Steve and Jill Talk with Josh Sterling
Jack Butala: Steve and Jill Talk with Josh Sterling. Every Single month we give away a property for free. It's super simple to qualify. Two simple steps. Leave us your feedback for this podcast on iTunes and number two, get the free ebook at landacademy.com, you don't even have to read it. Thanks for listening.
Jack Butala: Josh Sterling grew up in Lake Tahoe, California and spent 5 years as an airline pilot. He's currently an air traffic controller at Detroit metro airport. He moved to Michigan, and began real estate investing in 2009, where he currently owns, and manages 125 units, and flips 12 to 15 properties per year. He also runs a property management company called Epic Property Management. Josh Sterling, welcome, man.
Josh Sterling: Thank you, thanks for having me.
Jill DeWit: Hi, Josh.
Josh Sterling: Hi, Jill.
Jack Butala: Pretty interesting. You know, looks like we all have a lot in common. I'm from Detroit, and Jill's a pilot, so we could make this podcast 3 or 4 hours long if we wanted to.
Jill DeWit: Don't forget the California thing. I just picked up on that Tahoe thing. I'm like "Wow!"
Josh Sterling: Yeah.
Jack Butala: Usually people move west, man. You moved east.
Josh Sterling: You know what? They say you only move to Michigan for money or love, so we came here for ... My wife is from a town called Trenton just south of Detroit, and we came here to get into the real estate business and to be close to where she lives, so I guess both of those.
Jack Butala: Boy, I have a zillion questions, so you moved to Michigan to get into the real estate business.
Josh Sterling: Yes.
Jack Butala: Because I moved to Arizona to get out of the Michigan real estate business.
Josh Sterling: Yeah. It was a combination of some things ... The airline life, as I think Jill knows a little bit about, the airline life can jostle you around a little bit, and so part of that directed me here and then I met my wife actually out in Las Vegas of all places, on a vacation. She was from here. Next thing you know, here we are. Actually, the buying old market up here. I don't know what you were in exactly, but the buy and old market is really actually excellent up here. I think it's a great little niche that we're in.
Jack Butala: No, I'm sure it is. You know I left Michigan in the ... When it ... It had nowhere to go except up back then, so yeah I'm sure.
Josh Sterling: Yeah. Yeah. Also, I always have to clarify, when I do these things because I think there's people all over the country, and if they're anything like most of my friends, I'm not actually in Detroit. In fact I don't invest in Detroit at all. I wouldn't touch Detroit. We're about a half hour south of Detroit and it's a world away. I mean we're talking night and day difference.
Jack Butala: Yeah. Well I know that for sure. I know exactly where Trenton is. It's right before Toledo, right?
Josh Sterling: Yeah. Well we're ... Actually we're probably about halfway between Detroit and Toledo. Basically, the downriver market.
Jack Butala: Right. Give us an overview on the industry or the micro-industry that you're in there. You must be doing something right if you've accumulated 125 units since 2009. That's great.
Josh Sterling: Yeah. I mean I guess a lot of it was luck or fortunate timing on our part. We moved here back in '09 and accidentally got into this. My wife had a property that she had bought at the peak of the market. The thing is still upside down to this day. We still have it as a rental.