From Job Loss to Real Estate Freedom: Inside a Wholesaler’s Journey

Sergio Aguinaga (00:00)
Yeah. So I had two moments. Moment number one was when I got my first wholesale deal. Mm-hmm. I was super excited. It took me like seven months to get my first wholesale deal. One of the guys that I know locally helped me dispo it. So he he had some local buyers that wanted it. The numbers were tight, but you know, I made like three thousand dollars from my split. The problem with that deal was that when I went to go

put a lockbox or show the buyers or I forgot what it was, but I had to drive to the property. On my way back, it this is Detroit, like the hood side of Detroit. On my way back, someone just ran a stop sign on the street and then totaled my car. So I had to get a new car. So I got really upset. I had to pay more for the whole like more than my assignment fee to get a new vehicle. And obviously they just ran off. It was a stolen vehicle.

Meghan Escobar (02:27)
welcome to Real Estate Pros Podcast. My name is Meghan Escobar, I am your host today, and I am joined by someone that I’ve really been looking forward to chatting with here. We have

Sergio Aguinaga ⁓ man, you’re gonna help me with that. Sergio Aguinaga. And he is currently in the wholesale business where he basically locks up properties and finds investors that are ready to fix and flip. So he’s been making some serious moves in the industry, and we’re gonna learn all about

Sergio Aguinaga (02:41)
Aguinaga

Meghan Escobar (03:01)
what he’s doing here. So glad to have you. And I think our listeners are really going to be able to take something away from this and how you’ve been approaching this. And you, your strength here is finding the right investor for the property. So let’s dive into that. First off, for the people who might not be familiar with your world, give us a short version of what your main focus is these days, Sergio, and what markets that you’re operating in.

Sergio Aguinaga (03:30)
Yeah, so I operate in the Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and Washington counties. Call that Metro Detroit, for those familiar that are from Michigan. But I would say my business model is ⁓ doing acquisition and dispositions in a business called wholesaling. And wholesaling all it means is finding off market properties or they can be on market, locking them up at a discount and then finding a cash buyer that’s willing to.

Take on the project.

Meghan Escobar (03:58)
That’s pretty incredible stuff. And how has that been going for you over the last eight years?

Sergio Aguinaga (04:03)
in the beginning it was rough. I dabbled into I didn’t really start wholesaling. I would say that came later on, like towards the middle. Mm-hmm. I started trying to get rentals, got my first one and then realized, well, I don’t have any more income. Then then what? And then I started reading a bunch of books, ⁓ learned a bunch about lease options, didn’t do that.

And then learned about like fix and flip, didn’t do that, learned about burr and then like I was just stuck with my one deal having to pay it off. Mm-hmm. And then from there I did go to a seminar from a local investor. Her name is Wendy Patton. And then they the topic was wholesaling. So I’m like, okay, maybe I should just do this and stick to this. So from then on, I just locked into that one strategy and it’s been going good ever since then.

Meghan Escobar (04:53)
That’s incredible. I know what caught my attention with your journey or or story, if you will, is the way that you’ve been able to transition into, you know, buying your first property into moving into the the wholesale space. So it it it’s it’s not an easy thing to do, as you mentioned, right? You you you find different networks and different people to connect with. And as you’ve sounds like you’ve done a pretty good job of that, like.

Was there I have a couple of questions for you. Was there one book that you read that was a game changer for you? And what’s been the key to keeping your machine running?

Sergio Aguinaga (06:19)
Yeah. So the book I really like that kind of explain because everybody would say just underwrite the rental properties. And it’s like, well, what goes into underwriting? And you would see videos back then, but it wasn’t like it is today where people would go in depth. So the one book I read is called The Book on Rental Property Investing by Brandon Turner from Bigger Pockets. So that’s a really good book. I really enjoyed it. I read it I think twice. It was a lot of information.

and then you said the second part of the question was what again?

Meghan Escobar (06:51)
What what’s been the key for you specifically that is keeping you going?

Sergio Aguinaga (06:56)
Okay. What’s keeping me going is not wanting to work till I’m sixty. Really, it’s just doing what I can now that I’m, you know, I’m young, I have energy, and I can do what I do because I have the opportunity to do what I’m doing. And the state of the economy right now, it’s not very good. Not a lot of people are doing good. So if I’m able to do as much as I can now because I have momentum, I’m just gonna keep writing with the momentum.

Meghan Escobar (07:25)
I love that. And just to dig in a little bit more there, like why do you have that goal that you don’t want to work until you’re sixty? What’s what what comes for you after sixty?

Sergio Aguinaga (07:36)
well the thing is when you’re like 60, you can’t really like travel as much, you can’t walk as much, you can’t do a lot of the exercises or things like that. Your body over time it starts giving up. So I wanna be in a position where I don’t depend on income. I don’t depend on a job, being stuck in a rut race. So I wanna just they call it fire, financial independence, retire early. I want to have the opportunity to do

what I want. And if I do want to continue working, then that’s what I do. But if I wanna, you know, take a six month vacation with hopefully I’m married by then, with a family, then I can do that. So I just want to have the liberty of doing what I want without depending on a job and risking losing everything.

Meghan Escobar (08:20)
Sounds like the American dream that people talk about. Yes, exactly. Yeah, yeah. I know. The old one doesn’t exist anymore, right? Where it’s like work until you’re sixty five and retire.

Sergio Aguinaga (08:23)
The new American dream, yeah.

Yeah. Buy a house.

Meghan Escobar (08:34)
Yeah, totally not the goal anymore. So I now every business owner that I know has a moment where things got real. Maybe that for you was a deal that went sideways. Maybe for you that was the moment you realized you can’t continue to buy property because you’re running out of money. But curious to dig into that just a little bit. Like, do you mind sharing what that moment was for you?

Sergio Aguinaga (08:57)
Yeah. So I had two moments. Moment number one was when I got my first wholesale deal. Mm-hmm. I was super excited. It took me like seven months to get my first wholesale deal. One of the guys that I know locally helped me dispo it. So he he had some local buyers that wanted it. The numbers were tight, but you know, I made like three thousand dollars from my split. The problem with that deal was that when I went to go

put a lockbox or show the buyers or I forgot what it was, but I had to drive to the property. On my way back, it this is Detroit, like the hood side of Detroit. On my way back, someone just ran a stop sign on the street and then totaled my car. So I had to get a new car. So I got really upset. I had to pay more for the whole like more than my assignment fee to get a new vehicle. And obviously they just ran off. It was a stolen vehicle.

So

Meghan Escobar (10:27)
Man. So that three thousand commission you just made basically just went

Sergio Aguinaga (10:32)
Went to a new vehicle, yeah. Went to and I bought another Ford Fusion.

Meghan Escobar (10:37)
⁓

man. And so you mentioned there was two. What’s the second one?

Sergio Aguinaga (10:40)
The second one was I was locked in in wholesaling. I was kind of tired of my job. There was a lot of like corporate politics. So I’m like, okay, maybe I should just do wholesaling full time. I joined a company that was starting off doing wholesaling and then they were gonna do it full time. And they said, Yeah, we’re gonna ramp up marketing. And I told them, Well, my goal is to make this amount of money. You think I can fulfill that if I work with you? Showed me a spreadsheet.

Told me the game plan of how I’m gonna get there. I had some money saved up, but I had just purchased the house that I had planned on living in. And then I’m like, okay, I’m really tired. I’m just gonna quit. Why not? So I quit, joined him, and things just took a turn. I was making like a fifth or whatever of what I was making at my job. I would rarely keep

keeping up with the bills and then the money that I had saved, I had to get C of O on the property that I had just purchased. So I spent all my money on that. And now I’m like really living paycheck to paycheck. Dang. With two properties. And then I’m like, okay, now I have to rent it because there’s no way I can move into it now. So I did that. And then I’m like, I’m just kind of waiting for like things to turn up. Marketing never turned up.

We were locking up deals, but there was just so many people in the team. So I thought I need to get another job. So I ended up getting another job January of last year. And I’ve been working there ever since then. And I’ve been able to acquire four more properties since then. So I would say it’s been it’s been going good, but that was a struggle. Yeah. Yeah.

Meghan Escobar (12:28)
What was the biggest lesson that you took from that though? ‘Cause there’s always lessons, right?

Sergio Aguinaga (12:31)
Yeah. So number one, don’t leave without a plan and don’t trust other people. Especially when it sounds too good to be true. And then number two, if you do leave, just because you are like I already do the business, have enough money to at least if things don’t go right with plan A, go with plan B so that I have at least some marketing funds to go on my own. I didn’t have any marketing funds.

At the time I had just started my one marketing channel, which is SEO. Mm-hmm. And honestly, thanks to that, it kept me afloat. If it wasn’t for that, like I don’t even know if I would have had enough money to keep doing what I’m doing. I would have probably had to have asked family for borrowed money or credit card debt or I don’t even know. But I was I was at my lowest there, I would say. Wow.

Meghan Escobar (13:24)
You stuck it out and, you know, like you said, you you were able to from that point on purchase four more properties. So you obviously did something right, Sergio. And, you know, I think I I really appreciate you sharing that with me. And I think that’s the kind of stuff that people don’t talk about enough, right? It’s like especially in this this world we live in where it’s like social media, you shine all the shiny objects in in people’s faces, but they don’t see the struggle behind the scenes of what people go through to actually

create the success in their lives. And I I I truly believe that that’s what separates folks from who just dabble to the ones who are staying in the game long term. And I mean, you’ve been in it for eight years. And s with some of the stories that you’ve shared, Sergio, majority of people ha who have gone through situations like that with even the first scenario where they got totaled in the hood, like

Most people would probably give up and walk away at that point. So, you know, I I I honor you for, you know, sticking it out and and figuring out, okay, what’s the lesson I learned and how do we move forward from here and and scale up? So thank you again for sharing that with me. And I’m I’m curious, let me ask you this, like, what are you most focused on solving or scaling next? Like what’s the next real goal for Sergio?

Sergio Aguinaga (15:19)
Yeah. So the next real goal is to just start obtaining more properties. I’ve been getting one to two a year. So maybe I can start doing three to four a year just to get to my goal faster. So the goal right now is to retire in eleven years. so if I can get more properties now, then I maybe it won’t have to be eleven years. Maybe it could be seven.

So I would say that number one, like start to get more properties and the only way to do that is to take on more risk and start a new marketing channel and make it work. So that’s that’s what I’m gonna be doing in the next month or so.

Meghan Escobar (15:58)
love that that’s huge especially when like you said you’ve mentioned that you know g adding on that marketing channel could and putting that in place could really that that next move can either compound things for you or potentially create chaos depending on how it’s played right so listen now I I know a lot of people listening are either

Early in their journey or maybe they’re just looking to level up and and I I think they could definitely benefit from hearing this. So when it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

Sergio Aguinaga (16:32)
for me I would say is just take action. When I first started it was cold calling. Most people are afraid to talking to strangers or making their first call. I’ve seen people cry when they made their first call. So it it is scary and like what do you say? Like how do you lock it up? You don’t know any sales skills. So I would say when it comes to real estate, you just have to dive in.

even if you don’t know everything and just make sure that you measure your risk. Like obviously if you don’t know how to do construction or measure the rehab cost or know how to underwrite, know how to get it at the right price, then don’t do a flip. Make sure you understand that part. So just take measured risk. There is no risk in making a cold call. Like what’s gonna happen? They’re gonna hang up on you. They’re gonna cuss you out. That’s it.

Meghan Escobar (17:26)
Amen of that. Yeah. I I think that’s such solid and profound advice, you know, because it is so scary for someone to pick up a a call. But when you realize like it doesn’t matter what people say on the other end, like it’s just you getting over that initial fear, I can’t agree with you more. That is that is something that is so profound. And as far as you creating relationships, I know we talked a little bit about that in the in the beginning here. Do you feel

Do you feel like that’s an important aspect to your business as well? You know, getting in the right rooms and spaces?

Sergio Aguinaga (18:00)
Yeah, because there’s gonna be people that know more than you and that they were in your foot in your steps or where you’re at now, they were there at one point of their life and now they’re not. They’re they are where you wanna be. So you can obviously create relationships, meet people, you know, meet someone that for example, in my case, when I do the burr, I actually have my property manager handle all the rehab.

and everything. I just have to get the deal, which is what I’m already good at. And then he takes it on from there. So, you know, build the relationship with a property manager that’s good that you know can get it done. And yeah, this business is all about relationships, honestly.

Meghan Escobar (18:43)
Yeah, I again another solid piece of advice here. You can’t fake that, right? Relationships is a hundred percent everything in this space. In the real estate space, specifically in today’s world, that is one thing that you need the human connection for, right? Like you you can’t close a deal without it. So I think it ⁓

Sergio Aguinaga (19:02)
Yeah. ⁓

Meghan Escobar (19:05)
There it is, right? And and they can never take over sales. So I love that. And before we wrap up, if someone listening in right now wanted to reach out to you, Sergio, and and pick your brain and learn more about what you’re doing or just simply connect with you, maybe collaborate or learn, just learn. I mean, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Sergio Aguinaga (19:27)
Yeah, they can find me on Instagram. yeah, it’s serge31392 three one three nine two. That’s my personal one. My business one is Michigan Houses for Cash. And now there is

Meghan Escobar (19:30)
What’s your hand?

Okay. And then Serge the

S-E-R-G-E you wanna just spell that out for the folks listening?

Sergio Aguinaga (19:43)
Yeah, it’s S-E-R-G-E. And then 31392

Meghan Escobar (19:48)
Okay. And that’s your personal and again for the for the business?

Sergio Aguinaga (19:52)
Michigan houses for cash.

Meghan Escobar (19:54)
Perfect. Perfect. Well, listen, I really appreciate your time, your story, and most certainly your perspective. We need more people in this space who are doing things the right way. So I thank you again for being here with us at Real Estate Pros Podcast. And for those of you tuning in, if you got any value from this guy here, Sergio, make sure that you subscribe. We’ve got more conversations coming in with business owners just like Sergio who are out here.

building real businesses and real relationships. So looking forward to seeing you guys on the next episode.