Our interviewees, Red Barn Homebuyers franchisees, will offer their expertise on the franchise model, real estate market, and essential keys to triumph in this business. Whether you’re contemplating real estate investment or intrigued by franchise opportunities, this interview will provide valuable insights and knowledge.
Ken Corsini
Hey, Jason and Jessica, welcome to the show. So glad to have you guys on. How you doing?
Jason Park
Good, how are you guys doing?
Kevin Corsini
Doing great. Thanks so much for joining us today.
Jason Park
Yeah, of course. Absolutely.
Ken Corsini
So you guys are definitely more of the interesting franchisees that we’ve brought into Red Barn home buyers because you have such a cool background, and you’ve done TV similar to what we’ve done, but you’ve done movies, you’ve done IT, you’ve got a Spa, and now you’re flipping houses. Maybe take us back to how did all this start for you guys?
Jason Park
The complexities of everything you just said started because of her, but go ahead.
Jessica Park
Yeah, I’m the financial person of the house, so Jason is very creative. I have a love for the Spa business, but those are businesses that tend to kind of take some time to make money. So I wanted to, for us as a family, a, to work together. Jason was an engineer. He’ll talk a little bit about, and he wanted to do something a little different with his time. So we just started looking at franchises, and we saw Red Barn, and it was kind of an easy fit for us, and we wanted to do something that we could both do together as a family, that we could grow and that we can actually make quite a bit of money with very little capital investment.
Jason Park
And to just kind of piggyback off what she said, when you think of as you get older and you have a family and you have kids and you have your careers or things that you do, you don’t necessarily want to do those things for the rest of your life. And they have a saying, right? If you want to get rich, you sell real estate. You want to get wealthy, you own real estate. And being that I’m in it, being that we have the Spa and everything like that, when you think of, like, for us to join Red Barn, it was fairly easy because I didn’t want to have to even though I’m really good at it, I didn’t want to have to hunt for deals. And that was the biggest thing because we have a life outside of just selling homes. Right. And when you incorporate the balance of spending time with your spouse and your kids and time for yourself, the transition to us saying, hey, let’s join Red Barn, let’s join their system to help us find potential sellers. So we can go and help them by either buying the house outright, selling the house for them, and help them find a solution in whatever situation that they’re at.
Kevin Corsini
You guys popped your first deal, like, right out of the gate.
Jason Park
Yeah.
Kevin Corsini
First month.
Jason Park
I think that was within the first week. I would say week to yeah, first week. First three. I don’t know if it’s one to three weeks, but it might be the first week.
Jessica Park
I know exactly how it happens. So how we run the business, it’s Jason’s, the salesperson, and I’m more of the financial logistical person. So the first week, Jason being just really great with chatting with people. He closed one deal immediately within three days, but the buyer ended up kind of having second thoughts and canceling.
Jason Park
Oh, yes. Okay. Yes. That was in the first week, that one, yes. Okay.
Jessica Park
Yeah.
Jason Park
So then once we went and saw the property after we already had it under contract, and my wife and I and our contractor, we started discussing what we were going to do and everything. That initial seller had almost sellers remorse because he was like, well, if they’re going to come and do all this stuff and make this money, then I can do that myself. But what I did do for him, because he had credit issues was I put him in contact with the right person to help him build his credit and get out of that credit deficit that he was in. So essentially that was a win for him. Right. And then he knew what he was going to do with that property after talking to us. So at the end of the day, we didn’t get the deal, but we did help someone out and that’s really all that matters, right?
Ken Corsini
Absolutely.
Jason Park
So then with this other deal that we are doing in Atlanta right now, we’re in the middle of rehabbing the house and we ended up purchasing the house for 150,000. So when you include closing costs, it’s closer to 161,000. And then the rehab estimate that we kind of came up with when we were looking at it was about, what, 60,000, 69000? So let’s just say 75,000 to be conservative, let’s just say 80. So 80 at 160, you’re talking about 240. And then looking at comps that are currently going on now, even though the market has slowed down a bit, conservatively, let’s say it sells at 320, which in likelihood it’d be closer to probably a 330 between 350.
Jessica Park
I wouldn’t say so. By the way, the last house that just sold at the higher interest rates with one less bedroom sold within 51 days, and it sold for 350. So we decided to actually build a fourth bedroom, like a master suite loft, because we figured the person that has the master suite is the one that’s going to pay for the house. Like anything could house it, but even at the higher rate.
Jason Park
I still like to be conservative and keep it at that three.
Jessica Park
Okay, well, I’m going to push 350 is going to be a no brainer based on the current comp.
Kevin Corsini
So you’re looking at 100,000 plus profit. Your first deal during your first month, right? I mean, that’s well within range.
Jason Park
Yes. I don’t know if you guys can tell, but as much as I do, I’m kind of like a turtle, so I like a life of leisure in everything. Just leisurely go through life, but I’m really consistent, right? So I’ll make those three to five calls every single day, won’t miss a day, but I move really slow. What that allows me to do is you never burn out. You enjoy quality time with your family and friends. You can do side projects or go on side quests and still have a fruitful, fulfilling life compared to when I was younger. It’s just run, run. And then a week later, I’m like, I’m over it. So by being a turtle and by us investing with Red Barn, ideally somebody would want to sell a house and flip a house every month, every week, whatever, and then you’re making crazy amounts of money. But I’m perfectly fine with doing one to three houses a year and just moving really slow and making a couple of hundred thousand dollars extra and just going down that path because that’s the balance that kind of works for us.
Ken Corsini
I love it. Yeah. And I think that’s the beautiful thing about being in real estate investing is you can grow the business you want to grow. And so for you guys, I mean, crap, if you can make 100 grand a house and you do that three times, that’s a pretty darn good side hustle, if that’s you want to call it, versus some people I’ve flipped 100 in a year, multiple years, where we flipped 100 a year. But you’re carrying a lot of overhead, you’re running ragged, and it becomes a machine that owns you versus the other way around. So I don’t think there’s a right or a wrong way to do it. And I actually really like your approach to let’s just make our calls, follow up with our leads, and then pop a couple of deals this year. I think that’s a really good approach, honestly.
Jessica Park
Yeah, and it works for us. To give you an example, it took three years to actually make $100,000 with the new Spa business and five employees and a ton of capital investment. So we spent very little capital and we already have within a return. In less than six months, we will have the return.
Ken Corsini
Sure.
Jessica Park
Which is unheard of. With any business, it usually takes about three years.
Ken Corsini
Yes, you’re right. That is one of the beautiful things that you can pop up a really big profitable deal and it only takes one, two, three in a year. And you’ve made a really good living from it.
Jason Park
Yeah, for sure. And I would say to people that are looking into getting into real estate investing or joining Red Barn or anything like that, is that you’re going to get a lot of people that are just not motivated sellers and that’s okay, or they’re going to be like, your offer is egregious, and that’s just outrageous and that’s fine. That lets you know that you’re doing the right thing because you’re going to come across somebody that needs the solution that you provide.
Ken Corsini
Well, I think you said it and you hit the nail on the head. It’s consistency. And that’s really what it takes in this business, is consistent marketing, consistent phone calls, consistent follow up. You’re consistently setting appointments and doing making offers, following up on them, and that’s how you get the deals. It doesn’t have to be 8 hours a day necessarily, but as long as you’re consistent about it day in and day out, you guys are perfect example. Case in point, you’re not even doing this full time. You’ve got the spa, you’ve got it work, you’re literally filming movies and yet you’re carving out enough time consistently to make real estate work for you. Which I love the fact that you’ve got all this balance going on.
Jessica Park
Yeah, and we’re able to do that. I mean, one of the reasons why we wanted to buy the franchise is because you guys have already the process and procedures for marketing so we don’t have to spend our time doing that Jason’s good at sales. I’m good with design and just finance. So we can do all those things because of it. If we had to figure out how to market and get those leads, then that would be very time consuming.
Jason Park
Then that becomes a full time job.
Jessica Park
Yeah. And the other thing I really admire about Jason and what he’s done is that he’s not afraid to make mistakes. So he just gets on the phone and he his calls and he figures it out somehow, which I think it’s great because I think if you’re going to make mistakes, you want to make them early on. That way you can kind of move on quicker, which I think is what he’s done. So I would say to other franchisees that not to be afraid to make mistakes, it’s better to make them early on than not act and then just wait along and then make mistakes later on, which I think will cost more in the long run.
Ken Corsini
You’re exactly right.
Kevin Corsini
Totally agree.
Ken Corsini
So somebody that’s out there working in nine to five, I love that you guys are just doers. So somebody out there is working in nine to five, and they want to be doing something else. Maybe it’s real estate, maybe it’s a spa, maybe it’s just something else. What advice do you give somebody that’s in that position?
Jason Park
I’ll let you go first.
Jessica Park
I would say just to set the right expectations. Rome wasn’t built in a day. And with every business, I think this is a fabulous business. Otherwise we would not have partnered with you guys. But every business has its challenges. Every business has its time. So I always think about it like it’s like farming. You’re going to be planting seeds for a long time. We got quite lucky. But after that first deal, Jason has been calling and holidays came around, so we haven’t found anything else. But just see, it like farming. You’re going to plant seeds, not get impatient, and then spring will come, you’re going to start some blooming and just have that expectation that nothing is boom. I mean, you can get really lucky and it’s a boom. But that should not be the expectation. It should just be patience.
Jason Park
I would say. And this is with anything in life, consistency. One, she nailed it on the head with the expectation. In reality, if you really think about it, even after your monthly fees and everything, if you just get one deal a year, you’re still netting, what, 65, $70,000 for that year. That’s a salary. So, mind you, we have side jobs and all that stuff and full time jobs. When it comes to making phone calls and all that stuff, I spend maybe an hour a day. That’s it. I’m not sitting there trying to knock out and call every single thing. Like, there’s going to be more people to call tomorrow. I spend an hour a day, the leads come in, I call them. I maybe hit up a couple for sale by owners on Zillow, see what they’re talking about, and then I go about my day. I’m not hung on, oh, I need to get this. The deals that are meant to come, as you consistently call and reach out, they’ll come. So you can’t have an expectation of, oh, I’m going to do 1000, and maybe you will eventually, but in the beginning, just use that as a university to learn.
Ken Corsini
Yeah, I love your approach because it’s exactly what we preach is it’s this whole idea of farming and nurturing. And that’s usually why, like any business and it was the same with your spa business, it takes time. So you plant the seeds, and in this business, you’re building a database. You’re building a database of leads that now you’re nurturing, you’re following up, you’re building relationships with, and over time, that database becomes worth gold. Same thing with your client database at the Spa. Over time, you’re building this database of clients that want to come back in, and your business is growing. It’s the same thing in real estate. And I love the fact that you guys, having already been business owners, you understand that process like anything. You’re starting a foundation and then you’re building it and growing it from there. You guys just happen to be really good and knocked down a couple of deals right out of the gates. But in general, it does, it takes a little time to water those seeds and nurture and wait for that garden to grow. And you guys are right there at the beginning of that process.
Kevin Corsini
The other thing that really I got a chance to talk to the parks early on in the process. And one of the things that was really impressive about you guys was your tenacity. And what stood out was the spa business that you have that’s not a franchise. I mean, you guys just did that and figured it out during COVID during a time when there were not spa businesses thriving during COVID I mean, people weren’t going in for treatments and that sort of thing. And that’s when you started a new business and you built a new business when the really cards were stacked against you and you were just tenacious that you were going to make it work under the worst of circumstances. And coming out of COVID it was like, and let’s start another business. Let’s look at real estate investing too. And it was like just that. You talk about the turtle, but the tenacity of every day getting up, we’re going to fight for this and we’re going to figure it out. And that’s just one of the ingredients for success for any business owner, is just, we’re going to overcome obstacles, we’re going to solve problems, and just be tenacious to figure it out. And you guys are in multiple arenas right now.
Jessica Park
You know what’s interesting about that, Kevin? Is that I’ve always seen opportunity during difficult times. So for me, the reason why I wanted to I was happy to open during COVID because I knew that there were a lot of people that were going to be afraid. A lot of the marketing that we did was actually online. So I see the online marketing as a freeway, and I spent a ton of money during that time because it was empty. The freeway was empty. So I got going. And then after three years, we actually hit our goal numbers. Most businesses fail. What is it? 90% of businesses fail within three years. So it’s the same with real estate. Everyone’s like, oh, there’s a doom and gloom and interest rates are going up and all this stuff. I’m like, well, that’s great for us. I mean, there’s going to be people that are not. When things are cheery, everyone makes money. An idiot can make money. But when things are difficult and if you’ve got the right strategies and like you said, the tenacity, then that’s where you can kind of get ahead.
Ken Corsini
I cannot agree more. I mean that’s honestly, when I built my business, started in 2005, crashed in 2008, and I was like, oh, no, what am I going to do? And then it dawned on me, wait a second. Everybody just went out of business. There is so much opportunity. And it was then that we started ramping up into the 30 a year, 50 year, then that we got to 100 a year. And it was because we saw the opportunity in the downturn. Now, I don’t think what we’re going into right now is anywhere near that, but it’s still going to spell opportunities. There’s no doubt about it. There are going to be buying opportunities in the coming year for sure.
Jessica Park
Well, God’s not making any more land, so people need a place to live. To me, it’s just a great business. Even with the downturns, no one’s ever regretted owning real estate for 20 plus years.
Ken Corsini
Exactly right. So somebody’s listening to this and now their interest is piqued about this TV show movie that you done. Could we point somebody to some of the awesome work that you guys have done?
Kevin Corsini
And it’s movies and it’s a TV show, right? I mean, we got a couple of things going on in this arena, right?
Jason Park
So we have this show called Med Spa Life that documents the Med Spa and the makeovers and things that they do, right? So that right now is on Amazon and it’s about to be on Tubi. It just got accepted on Tubi. I have a few movies out. One Four Amigos, has international distribution. It’s on Amazon and Tubi and stuff. And then my third film, Pizza Boy Rick. Right now we’re in post production on that. And then when that wraps up, we’ll be working on our fourth film as well. Yeah, that is my true love. But I will say in 2023. That anybody that wants to get into film financially, it doesn’t make sense.
Kevin Corsini
Which is why you need to get into real estate, right?
Jessica Park
Real estate makes money, and then film is just film.
Jason Park
Yeah, film is fun, right? We make high quality films and we do a good job with it, and we get the distribution and the views, and people watch it. But in reality, it’s kind of like when Netflix came and DVDs went away, that second hoorah of sales are gone. So now, when you think about it as an independent filmmaker, you’re still going up against the Universals and all that stuff. Or when you go to Netflix or Tubi or HBO Max, you’re still going up against the A list celebrities with the multimillion dollar budget films. So we’ve all become accustomed to that. For 799 or 899 a month, that to compete for someone to spend 399 to watch your movie that they’ve never heard of or never seen any of the actors. It’s an uphill battle. Whereas real estate, you’re tenacious, you pick up the phone call, you make your offers, and it’s kind of like buying and selling cars, right? If it’s on the market, it’s 2500. You offer 1700, they say yes, you go make that $800 profit. Yeah.
Jessica Park
You have control with real estate. And that’s one of the things I love about the franchise, is that, okay, so it allows you to make money and have enough time that if you want to involve yourself in what makes you happy. Like for Jason, it’s film.
Jason Park
I still play video games every day, by the way. I do all that, make sure the wife’s happy, I spend time with our son, all that. And I still play video games every day. So there is time to do what you need.
Ken Corsini
I don’t think you sleep. You must not sleep at night because you’re cramming in 24 hours worth of fun.
Kevin Corsini
At least they’re not building a pool right now. I mean, that really pushed them over the top.
Ken Corsini
There’s no way you could be doing that right now. That’s awesome. Well, Jason and Jessica, man, thanks so much for spending a little time with us. You guys are so fun to talk to. I love all the cool, different things. You’re very entrepreneurial, which I love. I mean, the fact that you got your hands in so many different things. Some of them are hobbies, some of them are money makers. But it seems like you’re living a very fulfilling life, and so it’s fun to talk to you.
Kevin Corsini
Yeah. And great to see just right out of the gate, the sort of success you’re having with Red Barn homebuyers. That’s encouraging for us. And it just affirms to see, man, you guys are doing it. I mean, just right out of the gate doing it and having great success. We’re excited about the next 10, 20, 30 years doing this together.
Jessica Park
Yeah. We can’t wait to show you guys. We talked to Ken about filming the finished remodel. It’s pretty rough property, and it’s coming along so beautifully.
Kevin Corsini
We’re coming with the cameras is what I hear.
Ken Corsini
Well, he’s got the cameras. I don’t need to bring cameras. I’m coming. I’m letting him film.
Kevin Corsini
It for this one.
Jason Park
But it’s funny because I’m actually upgrading all of my stuff to a very higher end, hollywood cinema style set up. And what’s interesting when you go back to the entrepreneurial and stuff is instead of me going outright and buying it cash, what I did was I invested that money that I would have spent to buy that stuff. So then when that money doubles up, I’ll just pull from that money that I invested to buy that with it.
Ken Corsini
There you go.
Kevin Corsini
Always love it.
Ken Corsini
Make money in real estate to do your hobby.
Jason Park
Exactly.
Ken Corsini
Good. Guys, thanks so much for coming. Great to talk to you.
Jason Park
Thank you, guys. Have a good day.
Jessica Park
Bye.
Ken Corsini
Take care. Bye.
