062: Leaving a Corporate Job to Start Real Estate with Justin Gesso

On today’s episode of the InvestFourMore Real Estate Podcast I speak with Justin Gesso, who is my team manager, a real estate agent, a property manager, an entrepreneur, and he has now written a #1 international bestselling book Leave the Grind Behind! In fact, he is doing something very special for InvestFourMore readers only. He’s giving away 5 signed copies of the book, which you can check out here.

Justin was a high level corporate manager making great money when he decided to quit his job and get into the real estate business. Justin and I were college roommates and have been friends for many years when he decided to come work with me instead of continue in the corporate world. I think Justin was tired of the uncertainty, the ceiling on income (unless you are willing to give up your entire life), and the stress of working as a high level manager.

It did not take Justin long to succeed in real estate as an agent, a property manager, and a team manager. We hear all about it on this podcast episode.

How did Justin’s career progress?

Justin graduated from the University of Colorado just like I did. He joined the corporate world because that was what he was taught his entire life. Get a decent job, save some money, start a family, and maybe retire at 65. After being in the corporate world and seeing many of the people he worked with laid off, he started to question his strategy. Then we started talking more about my business and what I was doing in real estate. He was a little surprised at how much money I was making, since he thought real estate agents did not do very well.

When Justin and I started talking about our careers and what we were up to, I happened across a CD set that was super motivating for me. The CD’s were created by Kevin Trudeau, who happens to be in prison right now, but his CD’s were very motivating for me. That CD set got me started on positive thinking, taking control of my life, and being willing to take risks. When you listen to the CD’s, you can tell Kevin is making up a lot of stuff, but the overall message is good. After listening to those CD’s, I started reading and listening to more self-help books and I joined Jack Canfield coaching.

After going through a serious attitude change I decided it was time to take control of the business my father and I ran. In order to do that I would need help, because I am not good at details or organizing things. At this same time I decided to ask Justin if he would be interested in working with me (I was sure he would say no), but he thought about it and decided to quit his job and move to Greeley from Denver. We talk about this in detail on the podcast.

How has Justin transitioned into the real estate world?

One of the biggest fears of anyone leaving the corporate world is how they are going to make money and the lack of benefits. When you are in real estate, you most likely will not have any health insurance, 401k’s or retirement plans paid for you. You have to figure that out yourself and you only make money when you sell a house. Justin had saved a money in preparation for the change and he made sure not to burn any bridges during the process.

Justin got his real estate license, and also agreed to help me manage the team. I approached my dad, we came to an agreement for me to buy out the business, and Justin helped me take over the team at the end of 2013. During this same time my wife had been complaining to me about managing our rental properties. She did a lot of the management work and once we got to 7 rentals, it was getting very time consuming. I taught Justin how to manage my rentals and he took over as property manager.

Justin has been able to achieve a much higher income and better lifestyle in real estate. He is very happy he made the move and cannot imagine going back.

How did Justin help me with InvestFourMore?

Not only did Justin help me with my team, my rentals and become an agent. He also had an IT background and helped me create InvestFourMore. I had no blogging experience when I started the site in 2013 and no idea how to create a website. He has continuously helped with the back end on the website and given me many great ideas on how to make the site better. Justin admits that working on the site is one of his favorite parts of his work.