Avery: Hey guys, welcome back to the Short Term Show. Today we have Jonathan Farber of the Millennial Millionaire podcast, and I’m really excited to have him. I’ve been wanting to have him for a while, and we just finally got connected. Anyway, I’ll let Jonathan introduce himself. How’s it going, Jonathan?

Jonathan: It’s going well! I’m excited to be here.

Avery: Realized, as part of all the cleanup we’re doing, that’s actually how I kind of stumbled into coming back around. We were talking about it—it was like a year ago—we were looking at all of our processes again, so we hired a new business coach and everything. So, it was like we never did this and um, yeah, I’ve been watching what you’ve been doing for years. It’s really cool to see your community, and a bunch of friends that have properties through your team.

Jonathan: Yeah, it’s fun. It’s cool to see, but excited to be here. Thanks so much for having me! So, why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself, from the beginning? You’re doing the super cool thing of living half in Colombia now. I think everyone wants to get to that point. But, let’s start from the beginning. Tell us about yourself.

Avery: Okay, let’s do the down-and-dirty version, and I’m sure we’ll dig into stuff. But like many of your listeners, I had no clue how to get into real estate. When I was coming out of college, I saw people in it. I saw people making money with it. You know the stats—90% of millionaires or billionaires probably come from real estate investing. For me, I saw other people who didn’t seem much smarter than me and were way more successful.

Jonathan: Right, it’s crazy to see people that are just like, doing it!

Avery: Exactly! I moved to North Carolina, had a college degree, a job, and I thought, “Okay, if I can just get one or two properties, maybe by the time I’m 30, I’ll be in a good spot.” I started with the bigger pocket strategies for those who don’t know, and that’s still an amazing place to start. Tons of good beginner content! I started with a strategy called house hacking—I bought a property, put 3.5% down, and rented out the rooms to people I worked with. I realized I could live for free from that strategy.

Jonathan: That’s huge! Financial freedom right there, right?

Avery: Exactly! Housing is paid for, and I’m getting paid to live, instead of paying $1,300 or $1,400 a month! That was huge for me. I got the bug more, and then I got into the world of virtual assistants, buying one or two properties a year. With creative financing, when COVID hit, I doubled down. I helped with multifamily projects, and from there, I stumbled into short-term rentals.

Jonathan: Interesting! How did you get into short-term?

Avery: A friend in an area I liked found a property, and it was a rental property. I offered the person a sale price, and they took it. That was my first Airbnb—an off-market deal—and it made more money in the first month than all my other rentals combined.