Jeff's Biography

…in the spring of 1999. That’s when I picked up my first flip project and caught the real estate investing bug. I bought the house with conventional financing (who knew about hard money loans?) from an MLS listing (who knew about wholesalers?). The things we learn!

In over 25 years that I’ve been investing, I have been a real estate attorney (25 years), real estate agent (8 years), an escrow officer (20 years), private lender (10 years) and national real estate educator (15 years). In one way or another, I’ve seen over 5000 transactions from just about every angle.

What have I learned? It all begins with your transactional documents! These form the basis of, literally, everything you do in real estate, from protection to privacy, and wholesaling to seller-financing. It’s all about the documents.

But, what I’ve realized is that the vast majority of investors have no clue what they are even signing. Most do not even read the document! And that’s a recipe for disaster.

That’s why I began teaching real estate investing!

When I first stared in real estate, I had never attended a REIA or other educational seminar. My first was a huge event in a hotel ballroom. I remember an attorney coming on stage with a silver briefcase selling his “bullet-proof” asset protection package for only $5,000. As an attorney I was amazed and bought it–nothing but blank forms for various entities. As an attorney, I could produce the same documents customized for my clients for less. What I learned from that was to be very careful about purchasing programs at the big REI events!

I was picking up a few rental properties and doing some flips. I did almost all the renovations myself. I can do just about everything except pour a foundation or install a roof. I even changed out toilets. On one of my first flips in 2000, I got about a $10,000 check. I was thrilled as that was the single biggest check I ever received. When I calculated the hours spent on the rehab, I realized I made more per hour coaching the local high school track team. What I learned was to focus on what I was good at and pay others to do everything else!

On my first flip (see the video), my margin was so low that I had to turn it into a hold for a couple of years until  I got at least some profit out of it. I learned to make money when you buy, not sell!

And those are just the beginnings of what I’ve learned. And while I still attend numerous REI educational events every year, I realized that no one was really digging into the transactions themselves and really teaching investors how to structure, paper and protect themselves in real estate investing.

That’s why I created REI Mastery University! This is a true, content-intensive, hands-on, deep-dive into the transactions that make up real estate investing. For investors that really want to become professionals, this is your gold mine of information!