Building Communities: How Real Estate Empowers Global Entrepreneurs

Michael Stansbury (00:04.5)
Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Mike Stansbury. My guest today is Gabriel Aguilar. Gabriel, thanks for being here. Real quick though, at Investor Fuel, Investor Fuel is the sponsor of the Real Estate Pros podcast. We help real estate investors, service providers, and real estate entrepreneurs 2 to 5X their business to allow them to build the businesses they’ve always wanted and allow them to live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. Gabriel Aguilar.

Gabriel (00:33.591)
Thank you thank you Michael that is a pleasure to be on today so to get into everything I was born in San Diego California on a naval base from a mom is serving.

Michael Stansbury (00:33.666)
Tell us what market are you in, where you live, is that your hometown, did you grow up there? Tell us the origin story. Gabriel, how did you get going with what you’re doing right now?

Gabriel (00:56.662)
I was raised up throughout many cities throughout North … Carolina some throughout Florida as well but I really grew up … in a solid City North Carolina which is about 30 minutes … from where I’m at in Greensboro markets or Greensboro mainly North Carolina some of South Carolina and some international parts of them trying that we are in the … market of touching Albania which is a big one for me.

i’ve never had any international markets before i’ve never actually been a part of any organization for one so that is a a good goal for me to achieve

Michael Stansbury (01:29.75)
Okay, yeah, you’re going international and you’re in North Carolina and you dip into the south part of South Carolina. And so you grew up kinda moving around a little bit because your mom was in the Navy. Yeah, talk about that a little bit. So you got to see a lot of different parts of the country or just mainly around the East Coast.

Gabriel (01:48.085)
So that part I was only born on the base after that it wasn’t towards the end of her term So she was she was discharged and we went on with our lives She was honorably discharged without the end of her terms and then I was born So moving on with their lives we we moved on to Los Angeles stay there for a bit My mom didn’t like it. She remember telling me I was only one or two at the time don’t remember much I just remember moving into North Carolina

And then around like seven years old, that’s when we actually got stable from Durham and Raleigh and Carlebro to Seller City. So that’s when I was raised up in Seller City, middle school, high school, a lot of, well, athletic sports, being a very studious person as well. After that, we did split our ways. You know, I didn’t continue school. I went more into entrepreneurial side. So, you know, I started off as a laborer.

in many fields, low voltage telecommunications. Then I went into some of the as I grew up is in a framing labor framing. I went from telecommunications to labor framing because I built up enough revenue for my previous job to kind of establish a team sort of of laborers that can frame houses. So that was in Gainesville, Florida. When I took part of that, I moved away from

How old was that 18 years old? That’s when that took part. So I started at 18, did telecommunications, 20 years old, left, then we dipped my hand into framing.

Michael Stansbury (03:28.192)
Okay, and so you got involved, you know kind of all sides of it now, but what kind of spurred the entrepreneurial bug? What made you go, hey, know, and I don’t necessarily want to work on it on an hourly rate or work per job. What spurred on the entrepreneurial type of vision for your life?

Gabriel (03:48.262)
Well, my mind works very differently. That’s a big thing about me as who I am to be. So what sparked the entrepreneurial side in me was the lack of time that my family really gets to have for themselves and me taking a step back to be a student of the place I’m in, where I’m at, the United States.

So like understanding, I did read up on a PDF on the banker’s manual, understanding the smoke screen mirrors and how investing works and how you can take care of the pre-invested money that you deposit. I did read a lot about finances, escrow law, straw man law as well for mortgages. It took me some time to study all this information and implement it.

at the same time. So I wasn’t just being a student, but I was also being active on what I was reading. So during that time, I did help a few people with their mortgages, going through some litigation portfolios, such as, you know, affidavit of truth, escrow law, with the mortgages, TILA, Truth and Lending Act as well. Definitely the TILA, definitely TILA was big factor.

And just understanding your rights as a natural person and you have your it’s a privilege. It’s not a privilege. It’s not even a rights privilege to have access to a limited credit as a natural person. So those are just things that I studied on. So once I understood that, I said, OK, so I don’t really have to use all my money. I understand that as long as I have a return to the investors and it seems reasonable, it shouldn’t matter how much of the funds I could I would have to ask to use.

So when those two things clicked, I understand the process. I understand how to network. I have the teams. All right, I understand the financing. I understand the fine print and the blueprint. Put those together. The entrepreneurial side sparked when I met a friend. He lives in Florida. He does own a company that still frames houses. That’s when we talked about it. I basically said, hey, I can go to a bank and I could get the money.

Gabriel (06:08.193)
And we can go in and start growing the business and scaling instead of you having to work the business with the guys and you not scaling because you’re too busy finishing the houses. So like your time, houses, less guys, less money or funding more houses, more of your time to network and expand. And then you just give them a return and you just build a relationship that’s building a relationship.

So after I brought that up to him, the reason why I had to bring up to him, because he at the time he was working on his documentation to be a legal United States citizen, which he did get, he did get eventually. It was a good thing for him. That’s why I told him I would go to the bank. would discuss the credit. I would discuss everything going on with it, with two of them. And I would bring back the information to him to see what he says. He agreed. We moved forward and the business is thriving in Florida right now. It’s doing well.

That’s where that’s where we thought about multifamily because after moving from New Tampa New Tampa was our is his market New Tampa Tampa and then Plant City is his market He he heard about really about multifamily. He said I hear a lot about multifamily. I get offered a lot about multifamily I’m like, okay. Well, how strong are your numbers?

How many men do you have? How many projects are you doing right now? And what’s the deadline? And are you even close to turnover? We got to make sure these numbers make sense because you won’t get paid net. You won’t. don’t get paid to net 30. You don’t get paid net until net 30, which right now is you’re only on your 14th day. Projects are looking about eight months. And these are these are single family homes. And but they’re in communities.

And you know, these are multifamilies that are up and going up and going up and going. I’ve seen them. So I understood what he was saying. They’re fast. They’re going a big boom, big money. But I’m saying they’re up and going. They’re not like project here and there or finish up. And most of their crews are on that project. So that’s when I that’s when I asked him, do you know anyone personally like that you’ve told me about?

Michael Stansbury (08:07.149)
Right.

Gabriel (08:30.176)
that has offered you this opportunity that can help you with investing. That’s when investing hit my head. I was like, OK, we can actually find an investor because you do the work, you have the background, you have the portfolio. We have the numbers crunched down so that I would see no reason why an investor wouldn’t help you out. So that’s that was the big spark right there. That was a big spark. We ended up talking to

There was a property manager that was working at a Disney World Resorts down in Orlando. That’s where we found our bigger market because they paid pretty well. So she locked us in. We talked to a couple of the investors that are part of that project already and they were intrigued. They’re very intrigued. They liked the fact that we had the background that we already were

They like the fact that we’re pursuing for bigger things. They like that. They like people with a mission. But the biggest thing is that they like the numbers. Definitely the numbers. They like the numbers. in about three months, would say three months, did some renovations, helped develop a new construction site that was near SeaWorld. We took care of actually some of SeaWorld’s restoration. And after that, that’s when

It was a continuous work. moved out. I left Florida, came back to North Carolina about three years ago. Just re-established new connections, see how people are doing. And then…

Yeah, so that part, yes.

Michael Stansbury (10:18.574)
Yeah, so that’s kind of the origin story and where you’re at now. And so you learned a little bit about investing in collaboration. that was the beginning of figuring things out. Now, where you are today is like you’re kind of a renaissance man. You’re doing three different things. You’re working in new construction. You’re looking at helping some investors develop projects in Albania. And then what else are you doing locally in Greensboro besides?

uh… that can you know how about the construction company what’s that look like for you what are you doing locally in your market

Gabriel (10:54.44)
Well locally my market I actually have a couple of vendors father … of album them up there bleep it out if you want to if … they want to they’re called five star roofing company … restoration it live about 15 minutes down the block so what I’m doing in the community is Disney World’s coming to Pittsburgh North Carolina and they didn’t have any clue about that two days ago which I do have a couple of friends that own businesses that are already … doing jobs over there.

So knowing that the framework hasn’t been done, slabs are just being poured right now, concrete slabs, there’s an advantage, not only because things are not, but because I have the close network connections already. So what I have going on in the community is I’m bringing in a couple of companies to establish new relationships. And in order to do that, there’s a project for 30 to 60 homes in a new community.

going up next to the new Disney World platform that’s going up there as well. So with that, I’m waiting on a contract right now to be signed for a commission percentage. And that’s also going to open up new housing for people up in that market because as being a person that lives in South City, which is literally 15 minutes from Pittsburgh, grown up there for many, many years, playing against a lot of their high school teams, Northwood. Shout out to them.

Really good team. I’m not going to lie, athletically, very good, competitive. Good team. would say good team. The city itself is small. It hasn’t expanded yet as it needs to be. Considering as much work that is developed there, a lot of work has developed there. But if you don’t have the, let’s say, the family doesn’t have the natural resources to get data to be as calm as possible.

The housing market needs to grow there. It’s open market. So much land, so many sales going on. You wouldn’t believe the value that’s just sitting right there. And it’s right off the highway. Come on, no one’s gonna… Yes, off the highway. Eyes open, seeing them. I think it’s not too familiar with the highway. it… What is it? Is it 70 or is it 64? I would have to look back at it. But it’s going from Greensboro to Seller City.

Gabriel (13:20.651)
And if you know, Salar City, you know how to get through Pittsburgh is passing the Wal-Mart near the intersection. And yes, you would see the reason why I tell you that is because Honda Airport, they just expanded and that’s going towards Pittsburgh.

Michael Stansbury (13:36.29)
Yeah, so a lot of cool things happen in there. And so you got a little bit of rural area. And this is, I guess it’s east of Ashboro? Yeah. And so when you guys had the Hurricane Helene come, how were you guys affected by all that?

Gabriel (13:47.128)
Yes.

Gabriel (13:54.8)
you had, really Greensboro, we had a little bit of water flooding, not too much damage, honestly. it did tear up a little bit of the, outer cities, smaller cities. but with most of the, bigger cities nearby, such as like Charlotte, Raleigh, Durham, you know, they were able to have a emergency evac out there. we had our vendors as well, Alpha Construction with other, San McCorp and Blum Construction and Landmark.

Michael Stansbury (14:06.605)
Right?

Michael Stansbury (14:11.736)
Yeah.

Gabriel (14:22.382)
They were out there helping with the restoration, taking care of the reconstruction, helping out people with food, water, Red Cross was there. So it was honestly, it was a life taking moment to know that you could be sitting home, not knowing anything’s about to happen, and you wake up and everything just happened. So.

Michael Stansbury (14:46.486)
Right, yeah, I can’t imagine. What was that like for you that day that all that water came and then, and there was, you know, was, the weather reports that, it’s gonna stall over here, but it was something other than that, right?

Gabriel (14:57.613)
You’re right.

Gabriel (15:02.945)
Yes, I’m going to be quick and frank about it. I was in Florida during the Hurricane Helen. if you know about the island going off of, I think, I believe it’s, is it West Coast of West Palm? Not West Palm. It’s going towards Tampa, but it’s an island going off of Tampa. You know how the houses were flooded to the rooftop. I was actually out there with FEMA picking up a lot of floating bodies out of the houses.

Michael Stansbury (15:25.4)
well.

Gabriel (15:32.021)
and then having to take care of whatever was left when the waters went down even more. Out there were pike, electricians, buckets, everything was out there, medics. It was a complete disaster. I’m talking, please excuse me. Well, coming up to North Carolina and then witnessing that, it…

Michael Stansbury (15:48.462)
No, you’re good.

Gabriel (15:56.328)
It wasn’t as disastrous as I was going to picture it because out there, I said, shrimp boats were out of the water on top of shrimp boats. It was a it was pretty big hit. I what I noticed the most was there’s a lot of rural area that has not just families, but they also have animals as well, such as horses, cows, cattle, crops. So noticing that.

That a lot of crops, a lot of families, businesses are going to be damaged. They were destroyed. A lot of kids’ needs were going to be not met proficiently because just as the lack of resources right now, that’s when another set of entrepreneurial things hit me, supplying. We need supplies. And then I’m into some government affairs. I’m not very political. I just like numbers, business, and what’s not profitable, what’s helpful.

Michael Stansbury (16:34.637)
Right?

Michael Stansbury (16:51.2)
And solve problems, yeah. You felt like there was a solution and you figured out, okay, we need these types of supplies. Yes, so yeah, absolutely.

Gabriel (16:52.764)
Yes.

Gabriel (16:59.658)
Yes.

Gabriel (17:03.866)
yeah, so, moving forward with that Michael, that’s when I got into international, business representation with, Cali industry, LOP based out of Thane, Mazadat India, Pranay Shetty, which, you spell his name S H E T T Y Shetty. He is the third owner, 30 % of the business. He’s the one, sales director that brought me on directly.

Michael Stansbury (17:12.727)
Okay.

Gabriel (17:33.051)
I that’s when I was able to supply not just other businesses, but ourselves and the restoration projects. So that was a big factor, a key factor, and not just helping maintain outsourcing funds, but also building a relationship with other companies that like that part of us. We’re not just the vendors that are waiting for the parts, but we’re also vendors and contractors, subcontractors that are providing the parts, providing the consistent help.

And that’s something that I would say boosted our image. would say boosted our trust. It boosted a lot of things. So that’s doing well right now. They’re in Georgia, Savannah, Georgia, taking care of a lot of that. We’re actually heading to Tennessee. We’re heading to Shelby, Tennessee. That’s the part where a lot of the tornadoes just hit in disaster recently. We’re heading to Oklahoma and then we’re heading to Indiana. We’re taking care of a lot of those disasters. We already got in touch with FEMA.

We’re in touch with a lot of other organizations. We’re in touch with the the whole of securities of the cities as well. So, we’re out there, we’re trying to make a name. We’re also trying to make sure we take care of many families and people and properties as we can, because that’s all we can do while we’re still running and kicking.

Michael Stansbury (18:50.156)
Yeah. Well, so some of the things as you’re growing in your entrepreneur endeavors, you’re doing these multiple things and you’re solving problems. Is there any books or podcasts or maybe masterminds that you’ve been involved with that help you with any kind of mindset or your continuing education? What’s that look like for you, Gabriel?

Gabriel (19:11.613)
All right. I’m sorry, I laughed because myself, education side, it’s a flow of different things. Well, my books are sitting behind me. I do read a lot about, I started off with the, it’s called the Dark Shadow Journal. Have you ever heard of it? Nope. Okay, she definitely looks, the Shadow Journal. The Shadow Journal, sorry.

Michael Stansbury (19:33.526)
No, I haven’t, nope.

Gabriel (19:40.956)
It helps you a lot with your conscious, your subconscious, helps you a with your thinking, your anchoring. And it helped me with my anchoring and my beliefs that I can be a helpful man, I can be a helpful being, that I am supportive, that I am giving. If we sacrifice our times morally for others and ourselves during the time that we could be given to ourselves, I feel that as a humble thing, as a humble thought, a characteristic.

So that shadow journal, it really helps you anchor to yourself, especially with your inner being and young self that makes you that creative being. And I like that. The other books I read, especially utilizing debt, Robert Kiyosaki. Kiyosaki, he’s one of my favorite all times. Second, understanding the philosophy of speech and how words can be used. Robert Greeney. I do love Robert Greeney. And as well as the psychology of things.

Michael Stansbury (20:19.159)
Okay, yeah.

Gabriel (20:40.283)
I usually relate Robert Greene. This is why I said beforehand, my thinking’s different. When it comes to financial funding, investors, institutions such as that, I relate Robert Greene because I think of it as war. 48 powers or 48 laws of war power. think of it as war because I’m not going at war with…

with what it could be, I’m going to have a war with what they’re wanting it to be. So it can’t be, and it can’t be something that hasn’t been established yet where you can see something that’s going to be returned. So that’s what I’m saying. So that’s why I see financial things as war. I take more of Robert Karazaki once we’re already in the project, but let’s say emergencies come up. So I learned how to utilize debts and certain loans and advancements.

So that’s where I would take certain information and utilize it in certain aspects of my life and business. So that’s why I my brain is just wired differently.

Michael Stansbury (21:43.427)
I like it.

Yeah, well, Gabriel, been, so what are we doing now? What’s the next step for you? Where do you think in your immediate future, are we gonna be in Albania soon? What’s gonna be the one thing that you’re looking at most forward of putting you in that position to be really impactful? What do you think is gonna be the most impactful thing you’re gonna be doing here, maybe the next six to eight months?

Gabriel (22:11.161)
All right. Well, six to eight months, you’re being very generous because it’s going to be a lot sooner than that. I’ll tell you that, Michael. I’ll tell you that. Well, I don’t like another thing about me. I’m very spiritual. I believe in certain, I call them, people call them conspiracies. I call them spiritual beliefs. don’t like, sometimes I don’t like to speak on things before they happen. But just for the show, just for the podcast, I’m going do it for you, for everyone else.

I am actually having a meeting with the prime minister of Albania because you have to in order to talk any business because they will take 15 percent, but they don’t take any sales tax. That’s part of the conversation. But with my partner, Nick King and his cousins that live in Albania, get this. They own construction companies, which means and they also own material material companies, manufacturing companies, which means no tariff cost.

No docking fee at US Customs. And also you get a bigger capital retainment, especially for the investors. They get to look at it after all payments and everything. But yes, I have that coming up actually in the next month. I have to meet with Nick King in London. And after that, we’re actually going to, he showed me, he sent me a picture on, we talked on WhatsApp business. The trail that we’re going to take from United Kingdom all the way through Italy, going all the way down to that part of Albania. I believe it’s Lithium, it’s called Lithium Albania.

Michael Stansbury (23:39.086)
Okay.

Gabriel (23:40.15)
That’s it’s near like inner ocean pond that’s close to the ocean border

Michael Stansbury (23:47.83)
Okay. Awesome.

Gabriel (23:49.366)
So that’s where we’re going to be heading. And I’m stoked because this is my first time meeting with any political being, any higher being, other than like, come on, like a business developing manager or a director. This is a prime minister of a country that, know, part of a country that I have to speak with in order to present any business at all and to buy any land, be an investor. So.

Michael Stansbury (24:16.738)
Awesome. Well, dude, that’s exciting stuff. Yeah.

Gabriel (24:20.485)
I’m definitely going make that alive on some of my platforms. I’ll definitely be recording because that would be part of my, I like to self educate people on YouTube for free as well. It’s mostly about business credit and understanding finances because those things, those three things together, if you understand your business structure, you understand your financial system and you understand where you can be flexible in your investments. I don’t see why any

person that understands business wouldn’t want to do things with you. Unless you know you’re just that person that doesn’t show those characteristics really strongly and you kind of hide it, then they’re going to oversee you. But in reality, if you have those three things put in order, you have a big shot at being somebody.

Michael Stansbury (25:09.89)
Yeah, absolutely. Well, Gabriel, where can people find you at? What are your handles? Tell us about that.

Gabriel (25:17.804)
All right, people can definitely find me, Michael, at it’s Oplotia, which I can spell that for you. It’s O-P-U-L-E-N-T-I-A underscore finance. That’s my Instagram. And the word Oplotia, it’s a Latin word for abundance and self wealth. So, know, business, you don’t want any names to attach to you because it’d be hard to sell. Yeah.

So you can find me there on Instagram. You can also find me on YouTube under HD underscore media NC. That’s my YouTube where I post a lot of information about, as I said, finances, credit and how to clean up your credit and your business credit if need be. You you want to PG on funding. You definitely want to get those right. So those are where you can find me. I’m not really too big on any of the social media.

If you want to be able to contact me, you definitely have to ask Michael.

Michael Stansbury (26:19.97)
Yeah, sure. Well Gabriel, I really appreciate you being on the podcast today. It looks like it’s going to be fun to watch what you’re going to be doing here shortly. And so let’s maybe do a redux here in a couple of months and see where you’re at in Albania with all the fun things happening in our country and their country. So it’s awesome to have you on the podcast everybody. Thanks for watching the Real Estate Pros podcast. Like and subscribe and we’ll see you next time.