The Power of Networking in Real Estate with Jazmin Mitchell

Jazmin Mitchell (00:00)
I came to this country 12 years ago and I had to start from scratch, just like you said. Had zero connections, zero dollars to my name. I had to start all over my business degree. So it was very challenging, right? Because I was already building an identity, building a career and I come here and none of that counts

Scott Bursey (01:32)
Hi everyone and welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host Scott Bursey and today I’m joined by someone I’ve really been looking forward to chatting with. Jazmin Mitchell who’s been making serious moves in the land multifamily investment space. Jazmin is the visionary behind the She Is Me Club, a community helping women build wealth through ownership and investing while fostering personal, professional and spiritual growth.

She has built her portfolio from the ground up after coming to the U.S. with no connections. Jazmin has been involved in over 1,600 multifamily units. Please welcome a leader that is passionate about calling out the greatness in others. Jazmin, it’s an honor to have you here.

Jazmin Mitchell (02:20)
Thank you so much, Scott. I’m super excited for this conversation.

Scott Bursey (02:24)
So are we. I think our audience is really going to take something away from your perspective on the internal work of leadership. You’ve built the She Is Me Club on the foundation that your success in the market is a direct reflection of your clarity in your calling. For our listeners that may not be familiar with your journey, how did your career begin and where are you at now?

Jazmin Mitchell (02:52)
Yeah, it’s…

It’s definitely been a rocky journey. ⁓ Just to give you a quick background,

I came to this country 12 years ago and I had to start from scratch, just like you said. Had zero connections, zero dollars to my name. I had to start all over my business degree. So it was very challenging, right? Because I was already building an identity, building a career and I come here and none of that

⁓

You

it was really hard emotionally, but at one point I told my dad, you know what, I’m leaving. This isn’t up for me. I couldn’t see myself here in the long term. I’m like, I need to go back and make my dreams reality back in Mexico. And he told me.

I’m sorry that you’re going through this. I’m sorry that I brought the whole family here. But you’re not the only one. There’s millions of people going through the same thing that you are. And that’s when something changed for me. I realized that I had to figure it out. I had to start where I was with what I had. So I stood one foot in front of the other one and I started going to college, ⁓ learning the language, I started saving money.

and you know my dad told me whatever business you’re gonna start because I didn’t want to go to the you know I didn’t want to work for somebody else I just wanted to start my own business so my dad told me whatever business you’re gonna start you’re gonna need money so I started saving money saving money and at one point I had $45,000 and I’m like this is enough to start a business but I didn’t know what kind of business to start I feel like my degree was business management

so I didn’t really have a skill set. So long story short, I bought my first piece of land and you know never look back. I bought it and you know then I sold it, made five thousand and never look back.

Scott Bursey (04:56)
Awesome. What do you think is your biggest skill set right now? Your biggest contribution to your business?

Jazmin Mitchell (05:52)
But definitely helping people. ⁓ So there’s two ways, right? One is helping people buy their first real estate portfolio, the first real piece of land, you know, guiding them through the whole process. I’m not a realtor, but all the properties that I sell are for sale by owner. I’m able to do some seller finance and I focus a lot on the Hispanic market. Sometimes I don’t have a credit score.

for know, for land is super hard to get. There’s no financing with the bank. So I’m able to help them, guide them through the process. And then on the other side, just showing them that it’s possible, right? Like I came to this country with nothing and you know, I tell people like, if I was able to do it, you can do it. Like all of us have hardships. Some people can relate to being an immigrant. But the reality is like all of us have hardships and said,

that at one point we want to just give up. But when you use that as a reason to let me figure something out and I have to make ⁓ something with my life and we decide to make ⁓ that decision, life changes.

Scott Bursey (07:10)
Absolutely. What geographical markets are you operating in?

Jazmin Mitchell (07:15)
I’m in Houston, Texas, so I fully focus just in Texas.

Scott Bursey (07:21)
caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to shift the focus from what women do to who they are. What do you feel highlights your quest in that regard?

Jazmin Mitchell (07:35)
So I think as women we are expected to juggle a lot of things, right? From our career, from raising a family, from doing all these things as women we are very good. But what I’d really like to show them is that we need to work on every single area of our life. Personally, our health, our relationships, professionally, of course our career, creating our own wealth.

financial independence and spiritually right and spiritually means different things for everybody but just being connected to to a higher power right just being connected to who we are and you know taking care of our soul in order to achieve higher levels of success so I think it’s super super important to work on all these areas

Scott Bursey (08:33)
What a great perspective. Now every operator I know has a defining moment where the strategy meant the reality of the market. And I’m talking, Jazmin, about a deal that may have hit the wow or a time where you had to pivot real quick. Do you have a battle story that shaped how you operate today in that regard?

Jazmin Mitchell (08:57)
A lot. How much time do we have? ⁓ You know, just I started in multifamily specifically in 2019. So where the market was great and then everybody was buying and then now it’s just a shift of the market, right? Like we hit the interest rates and insurance and all these crazy things, right? That nobody was underwriting for. So of course we had a lot of

just uncertainty on the projects. But one of them, for example, we had to just stop distributions and be like, okay, this is happening with the market. This is happening with the property. And just tell investors what’s the reality. This is what is happening. And help us, you know, just be patient as we have all hands on deck. Because, you if anything goes out, you know, we’re the first one to lose a lot of money. So, you know, just communicating with investors and telling them,

what’s happening I think that’s what helped us go through that hard process.

Scott Bursey (10:37)
Certainly,

it’s fascinating to me how the inflection points that feel like a total collapse in the moment actually end up being the blueprint for the next decade of scaling. Let me ask you this, Jazmin, what are you most focused on solving or scaling next?

Jazmin Mitchell (10:57)
Definitely land. For all these years I’ve been trading land as a side hustle and now I realize I have made seven figures with land. Maybe I should put more attention to this. Maybe I should build a business out of this instead of trading as a side hustle and just on my own. I’m into something. Once you hit seven figures, I’m into something. So it deserves my

full attention.

Scott Bursey (11:29)
Absolutely. And I know a lot of our audiences either earlier in their journey are looking to level up. And I think they’d benefit from hearing this from you when it comes to building relationships and growing your network. What’s made the biggest difference for you?

Jazmin Mitchell (11:49)
Definitely networking. ⁓

I tell people you are one connection away from a completely different life. just showing up to different events to, you know, just connecting on social media or just podcast. Like you never know who you’re meeting or who you’re in front of and what that relationship can take you. Right. Sometimes that person, you know, is not going to add any value, but sometimes they know somebody that you need or that you can add value to them.

So the power of networking has definitely been life changing in my life.

Scott Bursey (12:30)
And those relationships are everything. Jazmin, walk us through, in your experience, what is the one expensive mistake that you see most intermediate investors make right now, that two pros have completely eliminated from their operating system?

Jazmin Mitchell (12:50)
want to say that I fully eliminated because that’s a very ⁓ strong statement but something that I’m personally working on is taking full responsibility of a whole guild, Either land or multifamily. For me, like in the multifamily side, I focus a lot on raising capital and building relationships with investors and I kind of like trust everybody else doing their own part with underwriting, asset.

management, I realized that I need to take full responsibility and fully be fully aware of what’s happening. Even if my party’s investor relationship, investor relations, I still have to be fully responsible. And that happened with me on land as well. When I first bought my first piece of land, I trusted a broker. told me, I told him like I want to buy a piece of

land, he sent me five deals and I’m like, I think this is really good. ⁓ and location was great. I was aware of, I knew the location, so that was really good. But then I didn’t realize that I paid higher than anybody else in the neighborhood. was on the 100 year flat plane. So that made it really tricky for me to exit that piece of land. But I was like, it’s because I trusted him and he’s not thinking as an investor. He’s just, you know, being a broker and you know, picking up his.

commission probably. I’m sure he had good intentions, but if we want to build wealth, if we have a strategy for investing, we are the only ones who we know what we want for. Like what’s our exit? What’s the plan? Do we need this investment as a cashflow or as a long-term play tax strategy? So there’s a lot of things that we need to be fully aware and make those decisions.

Scott Bursey (14:47)
with you on that and clearly the way you’ve structured your operations is the gold standard for that. Jazmin, what’s the one part of your story you hope really sticks out to our listeners today?

Jazmin Mitchell (15:43)
As I mentioned, think it’s understanding that everybody can transaction to these levels, either online or commercial. Everybody deserves an opportunity, but nobody’s going to give you an opportunity. You have to go and knock the doors, sometimes kick the doors, and you have to add value to people in order for them to consider you for any opportunities. ⁓

of people who ask me like how can I add value to you and I’m like I don’t know you know it’s like I don’t know what’s your superpower I don’t know your background like you need to show up with people and tell them like this is what I this is my skill set this is what I can do and this is that the gap that I see in your business that I would like to add value to you so the conversation completely changes

Scott Bursey (16:37)
Absolutely, and that’s great words of wisdom. Thank you for sharing that. All right, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out and connect with you, Jazmin, maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’re doing. What’s the best way for them to reach you?

Jazmin Mitchell (16:43)
Absolutely.

So I have my new webpage under construction, but ⁓ on social media. You guys can find me on Instagram. She is Jazmin, Jazmin with Z, J-A-Z-M-I-N. I’m on LinkedIn, Facebook. So on all the social media, you will find me. That’s the best way.

Scott Bursey (17:13)
Perfect, well listen Jazmin, I appreciate your time, your story and your perspective. We need more people in this space who are doing it the right way. Thanks again for being here.

Jazmin Mitchell (17:26)
Thank you for having me Scott.

Scott Bursey (17:28)
It was our pleasure. And for those of you tuning in, we truly appreciate you. If you found a gold nugget or two in today’s conversation, make sure you’re subscribed. We’re committed to bringing this level of executive clarity on every episode to help you stay ahead of the curve. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.