Wait! George Washington Was a Real Estate Investor? Lessons for Long-Term Wealth | Ep 115

James: So one of the coolest things that I learned about George Washington is that he was a real estate investor. Kind of crazy that I didn't know that. That's

Jessi: awesome.

James: But it also wasn't like the most seamless type of process ever. So we're gonna dive into it this week on the Furlo Real Estate Podcast, where we dive into the intricacies of passive real estate investing.

And our mission is to equip people, even old wartime, revolutionary people, um, to invest wisely in both property and people so that together we can build wealth. While improving housing. I'm James, and this is my wife, Jessi.

Jessi: I mean, are you equipping them or are they equipping us?

James: Ooh, that's

Jessi: interest. I kind of feel like, interesting

James: question.

Jessi: We're looking back.

James: I feel like if they listened to this to this, we would've equipped them

Jessi: if they had listened to

James: this. Yes. If they

Jessi: had access.

James: Yeah. So they had podcasts back in the day, they didn't even have radio. If you think about it, it was all written.

Jessi: It's wild.

James: Dang. Yeah,

Jessi: I, I was just recently talking to kids about that concept of like writing a letter and how mm-hmm.

If you didn't have, you can still write a letter.

James: Yes, you can

Jessi: and send it. But if you didn't have any other possible way of communicating with someone and they were like, oh my gosh, that would take forever. Yeah. Like, yes, yes it would.

James: Yes it would.

Jessi: There is a delay.

James: Yes.

Jessi: In between. I can't imagine. I mean, you have

James: horse.

Jessi: Just think about

James: ships.

Jessi: Just,

James: that's why ships were so valuable, by the way. 'cause like it was

Jessi: walk or horses. It was, yeah. Quicker and, yeah. I don't know. I, yeah, just think about, you may address some of these things, but I'm thinking like, okay, with real estate investing, like you use text messaging, phone calls, online apps, like docs.

James: Yeah.

Jessi: You do like virtual signing, like, I don't even know what that must have looked like. You had a sheet of parchment that like you had to get in the same room somehow. Oh yeah. After, we're

James: gonna talk about some of that

Jessi: two week horse ride.

James: Yeah.

Jessi: If you wanted to purchase someone's land.

James: Super crazy. It's wild.

So one of the things that I'm doing is I, we are celebrating the 250th birthday of the United States. And so one of the things that I'm, this is like

Jessi: still so young,

James: I know

Jessi: comparative to some other countries,

James: but, and so one of the things that I'm doing is I am reading books that collectively span US history throughout this year.

Mm-hmm. And so, shocker. I am just finishing up the George Washington biography.

Jessi: Nice.

James: Which is fun 'cause I figured you gotta start with that. I've never actually read a biography about him, and so I'm, I'm listening to George Washington a life and, and then I'm gonna move on to Lewis and Clark, so that'll be the next one.

Big

Jessi: jump.

James: Yeah.

Jessi: But

James: that's, you know, like

Jessi: if you're spanning 250 years in a year.

James: Well, yeah, you kind have to, and what I did was I, in order for me to figure this out, speaking of like using tools, I had chat help me out. I was like, okay, let's break these 250 years into quarter centuries so I could look at 25 year periods.

Mm-hmm. Like what were some big events that happened? Mm-hmm. Then once I had that, I was able to do research on, well, what are some books that go for those big events? Mm-hmm. And so in some cases it's a biography. Doing George Washington, uh, Lewis and Clark. Sure. Um, later on I'm gonna do Martin Luther King Jr.

Jessi: Mm.

James: And then, um, and some of 'em are more around events. Mm-hmm. Like World War I or the, the making of the atomic bomb, things like that. Mm. And so, yeah, that's what I'm doing. So I'm starting out with Washington and yeah. One of the things that surprised me was the dude's a real estate investor, super fun.

And so I just wanna share some of the things that I've learned while listening to this book. Mm-hmm. We'll talk about lessons that we can take away from Little George,

Jessi: the original real estate investor?

James: No, maybe not

Jessi: the original.

James: No, not, no.

Jessi: One of the

James: originals. He was, I, you could say he was one of the founding us real estate investors, I guess.

Sure. I suppose. I don't know

Jessi: who was the very first real estate investor. Oh

James: man. Um.

Jessi: Such an interesting

James: questions question. That's not, I mean,

Jessi: and what do you, it depends on how you define,

James: I know upstate

Jessi: investors,

James: I know the Bible talks about like

Jessi: purchasing land

James: and land and animals and

Jessi: renting things out,

James: things like that.

Jessi: Yeah.

James: Huh. I don't know. Well, I feel like, if I remember correctly, it was in Europe where they, and they, they figured out the idea of like. Owning land and the difference between real property versus chat property. Sure. You know, all that. And creating the structure, which is a lot of what the US stuff is based off of.

It's like medieval UK

Jessi: Wow.

James: British type of rules. That's why a lot of the terms, like some of the like the root terms. Yeah. What in the world and it's like, yeah, it all stems from this futile style of doing it. But we're gonna talk about 1776 through earlier on. Um, so. Here's what's interesting. When he was 16 years old, George Washington was a surveyor.

Jessi: Oh,

James: right. All right. Didn't know that. So he, what he did was, uh, one of his jobs was to go to the frontier and be like, what's there?

Jessi: Yeah.

James: And so he was your classic where he was sleeping, outdoors, doing in mud sickness, isolation. 'cause it wasn't like your car. Was he like

Jessi: making maps of like,

James: essentially Yeah.

Jessi: Wow.

James: And figuring out landmarks and

Jessi: interesting

James: things like that.

Jessi: Yeah. He'd go out and kind of, kind of measure distances and figure out.

James: So that kind of how much land and because he was interested in land. And he was like, how, what can I do in this area? Um, which honestly, that's what I think. Like if you are interested in real estate and you're pretty young and you're like, how do I make money?

I'm like, yeah, well, and maybe not surveying these days, but like, um, um, appraisers, big time. Like that's what you do. You go around

Jessi: a lot

James: about properties

Jessi: and the system.

James: Yeah. I think property management gets you there as well. Buying,

Jessi: selling, yeah.

James: Property inspections to a degree. It often helps to have a construction background.

Sure. Um, I, but yeah. Um, yeah. So I would

Jessi: imagine construction on some level would give you, if you're doing residential construction or housing construction or

James: something. No, totally. Yeah. So one of those things that he learned was that like, uh, rivers are a lot more valuable than roads back then. Hmm. And he eventually went on projects to try to develop rivers and waterways to specifically go through Virginia.

Wow. 'cause he was like, oh man, like if all trade goes through here, this would be awesome. Sure. Like, he, he, he recognized that. Um, yeah. And he was also just a cognizant of where people were going to move, not necessarily where they were

Jessi: mm-hmm.

James: Today. And we'll get into some of the schemes. Yes. Schemes is the right word.

Uh, that, that he had.

Jessi: Wow.

James: Yeah. So, um, again, I think one of the things that I got that I took away from him, from that part of the story was he wasn't just dreaming about. Investing and, and,

Jessi: and

James: dreaming about land. Like he was walking it. Yeah. He was doing it and he was somehow involved taking action steps, which gave him clarity.

Jessi: That makes sense

James: about it. Yeah.

Jessi: Yeah. It wasn't just, yeah, it wasn't just daydreaming.

James: Yeah.

Jessi: He pursued a career that got him into actually interacting with

James: land. Yeah. And I think it's fair to say like he wasn't, he wasn't a. He wasn't your classic self-made, came from nothing and, and ended with a lot. Uh, no.

He had some resources, not a lot interest, but he had That's interesting. Some, and had some inheritance, which definitely helped kick things off. But then he also grew it into a very substantial landowner, like thousands of acres.

Jessi: Wow.

James: By the time he was done. Um, and actually I think we're gonna talk about that next to, so he ended up with Mountain Vernon.

Jessi: Yeah.

James: Which, um, I've, I've, I don't think I've ever been there. I

Jessi: think there's a bible college named after his poem.

James: Vern

Jessi: Bible College

James: probably. So, uh, so I looked up a picture of this place.

Jessi: Yeah,

James: it's pretty sweet.

Jessi: Oh,

James: it's right on the river.

Jessi: I mean, it's a plantation. Is that,

James: uh, it was Okay. Yes. But it's a, when he owned it, it's a set of houses.

Yes. Um, a set

Jessi: of houses.

James: Yeah. So it had like a big mansion that he kept building out and getting bigger and did sorts of, all sorts of projects on it. I mean, it's. On river and it's a big river. Wow. And it's super cool. I've, if we had a chance to visit, I'm like riverfront. That would be, oh dude. It would be, it's, I, it's like Mississippi level.

Wow. Size riverfront. Like sure is big. And, okay. Just look. Absolutely. This is gonna

Jessi: show my, my,

James: so where is Mr. Editor? Daniel? Uh, Virginia. If you get a chance, like right about now, go ahead and throw up a picture of Mountain Vernon so that people are watching on YouTube. Can see it. There it is. Well they won't be able to see us 'cause he's gonna be overdoing it.

Jessi: Oh right.

James: But yeah,

Jessi: Mount Vernon.

James: That's Mount Vernon. For those of you looking, um, if not, feel free to look it up online. It's cool. So, uh, yes, he did have, um, he was like a half bought it slash inherited, uh, plantation, which yes, he did have slaves and it was a very. Um, it was weird. He, on one hand didn't love the idea of them, but on the other hand recognized that they were super valuable.

Mm-hmm. But then on the other hand, recognized that they weren't exactly the hardest workers 'cause their incentives weren't really that aligned. Sure. And had frustrations with that. And part of how he tried to deal with his incongruity of like, fighting for freedom, but then also not giving freedom to everybody.

He was pretty stead fast on not breaking up families. So people were married. He was like, no, well, like you can stay together.

Jessi: Yeah.

James: But that meant they had a ton of kids and then he suddenly was responsible for, so his population of slaves kept growing 'cause

Jessi: Yeah,

James: they were families. He

Jessi: kept families together and families

James: pretty, and eventually he got away from tobacco farming because it was just so.

Fickle.

Jessi: Mm.

James: And then he found himself like doing wheat and other stuff. And we'll actually talk about it a little later, but, uh, his population was growing. He is like, I don't have work for them to do. Interesting. And so he would figure out like, well, let's figure out how to do blacksmiths and how to make clothes.

Oh,

Jessi: he created jobs for them?

James: Yeah. 'cause he is like, I have to, like, I have to do something with these people. Reading

Jessi: his own little city

James: that actually talked about that at some point in point it was like almost this self-sustaining thing.

Jessi: Wow.

James: Because he was a little out of, out, out of the way of everybody too.

Um, but it was this weird, so strange tension that, that he had.

Jessi: Did he have other, like, who was in his family? Was it like his extended family or was it just he and Martha?

James: So he had a mom who they did not get along at all. And so she lived somewhere else and he, he and his mom, George and his mom

Jessi: Okay.

James: Did not get along.

Jessi: Yeah.

James: Um, Martha had been married in a previous marriage and had, I think it was. It was either two or four kids.

Jessi: Mm.

James: Had some kids,

Jessi: previous kids, yeah.

James: And then her husband passed away and that was actually where, that was one of the big inheritance that, that George and Martha got was from her husband, who was very well off.

Jessi: Oh, interesting.

James: Got it. And then it, it went to the kids, but

Jessi: Sure.

James: George and Martha outlasted the kids.

Jessi: Really?

James: Yeah.

Jessi: Oh, I didn't

James: realize that. So the two of them never had any kids. Now they had, they inherited grandkids and, um,

Jessi: from her previous kids,

James: from her previous marriage, kids. And he tried to, you know, do what he could.

And, um, but yeah, they actually said that was one of the reasons why people felt safe with him being the first president and 'cause like he wasn't gonna pass it on to anybody twisting. And yeah. Now again, like they had kids around, but Sure. Just no biological kids on his,

Jessi: huh?

James: Yeah.

Jessi: Weird.

James: Yeah.

Jessi: I mean, that's not really how the presidency works, but

James: Well,

Jessi: is that how it worked previously?

James: Well, that's the thing. This was a great experiment. No one had ever tried the idea of president. It had all been monarchies.

Jessi: Well, how did he become the president?

James: Um,

Jessi: was it voted on? I'm

James: pretty sure I'm gonna hear about that in like the next two days in my book. Um, no. Yeah. Essentially. Yeah. So, uh, all right.

So Declaration of Independence, like this is, this is nothing to do. The rabbit hole. That's right. Declaration of Independence happens 19, uh, July 4th, 1776. Yes. Right. That's what we're celebrating. Woo. Um, Britain's like, I don't think so. And so George comes together and they elect him to be the, the general.

I love

Jessi: that you're on a first name basis

James: now, dude. A hundred percent. Well, I've spent it. Hours with learning about him?

Jessi: Yes.

James: Okay. With him, anyways, he puts together a continental army. Mm-hmm. And, but it's super weird 'cause they have, um, like a confederacy, is that the right word? Um, uh, I don't think that's the right word.

Essentially, it was like, they called themselves the United States, but it was, it was really loose. Like all the states had all the power. Mm-hmm. So if he wanted to put together a continental army, he had to go to each individual state and be like, Hey, can you guys. Bring troops and pay for them and give us supplies.

Like he had like the, there was zero. Congressional power.

Jessi: Yeah.

James: So anyways, uh, he did that and, and then they won. With the help of the French and honestly listening to the entire thing, I'm like, it was more like the British were like, whatever we give up. Like it was, it wasn't that the US beat them, it was just the, the British were like,

Jessi: they outlasted

James: them.

This isn't worth it. Like good luck. They'll come crawling back, like almost that kind of mindset. Mm. They were, yeah. Anyways, so, but then they had this, this interim, they had this government for like 10 years. Again, the central government had zero power. They could ask for taxes. Interesting. But no one was required to give them.

They had to give permiss. They could ask people permission from each to join the military, and at one point they had like a thousand people in their military, which again, George was like, this seems pretty precarious. And so then they had this second continental Congress. That was where he was elected president of that group to say, Hey, we need to rethink this system of government.

Mm-hmm. And it was James Madison, who was also from Virginia, who had this crazy idea of saying, what if we create one group who makes the laws? We create another group, let's call it a branch that executes on the laws. Mm-hmm. And then we'll create a third group that judges to make sure that everything's fair.

Jessi: Mm-hmm.

James: That was like. The overall idea. Wow. Yeah. And he ran it by George at the time we was still use Yeah, it sounds good. Like something's gotta change. Dang. And, and that ultimately was, and their, again, their initial goal wasn't when this Continental Congress got together. It wasn't to like to just. And everything and start all over.

It was, well, what can we tweak here to make this work? Yeah. And they ended up saying, can't do that. We gotta go this other route. And so that was when the Constitution was formed, which is now the basis of what we have today. I would imagine someone could argue that we're only on the 240th year on this current system of government.

Okay.

Jessi: Yeah. Yes.

James: We still, the United States, I mean, we just, you know.

Jessi: That's not really what we're separate

James: celebrating celebr and celebrating are, you're constantly celebr. Yeah. Yes, I know, I know the

Jessi: freedom

piece.

James: So that's, that's a bit of a backdrop. So I'm, I'm guessing it was outside of that where they said, Hey, we have to have this executive position.

Jessi: Mm-hmm.

James: Someone should be it.

Jessi: Someone should do this.

James: I nominate

Jessi: George.

James: That's kind of what happened. They, they said, like, the other crazy thing that I love about him, which has nothing to do with real estate, was after he won the war. He resigned his commission. Mm-hmm. He goes, alright, I'm good. I'm gonna go back to being a farmer.

Which again, we're gonna put farmer in quotes, but, uh, but that was what he did.

Jessi: He farm.

James: I mean, he was, but not unlike, not in the sense how, you don't really think of it. He wasn't going out and picking stuff or cutting down cherry trees. That wasn't his thing. And um, but anyways, like even the King George ii, I think at the time he was like.

No way. That's true. And if that is true, George Washington is the greatest man to have ever lived. Mm-hmm. Because that was unheard of, right. For someone once you had, once you have a military, once

Jessi: you had

James: power to be the conqueror and then go, I, I'm good. I give it up. Like that doesn't happen. Which again, he did it again as president, which which was insane.

Like just didn't happen to have someone respect the law like that. Yeah. So that's actually like, that's the thing that makes him so great,

Jessi: which

James: honestly, the fact that he didn't hold on to power,

Jessi: I would think. You know, tying, tying it back in, like, yeah. Back. I have so many thoughts about like,

James: there's your history lesson,

Jessi: how they created the system, and the system of law making and law executing and, and that sort of thing is like, there had to be things written in there about land and ownership and how to deal with those sorts of.

James: Well, so, okay. Yes and no. And we're, we're actually gonna get to that a little bit later. I think

Jessi: maybe,

James: maybe that

Jessi: does come

James: later from a congressional federal centralized government standpoint. Not much. No. Not really. Outside of them saying, Hey, whatever we don't do, the states will do. Mm. And the goal and intent was to push as many decisions to the state as possible.

Sure. So states had it, and you're gonna hear that later. 'cause it was Virginia that was making rules that it was. So the states were the ones, and so those were already, they were adopting what London or the British had already told them, and then they were tweaking it to, to do their own thing now that they were on their own.

Jessi: That makes sense.

James: Yeah. So there were already things in place

Jessi: that, yeah. Which totally makes sense. And the other point that you made about how, you know, he had so much power and control, but was willing to, to step back and let it go and say, this is not. I, I am not taking this

James: Yeah.

Jessi: For myself and so that I can be in charge and have the rights to do everything.

I, I kind of think like that is a super wise, perhaps humble. I mean, I don't know. You could read into that. I guess maybe f maybe afraid more than anything. No, I didn't get that sense. It's like that would be a good posture for an investor to have, you know, it's like an investor and or. A sponsor. 'cause it's like you don't want someone who's just like, I'm gonna go in there.

I'm gonna take everything. I'm gonna take control. I'm just gonna blow it up. You want someone to evaluate and then be like, okay, this is what's good. This is what's right. Yes. It's growing, it's thriving. It's amazing. But I'm sharing this load. Yeah, because I know. That is what's good and why. He

James: is like, yeah.

And I would say one of the things that he was known for was he told the truth. Mm-hmm. He didn't mess around. Sure. And so when he, when Congress gave him the power to be the general, he said, and when I'm done, like,

Jessi: yeah,

James: I'm done.

Jessi: I, yeah.

James: And he kept to his work, I'll

Jessi: serve

James: and I be done. I think that is a great characteristic as an investor to, you set your parameters and then like you stick to 'em.

Yeah. And you know, obviously being intelligent about it, don't just randomly do it. Mm-hmm. That's a big one. Okay.

Jessi: Back on track

James: with that foundation outta the way. You're welcome. Number two, he was perpetually cash poor, but a land barren.

Jessi: Mm-hmm.

James: Tell me, this sounds familiar. Where he owned a massive acreage, like thousands of acres, more than I can imagine, to be honest.

But he was constantly short on cash. Just constantly. And at one point in time, uh, you know, he was writing a letter and he was talking about his mom, who again, he wasn't, didn't have the best relationship with good old Mary. Yeah. And she was whining about how she was in poverty and destitute and whatever, which was annoying 'cause he was providing for her.

And in one of his letters he's like, I have like a thousand pounds, which was a lot. But not aum. When you were talking about how much he had. Sure. He was, I don't have any money, like, get over it. Like I'm doing what I can. And he was just constantly having to worry about it. And it was, he, he had, um. Had some tenants who were leasing lands who weren't paying, he had crops that were failing on him.

'cause he was constantly experimenting and he just had some deals that took forever to mature. And, and so it was your classic where, um, it was the equity rich, but, um, cash poor.

Jessi: Mm-hmm.

James: A hundred percent. That was him. And, um, yeah, for his crops, he, he, uh, when he got out of. Tobacco, which was, it was kind of interesting 'cause it was a cash crop, right?

Mm-hmm. You could make a lot of money, but it was kind of a boomer bus type of thing,

Jessi: right?

James: And if it didn't work out, you're like, oh my gosh. Yeah, you in trouble. And it was so volatile. Labor intensive.

Jessi: Oh yeah.

James: Yeah. And so he was like, he tried like new crops and was like, okay, we're a lot of wheat was this thing.

Um, he tried some fisheries. He created a grist mill. He eventually made a whiskey distillery, which actually became wildly profitable for him. All sorts of stuff. So. One of the things that's important is that, um, he wasn't just chasing, chasing cash, I can say this, chasing cash flow for lifestyle. It was really like he was trying to do it to hold onto his land and he was trying to stay independent.

It, it was

Jessi: the long term investment.

James: Yeah. Yeah.

Jessi: So did that persist throughout his life or did he eventually like. Make more cash to,

James: I think once the

Jessi: Enjoy Life

James: whiskey distillery came along, he was okay. But no, I mean, and he, he was a modest guy to begin with.

Jessi: Sure.

James: I mean, it was the other things they had talked about, which I thought was interesting.

The author of the book was like, it was super weird. He was fighting for independence but liked European tastes and how it all looked and, and I was like, you can have those two things. That's allowed to say, I like your style and your culture. I just don't want you setting the rules for me.

Jessi: Sure. Those are

James: different.

Jessi: Yeah.

James: Which the author seemed to be like, it was so incongruous. I'm like, uh, I don't think so.

Jessi: Well, I mean,

James: outside of, they said it was a hardship because when they, during the war time, it was like, we're not buying anything from you. And he was like, oh,

Jessi: but I love their shirts. Well, that, that's the incongruent part is which,

James: but

Jessi: he didn't, he he's willing to support them.

'cause he likes the things.

James: Yeah,

Jessi: but he's not.

James: Again, like, I'm like, he, there's a brand. He, he liked them. That was actually the other interesting things about this particular, um, war was it wasn't a bunch of, um, like farmers and low level people. It was the, the landowners, the rich who were not happy with the situation.

And so they actually tried to be super diplomatic about it. Mm-hmm. By the way, that was the other thing that I learned about it. Like Britain was actually super cool about the whole thing.

Jessi: Mm.

James: Like they didn't want to destroy the colonies. Sure. And so they would win a battle. And you know how like.

Normally if you win and they start to retreat, you're like, go get 'em. Britain never did that.

Jessi: Mm.

James: They'd start to run away and they'd be like, all right, we're good. But like, they played all defense. That was it. Which, you know, someone would say, Hey, if you prevent defense, you, you prevent the win or whatever.

Mm-hmm. And you prevent defense from happening. And which is ultimately what happened. Like they kept them alive and kept the army going, but it was on purpose and they knew it. And that was their whole game plan. They're like, oh, we'll just wait 'em out. They'll get over it. And they never did. And yeah.

Anyways, um, number three. He bought, he, there was a Ohio Land deal that just like, it drove him crazy. Hmm. So Ohio's little west of Virginia. Mm-hmm. And um, they. During the French and Indian War, which he was, uh, a commander, a co, a colonel mm-hmm. For that, uh, he got to see a bunch of the land. Mm-hmm. And I was like, man, this is pretty sweet area over here.

Um, really liked it. And then one of the things that Virginia did, and this is, this is the scheme, part of it is they were trying to incentivize soldiers to join his, the continental military. Mm-hmm. And so they said, Hey, if you join, we can't pay you, but we'll give you land over in Ohio.

Jessi: Nice

James: and Yeah, which was awesome, except for the fact that like there were never any boundaries set and they never resolved any claims with the natives.

Mm-hmm. Like there was just so many unknowns. We were like, we're gonna give you guys land. And so yeah. What Washington went all in on this and did his own form of a syndication with other soldiers. He's like, guys, if we band together, we can get a big plot together. This sounds awesome.

Jessi: Were they purchasing it,

James: taking it?

No, they were being given, it was like that was their form of payment. And so they, but

Jessi: who was giving it?

James: The Virginian government. The Virginian.

Jessi: Okay.

James: Governor, whoever.

Jessi: Interesting.

James: Right. Like the, it was the states who, who were setting all the land rules. 'cause again, sure. Continental Congress had zero power and at that time the war was like, they're like, I don't even know if this is gonna last.

Jessi: Interesting.

James: Yeah. Again, it was so like, he was messy. Oh, it was crazy. Messy. Well, and what happened was he kept. Like there was so much paperwork that he had to fill out, but he figured out how to do all of it, and again, was getting other investors lined up with him so you could go get big plots of land.

Yeah. But there were unclear titles, like no one knew who actually owned what.

Jessi: Yes.

James: Where there were completing claims, there were wars that were happening out there. Treaties kept changing. I mean, it was like,

Jessi: yeah,

James: it's um. It feels like that would be very stressful. Mm-hmm. If you were trying to, like I get, if you're like, Hey, I've got my one acre and I put a fence up and we have a house and we're doing our thing, like, you know, or even like 10 acres, but like he was trying to buy thousands of acres and try to get it all together.

It

Jessi: was nice. Well, yeah, if there's no proof of ownership or where, where the lines

James: are, well outside of,

Jessi: that's like,

James: yeah, they had some piece of paper. So eventually what happens is they win the war. Mm-hmm. And so then the. The, you know, the US starts to formally like, or they start to formalize their land policies.

Mm. Like, okay, here's what this actually meant. Here's

Jessi: what

James: we're

Jessi: doing and what, what's the timeframe at that point?

James: Um. Early 1780s.

Jessi: Okay.

James: So like 10 years. Like the war's over? Yeah.

Jessi: It's like, yeah, the war's

James: over. It's like they one worn like 82, 84, something like that. Mm-hmm. Don't quote me on it. Okay. It was a while.

And so, um, so yeah, so he's out there just like, and at one point in time, so he's done and, and how, he's like, lemme go see this land that I've got. And so he takes a trip out there again, doing his little surveying thing, trying to figure it all out. And he's like. What the heck? There's people who are living out here, they're like, yeah, it's our land.

He's like, no, it's not. And they get into this whole debate and he ends up suing them. We go to court, we're talking years, my word paperwork, and eventually the government says, well, we had this deal, like it's, it's George's. And so now he is gotta go to them and be like, this is my land. And for most of the people, they were like, well, can we lease it from you?

And so we let them lease it. And even then it was like. They paid, didn't pay, you know, whatever he, like How do you police that kind of thing when it's way out there? You know, it's, you

Jessi: get a property

James: manager apparently on site, apparently. That's right. Um, he had a bunch of other people who, um, some of those lesser investors, those soldiers, like, they were like, whatever, we don't want this.

And, and so he like bought up their shares for it. Total syndicator type of thing. He ended up did selling some of the pieces of land to help, um. Raise capital to keep Mount Vernon. 'cause that was like, that's home base. That's his, that's what he didn't want to sell. And then which, and Mount Vernon wasn't like, again, it was massive and it had like different farm areas mm-hmm.

And stuff like that. So.

Jessi: Huh

James: Uh. Yeah. Um. Just crazy. You try to do a syndication. It sounds wild. I I would not necessarily call it a successful investment. Um, but

Jessi: yeah,

James: but I mean, we're talking like this whole thing started in late, it was like a 10 year deal.

Jessi: Huh.

James: To go through and figure it all out, which honestly there's some big companies where that's the game that they play.

Jessi: Yeah.

James: And um, and I think my point, I mean, with that much

Jessi: acreage and that many moving pieces, like Yeah. Would take time to do that.

James: Yeah, which feeds in my next one, which is, especially

Jessi: without email,

James: his political power wasn't necessarily a prize, it was his hedge. So, um, he, you think about rules like this, he didn't just sit back and go, whatever.

I hate the government. Like, it's fine. No, we got involved. He was active in creating and crafting policy that benefited him.

Jessi: Mm-hmm.

James: And, and I think that's another takeaway that you can have where it's like, you know, if you've got a piece of land that you wanna develop. It's okay to get involved and to, to be proactive and to say, Hey, how can we make the changes?

How can we do it? How, like, can I get involved mm-hmm. At whatever level. And I, I wouldn't get involved just to develop a piece of land. Sure. But it doesn't, like, it's okay to, at, at least for him, he didn't see that as necessarily, um, uh, oh shoot. What's the word? Um. Where you're compromised, where you have a conflict of interest.

That's it.

Jessi: Oh yeah.

James: Mm-hmm. He didn't necessarily see it as that, which maybe should have. Right. It was

Jessi: more, it was more he saw it as a, an interest and a passion maybe. Yeah.

James: Yeah. Yeah.

Jessi: Perhaps.

James: I agree. Um,

Jessi: I don't know. I, it's a little weird. It, it's interesting thinking about someone in the past, like, I listened to this podcast the other day.

The Rethinking Podcast and it was this episode on,

James: with Adam Grant,

Jessi: George Washington. So good. Yeah. So good.

James: What's, uh, who's the guy who he was interviewing? Um, not Kincaid.

Jessi: He, uh,

James: uh,

Jessi: I dunno, he's a filmmaker. Yeah,

James: yeah, yeah.

Jessi: Historic,

James: um, CA Burns. Ken

Jessi: Burns. Yeah. Ken Burns. Um, which sounds fascinating. I kinda watched, wanna watch some of his

James: Yeah.

Jessi: Historical films, but, um. They, he, Ken Burns knew a ton about Washington 'cause he made a film. Yeah. And studied his life and, you know, dug up all sorts of things. And it, he was making this point at one point about how we look back on these historical figures and we idealized Oh yeah. Their lives. And Washington, a big one, did actions and they could do no wrong, you know, and it's like.

We were making these points and, and I keep wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt. And I'm like, well, he's probably just passionate about it. He was probably just interested in it. It's like, no, he probably had some greed and selfishness too, just like everybody else. Yeah, just like a normal

James: person.

Jessi: Yeah. And that's Ken Burns line. And there was like, he was a human just like everybody else. Like he got frustrated, he got annoyed, he took advantage. Like he was inconsistent at times. Like, that's okay. You know? That's who he was. Who isn't, yeah, who isn't we, you know? It's not helpful to idealize and wash out all of the negative things.

James: Yeah.

Jessi: You know, to be like, yeah. But, but it's interesting to, like, you don't really wanna admit that like. You wanna just take the good stuff and be like, well, that's why we ended up where we're at. Because it was all, he was really good. It was really great. It was

James: smaller room. No, it's very true. It's very true.

And I think that's true of any sponsor who you're investing with or any property manager who you're ENT trusting, like they're human.

Jessi: You want the whole picture.

James: Yeah.

Jessi: And that's okay.

James: Yeah. Good. I goods good. And one of my videos I have on my website, I'm like, yeah, dude, we make mistakes and we try to set things up so that people give us grace and we, we've made a lot of deposits into the account so that when we mess up and have to take a withdrawal, they go, all right, I'll fucking get it.

Um, but. Yeah. No, it's, it's, at least for me, I'm like, I recognize that's a thing, so I gotta systematically build around it. Mm-hmm. And yeah, no, you're right. He's, he was a normal dude. Yeah. A great guy. Sure. He had a couple really good characteristics about him,

Jessi: right?

James: Yeah. More than a couple. But

Jessi: yeah,

James: it was good.

Uh, let's see here, what else? Um, I thought this was interesting. He never really borrowed, that just wasn't important. No. Like, that was important to him, like

Jessi: no debt.

James: Yeah. Which was. I mean he had, it was weird not borrow in like their normal sense. Mm-hmm. Like he never got highly leveraged. I think there was some borrowing

Jessi: Sure

James: that went on, but like, not classically leveraged, especially like a lot of people and which is part of the reason why he was so cash poor.

'cause he never levered all the land that he had.

Jessi: Mm-hmm.

James: But all it turned out to be a good move on his part. Something like that was, that was interesting.

Jessi: Yeah, that is, that is kinda

James: interesting. Yeah. I, and. Leverage and debt back then was just different than it is today, I think. And so, um, and so it was just, in some ways it was riskier kind of, um, back then, but, uh, but yeah, so anyways, that's George Washington.

I don't know if I have a big takeaway for it other than like, those are some things that I learned about him that I thought were interesting. And again, I'm like, dude, he was a real estate investor. Like yeah, he was that first. And then he became, and I mean obviously he went into the military. Mm-hmm. And that was clearly a thing.

And he was a politician also thing.

Jessi: Yeah.

James: But like, he was, he was a farmer, he was a real estate investor. Mm-hmm. And a business owner. Really.

Jessi: Hmm.

James: And I'm like, that's just cool.

Jessi: That is cool.

James: I like the guy. I'm glad I read it. It was worth it. It's if you listen to the audio books, like 42 hours. So, um, gird yourself.

Woo. Yeah. I'm,

Jessi: is that on normal speed or fast speed or,

James: that's normal speed. Yeah. Alright, so, um. It's a lot. It's a

Jessi: lot.

James: But you know, like it's pretty like covers a lot of his life. They don't actually talk about, I mean they briefly talk about his childhood. That's not actually the majority of it, but so much happened in his life.

Jessi: Yeah,

James: right. Like and you gotta give context to, so there's this war that happened and so it's just spent a lot of time and it was 10 years of his life and it wasn't like we all sat around s singing Kumbaya.

Jessi: Right.

James: There was

Jessi: stuff happening every day.

James: Yeah. It was regularly and, and. Yeah. And then again, like that happened and it wasn't like, you know, for so many people, like that's the thing.

And then it went like, and then he helped form new government.

Jessi: Yeah.

James: Oh, okay. Yeah. Like that little thing.

Jessi: Yeah.

James: Alright. Which is a story all in of itself. And so, which is kind of crazy that he had these like two different, anyways. Um, cool man. I appreciate him.

Jessi: Yeah.

James: Let's see here. Um, yeah, I just, uh hmm. I thought it was neat worth, definitely worth reading.

It's a, it's Washington Colon a life and that's like the style and um, yeah, I thought it was good. And uh, I know

Jessi: I've learned a lot just vicariously through you.

James: You're welcome.

Jessi: So,

James: yeah, gotta process it. So there you go. There's Washington. He's a real estate investor. Hopefully you learned something from it.

I was. That was cool and I'm also a real estate investor and hopefully if you're listening to this one, you are as well. And if you are interested in investing with us, either as a passive investor or as uh, hiring us for property management, I would love to chat with you. You can learn more about us at furlo.com and with that, have a great day.