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What Most Real Estate Agents Miss About Value-Add Deals and Long-Term Wealth

By January 29, 2026Real Estate Pros Show

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Show Summary

In this episode of the Real Estate Pros Podcast, host Quentin engages with Rudy Romano, a seasoned real estate professional based in Las Vegas. The conversation begins with some technical difficulties, showcasing the challenges of virtual communication. Once the connection is established, Rudy shares his unique background, which includes degrees in accounting and hotel finance, and his extensive experience in real estate development and sales. He emphasizes the importance of education in the real estate industry and discusses his role as a faculty instructor at the Las Vegas Association of Realtors. Rudy’s approach to real estate is distinct; he focuses on working with a select group of clients, primarily business owners relocating to Las Vegas, allowing him to provide personalized service and expertise.

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    Investor Fuel Show Transcript:

    Rudy Romano (00:00)
    Anyone can find a property, but not everybody can lock it up and lock it up at a price in which everybody is happy with that. Everyone thinks that they got a great deal. So, you know, that’s, that’s the real, the, the, the, real gem here is, you know, what I do and what not everybody else can do is, is find a way to make a win, win, win situation forever.

    Quentin Edmonds (01:51)
    Hello everyone. Welcome to the Real Estate Pros podcast. I am your host, Q Edmonds. And when I tell you, appreciate this man in front of me, I appreciate this man in front of me. He has showed perseverance from the jump. And so I appreciate him because without him, this podcast wouldn’t be happening today. And so I’m so happy. I’m happy to peek through his lens, comes with a ton of experience. And so he knows what he’s talking about and I can’t wait to dive in. So.

    I want to introduce you all to Mr. Rudy Romano. Romano, am I good with that? Mr. Romano, how are you doing today,

    Rudy Romano (02:28)
    Doing great today. Thanks for having me, Quentin.

    Quentin Edmonds (02:30)
    Absolutely, man. So listen, I want to dive in. I would love for you to tell the people what your main focus these days in real estate. You want to give us a bit of an origin story of how you got into real estate. We love origin stories and then tell them what part of the world you’re in. And so, Mr. Rudy, sir, you got the floor,

    Rudy Romano (02:48)
    Sure. So my name is Rudy Romano with Signature Real Estate Group here in Las Vegas. I’ve been out here for about 28 years now and been in real estate and development for all 28 of those years. ⁓ And I wouldn’t trade the experience and the relationships I’ve made over those years for anything. ⁓ For me, my business is a little unique. A lot of times agents will, you they’ll buy and they’ll sell, but they don’t necessarily look at like the three legs of the

    of the stool, as we would say, right? They don’t understand where, ⁓ maybe they need to go and know when to go and dispose of an asset. And that’s what your value is, is building up and buying low, selling high, and bringing that value to the client. And for me, a lot of my clients, both residential, commercial, and land, ⁓ they’re always looking at that three-legged stool and wanting to know, hey, how do I go and make some money here? And how do I go on further my household or my business?

    ⁓ A lot of the properties that we look at are what I would refer to as value added properties, properties that are maybe long in the tooth, need repairs, what have you, not always, but, or just not cash flowing. And we rehab them, we cash flow them, we bring them to a certain level, and then we make sure that we look for the next best deal for the.

    Quentin Edmonds (04:06)
    Yeah, yeah, I love it. So give me a little bit of how you got in the real estate. Where did it all start? Where did the passion come for it?

    Rudy Romano (04:14)
    So originally from New York, got a, unlike most agents, I’ve got a bunch of degrees. I value education. So before moving out from New York, got a county degree. I got a undergrad in hotel finance from UMass Amherst and then moved to Vegas and got my master’s in finance here at UNLV. What I ended up doing in college was a lot of pro forma work for doing

    building new hotels and restaurants and that was That was my forte and that was what I was studying And then coming to Vegas, you know, I I didn’t quite know what to expect coming to Vegas I had some people that I knew here I was in Colorado for a little bit and I said I’d rather drive 500 miles to Vegas then go 2,500 miles back to New York

    I never left and You know, I saw that I saw the comparisons between

    getting a hotel degree, an accounting degree, and being in ⁓ construction and being in development. ⁓ once I got my first job being a land engineer ⁓ and watching not just residential properties, but parking structures and hotels being built and being part of those projects, I said, this is what’s for me. from there, worked for most of the large publicly traded builders here in town. Toll Brothers, Pulte, Lenar.

    to name a few, worked for some of the local and regional ⁓ builders as well, starting companies and also unfortunately having to dismantle companies during the recession. And then ended up going into resale, worked for the FDIC for a while there, did a lot of short sales. But when we were having about a 65 % failure rate, my success rate was much higher than the failure rate of most just because I knew how to work the numbers and knew what was important.

    A lot of my clients were happy that we were able to get a deal done the first time as opposed to maybe taking two or three hacks at it. ⁓ And then like I said, my business, I do commercial, residential and land. Most of my people are from out of town. They rely upon me and my knowledge and my expertise ⁓ and my experiences so that I could see a lot more property by myself and evaluate it before somebody has to get on a plane to come out and take a look at it. And so my clients, I’m very lucky that they trust me that

    they trust me with doing and finding these properties for them. And not just that, you know, anyone can find a property. I’ll just tell you secret

    Anyone can find a property, but not everybody can lock it up and lock it up at a price in which everybody is happy with that. Everyone thinks that they got a great deal. So, you know, that’s, that’s the real, the, the, the, real gem here is, you know, what I do and what not everybody else can do is, is find a way to make a win, win, win situation forever.

    Quentin Edmonds (07:52)
    I love it. I love it. Thank you for that. Mr. Reed, I want to ask you, what are some personal disciplines, tools, character traits that you know you have developed over the years that help you as a man and also help you as a businessman? ⁓

    Rudy Romano (08:11)
    Okay, and by the way, I go over this. I’m a faculty instructor for the local Las Vegas Association Realtors. I do the orientation for all the newbies. I just had a class last week. And one of the things that I cover is that most of these people who are coming from, just like me, coming from a nine to five, well, it was never nine to five, my jobs, but coming from an hourly or salaried position to commission base. And you only eat what you hunt. You only eat what you kill.

    So, ⁓ you know, the, the, thing was that, you know, ⁓ when I was working in corporate corporate finance guys, a lot of times we’re there and I was playing football during the day, but I didn’t get a chance to work until the end of it. Cause I had to wait for everybody else to get their job done. And so where I benefit from that experience is that now that I am, I am the guy, right? Now I’m self-employed, right? I don’t have to wait till six o’clock. I don’t have to wait for those inputs and being that I, I know where to get the information.

    I don’t have to wait for the normal path to get that information. I know how to go and pull it out so I can get my job done. Now, when I got my resale license, I was just starting to have a family. My wife and I were married for a couple of years. And trust me, nothing makes you more time conscious than having two young kids to have to deal with coaching baseball for two teams, what have you. A lot of times agents, we say that we’re open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365.

    Personally, what I teach is that you’re selling yourself short as an agent. You’re not demonstrating what your worth is if you’re always going to answer the phone. You know, you need to make sure that you parameters and, ⁓ and there has to be some value there. And so I learned those lessons very quickly because, know, young new in, in, the profession, you answer that phone at two o’clock in the morning.

    Cause you just don’t know if there’s money on the other end, but you know what? Sometimes you have to set some boundaries and people respect that.

    They wouldn’t expect you to call them at two o’clock in the morning. you know, make sure that you set boundaries and make sure you set those expectations. But yeah, it was very difficult. Luckily, I had a good foundation at home between my wife and the two kids to set me straight and not stray. Because trust me, if I’m watching TikTok, my wife knows, my wife’s in sales as well, not in the business, but she’s in sales. Trust me, we know when we’re both watching a TV program and taking a break.

    And we will tell each other, don’t you need to get back to work? And it’s like, and that’s a good healthy relationship that I hope that most other agents have. I know that they don’t, but I really wish that they would find a way to keep themselves honest if they can’t do it themselves.

    Quentin Edmonds (11:27)
    Absolutely. No, I love it. I love that time management setting boundaries, setting, you know, parameters. I love it. And that’s something that I don’t think it’s talked about enough because we talk about people hustling, people chasing, but you really have to set boundaries, healthy boundaries. So you have margin to go back at it again and don’t get, you know, subject to the burnout. And so I definitely hear you understand that for sure.

    Rudy Romano (11:52)
    Yeah. One of the things that one of my, I had a partner years ago, like a mentor and she said, you know, you need to really focus. You need to work on the first things are the things that are making money today. And you need to work on what was going to make you money tomorrow. And then you need to go and work on what makes you money the day after that. And if you set yourself up that way, when you, cause I’m a list guy, unfortunately, if you set your list up, you know, we generally have a tendency when we do lists, we do the easy thing first. Right.

    However, if you re-prioritize and do what’s gonna go and generate me cash today, what’s gonna, you find out that your list making starts, it ends up starting to be a little bit different when you were doing it based upon what’s easiest versus down what’s hardest on the list. So ⁓ again, you have to be efficient.

    Quentin Edmonds (12:40)
    I love it. Let me ask you this. What is the next real goal for you? What are you looking to solve a scale next?

    Rudy Romano (12:48)
    Well, ⁓ for me, my business is all agent referral, okay? And prior business. For me, I am a relationship guy. I don’t advertise, okay? When someone sits there and says, I’ve got a guy, that’s how a conversation or a lead or a client comes to me. Most people don’t remember the brokerage in which I’m from. Like I said, I’ve been doing this for well over a decade.

    And most people don’t realize what brokers are in front, but they do remember my name. And so one of the things I need to make sure I do it out and step out my comfort zone is maybe start working with more people. of the, one of the, and when I say that is like I said, I’m, I’m used to reviewing a stack of paper from the desk about a foot high in the course of a day and be like, Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope, Nope. Yes. Nope. Nope. And be able to make quick decisions. You know, one of the criticisms that my brokers have had over the years, or maybe you’re a little too fast.

    to go through your list of people of who you can work with, who you can’t. Now, what happens is that usually, you know, I put some time and effort into it and it doesn’t go anywhere. That’s fine. But, you know, and that’s me just trying to be efficient, but I need to make sure I spread my wings. I need to make sure that I find other avenues to approach people and attract people because it’s not just going to be always on referral basis. And which by the way is in this town, I don’t know what it is about referrals, but

    The agents do not, you know, they say that they love referrals, but at the end of the day, they fight with referrals all day long. like I said, for me, I need to find other avenues of getting in front of people and I need to find other ways of, of, of making a connection other than just to having a one-on-one referral basis.

    Quentin Edmonds (14:33)
    Absolutely. Well, I love it. mean, you brought up the word relationship. I always like to bring up relationships within the podcast. And so let’s talk about relationship building. What is your perspective when it comes to relationship building? Is it important? Has it helped you? Do you put a premium on it? How do you, how do you view building relationships?

    Rudy Romano (14:56)
    Relation, it’s actually quite easy for me at

    Okay. And again, I teach this as well to new agents, which is, know, right now for the National Association Realtors, about a million and a half of us nationwide, 71 % did not do a single deal in 2025, which it’s not a lot of people that have actually done a deal, right? So it’s not difficult to get a name or a reputation. Okay. Just this morning I was dealing with…

    one of my investors, I represent them as leasing agent. had another agent that was showing the property and he couldn’t get his client to come across the finish line. And I kept them in the loop. Okay. And his comment at the end was, wow, I appreciate your professionalism. I’m definitely going to look out for your listings in the future. Well, all I did was let him know, hey, I got an application in, you’re going to miss out. ⁓

    It doesn’t take much to send a text message or a phone call to John and say, John, I want to give you a courtesy here. How hard is it? I mean, for the number of hours in which we’re all on the phone looking at social media or what, or just playing, you know, you know, know, Queens, we’re playing on the phone. It doesn’t take much to reach out and just give a courtesy. Hey, how you doing? Or, or even better yet, when I go out and I show property or because I preview a lot without clients in tow.

    I always make a phone call and I always send a message and I say, Hey, I saw the property. I saw these things. Hey, what’s going on with this property? And what is there anything I can do to help you move it? Now the agents don’t understand why am I doing that? It’s like, well, maybe I have a listing in the neighborhood where I have a listing that the comp it’s in my best interest from my seller that you sell as high as you possibly can. So maybe I need to reciprocate a little bit and provide you with some information, or maybe we need to make a collaborative effort.

    do a showings together or have a broker open, maybe we should do something and get some attention here. And people sit there and they really do appreciate it. They’re like, wow, I’ve never had anybody come up to me and ask me and like, why not? It’s, I didn’t really offer you anything other than attention. Okay. Or, right. Hey, I’m looking to give you assistance because we all should be as listing, especially as listing, we should be trying to sell high, not, not sell low. So, you know, it would benefits me benefit, should benefit you.

    if we’re both in the same arena. So ⁓ like I said, it’s not that difficult if you’re just having open chains of communication.

    Quentin Edmonds (18:09)
    I love it. I love it. But speaking of not being difficult, like if someone wanted to reach out to you, connect to you, collaborate with you, learn more about what you’re doing, how can they reach you? How can they get in contact with you,

    Rudy Romano (18:23)
    Well, the best ways to get a hold of me, can always get me by cell phone, you by text. Number is 702-202-9489. And then, or you can always shoot me an email. You can’t make it any easier. Email is my name. It’s Rudy at rudyramano.com.

    Quentin Edmonds (18:38)
    Yeah, I love it. love it. Mr. Rudy, listen, sir, I got to say thank you so much. Thank you for your perseverance. Thank you for your time, because time is definitely precious and precious commodity. Thank you for your story, for sharing where you came from, where you are now and taking us through your journey. And also definitely thank you for your perspective, for your mindset and bringing that to the podcast. I really, really appreciate you being here today.

    Rudy Romano (19:03)
    Quentin, I appreciate your time as well and happy 2026.

    Quentin Edmonds (19:07)
    That’s same to you, same to you. But listen, you can’t tell me you didn’t get the value from Mr. Rudy. I keep telling you we’re going to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Rudy. So definitely check him out, give him a call, but definitely make sure you are subscribed here because I promise you we’re going to continue to bring up amazing people just like Mr. Rudy. So sir, I just want to say thank you again. And to everyone else, we’ll see you on the next time.

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