How Robert Martinez Built Rockstar Capital & 4,400 Multifamily Units Through NOI Growth

Robert Martinez (00:00)
You know, it’s such a good thing because adversity is life.

Quentin (00:03)
Ha

Robert Martinez (00:03)
Adversity

is the opportunity to grow in your life and to learn and to, know, if I didn’t face adversity in that sales job, I would never would have found real estate. I had to go through that and it was a struggle to think, my gosh, I’m going to walk away from my six figure salary to go pursue real estate. And I don’t know anything about it. I’m going to like, you know, start at zero. ⁓ you know, I’m a big fan of Michael Jordan. And I remember one time seeing his commercial and Q you and I looked like we’re about the same generation.

Quentin (02:02)
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. And I’m so glad that we’re here. have another guest that’s going to just take us down their journey, help us kind of see things from their vantage point, talk about the things that they are proficient in. And I’m so glad that we get a chance to do that. And so I want to introduce you all to Mr. Robert Martinez. Mr. Robert, how are doing today,

Robert Martinez (02:28)
Hey Q, thanks for having me on. super excited to be with you and your listeners.

Quentin (02:31)
Absolutely, sir. Well, let’s do this. I’m the type I like to dive right in. So I would love for you to tell the people what is your main focus these days. you don’t mind, give us a little bit of an origin story, kind of how you got into the place where you are and then tell us what part of the world you’re in. People love to know where you are geographically. So what you’re up to, your origin story and where you are. Robert, you have the floor.

Robert Martinez (02:52)
Yeah.

Absolutely. Thanks so much for cute and cute. And thanks again for having me on your show. I’m excited to share our story. You know, like a lot of you, I had met my first mentors were my parents and they told me to go to school and get good grades. And that’s what I did. ⁓ what they didn’t prepare me for was then what? So we go to school, get good grades, and then we get a job. And then we think that we’re going to go and max out our 401k. And then we’re going to sit in a QB for, you know, X number of years and retire at whatever number that is. And that’s just not a bro. That’s a

broken model. ⁓ Number one to that is that you’re putting all your eggs in one basket. So if something happens to that paycheck you’re getting, then that’s a problem. ⁓ I experienced that when I was coming out of school. I took a sales job. have an engineering degree from Texas A University. And I thought that that’s what I was gonna do forever. then sales popped into my life. And I go, this is great. But what happens to every good sales guy is that you start to make too much. And you start to make more than people that are ⁓ have been there at the company long

that are in leadership positions and they start to give their two cents to your sales manager and the next thing you know you’re making less and after that happened to me a few times I got de-incentivized I wasn’t really excited about going to work anymore

And so I started for looking for other ways to supplement my stuff. And I looked at childcare facilities. I looked at water branding businesses. One day I was in my car and I was on the way to make a sales call. And I found this crazy guy on the radio here in Houston, Texas, where I’m based out of. And he said, hey, come join me this Thursday for a free investor ⁓ event. we’ll wine ya, dine ya, and we’ll present how you can get involved in real estate. I’m like, you know what?

That sounds interesting. So I did that, fell in love with what I heard that night. I was then ⁓ introduced to their two day bootcamp, which was a $500 weekend thing. And basically you show up and all day Saturday is everything you ever want to know about, about single family investing. I thought after the end of Saturday, I’m going to go home, be the single family king. I’m going to buy a dozen of these deals. And then I got introduced to Sunday when I came back.

⁓ was multifamily investing and I was introduced to what i’ve now called the magic formula revenue minus expenses equals noi Noi divided by a cap rate is your valuation when I saw that that blew away anything that I could possibly ever make as a single-family investor I had the control of that investment in my hands I didn’t have the control of my career or my old boss Which means he can limit the amount of money that I can make he could limit the kind of vacations

I

was going to take. He’s going to limit the kind of house and lifestyle I’m going to have. But with his valuation, with my investments in my hand, I can make all those decisions for myself. So I paid $10,000 that Sunday. The next Monday, this is now January of 2007 began my real estate journey. And over the course of the next what is that 19 years, I will go on to buy over 40 apartment assets, underwrite 8000 deals, operate 8000 deals. And today we still

have 22 assets, 4,400 units. My management company, Rockstar Capital, has earned 19 City, State and National Apartment Association awards and I’m the only two-time national owner of the year.

Quentin (06:10)
Man, I love it. Thank you. Thank you, man. Thank you for taking us through your journey, telling us what you do now, but also just walking us through the journey. And so as you was talking, I was actively listening, writing some things down. so I talked about how your parents wanted you to go to school, but they really didn’t tell you what to do after that. And so you went on, got an engineering degree.

Robert Martinez (06:28)
Yeah.

Quentin (06:32)
started to make more money than some upper management. And so they got kind of like, hey, what’s going on here? Right? little jealous, kind of trying to hold you back. I mean, you was in the car listening to a radio. You know, how do you get into real estate was one of the things that they was talking about. You went and kind of like the rest is history, right? You know, so that’s kind of quick summarization. And so I often ⁓ ask this question, but I make the statement, I say, destiny has no wasted moments.

Right. Destiny has no wasted moments. Meaning along the journey, we are accumulating just moments to kind of reinforce our mindset and make us the people we are today. There’s an amalgamation just all of these moments. And so I would love to know about your journey. What has the moments taught you about yourself? Has they taught discipline, resilience? Like what has these moments taught you about you?

Robert Martinez (08:08)
You know, that’s a great segue cue because I think that’s 100 % true. I think God drops little things in your life and it’s, know, whether or not you’re ready to accept it. There’s a thing there that says, Oh, you were so lucky. I’m not lucky. Luck is when opportunity and preparation meet. And when you are the right mindset, you can see those opportunities. You can see what’s going on. Just like with a P and L, I can look at a P and L and I can underwrite it very quickly. I can see up and down. I can read it like I’m reading a book.

because I’ve learned that skill. didn’t have that skill before. I learned it over the 19 years of being a multifamily investor. I can tell when somebody is lying to you. I can tell when they’re cheating you. I can see where they’re hiding stuff. So.

I think for your listeners, you have to pay attention to the little clues that God drops in your life. And guess what? There’s always going to be another clue. He’s constantly giving you because he wants the best for you. You adjust that he can’t give it to you. You have to take it and run with that football and score a touchdown. You’ve got to see when that opportunity was there. So one of those moments was that time when I was in the car.

and I’m listening to radio and I didn’t take the bait the first time, right? I probably heard that guy on the radio multiple times on multiple sales calls. It was always during lunch. You always come out at 12 PM. So I’m always somewhere trying to get places or meeting somebody for a 1230 or a one o’clock lunch and I’m driving and I’m hearing this guy and then you know what happened? I started moving my schedule around so I could always have time.

to hear him because the more I heard him, the more I started to believe things and it was started to like to just really bring it into myself. I’m like, I want to see what this is about. And then I finally had that courage to go to that Thursday night events, sit there like, okay, you know what? Now put some skin to game. I’ll pay 500 bucks. You got my attention. You show me something that I didn’t know because you know, I have an engineering degree. I didn’t learn anything about apartment investing or anything about valuation. You know, I’m thinking it is what it is.

You know, but a $10 move on a 200 unit property is $400,000 in new value. I didn’t learn that. That is the most powerful thing I ever learned. If I would have learned that in college, I never would have done engineering. I would have gone straight into finance. So it’s really interesting because unlike my parents, right? Who didn’t tell me what to do after college. I, my kids, I have one that’s 21 Q and I have one that’s a 18. He’s a junior in high school.

We know we want to major in finance. Where do you want to go? Well, you can be a commercial listing broker. You can go work for a company like Markets and Milchap and work in their capital markets or work for a big investment bank like KeyBank and become a hedge hedge fund guy or a private equity guy. I’m giving them options. But at end of the day, I know that they’re all going to end up doing multifamily one way or the other. And for me, that works because I need them to get that experience out there. Kind like if you ever seen this TV show Yellowstone, know, John Dutton, he everyone

Quentin (10:49)
Yeah. Yeah.

Robert Martinez (10:51)
of his children, have a mission. You’re going to be the rancher. You’re going to run how all this works. You’re going to be the corporate raider. You’re going to go to business school. You’re going to go to the very best schools. You’re going to learn how to acquire and sell businesses. And you, you’re going to be the lawyer because we need to make sure that we know how to use the laws so that we protect what’s ours. And that’s kind what I do in my kids. I’m trying to give them opportunities so that they see what’s out there and then they can come home and bring it home.

Quentin (11:18)
Yeah. No, I love it. I love so much what you said. you know, just going back to kind of what you were saying at the top of the question, you know, people, always look and they see my poster and they’re like, you know, I like that poster. And I always tell them I’m running definition of luck. And like you literally said it is when opportunity meets preparation. tell them that’s, that’s my running definition of luck. So when we talk about when you create your own luck, it means I have put in intentional time so that when the opportunity comes,

I’m ready and I’m to seize the opportunity because I’m prepared. And then you got to talking about just God dropping hints. One of the scriptures I often say here is that we make our plans, but the Lord determines the outcome. Another translation say we make our plans, but He orders our steps. Right. And so you’re absolutely right. He allows us to make the plan. But man, when he dropped a little nuggets on how to deviate from the plan, you got to trust that He knows what’s best for you. And so just listening. So I love it. I love what you’re doing with your kids. You know, I think.

that you’re putting them in a position to just have some foresight and to really plant seeds that’s going to grow for them, that they can grow into just some of the things and the blessings that you’re actually kind of putting in place for their life. So I love it. I would love to know, know, adversity shows its head in every business person’s life. I mean, in all our lives, period, in just life, period, but definitely, you know, within a business-owned life. So I would love to know how has adversity impacted you?

then what did you do to overcome it?

Robert Martinez (13:17)
You know, it’s such a good thing because adversity is life.

Quentin (13:21)
Ha

Robert Martinez (13:21)
Adversity

is the opportunity to grow in your life and to learn and to, know, if I didn’t face adversity in that sales job, I would never would have found real estate. I had to go through that and it was a struggle to think, my gosh, I’m going to walk away from my six figure salary to go pursue real estate. And I don’t know anything about it. I’m going to like, you know, start at zero. ⁓ you know, I’m a big fan of Michael Jordan. And I remember one time seeing his commercial and Q you and I looked like we’re about the same generation.

⁓ you know, ⁓ there was a thing he

says, you know, I had so many game winning shots, but I had 63 shots that I took and I lost. And that’s where I learned that L that you take is stands for learning, not for losing. That’s how you get ahead. That’s how you get. So as I mentioned, when we were talking about off camera, you know, I had some adversity hit us here in the, in the business in the middle part of 2022 when the federal reserve went crazy and decided to raise interest rates, five and a half percent. And

for a lot of people, would have gotten in the corner and in the fetal position and realize, I don’t know what to do. We did, we went to work and we started to create NOI, Net Operating Income. We started to generate and manufacture it. And we coined the phrase, NOI solves everything. If you have the NOI high enough, no matter what the valuation formula they’re using is, you’re going to be able to save your deals. And that’s what we did. We went through that. could easily have packed our bags, turned the keys in, done whatever. We fought for every one of

our

deals, if I were every one of our investors, it aged me dramatically the last four years, I was much younger looking. ⁓ But but I’m a little older now because of what I had to go through. But I wouldn’t change those lessons. Because once you go through and you learn those lessons, you learn them forever. And you you you make better decisions along the way. You’re not so cavalier and carefree. You’re like, okay, you start examining everything. What are the exits? What are the outs? What are the things that could happen? And

And if you can get over that mental hurdle of what could happen, then you have at least done your due diligence. without going through adversity, how would you know to do that? You don’t. You have to lose. So anybody who says they’ve never lost, then I don’t want to learn from you because I don’t think you’ve really been, I think you have been lucky. I don’t think you have gone through a real adversity. I want to, there’s another expression our investors like to use, back the jockey, not the horse. I don’t care if it’s the most amazing deal in the corner of Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue.

If you’re a bad operator, you’re a bad jockey, that deal is not going to perform. Just as if you can give me a tough deal in a tough part of town, but if you put the right operator there, he’s going to squeeze out as much as he can out of that deal and hopefully turn it into a winner.

Quentin (15:59)
So much great things said, man. So much great things. And I mean, I think you are hitting on so many things that align with the things I like to talk about here on the pod. You know, I turned 44 in December. And so one of the gifts I gave to myself was to get back in the gym. One of the things that I learned, what makes you stronger is resistance. That’s what makes you stronger. I don’t, if I go to the gym and I’m pushing air, I’m not getting stronger. And so.

the things that, know, adversity, that resistance is what actually builds out our physique. It builds out our capacity is what makes us stronger and begin to literally reshape things around you because of the resistance. And so I often say, I thought it was my phrase, but when I went to coin and I found out it’s not my phrase, but I still, I’m still gonna say it. Failure is fertilizer. Failure is fertilizer. And so when you allow yourself to get

the nutrients from failure, sometimes when you get planted in failure, those nutrients allows you to grow. When you have a greener pasture, things start to change, the surroundings start to change, even the smell starts to change. And so sometimes you just got to allow yourself to get planted in the adverse time because you’re going to grow from it. So I love everything you said, man. Love it.

Robert Martinez (17:11)
Yeah, I’m 100 % sure. there’s a little

more to that, right? Like you probably face this too. When one opportunity ends, another door opens up.

that happens all the time, you know, and you start thinking about, man, why did I put up with this for so long? When look at it over here, I’m in a happier spot, you know, but this had to fail. This had to end. I had to end this relationship or end this investment or whatever to get over here and breathe better to be in a healthy situation. That’s so true to.

Quentin (17:39)
Yeah.

One of my mentors, they say, you hold things so tightly like this, a couple of things is happening. One, you don’t know when to let it go. But two, can’t nothing else get in your hand. So sometimes you have to be able to balance what’s in your hand and hold it, be able to balance, but be able to let that thing be taken out and something maybe put in your hand. so you’re so spot on.

Robert Martinez (18:41)
I love that, that’s fantastic. That means so much to me.

Quentin (18:45)
What’s next for you, Robby? Like, what’s your next goal? What are you looking to solve at Scale Next?

Robert Martinez (18:50)
Yeah, so for sure.

Now that I’ve got these deals put the bed and now our investors capital is safe We can go out and do a number one a few things number one I gotta get I’m getting myself back in the gym and eating better so that I can get back to where I was before I was I probably gained 40 pounds the last three to four years and just whatever has happened right and you know eating to make myself feel better and whatever or Just getting sad and just you know being sedentary on the on the couch So that that’s the thing that I’m definitely working on so working that for myself. I’ve got a I have a new

I’m excited. We have a new life together. I have a baby on the way. So I’m going to be, you know, 50 51 years old with a new baby and I’ve got a 21 year old and 18. So I think just like what you were saying about that muscle that resistance, you know, that baby is going to keep make me younger. It’s going to give me a reason to keep pushing and and to keep driving. And so I think that’s important. But you know back to business. I want to take advantage of this market this market, you know, I’ve seen this before I got started. seven, which means that I saw the great recession and I went through cold.

and I saw what we battled there and how we came out and now we’ve gone through this cycle, right? Not everybody’s that fortunate. And there’s going to be situations there where you can pick up an opportunity, right? You just got to find the right one, which is the one that I want to put my capital, my investors capital and my time in. And so we’re hunting, we’re hunting right now.

Quentin (20:11)
Yeah, I love it, man. So I’m love asking you this question because, you know, new wife, baby on the way, talk about investors, talk about yourself, just how you’re building yourself and knowing your self-worth and your self-awareness. So I’m going to ask this question, and I just want to hear what comes to mind to you. When I say the word relationship, what comes to mind to you, Robert?

Robert Martinez (20:38)
I think of trust.

I think the word relationship is another word for trust. If I have a relationship with you, it’s because there’s something about you that I trust. I think that you have my best interests in mind. I think that I have your best interests in mind. I think we’re here together. And then if I move in this direction, I know what you’re going to do. It’s when you enter into relationships that where the trust isn’t there. and you can talk personal personal relationships. You can talk business relationships, you know, ⁓ you can either have acquaintances, which

is

what most of us really have, not relationships, or we have relationships. I know where my wife is right now. She knows where I’m at right now. I know where my key players are and my business are right now. And they know where I’m at right now. And I think that’s very important. We know where each other is at working on the goal of what we’re trying to do. And that’s pushed us forward. If we have that, then we’re good. If I don’t know where you are and you don’t know where I’m at, we don’t have a relationship. That’s something very different.

Again, I think that’s an acquaintance. That’s not a relationship. don’t I don’t have You know, for example, we mentioned Grant Cardone earlier offline, right? Like I know him we have each other’s number I’m not in a relationship with Grant. He’s an acquaintance So I have to remember the advice that I take is based with the acquaintance in mind

If he was a relationship, he would totally understand who I am, totally understand that the advice he gives me can help move me this way or move me that way. But really, it’s ultimately on you. You are in control of yourself. If you want to feel sorry for yourself, which we could have done the last three years when things really hit the fan, ⁓ then that’s one way. But we didn’t. We’re resilient. I wasn’t built that way. I was built to, if there’s a will, there’s a way.

And I share that expression, probably my favorite expression. I share it with my children, I share it here in business. If you really want that outcome, you will find a way. So I challenge myself, if I really want to be back in shape, I’ll do the things that it takes. I’ll eat better. I’ll be in the gym more often. I’ll be in the gym longer.

You know, there’s a lot and also around myself with people that that share that too, because that’s what you need, right? You need relationships, multiple motivation, people around you. One of my guys just just did a triathlon and you know what a triathlon I didn’t know what a triathlon was really that is like, you know, two and a half plus miles. Swimming, which is impossible for me to think about. Then you go then you’re out there. You know, you’re doing a bike or you’re at 120 plus miles, hundred twenty two miles on a bike. Oh, and then no matter what the weather.

Quentin (22:57)
Right.

Right. Right. Yeah. Right.

Robert Martinez (23:06)
you’ve got to do a marathon and you know and that showed me a lot about him right there’s a will he had a will to do that and so he means he’s got a very strong mindset in his head like he’s not gonna let adversity slow him down and I really appreciate that because I need that around me and if I see that like well shoot man if he can do all that surely I can say no to chips and queso right

Quentin (23:27)
Ha ha!

Robert Martinez (23:29)
If I can’t say no to Chips and Queso, then how the hell am I ever gonna, how is he able to do a marathon and this whole triathlon thing and all the different events? Unbelievable. So that’s what I tell myself. like, man, if Jason can do it, I can certainly say no to the Chips and Queso.

Quentin (23:45)
How did you know Chiffs and Queso was one of my Achilles heels? How did you know that,

Robert Martinez (23:49)
You know

what, it’s so funny. had a dietitian a few years back when I was really in shape. And he once told me, check this out, it’s He once said to me, he said, I’ve never tasted chips in queso. And I’m like, what? And this guy’s at this time, he’s in his 50s, almost 60, maybe 60, right? He actually was 60. And he goes, how? Because I’m afraid I might like it.

Quentin (24:11)
⁓ Yeah. Yeah.

Robert Martinez (24:11)
And I’m like, oh my goodness, like that left such a

moment in my head. And it’s like, I think about stuff like drugs and alcohol and certain things like, man, you could try it, but man, what if you like it? And what if it takes you down the wrong path? And for him, he’s a dietician. That guy looks like Adonis, and he’s in his mid-60s now, and he’s never had chips and casings in his life because he’s afraid of his temptation.

Quentin (24:34)
And you said something there, for sure. I love the way you synthesize relationships. I often talk about in relation to a relationship, community. And so community is common unity. It’s people who are doing different things but with the same goal in mind. Because uniformity is everybody doing the same thing at the same time.

Robert Martinez (24:36)
Ha!

Quentin (24:59)
But no, know what unity is. We do different things, but we have one common goal. So when you talked about just surrounding yourself with community, I often say healing happens in community because you get a support system of people doing different things, but the goal is for all of us to win. And so I always say, I challenge somebody, go out and walk your community. You’ll see gas stations, restaurants.

And like you said, you know where these people are, you know where these things are, you know where the community, you know what the support is, but it’s everybody doing different things. I don’t put down the gas station owner. I don’t put down a restaurant owner. Why? Because they’re part of my community, you know? And so this is all of us doing different things together. And so I love how you just synthesize. Community means we know where each other is and we support each other. And therefore everything around me becomes whole.

financially, mentally, physically, because if I see this person doing this, I can ask them, how did you get over the barrier of not wanting to do it, not wanting to get up? And all just the community aspect that pushes everything forward. so, man, I really appreciate this conversation. Listen, 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,

Robert Martinez (26:12)
You know, I love that question because it’s 2026 and mentorship now we know is everything, right? You can skip high school, you can skip college, but if you’re the right mentor, he’s going to tell you what to do and you’re going to get there much faster and, and, and probably without the pain that he went through. And, um, so for me, if you want to, I, you know, I think you, I offer mentorship privately, but I also have a lot of free stuff. Take advantage of the free stuff. Uh, you can find me on Instagram @apartmentrockstar

You can find me on YouTube @ApartmentRockstar but we just want to be my friend. Just hit me up on Facebook under Robert Martinez. I’d be glad to connect and you can see what my life looks like and what’s important to me. And maybe there’s a common interest we have together, but really mentorship ⁓ it’s another word for friendship, right? Like I I’m there for you. You’re there for me. And, and when you can get free mentorship, it’s like, hopefully you get a free friendship, right? You’re not having to pay for it other than you’re just investing.

each other. That’s how that works.

Quentin (27:11)
And you talk about free, my wife gave me this line the other day. She’s like, listen, just because it’s free, don’t mean it’s cheap. And so yeah, you know, so yes, we may not be exchanging money, but we exchanging experience. We exchanging intellectual properties. A lot of stuff has been exchanged with mentorship. And so it may be free, but it ain’t cheap. And some mentors, it’s not cheap or free, but anyway.

Robert Martinez (27:18)
Yeah, that’s true.

It ain’t cheap.

Quentin (27:37)
But with all that being said, please, I thank you, Before I say that, let me just thank you. Thank you for coming on. I appreciate you coming on. Three things I want to say to you. Thank you for your time. For me, time is so valuable. I value people’s time. so, yeah, the podcast, you come on, I’m on, but still, you did not have the gracious with your time. thank you for your time. Secondly, thank you for your story. ⁓

You know, often say Jesus taught in parables. And so while I speak like that, if he can teach in allegories and stories, I believe our stories are so beneficial to people. And so thank you for telling your story, planting seeds in people that eventually that seed can grow. We may not know it when it happens and it may be two months from now, three years from now, but that seed can grow. So thank you for coming planting seeds. Lastly, thank you for your mindset, for the way you think.

that you had to pay for in experience, you pay for in money. still, you brought that mindset to this platform. So I really appreciate you coming on today.

Robert Martinez (28:40)
Thank you. Thanks so much. And for my team, thanks for having us. It was a pleasure.

Quentin (28:44)
Absolutely. So listen, y’all heard Mr. Robert. What he talked about is in the show notes. Get in contact with him, reach out to him. But please make sure that you are subscribed here. How about everybody just, stop. What you doing? Go subscribe. That was quick, right? It was real quick to subscribe. And then that way you can come back and just get amazing content and amazing experience from amazing people, just like Mr. Robert.

So sir, I say thank you again and everyone else. You have a fantastic day.