Not Your Average Investor Show
Not Your Average Investor Show
Why Investors Everywhere Are Trying To Own Jacksonville Properties (and You Should Too) w/ Than Merrill
It's easy to identify hot markets in real estate, and those that invest there create massive changes in their financial futures, but hot markets usually come with high prices.
This makes the hot market strategy a game reserved for the already rich to get richer.
That's why the rare moment when a blazing hot market is still underpriced needs to be shared with the Fortune Builders community as urgently and loudly as possible!
So we're bringing in the big guy- Than Merrill himself!
Than has been investing in Jacksonville for a long time (and made a killing), but he's been talking to an old friend, Gregg Cohen (co-founder of JWB Real Estate Capital), about the powder keg that's about to blow up real estate prices in Jacksonville, FL.
It turns out that Jacksonville's best days are still in front of it AND it's still a shockingly low-priced market to get into!
So he invited Gregg to join him on a webinar, exclusive to the Fortune Builders community to educate you and arm you with knowledge like:
- what makes JAX such a hot market (eye popping stats)
- why it's only getting better (insider info)
- how to pick up a cash flowing JAX rental property in under 30 days (no matter where you live)
- and more!
Gregg Cohen and his partners are members of Fortune Builders that founded JWB Real Estate Capital 18 years ago. Since then, they have built a completely vertically integrated turnkey rental property investing company with over 125 employees, manage 6,000 homes, and own 20 city blocks of downtown Jacksonville.
There is no better combination of real estate experts to teach you what you need to know and give you an edge in your real estate game.
Join our real estate investor community LIVE:
https://jwbrealestatecapital.com/nyai/
Schedule a Turnkey strategy call:
https://jwbrealestatecapital.com/turnkey/
*Get social with us:*
Subscribe to our channel @notyouraverageinvestor
Subscribe to @JWBRealEstateCompanies
🌐 Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/rentalpropertyinvesting
📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/nyai_community
📸 Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jwbrealestatecompanies
Welcome everybody to a very special edition of the Not Your Average Investor Show. Today, we are talking about one of the hottest markets in America, which I don't know how interesting it is, but it's one of the hottest markets in America that also happens to be under price. I'm the host of the not traveling to the show Pablo Gonzalez with me as always is the co host of the show I like to call him GC because he's got these genius concepts knows how to generate cash flow He's a great co host and because his name is Greg Cohen. Say hello Greg
Gregg Cohen:Hello everybody great to be with you
Pablo Gonzalez:and our very special guest today the man that I'm sure needs no introduction but I will do my best he is a expert real estate investor with 20 plus years of experience across all different asset classes, TV star, a professional football player. Also the reason why Greg got into this asset class and the educator of so many people that have created great, great fortunes. Than Merrill, welcome to the show.
Than Merrill:Thank you for having me, Pablo. I love I love being classified as a professional football player, even though that was 20 years ago, you know, Hey, I'll take it, man. If you saw my athleticism now it's declined significantly, so I'll take it makes me feel good this morning. It is a small group
Pablo Gonzalez:of people that can say that my friend. Once you're a part of it, you're a part of it, right? So guys, we normally have a tradition of which we start the Not Your Average Investor show. Have you heard of it, Thanh? Do you know what our tradition is? Man, I did this
Than Merrill:show so long ago. I don't remember the tradition. So it's like new. You don't remember the tradition, Thanh? Come on, bro.
Pablo Gonzalez:It's called the roll call. We're kicking off with Joanna, our community manager, who's in the chat. Let her know if you got any questions. We've got the Maven of the mountains of Denver. Miss Leslie, Miss Leslie Wilson. We've got the patron Santorius of Northern Virginia. Michael Santorio. You've got the man of steel is in the house. Vincent Barber. Right. All right. Got it. Billy Green from the cash flowing mountains of Colorado. We've got the early bird in the house. Dean Curry. Dean Curry. We got Reggie Fonse. Les Messieurs. From the England Empire. From the England Empire. Reggie, welcome back to the show. We got our regulars, Gary and Rosalind Riley from Ariadna, California. We regard you. We got Jonah Burke, that's a new name. Actually, she joined us on Tuesday, right, Jonah? Yeah, making a habit out of it, Jonah. Good to have you. Very, very cool. We got the ringmaster in the house. Drew Barnhill. Drew Barnhill. We got the Shah, man. Nadeem Shah. Of the Now Traveller's Best Show community. Nadeem Shah. Tee Caster back in the house joining us again. Good to have you. We got Kevin Colwell from Port Charlotte, Florida. I think that's a, that's a new name for him. New name, Kevin. We do the show live on Tuesdays at 1230. Make a habit of it. Hope to have you there. We got Tammy Game Time. Game time. I feel so good when game time. Game time. It is game time. We got Joe Culler from Columbia, South Carolina. Long time client. Long time client. Right. We got Eddie Harris. We got our favorite, favorite name to pronounce Aaron O'Neill into that light. That's Aaron O'Neill. Good to have you. Dermon Wood from Pittstown, New Jersey. I originally read Pittsburgh. I thought that'd make you really, really happy, but it's close enough. A town, a bird. Close enough. You're a real estate expert. What's the difference between a town and a bird? Berg money, money. I got it. David Weenman in the house from Atlanta. David, that's a new name for us. Welcome to the show. Good to have you. Kenneth Vaughn is here from Memphis, Tennessee. George Jorge Mora Castillo from the Quad Cities. Good to have you. And D saying hello all Cheryl Lopez from Jacksonville, Florida. And I was like, you've all Diana Tinker, James Lehman. All right. Jacqueline Gertler Mitchell and Jacqueline Gertler. All right. It took me a second there from Fort Lauderdale. Don't hurt yourself. Good to have you. Michael McKenna, Kenneth Vaughn. Everybody, everybody's jumping in here now that we do the roll call. Right. Heather from Middleton, PA. And of course, Misty and Troy Johnson. What are they famous for?
Gregg Cohen:They are famous for being the ninth most attended show both of last year. Top ten, baby.
Pablo Gonzalez:They made it. All right. Good to have you all in the house. Let's jump right into it. We are, you know, this is we do this thing weekly on Tuesdays at 12 30 Eastern. So we have a routine fans been on. It's been a while since he came on. So we've just got a little crazier as we do. But it's a fun time. It's educational. And you'll get updates about this now from now on. So if you want to join us on Tuesdays, cool. If you want to check out the podcast, On podcast players in YouTube. All you gotta do is look for the not your average investor show. You will find it everywhere. But we have today what we like to call a topic ur. What does that mean? Greg
Gregg Cohen:the topic of the day. It, it's the top, it's the topic of the
Pablo Gonzalez:day. It's the topic of the day. We're talking about the importance of, of markets in real estate investment. Fan. When you think about the importance of a, of a market when it comes to real estate, how do you, how do you like to explain it to people?
Than Merrill:You know, that's a great question. I, I, I think real estate markets, it's like running a track race. If you pick the right market strategically, it's like habit. It's like running a race with the wind at your back. Right. So you, you, you're more apt to be able to make some mistakes along the way if you have the wind pushing you towards your back. So it just enhances what you can, you know, I, I, I'm, I've been a long time believer that, you know, if you find the right property, you have the right operator, you know, you can make money in a lot of different markets, but it, if you pick the right market on top of those two other factors, It just enhances your returns And if you're the long time owner of real estate if you own a piece of real estate for three five seven ten fifteen years you know the market is vital right at that point because That's where you're going to see your greatest, you know, appreciation that's where you're going to see long term cash flows that are sustained because there's demand for your rental units. So I think the market obviously is a very, very important fact, but that's, you know, a simple analogy I like to use when, when talking about the real estate market.
Pablo Gonzalez:I like the analogy. When I think of wind at our backs, right? This idea of like rising tide, floating all boats, that, that invisible force that makes everybody look better, you know, early on and long term. And it kind of reminds me of you know, you guys greg you and your partners have built a 200 million dollar real estate investing company You guys are managing a a billion dollars plus in assets here in jacksonville, florida And you had a little bit of wind in your back early on in this career, right? Uh is the wind in your back Yeah,
Gregg Cohen:I was, I was wondering if we were going to pay homage to, uh, you know, to, to where all this started and, you know, you want to talk about when in your back from a market perspective, what's even more important to giving you a leg up in this world in this real estate space is having access to somebody who has been so far ahead of where you were. Yeah, I think that's what we're always looking for when it comes to mentors. So then get prepared. I'm about to say some nice stuff about you. I'm just going to get through it real quick. Because after that, you know, I'm going to go back into our, our, our brotherly love. But you know, I do want to say thanks because you know, I started in this game 18 years ago and my whole life changed when I went to a conference and I heard this guy on the other end over there speaking. And I didn't know anything about real estate. I didn't know anything about rental properties. I didn't know anything about choosing the right market, but I looked at what he and his partners were building as a real estate investment company. And and as a way to build a single family rental portfolio. And I said, that's the guy I want to follow. And that was 18 years ago. And I think even the more beautiful thing than, than knowing how this started is our friendship and 18 years later, we don't talk every day. We don't talk as much as we used to back in the day when we were first getting started, but anytime I need something. Fans always there for me. Anytime I need somebody to make fun of me, fans always there for me. And you know, that's, you want to talk about wind in your back when you're starting, that's really the wind in the back that started JWB so many years ago.
Pablo Gonzalez:Is that why you made him sleep on a, on a vinyl plank floor? Is that why? Are we going there? Yeah, I thought, I thought we'd go there. Fan fan. Do you want to tell that story?
Than Merrill:Oh man, I'll, I'll tell that story. I'm happy to tell that story. So, I had the opportunity to speak at a real estate investment association in Jacksonville. And so I, I called up my really good friend Greg. You know, I had been helping him get started, but at the same time, you know, I had established a great relationship with him as well. I just really liked. Him and Alex, you know, the two guys that were kind of getting their start and they were just, you know, they were, they were really at that point, kind of in the early stages of, of building their business. So I got invited to speak at this and I figured, you know, let me, instead of getting a hotel, let me stay with my friends, let me stay with my friends who I've been helping. You know, I figured they'd probably, probably be so generous as to move themselves onto the couch and allow me to sleep, maybe even in their bed for helping them get their first couple of deals, but no. When I arrived at their place, I was escorted to my bedroom, which was the kitchen linoleum floor. And that is the last time that the first, maybe not the first time, but the last time I've ever slept on a kitchen floor was it 18 years ago or so. At a Greg's condominium or wherever he was living at the time in Jacksonville, Florida. So he loves that story.
Gregg Cohen:That is all true. That is all true. I'll add a few key details though. All right, listen, I was 22 at that time. I had just quit my job in corporate America. And you know, it's not like we had a whole lot of cash to be able to host you on the red carpet there, but I do want you to know, we made it pretty clear that you'd be sleeping on the tile floor as soon as you came in and we were hanging out at no point. Did you decide you wanted to leave? All you wanted to do was hang around your 23 year old buddies. I think you really enjoyed sleeping on the tile floor that day.
Than Merrill:I enjoyed hanging out with you. I don't know if I enjoyed sleeping on the tile floor, but you know, it's a, it's a, I enjoy the story many years later.
Pablo Gonzalez:It is a fan favorite story. I had to, I had to get you guys in there. Now let's, let's talk about what the, what the rest of these folks came here, here to learn about. Um, let's talk about the single family investing, you know, single family home investing class, Fred, you've built a. You build a company that has completely vertically integrated the space a very complex equation You've made it very very easy You've made it easy for guys like me who is a full time entrepreneur to grow a five door portfolio In under three years without having to do anything and I get it because I'm here in Jacksonville. I wanted, I want a piece of it, right? Like I see it as like the next Orange County, California, and we're going to talk about all those things, but the, the single family home asset class fan, you've invested in just about everything, right? Like, what, what do you like about single family homes?
Than Merrill:You know, I, I love single family homes and not to, to say there's one strategy that's better than another in real estate, you know, if you work with the right people, have the right partners, have the right market, the right strategy, the right asset class, you know, there's a lot of different ways to make money in real estate. What I've long felt is that single family, in my opinion, is probably one of the, if not the safest ways to build long term wealth in real estate. It doesn't happen overnight. It doesn't happen month to month, but if you own single family assets for long periods of time, it is consistently proven to be a great strategy for everyday, People out there who are looking to get started investing in real estate and people who, you know, have a ton of money who want to diversify some of their investments into different asset classes. I mean, you look at it from somebody who was just getting started. It's probably, you know, if I were advising my son or my daughter, I'd say that's the first step. Real estate investment you make is in a single family rental property. And then you look at all the way to the spectrum of the Blackstones of the world who, who buy thousands, you know, tens of thousands of single family homes. I mean, it's probably the most sophisticated institution out there doing the exact same strategy, just doing it at scale. Right. So the reason I like it, you know, let's, I'll break it down. You know, there's a lot of different reasons I like it, but I'll kind of break down. Obviously some of the simple ones, but it's good to hear it again. Even if you're a very experienced investor, or even if you own. Three or four homes, right? It's you need to keep researching and learning about the asset class that you're in, or, or thinking about getting in one is the, the, the U S is, is grossly undersupplied for single family homes, you know, real estate at its, at its core basis is. Supply and demand, and it's grossly unders supplied in pretty much every market around the country when it comes to single family homes. And that's because of the cost of construction, the, the, the red tape that's involved in getting approvals and, and the interest rates right now. So there's a lot of reasons why it's undersupplied. That's a great thing. But the other thing is. The population is always going to be consistently growing and there's a natural need, right? With office space, there's alternatives to office space. You can work from home with, with single family properties. You're going to have a family at some point, you're going to need a home, right? There's, there's this natural supply and demand that will continually be growing. So that's one reason I love it. The second reason that I love it is there's a lot of different profit centers, right? Cashflow being king right cat. It's a great way to bring in monthly cash flow It's a great way to bring in cash flow through for a very long period of time. So I love that aspect of it there's significant tax benefits obviously for owning rental real estate. That's a big Positive where the money you earn from your rental income is is if you look at it versus earned income from a job You know, we there are natural tax incentives for owning real estate So every dollar that comes in from owning real estate is taxed at a different level than it would be from Something that you might earn from a job. So there's that then of course there's principal pay down, right? If you're borrowing and leveraging intelligently, then you're going to have the ability to to pay down the principal with other people's money. You're the tenant's money is what's funding the principal pay down. Then of course. And this is where Greg's really going to shine today and share some great insights into the Jacksonville market is price appreciation. If you own that asset long term, that's probably long term going to be the biggest generator of wealth over time. Even more so than cashflow is going to be the appreciation of the value of that asset. I mean, how many of us would have loved or died to literally have bought 30 years ago, 20 single family homes. I mean, you'd be in a very nice position. No, you know, irregardless of the market, there will be some obviously markets that are significantly better than others but that's a big one. Then, of course, it's a hedge against inflation. And so you throw all of those together. I think it's probably the most strategic safest way to build long term wealth in real estate Now there's a lot of other ways to take more risk and potentially have even higher upside But there's a significant risk trade off. So that's why I love single family homes for any investor no matter what size of of asset base they have right now Yeah,
Gregg Cohen:I love it too. I think I think the thing that makes me love it In addition to all those reasons though is that like it's the perfect asset class For the regular everyday man or woman. It really is to be able to have risk mitigation built in, right? Lower risk into an asset and still have significant upside. There's typically huge barriers to entry. You might have to be an accredited investor. You might have to have a level of sophistication and understanding before you get into something. But I think what, what I love and why I dedicated my career to understanding and making it easy for people to invest in single family rental properties is that. I love helping my buddies out, right? I love helping fan out. I've had the opportunity to manage fans money for over a decade now. I get to help Pablo out. There's, I already see 50 60 names here in the chat where I get the opportunity to manage their money. And everyday people need better alternatives to invest in because guess what? Retirement is broken and rental properties are available to everybody here. The thing that has been preventing everybody from buying a house, Really taking advantage of this asset class and these profit centers as than was just talking about is not some accreditation or amount of money or a level of sophistication that you have. The thing that's been preventing everybody has been the experience. The experience of being a landlord scares the The hell out of people and what it does is it prevents people from coming into this asset class. So, you know, that's what, you know, 15, 18 years ago as we were learning from fan and his team and putting our own business plan together, it quickly became for us, wow, there's a big problem out there. Retirement is broken. Single family rental properties are a solution for everyone here to take part in. We just have to fix the experience part of this. How can we make this something that people show up in the middle of the day and hundreds of people show and show up to learn about because they're excited about it or people are able to refer their friends and their family. So I just think it's that combination of this big problem, this big accessibility and quite frankly, it's more fun to serve everyday people than Institutions or even those that are Those types of investments that are a lot more sophisticated at the end of the day, we have an asset, people need a roof over their head. They rent it out and we receive that income. So I think that's all why I just, I just love this thing.
Than Merrill:Yeah, I, it's interesting you say that. Cause it reminded me that one of the very first real estate seminars I sat in you know, he was going through the retirement problem and a lot of people think about, you know, retirement, you, you know, depending on what your monthly income desires are. You know, you need a minimum of probably 2 million to 3 million to 4 million to live 15, 20 years in retirement. And it's a problem because it's like an hourglass, right? Your money in your bank account is just. trickling out and you hope to, to not outlive your money. Right. And so one of the very first seminars I was sitting and he's saying, you know, if you just add a couple of rental assets to your portfolio, you know, year after year, one to two properties a year for the next 10 years, in retirement or close to retirement, 10, 15, 20, 25 assets paying you monthly, right? You don't have to worry about that hourglass because every single month, those assets are going to pay you again and pay you again and pay you again. And it's just repeating. And to me, it was like, wow, that's a simple solution. That's a simple solution to supplementing your retirement or completely funding your retirement and not having that hourglass problem. And so for me, it seemed like that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna buy a couple of rentals. That's why one of the first properties we ever bought, my partner and I was a rental properties today. We just got to keep buying a couple of these every year. And obviously it grew much faster than that. But initially that's was the goal. Just get a couple of rentals every year and add to that portfolio.
Pablo Gonzalez:I love the way that you two phrased it. Right. Cause I feel like I'm like the exact target audience. I'm the guy, I'm the guy that's always been scared to get into real estate, even though I want it. And I'm also the guy that at 40 found myself way behind on saving for retirement and this idea of a better retirement plan, not just trying to get to a number and then like leech off it until I die. But instead be building this like portfolio that continues to get better over time and actually gives me better options when I'm at my most vulnerable, when I don't want to have active income, as opposed to more limited options and being most vulnerable, your most vulnerable really spoke to me. And of course. I'm an experienced guy. I like to have fun too. All right. So we made this show. We made this community to help educate folks. And now the next part of the experience, Greg in a second is going to go into presentation mode, which I know what everybody came for. And yes, we are recording this. If you reach out to us, we'll give you the information to reach out to us so we can send this to you. But for right now, we're going to go into a little segment that I call, TV star gets back on the television program and we're going to do a shark tank version of what we're doing right now. Fan you're the shark, Greg, you're walking into the shark tank and you have an opportunity for fan on what we were just talking about right now. We have a market, we have an investment type. What is your best pitch to fan right now, before you get into your presentation?
Gregg Cohen:Who is he? Is he Mr. Wonderful? I mean, he looks a little bit like
Pablo Gonzalez:Mr. I would have
Than Merrill:gone with Mark Cuban. I would have gone with Mark Cuban, but you know, that's just me. You have five seconds to make your pitch, Greg, five seconds.
Gregg Cohen:All right, Mr. Wonderful. Um, all right, then listen, you've got a huge chunk of change that you need to invest in in a certain market out there. We're going to take labels off. Okay, labels off the market here. I'm just going to give you a few characteristics. You tell me if you're ready to put your money in that market. This is the only market in the country, the only market in the country that has prices below the U. S. median and rent price above the U. S. average rent price appreciation above the U. S. average rental growth
Than Merrill:above median price point of single family homes below.
Gregg Cohen:Yes. Okay, here we go. So that's number one. All right. Number two, and this is in addition to this, it's the only market that has that plus rent price appreciation above the U S average.
Than Merrill:Yeah. The only market. Okay. Go ahead. The only
Gregg Cohen:market. It's the only market that has those two things. And it's the only market that has home price appreciation above the U S average. And it's the only market that has those three things plus rent price It has population growth above 2 percent for the last five years. The only market in the entire country that has those four characteristics. List
Pablo Gonzalez:the four characteristics because I got a little confusing.
Gregg Cohen:All right. Prices below. As your pitch coach. Prices below the U. S. median. Rent price appreciation above the U. S. average, home price appreciation above the U. S. average, and population growth above 2%. It's the only market in the country. Are you interested?
Than Merrill:I'm definitely interested. All four of those factors are very unique. And you know, the simple fact that it almost feels like there's a mispricing with the asset values, because to have median price points below the U. S. average and all those other positive factors, obviously a great market.
Gregg Cohen:Why talk to me about rent price appreciation, home price appreciation and its effect on not just cashflow, but overall wealth and your experience after doing this and investing hundreds of millions of dollars. I think sometimes people pay even too much attention to cashflow and they miss out on some of the big wealth generators that are the other profit centers. So when you hear those characteristics, what are you thinking about that?
Than Merrill:Yeah, I'm thinking one that the cash flows are going to grow over time because if obviously if you have rental growth that is higher than the us average right, that's that's a great thing because You know the first the first year of owning a rental asset is not the best year It's it's a good year But every every rental property that we've owned over time Each year gets better and better and better because of that rental growth Because a lot of times you do fix it in the debt, you know, so your piti You know your principle and your interest is going to be fixed, right? So every single rental asset that i've owned over time in a good market where there's good rental growth Has been an excellent investment, right? And so that's just based on my experience of owning single family properties and apartment units those Those factors are all going to just enhance your wealth
Gregg Cohen:Yeah. I love talking about cashflow and helping people see how important it is, which it is very, very important, but also helping people to realize what their wealth pie is going to look like after 10 years or 20. I've had the opportunity to manage fans, money, Pablo's money, and 1, 700 investors, money many for over 10 years now. I mean, there's three, 3, 300 homes that we have sold as turnkey rental properties. And we actually track how does their wealth generation look like after five years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years. And what many people don't realize is that cashflow is important, but that's not the biggest contributor to your wealth after you hold on for a full market cycle. It's home price appreciation. It is home price. Actually, home price appreciation accounts for between 60 to 80 percent of the total wealth pie for JWB clients, regardless of when they started to invest. It could have been investing three years ago, five years ago, 10 years, 15 years ago. And these are things that we show over and over as a part of our Not Your Average Investor community. But most people don't, I love cash flow, I get it, we all love cash flow, but we have to look beyond cash flow. And that's why the choice of the market is so important. Because if you know how to analyze a market, you can predict the winning markets before you invest. It is not some weird science that people don't understand. Right predicting which markets are going to perform is actually something that savvy investors know how to do And it translates into hundreds of thousands of dollars Maybe millions of additional dollars by choosing the right market with the right team And investing there and building a better retirement account.
Pablo Gonzalez:Love it. Love it So now that we have all decided that this is worth looking into Now we kick off the presentation that is Why people love investing in Jacksonville, Florida. Greg put together this Jacksonville, Florida real estate market report. Real quick, George Rane is saying, how do you suggest remote management? I'm in California. So Jacksonville isn't local. Get a local manager? Question mark.
Gregg Cohen:I guess I was a little confused. Is he asking for remote management? Yeah, he's property.
Pablo Gonzalez:He's asking how would he invest in Jacksonville, Florida? George, the punchline of all of this is that Greg has built a company with 125 employees that does this for 6, 000 properties in Jacksonville, Florida, and they're completely, completely vertically integrated in turnkey from finding the lots, the construction to the property management side of it, to the asset management side of it, to the people management side of it. And a little bit extra, which you're going to find out in this presentation. So you have the right partner in Jacksonville, Florida, and that's why we're here. So let's get into this thing. All right, let's do it. All right, you see.
Gregg Cohen:All right. So everybody, I put together a Jacksonville real estate real estate market report, and we share it with our clients. And I wanted to make it available to everybody here. If you all would like a copy of this presentation, All you have to do is just text us, you can see the number right there, 904 293 0341. Just include your first name, last name, email, and my team is on the other end, so you can say things like, hello, and we're going to say like, hello back, there's another person on the other end but then we'll email this presentation out for you, so you just don't have to take screenshots the entire time. So. But I did want to share with you just as, as an expert here in the Jacksonville market, I do manage over 1. 3 billion of real estate assets here in Jacksonville. It's important that I know the market thoroughly so that I can help our clients make wise decisions today, next year, five years, 10 years down the road. And so when you start to see macro demographics, like I just shared with fan there with Jacksonville being the only market with those four characteristics. If you are across the country and you're thinking that single family rental properties might be right for you, your ears should really perk up here. Jacksonville's home prices are below the national median. They're 13 percent below. Jacksonville has the fastest growing median income of any major city in the state. We have the fastest growing population of any major city in the state, and our population has grown over five times faster than the U. S. over the past five years. That's the type of market that you want to be buying and holding in. And as a marketer, as the three of us are marketers, there's just something so special about that word only. Yeah, there is something so special about that word only. This is the only market that has that. So from a macro perspective, it is something that you can not only achieve great cash flows in, but achieve great wealth accumulation over a full market cycle.
Pablo Gonzalez:Greg, as a marketer, one of the, one of the things that I think all marketers wish that they could also be able to market on top of only in all these things is this idea of like an underpriced deal for a limited time, right? Like this 13 percent below the U S median with these eye popping growth stats that we're talking about is huge and there's no better way to kind of like represent that than this idea of the Urban Land Institute's report of like the 70, you know, most relevant markets in America. And out of those 70 relevant markets, at the top of it, they talked about the magnets, right? They talked about. The cities that are really attracting people that are really really attracting investment And within that they made three classifications the super sunbelt the 18 hour cities and the super novas, right? The super novas meaning the ones most poised for growth in the upcoming market cycle, right? Like when you think of a supernova you think of this like Giant growth stage. And to me, when I look at this list, when I look at Austin, Nashville, Boise, and Jacksonville, in those five cities, it's almost like one of these is not like the other, right? Like it has this kind of like cachet of these sexy cities, like, Most people that I talk to in real estate investing, when I say Austin, Nashville, Raleigh, or Boise, they're like, Oh, God, I wish I would have bought there. I wish I'd been owning there because now it's too late for me. Whereas when people say Jacksonville, people are like, someone know Jacksonville? Yeah, right. Like it's like the, it's like the little brother at the table and yet it's listed with these Other list of cities and this ULI report is not like this isn't a real estate investor data document like go buy here report the ULI is the urban land institute I'm married to an urban designer and architect this is a report that City builders look at this is a report that economic development people look at. They are studying these reports for like what is going right in these cities that is creating so much prosperity so we can build other cities like this. They're talking about median wage growth and things like that. So, you know, having Jacksonville be put into this. List with these four other cities that for me, I would have a really hard time buying a single family home at myself right now. Um, whereas in Jacksonville, I literally just picked up a duplex, right? is a really phenomenal kind of like start point of this conversation and, and what this all means from a, from a market standpoint.
Gregg Cohen:Yeah, absolutely. I think having a, a, an organization like the Urban Land Institute, give that credibility to Jacksonville. It's huge for Jacksonville. Because for a long time, Jacksonville has been under the radar, but those other cities are not under the radar. And then if you're just somebody and you're thinking, Hey, listen, I want to get into rental property investing. Let's just keep it real simple. If a really respected firm like the United, like the Urban Land Institute names, Jacksonville is one of your five supernova markets. as a part of an overall characterization being a magnet. Like, where do you think your money is going to grow the most? Do you think your money is going to grow the most in a magnet city? Supernova magnet city? Or do you think it's going to grow more in like a backbone city? Or a niche or establishment city. I mean, let's just keep it real simple. I want my money going to Magnet and then in Magnet, I want it going to Supernova. Yeah. And there are only five of those, but it's very clear that one of those is not like the other. Jacksonville is not exactly like the other Supernova cities. Dan, just curious, did you know that Jacksonville is listed as one of the five Supernova cities according to Urban Land Institute?
Than Merrill:Well, I did not know that the ULI label is a supernova, but what I do know is that it's an excellent market with great fundamentals, great rent growth, lower price points, single family homes. But as far as actually in the supernova category, I did not know that.
Gregg Cohen:Absolutely. It's, it, it was a, it was a surprise to me, to be quite honest, because many times we fly under the radar but we're not under the radar anymore, but let's compare these supernova cities because it is not like the others. Because as you start to look at median home prices, median income and population growth, you'll notice some things here. The first thing you'll notice is in Boise, Austin, Raleigh, Nashville, and you look at the median home prices, they all start with the upper 400s and one of them is in the 500, 000 range for a median home price. Jacksonville's median home price is 367, 000 currently, the only one under 400, 000. But, it's not like you have to give up a whole lot of median income or any population growth to be included there. This is why the ULI listed this as a supernova city, even though our home prices are substantially lower than everyone else's. Median income is 81, 000 in Jacksonville. We're actually a hub of logistics. We're a hub of fintech. We're a hub of, we're a military city. We have an incredible business foundation here, and that's why you look at 81, 000 of median income. I mean, Boise, which we know is a, is a tech hub and has blown up over the last five years, their median income is only six grand higher in Boise than you have in Jacksonville. And then population growth, we are right there with the best of them. You see population growth somewhere between 1. 6 percent and Per year to 2. 9 percent in Austin. And we're right in the middle there at 2. 2%. So you're not giving up population growth. You're not giving up median income. You're certainly getting a better rent to price ratio of all of the supernova cities when you actually look at Jacksonville, but there's also something else that is not like the others. And Jacksonville is the only one of the supernova cities that doesn't have a revitalized downtown yet. And many people don't understand many people don't know which markets are undergoing a revitalized, a revitalization in their downtown. And they certainly don't know how important it is to single family rental, rental investors. But this is when you talk about investing, many people say, Oh, you know what? I want to own a rental property right next to a great shopping center or right next to a great supermarket or great schools and whatnot. I'm here to tell you that path of progress conversation that you're talking about. How can I pitch my, my anchor to something that's going to drive sustainable increased home price appreciation, pitching your wagon to a market that is revitalizing their downtown is the absolute best way to gain more home price appreciation. Much better than schools, much better than your local supermarket, and much better than the local shopping center. And here's what the data actually dictates. So revitalized downtown cities actually have appreciated 23 percent more than the U. S. overall, and that's since 2022. And that's looking at cities like Denver, Austin, Nashville, Tampa. So the question is, can you start to look at what cities are becoming revitalized? Can you look at the early indicators and can you take advantage of a city right now, which is underpriced and undergoing a revitalization of downtown? And what would that do for your overall wealth pie, not just today, but 10 years down the road, then, you know, San Diego is a great example of a, of a downtown that has come online. I remember when I used to go and. Hang out with you guys. I mean, 15 years ago, 20 years ago, very different in San Diego than what it is today. Can you talk about what what your view of a revitalized downtown does for that area? And then how valuable is it to own single family rental properties around that?
Than Merrill:Yeah, I mean, obviously, if you go to cities that have a revitalized downtown or are in the process of revitalizing their downtown, It does. It's significant for the economy. You're going to have national employees that are more more likely to want to bring in corporations from outside of the inside the state or outside of the state. And so it's not surprising. It makes common sense, but it's something that people don't talk about a lot. You know, I haven't been to conferences in a, in a while where they've talked about the importance of revitalization of the downtown and how that corresponds to price appreciation. But if you're sitting here on this zoom, or if you're sitting listening to this, I mean, it makes common sense. If you have a a downtown that's being revitalized or under, you know, underway, it's only going to help home price appreciation. So it's good to know, because I know we have a ton of clients who own properties right now in Jacksonville that you guys manage and operate for them. And so it's it's a great reminder of why this market is so unique.
Pablo Gonzalez:And, you know, I think it's also really important to address the idea that, you know, D. O. Kelly's here. D. Keeley's here saying people say Jacksonville downtown is a dead zone. Right? So this idea of, you know, You know, revitalize downtown sounds great, but what is Jacksonville doing about it, Greg?
Gregg Cohen:Yeah, absolutely. So I super appreciate that comment and you're not wrong. People do say that about downtown Jacksonville and you know what? People said that about Nashville 10 years ago, 15 years ago. And they said that about Austin 10 years ago, 15 years ago. Then I don't know if they ever said that about San Diego, it's beautiful out there, but I can tell you that that perception and that reality is can be changed and you know what? It changes really quick. So, we gotta look beyond just that perception, and many of us here in Jacksonville have baggage. Because Jacksonville has underperformed as a downtown for so many years. I mean, guys, we have beautiful weather. We have a city running, a river running through our downtown. We have an NFL football team. Rich history. We have a rich history here. And for some reason, we haven't gotten our downtown together. Yeah, but what I want to offer to you is some data that might help you see how things are changing in downtown. And if you like the data, and you connect the dots to maybe Greg is right, maybe things are really changing here. What kind of step forward could you take with your rental property portfolio? And what kind of step forward could you take with your overall financial portfolio? And what could you do for your friends and your family and those around you as your finances improve? That's really the connection that I think we need to make. Because there's data here beyond just how much I love my city. And that's what I really want to show you. So this whole idea of like, how do you go from a dead zone or a perceived dead zone of a downtown. To a thriving downtown like a Nashville or a Denver or an Austin, there have to be leading indicators, right? And the good thing is, there are. And cities share this information. In Jacksonville, we get to go on trips with city leaders to go and look at other successful downtowns and we say, Hey, how did you guys get your act together? What early indicators did you see that your downtown was thriving? What happened in Nashville before home prices went up and rents went up and median incomes went up? Well, guess what, guys? It's not too complicated. You gotta get people moving downtown. Because once people make the decision to live downtown, they attract other amenities that want to earn their dollars. So, bars, restaurants, grocery stores. Employers move downtown because it becomes a talent destination. And that flywheel right there is a really important metric to track. So I'll be the first one to say, guys, in Jacksonville, we have 1. 6 million people living in Jacksonville. That's a whole lot of people, right? We're a, we're a mid tier city, right? But we have only had, when I have been living here for almost 20 years, for the longest time, we only had about 3, 500 people living in Jacksonville, downtown. I mean, 3, 500 people in a, in a one and a half million population is insane for downtown. So I, I agree with the, but at the same time, you got to look for trends. So our trend of people that have made the decision to move downtown because amenities are improving has gone up each and every year since 2017. In 2022, we were at 7, 500 folks living downtown, so it's more than doubled, and guys, I get it, the numbers aren't huge, but guess what, the numbers weren't huge before the economics flipped in Nashville or Austin as well. 10, 000 residents has been proven in these other successful downtowns as being a tipping point, a jumping off point. And the reason that 10, 000 residents matters so much is because once you get to 10, 000 residents, the economics change in the favor of the developer. Once you have 10, 000 residents in your downtown, developers can now come in and they can develop properties and make a decent return on their investment. Prior to that, what developers do is they either do nothing because they can't earn a return on their money, Or they have to work with the city to get incentive dollars to do that. And some developers do that. JWB is one of them, but I got to tell you guys, it's hard. It is much easier to come into a market and just know that the numbers work and go and develop. And so once you hit 10, 000 residents, that's when the numbers start to change. And that's when you see a lot more developer dollars coming in. You're from Miami. Yeah. Tell me about your experience in Miami city.
Pablo Gonzalez:You know, it's pretty clear to me that what's happening here is not what's happening there, and I mean that in the best of ways, right? Like, as a, as the husband of an architect and an urban designer, we spend a lot of time talking about how cities work. And this idea that thriving urban centers, like you look at, you know, Europe that was designed this way. First, you look at New York, you look at Chicago, you look at these places that are working now, even like a town like Greenville, South Carolina, that people love to live in. everything that works there works because of mixed use development. You see businesses at the street front and you see people living above them or businesses above them, right? And there's just like beautiful mix of folks that don't just like go there to work and leave. Right. Don't just come there seasonally for something, but are there all the time. And in order to be able to like incentivize this mixed use, it's kind of like a chicken and an egg scenario, right? Like if you don't have enough people living there, then the businesses that need the folks to like buy from them, it's really hard to do it. So the right way to do it is to create this mixed use incentives to get 10, 000 people down there. And what you'll see in cities that are not thinking long term, you're just going to see a whole bunch of condo high rises, luxury, luxury high rises, which is what happened in downtown Miami. It wasn't built for the people to live there. It was built for people to come, have a good time, and then leave, right? The cities that work really, really well, Figure out a way to build this mixed use into the urban center, and it starts with city incentives and people thinking really, really long term. And that, to me, is why it's so exciting to see this. It's the fact that this stat is coming to fruition. The incentives will no longer need to be there for someone to, like, raise their hand, say, I'm about to do a mixed use building whole foods to be like, but I want to be the anchor tenant because there's 10, 000 people that are going to go buy my organic produce downstairs. And then now you have this like flywheel that's turning, but it needs somebody to start a match, which is why for me, the, the idea that JWB has bought 20 city blocks of downtown and has been developing this long before it reached this this threshold, because you all have the 6, 000 properties, the 6, 000 investments and investors all around the urban center. And you know, that if downtown pops, everything else works to me is this attractive piece of like, man, this. Only market that has these wonderful dynamics and wait, there's more feels much more like Apple releasing the iPod and knowing that the phone and the tablet is coming, then like this idea of like a one and done kind of like opportunity that, that won't happen. I just see upside in all this stuff happens.
Gregg Cohen:Yeah, a hundred percent. I'm saying it another way, even if none of this other good stuff that I'm sharing with you on the horizon happens, we're already a supernova city. According to the ULI, we already there as far as being a great, Attractor of investment dollars. The reason that people invest their money here. But oh, by the way, not only do we have these stats, which, you know, guys, we won't have enough time to go into everything in that Jacksonville real estate market report that I, that I put together. But again, if you, if you just text us, there's a whole lot more information to share with you there. What's the text number? You remember that one?
Pablo Gonzalez:The phone number is 9 0 4 2 9 3. but I think this is this is the number that we want to get it right. Like this is the this is the flywheel in effect.
Gregg Cohen:There you go. So look at if you want to see what's downtown's are about to about to pop look for the number of residents getting closer and closer to 10, 000 residents and trending up and then look for the active development dollars that are under construction at that moment. Jacksonville has about 4 billion of active development dollars under construction in our downtown. That's the most in our downtown's history. And guys, I have gone out to other downtowns to try to compare it, and I haven't found another downtown that can boast 4 billion of active construction going on at one time. Right now. I just went to Washington D. C. not too long ago. I looked up their state of downtown report. We love Washington DC, beautiful city, very well developed downtown. A lot going on. They had a billion dollars of downtown development So four times the amount in little old Jacksonville. So what happens is you might not see it on street corners right now That's not how these things work But when four billion dollars is moving and shovels are moving and things are happening and decisions are being made and according with that That's how you become Nashville. That's how you become Austin. That's how you become Boise, Denver, Charlotte and you as a real estate investor, what I really try to help people see is if we go back to why I love this asset class, it's not all about high upside for me. I like high upside just like everybody does, but I like that combination of risk mitigation, high upside, and where we all as everyday people can take advantage of it. And that's why investing in single family rental properties. Like, one of the 6, 000 homes that we manage for our clients, which are all situated around downtown Jacksonville, is the great combination there. Because when you invest in single family rental properties surrounding the next downtown that's about to pop, what you do is you get the indirect benefit of home price and rent price appreciation that happens because of that downtown's growth. But you don't have to take a lot of risk to get it. You know, normally if you're going to try to take, to gain that appreciation, you got to put a ton of dollars down and you got to hold on to that for a long time before you ever start seeing income. But investing in single family rental property surrounding that downtown allows you to buy an asset that pays for itself every single month. And you can buy one, you can buy three because you can use leverage and you can use the bank's money. You can, you can buy these things at scale. And have them be risk mitigated and hold on and anchor yourself to that downtown. So that's the big, the big idea that you're not hearing a lot of. And that's why I asked Dan to be on the, on the show with me today. I'm so glad that you all are here today. I wanted you to hear something different. It's not the same old take at just that I think this market is better than the others, which I, I do. And we've shared some data to support it, but it's, this market is better than the others. And there is something special happening downtown. Insider information. It's truly insider information. Guys, JWB bought 20 blocks of downtown Jacksonville. So, you know, we, we have a little bit of insider information that we, we like to share, but, but our money, we're putting our money where our mouth is. And that's what I want to share with you. This is an opportunity for you to take this information, use it wisely and set yourselves up and your families up for a better financial future because of what we're sharing today.
Pablo Gonzalez:Dan, that was a whole lot of information there of downtowns and single family homes and all that stuff. What's your, what are, is this your first time hearing all this like good stuff or have you been following along the Jacksonville story?
Than Merrill:You know, some of the, the stats I have not heard, I know and have heard from Greg and obviously Alex about The investments they've made in downtown Jacksonville and the growth. I've been to downtown Jacksonville. So no, some of the, some of the theme is not new, but the stats are new to me and it's, you know, it's, if you look at the report that he put together, it's pretty shocking because I don't know the exact stats of downtown Jacksonville. Let's say it's somewhere around 8, 000 people. Now, I mean, that's not far from where Nashville and Austin are, which have great. You know, and great perceived downtown, which are like 000. It's not that far off from a population standpoint from those. So it totally makes sense. And obviously, Greg knows a lot more about downtown revitalization and and where the tipping points are. But it makes a lot of sense. As to what you're saying, it's development dollars. Where are the development dollars? What's the population? What's the tipping point? And so it's it's great to hear
Gregg Cohen:it's really great to hear and when you when you request that report There's some of that data is I just think it's really cool because what we were able to do is go back and look at those markets That have revitalized downtown and we were able to look at what their appreciation rates were before The downtowns popped before they became these successful downtowns. And then what were their appreciation rates after? And the data is mind blowing before Nashville's downtown came online. Nashville's home price appreciation for the previous, like 30 years was just in line with what the U S was.
Pablo Gonzalez:Yeah.
Gregg Cohen:But after downtown happened for Nashville, I think it was 28 percent more home price appreciation than the U S. Post downtown revitalization, and it's similar data for Austin as well. So again, I think you guys will love getting to that report. So if you haven't fired us a text to request that you should, and we're happy just to send that to you over email whatever that number is again, I can't remember it.
Pablo Gonzalez:You guys want to take a look at a, at a, at a rental property, kind of like we have this like pie size of the portfolio. Talk about the home price appreciation part of it, just to get a little bit more detail into it. Thank you.
Gregg Cohen:Sure, just to give people like a tangible look at what they could be investing in. Yeah.
Pablo Gonzalez:So this is a tangible look right here. GC, you want to talk through it? So here's, here's the pie that GC keeps talking about, right? Like, I'm going to help my buddy out. Cause I know that he's not great with color distinction, but this dark blue here, that is home price appreciation. And that is what we like to call the Pac Man. It's the Pac Man principle. Of when you invest in a rental property, everybody freaks out about this, like net rental income over here, but that's just like one set of the teeth of the Pac Man while the Pac Man itself is home price appreciation. But maybe you can talk about the rest of your agency.
Gregg Cohen:Yeah, absolutely. This, this Pac Man principle is something that we've coined and I hope everybody takes, takes that away if nothing else here, because ultimately I'm here to help you create wealth. And I know from managing over a billion dollar real estate assets that this is how your wealth pie will look like. After you invest in rental properties in a market like Jacksonville, 60 to 80 percent will come from home price appreciation. But you got to get there. And that's why I'm choosing the right team to help you get there for a full market cycle is super important. And then like the van started off the show talking about you want that team will help you choose a market where the wind is at your back, right? Where the wind is at your back. So when you get to the right team and you choose the right market, You should be looking for an asset like this. This is a brand new construction home and this is what JWB specializes in. We build about 400 homes a year and the majority of those homes go to become single family cash flow positive turnkey rental properties. And these are these in these neighborhoods surrounding downtown like I've been talking about. And so you're a typical property might cost somewhere around 225, 000. And for my friends who are coming from California or New York or Virginia or pretty much anywhere else in the country, you're probably looking at that and saying, is that just the down payment or is that the purchase price? Because here in Jacksonville, we have very low purchase prices. But 225 is the purchase price. You're looking at putting down somewhere around 75, 000 give or take for one single family investment property with JWB in Jacksonville. And the type of return you can expect is somewhere around 10 percent each and every year. And when you invest in an asset that is returning 10 percent each and every year, and you're using the bank's money, using other people's money, and then you start to stack those assets and you might add one a year or two a year, like fan was talking about as his own strategy. When he first started, over time, that's how you build that better financial future. And that's what it'll look like. You know, if you get a chance to jump on the phones with our team, we'll walk you through all the numbers here, but ultimately we're going to take you not just from what the asset looks like, We're going to show you what your wealth creation looks like after one year, five years, 10 years, 20 years. And that type of financial engineering is really what we love to do. And rental properties just happen to be the widget or the medium that allows us to create these outcomes for our clients.
Pablo Gonzalez:Love it. Dan, what are your, um, overall, we're going to hop into questions here right now, but any advice that you have for the audience here today?
Than Merrill:Well, I definitely go through the report that that Greg put together because it's very insightful, you know, I went through it and I learned some things that I didn't know you know, overall about the Jacksonville market. So I thought that was great. And a very useful tool. As far as buying single family homes, I mean, to me, it's been a no brainer for 20 years. It's still something we do to this day. And if you can just continue to, I mean, if you think about it, You probably if you're sitting here listening, you probably have a friend or two Who's owned a single family property or a handful of properties for a number of years? And it's done very well with it. Like I have so many friends that I would call financially secure Or wealthy and a lot of times when you talk to them, it's it's this. Oh, well, you know, I bought this property 15 years ago, and it's been one of the best investments I've ever made, right? And it's something that's just simple and our relationship with jwb has been great because obviously What makes owning rental properties challenging is the management. And so if you have a team In place, I mean greg has been our longest standing business relationship over the last 20 years managing for us Managing for well over a thousand people clients of ours that have also bought properties in Jacksonville. So, I mean, he's done a great job and it's not an easy business to scale and operate and run. And he's got a great team in place. This isn't their first year. This isn't their third year. This isn't their fifth year. I mean, they've been doing this for over 15 years in Jacksonville. So, you know, he's a great guy to work with and a great company to work with is not just Greg. And we've been very, very happy with our investments and I know our clients have been very happy as well.
Gregg Cohen:Thank you, buddy. I appreciate that
Than Merrill:for
Gregg Cohen:sure.
Pablo Gonzalez:Yeah. And I'll, uh, I put it in the chat a second ago. I'll put it again. If you want that report that Dan's talking about just text 9 0 4 2 9 3 0 3 4 1. let's jam on a couple of questions here, guys. What do you think Dee Keeley has? What about the downside of Jacksville? Like high crime rates and insurance rates, GC.
Gregg Cohen:Okay, well, we'll take insurance right off the bat. And D, I would super, you know, encourage you to become a part of our community because we talk about these topics often. We actually just did a show dedicated to talking about insurance rates. I just think maybe two, three weeks ago. So we'd love to have you be more and more a part of it. You know, insurance has been a hot topic in Florida real estate for a number of years now. There were a lot of things that happened legally that resulted in like 10 times the amount of lawsuits for the insurance companies and claims for the insurance companies. And, you know, quite frankly, it ultimately cost a lot of insurance carriers to go out of the state of Florida and created a lot of, a lot of challenges. And so much challenges, so many challenges that the state legislature got involved. And this happened about a year ago. They really closed the, the, unfortunately, the, the legal loophole that allowed certain things to happen to take advantage of these situations. And ultimately what has happened is insurance companies have entered back into the state. You're actually starting to hear rumblings of insurance costs going down. So, you know, ultimately the, the worst is behind us when it comes to the insurance rate increase. And actually I think there's headwinds. Excuse me, there's headway for our insurance rates to come down in the future here. I don't want to set that expectation right now, but I do know that the problem, the holes were plugged and the problem has become stabilized. But here's the best thing about it. Whatever was happening in the insurance market, when you work with a turnkey, vertically integrated provider like JWB, we're on top of this. So before we ever put an investment together for one of our clients, we already have the expectation of exactly what that insurance rate is going to be for you. And it was a lot higher than the last two years than it was the previous five. But that was all taken into every investment decision for our clients. So, nobody was surprised when you bought a property and you knew exactly what that insurance rate was. And there's actually an opportunity for it to go down, potentially, in the future. So, you're protected either, anyway, when you work with a vertically integrated company like JWB that is in tune with the insurance market. And what I will also add is if you bought properties five years ago, when your insurance rates were way low. Well, guess what? Your insurance weights, they went up and I'm sorry about that. Oh, but, but, oh, by the way, your other profit centers way more than made up for it because you received 50 percent home price appreciation and 30 percent rent growth. And, you know, as financial engineers, we're going to be okay with that insurance costs going up knowing that we won in so many other categories.
Than Merrill:Hey, Greg, take one more question. I'll be right back. I gotta go to the bathroom. I've been sitting here for a little bit Just go
Pablo Gonzalez:just go fan. Just go. All right. We got a couple questions on the investment what's page norton's asking? What is the time horizon shown here for growth numbers?
Gregg Cohen:Great question page So this is a 10 year projection and our team is here to help You, no matter what your projection might be, if it's 10 year horizon for you or 20 years or 30 years, we can build out your projections, your wealth pie, based on single family rental properties. We can build that out for you. So this one happens to be 10 years. But yours might be specific to you at a different time range. And we are happy to help build that up for you.
Pablo Gonzalez:Awesome. Muhammad Abdel Samad has a question. Do I own the property or does JWB on the property? Great question. You own the property. 100%. Anonymous attendee has a question. Do you recommend this program for someone that is already in retirement age?
Gregg Cohen:Yes, absolutely. We just did a show featuring one of our all time favorite community members and clients of JWB. Who is over 80 years old by the time he started to invest in single family rental properties with JWB. So, it is something that works. It works well when you're young. It works well if you're a little bit closer to retirement and if you're in retirement age, it can absolutely help change your life
Pablo Gonzalez:Last question we're going to close that one out with dan with than in a second Anonymous said today also asks is this process done through your company meaning purchase and managing?
Gregg Cohen:Yes This is all about vertical integration because that's what makes this passive Easy enjoyable for you. That's how we create this experience. So everything we're talking about today is done by my team internally. And there's one phone number to call for the life of your investment that includes property management. It's all under one roof with JWB.
Pablo Gonzalez:Love it. All right. Let's close this one out with a question for Than here from a esteemed community member of ours, the patron Santorius of our community. Michael Santorio's fan with so many moving parts in the economy, future interest rates, and the challenges in commercial real estate. I'd like to hear your take on what you feel are the biggest challenges real estate investors should be most mindful of in adapting to these shifts. Well,
Than Merrill:that's a really good question. I'd say you want to be very smart about what type of debt you utilize when you're buying single family, or if you're buying commercial properties, you know, that's a very important part of the transaction, making sure you're getting a good interest rate, fixing it for as long as you can. That's always going to be the most conservative way. To buy properties I'd say that and obviously market selection, which has been the the crux of this entire show Or a big portion of the show is very important in making your future real estate investments you want to have like I said at the very beginning the wind at your back when you're investing So those two things I would say are very important And then the third one is goes without saying but just continually staying educated The market's always changing markets are always changing Strategies are always changing staying up to date. So, you know becoming a student for life of real estate investing is is You know the thing that I would close this show out with
Pablo Gonzalez:Yeah,
Gregg Cohen:I just think you know We're starting to understand and some assets are based in a critical need and some assets that we thought were a critical need Are not right. We we thought everybody went to the office to go to work forever until now. We don't. And so that's changing our understanding of what a critical need is a single family rental properties or a critical need. I don't know any other way that people are going to live unless they want to roof over their head. Maybe at some point in the future, they'll invent that. But I, I don't see that changing anytime soon. And so I, I think paying attention to macro factors, like what really is a critical need helps. Helps ensure that this investment is consistent, reliable and profitable for you.
Pablo Gonzalez:I mean, I would add oil and gas to that critical need question, right? It went negative during COVID and now with the rise of electric cars, right? Like what is, when, when will you ever imagine a scenario where people don't need a roof over their head and people in America don't want spaces? Single family homes. So, I want to thank everybody for showing up. I saw a bunch of people saying that they've already shot that text. The team will be in contact. They will send you that presentation here shortly. We'll also follow up with a, with an email with the, with the replay for this thing, right? Absolutely. So, you know, stay tuned. Thank you so much for taking an hour out of the middle of your day for spending time here asking great questions. Thank you, buddy. I know that you are not an easy get. You're a busy man. Everybody wants your time because you're so smart, so attractive, and you know, you've helped so many, but, uh, but you know, really we enjoy, we enjoy the time together here. Every time that you join us on the show, GC, I'll kind of give you fat last words here.
Gregg Cohen:You know, it's, it's, it truly is hanging out with your big brother in real estate here with, with Dan here. I go back to the very first time, you know, I was on the phone with Dan as he was, as he was, he was coaching me up as I was about to. You know, buy my very first deal. And I remember being scared and relying on his not just his knowledge and expertise, but his friendship. And it's been 18 years. We're still kicking it. You know, I give him my buddy a call and say, Hey, can you come help share this message with, with our audience? And, you know, he's, he's always there to say, yeah. So thank you, buddy. Appreciate you more than, you know, it's ready to do this for the next 18. And the next a hundred years with you, man. I appreciate you.
Than Merrill:Appreciate it. Thank you, Greg. And thanks Pablo. It's been great. And thanks everyone for joining us. it's been a great show and great. You've always done a great job. So we appreciate it.
Pablo Gonzalez:Awesome. Hope you all start joining us on Tuesdays and from now until then, any piece of advice for them? GC don't be
Gregg Cohen:average.