INVESTOR TURNED $12,000 STUDENT LOAN INTO $40 MILLION IN REAL ESTATE

**Jude Bernard** (0:01)
My graduates from my school being forps, back drop.

**Rashad Bilal** (0:06)
Back drop.

**Jude Bernard** (0:07)
F*** a mic drop. Back drop.

**Rashad Bilal** (0:20)
All right, guys, welcome back EYL. We got another exciting episode.
That's a fact. That's a fact. So anytime we get to talk about real estate, it's exciting. It seems like every time we talk about real estate, there's always a different avenue. There's so many different ways to make money within real estate. So this is the first time that we really had somebody from the city, from New York City that was really big in real estate as an investor. So Jude Bernard is a huge, huge, huge successful investor out of New York City. He owns 13 brownstones between Brooklyn and Harlem, and he also owns a physical location, Brooklyn Bank, which we'll talk about, which is a non-profit organization in Brooklyn as well. He has a real estate company, just a very accomplished-

**Troy Millings** (1:11)
Wait, wait, you hear that sound? It's called Mogul Talk.

**Rashad Bilal** (1:15)
So yeah, the property's also-

**Troy Millings** (1:16)
I thought it was an echo.

**Rashad Bilal** (1:19)
The property's together are valued over $40 million.
I mean, if you're familiar with parts of New York City, if you know brownstones in Brooklyn, Bed-Stuy area, and Harlem, you know that on the low end, 1.5 million on the high end, 2.5, 3 million, $4 million. It's not uncommon for brownstones to go for that. He has a very unique story because he's one of the guys that, like when Jay-Z said, I could have bought a Dumbo, I could have bought a, when he said I could have bought a Kram and Dumbo, I could have bought a building and Dumbo.

**Troy Millings** (1:50)
For like 2 million.

**Rashad Bilal** (1:50)
2 million, that same building's worth 20 million. 20 million, how filling Dumbo. So he's one of these guys that actually had an opportunity to invest early, and before the area's really started to get gentrified and changed, and he just sat on it, and it worked out for his favor. So he has a story to tell, he got a lot of gems to give, and it's a great, great conversation to have, because a lot of times we speak about being on the wrong side of gentrification, and not taking advantage of certain things, and getting in when it's too late.
But he actually got in before it actually started to change, and he saw the whole process, and he learned a lot along the way, he created systems for himself, and just a wealth of information. He also taught a class for us.

**Jude Bernard** (2:40)
EYL University. I'm officially a professor.

**Rashad Bilal** (2:43)
Yes, that's a fact. So he taught the class for EYL University, and we thought it would be a good idea to bring him on the podcast as well. So first and foremost, thank you for joining us, appreciate it.

**Jude Bernard** (2:52)
Glad to be here, brother. Appreciate you.

**Rashad Bilal** (2:53)
Nah, for sure, for sure. So let's get into it.
Let's get into it, because I was listening to your class, shout out to Jamal, did a good job of hosting it. And I know you said that your original goal in real estate was to make $500 a month. You was like, if I could just make $500 a month, it's crazy, $500 a month to almost $50 million in real estate. Like, it's crazy how life works out. So what was your original process into getting into real estate? And how did you make the transition from just working to actually being a real estate investor?

**Jude Bernard** (3:28)
What made me get into the game? I was just short, you know, like I just didn't have, like my nine to five just wasn't cutting it. You know, this was like back in the mid to late 90s when there were the bottles, and at any minute, Diddy could run into the spot, and you know what I'm saying? Buy the bar out.

**Rashad Bilal** (3:50)
Buy the bar out.

**Jude Bernard** (3:51)
And you just sitting there holding your Heineken all night. And you know, I just didn't want to be that dude. You know, I did not want to be that dude. So I was just like, yo, how am I going to do this? You know, I had gotten to a little trouble earlier, ended up spending, you know, like over some dumb shit, like spent a week in Albany County. And I was just like, yo, I'm not about that life.
So I learned very early in the game, I'm not about that life. You know, being a New York dude in Albany County jail, it was just like, nah, this ain't for me. So I was just like, I can't be in the streets because that don't work for me.