Written in Partnership with Amir Bakian
Fears of another housing bubble have been brewing since the real estate market began its cooldown in 2017, leaving many investors frozen — some in fear and some in blind anticipation for a price drop so they can catch the bottom. Justin Giles, founder of Real Estate Gurus, however, is taking a different path, where talks of an impending market crash aren’t even seen as a threat.
For Justin Giles, there’s no reason to fear nor get excited about a bubble. After all, he’s proven to himself and others, with the 500+ deals under his belt since 2006, there’s money to be made in any market. “In this market, you’ll hear that there’s a low inventory of homes,” says Giles. “However, I teach people how to find and source properties that will be profitable. On aggregate, the housing market may be taking a dip, but if you focus on certain markets, there’s always a place where you can find a high demand.”
Giles says the key is to focus on affordable housing. He says that regardless of market conditions, investors can make money off of non-luxury homes because there will always be demand for it. “People may not be able to afford houses with $400,000 price tags, but guess what,” says Giles. “They can still afford a $200,000 house, right? Think of it this way: I can guarantee that you might sell fewer Lamborghinis in a recession, but people will still buy that Honda Civic.”
It is no surprise that Justin Giles knows how to weather market fluctuations. After all, it was 2006 — just two years before the housing bubble burst — when he first got into real estate investing with his brother. Giles had just obtained his economics degree from Cornell and was in his first few months at his first job. But, all the while, he wanted to start his own business. So, when his first-ever deal made money, he quit his job. And so did his brother. As their luck would have it, though, the market eventually crashed.
“It was a really hard time,” says Giles. “I experienced a foreclosure. I had bad credit, and my debt was sky-high. I was avoiding my creditors, trying to keep my car from getting repossessed. I was pushed up against the wall and had to figure out how I could put food on the table.”
Despite all those hardships, Giles said it was never an option for him to quit real estate and return to working at a 9-5. He promised himself he would get out of the dark hole and make property investing work. When many other investors lost money from 2008 to 2010, he drew upon his need to survive and found success.
“It was the worst market ever, but I was able to create so many awesome ways to make money in real estate,” says Giles. “I had to learn the strategies of failing and figuring out how to bounce back with my back against the wall. And that’s how I developed a recession-proof program.” As someone who started property investing right before the bubble burst, it’s going to take a lot more than negative speculations to discourage Giles from making more profitable investments, and, through Real Estate Gurus, he plans on bringing his mentees along for the ride.
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