From Safe Job to Financial Freedom With Buy and Hold Real Estate | CJ Calio

CJ Calio (00:00)
And in four years, we were able to create a large portfolio that retired me and my wife from our job. But more importantly, I was able to get back my freedom of time, which was the real thing I was chasing when I was stuck at UPS working those long.

hours. I had the ability to create generational wealth. I was no longer tied to a stuck position, an hourly rate union job where there was no upward movement. I was there. That’s capped. Now I have the endless possibilities of creating endless streams of income with this skill that I’ve had. And ultimately, real estate can help anybody achieve that type of life when they’re committed.

Scott Bursey (02:14)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host Scott Bursey And today we’re getting straight to the strategies that matter. And we brought in a serious player to share them. CJ Calio from WNN Properties. Welcome to the show, CJ.

CJ Calio (02:28)
Thanks for having me, Scott. It’s good to be here.

Scott Bursey (02:30)
It is awesome having you here. So for those who are just meeting you, what was your journey into real estate and what are your goals now?

CJ Calio (02:39)
Awesome. So Scott, my story starts because I’m from Hawaii and growing up in Hawaii, I was taught at a very early age to go find that safe, secure, preferably union job. When I got older, that’s what I did. I ended up working for UPS. It had everything that my parents told me I needed to live a well…

well in a comfortable sense life in Hawaii, which is very expensive. So I thought I arrived and through the working of UPS, it was a very safe job or at least I thought until one Christmas Amazon flooded in and I mean flooded in Hawaii has never seen packages come in like that volume during this particular Christmas season. And I just recall myself working so many hours and not seeing my family and my

kids were like where’s dad and my wife was almost a single parent at that point and delivering during that Christmas season I was out one day hustling just getting all my packages out and it was well past my normal finish time and I realized I’m not even close to being done so I said you know what this is it taking the truck back in my drive home I kept telling myself this isn’t what I signed up for I’m done

I get home, talk to my wife.

wake her up in the wee hours of the morning and I explained to her where I was at, how my day went, and my thinking. And I told her I wanted to quit. To my surprise, she said, okay, you can quit. I feel the same way. I was doing this parenting thing all by myself, the kids aren’t seeing you. This job is really consuming everything we have. What’s your solution? man, that question, Scott, caught me off. I didn’t think that far ahead. I was so emotional in the day, so frustrated.

where I was at so stuck in my thinking. I didn’t have any solution for my problem which was to leave my job. So she posed a question. Hey, I’ve been looking into this real estate investing stuff. How about we do that? Man, I froze. Real estate.

I have no real estate background. I don’t know anybody in real estate. And like a good husband would with a supporting spouse, I told her, you go, you go do real estate. You go, you go create it for me and I can quit. It really came out of this, this fear of not having the understanding of what real estate investing could look like. So instead I went off and I started creating businesses, things that I knew that I had experience with. I created a landscaping company, a car detailing company,

I sold car lighting, things that I understood or may have had past experience in, that’s what I did. And like most people that start businesses that know, often they don’t work out. So nine failed businesses later, nine months later, I must have the courage up to just get on board with my wife. And when I did, I mean, that changed everything. She was already stuck on this concept. She invites me to this networking event.

I walk into this room and I’m just sweating and shaking. I don’t know anything about real estate. I don’t know anybody here. And I recall hearing all the different methods and strategies of investing. Flipping, wholesaling, multifamily, commercial, single family, buy and hold, syndication. And I felt that overwhelming sense of I’m just lost.

I don’t understand any of this. This is English, but it’s foreign.

How do I get started? I don’t want to lose money. Like these things are running through my mind and I realized I was with my wife who’s already been nine months in and finding traction and identified a strategy that can work for us. I leaned into that.

Scott Bursey (07:10)
Absolutely. What a unique, windy road.

CJ, your company is built on the win-win philosophy. In a market as competitive and high stakes as real estate, how do you ensure that every deal truly serves both the investor and the community?

CJ Calio (07:15)
of life.

Yeah, that’s a great question, Scott. So first off, it’s really understanding your method, like making sure you’re in alignment with the method. Cause like my share, when I went to the event, there’s so many different methods out there and all of them can help you get to the place you want, but you get to dial into a specific method that you’re committed to. Once you’re committed, you find the markets, the markets naturally reveal themselves. So like flipping works well in Hawaii. It’s a high appreciation state. Buy and hold for cashflow, not so much in Hawaii cause the numbers don’t make sense.

So that leads you into different markets and when you know that, now you know how you can serve the community because we’re really providing a service. We’re providing living properties for people who may not be qualified currently to buy their own but do need a place to live. And that’s where I see like the win-win between an investor and maybe our tenant base that we work with.

Scott Bursey (08:22)
I love that perspective. It’s easy to talk about win-win as a slogan, but hearing how you actually apply your principles makes it real. CJ, this has been on my mind. What is a common mistake you see real estate pros making in today’s market?

CJ Calio (08:38)
I feel the thing I guess I would say I see the most happening within my network of investors that are more advanced and pro-based is they’re not staying with their strategy long enough when it gets a little hard. And what I mean by that is they’re often driven by the quick returns or quick result. And when it doesn’t happen, they pivot to more of a

shiny object like, well, everybody’s doing this, so let’s go here. But if they just stuck with it long enough, they’ll reach the result. And I love the book, Think and Grow Rich. It’s one of my favorite reads, Napoleon Hill. And there’s that story about the guy, the gentleman that was digging for gold, and he stopped three feet from it. In my network, I see guys stopping. And that’s a, I wish they would just stay with it until they create that result.

Scott Bursey (09:27)
that commitment, dedication is key. And right there is excellent perspective. That’s worth its weight in gold. Interested to know what is WNN’s single biggest advantage for finding deals in the market? If you could share a little perspective on that.

CJ Calio (10:20)
I think it’s twofold.

So one, we’re active real estate investors who lead through action so we can help others achieve the goals they want. So we lead first. I’m never going to teach somebody or guide somebody in something I’ve never done or I’m not willing to do first. So that’s one thing. And second, we have a very strong network in our markets. We have proven teams, vetted teams, teams that have consistent results in our method of investing that a new investor can coattail ride and piggyback on real quick to get that result. And that’s what I feel gets us the

competitive edge.

Scott Bursey (10:53)
That’s a massive takeaway. Most people wait for the market to give them appreciation. You take a very proactive stance. Now that’s a win-win. CJ, walk us through what is WNN’s core investment strategy right now?

CJ Calio (11:10)
Buy and hold for cash flow. That is our strategy. It’s been like this for over 11 years.

Scott Bursey (11:16)
Hey, and it is a recipe that has prevailed that, continuously has you rise today based on the unique opportunities you see right now. What is the single most important action or strategic focus? You would advise every real estate pro listing to prioritize in let’s say the next 90 days.

CJ Calio (11:39)
Yeah, for me, if it…

I just talked about this at our in-person training just the other day. ⁓ Having a clear path. So smart goals is something we live and breathe by in our community, specific, measurable, attainable. And I change out the risk, the R to risky. gets to be a little bit of a stretch with the timely aspect to it. So if you’re wanting to create results and see things move quickly in the next 90 days, have a smart goal and focus in on it. We use the acronym for focus. Follow one

course until successful. So your 90-day goal is your definition of success. Until you achieve it, keep going. It’s a very simple concept.

Scott Bursey (12:23)
And this has also been on my mind. You know, it’s easy to grind when you’re starting out or broke, but what keeps that fire going for you when you’ve reached a pretty successful level?

CJ Calio (12:37)
It’s the ability to give back and see others break through limiting beliefs when people think, this is impossible to do from thousands of miles away. Like I was from Hawaii. Midwest is three, four, 5,000 miles away depending where you invest. Yet having them break through and see they can, that’s really what drives me forward now.

Scott Bursey (12:58)
And also looking back when you first started to where you’re at today, is there anything that you’ve noticed that as far as Legion that you feel is on the upward trajectory?

CJ Calio (13:54)
My biggest shift in what we’re investing was real estate agents. Cause during the whole COVID period when rates were so low and properties were selling like anybody could be an agent and find success. People were buying property before they went listing. mean, there were bid wars, they were overpriced and overpaying like they could. But now that things have shifted with rates, you see that those who are riding the market less the skill kind of fizzled out.

and the real good agents are sticking around. And when you know your method and your numbers and you can relay that to a great agent, you can get real quick deal flow with little to no effort.

Scott Bursey (14:34)
that’s the pro tip right there and also this has been on my mind here too because you have very good perspective if you were just starting out now and had ten thousand where would you put that ten thousand?

CJ Calio (14:50)
into a rental property that cash flows.

Scott Bursey (14:53)
Absolutely, And CJ, before we wrap, if listeners want to connect with you, know, learn more about WNN properties or find out where to follow your work. What’s the best way for them to reach you?

CJ Calio (15:08)
Yeah.

On social media, Instagram and Facebook, at WNNproperties. Yeah. at WNNproperties

Scott Bursey (15:17)
Thank you for

being on the show today. This has been a very good conversation with some very good perspective. We certainly appreciate that. And thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in. If you found value in today’s episode, please make sure you’re subscribed. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.

CJ Calio (15:26)
Thanks for having me Scott.