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How to Avoid Common Real Estate Pitfalls: Frank Iglesias’ Story

By February 6, 2026Real Estate Pros Show

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Micah Johnson interviews Frank Iglesias, a seasoned real estate investor with 17 years of experience. They discuss Frank’s journey in real estate, including his evolution from wholesaling to flipping and new construction. Frank shares valuable lessons learned from his experiences, particularly with Airbnb, and emphasizes the importance of aligning investments with personal values and goals. The conversation also highlights the significance of understanding different building types, the role of people in real estate success, and the necessity of mitigating risks in investments.

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    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Frank Iglesias (00:00)
    what I’ve learned and made in tons of successful business people, know, eight, nine, ten figure entrepreneurs, uber successful people. Two things I learned, one, they all went through a very dark time, every one of them, which helped them become who they are, because they could appreciate it. And two,

    Micah Johnson (00:14)
    Thank you.

    Bye.

    Frank Iglesias (00:22)
    Every one of them that I’ve talked to and my coaches have said to me, they learned when you look at a deal, we protect the downside first.

    then you worry about profit.

    Micah Johnson (02:05)
    Hey, everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Micah Johnson. And today I’m joined by Frank, who’s been making some serious moves in real estate for about 17 years now. Frank, welcome in, man. Glad to have you.

    Frank Iglesias (02:17)
    thanks for having me on, Micah. I appreciate the opportunity.

    Micah Johnson (02:20)
    Absolutely, I’m excited for you to be here. We had a super fun pre-recording call that I’m pumped to dig into. I think our listeners are really going to take something away from your approach to real estate, what you’ve learned throughout your journey, the ability to pivot. I think all those things are super important. So let’s dive in on that. For folks who may not know you yet, what’s your main focus right now and what markets do you operate in?

    Frank Iglesias (02:42)
    Yeah, so

    we we’re operating the southeast based out of Atlanta, but we’re looking the southeast now that being said, we are looking at deals farther away such as Texas right now we’re looking at a deal so we’ll see what happened. I will look anywhere because what we’ve learned is real estate’s real estate. But the markets.

    you know, plays a huge factor. But people are people, properties are properties. We’re looking at Sendral Family, we’re looking at Multi, we’re even looking at small commercial these days. We’re looking at a variety of things, because we learned it’s not necessarily the vehicle, but the actual deal with the people. you know, we’re we’ve become much more open to looking at things, but also very good at saying no to a lot of things that don’t align with our mission.

    Micah Johnson (03:24)
    Thanks.

    Frank Iglesias (03:25)
    So that’s a little bit about what we’re up to.

    Micah Johnson (03:29)
    love that man and saying no is super important. We’ll dig into that as we go. It’s like once you learn how to say yes, then you got to learn how to say no. That’s your next mission because then once you’re open opportunity, it’s everywhere. Making sure it lines up with like you’re saying your values, visions, goals, that becomes your main priority. So tell us about your journey through real estate. You’ve doing it for 17 years now. What led you to where you are today?

    Frank Iglesias (03:54)
    Yeah, we started like so many others back in the day. was rich dad, poor dad, ended up in an afternoon seminar, which led to the three day which led to us purchasing education. And then we acted on that education. And then we bought our first deal. So within the first, I don’t remember exactly, I want to say five or six months ish from what that first thing to first deal closed.

    Micah Johnson (04:20)
    Wow.

    Frank Iglesias (04:20)
    ⁓

    didn’t say too long of course this was when the crash was happening so the world was down we didn’t really understand how that tied in the real estate literally for a couple of years so the first few deals we bought you know i was working in it and we would buy property on the side so we had a job the company was good it survived the downturn but

    Micah Johnson (04:32)
    Interesting.

    Frank Iglesias (04:44)
    You know, it was literally probably two, three years later ish before we really understood the magnitude of what had happened. We just came in going, look, houses are cheap. How cool is that? It was incredibly ignorant. We just didn’t know. So we never thought anything of it. You know, and when my dad bought his first house, it wasn’t expensive. It was in the eighties. So what did I know? Right?

    Micah Johnson (04:55)
    I’m sorry.

    Frank Iglesias (05:09)
    So fast forward, you know, from there we got into wholesaling, spent a lot of time doing that, ran a wholesaling group in Atlanta for seven years actually, all the way up till COVID. When COVID happened, we just never did it again after that, but did it for seven years, had a lot of fun with that. Ran another network group for a few years and that was good.

    got into flipping a lot more. Always did flips, but got heavy into it. And as time progressed, it became less wholesaling, more large flips, which then led to new construction. And what I’ve learned is when you get into large projects, it’s like buying a big vacuum cleaner with no off switch. It just sucks your time to the point where…

    Micah Johnson (06:36)
    Okay.

    Frank Iglesias (06:44)
    I would literally joke in the office. We had a whole construction team and we were joking the office. except unfortunately it wasn’t a joke. It was like, you know what? I’m a builder now. I’m not an investor. And I would say that jokingly. And then looking back, I’m like, actually that was the truth. So, we decided, you know what? We didn’t get into this to become a builder. And just to tell you how crazy it was.

    Micah Johnson (07:06)
    Right.

    Frank Iglesias (07:08)
    we would look at a publication called the Atlanta Business Protocol and there would be like these lists and there was like well here’s the top 25 builders and I remember specifically the 25th builder in Atlanta only built like 35 houses the year before.

    you because we think ability to like these production massive neighborhoods, such a small number of those people. It’s a tiny number. But the small builder, there’s tons of those. And so I’m thinking, you only got to build 35 houses in a year to get on the top. Well, that’s an achievable goal. And which is true, but what I didn’t understand at the time was the enormous complexity and enormity of what it would take to accomplish that.

    so we figured out and that’s a whole nother thing, but we figured out, know what? didn’t get into this to be a builder for a living. And so, you know, we actually have, minimize and made a lot of things go away quite honestly, because it was not in alignment of we didn’t like it back in 2008. didn’t say, you know what? Rich dad, poor dad. Let’s go be a builder. Like that was never, I thought never crossed my mind.

    Micah Johnson (08:05)
    This.

    Life.

    Frank Iglesias (08:23)
    and I realized we were evolving in a way that was not in alignment with what actually mattered. So since then we have massively simplified and now we’re taking a much more simplistic approach which is when I do a deal, does this deal align with why we’re even doing this?

    Micah Johnson (08:44)
    Mm.

    Frank Iglesias (08:44)
    the numbers work and it’s not an alignment it’s a waste of time perfect example there’s this thing that became a hype called Airbnb I’m sure you’ve heard of it right so back in 2013

    2012 and the early 2013 we bought a lighthouse which became our first Airbnb We didn’t call it that back then it was called a vacation rental Right. We never even heard of Airbnb It was a home away, which has since become VRBO. I believe is what that connection is So when we heard of Airbnb it was like who’s that right and it was like, okay, it’s another one of these

    Micah Johnson (09:11)
    I hope they get.

    Yeah.

    Frank Iglesias (10:01)
    hosting play. Okay, fine. Then there was Airbnb arbitrage and everyone got so excited. And I remember thinking all it is is a sandwich lease option. Like, I don’t know why everyone’s so excited. Like, it’s like, there’s nothing radically new here. But at that point in my career, I didn’t still understand the importance of good marketing. Right? So I didn’t understand, this is just really just a bit marketing hype over something that there’s zero new to.

    Micah Johnson (10:12)
    ⁓

    Yeah.

    Right.

    Frank Iglesias (10:29)
    Well, fast forward another couple years, we did one of these big rehabs and we said, and it was by the Atlanta airport. And we said, you know what?

    And of course, what did everyone say at the time? And Airbnb by the airport. It’s amazing. You should do it. It’s right. Like it’s the best thing ever since going to heaven. Like it’s crazy. And so what, so we did one where like, it’s brand new. It’s finished. The lender was on board. They were willing to hold a note long-term like, like a 25 year note. were, I mean, it was perfect. Right. The numbers work. What could go wrong? Four months later, we got rid of the house.

    Micah Johnson (10:48)
    Bye.

    Frank Iglesias (11:09)
    Because what we learned was just because we could do an Airbnb in Atlanta with a beautiful home, the clientele was, let’s just say lacking. The neighbors hated it. By the way, this was a nice community. So it wasn’t like a dumpy area. It was nice. The neighbors were nice. It just attracted all the wrong people.

    Micah Johnson (11:19)
    Mm-hmm.

    Frank Iglesias (11:31)
    to the point where I remember going to the house one time and they literally broke the tile, one of our guests. And I don’t mean crack, I mean straight through. Yeah, like you have to put work into that. That doesn’t just happen. Like we had that happen. I remember I was away for a weekend with my wife and we get a phone call.

    Micah Johnson (11:42)
    Whoa.

    Frank Iglesias (11:55)
    or I guess it was a message on a phone call from Airbnb and they’re like the guest is complaining that there’s a roach infestation and we thought that sounds extremely excessive that they were just all of a sudden be a roach infestation I kid you not and they like texted some pictures and we said well and they’re like well they’re gonna leave and we said okay go ahead and leave that’s fine

    Micah Johnson (12:11)
    Right.

    Frank Iglesias (12:23)
    but we’re not gonna refund you till we see the house. So we came back like two days later, whatever it was, and they had texted pictures. I walked through that house. There was not a sign of anything in that house. The cleaner had not come yet. I mean, it was complete and total nothing. I’m like looking under every crevice, every cabinet, everything, nothing. We were convinced they were like, I think they faked it to see if we’d give them their money back.

    Micah Johnson (12:23)
    Please.

    Right, yep.

    Frank Iglesias (12:52)
    And then we

    did a little research and we learned, yeah, there’s actually, we call it professional tenants. There’s apparently professional short-term renters out there. I found out that was a thing. And you say, you know what, this house. So the money was good, but we got rid of the house. We’re like, it’s not worth it. It’s not worth it. So yeah, so today we learned we actually like short-term rental, but we like it in places where people go to vacate.

    Micah Johnson (13:00)
    Really?

    Right. The headache of the other time.

    Frank Iglesias (13:21)
    That’s what we like.

    Micah Johnson (13:21)
    Right.

    Right. Put it in a place where they’re going to be happy. Like they’re going there to have a good time. They’re going there to enjoy it. And that’s, you know, there’s a statement I like to say, right thing at the wrong time is still the wrong thing. It goes along with right thing at the wrong place is still the wrong place. Like it’s, you can’t just put them everywhere, knowing what to go to, where they go. And then what you were saying about lining up with your overall goals and how

    Frank Iglesias (13:26)
    Yeah!

    Yeah.

    Micah Johnson (13:46)
    It literally led into being a builder and you never wanted to be a builder. And if you’re listening or watching, that’s extremely easy to do in this industry as you go along. Cause you’ll see spreads, you’ll start saying, okay, I can go from wholesale spread to a fixed and flip spread. That’s typically way bigger. Okay, let’s do that. And then you’ll start seeing, okay, bigger flips. And then you’ll start seeing, man, we do this with new construction. We can make this and this and this. But at the same time, your cash conversion cycles climbing up ever so.

    quickly because now instead of, you know, a 30, 40 day turnaround with a wholesale, you got a year with a new build or you’re putting money out, waiting, waiting, waiting for it to close. And then you’re building a whole new business out. Like you said, you have 35 trying to do 35 houses in one year. Doesn’t sound like much, but the logistics of it is man, it’s a spider web. If you don’t like to do it. And that’s kind of what it comes back to. said this pre-recording call.

    It’s our personality types. Builders, the ones that are building and staying in it like that, they’re builders. They’re not investors. They’re viewing this a completely different way than an investor views it. So keeping your mindset, unless you’re going to switch to that, unless at that you learn building does it for you, love the process and you can do both. You don’t have to keep doing it. You can live in that in-between space. Okay. And that’s what you’re coming back to now is that pivot of, right, I did all these things.

    Didn’t line up, now I’m realigning everything to continue on the path that I started on back in 17 years ago listening to Rich Dad Poor Dad.

    Frank Iglesias (16:03)
    for sure. You know, one little aside on the builders is I always like to make sure I get this out. Just as you hire a builder, doesn’t mean they’re the builder for your project, because you’ve got production builders, and then you have spec builders, and then you have custom. So it’s really three different mindsets.

    Micah Johnson (16:15)
    Yeah.

    Frank Iglesias (16:23)
    If you put a production on a spec project, it’s probably going to blow up. We had a lot of experience with that because production builders, they usually don’t really have to do a whole lot of thinking because the bigger machine has already taken care of 99 % of the thinking. And then they just plug in the builder underneath the manager builder for to use a generic term to just carry out what needs to be carried out.

    Micah Johnson (16:23)
    Hmm, interesting.

    Right.

    Frank Iglesias (16:52)
    Spet builders have to, they don’t have to problem solve a lot. Spet builders, it’s all about problem solving. Right? Custom builders, it’s not only problem solving, it’s creating problems to solve. Because they have a client who wants a mansion for a dollar, right? And so they got a whole set of, they got to create 50 more problems to solve, but that’s why they get paid what they paid because they’re math, mean, everything’s a problem in the world.

    Micah Johnson (16:58)
    Interesting.

    you

    Frank Iglesias (17:18)
    but it’s highly customized, it’s expected, it’s not a bad thing, it’s part of the process. But spec building, I can’t tell you how many builders we tried from the production, they couldn’t solve the simplest of problems. And of course, on that’s not gonna be everybody, but you gotta be very careful. In the building world, their specialty in construction makes a massive difference to if they’ll be a fit for your project. So just wanna throw that out there, it’s very important.

    Micah Johnson (17:34)
    Right.

    appreciate you saying that because it

    lines up with something even in the bigger picture of making sure you have people in the right place in your business. They could have the qualifications or whatever it is, but if they’re not positioned to their strength, it’s not going to work. It’s going to keep…

    Frank Iglesias (17:54)
    Yes.

    Micah Johnson (18:03)
    just creating a bottleneck that you’re going to have to solve. Now it’s sucking on the owner’s time even more. That vacuum got a new level and now it’s really pulling on you because you’re solving your own problems and other people’s problems. And then you really start thinking, this is not why I was doing this. I did not get in this to do this.

    Frank Iglesias (18:21)
    Well, and there’s a lot of people. You know, when I coach investors, I tell people, I always ask that question, like, why real estate? Like, why do you want to do this? There’s a lot of things in the world. There’s a lot of work that goes in this business. And you always get the generic answer. And the best example I heard to this day was a story, a story I heard during COVID. Where there was this, you know, back then, we were all in clubhouse, right? I remember that.

    And this one lady, yeah, back in the day, and this one lady at one of these real estate rooms, she’s like, well, you know, I want to, she used the buzzwords, financial freedom, generational wealth, you know, just the standard buzzwords. And I remember she was asked, what’s your strategy? Common question, innocent, simple question.

    Well, I want to do Airbnb. I want to do new construction so I could do Airbnb. So she wanted to build houses so she could do short term rentals. And I remember jumping in the conversation. said, ma’am, have you ever done a deal? No. Have you ever tried to do a deal? No. So she was brand new.

    I said, I don’t know if anyone’s told you this, but what you just described is learning two separate career paths. Because new construction, that’s a career path in and of itself. Airbnb, I always tell people Airbnb short term rental, that is not real estate investing. That is the hospitality business. Real estate is just the but you’re in the hospitality business at that point. The house is just

    Micah Johnson (19:47)
    Mm-hmm.

    Frank Iglesias (20:02)
    the building that it happens at no different than a hotel, motel, a campground, an RV park, whatever. I said, these are two separate career paths. So what is it you wanted?

    Micah Johnson (20:02)
    Yes, sir.

    Frank Iglesias (20:13)
    At the end of the day, all she wanted was, I just want some income for, you know, just coming in regularly, passive income, so she could take care of her family. She had no desire to be rich or anything like that. She just wants to pay her bills, take care of her family, be able to do a few fun things, pass something on to her daughter or son or whatever, and she’s good. There was no massive ambition, just basically take care of her family and have some income.

    Micah Johnson (20:41)
    Right.

    Frank Iglesias (20:42)
    was all she wanted and I’m like, this is not the path for you.

    Micah Johnson (20:47)
    It goes back to that clarity because

    once she knew what she wanted, honestly, she was way closer to it than she imagined. And it was a way simpler path if she wanted to do a different one to do those very same things. And that’s where if you’re getting into this industry, most likely you’ve seen some videos, you’ve read a book, you’ve got these predispositions to things you think you like. Stay.

    Frank Iglesias (20:57)
    It’s simple.

    Micah Johnson (21:11)
    open real estate is a huge term and it only gets bigger the deeper you get into it there are and like you’ve been describing every niche is its own business every niche there’s and I like to use Amazon as a good example if you’re building a business they only sold your books for nine years before they sold you anything else because they made sure they were the best and fastest bookseller mover in the world no one could beat them at that

    There’s a reason why the best focus, you get really good at something and then you add that next vertical because typically most real estate investing companies, they do all three. A really good one’s going to wholesale, fix and flip and buy and hold. They run it up the ladder is how they’re typically doing it, but they didn’t do it all at once. It wasn’t all this learn everything at once. was, hey, let’s use, wholesale’s a great place to start. Let’s get the fastest conversion cycle, cash conversion cycle.

    You can get in and out of deals, start building up capital. Capital is what you’re looking for. And then that next phase, not everybody’s built to be a fix and flipper. I am not. I did one, done. I don’t want to do another one. Just not what I want to deal with in my day-to-day life. Awesome. Pivoted. Knew I didn’t want to do it, right? So it’s just learning as you go that each thing is its own thing. There is no rush in real estate. I promise you. You want to rush,

    Try to get somebody to rush to do a closing and you’re going to add weeks to it. There’s no way to rush it. There’s so many people moving around. If you want it to go fast, you better have a great team. The people on that you work with, and this is something we were discussing earlier too, is making sure you find high quality people is the most important thing. There’s plenty of people in the space doing it, but high quality people that are going to treat you right, treat your customer right.

    Like in Florida, we work with title companies. If you don’t have a strong title company that knows how to communicate with you and the other people involved, you’re not gonna get to a closing. People back out, they don’t know what’s going on. So it’s the team of people that you put together, even internally inside your company. You were talking about a cold caller, where just not the right fit. That’s okay, it’s okay to not be the right fit, but continuing to look for the people, just because you plug someone in.

    doesn’t mean it’s fixed. You gotta inspect what you expect.

    Frank Iglesias (23:31)
    Absolutely true. It’s as people, right, we want to believe the best in everybody. And we should, right? We do want, but we also have to understand most of the time when we get somebody, a lot of times it’s not going to be the right choice. Not because they’re bad or we just, we unknowingly put a square pad in around home.

    Micah Johnson (23:58)
    See you

    Frank Iglesias (23:59)
    because we didn’t know what we didn’t know. And that’s coaching is so incredibly important because it’s so easy to put the wrong person in the wrong seat, especially, and not just real estate, but business in general, because we want what we want so bad that we will literally convince ourselves, we’ll see all the positives of that person we’re talking to to put in that seat, whatever the seat may be.

    Micah Johnson (24:02)
    Thank you.

    Frank Iglesias (24:27)
    and then we develop blinders to the downside. And one of things I’ve learned since then is whether in particular people but also with deals is whenever we’re going to do anything, before we count the upside, we need to handle the downside. The problem is 99.9 % of real estate is taught from the position of the upside.

    what I’ve learned and made in tons of successful business people, know, eight, nine, ten figure entrepreneurs, uber successful people. Two things I learned, one, they all went through a very dark time, every one of them, which helped them become who they are, because they could appreciate it. And two,

    Micah Johnson (25:11)
    Thank you.

    Bye.

    Frank Iglesias (25:19)
    Every one of them that I’ve talked to and my coaches have said to me, they learned when you look at a deal, we protect the downside first.

    then you worry about profit.

    that is, having lived that experience, I will say I cannot possibly agree with that enough because I’ve seen what happens when it goes south. And unfortunately, the problem with real estate, really it could be any business, but real estate seems to be very adept at this is when something goes wrong, it’s like starts a domino effect that would, you know, it would make the domino rally game creators jealous.

    Micah Johnson (25:41)
    and

    Right.

    Frank Iglesias (26:00)
    It’s just that’s just the nature of the business. And once I understood these two things, which I think for most investors comes later than we want to come, we realize. Okay, so a perfect example, I’m looking at a deal later today, wholesaler saying deal, it’s a good deal, potentially.

    But he’s already starting to say, well, no, I think you’ll get more Frank. He’s talking about the upside. And I said, you might be right. He might be right. But we’re going to underwrite it from is the downside handled. Because if the downside’s handled, honestly, you nor I have a crystal ball. We don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow.

    And it totally changes your perspective on how you look at deals. So now most people will say, well, Frank, you’re just like boohoo on every deal. I’m not really. I’ve learned no house is worth taking a risk on. No building, no molding, no anything if we don’t first cover the downside. Because if the downside happens, and it has happened to me more than once, then the question is, can you survive it?

    that’s that’s that’s a hard place to be and I’ve been there

    Micah Johnson (27:16)
    Right.

    Right. Yeah. Taking risks that knock you out of the game. That’s what you got to avoid. That’s the ones it’s, there’s a group I’m in that that’s the specific thing we work on is mitigating the downside. If something needs three or four things to go right, you have an exponential probability of them going wrong. You need very few things that could go wrong. And that’s where most, the best investors, they don’t buy most deals.

    They all get the reputation of, you’re kind of stingy. No, I’m not. have a buy box. I understand what I’m looking for. I know what I’m trying to do. This ain’t a hobby to me. Hope ain’t a strategy. So I like to say. But Frank, man, I really appreciate your time today, your story, your perspective. That coach mentality and heart really pours out of you. For those that are listening and watching who want to find out more, what’s the best way for them to find you?

    Frank Iglesias (27:57)
    Yeah.

    easiest way to

    find me is on Facebook. on there often among most of the social medias, but Facebook in particular is the one I’ll check. You can also call our office at 678-408-2228 or you could you can email us and you know that link I’m sure will be below my website frankiglesias.com I’m not hard to find so I’m pretty easy.

    Micah Johnson (28:31)
    Gotcha.

    Well, if you’re listening and watching on there, make sure you follow Frank on one of his social media platforms. Reach out to him if you have questions, want to touch base. I always highly recommend speak with folks that are good in the business, that coach, find that mentor to help you. You don’t have to do this alone. So Frank, thanks again for being here. For everybody watching, listening in. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please like this episode, share it with someone else. You think you get value out of it. As always, please don’t forget to subscribe to our podcast. We appreciate every single one of you that follows along with us.

    We have more conversations coming up with operators just like Frank out there building a real business in the industry. Thanks for joining us. We’ll see you on the next episode.

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