Subscribe via:
Show Summary
In this conversation, Harmat Gehlon shares his journey in the real estate industry, detailing his transition from a marketing background to becoming a successful real estate investor and developer. He discusses the challenges of operating in the California market, the importance of hands-on experience, and the value of building a reliable team. Harmat emphasizes the need for persistence and execution in business, offering insights for new investors and outlining his future plans for unique property developments.
Resources and Links from this show:
-
Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode
Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Harmat Gehlon (00:00)
a couple of… ⁓newbies, you know, and we were doing a house where ⁓ one of the investors sold like four or five house in the whole cul-de-sac. And one of the individuals was, it was his first time. And like the contractor really ran him out of money and he had no portfolio. He had no job. He just wanted to be an investor. He got money on credit cards.
got into the deal and he had zero clue what construction is, you know?
Quentin Edmonds (02:10)
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 today. And I’m excited about my guest. He has a unique lens on his processing, his way of going about things, his way of learning real estate and learning the trades of what other people do. So yes, he’s an investor, but he has the eye of the tradesman because he’s took 15 years.to make sure that he can understand what the people around him does. And so I’m excited for him. He come from a marketing background. mean, just again, I’m gonna let him tell you everything he do. Again, he has a unique lens and I know this is gonna be a great conversation. So I’m gonna introduce you all to Mr. Harmat. Mr. Harmat, how you doing today, sir?
Harmat Gehlon (02:59)
Good, Quentin. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.Quentin Edmonds (03:02)
Absolutely, man. Thank you so much for being here, And listen, I want to dive right in. I want you to tell the people what your main focus is these days. Give us a little bit of an origin story of how you got into real estate. I think they’re going to love the story from you, And also, tell them what markets you’re operating in. So sir, you have the floor,Harmat Gehlon (03:24)
Yeah. So.We’re operating in central California market. Our outskirts would be San Leandro Hayward to Sacramento to about Fresno market and everything in between. We have some commercial buildings.
do lot of single family homes. And this is nothing that I was over time kind of grew into a business venture of its own. so California is the main market and ⁓ how I got my start on it is how I got into business. ⁓ I became ⁓ the youngest subway franchisee. I was in restaurant, you know, and I was working at a
place back in from 2001 until 2004. And I ended up doing a seller finance with the gentleman that I was working with, an uncle of a friend. And so my main focus was marketing. I love working with brands. And when it came time to have a first job, everybody goes towards some fast foods and whatnot. And I decided to go.
towards this route, I had an easy end and I actually became the youngest ⁓ franchisee with the system. I have something here I wanted to like actually show you. So this was an article back in, you know, ⁓ our newspaper that came
so one thing led to another. What happened was right after getting the location, we had to remodel the place and
Prior to that, I had no idea of a nut or a screw or anything to do with construction or remodeling, you know, so Going through the channels of getting a permit finding contractors at age 18, you know, it was quite already being in business and you know ⁓ Understanding that operation but then you know doing the whole construction aspect and the location came out really pretty after the remodel
And that was my first, ⁓ you know, getting in knowing how the whole process of real construction works, right? And I liked it. then, you know, years kind of passed long and we were in college and I had a couple of friends who were in real estate.
And a few years down the road in 2008, you know, a couple of my real estate friends were like, oh, you got to get this house. You got to get this house. They, were the ones doing this and they got me in and I was like, I’m, in business. You know, I developed like restaurants and stuff and this, this is not my game, but literally got pushed into one and, uh, you know, three, four years pass and, uh, just saw the equity kind of grow up on it. And, uh, yeah, so that’s where it kind of started.
And ⁓ being in the Indian community, what led next was I had a lot of people reach out, you know, ⁓ because I did that remodel and they started asking like, can you help us with our house? Or, know, can you do this for us? And I was like, yeah, you know, actually I did hire some contractors, some contracts and whatnot. And ⁓ we did a restroom, a restroom remodel for one family prior to them selling the house.
And this was just like an owner build and I was just kind of being, you know, the visionary behind it. And then just one after the next, they just kept approaching me in a word kind of spread, you’re, this looks nice. ⁓ you know, he did it. So, ⁓ one thing to the next. And I took that as an opportunity to just kind of learn, you know, learn every aspect about, you know, the tools, the equipment and the material, you know,
So it exposed me to quite a bit. yeah, then just we started investing in house after house. And here we are 20 years down the road.
Quentin Edmonds (08:28)
Yeah, no, I love it, man. Thank you for taking me through the journey. Thank you for telling me how you led up to where you are now, man. Fascinating, of course. You’re unique. Your lens is unique. And so I love it, man. I have a saying where I say destiny has no wasted moments. And that sounds like, you know, that applies to you that as you went along in your life, every destination, every stop, you learned skills that prepared you for where you are and who you are now. Right.And so I want to pick a little bit, man, what if you could give a language to what moments destiny has had on you? How would you give it language? Did it build discipline? Did it build resilience? Did it build, you know, consistency? Like what language would you give it to to what what makes you who you are today?
Harmat Gehlon (09:19)
Persistence, not giving up. Like definitely. mean, business is tough. Business in California is super tough. ⁓ you know, roadblocks just are constant apparent. ⁓ just going through the hurdles, whether it’s, you know, getting stuck in permits and whether it’s, you know, we’ve had issues where, you know, contractors or subs don’t show up, they leave and…You know, you still have payments going out and so Just being able to work through all those challenges in past, you know 15 20 years Now is a time where you know We we’ve done it all kind of
Next Project is like bulletproof like we are total hands-on everything and
It makes you proud. I’m glad I went through those challenges. ⁓ Every challenge that we dealt with is one less to be have had in the next chapter.
Quentin Edmonds (10:59)
Yeah. Nope. Again, destiny has no wasted moments. Right. And I love how you said that like one challenge that you conquer then is like, listen, we know how to do that. That’s checked off the list. You know, I am. And so I, you know what saying? So I love it. I say, and not that you mentioned failure, but I do say failure is fertilizer, right? The things that you have to overcome is just fertilizer for growth. That’s all it is. You know? And soI absolutely love it, man. And so what is your next real goal? What are you looking to solve or scale next?
Harmat Gehlon (11:38)
We have a few projects that we’re working on, know, along with managing a rental portfolio for quite some time. ⁓ One of the things that we’re working on is we have a few ⁓ oceanfront properties that we plan on develop. And then there’s a project called Point Skyfall that we’re working on. It’s ⁓ very beautiful property up in ⁓ Mariposa County. And it used to be an old gold mine.and we have a development project there. It’s about 55 acres. It’s got a lot of deer on the property and it has a creek, a spring hole. So we’re creating sort of like an Airbnb and a farm resort lifestyle experience. That location is surrounded by like 13, 14 different lakes and then on its way to Yosemite National Park. So this was an acquisition that, you know,
we’ve worked towards for about like three years and we’re able to finally acquire the property in 2021. And so that’s the next big chapter. You know, we get to bring our marketing, our construction and you know, the whole understanding of and mix it together in the one place.
Quentin Edmonds (12:44)
Yeah.Yeah, I love it, man. Now, listen, Hermette, you keep saying we, man. You said we. We said we. So I want to know, of course, about relationships, right? The relationship with we. But also, what are relationships important to you? it important to build healthy business relationships? What is your, you know, relationship style? How do you build relationships? Talk to me a little bit about relationships, man.
Harmat Gehlon (13:26)
So when I say we, you I do a company and you know, these aren’t like equity partners or anybody but ⁓ my team, you know, I have ⁓ over the, you know, many years hard help is hard to find. And as of right now, I have about seven individuals. I have master framers, plumbers and you know, just techs and you know,this team, what motivates me as of right now to move forward to acquire a place and fix it is ⁓ a lot of these people were just kind of in and out of projects, and these people could have been forgotten, right? But after each project, and every project is a learning experience, I try to give as much work out as I possibly can. And you add a new team member every now and then. ⁓
This team has been with me around for about a decade now. A couple of new people added a few years ago. So I know the decisions that I make affect them because they decided to leave what they were doing and join me. even though I’m the one making decision, it’s my portfolio, but ⁓ everybody’s bread and butter involved in here. So I can’t make a decision that would fall it apart.
And I like the fact that what I do, like we just got done doing, you know, ⁓ two projects, you know, and,
about a mil and about 700 K each. Right. And, ⁓ then in December I called, we could have picked another one, but then I was like, no, we’re done. You know, we’re just going to enjoy holidays and you know, we’ll regroup in January. And so we’re eyeing another property that we’re going to acquire. And I don’t have to do that. Right. I already got my hands full.
managing all the we do as of right now, but ⁓ I gotta keep my team moving. a lot of what I do now is to, know, all right, well, you know, we’re getting, and lot of people, you know, in this field are just, you know, overwhelming themselves. And we do like one house every three months or so. That’s, we do three houses a year. Everybody’s good and great. And, know, that’s where we just kind of keep it.
Quentin Edmonds (16:30)
I love it, man. I love it. Listen, Harmat, is there any topic that I have not brought up that you want to talk about? ⁓ Is there any words of education, inspiration, motivation that you feel like you want to leave to the listeners that’s listening? If it is, man, like again, a topic you want to bring up or some kind of motivation, education, inspiration that you want to leave, I want to hear it,Harmat Gehlon (17:01)
⁓ Well, let’s, you know, like I said, my background is been in marketing, you know, and I learned a lot about business in marketing. I’ve worked in launching movies. I’ve worked with Silicon Valley in app development, launch products and worked a lot with, you know, media over in Hollywood. ⁓ Real estate, like I said, always was just kind of like a side thing, you know, and Iwas acquiring the properties that we were acquiring were, you know, would come through a few friends who are in real estate and they’re like, hey, you know, this good deal, like, let’s get it. And over the years, it kind of grew on social media, because I’m very, you know, in touch with social media, I’m still, you know, work with a lot of marketing clients. ⁓ There’s just a lot of, you know, ⁓
influencers out there who are constantly like, get into, you know, flipping homes and this master class and that master class. I just want to, you know, guide some people because if I have myself ran into problems and I’m somebody who can read plans, you know, I work with engineers developing and designing my own, ⁓ you know, small plazas and everything. So just, you know, people got to be careful because
there now there’s lenders who will just hand you the money you got to deal and you know then you know what we don’t know what to do with what you’re getting into and you could lose it you know if you’re not budgeting right if you’re not getting the contractors right and as we touched earlier that’s where I see my ⁓ you know ⁓ strength like it for me to be getting away from the computer dealing with the AI the tech the marketing side I find okay I need time off
I’m gonna go build a few walls and put some mud on the drywall. That is like my relax time, right? So ⁓ I have a whole tool chest of devolved tools and I’m able to do like even when my guys can’t make it, things are still moving along. Because what I have seen along this line of question is
a couple of… ⁓
newbies, you know, and we were doing a house where ⁓ one of the investors sold like four or five house in the whole cul-de-sac. And one of the individuals was, it was his first time. And like the contractor really ran him out of money and he had no portfolio. He had no job. He just wanted to be an investor. He got money on credit cards.
got into the deal and he had zero clue what construction is, you know?
And so ⁓ we actually helped him out because we were right across the street doing stuff and we’re like, well, what is the biggest challenge that you need to handle right now? He didn’t know where to get countertops. He didn’t know where to get cabinets. So we were pointing him out like, go get it here. We’ll send the guy over. You you pay him. We’ll get
take care of this, kind of stuff. So ⁓ is a wealth creator if you know what you’re doing, it can ruin you in your first deal if you are not. ⁓ Don’t let money and greed.
kind of roll you into the.
Quentin Edmonds (20:45)
Yeah.Harmat Gehlon (20:46)
something to think about.Quentin Edmonds (20:49)
Absolutely, Well, listen, sir, I want to thank you, man, for being here. But before I even just give you your flowers, let’s do this. 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,Harmat Gehlon (21:08)
Yeah, so we have our marketing site, salientbrands.com, and we post most of our projects there. ⁓ One of the prominent ones that we’re working on, the Point Skyfall is also there. ⁓ so salientbrands.com, it’s a marketing term, ⁓ brand salience, you know, working with the unique and ⁓ brands that have the most salient features. That’s one way to get ahold of it.Quentin Edmonds (21:39)
I love it. So man, first, let me say thank you. Thank you for your time because time is definitely a precious commodity. That’s our most precious asset. If you ask me, we leverage time all the time. So time is, you know, our precious commodity. So thank you for your time. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your story. I put a high premium on stories. Stories matter. Kobe Bryant, before he passed away, said nothing in this world moves without story. So man, thank you so much for your story.And lastly, thank you for your mindset, your perspective. And thank you for bringing that mindset to this platform. I appreciate you, man.
Harmat Gehlon (22:18)
Thank you. Thank you, Edmonds. Appreciate you having me here.Quentin Edmonds (22:22)
Absolutely, man. listen, y’all heard Mr. Harmat. You can’t tell me he didn’t get the value. You heard him tell a story. You’ve seen things through his lens, a unique perspective. So you got the value. So definitely check him out. But definitely make sure you are subscribed here. Keep telling you, we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people, just like Mr. Harmat. So sir, thank you again. And to everyone else, we’ll see you on the next time.
