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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, Louis Bazan shares his journey from an accountant to a successful real estate investor. He discusses the importance of due diligence, understanding market conditions, and having clear investment goals. Louis emphasizes the significance of mindset in real estate investing and offers practical advice on identifying good properties and knowing when to buy. He also introduces his podcast, Authentic You, which focuses on personal growth and financial independence.
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Louis Bazan (00:00)
if you are a rental property investor like I am, you don’t care how much the property goes down.It will go up again in five years, 10
Kristen Knapp (00:06)
Yeah.Louis Bazan (00:07)
You’re taking your money and people always, this is the basic needs. It’s a shelter. It’s like buying food, shelter. You shouldn’t care about it. So that’s the most important thing people are worried about. mean, if you are buying and selling, that’s another thing.Kristen Knapp (00:16)
youWelcome back to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. Kristen and I’m here with Louis Bazan. He has a robust background in accounting and real estate and he’s carved out a unique niche for himself, blending professional experience with his true passions, dance and personal growth. So we’re gonna get into a lot of different topics including what to buy, when to buy, how to buy. We’ll also get into Louis’s podcast called The Authentic You and yeah, we’re gonna have a very empowering conversation today so I’m excited to get into it. Thank you for being here, Louis.
Louis Bazan (02:26)
Thankyou. Thank you for inviting me. I’m honored today to be here in your podcast, Real Estate Podcast. And I’m dreaming to share the insights and the expertise I know from my past. And I hope it can help everyone to invest and have better decisions in the real estate world.
Kristen Knapp (02:45)
Amazing. Well, let’s start at the beginning. How did you fall in love with real estate? What did that look like?Louis Bazan (02:51)
Ohwow, the beginnings. I’m an accountant, know, I’m an accountant with 25 years experience. And when it started Real Estate, I only had like one year in accounting, and was in 2001, back then. And I was so afraid, so afraid. And I saw this property, it was a residential.
And, but it wasn’t a corner that I knew I can re-sown. And, and when I saw it, said, oh my God, I want this property. But, you know, it was difficult at beginning because I have to make an offer at the beginning, accept it. I did an offer very low as an accountant, you know, I’m very, very conservative. And then I went back and said, I want this property. It’s a corner. I know I can build offices in here. It was a house, but then I converted it and make more space, you know.
offices and I took a 30 years mortgage loan for leaving the house actually because I was living renting. I decided no this is for investing so I stayed renting in a very small apartment. remember a small apartment that wasn’t too good you know. It didn’t have a real bathroom it was a little bit small but I decided to stay there and buy this property.
and re-sown it and in 30 years mortgage I had and I paid off that building in seven years. That’s how afraid I was, but I was paying, know, doing amortization, 10,000, 5,000 every month. was so afraid, but at the same time so eager to get out of the loan because I’m kind of a, I like to have a strong balance, you know. But yeah, yeah, I started like that with that property and I rented the offices eventually and it was beautiful from there.
everything was changing my world because I was making money in accounting plus I have these other mans working for me. I call it mans but it’s you know the offices that they’re renting. Yes.
Kristen Knapp (05:34)
Well, that’samazing. I mean, you have such passion for it right away. I mean, it seems like you’re very on your P’s and Q’s when you were paying off that loan. That’s very impressive, paying it off within seven years.
Louis Bazan (05:43)
I was very, veryafraid at the beginning and I didn’t know what to expect. I did so many analysis. I was overprepared to buy because I am an accountant. So, you know, we do all the analysis, all the matrix planning, but at the same time, what if, what if, know, what if I cannot rent it? What if, and I remember like working hard, even painting the property because I hired like for blogs and things like that, but the things like painting or, or,
making doors or things like that. said, I need, you I did my, even as a handyman, even if I didn’t have experience, that’s my first time how I learned how to work. in handyman, know, as an accountant, you know, in the office, just counting clerk numbers. Yes. Yeah. That was my beginnings.
Kristen Knapp (06:31)
Yeah, Imean, it makes a lot of sense. And then, so now, you you’ve had some experience within the real estate industry and a lot of success. I know that your specialty is really, you know, guiding people on the home buying process. What are your tips for identifying a good property?
Louis Bazan (06:49)
Well, to see, think it’s the most important thing is how, what to buy exactly or how to buy a property. I would say the first thing we should be doing is a due diligence, know, having the involvement in research market condition, knowing what is the value of that property you’re going to buy in the market, looking at the compatibles, looking forall the data, financial history data of that property. And also that they’ve already potential rental income versus expenses, all this can do throughout the financial analysis, ⁓ metrics, rate of return, and ensure that the property is considered aligned with their investment goals. It’s the most important thing first.
Kristen Knapp (07:34)
Yeah, and how do you even know, like for someone starting out, I think a lot of people don’t even know what their goals are. Maybe they’re just saying, well, I just want to make money. What are some questions you can ask yourself to really drill into what your goals even are?Louis Bazan (07:35)
Yes.Yeah.
That’s a great question because some people are lost and they just, oh, I want to make money. And they said having a property is, I’m going to start getting gains, know, profits. It’s not like that. It’s just buying at the right price. If you buy the wrong price and without any analysis, you will be in a very, very real trouble. So it’s better not buying nothing if you don’t have the knowledge or if you don’t.
Or if you don’t have someone expert that helped you do it, do not buy a property, do not do that. would say, yeah, that’s the most important thing. Do not buy. What do I look for buying? Rate of return is very important. The amount I’m buying the property, I’m expecting also the projection of the gross total, net operating income after taxes. What is the net income?
⁓ of, you know, talking about the gross revenues rental from that property projected because you do a compatible. And from there, you put all the personal expenses, including property taxes, flood insurance. don’t know how many things you’re to have. don’t buy personally, I don’t buy houses, flood areas. Also, I have certain criteria what to buy. But yeah, you should know first,
what are you going to buy? if your financial statement or projections, if you don’t know how to do that, hire an accountant. But to be honest, like with the AI today, you just have to ask and you can do it. It’s just income less expenses. And then even if it’s not perfect, you have a projected net income. And then from there…
Monthly and annually and from there you can do better numbers. can have a familiar, you can have some good numbers, know, understanding, good understanding of what’s on your mind.
Kristen Knapp (10:15)
Totally, and I that’s really important. You mentioned you have certain criteria of the homes you look for. What are some of those criteria?Louis Bazan (10:24)
Yes, Okay, the most important criteria first is I do when I’m looking very fast, so I don’t dig in, I don’t start digging in analysis. The 1 % rule, I don’t know if you know about the 1 % rule, everyone knows. I mean, I guess everyone knows, Okay, 1 % rules, it’s that the house, let’s say you see the house, the selling price is 300,000.or they ask you price and you also, okay, let me see if I can buy this home in that price without any other offer. Like this is the price. The house should be renting in $3,000 per month. If you cannot rent that home or that property, commercial or essential, in $3,000 monthly, if it’s, because you go to the compatibles, you do a projection of, let me see the compatibles, how much the houses are renting in this area, Tampa Bay in my case.
uh, Tamsan P, Raiden, Tamba. And they said, 2,500. I would not go look at any other matrix. just go to another home. You know, so I move fast. Or I said, let me do an offer of 2,500 or 2,000, 200,000. So they say, yes, maybe no, because it’s 100,000 less. But they ask me, but yeah. And then, then, you know, it’s always, always good to do an offer, whatever, you know, you know,
If the person has so many days in the market, if the house has been in the market for so many days, know, 100 days, 200 days, then that people is maybe desperate and maybe do any deal. But yeah, that’s one person who rules that the first thing I do to buy the property or not.
Kristen Knapp (11:55)
Yeah.Yeah, I mean, it sounds like you know what you want with a property and you move very quickly and diligently, which I think is a good thing for people to know that, you it doesn’t have to be, you don’t have to be agonizing over something. can be.
Louis Bazan (12:07)
Yeah.No, no, no, no.
Other criteria would be like, buy houses 20 years built or younger. What do say in English? I’m trying to translate my Spanish. 20 years built, these three years or younger properties. Concrete blocks have to be concrete blocks because here in Florida where I am, we have a serious problem of thermites.
Kristen Knapp (12:23)
Yeah, it was built 20 years ago.Louis Bazan (12:36)
So you don’t want a frame home. mean, I don’t work, even though you buy a block, concrete block, you might have in the future to change all the roof because it’s all wood and inside the home, the frames inside are wood. It’s frame house anyway, but it’s concrete block. It’s going to help you a lot. And also if you buy a new home or five years old home, 10 years old, it’s going to beSo good because you’re to work with the less expenses. It’s probably that you low maintenance, you know, because it’s a new property. It’s going to ask you for less maintenance than old property. People buying 1960 homes, 1970, so many problems when they finished repairing them, they spent 100,000 and then they realized that, oh my God, now they have a problem with the foundation that is 50,000 more. know, so you have a beautiful home, very pretty, beautiful floors in.
the foundation is bad or there’s other problems because those crawling spaces, those houses with 1915, 1916 are right. All the things I look are no HOA. If there’s no HOA, because it’s a prestige area and it’s gotta be $100 or less, the HOA. No float zone. All the things is I see the tax history,
the history of their work performed in the house, also the price history, the condition, houses that are 100 miles in the radial spot that I’m buying because I have all the handyman’s there. So I don’t want to know now about San Francisco houses. If I go to another market, another state, now I have to learn about that market, about those places. I have to learn about the snow.
the rule, have to learn so many things. I’m not into that. I’m trying to stay in the things I know and gaining more knowledge. And also I do like an inspection of the house. Of course, if I, okay, I have all these inset, the ROE, the 1 % rule, the 70 % rule, the rate of return is good, is acceptable for me. My rate of return is by the way, is 8 % or more. If it’s less than 8%, I don’t take it.
Kristen Knapp (14:46)
Mmm.Louis Bazan (14:47)
Forme, everyone have other tolerance. But why I do that, because if I’m going to go lower, if I’m going to go 7 % or 6 % or 5%, then I put the money in Standard Poor, in the mirror of Standard Poor, that I can get 10 % or 5, even if I, because to be honest, you don’t get, mean, some people, some weird people do, but you don’t going to get $300,000. Okay. I cannot invest today. I’m going to put it all, all in, in the market. You don’t do that.
Kristen Knapp (14:49)
AllRight.
Louis Bazan (15:15)
People who knows don’t do that. You put it in probably in a federal fund, market fund that you’re going to get 5%, 4%. Even though you get 4 5%, I prefer that instead of getting 6 % or 5 or even. Remember you’re doing analysis. You don’t know you’re going to end up with 3 % or losses. So I’m not going to dig in if it’s lower than 8%. And with all these, you know, metrics, financial metrics, projections and ratios first done.Kristen Knapp (15:31)
Right.Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense. And I think that’s really practical advice that people can kind of follow as like a guide for them. And then I know the third thing you have a lot of experience in is when to buy. when is your ideal time to buy?
Louis Bazan (15:48)
Hmm.Yes.
Good question, good question. When to buy, the timing of purchasing significantly can affect the investment outcomes. Generally, best time to buy are during market downturns, when the prices are lower. Because people are more, also our purpose are lower, the people also are more, it’s buyer’s market. So people are more willing to do even bigger discounts.
in downturns, bigger discount. Like right now, it’s a downturn. But it’s still waiting a little bit more because I want to buy a house. For me, it’s like 250,000 because it’s for renting. And I haven’t get there. I see houses in Tampa Bay area right now. I start seeing it. I mean, has to be three bedroom or four, three bedroom or more. I didn’t say that. That’s one of my criteria, too. And I haven’t seen nothing below 300,000. So.
I am making an offer right now of 250. That’s what I want to get because I know I cannot rent the house more than 2300. I can right now, but if the market continues going down, you don’t want to have a rate of return that is lower than eight. I mean, it’s all about projection assumptions. You never know. You don’t have a crystal ball.
But actually always been good for me. I never have losses. It’s always been game because I always go with this matrix, with this planning. I do planning for each home. So when you do that, I don’t know, I never have losses. in 2008, 2009, it was very bad. I remember being good because also I know the things very important for those people who are listening to your podcast. Very, very important. It’s essential to…
to know that if you are a rental investor,
if you are a rental property investor like I am, you don’t care how much the property goes down.
I don’t really care. Why? I’m not selling. I’m not selling what you’re asking. No, property is already 150. And what? It’s like the blue chips in the stock market. Oh, they’re going down. Let the market pass.
Kristen Knapp (17:57)
YouLouis Bazan (18:00)
It will pass maybe two or three years. The last one was five years was long, but in recoveries late two or three years was already on the same spot then Yeah, I took five years to recover. We know that but I am NOT selling I’m buying to stay and I’m buying and the market is very low But guess what? I have my money in the bank the first day in the month for the section 8 houses that I have investor area and also for other houses that have private tenants and I don’t so don’t don’tIf you are a rental investor, you don’t care about how much it goes down.
It will go up again in five years, 10
Kristen Knapp (18:31)
Yeah.Louis Bazan (18:33)
You’re taking your money and people always, this is the basic needs. It’s a shelter. It’s like buying food, shelter. You shouldn’t care about it. So that’s the most important thing people are worried about. mean, if you are buying and selling, that’s another thing.Kristen Knapp (18:41)
youLouis Bazan (18:50)
I can sell some time to time a property when the market goes up and then I take one of the property and sell it if I need 100,000 or 200,000. I take it from there, know, gain and I take it and I move it, but it’s not usually on me. I don’t like buying and selling at this point of my life because like you know, I am retired in accounting. If you do that for a living and you love to sell and buy property and you love to take phones and be active management, then buy and selling is for you.but I’m not active management, know, I’m passive manager. And that’s why I don’t, for me, it doesn’t work. For me, also long-term agreements, know, long-term, one year or more rental, not short-term. So I don’t work with Airbnb, with all those things. That’s more management, that’s active management. That’s nine to five job, believe me. And I am not in there.
Kristen Knapp (19:34)
Right.Louis Bazan (19:42)
I mean, this is what I do, I don’t, I’m not criticizing people who wants to do that if they love to buy and sell. But right now, when the market’s going down, what are you going to sell? I mean, you’re buying and you’re going to sell it with a loss or you can gain money, still gain money into this market, but you need to buy in the right price. That’s all.Kristen Knapp (20:01)
right?Absolutely, and I think that I like to hear the optimism I mean I think that a lot of people have trepidation entering a quote-unquote bad market But I think there’s really no such thing because I think there’s a great time to go I mean there’s markets that are a great investment at any time so
Louis Bazan (20:20)
There’s alwaysmarket, there’s always houses, right? And now it’s more available. It’s coming available again. So it’s time to buy. For me, it’s almost time to buy. Well, it’s time to buy if you can ask that person, hey, in my case, 300,000, how about that three bedroom house? I don’t care about the bedroom, about the bathrooms. I don’t care about the bathrooms. Could be one bathroom, two bathroom. You always want to have a house with a one bathroom. They don’t want to sell it with
Kristen Knapp (20:25)
Right? Let’s come together. Yeah? Yeah.Louis Bazan (20:49)
So I don’t even look at it. I just look, flawed insurance, no flawed insurance, no insurance, I paid in cash. But if I’m going to pay, I am not opposed to buy, to be in mortgage. All my house, I don’t have mortgages. All the houses and the office is all pay off. And I have a strong balance sheet, you know, that means that I can downturn, sub-turn, doesn’t matter. I don’t have insurance. Other thing is people are having, I mean, this is what I do. Some people oppose, some people…But people ask me, hey, why don’t you have a roof insurance, insurance for the house? I insured myself and I can tell you all the time, all the hurricanes have passed and broken all the couple of the roof. I paid less money in these people repairing from my pocket, repairing not from the business pocket, than paying an insurance. When I take the, I mean, I don’t know if you guys are selling insurance, but.
I don’t, but for me, I mean, it could work for certain people for, me, doesn’t work because when I take the numbers out, when I put the numbers out, my numbers, my computer of how much you, I would be paying in insurance monthly and how many times my roof has been broken. And you know, from 2017 and now has been a lot of years in the United States, you know, and I have many houses with a lot of problems. Like I had, I have three of their houses, big problem and huge repairs.
And when I took numbers out, it’s better not having insurance. And because I paid in cash, guess what? I’m not restricted with the bank. Hey, you need to have an insurance. You need to have this or that. I mean, that’s my experience. I’m not saying everyone to do the same thing. There’s certain occasions that you might want to buy insurance, but I don’t really, I work this way and the money’s coming in a beautiful way.
Kristen Knapp (22:36)
Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, think you’ve given such practical advice for people on how to buy, when to buy, what to buy. I think that a lot of people will really benefit from some of the specific things you’ve shared. We’re reaching our time right now, but I would love for you to talk about your podcast and where people can find it.Louis Bazan (22:51)
Yes.thank you. I have a podcast called Authentic You like back here. It’s Authenticyou.us. Authenticyou.us, that podcast is for the world, is for helping the people to ⁓ uncover their uniqueness and achieve an epic life. I am more now in my life, more in my spiritual enhancement, more to give to the world all what God gave me, a beautiful life. And I’m so excited.
honored to understand what is my mission in life and to finally, now that I’m getting older, probably, totally understand. I see what is my mission that is helping the world to become a better place to live and live this legacy of, I have this, why don’t you put a smile on people’s face through this podcast that I have that, again, is more personal growth, but also we discuss a little bit of
of financial independence, because it’s so important in life having your four empires, your four areas in your life, like heart set, soul set, and financial set is the most. Actually, if I wouldn’t be financial set, I wouldn’t be able to read all these audio books and all these books and all this beautiful, know, unbreathed work that I do in the morning. I don’t work until 11. I start working after 11 or 12. I do very little work because again, what I’m…
I, what I do is more inviting people to my podcast to about talking about how can, how can people achieve their, their dream life. And because if you have, remember if you have that to finish that, the finish, I know we’re finishing. If you, if you really know your dream, what you know, what’s one in life and you already, they sign me your dream life and you’re, and you’re already having this beautiful life and you’re
happy with what you’re doing, then everything will come beautiful, come to you. The houses, the property, everything financially will come to you because you are not struggling, you are not pushing, you are not fighting with the world. You are more flowing like the water and the things you don’t have to go to look for property or for the money, the money will come to you.
Kristen Knapp (24:53)
andAbsolutely. Well,
I think that’s a great holistic view of, you know, get it like making your career successful. You really do have to start with your mindset. thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much for being here, Lewis. And do you have any other channels that people can go to to find you?
Louis Bazan (25:10)
Mindset is more important. Yes.Thank you.
Yes,
I have a YouTube channel too. If they go to AuthenticYou.us, they’re going to see the podcast in there. Actually, AuthenticYou.us slash all links. They go to the top of all links and the all links they gonna find my podcast. Also, they’re gonna find the houses I’m renting. I mean, I’m so already rented right now, but yeah, the houses, the different website that I and different things I do.
But the podcast, Authentic You podcast, and yeah, AuthenticYou.us, they go there and all links, they’re gonna see everything about me. they hopefully can learn more. have, they’re working a course right now, how to build your life, how to be authentic. It’s all about being authentic, being yourself, not trying to be other. Just be yourself and be yourself. You’re gonna see how many beautiful things.
is going to come to your life. You’re to be surprised because things that are going to come to you are things that you never imagined before.
Kristen Knapp (26:21)
wonderful. Thank you so much for being here. I think that you gave such well-rounded advice.Louis Bazan (26:27)
Okay, thank youand have a beautiful. I hope you guys continue growing in your podcasts and blessings and again, keep your heart. I’m going to finish with this quote that I create because it’s a, if your heart and your mind are aligned, following your intuition will guide you to the right place.
Doubts for what’s going to happen from that moment and on shouldn’t exist. Just accept and enjoy the process. Have a beautiful night. Thank you.
Kristen Knapp (26:53)
Right.Yes, have a great day and thank you everybody for listening
and we will see you back next time. Bye.
Louis Bazan (27:03)
Thank you. Bye bye.
