Podcast
Podcast Episode 34 | Why Property Investors Choose PropertyLens
December 22, 2025
FEATURING:
Jerome Hairston, Reator®, MBA, PMP, ICP-APO
Episode Summary
This week on Property of the Week, Bob Frady and John Siegman welcome Jerome Hairston, retired military engineer, licensed realtor, and full-time real estate investor who uses PropertyLens on every deal.
Jerome Hairston, Reator®, MBA, PMP, ICP-APO
Episode Summary
This week on Property of the Week, Bob Frady and John Siegman welcome Jerome Hairston, retired military engineer, licensed realtor, and full-time real estate investor who uses PropertyLens on every deal.
Key Takeaways
In this episode:
• How a 20-year military engineer approaches real estate investing
• Why PropertyLens is his “benchmark tool” on every property
• What scares investors more than fire, foundation, or roof issues
Plus: Why regular buyers make emotional decisions and how investors avoid them
Whether you’re a first-time investor, an agent helping clients, or a homeowner trying to avoid hidden risks, this episode offers a rare peek inside the professional investor mindset.
From avoiding flood-zone disasters to speeding up due diligence, Jerome explains exactly how he evaluates properties, what he looks for first, and why data beats “falling in love with a listing” every time.
key findings & Insights:
• Flood risk is the #1 deal-breaker
• PropertyLens helps Jerome avoid calling counties, digging through sites, or waiting for answers
• Investors look at ARV spreads, big-ticket items, and exit strategy first
• Age of home determines radon, asbestos, wiring, and structural concerns
• Crime isn’t always a deal-breaker
• Sellers often “remember things” only after investors ask about permits
• Flood and damage history is often not disclosed
If you want investor-level confidence, start with data not emotions. Run your next report at PropertyLens.com.
Resources
Realtor.com
Try it:Propertylens.com
Questions Contact us: support@propertylens.com
[00:00:00] Bob Frady: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls ships at sea. It is time for a new episode of Property of the Week with PropertyLens. As always, for those of you who don't know, my name is Bob Frady, co-founder and CEO of PropertyLens. With me, as always, is
[00:00:23] John Siegman: John Siegman, co-founder and president of PropertyLens.
[00:00:26] Bob Frady: So John, we have a guest today.
[00:00:29] John Siegman: We do?
[00:00:31] Bob Frady: A special guest. John, why do we have Jerome as a special guest today?
[00:00:34] John Siegman: We have Jerome as a special guest today because Jerome is a property investor. Uses PropertyLens reports to make better decisions about the properties he invests in.
[00:00:47] Bob Frady: So Jerome, welcome to the show. Thank you very much.
[00:00:50] Jerome Hairston: Great guys.
[00:00:50] Appreciate it. Thank you guys for having me. I appreciate it being going.
[00:00:54] Bob Frady: Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?
[00:00:57] Jerome Hairston: John has it in a nutshell. Real estate investor just starting, but I do use PropertyLens a lot. retired military, 20 years, retired as a construction engineer, technician, warrant officer for the engineer, branch engineer regimen, excuse me.
[00:01:13] And then after that, transferred into corporate for a couple years, retired 2020. Top of the pandemic. Not the best plan, but it worked out, But, jumped into corporate for a couple years, did some really nice things with, the Army clients, a couple of Army clients. the latest one before I jumped out fully was to go around to installations worldwide and, assessed the infrastructure.
[00:01:37] So if the bases had to operate independently, if the worst should happen, are those systems redundant enough and sufficient enough so that they can operate independently? Then following that, corporate for about two and a half years, 1,543 applications, I'll make sure that that's out there to the world.
[00:01:55] all said no. And so I got back to my business plan after graduating, my master's in business and undergrad and project management, got back to business of focusing on what I really wanted to do in life. And, the world said, go back to your side hustle, which is now my primary, which is real estate investing, and I'm also a licensed realtor.
[00:02:16] Bob Frady: Congratulations. So are you mostly investing or are you also doing realty in conjunction, or how does it work for you?
[00:02:25] Jerome Hairston: It hasn't panned that way yet. As far as the day-to-day operations of a realtor, no. I personally am not looking for that. I don't really look for leads or chase leads like most realtors.
[00:02:35] I know that's gonna sound crazy to folks that's listening, but my main focus currently is real estate investing. Now if I can help folks along the way, obviously as a realtor, yes, I can do the day-to-day operations, help you buy and sell as we all do.
[00:02:50] Bob Frady: So I learned something that I did not necessarily know, which is not all real estate agents are realtors.
[00:02:57] Jerome Hairston: Yes, that's true.
[00:02:58] Bob Frady: And now as a realtor, what does that mean to the lay person in terms of a realtor versus a real estate agent?
[00:03:05] Jerome Hairston: The actual designation of a realtor means that you are a NAR member. And if you're not a member, which I think most of us are, you do not get the designation of realtor behind your name.
[00:03:15] And that's really the nutshell behind it.
[00:03:18] Bob Frady: Alright, so how'd you first come in contact with PropertyLens?
[00:03:22] Jerome Hairston: Funny enough, a broker friend of mine that I work with in Fort Worth, name is Alan. Hello, Alan put me on the PropertyLens. He says, Hey, this is something you should probably take a look at. As we were getting things going, being a part of his team, it's something he had told me about and I.
[00:03:38] Jump ahead in, as I always do, and do my due diligence and sure enough, it's a great, it's a great product. You guys have done a great job. It's very, effective and time efficient, I would say.
[00:03:49] Bob Frady: Well, thank you. How do you use it in your decision making process?
[00:03:53] Jerome Hairston: For me, if I get said property that I'm thinking of moving on or doing my due diligence and, research behind it, this speeds up my process.
[00:04:02] I've had conversations with other folks that said, it's a third party vendor. Sure. But I said I don't use it solely as the only answer, the answer. It is a means of efficiency for me. whatever is produced, I know that that is my benchmark. I know that me as an inspector or a former construction guy and I'm, getting along with other contractors, now here, here's what you should look at when I'll have you go look at this property, or we go look at it together, and then we go from there.
[00:04:32] But those benchmarks, That bread and butter right there, that speeds up your process a lot faster than most.
[00:04:38] Bob Frady: It is always interesting when we talk about investors versus purchasers, what we'll call 'em is regular home buyers. Yes. It seems like the goal with regular home buyers is to get them to fall in love as quickly as possible and then make inappropriate decisions based upon being in love.
[00:05:00] Yes. Versus an investors like. Gimme the money and let me figure out whether I can make this work. Thank you. Is that an accurate assessment?
[00:05:07] Jerome Hairston: Thank you. Finally someone who sees it like I do, 'cause I do this with lenders all the time and I'm like, you see all the analytics in the business and analysis behind all this, and my numbers are not, not that shabby.
[00:05:19] So I'm pretty conservative. Just gimme the money you see, it's a great deal. You see it, we can make it work. just gimme the money.
[00:05:29] Bob Frady: So if we could do something better. Or something additional that we're not doing, what do you think would be something that would add value for you?
[00:05:39] Jerome Hairston: For me, for me, not so much.
[00:05:41] I would say for probably the day-to-day agents, those listing agents, those folks that are out there with buyers and your product or whomever is using it, say a listing agent is upfront about the seller disclosure. It's all right here, and I would, as John had alluded to in some other conversations, I take that 10 times outta 10.
[00:06:00] This person who's ever selling is being completely forthcoming with what they know to be accurate about their property, whether they remember it or not. And I think that is a selling point of all selling points. Regardless if you're a realtor or an investor.
[00:06:15] Bob Frady: Have you come across folks who suddenly remember something that you brought up after you mentioned, Hey, I don't see a permit, or I don't, was there.
[00:06:25] A prior damage or something that wasn't necessarily disclosed, that became disclosed after the fact.
[00:06:32] Jerome Hairston: Not for me as a, an investor, let's just say, but in my due diligence, sure. Because a lot of these folks, especially wholesalers, they're putting out what they think is accurate. And for most part it is.
[00:06:43] But sellers or sellers, you're not gonna remember which you did 10, 15 years ago, whether it was permitted or not, or things like that, but. Yeah, sure. I've, I've had to call counties to double check things that I found on your websites, your platform. But with the day-to-day folks, I don't think so.
[00:07:02] Not too much, no.
[00:07:03] Bob Frady: Let's talk about how a real estate investor works for, 'cause a lot of our viewers are not real estate investors. Let's give it for instance, like, how do you find a property? What are you thinking about, when this property lands come into the situation, if at all, how does it close,
[00:07:20] Bob Frady: Give us a quick overview.
[00:07:23] Jerome Hairston: Sure. Most of mine, I find either on MLS don't do a lot of MLS, but I look for off market. A lot of wholesalers have that. A lot of other websites out there have that sellers don't want to go through the wickets of the MLS, let's just say. So for me, as I wake up in the morning and I go through all my emails, I'll find a property that ARV is probably about a hundred over what they're asking after repair value is about a hundred spreads.
[00:07:50] That will intrigue me enough to start looking at it once I do some rough numbers and say, okay, this one looks, looks something I can do something with. Then let me dig a little further. That's where you guys come in and that's fast. 'cause I used to call accounting. I used to, jump from this platform to this platform, to this platform and all of it says the same thing.
[00:08:11] You guys are pushing. Some of the same things I see on Prezi or LoopNet and all the other platforms that are out there. They're not doing what you all are doing, and so it makes it, as I said, that much faster as an investor to analyze these properties and say, yay or nay, do I want to actually continue with this analysis or.
[00:08:30] Nope, this one's done a hundred year, 500 year flood zones. Yeah, we're done. For me personally?
[00:08:36] Yeah,
[00:08:38] Bob Frady: well, we were just looking at Zillow's decision to pull the climate data from their site. Now, first of all, first street models. You can think whatever you want about them, and we're not necessarily huge fans.
[00:08:50] It's shocking to me how. Little people understand about some of these risks because flood especially is not a forced disclosure invoice.
[00:08:58] Jerome Hairston: No, it's not. It is not. Definitely not. 'cause I look at the Houston market, right? And that for certain is a flood zone. No matter how you slice it, wherever you're at, you're somewhere near one or you're on the north side and away from it.
[00:09:11] So for sure
[00:09:12] Bob Frady: We did a, a property in Houston. We analyzed a property in Houston down by the airport. Okay. And the flood had destroyed a whole bunch of properties right down the street. And so this property had, was in that flood zone and nothing was disclosed about any of the damages that had been, from that flood.
[00:09:36] And it's crazy.
[00:09:38] Jerome Hairston: I don't doubt it. Yeah, I don't doubt it at all. And that's probably why that market is moving the way it's moving. I don't know this for certain, but likely there's not a whole lot of disclosure going on about those flood zones.
[00:09:50] Bob Frady: Right? Yeah. It's
[00:09:52] digging up that stuff is not easy.
[00:09:54] Jerome Hairston: No, it's not.
[00:09:55] Bob Frady: In terms of prior damages, we spend a lot of cycles trying to pull all that information in, and you always miss some. Because even FEMA won't release the damages at the property level. They roll it up to protect privacy. And that's their decision. There's other sources that we can use to try to pull together all that information.
[00:10:15] So we do our best to try to get it. Have you come across situations where case you identified a property, you find the spread and then floods a deal breaker, but are there any other deal breakers that are in there or any other things that you see in a report that would make you lean one way or another?
[00:10:31] Jerome Hairston: Flood would be my biggest, I would say, followed by fire. But fires, that's easy. It's a replaceable item. Okay? At a fire, the roof needs a full replacement. Okay, rip the roof off and let's replace it. Not a big deal. Flood is a little different because there's secondary tertiary effects that could affect that property years and years down the line.
[00:10:51] Not to mention it's still sitting in a flood zone. As it moved,
[00:10:55] John Siegman: You're looking at it. Flood is the big concern. Fire you can, you can deal with. But what other,
[00:11:04] Jerome Hairston: Big ticket?
[00:11:05] John Siegman: Discerning pieces and parts are really, do you take a look at?
[00:11:10] Jerome Hairston: Foundation? Definitely the age of the home, because radon is a big thing.
[00:11:14] I had to put a system in my Virginia home, before I sold it. And some of the properties that I looked at quite recently, older homes, older properties, radon is not in there. And that is one thing that as the quiet killer that most people don't even think about. And I've got, inspection folks and those that have that as a business, that, that bring those things to light.
[00:11:37] Me as a former inspector, same deal. electrical, all the big ticket stuff, breathing, HVAC, the filtration system on a home, whether that's water or air. I look at those things, but that's way down the line. Big ticket though, for sure. Is, foundation, flood, fire, those type of things.
[00:11:57] John Siegman: Okay. So when looking at the surroundings, what's the impact of the neighborhood, the exposures that it has from apparel standpoint or, crime factors, anything along those lines?
[00:12:15] How do those impact your decision?
[00:12:18] Jerome Hairston: So it's twofold, right? So if we're talking core realtor services. I'm not a legal professional. I cannot give you legal advice. I am not the police. I'm not a law enforcement. If you wanna know about crime in a neighborhood, you have to go do your due diligence. But for me, as an investor, sure, I look at some of that.
[00:12:35] 'Cause a lot of these, especially those homes that are potentially available for hud, let's just say formerly known as section eight, choice Housing Voucher Program, now. Those type of homes are typically in crime ridden areas or marginalized areas, and I still would like to pick those up and help those folks in those areas.
[00:12:55] So is it a deal breaker that it's in a high crime area? No, because I come from an high crime area, poverty, let's just say, where that's prevalent. So it's not a deal breaker for me. But for the average, average home buyer or seller, then maybe.
[00:13:13] Bob Frady: Jerome, thank you so much for coming onto the show. We are so happy that you're a customer and love to learn more about what you're doing.
[00:13:24] How can people get in touch with you if they're a wholesaler and they're looking to for somebody to buy, how can they get in touch with you?
[00:13:30] Jerome Hairston: Usually, I'm on LinkedIn. That's. The best place to reach me is where John and I found each other. but I'm also on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, you name it, I'm out there.
[00:13:41] But if you really want to get ahold of me directly, you could hit me on my email jeromehairston@purerealty.com, and that's the fastest way to get to me.
[00:13:48] John Siegman: We had a great time. And if you're an investor or if you're just buying a house, don't take it from us. Take it from Jerome. Get a PropertyLens report.
[00:13:56] Jerome Hairston: Absolutely.
[00:13:58] Bob Frady: So for this week's episode of Property of the Week. I'm Bob Frady.
[00:14:03] John Siegman: I'm John Siegman.
[00:14:04] Bob Frady: Thank you to Jerome.
[00:14:05] Jerome Hairston: Thank you so much guys.
[00:14:06] Bob Frady: Until next time.
