Van Sturgeon is an experienced entrepreneur of over 30-years who has successfully created several businesses in the real estate industry that cover land acquisition, development management, construction, and renovation.
Van personally owns over 1,000 properties across North America and is semi-retired from the day-to-day operations of his businesses.
He shares his passion for helping homeowners and real estate investors overcome their fears of house renovations/rehabbing, and he loves to be actively involved in helping people reach their goals.
For more valuable information click on this link to watch the complete episode: https://youtu.be/YiotEEXpQvU – “Secrets to a Successful Home Renovation with Van Sturgeon & Jay Conner, The Private Money Authority”
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Jay Conner is a proven real estate investment leader. Without using his own money or credit, Jay maximizes creative methods to buy and sell properties with profits averaging $67,000 per deal.
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Real Estate Investing With Jay Conner, The Private Money Authority
Jay Conner:
Welcome to the show, my friend and special guest, Mr. Van Sturgeon.
Van Sturgeon:
Well, thank you very much, Jay, for having me. What a great introduction. Who is that guy that you just named off?
Jay Conner:
I know it. Well, everybody already wants to know where you’re originally from with such a romantic and emotional and passionate accent.
Van Sturgeon:
Wow! Well, I was born and raised in Chicago and I spent half of my life over there. And then I moved up to Toronto, Canada, and I spent time over there, as well. So I’m a bit of a mutt, I’m a mixture of a bunch of things.
Jay Conner:
Right. I got you. So where are you living now?
Van Sturgeon:
Well, I spent half my time in Toronto, Canada as well as half of it down in Miami Beach.
Jay Conner:
Okay. So you’re back and forth.
Van Sturgeon:
Yeah, that is correct. I’m not too keen on the winter, on that snow in the winter, all that kind of stuff I saw. I’m like those birds that take off, those Canadian geese. I’m one of them that heads down south.
Jay Conner:
Well, are you ready to jump in?
Van Sturgeon:
I am, sir. I’m looking forward.
Jay Conner:
Well, let us jump in. Well, tell us, what got you started in real estate?
Van Sturgeon:
Well my story started, I’m a product of the ’60s and I was born and raised in Chicago, as I mentioned. My parents and I lived in a one-bedroom apartment with my little brother. And what happened was my parents were trying to save up their money to buy their first home, their dream home. And ultimately what ended up happening was they discovered that the apartment building that they were renting from, had actually gone up for sale. So instead of buying their dream home, they put down their down payment, borrowed a bunch of money from friends and family, and became landlords instead of homeowners. And that’s what got me introduced into multi-family or into real estate. We purchased this apartment building and what happened was in the late ’70s, things kind of turned for the worse, as you know, with interest rates climbing 18, 20%.
Van Sturgeon:
The whole Iran hostage situation was occurring at the time. The economy was in the dumps and this building that we had purchased was fully occupied, all of a sudden we were suffering anywhere between 40-60% vacancy. And so, as a family, we had to do everything we could to try to survive and hold onto that investment. And so we ended up doing everything ourselves, whether it’s painting, plastering, cleaning toilets, and God knows how many toilets I’ve cleaned in my life. Whatever it took to be able to hold onto that building and survive, we did as a family. And so ultimately we were able to get through that early part of the late ’70s, early ’80s. And it was a great investment that my parents made. Eventually, I went off to university and graduated, and I could have gone off to become a lawyer, but I decided that I wanted to get it back into construction and renovation.
Van Sturgeon:
That was really my calling. I really enjoyed it. And so I broke the bad news to my parents because they were hoping that their boy would have become that type of cat with the three-piece suit and alligator shoes. I wasn’t a lawyer. I decided I wanted to get into general contractors. So that’s what I did. I opened up my business over there in Chicago and as it slowly but surely over a period of time, I started to grow my business and it was very successful. I was lucky in that I got in at the right time, but, Jay, I kept running into the same cats, so same individuals, these real estate investors who buy properties, renovate them, flip them, buy properties, hold onto them, create a portfolio. And that’s when I started to transition to doing that as well. So I had my general contracting businesses growing and prospering, but also started doing flips and then moved on to actually holding, creating a real estate portfolio. So, that’s where I’m at.
Jay Conner:
So with your rehabbing and renovation experience, have you focused over the years more on rehabbing single-family houses or commercial properties such as apartments?
Van Sturgeon:
To be honest with you, I’ve renovated, and I still do through my renovation companies, I also have a restoration company. I do both. I do a multi-family all the way down to commercial properties, to single-family homes. So yeah, I have diverse experience. I’ve done, literally, thousands of renovations on residential and commercial, as well. So there isn’t really much I haven’t done in real estate.
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