I came for Cuba 8 years ago with minus

$8,000 in my pocket that’s a beauty of

coming from nothing because you have

nothing to lose for your W2 job it’s not

the enemy It’s actually an asset a bank

would rather see you have a $50,000

salary that’s a W2 than $200,000 a year

as a self-employed for me it was

[Music]

it all right welcome to the hybrid real

estate professional podcast the show

where we help you build your own

portfolio of cash flowing rental

properties that you can manage in just

20 minutes a day from anywhere in the

world I’m your host Aaron am me my wife

and I built a portfolio of eight cash

flowing rental properties across three

states in three years all well working

full-time and raising three young kids

today I’m joined by a new face and a

special guest Leu sanudo lver and I met

a few weeks ago at an inperson investor

event here in Houston Texas where we

both live but this wasn’t just any

ordinary Meetup it actually took place

inside of a luxury home that he and his

team were in the process of flipping he

shared his story some specifics on the

deal and advice for new investors and

suffice it to say I was very impressed

so with that said Leu welcome to the

show I’m happy to have you here hey bro

morning and thank you so much for having

me here I’m excited I’m excited to be

here yeah you have an amazing story so I

was impressed with what I heard at the

event and then I also you and I got to

chat a little bit afterwards but would

love for you to just give the kind of

cliffnotes version of of your story to

my audience here who may not know

yet awesome bro so so basically I have

like short story I just came to the

states 8 years ago I’m a Latino

immigrant I’m from Cuba so I don’t smoke

as they everyone

asking if I smoke the the Hamas I’m

learning to because that’s smoking cigar

is a great networking tool right so

basically yeah I came from Cuba eight

years ago with a contract like like a

job contract I’m a software engineer ux

assign a former software engineer so I

got my Vis out of Cuba you don’t get Vis

out of Cuba you just you just scape the

best way you you can at that time was

flying to Ecuador I worked there like

for couple of months then I went to

Mexico and then I got into the state I

crossed the border I mean legal but at

at that time like you want have like the

political Asylum so you just we just

came to the states got the political

Asylum and to like took me like couple

of years to get my green car so that’s

basically the story I came I was stand

year I came with minus $8,000 in my

pocket why because I ow the people

actually my dad and my dad’s friends I

owe the money for the entire

trip and yeah got the opportunity to

pursue the American dream I know you

mentioned you’re a software designer and

you did or ux design where did you so

you moved initially and you had a job

here that that deployed those skills and

I know now you’re full-time real estate

but like what was the kind of Journey

from that into real estate so basically

when I first came I was in my my

paperwork process so I didn’t have any

work permit I did have the work permit

but not to work in the like in in

companies right so as every immigrant

like or 90% I work in the struction I

was a plumber helper so I spent eight

months working as a plumber and those

plumbers that they do the the rough

before the foundation man that was hard

but also that was money that I needed at

the time and I learned through hard work

and construction and they late a bit of

con construction there okay so did you

do any of the software engineering stuff

when you made it to the US or that was

all when you were back home so back home

in the process of getting my paperwork

like my official like work permits I had

to work on the construction site once

after a year I got my work permit and I

landed a job in the HP

okay that was my first job as a contract

HP then I work there for a year was a

contract now fulltime and then I landed

another job in Universal weather and

Aviation is flying Services private jet

services company in Le City got it so HP

hulet Packard was was that the reason

that you and landed in Houston

specifically no I just came because I

have family here as a Cuban Latino most

of Latinos Cubans 80% of them are in

Miami in Florida south Florida

but I always knew that’s kind of like a

Instinct if I chose Miami I was getting

into my comfort song right it’s yeah

everyone speak Spanish the environment

everything so I that that was like an

instant right I need to get out of there

just to grow I can grow in in this kind

of like a comfort zone but getting out

of the comfort zone in every area I I

knew that I will help the grow faster

and I did literally and H was the I was

the best city to get opportunities and

also had a family when you first started

and everything is important to have help

and I have family who took me in for a

month that’s amazing and did you grow up

speaking English or did you learn when

you came here bro no actually if you can

notice my English is not 100% good but

that’s fine I use it as a TR but I do

wish Ste that I my desire was to come to

the state right I will say from my early

age I was always looking on watching

movies without subtitles reading also

the softw engineering career most of the

good information on books are in English

so I quickly learn but also with my

long-term vision of coming to the states

yeah so long-term Vision when you

decided to come here obviously like you

said you had to basically go into debt

in order to get here you had to learn

English and and how to navigate like

American society which is especially in

a big city like Houston it’s pretty

chaotic and crazy what was your vision

was it was real estate always part of it

or or did you have like other things in

mind when you got here no I just First

Vision as any kind of people getting

into coming into the state any immigrant

I would say just getting a job uh but

also again u i I’m not the kind of

person who only uh feels comfortable

with just a job right I always wanted

more and also even back in Cuba we had

no intering in the University yes some

but I was already watching on Rober

skaki books on CDs you remember the CDs

so I had a friend he was he is an

entrepreneur too so he B he Le me some

Robert skill CDs I remember 16 of be G

Rich something like that he in a white

board explaining the gastro quadrant and

everything I was like I love this guy so

I we had that mindset

that I would say 90% 95% of

got it okay so you had some of those

ideas from Robert kosaki you had a lot

of drive and you were trying to come

here and figure out like what your next

steps were going to be you had the you

had software experience but you also had

construction and plumbing is that what

got you into real estate was like

working on the construction sites and

like getting exposed to all that or was

there another catalyst so like a

combination so my first Beast again my

mind was like an inal or one more yes

I’m going to land a good job per is like

the kind of the perfect job like softw

engineer working from home good salary

for an immigrant just two years into the

states making close to 100K back then

that was the perfect job right but again

I always wanted more so someone

introduced me to a network marketing

business network marketing they’re super

extremely good because they push you to

grow you have to grow because that

marketing basic these that cells

networking recruiting growing leadership

so someone introduced me to as you can

see here books bro I never I have never

read a single book in my life but think

CU before I came just takes so that push

of information that drive of immigrant

little bit of uh entrepreneur plus the

knowledge and the kind of like the peer

pressure of being the business that you

needed to grow to make money because

that’s the marketing I also always have

the real estate on on the back of my

mind so that combination I think that

that was a trigger for it and again

because I always wanted to do real

estate you speak things the universe God

I don’t know what you guys do F they put

things in your way

right they God knows what you have on

your heart so through connections like

asking I met a person who helped me by

my first four place with my f Lo okay

let’s talk about that first deal a bit

so you put a lot out there of energy

into the world you’re reading the signs

you’re interpreting back like you said

sometimes when you’re almost manifesting

that you’re going to find a way to to

make this happen so how did you find

that first deal and and you said you

worked with someone that helped you what

did that look like so nowadays it’s

super like popular you see a lot of Tik

Tok videos yeah you can buy your four

place up to four units with the your FHA

or your VA back then it wasn’t that

popular but through networking uh I mean

speaking out loud what my what it wants

one of my co-workers in

HP his

boyfriend was a real estate agent and he

was investing in real estate but in a

not as an as as a Old Market with off

Market deal sorry so he was buying on

Market you know saving for the 20% but

again saving buying a little bit

distress by buying on Market so he about

that

time he was the one who told me you can

buy a four with your FHA and I can help

you get it I that was like a year and a

half into my job after I landed that job

so we made it happen the bank or just

asking for a year and a half like sement

the W2 sement that’s it I only PID 14k

out of my profit just to get that forx

sent down so was it like a four 280 2

290 the forx 290 I put only like 11k

remember can close on 6K he help me

because he was an agent he helped me get

some credit from the

set and one thing that I remember now

that I was like wow that’s so crazy

because for all the people buying red

say is like a huge step for me that was

like yeah what the hell that let’s do it

I don’t know I have nothing to lose and

that’s a beauty of of coming from

nothing because you have nothing to lose

what happen this doesn’t work that’s

okay because I I came from nothing so I

just jump right in even losing money but

that’s another story but the first deal

was like that fast hey help me by this

forits I got guidance very important I

got guidance but I did it in two or

three months yeah so a couple things I

want to pull on there so first of all

that was you solved the most immediate

problem first which is if you’re

everyone needs somewhere to live and if

you’re going to go and rent you’re going

to pay somebody else who who owns the

property probably $1,500 $2,000 a month

depending on I know you have a family

too and it’s not cheap to live but if

you can live in a a quadplex or if you

house hack if you do a strategy like

that then it brings your cost of living

way down so you’re solving two problems

you’re getting your housing expense down

and you’re investing in something that’s

going to grow over time and then even

when you move out of that house you can

rent the unit you used to live in and

that becomes a rental property and if

you do it right then it’s going to cash

flow for you so that’s it’s great to do

that as your first step because then

that puts you in a stronger position for

future deals you also mentioned mindset

which I I definitely want to pull on

right because of where you came from and

where you grew up like your perception

of this type of opportunity is so

different than someone who was born and

raised in the states and they don’t know

any different they grow up and just

thinking that oh it’s normal you grow up

and you buy a house so I think like one

question I have for you is do you feel

like it was harder for you to put

yourself in the mindset of buying it it

sounded like from what you said it

actually felt easier like you you didn’t

have as much friction behind it but was

it hard for you to overcome the mindset

of oh I’m going to go buy property or

did it come naturally

bro I would say it didn’t come naturally

but it come it came

easy because of my I would say inocence

I was like yeah let’s do it I’m a kind

of person who trust I trust everyone

like 100% unless they prove it prove the

the contrary right so that was my friend

so I I I trust in him 200% so I would I

was I put my Lally my future on his him

and that’s my mindset with relationships

yeah and trust me it works for me 85% of

the times 50% of the times it doesn’t

work and it it’s hard when people I

don’t know betray you or don’t do things

that you’re trusting them to do but

again 85 to 90% of the time works so it

makes my life easier I trust him and I

yeah take my money and not even I didn’t

have the 14k I took a credit card and I

remember that had 89k saved and I took

the rest for my credit card

and there are times when something like

that wouldn’t work out but it sounds

like because you had guidance you had

somebody that could help you understand

what you’re getting into and how it

might work out like it’s you took a

calculated risk and it sounds like that

was a good building block the other

thing I want to just pull on from that

story though is you mentioned the W2 so

you had a year and a half of experience

so you had your you had maybe one tax

return or something that showed that

your salary and then you you had your

pay stubs and I remember when I went to

the event that you look at you were

really clear and you mentioned many

times how your W2 job is not the enemy

It’s actually an asset and it’s

something that is really important for

most people when they’re learning and

building their portfolios so I don’t

know if you want to say anything else on

that or like what the role of the W2

played for you and building your current

portfolio for me it was a superpow at

that time why because again we don’t

know that Banks love WJ in order to give

you loans so I bought my first first 10

properties using my do to how uh I first

I I bought the first two on the market

like f unconventional and the other

eight uh using the burst TR I learned

how to buy them off market like this

stress but then on the refinance I was

refinancing using conventional laws why

because I had a W2 and I had a nice

credit it’s okay if you don’t have your

W2 that’s fine you can do it with non ql

dsrs other non comen LS but if you you

have a W2 that’s not your enemy that

could be your friend at the time of

refinancing on take those long term yeah

yeah no it can be a huge asset

especially as you’re building your

initial portfolio and it is an

interesting point where I think you said

it at I heard you say this where a bank

would rather see you have a $50,000

salary that’s a W2 than $200,000 a year

as a self-employed if you can’t trace

and make it really

stable and consistent they they just

view salaries more favorably when

they’re calculating what they’re willing

to lend you so and we all know that is

it’s not true right you’re an asset

you’re a number in in the your boss

spreadsheet if things around your

company you you have no security don’t

do your own thing but again he said the

system works like that so for us we need

to learn how to play with the system

that’s and take advantage of today’s

episode is brought to you by the remote

real estate Academy the community I

launched last year where I personally

coach investors and Empower them to buy

rental properties anywhere in the United

States my business partner Nathan and I

have a collective 15 years experience

with over 20 cash flowing out of-state

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to remote realestate academy.com for

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r a and I’ll throw in a special bonus

for podcast listeners who join the

academy now let’s get to the show so I

want to fast forward a little bit since

I know we have a little shorter

interview today where do things stand

right now for you so like with your

portfolio and like the different things

that you’re involved in I know you’re

agent you’re also doing lending you’re

an investor yourself so what does today

look like for

you awesome so let me give you like a

quick after I B my first forx I bought

another property uh with my again my

first 10 properties was I used my dou2

as leverage using conventional loans but

the first two the forx and another house

that I bought I house hiked remember

always the multi family M I don’t know

that’s why it’s so important to read

books and to to get with mentors because

they really change your kind of mindset

and your your way to see things so in

real estate was kosaki grard all of

those like MTI families so time it was

okay how can I become a multi family

investor but buying single family house

Hing was the way so I took I every house

that I bought I always added like an

extra room an extra Adu like Cita

in-house suit something like that to

make it a dopl or a tri so after my

first two properties on Market I met my

again relationships that’s another thing

that I want to point relationships is

that who can help you so I met my

Harmony lender he helped me he helped me

connect with a lot of wholesalers he

helped me into the off Market field I

even pay a course $114,000 to learn how

to wholesale not to be a wholeseller

just to learn how to get my in this so

after I I landed my kind of my 10th uh

deal the bats were not weren’t giving me

like in good non qm nonconventional

because you you maxed out you have only

10 convention loans on the your name so

I start looking how can I buy properties

with no money and no credit and guess

what boom creative Finance P Mory so I

started learning I I didn’t left the the

buy cash stting the bird on the side

because I know that’s one of the best

tools to build equity from day one but

also I integrate all the creative

Finance skills so that’s that for me

that’s also like a mindset thing I need

to have all the tools in my tool build

just to give the right offer just to

have options for us as investors we need

to have all those options so after that

I started buying subt selling wraps I

keep I kept

buying property scratch but now the

house hacking went a little bit like

more advanced mode I started doing house

hacking from scratch meaning that I was

converting properties into multi-units I

have almost all my portfolio now is like

two duplexes to four plexes so that’s my

portfolio today is more than 50 actually

close to 60 units they’re like 30

something properties because they are

the small families I have notes many

properties that I bought or finance subt

that I’m selling that is sold or Finance

80% of the portfolio is like cash 20% is

like some tools that are

bought and I’m also I became an agent

because when I left my W2 that’s another

thing when I left my W2 I I didn’t have

any cash kind of it income coming in so

at that time and that’s why I called

people in on meeting you we need to work

even in the meantime while in the W2 or

job or we need to work in in our active

income business because I’m made that

mate yeah that’s exactly what this

entire show is about really is people

who work full-time but they’re trying to

build a real estate portfolio on the

side and so what you’re explained from

your story I know we condensed it into a

really small period of time but you had

eight eight years where you started by

planting one seed with that quadplex and

then over time you were building all

these different skills so like you said

you took a course just to learn how to

wholesale you didn’t even want to become

a full-time wholesaler but you wanted

that skill in your tool belt so you

could go find good off-market deals at

great prices and learn how to negotiate

and learn maybe how a wholesaler thinks

then you went and learned creative

Finance Pace Mor is the the most

established name the Godfather of

creative finance and I’ve seen you built

a relationship with him you’ve probably

participated a lot in his community and

and so you learned how to go find deals

and different ways over time and it

sounds like service yeah it’s a service

that we’re giv to those sellers that

we’re contacting because if you go with

one option cash only you will disservice

a lot of sellers that they don’t have

the deal because they don’t have Equity

or they need more money so for us

investors I would say that it is a

service it is a must for us to learn all

those kills and that’s why I became

aging too that was my last okay if I

cannot buy the property in any of these

options at least let me list it yeah

yeah so basically you gave you you show

up and you understand that whoever

you’re talking to they might need to

sell for some reason some personal

reason or a circumstance and you want to

be able to give them as many options as

possible that will help solve their

problem for them right so whether that’s

a sell a long-term seller finance or

whether it’s listing it conventionally

with you on the MLS or writing a cash

offer and coming in and you know closing

in 7 to 14 days like you want to be able

to meet them wherever they are based on

the problem they have is that right yep

mhm that’s how I see I can I need to

imagine like a tool belt with all the

tools they’re like a so is Crea the

report or that connection with the

wholeseller was with the seller and

then people will know sellers

wholesellers everywhere you meet will

they will know that you have the

solution if you you don’t have the

solution is because there there is close

to there is close to no solution at all

yeah and that’s another skill like on

the writing right so know the ski I mean

know the the skills have the skills have

the tools but also know how to place

them together in order to get a good uh

deal for

everyone so with that said we said

there’s eight potential tools there’s

all these different creative Finance all

these different strategies for someone

who is just now starting and getting

into real State they have a full-time W2

maybe they have kids and they want to

start spending little chunks of time

every day getting better what would you

say is the like first place that you

would suggest that they go and learn

what first strategy or first type of

thing what’s the skill that you think

would be most helpful to someone who’s

just getting

started there is a media that I always

recommend everyone because the first

person who and I believe that’s the only

person who I’ve done it is a space War

we go ahead and look for a video called

avatars in real estate because we all in

in the kind of like old way we all every

Mentor teach you that you need to know

how to go call you need to know how to

negotiate you need to hustle your way up

to to real estate I’m not will say it’s

not true because there are multiple ways

to make money into real estate there is

a lender we saw it in our deal there

were like nine people connectors lenders

the call callers the closers they’re

like little 12 I recommend everyone to

go and see that video because it is not

about the like the first skill that you

need to know it’s about the the skills

that you think that will match your kind

of your mind not your mindset your

situation right but also your skills

that match your yeah man the way you

want to to say the way you want to go

and I know a lot of people that they

have money they love their businesses or

their WS they don’t want to L their W2

because they love it it’s their

but they want to invest they are not co-

callers they are not closers they don’t

have the time so they may want to invest

passively so learn your avatar what do

you think you want to fit your criteria

and from there yes have all the tools

possible for you to grow meaning learn

how to buy real estate learn how to in

multiple ways sub to creative but that’s

it starting with that yeah no I love

that so we’ll find that video and we

link to it in the show notes here but

but I think if I can just repeat kind of

some of what I heard is that there’s

different avatars and there’s different

points in the food chain of every

transaction right there’s people that

find the deal there’s people that fund

the deal there’s people that go raise

money there’s agents there’s lenders

there’s so many people and then of

course the seller is an important party

so if you learn where do you have the

most passion and strength towards right

so I know I’d rather pull out my teeth

than make cold calls and but I also I

really underwriting and analyzing deals

I love networking I love connecting

people so maybe I can find something

that fits my strengths instead of me

forcing myself to go with cold call

which I don’t like I can find different

ways to add value in the same

transaction and so I think you’re yeah

you’re encouraging people to then go

figure out like where do they fit in

that picture and then how do you get the

best skills to be as valuable as

possible in whatever position that is

that’s really good advice and that’s one

of the main things why people qu real

estate because there’s start doing

something that they believe that they

need to learn and they hate it and they

did they just hate they just say this is

not for me because they don’t match with

their personality that was I was trying

to say that they don’t have the time or

for any reason but they’re plenty of way

I’ve seen connectors Brother people

connecting deals with bios that is not

even their deal making 20 30 40

$50,000 Capital risers you don’t have

even to raise you don’t have you know

you don’t to need that to have the money

you don’t need to have the deal it’s

like connecting the guy with the money

with the guy with the deal with the

operator people with 4 onks with IRAs

they don’t need to invest they don’t

need to find a deal they don’t need to

do the work they just go on partner or

lend the money for with a fixed rate or

just be a private money partner they

plenty of ways to makeing real esta yeah

no I love it and if you haven’t checked

out Lover’s portfolio he’s got a a cool

blink card that’s got links to all the

different stuff he’s involved in all the

different ways that he finds ways to add

value across the entire food chain of

transactions I I was really impressed

just by there’s almost no scenario that

can come across your table where you

can’t either connect to someone who can

help or you can help yourself and I

think that versatility and that ability

to build a broad skill set is that’s a

nice archetype for people to potentially

build off of if they’re looking to start

their own Journeys in my case I’m I’m a

full-time investor right beit different

from you because you have your st2

you’re your wife but I had to become

that person what all the solution right

because if someone comes to me to find a

solution to solve a

problem I need to is is a duty for me to

solve it or know someone who can solve

it so that’s why my my portf going back

to your question I have flips I have buy

holes Gat buy H and flips creaty and

cash I land to for to investors I Al I’m

also an agent I have like small team of

agents that we list our properties I’m

into new construction too like yourself

and building to places again having

having the solution for every problem

you really say if not I will find

someone we get I love it I Lov it where

can people go to connect with you I know

you launched a YouTube channel you’ve

got a number of different things you’re

involved in but what’s the best way for

people to find you to stay in touch with

you

so I basically my two most active like

socials is like Instagram actually right

there is like lber at lu. Sano Instagram

and

YouTube and also if you can sh blinkard

blinkard is like a person online

presentation like digital presentation I

have all the links there even my

portfolio for lenders and partners now I

I recently added like a form to get in

contact with me other information and

also submit deals if you have so

basically yes Instagram YouTube and the

blink card awesome we’ll make sure all

that stuff is in the show notes so that

you can find you and I’m looking forward

to having you back on the show and maybe

we’ll do some deal deep Dives next time

I appreciate you sharing your story I

love that we got the origins in and I

know you have so much domain knowledge

about all these deals that next time we

can hopefully dive in and dig into some

individual deals and break them down

awesome yeah this is where part two

talking about the good deals and the

about de because I had a lot of those

too yes looking forward to it I love it

bro thank you so much thank you for

making it to the end of today’s episode

as you may know podcasts are very

difficult to grow organically if you’re

getting value from today’s episode I’d

deeply appreciate if you can take 30

seconds to leave my show five-star

rating and review this will go a long

way to me reach more listeners just like

you thank you so much in advance