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Show Summary
In this conversation, Aurica Burduja shares her inspiring journey into the real estate industry, detailing her transition from an immigrant with no knowledge of real estate to a successful broker, investor, and property manager. She discusses the importance of learning from mistakes, the significance of building a strong brand and team, and offers valuable insights into multifamily investments, emphasizing the need for quality tenants over quantity.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Aurica (00:00)
First of all, and first of all, it is about you. You stand in front of that business, right? You must, it’s not have to, you must have a brand already build up before you’re getting a team. You must have experience, and experience it’s not calculated in years. It’s calculated in how many sales you had, what’s your volume of sales overall.And of course, what kind of business you’re doing, what niche, how much do you know? You know, how much can you give out of this business? A lot of mistakes that I see happening, people getting into this business, selling, I don’t know, two, three, five millions, maybe a year, and they think that that’s an achievement. Well, that’s wrong. Person like this can never teach new agents on how to behave further.
Dylan Silver (02:27)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest is a broker and investor who specializes in multifamily properties and also runs a property management business as well. Please welcome Aurica Burduja. Aurica, welcome to the show.Aurica (02:44)
Hi, nice to see you. Thank you for the invite.Dylan Silver (02:48)
Absolutely, thank you for being on here. You’re involved in three different verticals within the real estate space and ⁓ it can be complicated to be involved in any one, but you’re involved in three. How did you get into the real estate space?Aurica (03:03)
Well, first of all, my journey started with investing. I started investing myself into the real estate. you remember those times after the big disaster of 2008, consequences were pretty deep, so you could get a very good deal back in the day. We were speaking earlier about these trust properties. Basically, that’s how I got into the business. Then I got my license, and then I started growing from little to what I am today.Dylan Silver (03:22)
Yep.So you got in during the crash. That’s the best time to get in.
Aurica (03:36)
Like literally after, kind of like 2013, so when the consequences were felt very strong, you know, so that’s when I popped in with ideas. Yeah.Dylan Silver (03:48)
I wanna ask you about getting in in that time period. Did you know people who were involved in real estate? Did you have family, friends who were saying that, hey, let’s take a look at deals or was this a leap of faith for you?Aurica (04:01)
I think it was a leap of faith and I think real estate actually chose me. didn’t choose real estate because coming into this country, you feel my accent. I’m an immigrant, obviously. So coming into this country, I didn’t even know what real estate is or in my country back in the days, we didn’t have realtors at all. So I didn’t know what that is and the investing and all that. So yeah, I think it chose me. I used to work for a family as a babysitter.And that’s where I met people involved in the real estate business. It was very interesting for me. And then they saw some potential in me and they told me that I got to pursue this career. And that’s what I did.
Dylan Silver (04:31)
Yeah.want to ask you about that first deal. Do you remember the first deal that you did ⁓ in the real estate space?
Aurica (04:50)
I do.I do. I do. Well, first deal was kind of weird. ⁓ Obviously, nobody knows what they’re doing. It was my own deal and it was a flip
Dylan Silver (04:53)
Walk me through.Aurica (05:51)
and I didn’t know the important aspects on how to do it. So obviously I lost a lot of money on it. So I will remember it forever. back in the day, trust me, like back in the days, ⁓ losing money was actually like what? You know, it was likeDylan Silver (05:59)
wow.Aurica (06:07)
pretty good margin, again, back in the day, it’s not like right now. So obviously I’m gonna remember it forever, but we learn through mistakes and that’s how, again, I got what I am because mistakes teach you lessons.Dylan Silver (06:07)
this year.You must have been pretty committed, because I know a lot of flippers, I’ve worked with lot of flippers who may have started and did well because their first flips went well, but I also know people who got out of flipping entirely because they had one bad deal at the beginning. But your first deal wasn’t necessarily roses and rainbows, but you persevered through it. You must have had a lot of conviction that this is what I’m going to make a career out of.
Aurica (06:52)
Yeah. I mean, it’s all about personality. You know, it doesn’t have nothing to do with like things that I’m going to do. You may be not going to do it either. You know, my personality is this, this like even I’m telling my agents right now. It doesn’t matter how many times you fail. It doesn’t matter. It could be like 10 times, but that one win will cover the whole loss for the time for the times you lost. Right. ButDylan Silver (07:19)
Yeah.Aurica (07:19)
But most important is to give yourself a timeline. It’s not like you did it one time, you failed and like, whatever. No, you can fail within a timeframe of like three years, four years. Give yourself time to try, you know? And obviously your budget got to kind of be in the same vibe with your timeline, right? Because budget is important. So as long as you follow that business plan, as long as you follow that timeline,Dylan Silver (07:39)
Yeah!Aurica (07:49)
then you’ll be fine. And never, never, never give up, whoever want to try, you know.Dylan Silver (07:56)
I want to ask you about getting into brokerage. this, by the way, is impressive because broker, investor, property manager, these are three separate verticals that do have some overlap, but ⁓ also three separate avenues. You started off as an investor. I imagine you started to say, hey, I can make money and have a career also as a realtor as well. And also too, I have to.pay realtors to close on these deals, why don’t I be the realtor myself? But walk me through that process of getting a real estate license.
Aurica (08:32)
Yeah, so I got real estate license very quick. So literally at my first investment, I already had a license. As I said, I was ⁓ mentored or coached by good people who actually helped me throughout. But then, know, when I realized how much business I actually can do, I didn’t really understand how good I am at what I’m doing.and throughout the years I start earning those awards, big sale volumes and stuff and then I’m like, okay, I can coach others too. And then I started coaching myself back in 2017, I believe. And it’s event to event. And then I said, okay, why am I coaching those realtors on working for somebody else? Why shouldn’t I do it? And then I did it. I built my own brokerage.
⁓ In management business, it was the thing. It was a natural thing. It was mostly because I needed it or my client needed it. ⁓ I love selling multifamily ⁓ units like rental thing. And I see a lot of potential there. I could talk about it nonstop because I’m so obsessed with it. You know, like I like the idea of doing that. So.
Basically, it started with my second or third client who actually bought a multi unit and I’m like, wait a second. Now I have to look for a management company and I’m like, ⁓ you know, I could do that. You know,
so it was kind of a necessity started from a necessity, not necessarily because I planned on doing that. It’s, not like we are a big company management company. We’re kind of managing like my own investment at this point, right?
and my clients’ investments. So it’s an interesting balance, I understand. It feels like a lot, but with right time management, you can do it all.
Dylan Silver (11:03)
think there’s probably a lot of opportunity there for you, Aureka, maybe ⁓ other investors who listen to this and say, I’d like to buy some properties in her marketplace. I’m curious, getting your perspective on brokerage and really scaling a business as an agent. When you realize that you had a knack for this and that this was something that you were passionate about as well.Aurica (11:07)
Yeah.Dylan Silver (11:28)
Did you know, hey, I’m gonna build a team, I’m gonna be a broker, and also this is gonna be something that I’m not just gonna be doing for now, but also for years, right?Aurica (11:40)
I didn’t. As I said, I didn’t, I didn’t plan. Even when I opened my own brokerage, it was about me and one more agent who I was working with. And then, know, again, naturally it came like one by one agents start to sign up, even though I wasn’t planning on doing that. I wasn’t planning on growing a big team. ⁓ It was just a natural growth. And I think that’s the healthiest way of doing it. You know, when you…plan on building something and then you hurry, you know, and trying to do like fast, fast, fast, fast, fast. It doesn’t matter the quality, matters the quantity, then that’s the wrong way of doing it. With me, it happened naturally. And I was always like putting more value into people as a quality people, as a quality workers. If I train an agent, I’m taking my time in training him in becoming a true professional because in today’s
world as you know, there’s a lot of realtors and it’s so easy to get the license and 80 % of them have no idea what they’re doing. They’re not like qualified. They’re kind of there to be there, you know, and that’s wrong. In my opinion, that’s wrong. So in my brokerage, things work differently. We focus a lot on values, on professional ⁓ behavior in the field, as they say, you know, and
Dylan Silver (13:05)
Yeah.Aurica (13:07)
Yeah, I didn’t plan actually on doing that. It happened naturally. And I think that’s why I always say that I’m lucky in the same time, but ⁓ I am not only lucky, I’m smart enough to transform this luck into something, you know? And today, that’s where we stand. 18 people in my team, they are all qualified. They all do sales. They’re not just standing there. So, ⁓Dylan Silver (13:23)
Exactly.Aurica (13:36)
That’s what matters at the end of the day.Dylan Silver (13:39)
I want to get your feedback and maybe for folks listening who may be new brokers or maybe thinking about becoming a broker one day and they’re thinking about what’s the most important thing is it recruiting is it personal production is it a brand. If you could give folks one piece of advice if they’re thinking about scaling a real estate team for themselves what what piece of advice would you give them.Aurica (14:00)
First of all, and first of all, it is about you. You stand in front of that business, right? You must, it’s not have to, you must have a brand already build up before you’re getting a team. You must have experience, and experience it’s not calculated in years. It’s calculated in how many sales you had, what’s your volume of sales overall.And of course, what kind of business you’re doing, what niche, how much do you know? You know, how much can you give out of this business? A lot of mistakes that I see happening, people getting into this business, selling, I don’t know, two, three, five millions, maybe a year, and they think that that’s an achievement. Well, that’s wrong. Person like this can never teach new agents on how to behave further.
Most importantly, get educated,
work and build yourself first before building others. When you are fully built, you are ready to build other people way stronger than you are because they’re gonna learn, first of all, on your mistakes, they’re gonna learn faster and they’re gonna build faster. I built myself over 10 years. It took me 10 years.
and ⁓ over 105 million in sales in the last five years, because I’m not calculating what was before, I forgot what happened back then. And I got very educated. I was studying nonstop. I don’t have just the license. I have a lot of certifications. I’m doing ⁓ like school nonstop. And that’s when you are ready. When you know, like the most importantly, when you know
how to answer every question that somebody brings up to you, even a client, then that’s when you are ready. That’s when you know that you are ready. You know every aspect of this business. It’s not only about selling a house. It’s not only about flipping. You gotta know financing, how financing is happening, like how fast, like what can you do to make that financing happening? You gotta know insurance. You gotta know like everything.
Dylan Silver (16:42)
That’s when you know.Aurica (17:04)
Construction, construction, it’s so important. know, like even with like primary residence buyer, you go and they don’t even need an inspection because you already did the visual one. That’s what’s important. When you know all the aspects of this business, it’s not only about signing the contract and opening the doors. It’s about knowing every detail about this business. And that’s when you’re ready. And trust me, ⁓ most of the brokers who actually did proceedyou know, open a company, most of them don’t know that. ⁓ I’m not trying to disqualify anybody. I’m just saying my personal opinion. But yeah, that that would be my advice.
Dylan Silver (17:42)
Now it’sI do want to pivot a bit here and ask you about multifamily, which you’re specialized in and also have lots of experience, but also working with a lot of folks in the Illinois area, greater Chicago as well, who may be looking at those deals. Do you have any feedback and advice for folks when it comes to multifamily and how they can determine if a deal is good or not?
Aurica (18:13)
You know, in multifamily, I always say that you got to literally focus on what type of tenant you’re going to get. It’s not necessarily about the building itself because you can redo it. can, you know, like there’s a lot of things that you can do with money, obviously. But long-term, you got to look at the what type of tenant you will have there. Quality.Dylan Silver (18:30)
Yeah.Aurica (18:39)
It’s all about quality. We do not invest necessarily into the quantity, into the quality. So if you feel like your tenants will be here, first of all, long-term tenants with good jobs, steady incomes, with good credit scores and all that, obviously it has to do with the area as well, know, the zoning and stuff, then you should definitely invest and that will be a very good long-term investment. Obviously, ⁓Investors usually don’t know that. That’s why they hire us to do that for them. Right. And as an agent, you got to know how to run those reports, not only financial reports with ROI, with amortization tables on when this ROI will come back to you in like 20 % and up. Right. ⁓ But to literally preview the full situation of tenancy, how, will be the rental cap next year.
two years from now, five, 10, you know, so when you know how to run those reports, then you are golden.
Dylan Silver (19:45)
Aurica we are coming up on time here. Where can folks go if they would like to reach out to you or if they may be looking at a deal and would like to get your feedback on it?Aurica (19:55)
Yes, I’m everywhere. You just put my name out there, Aurica Burduja, even in Google, and you can find me everywhere. I’m on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, everywhere.Dylan Silver (20:07)
Aurica, thank you so muchfor coming on the show here today.
