Israel Linares is a senior market analyst at CoStar covering Austin. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Israel turn raw market data into decisions: how to read supply against demand, and why one metric will lie to you if you ignore the one beside it.

In this episode:

• The demand metric that matters, defined simply: net absorption is "the net change between move ins less move outs."
• Why a single number misleads. Austin white collar jobs grew about 20 percent since 2020, yet office sublease listings jumped 65 percent to an all time high, because headcount and space "doesn't correlate one to one like it used to."
• The supply caution that should bend a pro forma: about 35,000 units under construction, roughly 13 percent of inventory, which pressures rent growth and pushes vacancy up.
• How Abel underwrites against it: moving rent growth, expense growth, taxes, insurance, leverage, and interest rates all at once.
• Israel's rule that doubles as the operator's: be "an objective teller of what the data says."

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

Sue Hough has built for more than 20 years and completed roughly 100 projects, and she is now developing 118 acres in the Smoky Mountains. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Sue talk about the real thing that stops most people before deal one, and how to move fast without moving blind.

In this episode:

• The enemy is not money, it is preparation used as a hiding place: "people need to have so much education and knowledge to prepare them for their investment that it becomes paralyzing."
• Her fix, action with a realistic loss expectation: "just do it. You have to realize you could lose money, but if you want to do this, you will figure it out." Out of the first 5 deals, expect to make money on 4 and lose some on 1.
• The math under the courage. Sue underwrote the entire 118 acre deal on pre COVID numbers as a safety net, so the base case survives a down market.
• Abel's discipline from the passive seat: never invest your last 50K, the money you need to survive on.
• Why 100 deals of hands on reps let her decide quickly and correctly, from a $32,000 flip to a syndicated development.

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

Nick Aiola is a CPA whose virtual firm works only with real estate investors. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Nick break down cost segregation and why tax is a planning game you win before the year ends, not after.

In this episode:

• The most expensive mistake: "the worst thing that you can do as a taxpayer is go to your CPA after the year's over. You can't go backwards and rewrite history."
• Cost segregation in real numbers. On a $500K property, straight line depreciation gives about $14,500 a year, but an engineering study can front load roughly a $100,000 write off in year one.
• Why depreciation is "a deduction for something you didn't actually pay for," especially when you bought with leverage.
• Abel's lived proof: $100K into a 128 unit deal negated about $60K in tax and returned a $30K refund, which "felt like a 90% cash on cash return." Nick's line: "you get a property for free."
• The knowledge that keeps the money: the $150K passive loss wall, the real estate professional test, and the short term rental door.

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

Jeff Greenberg has done roughly $200 million in real estate and 2,000 plus doors across multiple full cycles. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Jeff talk about the fund of funds model and why the scarce resource in this business was never capital, it was the time and judgment to screen deals correctly.

In this episode:

• The shift from chasing deals to screening them: "I get to look at the deals that somebody else has looked at 100 deals... all I have to do is evaluate that one deal."
• The discipline that protects investors: "I say no to more opportunities than I say yes to."
• How Jeff evaluates, defense first: "how are you protecting capital? Fixed rate debt, low leverage, significant reserves, low breakeven occupancy."
• Abel runs the same way, looking at all 100 deals until the one they say yes on, because good stewards of investor capital have to say no a lot.
• Where it started: catching falling knives in 2008, then building through multiple full cycles.

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

Curtis May calls himself the Contrarian, and his whole practice is financial defense. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Curtis make the case that you build more wealth by plugging leaks than by chasing winners.

In this episode:

• The core idea: "there's actually more opportunity to minimize the losses in one's financial life than it is trying to pick winners. So I focus on efficiency."
• The leaky bucket most people never measure: taxes, interest cost, and "opportunity cost, which most people never calculate."
• The roles he drew on air: "Curtis is the defensive coordinator. You're the offensive coordinator, Abel."
• The mortgage trap. Rather than sending extra money to a mortgage you cannot get back, aim to be "balance sheet debt free."
• The line under all of it: "Most people don't have a money problem, they have a philosophy problem." Make your saving automatic and systematic.

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

Rich Fettke is the co-founder of Real Wealth and author of The Wise Investor, and his team has helped investors buy over 6,000 properties, about $1.2 billion in assets. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Rich dig into the discipline that separates the best investors: focus and a written plan almost nobody keeps.

In this episode:

• What the best investors share: "The most successful investors that we've seen are the most focused investors," clear on where they want to be in 1, 3, 5, 10, and 20 years.
• Reverse engineer it down to "what needs to happen this quarter, what needs to happen this month, what needs to happen this week."
• The catch: "80% of the people don't really take the time" to lay out the plan and then invest a day every week reviewing it.
• Abel runs the same multi generational plan with his wife, working backward into Q2, Q3, and Q4.
• When you stumble, Rich reframes it: there are only "winners and learners."

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 Fore spent 15 plus years in tech sales until a VP clawed back his life changing commission the week of Christmas. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Matt trace how that moment sent him from W2 sales to a co general partner position on 4,000 doors and more than a billion dollars in assets, all built on partnerships and relentless outreach.

In this episode:

• The trigger: the commission cut to "two cents on the dollar" and the line "Well, isn't that enough?" that convinced him to build another income stream.
• Why it is all partnerships: "aligning other individuals within your community and network to do the skills that you're not necessarily good at."
• The metric he actually tracks, return on intentionality, not just ROI.
• The engine: "clarity of knowing where I wanted to go, and then the consistent action every day," one blocked hour of outreach at a time, borrowed from Ironman training.
• Abel's translation: it is still income minus expenses, and if you can juice the net operating income you get a better equity multiple.

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

Bill Exeter has spent over 40 years on the tax side of real estate. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Bill break down the 1031 exchange and the simple idea behind it: defer the tax and keep the money working.

In this episode:

• The 40 year comparison: "The family that does the tax deferral is by far gonna have a much, much larger net worth than the family that just paid taxes as they went."
• The wrinkle most people miss. High earners may be sitting on suspended passive activity losses that could offset the gain, so they may not need a 1031 at all, and "only your accountant is really gonna know that."
• Why taxes are the largest recurring expense most investors never treat as one.
• Abel's rule when the detail runs deep: "Let me just partner with the expert." You do not have to master every domain yourself.
• How deferral keeps more of the net working and compounding deal after deal.

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

Brett Swarts is a deferred sales trust specialist, one of a handful in the country. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Brett explain how big exits get lost to the rigidity of the 1031 and to decisions made in fear, and how a deferred sales trust opens a wider door.

In this episode:

• Where the 1031 stops and the deferred sales trust starts: the 1031 "only works for long term capital gains taxes and only works for investment real estate," while the trust "works for short term or long term, crypto or businesses, primary homes or investment real estate."
• Why fear is expensive: "when we act out in fear, we tend to get out at the wrong time." The cure is "certainty of execution."
• Abel's own rule: "the highest expense that they're ever gonna have is not their house or their car, it's taxes."
• Brett's four word discipline: "hire the who, don't be the how."
• How one client test drove a $10 million relationship with a $250,000 deal so the big decision was not a leap of faith.

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

Jerome Maldonado has built from about $100 million to just shy of $200 million in real estate development. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Jerome dig into the one decision Jerome says he made too late, and why partnerships are the fastest way to grow.

In this episode:

• The regret that drives the whole conversation: "I wish I would've went bigger quicker... It's through good partnerships and taking the time to be around the right people."
• Why he ran solo for years. Early bad partnerships made him fear them, until 2018 when he admitted "you can't grow anymore without help."
• The arithmetic. Pair your ability to pull a building out of the ground with someone else's capital and your volume roughly doubles.
• Abel's version of the same lesson: your net worth is the room you keep, and "the next person that has the capital you need might be sitting right next to you."
• Why growth is really a top line function of two scarce inputs: deals and capital.

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