139. Rent By The Room: Not Only for Students with Justin Morgan

Summary

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Podcast Summary: Real Estate Investing School Podcast

Episode 139: "Rent By The Room: Not Only for Students"

Guest: Justin Morgan
Host: Joe Jensen
Date: March 11, 2024

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Overview

In this insightful episode, Joe Jensen interviews Justin Morgan—a seasoned real estate investor, father, triathlete, and advocate for intentional living—about his 20+ year journey in real estate. The discussion spans Justin's “origin stories,” reflections on past mistakes (notably during the 2008 downturn), the evolution of his investment strategy, and why “rent by the room” or co-living is a powerful model in today's market. Justin's focus on family, resilience, and actionable financial education offers a wealth of lessons for both novice and experienced investors.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Justin’s Path into Real Estate

• First Real Estate Experience (00:37)

  • As a 19-year-old LDS missionary in California, Justin connected a local family with an investor, earning an unexpected $4,000 commission for simply “being a connector.”
  • Quote: “Take the assets you have. And all I had at 19 years old was I was a connector... and I made a little bit of money.” (Justin, 02:47)

• Transition from Aviation to Real Estate (03:31–06:53)

  • While in aviation school, Justin spotted real estate opportunities, notably making $21,000 by selling his position in line for a condo—a “lightbulb” moment that demonstrated the power of creative deal-making.
  • Quote: “My fellow students, my classmates, were graduating ... at 21, 22,000 a year. And I could make this in one real estate deal.” (Justin, 05:39)

Early Strategies, Mistakes, and Lessons

• Creative Finance Beginnings (08:48–10:43)

  • Early portfolio built quickly using lease options, seller finance, and subject-to deals, growing to 12 homes by 2009—but “over-leveraged, out of money,” and ultimately lost those properties during the downturn.
  • Quote: “Between those years of 05 and 09, before the market crashed, we collected 12 houses ... which subsequently we lost between 2009 and 2011 because we didn’t know a lot of things that we know today.” (Justin, 08:48)

• Key Lessons from the 2008 Crash (11:32–12:52)

  • Focus on buying at a discount and for cash flow—not speculation or appreciation.
  • Quote: “Buy at a discount and buy with cash flow, right? If you buy at a discount, you can weather a market correction.” (Justin, 11:32)
  • Quote: “A lot of investors, even today, I see them gambling ... and I think that very, very foolish.” (Justin, 12:52)
  • Immediate negative equity risks due to commissions and costs—“You're 40 grand upside down, day one, if you had to get out of it.” (12:52)

Creating Deals in Today’s Market

• Deals Aren’t Found—They’re Created (15:28–18:16)

  • The most successful investors are those who know how to create deals through education, due diligence, and recognizing value, not just waiting for bargains to appear.
  • Quote: “Deals are not found. Deals are created.” (Justin, 15:28)
  • Emphasizes real-world analogies: “If you walk into any store, they have a sale ... you recognize that that’s a deal. How was that created? Because you know what its retail value is.” (Justin, 17:54)

• Taking Action & Risk Management (18:32–22:26)

  • Encourages new investors to get properties under contract (with due diligence periods) and let the marketplace and experts (e.g., lenders, buyers) help “vet” their deals.
  • Quote: “People get deer in the headlights and they don't take the action to actually put stuff under contract when there's nothing at risk to do that.” (Justin, 18:32)

• Rules of Thumb for Different Strategies (23:16–25:30)

  • Flips: Aim to make at least 10% of after-repair value (ARV) due to higher risk than being an agent.
  • Wholesales: Okay to make half of what you would on a flip; time and risk much lower.
  • Holding: Only on properties that make sense for cash flow—especially in the current market.

Asset Classes and Market Adaptation

• Lessons from Short-Term Rentals (26:32–29:51)

  • Sold off entire nightly/short-term rental portfolio after COVID exposed volatility and regulation risk.
  • Quote: “By the end of 2022, I had sold about $5 million worth of nightly rental portfolio... and it’s a good thing overall.” (Justin, 27:45)

• Why Rent-By-the-Room Makes Sense Now (29:51–33:15)

  • Pivoted to “co-living” properties (“rent by the room”) due to strong cash flow potential in an affordability crisis, higher cap rates, and market mismatch.
  • Quote: “It's an asset that does cash flow. It’s an asset that does make sense right now with our affordability crisis.” (Justin, 29:57)
  • Not just for students: Mature professionals and others seeking affordable, flexible living. Modern “shared economy” makes this model mainstream (Uber, Airbnb, etc.).

Personal Story: Real Estate as a Tool for Life and Family

• Life-Changing Family Experience (33:17–36:53)

  • In 2022, Justin’s son was diagnosed with childhood leukemia. Real estate gave him the freedom to be present—he was “the only dad” on the cancer ward for weeks.
  • Quote: “Real estate provided cash and cash flow that allowed me to take almost a year off and be with my family.” (Justin, 34:15)
  • This experience catalyzed his “Investor Dads” movement—using real estate as a means to prioritize family and service, not just material success.

• Big Picture Outlook

  • Only industry where you can have “now money, massive money, and passive money”—income that serves your current needs, future dreams, and offers freedom to choose your seasons.
  • Quote: “It’s the only business that allows you to make money in all those areas ... and then you’re making passive money which allows you to get out of the rat race…” (Justin, 35:37)

Final Reflections: Financial Education & Taking Action

• Education and Action (39:30–43:03)

  • Real estate’s secret weapon: tax advantages especially for W2 earners—“merely understanding financial education” is life-changing.
  • Quote: “Just merely understanding financial education. If you're a W2 employee ... there's ways and there's tax code ... that's one of the biggest stealers of wealth for most people.” (Justin, 39:50)
  • Don’t “major in minor things”—replace trivial obsessions (sports, Hollywood) with financial learning.
  • Quote/Mantra: “Start majoring in major things, get out of majoring in minor things. It doesn’t serve your life and it doesn’t move the needle forward for you.” (Justin, 43:21)

• Partner Up to Learn and Grow (43:43–44:38)

  • For those starting out: lock up a deal and reach out to more experienced partners—learn by doing and through collaboration.
  • Quote: “Real estate is such a cool way to be able to partner with people ... that’s a great way to learn, to learn safely, to learn smart.” (Joe, 43:43)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Deals are not found. Deals are created.” – Justin Morgan (15:28)
• “A lot of investors, even today, I see them gambling... I think that [is] very, very foolish.” – Justin Morgan (12:52)
• “My passion is fatherhood first and foremost and what real estate can do to serve fathers and to serve me.” – Justin Morgan (35:11)
• “You're not promised tomorrow. Whether it's... an accident or cancer or a COVID or whatever, it's like, go make the best of it right now.” – Joe Jensen (54:37)
• “You don’t need to be able to speak money more than football. Make sure that’s the minor and this is the major...” – Joe Jensen (43:09)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:37 – Justin’s “origin story”: Early real estate deal as a missionary
• 03:31 – Aviation to real estate; first big flip “lightbulb” moment
• 08:48 – Creative finance; building & losing a portfolio pre-2008
• 11:32 – How to avoid 2008 mistakes: buy at a discount, buy for cash flow
• 15:28 – Creating deals vs. finding them
• 23:16 – Justin’s flip/wholesale/hold rules of thumb
• 26:32 – Selling short-term rentals, switching market strategies
• 29:51 – The new co-living/rent-by-the-room model
• 33:17 – Family, cancer, and the real purpose of wealth/freedom
• 39:30 – Real estate as the greatest wealth-building and tax tool
• 43:09 – The importance of financial literacy (“major in major things”)
• 43:43 – Collaboration and learning by partnering

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Takeaways for Listeners

• Focus on Fundamentals: Don’t gamble on appreciation; always seek cash flow and buy at a discount.
• Deals Are Made, Not Found: Your education, network, and willingness to act are your biggest tools.
• Adapt with the Market: Short-term rentals can be volatile; rent-by-the-room/co-living is a proven cash flow strategy for today’s affordability crisis.
• Prioritize What Matters: Use real estate as a vehicle to prioritize family, time, and service.
• Financial Education Is Key: Learning the language of money and the tax code is more important than many “minor” things we spend time on.
• Take Action with Low Risk: Make offers, use the due diligence window, and don’t fear learning through doing.
• Partnership Multiplies Success: Don’t hesitate to partner up, especially in your early deals.

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Connect with Justin Morgan

• [Facebook & Instagram links will be in show notes]
• Focus: Rent-by-the-room/co-living model, mentoring, and networking

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Host’s Closing Reminder:
“Learn the language of money.” – Joe Jensen (55:14)

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This summary captures the depth, practical wisdom, and personal authenticity of Justin Morgan’s journey—making it a compelling listen for anyone seeking to build not just wealth, but a life of intentional impact through real estate.

Transcript

[Justin Morgan]

A lot of investors even today I see them gambling, I see them speculating, I see them hoping for appreciation and I think that very, very foolish.

[Joe Jensen]

Welcome to the real estate investing school podcast. I'm your host Joe Jensen. Today we've got Justin Morgan. Now Justin is first and foremost an investor dad. He likes to make that very clear. He's been married 20 years to a curly haired, blue eyed blonde bombshell, his words, not mine, and a dad to three kids. He, he's a three time Iron man triathlon finisher including the St. George World Championship which I'm actually excited. I just signed up this year to do that. So this will be my first one. So stoked on that. Justin Semi retired in 2022 thanks to real estate investments. He owns a self storage, a dozen single family rentals. He works on one to two big projects a year and enjoys spending his work hours growing his portfolio and the rent by the room, co living space with his students, with his kids. So anyway, welcome to the show Justin. I love it, kind of a, a broad spectrum of things. You've got your hands in a lot of stuff. But welcome to the show.

[Justin Morgan]

Yeah buddy, glad to be here. Thanks Joe.

[Joe Jensen]

This is cool. So I always love to, to get people's like origin story, you know, like how did you get into real estate as an investment? You obviously use real estate as an active income as well, not just as like a passive investment. But how did it first come across your radar?

[Justin Morgan]

Yeah, I can really tell two different stories here. When we talk about the origin story in the beginning, oftentimes I don't start talking about the beginning, the beginning. But I guess your listeners, a lot of really new investors. And so I'll start at the beginning. Beginning in 1999 when I was serving a LDS mission, a Latter Day Saint mission for the Mormon church. I got called to go to Southern California at a time when there was a lot of economic upheaval in the area. Big air force base and government contracts had moved out of the area. Longer story short, I met an investor at 19 years old. I'm out there preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and a networker. I knew people in the neighborhoods in the area. And this investor that I met while just door knocking one day said hey, do you know anybody selling? And I knew a family that we were teaching the missionary discussions the gospel to. And I lined up the two, he bought the property from them and he gave me a check for $4,000 in 1999.

[Joe Jensen]

No way. You're just like, I don't know if.

[Justin Morgan]

The time to tell that story. But I'm telling that story to your audience for the reason that take the assets you have. And all I had at 19 years old was I was a connector and I connected two people, a family and an investor. And I made a little bit of money.

[Joe Jensen]

That's really cool. That's. I mean, especially as a missionary, you know, you don't make money, you don't have time to make money, you don't have focus. It's not even on your radar. And that just fall in your lap for being helpful, you know, which is really what you were just trying to do. That's. That's pretty awesome. I'm sure that kind of planted a seed of. Okay, I think when I'm done here, that's something I'm going to have to look into a little bit.

[Justin Morgan]

Yeah.

[Joe Jensen]

So how long did it take from then?

[Justin Morgan]

Yeah, so the second origin story is really I got done with the two year mission in Southern California. I followed at the time in the 90s and what we've been taught, a lot of us have been taught, which is go to school, get a job, kind of follow what our dad or our grandfather's grandparents did and go to school. That's what I started to do. I wanted to be an airline pilot, a commercial pilot. So I went to aviation school in Utah. And I got through school, I did what I was supposed to do. But the whole time I had this, this itch to scratch in the real estate space. So as I'm going through school from 2001 to 2005, I got married in 03 and my wife and I rented this cute little house. Back then it was like, it was like 350 bucks. Yes. For a house in Utah. And interestingly enough, the landlord owned all five houses and we were the middle house. And he was trying to sell them about a year into our rental. But the property line was in the middle of the five houses, two parcels. So I like hired an attorney and I tried to figure out how could we buy our house. And if you've done anything with splitting parcels or splitting off houses and getting separate deeds for each property, it's not the place to start in real estate. So I got quickly overwhelmed and we didn't buy, but the itch was there the whole time.

[Joe Jensen]

And.

[Justin Morgan]

And it was in 2005 that my wife and I put a deposit down on a condo to buy our first house. We were getting done with school, she was working. We wanted to buy a condo for $130,000. And so we put a deposit down on that property. And it just so happened that 60 days later the salesman came to us and said, do you want to sell your position to somebody else? They're willing to buy your position in line for this, for this new build, this condo.

[Joe Jensen]

Oh really?

[Justin Morgan]

He offered us $21,000 to do this.

[Joe Jensen]

You're like, so I can make $20,000 to not buy this place, not buy.

[Justin Morgan]

It, to just be delayed 60 days from moving into our condo and starting over. And the light bulb went off in my head because my, my fellow students, my classmates were graduating, getting commercial aviation jobs at 25, 21, 22,000 a year. And I could make this in one real estate deal. So I thought it was pretty smart in 05. And I said, well, man, I'm just going to rinse, wash and repeat this process. So we started putting deposits down on new construction builds and really we were flipping the paper. We were wholesaling the paper. Now you can't do that today. There's a very different process to how this is done with all of the new Dodd Frank acts and all of the mortgage requirements for lenders and appraisal requirements for appraisers. So you can't just flip paper like that with new construction in today's world. But you can still wholesale, you can still flip. Right. The principles are still there. So that was my second origin story back into the real estate space. And I've been full time investing since 2005. I've never made a dollar in my aviation commercial pilot career. But we've made some money in real estate.

[Joe Jensen]

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, that's unique. I never heard of the new construction way to do it, but I guess it makes sense if it's not really an option nowadays. That's super rad though. And just be clear, you still were able to just go and buy one for yourself. It just delayed your process and someone else needed it sooner, so you let them have your position so they can move in two or three months earlier.

[Justin Morgan]

Yeah, it was a 90 day process for these condos back then. So we just delayed our process. We ended up buying a couple of condos in that area later on, doing some speculation and stuff. But in the meantime we were doing houses and condos, just the deposits and starting the process and then flipping out of it.

[Joe Jensen]

You know, I think it's so cool with real estate how, and I say this a lot, you know, the listeners probably get sick of it, but it's like it can be such a win win Win. Because whoever wanted that, they, they obviously were on a time crunch, they needed something. They're probably moving a family or something. Like, dude, we can't just camp out for two months. Like we need a place now. And they were stoked to be able to spend an extra 20 grand or whatever and get it today for you. You didn't care, you didn't have kids, whatever. It wasn't a big deal. And so it was a win for you as a win for that agent. He was obviously a hustler and creative and found you and found a way to like help his client out. His client was happy and it was just like everybody made money, everybody won. The builder sold two units now, like it was just like such a win, win, win, win, win, win, win. If done right, obviously there's way people can get burned, you can screw people over. But I feel like the large majority of what I see is just these win, win, wins, which is, which is so cool. And that was a unique situation for you. But so you're able to translate that though into more traditional wholesaling. Is that where you first dived in? When did you like think about building your own portfolio or was it just kind of wholesaling and then when did that translate to flipping? You know, you've done a bit of both of them. How do you kind of balance all that?

[Justin Morgan]

Yeah, so being, being brand new into the work environment, getting done with school, having a young family on the way. Started our family with our first child born in 2007. So just within like 18, 24 months of that, of that window I started, I didn't have much money, right. So I started in the world of creative finance. So I went to a Creative Finance Mastermind weekend with a gentleman by the name of Chris Kirschner. He was a UPS driver. I don't know what he does today. I've tried to find him. But we really dug into the world of lease options, seller finance and subject to creative finance. So that was my first entry into that world that allowed us to start building a long term portfolio. And so between those years of 05 06, going to that seminar and 2009, before the market crashed or corrected, we collected 12 houses, we had 12 homes that subsequently we lost between 2009 and 2011 because we didn't know a lot of things that we know today. Right. Don't buy at full retail value, don't speculate thinking things are going to keep going up. Interest rates had a big impact on us during those years. The rental rates because of the huge supply of homes that were in the market. Rental rates just dropped. So cash flow dropped and disappeared and went negative and we couldn't keep rental properties afloat. We were very young, over leveraged out of money and we quickly lost that portfolio, which turned into a blessing years later. I can get into those stories, but at least for that period of time, that's when we started building into the rental property world and becoming landlords and looking at extending, you know, instead of just earned income, it was, it was more passive income. Yeah.

[Joe Jensen]

And this was all here in Utah, correct?

[Justin Morgan]

Northern Utah, yeah.

[Joe Jensen]

Yeah, I want to dive into that a little bit because obviously you've been in the game a lot longer than a lot of people, you know. You know, everybody started buying, you know, I mean, a lot of people I talked to start buying three, four, five years ago, even 10 years ago. They didn't go through the, the 0809 crash. You know, I bought my first place in, 2002, 2009 and I didn't even, I didn't even know what a market was, you know what I mean? But, you know, but you kind of went through that. So I wanted to get your opinion on what are some of the things that, why you ended up losing your portfolio. And knowing what, you know now you're like, oh, if we had done it this way, then we wouldn't have lost it, you know, because anyway, yeah, I'll just leave it at that because I think that's. You could shed a lot of light that most people couldn't.

[Justin Morgan]

Yeah, man, I could take this a lot of different directions. I could share a lot of thoughts here, But I'm going to really say two things, right? If you want to, if you want to play it safe, you don't want to end up in a bad situation. Buy at a discount and buy with cash flow, right? If you buy at a discount, you can weather a market correction. If you buy for cash flow, then you're going to be cash flowing. That property, even if your equity or the value of the property has gone down, right? So if I buy a house today at a discount and with cash flow, if it's worth 500,000 and I pay 350 for it, and I put in 50 grand and I go get a loan for 400 to cash out my equity to deal with how I structured the hard money, that that property still has margin, right? I can slide back 20% and I could still get out of it. If I have cash flow attached to that too, I could slide back more than that 20%. It could even be worth 350. And I don't care because I'm cash flowing. It. It's just on paper, right. It just makes me feel good that I might have equity, but I can't do anything with it. So as long as you're buying for cash flow, first and foremost, you can weather weather the storms. Second, buy at a discount. Neither of those things I was doing very well in those years because we didn't know differently. We hadn't been.

[Joe Jensen]

What was your focus there? If you weren't focused on cash flow back then, what was the focus that kind of messed up?

[Justin Morgan]

Appreciation. Appreciation. Yeah. And appreciation. Another word for that is speculation, because you can't count on appreciation. And another word for speculation is gambling. And you might have better odds in Vegas, right? So a lot of investors, even today, I see them gambling, I see them speculating, I see them hoping for appreciation. And I think that very, very foolish. I think that unfortunate. I don't think they should be doing that at all. They could end up in a very bad position. And they likely will end up in a bad position because it is hard to cash flow today. And if the market doesn't go up and you buy at retail today and you need to sell at retail tomorrow, we know immediately you're at least 8 to 11% underwater just to cover real estate commissions and closing costs. And so if you average 10% on a. On an average price home at 400,000, it's not very fun to think that you're 40 grand upside down at 10% immediately, day one, if you had to get out of it. So first and foremost, don't speculate and buy at a discount and buy for cash flow so you can weather whatever the world, economics, politics, whatever your life throws at you. Or you might have some other learning lessons that you need to go down those roads.

[Joe Jensen]

Yeah, man, I think that is sobering advice, and I think it's really good to hear that. And not everybody's preaching that right now, right? Because like in your day when you were buying, you know, a dozen homes for appreciation, you know, people had years of proof that that was genius, right? You're like, dude, just buy it. It goes up, sell it. Buy it. Goes up, sell it. But it just made so much sense for year after year after year after year. There was like, you're crazy not to. Until you weren't. And then the bubble burst and it was like, oh, now you know. And now there's a lot of people today just doing stuff they've never. They've never seen that, you know, and so they were. People are, you know, people know about what happened in 08 and 09, and obviously the environment is totally different now, and we'll never have the same thing for the same reasons, but you never know what's going to happen. You know what I mean? And things will always pivot and they will always change.

[Justin Morgan]

So.

[Joe Jensen]

So I think that's sobering advice. I like that. What would you say to people who are like, okay, well, yeah, but Justin, like, how do you get something for less than it's worth, though? Like, you know, you're like, oh, pay 350 for this $500,000 place. Well, that'd be cool. But, like, they don't list it on the MLS like that. You know what I mean? Like, how do you get something below its value?

[Justin Morgan]

Yeah. This is a great lesson that I love to teach because I come from almost two decades in real estate and experienced many different markets. Here's the lesson. Deals are no longer and deals are not found. Deals are created. So that's really what your question is, right? How do I get a house at a discount? Because if it was found, then it would be super easy and everybody would do it, right? If it was just go to Walmart, get a $50,000 check, everybody go to Walmart and pick up that deal that's just found. Today's market, it's not that way. We did have that opportunity during a lot of courthouse auctions, a lot of MLS short sales where you literally could log in or show up and just go ahead and find the deal you wanted to buy that week or that month and just take it off the shelf. Right? But today you've got to create it. So how do you create it? You create it through education. If you're listening right now, you're doing the right thing. You're getting some education. Part of that education is going out into the market and knowing how to recognize it when those opportunities come to you. Even if you found a deal, you might not even recognize it as a deal because you haven't created the knowledge to be able to recognize that that is an actual deal that's there. You can do that a lot of different ways, right? We talk about comparables. You can do that price per square foot. You can do that based on tax assessed values. You can do that based on agents telling you what it's worth. You could do that based on cash flow and what it's going to return to you. But you need to have the Knowledge to be able to know when a deal is found so that you can create it through the knowledge that you have, right? So it's easy to sniff out. I think it's, I think it's funny because a lot of us know what the value of certain things are in the world. Maybe your wife knows when something is on sale at a store. Maybe it's a purse, an article of clothing, or maybe the food that you buy. If you walk into any store, they have a sale, they have a sales shelf, right? Walmart's liquidating food that's about to go bad. Or they have clothing or they have seasonal stuff and we walk in and we go, that's a deal. I know it's a deal and I want to buy it, right? I know that, what the price of something is. Maybe you're into music and you know the value of guitars, maybe you're into games and you know the value of the latest version of Madden, right? And if, if you walk into a pawn shop and, and Madden 2023 or 2024 is on the shelf new at Walmart, it's 50, 60, 70 bucks. But at a pawn shop, maybe it's 30 or 40 bucks. You recognize that that's a deal. How was that created? Because you know what its retail value is and you know what they're asking for it because of exposure.

[Joe Jensen]

You're seeing these things all day. You're going to the store, you're getting the ads like you're, you're getting the exposure thrust upon you. So you just kind of naturally know, well, that's a deal because I see it every day. Yes, but you're saying, Robin, say this this week.

[Justin Morgan]

He says too often people major in minor things. Say that again. Tony Robbins said this week, too often people major in minor things. And what I mean by that is people know what's going on in Hollywood, they know what's going on in sports, they know what's happening with certain stats that are just totally irrelevant to building wealth, to building the life that they want to build. In fact, oftentimes they're spending their money helping other people get the lives they want to have. I think about how much super bowl tickets were this year and I'm just like sick. I'm like, man, my blueprint apparently needs to change because that's a crazy amount of money to go watch a four hour game, right? Like, yeah, absolutely wild. Each of us have our own values. My value happens to be finding deals. I come home and I look at cars, I look at power Sport toys. I look at things that my family need and I get really excited about getting things at a discount. Just so happens you can make a really good living getting real estate at a discount. So it's very easy for me to recognize. So that first thing is deals aren't found, they're created. Now you think you created a deal, what do you do? You just put it under contract. And I'm shocked by how many people won't even take that step and go into the due diligence period where they have nothing to risk to really start to see is that really a deal? Do I, did I really create something here? And people get big eyed and they get deer in the headlights and they don't take the action to actually put stuff under contract when there's nothing at risk to do that. Especially in today's market, you'll always have a due diligence period. Now maybe if you happen to find a house for 250 that's worth 500, they don't want a due diligence period. But you shouldn't be more than a few phone calls away to find out if that's really a deal. That is just sitting there and that you and I both know that doesn't happen very often.

[Joe Jensen]

Yeah, for the most part, the buyers are in a powerful spot right now. And it wasn't like that. What? Just a few years ago I remember putting in offers and it's like unless you waived all contingencies, put in hard earnest money, like you're totally at risk. They weren't even looking at your offer. It was like, oh, it was a scary world. You know, nowadays, yeah, you can take your time, put in an offer soft, you know. No, no hard money. Like I'm getting students doing 30 day due diligence periods. Like the sellers are doing whatever they, they need to do, which is really comfortable. As a buyer, like you say, you have a lot of advantage that you.

[Justin Morgan]

Didn'T have nothing to risk. Right. A little bit of time and you're going to get some education in the process.

[Joe Jensen]

Yeah, that's awesome.

[Justin Morgan]

And once that deal is under contract, now you have something to take out there to the world and let other people put their litmus test on it and see if it's really a deal. If it's a deal, your hard money lenders will lend on it. If it's a deal, other buyers will want to buy it and you can wholesale it. They'll tell you if it's a deal. If you're still in doubt yourself. So there's lots of ways to confirm that value.

[Joe Jensen]

Yeah, I actually like that the more people you get playing a part in it, the more eyes there are to kind of vet out, like you said. Still, I, I use, I think it's funny, lenders, like you said, is a great example because like the bank wants to make sure you're safe because it keeps them safe, whether it's a hard money lender or whether it's the bank itself, you know, whatever. I've seen them be some of my best due diligence vetting partners because they want to make sure it's a good deal. And you might not think of it that way originally when I was first getting into this and I wouldn't ever think like the bank is going to be like making sure that the deal's good. Like, that's my job. They just need to give me the money. Right. But it's a great tool, you know, and same thing with hard money lenders, like, well, we need to know the xyz. And so it's like for beginners even go try to line it up and they'll tell you what you need to learn that you might not even realize because they already know and they've been through it 100 times.

[Justin Morgan]

Absolutely, yes. Big time.

[Joe Jensen]

That's cool too.

[Justin Morgan]

Think about wholesaling a house that you can make a little bit of money on. And if you put it out to the world and 10 or 15 or 20 or 50 people start responding, you kind of know you got a good deal, right? Maybe you want to flip it, right. Maybe you want to get into a bidding situation on it. So it's a really good feeling if 10 or 15 or 20 people are chasing the deal. You control that. You feel really good. You got a deal because other people want it. So I just, I think it's easy and you got nothing to risk.

[Joe Jensen]

Do you have metrics or like rules that you apply when you're like, okay, it needs to hit these things for me to flip or these things for me to wholesale or these things for me to hold on as a long, long hold. Like, do you kind of have some rules that, that we could learn from?

[Justin Morgan]

Yeah. So I mean, my, my rules, like, like I want to take, I want to make 10% on the ARV if I'm going to buy it. And, and the rule there is if I wanted to only make 3 to 6%, I could be an agent and have no risk. So if I'm actually going to buy the property, I better make at least 10% because I got a lot more risk. Right. Meaning a real estate agent gets a 3 to set 3 to 6% commission.

[Joe Jensen]

Right.

[Justin Morgan]

And so if I'm going to close, I better make a lot more than that. And you talk about flipping.

[Joe Jensen]

If you go to buy it and then turn around and sell it, email probably a rehab in there, you're like, I want to make 10% of the sale price when I get right.

[Justin Morgan]

Because my, the agents are going to make that, that 6%. Right. So I need to make at least 10% because I'm the one on the hook for it. I've done all the work. So that, that's the flip. Maybe I should back up on the wholesale. If I throw a property out there and I can make half of what I am on the whole on, on the flip. What I think I'm going to make on the flip, I might wholesale it. Right. So if I'm gonna, if I'm gonna, if I can make 10 grand in a wholesale and I'm only gonna make 20000 in a flip, I'll probably let it go wholesale because then there's no.

[Joe Jensen]

Time, there's no risk, there's no like rehab taking longer than it's going supposed to, which it always does. You know, it's like you're just like money because it's guaranteed.

[Justin Morgan]

Yeah. So I got to at least double my money in order to go into flip territory. So wholesaling is make some money. If I'm going to flip it, I need to double my money and make at least 10% double my money and make at least 10% of after repair value of the retail value of that property.

[Joe Jensen]

So that's cool.

[Justin Morgan]

In today's market, in my market where an average median home price is is a half a million bucks, 500,000. Like my wholesales better be at least 25,000. And I'm not gonna flip unless I'm making at least 50, which would be that 10 rule.

[Joe Jensen]

That's cool. I think that's a really good like tangible rule of thumb that people can use. And obviously, you know, there's a lot of more details you go into if you're doing luxury flips and blah, blah, blah. But I think, I think that's like a solid place for a beginner to be like, oh, okay, that's something I can think about and use.

[Justin Morgan]

Yeah. This is median home price. Right. Because you mentioned something great. I use this rule going into a couple luxury flips, not recommended.

[Joe Jensen]

Yeah. The margins are different there, right?

[Justin Morgan]

Yeah, yeah. In fact in fact, my worst deals have been my high end deals. My best deals have been mobile homes.

[Joe Jensen]

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And that's sometimes how it goes margin wise.

[Justin Morgan]

Right? Like margin, like you can buy a trailer for 50 grand and sell it for 150, you know, put in some money that the margins are bigger. But if I'm buying a million dollar home, I better make 200 grand because I know I'm probably going to only end up making 100 at the end of the day. So I want, I want to make 20%, not 10% of a million for sure.

[Joe Jensen]

No, that's cool. And so what about long holds? Do you do a lot of long holds? Do you, I mean you, I think you have like a dozen homes of, in your, your long hold portfolio. Is that something you're like passionate about growing and what are kind of your rules there? Or is it just kind of a side note? If you can't flip it, you hold it.

[Justin Morgan]

Yeah. So we've had some, some shifts over the last few years. One was I've liquidated my entire nightly rental portfolio. So I saw what I felt was some writing on the wall. I'm certainly thinking I was a few years early to a lot of that. But when Covid hit it kind of put a stress test on a lot of assets because we saw cancellations across the board, overnight revenue disappear and start to slow down enough to start to question, well, where are we really at with this whole nightly rental, Airbnb, vrbo, home away model? Right. Short term rentals. So put some assets on the market and by the end of 2022, I had sold about $5 million worth of nightly rental portfolio, nightly rental assets and didn't own any more. I think that's a good thing overall. Certainly there are still some strong markets, but there also are a lot of new regulations, a lot of cities and counties and coming down and changing the way that nightly rentals are being done. There's also a huge amount of supply that continues to be out in the market every day.

[Joe Jensen]

So it's so competitive too. It's like you can't run the way you used to run it. Like now it's gotta be a Disney World type stop. You know, no one wants to stay unless it's cool and interesting.

[Justin Morgan]

So competitive, it's expensive to set it up to be unique. So been in the nightly rental space eight, nine years and now been out of it for a year and a half or just over a year. That's been a good thing. But it's caused me to question, well, what am I doing? Because it was largely a lot of the nightly rental income that was allowing me to get out of the rat race to semi retire. My income exceeded my expenses. And so as those assets were being liquidated, that cash flow was going away. At a point in the market where we're seeing multifamily storage units, RV units, we're seeing a lot of the traditional cash flow, high cash flow assets have super, super compressed cap rates and just not good cash flow attached to them at a time where interest rates are going up and making that even compounding more difficult to create cash flow. So took some time last year, had some family stuff going on that allowed me to take some time and to reflect and to enjoy what I built. And I fell upon the rent by the room, the co living space. And so over the last a little over six months, that's been my new passion, that's been my new asset, that's been my new long term, as you ask, the long term cash flow game plan. It's an asset that does cash flow. It's an asset that does make sense right now with our affordability crisis, it's an asset that is not on Main street or Wall Street. It has higher cap rates that work with today's interest rates. And then of course there's a creative finance element as well that you can even, you know, get, get even better deals, better cash flow because the rates that you're paying are lower. So our strategy right now is very much in the beginning or in the middle of the new asset class that, that I'm heavily focused on, which is that rent by the room?

[Joe Jensen]

Yeah, I think that's such a cool model because it's like for, you know, people knew about student housing for a long time, like, oh, like student housing, you can rent out rooms, you know, but, but now like say in today's market, it's like you can have working, professional, mature, you know, 30, 40 year olds, then they're still gonna go rent a room. You know what I mean? That's just super normal now like that it's not just students doing this. These aren't just, you know, 20 year olds and 19 year olds now. It's very normalized, which just kind of is a pivot. You know, I lived in Hawaii for a while and there's a lot of multi generational living there. Meaning there's, you know, you got grandparents and the family and then the kids stay, even when they're adults, you know, you just got these layers because of the price point, you know, things are just not affordable.

[Justin Morgan]

It all comes back to affordability.

[Joe Jensen]

It does. And that's what we see happening in these nice markets on the mainland here too. You know, in Utah, you're seeing a lot of people staying in their basement apartment of their parents and living with parents. And we're starting to become a multi generational household here as well, which is crazy to think of. You know, even just five years ago, that was like, yeah, right, like that was a joke. And now we're seeing it and I think the co living for, for single people is, is, it's the same concept, it's the same thing and it's, it's coming from the same pain point of affordability, but also convenience. You know, people are like, they just don't want to deal with the land and the maintenance and this cool. Like if I can just rent a room and everything's fine. Like, easy, easy.

[Justin Morgan]

We live in a shared economy, right? You made a joke about five years ago, we couldn't imagine this. Well, 10 years ago we wouldn't have allowed strangers in our homes, or even worse, putting a drunk stranger in our car and driving them around and calling it Uber.

[Joe Jensen]

Right?

[Justin Morgan]

We didn't imagine that a decade ago. But today we live in a world where that shared economy is so normal. And there's an app out there for every shared anything you can share your garage. You can. Yeah, it goes pretty far what you can share even to a immoral place. And it's, it's disgusting. But at the same time, you know, in this space where investors need to get returns and property tenants or guests need places to rent or to lease, it makes all the sense in the world. And that's win, win, win, right? How do we, how do we provide something that the market needs? And I think it's sad that we're, you know, we're getting away from the American dream where everybody owns a house, but certainly everybody doesn't deserve to own a house.

[Joe Jensen]

And what blows me away is everybody doesn't want it. I keep, you know, I preach, go buy a house, go buy a house.

[Justin Morgan]

Do whatever it takes, you know.

[Joe Jensen]

And then I have so many friends, you know, in their 30s or you know, even 40s, and they're like, good, like, they're just like, they rather just rent a room in an apartment because it's just so easy, you know, a house like, oh, that's so much work and headache and maintenance and thought like bandwidth. Like people just don't want it. They're just like, it's just easier to do this. And so that. Which is surprising to me. Like it's not that one people can't. But then even a lot of people who can just, they just don't want to. It's just not in their vision anymore. Which is interesting. And so it's like say you just work with the economy you have and provide what the market wants and demands and, and then you. There. There's going to be profit there.

[Justin Morgan]

Yes, big time.

[Joe Jensen]

Let's pivot a little bit. Justin, I want to talk about, you know, in 2022 you had a family experience that kind of shed light on why you do real estate and how you want to continue to do real estate. Maybe you could tell us a little bit about that and your son and what happened there.

[Justin Morgan]

Yeah, you bet. So we can go from, you know, this make money, hoorah rah. Real estate investing. Oftentimes this industry is, I'll use the word, slut it out with Ferraris and cash flying in the airs in the air, you know, and it makes me sad. Right. Social media is kind of diluted the professionalism of it. Social media is kind of diluted of really what the lifestyle opportunities are here and that and that, you know, I succumbed to some of that in my early days and here being in my mid-40s last year or 2022, as you said, my son came down with childhood cancer. He got, he got leukemia, a blood cancer, 15 years old. And I had the opportunity to spend an entire month in the hospital with him reflecting and a lot of serving and a lot of crying and a lot of freaking out and a lot of no answers and then some answers. But really as it relates to career and real estate, I looked around and I realized that I was the only dad in this primary children's hospital of hundreds and hundreds of patients. I'm looking around this childhood cancer ward and I'm the only dad there day after day, week after week. And it really made me one grateful but it too it caused me to reflect about what's the next phase of my life. You know, this was also at a time where I was selling cash flow assets in the nightly rental space and asking the question of what's next for me. And so real estate provided cash and cash flow that allowed me to take almost a year off and be with my family. I still looked at deals, I still dabbled. I turned to triathlons and endurance races a lot for my drug of choice to get through this challenging time. But I also had a lot of time on my bike or with my running shoes on to just reflect of what's next and what's important. And so that's kind of where this investor dads movement has come out of is, you know, we're a lot of us are fathers, a lot of us are men that want to have children or have children, but we're not around for our children or are we really building a life that lets us serve others, starting with our family. And so my passion is fatherhood first and foremost and what real estate can do to serve fathers and to serve me. And really it's the only industry I know of that you can make now money. You can make massive money and you can make passive money. That's the only business that you can pursue that allows you to make money in all of those areas where you're making money now, gaining an education, you're making massive chunks of money that allow you to pay off debts, have nice things, go on vacations, have experiences, and then you're making passive money which allows you to get out of the rat race, be able to serve your family, serve yourself, serve your family and then serve the world. So yeah, cancer turned into quite the blessing to be able to wake me up and we are cancer free a year later. That's awesome. We're now just on quarterly checkups, which is really great. Was a fast onset and it's a fast going away cancer. So we feel like we won, we won the childhood cancer card and life's back to a little bit of normalcy now.

[Joe Jensen]

Well, and I see you, you know, on social and the things you do, like you really live that lifestyle too. You know, you're out there skiing with your boys all the time and doing these fun things and working out with them. And like I see you just living it. You know, I'm sure that that gives you perspective when you think you could lose someone, you know, to take advantage of the time with them. And yeah, you know, like the money can be really awesome. Like say the time is the thing that's so precious to kids. You know, it's not, they're not like they don't care about the money as much of the bigger thing. It's like, you know, but having the time to be able to do it is, is special and it's unique. Especially when you have kids at home, you know what I mean? I was able to go into my, I have a 7 year old daughter and I got to go read at her, her school. You know, I'm reading a storybook to all the you know, the first graders or whatever. And, and she was just like, this is so cool. Like you're like the only dad that's come in to do this. And I was just like, like you said, you know, you're sitting there in the hospital and you're like, there's no dads here all month. You know what I mean? It's like there's all these opportunities that most guys don't get to have because of the, the way our culture and making money is designed. And it's, that's what I love about real estate. It's like, hey, there's a pivot. Like said, you can make passive money and massive money and now money and you can choose the season for those things too. That's what I love about it. It's so customizable. Some things you get started on and the ball gets rolling and it's out of your hands. And if you're going to take that company public, it's now or never. And you, you just give up the next five or 10 years. It is what it is. You know what I mean? It's, it's, it's, it's going both real estate. It's like, I'm going to pull back, I'm going to do this, I'm going to take a year to think about it. I'm going to do that. You can really mold it and customize it depending on what your life looks, looks like in that moment, which is so unique and awesome.

[Justin Morgan]

Absolutely. We could talk about that all day long, but there's a lot of valuable points there for sure.

[Joe Jensen]

Man, this, this is super cool. We do need to wrap up here pretty soon here, but you know, we might need to have you back on. I feel like you have so much to share from, from like say, you know, 20 years plus in the game. You've done the whole thing. You've done the flipping, you've done the short term riddles, you doing the long haul rentals. And even now with the co living stuff, you've had your hands in so many parts of it. Is there anything kind of, before we go into our final four questions or anything that you want to share? Maybe just a guiding principle or concept or just your thoughts about real estate as an investment tool that people should know about.

[Justin Morgan]

We've talked about some of the simple lessons. Deals are created, they're not found. We've talked about the now money, the passive money, the massive money of what real estate can do to serve. I think the thought that comes to mind here Is is Robert Kiyosaki was, was founding thought a generator for a lot of us thinking grow rich. You listen to bigger Pockets. It's oftentimes the book that's mentioned at the end as a favorite. I'm shocked by the amount here in my, at my point in my life as a mid-40s, you know, dad first, investor second, done a lot of different things. I'm shocked that people don't have financial education. And you know, there's definitely action attached to financial education, but just merely understanding financial education. If you're a W2 employee right now, there's ways and there's tax code. Some call them loopholes, but there's, there's ways to save on your taxes. That's one of the biggest stealers of wealth for most people. You know, upwards of even 40% with federal and state. That's crazy when you think about trying to work almost half the year for free. And so by purchasing an investment property, you can fall into some of the codes that are written for you to be able to write off taxes. And you don't have to change much. Right? A little bit of financial education. One property purchase and the next thing you know is you're saving just at the bottom line of what your W2 income is right now. Super, super simple, but it comes from financial education. The next is action, right? You got to take action. But action doesn't mean you have to take a lot of risk. Action can mean just locking up a property like we talked about and seeing if it's a good deal, seeing if it's something that you want to participate in as a JV partner, joint venture partner, or seeing it as something that you want to sell or wholesale for a chunk of cash. And so, you know, education and action, there's ways to do that in order to be able to move this, this career along in the real estate space. Right. And I'm grateful I began early. I'm grateful I began young. It's been just a massive blessing to my life because it provides some of the greatest tax advantages out there. It provides some of the greatest income streams out there of any opportunity there is to build wealth and make money in business and in life.

[Joe Jensen]

Yeah, man, I think that's really powerful. We could obviously talk a whole hour on that. But financial literacy, like you said, like knowing how it works, knowing how taxes work, knowing how income works, literally just being able to like understand the words like amortization and interest rates and front loaded depreciation and, and clawbacks. There's this all this whole language is like, what are you talking about when you first get into it? But it's so impactful to every single person, you know what I mean? I don't need to speak like a brain surgeon to get through my daily life. That very rarely is that ever gonna play into my world, right? But everybody uses money and is playing in this world, right? Anybody who's ever bought a house has an amortization schedule on it or unless they bought a cash, but anybody's ever had a loan, do they even understand what that means? And the front loaded interest on that and how that plays out? Like, do we know what these things mean? Compounding? And so all these different things that everybody's using every day, but so many people have no idea. I think that's a really powerful part. And I don't think I really understood it the way I did until I got into real estate, which is interesting.

[Justin Morgan]

So I think we go back to one of the other lessons. Start majoring in major things, right?

[Joe Jensen]

You don't need to be able to speak money more than football. You can speak football too. But make sure that's the minor and this is the major because it's going to be more impactful on the things that matter.

[Justin Morgan]

And I get it, taxes are boring. But you know what, working an extra 10 or 20 years of your life for the federal government, that's really boring. So like make taxes fun and there's ways to do it. Make earning money fun and there's ways to do it. But start majoring in major things. Get out of majoring in minor things. It doesn't serve your life and it doesn't move the needle forward for you.

[Joe Jensen]

And we'll wrap up here. But I think one of the great ways for people to do that too is obviously you can study. Like just study. Like become a self learner if you can figure out how to learn on your own. Like the world's your oyster. But two, even if you're not a self learner and you can't do it, go partner with somebody. Like you said, go find a deal, get under contract having no idea what you're doing. And then go to Justin or your boss, Uncle Bob or me or whoever, you just go to somebody like, help me make a deal out of this. And we'll be like, it's trash. Throw it away. Or we'll say, well, you could do XYZ and let me show you how. And you know, and real estate is such a cool way to be able to partner with people and That's a great way to learn, to learn safely, to learn smart. And again, more win, win, wins. Right? It's okay to bring people in if it's going to help you move forward, you know, and if you get a, a smaller piece of, a bigger piece of pie because you bring in partners, then that's a, that's great for everybody. Absolutely.

[Justin Morgan]

Yep. Getting a 10% of 10 deals is still 100%. Right.

[Joe Jensen]

So, yeah, it's a lot more than 100% of no deal right there, which.

[Justin Morgan]

Is a whole lot more than zero percent.

[Joe Jensen]

Yeah. Well, this is sweet. Now we're gonna go into our final four questions and we'll get you on with your day and let you be a dad and an investor. But if people do wanna keep in touch with you, though, if they do wanna partner with you or learn from you or pick your brain, what's a good way for people to be in touch or to follow you?

[Justin Morgan]

Yeah, I hang out on Facebook a lot, trying to do better in the Instagram space. So we can post some social links here to get in touch. I'm big on the network. I'm big on your net worth is your network. And every deal that I've done, which are some pretty big deals, have only been pulled off because of the people involved in them. So my focus is the rent by the rooms, the co living space. So love to connect with anybody there and connect on that front. There's the mentoring and the coaching element as well that we can talk about if that's right for you and where you're at in your career. But reach out on Facebook, reach out on Instagram and we'll post those links.

[Joe Jensen]

And it's just Justin Morgan. Yeah, we'll put those in the show notes. It's Justin Morgan on Justin Morgan Real Estate.

[Justin Morgan]

I'll pop up on Google. But the social links are different because of the timing. They were set up.

[Joe Jensen]

Yeah, we'll get, we'll get those in the, in the show notes. But. And I want to thank you, actually, I got you because talking about your network, you know, the first real creative finance deal I did, I mean, I'd done some like seller finance and stuff, but first time I did like a subject too. I was looking for a good attorney to do it because none of the attorneys I could find knew anything about it. And we stumbled across each other on Facebook and you put me in touch with Jeff Breglio who we've had on the show here, and he did an awesome job helping me close that. And it's just like. Like you say your network like having the people. So you helped me do that. We didn't even talk about creative finance, which we could do a whole podcast on that and you've done, so we'll definitely need to have you back on. But anyway, thanks for being part of that network, helping me grow mine.

[Justin Morgan]

Yeah, that's great. I love it. Right? I love that. It's so cool to be able to put that stamp in the calendar is impacting your life and in doing a seller finance, creative finance deal. Small piece of it, but I'm grateful. That's awesome.

[Joe Jensen]

Yeah, no, it was a huge piece for me. All right, well, let's go on to our final four and we'll let you go. So question one, Justin, what is a dream deal or deal you would hope to be able to tackle someday?

[Justin Morgan]

Oh, a dream deal that I'd hope to be able to tackle someday. Gosh, dude, I live my dream.

[Joe Jensen]

There you go.

[Justin Morgan]

Yeah, I'm looking to buy 10 to 12 houses this year in the co living space. That's my dream this year. That's a different asset class. We're working on two right now. We got 14 bedrooms coming online here in the next 60 days. So the big deal is that going to call the deal the co living. The co living portfolio. Right. The rent by the room portfolio.

[Joe Jensen]

There you go. I love it. All right, what's been one of the most pivotal books you've ever read or one that just excites you recently?

[Justin Morgan]

Oh, you want business or personal development?

[Joe Jensen]

Either way, whatever's lighting you on fire.

[Justin Morgan]

Gosh. So Napoleon Hill wrote a book called Outwitting the Devil. I think it's a fantastic book for business and personal development. It talks about a lot of the principles that I live by. I live by a little bit different principles on the religious side of things and my belief in Jesus Christ and in God. But it talks about homeschooling, and I live by those principles. It's a really, really impactful, shake you up kind of book that can cause you to ask some really deep questions, some of which will be what are you doing with your financial education and your financial future, which we talked about today? So I'm gonna have to go with without waiting, the devil right now.

[Joe Jensen]

Cool. I love it. All right, most expensive or just interesting mistake. We'll do some air quotes on those because there's no mistakes. But most expensive or interesting mistake you've made in real estate investing.

[Justin Morgan]

Oh, buying houses or a specific house sight unseen. That was definitely the most expensive Valuable learning lesson. We were scaling big time. 2017, 2018, had a big team, had a big marketing budget, and I was buying houses site unseen. And I bought one that we ended up losing $177,000 on over the course of about 18 months. That was, that was expensive. That was a big learning lesson, you know, goes right, right along with, well, hiring the right people.

[Joe Jensen]

Yeah. So how could that one have been avoided? Because that's all I do is buy sight unseen. Um, but how, how would you, how would that one, that specific case have been avoided? In hindsight, knowing now, oh, this is what we could have done there.

[Justin Morgan]

Yeah. So I, I, I move a lot, I move really fast, but I move a lot slower compared to those days. And had I just called a few agents, had I got the property under contract, called a few agents, started to network on that deal, I would have discovered real quickly the stigma that was attached to the deal, which was heavy in what we were able to sell it for. I also would have discovered that this particular property in this specific area of our county, this county has their own multiple listing service with 14 agents, with only 14 real estate agents at the time. And as a result of that, trying to sell the property in this specific area, I had to go through those agents. And so it costs more money. All those agents knew the stigma that was attached to it, and it made it very, very difficult to sell the property. Among that the rehab was crazy. We have all sorts of issues attached to the home. I didn't see what we were dealing with. I mean, this house had an indoor pool, an indoor hot tub, how all sorts a septic system that was messed up. All sorts of fun stuff.

[Joe Jensen]

So, so that's awesome. No, I appreciate you sharing that. I think there's so much we can learn from that. But even as simple, like I said, just asking people around about, like, hey, this looks like an awesome deal. I'm not under contract. Like, why is this a deal? Like, why or is it not? Like, just asking around can be a huge thing. And I've had that same experience. And obviously it's a little easier on long hold. Yeah.

[Justin Morgan]

What should I do with this? Like, what are your thoughts? And agents are happy to be like, right?

[Joe Jensen]

Yeah, yeah, I love it. You know, and long holds are a little safer because if you make a mistake on a long hold, you can usually wait it out or pivot slowly or whatever. You know, the flipping's obviously different, you know, but, But I've had some long holds like that too, that I bought one. It's awesome. Go buy another one. That looked the same to me, but a little different area, a little bit of stigma and a little bit. And it's like, oh, no, you're gonna get trash tenants there. It's like, oh, geez, you know, so you can clean it up, but. But, yeah, just asking around can make a huge difference. So I love that advice. I think you've probably already answered this, but we'll ask it as our last question. So, Justin, what. What do you do to enjoy your life, man?

[Justin Morgan]

Yeah, I'm a dad, and I prioritize, so I prioritize my calendar. That's what I do to enjoy my life. And we're big on Fridays, so I take Fridays off. You'll find me 80, 90% of the time, never working on a Friday, because I can work hard. Monday through Friday, we tackle our schooling and our homeschool, but Fridays are sacred for fun. The kids can go do their family fun. The kids can go to their friends on Saturdays, and we can do some family projects. So if I'm balancing weekly fun and I'm balancing weekly projects, I really live a full life on top of work.

[Joe Jensen]

Man, that is a solid answer. I wasn't expecting the prioritizing the calendar, because I know you play, I know you take your family, you do fun stuff, and. And, you know, that was the exam. So I was expecting. But the prioritizing the calendar, like, being intentional about fitting it all in is huge, because if not, the days just turn to jello and, you know, the emergencies take over. And so anyway, that is really, really solid advice.

[Justin Morgan]

It was March, March of 2020, and I. It was my. It's my birthday month, and we always try to go to a big ski resort for my birthday, do something that's outside of our area, travel a little bit farther, ski some big mountains. And, dude, I was. I had a lot going on. We had all the nightly rentals. I was just going through a shift of an office manager, and I had every excuse not to go skiing. And I kind of refused to ski on weekends. I want to ski on weekdays when there's no crowds. Part of lifestyle, right? And so I did. I took the time off during the week, which was. I think we took two or three days at the time, and I went to a big ski resort. Little did I know, though, right? After just a few days later, Covid hit, right? And it shut down all the ski resorts just like that, right? So our ski season was over very, very quickly. And I'm so grateful I took that time for my birthday. I took that time with my kids, and I took that time before we lost the opportunity to do something that we love every season for the rest of the season. And so, you know, you don't have tomorrow. You're not guaranteed it. Like, live it today. And for me, you know, I try to live that with that intention, at least weekly, but live with that intention. Go prioritize your vacations. Go prioritize your fun, and then hold yourself accountable to that, because your kids are more important than your client. You are more important than your client. And when you're. When you're taking care of yourself, you can take care of others a whole lot better.

[Joe Jensen]

I love it, man. This is awesome. Thank you so much for your time. Thanks for sharing that story. Everything it does put in perspective, you know, Covid seems so long ago now, but I remember the same experience. Had all these trips planned. I'm like. And then they all had to be canceled. Like, I never thought there'd be a time where I couldn't go travel or go do this. Like, you wouldn't be allowed to. It was like. And now I'm starting to forget that. So that's a good reminder. It's like, dude, you're not promised tomorrow. Whether it's, you know, an accident or cancer or a Covid or whatever, it's like, go. Go make the best of it right now. So I appreciate your time, Justin. Thanks for giving us some of your time.

[Justin Morgan]

Thank you, brother. It's great to be with you.

[Joe Jensen]

This is Joe Jensen signing off for the Real Estate Investing school podcast, reminding you to learn the language of money.