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

Alain Villegas is a chemical engineer who moved from the Philippines, read Rich Dad Poor Dad, and started buying single family rentals until they became a second job. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Alain talk about the moment he stopped doing it alone.

In this episode:

• The wall: "after almost a year of doing it by ourselves, I have zero doors acquired."
• The breakthrough in four words: "This is a team sport," and its corollary, "if you're not on a team, you're not going anywhere."
• The team he built: a CPA partner for financials and tax, a project management partner for oversight, himself on operations, and a mentor who "returned my money more than twenty times."
• What a team buys you: on his 408 unit deal, "our appraisal came in at more than $1.05 million higher than our purchase price, equity that's already gained the moment we close."
• Why scattered single family rentals became the second job he had to escape.

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 Faircloth of the DeRosa Group buys ugly on purpose: C and D class value add, bought cheap enough to cash flow while he owns them. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Matt find the niche the big players cannot touch.

In this episode:

• The buy box: "the kind of stuff we buy makes money during ownership, because we buy them affordably enough that we can cash flow while we own them."
• The niche math: institutions cannot staff on site payroll under a threshold, "the magic number on payroll is typically around 80 units," so "there's less competition in the 10 to 60 or 70 unit space."
• His non negotiable at that size: "I would only work with a property manager that has in house maintenance," or you get marked up labor and you are not the priority.
• Aligning interests: he made a property manager an owner, moving their profit from management markup "to the bottom line where I make money too."
• Why every point here is an expense side point: control the operating line and you control the 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

David Lagat is a former bank accountant who built a portfolio of more than $300 million and roughly 4,000 apartment doors with no syndication at all. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and David break down the creative financing that made it possible.

In this episode:

• The engine was applied knowledge, not capital: "1031 exchanges, owner financing, creative financing, refinancing, and buying in a portfolio."
• The question he leads every negotiation with: "you got to know what the seller wants. Why are they selling it?" Own the seller's problem and the terms follow.
• The proof: he owner financed a $6 million deal and once a $25 million complex.
• Same math, more zeros: "the same concepts in single family homes, 1031 exchange, owner financing, they work the same. You're just adding zeros."
• The flywheel: "the first deal determines your next deal and your next deal and your next 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

Adrian Salazar is an acquisitions first operator who plays offense. On this episode, host Abel Pacheco and Adrian talk about building a deal finding machine and why the money is in the database.

In this episode:

• The mindset: "my thing is finding deals. I don't wait for deals to hit my email. I go out and find them. I play offense."
• What SYSTEM stands for: "save yourself time, energy and money," a CRM, drip campaigns, automations, and virtual assistants tied to one acquisitions machine.
• The real asset: "The money's in the database." He tracks every owner and every investor because "we're not running sprints here, we're running marathons."
• The proof: the 88 unit deal he and Abel now share was first walked 2 years earlier at 80 percent occupancy, kept warm, then reopened and closed at 98 percent. "The fortunes in follow up."
• Abel's framing: it comes down to lists, names, and numbers, and how many touches you have at the top of the funnel.

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