5 Talents Podcast

John Fortes built the passive investor experience into a growth engine, and the discipline underneath it is that the investor's time comes first. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and John talk about investor relations and playing for singles and doubles.

In this episode:

• Whose clock you are on: "When I'm going to find a deal, I'm on my time, but when an investor's investing in an opportunity, I'm on their time."
• The return philosophy: "I'm looking for singles and doubles. Not trying to hit a home run. And guess what? Eventually you're gonna make contact and something's gonna go over the fence."
• The frame that carries the episode: Abel tries to be "a steward of my investor money," and John upgrades it to "a steward of life."
• Why consistent, first class investor communication is the top of the funnel that keeps re funding you.
• Why re raises are cheaper than new raises in every cycle.

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

Hayden Harrington, a self described introvert, could not network a room, so he built a machine that did it for him. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco talks with Hayden and Dustin Miles about partnership, teamwork, and engineering your network.

In this episode:

• The Momentum meetup grew from 20 people to over 100 a month, and every 10 minutes they rang cowbells for a "graceful exit" so "you don't just leave with one business card, you leave with a stack."
• The insight: "maybe we can figure out a system to make anybody good at networking."
• Why that engineered top of funnel earned Hayden a general partner seat without a track record.
• Abel, the natural extrovert, concedes the system beats instinct: "One thing we did not do, which I really love, every 10 minutes, let's go."
• Why a weakness turned into a repeatable system out produces a strength left to mood.

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

Willie Smith went from the NFL to multifamily, and he teaches that the entry path is education, coaching, and picking the right market, not going it alone. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Willie talk about building generational wealth with a team mindset.

In this episode:

• Why you always need a coach: "You're never too good to need a coach. I was an NFL player and I knew football, but I still had a coach even at that level."
• The team truth: "this is a team sport. It's not an individual."
• His market screen: "Jobs, jobs, jobs," with no single employer over 25% of the market, and 5 years of trend before you call it a trend.
• Abel co signs from his own scar: 12 years investing before he learned cost segregation, because "my CPA didn't know either."
• His free data stack: Census, city data, and Google Alerts on a few markets.

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

Brandon Hall runs a CPA firm that only serves real estate investors, so he sees what the rest of us do not: everyone's actual books. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Brandon talk about reporting, communication, and real estate professional status.

In this episode:

• The hard truth about raising money: "The investors are investing more so in you rather than the asset. A great team can turn around a bad asset, and a poor team can blow up a really good deal."
• What to do when trouble hits: "you've got to just blow up your investors with communications." Silence spends trust.
• Abel frames it as duty: "We're being financial stewards, and we've gotta make sure that, good times or bad times, they can get ahold of you."
• Why clean reporting and disciplined tax work are the expense side lever that protects every future re raise.
• The idea of throwing the spears: send the communication before you have to take it.

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

Javier Hinojo built a direct to seller machine that made 25 offers a week and put 18 properties under contract. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Javier break down building a marketing funnel and buying direct.

In this episode:

• His acquisition philosophy, in plain terms: "Make sure you're trustworthy, likable, and don't lie, cheat, or steal. If you do all those things, you're gonna do well at anything that you do."
• Why the same call buys a small house or a big building: "I'm not trying to buy a $100,000 house. I'm trying to buy a $10 million property."
• How he proved it: by hand first, alone, at $1,500 a month, before he ever spent $100K on marketing.
• Abel names what separates operators: "It's hard to take action for a lot of people, but if you can figure that out, then you're gonna have massive opportunities for success."
• The reassurance: "the dragons are not as big as you think they are."

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

Jens Nielsen was a database administrator for 20 years before becoming a general partner on roughly 750 units. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Jens talk about turning fear into competence through education.

In this episode:

• His method: "the way to overcome those limiting beliefs is through education. Once you have some competence, you start developing the confidence to go out there and do stuff."
• Abel lived the same ladder: "I love the education, competence, confidence. I preach it all the time, because I lived it."
• The one underwriting question: "Can we survive 70% occupancy and still pay our debt? That's what's gonna make or break a deal."
• Why fear is an information deficit, not a character flaw.
• Why the operator who understands the numbers keeps more of them.

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

Vinney Chopra arrived in America with 7 dollars and went on to raise $7 million in 7 hours. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Vinney talk about culture, investor communication, and depth over width.

In this episode:

• The number that matters: he did it with only 168 investors, who have given him over $100 million.
• The engine: relentless proactive communication. Every quarter, every asset, he holds a live Zoom. "Investors never go to the property. I bring the property to them."
• The next raise is built into the last deck: "why not use that five, six slides to rope them into the next deal?"
• Abel's serve first frame from IT sales: start with them, "What are your goals in your career?"
• The truth underneath it: depth of relationship compounds, width of list decays.

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

Gino Barbaro teaches that the wealth is made in the unglamorous operations, where small captured dollars become big valuation. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Gino break down "education times action equals results."

In this episode:

• The $3 fee lesson: his team billed back a $3 pest control fee nobody had collected. "130 units times $3 is $5,000 a year additional in our pocket, at a six cap. That's significant income."
• Abel did the math live: "5 grand at a 6 cap, that's $83,000 valuation."
• Why you rarely hear it: "a lot of educators don't wanna teach it. It's not sexy."
• The three step Manage Right: fill vacants at market, implement utility billback, bring renewals to market rent.
• The equation that names the whole episode: "Education times action equals results."

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

Dugan Kelley is a syndication attorney, and this episode is about stewardship, securities, and the fear that keeps capital buried. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Dugan give passive investors the rules for reading a deal.

In this episode:

• The hard rule: "No operating agreement, I'm not investing."
• Walk from any guarantee, because "there are no guarantees."
• His posture in five words: "be careful, but be intentional."
• Abel's brand runs on the same text: "5 Talents is from Matthew 25:14, putting that money back to work. And I wanna hear, well done, good and faithful servant."
• The takeaway: the servant who hid the talent did not lose it to a bad decision, he lost it to no decision. "Let's not bury our talent in the ground."

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

Marques Ogden went from NFL millionaire to $400 and a custodian job, then rebuilt as a coach. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Marques talk about the decision failures, ego and skipped diligence, that sink a business.

In this episode:

• The fall: "my ego grew bigger than the Empire State Building. I stopped listening to my trusted advisors, to my team, and I eventually went bankrupt."
• Abel confesses the same root at smaller scale: his sales team said "you got Pacheco'd. It means I shut them down without listening."
• His investor rule from the wreckage: know the business, vet the people, and "background check the entire project from a holistic perspective."
• Why wealth is built and lost at the level of decisions and the people advising them.
• The takeaway: the operator who leverages counsel and diligence keeps what the one who trusts only himself will eventually lose.

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