the most powerful thing that I learned in my time at a global firm and in corporate America, if you compress, as well over about 12 years altogether, but really it's 15 years when you're doing 100-hour weeks, is that the majority of the most powerful things that these people do are perfectly doable and available to the rest of us.
Ed MathewsIf you're within three feet of me, we're probably talking about real estate, much to my family's chagrin. But here's the thing, most people see 7% rates and freeze. I see opportunity. They're waiting for the perfect deal, and well, I've analyzed thousands of them, and perfect just doesn't exist. So I talk to operators across every asset class, flippers, multifamily syndicators, note investors, and whatever else is working. No sales pitches allowed, just real lessons from people actually doing it. I'm Ed Mathews, and this is Real Estate Underground.
Greetings and salutations real estate undergrounders. It is Ed Mathews with the Real Estate Underground. Thank you so much for making us a part of your day. I'm really excited about this conversation because the gentleman that I'm having on Alex Lopez, he's gonna answer a question that, quite frankly, I scratch my head on every, every quarter when I go to do my taxes. And and hopefully he will be able to give us some guidance. I actually don't hope, I know he'll be able to help us with this. Alex Lopez thank you so much for joining us today. Welcome to the show and looking forward to this conversation.
Thank you, Ed. Thanks for having me. I'm very happy to be here.
Ed MathewsRight on. So for those folks who don't know haven't discovered you online yet or elsewhere why don't you tell us a little bit about you and your firms? All
Alex Lopez, CPAright. Where to begin? So I am a real estate nerd.
I grew up in the business, so to speak. Going back to the previous boom. I got started in the real estate business right after high school in the middle of a very violent boom here in South Florida. It was it was crazy times. People were getting rich overnight, everybody owned a thousand properties, and I couldn't wait to sink my teeth into that. And that I did, and it was all fun and games, and it went very well for a little while. We all know where that went.
Ed MathewsYeah.
Alex Lopez, CPACame the '08 crisis. Man, that was,
Ed MathewsThat sucked
Alex Lopez, CPAthat wa- yeah, that wa- that, that was a painful time. But also a very
formative time. Tau- taught us all a lot of lessons.
Ed MathewsYep.
Alex Lopez, CPAAnd in my tender age back then, I was just in my early 20s when it all came crashing down. And I effectively stumbled into accounting. So the way that it happened was that y- I always, look I've always been a huge, not just real estate, but just entrepreneur- entrepreneurship nerd. I'm very passionate about entrepreneurship. I've always been fascinated by success stories and i- in particular real estate developers, and I've always enjoyed everything related to real estate and entrepreneurship. And when everything came crashing down back in, it really, it started in around '07. We say the crisis of '08, but Florida crashed earlier than that. Yeah. It was brutal. And I d- I decided to say, to take college more seriously, right? Because I was already working on a business degree. Did- didn't think I was gonna need it or use it much, right? 'Cause I was gonna, I was gonna be a real estate mogul.
Ed MathewsYeah. You don't need a, you don't need to go to business school if you're a millionaire and running multiple businesses that work, right?
Alex Lopez, CPAE- exactly. At least- Doesn't seem like a necessity in
Ed Mathewstheory.
Alex Lopez, CPABut then next thing everybody is in foreclosure and/or bankruptcy. They're losing their properties. They lost their jobs. Real estate w- it was a bloodbath down here, not just in real estate. It started with those in the real estate business- Yeah particularly brokers, lenders, people who depend on the activity, on, on sales and financing, right? It was an absolute bloodbath for them at first, and then came construction and everything else related to it. So it was a, it was incredibly brutal in that I said, "You know what? I'm still young. Let me focus on my business degree and just regain
my strength," and, lost everything. I had bought some properties already at an early age. I was doing well. I lost everything, right? So it was time to rebuild, refocus. And they make you take accounting courses for any business degree. So you have at least two. Here in Florida, they make you take at least two accounting courses. I never thought about it, not once did I ever consider or think that I would become interested in accounting and taxes, but I actually found it fascinating because it was effectively a language of business, and one that allowed me to see things in an entirely different way th- than I ever had, and that very quickly pointed out to me a lot of the mistakes that I made i- in the previous years and how I ended where I was, besides the real estate market crashing.
Ed MathewsSure.
Alex Lopez, CPASo little by little- The I changed my mind and then switched my major to accounting. I- in no small part because the, the professor that I had for the first two courses was a tried and true veteran that
came from the big firm world and opened our eyes to all the opportunities that exist when you put yourself in a platform like that. Go- you go work for one of the global firms, and you- Sure you learn all about business and it's just at a a really big door opener. So I switched my major to accounting from international business originally. But I was working in real estate all throughout. I was actually in commercial real estate. I started at a firm in West Palm Beach. A dear friend of mine had a leg up at a com- commercial firm that later became part of one of the big boys one of the big publicly traded companies. And that was also a very interesting experience. It was
it started with, kno- knocking on doors, tr- trying to lease and sell property to business owners the good old-fashioned way, and they call it canvassing.
Ed MathewsOh, yeah.
Alex Lopez, CPAAnd very quickly we started gaining some traction. We sold a million dollar property in just the first couple of weeks just by knocking on doors. I couldn't believe it, 'cause even back then that s- that seemed like an antiquated method, but it worked. And cold calling and all that good stuff. So I was starting to get somewhere again with real estate. A few years after the crash when things were starting to come back a little bit. Eventually prices came down enough and rates came down enough to where people would bite- at least for the REOs and the short sales, right? Sure. And I find myself at a crossroads, right? Once I'm getting close to graduation. I'm going to school mostly at night at that point and working hard during the day in real estate. But I had to decide and say, "Hey, I just spent the last, four and a half or five years working hard on this degree," and I became very interested in going for one of the global firms. But if I'm gonna do it, I have to do it now because they only take you straight out of college. The big firms they like them young, right? So they can mold you.
Ed MathewsAnd they're cheap.
Alex Lopez, CPAE- exactly. Exactly. They have this, the whole system down pat. It's incredible, and all the firms work pretty much the same way. Yeah. These are firms that are doing 10, 30, 50 or more billion- Millions dollars a year, right? And they use v- very similar methods. So my opportunity was there right, right after graduation. And for better or worse I picked accounting 'cause I also had a sour taste in my mouth
from real estate, from how cyclical it is from all the pains and struggles. And not just my own, but my friends, my clients, my family, my neighbors. Everybody had gotten really hurt. So even though things were coming back and looking up for me- All things considered, it just seemed like, "Hey, let me try this." But- The first thing I did when I started at my firm, previous firm, is tell them that I wanted to be on the real
estate clients. I said, "Hey, look, m- my background and my passion is in real estate. Please put me on that type of client." And they did. First client was a hotel REIT, about $4 billion in assets publicly traded, and it was a fun experience. It was very interesting. And then next thing I'm working on a developer's account. Next thing another developer's account, another investment firm that's specializing in real estate. So I just kept the real estate thing going all along. And I s- I spent a few years in that world just soaking it all in-
Ed MathewsYep
Alex Lopez, CPAlearning everything I could.
Then I decided to try the corporate world, right? So out- outside of public accounting, and I did that for a few more years. I worked at a p- public company. That was very interesting. Learned a lot more about corporate structure and proper financial and tax strategy. And then I got tapped to go help a company go public, so I did that. I always wanted to do that, right? So I had a lot of publicly traded clients before, but I hadn't played a role on the inside helping a company go public, and it was just a, a bucket list thing, if you will. Sure. Yeah. Not sure everybody dreams of that, but that was just one of those things that I always wanted to do. So I saw the opportunity to do it I joined, and that, that was fun e- fun exercise as well. A good several months of seven-day we- work weeks and, you know- Yeah 15-hour days and just seeing a lot and doing a lot. And, we got that through. Learned a lot. But I always wanted my own thing. That's the thing.
Ed MathewsYep.
Alex Lopez, CPAThis was a, a detour for me in a way, right? Having gone into a big firm and then spending some time in the corporate world. Hey, I cherish that. I'm very happy I did that. That was an incredible growth experience for me and it was destiny. Hey, things didn't work out my first time around in real estate. The, the... I- it came to a brutal end, but this detour
did a ton for me.
Ed MathewsYep.
Alex Lopez, CPABut when I felt I was ready in terms of experience, in terms of relationships and resources I opened up my own shop- Taking what I learned in that world
Ed Mathewsto- Yeah, I think we all do that, right? And so I'm curious about the, that process, right? Because, y- you position yourself in the market as a CFO and a fractional CFO, and we're gonna get into that in a little bit. I'm curious how you what that transition was like. And I also want to talk to you about
your real estate investments currently. But let's do this in order. Let's talk about the transition, and then we'll get on from there.
Alex Lopez, CPASounds good. So about the fractional CFO role, that, that is an, it's a very interesting and powerful trend that has become pretty popular in the last few years in particular. And I'm geared towards that for a couple of reasons. So one is I enjoy it. I'm passionate about it, and it's incredibly helpful to business owners and investors who are very serious about scaling because they can get the best of both worlds in terms of having more sophisticated financial management while not having an in-house- Yeah, having
Ed Mathewsto pay half a million dollars-
Alex Lopez, CPArole to
Ed Mathewsa in-house CFO or whatever they're paying, right?
Alex Lopez, CPAEx-
exactly. Because if I could tell you, Ed, probably the most powerful thing that I learned in my time at a global firm and in corporate America, if you compress, as well over about 12 years altogether, but really it's 15 years when you're doing 100-hour weeks, is that the majority of the most powerful things that these people do are perfectly doable and available to the rest of us.
Ed MathewsYeah.
Alex Lopez, CPAIt's just a matter of structure and skill and prioritization. So th- most of those strategies they're not reserved for them. They're not reserved for Fortune 500 companies or billionaires. There are tons of golden nuggets and tactics that can be very easily put in place as small businesses. The pro- the problem is also, it's a, it's not just a matter of skills
and knowledge, but also, some- somebody has to do it, right? Somebody has to actually- So, so let's talk
Ed Mathewsabout those golden nuggets. What are some of the things that a s- I'm a small guy, right? I, we have 10 employees. We're not a big firm at all. W- but what are some of the things that a guy like me can do to position myself for the long term?
Alex Lopez, CPAMy thing is to th- think of yourself as being significantly larger than you are and what the structure would look like. So then in terms of financial management and tax strategy in particular, you would just envision that you do have that CFO, for example. And just understanding what the role entails and what it needs to do, what it would do for you- Is already a game changer because most business owners just simply do not think about this. The way that they manage their finances is by looking at what they have in the bank.
Ed MathewsYeah, how do I survive the next 90 days, right?
Alex Lopez, CPAExactly. And then and thinking that money in is income and the money out is expenditures, and obviously there's a lot of truth to that, but it's just
not enough. Somebody has to actually think about the big picture in terms of finance. And probably the biggest thing that to do when you change the hat there is to learn how to look through the windshield and not just the rear view mirror because-
Ed MathewsSo say more about that. What do you mean?
Alex Lopez, CPATypical accounting is primarily, if not entirely, focused on what already happened, right? So you're look- you're looking in the past, you're saying like, "Oh last month was great. Here's what came in, here's what came out." But that's usually where it stops And a lot of it is geared towards just good old-fashioned bookkeeping, which is just, hey, we're just, we're processing transactions- Yeah and we just see how it all looks in the end, right? Proper financial management is more about gaining a keen understanding of what these numbers are telling us, but also looking forward and understanding where we are going from here on according to our resources, our plans, what that looks like financially, right? And what tweaks do we need to make.
Ed MathewsSo- So when you're taking on a client and you're taking on that role of CFO, which is, obviously a little more proactive than bookkeeping, right? What are some of the things that
you're looking at that would help a, small, medium, large firm in this space? What are you looking for?
Alex Lopez, CPAKPIs and plans.
Ed MathewsOkay. So KPI being key performance indicators-
Alex Lopez, CPAExactly
Ed Mathewsmetrics, right? And plans being, are you talking just strict business plans or something else?
Alex Lopez, CPAParticularly the business plans.
Ed MathewsOkay.
Alex Lopez, CPASo it all starts with where are we going, right? And that, that... and here again is where I was going with thinking of yourself as a much bigger-
Ed MathewsYeah
Alex Lopez, CPAcompany and giving it the structure. So to simplify things, in the typical setting, you mostly just need to worry about CEO, right? CFO, maybe COO, right? And we'll fill in the blanks later. But let's say if we're having this conversation about a real estate syndication, for example. So in this case, you would be a CEO. You will- you wear that hat, and we'll be talking about what your strategic plans are for the next 12 to 36 months, and where you plan
to be in terms of square footage and NOI, cap rates, and all that good stuff, right?
Ed MathewsOkay.
Alex Lopez, CPATo put it simply, you reverse engineer that into what it looks like financially.
Ed MathewsOkay. So same- Okay, but- So when... So I wanna con- kinda combine where you're going and the concept of metrics and KPIs. So when you reverse engineer what are... let me, Let's start simple, and then we can get com- complex. So if I had to pick three to five metrics that I need to pay attention to as a real estate l-... I'm a multifamily guy, right? So as an apartment building owner, what are the key performance indicators that I really need to pay attention to?
Alex Lopez, CPAI'd say in that context, again, a lot of that also
has to come from the company's, core competencies and what their- Yeah their objectives and their goals. But in this context, let's say typically you're gonna be looking at NOI, rent per square foot, at what your CAM is, your occupancy rates.
Ed MathewsOkay. So acronym alert. CAM?
Alex Lopez, CPACommon area maintenance cost. Thank you. Operating costs.
Ed MathewsYeah. It's okay. Yeah, keep going.
Alex Lopez, CPASo we'd be looking at your net operating income, and then we'd be looking at your rent per square foot. That's market-dependent, so that's where also we need context from ownership and from the... Remember, we have the CEO- Yeah communicating with the CFO. So these are high-level conversations about strategic goals and objectives-
Ed MathewsYeah
Alex Lopez, CPAand metrics. So based on, let- let's say for... So you're in Connecticut. Let's say we're, let's say we're talking in your local market, and we- we'll fill in the blanks with fake numbers. But you know that the, the goal is to get to approximately X amount of square footage and a dollar figure in terms of your portfolio, and that given your market and your specific niche in that market, not just multifamily but also i- in what economic group and what specific areas you're looking to invest in- we know that we can produce approximately X per square foot- And that typically operating costs for this type of property, let's say it's low-rise or mid-rise apartments, tend to be anywhere I'll tell you from down here, is anywhere from $7 to $10 a square foot, right? If you have in- inside lo- if you have atriums and that sort of thing, it's more expensive. But let's just say- Sure something in the neighborhood. So once we know the metrics and where you need to go, oh let's say we also know what, what kind of return on investment your investors are going to be expecting We can start to fill in blanks on s- on the rest of the picture. So once we know those are the strategic goals and objectives, we can start talking about your debt versus equity
structure. Then we figure out what we need to raise from one source or the other. Then we can figure out the feasibility of preferred dividends that you might wanna pay out to- to the partners. So it all starts with those goals and objectives and what are the important things that, that need to be tracked. And it's not a one-way conversation. It's not just the, the CEO necessarily mandating all these things. There's- No
Ed Mathewsthere's feedback. 'Cause you can't make those decisions in a vacuum, right? There's a real world out there. Other people have a say- Absolutely other people and other trends have a say in what you're doing. E-
Alex Lopez, CPAe- exactly. So it's a bigger conversation and a lot goes into it but that's the kinda game that you wanna play. And this is what I was referring to when I mentioned that it's really not reserved for the big firms or for the rich and the ultra wealthy, right? These are things that might sound difficult to some, but in reality, it all boils down to just a, a few concepts that, that do not take very long to master. You just, somebody needs to put in the time and the effort at the end- of the day. And this is where a fractional CFO comes in very handy, right? Because that, that is a tough conversation to have with, as I like to say jokingly your neighbor's daughter who does the bookkeeping, right? Or your,
your brother-in-law who might close your books in QuickBooks- Every other month, right? Not necessarily even timely. That's okay. You need that, and that works for a lot of people. But when you're playing that scaling game-
Ed MathewsIt's a different ballgame altogether, right?
Alex Lopez, CPAIt's a different ballgame. Yeah, I
Ed Mathewsmean, there, there are... Being a founder is a certain skill set. Being a an entrepreneur who is operating a firm up to a million dollars per annum $83,330
a month, $333 a month that's a skill. That's a separate skill. It's a different skill. And then once you clip a million, maybe say to five-ish million, that is a different skill again. And yet again, five to 10, 10 to 100, those aren't the same human being, right? And they absolutely are not the same skill set.
Alex Lopez, CPA100%. Yeah.
Ed MathewsMe as a CEO of a, 200-unit, 75-flip real estate firm and the CEO of JLL, we are not the same human being, right? Jones Lang LaSalle, that's a big firm for those of you-
Alex Lopez, CPAThat's right. It's a different game. Yeah. They're global mar- capital markets and all this crazy stuff. But there, there is a lot that they do at JLL or Cushman Wakefield and the CBRE and the likes of- Sure. Yeah that is
available and doable by entrepreneurs like you and me. Such as? And by the way, they got- they share a lot of their they share a lot of that data. C- CBRE, Cushman they share market reports. They have
Ed Mathewsto. They're
Alex Lopez, CPApublic, right? Yeah.
Ed MathewsYeah.
Alex Lopez, CPASo- It's a wealth of information so give me
Ed Mathewsan example of that.
Alex Lopez, CPAAs I said I'll give you the perfect example. So I spend a lot of time with public companies, right? And you're working on quarterly earnings reports and 10, 10-Qs, 10-Ks, and all that good stuff, right? The 10-Ks, which is the annual report that every publicly traded company in the United States has to file, is an absolute wealth of information. These is, these are typically at least 70 to 150 pages and include a very strict regimen of sharing all kinds of relevant information for any investor, including KPIs. They will tell you exactly what it is that they emphasize, how they calculate it, and how they performed, how they, what they plan for, all that good stuff. So if we're talking real estate in particular, like something we're talking about, you mentioned the JLL or say CBRE, they're publicly traded. If you're serious about setting up your fi- finance department, so to speak, and again, I encourage every entrepreneur, even if you are a one-person company, right? And it only becomes more relevant once you're a two, or three, or four, or five-person company. Think of your company as having departments. You gotta have a finance department. You gotta have a CFO. You gotta have an accounting department, even if you're doing it yourself, right? But- 100% if you're serious, yeah, it's a game changer.
Ed MathewsYeah.
Alex Lopez, CPASo if you are serious about understanding the economics of your business and about planning for financial success you'll be very well served to look at examples from publicly traded c- companies
in your field because they will share their playbook. In other words, they do share their playbook. They have to. Legally,
Ed Mathewsthey have to.
Alex Lopez, CPAExactly. Exactly. So-
Ed MathewsYeah. I remember a, a mentor of mine, Rob Bernstein, who
was a CEO of a software company that I used to work for. W- when I started there, we were, gosh, we were less than a million bucks. And, The y- that was one of his key philosophies and why he was so damn successful is he ran that company from the moment I walked in the door as if we were a $100 million company with designs on becoming a billion-dollar company. And, four years later, we were a $100 million company with a, multi-billion dollar valuation. And it, a lot of it had to do with... and I'm not talking about positive imagery, I'm talking about planning, right? And I'm talking about organization. And okay, so the finance department was one guy when I started. When I left, it was an entire team, right? And and the metrics that we ran under they did change, they evolved for sure as a member of that exec team. But the, the fact is that, basically we were running a $100 million company when we were a million-dollar, annual ARR firm, right?
Alex Lopez, CPAAmazing.
Ed MathewsYeah. That's great. It... And thank God one of us went to Harvard Business School and it wasn't me. So at least he knew what to do. But but the fact is that the, the fact the idea of, running a company as if it's going to eventually be a much larger company is just good practice because it's, A, it sets you up for growth and scaling and growth, but it also keeps you out of a whole lot of trouble when you're small and struggling, right?
Alex Lopez, CPA100%. Yeah and you can have the best of both worlds, right? So you're not gonna bog yourself down with the bureaucracy and all the-
Ed MathewsYeah. It's... When it's just you, there is no board meeting. It's just you deciding what to do. But y- I fundamentally believe that you miss 100% of the targets you don't set, right? And so if you don't have metrics in pla- if you don't have an, a end game in place,
and then, like you said, reverse engineer that back to a set of metrics that you can measure where I'm, where am I on that journey? Boy, I'll tell you, it makes it a whole lot easier to... I can tell you from personal experience, the, the times where I operated my companies with that in mind versus times where I forgot that I was way more successful the former than the latter
Alex Lopez, CPAMakes perfect sense. It's a game changer.
Ed MathewsYou know what to do every day. You walk in the door on Monday morning and you look at your dashboard of here's where I am. I need this much revenue per square foot, to use your metrics. I run it differently, but the, but that's fine. And I have per... I run it by unit, not per, by per square foot. That's really the main difference. That's more commercial, yeah. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah I'm a, I'm an apartment guy. You're more of a commercial player, and that, that is that's why we look at different things. But they're basically the same metric, right? And that is that for every space, I'm looking to generate a certain amount of dollars. And so then it comes down to, okay, how can I minimize vacancy? How can I minimize expenses while continuing to maintain service levels that are important to, our customer, whoever that is, the resident or an office or an industrial client or whoever. And it ends the idea of winging it seven days a week, which is really stressful, and I've done that. And I find that when I'm organized and that we're, we know exactly what to do every Monday morning things grow a lot faster. It's a lot less stressful, and and everybody that you serve is a whole lot happier. With that, Alex, I wanna start
to land the plane, and let's get into the final five. Okay. And we can talk about I wanna get to know you a little bit better. So- Yeah tell me about purpose. What gets you out of bed on Monday
morning?
Alex Lopez, CPAIt's my passion for entrepreneurship, that it's been with me s- as long as I can remember, ever since I was a little kid. I remember like yesterday they were building a lot of high-rises around where I grew up in Medellín, Colombia. And I wa- I was just always fascinated by the whole process. Who's behind all these massive projects? Who... how does it all work? There's thousands of people working on these things and millions of dollars. It's always been one of those things that have fascinated me, how entrepreneurs do what they do, and I get to work with them. So- Very cool that's what gets me out.
Ed MathewsTell me about the mentors you've had in your life. What's the best advice you ever got, and who gave
it to you?
Alex Lopez, CPAThe best advice I've ever gotten is very similar to what we were talking about earlier, about envisioning yourself running a large company with proper structure already, and having different hats that you intentionally choose to wear for different purposes. And it's not just knowing that you have to do multiple jobs. It's intentionally setting up your schedule so that you know what hats to wear at what times- and going about your business that way. And that was that was taught to me by a business mentor. H- his name is Anatoly, and he's the best. He's just incredible. He's helped a lot of companies scale-
Ed MathewsWonderful. And you mentioned 2007, 2008 in Florida. Yeah, and
it got pretty bumpy. Espe- even up here in, in the northeast, which ten- you know, Connecticut tends to be a fairly stable market even in good or bad times. But I know elsewhere, Florida in particular, it got pretty bumpy. So- Yeah looking back on your career, I, I, man, I fundamentally believe that we learn way more from the mistakes we make than from the successes that we have. Oh, yeah and and I'm curious about either a mis- professional mistake or a decision that you made along the way that you look back on and go, "Oh, I would love to have that one back." And how'd you manage through it? What'd you do?
Alex Lopez, CPAUnfortunately it's not just one.
Ed MathewsOh, yeah. I mean-
Alex Lopez, CPAYeah. But,
Ed MathewsAlex, I make- I make 10 decisions a day. I pray I get four of them right. Yeah. Yeah,
Alex Lopez, CPAbut there, there- So I hear
Ed Mathewsyou.
Alex Lopez, CPAThere is a common theme. And this one you pro- you probably agree with. Selling property at the wrong time or ever. So I w- I would be several million better off had I not made really bad mistakes s- starting with when I was young and dumb at the time that that we crashed. I could have probably held on to a couple of things that are now way above where they were.
Ed MathewsYeah.
Alex Lopez, CPAAnd but on top of that- I got antsy in around, what was it? 20- somewhere around s- 2017, 2018 before COVID hit when values were already so high. We were- had already surpassed the previous boom. The peak from the previous boom- Yeah here in Florida, we had already surpassed that. And there were already some mini market shocks. If you remember, there was the, the, there was, like, a p- flash crash in China and rates were already going up a lot, and I started becoming a naysayer of the market in part because of these wounds that I had from the previous crash, right? We were due. We were overdue, significantly overdue for a crash already. And I sold- We're still due. Yeah, we are, we're overdue. But then COVID came, right? So I sold off on a couple more things that I should have never never should have sold. And and sure enough, those are, like, twice or more what they were worth at the time that I sold them. So the theme is don't sell property. I made a commitment literally to never sell property ever again. I'm never selling property, period. Okay? It's just not gonna happen. They'll go on to my kids and that- that's that. I know that's not for everybody, but that's just one of those things. Selling property is just a bad move.
Ed MathewsYeah. I have a personal policy, and that is unless I absolutely have to, there's one building that I sold that I have to literally drive by. It's because it's between my office and my home. And I drive by it every- twice on the way and on, on the way there and on the way home every day. Other than that, I do not drive by any property I've ever owned ever because it, I do the calculus that you were just describing, right? I sold it at X dollars, and now it's three X that. And man, I should have held onto it. I, I- Oh, yeah I tell people I regret every property I ever sold. I- I sold them for good reasons. Actually not all of them. Some of them were bad reasons. But nevertheless, it's I don't drive by those properties 'cause I don't like to
be reminded that I shouldn't have sold them.
Alex Lopez, CPAYeah. Yeah, same here. And I always say this- I have never met anybody who has regretted holding onto property too long.
Ed MathewsNo.
Alex Lopez, CPAAnd I know a lot of people in the property business. And now I've met a lot of people just like myself who regretted selling property too early. But it's it's never somebody like, "Nah, I should have never held onto a property for 15 years." What was
Ed MathewsI thinking? Yeah. Why would I say that? No, it's- Yeah that never is a problem. If you can- if you don't- if you're smart enough not to over-leverage, and you can hold onto a property for a period of time... the first property I ever bought, I was terrified. It was a $99,000 four-family here in East Hartford, Connecticut. The r- the broker who I was working with, for all intents and purposes, threatened me to- that if I didn't buy it, she was going to end our relationship. It was like a, "Buy this property," right? And I did, and I'm grateful. And that $99,000 property is now, half a million dollar property that I a- that I actually sold a couple years ago. I don't regret selling that one, 'cause I sold it for- on purpose, 'cause my daughter was going to college, and that was her tuition. But,
Alex Lopez, CPAWow. Amazing
Ed Mathewsbut the but the fact is that, And I don't drive by it ever, 'cause I don't wanna see it. I'm sure it's... the, the guy I sold it to really knows what he's doing, so I'm sure it's even nicer than when I had it, and I took pretty good care of it. But the- but the fact is that it's y- in a span of six, seven years, it basically quintupled in value.
Alex Lopez, CPAWow.
Ed MathewsSo- Weird yeah. Everyone steps in it every once in a while, right? Even a blind squirrel finds a nut. But the but yeah that's... I couldn't agree more. So I'm also curious about how you take in information. What's the book on your either physical or
virtual nightstand? What are you reading these days? Who are you paying attention to?
Alex Lopez, CPASo I'm gonna tell you about the very last one. I'm very pumped about it. Have you heard of Ryan Deiss?
Ed MathewsYes. In fact, I know Ryan, as a matter of fact.
Alex Lopez, CPAYou do?
Ed MathewsI do, yeah.
Alex Lopez, CPADude, I read Get Scalable for the first time just a couple- Yeah of weeks ago. And I've never done this, right? I finished it. I immediately started reading it again.
Ed MathewsYeah.
Alex Lopez, CPAAnd I already finished it the second time. I'm reading it again
Ed MathewsYeah. He is, He and Dan Sullivan Who Not How. And what was Dan Martell's book? Buy Back Your Time.
Alex Lopez, CPAI love that one
Ed Mathewstoo. All very similar subject, different perspectives. But yeah, Ryan is one of the smartest people I've ever had the pleasure of occupying a room with.
Alex Lopez, CPARyan, I would say, and I've read a, a lot of similar books, including Buy Back Your Time, which I'm also a huge fan of.
Ed MathewsYeah.
Alex Lopez, CPAThe next one's going to be The E-Myth, right?
Ed MathewsYeah.
Alex Lopez, CPAThat one is fantastic, and it has a lot of different versions. So what I- What
Ed Mathewsmost- There's a real estate version that Gerber and Than Merrill, and actually those are Connecticut guys. Than Merrill and Paul Asajian
and his brother... I can't remember his brother's name. Oh my goodness. I knew Paul a little bit, but I don't I don't know the other guys. But anyway, they did a brilliant job. It was Than that- that I think authored that with with Michael Gerber.
Alex Lopez, CPAIt's a fantastic book. Fantastic book. And there's an CFO version by the way. I read that one twice too. It was- Yeah, I haven't
Ed Mathewsread that one
Alex Lopez, CPAit's really good. I think they're all very similar, but they add a twist for, for-
Ed MathewsYeah. It comes down to- whatever it is that you're- it's automation 101. It's, you've got to- Definitely have systems in place, and then you have to decide automate, delegate or- 100% you
Alex Lopez, CPAknow, figure out how to do it yourself,
Ed Mathewsright?
Alex Lopez, CPAYeah. It is fantastic. But I'll tell you this, I say proudly The E-Myth is the gold standard, but I'll say that, and I've read a lot of very similar books. I would say that for at least for m- for my chosen market, for my avatar, right? Including firms like my own, people in the low seven figure to mid eight figure businesses, that's mostly who I serve. People who just got into a million and are now... or are now getting close to 10, 12, 15, $20 million in revenue, right? Because these people have very unique sets of challenges and- Yeah. Those are
Ed Mathewstwo... Those two people you just described are two very different people in two very different por- portions of their journey, right? Parts of their journey.
Alex Lopez, CPAE- exactly. Exactly. And they start feeling a lot of very specific pains and struggles as they get to certain stages, right? And that's when they really start needing, not just wanting, but actually needing that additional expert help, right? Without a doubt. Really scale. But I would say that- I have never seen anybody so eloquently pack such powerful concepts that are so incredibly useful for people in this group as Ryan Dies. He d- he- this guy has nowhere to go but up. I think he kinda- he should be bigger than Hermosi at this point. He should be bigger than Dan Martell, and I think he will be. He's just incredibly it's all, it's a wealth of knowledge and practical tips and insights that he shares in that book in particular, but also everything else that, that he does online, so
Ed Mathewshe's great. I've never met Alex, and I've never met Dan Martell, but knowing Ryan he certainly is a person of character and de- deserves all the success that he has and is about to have. Much
Alex Lopez, CPAmore.
Ed MathewsYeah so let's talk... Amen. So let's talk about your success. How do you define success in your life?
Success in my life is being able to just focus on the things that, that I enjoy and- that help me grow. For instance, as it pertains to my professional life, it is working with entrepreneurs, just learning what, what is that makes them tick- Helping them navigate difficult waters, and just growing with them is... I just really enjoy that.
Ed MathewsAwesome. So Alex I've enjoyed this conversation. Thank you for- Likewise for coming on the show. If people wanna learn more about you or your firms what's the best way to to get a hold of you?
Alex Lopez, CPAThe easiest way is to
find me at alexlopezcpa.com.
Ed MathewsOkay. Awesome. Alex Alex Lopez thank you so much for your time today. It really is a pleasure. You're an absolute gentleman, and I wish you nothing but success.
Alex Lopez, CPALikewise. Thanks a lot, and we'll talk soon.