From Craigslist Flip to Multi-Million Deals: Arturo's Journey in Real Estate Investing

In this episode of "How to Invest in Commercial Real Estate," Arturo Saldivar shares his transformative journey from a $15,000 Craigslist property flip to managing a booming portfolio of multifamily units, revealing his strategies for achieving high returns and his vision for future expansions.

I I bought that for 15,000 and I found it on Craigslist and it was this guy, it was this guy that had bought the house for a project for him and his son to do while, while they were remodeling, his son fell off the ladder, broke his arm and he's like, well, I can't do it myself. So I need to sell it. What a bad idea, by the way, like take up like badminton or literally anything else but like, yeah, let's go work and remodel this pass pop. Alright. What is up and welcome back to another episode of How to invest in commercial real estate. We are excited to be back. What's up? It's been a couple two or three weeks. Yeah, this guy's been in the Grand Canyon. He's basically black now, Joel. What have you been doing? Nothing man. Trying to close deals to, oh, speaking of closing deals, we finally are non refundable on our shopping center in ST Louis. That is definitely closing um first week of June, we gotta close that for out for Costa Rica. So that will definitely close on time. Uh But yeah, June 5th uh super exciting deal up on the website.

Um Go check it out, ask some, ask us some questions if you have any. I think we're modeling an irr of like 20 twoish percent for a five year. Hold really great deal. Um local lender. Um I went up for a property tour earlier this week, so I, I think it'll be a winner. I'm excited about it. Yeah, I am too. And then Petra Maxx, we're obviously still raising money for Petra Max right now. We think we're gonna close that at the end of June. Um that there is an updated pitch check going up very soon. If it's not there already, the new IRR is projected to be at over 32%. We're gonna sell one of these every four months. Why is it a new, better debt terms? Yeah, better debt terms. Um And then we had a couple of the, the sites drop out, the fuel suppliers executed the right of first refusal and they were kind of our worst two stores. So it lucked out there. Um But anyway, end of June for that one, super excited about it and we haven't done a uh for a few weeks. Uh So we already had distribution time. It came and it went, you guys should all have uh the distributions that we sent out only a couple of properties.

Uh We didn't send them out on. Um But uh but yeah, it's always a good time we send out checks anyway, without further ado, we obviously have a guest here today. It's our, it's our favorite type of shows, especially these days. We love interviewing people and figuring out how they got into commercial real estate and the story and some of their successes. So, Arturo uh Saldivar we have here with us with a NS Multifamily and um I think you guys are about to do a deal right now too, which makes this even more exciting. It is. We're working on a project that Arturo and his team locked up off market. Um But yeah, I just thought it would be super interesting to have you on. You're a local guy, I think uh grew up here in Tulsa, started uh maybe getting into houses and now you're doing some really awesome multifamily stuff. So, Arturo, welcome. Uh Tell us a little bit about yourself and kinda talk to us about how you got into commercial or how you got into real estate in general. Yeah, so thanks for having me here. Um You know, I started back in 2014 doing single family houses and uh started with my very first flip downtown area um just north of, of, of downtown at the time, there wasn't a lot going on downtown.

So and me, I'm originally from California. Um coming from a big city downtown is always the most expensive places to live, the most expensive real estate and it kind of just triggers there into the suburbs and stuff like that. So I was like, man, one day this is gonna be booming. And I knew Oklahoma City thunder, you know, they had just came in the picture, they were really big and bricktown Oklahoma City was booming a bunch of construction. I, and I've always felt that Tulsa was just a little bit behind on growth and, but I knew it was, it was gonna trickle down and, um, you know, the, the way to really make it and, and, and make a big dent in profit as, you know, going before things explode. And, you know, so 2014, how old are you in 2014, 24 years old? And so what, what job were you doing at the time? Uh Did you have a day job? I used to my, well, I did construction, I had my own little construction company.

So I was the go to guy, I was a guy that, hey, you need to do this, you know how to do this. So, you know, this person who does and I always said yes. Um, even though I didn't know, you know, all I knew is I'm gonna figure it out. My problem solve this. I'll find the person that can and, and I started doing that. I built that up had a construction company did, well, did a bunch of commercial work and, but I've always wanted to do real estate and at the time I had a partner and, you know, our mindset wasn't on the same page. Um, for me it was like building something long term and really making an impact his was more for the moment kind of job to job. Yeah. So, you know, I saved up my money and did my first flip, bought my first house with my own cash. Um, I had 50,000 to my name and the, the house cost me 4 $15,000. So you didn't get it. You did it, you didn't get any debt. You did it all, all, all cash. I wasn't, I was, I wasn't educated on how financing and debt worked.

I thought it was for me it was always cash, cash, cash. And you know, I bought that for 15,000 and I found it on Craigslist and there was this guy, it was this guy that had bought the house for a project for him and his son to do while, while they were remodeling, his son fell off the ladder, broke his arm and he's like, well, I can't do it myself. So I need to sell it. What a bad idea, by the way, like take up like badminton or literally anything else but like, yeah, let's go work and remodel this pass pop. I didn't give his son a choice maybe. Yeah. So was this like a two bedroom? Three bedroom? Yeah, it was a three bedroom. It was a two bedroom, one bath and I, I completely demoed everything redesigned and made it a 31. And, uh, at the time there was only one house that was flipped over there and it was the one they put on. He TV, I think on Boston. Uh, it was the first one in that area and I think it was like probably like 75 a square foot, something like that.

So, per square foot. And, uh, yeah, I did in my first one, there was not very, you know, there's not sales over there to demo the entire inside and just completely. So you bought it for 15. How much did you spend on that first? 35,000? So I was down to my last $20 and then, and then you put it on the market and it sells for what we sold it for 90,000. So I doubled up. That was awesome. Yeah. And I learned a lot. I was there through the whole process. I wanted to be able to understand every single part of the flip from. And that's honestly what's helped me be where I am today, understanding every trade, knowing that if I walk into a job site, the electrician is gonna know that and the plumber is gonna know, I know what I'm doing. If I, if I see something, I'm gonna catch it and, you know, you get a lot of respect from, from the contractors when they see that, you know, and you're not just, you do. I don't, they don't respect me, do anything. It's probably because I'm Latino. I, I love it. So that probably sparked uh something in you that says, oh my God.

I just, I just made $50,000 on my first flip. Uh So talk to us about your excitement and then kinda where you took it from there because I know you're doing a lot bigger stuff now. Yeah. So that kinda just rolled, you know, to the next one. I took the money, the next one I just kept doing it. I started creating my own hypermarket in the area. Every house that I got, I sold for higher per square foot. I knew I needed to get the score, you know, the comps there and it did. Now there's houses selling over there for, you know, 100 and 50 to 200 ft. So today, fast forward today. So, and I still own a bunch of single family houses in that area. I used to live in Owen Park. So it's literally right there. And uh the house on HD TV, it's funny because a couple of years later I went to the sheriff's auction and I saw that house being foreclosed on and I had, they had remodeled and everything after HGTV did it. And, and till this day I own that house right now I bought, I bought it and you didn't have to work.

I knew nothing. I knew because, you know, when you go to the sheriff cells, you don't get to see them. You don't know what's in there. I knew what was in there. Yeah. And I was the only one bidding on this, on this house and I, I ended up getting it for like, 60 60,000. That was a good day. You knew when it was going on that you were, we had more luck than I did. I've been down there over the years bidding on a few things and there's always a ton of people bidding against me. To me, it's for people. The bank always buys. It happened to me, I'd show up and the bank would always have a representative. I'm just glad I cost them an extra 20 grand. Like part of me just loved that. Alright, so you've had success in single family homes, which is very similar to my story vic and I's story doing the houses and then we say like, ok, let's let move up and try to do some multifamily. So how did you make this transition to multifamily? So, um I met my partner Carlos, um great guy. Yes, man. I love him. I know he's going to be listening to him to this. So, um we started, we met each other playing soccer, um indoor at soccer city.

We used to play 23 times a week and you know, one day after we had a little game. We were, you know, hey, what do you do? Well, I do real estate. Uh I did real estate too and at the time he had a full time job and he was working for a company here, but his passion was always real estate as well and, and eventually was trying to build up to, he was on the side as well. He's, uh, he was working for a local company and, you know, making six figures, but he knew long term, that's not what he wanted to do. And real estate was his path to get there. And, you know, we, we teamed up and we started buying houses and then we got to the point where we were like, man, it's taking forever, you know, like 123, I think we accumulated like around maybe right under 20. Yeah. And we're like, man, this scale and the way to do it from what we saw is multifamily and you know, go and buy one building and, you know, there's a bunch of apartments that, you know, it just economies of scale.

What was your first uh apartment building that you purchased? The first one we purchased? Um which is, it's full cycle. Uh That's the one that I was mentioning to you. Yes, it closed. It's officially closed. And um we bought that property for 968,000 back like four years ago, 2020 a little 2019. I think it was 19. So, yeah, right around, we started working on it. We bought it for 968. We put about a million and a half into it. We completely redid. Uh, we turned this property and from, and the experience I had from the single family from being gutted to the studs. I mean, this place was bad. I mean, I don't know if you're familiar with it, but it used to be Park Plaza. I heard of it. I don't know if I've ever, I've ever been in its 51st in Sheridan. Um, now it's Legacy at 51st. And uh we put about a million and a half into it and we just closed for 4.2 million.

So you had almost 2.5 million in it and then sold it for 4.2. And that's fantastic. Four years. It's life changing money, guys. This is this your first multifamily. So I always tell people be prepared to make mistakes, even lose money to learn what you need to learn. Uh But I love examples like this where people can have success on their first deal on your first house. You had success on your first multifamily. You had success. So people don't have to, uh you know, think that they're gonna lose money. Uh They may, they may hit a home run on their first one. So, uh where did the million and a half come from? Because sometimes people that, that's what they'll ask me is like, where did you get the, the financing or the money to do the, the fix up? So, the 968 where did the nine 68 come from? It was leveraged. Uh local bank. First Bank of Owosso is the one that, uh, that did our loan um for it, which was the acquisition and the construction as well. So we came up with 20% of the total. Ok. So uh you came up with 20% of the 2.5 or so and then they funded the rest of it.

I love it. So, yeah, we leveraged and we were able to get financing and we turned it into what it, I would say a class a fully, fully redone. How hard was it to get the debt? So here you come in and you haven't done multifamily yet and they know you're buying for 968 they have to trust you that, you know what your construction costs are, how, how did that go? It was hard and I it was, it wasn't easy. But, you know, I told uh the lender, I was that I still work with, this is with a different bank now. But um you know, I was like, I'll do whatever it takes, put all my stuff for collateral, everything, take my personal house, but I'm not gonna fail. That's the way. And that's what I had to do. I had to pledge everything and it was hard to get a lender involved because of the distress of the property. I mean, it was when I say bad, I mean, I still have pictures of when we were walking in and we had just closed on the property and we were taking pictures and looking back.

The only people smiling on the pictures is me and Carlos, the property management company. It was just like, what are we getting ourselves into here? So it's, it's, it's great to go look back and, and see those, those times. And I mean, I I've always been a visual person. I knew that property. I saw the potential and that's what it, that's really what I feel like I'm always been really good at is just looking at something and seeing the true value. If you do, you know the right things and we were big believers that, you know, if you deliver the right product, people will come. If you deliver a product, that's not good. People are not probably not gonna show up and every apartment that we have that we turn around and lease and put for lease, there's always a waiting list on our stuff and that's because the quality of the uh of, of what they're getting is there. I mean, the stuff that we put in that property with stuff that you would see in South Tulsa Custom House. No, I, I think it might have set a record for the vintage on price per door.

Yes. Yes. So it's 100/100 and 23,000 per door. I mean, that is, that is incredible. And what I, what I love Arturo and Carlos, both of you guys is that I've been in the multifamily game. We, we've purchased similar vintage stuff and we've had our own success. But, but that purchase price still is changing my mind on what's possible in Tulsa. And I love it because I, I always tell people I, I don't have the lockdown on good deals. I don't have the lockdown on the market or you can always learn from somebody else in the business doing what you're doing. And I just think it's great. How many multifamily have you done? Now? We own um close to 600 units. Did you guys ever buy that shopping center in? Was you were looking at? No, we didn't and uh we ended up not moving forward and timing wasn't right for us as far as experience and you know, retail and then it was during the whole COVID, you know, scenario. So, have you guys done any retail yet? We haven't yet. No, just multifamily. Is that in the, in the, is that in your plans, you think?

Oh, yes. Our, our goal is to expand into all the classes if we can. Yeah. Nice. Well, like uh Brad mentioned, we're working on a project together. Hopefully it's gonna close in, I'll say June late June but keep your eyes out it. Uh I'm excited to be working with these guys. It's a really clean property in broken arrow multifamily. We're gonna do a little bit of Renault uh but we're really excited to to launch that here uh in the coming week. So we're super excited. Alright. What uh what else do you guys have any more questions for Arturo? Are you guys still self funding the deals right now or are you guys to the point where you're looking for outside capital? I mean, it sounds like you're to the to the scale where you're really looking for outside investors. Yeah. So till uh today we kind of just grown, grown organically, we invested everything back in every deal we did every house, we flipped, it went back into multifamily and um in order for us to really scale and do bigger deals is, you know, our money can only go so far. So we're excited this is gonna be our actually our first uh partnership syndication wise and uh we're excited to learn and, and, and, and take it from here and see where it goes.

See that's, that's exciting stuff that that's really the piece between where you're at an unlimited scale. I mean, once, like you said, your, your own money can only go so far and you can only earn money so so fast. So that, that breaks the limits, quick, shout out to your partner, uh Carlos because I believe he's from Venezuela. Uh That's incredible to me. You know, if you dropped me off in another country and I actually have lived in another country, the idea of becoming a successful real estate entrepreneur in another country is mind-blowing. It's really hard to get your head around. But he come, he came here and got a job with an American company and it's like I'm gonna start buying real estate and now you guys are growing something awesome. So hats off to him and his ingenuity and entrepreneurship. So it is pretty awesome. Yeah. Well, guys, thanks for coming on Arturo. Uh it's a Ns Multifamily. Uh Is there a website we can send them to a Ns multifamily.com? Alright. Check him out. Uh I'm sure there's some awesome syndication opportunities coming down the pike and if you want to invest on our deal that's gonna be coming out in about um uh probably two weeks.

We're gonna be launching that. Uh But I think that's all we got for you this time. Stay tuned for the next on how to invest in commercial real estate. See you next time guys, see you.