Episode 66 - How to Scale a Rental Portfolio Using Equity and 1031 Exchanges With Jesse Walters
What happens when you finally reach your rental income goal? Do you keep scaling your real estate portfolio or start paying properties off? In this episode, Stephen sits down with Jesse Walters, a real estate investor and agent based in Columbia, Missouri who started investing in 2021 and quickly scaled his rental property portfolio to nearly $30,000 per month in rental income. Jesse shares how he went from buying a simple turnkey rental property to learning how to use equity, creative financing, and strategic reinvestment to keep growing his real estate investments. The conversation also explores how he used a 1031 exchange to turn profits from one property into a brand new triplex development, while avoiding capital gains taxes and increasing long-term cash flow. If you're interested in real estate investing, rental property strategies, scaling a rental portfolio, or using a 1031 exchange to build wealth, this episode breaks down what the journey actually looks like.
Stephen and Jesse talked about:
00:00 Welcome Jesse Walters
04:04 Scale or Pay Down
05:36 First Deal and the Bug
08:34 Columbia Missouri Market
13:40 Learning to Find Deals
15:14 Construction Loan Second Buy
16:23 Fourplex with No Money Down
21:14 1031 Into New Triplex
26:46 Choosing the Contractor
33:35 Scaling In 2025
37:57 Paydown Strategy With Refi
43:55 Mailer Leads And Backlash
48:05 Action Mindset Wrap Up
TRANSCRIPT
∎ Teaser / Highlighted Clip
[Jesse Walters] (0:00 - 0:20)
And then when I ran out of those funds, the construction loan kicked in to finish it. So I pretty much walked in with over $100,000 down payment on a brand new triplex. Nice.
When doing that 1031, I avoided all the capital gains taxes in that too, because I never touched the money. It was rolled from one property to another. I was just trying to keep that number at zero between both sides.
[Stephen Husted] (0:20 - 0:20)
Yeah.
[Jesse Walters] (0:20 - 0:24)
It was like if I bought a rental and I flipped this one, it was like, okay, those negate each other.
[Stephen Husted] (0:25 - 0:26)
What's those numbers look like?
[Jesse Walters] (0:26 - 0:48)
Right. Yeah. So when you're flipping houses, it's really good to be buying and holding properties at the same time, because then it just helps tremendously.
What I'm going to do there is I'm going to take out a line of credit on that one. That's free and clear. And that's going to give me a lot of purchasing power.
Like if it's with flips or another rent, like just to buy it real quick and get it refinanced into a more traditional loan after that or something.
[Stephen Husted] (0:48 - 3:08)
Action. You're a man of action, especially 2025, especially on social media. It was like, oh, it's terrible, terrible time to buy.
Investment properties, you know, don't do this. Rates are high. Like there's so much noise.
But I think true professional investors that really can see through all the noise and trust their gut and kind of lean into things really win because they know how to pivot during the ups, the downs, because markets are always shifting. It's never the same.
∎ Podcast Intro:
I'm Stephen Husted, and you're listening to The Breakthrough Podcast, a space designed for clarity, curiosity and the stories that move us here.
We step away from the noise and into the moments that define us, the early influences, the hidden struggles and the breakthroughs that reshape our lives from personal reinvention to building a life through real estate and entrepreneurship. These conversations remind us that success isn't a straight line. It's a series of honest decisions, brave actions and small shifts that change everything.
This is where those stories live. Let's begin.
∎ Guest Introduction:
All right. Today, I'm joined by Jesse Walters out of Columbia, Missouri. Jesse is a real estate investor and agent who started his investing journey in 2021 after realizing he and his wife were helping other investors buy deals, but weren't doing any for themselves. They bought their first rental, caught the investing bug, and things started moving fast.
In just a few years, Jesse went from buying that first turnkey property to building a portfolio of rentals, flipping houses, acquiring a fourplex, and even developing a brand new triplex from the ground up. In this conversation, we talk about how he used equity from his early deals to keep scaling, how he found off-market properties through mail campaigns, how he used a 1031 exchange to build new construction, and the mindset shift that helped him grow to over $30,000 a month in rent. We also get into a really interesting question he's facing right now.
Once you hit your income goal in real estate, do you keep scaling or start paying properties off? Let's jump into the conversation with Jesse Walters.
∎ Podcast Proper:
Jesse, how are you?
[Jesse Walters] (3:10 - 3:13)
I'm great. How are you?
[Stephen Husted] (3:13 - 3:15)
I'm doing good, man. Thanks for jumping on today.
[Jesse Walters] (3:16 - 3:18)
Absolutely. Thanks for having me. I appreciate your time.
[Stephen Husted] (3:19 - 3:58)
Yeah, that's cool. I was telling you before we got on that typically I pick guests through Instagram and DM them to get them on. And recently, we went to a different direction, started going after people that have been on bigger pockets.
And so my assistants are now booking up my schedule and it's all these different people. It's cool because a lot of the people that get on, I don't follow them, so I don't know a big backstory. But it's interesting that before we jump on, when I ask you a question about like, what do you want to talk about, anything on your mind, and one of the biggest questions you got going on in your head is something I'm actually going through too.
So that's pretty cool.
[Jesse Walters] (3:58 - 4:12)
I love it. Yeah. There's no wrong answers in this industry.
Well, there's wrong answers, but there's a lot of different paths you can take and it's different for everybody. It can get kind of gray as you keep going down this path of like where you want to go and where you think you need to go, things like that.
[Stephen Husted] (4:12 - 4:35)
That's true. So let's walk through exactly what we were talking about earlier. So you're at a point that you've built out a portfolio and now you're kind of at a crossroads.
Do you still scale or do you basically start paying down some of these properties so that they're free and clear at retirement? Is that kind of what you've been trying to get to or try to understand how you're going to do that?
[Jesse Walters] (4:35 - 5:35)
Yeah, it is. When I first started this journey, I put this goal on me of I wanted to get to $30,000 a month in rent roll. It wasn't like a number of doors I needed to hit or any kind of debt.
It was just like, I want to get to $30,000 a month. And then from there, I figured I could play it backwards. I could start paying down debt.
And like then that rent roll would start paying me and I could work because I want to not because I have to. That's kind of my slogan these days. I'll never stop working, but it'll at least give me the flexibility of like, if I don't want to work, I don't have to.
So and right now I've got a property under contract where as long as we close and this goes the way I think it will, I'm going to hit that $30,000 a month threshold. And I had this in my head for the last few years of like, all right, I'm gonna start paying down debt. And now I'm like, is that what I actually want to do?
Or do I want to keep pushing this thing? How long have you been investing for? We bought our first one in 2021.
So it took me about four and a half years to get where I am.
[Stephen Husted] (5:36 - 5:44)
That's pretty good. That's a good time. You've been busy.
Yeah. So tell me how you pulled that off. What were you buying and like, how did you structure all that?
[Jesse Walters] (5:45 - 6:08)
Yeah. So the very first one we bought, we didn't know much about investing so much. So I guess let me back up.
My wife is a agent, a licensed agent, and she's been with us since 2017. And she got pretty good at her job. And while I was off in the background, doing my own career, things like that.
She got so good at it. I wanted to hop on board and start doing this thing. But before that even happened, I...
[Stephen Husted] (6:08 - 6:09)
Who approached you on that one?
[Jesse Walters] (6:10 - 7:05)
I think it was more me. I was just like, hey, I'm gonna quit my job and help you out. Yeah.
So my wife was helping other investors buy properties. And the conversation just kept coming up in our own household. We're helping other people do this.
Maybe we should? At this time, it was 2021. Like rates were in the threes.
So like sometimes the twos. And we're like, let's just go buy one. And the market was crazy and stuff.
But like we found one on the market. It was nothing fancy. We put 20% down on a 30-year fixed loan.
Just a secondary investment property. And it's like a 3.1 interest rate on a 30-year. So and like it cash flows like crazy.
And we're like, wow, that was easy. Let's keep doing that. And we're like, wait a minute.
I don't have 20% to do this every time. This is not gonna go that well. But once we bought that first one, I got the bug.
And I just started like digging into this. I was like, I gotta do something with this. Like really grow it.
And that's why I started discovering other people.
[Stephen Husted] (7:06 - 7:22)
Were you having like little light bulb moments? Because you just said one. You said, oh, wait a minute.
We bought one. But now we want to buy another one. Wait, I can't do 20% down on every single property.
So now you're already starting to kind of go, okay, now how do I get those funds to start keeping this going?
[Jesse Walters] (7:23 - 8:30)
Yeah. So I've always been entrepreneurial minded. Like I've started some businesses in the past.
They take off. Some don't. Some do.
But what I was doing at the time, like I was in a coffee business. And I've been doing that for like five, six years at that point. And I saw what real estate could do that the coffee business couldn't.
It was way more lucrative. I'm like, if I double down in this over here and step away from the coffee side, I'm gonna be way better off in 10 years versus this other business that I've, frankly, poured my heart and soul into for years up at that point. But I was just like, I didn't jump ship right away.
But it was more like, I see a much better path and something I'm going to enjoy way more if I go down this route. And I could be a business owner. I could be self-employed like I want to be.
And it is all the puzzle pieces clicked together as we bought that first one. I was like, wow, this can actually work. And what I didn't realize was like rates of 3% aren't a real thing.
Like you can't do that forever. And then I had to start readjusting at that point. But there was a big reality check in 2023 on that.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
I was like, wait a minute. This doesn't work like I thought it was going to. Yeah.
The machine is broken now. Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (8:30 - 8:36)
Then you learned at that moment, you're like, oh, now what I'm learning is how do I pivot?
[Jesse Walters] (8:37 - 8:43)
Right. Exactly. Yeah.
Yeah. And where do I find money? Yeah.
It's just like, and to do this, like on top of it.
[Stephen Husted] (8:43 - 8:48)
So when you bought your first investment property, was it local to where you live?
[Jesse Walters] (8:48 - 9:19)
It is. It's in the town I live in. So I live in Columbia, Missouri, home of University of Missouri.
So we're a big college town in the sense I say big. We're like 150,000 people. Not huge, but not small either.
We're right in the middle of the state in between Kansas City, St. Louis. And we're pretty fortunate. We have a lot going on in and out of our town, just with the universities.
And there's some big hospitals here too. And you get a lot of rotations with professors and like nurses, things like that. And so housing is constantly moving in our area, even in down markets.
So we're pretty fortunate there.
[Stephen Husted] (9:20 - 9:21)
How's the market been there?
[Jesse Walters] (9:21 - 9:52)
It's slowed down, obviously, just in the last five years. But we came down from like the highest ever. Overall, we're still doing pretty good.
So our average price point is right under 400 grand in our area. You get over 400, it's pretty much at a standstill right now. Because there's probably inventory.
But in the 300s, it's definitely under 300 grand. We're still moving pretty quick. I just got an email from an agent yesterday.
We have highest and best offers on this house. It was like a $200,000 house. There's still bidding wars happening right now for us.
All those affordable homes and stuff.
[Stephen Husted] (9:52 - 9:59)
The buyer pool at that price point, is it a mixture of in-user buyers and also investors?
[Jesse Walters] (10:00 - 10:21)
It is. Yeah. I saw a stat.
I don't know how accurate it is. But like we're about 50-50 between rentals versus homeowners in our town. A lot of it's student housing because a big chunk of our population is students.
And so yeah, a lot of them are renting. And so people are buying up these little homes, like first-time homes. And I make them into rentals too.
But the stat I saw is about 50-50.
[Stephen Husted] (10:21 - 10:25)
Do you have some of your rentals have students in them right now?
[Jesse Walters] (10:26 - 10:38)
Ironically, I think I have like one or two. I really don't. Part of that is like the properties I buy.
I'm not super close to campus. And it's a little bit intentional because a lot of those homes get run down real fast.
[Stephen Husted] (10:42 - 10:45)
So how do you bulletproof it? All right. Yeah.
[Jesse Walters] (10:45 - 11:00)
Yeah. So I'm still in Columbia, like in city limits and stuff. I'm not like walking distance of the university or anything.
So like I'm renting to a lot of young professionals, younger families, things like that. I love that. I prefer that over anything.
They respect the property. They pay the rent. Like I don't have to worry about it.
[Stephen Husted] (11:00 - 11:00)
Yeah.
[Jesse Walters] (11:00 - 11:01)
It's pretty nice.
[Stephen Husted] (11:01 - 11:03)
What's the job market like where you live?
[Jesse Walters] (11:04 - 11:20)
Yeah. We've got some big players. Like university was always the big one in town.
And they still are. They employ most of the people in our area. But we've had some big people pop up in our town in the last, I don't know, a couple decades.
Carfax started in Columbia, Missouri. Interesting.
[Stephen Husted] (11:20 - 11:21)
I didn't know that.
[Jesse Walters] (11:21 - 11:43)
And then we have another one, EquipmentShare. They're like booming right now. They're hiring hundreds of people all the time.
And you hear about them, if you're familiar with them or not, but they rent out like big, heavy industrial equipment to people that can't, like, you know, they have a $500,000 crane. Not everyone's just going to have that sitting around. So they'll rent them to businesses and contractors to sub them out.
[Stephen Husted] (11:44 - 11:44)
That's cool.
[Jesse Walters] (11:45 - 12:17)
They're doing great. And the other one is Veterans United. You may have heard of them, maybe not.
But like they became one of the national leaders on VA loans. And now they're starting to venture into like more traditional mortgages, USDA, things like the FHA, things like that too. But like they're a huge employer in our town too.
So between all those conglomerate together, like we've had a lot of influx of jobs come in. And they bring in talent too. So like they're, people are moving to Columbia for these high-end, high position jobs in those companies too.
So it's pretty cool to see. And not to mention just like insurance agencies, things like that. There's some headquarters here for that too.
[Stephen Husted] (12:18 - 12:34)
That's cool. And that's such a key to your investing strategy is to make sure that you got good jobs, that you're not based on one industry that could potentially go down. And all of a sudden you lose jobs and now you have vacancy on your property.
So it sounds like you have a lot of different things firing, which is good.
[Jesse Walters] (12:35 - 12:56)
Yeah, I think so. We're in a good market for it. I'm just fortunate it's in my backyard and we've still been able to learn the market.
Just with my wife being an agent for, we're going on nine, 10 years now. We went over to learn through that. And yeah, I got into investing kind of backwards.
Like it was through my wife being an agent first. And then we just kind of bought one just because other people were doing it. And we're like, wait a minute, I should do this.
So yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (12:58 - 13:44)
Yeah. But I think everybody's got like a really cool first story. And I think that's, what's really the beauty of investing is that most people start from a really humble beginning.
Like one of my first out-of-state investment properties that I bought was in Detroit, on a really bad part of Detroit. And I was like, well, it's a $30,000 house. Things go crazy.
I'm willing to lose 30 grand to learn. And a lot of people thought it was nuts. Like, why would you do that?
You know, why are you doing that? But it was the starting point. And the minute you get that first one, you start to kind of, I don't know, it is kind of addictive.
You know, you get that one and you watch that process and you're like, I want that process again. I want to get another one. You brought it up too.
[Jesse Walters] (13:45 - 13:45)
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (13:45 - 13:59)
Yeah. You mentioned you knew that you had to get more money. You needed another 20%.
So walk me through the next property and the next one. Like, how did you start to kind of educate yourself? Because that's what you had to end up doing, right?
You started figuring out how to do this.
[Jesse Walters] (14:00 - 14:37)
For sure. I think it kind of hits with a lot of people, maybe not buying the first property, but like after we bought our first one, like I started to really dive in, get on Google, like start reading, find books, things like that. And for a lot of people, it's bigger pockets.
I stumbled into that. And I learned a lot about like local small banks, things like that, construction loans, things like that. And like, if you're buying properties that need work, that's frankly where the money is and where you can really accelerate this game rather than try and buy in turnkey, which that's what our first one was.
It was just a turnkey rental. I didn't do anything to it. I think I hung up a mirror.
That's all I did in that house. And then put a tenant in there. So which is totally fine.
Yeah. Yeah. It's great.
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (14:37 - 14:38)
Yeah.
[Jesse Walters] (14:38 - 14:42)
If I could do it every time, that'd be awesome. But it's very hard to do.
[Stephen Husted] (14:42 - 14:48)
Under market, you buy it. You just put tenants in. It's got equity in it and your cashflow.
And now that would be the perfect.
[Jesse Walters] (14:49 - 15:08)
Oh yeah. Well, 2021, you could have. I know.
Yeah. Looking back, it's just like, I would just kill to have that deal. Like if that just showed up in front of me today, like I would do everything just to buy that right now.
But yeah, it's so funny. And when we were under contract to buy it, we were like in negotiations. We're like, I don't know.
Like we were like on the fence if we were going to close or not. It's just like, holy crap.
[Stephen Husted] (15:09 - 15:11)
Don't you wish you bought more in 2021?
[Jesse Walters] (15:12 - 15:12)
For sure.
[Stephen Husted] (15:13 - 15:20)
That's the story I hear from everybody. They're like, ah, I shouldn't have passed on those ones. I was getting picky, but you know, time wasn't on our side.
[Jesse Walters] (15:21 - 17:06)
Oh, for sure. Yeah. And you didn't know the future or anything.
So yeah, it's all hindsight now. But so that was in 2021, 2022, we bought our second one. It was a house.
I need a little bit of work. It was pretty minor. It was like 15, 20 grand of work.
It was, I went through a construction loan. I put 15% down on the purchase price on that. And they gave me the full rental budget on top of that.
It wasn't like free by any means, but I got a little bit less money down, essentially, to buy this thing. So after we did that, that I'm trying to think we bought that for 125 grand. Put 15 into it.
It appraised at 160, 175 when we were done. So we had a little bit of equity in it. Plus we put the 15% down.
And then between those two properties. The first one about 20% down. And then this one, we put 15% down.
It got some built-in equity on it. My local bank came to me. They were like, hey, if you want to buy more, you actually have equity here.
And we can use that equity to buy more properties. And I was like, how do I do that? I don't even know what you're talking about.
My bank was teaching me how to do this. So I remember I sat down with my banker like two or three different times. I was like, explain it to me again.
How does this work? I don't understand. And it finally clicked.
And then, so the third one we bought, it was actually a fourplex. It was on the market on the MLS. And it was like right around Christmas in 2022, like beginning of 2023.
Rates just went way up at that point. And the market kind of slowed down. And I put a full price offering on it because it was in my hometown where I grew up.
And it also came with a vacant lot right next door to it. So it was like, I'm just going to go for it. And in my head too, my banker's telling me like, you don't need any money.
You can just go buy this now. I'm like, well, let's go buy. I'm going.
Yeah, let's go.
[Stephen Husted] (17:07 - 17:08)
Sold.
[Jesse Walters] (17:08 - 17:10)
Yeah. I'm like, I don't need any money anymore.
[Stephen Husted] (17:10 - 17:14)
Let's do this. The investor addictive personality comes out. Right.
Yeah, exactly.
[Jesse Walters] (17:15 - 18:06)
So yeah, so we use the equity in those first two homes. And they used it as cross-collateralization, I think is what it's called. But so they use that as a second down payment.
So we really lucked out on that one. We were able to get rents up higher than I projected them to. It needed some work, but not a crazy amount.
And fortunately of the four tenants living there, not all of them moved out at the same time. So I was able to do a little bit of work here, a little bit of work there. Once I got it fully turned, we're in it for like 25 grand, I think.
And the rent roll was like at 3,000, 3,100 on it. And I had a vacant lot next door too. When we got it reappraised, I was able to pull off my original two properties as collateral because it appraised, it was worth its own.
We got everything done. And then I was also able to pull that vacant lot with it too. So I got a free vacant lot and the sporeplex in that deal with no money down.
So that was the big one. Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (18:06 - 19:02)
Yeah. And, but mind you, I have people coming to me all the time and they feel like they have to know like every damn thing to start to invest. And it's really not the truth.
If you can just get going into the process of it and you ask questions and you get around the right people. You were just talking to your bank trying to explain this to me. Yeah.
You'd even know you're, but you're getting taught, you know, and then those things start happening and then you're basically learning those things that for the next deal, you know what to look for, right? You've learned a little bit more about financing and how do you structure a deal and how to get money. So it starts because you go through it.
I think that's the biggest key here is doing. You're doing it. Instead of trying to like spend a year of knowledge, trying to figure it out because you studied so much.
I think that separates a lot of people. I think people just don't want to take that first leap.
[Jesse Walters] (19:03 - 19:36)
For sure. Yeah. I'm hesitant to say this, but not really like, like it has gotten me in trouble before too.
Like I just go and do it. I'm like, oh shit. Like I shouldn't have done that.
It is paid for itself tenfold versus what I've screwed up on. You know what I mean? Like it's all, you know, use some wisdom and some common sense in it all.
But like if I didn't act, I mean, yeah, that fourplex would have sold to someone else. Like probably a week later or something. And like, I would have missed out and I would not be where I am in my portfolio today without that property, that extra equity and a vacant lot, you know, things like that.
It's just, I didn't act. I might as well just call it quits, you know, at that point.
[Stephen Husted] (19:36 - 19:51)
That's true. I think that goes with a lot of things in life. Honestly, you got to move forward.
You got to take some risk and it might work out. It might not work out one way or another. You're going to get some learning lessons out of that and some wisdom to move on and to keep going.
And I think that says a lot. What do you do with the lot?
[Jesse Walters] (19:51 - 20:03)
I still have it to this day. So I actually, I went through the city. I got approval plans and everything to build a triplex on it.
I haven't done it yet. I have got it all set there ready. I just got a pull permit.
I'm ready to go.
[Stephen Husted] (20:04 - 20:05)
Oh my God. That's so great.
[Jesse Walters] (20:05 - 21:23)
Yeah, it's awesome. Yeah. The plan is to do that in the next year, I hope.
I keep getting distracted with other projects. So funny enough, you know, you fast forwarding here through my career. So 2023, I bought that.
And then later in 2023, I bought another, but it turned to a flip. And in 2024, I did a few flips, bought another rental. And in 2025, that was my busiest year yet.
I bought 12 properties. Yeah. And then I kept five of them as rentals.
One of them was actually another vacant lot, a block over from the vacant lot I own now. But that one came up on the market and because I didn't already own it. So that fourplex I had next door to this vacant lot, I ended up selling it for, I think I walked away with like over a hundred grand in it after, you know, had a couple of years getting rents up, things like that.
I was able to 1031 all that money into that vacant lot of block over and build that same exact triplex plans I have for the other lot. So I had a hundred grand down. Yeah.
So I've got, yeah. So I've got a brand new triplex. We just moved them in November.
So two months ago. So I'm fully occupied on that one. Brand new triplex.
And I still have this vacant lot sitting there I could build on. But it's just, it's just the way the world's going. It's like these other opportunities show up and I'll live with 1031 tax-free money.
Build the other one. So that's what I did.
[Stephen Husted] (21:23 - 21:27)
Why don't we explain to people what that means? 1031. What did you do?
[Jesse Walters] (21:28 - 22:34)
So that fourplex specifically, we bought it for 190 grand, I think, which is kind of crazy to say out loud. But yeah, we had like 20 to 25 in it after renovations and stuff. I sold it for 310, 315,000.
So there's a big gap there in the capital gains. I was going to have to pay taxes on that. However, what I did was they call it 1031 exchange.
So I used that money. It went to a escrow agent. It sat in a different bank account.
I didn't touch it. And I used that to purchase the vacant lot like a block over. And the rest of those funds went to essentially the down payment on building a new triplex.
And then when I ran out of those funds, the construction loan kicked in to finish it. So I pretty much walked in with over $100,000 down payment on a brand new triplex. When doing that 1031, I avoided all the capital gains taxes in that too, because I never touched the money.
It was rolled from one property to another. So it saved me, I don't know, probably 30 grand in taxes by doing that. And I got a brand new property.
[Stephen Husted] (22:35 - 22:46)
So smart. Yeah. The brand new property is there's something to be said about something that's brand new is when you get tenants in, you got less calls per year.
[Jesse Walters] (22:46 - 23:03)
Oh, for sure. Yeah. And one I sold, the fourplex I sold to do this with, that thing was built in 1890.
So it was like pushing 130 years old. I went from a 130 year old building to a brand new building. You know, so I deferred all that maintenance for 130 years.
Cool
[Stephen Husted] (23:03 - 23:04)
So let's talk about this build.
[Jesse Walters] (23:05 - 23:08)
Yeah. I'm excited to hear about this part. Yeah, for sure.
[Stephen Husted] (23:08 - 23:19)
You threw a curve ball right there. I loved it. I was like, wait, what?
There we go. Cool. So you had the plans, break down the unit mix.
Tell me what you built.
[Jesse Walters] (23:19 - 24:02)
Yeah. So it's kind of townhome style. Lot itself is kind of narrow and long.
So we built the building sideways. So like the front doors are on one side of the building, two story. So there's three units.
Each unit is like the main level is your living room, kitchen, half bath, utility room. And then upstairs are your three bedrooms and a full bathroom too. So you got three bed, one and a half bath units.
And then I did that two more times. They're all stacked next to each other. All like double firewall too.
So like gave me the option. I don't think I'll do this, but at least give me an option later. If I ever want to like condo them off, I legally can.
So I can section them off and sell one by one if I have to. Like that too.
[Stephen Husted] (24:02 - 24:03)
Beautiful. That's fantastic.
[Jesse Walters] (24:04 - 24:18)
It's all, it's a slab. There's no basements. Pretty easy construction to build in the sense of, so we're all in with the land cost.
We built it for like 440 grand. I think the rent roll on it is 4,500 a month. So like I beat the 1% rule on new construction.
[Stephen Husted] (24:19 - 24:37)
Yeah. That's nice. That's great.
And you learned, let's just back this up real quick here. Let's back the story up. You went from not knowing anything, buying a turnkey rental, learning from your lender, and then doing a new construction build out.
Dude. So amazing.
[Jesse Walters] (24:37 - 24:54)
You think about it. I know. Do you think that way or do you?
So I do. Yeah. Like I'm very blessed and fortunate.
Like I've gotten in like just having that desire to learn those things. But like I can also say I still don't know what I'm doing half the time. Like I'm always asking people like, how do you do that?
[Stephen Husted] (24:54 - 25:43)
Yeah. No. And Jesse, that's, that's totally true.
I say the same thing all the time and I'm okay with saying that. I don't know everything. I don't know everything.
And that's what I love about investing and developing and doing projects. It's like, I don't know it all. So every week there's something new.
Even on your portfolio, right? You're always going through things every week. There's something going on in the business in which I think is, it's just a, yeah.
I don't know if I could pull off something that was day in and day out the same thing over and over, but back to your, your story and like you started from really not knowing anything and now you're, you're doing a development, which is amazing. So you had the plans. How'd you pick your contractor?
What was that process like? How smooth was it working with your contractor? And what did you learn from that process?
[Jesse Walters] (25:44 - 26:32)
I'll take it back one more step to just things I didn't know and I didn't have to know. So the plans I got to build this thing, it was built a town over and I saw it and I got word of it and I just called the guy up. I was like, Hey, I know you built this.
Can I just come see it? And I wouldn't walk through the building without, before I even broke ground on ours. And I was like, and I took measurement stuff.
Like this will fit, like this footprint will fit on my lot. I literally took his plans. I gave it to an architect.
I'm like, put this on my lot as like, I don't know the words, the board plans essentially. So I can present this to the city, like with our address on it. And that's what they did.
And like, so I didn't even have to like recreate anything. I was like, it was a building that's already built 20 minutes away. And I just picked it up and moved it over on to my lot.
That's all I did.
[Stephen Husted] (26:32 - 26:35)
So did you pay that developer or that contractor for those plans?
[Jesse Walters] (26:36 - 26:55)
No, he gave them to me. So I paid an architect to adjust them a little bit, but yeah. Right.
You had to get a survey and go from there. Yeah, the survey, things like that. Yeah, I pulled the permit, but no, like the plans themselves.
And he was just like willing to help. You know, it's like another one investor to another. He's like, yeah, here, take it.
Yeah, go for it. So that's great. Yeah, it's awesome.
[Stephen Husted] (26:56 - 26:57)
That's even better.
[Jesse Walters] (26:58 - 28:37)
Yeah. So the contractor we used, it's kind of full circle here. So like my wife being an agent, she had gotten tight with a few builders in our area and things like that.
And one in particular, we work quite a bit with and brought this to him, talked to him about it. And he was like willing to do it. It was weird for me because I was pretty hands off with it.
You know, like he builds custom homes in Columbia all the time. And I gave him these plans. I'm like, hey, I want to build this.
And he's like, oh, I got it. And he like just started running with it. And like all of a sudden, the concrete's poured.
It's frame. He started going up, all this stuff. And I was like, what?
I have a house here. Yeah, OK, cool. I was pretty hands off, which is nice.
They're just a little thing. It'll never be perfect. You know, there was little things I wish we would have done differently.
This is just me personally. I like to have ceiling fans in all the bedrooms. I just feel like they rent better when people see ceiling fans.
Like tenants are big with fans for some reason. I don't know. But like I didn't get ceiling fans in all the bedrooms in it.
And I was like, it was already too late. Sorry. A part of that, too, is I had tenants pre-signed to move into the thing before he's even done being built.
We're in a market over there's a big need for rentals. So it was just like, we got to get this thing done and get these people in here. And I can stop paying interest and I can actually start getting an income on this building overall, like get a good GC.
Like he was not the cheapest by any means. But I trusted him and I knew he does a good job on everything he does. I was like, I'm not going to have to worry if I put him in here and do this.
I first toyed with GC and myself and like, you know, doing all this stuff out. I started second guessing. I'm like, I probably shouldn't do this on the first one.
I should probably like sit on the sidelines and watch this happen first. That was smart. Yeah.
And the biggest thing that made it stop was my bank told me, no, don't do that. Hire a general contractor. I'm like, OK, fine.
[Stephen Husted] (28:38 - 29:18)
So, yeah, I think on your first one, especially. Yeah. But you also brought up a really good point and cheap is not always good.
Same with inexpensive contractor is not always quality work. But, you know, you really have to pick your contractor wisely, get referrals, call those people that have used that contractor and figure out how they were staying on time and just getting a good feel from them. Plus you're spending that much time with them.
You got to kind of have kind of like the person to get along with them. So that's a big part of it. But sounds like you got a good little scenario all across the board.
He just ran with it, took those plans. It was like, yeah, no problem. Let's get this going.
[Jesse Walters] (29:19 - 30:05)
Yeah, he did. Yeah. And yeah, he's just someone I trusted, too.
So we end up going over budget on a couple items. We weren't expecting it. We were kind of flying through it, too.
It was just like and I pushed it on. I was like, hey, let's get this done by X date because I have these tenants want to move in all this stuff. And we went over budget on a couple of things because him and I were just both were like, oh, yeah, we should have thought of that.
Like one was like a retaining wall. Like, yep, I did not budget that retaining wall. Did not do that at all.
And that was like 30 grand right there. I was like, crap. But that being said, like he trusts me and I trust him to where it was like, hey, I missed a couple of things and a couple of things were over budget.
He's like, I'm going to eat the cost on a couple of these things and just meet me halfway. We'll call it a day. So like he literally worked with me through this whole thing and it was pretty cool.
So yeah, finding a good contractor is worth its weight for sure.
[Stephen Husted] (30:06 - 30:08)
Absolutely. It could make or break your project.
[Jesse Walters] (30:08 - 30:09)
Definitely.
[Stephen Husted] (30:09 - 31:01)
As simple as that. Get a bad one and then you're scrambling and you're losing time and money and you got to find somebody else and you waste more time and money. So it's a big thing.
It's cool that he was honest and straightforward with you on things like that. That goes a long way. One of my contractors locally, he is the same way.
We had a project we did and the stucco didn't come out good. And we showed up to walk the property and I didn't even catch the issue actually. And he didn't say anything.
We left and then I come back the following day and the house is getting repaid. Like they're redoing the stucco. I'm like, wait, what, what are they doing?
I call him up. He's like, yeah, I wasn't happy with it. Made them change it.
We're starting over that. I'm not charging you. And yeah, we're going to get back on track.
I'm like, okay. He's like, we'll work weekends. I was like, wow.
All right. There's something to be said about that.
[Jesse Walters] (31:02 - 31:07)
Oh yeah. And you'll send him more business too. I could tell the people to use them and like, it's just, it's a win for everybody.
[Stephen Husted] (31:07 - 31:31)
Absolutely. Yeah. You brought up a point about at the end of it, you wish you did things differently, but I think that's the beauty of construction rehabs.
New development is I don't care if it's a $500,000 house or a $50 million house. There's always something that you could change. There's just never a perfect scenario.
You brought up the retaining wall. Is the ceiling fans the only other thing or were you happy with everything else? How it turned out?
[Jesse Walters] (31:32 - 32:27)
Oh yeah. I was definitely happy with it. There were a couple like contractor issues that wasn't like on my builder's fault either.
It was just like, just people. Yeah. We got it addressed and things like that, but it's all good.
So like one thing we did, and actually I'd recommend a lot of people do this if you can. It's like in that build, the main level, the slab, we actually just polished the concrete for the floor. We didn't put flooring down.
Just polished the concrete. One, it saved a ton of money. And two, it's tenant proof.
It's concrete. Like they can't screw it up. Can't mess it up.
So like, and it looks great. It's kind of gives it like an industrial look too. But like, I'd recommend to people, but yeah, like in that, I'm sure the contractors do this all the time and builds because they put flooring down in there, but like, they will take a Sharpie and write on the concrete.
Like where cabinets go, things like just kind of stencil and stuff. Well, we didn't put flooring down. So like now I got Sharpie all over my floor and I was like, crap.
I'm like, ah, that's not good. So, and then they sealed it on top of, they sealed the Sharpie in.
[Stephen Husted] (32:27 - 32:27)
What?
[Jesse Walters] (32:28 - 32:43)
Oh no. Well, there we go. Like now we just have Sharpie on the floor, brand new building.
So it's like cabinets range, right? Yeah. No range.
And they're just an arrow point to the range. Like, yep, that's a range. Got it.
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (32:43 - 32:58)
But wait, did you, from the whole beginning, it was going to have polished concrete. That was part of the whole build out. It was as far as your scope of work.
Okay. And then what did you do for the second floor and the stairs? Did you do like a LVP or carpet?
What did you do?
[Jesse Walters] (32:58 - 33:32)
Yeah, I did LVP on the whole second floor and I put carpet on the stairs because that's the only carpet in the whole unit. And I'm like, to me, it was like, one is way cheaper. Like the wood treads or even vinyl on the stairs and stuff.
I just, wood looks the best, but it can get damaged pretty quick with tenants, like moving their furniture up and down it. Vinyl plank on stairs. I just don't really like it.
It kind of looks tacky. And then it comes apart too. Like the glue comes apart.
Like they'll catch it with their foot or something. So like, I just went with carpet and like, to me, it's like, if I had to replace the carpet each time on the stairs, like, it's not that much money. Like I'll just do that.
[Stephen Husted] (33:32 - 33:35)
Yeah. It's not that much. You're not big coverage on it.
[Jesse Walters] (33:35 - 33:38)
Right. Yeah. Their security deposit can cover that if I have to, you know, things like that.
[Stephen Husted] (33:39 - 34:00)
That's awesome. That's a great story. Love to hear this.
All right. That's so great. So, and then you said 2025 is when you really scaled pretty heavily.
We did. That year. So well, 2025, especially in a year where everybody's saying it's too hard to invest and there's no deals and blah, blah, blah.
You had your best year.
[Jesse Walters] (34:01 - 35:01)
Why is that? I think we're saying earlier, it just took action. It was like, everyone else is just throwing their talent.
And I'm like, I'm just going to go. If everyone else is stopping, they'll just keep going. Not to say there wasn't competition out there, but it was like, I just doubled down.
I put a lot of money to mailers. I sent out a lot of mail in 2025. I bought four houses on mail last year and it wasn't cheap.
I think I spent like three grand a month on mailers or something, but I bought four houses doing it. So it's like I made way more money buying those houses than I did spending the 36 grand for a 12 month period on that. Also, this is kind of a few years in the making, but like we developed a reputation for ourselves.
People know I buy houses now and I started getting calls. I had like three different agents calling me, selling me properties before we hit the market because they were like, Hey, this thing needs a lot of work. It's not going to go well on the market.
The market's slow. All these things like, do you just want to buy it? I'm like, yeah, I'll buy it.
They're like, I bought more houses doing that than I did on the mailers actually.
[Stephen Husted] (35:02 - 35:12)
And that's cool because you got the connection. You guys are agents, your wife's an agent, so you guys got this little network going too, which is perfect. You did a flip.
You did flips with some of them.
[Jesse Walters] (35:12 - 35:41)
I did. We flipped buy and sell. I'm still holding some from 2025 still that I've got a few on the market right now, but we bought and sold.
I think five last year that essentially, one, it helped invest in more rentals or we went over budget on a renovation or something like that. It just helped flex that money. It also paid ourselves, you know, kind of put the savings for rainy day, things like that.
And then it also, the tax depreciation I was getting with my rentals, I was able to keep a lot of that money tax free.
[Stephen Husted] (35:41 - 35:42)
Because it was balancing out.
[Jesse Walters] (35:43 - 35:46)
Yeah, it was. So it's like, I was just trying to keep that number at zero between both sides.
[Stephen Husted] (35:46 - 35:47)
Yeah.
[Jesse Walters] (35:47 - 35:51)
So it's like if I bought a rental and I flipped this one, it was like, okay, those negate each other.
[Stephen Husted] (35:51 - 35:52)
What's those numbers look like?
[Jesse Walters] (35:52 - 35:59)
Right. Yeah. So when you're flipping houses, it's really good to be buying and holding properties at the same time because then it just helps tremendously.
[Stephen Husted] (36:00 - 36:18)
That's a really good point to bring up. Plus what you were doing, you're just, you're kind of recapitalizing because you're scaling, you're buying, buying holds, but you start to, at some point you end up in an issue where you don't have enough capital. So you have to figure out other ways to kind of bring it into the mix.
So that's smart. Smart all the way across the board right there.
[Jesse Walters] (36:19 - 36:48)
Yeah. Thanks. Good job, Jess.
Now, thanks. Yeah. Dude, it's awesome.
I've got three on the market right now and I need to sell the dang thing. What's going on with them? We listed them, it's that poor town, like it was right before Thanksgiving.
And it's like, Thanksgiving to Christmas, nothing really moves that much. We're called to the market. So we're kind of getting out of that now.
We've gotten a couple more shellings here in the last couple of days. So I think they'll sell there pretty quick. They're priced right.
I'm not worried about it. If I would have got them on the market like 30 days earlier, I probably would have sold them in 2025. But it is what it is.
[Stephen Husted] (36:48 - 36:58)
So I'm in Silicon Valley, like after the Superbowl, it really starts to ramp up. Is that similar to where you're at? Does it happen in February?
Kind of go, or is it later in spring?
[Jesse Walters] (36:58 - 37:35)
Yeah. So we tell them, like a lot of our clients, like with just the traditional, like using us as agents, like we tell them, like, if you can wait till mid-February, like that's when things start picking up. You'll see more houses come on the market.
Buyers start coming out of the woodworks. That's when houses start selling. And that continues up through beginning of May.
And then for us, that's like graduation time for university and stuff. So like once all the graduations hit and stuff, it just dies off again because everyone's so busy with that. Then it'll pick up again in the summer a little bit.
And then August, when school goes back in session, it dies off again. And then, yeah, then September, October picks up again. Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (37:36 - 37:49)
Yeah. It's an interesting cycle, how it goes like that. With the ones you have on the market, if you don't get any activity, are you going to pull them off and then relist them so that it brings the days of market back to zero?
Or would you just keep rolling it?
[Jesse Walters] (37:50 - 38:00)
I signed the papers today. Actually, we're going to cancel relist. Yeah.
We've been sitting about 45 days on the market now. We're just going to cancel relist and took some new photos, things like that. I think we'll get some traction doing that.
[Stephen Husted] (38:01 - 38:37)
Yeah. It's a good strategy to kind of freshen up the listing and get new eyeballs on it. Yeah, that's cool.
So now you're at this point where you hit the $30,000 a month. You hit that goal. And so now you're trying to figure out, should I start paying down these properties?
How do I approach it? Do I pay off one at a time and kind of systematically start working through them with getting money from flips? And how do I take money to go pay them down?
Or am I going to take and pay two extra payments per property per year to shrink that loan from $30,000 to $15,000? Like where are you? So what's your thought process?
[Jesse Walters] (38:38 - 38:43)
Yeah. So where I'm at today, it's kind of changing every day as I keep thinking about this.
[Stephen Husted] (38:45 - 38:46)
No, you're not alone.
[Jesse Walters] (38:47 - 40:35)
So this is like my first baby step into doing this. So I'm paying off something, but not really paying off something. So what I'm doing is I'm going to cash out refi one of my properties that I have a decent amount of equity in, and that will still cash flow.
And I'm going to use that money and pay off another one. So I did the math on it. Like my loan on the one I'm cash out refi-ing, it'll go up like $300 or $400 a month.
But I'm paying off one that I'm paying $1,200 a month on. So like I'm saving $800. There's $800 swing on my monthly spend.
So that's going to boost my cash flow quite a bit. And I'll have one loan free and clear. And what I'm going to do there is I'm going to take out a line of credit on that one that's free and clear.
And that's going to give me a lot of purchasing power. Like if it's with flips or another rent, like just to buy it real quick and get it refinanced into a more traditional loan after that or something. And I think in 2026, I think we're going to see a lot more deals popping up the way the market is.
So I want to be ready for that when that comes. And not that I'm going to jump on all of them like as aggressively as I probably did in the last 12 months, but the home runs or the ones with big profit margins, like, you know, if I can go say, hey, here's cash closing seven days and just use my line of credit to buy it like that's worth its weight right there. So that's my first baby step.
I'm boosting my cash flow. I'm paying off one, but I'm pulling it from another property to do it. And then after that, I'm still debating what I want to do.
So I'm going to flip in 2026. I think I'm going to be pretty happy on flips. And that money is either going to go paid on debt or be used as down payments for more rentals.
And I don't know where that's going to land quite yet. On that, it probably depends on what's right in front of me. It's kind of like me building that other triplex and block over.
It's like that was never in the plan, but the opportunity showed itself and I did it.
[Stephen Husted] (40:35 - 41:20)
Take away is action. Action. You're a man of action, especially 2025, especially on social media.
It was like, oh, it's terrible, terrible time to buy investment properties. You know, don't do this. Rates are high.
Like there's so much noise. But I think true professional investors that really can see through all the noise and trust their gut and kind of lean into things really win because they know how to pivot during the ups, the downs, because markets are always shifting. It's never the same.
You're kind of at a crossroads right now, but it's pretty good crossroads to be in. And two, you and your wife are both helping buyers and sellers on top of everything, right?
[Jesse Walters] (41:20 - 41:21)
For sure.
[Stephen Husted] (41:21 - 41:26)
Yeah. So that's another big, are you part of a team or do you run the team?
[Jesse Walters] (41:27 - 42:22)
We have our own team. Yeah. So we're pretty ESP brokerage, but like they're like the closest thing you can have without having your own brokerage.
You know what I mean? I don't have the liability. They still carry that and stuff like that.
So it's been a really good fit for us. But yeah, it's just my wife and I, we have one other agent on our team and then we have some other team members that like one does a lot of the contracts for us. Another one is on the marketing side and things like that too.
There's three agents on the team. I barely count myself as one of them because I get so invested in this investing game and rentals and things like that. I jokingly say I'm the glorified sign boy.
I'm putting out signs for my wife and throwing my truck on my way to my project or something. You know what I mean? It's kind of what I do.
But I can also do showings and things like that with my license. It allows me to open doors for clients and things like that. And I do help other investors too.
I've helped put flips under contract for other people and duplexes, triplexes, things like that, just help them buy them depending on what their goals are.
[Stephen Husted] (42:23 - 42:30)
Yeah, that's awesome. And it's cool because you guys are agents that on your own flips, you're saving money on commission right there too.
[Jesse Walters] (42:30 - 43:44)
It's a really good tool for negotiation for sure. When I'm buying and selling, especially on the buying side, it really helps me. When I got a call from a mailer or something, they were like, hey, I saw this.
I'm thinking about selling my house. Always saying that they'll say what the situation is, whether it's financial or if it's a divorce or they inherited the property, anything like that. And I play both sides of it.
I'm like, hey, this is what I can do as an agent. These are the things we can do. And this is going to get you top dollar if we go on the market.
But we have to do X, Y, Z. We're going to fix all these things and all this stuff. Or if you don't want to do that, if you need the money or whatever the situation is, I try to talk it through with them.
This is the offer I can give you right now. We can close in a few weeks or whatever it is. Sometimes quicker, depending on the price range, things like that.
But I play both sides of it. I've gotten a lot of listings from my mailers, too, from my wife. That's been the biggest value of having my license, in my opinion.
It's not so much saving on the commission. It's like I can give multiple avenues to these leads I get. I want to go, a traditional investor, hey, I'm going to go buy your property with cash.
Here's a lowball offer. They may take it. They may not.
Me, it's like, here's my offer, but I can also list this for you and get you even more money. And I can develop that trust and rapport with them on that, too.
[Stephen Husted] (43:44 - 44:12)
Well, you're giving that homeowner options. You know, you're putting everything out there and they can make that decision. So it's kind of a win-win.
It's either go list it and get top dollar and at least know what the market will dictate. Or if you got too many things going on in that house that you just don't want to deal with, it's, you got that direction. So that's really, it's a smart direction.
How long did it take you from doing that first mailer to getting a lead and actually getting something under contract?
[Jesse Walters] (44:12 - 44:32)
I think, let me think here. I started it in November of last year, I believe, well of 2024. And then I think I closed on the first one in March.
So it took me five months for the first one to close. And then, yeah, then I got a few more after that through the rest of the year. Okay.
[Stephen Husted] (44:32 - 44:38)
And then you just made back everything that you invested as far as your mailers are concerned. And now you have a system down too.
[Jesse Walters] (44:39 - 46:00)
Yep. Yeah, for sure. And in those five, those first five months, it allowed me to like fine tune, like how I talk to people, things like that.
It's so hard, like, especially as a new investor, it's hard to say like, Hey, I'm going to make you an offer. I'm trying to make money on this myself. And like, you don't want to be seen as this, at least for me, this was my trouble getting into it was like, I don't want to be seen as this greedy guy trying to take advantage of someone.
And it allowed me to like have multiple conversations and get to a flow of like, I want to do what's best for you and your family. And if I don't buy the house, that's fine. But like, I want to at least make my offer, make my shot.
If you don't take it, great. But like, I'm going to give you some other options too. Things like that.
And it's just able to help people in that way. That's been the biggest thing. And then also you get a lot of angry people when you send out mailers.
You say angry? Angry. Yeah.
Like, I don't know why. To me, it's just like another piece of marketing in their mailbox. Like you go get your mail.
There's like 15 different ads in there, coupons, things like that. I consider that postcard I'm sending out just another piece of that. But they see it as like, I got F you, F that.
And like, they're calling me, yelling at me. And they're like, remove me from your list. I'm like, I don't know who you are to remove you.
Like, you have to tell me your name and your address. Like, I don't know who you're talking. And they're like, you should know all this.
I'm like, I have your address. I don't have your phone number. I don't know who's calling me.
[Stephen Husted] (46:01 - 48:13)
Yeah. You know, it's pretty crazy. I remember when I experienced that the first time, when I did it, just sold for a complex.
And then they just came on, came unglued. They were calling me and I had a couple in this one complex. And they're just screaming.
I'm like, okay, just take it and throw it in the garbage and we'll take you off the list. And they just kept going on and on. I'm like, okay.
And I get all the, you get calls too, I'm sure on your properties. Because I get calls all the time, all the time, all the time. I get text messages.
I get letters. I get all that stuff. And I'm always intrigued too.
Some of them I actually call back and say, oh, so how much are you going to offer me on this house? Maybe I'll get rid of it. What's your numbers?
I'm kind of surprised on the ones that literally we closed escrow. And like three weeks later, I'm getting people with, hey, we'd buy your property. I'm like, are you guys like paying attention?
What's going on? I just closed on this one. What are you doing?
It's interesting you bring that up. We're in the middle of doing a mailer too, but a more personal one. And I'm afraid that they're going to come after me.
And I'm going to give them my direct cell phone number. I'm like, well, I'm going to take one for the team. I'll be ready.
Funny enough about cold calling, this is kind of off topic, but I just, there's this guy trending on Instagram right now who does cold calls and he just cusses at the person when they get on the phone. Like he asks for the person's name, like, hey, is the owner, huh? And they're like, wait, who is this?
He's just dropping F-bombs, cussing. Wildest videos. It is the most unhinged things.
And he gets leads. I'm blown away. I don't even know like how he's pulling this off, but it's so over the top.
I mean, the guy is absolutely insane. He's ripping into them. This one video was really funny.
It was an older lady and I think she had grandkids somewhere by her and she's like, excuse me, repeat what you just said. And he goes on and she's like, hold on. And she goes into the other room and starts just ripping on him.
You know, she needed to get away from the kids so that she could cuss. It was hilarious. It was so funny.
That's awesome.
[Jesse Walters] (48:13 - 48:14)
Good. Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (48:14 - 49:02)
Well, Jesse, man, go get it in 2026. I'm so happy for you. It's such a cool story.
You just had a great story. And I love the fact that you don't even know much. The big takeaway is taking action.
You took action. Simple as that. You took action.
You followed the lead of some others that gave you some information. You took that information in and then you made more decisions. And then that compounded over time.
And in this very short period of time, because you haven't been investing that long, 2021 accomplished a lot. But I really think that a lot of it just comes right back to you're doing it. You're not, you're blocking out the noise and seem like you have a passion for it too, which is that always is a good thing.
So. Yeah, I agree. Stoked for you, man.
[Jesse Walters] (49:03 - 49:11)
It's great. Thank you. I appreciate the kind words.
That's yeah. The investor role can get kind of lonely if you let it. It's just good to surround yourself with people like this.
And yeah, it's good.
[Stephen Husted] (49:12 - 49:44)
I agree. I think that your story is like, there is a lot of people out there that will be their story too. I think starting in a humble beginning, especially with like social media these days, it's very easy to think that it's not attainable for you, that you can't do this and that look at how far these people are, but most people started very small and put a lot of work in to get to the point where they're at.
And I think that sometimes freezes people up from believing in themselves to do it.
[Jesse Walters] (49:44 - 50:20)
Yeah, I completely agree. I'm fortunate. I don't know wherever that is in my brain.
It just, I just kind of go do it and ask questions later. But I agree with you. I think a huge part of where I'm at today is just because I just went for it and not taking no for an answer.
Like it's just when things get hard, it's like, it doesn't mean you stop. Like it's going to be hard. If this was easy, everyone would be doing it and be successful at it.
But like, there's a lot of people that are not successful at it and try and a lot of people don't even try. And it's like, because it's difficult. It's not going to be easy.
And I don't ever want to sugar coat that with anyone. If you do it and you say you're going to do it and you keep going, you'll be fine.
[Stephen Husted] (50:20 - 50:28)
Yeah. Well, we're going to leave it on that. I appreciate you jumping on today, Jesse.
It was a great conversation. Love your story.
[Jesse Walters] (50:28 - 50:30)
Thanks for having me. All right.
[Stephen Husted] (50:30 - 51:04)
You have a great day. Yeah, you talk to you next time. Thanks.
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