Epic Real Estate Investing - 6 Cash Flowing Properties in 6 Months | 459

Episode Date: September 16, 2018

Today on Turnkey Saturday, Mercedes Torres speaks with Enrique Santana, an operator of Chevron who invests into real estate with his wife through Cash Flow Savvy. They share how they made 6 cash flowing properties in 6 months, what made them decide to go with Cash Flow Savvy, and how moving at the speed of instruction can benefit your investing business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is Terio Media. So you want to be a real estate investor, but you don't want to do the work. If there were only a way where someone else could do it for you, now there is. Tune in here each and every Saturday on the Epic Real Estate Investing show for Turnkey Saturdays with your host, Mercedes Torres. Hello and welcome. Welcome to the Epic Real Estate Investing podcast. The Turnkey Edition, happy Saturday to everyone.

My name is Mercedes Torres, and I am privileged enough to be working alongside with Matt Terrio, the genius behind the entire epic organization. And I'm kind of here just to share Turnkey Saturdays where we focus on helping you create passive income and really believe in simplifying the entire process. I am a big advocate of not only diversifying, portfolios, but making them as simple as possible so that you can do what portfolios do best is watch them grow and perform. This week's guest, I am honored to say that this progress for this particular individual

has been a speedy one. I was introduced by this gentleman by another podcaster who is a really big fan of pay your mortgage first. Pay your mortgage first is just a separate, I would have to say, strategy, another vehicle to help achieve goals to creating additional streams of income. Yeah, it's just a different way of doing it. It's not necessarily a wrong or right way, just different. And this gentleman called our office because he had heard about this and he was inquiring a little bit more about how turnkey investing will come into play with that. And basically, I have my own opinion about it. Again, nothing bad, nothing good, just different. You know, my thought process is really, if you have a

property that you own free and clear, you are sitting on money that's likely not producing a whole lot of money for you. Now, surely you do get the benefit of simply having a paid off property. which is a really big deal. So you don't have to worry about your mortgage payment, nor do you have to worry about, you know, the roof over your head. But in essence, it is a liability to you simply because when you live in your own home, well, if the air conditioning unit breaks down and it needs to be replaced, you can't necessarily call your landlord to pay for the replacement unit that has to be installed.

You have to dig money out of your pocket, hence it's a liability. So my theory behind having a property free and clear is why don't we take the equity from this particular property and put it to use buying other investment properties that are going to produce a cash flow. Having said a little bit of that, this gentleman was referred to us by another podcaster that was looking into the strategy. And long and behold, about a week after we spoke, he was in our office, with his wife and he says to me, wow, it makes so much sense, how do I get started? So what's great about

this gentleman and his wife is they're a super young couple. I think they're probably in their mid-30s. And within six months, they've acquired six cash flowing properties. So I'm going to let this gentleman share his story with us because it is an astronomical story. It's the story that happened literally how he says it overnight. But it's one of those things where if a gentleman like Enrique can do this, so can you. So allow me to introduce this awesome gentleman. He is an operator of Chevron from an oil refinery here in Manhattan Beach, California. He was born and raised here in Southern California.

He has served our country, United States Navy, now lives at first. the beach was also a lifeguard and a swim instructor and also a former EM team. So, ladies and gentlemen, without further ado, I'd like to welcome Enrique Santana to our show. Enrique, can you hear me? Yes, I can. How are you doing? Awesome. I'm doing fantastic.

Welcome to the epic real estate investing turnkey portion of our show. Happy, I'm going to say happy Wednesday to you. Thank you. Awesome. So let's say, why don't we start off by just allowing you, Enrique, to introduce yourself? Tell us all about you and tell us a little bit about what you do. Okay, well, like you said, I'm Andreka Santana. I'm 36 years old, recently married, going about two years now. I grew up in South Cape California, which is right just like a few minutes away from downtown L.A. My background is I was in the Navy for four years.

I was a realtor for a couple years and I hated it. I was a lifeguard, an EMT. I did a whole bunch of jobs. And currently I am working at an oil refinery here in Southern California. I'm an operator here and been there for seven years now. Awesome. Awesome. So we're in the Navy.

Thank you for serving our country, sir. Thank you. And you are also an EMT. That's a really big deal here in L.A. Being an emergency medical technician, that's a big task. So thank you for all that you do. And you save some lives, being a life. That was a, I like doing that job.

It was more just like transporting people back and forth, really. I didn't really get into any of that emergency calls. But I was trained for it. But the bad thing is it didn't pay anything. So I needed to find something else that actually did better. Awesome. Awesome. So now you work on oil refinery here in town. I'm sure you like what you do. You work really weird long hours. But, you know, one day you reached out to me and you said, you know, I want to start investing. So how did you find cash flow savvy and epic real estate?

Funny thing is. So since where I work, I work long 12 hour shifts, usually minimum of 12 hour shifts and the rotating shifts, days and nights, days and nights, days and nights, days and night. So always before I work a night shift, I stay up until around four or five in the morning. Just me and the dogs watching TV or researching stuff on the computer. So one night I, well, let me back it up a little bit. We were in the process of buying an investment property, my wife and I. It was right here in Redondo Beach. It was a townhouse. Our objective was to rent it out and try to pay it off as soon as possible so we could buy another one.

So what I did is I Google one night. It was probably like three in the morning. Look, how do I pay off a house in five years? So that's what led me to a group called Replace for Mortgage. And I ended up joining that group. So where they teach you how to use the HELOC to pretty much pay off a house. When I was in the group, I ended up seeing a lot of, they have a Facebook community. And in the forums, I saw like invest.

for stocking and a lot of them seem to have many rentals. So I ended up asking one of the guys, because I saw the word turdkey a couple times. I asked, I asked him, what is turnkey? What are you talking about? And then he and I had this conversation and he told me everything about, everything he knew about turnkey real estate. And that's what led me to you. And he also introduced me to a couple other turnkey providers. Awesome. Awesome. So the whole world of turnkey was completely foreign to you then.

You had never heard or considered turnkey. Is that correct? I've learned so much this year when it comes to real estate investing. I was going to do it all on my own. I actually did do it on my own a few years before, and I had my own duplex. I bought a duplex in Anaheim. and I didn't know this word, cash flow back then. But it actually was cash flowing.

But I was doing everything on my own. I had to deal with the tenants. It was a pain in the ass. I heard the term called landlord fatigue, and that set in a couple years into it. So I wanted to get rid of it. Wow, got it. Okay, so you indicated that,

from this group called Replace Your Mortgage, you were referred to Cashwell Savvy and other term key operations. I love that. I love that you hopefully shop around. So did you actually shop around? I did. I spoke. I actually interviewed three others on top of you guys.

Three other ones. I don't know if you want to know the names. Tell me, I want to know out of those three others, we were. the fourth what made you decide to go with us okay so out of the three others i liked two of them i didn't care for one the one i just didn't feel like what do you like say the warm and fuzzy it just wasn't feeling it with them um and they're actually one of the biggest or the bigger names out there and i just didn't like what i felt um two of the other ones i really like what they had to do had to say, but they were limited in markets.

One was in pretty much just Birmingham, Alabama, and the other one was in Memphis, and pretty much those are their markets, they're out of there and that's it. What I ended up liking about you guys is, first of all, I was able to meet you in person. My wife and I went to go see you in your office, which you don't have to. I actually felt comfortable just by speaking with you over the phone. but you guys are in multiple markets and I like the way your investor queue works. As soon as you put the deposit, you're in the queue and then properties seem to keep, we'll keep coming in. Yeah.

The other ones seem to have a very limited inventory in a limited area. So I was like, okay, well, what if I eventually start outpacing this? I need someone that could keep up with me and you need to be a great fit. yeah you guys are really difficult to keep up with let me tell you you guys move really fast we pride ourselves in kind of sharing moving at the speed of instruction i mean you guys define the term moving at the speed of instruction um we'll talk a little a bit about our queue uh for those of us that that want to know more information about our queue but um so uh you're happen to be less than that one percent in rica because i have to be less than that one percent in rike because i

hardly ever get to meet our clients. So luckily, you're local, you know, you're here in Redondo Beach, California. So yeah, you said, can I come and meet you? And I was like, of course you can. So it was a pleasure to meet you guys before we actually got to work together. That's a massive cherry on top. So fast forward to you, you came to our office. We met. I remember your wife was really sick when you guys came in. And then you said, okay, what's the next step? So walk me through that. Tell me your experience when you left my office. So when we left your office, we started to go to the dentist after that.

Which was not a good experience, I'm sure. I was dragging her through everything. Well, we had to do the dentist together. But, yeah, she wanted to come meet you, but it was just a bad day right there. She was so out of it. But still, with all that said, she still felt comfortable moving forward. um, less I'd already talked to her ear off about all this soon as I spoke with you and it's

actually as soon as sort of learning about turnkey real estate I was like like mind blown you know like wow I couldn't can't believe like how the I can't believe all this to exist like that awesome. So you left the office and I remember sending you an email and referring you to one of our lenders yeah how was that process? So after you you uh you referred us you had to qualify us and so we spoke with one of your lenders he did all the all the checks on me on my own because i left my wife out of it because of the 10 houses per what is it a conventional yeah and so what you're talking about there and rica is when you first came on board you were completely open to using what you had available for a cash property we're big advocates of

really diversifying your portfolio, but leveraging as much as possible without over-leveraging. And I often have husband and wife teams that come on board and said, we're ready to buy properties. And I absolutely love that you want to do it together. But it makes sense financially if you're able to, to split you guys up in two so that one of you can qualify for the maximum 10 conventional loans that a Freddie and Fannie product would allow. And then having the other individual also qualify for the 10. So that was the reason that I kind of said, hey, you guys seem like you're in a good position.

I'm not the bank, but I'm going to refer you to the lenders that we work with because they specialize in serving out-of-state investors that are doing exactly what you guys were looking to do. So it made more sense for you guys to split up on paper financially so that you guys can maximize your benefit, so that you guys can maximize your returns. And I think that that's exactly what you did because you qualified and then your beautiful wife qualified, and you guys are in the midst of that.

So did I explain that correctly? You did. I would have left half of that out. Awesome. So then you qualified by yourself. Then the banker, you got on the phone with our banker. And what was that like? So I got on the phone with him.

He got me qualified. When I qualified with him, it was pretty much just for one house, even though I knew I was going to buy more. And he said that was fine. He said that it'll just keep on. It could kind of stack itself in my favor. Like the more I buy it. It benefits me.

But so I got that. I got the pre-qualification with him. And then from there, just a few days later, we got our deposit and put ourselves in the queue with you. Awesome. And from the time that you left my office to the time that you pre-qualified, how long was that period? Okay. So I was first introduced to you like the second week of January, like the first week of January, like the first week of January, first week of February, I actually went to your office with my wife. About two,

three days later, I was already pre-qualified, ready to go. About two, three more days later, I was in the queue. And then that, ladies and gentlemen, is moving at the speed of instruction. Yeah. And then about two or three days later, we were in escrow on five houses. Yeah. Yeah. So what we did with you, Enrique, is I knew because of our conversations and because what I had learned from speaking with you and your wife, I knew that you guys were on a mission to create a portfolio. So when you came into the queue and when you were pre-qualifying and going through that process, we were already sorting properties out based off of what you and I had talked about so that when you came into the queue, we were kind of prepared for you. And so that's how we

ended up bundling houses for you so that they were all in one general vicinity or two, because we're big on diversification, and that they all made them. sense for you. So that was something that we kind of work in the background where you don't really see that happening until it's presented to you. I mean, that's the whole purpose of a turnkey operation is so that we do all the work for you and you just get to reap the benefits, so to speak. So you instantly jumped on five properties and I think we did three in Alabama and two in Indianapolis. Yes. So actually when I was in the queue, you sent me more than five. you sent me, I think it was seven, and I picked through those right there from,

I picked for the amount of money that I had available to actually purchase. And you actually helped me select which ones would be the better ones of the seven. I told you, I think I can only afford like maybe five of them. So we picked and chose from those seven. Yeah. And so we worked together to strategically align ourselves in that you got a little bit of every price point. in every market. So we did a lower price money in Indiana, a little higher one. That dictates the rent. And then we did the same thing in Alabama so that you're a well-rounded investor in that you

have a little bit of everything so that if something is to shake and rattle, you're not going to feel it so much financially. Awesome. So tell me about the closing process. After we sent you the properties and you sorted through them, you said, I'm taking these five. What was the closing? What that like so funny thing is like everything was moving so quick we had a wedding to go to in the Philippines so I don't know if you remember that I do remember that first the first couple weeks that we were in escrow we were in the Philippines on vacation so I was dealing with all that so we were in a I was kind of scrambling to get the rest of the four deposits for the five houses too So we're scrambling on that.

Is there anything else we need from us before really because we're leaving? But that was pretty much all I needed at the time. And all the other paperwork was already in with the lender. So everything just started flowing. You guys introduced us to multiple inspectors in both areas. So I picked from them. Yeah. And how did you pick your inspector?

Because we're really good about sharing our contacts on the ground. you aren't in no shape, where, form obligated to choose the people that we suggest. You're more than welcome to do a Google search and find your own. What made you decide to choose the inspectors that you did, or how did you choose them? I feel comfortable with everything that I've spoke with you guys with about already. So from those, I felt like, okay, if you're recommending them, they should be good. So I felt comfortable with them, first of all. And I still went and called them all, interviewed them all.

They were all right around the same price point. And having had real estate experience over here in the past, I knew that they all kind of do the same thing and the price points for them. So I just picked from them. Got it. Like that. Yeah. Then you did the inspections. You got the report.

What was that process like after I made you read through every detail on the report? Because I do make my investors read their inspections. So there was some little issues here and there. on every one of the properties has something. So I look at the entire report and then after looking at the inspection report, I just had to see what was important to me to get fixed or what I could say, okay, that's fine. It really doesn't need it.

So I looked at every report and there were a couple requests that I had for every one of the properties, actually. Yeah. You guys as a seller, work with me to, or you guys as a seller that worked with me to fix most of my requests. Some of them are just not necessary. True, true. Give me an example.

They're more like wants rather than needs to be repaired for a rental property. Give me an example of one of the items that you wanted repaired that we repaired for you. Oh, shoot. Okay, we'll catch that question. Let's question. Okay. So when we made the repairs of your requesting items, how did you re-inspect that? Then the inspector will go back out there and make sure it's all done.

Plus, you guys send me, they'll send pictures saying this has been completed. This item's been completed. Yeah, cool. Awesome. And then we went through the appraisal process. That was super easy. All of your properties appraised as we were selling them. We normally don't really have problems with appraisals.

And then your closing process. That was a little bit different because you were far away. You weren't home. So I think you were working, I don't know, in Mississippi, somewhere in the middle of the country. I was working in Mississippi for two months from April, all of April, all of me. And that's when everything was closing at the time. So I was trying to handle that at the same time as being away. And Ruggie, who in the right mind goes to the Philippines in the middle of buying five properties

and then goes and works in another state when they're closing five properties only Enrique well. I saw the potential of this turnkey and I had the money ready to go. I was ready to invest it. I was going to buy a townhouse. I was going to be negative cash flow. At the time, I didn't even know what that meant. I didn't know what ROI meant.

I don't know a lot of terms. I had the money. Luckily, I didn't qualify for that loan. I was about five points shy for qualifying for that loan, and that would have raised my mortgage another thousand-something dollar. They're like, I pulled out. I had the money ready to go. I've been hitching, ready to go to something.

I found you guys. I was like, I'm going to make this happen. Good for you. Well, we're honored that you chose. I made it work with, I had stuff planned already. I made it work and I went through it. I'm honored that you chose us and that we were able to walk you through the whole process. So,

would you say that we held your hand through the process and help you learn? Like, did we help you understand ROI? Did we help you understand cash flow, evaluate? Tell me about that. You did because, well, first of all, after I first met with you, I spoke with you on the phone, you introduced me to the Turnkey Real Estate Investing podcast with Matt. So from that, I just learn and learn and learn. I listened to maybe three, four episodes a day.

and just learned as much as they could. So I got even more and more comfortable, more and more comfortable. And I would write notes. You remember when I went to your office, I had a list of questions and notes. You probably expected a quick 30-minute sit down with us and it turned out to be at least twice that.

Yeah, it was like two hours, but I loved it. You were very well prepared and you had thoroughly thought out every question that was written on your sheet. So no, it was great. I appreciated it because you knew exactly what you wanted to know and what was important for you and your wife. And at the end of the day, that's all that really matters. So I was happy to answer it. And I really saw your vision and your potential. So, you know, when I started investing, I wish somebody would have seen that in me.

And I probably would have done it a lot faster. So if I can help someone do the same thing, why not? So I'm so glad you guys just totally took advantage of that. So, okay, fast forward. closing, what happened after when you were out of state? How did we do the closing with you? So I was wondering if I was going to be an issue since I was out of state. But you guys ended up finding me a mobile notary. I had the notaries go over there. We signed all the paperwork.

And from there, I just wired the rest of the down payments and closing costs for everything. It was really easy. I was staying at a hotel over there. The notaries came to my hotel and we signed all the paperwork and knocked it out. Yeah, it was easy. Awesome, awesome. This whole process has just been extremely easy. Like you guys, like how you said, hold our hands.

You guys held their hands the whole time. Awesome. And now with this sixth one that we're in escrow, you guys are helping us out with that too. We are. We got you and your wife got the bug and you guys are on number six and we're in the middle of escrow. We've got a few dots to dot and T's to cross.

and then we'll get you to the dock period. But wow, in less than what, six months, you guys are going to own six properties, which is amazing. And one thing we failed to mention is that this is my wife's second escrow with you guys. But this one's part of our portfolio. The first one that she had was actually not for us. It was for her parents.

Yeah. The parents who live in Turkey, so international investors. So that's actually why my wife is the one. That's on the loan on that one. I love it. I love it. So wait a minute. Your wife liked the process so much.

She dragged your parents on board? We brought it up to her parents because her parents were interested in buying something here also. So we were going to buy a house in Redonda Beach. They were going to buy something here local. But since they had money ready to go to. We mentioned you guys to them. And they wanted to. into. Wow. So it's really, we're really working on the seventh property together.

Seventh, but only this is our sixth of my portfolio. I don't count that one in the first one in my portfolio. But you guys did all the work for it. So my wife did all work on that. I do remember finding that property when she told me and I was like, that's pretty awesome that you guys are bringing your parents or in your case, your in-laws into this whole ordeal. I always say it's never too late to get started in real estate. So kudos to you guys. Awesome, so tell me,

what would you say has been the biggest challenge during this whole process? Well, the only challenge I had at first was not seeing the properties, I want to say, like sight unseen, even though I ended up seeing three of them in person. Okay, so that's interesting.

But that's by default. Again, less than 1% of the beginning. people actually travel to see us or travel to see the properties. So you actually saw it by default. But before, because you didn't go travel to see the properties or you didn't travel for work that you ended up getting to see the properties until after you were under contact, until after you due diligence period.

So before that, what made you feel comfortable with getting over that fear of sight unseen? Getting over the side and scene is just running the numbers. I had some experience with real estate. I already know, like, okay, as long as the rents could cover the mortgage or if they're positive, then it should be good. I felt comfortable knowing that you guys are doing a full rehab on all these properties. So there shouldn't be an issue with that. You guys are going to set me up with the property managers, property managers and take care of all the rents, send me my payments.

So running all the numbers, they all made sense. Yeah. So that helped me get over that fear. That helped you get over the fear. Awesome. So now you guys have five properties, you know, fully running. We're not going to count the one for your in-laws, but it's been a few months. So you're relatively a new investor.

How has that experienced then? It's been good, actually. It's been good. And I'm still continuing to learn. I'm still listening to podcast. I'm trying to learn as much as possible. But everything's changed. I want to say 2018 has really opened my eyes a lot.

And I still want to learn more and more. You've got that hunger. So what is the 15th or the 20th of the month look like when you collect your rents? Actually, the rents come in on the 7th, or the 6 or 7. Even better. Even better. Well, I don't go jump for joy or anything when I get that because I'm not spending it. Like all the rents since I wasn't living on it before, it just all gets reinvested and just accumulates.

And that's how we ended up buying this sixth one already. Wow. That's insane. You guys are on. We're actually saving already for our seven. Love it. Love it, love it. When we talk about accelerating the process, you guys are defining what that means.

So I love it. Okay. So we talked about our challenge. What was the biggest learning lesson that you'd say that you've taken? out of this whole experience. The biggest learning lesson, maybe is just the ease, how easy it could be. I watch those, what are the HGTV shows all the time? You know, I would see, what was it called?

The one with Scott, that guy, he rehabs like basements and he gets in there, he rehabs, it makes it nice, he finds a tenant for them and he gets a rented for them. So I was like, man, I just wish there was something like that over here. All those are Canada, right? And, yeah, you guys are not fixing my house and doing it for me, but you guys are like just the ease of everything that you guys are have for us right there. Yeah, I will have to say, Enrique, let's clarify, it's easy for you, but we have an entire team on the ground that does the finding that scrubs the property. Oh, yeah, I'm sure. There's a whole infrastructure of this. Yeah.

And I'm just the end result and buyer right there. Right. Yeah. So we do have the nasty acquisitions and the nasty rehabs and all of that. But our investors like you don't have to see that. That's the whole beauty of a term key operation. We do all the work. You get to benefit being the investor. And let me tell you. I don't have time for that at all. And I work at least 60, on average 60 hours a week, sometimes more. So I don't have time for that. And I do want to invest in real estate. I love real estate. So. Wow, 60 hours a week and in less than six months, you have six properties. That, and big it is impressive. I love it. I love it. So what would be the one final words of advice that you would give to a newbie fellow investor that's considering real estate or considering turnkey?

What would you say to them? Well, I do say to them all the time. I always refer them to listening to the podcast or I'll even break down my numbers. that I have, like, look, this is what I got. This is how I did it. And a lot of people just have to break their bad habits and start actually saving money. That's one of the hurdles a lot of people have. So I do tell them, cut your expenses, save some money and invest.

This is the easiest way to invest, especially for people that work with me, that we work so much. Yeah. Just put it right there. Yeah, that's awesome. Just save, learn, listen to the podcast, understand what you're getting into. or ask me questions and I could help break it down to you. Got it. As much as I know, which I don't know everything yet, but I'm heard.

Key word, you don't know everything yet. Awesome. If you had to do something different, what would it be? Oh, I would have done it a long time ago. If I would have known about it, I would have done it 10 years ago. I would have just done it earlier. That's it. Instead of investing here in California in my own backyard,

I would have had the courage and moved out out of state to do it like this. I've been afraid. I've heard about it before, but I was afraid to do it. And I would extend it. It's very common. Fear is very common. It paralyzes people sometimes. But Enrique,

the fact that you just went out and did it and you guys are now gung-ho working on property number six, that's insane. So kudos to you. And thank you, Enrique, with all of my heart, not only for just sharing your story, but really for just sharing with your family, your in-laws. I spoke to your sister yesterday and her boyfriend.

Yeah. That was her birthday yesterday. Oh, you didn't tell me that. But thank you very much for just kind of sharing your story and really sharing your experience, but not so much about cash flow savvy, just to get over the fear and do it. Thank you so much, Enrique, for your time.

Keep on busting, buddy, because you are going to kill it. And before I know it, you and I are going to be competing for the next property to see who has the most property. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you. Have a good day.

If waiting for your investments to grow feels like waiting for pink to drive, there's a powerful secret your financial planner doesn't want you to know. You can accelerate your investments growth by two, three, or even four times. That's bad news for Wall Street, but great news for you. We're cash flow savvy, and we'd like to offer you free information that will show you how to take control of your investments and double, triple, or even quadruple their returns, and it's yours for free. For the secret your financial planner doesn't want you to know, go to cashflow savvy.com.

That's cashflow savvy.com. This podcast is a part of the C-suite Radio Network. For more top business podcasts, visit c-sweetradio.com.