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Show Summary
In this conversation, Luis Maqueira discusses the evolving landscape of real estate, particularly focusing on new construction and co-living spaces. He emphasizes the importance of building relationships and creating a community culture within co-living environments. The dialogue explores how these trends can provide opportunities for investment and foster connections among individuals, ultimately enhancing the living experience.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Luis Maqueira (00:00)
So that’s why I think is this co-living situation makes so much sense because it gives an opportunity for theRenter I mean you’re going to rent 4 % off from the regular rent all utilities include so you don’t need to pay light Internet water you have any depreciation in your assets and you have to buy appliances And then the the counterpart to that the investor also makes more money is more income because now you have only one kitchen for
five rooms. We have only one laundry room. So we invest less and you make more money. Your cash on cash double, triples the investment. That’s why it makes so much sense to this strategy because it’s helping both parts of the market. Finding the right place for a room and invest your money.
Quentin (02:26)
Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. I’m excited to be here today, excited about the guests that I have. He’s going to tell you about something that is not new, but I think it’s making a very strong comeback. Renting rooms. I think there’s something right there that’s booming, that’s really growing.And our guest is gonna tell you all about it. He’s gonna tell you about how he got into it and how he’s doing and finding success with it. And so I would love to introduce you all to Mr. Luis Maqueira. How did I do, Mr. Luis? How you feeling? How did I do?
I appreciate you. I appreciate you being here. Yes, sir. Yes, Listen, I want us to dive in. I want to turn the floor over to you. So I want you to tell us what your main focus is these days. I would love for you to tell us maybe a little bit of an origin story about how you got into real estate, how you got to what you’re doing now. And also if you can tell us what markets you’re operating in. And so Mr. Luis. the floor is yours.
Luis Maqueira (03:09)
we’re havingThank you, thank you. Well, I started real estate 15 years ago. I knew so much about real estate that my first question was what a foreclosure is when I went to start real estate. Then I decided to become a realtor since I was going to be an investor and look for foreclosures. And after 15 years, I’m a broker. I have a broker company in real estate. But always was tented for the investor side.
So we start doing buying and flips like a lot of people does. Usually I tell you something that I’ve been told, you make money holding, not flipping. So we start buying and holding. When you have a bunch of houses, you then go into multifamily. That’s what we did. last 10 years, we’re buying multifamily. And all the rentals is income driven. So always you’re looking for that income, for that income.
In South Florida, which is a market, insurance taxes have been very high. So it’s not so good. So what’s been happening, you will see a decrease in the income on the multi-family. Now, the last year, as we were using this new strategy, which is like, it’s not new, but it’s all in us now, let’s call it. We just call it new.
Renting buy rooms what they call mystical whichever study if you’re 20 years old buy a house do house hacking and Then do three in your life and you’re already a millionaire but each 30 year you can retire and follow your career for your passion I believe in real estate I mean immensely is what give my life and my group so many good Histories, but yes, it’s work research and doing it right
Co-living, I mean, what happened right now is there is many new apps totally dedicated towards this single individual, which there was a study done by Cammon, which is a company that has over $5,000. In USA today, is 60 % and 57 % single person. So it could be a divorce, it could be young. I don’t know about the new generation. They’re not thinking of buying.
Quentin (06:34)
Yeah.Luis Maqueira (06:40)
I mean, they get married in 1970. The studies was you were 20 years old when you get married. Nowadays it’s over 30 that you get married. The virus are over 35 years old, first time virus. So the new generations are all about moving, being lightweight.So that’s why I think is this co-living situation makes so much sense because it gives an opportunity for the
Renter I mean you’re going to rent 4 % off from the regular rent all utilities include so you don’t need to pay light Internet water you have any depreciation in your assets and you have to buy appliances And then the the counterpart to that the investor also makes more money is more income because now you have only one kitchen for
five rooms. We have only one laundry room. So we invest less and you make more money. Your cash on cash double, triples the investment. That’s why it makes so much sense to this strategy because it’s helping both parts of the market. Finding the right place for a room and invest your money.
Quentin (07:55)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely love it. Now, I don’t know if you mentioned it or not, what part of the world are you in? Like what markets do you serve?Luis Maqueira (07:57)
Bye.We are very local because we do also construction. So we like to have everything, the vertical market we buy, fix and rent it. We’re in South East Florida. That’s our market. That’s our knowledge. We can help and talk to anybody in America and help you to tell you what we do. But real estate is local. You need to know the market. You need to know the buyer. need to know the user. That’s when we don’t make mistakes.
Quentin (08:17)
Gotcha. Absolutely. Gotcha.Luis Maqueira (08:33)
And that’s why we like to use to do a lot in the Southeast world. I’ve been living here over 30 years, so I know the area a bit.Quentin (08:43)
There you go. He live in 30 years. I get it. So listen, you’ve identified co-living as a new strategy that you’re taking a hold of. even heard you say you need to know your market, like being local, knowing what you’re doing in the market surrounding you, knowing your surroundings. Are there any personal strategies that you have that kind of help you along with your business strategies?Luis Maqueira (09:04)
Personal strategy. Well, definitely you need to understand the first you need to be a business person. What you found in your own cloud investors and everybody wants to start investing and everything investing in the States is the best step. I buy, I get the rent, I don’t have to do anything. It’s not that you don’t have to do anything if yes, you write, hire the right management company, but you need to know what you do.Because if you buy in the wrong place for the wrong price, then the outcome cannot be good. Or if you buy a beautiful house in the middle of the woods, you’re not going to have somebody… It’s very good price, beautiful house, but who wants to live there? Who can live there? Because you need to know that you need a rent. So you need to focus on the income and… ⁓
the part that helped us a lot because I had been a broker for 15 years so I know a lot about the rental. And that’s what I think, if the cash flow is good, you can fix their parts. But it doesn’t matter the price, how good it is, if you don’t have the income to pay for that mortgage, make sense to make a business, that’s when the problem comes.
Quentin (10:21)
Thank you for that. I appreciate you saying that. I think that little nugget, or a big nugget is gonna really help people go a long way. So let me ask you this. You’ve been at this for 15 years. You’ve switched strategies from just buying flip, buying home, now into co-living. Have there been moments within the 15 years when things got real? Maybe like a deal went sideways or a time when you had to pivot fast.Have you had to overcome any adversity within your five years to you leading up to success?
Luis Maqueira (11:29)
How many hours do we have to take out of that?Quentin (11:32)
⁓ Maybeif you could give me like a five minute, like a five minute story, maybe.
Luis Maqueira (11:39)
Success is not overnight. You’re to do 10. Seven are going to be a problem. three are your kin. And you always remember your kin. It’s a learning curve. I take all the mistakes we have done to learn and not to do it again. And that’s what we transfer to our group. But definitely, I mean, the mistake is done for lack of knowledge. The sentence is not what you know that is going to hurt. It’s what you don’t know that can hurt.And so no, no, the legalities of the properties, the city that the located, uh, that, that, that’s for us very important. But of course the market is also within the standard estate is not the stock where you up and down. So yes, if you go to 2008, 2009, you were crying. I mean, the prices went to one 50 % off 50 % down. But then if you hold it.
Five years later, it was 100 % up. So you don’t have money. And then if you were doing COVID, every property went up 40%. So I don’t say, you need to understand what’s going on in the market and you need to do reserves. And if you are strong in the planning, you keep moving forward. mean, real estate is a strong.
part of the economy, I would say the economy in USA. So it had bad times, but always going to recuperate and always you need a house. So it’s like, how can you build a house? It’s food, housing, living. So, you know, I mean, I wouldn’t say that I can say one thing over that. If it does happen to you, you are out of real estate. No, you’re going to be in bad time on good times and you need to keep programming and also adapting. That’s why we’re not talking about co-living.
You talk to me 10 years ago and I was a multi-family guy and said like, no, no, you don’t understand. Instead of having 10 houses, you have 10 units in a building. You have only one roof, only one glass, only one, and one place to go to get the rent. It’s amazing how the cash on cash gets better. Now, we’re still in the same idea of having more people in a place, but now instead of having 10 rooms, 10 units, and it has 10 kitchen,
Ten parents that can go around, ten kids that can go around. Now I have one ⁓ unit with ten rooms, no, six rooms, okay, rooms. So I have only one kitchen. That’s why we have this technique right now. It’s going to start the shift, colliding, also because of economy. Right now the economy is in a state that everyone wants to save money. Or I want to have more money to travel. Young people that we talk to.
It’s like, that’s what I want. They want to work here, the influence of digital world that we live. Or another three months in Miami, three months in Europe, three months in Europe. Europe has this current situation much more advanced than us. They bring awareness, vacation time, I mean…
Quentin (14:46)
Wow.Luis Maqueira (15:31)
It’s much nice imagine you go to kind of like whole breakfast you go to a place now you can have it you’re not alone you go to the kitchen you have a best every summer you talk about the situation what is going on in world if you are a person who likes to talk to people you go to the kitchen you see people if you’re not doing your own you’re doing your own work you’re just sitting in room and you live your life but I saw in TED talk a conversation about this architect that she said I’m an architectIn fact, I will tell you she lives in a community that also allows family and this that’s the best thing we can do social for a person we’re not to be we’re not going to go so you can socialize with other people and Decrease I mean the kids all the cost of having a house in the land is it highest cost you have in a in a property and sometimes you don’t use a lot but you have very high taxes now you are only using a room and
Quentin (16:11)
Wow.Thank
Luis Maqueira (16:30)
So you’re not paying for the living room, for the extra room, for the attic, for the garage. Your housing expenses will very, very decrease, are much nicer, more efficient, and you’ll use that money for you. And you live with people. She was a single person, and she loved the fact that on Friday they get together and eat pizza. So they become a family, and that’s another strategy that we teach. Okay, you have to have a culture in your co-living.Because yes, there’s too many people coming from different backgrounds, no family, they just know each other. Another thing to understand that this is not Airbnb. You don’t rent this room for one week. Meaning when we do three months, six months, we rent one year. So you’re looking for a steady, steady rentals. But then you need to provide a new culture to those people because they’re a family. One thing I will tell them, you can come at 12 at night and do a cooking and start making noise.
Quentin (17:00)
Mm. Yeah.Luis Maqueira (17:30)
People are sleeping because most of the people we have are workforce. So they need to be quiet, nice place to go to work tomorrow.Quentin (17:40)
Yeah, yeah. No, I hear you, man. The co-living thing, I love how you said there has to be a culture. Like, you know, this thing is really exploding and I think it’s going to help. And it is really helping a lot of people. Like you talked about, you know, single people rather be divorced, people that want to travel the world, right? Like this co-living thing makes so much sense, especially right now, the way the economy is and the way that, you know, the climate that we’re in.Luis Maqueira (18:02)
Cool.Quentin (18:09)
And so let me ask you this, you got the cold living. What’s the next real goal for you?Luis Maqueira (18:16)
Living in six countries in the world. One in Europe, one in South America. I you, I mean, I talked to my wife the other day, I like, I ran a hostel in Costa. was a small place in Barcelona some years ago. And I love it because you’re there and people from all over the world come from all over and you meet so many, a lot of nice people.Quentin (18:20)
Yeah, right.Luis Maqueira (18:43)
And right now, I mean, you know how it happened, your kids live home, you have the internet, then why I don’t need the 4-bedroom house, hey, let’s do co-living. I like people, I love people, I learn from people, so I will do, my goal is to retire tomorrow, because they put me back to work, and live in co-living 3 months here, 3 months there. That’s my next step.Quentin (19:08)
Yeah, yeah, I love it, man.I love it. And I love how you said you like people. And just quickly, I want to talk about relationships. You you brought it up. You like people. You like connecting with people. So how important is it to build relationships? Like how have building relationships made a big difference in what you do?
Luis Maqueira (19:32)
That’s the more important part. not, it used to be who you know, who you have a relationship with. I work always with partners and that’s like to feed each other to grow is very important. I mean, I don’t think you can do, I mean, there’s a sentence, it’s too long to talk. I don’t want to be in the top of me alone. So.Quentin (19:56)
Mmm, yeah.Luis Maqueira (19:58)
Let’s be let’s let’s let’s get together. Let’s go grow up together. I Certainly like some things. I don’t like other things like a phone sample construction It’s fun. So yeah, probably I Rebuild over 50 houses in the last Yes, I don’t like I don’t understand construction. I don’t like attention. So it’s like I have a partner always in construction Tell me talk to me all the numbers a financial part of the businessThe loan, the banks, that’s the part I know. And then understand markets and understand people and people put people together to own investment. That’s what I like. But I couldn’t do it without the construction. The construction is a very important part in this business because it’s lowering your costs and doing it right so you don’t have to redo it. So we like a lot what they call value add.
Quentin (20:28)
Yeah. Yeah.Luis Maqueira (20:53)
because more in the co-living, okay, I need a house that I can make it work for a co-living stage, which is a lot of rooms, enough bathroom, people always like one bathroom individual, so you always need to have bathrooms. And one other thing that I learned is like the common areas. Sometimes we go with this mentality of, let’s then be comfortable. So let’s have a beautiful,Salah with a beautiful TV and a game room and we told them no, no, not yet. I mean the working force they go there to sleep to work. If you put these people together and somebody who wants to watch football, they don’t want to watch baseball, different. Now it becomes a problem in families. So imagine people that don’t know each other. And I don’t want somebody laughing and having a good time at 10 p.m. on a Wednesday when the rest of the group is there working.
Quentin (21:25)
Mm. Mm-hmm.Yeah, yeah.
Luis Maqueira (21:47)
So something that looks so good as a choice to give them a nice salad with a beautiful TV so they can listen to that’s not good in Korea. Unless the culture is that one. And there are other companies growing in a very different level, you can’t… They would do sports with people. Send people. So now they’re all doing the same thing at the same time. The conference is that.Quentin (21:48)
Yeah.Luis Maqueira (22:14)
If you put musicians together, of course you’re going to be listening to music all day and you’re going to be happy with that. Other people cannot be happy. So it’s about creating a culture in that community. Right now we’re not going to that type community market for target people. We’re going for the price. What we offer is the best price in town for everyone.Quentin (22:19)
Yeah.Yeah, yeah. Now it goes back to, like you said, you keep saying it, the culture, making sure that it’s the right culture within the co-living community. And listen, building a culture within a co-living community can really actually help that mindset expand all across the world of people getting along with each other, partnering with each other, learning how to have community, common union with each other. So co-living can be a foundation to really expand goodwill and love all across the world.
Luis Maqueira (22:40)
Yeah.Quentin (23:07)
Not to try to sound sappy, but honestly, that mentality can really help out so much because we need that a lot nowadays. Does that make sense? Yeah.Luis Maqueira (23:16)
Yes, yes, totally. I mean,I would say that one thing that’s happened to me from Latin background in America is like we all have a car, we go to work alone, we work, we can’t home alone. It’s so individual. In carpool, who has carpool? And that’s why I think this, like you’re saying, is very important for the people to be people and to have relationships.
Quentin (23:33)
Yeah.Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Relationships are everything. People are the real currency. I love to say that all the time. So listen, Mr. Luis. listen, this has been great. Before we wrap it up, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate, learn more about what you’re doing, what’s the best way for them to get in contact with you?
Luis Maqueira (24:05)
Okay, our group, you can find us in Facebook, in the homepages, Miami Coliving Deals.Quentin (24:15)
Gotcha.Luis Maqueira (24:16)
My phone number, I will give you my phone number, 305-300-0008. easy to remember. And yes, we’re always looking forward to with people like you said, that either if you want to have ideas, if you’re in an estate, if you want to learn anything about, you need any information in South Florida, contact us. We figure out what we can do together or how we can help each other.Quentin (24:42)
Well then Mr. Luis. I thank you so much. Thank you for your time. Thank you for your story and your perspective. We definitely need people like you in this space that’s doing it the right way. So I appreciate you so much.Luis Maqueira (24:52)
Thank you. Thank you for having me.Quentin (24:54)
Right?Absolutely. So y’all heard Mr. Luis. he’s giving you valuable information, especially when it comes to coliving and even just maybe a foundation on how we can spread love around the world. listen, check out what he’s doing, get in contact with him, but also make sure you are subscribed. That way you do not miss out on this amazing content that we’re going to continue to bring. So thank you, Mr. Luis. And to everyone else, we’ll see you on the next time.
