Making The Best Deals Possible with Guest Jared Osmond on The A Game Podcast with Nick Lamagna
This is from The A Game Podcast with Nick Lamagna as we interview Jared Osmond of the famous Osmond family. We discuss, mindset, success, real estate investing, the market and creative deals as well as brazilian Jiu Jitsu and more! Available on all platforms and youtube. Find links to connect with Nick Lamagna or listen to The A Game Podcast on:
Episode: https://nicknicknick.com/making-the-best-deal-possible-with-jared-osmond-episode-4/
Welcome to the A Game Podcast with Nick Lamagna. Digging into the minds and experiences of some of today’s brightest entrepreneurs in real estate and business, along with Hollywood stars, UFC fighters, and your favorite rock bands. People that have figured out how to overcome obstacles, take chances, live boldly, and no matter what they do, they always bring their A-game.
Nick Lamagna:
The most important question for you.
Jared Osmond:
Yeah.
Nick Lamagna:
Did you start jiu jitsu this week?
Jared Osmond:
No, I did not. I know, I know, I know. So no real excuses, although, I have been really busy. Lot;s of stuff going on. I had an interesting experience. So you know I’m a general contractor, as well as a developer. And we built our own home, beautiful home in Alpine, Utah. We have tons of people that come by, take pictures, and what have you. [inaudible 00:00:59] really it’s flattering. My wife is a designer, she designed the outside, inside, I built it.
Jared Osmond:
And we just get a lot of feedback. Well, I had a guy drop by our house on Thursday that really set this chaos in motion. So he stopped by, obviously very fluent, and he knocked on the door and said, I guess he emailed first and said, “Can I come by? I have a couple questions about your house.” And of course, my wife said, “No problem.”
Jared Osmond:
He came by and said, “Look, I love your house, I’ve been watching this house for the last year, I can’t find anything like it.” My wife has posted pictures of the interior on her website for our furniture store. The guy just went on, and on, he goes, “Look, I got to have your house.” My wife’s, “Well, our house is not for sale.” And he goes, “No, anything is for sale for the right price.” And he says, “Just throw a number at it.”
Jared Osmond:
She goes, “Well, I’ll have to talk to my husband about that.” He goes, “If you’re serious.” He goes, “We’ll talk.” But this is home base, we don’t need to sell, this is … So he goes, “Well, let me come back tomorrow, and we’ll just have this conversation when your husband is around.”
Jared Osmond:
So he comes back with his wife, and just somehow gets his foot in the door and starts talking. Heather gives them the grand tour of the house. And he goes, “Look, what do you want? Anything you want, just tell me.” So she throws out this huge number of basically a million bucks more than we paid for it, and he doesn’t even blink. He goes, “Okay. I’ll write a contract.”
Jared Osmond:
And we’ve been stunned since then. So here’s the funny part, so I spent the whole last couple of days, Friday and Saturday looking for another lot next door, trying to get that tied up and under contract, my wife and I have been looking at house ideas and plans. All this chaos we didn’t need, because we’ve got this big development we’re doing, she’s got a bunch of homes she’s decorating, and the furniture sales, and blah, blah, blah.
Jared Osmond:
And then finally, we kind of had this spiritual sort of come to Jesus moment where we thought, “You know what, this is home, this is ridiculous.” So we actually called the guy back. He had sent us a formal offer, he was going to give us all the money upfront as his earnest money. And he wanted us out in 30 days. And I just said, “No, we’re not going to do this.” So I turned it down.
Nick Lamagna:
[crosstalk 00:03:12] 30 days.
Jared Osmond:
Well, that’s crazy, man. The whole thing is just crazy. Anyways, so the long story short, we turn this guy down, and made him go away. And then this morning, we get a phone call from a neighbor who is very affluent, lives in a small 22,000 square foot house down the street from me, just literally a block.
Jared Osmond:
And she says, “You know, we’re looking to downsize to a 13,000 square foot home.” That’s what I have. And she goes, “We heard you were going to sell it. Whatever that guy was offering, we’ll pay half a million dollars more.”
Nick Lamagna:
What? [crosstalk 00:03:54]. They offer now, and offer you money on your house just to be …
Jared Osmond:
I don’t even know how to respond to that. So my wife said, “My gosh, for a million and a half more, is it worth the inconvenience?” And so we’re [inaudible 00:04:08]. But that’s why I haven’t started jiu jitsu, is I’m a mess, I got so much going on.
Nick Lamagna:
[inaudible 00:04:15], I’m not saying you’re not busy.
Jared Osmond:
I know.
Nick Lamagna:
I’m not saying [crosstalk 00:04:18].
Jared Osmond:
All right, I tell you what, after this call, let’s get on the phone with her and schedule.
Nick Lamagna:
All right, I’m [inaudible 00:04:25].
Jared Osmond:
You have to hold my hand.
Nick Lamagna:
It’ll make your whole week better. You might sit there and get off the mat, and just go, “I’m selling that house, or I’m not selling that house.” Dude, it clears the cobwebs like nothing else, man.
Jared Osmond:
Hey, man, I’m all for it. It sounds fun. I’ll try it. I know I need it.
Nick Lamagna:
Well, you’ll love it most importantly. I don’t think you need it, but I think you would enjoy it, and I think you would benefit from it in many ways. I’ve just, I’ve seen it change too many people’s lives physically, emotionally, psychologically, all for the better. And there’s a lot of people that I know that are very successful, and very busy on very high levels, like yourself, do it. And it helps them find balance.
Nick Lamagna:
Like I mean, Guy Ritchie trains at Renzo’s in the city when he’s doing movies, and Anthony Bourdain was there, and it’s, insert everybody now, Ashton Kutcher does private lessons, Al Bundy. I don’t know, I mean, it’s just, everybody from all walks of life seem to find it, the guy that Bobby Fischer was based on, that guy is doing it and stuff like that.
Jared Osmond:
There seems to be this push to understand one or two products, residential, some minor multi family, a duplex, a triplex, fourplex, something that’s still under a residential umbrella. And very hard to find sometimes these deals, because everybody is looking for the same thing. And that’s the problem, everybody is looking for the same thing.
Jared Osmond:
People go out, and they really want to be successful and they can relate to residential housing because that’s what they understand. They live in a home, or an apartment, they understand the concept, and everything. But there’s so much missing.
Jared Osmond:
And so I’m all about the creation of wealth, and creating what wasn’t there. So I like to go find deals where people don’t see it, or they hadn’t seen it, they don’t understand the value in the land they have, or the value in changing the building from what it was to what it could be. There’s so much left on the table.
Jared Osmond:
There’s a misconception too, for people that are out trying to invest, that are new at this, or even people that are seasoned. I’ve run into people that have done this for years and years, and have never thought about commercial real estate the way they think about residential.
Jared Osmond:
But the price points to get into commercial don’t have to necessarily be more than what you’d pay for residential. There’s small commercial that really makes a lot of money. I have a couple examples that I share on the road of buildings that I’ve taken. One building in particular, I was able to but it. It was dilapidated, yes, but people didn’t know what to do with it. The reason it went back to the bank is because they had no vision. And it says in the bible, “Where there’s no vision, people parish.”
Jared Osmond:
And so taking that building and creating something that would work on this little tiny historic main street really made a lot of sense. And so the price point, the entry point for me was only 100,000, ended up being about 300,000 finished. But I was netting $4,500 a month. That was a true net.
Jared Osmond:
So if you look at any kind of residential property, and you think, “Well, gosh, if I had 300,000, put it in a residential, what would you make a month?” 500 bucks maybe if you’re lucky, six $700. I don’t know, it depends on what you do. But to pull that kind of money up, you can create cap rates and value through the creation [inaudible 00:07:52].
Jared Osmond:
It’s a little more on the tricky side. There are things that you’ve got to do. You’ve got to be patient with it. But that discovery with the city, and what you can get away with, what you can do, what the zoning will allow you to do is so huge, and so critical. And that scales up.
Jared Osmond:
I’ve done deals that are … I just did a deal on a building that, I bought it for three and a half million. You and I were talking about that, I showed you the deal. Cut off-
Nick Lamagna:
The big office building on the corner?
Jared Osmond:
Yeah. [crosstalk 00:08:21] office building. Yeah. I mean, I literally had eight hours of work into it. I found the building, I made an offer, and [inaudible 00:08:30] the building only needed three acres to park in. So you can only subdivide when you can park whatever is there.
Jared Osmond:
So the building, the office building, you needed the full three acres that it sat on. But the other two acres, it didn’t need. It was just kind of extra, unused, unwanted. And I cut that off and sold the two acres for 1.5 million, just over. And sold the building for exactly what I paid for it, 3.5. And I did it all in a couple of weeks.
Jared Osmond:
And so just the creation of some simple subdivision. And subdivision is something I’ve made a lot of money in.
Nick Lamagna:
So somebody will hear something like that, because people think what I do just on the residential side, or buying a couple of apartment buildings, or just, I consider myself a baby in all this, think what I do is crazy, or a scam, or [inaudible 00:09:18] some type of MLM, or some type of cult, or something like that.
Nick Lamagna:
And then what you do is crazy to people that do what I do, who when you look at the average person, and how hard they work their whole life, and what they make per hour, and fighting traffic, and all that kind of stuff. And I’m looking at your office, and you’re always home. I think you said you cook your kids breakfast almost every single day.
Jared Osmond:
I do, every day.
Nick Lamagna:
You’ve got a coolest dad ever thing behind you right there, you got a full head of hair, so you’re not all that stressed out, and eight and a half hours of work, and netted one and a half million dollars. You know what I mean? So I’ve been going to a lot of masterminds and stuff over the last couple of weeks, and just trying to surround myself with people who are doing more than me, or are doing things different than me, or better than me, because it’s the only way you get better, you know what I mean?
Nick Lamagna:
I think you said it, “I never want to be the smartest guy in the room, or the most experienced in the room.” And I just keep hitting that, always be willing to do what others will, always be willing to do what others will. And I feel like you’ve just taken that to such a different level, and you’re just living proof that if you just go for it, it pays off.
Nick Lamagna:
Most people won’t dig as … I said it to you the other day. I went to the city, and me and Nicole were like, “Holy shit, there is so much.” And you were like, “Yeah, there is, but …”
Jared Osmond:
[crosstalk 00:10:30].
Nick Lamagna:
[crosstalk 00:10:30] it if it pans out. You know what I mean?
Jared Osmond:
Well, it’s true. People get hung up on the details. They’re so afraid that they can’t get out of their own way. I mean, that’s the problem, right. I think everybody has got this limitation in their head, they’ve got this feeling like, “Oh, I just can’t do that, I don’t understand that path.” You don’t have to understand that path.
Jared Osmond:
In real estate, you get tied up, you give yourself enough time, enough due diligence time to go and found out, to go and uncover what it is we need to do. And look, if it doesn’t work out, if you can’t get the zoning the way you want it, you can’t uncover things, let the deal go. What are you out of? Time?
Jared Osmond:
I mean, I don’t get it. The truth is, is I see people all the time, and all the excuses on why they can’t do it. And then really what it comes down to is they’re just afraid. And the fear is stifling. It’s very real. It’s very, very real. But overcoming that fear, that’s another hour conversation in and of itself.
Nick Lamagna:
Which I rally do want to talk to you about, that mindset stuff, but I didn’t mean to cut off your [crosstalk 00:11:36] commercial side. So talk a little bit more about, you had that building that you do a lot of subdividing, you do medical, you do commercial, you [inaudible 00:11:44] hotels, I had skyscrapers under contract, you’ve done raw land, you’ve flipped properties, you’ve built houses from the ground up, you’ve done all of that. I mean, I feel like there’s pretty much nothing you haven’t done.
Jared Osmond:
Well, I mean, there’s a lot of stuff I haven’t done. I mean, there’s a lot of real estate out there, it’s everywhere. But there’s nothing that I’ve found that has totally scared me yet. If anything, I’ve been nervous. There are deals you can go into, and you don’t know the answers completely.
Jared Osmond:
For me, it’s a matter of, you suspect it’s a good idea, you suspect it’s a good deal, you tie it up. And then you find out. And you work on a good, better, best, like I talked about before. Good, better, best. So is it the best deal? Are you wasting your time? What could you be doing?
Jared Osmond:
I mean, I [inaudible 00:12:32] little deals that’ll take the same amount of time as these big deals, and get paid 50 grand, or I can go get paid five million. And so I weigh that out. And I do enjoy my time. And so now for me, it’s become a real passion to get up in the morning, do all the things I love, be involved with my family, get all the kids to school, and my wife sleeps in everyday. I take care of everything.
Jared Osmond:
But I love that. I love creating this life, and having this freedom. Real estate, to me, is freedom, it’s breathing room, and it’s fun. But yeah, there’s lots of deals out there. I mean, it sounds so simplistic I guess, some of the things that I live by, and some of the ways that I find properties, it seems very simplistic. And it is. And it’s great when simple things work.
Jared Osmond:
So for me, when I go looking for a property, I ask two questions. I’ve expressed this several times when I talk. But two questions. One, what else could this be? Based on the creation of a deal. I like to create. And so what else could this be? When I show up on a property, that’s the first question I ask. And I don’t judge my answers, I don’t come up with a list of what I can’t do. I’m sure that list is long. But I come up with, what can I do? Where are my vision?
Jared Osmond:
I always carry a journal with me no matter where I go, I always have journals. Got it in my truck, got it in my office. And these journals have, if you go through it, you’ll see pictures, some pictures from my kids too. But I’ll take concepts, and I’ll write them out, and I’ll take a building, and I’ll sketch out the building, and how I feel like it could flow, and what could I add to it? And how do I cut it up? How do I subdivide off the ground I don’t need? How do I create a project on that ground?
Jared Osmond:
And that creation has been just the key for me. So, “What else could it be?” Is where it begins. And then after I figure out what I want it to be, I figure out the second question, which is, how do I maximize the use of the building or the land?
Jared Osmond:
So what else could it be? How do I maximize the use of the property? Those two things really serve me. So then when I feel like I’ve got a deal that makes sense, I take it, I wrap it up, I tie it up in a contract, I go to the city, talk to the zoning department, it’s always the first stop, and I find out the truth about what it can or can’t be. And how do I change things?
Jared Osmond:
Sometimes the answer is, “No, you can’t do that.” But if you want to go to the city and change the use, which I’ve done. So you can create a lot of wealth by just changing something into a project. I’ve changed land, I’ve come in and I’ve subdivided and created projects that’s with assisted living, senior housing, storage units, furniture stores.
Jared Osmond:
On the side, and cutting off what I didn’t need, I’ve been able either to pay the project down, or completely off. And I did that with my furniture stores by being creative. And I’ve done this several times. That big building where I sold the two acres off, and made 1.5 million, that’s a nice payday for eight hours of work.
Nick Lamagna:
I’d say so. Yeah. It beats nine to five, my dude. For sure.
Jared Osmond:
It is, it is. And people are killing themselves. I had a doctor that lived across the street from me before we moved up to Alpine, and he came across the street one day, and he said to me, he goes, “[inaudible 00:15:51] can I talk to you for a minute?” And he goes, “Man, what’s going on with you?” He goes, “Man, I think I hate you.” He looked really serious. And I said, “Well, why? Why do you hate me?” And he goes, “You know, my kids are always telling me that you’re hanging out with your kids, and with my kids. And then today, you took my kids and your kids out to get ice-cream.” He goes, “Do you work?”
Jared Osmond:
And I took that to mean, this guy is working 60 hours a week. And if he breaks his hand as a surgeon, he’s done. There’s just, that’s a tough gig. So having passive income. But anyway, I’m kind of all over the map. It’s hard, because I get to passionate about just finding the deal, and kind of creating, and looking at things from what it could be.
Jared Osmond:
And I certainly hope people will look at commercial real estate as a solution, not just residential. I think residential, right now, is a tough market.
Nick Lamagna:
I think that’s another really interesting thing, because everybody that I’ve been coming across when I’m going to these different masterminds and stuff like that lately, or different meetups and stuff, everybody is always very thrown off by the fact. Because they go, “Well, where do you live?” And I tell them, “Yeah, you know, I spend a lot of time in Chicago, I live in New York.”
Jared Osmond:
Yeah.
Nick Lamagna:
[crosstalk 00:17:10] properties do you have? And I’m like, “I have some stuff in Chicago, but nothing in New York, and [inaudible 00:17:15].” And they don’t get it. They were like, “I don’t understand.” And I’m like, “Well, for me, if you have the whole country to pick from, and the deal makes sense …” It’s like you said, you learn about that market. I find the deal. And when I find the deal, it’ll attract me towards a market, and then I’ll dig in, and I’ll see if that market makes sense, and I’ll start to figure it out.
Nick Lamagna:
And that might create some more opportunity for me. But it doesn’t always work where you live. So for me, starting out with no money, no credit, no experience, trying to get into real estate in the New York area it was a bitch. I would never have been able to do it. So I was finding properties that were 30, $40,000 in Georgia, in Michigan, in Arizona, in Carolina.
Nick Lamagna:
But you are in a market that everybody … If I went to any of those meetings, or talked to any of those people, and they said, “Hey, I’m in the Utah area.” I’d say, “Well, how’s the real estate there?” They’re like, “Ah, there’s no deals, it’s so competitive, everything is so expensive.” And you’ve made a lifetimes worth of wealth within an hour of your house. And you seem to have no problem making money there.
Nick Lamagna:
So I feel like all of that is just mental blocks. There’s deals everywhere, it’s just a matter of, are you willing to looking at it? And I feel like people discount things too much, or put up these weird blocks [inaudible 00:18:26] and stuff. But-
Jared Osmond:
Well, that’s really true, Nick. I mean, that’s the problem. I mean, I’ve heard that too. People say, “Oh, I just can’t find a deal.” And so that’s why looking at things with a creative mind, and creating value, it’s critical. I mean, in this market especially with how things are. You have to be looking for what other people are not looking for, what they don’t see.
Jared Osmond:
And the craziest part about that is that there are more deals that people don’t see than there are on the MLS. There are more creative money making deals rather than buying something solely on a cap rate, which I never do. I don’t go in and go, “Oh, gosh, I hope I can get a 5% cap on this.” I don’t do that. I go and create a 20. People think that’s ridiculous, or that’s impossible. Most of my deals average out to about 15 to 20% cap rate by the time I’m done massaging it into whatever it is I want it to be.
Jared Osmond:
And that could be big or small properties. But there are so many. We had a standing joke, my wife and I, I’ve shared this with you, that if we need a new car, we’ll just go look for a single family home that sits on a big enough lot, I could cut it in two. If the zoning says you only need a quarter acre, and it sits on a half an acre, we literally will drive around, get on the MLS, [inaudible 00:19:47] whatever it is, we’ll find an area, and we can see, it’s visible that, hey, this house, this older house is kind of off to one side, it’s got this big lot, nobody knows what to do with it. You buy it, you subdivide it.
Jared Osmond:
Now in this market, I could go anywhere in Utah almost, and the market [inaudible 00:20:03]. I like to stay, like you said, one hour from my house, because I’m kind of lazy, I don’t really want to go beyond an hour, and it just doesn’t sound fun. And so I’ll buy this house, I’ll subdivide it, I’ll sell that house for exactly what I’m in to it, and then I’ll have a free lot. I could make 150 grand minimum without bringing any utilities.
Jared Osmond:
And people hear that, and they go, “Oh, that seems impossible. I don’t know how you do that.” I’m like, “Well, it’s actually a very simple concept.” You don’t even really have to take it through city council, and there’s no meetings for it, because if it fits in the zone, and it’s a single lot subdivision, it’s typically an administrative call, they’ll just get it done for you, it costs very little to do.
Jared Osmond:
I don’t care what city you’re from. Even in New York, I’ve got family that live in New York.
Nick Lamagna:
We just talked about it, right. The video I just sent you.
Jared Osmond:
Oh, yeah, yeah. So there’s the point, right. So you’re seeing things with no eye. It gets me so excited, I love it. [inaudible 00:20:55] say, “Oh, there’s no deals.” And that’s crap.
Nick Lamagna:
Something like that, they’re like … Because I’ve heard you say that before, and if I never heard you say that, I would have never thought about it. But the second I was looking at it, he goes, “Hey, it’s two lots.” I was like, “Oh.” I was like, “This is the kind of stuff Jared is talking about, let me look into it.” [crosstalk 00:21:14] when you say things like that.
Nick Lamagna:
Especially, I get it if people don’t know you. Because even when you just said something like, “Hey, why would I spend six months making 50 grand if I could spend the same six months and make five million.” And people go, “Ah, that’s bullshit.” But I know it’s not, you know it’s not.
Nick Lamagna:
So I’m sure you don’t let it bother you anymore when people say that. But people probably still doubt you, or don’t believe you just like they would anybody else who just doesn’t … but I feel like that’s so they don’t have to feel like now that’s something they could do as well. You know what I mean? If they think it’s not real, they never have the excuse of why they never did it.
Jared Osmond:
But here’s the reality, it’s not a race, right. That’s the first thing I tell my friends. It’s not a race. And I don’t say all those numbers to impress anybody, I really don’t care. The truth is, is, and this is a unique thing that I think that I can bring is, all the deals that I’ve done, and that I talk about are, I mean, I’m happy to pull up the paperwork, I’m happy to pull up the deals, we can look it up online. Whatever I got to do.
Jared Osmond:
So for me, it’s fun to come from a standpoint of, “Yeah, well, I’ve done it.” And it’s okay, it’s okay. And not that I’m so special. I think the thing that really gets me excited when I tell people about what I do, and I try to help them figure out real estate, and figure out how to make money and be wealthy, it’s fun to come from a place of experience, because I’m not the smartest guy in the room, I don’t have a college degree, I’ve got about a semester left, I have no reason to go back.
Jared Osmond:
I’ve bene doing this for 24 years. And our first deal we did was my own little family, my own little tiny home that, not a tiny home, but a small house. My wife and I bought a house before we were getting married, and signed all the papers. Ended up renting it out to the top, remodeled the little tiny basement, and we lived there rent free, or mortgage free. Somebody else was paying my mortgage. I’ve never made my own mortgage payment, which is a fun statistic with all the stuff we’ve done.
Jared Osmond:
Now, I’ve got so many deals we could talk about, but the key really is to overcome a couple of things right here. Most people that want to do this believe they don’t have the time. Number one. Or they believe they don’t have the ability.
Jared Osmond:
And a lot of people make the mistake of trusting their money with somebody else. I mean, I love people, but I don’t trust them with my money, because I’ve seen too many people get burned. You’re smart enough to do this. I mean, anybody that I talk to, I mean, rarely do I run into somebody I, there are a couple, I’ve seen more than a couple that I’m like, “You should probably not invest. This is not going to go well.” And they got to go back to drooling on their Legos and doing their thing, because some adults are just, they can’t get past themselves. A lot of people can’t get past their own internal blocks. You know what I mean?
Nick Lamagna:
Yeah.
Jared Osmond:
And that’s sad to me. It’s sad to me. One of the things I talk about that I truly believe is that we all live with internal air conditioners that kick on. And so when we start getting excited, and we see things that are potentially good, and will work, and it starts to heat up, all of a sudden, this air conditioner turns on. And that air conditioner is that self limiting doubt, right.
Jared Osmond:
And I don’t want to sound like Tony Robbins here, but that’s the truth. This self limiting doubt that people kick on, that says, “You know, I don’t deserve this. There’s a level that I don’t deserve. I don’t deserve it because of a myriad of reasons. I don’t deserve it because my dad didn’t have it.”
Jared Osmond:
Well, I’ve been there. My last name is Osmond, but I grew up totally poor. My dad never owned a house, he’s deaf, his brothers all the same. But they’ve gone through their hard moments, a lot of lost money. We grew up broke. At 11 years old, my mom said, “You guys got to help.” Me and my brother, “You got to go out and work. Go learn.”
Jared Osmond:
So it was always, my desire to enter real estate began with, gosh, I just don’t want to do what my dad did. Because inside, that internal mechanism was working. But it’s funny, because I’d get around people that were very negative, and that would also kick that air conditioner on. So I learned how to cut people out of my life. I still love them, I just don’t hang out with them. It’s a true principle.
Jared Osmond:
So I mean, people that don’t want to go forward, don’t want to learn, they have this mentality, “Well, it’s the devil I know versus the devil I don’t. I know my job, so I’ll just go back to my job. I hate it, I hate working the hours, I hate the pay, and I hate that I don’t see my family. But hey, it’s my job. I’m [inaudible 00:25:40].”
Jared Osmond:
And that’s okay, I’m not saying kill the goose that lays the golden eggs for you. Keep your job until you can make real estate work where you can get rid of it. I was able to get rid of my job from day one, which was a blessing. I started off unemployed, so I didn’t really have any job to cancel on. But that’s not always a reality for people.
Jared Osmond:
But I think the problem, and the reason that they don’t want to look into creative ways of doing real estate is, it doesn’t fit the mold, and there’s these internal air conditioners, internal voices saying that they can’t. And breaking through that, and I’ve got a whole series of ideas on how to break through that.
Jared Osmond:
But that’s the thing stopping them. The truth is, is I can show you how to do a deal, I can show you how to do real estate. And the only reason you won’t do it is your own story about why you can’t. And those internal air conditioners will kick on. And that’s a hard reality to be honest. Most people that I’ve taught, I’ve given them enough told to go do it. I believe I have.
Jared Osmond:
But there is something that’s going on that says, “I can’t.” And I don’t know why that is, I really don’t. But you really have to set yourself up for success, surround yourself with people that are going to support you, and then get real information. That’s the one thing, again, I come back to. I can offer real information. I’ve done it.
Jared Osmond:
I mean, there are things I have not discovered yet. There are projects that scare me that I have to overcome. I was looking at a project the other day that would have put me in debt 10 million dollars, but it had the outcome of producing close to 50 million by the time it was done. And I set that one aside, and I haven’t circled back. Instead, I’m working on the other deals. I’ve got a 10 million dollar project coming out of the ground right now, but I’ve been able to pay that down significantly.
Nick Lamagna:
Your ice-cream store?
Jared Osmond:
Well, that’s one of the things I’m going to do. I just got all the rights to Steak and Shake too here in Utah.
Nick Lamagna:
Yeah.
Jared Osmond:
So I’m going to start opening-
Nick Lamagna:
You’re making a fat guy very happy right now. Yeah.
Jared Osmond:
Oh, baby, I’ll tell you what, I am going to eat up a storm. It’s going to be so fun.
Nick Lamagna:
You’re going to deserve that, because you’re going to be doing jiu-jitsu a few times a week now.
Jared Osmond:
Hey, that’s true. I’m actually flying out to Indianapolis in a few weeks.
Nick Lamagna:
Get out of here.
Jared Osmond:
I’ll be closer to you. But anyway, I’m flying out there. It’s going to be good, go to Steak and Shake’s headquarters.
Nick Lamagna:
Yeah. Actually, the first Steak and Shake I ever went to was in Indianapolis.
Jared Osmond:
Yeah, I think it was the first one.
Nick Lamagna:
Get out of here.
Jared Osmond:
I don’t know. 89 years ago that thing started. So that’s kind of fun. I don’t know. I wish they’d open a Portillo’s out here.
Nick Lamagna:
Yeah. Well, you could. You could definitely of that.
Jared Osmond:
No, I got all kinds of food fetishes. I just got to eat, eat, eat. That’s why I need jiu-jitsu.
Nick Lamagna:
Yup, me too. I workout just so I can keep eating all the stuff I want to eat, it’s a shame.
Jared Osmond:
Yeah. I saw that piece of cake you and Nicole were eating the other day.
Nick Lamagna:
Oh. Honestly, it wasn’t good-
Jared Osmond:
The size of a freaking football.
Nick Lamagna:
Huge. I figured the guy could have given us a heads up or something. They just brought that piece of cake over, and I was like, “Ah.” And I looked at it, and I was like … Literally, everybody that was at the tables around us-
Jared Osmond:
Yeah.
Nick Lamagna:
[inaudible 00:28:47] was staring at us. And I went to the waiter, I was like, “Dude, can you cut it up and just pass it out to half the restaurant? This is fucking [crosstalk 00:28:53].”
Jared Osmond:
The thing was the size of a cake. You had the whole, I mean, I don’t know how big the original cake was.
Nick Lamagna:
After we did that event in Chicago, I [inaudible 00:29:04] jiu-jitsu, and I think a couple of you guys went out to Gibson Steakhouse.
Jared Osmond:
Oh, yeah.
Nick Lamagna:
[inaudible 00:29:09] did you go with them?
Jared Osmond:
No, I went by myself.
Nick Lamagna:
Oh, you did. Okay, that’s where we were. We were at Gibsons. I had never been there before.
Jared Osmond:
Oh, Gibsons is awesome, one of my favorites. That was Gibsons. Wow.
Nick Lamagna:
Yeah, that was.
Jared Osmond:
Yeah. [inaudible 00:29:23]. Oh, it’s my favorite. It’s so good.
Nick Lamagna:
It was really good. I was like, “Man.” And it was attached to a Doubletree. I was like, “There’s not a good restaurant attached to a Doubletree.” And they were like, “Sure is, go over there.” And I was like, “Man, that was really, really good.”
Jared Osmond:
Yeah. Oh, it’s off the chain, man. It’s so good. Love it. Love, love it.
Nick Lamagna:
So one of the things you said, which I actually didn’t preface when I was giving you the intro, was that you are an Osmond. So you are related actually to [inaudible 00:29:48] Donny and Marie, and everything. And I always think it’s funny, because it’s very easy for people to, “Oh, well, he’s Donny and Marie’s nephew, that’s why he’s got all that money, and that’s why he can do all those things.”
Nick Lamagna:
And I think you were telling me a story how you were mowing your lawn, or doing something, and they didn’t see you, and they were like, “Oh, that’s the guy that Donny and Marie gave all their money to.”
Jared Osmond:
Yeah, so I had some neighbors, we’re in a tight knit community out here, and we go to church together with these neighbors, never really spent any time talking to them, they don’t really know me, just at church, and, “Hi, how are you?”
Jared Osmond:
But I was out picking weeds, which I never do, I hate yard work, hate it. But for some reason, my wife was upset the weeds were there, I was out there in the morning on a Saturday, and these seven ladies come walking by, and I hear them talking about the neighbor, every house they go by, they’re talking, right. [inaudible 00:30:39] church gossip.
Jared Osmond:
And then they get close to me. And we live in a gated community, so they couldn’t see me behind the gates really. And as they got a little bit closer, they started talking, and they were like, “Oh, yeah, Jared and his wife Heather. Heather runs their furniture stores, and she’s always busy, and she’s a great designer.” Dah, dah, dah, dah. “And then there’s Jared. What does Jared do?” Quiet. There was all silence. “Yeah, I don’t think he works, I think he just stays home with the kids.” Is what one of them said.
Jared Osmond:
And she goes, “Yeah, and I heard that Donny is paying his mortgage. It’s a family trust fund.” And I sat there, and I thought, I was busting out. I was like, “Man, should I be offended? Or should I lean over the wall and say, ‘Hi.’ And surprise them?” I let it go. I never brought it up with them. And I just thought it’s interesting the perception people have.
Nick Lamagna:
Yeah.
Jared Osmond:
So I mean, and you just never know. You got to be careful how you assess people anyway, right. You just never know who you’re dealing with. But it was interesting. It’s also a testament though to me that the truth is, you can get caught into groups of people that will sit and gossip, and waste your time, that kind of thing, instead of being productive, or having a true friendship. People that we thought we knew, we didn’t know. There really isn’t any offense, but it was an interesting eye opener that my wife and I talked about, that people really don’t know.
Jared Osmond:
And it is interesting when they approach us and they ask us what we’ve done, or how we’ve done it, how we’re making money, how does real estate work for us. A lot of times, it’s the deer in the headlight look, and they look at us, and they can’t relate, they don’t want to. And that’s okay, that’s okay. It’s not for everybody, or everybody to be doing it.
Jared Osmond:
But I’ll tell you, it’s simpler than it … It is as simple as I make it out to be. It truly is. That’s the hard part for me is, it’s that simple. It’s going to the city, getting that list, right, that seems daunting, and going, “Oh, all right.” It’s like when I started the assisted living, I had some big assisted livings here in Utah. And I had no idea how to start an assisted living when I started, but it didn’t scare me. I was willing to go, and go for it, and create, and do things better, and do the research, and go, “Well, what could I do better? How do I make this work? What else could it be? How do I maximize the use of this business? How do I grow?” These two simple questions. Anyway, I’ll let you go.
Nick Lamagna:
Yeah, and you [inaudible 00:33:04] hopefully we do these a lot.
Jared Osmond:
Oh, yeah.
Nick Lamagna:
A couple of things I did want to ask you also is, even when we’re out there talking to people, or teaching classes, I see it, because I know there’s always the sharky guy. I’m a big believer in, yes, there has to be a nice mix of it, but people, every single person I talk to that’s successful, they can tell you, like you said, I can tell you all the steps to the deal, but it really does come down to just the mindset and the belief of whatever their story is on why they don’t do it.
Nick Lamagna:
So I know you’re a huge person that’s really big on mindset, and optimism, and visualization, and all that kind of stuff. And I don’t understand how people constantly come across very successful people, they’ll talk to you, they’ll see that you’re genuine, they’ll see that you’re successful, and then they’ll say something like, “Hey, well, what’s the biggest thing that you can think of?” And you tell them mindset, and they go, “Ah, it’s bullshit.” You know what I mean? Every [crosstalk 00:34:00] discount that. Why do you think that is? And how has that helped you really get to where you are? Because obviously there’s a difference between [inaudible 00:34:02].
Jared Osmond:
Sure there is. Sure there is. Well, the reason that they discount it is they don’t want to believe it’s that simple first of all. They want it to be more complex, because then it gives them an excuse not to succeed.
Nick Lamagna:
[inaudible 00:34:22].
Jared Osmond:
Okay, so that’s number one. And I’m telling you with all clarity, that’s the truth. People that discount the mindset and call it psychological babble, they’re the ones that are never going to do it, because they’re self defeating. And it’s a really true aspect to the game, when I get out, and it is a self fulfilling prophecy. If you get up in the morning and say, “I can’t.” Then you won’t. Or if you look in the mirror and you’re self critical, like, “Oh, I’m so ugly, I’m so this, I’m so that.” Well, all right, all right, well, you’re supposed to be your own best friend.
Jared Osmond:
Setting yourself up as your own best friend, as lame as that may sound, is the truth. Because then you don’t have to rely on somebody else to make you feel good about yourself. I think there’s a connection with God as well that sustains me. I think that you have to have a spiritual connection, you have to keep balance in your life. I talk a lot about balance, and that’s another discussion.
Jared Osmond:
But the reason people discount it is, it takes away their narrative for their story. As I mentioned, the reason people don’t do big things, or don’t accomplish what they set out to accomplish is because they have a story internally that they tell themselves, “Oh, I can’t, because …” Or, “I don’t have this.” Or, “I don’t have enough money.” I get that you need money. But I’m telling you, if the idea is good enough, there is money. If the deal is good enough, there’s ways to find it. Maybe you need to start somewhere smaller on a smaller scale, it’s okay. But there are ways [inaudible 00:36:02] to do things.
Jared Osmond:
And I’m not going to tell you that, oh, yeah, you can go out and do a billion dollar deal, or you can whatever. There are steps obviously. But I’m saying that when people set themselves up, they don’t set themselves up for success, they set themselves up for failure. Because right out of the shoots, they’re coming up with excuses.
Jared Osmond:
When I tell somebody it really is mindset, it really is creating this person and persona that you want to be so that you can follow through, and you can be your own CEO, and your own best friend, and you can do all these things, they don’t want to hear that. And they dismiss it pretty quickly.
Jared Osmond:
And most of the really successful people that I know truly are very self contained. They don’t need adoration from other people necessarily. Some people [inaudible 00:36:47]. But they don’t. And they don’t need to be propped up by friends because they’re already their own best friend. But they’re also surrounding themselves, and that’s part of the mindset, right. I mean, you surround yourself with like minded people, that’s why you and I are on the phone today, or on the video conference, you’re a very like minded person, you’re one of my dearest friends.
Nick Lamagna:
[crosstalk 00:37:10].
Jared Osmond:
And I mean that sincerely. And it’s because you have that mindset. It’s easy for me to communicate with you. And that makes it fun, I really enjoy that. So there’s lots of reasons why people don’t pull the trigger and go for things. But I think that’s the number one reason why.
Nick Lamagna:
I like it, man.
Jared Osmond:
They can think it’s BS if they want. I don’t care.
Nick Lamagna:
Yeah, exactly. Well, you’re at a place in life that, if they don’t believe you, it’s okay. You can pick and choose your arguments, you know what I mean? I like it. So another thing, if you had to give advice to somebody, first off, starting out, what would your advice be professionally, or personally, whatever it would be, of just something to kind of get them going?
Nick Lamagna:
And two, one of the things that I’m really, what I’m trying to do now, and I find myself doing, is really just level up. So you really are somebody that I think every person that I talk to, I don’t care how successful they are in whatever they’re doing, you are the level up of what the next thing is. Even the people that think they’re at the top, you just have done things on a much bigger, higher level than anybody I know.
Nick Lamagna:
So what would your advice be, first off, to somebody new starting out, and second, to somebody who is doing well, but really looking to level up, or take their business to another level, what would be some tips, or some advice, or just any kind of words of wisdom for them?
Jared Osmond:
Yeah. And the truth is, Nick, the first thing you need to do is take a breath. Everybody is so uptight. Just take a breath. The train is always coming. Take a breath, relax, you’ll find it. There are answers to questions, there are things that you will discover. You don’t have to know everything.
Jared Osmond:
The greatest advice I can give somebody is to get started.real estate is a way to make passive income, to make money while you sleep. And everybody has an excuse. Again, that whole mindset of, “Oh, I’m too old.” Or, “Oh, I’m too out of shape.” Or, “Oh, I’ve got too many hours doing this.” All right. It’s the story, right. You got to lose the story.
Jared Osmond:
All right, yeah, let’s say you work a job that takes a lot of your time, okay. And you’ve got to dedicate time to your family, I get it. So you need to start in kind of a smaller micro fashion. So what? Start. The reason I don’t buy stocks is because stocks can go to zero. Real estate will never go to zero. Real estate is a natural hedge against inflation. Our currency is ticking down every day, it’s tied to nothing. It used to be tied to gold, so they said, back in 1972. Not tied to gold. And the reason I don’t buy gold is because gold doesn’t pay me rent.
Jared Osmond:
So the truth is, you’ve got to, first, get yourself in a good place. I mean, most people are surrounded by people that are not going to support it. You can’t necessarily get rid of your spouse if she doesn’t support you. I mean, you’ve got to keep that relationship intact. I mean, you should I guess.
Jared Osmond:
But you need to set yourself up for success. You got to start inside. And you’ve got to create this relationship with yourself, as weird as that sounds. It’s critical. Where you discover that you can. And you have to also discover what is it exactly that’s keeping you from feeling like you can do this. Where are those internal air conditioners? What are the limiting factors in your beliefs? If you believe you can’t, why? Pencil it out, write it down. And you’ll find out, as you write it out, it’s like, “Oh, that’s really self limiting, and it’s BS.” Okay. Belief system. It really is.
Jared Osmond:
And the truth is, is that’s where it all begins. I remember when I started off in real estate, I had what I believed I needed. And so I put that number out there. I needed, I think the number was $3,000 a month. If I had $3,000 a month, all my bills would be paid, I could cover everything that I could think.
Jared Osmond:
I was so focused on that goal that I got exactly what I wanted within the first six months. A passive income. And from there, I just every time … But if you set yourself up … And that’s okay, it’s okay to set smaller goals, set yourself up, try it, go and hit that, crush it, and then go to the next one, and go … And it is very powerful, it is a very powerful thing.
Jared Osmond:
One of the big problems too, back to the mindset side of this, and this is probably the biggest problem, the reason I believe people don’t succeed, is they are shell shocked. They’re living with PTSD from a previous deal. Whether its real estate or otherwise, I don’t know. But some type of PTSD that has created such an [inaudible 00:42:00] impression on their psyche, and their ability to pull the trigger, and their ability to go forward.
Jared Osmond:
Again, analyze what it is that’s holding you up. Write it down, come up with some clear understanding of those limitations and why you feel that way. Most times when you do, you’ll realize those feelings are irrational, or those feelings can be mitigated by saying, “Well, this happened.” And then you look at the players that were involved. A lot of times, it involves other people that either screwed you over, or …
Jared Osmond:
And so you have to erase the past. You can’t live in the past, you have to learn to forgive it, and essentially, and most importantly, forgive yourself. Most people, I’ve done it, every day it’s a matter of personal forgiveness. We’re so mean to ourselves. I mean, we hang ourselves up on past things, and we’re the most critical of ourselves and who we are on all levels. And that is so stifling.
Jared Osmond:
And so learning to forgive yourself, and forgetting yesterday, learn the lessons from it, write it down, become clear on what you don’t want, that’s great. But don’t spend a lot of time focusing on what you don’t want. Spend a lot of time focusing on what you want. It’s all cerebral. You’re going to get a lot of people that’ll listen to this and they’ll go, “Oh, it’s just, it’s warm and fuzzy talk.” That’s great, I’m okay with that. But it’s the truth, Nick. It’s the truth.
Jared Osmond:
I’ve done gigantic deals, I’ve done crazy things, I’ve got freedom, and I’m able to live … I wrote on the dash of my car when I first started this, which I don’t recommend doing by the way, [inaudible 00:43:34]. I wrote on the dash of my car when I was single, I said, “I’m willing to live like nobody will. I’m willing to live like nobody will, so that some day, I can live like nobody can.”
Jared Osmond:
And I was humble, and I analyzed. And it’s been a road, man. It’s not a perfectly straight line, it’s been back and forth, and it’s been very emotional to kind of go through it, and to get to the point where I am now. And I still have much more room to grow. But I mean, there’s been so many moments where I’ve been able to kind of assess it, and go, “All right, what am I feeling? Why am I feeling this way? And why am I not able to get past it?” And it’s taken me a minute, but those are important moments.
Jared Osmond:
The deals are there, we can talk about how to subdivide, I can talk about how to do an assisted living, I can show you how to set up a business for success, how to go through the process of starting a business, getting an SBA loan, I can tell you the difference between banks, I can go through how to create cash through scenarios where you can buy, sell, then buy and keep, and there’s a different kind … There’s all kinds of stuff to learn. But until you set yourself up here, that’s tough, it’s tough to get past that.
Jared Osmond:
And again, the whole time issue. People talk so much about time, like, “Oh, I don’t have time.” Yeah, you do. You just get caught up on things that you think are important. But what’s important is for you to set yourself up to be able to have more time later on. So maybe you take an hour less of sleep, maybe you dial back a little bit on your hobbies, maybe you reinvest in … Maybe you find a different job if it’s really working you so hard that you can’t focus on this. Take the time to go and figure it out. Set yourself up for success. Anyway, yeah, I could go on.
Nick Lamagna:
I agree though, the same thing, when people, like when we talk, and you see me posting stuff like I’m in San Francisco, and I got up at 4:30 and drove an hour to go to jiu-jitsu, it’s like, [inaudible 00:45:29] 24 hours in a day. And if it’s something I’m really committed to that I love, and I want to get better at it, and I eventually want to get a black belt, that’s what you have to do, is you have to do what other people aren’t willing to do to get what you want, regardless of what it is.
Nick Lamagna:
And that’s why one of the things me and Nicole always say is, how you do anything is how you do everything, regardless of what it is. And I’m a big believer that you bring your A game, regardless if you’re scrubbing toilets or building houses, you just do your best with whatever you bring.
Nick Lamagna:
And I know that you have probably been the same way though your whole life. That’s why I know, if you take the principles of just what you do and who you are in real estate, and you put that into jiu-jitsu, you’re going to get your black belt in jiu-jitsu eventually the same way you did in real estate.
Nick Lamagna:
And a lot of my fighter buddies that have been very successful in that, if they go and they decide that, which a couple of them are, is they’re going after real estate now, and they’re going, “Look, this was crazy, and hard, and confusing, and scary when I started, and look what I did in that. Why would this be any different?” And people go, “Oh, no, no, no, no.” But it’s the same. It’s all the same.
Nick Lamagna:
So I believe that no matter what it is that you decide you want to do, you’re going to find a way to be successful in it because it’s who you are. That’s just [inaudible 00:46:37]. And you’ve proven that. So I love that, man, and I think that that’s [inaudible 00:46:39].
Nick Lamagna:
And I know you have, there’s stuff out there that I definitely want to bring attention to, like I know you have your furniture store. So anybody in the Utah area, or I don’t know if they can go and shop online through some of the different places that you have, if you want to give a nice plug, I know the Mrs would appreciate it.
Jared Osmond:
Yeah, go support my wife, Osmond Designs Furniture. Now we’re in Lehi and Orem Utah. And I mean, she loves what she does. We’ve been able to create such an amazing place, and it’s fun for her. And it’s also because of the way we structured the real estate deal, we’ve been able to pay the stores off. And our inventory is paid off, so we don’t live on credit lines, so we can wheel and deal, and help people, and do a great business.
Jared Osmond:
And so that’s fun. We really enjoy that. And the only reason I say that is because it’s unique, right. If you set your real estate up the right way, and you own a business, owning the real estate makes sense. A lot of people live off leases, and that’s okay, you can go lease from somebody else. But the flexibility of owning your own space is huge. And we don’t have time to talk about that right now, there’s tons of reasons why. But yeah, so Osmond Designs Furniture. Yeah.
Nick Lamagna:
Osmond Designs Furniture. And I’ve been there, they’re both freaking awesome stores, amazing stores. Assisted livings and stuff, what else do you have around the area that if people [crosstalk 00:47:54].
Jared Osmond:
Yeah, Osmond Senior Living, still have ownership in that. I sold off to a national company a little while ago, and did very well. Set that up, and I think they’re still doing well with that. I own a percentage there to keep the Osmond name on it, and make sure that they’re doing things right.
Jared Osmond:
We’ve got retail shopping centers coming out of the ground right now in two different towns, in Pleasant Grove, and American Fork. And of course, we’re looking to open another furniture store actually in Salt Lake, we’re going to build a new store, so keep you posted on that, it’s going to be fun.
Nick Lamagna:
Love it. I mean, maybe in one of your strip malls, you can open a Serra Jiu-Jitsu affiliate down there.
Jared Osmond:
I love that idea. Right. [crosstalk 00:48:37].
Nick Lamagna:
[crosstalk 00:48:38] you get a good pizza place in there, we’ll have Matt Serra come out, and you can do some pizzas, some jiu-jitsu.
Jared Osmond:
Get a lot of carbohydrates, get pizza, get ice-cream, get a burger, go do jiu-jitsu. I love it. Throw up on the guy you’re rolling with. That sounds fun.
Nick Lamagna:
There you go, man, there you go. I know you have your … There’s a couple of things that, I quote you a lot, I don’t even know if you know that. But any time I’m doing a class, or a meetup, or something, I quote you, and I talk about you a lot. You have your rules of engagement, which I like. If you wouldn’t mind sharing a couple of those, because I think they’re important, because I think one of the first things you ever said to me when I started showing you some of the deals I was struggling with, you were like, “Well, you’re violating some of my rules of engagement. And if you don’t break these, if you follow these to a tee, you’ll never lose money on a deal.”
Nick Lamagna:
Which I think is huge, because I normally say anybody that’s been doing real estate long enough, they tell you it’s all been rainbows and sunshine, and they’ve never lost money, it’s probably not true. But I know in your case, it actually is.
Jared Osmond:
[crosstalk 00:49:35].
Nick Lamagna:
I think you said you [crosstalk 00:49:37] 30 grand or something like that, right.
Jared Osmond:
Yeah, [inaudible 00:49:40], right. I mean, the worst deal I’ve ever done made 30 grand. And it’s a deal that I should have made 130, but I had so many problems that … But I was able to get into it the right way. Made a lot of hasty decisions, and I leapt before I looked. And anyway, blah, blah, blah.
Jared Osmond:
But so there are rules of engagement that are critical. One of the very first rules is to take a breath and do one deal at a time. One of the things I see, even on a big level, I mean, I’ve been so tempted to diversify. I mean, I could, with my general contractors license, and the experience that I have, I could go out and start a home building business that would really boom right now because everybody is buying house [inaudible 00:50:24]. Or I could go and get a bunch of deals, and get a bunch of crazy stuff happening all at once.
Jared Osmond:
But right now, I’ve got two real estate deals coming out, two big commercial centers that I could, I have the means, and I’ve got the backing to go and take them both out of the ground at the same time. But I want to do one at a time. One deal at a time. Set yourself up for success. Make sure that things ar functioning, make sure you’ve got all the … It’s okay to start another deal, as long as this is under control. So one deal at a time.
Jared Osmond:
I tell people to invest in an area that they understand. We just talked about that, right. So if you’re in New York, and you’re struggling with the price point, go to Georgia if you want, or whatever market you want to be in. But don’t go there based on somebody else’s recommendation. Go there, get on the ground, go and understand where the property is located. I mean, Zillo does not get it right most of the time. You can’t go off of comparables online only. You got to go check out the neighborhood, you got to make sure you understand the market you’re investing in. And so that’s a big one.
Jared Osmond:
Don’t take advice from a broke investor. Don’t take advice from somebody that doesn’t know what they’re doing. There’s so many people that want to talk. And you got to be careful too. I mean, you and I talked about this, even in the real estate training world, there are people out there that are just talking heads.
Jared Osmond:
And so I had a lady that sat in from of me when I was teaching one of the very first seminars I ever did. And really threw me off, she goes, “Well, I don’t believe you.” And the whole room came to a halt. There was a couple hundred people. And she stood up, took the mic, she goes, “I don’t believe anything you’re saying.” She goes, “This deal doesn’t make any sense and I think you’re lying.” And everybody got very upset. They’re all thinking, “Oh, that’s so rude.”
Jared Osmond:
And I said, “No, no, no, no, no, no. This is real, and we need to hit this on the head.” I said, “What is it that you don’t believe?” And she went through all the numbers, and this, she goes, “That doesn’t make any sense. How did you get this much money out of the deal? How did this work?” And I said, “Why don’t I, first of all, let me prove to you that I did the deal. Why don’t I get the statements, the HUDs from closing. I’ll have my …” And now, I’ve never done that before. Maybe that was a violation of my privacy, I don’t know.
Jared Osmond:
But I called my wife in real time right there, I said, “Hey, could you please email me the HUDs on this deal.” Emailed it right over. A few minutes later she had it, and we looked at it, got on the county records, pulled it up, showed that I still owned it, how I made the money, what I did. Anyway.
Jared Osmond:
And turns out she was an investigative reporter for some big newspaper that had heard about us being there, and she came out there to see, and vet this seminar. Truth is, is she actually ended up doing some deals, and has done very well in real estate. So it’s kind of fun that I was able to kind of send her down to [inaudible 00:53:05] be a part of that.
Jared Osmond:
But understanding how to engage, I think it’s really important to me that people are careful when they get out, getting ready to invest. Having multiple exit strategies on a deal. A lot of times, people get kind of stuck in one exit strategy. Meaning, okay, well I’m just going to buy this and flip it, and that’s their exit is to flip it. Well, it doesn’t always work out that way. Back in ’08, the market dropped. What do you do?
Jared Osmond:
And so you have to protect yourself. And I always have several different ways out. I’ll always go into a deal, and the only deals that I’ll do are the ones that have multiple ways of creating the deal, or getting out of it, whether it’s renting, it’s [inaudible 00:53:44] financing, it’s flipping, it’s subdividing, it’s creating something that it wasn’t, changing the use of the building. There’s so many ways to do it. And in that creation, that creative side, it gives you a lot of options in case something does go wrong, or you end up having some kind of weird snafu with whatever it is you’re doing in the economy. So yeah, there are rules of engagement.
Nick Lamagna:
I actually pulled them up while you were just talking there.
Jared Osmond:
Oh, good, good, go over them.
Nick Lamagna:
I love technology, man. If I [inaudible 00:54:11] I can be like, “I can pull these up right now.”
Jared Osmond:
And I guess I could have done that too, but I decided not to.
Nick Lamagna:
No, but that’s why you’re my guest, so I like to do that for you. I didn’t want you to think I wasn’t listening to you.
Jared Osmond:
[inaudible 00:54:20] service. Thank you.
Nick Lamagna:
Slow steady pace wins the race, one deal at a time.
Jared Osmond:
One deal at a time.
Nick Lamagna:
Number two, beware of so called experts that don’t invest. Which like you just said, they are everywhere, man. It’s unbelievable. And I’m one of the first people who goes out there, and I’m like, “Look, you guys are here to learn from me, but I’m going to tell you that I’ve done a lot of stuff right, but I’ve done a lot of stuff wrong.” Which I think is equally as important.
Nick Lamagna:
And the people that don’t have that experience that are out there teaching things, I do think that’s a big problem with why a lot of people are not successful, because they’re learning from people who have not been successful, and then they’re teaching other people who have not been successful. And it’s just a crazy slippery slope unfortunately.
Jared Osmond:
Yeah, no, the thing is, everybody has this scenario. Your mom said, “Well, you should buy this stock.” Or your dad said, “Oh, this is what I would do.” Or your best friend says, “Let’s get together and invest in a popcorn factory.” Everybody, they get advice from people that don’t invest, and haven’t had any track record or experience.
Jared Osmond:
Now, I mean, when I was first starting out, even though I was very caviler in the ability to go out and uncover whatever questions I had, I found a lot, just from the beginning, I found a lot of comfort in going and talking to people that had done it. Not everybody was willing to share with me. Sometimes people that are successful have become very arrogant, and they’re not humble, they don’t want to help, or share, or … There’s this feeling of scarcity.
Jared Osmond:
But to be honest with you, man, there’s a lot of room at the top. It’s pretty lonely. I mean, there’s a lot of room. There’s a lot of real estate out there. You throw a stick and hit a building, or a piece of ground, I bet you we can analyze it and create wealth.
Jared Osmond:
This is the part that kills me, they’re like, “Oh, there’s no deals.” That’s crap. There are so many deals. What do you want to do with it? How do you want to change what we go? Sometimes you can, sometimes you can’t. Some properties are just limited. That’s okay, move on. But yeah, be very careful who you take advice from.
Nick Lamagna:
And move on is actually number three, which is, don’t panic, don’t jump, always be willing to walk away. Never be emotional about real estate.
Jared Osmond:
Exactly. Don’t get emotional. Don’t fall in love with the curtains. Even my own personal home, I built this amazing house, and someone just offered me a million and a half more than what I’m into it, and I think I’m going to take the deal.
Nick Lamagna:
[crosstalk 00:56:41]. I feel like they’re going to up it again, and you’re going to be like, “All right, sold.”
Jared Osmond:
[inaudible 00:56:47]. It’s interesting, and again, I’m not trying to … Sometimes I feel like I come across like I’m bragging. That’s not my point. My point is [crosstalk 00:56:56] it’s just the reaction that I get sometimes. But the fact is, is don’t be emotional about real estate. Real estate, you don’t fall in love with real estate. Don’t. Fall in love with your family, fall in love with what real estate can do for you, but don’t fall in love with it.
Nick Lamagna:
Rule number four was never invest in an area you’re not 100% sure of, it’s gambling. So we talked about that. Number five, own and control. If necessary, it’s better to give some profits away rather than lose control of the project. Be aware of partners. Have attorneys outline the deal.
Nick Lamagna:
So as you know, I’ve had more bad partners than bad deals unfortunately. And they wind up creating one messes up the other. So I mean, you kind of tend to only do stuff with your wife, which I think is interesting. You really have kind of been just a powerhouse couple from the beginning really.
Jared Osmond:
What’s weird is, obviously through the last 24 years of being successful in real estate and doing things, I have people almost every week, they want to partner with me. Got some big deal, they want me to come in, dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.
Jared Osmond:
The truth is, is, and I haven’t, because I’ve been able to be self contained. And I don’t really want partners. Partnerships are sinking ships. And it’s scary. It’s scary. It is scary as hell, because the fact of the matter is, is that person can tank the deal, because maybe in their head, if they have control, this is why I’m willing to give away profit to control the deal so that my idea spells out.
Jared Osmond:
If I’m going to spend all this time, and energy, and creation, and I get it, I get that people need partners. I understand that. Not everybody is self contained, right, that’s very rare. But you need to make sure that your creative ideas, your creation is followed through, and that there’s a clear path.
Jared Osmond:
And one of the biggest things to make sure you have in that partnership deal is a legal paper that shows you how to get out of it, because partnerships are sinking ships. And so it’s like you need to be ready for the divorce the second you get into that deal. And especially, I’m telling you right now, if you want to save your relationships, make sure you have an exit strategy so that you can say, “Look, we’re going to save our relationship, mom.” Because I’m going to partner with my mom, whatever it is. Make sure you’re careful. Because I’ve seen so many families just get torched and burned, and people embezzle, or they take liberties they shouldn’t. And all that does is create drama. I don’t have time for drama.
Nick Lamagna:
I think you are one of the most interesting people that I’ve ever met, and you’re just a really good guy, man. So none of this stuff [crosstalk 00:59:35] coming off as [inaudible 00:59:37] or anything like that. Even my guy friends, they’re like, “Man, when Jared talks, we’re like, [inaudible 00:59:43].” They sit there, and we just gush. You have a really, really good way with people. You never come off asa arrogant, you always come off as genuine and sincere, man. And everybody likes you, and everybody I know appreciates you, and you’ve made a lot of people’s lives better, and a lot of people’s day better, especially mine for talking to me today, and especially for opening up ice-cream shops. I love all that stuff.
Jared Osmond:
[crosstalk 01:00:02] my pleasure. No, it’s my pleasure. Really, sincerely, I love it. And I want to help. It sounds a little altruistic, or idealistic, but it’s a principle in life, I know that, that you get what you give. So just a quick tidbit. Whatever you give, it’s the law of returns, man, it comes back. I don’t know how it is, whether you call it karma. You want a good relationship with your wife, then give.
Jared Osmond:
In whatever you do in your life, it does come back. And in marriage, and I tell you, marriage is no easy deal, and I don’t want to take a sidetrack here, but [inaudible 01:00:45] whatever you give, you get back. And it’s the same thing in business. You just have to make sure that you’re giving it to the right people. You can waste a lot of time, and lot of effort, and a lot of energy. That’s why you got to set yourself up with the right people, and surround yourself so that you’re not just wasting your time, or wasting these pearls before swine, if you will.
Jared Osmond:
And you got to be careful. Life is short, so you take it one day at a time. But, man, it’s setting yourself up for success. That’s why this real estate thing makes so much sense. You just got to get out there and do it. You got to engage. And so that’s the key getting people out the door, and starting to look, and starting to find.
Jared Osmond:
And one thing leads to the next, and every tough conversation you have brings a level of understanding, and clarity, and success. Those tough conversations are what matter. Having a tough conversation with the city, tough conversation with the person selling the place. And really, the toughest conversation is with yourself, that we talked about.
Nick Lamagna:
Wiser words have not been spoken, man. I appreciate it. I’ll let you go do your thing. But thank you for your time as always. And when you get some downtime tonight, give me a call, and I’ll update you on some of the stuff we were talking about earlier in the week too.
Jared Osmond:
Awesome, you go it, brother.
Nick Lamagna:
Thank you, sir. [crosstalk 01:01:59]. Always a pleasure, man.
Jared Osmond:
All right, man, good to talk to you.
Nick Lamagna:
Tell the family I said hello.
Jared Osmond:
I will. Talk to you soon. See you, brother. (music).