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Show Summary
In this conversation, Ana Castillo shares her experiences with significant setbacks in her business journey, emphasizing the importance of self-belief and resilience in overcoming challenges. She reflects on a particularly difficult time when multiple deals fell through, highlighting the lessons learned from that experience.
Resources and Links from this show:
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- Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
- Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
- Mike on Facebook
- Mike on Instagram
- Mike on LinkedIn
- Ana Castillo’s Website
- Ana Castillo’s Phone no.: (518) 833-3973
Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode
Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Ana Castillo (00:00)
wow, wow, yeah, I remember one time I had like 15 deals, 15 deals broke, like, was almost ready to close, everything ready, and like 15 of them or 14 fall through.didn’t go through, didn’t complete, that was very hard, know, and more when you are like counting on that. Obviously I had more deals, but you know, the excitement and everything, so something that I really learned from that is that you have to believe in yourself.
Erika (02:05)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host Erika and today I’m excited to be chatting with Ana Castillo. She’s been making serious moves with her company Kastle Realty. Ana, I’m glad to have you here.Ana Castillo (02:21)
Hi Erika, my pleasure. I I love to be here because it’s one of my passions. It really stayed in a more than happy to be here with you so we can share amazing things together.Erika (02:35)
Yeah, yeah. And I think our listeners are going to love the passion that you have for real estate, love how you’re helping others. So let’s dive on in first, Ana, can you share what your journey was like to real estate? What made you interested in becoming, you know, getting in the real estate world in the first place?Ana Castillo (02:59)
And since I came here, I’m from Dominican Republic, we was a train before. And I got here 2015. Since I came here, I felt like in love with real estate, always loved business, money as well, obviously. And for me, I had my couple of businesses, I had my dealership, my car dealership, and I was doing, while I was doing that…I just started educating myself about different strategies, investment, real estate. That was kind of I started. While I was doing my business, I just started educating myself. ⁓
I started doing actively, know, wholesaling. And, you know, educating myself to get my real estate license, I remember. And I got my real estate license, started investing for myself, learned a lot. And after some time doing my other business, I decided that I want to be 100 % in real estate. I think that was like 2019. I decided 100 % I want to be in real estate full time.
And did that transition and I focused myself just on that and post that, you know, a lot of deals we was able to do as a real estate agent, got my real estate broker license, continue, you know, ⁓ doing real estate, doing investments. In my case, I love more ⁓ the buy and hold to get the passive income. And yeah, after that, you know, it just have been until today that
I have been continuing educating myself and growing as an estate investor.
Erika (04:54)
Yeah, that’s exciting. Well, Ana, can you share more about the markets that you’re in? What kind of opportunities are you seeing for clients or for yourself with Kastle Realty?Ana Castillo (05:55)
Oh, I mean, wow. There is a lot of opportunities, as I was talking to you before. Right now we are in a seller’s market. There is a lot of buyers out there looking for houses, a lot of…lower really inventory available at the moment. It’s a great opportunity if you are like a flipper, a person that wants to buy and make some profit. An opportunity, there is several, I will tell you a couple of them. You can go into the flip inside because there is a lot of demand. In my market, it’s a lot. We’re talking about like one month and a half of inventory, but it means in a month and a half, everything is gone.
At the moment we have 78 properties available and that is amazing because most of the people are paying right now as a seller’s market like 3 % above asking price. What is amazing. So really create a great opportunity for investors if you’re doing like flips to get your home sold as soon as possible. Get a very good return on investment because buyers usually are paying above asking price as well as multifamily markets.
is have been great also in demand. So if you want to create some passive income, it’s a great opportunity that you have there as well as in the flipping side, if you’re to develop ⁓ some internal investment, that, doing the…
Buying the land and doing the project construction, that can help you also a lot. It’s a good opportunity for you as an investor.
Erika (07:38)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And, you know, we’re talking about the good stuff in the market right now. What what kind of challenges are are you seeing on the flip side?Ana Castillo (07:50)
Yeah, there is a lot of confidence. There is a lot of confidence also for the… Not just for the buyers because they have a hard time. ⁓Erika (07:53)
heheAna Castillo (08:01)
looking for deals, that is something that my investors that I work with are struggling right now, like finding very good deals before we got like deals in the Albany area, for example, we had deals, so price only, like 50,000, you got like a house, you don’t have to put too much money in right now. It’s not the case for 70,000 property almost destroyed, you have to invest a lot of money, a lot of money to bring it to life.improve
the appreciation of the home. So the struggles that they’re having is very difficult to get homes for flipping side and a lot of competence when they wAna get the home because there is a sales market very difficult to get it at first. People that are getting like the home like first time, they are very lucky.
They have to try like several times, several times, offer, offer, offer so they can get the home. So the competence, also the price going high. ⁓ well, like I say, there is for every door that closed, there is another open. So there is opportunities. We can say, definitely is ⁓ some struggles that the investors are facing right now.
for that as we were talking before, they are deciding instead of buying and fix and flip because the issue that they have right now is they determined on investment because they have to buy high, they have to invest a lot of money because of the condition of the property, they get the equity, the appreciation high.
But the money that they are getting when they sell with the Harmony lenders, if they don’t have cash, is lower than they do before. So they have been designed as an option to kind of buy the land, do construction better. And they got a brand new home, more floors. They have the chance to play, use creativity, and get a higher ⁓ price and return on investment on what they are doing.
Erika (10:43)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And when you were talking about that competition earlier, how do you specifically come in and help, whether it’s guiding them on the offer or looking for other deals for them?Ana Castillo (11:03)
For me, it’s more like you have to know and have the experience to do it. When you do the contract and everything, the process that you search everything, you have to kind of look in the trends. Because when you will, this kind of market, for example, you have several offers in one property. They going fast, they going above asking price. I make sure that they… ⁓Contract they offer is very competitive not just in price but also in terms and You know contingencies everything everything so they can be you know, like more attractive for the seller Because imagine like I said I have five offers
Erika (11:50)
Yeah.Hey
Ana Castillo (11:54)
Five offerson the table. I I always suggest my investors. mean, they’re cash great, you know, when you do a cash offer better. If you don’t have cash, but you have the option between FHA or maybe conventional loan when you do a.
use a lender go to conventional that will increase the know probabilities for that offer to be accepted and offer a good price competitive obviously keeping in mind the the comps in the area so you don’t over price for a property and yeah that will be some of the tips and also the terms when it comes to inspections and people like not to do inspection if is a wisely person that have inspector before they
even go to offer in the property, okay they opt to you know do no inspection contingency so sellers love that like no inspection contingency, guys offer I mean there’s a lot of things that we can do but the thing is structure the offer in a way that can be attractive for the seller so can be you know you have like higher probability to get it accepted in the first chance
Erika (13:10)
Absolutely, you know, if you don’t get it the first time, you might be missing out.Ana Castillo (13:16)
Yeah, I mean if you don’t get it the first time It’s not like I say it’s something completely also Normally, you can be like the best offer but sometimes they sell her, know, they just ⁓ Go for the emotions, you know, so things happen. SoErika (13:36)
Yeah, yeah, definitely things, things happen and you know, in the real estate world, you can, you know, have a moment where a deal goes sideways. You have to totally pivot in order to make something work. know, plan a is not going to work. Got to do plan B. Ana, can you share one of those moments on your real estate journey and what you learned from it?Ana Castillo (14:05)
You say like difficult moments?Erika (14:06)
Yeah,yeah, whether it’s something that you’re doing for a client or I know starting off you did wholesaling, anything along your journey.
Ana Castillo (14:20)
I mean, let me see which one I will choose from. Let me see which one. I mean, as an industry broker or as an investor? You want me to tell you?Erika (14:32)
You can go either way. Whatever you…Ana Castillo (14:35)
I mean, lot. For me, willtell you. I will tell you, for you to be in the business, can be as an investor or as a real estate broker, real estate person. You have to develop a skin, a very hard skin.
have a lot of resilience.
I have been experiences where I have like when I started for example you know you are very excited you want to go forward you have family members some of them they don’t buy with you.
they don’t buy with you, they know like, okay, you do your promotion and whatever, they go to somebody else. sometimes you are in my case, had,
wow, wow, yeah, I remember one time I had like 15 deals, 15 deals broke, like, was almost ready to close, everything ready, and like 15 of them or 14 fall through.
didn’t go through, didn’t complete, that was very hard, know, and more when you are like counting on that. Obviously I had more deals, but you know, the excitement and everything, so something that I really learned from that is that you have to believe in yourself.
You have to believe in yourself because imagine if I will stop in that time, no.
I will not be where I am today and achieve the things that I achieved today. So something that I learned is that you have to believe in yourself and at the same time have like the resilience, be resilient. Stay always doing your best and moving forward no matter what.
say no matter what happened with your business always continue forward and be strong that is something that you definitely is gonna need as an investor broker as a business owner you have to fall you have to go back fall and you have to stand up again once and more and more and more that is very important and that helped me a lot because today I’m like something happened okay I’m okay like
I’m stronger, obviously.
Erika (17:33)
Yeah, yeah, that’s awesome. If you were to start over from scratch when it comes to getting into the real estate world, what would you do differently today?Ana Castillo (17:47)
I will tell you first thing, educate yourself, get a mentor and pay somebody that knows what you want to achieve so you can save a lot of money and a lot of time. One of the mistakes that I made in the beginning was, you think like you can do everything yourself and you go like, no, I’m gonna figure it out. You too, I’m gonna.and this and that and really and then you make mistakes that really cost you what you should pay somebody else to teach you so I say and also you have the limitation for example you can pay 30,000 somebody to teach you to earn a million if you don’t do that investment you are
⁓ losing too much money for not paying somebody else that can help you get quicker, teach you everything, save you time, save you stress, a hard time so that I learned that lesson in the hard way so something that I will do get to somebody that is doing what you want to achieve pay if you have to pay watch the dishes if you have to watch
Just kidding, but do whatever you have to do, but it’s better that way, it’s easier.
Erika (19:04)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And when it comes to finding a mentor, what was that process like for for you? Or, you know, were there any networking groups that really helped you level up when you were starting off?Ana Castillo (19:22)
No, I will tell you for me the driving force is results. For example, I am very results driving and I just don’t focus like if I’m gonna buy something I’m gonna connect with somebody I have to see like that person have been or is in the moment where I want to goObviously can be the same way that me. So that is something that I’m looking for always. And I suggest people do that. Focus in the results. And if that people have the results and they have the systems and they have a proven framework that I can follow, absolutely. In my case, I educate myself with non-luck. I educate myself with a grand card.
and I have invested a lot of money in myself because I was with Tom Ferry also as a real estate agent. So you have to kind of connect with people and yeah, like proximity is something that is very important. So if you…
We always hear the same thing and it’s right. You are the result of the five people that you spend most of your time with. So it’s very important. If you want to be like a very successful real estate investor, real estate, whatever you want to do, you have to be with people that have done it.
what you want and be like highly successful also so you can be the same. ⁓
Erika (20:59)
Yeah, yeah. you know, with what you’ve built by surrounding yourself with people that have helped you grow, it’s really exciting. And Ana, what would you say is next on the horizon for you?Ana Castillo (21:16)
if you can hear that.Erika (21:17)
⁓ What would you say is next on the horizon? What kind of goals do you have for the future? Is there anything exciting that you want to share?Ana Castillo (21:28)
No, absolutely. As we were talking before, yeah, I’m very passionate about toying lives and obviously grow my company. Always love personal development, business. And for me, one of the goals that we have with Kastle Realty, we have the first one here in Auburn, New York. We’re looking to grow, expand, scale the company to one million is the goal right now as a…as a progress, so we can continue the 3, 10, 20, 25 and grow the company as well as we expand in the area. With the big expansion with AI, internet, everything, technology, we want to use that.
to create the platform that we’re working actually right now where people can be able to buy or sell their homes. Doesn’t matter if you are here, you are outside the country, you can do it for the comfort of your home. You can see the home as if you are here. And yeah, that is a goal that…
It’s very exciting for me. It’s challenging because it’s something kind of, know, being a lot of innovation in technology. But I know when we get it done and it’s finished, it’s going to help a lot. Investors, home buyers, home sellers to achieve their real estate goals. ⁓
Erika (22:55)
That is exciting. And I know you shared something with me earlier too that I don’t want to be left out, but you were speaking with me earlier about how you want your impact to help the community at large with your business. Can you share more about that?Ana Castillo (23:16)
Yeah, absolutely. For my company, Kastle Realty, for us, is very big, very important. You know, we touch lives, and we are part of the life of our clients, obviously. When they buy a house from us, when they sell a house through us, we are touching lives. I we are part of that. But at the same time, we are very focused. Like, for example, ⁓We like to help others. We like to create a legacy. We like to change lives. For every house that, as an investor or maybe homeowner, home seller, you get done with our company, we take money from that and we help the community. We help kids and we help women.
For example, in Gaza, Africa, I was telling you before, like for $30, they have their basic necessities for the month. They say like, wow, that is incredible. That is like, I don’t know, like a bill for us. That means the life for that person. And they can survive one month. So we take money, we donate for them, so for the kids, and also for the women, you know?
and we, I’m very passionate about like they can grow, they can develop financially, they can be independent as I am. And one of the programs that I was telling you is a powerful woman that we are developing for women in our area at the moment, where they can learn, they can develop themselves, they can ⁓ achieve financial independence with that program. And that is something that
Making me so happy, so happy, fulfilled, have the opportunity to not just kind of sell homes, make money, no. But I can be able to be part of their life, change the direction of their life, and make life of kids, woman, better. Just because of what we’re doing. ⁓
That means the world to me. That is amazing. I really enjoy that. And it’s fulfilling because you make money. That’s great. You’re going to make a thing, a hundred million, whatever you do. But then there is a point where you are like, that’s it, the money. And now what? But that’s something that really inspire me and make us also different because most of the companies, just, you know.
But I like the way that we do it, that we just not make money, but we are making like a difference in the life of people.
Erika (26:01)
Yes, yes, absolutely. you know, saving a life while you’re at it too with the kind of impact you’re doing on it.Ana Castillo (26:09)
Yeah.Erika (26:11)
Well, you know, this has been great talking with you. If someone wants to connect, reach out, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they reach you?Ana Castillo (26:23)
I mean they can call me, my phone number is 518-833-3973 and also they can go to our website and I’m gonna make sure I do it right so I’m gonna find it here. kastlerealtyny.com. kastlerealtyny.com and that is with a K, not with a C.I did it that way because Castillo is my name, my last name, so I say my company has to be Kastle Realty. know, and yeah, kastlerealtyny.com with a K, yeah.
Erika (27:09)
Well, thanks for being here, sharing your story, your insight, what you are building in the real estate world is truly incredible.Ana Castillo (27:20)
Thank you so much. It was a pleasure being here and ⁓ I’m very happy. was very great to share with you today. Thank you so much.Erika (27:28)
And for our listeners, if you got value from this episode, make sure that you’re subscribed to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. We’ve got more conversations coming up with pros like Ana who are out there building fantastic real estate businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode. -
