How Juan Grimaldo Built a 19-Agent Team in Arizona Real Estate

Juan Grimaldo (00:00)
At the moment it was, now in hindsight, I’m super grateful that he did because the next day I quit, I go to a temp agency. So here I am now, I’m not working at a place where I was doing something that I, it was kind of fun working at the grocery store. But then I was unloading this truck or semi truck loaded with carpet, little rows of ⁓ rugs. And there was about eight of us and we were all unloading. They sent me there for the job.

As I was unloading one of the ⁓ the manager came up and says hey ⁓ who here knows how to do inventory and I raised my hand I do ⁓ Okay, and then another kid did too. So he gave us a clipboard He says you’re gonna do the this half of the warehouse and then the other kid was gonna do the other half So I love working so I went in, know I did my inventory and I should give it to him and when I handed over to him He’s like you’re done. I’m like, yeah He’s like do you to get a job here?

How much are you gonna pay me? So just for perspective, I was making $7 an hour at the other job. I got a $14 an hour job. So from that moment on, I was grateful that he said that because that triggered me to get out of there, right? And make a change. So yes, I quit.

Kristen Knapp (01:02)
Hey, there we go.

Wow, you put the very next day. You really took that advice

and ran with it.

Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m Kristen and I’m here with Juan Grimaldo, who is of the Grimaldo group. He’s in the Phoenix, Arizona metro area. So thank you so much for being here, Juan. Yeah, so let’s go to the beginning. Let’s talk about how you fell in love with real estate and how you got into the industry.

Juan Grimaldo (03:02)
Thank you for having me, it’s a pleasure.

So I had every single job you can imagine. so when I got to the States, I grew up in Mexico. I was born here, but I grew up in Mexico. And so I did everything you can imagine. ⁓ I can summarize it, but I’m just going to go back to when I was 17 years old, I came to the States, got a job, had a beautiful job. I was working at a warehouse and it was a super fun job. And I left it to go to a commission based… ⁓

and I didn’t like it. It was in a gym. So I went and worked at a grocery store. And from the grocery store, ⁓ I had an impactful moment there. I had a little shift with one of my neighbors from back home. His family lived behind my father’s house in Mexico. And I was super excited to see him. I was working at a butcher block, right? He came over to grab some meat and it was a Mexican supermarket.

And this was an I know if you guys know what they’re called, Norgate in California by Santa Ana. And I was working there and I see him and I get super excited. I’m like, hey man, how’s it going? And his answer was something that I wasn’t expecting. He called me of something bad and he says, what are you doing here?

Kristen Knapp (04:10)
Thank

Good.

Juan Grimaldo (04:26)
This job

is not for you. Again, I was about, I think I was 18 years old at that time. And, and I’m like, what do you mean? He’s like, no, he was here legally. And he says, this is for a job like me, for someone like me that doesn’t speak English, doesn’t know anything. You need to quit and get out of here. That was the conversation we had. Can you imagine? Like I, this guy was from like 1500 miles south. I’m super excited to see him. And that was his conversation, which, what’s that?

Kristen Knapp (04:51)
A little deflating, yeah. A little

deflating.

Juan Grimaldo (05:45)
At the moment it was, now in hindsight, I’m super grateful that he did because the next day I quit, I go to a temp agency. So here I am now, I’m not working at a place where I was doing something that I, it was kind of fun working at the grocery store. But then I was unloading this truck or semi truck loaded with carpet, little rows of ⁓ rugs. And there was about eight of us and we were all unloading. They sent me there for the job.

As I was unloading one of the ⁓ the manager came up and says hey ⁓ who here knows how to do inventory and I raised my hand I do ⁓ Okay, and then another kid did too. So he gave us a clipboard He says you’re gonna do the this half of the warehouse and then the other kid was gonna do the other half So I love working so I went in, know I did my inventory and I should give it to him and when I handed over to him He’s like you’re done. I’m like, yeah He’s like do you to get a job here?

How much are you gonna pay me? So just for perspective, I was making $7 an hour at the other job. I got a $14 an hour job. So from that moment on, I was grateful that he said that because that triggered me to get out of there, right? And make a change. So yes, I quit.

Kristen Knapp (06:47)
Hey, there we go.

Wow, you put the very next day. You really took that advice

and ran with it.

Juan Grimaldo (07:04)
It kind of hit me, Like, I mean, what are these people seeing me that I don’t see in me? Right? Because I was your environment determines who, how you react and how you do things. You do what everybody else does. So that was the first thing that I had a job at that company for almost a year. Then I wanted to be an entrepreneur, started doing all kinds of stuff. And then I met my wife proposed and I changed. I’m like, I’m going to leave California because it was fun. was having fun. was young and stupid doing stupid stuff. So.

Kristen Knapp (07:08)
Great.

Juan Grimaldo (07:34)
⁓ So almost 20 years of age, go to Nebraska. So I lived there for a little bit and I get a great job. Because of my background, I got a job at a manufacturing plant. I was a supervisor shortly thereafter and then I married.

When I married we lived there for like three months and then we moved to Arizona because my wife’s like I don’t want to live this little town It was she came from a big city in Mexico We lived in Nebraska, which Lexington is a small little city and there was like 1,500 people in there and it was about two feet of snow and this was her first time explore first experience in the in the States and she’s like I thought the US was a little bit different from what I saw in movies. She’s never been here So I’m like if you don’t like it here, we can go to Arizona. My friend lives there and

He’s doing really well. So we moved here when I got here again, because my brothers, my friends were electricians. I did the same thing. So I worked there. I hated every single moment of it. I did it for a year. And then again, I did all kinds of different jobs after that. I worked at a grocery store. Then I worked around a center, which we rented furniture and stuff, but I learned how to do sales there.

Kristen Knapp (08:30)
Yeah.

Juan Grimaldo (08:46)
⁓ Then when I was working at Renaissance Center, became an assistant manager and ⁓ I was doing my deposits for the store every day at the bank. And one of those days when I was making a deposit, the manager says, Juan, ⁓ we’re looking for people, especially if I think, well, do know anyone that wants to work at a bank? And I’m like, this is a cool gig, me? Really? I said, yeah.

Kristen Knapp (09:07)
you

Juan Grimaldo (09:10)
So he gave me a job. Long story short, they sent me to the bank. I applied, they hired me. The bank was called Bank One and right after Chase Bank bought him out. So my training was for three months and in those three months I fell in love with the industry. I learned how to do loans, investments, and I said this is my world. I’m gonna do this for good because I learned that you can also help people become…

Kristen Knapp (09:20)
Mm.

Juan Grimaldo (09:37)
financially savvy or learn more about the financial world, which I was super ignorant about and all I thought that I could be is a landscaper or work, you know, as a laborer. ⁓ So I worked there for about a year and I bought my first house.

I was struggling, like was really, I was getting paid like $12 an hour. I had to sell tamales on the weekends to make ends meet. So one of the, at some point we went to open accounts at one of my co-workers husband’s job. And when we were there, I asked him, what do do here? He says, well, I’m a truck driver. I said, really? yeah. How much you get paid? He was getting paid $20 an hour.

And I’m like, I’m in the wrong business. I said, all right, how can I get a job here? And he says, well, you need to apply and I’ll help you out. I’ll get you a job, but you got to get your commercial driver license. So I went in, got my driver license. I worked at a garbage company just to get a license because I didn’t have a truck to pass the test. So ⁓ I do the test, I get my license, and then I quit the bank. When I quit the bank, the person who helped me find my first house or who helped me finance it, he was a broker, ⁓ he called me, he’s like, Juan,

I you left the bank. I said, yeah. He’s like, would you like to continue doing loans? Because we were doing loans at the bank, lot of HELOCs, home equity loans, purchases. And I would do everything from A to Z. And I said, what does that look like? So just for perspective, when I was working at the bank, if I did a $200,000 loan, I would get 200 bucks. When he told me how much I could make on the lending side, I’m like, whoa, like 10 times or 20 times more. I said, I’m in.

Kristen Knapp (11:47)
Yeah.

Juan Grimaldo (11:51)
So I started doing loans, working in construction still. I bought my second house and when I bought my second house I’m like I can be a realtor. So yeah, so I went and got my license in 07 and I was doing both until then and then what happened in 2008.

Kristen Knapp (11:58)
I can do this.

Yeah, unfortunately.

Juan Grimaldo (12:09)
market crashed.

So I kept my job. I started helping people do their short sales buying investor properties for investors. And I believe in God and I was praying that I would do this 100 % because I love it but it wasn’t sustainable. mean, the market was terrible. Yet I saw some agents killing it. had one of my friends, we’re still good friends until now. He’s also an agent still. He’s the developer now as well. And he was selling 100 homes a month.

Kristen Knapp (12:25)
All

Juan Grimaldo (12:38)
how do you do that? Well, the banks were giving him properties to list and sell as REOs or real estate owned from the banks. And I became fascinated. So I prayed, I quit three times. And those three times I always kept going back to work because it was hard and it was scary, right? My father always had a job, everybody that I knew had a job. So I didn’t have that role model that would show me that being independent or being a… ⁓

Kristen Knapp (12:52)
Thank

Juan Grimaldo (13:03)
an entrepreneur was possible. again, I believe in God and I was praying to God and then at that point I get fired. It was 2011 and I got the message.

So I go 100 % into real estate and the first year I think I sold like $23,000 in commissions and ⁓ it was little struggle but I was blessed because I lost my two homes like everybody else I lost everything. I was driving a Geo Metro. mean, if you ever watched the movie Fun with Dick and Jane, that was our story. ⁓ And.

So, but then the following year I made 60,000 and 150,000 and 300,000 and half a million and 750. And so my business grew to the point that I needed to create a team. And the first, how I started doing it, using it as a team, one of my clients who I did a short sale for, he was an executive and he was showing up to the office almost every day. do know anyone that’s hiring? And I don’t know if you…

remember that but there was a lot of people unemployed and you know I don’t know anyone I don’t know anyone so he kept going so much that I’m like would you like to be my assistant so I hired him and he was my first assistant I had and then I helped him get his license then he helped me show me homes and then we left the brokerage I was with Century 21 back then and I went to a boutique brokerage where I fell in love with the coaching style of the owner

and we’re still good friends up until this day. That was back in 2014. And then ⁓ my niece moved here and then she got her license and brought her on board. And then she started helping me also with clients and we were growing little by little to the point that we added more people, more people.

And fast forward now, there’s ⁓ 19 agents and three staff members that work behind the scenes helping us with the marketing, transaction coordination.

Kristen Knapp (15:32)
Wow.

Juan Grimaldo (15:39)
daughter here’s the concierge she helps us you know keep the office organized she was working on getting the video set up and all that so it’s really really cool to see what you know what can happen if if you just grind and go all in you know

Kristen Knapp (15:45)
Yeah.

That’s

incredible. I mean when you said you’ve had every job you really meant it. You’ve tried it out.

Juan Grimaldo (16:00)
I can go on, I I have a huge story but

for the sake of time I don’t want to bore you with all that.

Kristen Knapp (16:05)
I mean, that’s incredible. mean, having switched so many industries early on in your career, it must feel really good to have found something that you want to stick with. And you’ve been in this industry now for 20 years.

Juan Grimaldo (16:17)
It’s 18 years, well 20 years altogether in real estate. And one of the things that I would say about having multiple jobs is that it shows you and teaches you a little bit about everything and you can relate with people. Like my father, for example, he worked in the fields. I was young, I was like five years old and we used to go to the field and he would pick strawberries. When I was 11 years old, we went to Mexico. and just my story is I used to sleep on the floor with my parents. ⁓ They… ⁓

they rented a room from a family. So we were really, really poor and I hated that, right? I didn’t like that. And ⁓ my father, that’s what he knew. So he worked in the fields. Most of the people we knew, you know, were farmers. worked, they were laborers. They worked in the fields. And so I can relate with my community because I come from that. Then we went to Mexico. My father retired when I was 11 years old and we lived in Mexico until I was 17 and then came back over here. my neighborhood in Mexico was very poor. So it was…

Kristen Knapp (17:02)
Bye.

Juan Grimaldo (17:13)
It was very good that I lived at it, that I grew up with that because I can appreciate what people don’t really see here and that it breaks my heart when people say that we’re being oppressed and we’re, we live in the best country in the world. And honestly, we have so much opportunity. I’m proof of that.

However, you have to work hard for it. People are waiting for a handout and that’s not the case, but I think There’s all this stuff that I did and that my upbringing helped me understand that you know I have to be a value and have to be I have to contribute and I just take and to me that’s been my my motto and art

Kristen Knapp (17:29)
Yeah.

Juan Grimaldo (17:50)
our business and our culture here with the team is how do we help our community and everybody that’s open to hearing into, we were talking about earlier before we started about investing and we’re doing seminars to show our community, we’re doing for free.

Kristen Knapp (18:03)
anything.

Juan Grimaldo (18:04)
Yeah,

so we’re showing them how to buy their second, third, fourth home and create wealth through home ownership because it’s possible. mean, the bank allows you to borrow 96.5 % and you come in as a partner with 3.5 % and then a few years later you have equity that you can borrow again and they buy another house. And it’s very, very powerful. But not knowing that, it’s super difficult because people have no clue where to start. So more than just being a realtor, I feel like we’re…

Kristen Knapp (18:26)
Great.

Juan Grimaldo (18:33)
not like consultants, right? Like how can we help these people have a better situation? So when the commission conversation comes up, it doesn’t even come up, why? Because we’re providing so much value that it’s a given. Like you’re getting a deal with us, an amazing deal.

Kristen Knapp (18:49)
Yeah, the education is the hardest part. think people, it’s a struggle to find information and sometimes it’s really expensive to hire a coach. So, I mean, that’s incredible. And I think what’s really interesting about your story as you got started in real estate, I think it’s a very realistic story where you started out, you know, $20,000 and you were able to gradually build your business. And I think that’s what a lot of people don’t understand about the industry. A lot of people come into real estate

expecting it to be, you know, go from zero to 100 right away. So what would you say about that?

Juan Grimaldo (19:22)
We just finished the training with the team. I’m all about training and learning and growing. I don’t know if you ever read the book, The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. He’s in San Diego. There’s nothing that happens overnight. Overnight success takes about 10 years. You have to invest in you and you have to grow yourself because you’re going to only be able to grow to the extent of your mindset and your growth.

Kristen Knapp (19:38)
Right.

Juan Grimaldo (19:49)
Some people, let’s for example, if somebody wins the lottery, why do you think they lose their money? They don’t have a millionaire mindset.

Kristen Knapp (19:55)
⁓

yeah.

Juan Grimaldo (19:58)
I mean, if you

don’t know how to become a millionaire, to handle that kind of energy, you’re gonna burn it. Why? Because you’re not a millionaire in your mind. So those people that hope to win the lottery, I hope they don’t because they’re gonna burn it anyways and they’re gonna end up in bad and worse situations because they have no idea how to manage that and how to grow it. Like for example, I’m always broke. ⁓

And I say that in a good way because I buy properties. Like I don’t keep money, I put it to work. And one of the examples that I give to people, especially for those that are gonna come in and join as new agents is you have to start from the beginning, first of all. But if, let’s say I give you a cob of corn, right, and you put it away, what happens?

Kristen Knapp (20:39)
It rocks.

Juan Grimaldo (20:41)
But what if you let

it dry, get the seeds and then plant them? What’s gonna happen? Right? So that’s money and that’s your growth. Like you have to invest every single day. And one of the things is, especially for agents that are gonna start in this business, you have to plant seeds every day and understand that those seeds are not gonna bear fruit immediately.

Kristen Knapp (20:44)
Yeah, gross.

Juan Grimaldo (21:00)
if you plant those seeds, they’re gonna bear fruit in the future and they’re gonna bear much fruit, right? So if you plant a seed, many husks will you get? mean, how many pieces of corn will you get out of it, right? So it works the same way, but it’s not gonna be overnight. Now, can you get lucky and get a few deals right away? Of course.

Kristen Knapp (21:11)
again.

right?

Yeah, take the lucky ones and think that’s the norm, probably. ⁓ Can you talk about maybe a time where things didn’t go right and what you learned from it?

Juan Grimaldo (21:22)
if you don’t want to do it.

There’s many. I ⁓ think we feel forward from Gary Keller. I’m a big ⁓ admirer of him. I had a privilege to have conversation with them a couple of times through masterminds. ⁓ I feel like there’s nothing. I lost my train of thought there. Can you go back? you edit this? question again.

Kristen Knapp (21:55)
Yeah, we can edit it, yeah. ⁓

so the question was, I’ll redo it. So can you talk about a time where maybe things didn’t really go as planned and what you learned from it?

Juan Grimaldo (22:08)
Yes,

so I feel like in any transaction there’s always going to be hurdles, right? And one of the things that you’ll learn too is about feeling forward, right? Like if you from Gary Keller, you fail forward, you don’t just fail and sit down and cry. It’s like, okay, what can I learn from this so I can improve?

And in many transactions people come in, they’re super excited and then all of a sudden they decide not to buy. Why? Because their family member told them that it wasn’t the right thing to do. Well, how are you going to take that? Are you going to be upset about it or are you going to be able to coach them and work? And it’s going to be hard because their family member is their family member and you’re a stranger or maybe they just met you or maybe they know you but you’re not a family member and you they’ve owned two homes even though you’ve sold thousands of homes. They don’t believe you. They believe their family member. So you have to be willful.

to fight the fight, be patient, and be willing to not lose but learn. One more thing is like on the listing side, lately because of the market the way it is, some listings aren’t selling. So it’s okay to walk away from a listing that is not gonna sell, right? That client’s not gonna be happy with you. However, many agents will take the listing just to take the listing because they wanna feel like they gotta win. How is that client gonna feel whenever you didn’t sell that property?

Kristen Knapp (23:00)
right?

Juan Grimaldo (23:27)
Right? So it’s really hard, it’s super uncomfortable, yet you have to be willing to say no and you have to be willing to not lose the battle but choose better battles, right?

Kristen Knapp (23:39)
Yeah,

exactly. And to kind of wrap this up, we’re already getting to the end of our time, but what I’m interested is when you kind of made the leap to go on your own, despite not really having an example of that, what are some mindset tips you have for people who might be scared to go off on their own or think that maybe they can’t do it?

Juan Grimaldo (24:00)
I say get mentorship, like there’s nothing that is gonna replace that. You have to learn from people that have done it. Like for me, it was really, like I had to grind, I had to knock on doors and get slammed on the face because people wouldn’t help me. Like back then they were not opening to collaboration, masterminding, and I feel like maybe I was in the wrong environment. ⁓ One thing that I would say is find coaching, find mentoring, find…

Kristen Knapp (24:13)
No.

Juan Grimaldo (24:27)
Success leaves clues, so find people that have done it and then have them coach you and be part of a team. I have a team, and again, I didn’t build a team to start a business. My team became because of the business we were creating. So I say, get someone that has done it.

get coached and you mentioned earlier that coaching is expensive. I think it’s expensive not having coaching because you’re gonna be able to grow faster by learning from the people that have done it. And I wish I know what I know now, knowing back then I would be in a very different world. I mean, very, very completely different world because I would have.

Kristen Knapp (24:50)
Thank

Juan Grimaldo (25:07)
learn from the people that have made the mistakes that I had to make on my own and it was brutal like I went 2011 till 20 to make a really good living it was like took me like five six years because again you have to invest in yourself until then and and one thing that I would do is go to the trainings go to the seminars read the books

People think that they’re wasting their time by reading or taking trainings. You have no idea how that propels you forward to do the things. I have people that started along with Psy with me and they’re still struggling. Right? And I’ve been able to now I can, I can retire if I wanted to. What am I going to do? Right? But the is, the point is like learn from others that have done it before you and be okay with being a student. I tell my team members, I’m still new.

Kristen Knapp (25:45)
Yeah.

Juan Grimaldo (25:55)
I’m still learning and this is never gonna end until I die. So I say be a student forever and I think that’s gonna take you so far that you have no idea.

Kristen Knapp (26:04)
I think that’s such great advice. You have such a good mindset and outlook on things. I mean, it’s very obvious how you’ve been able to build your business.

Juan Grimaldo (26:13)
And I’m super stubborn. it took me a while and I have a beautiful wife and in every which way. She’s very wise and I’ve been able to be guided by her. I read all kinds of books and she tells me the same thing without even reading the books. And it’s so enlightening and I’m so grateful to God because he provided me with a beautiful wife that allows me to keep me in line and also

Kristen Knapp (26:14)
Hahaha.

Yeah.

Juan Grimaldo (26:39)
Reflect on the stuff that we’re doing because that’s another thing that we sometimes don’t stop and do right we need to Stop and reflect on what’s what’s working and what’s not and be okay with Not letting your ego be in the way and saying well This is how I’ve been doing things at this how they’re gonna be No, like be okay with being a wrong and not only wrong but learning from it, right? Like I don’t think you ever lose you learn or you win

Kristen Knapp (26:52)
you

Yeah. Well, that’s another great piece of advice. If you’re ever stuck, just ask your wife. She probably knows the answer. ⁓

Juan Grimaldo (27:06)
100 % and she does

it she’ll tell me like she sees may sometimes not even have the conversation with her but she’ll be like hey I think you should do this and that on occasion

Kristen Knapp (27:16)
I love that we’ll tell people where to find you.

Juan Grimaldo (27:19)
So we’re on social media the Grimaldo group and we’re also on Instagram same thing the Grimaldo group the Grimaldo group comm online and ⁓ We have a YouTube channel the Grimaldo group same thing and my name is Juan Grimaldo so again you can Google me and find me there and Any anything I can do to help I’m here

Kristen Knapp (27:31)
great consistent.

Amazing. Well, thank you so much for doing this, Juan. It’s been great talking to you. Amazing. And thank you, everybody, for listening. And we will see you back next time. Bye.

Juan Grimaldo (27:43)
Likewise, my pleasure.

Take care. Bye bye.