Shield Your Wealth: How Attorney Karo Karapetyan Protects Investors in Real Estate

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (00:01)
I just can’t emphasize enough how important it is for the real estate pros, your audience, to properly protect their assets, to shield it, and to legally hide it from the public’s view. So then the sharks are not out there lurking around

They’re going to say, Q has 10 properties. He has a lot of equity. Let’s go after him. So I protect investors like you to shield all that and hide it so the sharks can’t even see it.

Everybody knows that buying real estate is good. Well, what most advisors and real estate

brokers and even attorneys miss is that very important component of shielding it.

Quentin (02:22)
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. Excited about my guest, excited to be here today. ⁓ I’m excited ⁓ about my guest. Listen, ⁓ he’s an attorney. ⁓ He does some real estate. Not some real estate, he does real estate. And so I know he’s going to bring an incredible perspective.

to this podcast. I’m so excited about the lens that he’s gonna offer us. And so I just wanna introduce you guys to Mr. Karo Karapetyan. And from now on, I’ll be calling him Mr. K, though. But I do wanna ask Karo, how did I do with that name, sir? How did I do,

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (03:08)
⁓ Wonderful. One of the best I have ever heard. ⁓

Quentin (03:13)
Awesome. Well, I thank you sir for, you know, making sure we talked about it before we got on. So you was helping me prep a little bit. So I appreciate that. And thank you for the opportunity to call you Mr. K. You know, I appreciate that. I don’t take that lightly, you know, because you your friend’s calling you Mr. K. And I’m just hoping that maybe, you know, for the next 20 minutes at least I could be in that class, you know? Absolutely. But listen, I, again, like I said,

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (03:22)
Amen.

Yes, absolutely. Yes. Thank you, Q, and hello, everyone. I’m excited

to be here.

Quentin (03:42)
I’m excited

to have you here. I’m excited to get to see things from your unique lens and your perspective. And so I don’t want to waste time. I want us to dive in. I would love for you to take us into your world. know, give us, know, a, a, you know, let us know what your main focus is these days. And I guess I could say what markets you’re operating in as well. I guess I’ll say that to you as well, but tell us a little bit about you, what your focus is and where you’re working in that.

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (04:14)
Yes, yes, absolutely. ⁓ Well, I came to this country, the land of opportunities, as everyone knows. At age 15, ⁓ went to high school. I couldn’t speak any English at the time. I spoke Armenian, Russian, and French, but no English. So first few years was kind of a struggle.

⁓ And three years later, after high school, I’m going to college. I joined the Navy. And I spent four years in the Navy. I got out, I got out in 2001. And that’s when my journey has begun, whether that’s education, getting educated,

educating myself, because by that time I felt like I was so behind in just education. ⁓

You know simply the fact that I couldn’t still speak like fluently I could obviously I spoke enough to join the Navy and You know get an honorable discharge. I loved every minute of my time in the Navy and I love my My my shipmates my my friends that I still keep in touch with them. So since then I have

Gone to college, I have studied for different licenses, Series 766, life and annuities. I worked as a financial advisor for a while. I opened up my own business restaurant, franchise restaurant. I had at one point 40 employees working for me. It was a very successful restaurant. It’s called Farmer Boys. If you are in California, you probably know. It’s kind of like In-N-Out, but actually even bigger and better than In-N-Out.

Quentin (06:35)
Thank you.

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (06:50)
⁓ So, and then after

that I got into real estate, got my agent license, my broker license, I opened up my own company. And then later on at age 36, I decided to finally, finally go to law school. So at age 36, I enrolled in law school. First I did part time and then I went into full time by in about

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (07:18)
Three and a half years I finished law school and it’s been about eight years now I’ve been practicing and I still have my real estate broker license and my real estate company. So currently I have a law firm, a real estate company brokerage and a real estate management company.

Well, and just recently with a few friends of mine who’ve been into construction for many years because they all go together hand in hand, I started a construction company. ⁓ A friend of mine is a general contractor and he’s the licensed GC for that company. So he and his crew run it. I don’t necessarily run it. I’m just part of it. ⁓ Sort of as an attorney, as a real estate ⁓ broker. Also as a veteran.

You know, being a veteran helps a lot in my business, especially construction business, because governments ⁓ give priority to veterans ⁓ in construction when they give out jobs. So that helps. And then being in real estate for so many years and having licenses that are related, also a loan license. I got the loan license a few years ago just to learn how it all works.

in and out of the financing. I just can’t, so my law practice is mostly on real estate. And ⁓ the biggest arm of my law firm is asset protection. So I help people get into real estate, buy, but what’s even more important when most people don’t realize is how to protect it. Because you can go be very successful by

hundreds of properties and then one mistake or one innocent mistake can wipe everything out.

So.

Quentin (09:18)
No, think, mm-hmm, I’m

please keep going, I’m sorry to cut you off, yeah.

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (09:20)
I just can’t

emphasize enough how important it is for the real estate pros, your audience, to properly protect their assets, to shield it, and to legally hide it from the public’s view. So then the sharks are not out there lurking around ~ see who they’re gonna catch next.

They’re going to say, Q has 10 properties. He has a lot of equity. Let’s go after him. So I protect investors like you to shield all that

and hide it so the sharks can’t even see it. So that’s the biggest thing I do. If you consider something I do for the people, for the public, for investors, that’s sort of like a good thing for the people is to help them protect everything that they’re

working for and building. Because look, anybody can tell you, buy investment real estate. It’s a good, who doesn’t know? Everybody knows real estate in the United States is a good investment. If you can afford it and buy it, or if you can create, use creative financing, even sometimes if you can afford it, there’s ways to buy it. You should still buy it. Everybody knows that buying real estate is good. Well, what most advisors and real estate

brokers and even attorneys miss is that very important component of shielding it.

you bought it or you buying it now, you’ve got to buy it with the foundation set properly so that nobody can touch it. So people go in quickly, buy it in their names and then things get a little bit, you know, hate to say it, but it gets messed up a little bit like that.

Quentin (11:37)
Absolutely.

Yeah, yeah. No, that’s a great nugget. mean, yes, being able to protect what you work hard for, I think that would be beneficial to anybody. So I’m glad you’re talking about that and bringing that out. And so, you know, I know it’s not always easy. You we all got our ups and downs within the industries that we’re in. So what’s been the key to keeping your machine running smooth?

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (11:57)
Yeah.

⁓ my consistency. You know, I’m sticking to your guns, so to speak, you know, like I’ll just, I always get the best deals. You know, I deal with a lot of people and they ask me, how do you get these deals? And sometimes people think it’s like super easy, like, I just find a deal and I go get it. It’s not like that. You know, I may look at hundred different deals.

maybe two of them or three of them will be good deals. I will go to them. I will stick to them and I’ll put in my limits and this is what it is and I’ll stick to it. You know, if it doesn’t happen, so be it. There’s the next one, next one. So I do it so often until I get what I want at numbers that I want. And then it shocks people. how did you do it?

They don’t know that I looked at 100 different deals and I’ve been working behind the closed doors for six months or sometimes even it takes, you know, nine months to a year to get a really good deal. So ⁓ what I would say is like, don’t rush, you know, that’s a mistake people make. They just want to get in and then they’ll overpay or

They’ll kind of overlook at some important things. know, always check your properties, always do a thorough inspection. Don’t rush into it. ⁓ And stick to your principles and to your numbers. Numbers, I love numbers. Numbers don’t lie. Numbers are your friends. Numbers are good. If you’re good to numbers, numbers will be good to you. So love your numbers, stick to your numbers. You know, it’s…

Quentin (13:55)
Yeah.

I love it, I

love it. I’m sorry, I don’t wanna cut you off. Please continue, Mr. K, I’m sorry about that. Yeah.

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (14:03)
No, I was just saying it’s good to negotiate but you

You got to know your number, you know, I know my highest number is here, right? Well, I’m not gonna make an offer here. That’s stupid That’s one of the stupidest things you can do if you know your number is here you make an offer here You know, just don’t do it you make an offer here And I’m not saying make an offer here lowball in a stick to it. No, that’s it doesn’t make sense in your mind You know, this is my number. Okay, you start here

Yeah, you’ll negotiate. Maybe you hit somewhere here. You’re good. You’re happy. But if you’ve got to go here, that’s fine. But don’t be like, my number was here, but it’s OK this time. There’s always other deals. There’s always deals in the market, always. And more and more deals come to the market, like, every day. Especially now that interest rates are high, the prices have come down a lot.

Quentin (14:48)
Yeah.

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (14:57)
and some multi units have come down 30%,

Now is the time to buy.

Quentin (15:46)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Listen, I love your discipline. love you. So listen, I’m going wait for the right deal. I’m not going to be, you’re going to be patient. And I love that. So let me ask you this in your journey of being patient, dealing, know, buying and making deals. I know there are times when things get real. Maybe a deal goes sideways or a time when you had to pivot fast. Do you mind sharing one of those moments for you?

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (16:12)
that a deal went sideways? ⁓ You mean like it just didn’t happen?

Quentin (16:19)
I mean, honestly, any kind of adversity that you’re facing that caused you to kind of have to re-strategize or regroup. And why we ask that, because there’s so many people on different parts of their journeys and we want people that may be facing adversity to know, like, hey, you can get past this, you can get past this adversity. like, can’t, even some of our experience, we can’t teach experience, experience teaches us, right? And so maybe a time where experience taught you

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (16:47)
⁓

Quentin (16:48)
a moment of, within adversity.

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (16:53)
I’ll tell

this. When I was a real estate agent and an investor, not an attorney, I used to have a lot more challenges, a lot more difficulties dealing with, you know, other agents. You know, being a real estate agent in Los Angeles is probably one of the toughest things because it’s so competitive, so competitive. Every other person wakes up and like, you know what, I’m going to get my license and I’m going to do this.

So easy, don’t require Calc, it doesn’t require you any degree, it’s nothing, zero, not even a high school degree, just three courses online, you take the state exam, can miss 30 questions out of 100 and you still, I mean, it’s so stupid the way they have it, like, I hate to say this, but so many people become agents that should not be in the business or should at least get themselves more educated. So.

At that time, I had a lot of difficulties with other agents. know, other agents want to, especially if an agent is a little bit experienced and has done a few big deals and then they start bullying the other agents. So ⁓ I, as a new agent, I had a difficulty dealing with a lot of this type of agents on deals and they were trying to bully me and my clients.

⁓ One pivotal moment actually was when I was dealing with one of the agents. This was, I want to say like 10 years ago, maybe a little bit more, almost like 15 years ago. And we were going at it, going at it. And then he goes, man. So I accidentally ran into his client that happened to be someone I knew. And I started talking. I went to ⁓ some kind of a shop. I was doing some business.

turned out to be the client, the seller, and I was representing the buyer. So I called him up, I said, listen, I ran into your client, I didn’t even know. And then he started yelling and this, why are you talking with my client, blah, blah, blah. I’m like, I didn’t go to talk with your client. That wasn’t the goal. I just went to do some business, it turned out. And we actually went to the same high school, turned out, and we talked. We didn’t even, you know, talk about the deal. Anyway, long story short, he’s like, you want to talk with me?

Quentin (19:01)
Yeah.

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (19:14)
yeah, you want to talk with my attorney man? Blah, blah, blah. He’s like threatening me. has some attorney. He was a big shot real estate attorney. So in my mind, I said, you know what? Next time this happens, I’m going to say I am an attorney. ⁓ Besides being a real estate broker. OK? So please don’t threaten me with attorney and stuff like that. That was one of my pivotal moments. I just said, you know what?

Quentin (19:33)
Yes, sir.

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (19:40)
I’m so tired of this. I’m just going to go to law school, get my degree, and then, you know, bullies like that will never talk to me again. And it’s true. The last eight years since I’ve been an attorney and a broker, no one talks to me like that again.

Quentin (19:56)
That’s right. Yes, Absolutely.

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (19:58)
And now

what’s the moral of the story so you or your audience might think like, why is he telling us this? Why I’m telling you this is the more education, more designations you have, the easier your job will get and the less people will mess with you. So you wanna do well, go get education, go get licenses, go get certifications. Don’t settle with just, I’m gonna go get my self-presence licenses.

three courses and then that’s it, I’m out there. Well, people are going to bully you, you’re not going to have a leverage, go get another certificate. I’m not saying, look, not everybody wants to go to law school. That’s fine. That’s fine. If you don’t want to go to law school, go to law But if you like it, you have passion for it, that’s one of the best things you can do. So please do go to law school. But if you don’t want to do that, at least get some certification, some designations, be some kind of a designated agent and this and that.

Get out there, get your name known, participate in a lot of networkings and education courses. A lot of the boards, like the realtor boards, the local boards, that almost on a weekly basis, they have events that they do on site and go get more certificates, more name recognition, things like that. So the more you do that, the less challenges you will have. So that’s the teaching that I want to.

has true.

Quentin (21:26)
love it. No, man, thank you. Thank you for that story, for that perspective. I think you’re going to help people that the people that’s that’s trying to be in it for the long term. think they’re going to take this and they’re going to hear it and they’re going to put it to good use. know, people that dabble, maybe they will, maybe they won’t. But you’re going to help somebody be able to have that chance to stick around for a long term with that advice. Let me ask you this. What are you most focused on solving or scaling next? Like, what’s your next real goal?

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (21:47)
Yeah. Yeah.

Next role as an attorney or as a… ⁓ Acquire as many multi-units as I can. Actually now I think it’s one of the greatest opportunities, …but a window of time to buy specifically multi-units. The prices have come down so much that…

Quentin (21:59)
Gold. No, that’s real gold. Gold, yeah.

Gotcha, yeah, yeah.

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (22:26)
If you buy it now in a year or two from now when rates are lower, which everybody predicts are going to be lower, you’re going to build up equity in a year or two that would normally take five to 10 years.

Okay, so, you know, five unit buildings, let’s say in LA, okay, that used to sell for like 1.7, 1.8 million. Now are selling one, 1.2. I mean, it’s crazy. Like, it’s, they’re selling so like cheap compared to like three, four years ago when the rates were lower. So in the future, when the rates come down again, the prices will come back again. It has to, it’s natural, you know, it’s almost like physics, you know,

⁓ The Newton’s Isaac Newton’s first law for every action there’s an equal but opposite reaction Okay, that’s it’s gonna happen It’s like it’s like a ball you hit it on the ground. It’s gonna go down and then it’s gonna bounce It’s gonna come back up. Okay, so you want it to go higher the harder you got a hit So now is the time to hit hard? That’s the goal

Quentin (23:21)
Yeah. ⁓

There you go.

Absolutely. No,

I love that. I love that. Now is the time to hit hard. I absolutely love that. And that’s big. Acquiring as many multi-units as you can. That’s huge, man. And the next journey, the next move, can either compound things or create total chaos. And so I love it, but it sounds like you’re ready for it. And so let me ask you this. So people that’s listening to it either early in their journey or they’re looking to level up, and I think they have benefit from hearing this.

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (23:43)
That’s it.

Quentin (24:06)
When it comes to building relationships and growing your network, what’s made the biggest difference for you?

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (24:15)
I’m a people’s person. love going to, hear, if I hear there’s some kind of a network tonight, I’m there, man. I’m there. I’m dressed up. I’m walking around. I’m saying hi to people and introducing myself. I want to get to know who the people are. Obviously, whoever is there is also as motivated as I am. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be there. So they’ll go get us too.

Quentin (24:22)
Yeah. Yeah.

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (24:43)
So everybody you meet at networks is someone that you do want to associate with and learn from and maybe even do business. So I go to networks, whether that those are free networks, even paid networks or $500 for some high net people. That’s fine. That’s not even a cost. That’s an investment. You pay, you go. You know, actually, I’ll tell you what, the more expensive it gets, the people you meet are on.

higher level and level. mean, it’s simple as that. mean, so if someone is going to pay $500, $1,000 to go to network, they got to have the money and they got to be well off. They got to, you know, so you’re dealing with this kind of people. So even paid networks is really worth going.

Quentin (25:34)
Yeah. Yeah.

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (25:34)
So

just going meeting people, it’s not just network. Like I could be somewhere in a store, I standing around, maybe in line, I see someone that looks like a businessman or talks like a businessman. I might just say, hey, hey, how you doing? How are you? You know, I don’t know, just open up conversation and talk people because you never know what one small conversation can lead to. One advice from someone can change your life.

Quentin (25:58)
Yes, sir. Thank you, sir.

Mm-mm, mm-mm, yes, sir.

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (26:04)
But the more you talk with

people, the more of a chance you have to get that one or two, ⁓ you know, piece of advice that will better your life. And, know, at end of the day, if nothing happened, you didn’t learn it. So be it. You just went, you socialized, whatever you had fun. So there’s nothing to lose. It’s really a win-win situation, you know.

Quentin (26:15)
Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah, you are absolutely correct. you’re absolutely right. Connections and relationships are everything, especially in this space. And so thank you for that nugget, for that reminder, because you’re absolutely right. So listen, before we wrap, if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect with you, maybe learn from you, what’s the best way for them to get in contact with you?

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (26:51)
I can be reached on my number or email. My email is my first name as that’s on the screen, K-A-R-O at my last name, Karapetyan.com. There’s no Gmail, no YAML, Karo at Karapetyan.com. That’s my email. Is it okay to share my number? I mean, I’m not sure if I… Okay, so…

Quentin (27:14)
Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. How come you

wanted me to get in contact with you?

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (27:19)
Well, okay, my cell phone number is 310-435-8179. That’s my cell phone number. If anyone wants to reach out, can call or text me. I will get back to you as soon as I can. I mean, look, I’m all over. I mean, even if you just Google my name, Karo Karapetyan attorney, I’m all over the website. I’m LinkedIn. I have a lot of attorney websites. You can go see my reviews too. I’m on Zillow as one of the approved.

brokers, premier agents, premier brokers. I do a lot of real estate transactions too, by the way. It’s not only law that I do or practice, but I also do actual real estate transactions. I represent buyers and sellers. ⁓ So that’s also part of my practice.

So if anyone has a question about buying, about selling, about investing, and actually probably most importantly protecting what you have, your assets, or setting it up if you’re a beginner, setting it up from the beginning properly to protect your assets in the future, that too I can help. That’s what I specialize in.

Quentin (28:34)
Yeah, I absolutely love it. There he is. Thank you so much for your time. Thank you so much for your story. Thank you so much for your perspective. We appreciate your lens. You have brought a great value to this conversation. And so I thank you so much for showing up and being here today.

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (28:50)
Thank you,

and thank you. And you’re doing great service to so many, many, many people. Look, I am just one of many on your podcast, but you do this, you know, a lot. a lot of people, I’m sure, appreciate. I appreciate you. You’re educating the public, your followers. You’re doing a great job. So thank you, Q, and goodbye, everyone. ⁓ Wishing you the best. And hopefully I’ll get to see some of your ⁓

viewers in some networks.

Quentin (29:21)
Absolutely. That’s the plan. And so thank you. Thank you for the kind words. so viewers, you’ve heard them. You’ve got the value. Please make sure you’re subscribed. You do not want to miss out on these amazing conversations. And so again, I thank you, sir, and to everyone else. We will see you on the next time.

Karo G. Karapetyan, Esq. (29:25)
Fantastic. All right.