Wrangling a $2M Net Worth in 4 Years w/ JD Sustar

Finance Cowboy

[00:00:00] JD: Somewhere along the way I've started, businesses and side gigs and found myself into real estate where now I. 20 properties, a few Airbnbs, mobile home parks, single family homes, running this brand and raising the family. 

[00:00:12] Intro: You're listening to the real fi podcast where we discuss time, tested tricks, techniques, and strategies for pursuing financial independence today so that we can enjoy.

[00:00:26] A better tomorrow financial independence. Isn't about getting rich quick. It's about cultivating a foundation to grow financially, mentally, physically, and spiritually. Let's figure out how to kick the nine to five. Hear your hosts, Patrick and James. 

[00:00:41] Patrick: How's it going everybody. And welcome back to The Real FI Podcast.

[00:00:45] I'm your host Patrick mcg. With my co-host James Ripon. How's it going today, James? 

[00:00:52] James: doing well, man. I think today we're gonna be wrangling up some good financial tips for all our listeners and sorry about the terrible joke, but you guys will get [00:01:00] the later, when we introduce our guests, so let's get into it.

[00:01:04] Patrick: All right. So today we got a great jet, a great guest. His name's JD he's in South Carolina. How's it going today? My man, 

[00:01:11] JD: what's up guys? I appreciate y'all having me excited to be here. 

[00:01:15] Patrick: For sure. Yeah. So we are extremely excited. I know you got a ton of stuff going on, so James let's get into it. 

[00:01:20] James: So JD, why don't you introduce yourself?

[00:01:22] Give us a little bit about your background and just fill us in, fill in our listeners and tell  us who you are. 

[00:01:26] JD: So name is JD star on the social media online world. I'm known as I guess, finance cowboy. I started the brand finance cowboy a year ago on Instagram was zero, zero followers. And we were talking about it a minute ago and it's now up to close to 73,000.

[00:01:42] Either way, JD finance, cowboy, whatever you wanna call me, I'm good with it. But I live in the upstate of South Carolina, grew up here as a pastor's son great home. Wasn't really talked anything about money investing real estate assets, just in a pastor. Someone was just not really the conversation.

[00:01:59] They're [00:02:00] normally not making a lot of money and it's just not a focus. I progressed throughout my younger life, real into sports. Baseball was my life played travel ball. And then my goal was to play division one. Baseball got to do that at Charleston, Southern univers. Was there four years.

[00:02:12] Absolutely love it. Baseball. And any sport in general, just instills a drive in you. And I think, that definitely did that for me as I went to college and graduated and it was time to get into the working world, started out at CTAs, the uniform company on a route right out of college.

[00:02:28] So I was making around $45,000 a year up at four o'clock in the morning, driving a big box truck. And I realized, this is not what I want to do forever, but I enjoyed selling on my route. And I was like, bro, I really like. Think I'm good at it. And you can make a lot of money doing it if you're getting the right thing.

[00:02:42] So I was like, okay, how do I make more money without doing all this grunt work? And it was sales. So I went through sales training at CTOs, but I knew that there was a cap on which you could make there. And I, doing your research, it was the medical field. That's a good place to get in. So I got into pharmaceutical cells.

[00:02:56] From sents. And then from pharmaceutical sales, I got into medical device sales, [00:03:00] which I'm still in today. And somewhere along the way, I've started, businesses and side gigs and found myself into real estate where now I am at 20 properties, a few Airbnbs, mobile home park, single family homes, running this brand and raising the family.

[00:03:13] That's awesome. So 

[00:03:14] James: you've covered a lot of ground and it sounds like you've pretty much started from the bottom in, in more than one, respect, both with the job, with, running around uniforms for synt. And also not coming from a family with a lot of financial means necessarily. So tell us about, what kind of clicked for you to transition your thought process into being financially oriented and becoming the finance cowboy on 

[00:03:37] JD: Instagram and Twitter?

[00:03:39] I don't remember the exact date, but I think part of it had to do with my first job out of college. When I was on that route, I just realized. Number one, people get comfortable. So everybody was comfortable. They get used to this middle class life. They take out a bunch of loans and, they work to pay 'em off, but also learn that.

[00:03:58] If I just [00:04:00] use the drive that I built through sports and apply that into the working world, I can dominate because most people aren't doing that. And I did it and I started making more income and I realized, okay, I can be like everybody else. I can go into a bunch of debt and never make anything in my life.

[00:04:15] And, live to see another week every week, or I can start taking this income. And investing it and, live a life that I really want to at a very young age. And I started with the Dave Ramsey, I don't agree with everything he preaches, obviously because I have loans own rental properties, but a lot of what he teaches is great for people who are just getting started out of college and are just married.

[00:04:35] So really built that, solid financial base for me. I got my finances in check and then I had money coming in, cuz it wasn't all going to bad debt anymore. So now it was time to put it somewhere and I've decided to put it into real estate. And so through my experiences from cleaning up my, bad spending habits and my debt and budgeting, and then being a real estate investor and starting different businesses I was like, you know what?

[00:04:59] I think I can [00:05:00] help people. And there's a whole story behind how finance cowboy, like the real roots of it, which we can get into that if y'all want to hear. But that's like the base of Hey, I can help people. Because I have a lot of experiences like that most people think are complex. So I don't look at real estate as a very complex topic, but I did not too long ago.

[00:05:15] And so that's how, it was birthed along with, one other funny story. But as far as from the financial side of things, finance cowboy was born to help people out. 

[00:05:24] Patrick: I love that. I'd love to get into the story real quick for sure. I would also like to know while you're telling the story, if it wasn't, until you had built that base, got that like solid foundation after, now you're sitting at 20 plus properties, mobile home parks, Airbnb.

[00:05:40] Once you got there, that's when you decided to. Helping people out or was it the plan the whole 

[00:05:46] JD: time? No, I didn't have a plan at all to, to really do that. I was just in my own zone and I. When you're create, I think it's 20, 22. You should create a brand. I think everybody should build their own personal brand, but you don't have to necessarily be an expert at things.

[00:05:57] You can actually go and teach people about everything [00:06:00] you're failing at and talk about it and people can learn from that. But it, the funny story is I have a family member who is one of my good buddies and we're related, closely related. And I had been, I'm more of a wild card, rough around edges, not polished up, not an executive.

[00:06:15] And he is an executive of a very large hospital in the us. And he's three steps down from the CEO. So like big wig, couple years older, me and I kept telling him, you need to invest in real estate. You need to invest in real estate. And he would never like take the plunge. It was kind like he was blowing me off.

[00:06:30] I don't think JD knows what he's talking about. So I'm like, okay. I gave up. Randomly, he started sending me texts from this influencer on social media that is, was telling him and people that they needed to invest in index funds. So now this family member who's blowing my investing advice off is now sending me advice from a 26 year old, who has a brand on social media has 30,000 followers and like a $200,000 net worth.

[00:06:54] And now he started investing in index funds because this influencer told him to, and I was like, [00:07:00] holy. If this kid can influence my highly educated family member to finally invest in some type asset, I've got to try this because I , I'm in sales already and I have a lot of knowledge I'm jumping in the game.

[00:07:12] And that's he was born finance cowboy was born out of. Spite for this family member just to prove I could do it, but then once you get into it, you're like, okay, this is really cool. Cause I get a lot of DMS every day where I'm helping a lot of people. So 

[00:07:23] James: where about in your journey?

[00:07:24] Were you at that point when you decided to put something together a little bit more formally. 

[00:07:29] JD: So I had, at that point, I was pretty much, I think I had 21 properties. I'm down to 20. I've sold two. I got up to 22 and I think I had 21 at that point. Okay. 

[00:07:39] Patrick: So just to be clear, is that 21 or 20 individual properties or is that doors units, that we like to throw around here in the real estate 

[00:07:48] JD: world, it's all single family.

[00:07:51] And if it's not single family, it's mobile homes and they're individual units. Okay. Big single family guy here. 

[00:07:56] Patrick: Big single family guy. All right. Great. [00:08:00] I'd love to hear how that all got started. Like when, how old were you bought your first one and then we know you have a high income earning job.

[00:08:10] So were you just using that to keep stacking or were you using articulate method to do all this, break that down for us 

[00:08:17] JD: a little bit? Yeah. I use all different types of methods, but I, when I got started, I mentioned earlier that I got my finances in check. I knew that was step number one, get rid of this bad debt, stop taking loans out on stuff.

[00:08:30] Drive beaters, live in a modest home. And when I did that and I started budgeting, like I had extra money left over and I was making good income at the time, but it wasn't like I am now. Like I was still like, it was still good, but it wasn't like it is today. And so I was like, okay, my finances are in check.

[00:08:43] Now I have extra money. What am I gonna do with it? And that's where you have to make the decision. Am I gonna go blow it or am I gonna invest it? And I wanted to invest. And now it's what I wanna invest in. And I looked at index funds. I looked at stocks, crypto, and I just, I don't understand. I have trouble valuing companies [00:09:00] large companies, whereas I can look at real estate and I can evaluate real estate really quick.

[00:09:04] And then you look at data and you. What, 90% of millionaires invest in real estate. And I think a lot of 'em came wealthy off of something other than real estate, but they all put their money into real estate. And so I was like, you know what, I'm doing real estate. My best friend was doing it. That was another big factor for me.

[00:09:18] My father-in-law had bought some land and I'd seen how it would work out for worked out for him. And it was 2018. My best buddy had been pushing me and pushing me and all along while I'm taking care of my finances, I'm learning about real estate. I'm reading the books, the rich dads, the poor dads, Brandon Turner, listening to bigger pockets, picking my buddy's brain, hanging out with his team, how they're doing deals.

[00:09:37] So I felt like I was prepared logically. Now the left, last thing to get over was how can I emotionally get over this fear of taking the plunge of that first property? And I remember it like it was yesterday. I was so scared and essentially my best. Brought me a property that he could have bought. It was a great property.

[00:09:52] And he was like, you're gonna buy this. You're gonna buy this property. You need to get in the game. And I was so nervous, but I took the plunge. It was $68,000. It [00:10:00] was a three bed, two bath in Greenville, South Carolina. And as soon as I closed and I got a renter in there, I was like, Wow. That was not that scary.

[00:10:08] The house isn't burning down the tenant is paying people do need a place to live. And I actually turned around and sold that property this year for 140, bought it for 68, put a little bit of money in it. Right when I first bought it, didn't have to put anymore in it and sold it for 140 quick turnaround to a wholesaler.

[00:10:22] So I didn't even have to get rid of my tenant. So that was 2018. When you bought your first 2018 is the first time I bought a property. Gotcha. 

[00:10:29] James: And what did it rent for when you got your first tenant in there? 

[00:10:32] JD: When I first got it, it rented for 850 bucks a month. Gotcha. 

[00:10:36] Patrick: So that's over the 1% rule that everybody talks about out there.

[00:10:40] Yeah. Hey. Seven less than 70 grand rents for eight 50. Like you're good to go. You're cash flowing a little bit. And I think that is key. It's like that first one, once, once you get that security deposit and first month's rent and then the next month's rent comes in and then next month's rent comes in.

[00:10:59] You're like, [00:11:00] and you haven't gotten any calls. You're like, oh my gosh, like people are paying me to. Live at a place that I own this is crazy. That proof of concept. I think that's really what it takes right there. Alright. After you got that first one. How long until you got 

[00:11:15] the 

[00:11:15] JD: next one?

[00:11:16] Once I bought that first one, it was an avalanche. It was at this point, my wife was on board, which was great. Because we had to pinch pennies. We have to this day, we finally now have a decent amount of cash, but up until a couple months ago, we've lived cash for, and that at the last couple years, I've made a lot of money, but we still lived.

[00:11:33] Hey, don't go to the grocery store this week because we bought, bought another asset. We bought a business, bought a property. And we just were very frequent. Every time we'd have enough money for a down payment, we would go buy another property. And I got very good at analyzing and finding deals.

[00:11:47] And so there were times where I'd find a good deal and I didn't have money. And you can either wholesale it. You can pass a deal or you can get creative and find financing. And so there's been a number of deals where I did the bur method, where I go and I [00:12:00] got private funding. They funded the entire purchase in rehab.

[00:12:04] I rented it out to a tenant refinanced. It paid the private lender back, and now I had a property without having to put any of my own money in I've also had banks lend me off of the appraised value. So I'd go buy undervalue, go find undervalue properties. They would appraise for 15, 20 grand more.

[00:12:19] And the bank would lend me off that appraised value. I've got checks back at closing for that, so you can get real savvy and then, there's nothing wrong. Putting your own money in, on a deal if you have it. I just in the, I'm in the wrapped up in the social media world, and I think a lot of it's clickbait, but people talking about buying properties with other people's money, that's great.

[00:12:39] Like I love doing it too, but also there's nothing wrong with using your own money. What else are you gonna do with it? You're gonna go blow it. You're gonna let it sit in a savings account where it's gonna lose money to inflation. So those were the three big and partnerships. So I guess I've done it four different ways.

[00:12:52] I've partnered on properties with Buddie. 

[00:12:54] James: So I'm sure your strategy has changed over time as you've developed as an investor. It [00:13:00] has for me, and I'm pretty sure it happens for everybody, but tell us a little bit about how you're finding these deals. And you started in 2018, bringing us up to today.

[00:13:08] What were some of the strategies that you were doing to find those 

[00:13:10] JD: deals? I think key is networking. And when I say networking, just letting everybody, know that you buy rental proper. When you do that, you'll be surprised at how many deals get brought to you. Locksmiths, I tell electricians, obviously tell realtors, tell people at church and I get calls all the time.

[00:13:28] People hearing somebody's, just moved out into assisted living, or they need to get rid of a house, or it's an estate cell that's number one, getting in the real estate community. So getting on wholesaler list obviously we're real estate agents with other. You can do that. I go on prop stream and I look up like an area I'm interested in and pull all the LLCs and then go find the contacts, text them, Hey, I'm an investor.

[00:13:47] If you're ever looking to sell, send it to me. Like people think like finding properties is the hardest thing in the world. I really think it's pretty decently easy to generate leads. And then back in 20 18, 20, 19 and early 2020, I was finding 'em on the ML. [00:14:00] And I still to this day find some on the MLS in our area.

[00:14:03] So those the main ways. Obviously I've mixed in some cold calling air along the way, but I haven't had to do a ton of cold calling just because of my networking and the MLS. I've just had, I think that's huge 

[00:14:14] James: finding deals on MLS these days. I'm not gonna say it's impossible, but you really have to find those niche.

[00:14:19] Properties that people might be overlooking for one reason or another. Something that I've been doing for some of my clients is finding properties with tenants still in them listed on MLS. Those get totally ignored. And they'll sit on the market a little bit longer. 

[00:14:32] JD: And one of my favorite strategies, I, it is my favorite strategy is dealing with investors like the MLS is getting tougher.

[00:14:39] I think it's probably in Fayetteville, surrounding areas, even in Anderson. Like I can still find some deals now it's really at the 1% rule or a little under I may break even. But I love talking with other investors and just, they investors get the game. Like they may wanna all float a property and make some money, but they know if you're gonna buy.

[00:14:58] It has to be a good enough deal, so they can [00:15:00] either decide to give it to you at a discount, but still make money, or they gotta deal with turning the tenant over. If they wanna sell it, they gotta fix it up and get it ready for retail. So I love hitting the investor market personally. 

[00:15:11] Patrick: Couldn't agree more.

[00:15:12] Have you have you done any like seller carryback or seller financing deals, working with these investors? Cuz I know they're usually open a lot more to it because like you said, they're in the game, they understand maybe they don't want to take a big hit on the capital gains.

[00:15:26] So have you been able to pull any of 

[00:15:27] JD: those. I haven't. I always ask, I think you should always ask. But I, it's not something that, I do all the time or like creative sub two financing. But I think it's worth asking definitely is worth asking, but sometimes also, in negotiations I've noticed that terms aren't quite as good, they may want all of their money back in, five years, which you can, which banks will do that too.

[00:15:49] But interest rates tend to be a little higher. I've. So it's worth asking, but weigh your options. It's not always the best way to go from what I've found. 

[00:15:57] Patrick: Totally understand. Totally understand. [00:16:00] Now. All right. So you said you got single family rentals, mobile homes. Is it a mobile home park that you bought?

[00:16:07] Or mobile homes that you own. And then I think you got some Airbnbs too. 

[00:16:11] JD: Yep. So the mobile home is it's a mini mobile home park. So it is a piece of land that has seven mobile homes and two single family homes on it. And so I own the land as well as the. Mobile homes. I would recommend anybody listening to this.

[00:16:26] If you're new, don't ever just buy the mobile home, you always wanna own, at least the land. If you're gonna buy anything, buy the land, don't buy the mobile home, always make sure you at least buy the land. And we did that and the mobile home and I don't love mobile homes for. If I'm coaching somebody, I don't normally rec recommend it as a, like a way to build a foundation because it's a depreciating asset.

[00:16:48] Yeah. The land underneath it has the potential to go up. But the actual, property or the actual building itself is going down. It's like a vehicle vehicles are going up right now, but in general, it. Mobile homes are gonna go down. And so I think it's good. I felt [00:17:00] comfortable because I'd built a strong base of good solid three bed, two bath, three bed, one bath brick, ranch houses.

[00:17:07] And then I went to the mobile home part because it was brought to me and it was a good cash flow deal. And it was a good way to diversify my portfolio. So what's 

[00:17:16] Patrick: a deal like that cost. 

[00:17:18] JD: So we bought it for, I went in this with a partner. We bought it for, I believe 360 thousand dollars. And we did interest only for the first two years.

[00:17:28] So we were really had been breaking in some cash and we had it on a 10 year note. So it'll bring in, if it was paid off, it would bring in around 60 to 75 grand a year. Really strong cash flow, man. That's crazy 

[00:17:40] Patrick: for 300, a little more than 300 grand. Yeah. It was a solid 

[00:17:44] JD: deal. 

[00:17:45] Patrick: Yeah. And that was you said 

[00:17:46] JD: someone brought to you.

[00:17:47] That was now you say, look, I'm it's the end of the day you have forgive me. That was seller finance. We did a seller finance deal on that one. The the seller held a note for us. So we paid him a down payment and then he held the note and he still holds the note to this day. So I [00:18:00] have done seller financing.

[00:18:00] So what year did you buy that? We bought that one in 20, 20, 20, 20. Okay. 

[00:18:06] Patrick: 2020 you said, and you said seven mobile homes. And two single families. So nine units, 360 grand owner financed. Yeah. 10 year note. That's, that's 30, 30 grand a unit a little more than 30 

[00:18:20] JD: grand a unit.

[00:18:20] Yeah. And we had, so they're out there. Go ahead. 

[00:18:23] Patrick: Sorry, I just say, I 

[00:18:24] JD: said they're out there. People. Yeah. Deals are out there and we had put 20% down. So it was a high cash deal. I had to put a decent amount down, but yeah, it's a heck of a deal if you ask me and it's an up and coming area too.

[00:18:33] So we thought it was a win-win all the way around. And it came from another investor, an older guy who has a big portfolio who didn't want the tax bill and wanted offload, part of his portfolio. There's a great deal. It never hurts to ask. No. Yeah, the mom and 

[00:18:46] James: pop deals, older generations, they've been accumulating these assets and you'll find these with the mobile homes too.

[00:18:51] Like the smaller, mobile home parks that they developed on some land that they had 20, 30 years ago, when you were able to do that kind of development. Definitely some value to be [00:19:00] found there. 

[00:19:00] JD: So there's a huge, I'll say this, sorry. There's a huge generational wealth shift going on. I've heard a lot of people talk about it because you have, these baby boomers, just older generation who they're getting old and they have these assets and they gotta be transferred.

[00:19:15] A lot of times they don't pass 'em down to family or they didn't have kids or the kids couldn't handle it. The kids get it and they don't want it. And so there's a lot of wealth being transferred. So keep your ear to the ground, whether it be real estate or businesses right now. And 

[00:19:27] James: you're definitely gonna have to find unique ways of networking with those people, because they're not really going to the R meetings and the networking events to grab a beer at the local brew pub or whatever.

[00:19:38] You're gonna find those people word of mouth through contractors, probably through some of those old school networking paths. Yeah. 

[00:19:46] JD: And seeing the LLCs listed for again, that's one of the things I love to do. Find LLCs, properties that are under LLCs, reach out to him. And a lot of times it'll be an old guy and you just tell him, Hey, I'm 31 years old.

[00:19:59] I'm [00:20:00] looking to build a portfolio. Could I take you to lunch? What 70 year old, doesn't love to go talk to some 30 year old and drop knowledge on him for two hours. And you'll just be surprised what you run into. For sure. 

[00:20:09] James: Yeah, I did the same exact thing today. Actually, I had talked to somebody in Fayetteville probably six months ago who has mobile self storage units and I could not find his number anywhere.

[00:20:21] So I went online. Did some digging, found his name online. Went through some of the state's incorporation documents, found his phone number on one of those documents. And then Cole called him and talked to him for 

[00:20:31] JD: about 30 minutes. That's awesome. Yeah. I've chased family members down on Facebook.

[00:20:36] Instagram. I'll go to brothers, sisters, cousins. It's just, how bad do you want it? You know exactly. Exactly. 

[00:20:42] Patrick: I make a. I make a monthly post on all of the yard sale like Facebook groups in my area that just says I'm interested in buying, two to 10 unit property rental property. If anyone's got one or knows anyone that's selling one [00:21:00] hit me up.

[00:21:01] I'll buy it. Always four or five people will tag someone and then I just go and instantly DM them just to see what's up. I haven't came, I haven't closed a deal like that yet, but it's just it takes five 

[00:21:13] JD: minutes, like it's worth. Yeah, it doesn't take much time and you'll hit one and it'll be a jackpot.

[00:21:17] Gotcha. So 

[00:21:19] James: we've been talking a lot about what you've been into with real estate, mostly single family. You've got some mobile home under your belt. Tell us about this Airbnb deal that you have. I feel like everybody and their mother, these days get into the short term rentals. Is it as good as people are telling us?

[00:21:33] It is tell us a little bit about your experience with that in that deal that you have. 

[00:21:36] JD: It's very good on the cash flow. But it can be a pain in the butt and that's what a lot of people don't want to admit. So I bought my first one in 2019 on Seabrook island. It's in Charleston county, just south of the city of Charleston.

[00:21:49] And I bought it for $185,000. It's a gated community with million dollar houses, but I bought a house on the worst street in the best neighborhood. And two years later, I bought the house [00:22:00] right across the street. Looks the same. There are these octagon shaped tree houses, two bed, two bath, like 900 square foot, bought it for 287,000, a hundred grand more.

[00:22:08] And people were just, oh, why would you spend that much? You just paid a hundred thousand dollars more than one you bought, two years ago. And it was hard for me to do, but, I looked back and it was worth it. I'll talk about that, here in a minute, Airbnbs. They have a lot of potential.

[00:22:22] So cash flow is usually gonna be higher. You usually don't have to put that much money down cuz you can use 10% down, second home loan. And then they in general are gonna appreciate more. Over time in theory, because most of the time people are going to fund locations. If they're gonna be renting an Airbnb.

[00:22:39] And so you're already buying in an area that in theory should appreciate over time. There's a lot of good benefits to it, but it's a lot of work it's hands on. I've automated, everything you can possibly. We automate cleaning teams, all the tenant check in, while they're there post checkout, but there's just things that happen that you have to answer to, or you gotta pay somebody to manage it and answer to for you.

[00:22:59] It's if [00:23:00] somebody's asking where the closest restaurant or hospital is to you specifically, you wanna just be like, why don't you just go Google it and figure it out. But you can't do that. You gotta answer, and then I've had people show up at 10:30 PM. They've traveled all day. They get there.

[00:23:14] And my cleaning team forgot to clean. They call me, cussing me out, wake me up. I'm asleep on the recliner. They're cussing me for all I'm worth because they got there and it was, it wasn't clean. So there's a lot more moving parts and it's you're relying on reviews with a long term rental.

[00:23:27] You're. Short term rental that previous guest can really make or break you for future guests. And so there's just a lot of moving parts. I felt comfortable doing it after I build a base of long term rentals, not to say that you can't dive straight into short term, you can, it's just, it's gonna be more work.

[00:23:43] James: I think that's a consistent theme that we've heard with some of our other guests they've experimented with real estate first, by getting into something stable known and a little bit safer feeling that being the single. Rental that and you build that base up and then you have that cash flow.

[00:23:57] More importantly, you have that experience to [00:24:00] build off of and from, and I think that when people do look into getting into the short term rentals, there's more moving parts and it's certainly more 

[00:24:08] JD: hands on. No doubt. There's no doubt about it. I It's a blast, it's a blast. And like I said, you can make good money, but it's it's a big learning curve.

[00:24:19] Patrick: All right. So we've got. The single family portfolio, we got the mobile home mini park. We've got the Airbnb, you're crushing it at your medical sales job, plus you're doing coaching and all of that. What are you building? What's the ultimate 

[00:24:37] JD: goal here, man? I think I changed my mind on that every day.

[00:24:40] I don't know, I would be lying if I said I got it all mapped out. I'm just, I'm a, I'm a go getter. So I just wake up, have a new idea and we roll with it. I know with real estate, I am a long term investor, so you're gonna hear a lot of people preach cash, flow, cash, flow, cash flow, and I'm all for it.

[00:24:55] I got. I got one Airbnb. Now I sold one of them, but they both cash flowed over [00:25:00] 800 bucks a month. I got long, long term rentals at cash flow, but I have also bought a number of properties that don't cash flow because I am in it for the long term. And so if I can buy an asset that breaks even. It's gonna go up over time.

[00:25:12] I'm getting tax benefits and then somebody else is paying off the debt. For me, that's where real wealth is built. And I, my net worth has grown by 2 million in the last four years off of real estate. And I know we've been in a hot market and somebody can say that's the only way it happened. That's fine, but you still have to buy the properties.

[00:25:29] And I wasn't doing it to get this rich in four years, I was doing it to get. Rich in 10, 15, 20 years. And so if you just have this long term mindset, you're going to come out ahead at the end of the day. And so for me buying my real estate. It is just long term, setting myself up, setting my family up, setting my kids up, my grandkids, my great grandkids.

[00:25:50] And then what I'm building, with the brand is I'm trying to build a personal brand. And I think at this day and age, it's one of the most important things you can do is build your brand and you have [00:26:00] so much reach at what other time in history could you hop on and reach I've had posts or last.

[00:26:05] The last 30 days, I reached just under 5 million people with my content. That's ridiculous. And so with that, I'm able to build this brand where I'm able to help other people. And I think eventually it's all gonna correlate together. So like I'm helping people gonna build these communities, but also it'll.

[00:26:24] Increased deal flow, not only for myself, but for my partners and for people in my community and anybody else who wants in. So it's all this big cyclical thing. I'm just at the beginning stages of it. So I'm not really, I'm not really enjoying the fruits of the labor I'm in that grind stage. I lose money on finance cowboy.

[00:26:41] I've got a couple brand deal that are lucrative, that at least are recouping some of the money I've spent on it, but I'm just, I'm out on a whim and doing it on hope and trusting that you. The vision I have will play out. It just like anything. It 

[00:26:54] James: takes time and you gotta let it develop.

[00:26:56] And I think it's interesting hearing you talk about your real estate perspective [00:27:00] on buying good assets and good areas that are gonna appreciate. And I think, when you have a lot of new investors come to the field, they think that cash flow. Is the only thing that matters or just the most important thing.

[00:27:14] And they forsake some of those other aspects, like appreciation and debt pay down, like you're saying. And, I always think of the investors like that first gravitate towards Detroit, Michigan looking for cash flow opportunities, but they're looking at these 20, 30, $40,000 shacks and every other house is burnt down for a reason.

[00:27:33] It's not a great place to be, whereas opposed like you're looking at some of the Airbnb. Properties that you're looking at nice areas that are just gonna appreciate. And the difference between these two strategies is the long term vision. Like you're saying, as that debt gets paid down, you're gonna have way more capital and equity to draw on in the future to refinance and buy even better and more assets, 

[00:27:54] JD: future without paying taxes.

[00:27:56] Exactly. You literally can't. 

[00:27:58] Patrick: I was just about to get into [00:28:00] that because, so if you qualify for real estate professional status, which you might, depending on how much you're doing inside of your real estate business and doing cost segregations on a, on all of this, anything that's not inside of your.

[00:28:16] Real estate business income can transfer over to that high income earning w two job. So which by the shake of your head, I'm assuming that's what you have been doing. I actually was able to wipe away all of my income for 2021 because of real estate. So it works. 

[00:28:37] JD: Yep. See, I'm not there. I don't do real estate full time.

[00:28:40] I invest. As a place to part my wealth. And so I don't get the benefit of, being considered a real estate investor. So you're right. Anytime I sell something, I'm getting hammered at 37 to 40%. Yeah. Not that much, cuz most of the time I own them a year. So I'm capped at 20% for long term capital gains.

[00:28:55] But that's the beauty of real estate is as that equity grows and those tenants are buying down that [00:29:00] debt, you don't have to sell it. You can just refinance out or grab a line of credit. And so there's just, you can't beat it, right? 

[00:29:07] Patrick: Yeah. A thousand. James let's let's get on into the, we've already went through the why we've already went through what your ultimate goal is.

[00:29:18] Let's jump into obstacles, James. 

[00:29:20] James: So JD, why don't you tell us some of the obstacles that you're of facing in the development of your business, your brand and your real estate portfolio? What things do you need to overcome to take it to the next 

[00:29:30] JD: level? So with real estate It is continuing to have that lead flow, I'd say is the biggest obstacle right now.

[00:29:39] And that's where I think I, it's not awful for me. I'm still getting deals, but I can tell that it is slowed down. And so to me, that scares me. I'm still getting deals that I'm coming across, but it's like, how do I keep that pipeline as full as it was? Four years ago, three years ago. And so that's one big obstacle that I am looking to to figure out.

[00:29:58] And then, an obstacle for me [00:30:00] is. I'm getting a lot of opportunities with the brand and it opens your opportunities for different business ventures, your partnerships. And so this sounds, this is such a bougie obstacle, but it's like where, when you have capital and you're used to just putting it in real estate and I will continue to, but now there's other opportunities coming up.

[00:30:20] It's which direction do you, where do you go? How much do you allocate here? How much do you allocate there? And then with the brand. Is making sure you're cutting through the noise. It can get really easy to get lost and more and more people are gonna hop onto this trend of building these personal brands.

[00:30:37] So it's what do I do to make myself stand out? And I think my brand helps, I think when people are scrolling and they see a cowboy hat, they're like, oh, that's JD or that's finance cowboy. So that's very helpful, but making sure that, you're coming up with valuable content cuz when I'm putting out 60 pieces.

[00:30:52] A month. That's two a day. I normally batch that in a whole morning. I sit here pretty much in this chair where I go downstairs in another spot. [00:31:00] And it's real easy to just get mundane and not work on good hooks and bring drawing people in. And so I think that's the biggest obstacle is, sticking out and giving good value.

[00:31:10] James: So JD, one thing I wanted to run by you and get your thoughts on are the concepts. Transparency and personal finances, because this is such a sticky topic for people to talk about, especially transparently. And I've seen on your Twitter and on your feed, you talk about the numbers. You talk about net worth and you talk about.

[00:31:29] Things that you've done over periods of years to get where you're at. And I think one of the tweets that I saw was negative $10,000, starting out 2018. And you're about to hit 2 million today, 2022, after a couple years of hard focused work. And I think that's something that a lot of people are uncomfortable talking about.

[00:31:49] But why don't you get into that a little bit about why you wanna be so transparent with what you have going. 

[00:31:54] JD: I was very uncomfortable when I started, when I first started this account, I would not put my [00:32:00] face. I wouldn't do reels. And I had a cartoon avatar as my picture for probably the first four months.

[00:32:06] And then you realize if I'm gonna do this, I gotta go all in and you have to like flirt with this line of being a douche and being inspirational because. It's I'm used to it. I'm numb to it now, but it was very hard to type those types of things and talk about those things in reals because you do get backlash, right?

[00:32:27] There's a lot of people who come and they just freaking let trolls, let me have it. But then I look and it's 5,000 people have liked it, and so you realize this is inspiration. You get feedback. Like I am inspiring people. Do I love putting my. My personal stuff out there. I still don't absolutely love it.

[00:32:46] Especially now that in my hometown and my friends circles, they found me. And know, I was able to hide my wealth for a while. And now it's just out there. I think it's more sticky just in, I'm in a small town. My dad's a pastor of a church. People are seeing it, but you [00:33:00] just have to think what are the people that I'm trying to impact?

[00:33:03] What do they need? And I think they need a whole gamut of things, but being transparent is one of 'em and I will not be fake you. What is what you get, and that's what I've decided to do, and I'm gonna keep rolling with it. And I think that's super 

[00:33:15] James: important because I think a lot of people want to find something to connect to and they people on the internet they can sense through bullshit when they see it.

[00:33:26] And when you bring that element of transparency, it gives. Hope to, I think a lot of people who have seen you be able to accomplish something and wanna be able to emulate that. So I think 

[00:33:37] JD: it's great. I don't think I do a good enough job either of, I need to, this is something I'm working on and I get a lot of comments about it telling my story.

[00:33:45] lot of times I'm really focused on just teaching about real estate or telling like one of my wins in real estate, but like really, I gotta do better at driving the message home of Hey, I was driving a box truck making $45,000 a year in 2013. It's [00:34:00] 2022. And I'm worth almost $2 million, and some people have done way more than that. So it's. There's people who become billionaires in nine years, but for the average person going from negative 10 and 2018 to, almost 2 million in four years that's cool. Like people want that, and so like really being able to tell my story better and articulate that to help.

[00:34:16] Cause I really wanna take that average person, the everyday person and say look, you can do this. I just did it. 

[00:34:21] James: Let me ask you this question real quick and then I'll let Patrick take it. You got $2 million mil net worth right now. Do you feel rich? 

[00:34:27] JD: No. Yeah, no, no problem. I do not. I don't feel rich at all.

[00:34:31] I. I just sled so to speak and bought like a large house. I got my fourth kid on the way, and we got 11 acres. And it was a, one of the bigger purchases I've made. But even then I got the house at a steel. The house is worth like 300,000 more than I bought it for. It's I was still looking for a good deal, but it's like I mentioned earlier, I'm always just cash poor, right now I have a decent amount of cash and it's Amazing.

[00:34:52] It's amazing, but I still look and I'm like, bro, I gotta keep going. I think if I had 20 million, I would feel, I would not feel rich, but that's [00:35:00] something and this is a whole nother topic that I'm working on personally, because you can just keep climbing without an end in sight.

[00:35:06] I think you need to decide what do you want? What am I trying to accomplish? I don't want to be worth hundreds of millions if it happens great, but it's not, I don't have, I will not sacrifice. My family or my time or my church or my friends or my, any of that to do it. So I know that's not really on the horizon for me.

[00:35:28] So I have to reign myself in and say, set a goal, like where are you trying to get? And that changes, frequently with, in my mind. But I think that's important for us. 

[00:35:35] Patrick: I think that's extremely important. I was just getting ready to ask. What is your financial freedom, financial independence goal, or lifestyle.

[00:35:44] And we're gonna get into that here in, in the next section. But think you're so right about sharing your story because I'm in the same boat a lot, we have a real estate page and real estate podcast and, my kind of personal brand is all about. The same thing, sharing the same things, and you are absolutely right about [00:36:00] sharing the story about being able in a short period of time.

[00:36:04] Hey, less than 10 years is a short period of time. When you know, we're gonna be on this lovely planet for, 70, 80 years. So to be able to change your entire life in less than 10 years is absolutely fantastic. And I think you're gonna change a ton of people's lives by answering these next questions.

[00:36:21] James. Let's get into it and go to the big four. 

[00:36:27] James: So JD, we got our first one, this is our fi hack section. So tell us about something that you do that feels like a financial independence hack, something that's like a cheat code that has really accelerated your progress. Maybe something that's flying under the radar for.

[00:36:45] JD: I had something that really accelerated my financial independence. I actually had a post list. The other day is always kept a side gig. I've always had a side hustle even to this day. If I said my income on here, people would be like, bro, what are you doing? [00:37:00] Why are you doing anything else? It's I just, I wanna get ahead more, I wanna get ahead.

[00:37:03] And so if you want to expedite. Freedom and financial independence. You've got to increase your income. I don't care what anybody says. You can budget and you can cut expenses all you want, and you should, that's a great place to start, but that income is the fuel that drives that wealth and how quick you're gonna get there.

[00:37:22] And so for me, just always throughout all, and sometimes it was 5,000 extra year when I first started it wasn't much and I've lost money in some side gigs, but you learn along the way and then you start making money in 'em and it helps you get. Hundred percent 

[00:37:34] James: now, I think going back to what we talked about earlier that Dave Ramsey thing, Dave, Ramsey's a great place to start, but like I said, when you're in a cold room, you can only get so naked.

[00:37:43] And best thing to do is just to increase your, increase, your income as much as you can. And that's really, what's gonna propel your financial wealth and your growth as quickly as possible. 

[00:37:53] Patrick: Exactly. All right. We call this next one resources. So are there any [00:38:00] books. Podcast or people that have really influenced and shaped your financial, independence journey other than rich dad, poor dad.

[00:38:10] Everybody that's in this space has read that one and that's inspired them. But for the listeners out there, what, book, podcast or influence. Influencer out there besides you should they be checking out. 

[00:38:21] JD: I love the podcast, how I built this by guy Raz. It is so inspiring and I listen to it all the time.

[00:38:29] It just talks about how people build businesses and they go through all these trials and tribulations. And really the key message I take away is if you don't quit, you win. So I am a huge fan of that podcast. I really love the blessed life. It's a book by pastor Robert Morris of gateway church in Texas, Dallas, Texas, or Fort worth.

[00:38:51] And it just talks about living the blessed life from a big biblical sense, and it really talks about blessing others. That's big for me. Helping out in my church and then [00:39:00] helping unfortunate people. And then I also love to bless people who are hustling, maybe they're middle class, but they're wanting more and they're gonna go for it.

[00:39:06] And I remember being in that spot, I was like, man, if somebody would just give me an extra two, 3000 right now, like it could really help me. And I look for opportunities to be able to do that to other people. And then lastly is the one page marketing. It is a book. Can't remember the name of the guy who wrote it, but it is in the digital marketing age.

[00:39:23] It should be a mandatory read for anybody who wants to build a brand or a business. Love it. 

[00:39:29] James: How I built this great 

[00:39:30] JD: podcast. Yes. 

[00:39:32] Patrick: Knocked it out the park on those. I'm. Going on Amazon, as soon as we're done recording this and putting those in my 

[00:39:39] JD: cart and I'm winging this too. I forgot to look at these collections for everybody watching.

[00:39:42] So you're getting fresh off the fresh out of the brain here, fresh out the brain. 

[00:39:48] James: So JD it's future you it's five years in the future. I want you to of paint the picture for what your business and or personal life looks. 

[00:39:58] JD: Finance cowboy [00:40:00] is well known, very well known. I am speaking, hosting events, helping people coaching thousands on not only real estate.

[00:40:10] I think that's a good place for me to start now. You gotta niche down, but also just living a blessed and wealthy life. And then for me, it's. Just controlling my schedule personally, which I'm getting really close to that now. But it's, waking up having the systems and processes, the people in place to where I'm, everybody says it's working on the business, not in the business and doing what I wanna do, travel with the family, being at all my sports events with my kids, coaching them, hanging out in the yard, sitting and having coffee with my wife till nine 30 in the morning.

[00:40:37] Cuz I can, that's that's where I look to be in the. Few years. So 

[00:40:41] James: let's dig in on that one, just for one second. What do you, think's keeping you from being able to control your schedule a little bit better than you would hope to be able 

[00:40:48] JD: to do? So if I wasn't doing finance cowboy, my schedule would allow me to do whatever I wanted.

[00:40:54] I have put that on me. But the reason I can't right now is because I'm in like the build phase. Of this [00:41:00] brand of, this business. And so when you're doing that, and you, especially when you don't have income coming in, you're wearing a lot of hats. And I outsource stuff, we talked about it.

[00:41:08] I got somebody who edits all my content, somebody who uploads it. But there's still a lot of things that I am having to do. Because I don't feel like it would be a smart move financially to offload that yet without decent income coming in. And so finance cowboy takes a lot of my time. I'm also in the middle of building out my coaching program.

[00:41:26] So like I'm right in the heat of that. And it's taking a lot of my time, so I can see 20, 22 has been one of the busiest years of my life. But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel where we're gonna get these things launched systems in places, and then we'll be able to decompress a little bit and manage my schedule a little bit better.

[00:41:46] Patrick: Man, JD, I love it. You've got so much exciting stuff. I feel like we packed so much into these 45, 50 minutes that we've had for you. We'd love to get you get back on to dive a little deeper next time after you launched a coaching [00:42:00] and mentoring program and all of that good stuff. But for right now, What's the best place and where's the best place for our listeners to reach out to you to learn about everything you got going 

[00:42:09] JD: on.

[00:42:10] I'm most active on Instagram. It's at finance cowboy. I'm on TikTok at the finance cowboy, and I'm on YouTube at finance cowboy, but Instagram's kind of my main hub right now. It's where I'm focusing on a lot of things also on Twitter at finance cowboy. But Instagram's where I'm most active. And I got a lot of good free resources.

[00:42:27] For example, one that a lot of people have, I think 4,000 people have downloaded in the last month is a 19 point checklist to help analyze rental properties. So reach out to me, you can get in the link in my bios, or you can just DM me the word analyze. I'll send it over. And it just makes looking at properties, deciding what you need to look for everything you need to account for a lot easier.

[00:42:47] Cuz that could be overwhelming when you. 

[00:42:51] Patrick: Love it. All right, guys. If you like this episode, if you hated this episode, don't leave us a one star review. Go leave us a five star review, [00:43:00] apple, Google, Spotify, all that stuff. And we'll catch you next time. Thanks a lot, guys. Sweet. 

[00:43:06] Outro: Thanks. Thank you for listening to the real fi podcast where you learn from the investors that have lived, the hard lessons for you to connect with us during your pursuit of financial independence.

[00:43:19] Be sure to join our community by following us on Instagram or emailing us info@therealfi.com. If this content made you financially. Physically or spiritually richer, please make sure to leave us a positive review on your preferred content platform. Cheers to kicking the nine to five.