Jazmin Mitchell is a serial entrepreneur, having founded her first startup and hired her first employee at the age of 15.
As an active real estate investor, Jazmin has successfully executed over $1 million in land transactions. While also co-sponsoring over 1,400 multifamily units as a General Partner, in addition to being a Limited Partner in 174 units.
Charles:
Welcome to another episode of the Global Investors Podcast; I’m your host, Charles Carillo. Today, we have Jazmin Mitchell. She is a serial entrepreneur, having founded her first startup and hired her first employee at the age of 15. As an active real estate investor, Jazmin has successfully executed over $1 million in land transactions. While also co-sponsoring over 1,400 multifamily units as a General Partner, in addition to being a Limited Partner in 174 units. Thank you so much for being on the show!
Jazmin:
Thank you for having me. I’m super excited to be here with you today.
Charles:
Yes, yes. It’s great to have a, a lifelong entrepreneur on the show and then having somebody that’s gone from different real estate classes as well, and you’re going back and forth, I know, between multifamily and land, and we’ll get into all that. But before we do, can you give us a little background on yourself, a little bit professionally and personally before getting into real estate investing at all?
Jazmin:
Absolutely. I think the biggest part about me is that I came to this country when I was 18. I was born and raised in Mexico and I had to come, I was already doing my bachelor’s degree in Mexico, kind of building my entrepreneur side if you will. I was going to to business school and, you know, top university in Mexico. So when I moved here, it was like, okay, none of that counts. You don’t speak the language. We don’t care where you’re coming from. You have to start all over again. So that was, you know, a big setback right there. I had to first learn the language, then go to college and, you know, I always wanted to start my own business when I was in Mexico and then I moved here and I was saving money. ’cause I didn’t know what kind of business to start.
Jazmin:
Of course, I went, I got my, my degree on business management and entrepreneurship. But, you know, good thing is that I have the mentor at home. My dad is a business owner, so he told me, whatever business you’re gonna start, you’re gonna need money. So I was going to college saving money, and that’s how I save my first $45,000 right of college. I have that. And I was like, okay, this is enough to start a business. Right. Especially on today’s world, you see that, you know, gen C is building billion dollar companies with $100. Right? so I was kinda like frustrated because I felt like I didn’t have a skillset. Like my, my degree was business. So that’s very broad. I didn’t know where to start, what kinda business. So long story short, I was like, okay, while I figure something out, let me buy real estate, right?
Jazmin:
Like, I’m making 0.0, zero zero 1% of this money in the bank. And real estate is the safest place to put my money. So I kind of like start exploring quote unquote, because, you know, I contact my, my dad’s broker and I told him a, a little bit about what I wanted to do and he said like, probably land will be better. ’cause You know, I was like, should I buy a duplex and rent one side or all these things that you can do real estate fix and flip. So, long story short, bought my first piece of land for 40,000 and, you know, that’s how I never looked back. <Laugh>.
Charles:
Nice. Awesome. so tell us about like your land business, how it was until before transitioning now into what you’re doing. You got started in land and how did you build that? How were you finding you know, properties? How were you finding people to sell them to at the end or whatever your strategy was during that?
Jazmin:
Absolutely. That was a really good question. So, as I mentioned, bought it for 40, 40,000 and then I got the opportunity to start working for a real estate investment firm. They told me, we’re gonna teach you everything about real estate. You just need to sell, you just need to be on the phone and connect with investors. So that gave me the knowledge to understand how investors buy everything that happens behind the scenes, all the transactions and negotiations. And the first realization that I had is like, wait a minute. I didn’t get such a good deal on this piece of land. I pay higher than anybody else in the neighborhood. It was on the Flo plane. So I sold it. I was like, okay, I have worked so hard for this money, I’m not losing a dime. So for, I bought it for 40,000, sold it for 45,000.
Jazmin:
And my strategy there was just to do it over and over again. Buy, sell, I, you know, have a $15,000 gap that I, you know, save that I can make on the property and sell it over and over again. And that’s how I bought my first a hundred pieces of land, right? Just buy and reselling. I did some seller financing when I had like, really good opportunities. Like, for example, just to give an example, one, I purchased it for 25,000 and I sold it for 40 thou. 45,000, but I got $25 down payment. So, you know, I got my money back right away. And then just for two years I was just cash flowing on that property. So I did a, some of those, and that was my main strategy before coming to multifamily. I, I realized that land is is a really good way to grow your money very quick. But I real also realized that I wasn’t building anything for the long term. You are just as good as your last flip, right? So that’s when I start exploring multifamily.
Charles:
So before we get into multifamily land is something, I’m not a land investor, I’ve never been. But I feel that, and there’s obviously some learning lessons that you just went through that you realized with your first deals. I just, I mean, it’s a less perfect market than let’s say if we’re buying or selling single family houses, where now there’s a hundred plus websites out there like Zillow where I can go in there and I can literally figure out what the retail price is within a few percent pretty accurately. Now land, whole different kind of beast. How are you, what are some of the high level things that you’re looking at that you’re gonna check first? Because I don’t think comparables are maybe as easy to find on these properties. So if you find a potential property, you’re speaking to an owner, what are the things that you are using to price them and maybe filter out, you said before floodplains, is there something else that you’re also using to filter out potential properties and really come to a, a price where you know that you can make that spread on it, as you said before?
Jazmin:
Absolutely. And I can give you all the things that I use just like, okay, if there’s new construction, what’s happening in the areas? There are like big homes selling new construction in the area, big just big developments, right? So of course I’ll look into what’s happening in the area right now on what’s potentially coming up, who’s buying what because when you have like a lot of LLCs, you understand their investors, so, you know, so I started analyzing everything, but one of the things that nobody taught me, and that has been game changer, changer on the land investing is building the buyer’s list. Like instead of me sell, you know, understanding what my buyer wants to buy and the reason and the price and why works for my buyer, it’s better than me coming up with a price. Because what you say, like land is pretty much, there’s not a formula for land.
Jazmin:
So when I figure, when I build a very specific niche on land and I understood how much they willing to pay, how are they paying? Like I was able to buy those properties and then sell them to them and understand how much my buyer can pay for this, not how much is gonna cost me because I bought a lot. You, you asked me like, where do you find properties? Like I bought a lot from wholesalers or realtors, right? So what, you know, before before that I had to understand that there is a buyer specific for this and this buyer is gonna pay me this much. So I’m safe on this because remember I was just using my money over and over again, like buy, sell, buy, sell, and you know, do it over and over again.
Charles:
Yeah, that makes sense because with land, as I understand it, there’s a lot more uses people can use. If I’m selling you a multi-family property, there’s really two things you’re gonna do with it. You’re gonna use it as a yield play, which is I’ve already value added it. And you’re just using it kind of as a monthly check coming in, or you’re gonna put some money, sweat into it, and you’re gonna value add it and get it to that point of where you can sell it now to a legacy buyer or refinance it for yourself. There’s really only a handful of different ways, two, mainly that people use in land. On the other hand, if you’re doing, you know, you can sell lots for someone to build on recreation. I mean, there’s so many different uses people use and different requirements that might be different. So I, that makes perfect sense where you start from the end and work your way forward from the buyer all the way back to what you’re actually gonna source for them.
Jazmin:
Yeah, absolutely.
Charles:
Yeah. So let’s talk about your transition into what you’re doing now. You’re in commercial multifamily, you’re also in land as well with your new firm. So can you talk to us a little bit about what you’re focusing on within the realm of multifamily? And you mentioned previously it was something about having something a little bit more you know, making, investing something for the long term when going into multifamily versus what you were doing, kind of flipping properties and land. So can you go into that a little bit more in depth?
Jazmin:
Absolutely. So, you know, of course I’ve realized I I was just as good as my last flip and just you mentioned I had of course a lot of spooky stories to tell about that, and I have my own money tied up to that. So I was like, I need to find something else where I’m making money in the long term, and I came across multifamily. I, everything makes sense to me about multifamily. One, I’m not doing that alone, right? It is not just my money, it is all of us. It’s a pool of investors will come together, put our money together, but also the bank, right? Like we get a loan on the property. So one is you’re not doing that alone. Two, how quick you can scale. Like I have bought a hundred pieces of land with multifamily in two years. I have 1400 units, right?
Jazmin:
So it’s just exponential how quick you can scale. The third part is of of course, tax benefits, right? At the end of the year, I have to pay capital gains for all the land because there’s no depreciation on land and multifamily gives me my K ones to, to write off all those capital gains and everything, right? So that so that, you know, makes sense to me, that make a lot of sense to me. The other part is like the wrist, right? Just like the first time that I saved my 45,000 is like, I’m still on the same spot. Like I can’t lose the vibe, right? Like, so understanding that okay, if I have a multi-family property with 100 tenants going to work every day to pay me, it’s better than just having one single tenant or two tenants. And if they move out my cashflow goes to zero or 50%.
Jazmin:
So all those things that you know, made a lot of sense for, for me on the multifamily. And I was like, this is what I wanna do. So just to give you a, a quick you know, it’s, it’s been a fun journey, but when I realized like, this is what I wanna do, I start connecting with people like, who is doing this? And I was looking for somebody who was already doing it, right? Because it’s like, if you’re new and I’m new, I mean, you know, we don’t know what we don’t know. So I started connecting with people. I was looking for somebody who was already doing deals and was successful. And that’s how I connected with one of the principals of massive capital. And I told him like, I really wanna get in multifamily. My background is in sales have a couple business degrees.
Jazmin:
You know, I think I can do investor relations and that’s what I focus all the time, right? One of the real stations as I start exploring the multifamily side is like, who doesn’t need money for the deals, right? Like, you go to all these events and networking events conferences, and everybody has the perfect deal, the best deal in the world, you should invest, but who doesn’t need money? So I was like, if I become really good at raising capital that is gonna open the doors for me to work with whoever I want. And that’s something that I can do based on my skillset, right? Like, because I’m not a numbers person under where none of that, but I can talk to people, I can attend events. So I was like, okay, you know, I have to do this, this is the path that I’m gonna do, and I just went all in.
Charles:
Yeah, I think the money piece, and that’s one thing that gets me really upset with conferences and gurus and stuff like this, is that they painted as, if you have the deal, the money will follow. And it’s not true. It’s just, I’ve had many good deals where I struggled to raise money for those deals that nearly doubled re investor returns in a couple years or three years or four years, something like this. And that was a great deal, I would say. And it was, I mean, you were struggling because it’s something that you have to prime and prepare for, for many, many years because there’s a lot of money you have to invest. These properties are very expensive or, and then they are very capital intensive. Real estate’s a great business, but it’s very capital intensive. And like, so it’s one of those things where multifamily in general is what we’re talking about specifically, I guess now, but it’s you know, like you said, investor relations and talk to investors is something that raising money for properties is, is always, is an ongoing thing no matter what the part of the market cycle we’re in.
Jazmin:
Absolutely. Like if you, I tell people like, if you wanted to raise capital for this deal, you had to start three years ago because the moment that you tell people they have have this great deal, it’s gonna double your money in one year, whatever. Like most people will, first of all, they don’t trust you yet. You know, especially if they know that you have a different background. Like, I thought you were a lawyer. Like what, what you mean you’re in real estate, you know, like people need to build, you need to build a trust of, you know, even if they trust you from you, smart friend from the high school, whatever, like they need to have the trust that you are gonna deliver on real estate and it’s a different ball game. So that’s one. Second people, a lot of people is like, well, I have these deals going on, so I’m not ready, I’ll be ready in eight months, or I’m doing a refi or, you know, so you gotta be talking about it all the time because by the time that you have a deal, it’s just go time and you have to have your audience already very warm or hot.
Charles:
Yeah, no, it makes sense because everybody’s at different parts of their investment cycle, let’s say, for what they’re investing into. If they’re having a liquidity event and they’re getting funds, they wanna place ’em somewhere they’re tied up in some sort of fixed income type instrument and they’re waiting for whatever it might be it’s something where sometimes it doesn’t line up. So being involved in investor relations, I mean, what are some of the common misconceptions and fears people have with real estate investing and I guess multifamily more specifically.
Jazmin:
So the biggest that I get is like, I don’t wanna type my, my money for five years when I can do something else, right? Like I can buy a piece of land or I can do a fix and flip and double that money in one year. So that’s probably the biggest pushback. And I totally understand because I can talk on both sides, right? What I tell people it’s important to have both, right? Because yeah, I mean, if you wanna double your money quick and you know, of course either you have a, you need to have a business that is cash flowing or you have to have a high network have a paid job where you have all your bills covered or you need to do something like that, like flip some properties because the reality of multifamily is long term. So if you need them want it right now, then yeah, probably this is not the right time for you.
Jazmin:
Right? However, you also need to build your portfolio in a way that is working for you. Like if I go and flip a piece of land, it takes my time, my energy team, a lot of resources. But in multifamily, I know I have that investment and it’s paying me. So even if I don’t do anything for one month, I’m gonna get the income, I’m gonna get the depreciation of the year at the end of the year, and then when we sell the property, I’m gonna have a big cash event, right? So having both is very, very important.
Charles:
Yeah, that makes perfect sense. When you’re speaking to these investors and you know, potential paths to investors, how are they really overcoming their misconceptions? And maybe do they come to the realization like, like you were just explaining that they need to have something for long term because five years is something, and it’s important to have these conversations upfront because these are some of the pushback that will get when people reach out to us, and it kind of like is a no start, or if someone wants to put money for one to three years, that means it’s just not how the business plan works and it’s too risky to accept that capital and then have to worry with that investor in three years that they want the funds back. So how do you kind of overcome or work with them for their investors or these potential passive investors to kind of overcome these misconceptions that they might have?
Jazmin:
Well, first of all, I have to be very, very transparent with them and let ’em know, like right off the right off the back, like it’s, your money’s gonna be titled for five years, like no other. What? Like even if you really need, you have an emergence, there’s something like, there’s nothing that I can do to liquidate your funds. So what one is make them understand the risk, right? Like, and be very straightforward because I can tell them like, yeah, maybe in five in three years we can do something or it’s gonna be a refi. Everything that happened on the market, like we haven’t done any refi, right? So even in, in deals that we were planning to do a refi with everything that happened, like we couldn’t do them. So, you know, first of all, investor need to understand and take the responsibility of know what you’re doing, what you’re investing on, who you’re investing with.
Jazmin:
And the other good part that we have with a massive capital is that we also do new construction for retail centers. So those are only three years hold. And I love that because there is some investors who want, they do need the cash flow, right? But some others, for example, when they are investing with retirement accounts, they don’t really need the cash flow because even if I pay you every quarter, your money’s gonna go back to the custodian and you’re not gonna be able to use it. What you need is an account, I mean an investment that helps you grow your money as fast as possible in a shorter period of time. And that’s what we do with new construction. You invest today, only three years is a 1.6 in multiple, and that’s it, you know, and then it goes back to the custodian, and that’s how you know, it compounds faster.
Jazmin:
Your money grows faster in a shorter period of time. So that’s why I also like to take the, take the time to one, understand the investor and really understand their financial situation because everybody is different. And one of the misconceptions is every single investor says, I need cash flow. You know, because that’s what we get. That’s all the marketing that we get. I need the passive income. Yeah. But if you have a really good job, your, your spouse has a really good job, do you really need the cash flow? Like, is $2,000 every quarter gonna make a huge difference? Maybe not, but you can sacrifice, quote unquote the cash flow to get a higher opposition, a higher equity return on your money, right?
Charles:
Yeah, no, that makes perfect sense. I think the equity multiple, if someone doesn’t need the money, is actually a more important kinda metric to, to view, because that’s really your wealth generation. So you’re putting in a hundred thousand dollars, you’re gonna get, you know, wow, 1.45 or you know, 145,000 or 165,000, whatever it is,
Jazmin:
1.6, what do we offer
Charles:
After that? We’ll never have sold, you know what I mean? And that really goes to show you exactly what’s gonna happen. And I think that’s easier for people to grasp versus like, oh, we’re gonna get 3% in the first year, then you’re gonna get 6% in the second year. That’s our goal. And then we’re gonna try to, you know, all this type of stuff where it’s much easier to kind of conceptualize I think the, the ending of what’s gonna happen to that money that they’ve initially invested.
Jazmin:
Yeah, and just on that, another key part is the tax benefits, right? There’s a lot of people who really needed the appreciation. So multifamily is the way to go, because at the end of the year, we send the K ones and they can use all the precision, but if you, if they are investing with retirement accounts, there’s no, we can, the procedure, you know, we can send you a K one for your IRA. So, you know, like understanding all those little parts, it’s like, well, if I’m investing with cash, probably I can invest in multifamily. If I’m investing in, you know, with my retirement account, probably a need construction project. Just so, so that’s why I say like, I like to really understand where the investor is coming from and, you know, their financial situation.
Charles:
No, that makes perfect sense. So you probably speak to a number of different investors that maybe have had negative outcomes with some investments that they’ve made. I know it’s changed and from 20 18, 20 19, 20 20 that tune has changed. And when I speak to investors, whether they’ve invested you know, who they’ve invested with or what they’ve invested in within real estate, if they, you know, a lot of people have kind of horror stories, you know what I mean, of what’s happened. What do you see are some of the most common mistakes past investors make?
Jazmin:
They just jump to it. You know, I, what I said before, when we go to all these events, everybody has the best deal. Everything looks great on paper. Every is like the sexy, the most sexy asset, I have it here. This is how the numbers are gonna look like for you in five years. And that’s, you know, that’s what we think. But you know, one of the things that I tell investors, like, no matter where you’re investing or who you’re investing with, just walk the property just by walking the property will give you a completely different overview on the asset. And most important is who you’re investing with, because the reality is that there is always something that is gonna close out, and nobody was planning for that, right? We on the right, we have a very sophisticated financial teams, and you know, of course we are, we have everything in these deals, right? Investors have 50,000, 100, 500,000, but we have everything. So of course, you know, we, we are very dealing on, on everything that we do. But we, you know, as investors, they need to understand the risk, they need to walk the property, and they need to understand who they are investing with because it’s more important who you’re investing with than the property itself,
Charles:
Right? Yeah. It’s like the same thing. Property management, it’s another thing like that where it’s you know, great properties and poor property management or poor or great property management and poor properties, whatever it might be. However that adage goes, it’s true where you have the people that are boots on the ground or the people actually managing the deal are gonna really be the deciding factor on really the success of that project. And that’s what I’ve seen over the years. Just by change, you know, change, you can change management on your property and you can see it firsthand, you know what I mean? After a few months.
Jazmin:
Oh, yeah.
Charles:
Yeah. So, so let’s talk about kinda what else you’re doing now with Massive Capital. Are you, you’re inside multifamily, you’re working, tell us about what you’re doing. You mentioned to me before about land with Massive Capital, what you’re working on.
Jazmin:
Yeah. you know, going back to land is where I started. Of course, I have a have built a very strong portfolio in multifamily and now with Massive Capital where what I’m doing is building a sister company just on land, just because I mentioned we do new construction for retail centers. And because, you know, land is where I started and where my heart is, what I have seen, you know, the real results. So what I’m gonna do is just build a completely different company, but it is gonna be like a sister company that we can fit some deals, possibly to massive capital and continue doing you know, land led deals. So building a, a, a, an A company just for lead.
Charles:
Interesting. Great. So Jasmine, over the years of being an entrepreneur since 15, coming into this country I mean, what are some of the main factors that have contributed to your success throughout the years?
Jazmin:
I think it’s mindset is I have seen so many successful people, very smart people, but just because they have some limiting beliefs, they, they just don’t go through it, right? Have you hear about the quote, like, there’s somebody with less tools, like less experience that you do doing what you wanna do, right? And I think that’s kinda like, you know what, I had very strong. I just went for it. Like, of course I have Impost syndrome, of course. I ask myself, why am I going here? How am I gonna do this? I don’t know what I’m talking about. But also understanding like, nobody has it together. Like, no, like all of us are trying to figure it out. So sometimes it’s easy to get intimidated, especially in this real estate rooms where everyone has billion dollar portfolios and, you know, you’re trying to get to get your first deal or just build a team, a company getting to your first deal. But just mindset is, you know, like is what is gonna make the difference between doing it or not doing it.
Charles:
Interesting. So tell us about the SHE platform that you’re on. Yeah,
Jazmin:
That’s, you know, transactioning to this level in commercial real estate, I realized that there’s not a lot of women doing it. And, you know, I wanted to first of all show them that it’s possible. Like if I did it, if I, you know, have to build myself from scratch, you can also do it. And there’s just a huge need for that, right? Like right now we’re on the biggest, well transfer for women, you know, you guys, and you know, we, we will men work so hard building all these portfolios, all these businesses. And the reality is that women most likely will die a lot, right? Men die first and women. So, you know, just understanding that at one point, you know, we’re gonna receive that wealth businesses, we need to know how to make decisions, how to grow the money that everybody has worked for. And you know, I tell people no matter who your husband is, who your dad is, like you need to take responsibility of your financial life.
Charles:
So how can our listeners learn more about you and and your business?
Jazmin:
Absolutely. Well, they can visit our webpage well, or, you know, right now transitioning with over all this web pages, but probably social media is the best way to reach out to me. I’m on Instagram she is Jasmine, and then LinkedIn, Facebook. So you can find me there. And, you know, I’m very accessible. I love to talk to people hearing about their stories and hearing their takeaways from this session. Well,
Charles:
Perfect. Thank you so much, Jasmine, for coming on today and looking forward to connecting with you here in the near future.
Jazmin:
Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure being here.
Jazmin is a serial entrepreneur at heart, having founded her first startup and hired her first employee at just 15. With extensive experience working with businesses of all sizes across multiple industries, she brings expertise in business development, strategy, customer service, and sales, backed by business degrees earned both nationally and internationally.
As an active investor with over four years of experience in land acquisitions, Jazmin has successfully executed over $1 million in land transactions. She has also co-sponsored 1,313 multifamily units as a General Partner and holds a Limited Partner position in 174 units.
Jazmin is the founder of S•H•E Builds Owns Invests, a platform dedicated to empowering women in real estate. She is a co-author of Powerful Female Immigrants Vol. II and recently earned an advanced management certification from Rice University. In addition to her entrepreneurial ventures, she serves as a mentor at the Wolff Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Houston.
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