I watched my parents struggle with money throughout my entire childhood and young adult years. My mom barely speaks English, and she had a very tough time finding a good job.
She started out working at the mall, then tried (and failed) to launch her own juice business. She has now been a house cleaner for the past decade. My dad has been a long time security guard in San Francisco.

Money was never plentiful, and I watched them stress about paying the mortgage and witnessed their constant fights, driven largely by their financial difficulties. Serving as a stark contrast was my dad’s sister, who was a dentist and lived in a very affluent area of the Bay Area with her anesthesiologist husband. From an early age, I yearned to not only create my own future that looked very different but also to give back to my parents. Because my aunt was my sole wealthy relative, I thought becoming a doctor was the only way to accomplish my aims.

With that, I graduated from high school and left Clayton for college at San Diego State University. The first two years were focused on being pre-med, striving for the life that my aunt enjoyed. I was completely miserable. Midway through my third year of college, I changed my major from Nutrition and Biology to Communication. After watching my mom lose out on opportunities because she couldn’t speak English very well, I knew the importance of building relationships through written or verbal speech.

One day, I attended a speed networking event at school that brought together 20 professionals in San Diego that students would get to speak with for about three minutes each. I crashed and burned on my first few conversations; the people could clearly tell how young and clueless I was. My 14th conversation was with a man named Brian, who was the owner of a company called South Coast Commercial.

I had zero experience with real estate; I didn’t know what any of the lingo meant, nor had I ever harbored any interest in becoming an agent or investor. But Brian was the only person there who actually had a job opening, and he quickly caught my attention by explaining how much a commercial real estate agent could make within just a handful of years. I couldn’t stop thinking about it for the rest of the evening. When the event concluded, I found Brian and asked if I could interview for his company.

A week later, I found myself sitting anxiously in the conference room at South Coast Commercial. I shouldn’t have been so worried. Brian asked me a few questions but focused primarily on the vast opportunity that existed in the industry. He introduced me to others at the company, all of whom seemed thrilled with their work and level of success. At the end of the hour, he offered me a job. I was thrilled, but one question loomed large: What was the starting salary?

“Oh no, Jason, this is a no salary job,” Brian explained in response. “In this industry, you eat what you kill. You’re basically starting your own business, and you only make money when you close deals, which can take six months to a year for new agents.”
At this point, I had less than $500 in my bank account. That should have been enough to dissuade me from taking the job, but there was something nagging in the back of my mind that told me to go for it. I thought back to the others I met in the office. If they could do it, I could too.

I took the job and then another that would provide a steady paycheck. I was still a college junior at this point, taking classes full-time and working two jobs. I earned my real estate license during the summer between my third and fourth year in school. When I returned to campus, I stacked all of my classes on Tuesday and Thursdays so I’d be able to work the rest of the days of the week (yes, including Saturdays and Sundays). I sat and cold called for 40-50 hours every week. By November of 2018, I finally started to see my first deal on the horizon. The day before the property was set to close, the owner unexpectedly passed away.

I was devastated – not only for the family’s loss but also because the property had to go to probate. What followed was one of the worst months of my life: I would sit in my car crying and tell myself that this was it – I was going to call Brian and tell him I couldn’t work for him anymore. At the same time, my parents were hovering over my shoulder in a cloud of negativity. We told you how crazy you were to take a job with no salary! This was such a stupid risk.

I took a month to wallow and then pulled myself together. From January through May, I closed the original deal and then three additional properties. By the time I graduated from college, I had $70K in my bank account. Finally, I felt confident pursuing real estate full-time. My parents had a bit more faith, too. I became a sponge: soaking up all the information I could from Brian and his partner Kevin, asking questions about their personal projects, and speaking with clients and other agents in the office. I shut my mouth and listened as much as I possibly could, and I applied what I learned every single day.

It paid off. I made another $150K throughout the rest of 2019 and was really hitting my stride. Then, COVID hit. The business froze for a couple of months while the world grappled with what was going on, but I was still in the office every day making deals happen. Despite the challenges of the pandemic, I still made just shy of $600,000 in 2020. By 2021, things really took off for me.

By the spring, I left South Coast Commercial and set up my own brand and brokerage: JLM Real Estate. I hired three people from San Diego State and moved into an office in downtown San Diego. Throughout 2021, I bought and sold 14 properties and built $5 million in equity in addition to $2 million in commissions. I now have seven agents that I’ve trained myself.

It’s safe to say that my parents couldn’t be prouder. I’ve been able to give my mom a check each year for Christmas: $30,000 in 2019, $60,000 in 2020, and $100,000 in 2021. We had a moment a while ago where she broke down crying and apologized for doubting me (and calling me every day with job ideas that didn’t involve real estate).

I’m proud of what I’ve built, and I’m grateful that I fell into this industry early in my life. I don’t want others to feel like they need to wait to get started to invest in real estate: with strategy and knowledge, anyone can do this.

It’s why I wanted to start coaching people who were just like me do more and have more time and financial freedom.
I was born and raised in a U.S. territory in Seoul, Korea. My dad was in the U.S. Army and had met my mom while stationed there.

After my dad retired from the Army when I was eight years old, my family moved to a small town called Clayton, California. It was about 40 minutes from San Francisco and a world away from Korea. Talk about culture shock; my life changed overnight. Suddenly I was hearing (and speaking) a completely new language, eating food with a brand new flavor profile, and on a totally different schedule to what I was used to back in Korea.

I watched my parents struggle with money throughout my entire childhood and young adult years. My mom barely speaks English, and she had a very tough time finding a good job. She started out working at the mall, then tried (and failed) to launch her own juice business. She has now been a house cleaner for the past decade. My dad has been a long time security guard in San Francisco.

Money was never plentiful, and I watched them stress about paying the mortgage and witnessed their constant fights, driven largely by their financial difficulties. Serving as a stark contrast was my dad’s sister, who was a dentist and lived in a very affluent area of the Bay Area with her anesthesiologist husband. From an early age, I yearned to not only create my own future that looked very different but also to give back to my parents. Because my aunt was my sole wealthy relative, I thought becoming a doctor was the only way to accomplish my aims.

With that, I graduated from high school and left Clayton for college at San Diego State University. The first two years were focused on being pre-med, striving for the life that my aunt enjoyed. I was completely miserable. Midway through my third year of college, I changed my major from Nutrition and Biology to Communication. After watching my mom lose out on opportunities because she couldn’t speak English very well, I knew the importance of building relationships through written or verbal speech.

One day, I attended a speed networking event at school that brought together 20 professionals in San Diego that students would get to speak with for about three minutes each. I crashed and burned on my first few conversations; the people could clearly tell how young and clueless I was. My 14th conversation was with a man named Brian, who was the owner of a company called South Coast Commercial.

I had zero experience with real estate; I didn’t know what any of the lingo meant, nor had I ever harbored any interest in becoming an agent or investor. But Brian was the only person there who actually had a job opening, and he quickly caught my attention by explaining how much a commercial real estate agent could make within just a handful of years. I couldn’t stop thinking about it for the rest of the evening. When the event concluded, I found Brian and asked if I could interview for his company.

A week later, I found myself sitting anxiously in the conference room at South Coast Commercial. I shouldn’t have been so worried. Brian asked me a few questions but focused primarily on the vast opportunity that existed in the industry. He introduced me to others at the company, all of whom seemed thrilled with their work and level of success. At the end of the hour, he offered me a job.

I was thrilled, but one question loomed large: What was the starting salary?
“Oh no, Jason, this is a no salary job,” Brian explained in response. “In this industry, you eat what you kill. You’re basically starting your own business, and you only make money when you close deals, which can take six months to a year for new agents.”
At this point, I had less than $500 in my bank account.

That should have been enough to dissuade me from taking the job, but there was something nagging in the back of my mind that told me to go for it. I thought back to the others I met in the office. If they could do it, I could too.

I took the job and then another that would provide a steady paycheck. I was still a college junior at this point, taking classes full-time and working two jobs. I earned my real estate license during the summer between my third and fourth year in school.

When I returned to campus, I stacked all of my classes on Tuesday and Thursdays so I’d be able to work the rest of the days of the week (yes, including Saturdays and Sundays). I sat and cold called for 40-50 hours every week. By November of 2018, I finally started to see my first deal on the horizon. The day before the property was set to close, the owner unexpectedly passed away. I was devastated – not only for the family’s loss but also because the property had to go to probate.

What followed was one of the worst months of my life: I would sit in my car crying and tell myself that this was it – I was going to call Brian and tell him I couldn’t work for him anymore. At the same time, my parents were hovering over my shoulder in a cloud of negativity. We told you how crazy you were to take a job with no salary! This was such a stupid risk.

I took a month to wallow and then pulled myself together. From January through May, I closed the original deal and then three additional properties. By the time I graduated from college, I had $70K in my bank account. Finally, I felt confident pursuing real estate full-time. My parents had a bit more faith, too. I became a sponge: soaking up all the information I could from Brian and his partner Kevin, asking questions about their personal projects, and speaking with clients and other agents in the office.

I shut my mouth and listened as much as I possibly could, and I applied what I learned every single day.

It paid off. I made another $150K throughout the rest of 2019 and was really hitting my stride. Then, COVID hit. The business froze for a couple of months while the world grappled with what was going on, but I was still in the office every day making deals happen.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, I still made just shy of $600,000 in 2020. By 2021, things really took off for me.

By the spring, I left South Coast Commercial and set up my own brand and brokerage: JLM Real Estate. I hired three people from San Diego State and moved into an office in downtown San Diego. Throughout 2021, I bought and sold 14 properties and built $5 million in equity in addition to $2 million in commissions. I now have seven agents that I’ve trained myself.

It’s safe to say that my parents couldn’t be prouder. I’ve been able to give my mom a check each year for Christmas: $30,000 in 2019, $60,000 in 2020, and $100,000 in 2021. We had a moment a while ago where she broke down crying and apologized for doubting me (and calling me every day with job ideas that didn’t involve real estate).

I’m proud of what I’ve built, and I’m grateful that I fell into this industry early in my life. I don’t want others to feel like they need to wait to get started to invest in real estate: with strategy and knowledge, anyone can do this.

It’s why I wanted to start coaching people who were just like me do more and have more time and financial freedom.