Tony Alvarez is a well-heeled, seasoned, knowledgeable and successful Real Estate Investor, licensed Broker, Developer and Certified General Appraiser; and has lived and worked in the real estate business since 1981. Tony has built, purchased, rehabbed, rented and sold hundreds of properties from vacant land to condos, single family residences, apartments and commercial properties and is well-versed in the risks and requirements for success inherent in different types of real estate investments. Tony is also a sought-after speaker and has previously spoken at The Norris Group’s Multi-Millionaire Maker in 2005 and 2006, as well as other Real Estate Investment Clubs and events throughout Southern California and Nevada.
In this episode:
The Norris Group originates and services loans in California and Florida under California DRE License 01219911, Florida Mortgage Lender License 1577, and NMLS License 1623669. For more information on hard money lending, go www.thenorrisgroup.com and click the Hard Money tab.
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Tony Alvarez is a well-heeled, seasoned, knowledgeable and successful Real Estate Investor, licensed Broker, Developer and Certified General Appraiser; and has lived and worked in the real estate business since 1981. Tony has built, purchased, rehabbed, rented and sold hundreds of properties from vacant land to condos, single family residences, apartments and commercial properties and is well-versed in the risks and requirements for success inherent in different types of real estate investments. Tony is also a sought-after speaker and has previously spoken at The Norris Group’s Multi-Millionaire Maker in 2005 and 2006, as well as other Real Estate Investment Clubs and events throughout Southern California and Nevada.
In this episode:
The Norris Group originates and services loans in California and Florida under California DRE License 01219911, Florida Mortgage Lender License 1577, and NMLS License 1623669. For more information on hard money lending, go www.thenorrisgroup.com and click the Hard Money tab.
Video Link
Radio Show
Welcome to The Norris Group real estate podcast, a show committed to bringing you insights from thought leaders shaping the real estate industry. In each episode, we'll dive into conversations with industry experts and local insiders, all aimed at helping you thrive in an ever-changing real estate market. continuing the legacy that Bruce Norris created, sharing valuable knowledge, and empowering you on your real estate journey. Whether you're a seasoned pro or a newcomer, this is your go-to source for insider tips, market trends and success strategies. Here's your host, Craig Evans.
Craig Evans:Hey, everybody, welcome to the podcast. This your host, Craig Evans, really excited about the guests that we've got today. We've got Tony Alvarez on the show with us today. Tony, for many of those that you know him, he's a great guy. For those who don't, let me tell you a little about him real quick. He's a real estate investor and a mentor. Tony's a well heeled, seasoned and knowledgeable, successful real estate investor, a licensed broker, developer and certified general appraiser. He's lived and worked in the real estate business since 1981. Tony has built, purchased rehabbed, rented, and sold hundreds of properties from vacant land to condos, single family residences, apartments and commercial properties, and is well-versed in the risks and requirements for success inherent in different types of real estate investments. Tony is also a sought after speaker and has previously spoken at The Norris Group's Multi-Millionaire Maker in 2005, and 2006, as well as other real estate investment clubs and events throughout Southern California. Tony, good to have you my friend. How are you today?
Tony Alvarez:That guy was, he sounds so interesting, I can't wait to meet him. I mean, it's an amazing thing. I'm very well thank you very much, and it's wonderful to see you. And it's wonderful to see you doing this.
Craig Evans:It's been an exciting transition. And I am looking forward to years of continued success through The Norris Group and carrying on a legacy that obviously Bruce Norris said and Aaron said, and I am honored to be kind of carrying that mantle coming in behind him, but well, let's jump in. You've been on the radio with Bruce. Countless times. I don't, I think it's like 14 or 15 times.
Tony Alvarez:I don't know about that. But it's been, yeah, it's been several, yeah.
Craig Evans:There's been stories and memories following Bruce's in his teaching and today what I want to do is I want to try to take a different journey, because you know, I've listened to some of those and you and Bruce dive in and you're going to specifics about real estate and we're going to do some of that we're gonna do a lot of that today. But, you know, I want to take it a little different journey through the story of Tony, I hope that if you're okay with this, I want to go through some of the things that maybe investors haven't heard, and introduce you to our new expanded audiences if that's okay. So with that, I'm gonna give a little background. So, you came to us and correct me as I'm going through this, you came to us to America, from Cuba, with your parents, so tell me a little bit about that experience and getting to the states.
Tony Alvarez:Okay, so that's taken us way back, you know, I did not think about real estate back then. Okay, so, but you're, I understand what you're doing, you're looking for the foundation of an investor, you know, like, what ends up, what's behind it, right. So back back then this is during the Castro revolution, right back in 1960, I think is when we came to the United States and my father was my father was an attorney. My mom was a teacher in Cuba and of course, they were in the mix, so to speak, in the political mix, and they kind of ahead of what was going on. And my mom was actually friends with Fidel Castro when they were younger, they actually went to the same school and stuff like that.
Craig Evans:Really?
Tony Alvarez:Yes. Yeah, yeah, it was and Fidel visited, would come to visit to the house when we were young and my, my older brother used to play with his rifle, he had a rifle that he always carried with him. I don't know if it was an M one rifle was I mean, he would put it at the door wherever he you know, whenever he came in his, you know, uniform and all that, and that's how they kind of that precipitated my parents deciding to get the heck out of Cuba. Because my parents were okay in a financial sense, my our family was well off like we all had nannies and stuff like that. It wasn't you know, we were slightly above the middle class over there mine, because my dad was an attorney. My grandfather, his dad was a judge and they both worked in the same In courtroom my dad was working as a clerk of courts at the time. And he worked right under my grandfather. And it was a large family and they had 12 brothers and sisters and you know, my dad, probably by noontime, you know, he was at the racetrack or something with my mom, they were you know, they there wasn't a lot of work-work involved in. So but his younger brother, 'causee Castro, when Castro took over, he did a couple of things right away once he picked up all the weapons, because he said,you're not gonna need them anymore because we're gonna protect you and then, does that sound familiar? But second, second he said. He instilled a military training program. And if you reach a certain age, the kids they, you know, like, if you were 13, 12, whatever the heck it was, you got inducted into the military, and you went away for a certain amount of time, and you came back and you know, you were pretty much brainwashed. So much of my dad's younger brother got, you know, got taken away, and when he came back, they had a party for him. And at the party, he was talking about the revolution, this revolution that and my dad said to him, they got a loan, my dad was the oldest in the family. And they would, when they were alone in the room, he said, you know, you can stop all that revolution, since you and me now you know. And he turned to my dad, and he said, If you ever say anything like that, to me again, I'll turn you in. I'll have everyone in, your kids and everybody shot. So, my dad went home that night. And he told my mom, okay, this is insanity, you know. And so, they decided, you know, that it's a, to get out, so you couldn't leave any you couldn't take anything from Cuba, you had, you know, you just took the clothes on your back. And it was a miracle to get out. But at that time, Castro was still wanting to look politically, you know, good and stuff. So he was letting people go, 'Hey, you guys want to leave.' So all the professionals really were the ones that were leaving at the time, because the folks that weren't as well educated and stuff, they believed in the dream that he was selling them, you know, you're all going to own your, every one is going to be the same, you know, you're all going to have everything, you know, show but we saw a lot of things. You know, I was five years old, and I saw a lot of things in the streets, you know, you know that, that that kid should not be witness to at a young age, but it's you know, it was like a warzone basically, you know. So, yeah, so we land in the united, we land in the United States, and you get here, right? And the first thing they do, you know, they talk about internment camps, you know, and everybody, so, oh, well, we landed in Miami, and the first thing they do women and children over here, all the men over here because they don't know if you're communist if you're socially, they don't know, right. So, so they had this place that was chained up, you know, they had a chain link fence around it. And my dad gets put in there and I don't remember. I was young, but I remember we would go visit him. Right? Right. He would. My dad was happy as a lark. Okay, he's inside this internment camp. There were tents set up, you know, and he's 'Hey!' he's looking at my mother's like,'Hey, I'm over here. Look, look who's here. It's the baker guy from the corner street bakery.' Yeah, you know, because all the guy who's you know, so? Um, yeah, it was a it was a strange time. But it was a good time. And of course, all of the foundation of who I am comes from that to a large extent from that time, and then everything else. You know, we went to Catholic school, the Catholic church helped us a lot. We, my dad didn't even want us to stay in Miami. You know, my dad went from being an attorney in Cuba with basically didn't do much of anything, lands in Florida, his first job is dishwasher at the Fountain Blue RESNA hotel in Miami Beach at the time. And then he worked at another place called Godfrey Young, which is just it's right near it, you know, another big hotel like that. And the first type of meat or protein that we ate at home actually came as you know, people would go there and eat and if they didn't finish their steak, my dad's picking it up when they bust the tables or whatnot and you know, cleaning it up and bringing it home, that kind of thing. So we went through challenges and we did everything everybody we sold fruits on the street, they were trying to get ahead so they we did everything and then we ended up in Lawrence Massachusetts, a small mill town because there was a priest there at the Catholic Church who spoke Spanish he was the only one of the city basically who spoke Spanish and we were the first Cubans to land there. So we got on a Greyhound bus and the only words my dad knew how to say in English and these are things he's stories he's told over the years was 'cup of coffee, apple pie'. So, that is all we ate the whole trip, you know, every time we stopped cup of coffee apple pie that's it, you know.
Craig Evans:Was that his language? Or was that his getting his priorities right? Well he says that that was a He says He even tells the story about the one of the stops the Greyhound bus stop, people get off. So we get on. And this lady gets on. And she hears us speaking Spanish so she says, Oh, you're your Spanish. I can tell you from your accent your Cubans? Oh, yeah, she did. She was Cuban. And this and that and my dad, she says something to someone else in what he interprets things as English. And he's thinking, we're going to eat good at the next stop. She's going to order for us we're going to. So he invites her, he tells her and invites her to eat with us, right? And when we stop at the place, he says, okay, they got my order and it's like, he's gonna order? I don't speak English. So my dad, he says, I looked at the waiter, and went a 'cup of coffee, apple pie.' You know? Alright, so, when you land in a small town, and you're the first Spanish speaking people. In the meantime, you got to understand what this was Missile Crisis, all this stuff. You know, that was like.......and stuff at that time, right?
Tony Alvarez:Right. Yes, yes. And kids are getting you know, every so often, they have an alarm in the school, and the kids are getting under their desks. So this isn't to protect you from a nuclear missile or something. And, you know, when he gave us a sense of power, right control over our life, so they're doing all of this because there's a lot of scary talk on TV and stuff. And at the same time, they're walking us in and going 'Hi, these are your new friends from Cuba.' So the kids are like...
Craig Evans:So, you didn't get picked first for kickball them,
Tony Alvarez:No, no. Well, only as the ball. Yeah. So but it's, right? you know, over time, all of that changed, you know, and, and quite frankly, you know, all those kids that were afraid of us and didn't understand us all, they all became the, I have such good friends from my early years in, in school, I still go back I try to get back to a yearly reunion that we have an eighth grade reunion out of that Holy Rosary Catholic school, and I love all of those, you know, I call them kids, we're all in their 60s now, you know, but it was a great time for us. And, and it was a great time. I'm so happy that I grew up where I grew up around the people that I grew up, and that we experienced everything that happened, I really tell you that the older I've gotten, the more I realize the level of resilience that myself and my brothers have. It's really, it was really instilled in us as a result of the hits we took along the way that you know, that you can interpret as unwanted situations and unwanted you know, just conditions right. But I mean, our first place to live was a place called the International Institute. We have a 10 by 10 room. And this is a Massachusetts right, it was a similar thing in Miami but we got to Massachusetts, because the Catholic church got us the thing it's an it's an it's in a really much a boarding house you have a 10 by 10 room, you have a common bathroom down the hallway, common kitchen downstairs, you got certain time that you can cook and if you miss it, you're not eating anything good. And then we had an alleyway in the back, you know of our place. That was you know, where we was our playground and first winter we have the largest snowstorm in New England. We'd never seen snow and we might that thought we were going to die for like four feet of snow. You can't even, you can't drive in it, you know, but what we thought it was great, you know.
Craig Evans:Was this your entire family and a 10 by 10?
Tony Alvarez:It was my mom, my dad, my grandmother, my mother's mom who came with us. And then my older brother, my younger brother and myself. And then we have another brother who then who was older than us, but it was not allowed to leave because of that military restraint stuff. It was more difficult to get him out. He didn't follow us though. He did come and then my little sister was born here and we named her the anchor baby because my dad, it was an accident. You know, she wasn't supposed to. But my dad says it was a godsend because he was worried about we were gonna get sent back any minute, right? Any minute. They're gonna go okay, all these Cubans over here, you know? And so he said, Okay, now we got one that's an American citizen. We're okay. She can claim all of us, you know. So, yeah. So that your life is, your life revolves around these concerns that the typical American is totally oblivious to, you don't know, but I want to I want to make one thing clear. As I tell these stories, you know, I'm telling you. I wholeheartedly support things like vetting and stuff like that I do not support anything, any different than what we went through when we landed in this country because, in my opinion, it's a lack of respect for the rule of law and a lack of respect for the sovereignty of this country, which is really what we embrace. Why the hell do you think we came here? Why didn't we go to China? And I mean, you know, we could have gone somewhere else, you know, we could have gone to, you know, so much. And a lot of Cubans that Spain, you know, a lot of different places, we were blessed to land where we did when we did, so, yeah.
Craig Evans:So, let me ask you and how you're telling me, because listen, Tony, you and I have spent some time together, you know, a little bit of my story, you know, coming from Middle Georgia and South Georgia, I mean, obviously, you're growing up and the moving and coming through, that's a whole lot different than what I experienced. And, you know, South Georgia process. So with that kind of growth, and I, you know, my dad was the baby of nine. So you know, I'm, it's interesting to see people's growth patterns and processes through life. But when you're coming to America, you're starting in Miami, now you're in Massachusetts, there's by my count of you, I think it total, by the time your daughter, your sister got here was born, that made eight in a 10 by 10 room?
Tony Alvarez:Well, no, because things change. And so we started out there, right, and all of our clothes, I've got some pigs that define you honest to goodness, if we were going to go in this, I would have shown you something. There's, all of the clothes that we wore, were clothes for adults, but downstairs in the basement of that International Institute, where we were living, they had a room. And it was full of donated clothes, not because the Catholic Church ran all of this.
Craig Evans:Sure.
Tony Alvarez:So all of these Jack coats and jackets and eat things hats with air, you know, it's like the old pilot, you know, ATS with that you pull the thing. And we've got some pictures with my brothers and I are standing in with my parents and stuff and we're standing and looking at, you know, we're looking out at, at what's happening, you know, and it's like, we look, we look strange, man, we look like we didn't you know, we were buttons are all missing. And I mean, we smelled like mothballs. I mean, that's the only thing it was mothballs everywhere. So yeah, but over time, you know, my parents immediately landed work in the factories. Now the factories paid more. I'm trying to remember, I remember because I ended up working and they'll say Mills, you know, it was a mill town and as a matter of fact, I worked at a place called Malden mills. And now, you know, we start moving out. In other words, they help us find an apartment. Now I want you to know, think you got to think about this, because I just mentioned this is during the Castro revolution, missile crisis. The news on TV and everywhere is about a potential missile that could land here any moment. So, here's a group of Cubans, and we're trying to find a place to rent, right? So we're the only Cubans in this town. No one speaks Spanish except the Father Natale Italian priest, because our city by the way, Todd, they're talking about different times. The city was broken down between the Irish community and the Italian community. We landed in the Italian community, but who was by that time, you know, even though they still had the churches and stuff, and we all everybody, you everybody, we had Irish kids, tying kids, French kids. I mean, you know, it was, we all went to school together. But they still had these two separate parts of town. So we ended up in the Italian part because it father Natale he run he's the pastor of the Italian church, and he gets all this done for us gets my mom and dad jobs at the mills, you know, and finds us a place to live. Now, I'm not gonna lie to you. I mean, there's three boys, my mom, my dad, and my grandmother. And, you know, my he says, here's a place these are people we know go to them, you know, talk to them and they'll that Father Nathale is gonna go and my mom is telling us okay, only your brother comes with me the rest of you hide. We don't want the people looking at all these folks. I'm going with the Yeah. And then she used to say to us, because after that we would go with her to see the nuns and because my mom cut a deal with it with the pastor of the church. This is when I start seeing negotiating to let us attend Catholic school, as long as and she will trade cleaning and cooking for the convent, you know and stuff like that. So, my mom was really involved in that. And she also taught them that she would do physical fitness classes. No, my mom was a little heavyset, you know, to this day I have a friend Louis Grasso who we get together and he says he'll call me once a while he'll go Do you remember your mom? She's kind of chunky, trying to make us do jumping jacks and we were trying not to laugh because we didn't want to be disrespectful. But it was hilarious. And well, so my mom, but my mom convinced, you know, and she told the priest that he needed to have, you know, physical fitness classes because it was embarrassing that he had the best Catholic school in the city. And yet they didn't provide physical fitness classes for the kids. But yeah, in Cuba was a bit it was basically a third world country that they that they had all the schools have physical fitness. So how could you do that? Aren't you ashamed? You know, so the priest. I mean, right away. He's like, hired her immediately. Well, well, yeah, we'll trade we'll do that's great. That's great. So, I got to see a lot of that stuff. And then my mom, you know, my mom and my dad were the two most influential people in my life. That still hasn't changed. My mom was all about relationships. Getting to know everyone in town. We knew the mayor. We knew that, every one of them you know, we knew all the cops we used to get driven you know, we're walking my brothers and I and the cop in a cruiser went by they go boop. And then and then we we knew all the cops. I used to go I used to save my money. Okay, my five cents. And I used to go to Dunkin Donuts, buy them coffee. I learned what all the detectives drank. And I would show up with a little tray, right? A little tray and the guy. Never forget it. There's a guy in the front door. He looks at me and he goes, who the hell are you? And there's a guy behind him, right? Like a sergeant. He goes. That's Alvarez him in. He's going upstairs. He goes, what do you mean let him in because he just just buzz the door. The kid knows, he knows that detectives upstairs. He gets just let buzzer man. And yeah, I go upstairs, you know. And from that, it turned out I wanted to be a cop, you know? And so I would go upstairs, bring him their coffee. They go 'you're trying to poison us? Let's handcuff him. Yeah, we can trust his Cuban,' you know, so I grew up, you know, around people that Easterners have a huge, a very different sense of humor. And they, they love you, but at the same time, if they're not revenue, if they're not teasing you if, you know, if they're not jacking you up somehow, then you know, you're not important to them, you know, you're not, you're off their scope, you know. So, I grew up with some magnificent people. And, I mean, you know, and Easterners are known for their vulgarity, and they're compensated, you know, it's one of the reasons I love to watch monster movie. I hate to admit it, even though this is kind of like, you know, it's kind of like it saying, well, you know, you you're labeling people Oh, it was in the attitude of the people, you know, hey, how you doing? You know, it was, I'm so happy that I grew up there it all of that experience all of it. Slowly we did better, better, better, better to my parents finally were able to we had a landlord, Mr. miletti, big Italian man would come collect his rent by the way where we lived you paid your rent on a weekly basis, not monthly, weekly. So he would come by, my mother would make him expresso coffee, he would sit with us at the table. He would all get around him. We loved him. Okay. He would sit with us. And he loved that my mom's stories and my dad stories about my mom now by that time they're speaking broken English, you know? And then they learned quick they didn't mess around. And we were not allowed to speak Spanish outside the house. You spoke Spanish at home outside you spoke English and God help us if he caught if my dad caught my brothers talking to one of us talking Spanish to each other out in the yard, you know, you forget it. You know you're going to pay the price. And and so we learned quickly. That is why I don't talk like this. Okay, yes, this was not allowed in the house. You don't talk like this is not the way you talk. You speak English like you speak English. And and when we speak Spanish we don't have any accent and the English accent either. You know, we speak the language clearly. So and takes effort and that takes you you know your dad chasing you around with a belt that's riveting.
Craig Evans:Thinking, have you ever thought about doing a career in voiceovers?
Tony Alvarez:You know what you say that, my, I did voices. I did voices. Not for, I wanted to go, to be honest with you, I wanted to go into show business as a young man which is one of the reasons why I came out to California to begin with but I got married young and I had a son, but my son, was the beneficiary of my entertainment value. I entertained my son since he was a little guy did all voices. What does my son decide to go into? Acting in voices. My son just finished a movie for Ron Howard in Australia. Yes. And my son went into voice, my son came to me one day said, I want to go into acting Dad, I said, I'm almost I almost put them in therapy because I thought there's something wrong. I wanted him to go into business, you know, real estate and stuff he didn't want, he didn't want to have anything to do with it. But I had done the voices, there wasn't a day that we got into a car to go drive, somewhere, where we didn't get in, and I became, you know, it was a race car. And I okay, and here, they are already at the races. And I would do all these voices every time we went past someone, if we looked in, and it was someone from Asia, I would do, I would do an Asian accent. If it was, you know, Africa, and I'm telling you the truth, if it was African American, if it was this or that, and I would pretend that these are, Oh there's a Russian guy would do a Russian accent. So my son had that had an impact on him. And he and he and he went into that business and he does extremely well. He's living in Australia now. He actually moved he married and he married an Aussie, and they've got a couple kids and, and they're all in show business. And that's exactly what he does. But he hates real estate. You know, he didn't he didn't even want to inherit any of this stuff. I said, You got to learn this business because you're gonna inherit all this stuff. Nah, Dad, I don't want you donate it to you know, your whatever you want, or whatever. His wife on the other hand. She called me up after that conversation. She goes,' you forget what he said.'
Craig Evans:My daughter, Georgia, you met her the last time you're here.
Tony Alvarez:Yeah. Very nice.
Craig Evans:Yes. Massive phobia of frogs. Okay, he had a frog, that literally when she was like four or five, jumped on her mouth, at an outdoor party and land and like right on her mouth. And we need to pull it off. And it's like stuck to her face. But I have heard through the rumor mill that you've got an interesting story about frogs?
Tony Alvarez:Well, no, it has to do with my parents again, as a matter of fact, most of the stuff that has had an impact on my life has been as a result of my parents. And so my mom, my that's the one that you know, we never lacked for what to get my mom for whatever birthday, whatever, it's always going to be something frog related. And this started many, many, many years ago, there's certain things that my mother just inculcated into our thinking. Not that we have a tremendous love of frogs, any of my brothers, right. But that, you know, my mom would have all these frogs around all the time. And so we knew, 'what do you get mom for Christmas? I'm getting her that I found this frog thing, you know, or the stuffed animal frog, or this other set of frog dishes or cups or whatever.' I'm like, what's with the frog thing, you know, when you know? So she educated us that basically, a frog is the only creature that does not go, it doesn't go in reverse. It can only go forward that my mom used that basically, as an instruction to us that always when you encounter something, whatever it is in your life, and this was usually as a result of us having a problem. We're sitting around moping. And, you know, my mom is walking and going. And listen, if a frog can go forward 100% of the time, I think you can handle this, okay? Move forward, don't, you know, there's nothing that go well, there's gonna, you're gonna retreat here? So, so that, that became you know, I can't see a frog without remembering that now I've, over the years, I've instilled that in my son and in my grandkids, that story has come up, you know, to kind of because it's so easy, you know, you say that you say a little story like that. And I can't begin to tell you how many times in my life when I've been confronted with something that may, you know, scares me some scary time or something where I say, 'Okay, I'm done.' I'm not, you know, especially when I crashed and burned in real estate. I said, That's it, I'm gonna go do something else. I ended up making pizza junkies, you know? And, you're getting up every day, you know? And all you got to do is see a frickin frog. You know? And, that's how you think about, you know, you're thinking about God, my mother, she's okay. So but just like everything else, my mom used to say to us, and my mom used to do this and she did this almost on a daily basis before we left the house. She would say to us, you know, 'in this life, you can meet anyone, no matter how important or how wealthy or whatever, or how famous they are. You can meet them become friends with anybody.' And then she always would say, as long as you learned that to love people first, I guess the bottom line is is that my mom instilled in us of an overall sensation of gratitude.
Craig Evans:So, the next time you're down, that means you're bringing something I hope it's that you're bringing a frog to my daughter. I've got a sneaky question that I want to get into. Okay, I've heard something that I need to clarify. And I think especially to newer audiences to The Norris Group, and those that have heard you speak over and over. Yeah, I need to know because I've heard through the grapevine that you actually got into real estate, because of late night infomercials. Is that true?
Tony Alvarez:You know, and this goes to the heart of, okay, so I'm a young guy, right. I'm in my mid 20s. I'm already married, and I have a son. And I dropped out of high school, I was very rebellious at that age. And I dropped out of high school, I'm, you know, I was going to high school and I was working second shift at Malden Mills, because we all had to chip in and help my dad and stuff. And my dad really wasn't pushing us for to go to continue with education. So at that time, we were worried about money, to be honest, you know, supporting everything, and, you know, so. So, what happens is, um, you know, now in my early 20s, and stuff, and I've, you know, I can't, I'm stressed out because the only jobs I can get are basically janitorial services, or construction. And guess what? Tony doesn't like to get his hands dirty. So I'm in trouble. Okay, so I'm sitting up watching TV one night, and, you know, I just, I don't know what I'm going to do. And here comes this guy, I changed the channel and I never forget it. There's two o'clock in the morning. And it's Dave del Dotto. This guy, one of the guys that was you know, bang in his tambourine on the real estate circuit back in the 70s, or whatever. And he says, right out of the gate, he's in a white suit. They're in Hawaii, you see the beach behind them, it's beautiful, you know, and it caught my attention. Because I was so depressed, really, I was down and out. And he's sitting there on one of those, like a studio chair, like they have like for the studio producers and stuff when they're sitting around, you know, filming. And he's got another guy with him. And, and he says, Look, you don't need any idiot, he says, Any idiot can get wealthy in real estate. And right around that time, I was identifying myself as an idiot, because I didn't really have much to look forward to. And he said, You don't need a high school diploma. that got my attention. You don't need money. I didn't have any. You don't need good credit. My credit was horrible. You don't need past experience. And you don't need contacts or connections. I have never forgotten those five things that listed out my resume. And I thought, I remember thinking to myself, because I have a weird sense of humor. I remember thinking, I'm an investor, and I didn't even know it. I got everything he says I'm supposed to have. I don't need any of these things. I qualified for this. Okay, so how might you know I'm so stupid. I'm running to the phone to order this guy's course. I haven't even heard another word out of this thing. Oh, no, that's not true. He turns to the guy next to him, happens to be from New England from Massachusetts. He's a plumber. I want you to know, in Massachusetts and plumbers, like he walks out. He's like God, okay, and they make as much money as they want. But the guy says, 'Yeah, I know. I'm a plumber in Massachusetts, a lot of you are thinking now this guy's got money.' He said, 'but I was tired of being on my knees in the middle of the winter, you know, unplugging somebody's toilet, or whatever it is, I'm done with that. I listen to what Dave told me to do. And, you know, I after doing what he said, here', and I and he holds up a check and the check is for 12 grand. Now the last job I had had, I was getting paid between 900 and $1,000 a month. So this guy is holding my yearly salary in one transaction. Done. I'm on the phone, and he's from Massachusetts. So he's, and when the guy starts talking about this, he went when he gets to the check, he goes, You know, I did whatever job whatever he told me to do. And he said, and I and here's what I mean. And he gets emotional. Okay, when he got emotional, I'll be honest with you, I started crying. I'm by myself and I'm crying. I'm getting emotional with this guy on the thing because I'm connecting with him, you know, or he's connecting with me better said he hit me where I was living at the moment. And I went Dave del Dotto. That's it. And he had Italian names to begin with. So I felt like he's, I felt like we're close right? So, I go and I go to the thing, I get that, you know, I ordered the course and then it was like$49 or some 69. I forget what the heck it was. But within a couple of weeks, I got a box of books and cassette tapes as what we had back then. You know, I think I read two chapters in a book, and I listened to a few cassette tapes. I'm out looking for a house to buy. And I landed my first deal. Of course, I had talked my parents into providing the, ain't the signature for the financing not the actual money, but But you know, securing because they had good, great credit. And, and I found a fixer upper and I found a real estate agent, you know, that was right around the corner from where I was. And he took me to see this house, I took my mother with me. And I never forget it because I tell the story all the time because I'm walking into this house. And it's an old house, you know, I drive by it. By the way, every time I go to Southern California, I go to Burbank and I drive by this house, okay, because I can't believe it's worth like $900,000 now, okay. And and the guy hasn't changed the damn thing. Okay. I think he's painted it, whatever. And he removed the avocado tree I planted in the front and my son's orange tree from the back. Yeah, the two things he did immediately. But anyways, so we're walking in and the guy opens the door. And his pigeons fly. There's no windows, there's birds flying out, you know. And my mother turns to the guy right away. And he says, You're trying to steal my son's money. Because the house was a disaster. And the guy goes, no, and I entrusted, 'Ma, he's not stealing anybody's money. He says it's a fixer upper is what it is, you know,' 'This is not good for you. I'm telling you, this house is a disaster.' And, so she's basically what is she doing? She was negotiating, she's trying to you know, you know, like, the guy doesn't know, it's a fixer upper. So, you know, though, and that guy did something for me talk, you know, you, we really have to pay attention to every single moment, every single word, you know, if you're going to, if you're going to go in any direction, but in life in general, because things happen right in front of you. And if you're not awake, you're gonna miss it. You know, in this guy, I'm standing out in front of this house looking at it, my mother's inside walking around, still, I'm petrified because I've never done a transaction, you know, this guy walks up to me, the agent puts his hand on my shoulder and he had a beautiful Mercedes dress really well. He puts his hand on my shoulder which later by the way, I found out that says it's something they call anchoring or something that they do and then they tell you to do something. And he put his hand on my shoulder and he goes, 'You better buy this house because this is really a good deal.' And he squeeze my thing twice. And it was 78,000 bucks, okay for that house with a two bedroom one bath built 1930. And I immediately this is the effect that that moment had on me. I didn't know if that was a good deal. But I realized that's the most important part of this business. I got to learn value that led me to go and find out about appraising, which I did not know existed. I wanted to learn how to how do you learn to identify value quickly because I realized that's what that's I have to have that skill. And I learned about Real Estate Appraisers and then I go back then you didn't even have licensing, you just went to work for another appraiser. I immediately found a lady who, as a result of another friend who was an appraiser in Beverly Hills, she worked the West Side bigger, beautiful in all the stars, homes and stuff. She didn't choose to dress up high heels and all that she didn't want to get dirty measuring their 6000 square foot mansion. So she kind of deal with me.'Will you measure the house while I go and do the interior inspection,' she says 'if you do that, I'll train you. You're gonna work with me, I'll train you. And then I'll start handing you appraisals. And you know, you can start that way.' Done. I was at the the next job with my measuring tape and that there. Yeah. And that's how I get into appraising and that taught me about values. And I, you know, over time, because my dad, my mom taught us about relationship building. She taught us to love people and love to meet people and love to connect with them and learn about them. And because there's something that learns something, you'll learn something about that person's life that'll make you bette, whatever you're doing, then you're doing it now. But you have to be open to life. The my dad was, we'd be sitting at the dinner table and I love to eat. So my mom made fresh cooked meals my mom would get, we'll get home from the mills right from that from the factory job and she would cook a full on from scratch, you know, rice and beans and roasted chicken and whatever everything for us was about the food. Okay, because we didn't have a lot so only thing was bought at the store made from scratch. So, we're eating and my brother you know, starts getting a piece of chicken and I'm looking at his plate and I would get wack. 'Wow. Keep your eyes on your own plate. What's your brother's getting is none of your business.' So, from that one case, but that's it's a specific mindset. Okay, that's an example. But my dad was about focus your attention on what you're doing. Whether it was shoveling snow, or you know, helping out in some other way. Get your eyes on what you're doing. You're not gonna get any better at it by looking at somebody else. Focus your attention on exactly what you're doing.
Craig Evans:So, let me ask you this.
Tony Alvarez:Yeah.
Craig Evans:All of that because Tony, I could, I literally I was excited that you agreed to come on because I could sit and listen to you and not just the stories but what you pull and garner out of it. So I want to ask you a question here. So you're watching Dave del Dotto, middle of the night, you buy his tapes, here you are, here's this guy, you know, crying. This is what he did for me, right? You go and you realize your first deal. It's not as easy to become a millionaire as you thought it was, right? You quickly pivoted into appraising and finding value. How much credibility? Do you think that being an appraiser, and understanding value, right, how do you think that? How much credibility Did that give you once you really got in as an investor, you know, just starting out compared to where you are now? We just talked about focus, and I'm interested in that.
Tony Alvarez:Well, okay, so the main thing is probably the steam behind the level of desire that I had, was that what Dave del Dotto did for me that night? Okay, let me back up a second. I hope that by now, anyone who has been listening to me has garnered the fact that we were sharpened like a tool early on by our life experiences. I mean, you don't have to come to this country as an immigrant to become successful. But I want you all to pay attention, especially you out there that are not immigrants, look at how many of them do become successful. And it's because they have a love of the things that this you know, that this country offers. We don't take it for granted. So, okay, so my dad's for children, he's telling us focus your attention where you want it to be. Don't be looking at somebody else's anything. My mom is like, you gotta learn to love people because the only way you're gonna get better at whatever you do is you got to meet other people, you got to know what they're about. You got to get curious about life. Those are fundamental things to succeeding. Now if you don't understand that you better pay attention to look at the guy who started Amazon, you know, Amazon, look at that, look at the guy who invented this Apple phone and go read their life stories, you know what you're going to find you're going to find those exact things in their foundation. Okay? They're not It's not any different. Why does Tony, why didn't Tony invent Amazon? I don't know. I like to find out for myself, why I got my life to a point to a certain level of success where I'm happy with it. You know, I don't I don't need any more than I'm cool. So those things are a part of the foundation here comes. I'm down and out. Here comes Dave del Dotto. Dave del Dotto says 'hey, by the way, I don't know why you're feeling down.' This was the message that he sent to me. 'Any idiot can do this. Why are you sitting there? You know, like your world is ending. You just gotta pay attention to the show.' You know, up until that moment, I didn't know anything about real estate honestly, except for one thing. Earlier I told you Mr. Forley used to come to collect his rent on a weekly basis. We used to get my mom would make them Expresso. You know what he told us early on? 'I'm going to tell you boys is something you need to listen. In a different country, you never going to get rich by working for somebody else. You needed to own a real estate and you needed to own it as soon as possible.' He ended up convincing my parents to buy the three tenement building that we lived in and he carried the mortgage zero money down. That was the first zero down deal that I ever witnessed. And we all know, my dad and my mom. Since the revolution, since Cuba, their attitude was everyone in the family. We didn't keep things from each other my parents with if they were suffering over something we all suffered. We all knew about it. It was like a massive, you can either call it a support group or dysfunctional, which is what they call it now. And it's your dysfunctional family. Well, I'll tell you why. We had no secrets. Everyone knew if my dad got a raise, if you know if my dad went to the track, by the way, and he lost and later on, you know, we'd all know about it. Just like we knew if he won, he would be, he would come home at 11 o'clock at night and he's waking us all up. You know, here you know, or we, how did we buy the second tenement? The second three tenement honest I'm gonna tell you honestly, my dad was excellent with numbers. And he actually wanted the tracking home and he had like $2,000 he had one that bought us the the triplex across the street. My dad started in the business early on, but he didn't hang with it. He didn't stay with it. He actually went off and he didn't take it as a business. He was, he thought he was blessed just to be able to do what he did. So that's where Tony, I believed what Dave del Dotto told me now this is important. I would just want to interject this, that night Dave del Dotto did two things for me because over time, and quite frankly, was Bruce Norris who said to me, why did you become successful one time? And then I had to go home and think about it because I had never thought about that question. And you're just living your life doing your stuff. You don't you know, you know, I don't hang around going, Oh, I wonder how I got successful. You know, it's just stupid. I'm just hard work is where I would land right. So I realized Dave del Dotto had two things he did, number one, the way he laid out his marketing in front of me right then and there, the guy from Massachusetts, all of those things lined up in a certain way. I believed it was possible. I believed real estate can make any idiot wealthy. I bought into it. Number two, I didn't only believe it was possible. I believed it was possible for me. Those two things are huge in any endeavor. You have to believe it's possible, especially if you've never done it. But you have to you have to believe it's possible for you because it may be possible. Oh yeah, it's possible for for crying ever. It's possible for Bruce Norris, it's possible for somebody for Joey. Oh, why? Because, oh, they were born here or because they've got a college education or because they've got this or that they got money they got. If you can convince someone of those two things, get out of their way, because they will roll over you. They will steamroll over you, which I just told you. I listened to half a tape and two tapes. And then and a couple of chapters in a book I went out convinced. I'm convinced there's no one that's going to stop me from doing this. And if you think I wasn't convinced, you know what it is to get an old Cuban guy who came from Cuba, who has worked at these all these menial jobs to sign on a loan for you, if you are his son, which by the way, he didn't have that great opinion of my level of intelligence at the time. I was supposed to be the dumbest guy in our family, which my dad would say to me every so often, you know, out of love, you know,'you're not too smart. Okay. Your brothers, they're gonna be okay. But you're not the brightest bulb in this family. You need to stay at the factory. Okay.'
Craig Evans:All right, everybody. Well, Tony, I really appreciate you being with us today. That's gonna do it for part one. We'll catch you next week.
Tony Alvarez:All right, thank you.
Narrator:For more information on hard money loans, trust deed investing, and upcoming events with The Norris group. Check out thenorrisgroup.com. For more information on passive investing through the DBL Capital Real Estate Investment Fund, please visit dblapital.com.
Joey Romero:The Norris group originates and services loans in California and Florida under California DRE license 01219911. Florida mortgage lender license 1577 and NMLS license 1623669. For more information on hard money lending go to thenorrisgroup.com and click the hard money tab.