Tony Alvarez is a well-heeled, seasoned, knowledgeable and successful Real Estate Investor, licensed Broker, Developer and Certified General Appraiser; and has lived and worked in the real estate business since 1981.
Tony has built, purchased, rehabbed, rented and sold hundreds of properties from vacant land to condos, single family residences, apartments and commercial properties and is well-versed in the risks and requirements for success inherent in different types of real estate investments.
Tony is also a sought-after speaker and has previously spoken at The Norris Group’s Multi-Millionaire Maker in 2005 and 2006, as well as other Real Estate Investment Clubs and events throughout Southern California and Nevada.
Episode Notes:
Narrator This is The Norris Group’s real estate investor radio show the award-winning show dedicated to thought leaders shaping the real estate industry and local experts revealing their insider tips to succeed in an ever-changing real estate market hosted by author, investor, and hard money lender, Bruce Norris.
Bruce Norris  Hi, thanks for joining us. My name is Bruce Norris and once again today we speak with Tony Alvarez. A lot of what you bought has come through sources of realtors when they are REOs, but you’ve also bought properties directly from people, and I remember a story that you told me where you had gone to a house with a realtor didn’t turn out to that would work out. But you have noticed that there was tall grass in the house next door. And I want you to tell that story. So, you knocked on the door and you had to knock on it a few times before somebody finally came to the door.
Tony Alvarez  Yeah, I actually went to that place with my mother. I never forget that. My mom was riding with me in the car. And, and I did I went to see this one, it was in Burbank and I went to see this house. And it was referred to me actually by a friend that I had it at one of the banks that I had actually, at that time, had done some work for as an appraiser before. And they said hey, we got this REO that’s up there and but when I went to see it, it had a pool, and I didn’t really want I really wasn’t into that, you know, and and it was a little bit higher price than what I was wanting to pay and they weren’t ready to negotiate and stuff. But you’re right the house to the right of it was a really pretty house. I always like trying to buy things that had a little bit different appeal or something in Burbank you had a lot of really cutesy little houses built in the 1930s and 20s. And, and, and this house was just it was a pit. So, the front was overgrown. And I noticed there was a bunch of boxes. I used to work at a job that we had to go to the fruit market, you know, down in LA fruit, you know, vegetable and stuff like that. And there was a bunch of boxes from that, you know, and they were kind of full of flies and all this kind of stuff. It was horrific, okay, but here’s the interesting part. To the right of that is a clover line. Yeah, I don’t know if people know what the clover line is it a clover like you know, four leaf three that what that is. And it was in that part of the lawn was perfect. Not a weed, nothing on it, which is nice. Okay, all windows were covered up with black plastic. It was just really didn’t look good. And so I told my mom, I said, ‘Wait a second, I’m gonna go knock is okay, if I can just’ ‘Oh, yeah, go do it.’ I go and I knock on the door and I’m knocking and knocking in everything is filthy. It’s just really nasty. And so the door opens. And I and at the same time that the door opens and I see this guy’s got a long beard, long gray beard. I get a whiff of the smell from this house, okay, from the inside his house, it was putrid it was I can’t even begin to explain it to you enough to make me stand back a little bit. And, and he’s, he looks filthy. He pretty much looks like a homeless guy. And he takes his hand. And he says and he rubs, starts rubbing his beard and his nails are literally inches inches long, you know, several inches long and they’re filthy. And he says, ‘What do you want?’ And I said, ‘Well, you know, I’ I don’t know what to say to him. But I said, ‘you know, I came to look at the house.’ I figured the truth is the only thing that could come to my brain, right? I said, ‘I came to see the house next door. It’s got a pool, I wanted to buy it. And you know, and I do fixer uppers and stuff. But that’s not, it’s not going to work out and stuff. And I happen to see’ and as I’m talking I turn and there’s a fruit box. As I said, ‘I happen to see you have some boxes out here. I thought maybe you were moving’. Right? And he said, ‘moving huh?’ and he kind of smirks at me. And I said ‘yes sir. I I just wanted to know if you’re interested in selling your house?’ He goes, ‘Well come on in’. And he leaves the door open and he turns around and walks away from me. And I said, immediately I thought okay, I was afraid to go in the house. I think this guy is going to be a mass murderer or something, right? So I said, ‘Excuse me, my mother’s in the car.’ I wanted him to know, he knows I’m coming in your house pal. You got to do something, you’re going to jail, you know? And, and he stopped and he goes, ‘That’s okay. That’s all right.’ And I said well, she’ll wait in the car, you know, he says ‘come on in’. And he just walks in and I go in and this place was was it looked like and I have had this experience before in different properties that we bought like like that we’re you know, somebody breaks in and is living in a vacant house and they’re homeless and you know, they got the shopping cart and they bring all their stuff back every night you know that they pick up on bottles and whatever. And it’s their treasure, right? So, this house was was was like that everything was dirty, filthy, smelly, and he walks into the kitchen. On top of that he’s cooking a couple of pieces of chicken in this old cast frying pan, cast iron frying pan, and he’s got yellow curry in there. And this smells throughout the whole house and he looks up at me I walk into the kitchen. ‘Would you like something to eat?’ Now I will eat just about anything, okay, but I was like, ‘Oh, no thanks.’ Then he comes into the living room, he says sit down, and I gotta sit in his chair, right? And I got to pretend like I’m okay. And I sit in the chair and he says, ‘Would you like something to drink?’ And he offers me this filthy glass, and he pours some cheap wine into it. And I said, ‘No, no, no, I can’t drink out, I’m driving.’ And I was never gonna, I’m not putting that into my mouth. I was worried enough sitting in the chair. Well, this man goes on to tell me his story. He wants to sell the house. He was a vet himself in the past. He used to own an escrow company. He was well off. Unfortunately, he had an accident, he had something fell and crushed his leg, he went into a coma. When he wakes up from the coma, he’s lost his business, his wife is left with his best friend. And his son is on drugs. And so his life spins completely out of control. And the all he’s got is this house. And he gets his check from the disability or whatever it is. And he was also a vet, you know, and he would go down into Korea Town. And he confides in me that, you know, that’s where the boxes of fruit come from, because he gets fruit and stuff at the LA market. But that he would hang out in these unsavory places with, you know, ladies of the night and all of this stuff, you know, he said, he’s telling me all these stuff. And I was like, okay, you know, but he ends up wanting to sell me the house. And he tells me, I said, ‘What do you want?’, and it was like 95,000, or something, you know, what he wanted it structured in a certain way he wanted, he wanted to carry the note. And by the way, he wanted to sell the house for a long time. But he never wanted to list it with a broker because he was so embarrassed, he was aware of it’s condition, he was embarrassed of having somebody walk through and see him the way it is in his house. And he said on quite a cover up all the, all the, all the windows with this with this bioplastic I don’t want them to see.
Bruce Norris  The part that I really want to get to, as I recall you going and saying to him, ‘Okay, this isn’t how you’re going to end?’
Tony Alvarez  Yes, yeah, yeah, I took me, I left the house and I was kind of in shock and quite frankly, because you know, okay, we go into this business, it’s all about the money and buying houses and all that kind of stuff. If you’re in this business, any length of time at all, you realize that what you’re really doing is, you’re gonna hate when you do this, to me, I, it’s, it’s you’re solving problems, you know, you meet people. And for the most part, you know, most of the time, everybody’s okay, they want to sell the property, whatever. But you run across situations like this, and then they, you know, they kind of, you have to make decisions, because you become a representative for the self. Okay, that’s what ends up happening, you know, who your, if you think you’re going to stay in this business, any length of time, and be greedy, and, you know, go walk in and take advantage of somebody like this, you know, to begin with, you got problems, but you, you end up having to sit there and go, Okay, I gotta do what’s in the best interest of this guy, right? So, I go back, I make a point to go back to him, I sit with him and I say, ‘Look, you should try to clean this place up and list it with a broker and you’re gonna get a you know, you’ll get more money than I’m gonna give you because I got to, you know, I gotta fix this up and I gotta make a profit at the end and stuff like that.’ He said, No, I don’t, I don’t want that. That’s when he kind of explains all this stuff about why, you know, it’s up. But we go on, I say to him that day, I said, you know, the thing is this. You know, all the story. You’ve told me everything that’s happened. Your time here isn’t done yet. You know, we’re going to make this happen. And we’re gonna, we’re gonna, we’re gonna work this out and, and I went through I want you to know, I got, the more, I went to visit him more and more. He stopped going downtown to LA market and doing what he was doing. cleaned them up, shaved them up, got him shaved, clicked. Yeah, we wait. And we would clean up his house and want you to know I hired people go into his house and clean up his house and get it to where, he could actually shower.
Bruce Norris  You bought it. You bought him clothes?
Tony Alvarez  I bought him a Hawaiian shirt. Like what you’re wearing one of those T shirts. I bought them. Yeah, I bought him a Hawaiian shirt. A bright one. It was red. It was in the reddish yellowish color. It was you know, beautiful. This guy became a human being again, you know? And, and he would say to me, I listen to this when we got because I in the conversations I said, ‘What’s the clover lawn dude?’ the rest of your place? goes, ‘Oh, no, no, no, no. He says, that’s what I love.’ He says as a matter of fact, when I sell you this house, you got to put it in the deed. And he was aware, he was smart. I mean, he was, own an escrow company he..
Bruce Norris  Right.
Tony Alvarez  He said I wanted in in the deed, I get to come over here and, and we take care of that colver law. And if not, I’m not selling you this house. That went into the deed and it went into the deed when I resold that house to a young couple.
Bruce Norris  Wow.
Tony Alvarez  And he did that. He said, As long as he was in the area, he wanted to have the option to go and they loved it. They thought it was and he was a really, really sweet person, you know, he just had lost his his his way. And yeah, and the first house I bought up here in Oregon was exactly kind of not exactly the same thing. But in the same, in the same way, the same terms, somebody who was angry at life and very despondent. And we ended up to deal.
Bruce Norris  I told that story today at lunch, by the way, just so you know.
Tony Alvarez  Oh, that’s nice.
Bruce Norris  Yeah. And I think it’s so important. Like, you know, one of the reasons why I wanted you to teach was because who you of, who you were not because of what you knew. To me, that was really important because, yeah, in the middle of this trying to make all this money you took, you took a moment and said, ‘Okay, this guy’s not going to end this way. And I can participate in helping him go somewhere, you know, and since I’ve had some similar conversations like that, where you go, Okay. Forget the house. How are you? You know, that type of thing?
Tony Alvarez  Yeah.
Bruce Norris  So, that’s just as important. We don’t have a ton more time. Joey, go ahead. I’m sorry.
Joey Romero  Yeah, I just had a quick question. Because, you know, first of all, I think you guys have another radio show to do. It’s called Real Estate Storytime with dear, Tony?
Tony Alvarez  I would like that.
Joey Romero  I think it would be great. No, but, you know, the whole time that I was thinking, you know, here, I have two, you know, Bruce, and Tony. And you guys have been through, you know, a lot in real estate. The question that kept coming to my mind is, all those people, you know, Bruce, we sit in those one on ones where everybody’s like, ‘Hey, I listened to you, and oh, my God, my family has changed.’ But the landscape had to have been littered with people who didn’t and got hurt. And how was that? Like, I want to hear from you guys. Like, how was that like, having to hear from investors? Like, man, I lost it all. Or what can I do to get back on my feet? You know, like, did you guys run into that a lot? You know, as you guys, you know…
Bruce Norris  Yeah. Well, I remember Mike, Mike Cantu. And I would have lunch, Tony and I would have lunch. And yeah, the whole, the whole world that got the timing wrong in that particular area of years. If you didn’t exit by 2006 or seven, you got crushed. And there was so many people that lost everything. And it was a very different outcome. I mean, Tony sold everything. I sold almost everything. Mike Cantu sold nothing. But he he was ready for that. But the people that weren’t ready for it didn’t sell got wiped out. So yo, those conversations were, were plentiful. And it’s one of the things you know, that’s why I value timing so, important, because Tony bought the same house two years later for almost a 10th of the price.
Tony Alvarez  Yeah.
Bruce Norris  It’s unreal.
Tony Alvarez  Yeah, if you tell that to people, honestly, you know, there’s two experiences, there’s our personal experience, you know, the the things we live through, but then when you try to share that with someone, it doesn’t, it doesn’t resonate, sometimes, you know, they, it doesn’t, it doesn’t land, as solidly as when you live through it yourself, obviously, right? So, I mean, I tell people, these stories, and I’ve sent them over, over the years, the things that we’ve talked about these specific things that were so pivotal to, to my changes in the way I did the business, you know, up until the moment that I met that gentleman that we’re talking about, I really didn’t look at owner sellers like that. I just, I just you know, I had a completely different mindset about it. When I dealt with brokers and stuff, I went into those situations with ideas about what I thought was important to them or this to that I never thought about all these guys or families or what the reason that they get up every morning and come to work I’m thinking they’re telling their permission or this and that and, and there are a lot of people that that’s the motivating factor, right, that it is their commission, but and there were a lot of people that got hurt. They were I mean, I’ve heard those stories, I’ve spent hours in parking lots after speaking at some real estate club from somebody who comes up and he doesn’t want to say it out loud in front, everybody else. Men and women, both, that would come up and say, you know, I didn’t do so well in that last downturn or whatever, I lost everything and now I gotta, I gotta, I gotta do double to get it all back again, you know, and then, and then I try to speak to them and let them know that’s not good. That’s not a good way to go into this. Now, you know, coming back thinking you gotta double up, you know…
Bruce Norris  Exactly, you know, I’ve had the same thing you know, where somebody said, ‘You know what, I just lost a million dollars, I have to find a way how to make a million dollars in the next 60 days’, is like, oh, that’s pretty much a good formula to make sure you lose that whatever else you have, you know, there’s a big difference too, and buying REOs, that damage is already done, the bank owns the property.
Tony Alvarez  Right.
Bruce Norris  And so that’s a different playing field, that’s a professional company deciding, it’s in their best interest to sell you this house at 35 grand that they were owed 300. That’s, that’s the way it goes. But when you’re dealing with people, that’s a different story. And, you know, I don’t know, I think the great majority of what Tony bought is definitely through brokers and REOs, because that’s the timing of it. I’d rather build in a boom market than try to buy it directly from a homeowner, but having the heart to look across the table and look at their situation. And part of it is just to make them realize this is not the end for you. Some people, you know, when they sell your home, they think, ‘Okay, I’m never going to own a home again.’ That’s not true. That’s a doable thing. Okay, so I think that’s important to have in your, in your repertoire. In other words, in your character, look across the table and see, because, you know, there are a couple of stories that I have where I mean, my first door knock of a foreclosure, you know, was answered by like an 80 year old woman. And I said, I’m here, I’m here to talk to you about your loan situation. She said, Oh, you know, we knew you would come eventually. And when I got inside to realize she thought I was the lender. And then she was like, 11 grand on a 50 grand home. And she says, I’ll just deed you the house. We just don’t want any wood put on her windows? Well, I’m just going okay, well, I can’t buy this house, I now put my grandson hat on, and go, Okay, you have any kids, you know, so I didn’t want to buy that house. That wasn’t the goal anymore. The goal was, please don’t be homeless. Because I understand what I’m doing. And you don’t that just was unforgivable. And I couldn’t have explained that money. You know, I can’t go home and say, we get to make like, 80% on this house. Because, you know, that wouldn’t be a good statement.
Tony Alvarez  Well, no, and we all have had those experiences. And over the years, I’ve heard from people that look at it as a windfall, you know, oh, this is I, and they brag about it, you know, but we all make those decisions. And here’s, here’s my take on this. And because you in the end, I can honestly tell you, I could probably dissect whatever level of success I’ve accomplished over the years, or that has been bestowed upon me, quite frankly, is the way, is the way that I think I really truly see it. Because only I know maybe you do, too how stupid Tony Alvarez really is. Okay. I don’t think Tony Alvarez is a genius by any stretch of the imagination. The only thing I have learned over the years is that it was better for me, to be honest with myself and honest with other people about what I could or couldn’t do, what I was willing to do. And when I was willing not to do that seemed to be the safer bet for me overall, as to achieving any kind of success or becoming successful at anything that I really wanted to, that I could respect.
Bruce Norris  Yeah, that’s the word that you could look in the mirror and say, I still like Tony Alvarez.
Tony Alvarez  Wow. Yeah. I mean, what why would I, you know, I could rob purses, you know, I could rob banks, I could. And I’m saying you could, you could take, you can spend your life making your money as a result of taking advantage of somebody else, or doing something that you just can’t tell your son or your grandson about. But, I mean, what’s the point? We’re not, nobody’s gonna live forever here.
Bruce Norris  Right.
Tony Alvarez  And we’re all going out at some point, you never know when that’s going to happen. So, without going too far down that road, I made a set of rules for myself as to what I would do and what I wouldn’t do. And I follow those those rules. And overall, I think, I think you we get crowned it somehow and I don’t, I really don’t understand it. I can’t explain it clearly myself. But I think we, we, we get paid for what we do in every sense of the word. Right? So, I think over time if I, if anybody can say Tony well you, how did you accomplish this this success? Because I got to learn to have some self respect and to respect other people and care about their successes as much as my own I cannot put it any different than that any better any different.
Bruce Norris  I, I want to, I want to bring up something because I know Tony you made a tape one time and I think it was, it was in response to he was speaking as I recall, and there was someone in the audience that was really negative about the ability to buy something below market.
Tony Alvarez  Yeah.
Bruce Norris  And so, so, Tony thought you know what, I’m gonna go back and see if after the fact how the sellers feel, you recall that that,
Tony Alvarez  Yes, I knew it was a beautiful woman who sat in the front row and said to me, in the middle of my presentation says, because I had shown a couple of deals, one of them I had made $80,000 and the other 175 grand or something. And she said, what the first deal I explained, she goes, ‘whoa, you really rip those people.’ And then I sit and then, that got my attention. I didn’t say anything. The first time that she repeated it again to the tune of you really took advantage of them. Well, you really stole something like that you really ripped them off or something. But she was proud of it. She was like, she was like, like, whoa, you did a great thing. And I stopped in the middle of my presentation. And I looked at her and I said, you know, I don’t really know you, but because she wouldn’t got my dander up, okay, and I was trying to control myself. I said, it’s obvious to me that you really have a difficult time in this business. You’re not, you can’t be very successful. Because if you think this business going around ripping people off, you’re, your life in this business gonna be very short lived. And I turned around and she went silent and turn around and I’m sure Nick Manfred. He wanted to kill me because it was at his gig. But, but I you know, yeah, but. And that was, that was the thing I did. I came out of that, that night, I drove home and I was so upset. I thought, Wow, I did a terrible job. If that’s what people perceive that I did, I gotta change it up. I gotta go figure out a way and I went home. Remember, I told you the first guy who ever went with me to, to listen to you speak was an Argentine guy. Okay. He worked at a Spanish TV station. He did filming and recording. He’s the guy who held his camera from his company, with the microphones and everything that went with me. I was sitting with him. And I was complaining to him when we wouldn’t have lunch a lot. I said, Luis, I don’t know how the heck I’m gonna, how do these people think I’m a crook? I said, How the heck did I convey that? He goes, Don’t worry. I got it. He was like a big bear big black beard. He goes, ‘I tell you, no problem. I get camera. I follow you. Perfect. We want to do it.’ And he and we got that’s how the idea came about. He gave me the idea to’ to’ do that. And I said, Oh my god, I can do that. I can hold the microphone, and I can go and ask him. I said it’s gonna be a gamble. He goes, ‘Yes, we know. We don’t know what they’re gonna say.’
Bruce Norris  Yeah, it was completely live.
Tony Alvarez  Right, right. Did you see some of those people? I mean, some of them were like you’ve mentioned you said one lady when she opened the door. She was having lunch. And she’s picking food out of her mouth and stuff, right? Yeah. And and, and that was a lesson for me because I it really solidified it for me the truth of what I had what I was doing that no, one of the guys I bought, I went on to buy several houses from him. He was a retired broker. And I had brought him fruit. So, he looks at the camera, he goes, Well, I sold them the houses because you know, you brought me a basket of fruit and stuff and a pizza. I said, tell him the truth. You know, I yelled at him as he went on to sell me 10 houses. And he was the first guy who ever said to me, he says, ‘Hey, I’m going to sell you this house. But I need you to tell me you, to do one thing for me. You gotta promise me.’ I said what? He goes, this tenant made me crazy. You got to come pick me up the day, you take him out of that house, you got to come pick me up and let me watch the eviction. That’s and that’s exactly what I did. I picked him up. And he got to watch it.
Joey Romero  Not, not to hijack, the interview. But you know, when I get, you know, I get to talk to a lot of the investors, you know, because of my position here. And the one thing that they always ask me is, what does Bruce think about the market and what’s he doing now? So, I don’t know how much you thought about what’s going on the market. But I know the audience would love to hear what you’re doing right now.
Tony Alvarez  Okay. No, I can do that. I can do that. Sure. Certainly. Well, first of all, you know, when I’ve ended up here in Oregon, to where I’m doing, I went to new construction. But again, it was a result of Bruce’s influenced to a certain extent, and to a great extent, because I was at one of the club meeting one club meeting one of his presentations on timing, I think it was down in California a while back. And he said that he was talking about positive net migration. And he said there’s two, two states in the union right now that are having a positive net migration. This was a while ago, and he said one of them a, number one is Florida. Number two is and he stopped me he goes is Tony here. And it was about I don’t know, three 400 people, whatever the heck it was in that in that room, and I was there. And Sabrina goes, ‘he just mentioned you, you idiot’. I wasn’t paying attention, I was talking and and I said why I’m here and then you said ‘are you in Oregon, still?’ I said ‘yeah.’ ‘He says, Well, you’re number two.’ He said those are the only two states with positive net migration. Okay, that changed everything. The minute that you said that I came back to Oregon, which I had been coming up here for years as this was my get away from real estate. Never had bought anything up here except the house for myself. And I reanalyzed the market from an investor stand point for the very first time in many years and started buying stuff up here but then I went visited Bruce in Florida I saw what he was doing with new construction. And I was having difficulty finding inventory up here. So, I, I started and stuff that I wanted to buy most of it was chunky and old. And I started looking at tearing down some of those things and dividing split, I had never split lots, I had never done any of that stuff. And then I had built a couple of houses. I didn’t build anything. I had some contractor to do it for me in California and Lancaster, which I did very well at I think they cost me 165 each and we sold them at the peak of the market for like 400 some odd 1000. But up here I got into a building. I zeroed in and studied the market. And instead of building 60 of a single family houses, I started building duplexes. And we’ve done three different developments, one of which we’re finishing, I always post some of these things on Facebook, I just posted this past week. And we’ve graduated, you know, changing kind of always improving on what we’re building. There are small developments The first one was nine lot subdivision, eight duplexes in a triplex all one story all catered to the over 50s crowd. The second one was 11 lots. These are things I paid, I paid $200,000 for an old tear down and split it into 11 lots. And you know, it cost me maybe 280-290 for that duplex to be built. I just got an appraisal came in at 515,000. And they’re low. But, you know, so I built that. And then as we were leasing out stuff, people were telling us, you know, hey, we’d like smaller units, and we get a lot of interest from the nursing community, you know, nurses and doctors and stuff, temporary contracts all this. So, this last development is only 12 little 600 square foot, one bedroom, one bath things that I thought this is an error, there’s an error in my judgment, I’m going to regret this. Well, those things are renting for $1,200 to Tony been built yet. Okay, we already have a waiting list from the hospital, which is download probably a couple of miles down the road from us. And I was going to make it a seniors over 50 crowd. And I think we’re probably gonna go 100% leased out to the hospital because they have nurses and doctors that all want to be close by whether they’re short term contracts, or whether they’re moving into the area eventually to buy a house. But you can’t find anything. You can’t you know, right now the market is so tight. So, they’re there. You know, I got I had a two husband and wife, nurse, both of them nurses, renting a 600 square foot unit from us right now. Actually, it’s 590 square feet, one bedroom, one bath. She makes $35,000 a month. A month. Okay, so qualifying them was no problem. Yeah, the regular rent on that on that unit would be 1100 to $1,200, right. It’s not a brand new one that we built. It’s an old one that we rehab, eliminate $1,200 We’re getting $2,500 a month, and they’re more than happy to pay it. You know, and yeah, she’s there. She’s in the first six month lease or something. And no sooner Is she out she brings she they actually refer out they actually bring somebody in who they know is coming in to take their position or whatever. And they need a place. And in that. So, that’s what that’s what we’ve been doing. I haven’t been doing a lot of rehabbing of older properties and stuff like that. I did this time when I liquidated in California. We sold single families in the threes. For every single family I was selling in California, I was up here in Oregon buying either a duplex or a fourplex. I was buying for plexes for 300 and some $1,000. When Bruce woke me up, who went through that now today? We’re setting we have an escrow for 795,000 bucks. 325 795 ,okay.
Bruce Norris  Now you’re involved in Florida is…
Tony Alvarez  Oh, yes, yeah. So, Florida, if I had it my way to be very honest with you, I have 100% of my inventory in Florida because when you look at when you study the market, there’s no other market that I would, that I would want to be in. So, I think we were at 20 some odd places down there and, and I talked to Bruce not too long ago because I said, I got all this money coming back from these refinances that I triggered, I got some 4% interest that I locked into some of my existing properties. And I said I gotta have this ton of cash. I just did a new, I don’t you know, sometimes I can help talk numbers. You know, some people don’t talk numbers, but I sat down with their Sabrina said, You got to find someplace to put this money. I said, Well, how much money is it? Because I’m so stupid. I trigger these things. I do it on paper, and then I forget about it. She goes Tony, you’re going to be at $8 million in cash in the bank. But what are you going to do with this? I thought it was like 3.5. You know, 2.7, you know, I’m using these numbers to calculate, remember the conversation I had with you a couple million dollars. I said, that’s wrong, this kind of, you know, she says, ‘No, you’re getting four, just from this refinance that you’re doing. And you already have a bunch in the, in the back. Of course, I’m earning nothing on it. So, I feel kind of stupid. But the only place that, that really that I feel comfortable is looking towards the future, to be very honest with you, this market here, I’m estimating is going to take a hit. And it may not be severe. You know, it depends on how things go. But I’m okay because I built, the only things I’m going to be holding in Oregon are things that I built, and they’re one story. I have great tenants, they’re either over 50 crowd, like I said, that lovely people, or they’re the medical community, I feel very confident, comfortable with those tenants. Even if the prices go down, you know, we’re in a good position.
Bruce Norris  And you’re looking, looking in the next year or so to to be a resident of Florida?
Tony Alvarez  That’s my goal. Yes, yes. Yeah. And, and you can’t beat it. Because if you want to, if you’re going to pick a state to die in, you don’t want it to be Oregon. Okay. The estate taxes here are the worst in the country. I think I hate to say it, but so Florida, I’m telling you what. Not only is it the best state to be in overall, that’s my opinion. But I also got Cuban food all around me, which I shouldn’t be eating a lot of but you know, I can’t forget that. So, I am looking forward to that. Yes.
Bruce Norris  Okay. All right, buddy. Yeah, we’ve, we’ve gotten over time, but it was cool. Enjoy talking to you again.
Tony Alvarez  Very much pleasure, Bruce, anytime, anytime at all, I love to do it. And if you want to structure anything else, and just talk about stories, I would, I mean, I would love that because I think even in today’s world where the whole real estate thing is everybody’s online and this and that and the other thing, you know, there’s still a tremendous amount of, of deals that we do locally. You know, I mean, I said, okay, I’m not going to build anything else. I’m not doing anything else in Oregon, right? And I did, I did what I came to do, and that’s it. No sooner did I say that. A real estate agent in the area calls me she personally has a subdivision that she got approved. And all this. Unfortunately, during her, it was her whole family’s money involved in it. She’s the leader of the band, so to speak, she’s got like, 50, some odd fourplexes or something, I don’t know. 50 some odd? No, I It’s 50 some odd units total. But it’s all fourplexes. And she says her mom, in the middle of it all, her mom passes away unexpectedly. Now they’re not so happy about the, about the thing, they want to get rid of it. So, she came to me, she goes, You know, I heard that you’re doing stuff in town and stuff, would you, would you be interested? I, you know, do I really want to do this? You know, I mean, but I made the mistake of speaking of Brad my, my, my best one of my best friends and he’s was in a Gold’s Gym business
Bruce Norris  Yeah.
Tony Alvarez  He sold this company for I don’t over $80 million. And he’s, he’s sitting there doing nothing. And I mentioned it to him just in passing. And yesterday, under like, a month ago, yesterday, he calls me and says, so where’s that deal we’re going to do? I was gonna do the deal. He goes, Tony, when we got the money, why not do the deal? You know, you know, the market? So, I don’t know, maybe, maybe I’ll, maybe I’ll venture into another development thing? I don’t know. It all depends on time. Right? I’ll call it ask you first.
Joey Romero  You know, you know, one of the things I’ve been lucky to, to experience, you know, being a part of The Norris Group is, you know, meeting a lot of, you know, special people, you know, in real estate. And I have to say that the overriding the most successful people in real estate. They, they give, you know, without asking, and there’s, there’s an abundance mentality to the most, you know, there’s, you know, if you’re willing to work hard, in real estate, there’s enough for everybody, you know, I get that from you. I get that from the most successful real estate investors that I get to meet you know, because of this, and I think that, that, that comes across in, in the most, you know, honest and, and inexperienced people that we get to come across.
Bruce Norris  Remember, remember Tony Alvarez, Tony, you’ve met him my friend, the Cuban.
Joey Romero  Oh, yeah.
Bruce Norris  Yeah. So, you know, I’ve teach him first and then I start saying, Okay, I’m gonna teach classes. He’s like, what? You’re gonna teach everybody else? I said, Yeah, it’s not gonna affect how much we do.
Joey Romero  Tony, I know you’re coming next boot camp is going to be at the end of August, so we’ll have to go get some Cuban food deal.
Tony Alvarez Â
Oh, thank you very much. Yeah. Looking forward to that. That’s my favorite thing. I have buddies that go down to Florida and visit in the you know, the first thing they do is take a picture of some Cuban sandwich they have at the airport, you know and send it to me just so I can get jealous, right? Yeah.
Bruce Norris  All right. All right, Tony. Have yourself a good night. Great talking to you.
Tony Alvarez  Thank you very much. Thank you both.
Joey Romero  Thank you.
Bruce Norris  Okay, We’ll see you.
Narrator  For more information on hard money, loans and upcoming events with The Norris Group, check out thenorrisgroup.com. For information on passive investing with trust deeds, visit tngtrustdeeds.com.
Aaron Norris  The Norris Group originates and services loans in California and Florida under California DRE License 01219911, Florida Mortgage Lender License 1577, and NMLS License 1623669. For more information on hard money lending, go www.thenorrisgroup.com and click the Hard Money tab.