From Bartender to Real Estate Investor: Why Action Beats Overthinking Every Time

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In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Micah Johnson interviews Jeff Hunter, who shares his journey in the real estate industry. Jeff discusses his transition from bartending to real estate, the importance of taking action, and the strategies he employs in his business, including short-term rentals and wholesaling. He emphasizes the significance of building a solid team, learning from setbacks, and focusing on long-term goals. The conversation also touches on the tools and technology that facilitate real estate management, making it easier for investors to succeed in the market.

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Jeff Hunter (00:00)
I hung up and did it. My back was up against the wall. But the thing I learned about my journey was if I wouldn’t have got laid off, I probably would have never got into real estate at the time I got into real estate. And it was a blessing in disguise, actually. You know, I actually thank that job for laying me off because I made more money in one deal than I made in a year bartending.

Micah Johnson (00:10)
Mm.

Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Micah Johnson. And today I’m joined by Jeff Hunter who’s been making some serious moves in the single family residential space. Jeff, welcome in man, glad to have you.

Jeff Hunter (01:59)
it was.

Peace.

Hey, thanks Micah for having me. I appreciate it.

Micah Johnson (02:11)
Absolutely, man, I’m excited for you to be here. I think your listeners are gonna take some value away from how you’ve approached your real estate career, what led you to it, and then, man, you take action. That’s one thing I like that I’ve heard so far in our pre-call recording, and that matters so much in real estate, taking action. So, for people who may not know you yet, what’s your main focus right now, and what markets you operate in?

Jeff Hunter (02:34)
⁓ thank you. ⁓ So right now, my main focus is continuing to grow our business. ⁓ Right now, we are into short-term rentals. We do fix and flips. And we also do wholesaling as well. ⁓ We’re working right now in Texas, Columbus, Georgia, and Phoenix City, Alabama.

Micah Johnson (02:52)
Okay, all right. So you got out your backyard a little bit there. That’s awesome, man. So let’s take a step back real quick. How long have been in real estate? What led you to it? And, you know, then we can dig into more on where you’re at today and the projects you’ve been working on.

Jeff Hunter (02:55)
Yeah.

Okay, well, we’ve been in real estate for about two years, as far as the fixing flip and the wholesale part. Been doing some short term rental for about eight years now. Okay. Yeah. And what got us into real estate, where, you know, me kind of leading our business into it was having that flexibility. My passion is acting and I’m not a typical nine to fiver. So I wanted something that was going to allow me to make the money.

Micah Johnson (03:26)
Yeah!

Jeff Hunter (03:31)
but also have my time for you as well. Yeah.

Micah Johnson (03:34)
Gotcha. Gotcha. I

love that. I love that passion. There’s a, and that’s one thing that’s fun about real estate is it can be that vehicle to still keep getting to do the things you like to do, create that freedom. So that’s, that’s cool. So how’d you get into real estate? Where’d you come from? Where was that? You were doing what? And then it led you here and what tied you together mostly.

Jeff Hunter (03:45)
Yeah, there.

Yeah, well, actually, when I first got into real estate, I was actually living in Georgia. We’re right now, we’re residing in Texas right now. But I was a bartender out there, know, typical actor job, know, night job, bartending. But I actually got laid off from that job in early February of 2024. March, actually, that was March of 2024.

Micah Johnson (03:58)
Thank

Gotcha.

Hahaha

Jeff Hunter (04:20)
I actually proposed to my wife in February, got laid off in March. So I had to figure out something, right? But actually my wife’s, brother is into real estate. He’s a big time wholesaler in Dallas, Texas. ⁓ So gave him a call and he kind of mentored me a little bit and kind of got me in the game. Typically people start wholesaling, then they start fixing and flipping, but we did it backwards. We started fixing and flipping first and then got a little bit into wholesaling. ⁓

Micah Johnson (04:24)
Yeah.

Gotcha.

Jeff Hunter (04:49)
But

once I got laid off, ⁓ I had that call with him. He gave me some pointers. I started in the Facebook groups and started networking with people in those groups. Started contacting some lenders, some contractors, and got in touch with some wholesalers. And the ball started rolling from there. I just started putting things into action. And one thing I didn’t do was sit on the information that he gave me.

Micah Johnson (05:16)
Right? Right. Cause it was

like homework when we were to have pre-call, you had your call with him and he said, you need to do this. And you just hung up and did it.

Jeff Hunter (06:11)
Yeah, I hung

up and did it, man. I hung up and did it. My back was up against the wall. But the thing I learned about my journey was if I wouldn’t have got laid off, I probably would have never got into real estate at the time I got into real estate. And it was a blessing in disguise, actually. You know, I actually thank that job for laying me off because I made more money in one deal than I made in a year bartending. You know?

Micah Johnson (06:24)
Mm.

⁓

And that feels pretty good.

Jeff Hunter (06:41)
it feels great.

Micah Johnson (06:43)
And it lets you, you did a little acting work last year, didn’t you? Like it’s also doing the thing you want it to do.

Jeff Hunter (06:47)
Yeah,

doing what I love to do. So last year I did two lifetime movies. ⁓ Yeah, one of them is out right now. It’s called Get Rich or Die Trying and it’s not the 50 cent movie, okay? But yeah, I did a couple of movies. I’ve done commercials and things like that. I think the biggest thing I told my wife, because she’s military and I told her, said, hey,

Micah Johnson (06:51)
Thank

Nice.

day.

Jeff Hunter (07:13)
I don’t mind traveling and when we have to PCS and go this place and that place, I don’t want to just jump around from bar to bar. We have to figure out something before this two years is up. And God heard that answer. He heard that prayer and he took that job away from me. He got me into real estate. He allowed me to have time freedom so I can focus on my acting as well.

Micah Johnson (07:21)
Yeah.

Absolutely, and that’s the beauty of real estate now. I one thing about post-COVID is Zoom calls are way more legitimate. You can do business now in a way that was much more difficult to do, and it makes getting out of your backyard to invest, or if you have to move, you don’t have to sell everything to do it. You can still work and live wherever you need to.

Jeff Hunter (07:54)
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think that ⁓ the biggest thing for us was kind of building a solid team. know, you know, one of the things that he told me, he said, you need three core pillars to this business. You need properties if you’re going to find them yourself or somebody’s going to give them to you. You need somebody’s going to give you the money and you need somebody’s going to do the work. So I think at the beginning, I focus on the process, you know, and I think

Micah Johnson (08:23)
Mm.

Jeff Hunter (08:23)
process

and doing my due diligence with putting my team together was like one of the most important things for

Micah Johnson (08:28)
I agree with that, man, because it takes more than just one person to do a real estate deal. There’s multiple parts, and especially when you’re getting in it upfront, if you don’t take the time to learn each section, you’re lost for a long time until you get a whole deal done, right? Until you get a whole deal done and see the whole process at work, that’s before it really clicks, because in the middle there, you’re like, okay, now what? Now what’s next? What’s next? So having that team, I mean,

Jeff Hunter (08:36)
Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

Micah Johnson (08:56)
One thing I’ve learned in my real estate career is relationships are everything. If you have the right person in your home, then you have a way higher chance of being successful. You have the right, and you have to take time to build them. Cause I mean, there’s a lot of people in real estate. You got to get out there and make sure you’re working and meeting the right folks.

Jeff Hunter (09:04)
Yep.

Yep. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. I think ⁓ our first, you know, our first deal, I think one of the biggest things that we learned when we did our first fix and flip, we didn’t, ⁓ we got burned on our first deal. We didn’t lose money, but we could have made more money, you know. ⁓

But that didn’t discourage us. We took that as a learning lesson. Like, okay, so now if we fine tune these things in the beginning or on our next deal, then we can prevent those things from happening. I think that some people, I know a couple people that got into this game and they didn’t have as much success or they lost money on their first deal and they never got into it again. It just scared them away.

Micah Johnson (09:36)
Right.

Jeff Hunter (10:00)
But it kind of added fuel to our fire. It’s like, okay, cool. Let’s keep pushing and let’s keep going. And it was up ever since.

Micah Johnson (10:42)
And that’s the differentiator right there. There are some ways to make sure that you don’t lose money on your first deal, but no matter what, every investor loses money on a deal at some point. There’s just something that happens where it happens. And you’re right, if it hits at the wrong time, or especially if you got real risky in the beginning and you took a deal that knocked you all the way out, that’s one thing you to be careful of too.

Jeff Hunter (10:53)
Mm-hmm.

Micah Johnson (11:05)
You can still do a lot of things right and a deal go wrong on stuff you couldn’t have expected. But there’s penciling a bad deal, right? You can get a little anxious and you want one real bad, it’s like that’s also learning upfront. Take a deep breath. you’re in real estate is a get rich, slow scheme. is about longevity. It’s about staying in the game year after year after year, because that’s how you get the snowball effect. It’s not…

Jeff Hunter (11:06)
you

Yep.

Yeah.

Micah Johnson (11:32)
No one comes in, does one

deal, gets out and they’re done forever. I mean, you can maybe make some money that way, but that ain’t how you make a lasting cash flow. That’s not even like that lasting generational wealth.

Jeff Hunter (11:38)
Yep.

Yep, it’s really not, you know. I think, you know, Charlotte’s my wife because she’s so good at this, it’s about money management. know, real estate is one of those businesses where you got to have money management and you can’t let that, you do that first deal and you make 30, 40 grand. You’re like, man, I’m about to go shopping. I’m about to go on a trip. You know, we said no, let’s invest, ⁓ let’s put our money back that we invested.

Micah Johnson (12:06)
Right?

We

do.

Jeff Hunter (12:12)
Let’s our profits and let’s put it right back into another deal. I think that saved our business. Using the money as a tool and allowing us to think long term in this business, because it is a long term game, like you said.

Micah Johnson (12:20)
It does.

Yeah. And that’s what makes it a business. Folks that just do one, take the money out. That’s a hobby. And which is fine if you just want a hobby, but to do a business requires discipline, putting it right back. And everybody goes through that feeling. And that’s what separates the professionals from ones that just dabble is do you want to build that system in that process? Cause it’s not a mystery on how to be successful in real estate. You got to meet the right people and learn and understand, but

Jeff Hunter (12:33)
Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Micah Johnson (12:55)
Once you’re in it long enough, see, this is a process that I’m involved in. And if I just do these certain actions well, it creates this outcome and just rinse and repeat each time from underwriting, understanding your buy box through your lending, lending to title to all of it, each little step you get, you understand, and then you just start managing from there. So that’s, that’s powerful. So what are y’all plans this year? So you got last year, you said you did.

Jeff Hunter (13:01)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

you

Mm-hmm. Yes, sir.

Correct.

Micah Johnson (13:24)
⁓ about five flips, if I remember correctly,

what’s the goal this year? What are y’all pushing for in 2026?

Jeff Hunter (13:31)
So that’s a good question. So this year, so we did five deals in about 10 months, ⁓ five flips. We were moving fast. I mean, we were blessed to be able to do some flips and first week get offers on them, you know, ⁓ and allow us to continue to get more deals. But this year we want to kind of double that. We want to double. So between eight and ten flips this year, ⁓ we want to continue to grow our wholesaling business. So we did what endowed with a little bit of wholesaling.

last year, ⁓ but we want to kind of make that a core piece of our business. know, ⁓ think the biggest thing for us was ⁓ relying on wholesalers too much for our deals, you you know, learn how to bring in our own leads, you know, ⁓ but yeah, that’s the next step. It’s like continue to grow and build. We brought on an assistant this year. So kind of grew our internal core, but growing our flip business.

Micah Johnson (14:16)
That’s that next step.

Jeff Hunter (14:29)
getting more wholesale deals and adding at least one or two long-term holds to our portfolio.

Micah Johnson (14:36)
Excellent, man. That’s a good, that’s a solid year because that’s where you’re and is it, you still looking for that short term rental space? And let’s dig into that a little bit. So you’ve owned a couple of short term rentals for about eight years. Are your new buying holes going into that same type of asset?

Jeff Hunter (15:31)
Yeah, so what we’ll do is like, ⁓ so what we learned this year is interesting fact. So my wife was stationed in Columbus, Georgia, and I was living in Atlanta. And then once we got serious, she said, hey, listen, you need to come home. I said home where I’m at home in my house right now. She said no Columbus. So I end up moving to Columbus. ⁓ And while we were there, we actually found out

that Columbus is in the top three for Airbnb locations in the world. Columbus, Georgia. Yes, I didn’t know. I was like, Columbus, Georgia? But it’s just a fact, yeah. So, yeah, I wanna guess that. Yeah, so we were, I had some Airbnbs in Atlanta already. ⁓ And then we did our first Airbnb in Columbus this past year. ⁓

Micah Johnson (16:02)
Really? Yeah.

I

Okay.

Jeff Hunter (16:24)
We like that model because when renting, you know, we can make three or $400 in profit a month, but on short-term rentals, we can make two or $3,000 in profit per month, you know. In Columbus, if you got a pool, you can make four or five grand in profit a month. You know, but so we just, we learned about that. We started networking with other top short-term rental people that were.

Micah Johnson (16:40)
All right.

Jeff Hunter (16:50)
doing short-term rentals in the area. was like, wow, we started looking at the numbers. I met a guy out there and he had seven short-term rentals in Columbus. I’m like, hey, he’s all the way from the West Coast. I’m like, why are you coming out here to do all your short-term rental? He said, oh, I just follow the numbers. And I said, what do you mean? And he started breaking down the numbers. He showed me, pulled up his tablet, he showed me everything, the numbers, and he showed me the numbers he was doing. He only gets properties with pools out there in Columbus and the numbers he’s doing is crazy.

Micah Johnson (17:03)
Yeah.

Jeff Hunter (17:18)
Phenomenal. Yeah, so…

Micah Johnson (17:19)
And it’s a testament to focus

really on knowing which one you like to do, right? And that’s where y’all are sticking to that. Like if you like to do that particular type, that’s one thing I love about real estate is there’s a lot of niches to be in. There’s a lot of ways to do this and it can line up with your personality. It can line up with all of that so that you do it in a way where you get your emotional paycheck paid along with your financial one.

Jeff Hunter (17:26)
Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah and we know It’s interesting because when I was into short-term owners before I met my wife And she was like, ⁓ no this and then I’m like, trust me. Look at look what I’m doing in Atlanta You know, we started getting into it ⁓ She’s big on like at first when we got our first one in Columbus, you know, I was cleaning it I used to own a cleaning company commercial cleaning companies. I was cleaning it

Micah Johnson (18:01)
Right.

Okay.

Jeff Hunter (18:12)
And then when we end up moving to Texas, she was like, well, maybe we should get rid of it because who’s going to clean it? Who’s going to take care of it? But we use a company called Turno. And it’s platform that’s built specifically for short-term rentals where they can do all of your cleaning. It connects to your Airbnb and your Verbal or your HomeAway or whatever site you’re using. It connects to that site. ⁓

Micah Johnson (18:21)
Okay.

Interesting.

Jeff Hunter (18:40)
when a booking comes in, your cleaner will see it, they can accept it, they can clock in, they can upload pictures, they can do claims, it’s all connected. And you get to interview the cleaners that you want, you know, and have one cleaner here and then you can have a backup cleaner, or three or four backup cleaners. And that way, it’s all streamlined. So now we get bookings, everything’s, sometimes we don’t even know, you cleaned it, wow, you know, it’s like all streamlined.

Micah Johnson (18:54)
Interesting.

Jeff Hunter (19:09)
So she feels real comfortable with short terminals now.

Micah Johnson (19:14)
That’s the power of it. There’s more and more amazing tools in this industry that keep getting created that make whichever version you’re into more and more possible. Because that used to be a thing. If you couldn’t get cleaners, if you couldn’t get turnover, you had to live beside them or find a neighbor, beg a neighbor to over there, hey man, I’ll give you 50 bucks. And then it barely gets done. that’s

Jeff Hunter (19:23)
Yep.

Yep.

Yeah.

Micah Johnson (19:37)
That’s what I like about real estate again, man. I geek out on this stuff. So if someone’s listening and they’re listening to you, you’re getting into business, you’re doing the actions. If they want to follow along, learn more about you, possibly learn from you, what’s the best way for them to find you?

Jeff Hunter (19:41)
Yeah.

⁓ Well, we do have a website,

it’s called the huntersgrp, short for group. So it’s thehuntersgrp.com. We are also on social media, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and that’s spelled out the hunters group. Yep.

Micah Johnson (20:10)
Okay, all the way. Excellent.

We’ll make sure that those links are in the show notes for everybody listening. Jeff, man, I appreciate your time today, your story, your perspective. I think more folks need to be out there taking action. If it’s for you, it’s for you. Get in the game. Come on. It’s market cycles. There’s always a good time. There’s something, there’s a deal in all of them if you plan on being in this long-term. You just have to learn in that first one.

Jeff Hunter (20:19)
Yeah, thank you.

It’s… Yes, sir.

Micah Johnson (20:34)
So if you got value from today’s episode, if you’re cleaning in, please like this episode, share it, subscribe to our podcast. Thanks for being here. Yeah. Thanks for joining me. We got more conversations coming up with operators just like Jeff out there building real businesses that fit their lives. We’ll see you in the next episode.

Jeff Hunter (20:43)
it.

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From Bartender to Real Estate Investor: Why Action Beats Overthinking Every Time

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