Episode Transcript
[00:00:09] Speaker A: Welcome back to the show. This is the highest and best yout Podcast. A show who we where we find people who are thriving to find their maximum potential in the real estate industry. I'm your host, Jake Verna, and this podcast is brought to you by VRA Realty. To find more information on vra realty, visit vra realty.com today we are here with Zach Cuccinata.
I think I did the same thing last time. Did I pronounce it right?
[00:00:35] Speaker B: Kuchinada? Close.
[00:00:37] Speaker A: Pretty good.
Zach joined VRA six months ago as a real estate agent. But go ahead, tell everybody who you are and your little bit about your background.
[00:00:47] Speaker B: It was like a year, but.
[00:00:49] Speaker A: A year ago.
[00:00:49] Speaker B: Yeah, it was like a year ago, man.
[00:00:50] Speaker A: Time flies, right?
[00:00:52] Speaker B: Yeah. So what really, at least getting into real estate. I did mortgages for a few years and, you know, read Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Kind of had that because I had that interest. I was like, man, I feel like there's a lot, a lot of potential in this industry. And after reading that, I said, man, I gotta get my. Gotta get my first investment property. I bought a duplex, a four unit, and kind of wanted to network a little bit more in the investing realm. And I went on BiggerPockets to look up basically local meetups that I could talk to people about investing. And that's how I met Rob, who's an agent here. And I kind of started working with him and got my first live in flip is what I call it.
[00:01:36] Speaker A: So wait, so you started as a mortgage lender, and then as a mortgage lender, you went to Rob for him to be your agent?
[00:01:43] Speaker B: Correct. Okay, so, yeah, I was really. I wasn't even focusing too much on the mortgages at the time when I was doing it. And I really just was looking for help within my investing career. You know, I wanted to basically grow in that realm, and I kind of wanted to do maybe something like a flipping a property, but I didn't know what to do and, you know, I was not handy at all. So kind of started working with Rob on his. And because he was like, basically called him.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:02:14] Speaker B: And I was like, hey, man, you have this meetup. Like, can I just show up? And he was like, I'm actually at my flip right now. You want to come over? And I was like, really? Okay, that's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. So I came over, met Rob, and kind of ended up coming back, like, once a week or whatever when he was working on it himself and kind of just helping him out, seeing how projects go and stuff. And kind of just gaining some confidence in, like, my own, you know, handiwork and understanding of what it takes. And talking with Rob, we started going on showings to look at properties that needed some work, and, you know, ended up finding one. And I was in there every day getting it done using the contractors that Rob's used. Gave me confidence in what I was doing and brought it to finish. And got a 200 equity gain on that. Well, 150 equity gain on it.
[00:02:57] Speaker A: Wow. Oh, that's awesome. Okay, so then you're working with Rob, and then at what point did you get your real estate license?
[00:03:04] Speaker B: So after I completed that. That project, I moved into it. So I was living in there with my fiance, pulled out the equity and got under contract for my actual flip project with Rob again, of course. And it took a while to close on. This one is foreclosure. So bank properties go pretty slow. And, you know, in that meantime, I was like, you know what, Rob? You're looking for agents we want on your team. I was like, I'm going to get licensed. Would you take me? You know? Yeah. And he was like, yeah, man. So I got licensed.
[00:03:34] Speaker A: That's awesome. And then you came over to vra and you've been working with clients for the past year. Not six months, for the past year. And talk a little bit about what you've been doing and finding your clients. What do you specialize in when you. When you work with clients?
[00:03:48] Speaker B: Yeah. So, you know, got licensed last December, and really I've been working on mainly with investors because that's kind of like what I do. Yeah, that's my niche. And now I feel confident in doing it. So there. And there's a lot of people that want a investor savvy agent that's doing it themselves that kind of knows what's going on. And I work with a lot of clients that, you know, are doing flips or some normal clients, too, that are just looking to buy their home.
[00:04:18] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: And then as well as a lot of people that, you know, now with a. Let's say, higher price of housing and scarcity, a lot of people, not even investors, just kind of want a property that does need, let's say, a handful of work.
[00:04:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: That they can get on essentially like a deal, and they are confident in doing work with it, you know, or to it with an agent that may be. Has done that before.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:43] Speaker B: And I think that's huge, you know, very.
[00:04:45] Speaker A: It is very. And I was just thinking while you were saying that I'm like every single agent that, like new agents, experienced agents, you know, it doesn't matter what they are, but every single one, they say, are you looking to buy, sell or invest? And like, I'd say 90% of those agents, I say, like, are you looking to invest? Like, they've never done it themselves. You know, they've only like maybe seen a video on it or something. And so I think it's very unique and very helpful and to your clients that you've actually done that you've been in the field, you've done, and you've been through an entire transaction. I think one is enough to be able to, you know, confidently go and say to a client that, you know, I know what I'm talking about. And you've done that. And have you ever clients found success in working with you?
[00:05:26] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So I've had like, I'd say in my first year, I've done about maybe 17 transactions. You know, how many of those were.
[00:05:36] Speaker A: Investors and find equity?
[00:05:38] Speaker B: Most of them.
[00:05:38] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:05:39] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, I've probably had like maybe, maybe two.
Probably two. Just like normal buyers.
[00:05:46] Speaker A: Whoa.
[00:05:47] Speaker B: You know, and some of them have been, you know, you know, you do a buy side with, let's say, your Flipper client.
[00:05:52] Speaker A: Right.
[00:05:52] Speaker B: And then the listing too.
[00:05:54] Speaker A: Right.
[00:05:54] Speaker B: So there's been some listings in there too. Not all buyers.
[00:05:56] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:05:57] Speaker B: But I have one listing now which is like the tail end of a flip for a client. And I just got another one under contract. I have another person that wants to get into flipping. It's kind of like a live and flip situation.
[00:06:07] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: House needs a little bit of work and yeah, it's rolling pretty good. I have another client that's just seemingly was just someone looking for a home. And I think maybe the confidence that she has in me and seeing my projects has given her the confidence to maybe buy something that needs a handful of work that she keeps showing me these houses and she wants to go after them over something that's turnkey.
[00:06:29] Speaker A: Right. Yeah. When you're, when you get an investor under contract, you know, are you offering to say, hey, I'll help you, I'll help coach you through the flip or.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: Yeah, pretty much. You know, I'm not going to be there like every day or anything, but I'm always available for a call.
[00:06:43] Speaker A: Right.
[00:06:43] Speaker B: You know, stuff like that.
You know, everyone kind of always wants to partner with you on something.
[00:06:48] Speaker A: Absolutely. So they want to mitigate the risk.
[00:06:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So I'm, you know, I'm not like the biggest fan of partnerships But I think there's definitely the area for it to make it probably sometimes beneficial for both parties.
[00:07:02] Speaker A: Absolutely. Great. I mean, we hit your background. I wanted to hit on real estate investing, which we did hit a lot of. But let's hit into a little bit about your personal. So something I want to just begin by saying is I said this before the show, I want to reiterate this again, but this show is about we find real estate agents that are maximizing their success.
And in real estate, success is found in many different ways. And I know it's like, isn't it just selling houses? But no, I mean, you can find success in tons of different ways. And the way that you found your success in real estate is by real estate investing personally. And now that's affected, you know, your clients as well. But talk about some of the projects that you have going on and how you're finding them, what your strategy. Kind of give me the rundown.
[00:07:49] Speaker B: Yeah. So most of the deals that I find that I work on are actually just right on mls.
[00:07:54] Speaker A: So can you say that again?
[00:07:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I know, right? Yeah, the deals are on mls. They are there.
[00:08:00] Speaker A: Every, every single person is like, you know, everyone's looking for that off market deal. And yeah, the numbers could work better off market, but sometimes the deal is right in front of you.
[00:08:10] Speaker B: The thing is like, off market sounds really sexy. Yeah, you know, like, oh, off market. Wow.
[00:08:15] Speaker A: Yeah, this guy bring me this deal.
[00:08:16] Speaker B: You know, and most of it is like, most of the stuff that you're seeing off market is from a wholesaler who marks it up 50k, you know, and then they lie to you about the ARV and you're getting some weird deal that doesn't even make sense after all this. So it's, it's not even off market. It's like submarket. You're different. It's just a different market. Really?
[00:08:36] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a different market.
[00:08:37] Speaker B: So if you can get a true off market deal, like I do have one under contract for myself in Westchester right now. And it was just kind of like word of mouth, knowing people. And that's great. If you can get one of those, they're just rare. It's definitely hard to come by. Or you have to do your own marketing and you could spend easily, you know, I know guys that spend 5, 10, 15, $20,000 on marketing each month to get these off market deals.
[00:08:59] Speaker A: I know a wholesaler that I know, I know he said just for an acquisition of a wholesale deal. Not even for. Because most of the deals aren't good enough for them to buy. Because wholesalers, I love wholesalers, but their deals sometimes aren't that great. Just an acquisition for a wholesale deal is $6,000, you know, so understand how hard it is to do that off market marketing but continue.
[00:09:18] Speaker B: Exactly. I mean, yeah, they definitely like, per acquisition they probably have an average cost of let's say $4,000 or whatever. So, you know, sometimes you can. You get a good deal from a wholesaler for sure. I'm not knocking wholesalers or anything. I know a lot of wholesalers that are good friends of mine. And you know, there, there's. I know people who have gotten good deals from wholesalers. It's just that a lot of the times it can be tougher and it's not as off market maybe as you want it to be. It's kind of like I said, just a different market. You know, there's still a ton of investors that they're blessing it out to. Unless you have a wholesaler that comes specific to you first and they're just like, you know what? Like I'm just making a.
[00:09:54] Speaker A: They all say that.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So it's, you know, but yeah, MLS is great and you know, you can find deals on there. You just got to search for them and it's, it kind of cuts all the, you know, guesswork out of it as far as like doing your own marketing. Or maybe you don't have the capital to do your own marketing. You can still be a real estate investor and, you know, have success in it for sure.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: Great. And then you mentioned. So you said you have one under contract right now. What's the plan for that one?
[00:10:21] Speaker B: So the plan for that one is actually I'm going to renovate the property and then move into it myself. So I'm going to essentially do like my own live and flip, which I've already done before, but with the one I'm currently in now, I'm just going to rent out. So it's kind of like if I was going to buy a property and bur it, you know, and rent that out, except that I'm kind of just doing like a little switcheroo there.
[00:10:41] Speaker A: Combo.
[00:10:42] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, I'm gonna rent out my current one and that should have some nice cash flow on it. You know, I got a nice line of credit on there, so I'm still gonna be able to use that for a lot of.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: Are you moving to Westchester?
[00:10:52] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:52] Speaker A: Oh, this is amazing.
[00:10:53] Speaker B: 5 minutes.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: This is the best thing I've heard all day.
You're in Ardmore right now. Oh, my gosh. This is awesome. Yeah. All right, let's switch gears a little bit. Real estate investing can be very hard. You know, I think every single person here at vra, one of the reasons they come here is because they're interested in getting into real estate investing, because there is this real estate invest, real estate investing culture that we have. But the other day, it's really hard, and you get really dragged down. I know there's this one person that's here doing her first project, and I. Every time I talk to her, she's like, oh, my God, this is so hard. This is not for the week. And my God. And I'm like, yeah, it's not easy. If it was easy, everybody would do it. I said that in the last episode. Um, but how do you stay motivated? I mean, you know, from. From start to finish through a project, and there's a lot of ups and downs. You're taking a risk because it's. It's an asset. So how do you stay motivated?
[00:11:43] Speaker B: It's definitely. I just kind of have that drive, you know, Like, I have it in me. I've had it for anything that I kind of get into. Sure. And there's, like, the emotions are definitely all over the place with, let's say, like, from start to finish of a project, at first you're, like, really excited. Let's say you got the deal and you have to buy it. Right. And, you know, you're always excited at the beginning, and you start doing the work, it's still really exciting getting into it. You start spending more money. Then you're like, you know, you're like, oh, yeah, just, like, getting a little nervous, maybe. But, you know, sometimes you're, you know, you're still excited. Like, you're like, man, I can't wait to close this thing up. Then when you get to, like, the tail end, you're just about to finish, you have so much money in the deal. That's when you. I think a lot of people do start to get nervous, and, you know, even myself sometimes like, crap, man. I have to spend another, like, two grand on this and then that. And, you know, so it can be. It can be challenging, you know, and, like, finding the right contractor and, you know, just budgeting correctly and making sure you're doing a good job. But, you know, staying motivated, you just have to kind of keep pushing through it, you know, there's only one way to go through it.
[00:12:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Keep the end in mind.
[00:12:48] Speaker B: Yeah. Keep going forward.
[00:12:49] Speaker A: You know, that's awesome.
All right, cool. And then, I mean, let's talk about. It's the elephant in the room. You're the elephant with the big biceps.
Does the gym play a part into your, you know, day to day? How does that affect your motivation?
[00:13:04] Speaker B: I mean, I don't know how it, like, I guess it affects my motivation. I just, like, I started bodybuilding like, 15 years ago, so it's kind of just like part of my life. And if I don't train and I don't eat right, like, my whole. My whole thing just like, kind of crumbles. Like, I need that to kind of as my basis to kind of, I guess, continue to. To build off of and just. I don't know, it's like my rock in my life of like.
I don't know. I don't know how to explain it, but it sets the tone for my life and day and, like, how I operate, I guess, you know, kind of.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: Are you a morning guy or a night guy?
[00:13:43] Speaker B: I'm a morning guy for sure.
[00:13:43] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: What time I get up at probably like six every day. Maybe 5:30.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: Very nice. What's the routine looking like right now?
[00:13:50] Speaker B: Wake up, coffee, play a little bit of chess. Online chess? Yeah, chess.
[00:13:55] Speaker A: All right.
[00:13:55] Speaker B: Continue the routine gym, you know, eat, and then kind of get my day started. You know, I'll probably go meet with contractor, go check on my project. And then I got clients, so I might be running some comps, doing some showings, and just kind of going through all the little, you know, little jobs I need to do, meetings, stuff like that.
[00:14:14] Speaker A: Cool. Chess. So you play chess?
[00:14:17] Speaker B: I do love chess.
[00:14:18] Speaker A: Like grandmaster, what they call that?
[00:14:20] Speaker B: I'm all right.
[00:14:21] Speaker A: It's just a hobby.
[00:14:22] Speaker B: Just a hobby. Yeah.
[00:14:24] Speaker A: I know Steve plays just. You beat Steve?
[00:14:26] Speaker B: I beat Steve, Yeah.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: Like, how many times have you played?
[00:14:29] Speaker B: I played him once. We played at his beach house.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:31] Speaker B: And I beat him.
[00:14:33] Speaker A: Was he pissed off?
[00:14:34] Speaker B: I don't think so.
[00:14:37] Speaker A: All right, let's go back in a little bit more personal.
So you're from Ardmore. You come to Westchester a lot for work. What are some of your Westchester favorites? Let's start with restaurant.
[00:14:47] Speaker B: You know, man, I still need to improve my Westchester restaurant experience.
And I'm a huge foodie. I'm like. And I love going out to dinner, but I don't know if I have a favorite Westchester yet, to be honest.
[00:15:02] Speaker A: Okay, we'll have to do a part.
[00:15:04] Speaker B: Two, but I'll do. I'll do favorites when you move to that. I Have.
[00:15:07] Speaker A: Sure, go ahead.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: Eddie V's in King of Prussia.
[00:15:09] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:15:10] Speaker B: Phenomenal. And I really like Del Frisco's in the city, even though I don't really like going to the city.
[00:15:14] Speaker A: But Del Frisco, this kind of goes back into the question just Burke, but a lot of investors that are in our market, Chester County, Box County, Montgomery County, Delaware County, Lancaster county, they all avoid this common place called the city.
Do you avoid Philadelphia?
[00:15:32] Speaker B: I do.
[00:15:33] Speaker A: Okay. Why?
[00:15:33] Speaker B: I do. I just know they're not very landlord friendly. I've heard of people doing projects in there and people break in and steal the copper or like steal your tools. It just seems like more of a hassle and it's not something I would want to get into, especially when there's. There's plenty out there. There's so many deals out there, you know, to the point where I'm obviously have too much. Like if I could, I see deals all the time and I could just put offers in on every property, but I'd be running around like a chicken without my head, you know, and it's like, you know, obviously it's tough to do a project. You know, it's not the easiest thing. And, you know, I think it's good to focus on, let's say one or two deals that you're managing yourself and instead of like trying to buy like, you know, five to 10 properties and like having someone manage them and they're, you know, no one's going to be as good with your money as you. You know what I mean? I was talking to Steve about doing, you know, multiple deals and, you know, I think, you know, being happy with that one to two is really important and just doing a good job.
[00:16:35] Speaker A: So you've done a lot up to this point. You're only 30.
[00:16:38] Speaker B: 32.
[00:16:39] Speaker A: 32. That's a lot for 32 years old. How many, how many properties have you done or how many flips have you done versus how many rentals do you have?
[00:16:47] Speaker B: I mean, I haven't done that many flips compared to like some people I know, I guess. But I think.
I think I'm on what, five.
[00:16:54] Speaker A: Okay, then do you have a couple rentals or.
[00:16:56] Speaker B: I have a four unit and I had a duplex that I sold and. But that's it. So I'm really just riding the four unit now.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: The personal. The one that's going to be coming up. Cool.
[00:17:04] Speaker B: That'll be coming up.
[00:17:05] Speaker A: What are your goals for the future? What do you want to have done by the time you're 40 years old.
[00:17:09] Speaker B: By the time I'm 40, my goal would just to be, you know, like obviously a well established agent because I'm just a year licensed. So I would like to have that. I would like to really have a handful of properties that I'm, you know, I kind of have as holds that are rented out. Let's say maybe that number, I mean, by the time I'm 40, the rate you're going, it could be, you know, let's say I did for a year. I mean it could be easily, I think twenties, super easy for me to do, you know, so I think I can do that and then I'll just, you know, kind of keep flipping and you know, just kind of enjoy, enjoy life and you know, continue our, like I love being in the investor circle we have at vra, you know, so just continue to grow on that and just maybe get something like commercial property, like a 10 unit.
[00:17:59] Speaker A: Yeah, stuff like that.
[00:17:59] Speaker B: You know, I'm not too good at like the ten year plans. It might be something I need to work on, but you know, I'm very action oriented. So I kind of just keep pushing through and just. Yeah. And then it kind of just always works out pretty good.
[00:18:13] Speaker A: Do you like the spotlight.
[00:18:17] Speaker B: A little bit? A little bit, Yeah. I like, I definitely like the recognition and I can always look back on a couple times. Like I used to work at Enterprise Car Sales and they have a sales matrix. And I remember one time for the, in my position, I was number one out of the whole region out of like 100 something people. And I couldn't stop staring at it.
And like when I used to do mortgages, we had like a leaderboard. Yeah.
And I loved seeing my name on that, you know, so I do like recognition, but I don't think I want like too much spotlight or anything like that. Too much attention on me.
[00:18:50] Speaker A: Yeah. The only reason I asked is I know like guys like Steve, they've built this big company and then the company and then another company, another company and they buy, buy, buy and company company. And it's come to this point where now he's like recognized for all these other, these companies essentially. And I've also talked to other guys that are a little bit more experienced than you have been doing. What have you been, you have been doing. But they've never like taken that next step, step to scale and go to the next level because they just kind of want to keep doing what they're doing and stay in the background and just make their money and just kind of enjoy life, which. That sounds like you. What you want to do, which is awesome. That's what I want to do. Just enjoy life. Although I'm on the spotlight with this part.
Well, great, Zach, I'm. I mean, we're very proud of you here. I think this was great. And just keep doing what you're doing. Thanks so much for coming on.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: Awesome, man. Of course. Anytime.
