Mastering Market Dynamics: Abe’s Secrets to Real Estate Success

Michael Stansbury (00:01.944)
Hello everybody and welcome to the Real Estate Pros Podcast. I’m Mike Stansbury, special guest today all the way from Puerto Rico, Esfandiary . Did I get that right, Abe? Did I, I, did I? Abe, how’s it going today, man?Abe Esfandiary (00:17.467)
Yeah, pretty close. Pretty close.

It’s beautiful. It’s good.

Michael Stansbury (00:22.934)
I know it’s not beautiful here in Memphis, Tennessee, but it is beautiful there in Puerto Rico,

Abe Esfandiary (00:28.027)
Yeah, that is one thing that’s nice about Puerto Rico. It’s always beautiful.

Michael Stansbury (00:32.11)
Yes sir. Well, let me do this real quick and then we’ll get started. want to hear about what you’re doing now in the world of real estate and hear your story. But first at Investor Fuel, we help real estate investors, service providers and real estate entrepreneurs, 2 to 5X their businesses to allow them to build the businesses they’ve always wanted and allow them to live the lives they’ve always dreamed of. A, before we get into kind of current status, right? What are you doing? What was your origin story in the real estate? How did you pivot? Where were you? What were you doing before you came into real estate?

Tell us about that.

Abe Esfandiary (01:03.825)
So the thing is I was kind of always in real estate. I went to college when I went there. It was for international business and entrepreneurship. Right out of college, started a business and it was a successful business. I was making more money than people that I knew right out of college, right? It was a clothing business. It was right before, if you saw that company called Zazzle. So we were doing custom made to order stuff and we were doing, it could even do one-offs.

was to go and roll it out and it was really successful. But then I had some friends that were in the mortgage industry. They were like, hey, listen, you got to come into this. You would be amazing here. And then I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I’m good. I’m good. And they just they pestered me so much that I said, you know what? I’ll do it part time. Let’s see what happens. Right. And then so typically the average loan officer and if this is that they’re busting their butts, right, if they’re busting their butts within about three to six months, they’ll become a

loan officer. So they go from junior loan officer to loan officer. And part of the requisite was that you had to put 15 leads in one week. And this was cold calling, right? This was in those days, like cold calling. Like I had to get your social security. I had to get your date of birth over the phone. You didn’t know who I was. Nothing, right? And my first week I did 14.

So I missed it by one. And then my second week, I did 16. So I automatically graduated as a loan officer. then, you, I’m fresh out of college. And in my first month on a 20 % commission split, I made $25,000. And I was like, you know what? This might be for me. So my partner bought me out of that company that we had. And I just dove in full head first.

And from there, it went really, really well. But then we had our problems starting in like 08 to 09, the whole mortgage implosion.

Michael Stansbury (03:11.745)
The pivot, right? Yeah, the big pivot.

Abe Esfandiary (03:14.353)
Yeah, I saw it coming. So I was preparing for that. started while it was happening, I started Foreclosure Solutions Company and we were helping people save their homes from foreclosure. And it wasn’t loan modifications. We were actually litigating against the banks, had lawyers that were part of the company. And it was this whole program. And one day completely wiped out her mortgage because there was this whole robot system that the government was using. And when they transferred mortgages, they didn’t do them correctly. Right. So somebody would have

originate the loan another company would service the loan but when they send it over it was all electronic filing and stuff like that but they needed actual signatures that made them illegal so for a couple people they walk away mortgage free yeah not bad the laws changed on that alongside that we started doing like some debt settlement because if people having problem with the mortgage they’re having problem with their debt

And you know, in that whole process, the government’s like, well, you know, only lawyers can do this. And if you’re going to do this, you have to take, you have to wait to get paid. So the average timeline for it was about four to five years. So I couldn’t afford to pay all my people four to six years, you know, office expenses. Like, you know, I was doing well. I wasn’t doing that well. Right. And I was like, okay, well, I have enough residual income that’s coming here.

You know, let me move on believe it or not. I was like, it’s always good. Let me try my hand at acting My acting coach was the same acting coach for Nicole Kidman I met her she loved me and It just all happened that on one of the days we had a friend of ours He used to flip cars like, you know Jeeps in I’m from New York originally and he was doing this in Queens and when he was doing this in Queens

He was you know, he would get like one or two. He made like $5,000 every time which is nice, right? And then all of sudden he moved into the city and I’m like, hey, what are you doing in the city? And then he was like, oh, I’m doing real estate and I’m like, oh, what are you doing real estate? And then he said I’m doing rentals and to me in my head, you know ignorant I was like, oh, that’s cute, you know, like oh, how do you do it? but you you do it well and then he was like, yeah, I made 25,000 this month. I said

Abe Esfandiary (05:40.94)
He was like, did. was like, yo, show me a pay stub or show me your bank statement. He showed it to me. He was having like a little housewarming party at his new place in the city. And then I saw that and I was like, tell your broker I’m going to come in on Monday. And he was like, okay. I called him Sunday. was like, yeah, did you set it up? He’s like, I thought you were joking. I was like, I’m not joking. I’m dead serious. The broker met me. was like, you would do amazing. Skip this acting stuff. Don’t worry.

about it. I want you to come because this is the hot season. I’ll pay for your acting classes. If you don’t, whatever happens, I’m going to pay for it.” And then I was like, all right, well, if you’re going to pay for it, let’s go. And then right away, right out the gate, killed it. Another 25,000 the first month. And I was like, oh, well, this ain’t bad. I did really well. I perfected that. I still hold the record for that area of Manhattan in the Grand Marcy Lower East Side East Village area.

I did 31 transactions in a single month and only two of them were co-wrote.

And then so I did really well. At that point, I got recruited by Corcoran City Habitats and I got the exclusive to I don’t know if you’re familiar with it, but it’s the largest residential development in the United States. It’s Peter Cooper Stuyvesant Town. It got bought by

Tishman Spire, they were trying to make condos and the whole thing. And then Black Rock Bottom and the whole, the CW Capital, it was a whole thing. And I did really, really well there. I ended up, they put me in charge of a team. It was like 30 plus agents. Then I went out on my own. went to, had my associate broker, right? And then because that’s,

Michael Stansbury (07:18.112)
Right.

Abe Esfandiary (07:37.557)
property has a lot to do with rent stabilization which is not a very easy thing to navigate you got to know how to handle it right because excuse me you got to know how to handle it it’s it’s really really not easy like there’s a lot of laws that come in place obviously to protect everyone and rightfully so but

straw that broke the camel’s back was there was this one guy was helping him. It was in Spanish Harlem. I got him. It was on 116th street. So we picked up this property. I got it for him. 900,000. Then, in some of those, like this lady, one lady had an entire floor and entire, and it was rent. Cause you could have rent stabilized rent control. was paying $600 for the entire, and there were other people that had some, units, but they were paying a little bit higher.

Michael Stansbury (08:22.187)
Mm.

Abe Esfandiary (08:28.085)
The other ones I negotiated, I was like, listen, what if I can get you, if I gave you 20,000, you, and they took it except for her because she was like, where am I going to go? And then I was like, I was like, yeah, it’s true. So I had a friend that was in Orlando at the time and she was selling her three bedroom, two bath condo. This was back in, flies. I don’t know, maybe.

12, 15 years ago. she would in the same condo now it’s like 350, 400, right? But she was selling it for like 120. So I was like, listen,

I want to show you this place. I’m going to take you there, free trip, whole thing. Don’t worry about it. We took her over there. I showed her the place and I was like, how would you like to live here? Gate, right? Security, tennis court, swimming pool. The maintenance was $243 if I remember correctly. And then I called the local Mercedes dealership and I was like, listen, I’m looking at Lisa Carr. All I need you to do is I need you to bring it here, put it in this parking spot and just leave it there.

That’s it, one day. And we do this, we’re good. Brought her there, sure, she was like, oh, I love it. And we’re like, listen, we’re gonna pay this whole thing for you. This is yours. The maintenance is less than what you pay over there. So your social security, you’ll have money left over. And she’s like, yeah, but you know, I have the subway, how am I gonna get around? I was like, come with me. We went downstairs, there’s a little carport awning, and I was like, you see that parking spot over there? She’s like, yeah, the Mercedes, is that yours? I was like, no.

yours. It’s paid for. The next three years it’s done. Everything is taken care of. If you say yes, we’ll get you this place.” was like, let’s go. Did that within, it was like six to eight months, something like that. The guy turned it around $1.2 million. I made $50,000. And then I was like, you know what? I’m done. I was like, I’m making all these guys money. It’s time for me to make money.

Abe Esfandiary (10:40.499)
So I bought a property in the neighborhood I grew up with. And then I converted. was an old one family home, converted into a two family, sold it for a record price in the area, sold it for $1.24 million, walked away with a really nice profit. Then at that point I was like, you know what? I’m going to keep doing this. So I wanted to find my own deals. I started going out there to try to find my own. Because on the MLS, you’ll find some deals.

on the MLS, there’s competition, right? So, you know, it’s like Taylor Daganites, like Ricky Bobby. It’s the fastest that gets laid and it’s the fastest that gets paid, right? But I knew that…

Michael Stansbury (11:10.944)
Right?

Michael Stansbury (11:21.771)
That’s right. Yeah.

Abe Esfandiary (11:25.799)
These people were getting it. I was like, what if I just go and try to get it myself? So I was getting, I was coming across these deals. A lot of the deals I wouldn’t touch, right? Like I’m not going to spend my time to make 25,000, 30,000, you know, it’s juicing worth the squeeze. So as I was getting these deals, other people were like, well, I would take that deal.

I take that deal and then I realized I could start assigning these deals for a moment. So with that, that’s how this wholesaling business started. Then that’s how the fix and flip buy and hold business started. And then from there, it’s just been a rocket ship.

Michael Stansbury (11:57.804)
Yeah!

Michael Stansbury (12:05.345)
Now so you do this nationally as well, you wholesale. So tell me about your marketing strategies. Do you stick to a couple of markets or kind of where’s the ponds that you’re fishing in?

Abe Esfandiary (12:17.053)
So great question. One of my ponds is extremely hard to do. And that’s like the New York, New Jersey area. And the reason why I did that is because it was close for me. New Jersey, I just go over the bridge. I was living in Manhattan, so it’s easy. just go back and forth. I can check it out. I can meet with these sellers.

I would say it’s probably one of the most difficult markets to do because the comps are incredibly hard to do. If you think you’re going to do the comps, try them. You’re going to get screwed. So, but I knew it so well that I was like, okay, you know, and then that’s how I started. like two and a half, three years ago, I brought in a COO and then I had some friends that he acquired this lead company. And then at that point,

we’re doing is we branched out to South Carolina, North Carolina, a little bit of Texas, Kentucky, and there’s certain areas where we target, but in those areas, there’s other people when you contact them, they’re like, oh, well, I have a house here. And it’s like, listen, we can still buy it there. It’s just got to make sense for us. So we can buy on a national level, but for the most part, there’s some areas that we focus on South Carolina, North Carolina, Kentucky, New Jersey, New York, Las Vegas.

Texas

Tennessee.

Michael Stansbury (13:48.501)
Okay, yeah. if there is, and so you also sometimes take down some of these, but is there a specific market that you like only take down properties?

Abe Esfandiary (13:54.769)
I think I’m alive.

Abe Esfandiary (13:59.165)
So I would say that we take down.

I want to keep my guys busy because now I even have a construction company now, right? So I want to keep them busy even if like maybe the deal is not so well, not so good, but it keeps them tied up because that’s one thing that you got to watch out with your contractors, right? If you don’t keep them busy, they’re going to go to somebody else. And then when the time comes and you need them, it’s going to be like, damn. So sometimes you better bite that bullet, get paid a little less, make sure that they stay busy. And then when you’re, when you need them, they’re

But for the most part, I really don’t target anything unless I’m making at least six digits.

Michael Stansbury (14:44.277)
Okay, that’s a really, it’s such a great thing for our listeners to hear is that when you’re growing up in this business and you do a certain level, at some point you have to know exactly where your superpower is and where you’re willing to do business at. I was talking to a guy and we were talking about lumber mills and there’s this lumber mill down in Mississippi and they only work one day a week.

And the reason why I live one day a week is because they only take really nice hardwoods and they only want to work with people that bring them really nice hardwoods because if they get those really nice pecan or walnut and do those, it’s a lot more ROI on those trees than regular trees for railroad ties or something like that. So it speaks to the fact that, hey, if you’re willing to do business and you’re at a certain level, you can stick within

framework that works for you, we’re getting the most profit and hey, it sounds like you’re doing something like that.

Abe Esfandiary (15:52.657)
Yeah, so you broke up with it a little, I caught the whole thing pretty much. Yeah, so I say this to people all the time. It’s like, you’re busting your butt.

for a $15,000 deal. I do the same amount of work. And let’s say it’s an assignment or fix and flip or whatever the case is. It’s the same amount of work to do a $15,000 deal as it is to make a $150,000 deal. So why waste your time on this? Wait till the right one comes along, focus on that one and just give it to somebody else, make a little bit of profit. Because I always tell like, listen, you need to calculate and figure out what

What is the time value of money? What is your time value of money? Right? And if your time value of money is $1,500 an hour and you take this other thing and it’s going to make you $150, guess what? That’s not worth it.

Michael Stansbury (16:48.429)
Right? What a great, I love that, that’s diamond level drops on that Abe. So Abe, what else, how else are you helping people? Like maybe I’m somebody that’s wanting to get into real estate investing and I’m doing it, but I’m not, I don’t know where to go or what to do. Are you helping people in that realm as well?

Abe Esfandiary (17:07.153)
Yeah, so it’s interesting you say that. my fiance and I, we’ve been talking, she’s like, listen, people are always coming to you. They’re like, what should I do here? What should I do this? And you’re always, you know, you’re always helping them. doing, and I love, I love that. I love helping people and the wholesaling side of the business. I help people so much.

And I will get deals from other that other people should have had, right? Because like they would have offered them more money, but they really didn’t solve their problem. Right. I remember there was this, like honestly, like the last three that were like $150,000 wholesale, like people don’t get 150,000 wholesalers, but this is what we do. So it’s like, Oh, you know, I don’t have a place to live. Like my credit is shot this and this, like I have this is such a burden. So.

We’ll go and you know, we have resources and you know what, even if you don’t have resources, you can pick up the phone and you can get resources. It’s easy, it’s a conversation. Like you don’t do it, I’m gonna talk to somebody else that will, right? And then we got somebody set up and like, okay listen, they don’t have the best credit but let’s do this. From the closing, I’m gonna pay you the entire year, two years up front. And this is what the lease will be, I’ll negotiate the lease.

only have an X percent increase every year so I know that their social security checks and the money that they’re getting will take care of it they don’t have to worry about the snow nothing like that that for them is gold because they don’t have anybody that can really help that but that is extra work right but it’s not the same as doing ten fifteen thousand dollar deals

Michael Stansbury (18:56.031)
Right. That’s right.

Abe Esfandiary (18:56.755)
Right? Right? So I can, I can help people like that. That’s how like I, we help the end user. Sometimes like the house is just so asked, right? I’ll be like, listen, don’t worry about it. You take whatever you want out of the house. Don’t worry about anything. We’ll clear out anything from the house. You don’t have to worry about a single thing. Oh, I have this. I, I got it in probate. I can’t pay for this. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of the probate for you. My attorney will do all these things for you.

that you know at that point he’s working on your behalf he’s not my attorney he works for you but he’ll do all this work but I will pay him to take care of all these things that you need to do right yeah and then so now what it is is she was like you’re so people are always coming to you why don’t you start like teaching them what to do and it’s like because I can teach somebody what to do whether they have terrible credit

Michael Stansbury (19:37.343)
Awesome. Yeah.

Abe Esfandiary (19:57.137)
You have terrible credit. You have no money to your name. And I’ll show you how to get money. Even with your terrible credit, we’ll fix that. If you have no money, I’ll show you how to get the money. I’ll show you how to get money with 0 % finance. Like I literally mean zero. Zero.

Use that as your down payment money to pick up this property use hard money where they’ll give you 90 to 85 percent of the purchase on a hundred percent of the construction I’ll show you how to get the contractor the contractor that’s not going to screw you right because you give him the money and then he disappears I’ll show you what to do there and then once you got that I’ll show you how to make 50 60 000 on your field and then roll that into the next one the next one the next one the next one whether you have

a ton of experience or you have none because I see a lot of investors, you know, they have a bunch of money. They put 20 % down, right. And they’re on that 20 % down. They’re getting a 5 % cap rate. I was like, listen, with your qualifications, you should be getting an infinite return on your investment. You should have no money in the deal, right? No money in the deal. And then just have it. You have 25 % equity, right? That goes to your

Michael Stansbury (20:53.889)
Yeah.

Michael Stansbury (20:59.469)
Right?

Michael Stansbury (21:04.8)
Exactly.

Yep.

Abe Esfandiary (21:15.893)
Your, uh, your net, it’s not, not, it’s escaping me right now.

Michael Stansbury (21:21.099)
Yeah, I know it’s something that happens in the afternoon, your brain goes fried a little bit, I’m tracking with it. so, but you’re right, every investor should have that skill set of being able to get infinite returns. And once you realize that, then it’s all about going finding the deals and applying that process to it.

Abe Esfandiary (21:25.041)
Yeah,

Abe Esfandiary (21:41.287)
Yeah, and some people want a passive income. Some people don’t want a passive income. Some people want that big return, you know? And I think that there’s a lot of ways to skin this cat. It just depends on what you want to do.

Michael Stansbury (21:49.067)
Yes, sir.

Michael Stansbury (21:55.15)
Well Abe, first let people know where can they find you on the internet, where is some information about what you’re doing now and where can people find you at?

Abe Esfandiary (22:06.749)
So that’s a great question. the kind of, you know, the help and mentorship that I’m doing, it hasn’t launched yet, but I don’t know, do we have the ability of having a link on the podcast? Okay.

Michael Stansbury (22:22.485)
Yeah, we can have show notes added to it. You can send it to us. Yes, sir.

Abe Esfandiary (22:25.459)
So definitely check out the show links in the podcast and what this will do is this will give you there’s some free stuff that you’re going to get, right? There’s in when we launched this, this is going to be a like huge, huge discounts for people that come early after that. The price is going to be what it’s worth. And other than that, if you guys want to follow me, I have like my personal Instagram page is a line.

of NY and that’s on Instagram and then I have you have to excuse me let me see the other one and this is the one that you would want to follow to show you all the little different tips and tricks on you know how to maximize things and there’s there’s gonna be some gold on there gold on there because you’ll see like anything that I post up you’ll be like well did he really make six digits on it well we went on the thing well he

actually made $198,000. You can check it. I put my money where my mouth is. And that Instagram page is called the investor formula. At the investor formula. And then follow that. Either sign up with the link below, or you can go there, follow. And there’s going to be some interesting stuff that’s coming out.

Michael Stansbury (23:27.617)
Yeah, Sean. Yep.

Michael Stansbury (23:38.349)
Okay.

Abe Esfandiary (23:52.379)
Stay tuned. But if you can get in on the ground floor, you will literally save anywhere in the room like 60 % of what everybody else will have to deal with.

Michael Stansbury (24:03.701)
Yeah, well Abe, appreciate that. Folks, if you’re interested, the information will be down there in the show notes. Abe, thank you for being a part of the Real Estate Pros podcast. And folks, like I said, thank you. Comment, like, and subscribe. And check out Abe, what Abe’s doing on Instagram, and all the information that’s the show notes. Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you next time on the Real Estate Pros podcast.