After leaving a successful career to pursue his passion in real estate, it didn’t take long for Jared James to make a name for himself. In his first year as a realtor he won “Rookie of the Year.”
The following year he decided to start a team and within two years was one of the top teams in New England. Shortly after, the readers of REALTOR Magazine voted him their Web Choice award winner as their favorite Realtor in the U.S. in their “30 under 30” issue.
Jared was then inducted into the Hall of Fame for the world’s largest real estate company ... all before the age of 28.
One of Jared’s passions has always been to help others experience success. With the help of his debut best-selling book, Jared is now one of the most sought-after coaches and speakers in the country.
What is unique about Jared is his continued dedication to his family. As much as he loves his business and has a passion for seeing the success of his coaching clients, nothing can replace the joy he gets from his wife and two boys.
The Epoch Times spoke to Jared about his success and his book, “Enjoy Success Today: How to Start and Build a Thriving Business…and Still Have a Life!”
JARED: Not nearly as fast as last time.
Before, it was 20- and 30-percent increases per year; which in my mind is unhealthy, because who can keep up with that?
It got to the point where you looked at what the average price for a first-time homebuyer was and thought: ‘How in the world was anybody going to afford that?’
People are a little more cautious now. I still think we’re going to see the increases (which we’ve already started to see) but I think it’s going to happen a lot slower.
People have been a bit more reluctant to get in. Although when you look at some of the major players in real estate—the Donald Trumps of the world, the Warren Buffets—they have started buying real estate because they know now is the time.
This is when everybody is going, ‘I’m not sure, have we hit the bottom yet?’ Well the truth is, when do you know if you’ve hit the bottom? Once it starts going up, right?
So the key is, the smart people look at all the indicators and they say, ‘You know what, now is the time, we’re starting to see it.’
Historically what happens is that pricing follows activity. So when you saw activity increasing month after month, with an occasional bump here and there; that meant that pricing was only going to follow. Now we’re starting to see that, we’re starting to see data coming up that pricing has increased.
The only issue why I don’t think pricing is increasing faster than in prior years is: number one, people are a little bit more reluctant; and number two, the banks are very reluctant, meaning that [from] an appraisal standpoint, they won’t allow that to happen.
So even when you have people that are making multiple offers and prices are going over asking prices—even if the market determines that property was worth that price—if the bank doesn’t see comparative property in the past three months or six months that match that, they won’t appraise it out.
So even if someone offers a certain price, they’re not able to close on the property. As long as the bank is doing that, you’re not going to be able to have too much rapid rise in pricing because the banks aren’t going to allow it.
It’s kind of a catch 22—the market wants to increase but the banks won’t allow it.
JARED: It’s getting more and more difficult to give people loans.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are introducing guidelines now where, up until the day of closing, they’re going to re-pull credit on someone, and if their credit score drops below where it needs to be they’re not going to get their loan.
Which means if somebody has got a commitment on their loan, is ready to close on their house, and prior to closing goes to a furniture store and takes out furniture and puts it on their credit card, and then their credit gets pulled right before, and now their ratios have changed, they’re going to get declined on their house the day before.
These are the kinds of things that are, in my mind, ridiculous. They’re getting so stringent with the regulations these days that they’re punishing people who had nothing to do with problems in the markets.
The truth is, the banks aren’t going to come out of the situation they’re in unless they lend to these kind of people who are good borrowers.
Here’s another great example, what many people do before their closing, is to get their homeowner’s insurance policy. The high majority, over 90 percent of these people, put that homeowner’s policy on their credit card.
Simply putting your homeowner’s insurance on your credit card can now change your ratios and make you not qualified for that loan the day before closing because you bought homeowner’s insurance.
These kinds of changes that are going to affect the real estate market have got to be adjusted because they don’t deal with the heartbeat of the market, they don’t take into account common sense.
JARED: There’s something that is just so gratifying about being able to take people that are struggling financially and show them how to come out of that place.
Or maybe they’re making a lot of money in real estate but they’re slaves to their jobs and they’re workaholics; so showing them how to increase their incomes and decrease the amount of time it takes to do that.
That to me is extremely gratifying because it has such a profound effect, not just on their businesses but also on their lives.
When you show someone how to increase income, you take off so many stresses, which in turn improves their relationships.
The following year he decided to start a team and within two years was one of the top teams in New England. Shortly after, the readers of REALTOR Magazine voted him their Web Choice award winner as their favorite Realtor in the U.S. in their “30 under 30” issue.
Jared was then inducted into the Hall of Fame for the world’s largest real estate company ... all before the age of 28.
One of Jared’s passions has always been to help others experience success. With the help of his debut best-selling book, Jared is now one of the most sought-after coaches and speakers in the country.
What is unique about Jared is his continued dedication to his family. As much as he loves his business and has a passion for seeing the success of his coaching clients, nothing can replace the joy he gets from his wife and two boys.
The Epoch Times spoke to Jared about his success and his book, “Enjoy Success Today: How to Start and Build a Thriving Business…and Still Have a Life!”
EPOCH TIMES: Is now a good time to buy? How fast is this cycle going?
JARED: Not nearly as fast as last time.
Before, it was 20- and 30-percent increases per year; which in my mind is unhealthy, because who can keep up with that?
It got to the point where you looked at what the average price for a first-time homebuyer was and thought: ‘How in the world was anybody going to afford that?’
People are a little more cautious now. I still think we’re going to see the increases (which we’ve already started to see) but I think it’s going to happen a lot slower.
People have been a bit more reluctant to get in. Although when you look at some of the major players in real estate—the Donald Trumps of the world, the Warren Buffets—they have started buying real estate because they know now is the time.
This is when everybody is going, ‘I’m not sure, have we hit the bottom yet?’ Well the truth is, when do you know if you’ve hit the bottom? Once it starts going up, right?
So the key is, the smart people look at all the indicators and they say, ‘You know what, now is the time, we’re starting to see it.’
Historically what happens is that pricing follows activity. So when you saw activity increasing month after month, with an occasional bump here and there; that meant that pricing was only going to follow. Now we’re starting to see that, we’re starting to see data coming up that pricing has increased.
The only issue why I don’t think pricing is increasing faster than in prior years is: number one, people are a little bit more reluctant; and number two, the banks are very reluctant, meaning that [from] an appraisal standpoint, they won’t allow that to happen.
So even when you have people that are making multiple offers and prices are going over asking prices—even if the market determines that property was worth that price—if the bank doesn’t see comparative property in the past three months or six months that match that, they won’t appraise it out.
So even if someone offers a certain price, they’re not able to close on the property. As long as the bank is doing that, you’re not going to be able to have too much rapid rise in pricing because the banks aren’t going to allow it.
It’s kind of a catch 22—the market wants to increase but the banks won’t allow it.
EPOCH TIMES: Is this healthy or do you think it will even out over time and things will loosen up?
JARED: It’s getting more and more difficult to give people loans.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are introducing guidelines now where, up until the day of closing, they’re going to re-pull credit on someone, and if their credit score drops below where it needs to be they’re not going to get their loan.
Which means if somebody has got a commitment on their loan, is ready to close on their house, and prior to closing goes to a furniture store and takes out furniture and puts it on their credit card, and then their credit gets pulled right before, and now their ratios have changed, they’re going to get declined on their house the day before.
These are the kinds of things that are, in my mind, ridiculous. They’re getting so stringent with the regulations these days that they’re punishing people who had nothing to do with problems in the markets.
The truth is, the banks aren’t going to come out of the situation they’re in unless they lend to these kind of people who are good borrowers.
Here’s another great example, what many people do before their closing, is to get their homeowner’s insurance policy. The high majority, over 90 percent of these people, put that homeowner’s policy on their credit card.
Simply putting your homeowner’s insurance on your credit card can now change your ratios and make you not qualified for that loan the day before closing because you bought homeowner’s insurance.
These kinds of changes that are going to affect the real estate market have got to be adjusted because they don’t deal with the heartbeat of the market, they don’t take into account common sense.
Exclusive offer through The Epoch Times: Get Jared James best-selling book absolutely free. Get the ebook “Enjoy Success Today: How to Start and Build a Thriving Business…and Still Have a Life!”
Simply phone: 646-240-4320 or visit www.GetYourFreeGift.com
EPOCH TIMES: In your book, you talk a lot about helping people streamline things to maximize their profits and their personal lives. Please elaborate.
JARED: There’s something that is just so gratifying about being able to take people that are struggling financially and show them how to come out of that place.
Or maybe they’re making a lot of money in real estate but they’re slaves to their jobs and they’re workaholics; so showing them how to increase their incomes and decrease the amount of time it takes to do that.
That to me is extremely gratifying because it has such a profound effect, not just on their businesses but also on their lives.
When you show someone how to increase income, you take off so many stresses, which in turn improves their relationships.
When someone is constantly stressed by income and bills, you’d better believe it’s going to have an effect on the relationships around them; they’re always thinking about it, they’re stressing about it, it’s on their shoulders all the time, and so in many cases they actually lose the very personality of who they are because they’re always so stressed.
So we’re showing people: Look, here’s how you can improve your business, here’s how you can increase your income, and here’s how you can implement certain systems and automate the process, and here’s how you can decrease the amount of time it takes, so you can start to enjoy the people around you.
Because unfortunately, for most people, their businesses are their lives, the business becomes everything. It encompasses everything, everyday they’re on it, every morning, when they go to sleep, they’re thinking about it, but the truth is, in proper order, your business and the success of your business really should fuel your personal life.
When you get to the end of your life, and you have those last couple of thoughts, something tells me that those last thoughts are not going to be reserved on what you did business wise. They’re going to be reserved for those around you, your personal life, your family, your friends. So really your true order is that your business should be fueling your personal life, not vice versa.
JARED: I met my father when I was twelve years old—he’s a good friend now, but I grew up without a father. So I made a decision that my family, my children, weren’t going to experience that. In fact, they were going to have the exact opposite: they were going to have the greatest life that they could ever imagine.
I made a decision that I was going to be a greater husband than I was a business person and that didn’t mean I had to be a bad businessperson, it meant I had to be a greater father and husband, because which one ultimately is more important to me?
And the truth is that I think if you take the majority of people, obviously from a words perspective, most people would say, ‘Yes my family trumps my work.’
But actions speak louder than words. And when you look at the patterns that people live in their lives, does it add up?
Usually what happens is somebody’s family is the one that has to continually make the sacrifices. Daddy or Mommy is not home for dinner again, skipping this vacation, working this weekend again, and work continually trumps the personal life because you have to make money.
So I sat down and made a conscious decision. I looked at the whole thing and I said, ‘What do I have to do differently, where do I want to be 5 years, 10 years from now?’
And once you decide those things, you start to decide, ‘Okay the decisions I’m making now, do they line up with that goal? Do they line up with what I determined my values were?’ And if they don’t, they’ve got to go, it doesn’t work.
JARED: Oh yeah, that’s why we’ve grown so quick. The average Realtor in our program makes $213,000 a year—and that includes many brand new agents, so they’re obviously bringing the numbers down.
But here’s the thing, when you look at me, I started off in the real estate business and I obviously had zero, I started with zero—nobody, no contacts, no family in the area, even my sister-in-law was a Realtor, so I got none of those referrals, I had no builders, no building projects, I had nothing. In my first six months in the business, I did zero transactions.
Within four years I got named No. 1 in the country under the age of 30, so how did that happen?
I usually like to tell people, look, I don’t hop into a phone booth and go and change into a cape every morning just like you don’t—there were exact steps that I took. One plus one equals two. So a lot of our coaching program is just replicating those systems, replicating that model of how to be successful and how it works.
My business grew during a bad economic climate and I saw top producers who have been doing this for 30 years fall off and fail.
Exclusive offer through The Epoch Times: Get Jared James best-selling book absolutely free. Get the ebook “Enjoy Success Today: How to Start and Build a Thriving Business…and Still Have a Life!”
Simply phone: 646-240-4320 or visit www.GetYourFreeGift.com
JARED: While all these other people are failing and they’re not doing well, here’s what we do. You’re going to pay your monthly coaching fee, which is like your franchise fee, and we’re going to plug you into a model.
We plug you into a systematic way of doing things that we know works. We stop you doing the wrong things and start getting you to do the right things.
JARED: You have these two different generations. You have the more experienced generation, the older generation, that is basically all person-to-person, and that’s how they’re successful. They don’t have any technology; they don’t have any systems; so what happens is they work constantly.
So we’re showing people: Look, here’s how you can improve your business, here’s how you can increase your income, and here’s how you can implement certain systems and automate the process, and here’s how you can decrease the amount of time it takes, so you can start to enjoy the people around you.
Because unfortunately, for most people, their businesses are their lives, the business becomes everything. It encompasses everything, everyday they’re on it, every morning, when they go to sleep, they’re thinking about it, but the truth is, in proper order, your business and the success of your business really should fuel your personal life.
When you get to the end of your life, and you have those last couple of thoughts, something tells me that those last thoughts are not going to be reserved on what you did business wise. They’re going to be reserved for those around you, your personal life, your family, your friends. So really your true order is that your business should be fueling your personal life, not vice versa.
EPOCH TIMES: That’s something you decided early on—that family was going to be more important than business. How did you make that decision?
JARED: I met my father when I was twelve years old—he’s a good friend now, but I grew up without a father. So I made a decision that my family, my children, weren’t going to experience that. In fact, they were going to have the exact opposite: they were going to have the greatest life that they could ever imagine.
I made a decision that I was going to be a greater husband than I was a business person and that didn’t mean I had to be a bad businessperson, it meant I had to be a greater father and husband, because which one ultimately is more important to me?
And the truth is that I think if you take the majority of people, obviously from a words perspective, most people would say, ‘Yes my family trumps my work.’
But actions speak louder than words. And when you look at the patterns that people live in their lives, does it add up?
Usually what happens is somebody’s family is the one that has to continually make the sacrifices. Daddy or Mommy is not home for dinner again, skipping this vacation, working this weekend again, and work continually trumps the personal life because you have to make money.
So I sat down and made a conscious decision. I looked at the whole thing and I said, ‘What do I have to do differently, where do I want to be 5 years, 10 years from now?’
And once you decide those things, you start to decide, ‘Okay the decisions I’m making now, do they line up with that goal? Do they line up with what I determined my values were?’ And if they don’t, they’ve got to go, it doesn’t work.
EPOCH TIMES: You talk in your book about speaking to and coaching other Realtors; how to drastically improve their sales volume in a short amount of time. Are they really seeing a drastic improvement in their sales?
JARED: Oh yeah, that’s why we’ve grown so quick. The average Realtor in our program makes $213,000 a year—and that includes many brand new agents, so they’re obviously bringing the numbers down.
But here’s the thing, when you look at me, I started off in the real estate business and I obviously had zero, I started with zero—nobody, no contacts, no family in the area, even my sister-in-law was a Realtor, so I got none of those referrals, I had no builders, no building projects, I had nothing. In my first six months in the business, I did zero transactions.
Within four years I got named No. 1 in the country under the age of 30, so how did that happen?
I usually like to tell people, look, I don’t hop into a phone booth and go and change into a cape every morning just like you don’t—there were exact steps that I took. One plus one equals two. So a lot of our coaching program is just replicating those systems, replicating that model of how to be successful and how it works.
My business grew during a bad economic climate and I saw top producers who have been doing this for 30 years fall off and fail.
Exclusive offer through The Epoch Times: Get Jared James best-selling book absolutely free. Get the ebook “Enjoy Success Today: How to Start and Build a Thriving Business…and Still Have a Life!”
Simply phone: 646-240-4320 or visit www.GetYourFreeGift.com
EPOCH TIMES: So obviously without giving everything away, what does this coaching involve?
JARED: While all these other people are failing and they’re not doing well, here’s what we do. You’re going to pay your monthly coaching fee, which is like your franchise fee, and we’re going to plug you into a model.
We plug you into a systematic way of doing things that we know works. We stop you doing the wrong things and start getting you to do the right things.
EPOCH TIMES: What types of people do you coach? What holds people back?
JARED: You have these two different generations. You have the more experienced generation, the older generation, that is basically all person-to-person, and that’s how they’re successful. They don’t have any technology; they don’t have any systems; so what happens is they work constantly.
Then you’ve got this other side; a younger generation, and they think that technology is the answer to everything. So you can’t get them on the phone, you can’t meet them in person, but if you send them a text message or a Facebook message, you’ll get them in three seconds.
The younger generation is all technology but hasn’t really learned how to form the long-lasting relationships that can’t be done by e-mail.
So one of the things that we’ve done at our company is we bridge the gap between the two and we show people the power of the personal relationship while leveraging the technology to save you time and automate the process.
So it’s really an amazing mixture of the two. This really came from the fact that my mother was a Realtor.
I grew up as her unpaid assistant and I saw old-school ways of doing things. But when I got into real estate myself, because of my age, I was open to the new technology.
So that gave me the kind of synergy where I could blend the two, and now we’re doing that for Realtors all over North America.
JARED: We’ve got hundreds now. Every day we’re picking people up. Our goal is to get over the 1,000 range. We’ve been doing this for 12 months so we’ve grown extremely rapidly.
I’m on the same stage with coaches from some of the largest coaching companies in the world, and they’re all 50 or 60 years old. And here I am, 28 years old, on the same stage, talking to the same people, and it blows my mind.
I think that the reason why we’ve grown so quickly—we have a success model for this market—we’re not somebody whose been teaching the same message for the last 20 years hoping it still works in this market.
I’m somebody that succeeded in this market, and can show you how to do it as well; that’s the appeal of my company.
JARED: Here’s a great one. When everything really started taking off, I remember I was up on stage talking to a large group of people. And the truth is, when you get off the stage people treat you like a rock star and you can very easily let it go to your head.
Everybody wants to take pictures with you, they want to say they talked to you, and they’re posting pictures of them with you on their Facebook.
And so this particular meeting, our products were selling like crazy and I’m taking pictures with people, and then I went home and my 1-year-old threw up on me.
And I remember that to this day because it was a reminder: Don’t forget who you are. Remember where you come from; remember you’re not as big as you think you are.
Coming from where I came from, what if somebody had helped us when we were younger? I want to be that person now, so there are just so many more benefits to this than just the financial. It needs to be something that you love and that you’re passionate about and that every day reminds you why you do what you do.
I get e-mails everyday from people and the things they write to the company, they remind you why you do what you do. It’s that simple, they keep you going.
Epoch Times: Thank you Jared. Watch out for more excerpts from the interview with Jared James in the weeks to come.
Exclusive offer through The Epoch Times: Get Jared James best-selling book absolutely free. Get the ebook “Enjoy Success Today: How to Start and Build a Thriving Business…and Still Have a Life!”
Simply phone: 646-240-4320 or visit www.GetYourFreeGift.com
The younger generation is all technology but hasn’t really learned how to form the long-lasting relationships that can’t be done by e-mail.
So one of the things that we’ve done at our company is we bridge the gap between the two and we show people the power of the personal relationship while leveraging the technology to save you time and automate the process.
So it’s really an amazing mixture of the two. This really came from the fact that my mother was a Realtor.
I grew up as her unpaid assistant and I saw old-school ways of doing things. But when I got into real estate myself, because of my age, I was open to the new technology.
So that gave me the kind of synergy where I could blend the two, and now we’re doing that for Realtors all over North America.
EPOCH TIMES: How many Realtors does Jared James Enterprises coach?
JARED: We’ve got hundreds now. Every day we’re picking people up. Our goal is to get over the 1,000 range. We’ve been doing this for 12 months so we’ve grown extremely rapidly.
I’m on the same stage with coaches from some of the largest coaching companies in the world, and they’re all 50 or 60 years old. And here I am, 28 years old, on the same stage, talking to the same people, and it blows my mind.
I think that the reason why we’ve grown so quickly—we have a success model for this market—we’re not somebody whose been teaching the same message for the last 20 years hoping it still works in this market.
I’m somebody that succeeded in this market, and can show you how to do it as well; that’s the appeal of my company.
EPOCH TIMES: Do you have an anecdote that your kids have taught you that has kept you in balance?
JARED: Here’s a great one. When everything really started taking off, I remember I was up on stage talking to a large group of people. And the truth is, when you get off the stage people treat you like a rock star and you can very easily let it go to your head.
Everybody wants to take pictures with you, they want to say they talked to you, and they’re posting pictures of them with you on their Facebook.
And so this particular meeting, our products were selling like crazy and I’m taking pictures with people, and then I went home and my 1-year-old threw up on me.
And I remember that to this day because it was a reminder: Don’t forget who you are. Remember where you come from; remember you’re not as big as you think you are.
Coming from where I came from, what if somebody had helped us when we were younger? I want to be that person now, so there are just so many more benefits to this than just the financial. It needs to be something that you love and that you’re passionate about and that every day reminds you why you do what you do.
I get e-mails everyday from people and the things they write to the company, they remind you why you do what you do. It’s that simple, they keep you going.
Epoch Times: Thank you Jared. Watch out for more excerpts from the interview with Jared James in the weeks to come.
Exclusive offer through The Epoch Times: Get Jared James best-selling book absolutely free. Get the ebook “Enjoy Success Today: How to Start and Build a Thriving Business…and Still Have a Life!”
Simply phone: 646-240-4320 or visit www.GetYourFreeGift.com
