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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Quentin Edmonds interviews Juan C Cristales, a seasoned real estate investor who transitioned from fix and flipping to new construction. Juan shares his journey, highlighting the challenges and opportunities in the real estate market, particularly in the Houston area. He emphasizes the importance of building relationships, personal growth strategies, and the predictability of new construction compared to traditional flipping. The conversation also touches on the significance of community support and the potential for growth in the upcoming year, encouraging listeners to take massive action towards their goals.
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Juan C Cristales (00:00)
You know, I’ll tell you the quick story, man. I once did a fix and flip where I made a total profit of $800. $800 total in profit after five months. And I had to split that with somebody as a matter of fact. And so I was super just like, just stressed out. I’m like, this has got to be a different way. And so I reached out to some people that I knew that were doing new construction and you know, nobody wanted to teach me.Quentin (01:58)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host Q Edmonds. Y’all know what I’m gonna say. I’m excited to be here. I have another fantastic guest. And this guy, you listen, he used to do fix and flip, but in his own words, right? He does new construction from the ground up. And for him, that has been an incredible mind changing experience. And you know, I love mind shifting things. I think that’ssomething that I’ll guess offer to different people when they come on is that they can help people sometimes shift their mindset around what they’ve been thinking, what they’ve been stuck in. And so I’m glad for him to talk about his success. I love the way he thinks. I love his perspective already. And so I’m really looking forward to getting into the nuances with him. And so I want to introduce you guys to Mr. Juan Cristales. Mr. Juan, how did I do with that last thing? Cristales, did I hit it? How did I do?
Juan C Cristales (02:56)
That was awesome,man. That was good. Thank you. I appreciate it.
Quentin (02:57)
Awesome,Absolutely. Listen, sir, I’m so glad you’re here. I’m looking forward to a fantastic episode. And so I’ll be honest, I want to dive right in. I want you to tell people what your main focus is these days. If you would give us maybe a little bit of an origin story of how you got into what you’re doing now. We love the hero’s journey. And if you want to tell us what market you’re in as well, man. So what you’re doing, origin story, and then tell us those markets, man. So Mr. One, you got the floor,
Juan C Cristales (03:27)
Hey man, I really appreciate you having me on man. Thank you so much. This is so awesome and exciting for me. Man, I’ll tell you, I started off in real estate investing like almost everyone does, right? You go to a weekend seminar and people are trying to show you. And again, the mind shift, right? When I realized that single family rentals or just rental real estate was the way people create wealth, I was all in on that, right? And so I jumped right in and I did what everybody was teaching, which is, know, buy yourself a single family home.fix it up, try to gain a little bit of equity and then turn it into rentals, right? So slowly, one at a time here and there I was doing this over and over again. The challenge was that, you I got my teeth kicked in a few times with some fix and flips. And the reason was is that, you know, as detail oriented as you can be when it comes to an inspection or something like that for a single family home, there’s always gonna be some sort of a weird gotcha.
you know, whether it’s plumbing underground, I’ve done houses where I’ve had entire bee colonies inside of the walls that we didn’t catch until after the fact when we started doing some work on it. I mean, there’s always been something, right? We see a little bit of termite damage that turns into like massive termite damage. you know, surviving those, you know, situations where I’ve got my teeth kicked in, I just realized, man, there’s got to be a different way because
You know, I’ll tell you the quick story, man. I once did a fix and flip where I made a total profit of $800. $800 total in profit after five months. And I had to split that with somebody as a matter of fact. And so I was super just like, just stressed out. I’m like, this has got to be a different way. And so I reached out to some people that I knew that were doing new construction and you know, nobody wanted to teach me.
I didn’t understand why I was willing to pay people to teach me new construction, how to do ground up. And so unfortunately I had to learn that as well a little bit by trial and error. And so I’ve been doing a ground up new construction for about five years now in October of 2025. We went over five years and that’s really all I’ve been focusing on here in the Houston market.
Quentin (06:24)
Yeah. Love it, man. Love it. Thank you for the journey. Thank you for the story. I love, again, like when you talked about mindset shift, I love how you, thank you for the gift of your vulnerability, right? $1,800 and had to that. I was rich with him. You said $1,800. was like, okay, okay, that’s good. And you said you had to split. And I was like, okay. I know that was a little shot to the gut. But listen, I just had somebody on that was.Juan C Cristales (06:45)
Yeah.Quentin (06:50)
only making about a $50 profit after they flip turn things around too. so you still sitting in a good spot, but I still understand that’s not what she was expecting. Right. And so I loved how you talked about mindset shift and mindset changing, because I want to ask you this question about strategies. And I would love for you to answer it two ways. I would love to know some business strategies, core business strategies that you identified that you know, helps you. But I would also love to know some personal strategies.that you have identified over the years that helped you. And I know some people, know, it’s gym, cold plunge, meditation, whatever it may be, but what for you on a personal strategy helps you stay focused? And then what helps you from a business strategy helps your businesses as well.
Juan C Cristales (07:35)
Man, so from a personal strategy, man, I have four sons and you know my father you know worked a lot of hours and it was very difficult. We didn’t really get to spend a lot of time with my dad. And so from a personal strategy, you know one of the things that was really a mindset shift for me was when it was soccer season, I remember one time.you know, my wife asked me, she’s like, Hey, are you going to coach soccer this year? And I was so just like, stressed out. I’m like, I, we got into a fight. We got into a big riff about it. And then later on, you know, you know how, you get into a fight, like afterwards, you’re like evaluating the conversation. You’re like, maybe it should have been a little bit different. Why did I go off the handle afterwards? I thought about that. And I’m like, you know what, man, I need to make this such a high priority in my life.
Quentin (08:14)
Yes, sir.Juan C Cristales (08:25)
that no matter what I have going on in my world, coaching my kids’ soccer teams, because I have four kids, coaching all of their soccer teams should be at the absolute top of my priority. And you know what I realized, man? That whenever I am on the soccer field, my phone is nowhere near me. I can’t run around with my phone on my hip, right? I can’t run around with like an earpiece in. I can’t do any of that. So it’s all…Quentin (08:25)
Mmm.Juan C Cristales (08:52)
on the side and I am focused completely on them, the little team that we have. We’re playing five on five soccer. It’s 45 to 50 minutes. And then we go on to the next team. But man, it has been something that’s been really, really helpful to me to just really balance everything out because I have to have that ability to be able to do that.Quentin (09:16)
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Man, I’m glad you brought your wife again. Thank you for the gift of your vulnerability, man. You know, I ask these questions, but people don’t have to be as vulnerable as they are. So I thank you. You mentioned your wife. It made me think about me and my wife. You know, I used to get so angry when we, she would bring something up that made total sense, right? And I would get so angry and she would ask me, she would not ask, she would say, you know, Quentin, she say anger is a secondary emotion. What are you really feeling?Oh God. Oh, So that really made me take inventory. Well, why am I angry? Like, what is it that I’m really feeling? Am I really feeling fear? Am I feeling inadequacy? Am I feeling lack of confidence? Right. And so that got me down to it. And then she always would say, your presence is a present. Your presence is a present. And so when I hear about you putting your family and your kids, their soccer first,
It lets me know that you realize that your presence is a present in itself to your kids. And so I love answering that question. I thank you for the gift of your vulnerability because as we build success in business, there has to be core personal strategies that keep us grounded, that tell us why we do what we do. Because when you know who you are, you know what to do. And when you know who you are, you build your systems based on what really matters. And so I appreciate you sharing that. really do.
Juan C Cristales (10:42)
Yeah,yeah man.
Quentin (10:43)
Absolutely. So listen, I may ask you this as you was building, have you faced any adversity? You know, I know sometimes, you know, we get to success, but there’s the journey to get to success. So as you was building, have you faced any adversity or has this been smooth sailing for you?Juan C Cristales (11:34)
No, man, I mean, definitely not smooth sailing. But I think that some of the adversity that I’ve really faced you know has been really around, you know, so there’s always a challenge, right? In what we do, we build to rent is you either have more opportunity than you have resources.or you find yourself in a situation where you have more resources than opportunity. And so really walking that balance of like where you’re gonna, like what else you got going on, it’s just a little bit of a challenge because whether it’s your lender’s calling is like, hey man, we need some more deals to invest in, or you’re biting off more than you can chew and your resource capacity is down here and you’re trying to find more.
private lenders or more more capital to invest in your deals or whatnot like you know that stress or to make it bounce back around is can be a little bit challenging and so you Like I’ve committed to you know buying certain things or buying lots and stuff like that And then we have to just figure out how to raise the capital later those types of things I think are 100 % normal I used to think that is it shouldn’t have to be like that But the more I do this now that I’ve been doing it for about 10 years I really feel like that’s just kind of standard practice and we have to just
back and forth, back and forth on that.
Quentin (12:51)
Yeah.Yeah. Now I love that. I appreciate you saying that. I appreciate you showing that, you know, the different like there’s going to be a flip. There’s going to be like these different balancing acts and shifting that’s going on. within that shifting, let me ask you, what’s what have you focused on now? Like what are you focused on? I’m scaling next, solving next. Like what’s the next real goal for you?
Juan C Cristales (13:15)
You know man, ⁓ the next real big goal for me, think mostly because I had to teach myself how to do new construction, know, it’s showing other people, man. I think that if I was able to kind of teach it to myself, and you know, I have the heart of a teacher to be honest with you, man, I really do. I wanna make things very, very basic for people so it’s not overwhelming and complicated. And so basically that’s really what I’ve been trying to do is, you know, people who want to get out of the.rat race it feels like to doing fix and flips and just, you know, doing something a little bit more, in my opinion, more, it’s just more predictable, right? When we do a new construction budget, I mean, we’re building for a specific price per square foot. Now, we might be a dollar or two above or below, maybe even $5 above or below, but that is nothing in comparison to some of the crazy stuff that I had to do in the fix and flip world, right?
Quentin (13:45)
Mm.Juan C Cristales (14:07)
And so the new construction process is a lot more predictable. And that’s why I feel like I’m on a journey to try to show people like there’s so much more predictability in new construction. Just do that, get good at that. And then your real estate business is going to flourish because you have more opportunity because you’re doing something that’s more predictable. Whereas before I was doing a lot of stuff where it’s like I’m buying a fix and flip.Quentin (14:08)
Yeah.Juan C Cristales (14:33)
And I was like, man, I hope I make money on this deal because I really need it, right? So that’s really one of the challenges that I think that I’m really looking forward to solving or helping solve or whatnot. It’s just showing people that new construction, man, if you can learn it, it’s a skill that’s going to pay you for the rest of your life.Quentin (14:38)
Mm-hmm.Absolutely. So obviously you want to teach people, you want to connect with people. So I want to talk a little bit about relationships and I want to get your viewpoint on building relationships. Is building relationships in business important? Has it affected you in a positive way? Like what’s your perspective when it comes to building relationships?
Juan C Cristales (15:57)
Man, so I’m really fortunate, man. I’ve raised over $10 million in private capital for all my real estate deals, and I tell people all of the time that it is 100 % relationships. If you’re not good at building relationships or you take relationships for granted, uh you know you’re not gonna have as much success as you would be able to if you were a little bit more intentional about it. I just sent out handwrittenChristmas cards with my picture and my family and Christmas, you know, like 250 of these, all right, to my private lenders, to other people in the business, whether they’re, you know, mortgage lenders, whatever they may be in the real estate industry, or just people that I know, just to keep growing that network. And every year, every year, every year, we keep expanding that list. my goal is to continue to grow it because I realize how valuable relationships are. People…
want to do business with people. And so as cool and great as it may be, right, to like, you know, be, you know, a major player in the business, I think that at the end of the day, man, I think people, if they know you, they like you, they’re gonna wanna do business with you, whether it’s just a referral or, you know, use you for your education platform, whatever it is that they wanna do, man, I think that’s really how you truly build a business.
Quentin (17:18)
So you was vulnerable. I’ll put a vulnerable moment out there. know, just, know, when you just don’t know some things you just don’t know, right? You just don’t, your mindset, your mindset has to change, right? So I was a mailman at one point, a letter carrier for 14 years, walked 24,000 steps a day, right? Yeah. 24,000 steps a day. think the average is out to 144,000 steps a week. Cause I usually work six days a week.And so some of my customers would write me handwritten letters, like around Christmas time. Right. And I used to get frustrated when there was no money in the letters, but it was just a handwritten letter. Right. Like, I’m doing all this work. Y’all could just be giving me money. know, whatever. It wasn’t until when I got married, my wife was like, you know, we need to respond to people. I think we need to write some handwritten letters. Right. It wasn’t until you
I actually had to sit down, be intentional about the words that I said, be intentional about handwriting it out, that I realized how much of a handwritten letter, how much of a gift in that self that it is. So to hear you, 250 people, you writing down handwritten letters with pictures, to me, having that experience lets me know that you value relationships.
is that you if you want to put that personal touch, is that it’s coming from the heart, it’s coming from a place of appreciation, coming from a place of wanting to grow authentic relationships that you would sit down, take time out and write handwritten letters. And so I had to share my embarrassing moment because Lord, was I young and naive back then, but just, know, just, just, you know, I just wanted to highlight just how important I can see, you know, that you take, you know, relationships. so, listen, Mr. Juan, is there anything that
Juan C Cristales (18:59)
Yeah.All
Quentin (19:09)
we need to talk about that we have not talked about. Is there any kind of other words of education, motivation, inspiration that you want to leave? Anything that you can think our listeners would benefit?Juan C Cristales (19:20)
Yeah, I really genuinely think that 2026 is being positioned to be an absolutely amazing year for real estate investing, regardless of whatever type of investing you do. I’m not here to pitch you on mine or sell you on mine, but I really genuinely think that 2026 is going to be a really good year. And it starts now, right? It’s December. And I think that anyone who’s interested in doing it really needs to take massive action. Otherwise, you know, in 2027, 2028,you know, things potentially could shift. No one has a crystal ball to know, but all indicators right now are really showing that this coming up year is going to be a fantastic year.
Quentin (19:59)
Yeah, you know you said it, I believe it and I hope people grab a hold to it. And I love how you said take massive action. Now is the time, especially if you’re failing and you know it, go after it. Now is the time to go after it. Put these systems in place to have the foundation. So when you go after it, everything runs the way it needs to go. And really be like Mr. Wong, be curious, right? Be curious because him being curious, seeking out new instructions.construction, seeing how it could change the trajectory of his life, it has hit home for him. so Mr. Juan sir, thank you, man. Thank you so much, one, for your time, because time is absolutely valuable. We don’t get more time back, right? We’re trying to find ways to create the time that we have to use at the optimal level. So I thank you for your time. Definitely thank you for your story. Definitely thank you for your story. Your story is phenomenal.
And also thank you for your perspective. Thank you for the way that you think. You know, I think you’ve added just enough nuggets here that somebody can have a mindset shift. And so I really appreciate you being here today. If someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, what’s the best way for them to reach out to you,
Juan C Cristales (21:15)
Quentin again, dude, thank you so much for putting this together for me, man, or for us, I mean, for you and everything, but it’s really, really good. like it. I like the format of it. was a little bit, a little bit nervous. I’m not gonna lie to you at first, man, but I’m like, ⁓ that’s cool. This guy’s awesome, man. He’s easy to talk to, easy to engage with. So I was like, man, this is good. It’s gonna be awesome. But yeah, man, if people wanna find me, you know, they can go to duplexbuild2rent.com, duplexbuild2rent.com.Quentin (21:27)
Yeah.I appreciate that.
Juan C Cristales (21:43)
I have a small school community right now that we’re just building up and these are just people that are interested in learning more about how to do new construction. Specifically, we’re building duplexes. Again, everything’s free in there. A lot of free resources, PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, videos of me teaching you how new construction works, how the numbers work, all that kind of stuff. So that’s basically where people can reach me.Quentin (22:05)
Well, listen, again, man, thank you so much for being here. This was absolutely phenomenal. So I can’t thank you enough. Thank you, Sir. You can’t tell me you did not get the value from Mr. Juan. So I definitely need you to check him out, but I definitely need you to make sure you are subscribed. That way you can come back in when we continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Juan. So, sir, thank you so much.And to everyone else, we will see you on the next time.
