How Josh Mentesana Turns Raw Land Into Luxury Ranch Developments in Arizona

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Show Summary

In this episode, Josh Mentesana shares his journey from construction trades to land development and real estate investing in Arizona. He discusses the importance of intuition, building relationships, and leveraging finance principles to succeed in real estate.

Resources and Links from this show:

• • • Investor Fuel Real Estate Mastermind
    • Investor Machine Real Estate Lead Generation
    • Mike on Facebook
    • Mike on Instagram
    • Mike on LinkedIn
    • Josh Mentesana on Instagram
    • Josh Mentesana’s Phone Number: (520) 262-6860

  Listen to the Audio Version of this Episode

  Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

  Josh Mentesana (00:00)
  when I started educating myself, one of my coaches said something to me that just completely changed the way I saw everything. And he said, real estate is the clothing that finance wears. If you can learn and study finance, you can apply it to any real estate product. But that’s also, you know, cars, motorcycles, boats, right? It’s all relative.

  Scott Bursey (01:54)
  Hi everybody and welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m your host, Scott Bursey, and today I’m joined by someone I’ve really been looking forward to chatting with, Josh Mentesana.

  Josh is a leading figure in Arizona’s land development and luxury ranch market. He’s built a reputation for turning raw land into massive scale development and hold strategies with a deep background in construction and a current role on the Santa Cruz County Planning and Zoning Commission. Josh brings a rare 360 degree view of the real estate industry that most investors only dream of. Josh, welcome to the show, man.

  Thank

  Josh Mentesana (02:32)
  Thank you. Thank you for having me.

  Scott Bursey (02:33)
  I think our audience is really going to take something away from your unique perspective as both a developer and a zoning commissioner. Seeing the chessboard from both sides is a massive advantage that most investors never get to witness. Let’s dive in, shall we?

  Josh Mentesana (02:49)
  Go for it.

  Scott Bursey (02:50)
  So first off, for people who may not be familiar with your world, give us the short version. What’s your main focus these days?

  Josh Mentesana (02:58)
  Well, I’ll just give you a quick 10,000 foot view. I currently reside in Sonoda, Arizona, population 800. I can honestly say that we have more cows than people here in my town. We’re a historic ranching community, but we also have a growing and robust wine industry that is now receiving national recognition.

  Scott Bursey (03:18)
  Awesome. Awesome. And what markets are you operating in?

  Josh Mentesana (03:22)
  I’m operating in the entire state of Arizona. Primarily my office is in Sanoita. We’re about 35 minutes south of Tucson. But we basically work anything from the southern border up to the Flagstaff area.

  Scott Bursey (03:37)
  Nice. Interested to know, Josh, what was the specific leading indicator that made you plant a flag there? Was it job growth, landlord friendly laws, or just where the margins were best?

  Josh Mentesana (03:50)
  That’s a great question and honestly it has nothing to do with any of that. It was, I was driving from the airport to my parents house who just newly built a home in Southern Arizona and I decided to take a back country highway and there’s a spot on the road where you just come over the mountainside and you just kind of feel like you’re in a completely different world. And that moment something spoke to me and I knew this is where I needed to be.

  I didn’t know anything about the community, the people, the job growth, but my gut, my intuition was saying, this is the place for you. So I decided, and that was roughly around 2018, that I wasn’t gonna listen to what my head was saying, but I was really gonna start listening to what my gut was telling me. And just to be adventurous and just take it head on and see what happens. And here we are today.

  Scott Bursey (04:46)
  Sure, isn’t it amazing where that road can take a person? What caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to seamlessly transition from the high turnover world of renovations into the complex high stakes arena of land development. Moving from fixing houses to shaping landscapes is a leap most people are afraid to make. That’s not easy, especially in this climate. What’s been the key to keeping that machine running smoothly?

  Josh Mentesana (06:03)
  I’m going to resort back to my prior statement and just saying that this was a passion that’s been inside of me. I have been excited about the opportunity to create something from the ground up and be able to be intentional about every thought and create something romantic and lasting that, you know, my kids and grandkids one day, even if I was to leave this place, can always come back and say, yeah, look, this was, this was a piece of dad, right?

  Scott Bursey (06:09)
  Sure.

  Josh Mentesana (06:32)
  That’s been my major motivator, right? The land development side is brutal. It’s time consuming. There’s applications and applications. There’s state agency review and county review. But I think it really just comes down to that end product and what it looks like and just enjoying the process because it’s not easy as anybody knows in the real estate industry.

  matter what you’re doing, there’s room for growth.

  Scott Bursey (07:07)
  Absolutely, it can be a grind, but that pot of gold is so rewarding. It’s impressive that you’ve reached that level of autonomy, Josh. Was there a specific moment or a particular deal where you realized, okay, hey, this is actually working?

  Josh Mentesana (07:22)
  yeah, I would say, you know, when I came out here in 2018, I chose to get licensed in January, 2019. you know, I hit the ground running and I became a student, of real estate and I didn’t want to just get a real estate license and become a broker just to, you know, just to help, you know, buyers and sellers. I really wanted to master.

  all aspects of how this real estate game is played. And

  when I started educating myself, one of my coaches said something to me that just completely changed the way I saw everything. And he said, real estate is the clothing that finance wears. If you can learn and study finance, you can apply it to any real estate product. But that’s also, you know, cars, motorcycles, boats, right? It’s all relative.

  So we…

  started mastering just how finance works and structuring creative deals. And I think the confidence started to just grow after it wasn’t a specific deal. It was more so in myself knowing, wow, like I can actually do this. These principles do apply. And as you start to see these principles apply in random different deals, it’s like, well, why not?

  right? What’s going to, you know, hold me back other than just myself?

  Scott Bursey (08:41)
  Absolutely. And that confidence just continues to climb. Now Josh, every operator I know has a moment where things got real. Maybe a deal that went sideways or a time they’ve had to pivot fast. You mind sharing one of those with us?

  Josh Mentesana (08:57)
  Yeah, you know, it’s funny you say that you always make the most money on deals you never close on. Right. And I think at the moment, you know, because you’re so passionate and focused on the underwriting and when it kind of the rug gets pulled from underneath you, you realize, you know, it’s frustrating, but hindsight is 2020. Right. And yeah, there was a there was a fourplex deal that I had under contract and it was kind of

  even before the whole real estate boom and the numbers worked and we were fired up and ready to close. And then it came down to the last two minutes at the closing table where it just imploded, you know? And that’s like the one that got away, right? And I look back on that deal a lot and I’ve dissected what went right, what went wrong. And we tried to study and not make the same mistakes twice.

  Scott Bursey (09:52)
  Absolutely, absolutely. And like you mentioned, when you can take a negative and learn from it and have a trajectory that goes upwards, hey, that’s everything. Looking at your business today, what tripwire or system have you built specifically? So, you know, those sort of things like that misfortune at the table, those last two minutes never happen again.

  Josh Mentesana (10:53)
  More personal engagement. The industry can be really transactional. ⁓ As let’s say a real estate broker who operates a brokerage, we represent our buyer, we represent our seller, and there’s a separation between the two. And I feel like if we were able to get to know our clients really well and be able to communicate

  you know, our, the character of our clients and their heart behind, you know, what they’re doing. It humanizes all of us, right? Because we’re so quick to just think the worst or go negative. So I believe that just more involvement on a personal level and just getting to know people before even committing to a deal, right? And we want to know why are we in this deal together? And is it a win-win for both of us, right?

  And afterwards, you know, are we going to be able to maintain a relationship? You know, or is this just transactional? And I find that most of those deals actually you end up obtaining a relationship with people where it’s, you know, I’ve bought properties from clients and then I help them buy their personal home. And then they’re at my home six months later, eating lunch with my wife and kid and having a glass of wine. Right. Just we’re all real and human. So.

  Scott Bursey (12:14)
  Absolutely. Yeah, the default level of communication. Hey, that makes a lot of sense. And that’s the kind of stuff people don’t talk about enough. And Josh, honestly, it’s what separates the folks, I believe, who just dabble from the ones who just dabble in the game from those that stay in the game long term. Let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next?

  Josh Mentesana (12:14)
  personalizing the whole transaction, yeah.

  Right now, I think it would be understanding this learning curve of AI. You know, I’m one of the older millennials where I, you know, I remember when we didn’t have internet and pagers and now being able to implement these types of automated systems into my business and with the hope and desire to be able to scale to another state.

  The whole reason why I even launched my business was initially just to find freedom in real estate so that I can spend more time with my family. So I’d say right now it’s understanding the new implementations of AI and then also being able to manage assets from another state so that we can scale and grow where we want to be.

  Scott Bursey (13:32)
  Absolutely. It’s a unique world and a world that has a lot of question marks. Josh, what’s the next real goal for you?

  Josh Mentesana (13:39)
  The next real goal for me would be to liquidate some of our portfolio here in Arizona and transition to the Florida market. I lived in Florida for 15 plus years. I’m very familiar with it out there. I want to spend more time out in that area. So it would be just transitioning to some other Florida assets so that we have the luxury of bouncing back and forth.

  Scott Bursey (14:06)
  It’s awesome. I’m pleased to hear that. Versatility. We see people chase doors, Josh, or revenue all the time. For you, is that goal, is it a goal or is it a destination? Or is it just, you know, that fuel that allows you to do something even bigger?

  Josh Mentesana (15:08)
  No, I’m not chasing doors or I’m not chasing revenue. mean, we have revenue goals, right? But those goals are specific towards family autonomy, right? It’s like, well, we can be more autonomous if we reach these financial goals. Our goals is really ultimately, like I said, it just comes down to the flexibility and freedom within this game we call real estate. Because if I was to be…

  data and number driven. It’s actually pretty easy to do, right? Make X amount of calls, talk to X amount of people, write X amount of contracts, potentially make this much money, but you become a robot and you get burnt out.

  Scott Bursey (15:45)
  Well explained. Hey, and I couldn’t agree more. That was very well set. Now that next move, maybe transitioning to Florida, you know, can.

  either compound things or create chaos depending on how you play it. Now, I know a lot of our audiences either earlier in their journey or looking to level up and I think they’d benefit from hearing this. When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

  Josh Mentesana (16:06)
  Thank

  Time to take your time and be yourself, be authentic, you know, try to make people laugh, right? Humanize yourself. I mean, even if your goal and the outcome is to acquire the asset, don’t put that above your identity, you know? Like I said, you make more money on deals you don’t buy.

  Scott Bursey (16:34)
  words of wisdom.

  Isn’t that the truth though?

  It really is. So thank you for that perspective and thank you for sharing that with us. Everyone says provide value, but when you were starting out Josh and didn’t have a huge bank account or a massive portfolio, what was your currency? How did you actually get the attention of the heavy hitters?

  Josh Mentesana (16:40)
  Yeah.

  Yeah, so I actually have a background in the blue collar trades. You know, I function in the construction trades my whole life growing up as a kid. And believe it or not, the gentleman that I met as my first investor was just right at the steps of the courthouse. We just so happened to be from the same state. We knew a lot of the same places. We just connect on a personal level. We went and had lunch and I asked him, you know, what are you doing out here and what are you looking to do? He’s like, well, I’d love to invest out here, but I don’t know anyone.

  Well, hey, nice to meet you. I’m Josh, right? This is what I bring to the table. So I was able to just leverage my construction skills and we formed a 50-50 partnership. He would fund the deal. I did it all from soup to nuts, put it on the market, sell it, and we hit great margins and we have a great relationship today. That’s kind how it’s all worked out.

  Scott Bursey (17:53)
  Relationships are everything in this space. All right, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out, connect with you. Maybe collaborate or learn more about what you’ve been doing. What’s the best way for them to contact you?

  Josh Mentesana (18:05)
  They can give me a call or shoot me a text, phone number 520-262-6860. Also, you can check out the brokerage website, is retailer.com. You can find me on Instagram, josh_mentesana. Yeah, my socials are kind of more about my personal life and my hobbies around pyrotechnics and

  I do that twice a year. you know, that’s kind of why I do the real estate is so that I get to leave twice a year and go have fun and blow stuff up.

  Scott Bursey (18:42)
  Awesome. Well, perfect. In the legal manner. Absolutely. Noted, sir. Well, listen, I appreciate your time, your story, and Josh, your perspective. We need more people in this space who are doing it the right way. Thanks again for being here.

  Josh Mentesana (18:44)
  In a legal way, in a legal way, yes.

  Thanks, Scott, I appreciate you and your time and this opportunity.

  Scott Bursey (19:02)
  and for those of you tuning in. If you got value from this, make sure you’re subscribed. We’ve got more conversations coming up with operators just like Josh who are out there building real businesses. We’ll see you on the next episode, everybody.