IAM1334 – CEO Develops Short-Term Rental Properties

Alex Jarbo is a short-term rental developer and manager. He was born and raised in Detroit Michigan. He served in the Marine Corps for 4 ½ years where he was stationed in Washington DC as part of the Marine Corps Honor Guard. He left the Marine Corps at 22 years old to pursue his career as a real estate professional. He is the founder and CEO of Sargon Investments and he has a goal of developing 650 cabins in the next 3 years. Alex holds an MBA with a concentration in Real Estate Development and is currently finishing a Doctorate in Business with a concentration in Leadership. He is the host of the YouTube Channel Alex Builds where he teaches the ins and outs of short-term development and management.

• CEO Story: After serving in the Marine Corp. Alex entered the real state, niching in rentals. Got his license. Started with buying and selling properties and ended up buying one. Ventured into building his own investment property and it just keeps on growing.
• Business Service: Rentals, investments, and real state development. Content creation through YouTube.
• Secret Sauce: The ability to see the opportunity and bring it to fruition. Developing unique properties.
• CEO Hack: Time blocking. Choosing to focus on one thing.
• CEO Nugget: Taking responsibility when something bad happens. Accomplishments should be credited to the team.
• CEO Defined: Leadership and responsibility. Setting the vision and taking constructive criticism from your team.

Website: sargoninvestments.com

YouTube: AlexBuilds1

Linkedin: @alex-jarbo

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00:19 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:47 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Alex Jarbo of Sargon Investments. Alex is super excited to have you on the show.

00:56 – Alex Jarbo

Thanks for having me on man.

00:58 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, excited about all the awesome things that you're doing. And of course, before we hear a little bit more about them, I want to read a little bit more about Alex. So Alex is a short-term rental developer and manager, and he was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan. He served in the Marine Corps for 4 and a half years where he was stationed in Washington, D. C. Part of the Marine Corps Honor Guard. Thank you for your service.

He left the Marine Corps after 22 years old to pursue his career as a real estate professional. He's the founder and CEO of Sargon Investments, and he has a goal of developing 650 cabins in the next 3 years. Alex holds an MBA with a concentration in real estate development and is currently finishing a doctorate in business with a concentration in leadership. He is the host of the YouTube channel Alex Builds where he teaches the ins and outs of short-term development and management. Alex, Appreciate you again for taking some time out to be on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:51 – Alex Jarbo

Yeah, let's do it, man.

01:53 – Gresham Harkless

Let's make it happen then. So to kind of kick everything off, I know I touched on a little bit when I read your bio, but I wanted to rewind the clock, and hear a little bit more about how you guys started, what I call your CEO story.

02:02 – Alex Jarbo

Yeah, absolutely. So I decided to get out of the Marine Corps again like you said when I was 22. And I just didn't really want to move back to where I originally was from just because I wanted to work on it. I'd looked at different things like investment and I settled on real estate and then sub-niche to that. This is back in 2016. I had settled on short-term rentals. They were starting to become way more popular back then compared to right now where they're like, just like you just, that's all you hear about when you hear about real estate investing.

But moved here to Asheville where I live currently, got my real estate license and we started looking, I started helping different people sort of buy and sell short-term rentals and it came to a point where I wanted to actually purchase one myself. I wanted to use my VA loan, essentially purchase a duplex or a triplex, live in one of them, essentially house hack, but like house hack with short-term rentals. And So like live in one of them and rent out the other 2, but I could not find anything on the market.

So we just decided to build our first property, our first investment property. And we didn't have, I didn't have too much money at the time, but we ended up building like a 900 square foot property that ended up doing really well. And then one turned into 2, 2 turned into like 6. And then like right now we're developing close to 20 right now. But yeah, no, we just, I decided to take on investor capital started with like friends and family. And then right now we're just expanding really quickly getting in different markets and stuff.

03:37 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Absolutely love that. And you said some terms I want to just throw down a little bit more on the term. She says house hacking. That's basically when you guess live in one of the rooms and you're able to rent out the rest?

03:49 – Alex Jarbo

Yeah, rooms or like if it's like a duplex or a triplex where it's like 2 or 3 units, the VA loan, FHA loans allow you to do that. And that's what I was looking to do. But at the time, it's just like there was nothing on the market that there were things, but it was just way out of my price range too. So, but yeah, I mean, it was like I was really determined to find something or get into the short-term rentals. I started managing other properties for people as well.

And that was pretty lucrative as well because I didn't have any, but I didn't have any ownership in the properties. And I wanted to have some sort of ownership of the property. So that's why after building that first one, that's sort of where we developed. And then we built 2 more that I'm 100% owner in. We sort of developed, I like my balance sheet at the time was was pretty maxed out. So that's that's where I decided to take on investors. And I mean, it's been a fun ride ever since in a couple of years now or 3 years now.

04:45 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, absolutely love that. I appreciate you for, you know, sharing that story, because I think sharing your story because I think so many times you don't hear about all those steps and all those things. We just hear where you're at in 3 years and are developing and doing all those awesome things. We don't hear kind of like the beginning stages of trying to figure out which property, trying to house hack, and finding something that was your great fit so that you can move forward.

05:06 – Alex Jarbo

Like the five-year overnight success type story.

05:10 – Gresham Harkless

Exactly. Well, they say the secret to overnight success is it takes 10 years.

05:14 – Alex Jarbo

Right. Exactly.

05:15 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That makes so much sense. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more. I know you touched a little bit on how you serve and work with your investors and your clients. So I wanted to hear more about that and hear more about your YouTube channel as well too and how you're serving your clients there.

05:27 – Alex Jarbo

Yeah, I mean, so there's a lot of I mean, there's there's like 100 books behind me. Half of those are about real estate investing, but a lot there. When I first started, there weren't too many things on short-term rentals. And then on top of that, there was absolutely nothing on short-term rental development. Now, there is there are a couple of YouTube channels out that are phenomenal that I've learned so much from. But I wanted to sort of detail my process because like in real estate, real estate development, especially mistakes mean money, and it's not like a couple of hundred dollars, it's thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars.

Real estate development, it's like you don't know what you don't know. And I wanted to start detailing that. That was for me, but also for other people who want to go through this. I know for a fact that people are wanting to get into short-term rentals. And I talk to investors every single day, every single week who are looking to get into short-term rentals. But the cap rates are so compressed now because I mean, it's our cats out of the bag with how lucrative short-term rentals can be.

And right now, like you're also competing with people who also want to live in these properties as well, like people who are maybe moving to the city, new like new to the city and everything. And just development is just the route that I felt was the best way. But again, I like detailing every single step through my YouTube channel. And then also if people want to do it themselves and have some money saved up, we also have the investment side of my company as well.

06:57 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes so much sense. Do you consider that to be what I like to call your secret sauce this could be for yourself the business combination of both but is it your ability to kind of I guess you know see that opportunity but also bring that to fruition and see it in you know bring it to fruition in different ways for people to invest and to engage do you feel like that kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

07:17 – Alex Jarbo

Yeah, that's definitely the secret sauce is again, the high barrier to entry, but also the, like the high barrier energy to development, but also having the eye to be able to develop properties like this, like these unique properties, and everyone's going to be a little bit different. Like I'll tell you, I'm really good with the structure of like looking at land and being able to place houses in my head and seeing that interior design is sort of where I lack, but I have people that helped me with that.

My wife is obviously one of them, But yeah, that's probably our secret sauce right now: developing these unique properties. And I mean, just stay sort of just keeping a finger on the pulse of sort of what's up and coming like different countries and stuff have like different forms of, I guess, architecture and stuff and sort of bringing that into the mountains, into the beaches that we're investing in. That's been very powerful. I'm sort of giving away my secret sauce here, but yeah, that's definitely what's sort of set us apart as these unique properties.

08:14 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I appreciate you giving away that secret sauce. It's just me and you here so no worries about it.

08:19 – Alex Jarbo

No.1 else.

08:20 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, totally. So that makes so much sense and I think being able to, of course, I imagine too, you like to cultivate, you know, a lot of the things that, you know, make us unique, that ability, that talent. I imagine all those books that are behind you are probably not all collecting deaths. And I imagine you've probably been learning a lot about, you know, the industry about certain things that probably help you sharpen that's that, that's all, so to speak.

08:42 – Alex Jarbo

Yeah, and it doesn't even need to be a real estate book, whatever, whatever, whatever business anyone is listening to is in right now. Like I would say just keep it in the back of your mind when you start a new book how is this going to apply to my business? That's probably a nugget. A really good nugget is whether it be an apartment book, whether it be a general business book, always keep that in the back of your mind. If you're listening to or reading a book how can I apply this to my business?

Always constantly be asking yourself that is, how does this apply to my business? Never, never put that tag on a book or any type of resource that this doesn't apply to my business because you'll be there. How they're more than likely there's going to be something in the business book in the real estate, but whatever it is that you can apply to your business, whether it be tech or anything.

09:29 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, That makes so much sense. And I almost feel like a lot of times the innovation that happens is not necessarily creating something completely new, but taking something from one industry and bringing it into another industry. And a lot of times you see that innovation and, you know, that trailblazing happens as a result of that. So you might have already touched on this, but I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO hack. So it's a little bit more of an app, a book, or a habit that you have. What's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

09:56 – Alex Jarbo

Time blocking is probably going to be the biggest thing man is literally choosing one thing a day. It could be the same thing over and over again throughout the whole week or a month or whatever, or it could be different things, but it's just one thing that you focus on for 3 hours a day. And putting that somewhere in your schedule where you're not bothered, the phone gets kicked out of your room or your office. Everything's turned off. You're not checking your email. You're literally focusing on that one thing.

And for me, it's content creation right now. It's the YouTube channel. It's stuff like this. I look at this as content as well, as doing podcasts. I absolutely love doing podcasts too, but just time blocking about 3 hours a day is sort of the magic spot right there. And you know what, I do take breaks. I like every 45 minutes I'll step away, maybe for 10 minutes, 15 minutes, and go back and forth. That just works for me.

10:51 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So you might have already touched on this, but I wanted to ask you if you had another what I like to call CEO nugget, which is a little bit more of a word of wisdom piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell an investment or an investor, or if you have to do a time machine, you might tell your younger business.

11:05 – Alex Jarbo

So, yeah, I would say, man, and this sort of touches into the leadership aspect of being a CEO, because you are you're not the CFO, you're the CEO. And I feel like the CEO is the leader of the company to be able to adjust the sales and sort of push the direction of the company. Anything that happens in your business that is sort of like criticism or anything that goes wrong, things go off the rails, that's your fault. You need to be able to take ownership of that. And then anytime your business, whether whatever accolades that your business sort of accomplishes or whatever your definition of successes in your business, if you achieve that that that that should go all to your team out the credit to that should go to your team.

So it's 2 ways. If anything goes wrong, it's your fault to figure out why that happened. So take ownership of that. And then anything any type of positive thing that happens in your business, that's all that credit should go to your employees, your contractors, whoever. For me, it's my GCs. And I don't have too many employees on my actual payroll. But I work with a lot of contractors. That is everything, same thing with my cleaning company. All the success I've had goes to them. So that's that from a CEO standpoint, that's the nugget I'd share with everyone listening.

12:22 – Gresham Harkless

That's powerful. And I think it to me is just kind of removing the I, me from the business and actually realizing, you know, how important it is to, as you talked about, even around the interior design, surround yourself with really phenomenal people that know their craft so well, but also understanding that by taking on this endeavor, you are taking on the brand of the responsibility and that those things don't go according to plan. And that's kind of at your doorstep. You have to kind of fix or, you know, do whatever you need to do to make sure that comes.

12:52 – Alex Jarbo

And it's one big circle, man, is like, when you start taking ownership of stuff, is everyone you start working with starts doing the same thing too. It's like, oh crap, okay, he's doing that, she's doing that. And yeah, no, it builds your culture, especially when it comes time to step away from your company and sort of focus on something else where you're not the CEO, maybe you're just on the board of directors, you're building that culture within your company, that like the taken ownership of everything inside of your company or community or whatever you're building.

13:21 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So is that how you would define you know being a CEO? I usually have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show but is that leadership piece of responsibility? Is that part of like what your definition of what it means to be a CEO?

13:32 – Alex Jarbo

Yeah, setting the vision, setting the vision is that, and then obviously taking criticism or taking constructive criticism from your team because you don't you don't know everything. It's not your job to know everything. That's why you hire people.

13:45 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I appreciate that. And going back to like the high me and all those things that we kind of get obsessed with. I don't know if you feel the same way, but I almost feel like to am a great leader. A lot of times you have to have the ego to believe that you can create something bigger, better, and better than that. But at the same time, you can't let your ego get in the way where you don't listen to other people.

14:05 – Alex Jarbo

Yeah, it's it is it is a very fine line. Like, yeah, because it's like you don't want to come off as cocky, egotistical. But at the same time, it's like you do have to have the confidence to go out there and achieve something, something.

14:18 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, it's so powerful. As you said, I love the, you know, you have that ego. You don't become egotistical because you want to have confidence. But at the same time, you want to have that humility to make sure that you are, you know, making sure that as you steer the vision, you are paying attention to those blind spots that we have other people on our team, kind of protect us from.

14:36 – Alex Jarbo

Right.

14:37 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, appreciate your time even more. Alex, what I want to do now is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people get a hold of you. Find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

14:52 – Alex Jarbo

Yeah. So, I mean, the quickest way is probably going to be either LinkedIn. You guys put Alex Drabo in or on my YouTube channel, Alex Builds. If you guys are looking, we're putting a course together that sort of touches on some of the stuff we teach on the YouTube side, but like almost like a done-for-you type thing with workbooks and stuff that's going to be on our website. If you guys are looking to invest with us there's an investor portal through our website. That website is sargoninvestments.com.

She'll be in the show notes somewhere. But if you guys go there, you can find the YouTube channel, you can find the wait list for the course we're putting together, and then our investor portal as well. If you guys wanna invest with us, just fill out everything we have there, and then I'll schedule a call directly with me, and then we'll talk about everyone's goals and everything, whatever they are looking to do.

15:37 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And just like Alex said, to make it even easier, we'll have the links and information in the show notes as well, too. I truly appreciate you, obviously, for all the work you do, the time that you took today. Just reminds me everything of the quote is that you can see so much further by standing on the shoulders of giants and everything that you've been able to do, everything that you're sharing and, you know, helping to arm people with the knowledge and, you know, awareness of what to do and what not to do is so huge. So thank you for allowing us to stand on your shoulders for a little bit today. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:06 – Alex Jarbo

Thanks, man. Appreciate it.

16:08 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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