You don’t have to have it all figured out to start. Today’s guest knew close to nothing about real estate investing when he bought his first rental, but it was one of the best decisions he could have made for his future self!
Welcome back to the Real Estate Rookie podcast! Justin Whitted has been cutting hair for over 20 years, and while he’s built a thriving small business in that time, the 55-hour workweeks are starting to take their toll. Justin’s ultimate goal? Completely replace his business income with rental income so he can work fewer hours and spend more time with his family. And as you’re about to hear, he’s well on his way!
Justin became an “accidental” landlord 16 years ago when his parents suggested he move out of his apartment and buy a duplex. That first house hack was a home-run deal, offsetting his living expenses, giving him monthly cash flow, and propelling him toward bigger and better deals.
With every new property, Justin takes another step toward financial freedom, and by following the advice he lays out in today’s episode, YOU could replicate his success!
Ashley Kehr:
Hey everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Recruit Podcast. I’m Ashley Kare, and I’m joined with my co-host, Tony J. Robinson.
Tony Robinson:
Today we have a really special guest coming out of Buffalo, New York, a guy who’s been cutting here for over 20 years, runs his own salon, and somewhere along the way, decided that real estate was going to be his exit ramp from trading time for money. Justin, welcome to the Real Estate Rookie Podcast.
Justin Whitted:
Thank you so much for having me. I’m thrilled to be here.
Ashley Kehr:
Well, Justin, I love your story because you’re still in the thick of it. You haven’t quit your day job yet. So before we get into the details of your journey, I want to know what was the moment where you looked in the mirror and said, “I have to build something outside of the salon.”
Justin Whitted:
The first thing was understanding that you can’t do everything and that there seems to be a shelf life, particularly in the beauty industry where you’re on your feet a lot and I’ve been doing this for 20 years and I’m fortunate to still feel good physically about it. But I think that as you look towards the future and you want to be able to pull back, you’re either pulling back to spend more time on things that you enjoy, like your family, activities, things like that. I think that you start to analyze, “Okay, what can I get into? What can I divest into that’s going to give me more freedom and more time?” So I’m not sure if it was a particular moment, but I think that over the last 20 years, particularly the last five years, that you start to question, okay, what’s down the road?
So I don’t think it was a particular moment, but I think it was a culmination of leading up to that. All
Tony Robinson:
Right. But Justin, take us back. I want to go all the way back to 26. You’re renting an apartment. Your parents drop a piece of advice that really kind of changes everything for you. What did they say and why did you actually listen?
Justin Whitted:
Well, first of all, my parents are amazing people. And I think that when you are fortunate enough to have that, you lean into them because they’re there. I was renting an apartment and my first thought was, oh, I still do. I mean, I like the apartment condo type of living. And when I was paying rent in an apartment, I thought, “Okay, maybe I should buy a condo and put my money there.” And my parents wisely said, “What about a double?” And I didn’t even know what they were talking about. I didn’t even know what a double was. I thought they meant a double wide. I was confused.
A double. So when I was living in the city of Buffalo, the area that I was living in called the Elmwood Village, it was gaining a lot of traction and things were getting expensive. So there was an area a little north of where I was living called North Buffalo, and there was a double there that I went to look at. And the whole idea, really what sold me was I could live there for free and have a tenant pay my entire mortgage and then some. I mean, of course, it certainly meant taking on the role of a landlord at the time, which was kind of sink or swim, just throw yourself in and see what happens. And you’re also, I might add that you’re speaking to someone who I barely know how to swing a hammer. So when things did go wrong, I had to make sure I had the funds to be able to call somebody to take care of those things properly and not me YouTubing everything that I have no idea how to do.
Tony Robinson:
I mean, what awesome advice from your parents early on in your career to have you kind of lay that solid financial foundation. Now at 26, I mean, I think about me at 26, I was like a couple of years out of college. I was so very much trying to figure life out, but you’re like managing a tenant, like you’re a landlord at 26. What was that experience like for you going into landlord for the first time, especially being that they were your neighbors?
Justin Whitted:
The experience, to be honest with you, was easy/easy because she was a wonderful tenant. And I was able to, when I bought the house, it was empty. So I was able to screen people, come in and interview. And she was a great woman. And it made the being a landlord, I mean, looking back now, really easy. One critical mistake I made was trying to save money. I didn’t hire a plow service and I didn’t get a snowplow. And I remember our first major storm, she was like, “Is the plow coming?” And I’m like, “I don’t know if they’re coming.” I didn’t get one. And that was a problem. But as that parlayed into more properties, all of a sudden the problems compounded because it wasn’t like, “Can you call someone to fix this? The furnace isn’t working.” Where it was like, maybe I’ve got four of those phone calls now or five of those phone calls now, where it was just at the time, it was just myself, it was much easier.
So fortunately, the transition of sliding into being a landlord at the time, it wasn’t terrible really. But again, I was very fortunate for that.
Ashley Kehr:
That was on my very first property. I forgot to add in when I ran the numbers snowplowing and didn’t account for it. And then it was, oh, time for snow plowing. That’s actually a good chunk of the cash flow that’s gone now. But I think one thing too that I’ve noticed is that you probably hadn’t heard of bigger pockets. You probably weren’t involved in any real estate community or networking when you got this duplex. Is that correct?
Justin Whitted:
You were correct. Yes.
Ashley Kehr:
I think that sometimes it’s easier not to be surrounded with an overwhelming amount of information. And that’s what puts a lot of people into analysis paralysis where if you’re not even exposed to all of the different ways that you can invest in real estate, all of the different ways you can fund a deal, all of the different ways you can property management, it’s almost easier to get started because you’re not overwhelmed with information when you’re first starting.
Justin Whitted:
For sure. And it’s scary too. I’m afraid now in 2026, I’m afraid to be on social media and be like, “Oh, look at this short-term rental in Austin, Texas.” And I click on it and then the whole night I’m inundated with short-term rentals coming at me. And it’s like there is analysis paralysis there because there’s … And it’s a double-edged sword, right? There’s so much information out there. It’s so good. And obviously BiggerPockets being one of my main sources, but I think that you really need to maybe inch your way along and segregate what you like and what you don’t like in terms of a pocket because to your point, there’s so much out there.
Tony Robinson:
Yeah, you bring up a good point, Ashley. We are not in an age where we have a lack of information. If anything, I feel like what probably holds most rookies back as a lack of execution, maybe a lack of dedication, but the information, it literally exists everywhere, but just maybe having the discipline to jump in and make things happen. But for you, Justin, you did. And I guess I’m curious, I mean, your first deal was a house hack. It sounds like you got a great tenant. The goal was to maybe not necessarily be paying rent. So if you recall, what were the numbers on that first house act? What was your mortgage and what were you actually collecting in rent and what were you paying to live there?
Justin Whitted:
I mean, Ashley, being from Western New York, she’s going to cringe when I say this, right? But I bought a double in North Buffalo for $92,000. And then that was 16 years ago and it was $90,000. I want to say my mortgage, principal tax, everything was insurance was around $600 and my tenant was paying me I think 850 at the time. Wow. I know. It was amazing.
Ashley Kehr:
That’s pretty good rent for that long ago.
Justin Whitted:
I know, that’s right. And honestly, I think I just threw a number out there and she was like, “Okay.” Okay, let’s take it. Let’s do it.
Tony Robinson:
I mean, but that’s a perfect house there because for a lot of folks, the goal is just to maybe subsidize part of their living expenses. But you with just one other unit, you were cashflow positive on your mortgage. And obviously you said other expenses there, but your rent was covering your actual cost of ownership. So that is like a home run first house hack.
Justin Whitted:
Yeah. And again, it was nothing, to be totally transparent. It was nothing me forecasting like, “Oh, this is great. I studied all this. I know what I’m doing.” I know I didn’t know anything and I got very fortunate that that’s the way it worked out. And then that was, what, 2015, 2014, whatever it was? Well, it can’t be right longer than that. And then that area started to grow and then I started to do a little more research and understand the appreciation that was going on around me. So yes, to your point, I was very fortunate for that.
Ashley Kehr:
Do you still have that property or did you end up selling it?
Justin Whitted:
Nope, I still have it. I still have it. Yep.
Ashley Kehr:
What do you think it’s worth today?
Justin Whitted:
I just did an analysis on it and I want to say it’s worth like 270, if I’m not mistaken.
Ashley Kehr:
So like almost 200,000 in equity built up over.
Justin Whitted:
Yeah, which is great. And I did do a refinance on that property about three years ago to buy another one, but as it sits right now, I want to say it’s around 270.
Ashley Kehr:
And have you raised the rents at all and what are the rents at currently?
Justin Whitted:
The rents are 1,300 for upper end, 1,300 for lower.
Tony Robinson:
That is great.
Ashley Kehr:
So now that you did your first deal, what does the rest of the timeline look like? How long until you got that second and kind of tell us what that deal looked like?
Justin Whitted:
The rest of the timeline, I lived there for a couple of years before I started to explore other real estate purchases. And then I ended up primarily focusing on multifamily because of the return on the initial investment. So then they were there for a couple of years and then I bought another double in Kenmore, which is about 10 minutes north of North Buffalo. And that was another multifamily, another double. And then that one I want to say … So two years later, I bought a double and it was already 148,000. So it was almost the same square footage. It was a little better of an area, but I already paid. Then I had paid $60,000 more two years later for another double, basically to the same size. So, and it showed you where the market was going at that time.
Tony Robinson:
Justin, let’s talk a little bit about the mental side or you said your mental state before real estate was great, but clearly something was missing. How did you hold both of those things at once, loving what you do in your business, running your salon, but also knowing you needed something more?
Justin Whitted:
I don’t know if it was needing something more as it was taking a step back from the beauty industry itself. I’ve been in the beauty industry 20 years. I started my own business 15 years ago, and I love it, don’t get me wrong. But as you grow in life, and I have a wife, beautiful, wonderful wife, I have two beautiful, healthy children, you start to understand that there’s more to life than standing behind a chair, cutting people’s hair and doing that, which I love to do. So it wasn’t so much adding something as it was removing too much of a good thing. Building a business, as you well, both of you know well, it takes a lot. And the sustainability of working 55 hours a week with a wife and children, it’s just not healthy, nor is it something I particularly wanted to do. And of course, as many people know, as you start to take a step back from your business, you inevitably lose a little of capital that’s coming because you’re not working.
So it was more about how can I supplement, but also make money while I sleep, if you will, and start to make my money work for me versus in addition to putting in the stock market and things like that.
Ashley Kehr:
We’re going to take a quick break, but when we come back, we’re going to talk about a building that Justin bought that was vacant for seven years that had mold termites and so much more wrong with it. We’ll be right back after a word from our show sponsors. Okay. So Justin, let’s go into the deal that you’re most proud of. So this is a commercial building that has been sitting vacant for seven years with mold, termites, the whole thing. So walk us through that from the very beginning. How did you find this deal and what made you say yes despite all of these red flags?
Justin Whitted:
So when I first left the salon I started my career at, I was renting the space and I was in that space for five years and obviously it’s much better to own than it is to rent. So I started a toy around with the idea of I should buy something and put the money to work that way. The hard thing about the town that I’m in is a lot of the buildings were very expensive to buy and it was out of my price range for sure. And then I happened to be driving along this main road where I live and there was a building, a big giant for sale sign. And when I looked to the left, it was like, I couldn’t imagine why anybody would want to buy this building. It was terrible. So then I looked it up and I thought, oh, then I saw the sale price and I was like, okay, I’ll go take a look.
So when I reached out to the realtor and when we went to look at it and that gentleman opened the door to go into the building, the smell of mold, it was like a punch in the face.
How can this building be standing? So the backstory of the building is the gentleman who owned it prior to me was a doctor, a pediatric doctor, and he owned it for quite some time. And when I spoke to him about why he was selling, he said he loves being a doctor. He didn’t love being a business owner. And one thing after another, he just didn’t want to maintain the building and he wanted to go to the hospital and just work and not be responsible for everything around him. So he literally, he had a water leak in the building. He fixed that, he shut the doors and literally the only thing for seven years he maintained on the building was cutting the lawn because he had to.
Ashley Kehr:
So he didn’t get a fine?
Justin Whitted:
Yeah, exactly. He didn’t want to get a fine. Most people, it’s weird. Most people didn’t even know the building was here because I had taken down so many trees and overgrown bushes and I think I took down like five trees in the front lawn alone. So once we kind of got a clear view of what the cost was going to be, then it was diving in and finding contractors and working with the town to get approval of everything and we went from there. And the rehab, because I kind of meal pieced everything together, the rehab took about a year because I was funding it out of my own pocket. I didn’t want to take out any loans or anything. So that took about a year, but it was the smartest way to do it financially and probably the only way to do it for me at the time.
Ashley Kehr:
Before we get into the details of the numbers on the deal, I wanted to ask specifically about the mold remediation and the termite extermination. So what were the costs for those two things? Because I think those are like big, scary things that people say like, “No, I don’t want to deal with that. ” But what were the actual expenses to take care of those issues? Yeah.
Justin Whitted:
Well, so when there was a water, there was a crawl space underneath the building and the previous owner, he did a really good job of getting rid of the mold or the water that was in the crawl space and drying it out. So it wasn’t a terrible cost. I want to say the mold remediation for the area that needed to be done was around $2,000 and then the termite cost was about 1,200. It wasn’t terrible. The only reason that was not bad was because he took care of the crawlspace. But then where the water had risen to where the drywall sat, he cut out most of it, not all of it. So if a piece of drywall got wet, he didn’t make a flushed line and get rid of where the mold he was, he kind of chopped into it a little bit. So the mold that was left started to move up the wall and that’s where it would start to grow.
I mean, having the experience, compared to speaking to some people I have now, mold, termites, I mean, that’s why these companies exist. You pay for it, it can be taken care of. You look at houses on Zillow, whether it’s mold or foundation, like, “Oh, I don’t want to touch that. ” But Google mold remediation, there’s 10,000 companies that can do it. You just got to pay for it, unfortunately.
Ashley Kehr:
Yeah. I’ve had several houses that I’ve purchased with mold and it is never as expensive as I think it’s going to be. We did a whole, I think it was a 1,500 square foot house, the whole house remediation, $5,000. So I think before, if you’re listening to this and you’re afraid of an issue, a foundation issue, you’re afraid of this, afraid of that, actually figure out how much it costs. And Justin, in your sense, the 2000, what was the termite one? Less than 2,000, right?
Justin Whitted:
That was like 1,200. Yeah.
Ashley Kehr:
Yeah. So that’s not that bad for when somebody maybe was first listening to this episode and thinking like, “Oh my God, mold termite, that’s going to mean $20,000 to thing.” And that’s used to be what I would think also is that these are really, really big expenses and that’s not always the case. So do your research and get somebody in there and to actually quote something out for you before you say no to a property because of just these issues that you think are going to be expensive, but they might not be.
Justin Whitted:
And to your point, it’s not always, right somebody will say, “Well, the house has mold or the building that we bought has mold.” No, the building doesn’t have mold. This area over here has mold. Let’s remediate that area. And that’s how it was with the termites. There was an area where they were just eating everything. So my whole building wasn’t infested. It was like a quarter of the building that they got rid of all that wood and then fumigated and whatnot. So to your point, yeah, I mean, I don’t think it’s ever as expensive as you think it’s going to be, particularly if you’re like me and you blow up the number in your head ridiculously, you’re always pleased when it’s like two grand. Great. I thought it was going to be half a million, but no, it’s two grand.
Tony Robinson:
But Justin, going into this deal, had you already handled pretty heavy renovations in the past or was this like the biggest renovation project you’d done up until that point?
Justin Whitted:
No, no. I mean, this was … The renovations that we had done or contracted out to do were on our investment property, the first one that we bought, and those were bathrooms, hardwood floor being refinished, things like that. So this was, to me, this was major. It was major to look at an entire building and, okay, where do I begin? And so it was … No, this was the first.
Tony Robinson:
Yeah. Well, that’s my question is where did you begin? How do you, once you walk into that building, you’re getting punched in the face by the mold, how do you start to put together what a potential scope of work looks like and the budget for that before you actually close on the deal? Because I think where a lot of rookies make the mistake is that they don’t do enough due diligence during their closing timeframe. And then once they actually close, that’s where the rehab budget really starts to balloon. So how did you avoid that from happening on this deal? Or maybe it did. And if so, what were the lessons you learned there?
Justin Whitted:
I think I avoided it by ignorance, honestly. I bought the building and had no idea of the renovation costs.
Ashley Kehr:
So you didn’t even have a budget to go over budget on, is what you’re saying? Yeah.
Justin Whitted:
Yeah, exactly. What I did though is I didn’t want somebody else to get the building, right? So a little negotiation of the cost or the price, and that was it. I didn’t want someone else to get it because I knew it was going to be a great find and a great deal if I could get it. I think for me, personally, I’m very good with discipline with numbers and money and things of that nature. So it wasn’t so much about like, “Okay, let’s dive into the renovation costs this is projected.” I didn’t even know what that meant at the time. For me, it was about how much am I going to have to work over the next year behind the chair and how much can I extract from that to have my life and also fund this rehab of the building? And then the first thing I did was I met with an architect who was referred to me, who really kind of became a beacon to say, “Okay, this is what we’re going to do.
”
Ashley Kehr:
When you said that you had to figure out how much hair you had to cut and stuff to figure out to pull money out of the business to pay for this, all I could think of was Edwards scissors hands just going through it. That was about it. But Tony, you probably never saw that movie either, did you?
Tony Robinson:
Actually, funny enough, we just rewatched Ezert Scissor Hands this past year. So I’m with you though.
Ashley Kehr:
But let’s break down the numbers on that deal. So what was the purchase price? What was the rehab cost when you were all done and what are you renting it out for now and did you end up refinancing it or anything?
Justin Whitted:
Yes. So the purchase price of the property was 165, 165,000. Our renovation cost rounded up close to about 96,000, all said and done. And I had refinanced about two years ago, and I didn’t pull out all of the equity I had in there. The refinance price, they valued my building now at around 690,000, but I only pulled out a hundred because I then was purchasing two more multifamilies. So I still had obviously equity in the building, but I didn’t feel as though I needed to pull it all out. And to be honest with you, I didn’t pull it all out because I didn’t want my payment here at a balloon higher.
Tony Robinson:
Justin, can you just repeat those numbers again? So your purchase price and your renovation costs were how much?
Justin Whitted:
Purchase price is 165,000 and the renovation cost was 97,000.
Tony Robinson:
Okay. So you’re all in for, just call it like 270K, right? If we round up, add a little rounding there.
Justin Whitted:
Yeah, but I mean, it’s probably more like 230 or it’s probably more like 300. I would say closer to 300.
Tony Robinson:
Okay. Call it 300. You said it appraised for six.
Justin Whitted:
670.
Tony Robinson:
670. Man, that is an amazing deal to be all in at three and appraised for almost seven. So you were right. I mean, you said you didn’t really know what the budget was going to be, but you had a gut feeling that it was actually going to turn out in your favor. Why do you think you were right? Because it’s a big guess, but you were right. What were you seeing that actually gave you the confidence that you would have so much equity in that deal?
Justin Whitted:
Well, again, I want to be transparent with everyone that’s going to watch this, that I wasn’t forecasting what the equity was going to be. That wasn’t what it was about because I didn’t even know what that meant at the time. I was mainly looking for a place that I could run my business out of that was affordable, right? And to show you how expensive this area can be, the rent that I was paying in a thousand square foot space in the village where I was working was $300 more a month than it is for me to own this entire 3,000 square foot building.
Ashley Kehr:
Oh my gosh, wow.
Justin Whitted:
I know. But again, I was very fortunate. The only thing that gave me hope that was a little bit of insight was if this building is a complete disaster and it’s $165,000, the ones that I can’t afford right now that are down the street that are selling for five and 600,000, right? Why wouldn’t mine be like that if I make it just as nice or almost as nice? That was the only thing I was going on, truly that was it.
Tony Robinson:
Justin, I think I’m seeing a theme though in your story. Even going back to your first house hack, a lot of your investing is just driven by personal need maybe is the right phrasing, but it’s like you needed a place to live and you’re like, “Hey, maybe instead of renting a place, I’ll just buy a place and have someone else move in and do it with me. ” And then you basically did the same thing on this first commercial deal. It’s like, I mean, I need a place to rent for my business. It might be better if I just go buy something and have some other people share in that cost with me. And it’s like you’re using house hacking, but you also applied it to a commercial situation, which we haven’t seen all that often here on the Rickie podcast. So I just love that approach because again, in a worst case scenario, even if you didn’t rent out the other space, you’re still spending less on a monthly basis than what you were renting it from someone else.
So it still works for you. So it’s just an interesting concept in general about the personal use component.
Justin Whitted:
Well, thank you. I mean, I think it’s based on need. I mean, I needed a place to live. I wanted to own something, but you talk to any business owner, any entrepreneur, and I’ll be the first to admit I’m afraid to fail at anything. I mean, when you buy a house or you buy an investment property, or I follow both of you on social media when you guys are doing things, I mean, maybe you’re not scared anymore, but at some point you were. And I am afraid of doing things. I’m afraid of buying a property, but I know I want to do it and I know that I got to kind of man up and do it, but I’m afraid to not be successful in life, to be honest with you. And I feel like every time I do something that does scare me or that is pushing me a little more forward to whatever that successful may be, I don’t know.
But if I want to get where Tony is and I want to get where Ashley is, I can’t be afraid. I got to do
Ashley Kehr:
It. Well, Justin, isn’t there a deal you’re working on right now that is actually proving to be more difficult and challenging than you expected? Tell us about that deal.
Justin Whitted:
Yeah, that is a nice piece of humble pie.
Ashley Kehr:
We’ve all been there, trust me.
Justin Whitted:
You get a little bit of a sense of, “Oh, that’s how this works. Oh, okay. Let’s just buy this one too. Let’s do that too.” And I think that I wasn’t focused on the numbers and what they should have been. It was more focused on this will work, the other ones have worked, why wouldn’t this one? And the numbers were too tight and it was an error. It was something I should have been more aware of and it’s a lesson and it sucks like you’re losing money, it’s taking your attention. Fortunately, I have a property management team for all the properties and they deal with the bulk of it, but it’s a mistake. It’s going to end up costing me money in the long run, but I learned a lot. 100% I learned a lot.
Tony Robinson:
Justin, you said you learned a lot. What were some of those lessons that came out of this deal? Because I was always taught you never want to waste a good mistake or you never want to waste a good failure. There’s always something that we learned from it. So what were those things that you learned from this deal that you’ll take into the future of your portfolio?
Justin Whitted:
Take your time, make sure that it’s what you are looking for, that the numbers actually work, that you get a better sense of the community around said property and what’s going on there. It’s not just about how a property looks, it’s also about how the property looks from the outside in. What am I seeing around the neighborhood that is good and bad? Basically, I would say take your time and make sure that you … I have a few people in my life in terms of real estate that I trust that I can say, “Hey, what do you think about this? ” And I think I needed to tap those shoulders in the future. I’ll definitely tap everybody that I can.
Tony Robinson:
All right. After the break, Justin’s going to break down exactly how he’s finding deals today, expired listings, off market contacts, and why he says the longer you wait, the more expensive everything gets. We’ll be right back after we’re from today’s show sponsors. All right, we’re back here. And Justin, we talked a little bit about the mistakes and the learning and the trials and the successes, but I want to talk a little bit more about your portfolio today and how you’re finding deals. So you mentioned expired MLS listings and off market broker. Just maybe break down for someone who’s never done even like a Burr deal, what does your pipeline actually look like on a week-to-week basis?
Justin Whitted:
I’m sorry, between what?
Tony Robinson:
Just on a day-to-day basis, what does your pipeline look like for deal flow?
Justin Whitted:
For deal finding?
Tony Robinson:
Yeah. Yeah, like your pipeline for deals.
Justin Whitted:
I have a realtor that I work with regularly, and I think that you have to be open to everything and anything, right? I’m on a lot of different mailers. I’m on Zillow. I’m on bigger pockets. I’m starting to narrow where I’m looking for properties, and it’s not necessarily New York State anymore. I’m starting to look elsewhere for various reasons. I’m starting to look at short-term rentals versus long-term rentals. I mean, my pipeline every day is a lot, and I think that’s okay. People tend to only focus on foreclosures or MLS listings or private deals. I mean, if the numbers work, I’ll look at everything at any Anything, but I think at the end of the day, the wider your net, the more you’re going to catch. And I also, you try to make friends, you try to connect with people in the real estate world, and that has a huge effect, huge effect.
I’ve met a lot of people through BiggerPockets or through social meetups locally for real estate. And that’s fantastic. Really is.
Ashley Kehr:
What about building your team in Buffalo? Who have you added? You mentioned you had a property management company. Are there other team members that you rely on to walk you through your deals and get the deals done?
Justin Whitted:
For sure. When I first started this process of on my own, I had two multifamilies and we’ve grown since then, but since those two initial properties and my building, what we bought after that, I had two gentlemen who I work with closely here and I would more or less call them real estate coaches who have been able to kind of navigate me in the different sectors and how to buy and what’s good and what’s not good. So I rely on them a lot. And then I have a great real estate attorney who handles all my purchases and whenever we’re selling a property and things like that, and a realtor. And of course, the backbone would be the property management company that takes care of all those things. So I think that if you’re going to do things, first and foremost, get a teacher, get someone that can educate you because you’re always learning a good lawyer and a property management team if you need one, which would be helpful.
Tony Robinson:
Justin, how did you find, you said there’s two people who you consider your mentors. How did you find them? How did you build that connection with them?
Justin Whitted:
One of them, I had been cutting his hair for about 10 years and he had sat in my chair in the salon and he was constantly saying to me, “You have this money sitting here in this building and you’re not doing anything with it. ” And I didn’t really know what that meant. And then back to Ashley’s question where it was, what was that moment? I guess the moment when I reached out to him on a professional level, not as a stylist was, “I’m feeling burnt out at the salon. I need to start investing and divesting so I can take a step back.” So that’s how I met him and he works with a gentleman who is his business partner and that’s how that relationship began.
Tony Robinson:
Allright Justin, last big question before we close out here. You said your goal is to match your salon income from real estate so you can have just true time freedom. How close are you to that goal and what does maybe like the next 12 to 24 months look like for you to try and make progress against that?
Justin Whitted:
How close am I to that goal? I would say I’m about 40% there, 35 to 40% there. So I’m almost halfway. The future for me I think is not in New York State. It’s probably in different areas in short-term rentals from what I’ve been reading about. I’ve already started to reach out to real estate professionals in other areas of the country to look into short-term rentals because I think that there is … First of all, when you look at the numbers, some of the numbers seem a lot better on short-term rentals than they do long-term rentals. And I think
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