Jewels of Wisdom Newsletter – From $20k Flips to $16M Deals: The Law of Abundance

Posted on December 23, 2025
In Jewels of Wisdom Newsletter

What are YOUR Real Estate Talents?

Here’s a summary of the Parable of the Talents. You can read the full story here.

The Setup: A master entrusts his property to three servants before traveling: five talents to one, two to another, and one to the third, “to each according to his ability”.
The Investment: The first two servants trade with their talents and earn an equal amount more. The third servant buries his single talent in the ground. Note, there is SKILL in investing successfully. More to come.
The Return: Upon his return, the master praises the first two for their faithfulness and rewards them, but condemns the third servant as “wicked and lazy” for doing nothing.
The Consequence: The master takes the one talent from the third servant and gives it to the one who had five, stating, “For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away”. -Matthew 25:29

What is a “Talent“? Talent now refers to a natural aptitude, skill, or ability in areas like arts, sports, or academics, but also broadly means a person with such skills, or a group of skilled people in business, and historically was an ancient unit of weight or value. In fact, one talent of gold might pay for a house, or 20 years worth of a laborer’s wage in those days.

Talent as a Measure of Value applied to Real Estate Investing One servant began with 2 talents, the other with 5. So one was starting with more capital than the other. For each to double their original amount, they had to successfully invest in deal sizes which fit their starting position.

When I review my career, I remember buying houses for $20K, investing $30K in repairs and selling for $90k, reaping about $20K in profit. That was a 2 talent time in my life.

Recently we sold a shopping center for $16M after buying at $8M and investing approx. $3M in capital improvements. This is a 5 talent time in my life.

As time goes on I’ve become more comfortable running deals with much larger budgets. $20K renovations have become $200K or even $2M capex projects. The key was treating every deal done with a high level of care & execution.

Talent as a Skill applied to Real Estate Investing Doesn’t it seem interesting that the Parable of the Talents is about investing money, but uses the word “Talent”? I always look for deeper meaning in everything. Seeing “talent” as a skill was key for me, because I didn’t even have one talent worth of money, let alone two or five.

Back in 2011 when I read this, I had no money to speak of, other than maybe $5,000 or so. No car, owned no houses. But I had that natural aptitude, skill, or ability to do real estate deals. Thank God!

I remember thinking & praying on that skill. It wasn’t much at the time. Maybe I’d find a deal for another investor and create a $3K profit. Or flip a house and create $5K for myself. However, I found great peace & joy KNOWING I was working with my talent with an EXPECTATION of what was promised:

“For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away”. -Matthew 25:29

Ah, that now-fulfilled promise of abundance.

The lesson here? No matter where you are today, whether 2 talents or 5 talents, in skill or in money, keep it growing and you will have abundance! God said so, and I am living proof.

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