From Retirement to Real Estate Pro: Jon Conelly’s Inspiring Comeback

Michelle Kesil (00:01.229)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast. I’m your host, Michelle Kesil, and today I’m joined by someone I’ve been looking forward to chatting with, Jon Conelly, who has been making serious moves in the real estate investing space. Jon, I’m really glad to have you here. I think that our listeners are really going to take something away from how you’re approaching your relaunch in the real estate business.

after being in it for so many years and returning back at a new foundation. So let’s dive in. First off, for people who may not be familiar with you and your world, would love you to give us the short version of what your main focus is these days.

Jon Conelly (00:49.258)
Yeah, it’s pretty easy. main focus right now is helping buyers and sellers acquire or sell their home in both the Phoenix, Arizona market and Portland, Oregon market.

Michelle Kesil (01:01.493)
amazing and is there anything specifically like within that market that you would like to expand on or just share a little bit about your story from how you have been in this industry for so long and like what your new approach is.

Jon Conelly (01:18.829)
No, I, yeah, I have been in this industry a long time.

Jon Conelly (01:35.872)
My family had a large construction company, commercial contracting company in Tucson and Phoenix. And when I graduated high school, I immediately took some real estate courses to get pre-licensed. I ended up not getting licensed. I worked construction instead, pouring concrete on the Tucson Mall. And it was a good learning experience. It gave me a lot of work ethic and having an understanding what it means to have a real day’s work done.

But real estate was always in my mind. I ended up moving to Tempe to attend ASU, got a real estate degree, finance degree there, and then ended up working my whole career in the Phoenix area, and I’m still involved in that market to this day. I worked for banks with selling REO properties, managing an REO portfolio, and then went to work for development companies. I’ve developed subdivisions. I worked for home builders.

And then ultimately ended up building homes myself. We built 40 homes in and around the Phoenix area. And I’ve helped with flipping hundreds of homes in Phoenix and a couple up here in the Portland area. I’m in Portland now because it’s really hot in Phoenix this time. And I retired for a couple years. And after being in this business about 38 years, I thought, think this has run its course. But I got bored.

And I thought, I can really help people buy and sell real estate. I have a brokerage in Phoenix and I have about a dozen agents there. And so I joined a board up here and got licensed in Oregon and I’m helping buyers up here. I work with Rieger Homes here and I have FSR Realty down in the Phoenix area. It’s a new adventure for me because I’ve never really worked specifically as a realtor, although I’ve sold thousands of homes.

Both for investors and for the general public but you know, it just wasn’t my forte I managed a brokerage so I you know, I’ve taught pre licensing for two years believe it or not so you kind of really learn the ropes and It’s been it’s been a good journey for me. And this this latest episode is has me Helping buyers and sellers specifically to you know work through a smooth transaction I’ve got a lot of experience, you know all these three eight years done a lot of different things and you know it

Jon Conelly (03:53.621)
It was something that was on my heart, like I’m not busy. What am I doing here? Let’s go help folks buy and sell real estate. And that’s where we are today. So, you know, I can work on primarily residential, but I’ve sold a lot of different kinds of property. you know, commercial is not outside of my wheelhouse, land, multifamily as well.

Michelle Kesil (04:17.975)
Love that. Yeah, it really caught my attention how you’ve been able to work so diversely around this industry. That’s not easy. What has been like the key to keeping that machine running smoothly?

Jon Conelly (04:27.721)
Yeah.

Jon Conelly (04:33.876)
Yeah, so, you know, in my Phoenix career, was, and still am, like, you know, I have a brokerage and I had a construction company. We flipped a lot of homes and I ended up building 40 homes and a 24 lot subdivision and then on some scattered lots as well. And I’d worked for home builders. I worked for Equus Development in Phoenix, a condominium development company. was there.

with them for six years. I worked for Mandalay Homes and they’re active primarily now in the Prescott Market, but they were pretty active in the Phoenix Market too. And, you know, still affiliated with Mandalay on a limited basis, but that was a really good opportunity. you know, it’s just having interest in residential primarily in the construction process, I think it’s benefited me a lot.

I’ve bought a lot of homes. have several investment homes myself that I rent. And it’s worked out well. It’s been a good industry for me. I’ve always been a high advocate of home ownership and how important that can be for people.

know, investing in homes can be tricky, especially, you know, depending on the location. It’s different up here in the Portland area where I am right now. And you’ve got to be really careful about rental constraints. You know, the Oregon market’s a little bit different than the Phoenix market. But yeah, I’m really enjoying this, you know, last stages of my career and kind of winding things down and helping folks

get in homes and do it smoothly.

Michelle Kesil (06:16.919)
Yeah, I love that. Now, every operator I know also had a moment when things not real. Maybe a deal went sideways or a time they had to pivot fast. Would you mind sharing one of those moments for you?

Jon Conelly (06:30.501)
Yeah, so I can say that when we were working, we finished up a subdivision in Phoenix, and it was a 24 lot subdivision, and we were developing another 65 lot subdivision that was in South Phoenix market. And we’re looking at that and how we approached the prior development and how we were approaching the new development and.

We came to the conclusion it was probably better to just to sell the lots rather than build it out take the profit on the lots and move on It left some money on the table. So that was a difficult decision to make but Ultimately, I think it was the right choice given the circumstances and the you know the effort time requirement and Commitment that would be required to finish out that 65 lot community

was substantial and there’s significant risks on the construction side too. So those were all the decisions that came into the process and you kind of like, it was a good project. So on the one hand, there’s some regrets that we didn’t move forward with it, but on the other hand, it’s like, I think it was the right choice. I think that was a good move for us.

Michelle Kesil (07:46.155)
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s the stuff people don’t talk about enough. Yeah.

Jon Conelly (07:52.247)
Yeah, but sometimes that’s important. You kind of have to know where you are in your business and where you want to be and how you want to approach the next thing that you’re working on.

Michelle Kesil (08:05.067)
Yeah, what would you say is like that differentiating factor for you of when to know? What’s something to like approach or lean back?

Jon Conelly (08:15.032)
Yeah, think in that, I think what you have to do is look at the amount of resources that you have available. That is your own time, the time that you can leverage with others. You have to look at your resources as to your vendors and your subcontractors that you’re working with. You need to look at the accounting side, the financial side, make sure that you have enough cash to be able to pull off a particular project.

could be development like we were looking at, could be something else, could be looking to get into multifamily, by multiplex properties, fourplex, five, six, 10, 100. You have to decide where that point is for you resource-wise that you either wanna push it forward or maybe back off and make a different decision.

Michelle Kesil (09:09.771)
Yeah, absolutely. Now let me ask you this. What are you most focused on scaling or solving next? What’s like that next real big goal for you?

Jon Conelly (09:21.26)
Yeah, so I made a commitment to sell 30 homes this year, be that listing or on the buyer side. And working toward that goal, it’s difficult. Leads are difficult to come by, I understand two different markets, so that’s helpful. And I’m talking about me personally, not my brokerage or my group.

Just me personally and so, you know, I’m on the way toward meeting that goal And and again, I mean, I’m just I’m here available in the in the Portland market or the Phoenix market to assist any investors who might be interested in looking at at buying rental properties there in particular and in in the Portland area there are a lot of things to consider as to where to purchase a property Multnomah County, which is primarily the city of Portland

can have very interesting, let’s just say, landlord-tenant laws, which can create some surprises for investors who aren’t familiar with them. You can’t get a tenant out very easily, and often you have to get them out, you have to pay them to move. And if the rents are high, that can be a big number. It can be anywhere from… So I have some…

co-workers who have a purchaser who wanted to buy a duplex and they wanted to live in one side and rent out the other. Both were occupied though at the time they presented their offer. So the seller had to remove one of the tenants and they were on month-to-month tenancy. They had to give them 90 days notice and I think they have to pay them something like $6,000 to $8,000 in moving cost. Yeah.

You know, these are the kind of things that you don’t want to have that surprise if you’re a landlord here. You want to know what you’re getting yourself into, what are the terms. You know, it’s much easier in Phoenix if a tenant doesn’t pay their rent. You know, under Arizona landlord-tenant law, you can get them out fairly quickly. Not so much if you’re in Multnomah County and even Oregon in particular. But you know, those are the kind of things that you’re going to want to have some local expertise, people helping you along the way.

Michelle Kesil (11:37.911)
Yeah, that’s important. Now, I know a lot of people that listen to this are either earlier in their journey or looking to level up. And I think they could really benefit from hearing this, that when it comes to relationships and growing your network, what do you feel has made the biggest difference for you?

Jon Conelly (11:57.152)
Biggest difference is making sure you have a quality customer relationship management software program. The group I’m with now uses Follow-Up Boss, which is a pretty common real estate CRM system. And it’s essential, and it’s highly automated.

Jon Conelly (12:29.725)
It’s absolutely essential for folks who are trying to build a business, who are trying to build a pipeline. And that’s true, really, whether you’re working on the construction side of things, where you want to keep a vendor list and a subcontractor list, or if you’re working on the real estate side, selling homes, as I am now, with keeping your customers or clients organized, making sure you remember

Some of the intricate details, you know, do they have pets? they, you know, because that can impact what their buying or selling criteria might be. CRM system is just absolutely essential. I know I’m preaching to the choir here. I think everybody who’s in this industry understands that, but that’s one of the really important items to be focused on, certainly.

Michelle Kesil (13:22.507)
Yeah, absolutely. And as far as like growing your network, is there anything that you feel has really helped you do that?

Jon Conelly (13:30.972)
Yeah, you know, I haven’t been such a networker in my career, believe it or not. It’s I primarily worked on the admin side. I really liked the nuts and bolts of real estate. I built homes, like I said, and I joked, I used to get my listings the hard way. I built them. Or I flipped them. you know, so I wasn’t so highly into networking, but I think joining organizations, investor organizations, is helpful.

You know, and you don’t need to meet to tell you which ones are best ones. I can’t pretend to know, but you can Google those certainly. And meeting with other folks who are in that industry and are working to find investment properties, they’re trying to find financing assistance, they’re trying to find other vendors for repairs, be it, you know.

the standard drywall painting, carpentry, appliance, those kind of things. They can be essential for having that information at your fingertips and being able to reach out to others for assistance to that end. That would be the advice I’d give is yeah, join some of these organizations. There are Facebook groups also that do this. There’s an excellent Facebook group in Arizona, Arizona Real Estate Agent Forum.

And it provides really good information to real estate agents. It’s not a public group, but it’s open to real estate agents. it’s a good resource. And there are investment forums just like that as well that I think are really important to join.

Michelle Kesil (15:14.753)
Yeah, absolutely. That’s very important stuff. All right. So before we wrap up, if there’s someone that wants to reach out to you, connect, collaborate, or just learn from you, what is the best way for them to reach you?

Jon Conelly (15:30.32)
They can reach me on my cell phone. My number is 602-826-5566. Again, that’s 602-826-5566. Or you can reach me at JFConnelly. Connelly is spelled C-O-N-E-L-L-Y. J-F-C-O-N-E-L-L-Y at gmail.com. I’m with Rieger Homes in Portland and FSR Realty in Arizona, Phoenix in particular. But I also have, I’m member of board in Prescott, member of the board in Yuma.

and Northern Arizona, which covers the Flagstaff area. And I’m a member of the Oregon Board of Realtors as well in Portland. So if anybody needs some help, pick up phone and call me, 602-826-5566. I’m more than happy to talk about investment properties, no strings attached. Glad to talk to anyone if you have some questions.

Michelle Kesil (16:21.987)
Perfect. Well, listen, I appreciate your time, your story and your perspective. We really need more people in this space that are doing things in this right way. So thank you again for being here.

Jon Conelly (16:34.33)
You’re welcome. It’s been a pleasure. It’s my pleasure. Thank you, Michelle.

Michelle Kesil (16:37.663)
Awesome. And for those of you tuning in, if you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming with operators just like Jon, who are out here building real businesses. So thank you and we’ll see you on the next episode.