Most 23-year-olds are figuring out their first job. Rajan Chida was turning down JP Morgan to build luxury cabins in Virginia.

In this episode, I sit down with Rajan Chida, co-founder of Royal Oak Retreats, to talk about how he went from reselling shoes on eBay in college to developing ground-up luxury STR cabins and building a 550K social media following in under a year.

Rajan's story is not your typical real estate success story. It's about stacking capital early, betting on yourself at the right moment, and using social media as leverage in a way that most developers with 10 years of experience still don't understand.

We break down:

How Rajan funded his first real estate project with shoe reselling money he saved from age 17, and why starting a "job" at 17 gave him a head start most investors don't get until their mid-twenties

Why his 550K following didn't convert to bookings the way he expected, and the pivot to female travel influencers that finally got Royal Oak Retreats fully booked

The permitting nightmare in Warren County, Virginia that nearly derailed the entire project, including a disgruntled neighbor, a six-page complaint full of false claims, and a road he had to build just to get the permit approved

How tariffs forced him to resource his signature window walls from Poland, adding three months of delays and zero construction progress

Why he turned down his JP Morgan offer two weeks before his start date, and the conversation with his dad that gave him the confidence to make that call

The pre-deposit playbook he's using for cabins two and three, including $50 deposits, VIP early access, and how Travis at Outpost X raised $1M before breaking ground

The bottom line: social media is not just a marketing tool. In the hands of the right person, it replaces the track record, the connections, and the credibility that used to take a decade to build.

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