945: The House Hacking Realtor: Niching Down with Jordan Moorhead

January 7, 2021
Have you heard of house hacking? It’s a great way to get your living expenses paid for while building easy equity. And if you’re anything like investor-turned-agent Jordan Moorhead, it can also be a great niche for a new real estate business. On today’s podcast, Jordan explains how to house hack and what it took to turn it into a highly profitable niche for real estate sales. Plus, Jordan shares the starting strategy that made a second career in real estate feel like earning “a nice bonus check.”
Listen to today’s show and learn:
  • About Jordan Moorhead [1:21]
  • Jordan’s favorite Real Estate Rockstars episode [2:12]
  • An introduction to house hacking [3:04]
  • Covid-19’s impact on the fitness industry [6:23]
  • Jordan’s first real estate client: a BiggerPockets investor [8:13]
  • Doing what you know: how to target your niche [9:11]
  • Jordan’s sales stats [12:15]
  • On transitioning a real estate business to a new city [14:43]
  • House hacking in a seller’s market [18:21]
  • The first step in finding a potential house hack [19:09]
  • The biggest mistake new house hackers make [19:27]
  • The two ways to house hack [21:35]
  • Jordan’s regrets as a new real estate agent [23:37]
  • Jordan’s goals for 2021 [25:04]
  • Tips on networking for more real estate business [28:29]
  • Jordan’s podcast: The Austin Real Estate Investing Podcast [32:51]
  • Jordan’s long-term business goals [35:11]
  • Where to find Jordan’s free house-hacking eBook [36:36]
  • Plus so much more.
Jordan Moorhead Jordan Moorhead has been an Entrepreneur since he was a kid. He had a lawn business when he was 13 and walked around putting flyers around the neighborhood. Jordan went the traditional route for a few years and worked jobs while he went to college. Getting laid off while in college was the best thing that ever happened to him. Jordan started investing in real estate in 2016 and was immediately hooked. He had wanted to be a real estate investor since his early teens but listened too much to others to wait for the “right time”. The right time is always now. Jordan’s focus now is growing his business, investing in real estate, and helping others get started in real estate as a Realtor. Thank You Rockstars! It might go without saying, but I’m going to say it anyway: We really value listeners like you. We’re constantly working to improve the show, so why not leave us a review? If you love the content and can’t stand the thought of missing the nuggets our Rockstar guests share every week, please subscribe; it’ll get you instant access to our latest episodes and is the best way to support your favorite real estate podcast. Have questions? Suggestions? Want to say hi? Shoot me a message via Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or Email. -Aaron Amuchastegui

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Real Estate Rockstars This is Aaron Amuchastegui. Today for our episode I get to interview Jordan Morehead. Yeah, I met Jordan in Austin. Jordan is now an agent Austin growing his business here. But you know, one of the interesting parts of his story is he is just recently moving his business to Austin, he has done it in other places, you know, he was out in Minneapolis, and you know, had a team and transitioning. So I think we’ll probably talk a little bit today about how do you transition in real estate if you move locations, right? And what that what’s what that’s like, some new ways that he is creating that credibility in the New City, and maybe some other investments and other things. Jordan, thanks for coming on the show.

 

Jordan Moorhead 

Yeah, thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. Love the show.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Hey, awesome. So that’s I think that was one of the things when we were meeting up you had been an avid listener for a long time. The Can you can you think back to any you know, either favorite episodes or something that you heard on the show that you might have applied some time in your career?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

Oh, man, there was one Reese Oh, the recent one with the ninja selling book. I picked that up. And I’ve been reading that and really enjoying it. So I forget who she was also in abundance. Correct?

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Yeah, then ninja selling is a good one. She’s part of the abundance. Go abundance women’s group. And we will put a link to I forget which episode number it is. But I’ll put a link to that episode number on here too. Just as a fun reminder of some of the things that’s out there every week. And every month we have kind of new things and one of the most fun things I get to interview people on the show that have been listening for a while now and get to get to see what they’ve been doing and why. Why don’t we so right now you’re in Austin, you were in Minneapolis. When did you get your license?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

I licensed in September of 2017 in Minnesota.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Okay, what got you what what made you want your license?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

You know, I, I was I bought my first house hack in 2016. In the process was a little clunky. I figured there’s got to be a better way out there. And if I can’t find it, maybe I can do it. So that I just really wanted to help people house hacking. That’s why I got into it.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Where did you first hear about house hacking?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

Yeah, I just had the idea a long time back that it was a good idea to live in one side of a duplex and rent the other and maybe my mortgage expenses would be cheaper. I had really no clarity whatsoever when I started thinking about it, but it just sounded like a good idea to me and then I ran into bigger pockets around 2014 I started hearing that term house hacking said oh, this is something I have to do and I kind of waited around too long but it got started in 2016

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Yeah, you’re getting started now it’s always we could always started sooner but it’s never too late to start so so your first property so 2016 you bought a house hack and by house hack you mean you bought a house where now some people it’s they buy a house and they rent out rooms? Did you actually buy a house or did you buy a duplex?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

I bought a duplex but I also rented out rooms. Okay, so

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

you bought a duplex you lived in one side and or did you rent out? Did you rent out to somebody I want half or did you rent out all rooms in both sides of duplex?

 

Jordan Moorhead  

I rented an uptown duplex I rented the top unit which was already remodeled to two younger college age girls. And then the bottom unit which was not remodeled at all kind of disgusting. A buddy and I moved into we had the carpet and paint done for we moved in and we lived in that unit. We also Airbnb the back porch and this is in Minneapolis, Minnesota so it’s really cold their back porch had no insulation, no heating source and we rigged it up so it would have some heat and it would stay just bearable but we rented that out on Airbnb, so 500 bucks a month.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Did you so on the description? Did you say they’re slightly bearable, you know, almost warm enough back porch for like, what type of people would rent the back if you’re like, it’s barely livable?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

Well, it was big enough to be a room and I rented it really cheap rent about $30 a night. So I targeted the interns and students that were close to the college I was at and all that sort of stuff and keep people for a month or two, actually.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Alright, so you’d say, Hey, you know, 30 bucks a night, but they wouldn’t just come in for a night, they would rent it for a couple months, because they were like, hey, it’s furnished already. Is it? You know, in the end, it’s short term, and so they could do. So very cool. So you did the first house hack you your first house that you bought that you rented out the rooms, you’re really active in that? And then somewhere in that process, you said maybe, maybe I should become an agent. So what was the what was the transition? Like when you became an agent? How did you how did you do your first few months, your first six months, your first year?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

Well, I lucked out, because I had another business going that I was almost out of when I started working as an agent. So I had a fitness business going, we did personal training for small groups. And I had two trainers and an admin working for me, I was making $8,000 a month when I started working as an agent, and didn’t have to be anywhere at any certain time. So it works out well.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

So right now, there are huge fitness centers that are getting shut down. COVID is crushing. The workout industry. COVID is crushing the personal trainer industry like there is I could totally see a shift of personal trainers getting into real estate or something else. I mean, that has been one of the saddest things I’ve seen in COVID is it’s like this healthy thing that people aren’t able to do or they will open and then they will close. And and I’ve met a lot of people even, you know, I’ve met a lot of people that had businesses that they kind of got that workout businesses fitness centers that got shut down during COVID. I’ve seen a lot on the business buy sell pages of you know, fitness centers getting shut down to Hey, we just want to totally sell because we don’t even want to make the the payment anymore. So you were able to say so you had this business and she says You were lucky to have that business. And then you got into real estate. So were you lucky because you made money. She didn’t need the money in real estate, or were you able to convert clients from your fitness business into real estate.

 

Jordan Moorhead 

I didn’t convert very many. I tried not to mix them so much. Because I was in the process of grooming the head trainer to the buy the business. And about a year later, I sold him business. But I was able to learn how to sell I was able to learn how to talk to people. I used to get so nervous talking to people, you know, before I got into the fitness industry, if I didn’t know somebody, I couldn’t talk to him. Yeah, after talking to people all day, every day, I got used to it. And I’m comfortable going up to anyone talking to them now. But what I mean by I was able to keep that paycheck coming in. While I was starting the real estate sales business. And for the first year, everything I made from real estate sales just felt like a nice bonus check.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Yeah. All right. So So you started real estate kind of on the side, right? It was that nice bonus check. How did you get your first deals?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

Well, it wasn’t on the side so much. I was working more than full time I just was able to because I own this business. My first client was actually from bigger pockets. You know, I met a guy he wanted to do what I was doing, I was house hacking a duplex in the same area of Minneapolis he wanted to be in. And we found a great deal. He made a great profit off of a year and a half later to

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Well said, so tell me how you get a client from bigger pockets. So the so that’s is that from the forums that’s going on there and saying, hey, so I’m doing talking to somebody and then they said, Hey, can you find me a house,

 

Jordan Moorhead 

just really providing value to people asking questions trying to get into what I was doing. And that’s a lot of what I do today is just provide value, I don’t go out there looking for deals or looking for people to be clients, I just go out there trying to provide value.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

So we’ll break that down a little bit more for me. So new agent, trying to go find places to provide value where maybe people will see them. How would they do that through bigger pockets or from whatever whatever other online sources are out there. If you were gonna say, hey, go do these three things. And I bet it will start working. What would you tell them? For me,

 

Jordan Moorhead 

I’ve always just done what I know about so with house hacking, I know how to house hack. I’ve been house hacking for years now. I’m still in a house hack here in Austin right now. been doing it since 2016. I can say what worked for me how I found value. By the time I got my license as an agent. I’d already been house hacking for almost a year. And I’d been making $500 a month to live in it. So I just spoke to that. I spoke to what I knew. I

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

said you do that too. Do you do that on social media? Do you do that in forums when you’re answering questions on different sites the what are the what are the ways that people should go? Where should they go to do this?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

I do it on social media. I do it on bigger pockets. I talk to whoever I can I host meetups, I have a podcast, really anywhere I can get it out, I’m on YouTube, bigger pockets, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, even, I try to get out there and meet people as often as I can. And I’m just always out there trying to network trying to meet people trying to provide value to people that are interested in house hacking.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

So you’re in a lot of stuff online, mostly about house hacking. So you might be on forums. And if somebody asks a question about it, you’re going to answer the question. Yeah, we may record a video or record a podcast or something out there where there’s just that’s so that’s your specialty. Is that your is that your niche and your specialty that you provide value in and you bring in clients that way?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

Yeah, house hacking and just getting that information out there. I want to help other people save money and make money and have a better financial future.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

The are most of your clients that you find are most of them saying, hey, help me help me buy a house that I can house hack is my first investment

 

Jordan Moorhead 

to 85% or so our house hackers?

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Wow. Okay, so that is a really, really high percentage of people. So you’re not out there farming for business. You’re out there saying, Hey, this is my expertise. And so then when people reach out to you, they’re like, okay, I want I want it. I want to do that.

 

Jordan Moorhead 

Yeah, I try to work with people that specifically want what I have and what I do. And I don’t just go out there looking for random business. And I think that’s always my first year I sold 24 houses. 23 of them were to house hackers, you know, so I think that’s always been good for me is just to stick to my niche. Wow.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

So the so 23 or 24 warehouse packages now, where did they find out about you? Especially especially your first year, just getting started here. First guy was on the BiggerPockets forums, you had a place there? Where did the rest of your people come from that year?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

some bigger pockets a lot from my sphere and social media, just getting out there and talking to people.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Okay, so you would just get on and record videos, hey, I bought this house. I live in one site and I get paid to live here. And then people would say Tell me more. You get paid to live there.

 

Jordan Moorhead 

Yeah. And I started having meetups almost right away to second my license of September. I started doing meetups in around December, and had people over to my projects, had people over projects, have friends and just talked about what we were doing.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

All right. So in how many deals you do in a year now.

 

Jordan Moorhead 

Around 40 a year I did 41 last year, gross volume was 7.9.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Okay, so that’s like 200,000 average sales price or so.

 

Jordan Moorhead 

Yeah. And you know, that’s actually gone up quite a bit since I’ve been in Austin that might my last full year was in Minneapolis. This won’t even be a full year in Austin, but the average sales price is 350 or higher.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

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Aaron Amuchastegui 

that. So how did you transition your business from so in Minneapolis, you’d become an expert people looked for you there you did meetups, probably some of those people would continue to go to meetups, maybe they’d go to a few before they’d actually hire you. And then you decided to move. So why did you move to Austin? And how has How has it been to transfer your business like to grow new business in a place that you weren’t from before?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

So I did a little bit of what I had done before I kept the other business going for the time being so I was still making income. And I started this business mostly with sphere and people on bigger pockets. I’ve been investing in Austin since 2018. So I have some experience with homes here and be able to speak to that. And I’ve got a track record to show people how I’ve done. But yeah, it’s it’s not easy starting over a new new space.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

When did you move to Austin?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

In April of this year?

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

So a month after the world shut down? You moved, you moved out to Austin, you used to do meetups, the now Texas is more open than many places in the world right now. Have you done meetups? Since you’ve been here? Do you do virtual meetups now? Or is it? Or how do you how did you find new people out here with that sphere,

 

Jordan Moorhead 

mostly virtual. But as soon as I’m gonna do rehab on the other side of the duplex, I’m in here in a month or two, I’m going to start an in person and keep it real limited just to see how people feel about it. But my sphere here Actually, I’ve already known a lot of people here I live here in 2016. I’ve been back and forth since about 2018 pretty consistently. But I know a lot of people that have moved here from other places as everybody and their mom is moving here right now from all over the country. It’s easy to know, people who’ve relocated to Austin for me.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

So one of the questions we like to ask people is do you do more? Are you more of a buyer’s agent or more of a listing agent? I would guess that you’re more of a buyer’s agent because people are helping you get the deal.

 

Jordan Moorhead 

Almost all buyers exactly what you’re talking about. I’m helping people find house hacks to get into. And I actually really enjoy that. I hope I like helping them sell them. And a lot of the times I’ll sell them a year or so later, but I really like helping people get into house hacks and find good deals.

 

 

Yeah.

 

Jordan Moorhead 

So about 80% buyers,

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

is it 90% buyers? And are most of them? They’re not really are they first time buyers is that people buying their first house and then figuring out how to do that with

 

Jordan Moorhead 

  1. First house or I’ve actually had quite a few people sell their first house which they bought a single family with the white picket fence and moved into and had their dogs and had all these things and said, Hey, I don’t want to do this. This house hacking sounds like a much better idea. So they’ve sold their houses and moved into duplexes with me,

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

that is really cool. You know, Kimberly reserves that is another gal that we interviewed that she focuses on a bruise and buys. So she did like a meetup. And it was it used to be they go to they go to a bar and she would tell people how to buy their first house was like a first time homebuyer workshop. And then she converted that to a virtual meetup and really has grown a huge business on that I’m focusing on first time buyers, it sounds like you have a very similar business plan. But yours is kind of first time buyers with that niche with that idea of Hey, now you can afford to do it this way or make money by buying your first home. And so maybe as you start to use to see that the the new meetups, the virtual, be curious to see how that happens. Especially when do you think as the real estate market prices are going up? In most places right now? Right most in most places right now. It’s multiple offers on houses, houses are selling for more than they were, you know, six months ago, more than they were a year ago? Does that make a house hack? A better or worse option? Does it does that produce home prices going up? How does that impact your clientele?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

You know, I think it makes it a great option. I don’t think there’s ever a bad time to house hack if the numbers work and you can live for considerably less than you were living for. And you can make money on the property when you move out. Why is that a bad time to buy a house hack. So I don’t think there’s ever a bad time to do it. You know, you’re gonna make money. So again, so

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

we’re talking, we’re talking to agents right now. But if you’re gonna give them a crash course in that, or they want to start telling people about that as an option, or somebody comes to them and says, Hey, I want to I want to buy this house, but I can’t I can’t afford it. So then your natural thing is to say, Well, if your house hacked, you could, how do they calculate it to make sure that they can afford it? So you said, Hey, if they can afford it, do it. But a house hack is kind of different. It’s not necessarily based on your own income anymore? How do you help them figure out if they can afford it or not?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

You just need to look at the rents for the area. And most of the time the rents are not going to be where they need to be at. So if you’re looking at a duplex, for instance, and one half is already rented, you cannot be guaranteed that that side is going to be at market rents. So you need to look at what is each side of the duplex need to have done to get up to market rents. And what are market rents. So maybe you need new flooring, new paint light fixtures, you sort of have to think like an investor. And same when you’re an agent. I think it helps to be an investor. But think like an investor when you’re helping somebody buy a house hack of how can they add value to this property? How can they get the rents up and then what’s their mortgage or what’s their part of the mortgage payment gonna look like after they get the rents up on that other side. So if we’re buying a duplex in North Austin the rents gonna be 24 sorry, mortgage is gonna be 20 $500 a month, each side can rent for 1500. But one’s rented out for 1000. Right now, what do you need to do to get that side up to 1500? What do you need to do to get your side in a position where when you move out, you could rent it for 1500? Okay,

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

so you start doing some of that, that cash flow analysis. So what are what are some of the bad things that happened with house x?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

Just not understanding what you need to do to get the rents up or under estimating that you don’t want to guess I get lots of people that want to know, hey, how much is this rehab? I know that I’m not the smartest guy in the room when it comes to estimating rehab costs, but I have great contractors that can come out and do it. So if you buy a house hack and say, Hey, this is only gonna be a few grand to fix this unit up, there might be some guy out there that will do that for you. But maybe he doesn’t do it, right. Maybe the actual cost is 20 grand to fix that unit up and you don’t have that money. So you need to figure out before you get into something, how am I going to pay for this? And what to kind of produce when it’s done?

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Yeah, so it’s not just the purchase, it’s the upgrade after that. Do you ever have problems with when you’re renting rooms out that the people don’t get along with each other, the cutter sharing a kitchen, right?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

Personally, I haven’t done a lot of that the people I know and people that I’ve helped do it, like to do a meet and greet type thing and make sure that you interview the person that’s moving in. And they understand who this person is, it’s moving in and can reasonably assume they’re going to get along with the other roommates.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

So the setting, there’s two ways to house hack, one would be buy a duplex and you live in one side and you rent out the other whole side to one to one group, right? So you’re not in your bedroom. That’s a very simple one. I guess you don’t have to worry about if they get along or not the other version, I mean, somebody could actually just buy a four bedroom house live in the master and rent out three bedrooms, one off to other individual people. Do you do half and half? Do you do more of the duplex style where you rent it out? And big sections are

 

Jordan Moorhead 

almost all small multifamily for me? I guess we’re like always done.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

That seems like it’d be a little easier, a little bit easier to rent out half of multifamily. And that instead of you know, I could just receive problems with you’re renting out your room to somebody and then afterward if there is a conflict, a personal conflict, all of a sudden there’s also a legal agreement with renters. So interesting stuff. So maybe it’s super simple buying small multifamily living in multifamily. having it be your asset and your investment and at least a portion of that you at least you know, a portion of that multifamily is going to pay rent because you’re one you’re that one side. That’s taking care of it while you get to live in, in that investment property. So how many properties do you have now?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

Me personally, I currently have five properties. We actually close on eight more this week. Wow,

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

that’s a big change. Do you have five multi families? Did you buy those one at a time?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

Yep. So I bought the I have three, six plexes in Louisville, Kentucky. A multifamily here in Austin, and a single family in Louisville, Kentucky.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Alright, so if you were gonna go back and tell yourself some advice about real estate sounds like you you’ve had a very specific niche about this is how you get your clients and it’s house hacks, and you’re going to underwrite the deal. And you’re going to help provide value that way. And if you do that, you’re going to help them get a good deal. But what are some other things in real estate that you wish you would have known your first year, either about the process or growing a team or, you know, deals that didn’t go? Well,

 

Jordan Moorhead 

I just wish I would have stuck to my niche, you know, so there was also there’s always these shiny objects floating around that look really attractive, you know, maybe I want to work with move up buyers. Maybe I want to more focus on first time homebuyers. And I kind of forgot that this house hacking thing is working really, really well for me. I was runner up in the Midwest area of Keller Williams for rookie of the year when I started and if I would have just focused on my niche instead of chasing every shiny object like investors and first time homebuyers I would have been much better shape so that’s what I do now is I just stick to my niche. I

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

think that’s really good advice. I think when people are starting, they might not know what their niches yet, right a new agent might be, it’s a good time to try first time homebuyers or investors or you know, figuring out where you can get that lead source. But Jordan makes a good point there when he says once you figure out something that does work, like he found his niche now that he’s found his niche, it’s focusing on that if something does work, going all in and trying to grow that so what’s next for growing this business? What will you be doing it so 2020 was a really interesting year. You know, especially in the in the Austin area, the market has gone up like crazy that you know, the demand has gone up, supply is down. I think that’s everywhere. So when you have your goals for next year are you what are you going to be doing to how many deals you’re going to try to get in Next year and anything extra you’re gonna be trying to do to get more deals.

 

Jordan Moorhead 

So what I’m going to do to try to get more deals next year is actually just recently hired an admin part time to work with me, just just me down here, the team in Minnesota will be ending at the end of December. So I’m really narrowing my focus just down to Austin only thinking about Austin, really going back to the niche thing. I’m just focusing on my niche. It’s really easy in Austin as a real estate agent that talks about investing, to get calls from California people every day, wanting to invest in Austin. And those are harder to clients to work with for me. But my idea, my goal next year is to do 60 transactions.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

So what are you going to do? So you said, you’ve essentially you’re closing down your Minneapolis team, and start and kind of building your awesome team? What are you going to do if one of those old clients in Minneapolis says, Hey, I want to buy another house hack,

 

Jordan Moorhead 

referral, just return great people there. So I know we’ll get them taken care of.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

All right. So you’ll still get to have your business there. But just instead of being hands on as Jordan, you can say, Hey, here’s the guys that that worked with me. And that can take that, as you grow your new one. There. We said if you were on stage, you know, you would name your panel, network and leverage. So the so to talk about what you’ve done with that. So the what is what what’s your elevator pitch for network and leverage.

 

Jordan Moorhead 

So I think leverage number one, first thing I did when I got my license, I realized I’m terrible at doing a sort of paperwork, I did one transactions paperwork, and I immediately hired a transaction coordinator. And that freed me up to go out and network and meet people who were actually going to be buyers. So making sure to get that stuff off your plate. That’s just a waste of time as an agent, doing the paperwork for your transactions is not making any money. And it’s low dollar per hour work, too. So you need to farm that out. It’s really easy to farm out. And you can pay a transaction coordinator roughly $300 a transaction to do your paperwork for you. And then you can focus on going out there and meeting people. I had a goal of three coffee meetings a week, my second year in real estate, and I just blew that out of water. So

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

how did you find that first transaction coordinator,

 

Jordan Moorhead 

just talking to the broker in my office talking to other people in my office, my kW office in Minneapolis is very smart. They actually hired and us on staff transaction coordinator and they charge his services to the agents, but you have to have one talk to people in your office, they’ll know where you can get one.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

It’s something that’s crazy about that. So in 2009, the cost of a transaction coordinator coordinator was 300 bucks a transaction. Right? We’re 11 years later houses are, I don’t know 50 worth 50% more, right commissions are so much higher, but the cost of transaction coordinating is just essentially stayed the same. The real agents can do more volume now, with all that and maybe maybe the prices is stayed the same because there’s some technology that makes it a little bit easier. But that’s kind of funny when you say that it’s it’s 300 bucks now and it’s been like that for the past 11 years seems like everything else is real estate has gotten more expensive. Advertising has got more expensive. lead gen has got more expensive. But the that definitely seems like a really easy first step you know getting going toward leverage. So what about network that was the other side side of your of your recommendation? How should people use their network to succeed in real estate?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

So just talk to everybody tell everybody you’re in real estate, I know. That’s always the the advice that’s passed around is when you get your license, tell everybody you’re in it. But more than that, talk about it on your social networks that you’re a part of get out there and meet new people go to as many meetups as you can when meetups come back in style. I think that’s going to be a few months, but get out there and talk to as many people as you can every day about it.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Who did you hire after your first transaction coordinator? What did you do? What did you do next? Because you ended up getting a like you built up a team? Right? You had a few employees or partners on that team? What was your next hire? So it was really easy. Sorry, the first one, you need a transaction coordinator. What happened next?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

full time admin.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Okay, what did they What did your full time admin do?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

What did they not do? database management writing offers transaction coordination, you know, working with buyers and sellers on the back end, you know, checking with buyers and sellers they did so much. It just takes so much off your plate. My admin now actually does my bookkeeping, she does database management. She finds podcasts for me to be on. She updates any information I need deals with any of the backend transaction coordination, just all the stuff that I’m just absolutely terrible at.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Yeah. What technology do you use to kind of manage manage the database or do the follow up? what’s what’s your favorite sort of technology out there that you like using kW

 

Jordan Moorhead 

command been great for me. You know, I’m A bit cheap, and it was free and it actually works really well. Alright, so

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

the fair enough so the so you’re a kW agent, you have access to their to their CRM kind of tracking stuff for free. So you tell us that anything else that you’ve used over the years that you thought was was good too? Or does your new one do everything you need? It does. So

 

Jordan Moorhead 

we used follow up boss for a really short time, I could really never get into it, probably because I was already using command. And it was easy, but my admin at the time wanted to use it. So we tried it out. Another tool I’ve used a lot of is Keller mortgage, they’ll do, I want to say half price closing costs on mortgages on most mortgages. So they eat a lot of those closing costs. They don’t charge any origination fees. I’ve used that as a big tool to get listing sold to help buyers save money. You know, if somebody comes to me, and I have a listing, and they say, Hey, we want you to cover roughly 3% of our closing costs, will say, hey, that’s great. Keller mortgage will cover half and we’ll cover half. We’re not covering all of them. And almost always, when I say that to a buyer’s agent, they come back and say, okay, they’ll just take half. And most the time, they don’t even want to use Keller mortgage, just because you gave them the option of somebody else can pay for them. If you use this mortgage company. They drop it. Yeah.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Yeah. I mean, that has been a common kind of negotiation. That happens a lot lately, hey, we need to, hey, we usually help with that. So whether you’re in kw, and you get to use Keller mortgage, or you’re at a different office, especially if you’re working with with first time homebuyers having a partnership with a mortgage broker that can do something like that. That’s a quick answer to an agent saying, Hey, we need it, we need a big credit. And you’re like, cool, no problem. If you use our preferred lender, we’ll give you that credit. Now, that has been something that used to be used, you know, back in California 2009 out of 10 a ton, right? So use our preferred lender will pay your closing costs will only give you a 3% credit if you use our preferred lender, you know, there’s ways for people to say that and have it be totally acceptable. I don’t see that a lot today in conversations that might just be be me. But as you say that now It’s the first time I’ve heard that in a while. But it used to be very commonplace, you know, home builders to new homes, if you use the Home Builders lender, that will give you 20,000 upgrades plus all of your closing costs paid for and if you don’t use their lender, you get nothing. Yeah, it was really simple. They’re like, Okay, well, then I’ll use your lender because it really feels like they could do that. So I think that’s I think that’s a great reminder to people to if they’re especially especially working with first time buyers, if they don’t have a different mortgage broker that they’re partnered with, start trying to find a mortgage broker you could partner with that can help you with some of those things. So tell us about your podcast. So the you came. So now in Austin, now you’ve got a podcast, and how many episodes are you in? What are you talking about? And what is that done for your business?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

So my podcast is called the Austin real estate investing podcast, super unique name. I know all about Austin real estate investing. And we just talked to people who’ve been investors in Austin or who are investing in Austin. What that’s done for my business has just added some credibility. No, it’s really easy to get started. It’s also a great way to network. You know, any person I interview I asked Who else you know, that I can interview.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

You know, we’ve had a lot of people on like, like the YouTube agents, some other guys that talk so much about YouTube, and talk so much about creating videos on YouTube for their city that tell people like, hey, what to do in this city what to do on this thing. It gains them credibility and gets them deals. I haven’t talked to anybody that use you know, building a podcast is that to anyone out there that’s listening, that you know, has a YouTube page, or they’ve started to try to do that, I would say why not try a podcast. Now some people love YouTube and love video. And equally, there are just so many people that love listening to stuff while they’re driving in the car. And so being able to and we see that on our own podcasts, we’ve got a YouTube page, we present these, you could be watching us on YouTube right now. Or you could be downloading it and listening to it on any of the places that goes but I like Jordans idea of creating a very simple podcast for your area. And it could even be like like the guy said when they’re talking about YouTube, it could be things to do in Austin, Texas, as a podcast for things to do in Austin, Texas. And people get to start listening to that. And then they would reach out to them, you know, places to buy an Austin real estate stuff. So really simple podcast, the now you reach out to people, you interview them, you get to network and meet more people that way. And it’s instant credibility for you, especially in a new city. So the I think that whether someone is a new agent or an experienced agent, there’s probably something they can do with we talked about YouTube, we talked about social media. We talked about getting out there and just recording stuff and creating content and why not do the same thing with podcasts as you get to go do that. So now you’ve invested in lots of different places the you with your with your five and and now you’re getting eight more. You’re going to continue to build that out in Austin next year and do 60 transactions instead of 40 What’s Your what’s your long term goal for you know, for yourself for your business? For your own investments? If you looked at 510 years down the line, what what what are you hoping to be doing in your business?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

So yeah, right now I’m building a team, but my long term goal for my sales business is to own a market center. Alright, sales business, that’s really what I’d like to do. You know, I love doing this, I don’t really want to do it forever. It’s a lot of work. So in the near term, I’m going to continue to build a team. But in the long term, I want to open a market center for my investing business. We’re looking to have 50 units and loibl, 50, single family houses and loibl by the end of 2022.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Yeah, it’s great to be able to, you know, to stay focused on that. I mean, and so you’ve given some great advice for the listeners today, right? So it’s find a niche, find a niche and focus on that niche. And then yeah, that becomes and at the beginning, it may take a little while to find it. But then stick with it. He said your biggest mistakes was actually when you tried to follow other objects. Instead, you had something that was working, but you want to do more. And you said, You know what, it’s better to get back to what you’re what you’re doing, you know, partnering with a brokerage with a mortgage broker to be able to actually, you know, enhance some things with that, and just providing a ton of free content for people. And that could be on social media was working. Now you’re using the podcast to do it. The What are anything anything to add? I mean, so you’re you’re giving us a copy of your house hacking ebook, right? So if people go to heibon, digital comm they click on Get the toolbox in there will be a copy of your house hacking ebook, what’s in that

 

Jordan Moorhead 

just talks all about house hacking, and my journey with house hacking, and really what that all looks like. So if you’re an agent that wants to learn about house hacking, and be able to help other people with that strategy, or maybe you want to get into house hacking yourself, and then help other people with that strategy, definitely read some material about house hacking, learn and experience house hacking, and you can help people you can have another great tool to help people save money and get started in real estate investing.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Very cool. The any so anything else? The you know, what, what are kind of some final thoughts you want to leave with everybody if they want to reach out to you and ask you about house hacking? Or about your podcasts? Anything else? if people have questions, how should they find you, Jordan?

 

Jordan Moorhead 

Pretty much any social media platform, Jordan, Morehead BiggerPockets, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn a check every so often, but not so much. If you hit me up on Facebook, or BiggerPockets, probably where I am the most, I would say what I tell the all the agents is just always be out there to give. Just keep give, give, give. And then you’ll get everything you want return. Want to say it’s Zig Ziglar said, you know, help everybody else, get what they want, and you’ll get everything you’ve ever wanted. And that’s just always the attitude I’ve taken. When I’ve gone out there is I’ve always here to help people and the more people I can help, I won’t have to worry about anything.

 

Aaron Amuchastegui 

Yeah. So if you’re looking to network in Austin, go go find Jordan on his investing in Austin podcasts. If you got if you got extra houses in Louisville, you heard it how many houses he’s trying to buy in Louisville isn’t an investment, feel free to reach out to Jordan, check out our toolbox for learning how to house hack org or ask him yourself, I’m sure he’d be happy to help teach you that. Hopefully that is a new niche that some of you listeners can add to your own toolbox. And maybe it’s something that you’ll be able to do to help your clients and get more deals. So Jordan, thanks for coming on the show.

 

Jordan Moorhead 

Yeah, thanks for having me here.

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