Podcast Episode 136 Transcript

Episode 136: Organizational Psychologist and Real Estate Professional with Rafael Cortez

are you ready to bring your real estate
game to the next level my name is James
prendamano I'm the CEO and founder of
prereal and over the past 25 years I've
closed over a billion dollars in
transactional real estate each week I'm
meeting with outstanding investors High
performing individuals and Visionaries
operating in the real estate space these
are the people that are actually out
there in the real estate game right now
getting it done this podcast aims at
bringing anyone
this is the prereal podcast welcome
everyone to the show we're joined today
by Rafael Cortez Rafael is the CEO of
the pulse group Rafael is one of these
incredibly high energy entrepreneurs uh
that seems to have this drive that from
a very very young age has absolutely
been out there killing it and and by the
tender age of 23 seemed to have
accomplished more than most people
accomplish in a lifetime so Rafael
thank you so much for joining us today
James it's a pleasure thanks for having
me you're described as a second
generation entrepreneur can you just
speak to the audience about what you
mean there uh yeah so I was raised by by
a single mom and um this is a Border
Town so I actually grew up in a Border
Town which is San Luis a little bit
further south of Yuma
um but nobody knows that town everybody
just kind of connects Yuma right anyway
so it's Border Town
um she was a single or she is a she
raised me as a single mom and she set up
her shop so she had a mom and pop like
little grocery store in Mexico so when I
grew up I I grew up thinking that owning
your own thing wasn't that was a norm
that was a regular thing to do
um so yeah I mean that's why I I feel
like a lot of stuff that I'm doing the
Curiosity that I have in the drive that
I have and whatnot it's really adopted
from from um the stuff that I saw
growing up I mean she would you know
kind of do whatever she wanted with her
schedule because she had uh you know my
aunts working in the same uh you know
grocery store and whatnot and and uh she
she got the point where she owned her
options right at her in her little you
know sphere and again I thought that was
the normal thing so it one way or
another you know you you get conditioned
right to think a certain way as a
growing up and I think that's that was a
big big factor so do you think that can
be taught
absolutely absolutely do yeah I do I I
think there's uh I mean we we have we're
a combination right we're a combination
of natural behaviors and and learned
behaviors or borrowed behaviors so you
probably heard me classical conditioning
right stuff that we are exposed to is
stuff that we adopt and we start to
model our behaviors uh and habits after
that kind of stuff
um now that being said if you're around
a an environment where you know nobody's
producing it doesn't matter if you're
the smartest tool in the shed nothing's
going to happen there's got to be a
combination of the two right
um and on the opposite side of the token
to kind of you know address your
question I think that if you put
yourself in a space where you're
surrounded by people who are producing
where you're surrounded by people who
are thinking bigger than you are uh
where you're surrounded by doers and
people who are actually taking action
that's going to rub off on you so it's
it's totally something that can be
learned
um and um
better better even it's it's uh it can
be you can borrow motivation from
somebody else
um if you're if you just put yourself in
that you know type of space and you were
the youngest is it true you were the
youngest firefighter in your account
yeah ever yeah well I mean not ever I'm
sure there's somebody else you know but
at that point I was the youngest uh
firefighter there I mean I literally
turned 19
um and on my birthday that's you know I
was working there when I turned 19 I was
it was a fireman and wow in Yuma and um
and yeah it was it was interesting
because I would show up to uh fire you
know to the fire scenes and EMS scenes
and whatnot and people look at this 19
year old kid are you taking my vital
like what are you doing where's your dad
uh
so it was just you know an interesting
experience but again just putting myself
in in the path
um of of just people who knew more than
than I did uh putting myself in the past
like for example captains loved me
because I was like I was always asking
questions and and you know I think
if I were to say that I have a virtue
it's curiosity it's it's yeah I mean I I
work a lot I mean I I know a thousand
guys that can work just as hard uh as I
do right but I think Curiosity has been
one thing that's led me uh to to the
experiences that I've been able to have
it's just I'm just curious about things
like I wonder how that works I wonder
how this conversation can go I wonder
what else can be done here and and what
if what if that what if question and
being inquisitive about stuff I think
it's one of the things that has really
positioned me
um it's just in the path of things and
then taking action right how do you make
the jump from medical transport to real
estate and and several derivative uh
operations you you've got uh several
organizations underneath the pulse group
where where does that connection come in
so um I I launched I got my first paid
client so when I launched I started
working on the business like I said I'm
putting it all together but I got my
first paid client in 2007.
um and that's when I you know jumped
into the transportation industry
um I I did well I landed a couple
contracts with uh with the government
and and uh I grew the company so uh by
2009 I had some cash just you know built
from that and I want to replace it
somewhere uh I don't know a thing about
real estate
um I mean I've heard you know that you
come in and then fix all I knew about
real estate was the construction work
that I had done prior which was framing
houses and then dropping concrete and
that kind of stuff I didn't know how any
any of it worked uh so 2009 I was like
you know I'm gonna do a flip I can't you
know I can't swing a hammer let's let's
just go ahead and take on my first flip
um and and the business started running
right so it was I mean I had dispatchers
I had drivers
um I had I already had a a you know a
good a good solid you know size flea
Elite at that point so I had some time
on my hands to just do something else
and I went into real estate did a couple
of flips
um and yeah so 2009 2010 uh the prices
were crazy uh 2011 even you could buy
properties for a fraction like 10 of
where you can buy them right now
um so I did a few of those and then I
came across wholesaling
um
and uh I mean that just made a ton of
sense to me it made a ton I didn't
really like dealing with I was already
dealing with enough people in the
transportation business you know drivers
and mechanics and people in the in the
team and then dealing with uh you know
contractors and subs and and handyman
and whatnot like it was becoming heavy
right and then I came across wholesaling
I was like wait you can do uh you can
sell your vested interest in the
property and and you I don't have to I
can make a profit and I don't have to
worry about you know swinging hammers or
any of that stuff uh and yeah I mean I
just I I took that as my uh my Big Mo
and uh and I've been you know doing
wholesaling and I still flip so we
cherry pick flips but we mainly focus on
on wholesaling the thing I love most
maybe about real estate is that uh no
day is ever exactly the same and there
are several opportunities within the
opportunities right there's there's a
lot of different ways you can monetize
this this industry if you have all the
the disciplines Pulled Under One Roof so
if you could describe for the audience
uh you said you cherry-picked some
why would what's the incentive or what
are the reasons that you landed on on
the wholesaling side instead of the full
execution side
um it's easier transactions are a lot
faster I mean you can be in and out of a
deal in two three weeks meaning that you
get it locked up and then you find a
buyer for it you push a clear title and
then you get paid and and if you know
how to negotiate deals right I mean
you're talking big big spreads
um I think our average right now our
average spread is around thirty two
thousand dollars per deal uh which is I
mean it's a good healthy spread right we
have a very specific way of negotiating
deals and and working it from both sides
on the seller side and the buyer side
and at the end of the day like it still
makes sense for the flip
um so I I mean I got to practice a lot
of that a lot of those closings and and
putting it together so it just makes
um you know I'd rather make thirty
thousand dollars in three weeks than
maybe 45 in in two months identifying
the deals you you've broken out your
leads similar to How We Do It
um because someone that's looking to buy
uh of one family Fix and Flip is not the
same person that's looking at Raw land
it's not the same person that's looking
to buy a multi-million dollar shopping
center you're targeting your lists as uh
the typology fits you're copying these
things out through local resources and
some third-party sites are you buying
anything out of state or is everything
localized no out of state we'll stick to
wholesaling we won't flip
I'm not holding out of state either uh
yet so it's just I have different things
in the burner I'm building a software
right now for for
um it's a full operating system for
wholesaling so I'm calling that project
and I have a couple other things going
on so outside will strictly I mean right
now the model that we have is just push
it we'll assign the deal that will close
on it double escrows so I I don't know
if there's a space I'm more excited for
we're also uh developing proprietary
software I feel like that is is is the
the one place where there's absolutely
it feels like unlimited opportunity and
insane growth opportunity
absolutely I think so man I I think
there's uh there there's a lot of stuff
out there but what this is what happens
right this is what happens a lot of
tools that we use as investors
um a lot of them are put together by by
coders right they're put together by I
mean the code is done by coders but
um the actual infrastructure the flow
the the model of the business the model
the software is put together by somebody
who knows code uh they're you know these
people are Engineers they you know they
they work well that way but they haven't
done the business a lot of these people
have no idea uh you know how a wholesale
transaction Works how you know where the
little gaps are going to be in uh how a
Fix and Flip Works uh and where you know
you're going to have deficiencies and
you're going to have bottlenecks in the
process if you're sitting down and
thinking theoretical about anything
right you can write three books on that
thing just by the stuff that comes into
your into your brain right ideas uh but
until you put it into practicing you're
actually in the trench doing the work
that's what we the real questions don't
come up and I think that's it's one of
the big things that are
that we're lacking in the space of
Technology like in in real estate
specifically right in Investments so
uh yeah I'm I'm uh my thing it's not
going to be a lead generation thing I'm
focusing on uh operating system I want
and actually have it I actually I house
I house the the the model that has it
inside podio so I have a podio set up
and it it really runs the the entirety
of my business
so I'm taking that and doing a
standalone software but I it's uh you
have to do a lot of stuff a lot of you
know you have to be in it consistently
to fine-tune to be able to see how you
can lean it out how you can make it
better and improve it right and you you
can't see that from if you're not in the
business something you touched on
earlier uh also again I give you a lot
of credit for it because typically
people don't
don't understand this until it's it's
much further down the line and they've
done a lot of damage in their
organization we call it operating in the
gift
um you you referenced it in the context
of not taking a deal maker that is a
fine-tuned machine right a deal maker is
a special breed and dropping them into
eight hour cold calling sessions every
day
um is this stuff that you learn through
the psych the psychology classes and the
degree that you took or where did all of
this start to to weave its way in yeah
so I've been I've been playing with with
this well I mean some people like video
games I like I like psychology and I I
dove into uh disk assessments and
profiles very early on I mean I'm
talking about maybe 2009 that's when I
kind of got exposed to that
um and and we're all algorithms
psychologically we're algorithms right
we are wired uh in in certain ways so
there's we have natural tendencies we
have natural um natural cycle um
natural behavioral strengths that were
just kind of you know come out of the
womb out of the box we just wired that
uh with those now
to that you add on learned behaviors you
add on you know different skill sets you
add on exposure you had you know your
parents had tenacity you borrowed
tenacity right
um but we're going to be naturally wired
for something and uh when you're when
you're able to hire based on on the
strengths of what the role needs here's
one thing that happens and and um let me
know what you think about this but
here's one thing that happens people
will do for example a personality
assessment for hiring right and they're
like oh cool I like this I like this
person but they'll do the personality
for
um
they'll hire for the um for for the
person as opposed to the the uh the
qualifications of the actual role uh
meaning if you have somebody who's an
introvert who's very uh you know they're
not social they they like you know to
have that steady you know slower more
controlled more predictable space to
operate in you can't put them as an
Acquisitions rep because that's highly
volatile you're out there all the time
you're engaging with people it's a
people business it doesn't mean that
they can't do it it doesn't mean they
can't do it now here's the difference
uh all it means is that you're going to
get burned out you're going to get tired
a lot faster uh for example I'm good
with spreadsheets I I'm like uh I am
really good at creating the fancy ones
with the you know the graphics and then
doing all kinds of Tricks it's just been
working on spreadsheets forever but I
know that I can only handle spreadsheets
for maybe two hours at a time
um and then I'm just I'm fed up I'm like
oh the hell with this I need a break
right because I'm adapting my behavioral
style to the analytical side and it's
not my natural strength so um on the
opposite side you know the same is true
for somebody who's in Acquisitions if
you're familiar with the disk assessment
you're looking for like your ideal
Acquisitions rep is going to be somebody
who's a high driver and has a a good
high secondary
um
um influencer uh profile or influential
profile so a DI is it's kind of like the
the mold for Acquisitions hiring your
profile is different for lead management
your profile is going to be different
for dispositions you don't need the same
behavioral traits or strengths right so
if you're able to kind of see that and
hire based off of that and then to that
you add um you know attitude and you can
train for for skill when they already
have that uh that wiring uh I mean
things just you know flow better people
talk about mindset coaching and people
talk about the buzzwords but to sing it
in practice at this level is is pretty
damn impressive man you should really be
proud of what you put together I think
it's amazing where to where do folks
find out more information thanks I
appreciate it um the uh so I'm pretty
active in Instagram somebody wants to
shoot me a message
um uh DM or whatever Rafael Cortez CEO
um that's my handle and you can find me
everywhere as Rafael Cortez CEO uh
YouTube I post a lot of content on
YouTube I have a podcast on
entrepreneurship uh series on
wholesaling uh where I break it all down
I mean I just give strategies and
tactics on on how to do real estate um
uh wholesaling and
um yeah I do a lot of videos on mindset
and just entrepreneurial principles as
well as a YouTube channel yeah uh again
I'm I'm real impressed and and that
doesn't happen very often you've really
got this on lock man congratulations on
on the success I'm excited to see where
you go next and uh we'll certainly be in
touch
thank you so much man I appreciate you
having me and then giving me the
opportunity to come and talk to your
audience yeah I appreciate the time uh
as always everybody out there please
stay safe