Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jon Steenbergen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Jon , thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

I had barely 6 months left in the Army, I was driving 2 hours in traffic each morning and 2 hours home every day, things were getting stressful to say the least. I remember sitting in traffic looking around me at everyone else in their car and wondering if I was going to live like this when I got out of the Army and for the rest of my life like everyone else. Something in me flipped. I made the decision that I would not allow myself to live like everyone else. Needing to find a way to secure employment or some way to make money to keep the lights on for my wife and I, I decided to listen to what other successful people did to make their money. Listening to many podcasts on my 2 hour commute, I was able to find the best solution to that problem which was real estate. I then started reading as many books and listening to as many podcasts as I could on the subject to learn as fast as possible. Knowing I still had no idea what I was doing, I decided to get some coaching. There was the next issue. The coaching was very costly. It was about 3/4 of my total savings I had for my wife and I. We did some soul searching and thought if we use our money for education then we mitigate the risk involved in the leap into the real estate business, which is the biggest risk of all. Factoring that into our equation we found it was best for us to make that calculated risk. We then bought our first flip, we ran into every problem in the book, but we finally sold the home and made 10k profit. Not much of a paycheck for 8 months worth of work, but everything we learned helped us make more on the next flip, and the next. We worked day in and day out. We read as much as we could during the day, talked to as many people as we could, sacrificing weeknights, weekends, time with friends and family. Everyone said we were crazy and it was too risky. Here I am 4 years later and my wife and I live more than comfortably in a 4000 sqft house in Dallas, TX. I was able to completely quit my job, my wife had quit 3 years ago and now we liver life on our terms every single day. We have a new baby and get to spend everyday with her which is worth more than anything in the world. I learned that education lowers risk. This is why doctors go to school for so long. The more you learn, the more you know how to play the game and find yourself making better choices and decisions.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

When I was getting out of the Army after being in for 10 years I had no idea what I wanted to do. I knew what I didn’t want to do which was what everyone else was doing. I saw where that road leads too. My parents played it safe and did the right things, saved, worked hard for many years and were barely able to retire. I knew I was not close to being in that situation. I sought out education from people who made it already, people like Grant Cardona, Tony Robbins, Tai Lopez, Dean Graziosi and Dr. Matt Motil. They all had a lot of things in common. They all had real estate. That was it! I then listened and read everything I could on real estate investing. I joined groups, went to meetups, called people, met random people drove around the state looking at open houses and learning. The first year I started I made every mistake in the book, but I said to myself “even if I lost it all, would I quit or stop trying to make it in this industry?” The answer was without question, “not at all”. I knew this was the way to make a good life for me and my family.

I knew that when I worked with private investors I would have to prove myself to them and provide them with the best returns I possibly could, even if that meant I didn’t make anything. That was the best way to ensure people would want to work with me and fund future projects. This thing was much bigger than just a big home run, this was about ensuring base hits every time. Once I closed my first deal my investor was so happy with her return she wanted to do more, and told her friend who wanted to invest too! This is exactly what envisioned.

After a few different forms of real estate investment strategies were tried, we found a mix of all types like fix-n-flip, long-term rental, and short-term rentals was the best way for us to diversify our portfolio. Having a larger pool of investors with cash coming in and going out now that we have set our foundation in the industry has allowed us to keep giving higher than normal return on investment which is something we pride ourselves on as we found if we could make a deal work and give investors more, we will provide as much gratitude as we can. We find that the more you give the more you get. The biggest part of that equation is the GIVING portion. You have to give without question before anything else. You must be willing to give and not receive anything back in return, but you will find when you give without expecting something to come back, it comes back 10X.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Giving without expectation of something in return is the single best way to grow clientele. This goes for working with private investors, real estate agents, buyers, sellers, friends, family, and basically everyone. When you are able to get over the ego of expecting something in return for a nice gesture or extra tip or additional percentage point for investors it comes back to you 10X. That is the single largest hurdle people have in the real estate industry. There is always the mindset of trying to make sure you make what you need to first, THEN the investor. When you flip the equation around and provide investors with what you can first, there will always be more than enough for them and you and more once you tackle this mental instinct.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

Starting a business is always scary, especially when you think about not being able to pay your bills. This was definitely a thought and a conversation my wife and I had in the beginning. On some of the first deals we had, we didn’t make anything, just enough to cover the cost of basically doing the deal and paying our bills without any left over. At one point I had pulled out personal loans to cover some of our bills and used credit cards to make ends meet. We knew that if we made sure our investors were made whole and paid on time, we would be fine in the long run. Remembering that was important so as to keep my eyes on the future and not just the current circumstances. We had to be conservative with our money so we always made food at home and would forego going out. We didn’t go out on the weekend with our friends, and realized it was all going to pay off down the road. These lessons were important to learn then and still carry true today. We are a lot more vigilant with our money and where it all goes even if we have enough to go out or take trips without worry today.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.posh-solutions.com
• Instagram: @poshpropertysolutions
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/POSHPROPERTYSOLUTIONS
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jon-steenbergen