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Real Lives of Real Estate w/ Brendan Da Silva
Welcome to the Real Lives of Real Estate, a brand new real estate podcast unlike any other. Your host is the #1 Realtor in Newark, NJ, Brendan Da Silva, and every week he interviews real estate professionals about how working in the industry has affected their lives and stories.
Real Lives of Real Estate w/ Brendan Da Silva
George A. Castro IV: Embracing Family Legacy and the Thrill of Real Estate Ambition
Have you ever wondered what it's like to grow up in a world where business acumen runs in the blood? Meet George A. Castro IV, our special guest for this episode, a 21-year-old real estate dynamo whose zest for the industry is as captivating as it is inspiring. His story is one of legacy, learning from his father—a seasoned broker—and cultivating a competitive spirit in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Today, he stands as a testament to youthful ambition and the magnetic pull of family traditions in shaping a career.
Navigating the intricate dance between personal life and professional success can be as complex as the real estate deals George brokers. In this episode, we get personal, sharing stories of the challenges—like a colleague's hesitation to admit a mistake—and the triumphs found in maintaining that delicate equilibrium. The Castros' heartfelt tale lays bare the enriching yet often overlooked role of passion, both in forging a successful career and in keeping family ties robust amidst business collaborations. Education, too, plays a leading role as George details his pursuit of academic excellence in tandem with his already impressive control of the market.
As our conversation reaches its crescendo, we step into the grandeur of a Newark mansion—a fitting setting to explore the heady exhilaration of real estate development. But for George and many like him, it's more than just financial gain; it's about the rush of the build and the desire to sculpt a legacy. We discuss the driving forces behind ambition, the pursuit of validation, and the influence of one's upbringing on their drive to succeed. Join us in this episode, a narrative rich with resilience, dreams, and the power of familial bonds in the pursuit of the American Dream.
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What I want to do is I love real estate, I love construction, I love development. I want to be one of the biggest developers. I want to work in New Jersey. I want to work in New York City. I love the art, the art of the deal, the sport of real estate.
Speaker 2:Get ready for Real Lives of Real Estate, where the world of real estate meets the essence of your life. Buckle up as we unravel stories, homes and the heartbeat behind it all. Let's dive into another episode. I hope you share and are encouraged. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. I got probably, in my opinion, one of the coolest guests we ever got, a guy who I first I'm meeting by I feel like I already know you because of our social media and I've stalked you so many times George Kastrov, a realtor, a friend. At one point he did coin himself the youngest realtor in the world. Frankly, he honestly might have been it because he was born out of the womb selling. How are you feeling today?
Speaker 1:I'm wonderful, brandon. It's a pleasure to be on the podcast. I appreciate it very much and I'm excited to have this conversation. I've been watching some of the episodes. I think you've done a phenomenal job and I'm really, really excited to be on the podcast.
Speaker 2:Oh well, it means a lot to me, honestly, I'm excited to have you Well. With that said, let's start from the jump. Where did you? What did you grow up in? Did you grow up in a house? Did you grow up in an apartment?
Speaker 1:I grew up in a house. I actually I still live with my parents, my father, my mother, my sister, beautiful family and Elizabeth. That's where I grew up. I've lived there my whole life and I've always been in the real estate business, as we were talking about before. You know, we went on air. I've always loved the business. I enjoy it. I grew up learning from my father, who's been in the business 35 years, but I did grow up with my parents in Elizabeth.
Speaker 2:And when you say a house, do you guys stay in one house your whole life?
Speaker 1:We stayed in one house. I've been in the same house and I continue in the same house my whole life, which is incredible nowadays because you're unheard of. You see many people. I mean four, five, six houses, which is normal nowadays. But we've been in the same house and it's been a blessing for me 21.
Speaker 2:So you've been in, and how old are you now?
Speaker 1:I'm 21. Oh, yes, 21. Okay 21.
Speaker 2:And you've been in real estate licensed for three years.
Speaker 1:I've been licensed for three years.
Speaker 2:You were licensed a day of you turned 18, essentially 18.
Speaker 1:And we were saying you know, when I was 18, I was quote unquote the youngest realtor in the world, because you get licensed when you're 18. So that was my brand. You know, I'm the youngest realtor in the world and I was doing videos and posts as the youngest realtor and and that was my brand. But I've been and it worked and I've been. It created attention a lot. But I've been around the business ever since I was young. My uncle jokes with me and he tells me you were in the womb listening to real estate and making deals.
Speaker 1:He jokes with me.
Speaker 2:But it's true.
Speaker 1:It's true.
Speaker 2:How was it you know, I guess you're growing up, you're born Did your father invest in property or did he more? Was he more on the brokerage, focusing on the building that business?
Speaker 1:My father has been a broker for 30 years. He's invested in properties. We have many properties. He's built properties. He was involved heavily in construction. You know the market collapsed in 2008. You know it was a big, a big situation, but he continues in development and construction. He's a real estate broker. I call him the broker of brokers Because that's what I think he is.
Speaker 2:I do, like your dad, I follow your the brokerage online and I honestly really do enjoy right, it's in his energy, so I love it. Well, let me ask you this, george you know growing up, when did it ever? When did you first realize that your dad was this? You know real state investor, real estate broker. What was the difference you think of your upbringing versus someone who perhaps had a W2 parent right? W2 pays up, you know, regular nine to five job.
Speaker 1:Well, I can say that I was. I was very blessed because my father has always been in real estate and ever since I was very young he always bred me. You know we say he bred me into the business. I've always loved the business. I've always had a competitive drive for business, for real estate. I've always been a business person, ever since I was very young and I learned it from my father in large part. But I've always loved it.
Speaker 2:I've always been around it and I did click to you, though, that your dad was a broker, Like I always knew it and I would always be in the office.
Speaker 1:I remember I was three, four years old, five years old, and I would go to the office. I would walk around the office, I would meet with the agents, I would see the agents and I was always around what was going on in the office which then allowed me to do what I'm doing now? But I've always loved it. You know he always he was very strict with me, he was a disciplinarian. Everything had to be, you know, you had to be number one, you had to be a winner and I think that instilled the love for business and the love for the game for me. But I've always been around it. I always knew what he did. You know he would take me to the rich theater which we spoke about before he would take it.
Speaker 1:It's a performing arts venue. It's a 3000 seat venue where we do some of the biggest artists in the world. We do shows, we do events, we do conferences and I would always go with him when I was very young four or five, six years old to the theater. You know he was always shaking hands with people, meeting with people in the office, meeting with clients, going to showings, meeting with other realtors, and I've always been around it and I've always loved it, ever since I was very small.
Speaker 2:You know, we had a guest here not so long ago, you actually, I think, ramiz and Craig. We had two other guests here, yeah, two other guests here, whose fathers were very prominent real estate developer, brokers, etc.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And you know they're doing very well in their own right. Right, if you're listening, appreciate you guys coming on, for you know they. It was a polarizing experience. One was kind of like he actually jumped out of real estate because he felt the pressure of being there. The other one shared that you know being in this. You know his father was Matt, one of the largest landowners and newer developers, extremely successful, amazing guy. He's like well, I have to kind of be a shield, right, I have to guard this and I have like that. I have a chip on my shoulders. People are expecting me to step up. You seem to really correct me if I'm wrong. You seem to really have kind of embodied that and said you know, this is I love it?
Speaker 2:Why do you think there's such a difference when you're a second generation real estate developer or a second generation real estate industry professional? Why do you think there's a huge spectrum? And how did you end up on the side of? I love it just as much as he did, mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:I think it's. It's a testament of how I was raised. You see, for example, nowadays very wealthy, very rich people and they have kids, they have sons, and they don't turn out to be how the parents were or the father were. They're actually exactly the opposite.
Speaker 2:That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:You see some of these kids getting into drugs and getting into the wrong things and you see the parents and their successful people and their phenomenal people. I think when your kids are growing up, for example, it's important to spend time with them, to teach them. My father was always a disciplinarian. He would always teach me. I would always be involved in the business and I've always had a competitive drive. You know he would send me to the best schools. I would go to phenomenal schools and I and I was raised by my father, by my mother, who are phenomenal parents, which allowed me to to grow into the person that I've become.
Speaker 2:How do you think your, how do you think you would have your relationship with your father and your mother would have been different if your father wasn't in real estate?
Speaker 1:I think it would have been very similar. We they're very loving parents. I love my parents, but I think it would have been very similar. We spend a lot of time together. Our family were very close knit.
Speaker 2:Give an example of spend time you like. Did you guys have dinner?
Speaker 1:together. Of course, we have dinner together. We have a big family. My father's Colombian. So those Colombian families they're huge.
Speaker 2:they're huge with the music and everything Boom, boom boom.
Speaker 1:So we, we spend a lot of time together. Granted, we're in the business, so my father's in business, I'm out doing showings, I'm making deals happen. My mother works in a trademark and patent firm with some of the biggest trademark and patent clients in the United States, but we're very, very close knit, always very together. I think if you wouldn't have been in real estate I mean you, I don't really I can't imagine how it would be like, but I'm glad he was in real estate because that allowed him to make in life branding. Every person needs a mentor in any business and my father's been my mentor in real estate. He's taught me, I've learned from him, which allows me to have the knowledge that I do today.
Speaker 2:Do you feel as though it's hard for you to be personal. Like you know, I give you examples with one of my team members and the individual was opening up to me that he made a bad decision personally and he was very hesitant to share with me right. He made a very bad decision personally. He was very hesitant to share with me.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:I said my friend, like it's okay.
Speaker 1:Forced totally.
Speaker 2:Like he thinks people make mistakes.
Speaker 1:It's okay.
Speaker 2:He's like I didn't want you to hear about the personal biases I make because I don't want you to think about less about me professionally. So I was shocked. I said, wow Cause I didn't see it like that. I'm like you can be great professionally and be a miserable person.
Speaker 1:Totally Right, you can be a legend, and you see it every day.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you can be number one in the billboard, cool, cool, cool. But then you literally are like depressed, miserable, anxious, ridden, stress induced. Yeah, bombshell right, boom, boom, ticking bomb. So I'm like, what do you mean? I'm like, for me, I'm a team member. You get rewarded based off what you do. Yeah, on our team we run a meritocracy. You know, there's no favorites. Like, I hang out with some people, I don't hang out with others, it doesn't matter, there's no favorites.
Speaker 1:Totally.
Speaker 2:Like it doesn't matter if I hang out with you daily or if I never hang out with you, why, if you do a good job, I will treat you fairly Totally, if I can rely on you, if you have great coachability, leadership, all those things. So my question for you there would be do you find it difficult to perhaps connect with your family, given that you guys are in real estate, such as your father, on a personal level, when things aren't professional, I'm sure you don't eat, breathe, sleep real estate Every moment you love it.
Speaker 1:There's not a second, you don't want to break.
Speaker 2:You're not a machine. Maybe you have a machine, or are you a machine?
Speaker 1:You're like, I haven't taken a day off since I was two years old, right?
Speaker 2:No, no, it's a machine, yeah, so are you able to kind of unplug, or is that not really just reality?
Speaker 1:right now. No, we always, we always unplug. I think you need to love what you do and I think they say, you know it's cliche, if you love, like what you do, you never work a day for your life.
Speaker 1:I enjoy it. I love it. I don't really do it because it's a business because of the money. I enjoy it. You know, I love spending time with my father in the business and doing deals and we spend time together and I love that. But but I just enjoy the game, the art. I don't feel as if I'm working because I genuinely love what I do and I love the business and it gives me fuel, it gives me drive to continue aspiring and succeeding. I truly love it. I enjoy it.
Speaker 1:When I wake up every morning, I'm excited for the day because I'm excited to go to work and make deals and talk to people. I truly enjoy it. And I think when you enjoy what you do in business, you're always going to have failures, and you know. You go through ups, you go through downs, you roll with the punches, as they say. But I think if you love what you do although you may have failures because if you don't love it and eventually you have a failure or something happens, it's very, very easy to quit you can't quit and if you love what you do, I think it allows you to push through that because you genuinely love it.
Speaker 2:Well, it's clear, you love real estate. Hundreds of dollars in the industry as a whole, and it's honestly remarkable to me that you and your family have been able to stay so close in light of the business.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That is like a bit. That is like so strange to me, Honestly, it's very, very, very.
Speaker 1:We're probably one of the closest families you'll ever meet. We're very, very close in light of the business? Yeah, very much so.
Speaker 2:What does your sister?
Speaker 1:do. My sister is. She's in college. I'm in college right now too. We go to see her.
Speaker 2:Why are you in college? I think, what's the rationale for you to be in college?
Speaker 1:I'll tell you why. A lot of people nowadays say and this is the new generation college is an important. I think to an extent it isn't. I don't think you need the degree per se, but I think to a certain extent. I think when you reach a certain level and I went to a very good high school oratory prep and summit I think when you reach a certain level of success or whatever you may want to do, whether you want to do politics in the future, I still think it's important, maybe not the knowledge that you learn in school, but I think it's important to have a degree because I think, even to this day, when you reach a certain level, it's frowned upon which I don't think it should be but it's frowned upon not having the degree and I and now that's a tough hit man, I don't know like, especially for someone like you.
Speaker 2:your family's in real estate and it's funny that you say that too, because the gentleman Gabe, gabe, gabriel, sorry Gabe the developer of JNL, jnl companies, the developer of large developer Newark, we had him on the podcast. His father owns Dom Pepe restaurant, which we want great family, blah blah blah Right. The whole point to Zoya is he has a degree, and I was always shocked. I said what are you learning?
Speaker 1:What do you have?
Speaker 2:a degree. He's a lawyer, right Right. So he's an attorney. So he now went to a bachelor. He went guys law degree. So I was like what, what are you? Obviously your family set.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's not like me. I grew up, broke right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my family was very poor, right.
Speaker 2:We moved like 13 times by the time it was 10 or 10 times by the time it was 13. I don't remember anymore, yeah, and we got to agree, because that's what, as immigrants, that's what we totally parents grew up saying like oh, you need a good degree, yeah.
Speaker 1:You need a good degree. Yeah, which has become a cliche which you see, some of the most successful people in the history of the world, which I study, some of these people Steve Jobs never had a degree, mark Zuckerberg doesn't, but I, so why are you?
Speaker 2:That's what I'm trying to understand, because I probably make you more money than your college professor.
Speaker 1:I probably am, but I most certainly I am. But, I I'm in my last year. I enjoy school. I enjoy the knowledge you know. I think school to a certain extent, keeps you going. You're writing essays, you're doing work.
Speaker 2:Brother, you could, I'll give you another guy we had here. He was called Spaghetti, keep point mortgage, very good mortgage broker. He said he was a William Patterson.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:He's like third year in William Patterson going on his fourth year. And he, his parents, really want him to get in college, or about his third year Third year, I think it was he had like another 40 credits left, 30 credits left, something like that. And basically his professor was teaching about mortgages Right and during the class. This, carlos, is like eh wrong.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm saying it, I've seen this professor wrong.
Speaker 2:And then finally the guy the professor said hey, can you come in afterwards? He said I'm going to be honest with you. I don't think you should be in college.
Speaker 1:I think you should do this full time Right.
Speaker 2:He was oh, I do do a full time. He said okay, then don't waste any time in here. You're probably making way more money than I am Go do this right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I and I very well could do that. But I think I'm at a very early stage of my life and I think it teaches discipline. You know I, I think, more than anything, you learn a lot. You learn knowledge. You know I take very high, intense classes, honors classes. So I think, to a certain extent deadlining, I think it helps me and I think at this particular stage of my life I don't need the degree per se, but in the future you never know you may need it and I learned from it.
Speaker 2:And what's an area? Would you need the degree? I hate to disagree with you. I'm honestly fascinated. Yeah, because my mindset might. Here's the youngest real turn no 21, you're more your. Your real estate acumen is probably more advanced than people who are 35, right in the business. 10 years, yeah right, who got a hundred of deals right? Yeah you, you're, you're. It's like someone. I'll give you example if you were in my Paley right right. Paley right, I'm obviously best soccer player in history.
Speaker 2:Yeah this guy's a goat. You can see messy. Whatever right, paley, brazilian right.
Speaker 1:South American. I'm a messy guy. Okay, okay, I'm sure.
Speaker 2:This guy Paley yeah his father grew up. He grew up with his father. His father made a soccer ball with like socks and duct tape or whatever was something crazy can make shift soccer ball. Yeah, so he grew up playing soccer when he was like he was, I think, in the Olympics, I like sorry, it was in the World Cup at like 16, 17, 18, something like that Insane. That's like in my mindset with you because you grew up in the trade right right so for me I'm thinking what scenario could realistically play out?
Speaker 2:That you would need a?
Speaker 1:degree. You never know, perhaps in the future I want to do politics, or perhaps in the future, you know, I. You need to anticipate anything, I agree, anything. The future, I ever want to do anything of that sort, which perhaps, maybe I do, you, you need a degree, not because you need a degree, but because it's frowned upon not having the degree, and that's not why I'm getting the degree. But you just never know. So you always need to be prepared for the eventuality of whatever opportunity may arise by having the degree. Wow, and I and I enjoy school, you know if I, if it brings you joy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I enjoy the knowledge. You know I ain't nobody really likes going to school, but I I enjoy it. I enjoy the knowledge. I enjoy writing essays Because, to a certain point, it keeps me going and I'm writing and I'm learning and my mind continues going. You know, I have my deadlines, I'm disciplined, I have to hand in by this time and it really helps me Schedule and plan and do all those other things which will then allow me to do that in the future.
Speaker 2:Now let me ask you this do your classmates at seeing hall know that you're in real estate?
Speaker 1:everybody.
Speaker 2:So what do they? What I would love to hear what did they say?
Speaker 1:They, they look up to me. You know I'm a leader in my classroom. I help everybody as much as I can, but I'm a leader. You know they. They see me. I've helped a lot of my classmates get their license. I always try to help my classmates you put the classmates onto the real yeah seeing hall is about to lose students.
Speaker 1:They may lose students, and I think they've lost some already. I I I've met a very good friend of mine, jacob. He's Polish, jacob Stanjewski, and I met him through school. Very intelligent kid and I met him through school and we were in a class together and he reached out to me and I got him into real estate and now he's one of our. He's producing, but probably making more money than the professor? Probably making more money than the professor.
Speaker 2:Be honest, you think a professor probably making 70 grand. Yeah, you grant max. Yeah, maybe, maybe they're like a high-end professor, 100 something, yeah.
Speaker 1:But I, I, you know my, my classmates, my peers, my friends. They see me as a leader, so they ask me for help with their work. With the rest is I get them into real estate. I have meetings with my teachers before every semester. I tell them what I do. You know, this is what I do. So on and so forth.
Speaker 2:You have meetings with your teacher, before you start the class.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what does that meeting?
Speaker 2:look like.
Speaker 1:I, I meet with them, I tell them listen, this is what I do. I do real estate. I show them my background, I show them everything, just because I like meeting my professors, not so much to tell them what I do, but I like meeting with them before the class, building a relationship with them. So at any point, if I ever need anything or I need to switch something, or I need Assistants with something they step up to the plate with, me.
Speaker 2:Oh, for example, let's say you have a night course and you know we're in your classes morning.
Speaker 1:If I have, for example, a night course and I always do my best to be at every class and hand in everything at time and my grades are very good. But if I have, for example, something very important or I have an appointment and I can't make it the class which I try my best to make it to every class, there's some sort of a leniency with me because I'm a very diligent student and they know that I do what I do. So I always like meeting with the professors prior to To to actually indulging in the course.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah incredible.
Speaker 2:Okay, next question for you changing topics here. So you're a full times. How many credit taken? I'm taking 18, 18, six full time, plus three counts full times 12.
Speaker 1:Yeah and I graduate this year, so I'm almost you're all. You might as well finish totally. This is your last semester. Yeah, last semester. Oh, you're not gonna jump, might as well. You might as well. They hope you win, okay, yeah fair enough.
Speaker 2:So, with that said, how is real estate impacted your ability to date? Because you're you're very ambitious when you find time to you're talking about date meaning romance dating romance, do you? Is that even something in your mind right now?
Speaker 1:Not so much because I'm very young. I have many friends friends that are girls, friends that are boys and I go out with my friends and we go out to eat and we have a good time. It's not so much my focus now because I'm very focused. I'm 21 years old and I know that I'm gonna have the rest of my life. Today I'm gonna be married, I'm gonna have kids and so forth, and you kind of go with you never really know because life throws punches at you. But I am not too focused on that right now because I know I'm gonna have time for that Eventually, potentially in the future. I'm more focused on real estate myself, what I want to get done, what I want to accomplish, and eventually that'll come, whether it be in two years, three years, you never know. You meet somebody tomorrow and they become the love of your life.
Speaker 2:If you weren't in real estate.
Speaker 1:Do you think you'd be dating? I mean I, you don't know, maybe, maybe not. I I'm just very, very focused on the task at hand. I know that I want to do and, frankly, I don't really have time for it.
Speaker 2:No, no time. Yeah, I Full-time job, probably working 50 hours.
Speaker 1:There's no time for it. So you don't want to sacrifice at my age, 21 years old. Perhaps if I was 26 or if I was 30 it would be different, but I'm very focused right now on my goals and what I want to do. I know eventually that'll come, but I just don't put too much focus on it right now. At my age, do you travel?
Speaker 2:I.
Speaker 1:Love traveling. I go every year with my parents to Spain. We were in Spain for a month this year. We stayed in a beautiful villa. We had a great time. We travel very frequently. I haven't been to Colombia since I was very young. I need to go back to Colombia, but we always go on excursions to Florida.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:I love traveling.
Speaker 2:It's not like your family is like this. You were in line when you were seeing your clothes. You guys are like glue.
Speaker 1:We're very close together. We're a very close family. I love my family and we. We travel very frequently. We take excursions, we go, we go out to eat every weekend. You know we're always together.
Speaker 2:You guys do a family dinner every day or every weekend every weekend.
Speaker 1:You know, we on a.
Speaker 2:Saturday or Sunday. You say hey, on a Saturday or a Sunday dinner.
Speaker 1:The dinner, lunch, depending on the day, but we'll go to New York, we'll go to Pennsylvania, we'll go to a nice place in New Jersey. We're always going out doing things together as a family and I think you know it can't always be business, business, business, because eventually you get quote-unquote burnt out. You need to enjoy yourself, you need to be with your family, you need to do the things you love. Everybody has a different hobby. So that allows me to maintain sharp. You know, if it's always business all the time, you, you don't really stay sharp.
Speaker 2:You know, you get dull you over, you sharpen it, you know although I really love business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course, and for me, business is an art, it's a sport and I enjoy doing it.
Speaker 2:But you need to Diversify your life to do things you love, because that keeps you sharp if you were to introduce yourself without saying what you do, where you're from or a nationality you are, how would you introduce yourself?
Speaker 1:I would describe myself as a winner. I am. I'm very disciplined, I'm very consistent and I'm always somebody who's striving for more and more and more. I think, and I think that's prevalent in our business. You know you have 87% of realtors in our business fail within the first five years, and I'm sure you've seen it in the real estate business. So having those attributes persistence, consistency and really thinking big I it's very prevalent in my life. Thinking big. I say, if you're going to think at all, if you're going to think or you're going to aspire for something, you might as well think big. If you're going to waste your time thinking, you might as well think big, aspire for more. And that's really what I do in my life. I enjoy my business, I love it and I'm always looking for the next project, for the next opportunity, because that gives me a charge. That's what I enjoy.
Speaker 2:It sounds like you are so deeply woven in like passion, but not really. It's like a diligence, it's like a duty, almost like a Navy seal. That's what you sound like. What do you do? That's irresponsible. What's the last thing you did? That was irresponsible.
Speaker 1:What do I do? That's here. It's a very broad question. I'll give you my last irresponsible thing I did.
Speaker 2:The last irresponsible thing I did was maybe this is bad to say, but I I, you know take those, take cookies.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm bad. I'm bad with the cookies. Oh, I'm bad with the cookies. I'm bad with the sweets I am, so I had two rows of cookies.
Speaker 2:I'm like my wife went to bed I said how come you're right there?
Speaker 1:I said the cookies.
Speaker 2:I was a preach Like like, like I was a drug.
Speaker 1:I, I have. I have probably the biggest sweet tooth that you'll ever see, oh okay, I love sweets.
Speaker 2:You're a pretty shape guy. What is the metabolism?
Speaker 1:I'm in shape and people joke around with me because I, you know, I eat for the most part healthy. I love steak, but I eat a lot of sweets and eat a lot of ice cream and cookies and but I don't really work out for the most part, I'm in shape. I play sports. I love playing sports. What sports you play? Basketball, baseball and soccer.
Speaker 2:I played basketball. That was the first sport. You said basketball.
Speaker 1:I played basketball, baseball and soccer we have to play basketball together, we have to play.
Speaker 2:I would love that. Can we get some content? The basketball, the basketball.
Speaker 1:But I, I played those three sports in high school. Oh, okay, cool, I've always been a sports chug. What would you say? Your main sport is that you like the most? I would say to watch. I also play golf to watch. I like basketball because it's fast pace, it's quick. I enjoy basketball but the play. I like baseball because of the strategy, yeah, and baseball is more so of a mental game than it is physical.
Speaker 2:You know, actually I just learned that I actually, you know, I grew up Brazilian. We never, I don't know anything about when you're born here I was born in. I was born in New Jersey Claremont hospital. I was 10 pounds, 12 ounces. I was the second biggest baby I was at the time. My mom tells me this I don't know if it's true I was the second biggest baby born in the hospital history at the time. I was born Right 1994. I'm not as young as you, You're 21. Right.
Speaker 1:You're 21.
Speaker 2:When I was. Oh, I was a totally different place. I I got into real estate when I was 23. I tried, I just I was 20. I was just turning 23. Right, just turning 23.
Speaker 1:When you got into it, when I got into real estate, so you got in very young.
Speaker 2:I got very and I'll tell you, I think it's the way. I think it's the way and you made a very good point. This I think, like what you're saying, I don't want to agree with. I don't know why I have the response I don't want to agree, but what you're saying is right. Like you really don't need to have in your mind right now the female aspect. Yeah, you don't need to have, like, the relationship aspect right now. You're actually making really responsible, excellent decisions.
Speaker 2:The challenge I think you'll have, obviously until, let's say, I made me totally wrong, but that later on in life you'll become such a regiment. It's such a and it's not a bad thing actually, it's actually a great thing. We could probably use more men like you right In this world, right, with diligent, disciplined men. It would be a wonderful thing for society. But to like, for example, go out and travel like with no family, right, and to go out and be like people say we got to sew your wild oats, I don't believe in that crowd.
Speaker 2:I think that's a very foolish mentality. Oh, go out. And so before I got married, this guy told me I'm Christian, my wife and I wait till marriage, have sex all night, right and it was a wonderful decision. With that said, my this guy told me he's like one of my like. He's not really a mentor, but he means like an older friend, right, but he's like you should go and sew your wild oats. You're way too young and married. Go have sex with a bunch of women and I'm like what a terrible advice, horrible advice this guy gave me.
Speaker 2:I'm just because I'm 24,. I should just go get it.
Speaker 1:So he was trying to turn you into a savage. Yeah, he was trying to turn me into a savage. I'm like what is this guy saying? No, I'm not doing this.
Speaker 2:But my point is this for some reason I feel like you should go out and be a savage, not just with women, if I'm saying but, like you know, do reckless things.
Speaker 1:Right, why? Why I'm very adventurous. I'm very, very adventurous.
Speaker 2:But you don't sound reckless, you sound you sound responsibly irresponsible.
Speaker 1:I'm, I'm, I'm responsible, but I'm very adventurous. Yeah, how do you do it? I don't write. I don't really like. You can't really follow the status quo, because in life everything's always changing. I could say, for example, today I'm not dating and then in a year I'm dating something. You just never know.
Speaker 2:And you're young enough that you're not going to hold yourself captive to these, because you're growing every day, especially in our age and your 20s. You're growing so quickly. So who you are today is not who you're going to be at 23.
Speaker 1:Totally, totally. You're always, you're always changing with experience, something that I don't have, and I've experienced a lot because I I have my father as my mentor and, as I said, I think it's important to have a mentor in any business. I agree with you.
Speaker 2:I think in life, even if you're not business in life, get a mentor. You're dating somebody. Get a mentor.
Speaker 1:Always. You always need a mentor and I, he's been my mentor. But but you never know, you roll with the punches of life. You have good days, you have bad days, you have days in the middle. It's it's all about the stamina. You need to have stamina, especially in our business, because you have a client who comes to you the day before a closing and everybody's seeing it. And they come to you and they say I no longer want to buy the house, or the monthly mortgage payments are too high and for a lot of people in the business that'll totally mentally put them out of it.
Speaker 2:For this, for this way? No, I will even go. That won't. That will put them out. This is the worst part about being real. This is what realtors do the mistake way, way, way. I mean leaning forward or realtors.
Speaker 1:for example, you need to know how to speak to the clients as a realtor and when a client comes to you the day before the closing, you need to know how to explain the tax benefits, the numbers. What's the monthly mortgage payment? Why are you buying this house? What are the tax benefits of buying this house? What are you paying in property taxes? Most times, realtors what I say is they spit numbers at clients. You know this is your monthly mortgage payment.
Speaker 1:But, when somebody is going from paying two thousand dollars in monthly rent and now they're paying a five thousand dollar for them. It's too much. You need to know how to dissect and explain and go through the numbers.
Speaker 2:What would you say? Well, so beautiful. Honestly, I would say the challenge with realtors is that and how it impacts your real estate life, is that real estate would actually knock you out, but not for a long time. Yeah, that's a problem. Like these defeats that we have in real estate, how they really impacted my life, is it taught me that, even if something personally goes wrong in my life, not to veer off course, like, for example, in that situation you escaped the day before a client wants to cancel, let's say, the client does Happens in our business Happens.
Speaker 2:You know what? I don't blame them. Sometimes they were making a bad decision. They went to the end and they said you know what? I regret it.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to.
Speaker 2:let me do it. Put someone a gun, someone's head. I work for the client. The client tells me hey, I can't afford the mortgage. We walk through the numbers and they truly can't. What am I going to do? Push the client by.
Speaker 1:I'm not, oh no no, no, no, I don't want any foreclosure on my conscious.
Speaker 2:So with that said I go to the person, I go to the, I'll go. Sorry, In that situation let's say the client cancels what I've learned is a lot of realtors will end up doing is that will knock them out for a month. Then they restart a month later. I've already done that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right. What happens when you restart a month later? You've lost momentum.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so momentum is huge, yeah, I then I transfer that to my marriage.
Speaker 2:Give you an example yeah, last night my wife and I, my wife and I, we were having momentum right. I was like from the beginning, from the beginning of the day, I was being very romantic, my wife very caring with my wife the whole night.
Speaker 1:And you guys build the chemistry, we build the chemistry over the week.
Speaker 2:I'm like, hey, I really want my wife to feel loved today, right, right, that's from the morning, yeah that. Then in the evening, my wife said something to me that rubbed me the wrong way. I asked my wife something. She was a little bit. She wasn't sharp, but she was. I didn't do what I liked, yeah. So what did I want to do? Well, this bad thing happened. Now I'm out, right, right. But what was I going to do? I was ruining the momentum of being in a wonderful no funk zone. Yeah, right, my wife, I've a jokunite no funk zone marriage, we call the NFZ. We want to be we don't want to be in a funk, we want to be no funk zone Right.
Speaker 2:So instead I said, oh, I'm going to, I'm going to overlook this trespass, it's a very minor thing. Yeah, realistically, just like the person can't like, it's one sale. Yeah, all it is one sale.
Speaker 1:It's one sale.
Speaker 2:You're going to sit on the sidelines for a month and cry it out for one. There's a broker told me what my mortgage broker, carlos Figueira, keypoint Mortgage, excellent. Shout out to you. There was a day I was, I was. I mean, you're so young, it's insane. I'm just realizing right now you're still you're. I was so much older than you. This is crazy. So I was 24, 25, three or four deals die in one day, within a 24 hour span, on Friday to Saturday, three or four deals die and two offers get rejected, and at the time I only had probably nine offers, nine deals on your contract, right. So to me it was like half my business. Yeah, I was dying, right. A lot of realtors and I'm sorry to cut you off they mentally spend that money.
Speaker 1:You know I'm sorry, you know I'm going to make this amount of money, I'm going to spend it on this and that and the deal falls through and everything goes to the ground. But you need stamina, you need resilience. I think in business as a whole, not only real estate, and I I love. I'm very big into reading books and listening to podcasts and watching interviews, and I study some of the most successful and wealthiest people in the world Because I think to be wealthy, to obtain success, you need to understand it.
Speaker 1:So I study these people and in many cases in most cases a lot of the most successful people in the world go through shortcomings.
Speaker 2:Of course, and they have failure. Master, master, be fit, you need to be resilient.
Speaker 1:You need to have stamina. The market changes, the market adjusts. You need to know how to adjust and you never, never give up. You never quit and I've seen people brand in friends, friends of mine. I went to a very good school where my friends' parents are on Wall Street and they're bankers. I've seen good friends of mine starting a business and they quit. But they're right before they quit, right before they get over the hump, and if they would have kept going they would have been great and they would have made a lot of money, but they quit right before. You need to be resilient and you need to have stamina. Where do you find your?
Speaker 2:resilience and stamina.
Speaker 1:I, I, I think it's. It comes from within. I'm very religious, I, I, and it comes from within and it comes from God my resilience, my stamina. I'm very religious and I think with experience, you build stamina, you build resilience, but I think it comes from within. Have you and your? Could you mention that you grew up with?
Speaker 2:your father and your mother, both successful individuals. What did they say about you? On a regular basis. What's something that, like I'm assuming, they're proud of you. Right, you've quite remarkable young man, cause your dad is broker right. I imagine your dad is not going to be a broker until he dies.
Speaker 2:Imagine what. Has has there been a conversation, like you know you're not going to be like I was wondering this, actually I'm just curious, like what happens in the transition? Have you and your dad ever spoken to like hey, like do you have a sister too? Does this go 50, 50?
Speaker 1:I. I think he's going to work until the day he dies, Brandon, stop.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Wow, which is which is amazing, amazing, he, he, he has the energy, he loves the business. You know when you go to work and you truly enjoy it, because some people could fake it.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Or you could truly. He truly enjoys it. You know, talking to people and meeting with agents and helping people. He truly has a love for the business.
Speaker 2:He loves it.
Speaker 1:So he tells me I'm going to work until I'm not going to. I hope he lives till 300 years old. I hope he's a longest living man.
Speaker 2:Well, god forbid, one day, like me and you will both. I don't know if you know this we're both going to die, yeah, um, when your father passes. Has there ever been a discussion of like cause? You have a sister too. She in real estate minded as well, or no she?
Speaker 1:she's going to be a doctor. She's going to school right now. Oh for medical school. She's going to medical school. So.
Speaker 2:I imagine she's not going to want to take over the brokerage.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I guess I'm next in line. What I want to do is I love real estate, I love construction, I love development. I want to be one of the biggest developers. I want to work in New Jersey, I want to work in New York City. I love the art, the art of the deal, the sport of real estate. And you know what? I don't really do it branding for the money, I do it for the sport, for the game, for the competition. I think you, I think, you really mean that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I truly mean it.
Speaker 2:I think by itself.
Speaker 1:And you can't. And you can't do things for the money, because when you do things for the money, as I said, when you have a shortcoming, when something happens, you need to truly enjoy it. I love what I do, I love the real, and it's not only the real estate business but business as a whole, the game, the sport. I think money is a way to keep score to a certain extent, but you really need to be in love and be obsessed with the game. And the most successful people in the world and the happiest people in the world to a certain point Love what they do. They have a certain obsession towards their craft, and that allows you to diversify your life.
Speaker 2:Do you love the sport or do you love winning?
Speaker 1:I get a charge out of winning, but I like the sport.
Speaker 2:How would you differentiate the two? How?
Speaker 1:everybody, everybody wants to win in what they do. Whatever you may do in life, whether it's real estate or whatever it is, or whether you're an athlete, you'll always want to win. If you're competitive, if you're driven which I am very much you always want to win. But I love the process. You know, I see it as a form of art working, getting to a certain point, surpassing that point, reaching certain goals, reaching certain milestones. I love the creation process. You know you have to be in love with the process. If you have a certain goal, you're not just going to catapult to that goal. You need to be in love with the process. I love the process. For me it's a sport and I was an athlete. I played three sports in high school. But I truly love the business and I think that's what allows me to be resilient, to succeed in the business, because I really love it.
Speaker 2:Hmm, Let me wow. This is, and honestly, I really see that you love it.
Speaker 1:I, if I may psychoanalyze you real quick.
Speaker 2:So every boy is born with an innate, innate, innate need for validation right.
Speaker 1:This is how masculinity is bestowed.
Speaker 2:Masculinity is not bestowed from your mother. That's why single mothers have such a difficult time. My mother was a single mother. A single mother then becomes mother and father Very, very unhealthy, no good. The boy needs a masculine energy. Why the masculine bestows masculinity Right. Femininity cannot bestow masculinity, Right. So, with this said, this is why when guys you know who are young and they're going to women trying to like, oh, I'm a man because I got this.
Speaker 1:No, it's, it will never really work. Yeah yeah, it's very artificial validation, right, right.
Speaker 2:Anyways, with that said I, it's so interesting for you and actually in my opinion it sounds like a beautiful thing. Yeah, because your father you grew up. The person we most most want validation from is our father. Yeah, your father. Obviously he was born. I assume that your father came from humble beginnings in America first time?
Speaker 1:right, yeah, yeah, he was here. He moved. He was. He was born in Colombia. Yes, he was born in Colombia. He came here. My mother was born here, yes, but my mother's side of the family, from Spain. Well, your father's an immigrant. If he's an immigrant, that's the truth, right, yeah, yes.
Speaker 2:Obviously I'm not saying they're bad Wait.
Speaker 1:My mother's an immigrant too. Yeah, wonderful yeah.
Speaker 2:With that said, you see that your father comes in and he builds up his own, like dynasties, empire, right, yeah, small kingdom in a big world, right, that's all these built things. You are growing up. What you want? You want your father's validation, just like we all do, yeah, so you want your dad's validation. Your dad brings you alongside with him in the workforce, in this case, real estate. Your dad, you're seeing him shake people's hands. He's getting respect. Your father's modeling to you what it looks like to be a man, right? You, of course. What do you want to be? You want to be a man, right? You want to be a boy forever. You want to be a punk.
Speaker 1:No, you want to be your own man, yeah.
Speaker 2:So, with that said, your father's present in that way where a lot of people, I'm realizing, they keep the business almost away from their child or they force their child to say, how can you not take over? But without being present and loving and affirming. I think that's the key thing that I see in you. It's that you've been affirmed. You've been affirmed. It's like no, hey George, you are this. Hey Jordan, I'm proud of you for this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, look at my son, although I've been affirmed and I was very lucky. You know, everybody grows up in a different situation Of course my father was an immigrant. Some people don't have certain things, other people that do have certain things don't reach a certain point, and so forth. Everybody's different. My father from a very young age was very similar to me.
Speaker 1:He lived in Colombia. It wasn't so easy, of course, but he was always. He had a terrific father, my grandfather very successful, very intelligent, kind In Colombia, very in Colombia, very wise, and he, eventually, he was very hardworking. He came to this country, he worked, he worked at the Marriott you know setting tables and so forth prior to becoming real estate. Then he opened his own cleaning company. You know he went through that and for that I'm very lucky, because then I don't have to go through that.
Speaker 2:Of course.
Speaker 1:I received the wisdom that he received from his father from all the experience that he had, so I have an upper hand, to a certain extent, over many people who may not have the things that I have. So I it's up to me to take advantage of that, to use my upper hand, to use the strength and the wisdom and the intelligence that my father has gained from his life and his experience in the business and ultimately take it to the next level. I think that's what my duty is. And another thing that I harp importantly on, which I see in many successful people, is you need to have a sense of urgency. Life moves by very, very quickly.
Speaker 1:You know, five years go like this. We're still very young. You know I'm younger, but you're also very young. You're a young guy, and five years, 10 years, 15 years go like this. So I think, to a certain extent, if you want to achieve a certain level, you need to have a sense of urgency. I study Elon Musk, I study Steve Jobs, and Steve Jobs, for example, had a sense of urgency in doing what he wanted to do releasing the Apple one and then taking off with the Apple two to bring something to humanity in a quick timeframe and the guy in two, three years working with Steve Wozniak, was able to release the Apple two because of the sense of urgency. So I think that's very important and you need to have fun.
Speaker 1:You know it's you do the business. It's not really all business business, but I am very creative. You know I'm in entertainment. We have the rich theater. I bring artists. I like having fun, I like enjoying the business and enjoying money and I'm very adventurous. Maybe in the future I get into other forms of real estate or other forms of entertainment with artists and sports. You know, you never know I, but I really believe in enjoying and having fun in the business.
Speaker 2:It does seem like you, especially being 21, you got to have fun. Yeah, cut loose a little. So I guess what you mentioned that you're thinking about being in the business, that you're thinking about being that you're. One of your ambitions is being developer. Do you feel like you have your father's support in becoming developer? Let's say, New Jersey, New York.
Speaker 1:Very much so. He actually he's very supportive of me and we're actually working together to do certain things right now.
Speaker 2:In order.
Speaker 1:We actually our office, is licensed in New York. I'm licensed in New York. I've sold a couple, I've had a couple of deals in New York. But totally I know I have full support. My father's always been very supportive of me and I know that with his support, with my mother, with my sister, with the rest of my family, with my friends, I'm going to be able to reach that level. But it all comes from within. You know, it's a lot of focus, it's a lot of discipline that goes into reaching that level and I know right now I'm very talented, I'm very young, but I'm at 1% of where I need to be if I'm going to reach that level.
Speaker 1:So, every day. I'm constantly you know reading books, watching interviews, becoming more knowledgeable so that I can reach the point that I want to be.
Speaker 2:What books would you recommend someone read, who's like already in the industry, who's growing, who's thriving but wants to get further along. What books would you recommend? I like two books.
Speaker 1:I love the art of war which doesn't really tie into real estate.
Speaker 2:I don't know what that's war. Real estate is war. So that's a great book for real estate, that's true.
Speaker 1:I mean psychology because real estate is all psychology.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, as you know, it's all psychology.
Speaker 1:That's it. It's knowing how to speak. It's knowing how to, for example how to listen how to listen when you present an offer and I know it's a real estate podcast. When you present an offer, how do you sell that offer? How do you sell that client? How do you sell that buyer? How do you make the listing agent comfortable with the proof of funds, with the pre-approval letter, so that your client wins the offer? It's all knowing. You know how to how to sell.
Speaker 2:Do you are Okay? So you have the R award.
Speaker 1:R of war, the 48 laws of power. 48 laws of power. Number two 48 laws of power, I love.
Speaker 2:Okay, wow, I would agree with those two books. Definitely in line with your character, by the way, for sure.
Speaker 1:I love the Prince by Machiavelli. Not so popular it's with the art of deal. You know trilogy, I believe the Prince by Machiavelli. I think it's a phenomenal book.
Speaker 2:Are you? Do you end up being coming friends with your clients?
Speaker 1:Very much. So I become very close to my clients. I, my clients, invite me to their barbecues. You know I'm very, I'm very open, I love having a good time. So I'm very close to my clients. My clients trust me and I and they love me.
Speaker 2:Nice. If you could change one thing about yourself, what?
Speaker 1:would it be Many things. I think all around, I think there's many things that I could continue improving on Give me an example, Whether it be knowledge. No, no like number one.
Speaker 2:You say give me, I could just. Let's see there was a. I'll give you an example. Better, Let me frame the question. Yeah, you know God comes down to you one day. He, you know, he's wearing. Hey, I want to give you one thing. I want you to ask for it.
Speaker 1:What would you ask for Wisdom. You would ask for wisdom.
Speaker 2:You just wise man, you want the Solomon route.
Speaker 1:Wisdom, because wisdom comes with experience and at my age it's very easy to perhaps make certain mistakes Because of how young I am, I haven't lived certain things that maybe other people. Although many people say that I'm wise beyond my years, I would say the number one is wisdom and I think the number one thing in life is knowledge, and it's very hard to pinpoint one particular thing, but I would say wisdom and knowledge.
Speaker 2:In my mind, you are a very, very strange person to speak to Because you are so opposite of what 21 year olds are in. America right now, and frankly it seems, though I'm sure, your family is dysfunctional. Not every family is perfect, right, there's every. Of course, there's issues, right.
Speaker 1:Everyone has issues.
Speaker 2:Everyone has issues, so different degrees, but it seems like, overall, what I would keep hearing from you is your family has a sense of unity, purpose and belonging that has united you guys Unapologetically. And what better thing, more and more, can we want, than men who have been initiated by their fathers, moved forward, of confidence in the real estate industry not being consumed by oh, I want the money, oh, I want the watch, oh I want the car, I want the girls. Oh, my God, like, let me like. That's the worst. But now that it's like no, I actually I love competition, maybe you will get into politics. I think you could do very well in politics, honestly.
Speaker 1:I would vote for you. Come on, All right, George.
Speaker 2:I appreciate you coming on the podcast today. It's always time we got for today, but I am very grateful for you.
Speaker 1:Thank you for coming Likewise and I and I appreciate you having me very much. I wish you the best with the podcast. We're here in a beautiful mansion, oh yeah. And this is beautiful location. I really wish you the best.
Speaker 2:Yes, crewers got mansion. We're here located in Newark. Come visit Adios.
