From First Deal to 7 Properties: How Cesar Larrea and His Wife Built a Miami Fix and Flip Business

Cesar Larrea (00:00)

She did the work of

Workshop for six months. They helped her from A to Z all the way from looking at the properties, acquisition, gaming, everything, right? With the coach. And a month before graduation, which was September last year, she came all happy. I got my first property under the belt. I’m ready to flip. And the coach was happy. Like he was like, out of the hundred people that signed up for the course, there was only two people that were able to acquire a property here in South Miami. It was competitive, it was a competitive market, as you know.

She did it, and that’s how everything started.

Quentin Edmonds (01:03)

Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds.

Amen. I’m excited to be here today. I have a fantastic guest. does fix and flips, looking to really show investors what they can do, right? Really want to come connect with investors. But what I love about this man, I love the heart of this man is that he is fully supporting and backing his wife. He believed that females need to make more of an imprint.

in this space and I love it. I love that he’s stand in solidarity with his wife. And I’m so glad we get to peek through the lens and talk to Mr. Cesar Larrea. Mr. Cesar, how you don’t understand, sir.

Cesar Larrea (01:44)

I’m doing great.

Quentin Edmonds (01:45)

I’m doing good, man. Thank you for asking. So since you mentioned your wife, my wife, because you said, How am I doing? She will call you a NU person. And so she says, when you say hi to somebody, say, ask somebody, hey, how you doing? And most of the time they say, I’m good. But rarely will somebody say, I’m good, and you. And so you throw it back at you say, Hey, I’m good, kid. How about you? And so my wife will call you an NU person. So

I appreciate you for being an NU person and asking about me. I’m doing good, man. I’m Cesar, I’m really happy that we get to do this episode together. You’ll probably hear me say this again. Thank you for being here. I really value your time. I value when people give us some of their time. I think time is our most precious commodity. So I appreciate you giving us some of your time. And so, Cesar, I’m the type I love to dive right in. So I would love for you to tell the people what’s your main focus these days. If you don’t mind, give us a little origin story.

how you got into the space that you’re in. And then tell the people all where you are in the world. And so Cesar, you have the floor, sir.

Cesar Larrea (02:42)

All right, my name is Cesar Larrea like I like you said, Quentin. I’m a retired Marine 23 years. retired in 2020. And then when I retired, my wife and I we decided to do something, let’s do something for us. And she came up with the idea of I’m an aesthetician, cosmetologist, and I think I can do with my little experience, I wanna get into real estate. And I was okay, honey, I support you, everything you do. I’m still

working for the government, so I’ll support you. And she got into this community, it’s called 101. She signed up for that for a workshop on a weekend on last year in March. Yes, in March. She signed up for a workshop. We went together and I told her, look, I can’t be a hundred percent on this on you. However, I will support you and I will back you up whatever decision you make. She did the work of

Workshop for six months. They helped her from A to Z all the way from looking at the properties, acquisition, gaming, everything, right? With the coach. And a month before graduation, which was September last year, she came all happy. I got my first property under the belt. I’m ready to flip. And the coach was happy. Like he was like, out of the hundred people that signed up for the course, there was only two people that were able to acquire a property here in South Miami. It was competitive, it was a competitive market, as you know.

She did it, and that’s how everything started. Yeah. It’s November 2026, and right now we’re working on a seventh property. Well, she’s working on her seventh property. doing great, She’s got her values on her on the business, she got her ethics that she will not switch or bend for anybody. Yeah. it has been a learning curve for her, most likely, mostly. I’ve been on her back, helping her, guiding her, what I can.

with my degree I got I MBA and she’s been knocking out of the park, she does all the talking to the realtors, she talks to the wholesalers, she talks to the contractors, everybody. we know it’s a male dominant environment. And for her to actually exceed and be able to talk like head to people, I’m like really like proud of her, how she’s handling every situation that comes

To her plate.

Quentin Edmonds (04:38)

Yeah. Cesar, man. I love it, man. Thank you for taking me through the journey a little bit, telling me what you do, how you guys got here. And man, I have a special place in my heart when men talk about their wives, man, because I have a wife who I feel like can do anything in this world. I absolutely love it, man. You’re a man after my own heart. And so, retired Marine, MBA degree, back in your wife.

Learning curve, you said there was a learning curve, and so Cesar, I often like to say destiny has no wasted moments.

Cesar Larrea (05:08)

No, it does.

Quentin Edmonds (05:08)

Come on, come on, you already on it, right? we learn from each part of the journey, right? So, Cesar, I would love to know in this journey, what has it revealed to you about yourself? what has it opened your eyes up to? Has it made you more humble, more disciplined? I’m just throwing stuff out, right? Has it increased your tenacity? what has this journey?

Reveal to you about yourself, sir.

Cesar Larrea (05:28)

To be more patient.

Yes. Have a patience because knowing that it’s as a male, right? we like things to do a certain way.

Quentin Edmonds (05:37)

Yeah.

Cesar Larrea (05:40)

For my wife, right? Yeah, knowing that she is doing things, she’s learning and she’s doing things her way, right? Yeah. it’s you have to have patience. Because some decisions that you will make as a male, the woman has a different view, right? and most of the times you’re like, Okay, I ask her what is your intuition telling you?

Quentin Edmonds (05:59)

Yeah.

Cesar Larrea (05:59)

Right? Because the women’s intuition is

that it’s the sixth sense that they have. It’s like she’s like, it’s I think I’m doing right. And then I’ll let her, do I guide her. And at the end of the day, ninety nine point nine percent of the time, she’s right.

Quentin Edmonds (06:11)

Yeah. Wow. Wow. Yeah, man. I love it, bro. so what you call, the intuition, me and my wife, we got a phrase where we say, it’s your get. I’m a spiritual guy. I believe in God. And so I believe some things you are just gifted to do,

Cesar Larrea (06:26)

Mm-hmm.

Quentin Edmonds (06:27)

things you are kind of like anointed to do, some things you are talented to do.

And so you bring all that together, you bring your gut to the table. and I always tell my wife, what is your gut telling you? because she’s so to you, intuition is sharp. She, the way her brain processed. And it was like, babe, I trust. what is it saying to you? what it’s saying to you, that’s what we’re gonna go with. Cause like you said, like, things always seem to work out. And so, man, I love that, man. I love that.

I’m gonna love getting your perspective on this because I always ask people about operations and systems, right? And so I would love from your perspective, either, birth eye view inside the vision, inside the business, or even just the way you support your wife, right? I want to get your perspective on what are some systems or operational things that you’ve put into place.

That has helped you be successful or build routines or build habits. So talk to me about some system operations, man, that you have put in place.

Cesar Larrea (07:58)

So great question, Quentin. So this is how we start. She didn’t know how everything, how to structure the whole business, right? And me having an MBA, right? I was like, look, honey, let me help you structure because if you’re gonna do this and we’re gonna do this correctly, it has to have a good foundation. Any building that grows up a hundred stories, you gotta have a great foundation in order to be, successful, right? Yeah. So okay, you wanna be the lead, you wanna be CEO, that’s fine. I will help you as a co-owner, co whatever you wanna call it, your husband.

However, you need a team to help you push through and get everything started, right? So it’s funny you say so.

We started with her nail technician, right? She spent her look, I’m starting this and that. I’m looking for a team. She’s been dealing with her for years, right? Know her for a long time. And he’s like, Look, I want to be part of it. I got some funds I wanna put together. So she was able to acquire some of her funding and and she became, as you know, from nail technician, she became the coup, the chief of operation.

Quentin Edmonds (08:55)

Yeah.

Cesar Larrea (08:56)

So she handles

The another woman, she handles the day to day operations in the business. She goes to the properties, look at the status, look at the progress, takes pictures, A, B, and C. we need an analyst, right? Because we’re spending five, six hours analyzing properties. We don’t have time for that. We as a CEO, you gotta work for the property, for the business, not in the business, right?

So she hired her brother as the analyst and it came out perfect because he analyzes properties, he does the comps, he does everything in the era if the property numbers are gonna work out good, if it’s not gonna work out. So he gave us a detailed spectrum of if the property is gonna have a good ROI, return on investment. Yeah. So we started that, right? And now okay, so now we gotta have somebody in the office. We have a small office, we hire an admin guy, service guy, a kid for an interim.

I find my A, I got an interim, he’s doing a bachelor’s, he wants to, give an opportunity. I’m like, look, I don’t have anything for you, but if you want to learn, depending how everything develops, my wife might give you an opportunity to work. So he put us for a month or two, for interim to finish a bachelor’s. And then we got to a certain level that we got to do a lot of administrative items. So my wife offered him a job, a part-time job, Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays,

Quentin Edmonds (10:04)

Yeah.

Cesar Larrea (10:05)

nine to four.

Quentin Edmonds (10:06)

Yeah.

Cesar Larrea (10:06)

and that’s he does all the admin, he follows up on permits on the taxes, quick payroll, the things that take a lot of time, right? So I was like, okay, honey, so we’re good. I can help you as a CFO of the company, some of the financial areas, that’s my what I know, right? it’s not my bread and butter, right? But I know financials, so I can help you with the numbers so you can we can work with it, right?

and we started doing our own Instagram. However, look, creating a video on Instagram takes a lot of time. Editing, putting it together, recording, and we need to find somebody that is gonna handle our social media. we did our projection, so that okay, let’s get a market a social media and market clear, right?

Quentin Edmonds (10:44)

Yeah.

Cesar Larrea (10:44)

Anime guy, look, I got a friend of mine that he’s doing a bachelor’s too. She’s a marketeer, young lady. Everything we interview her and somebody else. We like her perspective, how she thinks from the spot, like my wife, like a problem, solution right away, right? Yeah, hire her, and she is the one that controls our Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, social media. she goes to a

To the property, records, makes the videos, makes the dynamic videos, not just this is a property, this is how much I did this property, it’s how much I’m selling it for. No. My wife is like, I see that, I don’t like it. I want to be different. So she creates bloppers, right? That happens, things that happen, but then she makes the video like more like this is what’s happening behind closed doors with Alkimia as a personal king investment. everybody puts a big

Three story five, make it a forced, whatever, A, B, and C. It’s pretty generic. let’s make it more friendly. you want to see something. Okay, what’s Alkimia bringing to the table this couple of days?

Quentin Edmonds (11:41)

Yeah, yeah.

Cesar Larrea (11:42)

So that’s our team. CEO, I’m this, I’m my husband, Harper, CFO. We got a crew, we got an analyst, we got an admin, we got a marketer.

Quentin Edmonds (11:50)

Man. Love it. Thank you, man. I’m glad I asked you that question because I love your answer. I love the way you broke it down. I love how things evolved. Things got put into place. man. That was brilliant, man. I thank you for answering that. Thank you for what you said. what’s next for you, Cesar? What’s next for you and your wife? What are you looking to? What’s the next real goal? What are you looking to solve scale next?

Cesar Larrea (12:12)

So our goal for us, right, is to have more time for us because it’s time consuming. Anybody that handles real estate is time consuming, right? Even though you gain some profit, right? But still you have to be I would say ninety percent involved in everything that’s going on. We are training the our coup to have the same vision as my wife to be able

decision as my wife. Yeah. Right. So all it does is reports to my wife. This is what’s going on with property one, two, or three. This is what I made decisions on. And then my wife J or N. So we’re working that it’s a learning for her too because I’m training her to be a chief of operations with my experience, right? we have a dashboard that we created with Chat GPT. So everything is tracking there, right? Yeah. and that’s our goal to have more time with our son because our son is four years old.

And it requires time. He’s gonna grow up and time goes by quick. Before he’ll be eighteen years old. we don’t wanna be those parents like man, time just went by so quick.

Quentin Edmonds (13:04)

Yeah, loving man. I love it.

I think what we do should give us our time back, right? I think we work hard to get the time back to be able to have control over our time to what we want to do. So if it’s eating up too much time, even automated, delegated, we got to get our time back. So and I love it. Your approach is you I got a four-year-old and I don’t want to miss no time with it. Listen, another shout out to my wife. We say your presence is a present. Your presence.

You being there is a present. And so I love it, man. I love it. I love it. I’m gonna love asking you this question, Mr. Cesar. Everyone that comes on, I always ask them what’s their unique perspective on the word relationship. So I would love to hear your unique perspective on relationship, relationship building, on relationships, whether it’s like client-based or mentor-based, or people who’s helped you succeed. Just give me your unique.

perspective Mr. C’s on the word relationship.

Cesar Larrea (14:37)

that perspective, right? That’s a question that’s a really

My perspective on the real estate.

Quentin Edmonds (14:42)

No, no, on relations the word relationship.

Cesar Larrea (14:44)

in the Russia with

Quentin Edmonds (14:45)

Just that word relationship. So we can talk about the relationship with your wife, the relationship with business partners or vendors. I just want to hear your unique perspective on building healthy relationships within the space that you’re in.

Cesar Larrea (14:58)

You have to be transparent. You have to be clear and transparent. and you cannot ban your ethics no matter what. You cannot. You have to be transparent with everybody. you talk to. Even you talk to investors, you talk to the contractors, you talk to even to your employees, right? you gotta tell them your UN state, right? And your goals. And they need to understand that no matter what.

you will not switch your ethics. You will not switch your vision. You will not switch your mission, right?

With my wife, we talk, we sometimes we disagree, we sometimes we argue as a any couple, right? Because we are not in agreement on certain things when it comes to making decisions, right? But at the end of the day, we love each other. So that’s the angle, right? It’s normal. it’s tough to work with your wife on a business, right? Because you see her in a business, you see her in a house, right? So you start like figure out okay, where’s the line?

where’s the land that you cut off, right? So at the beginning, we were on the phone every night until 9, 10 p.m. on the phone, and I was like, Look, we gotta cut off. So we get home, once we were the sun, and that’s it. PM we cut off. We let the coup and our admin guy handle anything else. And the next morning we follow up. Yeah, unless it’s an emergency that needs to be resolved right there

other than that, we don’t.

Quentin Edmonds (16:10)

Yeah. No, I love it. Thank you. again, I love hearing people’s perspective and I love hearing your perspective because I think it’s a unique perspective. I’ve talked to men that, they big up their wives, but the stance that you’re taking with the way you’re supporting your wife, is just absolutely, remarkable. So I appreciate you, Mr. Cesar. Hey, listen, 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, sir?

Cesar Larrea (16:34)

we have a Instagram, we have Alkimia Investments Group. We also have a YouTube channel, Alkimia Investments Group. We have a TikTok. And we can also use our phone number. can I give my phone number?

Quentin Edmonds (16:46)

Absolutely, yes sir.

Cesar Larrea (16:47)

Yeah, 786-603-4339. You can reach me out directly. and I’m more than happy. I’m always looking for investors or opportunities to grow.

Right, not only in Miami, Florida where we’re located, but also outside of Florida. we’re willing to expand. and just follow us on Instagram because you’ll see that the great videos that my wife does and with the marketeer. it’s some of the videos. I’m like, wow, you did that and and it’s funny. It’s funny. It’s really funny. it’s good. It’s good.

Quentin Edmonds (17:13)

I love her applause for taking the blueprints and stuff like that. I think that’s brilliant. That’s different than what other people is doing. So yeah. so listen, Mr. Cesar, let me say that three things to you sincerely. One, again, thank you for your time. I appreciate you being here, giving us some of your time. Secondly, thank you for what I call the gift, the gift of your authenticity, the gift of your integrity, the gift of your vulnerability. I feel like when we share from an authentic space,

We cast seed out there and people can take that seed and plant it into their situation, into their business, into their mindset. So I think you talking and being authentic and having integrity. I believe people gonna hear that and plant seeds and say what they’re doing in their business. So thank you for that. And lastly, sir, thank you for your mindset. Thank you for your perspective, the way you think, your approach. Thank you for bringing that and sharing it on this platform. I really appreciate you coming through, sir.

Cesar Larrea (18:06)

Awesome. Thank you, Quentin. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to to expand out there and show what we’re doing here because as you can only do so much but unless you bring it out there to the world, they are not gonna know how you can impact some people, either in a good way or in a bad way, that whatever some people can impact in a wrong way. And

Quentin Edmonds (18:24)

Yeah, no well said, sir. so listen, y’all heard Mr. Cesar? His information is in the show notes. Get in contact with him. But definitely make sure you are subscribed here, because I promise you, we’re gonna continue to bring up amazing people just like the Cesar Larrea. So, sir, I say thank you again. And everyone else, listen, y’all have a fantastic day.