Unlocking Real Estate Success: Bryce Perez Reveals 5 Key Strategies

Dylan Silver (00:01.25)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. I’m your host, Dylan Silver. Today on the show I have a real estate investor, broker, specializing in the commercial space and also land as well, based out of Phoenix, Arizona, Bryce Pérez. Bryce, welcome to the show.

Bryce Perez (00:22.541)
Thank you for having me.

Dylan Silver (00:24.462)
It’s great to have you, Bryce, and I always like to start off at the top by asking folks how they got into the real estate space.

Bryce Perez (00:34.694)
you’re taking me way back so my mom back in 2002 she’s like

I was working as a flight attendant for some company called American Trans Air. no longer exist. Anyway, she’s like, you wouldn’t, you were going to be good at real estate. And I think that if you give this a chance, it could become something. And so how I started, we actually, we started out renovating houses. So, so before I got my license, I actually renovated a house and, and that’s what started the journey.

Dylan Silver (01:10.67)
So you went from the rehab space into the single family residential is where I’m imagining that that was. Did you know that you were going to look at it from the investor standpoint or were you thinking I’m going to go and list homes and help people get into their homes and so on and so forth.

Bryce Perez (01:16.737)
Yep, yep, yep, yep.

Bryce Perez (01:29.165)
It started out as let’s fix and flip a few homes. then it evolved into, well, I like being…

around properties and why not get my license. And so then at the time my friends were also, they were in real estate, they were real estate brokers and they’re like, yeah, you should do it. And why don’t you get your license and we’ll show you how, come work with us. And that’s kind of how it started. And so I was, you know, working with first home time buyers, you know, that’s what you start with. At that time I didn’t do any leasing. Then, you know, eventually,

Dylan Silver (02:06.435)
Yeah.

Bryce Perez (02:11.681)
year or two in I maybe did one listing is like, this is is different and and so you know it was like what 2003 it was goes way back right I mean everything was so different then and you know I was really young and it so it’s a long time ago but it seems like a lifetime ago but yeah I mean with time you get experience and you

learn and you take a lot of classes and lot of attend a lot of seminars. You know, I’ve been in those seats.

Dylan Silver (02:44.685)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (02:47.96)
You know, one of the things, one of the things, Bryce, when people talk about the journey and, you know, going from point A to point B, I think a lot of people can relate to this. Sometimes people have it all mapped out, but I think that’s kind of rare, especially in the real estate space, because things change every five years. The strategy that you used in 2019 probably doesn’t work today. It’s the exact same. And I see it a lot too in the lending space, you know, lenders who are making money hand over fist prior to the crash.

Bryce Perez (03:05.376)
Yeah. Sure. Yeah.

Dylan Silver (03:14.872)
we’re not doing able to do the same if they were even in the business post Dodd-Frank and all the regulation that was that was passed. But as someone who’s been, would say, a full cycle investor, you know, talking about early 2000s to today, and then also being on it from the real estate agent and the broker side, you have a diverse range of experience. At any point in time, was there a pivot point where you said, aha, this is the niche that I want to explore into? And what did that look like for you?

Bryce Perez (03:44.001)
Yeah. man, that describes that existential…

moment that happens every like pretty much every every couple of years that’s exactly what happens you know what you you begin to discover like my my cheese is moved in the maze and now i need to i need to figure out a new plan so yeah you’ve described it very well that that that happens very often and you have to you have to pivot right the with the asset class the territory in which you do it the method in which you do it how you communicate so you you

me what are the things that I want to double down on and get more involved in?

It’s being on social media. I was a non-social media person overall. You know, my face and my voice was never anywhere. And so for this year, I was like, okay, I’m gonna change that. I’m gonna make a purposeful effort to learn how to be on screen, be comfortable with it, and get into the, let’s talk about what we’re doing here.

Dylan Silver (04:55.586)
Yeah. You know, I think a lot of people don’t maybe believe like it’s it’s the thing that you’re born with. can say definitely not. Certainly wasn’t for me. I would consider it just the same like going to the gym or if you athlete getting your shots up. It’s quite literally the same thing, because if I compare, you know, my first podcast to now, it’s just like a night and day. I don’t even want to watch the first one because Bryce, the lighting was not good.

Bryce Perez (04:56.684)
Yeah.

Bryce Perez (05:21.749)
Yeah,

Dylan Silver (05:23.712)
I didn’t have the green screen so you see like the bookshelf in the background and I said, and then I’m not also able to understand just kind of the way you have been flowing the conversations. And it’s funny that you bring that up because I’ve been doing this now for a minute now. And when I think about my conversations in day to day, just day to day outside of digital world, outside of podcast, social media, oftentimes I’ll be in a conversation with someone and I’ll be, I’ll see an angle that I might’ve seen from a podcast and I’ll be like, you know,

I want to kind of expound upon this and see if this person, you know, invests in real estate or maybe they would potentially be open to looking at deals and so on and so forth. And I kind of just work an angle. And before, you know, we’re 40 minutes deep in conversation and, know, I’m inviting them to pickleball. And next thing you know, we’re friends. And so these these kind of I would call them skills really are 100 percent learnable. And I think the more we see.

interconnected and remote work and people being able to loan money across state lines and people having licenses in multiple areas. I think we’ll see more more of this type of content and more people doing the kind of remote type of thing.

Bryce Perez (06:36.971)
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, so when I saw your post saying that you were looking for a guest, like, it’s me. Cause you know, I do some short form podcasts and you know, I’ve only interviewed two people. and so my second, my second podcast interview is like probably the best content that I’ve ever done. and you know, I, I’m still learning how to, how to ask the questions, but like,

Dylan Silver (06:59.426)
Nice.

Bryce Perez (07:08.356)
I think that when people can see who you are and what you’re about, how you think, that goes a long ways. Because people like to do business with who they know and they trust. And old school is, you call people, you show up. I still do that.

Dylan Silver (07:17.357)
Yeah.

Bryce Perez (07:32.183)
But I think going forward into the present and to the future, what we’re doing right now, this is how it’s gonna be. So might as well embrace it.

Dylan Silver (07:42.264)
This is so true. I think it’s quite, I would say, admirable. Anybody who hops on a podcast, specifically coming from maybe school thought old school where I’m not going to put myself out there. I know guys. know them. Real estate guys, great guys. And I tell them, man, you’re always talking shop. We’re always talking shop. You can chop it up better than just about anybody. You need to just get on Facebook and just start.

recording some of this and they’re like, yeah, but I’m worried about boom, boom, boom, freezing up or this type of thing. And it does kind of take like people, I would say to really embrace it to go down that route. I do want to pivot here a bit Bryce and talk about some of the spaces that you’re involved in on the investment front. And then also as a broker, I’m particularly interested in the land. And I’ll tell you why. So from the wholesale standpoint,

Bryce Perez (08:26.317)
Thank

Dylan Silver (08:37.356)
A lot of the deals that I was previously looking at were distress properties, right? Maybe potential hardship and flippers would sweep those deals up because they were lower rates. Also, materials weren’t where they are right now. It’s now harder to be a flipper, which means that my business as a wholesaler is challenged because you really have to get these deals priced right, which means.

there’s more competition because beforehand maybe you could just get it under contract. Well now you got to get it under contract, get it priced right, you got to have your buyers in hand and so on and so forth. This led me to taking a look at new builds. This led me taking a look at infill lots, RV parks, and even something that I learned about recently which is just like rehabbing and rezoning land. And so you’re involved in that space. What’s the land space like for you?

Bryce Perez (09:32.137)
You’re asking a big question, right? Okay, so I’m gonna frame it with that, which is the question that you ask is big and deep, as in, like, there’s so much to it. When people think of land, they think, well, you know, it’s easy. It’s just, it’s there. And like, how hard can it be?

Dylan Silver (09:36.078)
This is true.

Bryce Perez (09:54.763)
That philosophical question is like, if Yoda could answer that question, you’d be scratching your head like, why did I ask that question? just to give you a scale of the types of people that I work with, I work with publicly listed companies that are looking to do projects that I can’t talk about that invest.

Dylan Silver (10:02.542)
You

Bryce Perez (10:23.373)
sizable amount of money that everyone will talk about. To somebody who inherited money and is like, you know what, my family made money from land and I want to honor my father, so I want to make money in land. It’s like, okay, let’s do that. Let’s look at some strategies to place your money and let’s make it grow. Then there’s another group of people where they bought it.

and they’ve had it, the land, and they haven’t done anything with it. And I come along and was like, hey, let’s turn your property into cash. That’s another set of people. And then there’s the investors. So investors, come in a few different types. Some, they have money or credit that they’re gonna place and they’re gonna buy the property and they’re gonna do something to it and then we’re gonna sell it. So that’s kind of like a fix and flip.

then there’s the one that, like what you’re talking about, you’re gonna put in a contract and you’re get permission to market it and then you’re gonna market it. You could do that. There is inherent risk. The risk is obviously your earnest money. But if you know that and you’re okay with that, you know, so everyone’s looking at dollar signs. Is there money to be made? Absolutely.

Dylan Silver (11:42.798)
Yeah.

Bryce Perez (11:47.923)
Timing in land is a tricky thing. Timing is either gonna kill you or timing is going to give you gains that are beyond anything that you can comprehend. But time…

To have time on your side, the best, like if I was gonna say get into this space, what you need to be thinking is how can I create value? Value creation, that right there, value creation, that works. That works like that works. know, create value, right? It’s the same thing in land.

Dylan Silver (12:28.738)
Right, right.

Bryce Perez (12:35.489)
But if you’re going to try to sell something that you have in a contract prior to your contract expiration, you have to be very intimate with the market that you choose. And you have to be surgical about it. you don’t just go with every. You don’t.

I’m gonna say this, I’m gonna say this like the most blunt possible way. You need to learn to say no more than you say yes. I know that you go to the coaching classes and the seminars and they’re like, just make offers. And somebody says, yes, take it, put it under the deal. Sure, sure, but what you’re doing is you’re putting money at risk. So how much money do you have to blow through, right? So you need to like learn how to cherry pick the heck out of deals.

Dylan Silver (13:26.968)
You know, that’s a that’s a point, you know, I think that is understated and to your point, like people go, go, go, go, go. But then there’s also the perspective of, well, you’re an investor, but you’re also an asset manager, right? Because these are leads, right? So if you look at it, you know, that earnest money, if you can’t find an end buyer, they’re going to take liquidated damages, take your money. And so then, of course, they’re well within the right to do so. So I think, you know, all these plays, there’s

Bryce Perez (13:27.117)
So you gotta learn how to sing the note.

Dylan Silver (13:54.614)
risk of course is specifically at the scale but definitely if you’re wholesaling a contract there’s absolutely that risk on the table. I want to pivot again Bryce and talk about a little bit about the commercial plays that you can do that involve land so storage facilities I know that you’re involved in that but another one that I’ve looked at is you know RV parks and they even have like upscale luxury of those type of deals.

What has been your experience in the storage space, for instance?

Bryce Perez (14:29.943)
going to talk about a situation, but I’m not going to give you the specifics only because the property is not yet built and when I help people find a site and do something with it, I’m not allowed to talk about it. But I’m going to give you the concepts. The concept is value creation. So this particular client, it was my listing, mind you.

I drove down this road for like two years because I had this listing in the middle of nowhere. And I kept driving by this field, this meadow on the outskirts of this town. And I’m like, what the heck is that? Every time I drove by, what is that? What is that? And then I finally stopped one day. I’m like, yeah, this spot would be good to do multifamily, to do medium density housing.

And what is this big, what’s this other lot here that has this light industrial zoning? Like, yeah, we’ll figure something out with that. Like, I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out. So I convinced, if you got a minute, this is like, this is deep right here. It was 20 acres of land. And it happened to be in an opportunity zone, which is a whole nother topic of conversation. So.

Dylan Silver (15:34.423)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (15:40.289)
yeah, let’s go, yeah.

Dylan Silver (15:51.362)
Sure, yeah.

Bryce Perez (15:52.329)
It is getting extended. It means that if you have capital gains money, you owe capital gains taxes, if you invest this money into an opportunity zone, into a fund that has property that they are gonna buy in this zone, which is basically areas that need to be improved.

If you buy it for a dollar and you prove it for a dollar, the money that goes in is tax free after 10 years. And then if you sell the property at 10 years, it’s tax free as well. if you’re looking to get out of the 1031 game …

Dylan Silver (16:26.317)
Yep.

Bryce Perez (16:30.349)
That’s where the smart money is going. That’s where they’re headed, period. Like, you’re billionaire, you got legacy money to leave to your family, short of dying, like if you’re gonna get exit out of 1031, that’s where you’re headed, period. Like, period, right? So that’s where the billionaires go.

Dylan Silver (16:33.23)
I was easy.

Dylan Silver (16:45.71)
Opportunity zones.

Bryce Perez (16:52.397)
So I listed this land and lo and behold, I’m the last, like the last weeks of the listing, which was a year. It took me a long time to get the right people to come to it.

Dylan Silver (17:00.897)
Yeah.

Bryce Perez (17:06.561)
Got this guy, affordable housing developer, made an offer on the 15 acres. That one I can talk about, because he got approved and he’s about to start construction. He got approved, of course, the town council was behind him because there’s a shortage of housing, they need housing, they need affordable housing. He’s got tax credits from the federal government, he got tax credits from the state government, and he got…

Dylan Silver (17:24.984)
Sure.

Bryce Perez (17:34.023)
some help from the city. Mind you, the infrastructure that he put in, he had to give that back to them. So the neighbors in the area were mad at me for bringing this to market, mad at me for getting under the contract, and hella mad at me and the developer for proposing this development, because they’re like, not in our backyard. Well, several years later, he got the thing approved. He’s starting construction.

Dylan Silver (17:56.79)
Yeah, sure.

Bryce Perez (18:02.989)
The property next door, Light Industrial, client of mine, he’d been doing housing and he’s like, dude, I wanna get out of housing. Like I want, I wanna do something else. I’m like, well, I’ve got this Light Industrial listing, it’s five acres. It’s got a lot of junk on it, but the guy wants to sell. You know, it was on the market for like 1.35, 1.25, something like that.

So he made an offer for 1.2 and change. And I told him, what about self storage? He’s like, what? He never thought about self storage. So he went and he talked to his banker friend. His banker is an investment banker. He’s the head of a bank. And they underwrite these assets. And he’s like, yeah, that market with that asset class?

Dylan Silver (18:42.189)
Yeah.

Bryce Perez (18:55.125)
hells yeah, let’s buy it. So they formed a partnership, they put it under contract. Talk about value creation. But both of these scenarios that I just told you, value creation, textbook, that’s what you teach on. So.

The 1.2 put it on the contract for a year. know earnest money going hard over a period of time So what they did was is they went to the town and said hey we are we want to get preliminary site plan approval we would like to Do self storage here. What do need to do and they give them the parameters? so they they originally got approval for

Dylan Silver (19:17.624)
Sure.

Dylan Silver (19:31.404)
Yeah.

Bryce Perez (19:38.253)
originally was 80,000 square feet. So then they hired a self-storage consultant to do a due diligence report, which basically is, does the market demand for there? What are the rates for there? And what type of building or self-storage building should we build there?

So they ended up designing, the due diligence report said, you need to do RV storage with some self storage. So they submitted that to the town. They gave a preliminary approval of 80,000 square feet pending civil and drainage. So then they started to raise money from friends and family. then, you know, so the bankers, France, the high.

high net worth guys, they all wanted in. And they’re like, so they wanted like, let’s juice this up. Where we need it to be, we need the pot to be sweeter. So they figured, well, how can we make the building bigger? So they pushed the envelope and pushed it to like, I don’t know, 125,000 square feet. So mind you, mostly RV condos.

Dylan Silver (20:31.704)
Sure.

Bryce Perez (20:52.053)
is what it is. an RV condo, because it’s the kind of town, it’s a destination area, where condos for RVs, you know, there’s another project in the area that is selling RV condos for $300,000.

Dylan Silver (20:53.675)
Okay.

Bryce Perez (21:10.743)
Class for a class a rig right class a rig like I’m sure I might you construction costs are up there, but valuation based on the a RV or the the lease revenue that would come from it So now that 1.2 piece of land with this preliminary site preland approval no permits

Dylan Silver (21:10.85)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (21:24.686)
commend this.

Bryce Perez (21:31.885)
Not a shovel in the ground, net land is now, it was worth at the time we got offers for like 1.8, 1.9, two million. And then as a got site plan approval for the 125,000, we got offers for 2.2.

Dylan Silver (21:42.894)
you

Bryce Perez (21:44.461)
and it barely closed on it. That’s value creation. So the site next door, he bought it for 1.8. When you say 205 units of multifamily products, and let’s just say that the average unit cost was like, the ARV was 400,000. I mean, do the math. That’s like close to $100 million.

Dylan Silver (21:48.141)
Wow.

Dylan Silver (22:10.753)
Wow.

Bryce Perez (22:11.647)
Right? So that dirt, that dirt was like, at the time when he closed on it, that dirt was probably worth, you know, without rezoning, was probably worth like four million. And then when he got rezoning approval, it was probably worth like eight million. And then when he got the blueprints approved, that thing’s probably worth like 10, 15 million. That’s value creation.

Dylan Silver (22:28.628)
Unbelievable. Unbelievable.

Dylan Silver (22:38.134)
Wow. Wow. There’s so many points. There’s so many exit strategies that you have with that. mean, without even seeing the deal to all the way to the exit, you have opportunities where you could sell even prior. I mean, amazing, amazing, amazing.

Bryce Perez (22:53.729)
That’s what a lot of guys do. That’s what a lot of guys do. they put the land under contract. The money they put at risk is yes, it’s the earnest money, but it’s the engineering, the civil engineering and the architectural stuff, the blueprints, the preliminary stuff.

Dylan Silver (23:16.322)
Yeah, Getting the land ready. Absolutely.

Bryce Perez (23:20.397)
That’s the value creation. That play, like if you got a couple hundred thousand dollars and you want some real serious returns, that’s the game you play. That’s what the well-heeled do, but a very specific type of person. I mean, you can do it on a smaller scale.

Dylan Silver (23:41.194)
Bryce we are coming up on time here. Where can folks go if they would like to maybe learn more about the commercial space or land plays or get in touch with you out there in Phoenix, Arizona?

Bryce Perez (23:43.5)
Okay.

Bryce Perez (23:53.037)
You can call me directly or the easiest also is I have social profiles you know Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn Bryce Perez in Phoenix in Arizona. I’m with Remax. Find properties.

Dylan Silver (24:09.816)
Bryce, thank you so much for coming on the show here today.

Bryce Perez (24:13.495)
Thank you, Dylan. It’s been a pleasure. We have to do this.