soon Yeah. Which is counter to every book, every guru that talks about real estate. Right? They talk about whether it's OPM, leveraged debt, you know, whatever. You're going against the grain here.

Jason: I mean, I'm a big so I'm a big fan of going against the grain Yeah. On this topic.

Steve: So why are you going against the grain?

Jason: Because it's the safer wrap. Mhmm. So if I own 30 rentals and I would have refied every single one of them, and I've been razor thin margins on each one, and I went and bought another 20. Mhmm. Right now, in this time, when the market is going kinda different than it was it was it only went up seven years I've been in this business.

Mhmm. I would be crapping my pants right now. Yeah. I would be crap because if 10 of them go vacant, I don't have enough money to sustain those rentals. Mhmm.

But my rentals are cheap. You know? They're $800 mortgage payments, and I'm renting them for 2,400 a month. And I just kept buying them down, buying them down. I'm looking at my statement every month.

I'm like, this thing's 70% paid off on a lot of them. Once that thing's paid off, the market could crash. No one's coming to take it from you. Yeah. And, it's a scare factor because I saw Las Vegas.

I moved in 2011. A lot of people got hurt. And I heard I saw stories, and I and I still hear stories of people that really got crushed. And just hearing those stories where people lost their house and their whole lives Yeah. I don't wanna put myself in that position, so I'd rather hit the single rather than go for the grand slam.

Steve: How many rentals do you own right now? 27. 27. Wow. And so, you know, I appreciate this.

You're going against the grain because I'm also in that category. Right?

Jason: Oh, good.

Steve: I'm going against the grain. And the reason why is that, you know, it's post traumatic stress. Like, I started 2007. So, you know, all the stories you heard, I got to witness in real time. And so every property we bought, we've owned free and clear, and everyone thinks we're crazy.

However, I got the same issue as you. Right? The book says leverage. Right? As the market goes up, you can increase this and that.

But for me, as I've always thought operating the mind mindset, and this is a risk conversion situation. It's like, well, what if it doesn't? What if it goes down? What if bad things happen? No matter what, if it's vacant and it doesn't cost me anything, when it's rented, cash flow is pretty good.

Jason: Yeah.

Steve: Right? And then, Paul Sparks and I, we talk about uncertainty talks on Fridays. We talk about having a solvable problem. With where you're at, you don't have to report to anybody. No.

Right? You don't have to do anything you don't want to do. Right. Right? Actually, you and I were talking about before the show.

Mhmm. You kinda remarked like, man, like, there's a cool setup. You've been in Bradley's studio. That's incredible setup. And you were talking about, like, this other situation at the Wynn.

Yep. And it's almost like a record label.

Jason: Yeah.

Steve: Right? Where, like, hey. Come in, record 10 episodes, and we like you. We'll sign you.

Jason: Yeah.

Steve: And you were saying, man, that's pretty cool. And immediately in my head, we went to a dark place.

Jason: So I was like No. Even think of of the way you brought it up, to be honest. Maybe I'm just naive, but go ahead.

Steve: Go ahead. But they own you.

Jason: Right. They do.

Steve: Right? Like, if you get signed by another label, they own you.

Jason: Yeah.

Steve: And now they're like, Steve, we need you to do a show with this person. Steve, we need you to do this. We need you to do that. I was like, no. Like, I'm doing this.

Yeah. Because I wanna call the shots.

Jason: You know what's funny? I well, compared to my rentals, like, I run all my own rentals Yeah. Right my way. Like, there's no one else in my ear. Like, oh, you should maybe take this person.

I'm like, no. I met that person. I'm renting it to this person because I'm dealing with this person. And you're married to that person for the time that you leased the house to. And I I agree with you that, like, being an entrepreneur, you have to think like that.

Yeah. You're the general out there. You're the leader. And if you don't, then you won't go. You won't move up Right.

In the world.

Steve: So, anyway, I hope that's helpful for everyone else watching. You know, we're doing a slightly different show here, but I think a really, really important show. Like I said, there are a lot of people that talk about tons and tons of active income. Right? Wholesaling is an active income business.

Realtor, that's an active income business. What Jason and I are talking about here is getting to a point where it's not active income.

Jason: Yeah.

Steve: It's it's it's money it's income on the side. So I'm guessing your biggest purchase is the one you're experiencing preparing tonight. Mhmm. Yeah. Alright.

So talking about your short term rentals. Right? Like, that is is that your passion today?

Jason: It is. Because the best part about this business is I could go, and I'm starting to do it now, I could go buy places across the country Mhmm. And use them Mhmm. Where me and my family can say, hey. Let's go to Tampa Bay Right.

Tomorrow. Spend the weekend there in our house. Mhmm. That's making money also. Right.

So that's that's what I'm trying to scale right now, where I'm just networking with so many different people Mhmm. By going a podcast like this and buying creative deals.

Steve: Right.

Jason: That's that's a big passion of mine now. I'm just trying to buy use I've become an expert in creative financing to buy as many rentals as I possibly can.

Steve: Sure. So let's talk about then this evolution. So what have you changed in your whether it's your marketing, your approach, or whatever, to go from buying rentals, long term rentals to short term rentals?

Jason: It's just a better business. It's just better money. Mhmm. There's no real I mean, I would say it's passion. It's a bigger pain in the butt.

Like, these people, they wreck your house. Mhmm. You know what I mean? And it's harder. The systems are harder.

The furniture is expensive to buy. So everyone thinks, like, you could go buy an Airbnb and you're gonna make a million dollars. It's so far from the truth. And I've had ones that I built, and I thought they were gonna do amazing, and they didn't do well at all. Yeah.

I had to just pivot them into long term rentals. Mhmm. So, I do like the short term rental model a lot because of that reason you could use the properties, how you could flex them. Mhmm. And to be honest with you, I've gotten so many calls recently, the past six months, where people see my properties on Airbnb, and they just wanna rent them long term.

Mhmm. And they just offer me a crazy amount of money. And I'm like, this is Christmas for me because I don't have to deal with any of the BS anymore. Yeah. Like, this big house, somebody saw it, and they were like, we'll take it for an extended period of time.

Mhmm. So I I like that too. So you can kinda flex back and forth.

Steve: But as far as yes, there's more revenue Mhmm. And there's more headache. But is there any particular approach? Because you're talking about going nationwide. Yeah.

Right? Going nationwide is different than leveraging your your network Right. From coaching. Yeah. So what to to say, like, hey.

You know, I'm buying rentals, long term rentals in Henderson to I'm gonna be doing nationwide short term rentals. What was is for someone who's listening right now, what are the steps necessary to kinda, to to emulate that?

Jason: So I'm really good at networking. Mhmm. But my main goal with doing this, I'll get to to it, is I wanna find the next Henderson. Mhmm. Because Henderson became a, like, a it hit like a boom.

And the Golden Knights came, and the Raiders came, and it kinda became, like, you can't really invest in Henderson much anymore because it became so expensive.

Steve: Right.

Jason: So now I gotta find the next Henderson. What's gonna be the that's where you really win when you get into a place before it blossoms fully. So that's kinda what I'm I'm just poking around. Like, you can't go and, like, invest in these big time towns, like the Beverly Hills and, like, it it's just, like, it's too saturated. It's too, it popped already.

So now it's for me, I gotta find the next Henderson. That's the best example.

Steve: So then when you're saying you wanna do nationwide, you're not saying you wanna have short term rentals throughout the country. You're looking for the next market Right. To repeat what you've done.

Jason: Yeah. It's just the same same model. Just build a network in the next city and then start there. But you're not gonna be able to do that unless you try. So I wanna start building short term rentals in places that I I might have an interest Mhmm.

Of going or or and then just creating another real estate lane. Okay.

Steve: So then let's just talk about Henderson then. Right? So out of the 27 properties, how many are long term rentals? How many are short term rentals?

Jason: 70% is 70% of my rentals are long term. Mhmm. And I have a total of nine short term rentals.

Steve: Okay. So then, basically the whatever that is, eighteen eighteen long. So then, essentially, what you did then is you took the properties you already had, and you didn't market to find short term rentals. You just converted its existing use.

Jason: Yes.

Steve: Okay.

Jason: Yeah. Just like, just like this big one I did. I turned into a long term rental for the year. Mhmm.

Steve: So then what were some of the challenges then? So you already had the assets.

Jason: Mhmm.

Steve: So then what are the challenges in going from a long term rental to short term rental? Because you're you're already saying, like, they're promising the moon Right. And it's not. So what are the

Jason: So I mean

Steve: what did we learn?

Jason: What I've learned is that there's a where I live, there's a big rental demand. So you have to fill the rental demand. So if it's a short term rental, you could flex the space. You put furniture. We just put nice furniture in all of our properties.

Not all of them, but most of them now. And we get people who are interested in renting it out short term or mid term or long term. Mhmm. And then it's my decision of which one do I wanna do, which one makes sense.

Steve: Best used.

Jason: Yeah. Best used. And and you know what's funny? Every time I think, I'm like, alright. This one's gonna be a better this way, that obviously comes.

And you're like, okay. I was wrong. But you learn as you go.

Steve: So how did you figure out I mean, initially, you were wrong.

Jason: Yeah. I was wrong. Yeah.

Steve: I'm guessing you're better at identifying it now. Yep. So what are those key things to know, like, what's gonna be good for long term, what's good for short term?

Jason: So I found that anything with a nice backyard, people are gonna want a short term rental. Mhmm. They wanna go on vacation there and use it, party there, whatever. And then the ones, like, a little three two, that I put on Airbnb as a short term rental, those don't work as well. So I kinda go by that.

That's my little standard.

Steve: So the promise is you can make a lot of money in Airbnbs. Mhmm. But you're saying that it it's not quite what's promised.

Jason: No. If you do you have to do them the right way. So what's the reality? The reality is if if you really study the business Mhmm. And you enter a market that is like Scottsdale or Henderson where there is a need for them Mhmm.

They will work extremely well.

Steve: Right.

Jason: Now if you enter a market like Florida or California where it's very oversaturated, it's gonna be tougher to be successful.

Steve: Got it. So the pricing will go down.

Jason: The pricing will go down, and there's people will mess up your house because there's there's no rules.

Steve: I thought that with Airbnb, there was some sort of insurance in place. Now I'm not an expert by any stretch and imagination, but I thought, like, if something happens, Airbnb helps take care of that.

Jason: They're like a I mean, you watch sports. Right? They're like a referee that misses a call. Ah. That's the best analogy I could use.

Steve: Alright. So they'll like, that person gets a bad rating. Yeah. But they don't, like they're not dropping money in your

Jason: account. Let's say you start a brand new one. Right? I have a brand new one, and my first guest trashes my house. Mhmm.

Right? And you get into a dispute. Okay? The most important thing about your new Airbnb is the five star rating. Mhmm.

Because that's how your SEO goes up. The more five star ratings, the Superhost. So if you on the first one, you get a one star rate, you're done.

Steve: It's over.

Jason: It's over. Okay. So now, yeah, they stole your TV, but you can't complain about it because you need that five star. So we kinda negotiate with them. Hey.

We know you stole our TV. We're not gonna do anything about it, but leave us a five star because that five star will make us more money down the line, and we have to replace the TV. Yeah. Now some people will do the opposite and fight with them and over the few $100. Mhmm.

But I'm just, like, onto the next. Yeah. We're moving.

Steve: So now I know. I just gotta find all the ones with low star reviews and Yep. And just high help myself to whatever appliances inside the house. Got it. So what are some other things they'll do for for them to trash your house?

Jason: I to be honest, so I I partner with, Sean, and he manages my properties, my short term rentals. We partner together. We create the systems of what we think works. I'll build it out, and then I'll hand it off and let him kinda manage it. And I I'm really glad I do that because it just takes the headache off of it.

Mhmm. Because I was reading every single message, every single email, and I'm like, this is absolutely insane. Let him do it.

Steve: What was it saying about it?

Jason: It was just like, we had one guest who wrote 75 messages about things that were wrong with the house. Where's the hair dryer? The hair dryer is not warm enough. The forks aren't long enough. Like like, things like you you it's crazy, but that's what it is.

You're in the hotel business. So every little thing, you get a message. The AC is not cold enough. The dog's barking. This doesn't work.

And so you have to really automate your houses to get a lot less messages because the less messages, the better for you. Mhmm. So what we do is we create QR codes for everything. Mhmm. Everything in the house.

How to start the garbage disposal, How to take the trash out the right way. How to turn on the grill. How to work the ping pong table. So how to work the ping pong table. They take the scan of the QR code.

You fold the ping pong table out. You do the two clips. The nets in the the box over here. The extra paddles are over here. No more questions about ping pong.

Steve: How to work the ping pong table.

Jason: Yeah. Things like that. I'm telling you. You have to do that because or else you will get bombarded with complaining and just questions. And that takes away from you making more money other places.

Steve: So that does provide a better experience.

Jason: Yeah. It does.

Steve: Well, I know myself. I would never create all those things. The only way I never create those things, I would never think to create those things, and I'd just be frustrated with the messages.

Jason: Yeah. We yeah. Well, we've learned our lesson. Because we have a 9,000 square foot house. Mhmm.

Okay? There's a lot of things in this house. There's a lot of controls. When I bought the house, there was 200 keys to the house, Like, a bag like this. It was crazy.

I'm like, we gotta automate this load better, and we just came up with the system of creating QR codes. We have a big wall for TVs. Scan the QR code. This is how you turn the TVs on if you want the four TVs to match Or if you want individual games on each, this is how you work it.

Steve: Wow. Gotcha. Okay. So, how many have you bought outside of Henderson?

Jason: I have four short term rentals outside of Henderson. Okay. Two in Kansas City and two in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Steve: Okay. Why Kansas City?

Jason: Kansas City, we bought because we heard about this, property manager. His name is Tyler Schreck. Schreck or Schrank. I hope I didn't get it mispronounce it. But he his systems are incredible Mhmm.

For running short term rentals. Mhmm. And I saw his systems, and I'm like, this guy gets it. I will invest in a city because I have this system, this guy who runs them amazing. And I have referred him out to many people, and he just does a great job.

And so I'm gonna continue investing there because I trust him. Mhmm. And he I it's I go on my bank account and I see the income come in, and I don't even talk to him. Right. And he'll the only time he'll reach out to me or I'll reach out to him is if let's buy another one.

Mhmm. Zip.

Steve: Okay. So you're you're not investing in Kansas City. You're investing in a

Jason: guy? Yes.

Steve: Gotcha. It's a

Jason: great point. Yep. I'm investing in that in that person. Yeah.

Steve: Okay. And then Gulfport? Gulfport.

Jason: Yeah. Alright. So Gulfport's a a funny one. I told my I had my, 21 year old next door neighbor from New York. He came to visit me in Vegas for the Clever Summit Uh-huh.

Cody Sperber's event.

Steve: Yeah.

Jason: And I taught him real Crash Course Real Estate three days. Mhmm. He joined Pace Morby's group, and he's in. And he's like, he got he got me two creative deals. And he's like, I wanna try to manage an Airbnb in Gulfport.

Mhmm. We've both never been to Gulfport. We'll never go there. And this 21 year old, who I trust, he's a family to me, and he runs that property by himself. Yeah.

And so we I told him, I said, if you run it, I'll split half of the money with you. Mhmm. And then we did another one. And so it's funny. That business of that house is ran with two people.

It's ran what we use Evolve, which is a national nationwide Airbnb property management. Mhmm. A 21 year old and one cleaner. Mhmm. That's it.

Steve: So, again, you're investing in I'm investing in somebody else. In the person.

Jason: Not the market. Cleaner is the best worker I think I've ever met in my entire life.

Steve: So you've never been to Gulfport?

Jason: Never been to Gulfport. I've never met the cleaner. I've only talked on the phone.

Steve: So I've been to Gulfport.

Jason: Okay. Right? Tell me that because I

Steve: I liked it. I liked it. It was small.

Jason: Cool little city. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. It's it was small. Right? We had views of the ocean, but I didn't realize that the ocean there doesn't look so great.

Jason: In person. Right?

Steve: Right. Right. Like, you know, in Florida, depending what part of Florida. Right? There's parts of Florida where the ocean's brown.

There's parts of Florida where the ocean's blue. Right? Where I was in hotel, ocean's brown. Right? This is the Gulf Of The Gulf Of Mexico.

Right? But I was there for real estate roundup live. It was Adam Johnson and Brent Marino. Right? Two really good dudes.

They had event, and I spoke at the event. And what I liked about Gulfport, like Vegas it's like a little Vegas. Right? Like, gambling is legal. Yeah.

Right? So I was able to play no limit poker. Right? So I'm doing my thing. I'm networking.

Once we're done networking, I go down to the tables and play. Right? And then do it all over again the next day. I wanna say was it cannot remember the name hotel. K.

But it looked like a mini Bellagio. Right? If you can imagine it. So you got Bellagio, and you go in to stay in this hotel, and it's just a smaller version. Right?

On the outside pulling up, it looks like Bellagio. Mhmm. On the inside, it looks like Bellagio. It's nuts. Right?

Jason: I think now you convinced me I gotta go there and check out my it's funny. Like, I own houses places, and I'm never gonna go see that.

Steve: But, yeah, I I thought I thought it was a cool little area, and people were saying, like, this like, a lot of wealthy people actually go visit there because it's it's easier to just go there than go to Vegas.

Jason: Yeah. I I've heard nothing but good things about it. Again, I you gotta try it. Right. Like, if if you don't too many people I see, they're like, oh, I could get into this deal, but it's maybe a little too risky.

I'm like, look. Let's just try it. Like, I I trusted the my 21 year old next door neighbor. He did the research. He brought the numbers to me.

The numbers made sense. Yeah. I was like, let's you know, I wanted to give him a shot, and I wanted to do it too. So we did it.

Steve: Well, the other thing too is that in Mississippi is, like, one of the best cap rates in the country. Right? Like, you're buying rental properties, like, short term or not. Like, Mississippi is one of the very few states we can get, like, a 20%.

Jason: Yeah. Cash or cash? So here's a one thing. This was a good, it, like, it hit me with this house. The insurance is crazy expensive.

Yeah. Because it's near the water, and they get a lot of hurricanes and hail and

Steve: the house is kinda

Jason: messed up. Right? Yeah. So I'm used to my little Henderson house is $60 a month. These are, like, 4 or 5,000 a year.

Yeah. And I was like, woah. Okay. Like, I didn't account for that. Mhmm.

I didn't know. Like, different parts of the country, you have to factor these things in. High property taxes, high insurance. So now I'm, like, full on when I look at a property outside of Henderson, I factor those in a lot better.

Steve: It's not unusual what I saw by rental properties in other parts of Mississippi, right, for sub 50,000. Now that's changed, I think, with all the, hedge funds and this and that. But Right.

Jason: They got winded and they bought them all.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. They did. So, so right now, you're not really wholesaling.

Jason: No. I never got into wholesaling.

Steve: Not really flipping.

Jason: I did one really big flip last year. I hate flipping.

Steve: Why do you hate flipping?

Jason: Because I have a we talked about this. I have a trust factor issue. Mhmm. And I've never met at somebody in construction who does what they say they're gonna do on Got it. And it's just a bad it's such a harder business model, in my opinion.

Steve: But with all the properties you had, someone did the remodel.

Jason: No. I did a few of them, but I bought a lot of them that were done already, where you buy them once, you don't touch them for a long long time.

Steve: Okay. So you bought the rentals, then they were ready

Jason: They were ready to go.

Steve: Were you buying these off the MLS? Yes. Okay. Yep. Gotcha.

Jason: I didn't know about wholesaling until probably year three. And do you know Jaden Putney? He worked at Carl's Reis. I list for Carlos and Sal. Mhmm.

I'm their listing agent. I didn't know anything until I met Jaden. He told me everything. He was 19 at the time.

Steve: Yeah.

Jason: And I was like, what is wholesaling? I was like, you can get properties. Is this cheap? How? Yeah.

And he told me everything. He told me that kid told me everything.

Steve: Yeah. Well, there's some big, big players in your neck of the woods. Yep. So, I wanna before we get into audience's questions, we're gonna do a quick, commercial break. You're not hitting your revenue targets.

Your acquisition guys have had the luxury of paying near retail, and your dispo guys have basically just been able to post anything, and it sells immediately. You might be wondering, do I have order takers or closers? One or less. Maybe the training has gotten a little lackluster, and, management might have even gotten complacent. And now that we're facing these serious headwinds, you might be wondering, do I have all this skills necessary to lead my salespeople in this new shifting market?

I'll just scream whenever ready.

Jason: If you're

Steve: asking yourselves these questions, please text leaders to 33777. Talk to my team. You're not hitting your revenue targets. Your acquisition guys have had the luxury of paying near retail, and your dispo guys have basically just been able to post anything, and it sells immediately. You might be wondering, do I have order takers or closers?

Maybe the training has gotten a little lackluster and the management might have even gotten complacent. And now that we're facing these serious headwinds, you might be wondering, do I have all the skills necessary to lead my salespeople in this new shifting market? If you're asking yourselves these questions, please text leaders to 33777, talk to my team, and see if we can help you as we overcome this new market. Alright. So before we get into all the questions, guys, please ask your questions in here.

Right? Like, we want to make sure we answer all of your questions. So, Claudio on YouTube asked an interesting question here. Right? First, he says you're an incredible entrepreneur.

Where do you see the valuation of Airbnb licenses going in the future?

Jason: Oh, so I'm banging heavily. If you have a license, it's gonna be a gold mine.

Steve: Yeah.

Jason: Yeah. So in my market because nobody's getting rid of them, then they're not giving more of them.

Steve: Yeah.

Jason: So if you're an early so I I heard Scott's sales starting to do them. Right? Or they're

Steve: talking about I am not paying attention to that.

Jason: Okay. So I I read an article recently that I they're trying to start it. And so if you're an early in to the game and you get a license, I think that's a huge win, and you'll be really successful.

Steve: Yeah. It reminds me of, two different things. There's taxi medallions. Oh, you're from New York.

Jason: Yeah. Yeah. It's a great example. Alright.

Steve: So it's like the medallions, and the other one is, marijuana is legal now, I think, for recreational use today. Yep. Right? But, you know, you had to go through this evolution. Right?

First, it's completely illegal.

Jason: Yep.

Steve: And then it's medicinal, and now it's recreational. Yeah. When they first rolled it out, you needed a license to sell. And, man, if you had a license, you're printing money. Yeah.

Right?

Jason: Very similar to Henderson with the license. I I evaluated the license. If you have a license on your house, it's worth about a $100,000 extra, what your house is worth.

Steve: Yeah. Does the license attach to the house then? It does. And you can't transfer it. So you can't transfer from one house to another?

Nope. Alright. So that kinda reminds of, we used to have these blue plates on our hybrids. You couldn't alright. You couldn't can I transfer Yep?

You couldn't transfer 100 triple one place?

Jason: For property, and you can't transfer them.

Steve: Wow. 100,000. I mean, I don't think you're off.

Jason: No. I think it's it's a fair evaluation, and I just did that off of kind of the offers that came in on our properties. Just verbal offers from other investors. Yeah. So I just we kinda rounded the number to get to that.

So if somebody offers, I I add that calculation in.

Steve: Man, it's a very nice valuation.

Jason: I I think so. Yeah.

Steve: So someone commented here. Eddie. Thank you, Eddie. Beau Rivage, that was where they had real estate round up. Right?

That's that was Beau Rivage is the equivalent of, or So we got a mini Bellagio.

Jason: So let's head down to Gulfport and play some poker.

Steve: Yeah. So, Airbnb's air covers insurance of sorts, but not real real insurance. There you go. So Yep. So you've got air cover, I imagine.

Jason: We have that, but I always recommend State Farm has short term rental insurance per property. I don't get an umbrella policy. I get each one individually covered for at least a million dollars for short term rental insurance.

Steve: Yeah. There you go. So answers to that question. Yeah. So I guess then, what are some of the biggest things you've learned in general, right, with with short term rentals?

Because, like, quick backstory here. Like, I was doing we had one VRBO back in, I wanna say, 2010. Right? Early stages. VRBO in 2010 is a far cry from Airbnb in 2023.

Right? Yep. I mean, we had to call the cleaners and make sure, right, they're clean. And we had to make sure like, there was no automations of any sorts. Right?

And this is a situation where you got a property that we bought bad. We bought okay. We held it too long. And then the only way that we could not even cash, but the only way we could break even

Jason: Short term rental.

Steve: Short term rental. We're doing VRBO back in 2010. What are some of the biggest things you've learned in doing short term rentals? Or, I guess, you know, with Sean doing is Sean doing majority of the work then?

Jason: Yeah. He is. What I've learned is you have to do it correctly the first time, meaning you have to set your house up, like, correctly. And don't go buy cheap furniture because if it breaks, you're just gonna have to keep cycling it. But I think on the positive side of it, it just gives you a really good opportunity.

So I really branched myself out. Look, I have these properties, and I've gotten so many opportunities from just having rental properties. Mhmm. It's insane.

Steve: Like what?

Jason: Just like coming and talking about it or having professional athletes stay in it. Yeah. People wanna do the business model that you're doing. It's it's a u it's a more unique type of real estate investing. Mhmm.

So

Steve: Well, you're never talking offline. Right? Because you were remarking I got a a speed bag.

Jason: Oh, yeah. I love a speed bag.

Steve: Right? Yep. And so you're we we kinda talking about, you know, boxing and then MMA, and then you got your clients that are MMA fighters.

Jason: Yeah.

Steve: So talk to me about how having rentals has opened a door to working with MMA fighters.

Jason: So I have, a few of my friends. My good friend, Eli Quinta, he's a real estate investor and agent too in Long Island, New York, and he's a fighter. Mhmm. And he was really the first fighter, to advocate for real estate to start showing people these fighters that, hey. You know, getting punched in the head isn't all that fun.

Like, you need other income too. And so he and I kinda worked together, and we were like, let's start helping UFC fighters. And so he is friends with all the fighters, and he would start pushing them to Vegas because that's where all the fights are. And the PI just opened. And so I've been able to help these fighters.

We'll get them in a house, like my friend Aljamain. He's he's the champ right now. And showing him, like, look, you could house hack this house Mhmm. And, you know, you're going to paying 16,000 a year in property taxes to four, and you should've saw his face light up. He was like, and I get this much house with the pool and all this stuff?

And I'm like, yeah. And I guess they've had half my taxes. Yeah. Alright. And he called all of his friends, and he's like, you guys gotta all come out.

This is great. Right. I don't wanna go live in a high tax area anymore. So just that opportunity was awesome.

Steve: Was he living in New York? Yeah. Okay. So that's why it was 16,000. Yeah.

So it wasn't, like, a particular strategy. It just moved freaking states.

Jason: Well, it's just that's why that's why I moved. Like, I saw my taxes on my house are 1,600 a year. My friends pay 40,000 a year in property taxes in Long Island, New York. For what? For nothing.

It's just Long Island property taxes.

Steve: It's a privilege.

Jason: Yeah. Of of privilege of sitting in traffic and shoveling snow. So my thing is I I kinda showed people, like, look. You don't have to stay in this rat race and pay those crazy taxes, those New York things that they have over there. You could go move somewhere else and live a lot better.

Your money goes further.

Steve: Yeah.

Jason: And so people started to follow, and they they loved it.

Steve: Gotcha. Very cool. Follow-up question from, Claudia on YouTube is how do you feel about the rules to get licensed? Do you feel that some of the rules are excessive such as you can't have another one closer than a thousand feet?

Jason: I think it's totally fair. I mean, if I'm in the only thing I don't feel is fair is that I have to go buy a property, go in escrow with a risk that I might not get the license. Mhmm. And that's happened to me where I bought a house, and then somebody beat me to the license and still and I have to sell the house.

Steve: What do you mean someone beats you to the license?

Jason: So I bought this house. Okay? I'm buying this house to make it an Airbnb. Mhmm. And this guy who's within my thousand square foot radius applied four days before to make his house a short term rental.

So now the circle goes out, my house falls in his circle. I don't get the license. He gets the license since I have to sell this house. Gotcha. That's the only thing I don't like because when I bought my $1,400,000 house, I was sweating it.

I was crabbing my pants. I'm like, if I buy this house and I don't get the license, we're a little screwed here. Mhmm. But we got the license, so it worked out.

Steve: Gotcha. Anything any advice you would give someone else as, like, dealing with these challenges?

Jason: I think regulated markets are good. Mhmm. And and not everyone is not every market is as strict as Henderson is, but you could do it anywhere. And so I I the most successful people I've ever met with doing these short term rentals, they do their own house. Right.

They get these bigger house. They do individual rooms. They just they're creative with it. Yeah.

Steve: And that

Jason: would be my best advice. But don't just go buy, places because, like, I'm seeing a lot of people buy in Joshua Tree right now. Mhmm. And I think that's not gonna be a good market long term. Why is that?

I don't know. I just don't feel like it has the it factor Mhmm. Down down the line. Like, Vegas is Vegas. It's gonna be Vegas.

We saw a huge rise because of the football team and the hockey team, the rodeo. Things are always happening. In Joshua Tree, I I feel like it's just a trend. Mhmm. And that trend's gonna end soon.

And so people are spending big money in Joshua Tree. You gotta do the California taxes and all those rules, and I think that's a tough market to to be in.

Steve: I was just in Vegas last month. I had no idea the golden knights played right on the strip.

Jason: It's the best.

Steve: Where where were we saying? It wasn't it wasn't Aria? It wasn't Aria. We were staying shoot. Delano?

Jason: Yeah. Delano. I'm in the layman.

Steve: We're staying there, and, like, we're looking out, and we could see the Raiders Stadium, whatever they call that.

Jason: The Allegiance Team.

Steve: Yeah. And we go downstairs, and it's the Golden Knights. It's crazy. I think if you're a sports fan

Jason: Oh, it's the best.

Steve: I guess perfect. And and it's on the southern end of the strip, which, right, is the southern end. And it used to be the southern end was the less desirable part.

Jason: Yeah.

Steve: Right? You had Old Town Vegas Mhmm.

Jason: And you

Steve: had the southern end, like but, like, if you really wanna have fun, you were, like, in the middle of the strip.

Jason: So there was an article last week that came out about the Raiders. It was so funny, and it said that the owner is getting pissed off because more visiting fans are in the stadium than home fans.

Steve: Well, what do you expect?

Jason: And I'm like, what is this guy? I understand. He's like, it's it's embarrassing that that's happening. I'm like, everyone wants to come to Vegas. It's a fun place to come.

But my eyes lit up. I'm like, yeah. Like, well, my Airbnbs are cranking during these football games. Because everyone wants to come watch the game here. It's the best place to watch football.

Steve: On top of that, it's not like Vegas has been, like, their hometown of Raiders forever. No.

Jason: No. They're they're a mess.

Steve: Yeah. Those guys are

Jason: That's another podcast. Yeah.

Steve: So, one thing you got going on is you got this, Airbnb course. What what is that?

Jason: So, you know, everyone does courses, and I I'll admit I was a hater on courses in the beginning, but somebody just was like, you need there's so much rules and regulations in Henderson and Vegas about Airbnbs. You need to really educate people on how to do them correctly. But, see, the real reason why I did it, I couldn't take another phone call from another real estate agent saying, hey. I have an Airbnb question. Hey.

I have a client. So here's what I did. So I I partnered with Bradley, and we created this win with it's called win with Airbnb. So winwithairbnb.com. Yeah.

And if you wanna learn about it, the first thing I do, take the course. Mhmm. And then then I'm happy to help you because it is so dialed in and every single rule, everything you need to do, how to build it out the right way, how to operate it. And then if you have questions, we could sit down and talk because I was just wasting so much time with people who are kinda maybe wanted to do it. Mhmm.

And it really fields out people who they say they wanna do it. They watch it and they're like, this is way too in-depth Yeah. Of how to do it correctly.

Steve: Really smart move. So, you know, Ryan Pinedas in your neck of

Jason: the woods. Mhmm.

Steve: And years ago, you had similar frustrations. And all he said was, like, I wrote a book. Read the book. Prove to me you read the book, then I'll answer your questions.

Jason: Yeah.

Steve: Right. You

Jason: know what's funny? Ryan's awesome. He, I was getting so frustrated with, like, the the marketing off marketing. Mhmm. And he we went to lunch, and he's like, I have stopped doing the marketing.

I'm like, but how am I gonna get off he's like, just network with people. Mhmm. That was the best advice I ever got in my real estate career.

Steve: Yeah.

Jason: He's like, stop doing the marketing. You're not good at it. And I was like, you're right. I'm not good at it. I suck at it.

He's like, okay. Great. Let's go to the next topic. Yeah. Like, go do social media.

He'll get deals through there. Go go to network events. You get deals through there. Yeah. And I listened to him.

Steve: Well, it's obviously it's very obvious to me. Right? Gradually apparent as I said across from you. You're a connector.

Jason: Yes.

Steve: Right? I am. As this connector, yeah, marketing was a really bad idea.

Jason: Yeah. And I'll never the the best part is I'll never try it again.

Steve: So then describe your business now versus when you started.

Jason: I'm bringing a lot more people into my business, which is nice. I I you know, making my friends' money with me is fulfilling. It's exciting. But, like we talked about before, I'm learning to hire other people Mhmm. To help me.

Yeah. I hired a full time assistant about two and a half, three years ago. I'm building out a retail real estate team Mhmm. Where I can, get some lead gen going and and help more families move to Vegas. Yeah.

And I'm just trying to grow. Mhmm. And every year, I've grown, and it's been great.

Steve: Gotcha. So that was that's now. What about, like

Jason: Oh, in the beginning? Yeah. Oh, man. It was very lonely. And I like the word lonely, but it was.

Like, you

Steve: I didn't explain that. Right? Because we talked about earlier in the beginning of the of the show.

Jason: So I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know if it was the right thing. So I was like, I wanna buy rentals. No one in Las Vegas was buying rentals.

Steve: Right.

Jason: Pineda, all these guys, they were wholesaling. They were flipping. Mhmm. And then I met this guy, Josh Galindo. Mhmm.

And I went to a speaking of his, and he got up in the room. He goes, I buy rental properties. I pay him off, and they have they bring me this much a month cash flow, $20 a month cash flow. And I was like, this is the guy I gotta talk to. Yeah.

I became great friends with Josh. That's he flips, but he has his basis of rentals that he lives off of, and that's his that's his baby. His bulk of fifty, sixty rentals that I have, and they're all pretty much paid off. I was like, I wanna be like that guy. Yeah.

I don't wanna do wholesaling. I don't wanna flip. And I I learned I just copied what he was doing, like, in the back. I was just watching him. What he was doing, he would do the same thing, make his house a little nice and rent it.

Mhmm. So that's the I I just when you observe people, if you're in business and you're younger, just look at the people who are successful. Yeah. But the problem with Instagram and social media, there's a lot of people full of you know what. So it's hard.

So you gotta kinda connect people a little bit, you know, and say, look. Like, okay. I see him. He's not lying. Yeah.

He's actually doing it the right way.

Steve: You know, it's it's difficult within the industry to see who's real and who's

Jason: not.

Steve: It's impossible, I gotta imagine, on the outside if you're just watching Instagram.

Jason: Yeah. Right? That's why, like, I meet people. They buy I bought 10 courses. Like, I'm like, why didn't you take and just dive into the pool?

Yeah. Why didn't you try it? And they're like, they're never gonna try it. Mhmm. Because, like, out of when I sell my course, 70% of the people don't even finish it.

Steve: Yeah. One of the things I talked to, my daughter about. Right? Because, like, you know, going to school this day and age, it's a little bit different than when you and I went to school. Mhmm.

And I always tell told her, like, hey. Look. Whatever teacher says, yes. Are you you know? Don't argue with the teacher in the class, but always process it.

Does this line up with what I've observed in my life?

Jason: Yeah.

Steve: Right? Always filter it. Don't disagree with her.

Jason: This is your fault. My example, I coach 18 I coach 18 year olds, and they're like, I wanna be an entrepreneur. Mhmm. And I'm like, you have no clue what an entrepreneur is. Like, what what does that mean?

You wanna be an entrepreneur? But they're in this wave now, these seventeen year olds. Like, they could go make money playing video games. They could go make money on TikTok. But the problem is is that that's a small amount who become successful.

Mhmm. So they're getting pulled away from going to school and college and getting a business degree, and they just wanna go do whatever, like, the successful YouTubers are doing. Yeah. And that that's a problem that I think is gonna get bigger and bigger.

Steve: We'll see what happens. Yeah. Alright? I think there will be an interesting evolution, because, you know, they're kids that say they wanna be YouTubers. Actually, again, going back to my daughter, I had this conversation.

Like, there's this generation that wants because it's Gen Z. Right? We we're posting on social media. You get Graham Stephan, tell him, here's how much money I make on YouTube. I'm MrBeast.

Tell him, here's how much like, MrBeast making, you know, tens of millions dollars a year. Turn down a billion dollars. Right? And so I asked my daughter. Like, have you ever said, like, you wanna be a YouTuber?

She's like, yes. Okay. You never shared that with me, so that's cool. And I say, okay. But now we have a reaction show that we do together.

You are a YouTuber now.

Jason: Really?

Steve: Why won't you tell anybody about this? It's like it's embarrassing. It's like, you decided you wanna be a YouTuber. Right. You forced yourself onto my channel, my show, and now you don't wanna tell anybody about it.

Jason: That's funny.

Steve: It's interesting to me.

Jason: Well, social media changed my life for the better just because of the connecting part, but I recommend anyone who's gonna be an entrepreneur, you gotta use social media to your advantage.

Steve: You've got to. Absolutely got to. What freedom does real estate afford you?

Jason: Well, I could get up when I want and do whatever I want Mhmm. And talk to whoever I want. Nobody tells me what to do Yeah. Which is great. I just hopped on a plane today.

I hung out and hang out with you. I was pumped about it. Yeah. That's with my family, that's the best part.

Steve: And then, what is your why?

Jason: I wanna be really successful because I think, you know, my I I've always been a little money driven, not too crazy, but the with more money you have, more opportunity Mhmm. That that you could have and the more opportunity you can to help people. Yeah. As cliche as that sounds, that's that's what it's all about.

Steve: But it sounds like you really enjoy helping people.

Jason: I do. Yeah. Especially younger. I love mentoring younger kids. And now I'm at a point where those younger kids are now adults.

Mhmm. And I have a great relationships with those kids Mhmm. That are now 25, 26 that are mature adults now. And we go out, have dinner, and we talk business, and that's

Steve: Why does that drive you?

Jason: I just think it's cool because they come back and they wanna hang out with their former coach. Right. And they see that what I'm doing, and they might have an interest in it. Mhmm. And it means a lot that, that they saw what I'm doing.

They see that I work hard, and they wanna do they will kinda wanna follow the step.

Steve: But there's gotta be something more to that. Right? I mean because I it's not that I don't believe you. Right? Absolutely believe you.

It's and I think I'm wondering, is there any part here where, like, you went down a path that you found you thought was the wrong path? Or do you think maybe you saw something with

Jason: No. I just, I always I always related my whole life to sports. Mhmm. I always had sports in my life. That was, like, my thing.

So I when I coach, I'm always available to those kids, and I'm always available to mentor them. And I wanna give them a good experience.

Steve: Right.

Jason: So when they go out and do what they do, they go to college, and then they come back and they wanna hey. I wanna like, one of my two of my kids, they went to MIT. Mhmm. And they they're working on my YouTube stuff now. Yeah.

Steve: Awesome.

Jason: The two five the two smartest kids working on my YouTube. But I'm like, these kids wanna hang out with me, work with me Right. All day. That feels awesome. And I enjoy being with them.

Like, we've gone through a lot together over the years. You know, when you coach somebody and you really see them mature and help them, I don't know. It's a big thing in my life.

Steve: Yeah. Well, I'm really digging deep into this. So Okay. I fortunately, you know, I I Gary Harper was in town. We had dinner last night.

Right? He's a business coach of mine. And we were talking and, like, for him, he really struggled. Right? We were he he he shared some vulnerable stories last night that I won't share because he hasn't shared with him publicly yet.

But, I mean, he had a really hard life because he was thrown out, I wanna say in ninth grade. He was thrown out of his house, right, in ninth grade. And so he until he became who he is, like, there were a lot of years of suffering, and he was so broke that he couldn't even afford, you know, meals, right, on some days. And so for him, it's so important to him to give back to the youth because he was a very troubled youth.

Jason: Yeah.

Steve: Right? Like, he would he always got into trouble. Right? Like I said, kicked out,

Jason: you

Steve: know, in ninth grade. And so he wants to be the father figure, to to help the kids so they don't go down the path that he went. Right.

Jason: Yeah. My story doesn't doesn't relate. I just have, like I love I have a real passion for coaching Mhmm. Lacrosse. I love it.

Now it's like I have to pick business a little bit more than coaching lacrosse. Yeah. But I tell people I I share my story with a lot of other youth lacrosse coaches Mhmm. That are 21, 22. I'm like, if you just follow the same model I did, you are way ahead because you have the biggest thing with real estate is networking.

Steve: Right.

Jason: And if you're a real estate agent, you need network to sell houses. So you could go do this anywhere.

Steve: I'm wondering how much of that has, translated. You telling other lacrosse coaches to repeat what you've done.

Jason: I'm in the process of maybe starting another program. So for lacrosse coaches, because I think if you just, like, what I just said what to do, it will work. It works because every parent wants to help the person that's helping their kid.

Steve: Yeah.

Jason: It's no secret.

Steve: Right.

Jason: That's what happened to me when I was coaching. Every parent saw that I was at practice on time for nine months straight in the cold, in the heat, never complained, didn't make any money doing it. Mhmm. And they were like, wow. This guy has some good work ethic.

Like, I wanna help him. I wanna put him into position to get him further up down the line, and that's what happened.

Steve: That's awesome. Besides financial freedom, what else do you love about real estate?

Jason: The the hanging out with other investors is the best. And I'll use my big house for example. I hate construction. I was scared crap of it, but I met somebody who's really good at it. Mhmm.

And I wanted to work with this guy so bad. His name's Tyler Hubbs. And he was just so busy, and I'm like, look. We we're gonna build the biggest Airbnb. I'm like, I'm gonna buy we're gonna buy, and you're gonna design and build it out.

And it, like he was like, okay. And we did it, and it exploded, and it worked. Mhmm. So that's the best part is I get to now partner with somebody who's a construction genius.

Steve: Yes.

Jason: We can do other things together down the line. But that's that's my favorite part by far.

Steve: When did this Airbnb get done?

Jason: Last year.

Steve: Last year.

Jason: Yeah.

Steve: I'm wondering if this is the same one.

Jason: Uh-oh.

Steve: Because he he was in our coaching program.

Jason: It's the same one. It's the same one? Same one. Yeah. We're fifty fifty partners on it.

Steve: That's awesome.

Jason: Yeah. Very cool. Yeah. So we built the two biggest ones in Henderson together.

Steve: That's phenomenal. Because, like, when he would do our coaching calls, he was always had something working in the background that's like

Jason: He is nuts. Like, he is, like, out of his mind. I would never recommend you do anything. Like, I don't know how he sleeps at night. Mhmm.

He's got so many projects going on, and his vision is just on another level Yeah. With construction.

Steve: But I had to move the laptop a couple times. Like, show me what you're working on back there. So He That's so cool.

Jason: He's a man of many hats for the construction side. He's a me he's just awesome.

Steve: Yeah. What is your biggest struggle right now?

Jason: Just trying to delegate to grow. Yeah. You know, it's it's very hard to take money and just say, look. I have to lose $3 a month to pay this person, but that person's gonna bring me back Right. More money.

That's very difficult.

Steve: How have you overcome that?

Jason: You gotta try it.

Steve: Mhmm.

Jason: You have to really just rip the band aid off and then try it.

Steve: So one thing that I learned, so this is not me saying this. This is my coach saying this to me. K. His words were something along the lines of, how much of a narcissist do you have to be to think that there's not someone out there that can do it better than you?

Jason: That is so good. I never I never heard that, and it's true. Yeah. It's so true. I think I'm the best in the world at everything, but I'm not, and I should hire somebody else that's better than me at it.

Yeah. But I'm cheap sometimes, and that's the biggest problem. Right. And I envy people who because there's a lot of people in this industry that get people to work for them for free. Mhmm.

Right? And they those people, like, they're rent they're like the Wolf of Wall Street. They come to the office and, like, we'll die for this guy. And I'm like, how do you do that? You know, it's just the culture they build in their business.

Steve: I would not be surprised if you get there sooner rather than later. I appreciate it. Yeah. With how much you care about helping other people, I wouldn't have be surprised.

Jason: What I'm hoping. You know, this year, I've already seen, like, people reaching out to me. They're like, hey. I wanna dive into the business. But my line is this, Steve.

If you wanna get in the business, go take the real estate test. That's like Ryan reading the book. Yeah. Go take the real estate test. Mhmm.

And I've only had one person complete the real estate test, and that was my assistant. She was the only one who did it.

Steve: You know, so you were talking about Pace earlier. Right? Mhmm. So Pace, Morbby, and I, for years, we run at 05:30 in the morning. K.

Right? We just meet at a park and run at 05:30 in the morning. We post about it on Instagram. Right?

Jason: Yeah. They come like Rocky.

Steve: You would you would hope. No? No. The cost to hang out with me and Pace was to run.

Jason: Right. If I didn't yeah.

Steve: But at 05:30 morning to run with us. No worries. Only a handful of people. Right? Like, one hand.

Okay. So yeah.

Jason: I'd be I'd be surprised. That's surprising to me, actually.

Steve: Right? Right. Because I was like, hey. Jason's running at 05:30 in the morning. I wanna learn more from Jason.

Guess what I'm doing? Right. I'm showing up at 05:30 in the morning. Right? I got my brand new running shoes.

I got these ridiculous outfit to go run, right, to make sure I don't look, you know, awful. Right? But I I I was consistently shocked. I kept expecting more people to just random people just just show up. They didn't.

I had people DM me. Hey. I wanna meet you guys there. They didn't.

Jason: Yeah. It's like you guys I always use the gem of the pool this time because it's so true. Nobody they're they're at the very tippy top of you know, they're right there at the edge of they dip the toe in, but they just fully won't dive in.

Steve: Yep. How do you measure success?

Jason: That's a really good question. Just trying to think of how I think once you get to a point where, obviously, you you start helping people where now you take a little off of what your driving focus is to help other people Mhmm. You have to be successful to do something like that because everybody else is just so focused on themselves.

Steve: So then what is your superpower?

Jason: I think I'm very good at making people feel comfortable. You know, I I people trust me, so they trust me to move them across the country, get settled in, and I'm really good at networking. That's my biggest superpower.

Steve: And how did you learn your greatest lesson?

Jason: My greatest lesson. I'll use a baseball analogy. Like like, you you're gonna strike out a lot along the way. Mhmm. So I'm not afraid to strike striking out.

It doesn't bother me. So I've had businesses that I started that didn't work, but at least I threw something at the wall to see if it would have stuck.

Steve: Yeah. And which failure did you learn the most from?

Jason: Which failure did I learn the most from? I think I'm gonna go back to, like, not, like, hiring more people. Like, I feel like I should have done that earlier, and that was a big mess for me Yeah. To help me grow.

Steve: Yeah. We're definitely gonna dig dig into that a little bit further.

Jason: K.

Steve: What book have you gifted more than any other?

Jason: Street Justice by Chuck Zito.

Steve: Street Justice?

Jason: Yeah. You ever read it?

Steve: I have not read that.

Jason: It's not a real estate book, but it's Sounds serious. Yeah. Chuck Zito was the president of the Hell's Angels.

Steve: Okay.

Jason: Okay? Motorcycle club.

Steve: Yeah. They were they were a rough

Jason: rough bunch. Star. So the the premise about this book was just leadership. That's what I took out of it. Mhmm.

Guy led hundreds and hundreds of grown men

Steve: Mhmm.

Jason: Into this journey of being in a motorcycle club. Yeah. And the businesses that came within, and he got to Hollywood. But I was like, how did this guy become so famous and popular? And it was through building this club.

Steve: So what were some of the leadership lessons you learned from it?

Jason: You know, you have to lead by example. You know? And he just took no shit from nobody. Mhmm. He's the toughest New Yorker ever to come out, they say.

So Yeah. One of them. Yeah.

Steve: A lot of tough guys in New York.

Jason: He's one of them. I got to meet him, and he's a scary guy.

Steve: I think you have to be

Jason: to be a leader of

Steve: a of a motorcycle. Yeah.

Jason: Look him up. He's awesome. Yeah.

Steve: So question from Facebook was I don't know if he said it before, but is he still buying short term or is he buying short term rental properties outside of Henderson?

Jason: Yes. I am. But right now, I'm only buying creative finance deals.

Steve: Got it. So So only if it's a creative finance deal. Alright. So, I want you to, think about a message you wanna leave all the listeners with while I make a couple of quick announcements. K.

Hey, guys. If you got value today, please like, subscribe, share, and comment. And then we do have our cash flow tactics event this coming Friday. So be sure to check that out. DM us the word webinar.

And we do have, Wren coming back into Phoenix, February. If you want to figure out how to get your salespeople to be inspired, to want to work hard, right, if you're feeling tired in any way at all, if you feel like you have to drag your salespeople, text leaders to 33777. See if it makes sense for you to come to our live event. And next week, we got William Dennis coming up from Miami, Florida. So be sure you check that out next week.

What are some thoughts you like to leave all the listeners with?

Jason: So I think when I I was really scared of the real estate industry. Like, even coming here and seeing your office with all these employees

Steve: You've already seen Brad's office.

Jason: What are

Steve: you talking about?

Jason: I saw Brad's office. Like, it doesn't you don't need all that, right, to be successful.

Steve: You don't Not at all.

Jason: I was just one person with an assistant for many years just buying rental properties. Yeah. My office is the size of this table, a cell phone, and a computer. Yeah. You know, you don't need to have all the glitz and glamour, the big office, the big over I hate overhead businesses where you have to make a certain amount, like, that scares me big time.

So that would be my best my best advice to these young entrepreneurs.

Steve: You don't need big overhead.

Jason: No. You don't need big overhead. You could just go and and do it with hard work and networking, saving up money, investing it slowly. I didn't do this overnight. It took me years.

And I'm gonna hopefully double it over the next seven years.

Steve: That's great, great advice. So, again, like like I said, I started in 2007. So when things got bad, I got to see who got hurt the most. Mhmm. And the people that got hurt the most were the ones with the biggest overhead.

Jason: Yeah. The big offices, the big cars.

Steve: The fancy view, the big class windows, class a space. Like, I am never doing that.

Jason: No. You don't need to do that.

Steve: Yep. Alright. So if someone wants to get ahold of you, what's the best way for them to

Jason: do that? Instagram. You know, on Instagram all day every day at j griggs real estate.

Steve: At j griggs real estate. Alright, guys. If you have value today, again, please share this episode right now. A rising tide does lift all boats, and we'll see you guys later.

Speaker 2: Shout out to Steve Trane. Jump on the Steve Trane. We real estate disrupt us.