Buy Back Your Time: How Multifamily Syndication Helps Investors Build Freedom

Jose Estrada (00:00)
Yeah, I mean, every moment’s different, right? But I feel like it’s always a struggle. You think you’re at the top and then ⁓ something happens and it just brings you right back down. And it’s it’s a roller coaster. That’s how it is being an entrepreneur. It’s never a straight line from A to B. It’s always going back and forth. ⁓ And I mean, the biggest struggles for me is like I’m a father of two. And for me, it’s buying back my time. And it’s been a it’s

always a struggle kind of balancing everything out.

Quentin (02:02)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. I’m excited to be here today. I have another fantastic guest and I cannot wait for us to dive in to get to see things through his lens. One of the things I love about this gentleman, connection. He thrives on connections. He’s a connector. And you know, that pride myself on being a connector as well. And so I’m so glad for us just to get to learn about his processes and what he does.

And so I’d like to introduce you all to Mr. Jose Estrada. Mr. Jose, how you doing today, man, going good, man, doing good. Thanks for asking, sir. ⁓ Listen, man, I’m excited to have you on, excited for us to do this podcast episode together. And I am the type, Jose, I like to dive right in. So I would love for you to tell the people, what’s your main focus these days?

Jose Estrada (02:34)
Good yourself?

Quentin (02:53)
If you don’t mind, us a little bit of an origin story, man. Kind of how you got into the space that you’re in. And then tell us what part of the world you’re in, where you’re at. People love to know where you are geographically. So what you’re up to, your origin story, and where you are. Miss Jose, you have the floor,

Jose Estrada (03:07)
Yeah, of course. mean, right now what I’m into is multifamily syndications with raising capital. I mean, a little bit about my background. I have a huge background in hospitality industry. I’ve been in hotels for over seven, eight years now, working from front desk all the way to corporate.

⁓ it’s been a struggle, obviously corporate industry, ⁓ ended up leaving, ⁓ when a company sold last year. And that’s when I honed in even more into real estate. And even prior to doing multifamily syndications, I’ve done a few flips. ⁓ and that’s where I was like, you know what flips sometimes it’s a struggle. Sometimes you could lose money, gain money. It was better to do a syndication. That’s when I started learning more about it. And I’m based here in Denver, Colorado.

Quentin (03:53)
Your background is actually in hospitality. And so you left that company when it sold.

You did some flips, so you’re like, ah, flips is okay, but more of this more to our syndication thing is a little bit better. And so you ended Demra Cotterado area. And so that was a great, you know, we went through that journey relatively quick, just with the summary and you just, you know, giving me your journey, but we know life doesn’t just happen in small clips, right? They unfold in just like years and part of the journey just keeps unfolding, right?

And so Jose, I have a statement, man, where I say destiny has no wasted moments, right? Destiny has no wasted moments. Like our life is building momentum to where we are now, right? And you, you know, even though he was in hospitality, was doing a little bit of real estate, but then once you left, he was like, nah, let’s, let’s get into this thing full force.

Jose Estrada (04:25)
Yeah.

Quentin (05:32)
And so I would love to know, man, throughout the journey, what has the journey, what has the moments taught you about yourself? Has it taught you discipline?

resilience has a change your outlook when it comes to innovation. What has the moment taught you about you Jose?

Jose Estrada (05:47)
Yeah, I mean, every moment’s different, right? But I feel like it’s always a struggle. You think you’re at the top and then ⁓ something happens and it just brings you right back down. And it’s it’s a roller coaster. That’s how it is being an entrepreneur. It’s never a straight line from A to B. It’s always going back and forth. ⁓ And I mean, the biggest struggles for me is like I’m a father of two. And for me, it’s buying back my time. And it’s been a it’s

always a struggle kind of balancing everything out.

And doing this has made me more disciplined where I focus on having my mornings. I wake up at 5 a.m. every day. Now I started going to gym, focus on doing all my real estate things in the morning.

and that afternoon is free for me and my family. And it’s like disciplined. It’s like, no, I have the afternoon of my family. ⁓ unless I’m traveling or anything that needs to happen, obviously for a deal or anything, then it’s strictly like family time. ⁓ it’s been, and I think that’s how it should be. ⁓ you burn yourself out if you try to do it 24 seven. I’ve been there, ⁓ not just in this business. I’ve tried to e-commerce, ⁓ all that. And it’s the same exact thing where

It’s like, I’m doing it 24 seven. I ignore the fact that the whole purpose of doing this is to buy back your time. And then you burn yourself out and now you’re starting from scratch again.

Quentin (07:09)
Yeah. Yeah. Now, Jose, I absolutely love the way you think, because I really believe the things that we do, we should be working towards getting our time back. that’s, that’s so you can decide what you want to do with your time. That’s why we use all these tools around us, real estate, business, money to get time back. And I love how you said the time that you’re getting back, you’re giving it to your family. You know, two sayings that I kind of live by. One, my wife and I, you know, she always say your presence.

is a present. Your presence is a present. And so you being present here, Quentin, when she talking to me, that’s the present in itself. But then one of my mentors also told me when you know who you are, you know what to do.

And so when you know what powers you, when you know what’s your why, when you get up in the morning, and for you is to get up to make sure the rest of my time is free for my family. You can put us in any situation and we know how to react because I know my why. I know why I’m doing what I’m doing. And so I know what to say no to because no, because I’m trying to get to my time. That’s going to take up time. So no. it’s like, you know, it’s like these domino effects when you know who you are, you know what to do. And things just kind of seem to fall in place. So I love it, man.

What’s next for you, Jose? What’s next in your business, sir? What are you looking to solve at Scale Next, man?

Jose Estrada (08:22)
Yeah, I mean, next I’m looking to grow in social media.

and also just kind of my outreach here in Denver. I feel like there I’ve met a lot of people that want to grow in the business, but they don’t have any knowledge of anything. And regardless of what business it is, their multifamily syndication. And I’ve explained to a few people like how a syndication works and they’re like, oh, it doesn’t sound as hard. was like, once you get to the nitty gritty and you learn everything, I like, it’s easy to catch up. I was like, obviously it takes learning. takes time.

It’s not a get rich quick scheme, which is how real estate makes it seem that way. Because obviously like real estate is expensive. So if somebody is like, you’re buying a $22 million building, you’re rich. It’s like, no, it doesn’t work that way. We might be buying something like that, but it’s not making us rich like the second we buy it or anything. So I just want to grow more in social media, but also grow more here in Denver. Hopefully start hosting like some events here in Denver shortly as well.

you

Quentin (09:23)
Yeah, I love it, man. So you want

to grow on social media, which means, you know, that’s

a point of contact of, connecting with people. You want to start hosting things. That’s again, another point of contact of connecting with people. So, Jose, I want to hear your philosophy and your thought when it comes to the word relationship. When you hear the word relationship, Jose, what comes to mind to you,

Jose Estrada (10:19)
Yes, for me, relationship is we’re keeping in touch like if we were best friends. It’s not just, hey, you’re an investor in my deal. Here’s the returns I’m going give you. I’ll talk to you in three months when I when I have your money. ⁓ Like for me, it doesn’t work that way. We’re building a relationship. We’re building trust in each other. ⁓ And I prefer to be the person where it’s like we’re still talking. We can if you’re not in Denver, like let’s say we go out to a deal in Dallas. You’re in Dallas. Let’s go have dinner.

Quentin (10:23)
Yeah.

Jose Estrada (10:48)
Let’s learn about each other, not just the business aspect of it. We’re all human. We want to learn about each other. We want to know who we’re putting our trust in at the end of the day. And that’s like I said, for me, the biggest thing is people don’t invest in a deal, they invest in you. And for me, that’s been the biggest. ⁓ It’s also been a lesson in a way for myself, learning that through doing all of this.

Quentin (11:06)
Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. No, I love it, man. People, that’s the line you said. This through line for you. They invest in you. know, people just not investing in the deal. They investing with you. I wrote it down when you said it because I think it’s powerful. So with that being said, man, Diamond Scape Investing. Like the name, sir. Like is there a meaning behind the name? Like I know that’s the name, you know, is there a meaning behind the name? Where did the name come from?

Jose Estrada (11:37)
So the name, was thinking of names as my brother. ⁓ When we first started the company, we were like, what should we name it? ⁓ Originally we had a different name and I actually met the guy that owns a company that had that name. I was like, you stole that name from me. And then I was like, okay, let me think, let me see what we can do. And ultimately we came with Diamond Scape Investments for the reason that when building the brand like I’m starting to do now, our kind of quote unquote, like I would say,

Quentin (11:41)
Hmm.

Jose Estrada (12:06)
is shaping futures one gem at a time. And that’s why we went that. Yep. That’s why we ended up choosing that name, going with that quote. And that’s kind of how we fell upon that name.

Quentin (12:08)
Yeah. Ooh, shaping features one gem at a time. Ooh.

Man, bro, I love that shit. ⁓ man, that’s brilliant. So when people talk, I think in pictures. so, man, that’s just beautiful, know, finding like diamonds in the rough, right? Finding diamonds in the rough and polishing them up so they can show that full splendor and that full potential. And so, man, I love that, man. I love that analogy. Let me ask you, sir, is there any topic that I have not brought up?

that you would like to talk about? Is there any other words of inspiration, education, motivation? Like maybe you came in with like a thought that you wanted to make sure our listeners knew. I kind of want to create space for you to land that point, man.

Jose Estrada (13:03)
No, yeah, I think the biggest thing and I will emphasize this is like, listen to your gut. And also, like I listened to a lot of quotes, the biggest code that has followed me and it’s always, always in my head, like literally on a daily basis is, and I heard this literally just on Facebook and I was like, I love this, the way they said it is what you’re not changing, you’re choosing.

And that has been stuck with me ever since I’ve heard it because it’s literally it’s a plain quote. It has like nothing behind it, but so strong where it’s saying literally what you’re not changing. You’re choosing if you’re not changing, no matter what it is, different job building a business or anything. It’s you’re choosing it. You’re choosing not to take that extra leap, that extra step to do what you want in life.

Quentin (13:55)
Man, I think that’s such a powerful quote. What you’re not changing your choosing. Every, even your inaction is an action, right? You’re, you’re everything, you know, not choosing is a choice and you’re choosing something. So I love that. What you’re not changing your choosing. That’s something that I can definitely apply to my life, Man, Jose, sir, man, I really appreciate you being here, sir. Like if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing.

How can they get in contact with you?

Jose Estrada (15:07)
Yeah, they can get direct access to me ⁓ through my Instagram. It’s Jose underscore @ DiamondScapeInvestments (jose_diamondscapeinvestments) or same thing with email. It’s [email protected]. And then my phone number is 720-609-9471. And ⁓ I mean, I want to connect with everybody either if you’re new in the space, want to learn what multifamily syndication is, or you’re an active investor. Like, let’s connect.

Quentin (15:35)
Yeah. Man, listen, sir, let me say three things to you sincerely. One, thank you for your time. We could have been doing anything in the world. You could have been doing anything in the world. But you chose to come and give us your time. And as you said it, you talked about how precious time is, you’re getting our time back. I say it all the time. I think time is our most precious commodity. And so what we do without time, we should be able to choose. And so you chose to spend time with us.

So I really, really appreciate that, Secondly, man, thank you for your story. Thank you for your gift of your transparency and your authenticity, man, your integrity. ⁓ I believe stories have a way of planting seeds. We may not see the growth, but still, the seed is there and it can take root at any given time in growth. for your story, Lastly, sir, thank you for the way you think, man. Thank you for your mindset and bringing that mindset to this platform.

Sir, I greatly appreciate you being here today,

Jose Estrada (16:29)
Thank you for having me.

Quentin (16:30)
Absolutely. Well, listen, y’all heard Mr. Jose. Listen, his information is in the show notes. Please get in contact with him. But definitely make sure you are subscribed here, because I promise you we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Jose. So sir, I say thank you again. And everyone else, listen, y’all have a fantastic day.