From Wrestling to Real Estate: Santiago Martinez’s Journey to Financial Freedom

Santiago Martinez (00:00)
So there’s a layer there.

of trusting the people around me

luckily I had good people around and I think that’s been a theme kind of ongoing, right? You want to have solid people around you. Helps with longevity.

Kristen Knapp (00:05)
Yeah.

that

Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Kristen Knapp and I’m here with Santiago Martinez, the owner of First Property Solutions. He’s an investor in Pennsylvania and we’re going to get into a lot of things, specifically also how combat sports relates to real estate. So I’m excited to get into it. Thank you for being here.

Santiago Martinez (01:59)
Of course. Now this is exciting. You guys do really good work, so I’m excited for this.

Kristen Knapp (02:04)
yeah, thank

you. So let’s just hop in at the beginning. What brought you into real estate?

Santiago Martinez (02:09)
Yeah, so it was actually last year of wrestling. it was like my fifth year. I was wrestling division one and there’s zero partying, zero drinking and stuff. So naturally it’s a winter sport. So I’m in my room reading a book and luckily that book was Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And that just kind of like started shifting my mindset. And I think a lot of investors kind of relate with that. But just ending school and noticing, I’m like, I really want to get into this once I’m out of here.

So probably like six months later, I started my first job and ended up buying my first three unit that I lived in FHA, House Hack, you know, like very traditional route, but it was very much like in the hood, right? So just like tough area. Recently at a school and just kind of like figuring it out as I went. So that was the first one.

Kristen Knapp (02:58)
Yeah. So you did wrestling and combat sports your whole life leading up to that, right?

Santiago Martinez (03:02)
Yeah, yeah, so that was, ⁓ I want to say, like, I mean, I’ve been in business probably like five, six years, like really dove into it. And a lot of the lessons that I’m bringing are very much from combat sports. I started doing judo when I was eight years old and ended up getting my black belt. Then went into wrestling and ended up wrestling division one. I competed for the country of Columbia. So I made world team 2018. And then now I’m kind of doing jujitsu. So it’s like, it’s just very

much intertwined into who I am and a lot of the lessons that I’ve learned there are very much brought into real estate.

Kristen Knapp (03:37)
Yeah, that’s

amazing. And what I see with a lot of people who have such success with sports their whole lives, especially in college, sometimes it’s hard to see outside of the sport and get to know another passion because a lot of people are so passionate about the sport. So that’s amazing that you were able to find that out right away.

Santiago Martinez (03:47)
Yeah.

Definitely and there’s certainly like kind of a weaning off of it, right? It’s like when you’re in a sport and you’re really you’re like really really into it There’s like an identity connection there, right? So it’s like how do you separate one identity and go into the next? And certainly it’s like a lot of inner work that you start doing and you start realizing oof This is eventually going to end. What are other interests that I might have that’s gonna lead to the next season of my life So I’m super thankful overall that it was like a pretty smooth transition

Kristen Knapp (04:08)
Right.

Santiago Martinez (04:24)
smooth as smooth as it can be right there’s like multiple shoulder surgeries and stuff that happened but it was one of those things where it’s like ⁓ it’s a clear sign God’s telling me like all right you know you could force your way into this route or you can start taking this other route and I’m like I’m really excited about this other route so

Kristen Knapp (04:41)
Yeah. Do you remember

like what that first deal felt like for you?

Santiago Martinez (04:45)
Yeah, the first one. It’s like I’m an action taker. that there was a layer there where I’m like, all right, I hear everybody, you know, like when they’re starting out, house hacking isn’t bad. So I’m like, all right. And I started maybe trusting too quick. Luckily, it was like the right people. And even like that first realtor that I met at a meetup and I’m like, all right, I want to get FHA. I have my first job. Like, what am I going to do? And he’s like, hey, this might be a good property. And luckily, it was like, I think it would buy it for ninety

Kristen Knapp (04:59)
Mm.

Santiago Martinez (05:14)
$26,000

and at the time you saw three units that were for 90 something thousand dollars, right? It’s just kind of like lower numbers and I’m like, all right, let’s do it. So there was like a section of trusting and being guided and then after that, it’s like I knew I was willing to put in the work. I knew that whatever came my way, I was able to to overcome again, just like the lessons that that wrestling has brought.

So there’s there’s a layer there.

of trusting the people around me and I’m still like to this day very close Rick Matos is his name, the realtor that kind of brought me that first deal and we go back and forth, he still helps me and stuff so luckily I had good people around and I think that’s been a theme kind of ongoing, right? You want to have solid people around you. Helps with longevity.

Kristen Knapp (06:40)
Yeah.

Absolutely. that

can be the hardest part is finding good people to be around you because people get screwed all the time.

Santiago Martinez (06:55)
Definitely, yeah. One of the things I noticed is I trust very quickly, right? And it’s a positive thing. I feel like sometimes I have these rose-colored glasses on. A little hack that I’ve had recently is my wife, Debbie, she’s able to get a pretty good grasp on people and how they are and stuff. just naturally, believe females are better at that than guys. And I’m like, okay, whenever I’m around somebody that I might do

business with, kind of just tell me what you feel, what you think, right? And that’s been such a game changer because I’m like, cool, I don’t care what I saw, but if you didn’t get a good feeling, I’m already passing on this person. So that’s certainly helped.

Kristen Knapp (07:26)
yeah.

Yeah.

I think that’s

a good lesson to tell people. If you’re unsure, ask your wife.

Santiago Martinez (07:43)
Yeah, that’s annoying.

Kristen Knapp (07:45)
and then like

catches up to what you’re doing today and what your business looks like right now.

Santiago Martinez (07:49)
Yeah, so right now we have a portfolio of 55 units and kind of like stabilizing that. And on the flip equation, that’s been kind of like an exciting venture that we’ve probably gone in last year and a half or so. And we’ve done, I want to say, 24 deals or so in the last 12 months on the flip equation. And we have, think, around the same in the pipeline now. So it’s super cool to now start seeing this really, really come to light.

And I noticed that there’s two things that you need in this industry. And I could be wrong, this is my perspective. But it’s almost like you want a long sword, so something that brings wealth, that you’re able to bring equity. And just over time, real estate does really good work. But then also, you need some of short sword, so active income that brings that safety when times get hard. And initially, my hallucination was that, OK, I can just keep on building a portfolio, buy in

hold, I’m going to burr everything and just found myself in some spots where I’m like, where the F am I going to get this money, right? There’s like, Helux getting filled and stuff. I’m like, this isn’t great. I’m wealthy, right? Like there’s, there is, ⁓ you look at the balance sheet and it’s like so good, but then I’m not getting paid, right? And how am I supposed to build a team with without cash? So that’s when I realized, all right, let’s, let’s get into flips. I like the system piece of it. I love, I already know renovations.

Kristen Knapp (09:10)
again.

Santiago Martinez (09:14)
have construction experience. So it’s been an exciting kind of venture this last year and a half, too.

Kristen Knapp (09:20)
Yeah, that’s really interesting that you kind of break it into two categories. What would you, what advice would you give to people who are starting to flip kind of for the first time?

Santiago Martinez (10:03)
Hmm.

for the first time, think it’s not about that first deal that’s going to get you so much money, right? It’s about that experience that you’re getting as the contractors that you’re setting up. Because it’s a tough cookie to swallow right at the beginning just because you’re starting to develop relationships. So contractors aren’t going to give you the best price. You’re not going to find your best deals right at the beginning. So there’s just a lot of setting things up and figuring it out.

So what I would advise is go cosmetic, don’t go into like a heavy renovation because you saw a house flipping show or you kind of like want to start demoing. No, start basic, basic, basic, kind of like go cosmetic and start learning how to run numbers because then that’s what’s going to save you at the end.

Kristen Knapp (10:47)
Yeah. And how did you go about setting those systems up?

Santiago Martinez (10:50)
Yeah, great question. ⁓ On that side, think I’m naturally a very like systems oriented or kind of organized person. There’s a, I followed the EOS, so the entrepreneurial operating system and Traction is the book. I read Traction and I’m like, my God, this is gold. So even right from the beginning, like 2019 ⁓ wrestling season, have a shoulder surgery, I’m recovering from it and I’m like, all right,

next season of my life, I want to build this investment portfolio, what do I need to do? So I’m almost like, I’m pulling traction apart, I’m putting it together, I’m giving myself like a bunch of hats, integrator, visionary, I’m just kind of like, and it’s a one-man company at the time, right? ⁓ And I’m just like organizing and figuring it out. Luckily, that was such a blessing because those roles, you start passing off and you start understanding, you start getting a rhythm, you start getting, I got my first virtual employee maybe like four years ago.

Kristen Knapp (11:32)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Santiago Martinez (11:48)
and then you start passing off things to her. it’s just really EOS kind of just breaks everything down and that’s allowed me to just follow a model and kind of just keep on growing it. Luckily later on you start finding other people that are way ahead and they’re also using the same system and I’m like cool I’m glad I kind of listened to this thing and just listened to my gut.

Kristen Knapp (12:07)
Yeah.

Santiago Martinez (12:09)
That’s been super beneficial or even the E-Myth was a pretty big book starting out and there’s E-Myth, the real estate investor E-Myth version of it and I’m like, cool, just understanding part of that stuff.

Kristen Knapp (12:21)
Yeah,

and I understand that you’re really integrated into AI right now too, right?

Santiago Martinez (12:26)
my god, has been so exciting. My wife’s like, are we, you know, like she’s a little nervous about it now because I’m using it so much, but it’s in such a cool section of this last little stage. And I want to say it’s probably less,

Kristen Knapp (12:27)
You

you

Santiago Martinez (12:38)
So it’s when I’m really implementing a good chunk of these things that I’m learning but just figuring out the simple pieces as to I don’t want to create a whole automation right now But I want to make sure like there’s very low-hanging fruit. What are the low-hanging fruit? How can I? Let’s say have my property management VA have a place where she can go to and easily pull up all the SOPs that we have on this specific thing, right? Well, it’s like if I’m able to

create ⁓ a project that she can go to, now it’s saving everybody time. And she’s able to draft up an email based on that purely from the same GPT or the same project. It’s like, ⁓ that’s not that hard. I can keep on doing that with different employees. And automatically, it’s giving me a good ROI on it. So that’s been really, really cool. Even just recently, am interviewing myself. That way, I can pass off a playbook to my EA.

Kristen Knapp (13:26)
Mm-hmm.

Santiago Martinez (13:35)
That way she gets to know like who I am or some of the little kinks as to like hey I like this, you know that maybe trust is really important. This is what how I define trust, right? So it’s it’s been really fun

Kristen Knapp (13:36)
Nice.

It’s really exciting.

Yeah, I feel like there’s, it’s such a big opportunity specifically in this market right now. And I think some people might be a little scared of AI thinking it might take jobs, but I think that it really helps people do their jobs. And yeah, I think, you know, people might get left behind if they’re not implementing it.

Santiago Martinez (14:06)
Yeah, the way I see it is, it’s almost like dial up when internet was just getting started, right? It’s like, you’re really gonna kind of like get your computer on and all those sounds and all that in order to message people back and forth.

That seems a little silly, right? Well, now it’s like, there is nobody that doesn’t use internet, right? So on that side, it’s like, the world’s gonna change. ⁓ Are you gonna keep on ordering taxis?

Kristen Knapp (15:04)
if

Yeah.

Yeah.

Santiago Martinez (15:15)
through a phone call or are you going to order Uber? It’s inevitable. It’s going to happen. And I want to say it’s an exponential change that starts taking place. But on that side is you don’t want to be behind the change and then let that affect you.

Kristen Knapp (15:26)
Yeah.

Absolutely. Yeah, definitely a balance. And then kind of shifting gears, what would you say to someone who’s a little scared about the market right now or unsure about the market?

Santiago Martinez (15:41)
Yeah, I like to balance myself out mainly on a couple things, just like the same long sword, short sword scenario that I was telling you about. So right now we’re pretty heavy on the flip equation, but for some reason markets start shifting, right? You want to make sure you have the skills to be able to know, hey, if I can’t sell this property at X amount, then what do we need to do in order to rent it out for it to kind of work out for us? Right now you have multiple exit strategies and you’re not relying on purely one.

never, let’s say, learned the skills as a landlord, or you’ve never kind of like figured out how to do Airbnb or midterm rental and stuff, then it’s like that starts becoming a little bit more…

maybe scary territory. So, and let’s say if you’re noticing, let’s say you’re going into the winter months where less people are naturally moving, then put your renovations a little bit higher and your ARVs a little bit lower. And now you’re going to have more conservative numbers. That way, if that does come up, okay, then you still have exit strategies. You have other ways as to how to get out, even if it’s a $10,000 profit versus a, know, like $10,000

another loss.

Kristen Knapp (16:49)
Right,

so I’m kind of hearing that diversification is really important to kind of make sure you’re covering the market.

Santiago Martinez (16:54)
Yeah, and it’s funny, having the skills to be able to shift is, I want to say it’s pretty important, right? Or at a minimum, knowing as to who to contact.

Kristen Knapp (17:05)
Mm-hmm.

Santiago Martinez (17:06)
Recently in this last stage, it’s not been so much of diversification. It’s been more of just like getting rid of anything that’s like a Schein-Ordrecht syndrome and that we don’t really want to scale and concentrating on that one avenue that we do want to scale. So I wouldn’t want to say, hey, yes, diversify, do a bunch of things, right? Because it’s like now you’re kind of like start becoming mediocre at a lot of things. It’s just understanding that there’s other options and knowing what

Kristen Knapp (17:17)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Great.

Santiago Martinez (17:35)
options are that way you have a plan when things do go wrong. We’re about to close on our first flip that we’re gonna lose money on and I’m like, oof, what went wrong? And then you start kind of like backtracking and figuring things out and you’re like, alright, that mistake, that mistake, that mistake happened. Alright, well, you’re not gonna win on all of them but you at least know what went wrong or what happened.

Kristen Knapp (17:46)
in the end.

Yeah, and I think it’s important to even say that because I think a lot of people think getting into real estate, it’s just you get handed a bunch of money right away and you do, I mean, it’s struggle and you can lose money on some deals and I think it’s important to highlight.

Santiago Martinez (18:13)
Definitely. think the areas that can get really get you in trouble is or they are Construction right if you don’t have a good grasp on construction you’re dealing with the city and permits and trying to finish basements and egress windows and you know like that kind of stuff if if you haven’t gone through you know like experience or a few projects and you’re already getting into kind of like heavier maybe red tape stuff then it starts just adding to holding costs and you know

Kristen Knapp (18:19)
Mm.

Santiago Martinez (18:42)
you add to hold the thing costs enough and you start noticing, oof, this project’s not gonna be as profitable. With that said, there’s been great projects where you just briefly do a cosmetic renovation and they sell for $30,000 more than what you expected. It’s like, wow, we want more of those. Sometimes you just gotta put momentum and put action and good things happen, but there is certainly losses that do happen.

Kristen Knapp (18:48)
Great.

Yeah.

Yeah. What are some other lessons that you wish you would have known when you were first starting out?

Santiago Martinez (19:15)
⁓

I kind of briefly touched on it recently, what hindsight’s 2020, but sometimes I think when you’re starting out, there’s all these different shiny objects that start coming in, ⁓ Midterm rentals, Airbnb’s, Like there’s your regular section eight, there’s long-term rentals. So there’s just a lot of pieces that come into play at once. when you start kind of going down a path and then shift, then you start leaving a certain section in like very

I noticed that now where I’m at, I’m like, I’m growing three different businesses, even though they’re all within real estate is we have the flip equation, we have the long term portfolio, there is also now Airbnb’s, which it’s eight midterm rentals we have. And sure, like they’re, all performing, right? But it’s like, to what extent are they performing? And how can I bring my attention to the one area that I really, really want to grow? So

Kristen Knapp (20:09)
Right.

Santiago Martinez (20:09)
If I were to look back, would be choose one that you’re really going after. And it would probably be a short sword scenario that way like capitals there rather than trying to concentrate on financial freedom when you know you’re having trouble paying your bills. So an active strategy and just really narrowing down into one market. What kind of renovations, what kind of houses, right? Like just really, really cleaning that up, building a system around it, scaling it to a certain spot, then being

Kristen Knapp (20:25)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Santiago Martinez (20:39)
okay with shifting. That’s probably one of the biggest lessons that I’m like, I made my life too complicated early on and let’s take away some of these layers now.

Kristen Knapp (20:40)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

And I can see how it’s kind of a double-edged sword where you do need to try stuff, you know, to know what you want to really focus in on.

Santiago Martinez (20:58)
Definitely. mean, one of the things I tell people whenever I talk to like a new investor or somebody that’s wanting to get started, there’s a layer of like, hey, pop the hood, right? Like when you’re starting out, people are wanting to help you. And let’s say sometimes you start thinking, I got to become a realtor so then I can have my license and that way I can buy property and flip them. And it’s like, I went down the route and I’m like, that’s not it. But when you start getting into that platform, let’s say you do get your license, go to the best realtor and start helping him

marketing, start talking to them, start kind of just bringing value or bringing your time and see what their experience is like because you might have the hallucination of like, it’s gonna be so great once I do that. I remember

Kristen Knapp (21:39)
Mm-hmm.

Santiago Martinez (21:39)
talking to one of the realtors when I first was getting started and stuff and I noticed I’m like, ⁓ this person doesn’t know about real estate investing at all. And if anything, like he’s asking me when I’m just getting started, I’m like, ⁓ this is not what I want to do. So just pop the hood, like what’s underneath there? What’s the best? Where is it that you’re trying to get to? And what’s the best person doing? And do I like his kind of lifestyle? If it’s not that, then let’s keep on looking. Let’s kind of go and pop other.

Kristen Knapp (21:53)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Santiago Martinez (22:08)
otherhood.

Kristen Knapp (22:10)
Yeah,

I love that. And what are some of your goals for the business now?

Santiago Martinez (22:13)
bigger goal on the like the 10 year side of stuff. It’s I want to become like have the business, have the real estate investment company that’s most impactful here in the Lehigh Valley. So just concentrating on people, concentrating on kind of the people behind it. On the short term, I want to make sure that the portfolio is stable. We’re not going to really be adding any more kind of rental properties until we really get that flip equation really turning. And when I get the flip equation to $2 million kind of a profit.

about it, right? Because it’s almost like you start thinking about how many properties it takes and what do need to do? And I’m like, oof, that seems like a lot, but let’s just get it.

Kristen Knapp (22:42)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, you

can’t think too much about it. Just got to go with it.

Santiago Martinez (22:53)
Exactly,

exactly. And just like offloading anything that’s kind of noise or avenues that I know that I’m not going to scale right now.

Kristen Knapp (23:02)
Right, right, well I think this has been such great advice. Where can people find you?

Santiago Martinez (23:06)
Yeah, so I do a lot of Instagram. So, you know, Instagram is pretty good source. It’s smartinas74kg. Still have my kind of like wrestling piece to it right there. I know one of the things that’s helped a lot is we use a good chunk of private moneylenders. And a lot of times, like it’s been a really good avenue to understand real estate and get started on it. So we actually have a kind of like a little playbook as to how to get started from

Kristen Knapp (23:17)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Santiago Martinez (23:34)
having zero experience on private money lending into feeling pretty comfortable and confident. So if anybody is interested, kind of DM me lender on Instagram and I’m happy to kind of pass that over to them.

Kristen Knapp (23:39)
Thank you.

Oh, that’s amazing. Thank you so much for offering that. Well, thank you so much for being here. And I encourage everyone to take Santiago up on all of those things because he has so much to offer. And yes, thank you so much and we’ll see everyone next time. All

Santiago Martinez (23:49)
course.

Thank you, Kristen.