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South Florida Opportunities, Smart Due Diligence, and Real ROI with Jason Souwed

By October 28, 2025Real Estate Pros Show

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Kristen interviews Jason Souwed, a seasoned investor and broker from South Florida. Jason shares his journey into real estate, starting from his early days in the cell phone business to becoming a successful property buyer. He discusses strategies for identifying profitable properties, the importance of understanding liens, and innovative selling techniques through his brokerage. Jason emphasizes the current buyer’s market in South Florida and encourages listeners to seize opportunities in real estate investing.

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    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Jason Souwed (00:00)
    Now with these properties at the auction, ⁓ it’s not all fun and games because sometimes you could be buying a second lien position, second mortgage. ⁓ You could be buying ⁓ an HOA lien where it’s from the homeowners association and they took possession of the property, meaning that ⁓ if there’s a lien on the property from a bank, it usually falls with first.

    who’s first in line first in line first recorded first on deed. So whoever is the first person to record that lien is still the person that owns that property and you might buy this property thinking my God I got this property for 20k. ⁓ Look at the judgment and then you find out there’s a mortgage of 350k on that property.

    you’re not going to be happy.

    Kristen (02:33)
    Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Kristen and I’m here with Jason Souwed, who is an investor, broker, wholesaler. He’s the owner of Palm Beach Property Buyers, LLC out of South Florida. So excited to get into his great background and everything he’s been doing. So thanks for being here, Jason.

    Jason Souwed (02:50)
    Thank

    you for having me. Good afternoon. How are you?

    Kristen (02:52)
    Yeah, so

    I’m very good. Thanks for being here. So you have a very interesting background, how you’ve kind of been able to progress to now owning your own brokerage. ⁓ Can you talk about how you got into this industry?

    Jason Souwed (02:56)
    Thank you for having me.

    Absolutely. In 2007, I was about 22 years old and I used to own a cell phone store. ⁓ From the cell phone store, we used to collect payments for all the different carriers. We used to repair phones before phone repairs was a thing. And we used to do a lot of these things of refurbishing phones as well.

    So I was looking to buy a place in 07 when the market went soft and every time I would put in an offer on a property that somebody else would pay a little bit more for than me for the property they would pay about 10 the bank could this is something that the banks do and they do they still do that those day and age they price the property is very low and then to attract as many

    prospective buyers as possible. And then they make it that bidding war between all the different prospective buyers. And a lot of times the buyer ends up paying a little bit more than he would have paid for another house that wasn’t so priced so low. So it’s a little tactic that the banks do that people don’t really know about. And every time I would go to buy a place, somebody else will pay a lot more.

    And I was a cash buyer at that time. I was going to be paying directly in cash, no financing. You know, it could be missing a kitchen. It could be missing a bathroom. It could be missing anything. And I was willing to pay in cash. And it didn’t matter the condition. The properties at the bank were the banks were retailing. Those are all the premium properties. The premium property is the bank’s retail.

    The properties that need a ton of rehab, they need roof, they have mold, et cetera. Those are the properties that they sell on the foreclosure auction block. And so I would go up against people that were getting conventional loans. And when you’re getting a conventional loan, every 10,000 is basically $100 extra that you have to finance.

    Kristen (05:56)
    Yeah, it’s a good point.

    Jason Souwed (06:17)
    It doesn’t come out to be so significant because you’re stretching out for so many years. And so a friend of mine that used to be in the mortgage industry, he said, I don’t understand why you’re buying, you’re trying to buy properties ⁓ from the banks, the REOs. You can buy the properties directly at the county auction site.

    And I said, they have ⁓ like, they have car auctions, they have property auctions. And my friend replies, yes, they have their property auctions and this is how it works. So I said, Ken, I want to hire you. He used to be a mortgage broker doing a lot of mortgages down in the South Florida area. And in 07 mortgage brokers basically were jobless, unfortunately.

    because they they tied up the regulations, they tied up the flow of money, they tied up a lot of things. I don’t know if you if you remember in 07, 08 times, it was tough times for a lot of people. But

    Kristen (07:26)
    Yeah.

    Yeah, that’s really

    interesting that that’s how you entered the market and you kind of carved out your own path that was thriving.

    Jason Souwed (07:42)
    Yeah, I mean, I went I went to the auction. The first day I showed up at the auction. It was I started in Broward County, Florida, which is it covers from pepper, Pembroke Pines to West Park to sunrise. It’s a big county. Broward County, Hollywood, Florida is all part of Broward County. It’s a huge county with a lot of addresses and a lot of properties that were

    under the water like they say. ⁓ I went to the auction and I started doing my research little by little I started understanding how does it work, how much money you have to put in escrow, ⁓ how much of the escrow, what’s the remaining balance, when does it have to be paid, etc. All the information that played a role and I started going for three days a week

    for about six months. The first six months I didn’t buy anything, but I would be there. I would be present. I would be friends with the people that are in the courthouse because they would have it in a room and you would have to park across the street, get checked into the courthouse, in, give them your information, ⁓ sign up and sign in.

    your money had to be in escrow beforehand and counties account beforehand and for six months I didn’t buy anything I would go learn talk to the people you’re talking about these are heavy hitters that were buying hedge fund guys buying 12 13 14 houses a day and

    The key there is not to bump heads with these guys. So when I used to see that it was their day to like they were on fire, they were buying up everything. That means that they had a certain amount of money that they had to spend and I would stay out of their way. So as a common courtesy, they did the same thing to me

    Kristen (09:54)
    That’s interesting.

    Jason Souwed (10:35)
    when I started bidding. You know, I came in after six months. I said, you know what? My lease is up. I was renting.

    Kristen (10:35)
    wow.

    Jason Souwed (10:45)
    I said, you know what, my lease is up. I’m going to make a move on a property for myself. had saved up a little more cash and I ended up going in. I look at the property and I mean, I won’t do this now. I didn’t do my research on that property. You know, I bought it sight unseen and it was 900 North Ocean

    Boulevard in Pompano Beach. Now that the entire building has been knocked down and they’re putting up over there 20 story building. The entire site has been demoed and they’re putting over there a 20 unit building. But I ended up picking up that unit for 57,400 bucks and it’s on North Ocean Boulevard. I’m looking at

    Kristen (11:40)
    Wow.

    Jason Souwed (11:46)
    The judgment is 226,000. That means somebody paid 226,000 for that property that I ended up picking up for 57 and change.

    Kristen (11:55)
    Right.

    And you have interesting background because you’ve never lost money on a property before.

    Jason Souwed (12:05)
    I’ve never I’ve either broken out even on these properties or I’ve made at least 10 to 30 and sometimes 100 % on my cash. Whether whether it was sold within a year or two years or three years, I’ve always been able to make great ROIs.

    Kristen (12:17)
    Wow, that’s so impressive.

    Yeah, because you’re good at identifying properties, I’m sure. What are your tips for identifying properties? What do you look for? ⁓

    Jason Souwed (12:33)
    sure it helps.

    Make sure that it’s not tied up in any any liens with the cities.

    That’s number one. You don’t want your property to have liens on it. A lot of this is all from me making these mistakes that I can tell the viewers this.

    Kristen (12:49)
    Yeah.

    Right.

    Yeah, and I think that’s valuable because I think someone, you know, maybe hears that you’ve never lost money on a property and it’s like, ⁓ but I have. I’m like, he never runs into issues. So I think highlighting that you have run into issues is important.

    Jason Souwed (13:15)
    And the key another key component is never to over leverage yourself never over leverage yourself know how much house you can afford add in the calculate rehab rehab cost add in carrying costs and add in commissions if you’re not a licensed agent you have to sell and pay commission at least to the buyer’s agent you have to

    Kristen (13:20)
    yeah.

    Jason Souwed (13:45)
    pay something for an agent to bring your buyer.

    You know, if you listen it on my platform, then as a seller, seller’s commission, you only pay 89 bucks and we take care.

    Kristen (13:56)
    Yeah, get into that offer

    that you have through your brokerage. I think that’s an amazing thing to highlight.

    Jason Souwed (14:03)
    It’s a great new initiative to help people if they thought that it was going to be too expensive to sell their property. We made it very easy. We offer $89 flat fees, sellers, commissions. $89 all you pay. Right now we’re doing a promotion. We do the free professional photography for you. We send out the photographer. He comes out with a drone, with the camera, sets up.

    And then we also do something with virtual staging as well that I forgot to mention to you, Kristen, where we could essentially now with the new technology and tools that we’re utilizing, we’re able to take photos of a particular house and rooms, et cetera, or buildings or any structure. And then we’re able to implement our own

    Kristen (14:38)
    Mmm.

    Yeah.

    Jason Souwed (15:41)
    decor.

    where it’s high-end decor, high-end Italian furniture, high-end ⁓ to get the people to see what the property can really look like in its heyday and to give them a vision of ⁓ the potential the property has because me I’ve never you know a lot of people that look at a property and say my god that property is so ugly or that property you can’t do anything with that property.

    And in the past, I’ve been able to take with a little bit of blood, sweat and tears, ⁓ landscaping, lighting and paint and take these zero properties to hero properties. And it makes a huge difference, a little paint, a little tender love and care and a little bit of vision.

    can take you a long way. And if there’s any investors that are listening, I want them to reach out to me directly because if they ever thought about buying properties at the courthouse steps, I will help them. I would guide them through the entire process of doing this research, making sure there’s no liens on the property because if there’s a lien on a property, but sorry to get off the lens a little bit.

    Kristen (17:03)
    Nice.

    Jason Souwed (17:12)
    ⁓ You know, I got sidetracked but the liens is one of the most important things because the city and County can regulate what happens to that property so if you buy a lien and it might be ⁓ if if you buy a property that’s got a nuisance lien on it it’s only a matter of time where they they try to make you them with a property or if it’s a if they

    ⁓ categorize it as a unsafe structure then all of the sudden they want you to demo that building and you don’t want to buy a property at the courthouse and then find out that that property is basically on track to be demoed by the city and i’ve purchased properties like that i could give you a perfect example three zero zero one northwest fifth court

    It was in line to be demoed. I came in, I bought that one at a tax deed auction. That’s for the auctions of unpaid property taxes. After a few years, the county takes the property and put it up for auction. And I had to go through permits. I to go through a lot of different things to be able to resell that property.

    you know, making me hold it for about a year. But what’s the good thing with having property is that usually they never go down in price. They only go up. They only go up. Your dollar value today is not what it was yesterday. Your dollar value tomorrow is not what it’s going to be today. A lot of people don’t calculate dollar value and don’t calculate

    Kristen (18:56)
    Hopefully.

    great.

    Jason Souwed (19:13)
    what it takes to actually build a property. You know, a nice property will cost you $300 a square foot. You can buy properties at 150 to 125 per foot, even in some areas, maybe at $50 a foot.

    Are you ever going to be able to rebuild it for that? No. Are you ever going to be able to build it to even to the to the specifications? The the wood from 100 years ago, they used to use Homestead Pinewood. Homestead Pinewood is wood that doesn’t deteriorate by termites. And it’s much better. If it if it’s been there for 100 years.

    Kristen (19:55)
    Right.

    Jason Souwed (20:09)
    It’s not going anywhere. And so your money just keeps going up and through a bunch of new different initiatives and a bunch of new different programs, your property will never be empty. You got programs like Pat Split. You can put three, four people in a house. Shout out to my, to Jack from Pat Split, by the way, friend of mine.

    ⁓ You got Airbnb, you got ⁓ different programs through the state, which is VA housing, ⁓ housing for older people, and a lot of different initiatives and a lot of different programs that your property will never be empty. People will always need a place.

    to live and a place to work. No, no ifs or buts about it.

    Kristen (21:12)
    Great.

    Yeah, absolutely. you’re really, like to hear the encouragement to get into the market, because I think a lot of people are confused or don’t know if they should. it’s always nice to hear positivity around the market.

    Jason Souwed (21:31)
    This is the time to buy. This is a buyer’s market. This is the way that it works in real estate and it’s always worked the same way. It’s either you pay a little bit more interest and a little bit less for the property or the other way around. It’s always gonna be a double-edged sword. This time is the best time to buy because you can see your money. You can feel your money.

    Kristen (21:52)
    Yeah.

    Jason Souwed (22:00)
    You’re not if internet if an internet ⁓ virus happens or if the AIs eventually take over and disrupt the entire financial system, people are still getting any places to live. People still get any places to work. It no matter what happens. Having property is the second best thing to have in gold.

    Gold just keeps going up and down and they could always find more gold or mine more gold But in properties, there’s only so much earth and so much good land Where people can live and can build?

    Kristen (22:48)
    Absolutely.

    Jason Souwed (22:50)
    Especially

    in areas like South Florida. South Florida is a hot market. This is the time to buy over here. We’re under priced. If you go look at houses in Michigan and Chicago and a lot of areas you really don’t want to be. When you come back to Florida and take a look at the prices in Florida, you’ll realize how much bang you’re getting for the dollar in the South Florida and the Florida market in general.

    Kristen (22:55)
    great market right now.

    Absolutely.

    Jason Souwed (23:21)
    A lot of development going

    up ⁓ all over. Sorry to cut you off, Kristen. Just wanted to say there’s so much development going up. Development now is just heading north. They’ve already ran out of places to build down here. Whether that I used to know a guy that purchased in the 80s, he purchased the land by sawgrass, sawgrass mills is one of the biggest malls in America.

    Kristen (23:27)
    No?

    Jason Souwed (23:51)
    and he paid a hundred dollars an acre used to be all swampland he ended up selling for about a hundred thousand an acre when the sawgrass came in

    and he had probably about two, 300 acres over there that he bought and forgot about. And now his children and his grandchildren are still living off that cash.

    You never can lose.

    Kristen (24:24)
    Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it is really a great time. It’s a very unique time to get into the market right now. And there’s less competition. Because I mean, when it’s a great market, there’s people that can outbid you, use all cash. So I agree. I think that’s a great segue. Tell people how to work with you and where to find you.

    Jason Souwed (24:44)
    You can find me at 561-866-6399. ⁓ My phone is always open. I answer my own phone. I don’t have an AI. I don’t have an answer in service. ⁓ If I don’t answer the phone, I’ll call you right back because I like to have a direct connection with my sellers and buyers and want them to know that they could reach out to me directly or they could reach me at PalmBeachPropertyBuyers.com.

    At our site take a look at some of the properties were still tweaking it and I’m also on YouTube Palm Beach property buyers ⁓ Channel, you know share our content take a look I put a video there a couple days ago of a property that sold Just giving a light example the day be you know the day before I went ahead and checked the property ⁓ Website to see what’s gonna be auctioned off

    and a property that was supposed to be selling if you were to buy in the retail market that would have retailed for about 350 to 420 ended up selling on the auction for 175,000.

    Kristen (25:51)
    Mmm, wow.

    Jason Souwed (25:53)
    Now with these properties at the auction, ⁓ it’s not all fun and games because sometimes you could be buying a second lien position, second mortgage. ⁓ You could be buying ⁓ an HOA lien where it’s from the homeowners association and they took possession of the property, meaning that ⁓ if there’s a lien on the property from a bank, it usually falls with first.

    who’s first in line first in line first recorded first on deed. So whoever is the first person to record that lien is still the person that owns that property and you might buy this property thinking my God I got this property for 20k. ⁓ Look at the judgment and then you find out there’s a mortgage of 350k on that property.

    you’re not going to be happy.

    So save yourself the stress if you’re looking if you’ve got some cash and you’re looking to invest I want you to reach out to me. I’ve got a lawyer in house. He does all the pencil searches and with the properties a little bit more than 300,000 we actually do a full title search on those and get in the nitty gritty and make sure that everything is on the up and up when we bid now.

    Kristen (26:54)
    Mm-hmm.

    Jason Souwed (27:21)
    In the years that I’ve been doing this I’ve also developed a pipeline of people Just looking to sell people that are other wholesalers that have properties that they might have locked under contract That will bring in my weight and I’m happy to share those properties with you as well Of course, everybody’s got to get paid everybody has to eat everybody’s got bills to pay but I’m not greedy and I’m happy to help

    the little guy and I’m happy to help the big guy. There’s a lot of money that could be made in this industry. Whether you’re an investor, whether you’re an agent or whether you’re just looking to get into the industry, there’s a lot of money in this industry. Don’t let the big corporations scare you and tell you, ⁓ don’t buy, don’t buy, don’t buy. That’s the problem. You’re believing the news and the media.

    The news and the media are owned by the same people that are buying up these properties right from underneath you. No one wants you to be financially dependent. Everyone wants you to be a slave to the dollar. And with a lot of these deals, that’s not going to be the case.

    Kristen (28:24)
    brave.

    Yep.

    Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, I think that’s such good advice for people and really good encouragement as well. So I really encourage everyone to out Palm Beach Property Buyers, to check out that $89 flat fee to list. I think that’s an amazing offering you guys have. And if you have any questions, reach out to Jason. It seems like he has like a wealth of knowledge. So thank you so much for being here, Jason.

    Jason Souwed (29:10)
    Thank you for having me. Pleasure is all mine.

    Kristen (29:12)
    And thank you everyone

    for listening. Hope you got some good encouragement, know, inspiration and a lot of information to help you in your business. And we’ll see you next time.

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