How to Build Passive Income in Real Estate and Make Your Money Work While You Sleep|Alex Monaco

Alex Monaco NJ RE/MAX (00:00)
For me, I would put it in my real estate agent business because investing is what I always see as the end game because being a real estate agent or whatever someone’s job may be, that’s like trading your time for money, but when you’re investing, that money’s gonna earn while you sleep.

So I always want to try to use the money I make with my time, like being a real estate agent. ⁓ I use that to create the capital that I need to invest.

Scott Bursey (02:03)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Scott Bursey. And today we’re joined by Alex Monaco of RE/MAX in Style Realty. Alex has made up name for himself by blending cutting edge digital marketing with boots on the ground knowledge of the New Jersey market. He’s not just selling homes. He’s building a brand centered on transparency and high octane energy. Alex, welcome to the show.

Alex Monaco NJ RE/MAX (02:29)
Hi, Scott. Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me. Looking forward to our conversation.

Scott Bursey (02:34)
Absolutely, it’s gonna be our pleasure. Let’s dive in, shall we? Alex, before we do dive in, let me ask you this. If you could give our audience the story of how you first got into real estate.

Alex Monaco NJ RE/MAX (02:48)
Sure, I was actually a teacher, I was a special ed teacher teaching 6th grade students at a public school and it was going just fine, I was a few years in but I just felt like I wanted more, I wanted to do more and achieve more and I had time after school, we were done at 3 o’clock, I had weekends off, I had a lot of time. So I wanted to get into investing, I wanted to buy rental properties, I wasn’t totally sure what to do so I actually got my real estate

agent license and I figured that was a great way to learn about real estate and learn the business and I was really I was right but the only thing is that it really that took off more than I thought it would so I got really big into being a real estate agent and then you know I started using those commission dollars to to buy properties and it’s been a great mix and I’ve been very fortunate glad I got into it early

Scott Bursey (03:45)
Well, absolutely. And that’s the key to getting into it early and watch things blossom as you apply your natural talents. Alex, what caught my attention about you was the way you’ve been able to leverage high-end digital media to make real estate feel modern and approachable rather than just a transactional business. What’s been the biggest key to maintaining that standard as you have grown?

Alex Monaco NJ RE/MAX (03:54)
Yeah.

Yeah, sure, I think it’s having a lot of the right people in place.

⁓ I have really good people that help me. definitely, you know, you can’t do it by yourself if you want to grow. It takes a village. So I have good marketing people around me. I have an office that supports us with, you know, good people that help with all things marketing. And I even have virtual assistants on the back end that are in the Philippines. And they help me with a lot of the things that I do that no one sees every day. And they sort of just keep the train rolling.

and we can deliver at a high level and at a high volume. So that’s the trick, you know is to do more and more but still keep your high standards.

Scott Bursey (04:57)
absolutely. Couldn’t agree more. And it’s refreshing to see someone actually humanize the data rather than just throw a yard sign in the yard.

Alex Monaco NJ RE/MAX (05:55)
Yes, certainly.

Scott Bursey (05:57)
What’s

a current business weakness or challenge that you may be facing right now?

Alex Monaco NJ RE/MAX (06:05)
Well, as an investor, a big thing that I’m working on is raising more private capital. ⁓ You know, I’ve been doing that mainly just from my sphere. So starting small, as you tend to do, know, friends, family members, things like that. But in order for me to really grow as an investor, I need to increase the ⁓ private funding that I’m able to get. So I need to work on creating some systems and putting those in place that will help to, ⁓ you know, to first

increase that because if I have leverage with other people’s money I can do more and they’re getting paid their interest so they’re happy so it’s it’s a win-win for everybody and I just need to I need to really focus on that I’ve been busy and you know not basically not getting around to it but I need to

Scott Bursey (06:53)
Good strategy. Let me ask you this. What do you feel one of your major strengths are right now in the marketplace?

Alex Monaco NJ RE/MAX (07:01)
Well, my real estate agent business is really flourishing. I run a team. There are eight of us on the team and we are we’re out there, you know, crushing it. We’re

getting a lot of listings, we’re helping our buyers win, get their offers accepted, and we’re closing deals and people are happy and we’re doing great. So for me, as long as that’s going well, then it puts me in a good position to invest when I have my own capital. So it keeps everything moving forward. So taking care of our clients and closing transactions is going great for us right now.

Scott Bursey (07:40)
absolutely. And a lot of it revolves around those relationships. Let me ask you this. If you could walk us through, what is your most valuable non-deal related metric for determining the health of your enterprise right now as you see it?

Alex Monaco NJ RE/MAX (07:56)
Very good. So I’m big on numbers and I’m big on my accounting. I actually do all my books pretty much myself. I get some help from my virtual assistants. But you you’re you’re able to track your numbers. You can really see how well you’re doing what your profit is and it helps you make decisions. It helps you determine you know when you can scale up if you should be spending more money on your business. So I have ⁓ a really good handle a good pulse

on my numbers. I know what’s going in, I know what’s going out, I know what’s gotta be changed or what I need to double down on. So by really knowing my numbers for anything in business, that’ll help me continue to grow.

Scott Bursey (08:44)
Absolutely. And what about an opportunity that you feel might be within your grasp right now that you’re ready to capitalize on? Could you elaborate on something that you may have a vision on currently?

Alex Monaco NJ RE/MAX (08:57)
Yeah, definitely. I am looking to increase my rental portfolio and I have a few properties under my belt, but I’m looking to scale up and I’m going to do so taking advantage of the 1031 exchange. So it’s a nice, you know, tax, you know, strategy that I can use that will help me level up faster. So in the next couple of years, I’m going to be selling some properties and

move it up so that I can grow that portfolio quicker and ⁓ decrease my tax burden.

Scott Bursey (09:32)
that is smart and what would you like our audience to know about your operation right now and if you could expand on your markets and and that sort of thing.

Alex Monaco NJ RE/MAX (10:18)
Absolutely. So I am a real estate agent based in central New Jersey. I live in the Princeton area ⁓ and I cover all around here and my team goes pretty far south and pretty far north. So the other agents on my team, we cover a good chunk of New Jersey at this time. So we’re helping buyers and sellers, you know, with retail properties and I’m always doing more and more with investors. ⁓ I’m finding off market deals for

for clients and bringing them good flips for them. I do flips myself as well. So we’re always looking for distressed houses and multifamilies. They’re ⁓ hot commodity around here with our low inventory. So I help people get properties like that.

Scott Bursey (11:08)
Let’s touch real quick on some growth strategies. Alex, what do you have in the works or what strategic plans do you have in order to grow if it is something that you’re looking to do? Growth, let’s talk about that for just a moment or two.

Alex Monaco NJ RE/MAX (11:25)
Yes, I am always looking to grow. have the the grow or die attitude with everything I do really. So yeah, a couple things I mentioned before. I think the 1031 exchange and raising more private capital is going to help me to leverage what I have and scale further and grow more.

And then as my profit increases, I’m always looking to increase what I’m spending on direct mail or advertisements and ⁓ recruiting and growing. So ⁓ I think if I just keep doing more of those kinds of things, I’ll continue to grow and be successful.

Scott Bursey (12:06)
Absolutely. And on that note, what are you concentrating on as far as lead gen right now?

Alex Monaco NJ RE/MAX (12:12)
Yeah, lead gen is everything. If you don’t have leads, you really don’t have a business. So I do a lot of different things. I do the direct mail, like I mentioned, like postcards.

⁓ I do a lot of social media, that’s always big. And ⁓ a lot of the online programs, I partner with all the websites, Zillow and Homelight and realtor.com. I wanna be front and center whenever somebody raises their hand that they’re looking to buy or sell any kind of property. So I try to be ubiquitous and be everywhere in front of as many people as I can. And by doing those things, we generate a lot of leads.

Scott Bursey (12:53)
Absolutely. And this has been on my mind. What would you do right now when you say you just you you left the the teaching field and you had let’s say 10 to 15,000? Where would you put it?

Alex Monaco NJ RE/MAX (13:09)
Great question.

For me, I would put it in my real estate agent business because investing is what I always see as the end game because being a real estate agent or whatever someone’s job may be, that’s like trading your time for money, but when you’re investing, that money’s gonna earn while you sleep.

So I always want to try to use the money I make with my time, like being a real estate agent. ⁓ I use that to create the capital that I need to invest.

So 10, 15 can only bring me so far. So I would invest that money in my business and turn that into more, turn it into 50K. And then when I have 50K, now I’m talking like, all right, I got some down payment money. And then I would use

that as leverage to purchase some property.

Scott Bursey (14:05)
Awesome, and if we could touch on your team a little bit, how big is your team right now and What strategy do you have as far as having your team build cohesiveness and that sort of thing?

Alex Monaco NJ RE/MAX (14:18)
Yeah, right now there are eight of us. We’ve added two new team members just this year, which is great and they’re up and running already. ⁓ So we are a tight knit.

We meet regularly every Monday just on a Google Meet, but we get in there and talk about what’s working, what’s not working, what’s changed, what do we need to do. So being all on the same page is a good way. ⁓ We have our group chat and WhatsApp, and we’re always going back and forth and sharing ideas and asking questions and helping each other out as much as possible. So being close like that makes us cohesiveness.

of like you said.

Scott Bursey (15:01)
Absolutely and any groups that you belong to that you’re in the same room with like-minded individuals

Alex Monaco NJ RE/MAX (15:51)
Yes, I am in a couple networking groups. One is a B &I, which is a big national networking group, and one is like a smaller local one, but very similar style. And, you know, it’s been really great for me because, you know, of course, networking is good. I always say nothing bad ever comes from networking, you know, only good connections. And you meet a lot of the people that, even if they don’t refer you business, it’s good to have all these different players from attorneys to

contractors to CPAs and all this stuff. Like if I need, if I have a question or I need help with something in any capacity, I got a good person that I can ask or I can refer to someone. So it makes my life a lot of, a lot easier.

Scott Bursey (16:35)
absolutely, I couldn’t agree more. It’s always nice to be able to ask a question to somebody if you need an answer that is going to have a good answer for you. And Alex, this has been just outstanding. Before we wrap, for our listeners who want to follow your work or connect with you directly, learn more about your real estate offerings perhaps. What’s the best way for them to reach you?

Alex Monaco NJ RE/MAX (16:45)
Exactly.

Sure, the best way is just to simply look me up on Google. You can search Alex Monaco Real Estate. Monaco is spelled M-O-N-A-C-O. I have a very strong online presence, so it is not hard to contact me. If you simply do that, I’m on Facebook, I’m on Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok. My website’s there, and it’s very easy to reach me from there.

Scott Bursey (17:27)
Awesome. This has been more than a pleasure. It’s been an honor Alex

Alex Monaco NJ RE/MAX (17:31)
Awesome, Scott. Thank you so much. really appreciate you having me on. It’s been fun.

Scott Bursey (17:35)
And thank you to all of our listeners for tuning in. If you found value in today’s episode, please make sure you’re subscribed. Until next time, keep your standards high and your vision clear. We’ll see you in the next episode, everyone.