Stop Studying, Start Doing: Jason Myles on Taking Action in Real Estate Investing

Jason O. Myles (00:00)
Well, the thing that I believe ⁓ that holds people back is their

inability, I don’t want to say unwillingness, but inability to take action. No one wants to lose. No one wants to make a mistake. So they bury themselves in the education aspect of it. So they don’t do that. The reality of it is I don’t care what it is you do in life. You’re going to mess up. When you first started to learn to walk, you fail over and over and over again until you learned how to work those little muscles that would hold you up.

and help you move forward.

Scott Bursey (02:08)
Welcome back to the real estate pros podcast. I’m your host Scott Bursey. Today we’re thrilled to welcome a true authority in real estate investment strategy. Jason Myles of real estate 360 pro. Jason is known for providing a complete 360 degree view of the real estate landscape, helping professionals master every phase of acquisition, management, and long-term portfolio growth. Welcome to the show, Jason.

Jason O. Myles (02:36)
Thank you, thank you for having me.

Scott Bursey (02:38)
It is wonderful to have you here. Jason, before we dive into the market dynamics, please give our audience the story of your journey. How did you first get into real estate?

Jason O. Myles (02:49)
No, it’s a long story. So let me just give you the short version. ⁓ I left a career in the entertainment business. ⁓ I was, you know, in my late twenties, 29 actually, I was almost 30 and I did not want to be on the road. I didn’t want to be a part of that world anymore. And I was looking for something else to do and I didn’t actually find real estate. It technically found me.

Scott Bursey (02:54)
Sure.

Jason O. Myles (03:18)
But only after I spent all my money, I was broke. All right. I was broke. was so broke that my wife was contemplating just being done with me. I was just, I was on the couch of one of my buddies and I had an epiphany. You know, I had some real estate before and I made money on it accidentally. And I said, well, what if I

purposefully, you know, decide to do this thing. And that’s what I did. I didn’t have any money. This was 2001. The internet didn’t exist like it exists today. There was no YouTube. There was no Google. had to go to the library and I went to the library and I read Carlton Sheets. They had the program at my local library. And that’s what I did. I started to knock on doors, hand out flyers. I had 200 bucks. I spent

probably 30 of it on printing and bus tickets and all that great stuff. got my first deal, hundred dollar ⁓ deposit, made six grand and the rest is history. I mean, there’s ups and downs of course after that, but that was the, the proof that was the, ⁓ I made again, $6,000 on that deal. And I said, all right, great. Here we go. I found something to do. How many times can I do this in a month? And I started to build a business after that.

Scott Bursey (04:43)
Awesome. That was the spark you needed. And like you said, you never look back. That’s awesome, Jason. And you talk about the knowledge hurdle being the biggest barrier for new investors in today’s specific market. Jason, I guess what is the one piece of common wisdom that you think is actually holding people back?

Jason O. Myles (04:48)
No.

Well, the thing that I believe ⁓ that holds people back is their

inability, I don’t want to say unwillingness, but inability to take action. No one wants to lose. No one wants to make a mistake. So they bury themselves in the education aspect of it. So they don’t do that. The reality of it is I don’t care what it is you do in life. You’re going to mess up. When you first started to learn to walk, you fail over and over and over again until you learned how to work those little muscles that would hold you up.

and help you move forward.

I can use whatever analogy that you’d want to pick, but you have to get out there and take a chance. I’m not saying throw all your money at something and be, you know, wasteful, be, you know, just, you know, just carefree. That’s not what I’m saying at all. You have to find good education because there’s so much out there that a lot of it works. A lot of it doesn’t work.

A lot of it is old information that worked at a time when you could trip on a real estate deal when you were walking down the street. It isn’t that way anymore. So you have to learn how to find deals, how to evaluate the opportunities in front of you. And then you simply have to take action whenever that is, whether it’s buying it, wholesaling it, whatever you’re doing, you have to take action. You have to.

Scott Bursey (07:23)
you have to absolutely that’s such good perspective and it sounds like the hurdle isn’t lack of information Jason but a lack of a filtered system based on where the market is ⁓ and go ahead expand on that please

Jason O. Myles (07:31)
Yeah.

Absolutely.

Well, yeah, I mean, you look at all of this information that’s out there again, and I really want to stand on that point for a moment. There are so many people out there offering these get rich quick schemes. I’m telling you they don’t exist. It’s the needle in a haystack. Does it happen? Sure. You know, people ask me all the time about these no money down deals. I mean, we’re talking, we’re making literally 5,000, 6,000 telephone calls a day.

in our cold calling business. I don’t even know how many SMS and emails are going out. I mean, the numbers are astronomical on a daily basis. I may find a no money, a true no money down deal where someone says here, just take it maybe once every six months or so, maybe once or twice a year at best. And so when people are talking to you about this and when you’re listening to marketing, understand that those are hooks to bring you into the fold. Once you’re in there,

You have to really do the work. But that’s generally after you’ve spent the money. My position in this is to tell people, listen, you’re always gonna have to do the work. It starts with doing the work. All the other stuff gets easier after you’ve got the experience. But it’s consistency that’s gonna get you to that point. And you always have to refine what it is you’re doing and change it for the market that you’re in front of.

Most people don’t do that. They find one lane and then they run with that until it’s dead. And then they have to start all over again. It’s a lot easier once you’re in the game to continue to refine your processes. And that can really only happen with the vision. Meaning you have to know that things are going to change and you have to put yourself in front of people that you can talk to that can help you understand where we’re going and what’s coming in front of you. You have to pay attention to these things. And most people just don’t do that.

But you have to.

Scott Bursey (09:38)
You have to and those are great words. You’ve got to actively get out there and make things happen just like what you did your point of origin. That is a perfect case in point. Couldn’t agree with you more Jason. That was an excellent point based on where the market is right now.

Jason O. Myles (09:53)
Thank you. See ya.

Scott Bursey (09:58)
Would you suggest to our listeners that they focus on mastering a specific niche perhaps, like maybe wholesaling or rentals, or is it better to understand the 360 degree view of the whole machine first?

Jason O. Myles (10:49)
I don’t think that understanding the real estate in its entirety is where people should start. That’s something that you build towards. The riches are in the niches. I mean, I know that’s a cliche, but the riches are in the niches. So depending on where you are in your journey, what your individual goals are, I don’t care if it’s wholesaling. If you don’t have any money and you want to start, wholesaling is the place. If you’ve got some money and you don’t want to be a landlord,

Wholesaling is in is the space for you if you if you want to build a rental portfolio Then you have to look at what those strategies are and the reality of that That is a very very difficult space today because you’re competing with hedge funds you’re competing with Wall Street So you need to be in the wholesale space so that you can get the deals That you need the equity that you need and that happens with a strategy called the burr strategy, right? ⁓

And the BRRRR strategy is buy, renovate, rent, refinance, repeat. That’s what that is. And then now you have at least 20, 25 % equity in these properties. It’s easier for you to make money and go from there. But if you don’t have anything, even if you have a little something, you need to learn how to wholesale. And if you’re learning how to wholesale, you have to learn how to market. You have to learn how to market for those deals.

Yes, you can JV with other people that have found the deals, but you need to understand if those are actual deals or not. And then you have to build your buyer’s list. Is it difficult? I don’t think it’s that difficult. Does it take time? Absolutely. You can get there faster if you’ve got a little bit of money and you can buy into various programs that can help you build your list faster. But you have to learn how to market and you have to build a buyer’s list period, point blank. So if you’re starting out, whether you’re, you know,

whether you got money or not. Wholesaling is the space that you want to look in.

Scott Bursey (12:51)
Jason, interested to know beyond capital, what is the most important non-negotiable metric you advise your clients to track for long-term portfolio health?

Jason O. Myles (13:05)
Education in the market, period. I kind of beat that horse to death, if you will, because it’s constantly changing. There are people out here that sell you these programs and these ideas that all you have to do is go buy this thing and you can be great. And when we’re talking about multifamily, for instance, ⁓ the juggernauts out there in the space will tell you,

Look, we’re buying, you know, this A plus property at a three and a half cap, a four cap, which is really good when you’re buying a property and you’re getting a four, four and a half, by the way, especially in the market we’re in now. But, the reality of that is in a nutshell, you’re making four and a half percent of whatever your down payment is. You have to decide if you can live off of that, right? That your, your economics will tell you if you can live off of that.

Scott Bursey (13:44)
You

Jason O. Myles (14:03)
So that’s just one example. You have to understand where you’re going. If you’re in the multifamily space, single family space in whatever capacity, what are we coming, what are we facing? What does tomorrow look like? And you have to make your deals today based on what tomorrow looks like. Now this isn’t a down economy, okay? That can be the opposite in a robust economy. We’ve all seen and heard

when the times are great, people spend too much for deals, blah, blah, blah, so on and so forth. Even then, if you’re an astute investor, you’re gonna make your deals at that point based on the values today, not tomorrow. When the market is good, you make your offers based on today’s price, not tomorrow. When the market is bad, you make your offers on tomorrow’s expectations, not today’s, and absolutely not yesterday’s.

And you need to learn how to do that. And that’s a valuation. And again, it’s about talking to people and being in tune to the market. How do you do that? You talk to your local lenders. What are they doing? How are they evaluating deals? You talk to other investors that are where you want to be and ask them how they’re evaluating their deals. What does their situation look like? And don’t be afraid to do that. Don’t be afraid to reach out to them and say, I just need a little help on valuation.

Period. And they will. Because, to be honest, we’re a helpful bunch of people.

Scott Bursey (16:18)
That’s a powerful distinction. Let me ask you this. How are you actually finding those opportunities when the rest of the market is looking the other way?

Jason O. Myles (16:31)
Yeah. And that, you know, that’s a great question because you hear it all the time. You hear people saying, can’t find deals. We’re going to go get a job. You know, people are leaving the business because they can’t find deals. Yeah. It’s a little bit more difficult. I’m not going to sit here and try to sugarcoat this in any way, shape or form, but it’s your processes. A marketing is your thing. You have to learn how to market for these deals. The way we do it today.

One of the ways we’ve always done it in all honesty, but it’s really doing well today is cold calling cold calling with a mix of SMS and email is absolutely better than any other thing that I’ve I’ve done currently. I mean, and we do it all. We do direct mail. We do. mean, you name it. We do it. Okay. But cold calling is really the thing. And I mean, I can give you metrics like in our business.

Every 1350 some odd calls will equal about 50 conversations will turn into one deal. Our average deal I’m in the Atlanta market is about $15,000 a deal today. So if I can, in my business with the people that I have working for me, and I’m fortunate enough to have some people working for me, is we, each person, depending on their shift,

If they’re working full time, they’ve got to make at least a thousand calls a day. If they’re working part time, they’ve got to make at least 400 calls a day. You’d think that it would be different, but you know, it doesn’t. But by making those 1300 touches on a daily basis, I’m locking down, I’m contracting about five deals a week. Now all of those don’t cross the finish line in 30 days. I want to be clear. Maybe seven of those, six of those will cross the finish line.

Scott Bursey (18:13)
you

Jason O. Myles (18:28)
Now, when the market was great, we’re doubling that, you know, and that’s just in one market. Now, if you’re, if you’re working in multiple markets, I mean, we’ve got some of, some of the guys that, that I go to for information that I fellowship with, you know, these guys are there in, you know, six or seven markets, they’re making a million million to a month. You know, they’re juggernauts, but they’re, we’re doing the exact same thing, but I’m doing it in one market and they’re doing it in six.

or seven. So you have to understand your numbers, your KPIs, if you will. You know, so if you’re talking to 1300 ish people a week, you can expect to get one contract out of that one. Okay. And, but it’s marketing, it’s marketing, it’s marketing, it’s marketing. We’re in the real estate business, but we’re marketers. So you have to learn how to market. there’s PPC pay per click.

Scott Bursey (19:16)
Sure.

Jason O. Myles (19:26)
There’s PPL, pay per lead. I don’t really do a lot of the pay per leads because it’s a race to the finish line. Cause if they’re selling it to me, they’re selling it to 20 other people and it’s a race to the finish line. I want to be the first one in line, if that makes sense. so, yeah. And that’s why PPC and cold calling SMS brings them directly to me and my team. And then we put them through our sales process and go from there.

Scott Bursey (19:41)
⁓ perfect sense. Perfect sense. that…

And that was an excellent breakdown of the metrics. Very well illustrated. It is, it truly is a numbers game with skill thrown in for a good measure. Obviously. How do you ⁓ help your clients define their ideal?

Jason O. Myles (20:05)
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Scott Bursey (20:12)
deal I guess you know what are the two to three filtering questions you use to quickly disqualify deals that look good on paper but are fundamentally flawed.

Jason O. Myles (20:25)
Yeah, that’s a super great question actually. But it all comes down to the motivation of the seller. That’s where it starts. Okay. Yes, we can find out all the metrics on a property. You know, this person has, you know, 88 % equity in their property. It’s worth this and they’ve owned it for this long. And the assumption is there’s going to be at very least these modernization renovations that need to be done. And on paper, it looks great. But if that person isn’t motivated, forget about it.

So you have to find the motivation. What do people want first? What are they looking for? If you’re talking to them, are they wanting to downsize? Are they wanting to move closer to family or get a retirement home? Are they sick and tired of repairs? Are they getting code violations? You have to determine what the pain is. What is the motivation? Once you found that motivation, then you start to work it from that angle. And that’s the seller psychology.

You know, it’s all psychological. It’s all psychological. But even then, once you found that it’s about truly evaluating the value of the property. What is it really worth? So many people today that I talked to, whether they’re new or relatively seasoned, are looking at values three months ago, six months ago. They’re not, you today you have to look at properties that sold, yes, but how many days on market was it?

If the property was listed, which that’s what we’re looking at, right? And it’s pending, how many days was it on market? And what is the pending value? You know, it doesn’t matter. It could have been listed at 300,000, but it might be pending at 260.

Okay, and it might have been on the market for 122 days to get the 260. So how many times did they say no before they got the 260? So yes, if we look three months ago, we see the value of 300,000, but it’s selling at 260 today. So you have to understand those numbers. You have to truly look at the numbers inside the numbers.

Scott Bursey (22:34)
Sure.

Jason O. Myles (22:38)
Not three months ago, not six months ago, although that’s important. It’s a part of your valuation process, but it’s not the end all be all. You have to look at what things are selling for right now. And if it, and that does require you to have access to the MLS, but there are services that you can utilize that give you that access so you can see what the pending sales price actually is. And that’s how you have to do it. I mean, those are the key points in my opinion.

to find success in the market we’re in today. And again, I have to go back to this, understand where we’re going economically in this country. We’re looking at inflation that’s probably gonna be at five, maybe slightly above five. We’re anticipating rate hikes, not rate cuts, which means people have less buying power in an economy where things cost way more than they did a year ago, two years ago. So you have to take all these things into consideration when you’re buying a property

whether you’re buying it to rent or fix and flip, especially if you’re going to retail it, you got to know what you’re getting into because if you’re buying it today, at best four months from now, it’s going to hit the market. What is the market going to look like in four months? Price it today for the anticipation of tomorrow in a down economy.

Scott Bursey (23:55)
Such concrete words. Jason, if you could walk us through this beyond capital, what is the single biggest bottleneck you see right now for real estate professionals trying to move from the transaction focused business to a scalable enterprise?

Jason O. Myles (24:15)
Perfect. Outside of capital, it’s knowledge, it’s education, it’s a pathway to what you see next. You know, when you’re wholesaling, the next step is to ⁓ do fix and flips. After that, it’s rental property. Now, does that mean it has to be single family? No, it can be multifamily, but you have to understand the space that you want to be in even there. So if you want a business that gives you what I call mailbox money,

you have to become a landlord. My position in that is I hate being a landlord in a single family space. I’m no good at it. I don’t like it. It’s way more expensive to do it that way. Multifamily for me is where I’d go. So I don’t necessarily steer people in that direction. I just show them and say, hey, listen, you know, if you’re going to buy this one asset, why not buy a five or 10, you know, unit?

property with this a similar to me, it’s going to be more of a down payment, but you’re not, you’re not, you’re never going to be in a situation where you’re either a hundred percent occupied or a hundred percent vacant. You’re never going to be in a situation where you’ve got to buy different size windows and different kinds of doors and different kinds of locks. You can manipulate your own situation to say, I put this in every property. I put that, you know, this particular cabinet, this particular hardware, whatever it is.

and negotiate those prices, carpet, all that stuff, and negotiate those prices with whoever you’re working with for discount every time you have a turn, meaning every time you have a new person coming in. And it costs you 2 to 3 % less to manage when you do it that way. Now we’re having mailbox money. Now we’re scaling. Now as the market begins to shift, can, ⁓ there’s the, ⁓

the process of BBD. We know what that is, right? Buy, borrow, die. All right? So as the market begins to shift on an upward cycle, your 20, 25 % equity might now be 40, 50 % equity over three or four or five years, depending on how the market turns. And then you borrow against it. Now that money is non-taxable and you go buy more assets, more cashflow, more mailbox money. And it’s just a process. So

For me, it was, let me keep doing fix and flips. Let me keep my wholesale business going and let me take that money and buy multifamily and build my tomorrow. Cause at some point, I mean, I’m never going to stop working cause I love what I do. I love this industry, but maybe there’s going to be a time when I can’t do it the way I want to do it. Or maybe I will get tired of it, but I’ve built a business on the backside of this purposefully that I can rely on and my family can rely on.

And now I only have to focus on the state planning.

Scott Bursey (27:15)
Now that is a masterful plan. Last question, Jason. What is a major lesson or perspective shift you’ve embraced recently that has fundamentally changed the way you approach market opportunities?

Jason O. Myles (27:31)
Be patient. When I first started, I was in a hurry 100 % of the time. And you make bad choices when you’re in a hurry. You know, I meet people that have big businesses and they’re just, you know, they’re constantly going and they look like they never sit down and just catch their breath. I don’t want to be that way. I understand the mentality of that, but it’s easier for me to look at the deals, take my time. If it’s too skinny, pass it up.

Maybe I can wholesale it, maybe I can’t. I don’t necessarily look for $15,000 on every single deal. I mean, we sell deals that I might make $2,000 on. And adversely, we might make $25,000 on some of those things. But take your time and evaluate these things. Don’t rush into any opportunity because you think you’ll lose it. Negotiations don’t always happen immediately. Sometimes it takes three months, six months.

Take your time, fill up your pipeline with follow-ups that you can consistently go back to. We go back, everyone’s a little bit different, but we touch them every day via text or whatever. Follow-up, telephone calls every seven to 10 days. I never let it go until they tell me to F off, if I’m being honest. Just take your time.

Scott Bursey (28:54)
If I’m hearing you,

just take your time. ⁓ Be patient. Do things fundamentally sound is the nugget, the golden nugget I’m getting out of that. And that’s great words. Jason, this was incredibly valuable. I love your energy. And before we wrap up for our listeners who want to follow your work, connect with you directly or learn more about, you know, your real estate offerings. What’s the best way they can reach out to you?

Jason O. Myles (28:59)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Thank you.

You know, you can always go to realestate360pro.com. That’s, know, where we house all our, you know, education and information. ⁓ that’s a great place to go, but at best social media, I’m so easy to find on social media. It’s Jason O. Myles in that, and I’m not Irish to my middle initial. Okay.

So, you know, you can find me on, you know, LinkedIn, YouTube. I’ve got tons of information, real valuable videos that tell you how to get things done. You know, there are not the bait and switch kind of things. Instagram, TikTok, whatever. You know, I don’t do the Twitch and all that other stuff. I’m just on the big four, right? so ⁓ Jason O Myles on any social, well, any of the bigger social media platforms, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok.

Scott Bursey (30:07)
Sure.

Jason O. Myles (30:18)
YouTube, LinkedIn, those are the places I play and interact and engage with people. And we do trainings on a weekly basis about our marketing process.

Scott Bursey (30:30)
Jason, this has been a blast. Thank you for being on the show.

Jason O. Myles (30:35)
Thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. I really do.

Scott Bursey (30:38)
And thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in today. 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.