Avoid Analysis Paralysis: 5 Proven Real Estate Investment Tips for Success

John Harcar (00:01.053)
All right, hey guys, welcome back to the show. I’m your host, John Harcar, and I’m here today with Jake Belden. And what we’re going to talk about is how you don’t have to leave your W-2 to begin in real estate. Guys, remember, at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, entrepreneurs, mean, anybody in real estate, 2 to 5X their business by providing tools and resources to grow the business they want to grow and live that life that they have always wanted to live. So Jake, welcome on to our show.

Jake Belden (00:30.508)
Hey John, thanks for having me on, I really appreciate it.

John Harcar (00:32.861)
Yeah, and I appreciate you being on here. I know it’s your first podcast. I’ll be gentle. And I’m excited to talk about your journey, right? Because that is a hot topic. When do I leave my job to start this full time? Or do I? And before we get into all that, why don’t you tell our audience about you, kind of your background, maybe how you got into real estate, and what got you here?

Jake Belden (00:55.49)
Yeah, absolutely. So I’m from a small town, Millbury, Connecticut. Super small town. Went to Springfield College and Springfield Mass, studied business, kind of your normal route. Got a corporate job out of college around 22 years old. Started working, climbed up a little bit of the corporate ladder.

Started working your 60 to 70 hours like most corporate companies have you do and around 24 kind of realized that You know, that’s not the life that I necessarily want to live for the rest of my life Started looking into ways to invest in real estate around 24 Basically listened to every podcast you could ever imagine for about two years until I realized that I was doing the same

John Harcar (01:21.661)
Mmm.

John Harcar (01:32.381)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (01:42.045)
Hahaha

Jake Belden (01:48.462)
rotation for every six months, right? I think a lot of people get stuck in the analysis paralysis of Hey, listen to a podcast maybe start step one. I don’t know how to do step one So maybe I’ll just go listen to another podcast, know, right so they they just keep falling in that same loop. So You know, maybe maybe it’s the fear of it to fears a mile wide but only you know an inch deep so Really? It’s just a matter of taking that first step in so

John Harcar (02:03.549)
Yeah.

John Harcar (02:13.853)
you

Jake Belden (02:18.166)
around 26 years old, finally started looking at properties and put some offers in with a buddy of mine, Matt. And we got going in 2019 when I was 26 years old. We invested in a four family in Terryville, Connecticut. And basically everything you could ever imagine that could go wrong went wrong.

John Harcar (02:28.953)
Okay.

Jake Belden (02:45.154)
We needed a roof, we needed siding, we had to do an eviction unfortunately. And at the end of the year, I sat there, looked at the numbers, and was still getting a better return than the stock market. So at that point I was kind of hooked I think.

John Harcar (02:56.605)
Hmm.

John Harcar (03:00.285)
Got it. OK, let’s go back. You’re in studies school. You’re in business. What industry did you go in after you got out of college?

Jake Belden (03:07.415)
I was a business grad, so I was in sales with a big corporate company.

John Harcar (03:11.275)
what industry was that in? Just curious.

Jake Belden (03:13.006)
So I worked for Enterprise Rent-A-Car, worked there for two or three years, ended up managing the Hartford, Connecticut store. Well, you say sweet, I don’t know about that, but…

John Harcar (03:16.292)
Okay.

John Harcar (03:21.789)
Sweet. I like asking, I like, well, but I like asking that question to kind of segue into this one is in this time, did you have any in your family, maybe a relative that had, that was in real estate? I mean, did you have any introduction to this? What kind of led to that path of saying, hey, I want to buy property.

Jake Belden (03:47.84)
Yeah, think I was probably very unhappy with my corporate job working that many hours. So I started trying to find ways to increase my income, but not necessarily the time needed to increase my income. So I think everybody to some degree wants to live a certain balance of life where obviously we all trade our time for dollars and it’s really just a matter of trying to

John Harcar (03:54.311)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (04:04.551)
You

Jake Belden (04:17.742)
You know, get dollars without spending too much time, right? You want to live a certain life. I grew up with my parents both being around at all times. My dad coached basically every sport of mine. My sister and my brother were always around. So I kind of want to live the same life and real estate just seemed to be the answer to be able to do that.

John Harcar (04:21.733)
Sure.

John Harcar (04:38.147)
Okay, so you started this studying, you said you had the analysis paralysis. What was your biggest fear, right? What was the thing that held you back in those two years you said from taking that step, that first step?

Jake Belden (04:54.136)
Yeah, good question. I think a lot of people have the fear and it might just be unreasonable or they might make things up in their head, right? Where they might say, man, well, if I fail, somebody’s going to judge me, right? Or somebody’s going to think this of me. And I mean, realistically, and you realize it after a certain amount of time, nobody’s really thinking about you to begin with and nobody cares, right? So I kind of had this thing where I really sat down and

John Harcar (05:08.306)
Yeah.

John Harcar (05:17.131)
Truth.

Jake Belden (05:21.39)
I was like, okay, so if I do end up failing with this property, which now I know is, you it’s not realistic, but if I did fail with this given property, what’s worst case scenario? And worst case scenario is, you know, I live with my parents and they, you know, make me dinner every night and that doesn’t sound that bad, right? So, worst case scenario really wasn’t that bad. So, really just a matter of getting over that initial, initial fear and just,

John Harcar (05:46.193)
Yeah.

Jake Belden (05:50.476)
really get it going. The other thing is really that relates to not just real estate, but any business, right? I mean, I have a bunch of friends or, you know, people reach out saying like, man, I really wanted to, I really want to start this insurance agency, but right. And then they give an excuse, right? I really want to get in good shape. I really want to go to the gym, but there’s always a, but, and really it comes down to a fear of something. So everybody’s different, but jumping in is really the key.

John Harcar (05:51.644)
Okay.

John Harcar (06:07.421)
Yeah.

John Harcar (06:17.851)
And I think with entrepreneurship, whatever industry it is, I think that we’re told, go to college, get a job, work 50 years, then retire and live on a pension. So people are afraid to take that movement into that entrepreneur spot. So when you got into, so you got the bug to do real estate, you studied enough, why did you choose, I think you said you bought a fourplex right off the bat, that was your first one?

Jake Belden (06:44.174)
Yeah, started with a fourplex just found a good deal. The next three that I purchased so I basically made an unwritten rule with myself that I was going to invest in one per year. So that’s what I did. that you know the following three years I did duplexes. But really I mean

John Harcar (06:47.548)
Okay.

John Harcar (07:01.969)
Mm-hmm.

Jake Belden (07:06.294)
you have your buy box, whatever makes sense with your numbers, go get it. So the four family made sense the first year, the two families made sense the following three years, and really just a matter of finding the right deal that cash flows or whatever your buy box is that makes sense at the given time.

John Harcar (07:12.146)
Yeah.

John Harcar (07:27.035)
Why did you choose that asset class versus a traditional single family?

Jake Belden (07:31.566)
Well, I mean, I think the market in 2019 obviously was a lot different than it is now. And I was able to buy those multiple income streams, not just one unit, but have four units or two units, I think was big for me in terms of evaluating risk. So whatever the mortgage was, I think those first four years I was able to get 3 % interest rates. that wasn’t bad either.

John Harcar (07:57.789)
Okay. Yeah, yeah.

Jake Belden (08:02.094)
I think just having multiple units provide rent in my mind back then created less risk, which is funny because the past three years I’ve done single families. again, mean, whatever fits in the buy box or whatever makes sense, you know, makes sense. And I really think more than, you know, the specific, you know, class, whether it’s multifamily or four family or a single family or a condo, it’s really just a matter of making sure the numbers work. And, you know,

John Harcar (08:30.705)
Yeah.

Jake Belden (08:31.882)
also putting down enough money. If you’re working a W-2 job like me, you can probably afford to putting down the 20 % every year, which is what I did. So 20 % down each year instead of like trying to do these low downs and still trying to make a cash flow. think putting down the 20 % and saving up the money and putting enough work in really helped.

John Harcar (08:41.307)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (08:47.186)
Yeah.

John Harcar (08:53.629)
Where did you learn your underwriting of how to really evaluate a property? Because most people, once again, when they’re getting in, they’ll get into single family. I know it’s a different ball game when you’re evaluating multifamilies. So how did you learn that process?

Jake Belden (09:08.61)
Yeah, good question. I think I just really learned it on my own. Podcasts and just like different things, finding stuff online. Everybody kind of has more or less the same kind of Excel sheets, you know, with the appreciation, depreciation, all that different stuff. So I really just kind of learned it on my own. Like I said, I was a business major and whatnot, so I kind of used my skill set there to help me with purchasing the real estate as well.

John Harcar (09:21.725)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (09:37.287)
Got it. What were some of them or if there were any mistakes you made on that first deal or challenges or pitfalls that you came across?

Jake Belden (09:47.246)
Yeah, I think the great thing about real estate is there’s a different obstacle every year and you learn something new basically every year that you go. Year one, I definitely didn’t do my due diligence with asking for rent roll with the current tenants because we basically had to go through an eviction right away. If I knew what I know now, obviously I could have prevented that problem.

John Harcar (10:04.413)
Mm.

John Harcar (10:14.823)
Sure.

Jake Belden (10:15.49)
There’s no way of doing that, right? You have to jump in and learn as you go. The following year, I think it’s really cool. I basically learned there’s no such thing as a disrespectful offer. If somebody posts their house online for let’s say 300,000, don’t be scared to put the offer in that you think makes sense for you. When somebody puts an offer in or when somebody lists their house online, excuse me, that’s them telling you that they want to sell their house.

John Harcar (10:35.303)
Yep.

Jake Belden (10:45.23)
Right. So I remember year two, we bought a place in New Britain and they listed it for 240 and I put an offer in for 150, which sounds crazy asking, you know, putting an offering for 90,000 less than what they initially posted, but we ended up buying it for 165. Right. So you just never know. And the thing I love about real estate is it’s if somebody is

John Harcar (10:45.254)
Right?

John Harcar (11:01.199)
Yeah.

Jake Belden (11:14.688)
If somebody does better than me, if somebody has an opportunity or found an opportunity that I didn’t find or if somebody’s doing really, really well, there’s really, it just means they worked harder than me, right? They picked up the phone, they called. You don’t have to be a genius in this field. If you had to be a genius, I wouldn’t be here, right? So you don’t have to be a genius in this field. You just have to put the work in. know, shout out to this kid I went to high school with, his name’s Arvin.

John Harcar (11:24.358)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (11:28.989)
Yep.

No.

John Harcar (11:39.975)
Yeah.

Jake Belden (11:44.384)
He didn’t have it any better than I had it. He doesn’t have as much education as I have. He does a hell of lot more deals than I do. Excuse my language, right? So he works harder than me, right? You get out what you put in, you know, with real estate, and that’s what I love about this field. You get out what you put in.

John Harcar (11:57.201)
Yep.

John Harcar (12:02.907)
Yeah, 100%. I know you mentioned earlier, I think you had a partner, Matt, or somebody on one deal. Why was it important for you to go out and maybe have a partner, seek someone, maybe to help you with these deals or whatnot?

Jake Belden (12:20.162)
Yeah, so me personally, I’m not the most, let’s say, handsy or like hands-on guy. So I think if you’re going to partner, which I did for a few deals, you have to find somebody with a skill set in which you’re lacking, right? So my buddy Matt, that’s my partner in a few deals, 50-50 partner with me, he has a skill set that I don’t have. He’s very hands-on. He can fix things, right? He also, to…

John Harcar (12:36.348)
Mmm.

John Harcar (12:46.941)
Mm-hmm.

Jake Belden (12:51.194)
He is not good with numbers. He doesn’t know how to analyze a deal. He doesn’t know how to put an offer and that makes sense. Finding a partner that has a different skill set with you that you can work hand in hand with is really beneficial if you are going to partner. Now, the past three years, obviously I’ve realized, hey, I could get property management. I could invest this on my own. I can purchase this property on my own.

John Harcar (12:55.621)
Okay.

John Harcar (13:09.361)
Yeah.

Jake Belden (13:18.868)
I can get property management, I can still do everything I do and have 100 % right. So there’s different ways to go about it. There’s no right or wrong answer. Again, just as long as you’re diving in and doing what you can to find the deal.

John Harcar (13:25.117)
Hmm.

John Harcar (13:31.323)
Yeah, and I think that’s a hurdle or mindset issue of a lot of people that are new in this is about finding a partner and finding someone else’s that they don’t want to give up control. They don’t want to give up any money. Right. But you know, what I found is you got to hire out your weaknesses. That’s the way to growth. Right. So right now, what is your business like? You’re still working full time.

Jake Belden (13:55.222)
Yeah, I’m a general manager at a car dealership currently. I work about 40 hours a week. So that’s the benefit of the way that I’ve done things with real estate. And there’s different routes you can go. You could be very hands-on and create this full-time job in real estate, or you could take my route. You could still work your job 40 hours or whatever your job is, and you can still absolutely invest in real estate. You can still make a business out of it.

John Harcar (14:23.484)
Hmm?

Jake Belden (14:24.59)
I’ve taken the hands off route. I still work my normal W2 job 40 hours a week while investing in real estate. So you never know what’s in the future. If you told me five years ago that I’d be investing in Florida and South Carolina, then I would think you’re crazy, right? But you just never know what is about to happen or what the future holds.

John Harcar (14:33.606)
Okay.

Jake Belden (14:51.862)
So, you know, in four five years, who knows, I might, you know, go full time with this. Right now, I’m really focusing on just continuing my income stream in multiple ways. And also, with the website I launched, really helping beginners try to get going.

John Harcar (15:09.269)
Have you set what they call like a freedom number, right? A certain amount of income from maybe properties you’re buying that say, hey, now I can leave this job and go full bore.

Jake Belden (15:21.614)
Yeah, I definitely want the real estate to at least get close to what I’m making at the current job. Not quite there. I think the number of properties for me would be anywhere from 10 to 12. So, you’re pretty close. I’m about, let’s say, three years away if I continue to do the same strategy that I’m doing right now. Again, not bad. I’m 32 years old.

John Harcar (15:30.557)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (15:38.695)
Okay.

Jake Belden (15:52.686)
If somebody were to say, hey, you don’t have to work your full-time job anymore at 35 years old, yeah, I would take that 10 times out of 10. But again, things change. You could end up having kids, which I don’t have right now, but you could have kids, right? And you might need more income then. Things happen in life, and think just preparing for it all and having multiple revenue streams is very important.

John Harcar (15:59.613)
Well, of course we all would.

John Harcar (16:19.715)
Yeah. And I know that some folks when they hear about, you know, investing and, I have a full-time job and they’re, you know, maybe biggest roadblock might be, well, how do I have the time? I got a family, I got a job, I got kids. How do I have the time? I know you don’t have the, you don’t have the kids part, but tell us a little about your process. Like, how are you finding deals? When are you making time to talk to sellers, to make offers? What are you doing all that time? How do you have time to do it?

Jake Belden (16:47.808)
Yeah, I mean, would say, so in the past seven years investing in one per year, I would say it takes me about five to 10 hours a month total to find the given one per year. So if you really think about it, that’s not a lot of time. If you divide that by the weeks, you’re spending two hours a week finding a given investment property that’s going to cashflow you for as long as you want it to cashflow.

John Harcar (17:03.314)
Got it.

John Harcar (17:16.464)
Mm-hmm.

Jake Belden (17:16.75)
So again, you have to make that sacrifice. What am I doing? Multiple things. I I’ve put offers in on properties online, on Zillow, and that was the new Britain one that I just told you about. No offers, a bad offer, no offers, a disrespectful offer. The following year was during COVID, I met somebody at the gym, I ended up buying his property, totally off market. We were working out.

John Harcar (17:35.826)
Great.

Jake Belden (17:43.276)
He was next to me and we just got talking. ended up buying his property the following year. So you just never know. Just keeping your eyes open. Letting people know that you do this, I think is super important. If I, you know, I’ve never done a podcast before. This is my first time, but you need to let people know that you’re doing it. Right. If, if I didn’t tell that guy at the gym that, Hey, I invest in properties, I buy properties. then, then I never would have found it, especially during COVID when things in the new England were crazy. Right. So.

John Harcar (17:52.923)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

John Harcar (18:12.86)
Yep.

Jake Belden (18:13.336)
There’s different routes you could go. I the last two years I worked with a company, LGI Homes, who is building new constructions and offering those at discounted pricing. So there’s different avenues and just keeping your eyes open at all times and reaching out to people.

John Harcar (18:31.005)
Are you just looking off for properties on the MLS that are listed? Are you doing any type of off-market marketing or anything like that?

Jake Belden (18:38.464)
Yeah, mean, so OnMarket is definitely the primary source, but it’s kind of funny. I laugh because, you know, two weeks ago and a week ago, I’ve been driving down roads and looking for property. So you just never know. Like, you know, I was driving down Merritt in Connecticut and basically just writing down addresses, finding out who owns the property, reaching out to them, calling them. So

combination and again whatever works on market, off market. Off market obviously is more difficult to find the deal but if you do find the deal obviously the numbers are much more lucrative if you can find a good off market deal. So a little bit of everything and just doing what you can. Discipline.

John Harcar (19:17.989)
Right.

John Harcar (19:26.237)
OK. OK, yeah, good old driving for dollars, man. I mean, that’s always been a staple in my opinion of anybody’s business. It should be because, you find those deals that are ugly. So where do you see this? So you’re only on the one property a year track. Do you ever have plans to buy more, to maybe accelerate the process?

Jake Belden (19:29.112)
That’s it.

Jake Belden (19:44.438)
Yeah, I think so. I yeah, I think so. I would love to. My focus right now is trying to help people get going. I would love to. I’m a big advocate of, you know, beginners jumping in and getting in, you know, whatever game they choose to do. It doesn’t have to be real estate, but my website offers help with investing in the stock market or starting your own business.

John Harcar (19:54.461)
Okay.

Jake Belden (20:13.056)
and not just getting caught up in that same six month cycle that I was talking about earlier. So I think that’s really important to me right now impacting others. But yeah, you never know. I would love to ramp it up. The good thing is I don’t hate my job, so I’m going to continue to go to my job. And that could help me ramp it up too, obviously. So you just, never know. I think a big thing too is I have a great support system.

So I have the best girlfriend in the world. I have a great family. And if you’re really going to do this and you’re going to dive in, I think having a good support system is very, very important. If you don’t have it, then you know, I mean, they’re going to think you’re crazy anyway. My mom definitely thought I was crazy when I started this, but it’s, you know, she would still say the normal, hey, I support you, know, keep doing what you’re doing.

John Harcar (20:42.887)
Yeah.

John Harcar (20:54.715)
Yes.

Jake Belden (21:10.286)
Support system is very important and just staying disciplined and just doing what you can. If I could start doing two a year or get going in the flips, then great, I’ll do it. But again, my priority right now is to try to help people that are stuck in that six month cycle of analysis paralysis.

John Harcar (21:28.455)
Do you think it’s funding or time or what is maybe holding back from those two a year?

Jake Belden (21:33.55)
I think funding can be an issue a lot of times for, that’s a great question. I think funding can be an issue for people if they are trying to get clever with their financing. If they start and they do a 5 % down program and they’re paying PMI and the cash flow is not there, that can really hurt you the following year or two. And I’m glad you brought that up because I

John Harcar (21:58.535)
Yep.

Jake Belden (22:02.924)
Definitely focused on doing normal conventional loans 20 % down which I’ve done seven straight years So, you know, that’s not easy putting 20 % down every single year for seven straight years It takes a lot of discipline. It takes a lot of saving money. It takes a lot of You know friends asking you to go out on the weekends and saying no, right?

John Harcar (22:09.341)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (22:13.863)
Yeah.

John Harcar (22:21.218)
Avoiding those, yeah, I was gonna say avoiding those fun traps.

Jake Belden (22:25.228)
For sure, yeah. mean, you need a certain level of discipline that most people just pass on, right? But looking back, nobody ever says, hey, Jake, you missed this great night. No, they’re saying, hey, Jake, you’ve got these seven properties now, and you’re doing a great job, and this and that. How do I get going into it, right? So making good decisions and being disciplined.

Back to funding, I think that’s a potential obstacle of mine right now. I have seven conventional loans right now of my own. Yeah, which is pretty crazy, but I don’t think conventional loans are really an option for me at this point anymore. I definitely need to go the DSCR route or…

John Harcar (22:59.101)
Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

John Harcar (23:12.605)
Yeah, I was gonna mention, have you looked into DSCR?

Jake Belden (23:15.756)
Yeah, for sure. I’m in talks with companies right now with DSCR loans. That’s probably the answer. Fortunately, because I’ve put 20 % down each time I have a ton of equity in all these houses. So it’s an appealing portfolio to a potential lender. So that would be my advice for anybody getting going. Hey, do it right the first time. If you’re going to do it, try to do the 20 % down route. Try to build up some equity. It’ll only help your cash flow too, right?

John Harcar (23:44.049)
Yeah.

Jake Belden (23:45.154)
I think that’s really the way to do it if you can.

John Harcar (23:47.683)
And that’s great advice, right? And I was going to ask you that kind of what advice would you give to someone, but you kind of what else do think for someone to just to get off the snide and just get get going? What advice would you give?

Jake Belden (23:58.594)
Yeah, mean, reach out to me, But I mean, so.

John Harcar (24:02.608)
Yeah, there we go. While we’re on that topic, plug yourself. Tell folks how they get a hold of you and how they can connect with you.

Jake Belden (24:10.946)
Yeah, absolutely. So probably Instagram. My Instagram is Jake underscore Belden underscore nine two or my phone number two zero three five nine eight eight two six eight is the best way to get in touch with me. But there’s always an option. Even if somebody doesn’t have the money or they want to get going, you can always partner with somebody else. You could partner with somebody like me that already knows the industry right and knows how to find a deal. There’s always options. If somebody is listening to this and they have

less than $5,000 in the bank account, you can still get going. You just have to probably partner with the right person. So there’s always options. And like I said, the great thing about real estate is really you get out what you put in. It’s not about what you have in your bank account. It’s not about how much money you make all the time. There’s always an option. There’s always a way for you to be successful in this business.

John Harcar (24:42.841)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

John Harcar (24:52.625)
Yeah.

John Harcar (25:01.563)
And there’s two things everybody has money or time, right? If you don’t have the money, but you have the time, find someone in your local market, someone that could teach you and do give, right? Just be it, do stuff for free, learn.

Jake Belden (25:11.191)
Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. back to the fear thing, when you’re starting out, the worst case scenario is you end up exactly where you are right now. So when you’re starting, I would love to start out again. When you’re starting out, you have nothing to lose. Make the phone calls. Drive for dollars. Make crazy offers like I made online. You could do it all. So yeah, anybody could do it.

John Harcar (25:28.251)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

I love it.

John Harcar (25:40.123)
I love it. Man, Jake, thank you for coming on the show today. guys, I hope you took a lot of good nuggets. mean, you don’t have to leave your job to get into real estate, but the whole thing is you got to start doing it. You know what I mean? You got to make that first step. I hope you guys had a great show. Jake, once again, thank you for coming on and sharing your story, man. I applaud you. I wish you the best in getting more properties. everybody, I you enjoyed the show, and we’ll see you on the next one. Cheers.

Jake Belden (26:09.966)
Thanks, Sean.

John Harcar (26:09.999)
Cheers.