Jaren Sustar, who goes by JD for short, or Finance Cowboy on social, says you don’t need to use your own money to make millions in real estate. Matter fact, he bought 22 properties in the last few years, using almost entirely other people’s money, all while working a nine-to-five. Here’s how it all happened. After playing baseball all through college, Jaren graduated, went to work in the service industry, pivoted to sales, then made his first investment in real estate.
It was a flip and it did not go well. But JD was lucky enough to break even. “I was young,” he says. “Like 25 years old. And I was using a private lender’s money and it was just a debacle all the way through. From transferring the funds to me to dealing with the contractors each week, managing them. Then we thought the project was done and then we end up having to pull a permit that we didn’t pull, and so we had to go back and redo a lot of stuff. And then we go to close and the buyer couldn’t get funding.”
It was a yearlong lesson in humility, that’s for sure. Two years later, with a mentor in his corner, Jaren bought a long-term rental, then another, then another. He scaled to 20+ properties, and he just keeps on buying. Loves real estate. Has learned a ton over the years. And now he’s able to help others. As for how he came up with the whole Finance Cowboy brand, Jaren had this buddy who he’d been trying to get to invest in real estate for years, right? And the dude just kept blowing him off.
JD keeps acquiring properties using OPM, keeps building his wealth, his buddy keeps rolling his eyes at him. Then his buddy sees this 26-year-old Instagram influencer with a decent following, telling everyone to invest in index funds, and his buddy jumps all over that. He even starts bugging JD, like, “Bro, you should really be doing this.” It was laughable. JD was multiplying his money much faster through real estate, but he realized, “Okay, if I have a following, all of a sudden, people like my buddy here will care about my opinion.”
Screw it, I’ll build my own following then, he thought. And one day he was putting his boots on, and it just hit him: I’ll be the Finance Cowboy. Yee-haw, pardner! And here we are. JD finds his deals a number of ways. Off the MLS, working with an agent that just sends ’em on over; he’s plucked deals right off of Zillow; he’s cold called; got referrals from wholesalers; and just networks like a maniac, telling everyone within earshot, “Yo, I invest in real estate. Send me deals.” And then he just meets his sellers’ needs.
As far as what the future holds for Jaren, he’s mostly focusing on his bread and butter: long-term rental, single family homes. Three bed, two bath, nice homes. He’s open to bigger multifamily deals, especially now that he’s built up that following and he’s got so many folks who wanna invest with him. And yeah, he dabbles in short-term rentals, but man, Airbnb’s a lot of work, and anyone who tells ya different is probably trying to sell you a $7,000 coaching program, ya know? So he’s pumping the brakes on that.
If you’re a hardworking American who wants to build wealth through real estate, and use other people’s money to do it, JD’s gotcha covered like a chuckwagon. His Rental Academy will teach you his so-called W2 Millionaire Method, which just breaks down what he did to hit seven-figures before his 30th birthday, without having to quit his job or neglect his family. No mention of cost, but whatever he’s charging, I’m sure he’s gonna treat ya right. Nice change of pace from the slick-talking real estate gurus I usually review.
