How An Immigrant With Limited English Now Owns 175 Multi-Family Doors

Steve Trang: Steve train. Jump on the Steve train. We real estate disruptors.

Steve: Hey, everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of real estate disruptors. So we got Pablo Chinchilla with Blue Marlin Investment Properties. He flew in from DeKalb, Texas to share how he went from no money and limited English as an immigrant fifteen years ago to owning a 175 doors. I'm on a mission to create a 100 millionaires.

The information on the show alone is enough to help you become a millionaire in the next five to seven years. If you'll take consistent action, you will become one. We also prepared a document, a six page PDF that kinda shares with you how to figure out your finances. So that way, if you do become millionaire, we can reward it on this show. The show is brought to you by our sister company, Investor Lift.

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And this is a live show, so please ask your questions for Pablo to answer. You ready?

Pablo Chinchilla: I'm ready, brother.

Steve: I'm ready. Perfect. So the first question is, what was your life like right before you got into real estate?

Pablo: Man, I had a small business, with another partner. Mhmm. We were on a cell phone repair business.

Steve: Cell phone repair business.

Pablo: Repair iPhones.

Steve: And when this iPhone, like, cracked

Pablo: When the first iPhone, it was started fixing when it was iPhone four. So we start watching YouTube videos, and we have, like, a little repair shop in Mount Pleasant, Texas. And, also, we were selling and selling DirecTV and Dish.

Steve: Okay.

Pablo: So that's what I was doing until one day, I read Rich Dad Poor Dad, and everything changes for me.

Steve: That changes for everybody.

Pablo: It's crazy, man.

Steve: But you're already an entrepreneur before you read the book.

Pablo: Yes. I was already a business owner. Yes, sir.

Steve: Yeah. So normally, when people read the book, it's like they were a w two.

Pablo: Yes, sir.

Steve: Light bulb goes off, and I can't do the w two thing anymore. Mhmm. You're already self employed.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: So what was it about that book then that reached out to you?

Pablo: Well, I think the main thing for me was when I read that book, it took me back to 2002 when I was living in Costa Rica. I had the opportunity to go to come to United States for seven months on, like, a work visa where you can kinda learn the language. So I got to stay with a American family in Manasquan, New Jersey.

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: And they kinda helped me lined up some jobs. But the guy that was living in the house, he was a retired fireman, and he was kinda flipping houses on the side.

Steve: Oh, really?

Pablo: Okay. And, you know, but but at that point, I knew I was going back to Costa Rica. You really can't do that in Costa Rica. So but he would say, Pablo, get into real estate. It's better money.

You know? I'm a fireman. My wife is a secretary, and we live better than the neighbors. Real estate is good. Flip houses.

And he just kinda put that on my mind. Mhmm. I came back to The States, really didn't know how to start it, so I I started, you know, my other business. And when I read the book Rich Dad Poor Dad, it kinda became real. It's almost like I felt that I was in that story

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: On 2002, and I was a man. Oh, no.

Steve: It was a that he was a rich dad?

Pablo: Yes. I was a man. I can do this. It's really not that hard Yeah. If you really know where to start.

You know?

Steve: Got it. Why were you in the cell phone repair business and the satellite business?

Pablo: Because, my first job in United States, basically, when I when I came, we got married me and my wife, we got married. I'm blessed. I have a beautiful wife and three three little girls. Right?

Steve: Yeah.

Pablo: So, when we got married in 2007, you know, I I had to wait for my driver license. I have to wait so I can work and provide. So the first official job that I was able to get was as a training, technician to install DISH and DIRECTV. Mhmm. So I worked for a company as a in house technician for five years.

Well, five years later, I saw that the salespeople were making more money than it takes. Mhmm. So I was like, man, I know how to install. I guess I learned how can you know, I need to learn how to sell it. Yeah.

So I applied for my DirecTV and Dish license. So I started my own little shop, but the sales were not as often. So I partnered with this guy and I said, man, we need to find a way to make more money. Mhmm. And he said, man, well, there's a guy fixing cell phones in Textracticana.

He's doing pretty good. And I said, well, I guess we need to learn how to do that. Yeah. So we basically we use our, you know, family members iPhones and we start watching YouTube videos and start taking them apart and learn how to replace the screens. And before, you know, after a lot of training and making a lot of mistakes Mhmm.

We were fixing computers, you know, iPads, iPhones, and all that kind of stuff. So we were doing good, you know, fixing cell phones and installing DirecTV and Dish. But the problem was it wasn't a business, it was a job.

Steve: Got it.

Pablo: When you're when you're fixing a device that is worth a thousand dollars, it's harder to train someone that can make a mistake. Right? Mhmm. So So me and my buddy were basically taking turns in the shop and fixing, and then one will be outside installing DirecTV. So it was okay, but it was a job.

Steve: When did you read, Richard Forde?

Pablo: That was five years ago. Was it? Five years ago.

Steve: Five years ago.

Pablo: Yes.

Steve: Got it. Okay. So five years ago, you decided to get into real estate.

Pablo: Yeah. So this summer is gonna be yeah. But right right on that time, six five years ago, I read the book. I'm working on my on the cell phone repair shop. You know, I'm not having intentions to change anything.

And this real estate broker comes in Mhmm. Very known in the in in the town, one of the biggest brokers. And he said, man, I need you to fix this iPhone. Didn't think I knew that. Gave me his business card, and I'm reading the book.

So you know how it is. You finish the book, you're on fire. You know? You I need to buy something. Right?

Steve: Yeah.

Pablo: So I asked him, Michael, do you have anything for sale? I wanna flip a house or I wanna do something, but I wanna get into real estate. He said, I don't have any houses, but I have a eight unit apartment complex Mhmm.

Steve: That

Pablo: I will let it go for, like, $20,000 a door, like, a $160,000.

Steve: Wow.

Pablo: And I was, okay. And I keep kinda watching videos, and I see that everybody, when you get in real estate, you probably start with one house

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: Or one deal. I'm about to jump on an eight apartment complex by myself, so I don't have all the money. So I tell my buddy, man, I'll sell you my half so I can pay for this deal. Mhmm. So what I got from from him was just not enough, so I didn't tell my wife.

I got some money from my credit card to come can be able to do that down payment. Mhmm. And, yeah, and overnight, I became a landlord, a maintenance my my maintenance guy, electrician, plumber, everything because I I took over this eight unit apartment that it needed a lot of work. Sure. But there was a lot of potential on raising the rents.

I knew that it could be make it really pretty. And it's just something

Steve: didn't do the traditional marketing and No. Not doing all those other things. You just asked a guy that was in your store

Pablo: I wanna buy something. Yes, sir.

Steve: It works.

Pablo: It works.

Steve: It's definitely a way that works. Okay. So, so you bought it, credit card, getting cashed out. So you're at this point, you're all in both feet. You don't have a satellite installation or

Pablo: cell phone. Doing, like, a little cash jobs on the side because I gotta do maintenance. So I was still getting enough sales to get some money going Mhmm. Because I never

Steve: sold your companies.

Pablo: My my cell phone is gone. Mhmm. But I still can do, satellite repair. I'm satellite installation

Steve: Got it.

Pablo: Because the license in the beginning was mine. So my friend, you know, was okay with that. So I still get a little jobs. Mhmm. So and then I told my wife, I wanna be full on real estate.

So I put in my mind that I was gonna get my license to be a realtor in Texas in ninety days. Yeah. So I studied day and night, and it was very hard for me because the terminology in English is really hard.

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: And I will ask my wife to help me because a lot of times I had to do translation because I'm learning all these terms about legal terms about Texas and houses and title and all this stuff. And and it just it was just very hard, but I was able to get my license in ninety days. So I start hustling, selling houses, and I was a realtor for about a year.

Steve: So you did the realtor thing? Yes. For about a year. We talked about how you came into the country fifteen years ago with

Pablo: a lot

Steve: of English. So how did you get better at English?

Pablo: Practice. I mean, my wife is from here, so, obviously, that helps. All all, you know, her family from here. So when I first came in, obviously, my English was broken. You know, after five years, it kinda got better and better, in in just watching videos.

You learn a lot of English when you watch movies and you boost subtitles.

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: So And just start picking up the slang, you know, how Americans talk and and it was, it was a learning, process for me.

Steve: But you came here with no money?

Pablo: I came here with no money. Yes, sir.

Steve: Got it. So this is you came here broke. Met your wife later.

Pablo: Which is she have no money either. You know? I thought I was I thought I was gonna marry, you know, that in Costa Rica, so you're gonna marry an American and they all have money. Well, she didn't have any money either.

Steve: Alright. So, you do your thing for ten years, get in the real estate, did the realty thing for a year.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: So why did you become a realtor?

Pablo: Because I thought that that was the way for me to make extra money. Mhmm. So that's when at that point, you know, this is when I first started. Like, a year later, year and a half later, that's when I start podcast. It was you, and it was a bigger pockets and start reading more books.

So I'm doing the realtor thing. I'm not very you know, I'm getting listings. You know how it is. Friends and family.

Steve: Sure.

Pablo: I'm selling a little bit here and there. So I started learning about creative financing. So there's, there's eight doors in DCAP, and I reach out to the guy, and I told him I have a little bit of money, not enough for 20%. So he financed, like, eight doors for 10% down. Mhmm.

So I took over that. I raised the rents. I'm still doing the maintenance. So and then right I mean, it was like, I'm closing, and I met a guy on a title company, and he had a mobile home park.

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: 14 units. And I'm like, man, I'm gonna go from zero doors to, like, fifty, like, six months. Right? It's crazy in the first year. And, at that point, know about private money.

I know about so I start looking for, just more deals. And on this mobile home park, that's how I met my partner because I built we have about a $180 a 180 doors right now. A 100 of mine. 80 doors are with my partners, Austin and Greg, which is they're amazing. So when I first came on the mobile home park, I met Greg, and he was gonna be my just hard money lender.

And he said, yes. I'm gonna lend you the money, you know, x amount of money, percent, interest, and we did that deal together. And then we did another transaction when I was flipping a house, and he was my hard money lender. And then he's like, I kinda like this real estate deal. You know?

Yeah. Why don't we just partner? That's how the name when we start doing the paperwork, the Blue Marlin came in because we decided to start a LLC, and it slowly started doing doing more deals together. At that point, it's just me and Greg. And about two years and two years and a half ago, Austin came in.

One of his it's his son, Austin. And we just joined forces, and, man, it took cover. I do wanna say this. There's a lot of always bad things about partnerships, but I think partnerships are so good. You just gotta find the right people.

Right. And Just

Steve: the right person.

Pablo: And then you gotta date him for a little bit. And I feel that's kinda how me and Greg started. He's he was my hard money guy. We did deals together, but I kinda keeping on touch of how I was doing it. But we get to really know each other, his values as a person, his family.

I I get to meet Austin. Austin is very successful work working on the corporate work. Yeah. I didn't know we were gonna work together one day. And months later, we start working together.

Date

Steve: before you get married. So, you know, you talk about becoming a realtor. And so, like, I have felt foolish all these years. Felt dumb. Because you re reached that poor dad.

Pablo: Yes.

Steve: And you learn you gotta buy assets. And then I got distracted and became a realtor. So thank you for, like, being another person that that went down this rabbit hole as well. Got distracted. I I don't feel alone.

You said you were a realtor for a year and a year and a half, but you stopped. Yes. Why did you stop?

Pablo: Hated it.

Steve: What did you hate about

Pablo: it? You I mean, I respect realtors. I have great relationships with realtors, but I don't have the heart, the passion to drive Susan on a Saturday looking for houses. And that deal might go south because something happens to the light outside or you know you know how it is. You know?

I hated it, man. I just never I did it because I thought that was my way to make money.

Steve: That was your hustle. That was not your your passion.

Pablo: Exactly. I hated it. I I can I will never I can never be a realtor? Hate

Steve: it. Yeah. I I completely understand that. So you did your first deal from just talking

Pablo: Yes, sir.

Steve: To customers. The second deal. How did you come into the second deal?

Pablo: So the second deal was the owner financing.

Steve: Right. How did you find them?

Pablo: Well, it's crazy because I was, the guy at that point, you know, I got my eight doors. After that so I work on the eight eight doors for about four months. And then I went to my lender and I refi. Mhmm. Because I had you know, I took some money from my credit cards.

I don't I don't wanna do this. I knew there was money in the deal because you can tell it's a really nice eight apartments, all break. They would just, like, run down. The guy was just not taking care of it. You know?

Steve: Deferred maintenance.

Pablo: Little bit of pain, you know, picking good renters. So, man, I took it to my lender, you know, like, right, you know, right after that and refi and the same guy that I got the first loan when I bought it for one sixty with a 20%, he just said, okay. Let's send the appraisal. I mean, he said, I don't know if it's gonna work out, Pablo. Sometimes when you refi, you go to a different lender.

Right? But the same guys, I mean, I always thought it was kinda cheap. So let's see what you did after you fixed them. Man, an appraisal, like, 300,000.

Steve: Nice.

Pablo: So Lot

Steve: of sweat equity.

Pablo: Yes. I refi. I got some money out because I wanna buy more property. So I came out with this guy, and, I just started looking. So I knew who owned the apartments.

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: I knew he was kinda older, and I just gave it a shot. He had, like, a little restaurant in Dekap. It was a barbecue restaurant. And I said, man, you own the apartments down the road? He said, yes.

He said, man, would you like to sell them? And he was like, well, I've I've been thinking about it because I'm getting too old. And that kinda led a conversation for about three months, the whole thing about owner financing and stuff. So

Steve: How did you identify that property?

Pablo: It's it's in it's in the town where I live.

Steve: Yeah. Okay. But, like, you just drove by it and

Pablo: Well, it's close to my house. So I I knew you know, I got Dangerfield Apartments. It's about thirty five minutes from my house.

Steve: Sure.

Pablo: So, like, okay. I'm in multifamily. I just refi. I wanna do more deals. Right?

So my first then is, like, the apartments in town where I live. I need to find out who owns it, and I need to see if I can buy them.

Steve: And then you went to his restaurant.

Pablo: I went and they started to his restaurant.

Steve: You didn't cold call him? No. No. You just went straight to him?

Pablo: You gotta do a face to face.

Steve: I am with you on this. I I I love the the direction this is going. It's just entirely unconventional. Right?

Pablo: Thank you. That's

Steve: why I'm asking these questions because it's different. We had another guy in the show, over a year ago, Mike Fitzgerald. And this guy does, like, the craziest deals and has all the craziest things going on. He's hanging out with NFL athletes. He's hanging out with Egyptian princes and all these other things.

He's a regular guy. I mean, like, how do you do this? It's like, I just talk to people. Like Yes. All day every day.

Every person he talks to, I'm in real estate. Here's what I do. And it just opens all these crazy doors. Right? Like, we're in our operation, you know, we're pulling lists, we're skip tracing, we're cold calling, and doing all these other things.

And he just walks around and just talks to people, and that's it.

Pablo: And

Steve: I'm seeing the same thing here.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: Yeah. So it's pretty cool.

Pablo: Thank you.

Steve: What would happen if you never did your first real estate deal?

Pablo: I will still be working on that cell phone repair shop.

Steve: Yeah. So how how did it feel when this became real? Because you you had your mentor or your your family you stayed with, and you read the book. And and then when the dots finally finally connected and it became real, you closed on that first eight plex. How did that feel?

Pablo: Well, you know, just to kinda I'm so grateful that it happened. And that, you know, sometimes everybody has a different story. Right? But, dude, I grew up in a 3rd Floor, very, very poor in Costa Rica. So when I closed that eight unit apartment, I mean, I show up after closing, I get to work.

I I need to fix the fence. Myself, I couldn't pet anybody. This is my sound kind of gay or people might think it's funny. Oh, man. I start crying in that place.

Yeah. Okay. I just own this piece of property, and I know what I was years ago. It just it's, I just it it was so amazing because I knew what it took to get there. And, man, love it.

It's it's amazing what we get to do and how the more you

Steve: learn Mhmm.

Pablo: About real estate, the more doors you can open and the flexibility that we get and Yeah. People will get to meet. Right. And I I saw you in the beginning when you start the hashtag. You know, I'm gonna do a 100 millionaires.

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: I promise, dude, I was watching you just in my beginning, and I look at myself satan on real estate disruptors. It wasn't this cool studio. It was the beginning.

Steve: It was the it was the first studio.

Pablo: Tell you, man. I re I picture myself talking to you one day, and I'm here.

Steve: Well, I love that. I love this vision. Right? And and the reason why one of the reasons why I'm so excited about this episode is that, you know, other things I have in common is that we're both immigrants.

Pablo: Yes.

Steve: Right? And so being immigrants, we have a different perspective

Pablo: Yes, sir.

Steve: On the American dream. Not only do we, you know, pursue it, but, like, we believe it or we're passionate about it.

Pablo: Yes, sir.

Steve: You know, one of the I've had people ask me, like, why do you work so hard? Why do you, you know, do all these other things? Like, my parents came here for a reason.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? And when they came here for a reason, it was for us to pursue a dream because, you know, coming from two countries where everything was taken away

Pablo: Yes.

Steve: Right? Coming to a country where, like, man, anything is possible. Yes. So why would you not fill that potential?

Pablo: 100 percent. Right?

Steve: And so it's cool to see, like, you just came in here and, like, in fifteen years, but really in five years, you went from, reading a book about real estate to where you are today.

Pablo: I I believe, number one, that God is a God of blessings. I'm I'm a person of faith, and I do believe that God is after to bless us, not to get us. And like you say, we see things different. I see, I go to a football game, and they play the national anthem. I cry because we know how hard and how blessed we are in this country that I believe sometimes immigrants in a way would love this nation more because we don't take it for granted.

Right. And it's just you know, I see military people. I just I love people military because they're paid the price for us to be where we are. So, the American dream, I don't care what people say about politics, who's the president, who is not. Everybody has a preference.

I don't care. I do care, but I'm gonna talk about that. But the miracle dream, it's always been there. I don't care if it's Trump. I don't care if it's Biden.

I don't know who preference. It it it's there if you put the work a

Steve: 100%. Who mentored you along the way? Right? Because, you know, it's been a, a short journey, really, but you've done a lot. Who guided you along the way?

Pablo: I first gave credit to John in Manasquay, New Jersey for up in there. I gotta give you a lot of credit in your podcast. It really if you're watching this, then what you share here that all this stuff that you talk about, it really works, you know, about taking action. Because I I feel sometimes we make it too hard, like, too complicated. We gotta get on sometimes feel like you gotta be on the mastermind before you do deals.

No. Just listen to these shows. The people that you bring here, the questions you ask, that's just really enough information for someone to turn off Netflix right now and put to work even if you don't have the money. So I'll say a lot of, you know, bigger pockets. I love that show.

I love your show. And then just, a lot of reads. A book I like reading, the compound effect book

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: I think is one of the best books. Yep. And the in a very recent, your next five moves. You know?

Steve: What was it?

Pablo: Your next, the next five moves by Patrick, the insurance guy. The next five moves

Steve: Patrick by David?

Pablo: Yes. Yeah. What he just talked about, whatever you are in life, your vision. Like, I'm I'm sitting right here with you. I know what I'm going.

I already see my path for the next two, three years. I'll check

Steve: that out. I didn't even know I wrote a book. So I like Patrick by David a lot. So along the way, what were some of the biggest victories you got to experience?

Pablo: Again, because I think we see life different. We always kinda look I remember growing up in Costa Rica. Like, I didn't go to school here. I didn't go to high school here. So, man, every closing to me is a party.

I don't care if it's a $10,000 deal that we do or if it's a big deal. Man, go on a closing, sitting down and writing and and or getting paid when you close a deal, when you flip, or when you acquire a property that maybe took a lot of, I just enjoyed the process every single day and and talking to our staff, and then we have an amazing team. It it really every day, I I just I just very grateful every single day.

Steve: You know, we had, we do three different shows where we do real estate disruptors, partner disruption, and certainty talks. So what you're talking about, like, you love the process. Nick Peterson was on the show. He talked about how, like, if you love the process, you're unstoppable.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? If you're trying to do the biggest deal, if you're trying to do a large volume of deals, this and that, you get frustrated along the way. Yes. Because the goal yeah. There there are distractions.

There are, challenges. There are hurdles on the way. So you get frustrated. Like, it feels like everything's against you.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: But if you love the process, well, okay. That's an obstacle. Now I know. And next time, let's make sure that doesn't happen.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: But if you enjoy the process, you're an unstoppable, juggernaut, and I kinda kinda get this feeling from you here as well.

Pablo: I feel like the people that don't like the process, there's something in their day to day either on their team or or the house that is not in order. Because if you think about it, you know, what we get to do every day, which is what we love and we get to we get paid really good. I mean, what is not about to love? You know? It it just it's life is good.

You know? You get to manage your schedule and do the things that you want. Take your family on vacation and I mean, it's it's beautiful every day.

Steve: It is. It absolutely is. So one of the things that's, amusing is that you use a credit card as a down payment.

Pablo: Yes, sir.

Steve: So how much credit card did you use? Do you remember?

Pablo: I remember I pulled about 15,000, and I pulled it right the day before closing because, you know, they're gonna change

Steve: affect your credit.

Pablo: That's right. That's right.

Steve: Okay. So you took 15,000 as a cash out.

Pablo: Mhmm. Did you

Steve: go to a bank to do a $15,000 cash out? I don't even know how it works.

Pablo: Well, it was one of the because I have We

Steve: had the checks. Right? Okay. So you use a check. Alright.

So, one of the things that, is is, I don't know, controversial or or I'm not sure what the right word is. Right? But there are a lot of big education platforms out there. Right. Mhmm.

And they take you to these seminars and, like, hey. You know, like, go max out your credit or not max your credit. Raise your credit card limits to $2,550,000 dollars, and then swipe Mhmm.

Pablo: To

Steve: buy our product.

Pablo: Yes. And

Steve: I always struggle with this. It's like you're taking credit card taking a lot of credit card debt from people that how likely are they gonna be succeed? Right? So, like, that's one end of the spectrum. On the other end of the spectrum, I have maxed out my credit card multiple times betting on myself.

Pablo: I love it.

Steve: Right? So, like, what's the right message here? And then you're you apparently are in the swipe the credit card, the bet on yourself department.

Pablo: 100%. I'll do it again if I have to.

Steve: Yeah. So talk about that. Talk about that mindset you had in yourself.

Pablo: Well, this is the deal. Obviously, make sure you check where you're gonna invest

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: Because you're not telling me to say this. Knowing your program, you know, your your record as an entrepreneur on sales, I know you do, like, workshops. So if I was a wholesaler, if I'm gonna say, I'm gonna learn how to sell, I need I'm gonna go to the best one. I don't know what you charge. You're really good at it, so you're probably not cheap.

You're not the cheapest guy.

Steve: Definitely not.

Pablo: So but your price is worth it. Right? So if I was a wholesaler, I will swap my credit card, and I will come to a training you do for two days. Right. And then I'm gonna swap the credit card because I know I'm gonna put the work.

Mhmm. So a 100%, whatever it takes to learn, I will do it because I know I'm gonna put the work. Mhmm. So that's the difference on people that buy a course, and they just don't take an action, and then you're gonna regret it. You have the the statement coming every month.

Month. So if you don't have the money to do something and you have to take debt, but you know in you that you are gonna do it, absolutely. I will do it again. Yeah.

Steve: I love that part that that how you qualify is. You know you're gonna do the work.

Pablo: There's no question.

Steve: I know I'm gonna do the work. I'm gonna make this work. Failing is not an option. So I think that's the key here. Right?

Versus other people, like, they're swiping, and they're, like, they're hoping this is the magic pill.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: Yeah. And I like the fact that you said you mentioned you like the the compound effect. So, you know, in our intro, which we've had, I believe, since episode one, I have to go back and check, take consistent action.

Pablo: Every day.

Steve: Right? And that's the compound effect. And so I take that consistent action quote or or idea from my mentor, Darren Hardy. Right? Like, that's the reason why I say consistent action.

Everyone says massive action. Massive action is great. Massive action does not pay the bills.

Pablo: That's right. Exactly right.

Steve: Yeah. Consistent action pays the bills.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: Okay. So then, you know, talking about how someone can repeat what you're doing then. Right? Because they're saying, you know, you came here, no money, limited English as an immigrant. If someone wants to repeat what you're doing today, right, you've got all these doors, How can someone go do what you've done so far?

Pablo: I think it's okay. This is how I see you know, I'm 44 years old. I'm not in my twenties. I'm not in my thirties. So I can when you hit your forties, you might see life a little different.

If I'm in my twenties, this is what I would do. I will go and track those people, and I will go and knock at the door of your oh, you can be in your thirties and forties. I think the face to face bar to get on sellers, it's okay. You got you might have to do text and call. But I think doing the things that people are not doing, because every seller is getting 20 calls a day.

Right? Mhmm. But if you invest and figure out and trace those people and go and do the face to face to present what you do, that you really wanna want a property that you might be able to do, owner finance it, but maybe you have cash or start raising money. I think the key on the world that we live right now is the face to face part, the interaction, putting ourselves in front of those sellers.

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: The content, the text, all that's all all all is good. Right? Because they're you know, you you wholesale in 50 states. Right? You're not gonna drive, New York to do a deal.

But if someone is starting right now, figure out who owns those rain houses or those apartments around your area and go find those owners face to face Yeah. And see what you can do to start. So I

Steve: think the key here, right, because you're talking about face to face and a lot of emphasis on face to face, which makes a lot of sense. You're super charismatic. Right?

Pablo: So Thank you.

Steve: So you go and pull a list of apartments

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: In your general area.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: And you wanna find the owners. So right now, what tool are you using to find the owners?

Pablo: Okay. So we use, you know, we use batch. And if we wanna skip trace somebody

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: So, again, something that I do is if I'm driving on a apartment complex and I see the the number, I call the number.

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: When I'm driving, I don't I'm not gonna give it to my secretary to call. I'm gonna call. I'm gonna see who owns it, see if it's a property management or if it's the owner. Our biggest deal ever came from I went back to the apartment complex. I saw a number.

I called the number. He was the owner. Said, man, I really wanna buy your place. And said, oh, man. I get a lot of calls.

And I said, are you there right now? Said, yes. I'm coming right now. And I turned around. Yeah.

I was going to an important appointment. I said, I don't care. And I went and sat down in his office, and I just basically,

Steve: Backed it up.

Pablo: Yeah. And then we went on the on the contract. So So

Steve: you you you call. So you there's there's not there's nothing fancy. You're not pulling a list.

Pablo: We're we're not.

Steve: Right. So you're not pulling a list. You just you see an apartment, and you call. Mhmm. I mean, I love the simplicity of all the all the giveaway.

So you call them. If they're in the area, you just meet them face to face.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: And then the one with the guy that owned the the the restaurant, is that how you reached the guy that owned the restaurant? Or Yeah. But I

Pablo: knew where he worked. So I went and I show up while he was working Right. At the restaurant.

Steve: But did you call him and you knew that's where he worked?

Pablo: No. I just I find out who it was and say, who owns his apartment? I asked one of the tenants. Mhmm.

Steve: So I

Pablo: said the guy that owns the barbecue shop, and I went to the barbecue shop and talked to him.

Steve: Right. So we don't need to overcomplicate this. Okay. So you sit down with the home or not the home owner. Alright.

It's how you say I am a single family site. You sit down with the the apartment owner, and you said I wanna buy your place.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: What's that conversation like?

Pablo: Well, the good thing is when we bought our that's a 48 unit apartment complex. This is our second biggest multifamily. We were already owner of 60. You know, we kinda, when skip a little bit of time when me and my partners start doing more deals. So now, I can talk to you and I say, man, I wanna buy you your apartment complex.

And the first time he's gonna say, he's a older guy. You know, he was collecting the rent in cash. You know, he was running by himself. Right? You know how it is.

Steve: Yeah.

Pablo: And he said the first question was, how do I know you can pay it? Mhmm. He said, great question. So, yeah, I pulled my cell phone. I said, I'm gonna go to the tax records, to the cat in in Tersha, and I'm gonna show you that I owe I'm a owner of 60 apartment complex in Tersha, Kenna.

So we do buy these kind of deals.

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: They're okay. So we got on on the on my phone, and he said, okay. Blue Marlin Investment Properties. Okay. So you can buy this.

So I already had credibility with the guy. Right. And now I was, okay. What's your price? Simple as that.

And and I learned that from you. Sometimes, especially if you have an accent, don't try to complicate it. Don't talk too much. What's your price? And just shut up.

Right? Yeah. And, basically, that's what I did. And he said, well, let me get back to you. I talked to my wife.

And twenty four hours later, he called me with a price. I called my partners, and we were like, let's do it. Let's jump in on it.

Steve: So then how let's talk about financing financing the deal then. Right? So how did you structure that deal?

Pablo: Well, one of the things that I wanna tell people, if you're flipping so so we're not wholesaler. You know? We we flip houses. So at the point that we are right now where we can do multifamily, we are building great relationship with lenders. So any deal that we get, we have access.

We have three or four lenders that we work with. So I already knew that we can buy anything at 50%. So at that point, when we locked that deal, the 48 unit apartment complex, we had an offer to buy the 60 apartment complex. So we already knew, okay. Let's push the closing, and let's 10 31 this money Mhmm.

For the down payment. Now, we bought 32 units later, so we basically have access to private money if we want to to do the down payment 15%. Yeah.

Steve: So was this a conventional loan? Conventional not conventional, like, conventional financing, but conventional as in, like, 30% down Fannie Mae? Or

Pablo: Just a regular regular loan, conventional, 15% down. We can buy for 15%. And the 32 units that we have right now, we actually knew that we were gonna flip it. So we bought on twenty four months only interest because we're Really? Yeah.

Because we're gonna put some work on it. So we have more cash flow.

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: So, when you just pay only interest, if you if your property start performing, you get more cash flow.

Steve: So

Pablo: the money coming in every month, we were able to port into the property. Mhmm. And it's actually about to hit the market. Yeah. 32 units.

Mhmm.

Steve: So, 15% down from private money or your own cash?

Pablo: We have act we have cash. Yeah.

Steve: So your own cash and then 85% through a bank. Yes. Community bank?

Pablo: Yeah.

Steve: Okay. And then you're talking about flipping?

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: So how many apartments have you flipped?

Pablo: Apartment complex, we flipped to. A 60 apartment a 60 door, and we flipped a 48 door. Now we last year, we bought a 32 door that we just finished it. We just I mean, we had it for, like, thirteen months. We're basically done with the work.

We had a buyer a couple days ago. He went into the property. He's not on the LoopNet. We just kinda getting word-of-mouth. Mhmm.

So we're probably gonna list it maybe. So and then, so we're gonna flip that one. And then we bought a RV park in a really good area for Airbnb, Brockenbo, Oklahoma. Uh-huh. Super hot area for tourists and stuff like that.

So we're gonna flip that one too. We bought that 38 RV park in a really good location. We put in some money there, and then we're gonna, we're gonna flip it as well. And then from there, buy another multifamily, plus the houses that we flip.

Steve: Sure. So talk to me about the margins. You said you flipped the 60? Like, you

Pablo: Yes.

Steve: Okay. So what'd you buy it for? What'd you put into it? What'd you sell it for?

Pablo: We bought it for 1.9 within nothing, and we sell it for 2.5.

Steve: Okay.

Pablo: In six months.

Steve: So you bought a 1.9 directly from the seller?

Pablo: No. Broker.

Steve: Broker brought it to you.

Pablo: Yeah. That's another thing that I wanna, so we don't do lease. You know, we don't have cold callers. So one of the things that we do pretty much every day is have relationship with brokers. I text brokers.

I text realtors all the time. I I don't wanna be one. You know, I I would never be a realtor, but realtors are good, you know, when they work for you. So I got a deal from a broker. It was a, you know, it was a pocket listing.

You know? Right.

Steve: He he

Pablo: was like, Pablo, do you guys want it? Well, I'm about to list it. So we get a lot of deals at that duplexes and houses. Before they go on the market, they, you know, they call us.

Steve: The somewhat broker.

Pablo: So that

Steve: was the 60 unit. What about the 40 unit?

Pablo: Okay. So once we got that 60 unit on on the contract, you know, for 2.5, it was 2.550. And then we talked to the 48 unit, and I said, look, man. We wanna make this deal. We're gonna have $10.31 money.

$10.31 money. If you don't wanna wait, because I knew it was gonna take about sixty days, the whole closing, we can push it. I mean, we can buy it from the bank. That's doesn't matter. So he said, no.

I can wait. I can work with you guys. So the the 48 Apartment Complex, we bought it for 2.4. Mhmm. So we used that 600,000 for $10.31 and paid the down payment.

Steve: So 2.4, what'd you put into it?

Pablo: 100,000.

Steve: 100,000.

Pablo: We changed total very minimum, but we put about a 100 k.

Steve: And then what'd you sell it for?

Pablo: At three point I'm a 3.5. 3.6.

Steve: 3.6. So it sounds to me a lot of people say this. The difference between apartments and single family is just the numbers.

Pablo: Crazy numbers.

Steve: The work is the same. The margins are the same. It's just a larger product.

Pablo: 100%.

Steve: So you feel the same way?

Pablo: 100%.

Steve: Gotcha. Cool.

Pablo: I wish I wish that, it's harder to find multifamily deals right now. It is is getting crazy. But I tell you, man, we we just love multifamily. If we can just continue doing that, like I said, we're once we sell that 32 in the RV park, that's what we wanna do. Continue buying apartment complex and and, obviously, the houses and the rent houses, it's something that we'd really like to.

Steve: So I wanna see. There was, thing. I have the question here. So he's flipping houses right now.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: Why?

Pablo: Great question. So so you know our our target's always gonna be multifamily. Right? Multifamily is what's gonna make us more money. Right?

So flipping houses does something very good for us. Our operation is about 15 people. You know, me and Austin are on a day to day, and we have a secretary and everybody we have a a fields manager. He oversee all the crews. And so when we're flipping a house or two, if we have a trouble calling one of the rentals, we're gonna pull one of the guys on the flip to go take care of the maintenance.

So flipping houses really allows us to keep staff full time, and it's making us money.

Steve: To keep quality.

Pablo: We do co you know, we're selling properties here, but, also, we have access to maintenance on our rentals. So it's a win win, and we get to grow our portfolio. But, also, again, I mean, the flipping business, it it's a little obviously, it slowed down a little bit for everybody.

Steve: Yeah.

Pablo: But it's still you know, things are still moving.

Steve: So, before we started, you know, we watched a preview together, and we're watching, you know, Blake and Tyson Smith. And you said that you really like that show. And one thing that you're you're really, passionate about is mindset.

Pablo: Yes, sir.

Steve: Talk to me about mindset.

Pablo: Man, mindset just everything. You know? You can it doesn't matter what accent do you have, you know, what's your skin color, where you're coming from. If you really believe that you can do something and you really it's almost like you have in your heart that even if everything is against you, you are gonna make it happen. Yeah.

That's all it takes. You know? Like, things can you know, don't think about it's gonna be awkward when I knock the door. It's gonna it doesn't matter because you wanna make it happen. And I believe that 90% of business is that, and everything is processes and, you know, systems.

But it's it's what you see, your mindset when you start a day, when you go do the work, your attitude. Some I heard a guy saying one time, entrepreneur is basically, it's boring because the same thing every day. Mhmm. Some things I I just kinda disagree. I think it's exciting.

I think, we have the opportunity to make things happen every day. When I call a broker, you know, I call broke I talk to agents pretty much every day with brokers. I'm excited about what's going on. You have something. It it it just I'm in this, every day that we're gonna find a deal.

Yeah. Or we're gonna close the deal, or we're gonna pawn it on this, and that's the day to day.

Steve: While, you know, we had Tim Bratz on the show, and he talked about, like, the more boring the business, the better.

Pablo: Is is yeah. It makes sense.

Steve: Because you're making a lot of money if it's simple.

Pablo: Yes, sir.

Steve: Right? So I thought that was a really great message. Why do you think this this mindset thing is not so prevalent today? Why do you think, like, so many I just feel like we're a softer society today.

Pablo: 100%.

Steve: Why do you think that is?

Pablo: So going back to it's where you're coming from. So there's a I got three partners. Greg is Austin's guy. So talk about Greg. He started from zero.

His career on the outfield. He's a very successful corporate guy. I came from Costa Rica with nothing. So it's almost like you have to be hungry.

Steve: Every day is a win. I mean,

Pablo: you have to be hungry, man. You have to really see and say, man, I just don't wanna stop. And it gets to the point, it's just really not really all about money. I mean, I I look at my beautiful family, and, you know, I wanna do this for them. I wanna to just get to the point, you just losing is not an option.

You know? You're just gonna win every day. Yeah.

Steve: And then you talk about your family here.

Pablo: Like, you

Steve: talk about the importance of honoring your family. So what what is that about?

Pablo: Oh, man. I'm I'm I'm so blessed. I got a beautiful wife and three beautiful girls, and all my family is in Costa Rica. But getting up every day and be able to to do for them something that I was not able to enjoy when I was that age, you know, be able to just take care of my family, know, spend time with it, go on on vacations. I just I couldn't do that with my parents.

My parents are old now. My mom is dealing with cancer. You know, we're on a different stage where I look at my parents, and I say, man, I wish I would have done that with them. Obviously, it could have happened you know, did it happen for because how we were raised. So it's almost like I get to do this with my kids.

So I get to enjoy. And my family, it's just a 100% why I do what we do.

Steve: Yeah. And that message totally resonates with me because for me, my parents, they did everything they could.

Pablo: Right?

Steve: I mean but they were also working seventy, eighty seventy, eighty hours a week.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: So they were kinda absentee parents. Right?

Pablo: So it

Steve: was it was myself and my, the second oldest, and we were just at home after school just,

Pablo: like, videos. Yes.

Steve: That was it. But we didn't do, like, these nice fancy vacations. Right? Like, my mom's dream was always go to Hawaii, so it was really cool, a couple years ago. We did all like, the whole family, my my wife, my kids, my parents, her parents, and it was just a week in Hawaii.

Pablo: That's awesome.

Steve: I think that, like, that was the coolest thing. But, like, I am so intentional to be there for my kids

Pablo: There you go.

Steve: Because my parents were never there. And I don't blame them for it. Again, like, I wouldn't have what I have

Pablo: 100%.

Steve: If they didn't work their butts off.

Pablo: Yes.

Steve: Right? But there is a part of me that's sad that they were never there. So, like, I I think that's so I get this message really resonates with me. So before we do a a commercial break, I wanted to do this. So, you know, you said this was the the vision

Pablo: That's right.

Steve: Show and become a millionaire. So I want you to to open that up.

Pablo: This is a big deal, brother.

Steve: There it is. Right there. Oh. So, yeah, you can kinda see it, but this is you are number 14 of a 100 millionaires. We probably have more than 14.

Pablo: Oh, yeah. You do.

Steve: But you're the fourteenth person that felt comfortable sharing that, you know, proving Mhmm. That. So, let's put that up one more time.

Pablo: Oh, yes.

Steve: Cool. Alright. And so I appreciate you always coming on. Right? Like, for me, this is why we do what we do, and I love to see this come full circle where we have Blake on the show last week who said he started by listening to the show and now you on the show.

You started by listening to the show, and we've got to give you a plaque. That's incredible.

Pablo: Thank you, brother.

Steve: Oh, man.

Pablo: It's an honor to meet you, man, because I I promise I spoke that. I I spoke that in the six I mean, I said, I'm gonna be in that show one day. And I told, your staff earlier, one of the things that you know, every entrepreneur is different. We're we're kinda joking about personalities. Right?

But the way you handle the show, on your online content, it's always so, like, it makes people wanna see you. Mhmm. Because, you know, you don't come out like most of the entrepreneurs. Like, I'm cocky. I know everything.

Like, I'm I'm a state trained. You know? I'm no, man. You're just very humble. Yeah.

And you can feel that, you know, right here talking to you that you're such a, like, cool dude that you don't think you're mister everything.

Steve: Absolutely. And

Pablo: that shows. That shows.

Steve: I appreciate that. So, let's, do a quick quick break, and then we're gonna go answer all the audience's questions.

Speaker 3: We're giving them the GPS of what they have to do to show up every single day and execute with excellence and stay in the revenue driving activities. If you have a rep that is not producing, it is your fault. You have to have and hold that responsibility and get down and coach to where they need to be. So let's create that mentality for them. They are running their business.

We are terrible at reading people when it comes to performance inside of how they're gonna operate your organization. 90% of people that are in sales roles do not know what a key performance indicator is, But they need to have a fundamental understanding of how that KPI specifically to them drives revenue and more than that, how it drives their income. It takes a different level of person to get to that six figure mark. But it's higher to the six figure mark.

Steve: Alright. So going to the audience's questions, so I see here, on Prosperity, great name on IG, investment group that represents access to 85 plus off market hotels. Would that interest either of you? Would you be interest And would you be interested in off market hotels?

Pablo: Hotels? No.

Steve: No? How come?

Pablo: Man, I think one thing about when you're an entrepreneur, I believe you gotta stay in your lane.

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: That nothing doesn't mean that you're not gonna invest in something else. But do what it works and be really good at it. Mhmm. For us, it's multifamily, single families, buy and hold. And we actually, last year, did our first new construction.

We did good. Love it. You know, the process is a little, you know, doing a new new we'll build a brand new cabin, and then we had to do another one because we had two lots. So that one is about to hit the market. But we love new construction.

I can see us doing more of that. Yeah. But hotels, I don't see that.

Steve: Yeah. Hotel's a completely different animal. Yes, sir. And, I mean, that's what you said. Like, it's so powerful, and it's something it's a bit of a lesson I need to hear over and over again because I do get distracted.

I do have these other ideas, other opportunities, like, man, like, cool if we do these things. So, yeah, you're focused, staying in your lane. That's a powerful message.

Pablo: I heard that if you wanna be successful, you have to say no so many more times before you say yes. Yep. And I think I heard that from you, so you better, yeah, keep keep listening to that audio.

Steve: I know. I know. For me, the big thing is whoever whatever I'm doing, it's never me driving anymore. So if we wanna do another venture, someone else has to do the driving.

Pablo: But you put the knowledge in the name. I mean, that's it.

Steve: Yeah. So we're talking about starting a real estate fund. It's gonna be conditional on if we can get this one guy to run it or not.

Pablo: Like, syndication and stuff like that?

Steve: Just buying, like, just like all the other hedge funds that are buying Okay.

Pablo: Hedge fund? Okay.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. So just like these other hedge funds that are buying single families building portfolio, like, we just so happen to have like, I have access to a guy with super deep pockets. I gotta get I got access to a guy who is help who's the number two guy in the valley in buying properties for the funds.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? And I got a guy who the hedge funds were paying to consult with when they're managing their funds. And then I got a guy who can underwrite a 100 houses a day.

Pablo: So you have this set up. Yeah.

Steve: So, like, the part the benefit of being in the business for so long is I know the right members. And I just found out the guy that was the an the analyst that the hedge funds are paying to consult just so happens to be friends with the guy that's the head of the Atlanta, Federal Reserve.

Pablo: Okay.

Steve: Right. So, like, I got, like, direct connections. So then it's really dependent. It's not like, do I wanna do this? It's like, can I get these guys on board?

If I can get these guys on board, do it. Yes. If I cannot get these guys on board

Pablo: Done.

Steve: We're not because I'm not gonna do it.

Pablo: Yeah.

Steve: I need someone else to do it. But, you know, like, there's so many opportunities come along, and it's like, how do you stay focused on on one thing? So, Yeah. So Chris, IG says, what a hustler. Love it.

Luke Ralston on YouTube says, what's up, Pablo? I'm assuming he knows you. I know.

Pablo: I know, mister Luke. Yeah. He hustles too. Yeah. Great kid.

Great kid.

Steve: So a question for you is what's the biggest deal you've ever done?

Pablo: The 48 apartment complex. You know, we profit, you know, over $1,000,000 on that deal. Yeah. And it was insane how because it's the crazy part is we had a guy that you know, we sold it for 3.550. We had a guy that offer 3.1, I believe, and we said, no.

We'll do 3.2. And he didn't wanna do it. So we said, okay. We're just gonna wait. And, like, a week later, these people came and said that number, and we're like, okay.

Where do we sign? Let's do it.

Steve: Was it a cash buyer?

Pablo: Wait. It was supposed to be cash, and it ended up being the finance. It took about seventy days to close. But yeah. Yeah.

Steve: I was just asking because, like, my two favorite questions I always get, you know, when I was selling my own properties

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: Was, will you take cash Mhmm. And can we close early? Like, my two favorite questions. Yeah. You wanna win my heart.

Yeah. Will you take cash?

Pablo: Especially in the realtor side. Right? When you when you flipping a house. Yeah. Yeah.

I know. I know.

Steve: So then, Russian Nico on IG wants to know, doesn't face to face limit your reach?

Pablo: Yes. But this is what I would say. Again, every business is different. You got an empire going, and it's amazing, dude, but I would say this to every entrepreneur listening to this. I heard a quote one time.

The guy say, if you wanna kill something very special, go ahead and compare it to somebody else to something else. What does that mean? Our business is set up. It runs so smooth. We don't have a huge overhead, and we're very successful.

Right? So if I'm closing five deals a month, three probably two are gonna be flips, and three are gonna be rentals. Right? That meets our number, and we are happy with that. Now is it gonna be a time where we're gonna scale?

Yes. Every time we do a multifamily, it's obviously gonna add more doors. We're actually also looking maybe on the right timing to do a syndication because one of our partners have access in his the industry that he works with. He has access to a lot of money. So the question when we have meetings is, can we raise money to do bigger deals?

But, again, we are doing very good where we are, and we're kinda in the middle of the recession. Let's stay where we are and do what is working. Doesn't mean that you don't wanna learn from some people, but I can tell that you know, tell him face to face, you're gonna close more deals, and you're gonna close big deals.

Steve: Yeah. Big deals. And that's key. Right? So I think, you know, Russian ego, I think absolutely right.

It limits your reach. But I think one of the greatest things about real estate is that there's no one right way to do it.

Pablo: Exactly.

Steve: Right? So you've got a superpower. You are an immediate action taker, and you can immediately connect. I can see these two things, right, in unlimited time together.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: Going straight to someone's restaurant after you find out that's where he works is a superpower. Not everyone has that. Some people are like, when's the right time? Should I go?

Pablo: Yes, sir.

Steve: Oh, man. He looks like he's in a bad mood. I'll come back later. None of that. You found out.

You had the information you want. You had all the information you needed. Right? So Someone owns this apartment, and he's over here. That's all the information you need.

Pablo: That's all I need. Yeah.

Steve: You went there, and you said hi to him. I wanna buy your apartment.

Pablo: We're making too hard sometimes, I think. Right. People make it too hard.

Steve: Yeah. And so I think that can we limit your reach? Absolutely. But then we're also if you're trying to do it differently, you might be taking you outside of your genius zone.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: Your superpower is connecting with people right here, right now.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: So, yeah, I think to Nico's point, are you limiting your reach? Yes. But you're also staying in your genius zone, which I think a lot of us need to make sure we're doing everything we can to stay inside our genius zone. Have you gone through insane productivity? Curious?

Pablo: No. I never have. No.

Steve: Okay. Alright. Because they talk about that a little bit. Mhmm. Right?

Like, making sure you do either your top three activities or top one activities, and you should never do anything outside those three activities. And I say you are definitely doing.

Pablo: And and I will say this, that what it really helps in our business is, me and Austin, we run it. Austin does everything that I hate. Mhmm. And he does it amazing. He's basically CPA, lawyer.

He knows he runs all the company, all the numbers. I'm more like the face. I'll close the deal. Mhmm. I will get the calls from the workers because they speak Spanish, most of them.

And it's almost we have a perfect partnership. But, yes, I I would tell them, if you're not good about something, like, when I when we decided to have three partners, not two, to me, it was a win win because we brought someone Mhmm. To the team that is so good on the stuff that I'm not good and Greg doesn't have the time. And he just basically people with a limit mindset will say, well, Pablo, now you you're gonna have to take a third out of your flip because with three guys, not two. And, actually, we went to the next level.

The moment that you had the right people, people you can trust Yeah. It just our business took cover. And he's an incredible asset.

Steve: Are you building a super team? Yes. So Dave Acuna on YouTube. Do you have low vacancy rates in small towns such as Dangerfield?

Pablo: And to be honest with you, I tell you that apartment if you see a multifamily on a small town, try to get it. That's goal Because no one is gonna come and build. Yeah. It's amazing how perform. You know, mobile home parks and multifamily in the small towns, perfect.

Steve: No one's coming to build. Is that what you that's

Pablo: what you said. Is gonna come. You're not gonna have someone from Dallas to come and build and then you feel because the size of the town. So what's in there? Staying.

That's it.

Steve: Yeah.

Pablo: Try to buy it.

Steve: Yeah. Oh, I like that. Great, great insight. On YouTube Loop, what's the best way to start relationships with brokers?

Pablo: Call them. I'll I'll you know, I'm in Texarkana. I'll just kinda type, you know, Texarkana Realtor Association, and you get all the names, all the numbers. And just kinda pick one or two a day and introduce yourself, and, you get to the point where they know you or you they text you and use once in a while, call or text. I mean, take action every day.

Yeah. But the best way for those, you don't need to drive to the office and introduce yourself. Yeah. Call them and text.

Steve: Right. Mhmm. So those are the realtors. What about, but you also have commercial brokers?

Pablo: Yes.

Steve: So what do you do to build relationships with commercial brokers?

Pablo: I've I've really I call them, and I talk to them a lot. They're kinda different than regular brokers. You know? They're older. What not all of them, but, you know, in my area.

So you just kinda have to know the personalities. But I can tell you this, when you kinda talk to them and show them and kinda talk about the deals that you've done, you they wanna listen because I'm I'm sure they get a lot of calls of people that don't perform. So with this guy, the guy that we're able to buy the 60 unit, I mean, is a guy that he's one of the biggest brokers in in our county. So I have a great relationship. So every time something comes in, I'm he's the first one.

I'm the first one he calls.

Steve: That's awesome. Building relationships.

Pablo: That's it.

Steve: Let's see what here. Do you flip nationwide or just in Texas?

Pablo: Just in Texas and just about an hour from my area, which, when you earlier, you said something about maybe I don't I don't know if you asked your your challenges. At some point, we've been talking about if we don't find house that we like, we need to start going a little out of town.

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: I think that's what's next for us. Explore a little bit, which that's gonna make us use contractors. Right now, we use our own people, our own house people. You know? So that's something that is coming for us.

If we get to the point where what we see in our backyard, we don't like it, we're gonna have to start driving a little bit. But would not be nationwide. It would be just Texas no matter what.

Steve: Got it. Lead with love, Emma. I'm assuming you know this person.

Pablo: That's my little girl.

Steve: Alright. She says, hi, Poppy. Do you miss me?

Pablo: I miss you, girls. Love you.

Steve: Alright. So, you know, there was a big, news yesterday in Houston.

Pablo: Mhmm. Did you

Steve: see it?

Pablo: No. Houston?

Steve: Yeah. So, one entity, I guess, let go of four apartment complexes.

Pablo: Okay. I didn't know that.

Steve: 3,200 doors.

Pablo: K.

Steve: Right? How do you feel with the fact that, you know, we have this, two things happening right now with a, the fed rate

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: Right? Fed rate hike occurring, which directly leads to what you can borrow at.

Pablo: Yes. And

Steve: it appears to me that the DSCR ranges have changed. So whereas before you needed to have, like, a four to one five dot one, income to debt ratio is now even more.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: So how do you see is this the beginning of a trend? How do you feel about all this?

Pablo: So I had a an amazing conversation with Jay Scott, the guy that was on the BiggerPockets. Mhmm. And super smart guy. And we were talking about that. And we kinda what we see is, number one, everybody's gonna have a speculations.

No one knows where we're gonna be in twelve months. Right? Sure. But I believe that what we do know is if you have access to find cash, this is Black Friday because deals are gonna happen. So I know money is not cheap anymore.

We're not talking about 8%. You know, some line of credits. I I know guys paying 10% line of credits.

Steve: Yeah.

Pablo: So a year ago, line of credit was 3%. If you can buy a property at 10%, I know it's crazy, and you can make it work, I bet you you're gonna get in a big discount. Mhmm. So this is I still believe this is the best opportunity to buy real estate. Mhmm.

In our business, we're flipping less, but we're buying we're buying more rentals even because we're talking about a rental. You know, if you paid a 125, $130,000 for a house, the rents for 1,200, you know, with the interest 8%, and you got your property taxes. And it's not it it's barely gonna cash flow or break even. Right?

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: But if we can keep it going, we know that house has 50%, $50,000 equity when twelve, thirteen months from now. Right? So I would say that it's it's not scary moments right now. You just need to find more money

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: And make sure that your numbers work. You're not gonna get rich on cash flow, but you're gonna buy a lot of equity, which is that's what we're going after. Mhmm. Buying houses with $3,040,000 dollars in it, you just gotta hold them for a little bit. Yeah.

Build your team. Make relationships with handyman. Try to get your maintenance low, you know, and and make it make it through the next twelve months, and you're gonna be okay. I I have a really good relationship with one of our lenders. He believes obviously, everybody believes one that that we're really on the way out.

Jay Scott believes that we're not gonna see double digits.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. So we'll see.

Pablo: What do you think?

Steve: I think that in the next six to twenty four months, it's gonna be one of the best times ever to buy multifamily.

Pablo: 100%.

Steve: Alright. I think this is gonna be a big, big sale. And so I kinda wonder, like, you know, do we go do we wanna do a single family fund? Do you wanna do multifamily? Because, you know, I talked to, Pace Morby.

Right? And then we had Vina Getti, on the show special show we did last Friday, which was the all the whole episode is about how to start a real estate fund. That was the whole episode, how to start a real estate fund. Right? They those two are actively raising money to acquire doors.

Not right now, but in the next six to twenty four months.

Pablo: So We're we're that's one of the only things that we're looking into is do a syndication when it I mean, because I I think unlike you, multifamily is definitely the right path, 100%.

Steve: Potentially commercial as well.

Pablo: I don't know about not crazy about commercial.

Steve: I'm never I I don't like commercial, but there's probably gonna be a sale coming pretty soon there as well.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: I mean, there's a guy. He's a

Pablo: Like, doctor's office. I got you're like He,

Steve: let's see. He is a family friend of one of my best friends, and he bought this complex. Right? Not complex. This commercial strip mall area.

Right? And he bought it in this, like, one crazy downturn, but it's like a hard corner of Shea and 64th Street or 68th Street. And I know that that doesn't mean anything to you, but it's in the middle of Scottsdale. Oh. It's a hard corner in the middle of Scottsdale, and it's not like a small commercial comp it's like a giant commercial complex.

He bought, like, the whole thing for, like, $300. Right? And I think it's easily worth multiple millions of dollars. Right? But he bought it at a time.

I think it was, like, in the mid eighties when no one was buying anything because interest rates were too high. Yes. Right? And you just hold on to that thing, and it just grows. And that's just one property he bought, right, in the downturn.

So

Pablo: Opportunities right now. Yeah. Definitely a lot of opportunities.

Steve: Yeah. So now is the time to start raising money if you're if you don't have money. Dave on YouTube wants to know, I am flipping a small town in Oklahoma, but fine. Good contracts good contract has been a struggle. What do you have to say for for Dave?

Pablo: What was the question?

Steve: He's having a hard time finding good contractors in small towns.

Pablo: Okay. I think that's a lot of struggle for people to flip houses. For me, obviously, the one of the biggest advantage is that I'm Hispanic. So our workers, you know, our our family, because they're not really workers for us, are 90 you know, 90% of our team are Hispanic. So I would say get on Facebook and start looking for handyman and start look you know, start doing some interviews because you might be able to find someone, and that person might be able to relate it and help you to to gather you know, to find two or three more, especially, on the Hispanic community.

Yeah. We have a in our business in in East Texas, we kinda have a a joke that if you're gonna flip a house, which I hope this doesn't I don't mean being racist for but what I'm about to say that just be careful. If you have a white guy coming on a f two fifty of, you know, twenty twenty three f two fifty, it's not gonna be cheap. Right? But if you get a Hispanic like me with a beat out truck, you're probably gonna get a better deal.

Right?

Steve: Yeah.

Pablo: So do your homework and talk to people. Go this might sound kinda funny. Go to a Mexican restaurant. Talk to the waitress. Do you have any family to do construction work?

And you'd really start building your network because some of the guys are everywhere. Mhmm. They're just not really tech savvy. Sometimes they're just gonna wear them out, but you can find them. You can find them.

Steve: Yeah. So I'm I'm looking at you, PACE, right here. Right? Because he was my GC, and he showed up in a, you know, the one of those Ford platinum. I don't know what kind of truck it was.

Pablo: You can't do that. I'm not

Steve: a truck guy. No. Everybody showed up, you know, at our jobs in Ford. Whatever f one fifty platinum or something along those lines.

Pablo: That's gonna cost money. Right? Yeah. Your bid, you're just weighing double. You can't do that.

No.

Steve: Yeah. No. But he was always actually really generous with his rates. Alright. So what does your business look like to right now versus, like, after you close your first deal?

Pablo: Oh, it's I mean, we have a business now. We have a company. We I didn't have a company before. I was just hustling for deals Mhmm. And trying to build my portfolio.

But right now, like I said, it's me and Austin, we run the company. We have an amazing, fields manager, John. His electrician, plumbing, and AC, three in one. We found him. He was working for a property management company, and they were just not taking care of good him.

You know? They weren't paying that good. We interview him. We offer him almost double the he he was making. Mhmm.

And, he's been an incredible asset. And from then, we start building, through Facebook, adding painters, she rocks. We had another plumber working for us. And then just, right now, it's basically John takes care of the day to day, all the flippings. They take care of all the maintenance calls, and I make the calls, make the offers with Austin.

I still like going to walk properties sometimes. We don't have to if we don't want to because John is so good.

Steve: Right.

Pablo: He can go basically and do a house and say, man, this is what you you know, this is what it's gonna cost to to repair. But we we still like to do that. And so Miriam Austin would do the day to day decisions, offers, talking to sellers, and John basically takes care of the whole team. And we have a full time secretary. She does, property manager, management, all the doors, tenants, evictions, and also help us on the flipping paperwork.

You know? Yeah.

Steve: What kind of freedom does real estate afford you right now?

Pablo: Oh, man. It it's it's it's unbelievable. It's unbelievable, dude. We have a, I'm I'm here talking to you, going back to Texas tomorrow. On Saturday, I'm going to Mexico Mhmm.

For five days. I'm coming back. I'm ending the month. I'm going to Costa Rica to see my mom. You know, she's dealing with some sickness.

So Yeah. I had the freedom that I can do that. And and and then we're gonna take another vacation in August. And I just could never imagine that I was gonna able ever to do what we do. Yeah.

But, again, it goes back to the foundation. Who do you do business with? I have an amazing two partners that we take turns, basically. I'm not gonna leave. I'm not gonna do what I do if Austin is gone.

Steve: Right.

Pablo: So I tell Austin, we kinda joke. I said, man, give me your calendar. Go. I don't wanna see your face.

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: Because what he does, he does all the paperwork, all the numbers. He can he does it on his own time. Right? So we take turns. If I'm gone, he can go.

But if he's there, I'm gone. Right. I'm leaving. So freedom, amazing freedom. It's unbelievable.

Steve: Besides financial freedom, what do you love about real estate?

Pablo: Well, it goes back to your why. You know? We're able to build something for our kids. You know? And I don't like I don't like to use that term so they don't have to work as hard because they're gonna have to work hard.

Steve: Oh, yeah. They're definitely gonna have to work.

Pablo: I can promise you this. They they are not gonna get handed to, like, okay. This is for you. But, obviously, my kids today are in a position that I would never was able to even get close to that. So, yes, man.

I just built a legacy for them, for my family, and be able to enjoy them now. One thing that I wanna say to all the entrepreneurs who watch you, enjoy your family now. My oldest daughter is 13. So let's say the Bella leaves the house when she's 18. So it's five years.

So let's say I only take five more vacations. So you're telling me that I only gonna enjoy my my little girl five more times? No. That's not enough. Because what's gonna happen when she's 18?

You know? And then you're gonna do family and stuff. So I think entrepreneurs would believe, let's work really, really hard. Let's not enjoy our family. When I'm 60, I'm gonna travel.

But you're lying. When you're 60, you're gonna be taking care of grandbabies, and you're gonna be okay doing that. When I'm 70 years old, I don't wanna be walking in Italy because it's too hot, and I'm 70 years old. I wanna do it now. Mhmm.

I wanna I wanna walk on the beach in Mexico with my little girls now. Yeah. And I want and I don't wanna do it just once a year. Enjoy your family now. Create those memories like you were sharing earlier.

You didn't have with your parents. I'm all about creating memories with my family. That's all that matters.

Steve: Yeah. Is that your why?

Pablo: 100%. And there's another big part, that we just started, with the church that I'm part and my wife. We are creating a foundation in Costa Rica. So, basically, we just adopt, orphanage. So we were paying English classes once a week.

So we have about third no. About 17 girls are taking classes every Saturday. So our goal is man, this idea came, you know, let's pour something, you know, in the orphanage, and we have bunch of people, like, raising money, and we have money to pay the guy the teacher for the whole year. So we're thinking about, well, let's do another one. So leaving that in my country, you know, be able to help those kids.

Because if you don't speak your language in Costa Rica, it's really hard to make money. You know, you're gonna go to a really low job. So, yeah, we are helping one orphanage right now. It's Pura Vida, project, like foundation. And our goal is to adopt another orphanage, this year to have to and kinda keep growing from there.

Steve: Yeah. That's awesome.

Pablo: English classes free English classes for them.

Steve: That's amazing. Right? Impact. Leaving an impact.

Pablo: Yeah, man.

Steve: What is your biggest struggle right now?

Pablo: I think what we talked earlier about making that move out of town. We're we're very comfortable where we are because our guys are on our flips. Our guys are do our maintenance. It's almost like trusting a GC with a house out of town. I mean, we did it once in Dallas, and it worked out okay, But I don't know.

It was okay. I just feel like we just love our system so bad so much. I don't know if is it a good thing or a bad thing right now that we just don't wanna go over and rely on people that we don't know. Yeah. Because we love our team so much.

So Yeah. That stepping out in a different market is probably our biggest struggle. When do we do that?

Steve: Well, I mean, you already done it once in Dallas. Yes. Right? So, I mean, I think a lot of, like, what we talk about is, in in certainty talks, Paul and I talk about micro steps. Like, you know, just keep testing it until it works right.

So just don't do a lot.

Pablo: Yes.

Steve: Don't be like, alright. We are in Dallas. Because that's what I've done multiple times. Right? Like, alright.

We are in Albuquerque. We are in Oklahoma City, and we went hard and, a lot of headache.

Pablo: So Big headache.

Steve: Big headache. So, you know, maybe you just kinda, like, keep doing it. Right? Just one here, one here. Mhmm.

Pablo: Because

Steve: you're you guys obviously have a great procedure. You guys obviously have great SKUs.

Pablo: Mhmm.

Steve: Know what works. Mhmm. Right? So just, yeah, just keep doing it. But that's that's part of the entrepreneurial struggle.

It's part of the fun. Mhmm. Right? Trying to find things, break things, and fix them.

Pablo: Yes. Yes.

Steve: Might be a silly question for you, but how do you stay motivated?

Pablo: Man, I'm I'm like you, man. How can I not be motivated? You know? Look at that. The life that thanks to God, we get to live.

You know? And like I said, my beautiful family, I love what I do. It's it's just not a job. It's it's a it's a blessing to get up every day. The people around me loving so much.

Our team, my partners, my wife, my kids, it's it's it's awesome every day, man. We we just have so much fun doing what we do.

Steve: So then how do you measure success?

Pablo: Great question. I think I'm super content. Obviously, I wanna drive. You know? I wanna keep, growing.

How do I measure success? I'm blessed. I'm happy. I'm doing what I love. I'm I'm successful.

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: Now is success attached by dollar sign? I mean, do I wanna make more money so I'll be more successful? I just don't think it works that way. Mhmm. So I would say, obviously, the numbers have to work every month.

Right? You gotta make profit. Right? So on that part, we are doing a lot of deals. We're building a good portfolio.

We're flipping. We did a new construction. Man, we're in a really good spot be because we have an amazing team. So I would say, I'm not just, like, probably successful. I think we have an amazing team or people that Right.

We're all successful. You know? And we're going we have a vision where we wanna go, and that's where we're going. And we're heading that way, and we have a clear path and vision of what we wanna do.

Steve: Gotcha. What is your superpower?

Pablo: I think what you said earlier I mean, I think, even if, at some point, when I moved here, I kinda believe that having an accent, not being a white guy or, you know, not being an American. I didn't play football here. I don't know anything about American football. Right? It was gonna hurt me.

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: I think being different, it actually makes me different. It it it helps me where people wanna talk to me, wanna know what what's what's the deal with this guy? I mean, you look white, but you're not white. Right? What's the deal?

Right?

Steve: Right.

Pablo: I think my superpower is I I don't know. I can communicate or or I can basically maybe be able to show my passion and be able to do things. And people believe me or people likes me. I don't know how to but, I guess I'm good with people, if that makes sense.

Steve: Oh, yeah. You're an instant connector. That much is

Pablo: Maybe that's what it is. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. That much is obvious to me. What is your biggest regret?

Pablo: Well, I think in the real estate world, you, me, and everybody flipping houses, our regret is gonna be five years from now. I should've kept that property. Right? It's gonna be you know, that 48 units that we're celebrating 3,500,000.0, it's gonna be 6,000,000 in five years. Right?

Man, not regret. It's a tough word because we're we're so thankful, you know, and things are going really good. And we're making right decisions, and we have the right team. So I wouldn't say I don't have any regrets. I mean, I wish I would've done some make some decisions on the way.

You know, maybe didn't should've hired that guy. They had to let him go because that kind of stuff happens. But, a mayor regret when you grow up in a dirt floor or house in Costa Rica the size of this office, and I'm talking to you right now, one of the biggest podcast in the world. How can in the world, I'm gonna hide any regrets? You know?

Yeah. God life is good, and God is so good. So that's all I can say.

Steve: Yeah. I love that message. How did you learn your greatest lesson?

Pablo: How do I learn my greatest lesson? Man, my greatest lesson is when I finished that book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and I told that realtor, I'm gonna buy the property. Right? And I didn't know how I was gonna do it. I didn't have the money.

The greatest lesson is just basically do it, man. You know? Do it. Just like the Nike commercial. Right?

And I and I love the message of Nike. People get confused. People think do it means you're gonna win. No. Nike, it's about the people that actually doing it, get up and do the work.

Mhmm. That's the target at Nike. Not just the winner, not just Tiger Woods, but just the people that when it's raining, they're working out. The people that get up in the morning every day and not just on January 1 when 90% of the people join in

Steve: January. Outside.

Pablo: Exactly. So just do it, man. Just get up. Yeah. Do the work.

Make the phone call.

Steve: Mhmm.

Pablo: And that's it. And tomorrow, even if you have maybe good feedback and someone's gonna call you next week, do it again. And then do it again, and then do it again every day.

Steve: Yep. Is there any particular failure you learned a lot from?

Pablo: But we we only have, thank God, one flip that we didn't make money. Mhmm. We lost money. Not a lot. About 20 k.

Mhmm. And it was right on the middle, when the recession, the interest rate hit hit.

Steve: Last year?

Pablo: Last year? Yeah. That was the only time. That was the only out of town property in Dallas. You know, that's why maybe makes me feel that out of town is not good for us.

That's the only deal. We we didn't make any money. My regret, or failure, that's probably that one, you know, that we just, I don't know. I kinda wanna blame the economy. I really think it it was a big deal.

When we bought the house, it was in a really hot area close to the airport, DFW. I mean, great location. Every house, people making three or four or five offers. All of a sudden, things stop, and we went from being the only one in the market. Now there's 25.

And people start you know? We went from a seller's market to a buyer's market in a day. Right? So we lost money. So

Steve: Gotcha. What book have you gifted more than any other?

Pablo: Number one book, 100%, hands down, the Bible. I have faith. And, again, it's hard not to be motivated and happy. I'm I'm living an amazing life. And on top of that, to make it even better, I believe in Jesus, then when I die, I'm gonna go to heaven.

So, man, what else can I go run? You know? This is the worst it's gonna get for me. You know? I'm Yeah.

Having an amazing life, and I know what I'm going after. So the bible number one. And on the business world, of course, rich dapper that, and, man, the compound effect. That's the most amazing business book. This is a small action or you can say a big action, but just do it every day.

It it doesn't count if you do it five days a week and then you take a break for three. Mhmm. It's gotta be every day. Take action every day.

Steve: And be consistent in

Pablo: Every day.

Steve: I think I I make this joke. You know? Like, every entrepreneur is like, I'll do whatever it takes. I'll run through a wall. Yes.

I'll do any I'll do whatever it takes except be consistent. Like, that is like a big ask. Right?

Pablo: Yes. Yes.

Steve: Consistency is just one of those it's just always an asterisk associated with it. So I want you to think about some last thoughts you wanna leave all the listeners with.

Pablo: Yes.

Steve: Guys, obviously, if you listen to this episode, if you listen to me with, Vina last week, you guys know that I see a wind of opportunity in this market, and I'm excited to seize the moment. If you have capital and don't know where to get started, you can invest with us. If you have killer deals and you need help to close on, you can partner with us. Either way, go to teamwithsteve.com, and let's do business together. And if you guys got value, again, today, like, subscribe, share, comment.

You know, I I I genuinely believe the reason why we do all this is to help people. I mean, having Pablo come on to the show after he saw it as just an audience member, just another person that viewed it. Right? One of thousands that just viewed it to saying, I'm gonna be on the show one day. I'm gonna be one of the millionaires, and they come in and do it.

Right? I mean, I think it's absolutely awesome. We want to reach as many people as possible. We wanna find more Pablo's out there. So, again, if you guys find find value, please like, subscribe, share, comment.

It helps us reach more people. So, we also have Ray Jan coming out next week. Look forward to that. What are some last thoughts you want to leave everybody with?

Pablo: Yes. I first wanna thank you for for real. One of the coolest part of your jobs that you you're never gonna know is there I I know there's more out there. People that you impact through you this years with your business. So it's so cool, what you do.

That's why I started my own podcast in Spanish, you know, to help the Spanish community. So I wanna thank you first for all you do for the community. And I just wanna tell everybody, man, don't compare yourself to the other entrepreneurs. Just create your own life. Create your own business and work as work really hard, and don't worry about what everybody else is doing.

If you put the action every day, that's all it takes.

Steve: Right.

Pablo: And educate yourself, pay for mentorship, learn. If you can pay, pay. If you don't have the money, use a credit card. He said it. I didn't.

I'm kidding.

Steve: Alright. Awesome. How can someone get ahold of you?

Pablo: Ben, best way, it's Instagram. The publishing chia, at the publishing chia, Instagram.

Steve: Alright. Alright. Perfect. Thank you so much.

Pablo: Thank you, brother.

Steve: Made my day.

Pablo: Awesome, man. Thank you for having me.

Steve: Thank you guys for watching. See you all next week.

Steve: Shout out to Steve Train. Jump on the Steve Train. We real estate disruptors.