Making Over $300K in Profit from JUST 2 Deals

Ashley:
What would you do if you were laid off from your job with a baby on the way? Today’s guest actually turned that low point into a six figure win and a new full-time career.

Tony:
Today we’re talking to Jason Manion, who used a data-driven mindset from tech to go from anxious beginner to confident flipper, turning one house hack and one scary decision into full-time real estate freedom.

Ashley:
This is the Real Estate Rookie podcast. I’m Ashley Kehr,

Tony:
And I am Tony j Robinson. And let’s give a big warm welcome to Jason. Jason, welcome to the show, brother.

Jason:
Thank you so much. Thank you, Tony. Thank you, Ashley. I am truly so grateful for the opportunity. I’ve been a long time listener to the BiggerPockets podcast. I am going on I think around five years now and just excited to be here. So thank you.

Ashley:
Well, you’ve made it when you’re a guest on the Rookie podcast. So Jason, give us a little insight on what was your day to day before you got started in real estate investing? I

Jason:
Was working in the tech sector as an online community manager, and I was actually pretty content there. I enjoyed my job. I had worked my way up the corporate ladder at the time, I was making over six figures, which to me was the pinnacle of my professional and work career, and so I was happy there, but it wasn’t my dream job. I had always had this deep underlying passion for real estate. Even when I go on my morning walks and I walk past houses and I go through the neighborhood, I can’t help but think about how I would remodel houses. I love looking at how they could be their best, their brightest, and so I just have always been drawn to it and that’s always been the dream job. I always thought, oh, if I could start over, if I was going to make a pivot, then real estate and real estate investing was the dream.

Ashley:
So what actually made you pull the trigger and take action to start investing in real estate?

Jason:
I knew I wanted to buy. I was getting into my first property and I knew I wanted to approach it from an investor standpoint. Actually. I didn’t know that I wanted to approach it from an investor standpoint until I read Rich Dad, poor Dad. I listened to bigger pockets. I started to get informed because it was such a big decision. I really wanted to make it right. So as I was doing the research, I learned there was levels to the game. I remember a big aha moment was that I was looking at condos to buy from my first property, and I realized that I could live cheaper getting a two two and renting out the other room than I could if I was just going to get a one bath for myself. And so looking at this purchase from the investor standpoint, from what I learned to analyze deals and my numbers, it became so much more approachable and it just knocked me over when I thought I could get a better asset.

Jason:
It’s a two, two, I get more square footage room to stretch out. I pay less to live day to day. This is a win-win win. It just unlocks so many things in my mind of, wow, there’s so much potential. And so that was a key moment where when I made this first purchase, even though I was living in it, I looked at it as a place that I could do some sweat equity and improved. I looked for something that needed some TLC and I did this house hack where I rented out the room. And so those things together were strategies that I learned from reading books, from listening to BiggerPockets, and it totally shaped the way that I approached this first purchase, not as a traditional home buyer, but more from an investor standpoint.

Tony:
Jason, we definitely want to get more into the house hack because I know that ended up being a big catalyst for you as you scaled up your investing journey. But I guess what was maybe the first time that real estate just punched you in the gut and made you wonder if you’d made a huge mistake by even thinking about investing in real estate?

Jason:
It was the first time I had fully pivoted into real estate investing. So it was now my entire income. It was my bread and butter, so I had to make it work. And even though I had done all this research now that I was doing this full time, I was learning my way, figuring out how to actually put it into practice. And so I went to a few seminars. I invested in some lead generating platforms. Some of these salmon Earth were scammy, some of these lead generation platforms didn’t pan out. And to be fair, I felt like that was all the cost of business. It was painful to lose that money. I estimated that it was around 5K. I paid up front to go to Real Estate University and really learn these hard lessons, but it was good too. In those seminars, I went door knocking and figured out that that was not the way that I wanted to go, and it was brutal, but a lot of that shaped how I did want to approach real estate.

Jason:
I had to do a lot of stuff that didn’t fit me, but are totally valid strategies for some other people as well. It was really learning about what appealed to my strengths and my personal work style. And so I definitely at the beginning that hit extra hard, that punch in the gut because it was so early on and I was still trying to prove to myself that I could do this. So taking missteps, going down the wrong path was lost time, lost money, and so it hurt, but I feel like has made me a much stronger investor coming out the other side.

Tony:
And Jason, I appreciate you sharing that because I think there’s something to be said about experimenting a little bit before you truly commit. I do believe there’s value in saying, my name’s Tony and I’m going to focus on this strategy in this market, right? Because you can really start to build expertise around that. But I think before you can confidently say that you have to maybe try a few different things. First to understand what lane you really want to step into. Before we went full force into hospitality, I did do traditional long-term rentals. I tried to do apartment syndication. I looked at other asset classes first before I found my rhythm. So for all the rookies that are listening, I think leverage the podcast, leverage the folks that are coming on here and sharing their stories to listen and see and try and get a sense of what strategies make the most sense for you. We all know that. Ashley, you love door knocking and cold calling, right?

Ashley:
Terrified. Someone’s at my door. I got to hide, let alone going into someone else’s door. We have to take a short break. But when we come back, we’re going to dig into how a global pandemic and a roommate led to $220,000 in tax free profit for Jason. But first a word from today’s show sponsors. Okay, so Jason’s on the edge, but instead of playing it safe, he pulls the trigger on this condo during a global pandemic. So let’s unpack how that one decision set you up for a $220,000 win. Jason, what was it about this deal that made it so successful?

Jason:
It was really approaching it from that investor mindset. So I really ran my numbers and found something that I could afford. Like I mentioned, when I saw that unlocking a two, two would get me a lower monthly mortgage payment and I could have more space, it was a corner unit. It was a really good price per square foot. It just checks so many boxes that I wanted to make sure that this property fit so that I could get a great return on it and have a great place to live. So doing the house hack strategy was critical. I mean, now I’ve learned that there’s levels to the game. I could be looking for a three, three or a four four and maybe lived for free. Now I see that there’s even further lengths that you can go to it, but for me, this felt really approachable and good at the beginning.

Jason:
I had lived with roommates before, so one was manageable. This was also my first stab at being a landlord. So learning how to do leases and vet tenants, I just want to not bite off more than I could chew. But this felt really good. Like I was being intentional and thoughtful about this decision. And in the middle of COVID, it was so scary. It was really difficult for me to make this huge leap what it felt like. But at the end of the day, I just came to the point where I felt like if the world’s going to end, I might as well have a house. So I’m just going to jump in and figure it out and just buy this place.

Jason:
But that gave me peace, the house hack, and then I was also looking for something that I could live and flip. This is a strategy that I love. I really like working on projects, working with my hands. I have some background in carpentry and doing projects like that. So I looked for something that needed some help in the areas that I get the best ROI. So a little dated kitchen bathroom, not a full reconstruction, but just something that I could do some cosmetic updates to. And so all those factors together really led to a win on this first property.

Ashley:
Jason, with a condo, what are some pros and cons of a rookie investor buying a condo with an HOA?

Jason:
The pros are, especially from a flipper standpoint, you don’t have to worry about the outside walls as much. You really focus more on the interior. So if you’re looking for a more approachable project, condos can be a good place to start because you just have to focus on the inside. If you can find more of a cosmetic flip that’s just paint and flooring and putting some new hardware in, that’s great. But if it gets beyond that and you’re doing some serious modifications, then the HOA becomes involved and then it becomes a much more laborious process. So if you’re trying to move walls, if you’re trying to do any heavy construction, that might be something that you’d want to take into consideration at least. But that’s definitely a con is that if you’re doing some basic stuff, HOA will usually let you run free. But if you’re starting to do some pretty extreme things, then just be prepared to have a lot of conversations and have documentation and come prepared.

Tony:
Ash, I don’t know if you remember, but we interviewed a guest not too long ago, and her entire strategy was flipping condos in her immediate area. For a lot of the reasons that Jason just mentioned, the lift is a lot lower because a lot of the property is maintained by the HOA, and you’ve just got to focus on what’s inside of the four walls. So I think for a lot of rookies, we don’t think about flipping condos, but maybe there’s something to be said. There

Ashley:
Was that, Renee, you’re thinking of Renee, we had on who was flipping condos, and she was slowly buying each of the condos and her house. I think she was already majority owner of the condos because she owned six of the eight of them or something like that. So it was pretty cool.

Jason:
That’s another way to deal with the HOA to slowly take over,

Tony:
Just buy the whole thing, right? Yeah. Now, Jason, I think for most rookies when they think about house hacking, the hope is to break even. But how did this one end up being a multiple six figure win for you?

Jason:
That investor approach of the house hack the live and flip, that helps really build up the equity as well. So putting in that sweat equity, but then it was also that tax savings. I learned about that through BiggerPockets, and it is massive. Instead of paying 30% in taxes, something around that number, it was tax free, but it was because it was my primary residence. I had lived there for over two years. And so you guys know this, but to me as a rookie, this was life changing because just knowing how hard I worked at my W2 and paying those taxes and seeing that money go out of your pocket and then having this being such a large financial move and not having to pay taxes on that because of the approach was just a big game changer. So it was really the house hack, the live and flip, and then the tax advantages of it being my primary residence helped me net that big number after four years. But it was because of those three factors.

Ashley:
So Jason, have you actually calculated what the profit was from that sale and not paying taxes on it? How many years would you have had to work to get that after tax income in your pocket? Because even if it was a hundred, say you made a hundred thousand dollars profit, that could be you making, you’d have to make 150,000 before taxes to actually net the 100,000. So I was just curious if you ever calculated that because it’s not just the profit you made that you’re not paying taxes on. It’s like how long it would take you to make it if you had to pay taxes from your W2

Tony:
Or even from a savings perspective, Ashley, right? It’s like how long would it have taken you to save that amount? Just either plow money into your 401k or whatever it may be, wherever you keep your money. I guess maybe walk us through what was the moment you realized that this strategy could be the thing that unlocks everything else for you?

Jason:
That really was the moment when I sold my condo and netted that profit because even though I had approached this first purchase as an investor, I still didn’t really think of myself as an investor because my net worth had risen on Redfin estimates, but it wasn’t in my pocket. And so in theory, I had proven it to myself. I had watched my property value rise. I saw my mortgage getting paid down, but it wasn’t until I sold that first property and I looked at the 200 plus K that I had netted, and then I looked at my 401k and I had been contributing to that 401k for the majority of my professional life, so 20 plus years. And I had netted about, or in my 401k, there was about a hundred thousand dollars. And in this first investment, I had doubled that in four years. And so it just really made me sit back and think about what I was doing.

Ashley:
No, Jason, that’s incredible. I’m doing my first ever live and flip right now, and you’re just reinforcing even more and more things as to why this is a great idea. And you had one roommate. Did you have a roommate the whole four years?

Jason:
I did, yeah.

Ashley:
Okay. So you had one tenant to worry about. You had to worry about your own property, your own roof, your own things like that, where it wasn’t an investment property. You also had to worry about if anyone’s doing a live and flip, not even having a roommate or not house hacking. Your worst tenant to deal with is yourself when you’re mad because the bathroom is taking longer to rehab. It’s not like you have to deal with anyone else really besides maybe contractors or whatever. But that’s a part that I’m really realizing that I love about doing a live and flip is that I am not responsible to anyone else if I dont finish a project on time. I suffered not having a fully renovated kitchen, not anyone else. I don’t make promises to anyone else that this will be done or so I love that. Part of it is that I’m not responsible to anyone else if I’m not ready to sell in two years, big deal. I live in this fully renovated house for a little bit longer before I go onto the next rehab. So yeah, I think it’s great to hear you reinforce what a great strategy a live and flip can be.

Tony:
And I also always think it’s interesting how people who have completed deals don’t see themselves as investors yet. And I just interviewed Chad Carson and he was talking about the bill to rent strategy, and he’d done it five times and he’s like, oh, but I’m not really all that experienced. I’m like, Chad, you did it five times talking to the person that sent it zero. You were incredibly experienced in that frame. So I think it’s someone we all struggle with is that imposter syndrome about like, okay, am I really an investor yet? But I mean, dude, 200 plus K on your first deal, if that’s not an investor, I don’t know what is, right?

Ashley:
Well, I think there’s this mindset. Before I knew what real estate investing was, you just think, this is my primary home. You don’t think that it’s an investment per se. This is what people do. They buy a house and they sell it. Hopefully they make some money. And you just think of it as like, this is normal. But then when you start to really realize the gains and be intentional about it, think that’s when it starts to click. Yeah.

Tony:
Grant Cardone always says that your primary residence isn’t an investment, but clearly he’s never met Jason. Right?

Jason:
You’re going to put me up against Grant Cardone on

Ashley:
Know what’s one other way that I love house hacking in a sense, and I guess it could be a live and flip too, is parents who go and buy a property when their child goes to college and then they rent out the rooms to all their friends or whatever, so so the kid living there and they’re like, that’s experience house hacking and get all your buddies and fix up the place for your parents. So when you’re done with college, they can sell it for even more money. But yeah, there’s just so many ways that you can be a real estate investor. Well,

Tony:
Jason, I know there’s more to your story and we want to uncover that because next you go all in, right? No job, new baby, massive flip project that could literally make or break your future. So I want to hear how this big bet worked out right after a final word from today’s show sponsors. Alright, so we’re back with Jason. So the first deal worked incredibly well. And now Jason, you’re beding everything, your savings, your time, really, your family’s future on this really high and flip in the middle of the desert. You’ve had some life changes. Now you’ve got no job newborn at home. So I want to see how you navigated this higher risk, massive stress building project, but still came out ahead. So Jason, after you hit this home run, you get the live and flip. That does incredibly well. What happens next?

Jason:
This is a wild time in my life, and it’s not that long ago. This is, we’re talking about eight months ago that this happened, but I got laid off. I was recently married and my wife and I had our first baby on the way. And so it was just such, there was so many things going on at that time and with being laid off, I was so motivated. I had my new family to support. So I was very driven to make it work. And I feel like I was faced with a various obvious choice, which was real estate or not because I had been talking about it for so long, I’d been thinking about it. I had done this first investment that I had done well, and now that I was laid off, I had a choice of going back to W2 and hitting LinkedIn and just applying to jobs or I could lean into real estate.

Jason:
I felt like I wasn’t going to get a better opportunity than this despite new family, new baby, I had the capital from the new flip or from selling the condo to fund this flip. And so I thought, when am I ever going to get an opportunity like this again? I’ll put it on the shelf, I’ll go back to W2 and it’ll get lost on the side, or I won’t pursue it. I need to do this now and just figure it out. And so it was definitely a risky proposition, but I learned ways to mitigate that risk. That helped a lot analyzing the property and some of the strategies that I learned from BiggerPockets that helped step it down a bit, but it still felt like stepping off a cliff. So it was a crazy time in my life, but it also has really strong catalysts come through, or when crazy things happen, that can also be a catalyst for big change and life goals. And so I just decided to turn this moment into something that I could be proud of and pursue.

Ashley:
Well, it seems like you don’t regret that decision, Jason, but I’m curious, what are some of the things that you did to mitigate that risk that you learned?

Jason:
I really tried to focus on the things that I knew were most important from doing my research, which was buying, right? The contractor labor and then materials. I saw that those were my biggest costs. So I really learned to analyze deals I must have analyzed, I probably looked at a thousand properties, analyzed a hundred immediately, knew that some of those just were not worthwhile, but had to go through so many, as I’m sure you all can relate, I learned that door knocking and cold calling wasn’t my way. So this was on the market or this was on market property, but I just looked for long days on market. And so I looked for how I could buy this at a deal. And so it needed a lot of work, which is why I could get it at a discount. But I minimized the risk by learning to analyze.

Jason:
So I felt like I was stepping into a really good property that already had equity in it because I had purchased it right for labor and contractors. I interviewed 10 different contractors to find the one that I went with because I got bids ranging anywhere from $40,000 to $120,000. And so it took me a long time to find someone that I could trust, find at the right price point. And then the materials, I just spent a lot of time and effort in finding what I thought were really quality materials that yield high end finish, but I could get a discount going direct to the distributors, cutting out middlemen, going to a tile store that makes it there. So saving on the purchase, on the labor, on the materials, my biggest cost, I really focused on those. And because I spent a lot of effort on really maximizing those costs and efficiencies that removed a lot of the risk. I also did a lot of the labor myself. I slept in my car out of the property, and so I wasn’t paying hotel costs until I cleaned up the property and then I slept inside. But for a long time, there was just dust and dirt on the ground, but all those things kept my costs really low. And so that helped me get a better margin because I focused on those things.

Ashley:
I got to know what the phone call home is to your parents or your sibling. Yeah, I’m jobless and I’m living out of my car right now.

Jason:
One at a time. You just kind of unfold as it does. But yeah, it was

Ashley:
No, that is awesome. And I love when we have somebody on that says, yeah, I did this, but I had to make a sacrifice. Like you’re sleeping in your car, you have a newborn baby at home that I’m sure you would’ve rather have been with than sleeping in your car. But it’s like you made those sacrifices for your family. I just think that’s incredible to have you share that with us.

Jason:
I have to give a shout out to my wife too at this point, just because she obviously did so much to make this happen and look out for our newborn. And even when I was living out there on and off, she was pregnant. So that was just wild. But she was so supportive. And BiggerPockets was also a big portion of how I got her more sold into this and supportive of this project because just using some of the podcasts to show that I wasn’t crazy, other people were doing it or getting into real estate investing and just also pulling back the layer, showing her how this could be great for our future. But she was awesome through this whole process.

Tony:
Jason, I just want to set the table on this deal for all of our listeners. So this was a flip. You were in Southern California and Long Beach. What city was the flip in?

Jason:
Joshua Tree, California.

Tony:
Okay. So about two hours to the east of where you’re at. And I know you said it was on the MLS. What was the initial purchase price?

Jason:
It was 300 K.

Tony:
And what kind of financing did you use to purchase the property? Was it hard money, conventional? Was it just the cash that you had from the sale of the condo? What was the financing?

Jason:
It was hard money. That was a really terrifying term first getting into flipping for sure. But I found that that’s the typical way to get funding for these type of projects for the property and to cover the construction loan. And so then it was just talking with a lot of lenders. And so the capital that I had just helped fund the, I had to put 30% down because Joshua Tree is considered a tertiary market, and so more rural, more removed. It’s a smaller market, as you know, Tony, I know you have property out there, but I, it’s because it’s a little more removed and it doesn’t have as much population demand. I was paying a higher markup as opposed to the typical 20% down. I had to put 30% down, and so hard money, that’s how I funded the deal. And it actually really helped in the process as well, because the contractor was such a big portion of it.

Jason:
And with hard money loans, as you know, it’s a draw process. And so being able to use the hard money lender as kind of the bad guy in this scenario and just saying that work needs to get done so that I can then release these funds to then pay you. And so it was a really good way to make sure that I was financing this properly, that I was paying the contractor correctly after the work was done. So in some ways, it really helped set the structure for this project, but that was the way that I financed it, hard money, and then putting capital down from that condo.

Tony:
And you say 30% down, was that 30% of just the purchase price and then you had to fund the entire rehab yourself, or was it 30% of the total project cost, meaning the purchase and your renovation?

Jason:
It was 30% down on the purchase price, and then it was funding out of pocket for the construction, but they funded the entire amount. So I ended up spending about $70,000 on labor materials. And so I kept about 25,000 in reserve to be rotating through for covering all my labor material costs. And then when that ran out, I would go through my draws. So I got three draws total. So I just chunked it out into those amounts to make sure that I could get to my 70 K, and I still had enough money in the bank to fund those.

Tony:
Gotcha. So you paid for your construction costs out of pocket, and then you got reimbursed from the hard money lender after they validated that the work was complete.

Jason:
That’s exactly right.

Tony:
Yeah, and I think that’s a very important point for Ricky’s to understand, because I don’t think a lot of people realize that sometimes it’s hard money. You still have to have some cash to front these costs, and then they get into deals, they sign these loan documents and they’re like, Hey, where’s my check? And they’re like, oh, no, no, no, no, you write the check first and then we give it back to you afterwards. So I’m just glad that we were able to illustrate that. So you’ve got 300 K purchase price, you’re kind of floating some of the rehab costs. I’m just curious, what was maybe the biggest or maybe the hardest day on this project, and what did it teach you about real estate investing?

Jason:
The hardest day was I had ordered 10,000 pounds of stone to be delivered. I had ordered 10 ton of stone for the front yard landscaping, and much like the rest of this project, I would just move forward knowing that I was going to figure it out. It just had to get done. I knew when I needed to get the project to get it to market, and so everything was just working backwards. So I ordered the stone knowing that I needed to get done for this front yard landscaping project. But I remember standing there very vividly in the front driveway, and they back up this dump truck and dump 10,000 pounds of stone at my feet, and I had a wheelbarrow. I thought that I was just going to do all this myself over the course of a few days, and it was so clear to me.

Jason:
As soon as they dumped it all, I was like, this is insane. There’s no way. But I also was like, this has to get done. And so thankfully, I mean, the power of mentorship is incredible. I had made some relationships out there. I had real estate mentors that I look up to that I can reach out to. So I called them, explained the situation, much like anything else, there’s usually a tool for the job. So I rented a small bulldozer, essentially from Home Depot, and it turned out to be one of the funnest days. I felt like a real contractor. I was driving around in a little bulldozer. Is it

Ashley:
One of the stand on ones?

Jason:
Yeah, yeah,

Ashley:
Yeah, those, we’ve ed those before too. Yeah.

Jason:
And so it ended up being a blast. What was first terrifying. But the thing that I learned from that and that I kept reapplying is just being solution oriented from my professional background. That was something that was reinforced in one of the really topnotch teams that I worked at. We had a rule that you couldn’t bring a problem without bringing a solution. So it’s like I feel like oftentimes with a problem, you just want to give it away or you want to run from it. And that forced me to just think through how would I solve this and just move more to solutions instead of dwelling on the problem. So it was just immediately, okay, I have all this stone, it has to get moved. How am I going to do this? How am I going to move forward? And so just with any hurdle red flag that came up with the project, I just thought, how can I solve this?

Ashley:
So Jason, what’s next for you? Is it more flips, buy and hold? Is it going back to your W2 job?

Jason:
I’m definitely looking for more flips, and so I’m in the SoCal area, I’m looking. I’m also, I got my real estate agent license, so that was one more way that I managed my risk. But saving on commission definitely helped and just helping me be more informed in the real estate industry that I plan to be a part of. And so I’m also pursuing full-time real estate agent, flipper investor. So right now it’s really flipping and being a real estate agent, I would love to work some buy and holds into my portfolio down the line and execute some of these more high level strategies that I’ve learned from listening to the podcast right now. Just I found success with this, and so I want to continue to do it, but I found something that I really love. I truly enjoy doing this, so I just want to keep flipping, keep working on properties, keep working in real estate. So that’s my next plan.

Tony:
Well, Jason, I just want to know how this Joshua Tree flip ended for you. You can’t leave us on a cliffhanger. So after you bulldoze your way through 10,000 tons of rock, how does the project actually finish out? What are you listed? What do you actually end up closing at and what’s your profit at the end of the day

Jason:
If you’re including the purchase? I was at about four 10 total with all the construction costs and closing opening costs, and I sold it for five 20. So I netted around $105,000 off of the property. And so that was beyond my goals. It definitely, I broke it down to some of those different things, buying right, doing some of the labor myself, doing the design, being an agent. So it all broke down into these different, how I saw that contributed to making a portion of this overall margin. It really was. I know some flippers, it’s more about scale and copying and paste, and they’re more removed from the process where it’s just my approach to be focused on one property, find something I can really believe in, and then just go all in. So it may be a little less diversified from a risk side, but it’s just the way that I approach my investing and property.

Jason:
And so all that is to say is I really did everything that I could to maximize that margin. But yeah, walking away with over a hundred K, that really solidified it for me because if I made, I had a number, but if I made below that, I was going to hang up my hat and go back to W2 because I had my family to support. And so it was just huge in so many ways because I had so much writing financially, but also my pride, my ego, my network knew that I was doing this. And so I just really wanted to make it a success. And so the fact that I could hit my goals and now use that to roll that into the next real estate investing, I’m just over the moon.

Ashley:
I really love that you brought up being intentional with one property. Me personally, I think it’s so much easier to do two flips a year than 20 flips a year. And you probably could have a similar outcome with 20 flips, you have more overhead you have, maybe you’re not making as much because you’re not putting that time and commitment into it. And our friend, Laika, who’s coming on the podcast in a couple of weeks here, she’s going to be talking about Dadoos. But one thing that she is really, really good at is she only does a couple flips. And the reason she does that is because she’s so intentional with her design. She’s very detail oriented in making this product that is going to sell better than anyone else’s. And she doesn’t have to do as many flips because she’s more intentional about the time that she’s putting into the design, the detail, what the buyer wants on each property too.

Jason:
I love that. I’d much rather focus on quality over quantity just for me, but then I’m also putting all my eggs in one basket. So there are definitely pros and cons, but I do appreciate just trying to find a property I’m really excited about. And move on it.

Tony:
Jason, what would you say to someone who is at a crossroads and the same way that you were and they’ve got this decision to make about which path to go down? What advice would you have to someone that’s in a position like the one that you were in?

Jason:
I think just thinking about the things that makes you most uncomfortable about the deal and then addressing those. For me, it came in waves, but at first it was funding the deal. So I had to talk to a lot of hard money lenders before I found somebody that I trusted and was comfortable with and got a good rate. Then it was onto contractor. So I felt like at the beginning, before I pulled the trigger, there was a lot of things, hurdles and barriers that I put in my own way that scared me. And so a lot of it was genuinely researching the BiggerPockets podcasts, reading books, finding mentors, and networking. Because as I had those conversations, each of those things that was bothering me or standing my way, I would just focus on having conversations around that, researching it, and they would slowly start to dissolve until I finally felt confident enough to take that step.

Jason:
So if you were like me and you’re really scared of taking that step, it doesn’t mean that’s not right for you, but it just means that your mind is telling you that if there’s something that you’re really afraid of or you really need your spouse on board, then that just means that that’s the next thing that you have to figure out to then remove those barriers to get to where you want to be. So for me, it was really having those conversations, having a good mentor network, listening to BiggerPockets, reading books, and just doing the research so that I felt confident to take that step.

Ashley:
Well, Jason, thank you so much for coming on today and sharing your journey, your story, and some really great advice for other rookie investors wanting to get started, or even maybe trying to find out a new strategy like Live and Flips. Where can people reach out to you and find out some more information?

Jason:
So again, my name is Jason Manion. I’m out in Southern California, long Beach, California, and you can find me on Instagram, Jason Manion, M-A-N-I-O-N. And yeah, hope to see you out there. Well,

Ashley:
Thank you so much for joining us. I’m Ashley. And he’s Tony. And we’ll see you guys on the next episode of Real Estate Rookie.