James May from Houston, Texas is the managing partner of J core partners, LLC. He has been investing in income producing real estate since 2005. He manages approximately $3.5 million in his person portfolio and has properties in Texas, Florida, Virginia, Georgia, Ohio, and Missouri.
James is currently in the foreign service, but has served in the Marine Corps prior to his joining the State Department.
In this interview, James discusses:
- Starting investing in Real Estate with little money as a member of the Marine Corps
- Growing his portfolio to 13 single family homes.
- Leveraging a TSP loan to build his portfolio.
- His multifamily syndication projects with J core partners, LLC.
…and much more!
You can learn more about James on his company’s website: www.jcoreinvestments.com
Music: “Higher Up” by Shane Ivers
Read the interview here:
Tanya: Welcome to the embassy wealth podcast. We are here this morning with James May. Joining us from Houston, Texas. James is the managing partner of J core partners, LLC. And he’s been investing in income, producing real estate since 2005. He manages approximately $3.5 million in his personal portfolio and has properties in Texas, Florida, Virginia, Georgia, Ohio and Missouri. He’s got a long government career of over 25 years serving in the Marine Corps and is currently in the foreign service. Welcome to the show, James
James: Thank you, Tanya and Josh.
Tanya: We’re glad you’re here. So why don’t you start off with telling us a little bit about how you got into real estate investing? I mean, 2005, that’s been a while. I mean, how did it start for you?
James: Yeah, so I kinda just fell into it. Uh, you know, I, I was in the Marine Corps, never really had a ton of money, so never really thought much about it. And then I joined the foreign service and I was in my second tour in Tel Aviv. And my mom just kind of mentioned to me, Hey, there’s a development down the street.
James: You know, why don’t, why don’t you. Buy some property, you know, I didn’t know anything about real estate, nothing. So I just kinda called these people up. And it was a, it was kind of a new construction development where you, you know, you, you paid up front, you kind of solve for plan. And then they S they started to build it.
James: So I bought into that and. You know, that was kind of the beginning. It was a townhouse in Frisco, Texas. I still own that property. And, um, hard to believe that I’ve used that property as a springboard onto other properties because I’ve leveraged it several times just because of the equity that’s come out of it.
James: And you know, I’ve never even stood, stood, uh, you know, walked through the property, I guess I’ll say. And here I am today and I’d gone from that to, uh, 13 single family homes. Excuse me. Several LP deals to doing a general partner deal in Waco, Texas. So that’s kind of in a nutshell.
Tanya: Yeah. A lot of people, they just get one?
Tanya: house and that’s kind of it. And they’re done right. I mean, what, what inspired you to keep going?
James: Well, I guess also, uh, being in the foreign service, you know, at the time I was single. So I felt like I had a ton of disposable income and didn’t really know what to do with it, you know, living overseas and everything like that. So, you know, you’re not paying for your housing and stuff like that. So I bought the property and Frisco, like I said, didn’t know anything about it.
James: Uh, you know, didn’t know interest rate didn’t know what a mortgage was. I didn’t know how to even evaluate it. You know, luckily I hired a good property manager still with them today, but, um, and then just kind of, you know, I figured just as long as I was breaking even, or, or even paying a little out of pocket, I was doing good on the equity.
James: So then about a year later I bought another property and actually. North of Frisco, kind of to the right it’s called an Allen Texas. Um, and that time around, I kind of had a better idea of what I wanted, but I was still learning. Um, and then just, just kind of started doing that every year. I’d buy one property, you know, I’d save up enough for the down payment.
James: I would also use the TSP loan leverage that, uh, to use as a down payment. I was just kind of buying one at a time every year, a single family home. And every time I bought it, Kinda got a little bit better at it, but still wasn’t really making that much money. And, you know, my goal was to at least kind of, you know, the break even, or make a hundred bucks a month off each property.
James: Um, you know, and then this was before the bigger pockets and all the podcasts. So I kind of was figuring it out on my own. And then, you know, finally bigger pockets came out and started watching them and learning from them. And that’s really been the best. The community of real estate and just educating myself and trying to get better as I go.
James: So that’s kinda, you know, it,
Tanya: James. Can I ask you a question? Because you know, a lot of people, uh, you know, you said you started with the one townhouse and it was essentially breaking even. And a lot of people, they look at that and they say, well, I don’t really want to get started because it’s not making me any money at the beginning.
Tanya: Right. I mean, what would you say to those.
James: um, I would say definitely start. You know, it’s always good time to start, but the biggest thing is you’re building equity. That one thing I’ve learned too about real estate compared to stock markets and other stuff is you actually control the property. You control the investment, uh, and then the tax benefits compared to anything else.
James: So I really recommend real estate as an investment.
Tanya: People have always asked me the same question and I’ve used the TSP loan several times. Um, we, you know, with great success because you’re right, James, I mean, you do need to come up with a significant down payment most of the time when you’re purchasing, especially investment property.
Tanya: Right? So, because they’re not banks, they’re not taking 5% down on an investment price. And I’ve always paid it back. Right. Um, I’ve done HELOCs so, yeah, I’m definitely in your boat in terms of using the TSP to, you know, forward your investment strategy for sure.
James: Yeah. And th the difference with using the TSP compared to just leaving it in there is, you know, like I said earlier, you’re actually building something else. You’re, you’re using that money to leverage something else. And then as soon as you paid it back, you know, you can keep recycling that money. So, you know, compared to just leaving it in the TSP and hoping for the best, when you’re 60, 65, that’s something I’m not poor really, but that.
Tanya: Exactly. So, so you started with this townhouse and then you said you were buying, you know, one at a time, each time that you had money. At what point did it start to accelerate?
James: Um, I think so I did, I had five or maybe six already, and then I try to do a flip with my brother and the flip actually kind of didn’t go very well. And at this time, Almost 300,000 in that, in that, uh, house. Um, so what I basically did is I did a commercial loan where I refinanced all that money out and then bought four more properties, uh, in Missouri doing that.
James: And that’s kind of where once I figured out commercial loans and you know, that you can really leverage money is when it kind of accelerated.
Tanya: Can you talk a little bit more about that, um, commercial loans, because did you get that on your residential places? I mean, why would someone do that? I think when people. Think about commercial loans, they’re always like, oh, it’s, you know, the amortization is shorter and the interest rates are higher. And why would I do that?
Tanya: If I haven’t maxed out my 10 residential loans?
James: Well, you know, surprisingly, you know, banks are open to any kind of negotiation. So you say that, you know, amortization might be shorter, but I actually did a 30 year mortgage on six combined properties at one time. Refinancing cash out. So I actually pulled $110,000 out at the same time. So the bank was open to all of it.
James: Yeah. I will agree that the interest rate was a little higher, but once you crunch the numbers, you know, it’s kind of as cost of doing business and I’m, you know, now I have six properties under one commercial loan, you know, making a ton of money. So, um, you know, it just, you really guys gotta do your research and talk to different banks.
James: You know, it’s not your traditional bank probably won’t do a loan like that, but there are a lot of lenders out there that.
Tanya: Yeah. How did you find that?
James: Um, I’m just on a ton of different newsletters and, uh, you know, people actually reach out to me all the time, you know, lenders and stuff with advertisements and you just kind of talk to them and get to know what they want to do, and you tell them what you want to do. And, uh, just kind of figure it out as you go.
James: And that’s what I was at when I was in this flip. I had all that money in that, in that, uh, Then that flip, but I didn’t want to go pull it out as one refinance because that’s the other reason I did. This is each time you refinance or buy a house individually, it’s a close. So I wanted to do a refinance and buy four more properties at the same time under one close.
James: So that was kind of my strategy too. Cause it saved me probably 60, 75,000 in closing costs. If I had had done it individually. So. Yeah. So that’s why I did it that way. Um, and it was actually an interesting one because I also had to find a special title company to do it because it was, uh, properties in three different cities, you know, and two different states.
James: So it was definitely an interesting close, but, uh, you know, just as long as you can find the title company and the bank to do it, anything’s possible.
Tanya: Yeah.
Tanya: I’ve never heard of them doing it in different cities. That’s pretty amazing actually, that you found a bank that
James: Yes. So it was actually the first house Frisco, Texas that I told you about. I, I only owed like $40,000 in it. So I used that. I had the flip in San Antonio that had 30 K in it. And then I use those two houses as leverage and then bought four properties in Missouri. Uh, and that’s how I pulled that deal off.
James: So the reason I looked at Missouri was I was looking more at what I could get bang for my buck and you know, Missouri right now, the houses are going about a hundred. $50,000. So it’s definitely, uh, an up-and-coming market, but still cheap to get into the other thing too was I was because I was overseas at the time, you know, I was looking for turnkey property.
James: So I can, I found a turnkey provider that can actually give me four houses at one time. Cause that was the other thing too, that made the steel a little complicated is I needed all the houses to be able to close on the same day. So that’s kind of why I was looking at Missouri and, um, found, found the it’s called bridge turnkey and they were great.
James: And that’s how, uh, I ended up looking in Kansas city and those houses have been doing great also. And I would have never even have thought to look in that market, but you know, I’ve only been to Kansas once and that was after the fact to go look at the properties after I’d already bought them.
Tanya: Love it love
James: Yeah.
Tanya: think, you know, that’s definitely a strategy for people overseas. I mean, I think people have this idea that you need to see the property in person and they’re actually putting in people that never see it. I mean, I, I have a well had a house in South Carolina, same thing. I never saw it, bought it, sold.
Tanya: It never stepped foot in it. It is entirely possible.
James: Yeah. That’s most of my properties. Yeah.
Tanya: I mean, and I think, you know, for those people who were very nervous about doing something like that, I mean, how did you wrap your head around the fact that you didn’t go to see those properties?
James: Um, I think, well, first off, you know, I’ve owned a house that we’ve lived in in Virginia, actually it’s a rental property or two, but I’ve realized the difference between investing in. In real estate and living in real estate or living in your own house is you got to take the emotion out of it. It’s purely an investment.
James: And you just got to look at the numbers, feel comfortable in the market, you know, definitely have a good property manager. That’s person’s gonna make a break. Yeah. And just look at it from that point of view. You’re not looking at, oh, how does the kitchen look? How does this look? You’re looking at, okay, will this property.
James: Is this a good rental property and will I attract tenants? And you just go from there, you know, obviously you’re crunching the numbers to make sure the property works and it’s going to command the rent, you know?
James: Well, so what’s happened now is, uh, so I have 13 single family homes and I’ve just gotten to the point. Now they’re all over the United States. I found that now it’s almost a full-time job just to manage those properties. And that’s where I grew up. Learned that I’ve migrated over to multifamily. And I actually, like, multi-family a lot more, I’ve found that you can actually scale up quicker and you’re owning a pro you know, one property or, you know, several properties under one roof.
James: So that’s what I really liked. I found it’s actually, you know, if you’re on the limited partner side, actually a lot more passive income, so you’re still in real estate. You’re still getting all the tax benefits. Um, you know, you’re still getting the quarterly or monthly check. Um, but you’re not as fully engaged, so that’s kind of where I’m at right now.
James: It’s multifamily. So I’m actually gonna, you know, for the first time in my life, I’m trying to offload one of my single family homes. I’ve never sold a property before, so this will be interesting. And I’m going to, I’m gonna take all the, so it’s about a hundred K of equity out of that house, and I’m gonna put it into over to multifamily.
James: So I’m just scaling up on the multifamily side.
James: I would go either way. So, um, I’ve done both. So I’m also in a joint venture. So a joint ventures where I have three other partners and we bought a small multifamily, uh, at 16 units, uh, and clean Texas, but I’d also move over to the multifamily big deals. So we also just closed on 172 unit in Waco, Texas. So I’m open to either one, but the point is.
James: What I’ve learned with, uh, compared to single family compared to multi-family is when my single family property goes vacant. That’s a hundred percent of my income gone compared to multifamily, say my 16 unit two properties go vacant. I’m still pulling in revenue. So that’s the big thing I’ve noticed. And it’s also a lot easier to manage these bigger properties.
James: Believe it or not.
James: Yeah. Well, like I said though, so I guess, you know, pre COVID I had started to look into multifamily and believe it or not didn’t know anything about it. Back in 2019, I was going to these conferences of multifamily. You know, I would just go take a week of leave or something and fly back to the United States just to do a conference.
James: And those things are eye opening. I really recommend that people really into real estate to go to a real estate conference. So I was going to multifamily conferences and I just started to listen to people. You know, I thought I was a big shot with 13 properties, and I started hearing these people. I was like, holy smokes.
James: So. And then, and then they were telling me like what they had to do to do it. And I was like, well, I’m kind of already doing that. So what I did first was I started investing in limited partner deals to kind of learn what’s going on, you know, so I was doing a hundred K here, 50 K there, and these limited partner deals.
James: Um, and what the limited partner side is, I was telling you earlier, it’s just, you’re just a little. Silent investor, and you’re just putting money into it. You’re getting equity in the deal and you’re also getting a payout every month. So, but the general partners are, the sponsors are the ones actually managing the property.
James: But the point is I was kind of learning how. So evaluating the property, you know, what market they’re looking at, what they’re doing. And I was kind of drawn to what’s called value add multi-family. So what you’re doing is you’re kind of trying to find a property that’s, you know, in, in a, you know, a good market, obviously, but, uh, you know, you look at the comparables, it’s either not commanding the same amount of rent, uh, Poorly managed or something.
James: And what you want to do is write off the first year or so is forced appreciation, um, and get those rents up and the costs down. And then from there, you know, you’re just, you’re trying to prove the property, I guess, is what I’m saying. And then you have more equity in the deal. So I’ve done four of those.
James: And then finally I was like, well, I joined up with, uh, three other guys. Uh, they’re all also prior military and we started our own company and started looking for properties. We also, because we were networking through all these conferences also met a really good sponsors and mentors. So they’ve kind of helped us along the way.
James: And like I said, we just did this one deal, uh, in Waco, Texas, 172 units.
Tanya: So there’s a lot to unpack there. Um, I think for listeners of this show, many of whom actually have not invested in a multifamily syndication. Could you explain a little bit about, like, where do people find these deals? Because when I first learned about, uh, syndication, I was like, these aren’t. Advertised right to the general public for, for all kinds of reasons.
Tanya: Right. Normally, um, dealing with the securities and exchange commission rules, but, um, how would people go about finding these kinds of investments? Um, maybe you can talk a little bit about, you know, the accredited investor status versus sophisticated investor. And I mean, cause initially most people getting into these are just.
Tanya: They’re going to be wanting to be limited partners, right. They’re going to invest first. And I think getting to like general partnership or sponsorship is probably not what most people are going to be doing, but I think it’s interesting to have an explanation of how the pieces all come together.
James: Okay. So yeah, first off, it’s, it’s kind of hard to find about because, so we do, what’s called 5 0 6 BS under the sec. So there’s two different kind of ways. Usually you structure a multifamily deal and with the 5 0 6 B it’s an we can accept non-accredited investors. So what that means though, is the sec says.
James: Market that deal. So the only way I can, uh, allow somebody in that deal is first have a one-on-one conversation with them upfront. I can’t go on Facebook and, you know, be publicizing. Hey, I got a deal. Do you want to invest? I can only, uh, let you know on it. One-on-one so that’s kind of the. Uh, 5 0 6 C though is a different one.
James: Usually those are the big syndicators, the big deals, uh, you know, you got the Ash cross and some other big ones out there. Uh, but those can only take, uh, accredited investors, but they can market. So that’s kind of the difference in the two.
James: There’s two ways. There’s two ways a, the sec looks at it one way is you’re you’re you have over a million dollars of wealth, not including your primary residence or the second one is, uh, I believe if you’re single, it’s making over 200 K a year, or if you’re married, I believe it’s over 300 K so don’t hold me on those numbers, but there is a certain limit to you have to qualify to be an accredited by.
Tanya: And I’ve always had kind of an issue with that because I feel like people who are already doing really well right. Have access to these types of deals. Whereas somebody who, you know, maybe under the threat. I may not have any idea about it or can’t invest. Right. So, I think it’s interesting that, you know, you mentioned the 5 0 6 B and non-accredited investors can invest in these types of securities, right.
Tanya: In syndication deals. Do you find that, um, when you’re offering these deals to non-accredited investors, do you find them. Are or are not accredited. And the reason I ask is because it seems to me there a so few multifamily syndication deals right now, generally speaking and B um, those that are on offer are mostly for the accredited investor.
Tanya: So I’m curious if you have thoughts about that.
James: So, I guess, you know, when I’m speaking to a lot of people and that was another thing I’ll actually step back is I didn’t even know what accredited and non-accredited investor was. Two and a half years ago. So that was another eye-opening for me. But you know, a lot of people don’t even know about multifamily or this accreditation thing.
James: So, you know, that’s one thing we kind of do with our company is it’s a lot of education. Bringing value to the investor and just letting them, you know, ask anything, you know, that’s one thing I like about the real estate community is it’s, you know, everyone’s so helpful and wants to educate. So that’s one thing we’re doing just with the multifamily.
James: Just kind of point people in the right direction, giving them ideas, explaining how different it is compared to single family, uh, investing, you know, but multifamily. So a lot of people at first are kind of little hands off because. They don’t understand that, you know, that they, they might be a silent partner, but still making money.
James: So people sometimes think it might be, you know, too good to be true, but you know, it’s, it’s regulated by the sec and you know, it’s, it’s a great investment.
Tanya: And what kind of numbers are we talking about for people who are just hearing about this? What kind of returns do you think people should expect for a multifamily syndication?
James: Uh, well, I mean, every deal I’ll tell you is, is, uh, structured different. Uh, the other thing too, to be aware of is they’re also structured on timeframe, so it really needs, it depends on your timeframe and what you’re looking for. So like the deal we just did is it actually tenure hold, um, because we’re also, we like to be buying hold people.
James: So, uh, it’s a ten-year hold, um, kind of getting the details and feel free to stop me if it’s. Hit anything that you don’t understand on the multifamily thing. But the first thing is, uh, is what we call an 8% preferred return that we give to our investors. Um, so that’s on the top of the investment. And then after that, on the equity side is we did it.
James: What’s called an 80 20 split. So the investors get 80% of the equity. And then after all of that, the, uh, general partners get the 20. So it’s kind of what we call like a capital stack. So the first thing that gets paid out on this property will obviously be the operations and then the, the, the debt service back to the bank, and then the 8% preferred return to the investors.
James: And then after all that’s paid out, then it’s the 20, 80 split on the. So, but with the preferred return though is say hypothetically, the first year is terrible. That 8% preferred return is accumulating over the course of the deal until you get paid out first. So the point of that, and the reason you see a lot of those structures like that is it tells the investors that, uh, they’re the first ones to get paid out.
James: And it also gives incentive to the general partners because they need to make this property perform before. Uh, paid out. So that’s kind of the typical thing you’ll see. But you know, I’ve seen other ones where there’s, you know, 70, 30 split, no preferred return three years. Believe it or not, there’s people out there to do any three-year multifamily five years.
James: So it really depends on what you’re looking for.
James: Um, well, first off, uh, the multifamily, uh, Kind of community is smaller than you think on the sponsor side. So you can actually bet the, the, the team, you know, first off you just got to talk with them and see how they, you know, what their goals are, what market they’re looking at, you know, are they a value add or the equity play and, um, buyers, you know, watch.
James: You know, whenever they’re presenting to the deal, watch their, their podcasts. However, they present the deal to the investors, you know, look at the documentation, stuff like that, you know, but once you’ve kind of educated yourself, you kinda can tell, you know, you don’t want to, you know, if you don’t feel comfortable with the sponsor, then don’t go with them.
James: But, uh, you know, there’s definitely a lot out there. You can look and do some research.
Tanya: And for these steals, a lot of them there’s a minimum investment. Right. Can you talk a little bit more about that? So let’s say somebody who’s new to multifamily syndication and they say, Hey, I want to invest $5,000.
James: Well, and that’s, that’s kind of the problem you run into with the, with the 5 0 6 B. So the problem with the 5 0 6 B. Uh, syndication is we can only take 35 at non-accredited investors. So like on this last deal, we had to do a $4 million raise. So if I’m letting non-accredited investors only invest 20,000 or 5,000, I’ll never get to that goal.
James: So usually what you see with most syndications is a $50,000 investment and it’s more just. The amount of capital raised now, I guess I even on the non-accredited, I mean, on the credit investors, I’ve never seen anything under 50 K uh, on this deal, though, what I will say is, uh, we reached our capital raise that we actually at the end, opened it up to 25,000.
James: So it just really depends. And once again, every deal is different, so it really depends on the sponsor. Um, so that’s what we did after we had met. We needed, uh, and that we were comfortable that we could still be under the 35 non-accredited investors. We did open it up to a lower investment amount.
James: Yeah. So I kind of fell into a group of partners. First off, we were all our, we were already all looking at multifamily and so, and then come to find out, uh, you know, there’s this private face group I’m on with multifamily. And, um, I reached out, I was just like, Hey, I’m looking in the Texas market. And then, uh, uh, no one of my partners reached out and he, he said, Hey, I’m in Coleen, Texas.
James: So we started talking and then. Ironically, he was a air force, I’m sorry, an army captain. And then he had already partnered up with an air force captain. So it was kind of a really good fit because I was prior Marine Corps, you know, they were military were already multifamily. And then after the fact we had another guy named Tom groves come along and he, he was retired Navy, but then was also an ops and ops chief at one of the embassies.
James: So it kind of really fit together. So once we started talking. There was a, you know, I downloaded this like partner question and we spent probably two hours just going through it and trying to hear what everyone would say to these questions. Um, and then we just been working together for over the last year and a half.
James: So we kind of learned how to leverage each other’s skills. Uh, like miles is our kind of numbers, guy underwriting. Uh, NOLA and I are kind of the ones out there talking to, you know, brokers and other investors and Tom kind of, you know, managing the property management and stuff like that. So what we try to do is just kind of learn from each other and use each other’s skills.
James: Um, it’s definitely different. I’ll tell you that, um, I’m kind of a control freak, so I’ve had to learn to let go a little bit, but it works because you can’t be everywhere all the time. You have to really depend on your part.
Tanya: I, I totally relate to the control freak thing, just saying so,
James: Yeah.
Tanya: you and it, you know, and this is not small money, right? I mean, this is, this is a major project, so there’s definitely a level of trust that has to happen. Between the partners that are working on it. And also to, you know, I mean, I like where Josh’s question is coming from, because a lot of times when you work with people, you don’t really know necessarily what those people’s strengths are until you do work with them.
Tanya: Right. So did you guys hammer out some kind of agreement? Um, And if so, did you, how did that process work? I mean, did you sit down with an attorney? Because a lot of times I find that, you know, attorneys are very good at thinking of all the terrible ways. Things can go wrong before those things happen.
Tanya: Right. And if you have those discussions and your partnership, I mean, personally, I think it’s much better to have those discussions prior and get it down on paper, just in case, you know, kind of the worst case scenario.
James: Yeah, we actually own several different companies. So we’d done a joint ventures together, and then we had to own several companies, uh, on this Gemini property too. So we definitely have different lawyers. Uh, we each have our own. Uh, I recommend everyone on that. If you starting to get really into real estate, and then on this deal, we had to have a syndication lawyer to walk us through all of that, to make sure we’re meeting the sec regulations.
James: And then we also had a real estate lawyer. So, you know, we. We definitely taken a lot of bison from legal am. I really recommend anybody before they go into a partnership to, to listen to the lawyers because there’s things like you just said that I never even thought about that you really need to have a serious conversation with your partners on.
James: Um, but you know, we’re just, we’re real open, uh, and just learning as we go, but we all want to exceed. So, um, I think we all have the same mindset. So that’s a big thing you want with your partners is trust and the same mindset and go.
James: Yeah. I mean that that’s that’s our goal is to continue. These, these deals are pretty hard to do so it takes a hard to find. So that’s a big thing, but this one took about four months from start to finish. So our goal is to maybe try to do three or four of these a year. Um, but the other thing too, It’s kind of interesting now that we took this big deal down, we actually have brokers reaching out to us.
James: Like we’re the new kids on the block and like, oh, you know, th that they are taking us seriously. They cause they know we actually will close
Tanya: you can close. yeah,
James: yeah, we’ll close a big deal like that. So I’m getting a lot of off-market deals. Uh, I had told the brokers and fortunately though, we’re still not in our, uh, Acquisition mode yet.
James: We’re still trying to ensure Gemini is, is operating correctly before we, but we are keeping it on the back burner. But like I said, yeah, we, we want to continue to do this three or four deals a year and make this a full-time job.
Tanya: Wow. And what happens to the 13 single family? You mentioned you were selling one. So are you eventually going to sell that off and upgrade to multifamily? Are you going to keep them as is.
James: I think I’m going to slowly offload those and recapitalize that money. Um, a few of them like the Missouri ones is all, I’m only a few years in, so I might let the equity buildup a little bit more. Um, but you know, like the one I’m selling in Garland, Texas, the market’s just on fire. And I couldn’t believe what the realtor told me I could sell it for.
James: So I was like, well, uh, let’s give it a shot. Um, the other ones, some of them, I just refinanced because the mortgage rates are amazing and pulled equity out of them. So I’ll probably hold onto a few of those. So it really depends one, you know, each one’s individually I’ll decide, you know, either when the lease comes up or how the market’s doing.
James: Well, there’s a, there’s a ton of material out there. Um, Bigger pockets. I don’t really use much anymore on, because I don’t find that hasn’t really a lot of the multifamily that I’m looking for, but there’s a ton of podcasts on multifamily. You know, you got the big grant card down, uh, Michael Blanca, rod cliff.
James: So I listened to a lot of them. There’s, you know, once you kind of, like I said, you get into that community. There’s a lot of people out there that, uh, Uh, either have written books or have podcasts. And that’s where, you know, and on the other hand, I’ve gotten to the point where I know some of these people now, so, you know, you pick up the phone and you can actually talk to them.
James: So that’s kinda how we’ve gone. Uh, our sponsors also been great in helping out a lot, uh, pointing us in the right direction. And then also. You know, they, he has a network of people. So, you know, now we’re in a mastermind where you’re talking to other people and you know, you’re leveraging their knowledge too.
James: So like, like I said, it’s just a small community.
Tanya: Ad for people who are interested that, um, Joe Fairless does a ton of multifamily syndication, and he’s got a really good book best ever apartment syndication guide or something like that. It’s pretty, it’s pretty large, but it’s very comprehensive. Um, for those that are looking for an additional resource.
James: Yeah. I’ve actually read that book and I’ve actually invested with Joe Fairless in two deals under Ashcroft.
Tanya: Ashcroft’s got some of the better deals going.
James: yeah. Well, I like, I like Joe Fairless cause he’s from Dallas and, uh, yeah. And, uh, and yeah, new invest in the Texas market. So yeah.
James: Well, I just like them because, you know, you’re, you’re talking to other like-minded people. I mean, that’s a big thing about it and you’re learning from, from their experiences and, you know, you want to have the same mindset with them, but you’re also learning that other options are possible. You know, like you hear that they pulled off this deal and how they did it.
James: And you know, you’re like, wow, okay. Now I understand. You know, so you can use their knowledge and leverage that to, to pull off your own deal. And the biggest thing it’s I go back to mindset, you know, I want to be around like many people that are trying to have the same, you know, I guess crazy goals as may and, and seeing how they’re pulling it off.
James: And we all work together. Um, I keep going back to networking. Networking is a big one. You know, you start talking to other people and, you know, they help you out. Uh, they might know a good lender or a good property manager. You know, they might come across a broker that has an off-market deal, but they’re not interested right now.
James: They might not be an acquisition mode and they, they pass it onto you. So that’s kind of the whole point of the masterclass for the masterminds, I guess. And you know, you’re just, you’re just talking once a week. Uh, you know, it depends on how they structure it, but, uh, you know, it’s just, like I said, networking is a big thing about.
Tanya: For those people that are overseas. How do you suggest that they network with people, Um, in the areas that they want to invest in? Like, for example, you mentioned that you flew to multifamily conferences, which I love by the way, because I would totally do the same thing and have, um, but are there other ways that people can network, like being in, I don’t know, Zimbabwe or, you know, some other place that they can meet people that are, um, like-minded people doing this.
James: Um, you know, the big one, I would leverage Facebook. Facebook has a lot of private groups. Um, I’m on probably 20 different groups. Uh, you know, first off just multifamily investing all the way down to Dallas Fort worth. Multi-family investing. So just kind of look at those groups and that kind of grows from there.
James: You know, you just kind of start listening to what people are posting and you build from there. I will say though, the time zone does kill me. Cause, uh, you know, I’m usually getting up in the middle of the night to jump on a zoom call or something, but you know, guess the cost of doing business when, when you’re overseas.
James: But yeah, so I do agree that time zone does make it a little hard, but, uh, I think Facebook is probably the best bet. Um, and then if you, you know, you, you just want to learn too. I really, you know, the podcast, uh, education out there and that’s a great opportunity right there.
Tanya: And connect with our investors that we’re interviewing like James.
James: Yeah. I mean, I definitely love to work out and walk. The dog is a big one. Uh, the other one is I have a 13 year old son, so I’ve gotten him into scuba diving. Uh, you know, we’re, we’re, uh, currently stationed in Israel. So we go down to the red sea in a lot and do a lot of diving. I really enjoy that. Yeah.
James: Yeah, hopefully with COVID. Uh, my, my mother bought my son a ticket down to Egypt, so we’re going to do a liveaboard next month, uh, really all depending on how COVID is, but yeah, we love to do a lot of scuba diving, uh, looking forward to when we moved to Florida, we’ll do a lot more scuba diving there. Uh, so yeah.
James: Um, the first thing I would tell them, one thing I’ve always tried to be is debt-free. So the first thing is, and when I say debt-free, I don’t, I don’t count my real estate as debt because. That’s more of an asset, but you know, yeah, it’s good debt. It’s debt. That’s making you money, but you know, for paying off the credit cards, get all that other stuff off because then you’ll realize it kind of just accelerates from there when you don’t have any debt, you know, try to always just spend what you have at the time.
James: Uh, the other thing, I’d say, if you’re in the foreign service and you’re living overseas, you know, you really have an opportunity there you’re you got a lot of disposable income. You’re not paying for your housing, use that and leverage that money to invest it in United States. I really find it, you know, I’m always trying to educate people, like why aren’t you using your opportunity now to invest in money?
James: And so that. on it or are blowing it. So those are kind of the two things I would recommend is try to get out of debt and leverage the time you have overseas, uh, that, that disposable income to do something.
James: Yeah, thanks for having me. And if anybody ever has any questions, feel free to reach out to me. I’d love to talk about real estate and, uh, you know, just to point you in the right direction.