Episode 151 | Octavio Mota | Military Millionaire

00:00 - 05:00

David:

What's up military millionaires! I'm your host, David Pere. And I'm here today with my guest Octavio Mota, who is somebody I met just a week and a half ago at flip hacking live. And we hit it off. He's got a really cool story. And we were like, Dude, you should be on the podcast. But ironically, he was already scheduled on the podcast because somebody else, Alex, I believe, had reached out and said, Hey, this guy would be awesome on the podcast. And then I agreed, obviously when I met him in person, so Octavio is a prior Air Force enlisted current army officer of 13 years of service. And he's got a really unique story, and also buys real estate now. And so yeah, we thought we'd get him on the show to tell the story and just talk real estate and have a good time. So Octavia, thanks for joining me today.

Intro:

Welcome to the Military Millionaire podcast where we teach service members, veterans and their families how to build wealth through personal finance, entrepreneurship and real estate investing.

I'm your host, David Pere. And together with my co host, Alex Felice. We're here to be your no BS guides along the most important mission, you'll ever embark on your finances.

Sponsor:

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Octavio:

Hey, thanks, David. I really appreciate the opportunity, anything to, to like really give back to the community and reach out to people that are like minded just like us.

David:

Absolutely.

So I would just absolutely butcher your story. And I don't want to do that because they think it's pretty cool where you've come from.

So could you go ahead and just kind of give a little walkthrough on where you started and where you're at now.

Octavio:

Yeah! So basically.

So my name is Octavio Mota, first generation Hispanic from a family of seven. From South Carolina. I've been in the military, like you said, over 13 years from the Air Force and listed as a logistics airman to now an army signal officer. And I even actually went to school with the Marines in Quantico for over a year. So that was pretty interesting.

I just left the 82nd Airborne division. And now I’m at second SFAB, also known as the security forces assistance brigade here on Fort Bragg, North Carolina. But yeah, I'm actually looking at getting out relatively soon and started up the internship program, which is pretty interesting, because it's for a commercial company, and I ended up buying them out. So that's also an interesting fact. But, uh, but luckily, it's working out.

David:

That's all right.

That's cool. How did that come about?

Octavio:

Yeah, yeah.

So, you know, it's actually something I'll lead to later on in the podcast. But basically, it's, I wanted to do get into the commercial side of wholesaling, I felt like there was a niche for, you know, some of the smaller commercial properties, especially some of those new investors or investors who are looking at migrating over from residential to commercial, and specifically on multifamily. And I just developed a team and one thing led to another and they found they created a company and right before seven figure, you know, flipping conference, like I decided to buy out those partners, so bought out the company.

David:

That’s cool.

I like it!

That's awesome, dude.

Alright, so I'm going to ask the question, and I know, this is a loaded question, because we started talking about this before we recorded and I said we should wait. But why are you getting out?

Octavio:

Yeah, so to be honest, I think, you know, without a doubt, the number one reason has to be family. You know, we're at a point in our life where, you know, the work life balance was definitely getting there. But the responsibility you know, as you progress, you know, and rank, you know, go up in it. in your career, of course, there's going to start being more responsibility.

You know, and with that, you know, just unfortunately, it just requires a lot more out of you, you know, out of the individual service member. And that fulfillment just really wasn't there. It been all the way up until then up until this point. But at some point, you know, we, you know, we had a serious conversation. My wife was like, you know, because she, of course, was a, you know, a service member as well as a veteran in the, you know, when she was in the military was in the Army specifically. And, yeah, we just came up to the decision, you know, we're at a crossroads again, and of course, we chose family.

05:00 - 10:00

David:

Yeah, families, huge. I feel you on the fulfillment thing, as I was telling you before, one of the reasons I decided to jump ship was that the Marine Corps just wasn't scratching the adventure itch as much as it used to. So we're not deploying, we're not doing all that fun stuff. And then, you know, the ability to be able to take this platform and focus on it and really reach more people. But before we recorded, I told you, I'd answer your question about why I went and reserve. So I'm going to do that and give you my two cents on it now. Rather than, this is the first time I think I've ever been smart enough to wait for an answer on the recording instead of saying it twice. So I'm so proud of myself, Alex isn't here to hear how awesome that is. I'm sure he won't listen to this. And he'll never know that I'm busting his chops.

But anyway, so really, the two biggest factors for me were the fact that I could transfer my GI bill because I didn't know how to do that earlier, and I messed up. When to transfer, you have to transfer when you have like four years left on contracts, you have to transfer the reimbursement, I didn't know that I missed the window. And so in order for me to transfer the GI Bill, I had to reenlist in some way.

So for me, that was the reserve so that I could transfer it to my kids, because I'm not going to use the GI Bill. I have an associate's degree, but I really didn't enjoy that. Don't think I'll enjoy more school and definitely don't want to waste the GI Bill on myself. When I have kids who, you know, may or may not go to school, but at least they'll have the chance.

The other big one was TRICARE, it's like $270 a month for the family for TRICARE. And when you look at health insurance outside the military, it's like 12, 13, 14 $1,500 a month, it's crazy. And so that was a big bonus. And then for me, the other pieces, the intangible pieces are that, you know, I've only seven more years. And in the reserves, that's like seven months worth of work. So it's not so crazy, because I was at 13, like you. And then also a part of the fact that I kind of cornered myself into this where like my entire brand is built around the military. And I am the type of person who doesn't like to feel like I didn't complete something. And so I kind of feel like if I don't at least give the reserves a shot, I always kind of be like, oh, like I built this brand around the military and then just left. So I kind of want to see that through.

But I mean, that's really the reason there's the financial side of the reserves is it's not bad, it's cool, you still get the pension, you just don't get it till you're 60 you still get the TRICARE and the GI Bill and the VA stuff. But he used to get a VA claim and disability. So I think it's a good fit, if you want to be around the military, but not all the time. And the cool thing with reserves is you can always just leave so if you like try it and you're like wow, this sucks. You don't have to fulfill before four years, you can just leave.

Octavio:

Yeah.

Oh, man. That's, that's like, that's perfect. You know, I think like I said, I think it's making me revisit without a doubt, you know, you know, you know, cuz I haven't checked the box yet, right? Whether or not, you know, I'm going to like, you know, go to the reserves or not, you know, the memorandum is just sitting on my desk.

David:

Does the army do IMA?

Octavio:

They do.

They call a SFL tap, you know, Soldier for Life Transition Assistance Program. Ironically, about a couple hours ago, I was just on the phone call that kind of gives you a resource guide of how they do and it's a phenomenal program they have in terms of tiers, I would say that tier level is based off risk and just how much you know, guidance and mentorship you need along the way as you start transitioning out the army.

David:

Transition things are great. IMA is something the Navy in the Marine Corps do and I don't know if the army does. But instead of doing one weekend every month, I just do one month a year. So like up in December, and drill the whole month of December. And then like I'm done until the next time they need me in a year.

Octavio:

Sorry.

You know, I really don't know that answer. I know. I know, the Air Force did. I want to say the Air Force would combine all the drills together.

Yeah. But of course it was commander dependent and really your AFC or you know, MLS dependent equivalent, right. I don't know that. That question. Honestly, about the army.

David:

I chose that because I was like, well shoot. It's one month but then I'm free.

Octavio:

Yeah. Yeah, that's actually smart:

David:

Rescheduling stuff every month.

Octavio:

Yeah.

David:

Alright.

It's probably enough for the reserves. No one else cares.

There's actually a decent amount of information on that in my book. I didn't tell them where they should go. But I wrote out all my thoughts and different options, so, awesome, because I was transitioning and going through all those decisions at the time I wrote it.

That being said, tell us a little bit about your real estate story. Let's get into the good stuff.

10:00 - 15:00

Octavio:

Yeah, yeah, so the real estate timeline is pretty interesting.

David:

You started off with a silver spoon.

Octavio:

Yeah, I wish. Yeah, I wish. Yeah.

So specifically for real estate, really, in 2009, I would have to go that far back. I purchased a mobile home, just right outside of Charleston, and it cost me about $5,600 kind of fix it up. Obviously, not not what it would cost today, even for a mobile home. And, you know, we, you know, we loved it, we thought it was great, you know, it was perfect for me and my wife at the time. You know, and, or, you know, it really, you know, it just felt fulfilled her needs, it was where we wanted to be were, you know, you know, in the Air Force, luckily, down and Joint Base Charleston was known as Charleston Air Force base at the time and in South Carolina.

And, and then all sudden, we saw another mobile home for sale, you know, in the same area, and, you know, me and my wife had just, I was like, hey, maybe we can repeat this process again, you know, we go in this one and, you know, rent out the other one or sell the other one. And that's what we did. We moved into the other one. And, you know, like, we started renting out the first mobile home.

Well, you know, then one thing led to another and I just started doing research on real estate, right? I'm a big researcher, big, big nerd on like, just, you know, just doing research, doing science, doing all that kind of quirky, quirky stuff. But, uh, but yeah, so I started doing the research while going to college while I was going to University of South Carolina at this time. That's kind of where I like to reach out to, to my uncle. Really close uncle mine, who I call them, they're like the trailer. The trailer park king of like Greenville, South Carolina. Yeah. And started off with one trailer, what 24 years ago and now he has like 250 Something trailers and two lots, a whole bunch of houses and in the, you know, Clemson Lake area. Yeah.

Guy can't even read and write man. I can't make it up. Can't read or write. He has to voice text me. But he travels the world. And he knows how to talk.

David:

All that matters, right?

Octavio:

Yeah.

So he started telling me about tax delinquent auctions, right. And, and I got like, I got intrigued. And he was really like, I think he ended the conversation one day, and like two minutes, he was like, Oh, if you want anything to know about business, well, you should look into tax delinquent auctions, you know, when it comes to real estate, and he apparently told me he had an entire LinkedIn conversation to tell me everything about real estate. But the conversation ended so abruptly that that's all I thought I needed you know, I was like, Okay, I guess I just got to look up tax auctions or something. And so I go to Richland County in Columbia and start looking up properties. And I found this lovely triplex for like $2,600. Unbeknownst to me, at the time, one month after purchasing it, it was actually scheduled to be demolished. I saw these like paperworks and like all over the windows, like yeah, you know, this thing's gonna be demolished. I was like, Oh, God, what did I get myself into? And yeah, so I sold both trailers in Charleston. I put about $40,000 in renovations. It's a classy triplex that I bought around 2010. And yeah, that thing since 2010. Has been renting out about $2,100 a month. Yeah.

So yeah, it's insane. Yeah, one month from being demolished. Yeah.

David:

Wow!

Octavio:

Yeah.

David:

I'd like to piggy back for one second. I just point out we have bought tax liens, and I haven't gotten too close on any of them. But I just want to throw it out to people who were thinking, Oh, my goodness, tax liens are so cheap. Like, that's the issue of tax liens. You don't necessarily know what you're so we bought you. Well, you met Marty last week, right?

Octavio:

I did.

David:

Okay, so Marty and I and one other buddy all bought one of these differently. We went to three different counties, each of us went to a county, we all bid on stuff, whatever. Marty was bidding on one that we had all looked up and it was the post office in this county, and the geo whatever was wrong, it was actually the house next door, which is like falling over. And so we won the bid. We were like, oh my god, we got the post office for like two grand. Now we got this like lien two for like two grand. But, you know, overall, we bought three or four properties and they're all gonna one of them's a duplex. Well, I'll be fine.

Octavio:

Nice.

David:

I just wanted to point out that one of the problems with tax liens is you don't know what you're getting until you get it.

Octavio:

Yeah, exactly. 100%.

It was definitely a huge fixer upper huge project.

David:

But it worked out really well. It’s awesome!

Octavio:

Oh, it did. It did. Yeah. Like I said, you know, you know, or, you know, part of my, you know, half of a military pension, you know, like right off the bat, you know, but, so, so yeah, the soon thereafter, I purchased some single family homes, really around 2012 to 2015. I kind of wanted to stabilize there was a lot going on at this point. You know, you know, as I mentioned, you know, I was actually transitioning from Air Force to army and so I just kind of stayed on the you know, the class a single family homes a steady monthly cash flow type properties, the ones that I know that, you know, hey, while they're paying down my loan, you know, I'm increasing equity at the same time making monthly cash flow.

15:00 - 20:00

Octavio:

And then around 2017 While I was in Germany, I bought a quad Plex in Colombia. And I just started brrrr it, you know, you know, I started, I actually spent, you know, my wife doesn't like that I mentioned this, but I actually spent about 45 days leave coming down here with the GC and all his crew, and we just made sure like, in those 45 days, we're going to get that entire quad Plex fixed up because obviously, I'm doing out of country not even to stay out of country real estate investing. Yeah, it was interesting.

So I brrrr the first quad Plex. And then I noticed that, like, I had the signs out, you know, saying, hey, I'll you know, kind of, you know, without even knowing about wholesaling, or, you know, or, or bandit signs, I just had my own sign like, hey, we'll purchase, you know, you know, properties for cash, you know, or something right, you know, right on on the property. Next, you know, the owners on the same street, they just they, they started contacting me directly and letting me know, like, yeah, hey, they're interested in selling. And then I just kept going, you know, about a triplex another quad. And then the last last quad, it got to the point where, you know, before I knew it, I had 15 units on the same road, I was thinking about changing the street name, you know. And it was great.

But 2020 got extremely hectic, I knew I wanted to come back to the States. I knew I wanted to get on the tactical side. And I knew I wanted to jump out of planes, you know, from pushing pallets, on planes pushing, getting people on the bird to now jumping out of it in the army, right?

Yeah, so that's what happened. 2020 got hectic, and I sold them all and made a 500 I made half a million dollar profit on it. You know, obviously, I did a 10-31 and didn't pay any capital gains tax on that. And then by 2020, honestly, my company motor real estate at the time, I didn't own any other real estate companies. I actually had about 40 units, you know, you know, but I started selling a lot a second high op tempo, very demanding. If you want to be a high performer, you just, you know, it's nearly impossible. You could have everybody in between you and the properties. Unfortunately, it gets pretty demanding.

But yeah, so now I got 26 units from mobile homes to single family homes and full time.

David:

What do you do with the 10-31?

Octavio:

So I just put it on some more multi families. Yeah, yeah. And then sold that later. And then just keep doing the same process all over again.

David:

I love it. I love it!

And I love the fact that like, you know, on bigger pockets, I always ask like, what's the one thing that separates those who make it from those who don't? And I have been more and more and more and more convinced over the years that the answer is people who are a self starter, right?

Octavio:

Yeah, for sure.

David:

Because most people, most would not think about taking 45 days leave to fly from Germany to renovate a house.

Octavio:

Yeah, definitely.

David:

That's not like the ideal story, right.

I love it like that, to me screams about why you've had success with real estate because you are willing to do those things that most people are not willing to do, right. Everybody wants to be like, Oh, wow, look at this cool set. Dave did and looked at the real estate he owns, but like nobody wants to like, that's awesome. I've never done that.

Octavio:

Yeah, definitely a lot of work.

Yeah, I can't get those days back of leave. But obviously it was definitely worth it in the long run.

David:

Yeah, I mean, I just sold a bunch of leave when I got out. So I sold all 60 days.

Octavio:

Oh, nice.

David:

Yeah. I was like, thanks. But man, that's cool.

So, alright, and then you were going to talk, I think a little bit more about buying out the partnership. Was there a piece in there that we were going to hit?

Octavio:

Yeah.

So so we will yeah, the so really, on the partnership on the commercial side, you know, really, I, I developed the past year, I developed two additional companies, I've invested in other small startups, one where, you know, you know, from trucking to drop shipping coffee and sell, but when it comes to real estate, I started up a wholesaling business, you know, for residential. And then, you know, and then I started one up for on the commercial side, but on the residential, I kept the partners there, you know, and I'll, you know, lead to later on and why but, but when on the commercial side, I noticed that, you know, everybody was kind of running at a different B, you know, we didn't have like a single vision. And yeah, it was almost like perfect timing. I knew I was going down to the conference in Orlando. I kinda, it was all like for me, and I think a lot of people in there, you know, some of the things that were being taught were great resources. It was almost like affirmation. I needed affirmation, and, and I definitely got that. And it really made me like, you know, feel good about the decision because not even a week prior. I was working with my corporate lawyer on like, Hey, this is where I think the valuation of the company is. Luckily it was in its infancy stages and you know, all the partners agreed. So I set up an internship, you know, a couple months ago at that commercial wholesaling company. And then yeah, who didn't know who to think that a couple months after, you know, would be buying out the same company I'm doing an internship for.

20:00 - 25:00

David:

Yeah, that's hilarious.

And I bet when you approach them, and I don't know, but I would imagine they were actually a lot more open than you think. Like, people are always scared to have those conversations. But I haven't had a ton of experience, I haven't had to do those partnerships, from what I've seen with people when you've got like two or three people doing something, and one or two of them are just, they're not wanting to move as fast. A lot of times they're okay with just okay, yeah.

Octavio:

Yeah, 100%. You know, I, honestly, there was not even any, like, like, you know, fighting back or anything and not in a negative way, I think, I think like you said, I think they kind of understood their roles where they were in the company, they kind of also had a lot of self reflection leading up to that, because I did prompt them with kind of what the discussion or the meeting was going to be about. And I just asked him to do that just, you know, kind of look inward to how, you know, really self reflect on kind of where you see the company's going, where you want it to go and how your personal and you know, professional as well as your family goes line up with it?

And of course, yeah, I think the overarching topic was, yeah, hey, like, you know, at the end of day, we need to determine who's going to be the CEO? And well, you know, because that individual is the visionary, that's the person that's going to take us forward. And you know, and we need to, you know, answer to that beat of the drum, whether it's him or her. And, you know, luckily it worked out.

David:

Yeah.

Okay. And then you mentioned a couple other couple, what else have you? I'm down here. Now I'm intrigued, coffee and all right, what else we got going on?

Octavio:

Yeah, oh, man, kind of sour about the coffee. But I mean, I get some good news out of it. So we were doing a drop shipping Coffee Company. You know, one of my partners, he actually was a soldier from, from, from an old unit, we did a lot of great random sampling, developed an entire business model. We had an account going through Shopify, unfortunately, I assumed I was going in with a lot of like, you know, assumptions that I thought, you know, to be true, unfortunately, they were not things like, Hey, do you have your operational agreement with your supplier? You know, with your distribution center? Or the, you know, the entire supply chain management, right? Do you have operational agreements, you have NCNDA, typical stuff that, you know, you have to have great for a business structure.

So because by the time he brought me in on board, he was bringing me in as a partner, bringing the business aspects side of things and kind of getting the ball rolling. So yeah, it was, it was great until about three months into it, we were making about we're averaging about $2,000 a month, each partner in cash flow from, you know, from or netting about $2,000 a month on that, unfortunately, we started identifying, you know, actually, it was actually a customer notified us that like, hey, they were confused, because they went to go look at the coffee shop to see our product, but they saw all these different labels. And one thing led to another and we realized man, you know, basically, they were, they were, they, you know, they essentially went behind us and started selling their own product.

I mean, this was a small mom and pop shop for employees, we got them built up to 11 employees. And unfortunately, they took advantage of, you know, I would say the lack of knowledge that my partner had at the beginning. And the fact that, you know, by the time I got in place and wanting to put in some of the systems and some of these, some of this, like legal documentation, it was a little bit too late, you know, they had already kind of identified what they were going to do with the business model. And well, the good, I know, that sounds like a bad news story. The good news is we went into, you know, litigation, and they've agreed to settle, even though we were kind of piecemealing them the business model, you know, their lawyer was asking for, Hey, show us proof of this shows proof of that, really, we repeat, smelling them the business model and how they could do it themselves. But at the same time, hey, we settled, we got our we're gonna get our little six figure check. And, you know, I'm looking to start that up again soon with potential another partner as he's now gone on to pursue other other endeavors.

But yeah, that's just one, you know, we we have a trucking company that I've invested away with, you know, flew out to Houston, I was six businesses that I wanted to get a part of, in, I really got get to invest in specifically one of them that's going to be starting up in the New Year, which we're happy. It's going to be a small trucking service company.

25:00 - 30:00

David:

That's cool, man. I love that you're not just in real estate. So I had lunch with a guy today. Good friend of mine, real estate agent. And looking at a couple other things right. He's got now he has an equity play. In his brokerage, he's looking at maybe a mortgage company, maybe home and auto insurance. And I've talked to several people. So I'm kind of in that mode where like, I'm building a brand, I'm building a business. But I'm also kind of like, Man, I wouldn't mind some equity plays on some actual businesses. So I think that's cool. We'll have to have another conversation more in detail about how you're doing that. Because it might I mean, I don't know, it might be really exciting to some of the listeners. And some of them might be like, what about real estate?

Octavio:

Yeah.

David:

So in all of this, you've been buying and selling and buying and selling in real estate, whatever. It sounds like your strategy's been mainly BRRR, is that right?

Octavio:

Yeah. So I would say BRRR when it was just motor real estate when it was just my company. I was mainly BRRRR. I did flips here and there when it was extremely convenient. You know, but, uh, but yeah, it's been mainly a lot of BRRR. And again, without even knowing it, you know, you know, and I know, we'll talk about it later. But yeah, without even knowing that that was going to be, you know, no, without knowing what the strategy was, I was BRRR a lot. You know, and then, you know, like I said, on occasion, I'll flip that I've never actually had a wholesale deal until, you know, till this, this, this current year, you know, when I started up the company.

David:

Yeah.

How's that going?

Octavio:

Oh, great. Yeah. But yeah, hopefully, you know, so my partner's obviously, you know, let them know, you know, Hey, we should be able to disclose some stuff, right? You know, because people want numbers people want tangible stuff they want or quantity, you know, quantifiable stuff. So, I would tell you in the first four months, and I think that maybe because, you know, I was able to bring a lot of my business background, the structure and the game plan into place. While like we didn't actually do our first deal until the second month, I would tell you within our first four months or really the last two, we we made six figures you know, within this one so and then since you know, over the past year, we've done because we literally started in January but like I said, I think the first deal you know, that we actually did was like you know, actually sold was like the end of February, beginning of March. But soon thereafter, we were six figures in. We were starting our own flip, which we sold made some really good cash on that and we just bought a mobile home park about a couple weeks ago with that just with that residential company so not bad for a company that hasn't done a complete year yet.

David:

I'm in the process of building that up right now myself so I've been dabbling in some direct mail doing some deals, but really kind of scaling the direct mail and hiring in to cold callers right now try to get off market but I'm not necessarily a wholesaler, I don't consider myself that I will wholesale I will wholesale but I'm trying to buy a whole lot of really good deals for myself.

Octavio:

Yeah, 100%. Yeah.

David:

See where that goes, I guess.

Yeah, so it's an interesting game. I like it.

I don't like wholesaling. I enjoy the kind of discounts you can find online.

We're off market, whatever.

Octavio:

Yeah.

David:

So alright, so we've kind of covered a lot here. I mean, obviously, in 12 years, you've had quite a run, I don't know that you knew in 2009 that you were picking the absolute best time you could have gotten into real estate.

But what do you think? What would you say are some of the things that are most attributed to your success?

Octavio:

Yeah, you know, honestly, you know, everybody talks about it like that. I just execute but you know, like, I don't think about it I don't know if it's been a you know, if it's been an issue now is thus far, but basically I am all about action, right? But I think I think what attributes are a little bit about my personal background and and and really like what I would have gained through that through that is really grit. You know, if I were to just summarize it in just one word, it was just grit not just having grit.

David:

Not being able to suck it up when things go wrong.

Octavio:

Yeah. 100.

David:

Yeah. I think Grits is a good one. There's actually a book called Grit, but I'll save you the I'll save you all the headache. It just talks about keeping it up when things are hard. It's actually not a bad book, but it has some good advice for how to teach your kids grit, which you know, or in the Marine Corps, we call it resiliency.

Octavio:

Yeah.

David:

Yeah, whatever.

Yeah, it used to be caused by hazing, but we don't do that anymore.

Octavio:

Yeah, right.

David:

No hazing.

Yeah, grits are good.

So what do you think, what's going on for the future? So you're getting out of the military? What's the goal? You gonna focus on? Focus on the real estate side, focus on businesses, focus on just travel? I don't know.

30:00 - 35:00

Octavio:

Yeah. So you're right. A little bit of everything. Thank you. nailed it. God I, you know, like, man, it's like, it's like you probably read my game plan already, you know that I'm looking to make sure it's safely stored but now but, uh, yeah, that's kind of what it is, you know? Really, you know, I'll be honest with you. A couple years ago, I was already I was on the same glide path of getting out, you know, and I saw myself doing it, but, of course, I was afforded the opportunity of, you know, taking the signal company in a, in a airborne IVCT, right.

So, but, but I would tell you very similar to what, you know, what that decision was going to look like, then it would have been, what I'm thinking now, you know, really, if I if you had it feels my choice, just like mind choice, not the family like, oh, you know, we would be talking you know, like, this podcast would be me and Metzger already, you know, with some margaritas or something, you know, you know, you're just some kind of good drinks, you know, but, uh, or as like, some guy on a cruise ship told me ice cream, apparently, I guess margaritas or ice cream? You know, he shouldn't put it on his table. But, but, but anyways, uh, yeah, no. So really, like, so we love traveling, I've been over 30 plus countries, whether it was for government or leisure, and we love it, we love the diversity we love, you know, really getting to know other people's culture and really interacting with, with, you know, people from all over the place all over the globe. So that's a big thing, you know, like, for, for me and my family.

So I think once I get out, of course, we'll continue to do you know, like, you know, I'll continue to drive both of these real estate companies forward. And then, you know, continue to invest into other small startup companies. And then, you know, just to see how that works. But yeah, I don't predict maybe in the states too much longer, at least, I hope not, you know, to be in Mexico, you know, maybe closer to one of the one of the companies that we're looking to start up in December there. And just kind of viewing that and enjoying the beach. Hopefully, somewhere, somewhere on the East Coast side of Mexico.

David:

I like it.

Yeah, I'm trying to do a little bit more traveling. I'm hoping we'll see when but I'm hoping to hit Machu Picchu here sometime in the next year. You know, and then I'm going to be out. Well, not out of the country, but Colorado and Utah a little bit this winter. So hoping to get a little bit more travel shoot, I was in four different states over the last month.

Octavio:

I know.

I've been watching Instagram. I was like anybody who's seen you I've been seeing Yeah, it's like a share you have a travel is a lot of traveling going off.

David:

Portland, San Diego, Orlando. Hit all the warm places. Gotta go to Colorado and ski so yeah. Man, I love it.

Alright, so a couple questions I always ask one is, like if an E one E two was to walk up to you asking for advice, like where? Where do you think they should start?

Octavio:

Yeah, so I, you know, I am, I would start with, you know, just like, you know, having some sense of an ideology of like, what, you know, what, what's something that you feel like is going to drive you forward.

So what I would start is develop a team, without a doubt, develop a team, because I use a I kind of, like, tweak this African proverb that's out there, but I apply it to all my business, I feel like almost say it almost like once a month in every business, but I gotta tell you, I've yet to see anybody, like, not pause or, or constantly, you know, like, have that like sense of reflection, as soon as I say, but, but I say like, if you want to go fast, go alone, you want to go far go as a team, and it's just applied so much in every business that I've done. Because I mean, as I alluded to earlier, I've gone fast, you know, I've gone extremely fast, got up to the four units, but I really didn't go far, you know, like, I knew, you know, I was climbing the money was great. But I didn't go far versus, you know, case in point this past year, what I did with just one of the companies, I went a lot further and that one year, then you could pick any one year of my entire real estate business than I ever done by myself, right.

And some of the things that I would tell those young individuals would be like, you know, the example would be like, if you have the knowledge, you may not have the cash a team may have that, you know, you have the cash but you may lack the knowledge a team will have, you know, the knowledge, right? Or maybe you have both, but when you're working alone, you know, who's really going to be there to kind of like build up your strengths, right and kind of, you know, build your strength so that they can help complement your weakness.

So that would be like the first tip I think the second one is like you couldn't ask for a better country to fail in I mean, United States just has so much to offer and you know in I know we'll talk about you know, my personal background soon but, but if a guy like me can have all these like series of unfortunate events and kind of fail along the way to having financial freedom and financial dependence for monthly cash flow through real estate, and kind of be classified as a millionaire. Like then anyone of the listeners listening right now you should really kind of just stop talking about it and just just get after it.

35:00 - 40:00

David:

Yeah, absolutely.

All right. Well, you alluded to it already. Let's dig into let's hear a little bit about that personal story.

Octavio:

Yeah. Yeah, I know.

David:

The piece that we all should have talked about before, just to set the stage for everything you've done, right. So anyone who's made it this far, now you're gonna be like, Oh my god, I'm a piece of shit.

Octavio:

Yeah, it's, it's, it's been a rough, I think, you know, I'll mention in like three different categories. So like, so before college. So being Hispanic, first generation born, my dad, you know, typical machismo breadwinner, you know, only, only a person making making the money. Unfortunately, I grew up extremely poor. So much so that, like, you know, my entire, you know, you know, young life, my adolescent life, I lived in a trailer, you know, in and it was rough. I mean, you know, I think like, significant events would be, you know, such as, like, there were several winters where, because we didn't have central AC or money for window units, we were using the stove, you know, the open stove, you know, it's dangerous, it sounds and I know, it's crunching like for a lot of people will probably work on that side, side of the house. But, uh, we had to use the stove as a heater. You know, during the winters, there were a lot of times where we had tomato sandwiches, not, you know, not not by choice, right. And it's funny, my soldiers used to, you know, they, they generalize every officer like, ah, you know, sir, you come from, you know, rich background and, you know, or, you know, like, you got your degree from Westport. So that was like, none of that is true, like, whatsoever. I was like, Guys, yeah, I would gladly have MRE’s, you know, every day of the year over, you know, like tomato sandwiches, you know, with like, no mayonnaise, just tomatoes, two pieces of bread. And that's it.

That's kind of what happened before high school. You know, it was a rough upbringing. You know, we, we probably, you know, we lived in a, I mean, a family of seven, right? You know, I had one brother and three sisters. But we had two bedrooms. So, you know, you do the math on where we were, where we were all staying and how many bunk beds there were.

David:

Yeah.

Octavio:

So now, I think the other, you know, portion, you know, like, my personal background would kind of be like, during college, what a lot of people don't know, in fact. In fact, my wife didn't find out till a couple years ago. You know, like anybody else who gets in trouble you have somebody on speaker yeah. And so I got in trouble with my cousin on speaker. And he mentioned something very pertinent about, you know, when we were both going to college, you know, at the University of South Carolina, basically. So I should probably mention that I have been together with my wife, she's my high school sweetheart. We've been together for over 14 years, we just hit our 10 year anniversary this summer.

But wait, during this time frame, people have to know the GI Bill. You know, it just doesn't pay for the family, right. So me and my wife were staying in an apartment together where we were, you know, we're both going to school. So, you know, the GI bill only pays for education. You know, it doesn't really go beyond that. So, I knew I needed to learn how to survive. And, I mentioned the story about my cousin because she realized through that conversation that I didn't have a meal plan, I actually kind of gave her a white lie and told her that I had a meal plan through student loans or whatever, I didn't even have that opportunity. So I was not on a meal plan through the university. So that said, but you know, believe it or not, I like lunch and dinner because I was, you know, like, one summer I took seven classes over the entire summer like 21 college credits. And it was just intense. It was extremely insane. All the security guards knew me. You know, everybody around the library knew me because I was practically pulling all nighters and stuff. But also because of food. I was actually eating off of people's plates, who had meal plans at the university.

So if anybody out there at the University of South Carolina, you know, if I can, if I owe a bill, you'll let me know. But I got all the students at USC to thank because without a doubt, I didn't have money. In fact, I saved that money. So there would be enough money for groceries. So I could eat with my wife or have breakfast, lunch and dinner. So she went without meals. But unfortunately, while I was going to school, I was eating off people's plates, bread and everything. And that's why everybody was like, oh, man, you lost all this weight. Like, yeah, it was a little bit of gym, it was also a little bit of no money. You know.

David:

I wasn't eating.

Octavio:

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I was going to school in a Geo Metro three cylinder one point, like a liter engine car. Yeah,

David:

I wanted one of those.

40:00 - 45:00

Octavio:

Oh, man, I spare you from having to ever deal with things like the floorboard, on the passenger side if I picked up something like the mat, you can actually see through the ground so we could flip stones to school if I ever ran out of gas.

David:

It is light enough you probably could.

Octavio:

Yeah it was.

Yeah. So but yeah, then immediately after that, right, so what happened after college, and I was going in between, I actually put this on my Instagram, a lot of people didn't believe me. They sent me private messages, especially people in Texas who were like, we couldn't believe it, man, we remember something was going on, which is to know where you were at? Well, now they know. So really, when I was down in Texas, and transitioning between Air Force and Army and I was this one, I was doing some reserve time in the Air Force. So I actually, you know, there was a point in our lives where we literally went homeless for about a month. And I'm talking about it was already getting bad a little bit prior to that. Aside from not being able to pay rent. We were running out of funding for food, because I was doing all these odd jobs, just to kind of figure myself out really figure out where I wanted to go back. If I really wanted to stay in civilian life. And at the same time, I was knocking out my masters so I can be a hospital administrator.

But yeah, so we were homeless for about a month. I remember purchasing, and, you know, sure she'll give me later but now I joke my wife's okay with basically, I think I told you the story before but a little caesars box of pizza $5 box pizza. We actually shared that for about two weeks. So we actually like partitioned little Caesars box of pizza, you know, put in the fridge, you know, like at a friend's house that we were kind of couchsurfing went to like local gyms that we had membership with and luckily, you know, it was a you know, we were still within that window or, you know, hey, we could they could collect payment 90 days later. But that's what we were doing. We were showering at the gym eating a little Caesars box of pizza for like two weeks because we had literally like no money. And luckily, you know, I, you know, landed a quick management job at Whataburger. That's for a manager, you know, and then I picked up a hospital administration job. But while I was doing all that, I felt like I was getting my calling through an ROTC program where I submitted for Army OCS and, yeah, I mean, we know how that story went. But yeah, homeless, homeless after college.

David:

Where in this timeline did you buy that first mobile home?

Octavio:

Yeah, so crazy.

So like, I bought the first mobile home, like a little bit during college, and I was doing that, but we had rented that out, but it was just enough money to sustain just the bills and like everybody else, you're racking up debt. You know, whether it's student loans, whether it's credit cards, or you know, you name it, you know, so we were getting backed up. So the trailers were just enough, right. And then I you know, fully admitting during that same time frame, as I mentioned, I sold both of them, put it all into that triplex. What I never mentioned that a lot of people don't know is that triplex that 40 grand was like piecemealing money because we were sustaining and trying to stay afloat. It got to a point where we were homeless, and people were living in our triplex better than we were. Obviously, they had food and water shelter, because I divested all the last money into the triplex.

So not something I recommend for any listener at all, but, but that's that, that's kind of what we were doing. We had already, we're already three quarters away in, I realized, like, at this point, it's, we're already over here in Texas, we're already doing our own thing. We already know what's in store for us, we're not going to be able to afford, we're not going to be able to have food, we might as well dump the remaining money over there to see if we can finish it out. Get some renters to collect some money. And of course, like I mentioned, within a month, we had $2,100 in monthly rent coming to us since 2010.

David:

Yeah, but that just goes to speak again, to grit and to being a self starter because a lot of people wouldn't have wouldn't push through with that at all.

Octavio:

Yeah.

David:

Oh, man. That's crazy.

And just see where you're at now, right? Like because you're never gonna go back, right? So people who've had that had that taste and had some success are usually pretty good about not spending money. They don't need to.

Octavio:

Yeah, 100%.

David:

Whereas me I spend money and then I'm like, probably be a little bit more frugal.

Octavio:

Yeah.

David:

That's awesome, man. I love it.

Alright, question for you. Another one of our questions we always ask. What book or resource would you recommend to anybody looking to get started in real estate?

45:00 - 50:00

Octavio:

Oh, I wish I could mention to you but basically.

David:

You can, I will allow it.

I appreciate it.

David:

As long as they're both good.

Octavio:

Yeah, yeah, please let me know. Yeah.

So the first one without a doubt, was the ABCs of real estate investing. The irony is, I never heard of Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I was actually doing this. I was already in real estate for like, five years before somebody is like, Hey, you should probably like, you know, read a little bit more now. You know, I was quick, quick to judge them. Because I'm just like, Well, dude, you haven't even purchased your first property. But you're telling me and I got, you know, it's probably, but again, you know, brought my pride down. And I was like, hey, you know, what I see, all these people are doing way more than me. How do I, how do I, how do I evolve? How do I? How do I become the lion? You know, you know, how do I become, you know, you know, that millionaire, you know, you you, like you hear in all these mastermind, right, you got to surround yourself with like minded individuals or, or learn from them.

So I picked up the book, because someone had recommended it. I read it from like, you know, cover to cover, it was a phenomenal book. And it wasn't until I actually placed it down, that I'm like, Oh, the publishing company is a rich dad, you know, like poor dad, you know, I was like, I think people kept telling me like, that's the Bible real estate. But I honestly felt that that book was more impactful, especially those who want to get into understanding property management or having, like you know, those key essential role players or stakeholders to make your business successful. Real estate business successful. That's good, can it be Ken McIlroy's phenomenal book.

I think the second one is mentality in order to like, like, what really changed my mentality was The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. Phenomenal, I, I was too much of the employee mentality working for the W two. And I got it, you know, those who are the military listeners on here, it's okay to, like, have some, you know, or like, it's okay to have your mentality somewhat shape or form like that. Because you're, you're in the W two job, you're working for the DOD, and I completely understand that. But outside of work, that doesn't mean you can't take risks. That doesn't mean, you know, you can't be the employer, you know, like, so that's kind of what was going on. And I realized I really wanted to change my mentality and someone recommended the four hour workweek and phenomenal book.

David:

Yeah, that's one of my favorites.

I think that's the only handful of books that I've listened to the audiobook like three times.

Octavio:

Yeah, yeah.

David:

I don't know that I've ever read the physical copy of that book, which usually is where I go after I listen to it a few times, just because it's such a long book. But it's a good one. Yeah, really shifted my mindset from, like, a lot of w two or military get to like, Hey, how can I do the least in this amount of time and not get fired? Whereas like, The Four Hour Workweek, just like how do I get the most done in this time that I have? Man, that's huge.

Yeah, that’s a good one.

Okay, I guess I'll let you keep them both.

Alright. So we've covered a lot through this episode, right? Obviously, you did not start with a silver spoon. You really struggled for a little while. And you started out with a home mobile home, and then you bootstrapped this triplex, and you grew up to 40 units, and then now 26, and then a bit to businesses and, and a lot of stuff going on, right. But it all came out of you know, what everyone sees is the success but they don't realize all the struggle back there. So just a really good story, right? And super genuine. And we talked for a long time in Florida. I guess, you know, I would like to just end with asking where people can get a hold of you if they'd like to reach out and hear a little bit more about you and your story and get connected?

Octavio:

Oh, yeah, for sure.

Yeah, like, so obviously, my instagram handle, it's @motorcapital. And then capitalvirtue.com is kind of our website for wholesaling. And then my email, just my first name [email protected]. If they really want to reach out ask any other questions, especially for like service members, there's, there's, you know, there's not a question too little too big that, you know, I don't mind, you know, providing some kind of level of support or guidance on or at least point them in the right direction. You know.

David:

I like it.

Did we miss anything? Are we? I feel like we've covered a lot, but I don't know if we're missing something.

Octavio:

Yeah.

You know, honestly, I think the parting advice, like if I were able to give some kind of parting advice to anybody else? Yeah, you know, it's kind of like my philosophy or kind of what's worked best for me, because I know a lot of these people were listening and probably wonder like, man, was he venturing out to some of these other businesses or how's he doing there? What's he thinking about? You know, I think basically, people need to understand, like, I invest in people, not their ideas. Now, that's not to say there's not a lot of great ideas out there to include some of the ones I obviously invest in. I just look at the individual first, right? If they're passionate about what they do, and kind of what they want in life, whether it's, you know, personally, professionally and for their family, then I'm all in, right, I'm all in they're gonna get all of me because that individual is going to have what I've kind of see or want, you know, like in their in their businesses, which is grit determination, and just kind of overall motivation to succeed. So that's really kind of what I kind of follow. And it's and it's worked for me every startup company that I've joined, they've, they've made me some additional residual income that I can appreciate.

David:

I like it.

Yeah, I agree. That's it, man. It's the people's business, people first, right. because, you know, I, I've had people ask, or, you know, say they're gonna know, there's like, no way to say this without sounding like a prick. But I'm gonna say it. The reason most people don't have a platform, like, what I've built is because I spent the first year and a half paying to build it. Like, I wasn't getting paid. I was putting in tons of time, right? And most people aren't willing to put that in. So you find somebody who's willing to build something, or put the time in, right, you find the right person, not not to say me, but like, exactly what you're going for. And they'll be able to make anything work.

Octavio:

That’s for sure.

David:

Yeah. That's cool, man.

Hey, well, thanks so much for joining us today. This has been an awesome episode. It should be out in like four weeks, I think. I think it's mid November. I want to say, I'm gonna mess up a date. If I say it, I want to say like the 15th. But I don't know if that's a Saturday. So if it is then that one but yeah.

Octavio:

Awesome!

David:

I should probably have pulled my calendar out. looked at that.

Thank you so much for joining us. This has been awesome. And I look forward to running into you again in person.

Octavio:

Oh, yeah. No, man. It's been a pleasure.

And yeah, you know, thank you again, for the opportunity, as well as joining the mastermind phenomenal, phenomenal resource.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Yeah, that was awesome. So again, yeah. Thank you again for the opportunity. And you know, and yeah, look forward to doing business with you, too.

David:

Hell yeah, brother! Absolutely.

End:

Thank you for listening to another episode about my journey from military to millionaire. If you liked it, be sure to visit frommilitarytomillionaire.com/podcast to subscribe to future podcasts. While you're there, we'd love for you to rate the show. Give us a review on iTunes. Now get out there and take action.