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Show Summary
In this conversation, Juan Lizarazo shares his journey in real estate investment, discussing his strategies, challenges, and the importance of community and networking. He emphasizes the significance of learning from mistakes, the potential for financial freedom through real estate, and the value of building relationships within the industry. Juan also highlights his plans for scaling his investments and the tools he is developing to assist other investors.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Juan Lizarazo (00:00)
great deal, great numbers. was going to net me maybe 40, $50,000 in equity. But then I made a $40,000 mistake in that property because the property was occupied by a hoarder, lots of accumulation. So it was really hard to inspect. And I didn’t do a proper inspection. So I waived inspection, big mistake, never waived inspection. So I did that. And then what happened? Of course, when I started doing the rehab, right, we finda foundation issue. And then we find that some pipes were galvanized and they were like corroded and we have to replace them all the way to the street. then, then they got, we find a ton of issues. So my rehab originally was budget. thought it was going to be $20,000 and it became $60,000.
Quentin (02:21)
Hello everyone. Welcome to the Investor Fuel podcast, the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. And if you’ve been following me and seen me as a host, you probably know what I’m going to say. I’m excited. I’m excited about who I have here today. For me, listening to him talk, he’s very, very laser focused. He has systems in place. He knows what he’s doing and he helps. He does things in real estate, approaching so many different angles.build tech systems that’s gonna help investors, but also he’s an investor himself. And like I said, he just has systems in place that’s working for him. And I’m excited that he gives us a chance to peek and see things through his lens. And so I’m gonna take my time and say this gentleman’s name. I told him I’m gonna some respect on his name. And so I wanna introduce you guys to Mr. Lizarazo How did that do? What did you think?
Juan Lizarazo (03:18)
Almost,almost. It was great. Yeah. It’s a really hard Spanish last name like Basque. So it’s hard.
Quentin (03:20)
Almost! That was close! That close!There we go.
Got
you, man. Thank you, man. I can’t roll my syllables like I should, man. So I appreciate your grace. like I said, I’m so delighted and just honored to have you here, again, to be able to see things through your lens, through your unique perspective. And so, Juan, I’ll be honest with you, man. I want to dive in. I would love for you to take us into your world. Tell us what you’re mainly focused on these days.
If you want to tell us a little bit about how you got started, how the journey, you know, how you got to where you are, that’s good too. And also tell us what markets you’re operating in.
Juan Lizarazo (04:02)
Yes, yes, yeah. mean, story. So I’m an immigrant in the US. I came in 2012 with $500 in my pocket and, you know, a small bag. And that’s everything I had. I moved here right after I finished college. That was computer science in Colombia. I’m from South America. So I’ve been here for like almost 15 years, maybe. I don’t know if my math is right. It’s been a long time. So it’s a long time here. ⁓My English wasn’t like this, you know, I have to perfect it. It’s quite a challenge when you’re an immigrant. But then, you know, I wanted to do real estate for a long time, but never took action. Didn’t know where to start. Didn’t have access to the right people, the right information. And then in 2023, I run into a podcast, you know, just like a podcast like yours, you know, and these podcasts have so much impact. So I just ran into these podcasts. It’s called Master Passive Income by Dustin Heiner and then…
I started listening to it and I was like, wow, these are actionable, actionable interviews to other investors, very inspiring. So I was like devouring that content for six months. So that was between like March, 2023 till August, 2023. And then I was like, okay, it’s time. I need to start my business. I need to take action. I missed on the 2019, 2021 wave, right? Where everything was cheap, right? And now it’s very expensive. So I was like, it doesn’t matter, you know, no matter when you start. I…
I jumped for it. started in ⁓ October, which is right now is my two year anniversary since I started my real estate business. In that October, 2023, I bought two properties. ⁓ One was rehab and I didn’t know I was doing that. I didn’t know I was doing a burr, but I was doing a burr. And then I got a third property in December last year. And that one also was a little bit of a rehab. But the thing is like those three properties, I got
Lots of equity with the forced appreciation. I don’t remember all the numbers, but I think I captured like 70 or $80,000 between those three properties. And I was like, what, what? I’m $80,000 richer on paper, but I didn’t do anything. Then I fixed them, got them rented markets. So I did this in Louisville, Kentucky. I live in Salt Lake City, Utah, well, Salt Lake City area. But the market here is like California Denver, very expensive. I mean, as expected.
expensive as California. So ⁓ because it’s so expensive, I cannot buy in my backyard. It’s too expensive. It won’t just cash flow. know, houses go here for, let’s say, I don’t know, like a house, single family home, three, two, it can go for 350, but it will rent for 1700 or 1800. It depends. Or maybe 2500 if it is very nice, but those cost $400,000. So there’s no way the math works unless you put a big down payment and then it doesn’t make sense. Cash on cash is just not there.
So I did Louisville because I had been there and some relatives live near in the Indiana side ⁓ because Louisville and Kentucky and Indiana are like very close, you 25 minute drive. So I was like, this is a nice area. It’s like Salt Lake City, but somewhere else. So I just decided to go for it, build a team, apply everything I learned from the podcast. And then, ⁓ you know, got these properties rented, started putting systems in place.
Quentin (08:00)
Mmm.Juan Lizarazo (08:05)
And so that’s how started. Then the year after I bought, which was last year, 2024, I bought two more properties, but I also sold a primary home and then bought a primary home. I moved like two times last year, because I was figuring out also life, like with my family, what are we going to do? We’re going to do real estate investing. We cannot have the $600,000 home. Like it doesn’t work. You have to make sacrifices. So we decided to do that, right? We moved, rented for a year.Quentin (08:28)
Yeah.Juan Lizarazo (08:34)
they moved again and then things are great now. We own our home. mean, it’s not paid off yet, we own it. We’re paying it and we have our rentals. And we also did like last year a syndication. So this is a multifamily, so 355 apartment building with another 45 investors in Tennessee. And that’sQuentin (08:54)
Mm.Juan Lizarazo (08:57)
going great. ⁓ I just get checks every three months and I’m like, I forgot I had this. So it’s fantastic. And that got me into the multifamily world learning more about it. And so that’s like the story there. And then I’m in the tech space. I’m in software, I’m software architect. I built web apps and systems and API, so that stuff. So I found myself usingfive, six different applications to run my business. And I still have spreadsheets like Google Drive and then is outdated. then insurance policies is a pain because I don’t know what insurer has what policy. I don’t know how much it costs me. I have to always check that when I’m shopping. It’s a pain. It’s very hard. So I found like, well, talking with Dustin from the podcast, because we met at events and stuff, we are like, wait, we can solve this. Let’s build ⁓ the app that…
the only app that any investor will ever need. So we decided to build Income Builders, I’m wearing the shirt here, and we self-launched it in April. So we started building that like this year and in April we launched it. right now, so we’re building the software tools for investors. So we started with deal analysis. So we offer deal analysis. can analyze a property in 60 seconds and have your metrics and then you know if it is gonna be a good deal or not. So I use it all the time for that.
And we’re launching in a couple of weeks. We already did a self-launch, private lunch for off-market deals. So we can send mailers, but you don’t have to spend $3,000 for a campaign. can spend as little as $10 and send mailers to a specific zip code block. You can filter by family age, income, like you want to, you know, target these people that are retiring and outsizing. You can do all these and the mailers get delivered to their house and say, I buy your house in cash or whatever.
marketing campaign you want to do. So we’re offering that from within the app and we’re going to be adding more features, everything like we do to manage our businesses, right? Portfolio management, reminders, like we’re going to be adding all these things as we continue to build this out. But that’s where it’s like nice because I’m combining two passions, real estate and technology. And at the same time, I’m building my own financial independence. So my wife is on track to retire maybe in a year.
Quentin (11:08)
Mm.Juan Lizarazo (11:11)
So she’ll be like, okay, she doesn’t have to work anymore. And I’ll join her maybe four or five years later, but that’s where we’re at. So it’s been great. It’s changed my life. Like it’s amazing. So that’s the whole background summary. The last 15 years of my life right there.Quentin (11:13)
ThankYeah. Yeah. Listen, you.
There you go. Right there. Listen, I told you this guy’s laser sharp. He got stises in place. mean, man, I just love your evolution. Thank you for taking us through the story, walking us through it, because I love it. You are the success story, right? You are what we all thrive to be. And so I’m so excited about your journey.
But here’s a part also, I thank you for your success and I love seeing your success. But we also, not but, here we also want to show people the journey to the success, right? Because everybody want to get there, but some people are still just here, right? They’re still moving along. And so one I would love, I know you know this because you’ve been in for a long time now. There are times when things get real. When deals go sideways, when you have to pivot fast.
And so I was wondering maybe if you could share a story like that. To force somebody to maybe that stuff or wherever they is, they can keep that motivation on like, no, we can get to the other side of this. So I was wondering if you could share a story.
Juan Lizarazo (12:28)
⁓yeah, I have so many of those, but yeah, like definitely like no matter how much you prepare yourself, you won’t really learn until you go and do it. And in my case, I had a property, I think this was property number five. So I was like, okay, I’m experienced, but you you feel like you can do anything. You’re like, I can do this again, you know, and then you become more aggressive, more taking more risks. But I learned a hard lesson with that one because both this property,
great deal, great numbers. was going to net me maybe 40, $50,000 in equity. But then I made a $40,000 mistake in that property because the property was occupied by a hoarder, lots of accumulation. So it was really hard to inspect. And I didn’t do a proper inspection. So I waived inspection, big mistake, never waived inspection. So I did that. And then what happened? Of course, when I started doing the rehab, right, we find
a foundation issue. And then we find that some pipes were galvanized and they were like corroded and we have to replace them all the way to the street. then, then they got, we find a ton of issues. So my rehab originally was budget. thought it was going to be $20,000 and it became $60,000.
the learning there was like never skipping the inspection, you know, and
But the thing is like, okay, it was great lessons because it’s still, mean, with that one, I broke even because I had my $40,000 buffer for equity capture that ended up becoming, know, going into the rehab. And when I did my cashers refi, it ended up being like, I paid 20 % down. It’s kind of like if I bought the property turnkey, which it wasn’t great because it’s like, I put all the work to fix it. So it’s like, oh crap, I lost all my time on that.
But it’s it’s a great property. love it. It’s rented to a section 18, which is great. get my section eight money every month. It’s fantastic. I love it. But it was like, it was learning. it just shows like sometimes you’re going to make mistakes, but I think the big learning is that you have, and that’s why I joining these masterminds and these groups to learn because the community’s very important to go, you know, be part of any, there’s so many communities out there. I’m part of Master Passive Income. I love that community. I go to all the events.
Quentin (14:17)
Yeah.Juan Lizarazo (14:40)
but any community like investor fuel, right? ⁓ That’s like just your any community because you are gonna get exposure to stories like these that are gonna teach you. now anybody listen to this, right? They’re not gonna wave inspection ever because it can cost them $60,000, right? It’s what I call my $40,000 mistake. So yeah, but now looking back, yeah, I made that mistake, but now I look back and it’s still my network has gone up because I’ve done this with other properties and I’m still…Quentin (14:54)
Come on.Juan Lizarazo (15:08)
properties, like the properties I have appreciated like $60,000 together in a year. And I’m like, I didn’t do anything and they just appreciate it. Right. So at the end is like, you’re going to be even better than you were before. So even if you make mistakes, don’t get discouraged. Mistakes are going to happen. So, right. And it’s not like, ⁓ it’s not easy money. takes work. Yeah. You wait, you know, like it’s great when you get there, but it takes hard work. have to, education, have to educate yourself andQuentin (15:28)
Yeah.Juan Lizarazo (15:36)
and, and take the risk, right? So not everybody does it. Like I talked to all my friends and maybe one or two or 50 people, you know, I talk about it, want to try real estate. So it’s something that not everybody does, but that’s why we get results that are different to everybody else. Right. We have this plan that, Oh, I’m not going to retire at 67. I’m going to retire at 43. That’s my plan. And I can accomplish that through real estate and technology. that’s the plan there. But yeah, was like, uh, probably the most expensive lesson I have learned in this business. Yeah.Quentin (16:47)
Yeah, man, listen, Juan, thank you so much for sharing, man. Like, what you just did, you really showed the difference between people that just dabble in this to people that’s in it for the long term. And so, man, I thank you for the story. I thank you for the knowledge. Thank you for the gems. Because like you said, people that’s going to listen to this, they’re going to be able to get that knowledge, like, whoa, that’s, you know, let’s go ahead and make sure we do this inspection. Let’s make sure we do it the right way. And so.Man, thank you so much. appreciate that. This is exactly why this platform exists for stuff like this. So I appreciate you, sir. I want to ask you this. What are you focused on scaling or solving next? Like, what’s the next real goal for you?
Juan Lizarazo (17:30)
Yeah. So I’ve been working for several months, like probably since April. I mean, you know, it’s been like maybe five months into getting, eight units. So I don’t know what it means. mean, it could be a single parcel with eight units or two quads or multiple duplexes, but I’ve been trying to get, ⁓ some multifamilies because that way can scale faster. So I want to scale a little bit faster and then take it easy. So my plan after that isto buy two or three single family homes a year, do the rehabs and then retire in five years. That will get me there. But I want to get those upfront now so I can get a larger portfolio and be able to use the cashflow to reinvest it into the business and also secure the property so that things continue to appreciate. So then the challenge is that, well, I have to learn multifamily. I got my first commercial loan approval. I had to go through the process. It was great learning that. I will…
you know, like if it is more than four units per parcel, you have to do commercial. So it’s commercial real estate. So there’s a whole different beast there. You have to learn about net operating income, how to do valuations. There’s no comparables. You have to get the T12 report. Like there’s a lot of things you have to learn to underwrite the deal and then negotiation. So I’ve been trying that route and I was working on one deal and it was going to pan out, but then the seller was like, no, I just got a master lease. I’m not going to sell it yet. I’m going to keep it another year. So that one fell through.
But the main challenge has been finding the right deal. I’ve been sending offers, looking at properties, ⁓ running numbers, and sometimes some are really good and they’re in the neighborhoods. I’m targeting class B, really, good areas for these ones. the deal has not worked out. And I think the challenge has been lead finding. So now I’m trying different strategies, like joining Facebook groups, off-market deals, talking to wholesalers.
sending off market mailers. That’s the next thing I’m to try to see, because I realized that once it reaches the M list and is through a broker, it’s overpriced. It’s really hard to make the numbers work. And I see properties sitting for six months. There’s one I really like is meaning the market for six months, but they have reduced the price just like $15,000 in that time. So it’s like, okay, it’s not going to sell because it’s overpriced, but that’s the reality. So challenge is really, sometimes it’s like…
Quentin (19:32)
Yeah.Yeah.
Juan Lizarazo (19:49)
Sometimes buying the property is easy, right? But finding the property, think that’s a big challenge for most investors. Finding properties can be difficult in some markets. So that’s been a challenge here. And another challenge is that the market, mean Louisville, ⁓ has appreciated a lot in the past five years, right? Properties like in 2019, these properties were $20,000 and now they’re $160,000, right? So they have appreciated so much that it’s getting to the point that, you know, in the better neighborhoods, properties like the…They don’t cash flow anymore. It’s really getting hard. So I think like, if I don’t buy these right now in this market, I have to find a new market, which I already started looking in other markets and making contacts, I haven’t, I haven’t like decided, I want to give it a try and see like, because I already have a great team in Louisville and as a remote investor, you have to have a really great team and systems in place. Because if not, you cannot be successful. I’m like dragging like, oh, do I want to build that again somewhere else? I mean, I’ll do it, but it’s just a lot of work. It takes a lot of
Quentin (20:33)
Yeah.Come on.
Juan Lizarazo (20:48)
phone callsQuentin (20:48)
Yep.Juan Lizarazo (20:48)
and research and interviews and all that. So, that’s where I’m at, challenge getting these units and yeah, that’s at least for the real estate side. And for the silver side, ⁓ I mean, it’s been great. I mean, like we’re like slowly growing and adding more value and, we’re going to be launching more things to provide these tools that I want to use myself. So that’s why I’m building it because I’m excited about using them in my own business and it’s, know, built by investors for investors. So, that’s the, yeah.Quentin (21:16)
Yeah.Man, I love it, man. I love what you’re doing. I love how you, you know, you’re at that, that role, would you say, you know, do I move into a new market? And you said about building teams, right? You already built a team in the market where you went, do I go do that again? Right? So, you know, the benefit of relationships and team building. So let me ask you this, when it comes to building relationships and growing your network, you talk about masterminds and stuff like that.
What’s made the biggest difference for you with building relationships?
Juan Lizarazo (21:49)
Oh yeah, so something that I’ve learned early on, I learned this from my mentor, I’m from Dustin. like, is that real estate is not a business about properties, it’s a business about people really, like his relationships is, you the value of your net worth is really your network. That’s like the big thing. So masterminds, like since I started doing masterminds and going to events, like the first real estate event I went to was last year, like in April, like 2024, then I went again.Quentin (22:02)
Hmm.Juan Lizarazo (22:18)
this year and then I’m going to get next year. But then I went to a mastermind event. I joined also mastermind last year. It was like a virtual mastermind. It was like for like three months. And I found that like, once you joined these groups, you are like with like-minded people, people that are either at your level or levels, ⁓ one or two steps ahead of you, meaning that they can give you great advice and they can give you an outside perspective because they, they like once you like get this collective knowledge.That’s when you get the value. And every time like I have this conversation, like three weeks ago, I was in a mastermind in Denver. It was like three days and I was going, it like, it started at 9 a.m. You know, it finished like 9, 5 p.m. But then you continue talking in the hallways with people. And we were like from 9 a.m. till 3 a.m. for three nights straight. And it was just talking and having so many meaningful conversations about life, but also about business and about strategies. every time I had a conversation, I walked away, like I had a conversation with somebody for an hour and I was like, wow, we just this conversation. I got my money’s
And then it repeated again. yeah, that community is any community, you know, like any local meetup, any local community, any virtual community, know, like investor fuel, like any master passive income, like any community, think it’s important to, if you’re a serious investor, you have to be part of a community because that’s where you’re going to be able to accelerate your growth and, you know, learn more and prevent mistakes. Like after my mastermind, got
strategies on like how I’m going to get these 80 units and I just have to apply them. They gave me really great advice. Like one investor told me, well, you can just call property managers and they usually offload properties for other investors. And I have gotten some leads like that. So I’m like, I can do that. I didn’t even think about it. So you just get these strategies because these investors also face similar situations before. So community is huge. I, I, I, I, whatever it I’m like from now on, like every, you know, every year I’m going to go to.
to a mastermind and to a conference. it doesn’t matter how much it costs because like, it’s not even a cost, it’s an investment. And now when you’re a business owner, you know, there’s like all these write-offs and then you benefit from the system, right? And you, it’s a smart way to use your money. So I, yeah, I think like I, if I would have done that maybe in 2017, right? I probably would be already retired because it was a better time to buy. It’s just that back then I didn’t even know where to start, but I didn’t even look hard, right? So that,
Quentin (24:31)
Yeah.Juan Lizarazo (24:38)
Community very important. think any ongoing it has to you have to be part of something I have my own mastermind So I have two one in Spanish and one in English and we meet at least monthly with the Spanish one On Thursdays last Thursday of the month that we talked for an hour and we’re like, you know All over the country is like maybe six seven people you keep them smallQuentin (24:42)
Yeah.Yeah.
Juan Lizarazo (24:58)
And we just talk about like, hey, look, this is what I’m doing, or these are my challenges, or ⁓ please give me advice, or this is my success, or this was my mistake, right? And we just share and support each other. And it just maximizes your journey. It’s just more rewarding, you And that’s another reason why I also have a podcast in Spanish. I’m getting the same message, know, Master Passive Income in Espanol, how to…Quentin (25:20)
Bye.Juan Lizarazo (25:24)
how to get started with real estate. And I don’t sell anything. just like, look, this is all the knowledge I got from the English version. Nice for Spanish speakers. So getting that same message, because you have no idea the impact of Jews, even this interview we’re doing, it can impact somebody and inspire them to take action. And then they will just go and build their business. And that’s what happened to me. A podcast got me started in this and changing my life. So I think that’s very important. Ongoing education community is huge.any serious investor has to go to an event and be part of a mastermind. think those are the big things for me. So I’m going to another mastermind in January already. My wife and I are going, we sign up for it and we’re going to go and spend three days learning, growing, doing strategy and expanding our network. And it’s fun to talk with people that also love real estate as much as we do. we get to, because it’s hard, my friends don’t talk about real estate, so I don’t get that fixed from them. So it’s nice to have.
Quentin (26:18)
Yeah. Yeah.Juan Lizarazo (26:20)
contacts that are in the same journey and they understand it. They understand what it means to do this. So, so very important.Quentin (26:28)
Absolutely. Man, listen, Juan, thank you, man. I’m telling you, this podcast, you have given us an abundance of value, an abundance of wealth, absolute nuggets. And so thank you so much for sharing. Thank you for being here, coming through. Listen, before we wrap, I want to know if someone wanted to reach out to you, collaborate with you, connect with you, how can they get in contact with you, know, mention your podcast again, all these different places, anything, this is the time.How can they connect with you? What would you want their audience to know? This is the time to present that for us,
Juan Lizarazo (27:03)
Yeah, Instagram. So you can go to instagram.com/JuanInvests. So, you know, my name Juan, J U A N invest I N V E S T. And then I post content in Spanish, but you can just DM me and then you reach me there. You know, I look at, get notifications. I look at it, you know, daily. ⁓ and then income builder.io. If you want to check the, the, you know, our application right now is free. a free beta, but it’s not going to be free.maybe for another, in another week it’s gonna change. It’s gonna be a paid, you know, for everybody, different tiers, but it’s still check it, you know, see if it is a tool that makes sense for you. If it doesn’t make sense, there’s a lot of other tools out there, you know, we’re like filling in it for specific investors and I hopefully, you know, you’ll like it. And then Master Passive Income is the, you know, is the main platform, right? So.
Quentin (27:34)
That’s right.Juan Lizarazo (27:55)
Google master passive income and there you can find podcasts and mine is master passive income in a spaniel like in Spanish, but it’s for Spanish speakers there. You know, you get access to the content I publish in Spanish, but there’s also, you know, there’s like, there’s so much good content out there. Like I think any podcast you like just listen to the podcast, learn, you know, investors feel podcast, like listen to, you know, like I started listening to it and it’s really good. I like the interviews. I’m like, the interviews is like, ⁓ so that’s how you learn a lot. So, so yeah. So, that’s yeah.Quentin (28:27)
Listen, I couldn’t said it better. Juan has, listen, listen, y’all heard him. Y’all have heard what he said. Juan, thank you so much, man. Thank you for your time, for your story, for your perspective. Really, really appreciate you being on the podcast today. Thank you so much, man. Absolutely. Absolutely. Listen, everyone else, listen, you’ve heard the value. We’re going to continue to bring incredible people just like Juan.Juan Lizarazo (28:44)
Okay, thank you for having me Quentin, I appreciate it.Quentin (28:55)
And so you do not want to miss out on these opportunities. So please make sure you are subscribed. That way when the bell goes off, the alarm goes off, you get the notification, you can come on in and get this great content. So Juan, thank you again. And to everyone else, we will see you on the next time.
