What this episode teaches an operator: how a $50K first equity deal grows into nearly 2,000 units and $200M in transactions, and why action, not knowledge, is what dissolves fear.

Matt Faircloth of the DeRosa Group is back for his second show. He and Abel Pacheco trace the arc from his first equity deal in 2010 to a portfolio across four states, then go deep on the operator's inner game: finding your core genius, building the team around your God-given talents, and how to keep making offers in a high-rate, low-competition market. Recorded mid-2023, the market read holds up: less competition is the operator's window.

In this episode: How did the first $50K deal actually come together? What does scaling to 2,000 units change about your role? How do you find your core genius and delegate the rest? How should operators handle fear? What does a high-rate market reward?

Three takeaways: courage comes after the action, not before it. Scale forces you out of every seat except the one only you can fill. High rates thin the competition, which is exactly when offers get interesting.

"You are going to be afraid, and that's okay, right? You're going to feel fear. If you're waiting to have the fear go away before you get started, you will never get started. The courage comes after the action." - Matt Faircloth

"Action is what dissolves fear. Not knowledge, not relationships, not lots of phone calls, not research, not reading books. Action is what dissolves fear." - Matt Faircloth

Connect with Matt: the DeRosa Group.

Abel Pacheco helps operators get the ideas out of their head and into an AI operating system that runs the business, so one operator can run like a team of five. If you're ready to install it, not just learn it: www.5talents.ai. Multifamily investors: www.5talents.ai/multifamily. Host of the 5 Talents Podcast.

What this episode teaches an operator: how deep focus in one lane compounds, how to structure deals for optionality in a rising rate environment, and how a self-described ADHD kid went from living in a van at 28 to $70M in multifamily assets.

Anthony Vicino is back for his second show. Co-founder of Invictus Capital, Twin Cities multifamily syndicator, and author of Passive Investing Made Simple, he walks Abel Pacheco through the ten-year transformation: rock bottom at 28 with $80K in debt, then picking a lane and going deep. They get into cap rate compression, structuring for optionality (long terms, IO periods, low prepayment penalties), surviving a capital crunch, and why he treats AI literacy as a competitive edge for operators right now.

In this episode: What turned rock bottom into a starting line? Why does picking one lane beat learning everything? How do you structure deals to survive a capital crunch? How is he using AI as an investing tool today? What does the next decade of operating look like?

Three takeaways: depth in one asset class beats breadth across five. Optionality in your debt structure is survival in a rate storm. The operators who learn to ask AI better questions inherit an edge.

"There is no such thing as a good or a bad market. There is merely the right or wrong market given your skills, resources, and business plan." - Anthony Vicino

Connect with Anthony: Invictus Capital, and his book Passive Investing Made Simple.

Abel Pacheco helps operators get the ideas out of their head and into an AI operating system that runs the business, so one operator can run like a team of five. If you're ready to install it, not just learn it: www.5talents.ai. Multifamily investors: www.5talents.ai/multifamily. Host of the 5 Talents Podcast.

What this episode teaches an operator: how to raise capital like the family offices do, why an inverted yield curve does not automatically mean a real estate correction, and how inflation can actively work for a real estate investor instead of against them.

Hunter Thompson is back for his second show. He and Abel Pacheco get into the family office mindset: building internal infrastructure to manage wealth before you think you're big enough to need it, what the inverted yield curve is signaling, the three mechanisms that make real estate a beneficiary of inflation rather than a hedge (the equity multiplier, NOI growth, and debt eroded by inflation), and tax strategy including tax-deferred sales trusts and depreciation timing.

In this episode: What does capital raising look like when you think like a family office? What does the inverted yield curve actually signal? Why can a recession be a buying window for real estate? How does inflation erode your debt while growing your NOI? What is the 100K to Invest Summit and its 22 asset-class niches?

Three takeaways: build the wealth infrastructure before the wealth demands it. A recession and a real estate correction are not the same event. Inflation pays the leveraged owner three different ways.

"This is that opportunity to surf that crashing wave of liquidity or let the opportunity pass you by." - Hunter Thompson

Connect with Hunter: Asym Capital and the 100K to Invest Summit.

Abel Pacheco helps operators get the ideas out of their head and into an AI operating system that runs the business, so one operator can run like a team of five. If you're ready to install it, not just learn it: www.5talents.ai. Multifamily investors: www.5talents.ai/multifamily. Host of the 5 Talents Podcast.

What this episode teaches an operator: how to find and book paid speaking engagements, and how speaking builds credibility, leads, and business growth.

Grant Baldwin runs The Speaker Lab, a training company that teaches people how to find and book paid speaking work. He and Abel Pacheco walk through Grant's SPEAK framework end to end: picking a problem you solve, preparing a talk that delivers, and turning stages into a pipeline for your business. If you have expertise and a story, this is the execution path from idea to booked calendar.

In this episode: How does a speaker actually get paid, and by whom? What is the SPEAK framework? How do you pick the topic and audience where you can win? How do stages turn into leads and deals for an operator? What separates speakers who get rebooked from those who don't?

Three takeaways: speaking is a business with a repeatable booking system, not a lottery. Clarity beats charisma: solve one specific problem for one specific room. Every talk should have a next step that leads back to your business.

Connect with Grant: The Speaker Lab.

Abel Pacheco helps operators get the ideas out of their head and into an AI operating system that runs the business, so one operator can run like a team of five. If you're ready to install it, not just learn it: www.5talents.ai. Multifamily investors: www.5talents.ai/multifamily. Host of the 5 Talents Podcast.

What this episode teaches an operator: how a full-time IT professional built his way from passive investor to general partner, and what changes when you cross to the GP side of multifamily.

Rama Krishna, founder of Usha Investment Group, spent 15 years in software before real estate pulled him in. Today he is a limited partner in roughly 750 units across Florida, Maryland, and North Carolina, a general partner on a 64-unit deal in North Carolina, and the host of the Multifamily AP360 podcast and conference. He and Abel Pacheco talk through the road from writing LP checks to leading deals, and what operators owe the passive investors behind them.

In this episode: How does an LP learn enough to become a GP? What changed on his first 64-unit deal as a lead? How do you evaluate markets across three states? How do you build an investor community while holding a W-2? What does his platform teach about consistency?

Three takeaways: passive investing is the apprenticeship, not the destination, if you want to operate. Your investors' trust is built between deals, not during raises. A platform (podcast, conference, community) compounds relationships the way a property compounds equity.

Connect with Rama: Usha Investment Group, and the Multifamily AP360 podcast.

Abel Pacheco helps operators get the ideas out of their head and into an AI operating system that runs the business, so one operator can run like a team of five. If you're ready to install it, not just learn it: www.5talents.ai. Multifamily investors: www.5talents.ai/multifamily. Host of the 5 Talents Podcast.

What this episode teaches an operator: how the infinite banking concept works, why cash flow management matters as much as cash flow, and how the wealthiest investors position capital before they deploy it.

MC Laubscher, creator of Cash Flow Ninja (900+ shows, downloads in 180 countries) and founder of Producers Wealth, came to the US from South Africa with one suitcase and 500 dollars. He walks Abel Pacheco through the four moves every investor makes with capital: create it, position it, deploy it, protect it, and why the banks figured out the middle two long ago. Then the deep dive: dividend-paying whole life with mutual carriers, collateralized credit lines, uninterrupted compound growth, and what counterparty risk means when you pick where your money sits.

In this episode: What did buying his first rental teach about leverage? How do you become your own bank? Where does infinite banking fit alongside real estate deals? What are the wealthiest investors doing right now, asymmetric opportunities and capital flows? What should someone with their first 50-100K actually do?

Three takeaways: cash flow gets you in the game, cash flow management keeps you in it. Position capital where it compounds uninterrupted and stays accessible for deals. Hard times reward hard people and hard assets, so invest in yourself first and go back to basics.

"Know what you have, know why you have it, and what is it supposed to be doing for you." - MC Laubscher

Connect with MC: cashflowninja.com and yourownbankingsystem.com.

Abel Pacheco helps operators get the ideas out of their head and into an AI operating system that runs the business, so one operator can run like a team of five. If you're ready to install it, not just learn it: www.5talents.ai. Multifamily investors: www.5talents.ai/multifamily. Host of the 5 Talents Podcast.

What this episode teaches an operator: how student housing really works as an asset class, what equal bed-bath parity means for rents, and how a 20-year builder turned his company exit into a portfolio of institutional-quality assets.

Alix Kogan, founder and president of Ashland Capital, spent two decades running one of southwest Colorado's largest design-build firms before selling the company and pouring the capital into purpose-built student housing and conventional multifamily, 2,500+ doors and roughly 1,500 student beds today. Born in Kyiv, he landed in Chicago at six years old with a family that started over from nothing, and that story runs through everything he builds. He and Abel Pacheco dig into what most multifamily operators get wrong when they try to cross into student housing.

In this episode: How does renting by the bed change underwriting? What is equal bed-bath parity and why does it drive rents? Why do sports programs and university master plans move enrollment, and your equity? How does the lease-up window work? What should a newer investor do in a tough market?

Three takeaways: student housing punishes tourists, partner with operators who know the niche. Evaluate the school, not just the market: enrollment growth, master plan, even the football program. In a downturn, good operators thrive and mediocre ones get hurt, so pick your partners like it matters.

"Partner with the right folks that have experience and do your due diligence as much as possible before you jump in." - Alix Kogan

Connect with Alix: ashlandcapitalfund.com, or [email protected].

Abel Pacheco helps operators get the ideas out of their head and into an AI operating system that runs the business, so one operator can run like a team of five. If you're ready to install it, not just learn it: www.5talents.ai. Multifamily investors: www.5talents.ai/multifamily. Host of the 5 Talents Podcast.

What this episode teaches an operator: how a ground-up developer takes a project from idea to execution, and how the build better mindset applies to any business.

Ahmed Seirafi is back for a second show. He grew up pumping gas in the family business, spent years as a commercial broker at CB Richard Ellis, ran project management on large commercial and civic builds, and now develops 100+ unit multifamily projects and industrial buildings from Southern California to Dallas under his own flag. He and Abel Pacheco walk through the entitlement gauntlet: site selection, zoning, city council, third-party reports, and why the developer's real job is conducting the orchestra, not playing every instrument.

In this episode: How did seven years of 5 AM shifts at the gas station shape his work ethic? What did surviving the 2008 crash teach about operating in today's rate environment? What are the phases of taking raw dirt to a finished building? Why hire for your weaknesses and double down on your strengths? What does building better actually mean?

Three takeaways: when the market turns, stop chasing rent growth and give tenants what they want, a safe clean affordable home. A development is a story the market already wants told, not an ego project: just because you can does not mean you should. Find your natural strengths and double down instead of fixing weaknesses.

"All that kind of stuff needs to be put together to move it from idea to execution." - Ahmed Seirafi

"Just because you can doesn't mean you should." - Ahmed Seirafi

Connect with Ahmed: Instagram @ahmedbuildsbetter.

Abel Pacheco helps operators get the ideas out of their head and into an AI operating system that runs the business, so one operator can run like a team of five. If you're ready to install it, not just learn it: www.5talents.ai. Multifamily investors: www.5talents.ai/multifamily. Host of the 5 Talents Podcast.

What this episode teaches an operator: how build to rent works as an asset class, why building can cost substantially less than buying, and how a first-time developer went from wanting one rental house to a 750+ unit portfolio.

Tony Torres, founder of Core13 Capital, walks through his path: the single family dream that started with HGTV, the pivot to multifamily after a string of nos, learning development by calling the city himself, and landing in purpose-built rentals. He and Abel Pacheco break down their partnered 98-unit build to rent deal near Lafayette, Louisiana (The Crest), the 158-unit Foley, Alabama project, and the Eagle Rock Fund's 752 units across three assets. Tony's pizza math on development cost versus market value is the clearest explanation of the cost-to-value gap you will hear.

In this episode: Who is Tony Torres and how did he get into real estate? What is build to rent and how is it different from a normal subdivision? Why is it cheaper to build than to buy? What does the 98-unit Crest deal look like? How do you handle rejection and keep executing?

Three takeaways: purpose-built rentals are designed as rentals from day one, not leftover homes. Developing on the early side means your equity buys the cost-to-value gap. Rejection is information, not identity: "No is just an answer, not an emotion, and yes is just an answer, not an affirmation."

"We're building for substantially less than what you could acquire it for." - Tony Torres

Connect with Tony: Tony Torres, founder of Core13 Capital, on LinkedIn.

Abel Pacheco helps operators get the ideas out of their head and into an AI operating system that runs the business, so one operator can run like a team of five. If you're ready to install it, not just learn it: www.5talents.ai. Multifamily investors: www.5talents.ai/multifamily. Host of the 5 Talents Podcast.