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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
Mahir Allan: Walking the Real Estate Tightrope with Integrity and Strategic Connections
Have you ever considered the tightrope walk that is maintaining integrity in a cut-throat industry? Join us as Mahir Allan, a real estate virtuoso from the streets of Staten Island, spills the beans on staying true to one's moral compass amidst the allure of quick profits in the property game. With each anecdote, Mahir peels back the layers of a life rich in lessons—from the childhood home that introduced him to ownership concepts, to the ethical crossroads faced in a dog-eat-dog Amazon venture. Our conversation is a treasure trove of hard-earned wisdom, echoing the sentiment that success need not sacrifice soul.
As we weave through the fabric of Mahir's experiences, we uncover the art of strategic relationship-building and the mastery of personal boundaries as quintessential tools for thriving in real estate. Picture this: emails as the new gatekeepers of your calendar, and the pruning of business circles as a means to cultivate a rich, productive ecosystem. And let's not forget the practicalities—managing Airbnb expectations or having a trusty contractor on speed dial. These stories underscore the finesse required to navigate the personal and professional realms, proving it's possible to be successful without being consumed by your work.
Wrapping up our heart-to-heart, Mahir and I celebrate the transformative power of real estate on personal growth, confidence, and the strength of authentic connections. I share my evolution from a suit-clad conformist to hosting my own events with the ease of a seasoned pro, embracing the "realest guy in the room" approach. Whether you're a real estate rookie or a mogul in the making, this episode is a front-row seat to the power of bringing genuine value to the table. So, as we bid farewell, remember: the true measure of your worth in any industry is more than the deals you make—it's the integrity you uphold. Adios!
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I have over 100, like almost 150 units. Right, if you're just looking for the next guy so you can be married or whatever you just can be like, oh, that guy checks all the boxes. I would always just say I had some other job for a little while just to feel him out.
Speaker 2:What job would you say, you?
Speaker 1:had, I would pick ridiculous jobs. I was an ice cream truck driver. I was like all right, let's see if they're really interested in me or if it's about like, about what they think I have.
Speaker 2:Get about like about what they think I have. 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. All right, so we got with this Mahir Allen today a good friend of mine, honestly, previous clients, hopefully still clients we JV'd on a deal together, two deals right.
Speaker 2:So a partner of mine, mine and a neighbor of mine, as of like two or three months ago, four months, uh, december I moved in, okay, so about three or four months, so four months, and we are now live here. You're a newark resident. How do you feel over here? Talk to us I never thought I would live in newark how do we, how do you, how are you convinced to, to move on over to the good promised land?
Speaker 1:Well, I moved originally to Jersey City out of necessity. I had a lot of projects going on. I moved into one of my properties and I was just looking at like I need to be able to touch my properties multiple times a day because the projects were not going smooth. So then, once I stabilized everything in jersey city, uh, I was like I want something a little nicer than where I was staying, and then I ended up in your building and you had a pretty nice apartment in new york aft yeah, beautiful backyard, very nice, nice two bedroom enjoying life.
Speaker 2:But your place now is like it's pretty baller I like it. Yeah, it's pretty ball yeah okay, so you know the famous question here at Real Lives and Real Estate what did you grow up in? A house, an apartment, a building, a condo?
Speaker 1:I grew up in a house, yeah, in Staten Island.
Speaker 2:Staten Island house. Okay, and who? Now? Both parents? Single parent, how'd that work?
Speaker 1:Both parents, and then I have three older brothers, an older sister and a younger sister have three older brothers older sister and a younger sister.
Speaker 2:Oh wow, and I forgot about that and your house that you bought, that you grew up in. Rather, when did you realize it was your house and not an investment property?
Speaker 1:I don't know, there was like a moment I just knew that was home. I mean, I never really thought about we had. I mean, I guess we never heard anything about having to pay a landlord, it was always like just the bills or the house, you know but it never clicked because I always wonder.
Speaker 2:I'm like yeah, you know, the idea of owning a house is pretty interesting, right, it's like you own this piece of land. You really, I guess, own it only if you pay your taxes. Right, you don't pay your taxes, then the government owns it yeah but um, it's just funny, right, you cannot pay your tax. Even if you pay off your house, the government can take you back for the taxes. You never really own anything, isn't that a shame? It's the way it is it is the way you only own it Until what you die.
Speaker 1:You only own it as long as you continue To play by the rules. Right, if you stop paying your taxes On your tax returns?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They come after your assets.
Speaker 2:If you committed fraud, they can come after your assets. A lawsuit they can come after your assets, yeah.
Speaker 1:So you just have to Play by the rules, which is pay your bills, pay your bills. Wow, look at that.
Speaker 2:Great advice from me here um, now talk to me a little bit. Uh, funny enough, you guys don't know, here is actually our first podcast guest. Uh, the unreleased files, because the camera did not work. So this is round two with me here. So I'm gonna do a little bit differently what I love about you and what I think that you do very rare.
Speaker 2:I just we had another guest here and he was sharing his experience when it came to basically very cutthroat in the real estate industry and how he really feels like it's very toxic. He's looking to make a change. The people he was talking about, like the way they operated. I know so many people like that, right, so many. And I thought, now that you're here, I just realizing you have this thing that you know you were talking to me about a partnership that didn't really work out and you're like I'm like, well, you can't really be upset because you know the partner did what was best in their own, that was in their own best interest, and you're like, yeah, well, I wouldn't do that. It's like maybe I won't make as much money as they will, but it's just not who I am.
Speaker 2:I've seen it time and time again that you haven't wronged people. Even you did your Amazon right. You had the Amazon business. It didn't work out. You ended up owing I don't know people like 100 grand, right, or some crazy number, and even though you could have been like, hey, sorry, it's an investment, it went south. Peace. You did everything you could to get everyone paid out. Well, how do you operate that way in real estate? You know how do you operate with integrity and ethics and you know a loyalty at such a high personal cost uh, it's, it's something that I've always, I've always done since I was a kid.
Speaker 1:Um, it started off with, like I had issues with my hips when I was a kid and I said like, all right, well, I'm not gonna make an excuse and have a limitation because of my hips. So even if I had crutches, I'd play baseball with crutches. Wow right, if we were racing, I'd run, had crutches, I'd play baseball with crutches. Wow Right, if we were racing, I'd run with crutches. And I didn't want anyone to baby me or coddle me in any way.
Speaker 1:And then I guess, when I got into work like work life, it was be the guy who says yes to extra hours, be the guy who says you know I'm going to work, come in early, stay late, ask questions, like if you do something wrong, like take accountability for it, and that I learned that in like my banking life. And then the integrity thing is just like I have to answer to myself at the end of the day and if I don't feel that that's something that I would want done to me, I couldn't. I don't feel like like something I could do to somebody else, I can't. It gets me into trouble, I guess, because I make my life harder than it needs to be, but for myself I can't be like that. I'm very unselfish.
Speaker 2:Really Basically to your own detriment.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Do you think that's a path you want to continue on?
Speaker 1:No. So I heard something recently. It was like you know, which kind of entrepreneur do you like, would you think is going to be the most successful? The guy who is 100% unselfish and 100% and 0% selfless? Like, yeah, that guy is going to be good but he's not going to be great, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And if you do the reverse, you're too selfless 100% and you're 100, not so zero percent, not selfish.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that person's not gonna do any well, well, he's gonna have no money, right, he's gonna continue to give it away, he's not gonna grow anything.
Speaker 2:So you have to find that balance like you gotta have, like really like a 70 30 balance, like, yeah, selfish, selfish to selfless, selfless yeah, one thing I've been, I've committed to basically recently, is life is a battle, right, no matter any way you cut it, there's no walking away from it. You know alive you're gonna get shot, you're getting killed, and it's in real estate. We're just talking about so many high stake, high stakes, right, it's a lot of pressure high overhead.
Speaker 2:You know, for my business it's high overhead. Um, you know, you know you, managing your construction projects that's a risk. You got people's money on the line. You know you, managing your construction projects that's a risk. You got people's money on the line. So I've realized that I need to step up as like a warrior, and when I approach things, I would all, and I did the same thing when I went to jail. When I went to jail, there was a guy he would steal from me. He would go underneath my bunk. I would put all my treats underneath my mattress and because the box, it would be a seal, seal.
Speaker 2:So you had to put it underneath your mattress and they would like I would take uh, they would take something like peanut butter crackers, whatever. And I saw the guy and I would. I would forgive him. That's what I thought was the christian thing to do. I didn't really understand, but I was really allowing this guy. I'm like I'm not gonna fight this guy, I'm just gonna forgive him. He needs it more than me.
Speaker 2:Very bad mindset in jail in jail yeah, very bad mindset in jail, horrible mindset in jail, but what I ended up doing it's actually better for you not to order anything basically is what I've learned.
Speaker 2:But long story short is, by looking back from the experience, I learned a lesson that I now I'm applying to real estate you must be able to defend yourself. If not, you actually live the life of a victim. And it's one thing to have the ability to defend yourself. It's another thing to have the ability to defend yourself, it's another thing to have the courage to defend yourself and the strength, but it's a higher thing to know the wisdom of when to attack and when to not attack, when to say, hey, you know what, I could fight you here and I could walk away winning, but I'm going to just settle. I'm going to settle because it's not worth the time, it's not worth the bad blood. Here's what it's worth, right, and it's a very difficult thing. You were saying with the selfishness and not selfless, not selflessness to challenging, challenging, challenging line, to find me Really, and you are just so generous.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to a fault in a lot of ways. So one thing I started doing in the last year like you said, like you have to be, you have to be your own defense.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Right, and a lot of people are calling me for opportunities and it's selfish for them. The opportunities not in my interest, right? All right, like you probably get this all the time, hey, brendan, let me get you a cup of coffee. I want to pick your brain one day right, I just got today right. What does that cup of coffee do for you all right, nothing. Honestly, I don't have the time for a cup of coffee. I got my own cup of coffee. I can get a cup of coffee it's five bucks yeah, so seven bucks.
Speaker 1:One thing I started to do is I started to like avoid those kind of situations and be like listen, I really don't have the time. You know if you want to shoot me an email and when I have the time I will answer your questions there. So it's a little bit of a barrier. Okay, now I don't have to take two hours out of my day to go get coffee with this person who is, realistically, they're just after my resources to go do something for themselves your experience, your knowledge, exactly, exactly. So the other thing I started to do is I started to trim the fat who is not of the quality that I need to have in my, in my business.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:Right. So a lot of times I'm like but he's all right, he's, you know he's affordable or whatever. But the quality is horrible.
Speaker 2:You end up spending way more time on it and end up costing you more money because, you have this handyman or this contractor or whoever the guy is or the lender or the agent Exactly that partner.
Speaker 1:Exactly. So you just realize. Okay, let's start. If our skills were the same let's say me and you are both realtors and me and you both go out and get deals what benefit will we have in partnering with each other? Right? So if our skills are the same, it doesn't really make sense to partner up anymore.
Speaker 2:I'm are the same it doesn't really make sense to partner up anymore. I'm bringing the same value you're bringing.
Speaker 1:So now we're standing on top of each other, both of us not doing the other part of the job.
Speaker 2:Well, and can I tell you what it is? It takes a lot of wisdom, though, to recognize that a lot of wisdom.
Speaker 1:So that's, that's what I started doing over the last year, and then now I've last year. Things have gotten a lot different. Right, I have a. I've generated new avenues to bring in deals yep I have a private lender. He funds me on all my deals better terms than I was getting with hard money. And then I have a contracting crew that is just rolling, rolling and rolling.
Speaker 2:My dream is to get a private money lender, just someone to fund my deals. That's my dream. We'll see if that ever comes it'll come, it'll come.
Speaker 1:So I mean, that's so. Now my life is way easier, you know, and and now I'm at the point where it's like all right, what else can I do to impact like what, what should I take off my plate? And that's another way to defend yourself is like you'll be like I got it, I got it, I got it. And then you do it too much and now you're not doing anything. Well, uh.
Speaker 2:So it's funny that we talk about extremes like, hey, you gotta be all in all in well, yeah, but it's actually a much more balanced approach. If you want to really thrive in real estate, um, not just even as like uh, when I say real estate, just don't mean real estate industry, um, I really mean like even if you want to just buy a house, you're like I gotta buy a house today. It's like whoa, slow down, be selective, make sure you're ready to be a homeowner. I had a client recently call me, super pissed off.
Speaker 2:Their furnace went out and they're like, bernard, I just bought this house four weeks ago and I said, well, remember the home inspection. The guy said the furnace was nearing the end of its lifespan and you know we tried negotiating and he said no. And I told you hey, listen, this is as is now. Uh, you know you might fix this. He said, all right, whatever, it's a good deal. And then a month later, the furnace went out. Now you're upset with me. I apologize. Perhaps I should have been more clear with you. I'm not sure what to say. The home inspector told you this. I told you this. It's in writing.
Speaker 2:But I totally take full responsibility. What do you want me to?
Speaker 1:do I just?
Speaker 2:like apologize, but it's like that guy really should not have bought a house. He didn't understand what it means to be a homeowner. And that's just the first Of many issues that are going to come up With a home ownership.
Speaker 1:So I think that's, that's like that story is, is really like. It happens a lot In my situations when People want Like the accolades, oh or, or, like the appreciation, appreciation or whatever. I just thought about that but then when it really comes down to doing that part, it's like I'll give you an example and that's a frustrating situation.
Speaker 2:The best example is the Airbnbs. You know we have an Airbnb right. We manage some of your units. You're very we have a long-standing relationship with those. I think we manage four units for you right On New York Ave. Three or four, three, three and we made a three in New York Ave. And it's always funny, january, february, my, the people who have them with this long time. They get so upset. Is it? How the hell can this be the case? This month is terrible, but in January, sorry. In December and November and October there's no thank-you cards no when it's 2x, 3x, what january was yeah
Speaker 2:you're like thanks, that's it. Yeah, so by the reality is they're, they're not. And this is why I've been so selective with now growing the airbnb. I have people calling me like oh, can you take on my unit? I say no or I tell them straight up hey, okay, are you? I'm so particular and brett mccully taught me this, so when you take people on you, they see the hype. They don't understand what it really is. So they don't understand.
Speaker 2:Like we had a reservoir, there's mice on the property, there's a mice infestation. So what do we got to do? We got to pay for mice. We got to pay for exterminator. I asked you today that's going to cut into the profits. That is home ownership. We have to give a refund to the guest. When guest, when I deal with a person, why did you give a refund in full? You should only have given him 25%. That's why what I do is I try to remove the partners, because they don't really know these side investors what it really looks like. I try to actually close off their access to the involvement.
Speaker 2:I really do. Honestly, their benefit is mine, because when they see the calendar and they see that some of them are like meanwhile, your average book ahead time is four days, so it's normal for it to be empty in three weeks. Why, on average, people only?
Speaker 1:book four or five days ahead.
Speaker 2:Yeah, why are you so? But the calls, the tags, I'm like okay yeah, the calendar looks light.
Speaker 1:What's going on here?
Speaker 2:and I'm like just wait till in the month, that's it. And then one person. They then one person. They looked at the calendar. They misread the calendar. They didn't even know what they were looking at. They said well, it said $47 a night. They said that's a suggested price. We're at $82 a night.
Speaker 2:And I'm like why are we calling? I said do not call me about this again. I'm serious, Do not, Not even there for it, Not there for it. I do my best job and I'll call it a day. That's it Now. Thankfully, since I've been involved, everything's going well, and you know, not perfectly, but going well. Yeah, so that's it. Rapid fire questions for me here, Alan All right, let's go.
Speaker 2:You're dating a wonderful woman. Her name is Scarlett. Wonderful, a fan of Scarlett. Yeah. How has real estate? How has you know you guys have been dating for a year and a half, right?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay, before that, how did real estate impact your dating life?
Speaker 1:I used to not share it. I would always tell people I had some other job, but you're on Instagram. Oh, you don't really post on Instagram. I don't really. Okay, give me an example. What job would you say you had? What was your go-to? You were an architect? Uh, no, I would pick ridiculous jobs. I was an ice cream truck driver no, it's out. Yeah, I would just say something crazy like that, because I was like all right, let's see if they're really interested in me or if it's about like, about what they think I have wow I have over 100, like almost 150 units.
Speaker 1:Right, if you're whatever, you're just looking for the next guy so you can be married or whatever. You just can be like, oh, that guy checks all the boxes he's nice money, he's a nice guy. Stand up yeah, but that doesn't mean you want to be with me. That means I'm just the next guy on the list. Wow, so that's what? Uh?
Speaker 2:the only girl ever catch on the ever what do? What would women say when they said the ice cream truck driver line?
Speaker 1:they would would laugh, but then they would stop asking about what I do for work.
Speaker 2:Ah, they thought you were a drug dealer. That's what they thought.
Speaker 1:I would say drug dealer.
Speaker 2:Or an arms dealer.
Speaker 1:That's what I said to Scarlett actually Stop. We first started talking. She's like oh so what do you do for work? I said I'm a drug dealer.
Speaker 2:And she's colombian. Oh my god, so it was just funny. Yeah, this poor girl, she goes home.
Speaker 1:She's like mom, I think I'm, the cartel is after me, yeah, and then when, and then when she got to know me, her dad's like I don't know, I don't think he owns the property. I remember talking to tom. I think tom owns the property, I think I don't know if that guy's telling you the truth that it was funny how the whole thing happened. But I was like no, I actually own the property. Tom works with me.
Speaker 2:You know, it's pretty funny and now let me show you that's funny. Uh, let me ask you a question, though. You know, working as much as you did, you were someone who I, you know, I've seen work quite ridiculous amount of hours. How did that impact your dating, like your lack of availability?
Speaker 1:what I used to have a problem with was, uh, when to stop working. So that's when I started silencing my phone at 7 pm so only like who's a favorite, like family or close friends would could get in touch with me and I wouldn't have my phone turned back on until 8 am and then I'm ready to work again. So that's something I tried to do. I had to because I had literally nothing else to talk about but work. I was the most like unfun friend you could have. Wow, I would go to social events. It'd be like 10 o'clock and then I'd be standing around. They'd be like what's the matter? Like I'm, like I'm good, it's you guys are all talking about like sports, sports or like a party you went to and I'm like I just want to talk about like what I'm doing, and no one wants everyone's like. Enough of work stuff don't talk about work.
Speaker 1:I'm like that's the only thing I'm interested in.
Speaker 2:I've experienced that as well. I really am so thankful that I maintained my faith in Jesus has grown over the course of the past few years, because without that, I really came to a place where all I really wanted to talk about was literally just real estate, and it was challenging for me to have friendships with people outside of real estate who didn't really have that common interest or they weren't into, because I own a small real estate business here in newark. We saw about 200 houses, um, right, pretty good, I think. Um, and if people weren't about like entrepreneurship or self-development, it got really really difficult for me because I was like what the hell are we doing here? Like we got to grow right, it's kind of I got irritated in the matrix almost, but then actually it flipped, weirdly enough, when I kind of got like burnt out 2021, 2022, I only wanted to hang out with people who weren't affiliated. No, sorry, late 2022, I wanted to get away from real estate. So, like last year, I was like I don't, like I just want to be friends with people who just know me for me, like who don't know me for what I do or what I'm passionate about, whatever, and I kind of had like that bitterness and I started hanging out with people who were just like one of my close, became a close friend.
Speaker 2:Actually His name is Vinny Really cool guy, artist, and he actually works in Brooklyn now as like a hospitality role in like the front wherever it is, like this building anyways but he's like totally, totally, totally wasn't what I was, a kind of person I was friends with prior. He's not like this business professional real estate guy boom, yeah, he got an artist. He was a driver before he got this good gig. He's at now played a lot of basketball and me and him, which is vibe he was very theoretical, very he is very philosophy orientated and honestly he's a. He's genuinely a good person like, genuinely a good friend to have.
Speaker 2:And I remember when I had my kid like I let him hold my kid right Like to me it's a very important thing. If you can hold my son, it means I don't let like people I don't trust and love and admire, touch my child right Like by any means Very important to me that way. So I'm building up a friendship me, because I think a year or two prior to that, me and him would never have been friends because he was not about the real estate life. He was not about the small business owner life. He's definitely about growth. He's a growth-oriented person, for sure. But he was like an artist. I'm like what is this guy doing? He's rapping. That would never be my kind of friend. Now, honestly, I listen to his music on my way to work and when I listen I feel good Wow, I'm celebrating my friend.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And when we had our party here at the office, we brought people back to the rooftop. I played his song, and at the same time, though, I do agree that sometimes you're with people and you're like you don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a news fest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly You're like oh man, if we got to talk and the way that punching they're going back and forth, I'll never forget. I was at a party man. This is actually a crazy story. I was at a birthday party. I have a close, close friend of mine. It was eight people there. They all went crazy over a $600 bill, $700 bill. They went so argumentative I'm not paying that. It was maybe a $900 bill. Each person had to pay $110.
Speaker 2:We paid for the birthday guy. Of course it. He paid for the birthday guy. Of course People almost it seemed like they didn't want to pay for the birthday boy.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And they were arguing so much, I'm like, literally, I just like credited a seller of mine $3,000 today without thinking.
Speaker 1:That's the issue that comes up as you continue to grow. Is that situation? So I have different groups of people.
Speaker 1:Like I have my childhood friends and I have my hockey friends and I have my real estate friends. If I ever go without my real estate friends, I never have to worry about the bill. No one fights, it's done. The hockey friends it's always like separate checks. It's like did you actually throw in money? We're short 50 bucks and you're trying to figure out who threw it. It's always like one guy who didn't throw it in. And then the childhood friends I remember speaking to my friend Mark. He's like I had like $110 dinner with my wife. It's the most money I've ever spent on dinner. I was like what? It's the most money you ever spent on dinner. I couldn't believe it. I was like where do you guys go?
Speaker 2:But at the same time, you don't want to be rude, right? No, I just told him that, okay.
Speaker 1:With my childhood friends. They know me for me, so, like it's, they don't really care they'll make fun of me in the group chat. You know I'm uh, you know everything that they could think of. It's fun, it's fun. But those guys like we never talk about my money. It's always just about like, uh, how's everything going, how's your health like it? What's like, what's good with your relationship?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's much more, it's a deeper and, honestly, I would say that real estate, though, has impacted me in that way where, like so many of my clients you know, we service Newark, of course, and we help people buy and sell properties in and around the greater area of Newark, and I've seen so many different socioeconomic places, right Like people who are wealthier, people who are more broke, and everything in between. So being able to kind of serve them and be like sensitive to their financial position is actually I'll be honest with you a big, big, big advantage I think I have on other realtors, because other realtors, they work in the urban and they can never touch market. They can never touch like luxury.
Speaker 2:Or they touch luxury but they can never touch urban and even if they're in those areas, they feel uncomfortable For me. I've sold like the $1.5 million house in Montclair and I've sold like literally $130,000 piece of land in Newark. I've done both. I was like I understand the 200K condo and the buyer literally has been saving up for this condo for eight years.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:And you're like this is 20 grand he, this is 20 grand, he goes. Yeah, I put away 400 bucks. 300 bucks a month, 200 bucks a month. Got to his goal, but he got to his goal and you hear that you're like, wow, this guy's like I get to be a part of this.
Speaker 2:And then you hear the person 1.5 who spent $20,000 on their front door. It was like $16,000 on their front door. It's crazy double door. The physical material itself was like $8,000, but then they opened up the whole thing and they made it a wider door than what it was and that's why it cost so much money. But it was just like what the heck you did in one doorway that was two cells, a house. They did this. Meanwhile the other guy for $200,000-something condo he put down I think it was 10%, that's 20K Plus closing costs, maybe 25, 30k. See what I'm saying. It's like what the heck. Okay, another question for you have you ever felt taken advantage of in a friendship because of finances?
Speaker 1:I've been taken advantage of. Yeah, I definitely have the way. I try not to look at things in a negative way, right, so I look at it as I was given a gift.
Speaker 1:My gift is I can make money, right, and so when people would take advantage of me, I wouldn't look at it as they were taking advantage of me it's perspective I looked at it as well, they need, they need the help, so I'm going to give them the help, kind of like what you were saying with the guy in jail who's stealing your crackers. Right, you're like, well, he must need it more than me and you knew that you could get the crackers again, so you didn't care. But at a certain point you got to look at it like, well, now I'm being, at a certain point your perspective changes, whether that's your dynamic in jail change or financial change, and you're like well, this is not okay anymore. And it's hard for them to understand that because you train them to take advantage of you.
Speaker 2:How do you handle it?
Speaker 1:The other thing I've been doing over the last year is I try to be a little more selfish. So you were saying that means attending less events. That means focusing on my health. That means, you know, means renegotiating. If it's fees or equities or something like that, it's renegotiating Something that's more in my favor or what I think is more fair. That's what I've been doing over the last year. It makes people think that you've changed.
Speaker 2:You have.
Speaker 1:I have changed.
Speaker 2:It's a good change though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is the same thing that I got. When we talk about you know, you talk about war or something like that. It's all in the perspective of the people who's the good guy, who's the bad guy in my. In my vision, I'm the good guy because I'm standing up for myself. In their vision, I'm the bad guy because I'm trying to take something away from them or change the situation that they previously liked.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but in reality they were whoever they is probably a hundred different characters. Yeah, they were selfish too, so now they don't want you to be what they were, and that's how they got ahead.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I definitely hear this as well. Do you ever okay? Another question for you how has you know you've taken? You take a lot of care of your mother and your family. Would you mind talking about that? At what point did you feel like it was necessary? At what point did you feel like it was something you could have done, could not do?
Speaker 1:In that situation it was like it was kind of like fight or flight for my mom. So my dad was looking to retire. He sold his business in North Carolina. His plan was my mom was going to move to North Carolina with him. This was like 2016, 2017-ish, that time period and my mom was like I don't want to go. I don't want to go to North Carolina, None of my kids are there.
Speaker 1:None of my grandkids are there, and her and my dad don't really get along. So what am I going to do? Sit there, like Ter and my grandkids are there and her and my dad don't really get along. So what am I going to do? Sit there?
Speaker 2:like Terrible.
Speaker 1:You know, it's just not a good situation. So I said, all right, well, what do you want to do? She's like I want to stay here. I said, okay, well, this is a big house you're in. You know, there's a lot of responsibility. Like we need to come up with some money, we need to figure out something in order to be able to pay for this, and she's like just anything, but I don't want to go there. So they got a divorce and my dad's, like an old school kind of guy, never showed any income or anything like that, so there's no way she's getting any alimony or anything. And so he sold his business and basically no one wanted to get involved in my family. I had to do it. So I negotiated the divorce right, because the attorneys were just trying to rack up the bills both of them, both their attorneys oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:And how old were you at this time?
Speaker 1:I was probably like 29 or 30 so you're a young adult yeah you're young.
Speaker 2:You're not. You're an adult, but you're a young adult yeah and you are basically acting as an intermediary, the mediator between your mother and your father in their divorce yeah who gets what? What gets who?
Speaker 1:yeah and and the, so I know I did a good job, because they both feel like they didn't win.
Speaker 2:Wow that's, that's, it's not. Both people should feel like they win.
Speaker 1:Both people should feel like they didn't win yeah, that's how you know you did a good job. My dad still says something.
Speaker 1:My mom still says something, to this day wow about it so when that happened, um, you know, when that happened, I was like all right, well, no one was really stepping up, you know, in that situation, so I spoke to my mom. I said what, as long as you want to be here, we're going to figure out a way to keep you here. And so at that point I had no other choice. I had to make like I couldn't anymore. I couldn't defer making money anymore, because what I would always do is I would make money on a deal and, I put it, reinvest all of it Because I didn't have any real bills. You know, a couple thousand dollars is good, right, if I had that. So everything else would be reinvested and reinvested. So now I was like, all right, now I have to start keeping and reinvesting into different places create new revenue sources and I was able to start providing for her.
Speaker 2:It's funny you say that because what I find to be is, when you have the constraint right, like a situation that binds you, you then have, if you're an entrepreneur, like a bit like a solution-based person, you rise to the occasion, like right now. I was saying, you know, I'm doing my cash out refi in carney, my money's very tight, like and it's funny because I'm like man, this is, I'm being so creative and I'm putting my, my brain's thinking. Opportunities are coming my way much more at a higher rate, like new business, new clients, new leads, amazing things. You know I have a partnership that's dissolving, right. They were my lead source, so that's put me in a bind and all those things are like I'm launching yeah, because of it and it's so interesting to me why?
Speaker 2:because what I am doing is these constraints that I find you can actually put yourself in them. So now, for example, your mom's already good. So the question I have for you is are what situations are you currently in that are forcing you to rise to the occasion?
Speaker 1:I think it's just time to elevate uh, I've been doing this for a little while. It's about. I've been doing real estate for about seven years at this point, even though if you asked me when I was like 15 years old, would I be in the situation? I would have been like, oh my god, that's awesome but, now I'm in this situation.
Speaker 1:I feel like I've plateaued a little and I don't like that, and so that's like the new elevation. At this point I want to get to the next level. I want to figure out, I want to get another private money source, I want to have, uh, more avenues to bring in deals, and I want to use this to be able to actually get to the next level, where it's not just like good money, it's like really like it's it's life-changing money what amount of money on a monthly basis would you say is life-changing for you?
Speaker 1:I don't think it's that crazy. It's like two, three hundred thousand a month. You do something like two, three hundred thousand a month. There's not really anything you couldn't do at all. What could you not do? I think you could afford a private flight to florida that's with that kind of money you can.
Speaker 2:how much is a private flight to Florida with that kind of money? How much is?
Speaker 1:a private flight to Florida $10,000, $20,000?. Maybe like $10,000, $20,000, round trip $20,000, let's say Right, so you could go to the nicest places in the world, stay there for a month and it's not going to affect you.
Speaker 2:So $200,000, $300,000 is very like.
Speaker 1:Is that gross, or?
Speaker 2:net, net, let's say so. My goal is a little different. My goal financially that I say I need to get net off my properties alone, not off any earned income, not off the business, off my properties is $50,000 net. If I can get $50,000 net a month, I feel as though that's my. Like there's really nothing I would want to do that I can't do. Right, like there's really. I'm making 600 at that point, 600 grand sub taxes. Okay, maybe you had 420, 400 grand sub my mortgage. At that point I probably pay like a 10 000, 12 000 mortgage so work, your work, your numbers backwards right so let's just say you're doing 50 000 from your rental business right you're, you're not, I mean you're.
Speaker 1:I'm assuming you're still going to be a realtor that. So that's yes, so right, so you add on top of that and then you add in maybe another, another revenue source and so you'll be so you're right, so it ends up being around the like, hopefully around the price.
Speaker 2:You're saying, right, um, that's the goal at least. But I would tell you I do think it's funny because when I used to say that I'm like, okay, when I get that number, I'm out, when I get that number, I'm out, I don't, I wouldn't want to be out. I really enjoy what I do. I love leading the people I lead. You just walked in on me and Natalie. Natalie and I have a volatile relationship and I will tell you she is one of my biggest blessings. I'll give her a shout right here. Natalie Cordenas, shout out to you. She's a huge blessing in my life. Leading her challenges as they may be, she's very skilled faith. She's helped me.
Speaker 2:Why would I want to leave the opportunity to that? We got Rami on the mic here. Rami is a totally different person than I am. We have very different views on marriage, life, et cetera, and we've had amazing conversations, I think at least, of how to interact, how to build. Okay, what does family life look like? Why do you feel this way? Why do I feel that way? It's the joy of my life. Why would I want to retire from this? I'm having joy. It's not like I'm back breaking my back. Oh man, I don't want to ever be in a meeting again.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:I probably will like today. I got a haircut at 9 a30 Instead of coming into the office. Yeah, why? Because I built a life that's worth living, so why the hell Would I want to? When people say that when I hit this number, I'm out, it's very naive, very naive. I used to tell my wife that All the time she's like Brandon. It's not true.
Speaker 1:Stop saying it. She's like whenever you're like you need to stop, I'm like I'll never really stop.
Speaker 2:I was like what does that even mean? You want to go drink margaritas every single day for the rest of your life. Like what do you want me to do? Stop and go, die what?
Speaker 1:do you want me to do? I was like I don't think I'm ever gonna really stop. I said, maybe what I do is gonna be different when I'm at 45. You know, maybe I won't be in the car every day looking at job sites every day, but correct, correct, but I'll still be doing stuff.
Speaker 2:Higher leverage, though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let me ask you this what do you wish you would have been able to prevent? What do you wish you would have been able to prevent real estate coming into your life? What do you wish you could have? I wish that I'll give you my story. I'll be like I really wish that I wouldn't have found so much identity, so much of my self-worth in my real estate career. I think I was way too tied to it earlier on. It was like who I was as a person was real sick. But I mean, I'm real sick. Who was I now? I think the lord. I feel like, regardless, I'm a child of god. I'm loved. You know it's who I am. I'm. You know it's who I am. I'm a son of god. But what would you say for you would be like I wish this didn't happen, or I wish I could have controlled that I mean, I guess I guess what I would have liked to have done sooner is learned how to hire people sooner why is that?
Speaker 1:um, well, look at the business that you've been able to build, right? I'm sure when you first hired your first couple people, you were like dying, like you could barely afford to pay them, right?
Speaker 2:Oh not only that, my second employee. She's literally insane. So I hope to God she doesn't see this podcast and try to kill me. But she literally stole my credit card, stole my laptop, broke my laptop on her foot, she dropped her foot and it literally fell on her foot. It stole my laptop, broke my laptop on her foot, she dropped her foot and it literally fell on her foot. It was terrible. It's actually maybe a workman's comp situation. And then I had to call the cops on her. It was so intense I said, oh my gosh, but yeah, and she is very sweet. She's just a little, she's just right around the address, but she is very sweet.
Speaker 2:But yeah, man, not only the money, just the managing right you hire crazies because you're like a little bit cheaper than the not so crazy right.
Speaker 1:Right, so that that skill, like what, what dave and eric have been able to do they were able to hire, even though they really didn't have it all figured out, even though they really didn't have probably the money at the time same thing with you, but it it led to a bigger operation and that's kind of the direction I'm going in now. I don't need a robust team like them necessarily. Yeah, it's a lot Probably like five people. Five people, whether they're partners who are very active in the business or a couple employees. Five people, six people, and now you have like a real squad Like all right, I got a deal coming in, you're going to do the underwriting on it.
Speaker 1:You're going to let me know if it's even worth me showing up at the property. You're going to manage the construction crew. You're going to manage the holds and the Airbnbs. You're going to handle the administrative tasks.
Speaker 2:What I've realized is partnership is not the way we think it's, a way the equity splits, all that stuff. It's not the way. It's not. It's better to just pay someone a nice fee for whatever they bring you and do your own thing, because when you have a partnership, you get tied and a partnership is like marriage and it should only be marriage to one person. I'm not about the partnerships. I'm really not. I'm really not about it. I know I'm really not about it. Even if it's a small equity involved, right in terms of dissolution, I'm really not about it.
Speaker 2:Where I am in my business right now. I had a guy. He basically approached me two people in the past, like 30 days to open up one guy, a developer in Newark and another guy, a builder, out in a higher end area like Summit, et cetera and they're like oh, we can partner, I want to start a brokerage with you, blah, blah, blah. I'm not looking for partners. No, thank you, I don't want it, I want my employees. I will give this person a piece of the profit share. No worries you, the profit share. I will pay you extremely well. I will treat you extremely well. I will give you a big opportunity. I want you to go.
Speaker 2:You win in my world, right, because I want my world to be big enough for you. That's what real estate's taught me. We can all win. I just need to build a bigger table. We can all eat. Just make the table a lot bigger. But I'm not about the partner man. I'm really not, and I've had a great relationship with Leverage, david and Eric. They've helped me a lot. I would be nowhere where I'm at right now if it wasn't for David and Eric. How much they help invest in the business.
Speaker 1:So I'm not there. But the partnership, as where I'm at right now, I realize it's not the move. Yeah, I think you get to a certain point when you realize you don't need the partnership anymore. And, uh, I, the way I was able to grow as as I guess, as quick or whatever pace I was at, was by partnering that's why.
Speaker 2:So I let me be clear right now, our business makes like gross like around two million, right? Um? So at that point I don't want partner yeah but when I was like at 50, uh, when I was like 200k, the 300k route to the two mil, yeah, it was a great to have partner let me tell you of course, of course but now we're like okay, we don't need. Our profit margin is very small. We've been a very tight operation. I'm not making two million a year. We know how to create leads, right, don't you?
Speaker 1:That's the point I was saying earlier. It's just trimming the fat. Trimming the fat Less partnerships, less employees or whatever Utility type people. Get rid of those guys.
Speaker 2:More joy, more happiness and, honestly, the partnership actually frees up for real relationships. Because then it's like, okay, are we real or is this just because of the income?
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that relationships, because then it's like, okay, are we real or is this just because of the income? Yeah, yeah, that's true. That's true, it's a very hard thing to find out. It's a very hard thing to find out. That is true. It's a very hard thing. That is true, very hard thing. Even me and you, we did our two deals. We haven't done a deal together in a long time, right last year it's been a year yeah um a listing or a deal, I believe, right a year I'll send you a listing.
Speaker 2:How about that? Hey, um, no, bye, bye you, but me and you, yeah, I. I always try to see you whenever I'm home. I, if I'm home, baby, I go over.
Speaker 2:Hey, yeah, I just stopped by your house the other day, stopped on over yeah and I see you as genuinely a friend, even if we never do a deal together for the rest of our lives, I don't care. I just want to see you win. I'll give you free stuff, I'll put you on hey, you should use this platform, you should use this company. Go, go, go go. I want to cheer you on, I want to add enough value, as though I'm a partner without being paid as a partner, like you see what I'm saying yeah hey, because why we're genuine friends.
Speaker 2:I want to see you win, because you win does not mean I don't win, we can both win that's true I have see.
Speaker 1:That's the way I operate and that's a reason that I've been overly unselfish. Well, you know the people who who give you a call or they refer you to someone. Oh, don't forget to take care of me on the back. I hate when people say that.
Speaker 2:I don't even want the call, don't even call me anymore. You don't know me. How could I not take care of you? What kind of person am I going to be?
Speaker 1:The fact that you have to say that it makes me not even want to. I don't even want to know who the person is that you sent to me, because I don't want the obligation, obligation you know.
Speaker 2:And no matter what you give, it's high enough.
Speaker 1:No, but if they called me and they said, oh, whatever, whatever, you know someone who can help me, oh, you know who you can call. Call that person, yeah, and I'll be like, oh cool, I'll put you in a group chat.
Speaker 2:You guys take recently lives in Florida. He referred over to me a seller here in Newark and I am paying him a 25% referral fee. Now in my line of business when people refer you people realtors it's customary to pay. So I think if you're a realtor out there, you do a firm in business. I don't want to throw shade. Yes, you deserve the referral fee and we pay between like 25, 30% for a seller referral. So I have seen that once I'm actually paid 35%, which is a lot of money, but that's the most I've ever paid. But I will say in that case, between realtors it's normal, realtors it's normal, it's like okay, boom. But outside the realtors it's not the way, it's not the way.
Speaker 1:I've had it where people refer me a contractor, right, and then they want a piece of the contract. They want the contractor to mark it up to me so that they could take a piece of the money because they referred the contractor over to me. And the guy will tell me this and I'll be like I'm just not going to use this guy now. So you, just you, just their favor. It turned into nothing for everybody.
Speaker 2:The contractor got beat, the friend got beat Because he's giving me a high price.
Speaker 1:I said, why is the price so high? I'm trying to go over the numbers, they don't make sense. And then he finally breaks it down. He's like, oh, because the guy who referred me wants a referral fee. He wants like 10% of whatever the construction costs.
Speaker 2:That's a lot too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so I'm like all right, well, now the deal doesn't work, so now I can't get the deal. No one makes money. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, and really, what did it take for that guy to do? Hey, do you have a contractor in this area? Here's the phone number. Done, yeah.
Speaker 2:I would yeah, whereas in your situation. You actually have to close the deal, or at least do 5%.
Speaker 1:It's something reasonable, I don't know. So it just didn't work out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no. Here, what would you say is the best impact real estate has had on you as a person being in this industry?
Speaker 1:confidence. So I remember when I first got started like working for myself in general, I would always like walk in on me, like make sure I wear the suit and stuff and try and look like I was like worth a hundred thousand when I was making nothing, go to these events and talk to everyone. Then I started running the events. I started doing conferences and running networking meetups and then I got to know who the speakers were and at that point I was starting to make money. And then I was like, after getting to know people, I'm like, oh, like I'm actually like one of the realest guys in the room so that's what I would say to myself, like when we would get ready to go to a networking event.
Speaker 1:I'm like, don't forget, we're the realest guys in the room. We can wear whatever we want to wear. We can talk to whoever we want to talk to. We don't need to earn anybody's business, because we're the realest guys in the room. That's the confidence that we would have and it worked.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, with. With that said, ladies and gentlemen, you had Mahir Allen one of the realest guys on the podcast. All right, no, appreciate you, mahir. Much love and if you guys have deals, send them to Mahir.
Speaker 1:Adios. Thank you.
