How to Raise $30MM in Private Money

Alex Quezada: Those three years of me and my brother doing, you know, five deals a month from working out of our house that he lived with me in, two separate computers and kinda, like, running from appointment to appointment because all face to face sales at that point we were doing. I wish I was went bigger earlier. I wish I got myself back into those rooms earlier, so that I I could be where I am now three years ago, and then who knows where I've been

Steve Trang: now. Everybody. Thank you for joining us for today's episode of Real Estate Disruptors. So we've got Alex Quezada with Vault Ventures, and Alex flew in from Orlando, Florida to share how he's raised over $30,000,000 in private money. Now I am on a mission to create a 100 millionaires.

The information on this podcast alone is enough to help you become a millionaire in the next five to seven years. If you take consistent action, you will become one. And we also know the fastest way to become a millionaire is to get good at sales. And our sales community was launched a couple of weeks ago, and the community members are already closing more sales. If you haven't checked it out, go to salesdisruptors.com to surround yourself with sales assassins from across the country.

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So, Alex, what was your life like right before you got into real estate?

Alex: Was a UCF graduate with a finance degree, started working for, travel club, like a face to face timeshare type business where we traveled around to different retirement communities selling essentially timeshare access. Retirement communities. Yeah.

Steve: That's different. Normally, you hear, like, you have them at, like, resorts. Yep. Right? And, like, when you like to stay at a resort like this fairly like, more often Yeah.

So you went to the prospects.

Alex: Yep. So we would set up, like, at, like, a hotel off a highway. Mhmm. We would send out, well, the company would send out marketing to say, like, you know, free cruises for two. Mhmm.

You know? And then people would show up, say, I came for a free cruise. Like, yes. But you have to go to this presentation. We'll show you how to get all these nice cruises and have access to time shares.

And, so I would have, like, a face to face conversation with them for, like, ten, fifteen minutes. Mhmm.

Steve: And then

Alex: they would go into a presentation for about an hour or so, come out of the presentation, and we gotta sell them right there on buying the package.

Steve: Gotcha. Okay. So you had just graduated UCF.

Alex: Yep.

Steve: So right out of college in finance, you're jumping right into, I would say, you know, depending on perspective, hardcore closing.

Alex: So I actually went into try to be a mortgage broker.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: But it was 2008. So that didn't that was bad timing after that. I got training. Was starting to do was gonna get in that direction, but then that didn't pan out. So I went into, I found a, opportunity at this face to face sales opportunity.

Steve: Yeah. Was it, like, was it seashell? What was it, there's there's Star. There's all these different ones.

Alex: Westgate is a huge one. Yeah. Okay. Bluegreen.

Steve: So I imagine you got pretty good at sales in a very, really short period of time.

Alex: Yeah. It was, I didn't really have I was always kinda, like, entrepreneur Mhmm. Type, but I didn't have, like, that real skill set. But learning from what do we just seen my managers, like, interact with seller like, with the prospects, the customers, and just kinda, like, regurgitating what they were saying and putting it in my own words. And they handed me books and, like, taught me, you know, to learn about it and read books about it.

And quickly, I became the top seller for the last two years I was there.

Steve: Really? Yeah. Got it. So, I guess, what did you learn? You see your books and so on, but, like, what kind of formal training did you have?

Because, like, we do sales training, but we are not corporate.

Alex: Yeah.

Steve: Right? In fact, we're probably anti corporate. We're Pretty, you know, what's the word? Non PC. Yeah.

Right? Did you have, like, corporate sales training, or it was still, like, get out there and go figure it out?

Alex: This was not corporate sales training. There was training, like, every morning that's a that sales training, and we'd come in every so often have, like, group training for, like, a longer periods of time. Mhmm. But definitely not corporate. We were, like, going to a little hotel, like, communities, retirement communities, doing the pitches all day, partying at night, next morning, like, doing the pitches again.

So it's kinda like we can make a movie out of it almost like we joked about. So

Steve: Got it.

Alex: Not not corporate at all.

Steve: Got it. So you did this you started in o eight, and you did that for how long?

Alex: Three years.

Steve: Three years. Yeah. How relevant was that experience into getting into wholesale?

Alex: Super relevant. Like, it was everything. It's it's all marketing and sales here.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: And so not having if you don't have a sales skill, you really can't do much. Like, there's I'm in a couple different masterminds and some of them where people can have all the systems and processes in place, but if you can't close, you're not gonna be successful.

Steve: Got it. And then, you did that for three years.

Alex: Yep.

Steve: You were top guy for the last two. What'd you do after that? How'd you get, like well, I guess, in that, you were licensed probably, right, as a realtor?

Alex: No. I didn't get a license until I got into real estate. So while I was doing that, I was, learning about real estate. I heard an ad online from, Ronald Grant, went to that seminar that was, like, $500. And then Not

Steve: too far from you.

Alex: Yep. Not too far from me.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah.

Alex: And then I bought that, boot camp, which was, like, back then, like, a sales pitch fest. Mhmm. So I I literally bought all the products. Yeah. And then just was, like, learning it for, like, a year Mhmm.

And then kinda, like, dabbling. But we were going out of town for that bit for that job from, like, Thursday to Sunday. You know? So I only had, like, Monday, Tuesday really to do anything with it. And so I just couldn't take action.

And then I was like, I'm gonna choose one or the other. I don't really wanna do this my whole

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: Life, you know, face to face sales with time share. And it was good. It was a good great experience, but I didn't like I believed in it a lot because I got to utilize it. But if you don't use it, you're not worth it. And, you know, so it's kinda like, you know, Timeshare has the best demo.

So it's kinda, you know, like that.

Steve: What was it so since then, right, because you learned from Ronald LeGrand.

Alex: Yep.

Steve: I imagine he was teaching it. And since then, you've been in rooms with him as colleagues. Yeah. How has that been?

Alex: It's definitely, it's awesome to, you know, be able to get to a position where, you know, he still obviously has a lot more education than me. He's been a lot more time. More seasoned. Way more seasoned. A lot more experience.

But it's awesome to be in those rooms with those folks and and be able to hold your own and and say you've done and put into action what they taught you.

Steve: Right. Okay. So you go you listen to this ad. You go to a on the ground event. You go through the pitch fest, get the upsell, all that good stuff.

Hey. It is what it is. Yeah. What did you do with that information?

Alex: So at first, I I was just learning learning. I didn't really I I started dabbling on putting, you know, some some of it into action, but I didn't really take action so much because of my job of going out of town at all time. Like, I I had put out marketing, and they wanted to see me at the property go to the property on a Thursday. I couldn't be there. Right.

So I kinda was just kept on learning and and reading through all the books, really educating myself, and then I just told myself, hey. I'm gonna quit and go all in on real estate. Yeah. Because I liked it. And being at those events, I saw people on the stage.

I was like, man, I didn't even graduate high school, and I flew here on a jet. Mhmm. And so, like, I'm like, well, I'm I'm actually smart. So, like, I know I can do this. And so I just had to go all in and just, you know, cut Cut

Steve: off the top. To you're trying to do it on the side. Yep. And it just didn't work.

Alex: It did not work with that job in place.

Steve: Okay. And so then you go you quit, and now you're all in.

Alex: Yep. You have

Steve: a bunch of money in the bank account when you quit?

Alex: I had I had money, but I back then, it was, like, a lot of REOs. Mhmm. So we were making a lot of REO offers, and that's how we really get our first couple deals was how I got my first couple deals with through REOs.

Steve: Got it. Okay. So you're buying foreclosures Yep. From banks through the MLS more or less.

Alex: Yep.

Steve: Got it. Okay. So then with Rhonda Grande, were you learning at that time creative, selling papers, or buying the flip?

Alex: I was learning, through him, subject to buying creative financing. I had some appointments like that. I just wasn't able to really get the sellers when I had no property, had, like, really no experience to give me their properties with their mortgages in place. Well, it

Steve: was really tough at that time because people have very little equity.

Alex: Yep.

Steve: So creative is a great strategy, not as great in declining market.

Alex: Correct. Yeah. So for us, that didn't really work so much, and it was actually Preston Ealy's REO rock star that really got me going to the REOs. And so from Ronald Grant, I got connected with all these other guys who are doing, business and just continue to educate myself and get into those rooms with those, you know, type of people, FreedomSoft, Fortune Builders, those kind of guys. Kent Clothier.

And then was able to really just continue to educate myself and take action on everything that I was learning.

Steve: So, get me up to speed. Preston Ealy. Yeah. What exactly did you learn from Preston Ealy?

Alex: A lot of, about mindset, was very big. Affirmations, you know, playing the movie forward, you know Mhmm. Manifesting, like, what you put into your life.

Steve: Right.

Alex: And, and then the REO stuff just really ignited with me. Like, it just connected with me. Like, I can do this. And it was just from the computer, dealing with agents, it's kinda, you know, not so emotional because I'm working with the agents, not the sellers. And it was easily to to get deals done.

And but I was still missing something in my business. I was like, man, I I should be doing more deals. I did a couple deals, and then I went to, like, a RIA meeting where I was looking for, like, a mentor Mhmm. In my market. And the guy's like, well, I don't really wanna mentor somebody.

I wanna, like, an employee. And I was like, okay. Well, he's like, I just don't want you to leave me and, like, you know, teach you everything, and I and you leave me in a couple couple weeks, a month. And so I'm a very loyal person. You know, I'd say what I'm gonna do.

And he hired me. And in, like, a week, I learned what I was missing. I just wasn't estimating repairs correctly. Mhmm. But I'm a man of my word.

I stuck with him. I worked with him for, almost three years.

Steve: Got it.

Alex: And, like, ran his wholesale business pretty much while he did, new builds and rehabs.

Steve: So you knew something you were short somewhere, and

Alex: you

Steve: couldn't quite pin it. And then just working with this guy very short person, I was like, oh, obviously. Yeah. I'm not great at underwriting. Yeah.

Got it. Okay. So we're going back to REO. At that time, what were you doing with the properties? Right?

So, you know, we talked about it, on uncertainty talks last week. Real estate basically is pretty simple. How do you find a distressed property?

Alex: What do

Steve: you do with it? Yeah. So the REO part, that's easy. You file you found it. What were you doing with that property?

Alex: I was literally just littering the area with banded signs,

Steve: and

Alex: I would sell them like that. To who? To, other investors.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: My first sale was actually somebody who's gonna live in the property and they just had capital. It was a cheap property. I think it was, like, 45,000 on Wolf Street, Pine Hills. And, sold it with, Bandit Sign. And then going to those RIA meetings, I would build the buyers list from, you know, having a sponsor table, people coming up to us, looking for deals, and just building a buyers list.

Right now we have a such a from I put a emphasis on that, building a buyers list for when I worked for that guy for the wholesale company, I did both. I did acquisitions and dispositions. Mhmm. So I was constantly building a buyers list, and we probably had one of the strongest buyers list in Central Florida right now.

Steve: So you would just buy these properties close to asking price?

Alex: No. We were definitely getting them, you know, below market. A

Steve: few ROAs. Super deep. Yep. Well, below market, but, like, below because, like, REOs are priced to sell. Yeah.

So you're buying it, like, significantly below asking price? Or

Alex: typically, they would be below the asking price, and we would sell it slightly below the asking price. But many times, we would sell it above asking. Mhmm.

Steve: We

Alex: would just get there first and get there with a strong offer.

Steve: Right.

Alex: And we would know we can sell it. And a lot of times, buyers would be like, hey. This is on the MLS. I'm like, I know. That's where I got it from.

Steve: Right.

Alex: You know? And it is So there's

Steve: a lot of power there. Right? So, like, you know, for the longest time, I mean, you look at buying properties, the REO properties. One of the greatest challenges I remember from back when I was doing it on the buyer agent side, and a common complaint was we can't get these freaking agents to answer the phone. Yeah.

What were you doing to get them to answer the phone?

Alex: We were so, essentially, what I would do every single morning, I would look at the hot sheets, what's new on market, what came back on market, and what's reduced. Mhmm. And so I would just go through all those properties in the morning, categorize them, pull all the ones I thought were good deals. I would sort them by, cheapest price per square foot.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: Go through each one, tag each one that I thought was something that we could work with, then dive into each delve deeper, and what do we put together offers.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: And then my brother would, who was, like, our assistant at the time would, like, shoot out the offers, and we would have everything, like, all pre signed and all that. So we would literally just send out offers on everything. Like, we had all the this is the same agents typically on those REOs. Yeah. So we would have same

Steve: 10 realtors all the time.

Alex: And same templates. So everything was, like, prefilled out. We just have to change the address, price, these certain things Mhmm.

Steve: So we

Alex: can get offers out in five minutes. So we're just sending offers. So we're only calling agents. We're like, here's an offer. Text message, you should have an offer in the aux.

Steve: Got it.

Alex: And we're just sending tons of offers, like, couple 100 a month.

Steve: So it really was more of a volume game than it was a a, relationship game.

Alex: Yeah. For sure. Yeah. For us.

Steve: Got it. Yeah. Okay. And and I bring this up, you know, if everyone is listening, this might sound like a weird conversation, but, like, I was initially on the buyer side, and I hated those REO agents. And then I became the REO agent.

And, like, these guys, they were buying from us. Like, they were the relationship people. Right? So I was like, hey. I got this deal.

Who Who do I wanna call first? Yeah. Right? So I kinda I I kinda had, like, my same three or four buyers I'd always send it to.

Alex: So over time, because they have those buyers, we have to sneak our way our ourself in there Mhmm. And start building relationships showing them that we we, you know, can close on the deals and we're real buyers, even though we're wholesaling it. You know, we get them done, though. And, then we started getting some more, you know, relationships, from just an initial volume push.

Steve: Right. So you're working the RIA, and you're building your buyers list through RIA. Yep. Is that something for someone that's listening today you would recommend?

Alex: I I think so. I think, you know, getting face to face with with buyers, building relationships because that is definitely a relationship business right there.

Steve: It is.

Alex: You know, building your buyers, get making connection with those guys. I think 100% going to RIA's, even putting out banded signs, I I think that works as well. You know? You should you should never stop building your buyers list.

Steve: Yeah. Because I go we have, ASRIA. Right? Arizona RIA. It's, my understanding, the largest in the country.

Wow. And I go there probably every other month. And I don't put any boots there. Right? I just go there, and I just pitch my sales training.

But, there's a month in and month out. There's two that are always there. There's the property management by Avi. What is this? Yeah.

I'm totally butchering. I feel really bad now. Auggie Pennev. Right? So Auggie Pennev is property management company.

He's always there. Month and month, I've never missed him there. And another one's Net Worth Realty. And Net Worth Realty has been, like, at three years, I wanna say, like, since I started going back, like, four years ago. Yeah.

Like, they're there every single month. Well, yeah. Clearly. Right? So for everyone that's listening, right, if you're getting started, build your buyers list through the local area.

Alex: 100%. Yep.

Steve: Yeah. Okay. So you're buying these deals off them as our properties, and you're basically selling to these guys, at near, list price. Predominantly wholesaling?

Alex: Yeah. All wholesale.

Steve: Okay. How long did you continue doing that?

Alex: So I worked with, that gentleman for three years, then I left, and me and my brother did it on our own. Mhmm. And we continue to do the same thing, except, obviously, we kept all the profit. And then, we did that also for roughly three years, and we did, like, five deals or so a month, for those three years. And we thought it was good.

I thought it was good, because we were keeping all the profits, and we were, you know, traveling, having fun, you know, enjoying life. But I went to another event where people were doing twenty, thirty deals a month and younger than me, and I was like, I don't know. That's that's way better. I need to do that. And so I got I talked to those guys, and I'm like like, how are you guys doing this?

Like, what are you spending on marketing? I'm like, about $5 because most of it was REO. Mhmm. And he's like, yeah. Try spending 30.

I was like, alright. So I took an Amex card, put $30 on it

Steve: Yeah.

Alex: Increased started doing PPC, increased our direct mail, like, tenfold. And the next month, forty five days later, we did, like, a $111.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: And then we just started doing seventy, eighty, a 100, like, big numbers now.

Steve: Where did you meet these guys?

Alex: It was at, Kent Clothier's, find and flip summit, I think,

Steve: in,

Alex: like, 2017.

Steve: 2017. Yeah. So, that was here or that

Alex: That was actually it might have been in Scott in in Arizona.

Steve: Yeah. Yeah. Because Ken I mean, he's here a lot.

Alex: Yeah. Yeah.

Steve: Alright? And I think at that time, it was him and and Sean and Sean together. Yep. Yeah. Okay.

So you're doing deals. You're feeling pretty good about yourself. And then you show up to an event, and you're like, oh, there's, like, levels to this. Yeah. Okay.

So then immediately, you start spending more on marketing. Along this journey, was there ever any doubt? Right? Because you said there was something missing. There was a piece that wasn't quite clicking.

Yeah. Did you face any doubt along the way?

Alex: Not real. Not really. Like, I'd say pretty positive. Like, I had there was definitely times where I got away from, like, affirmations and doing those Mhmm. Those things that, like, really helped me.

Yeah. And I remember it was one May. I don't know what year it was. I was like, man, like, I don't really have any enough money in the bank account because it's with wholesaling, like, deals get you know, small deals turn to nothing. Big deals get smaller.

They get postponed probate issues, this or this. And I'm like, man, like, I'm not gonna have any money coming up. Mhmm. And so I actually, like, went back and, like, rewrote goals and affirmations and literally just started speaking my life into existence again. And boom.

Deal started flowing in again. Money started coming early. You know, closings happening earlier, and it just, you know, got me got me going again. And so sometimes, you know, you get away from what you're doing that's successful, and you gotta, like, refocus. But that was pretty much the only time that was kinda a little bit tricky for us.

Mhmm. But just getting back to what actually got us there and just the mindset. Mindset's so important. Like, I really harp on that and, got back on back on track.

Steve: So you mentioned you you left that guy that mentored you. He guided you.

Alex: Yep.

Steve: And you went to go do this with your brother. What were some unexpected surprises going from working with somebody to doing this on your own?

Alex: It wasn't, I really wouldn't say it was, like, so unexpected. Like, I I was really doing majority of the wholesale activities, like Got it. Running everything. And while I was working for with him for three years, I was spending my own money to go to events and continue to educate myself. And I would bring a lot of that back and say, hey.

We should do this and this.

Steve: So it

Alex: was almost like I was running the whole wholesale business.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: You know, I wish I got a little bit more knowledge from him on rehabs and new bills because he really crushed it at that. I just you know, I never got that. So that's why I was I figured it was my time to go and do my own thing. And, so really on the wholesale side, it really wasn't much different for me.

Steve: Got it. Now you mentioned you're working with your brother. Are you still working with your brother?

Alex: Yes. He runs my whole wholesale operation pretty much.

Steve: Got it. Okay. And then that was six years ago where you went to that event. Somewhere along the way, you started doing self storage.

Alex: That was recently two and a half years ago. So two and a half years ago, 2020, we started doing, self storage.

Steve: Okay. So you're crushing it. You're doing, hundreds of wholesale deals a year. Yep. What was the motivation for going from just wholesale to adding self storage?

Alex: So in 2017, we started buying, and holding properties

Steve: Mhmm. A

Alex: lot mostly through creative financing. We also bought our first mobile home park. That was through a partner that I actually helped get into real estate. And then he found mobile home parks, and he's like, hey. Let's do this deal together.

I raised the capital for it and helped in the beginning aspects of the of the property, but he was all in mobile home parks. So we bought a couple together. And so I've already owned, you know, some assets, some commercial assets. I own some apartment buildings as well, a different partner. And, you know, now that my business and this was, you know, 2019, 2020, I was pretty much not having to do a lot of the day to day with the wholesale business.

My brother was, you know, really, you know, taking, ownership of, like, being the the one running the day to day that I was able to focus on self storage. So I was like, well, let's go build wealth faster instead of buying houses, you know, one, two, three at a time. Let's go buy bigger and go bigger. And so we started doing self storage, and, our first mail campaign, we got a deal and just started off really really well.

Steve: Easy just like that.

Alex: Yeah. It was. It's seller financing. It was, like, 85% seller financing, 3% interest only, like, solid deal. We just sold it.

Steve: You're already doing creative when you got into that. Yep. When did just just take a step back then. When were you guys doing creative?

Alex: In we were in 2017, we really put it into play and started buying assets ourselves and taking them down.

Steve: In Florida?

Alex: All in Florida at that time. All in

Steve: Florida. So you're buying properties in Florida using creative financing. And I bring this up because, like, it's a hot topic today, and it's been a hot topic for the last couple years. Yeah. But you were doing it before it became, like, trendy.

Yeah. So, who helped you get good at creative?

Alex: So, obviously, I I got the knowledge originally from Ronald LeGrand, but the guy who actually did really reignite it into me was, Larry Harbalt. I don't know if you know who that is. He's at, like, Tampa, St. Pete.

Steve: Don't recognize the name, but he was in Tampa. He has to be a guru.

Alex: And so, he was at, like, a local he was, like, local to my market. So he would come to Orlando Rios and stuff, and I would I met him there, bought his course. Fascinating. And he really is the one who kinda propelled it into me to, like, really take action with with putting in those offers out.

Steve: And I'm asking these questions because, like, you know, we're in Collective Genius together. Yeah. And, you know, we had a breakout session, and I got the honor or privilege to sit in the room. We're talking about creative and self storage.

Alex: Yeah.

Steve: Right. It's like, okay. That's cool because, like, I don't I'm not an expert in either one. Alex talking about both of them, so it's pretty cool to see how that works. So how simple was the transition?

Just like I was asking you from time share to wholesale, how simple or difficult was that transition from creative on a house to creative on self storage?

Alex: It's very similar. Almost a little it's it's not as easy. You just have to have the right seller. You know? It doesn't work for everybody.

You know? That taking a creative offer is still gotta find the right person that works for the for that person.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: The ones that we have done that were creative, so we bought so we've acquired nine self storage facilities so far. Three of the deals have been creative financing. Mhmm. All those gentlemen are wanting to retire. Yeah.

Yeah. So it's not like they needed a big chunk of money. I've talked to other sellers that I bought properties from for storage where they're selling this, and they wanna go develop this land. Mhmm. So, obviously, a lot of times that might not work because they need that capital Yeah.

To go put it into place. For retirement, it does make sense because you could, avoid that big, you know, tax hit that they would take, and they get they like that income each month because that's what they're getting with their self storage facility. So if we can provide that to them, you know, by structuring seller finance terms, then it makes sense for them. You're just trying to find the win win.

Steve: Yeah. It's kinda like, you know, Eddie, Eddie Speed. Right? Someone I look up to as well. And he basically made it pretty simple.

If they have a money problem, the cash offer

Alex: Yeah.

Steve: If they have a real estate problem, the creative offer, And that's more or less has been your experience.

Alex: Yeah. 100%.

Steve: So let's talk about your very first self storage deal.

Alex: Okay.

Steve: Right? Like, hey. You know what? Let's start doing self storage. So I know typically we talk about, you know, doing your first real estate deal, but it seemed like that wasn't as difficult so long after you quit your job.

Alex: Yeah.

Steve: Your self your first self storage deal. I know you sent out your first mailer, your first batch of mailers. You got a deal. Yeah. How complicated was that transaction?

Alex: It wasn't because prior, I got coaching.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: So I got coaching, and I knew the questions to ask. I knew how to underwrite them, what to look for, where the ad value was, how to look at a a profit and loss statement and see where we can, you know, cut expenses, increase the income. And so I had the knowledge, beforehand to do so, and that gave me the confidence to go out there and make offers. And, obviously, it's a learning curve. We were learning stuff along the way that probably could have done differently and could have been better.

You know, we could probably had added more value than we did on that property. But, overall, it was a very smooth process. I like to especially starting a brand new thing, like asset class, like self storage. Like, I wanted to know everything. Right.

So, like, I super educated myself, but then when we bought the property, like, I literally slept on the floor, like, two nights in a row. I wanna see, like, what's it like at night? Like, does people come by? What's going on? Like and I literally wanna know everything about the business.

Steve: You're so committed. In the

Alex: in the luckily, this one has the office, but it had no couches or anything like that. I literally went to, like, a dollar store and bought, like, pillows and blankets and stuff.

Steve: Okay. So, I mean, you're committed. Super committed. Sleeping in the office Yeah. At a potential property you're gonna buy.

Alex: Yeah.

Steve: Got it. So and I and I like this. Right? You were saying before you even went off on your own, even though you're working for somebody else, you're already investing in your own personal development.

Alex: 100%.

Steve: Which is absolutely the case, something I'm very passionate about. So you got mentorship from someone that's already, doing this. Yep. And, you know, there's this fine line. You know?

We talk about, you gotta take action. Get out there. Go make a mess. Right? There's that line.

Yeah. And then there's this other line of, like, before you do it, go learn for somebody that's already done it. Where do you draw that line? I mean, it sounds like you already made that line, but how did you come to to the decision that you made?

Alex: Yeah. I definitely am, like, someone who likes to learn. So I always do that first, but I think what a lot of people mess up on is they try to learn everything before they start you know, let me go through this whole course before I do anything. You know? It's like, hey.

If you chapter one is marketing, like, start marketing. So I talk to somebody else. Like, speed of implementation is, like, the most important thing. Mhmm. You start you you pick something up, and it's valuable.

Like, put that into action immediately as quick as possible, and then start warning the rest. I think that's a better way to go. So you have to have some knowledge. Otherwise, you know, you can be successful by accident, you know, with a probably a good positive mindset about things. But you gotta have some education, and that's definitely gonna help you skip the line and get there where you wanna go further faster.

Steve: Yeah. Another thing too is, like, you know, we didn't really touch on this moment ago, but, like, you went and worked for somebody at ARIA that you met. Yep. And that's something like, we have so many people reach out like, hey. Where should I start?

And I feel like my answer is never heated, which is, like, go work for somebody. Yeah. Right? And go learn from someone who's actually doing it because you know this. We are in this business.

Yeah. It's hard for you and I to look out into social media spectrum and figure out who's real and who's not. We're in this business Yeah. And we can't tell who's real and who's not.

Alex: 100%.

Steve: How can someone who's not in this business know who's actually doing deals or not? There's no HUDs. There's no or there's not there's not there's no HUDs. There's no public records. Like, the MLS Yeah.

If you're a realtor, I do 30 deals a year. I do a 100 deals a year. No problem. We go to MLS.

Alex: Yep.

Steve: Alright. Is is Steve doing 30 deals a year, or is he not?

Alex: On a wholesale, there's no record of you really in it. You know? Right. And once you do show the huds, 100%. We've had some young people, work with us, and then, like, they see success, a little bit success, and they're like, oh, I could do something else.

It's like, you're only dealing with, like, acquisitions. Like, you ain't dealing with the back end, the marketing, pulling the list, doing all this stuff. And then when on social media, when you see everybody crushing it, they're only showing their success.

Steve: Right.

Alex: You know? So and I'm guilty of it too. It's not like we're always showing, like, the bad stuff happens. We try to here and there, but, you know, it's so you know, people don't even realize what what it does take.

Steve: Right. So alright. So you invested, and then you went into this. How close because pro form a is a funny thing. Right?

So before actually, before I even ask ask this question, since you're in the commercial world, can you explain simply what pro form a is?

Alex: The pro form a is like your projections of what the property is gonna do. Yeah. And so, the immediate, like, one year projection for me is, like, the most important. What can I do immediately to this property within a short time period, less like, a year or less, where I can add as much value, and where is the property gonna be worth at that point in time? Right.

And then that way I can say, okay. Is this deal worth it? Almost like looking out of rehab. Mhmm. You know, when we've rehab a house, buy it for this.

I'll fix it up. I wanna sell it for this. But aft beyond that, you know, you kinda have to use, like, industry standards of, like, rent increases are five percent per year or 3% per year along with expenses increasing three to 5% per year.

Steve: Right.

Alex: You know, even though self storage has had rents increase to, like, 15% per year in 2020 and 2021, 2022, you know, it's that's not the standard. So you have to use, you know, dangers in the industry to kinda use your projections, but it's also just kind of a guess, you know, in reality because we don't know what's gonna happen with interest rates or, you know, anything else in the world, really. So it's all kind of just a projection.

Steve: So, when you bought this, you reached out directly to the owner.

Alex: Yep.

Steve: So was it listed on LoopNet or CoStar?

Alex: Nope. It was direct mail piece. Mhmm. And literally, he said and this is like, well, I think you can speak your wife into existence is he literally told us the night before, he told his wife he should sell the property. And then the next morning, he's like, I never checked my mail.

Today, I checked my mail, and it was your postcard, your your letter. I got your letter, and we called you and

Steve: Got it.

Alex: The fit.

Steve: How close were your projections to the final numbers?

Alex: Yep. So we just sold it. So we were super ahead of projections. Mhmm. Like, very ahead of projections.

We're very conservative when we do our underwriting for these types of deals. And, luckily, we structured the deal great, and then there were so much add value so so immediately that we turned a five cap deal, which was really a seven cap market. Mhmm. And we got that five cap property into a 12 cap in, like, six months.

Steve: So take a step back for everyone that's listening. Caps. What is a five, seven, or 12 cap?

Alex: So a cap rate is essentially, like, if you bought the property all cash, it's your cash on cash return

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: Essentially. And so we were new to self storage and new to this market in Sebring, Florida. So we called brokers in the area, like, what would a property a self storage property trade for in this market? And they said a seven cap. So meaning that people in this area buying self storage, if they bought it all cash, they would want a 7% cash on cash return for that asset.

Mhmm. These sellers wanted a five cap, which is, like, 30% higher price than what was the market price would be. Mhmm. But we were willing to pay that price, one, because we got good terms, and number two, there was immediate add value that didn't really require, capital expenditures. Didn't re really require putting more money into the property.

Steve: Got it. So it was like, for for the house perspective, it's like, like a hotel. Yeah. Right?

Alex: Like, it

Steve: was just it didn't require very much work, and you can create immediately sell it for more.

Alex: Exactly. A little paint, a little lipstick, stuff like that. For us, it was he had a tree company that was utilizing, this large, single story building. Mhmm. And so he sold the business, which is why he sold the self storage because it was on one, parcel, and they ran the self storage as this just extra income.

They weren't really trying to maximize that. They had a very successful tree business. So they sold the tree business. They move out. We moved a tenant in for, like, $17.50 a a month.

That drastically increases the value of the property, increases the income, and then we had some the rent was pretty much 50% below market. So we were able to we did all the added value first Mhmm. Because it's right in the middle of COVID, and then we increased everybody's rent. Literally, one lady moved out who had three units. Everybody else stayed, and we literally just doubled the rent.

So it was immediate add value without really having to do much else.

Steve: Got it. And so you said, like, two and a half years ago. So, like, you just exited this property.

Alex: We sold it on February 28.

Steve: So this is not a simple flip.

Alex: It we probably could have sold it right away. Mhmm. But my intention getting into self storage was never to to sell them. Like, I was like, I have my wholesale business. That makes me money.

Like, I wanna hold these for a long term wealth.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: But when, from being in a mastermind with self storage, these guys were all packaging, facilities and selling them off. And I was like, should, you know, should I be doing that? You know? And they're like, well, you gotta look at your return on equity. You're making this much money per month on cash flow.

If you sold it after cost and everything, what would you net? And so if you can net a million dollars and you're only making, you know, $30,000 a year, well, then you're making, like, 3% on your money. Mhmm.

Steve: Could you

Alex: make more than 3% if you had that million dollars cash?

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: Yes. We can make, you know, 20 plus percent returns on on a lot of deals. And so it makes only makes sense to sell that property unless it's like a class a facility that, you know, we feel like is a legacy asset where we're gonna hold it for a long time.

Steve: You know?

Alex: I'm young. I'm not retiring. It only makes sense to move it and buy something else bigger and maximize return.

Steve: Being in a different room causes you to ask different questions. 100%. Yeah. So you bought this with the intent. I'm gonna hold this forever.

Essentially. And then someone's like, hey, Alex. You're not realizing that the million dollars from this self storage could yield a much better return elsewhere.

Alex: Exactly.

Steve: And that's the power of being in the right rooms.

Alex: Exactly. 100%.

Steve: So first deal, I mean, I don't think that's a grand slam. I think that's a world series grand slam. Right? Like, a million dollars after a couple years. How about your second, third, and fourth?

Alex: Yep. So, we still own our second property. Our third was in Lake Placid, and that was very close to Sebring. So we had economies of scale because we used our property manager, to manage the other property as well. So we sold that one as a package, together.

That one, I think, was, like, $6,800,000 profit. We owned it, like, a year and a half. So that one's, was a great deal also. Not a ton of added value with work on on that one. That guy wanted to sell it and retire, but he wanted all his money.

Right. Because he was wanting to go overseas and all this stuff. And so on that one, it was literally he was utilizing, like, 12 units for himself, had family members in them that were weren't paying, and his rents were slightly lower too. Mhmm. So for us, it was like getting all the people who weren't paying out, getting actual, customers in, raising rents.

We had to do some, roofs and cut back the trees, but not it was very easily done. And, you know, we sold that one. We doubled the value of that one as well in a year and a half.

Steve: So it sounds like for everyone that's listening, like, self storage is really easy.

Alex: It's it's not it's it is actually the rehab's not as like, the added value could be very easy. You know, expansion's probably the the more difficult part of, adding value to a property. But overall, you know, they're metal boxes. So there's only so much things you could do. There's no tenants, no toilets.

You don't have to renovate the kitchen, the backsplash, and do this, and you'll have, you know, people essentially not paying you. You have to evict them. Like, you have to do evictions on self storage, but

Steve: It's not It's quicker. Legal nightmare.

Alex: It's not a legal nightmare. It's thirty days, and you'll know, oh, they haven't paid me, where, it's just easier to get them out Right. In a in a self storage facility.

Steve: Because I think, was it Fernando Fernando that was on the show? Right? He was like, yeah. Like, self storage is just a no brainer because it just it just always as well. And I think I'm trying to remember.

Like, he has some crazy thing. It was like, yeah, 50,000,000 in cash now after I saw my last one. What should I do? Right? It's like, is it just that easy?

Alex: Yeah. That's that's that's good.

Steve: So alright. So for everyone that's listening and I know we're talking about private money on today's episode. We're gonna get there. Right? But on the way to get the private money, it was a success track record in in self storage.

So for someone who's listening right now, it's like, hey. I wanna get into self storage. What do they have to do to get into self storage?

Alex: Really, I would say educate yourself first. And there's plenty, obviously, we put up a lot of, value out there on YouTube. There's definitely other guys, coaching on, self storage as well. But most people who ask me about self storage are, like, other wholesalers. Mhmm.

And so what I typically tell them is, like, it's just changing the list.

Steve: Alright.

Alex: Literally, marketing sales, changing the list, asking different questions, different lead sheet with different information you gotta ask. But, essentially, it's the same process. Mhmm. You just have to know how to underwrite it, you know, how to underwrite that asset and look at that profit and loss statement and start doing the same thing you're already doing with wholesale.

Steve: Okay. So changing who you're marketing to is a big thing. And, you know, we just had, Cody Dover. He was in here. He came in the same time as you.

Alex: Oh, yeah.

Steve: Right? He's in CG Select. And he's like, yeah. You know, doing houses is fine and all, but land is more interesting because you could just add a zero to it. So all you gotta do is just change your list.

Alex: Yeah.

Steve: Right? And and I've actually said this. It might not be a popular opinion, but realtors and wholesalers are the same people. They just market to different people. Yeah.

Right? These markets are different lists. Right? But for all intents and purposes, they're doing the same thing. Right?

Exit's different, but they're may basically doing the same thing.

Alex: To them.

Steve: Right? And so you're just saying just market to a different list. All the other tools are the same? CRM, dialer?

Alex: Yeah. CRM. So we have to, like, retro we have our our custom CRM. So we had, like, retrofitted a little bit for self storage, add some different tabs and whatnot. But pretty much most CRMs are flexible enough that you can do that.

Right. Dialer, same. Everything else, pretty much the same. Same

Steve: So same tools. So then let's dive into the listing. Right? Because we had we had Stratton on the show a couple months ago. Got that.

Yeah. And he's having a wonderful time himself. So, again, like, it just seems like a gold rush at the moment. Right? Yeah.

So all he does is just pulls a list and just calls them. So what list do you pull if you wanna get into self storage?

Alex: So, each area or city, county might be different, but sometimes it's they're classified as many warehouses. Mhmm. So there's, like, data providers, like, you know, axle, info USA that you can call those guys up and ask them, like, what's the category Mhmm. The code or self storage facilities in this area. And they'll probably, typically, advise you.

But you might pay pull, like, a mini warehouse stuff, and you'll get, you know, weird stuff, like people's weird one unit buildings and stuff like that. But you just gotta weed those processes out. You can actually build your own list with the VA, like, overseas, kinda going, like, on partial maps and and build your own list. We use Yardi Matrix, which just helps us get bigger facilities. They only really do 25,000 square feet and bigger.

Mhmm. It's very expensive, you know, yearly membership to have that. That's been our most success, but we do direct mail. We cold call and do direct mail, but direct mail has been out of our nine deals have been eight of the deals through direct mail.

Steve: Got it. The Yardi Matrix?

Alex: Yardi Matrix. You wanna spell that? Y a r d I Matrix. I talk about it a lot, and I ask for a a referral fee, but, no, they don't do that. They don't do that.

Steve: At least it reduced your cost.

Alex: I know. Right? Something.

Steve: Yeah. Okay. So you're pulling that list. And, you know, we had a Devin Robinson. Right?

He was at a a Select a couple weeks ago. And, man, he well, he was sharing with me as far as AI goes. Right? Like, what we're doing today, actually, we're using one of the AI things that he he talked about, right, on today's show Yeah. To to chop up the video.

But he was talking about how there was this new one. I wrote it down somewhere. I had to find it. We're, like, you just tell AI this is what I want, and it'll tell you all the properties that match that criteria.

Alex: Oh,

Steve: shit. Right? Because they can just now they can just scrape public records easily. Right? Because before, like, you had to get bots and and all this other stuff.

Now he's like, there's literally AI tools out there that say, go scrape this. This is what I want, and they can compile that list for you. I believe it. So the data companies are gonna have a little bit of a crunch Yeah. I think in the near future.

Alex: Yeah. Hopefully, reduce some costs.

Steve: So I'm I'm all for it. Yeah. Okay. So then beyond the list, is there anything else? Like, right now, someone's listening.

Right? And maybe their wholesaling business isn't where they want it to be. You know? Last year, the year before, they're crushing it. This year, they kinda, you know, try and make ends meet.

Yeah. How difficult would the transition be for someone that's, you know, has success in wholesaling, but right now is, like, treading water to transition into self storage.

Alex: I think it could be an easy transition, but you have to realize that, like, wholesaling is, like, immediate cash money. And so the reason I didn't get started in self storage earlier was, like, I needed capital. Like Mhmm.

Steve: You need active income.

Alex: I need active income. This is more like I call, like, my savings account. Like, I'm gonna build it up, and then, eventually, I'm gonna get a big chunk of money. Mhmm. And you can charge acquisition fees when you're raising money and whatnot to get upfront capital.

Mhmm. But, typically, you know, you're gonna pull that money back into your business anyway. So it's maybe a little bit difficult, but if you have capital aside, you know, I I've talked to people who are like, I wanna get into wholesaling, and they have money. I'm like, you should probably get into multifamily or self storage or or a bigger asset class.

Steve: Yeah.

Alex: So if you have capital and you have the the wherewithal to not need the active income every month coming in, then I think going into a bigger asset class, whether it's self storage, industrial, you know, multifamily is the way to go.

Steve: Yeah. And Paul Sparks and I, we talk about this quite a bit in the world club, which is, like, you should have two different income. You have one that's reliable. Yeah. Month in, month out, you're making money over here.

Yeah. You can pay bills with this one. Yeah. And over here, this is, like, the moonshots. Right?

Like, we don't know when this is gonna pop. When it pops, it's gonna be real good.

Alex: Yeah. I like that.

Steve: Right? And that's kinda sounds like what you're doing over here.

Alex: For sure. Yeah. Yeah. I almost because I'm, like, not so involved with the day to day of my wholesale operation, I tell a lot of people, like, feel like my wholesale business is almost like my passive income. Mhmm.

Like, it's running. It's coming. I could, you know, project every single month, like, what we're gonna get. And then we have rentals as well, but I typically just keep that money aside. I don't really spend the that passive income.

Right. But, yeah, 100%. That the wholesale money, is my day to day, paying my bills, living life, and then the self storage is, like, not depending on it, but I know it's gonna be big pops in the future.

Steve: Right. So, like, it's inconsistent, but when it's great, it's amazing. Oh, it's

Alex: amazing. I had a good year.

Steve: Alright. So now the next part is the private money. So talk to me. Right? Like, $30,000,000 is a significant amount of money to raise.

Yeah. Right? You don't just wake up one day as, like, hey. You know what? I need about $30,000,000.

So talk to me about this journey, how you went from, you know, wholesaling to well, I guess, do you have private money before you did self storage?

Alex: Yes. So I got private money starting to do rehabs. Mhmm. Luckily, one of my best friends was, doing really well with, like, Internet marketing. Mhmm.

And so he was my first lender. We were buying houses from, like, tax deed auction and then through our wholesale company, rehabs. And he would fund the whole deal. We split the deals fifty fifty, did a good number of deals with him. And then I So before

Steve: you continue. Right? So everyone everyone is listening. Because I think this is one of the things that people kinda get wrong where, like, whether it's hard money, private money, whatever, it's like, when you're getting started, you don't need to make 90% of the profits. Yes.

You could start off in fifty fifty. Right? If I got Alex's money, I'll source the deal, run the flip, deal with the subs, right, as a small operator, and then sell it on the MLS. I'll do all the work. Yeah.

You fund the down payment, the closing cost, the rehab, the draws, and all of these things.

Alex: Alright? Makes it super easy. I always say, like, a 100 a little bit of something is better than a 100% nothing. Yeah. So if you get a piece of it, you get experience, you build up track record, then you can maybe start being a little bit more demanding or try to change the terms.

But whatever you gotta do to get that first deal, start utilizing people's capital to get yourself propel yourself forward. Yeah. You gotta do what you gotta do.

Steve: So when I started off, everything was fifty fifty. Yeah. And then we evolved to seventy thirty, and then we evolved now. It's just 10% of, interest that we borrow.

Alex: Yeah.

Steve: Right? No And they still fund everything. Right? The down payment, the closing costs, the the rehab. Yep.

And it's just 10%, no payments until we close again. Yep. So you start off $50.50 with an Internet marketing guy. That's a good friend of yours.

Alex: Yep.

Steve: Okay. So continue.

Alex: So after that, through, that I sold properties to, I sold a couple of her properties that were rentals in, like, Simi Point Sienna. She actually asked me, do you ever borrow people's capital to do deals? Like, you just sold these four houses. I got this capital sitting here. And I was like, yes.

I do. So I had the track record. Mhmm. So I went to her house, picture these are deals we've done, bought, and sold. This is what we can do for you.

This is what it looks like. We have a mortgage and no lender's policy, insurance policy. It's how you're protected. Mhmm. And then she's lend me some money.

Mhmm. Did a deal with her and then did another deal with her. She gave me a referral for somebody, to deal with her and her friend. And then she's like, well, bring the deals to me first before you bring them to my friend. And I was like, okay.

No problem. So I started bringing her deals, and she, a lot of times, never said no. And so I just kept building a relationship with her.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: And we did a mobile home park deal. She went to us on that as an equity partner, and we just started doing a lot more deals together here and there. I had some other investors on the side, but majority of that 30,000,000 has been from her single investor where we've been just turning her money on different rehabs, new builds, mobile home parks Mhmm. Self storage now.

Steve: So, really, it was one one person, which is a friend, to a person that you bought her properties, a referral. I mean, really, there's, like, three main players got you $30,000,000.

Alex: 100%. And, actually, right before I I met her going back to, like, like, manifesting your life, I went to a a private money boot camp with, Alan Cowgill

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: In Jacksonville. Went to that boot camp. He talked about writing down your goals and what you're gonna accomplish and how much you're gonna raise and wrote down my goals, speaking my goals in the morning, manifesting it. She calls me, and it was my goal was, like, I'm gonna raise $500 in the next ninety days. She calls me, and she's like, do you ever borrow money for for for investment?

Like, literally, you can speak your wife into existence. So that what is what actually I feel like propelled me to get to her, and then that has led to Right. Many millions of dollars.

Steve: The key, though, there's a few different things here, is a track record

Alex: Yep.

Steve: In doing what you said you were gonna do. Yeah. Which sounds really easy. But for some reason, it it it is not how it works. Yeah.

Right? I I've had the unfortunate situation where I was dragged into a lawsuit, which I had no responsibility in Yeah. Because there was another influencer in our space, right, who borrowed money and then didn't pay his private money person back. Wow. Right?

And this was not, like, a small amount of money. It was, like, a quarter of $1,000,000. And I got dragged in, and it was like, wow. Like, people you think should have their stuff together. Yeah.

Don't and teach it and and get paid while teaching it Wow. Don't necessarily Yeah.

Alex: That's terrible.

Steve: Have their stuff together. Right? So yeah. So do what you say you're gonna do is a big, big thing.

Alex: Yeah. I I lost, not tremendously, but there was a deal where it took too long. We put so much money. We overdid it. Didn't get the price we wanted.

I was gonna I lost, I think, like, $69. She made, like, $40,000. Mhmm. And so she got paid in full exactly what she wanted to get she was supposed to get. We just did a refinance on a property where I had to put 20 k into the refinance.

I own this property for, like, 3 years on a rehab. Massive issues, contractor stole from me, code violations, getting shut down with, you know, reg tagged, and she got all her money. She got everything. I'm still on the property. Luckily, you know, appreciation has helped.

But, you know, I have a lot of my personal money into the deal, but she's fully paid They

Steve: get paid.

Alex: Taken care of always.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, I had a situation. I've talked about it, last year where, you know, we got caught with a few properties with the, you know Yeah. Massive correction in Phoenix. And, I called the lender.

It's like, hey. You know, on this deal, I just want you to know, I'm really short on this one. Right? Like, I think between three properties, we lost $70 last year. Right?

Alex: Yeah.

Steve: So I was like, hey. Look. I'm gonna need you to carry this note for, like, at least another month after we close. Right? So I think after we close, I still owe her, like, 37 k, which we paid her the next month.

Alright? But it was an adult conversation.

Alex: Communication.

Steve: Hey. So here's the situation we're in. Right? We're in a nuclear winter right now in real estate, at least in the Phoenix market. And we got hosed in this deal, and we don't have a ton of revenue coming in.

Give me a month. I'll make you whole.

Alex: Oh.

Steve: And I think and ended up being five weeks. Like, hey. Can I just have one more week?

Alex: Right. You communicate and and you tell them what's going on. They're more typical willing to work with you. Right. Just have to have those conversations.

Steve: Yeah. Nothing nothing drives people crazier than silence.

Alex: For sure. Right?

Steve: Because then they start making up their own stories and, like, what's going on with my money? Am I gonna find this guy and so on? So, we talked about this. We touched on this. Right?

So we're in Collective Genius together.

Alex: Yep.

Steve: And, you would not leave me alone when we're playing basketball. So I think you were talking to Aaron about that earlier.

Alex: Yeah.

Steve: So talk to me about because you you said, you know, Preston Ealy, Ron Legrand. You're going to something in Idaho next week. Like, you're constantly out there Yeah. Working on yourself. What's so important about working on yourself?

Alex: It's like, it's it's everything, essentially. Like, you don't know what you don't know. And so in the beginning was like, I thought I was doing good, but there's all these people doing a lot better. And, like, oh, wow. Like, you have to be open to that experience.

You gotta know you're never gonna know, like, self storage is a thing or this is going good or you can be this successful or you can do bigger deals, unless you get into those right rooms. And so I continue to educate myself because every time I go to an event, there's just a little tweak, a little something that just can exponentially grow the business and or just the right connections, being in the right rooms with those right people who, you know, will fund the next deal or bring you in as a partner on this deal. So I made, great relationships with, people in those masterminds, like, lifelong friends Mhmm. Where our families travel together now and and and those types of things. And then the education is is nonstop.

Like, every time I'm in those rooms, I pick up something, we implement it, game changer, and it just helps us propel forward, you know, it's accountability as well. Yeah. You know, you're in those rooms with those guys, and you say you're gonna go on stage and say, I'm gonna do this, this, and this. This is what I'm working on. And then the next quarter or whatnot, if you're not doing it, if you're not propelling forward, they're gonna keep you accountable.

Steve: Right.

Alex: So it's, accountability. It's pushing yourself forward. It's getting the right mindset and then staying in touch with what's going on in the market. Because, like, a lot of those guys are, like, very high level also, and they know, like, they see what's changing. They see what's working, what's not working.

So just being on top of, you know, your business and being all in.

Steve: Yeah. And I like, again, like, the example used a moment ago where, like, you intended to buy and hold this property, but someone's like, well, if you got a million dollars in equity here and you're making 30,000, like, that's pretty good, but that's not that's not what you can do on your own if you had a million dollars in your cash in your hand.

Alex: Return on equity was never a word I even heard before.

Steve: Yeah.

Alex: And I've been in real estate and finance for a while.

Steve: Right. Yeah. You talk about these different things when you're in different rooms. Right? Like, I I saw a couple notes here.

We didn't really talk about it, but, like, initial rate of return. Right? Like, you don't learn about this stuff in college.

Alex: Yeah.

Steve: Right? You might watch some YouTube videos on

Alex: it

Steve: on it, but, like, when someone says IRR, you're like, I will what? Right? So being in the right room has definitely helped you out. And, you know, we got to get, you know, in and out, with, with Fitzgerald. Yeah.

Right? At our last event, he came in at, like, 12:40.

Alex: Long walk, couple miles. Yeah.

Steve: In and out. Yeah. In and out. And we've been getting a freaking Uber so far. Like, we we walked you in and out, and we couldn't take an Uber back.

And then somewhere along the way, you, started a call center.

Alex: Yes. Wama Sue Media.

Steve: Yeah. What was the reasoning for starting a cold calling center?

Alex: So we actually just wanna do it ourselves. So, in 2019 at RAAF Vargas' event, one of my other lenders was my business partner now, Scott Scott Morris. He would fund deals with me to buy and hold.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: He had a very successful business. He would fund a bunch of deals. He's like, oh, like, how can we do more business together? I went to that event. He used to have, like, a call center in Fort Lauderdale.

I sold leads to folks as well. And so that business ended for him, and he wanted and I went to RAS event. I was like, yo, this is how we can probably do business together. Because we weren't doing cold calling at all. I'm like, these guys are doing cold calling.

Like, we can kinda replicate your operation and, you know, do a lot of leads. And we're just thinking about it for ourselves. So he we were we sourced some cold callers in Colombia. Never really worked out. We actually flew to Colombia, trained them up, but then they just went south.

Like, they

Steve: just Yeah.

Alex: Weren't they weren't that great. So he's like, I'm gonna move to Colombia, and I'll gonna build an office for ourselves. We'll get, like, 10 people for ourselves. And this is, like, right before COVID. And so it was going good for us.

And then, through social media, someone reached out to me about trying to, help them go from rehabbing to wholesaling and, like, be, like, their mentor. And so we help them, you know, start a wholesale operation, and they're like, well, how do we get cold callers? Like, can you just you don't have cold callers. Can you just get us some cold callers? Like, yes.

So we're like, okay. So we did that. They were super successful, and it kinda just spread out word-of-mouth. We didn't haven't done, like, really any marketing at all for our call center. And through speaking at it at masterminds and then one or two people use us, they're doing successful, then all these other people wanna start utilizing us, and it just kinda built a business.

We actually thought about building the CRM business.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: But actually talking with Ken Clothier, who's one of the masterminds I'm in, he's like, there's a reason I'm not in that business. The business that you should be in is this call center. Like, do this. And so we kind of put went full force on that and started really growing that business out, all through word-of-mouth and just providing great service.

Steve: Gotcha. So running a call center, I have multiple fears. So when you're running a call center, it's two different things. Right? First, you've got to manage VAs.

And so you're managing VAs. Like, there's a lot of things we can control. Right? Systems, processes, and all these other things. But the one thing we can never control, at least you shouldn't be able to control, right, are other people.

Alex: Yeah.

Steve: So you got VAs in Columbia.

Alex: So what actually makes us a lot different, they're all under one roof.

Steve: Right.

Alex: So they come to office. They're not VAs. They're, like, essentially team members for us. You know? They're not virtual assistants.

They're coming in the office. They're team members. And Scott literally lives out there. So he's there managing the day to day.

Steve: An actual, brick and mortar operation.

Alex: Yep. 12,000 square feet. We just moved it to a brand new office, overlooking the city. Awesome setup, great culture. He's he's built a machine like this before.

So it's literally he knows what he's doing. He has departments, the teams, the team leads. Like, he's he's a beast that for the culture he's created over there and the jobs we've been able to create where, literally architects and engineers will work for us calling because they can make just as much money there with us doing pool calling compared to their job as a professional, you know, architect. Right. Crazy.

Steve: That's the first fear. So you guys have that figured out with a brick and mortar. Second fear, when the leads aren't good, it's your fault. Right? So I did some lead gen for a while.

I wanna say, like, in 2016, around there. Right? And, like, I get complaints, like, the leads are no good. I was like, no. These leads are pretty good because I'm closing these leads.

This is how I run my business. Yeah. The leads are good. Yeah. It might be you.

Right? So how do you deal with someone that, I guess, has one of two things. Right? Either complain about the lead quality when it's their data Yep. Or b, again, going through what we had last year, decide not to pay their bills anymore.

Alex: Yeah. So we have, so Scott says, I want all the smoke. Like, give me but buy the data from us. Like, I if it's my fault, I want it to be our fault.

Steve: You know? So You guys are providing the data as well.

Alex: So we also have a data company, skip trace company, so we can do everything for you. We'll also obviously take your data and and call your data for you and everything else. But, to say, hey. It's it's us. Like, let us pull the data.

Let us do everything for you, and we'll we're gonna make you successful. But then also you gotta make sure they're calling the weeds. Are they doing what they're doing? Are they do they know how to close? And so the way we kinda get around that a lot of times is we are very strict on who we take.

So if you don't have an operation, if you don't have a back end, if you don't have a processes and systems in place to get deal flow because the way we do cold calling is more like almost PPC type of leads. Mhmm. Like, they're highly qualified leads. And so you need to have people ready for, like, live transfers who are on the leads right away, and it's not something where, you know, you get what we call, like, a heartbeat in the home. You're just getting your own data back confirmed that someone picked up the phone, and you're like, hey.

This is this is Susie, but she has no why, you don't have a price, or anything like we're qualifying these leads. So for our office in, Orlando, we're, like, one in sixteen, one in 15 with our cold call leads.

Steve: Got it. So we've talked a lot about wholesale, self storage, and cold calling. It appears in this conversation, you're more passionate about the cold calling than you are the self storage. Is that am I reading this right, or am I completely off?

Alex: Oh, completely off. I Scott does everything with the cold calling. I don't really do much. What I love about it is how well we, how well Scott has built a machine over there. Like, he has, helped us build a better culture and business for our offices in Orlando.

Mhmm. Self storage is my passion. Like, I love self storage. It's great. Continue it's super excited to be able to go full cycle on three deals, And we got, three deals.

We're working on a development deal in, Tallahassee where we already own the property, and we're expanding, that asset. So we're doing a syndication raise on that right now.

Steve: Got it.

Alex: And then we have, three deals under contract right now that are all also seller financing. So 11, wanna continue to grow that business. That's where my future and and that's where I'm winning the company.

Steve: That's what makes sense to me.

Alex: 100%. Yes.

Steve: I'm just saying based off the energy level here, it seems like you like to cold call. I was like, ah,

Alex: that's weird. No. No. No. For sure.

Self storage for sure. Scott gives me, excitement. Scott, if you've met Scott before Yeah. Yeah. He's very energetic.

So it just he rubs off on me when I talk about it. I'm just kinda regurgitating what he says.

Steve: Got it. Got it. Okay. So, you know, thinking back to when you started off with your brother in your first year just wholesaling versus where you are today, like, how different is your life?

Alex: I and I. Yeah. From working out of our house that he lived with me in, two separate computers and kinda, like, running from appointment to appointment because all face to face sales at that point we were doing to now where we're picking up you know, last month, we picked up 54 deals where we didn't see any of them. Mhmm. And I literally don't know any of the addresses, you know, of of those properties, and he handles all that.

And I'm really able to focus on raising money, finding, self storage deals, kinda growing another business, and kinda replicating what we grew for the wholesale operation. That's what we're looking to do with this wholesale with the self storage business is kind of replicate that and save model Mhmm. And just start building the team for self storage so we can continue to grow that, business and, you know, take over.

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Steve: Got it. What has been your biggest victory, right, or some of your biggest victories from, again, starting to where you are today? Where does once you you know, you look back and you're like, man, I can't believe we did that.

Alex: You know, I think, starting to build a team and culture in our office is a is a huge victory. Like, a lot of, people talk about turnover, with the acquisitions. Like, we we have some turnover, but we have core group of of acquisition agents who've been with us for three three plus years where, you know, they're growing with us. We're trying to, you know, provide different opportunities where they're doing self storage with me as well. They're locking up deals with self storage.

Yeah. And we wanna continue to grow that up. And so that's been a very, you know, important to us, like, building a team because before it was just me and my brother doing everything. And so that's a huge win. And then just kind of being very successful in self storage, like, going into that marketplace and that different asset class and having great success, being able to do what we've done already.

But there's so much more to do, like, being in those rooms. I'm like, you know, I know Fernando and stuff like that. Like, they're they're crushing it on that. And that because they're so focused with self storage. I've only been doing this for two and a half years, so I'm going all in in self storage and making sure that's my my all that I'm doing.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: And, we're gonna continue to to grow that business.

Steve: What freedom does real estate afford you?

Alex: It allows us to, you know, spend time with my family and travel and and have, you know, real great experiences, memorable experiences with my daughter, my wife, my parents, where we can pretty much go wherever we want and and enjoy life and see new things and experience new things. And, that's what I like most about it. And then also allows us to, you know, create jobs, like, being able to create 200 jobs in in Colombia. Yeah. Pretty huge.

Yes. You know? And so, it's awesome. It's great.

Steve: What is your why?

Alex: My why is family. My family, you know, memories, bringing our family together and just being able to do whatever we want. Like, two weeks, we're gonna go to to a place in the on the beach, on the water, bring my whole family out there to have a great time, take care of everything. You know? No worries.

And, you know, have know that the businesses are running, without you know, where I can fully focus on just being with the family, not having to look at my phone and and do that. And so my family is my why, but I also like being able to help other people grow their businesses. So, like, I've had several mentees who have been very successful and and growing. So it's also awesome to be able to pour into other people and see them grow and see them succeed and Yeah. And start taking down assets, start building million dollar companies.

Like, that's I love that as well.

Steve: Oh, you're saying your whole family. What is what is your whole family to to go to the beach?

Alex: So it's like my parents, my sister, her kids, my wife, my daughter, my brother, his wife, his kids. So, like, that's, like, the whole family. Whole family. Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. No.

Alex: That I

Steve: mean, that's huge. Right? Like Yeah. We haven't done it again. We didn't do it last year, but, you know, the year before.

You know, being able to go to Hawaii for, like, a whole week, right, with the kids and my parents and her parents, and it's like, it is dope. Yeah. It's hard for me as an entrepreneur to enjoy for more than two or three days, but it was cool to be able to do that.

Alex: I'm always working a little bit. I always bring my laptop, and I wake up earlier than everybody else. I'm just banging out work and, you know, hearing you.

Steve: What I was doing. They're like, what's wrong with you? Like, I don't I don't know. I just can't disconnect.

Alex: Yeah. We went to The Maldives for our honeymoon, and my wife's like, you can't bring your laptop. I'm like, I'm obviously bringing my laptop. Like, you get ready. I'll I'll do work.

Steve: You're good. What is your biggest struggle right now?

Alex: The big struggle is, like, trying to find, like, higher always, like, better team members. You know, looking to, grow, especially in the self storage business, like, people who have maybe experience in self storage, growing the team there, and not having to so it's just finding good good people.

Steve: Yeah.

Alex: I think it's tough.

Steve: What are you doing about that?

Alex: I'm putting out ads. I'm talking to people in masterminds and get referrals. I get some referrals from, I guess, like, storage company just let off a bunch of people. I got some referrals there. Missed some people by, like, like, a day, a week on some opportunities.

They got hired quickly. So just continuing to go out there, talk about it, talk about what we're doing, and, just trying to gauge interest and show what we're doing and putting that out there and hopefully attract some some people.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, that's the hardest thing consistently. Right? Because we're saying earlier, like, the hardest thing is is controlling, managing people, but the other thing too is, like, finding the good ones.

Alex: Yeah.

Steve: It's just because generally speaking, the good ones are taken.

Alex: Yeah. Right? That I poached almost.

Steve: You got oh, you not almost. Like, you absolutely have to poach, and that's the that's that's the hardest thing. How do you stay motivated?

Alex: Well, so go back real quick on that. Like, I just was at, like, a local meetup and someone was talking about, like, hey. Like, this guy works for self storage. I think he would be good for you. Like, you know, he knows you.

He follows you. Like and some of these guys been with certain companies for for a long time, and they don't even get equity. I'd be like, I would bring someone over who has a lot of experience and give them a piece of equity. If you're out there, you know, let me know. But Yeah.

That that's what you gotta do. You gotta poach.

Steve: Yeah. I mean, for us, you know, we like to have people participate in upside, so it's profit share.

Alex: Yep.

Steve: So, yeah, I I think that's brilliant. That's the best way to get the best people. Yes. How do you stay motivated?

Alex: Family. I think, you know, looking at my family and my daughter and showing, like, what we, want and what we'd be able to travel and do everything we wanna do. Like, I think I think you don't I I don't really feel like I need motivation. Like, I wake up and I'm like, I'm ready to grind. I'm, like, kinda like you, like, two or three days, you're like, okay.

Well, I'll do something. Like, you know, so, like, I'm I'm very, self driven. And so I stay pretty motivated. I wanna, like, be successful. I wanna, be the best.

I try to be the best at everything I do. And so, I think family would probably be the biggest impact to to motivate me, the why.

Steve: Yeah. And how will you measure success?

Alex: I think I'm successful right now. I think, we've we're very successful, but there's always more, and there's always better things you can do and Mhmm. To be able to, you know, give back more, to be able to, hire, you you know, 200 people to 300 people to be able to, you know, provide more jobs, more opportunities, not only for our staff, but for our family and friends and and pour into other people. I think, not only us being successful, but being having others be successful who work under us, alongside us, investors, employees, everybody to success.

Steve: What is your superpower?

Alex: I think, my superpower is, like, speed of implementation. Like, getting a good idea and implementing it right away. So, like, you know, I'm at masterminds where I pick up that one thing. Like, I'm, like, on it. Like, yo, Scott just heard this.

Let's hey. You have to go do this. Let's do this, implement this. Like, putting those things into action right away.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: When something, like, hits really good for us, like, I'm like, oh, we gotta do this. And, like, I don't let anything stop. I'm, like, literally taking action right then and there Mhmm. To to make sure we implement whatever I just heard that was, like, that key thing that could help us.

Steve: How do you know it's the right one to implement?

Alex: You never know. Like, we've we've, done some things where, like, hey. Let's do this. And it's like, that didn't pan out so well or that didn't work out. But, obviously, you just gotta recalibrate Mhmm.

And, you know, talk to mentors and people you can you know, who are in your corner and say, hey. Like, we're trying to do this. Like, what do you you know, didn't really work out. What do you think? And it's like, oh, well, maybe for you, that's not the the the best thing to do.

Like, look at look at something else. And so it's just learning. It's always learning. You're gonna have some fail failure, but you're always gonna fail forward.

Steve: Absolutely. Yeah. Because I'm just curious. Like, you go to these masterminds, you hear all these great ideas. And what happens is, like, you got, like, 18 great ideas.

Alex: Yeah.

Steve: So are you picking one and only one? For

Alex: sure. One, two things, max, because because there's definitely a lot a lot of stuff going on. And so sometimes when you have those one or two things, like, I might separate I might, like, kinda, like, block off everything and kinda just focus on networking and building relationships rather than trying to, like, dive into, like, learning more, taking a lot more in. Mhmm. So I think building relationships in those masterminds is is very key in in taking that opportunity.

Steve: Got it. What is your biggest reg regret in business?

Alex: I think my biggest regret is not, I've I've talked about this a lot is, on my social media is those three years of me and my brother doing, you know, five deals a month. Mhmm. I wish I was went bigger earlier. I wish I got myself back into those rooms earlier, so that way, I could be where I am now three years ago, and then who knows where I've been now?

Steve: The same exact answer to Strat. I think you're just copying and pasting here.

Alex: Oh, yeah.

Steve: Are you also Mark Evans?

Alex: No. Not not not not not Mark. Because I

Steve: think that's the one that's, like I think that's the biggest one of Mark Evans. Like, you gotta think bigger.

Alex: Yeah.

Steve: Yeah. So I guess, ask another way is, you know, you work with the guy for three years, you're loyal, and then you do wholesaling for three years. Do you think you look back, could you have started self storage earlier, or that was just that track you had to take?

Alex: I could've started earlier. So in 2017 is actually when I first got, Scott Myers education stuff to learn self storage, but I never implemented it because I felt like I needed that income coming. And I didn't I wanted to go all in. Right. And so I didn't feel like I could go happen because at that point, I had no team.

It was me and my brother, and I was going on appointments. So if I started doing self storage or how am I gonna pay my bills, how am I gonna live? You know? So, that was, like, my, I wish I should have been better at saving money at that point in time and not just, like, spending it all every time I came in spending it. And if I was in a different position with capital, I think I probably coulda went self storage earlier and then obviously been way more ahead.

Steve: Got it. How did you learn your greatest lesson?

Alex: Greatest lesson. Greatest lesson. So I think just so being my greatest lesson being, I should've went bigger, faster, you know, that I would say just by doing where I'm where I'm at now and saying, damn, it was not that hard. You know? So by implementing what I learned and what I see other people doing, I can say, like, wow.

Like, I should've done this a lot earlier, and it's only now makes more sense to continue to go bigger and bigger. Like, you seek bigger opportunities.

Steve: Right. So, you know, you're already doing some pretty big things. So if we're talking about bigger opportunities, what are we talking about here? We're talking about now a 100,000 square foot self storage sites, or we're talking about different asset classes? What does that mean?

Alex: So same asset class, but just doing more and going after bigger ones. So, like, a lot of the ones we bought before were, like, 15,000 to, like, 25,000 square feet.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: We just closed our biggest one in, May. That was outside of Houston. That's 80,000 square feet on seven acres. Got about 200 parking spots. That was also seller financing.

Like, so going after those bigger assets and then just doing more of them. We're building that one in Tallahassee I mentioned. That's gonna be, 80,000 net rentable square feet as well. So doing the bigger deals because they're roughly the same, it's just different, like, a zero at the end of it. Right.

But the process is the same. The the leg works the same, essentially, and just really focusing on and putting you know, manifesting and and putting into my goals the acquisition of bigger assets and just trying to do more of them.

Steve: Gotcha. Which failure did you learn the most from?

Alex: I probably learned some failures from, like, hiring. You know? The first couple hires were awful. Like, bad assistance.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: Just didn't go anywhere. I'd hire assistant, but still do everything and, like you know? So just really, I think with, there's these other guys similar to predictive index team architects, like, utilizing those, systems and those, personality tests to hire the right people and put them in the right seats, I think, was, like, a big change for us because I would literally hire whoever and then a family member or this. You know, my brother is probably the only family member that worked out. You know, everything else is kinda like, So just hiring is probably the best the the that one part.

Steve: What resource helped you get better at hiring?

Alex: What re so both those two. So team architects. So, in boardroom mastermind I'm in, there's a company, it's called team architects. Very similar to, like, predictive index Mhmm. Where you can but they have, like, avatars.

So, like, they have, like, acquisition avatar where they take this test, and it lets you know if they're, fit that avatar. And so it's probably similar to predictive index. We just started utilizing predictive index ourselves. But team architects is probably the the thing that really got me started with hiring the right people.

Steve: Yeah. I was on call yesterday with a mentee, and he he also has other people that were, he he mentors. Right? And so he's like, hey. You know, someone asked me, like, should I get predictive index?

Like, I don't know. Like, depends on the situation. Like, tell me about the situation. And he said, you know, a couple of guys are doing this, like, crazy numbers. Like, oh, yeah.

They should definitely have predictive index. Right? There's other people, like, yeah. You're hiring, like, a first and second person. You don't need predictive index.

Right? It's nice to have, but you don't need it. Right? But, yeah, at at the end of it, I was basically saying, like, I would never hire another person ever again if I didn't have predictive index because it's so Wow. Key in letting me know what I'm about to get into, what this relationship is gonna look like.

Alex: Oh.

Steve: Not exactly, but we have a pretty good idea. Right?

Alex: Yeah. So on the team architects one, like, this guy had a lot of time share experience.

Steve: Mhmm.

Alex: He scored terrible on this test saying he was gonna be good what's a good sales acquisition guy. And he we're like, man. Like, let's give him a try. You know? We're like, he's got experience.

He's saying all the right things. We put him in there, and it was, like, right away, you knew, like, after a week, two weeks of training, we're like, this is not a fit. Like, we should have listened to the to the test. You know? And so it it they work.

It works. You know? So you gotta those right tools that put people in the right seats, definitely gotta utilize.

Steve: Yeah. That's absolutely key. What book have you gifted more than any other?

Alex: Think and Grow Rich, I think, is the book that I've actually given, probably the only book I've actually given to people.

Steve: What kind of feedback do you get from them?

Alex: Unfortunately, some of them were giving it to friends. I'm trying to, like, bring up, and, honestly, I don't even know if that they read it. Yeah. I think my brother's, probably, you know, implemented it, but it's it's some of the people don't think don't get it, you know, unfortunately.

Steve: When I bring that up because I've had like, that's one of the books that I, like, I love. Yeah. I love this book. And there are people that are like, don't. And it's like Yeah.

And they don't finish it. Yeah. And it's like, the one of the biggest lessons in the book is whether you can finish something. Yeah. So I was like, okay.

So you can't finish a book whose lesson is about finishing things. Yeah. Right? And so, that and that again, that's the reason why I asked the question because, like, I've suggested it, and they're like, that's a tough read into which I was like, oh, that sucks for you.

Alex: Yeah. Man, I could put it down. It was great. Yeah. Yeah.

I love it. And I was like, I literally, in my past and put a thing about, like, buying all those books and, like, giving it to schools. Mhmm. Like, that's, like, something I would wanna do in the future because it's such a like, it just opens your mind to, like, what's really possible.

Steve: Exactly. So I want you to think about some last thoughts I wanna leave the listeners with. Guys, you know, as we said, we just we just launched our sales community. You know, a lot of different people will push things that will help you do more deals, and I think that's great. At the same time, we believe that sales is more crucial today than ever before.

And the reason why is not as many people push sales training, I believe, is because it's harder to teach, and it's easier to just sell your product. Again, I genuinely believe that if you can learn sales skills, you will make a lot more money faster. You were in timeshare. Would you agree with this? 1000%.

Right. Oh. So salesdisruptors.com, If you're interested, we've got a community. We have about a 100 people in there now. Sales assassins across the country.

We're doing two or three trainings a week. You guys should be in there. And, also, you have access to my sales master class, which we normally charge $3,000, for. And then, you know, subscribe. Don't keep us a secret.

Alex and I talked about some wide range of topics. But I think topics that would be helpful for a good chunky guys, whether you're doing self storage or not. I think there's a lot of good information here that might be helpful. Help us reach more people, and then make sure you tune in next week. We got Chris Burrow coming on the show.

So last thoughts. What would you like to leave all the listeners with?

Alex: I think it's my superpower, and you can implement it in your life, is speed of implementation. Mhmm. Like, someone talks to you about real estate, you get you're interested in it. Like, take action. Start start doing the actions that it takes to be successful.

Start talking to people. Start making offers. There's so many people. I think number one thing I I hear from people is I can't get my deal. And when you ask them what they're actually doing, they're barely doing anything.

Steve: Right.

Alex: And it's like, you know, if you're about it, like, mindset's definitely key. I think you have to start reading some books and start, knowing how to have a great mindset because you're gonna get told no a lot more than you're gonna get told yes. Mhmm.

Steve: You

Alex: have to have a positive mindset, but you have to take massive action. And so the quicker you can take action, the better. And so it's all about speed of implementation. Once you have the idea, you listen to this, you're into storage that strikes something in you, take action. Start warning about it.

Start making offers. Start building a list, and just do it. You gotta go all in.

Steve: You just gotta go. If someone wants to get ahold of you, what's the best way for them to reach you?

Alex: My Instagram's probably, a great place to go to see what we're doing and also get a hold of us. It's, at Alex dot the investor dot Quesada, q u e z a d a. If they're interested in investing in self storage deals with alongside with us, our website's, Vault Ventures, like a bankvaultventures.net/investorclub. And you could go out there and get the future opportunities that we're putting out there, and we got a lot of things in the pipeline. And so

Steve: Well, Ventures, I like it a lot.

Alex: Yeah. Thank Thank you so much. Thank you.

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

Alex: Shout out to Steve train. Jump on the Steve train. We real estate disrupt us.