#203: Harness Your Real Estate Investments to Really Live Life to the Fullest with Jeff Holst

Welcome to the Accelerated Real Estate Investor podcast with Josh Cantwell. If you’re looking to retire early with forever passive income, you’re in the right place. This podcast is the go-to destination for real estate investors, both active and passive. And multifamily apartment investors, both new, intermediate and advanced. Now sit back, listen, learn and accelerate your business, your life and your investing with the Accelerated Real Estate Investor podcast. 

Josh: So hey there, welcome back to Accelerated Real Estate Investor hey, I am so excited to be back with you, so grateful for your time that you took carved out a few minutes to spend with me today. Today, I’m interviewing Jeff Holst. Jeff is a recovering attorney and now full-time real estate investor. Jeff has an amazing story that back when he was 30 years old, he checked the last item off of his bucket list, climbing Machu Picchu. And he was on top of the world looking down at the Incan city, realizing that at 30 years old, he was living the life of his dreams. He had swam with sharks in Belize. He had been to the pyramids in Egypt. He had been well traveled to the point where he climbed the top of Mt. Sinai and backpack through Europe. As an active attorney, he was married and had a beautiful wife and house in the suburbs and a thriving law practice. But two weeks later, Jeff realized he was lying in the hospital, dying from leukemia, his business, what was in disarray. And even though he was an active practicing bankruptcy attorney, he now found himself filing for bankruptcy. Over a decade later, at 41 years old, Jeff now owns over 200 units of residential properties and commercial buildings. For the last four years, he’s focused on his Value-Add apartment portfolio, an apartment strategy buying properties between 10 units to 50 units. He is the host of the Old-Fashioned Real Estate show, where he drinks bourbon, old fashions and talks about real estate investing. In this episode of Accelerated Investor, you’re going to hear from Jeff and how he buys properties with JV partners who fund the entire deal. And Jeff still gets to keep 50 percent of all of the profits, cash flow and equity. And how he was able to do deals with no money down. Jeff is also going to challenge you to living your best life right now. And as a leukemia survivor speaking to me as a pancreatic cancer survivor, we can both attest to this amazing life that we live now because of the, you know, the pain and the suffering that we went through in the past. And Jeff’s also going to talk about the mindset shift from going from a transactional attorney to a long-term real estate investor. We also have a great fun conversation about his move to Puerto Rico. You’re going to love this interview on the Accelerated Real Estate Investor podcast with Jeff Holst.  

Josh: So, hey, Jeff, listen, so excited to have you on Accelerated Real Estate Investor, I know on your show you guys like to get drunk and talk about real estate. We’re sober for this one. But thank you so much for jumping on to that. 

Jeff: You know it’s more fun when you’re drunk. Josh, I promise.  

Josh: I’m sure it is. I’ve got a volleyball tournament to drive to in about two hours.  

Jeff: Yeah, you don’t. Yeah. You don’t want to drink and drive.  

Josh: But once I get to the hotel, I can have a couple pops later on tonight to get ready for tomorrow. So thanks for jumping on the show, Jeff. And you know what? When I, when I kind of meet somebody new interview somebody new, I always like to hear, like, what are they working on right now that they’re excited about that they’re going to make money with and it kind of gets their juices going. So what are you up to?  

Jeff: Oh, man, I haven’t told anyone this yet. So you get to be the first person to hear it. Yeah, I’m planning on moving to Puerto Rico.  

Josh: Oh, why. OK, tell us about it.  

Jeff: Yeah. So, well, I went to Puerto Rico a couple of weeks ago and I’ve been my wife and I have said for a while that we want to move to the Caribbean. And I was in Puerto Rico is meeting with a couple of real estate guys. I know that live there and were telling me about the tax advantages and some other stuff. And I was like, why don’t I just do it now? Like, why am I waiting? So it’s going to take me a little bit because it’s sort of a process to get there. But I think early next year, 2022. I’m going to live in San Juan.  

Josh: Nice. Fantastic. So for our audience, that might not know about the tax advantages and some of the exciting stuff that’s advantageous for Puerto Rico, just elaborate on a little bit. What are some of the reasons, the financial reasons to go?  

Jeff: Yeah, so, I mean, besides the fact that it’s the Caribbean and oceans and all that stuff. Right. Because that’s the real reason to go. I just want to live. I need more ocean in my life. But the tax advantages. So if you’re mainland US person and you go to Puerto Rico, you can apply for something called the Act 60 grant. It’s a tax grant that they offer. There’s a bunch of different categories, but the long and short of it is if you start a business in Puerto Rico, you can actually, in many cases, get that business subject to a four percent corporate tax rate and zero percent personal taxes on income sourced in Puerto Rico through that company. So you pay like an effective tax rate of four percent and no federal U.S. taxes, which you can’t do anywhere else in the world because anywhere else in the world, the US has no us the taxes anyway. But because Puerto Rico’s part of the US, they have a special status that allows them to do that.  

Josh: So I have I’ve heard about this, but I haven’t done any personal research. So are you telling us that we can buy and flip properties in various parts of the US and then essentially file that business in Puerto Rico? Yeah, help us understand that.  

Jeff: Yes. So to be clear, like I’m not an expert on this at all. I’m just starting to learn about it. And it’s not the only reason I’m moving. Like, I have friends in Puerto Rico. I love the country itself. Yeah, but yeah. So there’s zero percent capital gains tax in Puerto Rico. Long- and short-term capital gains, zero percent. Wow. As long as you qualify under the act. Right. Which means you have to be from the US and you have to do there are some steps you have to go through. You have to donate a certain amount to Puerto Rican charities. You’ve got to pay a fee to the government. So it’s not completely free, but it’s there are some significant advantages. But technically, money that you make in the US is still taxed on US tax rates. So if you flip something in the United States and you have a gain on it, that money was sourced in the United States. Now, what a lot of people do on stuff like that is because they’re performing some of the work while they’re in Puerto Rico, because you have to actually live there. You have to be there more than half the year. One hundred eighty-three days, minimum a year. If you were flipping and doing like likesome kind of consulting with your flipping company, you can charge those consulting fees to your Puerto Rican company, thereby lower your tax obligations. You’re not going to eliminate it completely. Yeah, but for sure, you can get a lot of advantage, especially if you do like I do. Right. I mean, I have some podcasts and some other consulting work that I do that wherever it works in my head. So if I live in Puerto Rico, the money’s earned in Puerto Rico.  

Josh: You’re having a service on the beach. It’s Puerto Rican beach. You know, the brain power is still working.  

Jeff: Exactly and depends on how many cervezas you have, though, right?  

Josh: Right. Right. That’s awesome, Jeff. So help us understand a little bit more about your moneymaking strategy with real estate. I know you have close to a hundred and fifty residential rental properties, have commercial buildings. What’s your favorite form of real estate investing? And I’ve done many different things. Help us understand what you own, how you do it. How did you kind of fall into it? But how did you sort of focus on that niche that you like?  

Jeff: Yeah, so the last couple of years, basically since 2017, we focused on a Value Add multifamily strategy, but we, we kind of go into a niche that’s different than most people. So the big syndicators, they’re all buying one hundred one hundred fifty, two hundred, three hundred. We’re not targeting those. And most of your mom-and-pop people get about a million-dollar purchase price. They start getting crazy, so we kind of try to go in between there, so we’re buying like 10-to-40-unit buildings that are, you know, maybe a million to four million dollars in that range. Yeah, and a lot of people are staying away from it. It’s just too small for the big guys and it’s too big for the little guys. So there’s less competition. And then when we do the Value Add stuff, we are buying stuff that’s from people that are overwhelmed or they’re tired and we fix it up. And usually 18 months, two years we’re refinancing, pulling all of our money out and still having the cash flowing assets.  

Josh: So love it. Love it. So a couple of things around that we do. Very similar with the biggest building. We own a seven hundred and thirty units. We just bought a 550 in Houston, but I also got a sixteen unit. I’m going to buying a fifty-two-unit next week. And so we just like stuff that cash flows, is not really big or smaller, but help us understand, like if you could kind of walk us through a real deal or a hypothetical deal, give me some numbers. Can I bring it to life. Like what does the deal look like that’s in that 10-to-40-unit range? The reason I love that niche also is because you can still get Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac long term nonrecourse funding when you’re over a million, million five in loan value. So there’s a lot of benefits to that. Yeah, but give it give us some more. So tell our audience.  

Jeff: Let’s look at it. Yeah, well, so were we just close to 20 unit building here in Chattanooga where I live, in January. So we’ve had it for about two months now and we paid one point. I think it was like one point one six four know we have a little bit of a discount. It was originally one two, but we got a discount. So, I mean, it was pretty cheap on a per door basis. I mean, it was tired than average rents over there. These are two bedroom, one and a half bath, you know, doing laundry hookups, central heating and cooling, the whole thing. And they were they were the average rent was like five hundred dollars. It should have been nine hundred two thousand dollars rents. So we’re able to pick that up. I mean, it’s tired. It needs full renovation. But full renovation means cosmetic stuff. Right. Structurally, everything’s good. So, you know, eight, ten thousand dollars unit, you know, put another two hundred thousand into the property and maybe a little exterior stuff, and you’ve got a two-million-dollar property. So that’s kind of the strategy on that one. And we actually we took a few partners in on that, so we only kept half of it for ourselves. But I mean, it’s a deal where we expect to be able to refinance. I mean, we got an interest only loan, actually. We took a local bank loan interest only for eighteen months. And we expect to refinance before the eighteen months and pull out all the capital.  

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Josh: Have you thought about, like, the move to Puerto Rico? This has got to be like the wheels turning in your mind, move to Puerto Rico. You’re there for one hundred eighty three days out of out of 365, but you own your assets, your properties back here in the States, Chattanooga, etc.. Tell me about what’s going through your mind as far as managing that stuff, virtually property management. How are you going to handle the portfolio while you’re gone?  

Jeff: Yeah, so I’m very fortunate. I have really good partners that aren’t moving to Puerto Rico, so there’s a lot.  

Josh: Right. So you’ve got the you’ve got the long straw, the short straw that you’ve got the lead. And they got to stay, OK. 

Jeff: Well, so I actually invest in Michigan as well. And I’m from Michigan originally and I have a partner up there and he owns a property management company, and he manages our stuff. So it’s pretty hands off on that. And we have about a hundred units up there and about one hundred down here. So I’m pretty balanced between the two. And then my partner here from my Old Fashioned Real Estate Show, the one that you referenced at the beginning there, Brian, he he has a property management company as well. So his company manages our stuff here. So I actually don’t involve myself that much in the day to day. My role is more on underwriting, coordinating stuff and deal sourcing. So as long as I’m still networking a fair amount, I think it’ll be reasonably OK. And I’m anticipating being in Puerto Rico. I’m going to meet different people. I’m going to be exposed to different opportunities. So I think it’ll be I think it’ll be reasonably easy to make that transition.  

Josh: Yeah, I think the lesson there is right, like with multifamily and with real estate, you know, the team is what it’s all about. You don’t have to be involved every day to still create an amazing lifestyle and financial freedom. And for those of our listeners who think, like, I’ve got to be involved every day, I have to do everything, I just have a coaching call with a coaching studio mine. And for an hour we’re talking about how she’s doing everything in her business. And I just want to you know, she’s going to hear that, her name is Jill. I just want to punch myself in the head to think, like Jill, you’ve got to find executive coordinator. You’ve got to find a property manager. You’ve got to find an operations manager. You’re not going to make less money. You’re going to make more because there’s so much business that’s flowing through here and it’s just falling on the floor.  

Jeff: Oh, yeah. And, you know, I did the same thing. I had a similar but related. I quit working in 2017. I had a full-time job before that, which actually is good because it forced me to not do everything in real estate. Right. So the first six or seven years I was investing in real estate, I didn’t, I didn’t have the time to do everything. But when I quit working, it freed up my time to find so many more deals. We’ve just been pouring gasoline on a fire. Right? I mean, it’s unbelievable. And I know people that are in Jill’s situation that have hired that person to take over some of their roles. And almost immediately they doubled or tripled their income.  

Josh: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. But you let somebody else handle the day-to-day kind of coordinate and do the back-office type of stuff. So you could just do the revenue producing activities of finding deals, finding money like that’s where it’s at and that’s where the money is made. So, Jeff, what is your view on residential rentals? You flip properties, you own commercial value ads, been your kind of flavor. The last what’s the favorite deal that you’ve ever done? Does one stand out?  

Jeff: Well, you know, I like to say it’s the first deal I ever did because that’s what feels the best. Right? Because if you didn’t do that when you didn’t do anything right. But we did this we did this forty-one unit building up in Michigan, a few we had, just about two years now. We bought it in May. So it’s just almost two years because it’s April right now. I don’t know when this will come out, but so we have just about two years and last year in the summer. So six months ago we refinanced it. We bought this thing for one point eight million dollars, and they gave us a cap on the loan, two million. And if I keep it appraised at like almost thirty-two point nine, five million and, you know, we didn’t put any extra money in, this was just from the cash flows to renovate it. And we were able to get a couple hundred thousand more than we put into it back out in eighteen months. I mean, that’s it’s unbelievable, really. I mean, on that day, what I like the most about it is we took another partner in that, put up the money and he loaned it to our company. So I actually had zero dollars in and I owned a quarter of that thing. It’s got a million dollars in equity and I got money back at the refinance. Yeah. So I got money in cash flow. It’s still cash flows at a one point eight, that coverage ratio. So it’s just a cash machine. I own a quarter of it and I didn’t put any money in, so I got to love that one the most.  

Josh: That is a fantastic deal. Thanks for telling us about that. So, Jeff, how did you how did your having all the success now? Value-Add You got two hundred dollars things going on go into to San Juan, Puerto Rico. A lot of things that a lot of people would look and say, wow, this guy’s really kind of living his life and his move is going to be in the Caribbean. But you had gotten started from somewhere. You graduate from college, became an attorney, you thought. That was the way to create a great job and make a lot of money and create financial freedom, but it didn’t really work out that way, and you ultimately fell in love with real estate. So tell us about kind of because you have that very traditional story like I did, like go to college, get a job, start as a lawyer. I was a financial planner. It worked out great, but it was very unfulfilling because it was just about how much money I could make. And I was working a bazillion hours. Then you made the pivot to real estate. So help me understand your back story and your pivot.  

Jeff: OK, so there’s a lot to unpack there, but I’ll do my best to make a short version of it. All right. So I went to law school, graduated, did really well in law school, is even the graduating class speaker, all that stuff. So I started this little law firm already passed. Yeah. I mean, I know I wasn’t the smartest, but there was a little bit of a voting element there. And I graduated early, so there wasn’t as much competition. But but anyway, so I got done with that. I had a I got an MBA also. And so I did a business degree on top of that. And I started I took over a small firm. My dad had been a bankruptcy attorney, so I took over his bankruptcy firm and I was doing bankruptcies. This is 2007. Right. So we I’ve got a television commercial. I hired another lawyer, and we were I mean, we were killing it. I mean, 2008. We followed four hundred and fifty bankruptcies in twenty-eight. Right. Actually, by August of 2008 we were at over four hundred bankruptcies, and I had this sort of short list of things like when I decided to become a lawyer, it was because I had gone on this sort of I didn’t know what I wanted to do. And I went to Europe, and I went on this quest to sort of figure out what I wanted to do. I remember one day I was sitting on the steps of this church, looking down at the Coliseum. And I just want, you know, I like old stuff. I’m just going to go make some money and travel. That was like the whole goal. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. My dad was a lawyer, so I went, I’m going go to law school. I’m going to take over his firm. I’m gonna make money and I’m going to travel. I made a little list of places I wanted to go, and I was thirty years old in 2008. And the last thing on that list was Machu Picchu in Peru. So in August I went down to Machu Picchu, same kind of thing. I’m sitting on the top of the mountain, looking down at the city and I’m going I still don’t really know what I want to do with my life, you know? Right. But everything was good. I mean, I had a house in the suburbs and my wife and I were happy and we had our dogs and all this stuff was going great. And I came off I literally walked off of the mountain and checked my my voice mail on a payphone. And it was the attorney that worked for me, left me a voicemail saying he was putting in his two-week notice. And I was like, whoa, I don’t have to figure that out now because we’re super busy right. Now I’m going from two attorneys to one. And I came home and I had pneumonia and I went to the E.R. and I got diagnosed with leukemia that night, like two weeks from like top of the world. Like everything’s perfect to now. I have zero attorneys working for me. I can’t work. He can’t he quit. And I didn’t have any money coming in at like seven thousand a week, going out the door to cover the expenses at the office. And yeah, I just the whole thing just crumbled super, super fast. And it’s because I didn’t have any investments, you know, I was I was making great money, but it was all it was all from my, my labor. And it itactually drove me into personal bankruptcy. So I was a bankruptcy attorney who went bankrupt. Yeah. And I was just like I remember sitting in front of the bankruptcy trustee thinking to myself, and I’ve been here a thousand times and now I’m doing it myself. I got to do something different. And so I took a job. I made like less than a thousand dollars a week. I don’t remember. It was like a reasonable job, but it was an amazing move to Chattanooga. Just said, I’m not practicing law anymore. I’m going to figure out a different strategy and I need to figure out how to make money because I thought I might die. I still was sick and I wanted to make sure my wife had money when I was gone. Right. So I just said, well, the only thing I know that makes money, no matter what, is real estate. So I’m just going to start buying real estate. I had no money, no credit. And it was 2010. And we just I saved up like twenty thousand dollars and bought a condo with a friend of mine in Detroit. Fifty fifty for cash. She knows a hundred-thousand-dollar foreclosure that we bought for thirty from the bank. Just one of those deals because stuff was crazy then and then we just kept reinvesting all the money and as I got bonuses I put it into the real estate and and then we started doing some private money stuff because we had to didn’t have a choice, no credit, no money. And we borrowed one, one private investor loaned us about a million dollars interest only over the next two years. And that really gave me the ability to toto get a bunch. And so in ’17, when I switched to multifamily and I quit my job, I had about sixty units of residential, but it was all paid off. Single family stuff.  

Josh: Nice, nice, nice. So go from I think I’ve got to figure it out. Machu Picchu to very sick and very broke. Yeah. Real estate is a path to long term wealth and it’s funny some people just have this epiphany where they’re just going to move into. Take the long game, other people have a life event like you did that takes them into the long game, but out of all the interviews I’ve done, all the people I’ve met, the people I’ve coached and taught, consulted with, people that I’ve coached me, it seems like there’s this overarching theme that when we’re in the business to make money, it’s very transactional, it’s very hamster wheel stuff. And eventually that comes to a screeching halt somehow, someway. That’s the overarching theme I hear again and again. And then when people take the long-term approach, like family offices that I talk to, they’re like we invest for three generations from now. So you got to think that long term approach. When I started thinking along those same lines, it’s like I’ve got so much more free time. I’ve got so much more happiness. I don’t care if I make a little bit less money in the front end because I’m stacking up all these incomes and it’s so freeing. Like, how free did you feel in 2017 when you’re like now I’ve kind of got it figured out, but I’ve got to kind of permanently figure it out on transactional to figure it out.  

Jeff: Yeah I know it was, it’s amazing. Right. So in ’17 when I, the company I was working for was selling to a bigger company and they offered me a job at this big corporation and I was like, I never would have paid really well, but I didn’t want to work for a big corporation that didn’t even really want to work for a small one. Right. But so I just went, I’m going to just take and they gave me six months’ severance and I thought, I’ll just take the six months off. I don’t think I had enough income from real estate then that I could have never went back to work because, you know, I still have leukemia and I have this very expensive drug that I have to take. So I need to have good insurance. So I had to figure that out. And I just kind of went, you know, I’m just going to figure it out. I’m going to figure it out. And then after about a week, I got bored of sitting by the pool and I started going, well, you know what? It’s really cool not to have to work. So I should help other people not to have to work. And that’s why we got into doing like the real estate show and stuff was just I wanted to help people and give back. And it turns out as soon as I started giving back, opportunities just appeared out of nowhere. Like if you if you go into that, like I’m going to help people mold your life gets better really fast.  

Josh: Are you ready to automate and explode your real estate investing? We’re searching for extremely motivated individuals who are sick and tired of wasting time and want to finally see real results from their real estate investing business. We’re searching for investors, looking to get to the next level and become a bigger, better version of themselves while being a more successful real estate investing entrepreneur. Apply for mentoring and coaching at JoshCantwellcoaching.com/Podcast. That’s JoshCantwellcoaching.com/podcast.  

Josh: I was just going to ask you, Jeff, like now that you’ve gone through this process, this journey being at the top, being at the bottom, coming back, what kind of advice would you give your younger self, like the former self that was in the middle of all this? You’d punch yourself in the face and say, do it this way or do this differently, or our audience that’s listening, like they’re going to be thinking like, well, what can I do different? What would you say to yourself or what would you say to our audience is something that you’ve learned along the way that’s been that’s been impactful? 

Jeff: So there’s actually two things that I think are really important. The first thing is, I think the secret to life and I didn’t realize this right away, it’s something to do with what you’re saying about building multigenerational wealth, but it’s really about figuring out how to buy back your time as soon as possible so that you don’t have to do something right. Like for me, I actually kind of liked practicing law, was not that I didn’t love it, but sometimes I’m tempted to go back and practice law now and I don’t have to, right? Yeah, but the point is, I know that I can do it if I want, but I don’t have to. And so, look, if you can figure out how to buyback your time, that really matters. And then from a real estate perspective, that means you know don’t wait like a lot of people are going, oh, the market’s really hot right now. I can’t find deals. And I get that it’s tougher now than it was in 2010. But if I had started buying real estate in 2005, four, three, two, one of those years when I was reading Rich Dad, Poor Dad and like thinking about real estate and watching Carlton Sheets on television. Right. I mean, when if I had started then when I got sick, I would have been bankrupt and I would be in a completely different spot. Now, I’d be much wealthier for one, but also I wouldn’t have had to go through that pain. Right. And I don’t regret it because, like, I learned a lot through that process. But if I could do it over again, I’d skip that. I mean, just like I think everyone would skip getting leukemia if they could. Right. But I don’t regret that I have it. It’s not one of those things where, like, it’s caused me to become a different person. And what I’ve learned from it is it’s amazing. And, you know, and it doesn’t even for people that aren’t interested in real estate, the buying back to their time and doing the things that they want. And I think the most important thing is you can’t bank on your health; you can’t bank on the future. So you have some hopes, dreams, desires, goals, just some kind of aspiration of any kind. You just got to go do it now. Just go, make today the day you do it, not some day.  

Josh: Fantastic advice, Jeff, as a as a pancreatic cancer survivor myself,  

Jeff: Whew. That’s a good one that.  

Josh: Yeah, I was diagnosed in 2011, had a massive surgery in 2011. Doctor basically saved my life on the operating table. And it made me think entirely different about how I look at life, how I look at relationships, investing for the long term, but doing everything that I really love right, right freaking now, right. Yeah, that waiting till tomorrow, not wait until next year. It’s like there’s find there’s other ways to do everything you ever want to do, whether it’s travel, whether it’s family, creating new relationships, repairing old relationships that are broken, like do it now because nobody ever ever goes to sleep and then wakes up the next day and says, yeah, probably going get diagnosed with cancer tomorrow.  

Jeff: Yeah. And having gone through that a couple of times now, I’ll tell you, it’s never fun. But it also isn’t necessarily the end of your life. But it is a good focusing event, right? I mean, and that’s what I have. This thing I called the last life ever philosophy. And actually, I have a show called that to last life ever. But the idea is that you only live this one time, and you really owe it to yourself, your family, your community and even the world to live the best possible version of that life. Because it’s bigger than just like I want to travel more. I want to, like, be famous. It’s like if you live the best version of your life, that’s whatever that means to you. That’s what charities do you want to support? Do you want to start a charity? What causes are important to you? How do you want to leave a legacy? Do you want to create wealth that can protect your kids? Because I mean, listen, if if you didn’t have to the secret to life buyback of your time, that’s what I said. Right. Well, what is your parents made it so you had the time to reach the self-actualization right out of the gate. How much easier is you’re life now? I don’t I don’t mean, like, make it so easy for kids that they become lazy because that’s not the point. Right. But if you have to struggle to pay your bills, to buy food, to pay for your house, you can’t do bigger and better things. And that’s why buying back your time is so important. You can start doing those things that really matter to you. And so if you can get into that that mode and start doing those great things, the big things, you’re going to make the whole world better. Yeah, and that’s the secret.  

Josh: Fantastic stuff, Jeff. So let’s jump into the last part of the show. Right. The Fast Five. Appreciate all that advice. That was fantastic. So the fast five give me a fast. This answer, you can fifteen to thirty seconds or less, question number one, what’s your favorite way to find great real estate deals?  

Jeff: It’s just networking, all networking,  

Josh: Got it, favorite way to find capital or joint venture partners to close and fund your deals.  

Jeff: Same answer. 

Josh: Networking. Love it. What’s your favorite book that you’ve ever read? That you’ve gotten a lot out of her favorite piece of advice that somebody has ever given you?  

Jeff: That’s a tough one. My favorite book, excluding the Bible, probably Michael Crichton’s Travels, the science fiction author’s autobiography.  

Josh: Oh, wow. I love it. I’ve never heard of that one before.  

Jeff: That’s great. You should read it. I read it like five times.  

Josh: Jeff, what’s your favorite place to go to decompress, distress and relax? 

Jeff: Under the ocean. Scuba diving. Yeah. I love it. Yeah.  

Josh: Where was your favorite place you ever scuba dove?  

Jeff: What’s the Great Barrier Reef? It’s really great. I mean, it’s hard to argue with that. But actually, I would say I went to cenote diving, which is like underwater freshwater underground freshwater caves in the Yucatan. That was pretty awesome.  

Josh: Yeah. Sounds like you’re living a great life, man. I love this interview. I love hearing your story and your energy. Last question is, who do you think has been the had the biggest impact on your life? Maybe it was a mentor, a coach who said the biggest impact on your life personally and why.  

Jeff: So, you know, that’s a tough question. I was thinking about that before the show, probably my dad, because I’ve made a lot of decisions based on the way that he thinks and we’ve traveled together and some stuff. But I think that honestly, like, it changes from day to day. Right? Like there’s always something to be learned from somebody. And you can read it right now I’m reading about Ben Franklin and I’m like, wow, Ben Franklin seems amazing. When I started watching the Hemingway documentary and I’m like, whoa, Hemingway did all this cool stuff. So I don’t know. I just I’m inspired constantly by people that do great things. And so it’s really hard to narrow it down.  

Josh: Yeah, fantastic answer. I love it, Jeff. Listen, I’ve had a fantastic time on the interview. I’m sure that some of our audience is going to want to reach out to you, listen to your show, get more information or possibly joint venture with you on a deal. Where can they reach out to you? Where can they get more information?  

Jeff: Yeah. So the thing that I’m most passionate about is the Last Life Ever philosophy. And so the best place to find me is actually in our private Facebook group for the Last Life Ever. And it’s free to join just Last Life Ever. Private Facebook group. Its just Last Life Ever, private group when you search it on Facebook and it’s we just hang out in there and try to encourage people to do the best things that they can with their lives. And since I’m in there a lot, it’s easy to get my attention there.  

Josh: Awesome stuff. Jeff, listen, thank you so much for carving out some time on Accelerated Investor today.  

Jeff: I appreciate you having me, Josh. Thanks for everything.  

Josh: So, hey, have you really enjoyed that interview with Josh? I had an absolute blast. I really enjoyed his energy, his enthusiasm. And I think, you know, when your life has been pressed and you’ve been kind of dragged through the mud, like Jeff and I both have with different cancer diagnosis, I think you realize that life can be short. You can get an amazing and crazy diagnosis that can completely change the trajectory of your life. So live your absolute best life right now. What’s the best version of you that you can be? Go live that life right now. Don’t wait. Go now. And of course, investing in long term multifamily real estate is a great way to create passive income. And finally, looking to move into Puerto Rico, we certainly are as well. It’s going to be fantastic. So listen, I hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did share it all over social media, leave us a rating and a review. Make sure you subscribe so you never miss another episode of Accelerated Real Estate investor on either iTunes or YouTube. And let us know who you’d like us to have on the show next time. Thank you so much for being here. I’m so grateful that you pay attention. I’m so grateful that you engage with me every week on the show. Don’t forget to join our Facebook group Accelerated Real Estate Investor on Facebook. And we’ll see you next time. Take care. 

Hey, Josh here. And do you want to win a free accelerated investor T-shirt? All you have to do is give Accelerated Investor our podcast, Accelerate Investor a rating and a review on iTunes. OK, do that now, then send us a screenshot on Facebook or Instagram or Twitter. What we’re going to do then is every week we’re going to pick our favorite rating and review and we’re going to send that person a free T-shirt and maybe again, some other cool fun stuff as well from Accelerated Investor. So again, don’t forget to take a screenshot, leave a rating review, take a screenshot, send it to us so we know exactly who you are. And then once a week, every week on the podcast, we will announce a new winner. Don’t forget to take a screenshot and send it to us so we know exactly who you are. We’ll announce a new winner every week. 

You were just listening to the Accelerated Real Estate Investor podcast with Josh Cantwell. If you enjoyed this episode and learned something new, help us build the A.I. community by leaving a review and five-star rating on our iTunes podcast channel. Also, don’t forget to subscribe so you never miss another episode. To see passive investing opportunities, visit FreelandVentures.com/passive. To start your journey toward the lifestyle you’ve always dreamed of with multifamily apartments, apply for one-on-one coaching with Josh at www.JoshCantwellCoaching.com.

Sometimes life can change in an instant, whether we are prepared or not. Today I talk with Jeff Holst, a bankruptcy lawyer turned full-time real estate investor, and he has a truly incredible story to share with us. He has led a successful and adventurous life. We had a great discussion about his life in his twenties, what caused him to pivot to a completely different trajectory at thirty, and where he’s at now.

By age thirty, Jeff had checked the last thing off his bucket list. He climbed Machu Pichu and felt like he was on top of the world. He had a successful career as a bankruptcy attorney, was traveling all over the world, and had a beautiful, fulfilling life. Just two weeks later, he had lost the other lawyer in his practice and was diagnosed with leukemia. Jeff had to pivot.

Being a cancer survivor myself, I understand the situation he was in. He wasn’t able to work as a lawyer and earn money because he was sick. He looked into real estate as a more hands-off way to earn an income and keep his family afloat after applying for bankruptcy. He bought one property with a partner and kept growing his portfolio. He was able to replace the money he made as an attorney and then some. Most importantly, he bought back time to do more of what he loves. He and I both understand how precious and short life can be. We have to pursue the things we love and investing in real estate has provided that opportunity to both of us.

Our worlds can be upset in an instant. We need to expect the unexpected, be prepared financially for the unknowns, and really be living our lives to the fullest.

What’s Inside:

  • The importance of hiring someone to do the day-to-day handling of your investments.
  • What advice would Jeff give his younger self?
  • Why Jeff is moving to Puerto Rico (and maybe you should too!)

Mentioned in this episode​

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