How Alexander Virelles Built a Wholesaling Empire After Losing It All

Alex Virelles (00:00)
Never give up you know if you fall off the horse like they say keep get keep getting on it cuz you know there’s been times in the ups and downs where you want to give up but I’d say every time I go through like a valley like the peak is higher than before so it’s kind of like this you know because I keep on doing it like I just don’t give up I’ve had like even my own mom has said you know

it’s bad, why don’t you get a job back in the day and say no, you know, I’m gonna keep doing it, figure it out and just stick to it. And sometimes you gotta adjust like the market changes, you gotta make adjustments. And that’s my advice is just perseverance, you know?

Erika Proctor (02:17)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Real Estate Pro Show. I’m your host, Erika, and today I’m pumped to be chatting with Alex Virelles, a powerhouse in real estate and investing. Alex, it’s so awesome to have you on the show today.

Alex Virelles (02:31)
Thanks for having me, Erika.

Erika Proctor (02:33)
So Alex, give us the rundown for those who don’t know your story. How did you get started in real estate and investing?

Alex Virelles (02:40)
Sure, so when I graduated from University of Miami in 2003, the refinancing and the mortgage market was blowing up. Everybody was refinancing their houses. Everybody had like an 8-9 % at the time and there was like a 5 % available mortgage. So everyone was kind of like pushing towards the loan stuff. I was in the school of business so I got into mortgages. I worked as a loan officer. It was my first job.

And I did pretty well like within the year or two I was one of the top producers and then I became the top producer. So I said, you know what, I don’t want to work for anyone anymore. I want to start my own mortgage company. I did that in about 05. From 05 to 08 I did really well.

properties because back then you could basically get 100 % financing on anything. It was super easy if you had good credit. There was stated loans. As you know, that’s what kind of caused the bubble to crash is that they were lending ridiculous to anybody without properly vetting them. So I kind of took advantage in a way. bought a bunch of properties. ⁓ But long story short, ⁓ know, it happened.

10 properties at the time and it was a nightmare you know basically the tenants stopped paying the mortgage just kind of stopped like you know you couldn’t do 100 % financing anymore you can only do 80 so that killed my business ⁓ I pretty much lost everything in 2008-2009

And so I had, I didn’t know what to do, right? I kind of had to reinvent myself. So I said, well, what’s kind of economy proof. I did insurance property and casualty. started an insurance agency. hated that. I was kind of love real estate. I was kind of waiting to jump back in. And it’s funny actually, when I was short selling and losing my properties to the bank, uh, like in 2010 around there, I saw that somebody bought one of my properties for 50,000 and sold it for a hundred on the same

And I was so curious. like, I actually called a seller and I was like, how did you, how did you buy my property and then sell it the same day for $50,000 profit? He’s like, Oh, it’s called wholesaling. Oh, that kind of intrigued me. Right. I was like, well, I want to learn. He kind of suggested that I go to some seminar. Can’t remember who it was actually, but back then I went, so I went, I paid for the course. I learned how to do it. It was very expensive by the way. I think I paid like $5,000.

And I did my first deal, I made $15,000 while was doing insurance, right? And I was like, okay, this is a lot less work and a lot more money than insurance. So I immediately put my insurance agency for sale and I was like, I wanna get back into real estate full-time. This was like 2011. And I sold my insurance agency, started real estate brokerage based on investment. like, you know.

Agents I kind of trained them to be like mini investors right how to find deals how to analyze them And that’s kind of like my business model So I got back in fully once I learned how to wholesale I did one I just started learning it, you know trial and error obviously made some mistakes along the way, but Like 2015 I was 14. I was doing really well a friend of mine suggested I should write a book. So I did I wrote this book It’s called the art of wholesaling properties

explains it and basically back then like everyone was charging 15 20 grand to learn I said you know I’m gonna put out a book where like people gonna actually learn how to do it and I have to pay an arm and a leg you know so that’s one of the motivating factors I want to write a book so that like the information was accessible without having to thousands of dollars so I wrote the book I was in 2015 and then

You know, I’ve been investing myself since then trying to build my agent base. I do fix and flips. I got an air and V property and still doing it. market’s kind of shifting right now. So it’s been a little challenging the last couple of years, but I’m trying to get through it here. Trying to get back, uh, back on the horse again.

Erika Proctor (07:47)
Yeah, that is a really interesting journey. With all that experience that you’ve had, what’s one lesson from your early days that still shapes how you operate today?

Alex Virelles (07:59)
say is like never give up you know if you fall off the horse like they say keep get keep getting on it cuz you know there’s been times in the ups and downs where you want to give up but I’d say every time I go through like a valley like the peak is higher than before so it’s kind of like this you know because I keep on doing it like I just don’t give up I’ve had like even my own mom has said you know

it’s bad, why don’t you get a job back in the day and say no, you know, I’m gonna keep doing it, figure it out and just stick to it. And sometimes you gotta adjust like the market changes, you gotta make adjustments. And that’s my advice is just perseverance, you know?

Erika Proctor (08:45)
Yeah, absolutely. you’ve got a broad playbook going of all the different things that you do. Do you have any advice for people? How do you balance all of that?

Alex Virelles (08:56)
Yeah, I mean you need good people around you like ⁓ definitely you have to leverage yourself So, you know, I’ve had some good agents that have you know helped me find deals which has been key And trying to keep good people, you know, like people that are producing I want to keep them with me because ⁓ the whole turnover thing it’s just it’s it’s draining and ⁓

My thing is if they’re good, want to keep them with me for a long time. So I try to make them happy, make sure that they’re happy working with me and I try to give them opportunities to grow. One of my guys, started off as a bartender, no experience.

He learned the wholesale game, he learned to find properties, and then now he’s flipping properties with me. We’ll do a fix and flip together. I give people opportunity to grow. And I think that’s helped me is just having good people around me and learning how to keep them. Because yeah, like you said, it’s a lot. can’t do it all by myself. So ⁓ I just try to treat people right.

Erika Proctor (10:38)
Absolutely. Alex, which markets are you targeting and how do you pick them out?

Alex Virelles (10:45)
Good question. I like to, um, mainly I live in South Florida, right? Um, I obviously know it very well because I’ve been here so long. So I’m very familiar with the markets. Miami-Dade, Broward County, Palm Beach County, it’s Southeast Florida, if you’re not familiar. Um, but how do I pick the markets? Well,

I like to target number one what I know, but like for wholesaling, I like to look at where there’s a lot of cash sales. So another good wholesale market is Deval County, which is like up by Jacksonville, Florida. And it’s because there’s a lot of cash sales. Another one is St. Petersburg. And we kind of do that based on just the amount of cash transactions that go on.

I like search the data to find where the most cash sales are and I focus on those specific little areas. like for instance, within Broward County, West Park, Florida and Hollywood have a lot of cash sales. They’re kind of in the mid to low income range, which is like where we traditionally do more business. So this is when you get to in the too high end area.

less buyers, there’s less movement and like in the wholesaling stuff I like to be able to get in and out and even in fix and flips I don’t want to buy some crazy luxury property that takes me a year to sell it. So like we like to get in the middle to low income range because whether wholesaling or flipping like we want to get in and out quickly. So the place with the most buyers and with the most turnover and most cash buyers that’s where I like to target.

Erika Proctor (12:24)
Alex, let’s zoom in on your wholesaling expertise. For our listeners who are new to it, what’s one thing that they need the nails to succeed when it comes to finding and flipping those deals?

Alex Virelles (12:36)
say ⁓ you got to find motivated sellers so you got to do what it takes to find the people that are very motivated to get the deal at a good price because remember when you’re wholesaling you’re mainly selling it to investors so they want a good deal so you got to get it at a good price so then resell it at a good price so you have to you know make sure that the people you’re targeting ⁓

So like, for instance, we, one of them we target is just people that have been served with a foreclosure in the last six months. We target people that are late on their taxes. We target people that probate is a good one, meaning like they inherited a property and they didn’t, there was no will, so they kind of don’t know what to do. And we.

seller go through the appropriate process so that they can sell it. So I have attorneys that help me with those. Again, that’s part of my team, So yeah, would say that like targeting motivated sellers is the key because if you can get the motivation, then you can get the deal at the right price. So that’s the key is motivation.

Erika Proctor (13:47)
Yeah, awesome. Let’s talk a bit more about your brokerage exclusive premier realty. What would you say about your brokerage stands out from others?

Alex Virelles (13:57)
Sure, that’s a good question. like we do number one for traditional real estate, we do 100 % firm. So let’s say they’re just listing a property or helping a buyer. All we charge the agent is 299 plus 395 that they charge the buyer seller and that’s it. So like these big companies like KAIS, Cobble Banker, you know.

they’ll take like 20 % of your commission right off the top. So I have a hundred percent firm plus with my brokerage, they get access to these properties. like the wholesale deals that I get under contract, my agents can market them and these aren’t on the MLS. So they’re attractive to investors because they’re, they’re what’s called off market properties where they’re not on anywhere online. So they’re kind of like, you know,

They’re very attractive because you’re not competing with 100 other buyers for them. So my agents can basically advertise these exclusive properties and they can mark up the price and make money on them. And I offer, actually one of the things I do, ⁓

sets me apart is I’ll offer a 50-50 split on the wholesale property. So for instance, let’s say we get a house at $300,000 and we assign the contract for $50,000 and we make $350,000. That $50,000 I’ll split with my agent, $50,000- $50,000. So obviously that’s a big plus for them. know, when agents are used to making just let’s say 3%, now you’re making $25,000 on a $300,000, you know, that’s like, you know, 10 % of the So…

Erika Proctor (16:15)
That’s awesome. And you personally have experience with fix and flips and Airbnb’s. How do you decide when a property is better suited for a quick flip versus turning it into a short term rental?

Alex Virelles (16:29)
good question. So I’ll look at a few things like with the if it’s a if so short-term rentals to typically do better in like

of like high vacation spots like close to the beach or close to like theme parks. So if like the area isn’t in somewhere like that where it’s like let’s say 10 to 15 minutes from the beach and you can get at an affordable price and you know your return is I would say at least 10 percent like you got to look at the numbers right like what are they more or less you go on Airbnb for instance see what they’re going for per night.

do your numbers. I’d usually calculate like 20 out of the 30 days filled, right? So let’s say it’s, just to make it simple, $100 a night. You calculate, you know, 100 times 20, 2000 bucks is what you’re gonna get. So you gotta make sure that…

You’re covering all your expenses and making a profit. So if it’s 2,000 in expenses more or less, you want to make sure that you’re at about 1,000 bucks. I’m sorry, if it’s 2,000 in income, you want to make sure you’re about 1,000 bucks in expenses so it’s profitable. So yeah, if it’s in an area that’s close to the beach or close to like, you know.

theme park or where there’s a lot of conventions and stuff like that, those are good. then where you need to make sure that the monthly, the nightly rate is enough to where it’s profitable. So if it is, then we’ll consider doing that. If it seems like a better flip area where there’s a lot of turnover, like they’re not really staying on the market that long, they’re selling, let’s say, within 30 days or less, then that’s a great flip area. ⁓

So that’s kind what we look at. The days that it takes to sell a property versus like, all right, is this like close to the beach or close to some sort of like central area that people are going to want to visit.

Erika Proctor (18:39)
That’s really helpful. Alex, with a lot of time in this game, you’ve probably seen it all. Can you share a moment where a deal went completely off the rails or maybe you had the pivot fast? What happened and how did you pull through?

Alex Virelles (18:54)
That’s a good question. I got a lot of bad, I have a lot of nightmares. ⁓ I’ll tell you one. So one was a wholesale deal. It was a short sale. The guy was about to lose it to foreclosure. Like the sale date was like in two weeks. we, you know, the guy that was living there, he had agreed to move out, but come closing time, he’s like, I’m not going anywhere. We’re like, ⁓ you gotta leave, man.

to prime me out of my house. The guy got very like…

So like as we’re helping the guy with the U-Haul, this happens. In other words, like he had no help. So actually me and a couple of guys went to the home and started helping the guy unpack. He’s like, you know what? I’m not going anywhere. So we had to figure out like, all right, what are we going to do with this guy? Long story short, we had to basically pay for his first, last and deposit at a rental. ⁓

It’s called cash for keys because he started saying that he didn’t have money to move now and that the numbers were a lot worse than he thought and he wasn’t leaving anywhere. So how do do it? ⁓ My partner and I had to basically come up with his first last insecurity to move

you there was still enough profit on the deal where like paying the $5,000 or whatever it was, was like still profitable. But that was one thing. I’ve had a bunch. I mean, I’ve had ones where there’s like, just that same scenario with squatters. They don’t want to leave. You got to pay them to leave. And usually it’s, it’s a resolve with money. Everything is usually resolved with money. Um,

But yeah, that was the worst one because that guy got like physical and he like seemed like he wanted to fight everybody. So, but yeah, that was probably the worst one off the top of my head. I’ve had, you know, hoarders that like stack stuff from the floor all the way to the roof. And it’s like very expensive to get that stuff out. And sometimes you’re an buyer will be like, I’ve had it happen. We’re like, we don’t want to buy with all that stuff in there. Like you’re going to have to take care of that. So we’ve had to pay cleaning people and you know.

It can be expensive, yeah, those are like the two main things. Hoarders and like just people that don’t want to leave, you know?

Erika Proctor (21:23)
Alex, I want to go back to something that you had said earlier, that you were talking about how important it is to have the right team. What kind of advice would you give someone that’s new to the industry and they’re looking to build a team or maybe they’re just looking for the right connections to make in real estate to level up?

Alex Virelles (21:44)
Yeah, I would say ⁓ when you’re building a team, find people that are quick learners, that are hungry. ⁓

I’ve had successful single moms. They’re motivated. Somebody that just kind of lost their job. ⁓ But I like to hire people too that maybe have a little savings too. If they’re like, let’s say in dire straits where they really have no money to turn the light bill on, can be, those are tougher. So yeah, I want to find people that are motivated.

Maybe that they have a little savings. People that are self-sufficient, that they, you can show them something once and they’re gonna kind of figure things out so you don’t have to hold their hand the whole way. People that are loyal, that stick around. So those are kind of my main things. People that don’t give up too, if they lose a couple deals, they’re not gonna.

they’re gonna get back on it and try to get the next one and they’re gonna be resilient. So those are the type of people I like to align myself with.

Erika Proctor (23:00)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And then Alex, what would you say is next on the horizon? What what kind of vision do you have for the future?

Alex Virelles (23:08)
So I want to grow my agent base. I like to get to 100 agents by the end of the year, hopefully. ⁓ Right now I’m at 59. I want to… The flips are a little bit, you know, it’s a little dangerous now because of the market climate here, at least here in South Florida. A lot of the properties aren’t selling.

They’re staying on the market for a while. So I’m actually got stuck with one now. I haven’t been able to sell it and it’s been like eight months. So I’m actually trying to be careful with the flips. But I think in 2026, I’m hoping that we’re going to get someone that drops the rates to kind of get the market going again. And in 2026, I want to start doing flips, you know, two to three a month is my goal.

I want to try to get to 100 agents by the end of this year. And that’s kind of my goal for now.

Erika Proctor (24:04)
Awesome Alex, before we let you go, if someone wants to connect with you, learn about wholesaling, join your realty, or maybe explore those off-market deals, what’s the best way for them to reach you?

Alex Virelles (24:16)
Sure, ⁓ my Instagram is @investwithalexv. So that’s invest with Alex and then the letter V like Victor. And you can go to my website for the brokerage: exclusivepremierrealty.com. That’s premier, it’s spelled P-R-E-M-I-E-R, because there’s two premieres, so that’s P-R-E-M-I-E-R, realty.com.

Yeah, I mean either of those places you can pretty much find all the information you need. Even my book is on the website as well, exclusiveprimaryreality.com.

Erika Proctor (24:51)
Awesome. Alex, it’s been a pleasure hearing your story and I know our listeners got a ton of value from this.

For everyone tuning in, if you love this episode, make sure that you’re subscribed to The Real Estate Pro Show. We’ve got more conversations coming up with operators like Alex who are shaking things up in the real estate world. We’ll see you on the next episode.