Mario Ayala's Real Estate Rise, Home Building Leap, and Lessons on Turning Competition Into Lasting Success

Summary

Podcast Summary: Problems to Profit with Preston Brown

Episode: Mario Ayala's Real Estate Rise, Home Building Leap, and Lessons on Turning Competition Into Lasting Success
Date: August 21, 2025
Host: Preston Brown
Guest: Mario Ayala

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Episode Overview

This episode tells the raw and riveting story of Mario Ayala’s journey from humble beginnings in El Paso to becoming a major player in the real estate and homebuilding scene—narrated with humor, candor, and deep lessons by Mario and host Preston Brown. The two recount their evolution from fierce competitors and legal adversaries to trusted collaborators and friends, exploring the dynamics of real-world business rivalry, mentorship, resilience, and how parenting and personal growth can transform even the most fractured relationships. The episode is packed with practical insights for entrepreneurs, real estate professionals, and anyone facing tough professional relationships or transitions.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Building from the Ground Up: Mario's Early Career

• Mario’s journey starts with humble “chicken guy” jobs and call center gigs in El Paso, where he cut his teeth in sales ([04:11]-[05:56]).
• He describes Saratoga Homes’ “boot camp” training as a foundation for toughening up:

  "If you’re new to that type of environment...they drop something like that on you...they’re blunt with you." – Mario Ayala ([06:32])

• Rapid rise: After being fired, Mario quickly earns his real estate license, assembles a tight team, and takes his first leap into the real estate world by founding the Mario Ayala Real Estate Group ([06:32]-[09:54]).

2. Mario and Preston: From Adversaries to Allies

• Preston and Mario recount their infamous “coup” attempts and legal battles, including signing aggressive non-compete agreements and a memorable $5 million lawsuit ([16:40]-[23:06]).
• Savage rivalry moments:
  • Mario's billboard that directly faced Preston’s office brings humor and pettiness to the business rivalry:

    “It was savage as fuck. But I really enjoyed that billboard.” – Preston Brown ([24:28])

• Rifts give way to “adversarial respect” and eventual friendship catalyzed by their sons’ friendship at school:

  “God put us in a position where we had to choose between our anger and being a good father.” – Preston Brown ([34:10]-[34:21])

3. Mutual Growth, Respect, and the Power of Reconciliation

• Both share candidly how parenting, maturing perspectives, and recognizing each other's skills turned them from rivals into collaborators:

  "All of a sudden, I'm giving you that respect that you deserved years before, and it's like, okay, well, can we look at each other as dudes instead of enemies?" – Preston Brown ([31:00])

• Personal stories illustrate how human connection (even forced by circumstance) rewires business relationships:

  “If I’m still cutthroat with Preston, then my son...is gonna feel it whenever...can I go to Everett’s house? Or can Everett come over?...So I knew that was sometime in the horizon.” – Mario Ayala ([33:30])

4. Real Estate Brokerage: Challenges, Evolution, and Advice

• Both dissect the slow decline of the brokerage business model:
  • The liability/profit gap for brokers, rise of fintech, lower barriers to entry, and declining value for agents.

  "[Residential brokers] gave away everything to the fintech companies. We gave away all of our data." – Preston Brown ([63:28])

  • NAR lawsuits and commission compression:

    "Since that time, we've seen the average resale commission go from around 3% to 2.5%. That's almost a sixth of the money that's disappeared in less than a year." – Preston Brown ([66:27]-[67:54])

• Mario’s advice for agents:

  “Stop spending money you don't have to impress people you don't know...invest it in some land, invest it in some acres, start some flips, keep some flips, buy a duplex...Go for the long term and you will get the reward down the line.” – Mario Ayala ([70:45])

5. Switching Gears: The Leap into Home Building

• Inspired (and challenged) by Preston, Mario describes the mindset and financial fundamentals behind his transition from brokerage to home building:

  “Brokerage…is a popularity contest…what I did care about was stacking homes. So I was just buying homes, flipping them, keeping some, working my lines of credit with the banks.” – Mario Ayala ([46:01])

• The nuts and bolts of Mario’s preparation for home building:
  • Investing in a design center before even building his first home
  • Importance of “dry powder” (free capital), strong industry relationships
  • Strategic plan development: “I need to develop plans that fit on every single one of [the top developer’s] standard lots.” ([49:46]-[50:47])
• Rapid scale: Moving from planning to having five homes under construction and 50 lots under contract ([45:25]-[51:10])
• Preston’s validation and encouragement for Mario’s trajectory ([51:10]-[53:04])

6. Growth, Giving Back, and Redefining Success

• Deep reflection on the shift from “fighting for the top” to working collaboratively and leaving a legacy, prompted by the evolution of their relationship and watching their children’s friendship.

  "If you become radically successful, that doesn't take anything away from me...I'd rather you be a winner in the market...Friends, respect, competition..." – Preston Brown ([55:24]-[60:23])

• Preston’s philosophy on giving back and helping former rivals:

  “When you get to financial success and you start saying, well, I have everything I want. What now? ... Having a lot of money is nice, but now I'm going to live on how much can I give?” – Preston Brown ([55:24])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Burned Bridges and Rivalry:

  “You got to at least leave, you know, that little rope strand bridge or something to climb across that you can rebuild. To be able to completely burn a bridge, that’s foolery.” – Preston Brown ([03:11])

• On Aggressive Real Estate Training:

  “Once you jump in there it’s like…don’t let that be your excuse next time. And everybody from that day on was like, okay, that’s the tempo here.” – Mario Ayala ([06:32])

• On Three-Week Real Estate License:

  “Nowadays, when I hear people, 'Oh, I've been getting [my license] for the last seven, eight, nine months.' And I'm like, why? It took me three weeks.” – Mario Ayala ([06:32])

• On Market Disruption:

  “None of them understood marketing…if you love builders, it's easier to be the builder than it is to make a builder successful.” – Preston Brown ([34:49]-[36:55])

• On True Collaboration:

  “The person you hate or think you hate now might be somebody that you’re friends with later…that’s a problem to profit that I’ve personally gotten to live.” – Preston Brown ([53:04])

• On Brokerage Survival:

  “If you’re not doing two to three closings a month, this isn’t your passion. Get out.” – Preston Brown ([73:04])

• On Building Ambition:

  “Nothing is too hard. And once I set my mind to it, it's happening. And now the sky is the limit.” – Mario Ayala ([74:07])

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Timestamps of Important Segments

• [04:11] – Mario’s early hustle: chicken guy, call centers, discovering sales
• [06:32] – “Boot camp” at Saratoga Homes and lessons in competitive environments
• [09:54] – Starting the Mario Ayala Real Estate Group
• [16:40]-[23:06] – The infamous coups, non-competes, lawsuits, and the legendary billboard
• [25:37]-[28:07] – The kids become friends, parents forced to talk, personal rifts heal
• [34:10]-[34:21] – Parenthood as the catalyst for reconciliation
• [46:01]-[51:10] – Mario’s switch from brokerage to builder, new business plan, and “dry powder”
• [62:23]-[68:17] – Deep dive: brokerage model decline, fintech threats, agent advice
• [70:45] – Mario’s advice to agents: invest for the long term, avoid the glam
• [74:07] – Mario’s mindset for success as a builder

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Where to Find Mario

• Instagram/Facebook: MRG Homes, MRG Realty, MRG Properties

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Takeaways for Listeners

• Never Burn Bridges Fully: Relationships can rebound in seemingly impossible ways. Genuine respect often stems from rivalry.
• Real Estate is Evolving: The ground is rapidly shifting under traditional brokers and agents—invest in skills and assets, not just appearances.
• Mindset Matters: “Nothing is too hard” when you prepare, build relationships, and adapt.
• Collaboration is the New Win: Sometimes your competitor can become your biggest ally—and the enemy of today might be a key to future profit.

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For more stories, strategies, and unscripted wisdom from top entrepreneurs, subscribe to Problems to Profit with Preston Brown.

Transcript

[A]

Are you tired of complicated business advice that rarely delivers any real results? I'm Preston Brown and I've built a nine figure portfolio by following simple business formulas that anyone can use. In my new book, you, First Million Made Easy, I reveal the exact system that I've used to generate hundreds of millions in revenue. And it's frankly a system that works in any industry, with any business and yes, in any market. The good news, it's not about hustle, it's about. It's not about running or working or struggling and what it is about creating money instead of just earning it. Because earning money is slavery while creating is freedom. It's about stopping the cycle of managing by crisis and building a business that doesn't depend on you. Transforming your business from a high paying job to an asset that generates money even when you're not there. Whether you're a startup or an established company, this formula will transform your business into a profit driven machine that gives you the time and freedom to focus on what truly matters. Grab your first million Made Easy now and let's start the journey of financial freedom together. I look forward to being a part of your story.

[B]

Welcome back to Problems to Profit. I am so excited for this episode, guys. I cannot tell you we're in for a fun story. I have someone on the show today who I can now call a friend. But I think we've been through the gambit, right? We've had lots of different relationships. I had the opportunity to work against him when we first got to know each other because we were selling against each other. And then he came on and worked with my company and effectively I got to mentor him. And then we started working close together with other clients and we had a very competitive relationship when he wanted the client for himself and, and actually was able to leverage that and open his own company and grow and become a major competitor. I think we went through legal troubles together, we went through fights together later, funny enough, our kids went to the same school and we had to see each other every day. It was so weird. It was so uncomfortable, so awkward. And then, and then turns out after that, we start having coffee, I go on his podcast, we become friends, we start talking about the market, our kids are hanging out. And so from like the Full Gambit, I mean, I'm glad there's some relationships we haven't had. I mean, you know, we've avoided the dating side. You don't look like a very good kisser, but we've been through pretty much everything else.

[C]

Pretty much, yeah.

[B]

May I welcome Mario Ayala to Problems to Profit. Welcome, Mario. I'm glad to have you on the show, bro.

[C]

Thanks for having me, Preston. I appreciate it, man. You know, I've been seeing how you've been ranking on the, you know, the Apple podcast and how this has just been, you know, exploding. So I'm really, really happy that I get to, to hang out with you. And I know that we talk, you know, often, but, but doing it in a setting like this is a little bit different. And then today's idea of, you know, a lot of people have asked me, or there's still people that are even new to the industry that don't even know what happened, and people still ask me, or how are you? How would you talk to Preston now after what actually happened and stuff like that? So we're like, let's, let's talk about it and let's, you know, let's have fun with it. So thanks. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

[B]

Problems to Profit, right? Like, you don't ever burn a bridge completely. You got to at least leave, you know, that little rope strand bridge or something to climb across that you can rebuild. To be able to completely burn a bridge, that's foolery. Like, but there's nothing wrong with little warfare, I think, going from, like, enemies to friends. That friendship, you're going to have a level of respect for one another that you wouldn't have had if you hadn't been in a competition prior to it. You know, like, respect is key. So, you know, with Problems, Profit. With the show, we like to, we like to go through a little bit of your story. We like to hear some of the problems, the struggles, you know, in your situation. I get to be one of those struggles, I think, which is cool and fun, but, but I want to hear, like, how you came up from, like, birth to now. How did you go from, like, Little Mario to the success story you are today? Cuz, you know, I, you're, you're, you're one of the new builders in town. You're launching into a home building business while other builders are struggling and shrinking and suffering. We could talk about that too. You're, you're spiraling up.

[C]

Yeah. So, I mean, the, the, the Little Mario here, I'm just a, a kid from Socorro, Texas. I was born and raised here in El Paso. You know, I went, graduated from Socorro high school in 2006, and I knew I just had a, A, a thing for, for sales. I've always liked sales. So my very first job was Selling rotisserie chickens at Sam's. Very, very first job. I was 19, and that was my first job. I was the chicken guy at Sam's. And I remember I used to say the butchers there would show me their checks, and it was 900 bucks every two weeks.

[B]

So did you know Steve's lava chicken from the Minecraft movie just hit top of the charts?

[C]

Yeah, I get to play it every day on my way to school with the kids.

[B]

I love that you were the chicken guy.

[C]

Every single day. So I was the chicken guy. It was my very first job. And then from there, it was just call centers. I worked at every call center in El Paso. I know all the scripts from every single call center. And I sold everything from Internet, cell phones, Dish Network, basically the car wash is what I like to call it, of all the call centers here in El Paso. And then from there, I started. And people are going to say this is a cliche, but I started the cell phone business, started selling cell phones, and right before that, right after cell phones, I. I started at Saratoga homes back in 2015. So I started Saratoga Homes 2015, which a lot of people say it's. It's really good training. And. And that's where I started, actually, you know, focusing on the real estate side.

[B]

They're aggressive training, too. I mean, you, you, you. That's like. I mean, I never did the Saratoga thing, but a lot of the guys that have come have been very successful, did the Saratoga thing. And it's. It's sort of like the boot camp. They're. They're not always nice to you if you're gentle or soft or you show up 10 minutes late. Talk a little bit about that because I want to hear about some of the boot camp. I think it's valuable that they've built a significant amount of the success in our industry, even though there's a significant amount of haters that will talk about them as a result of how aggressive they can be, share a little bit about that, because that's kind of a fun story in itself, I bet.

[C]

Exactly. I mean, like you said, it doesn't get much more aggressive than that. It's 7am meetings for someone that's in the real estate industry. I remember we were in training one day, and a guy was like, I don't know, 30, 45 minutes late. And his excuse was, oh, I was coming from the west side. And the question was, is this the first time you've ever driven from the west side? And everybody was just like. And of course, if you're new to that type of environment and they drop something like that on you or they're blunt with you, because everybody's used to fluffing everything. And, you know, I like to call it pussy footing around. And they don't hit you with the truth. But once you jump in there and it's like, are you. Is this the first time you've ever driven from the west side? No. Then don't let that be your excuse next time. And it's like, oh, you're setting the tempo, you know? And everybody from that day on was like, okay, that's the temple here, you know, which was very different to what I was used to. And it was just two different worlds, and I loved it, and some people hated it, and they wouldn't make it through the first week of training, and other people get to catapult into. Into other ventures, you know. So that was. That was my. My stint at. At Saratoga Homes. I was there for about two years. And then it was January of 2016, the very first day that we came back from. From our, you know, the Christmas and New Year break. And it was like, hey, come into an office. I was like, okay, what's up? I'll stupid. And hey, you're fired. So Happy New Year. So I was like, okay, thanks. And so that was the very first day that we came back. And by. It was. I think it was Valentine's Day, I had already gotten my. My real estate license, so it took me about three to four weeks to get my real estate license. So nowadays, when I hear people, oh, I've been getting it for the last seven, eight, nine months. And I'm like, why? It took me three weeks, and I guess I had a newborn kid at home. And at the time, she wasn't my wife yet, but a wife at home that I had to feed and bill. So I had to. We had to do it. And it was myself, J.C. who's still in real estate, very successful. Hector, who is still in real estate. And we. We just got together, all three of us, and we were just like, hey, let's get our license. And they're like, okay. And. And then they're like, what are we going to call this? And I had an idea. I was like, let's call it the Mario Yala Real estate group. And they're like, okay. So they followed me, and we all got our licenses together.

[B]

So you just took the lead right from there?

[C]

Yes, yes, pretty much. And. And they. We got our licenses kind of at the same time. I was the first one to test. And then Hector and then JC and we didn't necessarily pass it all in that order, but Hector was the first one to pass it. And then we were sitting. We started with another brokerage who. Who we thought was going to be the future. And then two weeks later, I think it was like two weeks into the. Into the gig, you were still in the recruiting round of your, of your, you know, career, and you walked into one of the model homes.

[B]

You guys were only there two weeks?

[C]

Yeah, yeah, we were only there for two weeks.

[B]

Oh, that's funny.

[C]

You walked into the. One of the model homes and you spoke to Hector and J.C. i wasn't there. And they're like, hey, this guy named Preston, he came by, he offered us. He offered us, you know, to go to KB Realty at the time, and they have all these programs and this and that. And I was like, all right, let me. Can. Can you talk to Preston? I was like, yeah, I'll talk to Preston. And that's when, you know, you and I had a conversation. And. And then we just. We came over to. To KB Realty at the time, and that's kind of how we got our start in real estate. So. So we weren't even long enough at the. At the other. At the other company to. To even make an impact or anything.

[B]

You know what? That's funny because the guys, I. I mean, I remember meeting them. I think I met them at a model home. They were sitting a model home, and. And they didn't know I was. They didn't know I was in the brokerage business. They were good salesmen. Like, I played along with them for a few minutes just as a buyer, and that's the only reason I talked to them. Like, I mean, I. I don't know. In those days, I probably would have talked to them either way at some point, but, like, they were doing such a good job of selling me. Like, I actually remember that. So I assumed that they had. That you guys had been in real estate maybe for a year or two.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So that's cool.

[C]

Yeah, it had been about two weeks, and then we started here. And then, you know, as you. When you opened, you were talking about how there was the. The. The mutual client that. That we were working with. Right.

[B]

You can say who it is.

[C]

I mean, it was Point Homes, Carlos Villavos. And the first. What was it? I was the. The listing agent for Point Homes by April. So, yeah, I got my license in. In February. We met middle of February. And then the. The position Opened up for. For listing agent for Point Homes. And it was myself. It was a gentleman by the name of Sergio Savala and another young lady. I don't recall her name, but it was three of us gunning for the position. And in the end, I was the one that got that. That position for. For Point Homes. And I became the list. One of the listing agents at the time, it was like seven or eight of us.

[B]

I remember the process. I don't remember all the details. So this is kind of a fun history refresh for me. I like it. Keep going.

[C]

Yeah. No, and then what happened? I mean, we were with Point Homes, you know, up until. Well, myself, I was. I was with Point Homes up until last year in, you know, 2024.

[B]

You're skipping over the good parts.

[C]

I know the good parts. We'll get to the good parts. I mean, what. Throughout that process, there was a lot of give and take, and there was always that. That. I don't want to say it, you know, adversarial, but. But there was always, like, you. You would show. You would tell me, like, hey, I'm here. You're here. And I remember one day you. You. There was a meeting and you came in, you're like, out of all you. You're the. I'm the only one that sold a billion dollars worth of real estate. That's why I can tell you what the.

[B]

To do.

[C]

I was like, all right, I get it. You know, and. And little by little, we kept, you know, that. That back and forth. And then you had a CEO at the time, which I wasn't too, you know, happy with.

[B]

Who was that?

[C]

Renee Botello. Okay. I. I was not necessarily with him personally, but just with the structure. So I was like, ah, this structure isn't for me. You know, and that's when I. I went to a Tom Ferry event.

[B]

I went through a bunch of CEOs.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, to be fair, I. I was the dumbass that I didn't realize that. Now I'm very harsh on entrepreneurs that hire the CEO and they only have 10 or 15 employees. I'm very harsh on them because I'm like, do you realize that CEO, the acronym is Chief Executive Officer, and you're bringing them on before you have. I didn't have any other executives, but I had a CEO. It made no sense. So I now pick on the people that made the same dumb mistake that I made. But I had to go through that. I went through lots of CEOs. That's why I asked. I mean, it's Just. And they all had, like, their own way of running things, and they all had their own idea on what needed to happen. And I think I was just running in too many directions, so I allowed it. But what specifically were you not happy with in that particular time? Because I remember we had a fight that even went to legal battle. Like, I started getting.

[C]

That's a little further down the line.

[B]

Oh, okay.

[C]

Continue.

[B]

Continue. Yeah, go with the story. This is awesome.

[C]

I just. I didn't. I saw. I saw my potential. And. And this isn't a knock on. On their potential or on their. Their whatever it is that any of the other people that have been, you know, along the way, but I saw what. What I was doing. And at the time, I think you weren't seeing my potential. And it was probably because we were never friends, if you will. We were. We always knew what it was, and you always knew that. That in some way I was coming after it. And. And. And we never played the friend game. We played the I'm your broker, and I'm the. The top dog guy. And. And you are the listing agent. You know, or at least that's. That's what I saw at the time, by the way.

[B]

The friend game never worked out for me.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So none of my friends that I ever did work with wound up being success stories in my business, which is interesting. Cause I think we wound up in a different way there, but we had to go through maybe some of the wrong channels to get there. That's interesting. It's probably a good lesson in that, which is why I bring it up.

[C]

Yeah. So at the time, I was just like, you know what? This. I'm just gonna move on to. I'm gonna move on to something else. I'm gonna go create a resale team. And then I had the meeting of a lifetime with a gentleman from California who was trying to start a group here in El Paso. And he convinced me, and he's like, yeah, let's go, and let's run with this.

[B]

Who is that?

[C]

David Acosta.

[B]

Okay, well, he was a big deal a few years before that. And then he left to California.

[C]

Yeah, he left to California.

[B]

Maybe he was still a big deal in California, but he had a lot of the builders in El Paso. And then he kind of left California and that fizzled out. But, I mean, he was doing, I mean, I think 60, 70 million back before real estate values went nuts.

[C]

Exactly. Yeah.

[B]

So as an agent.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Like, he was doing more than some of the brokerages. A lot of the brokerages Yep.

[C]

This is going to be a great. A great thing for us. Let's start a resale team. So I was like, yeah, let's do it. Let's do it. And that's when I gave my notice to both you and the builder at the time. And then it was like, oh, well, what if we go after the builder? And I was like, well, so Pinchy.

[B]

David was involved in your little coup.

[C]

And going back to the other.

[B]

Oh, that's awesome. I call it a coup, but, like, we'll go both sides of the story.

[C]

Because it's fun once you go back. There was a previous one. I don't know if you remember that one. And it was myself, Victor Alonso, Denise Torres, and Joel Anaya.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

And we all decided. We met with Carlos, but in that meeting, and this is the first time I'm saying this publicly, and they're probably going to be like, are you. In that meeting, I realized, like, everybody was pitching for point. Everybody's gunning for. For the. For the position. But I realized that there was too much division. Like, Victor wanted to pull it that way. Denise this way, Joel this way. And I was like the newest one out of all of them. Victor at the time was the top dog. Right. And. And it was like, not, well, we'll bring it over here. And I saw Carlos, his face, and he was like, you guys don't know what the you're doing.

[B]

So there was not unity.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

So you guys were pitching a division away from me without unity with one another.

[C]

Exactly. Yeah.

[B]

And your numbers actually showed better, if I remember correctly, than anyone.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Because during. During that coup, I was going to fire you, and I couldn't because Carlos wouldn't let me, which, I mean, I think was a discredit to him, because if you force someone to keep someone that's against you within your own house, a house divided will fall. But, you know, and it was a discredit to me for putting up with that. I should have said, then give it to him. Like, so discredit him. Discredit to me. Fail on both of our parts, but problems to profit. Right. That's how you learn. So keep going.

[C]

And that was the. That was the biggest. The big issue that there. There was always that big issue between you and I and Carlos. It was like, well, well, if Mario's doing so good, why don't you give it to him? You. I would hear you. And. And it was like. And Carlos at the time, you know, he was also one of my mentors, and he was like, I think he thought it wasn't his my time yet, so he, he would always like, all right, let's calm it down. Let's bring it back. All right? We're not going anywhere. And but that day of the coup, and this was the funniest thing I see all the division, and I'm the last one to talk, and. And I was like, no, you know what? I'm happy where I'm at. I just want to make a little bit more money. And everybody looked at me like, you, mother. And I was like, yeah. And then as soon as Carlos walked out, Victor said, that is going to go tell on us. And the next day, it was when you showed up to the office, and you're like, everyone fired except Mario. And I was like, right. So Denise fired Victor, went to Trinity, I think.

[B]

And you didn't tell me?

[C]

What?

[B]

You didn't tell me?

[C]

No, no, I didn't.

[B]

And Carlos didn't tell me. No, no, no. Another little bird, I think it was one of his office staff called me and let me know what was going on.

[C]

Really, bro?

[B]

I mean, like, I, I, I, I had little spies everywhere.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And I had a different relationship with Carlos at that time. I wasn't just the broker. Like, when, when he was frustrated or I would loan him money to put lot down payments. Like, there was a deeper relationship than I think a lot of the people understood about what I was doing with him. And then I had really good relationships throughout the staff. So anybody that saw that meeting, I mean, this is the thing in real estate and anything, and, you know, this, like, relationships matter. Like, and sometimes the smallest relationship, the clerical staff will change the nature of a situation because they'll give somebody that has influence and power. Carlos was interested, or he wouldn't have had the meeting.

[C]

Yeah, exactly.

[B]

I called Carlos and was like, hey, did this happen? He was like, how'd you find out? Yeah, I was like, why'd you take the meeting?

[C]

Okay.

[B]

You know what I mean? Like that. That was the call. How fun.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. So Victor was like, he's going to tell on us. And I was like, maybe. And then by the next day, everything had already unveiled, and. And you were just ready to fire everyone except myself. You didn't fire me. And then you hired Hector, which was one of the guys that came up with me. You hired Hector back. And then it was myself and Hector running it for a while, and then we started doing some other stuff, and then.

[B]

So that was coup one.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

And I also made everybody sign a document kind of A non compete, real aggressive document. But behind the scenes, what people don't know, Carlos and I and a few other buyers in a group had been negotiating to buy Zia Homes.

[C]

Yeah. So.

[B]

And we'd been there for like, two, three years working on it. So immediately after that, I cut everyone else out and went hard on the negotiations with only me.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

The fact that Carlos had the meeting with you guys without telling me beforehand, I was like, nope, you know what? I'm the buyer. Only me. And so that. That started a new process which was working in tandem as well. Like it was anyway.

[C]

Exactly. So, I mean, there's all these storylines going on at the same time, and. And now looking back at it, you know, it's something that happened what was in 2017 and 2018. So about six years, seven years ago now. Yeah. And then. And then that's when. When we had our big fallout when. When I decided to go with the. The. The second coup, if you will. And. And that's when, you know, we. We decided to gun for Point Homes.

[B]

And.

[C]

And it was like, hey, let's have a meeting with Carlos. And I was like, why? Like what? I. I left there to go do resale, but then I started realizing, well, maybe. Maybe this resale team is not, you know, like, it's not really what. What was pitched or promised, you know, and that's when I was like, well, let's. Let's gun for a meeting with Carlos. So I set up that meeting and. And, you know, it all worked out with. With myself and Carlos, but on the back end, I get hit. And at the time, you know, you're. I'm. I'm a real estate agent trying to sell some houses and stuff. And I. I didn't understand different games, and I get hit with a $5 million lawsuit from. From your lawyer. And it was like. And it went back to that. That document that you were talking about, the aggressive.

[B]

I mean, I think we only had rights to like, 50 grand on the document. I don't remember what the lawyer wrote, but I'm sure it was something scary.

[C]

Yeah. Five million dollar lawsuit. And I was like, where the am I gonna get $5 million from right now? Yeah. Like, even I started looking to see who wanted to buy a kidney or something. And then. Yes, we ended up settling that afterwards. And. And for the longest time, it was like Preston and Mario and. And I'm sure, I mean, I put a billboard outside that window.

[B]

I remember I took pictures of it.

[C]

I loved it. Yes. So that was the type of competition There was, you know, oh, bro.

[B]

And like, any of our competing companies, like, we'd go do something, and you'. And then you'd go do something. In one of our companies would do something. Like, I think you had a property management company. And we did, too. So we'd, like, bid for, like, referrals. And it was. It was. It was fun. We. We were putting the fu. In fun.

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. So it was like, how much is Reliance referral? 750. I was like, do 751. And that's where our.

[B]

And then I'd go, like, a thousand.

[C]

Yeah. There was points where I was like, not a thousand, 2001. But yeah. I planted a billboard. The. The Clear Channel people called me. Hey, we want your business. This is that. I'm like, you'll get some of my business if you get me this billboard. I gave them the address, and there's a little number under the billboard. Like, if you get me that, I'll sign a contract. And they're like, yeah, we'll do it. And it's a big old picture of me standing like that with a point home shirt. I love it.

[B]

I loved it.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean. I mean, it was savage as. But I. I really enjoyed that billboard.

[C]

Yep. So. So that was the type of competitors that. That we were.

[B]

And by the way, when he's talking billboard, like, here's my office, like, right here, like, and right out front of my office is the billboard. And he put it to where it basically faced my office.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So if you're coming down the street looking left at my office, there's a big picture of his ugly mug on the billboard. I got my beautiful office and Mario's face. And it's like, I mean, just. People knew that there was this anger in the market that was. I mean, it was. It was.

[C]

I got. It was so many calls and screenshots and pictures from that. You're a sad. And at the time, it all felt right. At the time, it's like, yeah, we're going to. I'm going to. I'm going to fight until. I don't know until when. Right. And then slowly, it kind of like, you. You took off with Zia, and Zia started taking off, and I started taking off with the. With the Marig and Point Home site. So we started being kind of like, you know, we were enemies, but we stayed out of each other's way because, you know, you were in your space and I was in mine.

[B]

It wasn't worth the time that, like, the fight was more like, success made it something that. It was like, it's like, oh, I can go make money or I can go fight this guy.

[C]

Exactly. And then, you know, fast forward. Our sons. I mean, Mario's going to be 10 this week, and Everett's probably nine. Nine or 10. Right. Right around there. They're.

[B]

Yeah, they're similar. I think they're within a year. Like, Everett's turning nine, so they're same age, basically, like, within a year.

[C]

So they go to the same school and. Same thing. We'd bump into each other at school, and it was like, here's Preston. I would wait for you to get off, and then you would get off with the kids. And. And I think it would. It was the same on your side. And I was like, it's awkward. And then I would get home.

[B]

I was the type that would smile at you to make it more awkward. Right. Like, that was my style.

[C]

And then I would get home, and my son's like, oh, today I had so much fun with Everett. I was like, don't tell me it's Everett Brown. Yeah. How do you know, Daddy? I just know.

[B]

My son says, oh, yeah, and he calls him Mario. Mario. Mario is my best friend. I love Mario. He's my best friend. And I'm like, that's. My wife would be like, you know, like, you know, like, this is just God's challenge. Yeah, this is part of God's challenge. Life's not happening to you. It's happening for you. Like, your enemy and your sons are best friends, and you guys, like, glare at each other. And we would start. And it was funny because we would stand with our arms crossed and begrudgingly talk to each other when our kids were getting. We couldn't not, like, oh, you know, well, I'll be an enemy, but I also can't be a bad dad, you know? And our wives, I think, even didn't. Or at least my wife didn't like you because, of course I didn't like you.

[C]

Exactly.

[B]

And then one day, my wife tells the story to everybody. It's really funny. She sees you, the devil, walking up with your daughter Amaris, and she's in her little princess dress. I think she was Princess Peach for, like, Halloween or something. And. And there's. There's the devil, but he's no longer the devil. He's Teddy Bear. He's like, oh, Princess Peach. And just not knowing anyone was looking, not knowing my wife sitting there watching the devil, and she sees dad come out and just, like, loving on his daughter and Being a good dad. I don't think I was there. And she calls me and she's like, you know, he's a good guy. And I'm like, huh? What's going on? What the are you talking about? Tells me the story.

[C]

And that's another thing. Our daughters are super close friends in their classroom. It just ended up that way where if we had to go to, I don't know, a recital, it's like, oh, well, there's Preston and his wife. And here's me and my wife.

[B]

I think we were still a little competitive over who could donate more to the school so we could sit in front more.

[C]

Exactly. We were buying because we didn't want to sit next to each other. And then. And then one day, and you know, I will give you, you know, full credit for this. You were the one that you. You extended the olive branch. And you're like, hey, you want to go grab a coffee, bro? And it was. It was probably a year. I don't want to say to the date, but it was in April, around April. Ish. So it's what it was today, May 15th. So about a year ago was when you were like, you want to just go grab some coffee, bro? And. And it was like that. That kind of. I went from there's that guy and I want to avoid him to you wanna go grab a coffee? And I was like, sure. I was waiting for, I don't know, three guys to show up at the coffee shop and, you know, start beating me up with bats. I. I called my brother and I was like, hey, I'm gonna go have coffee with Preston. I'm gonna send you my location just in case, bro. Like, I don't know what the gonna happen.

[B]

I'm so glad my scrawny ass had that effect on someone.

[C]

Yeah. And I was like, well, I mean, the unknown, right?

[B]

Right. Yeah.

[C]

And it was like. And. And I've throughout this, by the way.

[B]

By the way, we should mention this guy could kill me with a napkin. Like, you're an ex MMA fighter?

[C]

Yeah, I used to do a little bit of mma, Muay Thai, you know, stuff like that. So.

[B]

And I want you to know, like, I'm well practiced in the martial art of falling down. So, I mean, it would have been a hell of a fight. Like, I would have hit the floor in the most epic of ways.

[C]

Yeah. So.

[B]

But I'm glad I had that effect.

[C]

Yeah. It was the unknown. So I'm telling you, I told my brother, I was like, hey, bro, like. And I'm gonna go have some coffee with Preston. I don't know exactly what's gonna happen, but in case I don't answer in about an hour, just call me and see what's up. I said, all right. And then. And, yeah, we had coffee, and it was very, how have you been, bro? What's the market doing? And how are you? And we just had a regular conversation. And it kind of took me back to the. The times where. Where.

[B]

Where. Before.

[C]

Before. Because even before, when. When we had our. Our fallout, it was very. I'm always the type that if I have something to learn from someone, no matter who it is, I'll. I'll listen, right? I'll sit down. I'll be like, oh, okay. Why? And. And I'm always a big, you know, why or what's going on or how do you get there? And if you look at all my friends, my probably my only younger friend is my brother. But other than that, I mean, I'm friends with Mark Davis, who's my attorney. He's 60 something. I'm friends with, like, all my friends are older than me because I like to just pick at their brain and see what's going on.

[B]

They want to be around people of value.

[C]

Exactly. Exactly.

[B]

So let me ask this. I just want to get it right, and I don't want it to sound egoic, but maybe it will. And correct me if I'm off, but it sounds like early in our relationship, I was the mentor that wouldn't give you the respect that you deserved or felt you deserved or whatever, and you probably did deserve based on your output, like, what you were doing. And later we go through all these challenges, we have a cup of coffee, and now I'm looking at you in a different way, maybe the way I should have looked at you years before, with just a level of respect. Hey, you know what? This guy, you know, maybe there's a fault there, and I should have done that earlier, but, man, there's a lot of people that demand respect that don't deserve it. So maybe I did right, maybe I did wrong. Maybe there's a mixed bag. Like, we can get into that if we want, but, like, all of a sudden, I'm giving you that respect that you. You deserved years before, and it's like, okay, well, can we look at each other as dudes instead of enemies?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Was that it? Was that. Was that kind of the. The.

[C]

Yeah. I think the fact that I was no longer in your hen house made it a little bit different.

[B]

Well, not only that, you'd built one of the more significant brokerages doing new home sales. And frankly, you guys were on the map with sales in general. Like, you guys were doing a lot of work. Like, you'd proven, at least by the metrics that I measured in the market, to be somebody of note, like you had. I mean, obviously you were years before. But, you know, when we fought, I gotta be honest, most of the people that I've gone to battle with, they fizzle out. You know what I mean? It's ego fighting. It's not actually quality. And there's ego mixed with quality in some people. Like, you and I both have big egos, but I think we both work hard and we're smart enough to learn. And so most of the guys that I've had fights with, they fizzle out. Not all, but most. And so especially, and I hate to say this, but in the real estate world, where people get a disproportionate amount of adulation to their quality just based on the nature of the broker agent relationship, which we can talk about that if you want to get into. So, yeah, was it that where I started giving you some of the respect you deserved? And then all the. Because we went pretty deep on that first conversation for. I mean, we were talking about relationships, if I remember correctly. We were talking about life, we were talking about kids, we were talking about family. Like it. We went deeper than just a cold meet and greet. Coffee.

[C]

Exactly. And I think it was because of that. Because when we were having our. Our battles, there was no kids involved. There was, you know, just cut. Cutthroat Preston, Cutthroat Mario. And, you know, the kids weren't part of it, but now it's like, if I. If I'm still cutthroat with Preston, then my son has to not necessarily, you know, be enemies with. With Everett or anything, but, yeah, I know he's gonna feel it whenever I'm like, dad, can I go to Everett's house? Or can Everett come over? And it's gonna be like, well, no, not really. Well, my friends are going, or, you know, something like that. So I knew that was sometime in the horizon.

[B]

God put us in a position where we had to choose between our anger and being a good father.

[C]

Exactly.

[B]

And. And I mean, I don't think that was a choice either one of us were willing to.

[C]

Exactly. Yeah. So. So the. It was very easy. And. And at the time, you planted a bug in my head, you know, just a little seed. And. And it was like, no, it can't be that easy? Because you're like, well, why aren't you just a home builder, bro? I'm like, because it's not easy. And you're like, it's easy. Well, I mean, and easy is relative, right? But. But the. Considering what I think I was saying.

[B]

It'S easy compared to what you're doing because you were living in a world I'd lived in. And, you know, there were times back when, when I was working in the same capacity, you were that, man. Like, I was up late at night having arguments and this, that, and, like, it never ended. And so there was stress, there was fights, there was arguments. And, like, I would definitely not say home building is easy, but I would say it was easier than brokerage with builders. And for me, that was one thing that I felt common with all the builders that I worked with. Like, I was the broker for Zia Homes. I was the broker for a while with Point Homes. I was the broker with Saratoga Homes for a few months. I was the broker with Winter Accent Homes. Like, I mean, I did a lot of different brokerage for a lot of different builders. There were even more that worked with our company that, like, wanted access because I was good at what I did, right? And it was interesting because none of them understood marketing, and it was probably the single greatest concept they needed to understand it. I had some guys treat me like I was a painter or a Sheetrock guy, and they were yelling at me and trying to back charge my checks when I'd done all my job. And I'd be like, dude, I'm not like, the painter that missed a spot, bro. Like, you don't yell at me like, what are you doing? There were some that were like, they just didn't understand what we did, and they were trying to get us to do it for free. It was. It was a mixed bag. Like, every builder was making different mistakes with marketers, and all of them started becoming strange relationships. Not all of them antagonistic. Like, I'm still friends with some of the guys that I used to work with, but it just. It didn't work. They didn't have the language to work with me. And I was like, bro, if you love builders, it's easier to be the builder than it is to make a builder successful. They're going to fail for their own lack of knowledge. You can't fix it for 2 or 3 or 4% or whatever they're paying you, right? And so when. When we say easy, that's what we mean. We don't mean it's Easy. Like, I don't want to go promote that. It's easy to become a home builder, but I want to promote that maybe it was easier than the world you were living in at the time.

[C]

Yeah, so. So that was like the very first time I even thought about it before that I had never even. Had never crossed my mind. And then I was like, maybe. And then I started believing my own hype and I got an offer from another home builder, Edwards Homes, who I had a very short stint with, you know, after a very good and long relationship with Point Homes for about seven years of exclusively representing them. And then I had a brief, you know, three to four month stint over at Edwards, and I was just like, all right, it's time.

[B]

And that was also a good builder, but it was a different set of problems than the ones that you were having at Point. So you were kind of learning some of the same lessons that I had learned where it was like, holy, I love this game, but I need to get on that side of it if I really want to be in it.

[C]

Exactly, yeah. Yes. So that's when I was just like, all right, like whenever, you know, we had the. The departure from. From Edwards, I was like, I know some of the people in the, you know, some of the players in the industry that can make or break a builder, that can help or not help a builder. And I started making some phone calls, you know, to yourself, to, you know, the people over at Rocky, and started getting some of the blessings. And I got a reception that I didn't think I was going to get, to be very, very honest.

[B]

You know, I think we have to give some credit to Lane Harris for that because I think. I think I was an anomaly. I remember getting a lot of when. When I'd made that kind of side plan to go and buy Zia after, like, the fallout, which was funny because if we go back to that, I was planning to sell you that account. You would have got it anyway had you not done stage two coup, like your stage two coup. You would have got it anyway. So, I mean, I don't know. Have I ever told you that? I don't know if I've told you that, but it's fun to tell you that on a podcast that's nationally ranking. Well, I guess internationally ranking. We're staying in the top 10 on Apple for investing. So this is going to be a story that goes out, bro. You'd have got the account anyway. We didn't have to fight, so I got in. We made it happen. And I get it. And I get all this from, like, I was trying to, like, put together, like, a coalition of builders for basically to do buying from trades, right? And the reception I was getting from pretty much everybody was like, you're just a marketer. You'll never make it. You're just a stupid marketer. You'll never make it. And I started doing very well. We outperformed everyone during COVID I mean, we made good economic decisions during COVID which really helped. I had the right data and the right stuff going on, the right relationships, the right financing. I mean, we were also perfectly hedged to take some big risks. We took them, and we jumped and we boomed. But, like, all of a sudden, like, we're the number one builder in El Paso. We're building more units, and we're building more square footage than anyone at this point in time that I know of. We don't go brag about it. We don't get loud about it, but we crushed it because of all that. And it was funny because I was getting all this hatred from all these other builders that you're a stupid marketer. I mean, they didn't come out and say it, but you can tell. You ever, like, walk up to somebody and they don't respect you, and you know it. Like, you can feel it. Well, here comes Lane and Edgar with Palo Verde. And he comes out and look at him, dude. Like, he's crushing it, too. Like, it's this second guy who's a marketer that takes off. And I think a lot of the powers that be, so we need to give credit to him. They're looking at it like, wait a minute. What. What's going on then? Like, in a smaller way, but also true. Like, Eric found a way to get some lots. Eric Gomez finds a way to get some lots. And, you know, he just. He just got in with one of the major developers. So he's. He's going to be a player. Like, if he. If he does well, he's going to become a player. So, like, there's this theme of, I think I broke the ice. And then I think after that, Lane. And in most part, Lane, but then also Eric Gomez came and, like, shattered a lot of it the rest of the way. And I think now the lenders and the powers that be, the land developers, everybody else are looking at it like, wait a minute. The marketers understand, at least the good ones, the need for loyalty to the powers that be. And if you're in the El Paso industry, you know what we're talking about. And if you're not, he who has the gold makes the rules. We'll get into that conversation later if we need to. But they've started elevating different marketers like me, like Lane, now like Eric, and potentially like you, to build them up. Because what they want is they want good partnerships. And we're seeing some of the old guard shrinking, going away, like, not being as aggressive. And we're seeing the new guard rise up. I mean, I was driving the new TDE neighborhood, and, you know, who was there. Saratoga's building out homes like they always do. Like, they've got a whole bunch in a row. Guess who else did. Lane Harris has a whole bunch in a row, like, competing with Saratoga. And he was also a Saratoga guy. I mean, it's funny. So there's this kind of trend that the banks and lenders want the marketers to come in because they understand that the hardest part about the home building is understanding the nature of the market. You know? Would you agree with that?

[C]

I would. I would. I mean, now that I'm on this side and. And, you know, it's. It's not a knock on anything, but understanding. Even the client is a little bit different when you start the other way, you know, around. Because you've been. You've been at the. At the point where it's like. Like this guy can't close, and there's nothing I can do about it. As a. As a marketer, as a. As a realtor, as a. And as a builder, I don't think that that translates 100% on someone who's never been on the others, someone who's always been building. It's like, well, why can't they close? What's wrong with them? You know, especially if they've lived through.

[B]

The years where everybody could.

[C]

Exactly.

[B]

Some of the builders are old enough and have been around long enough to remember, like, the 2004, 5, 6, where it's like a pulse gets you a deal. And now they have to go speak mortgage lender. Now they have to go speak, like, you know, fight fair Isaacson company. Now they have to go speak like, you know, credit counselor. They have to go speak every aspect of title. They have to go speak every aspect of real estate. They have to understand Facebook, Google, Instagram. I mean, like, it's. It's obnoxious that they used to be able to put out a product and it would sell, and now they have to put out a product and manage all these things which are new to their world.

[C]

Exactly. Yeah. So that's why I'm saying, at least that's what I think, that the transition is a little bit easier if you've understood the other side, you know, because, I mean, the trades are. An electrician is an electrician, you know, and he's going to charge. And they're used to. Here's a blueprint, here's my. So now you go and negotiate price with them, you know, and now that's getting fun for me. That side of it is getting fun for me. It used to be negotiating commissions all the way to. And you've told me, like, whoa, how did you. How did you get it to that amount? You know, just pushing up.

[B]

You had a 4% listing side commission, if I remember correctly.

[C]

Yes.

[B]

And. And you told me that at the.

[C]

Coffee shop, I think.

[B]

And I looked at you and I was like, that wasn't very nice of you, Mario. I'm joking a little bit.

[C]

But.

[B]

But I was like, I could tell you I do not pay that.

[C]

Like, I'm.

[B]

So what does that mean? You are a good negotiator, obviously a valuable partner as well, or you wouldn't have been paid that much. But, like, you were also a good negotiator.

[C]

Yeah. So. So the negotiating and the fact that the brokerage that we built was built around. It was. It was built around point homes specifically. You know, we are very point homes driven, and our marketing was point. And I understood that game, you know, and that's where I think a lot of the marketers now don't necessarily understand it. You know, they want it to be about them. They want it to be about their brand and them not understanding that, you know, maybe leveraging something a lot bigger than your own brand is, in the end going to help you, you know, so. So we leveraged and we worked alongside. So it was a mutually beneficial relationship for years. And now I'm having to do the negotiating on this side with, you know, with. With the trades, with, you know, the. With H Vac guys.

[B]

And let's clarify that you just became a builder.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

You just closed on your lot. You just. You're now starting five homes. You've got, I think, another, what, 50 lots that you've got under contract to close on, hopefully. And we're doing some due diligence, it looks like. But, like, you're. You're going up fast, man. You're becoming a player in the game quick. Like, when did all that start? When did you. You got the bug in April, I guess, a year ago or two years ago. And like you made some happen in a year. Let's, let's go through that story because you talked a little bit about on the other side, but let's, let's get you there.

[C]

So the entire time. And you, my brother and yourself are good about saying this, you know, brokerage, you made it very clear last time. It's like the brokerage is a popularity contest, right? And, and you talk to some of these brokers and they don't even live in their own home. You know, some of them are. These brokerages aren't even their own broker. You know, I can say my brokerage, I am the broker. And, and I was wise with what I was doing with my, with my money as I was coming up. You know, I wasn't. If you see me, I don't, I don't wear Gucci shoes or, or, you know, I don't know anything. You're gonna see me with an MRG or a Marig shirt every single day of the week and sometimes on the weekends too, you know, because I don't really care about that. But what I did care about was stacking homes. So I was just buying homes. Buying, you know, buying homes, good deals, flipping them, keeping some, working my lines of credit with the banks and things like that. And when I decided to finally become the builder, I was like, all right, this is, this is my arsenal, right? My, my, my portfolio was my arsenal. And I started getting, you know, just started selling some of it. So that whenever it was time to, to jump in, I was ready. Yeah. You know, so, so I think that's, that's one thing that, that people are like, wow. Like when, when I take people to my, my new office on, on Zaragoza that we just purchased, it's a, it's a 4,000square foot building and a design center, you know, something that, that builders don't get until I know, a couple of years into the business. I haven't even built one home and I already have a full on, you know, design center. And that's because of what I, what I, you know, my experience with, with other builders. But what do I need? I need this. I already have, you know, contract coordination. I already have different things that, that other people haven't even thought about, you know. So I started unloading some of my, some of my personal homes to, to build up my, you know, my, my, my cash.

[B]

Dry powder, man. You gotta have dry powder to get the building.

[C]

Exactly. And, and like I said with the, with the powers that be, you know, them, them Having a lot of trust in me because of a relationship that I. That I built, you know, with. With Rocky Mountain Mortgage and other, you know, brokerage mortgage companies and land developers and things like that. That, that they're like, hey, you know what this is.

[B]

I have no problem with you plugging Rocky Mountain, by the way. They are one of the powers to be. I mean, they will loan a builder money to get into business. They will help you source lots and find ways to get more opportunity. They have a permanent lending company within that. They appreciate it if you do business with them there. And frankly, you should if they're helping you with the lot and the loan. But they do a great job on that. I mean, they're competitive on rates. They give great service. You know, I. I will say, rocky, guys, I love you. You could update the logo. I love you. But, you know, but they're. They're. They're literally my favorite business in El Paso that I don't own.

[C]

That's a good way to put it.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. They are. They're amazing. I love them.

[C]

Exactly. So. So they. They started helping me sourcing, you know, different lots and having different meetings with different people. And it's not that they're having the meeting for me, it's just that, hey, maybe you should go have a meeting with them. And there I go. Now I'm in the knocking doors phases of knocking on doors face of my home building company. But throughout the time, what I was already doing was developing plans. I was like, okay, I need to develop plans that fit on a lot I took with, you know, with Southwest Land, which is one of the bigger developers or the biggest developer here in El Paso.

[B]

Yeah, they're amazing.

[C]

This. This is what their standard lot looks like. I'm going to develop plans that fit in every single one of those standard lots. And then if I get any other lots anywhere else that's going to be perfect. I'm going to fit the homes that I've already developed. I'm just going to put them there. And it was like, okay. And so I started developing my plan catalog, and I think we're up to 12 now.

[B]

Good job.

[C]

I'm waiting. Right. And, you know, you mentioned about the 50 lots that we're currently working on, things like that. And it's like, all right, I already have kind of like a game plan for when I get the lots. I go straight into the construction loan and straight into that process versus, well, I'm going to close on a lot loan and then the construction loan and I. I think in that sense, I'm a little bit ahead of the game. You know, same thing with these five lots. Like, I got these. These five lots, and it was like, all right, let's start them with these homes already, because I know they're going to fit. And. And that was with some builders. It was like, oh, well, this home doesn't fit. Let's.

[B]

Well, even on the 50 lots. And this show won't air until after that deal has happened, so it'll be a fun history. By that point, I was dealing with a developer. I made him a very good offer. He got a little. I would call it squirrely and tried to take advantage. I think he assumed that we didn't know what we were doing. And so I was like, hey, Mario, help me with this.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And you've been able to deal with him to the point that you're able to get us into contract, get us into a good feasibility work, him to still a fair offer, like you're delivering him? I think the same offer that I initially gave him, but we're making sure to vet him because he's just playing hardball and that 50 lots become something that you and I split. Or maybe you and I give a few lots to some other startup builders that we're helping out. But, you know, you're playing in the game, man. Like, we've. We've gone from great agent, who I probably didn't give respect, to now collaborating on deals with developers to get lots that wouldn't have otherwise been. And the developer has no idea that I'm the guy behind you funding you. Yeah, we have a awesome story, but, like, fist bump there, bro. Like that. It's. It's such a fun story from beginning to end. Or. And I can't wait to see where end goes. But, like. Like, we're somewhere in the middle, man.

[C]

Yeah, exactly. We're in the dash, as they like to say, at the beginning, the dash, and the end. Right. So we're somewhere in the dash. And I mean, last time I was having a conversation with my wife after we left your house, because we were at your house two Saturdays ago, and by the time this airs, we were mid April. We were at your house, and it was like, can you believe our daughter's spending the night? And the next day they're gonna go dress shopping and do a whole bunch of girly stuff. And. And. And this upcoming weekend, I'm going to borrow your son, and he's going to, you know, do the same thing with my son and Stuff like that. And it's like, could you believe something like that would have happened, you know, five. If I told you five or six years ago that our kids were going to be spending the night at each other's, you know, at each other's houses and. And be best friends and would you believe it? You know? And it's like, no. That you see the billboard outside, like, no, that's not happening.

[B]

But I love the story, though. Like, honestly, like, and this is a good lesson for everyone out there. Like, you never know what the path is going to look like in life. The person you hate or think you hate now might be somebody that you're friends with later. Might be somebody that you're like, we're still going to be competitors, but we're friendly competitors. You'll call and say, hey, man, like, there's 30 lots. I can't take all of them yet. Well, you, you know, you want to help me get into them, and, like, I'll. We'll share them and, like, I'll call you and say, hey, bro, like, let me help you work on your framing prices. And, like, it's a friendly nature of business. But I. I would say we were, if not hate, pretty close to hating each other.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

At our bottom. That's a good lesson, guys. That's a problem to profit that I've personally gotten to live with a guy where we fought, and now we're friends. What the, man? It's so cool. And it makes me more encouraged to be part of the dash and to see you through to success. The true problem to profit, man.

[C]

Yeah. So I mean, and this is a question that I've. I always ask you when we're going through, and it's like, why. Like, why are you helping? Right? You don't gain anything or you don't lose anything from helping, but the culture of it is. Nah. Like, and you go figure it out. You know, hey, help me out with it. You go figure it out. And. And. And I have seen that change that. That we discussed about where it was Cutthroat Preston, Cutthroat Mario. But now it's like, hey, bro, like, this is. This is kind of where this is at. So you may want to make a call about. I don't know. And this is nothing specific, right? But let's say paint. You may want to make a call about paint, because it's not really at three bucks a foot, you know, or something along those lines. But. But what do you think it is that. That made that shift for you? That now you're helping, you know, the little guy where you can very well just, you know, step on them. And because you're also. I think you just went to lunch with Eric, and Eric's, you know, one of my closest friends, and he has, you know, his building company, and we represent him, and our agents are. Are pushing Heartland Homes and things like that. And. And he told me, you know, they. I left the meeting really pumped, and, you know, Preston's going to, you know, whatever I need help with. He's. He's. He's there for it, you know. So what do you think changed or made that change for you?

[B]

I mean, I think it's probably a lot of things, but I think when we're young and we're in that fight stage, which is a good stage, and, I mean, you and I were there together, and you're still in some of the fight stage, which you're kind of clawing your way to the top, if that makes sense. And then when you get there to what everybody identifies as success, you kind of realize, oh, well, cool. Having a lot of money is nice. It's definitely. If you have money problems in one hand and life problems on another hand, like, you're definitely off balance. If you could put both hands together for life problems, then you've got a little more time, right? Because money problems go away when you're financially successful. But when you get to that financial success and you start saying, well, I have everything I want. What now? And you know who you generally resonate? The guys that are doing the same you did years ago. And some of those guys, like, especially in our case and in other cases, are guys that maybe you didn't get along with with back then when you were clawing your way to the top, but they're in the same fight you were. It cost me nothing to help you, and I get to feel good and even maybe release some. Some negative karma by helping you becomes like, I don't know, man. Like, I mean, it's like, what do you consider the top? Like. Like, finance isn't everything. Like. Like, if you become radically successful, that doesn't take anything away from me. I've probably got five to ten years on you if you're really fast. And by the time that, say, we would be competing neck and neck, that could only happen if I stop growing. So in another five years, say, you're so good. I'm out of El Paso, but I bought companies in five other markets. Well, say you take me out of El Paso. Okay, you probably Wouldn't want to do that because who would be the guy that would help you get into the other five markets? Right? Like, so who are you going to compete with? Like, like, there's, there's friends and there's respect and there's competition and there's like. But success isn't all about money. And I think when you get the money and you kind of get to what is considered the top, and I say the top because there probably is no top, realistically, you know, but, but this is the way I look at the top. Like, what's the difference between a $10 million net worth, $100 million net worth, and a billion dollar net worth or a hundred billion dollar net worth? You know, what is it the difference between your. The. Do you own the island you're flying to? Do you own the airplane you're flying on? And how big is the island? How big is the airplane? You buy the same margaritas, you stay in the same hotels, you do all the same. So like, like the economic top in America is probably, arguably somewhere between 10 to 50 million from a lifestyle standpoint.

[C]

Okay.

[B]

If you're there, everything else is just a notch on a scorecard. And then you got to start looking at life differently and say, okay, well, I used to live on how much can I make? Well, now I'm going to live on how much can I give? Like, how can I leave the world a better place? Nobody climbs through the ranks of the economic ladder with, like, angel feathers still on their wings. Like, you've got some burn marks as you kind of went through hell to get there. And so you want to bring back some good karma. And sometimes, not always, but if you can give some good karma to people that maybe you fought with before, I mean, for me anyway, like, that's the fun of it. Now I'm enjoying it. Like, I'm. I think life is about, like, love and problems. I think those are kind of the two paradoxical meanings of life. And fuck, I've had a lot of problems and now I want to try to be a little more loving. And so it's not. I think when you can stop operating out of fear, you can start operating out of something maybe a little more important than fear. And that's where I think, like, you and I are getting to watch our kids teach us. Like, that's happening for us. Like, our kids love each other and we're fighting what wrong decision can we. Right? Does that make sense? That's what they're teaching us. And they're 10 years old or less.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

When did a 10 year old get smarter than we were, dude? Like, that does that make sense? You kind of, like, even if, like few years down the road, like say a buyer is like competing with my house and your house, and you beat me. Okay. Like, am I gonna cry?

[C]

No.

[B]

I mean, maybe I only build 250 and you build 300. I still had a pretty good life at 250.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, like, that's what we're talking about. Like, we're talking about like number one versus number two might be 250 versus 300, you know? Which one of those guys was broke? Neither.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So, I mean, you got big dreams, you got big goals. Like, I would rather you be a winner in the market. Somebody that now I'm friendly with, that our kids are friends. Maybe my kids take over my company. Your kids take over your company. What happens? Like, think about, like the generational stuff. These are the fun things to think about now that, like, why, why, why continue with the drama? You know what I mean?

[C]

Exactly.

[B]

And honestly, I've had a lot of rekindlings. I think when you're in the real estate agent world, man, I used to fight. Everybody used to get in Facebook fights. I mean, and they were fun, but, you know, I had a really. There was a girl, Chastity Rosales, and I had a really good conversation with her the other day. She was really nice, talking about something, working out a deal. And we fought on Facebook like fucking fools. You know, this is probably 10 years ago, but, you know, getting rid of some of that karma is probably the answer.

[C]

Okay, Yeah. I mean, that's perfect. Right? And I get it, what you're saying about the real estate agents or the real estate industry, because everything is, you know, you're clawing at it, right? You're. You're having to fight for a listing and you're having to fight for the same buy. Especially like nowadays with this new nar change. It's like one of my agents had a listing not too long ago, and then out of nowhere, an agent that hasn't talked to this client after, they see proper marketing, they see proper everything. And keep in mind, the client had no idea, or so they told us that they had no idea that they were under contract or any obligation with anyone else. And all of a sudden there's this agent that just wants to. They want to interject into the agent and the client's relationship because they had a contract that doesn't expire until probably sometime in September. Keep in mind they haven't done anything for this person in the last, I don't know, three to four months. And this person needs to do something about selling their home. And only until one of the, the other agents did something for them is that they're involved now. They're like, hey, well, that was really my client, but it wasn't really your client. Like, and I get it, you know, the law of agency and whatnot. But, but it's, you're having to fight every single day with other agents. And I do think sometimes maybe collaboration would be, would be a little bit easier for everyone. And I'm understanding it at a different level now.

[B]

I want to get into talking a little bit about the building industry and the realtor industry maybe in the last 20 minutes of our show. Do you feel that the real estate brokerage world is in maybe a slow process of dying? Kind of like the, the mortgage broker world did 10 years ago? Like, it's going to resurrect to something new. But I don't think we know what that is yet.

[C]

I think that it's evolving, definitely. You know, there's a lot of, I don't know, poorly educated people out there that are realtors that don't understand the different changes that are happening. And then there's other brokerages that are, I don't want to, I don't know, like, they don't understand the marketing side of it. They just want, you know, the numbers. Like, hey, I want to have a thousand agents because that's going to make me a lot of money as a broker and it probably will, you know.

[B]

But, but is it worth it? Like, I think, you know, here's why I shifted and I'd love to hear your thoughts on this because you remember kb, I mean, we had, we, we had the market. Like, I remember we fought some of the other brokerages and we were in that recruiting battle. And I mean, we, we were doing 250 closings a month in a market that was like 2,000 closings a year. And so it, like, no, not, sorry, not 2000 closings a year. Like 800 closings a month, like to 1200 closings a month. Not, not a year. But like, we were a huge percentage of the market. 2000 closings a year is always like the new homes. And now you can tell I'm living between two worlds. But when I saw that, I was like, we're big, but I'm busy. And I saw the legal structure of brokerage all still comes down on the broker, but the broker gave away their power. We gave away everything to the fintech companies. We gave away all of our data. We gave customers direct access to the realtors. If you look at the old days, like the 1970s, back when brokers made real money commensurate with the liability that brokers have. Because people don't realize how much liability brokers have. Home buyers and home sellers don't sue that much, but if they did, the world would change overnight. And that's why you see all the class action lawsuits, which I think are funded by the fintech companies that are coming through to support the homeowner consumers. But really it's supporting the fintech companies and it's just their way of lobbying brokerages out of existence. The Realtor has the client, the realtor makes all the money now. The broker has the liability. The broker makes very little money most of the time, like either flat fee or very low commission split to the broker. I feel like the industry's been in a weird process of dying since they gave away their data, which the commercial real estate industry did not. You have to pay for it, you have to go to LoopNet, you have to go to CoStar, you have to buy from it, you have to join a franchise, you have to do the referral networks across states. Like none of that exists in residential anymore. You've seen the local. We've for the first time seen Gary Keller and Warren Buffett saying like, hey, you know, we're going to divest of some of our interests, take some chips off the table from the brokerages we own Berkshire Hathaway and Keller Williams, like some of the big fish.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, and if you think about it, the barrier to entry is so low for residential real estate that that's probably a big part of why, you know, you can get, I don't know, the real estate classes are what now? Thousand bucks, twelve hundred bucks. Yeah. And in six weeks to a year, depending on how fast you are, you can become a real estate agent. You know, and, and, and the, the scary part is you're doing a lot of things that you have no idea what you're doing, you know, and, and everybody's looking for that, hey, where am I going to have to pay the least? Not where am I going to get the most value, but where am I gonna have to pay the least to hang my license and go be the real estate agent that I think I can be?

[B]

Well, and I don't think they're focused on it because they're like realtors are, they're Fighting for their next meal like most people, right. And they can only eat what they kill. They don't have a guaranteed paycheck. So since they have to be competitive with other Realtors, they have a very hard time uniting. And I don't even think they're watching as the bite sized chunks are being taken out of them. Like that NAR lawsuit, which never even got to court, I think NAR would have probably won. But instead NAR capitulated, NAR settled. And when your settlement is in the hundreds of millions of dollars, you put so much blood in the water that you're literally attracting every other legal shark out there to come take more bites. And since that time, we've seen the average resale commission go from around 3% to 2 and a half. That's almost a sixth of the money that's disappeared in less than a year. Now with rising prices and higher interest rates and less affordability, like there's a lot of pressure from the consumer to lower the price of the real estate agent. Because let's say that we're the real estate agents, one of the few, you know, career fields that has more than kept up with inflation. Like if you were making 3% and you are making 3% and, and you're doing the same amount of units, your revenue went so much higher with the inflation over the last five years. You didn't get a pay cut to inflation like the average American. You got an enormous pay raise and now it seems like the market's like coming after the Realtor.

[C]

Yeah. And a lot of the times these realtors, they don't reinvest back into their business. Like you said, they're keeping up with inflation when it comes to their income, but they're not keeping up with, with the changes in the market or the, the different, I don't know, the different strategies on how to, how to continue being good Realtors.

[B]

Right.

[C]

Because like you said, all these fintech companies, they're, they're after people and they make it so easy, they make it so easy to do business with them that, you know, Realtors are, people are starting to see like, why would I even go to this Realtor? I can click a button on my phone with Zillow and you know, do the same thing supposedly. Right. They think they can. And there is Realtors out there that are showing value, but then there's, there's that small percentage of them that are not. And that's. Who gives a bad name to the rest of them.

[B]

Well, and I would say that small percentage is not as small as it used to be. I mean, it used to be a very small percentage that was outside of the lines. But with it being an industry very hard to regulate like that, we dealt with something that was egregiously wrong and obviously fraud, and we made a complaint and, like, we got it back from, you know, our Texas regulatory group. And they were like, oh, no, we don't want to deal with that. You should just call the police. And I'm like, this is a licensed realtor committing fraud, and you don't want to deal with that. We're going to call the police. And I mean, that's when, you know, between that and some other BS with our local realtor association, Gepar, I was just like, I'm giving up my license. Like, there's not enough intellect in our bureaucracy to protect the realtor class. Like, everything that people are paying for in TAR and NAR and Gepar and all of these things, it's just not there. There's nothing there to really add value. We're giving bureaucrats money and they're wasting it. We should send doge. We should create our own version of Doge as the Realtors and get rid of all the bureaucrats that aren't doing for the real estate agents. But it'll never happen because we're so competitive with one another. As you and I were in the past.

[C]

Exactly. Yeah. So, I mean, it's. For some realtors, they'll listen to this and hopefully some will talk for sure. They'll never talk in my face, but they'll talk amongst each other. But some of them, they're going to know and they're going to learn and they're going to, hopefully it's expands their, you know, their mind to, let's be different.

[B]

Let's leave a little value. Because I know a lot of El Pasos will watch the show based on your nice past drama and the cheese man, the tea and all that. Like, what advice would you leave to them on what they need to do now to be successful?

[C]

I think, and this is a saying that I see in the real estate community so much. And, and it's like, stop spending money you don't have to impress people you don't know, because invested in some land, invested in some acres, invested in. Start. Start some flips. Keep some flips, Buy a duplex. But, and, and the congratulations to the people that are doing that, you know, you're doing it right. And, and keep going, keep doing it. And, and those that aren't, those that are doing it for the party and for the, for the, the, the, I don't know, the glamour of, of what is real estate, that you're going to look back in five years and you're going to say, holy, I should have bought that house back at, you know, 260,000. Now it's 400, you know, and the worst thing you can do. I was having lunch not too long ago, and one table over there was some, some ladies. And I mean, from what I could see, they were in their, I don't know, 70s, close to 80s, you know, and they were talking about how they were going to go and put up signs and put up listings. And I just looked over and I was like, they didn't, they didn't do what they had to do at this age. So they're 80 and they're still having to go put up signs, you know, and they were talking about how, you know, I think it was like century 20 back. They were talking about when Tony was still at century 21. Tony Delgado. So I don't know how long ago that was. I wasn't even. That's probably in high school or something. But that's when. Oh, yeah, I remember when I switched from, from whatever to Tony. And I was like, man, like, I was just thinking to myself, like, you should have bought a couple of rentals. I probably think they would have been paid off by now. And so, so, yes, that is what I recommend to all the real estate agents out there. Don't. Like I drive a Jetta, you know, like, don't, don't, don't go for the glam. Like, go for the long term and you will get the reward down the line. Don't expect instant gratification. That's my advice to anyone watching this.

[B]

You drove that Jetta for years and.

[C]

Years and years, and I just bought a brand new one. Wiped. I mean, I drive a cybertruck too, but my jet does different.

[B]

Your cybertruck was paid for by your investments. Your Jetta is for your business. And there's nothing wrong with, like, differentiating that. You know, it's not bad to have the cool, like, you know, I can go buy the McLaren and the airplane and all that, but you know what? Southwest goes to most places I want to go to. And while I have the airplane, my investments paid for my airplane, my investments paid for my McLaren. I agree with you 100%. And I would compound what you're saying with just maybe this as well. If you're not doing two to three closings A month. This isn't your passion. Get out. Like, get out. Because this industry is going to shift and change, and unless you have the bandwidth to afford the process of the shift and change, it's going to eat you alive. Now, I'm not saying get out if you're not doing it. I'm saying either if you're not doing it, start doing it, and if you can't do it, get out. Does that make sense? Would you agree with that?

[C]

Yeah, for sure.

[B]

What about the home builder world? Because you're also getting in at one of the hardest times to be a home builder.

[C]

No, we're about to find out. And I love that. That's. That's a part of me that, that I think makes me who I am, that it's. Nothing is too hard. And once I set my mind to it, it's. It's happening. And now it's happening. Right. And now the sky is the limit. So hopefully, you know, we're having this conversation another five years and we're talking about how, you know, we're building 3, 500 houses. I don't know, whatever the, the future holds for us. But, but I'm definitely just the same way I did with when I was a broker and an agent and now a builder. It's going to be.

[B]

Let's.

[C]

How do we get to. To number one? You know, I love it. Yeah, that's. That's where it's at.

[B]

It's okay to want to be number one.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I mean, you will have to compete for it, but if you win, that's a good competition.

[C]

Exactly.

[B]

You know?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Who knows? Maybe by the time you're working to be number one, I'll be trying to run five or six markets, not one. Dude, if I'm number two and five to six markets, I don't care. I'm happy to be top three if I'm in multiple markets.

[C]

Yeah, I just want to be top.

[B]

Three in every market. Well, bro, thank you so much for coming on the show. This is fun to retell the story of, like, at least our history, because it truly demonstrates how your problems can become your profits. And it's fun to do it in a way that was, like, personal to both you and I. Now, I know you're doing a lot of. I know you have a lot of education out there as well. You also have your own podcast, you have your own social media. You have really good marketing, too. Where can you give us a little bit? If anybody wants a daily dose of Mario, where do they go? To follow you. Where do they go to find you? Where do they go to get a little piece of what you have to offer?

[C]

It's going to be MRG Homes, MRG Realty, and at MRG Properties. It's everything mrg. So if you're looking to, you know, look at the progress or anything real estate related, MRG Realty Homes and Properties.

[B]

Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on the show, brother. I really appreciate it.

[C]

Thanks, bro. Appreciate it.