Real Estate Investing Strategy: How Cyrus Mohseni Built Wealth One Property at a Time

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (00:00)
And he asked me what my goals were. And I said, my goal is to sell 10 million worth of real estate in my first year.

And he tells me, let’s make realistic goals. That doesn’t really happen. I want you to stay in the industry.

What I can’t understand is you, you know, you telling me I can’t do something. Right. And so I’m, I’m sitting there and I remember like, it felt like I took a sip of my iced tea for like

Cody Crabb (00:18)
Yeah.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (00:22)
45 minutes because he just told me that and I couldn’t I needed time so I just like like grab my straw, know and like just sipping my iced tea

And I put my iced tea down and I go, you know what? I appreciate you. And I thank you for all your time and helping me get, you know, to this point, but within the next 90 days, I’m going to be leaving your brokerage.

Cody Crabb (02:14)
Welcome back to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I’m your host, Cody Crabb with Investor Fuel. And today we’re talking with Cyrus Mohseni He’s a real estate operator in Newport Beach, California.

Cyrus built his career from starting a real estate brokerage to becoming an active real estate investor and we’re gonna talk about that journey, what he learned making that transition and kinda how he thinks about growth in today’s market. So thank you so much for joining us today, Cyrus.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (02:36)
I’m so excited to be here. I’m excited. My team had let me know that we were booked for this today and I was really excited because I’ve actually followed the podcast for a little while. So thanks for having me on.

Cody Crabb (02:48)
that’s great. Wow, we love to hear that. Well, of course, happy to have you. So ⁓ take me back to the beginning. We talked about right before the podcast we were chatting about, you said you have kind of a unique ⁓ story getting into ⁓ this field and kind of where you are now. So I’m curious, where did this start for you? Were you always interested in real estate or was that kind of also a surprise to you?

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (03:10)
No chance, no chance, absolutely no chance. So in my mind, in my mind, by the way, like I thought about real estate as like old white guy, boring, no personality. You know what I mean? Like that was my thought. That was my, my vision of real estate, right? ⁓ So, you know, I’ll rewind a little.

Cody Crabb (03:25)
Yeah.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (03:33)
further back ⁓ because I think it’s super important to understand. ⁓ long story short, I used to play soccer for a living. ⁓ So I was 18 years old when I moved to Europe, ⁓ signed a professional contract, played soccer for a living, played all around the world. I played in Europe. I played in ⁓ Costa Rica. I played in California for Chivas USA, San Jose earthquakes. ⁓

And I was back in Europe. came back home to sign with a team in LA and I got in a car accident. ⁓ I had no clue what I was going to do with my life. ⁓ In between every single off season, I went through some sort of school. ⁓ One year I went to Italian class. Another year I went to French class. I failed both of those. So I realized like languages are not my thing. ⁓ And this specific off season, I knew I was going to sign in LA.

And I knew I wanted to buy a house because of the contract I was going to sign and whatnot. And so I said, you know what? I’m going to go to real estate school so I can learn the process of buying a home. And this kind of stems from like when I was younger, my dad had mentioned this and my dad passed away when I was young. I remember my dad mentioning like, because I didn’t like school. hate, I hate school, love learning, but I hate school.

And I was, I was, ⁓ I don’t know, probably seven or eight. And I remember my dad telling me like, cause he was like, you know, you, you got to do good in school. I was like, I hate math. And by the way, now math is like my favorite. Like I love math. And this is why my dad goes, my dad goes, you hate math. And I was like, yeah. And he goes, well, then how are you supposed to count your money?

And I was like, what? And he’s like, it’s all math. So he showed me money. He showed me money and he showed me how to count money and like what it was and like, like using money as an example for my math. And so then I was like, I was like, this is too hard. I’ll just, I’ll just hire somebody to do that. I don’t need to do it. You know, I’m like seven or eight years old. And he goes, then how do you know they’re counting it right? And I was like, you got a point. You got a point. So in my mind, in my mind, I always knew like

Cody Crabb (05:16)
That’s a good quote, yeah.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (05:41)
If I’m going to do something big, I need to learn how to do it enough so that I can’t get taken advantage of, right? Like this thought process.

So this stem stayed with me for forever. My dad, my dad ended up passing away in 2005. I was 11 years old, 10 years old, 11. ⁓ And, but, you know, fast forward, like I said, I was playing soccer. I’m doing this, this. So during the off season, I’m like, I’m going to buy a house. So I should go to real estate school.

Cody Crabb (06:35)
Yeah, totally.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (06:56)
Right. So I should understand about real estate so that no one can take advantage of me. This is my mind from when I was seven or eight years old. So I go to real estate classes thinking I’m going to learn about how people buy houses. For anyone that’s ever got their real estate license, they understand it has nothing to do with actually buying or selling a house. It’s like how to measure land and like how many acres are, you know, like it’s like

Cody Crabb (06:57)
Mm-hmm.

No.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (07:23)
Like how many square feet are in an acre? Like it’s like crazy stuff that I’m like, yeah, not again. You know, now I love math, you but, like the, point is, is like, had nothing to do with real estate. So, but I did these classes and then, and then, you know, I plan to just go into season, sign this contract. So I never really plan to get my real estate license, but I finished all the classes. Then I get in a car accident.

Cody Crabb (07:24)
And you’re like, it’s math again.

Yeah, yeah.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (07:49)
I was driving down the street, someone made a legal left-hand turning tip on me. I didn’t even sign my new contract yet. was two weeks before I’m going into the office sign. was during winter break. And then the doctors tell me I’m not going to play soccer anymore. You know, I’m summarizing. And I’m like, what am I going to do with my life? My whole life, my whole life.

I told everybody my life plan was so after my dad passed away. just kind of like rewind again, I’ll kind of weave all of this back in. But my grandma, my uncle and my dad all passed away in the same year. So my grandma passed away ⁓ in January 04, my mom’s mom, my uncle passed away in October 04, my mom’s brother. And then my dad, my mom’s husband passed away in November 05.

So I lost three of the most important people in my life in one year. And the reason I got so into soccer was because it was the only thing that got my mind off of what I was dealing with at home.

And, when this happened, I, I, like really got into, ⁓ like, you know, just like playing soccer, whatever. And then like, maybe like two years, a year after my dad passed away, I said, I wanted to play club soccer. So I started calling coaches, asking if I could play club soccer with their team. Most of them said, put your dad on the phone, put your mom on the phone. My dad’s, my dad’s, ⁓ passed away.

Cody Crabb (08:54)
Yeah.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (09:19)
my mom’s at work, my mom’s, I’m the last of five kids. So my mom started working six jobs to keep the house overhead. So my mom was working all the time. But I knew I wanted to play club soccer. And so I, so I just, just kept bringing coaches and I finally got a coach that was like, yeah, you know, I’ll take you, you know, come, come train, come to training. So then I had to figure out a train. I called my friend.

Cody Crabb (09:28)
my gosh. Yeah, no kidding.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (09:44)
And I’m like, you want to play club soccer? Why doesn’t your mom take us to practice? know? And, ⁓ and so anyway, so I get to this, guess, yeah, exactly. I get to this tryout or whatever, and I ended up making the team and the guy that’s there, ⁓ was, ⁓ was a, ⁓ former professional soccer player in Argentina.

Cody Crabb (09:50)
Smart.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (10:09)
And he’s the coach. And it was the first time that I could, that I noticed that like, there’s like, like a professional athlete you could touch, you could like feel and like it’s a real person. It’s not like a God. Right. So I made the re I made the realization that like it’s possible is my point. Right. So at that moment, when he told me he had played pro, I decided I was going to play pro and

Cody Crabb (10:23)
Yeah. Yeah.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (10:33)
I decided I was going to play professional soccer at that moment. was in sixth grade. And so from then on, my whole life, I told everyone my game plan. I’m going to play soccer. I’m going to go pro after I graduated high school. I, once I go pro, I’m going to play till I’m about 40 and then I’m a retire. And then I’m going to coach pro. That was my game plan. Pretty easy, pretty simple. Nice, nice easy life. ⁓ so during high school, I had a bunch of colleges giving me full rides.

My, my counselor telling me I should take them. I told her like, no, I don’t want it. She goes, what about a backup plan? I’m like a backup plan is an excuse to fail. Like I’m going all in full soccer. This is what I do. And I did it right. I played pro like, but I didn’t take into account the fact that there could be outside things that affect my career.

Cody Crabb (11:15)
Yeah.

yeah. It’s like a piano player losing their hands. It’s like you don’t even think, what do I even do now? Yeah, I know what you mean.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (11:58)
I had nothing.

Yeah,

I didn’t even think about that. So I’m driving down the street. I go to lunch. I’m driving home from lunch, driving down the street. It’s raining. Someone makes an illegal left hand turn T bones me. And I didn’t know it at that moment, but that was the end of my career.

And so I had no backup plan. I had, I didn’t go to college. I didn’t go to school. I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life. And, ⁓ but I’m like, so I’m, I’m super depressed that everybody liked me for what I did, not for who I was, you know, that’s a whole different conversation, but I had a full identity crisis. ⁓ but I’m like, what am I going to do? What’s my life going to, you know, and I’m like, well, I just finished this real estate stuff.

Maybe I’ll get into real estate.

So I decided, you know, after time and yada yada, I decided I’m going to get into real estate. I got into real estate. I joined a big box brokerage. I told the, the, the, at the time, the owner of that office sat me down for lunch was like, let’s talk about your goals. was like, hell yeah. Like I get to sit down with the owner of the office. It was the number one office in that big box brokerage in the country at the time. So I’m like, this is amazing.

And he asked me what my goals were. And I said, my goal is to sell 10 million worth of real estate in my first year.

And I don’t drink, don’t, you know, so we’re sitting down and he had a beer or whatever, a glass of wine. I don’t know what it was. And, and I had ⁓ iced tea. I always have iced tea, whatever. And so I’m sitting there and he tells me that I tell him, you know, Hey, look, I want to sell 10 million in my first year. And he tells me, let’s make realistic goals. That doesn’t really happen. I want you to stay in the industry.

His… His…

⁓ side of things made sense, right? Like now from an operating standpoint, like you don’t want to give too much hope to these agents. Cause then what if they don’t accomplish it and then they fall out of the industry, yada, yada, right? I can understand that. What I can’t understand is you, you know, you telling me I can’t do something. Right. And so I’m, I’m sitting there and I remember like, it felt like I took a sip of my iced tea for like

Cody Crabb (13:49)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (14:04)
45 minutes because he just told me that and I couldn’t I needed time so I just like like grab my straw, know and like just sipping my iced tea

And I put my iced tea down and I go, you know what? I appreciate you. And I thank you for all your time and helping me get, you know, to this point, but within the next 90 days, I’m going to be leaving your brokerage.

And he goes, what? That would be stupid. We’re the number one office in the country, blah, blah. Then starts naming the people that are there and yada yada. And I go, yeah, but like, if I want to hit a goal.

and you’re the one that’s supposed to help me get to that goal and you don’t believe I can hit that goal, then what am I doing here?

Cody Crabb (14:39)
Wow, yeah, that’s a good snippet right there, yeah.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (14:39)
and

And at that moment, I told him basically, I’m not going to go and he thought I was stupid, yada yada, blah, blah. The next 90 days, I ended up opening my own independent brokerage. So within 90 days of me getting my real estate license, I opened an independent brokerage. Long story short, became very successful in this brokerage. I ended up selling my first year. I didn’t do 10 million. I did 30 million.

And ⁓ then every year after that, he was correct.

Cody Crabb (15:10)
Well, so he was right. You didn’t see…

Yeah, you’re not gonna do 10 million your first year. No way.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (15:17)
Yeah, if think about it that way. Yeah, if you think about it that way. Yeah. So,

so I have a mentor that helped me get into the industry like that, like, you know, when I was getting into it, he was a mentor mind that like life mentor and then, you know, ended up eventually becoming a business partner mind, but he was life mentor mind. And then I told him I’m getting a real estate when I was sitting on the back of his yacht and he goes, well, how do you think I bought this? And I was like, what? And I’m like,

And he’s like, yeah, like that’s real estate. And I was like, he had been retired since I know him. So I didn’t know what he did. I just knew he was like this ultra successful guy, you know, like, like, and he had done a bunch, like he had been on like Richard Nixon’s campaign and like, mean, like all kinds of crazy stuff. And so I’m sitting with Jack as I’m closing a bunch of these deals. And right when I get in the first, like when I closed, maybe I second or third deal and Jack tells me, okay, you’re doing well.

Cody Crabb (15:48)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow. Yeah.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (16:09)
Now every three homes you sell, need to buy one. I’m like, um, Jack, it’s not 1940 anymore. Like, that’s not how this works. You know, just, you don’t just sell three homes and buy a house. you know, like houses cost a little more money, Jack.

Cody Crabb (16:23)
⁓

And just for some context, what year are we talking around? Just so we can get an idea of where the market was at.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (16:28)
This is about

10 years ago, 2016, 17.

Cody Crabb (16:32)
Yeah, so yeah not

Yeah.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (16:35)
No, this is like, like, like we’re talking about million dollar averages in California. Like there’s no chance.

Cody Crabb (16:41)
Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, I totally forgot you’re in

California. That’s even more so.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (16:45)
Yeah, so I’m like, I like tell him there’s no chance of blah, he’s like, well, you, got to figure it out. Like this is what you got to do. And in my mind, I’m like pissed off at Jack. I’m like, like, like, I’m like, leave. remember like, uh, talking to one of my friends at the time, I’m Jack says this, blah, and they’re all laughing. I’m like, how stupid, you know, blah, blah, blah. Like it’s impossible. And then, but, but here’s the thing. Like I’m also not.

When a mentor gives me advice and tells me something like I might be pissed off about it at first, but like, still try and I still think about how can I do that? Right.

So then I start like these wheels start turning and I’m like, dude, I don’t know how I’m supposed to do this, blah, blah, yada, yada. So fast forward, I sell this luxury condo to, or I sell a luxury condo, not to anybody. I was the listing agent. It’s about a $800,000 condo.

in Long Beach and this guy that sold it, he was supposed to buy a duplex. And so he’s selling this so he could buy a duplex. He’s trying to invest. And he goes, and so we’re shopping and I’m in sales mode. You know, I’m like, like when I say it, like I was pure sales mode. This is where I was. And, and he goes, um, he tells me, Hey, you know what, Cyrus, like we’ve been shopping for a couple of months.

I decided I’m not gonna buy anything in California.

I’m like, what? By the way, like perspective is like 1.2 million. Let’s say a million dollars because just cause easier math in my head, that’s a $30,000 commission. Right. Like, so like, what do you mean? You’re not going to buy anything. And he’s like, yeah, I’m buying an Indiana. And I’m like, I’m like,

Are you stupid? Or are dumb?

And he goes, he goes, no, I’m buying in Indiana. And I go, but do you understand what appreciation is? I’m like, I’m like, this is like California real estate, like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like I’m like hard on this. And he goes, no, dude, like I just, I, I, I am buying a duplex for $40,000. I’m like, what? $40,000? And he goes, I was like, yeah, but like, what’s that? What’s I know the down payment, but what’s the cost of like what 400 grand?

Cody Crabb (19:04)
Those are the options.

What was that?

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (19:28)
He goes, no, $40,000, I’m buying it.

Cody Crabb (19:32)
Total. ⁓

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (19:32)
I go,

huh, yeah, total. I’m like, huh, sell three houses. I could buy one of those easy. Average commission, but I’m like doing math in my head, you know? And so I just started asking him questions about this area. long story short, he’s like, I’m going out there in two weeks. Yada yada. I’m like, dude, I’m going to come out there. So I flew out there. I spent like two days in this in Indiana. And

Cody Crabb (19:42)
Yeah.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (19:58)
And I looked around and I’m like, okay, this is no chance. Like there’s no chance, whatever. And then I came home. Then I went back out there. Then I spent four days out there. Then I came home. Then I went back out there. I spent five days out there. And during each time that I went out there, I was meeting like property managers. was meeting real estate agents in the area. I was meeting like everybody that I needed to know if I wanted to buy something. I met with probably 40 general contractors.

Cody Crabb (20:07)
You can shake it,

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (20:22)
I met like, like anything, everybody that I needed to know, I went and met with. and, and so I spent like five days out there. Then I spent a week out there and then I was like, okay, this actually might be a play. So I started buying properties. I bought a house. My first house that I offered on my first house I offered on, not that I bought my first house that I offered on, there was a little for sale by owner sign. It was a boarded up house.

You could barely read the for sale by owner sign because it’s been up that long, you know, got faded, you know. And it said, it said, ⁓ for sale by owner. Here’s the number. So I stop, I get off, I call the number. She wanted, she wanted $20,000 for this house, single family home boarded up and

Cody Crabb (20:52)
Yeah

Jeez.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (21:08)
And I looked at it. I asked her if I could go in. She’s like, yeah, if you can get in basically because it’s like boarded up. So I went over there with one of the contractor guys that I met. We opened up the thing we looked and it’s like gutted like it’s like gutted. There’s no windows, but everything else is there’s one window that’s brand new. That’s broken. But all the other windows are brand new, but everything else is just gutted like disgusting. I was like, damn. And so I go back to her and I said, hey,

I’ll give you $6,000 cash.

Cody Crabb (21:36)
No way.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (21:36)
And she goes,

she goes, no chance. She has no chance. She’s like, I’ll take, I’ll take 18 grand or something like that. I said, no, no, thank you. This was probably in June or July. Maybe it was like in the summer that I was there.

Fast forward and then I had bought other properties in between this. I started buying like other properties, know, 35 grand, 40 grand, 50 grand, 60 grand, whatever. And so I started just buying properties in the area, renting them out. was buying properties for like 50 grand, renting out for a thousand dollars a month, like crazy numbers. And it was a certain neighborhood in this city. And then I get a call.

two weeks before Christmas from this lady. And she goes, Hey, Cyrus, I forgot what her name was. ⁓ but she goes, this is blah, blah, blah. ⁓ that it’s the house over on this street. yeah. Hey, how’s it going? She goes, are you still interested in buying that house? Said I’m always interested in buying a house. And I didn’t really remember what it was.

what the house was because I’m calling so many houses. How I made my money in real estate as far as an agent goes is I cold called. I cold called. I cold called and I doorknocked. So to find investment properties is very natural for me to cold call and doorknock. Like it’s just what I do. So I was calling so many people. I didn’t really remember who she was. And then I was like, what’s the address again that you were calling? Which one is that? She gives me the address and I go,

Cody Crabb (22:43)
Sure, yeah.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (23:03)
Yeah, yeah, I totally, totally still interested. And she goes, okay, I’ll sell it to you for $15,000, but you got to close by next week, by end of next week.

I’m like, I’m like, I offered her, no, you know what? just offered her five grand to start. That was the first offer. And so I was like, I just offered her five grand. She’s telling me 15, like I got her down five grand. That’s not bad. So I called Jack. I’m like, Jack, what do you think? And he goes, dude, that’s a good, like it’s a house. You’re buying them for this much. You’re buying it for 30, blah, blah, blah. You should just go and do it. You’re buying them for 60. And I go, you’re right. So I call her back. I call her back and I said, okay.

Here’s the thing I’ll buy it. I’ll close by next week, but I’ll give you 6,000. So I went up right. A thousand dollars from my original offer. And she’s like, she’s like, no, I can’t do that. Blah, blah, blah. Yada, yada. I said, okay, well then like, this is not going to work. You know, like long story short, I’m like, I’m like, sorry. Like it’s not, it’s not the property for me. And I know what I’m doing because she’s calling me two weeks before Christmas.

She wants to close by the end of the week before Christmas. Like, like she probably wants, you know, so I said, no, thanks. You know, like, like I don’t want to do this. And she goes, okay, you know, blah, blah. So the next week I get a phone call, same number. She calls me. She goes, okay, I’ll do it for $9,000. So now she went from, from 20 to 15 to 9,000. And I go.

Cody Crabb (24:29)
Yeah.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (24:30)
I can’t do that. The highest I can do is $6,500. And I will give you the cash. You’ll close in two days as long as title comes through.

Cody Crabb (24:37)
standard time.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (24:39)
And, and she goes, she goes, let me, I don’t think I could do that. Let me, let me call you back. So I get a call back 15 minutes later. She sells me the property for $6,500.

Cody Crabb (24:46)
Mm-hmm.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (24:50)
I close on it in three days. We got title back. Yeah. $6,500 for a single family home. I put 32 into it to get it back up to what it needed to be. I rented it at that time for $850 a month. That unit now makes me 1250 a month. It’s like, like just a crushes. Um, but over the years.

Cody Crabb (24:51)
$6,500.

huh.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (25:14)
From that time to now, I’ve accumulated over 100 units.

And very similar numbers to this. And so what I found is like, I was always looking at these big markets. I need to buy these big units, these big markets. But the reality is I never would have been able to start. What I realized is, is like, I can start with these small single family homes.

Cody Crabb (25:36)
Mm-hmm.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (25:39)
And then what I’ve done over the years is after I bought a bunch of single family homes that, that do well, I convert them into a portfolio loan. take that money and then I go buy bigger units. Right. So, so a lot of my process, like, like, but my point is, is like, you know, you can start in real estate, you know, as far as investing goes, but you don’t need to start with the most expensive properties. Like

Cody Crabb (25:52)
Hmm.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (26:04)
I have investors here in California that are like, yeah, they’re brand new investors they want to get. I’m like, have you ever thought about out of state? Like, let’s get your feet wet before you go buy a $2 million investment property. know? so, so I built my exactly. So I built my investment portfolio in these, these middle markets, these markets that are, that are probably not.

Cody Crabb (26:06)
Hmm.

Hmm.

Yeah, there is a middle ground here, yeah.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (26:27)
I would say they’re C plus neighborhoods. You know, they’re not like the worst neighborhoods, but they’re also not the best neighborhoods. But I got good property managers. Yeah, I got good property managers and the tenants. We make sure that they got jobs. They’re good. And they’re, they’re usually blue collar tenants, but they always pay the rent on time. And, and

Cody Crabb (26:35)
Like, fine, yeah.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (26:49)
You know, we give them better living than they had. We fix up the places. The places are way nicer than the market. And so from there, what I’ve done is like, like I started buying so many of these properties in these cities that like we literally change the neighborhoods to be able to allow like, just have the quality of living be 10 times better for these people. You know what I mean? And I’m not charging premiums on rent.

Cody Crabb (27:16)
Mm-hmm.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (27:17)
I’m charging what market rent is, but just giving them a premium place to live, which is pretty, pretty cool for me as well, because, you know, like if you saw some of the conditions of some of these houses that some of these people live in is like kind of crazy. And I have no interest in being like, like ⁓ a slumlord section eight doesn’t do anything, does the bare minimum. I have no interest in that. You know what I mean? Like, like I want to be able to help people live, live good lives. You know what I mean? So it’s pretty cool.

Cody Crabb (27:22)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, well that’s good.

Yeah, wow, so that gives us a really clear picture, I think, of kind of the journey, but not just the journey, like the mindset you had and all of the things you kind of had in the background while you were doing all this. ⁓ Yeah, so I appreciate that. I appreciate you sharing all that. When people think they need to start massive, like you said, and ⁓ you just started where the math worked, so I love that. ⁓ Do you think that’s?

Do you think you understood, what do you think you understood early? Was that one of the things you think you got taught early that you kind of was an advantage for you? Was like, if the math works, let’s just do it.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (28:21)
What I understood early is honestly nothing. ⁓ No, I like I like always think about like that question, you know, like when I got into real estate, it’s like, I knew nothing I didn’t. You know, I think I think because of the sheer fact that like, I was I was so like, I had no previous knowledge in real estate. It actually helped me because because

You, you hit it on the nail. Like I just saw the math and I was like, okay, so I’m buying it for this much and I’m making this much that math that makes sense. I can do that. And I compared it against investing into S and P 500. I said, okay, if I put the same amount of money into the S and P 500, would I make the same returns? And

If I make more in this, then I’m going to stick with the real estate side. And so that’s kind of how I did my how I process things. You know, I go now like, and I’ve taught classes on investing and I go to these, I’ve been to these seminars where they’re like, you need to have this matrix and do this. And I’m like, it’s really not that difficult. You just need to know if the money you’re putting into the property is going to make you a return of this much, and it’s more than what you’re putting in.

Cody Crabb (29:15)
Yeah.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (29:41)
Then you should probably buy the property.

Cody Crabb (29:42)
Yeah, I mean, it’s math, like we said, it’s math.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (29:42)
Most people don’t get into investing.

Yeah, most people don’t get into investing because there’s an analysis paralysis thing. They do so much math that they out math their whole mind and they’re like, what do I do? And it’s like, no, like let’s simplify this, you know? And so I think that that point of like me not knowing a lot, think if I knew more, it’d probably be harder for me to do that, make the move. You know what I mean?

Cody Crabb (30:07)
Yeah, that makes sense. ⁓ Wow, yeah, that’s a good perspective. In fact, ⁓ so I’d be curious now, you’ve had more experience, you’ve gotten some deals under your belt, but now we’re dealing with this market. I’m curious, what is it that you’re dealing with in this market that you’re struggling with that you didn’t have to struggle with before?

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (30:28)
the, the, acquisition, the, ⁓ the inventory is my biggest issue. Finding the deal is my biggest issue now. you know, since then, since then I’ve got into flipping homes and so on and so forth. And like, there was a world where like, I could, you know, I could have any, you know, I have

and deals come across my desk in a week. You know, now it’s like, I’m lucky if I get one or two that I can like, I got a pounce on because there’s a lot of, there’s a lot more people that are getting into investing that are getting into investing ⁓ that, you know, as far as, and let’s not talk about the single family long-term rentals.

Cody Crabb (31:10)
Whoa.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (31:11)
But the, the, let’s talk about the, let’s not talk about the single family investor, the single family rentals, but let’s talk about like the flipping thought process. Cause this is where like my world is right now. Like, like the flips and, and all of that, like I have a certain number and percentage that I like. And like in today’s world, people are buying properties for a, you know, a 10,000 or a $5,000 return.

Cody Crabb (31:13)
Can you say that again?

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (31:40)
And it’s just not worth me putting, you know, $600,000 up to go and get a 10,000 or $15,000 return. It’s too skinny for me. Um, and so, so, but there’s a lot of these investors that go into these things where they don’t do the math, where somebody tells them the math and they don’t do it on their own. And so then they get themselves into these deals that don’t math out. Right. Um,

Cody Crabb (31:50)
Yeah.

Hmm.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (32:08)
I always tell people like, if you’re going to send me a deal, if it’s 70 % ARV, like I’ll buy it all day long because I know the math makes sense there. Right. ⁓ and, and, and now like in today’s world, like inventory’s tighter. It’s like, yeah, I could probably do 80%, but there’s no world I’m going to do 90%, which some people are doing because some person says, ⁓ actually the ARV is 10 % higher or whatever.

Cody Crabb (32:16)
Sure, yeah.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (32:35)
And they never bother to go check it, but they have a quote unquote investment mentor or a somebody that’s telling them these numbers and they’re just like, yeah, sure. Let’s do it. And it’s like, this is, this is not so. the inventory is the biggest issue right now. And so how do we unlock inventory as far as an investor goes? ⁓ I’m a big believer in, in old school cold call.

door knock, like, like this driving for dollars mentality. and I’m also a big believer in like systems and processes, but you have to understand that if you’re going to find the right deal, you need to have the right people making those calls. So, ⁓ putting perspective, what I mean by that is I get probably 20 calls a day.

from someone in the Philippines or in South America or wherever calling me, asking me if I want to sell one of my properties.

As soon as I hear that, I hang up.

I have agents across the country that send me deals.

Cody Crabb (33:39)
huh.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (33:44)
And it’s because these agents are calling sellers and investors and asking if they’d like to sell the house. their scripts are already done. Like, I don’t even need to teach them scripts.

And I tell everybody, like, look, like I have no issue with bringing you like, like, like I told a, an agent the other day. I’m like, look, I’ll give you 10 % of the deal. When you bring me a deal, you don’t have to put any money up. I’ll give you 10 % of my profit. As long as the deal makes sense.

Cody Crabb (33:54)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (34:11)
And so,

so for me, for me, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve systemized and scaled my processes that way so that now I’m not paying for a cold collar on a daily basis, but I have hundreds of agents that are cold calling for me, looking for deals for me.

Cody Crabb (34:26)
Yeah, well, and there you go. mean, the system’s working for you at that point.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (34:27)
and

Correct. And so, you know, it’s about doing it the right way. And that’s, that’s like the best hack to unlock inventory is like, like you go to who controls inventory the most and it’s real estate agents candidly.

Cody Crabb (34:42)
Yeah, very true. That’s a good little tip there. ⁓ Cyrus, thanks so much for joining us today. This has been a really good conversation, I think. I’ve learned a lot. ⁓ So just one more question as we’re wrapping up here. ⁓ What are you focused on building next? Like what’s your next big thing? Are you looking to expand even further or do something different or what’s your main goal right now?

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (35:04)
Yeah, right now we are, ⁓ the brokerage, the real estate brokerage side is expanding into multiple States this year. and, ⁓ and, internationally, ⁓ and then the investment side, I want to go from, from 60 deals. I want to flip. want to flip over a hundred deals in a year. ⁓

And so that means I need to find a lot more deals. And so in order to do that, I, you know, it’s, it’s a lot of collaboration. ⁓ the same mentor that told me, ⁓ the same mentor that told me to, to, ⁓ go buy a house every three houses I sell. He also taught me that it’s not about the percentage of pie that you get. It’s about the size of pie.

Because a 10 % of a huge pie is still more than a whole 100 % of a personal size pie.

Cody Crabb (36:04)
Yeah, that’s true. Yeah, that’s a good lesson.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (36:04)
and

And so for me, for me, I’m a big believer in like, JV partnership grow together. like, anytime someone brings a deal, like I’m always open to having conversations because my big move, my big jump to get to that number is more collaboration. I don’t need to own the whole pie. I just need pieces of it. And so that’s that’s kind of like the big jump for this next

Cody Crabb (36:28)
Yeah.

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (36:31)
This next year, this next phase, this is my goal.

Cody Crabb (36:34)
Awesome. Well, okay, so if people want to connect with ⁓ you, network with you, have questions for you, ⁓ what would be the best place for them to do that?

Cyrus Mohseni (@CyrusAndre) (36:42)
yeah, Instagram. Instagram is the fastest way I respond to every DM takes some time sometimes, but Instagram is the best way it’s at Cyrus Andre. So C Y R U S A N D R E.

Cody Crabb (36:55)
Gotcha, perfect. Well, thank you so much for sharing all this today. I’ve really appreciated it. ⁓ If you’ve gotten something out of this today, and I know you have, please go ahead and hit like, hit subscribe, get some more ⁓ stuff out of this so you can get more conversations like this on your feed. Cyrus, it’s been a pleasure, and listeners, thanks so much for joining us today. We’ll see you next time on Real Estate Pros.