Master Your Taxes: Isabel Uribe’s Secrets to Building Wealth

Dylan Silver (00:01.38)
Hey, folks, welcome back to the show. I’m your host, Dylan Silver. And today on the show, we have a tax strategist, real estate investor, coach, who is also a leader in the grid investor women’s network. And she’s based out of the DMV on the East Coast, Isabel Uribe. Isabel, welcome to the show.

Isabel Uribe (00:25.41)
Thank you, Dylan. Thank you for having me.

Dylan Silver (00:27.886)
How far are you from DC?

Isabel Uribe (00:31.547)
I am about 20 minutes out in a town called Reston, Virginia.

Dylan Silver (00:37.986)
Okay, so pretty darn close. I’ve had a family who’ve lived out there and I’m from northern New Jersey, but I’m in Dallas now. One of the things that I notice about the DC area in general is there’s a distinct culture when you’re out there that’s different than anywhere else that I’ve been because it’s you have so many people involved in government, right? And so in New Jersey, we had this kind of East Coast culture, a lot of I would say, for lack of a better word, materialism.

I’m here in Texas, so we’ve got our cowboy culture down here, and Tejano culture, then DMV, that’s a whole other area. And actually, you’ve got three states that make up that area, so it’s an interesting area to be in. How long have you been out there?

Isabel Uribe (01:24.814)
15 years.

Dylan Silver (01:26.39)
Okay, so you really like it out there. You’ve been there quite some long time, so you must enjoy it.

Isabel Uribe (01:31.062)
Yeah, it’s been long. Yes, yes, I love it. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (01:35.31)
I want to ask you about tax strategy. Just hop right in here because one of the things that I didn’t realize I would learn when I hopped into real estate was how much I was really overpaying when I was a W-2. You know, I don’t know how many tens of thousands of dollars I overpaid by just not declaring any, you know, tax write-offs that I could have.

that I really could have. was running small, I wouldn’t say businesses would be official term, but I was doing other things to make money. I just never made it official and I lost out on so much in deductions because I never went that route. when I got into the real estate space was when I had my eyes open to, wow, I’m going to be now working for myself. I’ve got to really understand this whole tax thing.

Isabel Uribe (02:30.862)
It is crazy, you’re right. I believe that not only W-2s, I mean, I’ve been a estate agent for a long time and one of the things that I noticed when I went into investing itself is that I had been paying so much for taxes and my income taxes when I was a real estate agent only.

I believe that this information is, I mean, it’s publicly, you know, it’s there all the time and we just don’t know. So one of the things, the most interesting things that I found in real estate investment is that the US government is, you know, I mean, is prompting people to invest in real estate, to invest in general, but specifically in real estate.

So real estate investors have a lot of opportunities to write off taxes, to defer taxes, and basically to pay very little taxes. Even if you’re a W-2 and you want to start doing something in real estate, it’s definitely the right way to go because if you’re a W-2 and you don’t have anything, you’re not investing in real estate, you’re definitely overpaying a lot.

Dylan Silver (03:49.284)
How did you get into the the the attack strategy space? You mentioned before hopping on here that you were looking at it for yourself.

Isabel Uribe (03:56.834)
So yeah, that’s what happened. The first year that I did relatively well in real estate investment, I got hit with a huge tax bill and I was like, my God, how do people do this? And I knew in the back of my head that…

of millionaires and you know you always hear in the news that millionaires and people who have a lot of money and the 1 % don’t pay taxes and I was like how come they don’t pay taxes and I paid this much. So I decided to learn and to understand how the tax code work and it was for my own benefit at the beginning and

I found it fascinating. So I started taking courses with CPAs, courses for their CE credits. And then at some point, I understood everything. And the point is that I understood that is taxes are there to help you build wealth. It’s not the other way around. So that was like a mind.

me because I’ve always thought that taxes were there to take not to give you so that blew my mind and since then I started advising people I mean I used it obviously for my own for my own business but I started advising people and it has been great because people don’t know anything about this

Dylan Silver (05:23.258)
You know, one of the things, is a bell that I’ve seen now from hosting this podcast and then also from being active in real estate is that a CPA or, know, lot of the big names that people might know of to do taxes, they’re not there to save you money on your taxes. They’re, they’re there to make sure that you don’t get in trouble. And if anything, they’ll have you overpay, but there’s other, there’s so many other ways I’ve had enrolled agents on this show, which I’m sure you’re familiar with. I’ve had.

Isabel Uribe (05:40.804)
yeah. yeah.

Dylan Silver (05:52.056)
people that are involved in tax law attorneys and I they’ve told me like a CPA is not there to to save you money on your taxes so I’m thinking about when I did my taxes with you know some of the big-name brick-and-mortar places and then have gone to CPAs in the past and I just think man I wish I had this information then but at least I’m glad I’ve got it now

Isabel Uribe (06:16.652)
So I believe that CPAs are great because they’re there to keep you out of trouble. And that’s their job and they do it well. But the way I see it is that they’re not there to make you build wealth.

Now with the knowledge that I have, it’s not only about keeping you out of trouble or making you save money in taxes. It’s about building wealth, properties that are cash flowing. And one of the byproducts of that is that if you do it well, you’re not gonna pay taxes.

So, but they are, don’t, I mean, it has been very difficult to me to find a CPA that understands this. yeah, they’re there to keep you safe and thank God for them. But I don’t think they’re the risk takers in this.

Dylan Silver (06:51.621)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (07:09.584)
They’re not there to save you money on taxes. And you know, I understand it because their training is geared towards keeping books, right? So your CPA, certified public accountant, is there to do bookkeeping. sometimes they’ll, you you might go to a CPA who might give you some advice as far as ways that you could improve some of your

financial systems even to where you’re saving money in the business, you might have a strategy related CPA, but very rarely will you have a CPA that will help you with tax strategy. And so you really have to seek out, you know, the Isabella Rives in your area in order to do this. I do want to pivot a bit here, Isabella, and ask you about how the the reception was when you started telling people, you know, what you were involved with, did they

Did they, were they skeptical? Did they already know about it? What was, what were people saying?

Isabel Uribe (08:07.018)
It’s the other way around. They have been loving it because I think because nobody nobody explains this. It’s they’re like, my God, can I know more? So even even when when I’m in in in spaces where not not real estate related, when there are W2s or, you know, I’m taking a course about how to build this and how to sell it online. And they are like, my God, can you please tell me more? I think.

I think, like I said, think these strategies have been historically available for like high earners all the time. And the fact that I’m making them available for anybody, think it’s been great. It’s been very well, I mean, it’s been welcome for sure because everybody wants to know more about it.

Dylan Silver (08:58.224)
100%. I mean, some of the things that I’ve heard about, I’m not a tax strategist at all. I’m not an enrolled agent, certainly no attorney. But some of the things that I’ve heard people do are, you know, mini cost segregation, so that they can, you know, write off the depreciation of their property, or even, you know, if they’re living and using it as an office space in some capacity, which most people are, then you can write off part of the living space. And then there’s so many things that people

Isabel Uribe (09:26.818)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (09:28.1)
don’t think about one of the and I’m sure this is on a micro level like this is probably very basic and you might you may say well everyone can do that. But just running like mile IQ on your phone to write off your miles right. And that’s something that that most people you know when they’re going out to a business meeting or when they’re meeting you know clients when you’re starting out you may not even think to do that but you could literally be saving yourself thousands of dollars every

Isabel Uribe (09:41.27)
huh.

Isabel Uribe (09:52.653)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (09:56.238)
year potentially tens of thousands of dollars by doing small tricks like that.

Isabel Uribe (10:01.376)
Or yes, or simple things like putting your family in your board. You know, like you never think about that. But if you do, and you go, you know, you take them for a trip, you know, and you talk about business with them on the trip, you can write that off. So.

There are many different things. That’s very basic. they are specific that is not specifically to real estate. Of course, you can use it with real estate. things like, well, if you’re renting your basement, well, that’s a short-term rental. So it can be treated as a short-term rental. So you’re going to have all the treatment that the tax code gives to short-term rentals, which, by the way, is the best strategy around right now.

to your own house. So what happens is that at least a third of your property is going to be treated as a short-term rental and you should be setting it up as a short-term rental because it offsets so many benefits, at least in taxes. So it’s going to save you money on your income even if you’re a W-2.

Dylan Silver (11:13.168)
So who is the best case use of this? You mentioned running out, I believe you mentioned a basement. So is this for younger people who have, you know, house hacking, that type of thing?

Isabel Uribe (11:24.768)
Of course, you’re house hacking, is something that you should be looking at. mean, not only should be looking at, if you’re setting it up in the correct way, it’s something that you’re missing out if you’re not paying attention to. But I mean, if you’re older and you are a W2, think, mean, I’ve seen people who have been paying, I don’t know.

200,000, 300,000 dollars in taxes and a year. So that’s a lot of money. if you have a short term rental or two short term rentals, you can be offsetting your W-2. mean, there’s many rules around it, but you can be offsetting your income. I mean, the money that you’re getting, the income, the tax that you’re paying for that money towards your W-2 and you’re not paying all that.

maybe little or not that much on your own income. So I think that’s fascinating.

Dylan Silver (12:28.558)
Yeah, the W2 thing, Isabel, it pains me to even think about it. I don’t want to think about it, but it’s tens of thousands of dollars that I just never even thought about at the time. I just figured, well, this was taken out of my check like everybody does. I want to pivot here and ask you about the course that you’re working on. You mentioned before hopping on here that you do have a course that you are

Isabel Uribe (12:44.034)
Mm-hmm.

Dylan Silver (12:56.654)
working on it and promoting how did that come about and how can how can people become a part of that

Isabel Uribe (13:03.694)
So what happened is that after I got all this knowledge for myself, I started talking to some friends that are very, they’re high income people and I started advising them. So I’ve been advising them on how to set up their, mean, organize their whole life towards like,

LLCs and trusts and all this kind of things and and after that they they have been referring me to like all their friends, but I’ve been charging them a lot for that, but then I started thinking well

this information should be available for everybody. Not only for this high interest because that’s how historically has been. Only the people who have a lot of money have access to this kind of strategies. And I said, well, but it shouldn’t be like that because the tax code is not written for that. The tax code is written for everybody who take advantage of real estate. That’s how the Rockefellers, the DuPonts, all these people made their fortunes. So it has been there forever. But we don’t know.

So I decided to start a course and make these strategies available for anybody who wants to listen because I think they are going to be saving people thousands and thousands of dollars. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (14:34.114)
Is the course available now or is it ever released date?

Isabel Uribe (14:38.198)
Yes, I mean, yes, we’re going to start in August. mean, in August, going to, mean, but we’re already promoting it. We’re already, I already have people signed up and yeah, we’re going to start at the beginning of August with the first, with the first. It’s an online. It’s online.

Dylan Silver (14:50.96)
Is it online? Is it in person? How are people able to join? Very cool. So anywhere in the US, people, or maybe even outside, they could hop on.

Isabel Uribe (14:57.772)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So and actually it’s been kind of like, you know, a lot of people are interested and thank God I’m having a lot of people jumping in and, you know, they’re going to take the course because they’re interested. So I’m super excited about that.

Dylan Silver (15:01.604)
Very cool.

Dylan Silver (15:16.622)
Mostly real estate people or is it fair mix of all? Yeah.

Isabel Uribe (15:19.188)
Not really. mean, so obviously I have a lot of real estate people because it’s the world where I live and I know a lot of people there. But it’s a very mixed, a lot of people who have…

Business or even like real estate agents real estate agents are earning income tax like like a w-2 Person is so they are they could be benefited from all this as well. So Real estate agents real estate investors, but I also have people, you know that are like doctors Dentist, know, I have two people who are coming from the tech world that are you know that work for tech company so it’s not

I mean, it’s not specific. That’s the idea, for it not to be designed specifically for real estate investors because this is something that anybody can benefit from.

Dylan Silver (16:14.618)
Sure, mean, truly anybody can. Before I was in the real estate space, I worked for Nissan. just missed opportunity for me to save on some taxes. we are coming up on time here, Isabel. Where can folks go to learn more about the course, maybe to reach out to you if they have questions?

Isabel Uribe (16:33.888)
So they can follow me on Instagram. I’ll be happy to meet them there. My handle is isabel, I-S-A-P-E-L and then U-E. And then you can also jump on.

My website is the keepitallmethod.com. program is called Keep It All. know, it’s for specifically to keep all your money. So the website is keepitallmethod.com.

Dylan Silver (17:05.146)
Isabel, thank you so much for coming on the show here and for talking about a little bit of tax strategy here today.

Isabel Uribe (17:12.322)
Thank you, Dylan, for having me. This has been amazing. Thank you so much.