Every Real Estate Investor Has a Nate Jacobs Deal Waiting for Them

When you are a real estate investor, and you are struggling with not taking a loss on a project, you need to learn this lesson from Nate Jacobs from Euphoria today. So you can fearlessly go into new projects without the fear of losing everything you own. You need to understand two frameworks:

# 1. “10 Equal Deals”

# 2 “Paying Financing.”

Nate Jacobs didn’t have a zoning problem; he had a deal floor problem: and that’s why Deal #3 is where real estate careers go to die.

Lesson 1 – “10 Equal Deals”

When every project/deal you work on is bigger than your last, that means when you have a losing project, you get crushed.

Let’s imagine you start out doing a $200K project and you make 25% profit on it (a good deal). You make $50K straight to your wallet.

Now, you think, “Well, I did $200K and did exactly how I thought it would go, when no one else could see the potential like I could, let’s go even bigger.”

So you go ostentatious and feel good: let’s do $500K. Again, you make a killing and make 25% for your wallet.

Now, you’re riding high. Let’s go do another: now my boys at the cigar lounge know I’m a big player. I’ll know I’m good and they will too.

You put up a $1M project that is expected to bring an exit basis of $1.3M.

But you don’t.

• Zoning fails (see Nate Jacobs).

• A pandemic hits.

• The market crashes.

• Someone else builds the exact same thing as you; across the street, gets it done before you, and creams your returns.

The result is because your one project was so large, you are completely wiped out. This project takes every dollar you have (and can borrow) to keep from going bankrupt. You couldn’t get a non-recourse loan as your project wasn’t big enough (a loan where you have no personal responsibility to pay it back, the project itself is the collateral), so you are on the hook.

Your wife starts an OnlyFans to pay your bills, you lose toes and fingers, and your life is in shambles.

Your Lesson: expect a 10% failure rate. If you do 10x projects of the same size, and one fails, you will feel discomfort. But if each project is bigger than your last, and your largest deal to date fails, now, you’re getting a finger chopped off on your wedding night.

Lesson 2 – “Paying Financing”

Nate Jacobs was doing friends and family financing. He took loans from everyone to fund his project.

Now, when your project hits a hurdle: you have to pay everyone back.

What you hear about real estate (and what makes it so good) is the ability to leverage your money. You can buy a $230K in stocks, but you have to put up 100% of the money.

Meanwhile, with real estate, you can buy a $230K property but only need to put up 20% of the money.

Key: with real estate, you can use other people’s money to do your project.

However, you have to pay back other people’s money (aka the mortgage- aka debt service).

In a rising market where everything is appreciating (property values, number of tenants, rent), you are riding a wave. You are positive cash flow. You make so much money each month.

But what happens in a falling market? When property values decrease? When the number of tenants is decimated? When your rents get slashed?

What do you do when you can’t make the payments?

That is the key from Nate Jacobs. Don’t focus on planning your best days. But what about your worst? Leverage can 10X your returns, but what do you do when you have to pay people back?

Don’t lose your fingers and toes to a guy holding garden shears and screaming about his money.

Your Lesson: build your portfolio so you can self-fund your projects. 10% of $1M is $100K. 100% of $200K is $200K. The leveraged deal sounds bigger. It isn’t.
And if your project goes sideways, you don’t just lose your $100K: you’re still on the hook for the debt that funded the other 90%.

Summary

Nate Jacobs had no floor.

1. No deal size floor (each deal bigger than the last)

2. No capital floor (all leveraged, no self-funding backstop)

Both of these mistakes come from the same place: building a portfolio that has no risk management. No margin for errors.

Learn these two keys from Euphoria and you’ll be miles ahead.

Note: I am a top Real Estate Broker in the state of Indiana. When you want to cash in the midwest or get a fresh set of eyes on your project: send me an email

#Euphoria

First published on Substack, May 18, 2026. Get new articles by email on my Substack.

Nolan Lamkin, REALTOR®, CENTURY 21 Scheetz, Indianapolis. (317) 696-9545, nlamkin@c21scheetz.com. More about my work.