From 2nd Hand to Success

John Harcar (00:01.14)
Hey guys, welcome back to the show. I’m here with Farah Gaston and we are going to talk about her experience. had some great offline chat and we’re going to talk about going from secondhand to success. Guys here at Real Estate, excuse me, here at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers, really all real estate entrepreneurs, 2 to 5X their business by giving them tools and resources to build the businesses they want to build and those lives that they’ve always wanted to live.

Farah, welcome to the show.

Farag Gaston (00:33.186)
Thank you, John. It’s good to be here.

John Harcar (00:35.068)
Yes, thank you very much. I’m super excited to talk about this. You know, like I said, we talked a little bit offline. I love your story. I want to learn more. But before we get into all those things, share a little bit about yourself. You know, tell our audience, know, what got you here, who you are, et cetera.

Farag Gaston (00:52.238)
Okay, yeah, absolutely. So my name is Feri Gaston. I was actually born in a little country called Haiti, partnered right next to the Dominican Republic. I’ve been in America now for 31, going on 32 years. So a very long time. My life is United States now, I guess you could say, and no accent, barely. So I’ve been here now for, I’ve been in Florida for 22 years. I moved straight from New York.

John Harcar (01:09.748)
Mm-hmm.

Farag Gaston (01:18.926)
And back in 2015, I met this wonderful gentleman called Jason Gaston, my late husband, God rest his soul. And he taught me what I know about flipping today. And I just love absolutely everything I do because the title from secondhand to a success, it actually reminds me of what I went through when I was growing up. Everything we had was basically secondhand. were barely right above the impoverished line.

And I know my family, my mom, my dad, they work their butts off. So I know sometimes they went to sleep without eating so we could eat. didn’t know back then when I was younger, because, know, you’re young and they’re not going to show you that. But thinking back, I know they went to sleep without eating and cried to sleep, you know, how they’re going to pay for the next bills. So that’s why when I learned how to flip, I definitely wanted to be able to help people when it comes to the buying and the sell side, because

John Harcar (02:02.684)
Mm-hmm.

Farag Gaston (02:15.273)
Being from a third world country, it’s definitely eye opening, the wonderful, wonderful opportunities that we have here in America. A lot of people don’t even know it, but they don’t understand how blessed they are to be able to not have to worry about 90 % of the stuff that other countries do have to worry about.

John Harcar (02:33.376)
Right. And that’s important too. And I think that’s something that a lot of people lose when they get into this business is, know, what got you here? Where you were before, right? And to have that humbling mindset, you know, especially with your history and your path, that’s huge. Now let’s go before you met your husband. So obviously you weren’t doing anything in real estate before you met your husband. What did you do before this?

Farag Gaston (02:50.623)
Okay.

No, nothing at all. I was selling life and health insurance.

John Harcar (02:58.548)
I’m the just over the phone going door to door. What were you doing? the hard part.

Farag Gaston (03:02.487)
Door to door. Now, of course, you can do everything online and you can do everything via the phone or Zoom call, but no, back then it was straight up door to door, send appointments, driving two, three hours, hoping they’d be there to be able to sell that policy. And if you sell it, hopefully they qualify and they didn’t forget that they have high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

John Harcar (03:17.608)
Yeah.

John Harcar (03:24.614)
Right. Exactly. So door to door. Yeah. My father was in real. I mean, that was an insurance. He worked for Transamerica way back in the day. And and he kind of said the same thing. It’s like once all this stuff started going online, it became a lot easier. So you met your husband and he was already flipping. Got it. And you decided to say, hey, I’m going to shelf that fun insurance stuff and I’m going get into flipping. OK.

Farag Gaston (03:29.247)
Nice. okay.

Farag Gaston (03:36.466)
Absolutely. Yes. Yes, he was.

Farag Gaston (03:47.117)
Yes, absolutely. Less work, way, way more fun.

John Harcar (03:52.21)
Yeah, definitely. as you did, you just kind of learned by assimilation, just kind of going out with him on deals or how did you really kind of get your gain your knowledge in it?

Farag Gaston (04:01.057)
A very good question. So my late husband, actually used to teach people how to get started. Nothing super, super major like the big companies, but on a smaller scales, we would actually meet up with the potential investors, teach them what we knew and even walk them through their first deal. So it was actually really fun. So it was kind of learning by playing. So it was actually pretty cool. And I’m like, I wanna do this, cause I’m like, I wanna learn a little bit about this. And then…

John Harcar (04:24.232)
be right right

Farag Gaston (04:30.285)
it just hit me. I’m like, okay, what do I need to do? So it was actually pretty cool.

John Harcar (04:34.14)
And I have to ask this because some husbands are like, I don’t want my wife working with me. Who was the driver to make this all happen together? You or him?

Farag Gaston (04:43.485)
my goodness. So initially he was the driver, but John, after he taught me everything I learned, he’s like, you do it. He literally threw me to the wolves.

John Harcar (04:52.232)
I’m

he spent the time to teach us so he could take the time to relax.

Farag Gaston (04:58.433)
Correct, correct, correct. He called, he’s like, no, talk to my wife about it. I’m like, dude, what do you mean?

John Harcar (05:03.026)
How fun. How fun. So was he doing more of the business part of it and you doing more of the leading of the flips and all that type of thing?

Farag Gaston (05:11.476)
Yes.

Farag Gaston (05:14.995)
Yes, he was mostly doing the paperwork, the contract, anything to do it face to face. That was me, the contractors, the realtors, the title companies, the sellers, the buyers. He’s like, you handle that. It’s funny because he’s always been a super, super introverted person, but he became an extroverted person when he started doing real estate. And when I came, he became an introverted person again, where he’s like, I don’t want to deal with people you deal with that you’re a people person.

John Harcar (05:23.7)
Mmm.

John Harcar (05:36.02)
Wow.

John Harcar (05:43.9)
I think he had to deal with it long enough to deal with it until he found someone. And I can’t blame him. I’d rather send a pretty face out to all the contractors and all the people that my ugly mug. mean, come on. So before he passed in my condolences again, how many flips did you guys do?

Farag Gaston (05:46.6)
Yes, correct.

Farag Gaston (05:59.373)
Thank you.

total together in the last nine years. This is the ninth year full year that we’ve been working on it. I think we did about 40 before he passed. Yeah.

John Harcar (06:12.692)
Okay. And when you flipped these properties, did you resell them all the time? Did you hold on to any of them at all?

Farag Gaston (06:19.405)
We held onto a few, but 90 % were sold. Yeah.

John Harcar (06:22.996)
Yeah, okay. That’s awesome. And then how do you find your deals? Or how are you finding them?

Farag Gaston (06:26.317)
Thank you. We were mostly doing word of mouth. We had advertisement, of course, but it’s hit or miss. And we did a lot of bandit signs. We did Facebook posts, Craigslist posts, but majority of our deals actually came from referrals and repeat customers. Either they needed to upgrade, so they need to sell again, or they’re like, we’re selling because we had a death in the family or there’s a divorce in the family.

So was mostly referrals. Yes.

John Harcar (06:56.126)
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And I was just curious if you were buying from wholesalers or doing stuff like that.

Farag Gaston (07:02.783)
Yeah, we had a few wholesales as well. Those are really good. But now it’s harder to get really, really solid good wholesalers because like you said, nowadays, most investors or most wholesalers, I should say, they’re not in the game to actually work and help the client. They’re just there to make a quick buck. So they’ll over inflate the ARV. They’ll lower the rehab cost.

John Harcar (07:20.958)
Right.

Farag Gaston (07:27.839)
and they’ll try to sell the property for way more than really it should be contracted for. So there’s no skin on the bone. So there’s really nothing we can do at that point.

John Harcar (07:32.542)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (07:37.256)
Yeah, I think I think when you know, when a lot of focus got into wholesaling and a lot of people really started to learn everybody and their brother had a course and and people learn how to do it and learned it very superficially. I guess I could say they didn’t learn proper, you know, how to properly evaluate a deal, you know, how to underwrite the property correctly and all those type of things.

Farag Gaston (07:52.95)
Yes.

Farag Gaston (07:59.373)
Yes.

John Harcar (08:02.708)
When you transitioned by yourself after your husband’s husband passed, were there any major changes that you made in the business? People you brought in things you decided to focus on, you know, instead anything like that.

Farag Gaston (08:15.053)
No, there was none. I really should have. So he passed away in 2022, January 2022. So this is the third year he’s been gone now. So it’s been a little bit, it’s been, I guess I can say really, challenging maneuvering from doing things with a two person man or two man job to basically doing a one man job essentially. So I’m basically doing everything and I tried getting some help and I guess I tried to get the help the wrong place.

And let’s just say I got taken for the cleaners. So after that, I kind of like stepped back a little bit. I slowed down in 2022 and 2023. I started picking back up again in 2024.

John Harcar (08:56.402)
Okay, let’s go back to this where you got through the wringer. Because I think it’s important, It’s something that you maybe overlooked or something that maybe someone who’s coming into it, once we talk about it, might now be able to recognize. So kind of give me, tell me what happened.

Farag Gaston (09:11.957)
Yes. Okay, so what happened is a family friend or a family friend wanted to help out and they’re like, I’ll help out. You just do what you need to do. Continue doing everything you are doing and I’ll go ahead and start doing what he was doing. I’ll start doing the paperwork. I’ll go ahead and make sure everything’s okay. Next thing I know, I have to basically pay this person almost $50,000 to get rid of them, essentially, because they’re like, well,

this is supposed to be paid to me. I said, yeah, but I didn’t sell the properties yet. I have to sell them first. They’re like, well, I need money. And if you don’t want to be in litigation, go through all that. And of course, this was in 2022. This was a few months after my husband passed. So I’m like, you know what? It’s easier just to write the check and be done. So I just wrote him a couple of checks and then we’re just done with them. Yeah. Yeah, a family friend.

John Harcar (10:01.982)
So this was a family friend.

Farag Gaston (10:05.375)
And it was crazy because he’s supposed to be one of my late husband’s really, really good friends too, but you know, people show their true colors when there’s death.

John Harcar (10:11.976)
Yeah, it right. But I do I do have to give you props, right? I mean, besides the fact of obviously listening to your husband and this happening, you have you had every reason to shut the doors, curl in a ball and just say, I’m done. But you didn’t.

Farag Gaston (10:22.305)
Yeah.

Farag Gaston (10:28.365)
I wanted to so many times so many times but

John Harcar (10:32.242)
What kept you going? What kept you to say, hey, I’m gonna still do this, I’m gonna make it even better?

Farag Gaston (10:38.125)
Honestly, it was my family and then of course his family too. So not only did I lose my husband, but his mom and dad lost a son and his sister lost a brother, his brother’s lost a brother. So I figured I had to be strong for everyone as well as for me and then also keep his legacy alive. And so another thing happened the same day my husband passed, my parents’ house caught on fire. So.

John Harcar (10:49.331)
Right.

John Harcar (11:03.268)
man.

Farag Gaston (11:04.039)
Yeah, it was it was a terrible it was January 15th. I remember like it was yesterday, John. I’m on the way to the hospital to say goodbye to my husband because the doctors are like, hey, we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. We can’t operate. So he’s going to pass. And if we operate, he’s going to pass. So there’s nothing we can do. So I’m driving to Tampa General and my father keeps on calling me like every two minutes. I’m like, what’s going on? What’s going on? Finally, my cousin calls me and I’m like, he never calls. I answer. He’s like, I was like, what’s going on? I’m on the way.

my husband died, Jason, died, I’m on my way to hospital. He’s like, well, I’m sorry to be the bearer of even worse news. Your parents’ house caught on fire, your father was hurt a bit, he’s got like second degree burns. And I’m like, this is seven o’clock in the morning, I’m freaking out. I’m like, okay, so now I have to be strong for me, for him, for his family, for my family. Now I have to move in my whole entire family to my house. So all of it happened in a blink of an eye. I went to, from being on top of the world with this amazing man who loves me to death.

John Harcar (11:47.729)
Farag Gaston (12:01.877)
and having everything to almost losing my parents along in the fire, my cousin, everything was just crazy surreal. Till this day, I can tell you that it was just, it felt like almost a nightmare. It still does not seem real. Yes. Lots of therapy help. Therapy works.

John Harcar (12:16.894)
That’s incredible. Man, that’s a lot to deal with. And you’re still here and you’re smiling and I love it. You guys are out there therapy works if you need it. tell me what let’s talk about your business now. What is your business look like? And and you know, what are some resources that you think are really good for folks to be able to use to grow or maybe build a business like yours?

Farag Gaston (12:28.865)
Therapy works, pay for it, do it.

Farag Gaston (12:43.137)
Okay. Well number one resource is definitely get coaching get some help because you cannot do it by yourself Everybody tries to do by themselves and then they fail and it’s easier to fail with someone that’s gonna be able to pick you up Then it’s the fail on your own. So definitely get some coaching get some help Definitely make sure that you’re in it for the right reason because money is the number one driver Yes, but what’s behind that because once you get?

that hundred million or the hundred thousand dollar check. What are you going to do with it? Are you going to give back to the community? And then also realize that not every deal is going to be a deal. And even if it is, make sure that you pay it forward by helping the next person. When you buy the house, you’re helping the seller. When you sell the house, you’re helping the buyer and their family. But also remember, you’re helping contractors, you’re helping realtors, you’re helping title company, you’re helping everyone in between. So it’s not just a me and you business. It’s an

John Harcar (13:34.227)
Mm-hmm.

Farag Gaston (13:39.175)
us business so it’s a community so make sure you have really good backing in every aspect to make sure that you’re taken care of with Tidal, with Realtor and Contractor too because that can also make or break the deal.

John Harcar (13:41.257)
Yeah.

John Harcar (13:49.652)
Okay. Yeah, definitely. And I, and I, know we talked about it too earlier about, know, how, how you help folks, if they need money to move or if they need certain things, you know, even with a buyer, you help them with the concessions. And have you ever been put in a situation to where you have outlaid this money, this help, the stuff for a seller and they said, no pause, we’re not selling.

Farag Gaston (14:12.365)
Honestly, no, I’ve been very blessed that has never happened now, of course There’s been some they’re pretty upset that I’m like, hey listen, this is $10,000 that I’m putting for your first deposit last month security And then also I’m renting a u-haul. I’m loading the u-haul. I’m hiring movers, too That’s not a small chump change. So I am gonna have to sign a separate contract with you to get paid that at closing

John Harcar (14:36.52)
No.

Farag Gaston (14:41.365)
And they’re like, man, I really, really think you took advantage of me. But I’m like, I took advantage of you. I helped you pack your stuff and we helped you move your stuff into your new home because this, so the story of this one, it’s a seller. She was going through foreclosure. And so she didn’t have a penny to her name. She didn’t even have money to turn on her lights. So we had to turn on her lights for her. We had to put the first month, last month and security deposit.

John Harcar (14:47.4)
Yeah.

John Harcar (15:01.359)
Ooh.

Farag Gaston (15:08.361)
and we had to help her move because she didn’t have money to get movers. She didn’t have money to get a U-Haul. So we actually hired the movers, me, my late husband, my brothers, a couple of our other friends. We rented the U-Haul and we helped move all of her stuff. We did, I think, two days worth of work to help her move all the stuff. Now that’s a lot of work, but she, at the end, she’s like, well, I shouldn’t have had to pay that back. And I’m like, okay, well then you wouldn’t have moved and you would have been foreclosed on.

John Harcar (15:28.573)
Yeah.

John Harcar (15:37.684)
Right, right. Do you draw up a, and I think you did mention that, do you draw a completely separate agreement outlining those types of charges, incidentals, or do you put it in maybe like the notes of the contract?

Farag Gaston (15:37.877)
You know, exactly.

Farag Gaston (15:52.615)
No, we actually put that on a separate contract and we sent it to, like kind of an addendum and we sent it to title because the contract originally we knew she was struggling, but we didn’t know to what kind of depth until honestly two weeks before closing. She’s like, well, I need the money before, before I move. And I’m like, no, we don’t do that here. Either we give you majority of the money and then you have to move the next day and we’ll, we’ll hold back some.

John Harcar (15:58.6)
Mm-hmm. Okay.

John Harcar (16:19.1)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Farag Gaston (16:21.133)
Um, but at the same time, we cannot give you all the money and then you stay there until you find another place to stay. So we actually, um, found her a place to stay. We basically did everything. We were a realtor. We were movers. We were the whole nine yards then. And so we didn’t know until basically two weeks before we closed. That’s when we actually drew the contract. She signed it and we sent it to title and we were able to take the money back at closing.

John Harcar (16:33.438)
Yeah, that’s awesome.

John Harcar (16:48.872)
When you paid for her, you said first month last, did you pay the place she was living or did you give good, good, good, good, good. And that’s important for folks to know that, you know, I mean, you don’t want to give money directly to the seller for some of these things like the U-Haul pay the U-Haul. I mean, there was there was one person that I remember working with that was going to buy an RV. We went and we paid the down payment for the RV. But by doing that, it’s not giving them that.

Farag Gaston (16:53.549)
Yes! No, no. No, no, no, no. Yes.

Farag Gaston (17:05.568)
Yes.

Farag Gaston (17:10.705)
nice.

Yeah.

John Harcar (17:15.92)
money in their hands and then it comes to closing like, I spent it. need some more. Something like that.

Farag Gaston (17:20.231)
Yes, so this young lady, she was an addict. So we definitely could not give her the money. We already knew. And also, you I know people change. Not everybody’s going to be the same, but also, like you said, what if we gave her the money and she spent it on something else? Then it’s like, okay, now we got to put out more money. And what if she’s like, hey, I don’t want to close at all. You know, then we’re stuck. Yeah.

John Harcar (17:25.598)
tough.

John Harcar (17:39.602)
Yeah.

John Harcar (17:45.108)
Yeah. Well, and it’s you know, those situations are difficult, you know, because those can make or break deals, you know, and if you have the wherewithal to do it, not just out of the to make the deal happen, but to do that, the kindness of your heart like you do is huge. And I think that builds a lot of trust and rapport with your seller. So let’s go over your biggest strength. Your biggest strength is eagerness to help. Let’s let’s talk. You kind of just touched on a little bit more, but let’s elaborate on that a little bit.

Farag Gaston (17:56.706)
Yes.

Farag Gaston (18:03.84)
Yes, yes it does.

Farag Gaston (18:13.917)
Yes, my eagerness to help. love helping people because I know, you know, the golden rule, treat people how you want to be treated. I know if God forbid I were ever to be in that situation, I don’t want someone to say, OK, I’m going to help this person not only because, I’m going to make money, too, but also because it is the right thing to do. And that is why sometimes we will pass up deals.

John Harcar (18:33.172)
Mm-hmm.

Farag Gaston (18:38.261)
Because we know the buy the sellers they need to sell at a certain point for it to make sense And it doesn’t make any sense for us. So we actually have to say thank you But unfortunately, this is not going to work out for us We’re going to part ways as friends because that twenty thousand dollars that they need is the twenty thousand dollar buffer that we need as well So sometimes I have to say, know, we’re gonna have to part as friends on this one But you know, calm me if anything changes and sometimes they might come back sometimes they do come back and say listen I

John Harcar (19:01.681)
Yeah.

Farag Gaston (19:07.405)
need that $20,000 but I wanna sell it to you because you’re honest with me. Or like one of them, a couple of weeks ago, we went to Sebastian to put a house under contract and we looked at the property, it was good. He wanted a little bit more than we agreed upon. I said, no problem, we’ll go ahead and revisit the numbers, talk with the contractor and so send him the contract, everything is good. The day he’s supposed to sign the contract, he’s like, well, I have another buyer, they’re offering me $20,000 more.

But you know, I like you. Can you match? I’m like, honestly, we cannot. We went up an extra 10,000 above what we originally agreed. So we cannot go up an extra 30. So I say, you know, let me know if anything changes. But, you know, understood. Two hours later, he sent the contract to us. He said, you know, I like the fact that you’re honest and I like you better than I like this guy.

John Harcar (19:57.342)
Well, I mean, and let’s be honest, we can’t make every deal a deal, right? And I think when you’re pulling away, I think, you know, like we mentioned, it gives more respect from the seller to you because you’re honest. You’re not that commission breath, hungry to get a deal type of person. You’re really truly, you know, you have a business, you stick to your numbers, and that I think reinforces the fact that you’re going to be more likely to follow through.

Farag Gaston (20:07.724)
Yes.

Farag Gaston (20:15.393)
Yeah.

John Harcar (20:25.502)
So what does your business look like now? How many flips are you doing? What’s your kind of what’s going on in your world?

Farag Gaston (20:32.397)
Oh my goodness. Well, honestly, I wish it was like 2015, 2016 when we could buy a house for 30,000, but now those same houses, we’re buying them for 130, 200,000 at the minimum. we actually had to do a huge change since 2020 when COVID happened and the prices have gone completely.

John Harcar (20:39.337)
Right.

John Harcar (20:44.66)
Mm-hmm.

Farag Gaston (20:55.051)
Out of whack, guess you could say. Yes, that’s it. That’s the clean way to say it. now we actually have to go in the higher ARV, higher purchases. So we’re not doing as much, but we’re doing a lot more quality, if that makes any sense. Like, yeah, so the one that I went to see, the one that I told you we got under contract. So the ARV for that one is 500 and we put under contract for 310. We’re closing on it in a couple of weeks.

John Harcar (20:55.368)
bonkers.

John Harcar (21:11.313)
Of course.

Farag Gaston (21:23.149)
And it only needs about $25,000 worth of work because it is lipstick, paint, flooring, that is all. I’m like, okay, yeah. I’m like, I couldn’t say no. It’s a nice profit margin indeed. I’m so excited.

John Harcar (21:25.294)
Ooh, a little lipstick type of rehab. Love it.

Love it. That’s a nice little profit margin.

John Harcar (21:38.29)
Well, and when you go up to the higher ones, I mean, some it’s it’s like that. You can do a whole bunch of little ones that might have little or what, but you get one of those big ones. It’s it’s I don’t want to say less time because you’re still putting the time in. But you’re taking that quality up a notch, which brings that pricing up a notch, which brings your profits up a notch. Right.

Farag Gaston (21:45.932)
Yes.

Farag Gaston (21:50.23)
Yeah.

Correct. Right. Yes, correct. And instead of doing five, you’re doing one for the same profit margin.

John Harcar (22:02.748)
Right. So what are things that you think you’re struggling with that could maybe help your business get to another level?

Farag Gaston (22:11.661)
Hmm, honestly, it would probably be mostly cash flow. I would say the cash flow. That’s the 99.

John Harcar (22:19.058)
And when we say cash flow, mean like funding of deals, not like monthly cash flow, right?

Farag Gaston (22:23.557)
Yes, the funding of deals because I want to be able to buy every single property I look at and I want to be able to flip them all. Honestly, if I was a billionaire, you’d be like, why is she buying all these properties? Like, because I love to do it. It’s literally my passion and I’m addicted to it. Yes, sometimes I want to commit murder, but at the same time, I absolutely love it. So I want to I want to be able to do more flips. I want to be able to do and so doing five.

John Harcar (22:32.668)
I’m

John Harcar (22:42.714)
Of course.

Farag Gaston (22:50.573)
every quarter, I want to be able to do 50 a quarter because I know some people they’re doing 100 a month and I’m like, I want to be that guy, I want to be that girl. And it’s, I’m not there yet. And it’s also really tough to do by yourself too. But I definitely want to get there.

John Harcar (22:58.59)
Yeah. Yeah.

John Harcar (23:04.53)
Hey, and I was going to say, so is it still just yourself on the team? Or, mean, do you have.

Farag Gaston (23:09.082)
It is just myself and a few contractors and handymans. That is it.

John Harcar (23:13.542)
No, nobody else that does like your your acquisitions or your dispo or your transaction You’re wearing all the hats

Farag Gaston (23:17.205)
No, no, no. I am wearing all the hats and I’m ready to get rid of all of them except for pointing fingers and saying, I want this color. I want that design.

John Harcar (23:29.14)
What’s what’s prevented you from hiring?

Farag Gaston (23:33.889)
Well, it’s mostly fear, not going to lie. And also with the fact that after again, take advantage of, I haven’t been able to meet someone where I’m like, I can trust this person where I can close my eyes and not have to follow through and go check on the property every day or every other day. So I haven’t really had that comfort with anyone just yet. And everybody that would probably be good at it, honestly, I

John Harcar (23:45.544)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (23:50.953)
Yeah.

Farag Gaston (24:01.163)
Don’t hire them simply because they are they have a lot of responsibilities and I don’t want hey this taking a little bit longer than it needed to hurting them if that makes any sense Yeah

John Harcar (24:11.59)
Yeah, it makes 100 % sense. And that’s been one of the bigger topics of our last mastermind meeting was hiring and bringing in the right people and using the predictive index and doing those steps to really vet your people, to bring them into your organization. So you don’t have that fear, right? So you don’t have the, hey, what’s this guy? I, I don’t want to babysit because I got five other hats I’m wearing. You just took one hat, dude. You didn’t take the other five. You took one of them.

Farag Gaston (24:27.777)
Yeah, correct.

Farag Gaston (24:34.899)
Exactly. Exactly.

John Harcar (24:40.862)
So, well, that’s awesome. Okay. What is your one to five year goal look like? I mean, where do you want to be? If I were to, we were to be on this a year from now, where would you like to say your business has come to?

Farag Gaston (24:52.109)
I’d like to say that of course I got rid of some of my hats or transitioned some of them. And I’d like to say that I’m actually transitioned into the multifamily commercial space. Cause that is definitely a goal that’s been in the back of my head for a while, but I haven’t, I’m like, I can’t do it all by myself. I have to pivot a lot more correct.

John Harcar (25:03.11)
Awesome.

John Harcar (25:10.46)
Yeah. Baby steps. Yeah, you got it. You got to take care of this before you can move into that. You know, we don’t want to we don’t want to rob from Peter to to to build Paul, right? We want to make sure Peter is nice and good and then we can start building Paul, right?

Farag Gaston (25:18.039)
Correct.

Correct. Yes. Yes. And then also another hat that I have to think of. I don’t want to have to do that. Cause then I would go bonkers.

John Harcar (25:31.122)
Yeah, yeah. If someone is getting into this business, they watch this podcast and they’re like, man, I love what she’s doing. What advice would you give them?

Farag Gaston (25:39.341)
Definitely, even if you’re gonna be afraid, because you will be afraid, it’s a lot to take in, still do it, but don’t overdo it, if that makes any sense. Do it in a sense of, do it at your comfort level, but then make sure that you do progress. So you don’t stay in that comfort level, you don’t stay in the shallow end where you’re like, okay, I’m just gonna dip my toes, you’re still gonna have to walk in the pool. Don’t jump in, because you’re fresh.

But definitely walk in the pool because some people they do that they jump in and they’re like wait I’m doing a half a million dollar house and I have to pull permits and I have to do drawings and it’s supposed to take two months now it’s taking ten months like that will literally screw you over and that will probably make or break you in this business if you want to continue to do it. But if you walk slowly into the pool you’ll definitely you know like me. So quick analogy I hate cold water.

John Harcar (26:23.4)
Yeah.

Farag Gaston (26:34.669)
But every once in a while I’m like, okay, I’m going to walk slowly in the water. Once I jump in, if I jump in, I would get that shock. So I don’t want that. So I just walk slowly, slowly, slowly. And it’s like that just baby steps, but still do it. Use that fear, use that caution, because if you’re not fearful, then, and you’re not cautious, you’re not human, you’re a robot. So definitely use it. Cause we were like, Oh, have no fear. Um, no, you need to have fear. Correct.

John Harcar (26:38.035)
Yeah.

John Harcar (26:54.1)
Right

John Harcar (26:58.82)
No, you should have a little bit and you know if you can’t swim don’t jump in you know that that fear is what’s supposed to be holding you back to walk in.

Farag Gaston (27:04.397)
Exactly, just jump in, wait, you can’t swim and you’re in the 10 feet bro, no.

John Harcar (27:12.42)
Yeah, no, no, no, no, let’s go back to the baby side. What else would you like our listeners to know about Farah and her business and how she can help?

Farag Gaston (27:15.124)
Correct.

Farag Gaston (27:22.119)
well, I’m able to help any way that you want me to, or if you have any questions, you can call me, you can text me, lock me up on Facebook or Instagram. I’m always eager to help as much as possible because I was in the same position as you nine, 10 years ago, except I didn’t even know this is what I wanted to do nine, 10 years ago. It was more of a…

John Harcar (27:44.756)
Right?

Farag Gaston (27:48.077)
this is interesting. Okay. I was happy selling life insurance and knocking on people’s doors and bothering them and telling them, I’m so sorry, you got declined. That was not fun. But I did it. When I learned about this, I’m like, I want to do this. And I was fearful. I was definitely cautious, but I still did it. And now I it’s one of the best decisions that I could ever have made.

John Harcar (27:55.025)
Mm-hmm.

John Harcar (28:12.34)
I love your story. It’s a really, I mean, it really is such a great story. And I know there’s a lot of folks that will resonate with it, but I think it’s really, you know, a theme here is perseverance and consistency and, believing in yourself. You know, I mean, you know, you, you overcame a lot, a lot.

Farag Gaston (28:25.493)
Yes.

John Harcar (28:29.49)
to be where you’re at and I applaud you for that. And guys, I hope you guys got the same kind of feel from this conversation with Farah that, I mean, it’s really just about believing in yourself and you could do it if you try to do it, right? And if you utilize the resources that are out there, it’s not a difficult business once you get into it.

Farag Gaston (28:32.919)
Thank you.

Farag Gaston (28:46.603)
Yes, yes, that’s very true.

John Harcar (28:48.926)
Well, Farah, I greatly appreciate the time. had an awesome time today. I look forward to talk a little bit more when we get off. But guys, I hope you enjoyed it as well. And I hope everybody out there has a great afternoon. Take it easy, guys.

Farag Gaston (29:01.111)
Thank you, John. Have a good one, guys.