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Show Summary
In this episode, Skyler Byrd interviews Jason Pollard, a seasoned real estate investor and agent based in Connecticut. Jason shares his unique journey into real estate, market insights over the past 15 years, and strategies for evaluating properties. He emphasizes the importance of building generational wealth through real estate investments and discusses his dual career as a firefighter. The conversation highlights the evolving real estate landscape, the challenges of property evaluation in older markets, and the significance of having a deliberate investment approach.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Jason Pollard (00:00)
You take all your money, you put it into an IRA, and then you hit what, 72 and a half, and the government’s telling you you have to take it out. I mean, that is crazy, right? You might as well invest in real estate. You know, if you have $100,000 and you put $100,000 in an IRA, you get $100,000 worth of stock. If you have $100,000 and you go buy a $400,000 dollar piece of property, now you have $400,000 worth of property for only $100,000 if you take debt on the other 75%.Plus, when you hit 72, you don’t have to cash it out. You can pass it on to your family, your heirs, build that generational wealth.
That’s kind of my.
know, generational wealth is kind of like my goal
Skyler (02:10)
Hey everybody, welcome to the real estate investor podcast. is your host Skyler Byrd. am joined today by Jason Pollard. Jason, I’m very excited to speak with you because you have a lot of experience now in real estate up here, you know, in the Northeast. So thank you very much for being on the podcast.Jason Pollard (02:27)
Hey, thanks for having me. I’m glad to be here.Skyler (02:28)
right. So before we go into far- when we were talking just before you had kind of a funny story about how you actually got into real estate can you share that with everybody.Jason Pollard (02:37)
Yeah, sure. 2011, I was on my couch with a buddy of mine having a couple cocktails. And he mentioned how he was going to buy a multifamily property in London, Connecticut. I was like, what are you doing? You don’t want to do that. You’re to get calls in the middle of the night, plug toilets, that kind of stuff. Like, what are you doing? During that time, I had a painting home improvement business. So he goes, listen, I’m going to lean on you a lot.you know, maintenance, maybe doing, you know, painting, kitchens, that type of stuff in the apartments. He said, or, you know, you could, you got $12,500, you know, we could go into this together and go into business. And that’s kind of how we did it. And honestly, I say, you know, I got into real estate because of Jack Daniels.
Skyler (03:17)
There you go. Now I love that some people can just kind of fall into what they’re good at and it’s always fun to hear. I love it. And how long have you been doing it now?Jason Pollard (03:25)
So that was 2011, so 14 years I’ve been doing investing. I got out of the painting business probably about 2016 and really focused on this. And then I kind of got bored and then COVID happened and I decided to get my real estate license. So I’m ⁓ a licensed agent with Compass now as well.Skyler (03:44)
Nice, so you kind of get to see the industry from the other side of things too, which is great.Jason Pollard (03:47)
Yeah, thathelped quite a bit. mean, with the portfolio, when we started, we had no idea what we doing. We were just hanging a sign out front for rent and then we’d just take anybody. Now it’s so different now.
Skyler (03:57)
I can definitely imagine in your you primarily focus up in the Connecticut area correct.Jason Pollard (04:02)
Yeah, we’re in eastern Connecticut, you know, close to Rhode Island.Skyler (04:05)
Nice, excellent. And I know you’ve been at this for almost 15 years, 14, 15 years, correct? All right. So being in Connecticut, obviously Connecticut a little bit smaller area, so regardless, you’re kind of close to New York. So what have you seen as changed in the market over that 15 year period?Jason Pollard (04:09)
Yeah.So when it comes to real estate, everything’s local. So our market is popping. We have still, it’s a seller’s market. I would say it’s softening a little bit. But when it comes to multifamilies, we have some pretty big drivers for employment in the area. And there’s just not enough housing. There’s not enough housing. They weren’t building enough housing.
So, know, multifamily housing is huge in our area and, you know, we’re still getting some, there’s some decent deals, but really people are, stuff comes on the market if it’s more than, know, duplex is a little slower, but if it’s more than three, yeah, three, four is perfect, you know, and then people get a little wishy washy when you get in the commercial space for five and above. Yeah.
Skyler (05:02)
Absolutely.And how many doors did you say you have now?
Jason Pollard (05:53)
So, 41. We have 41 doors. Actually, if I include my own kind of play property in Florida, it would be 42. But yeah, and I have a partner in all of it except my Florida property. Yeah.Skyler (05:55)
41.Excellent.
So let me ask you, obviously being up here, you know, I’m from New England as well. I know most of the buildings are a little bit older, you know, a lot older than when you go out west, Arizona and California, things like that. So when you’re evaluating a property, kind of what are you, what are you taking a look at? Where do you think, you know, if you were going to go in on one, where can you add value? What does that look like?
Jason Pollard (06:12)
Yeah.Yeah, so really there’s nothing that really scares us. We’ve gone into places that are totally gutted and we’ve done all new electrical, all new plumbing, know, soup the nuts. It’s really just pricing it out and really building it in a contingency because you’re in New England, you’re dealing with 100 year old homes and it’s, you know, they’re built really well but when they’re not, you’re going to have problems like field stone foundations that haven’t been cared for.
you know, of powder post beetle issues with these older homes with the heavy timber. But nothing’s square. Nothing will ever be square. So knob and tube wiring, you know, but we’ve really, really kind of put a good team together to kind of walk through a house at this point and say, all right, that’s going to be 10 grand, 15 grand. Let’s throw a 15 % contingency on this just in case.
Skyler (07:14)
There you go. Yeah, no, I grew up in a way my father was a plumber and he would take me to work with him sometimes, you know, and when you’re a small kid, it’s just like, okay, now you, okay, you go crawl under that, you know, under that crawl space and figure it out. then when you, it’s just different, right? Even going into some basements where the, you know, the ceiling’s four and a half feet tall, it seems, it’s a little different area. That’s for sure.Jason Pollard (07:17)
Yeah.Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah
right?
absolutely, you know, yeah, it’s totally different.
Skyler (07:41)
Yeah, absolutely. So let me ask you, what do you kind of see happening in the market right now that could be coming in in the next five years? Because the way I kind of see things just from being from the area, I would imagine you being in the real estate side of things. Since COVID, have you seen a big influx of people coming from New York City or anything like that after COVID?Jason Pollard (08:05)
Yeah, I mean there definitely was. It was huge right after COVID, you know, before the ⁓ interest rates started to creep up. You know, and then, I mean, we’re smack dab. Like, I’m I’m kind of in a vacation town, Mystic Connecticut, that’s where I live, and we’re smack dab right between Boston and New York, you know. So we get pulled, we get influx on both sides. I would say when it comes to investment properties, we see a lot of cash coming out of New York and Boston.especially in New York because they were buying up like the western side of Connecticut up to like New Haven, you know, and it just it got so expensive. Really good rental markets and I want to say even Hartford, Hartford was like in the top 10 rental market which is crazy in New England City being in the top 10 in the country. That’s ridiculous. But there’s a lot of value here. So we’re definitely seeing a lot of out of town buyers and I mean really that’s what I love to do.
I I work with new home buyers, I work with regular single-family home sellers, and I don’t mind doing that. I enjoy my work. But when it comes to investors that are reasonable, you know, there’s so many investors out there that are just looking for this unicorn that it’s just, you just spin your tires all day long. But when I get somebody that says, alright, this deal might not be penciling at 25%, but you know what, I’ll take 30 % into this, you know, and
get a loan for the rest and now with pencils, know, those are the type of people that are really having success in our market.
Skyler (10:06)
there you go nice and so would you say that your your primary clientele on the- on the agent side are real estate investors at this point or what does that look like for you.Jason Pollard (10:15)
It goes through waves, it really does. I would say those are most of my conversations. Most of my conversations are with investors and talk about what their buy box is, what they’re looking for. But when it comes to the actual sales and the actual transactions being closed, I would say I’m about 50-50.Skyler (10:37)
Okay.And since you’re on the investing side as well, you get to kind of see it from both sides. Do you think that that makes it easier for you to work with investors? that, does that make it a little bit more, maybe not difficult, but obviously you kind of know the ins and outs of it. So what does that look like for you?
Jason Pollard (10:51)
Yeah, I would say the only thing that’s ever difficult is people think I might be trying to compete with them and I’m not. When I’m ready to buy, I move pretty quick. We’ve been doing this a while so if something pops on the market and I want to put an offer in, it goes pretty quick. But when a new investor is starting out, I think just guiding them through that process, I spend a lot of time just talking to people.you know talking about real estate, talking about how to you know underwrite a deal talk about what the future is if you buy this property you know that type of thing so I spent a lot of time and they all don’t transact but that’s okay like I think you know my goal is always to build I want to build generational wealth you know I get so sick of like take all your money I’m gonna get on a soapbox I really don’t want to that but
You take all your money, you put it into an IRA, and then you hit what, 72 and a half, and the government’s telling you you have to take it out. I mean, that is crazy, right? You might as well invest in real estate. You know, if you have $100,000 and you put $100,000 in an IRA, you get $100,000 worth of stock. If you have $100,000 and you go buy a $400,000 dollar piece of property, now you have $400,000 worth of property for only $100,000 if you take debt on the other 75%.
Plus, when you hit 72, you don’t have to cash it out. You can pass it on to your family, your heirs, build that generational wealth.
On top of it, they get step-up basis. It’s just, don’t get me wrong. I have stocks. I invest. I have an IRA. I do all that. But it’s about having multiple streams when it comes to retirement and being able to pass on that generational wealth.
That’s kind of my.
know, generational wealth is kind of like my
Skyler (12:34)
Yeah, no, think that’s definitely admirable. I definitely, you know, I 100 % agree with you there. Right there. And I really liked how you brought up, and I’m glad that you did, that working with investors that some people might see you as competition on the real estate side. I’ve heard that before. But the way I always kind of looked at it was even if you’re both investors, you’re both looking at properties possibly completely differently, right? With different risk tolerances, what you want to do, the type of, you know,Jason Pollard (12:58)
Right.Skyler (13:02)
clientele you might want to put into the building. So I never gave that much credence, but I’ve heard that from several people. So I’m glad you brought it up.Jason Pollard (13:09)
Yeah, no, and we had this conversation before we got on, I’m slow. Like, I’m, you use a different term.Skyler (13:15)
I said deliberate. Yeah.Jason Pollard (13:16)
Deliberate yeah, I think it’s slow like I don’t move thatfat when I want something and it’s time to buy I move fast I put something on the contract. I’m not I’m not really an investing I’m not like buying all the time because I get stressed out if I have too many remodels going on You know my bandwidth I like and we talked about this too. You know I’m not in Toledo, Ohio Buying properties. I like my feet to be on the ground. I like to touch my property You know that’s that’s important to me so
Yeah, I’m not in competition with my clients.
Skyler (13:47)
Yeah, and I know you’re more of that buy and hold ⁓ type of side too. It’s not something that you’re going in looking to just do quick fix and flips and get out there too. it’s again, just depends on what you’re looking for.Jason Pollard (13:51)
Mm-hmm.Yeah. Right. Right.
I tried it. I tried it.
I tried to flip a… It was successful. I made a couple grand, but I flipped a mobile home. yeah, I don’t think I’ll ever do that again. I don’t know if you know much about mobile homes, nothing’s dimensional lumber. It was quite the event.
Skyler (14:06)
wow, okay.I was going to say, how long did it take you to do the finishes and everything?
Jason Pollard (15:00)
It was three months. We had to special order a couple things. Like you can’t just go get a door. You know, we had a special order, an exterior door. You know, we did everything. We had heating systems. You know, we did everything. You know, I got it for a really good price, so I said, I’ll… It was like, almost like a… I wanted to see if I could do it. And think at the end of the day, I made 12 grand. Funny thing is, my son was…He was 16 at the time, and I was trying to teach him, like, hey, you got to work a little bit. And being an entrepreneur is awesome. And he’s great with relationships. He’s a great gift to Gab. So I put him on texting and phones through. I was using REI Reply at the time. And he was cold reaching out to vacant properties. And he actually got this woman on the phone.
I was I don’t know where I was I was out working somewhere and I get a text message he goes I think I got one and He literally he closed the deal 16 years old he closed the deal and uh, yeah, it was it was great I gave him I think I gave him a 10 % finder fee of the net profits. He’s like 10 % I think I think we sold the thing for 75 grand. So he’s like 10 % that’s $7500 and none of the profits kid on the profits, but but
Skyler (15:56)
Wow, that’s awesome.Yeah.
Yeah
Jason Pollard (16:15)
Yeah, we’ll see where he goes in life, but he could really get some traction in this field.Skyler (16:21)
I was gonna say how old is he now?Jason Pollard (16:23)
He’s 18, he just dropped them off to college a week ago. So, ⁓ yeah, yep, so he’s off.Skyler (16:27)
Okay.all right, well, congratulations. But what do you think? Do you think he’s gonna follow in the footsteps and come back and work in the family business or what?
Jason Pollard (16:31)
Thank you.you know it’s funny he never has any interest in kinda what I was doing he never had any interest in it at all and we’re driving him up to college and I think his major is like sociology or something like it’s just to check a box this is the third major since he’s been there a week so you know we’re driving up and he’s like he’s playing baseball in college ⁓ so we’re driving up and he’s like yeah you know I’m just interested in
Skyler (17:01)
Nice.Jason Pollard (17:05)
getting going with baseball and see what college life is like. And he goes, you know, if it doesn’t go well, I’ll just come back and work in the family business. That was the first time, the first time he’s ever said that.Skyler (17:13)
hahahahaman, I’ve got a little bit in common with him. played baseball in college too. So yeah, yeah. So where’s he going?
Jason Pollard (17:20)
sweet.Westfield State and Mass, where’d you play?
Skyler (17:25)
Okay.I was up at Southern New Hampshire University. Yeah. At the time we were the only wood bat conference in the country. And I, yeah, I don’t think they’re, don’t think they play wood bats anymore there, but, ⁓ but yeah, it was interesting.
Jason Pollard (17:28)
yeah, yup, yup.Really?
No.
Yeah, it gets cold right beginning of season. Wow, it’s… Yeah.
Skyler (17:44)
well,a lot of times we had to play the first like four, five, six games down in mass somewhere because our field was still covered in snow, right?
Jason Pollard (17:53)
Yeah, yeah, I don’t think hehas he has no idea, you know how cold it’s gonna be
Skyler (17:58)
Yeah, yeah.No, that’s awesome though. It’s always nice to be able to bring the family in and I know it’s probably not the way you would want to have them in, but ⁓ but either way it’s cool.
Jason Pollard (18:06)
Yeah, yeah,I mean, who knows? know, sky’s the limit with that kid. He’s got some gifts.
Skyler (18:12)
it that’s what it sounds like absolutely. So what’s what comes next for you what what are you you know planning on on doing for the business are you planning on branching out you want to just you know stay in the Connecticut area what is that.Jason Pollard (18:14)
Yeah.Yeah, I’m going to stay in Connecticut. I think I’m just comfortable here, you know, when it comes to investing. Like I said, I do have one, do a midterm rental in Venice, Florida. So it’s a condo, mostly because I like to go there. I love the place.
We rent it out during the high season, try to make the money when we can and then go there kind of off season. But yeah, wanna stay in Connecticut. The last year’s been, we bought three properties this last year, which is I think the most we’ve done. We’ve done it doing 1031 exchanges. So we’ve been multiplying our doors by selling duplexes and turning them into five units.
you so that’s kind of ⁓ our game plan right now you know but really really no rush you know if the renovations right i have a little renovation crew three guys and then i have some part timers that come in and work you know so if if it work dries up for them we might go out and buy something you know but i you know i don’t think there’s anything like like yeah i’m gonna i’m buying five properties this year you know
We kind of just go with the flow.
Skyler (19:28)
Yeah, hey, see, like I said, deliberate. That’s what I like about it. Yeah, and it’s nice that you have your hands in a couple different things. when one side isn’t there and not ready for you, you’ve got the real estate or the agent side and all of that. So I like it. I you had a good spread.Jason Pollard (19:30)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, definitely.Yeah, so I’m gonna come out of
right field with something here. I didn’t even tell you this at the beginning of it. I’m a career firefighter. So I’ve been a career firefighter for 28 years. I have about five years to go before retirement. if you don’t, you probably know that firefighters always have side jobs. So this kind of was my side job and I basically do it full time because we work.
Skyler (19:50)
Alright, hit me.Really?
Jason Pollard (20:12)
24-hour schedules and have three days off. yeah, it’s a… So I do that as well. So I definitely have a lot of irons to the fire.Skyler (20:21)
That’s awesome. I love it. Well, we’re kind of coming up on time here, Jason. So first of all, thank you again for joining us. And if anybody’s interested in getting a hold of you, if they’re looking for your services ⁓ as a real estate agent in this Connecticut area, how can they get a hold of you?Jason Pollard (20:28)
Thanks for having me.Yeah, so for real estate agent stuff, ⁓ wienpollardteam.com. That’s our real estate transacting website. And then if you want to follow me on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, it’s Jason Pollard, Investor Agent.
Skyler (20:55)
Perfect. All right, Jason. And for everybody out there listening, if you’ve got something of value from this interview, please hit Subscribe. We have got more always coming down the pipe every day. So we will see you on the next episode here. Thank you.Jason Pollard (21:08)
Thank you.
