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Show Summary
In this episode of the Real Estate Pros podcast, host Q Edmonds interviews Sean Kesani, a seasoned real estate professional with 15 years of experience. Sean shares his journey from being a college dropout to becoming a successful realtor and investor in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He discusses the importance of relationships in real estate, the challenges he faced, and the lessons learned from adversity. Sean also shares his future goals and offers valuable advice for aspiring investors, emphasizing the significance of consistency and a strong morning routine.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Sean (00:00)
For the most part, though, it’s been pretty great. I haven’t really had to deal with much. mean, I’ve dealt with, you know, sometimes break-ins or whatever, but I mean, that just kind of is what it is. You have to get a thick skin eventually, and you kind of have to not let a lot of things bother you. And that’s where I’ve come.Quentin (00:14)
Yeah.Sean (00:15)
where nothing shocks me anymore, to be honest with you. Not hearing anything that’s happened, I’m like, all right. There’s ways to fix everything. There’s ways to get past everything.Quentin (00:17)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. And you know what I’m going say? I’m excited to be here. Another fantastic day. Another fantastic guest. You know, I’m always excited when I get to look through somebody else’s lens. And they are the expert at what they do. Nobody can do them like them. So I’m excited because I have somebody here who, let me tell you, has a ton of experience. Any deal you can throw out there,Sean (02:12)
youQuentin (02:25)
He’s probably already done it. He has 15 years of experience. We’re not talking about a novice here. Tell me somebody that’s been in the industry, been in the game, knows what he’s doing. And he’s going to tell you all about it. So I’m so excited to introduce you all to Mr. Sean Kesani. How did I, how did I, how did I blank that quick Sean? Mr. Sean Kesani. How you doing today, How you feeling man? Exactly. Bro, but listen, I got it written down here. I gotSean (02:25)
.It’s alright. Here, could have just let you read it back there. ⁓
Quentin (02:54)
Thenote you gave me, they helped me out and my mind scale went blank. So, man, so happy to have you here. Like I told you before, thank you for your patience, your due diligence to be here. How you feeling today,
Sean (02:58)
⁓ it’s alright.Good, really good. Yeah.
Quentin (03:08)
Good, good man,good. So listen man, Sean, I wanna dive in man. I want you to tell the people what your main focus is these days. I want you, if you don’t mind, give us a little bit of origin story about how you got started. We love the hero’s journey. And man, also tell us what markets you’re in, where you are in the world, bro. So Mr. Sean, sir, you have the floor.
Sean (03:29)
Alright, sounds good. So I’m in Albuquerque, New Mexico, which a lot of people don’t really know probably New Mexico unless you say Breaking Bad because then they know Breaking Bad there or better call Saul. ⁓ So yeah, so I’m here in Albuquerque. I’ve been doing it 15 years. I started when I was 26. I ⁓ was a college dropout, was there for six years, but you know, things happen. In between college and getting into real estate, I was actually trying to get into police.Quentin (03:39)
I’m my god.Sean (03:58)
Academy to be a cop that didn’t work out and then real estate fell in my lap in 2011, which we all know 2011 was a terrible year to get into real estate. But you know, I made it work. I was a regular realtor for five years. I’m still a regular realtor. I was top 100 this in 2025 in my market of 4500 realtors. And so five years down the road, I decided hey,I kind of want to start flipping houses because I was finding deals for a lot of investors, running numbers, running ARVs, running comps, everything, you know. And I was like, man, I kind of want to do that. I have a little bit of a construction background from how I grew up. I grew up in the country and we kind of did our own work on our own properties. ⁓ So then I was like, I think I want to do that. So me and two buddies kind of pulled our money together. I had no money. They had they had some cash. And I said, I got some credit cards. I can put the materials and whatever on that. We negotiated a seller finance deal.
And that’s how we flipped our first house. And then I kind of, kind of went from there.
Quentin (05:48)
Yeah,Love it, man. Thank you, brother. Thank you for walking us through the journey, how you got to where you are now. And definitely, good shout out to the show. She absolutely right. Since you said New Mexico, that’s kind of where my mind went. So ⁓ I fell right into the trap.
Sean (05:52)
Yeah.Yeah, it’s not too far. It’s not too
far from it. I’ll have to tell you some stories about some of my properties that kind of are like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Quentin (06:10)
man, ⁓ man, I can only imagine. But man,I’m excited to talk to you. I love what you’re doing, And so I want to ask you this, bro. I have a saying where I say destiny has no wasted moments, right? Meaning no matter what we go through in life, each destination, it gives us something to fortify who we are today, right? And so I would love to know, man, as you went through, you know, talking about college, you know, and dropping out, trying to police force.
Sean (06:24)
Mm-hmm.Yeah.
Quentin (06:39)
and getting into this real estate, what has your journey, your destiny, your moments through real estate, what has it taught you? What has it revealed to you? And even just some of the things you’ve been in your past, what has it revealed to you to make you who you are today,Sean (06:52)
So I knew when I got into college, didn’t know what I wanted or I knew I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I was in college, but I knew I wasn’t gonna fail at whatever I did. So I just had to figure out what it was that I was gonna do. And so once I, when I was in college, I was in a fraternity, I was president of my fraternity. I had so much fun, I did all those things. I built like a lot of networking, which was kind of helped me succeed now in real estate, because now a lot of the connections I have.I built then, I have now. And especially since I was president, people kind of knew I was not just, I was active in whatever it is that I wanted to take on. So that’s, think, definitely helped build me is because I just have that never quit attitude. It doesn’t matter what’s going to happen to me. I can get knocked down and I’m never going to stay down. yeah.
Quentin (07:44)
Yeah, yeah. No,I absolutely love that man. And I’m sure, you know, if you’re, if you’re like most of us, as we’ve been building into a success, we face adversity, right? And so there are some people, I’m not sure where they are on their journey. There’s some people just starting. Some people smacked in in the middle. Can we talk about adversity for a little bit? As you, as you was building, as you became successful in real estate, man, you said you was top 100 out of 4,500, bro. That’s amazing.
I have to ask you, did you face adversity as you was growing into a successful person that you are?
Sean (08:17)
Yeah, definitely. ⁓ I mean, obviously, when I first started, I was always known as, you know, obviously I was a college dropout. So that doesn’t look so great to people. They’re like, he was and he was the party boy. So at the very beginning, it was kind of hard to get people’s trust. So I had to work with strangers from open houses, floor calls, whatever I could to prove to all the other people who did know me that I could be a good realtor.So I had to overcome that and then when I got into the investor side of it, mean man, like I said, I had no money. So I had to leverage anything I could. I had to get creative. I had to just kind of like let my bank account get down to zero just so I could fund some deals. But then now it’s like I don’t even need to fund a lot of my deals. I have so many investors and hard money guys who are just throwing money at me because the more you do, the more reputable you become. So it’s just that first deal that they always say.
is the hardest one because you’re not sure of what to do and then once it goes it just kind of it just gets easier.
Quentin (09:19)
Yeah, yeah. No, I’ve heard it a lot. know, the first deal is the hardest one to get over. But then after that first one, it’s like the second one, and it’s like, ⁓ the third one, it’s like, okay. You know, the momentum started going, so yeah.Sean (09:29)
Yeah, it’s like you’re turningheels down sometimes because you’re like, I don’t know that you can get pickier because you’re like, I don’t think I like that area or I don’t think I like that rehab or I don’t like that floor plan. It’s like you can get pickier. But at first, it’s kind of like, well, you better trial and error on that one.
Quentin (09:41)
Yeah.I love it, man. love it. So Sean, let me ask you, what are your next real goals? Like, what are you looking to solve or scale next, my friend?
Sean (09:55)
Well, so I, since I’m flipping a lot, I want to start holding a little bit more. I mean, I have probably a little over 30 doors right now. So I kind of want to hold more because I am flipping so much, but a lot of the stuff I buy just has a really good spread onQuentin (10:04)
Gotcha. Yeah.Sean (10:45)
And so, and honestly, I kind of want to go back to being a higher producing realtor again, too. I mean, I enjoy doing that because obviously I was top 100, but that’s with me doing real estate 40 % and investor 60%. SoQuentin (10:58)
Gotcha.Sean (10:58)
If I wereto just be more straight up real estate, I would be higher ranked than that too. But I mean, I love driving around to work sites. I love going and picking up materials. I like meeting the guys, my contractors, what I do, my contractors, my crews mostly, I’m the property manager or the project manager on everything. So yeah.
Quentin (11:15)
Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha.Now I love it, man. So I want to talk to you a little bit about relationships, right? ⁓ I want to know your perspective on building relationships within the industry, within real estate. I want to know, it served you well? Like, what is your perspective on relationship building? Is it, is it important? Like what’s your perspective on?
Sean (11:36)
Well, it’s very important because the more people trust you, the more deals they’re going to bring you or the more they’re going to want to work with you or the more they’re going to want to sell your projects when it hits the market. Knowing that you’re not going to be this like really hard person to work with makes people want to work with you because they are like, all right, it’s already hard enough. The deal is already hard enough to work with their buyer or their lender or whatever. And if you’re adding to that stress, they’re not going to want to work with you, let alone bring you a deal.So the majority of my deals come from other realtors because they just know I’m gonna perform, I’m gonna close, and then they wanna resell it when I’m done with it. So it’s definitely a lot about the reputation. And there’s even times where I’ve been a regular realtor with a regular buyer or seller, and they’ve taken my offer, which was not the strongest cash-wise, but they knew that I was gonna find the solutions to get whatever closed. So they knew that that was gonna be a done deal.
And so I’ve won deals in multiple offer situations through COVID and all those times just based on reputation alone. So that’s how, yeah. Yeah.
Quentin (12:31)
Yeah.Scroggie. Understood, Now listen,
Sean, man. You got to tell me some of these stories, man. Like, Wendy in Mexico, Breaking Bad, Betty Call Saul. If you don’t mind, man, give me one or two stories about these properties that you running up against,
Sean (12:52)
So,yeah, no, well, so actually we’re meeting right now at it’s 1230 here, 10 o’clock just now, like right before you and I met, I had to meet with my attorneys. So this happened on a 19 unit that I purchased, I guess two months after I purchased it in 2022 that there was a shooting there. Someone got shot, died later on. There is state suing me now.
Quentin (13:04)
Mmm, wow.Sean (13:21)
So that’s one story is I’m in a, yeah, I’m in a lawsuit for that. And it’s like, man, it’s, just, but like I said, it’s how it is here in Albuquerque. mean, there’s going to be shootings. There’s going to be whatever you can’t let these kinds of things scare you from, from investing, know? Another thing that’s happened too in 2020, this was right when COVID started. I was running Airbnb. So was running about four, I think at a time at that time. And I,Quentin (13:23)
Yeah. Wow.Absolutely.
Sean (13:50)
everybody was unsure of what was going to happen. I dropped the price on one of my properties, which was in a really good area. And they booked it and I was like, all right, whatever, you know, this, this is fine. And I was noticing in the camera, I had a camera on the, the driveway, cause I’m obviously not going to have it in the, in the Airbnb, that’s against the law. But I had one in the driveway and I noticed they were just kind of like a little sketchy, but I’m like, you know, I don’t want to, I don’t want to judge anybody. All of a sudden they stopped reallyeven doing anything by that camera. And they were there for about 10 days. I’m like, well, that’s weird. So they check out the next day. I had a new couple coming to check in. So I go and my cleaning crew couldn’t get there. So I went with all my cleaning supplies. We started cleaning. I found like little little weed nugs all over the place. I’m like, man, these guys are pushing something. That’s what they were doing. And I’m like, man, well, my god, whatever. They’re gone. Clean it up onto the next one.
Quentin (14:38)
Yeah, yeah. ⁓ man.Sean (14:47)
Well,Four or five in the morning happens that night after those people, the new people check in. They call me frantically. Airbnb is calling me frantically. Everybody’s calling me frantically because I guess the people before there were not just pushing drugs, they were pissing people
So people came back to get retaliation after they had gone and shot up the whole place. And the people who were there were carrying and they shot back and got one of them.
Quentin (15:45)
Mmm.Sean (16:00)
So, yeah, so when I showed up to my property, the whole thing looked like Scarface. Shot up, it was just nuts. And at the time I had someone who was building, one of the contractors from Topgolf was staying next door and he was like, I’m outta here. And I’m like, ⁓ man. So yeah. Yeah. Well, and then the neighborhood or the neighbor, mean, tells me, yeah, we noticed a bunch of people like on the side of the house.Quentin (16:17)
Man, you’re calling that a property value to go down? Topgolf trying to move in. What are we doing? Yeah.Sean (16:29)
just in and out of that side door. like, well, why didn’t you call me? You call me when there’s a weed that’s been there for too long, but you won’t call me when it looks like there’s drug deals going down. I’m like, man, so, so yeah, that’s just kind of some of the little things that I’ve had to deal with.Quentin (16:38)
Man. Yeah, yeah.Sean (16:44)
For the most part, though, it’s been pretty great. I haven’t really had to deal with much. mean, I’ve dealt with, you know, sometimes break-ins or whatever, but I mean, that just kind of is what it is. You have to get a thick skin eventually, and you kind of have to not let a lot of things bother you. And that’s where I’ve come.Quentin (16:58)
Yeah.Sean (16:59)
where nothing shocks me anymore, to be honest with you. Not hearing anything that’s happened, I’m like, all right. There’s ways to fix everything. There’s ways to get past everything.Quentin (17:01)
Yeah.Well, man,
I don’t know if I told you this, man. I’m born in Baltimore, West Baltimore, Maryland, be specific. So I’m sure you’re familiar with The Wire, right? You talking about Breaking Bad. I’m from the land of the wire. So when you talk about this stuff, I know exactly what you talk about. Things pop off very quickly, very suddenly at the drop of a dime. So I definitely hear you, So Sean, listen, is there a topic that I have not brought up that maybe you want to talk about?
Sean (17:24)
yeah.Quentin (17:36)
Or is there, or and, is there any other words of inspiration, motivation, education that you feel like people could benefit from? If it is, I would love to hear.Sean (17:47)
Well, so I think for anybody, because this is for people who are wanting to get in, right? Like this is more for someone who’s wanting some advice or where to start or anything like that, am I correct? Yeah, okay. So for everybody.Quentin (17:58)
Yeah. Well, I mean, I mean, this is for all the, soanybody in real estate, the investor comes here, multi-family person that’s wanting to give in. So if you want to give a word to any along the spectrum, please feel free, man.
Sean (18:12)
Okay, well, I mostly, I think consistency is huge. think anybody can do anything when they’re consistent. And if they are, you know, they have a goal, but they’re not really working it as much or they’re not. I tell people to break down their goals, like do a yearly goal and then break that down into 12 months and then break that into how are you going to accomplish that so that you’re doing daily tasks to hit that goal in a year.So that’s what I kind of tell people because it all comes down to consistency like I have a very very strict morning routine where I’m up at four in the morning sometimes a little earlier I’m doing prayers and meditations affirmations Gratitudes then I go to the gym then I have my food then I do this then I come to the office and I’m here for I mean most realtors aren’t in their office I’m here literally from nine to five every day in and out obviously because I go to different properties But I’m very regimented and that works for me. Some people may not work ⁓
for them, but it definitely works for me. I think for someone starting or someone who’s like, feels like they hit that plateau where they’re trying to figure out, well, you know, I can’t get past, you know, making half million dollars a year or making more than a hundred thousand a year. I just need to change it up. And that’s the thing is you’ve got to change it up if it’s not getting you where you want to go. And that’s kind of where, where, how I operate anyways.
Quentin (19:33)
Absolutely. No, I appreciate you saying that, you know, I think everyone has had something that centers them. So you talk about your routine and stuff and how you even talk about consistency. You know, there’s a saying that says consistency beats intensity any day. Consistency beats intensity any day. So if you’re consistent and I love how you talk about your routine in the morning, getting up, meditation, prayer, going to the gym. Everybody needs something that censored, centers them.that reminds them of their why, that can get them back, re-sensor, re-regulated so that they can attack the day over and over again. Because as you know, it can get hard. It can get very, very tedious. And so I love it, man. I love the message that you gave. Now, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they get in contact with you,
Sean (20:29)
So it’s pretty easy. On Instagram, I’m realtorseank. So Sean, S-E-A-N, letter K for my last name, Kesani. So realtorseank. But my email is the same, [email protected]. So it’s pretty easy. I have a website that I buy houses cash on and that’s seanbuysnm.com. So NM for New Mexico. And yeah, so those are the different ways. Or also I have a normal website through real estate. That’s seankesani.com. So I have.Quentin (20:56)
Gotyou.
Sean (20:57)
Different ways, I’m pretty Google-able. My last name’s pretty unique, so I’m easy to find.Quentin (21:02)
I love it, man. Well, listen, sir, let me say this, man. Let me say three things to you. One, definitely thank you for your time. I think you and I both know time is very, very precious, right? We can put a premium on our time. So thank you for your time. Two, definitely thank you for your story. Thank you for being authentic, coming from an honest place and a place of transparency. I greatly, greatly appreciate that. And lastly, man, thank you for your perspective. Thank you for your mindset and bringing that mindset to this platform.I greatly, greatly appreciate it. Thank you for coming through today,
Sean (21:34)
Yeah, thanks for having me.Quentin (21:35)
Absolutely, absolutely. Well, listen, y’all heard Sean. You got the nuggets. I told you he was going to give you the nuggets, give you value. And I’m sure you got it. So definitely check out the show notes, get in contact with him, check him out. But definitely make sure you are subscribed here because I promise you we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Sean. So, sir, I thank you again. And to everyone else, y’all have a fantastic day.
