Episode 16 - A Life of Art, Adventure, Real Estate with Rafael Loza
Welcome back to another exciting episode of The BreakThrough Podcast! I'm your host, Stephen Husted. In today's conversation, we delve into the fascinating journey of real estate entrepreneur Rafael Loza. Join us as we explore technical challenges, property setups in Milwaukee, real estate ventures, partnership dynamics, and much more!
Takeaway 1: Navigating Technical Challenges We discuss recent technical challenges, and how they can influence your productivity. We also talk about the importance of overcoming obstacles to ensure continuous progress in entrepreneurial ventures.
Takeaway 2: Milwaukee Property Setup and Real Estate Ventures Rafael shares insights into his recent trip to Milwaukee, providing details on setting up a vacation rental property. He delves into challenges faced with contractor delays and focuses on a single-family residency turned vacation rental in Milwaukee's Brewers Hill neighborhood.
Takeaway 3: Partnership Dynamics and Entrepreneurial Freedom Rafael explains the dynamics of partnering due to financing constraints, discussing the complexities of managing partnerships and making strategic decisions. The conversation then shifts to the entrepreneurial journey, starting with rental arbitrage and evolving into a specialization in hospitality and short-term rentals.
Both hosts express their aversion to traditional employment, emphasizing the desire for entrepreneurial freedom. This episode is about adaptation. Adapting to setbacks, the mindset shift required for success, and the significance of diverse experiences in an entrepreneur's background. Join us in exploring Rafael's story of resilience, persistence, and continuous growth on The BreakThrough Podcast!
TRANSCRIPT
∎ Teaser / Highlighted Clip
[Rafael Loza] (0:00 - 0:36)
I love the idea that at any moment you can pivot and do something new to completely either change your life or try something new in your life. Doesn't matter what anybody else says. And the things that most people out there are like, oh, I don't know if I really want to try that, or I don't know if I want to do that, or it's out of the normal, right?
It's not their typical go to work, come home, turn on the TV and cook dinner and go to bed and go the next day. Like, I started taking salsa lessons. We're learning, me and my girlfriend are learning how to dance salsa.
Yeah, we've been doing it for a month now. I love it, man. It's the greatest thing ever.
I'm like, it's awesome. I'm like, hell yeah, next time I go to these parties, I'm going to be dancing salsa. People are going to be like, holy shit, this dude knows how to dance salsa.
∎ Podcast Intro:
[Stephen Husted] (0:38 - 3:35)
Welcome to The Breakthrough with Steven Husted, the show that takes you behind the scenes with successful entrepreneurs, real estate investors, and other movers and shakers in the business world. In each episode, we'll sit down with our guests to explore their personal and professional journeys, including the challenges they faced, the breakthrough moments that propelled them to success, and the strategies and the tactics they used to get there. Get inspired by new ideas and strategies and get to know our guests on a deeper level.
Join us for candid conversations, powerful insights, and plenty of breakthrough moments. Please help us grow by subscribing and sharing the podcast, and welcome to the show.
∎ Guest Introduction:
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of The Breakthrough with Steven Husted. Today, we've got a down-to-earth guest, Rafael Loza, joining me. Rafael is not just a powerhouse in the business world, but a kindred spirit in navigating the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.
We get into the nuts and bolts of property investments, the practical stuff, acquisitions, dealing with city regulations, and managing projects. Plus, we take a detour into our personal lives. Rafael's into mountain biking and art, while I've got some unexpected hobbies to spill.
Mastermind groups, are they worth it? We share our unfiltered thoughts and wrap it up with a peek into our plans for real estate and business expansion. You won't want to miss my chat with the incredible Rafael Loza. Let's break through together.
∎ Podcast Proper:
[Stephen Husted] (2:16)
Rafa, how are you?
[Rafael Loza] (2:18 - 2:19)
What's up, brother? Good, man. How are you?
[Stephen Husted] (2:20 - 3:33)
I'm doing good.
I know we kind of started off, both of us were in a rush, to be honest with you. You had your technical difficulties, and so did I. Yesterday, I was doing an episode, and the mic was tweaking out, and then I couldn't hear out of my headphones.
We were sitting there for 30 minutes, while my guest is waiting there, trying to figure it out. It came down to a software update on this Shure microphone, but they don't push notification anything to you. I ended up going to my AirPods, but then I'm frazzled.
I got to get going on this podcast, but I'm not in my zone. I don't know if the microphone's working correctly. I don't have headphones now.
We finished it, and then a few hours later, it took two hours to figure out the microphone. Two hours. Wow.
At that point, you know how we are, as far as being entrepreneurs and running businesses. Two hours just doing something we don't want to do is the worst thing you could possibly do. It just ruined my day, period.
[Rafael Loza] (3:35 - 3:38)
Yeah, it drags on, and then everything's just done after that. I hate that.
[Stephen Husted] (3:40 - 3:43)
Yeah, so you just got back from Milwaukee?
[Rafael Loza] (3:44 - 5:14)
Dude, yeah. We're setting up a property out there, so I flew out there for a couple days to kind of take a look at it, see the progress, and it was supposed to be done yesterday, but you know, contractor delays and issues pop up, so hopefully it's ready by Friday. My designer's out there right now, knocking it out still.
What did you get? What do you got going on? So it's a single-family residency.
It's going to be a vacation rental. It's about half a mile from the lake and literally five minutes from downtown. It was a 3-3, and we converted it to a 5-3, 5-3.5, actually, so it's going to be just a big vacation rental for a lot of people. We're going high end on that one. It's in a prime neighborhood of Milwaukee called Brewer's Hill, and we're adding a gym. I mean, we're just doing everything to try to make people comfortable there the entire time.
You got a partner on this one? So yes and no. Actually, yes.
The short answer is yes. So because I had to go the conventional route for this one, I was actually in the process of purchasing four other properties, and so I couldn't qualify on the debt for this property. I could have, but then it would have sent me back on the other one that I'm closing on out in the Smokies, and I had to raise my tax liability to be able to cover for the debt to income.
So I did a bunch of cost segregations last year, and I don't want to just not take advantage of those and lose and still have to pay taxes. So I ended up calling one of my best friends. I negotiated a deal with her where she put it in her name, and I just gave her a small percentage of equity.
[Stephen Husted] (5:15 - 5:27)
Nice. There you go. Thinking out of the box, making it so it all comes together.
So how many times have you flown out? Was that the first time you were out to the property so far? Yeah.
[Rafael Loza] (5:27 - 5:40)
For that property, yes. So I used to have a duplex there. I sold it earlier in the year.
And so for this property, it was the first time. And I just wanted to fly out there just to go have fun and hang out for a couple of days and help out, but I really didn't need to.
[Stephen Husted] (5:41 - 6:41)
Yeah. Well, it's cool to go out there. So we have a cabin on the Smokies as well, and I get out there once a year.
I'd like to go out there more, but it's usually booked. If I want to go out there, it's usually January, February, the time period to go out there. But I was out there in September, did a bunch of stuff on the property, and then I flew out to Kansas City where I'm setting up a midterm out there, duplex, and walked it.
It was a really special property. I just wanted to get my eyes on it. But you know what?
The one thing I learned about going out there was spending that 24 hours let me think out of the box on what I could do to this particular property. And I don't think I would have pulled off what I figured out if I didn't go out. And I'm going to go back out once the rehab is done and set up, get the furniture all dialed in and do that just so that I know it's exactly the way it should be once it goes live.
I don't do that on my rent-ready properties, but this one I'm going to, yeah
[Rafael Loza] (6:42 - 7:11)
Yeah, normally I don't have to fly out to any of these properties. My designer goes out there and she knocks everything out and she builds the team and gets everything going. The only thing I need to do is usually hire cleaners or a maintenance person, but I have boots on the ground there.
So for Milwaukee, I have boots on the ground, so I really don't need to go down there at all. But this one, I just wanted to go see it because it was large. I wanted to see the location and I wanted to hang out for a few days.
I was only there for four days, so it wasn't very long. Yeah, that's perfect. Where do you live?
[Stephen Husted] (7:11 - 7:15)
Southern California, Orange County. So how long have you been investing in real estate?
[Rafael Loza] (7:17 - 7:33)
What is your timeline on this journey? Since 2017, yeah. I started it late 16, trying to get into it, but my first investment came in 2017.
And then I just niched down to hospitality and short-term rentals, and that's been my entire niche ever since. Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (7:33 - 7:48)
And did you start off doing rental arbitrage? Was that your first play? And how did you end up there?
I mean, I know it's something that's like, usually it's a low entry of money, but how did you go down that route, first and foremost?
[Rafael Loza] (7:49 - 10:29)
So I wanted to get into real estate, couldn't afford it. In Southern California, I didn't know anything about real estate at all. In my head, it was like, I have to buy a property, put a tenant in it, I was going to cash flow, cover the cost and then money.
And it's like, obviously that's not the case. And so I only had about 20 grand. I couldn't even put a down payment on a house.
And so I started researching, listening to the podcast, reading the books, consuming a ton of content. And I came across Airbnb and the guy that was doing, two guys that were doing short-term rentals. And so I was like, huh, I wonder what these guys, what they do.
And they're like, oh, we do Airbnb in an apartment building. We have a couple apartment buildings in there. And I was like, well, okay.
And then I came across a guy who was teaching systems and processes for short-term rentals. And I was like, wow, okay. And so I was like, wait a second, short-term rentals are Airbnb.
And I was like, wait, I don't have to own the property. As I was doing the research, I was like, wait, I don't have to own the property to be able to do this. I was like, I can just go rent someone's property, furnish it and put it up on Airbnb and make money.
And so I was like, I can totally do that. That sounds really easy. And then I went through about six months of just denial and rejection of being allowed to use other people's properties.
I had to figure out a way of getting approved and being allowed to do that. So I started building relationships with certain apartment complexes, certain owners, certain investors, certain property managers, until I finally got a yes. It was a, I think, 120 unit complex.
They had about 60% vacancy. They were going through a full gut rehab. So we came in, me and my old business partner, we came in and we asked if we were allowed to use their property.
They said, yes. They asked if I can pay the rent. I said, of course.
And so at that time I had five grand to my name. I was running out of money. And so I was like, yeah, I got the money for the down payment and the first month's rent.
And so I called my brother and he let me borrow a credit card for nine grand. And I furnished the entire, it was a two bedroom apartment. I got it furnished.
Two weeks later, we went live. It took us two weeks to set up. We go live and man, the rest was history.
I mean, the first two weeks covered the cost of my five grand. The second, the second month, the full month that we were live, I made a $6,000 profit. And I was like, wow, this is a real thing.
I'm going all in. And I just scaled it tremendously. Nine months later, I had about 18 units or so.
I don't even remember the number, 18, 20 units in that building and in a different building. And then fast forward to today, I have about 78 units that are live. I think actually about 90 are arbitrage, but not all of them are mine.
I've given some to friends and family so that they can get started. And yeah, now I focus, I take all that profit from those arbitrage units and I throw into purchasing properties. I got a hotel up in North Michigan with a couple of business partners and it's properties all over the country.
[Stephen Husted] (10:30 - 10:45)
Yeah. You just, you have that light bulb moment. That first one just sets it in place and then you just hyper-focus and go all in.
And then you just, then you know, you got the cashflow coming in and you're going to, okay, now it's time to buy some assets and have another stream.
[Rafael Loza] (10:46 - 11:02)
Yeah. If I'm being honest with you, I got kind of lazy when I was doing those 18 units, I was cash flowing pretty well, making enough to make a living just to kind of get by. Before I got into like the mindset and growth, personal growth, it was just like, okay, I'm making enough money.
I'm cool. I'm comfortable. And I was doing better than most people around me anyway.
So I was like, oh, I'm crushing it.
[Stephen Husted] (11:02 - 11:02)
Yeah.
[Rafael Loza] (11:03 - 12:20)
But then COVID hit and I don't have to shut anything down with COVID. We were able to negotiate and stay afloat. But the problem is that one of my owners in one of my buildings sold the building and the new owner didn't want anything to do with short-term rentals.
And a lot of people followed me into this building. So everywhere I go, people usually follow me because I talk about it quite often on social media and stuff like that. And so a bunch of people went into that same apartment building that I told you about.
There was about 62 short-term rentals in that one complex. So they were way underwater because nobody else was paying rent. And so he sold the building.
The new owner was like, I want everybody out. So I had to start over. I had three units left.
And so talking about hyper-focus, I was like, well, I don't want to do short-term rentals anymore. I want to get into different aspects. I have the cash to be able to do something else.
I was like, oh, maybe I'll start doing fixing flips or wholesaling. And then I was like, well, it's too much work. I have to start building another team.
So I went to a networking event and this guy was like, dude, if you're good at something, just stick to it. And I was like, it resonated. So I was like, you're right.
So I went back and I was like, okay, I have all this furniture from all these units that I closed. I know how to scale this tremendously. I know how to build the relationships.
And then fast forward from COVID to today, I've actually started from three units to the 70-something we have live. And I just decided, hey, I'm going to focus on it. I'm going to take all that revenue and I'm going to start purchasing property like the original game plan.
And that's what I've been doing.
[Stephen Husted] (12:20 - 12:27)
Yeah, that's great. How was it going through all the rejection in the beginning? How did you work through that?
[Rafael Loza] (12:28 - 13:48)
It sucked. It's a little discouraging, but I had a business partner at the time who would call and set up appointments all day and just call and set up appointments. And then I used to work graveyard shift.
And so after I would get off of work, I'd go home, take a shower, change. And then I would literally just go to the appointments and just make the relationships and build the relationships and build the relationships until I finally got a yes. And yeah, it sucks.
You get discouraged. You're thinking, oh, no one's going to allow it. Oh, I don't know how this is actually doable.
And then there's ways to do it without getting permission, the illegal way. And in my head, I was like, well, I could go that route, but then how long is it really going to last? I was thinking long term the entire time.
I want these units to stay sustainable for a long period of time. If I go in and I don't tell them what I'm doing, they catch me. I get kicked out.
And I have, even though it's not a large investment at the time, it was large. I have $10,000, $12,000 invested in these apartments, each one. If they shut me down, what am I going to do?
I haven't even made back my initial investment. So I just kept going for it. And eventually it just happened and you just get comfortable anyway.
So reject through rejection, you learn what you're doing wrong. Right through the denial, I learned what I was saying wrong that I shouldn't be saying at the next one. I figured out what people were listening, what people were asking and listening to that I was saying.
And I started tweaking my conversation, tweaking the things I was telling people about how I can get approved.
[Stephen Husted] (13:49 - 14:03)
And your mindset was changing along the way as well. You were tweaking the way you were talking to them, building different confidence because every time you went through a rejection, you figured a new way to approach it the following time, I would imagine.
[Rafael Loza] (14:04 - 14:15)
A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah.
You learn new things, you learn what works and what doesn't, and you start getting more comfortable and then you get confident and it just, your entire demeanor changes.
[Stephen Husted] (14:16 - 14:53)
Yeah. That's a hard thing for some people, just rejection in general. I think if you become an entrepreneur or you're a small business, whatever the case may be, work in real estate, rejection is a huge part of it in a lot of different ways.
There's just a lot of ups and downs and you have to figure out how to deal with ups and downs where some people that have a W-2, they are just doing their job nine to five and they'll let the CEO and everybody else kind of figure out the issues and they just do their, they stay in their own lane. So it's a big part of the entrepreneurship side of it.
[Rafael Loza] (14:53 - 15:32)
Yeah. I feel like anybody who's successful has gone through some sort of hardship and rejection and failure. And if you don't go through it and everything is going great for you, buckle up because it's going to come.
And when it does, it's going to teach you some hard lessons. And those hard lessons is what's going to really define how you come out on top and how you succeed in your business and in life really. Going through a lot of rejection and a lot of denial and a lot of failures is what really helped push forward.
I'm not afraid anymore to make mistakes and to try things out and lose money. I don't care. I've lost hundreds of thousands of dollars now going forward on things that I've tried, but I've given them a shot, but I've learned from them.
[Stephen Husted] (15:32 - 15:32)
Yes.
[Rafael Loza] (15:32 - 15:45)
And I know what I can and can't do going forward. And it's every time somebody brings an opportunity, they go, yeah, let's do it. As long as it's not putting someone else at risk, if it's just my own money or my own time or something that I'm investing myself, I'm all about it.
[Stephen Husted] (15:45 - 16:28)
Yes. Yeah. Me too.
And I always hear people DMing me about buying properties out of state and it's always the, what if, what if this, how do you deal with your contractor? What if your contractor burns you? I'm like, I have been burned several times.
You know, lost 20,001, 40,000 here, but then I make it up on another scenario and I learn from that and then I figure out how to systemize things better and I just keep moving forward. And, but I think some, if you can't take on some, some risk and you, you, you just won't ever, you just, whatever, you won't move forward, especially in, especially in real estate. What type of jobs do you have growing up?
[Rafael Loza] (16:28 - 18:06)
And so that's a great question. My first job was, and it was actually my first, like this, when I started becoming an entrepreneur, my dad had his washing catering truck. So my dad used to own a catering truck company and he had his washing catering trucks at the age of 12 or 13 or something, 11, I don't even remember.
Me and my brother and we started our own cleaning company for catering trucks. You know, the, the roach coaches as they call them. Right.
And so we were, we were washing those for people after school and on the weekends making 150 bucks, you know, a hundred bucks at that time cleaning these things. And that was my first job. My second job came when I needed to get actual work after school in high school.
I worked at Stater Brothers till I was 18. Then I worked at Radio Shack. And then after that, I started kind of figuring out that I didn't like to work for people.
And so I jumped in between jobs here and there as I was doing my own thing. I've done a lot of entrepreneurial stuff, a lot of artistic stuff. Mainly I used to paint and sculpt and do a lot of different stuff where I would make money off of that to get by.
But I worked at a collection agency for a long time. Before I got into real estate, I owned a collection agency. I did collections for about 12 years.
I started from the bottom, learned it all. Then I managed my own, then I started my own company and then I left. I've also worked at a recycling company.
So it's been on and off, but it's never been like, it was always 1099 work where I get to choose my schedule and do what I wanted until I started really doing the entrepreneurial thing.
[Stephen Husted] (18:07 - 18:49)
Yeah, that's cool. But it's definitely all, it all ties together. I think once you go down that route, being your own boss, your own business, it's been possible to, my wife says this, she works at Apple.
And sometimes I'll come home defeated, just having one of those weeks or days. And I'm like, that's it. I'm just getting to, I'm going to be a manager at Burger King, calling it a day.
And she laughs. She's like, oh, you get a job at Apple. You can work in real estate at Apple.
And for a minute there, I'm like, oh, hmm, nah. I don't care how much stock you give me because I know that I have to be accountable to somebody else. And I'm too much of a rebel to do that.
[Rafael Loza] (18:50 - 19:36)
Same way, man. I can't work for anybody else, work for under anybody else. I have to be able to make my own decisions.
My biggest, so my why, it took me a long time to figure out, but it's to have the freedom of time to do what I want, when I want, where I want, with whoever I want. 100%. And that drives me to everything I do.
I don't care if I have to be broke and do nothing. That's what I want to do. And that's kind of defined my entire life, to be honest with you.
Remember I told you I was kind of lazy in the beginning because I was making enough money to be happy. But now I've got people underneath me. I need to make sure they're surviving.
I need to make sure they're getting paid. I want to grow the company. I have goals in mind now.
I have certain things I want to hit. That drives me to just continue to have that freedom at a higher level. And so to be able to work for someone or for them to tell me that I can't take time off, no way.
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (19:37 - 20:51)
No, no way. I just can't do that either. But I think I had a gentleman on my podcast last week and the theme, Jesse, most is time.
By far, it all comes down to time. Like you can work real hard, grind it all out, make a bunch of money, but you can't get back time and experiences and just time to be a human. It's, I don't know how old you are, but on my early fifties and I could tell you it's real now.
I just want to maybe work and take three days off and get in a sprinter van and go to the coast and go hiking or ride my bike. That's it. I don't need to have this elaborate lifestyle, but there's things that I want to do and enjoy because I don't want to just always grind it out and be on the clock, so to speak.
Which is what can happen when you're running the business as we are. Even having assistants and systems and stuff, you can sometimes grind it out and you're not even really knowing it. Yeah, I agree with you.
[Rafael Loza] (20:52 - 21:33)
Now, my entire business is pretty automated. I don't work on it very much. I have people in place to kind of manage everything.
Yeah, it costs a ton of money, but the return on my time is just invaluable. I can literally pick up and go wherever I want. I've traveled more this year than I have in my entire life.
Next year, travel plans, I already think I have like 60 something flights planned out just to travel the country, different locations, go to different masterminds. Yeah, it's going to be like I'm doing everything. The business will be sustainable, keep cash flowing, keep making money.
It's because it took me the last six years to build out, systemize, automate, and put the right people in the right place.
[Stephen Husted] (21:33 - 21:50)
It took you six years. I know you say team. Is your team, you got everybody out of United States, VAs running certain little aspects of the business?
Maybe one here in the United States that manages everybody or how are you doing it?
[Rafael Loza] (21:51 - 23:50)
Yeah, so I have six virtual assistants in the Philippines that handle my entire guest communications, guest relations, all that virtual automation, anything that can be done virtually, they manage it. Then I have here in my main place, I have a COO who manages all my day-to-day operations. We just work together on a daily basis.
We just have meetings to go over things. We make sure everything's on track once a week to make sure that everything's running and flowing smoothly. Then I have boots on the location that I need to be at.
If it's here that I need to build a property, I just tell them, hey, this property is getting built, go knock it out. They go and they handle everything that needs to get handled. That's it, literally.
I have cleaners. If you want to go over my entire team, I have cleaners who are my cleaners for the properties. They get managed by my virtual assistants who schedule and tell them everything that needs to get going.
I don't even know when there's a check-in or a check-out. My COO handles all of operations, so pricing, automation, calendar sync, everything that needs to be overlooked. She does that.
She's the one that manages my virtual assistants alongside with me. Ultimately, she makes the decisions on what's going to happen with the company now, unless it's a major decision and they contact me. I don't even check.
They have permission to go up to $500 and ordering items now without getting involved. So we have standards of everything. Then I have my boots on the ground who again handles everything from setup to disposal, to tearing down a unit, to moving a unit, literally everything that requires boots on the ground.
Then any special team member that I need, I just hire accordingly. So if I need a maintenance guy on the ground, if I need a contractor on the ground, then that's just separate. I do that still, but that's very rare.
Like I was telling you, I just went to Milwaukee, but I didn't need to go. I have a man, a project manager who managed everything for me. That's pretty much it.
I think my entire thing.
[Stephen Husted] (23:50 - 24:02)
What's your, what about like your, I call it the backend office, like who's managing taxes, accounts, you know, the non-sexy items that, you know.
[Rafael Loza] (24:03 - 25:03)
Oh, great question. I always forget about that. Yeah.
I have a bookkeeper. She's been with me from the beginning. She started when I had one unit and she's still here with me.
She charges me per on a per unit basis. My goal is to have her in-house a hundred percent to cover her salary. At some point it'll happen.
We're almost there, I think. And she's one of my best friends. She's been doing that forever.
She literally handles all of my books, everything. Then I have a CPA who works with her directly and I just oversee everything. I know nothing about taxes or books.
I just, all I do is I review my numbers every month. That's literally all I do. The next thing, once I get large, I'm not large enough.
I'm not there yet, but when I get to this point is going to be, I'm going to hire a CFO to manage my cashflow and literally all the cash coming and going and what we're allowed to spend and just to help optimize and help with the cashflow and the revenue of the company. Hopefully I can do that by the end of 2024. I want to get large enough to that point.
And then I'm already considering getting an in-house attorney.
[Stephen Husted] (25:04 - 25:12)
Oh, really? Interesting. Have you been having to get counsel a lot?
[Rafael Loza] (25:13 - 25:57)
Not necessarily, but yes. I have so many partnerships going now that I want to have all my ducks in a row here. Normally you just do a regular JV agreement, but then I need an operating agreement.
I need a management agreement. I need to structure my entities correctly where I have a holding company and all these holding companies own all these other companies. And it's like, I can probably do it all myself, but I know there's going to be a mistake somewhere where I'm going to screw something up.
So, I might as well just have someone and it's expensive to pay per. He's actually a business partner of mine who might come on board. Again, I'm not large enough yet to do this, but we can work it on a percentage basis where I can have them handle everything.
Plus I know there's legal troubles now. I'm starting to get into some issues with short-term rentals in certain locations and I can have someone there to rely on to ask for general counsel questions.
[Stephen Husted] (25:57 - 26:00)
Where are you having your issues currently?
[Rafael Loza] (26:01 - 26:04)
The ones I'm dealing with right now are in Santa Ana, city of Santa Ana in California.
[Stephen Husted] (26:04 - 26:09)
Are they, is it regulations? They're changing some of the laws and how they run?
[Rafael Loza] (26:09 - 26:23)
They've been trying to change it. Yeah, they've been trying to change it. It started where there's no regulation, but they're trying to implement regulations, kind of like sneaking it under without anybody noticing.
And so, I have to get involved because I have a lot of units here. Yeah. There's a lot of saturation here too now, so.
[Stephen Husted] (26:23 - 26:34)
Is there? Yeah. When did you first break into that market?
Was that the same time as the arbitrage and the same location? Yeah. Okay.
[Rafael Loza] (26:34 - 26:42)
Yeah. And same thing happened here. A bunch of people followed me here and now there's a ton of people in this area.
When I came here, there was nothing.
[Stephen Husted] (26:42 - 26:50)
Sorry. Yeah. And it spreads like wildflowers, especially if you put it online, if you're in social media and you've got an audience and you start telling people to come.
Yeah.
[Rafael Loza] (26:51 - 27:46)
I never mind sharing information. To me, the more the merrier, the more growth, the better. It always comes back and pays tenfold.
I 100% say that my success comes from me putting everything out into the universe to help people. It always comes back and pays it 10 times over. But there's been times where I'm like, man, I wish I wouldn't have said nothing because, dude, when I started in Fullerton, literally there was like six in my corner.
And then when I left, there was probably 140. Same thing when I came to Santa Ana. Wow.
That's crazy. And I'm not always the one to be like, oh, I'm that popular, but people do follow me into places and I know a lot of the operators here. They might deny it, but I know they came here because they knew that I was here.
When I came here, there was probably 12 or 15 short term rentals. Dude, right now there's probably over 400, like no joke. That's crazy.
So, you know, and it just it's one after the other. And it's because I put it out. I'm like, oh, I'm in this city on my podcast.
Oh, I'm in that city. And it's like, oh, well, he's there. That means it's allowed.
Boom. And then people start looking. I get people.
Sorry.
[Stephen Husted] (27:46 - 28:04)
I was just going to say that's here's the analogy. It's very similar to, you know, if you're going to invest and you hear there's a Trader Joe's going in or Amazon Fulfillment Center. They did all the research.
You just follow them like you don't need to do much more. Yeah, agreed. They did the same thing with you.
[Rafael Loza] (28:05 - 28:16)
Yeah, literally, that's what happened. It's funny because I have some of the investors that I work with, they're like, oh, this guy just called me said that they know you and that they're looking to open units here. And I'm like, I have no idea what that person is.
All right. Like, oh, don't name drop me.
[Stephen Husted] (28:17 - 28:50)
And I'm like, no, they know you. Yeah, they follow you on Instagram. Literally, yeah.
Well, it totally makes sense, you know, which is kind of a wild thing, too, especially with social media. You start following somebody for a while and you really do feel like you, you know, you get a really you start to really think that you do know them, like that you're speaking to them. So, yeah, it's it's a very interesting.
Yeah, what's your how long you've been doing sharing content online? Years or just start?
[Rafael Loza] (28:50 - 28:58)
No, I started I started after covid. I got I started talking on Clubhouse when that clubhouse boom was happening.
[Stephen Husted] (28:58 - 28:58)
Oh, wow. Yeah.
[Rafael Loza] (28:59 - 29:59)
And so I started sharing. That's how I met my buddy, Jesse. And that's how we started the podcast.
So I was in a room one time just sharing a bunch of info. I didn't know I knew that. I thought like I didn't think I knew a lot.
Apparently, I guess I do know a lot. And people look for that information. Even now, I'm kind of like that's to me, it's like second nature stuff.
People don't know like the basics of short term rental. So I would hold host these rooms on clubhouse. And then me and Jesse were like we started kind of vibing and hanging out.
And I was like, yo, let's host the room on Friday. So he jumped in and hosted with me and we would get a couple hundred people going in there and asking questions. Then I started getting invited to these other major rooms to talk about short term rentals.
And then we just decided to start a podcast, which kind of took off a little bit. It did pretty well. And then we started building an audience and people like, dude, you should start posting on Instagram.
And I was like, you know, I'm not about that. And then I just tried it one day. I was like, screw it.
And now it's a full time thing. I have a guy who comes and records and then I have an editor who edits. I don't they post.
I don't even I don't even know what my stuff is getting. It's post once a day, basically.
[Stephen Husted] (29:59 - 29:59)
Right.
[Rafael Loza] (29:59 - 30:06)
Again, it's automated. I just record the content and they edit and post. Who?
Jesse, who? Jesse Vasquez.
[Stephen Husted] (30:06 - 30:07)
Oh, OK.
[Rafael Loza] (30:07 - 30:08)
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (30:08 - 30:29)
So when I when I finished my episode with him, I always go back to some of my guests and go, hey. Who should I get on my podcast? And then he threw your name in the mix.
So this is my new little thing. I just I ask people, you know, who am I? Who are you liking?
Because I'm not following everybody, you know. So, yeah.
[Rafael Loza] (30:29 - 30:49)
Yeah, there's some good people out there, man. Yeah. Me and Jesse, we've been we've been buddies for since twenty twenty one now.
Twenty twenty something like that. And we have the podcast together. You know, we've both grown significantly since we started.
Watching his growth has been awesome. It's it's it's been fun. And, you know, I'm on this podcast because of them.
[Stephen Husted] (30:49 - 30:56)
So, yeah. And it's it's well. How did you guys meet?
On Clubhouse. On Clubhouse.
[Rafael Loza] (30:57 - 30:57)
Amazing.
[Stephen Husted] (30:59 - 31:20)
Yeah. Yeah. And when I got done, you know, I it's funny when I pick guests, it's usually through Instagram.
Like I'll I'll start to follow them and I just pay attention. Like, OK, yeah, I like this person. Yeah, I want to get him on.
And I just throw a DM out and hope, you know, wish for the best and that they're going to jump on. And it's been such a little experience.
[Rafael Loza] (31:21 - 31:29)
You get to see, too, like if you actually follow and watch, you get to see who's full of crap and who's real. You can always tell after after watching them for a while, you know that if they're real or not.
[Stephen Husted] (31:29 - 32:14)
Yeah, 100 percent. So that's interesting. So then you and Jesse both have another thing in common because he's artistic as well with his photography.
Is he? Yeah. He so I didn't know that.
Yeah. So the reason why I actually funny enough, but what made me DM about getting on the podcast, he had posted some photos that he he shot and I was like, dude, this is put more content out like this. Like, it's just really cool to see.
I know what you do as a midterm, and I know you give great value there, but it's also cool to see what else you do. What are you into? What are your hobbies?
You know, yeah, I think that's cool. I don't know that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So what do you tell me about your artistic side here?
[Rafael Loza] (32:15 - 32:35)
I like to sculpt. I used to. I don't have the time anymore, but it used to calm me down.
I would sculpt. So I've done everything, man. I'm like, I'll just draw, paint, create.
I used to make a ton of stuff. So I used to make like these, you know, Deadmau5 the DJ is I used to make his helmets and like sell them and stuff like that. And then wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, hold on here.
[Stephen Husted] (32:36 - 32:38)
Say that again. You made his helmet?
[Rafael Loza] (32:39 - 32:47)
Yeah. No, not his. Like, I just made those and sold to other people.
Yeah. Okay. And I would sell them to people.
And that did really well for a while. They asked me to stop, obviously.
[Stephen Husted] (32:48 - 32:49)
He did?
[Rafael Loza] (32:49 - 33:16)
Yeah. So I did. No big deal.
Yeah. And so I stopped. But between there, you know, it was just kind of get by.
So let me show you when I sculpted quite a bit of stuff. Most of these guys back here that you see on top on that little window section, I've sculpted. Painting.
So I got this guy here. I made this guy out of clay. I don't know if you can see it.
Oh, cool.
[Stephen Husted] (33:17 - 33:22)
He's a Mortal Kombat character. Yeah, that's sweet. That's rad.
What? Oh, yeah.
[Rafael Loza] (33:25 - 34:11)
I don't know. I got a bunch of stuff. What are your paintings in the background?
Those are artists that I actually like, just artists that I like. So this guy is one of my artists. My brother got me my dog.
This is my actual bulldog here. So just a rug. Actually, it's a rug.
I put it on the wall because I don't want to get dirty. But like all those things up there, my sculptures, some of them, not all of them, some more from other friends that have sculpted that have given them to me. So I got this Pablo Escobar from that Netflix show.
Yeah. Yes. So I just had a custom paint job because I like the I wanted to do a different color for the shirt.
So, you know, he took me about a month to sculpt just while I was watching anime, hanging out.
[Stephen Husted] (34:11 - 34:15)
Oh, really? Wow. So there's a there's a serious process in getting them done.
[Rafael Loza] (34:16 - 35:51)
Yeah. So it's actual clay. So I sculpt them out of clay, like just a block of clay.
And then I'll sculpt them up. I'll heat it up. So it cooks and then I make a resin mold.
I cast it and then I have plastic copies and then I paint the plastic copies. It's fun. It's a process.
I enjoy it. How did you how did you get turned on to that? I don't want to give it a shot.
Anything that I ever want to try, just give it a shot. So it was this was, I don't know, eight, nine years ago, maybe 10 years ago. I was like, I saw some guys on Instagram sculpting actually have some of their work.
So like these guys are legit. So they've done like. Like legit stuff.
This is some of their work right here. So they have some Ninja Turtles. Nice.
And so I was like, hey, I can do that. And so I was like, literally in my head, I was like, oh, I can do that. And so I started sculpting with clay and I made my first one.
And I posted on Instagram. I actually have a page for I don't run it anymore, but and it took off. A lot of people were like, oh, my God, it was for the video game Destiny from PlayStation.
And it took off and people were like, hey, I like it. Would you sell me some pieces? And I was like, sure.
And I started selling copies of it. And then people started asking for custom work like these, this Pablo Escobar character, I probably sold about 300 of them at about 150 bucks a pop. Yeah, people, they're collectors now, but they're usually my collectors out in the UK because they're limited.
Yeah, it's limited. So yeah, literally handmade. And and I just got into it.
It was really fun for me. I really enjoyed it. I like to paint.
I just like you see the piano back here. I just got into piano. I'm learning piano right now.
She's like, I'm going to try it.
[Stephen Husted] (35:51 - 39:51)
So I'll give it a shot. Dude, I love that. I think that's great.
I mean, here's the deal. We only get to do this one time. Like.
Fuck it, do all kinds of different things. I mean, that's just it doesn't matter if you're good at it, become good at it, just do things because you never know where you're going to find joy out of something. And especially in the creative space.
I was, let's see, out of high school, you know, I had a couple couple jobs, but then did not want to work for anybody and became a hairdresser. And all my friends, all my guy friends, this is early 90s, became hairdressers. And that's when there wasn't a lot of straight hairdressers back in the early 90s.
Let's just say that. And came a hairdresser and then started going to raves. And, you know, started going to raves early, early L.A. raves, like, you know, driving down to L.A. and got hooked on watching DJs. Came back, became a DJ, you know, was living with a buddy, you know, was living with a buddy. And I'm like, dude, I'm moving home. He's like, why?
I'm like, I'm going to buy turntables. I'm going to become a DJ. And yeah, went home, bought turntables, became a DJ.
And, you know, like, art's been around me pretty much my whole life. Everybody and all my friends are in different avenues of art. Like, you know, for instance, I, you know, I sell, help clients buy and sell real estate here in Silicon Valley.
One of my clients slash friends is Stevie Caballero, professional skater. And he's a crazy, crazy artist. That dude is, paints, skateboards, rides motorcycles, you know, like he, he plays the piano, he plays instruments, he's just, you know what I mean?
And that's kind of how, like, a lot of my friends, you know, I got a lot of friends that are tattoo artists and it's, are painters. Here's a crazy story. So the first salon that I was at, one of my good friends decided he's going to open up a salon and about five of us left that salon and went and opened up this salon.
And one of the stylists was dating this guy. And he was an up and coming artist. This is back in like 2000.
And he got commissioned to paint the inside of the salon, this huge mural. And after the fact, after that, this guy becomes wildly successful artist. His name is Dave Cho.
And all these people would travel all over the world and come into the salon to check out this mural on this wall. Wow. And what's crazy is if he ended up doing some artwork for Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook.
Really? Yeah. And, and Mark couldn't pay, couldn't pay him.
So he gave him stock. And so, you know, you know, I'm going with this one. So they go, they go public and, you know, he makes like, I don't know, over a hundred million, something like that.
But not only, yeah, he did. And he was in the reason he took the reason he took the stock is he liked to gamble. He's like, screw it.
I'm just going to take this stock, see where it goes, whatever. He was a rebel like that. And, you know, he became a wildly successful artist, you know, became an actor, just all kinds of crazy stuff.
Yeah. But yeah, that's like some of the people that have been around is, you know, just a lot of artists and rebels and all that good stuff.
[Rafael Loza] (39:52 - 40:09)
So that's a great story, man. Yeah. It's, it's, it's cool to listen to that stuff.
Like, wow, that's nuts. Because most people would be like, hell no, I'm not doing that. You know, I'm not, I'm not going to try that out.
I've always been the type of person that's like, if I, if I think something's interesting, I'll give it a shot. Like, does it matter? At least I said, I tried it once.
[Stephen Husted] (40:10 - 42:05)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that the problem is, is a lot of people have fear and they get, and they have fear of what others are going to say on whatever they're doing, you know, especially when they, especially when they pivot in something and maybe they start gaining traction. You know, I grew up racing BMX and, you know, stopped doing BMX, you know, once I got my license and fast forward to about 2009, 10 in that range, met a buddy and he got me into mountain biking and I went full, full, you know, full gas into it, you know, did one race.
I'm like, oh, I'm going to go do Leadville. I'm like, you can't do Leadville. That race is a hundred miles.
You gotta, you gotta train for that. You know, you gotta, you gotta put your time in. I'm like, dude, I'm just going to go out there and do it.
You know, whatever happens. What if I don't make it? Whatever.
I still went out there, had a good time. And of course, you know, I finished it, got it done. And right now, because I've got all these, I'm juggling so many things.
I still race and I still ride my bike, but I wanted some quick fitness that I can just do right outside my door. So I'm like, screw it. I'm going to start running.
And went out there and did it. Running is a little tougher than mountain biking. I can say that.
It just seems like you can get injured easier. I mean, I went on a two mile run before we jumped on and my right calf is like jacked up from it. I'm like, oh shit.
You know, like I have to really bring my expectations down from what I think, because I want to just go run 20 miles because I already have endurance and I just think I can do it, but I can't do it. Like my brain says yes, my body's saying no. So, but, but I'm doing it, you know, and I, you know.
[Rafael Loza] (42:06 - 43:32)
So it's funny because I just got into mountain biking like six months ago. A buddy of mine was like, hey dude, you want to go mountain biking? I was like, I've always wanted to, let's go.
And let me borrow a bike. And we went out and man, I had a blast. Oh dude.
That's so rad. Now I haven't done it in about two months because I've been traveling nonstop. I'm waiting for a time where I'm here so we can just go hit, hit a trail somewhere, just go mountain biking.
It was so much fun. It's so great. The next thing I'm going to do is get into, I'm going to learn how to ski and snowboard.
Um, I don't run anymore. I used to run a lot. Actually I would run every morning three to four miles a morning, but then I wrecked my knee messing around on some pull up bars.
I fell and I twisted it backwards so I can't run anymore. Um, I can, I just don't want to injure it. I prefer to not be injured and do all this stuff.
Like I do CrossFit. I enjoy CrossFit and it wears my body down, but I just love every aspect of it. Um, I love the idea that at any moment you can pivot and do something new to completely either change your life or try something new in your life.
It doesn't matter what anybody else says. And the things that most people out there are like, Oh, I don't know if I really want to try that or I don't know if I want to do that or it's out of the normal, right? It's not their typical go to work, come home, turn on TV and cook dinner and go to bed and go the next day.
Like we, I started taking salsa lessons. We're me and my girlfriend are learning how to dance salsa. Yeah, we've been doing it for a month now.
I love it. It's the greatest thing ever. I'm like, it's awesome.
I'm like, hell yeah. Next time I go to these parties, I'm going to be dancing salsa. People are going to be like, holy shit, this dude knows how to dance salsa.
[Stephen Husted] (43:32 - 43:39)
Yeah. Especially if they don't know, like if you're just keeping it a secret and you bust it out, they're going to be like, what?
[Rafael Loza] (43:40 - 44:22)
I have a buddy of mine and he's like a big time real estate investor. Older dude, used to be an orthopedic surgeon, really good dude. And him and his girlfriend, we go to these real estate masterminds and they'll play music and the dance floor is empty.
Cause you know, none of these dudes, they don't dance. They don't, they don't do any of this stuff. And, um, so we go out, we go out there and this dude and his girlfriend start dancing.
And I'm really, I was like, we became really close. I was like, you know what, dude, I'm going to dance. I'm going to learn how to dance.
Cause next time we go out to these events, I want to dance with you. I don't want to be watching you. So call my girlfriend.
I was like, all right, when we get back, we're doing salsa dances lesson. So now we're learning how to dance and bachata and salsa. And I was like, hell yeah.
So now I'm out there like, you know, learning the steps. And the next time I go to these events, like we got one coming up.
[Stephen Husted] (44:23 - 44:51)
I'm picturing it. It's almost like, but you're asking to be out there dancing. Super technical.
Like you need to know what's going on. One step, following step, you know, like it, does that make sense? Yes.
A hundred percent. Yeah. It's fun, dude.
I enjoy it. Dude. That's yeah.
That's rad. That's cool. Um, have you always been like this?
Like growing up, were you doing a ton of stuff? Like what were you doing? Like in your teenage years, what were you, what kind of sports and what were you doing then?
[Rafael Loza] (44:52 - 45:44)
Yeah. I've always been all over the place. My mind's always gone.
People tell me that my mind's always going a hundred miles an hour, which is funny. Cause I don't, I don't realize it. Um, you know, I played sports, um, wasn't very good at them, but I played them just because I wanted to try them.
I was always the guy I was like the benchwarmer, but didn't care because I was out there doing the physical activity. For me, it was more of like, I want to do the physical activity and give it a shot. I don't care.
At least I say I tried it. You know, um, I played football. I played baseball.
I played soccer. Um, I hated soccer growing up. Um, I was an ROTC, which is weird.
I was in football and in ROTC. I wanted to join the Navy. I never did.
Um, so, you know, I did literally everything, man. I didn't, there was nothing that I didn't want to try. I would play a ton of video games.
I would go out and play with friends. Um, I don't know. I've always, I've always done anything I really wanted to, whatever I wanted to give it a shot.
I would just do it. Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (45:44 - 46:02)
That's a, that's a, it's just a great, it's a great trait to, it's a great trait to have. I know it's funny. I have several friends that are very similar, but then I have some that are not, that are the complete opposite.
And they just kind of look and like, ah, like, I wish I could try them. Like you don't wish, just go, you can do it. Yeah.
[Rafael Loza] (46:03 - 46:45)
I've actually lost friends because of it. And it sucks because some of my best friends I don't talk to anymore. Um, but they either don't keep up or they just don't want to do what I do.
I'm like, yo, let's go do this. No, I don't want to do it. Oh, let's go try this.
No, I don't want to do it. And I'm like, all right, well, I'm going without you. Um, and let's go try something new.
And it's like, no. And I'm like, okay. And so, yeah, it's caused me, it's caused me some relationships, but I'll tell you what, man, I've built some awesome relationships more than I could ever thought of.
I would, I would have like some of my best friends now come from just being able to be the way I am around them. Hey, let's just go do this. All right, cool.
Let's go try it. You know, whether it's, whether it has a monetary value, whether it has a time value, whether it just has a, a fear value, whatever the case may be, it's always been like, yo, let's go do it. It doesn't matter.
[Stephen Husted] (46:46 - 47:01)
Yeah. I'm here. I'm sitting here listening to you.
And I'm like, I'm like planning some mastermind that like Jesse and you get a bunch of other guys to go do it and go mountain biking and like whitewater rafting and stuff like some, like three day, like go crush it event.
[Rafael Loza] (47:02 - 47:16)
I'm planning a, I've been planning it for a while. I just haven't had a chance to pull the trigger on it, but I want to go to Alaska just to do a cold plunge out in the Alaskan water. Oh, wow.
Like I just want to take a little plane out there and just jump in the water and be there for five minutes and then fly back on the plane and go to the cabin. Oh, really?
[Stephen Husted] (47:16 - 47:17)
That's cool. I want to do that.
[Rafael Loza] (47:17 - 47:46)
Yeah. Are you, are you cold plunging? No.
So I live in an apartment, believe it or not. I, it's a duplex. I rent it.
So it was being arbitrage. I just like the property. I moved into it.
Me and my girlfriend live here, but I can't have a cold plunge year. So I might, I just take cold showers every morning. That's what I do.
I just love it. I'm not afraid of the cold plunging thing. I've done it.
I go to places where they have them or I'll do like the cryogenic thing where they freeze or whatever. But I will 100% have a cold plunge the moment I'm able to have one in my house. So I'm going to move probably next year.
[Stephen Husted] (47:46 - 48:00)
Yeah. What do you, so when you move, what are you going to, what's your vision of what, because you're, you're an investor, so you're, I'm only guessing, but you'll probably look at the way you buy a property and as a purely an investment style.
[Rafael Loza] (48:01 - 49:43)
Am I right or wrong? Yeah, no, no, you're right. But it's funny you brought this up.
So just last week I was having a conversation with my girlfriend and I was like, Hey, I was like, so a month ago we, well, let me backtrack that. A month ago we were, we were chatting and we were going to buy a property together maybe two months ago. But then all these properties landed on my lap.
I was like, Hey, I'm not going to waste our money or spend my money on a property for us. I'm just going to throw it into a bunch of investments again. And then we'll just backtrack the move till next year.
And so we're like, yeah, no big deal. Cool. We love where we live.
Like I really love where I live. And so, um, I sat down with her a week ago and I was like, Hey, uh, I think next year what we should do is we should just buy a sheet, like a dumpy little property, like a nice in a nice location. Um, I don't want to go and do the conventional already remodeled thing.
I was like, let's just buy a beat up property and we'll rehab it the way we want to rehab it. It doesn't matter what the cost is going to be. At least it'll be the property that we want.
And so we sat there and we're like, yeah, let's do it. And so, yeah, kind of looking at it from an investor perspective where I know I can do the work back in the day, dude, I'd be scared as hell to do that. I'd be like, Oh, I don't know if I can do it.
But now I'm like, Oh, this is, this will be cake. Yeah. It'll be bad-ass.
We'll get to build however we want. Yeah. It's probably gonna be expensive, but who cares?
Or we do ground up construction. I was like, Hey, let's just go buy a plot of land somewhere. And we just do ground up construction in the house.
We want to have it the way I want to have it. Um, so we're, we're looking at both directions to see where we want to go. We don't have to live in California.
Like we can live wherever we want. I've thought about moving to Puerto Rico for half the year and then coming back over here for half the year. Um, Milwaukee for half the year, coming back here for half the year.
So there's certain places where I know I can really like be comfortable living. Um, so we're looking at all options, but next year I was like, Hey, if we're going to buy something where we're going to live, like I want it to be nice the way I want it to be. So it's going to be a beat up junkie property that I know I can rehab the way I want it to be rehabbed.
And in case I ever need to sell it or move out, it'll be available.
[Stephen Husted] (49:43 - 49:52)
What's your thoughts on ADUs and junior ADUs and all that? Like, do you, have you gone down the rabbit hole on what is we can do here in California now?
[Rafael Loza] (49:53 - 51:34)
Yeah. So I'm actually getting an ADU built right now on my parents' house. So I bought my parents a property last year, year and a half ago or something like that.
And, um, we're building an ADU on the back to cover the mortgage. Oh, cool. And we're going to rent that out.
Um, most of my properties that I, that I work and arbitrage have ADUs in them. Um, actually quite a bit of them. So, yeah.
Um, and, uh, yeah, I mean, I mean, I think ADUs are awesome. Great way to supplement income and cover mortgages, especially with today's rates. Um, people can make their money and, and have a really low mortgage, especially in California.
I think ADUs is the one way that people can afford to buy houses and pay for their home without having to stress over it because an ADU can cover the cost of the property 100%. Absolutely. Um, so I think they're great.
I think junior ADUs are great. I just think they require sacrifice. People need to understand that, you know, you're going to be living with other people on property.
And a lot of people don't want to put themselves again, going to that comfort zone, right? They don't want to be out of their comfort zone. Oh, well it's my house.
I don't want to live in it. Uh, I don't want somebody coming and going here, you know, my kids and this, and I'm like, okay, well, then get stuck with your mortgage. You know, it's up to you, whatever you want to do.
Yeah. Oh, well I can't pay the mortgage. Well, then you probably don't have a choice, right?
Go build an ADU and have that ADU cover the cost of your living. Um, I think everybody should do ADUs if they need to. Um, I don't think it should be done if they have to, like, I mean, sorry, if they have to, not if they need to.
Like if I buy my property, I won't do an ADU on this. I absolutely have to, right. Um, but if I don't have to and, and, and the land permits it and it's enough for why I have my comfort in my, my own area, then I, then I'll still do it, but I'm in a different position, right?
I don't need to have that ADU on the back. I can choose to want to have it maybe even just as as a secondary home for when people come visit, something like that. Yeah.
I think ADUs are great, man.
[Stephen Husted] (51:35 - 52:36)
Did you, did you see that new bill that passed? Uh, AB 1033. Yeah.
Where you can sell them. Yeah. That's, I think that's awesome.
That's, I think that's game changer. I think it's crazy. Like, I think that's going to really 2024 is yeah.
I got a really, it's going to be game changer. I think so too. Um, I got a gentleman that I met on Instagram.
He's a contractor here in the, in Silicon Valley and, uh, had him on my podcast. And then we just vibed after that. Now we talk all the time, but we got all kinds of things that we're cooking up for 2024 based on that whole AB 1033 and just the whole structuring of it.
And a lot of it too is because now you can sell it off to 2000 square foot ADU getting built. You know, you're going to run about 400,000, five or 50 in that range. Well, I could tell you a two bedroom, two bath condo in San Jose goes for a lot more than that, you know, with a little mini backyard.
[Rafael Loza] (52:36 - 53:06)
So yeah, you guys are really going to benefit from it up there. 100%. Yes.
Yes. Northern, Northern California and that Silicon Valley area, right. That, that, um, San Francisco area, that San Jose area, you guys are going to really like benefit, especially where there's like very little property to be, uh, yes.
Absolutely. Um, it's, it's going to crush. I mean, there's certain pockets here in Southern California where I'm like, dude, I almost want to buy people's backyards just so I can build ADUs on them.
[Stephen Husted] (53:06 - 55:17)
Dude, I got this company that I met, um, through my, my contractor friend. Um, and they basically, the CEO worked in city planning. I don't know what city he worked in, but he was a city planner or something like to that effect.
And he'll help you, you, let's say you find a property, it's a two bedroom, one bath. Let's say it's on a 9,000 square foot lot. They'll, you pay them like 1400 and they'll do the whole study, tell you exactly everything you can build.
And they work with the city and we'll push things through faster because he's worked in the planning department himself. He actually knows more than most of the city planners. And he helps doing all the lot splits and, uh, also, also will, uh, help with funding.
So if you have something that's super interesting to like, they'll help. Like if it all equates correctly, they'll help fund the whole damn project. Wow.
Like my contractor just called me up. He's like, dude, this is crazy. I got to tell you this.
And he's speaking like, and he's high energy, very, you know, just very, we're very similar in like how we think. And he was just like, you got to talk to this guy. So I'm going to have him on the CEO on my podcast to kind of bring this kind of out.
But, uh, yeah. So yeah, it's interesting times. It's cool to be in this.
And I think the one thing about real estate for me kind of goes back to like what you talking about, just doing a bunch of different stuff is there would be no way I could just continue to do the same thing over and over and over every day. Like I have to, everything needs to be changed up. It could be similar, but it needs to be different.
And so I'm looking forward to 2024 with all these other new scenarios. Like my mindset's like, okay, let's develop here. And in San Jose, we bought a house in Willow Glen.
We're going to flip it this year. Um, you know, everything's kind of shifting, but in the right, in the right direction, hopefully, but you know, it's exciting.
[Rafael Loza] (55:18 - 55:23)
So it's, it's, it's going to be a fun, a fun thing to watch and see what happens and the people take advantage of it are going to do really well.
[Stephen Husted] (55:23 - 55:34)
Yeah. That's cool. I got, I got a question for you and it's kind of ties into my podcast itself, but what was one of your breakthrough moments, any point in your life?
[Rafael Loza] (55:37 - 56:39)
I have several. So before I was an investor, it was learning about real estate and getting into real estate. That was the biggest breakthrough moment.
It's completely changed my life. But after the real estate and entrepreneurial and the mindset thing was joining a mastermind, biggest breakthrough moment I've ever had was being in a high level mastermind. Um, and uh, yeah, being in a mastermind has been just completely life-changing.
I have contacts in my, my phone book now that I can call for literally any aspect of investments, money, question, literally anything that I have questions about, I can call and ask and get it, get an answer literally within hours. Um, I think that was the biggest breakthrough that I've had is, uh, being around a lot smarter people than me and, uh, getting involved with people that are smarter than me. I just signed up to Tony Robbins plan on partnership.
That's a 85 to a year mastermind. And I'm so looking forward to it. Like, yeah, it's great.
I'm just like the most expensive thing I've ever done. And I'm like, I can't wait to meet the people in it just to see how it is.
[Stephen Husted] (56:39 - 56:42)
Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's billionaires in there.
[Rafael Loza] (56:43 - 56:46)
You know what I mean? You got multimillionaires in there. And I'm like, Holy crap.
I can't wait to meet these people.
[Stephen Husted] (56:46 - 56:51)
Yeah. And that's great. Where, um, where can the audience find you?
[Rafael Loza] (56:52 - 57:12)
Instagram. Uh, it's Rafa Loza, I T S Rafa Loza, L O Z A. Um, I put a ton of content out for people who are trying to learn operation systems, uh, even just how to manage your first Airbnb or to scale your Airbnb portfolio.
I put it all out there. It's all free. Um, and it's great.
I haven't posted on YouTube in a while.
[Stephen Husted] (57:12 - 57:24)
Thank you. You deliver it. It's funny when Jesse brought up you.
Um, I was like, okay, yeah, I like this guy. It's like, I could, it's concise to the point.
[Rafael Loza] (57:24 - 57:51)
I appreciate that. It's funny. A lot of people are like, dude, I like, I like you think because it's like, I'm to the point for everything.
I don't, I've mostly like who you see on social media is who you're going to meet in person. I'm just the exact same. I don't, that's it.
That's all it is for me. I just put out what's out there. Um, but yeah, social media is the best way to get ahold of me.
I, I, and I respond to everybody. I might take forever to respond, but I will respond at some point. Um, and you know, we're all running around.
I get busy. I read the message. I forget to respond.
I get back to it a couple of weeks later. I always get a response. No problem.
[Stephen Husted] (57:51 - 58:17)
Well, we'll put, I'll put your, all your socials in the show notes too as well. So people can find you. If anybody's trying to get into doing what you're doing, I think they should be following because like you said, I think it's, you want to be around the right people that are giving out information so that you can get pushed in the right direction.
Not only with the real estate aspect. I think it's all, it's everything. I think that's the key.
[Rafael Loza] (58:17 - 58:17)
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (58:18 - 58:27)
Yeah. So yeah, I, I really appreciate the fact that Jesse put, you know, through your name out there. Yeah, me too.
[Rafael Loza] (58:27 - 58:27)
Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (58:27 - 58:35)
It's cool. It's been great. And I'm glad you were able to jump on, even though you're got the cough medicine going and frazzled.
[Rafael Loza] (58:36 - 58:42)
I just drank some before I'm here. I know I got a ton of talk and I got another podcast to record after this. And I'm like, I thought it was going to be gone.
[Stephen Husted] (58:43 - 58:58)
So. Awesome. All right.
Well, thanks a lot, for jumping on. I really appreciate it. It's been a great conversation.
It's great to be, to learn a lot about just other aspects too. I'm really, it's great to see about the sculpturing and art. Yeah.
[Rafael Loza] (58:59 - 59:14)
Yeah. I appreciate you bringing that up, man. This was a good conversation.
It was nice to refresh what we talked about. This was good. It's usually the podcast is like, Oh, I want to know your entire journey and what do you do in real estate and how do you operate and how do you manage?
This was cool. This was fun. This was a nice, cool conversation.
And yeah, we brought up a lot of different aspects. I appreciate you. Yeah.
[Stephen Husted] (59:14 - 59:51)
Thank you. Well, you have a good rest of your day. We'll be in touch.
And thanks a lot. Yeah, brother. Sounds good.
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