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Show Summary
In this conversation, Preston Garcia discusses his journey into real estate, emphasizing the dual role of being both an investor and an agent. He shares insights on helping clients find their dream homes and explores various investment strategies. The discussion also covers navigating the current real estate market and anticipates future trends in the industry.
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Investor Fuel Show Transcript:
Preston Garcia (00:00)
In New York, there’s a lot of new construction, although that’s not really impacting ⁓ flips, at least from what I see, but there is new construction all over the place. And it’s funny you mentioned that in Texas, I was just there a month ago, I was meeting with a partner who’s also an agent. We were going through neighborhoods, you see these older houses and then right next to it you have this brand new $1.5 million building, which made no sense. And some of the lots you have, ⁓⁓ Two single-family houses literally one right behind another on the same lot. I’m like this is wild There’s like no parking spaces, but yeah, that was crazy to see
Dylan Silver (02:11)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. Today’s guest, Preston Garcia, is a savvy investor agent in New York. Preston, welcome to the show.Preston Garcia (02:23)
Thank you. Thank you for having me.Dylan Silver (02:26)
It’s great to have you on here Preston. I always like to start off at the top of this show by asking guests how they got into real estate.Preston Garcia (02:34)
Yeah, actually it was four or five years ago, something like that. I was talking to one of my buddies about passive income and he was telling me about rental properties. And then ever since that conversation, I took it to YouTube, Google, all that stuff. And I had just been researching lot about it and I thought it was super interesting. So I decided to get into it.Dylan Silver (02:56)
You got in first on the investor side.Preston Garcia (02:59)
Yes, although my first, actually yes, yeah I was. I was gonna say it, but I became an agent before I actually bought a property, but that’s wrong. Yes, that is true.Dylan Silver (03:09)
Now, it’s interesting because I’m sure you can relate to this. When you’re going through the process of getting licensed as an agent, most of the people, well over half at least that were in my cohort of people going through the school that I went to.We’re looking at it to go into the retail sales portion of it. They weren’t thinking about it as investment for themselves, but you did have that segment of person who was there specifically so that they could send out their own contracts. When you were initially getting licensed, was there a thought process, hey, I’m gonna use this to work in the retail portion of it, find people their forever home, or was it, let me use this to further my investor ⁓ journey?
Preston Garcia (03:53)
Yeah, actually, was a combination of both of those. I initially got in because ⁓ I was like, why not be all in real estate, be an investor and agent? then in the meantime, if I could help out others, you know, find their dream home or other investment properties, which is what it turned into, then why not do it? Just be all in real estate.Dylan Silver (04:15)
And so walk me through that first couple of months, that first year ⁓ getting licensed. Were you looking heavily for yourself, you know, off market deals, were you making a bunch of offers, were you connecting with investors or was it a mix of everything?Preston Garcia (04:31)
Yeah, the first month well I got I got licensed in a month I did it on a an app online so luckily I was able to do it in a month But once I got into it everything seemed confusing. It was like nothing like what you do on the test anything like that I was definitely Slow for the first six months to a year Because you’re brand new trying to learn everything but after that started to pick up andThat’s why eventually I went ⁓ all in and I was able to do it full time.
Dylan Silver (05:50)
want to ask you, full time and going all in, when people talk about, I’m making the jump into real estate, there are sometimes toes in the water, and then there’s sometimes, hey, I’m just going to jump ⁓ right in. Was it specifically the investor angle? Was it more of working with ⁓ buyers and sellers that you were passionate about? Or did you just say, hey, I’m a real estate guy now, this is my ⁓ new path, my new identity, my new profession?I’m just jumping all in. There’s no other way to do this.
Preston Garcia (06:22)
Yeah, so when I first got into it, I wanted to do both people that said, I’m gonna go try to find their dream home and try to do investment properties, help them. Turns out for me, about 95 % of mine have just become investors, but I’ve opened to everything.Dylan Silver (06:44)
Now, when we talk about working with investors, I’ve noticed this as someone who pretty much works predominantly with investors, it’s a totally different ball game than working with retail buyers, right? So working with investors, helps to be an investor, to think like an investor as well. When you’re reaching out and when you’re connecting with other investors, is it through groups that you’re affiliated with? Are these through deal connections?Or at this point in the game, people know, hey, that’s Preston, know, investor agent. You should reach out to him. He’s my guy.
Preston Garcia (07:21)
Yeah, like you said, it definitely helps to know the investment side. like I said, I think 95 % of my clients came from invest or from bigger pockets. So a lot of them are newer investors. A lot of them are experienced. But for them, it’s literally all numbers. They don’t really care about too many other things. It’s not emotional or anything. ⁓ Yes, location plays a little role in it. But for the most part, it’s aon numbers when it comes to investors.
Dylan Silver (07:52)
Now in your business aside from being an agent when you’re looking at deals right now in this market is there any segment or asset class that you’re particularly heavy on be it you know single family or small multis or land deals.Preston Garcia (08:11)
Yeah, most of my clients are small, multi-families, and by small I mean two to four, anything five or more is considered commercial, at least as far as when comes to loans. But most of them are in that two to four range. There some that are higher, but would say majority are two to four.Dylan Silver (08:31)
Now when we talk about the multifamily space, I’ve seen this trend happening right now. I think we’re about to see maybe a bigger wave coming, but there’s some distress, I would say, in that segment, that commercial segment, Whether it’s 100 units or 50 units, if you have people coming together and pooling funds. ⁓in the 2020-2019 time frame and it seemed like it was just guaranteed these properties were going to appreciate. Now there’s a lot of distress I’ve seen in the financials on the operator side. The physical structure might look great but you’re seeing some distress in multifamily. Are you seeing that as well when talking with your clients and in the market?
Preston Garcia (09:18)
Yeah, and ⁓ I feel like most of time that I see if a property ⁓ goes on the market quickly after they bought it, I kind of ask them what’s going on with it. Either one, the tenants aren’t ⁓ paying, which is a problem over here New York. The laws are tenant friendly, so that’s an issue. But the other one, ⁓ they say that the property managers aren’t doing a great job and they’re over… ⁓overcharging so I see those two to be the biggest issues when it comes to ⁓ the properties over here in New York ⁓
Dylan Silver (09:54)
Right, right. You know,when I think about these issues, it makes it kind of a perfect storm ⁓ for owners and sellers, right? You’re having tenant issues. You may have changes in the law. You know, may have rent stays like we experienced during COVID. ⁓ But then you also have maintenance costs go up, rehab costs going up and over budget.
And so these things can come together. And then if there’s any type of, you know, downward pressure on rents or the market in general, that just kind of compounds things. But on the flip side, as an investor, this makes it particularly appealing because you can start to make, you know, creative offers, right? Are you seeing more creative offers out there as well? And our sellers, maybe because they’re, you know, close to a danger point or breaking point, are they entertaining these offers?
Preston Garcia (11:28)
Over here locally in Rochester, I see more creative offers. However, very few have got accepted that I’ve seen anyways. Although my personal duplex that I have over here, that was a creative offer. That was a few years ago. But in general, I’m seeing them more, not really seeing the sellers taking more. But when we talk about nationwide, I’m seeing a lot of creative offers be accepted.Dylan Silver (11:53)
I want to ask you, know, multifamily is comprised of multiple different segments. I mean, you could just keep breaking it down and breaking it down. was speaking to someone yesterday who does workforce housing, rent by necessity was how she put it. But there’s also folks who are in that, that small segment or, you know, this may be their first deal. They may be looking at, you know, duplex, triplex, quadplex. There’s so many ways to get into multifamily.And you know, personally, as someone who comes from the single family space, I think that small ⁓ multifamily, know, single, excuse me, duplex, triplex, quadplex is particularly appealing, especially to newer investors. Are you seeing ⁓ newer investors ⁓ maybe more bullish on that small multifamily than even per se single family, you know, buy and hold or fix and flip?
Preston Garcia (12:51)
Yeah, I would say most of them are actually in the small multifamily space. I barely see anyone looking for a single family ⁓ unless they’re in a like quote unquote nicer neighborhood. They’re looking to, you know, either live in and rent out to other rooms or if they’re trying to rent to nurses so they could get more rent. But most of them are still in that small multifamily game. I have a couple of clients that aretrying to own or occupy. So I think that’s a smart move. So if you can get a multifamily like that and live in one unit and run off to other ones. Yes.
Dylan Silver (13:24)
Yeah.house hack, right? ⁓
You’re based out of New York. Are you looking at deals in other markets as well, either for yourself or investors that you work with?
Preston Garcia (13:38)
Yeah, literally all 50 states. I’ve been sending out offers actually to agents in all 50 states for a creative finance deal. I think in the last two and a half months, I sent over 65,000 emails. Obviously there’s a system automation in place, but yeah, I sent out a lot.Dylan Silver (13:54)
Holy smokes.Now when we talk about investing across state lines and making creative offers, how are you looking at these deals? Are you looking at, I’ve done a deal here before, I’ve got boots on the ground over here, I feel comfortable in this market. What’s your approach to making offers in areas where you might not have the connections that you have in New York?
Preston Garcia (14:20)
Yeah, well first things first, I just put the offer in everywhere. It doesn’t really matter as long as numbers make sense. And then if it gets under contract, then I’ll start doing my due diligence a little bit more and start finding a team, a realtor, property manager, contractor, all that kind of stuff. But initially, I just put the offer in wherever the numbers make sense money-wise.Dylan Silver (14:42)
Now, is there a specific market that you’re particularly bullish on or that you’ve seen investors be particularly bullish on outside of New York?Preston Garcia (14:53)
⁓ Yeah, they’re pretty heavy in Texas right now. Texas, Alabama, parts of Florida, but most of them are in Texas right now.Dylan Silver (15:46)
This is news to my ears, Preston. I’m a Texas licensed agent. I’ve also seen a lot of traction in those other areas as well. Alabama, Florida, you mentioned. Texas specifically is interesting because I was in the wholesale space and working a lot with flippers. And then I started to see this trend. was just slightly more challenging to be a single family flipper, especially because of how much new development was happening everywhere. And soIf you’re doing a flip but there’s a new DR Horton Meritaj-Linar home that is $250,000 and maybe smaller but it’s brand new, it can be challenging to be in the flip space. In New York, are you experiencing a similar trend, different trend? Is there new construction in New York or is everything already pretty much established and the flips are what is driving the market?
Preston Garcia (16:45)
In New York, there’s a lot of new construction, although that’s not really impacting ⁓ flips, at least from what I see, but there is new construction all over the place. And it’s funny you mentioned that in Texas, I was just there a month ago, I was meeting with a partner who’s also an agent. We were going through neighborhoods, you see these older houses and then right next to it you have this brand new $1.5 million building, which made no sense. And some of the lots you have, ⁓⁓ Two single-family houses literally one right behind another on the same lot. I’m like this is wild There’s like no parking spaces, but yeah, that was crazy to see
Dylan Silver (17:25)
When I think about my experience living in the East Coast, I grew up in Northern New Jersey and I contrast that with my experience as a Texas licensed realtor, it’s like two totally, it’s almost two different countries because you’re talking about where I grew up Northern New Jersey, feels like average price of a home is seven, $800,000 and you can get a beautiful, very much upscale home that would probably be amillion dollar home in those same areas for three hundred seventy five four hundred thousand dollars in in dallas fort worth metro or you know it’s some of the other metros and i look at houston houston is is super cost-effective in a lot of ways although they do have the flood insurance issues that they have to kind of keep at bay when you’re looking at these deals in texas specifically
⁓ Any specific market that you that you’d like to look at Dallas Houston San Antonio Austin somewhere outside of those major four
Preston Garcia (18:24)
Actually, literally, those four are the main ones that you just said. ⁓ But then there’s some smaller ones like Laredo and I think there’s another one. can’t think of what it was. But those are, yeah, those are the primary ones, all of them you just mentioned.Dylan Silver (18:38)
What’s interesting about Texas too, that a ⁓ lot of people may not be aware of is that because there’s so much vacant land, but also because there’s so much population growth and population movement, you’ve got interest from folks like yourself who are investing outside, but also you’ve got this trend of people looking at moving to Texas or looking at moving between cities in Texas. There does seem to be this kind of investor friendlyculture, environment that I did not experience growing up in northern New Jersey. I didn’t know personally flippers growing up in northern New Jersey. I’m sure that they were out there, but this concept that almost anyone can go and flip homes or can go and invest in single or multi-family is nice to see that that is a possibility in Texas.
Preston Garcia (19:29)
Yeah, yeah, and the partners that I’m working with specifically are buying a more creative, ⁓ which I don’t know if you know Paste Morbby, but a lot of them are buying through the Morbby method. So that’s how we’re taking down all these properties.Dylan Silver (19:40)
Yeah.We are coming up on time here, Preston. Where can folks go to learn more about you and what you’ve got going on, or if maybe they have a deal they want you to look at? How can folks get in contact with you?
Preston Garcia (19:57)
Hey, yeah, I’m always happy to look at deals. ⁓ On Facebook, it’s just my name, Preston Garcia. I believe on Instagram it’s Preston Garcia. One word, then underscore it, and same thing with TikTok and YouTube.Dylan Silver (20:11)
Preston, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.Preston Garcia (20:14)
Yeah, thank you for having me.
