How To Make Your Money Work For You In Real Estate With Jason Rash
How do you know you’re succeeding in real estate? A lot of times, it’s when you feel bored. Seriously! Being bored means you’re winning in that asset class you’re sticking to. Jason Rash encourages us to embrace that boredom and benefit from the cashflow that comes with it. A lot of people end up giving up on real estate because they jump from one asset class to another until they get overwhelmed. Jason tells his audiences the opposite: stick to one asset and make your money go to work for you! Now, many people would disagree with Jason, but he loves being this polarizing guy who lets his money do the talking for him. Tune in and decide for yourself whether he’s crazy or he’s onto something!
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How To Make Your Money Work For You In Real Estate With Jason Rash
I am so fired up to have Jason Rash with us. He is a very highly successful business owner. He's a real estate investor. I've built my empire as far as real estate investing slowly but surely. He has come out of the gate running. He owns seventeen properties in two years. He is kicking off some great cashflow. On top of that, he's great with his systems. He's got such a clear vision for scaling businesses. He has a lot of experience in his prior life and he applies everything that he is learned there to what he's doing now.
He helps entrepreneurs with bulletproof financial foundations and helps them with the 101. I've seen this time and time again. We’re cut from the same cloth. We both started in the network marketing arena. There are a lot of high-income earners there. I was one of them but at the end of the day, it's not how much you ultimately make. It's how much you keep. It's how much you get working for you when you are sleeping. Without further ado, Jason, let's rock and roll.
Jason, thanks for hopping on.
Hearing you read that, I'm like, “It's neat.” At the same time, I'm like, “I can do better.” There's that side of me. Thank you guys for having me. I appreciate it.
That's the entrepreneur in you. It’s like, “I've done good, but I can do better.”
I want to go back to your small beginnings because I've seen a lot of things on Facebook about you and your beautiful wife. Where did you come from? What was that tipping point of, “I can do better? I want to be more. I do want to strive for a better life and pay that forward.”
I've been married for 25 years. Thank you for saying that about my wife. She's pretty awesome. I wouldn't be the man that I am today without her. It comes to the point where I knew there was this thing inside of me. I knew that I couldn't get to the next level. I was at a glass ceiling and I was like, “I've got to be able to learn this new skill.”
This is back whenever we were employees. We both were unsatisfied. It's like, “What is that one thing?” We got so much more to offer the world. We're not going to be able to do it inside this company. We got to step out and we got to become entrepreneurs. My wife did it before we did. She did it in 2007. To be very honest with you, I was working a soul-sucking job so I became a little resentful of her. I'm being very transparent with you. She was making her money, and I was having to go to work and slave every day.
I was cutting with a machete all out in the woods and doing hard manual labor. She was on the computer on message boards selling products. I was like, “I'm so jealous. You're in AC all day.” That's what drove me to leave the company that I was at, and she encouraged me to as well. She was like, “You need to go do X.” I became a personal trainer. That was my first step in entrepreneurship. That's when I realized that I had the keys to the nuggets to help other people as well.
She was the one that went first and started to blaze that trail. What did that look like as far as your evolution and your light bulb moment?
It was when I became a personal trainer. I started having people come in. The first time I got my very first client, I charged him $25 an hour. The intro rate was $40 an hour. I was like, “I got to get some clients in.” This dude paid me $25 an hour.” I was making $15 at my job. I was doing both at the same time. I was like, “Whoa.” It was a magical moment. I'll never forget it. He entrusted me to go out there and show him how to get in shape. I was like, “This is super cool.” I've been on that high ever since.
You got into personal training. The majority of our audiences are entrepreneurs/real estate investors. I would love to hear about the journey that got you to real estate investing.
I was sitting there and I had this personal training thing going on. I was doing one-on-ones. I was like, “I got to make money faster.” I started this bootcamp. This was in 2010 or something like that. A bootcamp was not what it was. It was this thing. I figured out scaling in my own business. “I was making $40 an hour as a one-on-one personal trainer. I went to making $500 an hour bringing in 60 people to pay me $100 a month and only working with them for twelve hours a week. It makes $500 an hour.
It got so big in my gym that I started selling apparel. I and my wife were like rockstars in the city. It was a very small city. It wasn't anything like down here in South Florida. The wild thing about it was my wife worked for this direct sales company. She's like, “I'm going to get you a job with the CEO. I was like, “This is cool.” She's like, “The job didn't even exist but she did it.” I started working for this guy who took this company from a million a year in revenue to over $100 million a year. I traveled the world with him. It was unbelievable. We went to Africa and Australia. We went to all these other countries in between.
I got to travel first class in private jets. Along the way, it was like having a four-year Harvard business degree in the amount of time that I was with him. I learned so much about business, direct sales, and network marketing. I was like, “This is it.” I did that and then I left. My wife and I went on to go do other companies. We then got back into network marketing a few years later. It blew up. As Stefanie said, we made a ton of money. We made over $4 million in six years. I was like, “I don't ever want to go back to the trailer park.”
My wife and I came from the trailer park. I was like, “I got to do something with this money.” I threw it in the stock market. I lost $26,000 in eight minutes. It evaporated. I believe that money is always trying to teach you something. It's always trying to teach you a lesson. I can learn a lesson with the $26,000 being lost in eight minutes or I can learn it at $260,000 or a lifetime of earnings at $2.6 million evaporate.
I was like, “I'm stepping out. I've learned my lesson. This is it. $26,000 is what it cost me. I'll take that.” That's how I got into real estate. I was like, “I need somewhere for this money to go. If I leave it in savings, I know what's going to happen. I'm going to want to upgrade my lifestyle. Something is going to break. Someone is going to sue me for it or somebody is going to come out of the woodwork with a sob story.” I invested in real estate and here we are now.
That’s $26,000 in eight minutes. This is how I always look at it. Across all my investment properties, I had a bunch of things break in 2022. I had to renovate and all that kind of stuff. It cost me $150,000 in 2022. I looked at it and I'm like, “It’s still cheaper than four years at college.” Even though $26,000 was only eight minutes, it is still cheaper than one year at college.
That is the price I paid. The cool thing about the $150,000 is it’s going to come back to you at another time. I never knew if that $26,000 is going to come back to me. I had to go back and look at the stocks. I did the math. I'm like, “It’s still hard. It wouldn't have all come back to me.” I definitely made the right call.
Now, you're all in on real estate. It’s like, “Forget the stock market. I'm all in.”
Yeah, 100%. I put out a lot of reels, especially with two guys talking. I'll be both people obviously. I did one and it went to 1.4 million views. I know that's not a lot for some people but for me, that was a lot. Whenever I post it, it's very controversial because I have this guy that wants to cash out. He's like, “Tyler, I want to cash out my 401(k) and invest in real estate.” Immediately, I'm this other guy playing the HR guy who's the 401(k) representative saying, “You can't do that.” They're going back and forth. People love to comment on this.
These are people that have $3,000 in their savings account. They're arguing with me and telling me that I'm the stupid one, but they're driving my reels through the roof. They're leaving these super long comments and they're telling me how wrong I am. As long as they're doing that, the reel is playing in the background every single time. I'm making money from it. I love making reels like this because I believe you have to be polarizing enough to give a pattern interrupt people's thought patterns and be like, "This guy is either crazy or he is onto something, but I got to watch.”
You have to be polarizing enough to interrupt people's thought patterns and be like, “This guy's either crazy or he is onto something, but I need to watch.”
I dove into the reel train and I put one out the other day saying, “This was my very first duplex. This is what it earns me every month.” I've got, “What about the maintenance? What about this?” I'm like, “I'm not trying to deep dive on a 30-second reel. I'm sorry.”
I got called onto the Dave Ramsey Show. Stefanie, did you see that?
Yeah. Share that with our audience.
I made this reel. We were putting flooring in our house and I was talking about a flooring guy named Mike. I said, “Mike, how much do you have in your 401(k)?” He said, “About $200,000.” He had asked me, “Why do you invest all in real estate? Why are you not in stocks? Why are you not in crypto?” I went on to explain. I said, “Mike, I'm proud of you for getting $200,000 into your 401(k). Let me ask you a question. How old's your father?” He said, “About 70 years old.”
I said, “What if your father gets sick and goes to a nursing home? That nursing home is going to cost you about $7,000 a month. With only $200,000 in your 401(k), how long can you keep him there?” He did the quick math. It was about 28.5 months. I said, “What if you took the $200,000 and you invested it into rental properties that produced $10,000 and cashflowing every single month? How long can you keep him there?” He was like, “Forever.” I was like, “That's the power of real estate.”
I did that exact reel and they pulled me into the Dave Ramsey Show. Somebody tagged all the people that worked for Dave Ramsey in it. They brought me on and they put me through the mud. They completely discredited everything I was saying. They were like, “By the way, I guarantee you this guy got a course to sell you.” I'm like, “Don't you guys sell courses too?”
Everybody was like, “You could sue them for all this slander and stuff.” I was like, “While that might seem like the high road to take, I didn't say anything to them.” I was like, “I'm on the Dave Ramsey Show.” My voice and my face and my video is side by side on the Dave Ramsey show. God delivers you into the pathway. Sometimes you don't know how he's going to get you there, but he'll get you there. That's how I got on there.
Some of those times when you feel like, “How did this catch fire in maybe a bad scenario?” There is no such thing as bad PR.” You keep taking shots. I feel like when you have the right heart behind you, the Lord totally orchestrates your ways. You get in rooms that you would've never been able to get on your own.
I was explaining to somebody the other day. I could've spent millions of dollars in Facebook ads to push a course, to push real estate investing, and to build an online brand, but I would've never gotten on the Dave Ramsey show ever. I do a reel that is so polarizing that butts up against their belief system so much that they're like, “We got to get on here and completely tear this guy apart.” I'm like, “Cool. Bring it on, King Kong. Let's go.”
Jason, for the person who's like, “I've got an entrepreneurial spirit.” Maybe they have that dead-end job like you had. What would be your suggestion like, “This would be my first step?” It sounds like different network marketing, but I would love to hear your thoughts. To the person who's got the entrepreneurial spirit who's like, “I need to take the step,” what would that step be for them?
You're telling me if they were going to leave their job and do their own thing. Is that what you're explaining?
Correct.
What I've learned in my scenario is that people that have the entrepreneurial spirit and have an employee-based job burn out. They can't go any further. They can only do so much and they feel a lack of value. They feel demotivated and they burn out, “I'm done with this.” Everybody was like, “How do you have so much energy?” I'm like, “I'm building my own thing over here. I love it. I could do this all day long.”
I had four hours of sleep the night before. I got up and did two interviews and cranked out all day long. It's a story of my life. If you're going to leave your job, number one, learn the skill of sales and marketing. It doesn't matter if you're trying to sell on Amazon. If you're trying to sell real estate or guitars or a car or network marketing. It doesn’t matter. Learn the skill of sales and marketing because, at some point, you're going to need to sell yourself with confidence to the person that's going to be purchasing your product or service.
Learn the skill of sales and marketing because, at some point, you will need to sell yourself with confidence to the person that's going to purchase your product or service.
You're going to have to know the right audience to connect more products or services too. That is the biggest thing. My father was the SEC commissioner of the State of Alabama. He passed away in June 2020. He is an unbelievably smart gentleman. He could read a spreadsheet. He could do all this stuff in his head. He is a super complex man. He died almost broke. The reason was because he couldn't create new money. He didn't have the skill of sales and marketing. That's when it hit me. I'm like, “This is the most important skill of all.”
If I was going to leave my job, which I did. That's what I had to learn. When I left my job for the first time to become a personal trainer, I had to learn how to market myself. Yes, I was good at working out. Yes, I could do push-ups. Yes, I could do squats. I had all the right forms. I had the right physique. I ate right. I did everything but the main thing was I was able to market myself inside that gym and go in there. I got more clients within two years than all those bodybuilders and all those people who study macros, proteins, carbs, and all that stuff. It’s because they studied that and I studied marketing.
Money is in marketing. My dad taught us that early on in the game and that is so true. We've said this even in real estate. It's not the best real estate agent that wins the game. It is the best marketer. You have to have that skill set to back you up for it to be sustainable. At the end of the day, if you can nail the marketing, all bets are off on what you can accomplish. That's what you and Brooke have done extremely well.
If you guys want to go get inspired by great ideas of how to market yourself, go and check out their page on Facebook because that will give you some good insight. Study those types of people and how they've got to where they are now. You didn't start as a mogul on Facebook, but you are great at creating that community and bringing that audience together. That's invaluable. That's priceless.
I love to talk to people. That's half my problem. I love to talk to people. The other half is I love to inspire people. I'm like, “If I can bottle that up and make a ton of money with it at the same time.” I'm doing what I love over here and I'll never work a day in my life. That's literally the secret. Follow me on Facebook. Jason Rash is my name. It's not PinkSunset77 or something. It's my name. I'm always out there asking questions because I'm trying to find out where my audience is at in their journey. I'm always trying to build that connection with them.
Every single time someone responds to the question, I always like, “It's great to meet you. Tell me more.” They love that. I got 40,000 followers and they think that these people are up here. Unfortunately, the people that do have followers think that they're way up here as well so they won't answer anybody. When you come down and you say, “It's great to meet you.” All of a sudden, it opens everything up for dialogue. The more dialogue they give me, the more it opens up to more people.
That's a cool connection point. I truly believe that's how you create those. Ben has said this so often. I can't remember what book you got it from, but if you have a thousand raving fans, that's all you need. Jason, I want to dial into your real estate investing journey. I've been on that path since '08. Ben has been in the game for quite a while. You've come on the scene in a short period of time of seventeen properties in under two years. I would like to hear from firsthand experience how you did that and how you would advise the average Joe to be able to do that.
I'll tell you exactly how I bought them. Number one, I need to be very clear about how I set this up from the very beginning. I got into real estate because I wanted to park my money into something that would grow without my direct attention or involvement. That's the only reason to invest in real estate. I want to be very clear. Investments do not make you wealthy. People think they do. Building a business makes you wealthy. If you think of every single person out there on the planet right now that is unbelievably rich or people that you know are rich, they did it through building a business. It’s like you right now, Stefanie. You're building a business. That's how you're going to get wealthy.
I then parked my money in real estate. What I do is put 20% down on every single property. That's the first thing I did. I went through them and bought them all, one right after the other. Before I did that, I was like, "What do I want out of real estate? What is the very first thing that I want?" I want to be able to sit here and focus on network marketing. I didn't want it to take my attention away. I don't want to be an active real estate investor. I don't want to look for BRRRRs. I don't want to look for flips. I don't want to look for wholesaling. I don't want to do any of that because I can make money much faster over here in network marketing without assuming the risk of taking properties and trying to fix them up and flip them or whatever.
That's what I want, number one. Number two, I was like, “What do I want?” I want 3-2s and 4-2s. I don't want 2-1s, 2-2s, or 3-1s because if the market turns sideways, then I want to be able to dump this thing into the market. I'm always thinking of what is my exit strategy. When I go into any investment, I'm like, “How am I going to get out of this?” That's the very first question I ask. I was like, “The only people that are going to buy 2-2s, 2-1s, and 3-1s are going to be other investors. They're going to beat you all the way down to the ground. I was like, “I'm going to do 3-2s and 4-2s. That's the first thing because families are going to value that more.
I'll have a larger plethora or a market of people that are going to want to come in and buy that home so it’s quicker to sell it. The next thing was, “What do I want?” I don't want a lot of maintenance. I wanted it all in one area too. I chose Montgomery, Alabama. That's where I invest because I know the area. I used to work there. I lived there for 31 years. I worked outside. I traveled all over the city. I know where the socioeconomic is. I know where the good areas are. I know where the bad areas are. I know how the demographics are laid out. I don't buy houses with flood zones. I don't buy houses with decks. I don't buy houses with pools. I'm like, “How can I narrow this down to such a window that is going to accelerate my chances and mitigate all of my risks?”
I was like, “3-2s and 4-2s, no decks, no basements, no pools, no large yards, no all brick, and no flood zone.” That is the key metric that I purchase with. Also, single-family homes. I made a post. We pulled in $19,000 in revenue from the homes that we have. The seventeenth home is not online so it's not producing cashflow yet as of this moment. It's out of sixteen homes. We pulled out of that $7,100-something in positive cashflow after all fees and everything are met.
For people to start, number one, find out what your buying criteria is. Number two, stick with one asset class and become a master of that. There are so many people that I see that never get started because they're like, “I'm going to do some single-family homes over here. John is making more money over here with multifamily. I need to do that. Storage units are now here. They are the hottest asset class.” I did a reel about this and it blew up on Instagram.
Real Estate: Stick to one asset class and become a master of that.
Many people become indecisive. Master one asset class, have property acquisition buying criteria, and know what type of tenants you want. Many people are like, "I'm going to get Section 8." I don't want any of that. I don't want Section 8 kids tearing up my house. I don't want their friends tearing up my house. I was like, "Where else is the government money? High-end military officers.” There you go.
I target the high-end military. They pay on time. They have repercussions if they don't pay and they take care of your property. I would say local knowledge is best. If you've been there or you know somebody that's in the area, then that acknowledges that what you're going to get is going to be fantastic. That's where I would start.
That’s super powerful. What area did you decide to invest in and why did you choose that area?
I invested in Montgomery, Alabama because I grew up there. I know everything about the city and every single aspect of it, which way the trends are going, where the markets are at, and all that good stuff. I do long-term rentals. I don't do short-term rentals. I did long-term for one reason only. It’s because I want to build a solid and strong foundation. I know that there's a tsunami of city councils out there that are pushing to get Airbnb out.
If you start off with a whole thing of Airbnbs, you may start in the wrong area and you don't know exactly what you're looking for. The county or the city council comes in and says, “New Airbnb's got to go. By the way, we're going to retroactive this thing, 8 months, 6 months, 12 months to 1 year.” All of a sudden, you're out of business overnight. I’m like, “Let me go ahead and build something that I know for a fact that the outcomes aren't going to be predicated on economic wins either as well.” If we have another pandemic, these people got to have a place to go. They're going to stay in that long-term rental. Hopefully, that's helpful for everybody.
I think that's so good. There are a couple of things you said right there. Stick to an asset class. My sister and I have failures in each other's asset classes. I bought a short-term rental. My sister loves short-term rentals. I was like, “I'm going to do this.” I'm located in Minnesota so it’s a little different. The other thing is you picked Alabama, which is I'm presuming a pretty landlord-friendly state compared to Minnesota. We're more of a tenant-friendly state, but I bought a short-term rental. I was like, “This is going to be awesome. It's going to make a ton of money.” I closed on March 23rd, 2020 and we went to the shelter on place March 27th, 2020. It was four days later.
It was the worst timing ever. I thought, “I'll float it for 3 or 4 months.” Three months later, it was June 2020, George Floyd happened. All of a sudden, Minneapolis becomes this war zone. Everybody that I had booked canceled. I was like, “Short-term isn't my asset class. I tried it.” Stef tried to branch into my asset class of multifamily.
Here’s the thing. I love multi-family if I have the right property manager, but if that property is over 100 years old, no. I am not doing it unless I marry a guy that's a contractor and he's amazing at that. I may dial in down the line, but between now and then, no.
I think your story Ben is so spot on that people get money in their eyes. They're like, “Airbnb is it.” That's a prime example. I've got some friends that were telling me about some friends that they had that had a house in Breckenridge. They were trying to turn into an Airbnb. They came in and the city council said, “If you don't have a gate, a security guard, a lobby, and X, Y, Z, you can't get in.” They are making it unbelievably tough.
The place where we have our seventeenth property is in the Colorado Springs area. I went to meet with the city council and they just changed the laws. Not one single person opposed this. Anybody new that has an Airbnb has to live in the property for 185 days. That is more than half the year. They are like, “We don't want Airbnbs.” Number two, you have to have a lot of certain sizes. You have to have X, Y, Z. They’re making it pretty much almost unbelievably tough. You can't have one within 500 feet of another person.
I have some stuff coming into my yard. If I cut my yard up, they don't consider a lot under certain square footage. They make it unbelievably tough. They're like, “We don't want tourist money.” I'm looking at the roads and I'm like, “Are you sure? Your roads could tell me differently. I'm throwing that out there. You got some potholes in these roads and tourist money can fix that. I’m just saying.”
It is one of those things where I always tell my clients, “What is your exit strategy?” What if zoning does shift? What if the economy shifts? What if we go back to shelter-in-place? You want to know that your business model is rock solid. Business is fluid. You have to be able to shift on a dime. If you're not able to pivot, good luck. You better get out of entrepreneurship at large. I like that. Number one, you're very crystal clear on what your buy box is. That is half the battle, but then on top of that, you know that if I do want to exit, this is my game plan as well. Well done.
You have to have that. If you're a first-time investor and you are wanting to get into the game, it is imperative that you have a great experience out of the gate. Don't be one of those people that goes into real estate investing. They don't know what they're doing. They buy on impulse. They buy because they feel like they're buying the market. They buy because they feel like they're behind the eight-ball.
If you're a first-time investor and you want to get into the game, it is imperative that you have a great experience out of the gate.
They got a little money sitting around and they don't want it to die in the bank. They throw it out there into a property. They have no idea what they're doing. They get into it. It's over their heads. They get out barely with the skin of their shirts and then they say, “Real estate investing is risky.” I would say that they as the investors were risky. A lot of people are doing that.
You're preaching to the choir. I'm a real estate agent here in Minnesota. I tell people, “I own nineteen properties myself. I would love to be able to help you out. If you're like, ‘I want to use my cousin Sally, my Aunt Glenda,’ or whatever, that’s cool but just know that they're not going to know. They don't believe in their own product.” It's so funny to me that so many people are like, “I'm going to use this agent because they're my friend or they're my family.” “Do they own any rental properties?” “No, they don't.” “Good luck then.”
You get that from a lot of people. I have a real estate investment course and that's one of the things I teach. I'm like, “If you're going to use a real estate agent, make sure they are an investor.”
It's one of those things where I was talking to this one guy and he was saying the exact same thing. He is like, “I have such a great relationship with this person.” I said, “That's awesome, but at the end of the day, success leaves clues and so does failure.” If you want to put your financial future in the hands of a broke person that's trying to make it in real estate, good luck with that. I’m taking that down just a little bit. Nonetheless, the principle was the same.
People don't understand the power of previous experience. They discount it. It's baffling to me. Those are the people that you probably wouldn't have wanted to work with in the beginning. God's like, “Let me move this person out of your life because this is going to be a headache.” That's the way I see it.
Experience is worth so much. Case in point, I always operated on super low margins in my rental accounts until 2022. I had four heaters go out on the same property. When I inspected it, they were like, "The likelihood that all four of these go out at once is really small." They went off all at the same time. I've learned where it's like, "I want to have X amount in my bank account just in case these big things go wrong.” At first, I was like, “I can open up a no-interest credit card, no problem.” When it's a $50,000 expense, it's hard to open up a no-interest credit card for $50,000.
You touched on something super important. Many people get hung up on the numbers. If you're going to build something scalable and it's unbelievably predictable, it's got to be simple. The simpler it is, the more you're going to be able to fluctuate with external market forces. I think the volatility in the world is heating up. For reserves, we don't even touch the money that comes in. I don't live off of it. I don't eat it. It sits there and builds up in the account.
Real Estate: If you're going to build something that's scalable and it's unbelievably predictable, it needs to be simple. The simpler it is, the more you're going to be able to fluctuate with external market forces.
Whenever we get to a $10,000 swath, I take it and throw it in the savings account. Another $10,000 swath, I throw it in there. Whenever we get to $100,000, we just start another savings account and then that's the account that we'll buy the next property off. We are keeping $100,000 in reserves. That's how we do it. It’s simple.
With you being in it for two years, what are your goals? What are you looking to accomplish in the next five years with your real estate investing?
Get more homes. I was telling my wife the other day, “The only thing I regret is not going faster.” The only reason I didn't go faster is because I didn't believe that it would work. Maybe I didn't believe in myself fully. I look back and I'm like, “I wish I had gone faster.” At the same time, it's getting more homes. Many people are like, “You can go into multifamily or go do anything else.” If I do anything else, I'll probably do a car wash or something. Those are unbelievable cash cows. I don't know enough about them. I'm still reading about it.
I've joined a few groups of people that own car washes, but I'm still going to do single-family homes. I got a repeatable process. What I've done when I'm talking to a lot of others. To me, it's average. I think we spent a total of $325,000. That's pretty close to what we spent on acquiring all the properties. That pumps out $7,000 a month. That's not a bad ROI, in my opinion. That's in sixteen properties, but by the end of 2024, that will be over $10,000. Whenever rates come down, I'll refinance. We'll add another $2,000 or $3,000 a month to that as well.
It's a boring repeatable path. That's the biggest thing in real estate. It's overcoming boredom. It's like, “I did this once. I did it again. I've done it again and again.” That is honestly the biggest thing. It’s overcoming boredom and sticking with the same asset class. I got a friend of mine who got 75 homes. He told me in the very beginning, “If you get the first one right, you do every one after you do the first one.” You do them all the exact same way as McDonald's. It tastes the same everywhere you go. You're building a repeatable pathway to wealth.
Do real estate the same way as McDonald’s. It tastes the same everywhere you go. You're building a repeatable pathway to wealth.
To go back to your previous point, when you got into personal training, the reason you were good at it is it was a boring and repeatable process. It's the same thing with network marketing. There might be some external forces that you got to change things up once in a while. The true path to success taking something boring and continuing at it. Someday you're going to wake up and be like, "Look at all this money."
Any excitement that I've discovered in real estate is always negative. My property management company called me. I'm like, “I don’t know if I want to answer that. It is 68.2% but that's not going to be a call that I want to take.”
Tell me about your property management. Do you have a property manager on every single property? If so, what is the price point on that and how did you find them?
When I started buying rental properties, do I want to manage this from 1,500 miles away? Absolutely not. I was like, “I have to get property management.” I did the very first deal myself. I had no real estate agent. It was unbelievably tough when you don't know exactly what you were doing. I filled out all the contracts. I had to create all this stuff. It was tough. I was like, “I got to get a real estate agent.”
My wife suggested that I reach out to the one that sold our house eleven years ago in the same city. I reached out to her, “Are you still doing real estate?” “Of course, I'm doing real estate.” I said, “Fantastic. We're going to do this.” I flew in and closed on the first house. While I'm there, I drove over to the second house. I was like, “I'm going to buy this too. I want to buy it at the same time.” I was like, “I got to have someone to manage these. Who do you get?” She gave me a couple of different names.
I called them. I created a series of about twenty-something questions that helped me to get the guidance and the information that I needed. I settled on one. I went with her. I called her and I liked what she said about the questions. I said, “I'm going to buy 100 homes in this city. It can be with you or it can be with somebody else. Your rate right now is 10%. What would it take for you to go to 8%?” She said, “You put 10 homes with me. I'll drop all of them to 8%.” I said, “Done.”
That was it. I pay 8% now. She won't go any lower. I said, “If I put twenty, will you go to 6%? She's like, “No.” I said, “Okay. Fair enough.” What's odd is it adds up. There was one property that I discovered that she was taking a 10% commission because of a computer glitch. She went back through the system and found out that it was almost nine months or something like that. The first couple of months were correct, but somehow it changed internally. It came out to be $375 or something like that in commissions that she paid me back. I was like, “It does add up.” It was cool.
That's the process. I kept them all in the same city to streamline everything. I've got my friend who got 75 homes. He got them in twenty-something different cities. He is dealing with twenty-something different property management companies, realtors, cable companies, power companies, water companies, sewer companies, taxes, LLCs, and all those cities in different states. I'm like, “That seems like a full-time job. It’s unbelievably tough.” I was like, “How can I streamline this entire process so I can focus on our main business and then scale all this up?”
Streamlining the process is so powerful. I broke into Indianapolis and had a rude awakening of starting in a whole different state. Once you get a well-oiled machine, by all means, that is amazing, If I were to do it all over again, I would dial more into Minnesota and Florida, and get good at that. If you feel the need to expand, diversification is great, but you want to establish a strong cashflow from what you know right here and now.
The first question I was asked is why would I want to expand to a different city if I've already got a great market. If I'm doing great, why fix it if it isn't broken?
If you are cashflowing and you got your system in place, absolutely. This is the other beautiful thing. As a high-income earner, real estate is one of the best things ever because it brings down your taxes. At the end of the year, you're going to be like, “This is great.” I remember my first good money-making year. I was like, “I'm making such great money as a real estate agent. This is awesome,” and then I paid $50,000 in taxes.
I was like, “Who wants to do that? Why am I doing that?” That next year was when I started real estate investing, my income doubled, but my taxes went down to $26,000 that year. I was like, “This is why all the rich people do this.” Not only are you bringing down your taxes, but you're getting cashflow every month. It's the goose that laid the golden egg.
It’s the most unbelievable thing. I don't understand why people on my reels argue with me. They only got $3,000 in their savings account and they think I'm an idiot. I'm like, “All right guys. Whatever.” You're spot on. We still use depreciation and all sorts of other tax strategies. I'm not going to go into that for your audience, but the ability to leverage that is unbelievable. A tax strategy is available to you. That's half of the Holy Grail right there. The other half is cashflow.
Give us a rundown on your course. What did you cover? Just so our audience will know?
I have a course called the Passive Income Generator or PIG. I was like, “It's like a piggy bank. This will be super cool.” The first module is how to spot a deal. That's the one I like to talk about the most because that's the Achilles heel of most people. They don't have a system in place. They're buying on emotion. They're buying because they feel like they're behind the eight-ball. They see their friends talking about it. Any deal will work. If you can't spot a deal, any deal is going to work. I was like, “What should I call this thing?” I was like, “How to Spot a Deal?” I bought the website.
I was like, “Is this for real?” It’s www.HowToSpotADeal.com. This teaches you how to identify a property. It gives you the spreadsheet. It teaches you the five numbers that you need. It teaches you the buying criteria. I let them come up with their own buying criteria, but this is what's worked for me in this area, and here's why I chose this. That's what I focus on. I focus on the location and quality of tenants as well. It then takes you all the way up to making the offer. The rest of the course talks about how to negotiate once you make an offer.
Module 2 takes them through negotiations. Module 3 takes them through the inspection process, what to look for, and how to spot a bad inspector. What questions to ask or the areas that he's not inspecting that are going to let you know that, “This guy may not be as good as everybody thinks he is.” How to find a lender and a great real estate agent. The questions to ask a property management company. It's the entire thing. It’s the A to Z. How to identify a property that's going to cashflow that fits your criteria and how to make it cashflow all the way through the list.
That is so powerful because a lot of people are like, “Where do I even get started?” We've even done this in our monthly Zooms, Invest Like a Boss. It's like 101 on the value and how to move forward in that. The more that you can learn and grow from other people and understand, “This is what has helped Jason with his track record to do what he's done and it's duplicatable.”
I posted an actual screenshot of our bank account of all the deposits coming in. Many people are like, “You are not getting that.” I'm like, “Let me show you.” You can't argue with that. I did it and people came out of the woodwork. All the people who deny me are shooting me texts or DMs, “That's fake. It's photoshopped. That's not real. These are not deposits. These are the withdrawals from the bank.” I'm like, “You can believe whatever you want to believe.” Some people will deny it until the cows come home. These are always people that have done less than you. Let's keep that in mind.
I want to say something to your audience. This happened to me when I jumped into real estate. When I started claiming to the world that I was going to invest in real estate, every single person that's remotely connected to any bit of real estate, it’s just their personal home with no rental property whatsoever, is telling me that the market is going to crash. “This is crazy. You're stupid to do this. You're going to bankrupt your family. This will never work. Rental property is terrible.”
It goes on and on. I almost began to doubt myself. At the same time, I looked at their success and I'm like, “You haven’t got your own dog. You haven’t got any. How many rental properties do you own?” “Zero.” That's what it is. You’re just hating. Be aware of that. Whenever you decide to do this, many people are going to come out of the woodwork and try to talk you out of your dream because that was their dream at one point and they gave up.
When you decide to do real estate, many people are going to come out of the woodwork and try to talk you out of your dream because that was their dream at one point and they gave up.
I know that we have a timeframe to stick to. If you are cool with it and Ben, if you don't have any other questions, I'm going to jump into the Lightning Round with the Lady Boss.
Go for it.
You have to answer this in 30 seconds or less on each question. This is the first one. If you wouldn't start with what you got into with real estate, where would you have gone?
I have no idea. That was the endgame. After I lost $26,000 in the stock market, I realized that paper assets, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, crypto, Bitcoin, Ether, or whatever it is, are all the same to me. If you can't control the impact, the outcome is the exact same. I would've kept my money in a savings account and waited until I figured something else out. Real estate was the jam for me. I was like, “I got this. I'm going to figure this out.”
Chipotle or Chick-Fil-A?
Chipotle. Do you know that I eat at Chipotle every single day?
I was not aware. I learned something new about you, Jason.
Every single day, I get the exact same thing. Three soft tacos, black beans, chicken, fajita mix, pico, guac, and lettuce. That's it.
Simply to the point. Don't reinvent it.
It’s the reason why you see me in black shirts the whole time because I don't want to make another decision.
What is your favorite way to spend downtime? I don't think you have any but if you did.
My wife and I were talking about this. She's like, “You need to take some downtime.” I would say spending time with my wife walking on the beach is a lot of fun. I've grown into that. As a top producer, it's very hard to take my mind off, but I'm starting to realize the older I get how important it is that no days off is a huge lie.
It’s true. There's a reason why the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments.
I've been honoring it. Every time, I don't honor it, I get crispy on the inside. It means I feel like I'm running on fumes.
What are you absolutely addicted to?
Caffeine. I've got some energy sticks you need to try. I’ll get one for you.
I’m here for it. You know I’m addicted to coffee, caffeine, and all of it.
Ben, do you want one too? Do you like caffeine?
Absolutely. I'm in.
What are you reading right now?
It’s Russell Brunson’s Expert Secrets. It’s a great book on marketing.
What is the best piece of advice you've ever received?
It’s to get started. I don't have any other advice. You got all these people out there. You will learn more from doing your first deal in real estate than learning how to deadlift or learning how to ride a bike. I can read all the books in the world on how to ride a bike, but if I don't ride that bike, I am never going to learn. I will learn more. You will learn more than reading a thousand books or watching a thousand videos by doing your first deal. That's why so many real estate investors think they need the next thing. “What's the next thing?” You need to do the deal. That's what the next thing is. You put your name on the line and do the deal.
Real Estate: You will learn more from doing your first deal in real estate than reading a thousand books or watching a thousand videos.
Our dad taught us, “Ready, fire, aim.” Get something out there and then figure it out along the way.
That's it. Just get started. Nike has the best slogan, “Just do it.”
What is your most embarrassing moment?
That time I farted in the gym class that I'm teaching. I don’t know. It might be the gym class now that I think about it. That was pretty embarrassing for me. I'm not going to lie.
Who inspires you and who do you aspire to be like?
There are a lot of people that inspire me. I think it changes with your life. It used to be different people. I'm not going to say any people because it changes so much. I don't want to mold myself into one individual. I think I'm trying to find the best version of myself so that when I die, I am the best version of myself that I could have ever been. I know I've gone through a lot of mistakes. I've had a lot of challenges, but that is who I want to be. The person that God made me to be. He taps me on the shoulder and says, "You could do better in this area. You need to fix this before I can get you to the next level."
I would say I take nuggets from every single person. I read 70 books in 2022. Every single book I read, I ask myself, “Where's the million-dollar tip in this?” You'd be amazed. When you set your brain to that frequency, it's like, “I'm going to find it. If I don't, I'll reel back and read it again.” I pull from so many different people's weird little nuggets that oddly shaped my life and morphed me into the person that I am now.
Coffee or chocolate?
Coffee. It has to be cold brewed. I'm not a fan of warm coffee especially now that I'm down here, but I'll drink some every now and then. Every other morning, I'll drink some, but I love cold brew.
Describe yourself in one word.
Over-the-top.
We are now on the home stretch. Jason, if someone met you and said, “I want to become the boss of my own life and call the shots,” what's my first step?
Take full total responsibility for everything that happened in your life. Stop blaming people. Don't give excuses. Go out there and make it happen. That's the biggest thing. I stopped blaming anything back in the past. Every time I ignored something and didn't take responsibility for where I'm at in my life, that could be my health, it could be my wealth, it could be my relationships, or it could be wherever I'm at. Any deficits and everything, it's all because of me. It's also a learning lesson to learn more about me, to uncover more potential about me, and what I'm capable of.
What is your definition of a boss?
My definition of a boss is an individual that is able to do whatever it is they want to do whenever they want to do it. I control and steer the ship. I know where I'm going. I know where I can go. I know what I have the capabilities to do. I got the rudder in the back of my hand. I'm steering this ship. That to me is the boss. It’s like a lot of people who think that they're entrepreneurs, but they got a job. You are not an entrepreneur if you still got a job. If you're still taking a check from somebody because you showed up or you got tenure or you traded your time for money, you are not an entrepreneur. That's my definition.
Any last words of wisdom before you share how people can connect with you and all your handles?
A lot of people think it has to be unbelievably complicated. To be successful in life, you have to know who you are and what you want. It's not about money. It's not about likes on social media. It's not about fame. It's not about notoriety or attention. It boils down to who you are. You have to know who you are. On the way to the top, you will be put in situations in front of people where you may not know what to say, you may not know the answer to, you may feel great about it, or you may be able to impact other people. At the end of the day, you have to know what's right for you inside your own skin.
That is the only way to success. I have people all the time that reach out to me that want me to help them with certain things. Some things don't align with my core values of who I am. Some things are not going to align with their core values of who you are, but when you begin to take total responsibility for everything, stop blaming people, and know who you are and what it is that you want, you can do anything you want. It's going to be hard and challenging, but don't look at those as losses. Look at those as lessons all along the way. As DMX said, “Don't take it as a loss. Take it as a lesson.”
At the end of the day, you have to know what's right for you inside your own skin. That is the only way to success.
With that, Jason, share all the handles of where people can connect with you. This was phenomenal.
I want to say thank you for having me, both of you. I appreciate it. This has been fun. You're good at this, by the way, Stefanie. Keep doing it. Ben, you're alright.
I'll take 20% of it.
They can find me on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok. It’s @JasonRash. Facebook is where I'm at if you want to come to see me in action and talk to me on Facebook. You can also email me at Support@JasonRash.com. Most definitely of all, if you liked what it is that I said in this episode, I have got a podcast that just launched. We have ten episodes up and they will change your life financially. They'll change everything about you. It's a fantastic podcast called Where's My Money with Jason Rash. I love it. It's my core passion project. Apparently, a lot of others love it too. My favorite thing is my new podcast. Thanks for having me.
Go and tune in. Jason, this was an absolute blast. I wouldn't have expected anything else. As I say every single week, it is your time to fire your fear, build your faith, and become the boss of your own life. Let's get after it, guys.
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About Jason Rash
Jason is a highly successful real estate investor and business builder.
He has made a significant impact in a short period of time, investing in 17 properties in just under two years and generating a significant passive income.
Jason's background in network marketing has prepared him well for his current success in real estate, where he excels in building systems, setting clear vision, and scaling his business.
He is a vocal advocate of the importance of aligning one's personal goals and finances in order to achieve a cohesive and successful personal blueprint for life.
Jason assists entrepreneurial minded, six figure earners in building a bulletproof financial foundation to create passive income through rental property investing.