Rob Pene (00:01.102)
Okay, welcome everybody. On this episode, a really, really cool person, Christian Rios, is into real estate from the buying and selling, residential, commercial, all that, but also on the investing side. Now what stood out to me the most is the element of community, because I'm from Samoa, we're in a village, all that stuff, church, right? Community is huge to me and my family.

what I saw from what Christian is doing in his business is very different and unique. It's not like the Keller Williams or all the other brokerages. It's something very different. So that's why I wanted to pick his brain and have him kind of highlight what that looks like because I think there's something to be said about camaraderie and not just team building, but literally people doing life together.

at a business level, but then even for these guys at a whole another level with the wealth building level. So very, very unique, very interesting. As I saw your cool personal marketing too. That's what caught my attention is I like some of the ad or the post that you put out. It's pretty funny. It's catchy. The hook is like, the hook got me. Yeah, that's how I reach out because you guys do things at a whole different level that I think more people should.

Christian Rios (01:00.853)
Right.

Christian Rios (01:14.486)
Yeah. I love it. I love it.

Rob Pene (01:23.97)
be aware of. So with that being said, I usually start the podcast with a curve ball. It's a question. And then we'll just kind of launch from there. The question is, if you were to take and look back at the last six to 12 months of your life and you were to turn that into a Netflix special, what would that movie or series be called and why?

Christian Rios (01:31.896)
Okay. Okay.

Christian Rios (01:53.1)
Hmm. That's a great question. And what came to me right now is the title of the movie or the clip, the trailer would just be, be present. Okay. It would be be present. And every year, this is something when you talk about community, when you talk about, you know, the team, every year we do a workshop.

Rob Pene (02:07.662)
Christian Rios (02:20.652)
where we choose one word that is associated with how you want to show up for the following year or what God is placing in your heart, whatever the case may be. So for me, I knew last year in particular, was, dude, I was all over the place. I was trying to do everything and be the yes man to everyone. And what kept coming into my heart and into me, you know, just,

internally was present, present, present, present. And if I can go back to this year, I 1000 % have been living that out. And it's just been the biggest blessing, you know, I have a successful business in regards to real estate in regards to the investing side. But what's really important for me is is being a family man is being, you know, a good a good husband, a good dad to my kids. And I can't do that if I'm not

Rob Pene (02:55.246)
Hmm.

Rob Pene (03:14.146)
in

Christian Rios (03:20.866)
you know, fully present. If I'm always, you know, just focused on work, if I'm always focused on X, Y, and Z. long winded answer, but the title would be be present. And then it would be actually, you know, looking back and having the right systems in place, having the right people in place so you can truly be present. Yeah.

Rob Pene (03:40.822)
I like that, I like that. So more formally, let these people know the name of the business, what you guys specifically do, and then we'll go from there.

Christian Rios (03:51.948)
Yeah, for sure. So the name of our actual real estate investment club, because that's what primarily we focus on is new wealth advisors. Okay, so our club is new wealth advisors, but there's layers to it. So in regards to, you know, the investing side, we do a lot of fix and flips, wholesales, buying rental properties, doing the creative right now we're buying

properties and turning them into triplexes. So kind of again, creative strategies. And then on the brokerage side of it, we felt really aligned with exp realty. So exp realty is a way for us to have that community have agents come under us in a sense, where we still have the mentorship aspect that we give them, but we're protected with a bigger brokerage as well. So on the investment side, it's new wealth advisors club.

where we have our real estate brokerage, it's eXp Realty.

Rob Pene (04:51.072)
Nice, nice. So how do you manage the personal values in being a father, know, husband, all those things with making it excel and align with your professional values?

Christian Rios (05:09.048)
So say that one more time, say that one more time, because I want to make sure I answer it correctly.

Rob Pene (05:14.326)
Yeah, how do you align your personal values with your professional values?

Christian Rios (05:19.37)
Yeah, so I think they go hand in hand, you know, my personal values and my professional values, they really go hand in hand. When I look at how I want to show up to my clients, it's really, you know, clients or whoever, a new agent that I'm mentoring or a new person that wants to learn how to, you know, invest in real estate, I want to be there for them. Right. I want

them to know that I'm always available for them to reach out, right? So that's how I see myself on the personal side, you know, with my family as well. I always want to be there. And again, I'm going to use the word present. I always want to be present. And then how do I kind of balance them both? I always go back to my calendar, right? And I'm sure you're the same way. That's what everyone that is successful, you have to have a good grasp on your calendar. So

Rob Pene (05:49.804)
Hmm.

Rob Pene (06:08.3)
you

Christian Rios (06:15.852)
I don't know who said it, but 10 plus years ago, I've always kind of just into my core put it with me that your calendar is your boss, bottom line. Your calendar is your boss. If something's on my calendar, it's literally, it's a non-negotiable. It's happening.

Rob Pene (06:34.35)
Wow, that's good. And for the community aspect of what you guys do at the real estate club, yeah, yeah, that is where I think the uniqueness lies, right? So, and some of the things, cause I saw in some of your photos, like you guys did the Dodgers game, people, yeah. But it seems like it goes deeper than that, right? There's building inside, not like team building, but actual.

Christian Rios (06:42.091)
mhm.

Christian Rios (06:53.217)
Yeah.

Rob Pene (07:00.958)
living together and doing life together, being there for one another, you know, and all that. Yeah, describe how that works,

Christian Rios (07:08.576)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, good question. So 100 % you know, we we just have a strong saying, you know, if if if you close a deal with somebody and you don't want to have dinner with them, you shouldn't have never been in that deal in the first place. Right? Community is so strong and it's so powerful and you want to be around people that you want to be around bottom line. So this Saturday, for example, there is going to be a beach day that

Rob Pene (07:24.494)
Cool.

Christian Rios (07:37.836)
you know, the whole club is doing in Huntington Beach, and just the ability to again, live life together. But also, today, like during the week, there's there's a zoom call that's going on right now, from investors and agents nationwide. So everyone is always plugged in, even if it's virtual versus, you know, in person to there's always going to be a way for us to, you know, to collaborate and

to have that community within. the actual business side of things too, like how we kind of mirror it together is there are coaches that have more experience, that have done a lot of deals, that have done a lot of fix and flips and X, and Z. We do, every Thursday, there's a door knocking day. So we're looking to help homeowners that have a distress situation going on. So notice of default, right?

people that are behind on their payments, notice of trustee sale, people that are about to lose their property. So we get, I'll say kind of newbies that need to have that handholding support to go to these doors with coaches. So on Thursdays, meet up together, usually at a cool lunch spot, hang out, have that vibe, and then go out, work, and then come back and re-evaluate how things are going. So again,

It really comes down to doing business with people you like, trust, respect, and want to hang out with.

Rob Pene (09:09.784)
How often do you guys have meetings or events or get togethers? It seems like there's a lot of stuff going on.

Christian Rios (09:18.262)
Yeah, I can't even honestly, man, I can't even keep I can't even keep track. But like, at least in person, it's going to be twice a month where there's something going on for the whole kind of community to get together. Right. And then the business side of it, like every Thursday door knocking and so forth. Zoom, it's going to be a couple of times a week that that we're getting together via via zoom. Yeah.

Yeah, so it's a lot man. Yeah, there's definitely quite a bit.

Rob Pene (09:51.17)
Where did the model come from? Like how did you guys establish this?

Christian Rios (09:53.886)
that's that's a good question. So my why consider my my mentor, Melina Boswell and her husband, Dave, they started this real estate investment club back in 2008. Okay, so it was an office in Riverside. And bottom line, if we go even back a little bit, they were going to a bunch of these like seminars, a bunch of

Rob Pene (10:11.072)
Hmm.

Christian Rios (10:22.624)
you know, the big gurus that are on TV, and they were spending they were spending money, they were swiping credit cards to get into their mentorship program. And what they found is, dude, like, we can keep on spending money. But no one's really giving us like that that that secret sauce in a sense, this business really is about is about a team and is about people. So

They came across somebody by the name of Greg. Greg was actually doing transactions and Greg is like, hey, I'm doing this. Do you want me to show you what I'm actually doing and I can help you guys out? They said, my gosh, yes. So they came across a property. They brought it to Greg. They partnered up on that property with Greg and that's how they closed their first transaction on the investment side. For them, it was like light bulb. Holy crap. It's not really about

spending a crap ton of money on education, it's about people. So that's where the business model really came from. When everyone was getting out of real estate in 2008, like real estate was a bad word when the market crashed, right? They're like, hey, we're gonna build a real estate club and a real estate community. People thought they were nuts. And here they are opening up an office, people starting to join and they're like, hey, we can help you close real estate transactions. And that's what was happening.

Dave, hey, Malina, I came across this property. What the heck do I do? Oh, here's this contract. Here's this escrow company. Here's this termite company. Here's this home inspector. And that's how we built the community versus you getting a course online, going to a seminar, trying to figure it out on your own, but let's do it with actual people.

Rob Pene (11:57.294)
Hmm.

Rob Pene (12:07.446)
Yeah, the thing that intrigues me the most is it feels and sounds eerily similar to the church. Is you meet often, that's where you do the Bible studies, but then you get together like we just had a beach day a few weeks ago, you know, with the church and the people do life together, you know, and then

Christian Rios (12:18.732)
Hmm.

Rob Pene (12:35.712)
Some people do business together in the church and then others, just, you know, do soccer or whatever. But this, is there an element of spirituality involved too? Because it feels like that.

Christian Rios (12:47.692)
Yeah, yeah, a thousand percent. Yeah, a thousand percent. So we always, we like to say we are an organization that's run by Christians. We're not a Christian organization, but we definitely pray before our meetings. So I always like to throw joke. We pray for the, you know, for the right people to show up. We pray for the wrong people not to show up, right? We want that, that security and that hedge of protection.

But 1000%, we know that our team and everything even me personally, it's not in my hands, it's definitely in the Lord's hands. So yeah, there's a Bible. This year, I didn't participate in it. And I shouldn't say that out loud, but they did a one-year Bible like from cover to cover. So they're doing like cover to cover reading the Bible.

Rob Pene (13:12.812)
Mmm.

Rob Pene (13:34.914)
I wish.

Christian Rios (13:39.55)
And there's a small group that chose to participate in that. But yeah, no, 1,000%, there is that spiritual side to the club. And that's where we kind of find our anchor for sure.

Rob Pene (13:54.028)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's where you got, So that, when I'm watching your videos and then I see the pictures, there's just a sense of wholesome connection, deeper connection. And I think that probably is the reason why you guys are doing well, but also stands out, you know, as I get it. I see a ton of real estate agents, you know, on my page and all that stuff, the scroll, cause marketing, right? So I see it, I see you look, and then I was like, this is funny, man. This is cool.

Christian Rios (14:11.34)
Yeah.

Rob Pene (14:24.178)
But as I look the more, I just sense like, there could be something, you know, but lo and behold, there is.

Christian Rios (14:31.926)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, that's a good catch. We tried to, yeah, that's funny.

Rob Pene (14:38.486)
Yeah, now you in particular, how long have you been with the club? And then is the club nationwide? Because it sounds like with all the Zooms, the club might be nationwide.

Christian Rios (14:45.133)
Hmm.

Christian Rios (14:48.92)
Yeah. Yeah. Recently, a couple of years ago, we shifted to nationwide. So we have actual offices in here in Southern California. So it's an Irvine. We have an office in Seattle. We have an office in Tampa and then in Hawaii as well. Okay. But we are expanding just real nationwide. I have a pretty cool story. I have a unique story. I started with a club when I was 17 years old.

Rob Pene (15:05.58)
Yeah.

Christian Rios (15:18.648)
Okay. So if you go back to when the market crashed, was in high school at the time. And I grew up in a normal family. My parents went to work, came home, we had dinner, but we didn't talk about money. We didn't talk about credit. We didn't talk about buying real estate, nothing like that, right? So when the market crashed, I saw my parents had a house that was worth 600,000 one day.

Rob Pene (15:18.669)
Whoa.

Christian Rios (15:48.662)
And then overnight it's worth 300,000, right? I think we all remember what happened when the market crashed. So I was young, I was in high school. I didn't know what was going on. I was like, how can I help? What can I do? I stumbled across the book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, okay? I literally read that book, I wanna say in a day. I thought it was like the Bible. I was like, this is amazing.

And I decided at that point I wanted to to get into real estate. So I met Dave and Melina when I was 17 years old. Melina was like, hey, you are not even allowed to sign a contract if you really want to do this. You need to go home, get your mom, bring her and she can sign the contract for you to join. I did that. Got went home, told my mom all about it. I said, I want to go into real estate. I don't want to go to college. This is what I want to do.

came with my mom and they're like, wow, this kid is actually serious. I started when I was 17, took a little while to get up and running, but by the time I was 20, that's the first year I made six figures in real estate. So I made a hundred and some change and I was 20 years old. I was like, my gosh, this is amazing. When can I retire?

Right. But then I was like, holy crap, I don't even own a house yet. I we live in California. It's super expensive. So fast forward. I've been blessed to, yeah, to be with the club for what is it like 15 or so years now? Yeah, it's crazy. I'm 31 and got started with them when I was 17.

Rob Pene (17:33.23)
Now, did you start on the investing side and as an agent or?

Christian Rios (17:37.784)
Yeah, I started first on the investment side and started with a club on the investment side and then I was ready to buy my house. I want to say when I was 21 and I was looking for a very specific area and super naive way of thinking. I was like, Hey, I know what these agents do and I can do it myself. I'm going to save 15 grand in commissions. So I got my license. Uh, it's a funny story. Even with that, I ended up buying a for sale by owner. So I didn't

Rob Pene (18:04.322)
Mm.

Christian Rios (18:05.014)
need to have a license, I got a pretty good deal on my first property I bought as a for sale by owner. And, and now, having my license, it just opens up more opportunities. It's another tool in my tool belt. And that's always how I like to, you know, tell investors tell potential agents to pay if you want to be an agent, it's bottom line, another tool in your tool belt. But there's other investors that are like,

I definitely don't want to have my license. Cool. Nothing, nothing wrong with that. But for me, I definitely see it as, as another tool, my tool belt. And I love the traditional retail side of the business as well.

Rob Pene (18:33.038)
Hmm.

Rob Pene (18:43.66)
Yeah, for someone that's curious about real estate, which direction would you encourage them to start off as?

Christian Rios (18:51.352)
Yeah, I would want to ask them. Yeah, I'd have to get to know them a little bit more. But if you're like, hey, I really want to buy rental properties. I really want to flip. Then I'm going to say, OK, you need to put your investor hat on and maybe focus more on that side of it. And and maybe if you are interested in being a realtor, because it's, again, a completely different business as a realtor, you are getting hired.

Rob Pene (19:17.868)
Mm.

Christian Rios (19:20.504)
to do a service, your employer is that client. So when you're an investor, you're in a little bit more control. You can choose what to do with this project, what to do with this property, but again, representing a client, you are representing them in a sense. So I would say, what do you wanna do? And I personally, I...

I love working with clients. I like to be responsive. I like to get back to people ASAP. I like to provide that professional experience for them too. So it depends, you know, what would you kind of want to want to fall into.

Rob Pene (19:51.363)
Mmm.

Rob Pene (19:59.054)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know we touched on it a little bit, is there any, even some examples of going deeper in the community aspect of the club?

Rob Pene (20:15.502)
If you guys have meetings.

Christian Rios (20:17.206)
Yeah, you know, you know something that I want to share right now with everything going on with the deportations and everything that that's happening. We actually have one, you know, one club member that she voluntarily she's she's choosing to basically I don't even know the right wording, but turn herself in in a sense, right, to get deported. Right.

Rob Pene (20:27.424)
you

Rob Pene (20:43.479)
Hmm.

Christian Rios (20:46.0)
she, she knows that there's a lot going on and, and something that, you know, the group chat is going off, right now we're, we're contributing money for her. You know, she's going to be moving back to Mexico. We're contributing money for her to, you know, to, to, go back to Mexico and going to do a little get together with her. So if that isn't community, I don't know what is, you know,

It's so much more than real estate. It's just about life and it's about people at their core. And it's crazy, you know, the situation that's going on, you know, right now. But that's an example of like going down, down, down to, you know, like the community that we have within the club.

Rob Pene (21:33.27)
Yeah, so it started here in California. Yeah. And then how did all the other states end up like?

Christian Rios (21:36.374)
Yep.

Christian Rios (21:40.928)
Yeah, yeah. So people have just risen up. People have have risen up and it goes back to leadership. I think whatever office we're opening, it comes down to who is in that location. And do they want to lead a team of people similar? I don't I don't know the whole model of you know, churches, but I'm sure it's similar, right? If a pastor wants to lead, that's how that's how they step up. So in Hawaii, specifically,

We have two, like an awesome couple, Joel and Mary Ann Bonko. They very, very, very successful entrepreneurs, very, very successful real estate investors. they decided to start the, the Oahu Honolulu, location right there in Seattle. someone I consider a mentor, great friend, Keiko, Lewin, he actually used to be a pastor, really, really cool dude. we have an office in Bellevue, Seattle, because he was like, Hey, I really want to.

Rob Pene (22:33.922)
Please.

Christian Rios (22:40.81)
open up the an office out here I want to to grow the Seattle market. So it really comes down to the right the right leadership, but also going through the system, right. So going through joining the club, putting a little bit of that sweat equity and showing up not not anyone could just raise their hand and say, cool. Like that seems like an awesome model. Like let me open up. I don't know Nashville. No, you have to

Rob Pene (22:51.564)
Yeah.

Christian Rios (23:07.328)
We have to vet you. have to make sure that that it's a good fit. 100 percent.

Rob Pene (23:12.654)
So because of that, imagine accountability is huge and tracking of people and making sure, like you said, vetting. What does the accountability look like?

Christian Rios (23:23.286)
Yeah. So it's a lot of internal accountability, you know, because the coaches, the business model is very simple. Let's say Rob, you, you decide to join us and you're like, Hey, you know what? I need help with a real estate transaction. And I'm, really cool with really cool with Christian who's a, who's one of the coaches. Cool. That's me and you.

that do that deal together. I don't get compensated from the club in regards to a coach, in regards to X, Y, and Z. I have a vested interest in your success because if me and you do a deal together, we can potentially make money together, right? So it makes sense for people to be on the Zoom calls, for people to go outdoor knocking, for people to put in that sweat equity because it's just a way to do deals together. It's a really smart

Level of accountability where hey if you show up you're gonna get deals and you're gonna do you know You're gonna work if you don't show up guess what you're probably not gonna be successful Just like if you weren't to show up in any other business

Rob Pene (24:30.154)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I guess it's synonymous to discipleship where you have the person that's helping you kind of move along and then you meet frequently and wow. Yeah, I knew there was something different about this. Yeah.

Christian Rios (24:43.328)
Yeah, I love it.

Rob Pene (24:47.608)
Who are the typical types of people that join? Are they already successful people or are they people that are just getting started in life like high school, right? Yeah, what's the typical makeup?

Christian Rios (24:59.16)
Sure. Yeah. Yeah, I love it. So I would say those two avatars for sure. There's going to be the individuals that were like myself that want to get into real estate and have absolutely no idea. You don't know what escrow is. Don't know what title is. Don't know what hard money is. That's how I joined. And then there are a lot of successful, successful W2.

type of individuals that join us, right? So we have a lot of like software engineers, doctors, people that have, I'll say kind of tied down to their jobs, make really, really good income, but they need to learn how to invest in real estate, long-term rental properties. And one of the things that we try to get people to do is qualify as a real estate professional.

Rob Pene (25:34.155)
I'm-

Christian Rios (25:56.076)
right, real estate professional status because that's how you're able to get really good tax write-offs and get rid of your W-2 income with real estate income and save on taxes as well. So I would say it's both. It's definitely going to be successful W-2 individuals that want to get out of that and want to build a real estate portfolio and retirement. And then it's gonna be the individuals that, hey, I know real estate works and I need to...

I need to join a club and need to join people that are actually doing this business.

Rob Pene (26:29.826)
Yeah, yeah. How do people find you guys? how did, yeah, all those people that are in like the other states, how did they get started and find you guys?

Christian Rios (26:40.726)
Yeah, good, good question. So a lot of it comes down to obviously networking, but in this day and age, Facebook ads are huge. Instagram ads are huge. You can find us just on new wealth advisors club, right? So that's where that's where we are. But but yeah, a lot of it's going to be marketing and then it's word of mouth to I think that's what's cool is once we start kind of planting a location.

then the word starts kind of getting out. Hey, there's this real estate investment club and X, and Z. So it's really word of mouth, but then on the marketing side, the marketing team, they do what they do for sure.

Rob Pene (27:21.358)
Do you guys do any networking events? Like do you host your own networking events?

Christian Rios (27:25.176)
Yeah, 100%. Yeah, 100%.

Rob Pene (27:28.364)
Nice. I'm assuming in the Irvine area, but do you go further out?

Christian Rios (27:35.906)
So we like to stay in our actual office there in Irvine, but those actual locations that I talked about, we call them City Connects. So the next week there's going to be a City Connect in Hawaii, right? In Oahu. So for our internal club members, we obviously share, pay this date, City Connect, get together. But we also like to let them know,

Rob Pene (27:41.87)
BOOM

Rob Pene (27:47.608)
Boom.

Christian Rios (28:05.016)
invite a friend, invite somebody that wants to come and hang out and learn about this topic about buying your first rental property or whatever the case may be.

Rob Pene (28:16.758)
Yeah, now if you were to leave one message for people that are curious, regardless of where they're at in their career, someone that's curious, what would you say to them to kind of get them over the fence of like, out of curiosity into, I actually want to figure this out with, yeah, with these guys.

Christian Rios (28:21.484)
Mm-hmm.

Christian Rios (28:33.74)
Sure. Sure. No, I love that question. So I'm going to say one of my favorite quotes, and I'm sure you've heard it so many times, but it's show me your friends and I'll show your future. Right. Show me your friends and I'll show your future. So if you want to be a successful real estate investor, if you want to get into real estate, guess what? Some of your best friends have to be in the business.

have to do what you want to do. So you can't go and talk to your cousin that knows nothing about real estate, that hasn't purchased the property. You need to hang out with people that are actually doing this business. And that's a conversation I have even with my kids, with my son. If you wanna be a really good baseball player, you're gonna be hanging out with other baseball players, right? And that's just kinda how life works. I'm gonna...

That's gonna be my two cents is reach out. Don't like curiosity. Kind of, kind of just stay in your head. If you want to be in real estate, you have to get around people that are actually doing this business.

Rob Pene (29:40.652)
Yeah, that's good. That's good. So if people wanted to reach out to you, how could they find you?

Christian Rios (29:45.816)
Yeah, so I can get you in touch with obviously our club on Instagram. My name is Christian Rios, period real estate. Okay, pretty easy to find Christian Rios period real estate. If you want to go directly to the club and see some of the reels and some of the education, it's new wealth advisors club on Instagram. And then if you want to email me directly, Christian at new wealth advisors club.com.

Rob Pene (30:13.166)
Nice, nice, nice. And you're in Irvine.

Christian Rios (30:16.286)
I am in Temecula, yeah, so I'm just a little bit, I'm a little south.

Rob Pene (30:20.716)
Yeah. Okay. So not too far. Yeah, not too. Great, man. I appreciate your time. This has been definitely eye opening. Now I know why things are different. Cause you guys are God fearing, Bible believing Christians that happen to run real estate investing businesses and attract those types of people. So this is cool, man. I appreciate you. Thank you.

Christian Rios (30:22.69)
Yeah.

Christian Rios (30:41.782)
Yeah. I appreciate you having me out, Rob. Really, really do. I had a great time here.

Rob Pene (30:46.082)
Yeah, all right, man. Thanks.

Christian Rios (30:48.056)
All right, take care.