March 17, 2025 • 52 mins
Join Nick Lamagna on The A Game Podcast with our guest James Lascara a full time real estate investor and former Navy Seal turned entrepreneur taking over the Florida market! After serving well over a decade and 4 deployments he is now freshly retired and focused on his special op tactics to dominate the Tampa real estate market. His journey started focusing on implementing strategies and discipline for personal financial freedom and understanding money as early as high school. In 2020 he stepped it up when rates dropped and timed the market perfectly to pick up a number of rental properties and made a huge impact on his life with real estate in a very short time.
He has completed over 28 million in sales volume, raised and earned millions ranging from single family townhomes, multi family syndications, hotels and ground up land developments. He is the founder and CEO of many successful real estate verticals including Lascara Real Estate Group, Lascara Capital, Poseidon 26 Developments, Trident Real Estate Group and the Elite Investors Mindset Group which is one of the biggest Meetups in Tampa boasting over 350 active members attending regularly. Catch this great interview and learn from someone who is going to be a household name as a real estate rockstar soon!
Topics for this episode include:
✅ Top ways to save money on taxes in real estate investing
✅ What is a 1031 Exchange and how do we do them?
✅ Navy Seal secrets to handling stress and fear
✅ Making money in land development and multifamily
✅ How to change the use of real estate for massive profits + More
See the show notes to connect with all things James!
Connect with James:
Connect with The Elite Investor Mindset Group:
Elite Investor Mindset Group info
---
Connect with Nick Lamagna
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:13):
Welcome to the a game podcast withNick LaMagna digging into the minds and
experiences of some of today's brightestentrepreneurs in real estate and business,
along with Hollywood stars, UFC fighters.
And your favorite rock bands, peoplethat have figured out how to overcome
obstacles, take chances, live boldly.
And no matter what they do,they always bring their A game.
(00:48):
All right.
My guest today on the A gamepodcast is James LaScara.
He is a bad ass real estateinvestor who is also a Navy SEAL.
Who is just full of humbleness, gratitude,and a ton of knowledge and experience that
he portrays and gives an articulage to youas an audience on this fantastic podcast.
And on the a game podcast, realestate investing for entrepreneurs.
(01:11):
What we do is we help show youthat average people can achieve
extraordinary things every single day.
And we have bought on over 300.
50 guests that come from backgroundsof fighting business, entrepreneurship,
and real estate investing is some ofthe biggest people in the country.
Some of the most successful minds,athletes, and business people out there.
To show you exactly what they didto not take the mistakes in the
(01:34):
roads, less travel that hurt them.
So you don't have to take them and toshow you that the things they did, right.
So you can save time andmake money safer and faster.
Just these 350 episodes.
Plus, if you go back into the archives.
You could probably find thepath and the plan to repeat.
So you can have the same success.
But if that was not enough, we boughtanother amazing guest on today.
(01:55):
And James LaScarra is a guywho's been taking over Tampa.
He's got some many different verticals.
We're going to talk about during thispodcast, doing some infill stuff,
some land stuff, some multifamilystuff, some syndication stuff.
He's working with Opportunity Zones.
He's a master of personal finance.
Discipline and saving for the future.
He's got all kinds of leadership stuff.
He brings to the table fromhis background in military.
He runs a very successfulreal estate investing group.
(02:17):
He's pumping up for a fantastic 2025as he goes full time into real estate
and starts to exit out of the Navy.
And on top of that, he's got so muchinsight for townhome development,
single family stuff, working withthe cities, planning and zoning
and all kinds of different thingswe talk about during this episode.
So I like it because we brushacross a lot of different topics.
(02:38):
That's all very important for the mindset,the tactical stuff, the emotional stuff,
controlling fear, making decisions, andthen some tactical stuff into finding
deals, working with the city, gettingit rezoned, how to put money away.
And we specialize.
And some really good stuff he talksabout in the top three ways to save
money on taxes, keep it in your pocketand have good legal ways to mitigate
(03:01):
your tax burdens to keep that moneyin your pocket and keep it growing
instead of just letting it go back toUncle Sam the way that most people do.
So a lot of great nuggets in this episodeand the way we continue to get fantastic
guests like James LaScarra on this.
It's for you guys to justsubscribe and interact.
If you have not, this podcast, realestate investing for entrepreneurs, the
a game podcast is available everywhereyou watch and listen to your podcast.
(03:24):
Please take one minute,one second and subscribe.
It really goes a long way.
And please interact on social media.
I'm going to be posting a lot of clipsof this podcast with me and James
talking the way that James knows thatyou got value from what he's saying.
said, and he can tell other peopleto come on and give great value
is for you to just interact.
So when I post these things, if youare not following us and interacting on
social media, please take a minute anddo so so we can keep this party going.
(03:46):
A website you can go to get all theconnections for our social media is nick.
com slash links, L I N K S nicknick.
com slash links.
Give it a give it a share.
Ask James questions when I post theseor just interact with him on any level
and show him some love and support.
Also, the biggest thing here is I want todo real estate together as we are in 2025.
(04:07):
Let's do some deals together.
If you would like to buy properties fromme, if you would like to sell properties
to me, or if you would like to justhave a conversation about how we can
work together on some real estate deals.
Either send me a direct message throughmy social media that says real estate
to my assistant knows to pull itout and make sure it's about a deal
or text me directly the words realestate to 516 540 5733, 516 540 5733.
(04:34):
And again, if you would like a freechecklist and all the ways to bring
value to your buyers as a realestate agent, broker, wholesaler.
Go to nick.
com slash bigger pockets.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you, James, for being a great man,a great serviceman and a great investor.
And of course, a greatpodcast guest today.
Thank you, Adam Whitneyfor the connection.
That guy's an absolute stud as well.
And one of my favoritepeople, a game podcast.
(04:55):
Have a fantastic day.
All right.
My guest today is an entrepreneur,investor, educator, and woodworker
who grew up with his middle childin Charlotte, North Carolina.
Now fighting out of Tampa, Florida.
He is an active Navy member andNavy SEAL serving well over a decade
with four deployments and is nowcoming up soon on his retirement.
(05:17):
He became focused on learning andimplementing strategies for personal
financial freedom and understandingmoney when he was in high school and
in 2020 he stepped it up and raiseddropped and bought a bunch of rentals.
And has since made a huge impact in realestate in a very short amount of time.
He's completed over 28 million insales values, and he's raised over
millions of dollars in his short career,ranging from single family, townhomes,
multifamily syndications, hotels,and ground up developments in his own
(05:39):
backyard, as well as remote markets.
He's the founder and CEO of manysuccessful real estate verticals,
including La Scara real estate,beside in 25 developments, Trident
real estate group, La Scara capital,and elite investors, real estate
mindset group, which is one of the.
Biggest meetups in Tampa, boastingover 350 members actively that show
up in person quarterly to share valueand collaborate with each other.
(06:00):
He's a friend of one of my favoritepeople, Adam Whitney, and a man
I hear nothing but great thingsabout from everyone he comes in
contact with is in an honor towelcome him to the a game podcast.
The man who always leads with value.
Thank you so much for beinghere today, Mr. James Lescara.
Nick, thanks for having me on.
I'm excited to be here.
That was a great intro, man.
I I feel like I got to earn it every day.
So, I can't sit on thoselaurels for too long.
(06:23):
Man, I tell you you're the exact type ofguy that I love hanging out here because
I feel like you have all these amazingthings that you're doing that you've had,
you've done and you come off so humble.
And it's almost like I had to dragsome of these things out of you prior,
where I feel like a lot of peoplecome in with this is how great I am.
You're.
You're one of those guys who I feel likewould make a fantastic fighter because
you're always working to get a black beltwith a mindset of a white belt that you
(06:46):
seem like you're always a student of thegame and I assume your background has
made you humble that you're used to that.
There's days You're the hammer andsome days you're the nail and you feel
like you bring that nice Confidencewith not overly confident or cockiness
and I really appreciate it man.
You feel like you got the perfect blend.
Thanks, Nick.
I truly do feel like I have somethingto learn from everyone, and that
may not always be business, thatmay not always be real estate.
(07:09):
But in life, I think I canlearn something from everyone.
And I think with that in mind, I alsohave to earn it every single day.
That's one of our, one of ourbig things in special operations.
And so I certainly apply thatapproach to entrepreneurship.
I also say there are levels to thisgame from what I've experienced
and I'm not sure what level I'm at.
I guess it's relative to whereother people think they're at, but.
As you go up in levels, you're inevitablyalways going to face challenges.
(07:32):
And if you're too prideful to realizethat and acknowledge that and really
lean into overcoming those challengesand expanding your growth, you're
gonna have a really tough time.
So make it easier onyourself and just be humble.
Man, I love that.
And this wasn't even like 100 percenton my docket, but you opened it up.
And I think it's probably one of the mostimportant things here, where as people
(07:53):
get into real estate, as they get intobusiness and listen to this podcast, and
they feel like they just want the ABCsand the checklist of how to do stuff.
And then I always tell them it's thetime management, it's the mindset stuff.
It's all these things about how doyou react when things get tough?
It's the other stuff that you can'tread in a book that really keeps
people from being successful or not.
(08:13):
So I'm a big, I'm a big believer in, Ifeel like the two biggest characteristics
you can have to be successful in businessis being able to make decisions, jump
on opportunities and control fear.
So, Somebody that came from such anextensive military background, I don't
know if that was something you had in youbefore or something you learned during
there, but what are some principlesthat you use to make good decisions,
(08:37):
make fast decisions, and then to talkyourself out of, I'd say, assessing
risk, controlling the fear, because it'salways scary, and handling those punches
when you get hit and staying calm, Ithink is a huge Basic principle that
everybody needs in business and in life.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we have something that they actuallyteach and it's like in the beginning
(09:00):
stages of the special operationstraining, it's called the big four.
And it's something I still usein my entrepreneur career now,
and I'll go over the big four.
Now I'll go over the big fourwith you on the podcast, but
it's also something I share in mymastermind group a lot because.
Like every challenge people tend tothink Oh, this is a unique thing.
And Oh, nobody else hasdealt with this before.
(09:20):
And it's dude, everybodygoes through this.
In fact, that is the path.
There's not a path to successthat's absent of those challenges.
And in fact, if there was, whichthere's not, but if there was, you
probably wouldn't appreciate it as much.
So I'll talk about thebig four really quick.
So first is goal setting.
You can go through like thesmart goal sheet, right?
Like specific, measurable,attainable realistic and timeframe.
(09:41):
But you, as an entrepreneur, as somebodywho wants to grow in life, as a business
owner, you should be setting goals.
That's one.
Second is arousal controls.
That's simple breath work.
If you like, you could get on Googleor YouTube and look at box breath.
So it's breathing in for fourseconds, holding your breath
for four seconds, breathing out.
This is all nasal, by the way, do itall through your nose, breathing out for
(10:02):
four seconds and then holding for fourseconds and do that several cycles over.
It's physiologically provento reduce your stress.
So that's the second thing.
The third thing is positive self talk.
I am capable.
I can handle challenges.
I can see this through.
I am successful.
So positive self talk is huge.
And then visualization, visualizeyourself getting to where
(10:24):
you want to go in business.
So I know it sounds like all thesecan be read in a book, but you'd be
surprised how few people actuallyimplement those big four steps.
It makes a difference.
Judith.
So I think this is awesome because.
Every now and then I'll teach a classor I'll come across an investor.
You'd be at a dinner, a networking thing.
And there's some guys that come in andthey have big egos and they really,
(10:46):
they haven't, maybe they've done a lotin their field, but they're new, and
so, but they come in with this bravadoand when you talk to them about stuff
like, Hey, you have to visualize, youhave to have positive self talk, they
roll their eyes and they act it's almostlike an insult or they're above that, or
they're too cool or too tough from that.
And then you hear a freakingNavy special ops guy come here
(11:07):
and say, this is what I do.
So where does that fit in?
Because I haven't met obviously a lotof Navy SEALs, I've met, five, 10,
15, really good guys that were likespecial ops, like really bad dudes
that are smart guys and have done alot and they all come back and they're.
They don't have these huge egos,like it almost reminds me of like
(11:28):
my friends that are in the UFC.
Sometimes if I invite like my otherfriends out, I'm like, Hey, come to
this barbecue or come to this party.
You're like, God, Iwant to get in a fight.
I'm like, dude, do you, is thatwhat you think these guys are like?
They just beat peopleup everywhere they go.
Dude, they're the nicest, most humble guy.
And the last thing thatthey want to do is fight.
And I feel like the impression is likethese big, tough Navy SEAL guys, they're
not in touch with their emotions.
(11:49):
They don't know how to communicate.
They don't know how to talk about things.
And I found it's actually thecomplete opposite in my experience.
Yeah, I think your business growthstarts with the internal work.
I'm really big on the leadershipaspect of being an entrepreneur.
And I have seen where bad leaders fail.
And I think where they start tofail is they actually don't even
(12:10):
know how to lead themselves.
So start with yourself, startwith that internal dialogue.
Lead yourself well.
You know that most people knowthe things they need to be doing.
Do the things.
Have the discipline.
Do the things.
And then you can lead others even betteras well because you've already proven
to yourself that you can lead yourself.
And going into the whole discipline thingto me, discipline is the highest form of
self love because you're simply keepingthe promise you already made to yourself.
(12:33):
And so if you can do that, nobody'sperfect, nobody can do it 100%, but
if you can do that, at an A scale,That's going to make you so far
ahead of 98 percent of everyone.
Dude I see, I love this stuff.
And when you talk about discipline andagain, we're going to, we're going to
jump into real estate stuff too, theseare the things I feel like I could really.
have conversations about for daysand just not get tired of it.
(12:56):
But, with discipline, I findthat people, they go on diets,
they get all excited about it.
They start lifting weights, theystart creating better habits.
And it feels good.
Like it's hard at firstto start making changes.
You get all these goodaspirations, but then you fall off.
You have a few too many drinks.
You eat a couple of Big Macs or McRibsor you'll watch Netflix for a few days.
(13:17):
And then you spiral downand you go, ah, forget it.
And then I feel like people, Ithink, listen to somebody like you.
And they assume that when you're thisguy that has all this discipline and
all these great habits that you neverfall off the track every now and then.
And I think when they look at that,they're looking at it as failure.
And I'm looking at it as.
Like you fall off a couple times, butthen you just right back, jump back
(13:37):
on and you don't let the highs get youtoo high or the lows get you too low.
So what is it like that you tell yourselfor some things you do when you do find
yourself getting a few steps off trackand going back into some bad habits to
make sure you don't do an overcorrection?
Because.
I feel like the consistency and thebasics, instead of going too crazy
and trying to work out all day, everyday, like it's got to have this nice
(13:59):
balance in between and everybodyhas some successes and failures.
So how do you keep yourself fromgetting too off track when you
start to make those missteps?
I try to remind myself ofthe life that I want to live.
And so By the way, like I was just offtrack a week ago with the holidays.
Like I was eating terrible,sleeping terrible, like not
in routine with my habits.
And I'm like, okay, likeyou've been here before.
(14:22):
What happens?
What's the domino effect in your business,in your social life, in your normal life
that happens when like you stay off track.
I know that I've had that experience.
So don't be upset with the resultin two weeks when you feel so off
track with all these things thatyou want to advance forward because
you're not doing the basics well.
So get back on track now.
I have a Sharpie on papersign written in my room.
(14:43):
It's it's literally taped tothe wall with masking tape.
It says, Everyone wants to be a savageuntil it comes time to do the savage shit.
I like little stuff like that to remindmyself Hey, if you do want to grow this
business idea that you have now, andyou're starting in February or whatever,
you do want that to be successful.
Don't be upset when the challengescome because James, like your own,
(15:04):
you talk about this all the time.
Your own beliefs are like, no success ispossible without challenges along the way.
And you think you're immune to that?
So I just thinking, I justthink being realistic with.
The life that you want to live andputting in the work that is going
to consistently lead to success.
I think that's important.
You got to be real.
And speaking of which,like it's not always me.
(15:27):
So I'm very fortunate to have a lotof entrepreneur colleagues and a lot
of like people that are in my networkwho are also just high caliber.
Man, sorry, high caliber,high character, high achieving
type people, what do they say?
There's like a saying thatyou're the average of the five
closest colleagues of yours.
And mine happened to be absolute savages.
(15:49):
And maybe that's by designand subconscious some things
there, but it's not all me.
I have a great support network as well.
And I'm fortunate for that.
That's incredible, man.
So I think when you look at this in abig picture type of thing, I find your
story very interesting because it remindsme of the, that video that got passed
around YouTube with the marshmallow test.
(16:10):
I don't know if you're familiar with that.
When they give the kid one marshmallowand they go, if you don't eat this
for 20 minutes, I'll give you two.
And then they leave like a camera playingand 99 percent of the kids are like.
And then they like down themarshmallow and then every now and
then you get one that's no, I'mgoing to have the discipline to wait.
And I hear you talk about a lot ofthe stuff you did where you were
basically obsessed with personalfinance and financial freedom.
(16:32):
And you started doing things earlierin life, knowing that they were going
to compound and really pay off later.
And I feel like most people, theyknow that, but they don't do that.
They don't want that.
It's what feels good now.
And they're not putting thisstuff away for a rainy day.
So I feel like your financialdiscipline of not looking at it as.
I'm in my twenties.
I might not even make it to my thirtiesand just blowing it all, living in the
(16:54):
now is such a huge thing to take away.
And I feel like peoplealways think it's too late.
And what I've heard from you talkingabout is it's really never too late.
Like maybe you have to sock a littlebit more away, but talk about some
of those principles you learned earlyon for having discipline to create
personal finance later, instead oflooking for the dopamine hits now.
Yeah, so, I don't think my parents are bigon social media, but shout out mom and dad
(17:17):
on this one So when you by the way whenyou have parents that are both engineers
You're definitely going to turn out tobe a nerd and so Yeah, so I definitely
you know I was fortunate to have parentsthat really cared about those types of
things like, you know Planning ahead inlife setting yourself up for success in
(17:38):
academics and sports and all these things.
I was fortunate to have that.
We were probably like lower middleclass and my dad was just, a max out
your Roth IRA, put it all into S&P 500 every single year after year.
And so, you, most 15, 16 years old.
I would ask my dad about what we should doand he helped me set up like a Roth IRA.
(18:00):
So I was contributing to my Rothlike before I was 18, I think and
I actually remember I was mowinglawns in my neighborhood and he
was like, whatever money you earn,like you can go and spend it.
That's up to you if you wantto, but if you put any in
this account, I'll match it.
And I think that was, like, lookingback, I think it was my Roth IRA.
I think he paid me throughhis company or something.
But yeah, just, I think there's,there is definitely, especially as
(18:23):
you're developing your mind, I think,until age 25, there's a conditioning
factor built in there for sure.
So you're like, oh, I didn't go blow mymoney on something that I may have won
in the short term, but I got conditionedby my parents to seek a long term better
thing, which is like more resources downthe road in exchange for the sacrifice.
And I'm getting somepraise like at a young age.
This feels good.
(18:43):
So, just.
Expanding upon that.
I remember like graduating collegeand you're earning more as a, as
an 01 in the Navy and talking to myfriends are like, Oh, I don't even
have have a retirement account set up.
I'm like, Huh?
Like, why?
That seems like everyone should thing.
I just had really fortunate guidanceat a young age, that's incredible, man.
So now taking your background infinance, I know you basically stumbled
(19:07):
accidentally into real estate and decidedthat, Hey, there's some things here.
There's that I can work on and build.
So talk about now, what is your realestate buy box or business model today?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a really good question.
So we have a fewdifferent things going on.
So we do residential urban infillin Tampa and it's not even, As
specific as just city of Tampa,it's even more specific than that.
(19:29):
And it's only certain zip codes.
And I've found that because that's notour only thing, that's not our sole focus.
That's that is the habit that I'm wearing.
I've found that having a really sharpbuy box helps save me a ton of time.
So I know a lot of the, like the rezoningguidelines and the city code for.
The specific areas of within the city ofTampa that I target and so if anything
(19:51):
else is outside of there, it would becomelike a research project to see what we
could do there every single time versusif somebody sends me a deal that is in
our buy box, I can know pretty quicklysometimes within five minutes if it's
something that I'm even interested inor, at what price it would be worth it.
So, I think for that, it's just.
Very efficient.
So that's our development business.
(20:13):
We co sponsor syndication.
So we raise capital from likemostly friends and family and place
equity in a value add multifamily.
Pretty standard stuff.
My rule of thumb there isI only invest in deals.
I only co sponsor deals that Ipersonally invest in and most of them.
I'm stroking at least a six figurecheck in fact one is with adam's group
and that was the biggest check i'veever written on a multi family deal And
(20:34):
it's going well, so, happy about that.
That was this past year our thirdthing is a small residential rental
portfolio in tampa and then I alsohave a team of agents our sweet
spot for that is really focusing onthe The investor agent connection.
So whether that's like bringing a flip toa potential investor client and listing
it on the back end or or helping them witha value add project some way in Tampa.
(20:57):
So that's five people right now.
We're small on purpose, small,agile, like kind of the special
operations approach, like small,agile and disproportionate effects.
So, that's the fourth thingthat we have going on.
And then we have.
We have the education brand whichis like the shirt I'm wearing.
So the elite investor is ourfree meetup quarterly in Tampa.
And then we have a local mastermindgroup of about 90 members called
(21:18):
the elite investor mindset group.
So that's that kind of, that summarizeslike our business portfolio in Tampa.
That's awesome, man.
So let's break some ofthose down a little deeper.
You said the first thing wasthe the urban infill, right?
Yep.
Yep.
So we do a combination of between smalllittle entitlement projects, like whether
it's Euclidean rezoning or PD in Tampa.
And then sometimes we'll sellthose off early once that's done.
(21:41):
And other times we will either findlike a discounted tear down or vacant
land opportunity and build on it.
Or sometimes we'll just findone and like just wholetail it.
We did that also this past year.
So it's a combination, but it'sreally focused on I guess our
sweet spot is the best use of landin specific zip codes in Tampa.
That's what we do there.
(22:02):
Okay.
So are you're looking for lots thatmaybe are already vacant or maybe
stuff that has things on there thatyou could take down something that's a
single family and maybe put in like aduplex, triplex, fourplex type of still?
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
So we have a project inWest Shore Palms right now.
It's an area of Tampa, near the airport.
And we picked this up it wasprobably about four months ago.
So single family home was alreadyrezoned for four units already took
(22:25):
care of some tree work and demolishedthe house, and it definitely it
was in a state of total disrepair.
And we're looking at either buildingfour unit townhome like on a PD, just
that's a type of rezoning here, or wewill do a land use amendment and another
PD for building up to eight units, sothere's a few options there but that's
(22:47):
that's a multi year project for sure.
So that's where I was going to touch onwith that too, is when you talk about
doing some of these things on a biggerscale, I recently just went through this
and it, there was, there's a lot of stuffthat popped up that I did not plan on.
And so we started to go through it andyou realize like working with the city.
So what are some things to look for ifyou're going to do something like this and
(23:07):
you're going to come in and you're goingto get things rezoned, or is there some.
base hit things that are a little bitfaster and cleaner to do when you're
doing these versus coming in and maybelike you said, some of these could be
a, an 18 to 24 month project, but arethere some things like if it's already
zoned a certain way, like this is acleaner way to look to make a quick
buck on this versus some things thatmight be a little bit more complicated.
(23:30):
Yeah, it depends who's who'sthe listener right now.
If you're a wholesaler and you pick upsomething that you think is good for tear
down value, just realize like everybodyhas to make their margin somewhere.
So contractors make it on the bill.
Agents make it on theacquisition or disposition.
As a wholesaler, you can make itas the investor by not assigning
it and just doing it yourself.
So I would say just be aware of whereyour margins are going to be made.
(23:52):
If you create a math problem where 5plus 3 equals 8 and it doesn't equal
12, then that's a quick way to maybebuild a property for free, which
isn't like a sustainable businessmodel because you're not making money.
So that you need to be awareof where your margins are.
I'd say that would bethe deal for wholesalers.
Being aware of different likezoning trends can be really helpful.
(24:14):
So I'll give you an example on arecently completed townhome project.
We just sold our last unitright before Thanksgiving.
That in place density allowedme to build two units.
So I can do two fee simple duplex styletownhomes, sell them to separate owners.
But when I bought it.
I think a lot of people overlooked thefact that it was being sold as a single
family home, but the land use allowed fornot even rezoning just in place by right
(24:38):
zoning allowed me to do two units there.
So if you can get sharp on what'spossible with zoning, we don't have
enough time on this call to go into it.
Then that can be a way that you'reactually adding your another margin as
a developer, as an investor, really.
That's awesome, man.
So when you're, when you came across this,is this something that you accidentally
stumbled on with a house that you had andthat you talked to the city or would you,
(25:01):
if somebody's listening, saying, I wantto do that, would you pick some areas and
go talk to the city first about what doesit look like as far as zoning requirements
to flip a, something that's singlefamily into a duplex, triplex, fourplex?
Yeah, I don't know if there's there'ssomething about me where I'm just
like a lifelong learner curious,but then I'll take that curiosity
well, how do I actually apply it?
(25:22):
And I'm totally willing to test things.
And so, I think it was like, it wasa few conversations with people and
then, corroborating that with what thecity says regarding involving the city
like some units, some municipalitiesare not as good as others, I will say
like city of Tampa the staff there.
They're very helpful.
Lately, because of the hurricanesthat we've had, they've been
(25:43):
very hard to get a hold of.
So, if you can actually talk to them,they're going to give you a lot of value.
But, we'll call every day for multipledays and it's a, in fact, later today
I have a scheduled call with thembecause it's, we've been trying to reach
somebody for four days about a project.
So, yeah your municipality shouldbe a good resource as well as
somebody who has done these types ofprojects in your local area before.
(26:06):
That can be that can be a huge help.
Awesome, man.
So you do the info stuff and thenyou're also doing some bigger
development projects, correct?
Yeah, we have one that'sdown in Bradenton.
It's southwest of the Tampa area.
So that is a an in place cashflowing 19 unit multifamily.
And I I own that with a partner.
That's a syndication deal thatwe have, but it's on the smaller
side of what we normally do.
(26:27):
And so we're redevelopingthat into a 24 to 25 unit.
We're messing with thesite plan a little bit now.
But what's really interesting withthat is I'm really I'm really a
nerd about like planning for taxes.
And so it's in an opportunity zone.
And so the tax benefits that you can getby investing qualifying gains into a an
(26:47):
opportunity zone are pretty substantial.
So, I have several six figuresinto it already personally.
And and it's, it's going really well.
So that's one exampleof our bigger projects.
So this opens up somethingthat I might have to edit out.
Cause I don't know if you want to godeeper into this, but we initially
touched base because you did contactme, which is awesome to be by the way,
dude, solid class, that guy right here.
(27:08):
But you call me, we started talkingabout some 10 31 stuff and you
started talking about how you have.
A knack for really focusing in on ways tomitigate some of the tax that you're going
to get hit with as a real estate investor.
So I will of course give the disclaimerthat you are not a tax professional.
You're not an attorney.
You're not a CPA.
So you don't have to give that stuff.
But in your experience that's thebiggest thing is once you figure
(27:31):
out how to make money, how do you.
Keep money in your pocket, notlet it all go out to Uncle Sam.
So talk about some of these things youwere doing from Opportunity Zones and
1031s and all that stuff that I thinkmost people don't realize that as I
found out after talking to you, there'sa lot of bad information out there that
people think that are actually not true.
Yeah, we don't have to edit this out.
I love being real andI'm going to send it.
(27:53):
I'm definitely going to send it.
So I try to take advantage ofevery real estate tax benefit that
there is and I'll go through them.
That might be, if I gotoo fast, just stop me.
So let me start out with probably whatI think is the most attainable for
every property owner, like every typicalperson you go out and buy a house.
It's the capital gains tax exemption.
It's for this reason that historicallyin Tampa, I try to move every two years
(28:16):
because I restart my clock to startanother capital gains tax exemption.
And again, I'm not a financial planner.
I'm not your tax accountant.
If you need tax advice, don't, thisis not it, but this is my own opinion.
So capital gains tax exemption says thatif you've lived in your primary residence
for any two out of the last five years,When you go to sell it, if you're filing
like me as someone who's single, you'reexempt on paying the profit or sorry,
(28:39):
you're exempt on paying tax on theprofit up to a quarter million dollars.
And if you're filing as married,it's up to a half million dollars.
So let's say that, today is it'sright now it's December 2024.
If I had bought a propertyfor 600k in Tampa.
In November of 2022 and I sold itthis month and I had lived in that
as my primary residence and that wasnow worth, I bought it for 600 and
(29:02):
now it's worth 850, then I just mademyself a quarter million dollars,
but I don't pay tax on any of it.
And if I'm making less than half amillion a year, which like most people
are, then that normally would be taxedas long term capital gains tax at 15%.
So I just saved myselfin doing so 37, 500.
If you have the gain of a quartermillion dollars so that's the first
(29:24):
thing that I would share that I thinkis like very attainable for many people.
Any questions on that?
No, that's awesome.
All right, cool.
So capital gains, tax exemption.
The second thing is 1031 exchange.
This is most applicable if you have andif you have properties that you hold for
investment purposes, mainly like rentalsthere's like a two year guideline that
you try, you want to try to follow.
(29:46):
So if you've held that for two yearslet's say you bought a property like two
years ago for 300k and now it's worth400k and along the time that you've held
it, you've also taken some depreciation,whether that was straight line or bonus.
If you sold that and it was just anarms length normal sale, you would owe
taxes on depreciation recapture when yousell it as well as the capital gains.
(30:07):
And so as long as you reinvest.
Had a, you reinvest into a property.
There's some time guidelines and stuff.
That's really the tricky partof doing a 1031 exchange.
So if you reinvest into a property orproperties that are at or above the
level that you just sold, it's calledthe replacement property by the way
then you are not exempt from payingthe taxes, but you're deferring it.
(30:29):
And so the idea with thatis you can just defer it.
And then at the time of your death,it's morbid, but it's real then you just
get the step up in basis and then yourheirs get to inherit that with with,
without incurring that tax liability.
So that's another reallystrong way to do it.
So here's a third one.
(30:52):
filing as a real estate professional.
So if you file as a real estateprofessional, then a lot of your income
within the real estate propertiesthat you materially participate in
Otherwise, it would be considered passiveincome, but instead because you're
filing as a real estate professional.
And by the way, look into the guidelinesfor real estate professional that
I'm not going to talk about it here,but there's like a lot of quirky
(31:14):
stuff with making sure you qualify.
There's a certain number of hours.
There's the short term rental loophole.
There's like the 50 percent guideline.
There's a lot of things that thisis a conversation you definitely
need to have with your CPA.
But if you can file as a real estateprofessional, it's a big advantage
because instead of, passive losses,which like depreciation is the passive
loss getting applied to your activeincome, you're making several hundreds
(31:36):
of thousands or a million dollars a year.
You can basically convert that overthrough real estate professional
status where it's active lossescounting against active income.
And so you can effectively really reduceyour tax burden that way, which is
something I've done for for a few years.
That's awesome, man.
So if we dig into the 1031 stuff,when you and I first touched base,
(31:57):
there was a lot of misconceptions ofthings I think people thought they
could do on 1031s that they could not.
And if I'm remembering thisright, one of them was like
you can't do it on residential.
Is that correct?
Yeah, you can.
Oh, you can.
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
You can do it on a residential property.
In fact, you can sell aresidential investment property
and go into commercial, right?
(32:18):
I was doing it earlier this year.
I had I had a commercial medicaloffice I had under contract.
We ended up not closing on it becauseit just, there were some things
that came up during due diligencethat weren't going to work, but
that would have been totally fine.
Awesome.
And then what, so what is the, cause Iget people a lot that I think when we
were first connected, one of my investorswas like, look, I have these properties.
If you can find a way to mitigate someof the taxes on this, I'll take the
(32:38):
money I make from this and I'll throwthem into some of your investments.
So I was like, all right,well, how do we do that?
So what are some of theintricacies of the timeline?
Is that something where.
If somebody's Hey, a propertyis already up for sale.
Is it too late to get into the 1031?
What are the specs on when somebodyshould do this and the timelines of
how this transpires and plays out?
(32:58):
Yeah.
By the way, the right person that youwant on your team, if you're going
to be doing a 1031, and by the way,you want to get them on your team
before you close the first propertyis called a qualified intermediary.
There's a lot of them outthere, but a 1031 qualified
intermediary, or I'll call it a QI.
Is they're going to be reallylike the custodian of the 1031
and the reason why is becauseyou can't ever touch those funds.
(33:20):
If you touch those funds that comeback to you as proceeds of a closing,
then the integrity of the 1031 hasbasically been breached and like
you, you can't get that tax benefitof deferring the taxes anymore.
It's part of the, like the,it's, this is all in section
1031 of the federal tax code.
So that's why it's called a 1031exchange Yeah, so you basically you
(33:42):
have relinquished property and youhave replacement property And so the
relinquish is the one you sell thereplacement is the one that you go
into So you get ready to do a 1031 youcontact the QI and you want to do that.
You can do it like A couple of weeksbefore closing on the relinquished.
Once the relinquished closes,start a timer on your watch.
You have 45 days to identifyproperties that you may want to
(34:06):
have as the replacement properties.
There's some other guidelines,but typically most people
use the three property rules.
So you can identify up tothree in that 45 day period.
Now this is probably the mostimportant part of the 1031.
You want to either identify threeand have confidence that you're
going to close on one of those three.
Or you can even close one of them withinthe identification period if you want.
(34:30):
That's what I've done both times actuallyBoth times in the past year that i've
done a 1031 So you have 45 days toidentify and then you have 135 days more
to close on one of those three So youhave a total of 180 days cumulatively And
so what you really want to Be cautiousagainst is day 46 if you realize that
(34:51):
you're not going to close on one of thosethree This is really bad thing because
your money is tied up until day 180.
You cannot get access to it Youhave a failed 1031 and you don't
get the money back until day 180 andyou don't get the tax benefits That
can be a really detrimental thing.
So by the way, here's like my hiddensecret Try to get the replacement property
(35:13):
under contract Before the relinquishedeven sells because if you do it right,
let's say you get the replacementproperty, the one you're going to buy
later under contract, maybe like 10 daysbefore you close the relinquished, but
you have a 15 day due diligence period.
Well, now you have a risk buffer.
(35:34):
And if the first one doesn't close,the relinquished doesn't close.
Then you can back out of that replacementproperty within your due diligence
period, which is, a common thing.
And then if it does move forward,then you're you're putting
your eggs in that basket.
You keep your hands there and tryingto close that replacement property
sometime within that 45 day period.
(35:56):
The good thing about that is if thatfails with that strategy, you realize
it within the 45 days and you can tryagain to find like one of those three
properties that you should identify.
That's great info, man.
These are all things that like, they don'ttell you, people just think, Oh, I just
roll this over and I make this money.
Even like the QI thing, I've neverfound one of those before, but I
assume like everybody else I've comeacross in real estate, like property
(36:19):
managers, real estate agents, whatever.
There's good ones and there'sbad ones, is there any.
Quick tips or red flags to look foror things to ask that could help you
maybe quickly decipher Is this even aQI I want to continue a conversation
with or should I go find somebody else?
Yeah, you have like cost versus benefitfor sure So I'd ask them like, how much
(36:39):
is your standard 1031 to work with you?
Also, this is we could go down a realrabbit hole here I want to ask them if
they can facilitate a tenant in commontransaction on your replacement property,
because that's, that is a way that youcan go from like any investment that
you hold in your own single memberLLC, or maybe even in your own name.
(37:00):
And you can take that and you cango into a really big multifamily
deal as a tenant in common.
And some QIs, if they're less familiarwith that process, they really make
it rather challenging for not justfor you, but also for the general
partners, it becomes a nightmare.
It's interesting stuff, man.
And obviously every time you learn aboutsomething, there's the onion that I call
(37:22):
it of well, I got this part, that's good.
And then if you have a deeperconversation, as you keep saying,
this could be a whole five hourother conversation, about a
million other things that pop up.
So part of what you do with your realestate group is I know you have a
really big free group, and then youhave an elite group of people that
maybe want some additional resources.
For I guess a two part question hereas far as masterminds go, you're an
(37:43):
attendee of a lot of masterminds.
You and I are in one togetherand then you also run one too.
So I'd like to askquestions about both hats.
So as somebody who already knows so much.
I think it's interesting when I'll teacha class or I'll hold a meet up or I'll
just talking to investors and people go,you know what, Nick, I'm just going to
watch a YouTube video, or I'm going tolisten to somebody talk for two hours.
(38:04):
And then I'm going to go outand make a million dollars.
And then I realized that like therooms we're in are people that know
a lot and still pay to learn more.
And so I think that knowledge basisof just coming in and being open
minded and always being a student,like I remember the first time I
ever signed up for a mentorship, Iwas like, Well, this will probably
be the only mentorship I ever need.
And then you get good at that.
You go, and now I want to learn this.
(38:25):
Let me go find somebody to teach me this.
You're wrestling coach, you'rejujitsu coach, you're boxing
coach, you're multifamilycoach, same type of thing there.
So for somebody on your level, that'salready got so much experience.
What are the benefits to you of beingsomebody who's in a mastermind with
other investors and other entrepreneurs?
Yeah.
Being exposed to new ideas about howpeople are achieving efficient success.
(38:45):
Like some weeks I feel like I still worka lot and I'm like, Oh, if there's little
tweaks that they're doing whether that'sin their systems or processes or in their
leadership to be more efficient, like I'malways interested in that, who wouldn't
be, and then being exposed there's areal power as long as you're open to the
learning, there's real power in gettingaround people who have ideas of things
(39:08):
like you didn't know, you didn't know.
And so like thinking, there'sbeen a few in the mastermind that
we're in, there's been a few timesI never even thought about that.
And here's an example, like maybesome client retention in our
mastermind group here in Tampa.
It's Oh, I'd never really thoughtabout making that part of our
actual plan or like making thata deliberate calculated thing.
(39:31):
So just being exposed to things you didn'teven consider before is super powerful.
I love that, man.
I agree.
There's always, I leave that everytime with it used to be a lot of
notes and now I try and make sure Ionly have a couple of key takeaways
because you go home almost overwhelmed.
But it's even incredible, man.
Like it's not even thepanels or the teaching.
Sometimes it's a conversation you havein the hallway or in the bathroom or
(39:53):
in the parking lot or in the morning atthe gym and like 5, 10, 15 minutes with
somebody like you or like my buddy RyanWeimer or listening to Jason Hartman.
Like it's.
It's incredible, man.
And there's always likenew stuff changing.
And so on the student side of it,now that you're somebody who actually
educates and things, I heard you talkabout something that it's one of the
biggest things that drives me crazy.
And so I wanted to hear where your thoughtprocesses on this, but as an educator,
(40:17):
I take a lot of responsibility whenpeople make mistakes or they don't take
action or they take the wrong action.
And like 99 percent of the time,If somebody comes to me and goes, I
didn't make any money or I lost money,it's either because they did nothing
or they literally, you gave themthe steps and then they just didn't
listen and did their own, or theytried to make up their own recipe.
(40:40):
And I've heard you talk about thatbefore of look, look, I told you A to
Z of what to do and then you went andyou rearranged the whole thing and now
you're wondering like what happens.
So what do you think it is abouthuman nature that we come to
people and we ask them for helpand then we don't listen to them.
And before I let you ask, likethe example I give here, which
I try and do all the time is.
When I go to a restaurant and the maitred or the manager or somebody comes over,
(41:01):
I go, Hey, I've never been here before.
What do you recommend?
What's the best things on the menu?
And they go, Oh man, if you comehere, you have to have this.
And I go, well, I'm going to getsomething else and say, what the hell
did you ask me for in the first place?
You know what I mean?
So let's talk a little bit aboutthat as an educator, what are some
things you can do or some thingsto help people color in the lines
so they don't make these mistakes.
I think there is like a true powerin asking the right questions
(41:25):
and framing things the right way.
Like it's also, I think it's a great way.
I don't love the S word personally, butI think it's also a great way to sell.
Like, why is this important to you?
I genuinely want to know.
So unpacking that well, whydid you take that exact step
at this phase of the project?
And then as they start there's ourminds are designed to keep us safe.
(41:48):
Our minds are not designed tokeep, to get us out of discomfort.
And so I think when you start to unpackthat with somebody, if you're having a
talk about a recent challenge, they have,they often, I see this a lot, they often
start to realize like, Where it went wrongand you don't even have to say anything
like they realize it on their own so Ithink that's like an approach that I take
(42:09):
but i'd also say that my mastermind groupis like It's definitely not all about me.
I'm not coaching Everyone in thereon like how to do Anything, right?
It's our mastermind is focused.
It's it's a little bit different.
It's it's focused on beinga center of excellence for
collaboration in the Tampa market.
So if you're a player in thismarket, most people are in the group.
If you're not like, maybe you just,I don't know, maybe you don't like
(42:30):
collaboration or you think I figured out.
So.
I think that's what I would say.
Oh, one more thing I was thinking about.
There's another type of persontoo, and it's typically, they're
not going to be the type thatare in your mastermind group.
These are the kinds of people,and I'm not trying to like make
them sound like bad people.
They're just probably not going tobe like my closest colleagues, but
(42:52):
there's a type of person that, andyou've had this, I guarantee it.
That's come up to you and theysay Hey, I just heard you talk.
Is there a time where we can meetup and let, and I can pick your
brain and they don't know you.
They heard you talk about a topicthat interests them typically not
always those types of people whenyou give them the playbook and do
(43:13):
a, do steps a, B and C and they comeback and they say it didn't work.
Whatever it is you're about torespond with, it's very likely
that they actually want supportand they don't want solutions.
They just want to be heard and seen.
They don't want to do it the way that youknow works that you've already told them.
If they did, they would have done that.
(43:35):
So that's my opinionon that type of person.
I love it.
It's typically like a lessserious type of person.
Yeah, I agree with that.
You're right.
I've come across thatquite often for sure.
So the, on your side of it now, talkabout what you're doing with your,
I know you have your big free group,you have some additional stuff.
So talk about currently whatyou guys are doing there to help
investors in the Tampa market.
And then talk about some things thatare coming up in the near future.
(43:56):
Yeah, for sure.
So, in our local mastermindgroup, we're going to end up
capping that at 150 people.
It'll happen at somepoint in 2025, I think.
The reason why is I want topurposefully keep it intimate.
I'm a big, I'm a big believerin purpose over profits.
And so as long as we can keep instillinglike Disproportionate, intense, massive
(44:17):
amount of value within the mastermindgroup and help people like earn
more together through collaboration.
They otherwise nevercould have on their own.
Then I think that will continue toattract the serious type of investor.
That's really the perfect type thatjoins the group and it's important
to them because of that reason.
So that's that's some growthwe're looking forward to.
We only started at 15 months ago.
(44:39):
So being at 90 people within15 months, like I'm very proud
of my team to accomplish.
That in a relatively short amount of timebut getting up to Getting up to 150 and
what's cool is when the right people Comein It just enhances the collaboration
that much more, which is great.
And then leadership is areally big passion of mine,
leadership of small teams.
I have, I've written behind my computerover here, like my superpower is leading,
(45:02):
growing high performance organizations.
And so I want to share thatmore with entrepreneurs in 2025.
So we're rolling out a pilot programin in January, probably around
when this airs, but rolling outa 90 day pilot program to teach.
Better leadership approaches andstrategy to entrepreneurs with an
existing proven business model.
So I'm excited for that.
(45:23):
It's a passion project, sowe'll see where it goes.
It's just an enjoyment of mine.
That's awesome, man.
And that's really exciting.
Again who has more experience and betterleadership of what to do and what not to
do than somebody who's a, a Navy SEAL man.
So I'm very interested to hear allthis stuff that you have on that side.
And for somebody listening on anylevel, if they're getting started, if
they're looking to jump into the Tampamarket, if they're looking to excel
(45:45):
or be a bigger, better real estateinvestor, or even leader, what are the
best ways to connect with you, withyour masterminds, with your programs?
Yeah, absolutely.
It's all on Instagram.
We're big on, on being on Instagram.
And so it's a JPL invest on Instagram.
So we put out a lot ofeducational stuff there.
We post, when we're going to havea meetup on there, everything
(46:05):
is on Instagram, JPL invest.
That's awesome, man.
And as we come to, either late 2024,early 2025, people are gearing up,
everybody wants to know what's happening.
We just had a big election recently.
What are some of your predictions orsome things you're seeing that you're
looking at to adjust or to preparefor the 2025 real estate market?
Yeah.
So I will caveat this with saying everytime I've ever done a prediction on a
(46:29):
podcast, like they've mostly been wrong.
And also I'm not specialwith some crystal ball.
Here's what I think.
I think Trump being elected isprobably going to bode well for
the real estate industry andthe general economy as a whole.
And also there's a lot of studies.
So just realize that in thiskind of timeframe we're in Tampa,
we just got hit with two prettysubstantial hurricanes back to back.
(46:52):
There's a lot of data that says thelocalized market actually does better
in the in like the six months plusfollowing a major hurricane like that.
And so I think that makes me prettybullish on the Tampa market personally.
I love it, man.
It's pretty wild.
I think I just read that Floridajust took over New York as
(47:13):
like the number two highest.
And if you look at it, it's probablybecause 80 percent of Florida is
from New York when they go out there.
But yeah, man, I think it's awesome.
Who doesn't want to be in warmweather all day long as I sit here
in Chicago and it's 16 degrees.
Tampa sounds prettyawesome right now, man.
So it doesn't surprise me that's alwaysa market that usually lands on its feet.
Yeah, I think it's 70 out right now.
Ah, you son of a gun.
(47:33):
That sounds awesome, man.
Well, you, sir, are somebody whobrings your A game to everything
you do in life and in business, man.
I'm very impressed with yourbackground and what you've done
in a short period of time and whatyou're doing in the future, man.
Again, I hear nothing butfantastic things about you.
If you Go on Spotifyor any of these things.
You have so many other podcastsout there and each one of them
are a little bit different.
You have so many different thingsyou talk about and you articulate
(47:54):
them and bring value to all ofthem in different ways, man.
So I think you're a very specialguy and I'm looking forward to
seeing what you do in the future.
You have not let us down here.
You definitely bought your agame to this podcast today, man.
It has been an absolute honor tohave you on any final thoughts
for the audience before we letyou go about your busy day, sir.
Yeah, if there, I do have one, by the way,Nick, thank you so much for having me on.
It's such an honor.
(48:15):
Love being on the A game podcast.
I think what you're doing is amazing.
So final thoughts, if there aresome of you out there that have
been considering taking the plungeto be an entrepreneur for a while.
Or you're, you've beenthrowing some ideas around.
You can't really settleon how to move forward.
Just realize this, that taking any amountof imperfect but massive action over
(48:39):
time is always going to outweigh havingthe perfect plan that is only cultivated
through 10 years of generating it.
So start and take that first step now.
That's what I would share.
Wise words.
So I very much appreciate it.
Thank you for being on today.
See the show notes for all theways they connect with you.
I'll have more right in there.
Clickable away.
(49:00):
And I'll be posting a lotof clips from this podcast.
I appreciate your time, sir.
I look forward to hopefullyseeing you soon in Tampa.
James Oscar, ladies andgentlemen, have a fantastic day.
Thanks, Nick.
If you have been kicking yourself thatyou didn't start investing in real
estate sooner, whether you're a beginner,intermediate, or advanced, any way
you're looking to get out of residential,commercial, land development, wholesaling,
fix and flips, whatever it is, let'sfind a way to get you involved in some
(49:21):
projects, get you some properties, whetheryou want to sell some properties to me,
whether you want to buy some propertiesfrom me, cashflow, multifamily, whatever
it is you're looking for, let's figureout a way to get you involved or find a
way for us to partner up on some deals.
Reach out to me on any ofmy social media channels.
If you go on www.
nicknicknick.
com slash links, you will seeall the different ways to connect
(49:42):
with me and figure out how wecan start to work together.
Make it happen.
Everybody that invests inreal estate always just says
they wish they did it sooner.
Best time to start is today.
Welcome to the a game podcast withNick LaMagna digging into the minds and
experiences of some of today's brightestentrepreneurs in real estate and business,
along with Hollywood stars, UFC fighters.
And your favorite rock bands, peoplethat have figured out how to overcome
obstacles, take chances, live boldly.
And no matter what they do,they always bring their A game.
(00:48):
All right.
My guest today on the A gamepodcast is James LaScara.
He is a bad ass real estateinvestor who is also a Navy SEAL.
Who is just full of humbleness, gratitude,and a ton of knowledge and experience that
he portrays and gives an articulage to youas an audience on this fantastic podcast.
And on the a game podcast, realestate investing for entrepreneurs.
(01:11):
What we do is we help show youthat average people can achieve
extraordinary things every single day.
And we have bought on over 300.
50 guests that come from backgroundsof fighting business, entrepreneurship,
and real estate investing is some ofthe biggest people in the country.
Some of the most successful minds,athletes, and business people out there.
To show you exactly what they didto not take the mistakes in the
(01:34):
roads, less travel that hurt them.
So you don't have to take them and toshow you that the things they did, right.
So you can save time andmake money safer and faster.
Just these 350 episodes.
Plus, if you go back into the archives.
You could probably find thepath and the plan to repeat.
So you can have the same success.
But if that was not enough, we boughtanother amazing guest on today.
(01:55):
And James LaScarra is a guywho's been taking over Tampa.
He's got some many different verticals.
We're going to talk about during thispodcast, doing some infill stuff,
some land stuff, some multifamilystuff, some syndication stuff.
He's working with Opportunity Zones.
He's a master of personal finance.
Discipline and saving for the future.
He's got all kinds of leadership stuff.
He brings to the table fromhis background in military.
He runs a very successfulreal estate investing group.
(02:17):
He's pumping up for a fantastic 2025as he goes full time into real estate
and starts to exit out of the Navy.
And on top of that, he's got so muchinsight for townhome development,
single family stuff, working withthe cities, planning and zoning
and all kinds of different thingswe talk about during this episode.
So I like it because we brushacross a lot of different topics.
(02:38):
That's all very important for the mindset,the tactical stuff, the emotional stuff,
controlling fear, making decisions, andthen some tactical stuff into finding
deals, working with the city, gettingit rezoned, how to put money away.
And we specialize.
And some really good stuff he talksabout in the top three ways to save
money on taxes, keep it in your pocketand have good legal ways to mitigate
(03:01):
your tax burdens to keep that moneyin your pocket and keep it growing
instead of just letting it go back toUncle Sam the way that most people do.
So a lot of great nuggets in this episodeand the way we continue to get fantastic
guests like James LaScarra on this.
It's for you guys to justsubscribe and interact.
If you have not, this podcast, realestate investing for entrepreneurs, the
a game podcast is available everywhereyou watch and listen to your podcast.
(03:24):
Please take one minute,one second and subscribe.
It really goes a long way.
And please interact on social media.
I'm going to be posting a lot of clipsof this podcast with me and James
talking the way that James knows thatyou got value from what he's saying.
said, and he can tell other peopleto come on and give great value
is for you to just interact.
So when I post these things, if youare not following us and interacting on
social media, please take a minute anddo so so we can keep this party going.
(03:46):
A website you can go to get all theconnections for our social media is nick.
com slash links, L I N K S nicknick.
com slash links.
Give it a give it a share.
Ask James questions when I post theseor just interact with him on any level
and show him some love and support.
Also, the biggest thing here is I want todo real estate together as we are in 2025.
(04:07):
Let's do some deals together.
If you would like to buy properties fromme, if you would like to sell properties
to me, or if you would like to justhave a conversation about how we can
work together on some real estate deals.
Either send me a direct message throughmy social media that says real estate
to my assistant knows to pull itout and make sure it's about a deal
or text me directly the words realestate to 516 540 5733, 516 540 5733.
(04:34):
And again, if you would like a freechecklist and all the ways to bring
value to your buyers as a realestate agent, broker, wholesaler.
Go to nick.
com slash bigger pockets.
Thank you for listening.
Thank you, James, for being a great man,a great serviceman and a great investor.
And of course, a greatpodcast guest today.
Thank you, Adam Whitneyfor the connection.
That guy's an absolute stud as well.
And one of my favoritepeople, a game podcast.
(04:55):
Have a fantastic day.
All right.
My guest today is an entrepreneur,investor, educator, and woodworker
who grew up with his middle childin Charlotte, North Carolina.
Now fighting out of Tampa, Florida.
He is an active Navy member andNavy SEAL serving well over a decade
with four deployments and is nowcoming up soon on his retirement.
(05:17):
He became focused on learning andimplementing strategies for personal
financial freedom and understandingmoney when he was in high school and
in 2020 he stepped it up and raiseddropped and bought a bunch of rentals.
And has since made a huge impact in realestate in a very short amount of time.
He's completed over 28 million insales values, and he's raised over
millions of dollars in his short career,ranging from single family, townhomes,
multifamily syndications, hotels,and ground up developments in his own
(05:39):
backyard, as well as remote markets.
He's the founder and CEO of manysuccessful real estate verticals,
including La Scara real estate,beside in 25 developments, Trident
real estate group, La Scara capital,and elite investors, real estate
mindset group, which is one of the.
Biggest meetups in Tampa, boastingover 350 members actively that show
up in person quarterly to share valueand collaborate with each other.
(06:00):
He's a friend of one of my favoritepeople, Adam Whitney, and a man
I hear nothing but great thingsabout from everyone he comes in
contact with is in an honor towelcome him to the a game podcast.
The man who always leads with value.
Thank you so much for beinghere today, Mr. James Lescara.
Nick, thanks for having me on.
I'm excited to be here.
That was a great intro, man.
I I feel like I got to earn it every day.
So, I can't sit on thoselaurels for too long.
(06:23):
Man, I tell you you're the exact type ofguy that I love hanging out here because
I feel like you have all these amazingthings that you're doing that you've had,
you've done and you come off so humble.
And it's almost like I had to dragsome of these things out of you prior,
where I feel like a lot of peoplecome in with this is how great I am.
You're.
You're one of those guys who I feel likewould make a fantastic fighter because
you're always working to get a black beltwith a mindset of a white belt that you
(06:46):
seem like you're always a student of thegame and I assume your background has
made you humble that you're used to that.
There's days You're the hammer andsome days you're the nail and you feel
like you bring that nice Confidencewith not overly confident or cockiness
and I really appreciate it man.
You feel like you got the perfect blend.
Thanks, Nick.
I truly do feel like I have somethingto learn from everyone, and that
may not always be business, thatmay not always be real estate.
(07:09):
But in life, I think I canlearn something from everyone.
And I think with that in mind, I alsohave to earn it every single day.
That's one of our, one of ourbig things in special operations.
And so I certainly apply thatapproach to entrepreneurship.
I also say there are levels to thisgame from what I've experienced
and I'm not sure what level I'm at.
I guess it's relative to whereother people think they're at, but.
As you go up in levels, you're inevitablyalways going to face challenges.
(07:32):
And if you're too prideful to realizethat and acknowledge that and really
lean into overcoming those challengesand expanding your growth, you're
gonna have a really tough time.
So make it easier onyourself and just be humble.
Man, I love that.
And this wasn't even like 100 percenton my docket, but you opened it up.
And I think it's probably one of the mostimportant things here, where as people
(07:53):
get into real estate, as they get intobusiness and listen to this podcast, and
they feel like they just want the ABCsand the checklist of how to do stuff.
And then I always tell them it's thetime management, it's the mindset stuff.
It's all these things about how doyou react when things get tough?
It's the other stuff that you can'tread in a book that really keeps
people from being successful or not.
(08:13):
So I'm a big, I'm a big believer in, Ifeel like the two biggest characteristics
you can have to be successful in businessis being able to make decisions, jump
on opportunities and control fear.
So, Somebody that came from such anextensive military background, I don't
know if that was something you had in youbefore or something you learned during
there, but what are some principlesthat you use to make good decisions,
(08:37):
make fast decisions, and then to talkyourself out of, I'd say, assessing
risk, controlling the fear, because it'salways scary, and handling those punches
when you get hit and staying calm, Ithink is a huge Basic principle that
everybody needs in business and in life.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we have something that they actuallyteach and it's like in the beginning
(09:00):
stages of the special operationstraining, it's called the big four.
And it's something I still usein my entrepreneur career now,
and I'll go over the big four.
Now I'll go over the big fourwith you on the podcast, but
it's also something I share in mymastermind group a lot because.
Like every challenge people tend tothink Oh, this is a unique thing.
And Oh, nobody else hasdealt with this before.
(09:20):
And it's dude, everybodygoes through this.
In fact, that is the path.
There's not a path to successthat's absent of those challenges.
And in fact, if there was, whichthere's not, but if there was, you
probably wouldn't appreciate it as much.
So I'll talk about thebig four really quick.
So first is goal setting.
You can go through like thesmart goal sheet, right?
Like specific, measurable,attainable realistic and timeframe.
(09:41):
But you, as an entrepreneur, as somebodywho wants to grow in life, as a business
owner, you should be setting goals.
That's one.
Second is arousal controls.
That's simple breath work.
If you like, you could get on Googleor YouTube and look at box breath.
So it's breathing in for fourseconds, holding your breath
for four seconds, breathing out.
This is all nasal, by the way, do itall through your nose, breathing out for
(10:02):
four seconds and then holding for fourseconds and do that several cycles over.
It's physiologically provento reduce your stress.
So that's the second thing.
The third thing is positive self talk.
I am capable.
I can handle challenges.
I can see this through.
I am successful.
So positive self talk is huge.
And then visualization, visualizeyourself getting to where
(10:24):
you want to go in business.
So I know it sounds like all thesecan be read in a book, but you'd be
surprised how few people actuallyimplement those big four steps.
It makes a difference.
Judith.
So I think this is awesome because.
Every now and then I'll teach a classor I'll come across an investor.
You'd be at a dinner, a networking thing.
And there's some guys that come in andthey have big egos and they really,
(10:46):
they haven't, maybe they've done a lotin their field, but they're new, and
so, but they come in with this bravadoand when you talk to them about stuff
like, Hey, you have to visualize, youhave to have positive self talk, they
roll their eyes and they act it's almostlike an insult or they're above that, or
they're too cool or too tough from that.
And then you hear a freakingNavy special ops guy come here
(11:07):
and say, this is what I do.
So where does that fit in?
Because I haven't met obviously a lotof Navy SEALs, I've met, five, 10,
15, really good guys that were likespecial ops, like really bad dudes
that are smart guys and have done alot and they all come back and they're.
They don't have these huge egos,like it almost reminds me of like
(11:28):
my friends that are in the UFC.
Sometimes if I invite like my otherfriends out, I'm like, Hey, come to
this barbecue or come to this party.
You're like, God, Iwant to get in a fight.
I'm like, dude, do you, is thatwhat you think these guys are like?
They just beat peopleup everywhere they go.
Dude, they're the nicest, most humble guy.
And the last thing thatthey want to do is fight.
And I feel like the impression is likethese big, tough Navy SEAL guys, they're
not in touch with their emotions.
(11:49):
They don't know how to communicate.
They don't know how to talk about things.
And I found it's actually thecomplete opposite in my experience.
Yeah, I think your business growthstarts with the internal work.
I'm really big on the leadershipaspect of being an entrepreneur.
And I have seen where bad leaders fail.
And I think where they start tofail is they actually don't even
(12:10):
know how to lead themselves.
So start with yourself, startwith that internal dialogue.
Lead yourself well.
You know that most people knowthe things they need to be doing.
Do the things.
Have the discipline.
Do the things.
And then you can lead others even betteras well because you've already proven
to yourself that you can lead yourself.
And going into the whole discipline thingto me, discipline is the highest form of
self love because you're simply keepingthe promise you already made to yourself.
(12:33):
And so if you can do that, nobody'sperfect, nobody can do it 100%, but
if you can do that, at an A scale,That's going to make you so far
ahead of 98 percent of everyone.
Dude I see, I love this stuff.
And when you talk about discipline andagain, we're going to, we're going to
jump into real estate stuff too, theseare the things I feel like I could really.
have conversations about for daysand just not get tired of it.
(12:56):
But, with discipline, I findthat people, they go on diets,
they get all excited about it.
They start lifting weights, theystart creating better habits.
And it feels good.
Like it's hard at firstto start making changes.
You get all these goodaspirations, but then you fall off.
You have a few too many drinks.
You eat a couple of Big Macs or McRibsor you'll watch Netflix for a few days.
(13:17):
And then you spiral downand you go, ah, forget it.
And then I feel like people, Ithink, listen to somebody like you.
And they assume that when you're thisguy that has all this discipline and
all these great habits that you neverfall off the track every now and then.
And I think when they look at that,they're looking at it as failure.
And I'm looking at it as.
Like you fall off a couple times, butthen you just right back, jump back
(13:37):
on and you don't let the highs get youtoo high or the lows get you too low.
So what is it like that you tell yourselfor some things you do when you do find
yourself getting a few steps off trackand going back into some bad habits to
make sure you don't do an overcorrection?
Because.
I feel like the consistency and thebasics, instead of going too crazy
and trying to work out all day, everyday, like it's got to have this nice
(13:59):
balance in between and everybodyhas some successes and failures.
So how do you keep yourself fromgetting too off track when you
start to make those missteps?
I try to remind myself ofthe life that I want to live.
And so By the way, like I was just offtrack a week ago with the holidays.
Like I was eating terrible,sleeping terrible, like not
in routine with my habits.
And I'm like, okay, likeyou've been here before.
(14:22):
What happens?
What's the domino effect in your business,in your social life, in your normal life
that happens when like you stay off track.
I know that I've had that experience.
So don't be upset with the resultin two weeks when you feel so off
track with all these things thatyou want to advance forward because
you're not doing the basics well.
So get back on track now.
I have a Sharpie on papersign written in my room.
(14:43):
It's it's literally taped tothe wall with masking tape.
It says, Everyone wants to be a savageuntil it comes time to do the savage shit.
I like little stuff like that to remindmyself Hey, if you do want to grow this
business idea that you have now, andyou're starting in February or whatever,
you do want that to be successful.
Don't be upset when the challengescome because James, like your own,
(15:04):
you talk about this all the time.
Your own beliefs are like, no success ispossible without challenges along the way.
And you think you're immune to that?
So I just thinking, I justthink being realistic with.
The life that you want to live andputting in the work that is going
to consistently lead to success.
I think that's important.
You got to be real.
And speaking of which,like it's not always me.
(15:27):
So I'm very fortunate to have a lotof entrepreneur colleagues and a lot
of like people that are in my networkwho are also just high caliber.
Man, sorry, high caliber,high character, high achieving
type people, what do they say?
There's like a saying thatyou're the average of the five
closest colleagues of yours.
And mine happened to be absolute savages.
(15:49):
And maybe that's by designand subconscious some things
there, but it's not all me.
I have a great support network as well.
And I'm fortunate for that.
That's incredible, man.
So I think when you look at this in abig picture type of thing, I find your
story very interesting because it remindsme of the, that video that got passed
around YouTube with the marshmallow test.
(16:10):
I don't know if you're familiar with that.
When they give the kid one marshmallowand they go, if you don't eat this
for 20 minutes, I'll give you two.
And then they leave like a camera playingand 99 percent of the kids are like.
And then they like down themarshmallow and then every now and
then you get one that's no, I'mgoing to have the discipline to wait.
And I hear you talk about a lot ofthe stuff you did where you were
basically obsessed with personalfinance and financial freedom.
(16:32):
And you started doing things earlierin life, knowing that they were going
to compound and really pay off later.
And I feel like most people, theyknow that, but they don't do that.
They don't want that.
It's what feels good now.
And they're not putting thisstuff away for a rainy day.
So I feel like your financialdiscipline of not looking at it as.
I'm in my twenties.
I might not even make it to my thirtiesand just blowing it all, living in the
(16:54):
now is such a huge thing to take away.
And I feel like peoplealways think it's too late.
And what I've heard from you talkingabout is it's really never too late.
Like maybe you have to sock a littlebit more away, but talk about some
of those principles you learned earlyon for having discipline to create
personal finance later, instead oflooking for the dopamine hits now.
Yeah, so, I don't think my parents are bigon social media, but shout out mom and dad
(17:17):
on this one So when you by the way whenyou have parents that are both engineers
You're definitely going to turn out tobe a nerd and so Yeah, so I definitely
you know I was fortunate to have parentsthat really cared about those types of
things like, you know Planning ahead inlife setting yourself up for success in
(17:38):
academics and sports and all these things.
I was fortunate to have that.
We were probably like lower middleclass and my dad was just, a max out
your Roth IRA, put it all into S&P 500 every single year after year.
And so, you, most 15, 16 years old.
I would ask my dad about what we should doand he helped me set up like a Roth IRA.
(18:00):
So I was contributing to my Rothlike before I was 18, I think and
I actually remember I was mowinglawns in my neighborhood and he
was like, whatever money you earn,like you can go and spend it.
That's up to you if you wantto, but if you put any in
this account, I'll match it.
And I think that was, like, lookingback, I think it was my Roth IRA.
I think he paid me throughhis company or something.
But yeah, just, I think there's,there is definitely, especially as
(18:23):
you're developing your mind, I think,until age 25, there's a conditioning
factor built in there for sure.
So you're like, oh, I didn't go blow mymoney on something that I may have won
in the short term, but I got conditionedby my parents to seek a long term better
thing, which is like more resources downthe road in exchange for the sacrifice.
And I'm getting somepraise like at a young age.
This feels good.
(18:43):
So, just.
Expanding upon that.
I remember like graduating collegeand you're earning more as a, as
an 01 in the Navy and talking to myfriends are like, Oh, I don't even
have have a retirement account set up.
I'm like, Huh?
Like, why?
That seems like everyone should thing.
I just had really fortunate guidanceat a young age, that's incredible, man.
So now taking your background infinance, I know you basically stumbled
(19:07):
accidentally into real estate and decidedthat, Hey, there's some things here.
There's that I can work on and build.
So talk about now, what is your realestate buy box or business model today?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a really good question.
So we have a fewdifferent things going on.
So we do residential urban infillin Tampa and it's not even, As
specific as just city of Tampa,it's even more specific than that.
(19:29):
And it's only certain zip codes.
And I've found that because that's notour only thing, that's not our sole focus.
That's that is the habit that I'm wearing.
I've found that having a really sharpbuy box helps save me a ton of time.
So I know a lot of the, like the rezoningguidelines and the city code for.
The specific areas of within the city ofTampa that I target and so if anything
(19:51):
else is outside of there, it would becomelike a research project to see what we
could do there every single time versusif somebody sends me a deal that is in
our buy box, I can know pretty quicklysometimes within five minutes if it's
something that I'm even interested inor, at what price it would be worth it.
So, I think for that, it's just.
Very efficient.
So that's our development business.
(20:13):
We co sponsor syndication.
So we raise capital from likemostly friends and family and place
equity in a value add multifamily.
Pretty standard stuff.
My rule of thumb there isI only invest in deals.
I only co sponsor deals that Ipersonally invest in and most of them.
I'm stroking at least a six figurecheck in fact one is with adam's group
and that was the biggest check i'veever written on a multi family deal And
(20:34):
it's going well, so, happy about that.
That was this past year our thirdthing is a small residential rental
portfolio in tampa and then I alsohave a team of agents our sweet
spot for that is really focusing onthe The investor agent connection.
So whether that's like bringing a flip toa potential investor client and listing
it on the back end or or helping them witha value add project some way in Tampa.
(20:57):
So that's five people right now.
We're small on purpose, small,agile, like kind of the special
operations approach, like small,agile and disproportionate effects.
So, that's the fourth thingthat we have going on.
And then we have.
We have the education brand whichis like the shirt I'm wearing.
So the elite investor is ourfree meetup quarterly in Tampa.
And then we have a local mastermindgroup of about 90 members called
(21:18):
the elite investor mindset group.
So that's that kind of, that summarizeslike our business portfolio in Tampa.
That's awesome, man.
So let's break some ofthose down a little deeper.
You said the first thing wasthe the urban infill, right?
Yep.
Yep.
So we do a combination of between smalllittle entitlement projects, like whether
it's Euclidean rezoning or PD in Tampa.
And then sometimes we'll sellthose off early once that's done.
(21:41):
And other times we will either findlike a discounted tear down or vacant
land opportunity and build on it.
Or sometimes we'll just findone and like just wholetail it.
We did that also this past year.
So it's a combination, but it'sreally focused on I guess our
sweet spot is the best use of landin specific zip codes in Tampa.
That's what we do there.
(22:02):
Okay.
So are you're looking for lots thatmaybe are already vacant or maybe
stuff that has things on there thatyou could take down something that's a
single family and maybe put in like aduplex, triplex, fourplex type of still?
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
So we have a project inWest Shore Palms right now.
It's an area of Tampa, near the airport.
And we picked this up it wasprobably about four months ago.
So single family home was alreadyrezoned for four units already took
(22:25):
care of some tree work and demolishedthe house, and it definitely it
was in a state of total disrepair.
And we're looking at either buildingfour unit townhome like on a PD, just
that's a type of rezoning here, or wewill do a land use amendment and another
PD for building up to eight units, sothere's a few options there but that's
(22:47):
that's a multi year project for sure.
So that's where I was going to touch onwith that too, is when you talk about
doing some of these things on a biggerscale, I recently just went through this
and it, there was, there's a lot of stuffthat popped up that I did not plan on.
And so we started to go through it andyou realize like working with the city.
So what are some things to look for ifyou're going to do something like this and
(23:07):
you're going to come in and you're goingto get things rezoned, or is there some.
base hit things that are a little bitfaster and cleaner to do when you're
doing these versus coming in and maybelike you said, some of these could be
a, an 18 to 24 month project, but arethere some things like if it's already
zoned a certain way, like this is acleaner way to look to make a quick
buck on this versus some things thatmight be a little bit more complicated.
(23:30):
Yeah, it depends who's who'sthe listener right now.
If you're a wholesaler and you pick upsomething that you think is good for tear
down value, just realize like everybodyhas to make their margin somewhere.
So contractors make it on the bill.
Agents make it on theacquisition or disposition.
As a wholesaler, you can make itas the investor by not assigning
it and just doing it yourself.
So I would say just be aware of whereyour margins are going to be made.
(23:52):
If you create a math problem where 5plus 3 equals 8 and it doesn't equal
12, then that's a quick way to maybebuild a property for free, which
isn't like a sustainable businessmodel because you're not making money.
So that you need to be awareof where your margins are.
I'd say that would bethe deal for wholesalers.
Being aware of different likezoning trends can be really helpful.
(24:14):
So I'll give you an example on arecently completed townhome project.
We just sold our last unitright before Thanksgiving.
That in place density allowedme to build two units.
So I can do two fee simple duplex styletownhomes, sell them to separate owners.
But when I bought it.
I think a lot of people overlooked thefact that it was being sold as a single
family home, but the land use allowed fornot even rezoning just in place by right
(24:38):
zoning allowed me to do two units there.
So if you can get sharp on what'spossible with zoning, we don't have
enough time on this call to go into it.
Then that can be a way that you'reactually adding your another margin as
a developer, as an investor, really.
That's awesome, man.
So when you're, when you came across this,is this something that you accidentally
stumbled on with a house that you had andthat you talked to the city or would you,
(25:01):
if somebody's listening, saying, I wantto do that, would you pick some areas and
go talk to the city first about what doesit look like as far as zoning requirements
to flip a, something that's singlefamily into a duplex, triplex, fourplex?
Yeah, I don't know if there's there'ssomething about me where I'm just
like a lifelong learner curious,but then I'll take that curiosity
well, how do I actually apply it?
(25:22):
And I'm totally willing to test things.
And so, I think it was like, it wasa few conversations with people and
then, corroborating that with what thecity says regarding involving the city
like some units, some municipalitiesare not as good as others, I will say
like city of Tampa the staff there.
They're very helpful.
Lately, because of the hurricanesthat we've had, they've been
(25:43):
very hard to get a hold of.
So, if you can actually talk to them,they're going to give you a lot of value.
But, we'll call every day for multipledays and it's a, in fact, later today
I have a scheduled call with thembecause it's, we've been trying to reach
somebody for four days about a project.
So, yeah your municipality shouldbe a good resource as well as
somebody who has done these types ofprojects in your local area before.
(26:06):
That can be that can be a huge help.
Awesome, man.
So you do the info stuff and thenyou're also doing some bigger
development projects, correct?
Yeah, we have one that'sdown in Bradenton.
It's southwest of the Tampa area.
So that is a an in place cashflowing 19 unit multifamily.
And I I own that with a partner.
That's a syndication deal thatwe have, but it's on the smaller
side of what we normally do.
(26:27):
And so we're redevelopingthat into a 24 to 25 unit.
We're messing with thesite plan a little bit now.
But what's really interesting withthat is I'm really I'm really a
nerd about like planning for taxes.
And so it's in an opportunity zone.
And so the tax benefits that you can getby investing qualifying gains into a an
(26:47):
opportunity zone are pretty substantial.
So, I have several six figuresinto it already personally.
And and it's, it's going really well.
So that's one exampleof our bigger projects.
So this opens up somethingthat I might have to edit out.
Cause I don't know if you want to godeeper into this, but we initially
touched base because you did contactme, which is awesome to be by the way,
dude, solid class, that guy right here.
(27:08):
But you call me, we started talkingabout some 10 31 stuff and you
started talking about how you have.
A knack for really focusing in on ways tomitigate some of the tax that you're going
to get hit with as a real estate investor.
So I will of course give the disclaimerthat you are not a tax professional.
You're not an attorney.
You're not a CPA.
So you don't have to give that stuff.
But in your experience that's thebiggest thing is once you figure
(27:31):
out how to make money, how do you.
Keep money in your pocket, notlet it all go out to Uncle Sam.
So talk about some of these things youwere doing from Opportunity Zones and
1031s and all that stuff that I thinkmost people don't realize that as I
found out after talking to you, there'sa lot of bad information out there that
people think that are actually not true.
Yeah, we don't have to edit this out.
I love being real andI'm going to send it.
(27:53):
I'm definitely going to send it.
So I try to take advantage ofevery real estate tax benefit that
there is and I'll go through them.
That might be, if I gotoo fast, just stop me.
So let me start out with probably whatI think is the most attainable for
every property owner, like every typicalperson you go out and buy a house.
It's the capital gains tax exemption.
It's for this reason that historicallyin Tampa, I try to move every two years
(28:16):
because I restart my clock to startanother capital gains tax exemption.
And again, I'm not a financial planner.
I'm not your tax accountant.
If you need tax advice, don't, thisis not it, but this is my own opinion.
So capital gains tax exemption says thatif you've lived in your primary residence
for any two out of the last five years,When you go to sell it, if you're filing
like me as someone who's single, you'reexempt on paying the profit or sorry,
(28:39):
you're exempt on paying tax on theprofit up to a quarter million dollars.
And if you're filing as married,it's up to a half million dollars.
So let's say that, today is it'sright now it's December 2024.
If I had bought a propertyfor 600k in Tampa.
In November of 2022 and I sold itthis month and I had lived in that
as my primary residence and that wasnow worth, I bought it for 600 and
(29:02):
now it's worth 850, then I just mademyself a quarter million dollars,
but I don't pay tax on any of it.
And if I'm making less than half amillion a year, which like most people
are, then that normally would be taxedas long term capital gains tax at 15%.
So I just saved myselfin doing so 37, 500.
If you have the gain of a quartermillion dollars so that's the first
(29:24):
thing that I would share that I thinkis like very attainable for many people.
Any questions on that?
No, that's awesome.
All right, cool.
So capital gains, tax exemption.
The second thing is 1031 exchange.
This is most applicable if you have andif you have properties that you hold for
investment purposes, mainly like rentalsthere's like a two year guideline that
you try, you want to try to follow.
(29:46):
So if you've held that for two yearslet's say you bought a property like two
years ago for 300k and now it's worth400k and along the time that you've held
it, you've also taken some depreciation,whether that was straight line or bonus.
If you sold that and it was just anarms length normal sale, you would owe
taxes on depreciation recapture when yousell it as well as the capital gains.
(30:07):
And so as long as you reinvest.
Had a, you reinvest into a property.
There's some time guidelines and stuff.
That's really the tricky partof doing a 1031 exchange.
So if you reinvest into a property orproperties that are at or above the
level that you just sold, it's calledthe replacement property by the way
then you are not exempt from payingthe taxes, but you're deferring it.
(30:29):
And so the idea with thatis you can just defer it.
And then at the time of your death,it's morbid, but it's real then you just
get the step up in basis and then yourheirs get to inherit that with with,
without incurring that tax liability.
So that's another reallystrong way to do it.
So here's a third one.
(30:52):
filing as a real estate professional.
So if you file as a real estateprofessional, then a lot of your income
within the real estate propertiesthat you materially participate in
Otherwise, it would be considered passiveincome, but instead because you're
filing as a real estate professional.
And by the way, look into the guidelinesfor real estate professional that
I'm not going to talk about it here,but there's like a lot of quirky
(31:14):
stuff with making sure you qualify.
There's a certain number of hours.
There's the short term rental loophole.
There's like the 50 percent guideline.
There's a lot of things that thisis a conversation you definitely
need to have with your CPA.
But if you can file as a real estateprofessional, it's a big advantage
because instead of, passive losses,which like depreciation is the passive
loss getting applied to your activeincome, you're making several hundreds
(31:36):
of thousands or a million dollars a year.
You can basically convert that overthrough real estate professional
status where it's active lossescounting against active income.
And so you can effectively really reduceyour tax burden that way, which is
something I've done for for a few years.
That's awesome, man.
So if we dig into the 1031 stuff,when you and I first touched base,
(31:57):
there was a lot of misconceptions ofthings I think people thought they
could do on 1031s that they could not.
And if I'm remembering thisright, one of them was like
you can't do it on residential.
Is that correct?
Yeah, you can.
Oh, you can.
Okay.
Okay.
Yeah.
You can do it on a residential property.
In fact, you can sell aresidential investment property
and go into commercial, right?
(32:18):
I was doing it earlier this year.
I had I had a commercial medicaloffice I had under contract.
We ended up not closing on it becauseit just, there were some things
that came up during due diligencethat weren't going to work, but
that would have been totally fine.
Awesome.
And then what, so what is the, cause Iget people a lot that I think when we
were first connected, one of my investorswas like, look, I have these properties.
If you can find a way to mitigate someof the taxes on this, I'll take the
(32:38):
money I make from this and I'll throwthem into some of your investments.
So I was like, all right,well, how do we do that?
So what are some of theintricacies of the timeline?
Is that something where.
If somebody's Hey, a propertyis already up for sale.
Is it too late to get into the 1031?
What are the specs on when somebodyshould do this and the timelines of
how this transpires and plays out?
(32:58):
Yeah.
By the way, the right person that youwant on your team, if you're going
to be doing a 1031, and by the way,you want to get them on your team
before you close the first propertyis called a qualified intermediary.
There's a lot of them outthere, but a 1031 qualified
intermediary, or I'll call it a QI.
Is they're going to be reallylike the custodian of the 1031
and the reason why is becauseyou can't ever touch those funds.
(33:20):
If you touch those funds that comeback to you as proceeds of a closing,
then the integrity of the 1031 hasbasically been breached and like
you, you can't get that tax benefitof deferring the taxes anymore.
It's part of the, like the,it's, this is all in section
1031 of the federal tax code.
So that's why it's called a 1031exchange Yeah, so you basically you
(33:42):
have relinquished property and youhave replacement property And so the
relinquish is the one you sell thereplacement is the one that you go
into So you get ready to do a 1031 youcontact the QI and you want to do that.
You can do it like A couple of weeksbefore closing on the relinquished.
Once the relinquished closes,start a timer on your watch.
You have 45 days to identifyproperties that you may want to
(34:06):
have as the replacement properties.
There's some other guidelines,but typically most people
use the three property rules.
So you can identify up tothree in that 45 day period.
Now this is probably the mostimportant part of the 1031.
You want to either identify threeand have confidence that you're
going to close on one of those three.
Or you can even close one of them withinthe identification period if you want.
(34:30):
That's what I've done both times actuallyBoth times in the past year that i've
done a 1031 So you have 45 days toidentify and then you have 135 days more
to close on one of those three So youhave a total of 180 days cumulatively And
so what you really want to Be cautiousagainst is day 46 if you realize that
(34:51):
you're not going to close on one of thosethree This is really bad thing because
your money is tied up until day 180.
You cannot get access to it Youhave a failed 1031 and you don't
get the money back until day 180 andyou don't get the tax benefits That
can be a really detrimental thing.
So by the way, here's like my hiddensecret Try to get the replacement property
(35:13):
under contract Before the relinquishedeven sells because if you do it right,
let's say you get the replacementproperty, the one you're going to buy
later under contract, maybe like 10 daysbefore you close the relinquished, but
you have a 15 day due diligence period.
Well, now you have a risk buffer.
(35:34):
And if the first one doesn't close,the relinquished doesn't close.
Then you can back out of that replacementproperty within your due diligence
period, which is, a common thing.
And then if it does move forward,then you're you're putting
your eggs in that basket.
You keep your hands there and tryingto close that replacement property
sometime within that 45 day period.
(35:56):
The good thing about that is if thatfails with that strategy, you realize
it within the 45 days and you can tryagain to find like one of those three
properties that you should identify.
That's great info, man.
These are all things that like, they don'ttell you, people just think, Oh, I just
roll this over and I make this money.
Even like the QI thing, I've neverfound one of those before, but I
assume like everybody else I've comeacross in real estate, like property
(36:19):
managers, real estate agents, whatever.
There's good ones and there'sbad ones, is there any.
Quick tips or red flags to look foror things to ask that could help you
maybe quickly decipher Is this even aQI I want to continue a conversation
with or should I go find somebody else?
Yeah, you have like cost versus benefitfor sure So I'd ask them like, how much
(36:39):
is your standard 1031 to work with you?
Also, this is we could go down a realrabbit hole here I want to ask them if
they can facilitate a tenant in commontransaction on your replacement property,
because that's, that is a way that youcan go from like any investment that
you hold in your own single memberLLC, or maybe even in your own name.
(37:00):
And you can take that and you cango into a really big multifamily
deal as a tenant in common.
And some QIs, if they're less familiarwith that process, they really make
it rather challenging for not justfor you, but also for the general
partners, it becomes a nightmare.
It's interesting stuff, man.
And obviously every time you learn aboutsomething, there's the onion that I call
(37:22):
it of well, I got this part, that's good.
And then if you have a deeperconversation, as you keep saying,
this could be a whole five hourother conversation, about a
million other things that pop up.
So part of what you do with your realestate group is I know you have a
really big free group, and then youhave an elite group of people that
maybe want some additional resources.
For I guess a two part question hereas far as masterminds go, you're an
(37:43):
attendee of a lot of masterminds.
You and I are in one togetherand then you also run one too.
So I'd like to askquestions about both hats.
So as somebody who already knows so much.
I think it's interesting when I'll teacha class or I'll hold a meet up or I'll
just talking to investors and people go,you know what, Nick, I'm just going to
watch a YouTube video, or I'm going tolisten to somebody talk for two hours.
(38:04):
And then I'm going to go outand make a million dollars.
And then I realized that like therooms we're in are people that know
a lot and still pay to learn more.
And so I think that knowledge basisof just coming in and being open
minded and always being a student,like I remember the first time I
ever signed up for a mentorship, Iwas like, Well, this will probably
be the only mentorship I ever need.
And then you get good at that.
You go, and now I want to learn this.
(38:25):
Let me go find somebody to teach me this.
You're wrestling coach, you'rejujitsu coach, you're boxing
coach, you're multifamilycoach, same type of thing there.
So for somebody on your level, that'salready got so much experience.
What are the benefits to you of beingsomebody who's in a mastermind with
other investors and other entrepreneurs?
Yeah.
Being exposed to new ideas about howpeople are achieving efficient success.
(38:45):
Like some weeks I feel like I still worka lot and I'm like, Oh, if there's little
tweaks that they're doing whether that'sin their systems or processes or in their
leadership to be more efficient, like I'malways interested in that, who wouldn't
be, and then being exposed there's areal power as long as you're open to the
learning, there's real power in gettingaround people who have ideas of things
(39:08):
like you didn't know, you didn't know.
And so like thinking, there'sbeen a few in the mastermind that
we're in, there's been a few timesI never even thought about that.
And here's an example, like maybesome client retention in our
mastermind group here in Tampa.
It's Oh, I'd never really thoughtabout making that part of our
actual plan or like making thata deliberate calculated thing.
(39:31):
So just being exposed to things you didn'teven consider before is super powerful.
I love that, man.
I agree.
There's always, I leave that everytime with it used to be a lot of
notes and now I try and make sure Ionly have a couple of key takeaways
because you go home almost overwhelmed.
But it's even incredible, man.
Like it's not even thepanels or the teaching.
Sometimes it's a conversation you havein the hallway or in the bathroom or
(39:53):
in the parking lot or in the morning atthe gym and like 5, 10, 15 minutes with
somebody like you or like my buddy RyanWeimer or listening to Jason Hartman.
Like it's.
It's incredible, man.
And there's always likenew stuff changing.
And so on the student side of it,now that you're somebody who actually
educates and things, I heard you talkabout something that it's one of the
biggest things that drives me crazy.
And so I wanted to hear where your thoughtprocesses on this, but as an educator,
(40:17):
I take a lot of responsibility whenpeople make mistakes or they don't take
action or they take the wrong action.
And like 99 percent of the time,If somebody comes to me and goes, I
didn't make any money or I lost money,it's either because they did nothing
or they literally, you gave themthe steps and then they just didn't
listen and did their own, or theytried to make up their own recipe.
(40:40):
And I've heard you talk about thatbefore of look, look, I told you A to
Z of what to do and then you went andyou rearranged the whole thing and now
you're wondering like what happens.
So what do you think it is abouthuman nature that we come to
people and we ask them for helpand then we don't listen to them.
And before I let you ask, likethe example I give here, which
I try and do all the time is.
When I go to a restaurant and the maitred or the manager or somebody comes over,
(41:01):
I go, Hey, I've never been here before.
What do you recommend?
What's the best things on the menu?
And they go, Oh man, if you comehere, you have to have this.
And I go, well, I'm going to getsomething else and say, what the hell
did you ask me for in the first place?
You know what I mean?
So let's talk a little bit aboutthat as an educator, what are some
things you can do or some thingsto help people color in the lines
so they don't make these mistakes.
I think there is like a true powerin asking the right questions
(41:25):
and framing things the right way.
Like it's also, I think it's a great way.
I don't love the S word personally, butI think it's also a great way to sell.
Like, why is this important to you?
I genuinely want to know.
So unpacking that well, whydid you take that exact step
at this phase of the project?
And then as they start there's ourminds are designed to keep us safe.
(41:48):
Our minds are not designed tokeep, to get us out of discomfort.
And so I think when you start to unpackthat with somebody, if you're having a
talk about a recent challenge, they have,they often, I see this a lot, they often
start to realize like, Where it went wrongand you don't even have to say anything
like they realize it on their own so Ithink that's like an approach that I take
(42:09):
but i'd also say that my mastermind groupis like It's definitely not all about me.
I'm not coaching Everyone in thereon like how to do Anything, right?
It's our mastermind is focused.
It's it's a little bit different.
It's it's focused on beinga center of excellence for
collaboration in the Tampa market.
So if you're a player in thismarket, most people are in the group.
If you're not like, maybe you just,I don't know, maybe you don't like
(42:30):
collaboration or you think I figured out.
So.
I think that's what I would say.
Oh, one more thing I was thinking about.
There's another type of persontoo, and it's typically, they're
not going to be the type thatare in your mastermind group.
These are the kinds of people,and I'm not trying to like make
them sound like bad people.
They're just probably not going tobe like my closest colleagues, but
(42:52):
there's a type of person that, andyou've had this, I guarantee it.
That's come up to you and theysay Hey, I just heard you talk.
Is there a time where we can meetup and let, and I can pick your
brain and they don't know you.
They heard you talk about a topicthat interests them typically not
always those types of people whenyou give them the playbook and do
(43:13):
a, do steps a, B and C and they comeback and they say it didn't work.
Whatever it is you're about torespond with, it's very likely
that they actually want supportand they don't want solutions.
They just want to be heard and seen.
They don't want to do it the way that youknow works that you've already told them.
If they did, they would have done that.
(43:35):
So that's my opinionon that type of person.
I love it.
It's typically like a lessserious type of person.
Yeah, I agree with that.
You're right.
I've come across thatquite often for sure.
So the, on your side of it now, talkabout what you're doing with your,
I know you have your big free group,you have some additional stuff.
So talk about currently whatyou guys are doing there to help
investors in the Tampa market.
And then talk about some things thatare coming up in the near future.
(43:56):
Yeah, for sure.
So, in our local mastermindgroup, we're going to end up
capping that at 150 people.
It'll happen at somepoint in 2025, I think.
The reason why is I want topurposefully keep it intimate.
I'm a big, I'm a big believerin purpose over profits.
And so as long as we can keep instillinglike Disproportionate, intense, massive
(44:17):
amount of value within the mastermindgroup and help people like earn
more together through collaboration.
They otherwise nevercould have on their own.
Then I think that will continue toattract the serious type of investor.
That's really the perfect type thatjoins the group and it's important
to them because of that reason.
So that's that's some growthwe're looking forward to.
We only started at 15 months ago.
(44:39):
So being at 90 people within15 months, like I'm very proud
of my team to accomplish.
That in a relatively short amount of timebut getting up to Getting up to 150 and
what's cool is when the right people Comein It just enhances the collaboration
that much more, which is great.
And then leadership is areally big passion of mine,
leadership of small teams.
I have, I've written behind my computerover here, like my superpower is leading,
(45:02):
growing high performance organizations.
And so I want to share thatmore with entrepreneurs in 2025.
So we're rolling out a pilot programin in January, probably around
when this airs, but rolling outa 90 day pilot program to teach.
Better leadership approaches andstrategy to entrepreneurs with an
existing proven business model.
So I'm excited for that.
(45:23):
It's a passion project, sowe'll see where it goes.
It's just an enjoyment of mine.
That's awesome, man.
And that's really exciting.
Again who has more experience and betterleadership of what to do and what not to
do than somebody who's a, a Navy SEAL man.
So I'm very interested to hear allthis stuff that you have on that side.
And for somebody listening on anylevel, if they're getting started, if
they're looking to jump into the Tampamarket, if they're looking to excel
(45:45):
or be a bigger, better real estateinvestor, or even leader, what are the
best ways to connect with you, withyour masterminds, with your programs?
Yeah, absolutely.
It's all on Instagram.
We're big on, on being on Instagram.
And so it's a JPL invest on Instagram.
So we put out a lot ofeducational stuff there.
We post, when we're going to havea meetup on there, everything
(46:05):
is on Instagram, JPL invest.
That's awesome, man.
And as we come to, either late 2024,early 2025, people are gearing up,
everybody wants to know what's happening.
We just had a big election recently.
What are some of your predictions orsome things you're seeing that you're
looking at to adjust or to preparefor the 2025 real estate market?
Yeah.
So I will caveat this with saying everytime I've ever done a prediction on a
(46:29):
podcast, like they've mostly been wrong.
And also I'm not specialwith some crystal ball.
Here's what I think.
I think Trump being elected isprobably going to bode well for
the real estate industry andthe general economy as a whole.
And also there's a lot of studies.
So just realize that in thiskind of timeframe we're in Tampa,
we just got hit with two prettysubstantial hurricanes back to back.
(46:52):
There's a lot of data that says thelocalized market actually does better
in the in like the six months plusfollowing a major hurricane like that.
And so I think that makes me prettybullish on the Tampa market personally.
I love it, man.
It's pretty wild.
I think I just read that Floridajust took over New York as
(47:13):
like the number two highest.
And if you look at it, it's probablybecause 80 percent of Florida is
from New York when they go out there.
But yeah, man, I think it's awesome.
Who doesn't want to be in warmweather all day long as I sit here
in Chicago and it's 16 degrees.
Tampa sounds prettyawesome right now, man.
So it doesn't surprise me that's alwaysa market that usually lands on its feet.
Yeah, I think it's 70 out right now.
Ah, you son of a gun.
(47:33):
That sounds awesome, man.
Well, you, sir, are somebody whobrings your A game to everything
you do in life and in business, man.
I'm very impressed with yourbackground and what you've done
in a short period of time and whatyou're doing in the future, man.
Again, I hear nothing butfantastic things about you.
If you Go on Spotifyor any of these things.
You have so many other podcastsout there and each one of them
are a little bit different.
You have so many different thingsyou talk about and you articulate
(47:54):
them and bring value to all ofthem in different ways, man.
So I think you're a very specialguy and I'm looking forward to
seeing what you do in the future.
You have not let us down here.
You definitely bought your agame to this podcast today, man.
It has been an absolute honor tohave you on any final thoughts
for the audience before we letyou go about your busy day, sir.
Yeah, if there, I do have one, by the way,Nick, thank you so much for having me on.
It's such an honor.
(48:15):
Love being on the A game podcast.
I think what you're doing is amazing.
So final thoughts, if there aresome of you out there that have
been considering taking the plungeto be an entrepreneur for a while.
Or you're, you've beenthrowing some ideas around.
You can't really settleon how to move forward.
Just realize this, that taking any amountof imperfect but massive action over
(48:39):
time is always going to outweigh havingthe perfect plan that is only cultivated
through 10 years of generating it.
So start and take that first step now.
That's what I would share.
Wise words.
So I very much appreciate it.
Thank you for being on today.
See the show notes for all theways they connect with you.
I'll have more right in there.
Clickable away.
(49:00):
And I'll be posting a lotof clips from this podcast.
I appreciate your time, sir.
I look forward to hopefullyseeing you soon in Tampa.
James Oscar, ladies andgentlemen, have a fantastic day.
Thanks, Nick.
If you have been kicking yourself thatyou didn't start investing in real
estate sooner, whether you're a beginner,intermediate, or advanced, any way
you're looking to get out of residential,commercial, land development, wholesaling,
fix and flips, whatever it is, let'sfind a way to get you involved in some
(49:21):
projects, get you some properties, whetheryou want to sell some properties to me,
whether you want to buy some propertiesfrom me, cashflow, multifamily, whatever
it is you're looking for, let's figureout a way to get you involved or find a
way for us to partner up on some deals.
Reach out to me on any ofmy social media channels.
If you go on www.
nicknicknick.
com slash links, you will seeall the different ways to connect
(49:42):
with me and figure out how wecan start to work together.
Make it happen.
Everybody that invests inreal estate always just says
they wish they did it sooner.
Best time to start is today.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.