Charles:
Welcome to another episode of the Global Investors Podcast; I’m your host, Charles Carillo. Today, we have Jacopo Iasiello. He is originally from Naples, Italy. At 18, he launched a jewelry chain; at 22, he transitioned into real estate investing, mainly obtaining properties through short sales and auctions. Since arriving in Miami, he has founded several different real estate businesses, completed over 350 flips, and built his own real estate portfolio. So Jacopo, thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Jacopo:
Charles, first of all, thank you. You know, and thank you for your smile. And second of all, thank you for your last name, Carillo, like, he’s al almost like is Politan, you know, <laugh>,
Charles:
I guess my last name is. As we did the research, my family’s originally from, like we were talking about before, Amelia Romania. And my father’s originally from Genoa. So we’re, we’re Northerners, but I guess the name is Spanish. And they couldn’t find where it went back after like 125 years. So who knows where that name came out of, you know what I mean? Records aren’t that good. The Italians aren’t the best. That records, you know what I mean? <Laugh>
Jacopo:
True. Super true, true.
Charles:
So tell us about your personal and professional background before coming to the United States and becoming a broker down in Miami.
Jacopo:
Yes, really like in couple of minutes, you know what I, from 11 to 17 years old, I play professional soccer in Italy in the different team. And I leave my house in Nepali in you know, to go to have this dream. 17 years old. I have a big injury where unfortunately, you know, all my dream finish at 17 years old for the soccer, you know, and from young age, I already have this passion to understand other human being, understand how entrepreneur creates something beautiful. You know, I am really a attracted to people to create to people. They something special. And you know, when I have this breakdown in my life, you know, 18 years old, I starting to understand what I need to do, what I need to go, where is my new life and what’s going on.
Jacopo:
Thanks God. I have a beautiful, loving family Italian where they support me in everything I was going on. 18 years old, I started to understand how becoming entrepreneur and I opened my first shop with money from the Italy government. And I learned my first mistake, I do my life. The first mistake is location, location, location was going on. I opened my first jewelry shop in the worst place, and I go to sleep in the shop of couple a month. You know, after six months I go to sleep in this in this shop. Not because my family, they not want me, but because, you know, I feel really hurt inside and I wanna have this goal becoming true and what’s going on. I asked to my father, give me some money to reopen the shop. He help me in this.
Jacopo:
And from Mo there, I open a chain of jewelry in Italy, in different part of the, of the country. You know, and my company becoming a millionaire company over there of 28 years old, the world changed. We speak about, you know, the mo the mortgage prime, you know, and was going on I to, at 22 years or so, Charles started to invest to real estate in Italy, in the business where I am involved now over here in Italy. And was going on. I started to buy property in the auction. I remember like yesterday, I make my first 34,000 euros, like something super big over there. And at that time too and from over there I becoming a passionate to real estate and everything. 28 years old I starting to feel the, the problem about the mortgage prime arrived to over there what this means, you know, market started to go really slow in, in real estate and my business where I I have 20 shop starting to lose revenue.
Jacopo:
What’s going on? You know, I super, I am young and I want to have more adrenaline. I am like love business, what’s going on? I starting to research what’s going from this other part of the world in Florida. And I see like the big opportunity in particular in Florida with the mortgage Prime. And I start, you know, I take fly coming over here. I don’t know anybody. I don’t know any kind, I don’t have any kind relationship, nothing. And I coming in here in, in Miami, in Miami at that time really difficult, you know. But the reality difficult because I have difficult, I, you know, I don’t speak English, I don’t speak Spanish, nothing. And you know, I moving in the, in the area of Cape Coral, Nepal, Florida, I am from Ade. Slowly I starting and after, you know, I create you know, more 350 flipping, I have my portfolio of cash, cashflow, property, and, you know and my broker company over here in, in Miami.
Charles:
So when you’re making that transition after the jewelry stores, why did you choose real estate as your investment vehicle? Because there’s so many things that you can get involved with to make money in wealth.
Jacopo:
The reality is, this one I read a lot and the first book changed completely in my life, is the book about from Robert Kiyosaki. And what’s going on? I see another completely world. And when I make a 22 years old, my first 35 $4,000 I think about, I make every shop I make, you know, around 70,000 euro net. And, you know, I making one deal only without too much work, you know 34,000 euros completely changed my mentality and my mind. And I started to love this kind of business. And I started to understand the freedom. Give this kind business, the real estate business is the only business where really you create intelligent strategy to have the possibility to live your life in the full full 100%. This means for me, full char, have a beautiful relationship with your family, with your wife, fiance, whatever, and travel the world. This is for me, what this means, real estate for me. Real estate is more the the professional or is more for me, it’s freedom. And this is gives me so much energy, you know? Yeah.
Charles:
So for people are listening, 34,000 euros is probably about 37 or $38,000 US dollars. And that’s more than what an average Italian, if I think they make like 3000 euros a month on average. Something like this.
Jacopo:
Yeah. Like less, you know, the 2,200, 2,300, like something like this. So
Charles:
When one of the questions I ask is, because there’s not that much immigration from Italy anymore in the United States, and as I understand this from my time being over there and spending a lot of time in Europe in general you, you know, it’s a lot of it’s become the eu and you have a lot of people that left Southern Italy where I understand there’s less opportunity to go to different countries inside the eu. There’s like 28 or 29 of them. I’m an Italian citizen as well. So it’s like one of those things where you understand more about this once you become part of it. And so there’s a lot more immigration I see into, as I’ve heard, into Northern Europe where why would you come to the United States, is what I’m saying, versus staying in Europe somewhere for opportunity. How did you, how did you see that Miami was, was better for that?
Jacopo:
Really easy, because I do my research, what this means. 2008, 2009 subprime mortgage is ruined completely the market over here. Property. I buy property for $25,000 now, property value, 500, 550, 600,000 bucks. I see. And I timing the market correctly because I see the opportunity when you see economic graphic and when you see like really down about some kind of opportunity in one city, in one state, like Florida, you know, people, they don’t see this is, they are completely crazy means like I see from another part of the world because, you know, it’s impossible to don’t see the por the big opportunity at that time here in, in, in Miami, in Florida, you know?
Charles:
Yeah, my brother was living in Miami in Coral Gables in oh seven. Oh wait, so right around the meltdown. And so before this meltdown, you could buy newly constructed condos, maybe studios, small one bedrooms for 250 to $300,000. And I remember looking in 2009, and literally you could buy those just a couple years older for somewhere between 80 90, and they were sitting on the market $90,000, and they were sitting on the market. So it was dramatically, I mean, Miami in general, there’s a lot of hot markets, but Miami in general was really slaughtered. I mean, Florida was really hurt, but like Miami in general, there was so much building. I went to a conference in 2004 in New York City, and there was a firm there, an investment firm, and they were saying that they were selling pre constructions, and they were saying that you could, they would buy and sell the condos before it was built three times. Now, obviously they’re out of business now, but you can just see how in how crazy this was. And it got normalized over so many different years, which led to this. I mean, you know, I mean with that and mortgage lending, but it was, I mean, like you were saying, it was, it was, it was very tough down there.
Jacopo:
And the beauty I wanna share with you, Charlie, is like this human being unfortunately know a lot of human meaning they are co comparative. When I arrive over here, for me, becoming really difficult because what’s going on? I go around and, you know, I am nobody over here. I don’t know anything. And I ask to other people in real estate business, I remember, like yesterday, two people were, I understand like at that time is really the correct moment. Because when people in general people, they are not really good in the heart, what they do, they try to distract you. I don’t know why, because human being is this, have this kind of characteristic where they told you the opposite to what they do. And I remember like yesterday, this two CPA once CPA, I ask, you know, he have like a portfolio of property for himself, and I tell, Hey what you think about this opportunity over here anymore?
Jacopo:
You possible share with me some kind info to working with some kind of broker or realtor good and whatever. And he told me, no, no, no, the market is completely finished over due timing the market. We speak about 2011, the best year in real estate to buy. And thanks God, I am really resilient per se. I have a perseverance in my life. I continue to research. I continue to create my knowledge, and I started to invest and thanks code you know, I have the right to, to invest at that time, you know?
Charles:
So one of the questions I have is because you’re in a really hot market down in Miami, and you’re a successful real estate agent down there, how, I mean, how have you been able to really differentiate yourself and kinda build your business, build a niche for yourself versus, I mean, the hundreds and maybe thousands of other agents that are in, definitely in southeast Florida and predominantly in Miami?
Jacopo:
First of all, I wanna share with you something I don’t. You know, my heart really is 99%, I feel investor, 1% I am a broker. What this means is, means like my knowledge about how fine deal, how create deal is related to business relationship I have, plus I am specializing in luxury market. What this means is means like I really details specializing in what I know and what I serve to my friend slash client, what this means. I am a lot of time involved in deal with them. I have the majority of time like part of LP or general partner in some kind of project and in the deal, where is luxury property in over here, they know I have a really good connection with a multimillionaire billionaire I create during my real estate life here and in Italy. What this means I try to really share some kind of property only and only with people. They have the possibility to buy. When I really create a niche where I, I shine because I connect with the, first of all, with the other human being, after the come, the business is coming. You know,
Charles:
Do you have money sitting in the stock market? And you’re worried about it or worse. You have money sitting at the bank, not keeping up with inflation. My name is Charles Carillo, founder and managing partner of Harborside Partners. And since 2006, I’ve been investing my money and my family’s money into income producing properties. These are real assets, real properties with real addresses that produce real cash flow. At Harborside Partners, we provide passive investors who love real estate with a turnkey investing solution. If you want to put your money to work in real estate, but can’t find deals, don’t have the time to get funding in. The last thing that productive people want to do is manage real estate. We find the deals. We fund the deals and we manage the tenants, the termites and the properties. Partner with us at investwithharborside.com. That’s investwithharborside.com. Go to investwithharborside.com. If you love real estate, you like the idea of passive income and believe that income producing properties will appreciate over time. Go to investwithharborside.com. That’s investwithharborside.com.
Charles:
So talk to me about kind of what you’re, you’re as you said before, you’re, you’re mainly an investor. That’s your mindset. What are, talk to us about your, your portfolio. I mean, what does your portfolio look like? And I mean, is it luxury or is it different? I mean, come, okay,
Jacopo:
Like how I, I build my portfolio. I build like slowly because people, they tell you real estate is the place where you becoming a multimillion from one day to another one. I don’t know how they do, but personally is not my experience. I already coming with money over here within is completely different. But my strategy is related in three part. I have one part is flipping. This means I buy property, fix, resell. What, what, which kind of property I buy wherever I find, wherever is located correctly, wherever have the correct number to buy. Second of all, I buy land positioned in area where I know man, not because I know, because I do professional research. I go to a public record. I understand the city map and everything where I buy land, I keep this land and I resell, or I build something on top.
Jacopo:
Third one, I buy property for cash flow. It means like, I try to have this kind of characteristic when I buy property for cash flow. First of all, I want appreciation. Second of all, I want the cash flow. Third, I wanted the X strategy. What is, what does it mean for me? I don’t see only the cap, but I see the pos, these three possibility. It means if I wanna sell the property right away, this property need to give me the money back. Plus the, the surplus. A lot of people, they are only focus in one. This means if they do flipping, they will do only flipping. They don’t have any kind xxi strategy. They do, they do cash flow. They don’t do only cash flow, they don’t see the xxi strategy to resell the product. It’s important. That is, I see a lot of people make big, big, big, big mistake because is this business is nothing else to relationship and calculate correctly the number. That’s it.
Charles:
As you coming here and seeing deals from kind of Italy and then coming here, and what were the main differences that you have found between real estate in Italy and real estate here in the United States? Maybe the people you work with, maybe the market in general,
Jacopo:
Completely different. And I explain why in Italy we have something really characteristic really beautiful, and I will share this gift to the people, to the American people. If you make money over here, United States, go to live over there in Italy, and you will have a mention a beautiful property for 4,000 year or 5,000 year, where you, if you want, have something related similar over here, maybe you will pay 25,000 dollars. And this is reality what’s going on in Italy. The price of the property is over here and the rent is over here. What this means, technically, when you buy a property in super good area, for example, in Napoli, po Lippo water area, kiaa, you will buy some kind of property for $3 million and you will rent this property for three, no, for $4,000, 3,500 euros or what it means you have like cap rate, you know, not no cap rate.
Jacopo:
And this is the big difference, you know, it means over here you have the possibility to really generate your money. If you know how you invest over there, it is more difficult and is more, less, less protection, respect of here, here, if you have some kind problem with the tenant, you know, thanks God, we are in this beautiful state, Florida, we in three month, sorry, in one month and a half, two month maximum. If the people they wanna fight with you, you leave, you backend the profit over there, you take, you know, probably one year. You know,
Charles:
I understand over there too, it’s of, they usually sign leases for four years, is that correct?
Jacopo:
Correct. You know, they fi they sign for four year and the, the, the state protect a lot, you know, the, the tenant, you know,
Charles:
So as being a real estate investor is difficult anywhere, even if you’re born here in America, I mean, being an immigrant adds a whole nother level of complexity to it. I mean, how did you have to change your mindset to be successful during this whole transition in your life of a new country? And like you said, it’s a completely different market. You pretty much had to relearn everything you probably knew from real estate in Italy.
Jacopo:
Yeah, I wanna tell you two version One is the, before I, I arrive over here in United States. The second one is the one I, you know, I learn now after many years in United States. The, I wanna tell you the, the first one. The first one is like, you know, I need completely change my mindset. I need the, you know, completely understand the difficulty. I remember I sleep on the floor one time in Brickle when my first house I buy sorry, I, I live where I have difficulty to communicate with the people from FPL to connect the light. This is means, you know, really sleep in the floor and almost cry you know, because it is completely another word, you know, it is another completely concept about how is the human being communication working here in United States. Respect at U Europe.
Jacopo:
Now related to real estate, I learned something important. Real estate is the same in each part of the world, and you will tell me why. And I explain why technically real estate, we have property, tax, insurance, and value of the property and cap rate this 14 working everywhere in each country and in each you know, all, and the law is almost similar, is similar in United States, is similar in Italy, is similar in Dubai, which is change a how the state applicate the law is means if you have some kind of problem over here, you have some time to resolve problem with the tenant. If you have in Italy, other time you have, if you have in Dubai other completely different time, this is what I see now. I see like real estate really is a global easy, really. I believe this easy play where, easy area where you possible play. If you have the rules, imagine something. I remember, you know, 20 shop I have, and I remember I need to speak with many employee every day. I need handling problem. I need you know, real estate is completely different because give you really the game is more clear and you have the possibility to improve. Because if in some kind of business, like multifamily, you know, better than me is really scalable and give you the, the freedom to, to live comfortable, you know, for
Charles:
Sure, for sure as not being, as it being difficult. But on the other kind of, on the other kind of on the other side of it is, do you find coming here as an immigrant as also a benefit having maybe a leg up on natives that don’t maybe see as much potential as you do coming here and seeing kind of how everything works versus what you’re used to?
Jacopo:
Yes, yes. You know, it means, I, I see big difference. A lot of people or, or, you know, you American people, they have you know, this country, I’m so proud to stay over here and you know, I live part in Italy too. Because this country give you, until now, the freedom to do whatever you want. And you have clear rules, really clear rules. If you make money, you organize correctly to pay the tax. And the tax you pay, you see everywhere. Because the government working in particular in Florida correctly in other part of the world, is not the same story. What this means is like, mentality is everything. People is coming outside, see something different. Respect that people born over here in United States for only one reason. If you understand other kind of government, how they work, how you need to really pay attention and everything, your mind is completely expand. The seed completely different. And people over here they don’t see, but this country is the most beautiful country to stay for the business side, for the human being relationship, you know, I think, so Italy is, is the best, you know?
Charles:
How do you like the food here versus Italy?
Jacopo:
Honestly, I have really fortune because I have my, my fiance, she’s a, a super good cooker. And I try to use only organic product. I take care a lot of myself because it’s the only body I have, only only life. And if I don’t eat correctly, when I have really strict diet with my nutritionist, what it means, I don’t do strict diet because I wanna appear like bread pit. It’s not is goal. The goal is, another one is have my full energy every morning when I wake up at four 30 in the morning to go after my goal, to follow all my dream. And because you know, when you becoming comfortable, sometime you are lazy. I don’t want this. I have the same energy or more with more experience. Like when I starting my business, I 18 years years old now I have a 40 and I have more energy and more like energy inside to connect with other people other human being to create something beautiful together. You know,
Charles:
It’s funny, the one of the one time I was in Europe maybe seven or eight years ago, and I mentioned to someone, we were on a farm with a friend’s family that owned a farm there, and I mentioned organic, and they had no idea what I was talking about. And they were like, what? What are you talking about? It wasn’t Italy, it was in Eastern Europe, but they’re like, they kept on making fun of it because they had no idea. They couldn’t understand. So what the difference was, and that’s, that’s what we do in America.
Jacopo:
Charlie, what I wanna share with you, something really the, the food, and if you ask me this is the, the savor, the is completely different from over hero to over there. It is true what this means. If you, you eat something over there, you feel the flavor because if you know how buy okay, the correct product to over there, you find really the difference. And because we have only one body, this is the message I wanna share too, it’s really important where, where you eat what you eat, and you know, because over here is a lot of processed food we have unfortunately in this, in this country, you know? Yeah.
Charles:
One question I had before I let you go, and we kind of wrap up here, is that in Italy I’ve done research before into what it would take to buy a house there. And one of the things I found, which is normal throughout the united throughout the world, not so much in the United States, and we had this new ruling, yourself being a realtor where the buyer fees and all this stuff, and this is a normal thing in Italy where a lot of the buyers, as I understand it, pay for their own agent. How do you see this changing? I mean, if you’re working with international investors, maybe they’re used to it, so it’s not as much of a difference. How do you see this changing or differing from what’s happening now here in the United States?
Jacopo:
I think so this one, you know realtor slash broker, they need to change their mentality completely. Okay? If you add the value, think about I am investor, okay, if you coming from me, I have one property to, to sell. Okay? I have my realtor. If I am a investor, I have some owner of the property, I will be completely stupid to don’t give your commission, okay? What this means is, means this one, unfortunately, you know, this new look create a lot of problem in, in the market. And I understand for, for the realtor, for the broker, but they need to think about something when you have in your hand the buyer, okay? And the buyer is related in some way to you because believing you in your job, your service in what you do, you have the control of the game.
Jacopo:
Because when you have the buyer the seller you have from the other sites in particular in the market where it go really slowed down, you know, or the seller don’t have the capacity to reflect correctly. But if you bring a client, they will give you you know, the percentage, all these big bubbles coming because, you know because these is a, is a, is a really i, I think so it’s really unfair now with this law, because realtor I know working really hard and, you know, buyer, realtor and seller, seller agent, they do both their part and I think, so they need the, you know, over here nothing will change dra drastically, like in Europe, in Europe, we born with this, this differentiation. But over here for many years, the real estate working this way where you have buyer agent, seller, agent commission, and I don’t see, and this is what is my experience now to in the market, a lot of realtor, they text me when I have property in the market, you pay the commission. Yeah, absolutely. Why I don’t need to pay your commission. If you bring me a client, I will be stupid, you know, <laugh>.
Charles:
Yeah, no, it makes sense. So as we’re wrapping up here what are some common mistakes maybe you’ve seen real estate investors make over the past decade or so?
Jacopo:
Two thing, you know, first of all, they don’t calculate correctly the number of the purchase and of the renovation. And in the same category, they have too much emotion. I don’t care about emotion about when I do business, it means I care about only the number. Second of all, they don’t have X strategy. All my purchase, I do what I think, or when I work with some friend slash client, what I try to share with them is the investor mentality. What this means, if you wanna liquidate immediately the property, you need to have the possibility to liquidate immediately. The property access strategy in real estate is everything. When you buy for flipping, when you buy for cash flow, when you buy for flipping, if the property have some kind of problem, you need renter out. You need to have some kind of percentage cover what you push it. The second of all, when you buy for cash flow, you need to try to understand, okay, is the cash flow. The cap rate is not only everything you need to try to, if you sell the property, you need to have the possibility to make money when you sell the property and people they don’t have access strategy, this is the two big mistake. I see. Yeah,
Charles:
No, those are, those are two, two great mistakes to bring up there. So as we’re wrapping up here other than being persistent, what are some of the other factors that maybe have contributed to your success over the past couple decades of professional life?
Jacopo:
Yeah, I need to tell you something. Really it’s important. Timing the market. Timing the market is not easy because we are not trader who do the trading the day by day trading. They lose every time. This is a statistic, it’s not my my idea but timing the market, timing the business is everything. What this means is, means the other day when I am in the, in the podcast with Rod cle, he told me wow, I opened the two shop the jewelry, but I don’t have a really good I don’t make really good money. And I tell my opinion because timing is everything. When I opened the, the, the jewelry slash by gold is the time perfectly to do this kind of business the same when I coming over here in United States, Wendy, for me, I think, so the big success is try, try not the timing at the perfect time, man, you know, to find a business or in, you know, the moment to invest in certain kind area, in certain kind of moment.
Charles:
Yeah. Perfect. Great advice. So Hawkin learners or listeners learn more about you and your business?
Jacopo:
Yes. first of all, I wanna share, you know, our, I have like my coming book Healthy, rich and Epi will be the 15th December, 2000, 24 day possible find and pre-order. This book in www healthy rich and epi.com, where in this book I share, you know, all strategy bring me to have the possibility to create a good life for me, for the people I love What this means, I create one method called MPB meditation Pre exercise. And the second part book is only about real estate, how find where fine and which strategies use, and another place where they possible connect with me through Instagram in Jacopo Jado, my name, last name, investor, broker, and over there, you know, I share my good energy, my information, and my open heart and to everybody, you know.
Charles:
Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for coming on today. We’re only an hour or so apart from each other, so we should meet up sometime and have a great rest of your day.
Jacopo:
Charles, thank you. I really appreciate thank you to inviting me on this beautiful show. Okay? Yes.
Charles:
Hi guys! It’s Charles from the Global Investors Podcast. I hope you enjoyed the show. If you’re interested in get involved with real estate, but you don’t know where to begin, set up a free 30 minute strategy call with me at schedulecharles.com. That’s schedulecharles.com. Thank you.
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