Happy Memorial Day! The Best Ever Advice from 5 Military Veterans

In honor of Memorial Day, here are 5 pieces of best ever advice from five military veterans I’ve interviewed on my show.

Mark Allen from JF930: Recession-Proof? Why You MUST Diversify Your Assets

Mark served in the US Army as a Field Artillery Office where he led troops in Operation Enduring Freedom.

Mark is a brokers and real estate investor who focuses on single-family rental portfolios around the country and multifamily in Texas and Oklahoma.

Mark’s Best Ever Advice?

“Diversification. It’s what I push now to multifamily owners if I have a single-family portfolio listing.”

“My dad put all of his eggs into one basket in 2004 through 2006 and ended up getting caught with his pants down with several loans on the books. That was a lesson I learned from him and luckily I didn’t have to learn from myself.”

Bill Allen from JF905: Flying Planes, Flipping Houses, and Hiring the Right People

Bill is an active duty Navy pilot and actually fell into real estate investing due to his constant military moves.

In 2016, Bill flipped 13 houses and wholesaled 54 deals while still working full-time.

Bill’s Best Ever Advice?

“To take really fast action and implement. I’m an implementer. I got this idea in January of last year and I just ran with it. The reason I think I was successful is because I took action and implemented it and did the things that other people won’t do.”

“It’s a little bit risky. If it doesn’t work out and I say, ‘Hey, I didn’t have my mind made up that I would continue and quit,’ I could have lost $20,000, but I went in knowing that.”

“I don’t think there’s a lot of risk to it. If you take action – risk is that you’re afraid to fail and then you fail and then you quit. If you just don’t quit – you’re going to fail. Just accept it and don’t do the same thing again.”

Jimmy and Bob Vreeland from JF872: How to SCALE a Private Money Raising Empire and JF786: Over 100 Properties Acquired in 12 MONTHS from LEASE OPTION Masters

Jimmy and Bob are graduated of the United States Military Academy at West Point and the Air Force Academy respectively,

They currently have over 100 properties in their portfolio under lease option.

Jimmy and Bob’s Best Ever Advice? Click here to learn how to acquire over 100 properties in 24 months utilizing the lease-option strategy.

Shawn Petree from JF464: How He Bought Two 12-plexes with NONE of His Own Money

Shawn Petree was in the military, on the construction side, for 10 years in both the Army and the Air Force.

Since he began investing in 1997, he has closed over 350 transactions on all types of properties.

Shawn’s Best Ever Advice?

“Always have an exit strategy.”

“When you get a house, you need to know what you are going to do with it. Most people go into fix-and-flips thinking they are going to fix and flip it and sometimes the market will change on you and you can’t sell something if there is a downturn. The lesson I’ve learned over time is to find a property, flip a property first, if you can’t flip it, fix it and fill it.”

Scott Lewis from JF965: Why He SOLD All He Had, Went to War, then Returns to Develop Land and Syndicate BIG Deals

Scott served as an active duty Infantry Office in the US Army where he deployed as an Infantry Platoon Leader in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Scott co-founded Spartan Investment Group, which completed 4 projects totaling $2.5M with an average ROI of 36% in 24 months.

Scott’s Best Ever Advice?

“The best advice is broken down into two categories. One is just starting out, and if you’re just starting out, take some time to learn yourself before you start. There’s some personality assessments out there… DISC and Myers-Briggs are two that are out there. I really recommend you go out and you figure out what type of personality you are. Then once you figure out what type of personality, build your tribe around your weaknesses.”

“Myself, I’m a DISC D, that means I’m a driver – I just want to get stuff done, I don’t really pay attention to details. So I went out and I found a partner who is very into details and he’s very detail-oriented. The two of us, plus a couple other members of our team kind of really round that out.”

“Once you figure out your team, then start with an education period. Just figure out what asset class you want to focus on, and then go. For those of us that have been out there and have been in the trenches, constantly challenge your assumptions and operating models.”

“We recommend a devil’s advocate. The Israeli Mossad, which is their version of the CIA, they call that the 10th man. This person is just the person on the team that disagrees with everything that’s going on. What that does is it ensures that groupthink doesn’t cause you to make a bad decision.”

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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this blog post are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be construed as an offer to buy or sell any securities or to make or consider any investment or course of action.