How I Turned Cold Calls and a $1,000 Bonus into a Real Estate Empire

Summary

Podcast Summary: Radical Wealth Plan

Episode: How I Turned Cold Calls and a $1,000 Bonus into a Real Estate Empire
Host: Paul Morris (with co-host Josh)
Guest: Barbara Isabel
Date: March 3, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, host Paul Morris and co-host Josh sit down with Barbara Isabel, a former lawyer from Madrid who transitioned to Los Angeles real estate and built a thriving portfolio through relentless cold calling, intentional branding, and dogged persistence. Barbara shares insights from her unique journey—from a $1,000 bonus at a prestigious law firm to buying her first fourplex property in Hollywood. They explore practical strategies for building real estate wealth, overcoming personal and industry barriers, and forging strong relationships in a highly competitive LA market.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Barbara’s Unconventional Path from Law to Real Estate

• Background:
  • Moved from Madrid, Spain, to LA to study law at Pepperdine, specializing in arbitration and mediation.
  • First exposure to real estate through mediation cases at LA courthouses ([03:28]).
  • Felt undervalued in corporate law after receiving a $1,000 bonus for bringing in major clients.
• Turning Point:
  • Encouraged by developer Stanley Black:
    “I think you have a little personality to be in real estate.” ([04:00])
  • Briefly worked with developers, learned basics of development, then joined Keller Williams and did their training program.

2. Early Real Estate Hustle: Branding & Cold Calling

• Branding:
  • Early in her career, represented her brokerage everywhere—branded car, hoodies, and hats ([06:30]).
  • Recognized later: personal brand > company brand, but experience comes first ([07:05]).
• Finding a Niche:
  • “Find your niche” is advice often given but rarely explained. For Barbara, her niche emerged meeting mid-sized multifamily developers ([09:21]).
• Cold Calling Strategy:
  • Began cold calling as her main business development tactic, despite anxiety about her accent ([07:46]).
  • Turned her accent into a strength:
    “I had people say, ‘Where are you from? I just love your accent. I could hear your voice all day.’” ([08:46])
  • Conversion: About 1 in 12–15 calls led to meetings—a high rate versus industry norms ([08:33], [08:41]).

3. Building Relationships & Cultivating Leads

• Persistence Pays:
  • Consistently followed up on every promising call with texts and updates, sometimes for years, building genuine relationships, not just chasing deals ([20:01], [21:41]).
  • Example: Built a relationship with a wealthy founder in Malibu, meeting him in Cabo after frequent but respectful check-ins ([22:04]).
  • Key lesson:
    “Don’t attach yourself to the outcome. Just embrace the process and focus on what you can control.” — Josh ([25:02])

4. Overcoming Barriers: Age, Gender, and Industry Perception

• Challenges:
  • Female Spanish immigrant in male-dominated, cutthroat LA development scene ([29:03]).
  • Turned perceived disadvantages—youth, accent, appearance—into points of authenticity and relatability:
    “They think I’m weaker and less knowledgeable than I am. But when I start talking, it usually turns around.” ([76:34])
• Leveraging Authenticity:
  • Ruthlessly honest with clients:
    “I want it and I need the money.” ([17:15])
  • Secured listings by making it easy for clients to say yes—offering shorter contracts, lower commissions, and a focus on results ([35:21], [35:36]).

5. Knowledge, Education, and the Real LA Market

• TV vs. Reality:
  • Bluntly rejects the glamorous image of LA real estate portrayed on TV:
    “When you see all these TV shows, follow up and see if they sold. 90% of them don’t.” ([27:07])
  • Real drama is in development: squatters, court evictions, city bureaucracy ([28:10]).
• Importance of Learning on the Job:
  • Learned development and deal structuring through hands-on experience:
    “Nobody taught me anything… I learned as I went through transactions.” ([18:38])
  • Mentors assistants, but finds many lacking drive:
    “I’m an open book when it comes to how I did it… but some of them just don’t want to work.” ([33:00])

6. Path to Ownership & Investment Strategy

• Recent Success:
  • Closed on her first fourplex in Hollywood just 48 hours prior ([41:15]).
  • Funded with conventional financing, 15% down ([53:08]).
• Wealth Goals:
  • Did not start with clear wealth or unit goals; they evolved with experience and exposure. Now focused on building a substantial multifamily portfolio ([44:04]).
• Tax Benefits & Market Advice:
  • Champions multifamily for tax advantages (depreciation, rental income, appreciation) ([44:47]).
  • Urges decisive action:
    “You can either buy at a higher rate now or wait for lower rates and pay $200,000 more.” ([45:49])
  • Sees opportunity even in rent-controlled properties—as long as they’re vacant and can be brought to market rates ([71:41]).

7. Tactical Development & LA-Specific Insight

• SB8 Law & Regulation:
  • Detailed explanation of LA’s SB8: developers now must check 5-year occupancy for “low income” unit requirements; can drastically affect property value ([58:58], [59:59]).
  • Has become expert in navigating these complex regulations, which shrank the number of viable multifamily projects ([60:01]).
• ADU (Accessory Dwelling Unit) Strategy:
  • Can increase units via ADUs on almost any LA lot ([64:32]):
    “Loophole developers use… If I can build two by right, I can do two ADUs. That’s how you get four units out of a 6,800 sq ft lot.” ([64:43])
• Financing & Credit:
  • Underscores the importance of excellent credit for best rates and terms; urges buyers to prep credit scores early ([53:34], [54:49]).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Personal Branding:
  “Myself, like myself, is my brand… you are always a real estate agent.” — Barbara ([05:35])
• On Overcoming Call Reluctance:
  “I was literally getting anxiety just looking at the phone… do I really have to do this? This is insane.” — Barbara ([16:39])
• On Persistence in Follow-Up:
  “I keep texting. I don’t care. Do I hope to do business with him? I do... That’s not the reason I’m doing it anymore. It’s out of principle.” — Barbara ([24:14])
• On Building Real Wealth:
  “Real estate creates generational wealth.” — Paul ([51:27])
• On Advice for Young Self:
  “Buy real estate. Start at 18. Make money and put it aside.” — Barbara ([76:51])
• On Industry Realities:
  “There’s more real drama in development than in any of these shows… I had squatters follow me down the street with a stick.” — Barbara ([28:10])

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Important Timestamps & Segment Highlights

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|----------------------------------------------------------------| | 03:28 | Barbara's background: law, mediation, discovery of real estate | | 07:46 | Building business from cold calling and personal doubt | | 09:21 | Finding a niche & distinguishing herself in LA real estate | | 17:15 | Cold calling scripts and authentic pitches | | 20:01 | Relationship-building, follow-up strategies | | 28:10 | Real drama in property development (squatters, legal battles) | | 35:21 | How short-term listing contracts won high-end deals | | 41:15 | Acquiring her first fourplex—emotional milestone | | 44:47 | Multifamily tax benefits explained | | 45:49 | Why waiting to buy is a mistake | | 58:58 | SB8 law, low-income set-aside regulations, and impact | | 64:43 | Using ADU laws for extra units | | 76:15–77:39 | Lightning round: personal questions & life philosophy |

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Tone & Speaker Attributions

• Barbara: Direct, energetic, authentic; comfortable mixing honesty with humor (“Spicy. Spicy.” [29:09]), not afraid to show vulnerability about anxiety or loss.
• Paul (Host): Encouraging, inquisitive, occasionally self-deprecating; nudges Barbara to unpack lessons and stories for the audience.
• Josh (Co-host): Analytical, affirmative; provides frameworks for consistency, contribution, and mindset.

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Key Takeaways for Listeners

• Persistence and authenticity are just as vital as technical knowledge in real estate.
• Building relationships should be driven by genuine care, not just transactional aims.
• Brand yourself early on, but only after gaining real experience and credibility.
• Market opportunities exist even in highly competitive, overregulated, or rent-controlled environments—IF you know how to navigate the details.
• Act now: Waiting for the “perfect” time in real estate usually costs you more in the end.
• Learn the rules: Understanding and leveraging local regulations (like SB8, ADUs) can set you apart and secure better deals.
• Mentor others, focus on abundance, and play the “long game”—your reputation is your most valuable currency in real estate.

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“Thank you.” — Barbara Isabel’s message from the mountaintop ([77:38])—an ethos echoed through the entire episode: gratitude, humility, and sharing the journey to radical wealth through real estate.

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[End of Summary]

Transcript

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[A]

This is Radical Wealth Plan presented by Entrepreneur Media. If you have the drive, we'll give you the plan. I'm Paul Morris, New York Times best selling author, prolific investor and award winning entrepreneur. Join our real estate revolution.

Absolutely delighted to share this episode with you. Our interview with Barbara Isabel. Barbara started out as a lawyer and then shifted into real estate sales where her main clients are commercial developers. She has a phenomenal eye for what makes a great investment and it's that process that she's able to attract great investors and she shares that with us, which is incredible information as we look to build our own real Estate portfolio and build wealth in real estate. Here's Barbara. Isabel.

Welcome to Radical Wealth Plan. Really appreciate you taking the time. Interested in hearing about your journey selling and then also now buying multifamily.

[C]

I'm very excited too, guys. Thank you.

[D]

So purposeful. So much about making it happen. Let's learn from one another.

[C]

Let's go.

[A]

Love it. So to begin with, tell us a bit about your background.

[C]

So I moved to LA about seven years ago from Spain. I was born and raised in Madrid. I moved to LA to go to Pepperdine. I got a scholarship, I went to law school. I did my master's of law and then I specialized in arbitration and mediation. So I did a lot of mediations at the Inglewood and the Venice courthouses. And that's how I got introduced into real estate. Most of the disputes that went to mediation were a small claims court were real estate. So, you know, landlord, tenant, neighbors, the neighbor driving into the other neighbor's tree, like little disputes like that. So that's how I got introduced into real estate in la. And after that, yeah, I started working at a law firm, Greenberg Lasker in Century City. Nice law firm. I have only good things to say about them, but the pay wasn't good and it was very corporate. I brought them a very good client, very wealthy client to the firm and I got like a thousand dollar bonus. So I was very disappointed with that and felt that I was undervalued. So I met a developer at the law firm. His name was Stanley Black, very well known developer in Shay. He owns that house on 10,000 West Hamza with all the studies outside. And he was like, I think you have a little personality to be in real estate. And I was like, really? I never really thought about doing it just because my concept of real estate in LA as a realtor was like the shows, the dramas. And I didn't want to be a drama queen. You know, my sister is already a singer and we have enough drama with that. So I didn't want to like go that route. So I was like, well, I'm not sure. And he was like, well, not everything is like that. So I got approached by a guy that worked for him, Darren Weinstock. He was working for him and he was like, hey, if you want to, you know, learn a little bit about the business, we do development specifically, but maybe this is a good learning experience for you. So I was with them for about two to three months, but it was like a seven days a week job.

[A]

Wow.

[C]

It was really intense. So I think I pretty much learned everything I needed to learn, you know, how to read plants, how to deal with the city, just a few little basics, nothing, you know, overly crazy. But they were mainly doing a lot of single family homes, which is very different from what I do now.

[D]

Yep.

[C]

And then from there I got my real estate license, I joined Keller Williams and I did the training program that they have for new licenses. It was a good experience, but it was an enough experience. So I eventually met someone else who had a different brokerage. I joined a different firm where I was at for two years. If I were to point out to the one or two things that I learned from them is, you know, you have to be consistent. Myself, like myself, is my brand. So, you know, the way you need to market yourself to the public. Whether you're here, whether you're having a drink at the bar, whether you are at the hotel, at an event, you are always a real estate agent. And that's just something that you have to put out there because unless you say they are not going to know.

[A]

Yeah. And let me ask you, how do you make that clear? So a lot of people, obviously, there's a lot of realtors at a lot of events. How do you make it clear? I'm sure you're not wearing a pin that says you're a realtor.

[C]

I kind of did, actually.

[A]

Oh, tell me.

[D]

Well, tell us.

[C]

Yeah, so the brokerage I was working for at the time, which, you know, I would prefer not to say their name, rather, you know, personal reasons.

[A]

No worries.

[C]

What I worked at, they had hoodies, they have hats. My car was completely branded with the brokerage name.

[A]

Wow. Yeah, that's great.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Before you leave, when you leave here today, you'll see that your car will be branded with our. They're working on that now, so carry on.

[C]

Tbd. So that's how, you know, one of the good things that I got from them was like, hey, you just have to carry your brand everywhere you go.

[A]

But you were carrying their brand. And one of the things you just said is that your brand is what's important. It's not the firm's brand, which is.

[C]

Something that I think it eventually matters. I don't think that's something that you should think about upfront, especially when you're starting real estate. You need to learn the business. You know, I know that there are a lot of, like, trying to be realtors in la, a lot. Most of them, obviously, not to disrespect anybody, but I feel that at first you need to Learn. And once you have a little something going at that point, you can start branding yourself or trying to branch out. You know, like, you have to take one step at a time.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

You got to build a track record before you create a brand.

[A]

Right.

[C]

A thousand percent.

[A]

Yep.

[C]

So after a couple of years with them, I think I was in a good place in my career where, you know, I was racing to start up the company for two years in a row. And it was my first two years in real estate.

[A]

Wow.

[C]

I started cold calling. That's how I started my career. And I was very, very worried about my accent. I was like, how are people going to perceive my accent?

[A]

It's funny because I think your accent is lovely.

[C]

Thank you. Thank you. I learned to love it. I did not like it at first.

[A]

Right.

[C]

And I also need to, you know, need to.

[A]

First you want to, like, fit in.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

But then it' almost like branding, you know, once you develop who you are, then it can be part of your brand. You are different.

[C]

That's what, like, everyone kept saying, they're like, that's just you. That's what, like, what makes you. You.

[D]

Authenticity.

[C]

Yep. So, of course, you know, when you're starting a new business, it was all new to me. Like, I didn't really know how it was going to be received. I found, though, when I was cold calling, most of the calls that I had were good phone calls. Most of my colleagues that were cold calling, they wouldn't turn one call into, like, a meeting.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And I would say I was really realistically turning about that. I actually got through and I spoke to the person on the other side. Maybe one every, like, 12 or 15.

[A]

Right. Which is a great.

[C]

Everyone's like, oh, you can make a thousand calls and it's not going to happen.

[A]

Sure.

[C]

I had people on the other side of the phone being like, where are you from? I just love your accent. Like, I can hear your voice all day.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And sometimes I would say something and they would be like, do you mind repeating that? And I was like, maybe. I thought, oh, maybe my accent. They were like, no, I just want to hear your voice again.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Like, it was insane.

[A]

So that's nice. So to get back to. Because I was joking, but apparently it turns out to be correct that you're. You're wearing all the branded hoodie stuff, but that's a different brand. Now you're networking and you realize how important your brand is. How are you forwarding your brand at a networking event? How you're forwarding your brand elsewhere?

[C]

Well, I would say one of the things about being a Realtor, especially in a city like la, because it's a very competitive city when it comes to real estate. One of the things I keep hearing from people like Josh is very important, and it's something that they teach you, like Basics 101. It's very important that you find your niche. So I really never understood what that meant. What is it a niche? Okay. It's like finding the neighborhood. Is it targeting a specific race? You don't know. Things as simple and basic as that may not be as clear for everybody. So I was like, okay, well, can I target a zip code? And then you go on Zillow and all these platforms that offer leads, and then you just have to spend, you know, the very small amount of 5 to 10,000amonth to get this list, which is obviously not something that most Realtors can afford. So, yeah, I think the way I eventually found my niche and the way I realized that I needed my own brand was when, you know, I got into real estate development and when I met these two guys from New York who, you know, are to be considered big in the medium development world. Basically what I mean by that is, you know, they are not building a hundred or two hundred apartment buildings. They are doing anywhere from four to fifteen units. But a lot of them we're talking about, you know, probably they have under construction about 45 of them right now.

[A]

Wow, that's amazing.

[D]

So, and that happened when. So you were focused on residential, is that correct?

[C]

Correct. Yes.

[D]

And then you met these gentlemen that were doing small development, four to 15 units. When did that happen?

[C]

So that happened about three years ago.

[D]

Okay.

[C]

Before I met them, I had a few sales with tear downs and I saw a few properties that had RTI plans. Obviously, I needed to learn what RTI meant.

[A]

Sure.

[D]

Tell us, tell us what RTI is.

[C]

RTI means ready to issue.

[A]

Yep.

[C]

Basically means that you can close on the property and bring your demolition crew in the day after and start construction right away.

[D]

Right.

[A]

Plans ready to. Ready to issue is like, you know, shovel ready is another term that people use.

[C]

And by that I mean all the fees to the city are paid for, which is something that, you know, a lot of times you have to be very clear, especially when you draft offers for RTI properties. You have to be very specific about all the fees being paid for all the plans being delivered with the stamps or emails and copies and, you know, all of that verbiage that we use.

[A]

Yep.

[C]

But those are like, you know, little things. That you learn as you go. So in this case, yeah, I would say six, seven months. Before I met them, I already kind of liked development. My dad was a developer, so I kind of grew up in the business in Spain. Never really thought about pursuing it myself, just because my dad was very old at school. I'm the seventh of eight kids.

[A]

Wow.

[C]

And, you know, my dad was kind of more of an early dad, and he wanted me to become a lawyer, so that's what I did. Yeah, I went to college, I got my license, and I worked in a law firm in Spain before I moved to la. And, yeah, I was, you know, I was raised that way. That was just pretty much the way to go.

[A]

Yep. Very similar for me because my parents didn't know anything old school for sure, and they didn't know anything other than educate your way up the ladder. And so, you know, I've got siblings that are doctors and I'm a lawyer. It's very similar.

[C]

One of the two.

[A]

Yeah. You got to do maybe a dentist.

[C]

If you're not lucky.

[A]

Maybe I have a nephew who's a dentist. There you go.

[D]

Yep.

[C]

So that's how I was raised. So there wasn't really like. My dad never imposed anything on me, though. He always felt that I was like his right eye. Even though, you know, he had eight kids, we were always very close. And he was like, you know, I see a lot of me and you. I think we had this conversation sometime. Sometime before. But, you know, one of the things, it's not really a regret, you know, it's how life plays out. But when I moved to LA, I was 24. That was seven years ago. And my dad passed away the year after that. So he never knew, you know, in this life that I got into real.

[A]

Estate, I got into real estate.

[C]

I was attending law school when he passed away.

[D]

Wow.

[C]

So he, you know, didn't even know that I decided to.

[A]

Kind of coming from a development background. Yeah. Awfully nice for him to see what.

[D]

You'Ve accomplished and just getting started.

[A]

Very similar with the two of us. My dad was an entrepreneur, and I know he'd be proud of some of the things that I've done and am doing and passed away way before any of that happened. I was a lawyer.

[C]

That's crazy.

[A]

There you go.

[C]

That's insane.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

So you met these gentlemen.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

And then take it from there a little bit on how that helped you.

[A]

You know what's interesting, that's a phenomenal question. I want to hear that. I also want to know you know what happens? You come to LA, you're 24, of course you go to Pepperdine, then you go to the law firm, which I know well, and then you come out and you start in real estate. And, okay, so you go with a firm that gives you great training. But what are you doing right away? How long did it take you to do your first deal?

[C]

So when I first got my license, I had side jobs.

[A]

What year was that?

[C]

That was five years ago.

[A]

I was young.

[C]

I was 26. So that was, if I'm taking a wild guess, I think 2018. The summer of 2018.

[A]

Yeah, that's fine.

[C]

I have side jobs.

[A]

But you're young, obviously. You're very smart, but you're young and you're brand new to this business. And as you mentioned, and to this country. And as you mentioned, it's a hyper competitive field. People really, really. From the television shows all the way to whatever people want and the price point, you know, people do one or two sales, they're like, wow, it beats the side job. You just do one or two deals, keep you afloat. So there is a lot of impetus to, like, jump into real estate in la, and yet so few make it. So I.

[D]

What do you attribute that to? Like you said, the first couple years you were recognized as one of, like, the rising stars. So tell us a little bit, like, what do you attribute that to?

[A]

And what were you doing?

[D]

Yeah, what were you doing?

[C]

Well, I was cold calling. And then, to be completely honest, I did not have one meeting listing appointment that did not turn into the listing.

[A]

Wow, I love it.

[C]

And I remember, if you want to.

[D]

And that was from Cold Call, largely, at least initially.

[C]

Strictly cold calling initially.

[A]

Where'd you get the list? What list do you call?

[C]

Well, that's a very good question. I was talking to, you know, one of your assistants earlier, and I was telling him, like, when you first start, like, it's not a cold call. Where do I go? What do I do? So Vulcan 7, which is the ones that I use. Mojo. A lot of people like Mojo. I was more of a Vulcan 7. Okay. And I don't use the dialers. I don't use the dialers either. Like, oh, one after another. I never did that. Especially because my accent. Yeah, I wanted to know what I was talking about. So I took the extra time, maybe, I don't know, 65, 90 seconds to look at the property, look at the property history, whether it was listed before expired, canceled bedrooms, bathroom, square footage. I just knew the basics in case the phone call Went through again. A lot of them didn't go through. Some of them were like, well, don't ever call me. Or, you know, craziest. And I report you. You get crazy comments.

[A]

But also, if you're doing the single dial through, you're not getting in trouble with the robo dials and all that sort of thing. And here's the thing. When I get a call and I get that pause, forget it.

[C]

It's over. Yeah, I hung up 1000%. Yeah, me too.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Which honestly don't even feel good or bad. It's just what it is.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And one of the things that, you know, I had at the previous brokerage, not at the one I'm currently at, the one before it was a relatively new brokerage. So they had a lot of new licenses. Most of them were new licenses. And because I was raised in the start of the company, they will come to me like, how are you doing this? Can you help me? Can you mentor me? And I was like, well, I'm trying to figure out myself. Like, I can't mentor you, but I can tell you what I'm doing.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

To me. And listen, there is really no secret to success. It depends on how much you want it and how much time are you willing to put into it. So when I first got my license, I had side jobs and I was like, okay, call Colleen an hour a day. I just was terrified. I was literally getting anxiety, which I didn't even know what anxiety was. I was getting anxiety just looking at the phone. I was like, oh, my God, do I really have to do this? This is insane.

[A]

And thanks for saying that because you had such great success with cold calling. And people think, oh, well, that's because.

[D]

They don't see all.

[A]

They don't see the fear or sacrif country before.

[C]

I like, nobody. Nobody.

[A]

What were you saying when you were calling?

[C]

Hello, this is Barbara Isabel with blah blah. I'm calling because I saw that you recently had a property for sale. I saw it expired. Oh, don't call me. I would say, well, if you don't mind, I just want to say that I understand that you may be frustrated. Okay. But I just want to say that if you want someone who's going to go the extra mile to get it done, y. Call me. That's it. I don't need to go crazy. I don't need to get. And they were like, well, like, what can you do for me that other agents can do? I said, well, I want it and I need the money that Was it. I was being honest. And they were like, okay, some of them will call back, some of them will not call back. I had it.

[A]

You know, would you leave a message if you got voicemail?

[C]

If the voicemail had an actual voicemail set up like, hey, this is, you know, Karen from blah blah blah, then at that point I would. If it was just like an automatic voicemail, that means they don't really check it that often. So I wouldn't. Now everything I will always do in all of my phone calls, send follow up text right after I have. Wow, it's great property address on it. Because if they call me, I go, oh, sorry, give me 30 seconds, I can hear you. I will click on the text to see if I ever text in that before. So I know the property address right away.

[D]

Wow.

[C]

Every time, very.

[D]

And I got to make an observation. It's often not so much what you say, two things. It's how you respond the objection and the confidence and conviction with what you say.

[C]

With what you say.

[D]

I know you well enough to know that there's confidence, there's passion, there's energy in what you say. And that makes a big, big difference.

[C]

I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't know what escrow was. I didn't know what a transaction coordinator was. What does title do? I didn't know anything and nobody taught me anything either. So I went through the process when I was at this other brokerage, I was expecting for them to teach me at least how to navigate me through nothing. I just had to. Literally, I learned as I went through transactions.

[A]

Yeah. So you're buying a list of expired.

[C]

It was about $260 a month. It wasn't like super cheap, but basically it just shows you you can filter by expired, canceled and withdrawn. So again, sometimes those lists, they update like every, I don't know, every other day. So sometimes I will click on an expire and then I will go to the silo link and see that it's back active. So they cancel with someone who was already active. So you are not supposed to call those listings. But again, if you don't do like the extra 60 seconds, you are not going to know. So sometimes happened that I called and they were like, oh, call my agent. So I was like, okay, you know, it happens like it's, you know, I'm not solicitating your business. Sorry.

[A]

Sure. Just a few words.

[C]

I didn't even know what it meant. I was, I just knew I was supposed to say that.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

So Take action, pivot, iterate.

[A]

I love that. I love the texting property address, including.

[C]

Like Los Angeles or North Hollywood or Sherman Oaks.

[D]

Right.

[C]

I need to know who's calling me. If someone called me back and I didn't have the address, the full address.

[A]

And you have no idea what you lose.

[C]

The client. That's the lead. Let's call it a lead at that point. Clients, they are.

[A]

That's correct. Yeah.

[C]

So I never had a CRM, a customer relationship management. I never had one, which is something that, you know, every single person in my career has told me about. You need one, you need one, you need one. Whenever I had a good phone call, I just knew the person. You know, I had a very good phone call with this potential client from Malibu. He had like a $17 million house for sale. I would text him every week. I just had at least of maybe 15, 20 people that had good phone calls, but I never got in front of them. They were just playing me. Oh, well, if you bring me, you know, buyer of market, would you write.

[D]

That down or do you have like a spreadsheet? Like, how did. For the most part, literally, you would even document it.

[C]

Yes. Okay. And then that's something I was like, well, maybe you should make like a little list and update it. And I did a little list, but it was like a professional one. I just had a little notebook with the names. And I would just make sure every other week I would think about them because I needed it.

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You know what I mean? It's very different when you need it versus when you're like, you know, just coasting and cruising. So, for example, fun fact, that guy is a very big founder of a very big clothing brand. He's worth hundreds of millions of dollars. I literally, I mean, I didn't harass him, but I was like, you know, just Texting him every week. Some weeks he will respond. Some weeks he will not. One time he said, sorry, you know, my daughter is sick. I mean, I'm so sorry about that. But it was a great time for me to be like, hey, is there anything I can do to help?

[D]

Sure.

[C]

And he was like. Then I even texted him, like, two weeks later, how's your daughter? Look how crazy this is. I texted him out of the blue. Just think about this. I never met this guy. I spoke to him four times on the phone, very briefly. And I texted him, hey, by the way, you know, I just want to let you know, the next couple of weeks, I will not be, you know, calling you because I'm going to go on a trip to Cabo. Why not? He responded, no way. I will be in Cabo, too.

[A]

Wow. You just never know. You've got to go that extra.

[C]

And it turns out that he built one of the big complexes in Cabo. 45 houses, golf course and everything. He built it, and he was living in one of the houses, and I went there to meet him, and I met him at his daughter at this big mansion. Yep. I haven't done business with him yet, but I texted him every other holiday, you know what?

[A]

Thank you for saying that. You still haven't done business with them yet because this is building a phenomenal relationship. And as Josh and I talk to lots and lots of successful realtors and ask them in depth about their practice, there's one in particular. You know, I've been in business with her for so long. Definitely a friend. And she had a very close billionaire friend, very close dinner all the time travel together, and this woman never gave her one deal, and she did huge transactions. My friend also is a phenomenal realtor. She works with us. I don't want to give too much out or we'll figure out who it is, but she's also a phenomenal realtor that really does represent people in that level of luxury. Still never got one deal from this person or from her family. And she got so many referrals from her that it was a magical, huge piece of her business. And she would even go back, they would travel together. She's like, hey, you referred me to John. I listed John's $10 million house, talked to John and see how I did. And she would say, oh, I already talked to John. John called me and said, you were phenomenal. Otherwise, I wouldn't refer you. I won't refer people, you know, unless, whatever. And she's still. She never got one piece of business from this woman. You never know.

[C]

I would say something that's really interesting, for example, about this relationship with this leader or this person is that even today, if I were to read on the newspaper that something happened to him or any member of his family, I will feel for him. Why? Because he never pushed me away. He never disrespected me. He never did anything bad to me. He answered my phone calls when he felt like answering. He answered my texts whenever he felt like answering. He told me, you bring me a buyer of market, I will pay your commission. You know what I mean? So he didn't do anything wrong by me. And, you know, to date, I text him and, you know, he may respond, he may not, but I keep texting. I don't care.

[A]

Yeah, a lot.

[C]

And do I hope to do business with him? I do, and I hope I do in the future, but that's not the reason I'm doing it anymore. It's out of principle. Like, I feel for him. I do. That's just different people. You connect with them differently.

[A]

Yeah. It's so. I love doing it.

[D]

And it's also like, per what you do, which I'm such a big believer of, like, don't attach yourself to the outcome. Just embrace the process and focus on what you can control. You can't control what's going on on the other side of the phone, but you can control what you do. And then if you do that with consistency, the results work in your favor.

[C]

We never know the outcome. Right. If we did, we will probably not pursue a lot of the relationships that we have in our lives.

[D]

Exactly.

[C]

So we, in a certain way, we gamble. You know, we just have to gamble with people in life.

[D]

The probabilities work in your favor when you're consistent and you come from a place of contribution.

[A]

Right, right. And you do everything great that you're doing, you get better and better and better. And it still requires a large number of contacts in order to get.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

What you really deserve and can get out of that business.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Especially real estate. Real estate. You know, again, when I got into real estate, like, the idea was like, okay, in two years, I'm going to have my mansion in Beverly Hills and I'm going to be driving at Rolls Royce with red interior.

[A]

You know, that's what you think when.

[C]

You get into real estate.

[A]

I mean, I'm going to write that down.

[C]

I wasn't really sure where I was going, but, you know, you see all flashy TV shows and you picture yourself there, then you get into the business and you start hearing, you know, sayings like 10% of realtors do 90% of the business. Which I actually think is probably less than 10%.

[D]

I think you're right.

[A]

Yeah, I think it's the 80, 20 rule. And it's definitely not the 80, 20 rule.

[C]

Thousand percent. And even LA is such a big decentralized city where you have the suburbs and everything is like it's a 45, 50 mile radius. Yeah, just the city of LA. Even then the streets are small, especially in what I do. Obviously in luxury residential, same thing. But in what I do too. We know every other developer, we know the contractors, they are all fighting for the same people. It's insane. It's really an insane business. And when you get into it and just start thriving and cruising a little more then is when it just gets to the next level. At least for me. When I see all these TV shows, I think we spoke about this sometime before, but when you see all these TV shows about showcasing these like 40, $50 million houses, follow up, go online and see if they sell.

[A]

That's right.

[C]

How about that?

[A]

That's right. You'll find something different.

[C]

90% of them don't.

[A]

And I don't watch any of those shows ever. And it's not because I've created a boundary like I should watch them sometime, you know, because everybody talks about it. But I have gone on to. We have a tool that you can go on and find out how much volume agents do.

[C]

Yeah, the agency tool and the mls.

[D]

The level of embellishment.

[A]

Oh, they're not selling one tenth of.

[C]

The house of what it looks like.

[A]

Yeah, for sure.

[C]

And again, it doesn't matter. You know why it doesn't matter? Because the people who are watching those shows are watching it for entertainment and dreaming. There are a lot of memes on Instagram. Yeah, they're just dreaming.

[A]

Right?

[C]

We all dream.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

So that's really the target audience. If you are talking about the realtors who are actually doing business and are serious in the business, we all know that's not true. We all know that's not real. And all the drama they want to throw in there, that's great. Listen, it's reality tv. That's what it is.

[A]

Absolutely.

[C]

You know, we discussed before, especially in development and multifamily and you know what we do in this field, there is more drama, real drama that you can ever see in any of those shows.

[D]

Oh, interesting.

[C]

A thousand percent. I mean, the day in the life of a developer, broker, investor, developer, in LA squatters. I had squatters follow me down the street with, like, a stick. I mean, I had the police come and literally, like, pull bodies out of some of our properties. You know, you buy these small single family houses. You have to, like, wait until you get your plans and your permits approved. And during that time, squatters go in, we board the houses, we change the lock with fence, they go in, they find a way to get in. And those are a big liability because the moment they change the lock, it is considered that they've established tenancy.

[A]

That's right.

[C]

So we had to go to court with the squatters and pay them $35,000.

[A]

Amazing.

[C]

To get them out.

[D]

So interesting world that you live in. It's unique to be a female in that world, being sort of the multifamily development element. Tell us how that feels and looks and what that.

[A]

And you could also say young female with an accent. With an accent.

[C]

Spicy. Spicy.

[D]

Spicy, for sure. Yep.

[A]

There you go.

[D]

One thing I'll say before you answer that, knowing you a little bit, knowing the passion, the grit, the determination, the resilience, the willingness to just totally step into uncertainty is definitely something I admire. And I definitely think that's a common denominator of people who achieve at the highest level.

[C]

They're probably one of the people that I've known the longest in life. You know that?

[A]

Wow.

[C]

Wow. I've been here for seven years and two months, and I've known you for like, five of them.

[A]

Look at that. And that comes through persistence.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

And that comes.

[A]

No, no, no. Of course.

[C]

She's by far the most persistent person I've ever met. Wow. I take it hands down.

[A]

I like it.

[C]

Yeah. Hands down. You know, sometimes it gets a little annoying just for the right people. That's all right.

[D]

But the right people respect that. Or I, in my. I'm right people, I want to be humble about that. I think people that are like, attraction.

[C]

People who want to go in the right direction, appreciate that for sure. And listen, again, as I just said, just to not be repetitive, but it can get annoying sometimes. But I always knew the reason behind where you were, you know, following up with me all the time. So I never felt that, you know, you were being too pushy or that it was out of context or anything like that.

[D]

I think hopefully it comes from a good place, per your whole story.

[C]

Yeah. You're building a business. That's your best. Yeah.

[D]

I'm here to create value for others, and I'm a big believer. And I know you can relate to this. If I don't believe in myself, why should anyone else believe in me? And I trust some believe that working with me will be to everyone's advantage. And I know you feel the same. And I think the people that achieve at the highest levels and you're passionate.

[C]

You love what you do.

[A]

Yep.

[C]

So, like, you have to love this business.

[A]

And it makes a big difference. You know, one of the things that Josh always says is environment matters. And it makes a big difference what people are doing around you. When maybe I'll tell this story a hundred times till I get tired of it. You know, I went to visit my daughter for her 20th birthday in New York just last week. And, you know, she's busy. She's at an Ivy League school. She does very well. She's busy. Her friends are all academic. Hey, will you take my friends out to dinner for my birthday? Sure. We go to a place, it's wonderful. We have this great time. And then we had dessert, we sang Happy Birthday and it's like nine o', clock, and I'm like, where are we going next? Because these kids are fun. I'd like to, hey, where are we going? And like, oh, you know, it starts with one friend and then the other, and the end the other. Oh, you know, sorry, I've got a paper due tomorrow. I've got this to do, whatever. And then I get all the way down to my daughter. I'm like, well, that's the two of us. No, sorry, I can't, dad. And I gotta tell you that that's dedication. When I was 20 years old, first of all, my parents weren't taking me anywhere. They didn't take my friends anywhere. And if they did, I'd be like, that's party, man. You know, it's my birthday. And when you have the group of people around you that are, for example, if you had the benefit, you were the one that was calling, you were the one that was getting an appointment. One out of 12 or so. Right. Can you imagine if you were surrounded by people that were getting appointment one out of eight? You know, it's impossible. You'd be like, whoa. You know, instead of the other ones, the other ones are saying, like, wow, you know, you could do a thousand these and never get anything. And that's like, that's not encouraging. Then you look at that phone. That phone is scary to begin with.

[C]

It's kind of an interesting business too, especially like talking about a strictly being a realtor. Because when I was doing, let's say, one of every 12. If there was someone that was doing one of every eight, they weren't excited to have me next to them. They weren't excited even to that level. Even though you can be on the same brokerage or the same group of people, I mean, at least in my experience, most of them were not willing to give away. They were so secretive about. And I'm the complete opposite.

[A]

That's great.

[C]

I am the complete opposite.

[A]

You'll see it at a higher level.

[D]

Much higher. Abundance, collaboration.

[C]

I had so many assistants in the last year, as you guys know. I had so many different assistants the last year that, you know, I've been willing to mentor. I will be in. But they don't want to work. Okay. Some of them don't want to work. And I'm an open book. I'm an open book when it comes to, like, how I did it, what's my story, how I got to where I'm at. To me, there is no competition. It's an energy thing too. It's like, you know, how well do you get along with this person? You may say something that, you know, maybe like just part of your pitch, and they're like, wow, okay, now they feel closer to you, or you may say something that, you know, makes them repel you. You know what I mean? So I just, at least in my experience, I've always been very true and honest to who I am. So when I went into this, I got a referral. This was my first referral. It was an Israeli couple. He was a harmony lender and she was an attorney. So you can imagine this is not like, you know, the everyday people. They were developers of single family homes in Beverly Hills and as Sherman Oaks. And as I was walking into my appointment, I don't know if I should say the name, but let's say there were two of the top 5%. As we were talking, there were two of them coming out. They just had a listing appointment with them. And I was 27, dressed very conservative because of course, you want to make sure to give the right impression. My hair was straight, you know, of course, five years younger than I am now. So I look like a baby. I mean, I still do, but it was just. It was just too much. So I walked in there, I sat in their office, and the woman keeps staring at me and she's like, excuse me, how old are you?

[D]

You.

[A]

Wow.

[C]

And I was like, oh, I'm 27. And she's like, you look like 12. Until you started speaking. And they were like, okay. So we just had this person tell us that we can sell our house for 11 million. And we had this other person who said that they can sell our house for ten and a half million. What do you think? And I said, well your property has been on the market at 12 million for a year. I said have you received any offers? She goes no. I said okay, I don't think you're going to get 11 and I don't think you're going to get 10 and a half. That's exactly what I said. I said now I can tell you this. Whatever anyone is willing to pay for it, I will get it. And this was, by the way, this was my big, my big get them. I will always ask for a 90 day contract. That's it. If I don't sell it in 90 day, move on to the next one. And what happens after 90 days? They give you an extension of another 90 or another six months. That was always my pitch. If I felt that they were really pushing, I said listen, 60 days. I would say I can't get it in 90, but you want to give me 60, give me 60 days, I don't care. And they always raining at the end. Always.

[A]

You're making it easy for them to say yes. Very so, like, oh, you know, we're not sure. Boy, she sounds good but she looks awfully young and we love her past.

[C]

Sure she doesn't know la she's been here for two, three years.

[A]

Yeah, we're not sure but what do.

[C]

We have to lose?

[A]

60 days, there you go.

[C]

Everyone else is looking to tie them up, especially the big realtor. A year. I'm like, give me 60 days and instead for two and a half I will do for two and a quarter. That's it. That was it. That was it. The moment. I will get them always. 60 days, 90 days.

[D]

Find the solution, make it happen. Sure, do. With confidence and conviction and people feel.

[C]

And again. And another thing, obviously as you're getting closer to the end of your term, obviously, like I will always tell them, I would say, listen, you can go to somebody else and they are going to give you the same rap that I did two months ago. I know the property. I showed the property thousands of times. If it's not selling, it's price.

[A]

Yep, that's right.

[C]

Before you move on to somebody else, let me drop the price. Just give me another 60 days. Let me just drop the price for another 60 days. That's how we sold.

[A]

What's a value proposition that you have for a seller? Why should a seller use you instead of, hey, you know what, the other guy that said ten and a half million or whatever might not get ten and a half million, but that guy has number one market share in this area.

[C]

Yes. Why, Barbara? Well, I would say two things. So when we're competing, especially in those luxury listings, when you're competing against the top 1%, I don't think it's that difficult for two reasons. One, they try to tie you up for a year. Most of them do now because everything became a little bit more tricky the last three, four years with COVID They do six month contracts, but it used to be a year plus. I mean, they will charge you higher commission, 3% on each side. They were going at it. It was a very strong market. In bull markets, everyone makes money. So that's what it was. That was one thing. And then they asked me that question and I told them, I said, listen, I hate that question. Like, why are you going to ask me what is my value proposition? I am. I'm telling you that if you give me this period of time, I'm going to do everything I can to get it sold. And of course, you know, everything's also how you deliver the message, as we know.

[A]

Oh, for sure.

[C]

Okay. And like I'm very passionate. I'm half Chilean, so, you know, I'm very passionate. So I put all my energy into this. I could be literally like falling asleep driving to the listing appointment. That hour that I'm there, I have to be at my best. It doesn't matter how you feel. Game on. That's just it. So sometimes I have five hours. I remember one of them was five hours.

[A]

Wow.

[C]

And the girl was after that, she was like, she wanted me to walk her through every single class in the contract. Everything.

[A]

Wow, everything.

[C]

And it was like a million 1.7.

[D]

Where does that drive and that motivation come from?

[C]

I think I always saw my dad as a very hardworking person. My dad was very hardworking, but he will always have time for his family. We were always his number one priority. But I think it comes from him passing away while I was in the States. So before I graduated, about three months before I graduated, I was supposed to go visit him. I got my ticket for like three, four months. He bought it that in Christmas and he was like, it was my first Christmas away in a few years. So he was like, I'm gonna buy your ticket for a spring break so that, you know, it's my birthday too. He was like, you know, I can have you here. We spoke two days before I took my flight and I was like, dad, I can't wait. I'm so excited. Blah, blah, blah. Literally the day before my flight, and this was a booked trip for four months. The day before my flight, my mom called me, your dad is at the hospital. And I was like, what do you mean, he's at the hospital? What do you mean? Like, what's happening? I was actually at the courthouse in Venice. I was going with one of these mediations.

[A]

Mediation?

[C]

And I was like, what do you mean? Is he okay? She goes, I don't know. He's going to make it. I was like, what do you mean? I'm going to be there tomorrow. I haven't seen my dad at this point in, like, nine months. And I'm like, what do you mean? Is this a joke? I don't know. It's so unrealistic. Okay. So unrealistic that after nine months, now seeing my dad, I have my trip booked for four months. And literally about six hours before I took my flight, my mom called me and I was it. Who's gone?

[A]

I'm so sorry. Yeah.

[C]

So I always felt that it's kind of a weird feeling because obviously, you know, these things make you stronger over time.

[A]

Sure.

[C]

But I always felt that, first of all, I was supposed to come here for a year, do my master's degree, and go back to Spain. I love Spain. I love my culture. I love my people. I love the food. My original plan was to come here again for nine months after that happened. I felt that I had to make offering. I felt like, okay, so I wasn't there. When he had his last breath, I actually heard him on the phone. I said, so I better do something that means something since I wasn't there when this happened. So I just kind of, like, pushed. My mom was like, well, okay, what are you going to do? What's next? And I was like, well, let me get a job, figure it out from there. And she was like, well, you have your house, you have your car, you have your siblings, you have your family here. And they said, yeah, but, you know, it's never going to be the same. I said, so I need something. I don't know what I need, but I don't want to go back to Spain right now. I need to make up for it. That was my whole motivation.

[A]

Because you had invested, in a sense, in your trip and education in the US and you missed something great, and you want to make sure that investment paid off, basically. Wow.

[B]

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[C]

Whoops.

[B]

I've got a box of Cheez it crackers staring at me and I just wanted that irresistible cheesy crunch.

[C]

Sorry, that was a total snackcident.

[A]

Mmm.

[C]

What was I supposed to be talking about? So salty, so crunchy. So cheesy. Whoops. Lost my train of thought.

[B]

I've heard of brain freeze, but brain cheese?

[D]

Mmm.

[B]

I'll just have one more cheesy cracker.

[C]

And then I'll get back to it.

And I didn't think it paid off until 48 hours ago. Wow.

[A]

We're gonna have to tell us what happened 48 hours ago.

[C]

I bought my first property.

[A]

Wow. Congratulations.

[C]

Four units in Hollywood.

[A]

Oh, that's great. As a buyer, that's awesome.

[C]

So that was a very emotional day. I posted a reel, which I don't really do. You know, a lot of like Instagram and stuff.

[A]

I don't look at it. Yeah, I know now I gotta look at it too.

[C]

But yeah, it was a very emotional day because I felt like, first of all, like, it's very different. Even though, again, I'm not ashamed to say that I was born and raised in wealth. I never had to worry about anything. I always had a real food, best restaurant, good car. When I was 18, you know, I just, I was raised that way and I loved it. It was just my life. That was my life. So I was like, okay, so this is what it is. I said, so three years, four years ago, I bought my car and I could have bought, you know, a Tesla or I could have bought a Porsche. So I bought a Porsche and I wrapped it Southside wrapped it red, orange, neon.

[A]

Wow. So everyone knows me see it now too.

[C]

Everyone knows me as the. Especially in South Philly, they know me as the girl with the strawberry Porsche.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

So I don't know. I always. It's a very good question where all this motivation came from because I think that everything came from, you know, that one moment that I was under when this happened to my dad. And then after that, I just kept finding different intances throughout my career that I just looked at all these one person realtors and I was like, they are not better than me. Why can't I do this, you know, so.

[D]

And that drive, coupled with the humility and the gratitude, I think is.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And authenticity is huge. So 48 hours ago, you bought your first four plex. Congratulations. And you said, that's. I finally sort of hit the payday for the investment. Is that the end? Is that the beginning? What's the next step?

[C]

I don't want to be very like, oh, yeah, that's the beginning. Okay. I don't want to be the type of person.

[A]

Bring it, bring it.

[C]

I mean, it's definitely not the end. It's definitely not the end is a milestone in my career and my personal life is another accomplishment I had, you know, rising star of the company and excellent customer service on 22. And another award from the agency. Another one they gave me. I think it was, again, rising star of the company. You know, they had this like, you know, most upbringing.

[A]

Rising star.

[C]

Sure. Volume of sales again. We were talking, you know, some realtors sell 40, 50 million dollar houses. I sold 26 deals last year.

[A]

That's amazing.

[C]

So I do a lot of volume. So my business is volume, obviously, price.

[A]

But there's not a lot of real estate in LA that's that inexpensive. So still adds up.

[C]

I think I looked at my record the other day, was around a million to five or a million three.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

So that adds up.

[D]

Yep.

[A]

For sure. Yeah, yeah.

[C]

He knows my numbers.

[D]

Oh, yeah, that's very impressive again. Sure.

[A]

Five years, 25, 30 million. 20. 25 million at 20 units. Yeah.

[D]

I mean that's.

[C]

I thought we were at 20 like a month ago. We're probably like a little more right now.

[A]

I love it. So do you have a goal for wealth or do you have a goal for number of units?

[C]

I think that goals come as you go. So I've never had it. I think this is a mistake too. So I don't want, you know, people to take this the way. It's not like you should always have a goal. But I didn't really have a goal. I didn't realize that I wanted to buy real estate, especially investment properties. I'm not talking about single families. Yeah, I didn't know that I wanted that until, you know, I really learned about the benefits of doing that. So, you know, when we're talking about depreciation, where appreciation, cash flow, all those things. So the thing that was the most enticing to me of it all was depreciation. Like the reason why obviously we're not talking politics, but the reason Trump and million other people don't pay Taxes is because they're multifamily real estate is because you are able to live tax free if you own enough multifamily real estate.

[A]

And it's an asset that appreciates while you depreciate it. Correct. So it actually appreciates in value. And then the government allows you to write off the appreciation, so you write off the depreciation. Very few assets that will appreciate while you write off depreciation.

[C]

I would say it's the only asset.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And again, there is no.

[A]

There's a few asset classes, but it's the best one.

[C]

Agree. It's the best one I'm talking about. Okay, let me clarify what I meant by that. Real, you can go and touch and feel. Okay? That's what I'm all about. That's how I bring value to, you know, most of my clients. I'm not just telling you this. You come with me, I drive you to 40 projects under construction. You see them, you touch them, I break it down for you. I'm telling you. You know how you're going to capture the depreciation? You're going to get an appreciation of what, 6, 7% every year solid. And you get to increase the rents 3 to 5% every year, too.

[A]

What do you say to someone that the economy, the interest rates, it is what it is and I'm interested in buying. But don't you think I should wait?

[C]

Absolutely not.

[A]

And why is that?

[C]

Because you can either buy a house for a million, let's just say a million with an 8% interest rate, or you can wait until it goes down to 6% and buy for 1.25.

[D]

And you're just saying that the price basically adjusts for the interest rate a thousand percent.

[C]

Look what happened with COVID and started, interest rates dropped to as far as I've been here all time, low.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And what happened? That everything was selling for 2, 300,000 over asking.

[A]

And you know what? I feel like people that are as experienced as we are in real estate, we know for sure whether we're closer to the top of the market than the bottom of the market. And at times I was like, you know, this market's so hot that I always buy, but I'll be more conservative about a buy when we're close to the top of the market. And someone pointed out, it's actually quite obvious is that unless you time the market precisely, which is almost impossible to do, there's a period of time when I know that we're ready for a correction. I know it's going to happen. I'm not sure when. So if I buy right now, I'm going to get what percentage increase in appreciation for the next year? Probably maybe 4, 5, 6% and then maybe another year. So now I've got 6% on top of that compounded. And then before you know it, if there is a correction, really the biggest corrections have been about 20%. So if you buy now, unless the market corrects tomorrow, you're already going to be getting some of that back. Now why don't I wait until it, you know. Well, it might be five years and then you.

[C]

And when happens that they say I wish I bought five years ago.

[A]

Of course that happens. Yeah. And so I look at the individual deal, not the market, because I'm going to.

[C]

That's the right way to look at it.

[A]

Yeah. I've been around long enough, I promise you. People make terrible buys. Terrible when it's a great time to buy. And I've watched people make.

[C]

They overpay for it.

[A]

I've watched people make the best buys when the market is the toughest.

[C]

And let's not forget there is something called refinancing.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Okay. So that's key in this market. That is key. The refinance market is going to be huge in the next few years. It's going to be huge. Rates are not going up right now. They just stabilized, went down a little bit a couple of days ago. But refinancing, what that means is if you buy something for a million dollars now at 8% interest rates and they go down to 6% next year, you can refinance to a lower rate.

[A]

Right.

[C]

So do you take the loss for the 12 months or you want to pay $200,000 more next year? That's it. It's not rocket science.

[A]

And I will tell you that I've invested in real estate for 30 years and I've never bought a piece of property that I lost money on. And I can count six properties that I bought immediately before the market dropped. So you couldn't time it worse. You know, I bought my house in Santa Monica. It was a dump. The market had been so hot for so long. I paid 2.1 for an absolute dump in Santa Monica. And as soon as I close escrow within six months, the house was probably worth about a million six if I had to sell it. That's a huge, huge gap. And guess what? It's not just a 20 plus percent loss. I had put about $400,000 down. I lost 100. I lost 110% of my money. And did it freak me out? Absolutely. It freaked me out. And it was a value add property. I was going to live there and I had the money set aside to build and I was like, wow, do I really want to put this, this cash into that thing? And you know what? I did. Even though I had been in the business already investing for sure a long time, I still had asked my realtor friends and my realtor friends always, did I sell it? Yeah, yeah, I sold it two years ago for $6.2 million.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

I was gonna say, yeah, there you go. Number one. My friends gave me great advice and one of the things that they would say is, well, this is your house, you're gonna live there, right? And I go, yeah. They're like, eh, don't worry about it. I'm like, but what about putting all that money in? They're like, like you're going to live there, right? Yeah. You know, and I will say this. Different from the stock market, different from other classes of assets. You can say, we really don't know anything.

[D]

Right.

[A]

We could be global calamity. We really don't know anything. But I can tell you we do not know where Apple stock is going to be 20 years from now. We do not know where Google is going to be 20 years from now. What is AI going to do to these different industries? We're not exactly sure. I think I know where your 4 unit in Hollywood is going to be 20 years from now. It's going to be like people still need. There's never going to be AI to be your house. You're never going to, you know, live in the. Sorry, I forget what it's called. I'm happy. I forget what it's called. The metasphere.

[D]

Metaverse.

[A]

Yeah. Right, okay. Yeah, I'm going to buy a house in the metaverse. I actually thought about buying.

[C]

You know, it's a fear of missing out. I thought about buying one just to have one just in case.

[A]

No, no, yeah, listen, but I didn't.

[C]

And I didn't buy into NFTs either. So I knew that not.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, listen, I did buy and you know, it was, you know, that's a whole nother story and I didn't transact it properly and if I did, I'd be sitting on, you know, an extra small pile of money. It's like, I'm not worried about that. I know that if you want to invest in stuff like that, in my opinion, you invest in it with throwaway money. You invest in it in money that you would otherwise put into, you know, the second Porsche or whatever. But. But real estate creates generational wealth.

[C]

That's what it is for sure. That's the only way to generational wealth unless you are on the top 1% that have this one top percent brands that give you money passive income every month. The only way is through rental properties. That's it. How did you. That's it.

[A]

I'll just say this. The Brooking Institute, they didn't break it into quartiles, they broke it into quintiles. It makes it a little more complicated, but into five classes. And three of the five classes, the majority, overwhelming majority of their wealth was in real estate. And the top quintile, it wasn't the majority, but you know what, it was like 48%. It was almost the majority. Even the top quintile is like most of it really was, really was real estate. So this is an industry where you really need. It's why Zillow is never going to replace the Realtor. Just like.

[C]

Oh, that's nonsense.

[A]

Travelocity replace the travel agents. Zillow is not going to replace the Realtor because it's too big of an investment. It's too personal of an experience.

[C]

There is nothing like a one to one.

[A]

That's correct.

[C]

It's not gonna be replaced. Even if you. You still know and are aware that you are talking to robot regardless.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

So even though they may have emotions like you are always going to think that they are like predetermined to say what they're gonna say next.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

You know what I mean? So I'm not saying they're not gonna help in factories and like carrying heaviest stuff, which I think is great. Listen, a lot of those jobs are like really crazy for the body.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

You know, so I think all of those things are great. But when it comes to something like this where people have to like, I.

[D]

Don'T know how many var making a.

[A]

Decision on your home, you know. Yeah.

[C]

Too many.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

On the four unit that you bought, are you using FHA funding? You're not?

[C]

I am not.

[A]

How are you financing it?

[C]

It's conventional. Conventional. I'm doing.

[A]

And how much did you have to put down?

[C]

Almost 15%.

[A]

15%. That's not bad though. Yep. That's not bad because there's a new ruling that's coming out that FHA is going to do loans.

[C]

Yeah. Higher loan amounts.

[A]

Lower, lower, lower down payments. And I think think it's five units or less. But it's.

[C]

I'll look into, it's five units or less.

[A]

Five units or less. But you do have to occupy one of the units primaries. If you do that, then you get an incredible break on the amount of money that you, that you.

[D]

How did you decide on this property?

[C]

I just want to say one thing that a lot of people don't think about. And I just went through the process and you know, it's different when you're helping your clients versus when you're doing it yourself. You just get more like informed on the details. Like all of these things that we are discussing about how much is your down payment and the loan amounts and all those things is very dependent. Your down payment is very dependent on your credit score. Same with the rate you're going to get. So that's not something that we have in Spain. That's not something that is 16 years. So if you are thinking about buying a house, whether it's an investment property or a primary home, work on your credit score, prepare for it six, seven months, then you have what happens is, if you don't do that ahead, what's going to happen? Because I went through the process, I had a good credit score, but it wasn't really super high. I've had it for what, six, seven years? First of all, they told me that was a very short period of time. So I was like, yeah, it's almost a third of my life. I mean that really short.

[A]

They said that to me too. They say that I said, okay, 20 years. And they were like, it's medium.

[C]

Yeah, they were like, if you can get another 20 points, your rate is going to go down half a point.

[A]

And it's amazing.

[C]

I was like, okay, so I wish I knew this six months ago, obviously. So if you're going to go through the process, look at your credit score, work with Equifax or Transunion, all these different ones, and they can help you get re score, lower your credit card, but do whatever you have to do. I work on the score.

[A]

I pay a service that's a monthly service and it gives me notifications. And you know, most of the time I don't look at the notifications, but every once in a while I click on it. It gives me two credit scores. It tells me how I could raise my credit. And it's something that everyone should do. They should keep an eye on it. And sometimes there are mistakes on it and a lot of times, even if there aren't mistakes, there are still ways to fix it it. But fixing credit takes a long time you can't fix your credit once you decide.

[C]

I have a client right now. We just put a property in escrow today, a duplex in North Hollywood for a million to 60. And the problem we had, the buyer really, really wants the property but he needed a 70 day escrow because he's trying to get rescore. And we spoke to the lender, guaranteed, I'm going to get this done, guaranteed. I said, yeah, but you have, I have offers at 30 days y. I said, so what are we going to do here? He was like, I will figure it out. I said, well figure it out because I'm sending you a contract 35 days so again you can miss out on your dream place or your first great investment because you are not, you know, property scored. So I would say that the cutting point for what I've learned so far, obviously the higher the better. But you have to be over 740. That's where like this 740 is when the good discounts on rates kick in.

[A]

And I'll tell you one of the tough things as an investor, I went decades with a credit score that was sub 700 because one of the things that I did is I had a number of buildings financed through a regional bank and that regional bank was reporting the credit as if it was personal credit. So it's like, oh, I had tens of millions of dollars worth of personal credit. And it's just like everything was paid on time. It was like every single thing was like check, check, check, check, check. I'm like, why is my credit score so low? And they have changed that. And as soon as they changed that, it changed everything. And I was interviewing a guy who we know, I guess maybe I'll say his name, Sam Freshman. Because he wrote the book on real estate syndication. And Sam and I talked about it and he was laughing and Sam said, you know my credit score. He goes, I haven't paid a bill late ever. Period. And his score, his credit score was in the high five hundreds.

[D]

Wow.

[A]

And it was because he had so much stuff going on and he had, he built stuff. Yeah, he used to own a bank. This guy is super wealthy. And he told me that he saw all these benefits on a credit card and he signed up for a credit card, they declined him for the credit card and he. Yeah, and he had a, at the time he had a line of credit, unsecured line of credit just based on his signature alone, that was over seven figures. So he could just sign here and get the multi seven figure loan, no problem because they Know what kind of assets he has. And of course it's personally guaranteed, but they aren't collateralizing it. Good rate everything. He read that this particular credit card gives you like all extra points and all this sort of thing. And he's like, I should really have that credit card. Signs up for it and they decline him. Yeah. And you can't. He couldn't get anybody on the phone. He said to his assistant, like, and.

[C]

He hits your credit for a credit card. It hits your credit already.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

You get like five points, I think.

[A]

Yeah, it does. And that's why the credit score monitoring stuff is what they call a soft pull. So it doesn't hurt your credit to check your credit yourself. Yeah.

[C]

Five, six months before buying a house, I think is like the right time to start, like really working on it, at least.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

At least.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Barbara, tell us about what's the future? What's the next three years look like from an investment standpoint? From a business building, your brokerage business standpoint. What are the goals? What is the vision?

[C]

The vision is to become the go to Realtor. You can say when it comes to anyone in this city thinking about investing in multifamily real estate.

[A]

Wow.

[C]

Why? Because I've come across a lot of people who claim to know multifamily, and I've come across a lot of different clients who have been stuck with deals because the realtors sell them pieces of land that are not shown to build where they think they can build. Or there's this new thing, SB8, as we all know, which I'm very well versed on. We kind of got a whole podcast.

[A]

Tell us about it. Tell us what it is.

[C]

So as of January of last year, 2022, if any developer wants to build in any piece of land, you have to look at the occupancy history of the property for the last five years. So if the property was owner occupied, and you are able to prove that through utility bills, property tax bills, having the owner's name and the address on it, driver's license that has the name and the address on it, if you're able to prove that, that means the property says be exempt. What that means is that if you have one single family with three bed, two bath, you don't have to replace that unit with a low income, meaning you can build whatever you can build by. Right. And you can rent them at market rents. Now, let's say that the property has been tenant occupied and the income for the tenants is under the medium income for the zip code. That means that if you have a two bed, one bath, you have to build a two bed, one bath and designate it to low income, meaning that instead of collecting 3500, generally collecting 600.

[A]

So basically the money less than median.

[C]

Income for the zip code. So there is a schedule that the housing department has that shows what the income is for a household of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. And going off of that, depending on how many people lived in the house, obviously Charles don't count. Then you can figure out whether you are above or under. So basically, in essence, what this means is. And by the way, this has changed the business drastically because everything developers used to look at was the lot size and the Sony. Then obviously setbacks is mains, power lines, they see stuff. Now you have to know if you can clear it because it's. If not, the property is basically worth about $200,000 less. So if I have to build, if I can by right build five units and I have to designate one of them to a 600 per month tenant versus 3500, that's killing your cash flow. That's where you buy. That's how you base your purchase price upon the projected rental. So basically the whole business has changed. And instead of doing again last year of the 26th project, 19 of them were multifamily. Since this law passed, we are down to like maybe 13, literally half, half or less. And that's because I have a very good relationship with the housing apartment in the city of la and they are helping me get through this process that is 14 to 16 week turnaround. I'm doing it in like three or four weeks. Wow. So that way I'm able to get these properties into escrow.

[A]

Right.

[C]

They call, you know, I'm not gonna say names, but they call the supervisor at the housing department. Oh, I know Barbara, right? You know, because I've cleared over 50 with them. Them tough ones.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

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[A]

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How do you develop that relationship?

[C]

Through going through the process and just always being very honest with them, too. Like, hey, like, before we purchase the property, like, I need to get that letter from the housing department stating that it's SBA exempt or we're not doing the deal. Like, I'm going through a tough one right now that the seller does the biggest problem. They don't want to wait for the letter. And I'm like, listen, if anyone is going to get it, it's me. So let me go through the process. They unilaterally cancel escrow. Yeah. Two weeks ago. And the guy texted me today, are you still interested? And I said, yes. So, you know, while you were active on the market, I've been working on sba. I said, so I think I can have it next week. So, you know that's a $15,000 commission, right? So, you know, it's a 730,000 purchase, something like that. So, you know, you just have to be patient. You have to explain. I had literally hours of conversations on the phone with sellers and sellers agents, both on the phone, me walking them through the process.

[A]

And if you get that exemption letter, which I'm sure you will, what would your client then build?

[C]

In this case is an R2 lot. So we are going to be building two singles plus two ADU, so four units by USC and we're buying the land for 730.

[A]

That's great. And you'll do a tear down, correct? Yeah, you do a tear down. You do a tear down because it's R2. You do a tear down and then you buy, right? You build two units and then once you get your, you have to get your certificate of occupancy first, and then you do the ADUs. Is that right or no?

[C]

No, no, I like it.

[A]

Tell me.

[C]

So I don't know why there's a misconception about it, but it's a lot easier than that. The ADUS law that was enacted several years ago is very simple. You can build an ADU in any lot in the city of LA. R1s, which is basically, this is an R1 lot, 1000%. And it to look, that means residential one. That means that you can build a house, but since the ADU laws, you can also build an adu. So you can build an ADU in any property in la. Okay, that's no brainer. Now, when you start going into RD, 15 mean that you can build one unit every 1500 square feet of the lot and R2 every 2500RD 2 every 2000 and R3 every 800 and R4 every 400 and so on. Okay. So there is this zoning, I think they call it the zoning map sheet that basically shows you what you can build by. Right.

[A]

Zoning overlay. Yeah.

[C]

And shows you what you can build by. Right now the little loopholes that most developers use in LA is the ADU law. So if by write I can build two units, guess what? One by right you can build two ADUs.

[A]

That's right.

[C]

So that's what basically how you turn. You know this case, I think it's 6,800 square feet lot. That's how we're going to be able to put four units in there.

[A]

And you don't have to wait until not at all.

[C]

You can build it all together. When you submit your plans to the city, you have the duplex in the front, the two ADUs in the back. You submit the plans, you go through them and once you get your RTI ready to issue, then you're demolished. Make sure you have your demo permit. Okay. Run separately from the plans. Then you demolish and you start building the same.

[A]

Amazing that I thought that you had to, you had to have the certificate of occupancy. Oh, I'm learning all the time.

[C]

Once you have your plans, you can start and just build everything all together. Otherwise the time for construction will kill the deal.

[A]

Right.

[C]

Time is money. Especially for developers. Time is literally the worst enemy.

[A]

Yeah. Oh absolutely.

[C]

Because every idol, I don't care how they present it or portray. Most developers don't use cash. They don't use cash out of their banks. They take harmony loans for construction and that's 10,000 in interest. I mean month easy.

[D]

Sure.

[C]

That's how everybody builds in la. No one pays cash for.

[A]

And even if you are using your own money, like I have a self directed IRA and I used my own money, it's still velocity of the faster you can move through it.

[D]

Opportunity cost.

[C]

Exactly. It's the opportunity of not using that money on something else. So why if you're using to build something, what you are literally doing is borrowing the money.

[A]

Yep.

[C]

You are just borrowing your money.

[A]

It's a phenomenal way.

[C]

So it's a better to pay the 8 $10,000 interest a month. Y again we're working with you know, 25% margins. Hopefully 2017 like you're working with good margins. So you have to be up another hundred thousand on Interest. But you can use that other money to buy another one.

[A]

Sure.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

You know, it plays well, it turns out well.

[A]

Y and the faster you do it, the less market exposure you have. You know the whole thing.

[C]

Yes.

[D]

So to be the go to multifamily.

[C]

That if any Saudi prince, if any Elon Musk, if anyone who's in the top 1% and not even them, I'm open to obviously anything. I love helping first time buyers with FHAs. They don't know that you can buy a million dollar house with $50,000 with three and a half percent plus closing costs. That's what you're looking at. But they don't know that. Now again, don't buy a million dollar single signing home. Buy a duplex.

[D]

Sure.

[C]

Okay. The loan amount is higher. I think it's a million 89 right now going up to 1 million 125 in January. So you have to be informed. And by the way, 99% of realtors don't know this, so they can't explain it of course. So it's like there's really no competition when you know what you're doing.

[A]

I love it.

[D]

Initiative, curiosity, persistence. That's a powerful.

[C]

And listening to the right people too. Again, I love talking obviously, but you have to know when to listen. When someone has done it over and over and dozens and hundreds of times, you can't beat that. That's experience. And I eventually, I would like obviously to keep doing my own investments. But to do my own investments I need cash. And to get the cash. The way I get cash these days is through commissions.

[A]

Yeah, that's right.

[C]

So that's the business for me with our clients and most of my clients use cash for the buy. To buy the property, they use cash, then they take a harmonic construction loan. Then we go through the process. From the moment we, I would say we get in escrow, we try to close escrow when we have RTI to avoid escorters. And not every seller is happy about that, but we try to release a couple hundred thousand to them them if they give us the time, we're very generous with it. You know, we just need rti.

[A]

This is smart. Yeah.

[C]

So that's the plan. Obviously most sellers don't want to wait six months.

[D]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

But I would say from the moment we open escrow, we know it's a goal. You know, after five, ten days due diligence, which is pretty straightforward. After that, from the moment we start to the monies we finish, we're looking at probably 16 months to be all six units, four units or five units? Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Do you have contacts with construction companies too, or do you leave that?

[C]

Okay, yeah, through my clients.

[A]

So the client comes to you?

[C]

Yeah, through my client. So I would say my clients, this is like their cookie cutter business. So they have their own people that are just busy with them all the time. So, you know, they are not really open to work with anybody else.

[A]

Sure.

[C]

Because I mean, when you are building 40 properties at once, you don't really need to look for much work. You need more people to hire. You know, they're like, oh, I need more people for this project that you guys are giving me to.

[A]

Oh, for sure.

[C]

You know what I mean? And again, it's also difficult to find reliable contractors in the land. And I've been through that. I used to like be like, hey, they said they will be there tomorrow, relax. The after comes, they don't show up and you call them and they don't answer. And next.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, we're familiar.

[D]

Yeah, very.

[C]

So, you know, it's very difficult to find reliable contractors. So everybody knows who the reliable contractors are though.

[A]

Yeah. The four units that you bought, is it a value add play or are they done? Done.

[C]

It's done. Done.

[A]

Wow.

[C]

So fun fact. Let's put it as a fun fact. I sold it to one of my clients last year for a million four throw. It was a remodel, triplex. So they did a little bit of a further remodel. Really didn't spend much money. Just changed a couple of like AC unit, updated the roof, a couple of things, you know, nothing crazy expensive. And they built a two story ADU in the back, three bed, three bath.

[A]

Wow.

[C]

Brand new construction, beautiful. I mean, I would love for you guys to see it at some point.

[A]

Absolutely, I'd love to.

[C]

So four units. And I was gonna be. Obviously if I sell them the deal. Obviously not actually, like this is not an obvious thing, but the way my clients operate, if I sell them the deal after the value add is get to sell the property.

[A]

Sure, yeah.

[C]

Loyalty.

[A]

Yeah. As they should if you find them a great deal on the way in. And we have talked to realtors that find great deals for developers to somebody else. And I tell them, you know, don't do it. Yeah, give it to somebody.

[C]

You know, I'm very lacking in that sense because I would say, you know, my clients especially, you know, the ones I'm talking about that do most of my business, they are from New York and they have a very strong accent and they say, but it is true. Their word is their currency. A handshake. That's all they need.

[A]

Yes.

[C]

And if they tell me I'm getting the deal, I'm getting the deal. I don't feel how many, many people. Listen, they get offers from other agents, like literally offer. So I have a buyer and they forward it to me. So then I negotiate. There's another agent. Listen, for example, on this deal today, I have it on the market for sale. This guy showed it off market because he knew it was coming up, got a buyer and he went, oh, I want one and a half percent. I said, well, I have a listing agreement. It's my listing. It's on the market now. Well, it wasn't when I showed it and I got the offer. I said, Listen, 10,000. How about that? Just get your client 10,000 above and you will get 10,000. That's what he did. He brought his clients up from a million to five to a million to six. And he's keeping that 10,000. That's it. Listen again, that's better than nothing.

[A]

He has no right for a commission anyways, for sure.

[C]

Y. I mean, he knows that he's not entitled to anything. So 10,000 is better than nothing. Right. So you remodel triplex in the front and then brand new ADU in the back. So they gave it back to me to sell it. We originally thought we were going to get around 2, 3, 5. That's what we thought we were going to get. I got an offer, a couple offers under that. Then I got an offer at what we were asking. But I believed in the location. That was not a completely reused price point with, you know, the way I had everything set up with the lender. I was like, okay, maybe make me panel. Let's see. You know, because I just took a million seven loan, so, you know, it's not walking apart.

[A]

Sure.

[C]

So I was like, okay, well, let's see if I can, you know. But through the relationship and through looking at my numbers, obviously, and how much I've sold the last few years and believing that I'm going to continue to make the same.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

We were able to put it together and yeah. Just close to this.

[A]

I love it. Congratulations.

[C]

Big risk.

[A]

But, you know, is it, Is it rent control?

[C]

It is rent control. Yes. I don't care. I don't listen. That's something that I just can't get my hair.

[A]

I agree with you. We have so many people, brand new construction. Yeah.

[C]

Brand new constructions and a lot of people, oh, I'm only buying that's not rent control. I'm like, wait, wait a second. The property is vacant.

[A]

You're going to get full market.

[C]

Yeah. You are going to get full market rent and you are limited to what, 3 to 5% every year. Well, guess what? That's what you're going to get anyways.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

What are you thinking about increasing 10% your tenants are going to live? I mean, it doesn't make sense to me.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

Seriously, the more I think about it, I'm like, wait, no rent control. Okay.

Yeah.

[A]

What if a place, what if it's a fourplex and you've got two units that are occupied and people have been in there forever and the rents are low?

[C]

If I'm a buyer, I'm not buying anything with tenants. I'm never buying anything with tenants. I pass on the deal, more deals will come. I don't touch anything with tenants.

[A]

I buy them with tenants.

[D]

Y. You have?

[A]

Yep.

[C]

Yeah, I don't. Unless sometimes if there are tenants, I.

[A]

Get worked into the price.

[C]

Well, obviously. But again, if you have, you know, a two bedroom and they are paying $100, I don't want that. Tenants. Yeah, that's just it, you know what I mean? A lot of people buy buildings. Listen, a lot of people buy with tenants, especially in like class A assets. When you're talking about buying in Beverly Hills and buying in West Hollywood and Santa Monica. Okay, I'm not talking about that. We're especially like middle income areas. Okay. So we're talking about like Northwest Hollywood. I'm talking about Hollywood. It's Hollywood Mid Street. It's a very. Listen, they cash flow better than any other one in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills.

[A]

Yeah, they do.

[C]

So you are buying location. Listen, the appreciation is going to be the same.

[A]

And here's the thing, here's the thing. When you talk about West Adams and Hollywood as opposed to West Hollywood, you know, this is a national show. So it's like West Hollywood. Very different than Hollywood for sure. But I'm gonna say a lot of.

[C]

People still don't know that West Hollywood is here and North Hollywood. They think that North Hollywood is Sunset Boulevard.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

There's a completely different area.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

20 minutes away that's called North Hollywood.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, and I'm gonna say this to you, it might be a somewhat rundown area and you're still buying in Los Angeles, in the city of la.

[C]

Not even in LA County.

[A]

Correct, correct. And there's value in that. I don't care what everybody says.

[C]

Again, you go on Instagram and all these podcasters. Oh, buy in Texas.

[A]

Buying.

[C]

Costa Rica, Ohio, Atlanta, Hotlanta.

[A]

Okay, listen, I don't care. Yeah, not this podcast.

[C]

There is no value added. I had a fight on Instagram with this guy. I never respond. But now I'm getting into, you know, a little bit more into like this podcast thing. I'm like, hey, you. I have to be a little bit more, you know, open about communicating. Right. So. Oh, wow. There's no good deals in la.

[A]

I did an episode a long time ago. I'm not going to tell you. It was on a very big podcast. And it was my three rules that have led me to accumulate 600 units without ever losing money. And we'll do an episode on that here. So I have to wait for that. But one of the three rules is buy where you know, and it's got to be nearby. We bought six houses in Joshua Tree and guess what we bought right before the market crashed. Yep. And because we bought value add and we bought in the right place, you're still okay.

[D]

Yeah, there's.

[A]

I even forget what it's called. Monument Manor or something. That is right near the park entrance. There's only so much of that right near the Joshua Tree park entrance. It's just magnificent. And we bought a dump and you know, we paid probably top dollar at the time, but it was a dump. There's a lot of value added it. And by the time we add the value and the market's already come back a little bit, it's like you also had.

[C]

And that goes back to the realtor too, I'm gonna say, because you know, again, there are a lot of realtors, a lot that will stuck you in a deal. They don't care. They want to make their 10, 15, 20,000 and get out of the way. And if you call them, they want to answer the phone. Yeah, that's not my business. Okay. That's not how I operate. Especially when I do what I do. Like, everyone talks. I get a lot of phone calls from other investors and developers. Hey, I want to say. Well, when I have first look, I'm like, well, you're not going first look, I'm going to be honest with you. But if my client A and B passes on it, then I will call you.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

You know what I mean? Just because you have loyalty has to go both ways.

[D]

And your point, your reputation is your currency.

[C]

A thousand percent.

[D]

And play the long game.

[C]

Yep. That's what I was always very careful when I moved to LA and identifying the bullshit which is 98%, man. You know, if you walk into a bar right now, there are probably seven people who real estate in LA and do real estate. Okay. And then they arrive at Rolls Royce and live in an apartment.

[A]

So I love it.

[D]

That's a l. Yep.

[C]

That's a link for sure.

[A]

It's our fire round. So I'm going to ask you some questions. Probably each one of these questions can have lots of answers and, you know, and follow up. I'm tempted to follow up, but I'm not going to follow up so we can get through them. I'll give Josh some of them. And so what's your favorite childhood memory?

[C]

That's a tough one. I have so many. It's a good thing probably to have, I would say one of the trips that I did with my parents to Poland when I was nine years old.

[A]

If you could be remembered for one thing, what would it be?

[C]

Helping people become financially free.

[A]

What do people misunderstand about you most?

[C]

They think that because I look good and I look young, that I don't know my craft. But when I start talking, I think they usually turn around, especially with the accent, the sweetness and, you know, I think they think I'm weaker and less knowledgeable than I am.

[A]

If you go back and give your 18 year old self one piece of advice, what would it be?

[C]

Buy real estate. Investment properties. Start at 18. Make money and put it aside.

[A]

If you can have coffee with any, any living person, who would you choose?

[C]

Living person. That was the tricky one. You knew where I was going.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

With any living person. Like today.

[A]

Yeah. Tomorrow you'll have coffee with whomever you want to have coffee with. Your mom.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

You do a pretty vigorous hike. You climb up, somewhat difficult hike. You get all the way, all the way to the top. And as you come to the summit, you look down and it's all of your. It could be Spain, it could be la. But you look down and you see your family and your friends and your clients and your community and you shout one thing. What are you going to shout?

[C]

Thank you.

[A]

I love it. You know what?

[D]

Thank you, thank you.

[C]

Thank you guys.

[A]

Phenomenal. Thank you very much for joining us today. I hope you got a lot out of today's episode. Our intention is to bring on great guests that tell captivating stories, stories and relatable stories and at the same time give us phenomenal education and things we can act on right away to start building wealth in real estate. Now see below for our show notes more about the guests where you can find and follow me on social media. And also a great way to support the podcast is to go to YouTube and whatever other platforms you listen to the podcast on and make sure you follow and subscribe. We'd love to have comments. I'll definitely review the comments and add as much as I possibly can to what we've done on the episode today. In addition to that, if you found this podcast useful, we would love to have a great review from you.