I’m doing a little bit of everything. I’m even doing small deals as well. And when I say small deals, it’s small assignment fees. We don’t turn those down because we’ll keep our marketing going. Some sellers don’t have the equity or they have very little equity. And by the time we buy the property, for example, fix and flip, I mean, we have all these origination fees, all these additional costs that comes with buying a property. Focusing too much on the tool rather than having conversations with sellers, making offers, see how you can actually solve the seller’s problem. That’s going to be the highest invest use of your time. A lot of flippers have slowed down. As far as flipping properties, that has slowed down quite a bit. Properties are taking or are on the market longer, so you just got to adjust buying at a deeper discount. And then also selling, if you can call it at a discount on the market, right? To entice retail buyers.

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What’s going on guys? Juan, thank you so much for taking the time. I know you’re doing hundreds of transactions down in South Florida, but I am curious to kind of take a step back and see how you got into real estate in the first place.

Yeah. So how I got into real estate, well, thank you for having me, first of all, on your show. I appreciate that. And how I got into real estate, like everybody, I think you start seeing all these ads of gurus like, “Hey, wholesaling, here’s how you can make money,” without having a license, which at the time, I mean, I did have a license as a real estate agent. That’s how I started. But I was actually working at a nine to five. I was selling health insurance for a big company down here. I’m working directly for them. And during that, I mean, I started seeing all these ads pop up from all the coaches, gurus, whatever you want to call them. And they were pitching this, “Hey, make 15, 20, $30,000 with no license and under 30 days.” So I just started diving into that, started bought a course and started going through the course and really just get into it.

I mean, it took me six months to get my first deal. And I mean, I really thought it was impossible, but during that timeframe, it took me six months while still at my job. And it was not a wholesale deal. I actually bought this property and the way I bought it was funny, but I got all these credit cards because at the time I didn’t even know what hard money was. So I got all the credit cards that I had qualified for with 0% and accumulated the total amount to buy it. And then I was going to rehab it. I thought this is going to be my first fixes and flip, but that didn’t turn out that well. I ended up just listing it on the MLS and selling it for profit. So that’s kind of how I started in the real estate/wholesaling flipping game.

I love it. And then for the people listening, what does the business look like today?

Yeah, today. So I’m doing a mix of things. I’m wholesaling, fixing, flipping. Right now, I have currently working on two fixing flips and currently I’ve just put under contract a wholesale deal here that we’re going to wholesale. And I’m also doing creative financing, which one of the fix and flips I actually acquired via subject to and we’re just fixing the property. Instead of us going and getting hard money now, just putting whatever the arrears are and catching up the payment amount is, and we’re leaving the loan in place and just going and fixing up the place and putting it back on the market, which right now we’re getting a lot of interest. And then I do a lot of business also with a hard money lender that we go get the hard money and then put the 10% and rehab the property. So yeah, we’re doing that. And then wholesaling as well. We’re doing two to three wholesale deals a month, mainly just down here in the Southwest Florida area. I haven’t expanded yet, just kind of like my little area down here.

Man, why go wide when you can go deeper, right?

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Why do you think so many investors don’t stick to their market? Why do you think so many investors try and expand?

I think it’s just what you see all these other gurus out there saying, “Hey, Nate go nationwide.” A lot of them are talking about that like, “Hey, they’re doing deals nationwide.” And I think social media influenced a lot of that instead of, or also the mindset of like, “Hey, my market’s so little, I can’t do X amount of deals,” or they don’t think that they can do X amount of deals in their own market. I think those are that I personally think that’s kind of what I think people don’t stick to one thing.

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Well, what do you think the main problem that you were trying to solve when starting this business? I know you mentioned the W2 and that you came from that. What was that problem that you were trying to solve?

It was that. I mean, I was making good money at my nine to five and I was just not fulfilling, man. I was driving an hour to work and then coming back another hour, that was two hours. And at the time I already had three kids. So three kids, it’s a lot and I wanted to spend more time with them because when I grew up, my dad was a business owner. He used to wholesale produce for a living. I mean, he did really well, but the main thing that I saw growing up was he wasn’t there much. He was constantly working. He was working seven days a week and that kind of, it hit me. So I was like, “I don’t want to be absent from my kids’ practice, school events.” That time was kind of the problem that I wanted to solve and spend more quality time with my kids.

Yeah. And it seems like you’re really focused on good deals rather than a lot of deals. What’s your philosophy on trying to do as much bottom line with as little deal volume as you can? Is that kind of what you’re going for or what’s kind of your strategy when it comes to how you’re buying right now?

Yeah, that’s definitely one. And I mean, those are harder to come by just because you have to buy at a deeper discount. And I mean, I’ve actually just closed on a fix and flip that was actually really good. We’re getting close to the six figure mark and I mean, those would be nice every day, but they don’t come by each month. So I’m doing a little bit of everything. I’m even doing small deals as well. And when I say small deals, it’s small assignment fees. We don’t turn those down because we’ll keep our marketing going and hopefully get us one of those huge deals.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, what do you think the most common misconception is about what we do?

I think what it is, is we take advantage of sellers. I think that’s the biggest one is that we’re just here to take advantage of sellers, but when you really sit down and think about it, I don’t think that’s the case. I mean, the sellers I’ve spoken to and the ones I’ve gotten reviews from, because sometimes I do go meet these sellers at their property and they’re grateful, they’re thankful that we’re able to get them out of that situation. Either they’re going through pre-foreclosure or they just inherit the house, whatever the reason may be. And my experience is they’re grateful that we’re able to help and get them through whatever situation they’re going through. But I think that’s the biggest one is that we are here to take advantage of sellers and just steal their house, which is far from the truth, honestly. Because I always advise sellers like, “Look, our option is going to be, it’s probably not going to be the best.

We’re probably going to pay way less than what you could get at the market and we can definitely list it for you and get more money.” But hey, just they want to go with the cash. It’s just, again, they’re in help. So I think we’re actually

Helping sellers out. Yeah, 100%. And when it comes to taking a step back, when you mentioned marketing, what market are you doing currently right now? And then any plans to add any other sort of marketing in this next year?

Yeah. So what I’ve been focusing last year on is mainly SEO. That’s where I’ve been able to track it. That’s where most of my good deals came from. The one we just closed, that was actually a SEO lead. Meaning when I say SEO is they’re finding me through my Google My Business page, which mainly that’s the majority of where my leads are coming from. And then we are doing some Google PPC to supplement that as well, because we’re now getting traction where sellers are actually searching for a company name here in this little area that I’m in. So those are the two main things that I’m focusing on right now and where most of my deals come from.

One, last year was pretty interesting for most people. What are some key strategies that you implemented or maybe already had that really worked for you last year? And what are some strategies that you’re kind of bringing into the new year?

Yeah. The one that worked really well for me last year was getting into creative financing. We’re offering that option more and more just because again, some sellers don’t have the equity or, I mean, they have very little equity. And by the time we buy the property, for example, fix and flip, I mean, we have all these origination fees, all this additional costs that comes with buying a property. And so that, we have implemented that last year to close more deals, I would say, and offer that option. So we just started really honing in on that, on buying creatively.

Awesome. And any strategies that you’re kind of looking to implement or maybe just keep doing this year?

Yeah, we’re looking at innovations this year, just again, because we would think that sellers are … I mean, they’re getting cash offers left and right, honestly. And this year we’re going after innovations is where, again, we’re pretty much paying a little bit more than what a cash transaction would amount to. So we’re really focusing on innovations this year and also keep doing what we’ve been doing. I mean, still making the cash offer and creative offer, but really looking at innovations this year.

Awesome. Awesome. What mistakes do you often see investors make that you think are really easily avoidable?

Playing too much with their CRM, because that happened to me, focusing too much on the tool rather than having conversations with sellers, making offers, see how you can actually solve the seller’s problem. That’s going to be the highest and best use of your time instead of looking at … And I see it from other investors that I’ve talked to and they’re still trying to figure out their website, their CRM, which list to pull, which dialer to call, which skip tracing. I’m like, just start buying leads. I mean, there’s so many platforms out there that you can just start buying leads today and start talking to sellers. That would definitely get you where you want to go instead of trying to mess with these other things. You can start messing with those tools. I mean, once you have two, three, I mean, five, six deals under your belt, but I think that’s that because it happened to me.

Yeah, for sure. Well, what do you think separates the top operators from everyone else in your experience?

That, I mean, just sticking to one market and getting really good at that market and also sticking to one strategy, once you have that strategy down or that process down is working on the next one and focusing on one thing is what I’ve seen is what’s working well for other investors that I’ve talked to.

Yeah. A lot of people define the word success differently. They measure the word success differently and they strive for it differently. How do you define the word success? How do you strive for it and how do you measure it?

For me personally is just being a good father, husband, son, and that’s how I measure success. As far as the business goes, well, it’s obviously each year grow and increase my profit margin, not revenue. But for me, it’s mainly have the time and freedom to spend time with my kids and make sure that when they grow older, that they’re just good human beings and not assholes. Yeah.

No, I love that. Well, what do you think’s the biggest change that you’re seeing in the real estate market right now?

Biggest one is, I mean, a lot of flippers have slowed down as far as flipping properties. That has slowed down quite a bit and properties are taking or are on the market longer. So you just got to adjust buying at a deeper discount and then also selling, if you can call it at a discount on the market to entice retail buyers, that’s been the biggest one is properties are staying longer on the market and just have to adjust on how you’re buying, make sure there’s a bigger margin. So if anything else comes up and you’re fixing for the project, and same goes for wholesale, you just have to buy a deeper discount. So when you assign that property to an end buyer, they have that margin to make sure that they have the rehab cost in there and plus the time that it’s going to take to sell on the market.

With your flips, are you doing mostly like full rehabs or wholetales or what are you kind of sticking to at the moment?

I was doing like full rehabs, but with how the market is now, I’m sticking to light, cosmetic, like paint, flooring, minimal, maybe change fixtures here and there to try to get it on the market as soon as possible, just because you don’t know what’s going to happen in three or four months from now. I mean, interest rates have come down a bit, but not a huge reduction where it’s enticing retail buyers to just buy property. So it’s that just sticking to cosmetic repairs right now. Yeah.

Have you seen a better conversion rate as far as obviously time because you’re doing less work, but profit, have you been seeing kind of a similar amount of profit with your whole tails within like a full gut just because of how much longer it’s been taking?

Yeah, for sure. I mean, the timeframe is shorter and then versus having a full rehab. A full rehab can come with a lot of surprises. I mean, start opening walls and extra costs, the cost starts adding up real quick. So I’ve been seeing a higher profit and then also the cash conversion cycle. So it’s much quicker, right? Instead of taking six months, it’s probably taking us three to four months from start to finish because right now typically our average days on market is about 60, 90 days.

Yeah. If you were going to start from scratch, you get to keep all the knowledge that you’ve learned over the past couple years, but you are going to completely restart and rebuild what you have now, what would you focus on first?

Is credibility, making sure that I’m credible online when sellers go online or search that I show up and that I actually have reviews, video reviews, that’s going to be the biggest one because time over time that I talk to sellers, they’re like, “Oh, the reason I called you was because I saw your reviews, I saw the videos that you’re doing, I saw that. ” So I would focus on that. It’s kind of like your personal brand, honestly, especially these days. I mean, the first thing a seller thinks of when they talk to an investor, he’s getting trying to take advantage of me. So I would focus on that. Credibility just show that, hey, you’re a human like they are and not just the investor that’s going to take advantage of them.

Awesome. Awesome. If someone’s in South Florida and wants to do deals with you or buy deals off of you or just kind of ask some more questions, where’s the best place for people to find you and reach you?

Yeah, they can go to my website, www.sellfloridahousenow.com, or if they want to reach out, phone number … Can I get my number? Yeah, yeah. It’s okay.

Yeah, you’re good.

Yeah. 239510, 9479. I mean, I’m constantly looking at JB with other investors, new investors that need help or somebody looking for references as far as hard money goes, title companies. I mean, it’s a small market, so I know most of the investors in this area/wholesaler. So give me a call. I mean, I’ll walk you through it. I mean, I was once in your position. I mean, I didn’t know anything. I had to acquire all those skills and make mistakes along the way. So yeah, just they can go there and reach out.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, Juan, thank you so much for taking the time. Everyone, thanks for watching and we’ll see you next time.

Awesome. Thanks.