How Smart Investors & Wholesalers Build Wealth
Calvin Hexter (0:00-0:13): Gustavo, we are so excited to have you at REIcon this year. You’re making the you’re making the trek down from Ontario. And you may not even be going back to Ontario. You might be staying here permanently soon, aren’t you?
Gustavo Herraros (0:13-0:29): That that’s true, that’s true. Calvin, thanks for to having me here. And yes, I I can’t miss it. Um I’ll be there for sure in September in yes, I might actually stay a little longer after that because I’m thinking of moving to Edmonton. It’s such a great market. Can’t miss
Calvin Hexter (0:31-1:00): I know. And you know, there’s so many, so many out of province investors and families, professionals that are moving into Edmonton and have been doing so, you know, over the last couple of years, and even before then, but definitely a lot, you know, the the volume has increased significantly just in regards to the opportunities that are offered here for the families, being able to to actually build some equity, the investment opportunities, um, the workplace opportunities. I know that Edmonton, out of all the cities in Canada.
You know, the average income’s actually quite high in in comparison to what the living um you know living expenses are, which allows you to actually have some money at the end of the day and go vacation and do other things. And it’s it just it I think it creates more of a fair start for for families, for professionals. And I’ve always I’ve always lived here.
And if I ever feel like I need to go somewhere because the winter’s feeling too long, I’ll just go to Hawaii. I’ll go to like California. And then I’ll come back and I’ll do some skiing or snowboarding at the mountains here. And then we’ll have our wonderful summers, which are fantastic. So you have you have so many great things to to experience here. We’re we’re lucky to have you. It’s gonna be great to to have you in in the city.
Gustavo Herraros (1:44-2:11): Thank you, thank you. Yeah, I’m looking forward to that. My wife loves the Rockies and uh I I personally love the so many opportunities in Edmonton. Like you said, it’s one of the provinces a lot, you know, the entire Alberta province, it’s it’s one of those provinces. It’s still affordable. It still makes financial sense for many um tenants, buyers, investors, wholesalers, all of it at once. Uh so it’s tons of opportunity in the in the area for sure.
Calvin Hexter (2:12-2:36): And so Gustavo, you are with the the Trust Your Talent, one of the top recognized, trusted coaching organizations in Canada. And you probably have some people all across North America, so I should probably start branching it and then we’ll say across the world. Uh but what you guys do is is truly, truly amazing. And and how much you’ve d you guys have been able to develop this really strong, like
I’m not talking like just a community. I’m talking a very, very strong community. And, you know, we had Trust Your Talent at REIcon last year, and we’re gonna have Trust Your Talent back, a really strong presence back this year, September 6th and 7th. And Gustavo, one of the things that you’re gonna be there for and talking about is is wholesaling. And
As an investor, you need to have wholesalers. I’m just gonna say it. You need to have relationships with wholesalers. If you do not, or if you don’t have a realtor that has the relationships with wholesalers to help kind of broker that relationship, you’re missing out. You’re missing out on deals, you’re missing out on market information, you are just simply missing out. So, Gustavo, why don’t we start very simple? For those of you that don’t know what a wholesaler is, what’s the the most simplistic way you could describe what a wholesaler is?
Gustavo Herraros (3:27-3:35): Well that’s y th I I would say Calvin, I would say that the the easiest way to see a wholesaler is someone that’s willing to do the heavy lifting and
Find your great deal and assign it to you for a small fee or a decent fee. So it is extent to me. It’s part of my power team members, meaning for a wholesaler, I mean, I do need to have several wholesalers in my power team so they bring me fee or they feed me with deals all the time. Like you said, if you don’t have it, if you as an investor don’t have a wholesaler in your power team member.
You are missing out. You’re not getting the right or um the right um deals, or let’s not say there’s the right deals, but you’re not getting the cream of the deals out there. Most of those deals are actually off-market, and that’s what you get with wholesalers: access to off-market deals, right? Class, you can actually leverage tons of the wholesaler’s network.
Because they also come with contractors, you know, mortgage brokers, private lenders, uh, you name it, all of it. You can network with them and and build your own network that way, right? Um, all the the other thing I would say for wholesalers is how much time and effort they save investors. For especially for VC investors, you know, those investors are very seasoned that they’re already too many has too too many hands on their
Or too many things on their hands actually. Uh they’re actually make it easier by bringing you deal, but negotiating those deals, structuring something that you might not have enough time. Or even when you are as a new investor as well, you don’t actually know how to negotiate those deals, how to structure a deal, wholesale can help you with that and, you know, save you again time and effort. Mm-hmm.
Calvin Hexter (5:22-5:35): And so a lot of the sellers that will be reaching out to wholesalers, you know, in many cases, they might be in more of a desperate position than a seller reaching out to a realtor to sell their home. And the desperate position could be, you know, going through numerous defaults, which are then going to, you know, commence with a foreclosure process. It could be, you know, being in a position where the house is unsafe, you know, or an a very busy house that they just need they cannot they not k cannot keep up with and they need to get out fast, you know.
But in a lot of cases, you know, these sellers don’t contact realtors, they contact wholesalers, and wholesalers are essentially unlicensed agents that can help with these sellers’ problems and pain points, and then the wholesalers either would consume the property themselves for an investment if the deal made sense for their buy box, or they would work with one of the buyer’s and connect them with that property and then pr you know solve two problems solve the problem of the seller but also solve the problem of the buyer for what they’re looking for. And there’s there’s lots of opportunity there. And so one of the many reasons of why you want to be connected with wholesalers, and that’s why with REIcon this year, we made the main theme deals. And there’s going to be so many off-market deals that are presented by wholesalers that are only available in the, you know, those four walls.
Because we wanted to create the opportunity and and it’s the first time I’ve held an event with with with having, you know, the wholesalers as being one of the main focus points, but I think it’s a good opportunity to shine a light on how they work, how they solve problems, and how you can get connected with them. And so how do you get connected with wholesalers? So if if I’m not working with any wholesalers right now as an investor or a new investor, what’s the first step? How do you find them?
Gustavo Herraros (7:17-7:42): Well the we’ll say we know a broker investor, I mean a a silent investor is a broker investor. That means if you’re not out there talking to people, you’re not gonna make it out, you know, too far out. Um so if you’re looking for wholesalers, you should be starting with REIcon, right? Getting in that environment where you have access to those individuals. Like you said, I really I’m really excited about uh what you put in together this year, Calvin, ’cause deals and you know not only you have an option to see or get those hand get hands on those deals, but you also have an opportunity to network with so many, you know, experienced investors, new investors that are gonna add a lot more to the table so you can actually put a deal together and execute it mainly.
So that is exciting. So if you’re looking for for for wholesalers, start going out there, talking to people, go on Facebook, reach out to different networks, a community of investors, you’ll find those invest those wholesalers, start that relationship and make it strong. Sometimes we don’t just say, Hey, I have you know I just subscribe it to a wholesaler’s list and that that’s it. I made it.
And that’s not it. You you gotta build a relationship just as you build any relationship. That’s not different.
Calvin Hexter (8:36-8:52): Yeah. And you’ll have the opportunity. I mean, you’re gonna be seeing probably anywhere from five to seven different wholesalers that focus, you know, in Alberta. We have Calgary, we have Red Deer, we have Edmonton, and then I mean, even for Ontario, right? Because you do wholesaling in the Ontario area.
If you’re looking at buying a home in Ontario, or maybe you’re moving, you know, one of the we usually get like a hundred, I’ll say like a almost like it feels like uh maybe for every five hundred people that come from Ontario to Alberta, you get like one back. So if you’re that one person that’s going back right now, maybe more than that. Maybe the ratio’s off a little bit. But if you are even for primary homes, I mean it’s not just even for investment real estate.
Wholesalers will find like these properties don’t just have to be for investment purposes. I’ve seen wholesalers wholesale million dollar homes, you know, in cases where an investor just doesn’t make any sense because there’s no cash flow behind it. But it’d be great family homes. And it doesn’t mean because a wholesaler has it, that the condition is in this, you know, depreciated state that hasn’t been loved. Some of the homes are actually gorgeous. I would love to list these homes. Some of them are ready for photos and I could list them up tomorrow. Right. And so I think it’s important to get connected. And you can actually get in front of them. You can meet Gustavo. You know that he’s in Ontario right now. He’s coming to Edmonton. Create that relationship. Because if you create that strong relationship, he might be willing to to help you out a little bit more or put you on his VIP list, see the deals a little bit faster.
Right. And you’re going to be able to do that not only with Gustavo, but five or six other, you know, amazing wholesalers that that I’ve been working with for a very, very long time that you probably need to meet. And so I think that’s such a such great advice. And I guess the only other way that you could really see wholesalers is go Google uh buy homes fast or sell home sell homes faster. You can see you can see all the sponsored ads that come up.
And then any signs. If you’re driving around your community and you see we buy houses, cash, we buy houses fast, going through foreclosure, we can help. You everybody’s seen those signs. Call the number and say, Hey, I’m not selling my house, but I sure can buy I could sure buy one, you know, when I’m ready. And I think that’s another opportunity, right?
Gustavo Herraros (10:46-10:46): Totally.
Keeping keeping your eyes up uh out for for anything that seems like an opportunity to sell or to buy a a property, right? Even even like you said, like people focus on or or wholesalers might be only focusing on those distressed, ugly properties that you see all around, but you know, you can actually get your hands on a nice looking house, as you said, right? And and as a matter of fact, not long ago we
We were able to assign a 3.7 million dollar house in Toronto, right? Wow. It wasn’t this stress, I’ll tell you that. It wasn’t distressed. But it’s just like you know, being out there talking to a lot of people, those these seminars, events, uh, real estate events, all that stuff will connect you with the right people. And as you build your net your network, you’ll be able to branch out and cut and and get to those.
Especi those people that specialize in making deals happening and that’s what you wanna be around.
Calvin Hexter (11:44-12:13): Absolutely. Gustavo, I gotta ask, you know what you come across, it’s like I have, you know, I have friends that are police firefighters, paramedics, doctors. I mean, I’m I’m sure I have a couple of clients that that have done surgeries before, um, or surgeons, you know, and I always love to hear stories. Stories I find just sit with me. They they create this emotion, and and so I’m interested from you, what’s one of your favorite stories as it relates to wholesaling?
Gustavo Herraros (12:14-12:38): Wholesale. Um all right, let me see. There’s quite a few that come to mind, but I I would say the the one time where I met this this one seller um that uh was decided to renovate this home by himself before selling. He intended to sell it, but he wanted to renovate and he went in there and started to do a bunch of stuff.
Five different floorings in the in in that unit. You know, walls wouldn’t match. Uh the door frames were not level. All that kind of funky stuff that was really, really bad. A renovation going bad, that was happening there. So I approached this guy and he was desperate to sell in obviously wanted big box as well for that house. We were able to sit down and narrow it down to what this but he really wanted to do and with the money and with the house. I stopped him from doing the renovation. I was able to get him to get into sense of that. And what he really wanted was to travel to Colombia. Right? So I put a deal together where he was actually holding title till the or allowing the the investor to coming in, the new buyer to for early access to do renovations and holding title till closing. And at the same time, I got them flight tickets to Colombia. That made it happen for him. That made the whole deal true and a great opportunity for my investors. So it was it was also uh a good lesson uh from that from from that whole negotiation for me as well. Like a lot of opportunities that came up. And now he has actually referred me to a lease option tenant. For those of them that don’t know what lease options are. We can talk about that separate. But yeah. So that’s what it takes, right? So I’m friend with him now. Uh as you know, we we keep in touch somehow.
Calvin Hexter (14:18-14:36): I think that’s amazing. I mean, how cool is that? And I mean, I know there can be a perception of wholesalers like not having the best interest of the sellers. I mean, this is a prime example of how you’re able to solve someone’s problem. You took the time to ask the right questions and then solve the problem that they had.
And so much so that you’ve actually created a relationship. And that relationship is over and beyond that transaction. And I think that’s amazing. And that’s one thing that I can really relate to with our team. And even with REIcon, it’s it’s really all about the relationships. And not just saying that, like show up to REIcon, you can see what I mean. You can see the environment. The buzz is different than other than other conferences. The energy, the, the support, the willingness to help, the willingness to share information and not hold it back.
And Gustavo’s one of those one of those individuals that just has, you know, not only the experience, you know, and you’re on a great trajectory right now in your career in in in real estate, but you actually care as well. You care about the people you work with. And you can tell, you know, a anybody that’s watching this Facebook Live right now, it it radiates through the screen. And and that’s something that you have it or you don’t have it. And if you you can tell whether someone’s faking it or not. And so Gustavo, I’m j I’m I’m I’m so excited to have you there.
And it’s coming up so fast. What are you most excited for for REIcon? Because I know you also showed up last year as well. And and and we’re excited to have you for year two.
Gustavo Herraros (15:43-16:12): Yeah, I mean uh I’m I’m always very, very excited about this type of event and REIcon this year it’s just by just looking at the lineup people that you have there, uh it’s amazing. So I’m really eager to connect with with with uh with a lot of them. Uh new a lot of new faces with everybody that comes into uh to the event. I I love meeting people, like you say, you know, to me this is the best of the the best time to connect with everyone and learn about what they want.
But you know how how I can make him or help him in a way to achieve that? It’s relationships. I’m looking for friends, I’m looking for investors, I’m looking for buyers, sellers, all of that, contractors, mortgage brokers, um, realtors. Everybody is welcome because everybody will make the community of real estate in Canada and
It will offer me I’m a selfish industry. I it will offer me a way to build my my my business as well. And I know I can do that by actually helping others build their own business. So it’s a win-win.
Calvin Hexter (16:49-17:13): Yeah. We are in the business of helping others be successful and then it’s reciprocated where we get to see success as well. And truly the larger impact you can make in the real estate community, you know, the the more potential when it when when you know the more potential you get back when it comes to your business as well. So I think it’s amazing. Gustavo, you you the pillars that you stand on, your ethics are just are so thought on and I’m hoping that other people have the opportunity to to go up and meet you at the event. Again, we’re getting so close. Gustavo, thank you so much for your time. We’re gonna see you very, very soon. And if anybody wants to take advantage of Gustavo’s uh he might even have a discount code for you. So make sure you follow him and then set up a DM as well and maybe set up a copy for when he’s here. Okay? Gustavo we’ll see you very soon, okay?
Gustavo Herraros (17:40-17:49): People about that and and you know everybody’s welcome to to DM me and talk about the this event and the code for for a discount.
Calvin Hexter (17:49-17:53): Absolutely. All right, Gustavo. We’ll see you very soon. Enjoy your weekend. Right.
Gustavo Herraros (17:53-17:56): Thanks, Calvin. Thanks for having me here and all the best for you.
Calvin Hexter (17:56-17:58): Absolutely. See you soon. Cheers.
