California to Memphis: Risks & Rewards of Real Estate Investment – Joffrey shares his journey from California to Memphis, revealing his secrets to building a robust real estate portfolio across diverse neighborhoods. With investments in duplexes, single-family homes, and new construction, Joffrey exemplifies the power of strategic diversification and risk tolerance in the ever-evolving property market. This episode unpacks his philosophy, experiences, and tips for navigating challenges and capitalizing on opportunities, offering valuable lessons for aspiring and seasoned investors alike. Learn how Joffrey’s adept adaptability and insightful market analysis have propelled his investments to success, making this a must-listen for anyone aiming to thrive in real estate.
Brett
0:00:55 – So today we are going to talk with a good friend of mine and an investor, Joffrey Garul out of California, who has been investing with me and Glenn since 2019, owns six or seven properties. He’s been a very easy investor to work with. Like he’s very knowledgeable, very detailed. His risk tolerance is very wide. In other words, he’s not set in stone on one particular avenue. He’s got new construction, he’s got C neighborhoods, B neighborhoods, duplexes, single families. So he’s really mixed it up and we’ll get to hear a lot about his philosophy and what he thinks about the market, especially here in Memphis.
Sponsorship
0:03:58 – We are sponsored by Title Assurance and Escrow, a title company here in Cordova that does all of our closings, title work, escrows, and we only use Title Assurance and Escrow. That relationship is very important because we can get things done for our investors quickly and easily. So to speak with Title Assurance and Escrow, call 901-737-3332 and ask for Chris or April.
Brett
0:01:56 – So Joffrey, when did you start doing business together? 2019? 2018? It’s been a while.
Joffrey
0:02:02 – I would say about 20, yeah, at least a good five years now.
Brett
0:02:06 – Yeah, okay, and how many properties, we talked yesterday, you had six properties.
Joffrey
0:02:10 – Seven, yeah, I think now we’re about up to seven or eight, actually, if you include the duplex.
Brett
0:02:13 – Yeah, true, true. So I’m gonna kind of put you on the spot here, because here’s what I like to do. I like for investors that call into the show to talk about why you came to Memphis, number one. Number two, what’s been your experience in Memphis and is it working out the way you thought it would? Financially, your investments working out here?
Joffrey
0:02:32 – Okay, well let’s start from the top. I live here in California, so been born, bred, raised, live, invest in California. Aside from our home had a short-term rental STR, Airbnb type of rental up in the mountain resort area. And then also had the full-time rental the annual year to year out in an area called Riverside, California. It did well, but margins weren’t quite there. Then, of course, one of the biggest issues and just for anyone who’s rented in California kind of knows, when people stopped paying, just getting them out of there became a nightmare having to pay do the do unlawful detainer pay or quit, pay the attorney go through all that madness it’s just obviously not being very landlord friendly.
Brett
0:03:19 – Is it hard to evict people in California?
Joffrey
0:03:20 – It can be, yeah, it definitely can be. I mean, you can get it done, but you’re going to have to pay the money it’s just going to cost you, you know. So yeah going through that a couple of times and just for additional reference my family, we’ve come from a family of landlords, so just it’s all been here in Southern California. And we’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly and the uglier just from just completely trashing places, not paying and having to go through the, like I said, the attorney to get the eviction process. I think years ago when you’re able to get a property sub couple hundred grand you’re obviously a lot closer to that 1% rule now here in where I live in Southern California you can buy a nice entry-level house for 500K and rent it out for $2,400.
Brett
0:04:08 – Wow. That’s a hell of an investment.
Joffrey
0:04:09 – Obviously, not a lot.
Brett
0:04:11 – You’re over the 1% on all your properties that are occupied, aren’t you? If I’m not mistaken, we started you at 1%, but you’ve grown since then. Are you breaking the 1% on any of them?
Joffrey
0:04:22 – Oh, yeah, yeah. The majority of them are over the 1%. The recent ones I think were just about there, just a hair under like 0.9. So it’s not terribly off. But obviously, a stark contrast from what you get in California. So going back to why looking to different areas, so decided to sell some of the properties here in California, start converting those over. And I was looking at it, yeah, you can get the nice equity built in. But if you’re looking at it from a cash flow perspective, there’s little to no opportunities. I mean, unless you’re getting something cash free out here in California most of the Western states. So I started looking around, started doing my homework, found a couple of different markets like from Mississippi being one and here maybe potentially some areas of Florida and some things like that. A lot of investors out here in California will go to like Texas or something like that. Being a little bit closer on arm’s length. I started researching and I really found that I think from what I saw there to be a better market and opportunity for Memphis. And you know, so this is my view, this is five, six years ago. So and I, interesting enough, I just went on Google Google and Yelp went through, identified four or five different management companies slash realtors. And what I was looking for is someone that could kind of handle it all lump sum. You know, I didn’t want to have to kind of piecemeal and find one realtor and then find a separate property management. I wanted to try to find someone that at least had that experience to, to walk me through it. That’s when, I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this story that’s when I went through a call to a couple of different places some people didn’t call back, some took longer to call back. I had a conversation with a guy named Glenn. We stayed on the phone for about an hour. Really, really, really, what I loved and appreciated was just the openness of some guy from California calling you out of the blue, taking the time to spend that much time on a conversation. I remember I was actually looking at an open house for another place and we had this conversation with him and he outlined it for me to see the philosophy, the principles. There I got connected with a guy named Brett. You might know him.
Brett
0:06:30 – The true story is that Glenn goes, Jesus Christ, I’ve been on the phone hours with this guy from California. Here, Brett, you take it.
Joffrey
0:06:35 – That was probably, that’s my closest to the truth, right?
Brett
0:06:40 – No, Glenn was, the whole philosophy we used was kind of invented by Glenn. You know, the one-stop shop. Get one agent that can handle everything for you so you don’t have all these moving parts and pieces that you have to deal with as an investor and to make it easy. But I mean, at the end of the day, there still are issues that come up which you’ve experienced some of them and at this market. Other than the one we talked about yesterday, it’s been successful for you thus far.
Joffrey
0:07:06 – Oh yeah, most definitely. And obviously, for anyone thinking about investing, from the first one, it’s like you don’t know me from a hole in the wall. I don’t know you from A to B. So it’s like, okay, let’s start off with one property let’s walk through that process. Let’s see what that looks like and the, I would say the true test to any, to a good agent to a good restaurant is would you do it again? You know, well, would you do it again? You know, and that’s just kind of my litmus test for everything in life. You know, would you do it again? Was it a good, was it a favorable transaction? And you’re like, I don’t know. But the first transaction we went through I feel we, and we still have that house today, part of the portfolio, has been, it’s been an income producing property like everything, you got to weather for anyone that’s on the fence about doing out-of-state investing you got to weather some losses. It’s like a stock market nothing, you’re not only going to have that upward trajectory, but we’re just pushing dividends in the pockets. Some months might be not as profitable, but when you cost weighted over time, it’s definitely been, and the rents have gone up significantly since we did. I want to say the rents since we first started have actually increased about 25% from what we originally started on. I think we were looking at one of the ones that we had is $1275 a month. That one originally started just about $950. So looking at over time, if you’re willing to weather those storms, it has been a very, very good prompt. So kind of talking about you know the…
Brett
0:08:37 – I was going to say the one thing that we talk about a lot is we get a lot of young investors that go to these… Where are they doing these seminars in California, by the way, where all these goofy kids come out of and call me and want to start buying all these houses and become the next Donald Trump with no money. They do that in your neck of the woods?
Joffrey
0:08:57 – Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, no, no. I mean, it’s just flooded with influencers and it’s a-
Brett
0:09:04 – Everybody’s got an idea.
Joffrey
0:09:05 – Yeah exactly. It’s it’s the coach that’s never played the game but telling everyone on how to do it, you know?
Brett
0:09:12 – Right, right, exactly. Well, then that’s what we talk a lot about.
Joffrey
0:09:14 – And I always say for me, I wouldn’t like, it’s like, why would I buy from an agent who doesn’t sample their own product? Like you’re going to tell me, for example, if you ask me about a short-term rental, I’ve done it for a decade plus. So I can give you the good, the bad and the indifferent. And you know, I’m just going to say that that’s why I wouldn’t put all my eggs in one basket, but you got to look at weighting your portfolio out. And I’ll say right now, I think we’ve put more than half of the investment strategy towards properties in Memphis.
Brett
0:09:49 – I want to find out from you, when it comes to your investment strategy, I mean, let’s face it, most investors have the same basic strategy with a few twists here and there, and we’ve got a few investors that have different ideas. ideas, but at the end of the day, the one thing that continues to happen is rents go up, values go up, even in a down time when this last year and a half has been a little wonky with the real estate market because of interest rates and the inflationary issue has caused tenants to kind of slow down on the moving and moving upward. Instead of doing that, they’re staying still. So even in that scenario, you still find yourself, your asset is still performing?
Joffrey
0:10:26 – Oh, correct, correct. Full disclosure, I swapped out one property here in California and I took the equity and just dumped that into multiple properties over there just because I felt that it’s a – the way that I kind of equate in my mind, it’s more of a – kind of like a blue chip stock. You might not get the same equity gain that you get in California or Nevada or the western states.
Brett
0:10:51 – But if the wind blows the wrong way, you don’t lose half your value overnight either.
Joffrey
0:10:54 – Yeah, exactly. I mean, should this economy go to hell in a handbasket? I’ve had it where I’ve had properties here in California where, like you said, the wind blew the wrong way, and I’m now down $300,000.
Brett
0:11:07 – Right.
Joffrey
0:11:07 – You know, I mean, I don’t care what your bank account looks like. That’s a tough pill to swallow. Yeah, so he asked me the other day about the seminars out there. He said, I mean, you see them pop up on social media out here all the time and then you have these kind of quick get rich schemes to get people out there. And I just go back to it, you got people that haven’t actually done it trying to teach people how to do it with money that they don’t have.
Brett
0:11:32 – And charging them a nice fee to tell them that. Well, unfortunately, we get a lot of those people that come to us in Memphis and it Dude, it makes our jobs so hard because you’re trying to deprogram some kid who’s convinced by Vinny in California That if he does this program he can quit his job in a year and be living in a mansion in Belize with his hot wife It’s just ridiculous So when you see Vinny or whoever’s doing these seminars just walk up and tell him that Brett’s gonna come to California and kick his ass. And needs to quit.
Joffrey
0:11:59 – Yeah, yeah, I tell him that takes at least six months to get it before you get the hot wife. Yeah, six months. I can do that in six months. Yeah, yeah. No, no, I mean, I mean, I think that’s the thing there’s even, uh, I see a bunch of those things. I tell people how they can get an Airbnb, no money down you can get us some million dollar place, rent it out, take 10 grand a month, which I mean all that and I mean that’s just that’s just a bunch of crap you know for for anyone legitimately who’s who’s invested knows that you know there’s no get rich quick you got to have a strong team you got to have a solid strategy you know you need to have some some capital to you know put some skin in the game right and then it still takes you know that it still just takes you know that’s why I use the word storms like you got to be willing to weather some seasons you know there’s gonna be some seasons when money’s raining through and it’s great. You know, we had a couple years like that, there was no issues at any of the houses and we’re connecting on full rent every month, woo-hoo, right? And then there’s some seasons Brett, we just had a long call the other day, it just really pulled my hair, where it just seems like everything hit the stove at one place, the roof at another, the backyard, the sprinklers. But if you look at it this way, if you’re getting into this thinking that you’re gonna make a hell of a lot of money in a short period of time, yeah, I don’t know, go to Vegas and put 10 Gs on black. You know, good luck with that. This is part of, and going back to it, this is part of the portfolio strategy. And you know, like I said, I mean, we’ve invested very heavily, I think in the Memphis market. And so far it’s paid, it’s paid its dividends and it’s doing what it was supposed to do.
Brett
0:13:45 – Right, I’d see any real estate investment market, as like you said, I use the term blue chip stock all the time, Memphis is that way. Memphis is never gonna skyrocket, but Memphis also never tanks, right? When things go south in California and Arizona and Southern Florida and all these big cities and Dallas and everything just tanks 50%. Memphis drops a little bit but then bounces back in a few months. We see just a nice steady growth. In my book, in my mind, that’s how you invest in real estate. You don’t want to go invest in a stock in the stock market tomorrow that cost you a hundred bucks a share and the guy says, but it can go up and be worth a million dollars a share tomorrow, but it also could drop and be worth a penny tomorrow. You know, why would you want to put your money into a market like that? And you know, California is unfortunately that way because we’ve seen huge rises in value and huge drops in value.
Joffrey
0:14:40 – Oh yeah, it’s, well the, most of the Western states are going to be your boomer bust your, your Nevada, Arizona, California. And like I said I, I remember I’m going back to 07, 08. I had my house, I had a couple of properties. A lot of my buddies, they bought in areas where they can, quote unquote, get a cheaper house. But you’re still talking a 300 plus thousand dollar house. In my standard, that’s not a cheap house. That’s still $300 of hard-earned money. Well when the economy went sour, then they had to basically float that monthly mortgage of the 2100, 2200. That gets really hard to do. You multiply that times two, that could bankrupt you. So a lot of guys that I knew during that 07, 08, they lost their additional homes out here in California. And it just goes back to it. How are you setting up the portfolio are you being smart with it are you diversifying and I just go back to, I looked at Memphis I ranked it on a couple of different things being landlord friendly, what happens if someone goes 15 days into not paying my rent you know, out here in California, I just got to, I got to suck it up and deal with it you know, the mortgage companies, oh, they didn’t pay you, oh, don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about it, John. I got you. Get on it. Hey, here’s a nice $300 late fee on to this.
Brett
0:16:07 – Memphis is easier to evict people in than California, for sure. I mean, it’s not simple, but it’s a pretty simple process. You just basically file your writ with the courts. The hearing comes up. The tenant typically can walk into court with no excuse and ask the judge for two more weeks, which they’ll get. So we typically say 30 days start to finish. I have management companies that I work with that one of them specifically on the sixth day, the rent is due first to the fifth. On day six, she sends out a notice to vacate immediately. And you can do that, but you have to wait until that 30-day time spans up before you can actually proceed with eviction. But guess what it does? She gets rent. I mean, by the tenth, these tenants are paying their rent because they’re afraid of being evicted. Memphis has got a lot of pluses. You know, the downside to Memphis is we are a distribution city, and 300 and whatever thousand renters we have in this city, and they all live paycheck to paycheck. So what we’re seeing right now in Memphis, which is a little different than we’ve had in the past, is because someone makes $2,000 every two weeks at FedEx, and their income’s the same no matter what. If all of a sudden gas goes up a dollar a gallon and a can of peas is up 50 cents more than it was last month and across the board their cost of living goes up 20%, well guess what? That $2,000 check is now 1,600 and that deeply affects their ability to pay their rent, their car notes and when that starts happening a lot of people just pull back and say, I’m just going to stay where I’m at for now until things turn. And then I’ll move up to that next bigger house and that next bigger rent. And we’ve seen a lot of that happen recently. Just the rental market has been unusually slow for this time of year, but I am starting to see it heat up some. And I think you’ve experienced that on one of your properties. You know, we keep talking about why, what’s going on with that property, and I don’t think it’s the property, the location, or the amount of rent. I think it’s just that there’s so many fewer renters out hunting for properties right now simply because their paychecks are smaller. Because they’ve got kids and they’ve got expenses.
Joffrey
0:18:12 – And you know, anytime you go into investments or business, nothing is there’s no crystal ball, right? There’s nothing that’s 100% solidified that this is the sure deal. You know, it won’t be called an investment because there’s always some level of risk. So just in this last year, I think we picked up a couple additional properties from you. One of them was a brand new build, right? The brand new build, I mean, just essentially months after we got it, put it on the market, getting full rent. And actually that one’s through MHA. So that’s been great. Picked up a duplex, which is half the rent of the new build. I thought that that would fly off the market and here it is a couple of months and we’re sitting into it. A lot of it could be seasonal, by the time it was finally rent ready after Renos, put us right around the holidays and you guys had the unseasonable storms out there. There’s so many, I mean, once again, there’s just so many factors. I think I’d be a billionaire if I was able to weather everything perfectly and time it right down to the exact day and everything. But you know that I think that comes with the territory of investing, right? It does.
Nick
0:19:23 – Hey, Joffrey, can you explain to us a little bit or talk a little bit about the strategies you talked about buying a new build and then some renovation properties turnkey. Kind of what are you looking for and has that strategy changed for you since you’ve been here in Memphis?
Joffrey
0:19:36 – I have an entrepreneur mindset, but at the same time I’m in my 40s, right? So I can be a little risky, but at the same time, I got like a lot of investors out there, I got a family wife, kids. And so a lot of this is gonna be looking at setting some sound investments down the road. And so I’m a firm believer of you try something, you don’t know what works until it doesn’t, and you don’t know what works until it does. So it’s you, you, you, you try something, you figure you, you, you do your, your best laid plans so when we had the opportunity for the new build and hadn’t tried a new build out there and so far, I mean, and by the way, thank you, Brad. I mean, it looks like we’ve already done great equity wise on it but, but but the plan is I’m not going to, I don’t be, I’m not looking to cash out anytime soon on it. So, but we’re actually getting the highest rent from that new build. So from that perspective of income, that’s been great.
Brett
0:20:33 – I mean, there’s MHA. And that’s something we talk about a lot. MHA has produced above market rents for a lot of investors and overall, we’re having a good success with the tenants. They tend to stay longer. They tend to take care of the house better, believe it or not, because they don’t want to lose their MHA status. And if they lose it, they never get it back. So they tend to work harder to be good tenants. Not all. You still get a crappy tenant from time to time. Now, you don’t have any other MHA tenants, right? Is this your first one?
Joffrey
0:20:58 – One of the other properties did have an MHA tenant already in place. When we took it. So, so going back, I think one of the questions was like what’s the strategy? I’m, I’m always of the mindset of. I’m willing to try something and it’s, it has that that I had it go You know if you’re gonna fail feel fast right and if it’s not working Cut it onto the next one and you know then you try to fine-tune it to what’s what’s coming through you know as of right now It’s like we have five right now that are pretty much. I mean they’re there. There’s you know. They’re so steady there They’re there. They’re flowing through you know Minimal issues, so you know with that that’s working, so why if it’s not broke don’t don’t don’t fix the clock, right? But like I said, there’s another one that’s not performing, we had a talk on that. I’m not doing this for my health, right? You know, I’m not doing this just to say, oh, I have a property over here. That doesn’t mean no good, it’s like a Facebook like. You know, that doesn’t add anything to my life. So what am I looking for? I mean, we’re looking for something that’s gonna build me long-term equity, hopefully, but more importantly, bring some positive cash flow. If I take that money and put it here in anything in California, it’s not going to bring me any positive cash flow with it. So with that being said, I’m looking for what’s working and if it’s not working, then we reassess. So that’s kind of been my strategy, but once again, for anyone listening to this, it always goes back to what’s your level of risk aversion. And I think that’s just, everyone’s got it. To some people, making 5G a month is where they want to be. To other people, it’s nothing. To someone, it might be greater than the world’s extreme. So it really just depends on what you’re looking to get out of it, and of course, what’s your level of risk tolerance. And so for me, I’ve got a moderate risk tolerance. I think I’m pretty open to, hey, you know what, the market’s gonna be up, it’ll be down. But I try to look at it of, okay, give it some time. If it’s making money, great, perfect. And if, but if not, then we’ve got to go back to the drawing board and kind of reassess. And that’s why having a great broker team to work with. And Brad, I know we talk often and it’s just, okay, this ain’t working, man. Help me out here. Let’s come up with something let’s make it as easy on the pocketbook and bank account as possible, but let’s come up with something that’s gonna make sense and put money in the pocket.
Brett
0:23:18 – Yeah, I’m a pretty good proponent of, if you have a redheaded stepchild, give him up for adoption and move on. Right? No sense trying to dye the hair a different color or make change, just dump it and move on, right? And I’m good with that, I do that a lot. I liquidate properties for investors, if they got 10 homes and one’s just a problem child, just won’t go away, what does unloaded and move that money into a different property? And it is a good strategy to keep because that way you can always make sure you’re moving your portfolio the right direction. And if one property is dragging you down, unless you’re just married to that property and for some reason you’re in love with it, get rid of it and move on.
Joffrey
0:23:55 – Yeah, I have a saying, I’m only married to my God and my wife.
Brett
0:24:00 – That’s right.
Joffrey
0:24:01 – You know, everything else other than that’s negotiable.
Brett
0:24:04 – As Michael Gibson said, don’t get emotional about it. If you get emotional about it, you have sleepless nights and you make dumb decisions. And he’s very similar to you. He’s in the same kind of market, same kind of philosophy and strategy, and he’s very unemotionally attached to his properties and it helps him make very solid decisions. And he’s one of the ones I’m liquidating one of his problem children.
Joffrey
0:24:23 – You know, and it’s funny. So you know, with the, with like, for example, in contrast, like the vacation rental So you know close to home we have a vacation rental that we use you know for the family But we also ran ran it out that one unfortunately it became very We came very personal Because it was something that we use you know the great part about these properties is you know I’ve never stepped foot on any of Them I probably might never step foot on any of these properties, but but you know what I don’t I don’t have to you know that that’s where you’re gonna come to Memphis and hang out I don’t know if we can have a drink on their front yard but you know when you’re not at arms like you know having having boots on the ground and you know having a strong team. It goes back to everything though. I mean, having a team, who can you count on? Who can I pick up the phone? I’m not there physically. So I depend on your eyes, your ears, your expertise. So ultimately my decision on what I pull the trigger on and what I put money or don’t put money into. But it’s like I have to have a strong confidence level of hey, when I call you and I ask you a question, you’re giving me, this is a C plus neighborhood. The potential is they’re gentrifying the area. This is what market rent, this is what your cap is looking at. And possibly in two to three years, this is what we’re looking at. And I got to, you’re not a fortune teller, but I got to give you the space to provide me that information and then try to make my best decision. And I think that for anyone listening to this, that’s where it goes back to you can’t do it all yourself. For me to fly out there, check on every single property, that’s just ludicrous. That’s just it’s just insane. But having a team where we have confidence in, I mean, that’s what we’re paying for. That’s what we’re working together. And I always go back to that’s where having someone who’s experienced, who knows what they’re doing, and then that conversation, it’s more strategy and planning than just making it on, oh, this looks like a pretty house. Well, I’m not gonna live in the damn thing. So, whether the front door is pink or blue, that concerns me little to none. You know, it’s what I like.
Brett
0:26:43 – You’d be surprised at how many new investors come and actually will look at a home and just make an emotional decision about that house. And it’s fantastic financial investment, but because it doesn’t have the right look, they just walk away from it. I’m dealing with an investor right now, she’s had five offers or five properties she could have jumped on and she didn’t, didn’t like the house. Said she sent me some in 30106 that she loved. And I was like, you went from a B neighborhood to a F neighborhood, I don’t understand your philosophy. How are you doing this? But unemotionally attached, that’s what you got to do.
Joffrey
0:27:19 – And you know, this goes back to starting of a business, buying a home, whether it’s a vacation home, rental home, investment home, your own personal home, location, location, location. And you know, that’s been true for since properties were then and that’s true of properties now and will be in the future, whatever location you’re in. So for me, by the way, the way, and this is the way that I kind of eyeball it, is, start a project that’s already one just turnkey. You know, what I look at and then I’ll go to since I’m not in the area, then I’ll go to Google Maps. I’ll just take a quick little visual drive down the street and within usually that’s my second determination. So just kind of looking at the aesthetics of the house comparative to the price point. Then I’ll do the Google Maps and you know, I’ll just go around take a look at the neighborhood. There’s certain criteria that I’m looking for and I hate to say it doesn’t look like that streets been abandoned it doesn’t look like a war zone, you see 20 different cars broken down at the front of that. It’s going to tell you a lot about just the care that’s being taken with that home.
Brett
0:28:37 – You brought up a good point. When I go out and view a property, and I think I’ve told you this in several of the properties you purchased, we go down a street and yes, you have some homes that are boarded up, maybe looked abandoned, but all of a sudden there’s two or three homes in the street, there’s a roofing company putting a new roof on, there’s a contractor paying the exterior, which tells us what? There’s activity on that street, which means these abandoned homes we’re worried about are going to be picked up, remodeled, and flipped here shortly, so we’re on a street that’s going the right direction. If you get on a street that’s boarded up, dead as a doornail, not a single house in good shape, you run from it because there’s no activity there. You’re going to buy a house for 60 and guess what? Two years from now, it’s going to be worth 60.
Joffrey
0:29:16 – And then another thing I look at is how adjacent is it to freeway access, restaurants, what job pool is around there. It’s closer, like you said, a big warehouse. Just simple, simple things like that. Another thing that I personally look at now too is just is there like a wash behind it with like a small forest and how many trees are going to be going onto the yard. Yeah, so there’s just those.
Brett
0:29:37 – Or a motel next door that’s rented by the hour. It’s usually that side.
Joffrey
0:29:41 – Yeah, right. Oh, that’s a negative?
Brett
0:29:42 – Yeah. In the investment business, in the rental world it is. If you’re a tenant, maybe not, but as an investor. I thought that was good for clientele.
Joffrey
0:29:51 – I don’t know. I don’t frequent those kind of places, I can tell you. But, like I was saying, just for me, there’s certain things that I kind of do, that’s how I do my homework when I’m looking at a property. And I want to say we’re, I don’t know, maybe 50-50, a couple I’ve looked through there and I’m like, hey Brett, I like this one, or you’ve sent me one of your suggestions. But then you usually, then you’ll go through there and of course, then you’ll do the boots on the ground. Here’s some pictures, here’s your market analysis to it this is my assessment of it, this is what I know, the rents in the area, this is the area, this is the potential of it. And you know, then you just got to come up with okay, I’ve done my homework, now does this make sense, you know. You know, like I said, so far if I can say if I can grade us, I’d say maybe an A-, I would leave room for improvement. But you know, the majority of them have done very well. Even the ones that haven’t been as high producing as the other ones, they’re still not colossal failures. You know what I mean?
Brett
0:30:57 – They’re still making money.
Joffrey
0:30:59 – Yeah, even the one that we’re gonna put on the market, we’re gonna make money on it. So it’s not as though it’s it just wasn’t the way that I expected to do it. But you know, I did have to put some money into the reno. Doing the renos and you know the and then the upgrade to it you know would give us some equity in it. So we kind of you know so already that’s always you know obviously you have an entrance strategy you got to have an exit strategy and everything in every business and everything you do in life you know like what’s what just in case just in case this damn thing doesn’t work out what’s my recourse what can I do you know is it a total loss then probably not gonna be taking it. But I was gonna say, with that one once we sell that one, then it’s just back to the drawing board again.
Brett
0:31:43 – Sure. Now, you mentioned Airbnb. I just, I sold an Airbnb on Lindale over by the Sears Crosstown area, which is a pretty hopping area lately. My builder that rehabbed that one is doing one three doors down. So if you know somebody or if you’re interested in looking at a good Airbnb, let me know.
Joffrey
0:32:00 – Okay.
Brett
0:32:01 – All right, cool, man. Well, look, Joffrey, thanks a lot for calling in. I really do appreciate your time. And you and I talk outside of work a lot, so I know a little bit about the way you think and the way Movida thinks. And I always appreciate your candor and also appreciate the good compliments you give us. And hopefully we continue to work hard for you.
Joffrey
0:32:20 – Yeah, no, no, no, definitely. And just this last point I kind of want to bring up I’ve talked to a lot of, a lot of people out here in California that they’ve just completely steered and shied away from doing out-of-state investments, you know. We talked about it a buddy of mine that he bought some properties in, uh, over in Mississippi. And it was like, didn’t make any money. It was always just and it goes back to, you didn’t have the right team. You know, if you don’t have the right team, you don’t have the right team, you’re going to lose and you’re not going to make money on it. So it’s like I said, I’m just not blowing smoke your way it’s just you know it’s really I feel you guys do a great job I enjoy working with you and and then aside from that it gets it you know I’m gonna decide just from being you know a nice nice nice team a nice guy you’re making it work and we’re getting money.
Brett
0:33:08 – Awessome. I appreciate that little pat on the back there we do and listen and just so you know the guy Glenn you talked to the very first time when when him and I were partners over here at Title Assurance and working in real estate and he decided to get his license first. He developed this system. He developed this whole concept because I don’t understand why agents aren’t making money in this business. It’s pretty simple. You get an investor and you walk him from point A to point Z. If you handle everything in between, that guy is going to buy one property, then two properties, then 10 properties, then 20 properties. It was just a simple concept and we do it every day. And Jeff is terrified. I went and met some agents, I’ll tell you a quick story. Me and Jeff went and met with two agents the other day. They called us for coffee at Starbucks, just one of our agents. And we sat down with him before we go in there. Jeff goes, don’t give them too much about our concept. I mean, I don’t, I don’t want them knowing what we’re doing. I looked at Jeff in the eye and said, here’s the deal. Every agent in town can do what we do, but they’re too damn stupid and too damn lazy to do it. So I’ll tell everybody how we do this but guess what, they’re not going to put the time of work into it because it’s too much effort. They just don’t want to put the work into it. And since then, we’re probably the only team in town that does things the way we do it.
Joffrey
0:34:16 – And the results speak for themselves. Like I said, I’ve been working with you for five plus years, multiple properties and that’s not slowing down. So can’t wait till I come back on and we got 20 some with you guys.
Brett
0:34:28 – That would be fantastic. And we can do that next month. All right, brother. Hey, Joffrey, thank you, man. I will get to your stuff, that duplex out on our network.
Joffrey
0:34:38 – All right. And anyone here in this fully remodeled gray duplex about to go on the market.
Brett
0:34:44 – Sounds good.
Joffrey
0:34:45 – All right.
Brett
0:34:46 – Thank you, man.
Joffrey
0:34:47 – All right. Bye.