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Buy Dirt While Others Run: Wisdom from a Florida Real Estate Veteran

• Ed Mathews

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Ed Mathews:

Greetings and salutations, Real Estate Undergrounders. It is Ed Mathews with the Real Estate Underground. Thank you so much for making us a part of your day. With me today is Carl Christian of the Nice Agent Company, as well as Nice Property Management. We're going to talk about all of it above. Based down in Florida, he's in Pembroke Pines, which is actually one of my favorite places on earth. Carl, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for joining us today. It's a pleasure to meet you.

Carl Christian:

Thank you again for everybody that's listening to us. I cannot wait so we can learn from each other, because that's what we do here, Carl, for those folks who haven't discovered you yet.

Ed Mathews:

why don't you tell us a little bit about who you are and your background.

Carl Christian:

I am from Haiti Originally. I came in this country in August 2000, so almost 25 years, and the story started with me, of course, getting into university. I went to FIU and then, from there, somebody told me why don't you do estate? And I'm like, no, I'm not doing real estate because I don't like to sell things. And then wait for commission. He's like, why don't you do it? And then he said why don't you call my brother-in-law? And then he will actually teach you real estate. I'm like, whatever you say, man. And then he got me with the brother-in-law and then, before you know it, here I am 20 years later doing nothing, but this I always in my book, because I hold a book. I have a whole chapter about him to say thank you because he's no longer with us today. But everything that I've achieved was just because of that one conversation.

Ed Mathews:

Isn't it amazing that it can be just that one inflection point. I was confronted by a real estate agent because I was wasting her time Amy Rio and I tell this story all the time, but I'll tell you the short version so she brought me around. I read Rich Dad, poor Dad, in like 2008,. And it took me three years to ratchet up the courage and actually do the deal right and get one done. And I met this very generous real estate agent. Her name's Amy Rio.

Ed Mathews:

She's gigantic now, but back then she was a teeny tiny. She probably had four or five agents at that point, and so she brought me around to 20, 25 different properties. She finally, after the 24th property, brought me to this one property on Clark Street, east Hartford, connecticut, and I walked around and I was finding every excuse I could think of not buy, and it all boiled down to the fact that I was terrified. She finally took out a pen and put a contract on the hood of my truck when I started making excuses and she said sign this contract or never call me again. And that was in January of 2011 or maybe December of 2010. So I'm like, oh, more than a foot taller than that. She stared the living daylights out at me, and at that moment I was more afraid of Amy Rio than I was of actually responsibility for a property, and so I signed the contract. So it's amazing, just that one thing can launch you into something amazing.

Carl Christian:

My very first property was the same thing. I went to the agent of the office, went to show it to someone and he came back and he was like Carl, you need to buy this house. I'm a realtor and I was successful. But I'm going to tell everybody I have never bought a house yet and I'm like draw the contract. I never seen the house. He draw the contract. I signed. We went to the bank. Everything is going on. I still haven't seen the house. We closed. I still haven't see the house. And then I opened the door and I'm like my God, what did I buy? And, of course, great, I'm in, everything is good.

Carl Christian:

And I'm going to tell you the story and that's what I want all the listeners to understand that little thing in your heart that makes you scared. It's actually mean. This is what you need to do. So I got in that house, started working on it, gutted it out, do all those kinds of things and the market crashed a year and a half later. That property I bought it for 370 and it was worth 190 in 2009 or 2010.

Carl Christian:

Today, that property is worth $850,000 and I don't want to sell. Why would you? So I tell everybody is take that action. Take it, just trust your guts, always analyze that you're not going to put yourself into things that you should not be able to. We want you to get the knowledge, but when you get that first step and you're scared, trust in someone like I trust Amy, I trust my other agent, because one thing that somebody always told me, which is my dad, and I always remember that before you believe in yourselves, find that one person that believe in you and just close your eyes and that sometimes you just have to go for it.

Ed Mathews:

It is, yeah, sometimes the advice you get you should actually listen to it. We'll talk more about that later in the show. It's interesting because we're entering into a recessionary period again and opinions vary on what's going on with the economy and how it's going to affect housing. I'm curious down in Florida the stories up here in the Northeast about what's going on down there is that you guys are going through a pretty bumpy time, particularly in the multifamily world. But I don't know about the single family. What are you seeing in your market?

Carl Christian:

Single family. It's like different spots. An example I have a property I've listed in the same city. Those properties are probably 10 minutes apart from each other $775,000 sitting on the market for three months. $920,000. Just received a cash offer for $950,000 in two days. Just received a cash offer for 950 in two days. It's just like what I'm seeing is what I tell everybody. It is not a property issue right now. It's a change of demographic in South Florida. So the money is moving to South Florida. If you have a very high end product, it's going to sell. But the people that can afford the 300, 400, 500,000, they cannot find a property because they're too high or they cannot afford what's on there. So this is what's going on in the single families. There are cities in the single family that are dropping consistently, like Central Florida, because we are also in Orlando, haines City, a little bit of Tampa, like Lakeland, all of those things. They are dropping fast.

Carl Christian:

Multifamily. It's a case by case, the reason why if somebody had a great loan, they're not interested in selling. Right, if somebody had those arm right now, you just find them and knock on their door because they are struggling, because what happened is the rental market took a dive and because the rental market took a dive, now those guys cannot pay their interest, free loan, they cannot do all of those things. And here it is. They are having a hard time. I see, like yesterday I found a property in Fort Pierce, $429,000, four units, two-bedroom, one-bath, two-one, three-one and a one-one, and the ROI gross ROI people was 25%. By the time I call my partner and then we write it up, it's a spending sale.

Carl Christian:

So yeah you have those things that are coming in the market.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, and in terms of one of the great things about being a realtor and I'm not one, actually is that you get access to a whole bunch of deals before guys like me get to see them. It's true, I hear it in your lap right.

Carl Christian:

Well, I don't know the reason why I said it's true. It's because you see how they tell you a doctor should not operate on themselves. It's the same thing when I'm an investor and I'm a realtor and I'll be telling you, ed, it's very difficult for the investor of me to take precedence. It's just like what happened is let's pretend I found a good deal and I know Ed is on the market Yep, I will call you first, and then you say you're going to buy it, no problem, why did I not save this? My purpose is to help people, so me helping you is so on top of my list that I become second all the time and that I lost so many great deals. I cannot say I lost because I made so many good friends, because I gave it to them. But yeah, it's a good thing, but also a bad thing.

Ed Mathews:

Man, if you send me deals that you would buy yourself, you and I are going to be very good friends. So, in terms of the types of properties that you like to focus on and it sounds like it's a wide array of things, but I'm curious I started in a single family.

Carl Christian:

I did great buying properties at the court auction I was doing good for almost 10 years. Percentage was over 20, 30%. Then it gets saturated because everybody knew Freud was great at auction. Now I'm doing the transition into multifamily and I feel like it's about to be better for me. I think my last move is going to be sub-auctions. So my first move is going to be a multi-family. I'm going to be into multifamily and I feel like it's about to be better for me. I think my last move is going to be sub-divisions. So my five-year plan is getting a few five units, 10 units in my portfolio and then I'm going to go to building a subdivision and then resell.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, a good friend of mine, Dave DeVito. He was telling me about his old boss at Keller Williams. Gary Keller was walking around in a t-shirt, at least two or three years ago, that said buy dirt right and that is the cue. Okay, so Keller probably knows what he's talking about. That's when we started to get into land as well. It's interesting, a little bit stressful, but the payoff is wonderful.

Carl Christian:

I'll tell you the greatest story I know about dirtzard family down in Miami. Those guys, they own a lot of land. I'm going to tell you what happened to the great-grandfather when things were happening, the Great Depression, and people were moving and buying land to crop because they wanted to grow stuff. The only thing you could afford was sand by the beach and everybody told, like you crazy, why would you buy those things? Because that doesn't make any sense. You cannot grow anything, you will just die because you're not going to eat. And he just kept buying them for cheap. And today he owns almost a city on the beach and this is the family legacy. So, yeah, you buy dirt man, they are not making anymore.

Ed Mathews:

In fact, if buy dirt man, they are not making any more. In fact, if you buy into global warming, they're making less. So I am curious about insurance, because that's one thing that has been on everyone's mind. How is your business affected by the insurance issues and the fact that-.

Carl Christian:

It is hard. We have a six unit down in Miami. We're trying to get money out of it right now and we cannot because for us to get wind insurance we have to go to Lloyds in London. That's how crazy that is. The wind portion is $18,000. A two-story building, six unit barely like 10,000 per feet and you're paying like almost two grand a month just for wind insurance and you still have to carry hazard and fraud. So at the end of the day, almost two units are paying just for insurance. Does that make sense? So yeah, we are struggling a little bit, but on the single family side I see it like moderating a little bit. Before it was crazy, but now it's getting back to a little bit of normal because everybody's doing their roof, everybody's doing their windows and stuff. But on a multifamily it's hard. Man, if you're buying two, three stories building, you're in trouble 18,000 just for one.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, $2,000 on a six unit.

Carl Christian:

My advice to everybody is stomach the pain. We've been there. I don't know if it's because I survived 2008. Stomach the pain Sooner or later something great will happen. It's just the way it is. I'll tell you my personal story. For the past two weeks, things have been going crazy. I have a property that the city have a lien on. We're trying to fight the city. All of my money is in that property and now I don't know what to do. I'm stressed and then yesterday some other agents create something bad and then I'm like everything is going crazy. Boom. This morning I woke up, the CDO approved the lien. Amnesty, the agent situation got resolved. So stomach the pain. This is where you lean on your friends. You lean on good people like Ed, call people, send in emails, text messages. We I cannot say we, but there's a lot of people that have been through what you're going through or been through worse?

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, for sure. I find that is so true, right? Is that? The people around you, especially people that have been like I, liken real estate investing to reading a book I'm a few chapters ahead of somebody else, but we're all reading the same book, right? And the fact is that I rely heavily on people who've been doing this, who are A smarter than me and B have been doing it longer, to go. Okay, this is the problem I have. Have you seen this before and do I survive this? And invariably they say, yeah, this too shall pass and take a breath, and you need some capitals. We'll figure that out, but other than that, it's going to be okay.

Ed Mathews:

A lot of people survived 2008. A lot of people survived 1991. A lot of people survived 88 and so on and so forth and the things that and it's a colloquialism, but it's true and that is the best time to buy real estate was 10 years ago, but the best time is right now, and the whole blood in the streets metaphor is true right, when people are scared and they start running, that is when investors make a lot of money. And so you just have to be a little bit pragmatic and you have to be disciplined, and so you just have to be a little bit pragmatic and you have to be disciplined, but if you find the right assets and you have a long-term view, you can weather just about everything.

Ed Mathews:

Okay, let's get into the lightning round. I'm always curious about leaders and how their minds work and all that from a purpose perspective. Obviously, carl, you're a very successful professional in the real estate world and I'm sure the mortgage is paid and the bills are paid and the kids college is paid for and all that, but you still get up in the morning on Monday. I'm curious about what drives you. What's your purpose?

Carl Christian:

I have a saying that if I go across somebody's life, even if that person have to leave me, they have to leave with more than they came in with. So every morning I wake up is who can I impact? Yeah, and I try my hardest man to do that help someone find someone that needs something that I can delegate. It is a very hard job for anybody that is in that mindset because they know sometimes you get flop around because of it. But I'll be honest with you. I'll tell you why I do what I do and I'm going to play something that just happened this morning actually, and I think people would understand what it means. Like if somebody can hear this. I'm working up to a time now. So happy I did it. I'm really, really happy. I thank the Lord.

Ed Mathews:

Jesus is putting this amazing right in your head for me, for my family.

Carl Christian:

I thank you. God bless you and your work. So this property that we had, we were going to flip, and that lady happened to be one of my agents. She never bought a property in her life, she doesn't make any money, she's not doing really good and I said you know what? This is? All yours Do it. And this morning, finally, she got approved for the mortgage. Everything is good. And this is what I wake up for every single that's amazing and congratulations on your success and helping people.

Ed Mathews:

Obviously, your parents brought you up right, but I'm always curious about mentors, whether they be your parents or just people that you met in your travels.

Carl Christian:

I'm curious about the best advice you ever got and who gave it to you believe it or not, everybody is a mentor for me, from the people that brought me up my dad, my mom, brother, sister, my first broker, brad Capuzzo. But the best advice I got was doing one of my podcasts. I was interviewing somebody and his name is James and he said I tried every day to be the person that I needed 20 years ago. That is like just close your eyes and think 20 years ago what you knew. Then the person that you were looking for in that person did not show up. There's somebody right now in that same position. Just be that person for them. And now you're thinking like man, if I had met this guy 20 years ago and this guy could help me buy a house, where would I be today? Right, and that's the advice that I got, and it was from him.

Ed Mathews:

Wow, that's profound. That's really good. I think we learn from our mistakes even more than we do from our successes, and so I'm curious about professionally what's the biggest mistake, what's a decision you'd love to have back, and how did you fix it? How'd you recover?

Carl Christian:

I bought a piece of property because I have a saying in my life Excitement kills deals. Never do anything while you're excited, because being excited is like being angry or being loved you don't know what you're doing. So I got excited at a piece of land that was three and a half acres in the city of Fort Pierce and I pulled the trigger on it. I paid for the architect, I paid for everything to find out, after spending so much money, that the city does not allow any subdivision on the five acres. But that one was the biggest mistake, because I overpaid for the property. I paid for all of the plans and stuff. And how did I recover from it is? I took the emotion out. I knew it was the time to get out of it and, with the guy that came to buy it, I told him like look, instead of you giving me the whole money upfront, why don't I finance half of it and you can go buy something else? And he happened to agree.

Ed Mathews:

Okay, yeah, that's smart. Again, the long view what drives a lot of real estate success? Right, that's awesome. I'm also curious about how you sharpen the saw, so to speak. What book is on your nightstand or your virtual nightstand, whether it be an iPhone, android, whatever, and what authors or creators are you paying attention to?

Carl Christian:

I read a lot, but right now I cannot remember the name of the author because my coach actually sent me this book. It's called Raging Referrals. It's basically this guy's teaching you a system that he created. We do it, but we didn't build a system out of it, which is the 3-2-1-1 system. If you wake up every morning and you touch base with three people that you know every single morning talk about your business, about their life and if you wake up every morning and you try to put two new people into your database whether it's the guy when you're pumping gas and you ask him how you're doing and get his phone number and email, or whoever it is If you wake up every morning and you try to refer one person to a friend of yours or a business and you do not go to bed without getting one referral from someone every day of your life, and then when I'm reading the book, I'm still reading it and I'm doing the math in my head.

Carl Christian:

Imagine you talk to three people every day and you do this for 300 days. That's 900. Imagine that you refer one person to a business every day. You do it for 300. That's 300 referrals. You give away the amount of black thing that you will get back. It's just you can't. It's bitchiness Like you cannot even put a price on it. Yes, that's what I'm reading right now.

Ed Mathews:

Oh, that's excellent. Yeah, I just looked it up, it's Brandon Barnum. If you help enough people get where they want to go, they too, in turn, will help you get where you want to go. And obviously, man, you've built one heck of a business, and congratulations for that.

Carl Christian:

I'm curious about what success means to you. How do you define it in your life? People, people. My business partner right now on the tax side, because we own the nice tax company as well. She used to be an employee of mine, now she's family. She owned the business. The nice property management is being run by my wife. I just actually partnered with someone else for the first time. I sold a part of it. Alicia is amazing. She's going to take this business to a whole different level. The nice construction management it is a high school made of mine that is running it at, and a nice agent is a high school mate of mine also. That is the office manager. So for me, success is how many people can I bring on with me for the journey, just the way I am.

Ed Mathews:

Wow, that's great, and the thing is, though, it is generous, but it's also smart, right, because entrepreneurial ADD is a real thing. I have it right. The rule I made years ago was I'm not going to start a company unless I know the human being that's going to be responsible for it. Not named me at Matthews, and so that is what helped separate spreading getting spread too thin versus diversifying and growing.

Carl Christian:

Yeah Well, you said that I had one of my agent in the office. She's trying to do everything. So I'm telling her no, you cannot just focus on what we're sitting and do. And then she turned it on me. She was like what about you? You own all of those businesses. And I'm like this is the thing that you, I want you to understand. When was the last time you called me and say, call, can I talk to you? And I said no, I'm busy doing taxes, the property management I have no idea where the doors are. Like, I do meetings, but I don't drive the properties. I do the construction management. I barely know which clients we have. It's because the truth is, I'm not doing all of those things. I'm still leading people through all those things. It is doable. You cannot be that one top shop. The best book to read to understand that is Michael Gerber, e-myth Revisited. It will make you understand that you have to separate the technician out of you from the entrepreneur you're trying to become.

Ed Mathews:

It's very important, and the other book that I'll point you to is Dan Sullivan's who, not how. It's a very similar concept. It's an excellent book and it talks about exactly what you're talking about how to scale without totally spreading yourself too thin. We've talked about real estate for a whole bunch of time now. I could go on for days with this. You're a wealth of information and thank you for that on behalf of our audience. But when you're not talking about real estate, what do you like to do? What's fun? But when you're not talking about real estate, what do you like to do what's fun?

Carl Christian:

I'll use the word. I'm a golfer man, I love golf and then that's what I do. But to be honest, it's all about family. I built a loving foundation around me, Very close circle and my daughter. Every Sunday we go out, we go to different cafes so we can have breakfast. I never knew there were so many breakfast spots in Florida, but there's a lot. It is very important to me that the people around me are well-founded, they love, because my values are very important and you're going to see on each company. Love is actually one of the values that we live by. If you don't love the people you're doing it with and for, don't be in.

Ed Mathews:

Yeah, and you live in the right part of the world. So the reason I know Pembroke Pines is because of Pembroke Lakes Golf Course. My buddy and I used to go there at least once a year. All right, man, that's awesome. So if people want to learn more about you or your companies, what's the best way to get in touch?

Carl Christian:

If you want to know about me, you can always go on Amazon and buy my book. This is the life, the first 40 years of my life, the nice life of Carl Christian. That would give you the deep, personal part of me. If you want to know about my business, it's easy to find me theniceagentcom. I'm on all social media and I want everybody that is listening. I'm here for you Doesn't mean you have to call me because you want to buy a property, you want to have an advice, you want me to tell you how to do something. I'm a coach by heart. I will always give my information to you, so please do not hesitate. You can Google TheNiceAgentPembrookPines or TheNiceAgentCo.

Ed Mathews:

Carl Christian and you'll see everything about him. Awesome, Carl Christian, congratulations on your business and continued good fortune. My friend, it's been a pleasure to speak with you.

Carl Christian:

I love the podcast man. I enjoy what you're doing, so please keep doing that. Thank you.

Ed Mathews:

This has been the Real Estate Underground. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe. It helps us grow. Until next time, Undergrounders, remember your real estate journey begins with a simple step forward. Now get to it. Bye for now.

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