Ed Mathews

So the big question is this how are real estate investors who don't have a ton of free time, don't have access to off-market deals and didn't start life on third base, how do we grow a real estate business conservatively to support our families, finally leave the corporate rat race and build a legacy? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. I'm Ed Matthews and this is Real Estate Underground. This is the Real Estate Underground Podcast, show number 80. Greetings and salutations, real estate undergrouners. It's Ed Matthews, again with the Real Estate Underground Podcast. Thank you so much for joining us today. So today is I'm interviewing a gentleman who comes from Seattle, one of my favorite places in the entire world. I used to work there and I spent a lot of time there, and I didn't buy real estate there, although I'm sure this gentleman is going to try and convince me that I should. So, lucas Pinto from Lucas Pinto Real Estate Group, thank you so much for joining us today. It's great to see you, my friend, and I'm looking forward to this conversation.

Luke Pinto

Ed thanks for having me on. It's a pleasure to be here. I hope I could provide some value to your listeners in the next few minutes we have together.

Ed Mathews

Even the fact that you're a very accomplished broker and a very accomplished investor. I'm sure there'll be a couple of gold mugs dropped here and there, so all good, hey. So for those of us out there that aren't familiar with you or your business, why don't you tell us your story and how'd you get here?

Luke Pinto

Yeah, so I'm going to start back. I think it's important to get some context as to how I was raised right. I think that matters a lot to where I the decisions I made and where I ended up today. So my parents migrated here from Brazil when I was a kid, so I moved to the States when I was about six or seven and, you know, growing up I grew up in Naples, florida, which is a very wealthy city, and I grew up with wealth surrounding me, but my parents didn't have any.

Luke Pinto

So from a young age, I wanted to solve that money problem. I wanted to crack that code. So I went down the traditional route of thinking, you know, going to school, getting ready for college, thinking that was the solution. And I started exploring colleges and I started realizing that professors and people in college didn't have much wealth. So instead of going to college, I stayed.

Luke Pinto

I finished high school, I found a few jobs and at 21 years old I at 19,. I moved to Seattle, relocated to Seattle and then, at 21, I found I emailed the top 10 brokers in Washington state telling them I would work for them for free and none of them responded to me except for one. So the one that responded yeah, that's all I needed. So the one that responded to me is who I went to work for and that's kind of how I started in the world of real estate, and the real estate has completely changed my life and in my family's life and I love this, this industry and this asset class, and now I think my mission is to try to spread the word, like yourself, and get as many people involved some way somehow.

Ed Mathews

So yeah, right on, man, that's awesome. So you know, obviously you're a, you're a smart and accomplished guy and real estate's a pretty unique application, right? So why real estate as opposed to something else? You know tech, startup or you know whatever else you could have done?

Luke Pinto

Yeah, great question, I think you know. I think at the time I was, I was trying to figure out, because when you're that age I didn't know which avenue to pursue. So I studied. I'm like, okay, where is the money? Who has the wealth right? And what was interesting is a common theme regardless of how that entrepreneur made their money, a substantial amount of their wealth was held in real estate. That's not even a county of the entrepreneurs that made their wealth in real estate right. So I kind of saw this trend at a very young age and I think that's why I decided to venture in real estate, because it was a common theme among wealthy people.

Ed Mathews

So right, yeah, and I think that's famous to say 90% of the people who are millionaires became so through real estate. Right, and he was not wrong. So, yeah, it turns out he actually knew what he was talking about. He did. So let's talk about your focus. You know we can talk about the brokerage side of the business or the investor side. You know me in particular. I'm always looking to pick the brains of fellow investors and figure out what their secret sauce is. So why don't we start there?

Luke Pinto

Yeah, really quick, like we were chatting before the call. I love the investment side way much more than the brokerage side. It's much more money and it's way less hassle. Yeah, yeah, so yeah, absolutely so, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What specific would you like to know on the investment side?

Ed Mathews

Yeah, so let's talk about asset classes. Where do you tend to focus as you look at your portfolio, what do you focus on?

Luke Pinto

Yeah, so right now. So I have a 21 door, a couple of different apartment buildings in Clarksville, tennessee. That's been Tennessee. We've had a lot of focus in Tennessee for the last couple of years Clarksville, merce, freeboro, nashville. I'm exploring Memphis as well. We like B&C class properties, you know, properties that we could come in and do a light cosmetic remodel, that already have high occupancy. We like properties that cash flow from day one, even though, since rates are higher, those are harder to come by, but they're still out there.

Ed Mathews

They are out there, but you're right.

Luke Pinto

So that's my personal portfolio. I'm also a GP and LP on a couple of different funds. As I've gotten older and more educated in real estate, I've come to understand that partnerships are beautiful thing if you do it correctly. So I think in our future, in my future and I'm putting together a fund in the future of the fund we're going to be focused a lot more on partnerships.

Ed Mathews

Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's a team sport, right? Absolutely. I don't know any way to. I don't know any investors. I don't know how to even do this business and be successful at it without having a strong team with you, whether that's partners who are head and shoulders with you, or accountants, lawyers, brokers, mortgage brokers, lenders, bankers, you bet insurance agents all that.

Luke Pinto

Yes, it's not possible right. Yes.

Ed Mathews

Or if it is, it's a whole lot of risk if you're not doing it, if you're trying to do it by yourself.

Luke Pinto

Yes, it's a lot easier with the right people around you, that's for sure.

Ed Mathews

And the other thing is I'll take 10% of a really large project over 100% of a small project, all day, every day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Luke Pinto

Yeah, I agree. Yeah, that's how you scale right.

Ed Mathews

Yeah, you know, the whole idea of syndication and joint ventures is the fact that you're pooling resources you're basically crowdfunding to be able to take on much larger projects that probably have a lot more opportunity that you as an individual wouldn't necessarily have access to.

Luke Pinto

And you're absolutely right. And it's interesting because when I was getting started in real estate, I would hear this all the time it's just as much work for you to go buy an apartment building as it is for you to go buy a duplex, triplex, fourplex.

Ed Mathews

And.

Luke Pinto

I just that never I was like what? That makes no sense and it's kind of true it's. The process isn't that different. But the thing is, with bigger deals, normally if you buy the right deal, the upside is is a lot bigger, right? So, yeah, it's now we're at the stage of.

Luke Pinto

You know, I started my career kind of doing more residential buying. You know, duplexes, triplexes, and eventually you graduate to two apartment buildings or you know we're also we're also really exploring and getting a better understanding and grasp on RV parks and mobile home parks Interesting. You know those asset classes have much higher cap rate, much higher returns, and even you know, if you really want to scale that to the max, like there really isn't a fund out there in the marketplace that focus solely on, or you know, let me say, a big fund in the marketplace that only focuses on RV parks, right? So I think there's a lot of opportunity there. And that's the beautiful thing of real estate, right, you start off with residential, with the simple stuff, and eventually you graduate to other branches of real estate that are also very interesting.

Ed Mathews

Well, I mean you start, you're 100% right. Right I mean you start with. Typically, most of the folks that I meet that are looking to get in, they're looking to flip right. They'll flip the creative cash position and then use that to. I mean, I did it right To then go buy multifamily. But if I look back on the last decade, plus 12, 13 years that I've been doing this, if I had to do it over I wouldn't have flipped one single house right. I would go right into multifamily immediately and for me.

Ed Mathews

That's its wealth creation right. It's not the flipping I love, right.

Luke Pinto

It's.

Ed Mathews

I don't drink, I don't do drugs. Flipping was my vice right. It's literally my cocaine right.

Luke Pinto

Yeah.

Ed Mathews

And so I loved everything about it. I loved finding them, I loved figuring them out, I loved the designing them, and running them and then selling them was awesome, right, but at the end of the day, you're like it's empty calories right Like crap, but if I wanna make more money, I have to go do that again.

Ed Mathews

Yeah, yeah, with multifamily, it's an annuity. You buy it right, you manage it correctly and well, and it throws off cash, and I'm 100% with you on the cash flow from day. One thing, right, yeah, cash flow is we're in April of 2023, having this conversation and, depending on who you talk to, we're either in. I think most economists have agreed that the soft landing is not in the cards and we're looking at somewhere between a mild recession and a pretty bad one, right? And so, who knows? I'm certainly not qualified to tell you either way.

Luke Pinto

And some might even argue that we're already in a recession, right.

Ed Mathews

Yeah, and so you know. The fact is is that what saves you in a recession is cash flow 100%, 100%.

Luke Pinto

It's a beautiful thing, man. Yeah, and it's one of those things where you know why is this not being taught in school? You know you could go buy an apartment building. If you buy it correctly, you should expect this much of a return month after month. And oh, by the way, as the months go on, that amount goes up because inflation naturally pushes up rents and and I think Real estate is super forgiving I've made bad purchases before that. I still made a killing on Right, so it's, it's a very forgiving asset class and yeah, I mean, I agree with you, I agree with you.

Ed Mathews

Yeah, so yeah, time heals right does yeah, and you know, even people were talking about inflation over the last 18 plus months and you know, the fact is is that, yes, it makes a gallon of milk way more expensive. It makes, you know, paying your credit card, if you carry a balance, way more expensive, right, but it also, as an investor, is one of your best friends because you can legitimately very carefully but you can, raise rents in line with inflation rates and Then, when inflation comes back down, you know rents they may temper, but they're not gonna, they're not gonna crater, they're not going back to correct or two years ago, right, yeah, you know some markets may see a little bit of a pullback, but you know I'm in the Northeast and they're talking about a slowdown, not a, not a crash, right?

Luke Pinto

Right.

Achieving Success and Overcoming Fear

Luke Pinto

Yeah it's and you know it's funny because it took me years to realize this and and Majority of Americans unfortunately don't realize it inflation. In a lot of ways it's. It's a theft of the middle class and the poor to the rich. Yes, you know. And what? What it does is it rewards individuals that own assets and it punishes those that don't. Right, so for a family on a fixed income that doesn't own any assets, they've suffered the last two years, the last two to three years, investors that own assets They've done fantastic, right. They're like this is amazing, yeah. So yeah, it's. And I didn't, we didn't write, we didn't write the rulebook, right? This is the game and you can learn how to play it or you can sit on the sidelines, right?

Ed Mathews

So and so that that actually leads me to my next question you know what is the difference between? You know a guy like you who is Highly motivated, and you know firing on all cylinders. You know what separates you from the, from the guys or the people that you know. I refer to him, as I affectionately refer to him, as the dreamers, right, the ones that will stop you at the grocery store and say, man, how's it going in real estate? I wish I had time to do that, right? Or the guts, or whatever. And and I'm just curious, in your, in your, from your perspective and you know what separates the, the successful entrepreneurs, from the folks that wish they were oh, that's the million dollar question, right?

Luke Pinto

I think there is a few things. I think I Think a lot of this starts internally. I think it's an internal game, right, it starts with your mindset and and. And you know, a dream is something that you see very far out and in the distance, but a goal is something that you put on paper and you put a plan behind it. The only thing I've done is I wrote down my dreams and then I identified a few of those dreams, they made them goals, and put an exact plan in place and reverse engineer as to how I was gonna reach that goal. A goal has exact numbers attached to it, but has Exact action steps behind it. Right, it's what by when?

Luke Pinto

So I think most individuals that I see today and I I see it all the time I have clients that reach out, or or individuals that reach out through social media. They want mentoring, they want coaching, they want help. Yeah, and the reason why most of these individuals Don't move forward, I think it's it's mainly out of fear. Yep, I agree, and and I think that's that's the core of it. You know, people, people are afraid, but people are only afraid of things they don't understand and they're not confident in yeah.

Ed Mathews

And you know the thing is, is that fear takes many forms? Right, it's, yeah, it can be fear of failure, and you know, frankly, I'm not sitting where I am. I suspect the same for you, without screwing up a whole bunch. I broke right.

Ed Mathews

Yeah you know what made, what makes you smarter is, first off, learning from that lesson and secondly, fixing what you just blew right, blew up, yes, and then growing from there and using that next step as the, as the jumping off point, and then you'll break some other stuff and you'll learn, and so forth. Right, you know it's interesting. You talk about mindset and and I know that you know you have a mentoring program. You want to tell me a little bit, tell us a little bit about that.

Luke Pinto

Yeah. So my belief. I found out that for anything in my life that I want to improve it could be relationships, it could be my fitness, it could be my real estate business the easiest way for me to accomplish that goal is to find someone who has done it right. So I think there's really two key Points why people don't accomplish their goals. Number one they don't have the blueprint. They don't know what they should be doing right. So number one is the blueprint, and number two is Maybe they have the blueprint, but they just don't have the discipline to do the things that are needed in that blueprint Right? So my mentoring program came from, you know, individuals messaging me on Instagram and reaching out asking for help. I give them help. I sit down on a Zoom call for free, help them out as much as I can, and it's great, but they never take action. Right, I gave them the blueprint, but the discipline wasn't there.

Luke Pinto

So the training program is we call it the winner circle. It's a. It's a. It's a small group of us there's about 12 of us is of right now, and you pay a monthly fee.

Luke Pinto

I give you an app. In that app, we're going to work on your mindset. We're going to work on your fitness and we're going to work on the habits that are needed for you to be successful in real estate. That's good luck being successful in real estate If your mindset is off, if you don't have disciplines in your life, if your life is a complete mess. So what I do is I create a training program. Hey, how many times a week are you working out? Here's your workout. Here's your macro nutrients. Here's the daily habits I want you to do for your real estate business. That will get you to where you want to go, dependent on your goal. Wow. And the beauty of this is, through the app, every day, you're logging your tasks, your workout and your macros, and when you mess up, you see a message for me and you'll see the accountability from everyone else in the group. So that's the idea behind a winner circle. It's just basically a group that provides you with a blueprint and accountability for you to succeed. Wow, that's really smart?

Ed Mathews

Yeah, because even and the thing is is that you know we're all going to mess up, right? You know, I was just talking with a person who does the 75 day challenge, where you know every day he's looking to. You know it's a fitness, health and personal development.

Luke Pinto

Yes, yeah.

Ed Mathews

And the fact is, you know, the fact is is that a lot of people they'll stumble right and that's okay, but that's what accountability is for. You know, accountability isn't necessarily, you know, someone coming over with a haymaker saying, hey, you screwed up, it's. It's throwing an arm around you and saying it's okay, get back on the path, right?

Luke Pinto

Right.

Ed Mathews

Because that's all it is right. I mean, everyone's going to make mistakes, everyone's going to learn from well, hopefully you learned from but having an accountability partner or set of partners is really key.

Luke Pinto

It makes a huge difference, and you know what I've noticed? What's interesting about an environment like this is the majority of people won't do something for themselves, but they will do it to not let everyone else on the group down. It is the. It is the most mind boggling thing.

Ed Mathews

Yeah, you know, so we eat.

Luke Pinto

Most human beings tend to do more for others than they do for their own self, and it's, it's, yeah, so it's very interesting Talk to.

Ed Mathews

I mean a perfect example of that. Well, it was my wife, right? I mean she did everything for everybody around us, and sometimes she forgets to take care of herself, right?

Luke Pinto

Right.

Ed Mathews

And it's you know. So she's exhausted. At the end of the day, I was like, hey, what'd you do for fun today? She's like nothing, like whoa. Okay, then we're going to go do something fun, right? And you know that's part of it, right? Is you got to? You know, in order to help others, you have to first off take care. Take good care of yourself 100%.

Luke Pinto

I, on that note, you know, one of the things we often say is and I believe this 100% is this whole idea. It's more of a life philosophy. I think everyone has something special in them and it's up to you to figure it out. And my whole idea is I want to create the best version of myself so I could give that offering to the world and to other people, and I think everyone should do the same. You know it's really, you know you're really mastering the best version of yourself, so that you could then go out there and help other people do the same.

The Power of Mentors and Modeling

Ed Mathews

Well, it goes from contribution to service, right and service. I think you talked to Tony Robbins, me, and it's the highest form of being right and serving the folks around you and I couldn't agree more. So that I'm curious about you know, obviously, given how forward thinking you are, and you know I'm sure you've had mentors and coaches yourself over the years. So I'm curious you know what's the best advice you ever got and who gave it to you?

Luke Pinto

Oh, I've had a lot. I mean, I have a coach today. I have. I always have some form of coach, mentor, groups that I pay for for, for different access and different circles and networks. The best advice I've ever gotten, boy um I think.

Luke Pinto

I think this was back. This was pretty early on, when I was starting my career and one of my mentors was sitting down with me. I was thinking about getting in real estate and I'm sitting down with him and he asked me you live in the United States. If you fail, what's the worst case scenario? He's like are you going to be homeless? I'm like well, I don't know. No, but really, are you going to be homeless? Are you going to go hungry?

Luke Pinto

Look, the best advice, the takeaway from that piece of advice, is this In this country, you know like it is such a blessing for us to be here and do business out of the United States that if you try for something and you fail, the bottom isn't really the bottom. You're still going to be doing just fine. So, with that being said, why not take more calculated risk? And the beauty of taking that calculated risk is, if you achieve it, great. If not, you're going to get a really good lesson that's going to help you in your next venture and your next journey. So that I think for me migrating from Brazil, because the mindset in Brazil is very different the bottom is a lot lower there, the downside is a lot deeper, so that made perfect sense to me From there. It allowed my risk tolerance to be much higher, I guess.

Ed Mathews

That gives you an element of fearlessness, right? I mean again, it's okay to make mistakes, you're going to be okay, it's going to be all right.

Ed Mathews

Your family's still going to think you're eight feet tall, your friends are still going to like you. The people that don't like you will still not like you, and that's okay. Your life isn't going to change that much. So one of the things you lead a couple of large organizations and I have this. I wouldn't call it a theory because I've proved it, but leaders are readers right, and so reading these days, reading in quotes, is typically it's not typically just picking up a tactile book and thumbing through the pages. It can be audio books, it can be podcasts, like this one, it can be YouTube videos, conferences, whatever. So I'm curious, when you're looking to sharpen that saw, how do you consume that kind of information? And the other question I want to ask is who do you pay attention to these days?

Luke Pinto

Yeah, so great question. So I consume that type of information. I love reading books. It's part of my morning routine. I love audibles as well. In the last probably three to four years, I'm constantly part of some sort of group, usually with individuals who are at a much higher level than me. The thing is, as you climb the ladder for you to reach the next level, a lot of times you got to pay for access just the honest truth. So I'm a huge part of getting around a circle that's doing more than you.

Ed Mathews

Yeah.

Luke Pinto

And then the second part to your question is who am I following these days? Grant Cardone is a huge aspiration to me. I follow them pretty closely. I'm part of a group called the Black Card Fund Group. This group is made up of top fund managers throughout the nation. Bridger Pennington Sr is the father of Bridger, who puts the group together. Bridger Pennington Sr put together a fund that I pealed for billions and billions of dollars. He has a ton of insight into the economy and real estate, so I listen to him pretty closely.

Luke Pinto

I love Tony Robbins' content. I love individuals that are doing something at a much higher level, at a much bigger scale than I am. I look at people that I look at somebody and do I want that life? If so, let me try to model what they're doing, listen to what they're saying. I think hypothetical is hypocritical. If you're getting advice from someone that hasn't done anything or hasn't accomplished what you're setting out to accomplish, I don't think that's valuable advice. So for me, I just figure out which area, who I want to be, a few years down the road, where I want to be, and I find those individuals and I follow them closely Excellent.

Ed Mathews

Yeah, great advice. So the fact is is that, as I wanted to say, tony Robbins said, success leaves clues and the best way the word you use, modeling is right on it's spot on right Is that the best way to? If you admire someone, for whatever reason, the best way to evolve into that person or the person you want to be, is to emulate and model. Right? I'm not talking plagiarism. I'm not talking ripping them off. I'm talking okay, this person gets up every morning and this is is or her morning ritual. I'm going to do the same thing, right. This is when that person gets to the office, he or she does these 10 things before any meetings happen. I'm going to do those 10 things right. That is how it's done, right?

Luke Pinto

That's it. That's it it's. A lot of times people want to reinvent the wheel. It's not needed, you know. I think that comes later, once you have a very good foundation of the thing you're trying to amplify, right?

Ed Mathews

Yeah, innovation, you know, comes. I also think innovation comes as you grow and go through that journey. Right, and? But the fact is is that when you're starting off from ground zero, you know you got to start somewhere, and why not step in the footsteps of somebody who's already done it?

Luke Pinto

right, right, yeah, that's it.

Ed Mathews

So that leads me to one of my last questions, which is you know, if you had to start over, what would you do?

Luke Pinto

Hmm, if I had to start over, what would I do?

Ed Mathews

No compass, no business, nothing Right, no property group, nothing.

Luke Pinto

Right Brand new in real estate.

Ed Mathews

You know all the people you know Okay. And you know the stuff you know. But other than that you got to start over.

Luke Pinto

Well, if I had the knowledge and the resources, I think that makes a huge difference, you know. So if I had the knowledge and the resources I have today, what I would go do is I think a lot of it starts if you don't have the money today. I think the best way for you to get in real estate is to find an actual deal.

Ed Mathews

Yep.

Luke Pinto

Find an actual deal, you will find the money. So you know, I think if I was starting out today, that would be my focus on finding an actual deal. How do you find a deal? Well, you know you have to figure out what asset class you're going after, and I would try to go directly to sellers. You could doorknock, you could mail, you could cold call. It's a grind, but if you find a deal, you know now you could get into a deal with a partner where they will fund it. I fought off partnerships for so many years and that was a mistake. I think the way to scale is through the correct partnerships. So I think that's how I would get started in real estate today.

Ed Mathews

Awesome, great answer. The fact is that and we were talking about this earlier, you know it's a human-based business right. It's a relationship-based business.

Luke Pinto

There is no way to do this without partners.

Ed Mathews

I fought partners as well, and you know one of the things my company's going through a little bit of a transition right now. One of the things I'm seriously thinking about is not if I get a, should I get a partner? It's who right? What's the role. You know how do they fit. I am a creative right, so you know what I need is an integrator.

Luke Pinto

Right. Make sure that we're executing right and yeah, yeah, and it's funny you say that because I'm more of a visionary, so an operations person. For me, every business I built, moving forward, I will have a good ops person because for me, like I get so much further, so much quicker with a good operations person, you know.

Ed Mathews

I agree with that.

Luke Pinto

Yeah.

Ed Mathews

Yeah. So, Lucas, when you're not talking about real estate, what do you like to do?

Luke Pinto

Yeah, so I love traveling. I like cars, so I spend stupid money on cars. I follow certain hobbies here and there. You know I've trained Jiu Jitsu for a few years. The last several months I've been into boxing. I read a lot, work out a lot, pretty simple guy all around me and I mean like, business for me is my, I love it. You know what I mean. I am an athlete of business Like all sorts. I'm just intrigued, I'm fascinated by it.

Ed Mathews

So yeah, so what kind of cars?

Luke Pinto

Yeah, so the latest one I bought was a Rolls Royce Wraith. It's a beast of a car. Yeah, and I'm looking at a 488 Ferrari next, so yeah, yeah, you're not messing around, Well done. Yeah, just making dumb purchases on cars.

Ed Mathews

So, fortunately, the two you're talking about will appreciate, not the Ferrari Right.

Luke Pinto

That's good work out Just again.

Ed Mathews

Time is your friend, right yeah?

Luke Pinto

that's it. That's it.

Ed Mathews

All right, man. Well, hey, if someone wants to learn more about Winner Circle or your business, what's the best way to reach you?

Real Estate Underground Podcast Introduction

Luke Pinto

Yeah, so I think Instagram is usually best Coming to me, to questions there, and Instagram is Luke Underscore is Underscore winning. Luke is winning and, yeah, I'm very accessible there. He could send me a DM. We'll chat. Happy to answer any questions you might have. Happy to. I'll partner with anybody on deals. I'll help out however I can. I'm an open book, so thank you for reaching out.

Ed Mathews

Well, thank you, that's fantastic. Thank you, and so Lucas Pinto. Lucas Pinto Real Estate Group. Excuse me, hey man, it was a pleasure to meet you and to finally get to talk with you in person, and I wish you continued good fortune. And I picture that Ferrari man I would like to see it Once I get it.

Luke Pinto

Thanks for having me on Appreciate it.

Ed Mathews

All right, be well. This been the Real Estate Underground podcast a Clark Street Capital presentation. Thanks for joining us. If you're enjoying the show, please remember to subscribe and share it with your friends. If you'd like to learn more about Clark Street Capital and our upcoming projects, please join our investor club at clarkstcom. Slash join Until next time. Happy investing.