Transcription
Everyone should get involved in real estate. We fund 100% of the purchase and 100% of the rehab in 48 hours. In 48 hours, being included. So, all they got to do is find a deal.
They bought the house for 1.275 and sold that for 10.2 million. If you're a borrower that wants more leverage, I can beat anyone on leverage. If you're someone that wants a better rate, I can beat anyone on rate. Regardless of what you want, we can beat anyone.
Where do you think the best zones and states are right now? If I'm going to get in, I would say what it is. Brad Lee back again with another episode of Dropping Bombs. Today in the studio, folks, got a real treat. For the second time, Javier Romero in the house.
Brad, how you been?
Great. It's a great day today.
You killing the game?
Yeah.
Guys, if you guys don't follow this dude, you might want to. Romero Capital. This dude is allowing people to get into the real estate game with no money out of their pocket because he's the one lending. Now, Venezuelanborn entrepreneur, former US Marine, and CEO of Romero Capital Corp. based in Charlotte, North Carolina, specializes in hard money lending for real estate investors, offering 100%. That's crazy.
Yeah. For fix and flippers and the burr method strategies with industryleading 48 hour closings and he's cleaning up because obviously Javier there's a lot of people that want to get into real estate but their biggest challenge is they don't have the money and they think well I can't do it until I have the money and you will just loan the money so really all they need is the deal.
Yeah. So the deal has to make sense and we can fund 100% of the purchase and 100% of the rehab. in 48 hours.
As long as we get the documents in 48 hours, we can close. Uh, and title's ready, right? So, the title company might take a little bit longer, but that's just out of my hands. Uh, if title's not clean, I can't close on it. So,
Well, I don't think the the speed matters. What matters to me if I'm listening to this is, man, I've always been thinking about getting into real estate. I've always been thinking about fixing and flipping, but I never really do because I don't have money. So, I'm saving my money.
Well, you have money. I'm I'm I'm acting like I'm a regular Joe, the listener.
So So you know I I mean we I got flippers listening. I got a lot of people in the real estate game listening. So um that's why I'm I'm happy you're on because I'm trying to, you know, get people to succeed in life with the show, you know.
Yeah. That's what it started for. Dropping bombs on challenges, situations, solutions to where listeners are like, "Damn, dude. I'm going through that. I'm going to try what he tried or whatever." But in this case, it's like listen, if you want to get in the real estate game, and everybody in my opinion should because dude, it's like tax advantages, the the the money people are saying, you know, well, right now the interest rates and yeah, dude, listen, you you date the rate, okay? You marry the price and and it probably doesn't matter fix and flip anyway because you're fixing and flipping. So, who cares if you have a high interest rate for 10, 30 years? you ain't going to have it for 30 years anyway.
Well, the rates are not I mean that that's a different uh loan. So, that would be a DSCR, but they're not even that high anymore. I mean, we can get as low as 575 uh or 599, which a couple years ago it was almost impossible to get a 599. Yeah.
But I'm talking about like, you know, I can go find a house. I don't have the 30 grand down to flip it. I don't have the 180 grand for the house.
Yeah.
Uh my credit shot.
Yeah.
So, I just don't do anything. I just keep going to McDonald's. I just keep, you know, going to the construction job dreaming of someday being able to get out of the rat race and start flipping and getting into real estate and and becoming a wealthy real estate investor.
I want them to hear this episode because you will give them the money if they got a deal.
So, all they got to do is find a deal.
They got to find a deal. So, the deal has to be uh makes sense.
Yeah, they have it has to make sense. They have to find the property and they they they have to be able to rehab the property and stay under 75% of the of the ARV. So, whatever the property is going to be worth after it's renovated, you got to be under 75% of that value between purchase and rehab.
They're out there,
Which is Yeah. I mean, yeah. I mean, there's wholesale is making money because they find it at 60% and they sell it and make a make a profit on it. So, I mean, there's there's companies, you've you've had a few here.
Yeah.
That they find the property might they might find it at 50% ARV, they sell it at 60%, and there's still enough room for the buyer to flip the house and make money.
So, where where are you uh how are you able to do it so quickly and easily and at 100% when other companies only do like 80?
Well, that's what that's because we we close in-house, right? So, uh if you want to if you want me to go back into into lending and how lending works, basically uh you'll have a bank. The bank um they will close on the loan and normally they'll just they'll send that note to a hedge fund or they'll sell the note. So, basically what we do is we do the same thing, but we leave our cash on the table too, right? So, let's say uh and that's how you get that's how you really get to 100% financing because you'll have note buyers that will say, "Well, I'll buy 90% of the note or 80% of the note." That's fine. I'll bridge that gap and I'll leave my cash on on the deal until they can close it and and we get the money back. Um that's what that's how we can get to 100% financing. Most lenders will not do that. They will just close on the property and sell the deal, sell the note.
So, obviously you've had, you know, good luck collecting.
Yeah, we haven't had we've had we haven't had a foreclosure, but we've had we've had um people transfer the deed to us like back to us, but we haven't had a foreclosure yet.
Cuz the reason why banks and other institutions don't like to do it is because they get burnt. So, you're basically taking bigger risk than they are.
Yeah. Cuz uh I'm a first loss position. So, for some reason, they have to take the property back or we have to take the property back. I I lose my money before they lose theirs.
By the way, a lot of people getting out of the military. Is this something that that's good news for them to look at?
No, I kind of want to go back in. Today's actually November 10th, so you know what? You know what?
No. What does that mean?
Uh, it's the Marine Corps birthday.
So, happy birthday, Marines.
December five.
Um, but but I mean, a lot of people are getting out regardless of why they're getting out. People get out every single freaking month. Yeah, people I mean people get out all the time, but
Yeah, but I mean, is this because a lot of the
Well, a lot of the vets that are getting out, they're they're like wondering what to do, you know? They they got to now go assimilate back into normal society. They've been in the military for 8 years, 10 years, 12 years. They're getting out.
It's like
I would say you want to work for yourself if you can. And this is a perfect setup shop for that. So if if someone wants to become like a broker and have another income stream, they can actually contact us and be u part of Romero Capital. They could be brokers under Romero Capital and they make a commission on the on the loans they sell.
So basically they just go find the people that need the money.
Correct.
Easy.
It's I mean, you're selling money.
And why do you say you want to get back in?
Oh, cuz I was I was at the at the U Caesar's Palace. That's where we staying. And uh there were a bunch of Marines there celebrating the Marine Corps birthday. And I'm like, just I miss it.
Yeah.
I miss the guys. All right. I mean,
Camaraderie.
Yeah.
Um, so last time you were here was December of 2024.
Yeah.
Um, you got
Actually November 8th, 2024.
Oh, no.
Almost almost a year. Exactly. A year almost.
That's crazy.
And And so you say now you got better rates. You're lending in more states. Correct. Walk me through what's changed. So before we we used to sell we still have the 100% financing at 14% and that was across the board, right? So I would have um someone with experience and cash come up to me and be like, "Hey, I want to get 100% financing, but um I don't want to pay the 14% rate." So now we have 1325 rate, right? So we're already better for the ones that want the high leverage. But if someone wants uh let's say someone has cash and they maybe maybe they don't want to get the 100% maybe they want to get 90%. Uh we can also go as low as eight and a half now for that specific borrower. I mean he's saving almost six points on interest.
Well if you're flipping in 3 to 6 months what does it matter? Cuz that interest rate ain't that much.
Beats me.
I I I tell them I tell them the same thing and they're like I'm not paying 14%. I'm like
It's it's annual. Correct.
It's annual. Yeah. So, like if you flip it in three, four months, just buy more properties. Now, in their defense, um you have because this was my problem before I became a lender. Uh there was no way I was going to flip 20 houses in a month. It's I didn't have the manpower. I mean, someone might have the manpower. I I didn't have it. So, what they're thinking is, well, if I have enough cash, why don't I just put 10% down on or on five properties and get a better rate and save money that way? I'm I'm guessing that's why they're doing it because they have enough cash to where they don't need 100% financing. So, they're thinking, why why would I pay 13 and a half%.
So, walk me through when someone needs 100% financing.
So, if someone needs 100% financing, um what do you want to like the whole process? Yeah. Like like again, let's say uh you know, I lost everything.
I'm listening to the show,
Okay?
And I'm like, "Dude, I've been wanting to get into real estate." And then this guy says 100%. Which means no money out of my pocket.
You just you have to pay closing costs. So we we fund 100% of the purchase and 100% of the rehab, but we don't pay for attorney's fees. We don't pay for insurance. Uh, you have a renation cost. Um, so you you're probably going to have to pay about three three to 5%.
Still that ain't nothing.
Yeah. Compared to Yeah. So, I just So, now I'm like, "Okay, so I I start hunting. I start hunting. I find a deal.
What do I do?"
So, basically, you just got to uh you go to Romero Capital Corp.com, submit the application. We'll reach out to you. Uh, first, you only need to submit the loan app and the bank statement. After we have that, we're going to analyze the deal. If the deal makes sense, uh, then we'll move forward with we'll send you terms and then once you once you accept the terms, then we move forward with the loan. Pretty easy.
It's pretty easy. And we don't we don't check like the DTI or anything like that like a regular bank would do. So, as long as you have the cash for the closing cost and about 3 months worth of payments, I can qualify you for the loan.
And now you're expanding into new states. So, which ones are you in now that you weren't in before?
I mean, we're doing all 47. We're doing almost all 50 states. So, we do we do 47 states now. We can do California, Florida, which we couldn't do before. Um, we in Texas, we were only in um, uh, Dallas, Texas. Now we can do all of Texas. Um, we do New York, which we couldn't do before.
I don't know if you want to do that one.
Well, we don't do we don't do uh, Brooklyn, uh, Manhattan. We we do like, uh, Syracuse, Buffalo. Um,
What was holding you back from those markets before?
Uh, the the buyers. So when you when you're a lender, right, or and any bank does this, you write the loan, right? You fund the loan with your own cash and then after you close on it, you sell that note to a hedge fund or there's going to be always a bigger bank that's a note buyer, right? Before we didn't have anyone to buy loans in those areas, so we couldn't sell in those areas.
Does that make sense? Have you ever had on your mortgage um you know when you close on the house but then like 6 months later you get a letter like oh this bank's now handling your loan.
Yeah. They sold it.
Same thing. So we close with our cash and then we we sell the note. We don't really we still service it. Uh, but the funds
You get your money back.
I get my money back. Exactly. So we can keep we can keep funding deals fast. That's why we can close faster. Well, that's why it's called currency supposed to supposed to flow
Supposed to flow. Yeah.
So, where do you see fix and flip market heading?
I try to not guess on that.
Are people overleveraged or is there still money to be made?
There's money to be made and you have a bunch of I buyers um institutional buyers are are buying properties. I don't I don't think price are going to come down anytime soon. Um they might but like you said it's it's better be it's what's what's it call it's u time in the market is better than t time in the market or something else like you want to know yeah get in start investing because even if it comes down it's going to go back up so as long as you as long as the deal makes sense you'll be fine plus we lend up to 75% ARV which means let's say the property is worth 400 400k, right? And you're in it between purchase and rehab for 300k. Let's say the market comes down 10%. That property is still going to be worth 360. If it comes down 20%, it's still 320. You're still better. You're still saving 20 grand instead of like compared to what what waiting on the market to like what are people waiting for? Rates come down.
People have been waiting for 10 years.
I know.
And there's a lot of money made.
We've been making money.
Yeah. Everybody I know in real estate hasn't stopped ever.
My even before 2020, before COVID, um people were talking about prices coming down. I bought my house. I bought my neighbor's house and this is well this is the best deal we've made as an investor so far. Bought the house for 1.275. Bought my neighbors for 11 and 135 and sold that for 10.2 million. Had I listened to people and waited, I would have lost $7 million.
How'd you find that deal?
Uh, well, we were looking we were actually looking for a house and then I found out that they were trying to sell it to a to a to an investor to a multinational and then uh I just kind of blocked the deal. So basically, I got the house. Uh the neighbors wanted to sell, but because my house was right in the middle, you couldn't sell without me approving it, right? So you had to sell my property to sell the whole all the all the land. So basically, I just waited on everyone like kept buying, bought mine 2020, neighbor 2021, next neighbor 2023, sold it and made what almost $7 million on that deal.
Nice. Now see again that's why people listening like dude you can you can't wait you just got to get in the game and and it's almost like your company if I submit a deal to you and it doesn't make sense you're not going to fund it. So it's almost like if I'm new I could literally just submit a deal and you'll tell me if it's a good one or not because if you approve me it's a good one and if you don't approve me I probably would have screwed up anyway.
Yeah. Well, we're gonna tell you do not get the deal, but borrowers are I mean, every now and then we get a borrower that says, I want the deal. And they're like, well, you're gonna have to put 25% down now because I'm going to fund 100 up to 75%. What we think is ARV. If you still want it, I'll still fund it. I'm telling you you shouldn't get it. I'm telling you by telling you you have to put 25% down that you shouldn't get it. But if you want to go ahead and get it then because it happens all the time like some let's say they have a family member on that road and they want to buy you know houses and that area.
What qualifications does somebody need?
Uh, so we need uh loan application depending on the state you might need 600 million FICO. Uh, there's nine states where we can lend without a FICO. Um, and you need to have enough for the fix and flip. You need to have enough to cover closing cost and three months worth of payments. What if what if somebody what if somebody just wants to keep the house after they flip it as a rental?
No, as their
We can uh we can all land on primary homes.
Why not? Because I'm thinking all the routes. I'm thinking, well, [ __ ] dude.
I can go to you, buy the house. You think I'm going to flip it and then I just decide to keep it?
Um, we can only lend to entities. Uh, primary home loans are backed by the government. And we're talking about private private money. So, for a for a private primary home, you want like an FHA loan, maybe a conventional loan, uh, VA loan. Uh, those are going to be the your best routes. We're not we're not there.
Do you think buying the the the little [ __ ] houses to make them a a nicer affordable home is smarter than flipping the mansions? Because in my mind, I always think I don't want to deal with those $200,000 houses, but if they sell the fastest and I can flip 10 of those.
Yeah. So, like I
I try to not go over Well, it depends because it it varies. Like if you're if you're in Florida, then you can probably go what, like 700k house will sell fast. But if you're in North Carolina, you want to stay at what like 300 or 350 ARV max. Uh, if you're in California,
What about Vegas?
Uh,
Dude, I'll go I'll go try a couple flips. I'll go try a couple flips because I've been wanting to do it. I threatened for years, but like I'll go try a couple flips if you'll fund them all.
I'll fund them. Let's do it.
I just got to So now people, anybody want to go find me the deals?
I I'll get the money from Javier.
And
You've had a few wholesalers in here,
Huh?
You've had a few wholesalers in here,
Dude. I know a bunch of them. They hit me up all the time. I just don't know how to underwrite the deal. I don't know if it's a good one or not, but
We'll do that for you.
I know. I'll just submit it to you and you say,
And if we tell you, hey, you got to put 25% down. It's because you don't want that deal and we'll tell you, yeah, pass.
But if you go, yeah, we'll do that one. I'll be like, found a winner.
We even work with wholesalers. So, we have I've had wholesalers send me a deal and they literally say, "Well, I'm trying to sell the house for 100K." Right? Cuz they found it for 70.
Mhm.
We we actually just closed one like that 3 weeks ago. And I tell the wholeser, look, the most you can sell that house is for 85k because the deal doesn't make sense at 100. So you can still make 15 grand and make the deal make sense and you'll keep that borrower, right? You'll you'll keep the buyer. So he can keep buying from you. So sometimes we even work with wholesal sellers and we tell them, "Hey, this is the most you can get on this house." And they will we'll find in the buyer because we have buyers lined up. Uh, and then they'll make the they'll make the deal and the buyer will still make money on that deal.
Why do you think wholesalers don't flip and and and get the extra cash that Cuz when they sell the wholesale deal, the flipper that buys it usually
Makes more money.
Yeah.
Yeah. But it's a quick buck. So, you can you can find a deal, sell it, and wholesale it in what, two weeks, 3 weeks. um to flip a house, let's say you take it takes you what, three weeks to a month to fix it and then you got to put it back on the market with another month, month and a half. So, it takes about three months. Also, the manpower. You can wholesale 12, 20 houses by yourself. You're not going to flip 20 houses by yourself.
Well, not by yourself.
You don't have the manpower. Exactly. So, a lot of these wholesalers, they just want to make a quick buck.
What if you have a crew? That that would include you're not by yourself anymore.
Yeah. But then that's a that's a headache, too, right? cuz you have to
I know but my thought my plan was tell me where I'm thinking wrong.
My plan was cuz I got money and good credit.
So I don't really need money but I would still borrow it because like other people's money is smart.
Yeah. And if you have good credit I mean we can probably get you in the low nines like
I got 840 credit scores.
Oh, I can get you like an 875.
Yeah. So So what I don't what I was thinking in my head was I'll go out and just sign the docks cuz it's my credit.
Yeah. I want a construction crew that's good,
That knows what they're doing. So, I can just go buy that house, send the construction crew, buy that house, send another construction crew, buy that house, send another. So, now I got three houses being flipped at the same time and then just have like three or four crews that work with me and then I'll just start flipping three at a time. You know what I mean? What's the what's the harm in that?
If you if you can trust the GC that's doing the work, then there's no problem. The issue becomes finding enough people that you trust to do more deals.
Why? Because the GC can screw you.
Yeah, it happens all the time.
How do they screw you though?
It happens all the time. Like I've had GC's I've had borrowers that pay the GC 50% up front and then you never see them or they'll
What happens in that case?
They can sue them, but by the time you're done with that lawsuit, the time that you have paid on interest rate, uh, you might not even be able to find this GC. You got to pay attorneys. It's not It's not even worth it. So, normally I recommend paying GCs and GCs are they hate me for this, but screw them. You should pay GC's as the work gets done. Like I I will never pay a GC nothing upfront. I might buy the materials and be like, "Hey, pick them up at Lowe's or Home Depot." But I'm not paying them for the work up front. You got to finish the job or a portion, right? So, let's say I'm paying you for a a full renovation. Okay? You you finish demo. All right? I'm paying you demo. You finish flooring, I'm paying you flooring. You finish framing, I'm paying you framing.
And that's a smart way to do.
That's That's a smart That's where most first investors mess up
Is trusting the wrong.
Yeah. Trusting the wrong GC.
What if I am a GC?
Uh, it's I mean, you shouldn't even if I if I had a license, I would probably just flip my own my own houses. I wouldn't even work for anybody else.
That's what I understand why GC's don't just do it themselves. They're the ones that get it the cheapest. They have the labor. or they have the crew. They know this stuff better than anybody. So like every GC with a license should be flipping automatically.
Yeah. I
Or developing.
Yeah. Which we can fund either one of them.
What about What about these little uh Chinese modular homes you can just drop on a on a foundation? Would you fund those?
No.
Why?
Uh, it has to be I mean, we can do manufactured homes if they're attached to the foundation. We haven't done a modular those those Chinese homes
Cuz I've seen some of these container homes and whatnot, but if you can get them like nicely done and I've seen some that are like, damn, dude, I'd stay there.
Yeah, we just don't. It's hard to sell those notes.
Sell those notes or sell the homes.
The notes.
Remember, I see affordable housing, you have to sell the notes later on or we'll run out of cash, right? So, let's say I'm doing
So, banks don't like to buy those.
Uh, hedge funds. It depends on who buys a note. It could be a bank. It could be a hedge fund. It could be
Cuz to me, it's still a house. I don't care what it's made out of.
House is a house.
Yeah, but it's movable.
No, not the kind I'm talking about.
Which one? Which which ones are you talking about?
Like a container home. You you you stick a couple of containers sideways and a couple of them this way and then you put a little deck on it and all of a sudden it looks like a little
But you couldn't take those containers and put it somewhere else. Another piece of land.
Not once it's installed. I mean, theoretically, I suppose you could, but that's what I'm saying.
You can take a house and move it.
You can.
Have you ever seen a house moving down the street? I have.
Yeah. Well,
Well, that's a different topic, though.
Yeah,
That's more like a new construction loan, right? So, I have to Well, that's what I said. That's a different topic.
What about dirt? We can you fund dirt?
We can fund it up to 65%.
So if I find a lot, you'll fund that, too.
Yeah. It has to be permitted though. But yeah.
What if I find someone that'll carry the remaining?
What do you mean? Like a second a second lean?
No, like let's say I I have a borrower or I mean a a deal and they own a piece a house, whatever I'm buying.
And you say I'll give you 75% and I talk them into carrying the other 25%. Is that allowed?
I mean, you shouldn't then the deal doesn't make sense.
Why not?
The reason So, because you want to stay under 75% because when you're going to when you flip when you don't flip in the house, you got to pay realtors. You got to pay closing attorneys, you got to pay. So, if you're going to be at 90% or 99 95%. Once you pay realtors commissions, which is another 6% on the back end, now you're at 94. So, you just lost money.
I thought realtors are there's an option to pay them. No,
There is an option, but I mean,
No one will work for you.
No. Exactly.
And you got to pay I always pay the the buyer's realtor more than the seller's realtor.
It just sounds so easy. What What do people like What should they be paying attention to if they're going to get into this game? You You'll give them the money, but what should they be paying attention to? Like bad GC's?
A bad GC. A bad GC a bad crew will kill the deal. I mean, I've seen I've seen Well, we actually have one right now where he paid 50% to a GC and it's been four months. He's been paying interest for four months and uh there's nothing we can do, right? Because he and then he doesn't he can't find another GC because he already paid 50%.
Why doesn't he wholesale it?
The deal. I mean, I guess he could, but now he would he would lose money on all the interest he has he has paid for the past.
Then you picked the wrong GC.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying. I mean, he has to finish that. If I was him, I would finish the project. I think he's there's enough room in the deal to where he can finish it. Even with the with the 50% that he paid, he will still make money.
What are the things when people flip they should focus on? Floors, counters, backyards, bedrooms.
It depends on the on the Well, if you're looking at like what what what do you need to fix? Probably kitchen, uh bathrooms. Um, you want to you want to make them nice and you always want to have like a like a tub. For some reason, people love tubs here. Tubs.
Yeah. So, like because you if you have a kid, you have to be able to bathe him somewhere, right? So, you don't want to have like those uh like the showers because you can't bathe a kid there.
So, when you want to sell it, you have to have a tub in one of the bathrooms otherwise people won't buy houses with no tubs.
There are. And people will fix the houses without a tub and then they can't sell the house. They're like, "Why can't I sell the houses?" Because you didn't put a tub. Everybody has people want kids, right? So, what about what about additions to the home? So, you find a two-bedroom and you turn it into a threebedroom.
That will depend on where you are. Uh, I mean, there's like if you're we're from Charlotte, so if you're in Charlotte, like uh let's say 28206 zip code or 2209 zip code, uh, which are close to uptown Charlotte, I mean the square footage is what like 500. So, you want to add square footage there. Uh, but if you're in like the outskirts of Charlotte, uh, doesn't really make a difference adding square footage.
Are you flipping yourself?
Uh, I flip. Uh, but I'll do maybe like one every two, three months.
That's just kind of like,
Do you make more money lending?
I make more money lending. Yeah,
Cuz more people need the lending than flipping.
Than flipping. Yeah.
If you ask there's also less competition though. Well, if you ask me, you've got afford a need for affordable housing and I don't see it going away. Matter of fact, I see it increasing dramatically.
So, like I always think if I'm going to get into it, I need to get into affordable housing because there's going to be a lot of people that need affordable housing.
Do you want do you want to flip them or do you or are you looking to buy and build a portfolio?
I'm looking just to get into real estate altogether. So, like I might
But you don't want to get into affordable housing if you're going to flip it.
What's that? You don't want to get into affordable housing if you're going to flip. If you're going to rent, sorry.
Why?
Tenants tend to destroy the house and then it's it's you're better off just buying a nicer house, rent it for more. Uh, people tend to take care of the property more than if you do affordable housing. It's just I've had the problem where you buy a house like I don't know 80k, you put 50k in it, the house worth like 200 to 250 and you're like, "Oh, this is a great deal because my rent is now over 1% a month." But then when you go in the next year, they trash the house and I'm like, "Well, now I spend another 30k to fix the house, which it's less than what I got on rent."
You guys only do residential or do you do single? Do you do multifamily?
Multifamily. We do residential multifamily. Uh
So, if I find a little 12 unit,
One to nine units.
Uh
Up to nine units.
Up to nine units. Uh, which is considered well I think one to four is considered residential, but we'll go up to nine. Anything after that will be commercial multifamily.
You don't do that.
We don't do those. Not yet.
But if I find a little
Maybe next year when we come to the podcast again, we'll do it.
If I find a little duplex,
We can do that. Yeah.
Boom.
Duplex. Uh quadplex, triplex.
Where do you think the best zones and states are right now? If I'm going to get in,
I would say where you have a crew.
Where I have a what?
A crew. A team.
It's all about that crew.
It's all about the crew, man. that will that will make or break the deal.
So maybe I should put a word out to the crews.
Yeah.
Hit me up. Well, again, I mean, how do you know if you can trust them? That's the problem.
You got to I mean, it's a trial and error. That's why it takes time. So, like my first my first flip, I went through five different crews to try to finish that flip.
But then after that, I knew the guy and I just kept pumping them out.
But all the all the GCs that I know are like loaded. They're not they're not looking.
They're probably flipping their own houses like we were talking about before.
Yeah. But I mean, they're they're just loaded. Like all the general contractors that I personally know and would trust, they're they're not going to go flip a little [ __ ] house.
I mean, we can
They're looking to they're looking to build big [ __ ] and do big [ __ ].
We can do that.
Well, we I mean, our limit right now is probably 5 million. Um, yeah, we could do that.
So, if I found a house cheap for 3 mil, if I threw a mill in there,
We can do that.
I could sell it for seven.
We could do that. probably that's probably better for you.
How do you know what the house is worth?
So, we we comp it before we close on the deal, right? So, first when you call us, we're going to comp it uh just kind of viewing the area, seeing what properties are selling for and then we order an appraisal. The appraisal will come back. If you put a rush request, it's about 48 hours. 48 two two to four days. Lately, we've been getting the what, two days after we order it. That will give us our ARV and then we base uh we base a loan from the ARV that we get on the appraisal, which is a third party appraisal. It has nothing to do with us.
Okay. Let's say I know where I can buy a house right now for $4 million.
Mhm.
I put what would normally be a million dollar renovation into it, it'd be worth 7 million minimum.
Okay.
But it would take me a year to sell. Would that still make sense? Uh, I would have to pull my calculator
Because again 2 million in a in a year is pretty good dough.
Yeah. But with you you can probably get a rate in the eight eight and a half. So it should be worth So let's say 7 million what? ARV. So you'll be in it for so 5.25 and you're telling me you're going to spend what? 4 million in the purchase and a million in rehab. No, because I know people that own uh the marble and and whatnot. So, so what I would do is
I would get a million dollars worth of work done, but I get the the materials that cost.
So, it would only cost me like half of it.
So, when you say a million, are you talking labor or you talking labor and materials?
Labor and materials. But the but the materials I can get cheap.
Yeah.
Meaning I get materials cheaper than a GC can.
Okay.
Or at the same or less
Cuz like this table for example
I had way I had my buddy make this it's like marble and iron quartz granite and blah blah blah blah blah if somebody bought this material it would have been around 10 G's
Okay.
I know the guy so he sold it to me for 3500.
So like if I go to my house and I say hey let me do the floors let's say normally the floors are six bucks a square foot.
Yeah.
You know, you're that's what normal people would pay. I get it for two bucks a square foot. So, like I get it cheaper. So, that will save me money.
Yeah. So, you're better off than going uh on the high end and do do those multi-million dollar deals.
That's right.
Yeah. Instead of doing a $200,000 deal.
Yeah. And that that would make sense because I h I know of a house right now, but I but I wouldn't want to flip it. I'd want to keep it.
Well, you can always refinance it afterwards. But I've had customers that refinance into a primary home loan after the property is fixed.
So they flip it,
They fix it. So
And then they buy it themselves.
Ex No, no, they refinance the loan into a FHA. So because the thing is we're going to a gray area now. So when you you let's say you buy the house, let's say 250, you put 50K in it, the house worth 400 now, right? You're in it for 300. Now you have 100K of equity in the deal, right? Which means when you go try to get an FHA loan, they're going to see that you have $100,000 of equity in the deal. So, it'd be easier to qualify for the loan as opposed as you going and trying to buy a $400,000 house. So, I've had people or customers do that. The issue is that you cannot move into the house until you refinance it.
Gotcha. And that that's like the laws and [ __ ].
Yeah. Because I mean our loans say that. So, like if you move into the house, we're going to the loan becomes due which means we have to take the property. So, don't move into the property until you refinance.
Have you had people do that?
I've had people do it and I find out when they're refinancing
Because they're trying to get tricky.
Yeah. Why get tricky, man? Why not just follow the damn rules? So, it it sounds like I assume, which it's sounds easy, but it's not as easy as I think it is.
It's not hard.
Yeah. But still, if I got to know a GC, that's why I know.
Yeah. You got to know someone that said
And not only that, like I don't know how to underwrite the house. Like I'll
We can do that for you. That's not That's not a problem. You you'll know based on our terms
And you don't care if someone submits a house just to see if it's a good deal.
So, we make them at least submit the application, the bank statement to know that it's a it's a buyer because it doesn't matter to me which house you buy as long as the deal makes sense.
Do you do pre-approvals?
We do once we see once we have the loan application. So, we actually Well,
So, should everybody just go put in a loan? Not even it's not even really a a pre-approval because by the time we see the deal, you'll be approved cuz we can close in 48 hours.
So, you don't want applications to go look for deals. You want deals that you you need a deal.
Yeah. I need the deal. Yeah. Because we're asset based. So, you can't just say, "Hey, I have an 800 FICO. Approve of me." Got
Because then if the deal doesn't make sense, I don't care if if your FICO is 830, right? Doesn't make sense. I can't lend on it. Uh, but if the deal if the deal makes sense, uh, I mean, there's even nine states where we've approved people in the 530s with a FICO 530. I've approved people. Out of all the real estate people I've talked to, it seems as if at the end of the day, it's all about the deal.
It's all about the deal.
So, so whoever has the deal has the power.
Yeah. So, if I just started saying, "Hey, bring me your deals."
I have a little algorithm where I could feed in the numbers and it would tell me killer, bad, killer, bad. And I just collected all the killer deals through the volume of submissions.
Mhm.
Wouldn't I be the badass in control of most of everything? Cuz it seems like everybody I talk to deal
Because it's hard to find a system that will underwrite the properties the right way.
Use AI. No, it doesn't work that way, man. Zillow tried it and they lost a ton of money.
Oh, they did?
Yeah, they you can't just put everything because then you have little little stuff like uh there's a slope on the entrance, right? And then the house is worth 50k less because of that. Or you have stuff where like or you're on a main road, so it's it's worth 80% of what it would be worth literally the street behind it. Um, you'll have what else can you come up with?
So, you've been doing this how long? uh in as as a lender it's been four years investor probably almost six.
So, how much did you have to learn compared to when you started?
A lot. So like my first few deals were were either break even. There's a couple deals where where I lost money.
So, if people are listening they're and they're not really moving yet, what would you recommend they do before they actually come and get loans and do it?
Where would is there somewhere to learn this [ __ ]
We actually don't have a class on it. People keep asking me,
"Why don't you I was going to say, why don't you guys put together a Romero?"
You have all these gurus out there, and I just don't feel like
Yeah, but Yeah, but dude,
I'm a lender. You know what I mean?
I know, but but pay attention, my my young friend. Pay attention.
I know. And he said the same thing. So, you want to be a coach?
No. No. What you do is facilitate what what you want to do is you want a million people to borrow.
Okay.
So, if you want a million people to borrow and a million people aren't borrowing, you got to ask why aren't they borrowing? Well, they're not borrowing because they don't know how to do it. So, what you want to do is facilitate their what they
need. So, they need you. So, you come out with a with a with a course that's killer.
You don't charge for it. Do it for free. That's my point. You don't charge for it. So, now all the gurus are pissed at you because you'll teach them all for free.
Yeah. Because they will give they will bring the loan to you because they learn from you. Because they learn from me. Yeah. So, so that's why you would you would do it. It's not to make the money. It's to say, "Hey, what's stopping everybody from borrowing from me?"
Yeah. Okay. Well, they don't know what they're doing because again, I mean, well, I don't think it's that that because there's a lot that know what they're doing. They can't find the deals supposedly or or they're not willing to look because from what I hear, the deals are there, but you have to work and nobody wants to work.
So, you find a little aggressive kid that says, "Man, I'm willing to knock doors, drive around neighborhoods, do what it takes." Cuz they're aggressive. They're hungry. Those are the people I'm looking for because the people that are willing to work, dude, will always make it if they got the right skill set, the right mindset, and the right habits. And then you got resources like, "Oh, you ain't got the money? Not a problem. Oh, you ain't got that? Not a problem." Like nothing's the problem except for working.
Put in the work. Yeah. So, if you can find somebody that's listening to this show that says, "Listen, I'm going to do it." But they'll go get burnt if they don't know what they're doing.
Yeah. Well, if I got to go learn from say Guru X and Guru X gets his money from the coach. Yeah. From Joe Blow and and he gets paid by the way when his students get loans, which I'm sure they do. Well, most of them make their money on the coaching portion. They don't even make money wholesaling or investing in real estate.
No, I know. But the but but the coaches that are successful that they get a lot of students, they set up these deals with guys like you. So, if I were in your shoes, I'd go to all the gurus and go, "Hey, send them to me. I'll give you I'll get you some money. And now these gurus send you all their students because these students are paying to learn.
So that's the only reason I would suggest that maybe you maybe you put together a university that teaches them what to do. You charge next and then you give it out for basically create your own legion of flippers.
Flippers. I could. Does that make sense? Yeah, it does. It's just the whole like having so many girls out there. I'm like, I just don't want to be put as one of them.
Yeah, but dude, with your story, it's it's amazing. And not only that, it's all about stories. Yeah. Why would you let Javier or Romero Capital teach you?
Well, because they they'll teach you for free. They just want you to use them for lending. Now, if I'm a guy out there where this guy wants to charge me five grand and he doesn't care who I borrow from, I've seen them charge up to 30 grand, right? Yeah. I'm going I'm going with you cuz I'll learn for free and the money sources the same people I learned from. So I know you're teaching me, right? Cuz you don't want me out there.
I don't want Yeah. I don't want you to screw up cuz then I lose money if you screw up. Yeah. Like there's there's listeners right now going, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. If you had that, I'd move."
All right, Well, we're going to launch it. Just think about it. Yeah. But but um I don't have patience either. That's the other thing.
Well, hire hire people. Hire a guru. Like if you have a favorite guru that these guys do a good job with it, these guys do a good job with it. Just go to them and say, "Hey, listen, you know, how do I license your content, you know?"
Okay. Now, when you own it, it doesn't cost much. Throw it up on a on a training system and give out passwords and but uh to me, I'm just thinking, man, because I'm included in this, I need to get into real estate. What stops me is I don't know enough and I don't have the time to go learn it. Like if everything crashed around me and I had nothing going on 100% I'd be getting into this.
What do you think you need to know? Like what I need to know. Number one, how do I find the deals?
Okay. Like cuz it seems like just I mean you know the wholesalers they can find it for you. How come how come? Huh?
The wholesalers can find it for you. You know wholesalers? Well, I don't know any I mean I know them but I don't have like a network of them. Oh, just tell them. I mean, if you know a couple, just tell them to send you deals.
Okay. So, I just say, "Hey, if if you're a wholesaler, send me deals. I'm buying. I'm buying." Exactly. And then if you want to check them with us, then we'll just check and make sure.
What if I have wholesalers sending me deals, and I just submit them right to you? Yeah. We'll check and make sure the deal makes sense. Or we'll tell you, "Hey, Brad, they're selling it for X amount, but you shouldn't pay more than X."
So, I could just set up a conduit of wholesalers sending them to me. I submit them to you. You say yes or no. I tell them the same answer you give me. Yeah. that this is this is what the bank said for me.
And if they and if I tell them yes, you're paying them for me. Yeah. And that's just my deal. Exactly.
Now, do I have to flip it after that? Well, that if we're talking about face and flips, Yeah. you'll have to flip it afterwards.
Is there such thing as a wholesaler wholesaler? Meaning meaning I'll buy from the wholesaler and then wholesale a little bit less to the next guy. Yeah, we we've done that.
What's that called? It's called wholesaling. It's a JV agreement, right? So basically, because this happens a lot, too. So we'll have a wholesaler needs to sell a deal and we have a buyer in that area that needs to buy the property and we're like, "All right, so we can we can fund the deal, but it's going to be at X number." And then we just sell it to the buyer.
Well, I've got a I got I know more gurus, but we only get like 12 of those a month, so we don't Yeah. The people I know the most is the gurus. I know.
And the gurus are all doing it that I know. They're doing it. They've made millions doing it. like they're legit from the wholesaling or from coaching. They make it from both.
Okay? Cuz I've seen a lot say that. No, I mean I could tell you I I I won't give them a free plug on here cuz it's your show, but but I know people that are making millions from flipping and millions from coaching, but they're doing it. In other words, they're not bullshitting. They're they're teaching what they know and they're doing what they know. And that's to me the best coaches because if I'm getting rich showing you what to do, my question to those coaches is why don't you do it?
Yeah. Well, because I make more teaching you to do it. That may be true. And there's nothing wrong with it as long as you know how to do it. There's a lot of them that do that. They don't even do what they say they do. They just make money from coaching.
Well, that's because they don't they've never done it. And those are the coaches I'd say avoid. Why? Because, dude, you know, there's little things that you learn along the way when you've done it yourself. little little things like the whole don't pay the GC up front or like the slope of the entrance will make the house be worth $30,000 less.
Yeah. But there's two that I can think of right now that I would partner with to teach people cuz again I'm I'm because of this software I'm in the I I know a lot of the gurus. So I know people who are real. They know what they're doing. They are doing it and and their [ __ ] is good because I I've heard their students and you know I they're good. So like I would partner with them. My question is if I went to them and said, "Hey, Romero Capital will do this." Yeah. I bet you they would say, "I got a hundred of them."
And I Huh. No, they don't. Well, that's what I want to find out. What makes you so special? That we can do 100% financing and we have So, we have anything depending on Well, it regardless of what you want, we can beat anyone, right? If you're a borrower that wants more leverage, I can beat anyone on leverage. If you want someone, if you're someone that wants a better rate, I can beat anyone on rate.
Okay? So, because some of these uh flipper gurus that I know, they they they ask me, "Hey, do you want to invest?" You know, passively, meaning, "Hey, we need 300 grand to do this deal. Do you want to pay the 300 grand and 3 months later you'll get that plus this back?"
Why do they need the 300 grand as an investor though? They do. Why? Well, because you can't have unlimited money. And not only that, everybody teaches you to use other people's money.
Yeah, but if if we'll fund 100%, you could just go that they don't have someone that does 100% then because they could just come to me and they just have to pay closing cost and if they don't have enough for closing cost, they shouldn't even be doing the deal. Listen, we're going to we're going to call them right after this.
All right, one of them, right? Because the the thought was in 2026 because I believe in real estate so much because I know Grant and everybody that I've seen just get loaded doing real estate and yeah there's work involved but you but everybody that I've seen get into real estate I've never heard any horror stories like you said. Oh I lost money. Yeah but you didn't quit. So here you are making money. Well I'm making money lending but you also flip and make money.
Yeah I still flip and make money. Well normally and now I keep the properties cuz I don't need to flip them. Oh yeah. My whole thing is guys, real estate is a damn smart move. It's been making millionaires and wealthy people forever. You've got tax advantages beyond relief. Like you can't even believe how many tax advantages you get.
So I would be 100% focused no matter what your life goals are, even if it's just part of your portfolio to get into real estate. And so if that's a fact, which it is, then the next question would be, well, where do I start? Do I start wholesaling? Do I start flipping? Do I start just buying and holding? Like, well, that depends on your budget. That depends on your resources.
And most people are without resources. So, in that case, you got the money. If you had the education, too, that'd be freaking sick. I'd say, guys, you want to get started, just go. It's for free. He'll teach you how to do it. And the second you need money, he's right there with it. Have you coached people?
No. I mean me? Yes. Yeah. I I hate coaching people. I hate coaching. People do whatever. They don't listen. They blame you. They call you a scam.
Dude, it's a nightmare. But but but dude, don't worry about the people that are that are scumbags cuz it's all the people you you do help because these coaches, bro, yeah, they get a lot of hate, but they also get a lot of love. Like Yeah. From the ones that actually listen to them and and we've changed a lot of lives. Let's just say legit change lives.
And that's what it's about. It's not about someone that was halfass in the first place. Like, you know, I always tell people, I can save you from drowning, but you got to swim towards me. Dude, if I teach you how to do something and you don't do it, Yeah. then I can't do anything about it.
Well, use your damn head. Of course, it's not going to work if you don't do it. Just like I hired a trainer once. He said, "Eat like this." And I said, "No, no." And then I said, "He sucks. I stayed fat." And then I'm out there bashing his reputation as a trainer when in reality I was the dick. Well, that's what I mean. They're the dicks. But there's a lot of people that trainers have helped that changed their life, made them healthier, avoided severe illness, gave them more time with their kids. You know what I mean?
So, real estate's every every I I think person's obligation at some point. It's everyone should get involved in real estate. What's that? Everyone should get involved in real estate. That's what I think. Just like everyone should have a side hustle. Yep. Everyone have should have their own LLC. Everyone should have a business of their own. And I don't care you got bills and you got kids and get a little side business and just just tinker with it until one day that side business is outperforming your main business. That's how you get your freedom. Here's how you get your freedom and you already followed it. Number one, you got to get in the position to receive commission. Are you in a position to receive commission? If I don't if we don't if we don't write you in a position, everybody's in a position to receive commission. Your camera guy might be going, "I ain't." Well, again, if he ever wants to be super successful and wealthy, he actually is. He has his own business. He's There you go. See what I'm saying? You got to have your own business, people.
Yeah. If you're a W2 employee, your dim your your future looks dim. And now, if you have an excuse, well, I don't have the money. Well, Romero Capital, they got they'll give you the money. You got what? If you got the vision, we have the money.
Yeah. And there's, you know, other than that, folks, uh, all I do is try to think, what are they thinking right now? They probably think about how to get started, right? Because even if you have to pay the closing cost.
Yeah. But you don't have the solution for that. Work harder. Have a side uh side gig. That that's that's what I did with my first business, right? I was working 85 hours a week and I was saving money. It's Yeah, but that's how to get their own money and get started. How How do they know how to get started? Like for me, you talking about like the property, the deal, and everything.
Yeah. Like for me, let's say everything crashed around me and I'm broke and I woke up tomorrow and I said, "Okay, I'm doing real estate. That's all there is to it. The first thing I want to know is how do I find a deal? And now I'm going to go master how to find a deal." And then I'm going to go bust my ass and I'm going to find deals. And from what I hear from all the gurus I talk to, finding the deal is the ticket. So I keep thinking from an entrepreneur, I need to figure out how to get a bunch of real deals because if you have the deals, money's easy. Everything's easy as long as as long as you got that deal.
So finding the deal is the big value to me. But that's another point. So I would wake up and I would figure out how do I find these deals? And then I'd get good at finding the deals. And then I'd be like, well, how do I find the money? And then I'd start finding the best sources of money. And then next thing you know, dude, I'm in the business and I'm and I'm loaded again.
I mean, you can even find the deals online. You could go to we we can find you the deal, but we only find like what, like 12, 15 deals a month because it's not our bread and butter. like we want to lend but we can find the Where do you get your money to lend? It's our own cash. So we we lend my own cash and then I'll sell the notes afterwards, right?
So how did you get out of the Marines and then end up with freaking a bunch of money to lend? So uh first I got into insurance, right? I had my uh had an all state franchise. Um, before that I was working, like I said, 85 hours a week. I had to save a h 100red grand to be able to open my own insurance uh agency with all that. That was the requirement. I think it's 125 now. Um, and then after I opened that it was just I mean I started making I think it was making like 35 the first 35k a month the first month and after that was like 60k and then it just continue to grow. Um, I started buying properties and then one of the uh brokers that I was working with at the time asked me if he could sell his loans to my borrower to my um customers on the insurance agency. And I said, "As long as I got a commission, you can sell whatever you want." So that's how I became a broker, a l like a harmony broker. And then I became a lender because you saved up enough money to lend yourself.
Yeah, that's how it's done, folks. That sell the house helped a lot by the way. So tell me um what the Bomb Squad can do for you. How do people follow you? If anybody's interested in any of this, how do they reach you? Tell us tell us what they can do for you.
So they can find if they have a deal they just want to submit a deal, they can go to uh Romero capital.com. Um, if they want to, we have content online on Instagram. Uh, you go to uh go to Romero Capital. We actually have it in Spanish as well. if somebody wants to somebody speak Spanish, it's Romero Capital espanol. Um, and uh, yes, Romero Capital on YouTube, Facebook, and Tik Tok.
Folks, there you have it. No more excuses. Romero Capital's giving you the money. I bet you within short order, he'll even teach you how to do it because that would be a smart thing for you guys to do. Got to work on that. Thanks for coming back. We'll we'll we'll have you back in the future and see if if uh what what what you've done since we can do Yeah. I mean, dude, it's the big difference from the last visit.
All right, folks. You've heard it. No more excuses. Get your ass up. Get to work. Remember, work isn't something you can avoid. It's something that's required, but when you do it, the big payoff happens. Until next time, keep it real.