From Bartender to Owning Over 850 Units with Jason Yarusi
For this episode, I am happy to welcome Jason Yarusi. Jason and his wife, Pili, are active Real Estate Syndicators and Real Estate Investors. In 2016 they founded Yarusi Holdings, a multifamily investment firm and they are General Partners on over 850 units across four states with 450 units under management. The firm repositions properties through operational efficiencies, moderate to extensive renovations and complete rebranding. They are also hosts of the popular Multifamily Live Podcast and The Jason and Pili Project on Youtube. Jason and Pili are founders of the Tennessee, Kentucky and New Jersey Multifamily Foundation Club with over 2,200 members that focuses on Real Estate Syndication and Multifamily Investing.
I start by letting the audience know that Jason and his wife and I are friends and have known each other for several years, so that I will be asking him questions I already know the answers to! I know that they both started working in other fields before moving into real estate, so I asked Jason to give us some of his background. He talks about how they first met, when he was invited to perform some restoration construction work on the barge bar that Pili worked at. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, they began working for Jason’s dad who owned a company which moves and lifts houses in New Jersey. They loved supporting and assisting in the running of their family business, but they knew they also wanted more for themselves.
When they first started in real estate investing, they were flipping and wholesaling single family homes like crazy, but they felt like they had filled their plate to overflowing and wanted a more passive income model of investing. A friend of theirs was investing in out-of-town rentals, which seemed attractive to them, but they decided to start looking at multifamily units. In 2017, they bought their first apartment building and learned the process of that kind of property investing.
Jason explained that part of the reason that flipping and wholesaling wasn’t working for them was because they were doing it locally and kept throwing themselves in the process. Not only did this take away their free-time but it often slowed down the process itself! Investing in out-of-town multifamily properties really benefited them because they were forced to hire a team and put processes in place to handle and manage these assets. Jason talks extensively about the advantages of being involved in multifamily versus single family homes.
We then discussed how Jason and Pili are reaching out and educating people in the multifamily investing model. I asked Jason to explain why they decided to do this because I know they are a super busy, young family. Jason explained how they developed relationships and made mistakes, but their hope is to have others avoid those same mistakes and realize their goals more quickly.
Jason talked about the Multifamily Live Virtual Summit that they are hosting on March 25th and 26th and he stressed how beneficial these events and meetings are for new investors. Jason explained they are having twelve active multifamily investors speak at this event and each of them have a particular superpower in order to impart as much varied information as possible to the attendees. Not only is the information provided going to be extremely actionable, but it is also FREE!
The people I trust the most in this business all definitively say that Jason is the man when it comes to multifamily investing so you will not want to miss this awesome episode the Just Start Real Estate Podcast! And don’t forget to sign up for next week’s Multifamily Live Virtual Summit today by clicking the link below!
Notable Quotes:
“Like most people, we were just trying to figure it out.”
- Jason Yarusi
“We knew we needed to get back to where we were controlling our time.”
- Jason Yarusi
“Active effort produces money, but at that point, you are trading time for money.”
- Jason Yarusi
“Most people think they need to say ‘yes’ to everything to maximize their opportunities, but they risk diluting themselves and not being great at anything.”
- Mike Simmons
“What can I do today to meet the potential of this property?”
- Jason Yarusi
“When starting a new venture you need to understand the mindset, understand the terms, and how to talk the talk.”
- Jason Yarusi
“People look at the mountain top and think, ‘Too big, too tall, can’t even imagine it.’ But you don’t need to get to the top in the first step.”
- Mike Simmons
“Ultimately, it is a team sport. Working together is more beneficial and gratuitous because we are all serving a bigger purpose.”
- Jason Yarusi
“Where people get stuck is that they feel they have to accomplish all of these things on their own.”
- Jason Yarusi
“Educating others is about making the line straighter for them so it isn’t a gigantic bell curve for them to get to where they want to be.”
- Jason Yarusi
“That’s the key… connecting the dots so that people know what they have to do to get started.”
- Mike Simmons
Links:
Multifamily Live Virtual Summit
Level Jumping: How I Grew My Business to Over $1 Million in Profits in 12 Months
