Dave Dinkel: Hi, I’m Dave Dinkel. I’m here today with one of our exceptional Mentor students, Gabriel Garcia. Gabriel has been in our Mentor Program for about 10 months, since you really actually got a property under contract and so on.

Gabe: Yeah, when I got the first property under contract was last November.

Dave Dinkel: Oh OK. So, it has been actually one year.

Gabe: One year.

Dave Dinkel: OK. Gabe is notable not only because of the deals he has been doing, but because he’s the only student I’ve ever said quit your day job. He was working full time and getting involved and his job was bothering him. He’s a– he didn’t want to see him on the phone with so many people and stuff and I asked him how much are you making? And he said, he told me, and I said quit because you have a pending sale that was worth more than what you’re making for the whole year.

Gabe: Right.

Dave Dinkel: And as luck would have it, of course it didn’t close as timely [Laughter] but Gabe did go on to do another series of deals right away and he was able to sustain himself. Now, this first, almost full year that he’s going to be in the business, he’s going to make just about 10 times what he was making in the one year at his former job that he quit

Gabe: Right

Dave Dinkel: So let’s, let me ask you some questions about what’s happened. You’ve done a number of things from probates, tax deeds, almost anything that you can take a pretty big spectrum. What’s the biggest profit you’ve had and what’s the smallest profit you’ve had? Not counting deals where you flipped other people’s wholesale deals.

Gabe: The biggest I’d say it would be that West Palm Beach deal, the triplex. So we made 38 Net.

Dave Dinkel: And the smallest that you made on a regular deal?

Gabe: [Chuckle] Well actually, last week we did a deal where we made no profit. [Laughter] It was an assignment that I figured– we couldn’t sell it and I just marketed it for what we had it for, thinking I can get a reduction from the seller but it didn’t work and I didn’t want to screw the buy over so I let them close. But, besides that one, I think was a– well, one I just closed not too long ago also with Indy and it was $3200 was the smallest.

Dave Dinkel: OK. Well, that’s not an uncommon strategy, to get it under contract then negotiate before the closing to get a price reduction.  In this case it didn’t work.

Gabe: It didn’t work.

Dave Dinkel: Yeah. But it doesn’t matter.

Gabe: But we had no choice.  I mean, so it doesn’t matter, whatever. I’m sure that buyer’s happy and will call me in the future for more deals.

Dave Dinkel: Now, one of the things you’ve also been doing is reselling other wholesaler’s deals

Gabe: Yeah.

Dave Dinkel: How has that been going for you?

Gabe: Good. This month we made an extra 10 grand just doing that.

Dave Dinkel: And you don’t really see the houses.  All you do is put out the other wholesaler’s list to your list.

Gabe: I don’t see them and I don’t, I don’t do anything.  I just…

Dave Dinkel: Don’t clean them up, don’t smell them, don’t… [Laughter]

Gabe: All I do is, you know, I used to go through them and just put on anyone’s who I saw if I knew the person but I stopped doing that because it’s just, all of them were bad deals.  I actually go through them and do the numbers myself and see which ones I feel I can honestly move so that way, I put out less in my emails but it’s more quality.

Dave Dinkel: What you say you go through them? You go through them on your computer to find out the value of what you think it is.

Gabe: Yeah. I look at Reifax and see if it’s, you know, if it’s a viable deal. Some people are putting out deals at retail prices and it is just a waste of time and energy.

Dave Dinkel: Well one of the things that happened on those is you get the wholesalers there, daisy chaining two or three other wholesalers in it.

Gabe: Right.

Dave Dinkel: And everyone is adding something on to it.  You may not see the first list and it’s a good idea to get on everybody’s wholesale list.

Gabe: Right.

Dave Dinkel: So you can see what other people are doing and, and we call it recycling the wholesale deals. What you can do is track them and see what happens to them. About 40% of the time or more, they don’t sell.

Gabe: They don’t close. It’s a good way to get deals too is if we have done one. Remember that we were going to close on and we were going to net close to 20 grand but it, it got demolished before closing, remember?

Dave Dinkel: Small problem.

[Laughter]

Gabe: But that one was one like that, it was a recyclable deal. And I remember calling the wholesaler, she told me it’s sold and I couldn’t believe it and I called the Realtor® and she’s like “No, I still got it” and we put our offer in.  We got it. We told him we weren’t going to close. They gave us a $15,000 price reduction and then the day before closing with our buyer, the property got knocked down.

Dave Dinkel: Are you talking about the sixplex or the eightplex?

Gabe:  The eightplex.  Yeah.

Dave Dinkel: Oh man! I didn’t actually know that one was demolished.

Gabe: Well, they– well, they had the trucks there and everything and then the seller has actually filed the…

Dave Dinkle: Court order

Gabe: …a court order, an injunction or something to stop it. It didn’t get– it didn’t get completely demolished and they actually ended up, they ended up keeping my escrow on that deal. I’m actually in a pending lawsuit with them to get my escrow back.

Dave Dinkel: It’s a thousand bucks though,

Gabe:  It was a thousand dollars.

Dave Dinkel: Yeah, it wasn’t critical. But I, I’ll tell you what was, what was interesting about that deal was the seller was on the phone with me also and he was saying that they’re going to have 15,000 rental units under their belt by two or three years and he was going on and on and I said to him, “Let’s talk about this specific property.  We have plans for it, but these plans weren’t city approved.” And they couldn’t be approved, right?

Gabe: They couldn’t be approved. One of the buyers, it was funny I brought a buyer to the meeting with the seller. So, I told the buyer, “Hey, don’t let them know anything about what we’re doing. You know, between you and me, you’re my partner.” So, he was all right then. We were in the super nice office in Brickell you know. [Laughter] It’s like, you know, beautiful office and the guy is coming in all this cheap raggedy clothes that are dirty and stuff because he’s working on houses. So, he saw the plans and he’s like, “Man, this, you know, this plans are no good.”

Dave Dinkel: Oh, it’s the architect or the inspector for the city? [Cough] Excuse me.

Gabe: This was the buyer for the..

Dave Dinkel: Oh, the buyer. Oh I remember that, yeah.

Gabe:  He was a– he was a contractor. Yeah.

Dave Dinkel: He was a contractor. Yeah. OK. How did you pick the Mentoring Program to go into?  Do you remember?

Gabe: When you say how do I picked it, like what made me pick it?

Dave Dinkel: Yeah. What made you pick this Mentoring Program versus– there are plenty of them out there.

Gabe: Right. Well, I did, I did Rich Dad Poor Dad’s.  They have like a seminar that I did. You know, I read Kiyosaki’s books and I got inspired with the idea of passive income in real estate. So, I really liked that so I wanted to learn more. So, I went to their seminars but their classes were like $40,000. I remember that after the three-day seminar, I was so inspired and I had called my dad asking him for a loan and he told me I was nuts. [Laughter] If I would have had the money, I would have put myself into the deck because you leave so motivated from those things. But they don’t work out so I kept going to different seminars and learning. And your student Ramon, Ramon told me about you guys because I have met him at a Kent Clothier seminar

Dave Dinkel: Oh.

Gabe: So, he told me about it and when I went and I heard you talking and heard you saying. I remember the guy from Rich Dad, when I saw him talk, I’m like, “Man, these guys it’s like, you know, they know so much like I wish I can just pick his brain for a little bit, you know.” And then when I came to your seminar and I heard you talk I’m like, “Man, this guy knows a lot too. I’m like these guys are everywhere.” You know and I kept going to the meetings and the way that you gave the information and, and presented it, you know, I just knew that you had all the information, the knowledge and experience that I needed to get– to really get things moving because I was working on my own doing it but I really didn’t have any success at it. You know I was just all out there.  I didn’t, I really didn’t even know what I was doing. I was just going by what I read based on the books and gone to those seminars but it wasn’t really working too well.

Dave Dinkel: Yeah, and it happens to a lot of people. Now, when you actually came to the program, you didn’t have the money so you borrowed it from your girlfriend.

Gabe: I borrowed it from my lovely girlfriend.

Dave Dinkel: Yes and [Laughter] we love her. And she’s still your girlfriend.  But the first five deals you did you had to split with her.

Gabe: The first four.

Dave Dinkel: Oh, first four.

Gabe: I had paid so, really the first four deals I did I was only keeping a quarter of the profits.

[Laughter]

Dave Dinkel: It’s OK.

Gabe: Yeah. It was all worth it.

Dave Dinkel: Yeah. What would you tell people who are thinking about coming in to the Mentoring Program or doing things with us for example?

Gabe: I would say, you know, yesterday I was thinking to myself about it.  Being in the Mentorship Program, that it has been the best investment that I’ve ever made. I mean even better than any property that we bought or we sold because having that Mentorship Program, it allowed me to pretty much be my own boss and just run my own business and buy so many more houses and deals. I mean I’d redo it a hundred times over again if I had to make the same decision. It has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.

Dave Dinkel: OK, great! Now, we love you too. [Laughter] Have a great day! Thanks for joining us.

To learn more about my Real Estate Mentorship Program, click here https://davedinkel.com/mentoring-program/ or click below.