Overcoming Fear and Having Faith in Business (w/ Javier Suarez)

Unlock the keys to real estate success with our special guest, Javier Suarez, president and founder of Suarez Capital and Investments LLC. Javier's journey from a first-generation Cuban-American to a powerhouse in real estate is packed with lessons on perseverance, grit, and the importance of taking strategic risks. He shares his early experiences, from flipping motorcycles to closing major property deals in Washington, DC, all inspired by his grandmother's pioneering efforts in real estate.

Facing doubt and overcoming fear are central themes in our conversation. Hear compelling stories of individuals who turned obstacles into opportunities, including a trailblazing woman who succeeded in selling real estate to minorities in Washington, DC. Javier emphasizes the importance of managing risk with a logical approach, using practical methods to quantify decisions and keep emotions in check. Fear and faith coexist in entrepreneurship, and Javier shares valuable insights on harnessing both to push forward in uncertain times.

We also delve into the current trends and challenges in the Tampa, Florida real estate market. Javier provides expert strategies for navigating high competition and leveraging innovation and technology in both residential and commercial sectors. Learn about the future of office spaces, the significance of qualifying mentors, and the power of building strong relationships. This episode is a treasure trove of actionable advice and high-level insights from a seasoned real estate professional. Don't miss it!

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https://www.instagram.com/suarez_capital/
https://www.thesuarezcapital.com

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:29

This is Wealthy AF, your ultimate guide to understand what it truly means to be Wealthy AF. And today's guest is Javier Suarez. And Javier is the president and founder of Suarez Capital and Investments LLC. When Javier was only 19 years old, he was calling on off-market properties in Washington DC and selling them to investors properties in Washington DC and selling them to investors. Realizing there was more opportunity as a realtor, he managed to independently sell $20 million worth of real estate by the age of 22. Javier's success can be credited to his dedication to learning the industries inside and out and to his family's multi-generational real estate. Here's what I could tell you about this man. I spent some time with Javier. He's a sharp mind. He's a sharp guy. He really knows this stuff. So, javier, welcome to the podcast, brother. It's a pleasure to have you here, man.

Speaker 2: 1:19

It's an honor brother. Too bad, we don't have any Cuban sandwiches to enjoy this time.

Speaker 1: 1:24

Yeah, last time we went he took me to a little Cuban spot. Man, the best Cuban Actually. It was a Medianoche I had, we had great freaking sandwiches they make there and I had the cafecito. So it was a great, great time, brother, great time. Anyways, let's get right into this. Man Javier, tell us a little bit about you, tell us about your story. I know you're Cuban-American. Your family migrated here from Cuba. You're a first-generation American. Tell us about that and how you got involved in real estate first generation American.

Speaker 2: 1:53

Tell us about that and how you got involved in real estate? Definitely so. It started with my grandmother. We were back in, my grandparents were actually in Cuba and one day the military showed up at their front door and were looking for my family. By that time my grandmother was already in the car on the way to the airport and they just picked up whatever they could cigars, rum took it over to America with about three kids and they sold everything and got their first apartment, and my dad was one of those kids.

Speaker 2: 2:21

My grandmother didn't have a college education, and what do you do if you don't have a college degree? You go become a realtor. And she actually started before an MLS was there having the kids cut out all of the listings on the newsletters and organizing all of the properties. So that continued on even to when she was my abuela, and every Sunday when we would go to church she would have me running out open house signs and then I became her helper, probably around the age of like nine, 12. Yeah, so that was my first exposure there to real estate with her.

Speaker 1: 3:08

And yeah, I got into flipping motorcycles. Realized the numbers weren't too good with that. I was familiar with the real estate a little bit later, down the and sandwiches the other day, tell us that story. How do you go from motorcycle flipping to?

Speaker 2: 3:20

flipping houses and what I wanted to do is I wanted to pursue my passion. The absolute worst advice I could tell anybody is to pursue their passion, because it's normally not the thing that pays the bills. So what I started doing was I actually took everything that I could find that I'd accumulated by the age of 18. And I went to Craigslist Most people know what Craigslist is and I took that. I traded everything that I had for a stolen motorcycle and I wrecked the motorcycle. And that was actually starting my career of figuring it out. And so I bought this motorcycle, cleaned it up a little bit, traded it for a legal motorcycle and kind of started to find this business. Of the people that I met online. I would then be able to strike a deal and trade up.

Speaker 2: 4:11

I always heard a story someone took a paperclip and then ended up with a house. I believed in that and I knew I could negotiate my way up. So I started with a motorcycle and kind of became the motorcycle guy in my area. Then I had people reach out to me and they were like, hey, could you help me buy a motorcycle? And I was curious of what they were doing, kind of around the same age to actually be able to afford a motorcycle without having to trade everything that they had in possessions.

Speaker 2: 4:37

And I've come to find out that was wholesaling, you know, just trading real estate in our area being Washington DC, and in that place it was just booming right, very competitive, very high level. And I've been in my head for a while and I obviously with my grandmother, very familiar with agency right, she had explained to me through the ages of kind of how agency worked. Is that you'd be there, you listen to people, you find out what is it that they need and what. And what I did is I literally just started listing properties and that's kind of how I got my started. Real estate understanding that same as a motorcycle, you buy something that's not necessarily the most desirable thing, you clean it up, maybe put a little fresh paint on it, and, uh, you know, you find somebody who's willing to pay a little bit more than what you got at it. So it was a really relatable thing. But, um, I I started to enjoy a little bit more money being made than a couple hundred bucks on a motorcycle.

Speaker 1: 5:29

Yeah, of course, man, of course. Can you tell us a story from your childhood that illustrates your family's passion for real estate? I know you shared a little bit. You know coming from church on Sundays putting the signs, you know, so I'll share this story with you. Right, there was a, there was a one moment for me, right when I when I was 16, no-transcript I was going to own a lot of real estate because I was never going to experience that pain again. And it was years later when I actually materialized that. But it was in that moment that my unconscious mind that wasn't a conscious effort, a conscious effort, that wasn't an unconscious effort. Do you remember that moment for you that you were like, yeah, I'm going to. This is the moment where this happened for me, where I made that decision that real estate was going to be my way, my way to well.

Speaker 2: 6:45

Uh yeah, I, I. I'm going to go back to my grandmother's story there, because a story that she told me was very pivotal and it was when she first came over here immigrant, she spoke English but was still considered a minority, right being a woman in business my grandfather's washing dishes. She got her agent's license and I've probably been here a couple months and then she signs up at her local brokerage and I'll never forget this story. She took me to the same office. I've actually met the guy that she told this to.

Speaker 2: 7:21

She looked the man in the eyes when she first signed up as an agent. She said I'm going to be a millionaire this year. I think she said first it was I'm going to sell a million dollars worth of real estate my first year and she goes I'm going to be a millionaire. And the guy she goes I'll never forget. He looked at me and says there's no way that you ever could, right, that's cute. And she goes. That lit a fire under me. That was my calling every single day to find out how do I prove this man wrong? And, funny enough, she ended up selling to all the minorities in Washington.

Speaker 2: 7:59

DC and no one wanted to deal with anybody right, because over there we've got everybody from Asians, africans, european, everybody, spanish, everybody there. Nobody else wanted to deal with it Dealing with other people from other cultures. And she embraced that right. She embraced to say, hey, the one thing that you said that's going to hold me back was actually the one thing that put me ahead. And she said I brokered so many deals with people and opened up so many businesses and gotten people into so many houses had never even had a chance before. She goes. We out-competed and she goes now. They build well and did everything there.

Speaker 2: 8:30

So that was the first kind of time that I realized that, um, that that that there's going to be doubt cast, but the dirt that they throw on your name is actually where your flower grows. And what I always took into my mind was that you know, tell me that I can't. And I remember having one of my uh, one of my mentors this is my pivotal moment and this is about 19, 20 years old and I had a mentor. Look at me. And first she told me to take off of my voicemail to say, and God bless, I always have that on my voicemail, right, leave a message and God bless you, right. And she told me to take that off and she said that you would never be successful in this business, especially in Washington DC. I outsold her that next year, and then past that, I actually put a larger portfolio together within five years. So, bonnie, I was right.

Speaker 2: 9:22

And that was the thing is, my whole career has always been everyone telling me hey, you can't do this, you can't do that. And that was kind of the first moment for me, right, especially being a student in the game. Um, you look to be able to seek education, but, man, that first person I'll never forget that they tell you, hey, you can't do this, right, you'll never do this. Oh man, that, that, that that gives me goosebumps just thinking about it, because it's like I got people telling us right now that we can't do what we're doing and and it's like we're running laps around everyone and I don't have anything to prove. It's just, um, I think a lot of people are scared of actually going out and taking risks and actually seeing what's the best version of themselves to become, and I've used that to empower myself and that's where I start to find my. My challenge and my growth is where people don't have faith. That's normally where I lean in and grow mine.

Speaker 1: 10:13

Oh, I want to talk about that. I want to help people. We want to help people here today and give them that muscle right To take risk. I just told you, right, we're, we're doing a 12, we, right before we got started, we just we're doing a 12 unit redevelopment, we're coming to wrapping it up. We're we're over budget, we're we've had, you know, surprise after surprise, and I go ahead. It's like a normal real estate project. Yeah, exactly, it's normal, right. And here I go and I buy three more properties this week, right, like with that one, right. So it's like, hey, man, where did this thing come from? About with risk? But let's talk about that in a minute. I want to ask you, where do you think that comes from?

Speaker 2: 10:55

I pulled that majority of the time from my father. So my father passed away when I was two years old. He died at ALS an incredible soccer player, absolute outstanding man. But on his deathbed he looked at my mother and said don't cry, because somebody else has it worse than me. So I don't look at it necessarily so much so as grit, but I look at it so as an opportunity that it'd be disgraceful for me not to apply my 100% self to what opportunities that are ahead of me. No one has the answers. It's our job to go out and find the answers and apply ourselves to the 100%, to the best of our ability. And it's not grit, right? I cry as much as everyone else Like. I have my problems, my pains, everything. But what I found out and I always hold on to those words, what my father said is is that somebody else has it worse than me. So I'm not going to sit here and cry.

Speaker 1: 11:42

That's great brother. That's literally defined grit. You're going to, you're going to go right, you're going to keep going and you not going to make excuses for yourself. So good for you. I want to talk about something you said, right, you taking risk. You know you're a developer, you're doing some big things here in Tampa, in the city of Tampa. What would you say to someone that's out there that's saying, hey man, how do I do that? How do I develop that muscle of betting on myself, taking the risk? How do you take a risk without managing the fear? And how do you manage the fear of losing?

Speaker 2: 12:22

So first I'd say is that you have to remove fear and you have to understand that fear is a creation that we have made. It's not something that that our God has actually given us a spirit of fear, he gave us a spirit of faith. So fear is something that we create and what our mind does is that it actually creates fear of a false reality, and it's actually made to create a protection, a layer of protection for ourselves, to stay in a comfort zone and not to go venture out and do something that might be different right, and we consider things that are different, fearful or scary right. We create that fear. So once you actually realize that most fear is actually self-created and a obstacle that you have created, you also have that balance to be able to go figure out how not to be fearful. And once you actually think through things and you quantify things, fear goes away very quickly.

Speaker 2: 13:23

To go to your original question of how do I manage risk I had to figure this out the hard way. I had a very large real estate portfolio a couple of years ago and this is the time during COVID, pricing, materials go up, a lot of chaos happening, and when the bottom fell out for me, I hit the hardest point in my life to realize that I did not trust my judgment. A lot of the times I think a lot of young entrepreneurs get into is that they think they're a lot better than they are. And that's the biggest weapon the enemy will use against you is for you to think that you are better than you are, because the enemy will let you play right into the hand of bite off more than you shoot. I walked right into that trap. So I hit to a point where I had a couple of kids, newly married, about to take down a multifamily property. And I hit that point where I looked at myself in the mirror and I did not trust my decision making. I then took to the computer, leveraging technology to understand what makes a good decision, and it's actually two things. I created the technology and I quantified every decision that I made moving forward. So the two things that make a good decision are risk right, the likelihood that risk arises, and then second would be the severity of risk. So you can actually put this on a matrix. So what I did is that you have four boxes right. So your vertical is the severity of risk and the Y-axis and then the X-axis is the severity of loss process was I wanted to make sure that every single decision that I made was a successful decision, and I wanted to make sure is is that I I didn't keep going backwards and I didn't do something because of ego.

Speaker 2: 15:19

And that's the biggest problem that I realized. That we all think is that we all think that we're smarter than we are. We all think our are a lot better. We get greedy, we get a big head about things and then what we do is that we blind spot ourselves on the things that could actually take us out of the deal. And yeah, that's really the big thing. I just quantify with those two decisions to say, hey, is something actually going to be a good decision or not, based upon that risk profile?

Speaker 1: 15:44

So I just want to make sure I'm hearing you correctly. So what I'm hearing is that you manage risk and you manage. We all have a dose of fear in every deal. I believe that every investor, every deal you buy, there's a little bit of fear. There's always. There's always a little bit, but we all know how to dance with it. But what I'm hearing you say is that you manage your risk and when that those emotions come up, if this is the right thing, you have a logical way to process it right, which is very similar to the way I manage risk.

Speaker 1: 16:18

I sit here and I study the market. I study I'm a student of the market. Before I do a deal, I'm sitting down, I'm looking at the data I'm looking at okay, what's my numbers? Okay. So if I'm doing a flip, is this my ARV? Why, what's my numbers Okay? So if I'm doing a flip, is this my ARV? Why was my top number? What's my middle number? What's my self quick number? What's the least I could do to get the most amount of return? I'm looking at all of these things, and all these things compile. Allow me to make a strong or good, solid decision. What are the rents like there? Can I get that? How fast can I get that? What's the?

Speaker 1: 16:47

I'm a student of the game, which keeps me humbled man, because I've been wrong a lot in the past two years about what I think the feds are going to do. Right, the feds are liars, right, jerome Powell is a liar. I remember reporting on this podcast in 2020 when he said we are going to hold the rates through 2024. And I remember party time. I put my whole team and said party time, we're going to keep buying and we're going to keep rolling because rates are low. We're going to keep making money. And here we went. Two years later, boom, they changed it. So I've been wrong, my anticipations have been wrong, but at least I'm playing right.

Speaker 1: 17:27

But one thing I do do is I look at the data, which is similar to you. You do. You do it very logically, right, I do it very logically and I try to take the emotions and that's how I tame the emotions of damn, is this going to work out, is this not going to work out? How is this going to? You know, I mean just straight numbers. But I want to talk about fear, because you mentioned fear, and faith, because I think that's a big difference with the entrepreneur successful entrepreneur, right. I think that's a big difference with the entrepreneur, successful entrepreneur, right Is we're constantly pushing forward Fear. You know a lot of people think that fear is false evidence appearing real. And I heard, and I'd like to get your take on this I went to a seminar at the Millionaire Mind Intensive, like five years ago, workshop Great workshop.

Speaker 1: 18:10

Learned a ton about money and it's about resetting your mindset on money. Learned a ton, apply a lot of the principles I learned till today and one of the things they said that the speaker said was what is fear? And fear is the anticipation of pain. And I was like, oh shit, that's true, right, it's an anticipation of something in the future. Like you said, we do, we're trying to protect ourselves, right, that's where it comes from. We're trying to protect ourselves. It's an anticipation of pain. It really, really, really hit me.

Speaker 2: 18:45

I think it's a superpower. Honestly, I think that people classify fear incorrectly. I think people say fear and they use it as handcuffs and they make, they give it as an excuse and it it now becomes the reasons why not to do a deal right. If you're fearful of the deal, there's a difference. Right, you can have a bad deal, right, or you can just be fearful of a great deal, and I actually think fear is fantastic because it's your natural intuition of the fail points, of what could go wrong. And I think that once you just write down what you're afraid of, and you write it down, and then there is a positively proportional correlation to that fear in profit. It's up to you how much risk you actually want to take, right, and that kind of goes back to my matrix, where it's you know what's the likelihood of risk arising, right. So if something's very risky, right. And then if you have a lot to risk, right, like I used to put a lot of my own capital forward uh, you know a lot of that, so that could take me out the game, right, as I started to do deals a lot better. Right, I learned how to manage that risk where we start to spread it out a little bit more where I can invest a little more operationally, other people are able to set and get returns right and we kind of spread a lot of that, risk out a lot more so and not do as risky deals. Yeah, I mean, obviously I'm afraid of a lot of things happening, right, but I have that written down. And now these are the things that I say hey, if so, and so happens, I have a plan, so I'm not fearful with it, but I'm prepared. So-and-so happens, I have a plan, so I'm not fearful with it, but I'm prepared. I think a lot of people just get paralyzed with fear, versus if you just write it down and you get a couple of people to talk to and you just say, hey, either I'm afraid because I don't know, or I'm afraid because I think that this could happen, and you just talk through it, you realize fear goes away really quick, especially if you've know a million on the line or something like that, like you'll get over fear really fast. Um and that and that's where I think a lot of people is they they come up to say that you, they'll use fear as a reason not to do something and then hold on to it and then keep using it as an excuse that I'm afraid to do this, I'm afraid to do, I'm afraid to do that, I'm afraid to go broke, I'm afraid, not, I'm afraid to do this, I'm afraid to do that, I'm afraid to go broke, I'm afraid of poverty. Yeah, exactly, I'm afraid of poverty.

Speaker 2: 21:18

So now for me, like you know, I'm a fighter, right, so I'm going to do everything in my power to learn about it. You know, learn financially to educate myself, to make sure this is that you know, professionally, family-wise, personally, like on all fronts. Okay, cool, I've covered all my fear bases. So like I'm not afraid of it anymore, but like I'm actually embracing the thing that I was once afraid of in uh, you know, to kind of look at how uh jujitsu works right and like martial arts, this is that you actually use the thing the enemy tries to take you out and that's actually how you normally fight and that's where it actually becomes a fluid. So fear is actually the best thing I think that people can have going into a deal, but you need to learn to embrace it, not run from it I love that.

Speaker 1: 22:02

You said that. You know, tony teaches that. Tony robbins, he teaches that in one of his workshops and he talks about, um, learning how to dance with fear. You got to learn how to dance with it and that's exactly what you're talking about. Jiu Jitsu is all about that. It's taking that momentum and and you know, and losing it against the enemy and and Tony teaches that. Tony Robbins teaches that in one of his workshops and he's like you have to learn how to dance with it.

Speaker 1: 22:30

I've learned how to dance with it using the strategy I shared with you. Right, I'm a student of the game and I just I get really geeky with it. I need to know what my numbers are. Whenever I'm feeling uncertain about a deal or something, I go back to the numbers and I'm like, yep, this is why I made this decision. The numbers still line up. Where was this coming from? Forget about this emotion. Let's keep moving forward. This still makes sense, right? This is the logic part of this. It's human nature. So it's learning how to dance with fear, and you touched on that.

Speaker 1: 23:02

I'd like to talk to you a little bit about what you're doing. So you're a developer. We're in a weird market right now. Right, the real estate market is a weird market, no-transcript and so the market on the single family side. So we got two sides. We got the commercial, we got the single family side. And I want to talk about your project because you're doing something really really neat here in the city and I really like I toured your property with you. I put it on my Instagram, so if you guys want to see it, it's on my Instagram. Yeah, Check it out, because if you want to see Javier's project the one we're going to talk about in a minute but I want to talk to you about the market and what you're seeing in the market and what's your thought in the market. You're in Florida. You're in one of the hottest markets in the country. I think Tampa, florida, is the third fastest growing city in the country as of I think a month ago last time I checked and so it's very competitive in Tampa and you're doing some things. So I want to get your take on the market.

Speaker 1: 24:04

We have interest rates. When I reported yesterday we have interest rates, the 10-year treasury was 4.7 yesterday, so interest rates are high. The feds are talking about holding higher for longer. Right, we were expecting three rate cuts this year not happening. We might get one, if we're lucky, we get two. Not good for real estate guys like you and me, especially developers right, because we pay the highest interest when we're building. It's not a stable asset, so the banks hit us hard. So development is down across the country, not in Tampa, not in Florida. Florida is just booming, but what we're seeing is people that were developing before these rate hikes started coming up. New development is not happening. There's not new money being taken out for development because it's just the numbers aren't adding up for a lot of developers. I like to get your take on the market and where things are as a developer, what you're seeing and what are you experiencing in the market, and then I want to talk to you about your project that you see publicly trails behind what's actually happening about six to 12 months.

Speaker 2: 26:44

Anytime that I ever hear about the market is so-and-so right. I always say, well, I already felt that six months to 12 months ago. Then I look at where we're at now and then that's actually how I try and predict of like hey, where do I think that it's going to head, moving forward, Right, and uh, I wouldn't be surprised if they raise rates by the end of the year.

Speaker 1: 27:07

Ooh, I didn't want to hear that one, but I know you got to face reality. That's a possibility. That is a possibility you, you want to you really do.

Speaker 2: 27:16

Uh, you want them to raise rates right now? Um, because what's happened's happened is that in the last 10 years, we've had the largest bull market ever. So what happens is that when you have a lot of people buying in the same asset class that we're currently buying like you had in multifamily you have a lot of competition that then drives prices up, right. For example, yesterday just to kind of use a stock market example you have Jamole trading at 60 times earnings. I mean, that goes against all principle, right? We've lost our investment principles and everyone thinks that they are better than they are, right. So what's happening right now is that it's causing people who actually understand and appreciate financing, the basics of financing, to then succeed, right. So if you understand the fundamentals of business right, you'll be just fine, because the cool thing about real estate is that we have a leveraged return, right. So when we go to do a deal, what I factor in is I actually just look at my cash on cash, right, and then you have a cost of capital. So we actually normally put in like, let's say, you know, for my last deal, for example, I put a quarter million dollars of my own money into an asset class that they told me that was a dead asset class in office building and I made $2.5 million on that. So it's about a thousand percent return, right. If the market goes up, interest rate goes up a little bit. Yeah, it costs me an extra $100,000, $200,000. But if you do enough good deals, you won't even notice it. Right, it's like it's just one less car that you get to buy. So it really is. The cost of capital goes up. It doesn't mean that deals or anything are worse. I think the best thing that you can have is bad news right. Because bad news allows you to negotiate with a seller. Because if you know how to negotiate right, you get to use the news in your favor. You already knew the market's terrible. It's already been tough. We already got through the really hard part, which was navigating the new market and finding the delta that sellers actually say hey, my property is worth more than it is.

Speaker 2: 29:05

Everyone understands right now with real estate now it's come to reality that real estate is not as worth it as much as it once was because of speculation. So a lot of the dumb money is out of the market. So now it's time for real operators to start playing ball. So I mean I'm actually starting to see lenders start throwing money at deals, because that last year was tough because nobody wanted to finance right and nobody wanted to come down on their price. Now we go into this new market that people are being a lot more flexible with their financing terms. They understand that they actually need to get out now before it gets worse, because it's actually going to get worse.

Speaker 2: 29:38

I think the next five years are going to be absolutely horrendous for the real estate market, for just traditional people. But as an investor in the real estate market, if you're not speculating, just say flipping, you're doing stuff like that or if you adjust your prices, that's good. I think in the next five years is that you're going to see some of the greatest real estate companies ever be built, a lot of the guys who enjoyed the bull market of the last 10 years, so on and so forth. They look like geniuses but they're not doing deals anymore, right, because that model once worked. It's completely changed. And being able to understand where is that market currently, I really think more than ever, I think that we're in the best position. It looks bad from an interest rate position, but when it comes down to actually negotiating, doing deals. You and I weren't used to higher interest rates so, but they tell me like, oh, I gotta pay 12. I'm like that's great, that's awesome it's not.

Speaker 1: 30:34

Yeah, people get caught up in interest rates. You know I was. I always share this with my, with my deal, all right. First investment, my first property in 2007, my first duplex. I was paying, I was a broker, I had a 780, 750 credit score back then and I got the best, best rate for myself, right, 7.75 was my interest rate, right. And here we are bitching because we got a 7.01. I'm like, hey, man, hey yo, people are laughing.

Speaker 2: 31:10

I was still. I was talking to my dad. He does uh, my stepfather, he does uh stock markets, right, and he goes hey, he's like my first house was 18 residential first out, and it's like, know, if you look historically where we're at, like this isn't this, isn't this isn't uh out of the norm. Like this. It hurts because we've had such a uh a forgiving market, but it's really good because in a bull market, everyone looks like a genius, right. So we're really going to start seeing operators who, who actually know what they're doing. Um, it's going to be very rewarding, I'll say that. So, again, you take the fear of the market. Okay, what am I fearful about? Oh, wow, you know, I just got a little bit more cost, a little bit, this little bit that, once you think it through, man, like we're actually in an amazing time to be in business.

Speaker 1: 31:57

I agree that's a great reframe, it's a really great perspective to look, a really great way to look at the market. Let me ask you a question about Florida, because I've looked at deals in Florida and the math doesn't math man. And you know there's some markets like Florida. I mean Austin is cooling off tremendously. I think they're down like 15%. You got markets like New York, I'd never do, I wouldn't say never, but I won't do business in New York, um, california and other state, I won't. And the math just doesn't math man.

Speaker 1: 32:28

So I'm looking at deals excuse me in Florida and I'm saying, how are, how are guys doing deals here? How, how do you? How do you math? How, how, how do the numbers make sense? And I talked to a lot of investors, a lot of guys in my network that live in Florida but don't do business in Florida, and they're like, yeah, I live here, I love the weather here, I love here. I leave here three months of the year and then I'm back here and I love it here, but I don't do business here. I mean I buy deals in Ohio or here or there. It's just the math, though math, how are guys doing deals here in Tampa? Because I know you're doing deals here. How do you?

Speaker 2: 33:11

pencil in the numbers. So for us there's a couple of different ways. It's that creativity wins for sure. The biggest problem that we actually have in Florida kind of a headwind, I think would be the hangover from COVID. So we have a lot of people who are moving in and the biggest hurdle that you see for easy properties single family residences, stuff like that you have a lot of people who are selling their property in another state and moving in. So you have people making 1031 exchanges moving in. So they could be a lot more competitive, right. So if you're used to buying it at cap or something like that, residentially, being able to come into the Florida market and finding something that is an eight cap that maybe could drop down to like a six and a half or a seven, you can start to be a little bit more competitive. Because a lot of people are investing in this market right now for tax breaks, right, A lot of local investors, so on and so forth. And if you play the market, you're going to get the market and it's not going to be enjoyable because a lot of people you're playing against a lot of real estate companies across the United States.

Speaker 2: 34:28

For, for what we do is we like to. If everyone's going through the front door, we like to go through the back door, and what I like to do is I like to find a bunch of people who are local, you know, build some relationships, uh, who have build some relationships. I like working with other investors who can afford to take a loss, so I like to find properties that are a little bit hairy aren't necessarily the best, obviously a little bit beat up. So I like absentee and state landlords. So what I do personally and this works across the United States more than ever works really really, really well in Florida, because Florida used to be a very big retiree state. So a lot of people have low leverage on a lot of properties, and especially investors. They might have 10 to 20 properties there. So what I do is, instead of thinking, hey, it's a difficult market, I find too many deals, right, my biggest problem is is that I don't have enough people to actually service all of our properties. So I just buy bigger properties so we can service one or two deals at a time. Yeah Well, for us it's focus, right. So how did I get to that point? How did I navigate? How did I buy a 12-unit property when everyone else couldn't find a property, find any deals or anything like that. What I did is I just focused on very high equity properties and I found investors, so not residential people, right?

Speaker 2: 35:49

Everyone already hears like if you have a residential property, you have to go in and talk to somebody and take their house pretty much, and it's just not a good scenario and they don't have a lot of room to negotiate with. Versus, if I go to somebody who has a couple million dollars in equity on their portfolio, I'll buy the lowest part of their portfolio because they can afford to take a loss on that, potentially even write off some losses on a property. And then what we do is that we create a win-win scenario and then for the investor, is I'm able to buy in bulk, right? So I like purchasing portfolios, I like purchasing multiple properties or larger properties, something that's non-performing for somebody or a tenant's on the way out, because that person can afford to take a loss and everything's negotiable at the end of the day, right? So I think that honestly, I think that Florida's lazy when a lot of people say that they can't find deals and stuff.

Speaker 2: 36:39

I just tell everybody you're not making enough offers. And there's a lot of people here, right? There's a lot of people. I mean we can find a deal in about an hour because we just go out and for every property that's on the market, we comp it and then we just send an offer out to say, hey, this is where we can perform. If you're interested in doing this deal, right, let us know and then we can go ahead and negotiate.

Speaker 2: 36:58

We go through due diligence and then we have to, if we have to, retrade the asset. It's a very fair deal, but we're communicating with people who understand you don't have another option right now. If you're going to go to the market because somebody is not going to be able to, you would have to find an agent with. Most of them are that competent. So if you're self self-representing yourself and you're talking to investors, it's a very straightforward answer.

Speaker 2: 37:22

And at the same time, too, I think there's a lot of people who play in that space, especially when you talk wholesalers and agents who are going to go ahead and tell false pricing. So there's this perceived pricing with deals that make it a little bit more difficult when you talk to investors and you say, hey, I literally can close in a week and take this off of your books. From a loss. You're losing money on a deal, say something like that. I think when you talk to investors and you actually look on performing assets and you look at stuff that is portfolioed right and they don't really care about it and you exude confidence and you can perform on it, there's a premium right now in people who can perform Absolutely 100%, 100%, 100%.

Speaker 2: 38:03

I want to make more offers.

Speaker 1: 38:05

Yeah, that's legit, that's, that's, that's, you know? Um, that's one of the things I I teach my, my, my students, right? It's like hey, we got to keep a compelling scoreboard, what's your, your scoreboard, how are you keeping track? And that's one of them, right? So the guys that want to do more deals is like okay, how many offers are you making? So that's a lead indicator, that's a lead indicator. So we just track, hey, how many offers is going to take you to get your one accepted deal? And then we just go from there. So we know you want five deals. You got to make whatever 30 offers, 40 offers, whatever that is.

Speaker 2: 38:43

I've got. Something I've coined in the last year is never underestimate the loss that another investor is willing to take.

Speaker 1: 38:55

Yeah, that's a good statement.

Speaker 2: 38:59

Never underestimate the loss, so they're willing to go ahead and take a loss on a property, potentially write it off on taxes, right, but where a wholesaler would be looking at it, for example, to say, well, hey, you owe X amount or trying to do a subject to, and you get all fancy with this and stuff, and it's like, hey, well, I can buy it at this price, right. And then the ball's in their court to figure out how we get to close it.

Speaker 1: 39:43

Yeah, that's legit. I want to go into your project, right. You've got this really cool thing you're doing in Tampa, this really cool building that you purchased. I think you said we walked at a 60,000 square feet, correct? Am I saying that, correct? Um, and you have this really cool idea of what you want to do. It's an office building, right. So I'll just give people perspective. It was a commercial office type building and it has. I know it has a bank. It had a bank on the side. So I have one of those drive-through things. Again, if you want to go to my Instagram, check it out. I'm Martin Perdomo, the elite strategist. Look it up and you'll see it. And you have the bank on the side. And then he's got this big, beautiful buildings, big lot, Um, and you're going to be redeveloping that. But you've got this really cool idea. Can you tell us about what it is that you're going to do? It's an office building right now.

Speaker 1: 40:34

The office market, right. There's a negative connotation in our space with the office. So those of you that are in business, right, that are are in real estate you know that the office market is hurting right now. There's a lot of vacancies and COVID we have a lot of those mortgages are being reset because commercial mortgages are not fixed rates, that they're being reset, those mortgages aren't performing and they're not cash flowing. So there is already some blood on the streets with some of those offices. I'm seeing, you know, I'm seeing buildings. I'm sure you've seen that some of these reports where some of these office buildings are selling for 50% for where they were purchased four or five, six years ago or you know a few years ago, and it's like holy crap. But you are going after it. Tell us about it, Tell us your thinking, Tell us what you're doing with that space, because you're doing something really good for the city of Tampa and go ahead and share your vision with us. What is it that you're doing with there office?

Speaker 2: 41:32

to executive suite and state-of-the-art professional center and that 10,000 square feet it's an event space. So we have three floors and it's going to be completely dedicated to entrepreneurs, to business professionals and really anybody who is looking to enhance their freedom through their professional abilities. And we have it here, located in Tampa. It's about five minutes away from downtown and I'm really bullish again of just business right. Reason I am bullish with it is because I see all of the other headwinds right now that if the economy is getting more tight you know the government's already printed enough money Everything's getting more expensive. The government's already printed enough money everything's getting more expensive. Inflation's going like crazy. People have to get back to work and I think that there's been a we're now getting past the COVID hangover here that everyone thought they could work from home, people thought they could get by off of savings and now everybody's savings are getting depleted. So everyone has to figure out something to do and what we're doing is that we're realizing actually again going back to what I said before 12 months ago right was really when the peak time that they said office was bad, right, no one's saying right, the office is bad. If you look in the news, nobody's. What you're seeing is you're seeing now the transactions closing, and so what happened in December of last year? Basically the the everybody's sentiment.

Speaker 2: 43:07

I met with a guy who's managing $80 billion and he said what you're going to see is that right now, that there's a very negative sentiment. This is last year, right, and what you're going to see is is that, because a lot of people have some books on their portfolio, have some properties on their books that are very bad performers, they can't add new offices. So as you start seeing these transactions start to happen, they're actually writing these properties off of their books now, creating space for new, better deals. Right Come Januaryuary, everybody's sentiment has completely changed that they actually like office. Matter of fact, businesses you look this up businesses that own an office have a premium for investors because they understand the ability of, and the importance by, having a team in office to be able to communicate and deliver the best product for their clients. So you're going to see a resurgence of a lot of office and again, six to 12 months out, okay. So now, 12 months from here, you're going to hear wow, office class are booming, a lot of offices are growing, a lot of people are doing a lot better, because all of the craziness is all the dust is settled.

Speaker 2: 44:26

So what we're doing in development is I'm always taking about a two-year bet anytime that I do anything right. So this bet is not just a bet on Tampa, but it's also a bet on the professional market, that there's a lot of entrepreneurs in our area that don't want to go downtown. They don't want to go work with other attorneys and everything like that. What we're doing is that we're taking it not as an office space. We're taking what was once an office building and creating a professional center. So it's a place that you can hold community, hold events and then be able to hold meetings. And what we're focused on doing is we're focused on the network and the community being able to connect local like-mind minds to be able to connect and see how they can actually add value to each other's businesses, and there's a big premium on being able to have a space that does that.

Speaker 2: 45:07

There's not a lot of spots around the United States that do that right now and it just so happens. As far as our asset class, we do about six times to 10 times as well as an apartment building is in regards to cashflow, because the thing that's most important to our asset is that we care about our tenants being successful, so then they obviously can pay their rent. Versus right now, it's like there's a lot of other types of asset classes that have already been squeezed and now they're only going to continue to get squeezed. But what you're not hearing about right now is you're not hearing about the office markets or the multifamily markets and the multifamily buildings that are technically underwater right now and that those are going to need to be retraded in the next couple of years and those won't pencil out asset classes out there that we've kept an eye on. But we made our bet on this building here and I'm looking about two years out. It should be the center for entrepreneurs here in Tampa, florida. Very bold.

Speaker 1: 46:09

Great space, great space, great vision you have. I've seen the video and everything. It's great.

Speaker 2: 46:13

Your office is there too.

Speaker 1: 46:15

Yeah, man, great space, great space, brother, it'd be great. What advice would you be sharing with an entrepreneur today, or someone that wants to start to create wealth? What elite strategy would you give that person listening to us today that wants to get started in real estate or in business? In today's crazy world right, because the world's always crazy, right there's always something right. If it's oh, it's not COVID, it's this, it's that the business is too expensive. There's always something we have to navigate. What advice would you give to someone? What elite strategy would you give someone today that wants to get started in business? I'm going to give you two.

Speaker 2: 47:03

First one is anybody that you look to seek wisdom from and advice. Ask them about their real estate portfolio, or ask them about their bank account, or ask them of the last deal that they transacted. So what is happening, I think, tremendously in the last couple of years, is that you have a lot of people who've done one or two deals and they think they're geniuses and they don't offer real estate, they don't have cash and and they're completely irrelevant in the marketplace. And then it becomes the blind leading the blind and and unfortunately, right, I see a lot of people who still think wholesaling is a great business model and they're wholesaling themselves straight into poverty. Right, um, is is the people.

Speaker 2: 47:59

If you study the markets, right, and you actually talk to people who are wealthy, uh, they're very big about assets appreciating, right, well, accumulating assets right and putting assets together, because assets give you options. And that's my first thing is is I? I would say is is that qualify who you're taking advice from? Uh, diligently, right, the same way that you would do it on a property, do the same diligence on a mentor, because what you don't want to do is you don't want to take advice from somebody who's doing a complete different strategy, um, because you need to also recognize that that the game that each one of us is playing, there's no one size fits all, but there are formula to create wealth, and that is through assets. Uh, and, and, and, and, that's, that's really the big part, um. And then the second piece that I wanted to say is that don't take criticism from any, or, yeah, don't take, uh, criticism from anybody that you wouldn't take advice from 100%.

Speaker 1: 49:03

That's good Sound advice, very good Sound advice. I want to unpack a little bit in the last few minutes. We have a few minutes before we have to wrap it up, but the last few minutes I want to unpack a little bit of your is as to how do you qualify that person right? How do you qualify a mentor? Cause I think you and I talked about this a little bit when we had lunch there's a lot of fake teachers. Actually, what's his name Wrote a book on that, robert Kiyosaki. I don't know if you read that book. It's a great book on fake teachers, right? Fake teachers was one of his recent books I think the one before last that he wrote, and we saw it a lot. I've seen it a lot over the last few years where you got these guys hosting meetups real estate meetups and they've never done a deal yet. They're up there and there's nothing wrong if they're bringing in guys, if they're providing value by bringing in guys that are actually doing deals.

Speaker 1: 49:54

But you got to be very careful on who you are listening to, right? You are who you spend time with, who you are listening to. Right, you are who you spend time with, who you're listening to and what you're watching, what you're letting in through your eyes, letting in your ears, and who you're spending time with, who you're hanging out with. Those three things are extremely important. How do you vet someone? How do you do that? How does one do that? So someone's listening and saying, great, how do I get to get around javier, how do I get to get around martin? How do I vet him? And when, when I do find him right, how do people even know that I have I?

Speaker 2: 50:27

just because I have a podcast doesn't mean I own assets right, well, you can, you can, you can look on your instagram, for example, and you can actually see your crews in your property. Um, so that's one of the first things is I look at relevancy. Uh, the most important thing, if I if I'm talking to a real, because there's different types of mentors I have a spiritual mentor, a business mentor, a father mentor, I've got mentors Marriage mentor, yeah, yeah, and biblically speaking, is that you knock and then the door will open. So, as far as a real estate mentor and I'll break this down, so a real estate mentor, I asked to go see their property. When it comes to a construction mentor, I look to go see their job sites. Right, if they don't have real estate or they don't have any job site to take me to actively, that's not their personal residence it's immediately disqualification for me, right, immediate disqualification. Um, first time we met, I took you to my building, right, that's right. First time we met, I took you to my building.

Speaker 2: 51:19

Right, that's right. And a second one, like if, as far as a business mentor, or like if you're looking at any, any investing mentor, I would want to see their investment portfolio and then what what investments that they've actually made, and also what's their strategy and the cash that they're actually holding. One of the most important things I've learned is to actually qualify people through a cash method and understand of you. What are you holding currently and what are you? What did you return last year and what is your projection and strategy for this year to do that? So I actually want to know people's liquidity. If we can't talk about money, then we're not going to make money together. Um and uh, uh, the other part. Um, as far as mentors are concerned, uh, as far as, like, like, say, connecting and reaching out. Mentors are concerned, as far as, like, say, connecting and reaching out, I used to when I was growing up in DC.

Speaker 2: 52:05

I had no money, no knowledge, no, anything, but I at least had some properties that I was helping other people sell and every single time, a developer would reach out or I'd even call them. I just asked them to go to coffee, right, and just asking somebody for their time and understanding how valuable that time might be. I love when people ask me like, hey, hob, can we get together? Can we go get coffee? I want to pick your brain, I want to have community with you.

Speaker 2: 52:32

I'm so amazed at how little people actually do that and just reach out because they think that, like oh, it's a no, or this, and that that's how I got success out. Because they think that like oh, it's a no, or this, and that that's how I got success. I actually appreciate when someone reaches out to me and they say, hey, I have nothing to offer you other than just maybe being around here. Maybe later down the road I could pay this one back to you, and I've done that with my mentors as well, and I've made millions of dollars doing that. But at that time it just took courage to be able to reach out to say like, look, I know I need to be doing something more than I am. I don't know what to do. And that vulnerability and just asking someone for coffee for 30 minutes to an hour, man, that's the biggest thing and that's a big qualifier too. You want to find people who want to pour into you, and there's a lot of people out there. It's just you have to ask.

Speaker 1: 53:20

And there's a lot of people out there. It's just you have to ask yeah, that's good, Good advice, man. And my last question before we wrap it up is what's the one thing that you haven't touched on that would bring a tremendous amount of value to our listeners today I've got three and it's my top three lessons learned across generations in real estate.

Speaker 2: 53:44

So my first lesson would be resilience and adaptability. So the market is continuing to change, starting from where my grandmother, a Cuban immigrant, was able to come with an indomitable spirit. That's the importance of resilience and adaptability, having an indomitable spirit. It's really crucial for long-term success. The number two would be the power of relationships and networking. That real estate is fundamentally a people's business. So from selling off-market properties to collaborating with developers, trust and credibility are the cornerstones of a successful transaction. Trust and credibility are the cornerstones of a successful transaction.

Speaker 2: 54:23

And number three last one, here is going to be embracing innovation and technology. It doesn't mean you spend all day on chat, gpt, but it means leveraging modern technology can significantly enhance efficiency in your business. So if you're flipping, if you're developing, if you're leasing, it'll enhance efficiency but also your accuracy of real estate. So it'll help your profit margins a lot if in a high inflation market, factoring those type of prices. But for me, using cutting edge tools and data analytics, it keeps you competitive in the market. But it also keeps you in the market and that's the most important part. It's not about being the wealthiest, but it's about staying in the market. But it also keeps you in the market, and that's the most important part. It's not about being the wealthiest, but it's about staying in the game.

Speaker 1: 55:07

Not being the wealthiest. Staying in the game. I believe in creating wealth is a long-term game and it's time right, All my students that like, hey, this is not about the one thing that you do that makes you successful overnight. Success happens overnight with the little things you do over the years and then one day, boom, there it is. It's the little habits that you do, it's the people you're spending time with, it's your consistency on the things, on your vision and your commitment to going towards that thing and it's not big, it's not the big thing. So I love that you say that, that you said that, um, about wealth, man, because wealth is a long-term game, it's not a ghetto, you know, I, I have a saying in real estate and real estate is not a get rich quick scheme.

Speaker 2: 56:02

It's a get rich for sure, if you stay with it straight up.

Speaker 2: 56:04

Yeah, you're gonna need it to get real sure you know, and a lot of people, a lot of people, man, they, they, they, they operate one with this, I'm sorry, and is is they operate in this gap to say because I'm not there. Every day you wake up with a sick feeling of like I'm not at where my goal is. But when you start to, matt, when you start to realize of of if I was in any other country across the world, I wouldn't have the opportunity to do what I have to do today, I get to, I have the opportunity to apply myself, and then you start working in that gain of like hey, I have everything to gain at this point. It's a healthier mindset and I think a lot of people need to focus on that before we start thinking about a billion dollars, right, 100%?

Speaker 1: 56:49

It's a mindset. It's a mindset and I got from the book, I think, when I talked about it a little bit, the gap in the gain. It's focusing on the game and it's interesting because one of the exercises that the author says to do is that every day you sit with a question what were my biggest wins today and how did I improve? And I do that. I was doing that before with the journal. I told you about the elite journal I use every morning. I was doing that with gratitude and at the end of the day, that journal has the top three goals, the top three things I can do to get me closer to my goals. What were my biggest lessons? But, man, what were the biggest wins today and how did I improve is a reframe, because when you do that every day, right now, you start to focus on the things that you're you're win, they start to tack up over time in your mind and you start feeling like a winner. You start feeling like, hey, man, I'm getting closer. Yeah, well, I didn't get the big thing yet. But, man, I moved a little bit closer today because I ran two miles, so my health improved, because I spent time with my wife, dedicated time with my wife, so my relationship improved because I made this connection with this person. Or I talked to this investor. This investor agreed to give me, you know, to invest a hundred thousand dollars in my deal. Like it's just the little things, you do your wind or I spend 20 minutes. I met with my coach today. I spent 20 minutes listening to this book today. So I improved there, I improved here because I got this new strategy. So these things just start to stack up, man, and it's been quite interesting for me to do that, because I do that exercise every. I do it every night now, but I learned it. So that, I think, is key.

Speaker 1: 58:40

My brother, if people wanted to get a hold of you and they wanted to connect with you and or they wanted to figure out how to work with you I know that you are looking for some, some capital on your project and things like that how can people connect with you? If, by the way, guys, if you guys want to see his project, you just can go to my IG and you'll see it there. We walked it together. I have a little video. We could go do that again if you want to, javier, one of these days, and so yeah, so how can people get a hold of you? How can people connect with you? Where do they find you? How do people just connect with you in general, Definitely so.

Speaker 2: 59:17

I'm always on Instagram, so it's Suarez underscore capital and then if you want to actually look a little bit more into the actual company of ours, it's the Suarez capitalcom.

Speaker 2: 59:28

So T H E S U A R E Z capitalcom and you'll actually be able to see the video of our project. We work, we walk through the entire building of where it's at now, where it's headed, and you can actually see some of the older projects that we've done in the past, which are amazing. We love seeing how far that we've come. But if you're an investor looking to then participate in a deal of that sort, maybe we're the best at it, maybe we're not, but at least what we can do is find out. We have an intake form on our website At the top left. You just click become an investor, and it's a two minute form that anybody who wants to connect with our company. We want to know exactly who you are first, and then what we'll do is we'll schedule a time to reach out and then be able to connect and see if there's some synergies that we can grow together.

Speaker 1: 1:00:10

Yeah Well, thank you, brother, really appreciate it. Man Learned a ton from you. It's always great spending time with you and having these great conversations. You know my favorite topic real estate, money. I love real estate, love making money. I love talking mindset stuff. I you know what I mean. These are the things I really enjoy, like talking about faith and and just progress. Man, I love these type of conversations where we were, we're, we're all growing and and people get to listen in on these conversations.

Speaker 1: 1:00:37

You know I would dream oftentimes. I would dream, javi, of being in a room where conversations were like these were had. I would dream like, hey, man, how do I get around higher level people having smarter conversations so I can learn and get better at it? Because of technology, this podcast has allowed me to be that, to be that for others where others can be in the room. You know we were having a conversation the other day when we were in your office and I was like, hey, man, people would meet you and Jeremy, you and Jeremy and I was like man, we're having this crazy conversation about the market and money and this and that and all these crazy I mean really high level stuff and I'm like man, people would love to be sitting in, just to be a fly on the wall in this room right now. So thank you, brother, really appreciate you, man, appreciate you coming on.

Speaker 2: 1:01:29

I love what you do, and next time we do this we'll grab a cafecito.

Speaker 1: 1:01:33

Absolutely man, yeah, man Absolutely. My brother Appreciate you Always, man. God bless you.