Investing, Scaling, and Revitalizing Properties

Christian (00:01.046)
Hey everybody. Welcome back to the show. Today we have an incredible guest. His name is Paul Montelongo, a seasoned entrepreneur and investor with 40 years of experience in building and operating multimillion dollar businesses. He’s generated over 90 million in revenue generated and a portfolio that spans over 1400 units across eight markets. He specializes in revitalizing underperforming specialty properties, including marinas, resorts, multifamily apartments, and event.

venues. on this episode, we’re going to dive into Paul’s journey, how he built his empire, as I would call it, his approach to identifying high potential properties and the mindset needed to balance business success with personal fulfillment. He’s also going to share valuable insights on scaling a real estate portfolio, building high performing teams and maximizing your profits. So whether you’re an investor, you’re an entrepreneur, or just someone looking for inspiration, this episode is packed with wisdom. You’re just not going to want to miss. So without further ado, Paul.

Welcome to the show. I’m very excited to have you on. Why don’t you just introduce to the audience who you are, your background, and just how you got here.

Paul Montelongo (01:09.442)
Thanks a lot Christian. That was a very nice introduction there So yeah, yeah, yeah, so yeah, so I’ve been I’ve had a lifetime of business entrepreneurship real estate investing And everything that goes along with it So I like to tell the story of my first investment was when I was 17 years old. I bought a piece of raw land and I had this great idea that I was going to build a house a speculative house and sell it and make all this money and I had

Christian (01:13.024)
Ciao, best.

Paul Montelongo (01:38.7)
no clue about how to build a house at the age of 17. So two years later, I posted a sign on a telephone pole saying lot for sale. And it actually had my parents telephone number on it. I got the call. And I invested $7500 in that lot. I sold it for $15,000. So you know, I doubled my money and I did what every seasoned real estate investor should do with a windfall profit like that I

bought a truck and a motorcycle. so then two years later, I bought my first residential house and I flipped it. And then I just started buying houses and doing flip, fixing flips along the way. I had a construction company. I had a real estate business. I had a insurance restoration company. I had a marketing company. I then transitioned into

commercial real estate as a full-time investment strategy in 2013 I had bought a couple of commercial properties, you know prior to that but my focus then moved to all commercial properties cash flow multi-tenant properties when I bought a marina in North Carolina on the lake called Lake Wiley and We you know, we renovated that marina we put in

tiny homes and I had storage and events and boats and boat rentals and lot storage. At one point I had 13 streams of revenue and that’s when I really got hooked on multi-tenant properties and the multiple streams of revenue on those properties. So now I buy primarily apartments or storage. We are venturing out into some other asset classes like assisted living and like flex space and like data storage.

Again the multi tenant Multiple streams of revenue type properties make a lot of sense to me because you have one transaction one close but then you have a number of ways to Monetize that property and to get revenue coming in off that one property. So that’s where we are now

Paul Montelongo (03:59.102)
And I mean, been it’s it’s been a journey. actually been a little bit more than 40 years. I think in your opening, you said 40 years, but let’s go with 40 years for right now. OK, it’s been like for. But yeah.

Christian (04:07.22)
I was going to say, yeah, let’s leave it at 40. That’s incredible. That’s incredible. Well, I’m interested, you know, you’ve built and operated, you know, eight multi-million dollar businesses. mean, I’m curious to know, I know the audiences as well. What was the biggest lesson you’ve learned from all of those experiences and also the biggest lessons that you’re learning right now?

Paul Montelongo (04:30.806)
Yeah, the biggest lesson is personnel. People, you have to have the right people with you, around you, on your team, people that you collaborate with, people that you joint venture with. Every contact in your sphere has to be the best kind of people that you can find. I’m talking about lenders, I’m talking about bankers, insurance people, vendors, construction people, anybody that’s related to your business, your ability to find like,

best humans that you can find, that you can wrap yourself around is the key to it. And so, you know, I had to learn that the hard way, the long way, but fortunately after a few years I learned it and I still have to learn it. So we, you when we partner with people or I collaborate with people or even if I’m just providing some kind of consultation or some kind of sponsorship for people, it’s…

It’s the people behind it because you know, I wish everything were to go super duper smoothly in business and in real estate, but it doesn’t and that’s the reality. And so what happens to your deal when when something, you know, when hard times come on the deal for whatever reason, you know, what kind of people are you in the foxhole with? So the quality of the people to me has become the largest learning.

experience that I’ve had and it continues to be the largest learning experience like always Always making sure that that I wrap myself around people with similar values and and and mission and Work ethic and those kinds of those kinds of values

Christian (06:18.006)
love that, I love that. So other than those things that you touched on just now about what you’re looking for as far as people, but maybe let’s talk about how you can build a high performing team as well, right? mean, what would you say are some of the most important qualities you look for when you’re assembling a team to manage and grow your investments and also how you’re optimizing your current team across your companies as well?

Paul Montelongo (06:40.076)
Yeah, so let’s be clear. you know, skill set is extremely important. So if I’m looking, let’s say for a project manager, project management skill set has to be there and there has to be experience with that skill set. Okay. That’s great. So that’s the, that’s an assumption. If I’m, we’re using the example of project manager. So that’s an assumption. You got to have some experience aside from that, or actually more important to that is what about the person?

Christian (06:43.692)
Mm-hmm.

Paul Montelongo (07:08.6)
What about their work ethic? What about their family? What projects have they been on? How did they handle stress? How did they handle work overload? What do they do in their off time? One of the classic examples I give is that I have an assistant that’s been with me since 2009. And she’s been, she’s made my personal assistant for however many years that is, since 2009.

And she reminds me that in the interview, I asked her a question. said, if you had, if you had any, any amount of money and money wasn’t a thing and, you weren’t doing this job, you didn’t have to have a, have a job, what would you do with your life? And she said, well, I would be a professional bodybuilder. I’m like, really? Well, come to find out she was a competitive bodybuilder as it was anyway, you know, in her off time. And, and, to me that said several things that said.

discipline that said drive that said set a goal and go get it and Then of course she had the technical skills that I was looking for in an administrative assistant So, you know, that’s that’s an example that comes to my brain So there’s the skill set and then there’s then there’s the person, you know, there’s the human and it’s as it’s turned out she’s been to been a super in her example been a super

Valuable asset, you know, I mean a few years ago she got cancer and she just fought her way through it so that’s a testament to She had lung cancer really and she was actually giving her last rites But you know, she fought her way through it. So that that is, know a testament who she is as a person so I Look for those kinds of people like the people that I’m with right now and collaborate with and partner with and the people that work for us

As a whole, I would say that, you know, they have really good personality skills and really good drive and determination. They’re focused on their mission. They’re focused on who they are as individuals. They’re focused on their family and we’re like really making an impact in the world. And so that’s, that’s the kind of people like to be around. And I find that those in my world, those kinds of people tend to, to be better people to work with. Yeah. Yep.

Christian (09:28.928)
love that. Yeah, it makes your life easier as well, right? You know, they hold the same core values as well. They hold the same work ethic as well. I mean, those qualities are so important that you touched on. So since we’re on that subject, I mean, we know and I know specifically that you help real estate investors and professionals find balance, right, in their work and their businesses. So how do you maintain balance while managing multiple businesses and doing all your investments or everything?

Paul Montelongo (09:36.814)
Mm-hmm

Paul Montelongo (09:46.99)
.

Christian (09:57.886)
Also, how do you help other people achieve the same result?

Paul Montelongo (10:02.958)
Yeah, so we can talk real here, right, Christian? Yeah, the thing is I don’t always have balance. I really don’t. It’s a thing that I continue to work on and strive. But I think when you’re passionate about something and when you have a mission about a thing, in this case, it’d be real estate and my business and the wealth and the…

Christian (10:06.258)
Absolutely, as real as it gets.

Paul Montelongo (10:31.602)
The impact the legacy that I want to leave then I think sometimes a person can become myself included can become out of balance by that definition But are are you really out of balance? Are you just so driven and so on mission and so on task and so on purpose that it feels to others that it might be out of balance to me it doesn’t feel a lot most of the times I feel like I’m out of balance. It feels like I’m just I’m just in it. I’m pursuing it. Okay, that said

I know that I have to take care of my body. I know that I have to take care of my mindset. I know that I must take care of my relationships with my wife and children. And so those are a priority as well. There’s like no demarcation between the two. It’s just all blended. It’s part of the recipe. So is that balance? Is that life balance? I don’t know. I think it’s life engagement and those are that, you know, we’re all made up of a lot of different colors. There’s a lot of colors on our palette.

and then the palette, you know, it all comes together as one. So could be in balance or it could just be the conglomeration of life, which is what I choose to believe.

Christian (11:44.95)
I’ve never heard it worded the way that you just worded that. That’s absolutely incredible. Let’s transition here. I’m curious to know. mean, I know you said you’ve had that personal system also since I believe you said 2009, don’t quote me. But before that year, we know what that year was. I mean, that was 2008 and you’ve been doing this for, we’re going to say 40, 40 years, right? How have you adapted to different market cycles, specifically that one as well?

Paul Montelongo (11:57.038)
Yeah.

Paul Montelongo (12:07.656)
That’s the number we’re going with.

Christian (12:13.286)
And where do you see the current market heading all across the real estate board in the next five to 10 years?

Paul Montelongo (12:20.63)
Yeah, that’s a great question. So in my career, in my life, the media has identified four recessions. All right. With the last one being maybe a couple of years ago and who knows if that was identified as a recession. But for the sake of this conversation, let’s say that the media has identified four timeframes where there was a recession in our economy. Well, I participated in the first one.

Christian (12:30.113)
Mm-hmm.

Paul Montelongo (12:50.444)
So the first one was back in the 80s and, and, know, there was high gas prices and high mortgage prices and there was a recession and all this. And I participated in it. Like I was a victim of it. but that was of my own choosing, right? Because we have the choice. Can we be a victim or are we not going to be a victim? So the other three, I chose not to participate in those recessions.

And so the, what you’re talking about in 2008, 2009, 2010 provided a huge opportunity for me personally. I was living in Texas and I moved out to Las Vegas, lived out there so that I could invest in real estate in California because California real estate had taken a tank, which meant there was opportunity. So, and I didn’t want to live in California. I preferred to live in a non income tax state, Nevada next door, four hour drive over to the market that I was investing in.

And so that provided an opportunity. So where did that come from? So that’s a mindset. And that’s a choice that I was that I made from after from going out of the first recession quote. And so we have we have a choice. We have a choice to participate or to not participate. We have a choice to participate or to see the opportunity. So and that’s that’s nothing more than a mindset because of an individual can become a victim.

to any circumstance and especially a circumstance created by the media. So, or a person can have a choice not to become a participant in that and not to become a victim, but to become a victor. So, that’s the choice that I’ve made. listen, every day in the chapters of our life, every day there are challenges.

There are, we have two choices. We have the choice of being a victim of the event or being able to conquer the event. So there’s the event and then there’s what we choose to do with the event, how we choose to process that. And that’s the case with business, relationships, health and fitness with our family. That’s the case with everything that happens, you know, happens in life is like we have the choice to.

Paul Montelongo (15:10.891)
to choose how we process the event.

Christian (15:14.508)
I love that. Paul, have you always had this mindset that you have right now? Or do you think it was experience that you’ve always had by being in this for so long that helped you create this mindset that you possess? Or did you have a mentor maybe early on, earlier on in your career that helps you develop these skill sets? Or how has that been for you?

Paul Montelongo (15:40.556)
No, I haven’t always had this. I’m fortunate to have been raised in a family that, you know, my father, God rest his soul, it was a football coach. And so, you know, there was a lot of rah rah in our house because that was his nature. Right. So I grew up with that exposure, but. And there was, you know, there were the common phrases around the house, you know.

Christian (15:42.665)
Yeah.

Paul Montelongo (16:05.912)
quitters never win, winners never quit, those kinds of things. So I imagine that got into my psyche, of course, but in terms of really making a conscious decision about the events that happened into my life, I really didn’t know that you could make a conscious decision until, you know, maybe I was in my late 20s or early 30s. I just didn’t, I didn’t realize it, okay, we have the ability to choose how we…

Process the events that happen into our life. I just thought the events happened and you just roll with the punches so Yeah, I had people that taught me this and I had you know books that I read and you know programs that I went to and these kinds of things that that really provided a you know, a nice mentorship for me and then I think As life progressed and I had certain things that happened to me that many people could say, know were negative

And even though they didn’t feel very good. I Was fortunate enough to be able to choose to process them and process them in a way that would serve me Rather than damage me and by the way, that’s an ongoing process It’s like I don’t think we wake up every every morning and go Today’s the best and it’s it’s always gonna be great like this maybe you think that but it’s

Christian (17:18.294)
Yeah.

Christian (17:25.025)
Nope.

Paul Montelongo (17:30.798)
After you take an evaluation of the things that have happened it’s like oh this happened and that would that didn’t feel too good but I can reframe it in such a way so I think you asked a little bit earlier about the market and where it’s going and I have optimism about the market so in 2024 excuse me 2025 and 2026 I have a much better optimism than I did in 2024 and 2023 the realities of the market with the with the

interest rates and The tightness in the market provided some challenges that we hadn’t seen in a while And so now, you know, we handle those challenges obviously But now we see a loosening of those challenges and I think especially in multifamily and in Apartments and those kinds of assets. I think I think that the bottom we’ve seen the bottom Or we’ve seen very close to the bottom. So That means that everything is on the way up

In my view that of course relates to a lot of you know external factors interest rates the Fed Consumer confidence all of those things are just you know, they’re just a bowl a recipe. That’s always that’s always cooking But I do feel optimism. I think that the current administration is producing some optimism in the marketplace as well. So I’m optimistic about what’s going to happen over the next five to ten years

I do think that the country is going to experience growth population growth. I do think that the country is going to experience economic growth and so all of that and and we’re entering this age we have entered this age of AI It’s like it affects everything that we do. In fact, you’ll probably edit this program through AI I don’t know but you probably will it’ll be done in like two minutes or less and so

Christian (19:20.94)
you

Paul Montelongo (19:27.199)
You know, a lot of good things are happening and I’m choosing to see those good things as a positive sign.

Christian (19:34.122)
about that. So Paul, what is, how are you going to position yourself, you know, to take advantage, you know, of the, of that landscape here for your businesses?

Paul Montelongo (19:41.336)
Sure. Yeah, sure. So first of all, our population is aging, but our population is more healthy now than it has been in years past. that that has, you know, that’s contributed to the aging. And so. All right. So our population is aging and these are the baby boomers and the baby boomers do have money as a general group.

And so that’s why we like assisted living. That’s why we like, you know, some of the nicer assisted living or some of the nicer communities that that will service this population. A.I. obviously and all the technology that wraps around it. We see opportunity there for real estate. Those kinds of facilities will need to be need a place to to reside. So we we we see that as an opportunity. And because.

Because our population continues to need housing, we still see apartments and apartment investing as a major space in the real estate that we can occupy, especially with our experience and our track record.

Christian (20:51.692)
That’s incredible. That’s incredible. Thank you for sharing. Let’s talk a little bit about, you you are a speaker as well. You are an author of three books. So why don’t you share the titles of those books as well? And also, you know, we were talking earlier. I mean, you help other people and investors, you know, I know you said, you know, there’s no such thing as, well, not no such thing, but balance is a very tough thing, right? But you also help them, you know, maximize profits and help them build high performing teams in their companies.

Why don’t you just share how all that’s going for you and how you do that.

Paul Montelongo (21:23.77)
I’ll give you a high level though, you know the books that I’ve written are on sales and on marketing and on business organization, okay? and I’ve recorded a number of training videos and those are all out there on YouTube and I’ve recorded and you know written and I Don’t know hundreds of articles and blogs and so on and so forth but essentially essentially what I do is I offer private mentoring because I was fortunate to have mentors

And so people, you know, with intimate knowledge of how a business works, I feel should be able to share that information with other people who are going through the same thing. So, and this is more than just broad-based general type, you know, self-help information. This is very specific. Like, you know, I didn’t realize or I didn’t know how to go get a thousand units of apartments.

And so like a key piece of that is capital raising. Like where do you get, where do you find the capital to buy, you know, a $10 million apartment complex? Cause you know, you have to partner and you have to be able to get debt and you have to be able to get equity. And there’s a very specific skillset with that. And that’s a learned skillset. I can give you the ABCs one, two, three of what to do and go out and you know, how to go out and do it and, and who to talk to.

But until you actually have those conversations and until someone actually wires you the money to invest in one of your projects, it’s just reading, you know? So the key is the actual experience. Operating 1,000 units or 12 or 1,500, you know, we have, I think we have currently, because we sold some, we have 1,106, right? So I’ve actually cycled through close to 2,000, but…

You know, until you go operate a 200 unit apartment complex, it’s conceptual. And so it’s not, you know, it’s not, it’s not real life experience. So, you know, I’m able to help people understand what it’s like to be able to put together a team and to be able to, to, to, to do a thing like that. The other thing is to that. I think a lot of times people.

Paul Montelongo (23:46.944)
are operating reactively instead of proactively. So we can get, if we can get people, especially real estate investors, if we can get real estate investors off the wagon and into the proactive, like what do want your business to look like? Where do you want it to go? Who you want to help? How do you, how do you, how’s your family going to react to the, to the growth of the business and so forth? Then that’s the other thing that we do. And we help people do that. So you mean a person can go to montalongocapital.com.

And there’s a tab for resources and there’s a coaching tab there. And there’s also a way to reach out to have a conversation with me. And I’m happy to have that conversation. I take all conversations. I do that for a couple of reasons. First of all, someone took my call, you know, back in the day. Somebody took my call. And there’s two guys in particular that I can think of that took my call. And they taught me how to raise money and they taught me how to go buy.

Christian (24:36.064)
Yeah.

Paul Montelongo (24:43.736)
Multi-million dollar apartment complexes and they taught me how to manage them They taught me how to sell them taught me how to deal with investors and so forth. So somebody took my call But then but then there’s also what I do that because somebody took my call and then you know If it’s helpful, I can give advice on that call and that could be it. That’s fine That might be that might be just enough to send you on your way to really do great things If you need more we can have that conversation

Christian (25:12.426)
I love that Paul. I have enjoyed this conversation so much and I honestly wish we could go for another hour because there’s so many more questions that I would like to ask you on especially, you know, exit strategies, but I would love to have you on another show here in the near future, my friend, but any other last words you’d to maybe share to the audience, maybe a new investor, maybe it’s a new real estate professional that’s looking to really just find their footing, right? They’re not sure.

Paul Montelongo (25:27.534)
That’d be great. Yeah.

Christian (25:39.18)
whether they’re going commercial, single family, Section 8, mobile homes, there’s so much noise obviously in the industry right now. Is there any advice you could give to somebody that is just trying to find, again, their footing and how to just build something long lasting?

Paul Montelongo (25:56.408)
Yeah, I’m asked that on every show that I do it’s like what’s your advice would you advice so I think about okay? How can I crystallize it into like 20 or 30 seconds? So so let’s do this first of all Know your deal like whatever kind of deal that you’re in If you’re flipping a house or if you’re buying a 35 million dollar apartment complex Know your deal the insides and outsides of every aspect of your deal

Christian (26:04.332)
Right.

Paul Montelongo (26:25.484)
Whatever you don’t know go find out Secondly from a business perspective master the art of raising capital Because if you want to grow a business doesn’t matter what kind of business it is real estate or otherwise if you want to grow a business You can eat you need capital Need capital for expansion for inventory for assets for real estate So master the art of raising capital That’s a relational thing. That’s a relationship thing. So master the the art of

Raising capital. So those are the technicalities of the business the other piece of advice I would give you is protect your mind protect it You know, it’s been said protect that six inches of real estate between your ears. That’s that that is that you know, feed your mind with healthy material Associate with people who have like mind and vision and mission and they’re encouraging to you And and they’re fun and they’re engaging and they don’t mind being vulnerable

with their mistakes and their successes. So take care of your mind and then take care of your body and also above all, take care of your relationships. there’s five things. Know your deal. Learn how to raise capital, protect your mind, protect your body and protect your relationships. And so if you do that, if you do that, you’re going to have a pretty happy life. And I think that’s what

I think that’s what the real end game is here. I don’t think the real end game is, okay, I need a thousand units or I need, you know, I need to flip 40 houses. I don’t think that’s the real end game because that stuff is kind of easy to get on its own. The real end game is how do I, how do I live a happy, fulfilling life that, you know, that can help others and people get benefit from being around you and you get benefit from being around them. So the ultimate goal here is to be happy.

Christian (27:53.312)
Yeah.

Christian (28:08.128)
Yeah.

Paul Montelongo (28:21.453)
the pursuit of happiness.

Christian (28:23.116)
I love that. I love that. You heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen. Paul, this was incredible. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation. And again, I would love to have you back on because again, I do feel like we have a lot more to discuss and talk about, but I’m just wishing you nothing but the best in your future endeavors, your businesses, and also just your life in general. I’m excited to see you continue to thrive. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Paul Montelongo (28:46.914)
Thank you. Glad being here, Christian. Glad to be here.

Christian (28:50.088)
Absolutely. Well guys, I hope you enjoyed the show as much as I did. Be sure to check this one out and also reach out to Paul. I’m sure you won’t regret it at all, but as always my friends, we will see you on the next episode. Take care everybody.

Paul Montelongo (29:04.718)
Take care.