Oralia Herrera

From humble beginnings to establishing herself as a top producer and prolific real estate investor, Oralia Herrera shares her unique approach when working with clients to not only help them find a place to call home; but also establish a path to generational wealth through investment opportunities.

Transcript

00:00:19:14 - 00:00:41:08
Gary Acosta
Well, it's great to see you. You know, you and I are dear friends, and you serve on the board of NAHREP. You probably know a little bit about this podcast that I'm doing because I'm on a campaign to find ways to close the wealth gap for Latinos in the United States. And as you know, I'm talking to a lot of people who have very different perspectives on how we do that.

00:00:41:16 - 00:00:59:21
Gary Acosta
But it's been really, really fascinating. I personally believe that it's going to require a combination of a handful of things. I think that we're going to need some government participation. This government has to commit to this and they're going to have to invest in this. I also think—and there are some people who disagree with that. There's people who think government just needs to get out of the way.

00:01:00:20 - 00:01:22:22
Gary Acosta
But I think most people agree that we're going to need a lot of capital. I think that if you look at the Latino community and the growth of the Latino community and the size of the community in the United States, you can say that it is the most underinvested segment of our population in the United States. I mean, the amount of investment capital we get for our businesses and other things is just embarrassing.

00:01:23:16 - 00:01:45:19
Gary Acosta
But the third thing we need is we need some gangsters. We need some people who are just kick ass that find a way to get up every morning to do what comes natural to them. And won't let anything get in their way. And I call those folks gangsters and I call this podcast Govies, Plutes and Gangsters. I'm not sure which one you are, but maybe a little bit of all three, which is cool as well.

00:01:45:20 - 00:01:46:20
Gary Acosta
So anyways, welcome.

00:01:47:07 - 00:01:52:02
Oralia Herrera
Thank you. Thank you, Gary. Thank you. It's my honor to be sharing this space with you.

00:01:52:08 - 00:02:10:18
Gary Acosta
Well, you shouldn't be so honored because I'm actually as impressed with you as anybody else that I've encountered. And I've encountered a lot of people, as you know, through NAHREP. And when I got to hear a little bit about your story, as you remember, and I called you up privately, I said, walk me through this whole process because it seems like a little bit too good to be true.

00:02:10:18 - 00:02:23:20
Gary Acosta
But that's really what we're here for. Before we jump into your business career and your own philosophy around wealth building. Tell us a little bit about yourself, your background, and basically how you got to where you are today.

00:02:24:03 - 00:02:33:12
Oralia Herrera
Well, I am one of six siblings, six children. My mother and my father migrated to the United States at the age of when I was eight.

00:02:34:15 - 00:02:34:23
Gary Acosta
From.

00:02:35:07 - 00:03:04:08
Oralia Herrera
From Purisima. It's a small town, a small village in the state of Durango, Mexico. Wow. And we came to, I always believe that life and God have put the right people in my life. And we ended up renting a apartment building from Tom Kastapolis who became my business partner, my employer first, and then my business partner, and to me, a father figure and a life in a lifelong.

00:03:04:09 - 00:03:05:08
Gary Acosta
Like a life coach.

00:03:05:08 - 00:03:06:15
Oralia Herrera
Or like a life long.

00:03:06:17 - 00:03:15:11
Gary Acosta
And you talk to me about him a couple of times. So. So just going back a little bit, you came across when you were eight. Yeah. What brought your family here?

00:03:17:04 - 00:03:20:10
Oralia Herrera
The search of a better future. Yes. Economics.

00:03:20:19 - 00:03:37:01
Gary Acosta
I tell that story a lot. You know, it's amazing to me that people don't get that about the Latino community. Right? I say, look, you know, Latino immigrants come to this country not because they don't like where they come from. They don't like the food or they don't like the music or they don't like the people.

00:03:37:01 - 00:03:51:08
Gary Acosta
Right. We love all of that, right? We try to hold on to that. We come to this country for one reason only, for economic opportunity to create a better life for ourselves and our family. So I don't know why politicians don't get that. You know, because if they understood that, I think they speak to us a little bit differently.

00:03:51:08 - 00:04:00:02
Gary Acosta
But anyways, I digress. Take us from there. So you got here. You went to school here. How did you stumble into the real estate business? Tell me. Tell me about that.

00:04:00:07 - 00:04:25:02
Oralia Herrera
So the true story is that Tom Kastapolis was the landlord. And one day he comes. And at this time, I'm the interpreter for the family, right? I'm the one with a little more English. I think by the time I don't, I'm not sure. I think it was like 15, 16 years old. 15 when when he comes in, he tells my mother.

00:04:25:22 - 00:04:32:23
Oralia Herrera
Asked if she wants to purchase the four unit apartment building at 35/4 Avenue in Franklin Park.

00:04:33:01 - 00:04:34:20
Gary Acosta
He came to her and said, Do you want to buy this?

00:04:34:20 - 00:04:37:10
Oralia Herrera
Do you want, I'm going to sell it. Right we’re his tenants.

00:04:37:10 - 00:04:38:10
Gary Acosta
I’m going to come to you first.

00:04:38:14 - 00:04:46:22
Oralia Herrera
And I'm going to come to you first. Maria, Maria, you've done a great job maintaining it. You the landscaping.

00:04:46:22 - 00:04:47:21
Gary Acosta
And he’s discussing this through you.

00:04:47:21 - 00:04:48:15
Oralia Herrera
Through me.

00:04:49:00 - 00:04:49:22
Gary Acosta
Because you could spreak English.

00:04:49:22 - 00:04:53:04
Oralia Herrera
Because I am the interpreter. Yes, Louis, my partner is.

00:04:53:04 - 00:04:54:12
Gary Acosta
I'm trying to picture this. Go ahead.

00:04:54:12 - 00:05:08:07
Oralia Herrera
And so, Louis, my partners decided they were going to sell this and go buy something bigger. So would you like to buy it? My mom asks how much and the price was 105,000.

00:05:09:03 - 00:05:09:12
Gary Acosta
Okay.

00:05:10:09 - 00:05:12:08
Oralia Herrera
My mother says, Tell them thank you, but no.

00:05:12:08 - 00:05:14:20
Gary Acosta
Think 100,000. Probably sounded like a.

00:05:15:05 - 00:05:38:15
Oralia Herrera
Hundred and 5000 sounded like a lot, but well, we learned after the fact was that the Lupe who purchased the property purchased the property with $7,000 and my mom had $20,000 in the bank. We were just not informed. Right. My mom could have became the owner of that property and the landlord of their four unit.

00:05:39:09 - 00:05:57:15
Oralia Herrera
Well, that woke me up. I think that, you know, there are some incidents in life that mark you and it's what you do with them. Yeah, I could have gotten discouraged, discouraged or whatever. And I said, Oh, no. And I saw what kind of car Tom Castapolis drove. You know, he had a Caddy coming along, he was very well dressed.

00:05:58:01 - 00:06:02:10
Oralia Herrera
So that intrigued me. And I said hey Tom, how do I...

00:06:02:19 - 00:06:06:11
Gary Acosta
Wait a minute, you're 15 years old and you're approaching him with this 15, 16.

00:06:06:11 - 00:06:28:06
Oralia Herrera
And I literally approached him and I said, How did how did you sell? How did you get this information? And he says, When you're 18, come and talk to me. So when I turned 18, I was going to Triton College at night and working during the day. I graduated from late in high school and I called him and I said, okay, I'm 18.

00:06:28:06 - 00:06:35:18
Oralia Herrera
And he says, Why don't you come and spend some hours at the office, see what it is? You help me with the reception, and that's what I did.

00:06:35:18 - 00:06:36:20
Gary Acosta
He offered you a job right away.

00:06:36:22 - 00:06:46:22
Oralia Herrera
Right away. Oh, my God. Right away. On my 21st birthday, I went to. Not only that, I registered for a real estate classes at 18. And then the first class, I found out that I had to be 21.

00:06:47:09 - 00:06:48:13
Gary Acosta
I didn't know that. So you had to be 21 to get the license.

00:06:48:13 - 00:07:00:08
Oralia Herrera
At the time you had to be 21 to get the license. So I registered for the real estate class and I found out that I had to be 21. And I my 21st birthday I licensed and started.

00:07:00:08 - 00:07:05:17
Gary Acosta
Were you working in the office prior to that? But not as a salesperson? Yeah.

00:07:05:23 - 00:07:06:07
Oralia Herrera
Okay.

00:07:06:12 - 00:07:14:20
Gary Acosta
Well, so you were around it, and so you were around it and you talked to, you know, the agents and you got to know the business through osmosis, I would imagine.

00:07:15:03 - 00:07:15:18
Oralia Herrera
Correct.

00:07:15:18 - 00:07:16:10
Gary Acosta
Wow.

00:07:16:23 - 00:07:34:20
Gary Acosta
That's an amazing experience. So, you know, again, I'm trying to put this all in context because, again, you have an amazing story and we're going to get to that in a second. But I totally believe that your story is one that can inspire a lot of people because you came from very humble beginnings.

00:07:34:20 - 00:07:35:06
Oralia Herrera
Correct.

00:07:35:09 - 00:07:51:21
Gary Acosta
People have the perception if you're going to build wealth, you have to have this certain pedigree. You got to go to the right colleges, you got to do, you know, have the right jobs and that this is for somebody else when in fact, everybody has the capacity to build wealth if they're willing to be disciplined and work hard.

00:07:52:04 - 00:07:56:23
Gary Acosta
So. All right. So get it to the point. You're an agent now. How did how did things start off for you?

00:07:57:02 - 00:08:03:16
Oralia Herrera
Let me take one step back. Okay. All right. I totally forgot to say that I became a homeowner at the age of 18.

00:08:04:09 - 00:08:05:10
Gary Acosta
If you bought a home at.

00:08:05:10 - 00:08:07:21
Oralia Herrera
18, at the age of 18, I bought my first.

00:08:07:21 - 00:08:12:18
Gary Acosta
Home. So you weren't eligible to have a real estate license, but nothing could stop you from buying.

00:08:13:14 - 00:08:23:16
Oralia Herrera
I was working, right. Thank God I was working. Needed two cosigners. And of course, I borrow the 5000 from my mother who I knew had money because it was a gift from

00:08:23:16 - 00:08:36:07
Gary Acosta
How many Latinos do we know that live in a very, very humble environment in an apartment building, an old building or whatnot, but have cash stashed away? Is that that's not uncommon, Right.

00:08:36:07 - 00:08:38:00
Oralia Herrera
That's not. It happens all the time.

00:08:38:00 - 00:08:38:12
Gary Acosta
All the time.

00:08:38:17 - 00:08:40:00
Oralia Herrera
All the time.

00:08:40:00 - 00:08:46:16
Gary Acosta
My grandfather passed away and we found $60,000 in his closet when he passed away. So.

00:08:46:16 - 00:08:55:20
Oralia Herrera
Yes, yes, yes. So that's my mother gifted me the $5,000 and she came to live with me in my home and my sister

00:08:55:20 - 00:08:56:03
Gary Acosta
And where was the home?

00:08:56:23 - 00:09:00:15
Oralia Herrera
The home was at five or 5/5 Avenue in Addison, Illinois.

00:09:01:04 - 00:09:02:10
Gary Acosta
You don't still own that home, do you?

00:09:02:18 - 00:09:05:21
Oralia Herrera
My brother does. My brother does.

00:09:05:21 - 00:09:06:12
Gary Acosta
I had a feeling.

00:09:06:18 - 00:09:07:20
Oralia Herrera
My brother owns that home.

00:09:07:20 - 00:09:13:13
Gary Acosta
Wow. Wow. Okay, so you bought a home. Now you're 21 years old. You get your license, and now what?

00:09:14:21 - 00:09:26:23
Oralia Herrera
So now the chase begins. I started working for T.K., and I followed everything he told me, Tom Kastapolis I call him T.K., but I followed everything he told me. He said, do this.

00:09:26:23 - 00:09:47:03
Gary Acosta
Well, what did he tell you? Because, look, I work with a lot of real estate brokers, right? And I know the industry very, very well. As you know, I've never been a real estate broker myself. I've been a licensee. My business really was in the mortgage side, but I don't really know any brokers who basically taught you.

00:09:47:15 - 00:09:58:04
Gary Acosta
Maybe there’s some, but taught you what I now know he taught you, which was not just go out there and knock on doors and sell homes. He had a bigger plan than that.

00:09:58:04 - 00:10:20:14
Oralia Herrera
He sure did. And to this day, he always says you cannot sell real estate and not put your hands on it, not touch it. You need to own it. Right. How can you teach others how to do it if you haven't done it yourself? Right. So walk the path. Walk the path, Walk the path, Do what it takes.

00:10:20:23 - 00:10:28:00
Gary Acosta
And and that means, I assume you have to own real estate yourself, correct? You can't just be a facilitator of transaction, correct?

00:10:28:00 - 00:10:51:03
Oralia Herrera
Not just a facilitator. You need to invest. And he made it. He made it a personal goal. We needed it. We would cut a Greek. What they call a Rosca de Reyes for a lot of us, it's called the Vasilopita and on the first office meeting of the year. He would bring out the Vasilopita which had some coins and he would always explain to us what it meant and how that got there, right.

00:10:51:03 - 00:11:09:21
Oralia Herrera
But we would have Vacilopita and he would spread it amongst the agents in the office and say, okay, in a piece of paper he would hand out with a pen, Everybody write me your goals. One of the goals for the goals you're going to make, but one of the goals, the fifth goal, it's already there written in.

00:11:10:03 - 00:11:10:14
Oralia Herrera
It's that.

00:11:10:14 - 00:11:11:13
Gary Acosta
You already had a written.

00:11:11:15 - 00:11:12:16
Oralia Herrera
Written on that piece of paper.

00:11:12:19 - 00:11:13:23
Gary Acosta
So he made one of the five.

00:11:13:23 - 00:11:15:12
Gary Acosta
one of the five goals. You are only

00:11:15:12 - 00:11:17:19
Gary Acosta
Allowed to pick four. But he was going to pick the fifth.

00:11:17:19 - 00:11:38:00
Oralia Herrera
The fifth was already on the paper. Or if it wasn't on the paper, we already knew what it was. You buy one investment property or you buy one real estate property every year. You either sell it, you sell a small one, you go higher, you do some transaction every year. And he said, and it doesn't have to be big.

00:11:38:00 - 00:11:39:20
Oralia Herrera
He says, You can go anywhere you want.

00:11:39:20 - 00:11:47:12
Gary Acosta
So the interesting thing and again, I don't want to canonize T.K. as you call him, you know what that means, right? Make him a saint,

00:11:47:14 - 00:11:47:18
Oralia Herrera
because I’m sure he’s a person,

00:11:48:18 - 00:11:58:11
Gary Acosta
Right. But I mean, that didn't benefit him in any direct way. And this is my criticism sometimes on real estate brokers and the way they conduct business.

00:11:58:11 - 00:11:58:21
Oralia Herrera
Right.

00:11:58:21 - 00:12:06:09
Gary Acosta
They want all their agents out there selling because that's what benefits them. They get a piece of that commission, they get ancillary service or whatever the case may be.

00:12:06:12 - 00:12:15:23
Gary Acosta
You can understand why they push you to sell more. But this didn't benefit him. It just benefited you. Correct. And this is where he started your journey and your goals?

00:12:16:02 - 00:12:34:21
Oralia Herrera
My journey, my goals and many of the Latino journey and goals. He brought the Latino community to Addison, Illinois. There were no Latinos in there. I was, I would say, 5% of the Latino that first came into this community, which was a very nice community with good school district. And he brought me there. Wow. So he his wife Stella Kastapolis

00:12:34:21 - 00:12:39:14
Oralia Herrera
sold me the home. He brought them, he facilitated, he believed

00:12:39:14 - 00:12:39:22
Gary Acosta
Maybe he is a saint.

00:12:39:22 - 00:12:47:22
Oralia Herrera
We're not going to canonize No, no, I've had plenty of struggles with my thinking when I say he's my father figure. He's my father.

00:12:48:19 - 00:12:49:12
Gary Acosta
The good and the bad.

00:12:49:12 - 00:13:02:13
Oralia Herrera
The good and the bad, you know. But I think that what he does is he taught people. He taught people even how to I didn't even know how to write a check. So he taught and.

00:13:02:13 - 00:13:03:05
Gary Acosta
He would take the time.

00:13:04:00 - 00:13:20:20
Oralia Herrera
To train you right when you were a client. So that that being said, I think that that's where my career and my investments were and everybody that that was around him did well. Everybody all right. It was not just me.

00:13:20:22 - 00:13:44:22
Gary Acosta
So I'm going to I'm going to fast forward right now and then we're going to go back. And because I really want people to understand this journey and how this journey not only ended with you, but how you've passed this on to others. That's really what's critical for here. But I'm just going to ask you a question and you don't have to answer it if you're not comfortable answering it, because I know some people are sensitive about this, but where are you now in terms of your real estate ownership?

00:13:46:08 - 00:13:54:08
Oralia Herrera
Well, you know, they say that we have to know exactly how many doors we have. And I am not that good at keeping track.

00:13:54:21 - 00:14:03:04
Gary Acosta
So, you know, so I know exactly how many doors I have. Right. It's not that many. Right. So you have so many that you sometimes lose track of how many?

00:14:03:04 - 00:14:26:18
Oralia Herrera
Well, it's not it's not that we have so many, but I can honestly say that we have enough doors out there to where sometimes I last night I was counting because I thought there might be a question we're going to get we were going to get asked. And it depends on whether we're looking at real estate, not only in the United States, but what I've acquired now in Mexico, too, because I've become an investor there.

00:14:26:19 - 00:14:28:21
Oralia Herrera
myself, And in different states.

00:14:28:21 - 00:14:30:08
Gary Acosta
Do you have dual citizenship?

00:14:30:17 - 00:14:32:10
Oralia Herrera
I now have dual citizenship.

00:14:32:15 - 00:14:35:20
Gary Acosta
Interesting. Okay. Yes. So you can purchase property there anywhere correct?

00:14:35:22 - 00:14:53:19
Oralia Herrera
Correct. But I can say that I'm financially independent. I we are fortunate to say today that we celebrate almost being debt free. We're 99.9% mortgage free. And and that to me.

00:14:53:19 - 00:14:56:06
Gary Acosta
But come on, tell us how many doors you have.

00:14:56:15 - 00:15:15:14
Oralia Herrera
Okay. So I so I can say that we had 68 residential doors and some commercial properties, some land and business partner and beachfront destination in Mazatlan, Mexico.

00:15:15:14 - 00:15:18:03
Gary Acosta
Nice. I was there when I was in college. That was the last time.

00:15:18:03 - 00:15:32:05
Oralia Herrera
Oh, you got to come in. You got to come and visit my project so that you can tell me if you think it's, if you're seeing what I'm seeing. But that's we've consolidated it, we've sold some stuff and decided to build equity.

00:15:32:05 - 00:15:43:13
Gary Acosta
That's when so you, you sold some of your assets because the market has been strong, which is what you're supposed to sell, which some people I want to talk about that a little bit. You sold some assets and you paid off debt with them.

00:15:43:13 - 00:15:44:09
Oralia Herrera
And I paid off, we did.

00:15:44:12 - 00:15:46:04
Gary Acosta
You buy yourself any bling?

00:15:47:05 - 00:16:14:04
Oralia Herrera
You know what? I didn't buy myself any bling. You know, the one thing that T.K. taught us is that we live. You know, I have my second coach mentor person to look up to, which is right by me to live below my means. And I think that that's the way we are. I can honestly say that I am simple.

00:16:14:07 - 00:16:14:23
Oralia Herrera
Yeah, you know.

00:16:15:19 - 00:16:16:22
Gary Acosta
But you're free.

00:16:17:03 - 00:16:17:21
Oralia Herrera
But I'm free.

00:16:18:03 - 00:16:19:07
Gary Acosta
Which is incredible.

00:16:19:07 - 00:16:19:18
Oralia Herrera
But I'm free.

00:16:19:18 - 00:16:26:06
Gary Acosta
You're not bound by anything. You don't owe anybody anything. You can do whatever you want with your life. Yes.

00:16:26:08 - 00:16:48:01
Oralia Herrera
And don't get me wrong, I splurge from time to time, but I know that that ends up that at the first of the month, the same capital will be coming in from rents. So even if I have one month where I say, okay, I'm going to splurge, right, I'm going to take that trip with the family, 22 of us are going to go to Europe and we're going to do we're going to throw a party for my mother.

00:16:48:01 - 00:16:57:00
Oralia Herrera
Whatever it is that you want to do in life, you can do it and know that on the first of the month, the residual income will come in.

00:16:57:01 - 00:17:16:10
Gary Acosta
And even beyond that, it's not just I mean, the freedom and I call it, you know, there's all kidding aside that I call it being in a position to live the life that you were destined to live. Right. I really feel strongly about that. But also, we don't know what's coming around the corner. We don't know what emergency or what family member is going to have an unexpected need.

00:17:16:10 - 00:17:29:00
Gary Acosta
Right. So do be in a position to be able to take care of your family, help others and make sure that no matter what is coming through the next door, you're going to be ready for it. That is that gives you a peace of mind. That is extraordinary.

00:17:29:00 - 00:17:57:09
Oralia Herrera
Yes. I was just telling Armando that. I said, Armando. Yes. I said, you know what? I am blessed to have the career that I chose. I've had some emergencies in the family. I've had to take some time off. My mother just fell and broke her arm and dislocated. And yes, she's doing well now. She had surgery, but I took three weeks completely off to attend.

00:17:57:11 - 00:17:58:00
Gary Acosta
To take care of.

00:17:58:01 - 00:18:17:14
Oralia Herrera
Mom, to take care of my mom. That is something that I wanted to do. And I had nobody to answer to you know, my clients, you build a good system and they understand you. My clients are my family, my friends. So they if anything, I tell them this is what's happening to me. I'm going to have somebody in the office attend to you.

00:18:17:17 - 00:18:29:22
Oralia Herrera
And a lot of them said, No, I'll wait around until you're back or Yes, it's fine. I'll have somebody else. But that's the beauty of building the relationships. I see them with your clients too.

00:18:30:02 - 00:18:50:01
Gary Acosta
Yeah. So I won't press you any further. Let's just say that you have dozens of doors for sure, debt free, and it provides you with enough income to be able to live the life that you were destined to live. Yes. So you're there. Yes. And you're still building, I'm sure. But you're there.

00:18:50:06 - 00:18:51:12
Oralia Herrera
Yes, I can say.

00:18:51:12 - 00:19:07:03
Gary Acosta
There you are, a young woman. I mean, you are there in time to be able to enjoy it, to be able to take advantage of it. You're not I'm not sitting across a 90 year old person. I'm sitting across a person that's got a lot of life left to her, which is incredible. All right. I'm going to take you back a little bit.

00:19:07:03 - 00:19:29:21
Gary Acosta
Right. So so T.K. required you as an agent to make at least one real estate investment or transaction per year. Yes. And you started this when you were 21 years old? Correct. Okay. So now let's fast forward. You're a principal in the real estate company. Now, you're no longer just an agent.

00:19:29:23 - 00:19:33:15
Oralia Herrera
No, no, I own it now. T.K. retired, and I own it alone.

00:19:33:17 - 00:19:38:02
Gary Acosta
So you took over for him? Yes. Incredible. And you have agents now?

00:19:38:07 - 00:19:38:18
Oralia Herrera
Yes.

00:19:38:22 - 00:19:39:19
Gary Acosta
How many agents do you have?

00:19:40:06 - 00:19:40:20
Oralia Herrera
We have 24.

00:19:40:20 - 00:19:46:13
Gary Acosta
24 agents. And have you passed this process on to them?

00:19:47:03 - 00:20:13:13
Oralia Herrera
Yes. Yes. Not only have we passed it, I say that it's evolved. It's. Yes, T.K.'s legacy continues and I and we just honored him in Christmas for what he's given not only us, but the community. And I say the one thing that he taught us has to be taught not only amongst us in the conference table, but with the general public.

00:20:13:13 - 00:20:20:22
Oralia Herrera
Right. Because that's too good of a secret to be kept. I think we have to pay it forward in what he taught us. We have to teach our clients that.

00:20:20:23 - 00:20:40:12
Gary Acosta
So let's go to not only do you share this with your agents, not only do you, I imagine, encourage or require them to invest in real estate, you also share these philosophies with your clients. Yes. So now I want to get into the specifics a little bit. Right. So I've heard you tell us that he requires you to buy one investment property.

00:20:40:21 - 00:20:49:13
Gary Acosta
Do you have some philosophy around your investments? Is there some is it just buy, buy, buy, or is there some some method to this?

00:20:49:19 - 00:21:06:03
Oralia Herrera
There is a method. Okay. So every time we wanted to buy something, we needed to make sure that it was sustainable, right? We needed to sit down, do the numbers, and if the property needed to be carried for them, because let's face it, at the beginning where you're growing, you don't have the capital to put the 30% to 40%.

00:21:06:03 - 00:21:09:22
Oralia Herrera
So you're starting with as long as it breaks even, he said.

00:21:09:22 - 00:21:12:04
Gary Acosta
So you got to find a property that fits.

00:21:12:07 - 00:21:12:20
Oralia Herrera
The fit.

00:21:12:20 - 00:21:16:21
Gary Acosta
And you can't start off with a property that's draining money, money from you on a monthly basis.

00:21:16:23 - 00:21:20:22
Oralia Herrera
Correct? It's got to be at least self-sufficient. You know, you might how.

00:21:20:22 - 00:21:22:16
Gary Acosta
Do you deal with the maintenance and stuff like that?

00:21:22:16 - 00:21:25:10
Oralia Herrera
So you might have to feed demands right, in a lot of the stuff.

00:21:25:20 - 00:21:26:23
Gary Acosta
What does that mean, Feed demands?

00:21:27:06 - 00:21:29:15
Oralia Herrera
You know, you need to carry that.

00:21:29:15 - 00:21:30:00
Gary Acosta
You might have to do it yourself.

00:21:30:00 - 00:21:36:16
Oralia Herrera
Do it yourself in the beginning. Sometimes at the beginning. Sometimes you have to do it yourself. You know, I tell, I tell me.

00:21:36:16 - 00:21:50:08
Gary Acosta
I'm surprised my wife hasn't left me already because I can't fix anything in the house. Well, poor Omar, but poor Omar, I call him or he's living in Texas now. It's like when are you going to be in San Diego because this is broken in the house. That's rude, man. I mean, I don't. I don't know, but.

00:21:50:17 - 00:22:10:17
Oralia Herrera
I'm going to tell you a story. That's a true story. When I started buying the multi-unit, I had 3010 Bright. It was a four unit apartment building. And that to me is emotional because I went and bought the first floor unit in Franklin Park in the area where not the building where I lived that, but in the same region.

00:22:10:18 - 00:22:16:14
Oralia Herrera
But I had to go and at the beginning we would go and paint and remove stuff. So yes.

00:22:16:15 - 00:22:17:21
Gary Acosta
So this isn't all glamorous.

00:22:17:21 - 00:22:18:13
Oralia Herrera
I'm not I'm not.

00:22:18:13 - 00:22:19:06
Gary Acosta
This is an outline.

00:22:19:07 - 00:22:27:01
Oralia Herrera
No, no. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that it's 100% glamor. No, sometimes you have to get roll up your sleeves and get involved in this.

00:22:27:01 - 00:22:34:02
Gary Acosta
And have you always used your own money or do you sometimes have partners or do you I mean, how do you what's your philosophy around that?

00:22:35:02 - 00:22:43:14
Oralia Herrera
At the beginning, we used our own money for the bigger things in life, like if you're looking for, let's say, a $20 million shopping center, a 10 million.

00:22:43:20 - 00:22:47:00
Gary Acosta
Wait a minute, you bought purchased $20 million shopping centers.

00:22:47:09 - 00:22:50:14
Oralia Herrera
Let me tell you how how when T.K. puts partnerships together.

00:22:50:15 - 00:22:51:00
Gary Acosta
Okay?

00:22:51:02 - 00:22:52:01
Oralia Herrera
And he would say.

00:22:53:01 - 00:22:53:17
Gary Acosta
Who wants in.

00:22:53:22 - 00:23:13:03
Oralia Herrera
Who wants in? And he would say, I remember specifically the first time he invited me to buy a big one. I came into the door to the office and he said, Kid, he used to call me kid. He said, Kid, sit down there. Said this shopping center, and there's I need five of us. I have four. Do you want to be the fifth?

00:23:13:18 - 00:23:29:18
Oralia Herrera
And he told me what the numbers were. And I said, No, I'm not for sure. And he said to me, I said, I'm not ready. He says, you are, you are financially ready. You're just not mentally ready. You have to be ready there, too.

00:23:30:15 - 00:23:34:21
Gary Acosta
So so you there's no no getting around the fact that there is some risk involved.

00:23:34:23 - 00:23:35:10
Oralia Herrera
Yes.

00:23:35:10 - 00:23:47:07
Gary Acosta
And you have to find a way to manage that risk because you don't want to be, you know, irresponsible in the way you manage that risk. But it does take you out of your comfort zone a little bit. You got to be willing to do that.

00:23:47:12 - 00:23:47:23
Oralia Herrera
Yes.

00:23:48:06 - 00:23:49:01
Gary Acosta
That's what he meant.

00:23:49:05 - 00:23:57:15
Oralia Herrera
That's what he meant. And then you have to sometimes. Small sacrifices, right? That's what I call it. I realize that sometimes making small sacrifices.

00:23:57:22 - 00:23:59:13
Gary Acosta
I may not be able to go on vacation this summer.

00:23:59:13 - 00:24:03:22
Oralia Herrera
Yeah, but to get to get a big win and then celebrate your big wins. Right?

00:24:04:05 - 00:24:05:11
Gary Acosta
Because how do you celebrate?

00:24:06:04 - 00:24:17:23
Oralia Herrera
Okay, The day that I paid off my whole I said, I'm living in a 5000 square foot home, very comfortable. And I said, it's paid for. And then I said, I want a big vacation.

00:24:18:01 - 00:24:18:13
Gary Acosta
Okay.

00:24:20:11 - 00:24:37:18
Oralia Herrera
So and this is what you need to tell the clients to you. You're making small sacrifices. Maybe you're not going to be able to eat out, go out to eat three times a week like you're used to. Maybe we're going to cut that down to one time. But trust me, there will be good wins. There'll be time to celebrate your smile.

00:24:37:20 - 00:24:55:01
Gary Acosta
And let me tell you, I mean, you kind of just sort of because I'm trying to get this into a sort of a formula, which maybe not be fair and maybe it's not possible. But is this a 20 year plan? How do you how do you express this to your clients and your agents? Basically, is it just a one off thing?

00:24:55:01 - 00:25:04:21
Gary Acosta
Or you say, look, you got to be prepared to to this process is going to take you 20 years or it going to take you 30 years, but one at the end of the rainbow. Here's where you're going to be.

00:25:05:01 - 00:25:13:04
Oralia Herrera
The way I call it is a custom made so contractual to many of them because no one is the same. Okay. Right. I cannot expect.

00:25:13:19 - 00:25:15:10
Gary Acosta
The market is dynamic.

00:25:16:04 - 00:25:38:04
Oralia Herrera
It’s dynamic and people are dynamic, right? We do not know what your household is not does not look like mine. So I cannot expect to somebody who works at an industry that makes $14 an hour to make the same kind of investment that I'm expecting somebody that's a CEO of Bank of America. Right. To sell it, we have to make adjustments.

00:25:38:10 - 00:25:44:07
Oralia Herrera
So we I tailor every single business plan together with my client.

00:25:44:17 - 00:25:45:21
Gary Acosta
Do you sit down with them? You have a plan?

00:25:45:21 - 00:25:46:23
Oralia Herrera
Yes, I have a plan.

00:25:47:01 - 00:25:54:05
Gary Acosta
So let's in 3 minutes do a plan for me. I'm a client. I'm buying my first house. What are you going to tell me?

00:25:54:10 - 00:26:16:18
Oralia Herrera
Okay, so I am going to interview you first to see how much money you spend a month, how much money you make. I'm going to go in. I say, I'm going to ask you, are you okay with me getting very intimate with you? Do you allow me to ask you some questions that might be uncomfortable? The only reason why I'm asking is because I want to make your goals and your business plan of where you are today.

00:26:16:20 - 00:26:18:03
Oralia Herrera
Where you going to be in ten years?

00:26:18:14 - 00:26:20:06
Gary Acosta
I just want to buy this house, right?

00:26:20:10 - 00:26:37:18
Oralia Herrera
If you give me. If you give me about 20 minutes, I'll explain to you. And you, by all means. You don't have to listen to what I'm saying. I just feel that I owe to you to explain to you. Is this presentation. Are you okay with giving the presentation? Yes. So I'll show you this presentation, and then I'll ask you.

00:26:38:09 - 00:26:43:21
Oralia Herrera
Are you okay? And pretend, you know me lifelong right? You are my close friend. I'm your aunt.

00:26:43:21 - 00:26:45:20
Gary Acosta
I'll tell you whatever you want to know.

00:26:46:01 - 00:27:02:20
Oralia Herrera
Perfect. And I give you the same permission. You can ask me anything you want. All right. How about myself? Okay, well, now that we have this connection, are you okay with me asking? Okay. How much? How many times do you go out a week?

00:27:02:20 - 00:27:03:09
Gary Acosta
Once a week.

00:27:03:15 - 00:27:08:22
Oralia Herrera
Okay. That's good. You're good. How many vacations do you take a year.

00:27:09:22 - 00:27:11:15
Gary Acosta
One, if I'm lucky.

00:27:11:15 - 00:27:19:20
Oralia Herrera
Okay. It's really good how much income you take home. Let's sit. Let's see. Monthly. What is your monthly income?

00:27:19:21 - 00:27:21:15
Gary Acosta
I net $3500 a month.

00:27:22:02 - 00:27:27:10
Oralia Herrera
Perfect. How much debt do you have? How many credit cards? How many trips to the stores?

00:27:27:11 - 00:27:33:04
Gary Acosta
Maybe a car payment and, you know, other just expenses. But I try not to carry a lot of credit card debt.

00:27:33:11 - 00:27:36:07
Oralia Herrera
Awesome. So. And how much rent do you pay?

00:27:36:23 - 00:27:39:15
Gary Acosta
I pay a lot. I pay half of my income to rent right now.

00:27:39:19 - 00:27:53:13
Oralia Herrera
Okay. If I was able to get you a property that costs you the same amount or a little more, let's say two or $300 more than your monthly rent, would you be okay?

00:27:53:13 - 00:27:54:10
Gary Acosta
But I'd get to own.

00:27:54:19 - 00:27:55:11
Oralia Herrera
But you get to own.

00:27:55:11 - 00:27:56:12
Gary Acosta
Yeah, absolutely.

00:27:57:05 - 00:28:10:09
Oralia Herrera
So I understand that numbers are tight, right? Right now. I may have to sacrifice a couple of short term sacrifices for you to get you into this particular home. Are you okay? Willing to make some short term sacrifice?

00:28:10:09 - 00:28:12:22
Gary Acosta
I mean, I suppose. Yeah. That's going to be part of the deal.

00:28:13:16 - 00:28:15:02
Oralia Herrera
We'll celebrate when we do.

00:28:15:06 - 00:28:16:01
Gary Acosta
Okay. Okay.

00:28:16:18 - 00:28:19:13
Oralia Herrera
So then I go and I show them a property.

00:28:19:13 - 00:28:19:21
Gary Acosta
Okay?

00:28:20:06 - 00:28:39:03
Oralia Herrera
A property that fits right then and there. I'll go in my computer. I'll go into the project manager. Look at this house. You are in a two bedroom home. You're paying 1500 a month. I'm going to get you into there. This home, that's two bedrooms. It's exactly where you're living a little better. And you're going to pay $300 a month.

00:28:39:19 - 00:28:53:03
Oralia Herrera
But what I want you to before you tell me yes or no, and we're going to look at a lot of them because we're going to fit the one that fits your needs. This is just an example, but I want you to do a math with me. Are you willing to do some math with me? Yes. Okay.

00:28:53:17 - 00:28:54:20
Gary Acosta
I was good at math in school.

00:28:55:00 - 00:28:58:16
Oralia Herrera
Excellent. How many? So you pay 1500 dollars a month?

00:28:58:22 - 00:28:59:05
Gary Acosta
Yeah.

00:28:59:15 - 00:29:00:07
Oralia Herrera
Times 12?

00:29:00:19 - 00:29:01:01
Gary Acosta
Yeah.

00:29:02:01 - 00:29:03:09
Oralia Herrera
How. How long have you been there?

00:29:04:03 - 00:29:04:16
Gary Acosta
Two years.

00:29:04:20 - 00:29:08:23
Oralia Herrera
Okay. All right. So that's how much money in two years.

00:29:09:19 - 00:29:11:20
Gary Acosta
So that's $36,000.

00:29:11:20 - 00:29:15:07
Oralia Herrera
$36,000. Excellent. If you leave today

00:29:15:07 - 00:29:17:09
Gary Acosta
Good math.

00:29:17:09 - 00:29:21:12
Oralia Herrera
If you leave today, how much of those $36,000 are you taking with.

00:29:22:02 - 00:29:23:11
Gary Acosta
None? Okay.

00:29:25:09 - 00:29:40:11
Oralia Herrera
What if you were a homeowner and you stayed three years because you won't be staying two years? My term with my planning with you is that I don't wish to sell you one property. I wish to build a relationship with you. And together we are going to grow together.

00:29:40:13 - 00:29:48:12
Gary Acosta
So you want me to be a real estate investor? I've never thought about that. Well, and I want to buy a home. But now you're telling me about something bigger?

00:29:48:12 - 00:30:05:02
Oralia Herrera
Yes. What if we buy this home and in three years from now, you'll come and visit me in there and I say, Let's revisit whether we want to sell this house or where we want to rent it and buy you a new one. What if we have the ability to buy a two unit apartment building? What if we buy a condo wherever it is?

00:30:05:16 - 00:30:21:06
Oralia Herrera
All I'm telling you is there's a way for me to skip a process, skip one step. And if I can convince you to buy a four unit instead of a single family house living it for one year, I might be able to get you into your dream home even quicker.

00:30:21:11 - 00:30:33:08
Gary Acosta
Wow. So you're going to help me with this? Yes. And you're going to show me the way and I'm going to come back to you. So so let's let's move forward of this transaction. But I'm gonna hold you to this. I'm going to come back and see you in two years.

00:30:33:22 - 00:30:35:15
Oralia Herrera
We're going to hold each other to it. Oh.

00:30:37:03 - 00:30:41:05
Gary Acosta
All right. So just to cut for a second, do you still do this?

00:30:41:11 - 00:30:42:04
Oralia Herrera
I still do.

00:30:42:04 - 00:30:50:16
Gary Acosta
Okay, so there's a philosophy amongst real estate agents that, you know, once at a certain point, you have to stop dealing with buyers and you just just deal with sellers.

00:30:50:23 - 00:31:08:12
Oralia Herrera
To me, I get my high. Some people ask me, Why don't you retire? Because my adrenaline goes up when I see the Lopez buying their Tesla, ordering their Mercedes being debt free, having a second home in Florida that they can enjoy.

00:31:08:15 - 00:31:30:12
Gary Acosta
So this is where I want to cut to the chase here. How many give me an estimate. Now, you don't know how many doors you have, apparently, because you know you have so many. But just teasing. But but I want to have a sense of how many agents have you mentored on this process and how many clients have you mentored to the point to where they're actually, if not where you are, you know, certainly on their journey to getting there?

00:31:30:22 - 00:31:34:10
Oralia Herrera
Well, I have one that's better than where I'm at, really. It's a client.

00:31:34:10 - 00:31:35:00
Gary Acosta
Wow.

00:31:35:00 - 00:31:35:21
Oralia Herrera
My pride and joy.

00:31:36:02 - 00:31:36:14
Gary Acosta
Wow.

00:31:36:18 - 00:31:37:05
Oralia Herrera
Yes.

00:31:37:22 - 00:31:40:10
Gary Acosta
Latina. Latina at the way.

00:31:40:11 - 00:31:40:22
Oralia Herrera
Yes.

00:31:41:04 - 00:31:41:21
Gary Acosta
That's amazing.

00:31:41:21 - 00:31:43:21
Oralia Herrera
It's Pascual and Sandra Gonzalez.

00:31:43:21 - 00:31:46:15
Gary Acosta
Wow. Yes. So you outed them right here in this podcast?

00:31:46:15 - 00:31:49:22
Oralia Herrera
Yes. I honor that. I love them and I look up to it.

00:31:50:16 - 00:31:53:07
Gary Acosta
That's incredible. So how many how many people have you touched?

00:31:53:09 - 00:32:03:12
Oralia Herrera
I honestly say that my database is only 450 names in it and they’re repeat business. So I can say that 450 families.

00:32:03:23 - 00:32:07:11
Gary Acosta
450 families have been impacted by this plus agents, right?

00:32:07:13 - 00:32:17:01
Oralia Herrera
Oh, yes. The agents. Too many agents, some of my agents that are no longer with me still call me and asked me to check the property out and coach them.

00:32:17:06 - 00:32:40:22
Gary Acosta
So relationships are critical to you. You run your business that way. Yes. You know, I talk to different ages that have, you know, thousands of people in their database, but they couldn't possibly know them. My guess is that, you know, those 450 people in your database very well. You obviously know your agents really well. You probably know a lot about their finances, a lot about their personal business and their ambitions and their families.

00:32:41:14 - 00:33:10:22
Gary Acosta
So, I mean, that's just extraordinary. And you're one person and you've already touched several hundred, I'm going to assume more than 500 families have been impacted by this. And, you know, it started with T.K. Let's give him, you know, the proper recognition for that. But you've pushed it forward. And I imagine that there are other people, other agents, if not other family members who are doing the same thing you're doing now and also impacting other people.

00:33:10:22 - 00:33:12:00
Gary Acosta
Is that fair to say?

00:33:12:00 - 00:33:16:05
Oralia Herrera
Very fair to say, if you work ethic, you believe in this practice.

00:33:16:16 - 00:33:37:03
Gary Acosta
So real estate and this is where the essence of this conversation right. Real estate is still, in your view, the primary wealth building vehicle for most families. Obviously, there's many others investing in the stock market and, you know, buying businesses and flipping businesses and all this kind of stuff. Do you flip properties, by the way?

00:33:37:19 - 00:33:38:12
Oralia Herrera
Very little.

00:33:38:12 - 00:33:41:02
Gary Acosta
Very little. So you buy and hold generally.

00:33:41:07 - 00:33:42:00
Oralia Herrera
We buy and hold.

00:33:42:01 - 00:34:08:18
Gary Acosta
You buy and hold. Okay. So so I just find that fascinating and it's incredible. And I think about how what you're doing can impact impact the Latino community nationwide. If more people adopted your principles, if more people ran their business the way you ran their business, closing that wealth gap in America for Latinos is very feasible. It won't happen overnight.

00:34:09:04 - 00:34:32:17
Gary Acosta
Which is another thing that I love to talk about, right? Because I there's a quote from Warren Buffett that I always loved, which is, you know, he has a very simple investment strategy. It's kind of like yours. Only he does it in stocks. And he's built one of the biggest fortunes the world has ever seen. And somebody asked him, well, if your investment strategy is so simple, why doesn't everybody do it?

00:34:33:01 - 00:34:34:01
Gary Acosta
You know what his answer was?

00:34:34:13 - 00:34:34:20
Oralia Herrera
No.

00:34:35:08 - 00:34:53:19
Gary Acosta
His answer was because nobody wants to get rich slow. Right. And I think that's also applicable to your. You mean you've been very patient. You recognize that this isn't going to happen overnight. You're not going to be rich in a year. You're not going to be rich in two years. I imagine you don't tell your clients that this is going to get you rich in two years or five years or anything like that.

00:34:54:05 - 00:35:14:22
Gary Acosta
This is a this is a journey and this is a process. And it is going to take time. But really, there's something special about real estate, and I think there's something special about real estate as it pertains to the Latino community. Yes, Latino community, they they understand it. It's tangible. It has utility. It's not investing in a piece of paper is not something that they can't touch or understand.

00:35:15:16 - 00:35:42:09
Gary Acosta
It is something very, very tangible and relatable. And I think that also the components that we know about real estate is that you can leverage it. Like you said, your mom could have purchased that first piece of property with, $5,000, $10,000, $10,000 down. Right. To buy a $110,000 property for unit property. You know, people don't understand how that can be leveraged.

00:35:42:09 - 00:35:55:14
Gary Acosta
And you do it intelligently, obviously. And there's there's markets where it's hard. Right? We all went through it in 2008 and 2012. How did your philosophy survive the recession? The Great Recession is going to be the last question I ask you.

00:35:56:07 - 00:35:59:04
Oralia Herrera
So my philosophy, well, it shook it right.

00:35:59:04 - 00:36:01:15
Gary Acosta
We all got shook.

00:36:01:15 - 00:36:33:23
Oralia Herrera
And I'm the first one to say that it taught me that leveraging wasn't the best all the time. So baby steps, that's why we correct some things. You know, I had purchased a strip shopping center and it was capping at ten, and within a year, year and a half, it was 60% vacant. Right. Wow. So if we weren't prepared for this, if I didn't have liquidity if I didn't have other assets that were paid for, I wouldn't have been able to sustain that property.

00:36:34:02 - 00:36:36:16
Oralia Herrera
Right. That property is now very profitable.

00:36:37:00 - 00:36:37:15
Gary Acosta
So you kept it?

00:36:37:21 - 00:36:38:08
Oralia Herrera
I kept.

00:36:38:08 - 00:36:38:21
Gary Acosta
Wow.

00:36:38:21 - 00:36:40:14
Oralia Herrera
Yes, we survived. We survived.

00:36:40:14 - 00:37:19:05
Gary Acosta
Yeah. That's one of the things that I wrote about in a blog a couple weeks ago, and that is these recessions tend to make savvy people, wealthy people, savvy people richer and make less savvy people and less affluent people poorer. And the reason why is because first of all, they're generally not prepared people who are not savvy. Second of all, when there are difficult times, if they happen to have one asset, one piece of property, one many times they have to sell that property at the worst time when the market is terrible to survive and then somebody else is going to buy that property, who is savvy, who does have the means.

00:37:19:11 - 00:37:43:05
Gary Acosta
And when that property bounces back in value, they're going to reap the rewards while the person who had to sell that property loses out on all those gains. And that cycle happens over and over again. So I thank you for your time. This has been inspiring, enlightening, I hope it's been inspiring, enlightening to our listeners. I think there's a lot to learn.

00:37:43:10 - 00:37:57:19
Gary Acosta
I'm going to get the chance to talk to a lot of people. I'm going to talk to billionaires. I'm going to talk to people who run hedge funds and stuff like that. But the fact is, is that more people are going to benefit from this conversation right here than all the conversations I'm going to have with those individuals. So thank you, my friend.

00:37:57:19 - 00:37:59:10
Oralia Herrera
Thank you. Thank you.