5 Talents Podcast

Monika Jazyk built Real Property Investments around one hard truth: most people never invest because of 3 obstacles. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Monika name those obstacles and the focus that gets you past them.

In this episode:

• The three things that stop people: "time... money... And lastly, it's knowledge. A confused mind does not act."
• The myth she refuses: "People say real estate's passive, and it is not passive. It's active. It's just active as it gets."
• The turning point: "our true success was not achieved until we stopped and focused on one strategy at a time."
• Your most valuable asset: "what is your number one asset? It's your time."
• Abel's covenant: "Knowledge is power, but knowledge implemented will change your life."

Abel Pacheco is a San Antonio real estate operator who went from 8 single family houses to a share of roughly 1,500 apartment doors, and now works as a fractional Chief AI Officer helping small and mid sized businesses put the back office on autopilot.

Go deeper and connect:

• Abel Pacheco
• 5 Talents, fractional Chief AI Officer
• The Open Door, the book
• 5 Talents commercial real estate

Andy McMullen runs a fund that backs other operators, and after 20 years and 1,000 plus units he trusts the jockey over the horse. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Andy get into how to vet an operator and stress test the assumptions behind a deal.

In this episode:

• The question that frames it: "Would you rather have a mediocre deal with a great operator or a great deal with a mediocre operator?" Abel picked the operator every time.
• Why he studies the process before the deal: "winning is a great deodorant," and a long bull run hides who cannot underwrite.
• The stress test: a deal underwritten to a 59% breakeven that still pays every bill if occupancy falls from 97% to 59%.
• The one dial that swings everything: "you make one little dial at the end, reversion entry cap rate, and everything changes."
• Why he underwrites the opposite of what he hopes for, having lived through 2000, 9/11, and 2008.

Abel Pacheco is a San Antonio real estate operator who went from 8 single family houses to a share of roughly 1,500 apartment doors, and now works as a fractional Chief AI Officer helping small and mid sized businesses put the back office on autopilot.

Go deeper and connect:

• Abel Pacheco
• 5 Talents, fractional Chief AI Officer
• The Open Door, the book
• 5 Talents commercial real estate

Scott Choppin has developed rental housing in California for 21 years, and his message is that you win by making fewer mistakes than the next operator, not by being braver. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Scott talk about workforce housing and the leverage that keeps you out of trouble.

In this episode:

• The rule: "It's whoever makes the least mistakes wins and produces the most profits."
• His method is leverage, not genius: "use people, mentors, internships, joint ventures. Have other people's mistakes inform how you do things and you don't have to pay for 'em yourself."
• Why going solo is a trap: "lone ranger's a weak position to be in, the weakest configuration that exists."
• The math of partnership: "100% of zero is worse than 20% of 100." Take the smaller slice and keep more than the operator who owns all of nothing.
• Abel's version: the Cutco office he ran for free as a kid was the cheapest education he ever bought.

Abel Pacheco is a San Antonio real estate operator who went from 8 single family houses to a share of roughly 1,500 apartment doors, and now works as a fractional Chief AI Officer helping small and mid sized businesses put the back office on autopilot.

Go deeper and connect:

• Abel Pacheco
• 5 Talents, fractional Chief AI Officer
• The Open Door, the book
• 5 Talents commercial real estate

Michael Flight has 35 years in commercial real estate and around $750 million in transactions, and he sells the most passive income stream in the business: the net lease. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Michael explain why a net lease is "a bond wrapped in real estate."

In this episode:

• The definition that is the whole idea: "we describe net leases as bonds wrapped in real estate. So it's a super stable cash flowing, right from the get go."
• Why it is truly passive: "there's no tenants, termites, or toilets. They just send you the check," and the income is contractual, not projected.
• Why creditworthy giants rent instead of own: "Starbucks, they don't own any of their properties. 7-Eleven, they don't own a single store," because a sale leaseback lets them pull equity out.
• The fine print that matters: "A true net lease is when the tenant is responsible for everything."
• How the asset can be fractionalized down to a $5,000 slice for a London cab driver.

Abel Pacheco is a San Antonio real estate operator who went from 8 single family houses to a share of roughly 1,500 apartment doors, and now works as a fractional Chief AI Officer helping small and mid sized businesses put the back office on autopilot.

Go deeper and connect:

• Abel Pacheco
• 5 Talents, fractional Chief AI Officer
• The Open Door, the book
• 5 Talents commercial real estate

John Casmon went from a marketing career at General Motors to general partner in over 900 units, roughly $90 million of real estate. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and John talk about running real estate like a business and choosing the right kind of leverage.

In this episode:

• Treat it like a company: "real estate is just like any other business. You have HR, marketing, finance, different departments. People make a mistake in not treating it like a business."
• The leverage fork: a limited partner "wanna free up their time, they don't want a second job," while a general partner is "willing to work a little bit harder for a shorter period of time to leverage this skill."
• The warning against vanity: "having 900, it could be the same as having 90." On a 100 plus unit deal he hires a manager and plays asset manager; on a 15 unit he does all the work.
• Cash flow first, "using appreciation as the icing on the cake," because you cannot control the exit cap.
• Abel in Buffett's words: "If you don't find a way to make money while you sleep, you're gonna work till you die."

Abel Pacheco is a San Antonio real estate operator who went from 8 single family houses to a share of roughly 1,500 apartment doors, and now works as a fractional Chief AI Officer helping small and mid sized businesses put the back office on autopilot.

Go deeper and connect:

• Abel Pacheco
• 5 Talents, fractional Chief AI Officer
• The Open Door, the book
• 5 Talents commercial real estate

Hunter Thompson has raised more than $35 million and bought more than $90 million of commercial real estate. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Hunter break down capital raising as a funnel, and why the close matters least.

In this episode:

• The 4 stage funnel: "the attract phase, the educate and nurture phase is two and three, and then the close phase."
• The counterintuitive core: "the ratio is meaningless compared to the top of the funnel. I don't want to present in front of 10 people. I wanna present in front of 10,000."
• Abel, a 13 year tech sales veteran, agreed against his own instinct: a weak 5 percent close on 10,000 beats a great close on 10.
• The proof: in one raise "one investor invested $612,000 without requesting a phone call with me. They may know more about me than some of my best friends."
• Abel's own arc: running a sales book from $5 million to $57 million a year.

Abel Pacheco is a San Antonio real estate operator who went from 8 single family houses to a share of roughly 1,500 apartment doors, and now works as a fractional Chief AI Officer helping small and mid sized businesses put the back office on autopilot.

Go deeper and connect:

• Abel Pacheco
• 5 Talents, fractional Chief AI Officer
• The Open Door, the book
• 5 Talents commercial real estate

Kavitha Baratakke came out of tech at IBM and Atlassian and now invests across about 2,200 doors as a limited partner and 1,200 as a general partner. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Kavitha talk about the most expensive decision in real estate: whether to say yes at all.

In this episode:

• The scar. A friend pressured her to commit to a deal in about an hour: "I trusted him as a person, but I didn't know anything about him as a sponsor. Don't do that. No is your birthright. It's your money."
• Her doctrine since: "I will never say yes when I really want to say no."
• How you earn a confident no: "become a passive first. Put your own money in the deals. When you have your money on the line, you'll do your due diligence."
• Why a mentor matters: "having a mentor cuts short a lot of the mistakes you can make."
• Abel's framing: educate yourself on the sponsor, the market, and the deal, because you don't want to make million dollar mistakes.

Abel Pacheco is a San Antonio real estate operator who went from 8 single family houses to a share of roughly 1,500 apartment doors, and now works as a fractional Chief AI Officer helping small and mid sized businesses put the back office on autopilot.

Go deeper and connect:

• Abel Pacheco
• 5 Talents, fractional Chief AI Officer
• The Open Door, the book
• 5 Talents commercial real estate

Ben Suttles came out of IT sales, the same path Abel took, and he reframes the whole game: when you buy an apartment complex, you are really buying a business. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Ben talk about running that business and underwriting your own deals.

In this episode:

• The reframe: "Yes, we're buying an apartment complex, but essentially I'm buying a business. And I have to be able to run that business, manage people, and manage budgets."
• Why your W2 already trained you: closing and running deals is "project management, just on steroids."
• The passive investor's homework: "run the numbers on your own. Make sure that you're coming at least somewhat close to the conclusions that the syndication group is coming up with. And if not, you need to ask them why."
• Raising his first 800K: "it's all about confidence. You have to know your numbers."
• Abel's version: you are buying a business, so figure out your operating income, your expenses, and how to get more efficient.

Abel Pacheco is a San Antonio real estate operator who went from 8 single family houses to a share of roughly 1,500 apartment doors, and now works as a fractional Chief AI Officer helping small and mid sized businesses put the back office on autopilot.

Go deeper and connect:

• Abel Pacheco
• 5 Talents, fractional Chief AI Officer
• The Open Door, the book
• 5 Talents commercial real estate

Matt Teifke does not chase deals, he plants offers and waits for them to come back. He calls it lines in the water. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Matt talk about deal sourcing and keeping the top of the funnel full.

In this episode:

• Lines in the water: "I got hundreds of lines in the water, offers, people that know I'm looking. You make 20 to 30 a day sometimes. I've done 60 a day for three months. And I've got deals coming to me tomorrow that were from six months ago or a year ago."
• The rule: "every property potentially has a price at what you'd buy it. So why would you not make an offer on every property you look at? They'll come back to you."
• Where his time goes: 75% of his working hours are networking.
• Why he is the top of every funnel: "construction needs leads, brokerage needs leads, management needs leads."
• The payoff: he closed a commercial deal a year after first putting it under contract, having dropped it twice.

Abel Pacheco is a San Antonio real estate operator who went from 8 single family houses to a share of roughly 1,500 apartment doors, and now works as a fractional Chief AI Officer helping small and mid sized businesses put the back office on autopilot.

Go deeper and connect:

• Abel Pacheco
• 5 Talents, fractional Chief AI Officer
• The Open Door, the book
• 5 Talents commercial real estate

Robert Arzola is a JLL capital markets director who sells San Antonio multifamily. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Robert explain how buyers actually earn deal flow in a market with no MLS.

In this episode:

• The hard truth: commercial real estate has no MLS, so "the guy who controls the inventory makes the rules," and "the buyer has to sell himself to me."
• What wins a permanent seat: a first time buyer "made a dang video walking me through his Excel." The offer was not competitive, but he followed through when "nine out of 10 people don't follow through."
• Why the story is worth money: "if they're just providing numbers and they're not providing a story, an extra million bucks goes into the story."
• Abel's framing: "a great advisor will make you millions of dollars."
• The discipline underneath it all: relentless, credible follow up.

Abel Pacheco is a San Antonio real estate operator who went from 8 single family houses to a share of roughly 1,500 apartment doors, and now works as a fractional Chief AI Officer helping small and mid sized businesses put the back office on autopilot.

Go deeper and connect:

• Abel Pacheco
• 5 Talents, fractional Chief AI Officer
• The Open Door, the book
• 5 Talents commercial real estate