18-Lending, Real Estate Investing, and Mindset with Alejandro Tobon

In this episode, I sit down with Alejandro Tobon, a Mortgage Advisor, investor, and mindset coach. We dive into the world of real estate investing, discussing how to break the cycle of poverty through strategic investments in real estate, stocks, and crypto. Alejandro shares his insights on navigating the mortgage industry, from helping first-time homebuyers to seasoned investors, and how the right mindset plays a crucial role in achieving financial freedom. We also talk about the current state of the real estate market, interest rates, and how to stay competitive in a dynamic landscape. Alejandro’s advice is practical, honest, and designed to help you make informed decisions—not emotional ones—when it comes to buying and investing in real estate. Whether you're looking to buy your first home or expand your real estate portfolio, this episode is packed with valuable advice.

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Chapters

• 0:56 Just 2 Minutes Questions
• 4:09 The Interview

Transcript

0:00

I feel good saying I'm waiting, you're probably just wasting time. And then you can't complain about not getting the results in the future for the work you didn't even put into, which was maybe getting into the discipline of budgeting, getting into the discipline of playing the game of credit correctly, and putting money away to make those initial investments. Now, when has it not been a good time to buy real estate? When? Throughout recorded civilized history, at least in the last 200 year period, it's always been a great time to buy real estate. Absolutely. Best time was yesterday. Always yesterday. Welcome everybody, I'm Kamil Sarji with Gold Door Realty and this is Just Two Minutes. Today I have Alejandro here. Alejandro, I want to tell us about you. Yeah, real quick. I'm a mortgage advisor, investor, and coach, educator, motivator, trying to empower people to break the cycle of poverty by making investments in real estate, stocks, and crypto. And so my bread and butter is mortgages, helping first time buyers and investors alike. Awesome. Very, very cool. And Alejandro has A cool haircut. If I were able to, you know, if I had hair, your haircut is the one I want. It's, it's old school, you know, I'm bringing it back. I'm bringing it back. Yeah. What do they say? Business and the sides party in the back. Something like that. Yeah. I love it. Okay. So I have my timer here. Yeah, so first two minutes is gonna be random questions, and then we'll go into the real estate industry all right and ready One two boom okay, all right, so what's your favorite coffee flavor? Ah favorite coffee flavor. I've always said it was holiday, and it's one that I made up It was typically just black coffee Cinnamon and raw honey nice, but I'll I'd like hazelnut occasionally and uhh Anything that's like cinnamon like. But I call it holiday. Alright, love it. If you were in the desert and you saw an oasis in the distance, would you believe it? Would I believe it? Probably not. Not that I'm pessimistic, but what's the probability? How about Justin Timberlake? If you were in the desert and you saw Justin Timberlake walking, would you believe it? No, it was Justin Timberlake doing the desert. Maybe it's a music video, I gotta get over there. Could be. Um, what's your favorite element? Favorite element? I'm gonna go with, uh Oxygen. It keeps me alive. And oxygen is actually a combustion. So, I'll stick with that. Even though carbon and hydrogen are very abundant. So speaking of that, are you a nitrogen kind of guy? Or are you a helium kind of guy? I'm gonna go with nitrogen. Nitrogen? Yeah, yeah, yeah. How come you picked that? Uh, well, nitrogen, you know, it's necessary for plants to grow, crops, and help sustain life. Uh, oxygen. Helium, it's a little unstable I guess. Makes your voice funny. Well, you know, I've never actually successfully done sucking the helium and changing the pitch of my voice, but nitrogenators. Um, have you met a Syrian before? Probably have. Yeah, how was the interaction with them? How do you think though? I, I'd never had an unpleasant experience with, with foreigners or people with background experience. Specifically syrian? No, no, I would say positive. All right, awesome. I purposely ignored the question. Oh man, all right, so yeah, if you do My good friend here is Syrian. In case you don't know. So why did you say that? Why did you say that? Oh, I met you and it was, it was all right. It was a weird interaction or whatever. No, no, no, no. But with all honesty, just to elaborate on it, typically it's, they're very humbling experiences when I interact with somebody from outside the country or background, because it just brings elements to you that makes you appreciate what we do have and then make you realize that there's so much more out there. And Quite honestly, when you shared a little bit about your story, I was very intrigued. I'm like, I gotta know more. And then I'm seeing your office, and I'm just blown away by the design. I know I haven't stopped complimenting you, but they're very sincere compliments. This space, thank you. This place is beautiful. I really like it, how you preserved it, modernized it, and just pay homage to the original character. That's really, it speaks a lot about, in my opinion, what's important to you, your values and the vision that you have. I want to stay in alignment with that. Thank you. You're making me blush. I want to talk more about you. Oh, okay. We can do that too. So, tell me about you. I mean, like, lending, right? But you're focused on investors. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So, I want to talk about that. That and how you help. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's important to educate in understanding in the United States at least how money works and the economy, because it's easy to get lost in the news and all those cycles that just perpetuate fear and confusion, uh, of hot topic tends to be, house prices are high, or interest rates are high. But that's superficial. If you peel back the layers of the onion and just begin to ask yourself fundamentally, why, what brought us here? Now you're an educated investor and you make informed decisions, not emotional. That's a big mistake. I feel that many of us make, myself included. Where we allow emotions to insert themselves in the equation of decision making, particularly business. And in business, emotions don't go in there. Two plus two is four. And this is important, not just for investors or investor hopefuls, but even for your first time homebuyer. Because you might hear occasionally the sentiment where people say, no, no, we're just, we're waiting for the market to get better. Well, what does waiting for the market to look better look like? What is, have you given any thought to what that is? Oh, when prices drop. Okay, cool. What will it take for prices to drop? Do you understand why prices are high to begin with? It's an inventory shortage. We didn't build enough houses in a 10 year span. The census, and you can validate this, check it. 2010 to 2020. Population grew by 23 million people. Chances are it was a lot higher because there's a lot of people that just don't participate in the census. And in that same time period, the National Association of Realtors tells us that we only built about 6 million homes and we can't seem to build them fast enough. Home Depot, Lowell's and other supply stores are just not stocked up all the time. Builders can't build fast enough because municipalities have some very stringent rules to allowing you to build. They can't seem to get enough workers to do the work. So it's going to take some time for inventory to catch up. On the flip side, if you say, well, prices are high because inventory is low. Isn't that the same reason people want to own rare and precious metals like gold? Because there's only so much gold. So over time, you know, gold is going to maintain its value or possibly go up over time. And that's what investing is about. It's about channeling the money that you just trade your time for. Now trade that money for time by putting it into an asset that can outpace inflation. Because we're trying to seek financial freedom in our pursuit of happiness. We don't want to work forever unless you do. So when you think about it from that perspective, it's like prices are high. Yeah, absolutely. They should be high. That's why somebody bought a property 5, 10, 15 years ago. They wanted to be worth more into the future. So yes, it just so happens that prices appreciated way too quickly in the last 4 or 5 years, particularly because of the pandemic, where we made money so cheap to borrow. So this is where the interest rates enters the conversation. Which is what? When rates are so low, money is cheap to borrow. A lot of people run into the market. Jump into it, yeah. So demand spikes, inventory is still the same, drives prices up. So for those who are saying, well we're waiting for freights to drop. That's not a good thing for you. It's a good thing for those who already own, but not for the person who's trying to buy their first property. Because now you're just going to compete with more individuals. And what does competition do to the prices? The very problem that you are complaining about. So we need to get accustomed to the fact that we can expect rates to be higher for longer. And it's not a bad thing. Rates in the five, six and sevens, was the norm pre pandemic. That 3 percent was extraordinary because we were dealing with an extraordinary period in history, which was a pandemic where the government felt it was necessary to shut down until we figure it out. In the meantime, they understood that people were going to get into debt, so let's lower the interest rates so it's less of a burden. As a result, the irony was what? People were wearing face masks, but yet they were making lines around the block for two hours to go see a house. Because a house is a necessity, more so today. It's no longer a luxury. Like it used to be, oh, it must be nice to own a house. No, it's a necessity at this point because it's a scarce and rare investment asset class. So the conversation, you have to just filter out prices are high. Okay, and interest rates are high. Sure. But let's look at today's market. What are my reasons for buying? What are my needs? The thing that people miss is like you're like, okay, I'm gonna wait till next year, but waiting till next year you're missing opportunities and you're letting other factors dictate your goals. Like, oh, the interest is too high. I'm gonna wait. That's dictating your goal of finding a great opportunity. It is, it is. See, the thing is, you have to be wiser and talk to an advisor. And an advisor is going to tell you what you have to hear, not what you want to hear. They're not going to validate what makes you feel good, because this isn't about feelings, it's about facts. And I'm not saying this without compassion or empathy. I'm saying it in the sense that if you say, I'm waiting, you're probably not waiting. You're wasting time. And time is something we don't know how much we have of. Now, if you sat down with an advisor, they did an analysis of your credit, incoming assets, and there's a game plan. And the game plan says, Hey, we got to wait for these indicators to line up. And that's a three month horizon or six months. Then that makes sense. I'm waiting according to my plan that was designed with experts. But if it's just like, I feel good saying I'm waiting, you're probably just wasting time. And then you can't complain about not getting the results in the future for the work you didn't even put into, which was maybe getting into the discipline of budgeting, getting into the discipline of playing the game of credit correctly, and putting money away to make those initial investments. Now, when has it not been a good time to buy real estate? When? Throughout recorded civilized history, at least in the last 200 year period, it's always been a great time to buy real estate. Absolutely. Best time was yesterday. Always yesterday. I did a chart of like from 1970 till now, if you bought and sold every 10 years, it was a crazy number, like 200 and something percent. It was like from a hundred to two hundred and 80 percent increase every single time you bought and sold. Yeah. How can you know? It's always a great time, especially yesterday, but we're here now. And if you just think the future five, 10 years from now, yesterday is today. Today. So you can't be, and here's the thing. You'll never hear me. And I've always cringed when in the past we have colleagues in our industry to just regurgitate and repeat trendy little comments, but I'll really given it a thought about marry the house and date the rate. That's silly. Throw that out the window. Throw that out the window. You don't date the rate, okay? Because the rate might not come down for a long time. So if you're buying with the hopes that you're gonna refinance in six months, a year, and save two, three hundred bucks, you're doing it wrong. You're doing it because that's emotional. You got to look at it just now and say, can I sustain these payments? comfortably and responsibly for the unforeseen future. If things get better, I welcome it, but not that that must happen because then you're doing it all wrong. And if our colleagues in the industry were a little more honest about that, then they would not repeat those comments. And that's the thing. There's a lot of individuals in the real estate profession, realtors, lenders, attorneys, title companies, et cetera. So there's a lot to pick from, but we're not all created equal. We have individuals with backgrounds where we understand finances, microeconomics, the history of how money works, etc., investments, and are diversified and actually own real estate. And that would make sense to pick an advisor, not just someone who was able to pass a test and get a license. That's not enough. That's not enough. And I'm not taking shots. Um, I'm just, for individuals in today's market, this is a very competitive market. You need to show the bank that you can comfortably buy a house. Without you telling me, I already know, you're saying, I don't want to buy something I can't afford to pay. And we're in agreement. The bank doesn't want to lend you something where your head is barely above water. Because it's risky for you and the bank. So if you can't demonstrate that you can afford it, you're not going to get the money. Now, here's the interesting thing that's happened in the last few years for those who did buy, they're looking to buy a second home. Isn't that interesting? Why? Because they're cash flowing on their multi family that they bought the first time, their house hacking. And they, hey Alejandro, what do I got to do to buy a second property? They understand that this business makes sense. So is that your sweet spot, you would say? Yeah. Getting people into multi families and then Absolutely. I think that's the best way to enter into real estate, particularly That's how I do. Right. You know, a lot of, a lot of people, that's how they do it. Yeah. Yeah. It's the best way. If you, I'm saying I would like to own multiple properties in the future and, or maybe create passive income through this or begin to create some legacy that can grow and understand the real estate is a long game. This whole thing, I bought real estate and I flipped and I made a hundred and I'm rich and now I'm balling and I'm driving a slingshot. That's not reality. Slingshot? Yeah. You know, the trikes. Isn't that like 20, 000 or something? Yeah. I don't know. Most people don't even own it, they rent it, right? It's not fun in the winter here, you gotta put it in the garage. Yeah, yeah, you know, it doesn't make sense. And that's contrary to the concept of building wealth. You don't go and buy toys with that money, you need to reinvest it. Reinvest it. Real estate or businesses or other avenues and then eventually those things can pay for those toys But I've seen that mistake happen with a lot of investors that they buy a property they fix it and they flip it and they Make you know a nice chunk of money 20 30 40 grand and then they go spend it It's like back at ground or one, you know back back to zero you messed it up So how do you help people or how do you guide them towards getting into multifamily? So we do an analysis first, right? We got to understand where you are financially, credit, income, et cetera, and mindset. Mindset's very important. Some people already come with that hunger and that motivation. They just need direction in education. That's cool. Then you come with people who have. a mindset that needs to get strengthened, you know, unlearn certain things to make room to learn. And some people don't want to put the time through that, and some will. So that's, that's very important because as we've been discussing the last few minutes, it's a long term game. You've got to put the first building blocks, build a strong foundation to then build a portfolio that you can sustain, particularly a portfolio that's self sustainable, where the properties pay themselves off. And that's where these exotic Products or loan programs for investors come in where it comes to the point where they don't care what your W 2 income is. They're looking at are you putting down the required down payment for this investment? We're gonna lend it to you at a 30 year term at X rate. This is your payment and does 75 percent of the gross market rents of this property according to the appraisal does it pay for this loan? And if it does that loan is gonna get approved. You just have to take care of the other little nuances. Have you found that it's tough to get to that 75 percent right now? For some people it is, but equally surprised when I see some people's bank statements and it's like, wow, you know, so there's individuals out there with money and this is where How do you overcome that 75 percent requirement for rent to cover the mortgage. Oh, you're talking about this self sustainable? Yeah. So FHA, that's a strong requirement. But it's this guiding principle, whether you're doing conventional or investors. It's just the guiding principle, because that way you have margin to account for vacancies and maintenance, etc. Right? But why are these guys always changing the rules? Every, like, two months, every month, it's a different rule. It's a little overlay? Yeah, what's up with that? So you gotta think about these government sponsored loans. The bank, it's being incentivized by the U. S. government, in this case the FHA loan, to let you, with no business experience typically, or property management experience, buy a business called a multifamily with a minimum down payment of three and a half. Well, if I take 100 percent of the purchase price and subtract the three and a half, that means I'm lending you 96 and a half. That's a high risk position as an investor, or a lender, for somebody with no experience. So, to balance the scales, right, or the see saw, I need you to bring something else to the table on the other side to make this a win win. I want credit, I want income stability, I want this property to be stable. So, it can be frustrating for realtors on both the listing and buying side when sometimes that's the obstacle we have to overcome. Why don't they just decide on a rule and just stay with it? The market's dynamic. The market changes. So that dictates, oh, we're not getting many loan applications. Let's change it up a little bit. Yeah, that's part of it. Make more risk. The market is dynamic, right? That's the rules that were in the market 2010 are not necessarily the same rules today, right? The markets change, regulations, et cetera, supply and demand, and a host of variables. The rules exist, or at least these guidelines is to make a win win. The other thing you got to keep in mind is that when the loan is finally closed, the lender turns around and sells that into secondary market mortgage backed securities. So if there's no investor buying that paper, They're like, well, we can't keep originating these loans. They don't mess around too. They're quick. They do it quick. Same day, same day you sign the paperwork. Right, they turn around and sell it in the secondary market to keep the money going. And if they can't sell that loan because the investors feel like your credit's too low, or those DTIs are too tight, well, what's going to happen next? Well, we don't originate these loans anymore. Now we want to, instead of a 660 minimum, we want 685. Or instead of a 46 cap DTI, we're only going to do it 44 cap, right? Those things you can expect. And it's, again, it's to make sure that this doesn't come crashing down on everybody. Cause it's not a good thing when people begin to default. So these investors back last year, they were locked in on like three and a half percent, which sucks. I mean, they could put their money in the stock market and make more. There you go. You make an excellent point. This is why interest rates are really irrelevant when you think as an investor. For that reason, I'm going to buy a 30 year note and collect 3 percent on it? I'm missing out on 7 percent returns elsewhere, right? Or my original loan today. I know for the consumer, it gives them a sense of comfort. And it's at the point where it's backfiring for all of us, because 80 percent of the people are sub 4 or 5%, they're locked in. They don't want to sell because, oh, it's scary, 7 percent rate at a higher loan size. And so that's adding to the inventory problem, you see? So waiting for interest rates to drop as if that's a saving grace, it's not a good thing for all of us right now. We just have to accept higher for longer. It's the new norm. After a while, we're not even going to think about it. Like, what's the rate? Oh, it's like 7. Oh, okay. Sounds about right. It's just a new norm. I mean, after inflation and, and, and all these companies adjusted their prices, Cumberland Farms down the street, right over there, was what, 99 cents for a cup of coffee? Now it's 1. 39. They're not gonna bring it back to 99 cents or anything less than 1. 39. It's a new norm. And that's what happens over time. It's just, we have to go through this pain together. I'm talking about consumers, investors, and real estate professionals. We're in it together. It's the same boat. The difference for us is we're a hundred percent commission, right? So if there's no success in a closing, we didn't get paid for the hours we invested in preparing your budget, your program, your plan, helping you look at houses, driving around a number of weekends, being away from family and the kids and this and that to help you find your dream house. And then it doesn't happen for whatever reason. That sucks. That sucks. So, so what products do you guys have for someone? Okay, so you say FHA, as of now, they're saying that 75 percent is able to That's the self sufficiency rule on three families and up. That's not, that doesn't apply on singles or twos. So that wasn't the case before? No, no, no. They added that a couple of years back, actually. But for someone, if they're doing conventional or any other, they don't have that rule. No, conventional doesn't have that problem. Again, it's about balancing. So conventional allows you to do the 5 percent rule. And when this was announced that it was going into effect November of 2023, again, the social media was flooded. It was like 5 percent option. You don't have to deal with stuff. Yeah, it's true, but you still have to balance the see saw. Five percent down compared to three and a half, it's more money down. Whereas FHA usually has a three months reserves requirement on these multis of three and up, the conventional might require six from you, so that's more money. Where FHA makes leniency in terms of your credit history, conventional wants squeaky clean. I mean, there's a late payment on a credit card from 12 months ago. That may not approve the loan. So it's not that it's necessarily a better product. The illusion tends to be sometimes, or the misconception in the market by listing agencies is that, oh, a conventional buyer is better than an FHA buyer. That's not necessarily the case. FHA allows for a higher debt to income ratio. This helps a lot of new professionals who just graduated with a ton of student loans. They make the money, but the DTI is just tight because of the student loans. They could have been conventional otherwise, but they had to go FHA. They're not bad buyers. Just FHA is going to have some additional requirements, but that's a great product for a first time home buyer slash investor. If you're trying to buy a three, four family home and house hack, that's an excellent investor product. It really is. Where else do you buy a business with 3 and a half percent down and then the bank gives you 96. 5%? You wouldn't do that if I approached you and said, Hey man, why don't we buy this coffee shop? It's 100, 000, you put up 80, 000 dollars, I put up 20, 000 and we're gonna own it equally. You're gonna look at me like, right, but that's what the bank wants. The bank tells you, you want a house? Give me 20%. You're like, no, no, no, no. I'm a first time coffee shop business owner. They're like, right, then do three and a half and you put up 96 and a half. You're like, wait, well, I just left at 80. Why would I agree 20, 96 and a half? Yeah. So you have to think as an investor and take the me and the feelings out of that equation and think about it logically. Like, okay. And then understand that after you buy that first home, don't expect to buy the second at three and a half. You're an investor now. So, what can you do? How can you, after the first year? Yup. Number of things. If your home has a lot of equity and some time has passed, you can consider refinancing and tap it into that equity so that you have some seed money for this next investment. You can partner up with individuals, right? Off the books. Approach family, friends, people that you know. And just ask them, Hey, I'm looking to buy my second property. And I'm looking to syndicate and raise a little bit of money here. Well, I'll pay you back X amount on the interest. Or, uh, I'll securitize that as a note. You know, you gotta get a little creative there. So now you have that money down. There's individuals that do side hustles. And then they begin to raise money and put it aside. You know, I'm making an extra X amount of dollars from flipping furniture, marketplace, DoorDash, whatever it is. And they raise the money, you know, because when you're stepping into the entrepreneur world, it's access to money to continue to do business. Then this opens up. Another opportunity for individuals who like the idea of managing a project or the entrepreneur spirit or maybe do it yourself Where if they find properties that are in distress See if you can buy that on the market and if there's a good equity position We have private lenders and private lenders work differently than the banks They provide speed and convenience and they charge you a premium for that Which is higher interest rates and a couple of points a point for those who don't know You It's 1% of the loan size. If you borrow money from a private lender, say 200,000, one point is 2%. And if they charge you anywhere between three to five points, we're talking about six to $10,000 in fees on top of the loan size. So on that 200, you're paying interest only payments anywhere from 12 to 14%. And when you go to cancel out that when you're refinancing or selling, you still owe the 200. And is the 12,000 in points or what, uh, the $10,000 in the points if it was five points. Yeah. So 210, they cancel. And you invest the sweat equity of rehab into place and bringing it up to a market value. And now you have this potential capital. In the form of reselling the home or refinancing and keeping it if it fits within the refi guidelines of a property in that nature So if you got someone who was like, hey this other lender I can't buy this house because they you know, they won't approve me for so whatever I have to fix up my credit or do whatever right they come to you and now you have other ideas and other ways for them to be able to get that Not only just lending but there's hard money lending. There's other options that they can do. Absolutely, absolutely. I think it's important to set expectations that this isn't about like, we work some magic and do something that no one else can. What happens is sometimes there's people in the industry that don't understand the products well enough to be able to put a game plan together for you. They're used to the cookie cutter approach, like good with first time home buyers. But then when it requires that next layer, there's some complexity in there. And some people know how to navigate through those nuances better than others, particularly if they have experience. So that's one element. The second is, Being a straight shooter, you know, sometimes some industry professionals don't know how to articulate or tell the person without sugarcoating like, Man, we got a lot of fundamental work to do here. Whereas others will say, look, we got to put you on a credit repair program. And this is going to take three, six, nine months. And you're going to have to pay a professional. We have one. We can recommend one, whatever the case is. Oh, you do? Get this done. Yeah. Yeah, we partnered up with in terms of relationship with a few credit repair specialists that this is what they do Full time not part time or not a part of some affiliate program that this is what they do They're certified in understanding the consumer protection laws and they custom write letters There's some credit repair companies that just use templates And my understanding, because this is in my area of expertise, but my understanding is this, those templates just don't create the impact on the creditor as a handwritten letter does, that's customized on the scenario. And then, you know, someone who's doing it as their full time source of income might be approaching it a little different than someone who's relying on the template structure of an affiliate program. So that's good because, you know, a lot of times I see where they don't qualify for a loan, but you know, you guys, Can you guide them and be like, all right, this is what you need to do. Yeah. Yeah. Have a game plan to be able to get to that goal. Absolutely. I mean, the, the plan works if you work the plan. Yeah. And sometimes people don't stick to the plan. They're not being patient enough. They want instant gratification. I keep watching on TikTok or Instagram, this person, that person, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You can't believe everything that's out there. I mean, take it from people who do this business for a living. We know it doesn't always happen that fast. Those are rare situations. So think about this. If I want to have two, three, four, 10 houses in my portfolio, doesn't it make sense that my credit just needs to be impeccable? Absolutely. So why not invest the time to have an impeccable credit? If I want to go, or I need a very important life saving surgery, wouldn't I want the guy who has the years of experience preparing for that surgery, as opposed to the guy who became a TikTok doctor, because he saw enough TikToks and now trust me, I'm a doctor? No. Right? Same thing. Get your credit impeccable. This country was able to do a revolution in declared independence because of credit. From France, right? So credit is, is very necessary. I mean, it stands for the word credibility. The credit scoring system in the United States, It's not racist. It doesn't discriminate. It doesn't give you points based on your gender, religion, sex, age, or any of that. It's just like, how have you managed these existing lines of credit? Whether they were credit cards, personal loans, student loans, whatever. And how long have you had them for? So, an account that's been established for six years is going to have more weight than one that's had six months or six weeks. Yeah, makes sense. An account that you've always paid on time, no excuses. It tells me you're responsible and you prioritize paying your debts. Game of Thrones, the Lannisters always settle their debts, right? It's very important credit. So if I want to be an investor, I got to get my credit on point. And two, the reason you want to is you might have heard individuals as they're building a portfolio, corporations, they register an LLC, maybe eventually as an S Corp, whatever the case is, to add layers of protection. Put them, the property with the LLC in a trust to create another layer of protection, make sure that gets inherited to the people you want, God forbid something happens, life insurance in place to pay off those debts or to borrow against those assets. So you help guide people through, absolutely, what they need to do. You want to have this comprehensive plan. See, that's what I mean by game plan. It's got to be comprehensive. We need an insurance provider. Not just to insure the house, but insure you. You're the biggest asset here. What happens if you pass away unexpectedly? What happens to this house? It's going to go to probate court. There's no guarantee your family gets it. But if you have it in a trust and everything is structured correctly, you're the trustee, there's the beneficiaries, you've got legacy that's protected, right? So you've got to talk to an estate planner. All this is important and a lot of lenders don't know that. A lot of realtors don't know that. That's why I keep saying, talk to an advisor, somebody who is building this network into this knowledge. This is very important. It isn't about, oh, can you sell my house for 3%? No, it's, can you help me achieve my goals and can I get the results? Great, I'm hiring you. Exactly, that's who you want. That's what you want. Someone who trusts you. Absolutely. And that conversation goes out the window. Look, I wanted to be a sports medicine doctor. And one of the biggest takeaways that still sticks with me, when I was doing my internships, I had the opportunity to listen to some residents. And, you know, we go through the same emotional rollercoasters. Like, am I cut out for this? Am I going to make it? You know, these tests are hard. It's not easy and it's purposely meant to be hard because not just anybody should become a doctor, right? Yeah, and the gentleman tells me what do we call the person graduates first of the class valedictorian? Okay, cool What do we call the person graduates last in the class and we're all perplexed last in the class. We call him doctor You're still a doctor, right? Yeah, yeah, right. You're still a doctor. Yeah. Right? So that's what the point that I'm trying to make here is you want to be talking to an advisor, someone who's put in the time to be able to guide you through these nuances. The market is changing and the market is evolving. The rules are changing with it. The strategies are changing with it. And you need somebody who's actively boots on the ground, finger on the pulse and actively investing. So it's, it's, it's, it's. Yeah, so it's cutting edge, it's the latest in this, so that you're moving along. And not everybody's the same, right? You gotta understand their situation. So that person graduated last in the class is still a doctor. They're probably a better doctor than the valedictorian. The valedictorian just knew how to get higher test grades, right? Right? That could be the case. But you need the surgery, you don't start shopping around for doctors. So what was your GPA, you know? Can you do a surgery for 5, 000 less? No, you're like, I need you to save my life. How soon can you get me in there? I'm all booked up. Next appointment's August. I hope I can make it to August. You're gonna be fine. We did some preliminary tests. We'll just line everything up. We're gonna, my next opening to take care of you is if something happens, we'll try to move you in. Why do they disrespect our time in our profession and insult us like that? I know they don't do it on purpose, but you need to understand that this is a business. I'm not in the charity I'm not a 501c3. I'm not the United Way or the Red Cross. I don't live on donations I don't even have a base salary So, that whole, can you do it for cheaper commissions, like seriously? Do you negotiate your cup of coffee with Starbucks? So, there's a couple things I want to bring up. How many times do you get someone who's like, Thanks for helping me buy this property. Next year, when it's time, I want to buy the next one. Yup. And then they Forget about, you know, the next year comes along and they forget about it, like six months later, another year goes by. It happens. And they forget about their goal. How often does that happen? It happens. It happens because life happens. Some individuals have extenuating circumstances that come up or family plans change where they move something. But the majority of them, They listen to mouthpieces. Uncle, cousin, aunt that knows everything about everything, yet they don't own real estate. They listen to their colleague at work, or they let themselves become paralyzed by the fear of the news. Oh, I don't know, we're in war, the Ukraine Russia thing. Oh, it's a presidential election. Power won't do this, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, you realize you're just regurgitating information that you don't seem to understand fundamentally. You gotta filter the noise. And that tends to be the reason why people forget their goals. They lose sight of it. And it's only normal. We get tired, we get stressed out. But if you're working with an advisor and you're reading the newsletter or the emails, we periodically change. I don't send out, I don't message every day. Or check some of the content online. I'm not dancing or showing you in the gym doing my deadlifts or squats. or my coffee or that I'm walking. I do my exercise, believe me. I go to the gym, I work out, and I leave. I don't have time to set up the camera or tripod and do, you know, I, unless I was an influencer and that's how I made my money. Yeah, but that's not the case here. But follow us. Let's stay in touch. Let's have a relationship. See, a relationship is where the grass is green because we water it. Where the grass is well kept because we attend to it. But you can't expect a relationship to flourish if you don't attend to it and invest time and energy into it. And it's got to be a two way street. Believe me, I do my part. I reached out. But if you become non responsive after a while, I don't want to be that annoying pest. I want to be that invited guest. So you want someone who's like, hey Alejandro, thanks for helping me finance this property. It's been one month. What should I do now? Absolutely, absolutely. What should I do? And understand. You know what I mean? Oh, wait three months and do this. Absolutely, but understand that in this relationship, what I'm bringing to you as well is my network. My network. If you have a problem a month in, you should feel comfortable and call me. And I tell them all this. Call me and I'll find the contractor, the insurance adjuster, if that's the case. Or, or the plumber, or whatever the situation is. I'll point you in the right direction with the city. I'm a resource. And I have to respectfully turn down people who call me after they chose not to do the deal with me and call me for advice. I'm like, I'm sorry, with all due respect, you're not my client. I can't give you time, energy, expertise, and guidance when you chose to do business with someone else for a quarter percent of a rate that's saving you 12 a month. Let's go deal with them. I'm sorry. I can only give that attention to my existing base of clients and those who I'm working with It just I find it very disrespectful to be honest, you know, because it's not right I mean, it's like me going up to a different doctor down the street for follow ups on my surgery Even though my surgery was done in Boston. It just doesn't make sense. Hmm, yup. You know, you have to have boundaries in relationships That's what this is a relationship. we're dating, trust We're dating, trust us, right? You know, so why would you use a different set of rules for your partner and life and other people in, in a different, I'm a partner. I'm, this is a relationship. If you want that, and that's what I'm offering, we're going to work great together. But if you see me as a Kleenex tissue and a commodity, I'm not the guy for you, you know, with all due respect, go, go bother the guy down the street who at least gets a base salary and could care less if you get approved or not, you know, do your application. Sorry, you didn't get approved. Press a button. and you get a generic piece of paper. I'm 100 percent commissioned. I'm incentivized to help you win. You see the difference? I'm incentivized to help you win. And if you follow us on social media, we're showing you the properties we're actively working on, the properties that we're analyzing with our investors, and the good, the bad, and the ugly. Because it ain't all, you know, rainbows, roses, and sunshine. You're going to have bad tenants occasionally, but those are learning experiences. You're going to have problems arise with your house, but that's part of the business. You have to account for some of that, you know, Walmart. And this is an analogy I share a lot. This is a Walmart and I'm not going to say where it is, but everybody I ask about it says, Oh yeah, the shoplifting is right in front of you. You see it all the time. It's crazy. It's there's no shame. And yet that Walmart is still open because they're still making money. Despite the shoplifting so because you have one bad experience with a tenant who's a jerk as people can be jerks Or maybe they're dealing with stuff. They just don't know how to deal with it and they're mad at the world But they're deep down good people. They're just being jerks with you as their landlord And so you have a bad experience you had to a victim whatever the case is real estate's terrible now No, real estate is still a great asset and don't miss out on your asset and your pursuit to happiness and financial freedom because of one bad tenant. I've had to evict tenants and I'm still looking to buy more real estate because fundamentally it makes sense in this market where prices are high and rates are high, real estate is still a great asset class. So Alejandro, how do people find you? Well, I'm online, Instagram, and my phone number is 401-808-4427. If I don't answer, text me. Just tell me who you are, what's up, what do you need, and if we can figure out a time to talk on the phone, 15 20 minutes. I don't answer the phone because if I'm with a client or in this situation, the phone's rung a few times, I haven't answered it. Out of respect to the person I'm with. And also after eight is late and it has to wait. So if you're calling me at nine o'clock on a Friday night, I'm probably with my wife trying to watch a movie. I'm sorry. I'm not answering your call because you just saw something on Zillow and you're trying to get numbers last minute. Uh, normally when I meet with my clients, I'm also going to show you your numbers and you realize that you're that the difference between 400 and 410 is maybe 60 dollars on your monthly payment. I'm trying to educate you because you shouldn't have to call me or reach out to me after seeing five houses over the weekend. Stop everything. Call you. Yeah. No, you gotta, when you get out to see a house, you gotta be ready to make offers. And I'm gonna tell you why. Statistically, and you can verify this, Rhode Island's market's very interesting because Boston's 45 minutes away, New York's about three and a half hours away. We're in an area which the cost of living is very attracted to these demographics. And here's what's happening. About a third of the properties that are selling in Rhode Island are being bought by people from out of state, mainly Massachusetts. And 28 percent of those homes are being bought in cash. So what does this say to you? This says to you that the person from Boston, Randolph, Laurel, Revere, Quincy, wherever they're coming from, they're not driving 45 minutes to Rhode Island to window shop and just kind of look around. They know their numbers and they see the house. They're telling the agent right away, make this offer. Buh, buh, buh. And they sign, print, submit onto the next house. They're not saying, Oh, thank you Kamil for showing us these houses. We're going to take the weekend to think about, and we'll get back to you on Tuesday. Cause by the time you get back to him on Tuesdays, all three houses are under contract. So, if they're not wasting time driving 45 minutes an hour to look at houses, neither should you if you're driving 10, 15, 20 minutes. You gotta know your numbers and be ready to make an offer. That's, it's just, it's about speed right now. And I find that that's usually the case sometimes when people are like, Oh, if it's just, we like the house but someone else, You know, this offer got accepted. Did you even place your offer? Because you're not going to get anything accepted if you're not placing offers. The best way to get an offer accepted, you ready for this? Is to make an offer. Ha ha ha! Awesome. Yeah, well, thank you very much for stopping by. Ha ha ha! That was awesome. My pleasure, man. I know it's a very different approach to the real estate. And it's high energy, and it's a sense of urgency. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, that's, that's how you And the reason for that is because that's what the market calls for now. Urgency, decisiveness, business, know your numbers. So do your legwork first. Take the time to get pre approved. Talk about your game plan. you the tool belt. And put a game plan on. He'll put the tool belt on you and then send you off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right, I got the hammer, I got the screwdriver. Right, exactly. Got all my stuff here. Put them in order before they exist. That's a proverb from the Tao. Awesome. Cool. Thank you very much. Alright. Till next time.