Roberto Green is a real estate entrepreneur who kicked off his journey by purchasing his first duplex in 2017 using his 401K. Leveraging cryptocurrency profits, he became a private lender and ventured into fixing and flipping during the 2020 pandemic. He also engages in wholesaling, flipping, and educates others through online courses on making money in real estate.
Roberto Green is a real estate entrepreneur who kicked off his journey by purchasing his first duplex in 2017 using his 401K. Leveraging cryptocurrency profits, he became a private lender and ventured into fixing and flipping during the 2020 pandemic. He also engages in wholesaling, flipping, and educates others through online courses on making money in real estate.
All right, everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Game Changers show. I'm your host, Mike McKay, based in the Jacksonville, Florida market. And each and every week we do this show with people who are changing the game of real estate all over the country. For anyone who is in the Jacksonville area market, or thinking about getting into it, feel free to reach out to us. We're always happy to point you in the right direction. We are still a very active buyer in Jacksonville, especially of mobile homes on land. That's our current focus. So if you have any deals, feel free to reach out to us as well. thIs week we have Roberto green from up in Boston, Massachusetts, Roberto. Welcome to the show
Roberto:Thank you, brother. Excited to be on. Thank you for having me.
Mike:for sure. So for the people who don't know you can you tell us how you got started in the real estate business and where that's, how that's led you to where you are today?
Roberto:I started seven years ago when I got into real estate. I dropped out of college. I became a father at 20 and started my journey there working three jobs. I was trying to get by and it was really a struggle for me. Just, trying to navigate through as a first time dad and as a young 20 year old who didn't even go to college. So I was looking for different opportunities at the time. Again, I was working three jobs. So it was really Challenging. So I ended up going through a one year intensive training program called Year Up, and I basically learned financial operations, and that got me a job in State Street Bank. So I started working at State Street Bank as a client service specialist. I worked with the Latin American clients that they had in the bank. Eventually, I got promoted after a year and a half to asset management. So I was doing that for another year and a half. And then I got promoted again to a client service specialist in wealth management, everything within five years in state street. But throughout that time, I was also learning about real estate. I read rich dad, poor dad, which is like the main book that everybody starts out with. And it just blew my mind just to think that, there's so many different aspects of real estate. That you can basically benefit from and it's an asset and not a liability, which is something that I learned through financial operations with just having that language and learning that financial literacy, but it was something brand new to me. It was not something that I grew up with. So in 2017, I learned that you can take out up to 50% of your 4 0 1 K and apply it to a primary home. So when I found that out, I had worked five, six years in the bank and I was saving in my 4 0 1 k, but I decided to withdraw 50% of that. I bought my first home. And it was a duplex, house hacked it, house hacked being just rented it out and then I ended up, staying, living with my mother, but that's really how I got started. And then that's where I started learning about being a landlord. It wasn't until a couple of years later that I figured out this landlord friendly and tenant friendly states. Unfortunately, Massachusetts is a tenant friendly state. So I learned that the hard way and I sold everything here and just went out to Ohio. So I ended up Throughout the years buying properties in Ohio right now, we have 11 single family properties in Ohio and we rent them through housing tenants. I went into Ohio because it's a landlord friendly state and the houses are under$50,000. So it's like the Boston market. You're never going to find that. Boston market, you're lucky to get four to 6 percent cap rate. It's a tight market getting evicting tenants is very difficult. You're looking at anywhere between three to six months. If you have a really, we call them professional tenants where they know the system and they know how to take advantage of it. Unfortunately, there are these types of tenants. So you have to be very careful. But, throughout that time, like that's back in 2017. So back when crypto was actually booming, I actually did$5,000 into crypto as well. That turned into$50,000 and I ended up becoming like a private lender cause I was just looking for ways to invest, I was like learning, but taking action and getting my feet wet which is a good and bad thing. I say that because when I got into private lending, it was going well. Like I would invest 5, 000 on a project and they would pay me back half, like 50%. Given 5, 000, they paid me back 7, 500 total principal and interest, so I thought it was a good gig. Then when it came to the big numbers, they were looking for 50, 000. Me and my other partner ended up coming in. We raised the money that we had in crypto, liquidated it, put it into that deal, but we didn't have the right contracts in place. Long story short, they didn't end up doing what they were going to be doing. It was a condo conversion. But they didn't have the property in the contract. It was like a verbal agreement with the owner. They ended up moving the money somewhere else where I didn't even know and maybe like other projects or paying back other investors and it was a lesson learned. Thankfully, we were able to recoup the money, but it took almost two years to get it back and it was like the biggest learning experience that I had. So now that I teach people how to invest and just get into the game, I always tell them like, never invest your money unless you have a promissory note, personal guarantee. First or second mortgage depending on how much money you're allocating and you want to make sure that you're also a beneficiary on the insurance of the property. Just for full protection and whatever contracts you have hire a real estate attorney Because those are the ones that are going to look at your best interest and protect you From having fraud happen because there's a lot of sharks out there too And there's a lot of people that just take money. I don't know if you guys heard of flipping nj But there's like a whole scandal over there in new jersey Where people are taking money and then not investing it where they say they're gonna invest it and that becomes a problem It can turn into a Ponzi scheme or like just sharks getting money from people and people losing all of their savings so I'm Very strict when it comes to lending and teaching people how to lend even with my private investors I tell them This is what I do to protect you. So that's why I have a lot of private investors that come in. Trust me, because I'm very transparent. And that's something that I keep within the relation.
Mike:We talked about a little stuff offline, but in the Boston area you are still doing deals, but you're focusing on wholesaling and flipping in Boston. Is that because of the tenant regulations there, why you switch to that model?
Roberto:There's a lot of different factors that come into play. For one, rent, whatever you have to pay in mortgage, especially with the 8 percent interest that we're looking at now. So whatever you have to pay in the mortgage, it's not really covered by rents. Rents are high here, but there's still like the prices here I feel like they're inflated. So my opinion, you're looking at if you've got to spend a let's say you're all in a million dollars on a multi unit. You're probably only gonna see, depending on the deal what's 500 to a couple hundred dollars in cash flow. It doesn't make sense. Here, I'm seeing single family homes being sold here for almost a million dollars just to be torn down. And then to be rebuilt as 5, 000 square foot homes and being sold for two, three, four 5, 000, 000. So that's the type of market that we're in here. You got to get creative and force appreciation. Zoning laws are changing. Obviously, there's the housing crisis. So it's like not enough homes are being built. So now they're rezoning like single family homes, maybe that if they're like on an acre lot, as an example. They would be able to be rezoned in certain cities within a certain parameter from the MBTA, and they would rezone them so that you can build like a 12 unit, 24 unit building. So it's the more I'm learning the more there's opportunity, but that's why I'm doing wholesaling, because I'm learning about what developers are looking for, so that I can find them off market and deliver it to the developers. I don't have new development experience is something I want to learn and get into, but I have done like full gut renovations and I have done, rehabs, which told me is a lot harder than doing new construction because in Massachusetts, particularly like the inspectors are really tough. I feel this is like the major league of level when it comes to doing house flipping, because you have very strict guidelines. And building codes that you have to abide by versus going to like another state where they're a little bit more lenient with permitting because Ohio in particular, they're way more lenient than they are here. So flipping here is it can be a challenge, especially if you're doing structural changes to the home. It has to be up to code. If you open up a wall. You're opening Pandora's box. Everything has to be up to code. I like to focus more on quick flips, cosmetic rehab, in and out. Cause, you run the risk of having large holding costs. Here there's like environmental. conservation and historical causes. And you're looking at homes. It's funny because some people like in Jacksonville Oh yeah, we have an old house. It was built in 1970. I'm like, that's new. We have houses here 6 1700. So to me, I had a flip. I had a flip renovation. iN one of the cities here around Boston, and it was a full gut renovation, but it was built in the 1700s. So I saw like horsehair plaster. I saw like these old iron nails. Everything was old school. Like it was literally, it should have been a teardown, but it was just a project. It was supposed to take eight months. It took 12 months. It was like in the middle of the pandemic. buT it was a learning experience nonetheless. I would never, and it was profitable. So I'm really grateful for that opportunity that I had, but every flip, every wholesale is a learning opportunity.
Mike:Yeah. So what percentage are you guys doing like a flips in the Boston area versus wholesale deals?
Roberto:So with this market, I changed. So now I'm doing 75 percent wholesale and 25 percent flips. Like the flip needs to be a really solid meat on the bone type of deal. That's. Cookie cutter type of a deal I'm dealing with like inspectors that wouldn't pass me because the kitchen cabinets and the stove they need to be 18 inches in height and separation They wouldn't pass me because it would mine was like 17 and 3 quarters
Mike:Yeah. That sounds strict. Yeah.
Roberto:Imagine that so I literally had to raise the cabinets a quarter inch just to meet those guidelines and that's what you're dealing with here. You can have inspectors here are a hit or miss. You can have a good relationship with them and they're like, spot on or you can have a really tough time, especially if you're working with like subcontractors, you always try to want to be present when the inspection is there because if the contractor runs his mouth or has a bad experience with the inspector, then they're gonna give you a hard time. So I always try to make sure that I'm there present because the inspection can be great. It could be a bad experience.
Mike:So, you mentioned the rezoning and things like that. So in terms of wholesaling deals, are you mostly focused on deals that are those potential development opportunities to wholesale to developers, or?
Roberto:Yeah, so I do reverse wholesaling. So I look for the developers and investors that, are active in the market. Cause you're also going to see people that buy anything, people that have no buying criteria. They're just like, throw me a deal, send me a deal. The more that I become involved with real estate and network, the more I see the real people, the real go getters are the ones that actually take action. And the ones that are like, yeah, I do development and I flip. But they don't buy when you send them a deal. So I'll have my buyers list, and then I'll have my VIP buyers list. So now I'm focusing on my VIP buyers list, where they're the ones, I send them a deal, they're buying. Or, I can trust them enough, I can trust them enough to get access to the house. They can look at the address, they can give me a price, how much can you pay for this for you to make money. And then I go back to the seller and then I negotiate it to where I need to get and they're okay with me making a an assignment fee where we're transparent. But to me, it's you tell me what price you need me to get it to for you to make money. And then I can work backwards and then I can try to get a little lower so that I can make my commission. That's the level of trust and the level of partnership that I want to have with. Developers, but not every developer is like that or willing to work with me like that and that's okay, but the ones that do work with me, I will take care of them. They tell me, look, Roberto, we're focused on this county, this price point, this lot size, whatever the criteria is now, I'm spending my marketing dollars. On finding them deals so that they're happy and I'm prepared them because we have that full transparency. So that's because of the big disconnect in the wholesale market, right? Wholesalers try to get that 75 percent off ARV then reduce the construction cost. That's like your cookie cutter type of equation. But when you start learning development and start learning what these developers are looking for, what these investors are looking for, everybody runs their numbers differently. Maybe they have in house contractors that lowers their costs on their end. Maybe they're doing a buy and hold. Maybe they're doing a fix and flip. What is their strategy? Maybe they're doing condo conversions, which is very common here. So what may not seem as a regular deal to an individual investor as a regular three family, because we have a lot of three families here, Another investor would be like, no, I can pay you top dollar because I'm going to convert these into condominiums and sell them for 800, 000 a piece. So having these open conversations, I think is really key and that's what's really been helping me stand out in the wholesale market.
Mike:how did you go about finding those developers and then building those relationships?
Roberto:Networking events. Literally, I'm in every networking event. I joined the brokerage called Evo. They're really big on development here out in Boston. So I, I leverage the real estate agents, tell them what I do, how I do it. I work with their developers and I understand what they're looking for. Cause me I came in backwards, I started buying properties. I bought the duplexes. I became a private investor, then I became a flipper, then I became a wholesaler and then I became a instructor. So it was like, I just did full circle. What I'm missing now is like becoming creating a fund and doing new development or doing syndications, but I'm like learning a little bit of everything at the same time. And enjoy it, but really, Immersing myself into the real estate community, the market, understanding what's going on, talking to subject matter experts, connecting with people like the Namens, the Diegos, the Gonzalos. yoU learn a lot and you pick up a lot from them and just going to different events. I travel a lot. You see me in Puerto Rico almost every month. I've gone to Texas, Florida, been to Jacksonville just to go learn from people that are in the industry because In my opinion with anything like we live in a connected social community, but we're so disconnected, we're all looking to do the same thing, which is make money, survive, build and grow, but nobody wants to work together, share ideas. That's why I asked, what's just the CRM you use because I want to learn like what people are using and I get different answers from different people. So I'm trying to figure out, okay this works for this person, but that doesn't work for that person or find some common ground. But if we can at the end of the day, in a way, work together, at least extract some sort of information. There's money to be made for everybody. Every time I travel and I'm in the plane, I'm going to look at how many houses just in a matter of a minute, thousands of houses. So for me to not give you information and be open with you Hey, look, this is what I do. There's money to be made everywhere, but nobody wants to work together. So everybody just keeps all the information for themselves. And then when you go to the gurus, they just tell you it's all easy
Mike:yeah. You have these relationships with these developers, know what their buy boxes and then chase down those deals. How do you go about actually sourcing the deals? Once you know what developers buy boxes.
Roberto:I go through PropStream. I use PropStream to build my list and then based off the criterias, I'll just filter out the list on PropStream. I will skip trace everything. And then start either cold calling. I have a team that cold calls, I cold call, or I'll hire like REI call center for an example, and that's like another cold calling company that one of my friends owns, and I'll just work with them. I got a deal right now in the pipeline because of REI call center, so it's. It's, it's just, it's numbers. It's a numbers game. Then you have mailers. As you can see my shirt now, home cash buyers in the back. It says, sell me houses, just putting myself out there. I do a lot. I'm creating a lot of content now on social media. TikTok. I'm getting into YouTube, YouTube shorts. FaCebook, Instagram reels, but consistency and posting there because I want everybody to know that I'm what I'm looking for. I'm looking for ugly distressed homes. They don't need to know anything else. If they want to get into specifics, they can reach out to me directly or take my courses where I teach all this stuff, but They're sending me leads, they're sending me ugly houses, and here in this market I can pay 5, 000 per lead if I close on it. So if someone brings me a house, I could just, I'll close it. Perfect. You get paid 5, 000. I have an agent that I'm paying 5, 000 once the deal I have closes because they brought me a buyer and established a good relationship with that buyer. And now we're going to be working on more deals. So it's all relationships, right? But you want to build trust equals sales. So I'm looking to build trust, I'm a genuine person, I'm not, I'm never here to scam somebody and somebody gives me a lead or another wholesaler gives me a lead. You're never going to run into a situation with me where I took that lead and ran or to contact the owner directly because you do see that here there are good people and there are bad people. That's just any industry. And that's how I started really focusing and diving a little bit more deeper with what I'm doing now.
Mike:And then what about Ohio? Are you also buying those directly or how are you finding those deals that you've made rentals for you?
Roberto:Those I'm just working with different agents. I have boots on the ground out there. I have property managers that are always getting deals. But I'm really trying to expand that portfolio. I want to perfect it before I really... Push it higher. What I mean by that is go through all the hiccups, right? So we started with four bought six. Now we're dealing with six issues. Cause there's six different houses that we bought. But a lot of it's more like cosmetic renovations that we needed. We, not that we didn't account for it, but we knew it was going to happen. We just didn't know how quickly, but we did get a good price on the properties, but we also needed to have extra funding in place for the rehabs. Because we were planning to increase the rent. Obviously, when you want to increase rents, you're going to get pushback from current tenants. This needs to be fixed. This needs to be done. The heat, like all the problems rise when you want to increase rents. So that needs to be kept in mind. So you need to have some, when you're doing acquisitions, you need to have taken into consideration, the condition of the property now what's coming in. And if you want to one by one, evict the tenants so that you can make the renovations, but you're still cash flowing. You want to be as strategic as possible. So like right now, we're working with a property management company now. It's not the best experience. So like we're shopping around but right now we're just in our learning phase but we know that we're in a good market because You have good cap rates and good cash on cash returns. There are challenges just like anything else doesn't matter what you invest in everything comes with its pros and cons. It's just understanding and mitigating the risk on the front end so that you're working towards a goal, but then you can stabilize the asset and it's producing consistent cash flow.
Mike:What are some things that, I know obviously you moved out of rentals in the Boston area because, it wasn't so landlord friendly. Obviously Ohio is quite a bit more landlord friendly, but it seems like it presents its own unique challenges. What challenges do you see in Ohio that are different than the ones that you saw in Boston?
Roberto:State has its own challenges. Depending on the type of city, even the zip code that you select. So you have like different city grade. You have like your A, B, C and D market, right? The market that I'm particularly in is Toledo and depending on the zip code. You're dealing with B and C or C and D markets, the crack rate is up, theft is up the median income out there is 45, 000, it all depends on the zip code, honestly. The challenges that we've seen, we've had break ins, so then, what's the solution? Now we install security cameras. We install a security system. Some of the tenants are not paying because they lost their jobs, so now we're working with more housing tenants. We're looking more into all the mechanicals. So when we're reviewing the house, we want to make sure that the furnace is on point because the biggest issues that we have are plumbing, electrical and heating. We want to make sure that they're at least cleared up or we negotiate the price. We negotiated in the purchase price because the deal. Is in the purchase price. So you gotta keep that in mind when you're doing all of your investments. So like it was a learning experience. We learned a lot, me and my partner that we're out there, but I feel now more confident to continue to invest and invest in more, um, because of the opportunities that are out there. So to me, it's all about affordability. Can people afford the rent? Even at a 45, 000 income, paying 1, 000 a month in rent for an entire house, as an example, that's fairly reasonable. Versus here you have the luxury market, but you also have high income earners. There's a lot of millionaires here in Boston. There is a luxury market here. We have one of the best markets in Newton, as an example. Newton is just very high level. It doesn't, even during the recession Or 2008, when all these markets dropped 20, 30%, depending on the area, this market only dropped like less than 8%. it's where all the doctors live, all the high end people, like high income earners are living in Newton. And that depends on wherever you go. Whatever you pick, but Boston is known for luxury, but then that presents disadvantage because who's going to be able to afford all these rents. You have outside investors coming in, foreign exchange students that are coming in. So it's like foreign money, but then the people that are actually living here, they're having trouble paying 2, 500 for a one bedroom or a studio. That's what we're looking at right now. So these are the prices. So there's pros and cons in every market. It's just really learning and understanding the market. And I never knew what that meant. It was like, Oh, you need to understand the market. I'm like, what does that mean? Understanding the market is like really knowing the neighborhood, where you can pinpoint it down to zip code. Going on, there's a new construction going on. What's that? Are there schools or universities around there? What type of corporations or businesses are in the area? What's the median income that people are earning? What's the crime rate? So there's so many different variables in understanding the market. And there's millions of markets. So it's like even by zip code, like it's just learning it and seeing what works for you based off your goals. So if you're cash flow, you're looking for appreciation, like Boston is great for appreciation, so if you're looking to build equity, this is the place. If you're looking for cash flow. I may not advise it. So that's my personal opinion and everybody has their own, but there are deals, but again it's all comes down to the purchase price because there are deals in Boston, obviously it was just, you have to be at a right price, but people aren't educated and don't know what a right price they want to overpay or waive inspection or waive appraisal, like they just want to waive everything. And they're just overpaying for a property that was built before 1900s and it needs a new roof or it needs new everything and they're just getting into it overpaying and it's the lack of education. I feel that's causing that
Mike:How are you handling? Cause I know one challenge in like the markets where houses are, 50 grand for example, is You know, finding long term financing on the wall, lenders have minimums. Like, how are you handling that in the Toledo market?
Roberto:you gotta get creative. And you need to have conversations with multiple banks. You gotta build relationships with them. They need to understand you. You need to have a PFS, personal financial statement. You need to have really great credit for you to even apply to these types of programs. You really need to have your numbers and pro forma on point as far as how's the income looking, the net income, what does the rent look like, the rent rolls the appraisal value comes into effect as well. Are you going to be forcing appreciation into the but when you work with like local banks in the area and you build a relationship with them, they're more lenient to you, you do have to go through mountains and hills, but once you start developing these relationships with like smaller credit unions, smaller banks, like they make money lending. You just need to know what you're doing, present yourself as a real estate professional. And really just keep shopping around, but you need to go through a lot of banks. People get stuck with the big banks like Chase, Bank of America Citiz Bank or whatever other banks are out there. They stick to the big commercial and not, they don't focus like on the small credit unions or the small bankers. Because they don't do that as much marketing either. So there's a lot of banks that we don't know about.
Mike:How did you go about finding the right local banks to work with?
Roberto:Talk to everybody, ask questions. If I don't know something, I'm not afraid to ask. I started talking to people out in Ohio. Hey, what are some local banks or started talking to investors to property managers Hey, what type of banks do you guys use and just ask questions, then you got to build a relationship with the bank, call the bank, let's see what their criterias are and it becomes repetitive. The first couple calls is going to be tough because, you're just learning, but you're going to extract the information and then eventually you're going to start hearing the same thing and that they're going to be looking for a similar. I think so. So like instead of you having to pull all the data together and all your paperwork, you have it already in the folder because everybody's been asking you for the same thing. So now you're just shopping around and like you're doing them a favor. They're not doing you a favor. One of the challenges obviously was properties under 50, 000 banks wouldn't really get into, but there are like really like niche bankers that are that would do it. I was just really going about it because we bought six properties. We're supposed to buy 10. It was a portfolio that the guy was selling, but we were only able to buy six out of the 10 because four of them didn't appraise for over 50, 000. So we found a lender that was able to lend on 50, 000 homes. So now our buying criteria is 50, 000 homes, or be prepared to, keep your money in the deal. And buy a 30, 000 home, fix it or rent it. And if it's only worth 45, 000 at the day, then you have it for cash flow. You don't really have it to do like a cash out refi.
Mike:Are these homes once you renovate them and all that, do they jump up to a hundred K in value when you go to refi them? Or is it market still sub like a hundred k
Roberto:No, it depends. It's really block by block in zip code in Toledo that particular market. We have seen an increase in value. There has been appreciation and we bought at great prices. So like we bought a single family home for 30, 000. put 10, 000 into it, but it's worth like 55 65, 000. There is equity in there. And as long as they're worth over 50, I just found out that this is all about building right relationships. I found somebody in Chase Bank that I have a good relationship with him now. And he's yeah, if you have good credit, 700 over, we can do a cash out refi with 50, 000 homes up to 70 percent ARV. So it's just having those conversations and being open with people and, bankers are just people at the end of the day. They just want to make sure that, you know what you're doing. That makes sense. And your numbers like that's what it really comes down to.
Mike:Yeah. And then how do you handle the renovations on these properties since you're a thousand miles away or 2000 miles away.
Roberto:We have boots on the ground. So we have a contractor that we developed a relationship with. The systems are basically taking photos, getting two to three different quotes from contractors, which is what I do here anyways. I get photos, I get an agent or I'll pay. Somebody to go in and take photos of the property manager typically takes care of that and then we'll do a very detailed scope of work as far as what needs to be done. We stick to that scope of work. Because if there's any change orders, we need to understand why that wasn't caught beforehand or happened that. Cause the change order, cause when you do open up walls, or you do open up a flooring, you could find like molding or rotting, but we go through a list, focus on the high cost ticket items, which is the foundation, the the roof, the siding, the mechanicals, everything's high cost these days. So we want to make sure that the mechanicals at least are solid, or if they do need work, how much they're going to cost. But we'll get two or three quotes and then if we find a solid contractor, we'll just stick with them and it's relationship based, if they're performing doing well, giving us great prices, good work. We're going to work with you on all our other projects and we're going to recommend you to our other investors. If we have people that do a bad job, we're never going to work with you again. And we're going to make sure that, if somebody asks us for a referral, we're not going to give it to them. So it's all relationship based at the end of the day and really filtering through these contractors
Mike:Yeah. And then like, how do you keep tabs on it remotely? Just to know that everything is progressing the way that you,
Roberto:Weekly check in. So it's like a project management type of style where we're like Managing everything Week by week just getting updates, no update or is what's going on this week Are we on time is what's the right timeline and just making sure that everything is being done properly and then working with the product? property managers to just Double check and making sure that they're doing their job. So that's key. But yeah, it's just communication, open communication and systems.
Mike:Gotcha. Is there a older housing stock in Toledo as well? Not quite as old as Boston, but
Roberto:That is old. You do see some cast iron piping and like old furnaces, but it's not as old as, but I've seen worse. So to me, it's like being Midwest and out West is new to me.
Mike:And then. Back to your Boston stuff. I guess like, how are you making the decision of Hey, I'm going to wholesale this property versus I'm going to flip it. Because I know you're doing about 75 25 wholesale versus flip.
Roberto:iT all depends on as far as the amount of work. So if it's going to take me more than four or five months. I'd rather just build my capital and then deploy it to like different projects, either buy more houses in Ohio or focus on my investment in Puerto Rico. Again, everybody has their own strategy. Everybody can do whatever works for them and based off their goals. My goal was always to start making 10, 000 a month passive income and then growing it from there. That covers my living expenses plus. I can go on vacation every single month if I want to, um, but that's just like my starting point to some people that may seem like a lot to others. It may seem like a little bit and I've heard both, some people are like, oh, just 10, 000. You should focus on 25, 50, 000 hours a month. And, it's a process you want to work to get there, but what works for you right now, based off your current living expenses. So that's my goal as far as doing that. But when it comes to why would I wholesale versus flip, if it's a massive project, I want to send it to an investor that they can handle it. If there's enough meat on the bone where I'm like, okay, I can hit 80 to a hundred grand on this flip. I'll flip it all day. But if I can make a quick wholesale and make 25 to 50, 000. I'll do that also. But really on a case by case basis depending on the type of project, but a lot of my developers, they focus on new construction, which I'm not really touching right now. So I let them do that. I'll just wholesale the deal all day.
Mike:Gotcha. And maybe talk to us a little bit more because it's not all the people who are listening may understand because they're not in areas where there's zoning and you can take down a house and you can put down an open apartment building. And like, how would people figure out if that's even something that is like a strategy that makes sense in their area?
Roberto:They really have to get out there and ask questions. A lot of people are afraid of asking questions, having communications, whether they're introverted, which I am. It's funny because you can see me in a networking event and I'm talking to everybody. And then at the end of the day I just want to be home and be alone. It's exhausting to me, like I'd rather be home alone. I'd rather relax, versus going out and talking. When you see me posting content, I'm like, I don't want to do it, but I do it because I know it's going to help my business grow, but having conversations and knowing what questions to ask, having the right mentors, having the right people that are already wholesaling. I asked name in questions all the time. I'm always calling him like, bro, help me. What do I do here? What'd I do this? Cause. If I'm in wholesaling, I'm going to talk to the best. I'm going to talk to the Tommy Horace who are in Ohio already doing wholesaling and hundreds of flips. So I'm afraid to reach out to people and connect with them and just ask questions and then offer them something in return. Hey, how can I promote you? I'm always posting name and suppose I'm always posting Tommy Horace posts. I'm always connecting with Diego and Gonzalo. But we're always like finding ways to help and serve one another and just share advice and learning. But depending on what market you're in, you need to have these conversations, go to networking events or type in developers in my city and just call them. Cause if you tell them, Hey I really want to find you deals. These developers don't have time to find deals unless they have their own acquisitions team. They may hear something like, Oh, you're going to help me. Yeah, let me tell you exactly what I'm looking for. Let me tell you what's going on in the market so you understand and then you can reverse engineer your way backwards to connect with them and work with them. So it's so simple, but I feel like we overcomplicate everything. We're like, what am I going to do? How am I going to get to it? It's literally, hey, talk to the developer that's developing. What does he look for? How did he find that deal and start learning from people?
Mike:Yeah, it's a great piece of advice. I think people do overcomplicate things.
Roberto:Yeah, do all the time. I talk, but I overcomplicate. I'm just like, take action.
Mike:Yep. And then you mentioned you're working on an Airbnb project in Puerto Rico. talk a little bit about that one?
Roberto:That's my baby. Man. I'll keep it short, but it took me two years to get that deal. I built a relationship with the owner founded on Craigslist and the owner was giving me a hard time with the sale price. He wanted three 50. I got it appraised for 180, as is, because it was also, it needed renovations, it wasn't habitable, but I fell in love with the view. The view, just to put in perspective, I don't know if you've been to Puerto Rico, but if you haven't imagine Being on the mountaintop but you can see five different cities. Puerto Rico has the national rainforest called El Yunque, which is the only national rainforest that exists technically in the United States. But you can see from San Juan, which is the capital all the way to El Yunque, and to put into perspective, it takes 30 to 35 minutes to get from San Juan to El Yunque. So you can imagine that scenery. So you can see mountains, city, and ocean in that view, just to give you perspective. So it has, it's two levels. It has a balcony. It has an amazing pool. And I fell in love like I fell in love with that property, but I didn't want it just to be emotion. I want it to be logical. So I ran numbers, ran Airbnb numbers and it made sense that you can potentially rent it for 450 to 500 a night, which is really fair, for it to be 25 minutes away from the airport. aNd we ran the numbers and you're looking at seven to 10, 000 a month conservatively. So I ended up trying to get it as a second home loan, but I wasn't able to do so because it was uninhabitable and banks won't land on something that you can't live in. So I raised Private money equity. I have a couple of equity partners on the deal and put the deals together, raised the capital, bought the property cash and will be done by the next month or two will be done with the renovations. So we're renovating the 2nd floor and the 1st floor 2nd floor is 90 percent done in the 1st floor is like 50 percent done. mOving along, but that was also another learning experience that I had, but I was learning. With already the education and experience that I came here in Massachusetts. So this is why I tell you I feel like I had the hardest test first. Now everything is easier. It's just learning how to navigate through the systems. Everybody has their permitting. Everybody has like contractors you got to work with. Different teams, and learning how to do it in different states, this similarities, you're building the same team, same systems, just in different locations. So that's exactly what I'm doing in Puerto Rico and we're getting ready to launch the Airbnb and we're going to promote it on social media. Because we also oversaturated. And with that comes opportunity. Too many people are in the pie. People need to get out and it happens. You see now they're saying the Airbnb is, shrinking. It's not shrinking. It's just getting rid of the people that thought they could do Airbnb like this. And the ones that are super hosts. They're the ones still killing it, the ones that have an experience, different design in their home. They're the ones still killing it. I kept that in mind I really want to stand out and my standing out is not only the amazing scenic view that you have and amazing 8 foot pool that's in the building, but I'm also designing it in a way that it stands out and it's Instagrammable, you know doing graffiti walls, nice luxury a look because Puerto Rico lacks luxury. So I'm giving it a little bit more luxurious look feel and making it really an experience where people can come in, enjoy, they can do retreats, events, yoga, like whatever they want. They can do it in this Airbnb. Just being strategic with everything that you do.
Mike:What made you choose that market? Were you actually actively looking for a short term rental there?
Roberto:I know I look Arabic, but I'm actually Puerto Rican all day. My father was born in Puerto Rico. My mother was raised in Puerto Rico. She's Guatemalan, but she was raised in Puerto Rico. And I didn't look at Puerto Rico as investment. I saw it as like a home, because where my family lives, they live in the middle of the island. So I always go there as as family. Wouldn't go as a tourist, but then three years ago now that I'm more a real estate tavi. Now I'm like going with an investor mindset, I'm like, okay what's going on in Puerto Rico, like how's the real estate market and I'm like learning this terminology. I'm like, there's a market in real estate in Puerto Rico. What's going on? And then, you start doing more research, you see the tax incentives, you start seeing, Puerto Rico has its own pros and cons but you start seeing the prices, the prices, the abandoned homes, abandoned properties, they're everywhere. To me, I see that as opportunity. I wish Boston was like that, but that was, like, 10, 20 years ago, when you had all these abandoned properties, so now I'm like, okay, I feel like the capital, San Juan, is saturated with Airbnbs, but People are doing well. They pay four or five, 600 for a single bedroom just on Airbnb. Now imagine me with our entire house, seven bedrooms, two bathrooms, a pool, a scenic view for four 50. I'm very conservative with my numbers. I'm starting at four 50 a night, but. I just want to be conservative. I'd rather under promise and over deliver to mine, but there are multiple opportunities in Puerto Rico to find good properties, even hotels is a lot of tax incentives with hotels. You got access 60 if you want to move out there, you already live at least 180 days out of the year. They have second home loans where you can put 10 percent down and make it a vacation home. They have Subject 2 out there. You can do Subject 2. It's not as common, but it's open for conversation. Cash is King. So if you do have cash sitting around, you can move it in Puerto Rico and buy properties quickly. And it's an island. It's closer than Hawaii. Look at Hawaii. Look at what happened to Hawaii. Look at the prices in Hawaii and Maui and all these islands. And look at Puerto Rico. It's on the east side. Hawaii's on the west side, but Puerto Rico's overlooked. Who's looking at Puerto Rico like this. It's an island like you only need a license to go from the US to go to Puerto Rico. You don't need a passport, right? So it's like you can go as you please. It's a vacation. People go vacation in Florida to get palm trees, but they forget that this Puerto Rico. So when people ask me like, um, Oh, it's Puerto Rico dollars. That tells me everything. I'm like, of course, Puerto Rico's dollars, like they don't know and that's what kills me. Bro, like what? Like Puerto Rico, they use dollars. So there's a lot of, they see it as, I don't know why they see it as a third world country and they see it as, dangerous and crime because that's all that you see on the news. But who's buying up the news? All the investors. yOu gotta buy when people are fearful and sell when people are greedy. So to me, it's like now's the time to be buying Puerto Rico. And you see the condo prices in Puerto Rico, like there's million dollars, like over 500, 000 condos, million dollar condos. You did not see that, that before. So where is that going? It's going up.
Mike:makes sense. so We're getting close to the end here, but there's always two questions I like to ask at the end. thE first one is what is the Craziest or most uncomfortable situation you've ever experienced in a real estate deal?
Roberto:There's a whole bunch, but there was like the one that bothered me, and I don't know why it bothered me, it just did. But I did this full gut renovation that I was telling you about with the whole kitchen cabinets. It gave me such a headache It was like 12 months in that project. That was my baby. I'm very like passionate when I do my work I want it to be like the best of the best and when I tell you man, I put in everything into this deal. I made sure everything was clean, spotless. I did nice, beautiful videos. And funny story with that was that the buyers were not at the open house. The agent was literally like this, showing them the house. They were in North Carolina. It's a couple. They were in North Carolina. It was a four bedroom with a master suite. I created a master suite, had a spa room. It had a standstill bathtub, a walk in closet, Three other large bedrooms, including a guest bedroom with its own personal bathroom on the first floor I was so excited. To me, it was my dream home. I didn't talk about this, but bought so many houses, but I've never felt like I bought a home. And that's a whole different topic, but to stay on topic, I was like, wow, like some family is going to really enjoy this home. imagined a couple with three kids. Everybody has their own bedroom. It was going to be an amazing home. So when they came in, they offered 25, 000 over asking. So I was like, oh my god, what a blessing. Yes, let's do it. This was like, literally like 45 minutes after the first open house. Signed the paperwork. I'm like, yes, it's yours. Let's go. Couple it was like 25, 30 days later, they came in, sat down, and then I saw the two And I was like, damn, like, where are their kids? I'm like, oh, how are you guys doing? We just moved from North Carolina. I'm working for a pharmaceutical company. And she's and they moved up here. So I was like, oh my God, you guys must be so excited. It's yes, we can't wait. We're going to have the home. It's going to be filled. I'm like, oh my God, where are your kids? And they're like, we don't have kids. I'm like. I'm like, wait, so why are you guys getting a four bedroom home with a master? And I was like, oh, we have four dogs. So I was like, what? They bought a massive 2, 000 square foot home, four bedrooms, three bathrooms. And they don't have kids. They have three big dogs. So I'm like, yo, the dogs are gonna ruin the floor. I was like, I was in shock. I was like, there's no way these people are serious. Each dog gets a beautiful room with a nice little closet. I was like, This is crazy. That to me was like one of the wildest sales that I've had. Cause I'm just like, I didn't expect that. I was like, this is
Mike:That's funny.
Roberto:crazy,
Mike:Yeah. Second question I always ask is for the people who are newer to the show, or newer to real estate, is if you could go back in time and give yourself one piece of advice, knowing what you know now, when you were looking for your first deal, like what would you go back and tell yourself?
Roberto:Get a mentor, get experience and take action. Everybody that I've meet stay stuck with the education. And they do not take action. And they don't take action because maybe they don't have the right guidance or they lack the knowledge which gives them the fear. Cause that's what stopped me from really moving forward and taking on larger deals. It's the fear of not knowing. To me because I want to get into new development, now I'm talking to developers that are doing new development. I'm asking them questions. Because I feel like I've done everything but the foundation, so I just need to figure out, okay, how do I create the foundation, go with zoning, go with the boarding, because I have architects, I have everything. Structural engineers, I have all that. But because I haven't done it yet, I feel like it's a fear for me. So what I feel like my young self, like I would always like wait. And the problem is that when we're young, we think we have a whole lifetime. And you know me right now, I'm 34. My kids are a little older now because I told you I had kids at 20. I'm 13. My daughter's 10. And as a 34 year old, I'm like, wow, like I'm sick. I'm really like right now, six years away from being 40. And it hits you, it's like, where did time go? Like I was still in high school the other day. Time is passing and it's going to continue to pass whether you take action or not. You can sit there and think about, listen to all these podcasts, listen to all these individuals talking. But if there's a topic that you're not certain of, figure it out. Talk to the mentors or talk to people that are already doing it, that are where you want to be. Ask them questions, get mentorship, pay for the mentorship if you have to. Stay educated, but take action. Don't get stuck on not taking action. Cause I would have been stuck learning everything about mentoring and stuff where, and I wouldn't even have flipped because it was a scary feeling, and I left corporate in 2017, I didn't talk about that, but I left corporate in 2017. I have not worked a job since 2017. I've worked for myself in the restaurant industry with real estate but it was literally me taking action and not giving up. The only time that you fail is when you quit. But if you quit, you technically don't fail. You just learn that would be my best advice.
Mike:I think that's a good one. If people do want to reach out to you after the show whether they, want to maybe partner with you on deals, send you deals, or if they're interested in learning more about your courses, how can they go about getting in touch with you?
Roberto:Yeah. So they have the website, their home cash buyers Academy. I have course on online course that they can take individually. And that's basically learning how to fix and flip properties, how to find the deal, how to fund the deal, how to fix it and how to flip it. A lot of people think that they need money to get started. They don't. They just need the right knowledge. And I teach that in my course. I teach people how to raise capital. I teach people how to work with hard money lenders. I teach people how to find a deal and so that they're getting a good price on it and understanding what those costs are. No, you don't need experience. You just need to have the will. So it's actually get into it and I make myself accessible and then if they want the one on one mentoring, that's where I teach them personally, we do a eight week course. I'm on the phone with them. I walk them through their deals, my goal is to make sure that they get their deals. So whatever they invest in me, I want to make sure that I invest back in them so that they're independent, they're making their money and eventually they can become their own instructors. Capitalize on that. So to me, it's all about giving back. And then my Instagram is at Roberto Green Jr. I'm more active on that because I'll have one for home cash buyers. But Roberto Green Jr. I feel like I'm, I am my own brand and that's where I really just teach and show my day-to-Day. Through my stories, I. Talk about different tips on flipping in Puerto Rico, Ohio and Boston, how to, wholesaling. And I'm always connecting and I'm always willing to share, I can have a 30 minute call with people if they want, they can just schedule on the link in my bio, but I make myself accessible. I'm here to help people reach their goals because that's what was done for me. People help me reach people. So
Mike:Awesome, man. I appreciate you being on the show.
Roberto:thank you, bro. Thank you so much. Keep killing it.