On-Air 2021 Goal-Setting and Accountability Plans with Rookie Investors Beth Henson, Jackson Seedott, and Jordan Crockett

Ashley:
This is Real Estate Rookie show number 45.

Jackson:
And it doesn’t have to be massive action, it just has to be consistent action. And so, that’s one thing I found is just taking a daily consistent action. Doing something that’s moving you in the right direction. Over time that’s going to build up and that’s going to lead you to where you want to go.

Ashley:
My name is Ashley Kehr and I am here with my wonderful cohost Tony Robinson, and I’ve been trying to hide during the whole interview because I am wearing this shirt that he got me for Christmas. And Tony, I wanted to say thank you in person very much. So, it says, “Will trade real estate advice for tacos.” And it’s so true. Thank you so much.

Tony:
You know that’s so funny. I was thinking, I said, “That kind of looks like the shirt,” but I don’t want to bring it up. I’m glad you liked it. I saw it I was like, “That’s perfect for Ashley.”

Ashley:
It is.

Tony:
If there was ever a real estate investing shirt, that’s the one.

Ashley:
Yeah, I’m so excited to wear it today. I got it the day… I think it was the day before Christmas, too.

Tony:
Perfect.

Ashley:
Or maybe the two days before but yeah, [crosstalk 00:01:08]-

Tony:
Beautiful. Perfect timing.

Ashley:
Thank you very much. So, today, we are going to be talking about 2020 a little bit, and then we’re going to be talking about 2021 goals. So, there’s this sign out there that says, “Did you guys realize that 2020 is now turning 21?” So you thought that 2020 was bad, but now let’s see ’21. We actually put that sign in the window at our liquor store [inaudible 00:01:36]. I thought it was funny. Tony, tell us about the three guests that we’re having today.

Tony:
Yeah, we’ve got some cool people on the show. So, we’ve got Jackson, Jordan, and Beth. And really cool because they’ve all started investing in 2020. They’ve moved at different paces. They’ve employed different strategies. And we do a really cool deep dive of what they did in 2021, or what they did in 2020. What some of the lessons were that they learned, and then what some of their big goals were. So, I think a big piece to takeaway for the listeners is that you’re all going to move at different speeds. And just because you see one person moving a little bit faster than you doesn’t mean that you’re necessarily doing something wrong. So hopefully you can use the stories today as a guide to help you guys get started as well.

Ashley:
Yeah, so one thing that is actually brought up a couple times by Jordan and Jackson is the Intention Journal by Brandon Turner, and I hurried and texted our producer to say, “Hey, can we do something with this?” Because this is exciting so he actually just responded to me as we’re recording this and said that we can actually give you guys a 20% discount. So if anybody wants to join them in doing the next 90 day Intention Journal go to biggerpockets.com to the bookstore, and you can get the Intention Journal for 20% off. Just use the code rookie@checkout. So that’s pretty awesome. I might go and buy it myself in next year supply because I use that too. I love it. So yeah, all of our guests are super excited to bring them on and hear what their goals are and then we’re going to have them back in six months and at the end of the year to see how they did so let’s meet Beth, Jackson and Jordan-

Tony:
Sorry, really quick before we bring them on, before we meet them we got to talk about Tommy Boy. Before we bring them in we got to talk about-

Ashley:
Oh, yeah. That’s right. You watched it.

Tony:
I finally watched it. I get the references now. I know what a niner is and walkie talkie and something about putting your head up somewhere that it shouldn’t belong. I learned a lot of good things. So thank you for making me watch that and it was a good laugh.

Ashley:
I hope it becomes a household classic now when you pass it down.

Tony:
I had so many people message me when I posted that on my story saying that’s one of the funniest movies ever. So many people reached out to me, so it was a good laugh. Thank you for introducing me to… That was I think the first full Chris Farley movie I’ve ever watched.

Ashley:
Oh, really?

Tony:
I’ve seen a Chris Farley movie start to finish, so it was good. It was good. I just had to throw that in there.

Ashley:
Okay. Now, I just have to keep sending them to you. Yeah. Okay. Well now I’ll just put a lot more quotes into the things and just keep testing your movie quotes-

Tony:
My knowledge.

Ashley:
Even though it’s only five movies I can actually quote. Okay, let’s bring them on, and maybe there will be a movie quote, maybe not.

Tony:
What is up everyone? Good morning. We’ve got a really cool show lined up for you listeners today. We’ve got not one, not two, but three rookies on the podcast with us. And we’re going to dive into their stories. We’ve got Jordan Crockett, Jackson Seedott, and Beth Henson. So super excited to get you guys on here. We want to start obviously, by recapping 2020 and what you guys wanted to do for this year, and then we’ll roll into the 2021 goals from there. So, Beth, if you want to start us off, what were some of your goals for 2020? How did you do compared to those goals, and what were some of the lessons that you learned?

Beth:
So, 2020 was my first year as a real estate investor, and my goals are pretty simple. I wanted to acquire 10 units in my first year. And right now I’m at six at the beginning… At the first week in January, I’ll close on three more. So, I’ll be at nine. I’m kind of rolling that in. I didn’t buy my first property until February of this year. So, yeah.

Ashley:
That’s really good. That’s awesome.

Beth:
Yeah, thank you. I actually don’t feel like it’s that much. I feel like I could do more. Now that I’ve done it I’m like, “I can do a lot more.” So, yeah.

Tony:
So, Beth, I want to pause really quick because you’re saying that really nonchalantly and casually, but to get six units in one year as a first time investor is a big accomplishment. What were some of the things you felt you did that set you up to be able to move as quickly as you did starting in February, and now being in December to get six units?

Beth:
Well, I mean, I think it’s just… The foundation is obviously education. You got to know your fundamentals. You have to know, what is a deal? With that comes the confidence to take action. And I think that once you get… I got to a certain point I knew that I just had to rip the band aid off and just go. I also knew that once I got started, I wasn’t going to slow down.

Tony:
That’s awesome.

Beth:
Yeah, it’s fun. So, yeah, I want to just keep growing and scaling from here.

Tony:
Yeah. And just give us a quick overview. Are all of those six units, are they single family homes? Is it a little bit of multifamily, just what’s that six units composed of?

Beth:
My first two was a duplex and then the rest are all single family homes from there. And the three units that I’m closing on in two weeks is a three unit, it’s a triplex. But it’s mostly single family homes. I actually really… I really kind of prefer single family homes right now. They cashflow just as well. And I just, I don’t know, I think the tenants are going to be there for a long time. I think that they love their home, and I think they’re a little bit easier to manage than the multifamily units. But anyway, I’m still fairly new. So we’ll see. But I love building a portfolio of a mix. But I really am drawn to the single family homes right now for a multitude of reasons, but they’re easily to sell if I wanted to sell them out, though I don’t have any plans on selling any, but I like a mix of everything.

Tony:
Awesome. Well, congratulations to you for moving so quickly.

Ashley:
Where are you holding your portfolio? Is it where you live? Are you investing out of state?

Beth:
So I’m based in Hagerstown, Maryland. We’re about an hour and a half outside of DC, about an hour and a half outside of Baltimore, Western Maryland. I guess we would be considered a tertiary market. So, it’s a town of about 150,000 people, and that’s where all of my properties are right as of now. And I continue to plan to build the portfolio there. I am aware of the importance of diversification and want to grow and scale in other markets. So that is a goal of mine. Probably not for this coming year, but maybe the next year. I do have a goal for… I’m sorry. I’m jumping ahead. That’s too far. But I would like to purchase a couple of properties in 2021 in short term rentals in a different market. But yeah, I’m in Maryland.

Ashley:
Well, congratulations so far on what you’ve done in the past year, and we will jump ahead, and we’ll get to that in a little bit. But next, let’s hear from Jackson. Jackson, can you tell us a little bit about what you’ve been doing this past year?

Jackson:
Yeah, so I’m pretty new to the rookie phase as far as I’m still looking for my first deal. So I’ve been doing a lot of research and analyzing. And really, to be honest, I’m in that route of being stuck in the analysis paralysis. And so, what I’ve been… One of the things I’ve really been working on in 2020 is to really just get all my finances in order. So, I’ve always been pretty good on keeping on track of my personal finances and having a budget and stuff like that. And then I also have a side business that I do in addition to my W2 job, which I do woodworking and carpentry and stuff like that.
So, when everything shut down in 2020, my W2 job, I’m a special education teacher. So when all the schools closed, they left me with a lot of time on my hands because just the students I work with were doing remote or virtual learning wasn’t really an option. So I ended up with a lot of time on my hands, and that just allowed me to really pour into my side hustle, and scale that into almost my new full-time job.
So, I just poured a lot into marketing and trying to get sales through that and get pickups, and drives through that and really build my reserves so that way I could in this coming year go on the attack when something pops up or once a deal… Once I come across a deal that’s a good deal I could actually take action on it as opposed to previously I guess I would look on either Zillow or Craigslist, anywhere I can find a house. And even if I found a good deal, it’s like, “Okay, well, I don’t really have money. I’m not connected with a partner yet. So, I stood there, I’m analyzing it, but there really wasn’t anything I could do with it. So, I knew that to get in a position where I could take action. That’s what I needed to focus on, and I was really successful in that. I actually ended up tripling my revenue from 2019 this year, so had a really good solid year in that. And now I’m at a point where I have a good amount of cash reserves saved up, and I’m ready to deploy that into my first deal.

Ashley:
Jackson, that’s awesome. You took a hard thing, COVID, and you turned it into a great positive for yourself. Congratulations on that. And I’m so excited that you’re ready to dive into your first deal. But first, I want to know what are some action items that you can give maybe an investor like yourself who is maybe looking to get their personal finances in order. What’s some advice you can give someone?

Jackson:
Probably the number one, the first thing that I would suggest is getting a budget. So, there’s tons of different budgeting software’s out there. There’s ones that are free, there’s ones that are paid, just get a budget, and just give… Like, the system that I use is kind of like… It’s called a zero based or an every dollar budget. So you have to give every dollar that comes into your account a name or a place. So whether that’s your fixed expenses, which are things that the same payment every month, that doesn’t change. So if you have a mortgage payment, a rent payment, things like that. And then you have your variable expenses, which are things that fluctuate a little bit month to month like electric, gas, the utilities, things like that food, groceries-

Ashley:
Basically, you’re running your personal finances like a business because that’s the same thing you have to do for a business.

Jackson:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And that’s something that I kind of learned as I… Because I don’t really have a formal business background. So I definitely was building the plane as I’m flying it, I like to say, and having that strong personal finance foundation really helped once my business took off. Not only keeping everything organized, but just keeping everything well budgeted and being as well capitalized as possible.

Tony:
Yeah, that’s a really cool story, and Ash I know you love personal finances. I’m a big fan of that too. If you guys go listen to my interview on the BiggerPockets Money Podcast you’ll hear me talk about why I have 24 checking accounts, and how I use all those to help me budget by money. So I’m the same way. I love getting the budget in place. I want to talk about the side hustle a little bit because you glossed over that quickly as well. What made you think or what made you believe that starting a side hustle was what you needed to do to kickstart your investing career? And what advice would you have for other investors maybe don’t have the capital and how they could get started with their own side hustle to fund that real estate investment?

Jackson:
Yeah, sure. So for me, like I said, with my W2 being a special education teacher, it’s something that I love. It’s something I’m passionate about. My mom is actually a special education teacher. So it’s something that’s always been in the family, but it’s kind of no secret that you don’t become a millionaire by being a teacher. Unfortunately, education isn’t necessarily one of the highest paying career, so I knew I needed something where I’m doing everything I can on my end to live below my means and have that that foundation in place but just to expedite that process and really build up some of that capital. I knew I needed an additional source of income from somewhere.
And so, where the woodworking and carpentry came into place, in 2018 my girlfriend and I built our first home together. And so, we had this beautiful brand new home and nothing to put in it. And so, we were shopping around and looking for furniture and stuff and I just… I had sticker shock. I couldn’t believe how much some of these home furnishings and stuff cost. And so, I’ve always been not only very budget minded but also fairly handy. So every time we went into a store I’d just be like, “I bet I could build something that’s twice as good and would last twice as long for a fraction of the price.” So, that’s how I got started with just building stuff for my own house and then from encouraging from both my parents and my girlfriend’s parents. They said, “This is really great quality stuff. You should look into selling some of this stuff.”
And even I was hesitant at first like, “I don’t know. How am I going to market it? How am I going to get it out there? And just took a dive and that first year in 2019 just made a couple of Facebook marketplace ads, didn’t really have any formal kind of business structure. Just put it out there and try to see what happened and it was received well. I did pretty well my first year so then in 2019, 2020 I started to take it a lot more serious. Started to look at it like an actual business, and so got it set up with an LLC, like a true business checking account. Kept everything for my business separate from my personal finances and really just trying to hit the ground running from there.

Tony:
And for the listeners, not everyone’s going to have a skill set of woodworking. That’s not the lesson that I hope you guys are taking away but it’s that each of you may have some kind of skill that’s marketable. Maybe it’s not woodworking, maybe you’re good at tutoring, or maybe you can do some side maintenance jobs for other real estate investors. There’s so many different things you can do as a side hustle to help build that revenue. So I love that you dived in headfirst and found something that worked for you.

Jackson:
Yeah, definitely. And just one other thing I just think of as you were saying that is think about what the pain points are, what you need or what you’re looking for in your own life and see how you could market that skill or market that service to somebody else. For me, it was like, “I don’t want to pay for expensive furniture from a big box store.” Well, if I feel that way I’m sure other people who feel that way and I could provide a service there. Where maybe it’s digital marketing, you’re really good with Facebook and social media, and you should take that over for there’s a small business owner who’s not good with tech or doesn’t want to take care of that. There’s just different ways to be creative and think about how you could provide value to someone else.

Ashley:
That’s great. Thank you so much. And you’re right, there are so many virtual jobs out there that you can do right from home to get your side hustle going. Okay. Next let’s go to Jordan. Jordan, can you give us a little background on what you have been going on in the past year?

Jordan:
Yeah, definitely. And one, I’m super geeked to be here. I love you guys. I love the podcast. I’m-

Ashley:
We’re excited to have you.

Jordan:
So, just as far as my journey, I guess this is start off. So I’ve been married three years and a few months, two to three months. And the first thing we did when we got married, got it as a wedding present was the Dave Ramsey book [inaudible 00:16:08]. So, we went to this church, it was this Catholic Church and it was 10 other super old couples. And we did the whole eight months of Dave Ramsey. And that was… It was mind blowing, and super helpful, helped me and my wife just get on the same path as far as money, and how to operate. So from there, I was full on that is horrible. This is how we’ll run life and eventually retire.
And then fast forward to January 2020 is when I read Rich Dad Poor Dad, and like everybody else that blew my mind. Learned so many lessons. And from there, I was on fire. I was like, “I got to figure out how to get out of the rat race.” And then just through several different streams and understandings, and just prayer I figured out that real estate investing was something I should look more into. Got recommended to BiggerPockets, watched the 90 day webinar on how to get your first property. 90 days later, got my first property, and it’s a duplex in Minneapolis, Minnesota. So we’ve been house hacking and just had tons of lessons within that and just taking action.
And then listening to you guys’ podcast. I was listening to Taylor Naaman, and reached out to him, and he has become my mentor now. So we meet on a month to month basis. Just kind of go over things, helps me with direction, has been hugely impactful. So as far as goals and things going forward right now I’m focusing on wholesaling for a number of reasons outside of just the revenue. But that’s where I’m at right now, and then I can for sure go into the 2021 goals. But yeah, that’s the short gist of everything.

Tony:
I want to ask one follow up question because you said you attended the BiggerPockets webinar that shows you how to get your deal in the first 90 days. And I’m sure there has been probably 10s of 1000s of people that have gone on that webinar by now. And I would assume that maybe only a small fraction of people actually get their first deal in the first 90 days. What do you feel you did differently than so many other folks that have gone through that, that actually allowed you to take action and get that deal done in such a short timeframe?

Jordan:
Yeah, I love that question. I think it really just comes down to action. For me personally, if I write something down, if I commit to something it’s got to happen. Through the storm or whatever, I’m going to make it happen. So my wife and I talked, we committed, and took the step to get the realtor, took the step to get pre approved. And it just took off from there. And I won’t say from there we were right away saying we’re going to get a duplex in South Minneapolis. It was really like, we would love to get a rental property but worst case scenario we’ll get a small house in Minneapolis or something like that.
But the more education and reading I started to do with BiggerPockets and the more I started having conversations with my wife on what we want to do, what our goals want to be, and how we want to be financially free in five years real estate investing the mountain that it seems started to get smaller into a hill. And we really were like, “All right, let’s do this. We can be property managers.” So, I would say, reading the books gave me confidence to say, “All right, I can manage this property. I can figure it out. And yeah, that was it. So it helped me gain confidence and the action just helped me get there.

Ashley:
That’s really cool.

Tony:
Yeah, those are great lessons. Because Jackson, I know that your path this year was similar to Jordan’s in the sense that neither one of you started the year with deals, but you guys took different paths, and it sounds like Jordan was able to break down the process a little bit to make it a little less scary. I guess, how does that compare with how you felt this year, Jackson?

Jackson:
Yeah, absolutely. I just kind of like nodding along the whole time that Jordan was talking just because I relate a lot to like what he said as far as the process was. And one of the things that really helped me is I had heard on the… Between this show and the BiggerPockets Real Estate Podcast, the book, the one thing had been mentioned dozens and dozens of times. And finally, I was like, “You know what, maybe I got to check this book out.” So, I picked up a copy and read through it, and it’s a great book.
I mean, I highly, highly recommend it if you haven’t read it yet. But one of the things it talks about is goal setting with a purpose and talking about how to take those… How to figure out what your next step is, how to figure out what your one thing is, the most important thing that’s going to make everything else in your life or your business or whatever aspect of your life you’re working on easier or they worded it much more eloquently than I can think of. But really helps you identify what that next step is, or what that first most important thing is that you need to be working on.
So, I did that. And I worked through starting with, okay, what do I want my life to be someday? And like Jordan said, like, I want to be financially free. I want to do what I want, where I want, with who I want. And so, to be on track for that in five years, I will have to have X number of dollars in passive income to support that. So, okay, go from there. So, one year from now, what’s something that I’m going to need to do in order to be on track for that five year goal to reach that one year goal? And so that’s where I came up with my goal to buy my first property by the end of 2021. And so, I just keep breaking it down further to my monthly, my weekly goals, and even the daily goals, and even What’s one thing I can do right now to get on track for those other goals.
And so, in doing that, I really realized that, one, a lot of these action items aren’t as scary or as hard as you make them out to be. And two, just like the other guests have said, you are capable of doing so much more than you really think. So, I think originally my first year, or my end of the year goal. So by the end of 2020, my goal was to connect with a realtor or reach out with a realtor. Well, I was working down through that, and I realized that takes about five minutes to do. I jumped on BiggerPockets, messaged a couple realtors in my area, or in my market that I thought might work good. Got a good fit with one. That took about a day. So I said, “Okay, next steps getting pre approved.” And, man, that’s scary. That sounds hard. It sounds difficult.
Well, I have a relationship with our lender that we bought our first house through. So I sent him an email. I didn’t even have to get on the phone with him. I mean, I hate talking on the phone. So that in itself is kind of like a big like, oh, no. But sent over a couple documents, sent him a couple things. And boom, we got pre-approved and that took maybe a day or two. So those big things that seem hard, and they seem difficult, they’re really not that difficult. You just have to identify them, and then just attack them and take action on it. And it doesn’t have to be massive action it just has to be consistent action. And so, that’s one thing I found is just taking a daily consistent action, doing something that’s moving you in that right direction. Over time that’s going to build up and that’s going to lead you to where you want to go.

Tony:
Just want to comment on that really quick because that’s super important. You said it’s not about massive action, but it’s about consistent action, daily consistent action. And if there’s anything that listeners take away from this podcast episode, I hope it’s that because as we talk about goals for 2021 that’s what it’s going to be about. So, I just have to comment on that. Sorry, Ashley, go ahead.

Ashley:
No, that was a great thing to reiterate. The thing that I thought of when you were saying this is that the other day Tarl Yarber was on a webinar with me. And he’s a huge real estate investor out of Seattle. And he was talking about how he doesn’t create a goal, he actually creates a plan. He’s like, you want to build a house and hire a contractor that had a dream, a goal of building your house, you would hire one that actually had a plan. And I think what you just said is creating those action items and breaking everything down into steps is along the same lines, you’re creating a plan to reach that goal. So, I think that was really awesome what Tarl said and what you said. So thank you for sharing that. But now let’s talk about some big lessons that we learned from 2020 that have maybe prepared you for 2021 and how you’re going to set your goals going forward. Beth, do you want to go ahead and start?

Beth:
I guess it’s vetting your contractors. I mean, everyone has their horror stories. Personally, I don’t really have any horror stories. But I had a couple of not so great experiences. And I’ve had a bunch of wonderful experiences with the contractor that I’m working with currently. So, that’s a big one. Budgeting for rehabs. That’s another big one. I’m currently working on a flip that I think I’m 30,000 over. And fortunately, I have the cushion in my… That I can spend the extra 30,000. So budgeting for your rehab costs is whether you’re doing a burr, whether you’re doing a flip, it’s all the same. You’ve got to really learn your numbers to do these things. And you get better at the more you do, but sometimes there’s some painful lessons there. But those are two good ones.

Ashley:
Awesome. Okay. I mean, not awesome that you had to learn those painful lessons, but at least you’re taking them as lessons and moving forward. Yeah.

Beth:
Yeah, everything’s a lesson. All the good, all the bad. It’s all a lesson, and yeah.

Ashley:
Right. There’s that one quote where it’s like you’d rather fell forward than fell backwards.

Beth:
Yes.

Ashley:
Okay, Jackson, do you want to go next?

Jackson:
Yeah. So just think about it, and just reiterating what I said previously, I think just that power, that persistence, and that power of that consistency, and just that really stick it. Having that grit and sticking with it and sticking to it. And so, like one of the things that I’m thinking about right now is now I’m at the point where I’m starting to make offers on deals, and eventually external funding, that’s something I didn’t think I would be doing until January, February, March. And it’s like, not even the end of 20… 2020 is not even over yet, and I’m already at that point. So, that’s exciting. And of course, almost to be expected the first offer I made was rejected. And so, that was kind of like disheartening. It was like, “Well, I guess I’m going to give up and go about, go watch Netflix for eight hours. And investing is not going to work and this is dumb.”
But no, you can’t let that get you down. You can’t let that hold you back. And you just got to think every no that I get certainly hit me that much closer to my next yes. So I think just being that persistence, and it’s no surprise that 2020 was a hard year for a lot of people. And just the fact that we all got through it, that I got through it. And I came out on the other side of this in a better position than I was at the start of 2020. I think it just shows that power, that persistence, perseverance, and sticking with it.

Tony:
Jackson, you’re dropping some bombs right here, man. I don’t even think you realize. You said every no gets me closer to a yes. And that’s the exact mindset you want to have as a real estate investor because like Beth said, there’s going to be challenges, there’s going to be obstacles, there’s going to be things that go wrong, but you have to understand that every one of those setbacks is just you getting one step closer to your goal. So, I love the mindset you’ve got going into 2021. Jordan, what about you, brother? What were some of the big lessons you learned last year?

Jordan:
Yeah, so quite a few. And I just want to second what Beth and Jackson said. From Beth, the lessons, and even if it doesn’t go your way or whatnot is super important. And from Jackson’s piece as well. But for me, one of the things I feel like I learned a lot in just taking action is that if you don’t know something, you’ll figure it out. I didn’t know… With this property I have now, my HVAC, my furnace for my tenants is in the attic. And I had no idea about that, that it was something that’s kind of abnormal or weird. I learned super quick that you got to make a few calls before you get somebody who wants to go up there. It was leaking. So that made it leak through the ceiling. And I’m thinking like, “Oh, this is a nightmare,” and whatnot. But it was really like the situation was fixed within one day of me just being able to take action. So, I would say that was a huge piece for me.
Another piece I’ve learned is really that… Let me think of another piece. I’ll say another piece is that a lot of my friends, everybody talks about real estate investing. I’ve figured out how passionate I am about it. Taking action through this. Kind of figuring out my why and that gets me through the nos. Right now with doing wholesaling there’s a lot of nos. I do a lot of cold calling with it and like Jackson said it gets you closer to… It really does get you closer to that yes. So I’d say those are the big ones is figuring out that why. Then with the why just letting that push you, and then staying consistent would be for me.

Ashley:
I want to touch on how you said, if you don’t know, you can figure it out. I mean, you all touched on that. What I think of when you guys are saying that is worst case scenario. So you’re going into your first deal, you’re going into your next deal. What is the worst case scenario that you’re afraid to take action on? Figure out what do you need to take care of that worse scenario? Okay, so Jordan found out about his HVAC unit. He knew where to go to learn about how to take care of that issue, document, and put all of these processes, checklists, information. Save it somewhere so that when you’re ready to take that step, you have access to everything.
Maybe you’re afraid that something will happen, and you don’t have enough money. Okay, well, then that’s where reserves come into place. And those reserves are meant to give you that peace of mind to take care of a situation if it comes up. If you need information, there’s a tenant problem, you don’t know how to handle it. Well, that’s where you have the resources from BiggerPockets. You have the people in the forums. You know where to go and find those things. Fear was definitely one of the things that held me back from getting started. But you can always find the answer. So just make sure you are prepared as to where you can actually get that answer. And then sometimes, unfortunately, and something can be fixed very easily with money. So, having those reserves, again, I’ll say it again, have those reserves in place can really, really benefit you and help you overcome that fear of getting started because you can just find the answer through money or with whatever resources or your network you have available to you. I’m sure Jordan that Taylor has been a great resource for you.

Jordan:
Yeah, he’s been huge. And it’s really on the piece of taking [inaudible 00:31:52]. Because as I’m going it’s kind of like, what they call it like building the plane as you’re flying. I’m figuring out what I like, and what makes sense, and how I can best use my strengths. And I’ll just have conversations with Taylor. And we’ll talk about how would I actually do BRRRR? What next steps would I actually have to do? And it’s so funny, he just like, it’s like [inaudible 00:32:15] day. He’s like, “Yo’, just go down the street and ask the guy working on his home if he wants to sell his house,” or do this, do that. And just from my doing those things, I’ll get a buyer now. Or I’ll build a relationship, and it’s just simple as that where I’m like, “All right. I do need to just take that action and not overthink it.”

Ashley:
Yeah, for anyone wondering who Taylor is he was on the Rookie episode number 24. So you can go to biggerpockets.com/rookie24 to listen to his episode. But real quick, because I really want to know this, because I get asked this a lot, and I see it come up all the time. Real quick can you tell us how you got him to be your mentor?

Jordan:
Yeah, yeah. So I heard the episode 24. I was like, “I relate to that 100%.” Not in the military, but just things he was talking about. I just loved hearing it. And I was like, “That’s the wavelength I want to be on.” And I also wrote it in my intention journal that I wanted to find a mentor by the, it was like September or something like that. So, I reached out to him, and he hit me back pretty quick. And then from there, he actually was like, “Yeah, we can set up something or whatnot.” And I said, “Okay, great.” What I said, what happened. Okay, so what happened was I was talking about the BRRRR book. I was like, “Let me get the book before I do a meeting with you.”
So, I was like, “Well, let me read this book first, and then let’s do the meeting so I don’t ask you questions that I can just figure out in the book. We could use the best of the time, and he was like… And this was so profound to me. He called me on Instagram. And he was like, “Dude, I’ve read all the books. I can help you with this.” And it clicked to. It was like that this would really be like a fast track for me to understanding a lot of those things because he’s already done it. He’s got the experience. So I can still read the BRRRR book, but it’s really just for reference when he can tell me and give me his experience, so I can take action. So that was just that piece of him saying, “For sure I got the knowledge. Let’s connect and go from there.” And we hit it off, and he’s been a huge help.

Tony:
Yeah, having someone who can show you the path is always helpful. And like you said, even if you don’t have the resources to tap into a mentor, there’s so many other ways to get that information and get that knowledge. We’ve got a Facebook group with I don’t know, Ash, maybe like 19,000 people in there almost. And there’s so much interaction and guidance there. And there’s the forums, obviously. So even if, for the listeners, you’re not able to maybe get a mentor for yourselves, there’s so many other resources out there that can help you get started. So, love that advice.
Now, we spend a lot of time talking about 2020, and I’m sure we shared a lot of good stuff with the listeners. But I want to turn our attention towards next year, towards 2021. So, what I want to do is we’ll have each of you give us what your goals are for next year, but then also let us know how Ash and I can help hold you guys accountable towards those goals. And then we’ll take it from there. So Beth, if you want to start us off? What are some of your goals for 2021? And how can Ash and I help hold you accountable for those goals?

Beth:
Sure. I’d like to scale my local portfolio to 20 units by the end of 2021. I’m looking to acquire, as I mentioned earlier two short term rentals not local to me. So, I’d like one I said maybe in a beach destination like Florida, somewhere, and then maybe like a mountain or a lake destination. So to start to do some short term rentals, and I want to really continue and scale my flipping, also. It’s not something I ever set out to do. I kind of accidentally stumbled into flipping and I like it, and I think that… I don’t flip just to flip. I flip so I can buy more rentals.
And even though I utilize the BRRRR method, you still need to have those reserves, and you still need to keep generating the revenue. So, it’s a combination of flipping, scaling my flipping profits. I threw a pretty audacious number out there to the universe. It’s kind of $500,000 in revenue from flips. It’s kind of a crazy number, but maybe I can do it, I don’t know, we’ll see. And like I said two out of the area short term rentals. So those are the three big ones right there as far as the numbers go.
And then obviously, I can take it a little bit more granular than that. I know my strengths. I know my weaknesses. After a year of doing this, and really just throwing myself into this, I know what I am good at doing, and I know what I’m not so good at. And so, I need to really work on those things that I’m not so good at. And those are the kind of like the behind the scenes, all of the accounting, just stuff that Ashley loves, I don’t love. The paperwork, the accounting, all of the documentation. That’s not my strength, and I know that I need to just make it a strength, and I need to get better at it. So I can, at some point, delegate it off to somebody else. But those types of things is like, just as important as flipping 10 houses next year.
Creating the systems and creating the processes, and making this an actual business is a goal in and of itself, and I recognize the importance of doing those things in order to scale and grow my business. So, part of that just starts just generating a number of source passive revenue monthly. I have that goal, and that’s basically… And then other investments, using the profits from flips and things like that to fund other investments and really diversifying as an investor those are some other goals. But those are the big three right there. The flipping, the scaling my portfolio, and yeah. So, what was your next question?

Ashley:
I want to know what are going to be three action items that are going to get you closer to meeting those goals? What are three things that you know that you have to do every month, every week, or maybe you even only have to do it once to get you to those goals?

Beth:
Yeah, every week, I need to write down and expenses, all of the numbers, I guess, on a weekly basis. So that’s one.

Ashley:
What about for the short term rental? What do you need to do to get that short term rental?

Beth:
Yes, I need to start researching other markets and really be diligent about researching what markets do I want to get into because it’s kind of blue ocean. There’s a ton of options out there. And it’s a bit daunting to try to figure out, “Okay, well, where do I want to go?” So, I guess, researching other markets. And that could prove to be useful because eventually I’d like to buy long term rentals in other markets also. So, market research.

Ashley:
Tony might have some great advice as to how to find those markets because Tony’s doing short term rental in two different markets right now [crosstalk 00:39:22].

Beth:
Yeah.

Tony:
Yeah.

Beth:
I know my own market, my own personal backyard so well like the back of my hand. And I need to stop learning that market. I need to really just focus on learning some others. And that’s just kind of… So, I don’t have a third, any other suggestions?

Tony:
So let me just recap what you have so far, Beth. So, you’ve got you every week you want to focus on the numbers of financials, things like that. And then you’ve got researching other markets, specifically with the focus on short term rentals. But your goal is to get to 20 units. I guess what else around, what are some of the other activities you feel that you need to do, or maybe a skill that you need to develop that’ll help you get there to actually reach that goal?

Beth:
I just think overall it’s if I want to scale to take on more. I just overall know that I need to develop, and a better system for how I do this. Instead of me doing all of the planning, I need to develop the systems and the processes, so I don’t have to be everywhere and do everything myself. If that makes sense.

Tony:
No, it does. It does. I love it, and those are good things, right? And Ash and I will be checking up on you, making sure that we’re actually taking these action items.

Beth:
Maybe giving me some hints and some advice in like, well, try this or I know that I need to choose a new management software because Cozy at some point, it’s just going to… I’m going to outgrow that, so I need to choose something different. I need to really learn how to use QuickBooks. Not good on it, just not. I need to learn how to use that, things like that, that I’ve just put off because I just kind of procrastinate on those things. The things that I don’t want to do.

Tony:
No, no. Really quick, on the accounting side, I think Ashley you’re the one that I think turned me onto this initially, but I’ve been using Stessa, and it’s so much easier to use than QuickBooks Online. I love QuickBooks. It’s a really robust tool. But if you’re just starting out Stessa is like… It’s all already set up. You’re just plugging in your expenses, and it gets really good reporting. So, look into that if you haven’t yet.

Beth:
That’s what I was actually going to go to was Stessa, and that was on the back of my mind. I’m like, “I need to move to Stessa.” Because Cozy doesn’t really do that. Cozy’s really just about managing the rents, and you can keep other documents there. But I need to go to something a little bit more robust, I can do a little bit more. So those are the things that I need to do is basically… So, yeah, another action is just transitioning over to that new management system and things like that.

Tony:
Okay.

Ashley:
Yeah, Stessa is like a dashboard for investors. So, you can’t collect rent payments or anything like that from it, but it will gather all of your financial information. You can keep track of your income and expenses. And you can keep all of your documents in there, and it’s also free. You can pay for an upgraded version, but the free one is great.

Beth:
Is that in lieu of QuickBooks then?

Ashley:
Yeah, yeah.

Beth:
Yeah, okay.

Ashley:
So, you wouldn’t need that. But then you just need your rent collection software, a separate one.

Beth:
Okay.

Ashley:
I know it does integrate with some. I think like AppFolio. So even if you have a property manager, they can send you the reports, and then you just enter it into Stessa. But also, there are virtual assistants out there who specialize in inputting data into Stessa or QuickBooks or other so when you are looking to transfer to a different software, you can find a virtual assistant online that will do all of that for you. You just send them what you have, and then they make it all pretty and perfect [crosstalk 00:42:44].

Beth:
Yeah, that’s definitely… I understand the importance of knowing how to do it myself first. So I definitely need to conquer that myself, and then I can delegate that off. But yes, I’ll learn it myself first. So, yeah.

Tony:
Beautiful. All right. Thank you, Beth. Those are good goals, and I love the big goal with the flipping and getting to 500K. I love big kind of aggressive goals. That’s beautiful.

Beth:
Yeah, the [inaudible 00:43:07].

Tony:
Yeah, there you go. All right. Jackson, what about you, brother? What’s on the docket for 2021 for you?

Jackson:
All right. So, like I said, originally, a couple months ago when I first sat down and decided what kind of goals I wanted to focus on, what I want to hit. I had that goal of getting my first property. And I wanted to… I felt like even just that was a little bit vague. So I wouldn’t be on that. Say by the end of 2021, I’m going to buy my first rental property that’s trying to produce at least $150 a month in cash flow. And so, one of the reasons I worded it that way is with my background in education and having to write educational goals, we use they’re called SMART goals. So, this is just a framework for writing goals.
And so, that has it, that acronym stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time based. So I wanted it to be specific enough. And I guess I should even add single family because I’ve looked into both single family and duplex, but just to get started for the inventory purposes, the liquidity purposes, I think single family is where I want to get started. And measurable, it’s something that’s measurable. It’s absolutely something that is attainable. It’s relevant to my long term goals. And it’s also time based.
But with that, and looking at where I’ve come so far, and how I’ve already realized as I’ve kind of said before how you’re capable of achieving so much more in such a shorter period of time. Just buying one unit in an entire year is kind of like… I don’t know, to me it’s a little bit of a low hanging fruit. So, I want to challenge myself a little bit more. So I think Jordan might have mentioned something about how he’s been using the 90 day Intention Journal. So I also picked up a copy of that. And so, I’m going to be working through that.
And so, my first goal that I’m looking at is within the first 90 days of 2020 I want to get that first property under contract and then from there spend the majority of the year just learning the business of being a real estate investor. Getting best talked about, getting those systems, getting those processes, learning as you’re going, and being that boots on the ground, having your hands in the game, so to speak. And then just continue to work on both the investing side of things and trying to stay on my side hustle to build up the cash reserves that I have and continue to be in capital, so I can redeploy and get that second deal, maybe even in 2021.

Tony:
I want to challenge that goal just a little bit, Jackson, because I think if we use your experiences from 2020, and you realize that some of the things that you thought were going to take a while didn’t take as long as they actually did. If you get that first property within the first 90 days, you’re still going to have, what is that? 270-ish days to do something else. I don’t think it’ll take you that long to get comfortable. So, I would challenge you to maybe up that from one property to at least two for 2021 because I think you can do it.

Jackson:
Yeah, no, I definitely agree.

Tony:
All right. So, there it is.

Ashley:
Okay, Jordan, can we hear your goals?

Jordan:
Yeah, absolutely. So for me, 2021, I want to add $2,000 in pure cash flow for passive income monthly through rentals. And then I would like to build a team and system. So what that looks like is heavy on the networking, finding lenders, general contractors, so contractors, property manager, and then within that subset is finding a mastermind that I relate to and can work with. And my third goal is additional revenue through real estate of 100,000. And that’s from, going to be primarily from wholesaling, and/or flipping as well. So my first flip would be something on that list as well. And I have some personal goals, too. But that’s the rundown there.

Ashley:
So what are your action items going to be? Do you have three?

Jordan:
Yeah, so action items for me. In the first 90 days, a big one is focus is network growth. So making calls to lenders. So, I’d say every day at least making one call to somebody who I can network with. So as I mentioned that list of lenders, general contractors, subcontractors, or property managers just to understand areas and market that might want to be in their neighborhood. And then finding a mastermind. So, it’s really heavy on reaching out is going to be one of the actionable items.
And then for wholesaling, and flipping, ideally, I want to be the guy with the deals. I mean, everybody wants to be that guy, but I want to do the work to be in that position. So, in addition to networking, that’s what wholesaling is going to do for me. It’s really a metric game. Right now what I’m doing is I’m doing primarily cold calling, and then I am sending out some direct mail. And then for Christmas, I asked for a curated website. So, I’m going to get that up and rolling too. So just consistency and being on top of my metrics there is kind of the gist of it.

Ashley:
Good, good. Jackson, I feel like we didn’t ask you your three action items. I think we glazed over that. So, what are like three things, and I know you like to have a very precise plan and break it down. So, why don’t you give me a daily thing that you’re going to be doing daily?

Jackson:
Yeah, definitely. So one of the things that I’ve committed to and I’ve been doing is I’ve spent at least 30 minutes every morning looking at deals and then analyzing deals. And kind of like Beth, I ran to a point where the market that I’m looking at I’m really getting to know even down to the street level. As soon as I see an address, I know what street it’s on. I know is that something that I’m even going to want to look at or not.
So, analyzing deals to identify properties and then just starting to make offers on those and kind of like Jordan said, I think it’s just going to be a matter of a numbers game and just making X number offers every week or every month. And again, just trying to play that numbers game, and I’m prepared to get a lot of nos or a lot of rejections but as we’ve talked about before how it gets you closer to that yes or to that deal. And then I also want to focus on continuing to scale my side hustle and just increase my business revenue just to increase that second or supplemental source of revenue, and that second source of income to use for again, both investing and reserves.

Ashley:
I love that. Having the multiple streams of income. I’m a big believer in that, especially since COVID where I always thought our rental income was our backup, that was our safety net. And that if anything happened at the farm then that would cover that. But now during COVID, when it first started it was like, “Oh, my gosh, our tenants might not pay rent,” but the farm was fully operating. It was not affected at all. And it’s like, okay, this did a total 180 on me. I was not expecting that. But that’s why I love the multiple streams of income is that you have different sources to rely on. Yeah. So, we want to ask you guys what we can do for you guys to help hold you accountable. I’ve already thought of homework assignments for all of you. But we want to know how can we help you throughout the next year to make sure you guys can reach these goals?

Beth:
And I’m just giving suggestions and just if you have an idea of something that I can do, I’m down, I’ll do it. I think sometimes just knowing what to do is the challenge. Like what should I do? Where do I start? Or giving me a suggestion about look at this website, or have you checked this out? And just suggestions would be wonderful. Whether it’s a book or it’s like a website or a person?

Ashley:
Okay, yeah, we can definitely do that, Jordan?

Jordan:
Yeah, I definitely second Beth. I think it’s super helpful with any direction because you guys have been there and are superstars. So definitely just giving us the ideas of where we can go, and how we can make best use of our time and what action we should take is really helpful. I love reaching out. So, I’m definitely going to be reaching out to you guys on specific things, for sure.

Ashley:
Okay, great.

Tony:
Awesome.

Ashley:
Go ahead, Jackson.

Jackson:
Yeah, definitely. I think that’s where I’m at, I’ve done a good job of identifying those action items and identifying what I need to do. So just having those check ins, and that accountability to say, “Okay, you know what you need to do? Are you doing the things that you need to do? And are you doing that consistently to get to where you need to be. If there’s points where I get stuck, or kind of that like, “Man, I didn’t see this coming.” Because I’m sure that’s going to be like every day once you get in the game, something’s going to come up that you’re not going to know the answer.
But I think we’ve talked about before, somebody who’s going to know or you’re going to know how to find that answer. So using you guys as a resource to try to navigate my way as we go along. And I think it’s cool that the three of us are not only in different stages of our real estate career, but also focusing on different strategies and whatnot. So, I think it’s cool to build off each other and take things that we’ve learned from each other and build off those and learn from each other that way.

Tony:
Yeah, and that’s really… Go ahead, Jordan.

Jordan:
I was just going to say, just to play off of Jackson a little bit, I think it’d be really dope if you guys are up to it to do, I don’t know, maybe three check ins within the year of just kind of 90 days later where are we at? What actions have we actually taken, and maybe celebrate wins, or you guys can give us a little bit of insight from there?

Ashley:
I think we can be our own masterminds. The four of us can be own mastermind, and we could hold each other accountable, you know?

Tony:
That’s a great idea, and you guys are kind of reading my mind because what Ash and I would love for you guys to do. And I think a really good way to help hold you all accountable towards your goals is if you’re publicly sharing them. And obviously, you’re saying this on the podcast. But what will be great is if you guys can post your 2020 goals in the Facebook group, the Real Estate Rookie Facebook group with all 19,000 plus members in there, and Ash and I will post what the homework is that we’ve already agreed on. And at some regular cadence, maybe it’s monthly, that’s probably a good pace, you guys can go back into the group and update what progress you’ve made.
So, here’s what you guys committed to get done in January. And then at the end of January, did you actually guys get it done? Here’s what you committed to do in the month of February and then at the end of February, did you guys actually get it done? So I think that’ll be a good way obviously for Ash and I, but also for the entire group to be there to help and support you guys. So, does that sound like a plan? You guys okay with that?

Beth:
Let’s do it.

Jackson:
Yeah.

Jordan:
Yeah.

Jackson:
I’m excited.

Jordan:
Totally.

Jackson:
[crosstalk 00:53:50] challenge.

Tony:
Awesome. I think that the last piece for me because there’s been so much good knowledge on here. And Jackson, you alluded to this is that, one, you guys are all in different places. But you guys have all started around the same time. And I know that sometimes as an investor you can look at other people and say, “Oh, man, I’m not doing enough, or hey, this person is moving that fast, and I feel like I’m still here.” But everyone’s going to move at their own pace. And some people are going to have the risk tolerance and the mindset just to go crush it and move super, super fast. And other people need to take their time, and build up that familiarity with real estate investing, and it’s okay.
So, for those of you that are listening and haven’t gotten your first deal done yet it is okay because you’ve got to move at a pace and you’ve got to move at a speed that’s comfortable for you. So I just want to make sure I touched on that because again, you guys are all in different parts of your real estate investing career, but it’s important to highlight that we all have our own things that we want to do. So I’m done rambling now. Ashley, anything else you want to hit? I don’t know. Where are we at?

Ashley:
Well, I want to know where everyone can find more information about you guys and follow along your journey besides just the Facebook group. For the Facebook group, just search Real Estate Rookie on Facebook and click to join and make sure that you agree to the Facebook rules for that group because I am a moderator on there, and I see so many times that people don’t say that they agree. So make sure you hit that you agree because or else you can’t get in. I’ll make sure to do that. But yeah, where else can people find more information about you, Jordan?

Jordan:
Yeah, so for me, I’m on Instagram. So, jcroc2011. I’m also on Facebook Jordan Crockett. Not so much on Twitter. But yeah, those are the big ones. So yeah, that’s it. And there was one thing I forgot to mention during the lessons we learned. I wanted to specifically mention it because I thought it was extremely impactful, and I don’t think it’s talked about enough. But one of the books I read, and it’s kind of part of my why too. It’s called The Color of Law, and it’s by Richard Rothstein. It’s a book that entails the history of America and government sponsored segregation.
It primarily focuses on real estate and talks about things like redlining, white flayed, FHA, loan withholding from black people and people of color. And then also race based loan restrictions. So I mean, if it’s one thing people get from me please check out that book. It’s very important to understand some of those things, and how it impacts today in where people are at.

Tony:
Jordan, I second that. I’ve read that book as well, and it’s definitely a mind opening experience as you read through how things were set up not all that long ago. So yeah, I appreciate you bringing that up, and it’s definitely a good read.

Ashley:
We will link it in the show notes to biggerpockets.com rookie… What show are we on?

Tony:
45.

Ashley:
There we go. Rookie 45. Okay, Jackson, you want to tell us where we can find more information about you?

Jackson:
Yeah, sure. So I’m on Instagram at jacksonseedott. You also find me on BiggerPockets’ Facebook as well. I think just Jackson Seedott, and then I have a business page through Facebook. It’s JBS Woodworking if you look that up. So that’s pretty much where anyone can find me or get in touch with me.

Ashley:
Oh, sure. You’re just here to sell some furniture, aren’t you?

Jackson:
Exactly, yeah. [crosstalk 00:57:23] shameless plug in.

Ashley:
It was so funny. I was at a webinar last week, and it was me, Brandon Turner, and Jay Scott. And the host of it was like, “I have never heard so many shameless plugs in my life,” because it was like, “Biggerpockets.com, there’s biggerpockets.com. I can’t help it.

Jackson:
I’ll hit them with the discount code [crosstalk 00:57:45] BiggerPockets or something.

Ashley:
Okay, and Beth?

Beth:
Yeah, I’m not super active on Facebook. That’s something I got to get better at too. But on Instagram, I’m beth_buys_rei [inaudible 00:57:58]. So, beth_buys_rei. I’m active on Instagram, and that’s all.

Tony:
All right, so we’ll make sure to link to Beth’s Instagram there, beth_buysrei. We’ll put in the show notes for you guys. But super excited that you all were able to share your stories with us. I know that there’s a lot of people who right now are thinking about the big goals they want to achieve going into 2021. And I truly do believe that hearing your stories of 2020 and then being able to follow along your journey in 2021 will give them the encouragement and the guidance they need to take action to make those goals happen. So, I really, really appreciate you guys being on. Looking forward to checking in with you guys in a couple months, and giving the listeners an update on where you guys are at. But thanks for joining us today.

Ashley:
Yeah, thank you guys so much for sharing your goals with us. I know it’s a big deal to put it out there to the podcast and into the world. And we’re going to have you guys back on to the show. I think as of right now will be in about six months, we’ll do a half year checkup and see where you guys are at. And then hopefully at the end of the year, you’ll be able to tell us that you crushed and surpassed all your goals. But thank you guys and we’ll talk to you soon.

Jackson:
Great, thank you.

Jordan:
Thank you.

Ashley:
I’m Ashley Kehr @wealthfromrentals, and he’s Tony Robinson @tonyjrobinson. Thank you for listening.