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Real Estate Investing School Podcast
215. Collaborate to Dominate in Real Estate with Cory Jacobson
00:53:15
Welcome to The Real Estate Investing School Podcast. This episode, host Joe Jensen sits down with Cory Jacobson, an experienced investor, entrepreneur, and co-host of The Wealth Juice Podcast. Cory and his business partner, Ryan, have built an...
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- [00:00]
Joe Jensen
You know, so burning still works in 2025?
- [00:03]
Corey Jacobson
Well, it's sometimes.
- [00:09]
Joe Jensen
Welcome to the Real Estate Investing School podcast. I'm your host, Joe Jensen. Our guest today is Corey Jacobson. Now Corey is a seasoned business owner, investor and entrepreneur who with his business partner Ryan have carved out their niche in the world of real estate investing. They've personally built a thriving real estate portfolio consisting of 70 plus units spanning across multiple markets ranging from long and short term rentals to multifamily apartments and a large multi purpose resort. They co own short term rental property management and hospitality company with 100 plus units under management. And they're also the hosts of the Wealth Juice podcast. Welcome to the show, Corey.
- [00:54]
Corey Jacobson
Joe, appreciate you having me on, man. That was, I don't know if. Did we write that? That sounded pretty good. I don't know how reasoned I am, but I appreciate the nice intro.
- [01:03]
Joe Jensen
You guys have done so much. It's cool to see what, what you've done. And from what I was looking at, you guys only really been doing this for like six years.
- [01:11]
Corey Jacobson
Yeah, so I'm 33. I started back in 2018. So yeah, six. Coming up on seven years and it's been a fun ride. I mean like we're, I feel like we're just getting started, but now we're in rooms with people who are doing double, triple, quadruple amount. We are. So, you know, it's always a little bit of imposter syndrome as you work your way up. But I just love what I do. So it's, it's been great.
- [01:32]
Joe Jensen
Well, it's so funny because when you look forward some, we're looking, how do I say? It's like if you, if you look back like man, that six years, like to imagine if you had, had not been where you're at and you know somebody who's just starting to listen right now, they don't own 70 units. Right. They don't own, you know, rental property management. You know, they have nothing to them to think, wow, I could be there in just six years. Like that's crazy. It seems so short once you've been doing it for six years. I feel like looking back, it's like, wow, we've done like that's, it's been a lot of happening. We could have done even more like you said, looking at other people. But for somebody just started, I'm like, man, what else could you do in six years? Some people are like still gonna just try to finish school in that time. You know what I mean? You could have an entire portfolio and. And be doing so much in just five or six years. It's just crazy.
- [02:26]
Corey Jacobson
I think that, like, the book the Gap and the Gain was huge for us. That helped us frame our mindset of, like, okay, well, if you spend too much time comparing yourselves to other people or the outside world or the Internet, you'll never feel accomplished. You'll never feel like you've done anything worth talking about. Right. But if. And that's like, in that book. I mean, that's. That's the gap, but the gain is the you comparing yourself to former you. So every year, you know, we do quarterly business planning, and. And it's funny, I. I'm looking over here to my left because I have, like, a whiteboard. And when I look back and I accomplish the things that we talked about doing this year, not necessarily by osmosis, but, like, they just happen if you put them on paper. And once they do. Yeah, okay, so we look back and then I get to enjoy it a little bit. I'm coming up at the end of the year. Maybe I'll. Maybe I'll look over my shoulder and get to enjoy it for a little bit. But, you know, it's part of the entrepreneurial world where you just kind of keep chugging along. There's a lot of false summits. But as long as, like, for me, it's like, as long as I'm having fun, what I'm doing, and I'm, like, helping others along the way, that's what makes it all worth it. So for sure.
- [03:23]
Joe Jensen
And something I love about it specifically is you're building a portfolio that it's going to be there. Right. Whether you do it really fast or whether you do it really slow, whether there's years or months of just, like, headaches where it's just like, oh, my gosh, fault summits. What are we doing? It's all actually building something that's going to be sustainable, that's there, that's real. When I compare that to other entrepreneur outlets like sales and starting businesses, you can pour everything into something and you have nothing to show for it six months later, six years later, because it wasn't yours. You were just selling it. You made a commission, you're done. Or the guys who get into house flipping, same thing, you know, they could flip for a decade, and they look back and like, I don't own anything. You know what I mean?
- [04:09]
Corey Jacobson
Yeah. I mean, I think it's. Real estate is really a delayed gratification game. And if you can put that. If you can keep that in your head and think about building for the future. You know, we teach people how to buy their first and next rental property now because we've seen the game. And it's like, if you can buy one property every other year for 10 years, like, if you can have five properties in 10 years, you're going to look back and be like, wow, like, look at all this equity I built. You're guaranteed basically to retire a millionaire unless you're buying $60,000 properties. And, like, even if you just shorten your horizon by a few years and build yourself some security, you don't have to. You don't have to buy a thousand units. You don't have to buy a hundred units. Like, Ryan, I. To be candid about it, like, we own a percentage of those units. Like, some of them we own just the two of us. Some of them we own in partnerships, in general partnerships. So it's like putting ourselves in the right rooms with people who are doing better than us consistently has what helped raise us up to the level of those around us. And we're continuously trying to find ways to provide value and fit in. And I think that's what attributes to some level of success that we've had.
- [05:09]
Joe Jensen
I love that, man. It's funny that you sent that, because that was kind of. My story is I just dabbled in it and bought, you know, like, five units or whatever over about a decade, and I didn't know what I was doing. I just knew I should. But then after a decade had passed, as I. As I look back and, oh, my gosh, I have so much equity. I have all this leverage now. Then I really got into the science of how real estate investing works, because I had no idea what I was doing before. I just, like, bought stuff because I could. And once I learned the science of it, I was able to turn around and leverage those five units into 35 units in, like, a year. Because I. And then. And then I think, man, now I'm at like, 45 units or something like that. I'm like, dude, in another five or ten years, even if I did nothing more, if I just kind of just chilled for the next five or 10 years, I'd be able to look and go, oh, time to leverage again. I could go, boom, turn that 45 into 200. You know what I mean? Yeah. And it's crazy how that works like that.
- [06:04]
Corey Jacobson
I think, Joe, the common denominator is, like you said, you didn't know what you were doing, but you still weren't afraid to take action. And that's kind of been a theme for us. Like, we've tried the fix and flips, the long term rentals, the short term rentals, we've done syndication, we've raised capital, we figured out what we liked, we figured out what we don't like. We've took some shiny object syndrome hits on the chin, right? Like that's the game we're playing. So I think the willingness to dive in, get 85% of the way there, jump, build a parachute on the way down, like that mentality has carried us because without it, you'll be stuck in analysis paralysis trying to figure out how to get that one deal for 10 years or you'll never buy it. And then you'll look back and you know, the, the price of regret is, is pretty, is pretty heavy, right? More than the price of winning, in my opinion. So it's all about diving in head first and be like, willing and knowing that you're going to take some losses and having that failure just to be a propelling moment to get you the next stage. That's how we see it.
- [06:59]
Joe Jensen
Dude, it's so true. I have multiple deals I can think of where I'm like, I got the deal just because, like, I need to do something. I need to be taking action. And wasn't like an amazing deal. It wasn't anything sexy or cool, but it was just like, I just gotta do something. And, and now I look back and I'm like, man, some of those deals, like, really worked out. Like I have this one, it was this. It was a seller finance deal I snagged like forever ago. And, and I ended up seller financing it out again, kind of like in a wrap or whatever, which I wish I'd never done. But the, the guy has, like, made so many late payments and racked up so many fees, he owes more on the note now than he did like eight years ago. And, and the value of the property's gone up so much. And it was like this little throwaway deal. It was a couple thousand dollars down. I just like, I just got to do something. And I've made so much money on that little throwaway deal of just like, well, I want to be taking some action, but I don't have a lot of money right now, but I'll do something.
- [07:58]
Corey Jacobson
You know, real estate is so forgiving too. And that's why we say like, no Flipper or anybody that's. Or Nobody that's bought 50 rental properties has ever said, man, I wish I would have sold these things years ago.
- [08:09]
Joe Jensen
Right?
- [08:10]
Corey Jacobson
Like so. And I think that, like, even my first deal, I remember this dude, like I was $250,000. I was a house hack in 2018 and I thought to myself, I think it was 250 and the guy. And then like we negotiated up to 257. I remember thinking that and I'm like talking to my agent because I had no clue what I was doing. And I was thinking, I'm not, I'm not doing this. Like, I'm not seven grand. Like, that's so much money. Like, why is it up this high? Like 257 is so high. Okay, you can fast forward six and a half years later, that property is worth $400,000 and I live for free for four years. And, and the, you know, like, why.
- [08:45]
Joe Jensen
So people.
- [08:46]
Corey Jacobson
The reason why I say this is that people are complaining now. And I get it. It's a lot harder to buy real estate now than it was in 2018, without a doubt. But if you zoom out and you think about 10, 20, 30 years down the line, are you going to be mad that you spent 450 on the duplex? Because in 20 years that's going to be worth 1.2 million. It's just about patience. And that's hard to do because we're in a, we're in an instant gratification society. You've turned on Instagram, you see millionaires that are 18 driving around Lamborghinis that maybe are rented or maybe not. But you know, you compare yourself to other people. Just get in the game, buy cash flowing real estate, have some delayed gratification house hack and like say like, okay, I'm not going to live. Like, I feel like I'm, I am supposed to right now. I'm going to, I'm going to live in one unit, rent out the other unit. I'm living one room, rent out the other two rooms and kind of like do that for a couple of years and you look back and thank yourself.
- [09:37]
Joe Jensen
Yeah, man. I think there's so much power, like saying just getting in the game, doing something. One, it's like you, you'll, you'll learn a lot just by getting in. Reps is what I call like I, that was one of my philosophies when I was first, like going hard with it was like, I just want to buy as much as I possibly can, even if they're cheaper, even if they're not like really cool deals. I just want to get the reps of Going through the process and like, one of those. I ended up buying this mobile home, and it was a seller finance deal as well. And I was like, I just, like, I wasn't. I didn't have a ton of money at the time. And I was just like, okay, I just get knee. I need another rep. I need to do something. Ended up buying this deal. I'm renting out for a while, and I was making a couple hundred bucks a month. Like, it was cool, whatever, but it was kind of a headache. And then the tenants moved out and it needed all this work. And I was just like, I. I literally was ready to throw it away. I'd made. I'd probably tripled, quadrupled the money I'd put into it. At this point, I'd moved it far away. I didn't even care about the asset. It was becoming this headache, and it was in a mobile home park that I didn't even own the dirt. So I'm like, dealing with, like, their management. I'm like, this is not the kind of asset I want to. I literally was this close to just giving the. The trailer to the mobile home park because I didn't want to pay the 350 lot fee when there was no tenant in it. Right. I don't even care about this. You know, you can have it. And then last minute, I posted on Facebook and somebody is like, moving from another state. This is in Oklahoma, and they're moving from Texas. They're like, as soon as we sell our house in Texas, we can buy your mobile home. I was like, wait, you're selling a house? Like, well, where to? Tell me about that. We ended up trading this mobile home that I was literally going to throw away for a house in a small town in Texas. Like, literally trading on the purchase contract under purchase price. I just put the VIN number of the mobile home. I was like, you get the mobile home, I get your house. And now I own this cash flowing, actual asset that I can put debt on. Like all the benefits of real. Real estate over mobile homes and all because I was just trying to do something a few years before. I had to get some deal under my belt. So I bought whatever I could. That wasn't even a good asset.
- [11:42]
Corey Jacobson
I don't even think I've ever heard a story like that where you traded a property. That's. That's pretty amazing. And it's the power, Joe, of putting your message into the universe. And, like, we teach this to people. Ryan. I started a podcast and a social media platform when we had three units. Who's gonna listen to us? Like, what authority do we have? But it's. The purpose of it is like, we're putting our message out there. Now people look at us as like, oh, these are real estate investors in the Philadelphia area who are hungry, who are doing deals. And then they associate you with that. And then they're, they're thinking like, oh, I want to go along in the journey with these people. They don't already have a thousand units that they bought in 2002. I want to, I want to watch them grow. And then now we help other people do it. But your story right there is putting your message into the universe and just talking about it. And like all of a sudden it's osmosis. Like, deals happen and you meet people. And I think people are afraid because they think they're bragging or something if they talk about the deals that they do or they post it somewhere or they, you know, I, I think attention is a new currency. And I heard that from somebody that's not original, but, like, it's true. Like, you talk about it, you put it out there, like, you, you share your story, people are going to resonate, you're going to help somebody else, and then naturally people want to be around you and you can rise up to the level of those that, you know, you didn't have any business talking to in the first place. That's what happened to us, at least.
- [12:57]
Joe Jensen
Yeah. When the really cool thing about being in a position you're at, like you said, where you're like, hey, we didn't have a ton of units. But then we started, like, reaching out and teaching and helping people. The person who's 10, 15, 20 years into the game and they, you know, they own like big syndications and they're, you know, they're running three, you know, flipping companies and a wholesaling company and a, and a syndicate. Like, they've forgotten the little nuances that are life changing and blow your mind. Like when you're first learning it, like where you guys were at when you started, it's like even, you know, even just being a few years in, it's like, whoa. Every little thing I remember what I just learned about, like, I don't know, just a different kind of loans. Like, well, there's a DSCR loan. Holy smokes. You can get a loan not based off of your own credit. Like, it was like, those are big game changers for the newbies. And so sometimes, you know, when you don't know everything yet. You're more relatable and exciting. But I want to get more into your story. I've been talking a lot. So how did you guys get into like, it's interesting. I also want to talk about your partnership because it's not just you, you have Ryan as well. But how did you guys find real estate as an investment tool? And like when did you decide to lean into it?
- [14:10]
Corey Jacobson
Great question. So this, it's funny, Ryan, I went to college together. As I mentioned, we're both 33, so we met like 12 years ago. And I remember like just, just vibing with him. Like he was a cool guy. I didn't know that we would become partners, but we kind of had like, we were like minded in ways. And then after college we ended up living together. We were renting about spending a thousand dollars a month each in rent. And we always talked about personal finance, real estate, investing, entrepreneurship before we were even doing anything because we went to our jobs, we actually worked for the same company. And I remember thinking like being 24, 25, like, damn man, is this it? Like, is this, is this the thing that we're going to do? Like, am I going to do this forever? I was making $35,000. And I remember my boss actually was a good mentor of mine. So you know, I worked for a great company, but he said he wanted to keep me at the company. He said, I can't pay you much more, but I have a good idea for you. You know what you should do? There's 123 year olds that work at this company. You should buy a five bedroom place and live in one unit or live in one bedroom and rent out the other bedrooms so that you can make more so that you can stay here. His name was Todd. I was like, Todd, I don't know how long I'm going to stay here. I love you, but you know, I got to, I got to be able to make more money. So I ended up leaving and going into, into sales. But my, my whole point there is I didn't take his advice exactly. But I bought a three bedroom, two bath, that $250,000 property. I went from paying $1,000 a month in rent to, to living for free because I had my roommates renting out my two other rooms and they were paying 800 each and my mortgage was $1,500. Still have that property today. So Ry went his separate ways. We came back together after I'd saved up some money and bought a another duplex. And he saw me and he's like, dude, you're doing what we said we were going to do. Like let's, let's, let's do this together. Right? So we ended up starting a podcast at that point and then we were able to organically network with people who were just a few steps ahead of us. We talked about our story, we talked about what we were buying. We bought a duplex here, a triplex here, a single family. We grew up to like eight units between us and, and then as we met people through the podcast, partnerships with them started to form. We bought a seven unit, we bought a 43 unit boutique hotel, if you will. It's a short term rental like cabins. And then we bought an 18 unit in New Hampshire. We have a ground up development project in Arizona. All of that started because we put our message out there and then we were able to bring value by people bringing people on the podcast. We realized we were good at marketing, investor relations, raising capital, underwriting deals. And we were able to parlay the skill sets of other operators who were going and finding the deals and working with the property management companies and doing things boots on the ground. So that 70 plus units is not just the two of us. We started out the two of us and then it expanded from there as we put our message out there.
- [16:48]
Joe Jensen
Yeah, that's interesting. It sounds like you guys have really like leaned into working with people as opposed to just doing it on your own. You know, one, there's you and there's Ryan. But even the two of you, you didn't stop there. You've really just like, the more is merrier, abundant mindset.
- [17:06]
Corey Jacobson
We've made mistakes too with like, you don't want to partner with the wrong people, right. So you have to really vet people and you have to make sure you're working with the right operators. But what we learned quickly, I just recently left my full time job to pursue real estate and our coaching business full time. That's what I do now. But for the longest time we Both were working W2 jobs and what we were thinking, Joe, is that there's these people, there's people who own commercial real estate investment companies who are doing this full time. They are going and looking at deals, they're underwriting deals, they're finding deals, they're buying apartment complexes. How could we compete with them if we're trying to really scale now we can buy a duplex, buy a single family and grow our portfolio that way. And we still are, we're still padding our portfolio, the two of us. But we figured why not join forces with people who are doing this, who have all the operations, but maybe they need, they need a partner of people to bring in money to run these deals. And we know people with money. And that was how the partnerships formed and how we were able to scale that way. We got a couple syndications under our belt where we were general partners. We're working on a few now. But we were selective. You know, we didn't want to go into business with just anybody. And you can't legally just raise capital for random people, right? You have to have play a part in the, in the team. And that's what we did. So I think we figured we can go further together. And we're working with people who owned 400 units, right? They've done this, it's tried and true. And we figured out where we could fit in and where we could help their business. And by that I would say that's probably the biggest reason why we're able to scale while we still try to find deals on our own in new markets that we've had our own portfolio.
- [18:40]
Joe Jensen
That's awesome. No, I love that. Like I said, finding where you can add the value because some people have the money, some people have the deal, some people have the operation skills. And even just being the one that puts all that together is vital because if you don't have every piece, then you have nothing. And so it's cool that you can figure out where your role is at different times and run with it. So what you said you do you invest out of state then as well? Remote stuff or is it all like in your backyard or how does that work?
- [19:10]
Corey Jacobson
Good question. So we start, we're in Philadelphia and our portfolio started in South Jersey, so right over the bridge. And we bought in a couple towns there. That was where our first duplex triplex single family started. And then as we met people, we started to expand into more networks. So we have property in the Pocono Mountains that, that are short term rentals, which is just two hours north of Philadelphia where we live. And then I have property in Tampa, Florida that I ran out as a short term rental really because I wanted to go visit there. And I had, you know, kind of that playing the monopoly game of selling a property in New Jersey, taking out the equity and going, putting it in an asset that grew more on the appreciation side and the cash flow side. I have property there, we have property in New Hampshire with a partner. And then we have a ground up development project in Arizona. Again, somebody else that we met through the podcast. So really where we're buying now is in the Florida north of Tampa market, the two of us. And. But we started in New Jersey and we have a couple of pockets in the United States that, that we invest in. And we really look at it as like, diversification of the, I say, quote, unquote, the market. Because when people say the real estate market is tanking or the real estate market is thriving, it's all really like subsets of different markets in different areas. Like, the real estate market in Scottsdale, Arizona is doing way different than the real estate market in May, potentially where you live or in New Jersey. So we're using that as a little bit of diversification without getting too crazy and investing in 20 different markets across the United States.
- [20:35]
Joe Jensen
Yeah, I mean, that's really interesting to a lot of people. That's super intimidating. Think, like, how could I buy something, you know, in multiple different states out of, you know, not even near me? Like, I can't go see these things, touch these things. How, how can I know? How do I even run those? So, like, what, what's your answer to that? Like, how is that even possible?
- [20:54]
Corey Jacobson
Well, what I'll say is, so we had. Our first properties were 40 minutes, an hour, hour, 10 minutes away from us. So I, in my frame of mind, I was thinking, like, once we hired a property manager, I realized I was never going to the properties. So my thought process is like, if I'm never going to the properties that I have access to, go to 40 minutes away, is there really that much of a difference in investing 3,000 miles away? Like, is it different? Is it about the relationships that you build in the team that you build with boots on the ground that you trust that you can again build that relationship with so you don't have to be the one going and fixing toilets and going and doing whatever, maintenance to the property? And by the way, I started out that way. Like, I remember the, the duplex. The second property I bought, I inherited tenants. I was self managing. Day two, literally, I got a call and it was raining inside my house, like through my windows, like, and I got a video of like from a flip phone and it was like, it looked like Noah's ark inside my house. And I'm like, wow, this is the biggest mistake I've ever made. I didn't have mentors, I didn't know who to call. Turns out it was $1,000 fix and everything was fine. But, like, without. I went to the property and I was realizing I'm using My time to go do this. There are people that I can leverage. And then that's exactly what we did. So we started leveraging other people, the skill sets of them. And then from there I was thinking, okay, I can do this in other markets. I don't have to invest in my backyard. And there's been a lot of reasons why people have moved to Arizona, people have moved to where you live, people have moved to Texas and Florida. And I think trends have made it a little bit harder to invest in areas like New Jersey. And, and so that was part of the reason why we expanded outside of our local market.
- [22:37]
Joe Jensen
I love that. I think having, like I said, people on the ground they can trust is, is hard. It's vital. How, how do you find people in an out of state market that you want to invest in that you do trust? Do you meet these people? How do you even get in touch with them? You know, and obviously everybody's story is different, but you can always share yours.
- [22:56]
Corey Jacobson
Well, if you want to invest in a market that's out of state, one of the first things that you can do is who is a person with boots on the ground that is looking to make more money in an area that's out of state. Right. Okay. So that's, that is property managers, that is potential realtors. Now you have to figure out who to get in touch with. But like in the beginning, I would call property managers in an area that I've done research on that I wanted to invest in, because those people are looking for investors so that they can grow their property management side of their business. And that, that was really what happened. And then I took some risk and I flew down to these markets. You know, I flew down to Tampa, we flew out to Arizona so we can get our eyes on what the actual operation is like. It's not completely blind. But then you're meeting with the people with the boots on the ground and you're, you're going over what their track record is, what deals have they done. Talk to other investors that have invested in that market. You know, you, you have to, I like to get belly to belly to have that feeling. But then post that. Once you create an operation and you have a great, a lender, a great realtor, a great property manager, a great contractor, a great team, you don't have to go there after that. So I flew down to, for example, Tampa, Florida and I was looking for a place, kind of a lifestyle play, to retire my parents one day. Just so happened that my girlfriend went to University of Tampa. So we had a connection down there and she had friends who, her friends had people that were running property management companies. They were, they were realtors. So I met, I went down there and I met with them and one of the properties I bought, you know, I was going down and looking and a property came on the market 30 minutes before I went in there. I was ready, I made an offer. But it's proving to those people that you meet that you're actually serious and that you want to make, you want to do deals. And then once that happens, you build a rapport. And they know, okay, Corey's, he's going to close if he's, you know, he's not going to make 50 offers and back out of them.
- [24:47]
Joe Jensen
Right.
- [24:47]
Corey Jacobson
Like, he's going to actually make this happen. Kind of about doing what you say you're going to do. And once you build that rapport, it's a lot easier to get deals done. So hopefully I answered your question. A lot of it comes down to, yes, going to these markets to see what, you know, you're looking at. You don't have to do it completely sight unseen, but then realizing that in order to let go and scale and grow, you have to trust the people that you put in place.
- [25:10]
Joe Jensen
Yeah, I love that concept. Finding the people to do the things and sometimes being remote can actually be a benefit because you can't go do it yourself. You know what I mean? Like, and I've had tenants that are like, they're a lot more understanding. They're like, hey, this thing needs to be done. They're like upset or whatever. And I'm like, okay, well I, you know, I don't live in the area. So like, if you know of anybody or what can we do to get this done, like, I'll get it done as soon as we can, but it's like they know I can't come over at 2am and fix a toilet because I don't. They, they live in New York and I'm in Utah. You know what I mean? And so they're just like, they have to think out of the box. You have to think out of the box and get other, you know, options done. You can't just go eat up all your time doing it because it's not an option when it is in your backyard. It's like, can be tempting to just do it yourself, which never forces you to create the system and get the people in place to do it for.
- [26:01]
Corey Jacobson
You, which you're, you're looking at. Like, it's not about, not everything is about money. Right? But if you're doing a task that you could pay somebody else to do, for example, that's a, I don't know, you put a value on it at a $40 an hour to do a task. If you're the one doing that, then you Getting stuck in $40 an hour tasks will leave you in a zone where you can't grow and exit out of that phase and go into like, what are the biggest revenue generating tasks that I can do? And that's making offers for our coaching program. That is trying to market our coaching program and trying to like, if I'm, if I'm doing all the, the, the calls and the appointment setting, for example, and that then I'm not able to help scale it. And it's the same thing with real estate. Like, if I'm not the one making offers or going and looking at deals and I'm fixing toilets, how can I grow the operation? So that's the thought behind it.
- [26:48]
Joe Jensen
Yep. I love that, man. So what's kind of like the, the next thing that you're excited with real estate about? You've, you know, kind of dabbled in quite a bit of it. It sounds like, you know, you've got your hands in a bunch of stuff, different partnerships. I do want to talk about the things you've learned with partnerships as well, the pros and the cons, because you're like, don't get the wrong people. But before we dive into the partnership stuff, you know what, what's exciting for you next, like what do you. Is you have something on the radar. Oh, I really want to get this kind of deal, or this is what we next, like what, what's exciting for you?
- [27:19]
Corey Jacobson
Totally. We have two strategies. One strategy is we have two operational partners that are going out and looking for deals. And when they find the deals, Rye and I serve as investor relations, capital raising partners. We do, we help them with the deal underwriting, we help them with the management of some of the property management tasks. They're doing the construction, they're operating the deal. So we have two partners and as they bring up deals, we've created a network of people who are looking to create passive income streams as limited partners. So those two areas that we're looking at are places that we've already invested in. New Hampshire that we have current deals going on. Arizona, we have another current deal going on. So we're not really looking, expanding and looking for other potential operators. So as those people find the deals, Ry and I are putting the investment relations together and trying to find people that are looking to get double digit returns backed by real estate. So that's one strategy. The other strategy is we're running our coaching program that is like our full time thing but we're still buying the two of us because we want to pad our portfolio and have these safe paid off property strategy. So we're buying properties in Florida that are a little inland, not on the coast. And you know, we're trying to get properties that are about 150 to $200,000, put 30 to $50,000 into them, hopefully refi at the high twos in a low threes would be amazing. Burr properties down there because we've built the team that helped me find my property in Tampa. Contractors, agents, lenders, invest, you know, property managers, people that can manage the project sites from afar and. Right. So that's our goal. There is two, two strategies. Do the syndications, when they pop, when they come up, when deals are found and then two of us try to build, continue to build our personal portfolio in a market that we're familiar with now that we've bought.
- [29:09]
Joe Jensen
And then burring. So you know, so burning still works in 2025?
- [29:14]
Corey Jacobson
Well, it's sometimes, I mean I think it's like, I think it's, it's can you do it and not and, and still leave some capital in the deal. I think that's, that's really what's hap. What I'm seeing the most. Like, you know, we have great relationships with hard money lenders and then we, you know, we can fund down payments with private money lenders or our own capital and then ideally, you know, you're pulling all of your money out of these deals but sometimes you have to leave some capital in the deal. So we're being very selective and that's why we're not buying as frequently as we did a couple of years ago. In fact, it's funny Joe, I didn't buy any real estate in 24 and I, you know, it was just based on deals not fitting our buy box. And it's not like I'm just trying to jam a square peg into a round hole and buy real estate just to buy real estate. Our real estate that we previously bought is maturing and now we're kind of back on the prowl again. And we're only going to find deals that we're able to, that are able to pencil out that have, you know, the numbers that work. And if I assume that we're going to Be buying a lot more in 25. So you know, that's the plan. But burring is. No, it's not like it was in 2016 or 2015, but I think it's still possible. And I've seen, I've seen friends that are doing it. And another market that's great is the Augusta, Georgia market. For anybody that's listening, that is an area that is, is booming. A lot of people are kind of trending southeasterly across the United States. There's a lot of demand there.
- [30:38]
Joe Jensen
Yeah, when I'd say a couple points on the burr stuff is yeah, back in the day it was like, oh, you can get money out, right? Not even just get all your money back, but you know, you're paying yourself 10, 20 grand and now you own a cash flowing asset and it's like that was gold. A lot of benefits still today. Let's say you don't get any money out, you leave even a fair amount in. But if you have more equity in the asset and it's a fully repaired asset, that's a benefit of a burr because you could go buy some kind of beat up older ass, you know, rental property, put someone in it, put your 20% down and it's just worth what you bought it for. And it's kind of older and you're going to have a lot of repairs or if you burr it, you know, you might be the same amount of money in at the end of the whole thing, but you've got a brand new, fully rehabbed so you're going to have way less repairs, way less capex and it probably has all this equity into it that, that you know, on paper you have all that leverage. And so even if you have the same amount of money in, you weren't able to like just totally recycle all your capital 100% like back in the day. There's still a ton of benefits of doing the, the burr method even with today's interest rates.
- [31:48]
Corey Jacobson
I agree. I think you can. I, I know it's still possible. I know you can still do it. I think that it's just what are your expectations on the deal? Right? You know, are you going deal that's going to cash flow. Are you going to get a single family residence that you buy for, you know, $150,000 that's going to cash flow. After renovations, pull all your money out in cash flow. $900 a month? Like probably not, dude. Like you could, but, but my thing is I've watched people that I know do this for years we've done it. The properties that we bought in 2019 or 2018, that cash flow, $250 a month upon buying them, are now cash flowing $700 a month, $800 a month, three, four years later. So we're being patient with it. You know, we're okay to leave money in deals. And then our ultimate strategy with that is create a separate 401k in a way and pay, buy 10 more deals, pay 5 off, and then we have this equity that we can go borrow against or use in other deals, kind of like you did. And I think it's, it's still long term for us. I love working. I'm not trying to retire and sit on a beach. I think I'm trying to create security and enough passive income that work becomes optional. But I'm still going to do it because I love what I do. So it's all about expectations. If you're trying to retire early through real estate and buy get $12,000 a month in cash flow in two years, I'm not suggesting it's not possible, but you're gonna have to buy a 30, 40 unit apartment complex and you're gonna have to figure out a way to, to, to get a slant, a home run deal. And they don't come around that much. So it's again, real estate. It works. It's always worked. It's about, you know, what are your expectations going into it.
- [33:21]
Joe Jensen
Yeah, it's funny because I'll get asked a lot. People like, oh, is now a good time to buy? Right. Like, should I buy real estate right now or should I wait? And it's like my answer, what's really cool about real estate is it's always the right time to buy. You just need to buy the right way.
- [33:37]
Corey Jacobson
Yep.
- [33:37]
Joe Jensen
And that's gonna look different. But the way you would buy today is different than you'd buy in 2018.
- [33:43]
Corey Jacobson
But same thing, dude.
- [33:44]
Joe Jensen
Back in 2018, it was easy for people to go, oh man, wish was 2012 still. I could have done a lot if it was 2012 and 2018 was money, you know, and then same thing. Honestly, even just like two years ago, people are like, oh man, if I bought in 2018. But now, you know, it's 2022 or 22 and it's like, that's better than it is now. Just keep buying and buy smart. Make sure the deal works. Whether it's the hottest thing in the world or not, it doesn't matter. The thing is, like, if you're not building Your portfolio, what are you doing? Like whether the deals are the best, sexiest thing you've ever seen and they're as good as 2018 or 2012 or 28, whatever. But if, if you're not growing, what, what are you, what are you doing?
- [34:30]
Corey Jacobson
Everyone thinks when they get in, when they get in that they're at the worst time to buy, right? Like I, I said this on my first deal. I was like $250,000. I can't believe I'm spending this on like I'm overpaying. Everyone thinks they're overpaying, like, and that's just true. And like once you get over that fear, and I think properties take 18 months to season, right? And that is, it's like you can't really expect to create a cash flowing asset. Refi do whatever you need to do on the property to make it sustainable until 18 months kicks in anyway. And that's just been our experience. So buy real estate and wait and hold. And if your plan is to buy is to hold for five to 10 years, it's hard to lose. If you're in the flipping business, you have to approach it differently. But again, that's not a strategy of creating long term wealth. That's a business. That's something you're doing every day. And we're not experts at that. I'm not suggesting it shouldn't. You couldn't parlay it into buying rentals. But I know one of my good friends is a flipper and he owns probably 12 rental properties and every single time I talk to him, he's, damn, man, I should have kept a few more of these properties like. And it's just, that's just how every.
- [35:33]
Joe Jensen
Single one, everyone, right?
- [35:34]
Corey Jacobson
So I'm trying to learn from the mistakes that I've had that I know people have had. And that's why I feel like we're at a point where we can teach people how to buy their first or next rental property with, with ease and show you what we did and what we learned from. And if somebody comes to me and hey, I have 12 units, Corey, can you help me get to 50? There's somebody else that can do that way better than me. I can guarantee it. But I can definitely help you get your first, second, third, and put you on a path to buy one a year or scale from there. And that's, I feel like a value that we can bring to the market.
- [36:06]
Joe Jensen
Ryan, I, I love that, man. That's super exciting. So people do want to like reach out to you or follow you or get coached by you or get support. Like, what's the best way for them to. To be in touch with you guys?
- [36:17]
Corey Jacobson
Honestly, the best way is Instagram. So we have a shared Instagram account. It's at Wealth Juice Official on Instagram. We post every day, and then we have a podcast ourselves, the Wealth Juice Podcast. We've been going for four and a half years. We've had a lot of great guests on. It's. It's fun for me. I love doing this. I love watching the person that I was at 25 see, oh, my God. I. I just discovered real estate. I have some money set aside. I have analysis paralysis. I can't do this. I. Nobody's looking over my shoulder telling me what to do. I love being that person, that, that resource for people. And that's what we've created in our coaching program. And it's, you know, it's not a fit for everyone, but we've helped a lot of people and it's. It's a lot of fun. So Wealth Juice Official on Instagram and then our podcast and our YouTube's growing too. So that's the best way. I would say Instagram's the best way to get in touch with us.
- [37:06]
Joe Jensen
Awesome. I recommend everybody do that, for sure. It's funny because sometimes in the world of, you feel like you have to, like, dominate everything and be the number one dog in the whole world to be able to, like, be important enough to make a difference, but it's like you really don't. You know, it's like you say, if you know what you know and you can share that with a couple thousand people, that'll help them, that could change your life, and it'll change their life. And I mean, out of the billions of people on the planet, a couple thousand people is nothing. But it, like, it can make all the difference to those couple thousand people and to you personally. Like, you don't need a huge, you know, market share to make a really big difference for you and the people you're impacting.
- [37:47]
Corey Jacobson
Yeah. And I'm sure you feel the same way about the real estate, you know, investing school that you have. And it's like, it's. It's watching those people go from not an investor to an investor or, like, I have no properties, I don't know what to do to having their first. And it changed. I just remember how much it changed my life. And. No, yeah. Like, you know, if somebody wants to learn about exactly how to flip a property, there's better People that you can talk to. Right. If somebody wants to learn about something else that we're not good at, I would be happy to connect people with other people that have shown us how they're experts in their ways. But I totally agree with you, Joe. I think it's. I think most people are afraid to make mistakes and people are afraid to pay for mentorship because the Internet is full of scams, honestly. And it's hard. It's hard to sift through and find who's real and who's not. And we've made our mistakes. I can't tell you how much money we've spent on coaching and mentorship. And we've taken what we do like and what we don't like. And we've had shiny object syndrome and tried to buy Amazon stores and YouTube channels and all this stuff that didn't work for us. We're like, okay, now we understand what works. We've been through this, that, and the third. We've tried a bunch of things and we always come back to real estate, and that's, that's our focus. And. But I, I totally agree. I think it's, you know, you, you. How can you make your imprint? You know, you don't have to have 500,000 followers or this, this crazy audience to make an impact on people in real life.
- [39:11]
Joe Jensen
Yeah, a little bit can go a really long, long way. I remember I made this post a while ago and I was flying. I took a picture of, you know, from the, from the window down at, you know, all the houses down below me. And I circled like one little neighborhood, you know, I don't even know 15 houses in it or something. And I posted and I was like, if you just owned this much, it would change your life forever. You know, and there's thousands of homes in this picture. I mean, it's like this whole cityscape and I mean, and it's, it's true. It's like, oh, you don't need to own the whole world, but if you just get this much, it can change everything. And it's exciting because the barrier entry is way more approachable. It's like, oh, I don't need to own 70 plus units like Corey to have it be a game changer. You know, just get five or 10 and it'll be huge.
- [39:58]
Corey Jacobson
Yeah, it makes all the difference in the world. It's. Unfortunately, it's. We're kind of at a point in just with inflation and how fast the world moves and AI and technology that it's like it's going to be hard to live a normal life without investing. And you don't have to invest in real estate. Right? But it's hard to get ahead if you, if you're just going to work that 9 to 5 and you're not putting your money to work, it's, it's like, it's, it's very hard to get ahead. So how can you make Your imprint? Buy 5, 6, 7, 8 properties. And then you're going to be so glad that in 2024 or 2025, you're listening to a podcast and you dove in as opposed to waiting and, and kind of, and, and getting into your 30s, 40s and 50s and thinking, man, I really should have taken that money and bought assets that work for me. Even if it doesn't completely replace your income, it will change your life.
- [40:49]
Joe Jensen
Yeah, I love it, man. Before we roll out, I want to talk briefly on partnerships. And then I got some kind of final four questions we usually go through with each guest. But why don't we touch slightly? We don't have a ton of time. But the good, the bad and the ugly of partnerships you mentioned, like, have you had some bad ones that went south? And what did you learn from those? What should people look to avoid and what's like, than the best parts and what, what you look to, to do?
- [41:15]
Corey Jacobson
I would say that in, in every partnership that we've, that I've entered into, I mean, the one with Ryan obviously is like, that's like we're basically married without being married. So it's like. But the, the key thing is I always put the person over the business and it doesn't, it doesn't matter what it is. It's the, it's the trust and the relationship. And like Ryan, I share each other's. We know how much money we have in each of our personal bank accounts. We know our Social Security numbers. Like, we, you know, like, we have this relationship that is like, untieable, if you will. And I think having that trust and knowing that that person, I'm waking up every day to do my best for him or my partners. I think if you put your partner before yourself, like, I'd rather lose my, I'd rather lose my own money than lose his money. Right. And if you, if you approach it that way, if you approach it like with leading, with like, giving, I think it's hard to lose. It's. But it's about the vetting process of who you're getting into a partnership with upfront to answer Your question? If we've had partnerships that have gone bad, we've had. On our podcast, we had. One of my best friends was a producer of the podcast, and we just recently bought him out. Now, we paid him, in my opinion, more money than, like, the business was worth to keep our friendship and to keep our relationship. And, like, that is the key thing. Like, I, I, that's so much more important than the dollars and cents. And we had another buyout of another company that Ryan and I were a part of, and it's amicable, and the split was fine because Ryan and I know that we bring value, and it just didn't work, and it went in a different direction, and that's okay. And I think none of that is possible without the vetting process of, like, would you share your Social Security number with this person? Like, would you. Would you vacation with them? Like, what, do you want to spend time with these people? And sometimes you can. Yes, you can do all that, and it still doesn't work. But if you, you know, put the value of your partner ahead of you, I think it really just comes down to trust at the end of the day.
- [43:07]
Joe Jensen
I love that there's this book by Stephen Covey called the Speed of Trust. I never heard of it. It's so good. And it's just, I mean, like, say, when you actually have trust, the things can move really fast and really fluid, you know, because most of the holdups that we have in life really are about lack of trust. You know what I mean? Like, why you have to, like, lock your car and lock your house and have 50 passwords and do this and do that and, like, you know, getting. I just was flying from Hawaii here, and it's like, anybody who's flown nowadays, right, it's like, oh, my gosh, you know, you got to go through this machine and that machine and this. It's like. And it's all about lack of trust, right? It's all about lack of being able to just trust. And when you do have trust, it's like, oh, let's just roll. You know what I mean? Things can go so much better and so much faster. So that's a powerful thing if you can find it and build it.
- [44:00]
Corey Jacobson
It's about alignment of values. I think that would be the number one thing. Like, do your values align? And there's seasons of life, too, so your partners may go through different seasons. And it's not to say that someone doesn't get divorced and they need cash and you have to figure it out from There. But if, like, if the. If the why behind it or if the overarching picture of, like, why are we even doing this in the first place? And for Ryan, I put our relationship, our friendship, my ability to look him in the eye and say, I did my best over us closing a new deal or buying a new property, none of that. None of that shit matters. It doesn't matter if you're not carrying people along with you. And I'll leave you with a quote that I heard recently that, like, stood out for me. And it's like, what's better, the journey or the destination? And then the answer is, it's the company you keep along the way. Like, if these people are. It's neither. It's. It's the people that you go along with that, like, what's the point of being wealthy if you're doing it 100 by yourself and you have no one to share it with? Like, I don't think that's fun. I don't think that's enjoyable. So, again, not to say that it's easy because there are partnerships that go bad and people are out for themselves, and it's. They put the dollar over the relationship. If you can invert that, it's. It's. It's a winning game for sure.
- [45:05]
Joe Jensen
It's funny you mentioned that, because it's true. I sometimes say, like, the hardest part about being retired is finding people to do stuff midday, midweek with because everybody's got jobs, they're all busy. Like, dang, where is everybody? Let's go play.
- [45:17]
Corey Jacobson
Yeah, exactly.
- [45:18]
Joe Jensen
But, yeah, I love that, man. Well, let's roll into our final four, and then we'll let you get going. I really appreciate your time. Did you have any other thoughts you want to share before we go into that?
- [45:28]
Corey Jacobson
No, man. This has been awesome. I appreciate it.
- [45:30]
Joe Jensen
Cool. It's crazy to me how fast the time goes. Time about real estate. I could just talk about it all day. It's insane. But, yeah. Okay, so first question. Corey, you could send a text message to everybody in the world. Everybody's phone's about to blow up. What's that message gonna say?
- [45:47]
Corey Jacobson
Wow. I don't think I've ever been asked anything like this text message to everyone in the world. I would say, don't forget who you used to be. And I just came out with that. I don't know where it came from, but it's kind of like. Or don't forget how far you've come, really, is what I would say. Like that, because I do it all the time. And we just talked about false summits. Like, you know, you asked me when you read our bio, I was thinking, did we even do that shit? Like, I guess we did. Like, I guess we. We built this thing. And I. Because I'm so focused on joining new masterminds and getting in rooms with people who are way bigger and better than me in ways. So I would say, don't, you know, don't forget who you used to be or don't forget how far you've come. That's what I would say.
- [46:35]
Joe Jensen
Oh, man, I love that. I think that's so important because it's easy to do. I think it was. Alex Hermosi posted recently about, like, where you are now is what you used to always dream of, you know? And it's like, that's true. Like, holy smokes.
- [46:51]
Corey Jacobson
You dreamt about these days, right? Or so. Yeah, it's. It's so true. So true.
- [46:55]
Joe Jensen
Yeah, I love it. Good one. All right, question number two. Book or podcast recommendation, besides the ones we're associated with.
- [47:02]
Corey Jacobson
Okay, cool. Great question. Okay. Modern Wisdom by Chris Williamson is one of my favorite podcasts. He's. I've watched him grow a thou. A million, two million. He's at three million subscribers. I think he's a genius. I listened to him to help myself with podcasting, but just the way that he talks to people and interacts. So that is my favorite podcast right now. Book, I would say. $100 million offers by Alex Hermosi. That is. That is the book that's helping me the most personally in building an offer and building a brand and building something that, like our coaching community, so doesn't exactly apply to real estate. I can give you a real estate one, too.
- [47:46]
Joe Jensen
That works, you know, whatever, right now for you. No, I love that. I'd rather one that's, like, really impacting you right now than just some generic, you know. Oh, this is a good one. So those are both great recommendations. I love that. All right, question number three. What's one of the most expensive or just interesting mistakes you've made in real estate investing?
- [48:10]
Corey Jacobson
That's a great question. Well, I don't know how. So it's funny. It actually worked out. We had a property burned down, so it was the neighbors that caught on fire that kind of, like, brushed over to our property. And the only reason I'm saying it was an expensive mistake is because we had just replaced floors for $10,000 two weeks before. So the insurance ended up paying us out actually more than the property. Was worth and it ended up working out fine. But those are things you just cannot avoid. So real estate is a contact sport. Contact will be made. It's. It's like you have to expect bad things to happen at some point, and it's okay. Like, you're gonna get through the other side. I remember my problems. My massive problems used to be so massive, and now they're just problems from the past. Like, you get through them. So, you know, it's a mistake that I don't know if it was avoidable, maybe if the neighbors didn't have a space heater on the garage, like, but I couldn't control that. So it's. That was. It was a mistake inadvertently, even if it was a mistake.
- [49:10]
Joe Jensen
Luckily you had good insurance, though.
- [49:12]
Corey Jacobson
Did I have good insurance? Yeah.
- [49:13]
Joe Jensen
That's awesome. It's funny me how many times I've asked this question and like, after we talk about the whole scenario, like, they made money so much in life. Like, the mistakes are like, you know, in business, it's not that forgiving, dude. Like in entrepreneurship, it's like, oh, I made this mistake and it cost me thousands, and this and this. But so many times with real estate, they're like, you know, I could have made a hundred grand, I made 20. Or, you know, this big annoying thing happened, ended up walking away, you know, not losing a penny. Or we made, you know, like, you know, it all worked out because of xyz.
- [49:46]
Corey Jacobson
Yep.
- [49:46]
Joe Jensen
But it was scary and it was a headache. And it's like, man, like you said from the beginning, like, real estate is so forgiving compared to so many things. So I love that if you're.
- [49:56]
Corey Jacobson
You have a long term plan, it's. It's hard to lose unless, you know, unless you're just being reckless. But, people, if you're listening to this podcast, you're probably not being reckless.
- [50:04]
Joe Jensen
Yeah, hopefully. All right, man, last question then. What is a one word or short phrase to encapsulate why you love real estate investing so much?
- [50:17]
Corey Jacobson
Wow, this is a good one. I would say I'm going to go a little bit outside of that real estate investing and more of just like thought provoking who you are as a person? I have the phrase keep your promises tattooed on my body, and this parlays into real estate and I'll tie it in in a second. But I learned this from Ed Mylett. Not personally, but just from listening to him. And he says in order to build confidence, you have to keep the promises to yourself in the dark so that you trust yourself. So much so that you don't care about the opinions of other people. And you, if you trust yourself, you, you hold yourself to a high enough standard, you're not worried so much about what other people think. And here's what I relate that, why I relate that to real estate. If you do what you say you're going to do and you continue to show up for other people and you put other people before yourself, it's hard to lose. And every day you're selling yourself at some, at some level, at some aspect. Now the question is, do you actually trust what you're selling? Do you trust yourself? So how does that relate to real estate? Well, if you're negotiating with somebody and you're, and you're trying to get a deal, are you doing the right thing for you? And you're doing the right thing for that person, Are you trying to screw that person over? Like who are you to your core? And that happens. Like you're doing seller finance deals. Like you're sub to. Like, you know, there's a lot of people in this game that are taking advantage of people. I like real estate because you are. You can create an asset, you can mold it, you can formulate it, it's tangible. But also you can have win win scenarios for, for many people involved in the deal. So that was a little bit roundabout. It's not exactly real estate related, but that's like one of my favorite phrases anyway, so I just figured I'd tie it in there.
- [51:55]
Joe Jensen
I, I love that man. Like, I don't know, maybe it's just I need that right now in life because like that literally gave me chills. And you're, that concept of like keeping the promises yourself gives you like all the confidence and when you don't like it just, it slowly poisons everything in.
- [52:11]
Corey Jacobson
Your know, when you're not doing it too, you know, like it, I go just example, I go to the gym five days a week. If I don't go to the gym five days a week or I go four, I felt like I let myself down and I can't confidently tell people, oh, like that's what I do. Like that's just a routine that I have. And if you keep the promises to yourself and you look back at your previous self, you're always going to be better than you were before. And you're not concerned if people don't like you or if someone has a negative thing to say about you. It's like, dude, I trust myself. Like it's all good. Like I don't need your approval. I'm not constantly searching for it. So that's kind of my. My soapbox a little bit there.
- [52:48]
Joe Jensen
I love it, man. Well, this is great. I do have to run that. Notaries coming back. That's the bell right there. Literally.
- [52:55]
Corey Jacobson
There you go.
- [52:56]
Joe Jensen
This is great. Thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it, and we look forward to staying in touch with you.
- [53:01]
Corey Jacobson
Awesome, Joe. Thanks for having me on. This was a blast.
- [53:03]
Joe Jensen
This is Joe Jensen signing off for the Real Estate Investing School podcast, reminding you that a little bit can go a long way.