Jason Malabute

Investor JANUARY 2021 ISSUE NO. 1 “I’ve been told NO so many times. But it is going to test how much you want it for yourself.” TALKS ABOUT CRUSHING LIMITING BELIEFS

EXCLUSIVE WHO IS... Jason is an entrepreneur, CPA, JASON and MBA. Somebody who's just MALABUTE trying to learn to move and inspire people to go and do what they are meant to do here on this planet. To this date, Jason shares his investing journey through BIggerpockets Member Blog. He authors relatable and valuable articles and here are a few of them: How I Tapped Into My Power Base During The Holidays My Mentor Made Me Write A Personal Mission Statement Learn To Identify A Motivated Sellers Today Is My Birthday But There's Nothing To Celebrate I Started Our Team Meetings Today With Meditation Don't Listen To Brokers (There's Still Good Deals Out There) Helping Sellers Make A Decision Challenges Of Hiring A Cold Caller Va And More…

JASON'S WHY By Sterling White \"I've been told that Photo courtesy of it's more challenging Jason Malabute for me to find a high- paying job like other people because of my disability.\" When he was a kid Jason’s dad would always tell him that it's more challenging for him to find a high-paying job like other people because of his disability. So his dad always pushed him. Jason did not know what kind of business he would want to get into. Throughout high school, throughout college, he had no idea what he wanted to do. Jason’s mom pushed him to become an accountant. She said Jason needs to take accounting so he can learn how to manage his own money. Jason got his license in 2015 and has been working for a CPA firm since 2013. Many of his clients have rental properties, and they get paid every single month. The book that really changed him was “Rich dad, poor dad” (by Robert Kiyosaki). He said, “That book taught me that I really have to buy assets that pays every single month.”

HOW IT ALL STARTED Jason always had that in the back of his mind that he wanted to get into real estate. It was in 2018, he told himself, he’s going to start making those dreams come true and make something happen. So, he did it anyway, from January, he didn't do anything besides watching Biggerpockets videos on Youtube and listening to audiobooks. By December, he told himself, “Okay! I’m going to buy my first property.” Based on his research, most of the United States population in the next 10 years are going to move down South. I’M GOING TO BUY MY FIRST PROPERTY. He first started looking into the Florida market. He built his real estate team in there thinking that it is where he’s going to buy his first property. So he went to Orlando and realized that numbers were not going to work. So he went back home to Los Angeles, California.

DREAMS COME TRUE. MAKE SOMETHING HAPPEN. -JASON MALABUTE

He started from scratch and did his research and started looking at the Indianapolis, Indiana market as he learned that the population there is steadily increasing and the job market is also getting stronger, second to North Carolina. Jason’s little brother is in Indy, which makes him somewhat familiar with that market already. So, then he started to build his real estate team. He first got a real estate agent, then a property manager, and finally a lender. From May to December 2019, Jason was able to purchase three single-family homes. And then after that, he realized that the thing that is most challenging about SF properties is that it takes so much time to go through the whole investing cycle. From purchasing, fixing, having a new tenant, to refinancing. It takes 2 to 5 months to complete the whole project. So, that is when Jason decided that he wanted to get into multi-family investing.

GOALS 1000 UNITS 15%-20% IRR, 12% ROI His ultimate end game is to own 1000 rental units making 15%-20% IRR, 12% ROI. Every single morning and every night before he sleeps, Jason always writes down his goal. HURDLES “I've always been super driven, super motivated. However, my biggest challenge is that since I was just beginning, I didn't have enough experience and knowledge. So, the only way that you are going to get experience is to meet key players, get your hands dirty, and actually, take action. When I first started, I had known property managers and real estate agents who told me that I do not know what I'm doing and that I am never going to reach my goal. But I always knew that they didn’t know me and whatever they say doesn’t really matter. So, whenever I meet challenges like that, my approach is to always step back, look at the challenge as a whole, and take as much action as possible to get through.” “Single-family is completely different from multi-family investing.”

TAKE AS MUCH ACTION AS POSSIBLE -JASON MALABUTE

THE JOURNEY “I had to learn so much within a short period of time. I am so thankful that I got a mentor because I feel like I've learned 10 years of experience within a three month period. I was able to cut that learning curve so much by having a mentor that has really been through what I am going through right now. I am able to leverage his experience and his connections. I've been connected to brokers, lenders, and other real estate professionals.. I would have had a hard time building these connections if I did not have Sterling (White) as my mentor.” “The most important thing that I learned from Sterling, that I did not know when I was investing in single-family homes, is how important it is to have strict buying criteria.

\"Because when I was buying SF homes-- as long as they were in B-C neighborhoods, getting a certain return on investment on paper, cash flowing $100 per unit per month, that’s all that matters to me. But I realize when you are investing in an apartment building, you need to know exactly what you want -- the number of units you want, what is minimum occupancy, on top of IRR, etc. Another thing that I learned was that you don't want to buy a property that is all studio and one-bedroom units. Because you’re going to have a hard time selling that when you are planning it. That's something that I never thought of before. Even if you are planning to hold on to that property forever, you still wanna have the option of selling that property.”

STRATEGIES “Before I got connected with Sterling, I thought that people had a hard time understanding me, especially when I am talking over the phone because of my disability. But Sterling told me that I should just go directly to the owner. I know for myself, that when you are working with brokers, they are going to send you only one lead sometimes for a whole month. The leads that brokers were sending me did not meet my expectations for return on investment. I realized I was going nowhere relying on brokers for leads. I prefer to take my faith into my own hands. And that’s when I looked into cold calling. I picked up the phone and started calling homeowners.” “When I first did it, I was super nervous. I thought that nobody would understand what I was saying. I thought that people would hang up on me. But I told myself that even if it's super scary, I have to do it because I have no choice. There was no other option for me. My disability didn’t make me a hot candidate in the job market. I have to make real estate investing work. I have to get over my limiting beliefs of talking on the phone! I realized when I started calling apartment owners that they can understand me just fine. I have been living with that fear for 25 years. Ever since I started school, I’ve always had that fear. And there comes that time, within one day, all that fear went away. I have made hundreds and hundreds of calls within the last couple of months. I only had 2 people who had a hard time understanding me. But when

I’VE ALWAYS HAD THAT FEAR. ONE DAY, ALL THAT FEAR WENT AWAY. -JASON MALABUTE

I slowed down my speech and focused more on the articulation of my words, even they understood me just fine.” “After making cold calls myself for months I decided to hire someone to make the calls for me. On top of that, the Acquisitions Specialist position is in charge of emails, text, skip tracing, and updating our CRM. The interviewing process took weeks, but after interviewing several candidates we finally found one that was a good fit for our team. I am a big believer in working on my business instead of in my business. By building a team around me I am able to focus on higher-value tasks. I focus on treating people who work with me as a team member instead of just an employee. I invest a lot of time and money on training my team because I want to see them grow as professionals and as people. Lastly, it was a humbling experience to know that for several years I would get rejected every time I applied for a job opening because I felt like I was being unfairly prejudged now I am the one employing people.”

JASON’S MILESTONE “Getting that courage to be talking to people (despite my circumstance) is the biggest success story for me. Anybody can do real estate, as long as you take the time to study and go out and meet and network with people. Whether it's your own capital or you are partnering with somebody. Anybody can do real estate. What is crazy about investing and entrepreneurship is that it pushes you to go and work on other things outside of your business that you know would affect your business (like mindset).”

ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS AN EMOTIONAL ROLLER COASTER. KNOW WHY -JASON MALABUTE

JASON’S ADVICE “You need to know why. Why are you doing this? I hope it's not because somebody told you that it's cool! (giggles). Entrepreneurship is an emotional roller coaster. Sometimes, it feels like you’re the best and that nobody can do what you do. Sometimes, it feels like you can’t do anything right. At times, you’ll feel like crying because you haven’t achieved anything that you want to by a certain time. And those are the moments that will test you if you really want it for yourself. Or would be like more of a hobby that you’re flirting with at the current moment.” “There are so many people who are messaging me and they are asking ‘How can I get into real estate?’ I tell them exactly what I did. To get into Biggerpockets for a whole year, read all the books before you save your money and learn as much as possible. So that in one year you're going to have that knowledge and a little bit of money to put down as a down payment. Some people just want a quick and easy answer. And it’s really not an easy way to get through anything. “I have to wake up every morning at 4:30 AM for me to start studying. I’ve been told “NO” so many times. People have cursed me out on the phone multiple times. It is really not all the glamour and glitter. A lot of the times on the journey are very rough and grainy. But it is going to test how much you want it for yourself.”

TAKE ONE STEP BACK THEN TWO STEPS FORWARD -JASON MALABUTE

TAKEAWAYS “It’s very important to get into the right mindset. You would not go into a boxing match without training and without knowing how to box pretty well. Because if your opponent is a professional boxer and you don’t know how to box then you are going to get an intense knockout! It’s the same thing in real estate, if you don't know what you are doing that is how you will lose all your money and your dream will be over. I personally lost money in real estate because I didn't know something but I put too much trust in somebody. But that is just part of the game. With that mistake, that is how I got really good feedback. Sometimes you have to take one step back then take two steps forward.” “Thus, having a mentor is very important. Everybody is different. Some people need that extra kick in the butt to get them started. Some people just need somebody to learn how to properly do something. I don’t need somebody else to hold me accountable. I am my biggest fan and my toughest critic. However, what I really need from my mentor is his knowledge. I need somebody who has the experience and somebody who can teach me the ropes on how to do business correctly. And you guys (Sterling White Team) have been doing a terrific job!”

IF YOU'RE COMMITTED ENOUGH, YOU'LL FIND A WAY. IF NOT, YOU'LL FIND AN EXCUSE. -STERLING WHITE

NOTES FROM STERLING Sterling White Enterprises One of the priceless things I enjoy most when working with real estate investors, either getting started and/ or looking to scale up is getting to see the backend of everything that is working.  Their goals and aspirations, trials and tribulations, strengths, and weaknesses. Speaking the same language- real estate. Our weekly coaching calls. Tips and strategies. Staying connected. Walking them through by the hand. Every single day working with the community more feels like a family. We decided to document some of the takeaways and share with you the real deal of our journey together. Jason is very special in so many ways. Jason and I share multiple common grounds, besides investing in the same market-- we are both firm believers that mindset is everything, highly value self-development, believes in the power of mentorship, we see failure as feedback, we take action - a lot of it, and yes we are both bald! Jason is an inspiration for many people, myself and my team. Always finds a way to get through, never let any excuse get in the way! That's Jason Malabute! Connect with Jason Instagram: @jasonmalabute Twitter: @jasonmalabute LinkedIn: @jason-malabute-cpa-mba Biggerpockets: @JasonM132 Email: [email protected]