87: Progression in Changing Markets and Out of State Investing with Jennifer Beadles

At the time of this recording, there is a lot of talk of the upcoming recession and economic downturn. Regardless of what others may say, however, we believe that this time around is different than that of the 2008 Housing Market Crash. But at the same time, many of the strategies used to hedge against recessions still apply. That’s the big difference.   We welcome back our first ever guest Jennifer Beadles (see Episode 1) to talk about her strategies to protect her business, portfolio, and tenants against recessions.    Since the last time we spoke, a lot has happened in Jennifer’s business. She has grown her portfolio, grew her investing team, and has traveled all over the world. Many investors get caught up working really hard that they never give themselves the opportunity to scale because they want to do all the work themselves. For Jennifer, she takes multiple vacations a year for weeks at a time and somehow still manages to thrive in her business. How does she do it?   Jennifer explains that she is able to work from anywhere in the world because of the systems and teams she has created. These systems include training tenants how to contact her if they need something, having a trusted handyman to make on-call repairs, and leveraging the service of agents to bring her deals even if she’s out of the country, all the while being able to automate more and more of her work within her business as well as scale higher and higher.    Some key takeaways from our conversation with Jennifer: 1) Use data and get referrals. You can spend time conducting all your own due diligence, but what’s the opportunity cost for you in doing that? By getting referrals with trusted individuals, not only are you able to grow your team organically, but you are also able to leverage their expert, local opinions about any information you are trying to figure out. 2) Be strict and stick to your criteria. Many investors fail to achieve extraordinary results because they keep switching up their strategies and give up too soon. And they keep giving themselves excuses to make bad investment decisions. Jennifer has used the same set of criteria since she began investing a decade ago and it still serves her well. Because of it, she is confident to invest regardless of the economic climate.  3) Prepare for bad times. Many new investors try to time the market or get lucky investing when times are good. It is usually these investors who get wiped out when times get tough. Instead, make sure to plan for recessions by asking yourself if tenants can still pay rent if the market collapses, and if you can still pay the mortgage if tenants stop paying rent. Set yourself up for upside, don’t pay attention only to the downside. 4) Build relationships with small community banks. When people begin to fear the market, real estate goes on sale. That is when these local banks are there to help you the most. While other large, national banks have to abide by many guidelines and red tape, local banks can give you fast and quality service to help you get ahead in your business.  If Jennifer could go back and talk to her 16 year old self, she’d tell her, “Keep hustling!” An unexpected benefit of real estate investing, Jennifer said, was the ability to travel and have freedom with time and money. A piece of advice Jennifer would tell her friends looking to get started in real estate would be to “House Hack [and] start with a duplex.” Jennifer recommends using any podcast app so you can learn more about real estate investing.  She recommends reading Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss to help you learn more about how to succeed in your business.   If you’d like to get in touch with Jennifer, visit: www.agentsinvest.com