Founder's Story - Career Change and the Recession Created Opportunity | Ep. 5 with Mercedes Torres Founder of Cash Flow Savvy and Epic Real Estate Investing

Episode Date: April 8, 2020

Mercedes is the Co-Founder of Epic Real Estate and President of CashFlow Savvy. A lover of life. Relentless. Passionate. Inspiring. Committed. Wife. Mother. Tycoon. In her very first two years in the world of Real Estate, Mercedes flipped 24 properties. Please visit Pix11 or Fox5 San Diego for more details. Our Sponsors:* Check out PrizePicks and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: www.prizepicks.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: www.rosettastone.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Welcome to Inspired by Her, the podcast that will give you the inspiration, motivation and tips for success from some of the top executives, CEOs and influencers from around the globe. With your host, serial entrepreneur and named one of the most influential Filipina in the world, Kate Hancock. This is Kate and I have here Mercedes Torres with me. Very good morning, good day, good quarantine day to everybody. I know. So I'm so happy you're here with me. Well, Mercedes, I've met you, Trio, the Entrepreneurs Organization, and you appeared on the A&E

TV Flip That House show. You run a multi-million dollar company. I can't wait to hear more about your company. Your wife, the word tycoon was really good. I love that. You run a top 30 podcast with 350,000 downloads per month. That's a wow. Yeah, I'm very excited and happy for you to be here. Thank you so much. I am truly honored. I'm excited to be here. Because I'm not only a follower, I'm a fan. And I know about you and your businesses. and I'm inspired by you as well. So I'm honored to be

here. Thank you. Thank you really for taking your time. I know this is a stressful time for all of us, but we are here to talk and empower everyone in the world, right? Absolutely. For anyone who did not know you, I know you you have I just said that amazing bio can you tell them a little bit more about yourself yeah so I am a mom and I am a wife and I am an an entrepreneur self-starter that created a business out of not only my passion, but of really what I saw that was a need in everyone's life. And that is passive income. You know, I grew up in a household where money was very limited. And I was the youngest of four children. and I saw how my parents struggled. And when I was old enough to realize that we were poor,

yet I really never felt it growing up. I never wanted to experience that as an adult. So I have worked really hard to not live the paycheck to paycheck. And luckily I figured out early on that it wasn't about the paycheck. It was about creating different streams of income where you didn't have to depend on a paycheck. So fast forward to my adult life, I have created a business that not only serves me, but it serves other people create that passive income in their world so that they don't live paycheck to paycheck. So in a nutshell, that's who I am. I'm an Angeleno by heart, born and raised in

Los Angeles, California. And I just recently moved to Las Vegas because of taxes and traffic. I could not handle the LA traffic anymore. So I'm in Las Vegas, beautiful Las Vegas, who has no strip today because of the quarantine, but heck, I'm happy. I'm healthy. I'm grateful. And I'm very, very happy to be here. I love that positive attitude. So let me get back. I know you've mentioned a little bit with your parents your family when you were young but where where did you grow up you said LA yeah I was born in raised in Los Angeles and when I say raised in Los Angeles um that's a little bit of a twofold um my mother is Mexican my father is Puerto Rican. And my father was a welder. And we had a

business where my father was able to go back to Puerto Rico and my mother back to Los Angeles, or Mexico. So although I was raised in Highland Park, California, Highland Park, did you hear that? I was raised in Highland Park, California. I spent a lot of time in Puerto Rico and in Mexico. Ironically, when I was in Puerto Rico, I was the Mexican. When I was in Mexico, I was the American. When I was in LA, I was the Puerto Rican. So I was never the girl from there. I was always from somewhere else. And I have to say that that really impacted me now that as I'm older, because I never felt like I belonged. Like it's really difficult for me to call, you know, Highland Park home, because it doesn't feel like home. I, you know,

Puerto Rico, I go home, and it doesn't feel like home.'s that something's always missing I love being there I love you know the family and all of that but yeah I grew up in Highland Park so to speak okay so do you feel that sometimes that when you do visit your like Puerto Rico you have a little bit of identity issue there and then you move back you have to change your mindset again is that some is that similar to you that just gave me chills because that is exactly it yeah yeah so yeah when i'm in puerto rico you have to everything is like it's an island there's music everywhere everyone is happy and there's no like mindfulness about carb intake. Everything is rice, beans, and plantain. So don't even try to go to Puerto Rico on a diet because that doesn't happen.

So telling your grandmother that you can't eat the homemade meal that she just made you is really difficult. So you sit up and suck it up and you eat it. So, but yeah, you have to change your mindset because here in LA and in Vegas everything's like go go go go go yeah everything had to be done like yesterday in Puerto Rico it's like ah you can do it tomorrow yeah there's no such thing as answering an email within 24 hours they'll get to it when they get to it and it's really difficult for me to just like adjust. It takes me like 48 hours to be like, okay, I'm here. And then I come back over here.

So I come back over here and step on it, you know? Yeah, that happened to me earlier when I would visit, go and I would visit the island here and there. And I caught myself like, you're not having any patience. Like, oh, I forgot I'm here. You know what I mean so you have to adapt and not expect everything ran smoothly the way however you used to yeah I know right yeah okay so what moment from your childhood are you most proud of

wow that's a good question um so I grew up in a bilingual household. And I am that person that my parents never really had to learn to speak English, because we were always in predominantly Latin neighborhoods. In fact, when my sisters started school, when I started school, I spoke very little English. it was Spanish all the way around Puerto Rico Spanish Mexico Spanish LA where I grew up Spanish so I remember being five years old and starting kindergarten and translating for my mom I was I remember feeling oh my god my mother understood what's going on at five years old because I understood what the teacher was saying and I was able to translate it and now, you know, and help

her understand. And in fact, to the core point that my son, who is seven years old, it was, I was adamant about that kid speaking Spanish. So he is perfectly bilingual, you know. He has light hair, light eyes, and he speaks Spanish because I realized the importance of language and communicating. And to this day, my mother has been in this country for 60 years. She still doesn't speak English. And I've gotten on them for years. Now I give her slack. She's 80 years old, but it's like, how do you not learn the language? Well, she never needed to. And she was always working to put food

on the table indirectly. She was a housewife, but she would support my father's business, but they were always working. And so they never learned English. And so my proudest moment was being able to, I remember, translate and help her understand what was going on in the world. And none of my sisters who were older than me could do that because we all spoke Spanish. Yeah. Wow. That's powerful right there. So what is your best memory of childhood and worst worse can you tell me some yeah so my best memory in hindsight is that family is a really big deal and we were always together always whether we had i specifically remember we had one can of tuna a a loaf of bread and mayonnaise, and that was dinner for the six of us. But my mother would put a lot of mayonnaise in the tuna and we would sit down and have dinner

together. And I remember that, you know, now that I'm older and it was really important that we all sit down and have dinner. And those childhood memories of us being together, even if we were, we were poor, we didn't have a lot, but I never felt the need of something missing. So that was one of the, just the memories that I have of all of us being together. To this day, it's important to us. And then the worst memory um in fact all having to do with money which is my mother used to collect coins um she would collect coins from Mexico and Puerto Rico and she would shine them with like um you know a rag and uh what do you call that Ajax uh-huh and she collected them and she would put them in this plastic thing that have you know rolls and her little books and she didn't have a whole lot she probably had like

five pages of different coins and i remember being like 10 years old i was a big breakfast eater and i would always want two over easy eggs and four pieces of wonder toast and milk. And my mother didn't have enough money to buy milk. So she went into her coins and she took out the one that was least meaningful to her. So she can go to the corner and buy milk. And I was about 10 years old and I saw it happening. Of course, my mother would never show us any signs of this. And it clicked. And I didn't say anything. And then all of a sudden, I started saying, Oh, mommy, I only want one egg and two breads and a half a cup of milk, just so I can make it last. And that was such a defining moment in my life. Because I said, I never want to experience that. Oh my God. It's amazing what your,

your parents are willing to do for you, even though it's a struggle, they don't try and show it. But, um, but at the same time, it really defined who you are. This is true. This is true. This is what has made me say, I never want to experience that. I never want to experience that scarcity. And one of the things was for me, food. And that's why I have such a problem with food is because I want everything because now I could afford to get it. Where back then it's like, you could have, you know, we would, my mom would buy a chocolate bar and we would split it in half. And so I would get a little bit now and a little bit later, cause that's all the chocolate bar that I got, you know? So, but back then I didn't realize it. So I'm so grateful to my mother because I never

felt it growing up. I see it now. And I remember as I got a little bit older, like when I was 15 and I was able to like realize and rationalize and understand money back then. But it certainly has defined me for sure. So is that your, your deepest motivation in life is not to go back to that same struggle? My deepest motivation is giving to my parents what they gave to me. So it was very, it's very important to me that my mom never has to worry. They live on, you know, senior, what do you call that? Retirement, social security. I mean, who lives on $1,100 a month? So it, it pleasures me when I just go to the bank. And of course I, they don't do the bank, you know, like I can't transfer money

into their account. I physically have to go to the bank, you know, like I can't transfer money into their account. I physically have to go to the bank and cash it, but just to give them money. So my mother doesn't have to worry about where she's going to get money to go buy her muffins. You know, that makes me so happy. Like the fact that I get to pay her, you know, her rent, her mortgage, her, you know, I got him a new car. And that makes me so happy that they have a reliable transportation because I was able to give it to them and it didn't have any financial impact on me. It made me so happy. So providing for them is my, is my motivation. all right so tell me the story when you started building the epic real estate and the cash flow savvy so bring me back to that very first day or what is that like when

do you see the opportunity i you know i i'm not the foreseer of the future. I don't have a crystal ball, but I was working for, you know, it was very important to me that I did something with my life. And so after I dropped out of high school, mind you, I went back on my GED and then I went back to college and I got into UCLA and then I got a full scholarship to law school that I dropped out of because I hated it. So I had to find a job where I was going to be able to tell my parents, hey, I left law school because I got this amazing job. And I didn't. I was a processor. But I couldn't do law school. But I started working for a subprime bank.

This was in 2003, 2004, right around the refi boom. And I was a processor. I was a loan account manager. And I kept going up the corporate ladder. I started at the bottom, but I kept going up the corporate ladder. And what happened, Kate, is I learned, I got to see the banking industry, what it was doing. And then boom, 2007, 2008, the mortgage banking industry completely crashed. Luckily, I had learned from all of the loans that I was doing. And I saw the writing on the wall. It's like, they're doing these NAGAD loans, they're giving everybody on earth loans, and people are eventually going to default,

there's no way this work. Of course, our bank shuts down. And I had created such amazing relationships with like, the brokers, the real estate agents, everybody on the outside. They started giving me short sales because I was smart enough to save for a rainy day. And I wasn't living the lavish lifestyle. I was saving. So I had a little bit of money and they were giving me deals because they knew that I could close them.

And so I started flipping them and I was flipping them overnight with like no experience. I had a little help from my father and my sister, um, because they've done work on houses, but my very first flip, I made $86,000. Wow. I was like, wow, I was making $35,000 a year. And I flipped one house in two months. And I made $86,000. And I was like, holy cow, I am going to do this over and over again. So I kept doing it over and over again. When the sub prime market completely crashed, everyone was short selling. So I started to learn how to do short sales. And I had more supply than I could possibly handle. So I started to sell them prior to me

fixing them because I couldn't fix them. And before I knew it, I started to cash flow. And it really back in the day, I was still getting physical cash checks, like in the mail mailbox money. And I was like, oh my God, this is passive income. So I realized that this is how that started. And people then started asking me to speak like all over at Leah groups. And then I started being asked to speak like across the country. And there's only one of me. And I was like, what do you want me to speak on? And they said, well, I want you to teach us how you're buying properties and then turning around and selling them and how you're buying them and making them cashflow in California. Well, by this time I was like, well, it's starting to get difficult to cashflow in California, but I knew that were markets in middle America

where the purchase price and the rent ratio were starting to give you a return. So I sought markets in middle America where I could buy properties for 50, 60, $80,000. That in California doesn't exist. And then you can cash flow. So people started getting wind of me doing this. And they asked me to teach them how to do it. So the next best thing I did was Matt and I created a course. And so to advertise the course, we started teaching people how to do this on the podcast. Now we started podcasting in 2009, 2010. Nobody was podcasting. In fact, Matt said to me one day, well, I'm going to start a podcast. And I said, great. What's the podcast? Because I had no idea in 2010 what a podcast was. And he says, I'm just going to teach people how to do

this. And my thought was, why are we going to teach people how to do this if we have a course that's breaking it down? Well, what ended up happening is people listened to the podcast, they'd go by the course, and then they realized that creating passive income was so much work and so time consuming. They called and asked me, can you just sell me one of your properties? And that's how Cashflow Savvy got started. When did you start creating the Cashflow Savvy? How many years? So I started the company in 2008 and I started it for me, but in 2010, so it took me two years and in about two and a half years, almost three years, we were able to get out of the rat race, so to speak. But in two years, I was already developing

enough passive income that we could live comfortably at that time, cutting some expenses. But I had a magic number in my mind. I wanted this magic number for me to quit. And during that time, when I figured out that number, I kept being asked to sell my properties so that it triggered, okay, well, that means there's a demand. Let me just keep doing this. So I started selling to the public like in 2010. So I've been selling to the public for about 10 years already, but I still maintain my portfolio. I still do deals every day. I still buy for myself considering what's happening. I still close a deal last week. That's amazing. So tell me that first house that you mentioned, you earned 86,000 in profit. Is that in California? And how much was your initial

investment doing that? So that house I bought owner occupied, and I was able to come in with three and a half percent down because I technically was going to live in the property. So I started fixing it. And at that time, the property, I believe I bought it for $240,000. Mind you, this was in 2008. So it's been a minute. I think I put about $30,000 in rehab and the property appraised. In fact, I did a show called flip that house with that property, the property appraised at 240 or 260, I believe, or excuse me, 360. But when I did the whole thing, I did it with the intention that I was going to live in the property. It wasn't until I realized, oh my goodness, look at all these offers I'm getting. I'm just going to sell it. So, and, and so the rehab that I did on that property

wasn't a typical rent ready because I thought I was going to live in it. And that was in Orange County. It was in Laguna Niguel. And it was in 2008, right at the height of the crash. Wow. Okay. So you're working in a bank, started doing flipping houses. How did you learn who to hire, what to do? Luckily, we had, my father was kind of, he was a welder. So we knew people in the industry. And we had just kind of always my sister had somewhat of a little, you know, flipping business for herself. So we knew a couple of contractors, I will have to say, Kate, that the biggest disaster of, you know, of any rehab is your rehab team, your contractors. So it was definitely a learning curve, but it was trial and error at that time where, you know, I had connections and I always hire a referral. I never just go off of an ad or, you know, a Google search. Back then it wasn't a Google search, but yeah, it was all

word of mouth of someone that was referred to me. Wow. And what is, can you share me what is the worst rehab ever you have experienced? Wow. Yeah, I can. I purchased a property that it was a motivated seller. The gentleman was really old. He was probably about in his mid seventies and he had lived in this property for about 50 years with about nine animals. And I, when I walked in the place reeked, reeked like hell. And I just thought it was the carpet. I was like, Oh, you know what? No problem. I'll change the carpet. Oh no. So I bought the property at an

extreme discount. I paid about 150,000 below market value. But even after I ripped out the carpet and painted the entire property, it still smelled like urine, like animal urine. And I mean, I did everything, ventilators. We opened the windows. We had somebody sleeping in the house to air it out for a month and it would not air out. So a rehab that was supposed to be a $40,000 rehab ended up being about $120,000. And that was probably the worst experience of my life. Oh, I should have never thought that. We live and learn. Yes. Okay. So was that in California or somewhere in the Midwest? Yeah, that was in California. Yeah. Okay. Were you like involved there doing that work too in the beginning? Yeah. When you first started, yeah. You know,

you know what it is to start a business girl. I had to do it all. Uh, with contractors, it's, I've learned that if you were there every single day and they see you there, it makes a difference. Um, so that was in California. Now I'm lucky where I have my teams on the ground. I'm in 10 markets. So each team has a head, uh, and that head is the one that acts as me and goes to all my rehabs on a daily basis. Okay. Wonderful. So what's the highest honor or award you've ever received? I'm going to give you the cheesiest answer, but it's the one that's the most important to me. Um, my son, he, for Mother's Day, gave me a plaque, a picture frame, and it says, thank you for being the mommy that makes the best lunches. And I asked him after it was a mother's day.

And I asked him afterwards, why did you write that? Like, what made you say that I make the best lunches? And he says, mommy, some kids at schools, they just get lunchables. And I get a homemade sandwich and I get fruit and vegetables. he says and I get a cold drink every day that made me like ah I'm the best lunch maker so you always talk about your son so I know like you are like give the best gourmet lunch my husband's, he's seven years old Mercedes. I was like, I don't care. He gets good lunches. So can you name a person who has had a tremendous impact on you as a leader? Huh? So there's a person that I know personally, and then there's a person that I've followed for a very long time. One of my afar mentors is Robert Kiyosaki.

He taught me about the whole, with the book, Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Passive Income. I think I read that book about four times before it like sinked in. And it wasn't too hard to grasp, but it was back in the day when it dawned on me that there's another way of doing it. So that's my far away mentor. But I'd have to say that one of the mentors that she probably doesn't even know she was a mentor to me. Name is Rhonda Core.

And she was the very first person that gave me a chance at the bank that I used to work at. Bank was First Franklin. And she was my immediate supervisor. She was a rock star. She knew how to do loans and calculate things manually. And she taught me how to do all of these lending things in the industry of mortgage banking so that you can benefit as well. And I've looked at that and I've looked at how she has done things over the years. And she used to work for corporate America. So she had to abide by rules and bylaws, but she had it together. And I always remember her structure and how she composed herself when she had to turn somebody away. And it really impacted how I did business when I started doing short sales and in turn created my

own operation with Cashflow Savvy. Wow. Did she, did you ever tell her that, that she was, you know, get in contact with her? Indirectly. Yeah. We like occasionally chat. No, I don't think I've ever told her. I mean, when I left the company, the company shut down and And I remember she came in and, you know, cried and told everybody that we had to leave. And I thanked her then, but it wasn't until everything's hindsight. It wasn't until afterwards where I started to create my own business and run my own teams that I saw how she did it. And yeah, you know what? I'm going to reach out to her and tell her, say, watch that interview because I give you props. It's amazing. There's always that one person where you're working in a company that, you know, you'll

never forget. It's either they really shape, help you how to do it, or they're the most encouraging person that really believed in you. Is that something that she did to you as well? Yeah, she gave me a chance. I was, I was in school, I was in law school, and I was quitting law school to go into mortgage banking. Like, who does that? And I started at the bottom. She's like, I have this position, I just want it in. And she kept me I was there for seven years. So I kept moving up the corporate ladder and she was my immediate supervisor. And, you know, again, in hindsight, I look back and see it. I didn't realize it then, but I sure as heck see it now. So tell me about a mistake that you made.

Wow. I make them all the time. Um, a mistake that I made, this is really interesting. Actually. I, um, this just happened to me last week. I always, when it comes to buying properties, I always take a pencil to paper. It's always about the numbers. And last week, my best friend came to me and her cousin, after 25 years of marriage, is going through a divorce and she needed a place to stay. And so I was in the process of buying a property. And I said, you know what? I'm going I said you know what I'm going to buy this

property I'm going to let you choose the property I'm going to let you move in and I'm going to charge you this much rent and it's going to be your property for two years and she agreed so this whole thing happened with the coronavirus and I literally was faced with, should I not close the loan and buy the house? But if I do that, I'm impacting her. And so we did a walkthrough and I said, I'm only closing this property for you. Because for me, it's another rental. But it's going to cause financial burden to me because I still have to pay the mortgage. And she says, no, thank you so much, so on and so forth.

So this just closed last week. Fast forward to, I redid the floors. I painted the entire house. And right before I closed, my husband said, this person should not factor into the equation. You're thinking with your heart because it doesn't make financial sense for us to purchase this property right now considering what's going on in the nation. And I said, you're right, but I'm not going to live this person high and dry. So the property closed. She should have been moving in yesterday. And I just got an email, not even a phone call, to say that she's no longer going to move in. So I not only have a house that is all rehabbed based off of what she requested, I let her pick the floors, I let her pick the paint, I did everything, and now she's not moving in, and I'm going to be stuck with the mortgage payment and no rent.

Oh my God, Where's this property? Here in Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada. It's actually, it's called an area called Silverado Ranch. And you know what, Kate? It taught me to, I always make decisions based on raw numbers, always. And this time I followed my heart to make a difference and it backfired. And I didn't cancel the transaction because I didn't have the heart to say, I don't have a place for you. Even if I gave you my word and I sucked it up and I did it.

And now I'm stuck with a vacant house. That's fully rehabbed in this economy, in what it is today. And I'm going to be stuck with a mortgage payment and no rents. That is very raw. That just happened yesterday and today. So you know what? I was very upset. And then I thought, I didn't not close the transaction because I wanted to be able to sleep. I was doing it from my heart, even if it didn't not close the transaction because I wanted to be able to sleep. I was doing it from my heart, even if it didn't make sense. And it backfired so bad. And I thought, I'm not going to do anything like that ever again. And then I just said, you know what? It's her loss, not mine.

Yeah. And you know what? You're going to be blessed more because you're, you know, you're so generous and the thought that you even follow your heart instead of the numbers, which is very rare, right? Yeah. I never do that. And I, that one time that I did it and I was just like, you know what? My first thought was it serves you right. Mercedes serves you right. And then I thought, no, I was really trying to help someone with all of my heart. And here's what happened. So it didn't work out.

But you know what? God has a different plan, a better plan. And I'm not going to be let down. Everything happens for a reason. And there's a damn good reason I bought that house. Who knows what it is? And who knows how I'm going to make that mortgage payment. But it doesn't matter.

I've got a house. I'm going to provide a roof over someone's head. Might be my head even. Who knows? But I did it. I followed my heart and I'm not going to regret it. I'm regretting it right at this moment, but I'm not going to let it. Well, you have to post the house and I'm sure we'll find someone else for it. Good idea. Yes. So now I can't wait to see the house. I'm going to show it to you. The rehab is literally being done. I'm having the floors polished today.

Even that, I had brand new floors put in when all I could have done was shampooed the carpet. I know. Whatever. So is that, okay, so what's your greatest failure so far? You run this multi-million dollar company. We all know it's not easy. So what's your greatest failure so far? You know, my greatest failure has been, I don't know if it's a failure because I don't, I don't know if that's going to change, but I treat my employees like family. And I've been told by so many of my entrepreneur

friends, they're employees. You have to treat them like employees because they're, you know, they're employees. And I haven't done that. I treat everybody like my family. And it's, it's bit me in the butt a couple of times. And it's caused me a lot of sleepless nights and money because I tried to make that employee my family and it backfired on me. So now I, I'm not mean to my employees, but I don't treat them like I used to treat them. You know, I, I have learned by the school of hard knocks to draw the line. And I hate that I have to do that because it's not me, but I consider that a failure because I never wanted that in my world. So I didn't learn from the lesson the first time and I did it again. And you know, the first time is shame on you. The second time it's shame on me. And the second time was really costly. And so, yeah, I won't ever do that again. And it was a

huge failure, cost me thousands and thousands. But I learned. That's the important thing. Yeah. Like we make all those mistakes that, but the end of the day, having a good boundaries and good balances, you know, you're supposed to do. Yeah. I struggle with balance. You know, as a woman, you like, I run the house, I run, you know, I do. Yeah. I struggle with balance. Um, you know, as a woman, you like, I run the house, I run, you know, I feed my kid. I still run the business. I take care of payroll. And then I still sell properties. And then I run my personal portfolio and I try to get a workout

in like, what am I thinking? You know, but, uh, balance is, is a struggle. It's one that I have very present. In fact, it's on the top of my computer. It says balance because I struggle with that. And I'm a people person. So it's hard for me to, everybody, my contractors, my people, you know, this whole coronavirus, not being able to hug people. That has been hard for me, you know, not being able to shake someone's hand. I struggle with that. But at the end of the day, to your question, the failure was I didn't learn from my mistake the first time. And that's a failure. Yeah. So thank you for sharing. What scares you the most about this current situation? The media. The media scares me because I think that when there's a fact, you can present the fact, and then you can present the fact with a story that impacts

somebody. And that somebody is the people, the audience, and we're paralyzed with fear. And what scares me the most about what the media is doing is it's paralyzing people with just fear. And when people are afraid, they become paralyzed and do nothing. And the worst thing we can do right now is nothing. And that scares me. Does this pandemic affect your business? Of course, of course. Because, for example, my rehabs, I can't have my people working in our properties because when someone's doing the floor, they're six feet from each other. They're installing floors, you know, when they're painting. I guess they could be painting in different rooms. But the reality of the work has come, has slowed down a lot.

Now, I honestly believe that this is a great opportunity for real estate. I mean, this is when people need to jump in. But because people are so afraid of what the uncertainty no one's I shouldn't say no one many people are putting a halt on their financial future and that is going to bring our future our situation our economy completely down is staying idle yeah so when So, um, when this, what can you tell us, what do you think is going to happen after this? Like maybe four months from now, five months from now, where is the best, you know, deal for buying real estate? You know, so to answer your first question, what do I think is going to happen? This is the opportunity for us to like fill our brains with education, prepare ourselves.

So if financial freedom and passive income is important to you, now is the time to learn how to do it. I mean, what else are you going to do? You're locked in your house all day. Other than homeschooling your kids or running your business, you've got another 10 hours a day to do something like educate yourself, learn the plan of what it is that you want to do. If it's small, start a small business or if it's, you know, craft scarves and sell them online, like whatever it is, use your time wisely. And in my opinion, educate yourself, prepare yourself, because I

promise you, just like we got out of the last mortgage crisis, we're going to get out of this one. And you're either going to fall or you're going to rise. And the only way you're going to rise is if you prepare yourself. So let me tell you, girl, people are selling their homes because I'm getting offers because they're afraid of what's happening. And I look for those people that sell their homes at a discount. So prepare yourself to when people start selling and they're starting to sell, prepare yourself to buy it. Because let me tell you, real estate and a roof over your head is an essential.

Now, real estate education may not be an essential, but a roof over your head, which is real estate is an essential. Now, real estate education may not be an essential, but a roof over your head, which is real estate, is an essential. So if you prepare yourself to buy that essential when the market is low, you're preparing yourself to create an empire for yourself, your family, and your financial future if you know how to do it right. So when you asked where, honey, everywhere in America, people need places to live. Whether it's Alabama or St. Louis, Missouri, those are my markets, Indianapolis, Indiana, Kansas City, Missouri, Los Angeles, California, people need a roof over the head. They got to pay somebody rent. Why don't they they pay you rent you're the owner of that house so prepare i i have to share you at one point i think that was 2013 i actually bought a trailer in san clemente and i sold in less than a year actually made 40 grand see nothing and so

we're gonna find that deal but i you know, did my intuition and I was surprised like, oh my God, doing nothing and you make profit. Let me tell you, I know they say prostitution is the oldest business in the world. It's real estate because everybody needs real estate. I mean, everybody might need sex as well. so prostitution will go with that but like you really absolutely need a roof over your head and so for example I have my own portfolio and let me just tell you I was proactive and I went to all of my you know tenants and said okay you cannot not pay rent but if you're experiencing financial hardship I'm willing to work with you. And a reasonable tenant or a reasonable homeowner will do that. And so if you position yourself

in that space where, yeah, real estate, everyone's going to need it, position yourself where you can buy it. Even if you buy it creatively, you're going to be helping somebody by helping them get rid of a headache while you acquire an asset. And learning how to do that is critical. Great advice. So I have a question here. What have been the most influential experiences in your life? Huh. So I mentioned earlier that I dropped out of high school and I ran away from home at 16. Who does that, right? The entrepreneur in me didn't want to follow my parents' rules. So when I ran away from home, I literally didn't know where I was going to sleep and where I was going to get food. And what I derived from that is that it's all up to you. You know, you can make a choice. So I did a self-development course called MITT, Mastery in Transformational Training and Landmark Education.

And I learned that you have a choice every single day. You have a choice to wake up. You have a choice to see something black, white, or gray. You have a choice to, you know, go work out or not. You have a choice to start a business. And when I was younger, I had a choice whether I wanted to eat or whether I was going to eat or not. It was my choice. So all of that taught me, you need to step up, take accountability for yourself and make a decision and choose. So that I have to say was one of my most influential times in my life. And I've been doing this education for 20 years, 30 years, and I'm not going to stop. Is this through Landmark? I now do MITT, but but yes I've done the whole landmark education the whole curriculum for living uh and then I've done MITT as well and I do refresher courses uh you know every

probably every other year uh and then I'm always listening to that stuff I I fill my head with influential powerful stuff that's going to make a difference in my day. That's wonderful. Yeah. So what do you see your place or purpose in life? I think my purpose in life is to show, specifically women, that we can do it. We can envision something and absolutely set our goals to do it, no matter what it is. I didn't believe for a long time that I couldn't do things because

I was too poor, because I was Latina, because I was a woman. Oh, hell no. We could do it all. Now it might take us a little longer. They have to have a plan, but I want to be known as that firecracker, positive, happy tycoon that will get shit done. I love that. I love that. Of course we can do it. Of course. Right. I have my last question here. I love your openness and thank you for sharing. How do you want to be remembered? I know you mentioned tycoon. I want to be remembered as a woman of my word. Like if I say I'm going to do something, I get it done. And it may not be instant, but I get it done. And I think that honestly, Kate, if the world adapted that mentality, if you do what you say and you say what you do, the world would be a much better place. And that's what I want to

be remembered. Wow. That's, that was powerful. That was like, I love, like I said, thank you for being here. I know you're a busy person. Where can they find you? Go to my website. You can go to cashflowsavvy.com. That's savvy with two V's. You can hit the contact me or just email me, direct me. I love listening to our listeners. My email is mercedes at epic real estate.com. And if you send it to that email, I personally respond to you, not my assistant. Well, thank you so much for being here. And that was wonderful. Thank you again for sharing. You're so welcome. It is absolutely my pleasure. Girl power. Yeah. Thank you so much and have a good day. Have an amazing day, honey. Bye. We hope you enjoyed the show.

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