Today’s guest is Greg Washington, a combat veteran from Iraq and Afghanistan who graduated from West Point Military Academy. Greg has struggled with PTSD but has overcome his emotional difficulties to become a successful entrepreneur and businessman specializing in real estate and medical marijuana. In this podcast, Greg shares insights on real estate investment for patriots.
The full episode of this podcast is available here, but below are the highlights.
What It Takes to Be a Passive Real Estate Investor
Trying to find the perfect house while getting stationed overseas has been the biggest challenge for Greg. Relying on close friends and family helped him make his first real estate investment. The process required searching for the right area with the best schools and with access to a local grocery store, pharmacy, and gas station.
One major lesson Greg has learned through his experience in real estate investment is to enlist property management. This is someone who will be on the scene for you, responding to your tenants’ immediate needs. No longer will you have to collect the rent every month yourself or respond to late-night calls when an appliance goes out – the property manager will take care of that for you.
Home Flipping with Jerome Myers
Greg got into flipping houses along with his friend, Jerome Myers. This part of real estate required Greg to do finances for individuals and small businesses. This led Greg to build new business models, and he was inspired to start a new company of his own – focusing, interestingly, on cannabis.
Greg began growing cannabis in 2012, and he grew his idea into a full-scale business model based on the idea that bringing large amounts of raw cannabis into the market would essentially allow him to control the plant’s index price. And his idea worked!
In the process, he had to purchase lots of land to grow the cannabis on, which in turn allowed him to increase his passive real estate investment. With the greater return from this investment, he was able to launch his new company: Guards Down, a business focusing on cannabis and helping people to recover from grief and trauma.
Opportunity Investment in the Cannabis Industry
Guards Down offers cannabis products, white labeling, and consulting for investors looking forward to setting up turnkey facilities. Additionally, his company deals with structure; it can help other companies in the cannabis industry build a business model that works.
On a more personal level, Greg’s company has been part of his PTSD healing process, as well as allowing him to use his talents to help other veterans in similar emotional crises.
A Lesson for First-Time Investors
Another one of Greg’s nuggets of wisdom for real estate investing is that you’re going to make mistakes sometimes, and you have to learn how to adjust. You have to do your research and gradually get a solid understanding of how the real estate game works and what to invest in. Everybody has their niche, field, and passion within the different markets out there.
Greg highly recommends that anybody investing in real estate needs to take emotions and feelings out of the investment and look at it as a true business. When you’re emotionally involved, you run the risk of making rash decisions. Think calmly and make decisions carefully, and you’ll be on your way to success.
Before Greg could achieve these high levels of success, he had to overcome significant personal trauma. If you’re suffering from similar trauma, grief, or anxiety, the experts at Guards Down can help you overcome it. Learn more about their work helping veterans deal with grief on their website.