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- [00:00]
A
All right, welcome to the Real Estate Investing School podcast. Today's kind of a treat. We got a special guest. It's Jaden Connor, who's actually one of our coaches at the school, which is exciting. So I'm stoked to kind of dig into his story and what got him, you know, from knowing nothing about real estate all the way to coaching people and teaching them how to invest in real estate. So welcome, Jaden. How you doing, man?
- [00:31]
B
Doing awesome, man. Yeah, thanks. I appreciate it. I'm super excited to be here, so thanks for having me.
- [00:35]
A
Sweet, dude. Well, we're stoked also, so, yeah, maybe you could just tell us a little bit about yourself, kind of your background. Not necessarily real estate wise, but just, like, where you're from and whatnot. And then we can kind of go from there.
- [00:50]
B
Yeah. So I grew up in Cache Valley, up in Logan, and went up to. I graduated from Logan High School, went on a two year mission trip for my mission or for my church. Sorry, that was 2014 to 2016, and then I attended Utah State University from 2016 to 2020.
- [01:11]
A
So wait, how old are you?
- [01:12]
B
So I grad. I'm 26, 27.
- [01:16]
A
Dang, that is young. That's awesome. Okay, cool. Go on.
- [01:19]
B
Yep. So I graduated right in the middle of COVID Right when it. It was. It was the spring of 2020.
- [01:29]
A
Really?
- [01:30]
B
And yeah, so that was interesting in and of itself. But I got my real estate license in about 2017.
- [01:39]
A
So you actually got licensed as a real estate agent then?
- [01:42]
B
Yeah. Yep. So I'm a real estate agent, but I was always more interested on the investment side of things, for sure. And so, yeah, I don't know how much detail you want me to get into, but started working for a Wholesale Investment Group 2 and a half years ago, and it's just been awesome. So that's a little bit about me.
- [02:03]
A
Yeah. So that's cool. So let's dig into that a little bit. I want to know why you. Why you said you're more interested in the real estate investing side as opposed to just being an agent. And a lot of people, you know, when they don't know much about real estate, they don't know any difference. When I tell people, oh, I do real estate, they automatically just think I'm a real estate agent. But that's kind of the route you started on, but then also how you took that into wholesaling, which is, you know, different than being an agent. A lot of agents know nothing about wholesaling. So. So what got you interested in Investing in the first place. And why the agent route?
- [02:37]
B
Yeah, that's a great question. So there. You're right. There definitely is a difference. So I felt like getting my real estate license was a good way for me to just kind of get my feet wet and kind of gain the basic knowledge around real estate. But I quickly learned that. And there's no. This is no knock on real estate agents again. I am a real estate agent. However, I feel like as a real estate agent, it's easy to get bossed around by your clients. You're kind of at the mercy of them because if you need to go show them houses, you know, if you're representing a buyer, you need to conform to their schedule. So you're not really. You're kind of your own boss, but you're not really your own boss. And so I. I love being an investor because you're way more in control of the deal. And it's also way less emotional. It's just a numbers game, you know, do the numbers check off or not? And so I feel like it allows me to be way more in control of my schedule because it's up to me how many deals I do it's not up to. I'm not relying on anybody else's schedule. I mean, there's a little bit of that, obviously, but you're. Yeah, I just like the control of being on the investing side a lot more.
- [03:55]
A
Cool. That's awesome. So you knew going into getting your real estate license that you were using that as a stepping stone into and as a learning process into investing. Because a lot of guys I've seen, they'll be real estate agents for years, and then they're like, wait, why don't I, like, actually own houses? Like, why don't I do the investing side and the landlording side? And so instead of just being really a salesman, because that's what a real estate agent is like I said, you're just a salesman selling really expensive, awesome product, but it's like you're just a salesman as opposed to an investor. So it sounds like you knew that that was a step towards becoming an investor when you first got licensed. Is that right?
- [04:36]
B
Yeah. So I definitely got it with the intention to get into real estate investing. And I also. I mean, I'd recommend anyone to get their license. I mean, if you ever sell a property on the back end, you can save yourself 3%. If you have, you can. Like, I bought a house this last September for myself, and I just represented myself and didn't charge myself the 3% commission, I just put it towards the down payment. So there's a lot of really cool things that you can do. But yes, absolutely, I got it as a stepping stone to get into the investing side.
- [05:04]
A
What are the recurring fees for that? Because some people have thought about doing that, but then they can kind of get discouraged from people saying, oh, you got to like continued education and fees. Like what, what does that really look like? Are there ongoing expenses if you're not really using real estate agent license proactively and is there ongoing education or is it pretty, you know, minimal?
- [05:26]
B
Yeah, so that's definitely something to consider because a lot of people, they think, oh, I'm just going to go ahead and get my license because it's fairly easy. It's 120 hours of required coursework online. You can do it at your own pace. And then you have to pass two exams. But you're right, there's these fees that are associated with it on, they're called dues every year. And there's kind of two sides. So there's yearly dues which end up being around 1000-1500. No more than 1500 per year. About a thousand per year. And then there's also the MLS fees. And that's another plug. Why I love having my real estate license is because I have access to the mls, I can run comps on my own deals and that's $40 a month. So all in per year, I would plan on about $1,500. But my thought process behind that is I typically do a few retail transactions per year with friends and family in my sphere of influence, with zero effort on my part, just people reaching out to me. And even if you only do one deal per year, even if it's just for yourself like that, I mean, it'll pay itself off. So the idea is as long as you can do one deal per year, it's, I think it's worth it to get your license. And there's no reason why you shouldn't be able to do at least one deal per year. So that's my thought process behind it.
- [06:50]
A
No, that makes a lot of sense. I think that's cool. And you know, yeah, like I said, one deal is going to be at least, you know, the 1500 bucks. You're into it, so it'll cover itself, the education you get from doing it. Now, what about if you're licensed in multiple states? Is it 1500 or 1000 per state to do it? And do you have to take the test per state? To be licensed in multiple places or how does that work?
- [07:12]
B
Yes. So I'm only licensed in Utah, so I'm probably not the most qualified to answer this, but I do know that you do have to be licensed per state. And so if I were to go get licensed in Idaho or Arizona or a neighboring state to Utah, I know a lot of agents who do that. So it's fairly straightforward. You just have to pass the state exam. And then you would also have to pay their dues as well. So, yeah, I would imagine you'd probably just double those numbers to get, like, what your total dues would be.
- [07:43]
A
Awesome. Well, that sounds good. That's super cool. So maybe you could tell us a little bit. So you started out as an agent, and then you transitioned over to being working with a wholesale firm. How did that happen? Not transition, but I guess added to doing wholesaling. And maybe for those that aren't familiar, what is wholesaling? How's it different than just using an agent and what made you get into it?
- [08:09]
B
Yeah, so wholesaling is when you get a property under contract at a discount and you assign your contract to an end buyer at a higher price, and you make the difference. And the majority of the time, you don't even have to close on the property. So during your due diligence period, you assign your contract. There's. If you do it the right way, there's basically zero risk. It's a beautiful thing. So, yeah, if you get a property under contract at 300,000 and then you find a buyer for 330,000, the end buyer closes on it, and then you make the $30,000 difference as an assignment fee. So that's basically the gist of wholesaling. And the way that I got into wholesaling, it's kind of funny. I. So I did door to door sells for three years, sold DirecTV for two summers, and then I sold pest control for one summer.
- [09:06]
A
Okay.
- [09:07]
B
While selling pest control door to door in Atlanta, one of my buddies, he used to be that I was selling with, he used to be a lead manager for Jason Lewis, who is now my current boss. And I was just. My buddy knew that I was, like, super into real estate. And at the time I had my license and I was trying to get into the investing world, and he's like, dude, you gotta take. You gotta meet my boss. So when I got back from that summer, I took Jason out to lunch, and I was planning on just kind of picking his brain and getting to know what it is, like, what wholesaling is and how I could maybe, you know, maybe learn a few things from him. And that was right before my last semester up at Utah State University. And then it turned out my, at my last semester at Utah State University I had a really light load semester wise as far as school goes. And so I hit up Jason again and I let him know that I had a really light semester and that I was interested in working for him for free just to come learn from him. And so he offered me a lead manager role and he ended up paying me anyway. So I was a lead manager, did a lot of like cold calling, texting, and then when I graduated he ended up hiring me on full time and now I'm what's called a relationship manager. So my role is to generate deals through other investors and agents just by forming good relationships with them and helping them wholesale their properties and then also helping find buyers for our off market investment properties.
- [10:46]
A
That's super cool. So tell me like what's the benefit of working with like a team as opposed to just as a random like wholesaler on your own? Like how does that benefit you and your, your clients?
- [11:01]
B
Yeah, honestly that would. You know, one of the biggest things that I've learned from being surrounded by somebody like Jason, he owns two multimillion dollar companies. I, I am all about the power of proximity and how important that is. When you surround yourself around high level people that are doing a lot of deals, you're bound to also do deals. Like when you surround yourself around people that are successful and that are high level achievers, you will naturally also be one of them eventually. So I think to answer your question, the value of being part of a team is I've. The last two and a half years I've been able to learn so much more than if I would have been out on my own. If I would have started wholesaling on my own, I, I definitely wouldn't have had as many as much exposure to the amount of deals that we've had. So in the last two and a half years we've done over 300 wholesale properties and I've been intimately involved in all 300 of those transactions. And so I've been able to experience a lot of things that I in no way, shape or form would have been able to experience that quickly on my own. And so I think just surrounding yourself around a team and people that are doing lots of deals is key when you first get started. Because I mean, you don't need to reinvent the will. Go find a mentor, go Find somebody who's doing what you want to be doing and get close with them or offer to work for them for free or provide value in some way. And there's so much value in. In that.
- [12:49]
A
Yeah, that's super cool. I think there's a lot of benefit, like, say, of getting your having. If you can have a mentor like that that's actually on your side, you're on the same team, your, you know, incentives are aligned. You know, having someone to guide you and help you avoid some of the pitfalls and help motivate you, inspire you. Um, I think that's super huge.
- [13:08]
B
And, And. And also, like. Oh, sorry. Sorry to interrupt you. I was just gonna say if it's also nice to learn on somebody else's dime, like, it's not my own money, like, he's spending all this money in marketing, and I'm able to learn from all these potential deals. And I mean, ultimately, like, I'm not. I'll never put his money at risk. But also, like, it's just really nice to not have to learn on your own dollar. And it's. We end up losing money on deals, then that's okay because he's the one taking the risk, not me.
- [13:41]
A
Yeah. And he gets the bigger upside. Right. Because he takes the risk, you know, and so it's cool. It's interesting when we talk about real estate, it's like, oh, there's a lot of different avenues. You know, there's. There's real estate agents, there's wholesalers, there's investors. And it's like you're. You're all the above. You've kind of been able to experience all of it, which is pretty cool to have that. That understanding of the different ways. Because, you know, for some people coming into real estate, they might not have a ton of money, or maybe they do, or they don't have a lot of knowledge. And, you know, there's a route for everyone. Like you say with wholesaling, you don't, you know, to do it at scale and run a full business, it might take a lot of money. But for an individual, especially if they do what you do, where you team up with a group, you can come in with zero money, learn a lot about it, make some good money, start doing stuff on your own. Even cheaper than getting your real estate agent license because there's no renewals, there's no license fee at the. You know, but it's a good next step. So definitely a bunch of different ways and routes into it. So tell us, Jayden. Maybe you could tell us a little bit about your portfolio, like how many homes you've bought and sold, how many you own currently. And then I'd love to hear about some of your failures, or at least one big one or something where things just went wrong and it wasn't what you were hoping would happen. A lot of times we hear about all the successes, you know, and it's like, that's cool. But what I think what holds people back, honestly, is the fears. It's like, but what if this goes wrong? What if that goes wrong? So I'd love to talk about that because that can alleviate a lot of the, the unknowns and the stresses that stop people from moving forward. But, yeah, let's just start with your portfolio and then get into some of your failures.
- [15:24]
B
Yeah. So I'm very early on in my investing career, so currently I only own one property. It's two units. It's a. It's a duplicate duplex. So I live in the upstairs, rent out. I'm single, so I rent out two of the rooms to a couple buddies, and then I rent out the basement as well.
- [15:40]
A
Cool.
- [15:41]
B
So as of right now, that's what consists of my portfolio. I'm currently in buying mode. I. I'm hoping to pick up at least two more properties by December of this year. Currently analyzing deals every day, and I'm. I'm excited to pick up some more. Yeah.
- [16:01]
A
On the wholesaling, right. It sounds like you said you've done like, over, you know, hundreds. You've been involved in Hundreds and over 300 wholesaling deals, and that's kind of been your focus, it sounds like.
- [16:13]
B
Yeah, so I'm kind of. The last couple years, I've kind of been in a building capital phase because you have your active income and your passive income. And I've kind of been focused on the active income side these last couple years, and I'll still continue to focus on active income because in order to build up your portfolio, if you don't want to take 30 years, you got to have some money to invest in. Or you could, you know, you can use other people's money and partner up on deals as well. But yeah, so the last couple years I've mainly been focused on the active income side of things. And now I'm starting to transition to doing both the active and the passive income simultaneously. Yeah, so, yeah, that's exactly right.
- [16:54]
A
And yeah, having money helps you buy real estate. Like, you know, it's. There's so much, much focus on like, oh, zero Money down. Like you can be have no money, get into real estate. And that's true. And I think that they mentioned that because a lot of people want that easy barrier to entry. But I've found more and more tons of people that do have money, they just don't know exactly how to use it correctly. And it's like they put the folks in even earning more money, they could just do real estate a lot simpler, a lot easier, a lot cleaner and cheaper than having to use other people's money. So it's like just having a good active income source to build up your portfolio at the beginning I think is like a huge step that isn't vital, but if you have that situation where you can, it's like it can really, really help.
- [17:40]
B
Yeah, no, you nailed it on the head because you're right, it's definitely not vital. Anybody can get into real estate investing with no money down with $0 in their bank account. However, it is definitely a huge positive for sure. Have access to capital on your own. So. Yeah, I agree 100%.
- [17:57]
A
Cool.
- [17:59]
B
So, yeah, failure wise, you know, you mentioned fear and I don't really have like a specific. Again, I don't have like a huge portfolio. I've only done this. I've only purchased this one property for myself. Besides, I run all my deals through the wholesale company. Again, because I'm just trying to generate active income. However, I would say that my biggest failure was in the summer of 2020. So again, I graduated Utah State in the spring of 2020 and I was moving to. I was moving from Logan to Salt Lake county and I was planning on buying a property, but it was right when Covid was happening. And so I had tried to get some advice from a lot of people that I respected and was like, hey, like, what do you think? Should I still buy? Should I not? There's a lot of people that were really worried about what the market was going to do. And so I decided that I was just going to wait. And so I didn't, I didn't end up buying a property. And obviously, obviously there's no way to prevent that. Right, right. But what held me back was that fear. And, and it was going to be my first, you know, my own, my first property. So I let that fear creep in. I was, I, you know, analysis or paralysis by analysis. Like, I was kind of stuck in the learning phase and I, I wasn't taking the action that I should have.
- [19:31]
A
Yeah.
- [19:32]
B
But that, the reason why I say that's my biggest failure is because I Feel like, at least for me. And I would imagine it's the same for everyone else. Not everyone else, but the majority of people that get into real estate investing is they just let that fear creep in. They, you know, paralysis by analysis, they don't take action. But in hindsight I know that there's never a bad time to buy real estate. You know, as long as you're buying it the right way and as long as your, your tenants, if you're buying it for long term, buy and holds as long as your tenants can cover your debt service or your monthly payment, who cares if the market crashes? Especially because we're so young, right? Like if I, I don't think the marks market's going to crash, I'm very bullish on the market but even if there is a little bit of a dip, I don't care because I'm in it for the long run. It's not a get rich quick scheme for me. So going back, even if the market would have dipped, obviously hindsight's 20 20, I still would have bought because again, we're just so young and I could have, I still could have found a property where the income covered the debt service. So that's probably my biggest failure that I kind of kick, you know, kick myself in the butt for. But, and we'll all have those, so. So it's okay.
- [20:46]
A
Yeah, man, I like that you pointed that out because a lot of people like, oh, I had this failure, this or that, like, and your, your failure was the failure of inaction. Like the failure was that I didn't do something. And I think you're right, that's probably the most common failure in real estate is sitting on the sidelines. You know what I mean? And like you say when you are doing cash flow buy and hold real estate where you buy something, you plan on keeping a long term, just making money off of the cash flow. That's the safest route to go in real estate because even if the market shifts and they're like, hey, your $400,000 home's only worth 200,000 now it's like, cool. Well my tenant still has a year long contract to pay my mortgage and my mortgage is locked for 30 years. So whatever you say it's worth, it doesn't make any difference to me. Now if you're flipping a home and you go and buy it cash or hard money and put 100 grand into it and then turn around and sell it and now it's worth 200 grand, that can be a nightmare. For flippers or value add people. But for a simple cash flow buy and hold that's pretty safe. And what I tell my students is I've added to my deal calculator a cash flow margin. I'm like I want to have this cash flow margin where if I had a drop rents 10 or 20% I'm good because that's typically the most in rents go down. Even if the value of your home was cut in half, you're not going to cut rents in half. I've never seen that, I've never heard of that even you know, way before I was investing. You know you look back in 2008 and which was like this big, like oh my gosh, in real estate rents didn't even go down. I mean there was some markets where they went down a little bit but overall they, you know, they really didn't. And so anyway having a bit of a cash flow margin there that even if you did drop rents you're pretty freakin safe. So that like you say there doesn't need to be a bad time to do buy and hold as long as you can find way to not lose that asset. But it's, it's when you're upside down and you're buying and flipping and you know I got scared off a lot from people you know in 2008 they're like oh real estate's a bad idea. Like you're gonna lose money. Because I didn't buy my first place until 2010, 2011. Well maybe it was 09. Actually you know it was, it was 09 like right after I didn't even know there was a real estate collapse. Like I bought my first place in 09 right after all that. And people were just saying how. But real estate's bad. But the people who were bad was they were over leveraged, right? You know they're, they're buying homes and they're, they're losing $1,000 a month but they know it's going to go up. Things were going up so fast back then it go up 100 grand by the end of the year they're like yeah, I'll lose 12 grand losing a thousand bucks a month. If it's going to go up 100 grand that's a no brainer until it doesn't right? Because they didn't have good cash flow margins, they didn't have good you know, safe secure situations like that. So when the market shifted they got burned. But what you're talking about, even if we do have another drop it really won't be that big of an issue, especially if you just hold on and then it comes back up because everything in 2008 is worth more than it was then, even before 2008, you know, so we've come full circle.
- [24:07]
B
Exactly. And I think that's the beautiful thing about real estate is everybody has a different risk tolerance. But you can tailor your investing strategy to what you're okay with risk wise. And so for me, like, I want to have a little bit of reserves. I want to be able to make sure I can cover my debt service on my properties, but I'm also in it for the long term. Like I don't care if the market market crashes. But yeah, if I was doing flips, that'd be a different story in this market. I'd want, I'd want to limit my market exposure. I'd want to make sure I'm not holding on to properties for more than, you know, get in, get out as quick as you can, because who knows what's going to. We're kind of. No one's, no one really knows exactly what's going to happen. So there's all these different strategies and different techniques and different thought processes around mitigating that risk. But it's up to you, as, and Brody's huge on this. At real estate investing school, you need to just get crystal clear on what it is you want. Because if you don't know what your strategy is, what you are okay with, what you're not okay with, then how are you ever going to make a decision? It doesn't matter what route you go if you don't know what path you want to take. But if you know what path you want to take and that opportunity presents itself and it meets your risk tolerance, then you can act on it and pull the trigger on it fast.
- [25:23]
A
And especially in today's environment, it is about moving really fast. I mean, it always has been when there's a good deal, but now more than ever, it's like you got to be able to act really, really quick. And like I said, the key to that is just being prepared. You've got all your pieces lined up, you've got your lenders lined up, you've got got here, you know, how much money you can invest at the drop of a dime, you know, you know exactly where you're at. If you don't have money, you have your partners lined up who do have money, everything's lined up. So when that deal comes, you can just jump on it, you know, and and one thing we teach a lot about in the school is just how to analyze deals, you know what I mean? And that's one of the key things, is when you can quickly analyze a deal, then you can quickly move on it, you know what I mean? Which is huge in the super competitive, unique environment. That's awesome. So talking about that, what are some of the guiding principles or maybe habits that you've set that you feel have really helped you progress, you know, in your career and in real estate? Maybe just in life. But what's kind of some of your guiding principles or habits that you, you try to do regularly?
- [26:32]
B
Man, I'm glad you asked because I'm, I'm hyped about this one that I'm going to share. I feel like, I feel like this habit, this one habit is what can literally change anyone's life. And, and I am obsessed with, I love reading books, I love listening to podcasts, I love learning from people that have gone out and achieved a lot of things. And I feel like I found this one habit in common amongst all of them, whether it's Stephen Covey, Franklin Covey, Darren Hardy, my boss, a lot of really successful people. Brandon Turner at BiggerPockets, he does, he' big on this too. But honestly, if I had to narrow it down to one, it would be weekly planning. And the reason why is because you, you're forcing yourself to course correct 52 times per year otherwise. And it, and it forces you to take a step back and get really clear and intentional on the one to three things that you want to execute on that week that are going to move the needle forward the most. But Jim Rohn, he said if you have more than three priorities, you don't have any. And so it's the power of the one thing, right? Like if you can execute on one to three things and do that 52 times per year, you're gonna end up. And Brody's huge on the weekly plan too. He's got these awesome templates that you can use, but just taking that time every week for 30 minutes to an hour to take a step back, say, where am I according to my goals? Where do I wanna be now? What do I need to do to get there? What are the one to three things this week that I need to do? And then go and put it on your schedule, because if it's not in your schedule, it's not going to happen. But time block, put it in your schedule, make it happen. And I've been implementing that in my life the last few months, and it's been an absolute game changer. So, yeah, I would say weekly planning is something that I love. It allows me to get really intentional and really clear on where I want to be. Otherwise, life is just going to pass you by, right? Next thing you know, we're going to wake up and be like, holy cow, where did life go? Because it's easy to just get caught up and distracted and to react all the time, just react to everything in life. But if you don't take the time to take a step back, get clear, and be proactive rather than reactive, then life will simply just pass you by. So. Might sound a little dramatic, but I love the principle and habit of weekly planning.
- [29:00]
A
Dude, I think you hit it the nail on the head. I think that's a really, really powerful thing. Thing is to have that weekly planning and when you're really, like, going hard and you've got a lot going on, it's like, it's a necessity. It's not even like you have to, like. Like you couldn't function without it. You know what I mean? Like, you really have to schedule everything in and dial it in. I feel like that's, you know, between doing podcasts and meeting with students and then, like, you know, on my own personal investing, it's like just scheduling is like half my job, I feel like. But what's really interesting is for the people who are just getting going, they're still trying to build that momentum. That's when the habit of actually sitting down and calculating it isn't just a necessity, but it's like it could easily not happen and nothing will happen. But if you do do it, that's how you move the needle. That's how you move to that next level. I always talk about what I call the ABCs of real estate investing, which is acquiring knowledge where you're constantly studying brand new deals, finding new deals that you don't currently have. And then C is current projects. And if you're focusing on, you build a schedule around those three things, always acquiring new knowledge, finding brand new deals and working on your current projects. And you set a time and a place, you set out your schedule, like I said, you actually plan it out and say, hey, at this day, for this amount of time in this location, I'm going to do A and I'm going to do B and I'm going to do C. Then that's what's going to get the momentum going and move the needle so that you are. You've got so much on your plate that it becomes kind of easy to fill in. But when you don't, people just tend to not do anything because they're like, oh, I don't have anything to do. I don't know what to do. And they listen to a podcast and then they don't act at all. You know what I mean? Right.
- [30:53]
B
So.
- [30:53]
A
And you can get really distracted with your current projects and then shelf the acquiring new knowledge and looking for new deals. And that's not going to be good either because then you're going to just kind of be this roller coaster of like you did something and then you're doing nothing because you're so focused on that. It's like you always want to be moving everything along, which. Anyway, that's only possible by what you said, by having that regular planning session, which is super powerful.
- [31:22]
B
Yeah. And I'll say. I'll say this as well, because I'm a big. Well, well, let me. Before I get into that, let me touch on the distraction thing. I think what you're saying was super important because let's. Let's take my job, for instance. I can show up and I can work. I typically work 50 to 60 hours a week. And I could show up and I could react. I could show up to work and I could have 50 to 60 hours worth of work for me every week. And I could feel like I'm being productive because I'm reacting to everything all day long. But if I don't force myself to do the weekly planning and say, what am I going to do this week that's actually going to move the needle forward, then I'm not. Then I'm never going to get intentional and do, like, productive things rather than reactive things. So that's like a good analogy as far as the job's concerned. The power of getting clear and intentional. But also it relates to everything in life because in life, we all have different hats that we wear. So I'm a real estate investor. I'm an employee. I'm a relationship manager at this wholesale company. I'm a boyfriend. You know, I'm dating someone right now. There's all these. I'm a family member, so it's good to take a step back and in every area of my life, what am I going to do in those areas? The one to three things in those areas that are going to move the needle forward the most. So it's just living a really intentional life. And, and, you know, physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, setting goals in all those areas and. And executing on those things on a weekly basis. So that way you can live a balanced life. So that's why I love weekly planning, because I feel like it applies to literally every aspect of your life.
- [33:03]
A
100%, man. And it's easy, like you said, to get distracted with important things like. Like your active income. Right. A lot of people are very distracted. I did, you know, direct sales for over a decade, and I was very focused on that and made really good money. But what I missed the boat on. And I love real estate, and I dabbled in it along the way. I'd buy a condo here, buy a house here, you know, do a house hack. Like you're doing that. And I did that along the way, but I forgot that the major folks. I want everybody listening to this right now to remember this. When it comes to your financial responsibilities, your fiscal responsibilities, the number one thing that you can. The most important thing you need to focus on is acquiring assets. That's it. Your active income is cool. You can go make a million dollars. And I've seen guys do it. They'll go make a million a year, and then next year, they have nothing to show for it except for, you know, some toys that are going to be devalued in four years and a lot of debt, you know, and it's like you need to be acquiring assets, and that can be in the form of real estate, which we love, real estate. Right. It can mean the form of other things. Your businesses are an asset. You know, starting businesses is the way to make the most money. I mean, you know what I mean? But you need to acquire assets. That's the goal. The only reason you have active income is to acquire assets that'll bring you true wealth, and you don't want to get distracted from that. Now, the active income is important. Like we said, it makes investing a lot easier. It's not a necessity. But if you don't focus on building that, requiring those assets, you know, then you're always going to be behind of where you want to be. But if you make that your sole focus and everything is a stepping stone or a tool to help you do that, then you'll actually hit the goals that you want to hit. And so if there's one takeaway people could have, I would say that even is yourself, you know, and now you're transitioning to, you know, you did hundreds of wholesale deals, which is awesome. You're making tons of money. You know, you're making your boss tons of money. Like everybody's, you know, people are getting good Deals, investors are making money. It's like, what's one thing I love about real estate? It's like, win, win, win, win, win. Like, there's every step along the way, everybody's doing well, but you can get so distracted with that that you're like, I mean, you're only 26, so you're fine, but it's like you can be 36, 46, 56. Like, damn, I forgot to buy my own properties. I just write them all, you know.
- [35:27]
B
Right. No, that's. Dude, that's so true. I. I echo what you say. And Gary Keller started the number one real estate company in the world. Keller Williams. He wrote a book called the Millionaire Real Estate Investor. And in the book, he talks about the money matrix, which he nails it exactly on the head as far as that's the true difference between the poor and the wealthy. The wealthy have a mindset of acquiring assets, and the poor have a mindset of consuming. They just buy stuff all the time. They're just spending their paycheck and living paycheck to paycheck. But when you can buy things that increase in value and generate income, like, that's where it changes. And so, yeah, I just echo what you say. And, you know, a really practical thing that you can do is track your net worth. Because if you track your net worth, then you can. Every time you go to buy something, you're like, is this adding to or taking away from my net worth? Is this adding to my assets or adding to my liabilities? And. And you want to make sure you're spending a lot more money on assets than you are on I, on liabilities. So. I love what you said, Joe. That's. That's perfect.
- [36:33]
A
Yeah. And it's really interesting in this environment, as we've seen, you know, inflation just hit 8.6%. You know, interest rates, or they just announced today they're raising them 0.75% more. I mean, they've already doubled this year. I mean, and they said they're going to do the same thing next month as well. So it's just like, it's a crazy environment. But for those who own assets in real estate specifically, it's been a really cool couple of years. Right. If you already owned 10, 20, 100 properties, they all just raised in value so much. If you didn't own anything, it just, it's deflating and it's scary. Like, damn, am I ever going to get into a house? Especially a personal residence? It's like. But like I said, if you own the assets, it's great if you just had a hundred thousand or fifty thousand or whatever in the bank in the past year or two that just went down in value. But if you owned that much real estate, it went up in value. So that's like I said that that's a big game changer of the true wealthy is having assets that go up in value. And I was just gonna say this real quick. The difference between buying a primary residency home and a investment is so funny because I've been looking for a house for myself to live in and, and it's just so hard because I'm like, man, that's like, it's a liability that's costing me money. When I look at, it's like, oh, that's going to cost me this much every month. And I get so gun shy when it comes to investment property. I'm like, yeah, buy it, buy it, buy it. Because someone else is covering my mortgage, someone else is covering my interest, they're covering all of it. It's so easy for me to want to buy an investment property, but when it comes to buying a primary residence, one, I'm pickier because I'm going to live in it, and two, it's like it's going to cost me money every month. You know what I mean? And so it's like I just tell people like, even if you're not ready to buy a home to live in, cuz I've heard a lot of people like, oh, I'm just not ready to buy a house. Like I don't want to take that on. And I'm like, no, no, investing is totally, totally different. Like you're not buying, you know, because like young kids like yourself, they're like, oh, I'm not married and I don't, I don't need to buy a house. That seems like a huge burden. I'm like, no, buy an investment property, not buy something to live in. Now if you house hacker like you, that's the best of both worlds. But it's like that's not scary because you're not paying for it someone else. And that's the beauty of property, you know?
- [38:54]
B
Yeah, that's why they call it house hacking, because it, it really is a hack. Yeah, yeah, it's. Investing is the way to go for sure.
- [39:02]
A
That's awesome, dude. Well, I want to ask you a couple questions. I don't know if you have any specific deals that you've worked on in the wholesaling company that maybe went south or didn't Work out that you were involved with, or maybe you just spend a lot of time and effort and made very little or nothing. Does anything come to mind, like, say, even just one you. Maybe you weren't even a part of, but you saw in the company that just kind of. It was a bad deal. It didn't work out for, for the company.
- [39:33]
B
Yeah, there's been. There's been plenty. The beautiful thing about wholesaling is if you structure it the right way, you can cancel and you're not at any risk. But I know, I mean, I know. I know plenty of flippers that have lost money on deals as far as. Again, because wholesaling is unique in the fact that if you structure it the right way, there's not a lot of risk. My biggest failures are probably just chasing after skinny deals, like spending way too much time and effort and energy on deals where we barely make, where we basically barely cover our costs as a wholesaler.
- [40:18]
A
And.
- [40:20]
B
Your time is valuable. And so there's really no sense in me, like, chasing after those skinny deals because who's to say I couldn't have gotten a bigger deal if I wouldn't have taken on that smaller deal because I could have done more lead generation. I could have been spending time with my key relationships of people that bring me deals. So, yeah, I don't really have, like, a specific one where, like, we've lost money. I mean, I, again, I know flippers that have gotten in over their head for sure. Luckily, the last couple years is unique in the fact that typically we say time kills all deals, but in the last two years, time honestly kind of made all deals. The longer you held onto a property, the more it appreciated.
- [41:01]
A
Yeah.
- [41:01]
B
And so most people, like, if you've lost money in real estate the last couple years, you typically made, like, a really big mistake just because it was. It was such an appreciating market. So.
- [41:14]
A
Yeah, for sure. No, and. And it's, it's interesting. Like you said, I. One of my rules, I started writing these, like, rules of real estate that I live by. And one of the rules is, yeah, the little deals can take just as much time and effort as the big deals. You know, not always. You know, obviously, if you're tackling like a 500 unit, you know, apartment complex, there's a lot more underwriting than a single family. And underwriting is just like doing your research to make sure you're not going to get burned. But sometimes not so much. Sometimes the little ones can take just as much time and effort. Like you said. And you come out with very little to show. And, you know, there's a lot of money out there. There is so much money out there that people want to put into a good place and get a good investment, but what there's less of and that can't be duplicated is time. And, and that's what you said. You know, some of the biggest failures is, is. Is using and wasting your time on frivolous pursuits. You know, I'd say my biggest failure in real estate was spending so much time making money because I was out chasing a paycheck, you know, and it was commissioned sales and wasn't hourly. And I was like, you know, doing well. But I spent so much time and effort trying to make money that I forgot to actually build true wealth that would be worth substantially more. And so it's like the failures, where are you putting your efforts is huge. And that's kind of what you were, you were saying with your worst deals, you put all this time and effort in and you walk with very, very little return. It's like, dang, I could have put all that in and had this huge return. So you got to be careful of which ones you chase down.
- [42:52]
B
Absolutely.
- [42:53]
A
That's cool, man. Well, let's go into a couple. You know, we always end off on a few specific questions I want to ask you and get your thoughts on. Before we do that, is there anything else specifically you'd like to mention about real estate? Why you love real estate, you know, why you think people should get into it or something they should be aware of or any just kind of thoughts that you want to make sure you get out?
- [43:19]
B
You know, I, I just love, I love real estate, man. And the reason why is because, so I, when I studied up at Utah State University, I doubled majored in finance and management information systems. And then I minored in real estate. And I, so I love finance, I love people, I love technology, I love sales, and I feel like real estate combines all of that into one world.
- [43:46]
A
That's cool.
- [43:47]
B
You get, you get all of it right. And so that's why I love real estate. I think obviously it's a great asset. I'm super bullish on the Utah market long term and any market long term. I mean, that's just how real estate works.
- [44:05]
A
Yeah.
- [44:05]
B
So it's just super fun. I, yeah, I definitely recommend it to, to anyone. And it's just been so fun for me to get my feet wet and continue to learn. I'm excited to just continue to grow my portfolio.
- [44:17]
A
Well, it's super cool to hear, man. I mean, 26 years old, you own a multi family building that you live in, house hack. You've done hundreds of wholesale deals in the company work for you have a real estate agent license, plus dual major degrees. I mean, it's pretty incredible what you're doing and anybody that can, you know, pick your brain and learn from you is definitely going to benefit. So we're glad to have you on the call or the podcast.
- [44:44]
B
That's nice of you to say.
- [44:45]
A
I appreciate that 100%, man. So we got a couple just kind of fun questions end off on here. But so the first one is just what's a bucket list item that you're excited to check off next? Just in life, not necessarily with real estate, but just, you know, maybe some of your passions or, you know, interests.
- [45:04]
B
Yeah, man, I, I love Operation Underground Railroad. They're a nonprofit organization that exists, exist to eradicate child sex trafficking. Yeah. And I've been closely, I've been closely involved with them while I was up at Utah State University and I was fortunate enough to go to Uganda, Africa a few months ago on a health trip with them. We just brought like a team of doctors with us and stuff.
- [45:36]
A
Wow.
- [45:36]
B
And I, yeah, I mean, I loved to talk about that. So as far as my bucket list is concerned, Operation Underground Railroad, they go on these undercover missions where they act like they're going to take kids for sex trafficking.
- [45:55]
A
Yeah.
- [45:56]
B
But they go and recover. They act like they're going to be the predators and then they arrest all the traffickers and they rescue the children. So it's freaking amazing what they do. I don't know if I'll ever get the opportunity to go on one of those undercover missions, but if I do, that is on my bucket list and I would love to do that. If not, I mean, I'll just continue to go on these mission trips around the world and like, would love to just continue to help them in their cause. So that's, that's one of the most important things on my bucket list.
- [46:25]
A
That's super cool. That would, that would definitely be intense. They have some documentaries out and you can see raids and it's like, it's heavy, high risk stuff. What did you do in Uganda with it? Is that more of one of their, like rehab centers, like aftercare stuff or what were you doing there?
- [46:45]
B
Yeah, man. So, long story short, my best friend's dad is a surgeon and we were lucky enough because we ran the chapter up at Utah State for them. We are lucky enough to Have a couple survivors come to Logan to receive surgery from my best friend and one of Operation Underground Railroad. They connected us with a. An organization in Uganda where they believe in child sacrifice. It's a terrible thing. I don't even know. I didn't even know that it existed until I met this organization. So this man runs it down there. He's basically the Operation Underground Railroad version in Uganda where he saves kids from child sacrifice. And he. He runs a school, runs a rehab center. And so we took a team of doctors there after he came to Logan a couple years ago, and we met him. We met the little boy that we did the surgery for. We went to their facility in Uganda with a T again, just with a team of doctors and nurses and just provided health care for a couple weeks.
- [47:45]
A
And it was.
- [47:46]
B
Man, it was life changing. It was super awesome. I recommend go. Everybody needs to go to Africa. It's good for perspective and just to see how blessed we are to. To have what we have and to live the way that we do here in America.
- [47:57]
A
Yeah, man. I. I got the chance to go to Uganda with a group called Reach the Children. And this was, oh, I don't know, 15 years ago or something like that.
- [48:06]
B
Dude, that's awesome.
- [48:07]
A
And it was. Yeah, she'd been there and it's beautiful, man. It blew me away. You get there, it's like, it's a tropical paradise. And I was not expecting that. I'm expecting, like, right. The Serengeti, like, just desert. And it's like, it was beautiful.
- [48:21]
B
And that was my exact same experience. I was expecting it to be like, Saharan Des. Yeah. But it was extremely green and tropical, and it kind of caught me off guard. So. That's. That's funny that you say that.
- [48:32]
A
Yeah. Yeah. Some really awesome memories from there. You know, we just worked at, like, some orphanages and schools and stuff. We were like, rescuing, you know, human trafficking or child sacrifice or, you know, putting our lives on the line. But it was. It was a really cool experience. Well, that's awesome, man. That's a. That's a really good bucket list item to have. Yeah, that's exciting. Um, the next question we have is, what would you say, Jaden, your definition of freedom? Because I think that's one reason a lot of us have got into real estate investing, especially in the school, and focusing on cash flow. But what would be your definition of freedom?
- [49:11]
B
My definition of freedom in one word is. Well, I guess it's just a synonym more than anything, but it's just ability. So it's Actually, on my background here.
- [49:23]
A
I like that on my phone I.
- [49:24]
B
Have the word, the word ability. And I love that word because I feel like free. True freedom is you have the ability to travel wherever you want, whenever you want, spend the time however you want, whenever you want, or the ability to buy whatever you want whenever you want. So true freedom to me is just summed up in the word ability, like the ability to go to Uganda and to help these organizations and to do things like that and to be able to donate. And that's what true freedom is to me. And that's why I'm passionate about real estate, because real estate is the vehicle that I've chosen to create, hopefully to create wealth so I can continue to do those things and have the ability to have nice things and to do the things that I want.
- [50:16]
A
I really like that. I haven't heard that answer yet. We asked this question to a lot of people and I really like that one word answer. Ability. It just kind of shifts. It's like, oh, that's really what freedom is. You know, if you're in a prison cell, you don't have the ability to see sunlight, you don't have the ability to go see your family, you don't have the ability.
- [50:35]
B
Exactly.
- [50:35]
A
You know, or even if you're. You're not in a prison cell and you're, you know, anyway, there, you know, there's a million different things that we could go into that, but I really like that. All right, last question. If you could send out a text message and everybody's phone in the whole world goes off and they get this text bomb from Jayden Connor, what would it say?
- [50:59]
B
That's such a good question, man. I'm gonna steal this from a book that I recently finished called the Gap in the Gain.
- [51:07]
A
Okay.
- [51:08]
B
It's an amazing book. Highly recommend it. There's a line in there where he says, happiness is where you start, not where you finish. And that's what I would say is happiness is where you start, not where you finish. And I want to expound upon that a little bit because I feel like people might not understand exactly what I mean by that, but I had an experience just earlier this year where I had set a bunch of goals for 2022, and I was bouncing the ideas off of my bosses from my boss and he was giving me his feedback and he said he's like, those are all great goals. And again, this is a guy that has 2 multi million dollar companies extremely successful, and he's like, those are all great goals. But Remember that you have everything that you need right now to be happy. He's like, I. After, after. He's like, it took me a decade to realize that happiness isn't on the other side of financial freedom. You have everything you need today to be happy. And the key is just to keep yourself in check and to remind yourself that you can enjoy the process and that happiness can be found in the pursuit of your goals. And so that's what I would say. Happiness is where you start, not where you finish. It's a mindset. Don't get so caught up in thinking that you're going to be happier on the other side or that the grass is going to be on the other side. We have everything we need today to be present and to be happy and to love those around us. And that's what I feel like. I mean, talking about freedom and having the ability, like, freedom, ability and finding happiness today is what it's all about.
- [52:54]
A
I love it, man. That's great. We've had a bunch of cool points this past hour. Went by really fast. I can't believe it's already been an hour. But this is Jaden, if people want to keep in touch with you, what's the best way for them to follow you or to reach out to you? Kind of keep in touch?
- [53:14]
B
Yeah, the best way is probably Instagram. My handle is just Jaden Khan. J A D E N C O N. Pretty active on there. And then I also have a Facebook. Jaden Connor. It's C O N N O R. Yeah, that would probably be the best way to hit me up if I love to connect with other people. So, yeah, I would love to have you guys reach out if they're interested.
- [53:38]
A
That's great, man. Well, look forward to it. And, you know, on that note, we'll just kind of end this thing off. I'm Joe Jensen, signing off for the Real Estate Investing School podcast, reminding you to be happy now and keep increasing your abilities. Sam.