Scott Dillingham: 0:21

Welcome back to the Wisdom Lifestyle Money Show. I'm your host, Scott Dillingham. Today I have an awesome guest with us Carlos Rodriguez. Welcome Carlos.

Carlos Rodriguez: 0:29

you very much. was a nice intro.

Scott Dillingham: 0:32

You're welcome. You're welcome. So Carlos I've actually known him for a long time. Started out as a Canadian investor and then he sort of transitioned his whole portfolio and business to the states and has built something that I think is quite groundbreaking for Canadians that are maybe a little scared to take that next step to get their investing, you know, started in the States. So Carlos, I'd love to hear about your, your story and then what you're doing to help. Canadians and even Americans, right. To grow their real estate portfolios.

Carlos Rodriguez: 1:03

So like you said, you know, I, I. to a point where financing here, you know, was next to impossible if I wanted to build a portfolio. And it was actually when I think you were probably the, the catalyst to all this. Okay. because

Scott Dillingham: 1:22

Okay.

Carlos Rodriguez: 1:23

we were trying to refinance my, my house at the time to get a better deal. And it was the year that I, I had done, probably the best I've ever done, you know, as far as income was, was concerned. And came back and you told me that you couldn't get me, a mortgage through, you know, a b lender or through the, the banks or whatever, the only, the only mortgage that I could qualify for was a, a a reverse mortgage like. What know, and it, I, was the straw that broke the camel's back. I had had an you know with the struggles constantly with that. An investor goes through trying to get financing to get the next project to hold, a a, a project long term. You know, whether it would be a, a, a burr or something along those lines. You know, I, so I, I'd had enough and I decided to start looking elsewhere and I ended up discovering. You know, the United, I figured, you know what, let's see what the United States has to offer. I mean, it's just across the border, you know, let's see what it would take to invest down there. And anyway, so I started looking down there and I found the Midwest, which is, you know, Ohio and a couple of those other states there, Michigan and, and so on. And started looking at the price point that they had down there, and it was just. Because it was so, so inexpensive. You know, at the time when I started probably what, five years ago now, the, the price points down there and I mean still some of the cities down there are still the same. But where I'm I'm focused is. Has has up in price in value anyways in the last little while. But so anyways, I found a Midwest. I ended up going to Cleveland, checking that out, and was amazed that I. You know, half of their population it rents and I mean it's a population. The greater Cleveland area anyways is a population of about just shy of 3 million. So with 50% of that population renting, know, most of what they had already in, in, properties, you know, the type of properties were. Already purpose-built rentals, duplexes, triplexes, quads even when you get into the commercial side, I mean the, the price point was inexpensive. It was old. and you know, most of the stuff that we end up purchasing, we end up renovating. But you know, it was, the numbers were beautiful and, You know, I ended up focusing more on subsidized housing, which is the Section eight program down in the United States. it's, it's basically the, the government is paying a portion of tenant's rent. And so, you know, I pulled the trigger on a couple and was the first one that I bought in Cleveland. I mean, I couldn't make any more. Mistakes, I think than I did and, you know, had the problems that I did, as far as, you know, setting up the corporations and everything that if you're gonna be a long-term investor, you should set up. That was piece of cake. I found a lawyer, you know, he did ended up being probably the, the best lawyer in the United States for setting something like this up. the most expensive as well. Nonetheless, you know, set that up. And you know, bought my first couple of properties down there. The first one in Cleveland, I mean, was a duplex. and I bought it for$35,000 us. So now, you know, with that price point, I I mean, I ended up purchasing it in probably the, the roughest neighborhood possible. you know, it, it needed$60,000 worth of work, know, to get it up to, to the standards that I was comfortable with. Anyways, by the time we were done, it appraised for$150,000. But I had also, you know, had a project manager that stole. A bunch of my money, contractor problems, you name it, it face first, you know, and so anyways, it was a, a big learning experience on that first one. so from there I decided to, you know, it, it, I saw that the, the fact the writing on the wall was that there's gonna be more Canadians coming down this way given the price points that we're dealing with in Ontario. And, you know, just. Landlord tenant board issues that, I mean, it just unfriendly where it is in Ontario and when start people start hearing about Ohio and how landlord friendly it is and the price point, the cash flow see, it's already happening, right? And I think part of the. Uptick in the value of properties that I've seen in, in Ohio or in general anyways has to do a lot with, you know, this, the, the wave of Canadian investors that are coming down. You know, I don't have any numbers to prove that or whatnot, but I, it just in the, the curve that I've seen in Cleveland alone, I mean, it's, you know, every week, every week I get an email from my, my down in Cleveland, say, yeah, I've got, you know, five more from Canada that need, need your help to, uh, you know, get going down here and they need some, some mentorship, blah, blah, blah. so anyway, I decided to to start helping other Canadians get set up You know, the, the fact is, is that once people get set up down there and they might have one you know, or, and maybe trying to do it on their own and live their life here, it's, it's a lot of work. Even if you have a property manager down here I find myself going down Cleveland almost every other month. I'm actually leaving tomorrow, you know, for another trip to, to Cleveland. And I'm gonna be staying a month this time to to find more product. Or to see them, you know?'cause I like to put eyes on, the, the, quality of construction down there. It's old construction, So it's, it's very difficult to have enough trust in your contractor to do it from up here you're willing to, to, you know let them or have those headaches come up and deal with them as you, you go forward. I like when I renovate something, I like to get rid of any, any future headaches for at least the next five years, you know, and,

Scott Dillingham: 8:26

Yeah.

Carlos Rodriguez: 8:27

And bump the value up through those renovations as well. anyways, So I help, you know, other Canadians down to the United States, get set up. I've gone as far as getting my E two visa. so I have some, some input I can help with with that as well. I have contacts and and whatnot that are fantastic and helped me get my E two visa but you know, whether it be through joint ventures. Or, you know, other, other avenues of investing in my projects. People can get in involved with my own projects as well. I have a mentorship program that, I help somebody go from start to finish on at least one house. you know, and, and. Divulge all of the, the, the details that they'll need as far as finding good contractors finding the appropriate professionals in there. And now, you know, something that you and I are working on to for the financing, I'm excited about. You know, we are I think we can do a bang up job. I mean, you guys have some phenomenal Resources as far as the, the, the, you know, the lenders, right? I don't know if you wanna dive into

Scott Dillingham: 9:50

Yeah. Yeah. No, for sure. And yeah, I mean, this is not necessarily about me today. I wanted to share your stuff, but yeah, you're, you're right. I mean, we have over 25,000 lenders. One of our loan officers that is on the team, he actually owns more than 20 properties in and around Ohio already. And he just won, right? We've, we've just hired a guy that lives in Florida. So he is from Canada, moved to Florida just like you. You know, a few years ago, and he's been building his portfolio there as well, so we're really like. Boots on the ground. And, and I think the thing that's important to with us is that we're all investors. So I think that's really important. We're not just some regular broker or lender saying, oh yeah, we have these products, right? We're, we're investors. We get it. We can help. So super cool stuff. Now for somebody who's listening, right, and they're hearing this and they're thinking like, I love what Carlos is saying. How do I get in touch with'em? How do I partner with them? Do you have like a directory of all of your resources or, or how should somebody reach out to you?

Carlos Rodriguez: 10:51

people wanna reach out to me the first thing that I would suggest is signing up on my, my email list at cashflow carlos.com. It's just a, a, you know, landing page that I've set up. But if you want to get in touch with me you can call my office at(419) 318-8424. That's I mean, it's, it's an American number, but you know, I'm, I'm back and forth. It's. You'll get me, whether I'm in the United States or in Canada. My office number. Sign up on the email list is the best way to get information on what I'm doing, to get better at, you know, tiktoks and Instagrams and all that stuff. But it's it's a lot of work to to edit that stuff and you know, get it the way that I want. You can hand it off, but eh, you know, I like to. my hands dirty. So but as far as, you know, comparing GTA, for example, you know, investing in the GTA and investing in Cleveland or maybe anywhere else in the United States for, for that matter. It's the same, but it's, it's different. You know what I mean? Like in the GTA, we've, we've been spoiled for the last, 25 years? 20, 25 years? Something like that. You know, we're, closer to the end of that period, it didn't really matter what you were buying, you know, you could hold it for a little while and it would appreciate, you know, you didn't have to really do a lot of renovations to a rental property and you could still increase the, the over a period of time. You know, when, when tenants would, would, would leave. But. You know it in the States, I mean, especially Cleveland, anyways, I mean, it's changing because there's a lot of competition coming into the area, the, if you're gonna go down there, it's for cash flow. You're not going there for necessarily, for huge swaths of, of value increase. Right. I mean, you can't, it can happen if you buy. Right? And, you know, there are circumstances where it, it is much easier to buy something under value in the United States. There's a lot more opportunity in, in that type of scenario. Know, off market deals and so on and so forth. There's a lot more wholesalers that you can deal with. Obviously you have to, you know, go through a few to find the right ones that you know are, are, they understand everybody has to make money. There's some wholesalers that will wanna, you know, they'll find a, a, an off market property and then try to. Basically milk it of all the equity that it has through the sale, right? And try, everybody wants to make$30,000 on every, on every sale, which is kinda ridiculous. So but you, you definitely have to know where you're buying, what you're buying, because I mean, you can go from one block to the next and just that, that little difference be the, the, you know. The difference between something in a war zone and buying something war zone. I, I mean, I use that loosely. It it's not, it's not as

Scott Dillingham: 14:29

Like wartime houses.

Carlos Rodriguez: 14:30

I mean, it's older houses, you know, you could buy, like everything down there is, there's a lot of siding and it's all wood. And then, you know, if you don't know about lead ification. And you know, the renovations that need to happen beforehand, if you get caught with that on the backend, you could end up with, you know, a huge remediation bill. So it's you know, there's that, there's stuff like point of sale inspections, know, the, the different municipalities around Cleveland. Cleveland proper itself doesn't have the point of sale inspection yet, all of the little municipalities around it have started implementing this and. Basically it's a, it's an inspection when if I wanted to sell a house down there, the city will come in for deferred maintenance or anything that they wanna see repaired before the next person takes over. I mean, it can be stuff like a cracked sidewalk or a, a staircase that is, you know, it's never been touched, but now. The, the inspector has said, okay, well this is outta code. You gotta bring it to code and redo your steps, or something along those lines. Or you know, they don't like the fact that there's you know, holes in the screens or something along those lines. You know, they just, they can nitpick. but basically they come in, they do an inspection and some cities will give you they'll estimate how much they think it'll be repair those, those that list. And then you have to take you know, a hundred, a dollar 25 for every dollar that they've estimated and put it in escrow then go do the, the repairs or somebody has to do the repairs, whether it be the, the seller or the, the purchaser before they'll release that money. Right? So it's it can be a double-edged sword anyways, but,

Scott Dillingham: 16:28

but that might be good when you're buying, right? If you're buying a distressed property, that might be good.

Carlos Rodriguez: 16:35

it can be, I mean, it, it can be a, a, a really great negotiating tactic, you know, to, to come back and say, listen, the city's, know, got$50,000 worth of work here. I mean, you gotta come to the table a little bit, or whatever it may be.

Scott Dillingham: 16:50

Yep.

Carlos Rodriguez: 16:51

for example, one of the very first, Really sweet deals that I was looking at was 16 townhouses. Okay. In one of the nicer municipalities of, of Cleveland, I think it was Cleveland Heights that 16 townhouses for 1,000,002. It would've cash flowed by the time we were done, about$20,000 a month. And I'm like,

Scott Dillingham: 17:18

Thanks.

Carlos Rodriguez: 17:19

finding 1,000,002. mean, the down payment and, and renovation money wouldn't have been that difficult, but was in Heights. Cleveland Heights has got a point of sale inspection. They want a dollar 30 for every dollar that they estimate on their, their point of sale inspection. the, the list was about$250,000 worth of repairs. So not only would I have had to come up with the 200. plus 30% to put into escrow, but I'd have to come up with another two 50 to actually do the, the, the, the work. what I mean? So it's just, it just, it built up very quickly and being first properties I, I chickened out. but,

Scott Dillingham: 18:07

Yeah, you gotta start a little small, right? A little bit smaller, and then grow into that.

Carlos Rodriguez: 18:12

it was definitely tempting though. I mean, a beautiful townhouses a, in a really great area. It was right near next to an an elementary school, know, I mean, literally around the corner from an elementary school. anyway, I still, it still hurts.

Scott Dillingham: 18:31

I'm sure one will. But for now, we're, we're gonna wrap up. I'll put your email list link and your phone number for your office into the show notes so everybody can, uh, reach out to you. And I do appreciate you for coming on, Carlos